Dollars to Make a Difference

Count money, man.

Money, man.

Stacked riches.

I'm trying to told him I'm a beast, but...

What's up, gang?

Welcome back to another episode of The Grindcast.

Get ready.

It's a new day and let's talk about from dollars to difference.

Earning money doesn't just help you.

It allows you to help others in to make a difference.

And the more you generate, the more you can share with others.

And it also works in reverse.

The more you give on accident, what ends up happening is the more that you'll receive.

Giving will help you develop a bigger vision in goals that isn't just about you.

So often in my journey, I run into people that lack vision.

They lack purpose.

So of course, if you lack vision and purpose, you lack motivation.

And if you look at motivation, look at the root word of motivation and it's motive.

What is your motive?

And I think the more you make the motive, all about yourself, the less motivated you're

going to be long-term.

You could be short-term motivated by all self.

But long-term, it won't last if it's only about you.

It's okay to have pieces of it about you.

It's hard to take care of others if you can't take care of yourself.

But I think the pinnacle level of it is I think you could find purpose in how you could

make your business more than a business if you really look at opportunities to do so.

I know people that are chiropractors but every time people go to the chiropractor, their

spirit also gets lifted.

I know people that are massage therapists but they also are mental therapists and they

counsel people mentally, spiritually and lift them up and lift their spirits and you

could tell that they're walking in their calling.

Different than let me give you a massage, let me get this transaction of money, you could

just feel the passion of wanting to help, wanting to make a difference that will provide

so much joy and so much growth to both parties.

And so I don't care what you do.

I don't care what it is.

Bus driver, nurse, teacher, sales, business leader, plumber, electrician.

If you look deeper into how can you make a difference?

Whether it's with your energy, your love, your time, your heart, your care or your money,

in everything that you do there's a way to make a difference.

And the feeling that you get from making a difference will always trump the feeling that

you get from making some dollars.

Immediately when you're successful, you do well with money or whatever, you can help

yourself, you can help your family.

But then it goes to how can I help others in the community?

How can I start or pour into or invest into different foundations in the area?

Can you help your grandparents?

Can you help your in-laws?

What things can you do to make it more about others than only yourself?

I want to encourage you to look at what can you do outside of what you do to make a difference.

I think you can make a big difference in what you do.

For example, one of my mentors, early mentors, when I started out in business at 22 years

old, he almost retired from the business and he was going to go into youth ministry.

And said he had a dream where God told him in the dream that he didn't have to go to the

youth he was going to bring the youth to him.

And I look at the way that he's been able to make a difference in so many people's lives

through the business that just goes generation to generation.

If he didn't get done just as much if not more in the current position that he was already

in versus leaving and doing a different position.

So I know you can make an impact right where you're at with what you want to do with what

your skill set is, what you got.

If you find out and think about it that way, find a way to do it.

Like if I, man, I want to play the drums, but I'm a police officer.

Man, go to a school as a police officer.

Make the kids not scared of you.

You talk to them about doing the right thing and then play the drums for.

There's ways, but then there's out of work.

Like how can you make a difference out of work out of work?

I would like to encourage you to look at you either can give money or you can give time

or you can give both to something in the community or something that makes the world

a better place that's outside of what you do.

For us, you know, for me personally, I had, you know, Mother's Day was not too long ago.

You know, I was talking about on Mother's Day, I was blessed with some great moms.

If nothing else, there was times we struggled financially.

There was times where our vehicle was embarrassing to drive.

But man, I had a great mom.

I had a great mother, a grandmother.

I had a great, great grandmother.

I've had great other mothers in the community in the area that would wrap their arm around

me and act like a mother when I needed it, same with some of the men.

So I look at that and I look at man there, you know, there was times where I spent brief

moments in juvenile.

I had opportunities to see what it's like to live in a place of poverty and be around

others that are going through poverty but have just enough help with my mother, my grandmother

and others to where even in that circumstance, I could get pulled out briefly to go to this

camp or to go to this school or to have some things that even they didn't always get exposed

to and so always felt privileged but also I got to grow up in it.

This isn't like I read about it or I just know what it's like.

So I've always had empathy for people would look at others and say, oh, there are a piece

of crap or why do these kids act that way or why do these people do those things?

And it's because they don't understand what it's like to walk a mile in those circumstances

in those shoes if you didn't have those great parents that you had or if you didn't

have those resources or you didn't have that school or you didn't have those opportunities

what could your life have been like and so I always felt like I was blessed given a

pass lucky, don't even understand how I got to go and see all of that and then get to

a place where I was able to be okay to where I can not only have knowledge to share with

people in those circumstances but financial means to be able to go in and help start

programs that can serve these kids and these communities to give them a better opportunity.

And so the first one that we that we ever did and when I say we it was never me it was

a board of people was people that started helping us make that happen.

It was people in the community you know that would pitch in.

And so we over 10 years ago started a branch of a youth program that was already running

that I got inspired by that I would donate to financially I would go visit and I

seen with the founder Derek Tolls inspiring minds was doing and war and there was only one

and I said how can we don't bring it to Youngstown and he said man we just don't have the

person from Youngstown that's willing to put it in the work and I said let's do it so

we partnered up we did it meanwhile in the process my wife's pregnant first year or

so getting the program running I'm driving two three days a week back and forth to Youngstown

back to Pittsburgh just to start this program and now a decade later we're watching kids

graduate get scholarships and not change the whole city but change the port the part

the portion that we were able to with what we had and it continues to grow and continues

to prosper and continues to succeed the people of American income I'll never forget one

of the meetings they brought us in and everybody contributed and donated when we first started

and think gave over $30,000 to help get us rolling and get us started and over seven

figures has been donated through our organization and some of the fundraisers that we've done

I would say close to a million or if not more somewhere around there to make this stuff happen

in the lives that have been impacted in the struggles that we've overcome and the setbacks

in the adversities that we've overcome is something that has brought me great joy in meaning

and purpose and so you know that came from a position of loyalty because I felt like I didn't

want to leave Youngstown where a lot of my roots and my heart come from and go have a little

bit of success and not come back home and do anything so that's where that came from and then you

know I looked up one day three years ago and I'm about 16 years into living in the Pittsburgh now

so this would be 13 12 13 years I'm in Pittsburgh this is my next home I raised my family here

we built a business here I start getting the same feeling of like you know that's cool but what

have you done to make Pennsylvania better what have you done to make Pittsburgh a better place

and I think so often people get overwhelmed by what they cannot do that they don't jump in and do

what they just can do man I'd love to have a huge program that services the whole city of Pittsburgh

but we got the blessing to start in Sto Rocks three years ago here in Pittsburgh

community of great people reminds me a lot of Youngstown they got a lot of the same struggles they

got a lot of same of the same heart though it's where we've went from just a couple kids one person

on the honor road this year over 50 kids and half the people on the honor road experiences all over

the place those things are the things that will bring you great meaning purpose and joy to your

life when you look back on it of like man wouldn't that's something nobody could take away from us

no matter what is those programs are rolling in lives are being impacted and that's a lot of these

they'll never be able to to to pay you back I'm already planting in their mind hey the only thing

I want from you is when you're in a position to be able to come back and help others here and

others all around and make a difference and come back and help your community that's what you could

do to help us in our business few years back we had a vision a big vision man still to this day

I'm like man can't even believe you made that happen few years ago we had a vision going into

the year that we we wanted to make a big difference we wanted to we wanted to all give collectively

together and we all came together and we and we pitched in money and we donated and we and we all

came together and we found the way to go help buy a house paid off completely

to a single mom that had a heart for the Lord that was like the two things I was looking for as

like man because we have a single mom with a heart for the Lord but we ended up just having a couple

people put in and then we had people just randomly pick who they thought and we picked this young

lady who was doing her best super you know seemed like very educated good mom doing her best

and so we blessed her and we able to come together and we bought her a whole house

wasn't a mansion but it was well over a hundred thousand and I remind people you know we sold our first

house that we grew up in my mom and I for eleven thousand dollars and then we bought the second one

for thirty some thousand dollars and I think it sold when we sold it for sixty thousand dollars so I

think the both of the homes that I grew up in didn't add up to over a hundred thousand at any

point and we were able to gift that no bills to the to the person other than keeping up with you

you know normal utilities and taxes and whatever else but the whole home was taken care of

and I think that all started with the vision that Jim Sirace gave me and my mentor gave me about

how important it was to to give back and I get inspired by watching some of our people in our business

that are young people and you'll watch them make big money but man there's a good portion of our

people out there that are tidying right now to their local church ten percent and they're making good

your influence matters where you're at.

You can impact other people just like I bring up, you know,

my mentor Jim Saras and how it taught me.

And then me speaking about it, I've watched other people in our

organization do it.

Now I'm watching their people do it in be givers.

And so I'd like to see man, that's a honor of the guy that

taught me that legacy.

I'm watching that get passed on to everybody else.

Not just about production, but about your production and

giving and making a difference in others.

You know, people say, Hey, you know, I'll show you where your

priorities are at you show me your checkbook and show me your

calendar.

So even if you can't give of your money, man, I challenge you.

Can you go for an hour, a month, can couple hours, a month,

once a quarter, what can you do to just go pitch in?

Even the heaviest couch becomes light if you got six people

carrying it.

Just do your part.

A little bit.

We had a scripture that that we were reading.

We had it pulled up today.

Luke 638.

And it says give and it will be given to you.

A good measure pressed down, shaking together, running over will

be poured into your lap.

For what the same measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Regardless of where you're at right now, financially, you're

capable of racks.

We need to bring that back.

Josh, remember, we had racks days.

Random acts of kindness days.

We challenged the whole office to go out there and do random acts of

kindness.

Bring back a proof for a video.

We would pick a winner and we would get them sweats and get them

gear and stuff.

And that's all go out there and do random acts of kindness.

Let's do that in July, Josh, because we're already focused on doing

something for July.

Let's do random acts of kindness.

But no matter what it is, it'll reap a return of what you put into it.

Whether it's your heart, your mind, your money, whatever it is.

And so the message for today is to give of yourself

whether you got it to give right now, time, money, find a way, even a little bit.

Or if you need extra motivation, go back to your root word of mode of

envision yourself.

Your thing might not be inner city youth.

Yours might be breast cancer.

Somebody else might be down syndrome.

Somebody else might be somebody that's physically challenged.

Handicap, you know, whatever it is, anything that is near

and dear to your heart, that could be a source of a vision that you see of

a motivation of light.

Man, what can I do to go make the world just a little bit better in that area?

And sometimes that's all the drive that you need to find a little bit more

purpose to get you focused on your mission to where it's not all about only the

money that'll give you the extra motivation to go do what it is that you need to do.

So this week, let's let's encourage ourselves.

Let's encourage others to not only make dollars, but to turn that dollars

them dollars into a difference that we're making out there.

As always, we're grateful for the opportunity to spend some time with you wherever

you're at.

And I just want to say thanks for joining us on another episode of the grind

cast Get Readyus in New Day.