The Business of Giving

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a k u and v studios original program. You're listening to special programming sponsored by the cars marketing Chamber of Commerce. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents, the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:29
What's wrong with the world Maamar people live in live thank God. I think the

Unknown Speaker 0:34
whole world's addicted to the drama. Hello, everyone. And welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is guide Austin and I am the founder and executive director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And our organization brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. The business of giving podcast is all about highlighting the wonderful synergy that exists between these two pillars of the community, the for profit and nonprofit sectors, if you'd like more information about what we do at the cause, marketing Chamber of Commerce, cause marketing chamber.com. This valuable show is made possible through the generosity of our series sponsor solar, an energy solution and conservation company specializing in solar and battery storage systems, including solar panels to learn more about them, soul up.com It's a great time to be a part of the cause community, there are so many wonderful things that are happening in both the business and and nonprofit worlds. And I'm just always grateful to be in this studio and connecting with other people who understand the mission that we're on. And the mission that we're on as a as a chamber of commerce. And a community is really showing, as I had mentioned before, these two pillars of the community, the for profit sector and the nonprofit sector, how they can come together to create incredible things that benefit each of them as well as the community. And I have a good friend of mine that I know from the networking community and an organization that we were a part of that made us both better entrepreneurs and better people. His name is Mike O'Brien, he represents a company called Thrive it. So he's going to share about some of the things that he does with thrive in it. But he's also going to share other things today about how he has evolved into a philanthropist. He has a really, really interesting story. And I'm so happy to have you as a part of the business of giving podcast today, Mike. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 2:43
thank you. Thank you, guy for having me. glad. Glad to be here and share my story. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 2:47
yeah. And as I had mentioned before, Mike and I met through an organization that inspires people to become better business people and entrepreneurs. And that was quite a journey that we were on, wasn't it when I just how we helped each other through our mastermind experience to grow as business people.

Unknown Speaker 3:07
Yeah, that was great with the other people on the board and sharing our experiences and then learning from one another, like, hey, does this work? I'm thinking about doing this. It, it. It's always better to have a community to work with it brings everybody up and moves everybody forward. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 3:24
I'd like to give a shout out to the alternative board, which was the organization that Mike and I were a part of. And the time that we were together was so impactful on a lot of levels. And, you know, we talked so much about networking and masterminding and partnering on the show, and it's so key in terms of your your success, your ability to be able to be more effective as a business person or a nonprofit organization and, and also the relationships and the friendships that you cultivate and and that's what happened with Mike and I is through that experience. We're no longer on that board. But we struck up a friendship and Mike started to get involved with things related to the cause marketing chamber and it just makes me feel really good Mike to have you in the studio to see not only our relationship and business evolve, but also our friendship that we've developed as well. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 4:19
you know, you're only as good as the people you're surrounded by and surround yourself with so I'm blessed to know you. And yeah, be part of the cause.

Unknown Speaker 4:27
And we have a mutual friend named Steve Goldstein, who is a great guy who I've known for many years through being in Toastmasters and he is a part of a nonprofit organization that you have a background with called Hope link and hope Link was just one of our guests a couple of weeks ago, but I would like for you to share how did you connect with hope link and how did this all factor into your growth as a philanthropist okay.

Unknown Speaker 4:59
So I started going to church years ago, and everything kind of started started there. And one of the guys I worked with at church was Aaron sheets, who is now the CEO of Hope link. And I had had a background in finance and accounting. And then I went into teaching, and I was getting out of teaching my my boys were older, I've three boys, I've lived in Vegas long time, grew up here, but got out of teaching, and I was new, I was going back to finance and accounting. And Aaron, it when we were working together, serving at the crossing was like, wait, I just thought you were a teacher, you have a background in accounting. And literally, like, I have a job for you. So I worked for a couple of years, at whole plank, doing the accounting there. And it's funny how everything's interrelated and how everybody knows each other. But I'm at whole blink. And they're the company that handled their like 401 K plan, there was thrive at, and I call it the biggest company no one's ever heard of right. And I had never heard of thrive in. But I saw their tagline, faith, finances, generosity, and I went, that's where I'm going to work. And so I met a couple of the guys from there that put me in touch with thrive in here locally. And I made a good transition from Hope link to thrive in. And now I'm a financial advisor, doing what I love helping people. But I also still work with hope link, I'm on the board along with a couple other nonprofits, and it's just, my whole life now is based around helping other people be generous, me being generous. I love it. And

Unknown Speaker 6:41
this is what we talk about a lot on this show. And with the things that we do with the cause marketing chamber, Mike is how giving how putting yourself in a position where you're of service to other people can be unbelievably ly profitable for you. And in your particular situation, your commitment to giving back through your church experience seems to have really been a stepping stone for a lot more success in your life.

Unknown Speaker 7:10
Yeah, it's, you know, when I'm able to do stuff for others, and help others and put a smile on their face, I mean, that reward to me with how much joy I can see I've given someone or help someone or when they come back and they go, you know, you were able to put me on the right direction. And that's with, I mean, all I do is a lot of what I do is just teaching basic finance classes, whether it's at hole blank, or unshakable, one of the other nonprofits, just helping people get on their feet, saving money planning for their futures. It's, it's a great experience, I'm glad to be able to do that.

Unknown Speaker 7:46
And this is ongoing, as you mentioned, you you got a taste of the service world and being involved in all of this. And now it's actually evolved into a business model is in a life model, right, Mike? I mean, the thing about the whole cause marketing experience, that that I've had, and so many others that I know have had is that, yes, you've got an aspect of this, that ties into what you do for a living how you make money, right, which we all need to do. I mean, that's a huge part of our platform here is stressing the importance of your abundance as an entrepreneur or professional being so important, because we know that out of your abundance, that you're more likely to, to contribute to worthy nonprofits in your community. But you know, with your your journey, your evolution, there's a lifestyle that is tied to philanthropy or giving, would you like to speak on that? How has your life changed as a result of this, this evolution that you've had? Well,

Unknown Speaker 8:51
I think a good example of that is like with my my boys, right? I was able to take them on mission trips through my church and take them to other countries, and they get to see how other people live. So when you give, like my my boys can be living in that, that realm, right to like, know how much more they can give give back and what what they can see and how helping people and being generous is, you know, better for everybody and makes you happy, and brings joy to everybody so and I'm really thankful to be able to work with thrive in Thrive into you know, a large company been around a long time. But through thrive in we work with our clients to help give back as well. So our our clients have action teams and choice dollars that they get to direct towards churches, and charities and nonprofit and put on events and we're able to help that so even on whether it's on a large scale or a small scale, people could be you know, putting on events for for a book drive at their school or I'm a thank you event for servants at their church, like there's no limit. So like last year, thriving was able to give hundreds of millions of dollars away to help churches and nonprofits. And we do that through our clients. We want our clients do that as much as possible. So it's like, hands and feet on on the ground, helping others. Yeah, and

Unknown Speaker 10:23
it's interesting, Mike, you you're involved in financial services. So you have these, these massive financial service oriented companies that help people to grow their money through investments. And sometimes it's so underrated how that that focus on generating money can be so beneficial to society as a whole, because as you mentioned, you the advice that you provide for people that helped them to become more successful financially, ultimately ends up benefiting the community, because one of the things that you're doing as a company is steering them into doing give back things, that's a part of the business model, and you educate your investors on why it's important to give back once you've made a lot of money, right?

Unknown Speaker 11:09
And it doesn't even have to necessarily be a lot. But yeah, thrive, it looks at it. As you know, money is a tool that goes do the stuff you actually want to do or help people. And, you know, get you I want to get people to the point really, they have the time to do it. Most people want to give they want to serve at their church, they want to help nonprofits, except after working all week, we're exhausted. And you know, we got kids, and we're busy. So to me, if you have enough money or funds, then you have the time to do the stuff you really want to do. Right. So that's my goal is get people to the point where their content in their situation. Now it's like now let's go serve and what's not what's your goal in life, but what's your cause what caused you want to say that that's your own, that you want to help and whether it's animals, or people or elderly or kids, I mean, there's a million causes out there. But you just need, you need the time to be able to go out there and to do it.

Unknown Speaker 12:06
And giving represents a lot of different things. As you mentioned before, Mike, it can be you giving your time as you did with hope link, literally offering your expertise to them, helping them with their accounting. Of course, there's always a financial element, all organizations exist to an extent because there's money that is pouring into the organization, so that it can function. But for for you just sharing, I want to go back to hope link really quick. Okay. What did you get out of sharing specifically, your expertise, with hope link that you didn't expect to get?

Unknown Speaker 12:52
That's a good question. Um, just as whether it's from like a business aspect, like all businesses need an accountant and or a CPA, and an attorney, like they need professional help, like, they can't do it on their own. So you know, being they're able to offer advice, and you help them out that way. But then also, I've worked with the clients at Hoplink a lot, and I taught classes and finance classes. And I love doing that as well, like, so there's so many aspects of it, that I'm able to give, give back and help and joy both I enjoyed, you know, sitting in a room, punch in numbers, doing the accounting and the balance sheet and all that. But then I also like being in front of people, and, you know, hey, save money plan for the future. Don't blow that whole tax return. Let's do some counseling. Yeah. Right. So in on all aspects, I really enjoy it. And

Unknown Speaker 13:49
I know, Michael, we were talking off air today about how, and I have mentioned already in the podcast that you've evolved into this philanthropist and this, the tenants of this were kind of planted in your psyche or in your heart as a kid going to church. These are the kinds of things that a lot of us learn as young people. And then as life goes on, maybe we're not fully engaged in it. And then later on in your life, the situation pops up. And it's like so much of that teaching that you had as a younger person, all of a sudden, it's like you start tapping back into that, and here you are now, this philanthropic person.

Unknown Speaker 14:31
Yeah, so it's definitely been a journey. I would definitely say my, my personality wouldn't be a giver, right? I wasn't, you know, growing up or when you get out of school, it's like, hey, get a job, make money. That's what what's important. And then I started going to church, and it was hey, try this and try this and try tithing. I'm like, Sure, it but every thing I tried, worked, my life was better for it. Every time I, you know, served at church or, you know, gave money or donated or, you know, get you whether you're giving money or your time, my life was always better for it. I'm like, wow, this really works. And you wouldn't know that until you tried it. And then. So you're thinking more, I mean, you still get a return on your investment. But everything I do now is more geared towards helping others. And whether it's, I'm donating money to the church because I don't go out and help the homeless every day. But my church does that. So with me being able to give to my church, or these charitable organizations, my money is able to help a whole bunch of people that I would never be able to help on my own. And then if I do have the time to serve at events, then then I could do that as well. I'm more than happy, like, you know, serving a church or hope link or at unshakable or first step Nevada. I love working with all these organizations and doing my part that I can, and it's it's been a great journey, but I've definitely had to, you know, take that step of faith and try it. And it's always worked out better, like I'm always, you know, better for it.

Unknown Speaker 16:17
For those of you that are just tuning in, you're listening to the business of giving podcast at K u and v 91.5. Jazz and more soul up and it's channel partners are providing complimentary solar to local charities supporting for Hope link transitional housing properties, feeding pets of Volunteers of America, and opportunity village, their founder sits on the board of the Nevada Conservation League, got a couple of events that are coming up within the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, our businesses with heart event, which is our expo, it's actually the event that sparked the development of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce back in 2015. We are on our 11th event, and it's going to be on Thursday, March the 28th, from 4pm to 8pm at the Santa Fe Hotel and Casino and it's our big Expo event. It's a excellent opportunity for you to connect with other people in the community who are into cross marketing. The theme of this specific event is a celebration of civic organizations. What we're going to do with this event is we're going to highlight four large civic organizations that help a lot of people. We're going to highlight Toastmasters International, Rotary Club, lions, and quantas. These are all community oriented organizations that do a lot for the community provide a lot of services. And the civic organizations do a lot behind the scenes that go unnoticed. And so it'll be a great opportunity for you to learn about these organizations. Of course, we'll have vendors there, you're going to meet lots of great people, there's going to be food and fun. For more details about the upcoming businesses with heart event spring 2020. For cars, marketing chamber.com Also want to continue to fill y'all in about our first annual cars and business cruise. And boy, this is getting more and more exciting as more people are getting on board and wanting to be a part of it. It's going to be October the 19th through the 26th 2024. We're going to cruise through the Hawaiian Islands as a chamber, it's going to be a tremendously fun experience. It's a seven day cruise and we're going to have stopovers in pretty much all the islands in Hawaii. We're going to network we're going to spend a lot of time together. Of course, you'll have plenty of time to to do things on your own as well. We're going to do some service work when we stop over in Maui. As many of you know Maui was devastated back in the fall because of the fires and they're still really slowly recovering from from that devastation. We're going to contribute to redeveloping Maui and of course we're also going to enjoy Maui because it's a beautiful place. That's the one island Hawaii I haven't personally ever been to but people just love love Maui. So we're looking forward to that. Again, great opportunity proceeds from the cabins that you purchase will go to the nonprofit organization of your choice. Again, causing business cruised will happen October the 19th through the 2620 24 if you want to learn more about what we're going to be doing on the cars and business cruise cars, marketing chamber.com And I've been speaking with my good friend, financial service guy his name is Mike O'Brien. He's been talking about his growth as a philanthropist in the great things that he's doing to contribute to the lives of others. And Mike, we've been talking about how you've grown how you work, you know, you started working with hope Lake specifically you were doing things with your church. And of course, you're in a business that has a specific division that's very geared towards the give back. Now that this has become your lifestyle, how has it affected you financially mean because we talk about giving, and this isn't about giving to get. But what I've discovered and so many others have discovered is the natural result of your spirit of giving tends to be financial growth, have you experienced that?

Unknown Speaker 20:36
Yeah, without a doubt, I've found that the more the more I give, the more I'm blessed with. So it's like this exponential growth model. You know, I hope I can make more money so I can give more and help more. And the more financially independent anybody gets, the more time they have to go serve. Right. And a lot of people try and do it on their own, that's great, I would suggest, you know, part partnering up with other organizations that that do it well, even nonprofit, we see it all the time nonprofits partner up with one another, like, Okay, hope links really good at this, but they're going to let this other organization handle this part, because they do that better, right? You know, like three squared does food hope link does, housing, making sure, you know, keeping keeping people off the street. So, and that's why I love working with thrive in as a financial advisor. They're a Christian financial services organization. And, you know, the more I can give back, the more they even help. So I have like a match program, where they'll match up to 20,000 a year to charitable organizations. And then I even funny enough, I got an email yesterday, that thrive in a set up a donor advised fund. And all I believe all the agents have $500 that Thrivent will give to a church or charity on their behalf. And even better, they'll even match on top of that. So it's not even my money that they're matching on that throne. So you know, when you start, when you start giving, it's just it becomes exponential?

Unknown Speaker 22:17
Yes, I've had the same experience. Mike, one of the things that I noticed, after a few years in this sector, was that my clients are better. The types of clients that I get and part of that, yes, I'm sure I'm better at what I do in terms of, you know, on the, on the public relations and marketing. Yes, I started my business in 2008. And I'm probably a lot better than I was in 2008, at what I do, but I also really believe in, in alignment with what you're talking about is that the quality of my clients has improved because of what I'm putting into the community, the way that I'm connecting with different types of people just because they say birds of a feather flock together. Have you ever had that experience? Where your growth kind of is you mirror that and the types of clients that you're working with?

Unknown Speaker 23:16
Yeah, I definitely agree. People can see that you're genuine. And they they want to work with you. Oh, I want to do that too. So and then, honestly, the thing I love most like I said, teaching, whether it's in a classroom with kids or in church teaching, you know, classes there were there's really no profit motive just I'm just happy to happy to give back. But yeah, other other people see it and like, Oh, let me ask you some questions. Maybe, you know, how can I get to that point? So definitely, when you're taking the right steps, and you bless others, the more you get blessed. And

Unknown Speaker 23:56
you are a member of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, I remember the first event that I invited you to was the businesses with heart that we had, I guess it was a couple of years ago at Queen's ridge. Yes. And so you've been a member for a couple of years, what inspired you to join the chamber?

Unknown Speaker 24:16
Anything I could do to get in more contact with more Nonprofits and Charities. I'm happy to write I have I have a lot of clients that thrive in that want causes to be a part of they might not be my cause. But the more people I can get involved help helping others the better. So seeing what a wide array of nonprofits there are in that the the cause chamber works with it just it you don't realize how much is out there until you realize how much is out there and how many people need help and how many causes there are so it's just it's eye opening in it's it's it's It's fun to be a part of. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 25:01
And we get such diverse types of people and business people who become a part of the chamber, Mike. And I mean, it's, that's part of the beauty of the whole thing is really the diversity. And people are at different levels in terms of some people come in, they're just wanting to learn about what a chamber of commerce like that functions like, like, how can they benefit? Some people come like you are the the education of the different types of nonprofit organizations that are out there. Some people just want to come and be a part of a positive community that's doing constructive things. And so that's, you know, we're, as an organization, we are all about people. It really all right, an organization is just a bunch of people that come together that have a common mission. And it's just been really great to have you coming along on our journey. And here we are you and I sitting in a studio talking about

Unknown Speaker 25:57
it. That's right. That's right. Even Yeah, years later. And it's funny, again, like you said earlier, how many people are connected in our circles, right? So

Unknown Speaker 26:06
that we didn't even know about right, until we became friends and started talking about I know this person, that person? Yes. Right. And six degrees of separation, right? We all kind of live in a world like that.

Unknown Speaker 26:18
Like even Yeah, toe Smash, like Oh, toaster, okay. Yeah. This and that. And that. Oh, my. Okay. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's fun to be involved with everybody. When

Unknown Speaker 26:29
you have someone that you're working with, and they're experiencing the abundance and success that we talked about, when they're at the point where there's a little, there's excess, and they are a good candidate, potentially, to start working on giving back financially to the community? How do you approach a person like that to figure out the organization or the cause? That would probably work best for them? How do you coach them in that way? Usually, people

Unknown Speaker 27:01
already have organizations or schools or churches that they're involved in, or their, you know, kids grandkids are involved in. Usually, though, it comes out of tax strategy, like, Hey, you have all this taxable events that are going to happen, you know, with estate planning, how is your you know, charitable giving, there might be ways, you know, everyone can benefit, and it's really great, where you go, hey, the charity can benefit your family can benefit. And their strategies that people don't even know realize that they could do. So usually, that's, that's almost the start of most of those conversations. So you know, sometimes it's like, hey, we want to give some of our estate to charity. Usually, it's a it's tax strategies. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 27:50
Well, Mike, it's been great to have this discussion with you. We've had this discussion but to be in front of the microphones and talking about it, it's a whole different experience. Thank you so much for stopping by. And for those people out there who might want to bring you on as a philanthropist or a financial services guy how can they get a hold of you? Sure.

Unknown Speaker 28:11
They can email me Michael dot O'Brien at Thrive mint.com Yeah, more than happy to work with, with anybody or anybody at thrive, and honestly, great big company nationwide. So, yeah, just thriving.com and more than happy to help. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 28:27
keep up the great work, Mike. And I want to let everyone out there know that you can listen to the business of giving podcast on Spotify, Apple podcast, and Amazon Music To learn more the business of giving transistor dot F M. And we welcome you to tune into the business of giving podcast every Sunday at 7:30am at KU in V 91.5, jazz and more. The business of giving podcast was brought to you by soul lips underwriting of our series, we want you to continue to go out there and be big givers and the slogan that I always use at the end of these podcasts is give and do business for good. Take care of yourselves and see you soon.

Unknown Speaker 29:35
Feel the weight of the world on my shoulder. As I'm getting older your people gets older. Most of us only care about money.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai