hey this is stefan from project like
mastery com today on interviewing a good
friend of mine Taylor Conroy who's the
founder of change heroes and Taylor
today is going to share a little bit
about a story in his organization but um
I met Taylor on a few occasions here in
Vancouver through mutual friends and
I've been really really inspired by what
he's doing and um you know he's gonna
tell you about his organization but he
basically creates these you as a
platform that allows people to raise
money to build schools all over the
world and if you've been following my
blog you guys know that one of my goals
this year is to go to schools and I've
already taken initiative to build one of
them and raising money right now for my
school and Ecuador and um I guess my
purpose of this interview is I want I'm
hoping that your story will inspire
people to kind of get them out of
themselves and want to give and
contribute in some way um whether it's
building a school whatever might be but
I think your story can inspire a lot of
people and to maybe contribute or give
but also to maybe take initiative and
make it some sort of difference in the
what you're passionate about in the area
that you want to contribute the most in
which is amazing but I want to encourage
people to do a similar thing so um man i
want to thank you for taking the time
today but you wanted me to start just by
sharing how you got into you know your
past history and how you got into doing
what you're doing now sure sounds great
thanks for having me Stefan it's an
honor to you and Buddha today is that
it's a Buddha was words on there does it
say I didn't know you know it's funny
like i neva know him the sands i just
look cool I think it looks amazing and
you got your goals and your glass
whiteboard back there that's right
that's right Dan so okay absolutely uh
my history before getting into change
heroes was you know most people ask you
know what was like the moment what's
like the one thing that happened that
made you you know switch from a had a
real estate company switch from real
estate into you know the social good
world and I don't think it's never as
simple as that but I know that would
sometimes people have to like to
condense it into an article or a blog
post so the average you can really say
one thing but I'll say
tell you something that happened to me
that I go usually usually I say well I
went on this trip to Kenya and Uganda
and it was amazing experience and let
transformational and life-changing and I
came home and really wanted to do
something for the world and then I built
this fundraising platform but there's a
lot of other things that happened you
know leading up to that and one thing
which I think times more into your your
blog and YouTube channel and what you
advocate for is talking about project
life mastery a lot of it was was just
selfish it was with me feeling like okay
I'm me in my heart and my soul I'm not
feeling totally fulfilled right now so I
want more that's what it was initially
that's what was the catalyst of it was
me wanting something for me not
necessarily wanting something for the
world and what happens what happened was
I went through the first let's say my
20s almost all of my 20s really chasing
after external goals whether it was you
know I really wanted to be a firefighter
when I was in my early 20s I became a
firefighter it was great and then I was
like actually know what I want to be
able to make more money so it started
selling real estate on the side on my
days off from fire cutting and and I set
this big goals I'm gonna be a
millionaire because then i'll be happy
balan be fulfill this is what i thought
i was 22 at the time when i said that
gold took me three years to hit it hit
it knows it yes and now i'm totally
fulfilled wait a second or not um now I
actually have known busier I had less
time to myself I less freedom and that I
thought I would I know what it is I know
I just need I want to travel that's what
it is that will fulfill me and so I took
the year off I traveled the world I go
in 15 different countries and so I'm
going to see a lot more than 15
countries of the world but a number of
different continents travel a lot and
and still was feeling on fulfilled and
so it was really is this selfish not in
a bad way but this this search for
fulfillment in myself going through all
of these different mechanisms you know
outward external ways of getting
fulfillment to define alee after failing
at getting fulfillment from any of those
places stumbled upon giving and I went
on it I went on that trip to uganda came
to find what my cause was to find
something that was bigger than me
because I realized that money and
relationships or travel or all those
things wasn't actually gonna bring me
lasting fulfillment and so one of the
trip to uganda kenya found my paws which
which at the time was education i got
home i funded a library in in kenya and
the feeling that I got when when they
told me that I funded this library in
his village that we had visited the
feeling that I got was um you know
unexplainable and I can't even convey
how amazing it felt and oh that's the
feeling that I was looking for that's
the one and then being entrepreneur like
you are look so many of your viewers are
you we get a bit obsessive and want you
no more a lot of scale things and grow
things bigger and so I thought well how
can I build more projects i'm tickled
schools i'm gonna build more libraries
more education projects to educate more
kids impact more families and villages
and communities and countries and that's
where we go to the beginning of coming
up with change euros which is as you
know a online friend funding platform
enables anyone to raise ten thousand
dollars in a really short amount of time
you're at four thousand dollars already
and you've only been doing it for or is
this like a week or something like that
like you're crushing so and it's that's
not that's not a typical to just like an
average person you know we've had almost
400 people run campaigns just like what
you're doing now it is about 1.7 million
dollars 2170 projects in in 12 countries
baidu and the whole reason behind it to
make a little short answer massively
long the reason behind it was to give
people the feeling that I had when I'd
funded that first library because you're
gonna get it Stefan you're gonna feel it
now just finish this school and you're
ready feeling it now so you don't think
it's cool bet that feeling it's like it
activates something in your brain that
has never been activated before it or
has been activated in a smaller level
but once it gets like it hits your
you're never going to be the same and
you're gonna want to do another project
and you're gonna want to do what you're
doing now which is inspire other people
to do more projects and you will feel
more fulfilled in the process get out of
this win win win win thing and I'll
start talking here yeah that's an
amazing story man and yeah you covered a
lot of things I want to jump into but
man like I think there's so many people
they can relate to kind of how you
started off which is we're usually start
off chasing a goal money success um
things as a more
selfish kind of level and it sounds like
for you and a lot of people never get
out of that you know but for you you you
got to a point where you want it to look
for more answers and discovery you want
it to fund a school and and now you made
this like incredible transition it seems
like was it scary for you to go from
that point of you know just I want to
make money and stuff and now you're you
know you're you've got this organization
you're doing this as like a full-time
thing to have an impact and stuff do you
find that's kind of been a scary or
difficult transition anyway yeah it was
scary it was okay was two different
scariness and one was it was scary to
leave a really high-paying real estate
career that afforded me a lifestyle that
I really liked that it was really nice
house by the ocean I had a brand new
truck you know crotch rocket anything
that you would get in your mid 20s as a
dude and how to lose these great things
and I'm scared to leave that but what
was scarier what was petrifying
frightening terrifying was the thought
of me continuing to chase financial
goals thinking and they would give me
fulfillment in the end realizing every
single time that I hit them that I just
wanted it to chase another goal just
wanted to like once it was a million I
wanted okay actually know what I need is
10 million yeah and then after that it
would be a hundred million because as
you make more money as you get more
success as the society deems it your
friends become more successful you know
like the peer groups that you're in
become more successful there's always
gonna be another level you're never
gonna like this some saying I heard
you're never gonna have the biggest boat
you're gonna and I saw what I saw it was
I saw guys who were fifty and seventy
and forty and whatever years and years
older than I was still doing what I was
doing when I was when I when I was 20
and as if you know what I'm doing
bringing out was a clear path to midlife
crisis yeah cuz then you start that more
more more mentality relates to money
related to your job right a bigger boat
it relates to having three different
wives because you want a better and a
better better never actually being able
to command and I thought that was
freaking terrifying was the thought
process of continuing to do this
competitive one-upping Miss Ellie and
and I know
all my answers really long for some
reason but the one thing i would also
wanted to mention is that I don't want
to stuff all in the paradigm of you can
go and make money or you can do social
good it's one or the other that's not it
at all like I did not go and start a
non-profit and I'm not you know paying
my people twenty thousand dollars a year
and and nones you know financially
fulfilled I have a for-profit social
enterprise that pays people what they're
worth I pay myself what I feel that I'm
worth at this moment I do pay myself to
like the lowest in the company but
that's what I think a CEO should do at
this point or almost the lowest in the
company actually said because you know
you could set the precedent that it's a
startup culture and its lean and whatnot
but anyways I don't aggress to mention
just saying that that mentality of you
can make 24 we can start a non-profit
and be fulfilled that's all bs it
doesn't exist anymore that parents an
old gross broken paradigm you can have a
social enterprise change heroes is you
know it's it's a at this moment is a
multi-million dollar company but the
thing is that the it is its impact is
completely intrinsically combined with
its revenue we cannot make a cent unless
we're doing good in the world so you
funding a schoolhouse you know we'll get
a percentage of the funds that you raise
five percent of your schoolhouse will
put a change arrows and we'll be able to
build a business so we cannot make money
without doing good and so that's why I
just want to get across there you know
the people that follow you are following
you because you're living this you know
successful light King money getting home
and all that kind of stuff is this
you've got to make money in order to
reach more people in a let any ways
right and that's I think one thing that
people don't really understand is like
you know you want to do well and allows
you to do more you have more resources
and everything to make even bigger
difference so that's great and just even
referencing what you said before I
remember um I made a big shift in my
life you know Tony Robbins key I don't
know if you're familiar with this pretty
toss about the six human needs Tony
Robbins okay doesn't the six human needs
and you know a lot of people most people
are significance driven and certainty
driven and whenever you have
significance as when you're driving
needs you're never fulfilled or
happy because it's never enough you
always need more and more and more and
you're always comparing yourself to
other people right and in certainty as
well whenever you have that you
certainty requires you to always have
control over your world and everything
and so you never really grow because you
always have to remain in your comfort
zone or things have to go a certain way
and so he says that the spiritual needs
our growth and contribution and for me I
made a big shift in my life where I
decided that I was going to put
contribution as one of my top needs
above significance and it was kind of
scary at first but now almost everything
that I do is like I still have goals to
make a certain amount of money in all
this but the driving force is more
contribution and then significance is
more secondary so for me like when I
think about creating a new project or
putting out a video or some like that
i'm always thinking how i can impact
people with that and i think it's a
different mentality of just you know
doing what you're doing but thinking of
it more as helping people and adding
value to other people's lives and that's
really bit a big shift for me and this
that's why i like for me now like making
more money doesn't really change my life
in any way it's like cool like more
money in the bank or another car or so
like that but um it's not going to
really significantly impact my life
whereas the contribution and the growth
and making a difference for me that's
just so much more rewarding so i think i
want to encourage people to get out of
that paradigm and you know you can still
make money do well but doing from a
place of wanting to genuinely add value
and help people yeah and something i'd
say i would say because I can hear some
people that are watching you right now
going well it's easy for him to say when
you say it's just another car and
they're like I want my first or you mean
I want to be able to put food on the
table and I think that's something
that's really important in no matter
what and it's actually it's actually
Tony Robinson funny that are talking
with him I was listening to one of his
programs and I was probably like 21 or
something like that so this is like 12
years ago I'm 33 now and it was saying
if you won't if you won't give ten
percent out of a dollar then you'll
never give a hundred thousand foot of a
million
talking about giving ten percent of your
income and so he was one of the callous
of me giving ten percent of my income to
charity far before I was making a good
inc i was when i was a firefighter I
remember distinct their fifteen thousand
dollars in debt had no idea how i would
get out of it i did had no other stream
of income except for my fire cutting
paycheck which was eleven hundred
dollars every two weeks and and i was
like how am I ever gonna pay this
$15,000 back it sounded like this insane
amount of money at the time and I didn't
know how to do it and reading books on
giving and and business in general
businesses any really good business book
will have a component where talk so you
have to give away a certain percentage
of your income and and so I started
giving away ten percent of income before
I ever had ever made money and that was
it sucked at first was like oh I can
giving away a hundred and ten dollars of
my 1100 or check to and I can't afford
to do this i'm in debt and that is you
know it's very paradoxical or it's
counterintuitive type of thinking but
that giving has to start before you make
the money because if we're gonna talk
about metaphysical universe in the
universe says you know why would I give
you money if you're not going to give it
away you don't I mean and so that was a
habit that I said really early when I
was 20 and then just ended up continuing
continuing continuing to others and real
estate and actually making really good
money and then that contribution k more
and more and then the big shift was what
if what if I could actually give ninety
percent of my money and only keep ten
percent wouldn't that be incredible if
that was my life and and then further
toss talking about you can make money
and do good the thing is when you start
to feel so fulfilled by whatever you
wanna call it doing good or funding
schools or whether it is when you search
feel all about fulfillment those other
needs of feeling fulfillment through
whether its significance or whatever it
is they start to fade they're still
there you mean like it's not like I
don't compare myself to other like
social do-gooders we do that we're human
beings like sometimes if I'm like you in
a funk kind of thing and I'm like look
at online and I see someone who's like
made this mask impact in the world on my
what if that guy's probably a dick
or something back my selfie like did you
just say that are you comparing yourself
like dude or we're human beings that
doesn't go away
doesn't change and I mean I still get
jealous and it will appeal all that
stuff that is just higher quality
problems I guess you could say so be at
the end of the day feeling that much
fulfillment lets those things kind of
subside a lot more and it makes your
need for material wants just kind of
subside within a process it's awesome
yeah I think I think when you're getting
too it's not the amount it's to have it
you know the habits more important than
the amount whether it's just a small
amount like every little amount makes a
difference you know and even notice this
with my fundraiser campaign you know
some people want to give we'll talk
about the structure of your platform and
stuff but some people want to give the
three dollars 33 cents per day other
people I'm like you notice cute ten
bucks like whatever you have like yeah
you know don't worry about the amount as
much just contribute in some way and I
think a lot of people they're held back
by giving because they're like I don't I
can't afford I don't have the money in
it there in that scarcity thinking so I
love that you shared that of just you
know you've got it it's the mentality
when you're broken one thing I love um
sir john templeton one of the greatest
investors he was really into tithing and
giving away ten percent your income he
said he's never seen anyone not become
extremely wealthy and successful but by
not not tithing so everyone that he's
noticed has that had that mentality and
given ten percent has gone on to become
very financially successful which is
really amazing yeah yeah that so say no
one has ever gotten really wealthy
without get it yes living so yeah Go Go
Manson do you want to maybe share a
little bit how everything works just the
you know you have a really cool concept
yeah I guess it's all modeled after the
first campaign that we have Iran which
was in 2011 where I reached I made a
list of 33 of my friends I really like
the number three you can see um yeah I
made a list of 30 feet of my friends and
I decided I was gonna ask the multi of
three dollars and thirty three times a
day for three months I broke it down
like that because I know that if I was
to go to miss a hey give me 300 bucks
towards this charity project uh I don't
have two bucks but I knew that they all
bought coffee every day or tea or
besides the pizza or whatever it's like
James prices parking downtown
two hours and so I reached out to them
and when I reach out and I didn't want
to just send them all at one mass email
you know because i get i get
crowdfunding emails all the time being
like hey I've launched this project on
Kickstarter i'm spamming you and three
thousand other people hoping that you'll
all give ten dollars you're gonna me
there's no action there's no
accountability there's no
personalization there's no like I'm not
really actually that tied to the project
kind of thing I don't feel any social
obligation to give the project same as
infinity IndieGoGo campaign or anything
that's more like a template-based kind
of system and so what I did was I wanted
to scale the one thing that matters most
in fundraising which is face-to-face
contact you know if you Stefan you have
just on skype right now pretend you're
not recording this if we were just on
skype right now and you weren't involved
my campaign or doing your own campaign
and I said look Stefan I want to go to
school in Kenya it's gonna educate like
50 kids year 20 years to me amazing it's
in the in Ecuador I can you give to it
can you please give to it you looking in
my eyes chances are the vast majority
people ask face to face by a friend will
get and that's never been able to be
scaled before the best approach the best
attempt at scaling that is those people
on the streets with the like the vest on
and the big honor in the lodge hey how's
your day look if you want to save kids
today or or they'll say something like
do you want to end cancer today and
you're like no figs I used to see good
mood and they've got a broke you in
that's the best that's the biggest best
attempt at face-to-face contact scaling
it and so as if you know we've got all
this technology at our fingertips I
wonder if we can stay up a space
technology or face-to-face contact with
technology that's what i did is i made
33 videos one each for every single one
of my friends so the one for you would
say step in rebuilding school i want to
go to school kenya up a lot you know
here's how it works and tell you about
how it all works you would watch this
you feel super socially obligated for
for a technical term but you feel
connected to my paws you know and you
know that we're gonna see each other for
coffee next week so you're going to want
to probably give support against each
other / coffee so i made a little video
for each of my 3 33 friends sent them
all out so they felt warm and tingly and
personalized they all gave three dollars
30 minutes a day for three months 33
people equals ten thousand dollars we
funded of school in kenya that logic
abruptly
games over the next over the next 20 30
years so that's how the platform works
and it took us to a year to then take
that test campaign and scale it and and
build the proprietary technology that
enables them to report a video from
their laptop or phone stitch together
deaminated video that you've seen on
your on your page pop it on a donation
page and actually build it something
that would scale and like I said since
seven cut you know a few hundred people
but we have got like six thousands of
people from 40 countries give three
dollars and thirty three times a day for
three months and it's all because of the
guys are you tapping into your network
and you're tapping into their network
and then one of them you got to me that
that's how kind of its kind of your own
roughly from there awesome yeah and you
have a very seamless process two of its
awesome um so let's so you raise ten
thousand dollars you know what happens
after that you know can you share a
little bit of the process of the ten
thousand was that build you know what
happens so it depends on which what
country you want to build your school in
an obviously every country every country
is different for from reasons to
government to whether to materials
resources so your school is going to in
Ecuador an Amazon region of Ecuador in
the private and the province of napo so
your school will actually be probably
about 300 feet from a river called the
Napa River one of the two rivers that
feeds into form the amazon river so you
can think is a big deep rich life-giving
rivers a surrounded by intent thick
jungles the most plants and animal
species on earth that's where your your
school's going to go so your school is
going to be it's basically a separated
classrooms one big classroom and a whole
roughly 50 kids in your soul in
particular because in Amazon it rains a
ton of the Amazon so it's got a double
layer tin roof with insulation in
between because the old schools that
they're using in that region have one
layer tin roof so you can imagine
Amazonian rain it's not like Vancouver
ray it's like Vancouver rain on steroids
having on a tin roof they can't hear the
teachers they can't go to school your
school is going to be raised about four
feet off the ground which means after
really heavy rains when it gets flooded
kids kids can still go to school it
doesn't flood out classrooms which is
acting now schools down there it will
have you know insulated walls have like
screen in windows so the bugs can't get
in it's a really high quality school
house that the kids are going to have to
go to because of you that's an Ecuador
those are those schoolhouses typically
take about nine months to build after
all the money is in so you do your
campaign your friends donate three
dollars 33 cents a day for three months
so after that three months is up all the
money's in they send it down to Ecuador
they build the schoolhouse and sometimes
I could take it could take a month to
build the school house if they have all
the resources all the manpower and
everyone there to do it it could take up
to nine months depending on if it's and
the rainy season dry season depending on
other factors and then if you look at
Kenya similar but different in a way
that they might not have the resources
in I have let's say the materials
available at the time but it will
typically take about nine months and our
like North American mentality is like so
linear like money's in nine months
school she built we're working in the
most rural regions in the most
marginalized communities on earth it's
not like they can just go down and
higher construction crew and slap up a
schoolhouse sometimes they take a short
time sometimes they think a long time
they take as long as as as is needed by
the community together down and who runs
the school after that and ongoing I
guess meanings and sustaining that so
the the countries that we work with
eight countries there's Kenya Sierra
Leone ghana Nicaragua Ecuador Haiti
China and India I'm just starting
dominican republic but those eight for
sure that you can find a school in right
now and those school those countries
have adopted universal education or
primary education in that the government
pays for the teachers to teach in these
schools so prison children which is the
implanting partner of your school that's
who's actually building the school where
the fundraising mechanism under and for
your children is going to be building
your school they had partnered with the
local community they've partnered with
the local government and they will yays
between the community and the government
to say hey there's our school house here
you guys need to provide another teacher
and make sure that the teachers are
there that the school is sustainable and
it's sustainable I'm going to rally
through this really quick okay because
it could take a while this I mean
explain the holistic approach behind the
school
okay your schoolhouse is part of a
five-part holistic approach called
adoptive villagers five pillars one is
education which is what you're doing to
sustainable agriculture three water and
sanitation for medical services and five
is women's alternative income programs
and for your school to be fully
sustainable all five of those things
need to be in place right so the women
have to be able to make money so they
can support their families schools need
to be there there needs to be water
programs that needs to be sustainable
your cultural medical services all those
things form this holistic approach and
your school is forming one pillar of
that five polar approach Wow cool um my
next question is you know I know you
you've gone to some of these countries
you know you've gone to Kenya you've
gone to these different ones what is
what have you what have you seen it to
be the impact of this because you know
i'm planning to go to Ecuador down the
road and actually see this film it and
everything but actually I can imagine
it's gonna be an incredible feeling just
actually going there and seeing it but
he may be described now that he's built
so many schools what's been the impact
in these communities and in these
children's lives sure you know the best
example the most time that I've spent in
a country that photographer he is in
Kenya got better a couple times and I
guess I'm gonna three times and the
biggest biggest difference that we see
is between the communities that have
schools and it's five part of lipstick
approach to them and those communities
I've done next schools and what the kids
are doing day to day and you have to
picture if you think about this these
are really really rural you land in
Nairobi then you fly on another regional
flight out into the MA samara region
then you dry for a couple hours way way
out into the rift valley which is the
first human walked so there's no like
telephone poles or big buildings aren't
like that there's lots with spears and
and little school houses all over the
place and so the the impact that this
has directly on the kids is that during
the day they're expanding their minds
they're actually learning through
learning things that their parents
aren't just going to teach them their
order yesterday math science geography
social studies you know all that kind of
stuff like they would learn into in the
Kenyan
curriculum but they're also learning
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