An Army of Normal Folks - Bob Zaccheo: Therapy Under The Hood of a Car

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Realizing that his traditional therapy was failing kids with substance abuse and mental health challenges, Bob Zaccheo was tired of it and so one day he decided to do something wildly different. His P...roject LIFT now successfully trains over 1,000 troubled teens a year in 11 different trades, while they do therapy in these natural settings, such as "under the hood of a car". They're solving 4 of society's biggest challenges all at once (the skilled trades gap, poverty, mental health, addiction) and there should be a chapter in every region of America.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 You got a thousand shirts sitting there to be lined up. I take my drug dealing kit and I say, look, we're going to make two dollars on every single shirt that we print out there. We're going to print 900 shirts an hour. How much money are you going to make? And they're like, oh man, $1,800. You know, they're going to profit $1,800. And I'm like, man, that's drug dealing money right there.
Starting point is 00:00:20 You know, and just kind of kick it back at them. Welcome to an Army of Normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I'm a football coach in Intercity Memphis. And the last part unintentionally led to an Oscar
Starting point is 00:00:38 for the film about our football team. It's called undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits talking big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox. Rather an army of normal folks, us, you and me just deciding, hey, I can help. That's what Bob Zacchio, the voice we just heard has done. Realizing that traditional therapy was failing kids, was substance abuse and mental health challenges.
Starting point is 00:01:08 He was sick of it. So one day, an average guy Bob decided, I'm gonna do something different. He started Project Lift. It has now grown to training thousands of troubled teens in 11 different trades. Ironically, they do therapy in natural settings rather than sitting on a couch,
Starting point is 00:01:29 they get under the hood of the car and they do therapy while the kids are doing things they enjoy. Wait till you hear about the success rate, it's amazing. So let's get started right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hi, I'm Daniel Tosh, host of new podcast called Tosh Show, brought to you by I Heart Podcasts. Why am I getting into the podcast game now? Well, it seemed like the best way to let my family know what I'm up to instead of visiting
Starting point is 00:02:07 or being part of their incessant group text. I'll be interviewing people that I find interesting, so not celebrities, and certainly not comedians. I'll be interviewing my plumber, my stylist, my wife's gynecologist. We'll be covering topics like religion, travel, sports, gambling, but mostly it will be about being a working mother. If you're looking for a podcast that will educate and inspire, or one that will really make you think, this isn't the one for you, but it will be entertaining to a very select
Starting point is 00:02:35 few because you don't make it to your mid-40s with IBS without having a story or two to tell. Join me as I take my place among podcast royalty like Joel Olstein and Lance Bass. Those are words I hope I'd never have to say. Listen to Toss Show in the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. When Tracy Rakell Burns was two years old, her baby brother died. I was told that Matthew died in an accident and no one really talked about it. Her parents told police she had killed him. Medical records fed that I killed my baby brother. I'm Nancy Glass. Join me for burden of guilt. The new podcast that tells the true an incredible story of a toddler
Starting point is 00:03:26 who was framed for murder and how she grew into an adult determined to get justice and protect her family. While we had prosecuted some cold cases, this was the coldest, this was frigid. But how does a two-year-old get blamed for murder? She said, we wanted a new life.
Starting point is 00:03:46 You just don't know what it's like when you'll do anything for somebody. Listen to Byrdon of Guilt on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wall Street to Main Street and from Hollywood to Washington, the news is filled with decisions, turning points, deals, and collisions. I'm Tim O'Brien, the senior executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion, and I'm your host for Crash Course, a weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. Every week on Crash Course, all bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic upheavals occur. And I'm going to explore
Starting point is 00:04:30 the lessons we can learn when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power. Each Tuesday, I'll talk to Bloomberg reporters around the world, as well as experts in big names in the news. Together, we'll explore business, political, and social disruptions, and what we can learn from them. I'm Tim O'Brien, host of Crash Course, a new weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. Listen to Crash Course every Tuesday on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bob Zackio, how you doing, man? or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:05:09 Bob Zackio, how you doing, man? I'm doing well, Bill. Thanks for having me on. This is great. What kind of name is Zackio? Z-A-C-C-H-E-O? What is that Greek? What is that really? That's Italian.
Starting point is 00:05:19 My grandmother often used to say I had to marry in a town in order to keep the bond line going. Fortunately I found a very, very awesome Irish lady who really balances me out. So the funny part was introducing her to my grandmother, right? So I told her before and I said, don't tell her your Irish. That could be a problem. It could be a deal, killer. Did your grandparents, did your grandparents first immigrants here? Ah, yeah, they were.
Starting point is 00:05:51 My grandfather and my grandmother, on my dad's side, came through Ellis Island, actually. Yep. Unbelievable. That is very, very, very cool. So, would you grow up? I grew up in South Florida, actually the hometown of Stuart Florida, which is on the southeast coast of Florida. My family moved here back in the early 70s and nevertheless. So, my family
Starting point is 00:06:17 were, they kind of were in the drywall and aluminum studs, you know, trade up in New York. And one of my dad's brothers decided to move down here and they all followed him and eventually kind of settled their little life here in a town that had about 18,000 people in it at the time. And now we're right around 155,000 in our little town in Martin County. My uncle's all telling me the stories about how they,
Starting point is 00:06:43 you know, went straight from putting the drywall in the twin towers to the next jobs we're building the condos out on the island, the barrier islands out here in South Florida. Hey, something you may not know about me is my undergraduate degrees in psychology. I did, I learned that. I'm watching the movie. I know why I chose that discipline to study. It's because I was really bad at math. Why did you choose it? Oh, you know, I interestingly built like, you know, it was, you know, one of those things I was one of the first
Starting point is 00:07:19 in my family to ever go to college, right? And I had no business being there, and I would absolutely stand behind that no matter who's on the phone with me. But my family, back in that time, I'm 46 years old, back then it was everybody went to college, period, right? And you had really no choice. So I go to college, I had no direction. I had no idea what I really wanted to do.
Starting point is 00:07:45 And so I had gone to play football up at a small division three school in Philadelphia called Wydring University. Really good division three football team. And we enjoyed, you know, I enjoyed myself doing that. But so here's the reason why I wanted to say college, he's now a smoking gun on this. But I go into, it's, I gonna go into my junior year, right?
Starting point is 00:08:07 And again, I, you know, first wanna go to college, have no guidance on any of this stuff. You know, probably should just went for his business degree and kind of went on from their entrepreneurial, you know, components, but I go into see my guidance counselors, I was just about to be a junior in college. And she said, look, you got to choose a major. And I was like, Oh, I didn't really think about that. And she said, well, you need to choose one. I said, well, what will get me out of here
Starting point is 00:08:33 the fastest. There it is. And she said psychology. And I said, well, sign me up for that. I'll take that. So I kid you not, Bill, that's how I decided on psychology. You know, got into some of the classes really enjoyed what I was doing, but really the reality was getting in to do the internships and the practicums. I got opportunities to do things that was really in the field, and that's really what peaked my interest about psychology.
Starting point is 00:09:03 I actually remember those days as well and it's interesting. I mean, human behavior is interesting. It's often exciting and heartbreaking as well, but I guess that's what we're here to talk to you about. So you got a graduate degree and you did that because you realized you really can't do much in therapy with just a bachelor's degree. And then you also, and your infinite wisdom decided you want to work with at-risk youth
Starting point is 00:09:33 who are struggling with drugs and alcohol. A really easy uplift in group of kids to work with. Bob, are you out of your mind? I mean, why did you want to work with this particular demographic? So when I did a, I did a practice come in Wilmington, Delaware, and I don't know, I probably told the story before, not to a ton of people, but I typically, I try my best to not get emotional
Starting point is 00:09:59 about this particular component, but I grew up in an intergenerational poverty family, right? So we didn't have a ton of stuff. My parents loved each other, so they married. Wasn't like I grew up in a divorced home or anything like that, but I ended up taking an internship in Wilmington, Delaware. And this was back when I was in undergraduate school. My job at the probation office, the juvenile probation office there in Wellington, Delaware was to transport kids from
Starting point is 00:10:27 you know Philadelphia. They'd been in a detention center up in the Philadelphia area and I had to transport them, you know, through some of the inner city projects there. I had never seen it before Bill like I grew up in South Florida, so I didn't know what a row home was or kind of a ghetto or any of that stuff. So I didn't know what a row home was or kind of a ghetto or any of that stuff. So here I am kind of transporting back and forth this quintessential white guy driving back and forth through some ghettos and picking up kids and detention centers and driving them down to Wilmington. And he, um, is that back of my car, is 14 years old? Yeah, he must have been six foot four, just a great, you know, from what I could tell, just a great, I mean, great conversation. He's in the back of the car, and I'm driving down I-95 between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware in one of the, you know, transport cars for the probation office. And I don't know if you know that area very well or not, but it's like 12 lanes of i95. Like it's a very big highway. I'm driving down that road and I'm having this conversation with
Starting point is 00:11:32 this kid back and forth, which was typical. I'd have I'd tried my best to talk to him, you know, talk to whoever I was driving with. And all of a sudden he jumps over the back of the seat of the car And all of a sudden he jumps over the back of the seat of the car and grabs the steering wheel of the car and pulls it to the right and rams us into one of those guard rails. And he's apparently 6'4", 200", something pounds so you didn't have much you could do. And I was a, you know, a mind-backer so it wasn't like I couldn't handle myself but at the same time it was like holy, honestly what I thought happened was I thought we got rear-ended like I thought we got hit from behind You know what I mean like I couldn't comprehend what had happened And he so all of a sudden we're in this rail or we're in this you know
Starting point is 00:12:17 Just concrete bunker right now no cell phones. It's whatever 1998 or 97 something something like that. And I'm like, holy, which is happening, I squeal to a stop, stop in the middle of the road. This kid jumps out of my car and like leapfrogs across every lane of the highway. Do you remember the arcade game Frogger? For Frogger, exactly.
Starting point is 00:12:41 If you can, if you can, It's Froggering. This kid doing a Frogger across Exactly. If you can, if you can, if you can, this is a froggering. This kid doing a frogger across the north and southbound lanes of I 95 between Philadelphia and Wilmington. So you know, it takes a little bit of time, but you know, police come and, you know, rescue and all that other stuff. And, and sure enough, my supervisor shows up to the scene, right? And my supervisor shows up to the scene right and my supervisor says to me I'll never forget this because it just pissed me off. He said he said what'd you let him run away for?
Starting point is 00:13:16 Right sure and I had the same reaction you just had to like I was like no I mean I might have said if you ever tried to catch Frogger. Yeah, right. Right. By the way, he was really fast. And how can we aren't thinking of it this way, though, Bill? Like, because this is really the question is, what made this kid so scared that he wanted to ram my car into a guardrail?
Starting point is 00:13:39 And that was the burning question that I had was, and that's what really lit my fire more than anything. Did you find out why he did it? No, I think I worked there for about a whole another three days because they wanted me to fill out all kinds of incident reports and blame in me for the accident and all this other bolt. And you know, bottom line, you know, 21 years old,
Starting point is 00:14:02 having been in a horrible little incident. And I'm also processing my own personal growth, right? Never been exposed to anything like that. And so really what lit me up was I knew at that point I had to go do something about that. Like I didn't know what it was that I had to do, but I do know that God was calling me to do something greater with my life,
Starting point is 00:14:24 using my talents to help people at the highest level I possibly could. We'll be right back. Why am I getting into the podcast game now? Well, it seems like the best way to let my family know what I'm up to instead of visiting or being part of their incessant group text. I'll be interviewing people that I find interesting, so not celebrities, and certainly not comedians. I'll be interviewing my plumber, my stylist, my wife's gynecologist. We'll be covering topics like religion, travel, sports, gambling, but mostly it will be about being a working mother. If you're looking for a podcast that will educate and inspire, or one that will really make
Starting point is 00:15:11 you think, this isn't the one for you, but it will be entertaining to a very select few because you don't make it to your mid-40s with IBS without having a story or two to tell. Join me as I take my place among podcast royalty like Joel Olstein and Lance Bass. Those are words I hope I'd never have to say. Listen to Toss Show in the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. When Tracy Rakell Burns was two years old, her baby brother died. I was told that Matthew died in an accident and no one really talked about it. Her parents told police she had killed him. Medical records fed that I killed my baby brother.
Starting point is 00:15:57 I'm Nancy Glass. Join me for burden of guilt. The new podcast that tells the true and incredible story of a toddler who was framed for murder and how she grew into an adult determined to get justice and protect her family. While we had prosecuted some cold cases, this was the coldest, this was frigid.
Starting point is 00:16:20 But how does a two-year-old get blamed for murder? She said, we wanted a new life. You just don't know what it's like when you'll do anything for somebody. Listen to Byrdon of Guilt on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wall Street to Main Street and from Hollywood to Washington, the news is filled with decisions, turning points, deals, and collisions. I'm Tim O'Brien, the senior executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion, and I'm your host
Starting point is 00:16:58 for Crash Course, a weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. Every week on Crash Course, all-bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic upheavals occur. And I'm going to explore the lessons we can learn when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power. Each Tuesday, I'll talk to Bloomberg reporters around the world, as well as experts and big names in the news. Together, we'll explore business, political, and social disruptions, and what we can learn from them. I'm Tim O'Brien, host of Crash Course, a new weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart
Starting point is 00:17:34 Radio. Listen to Crash Course every Tuesday on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing You clearly knew what it was like not to probably have your basic needs met, but not to have a lot of wants satisfied. Did you identify with these kids at all? You know, looking back on it, I don't know that I was probably caught up in my own selfish 21-year-old world. But the bottom line was I grew up in what I term an intergenerational poverty, is that my parents, I go home at night,
Starting point is 00:18:27 the electricity be off, the mortgage wasn't paid, no food in the fridge, that kind of thing. But my parents loved me. It wasn't like there was not love in the house. My mom and dad stayed married, there wasn't divorce. My sisters and I had that, like you said, the basic needs of everything that we could want, which is probably why they really wanted me to get out of there,
Starting point is 00:18:49 go to college, get out and see something different. But I don't know that it's even appropriate for me to put myself in another person's shoes, especially that kid's shoes, because I don't know what it's like to walk a mile in that kid's shoes. And if I ever tried to convince that kid that I had walked a mile in his shoes, he probably would have called me a liar and told me to get out of the car myself. And I understand as well as the next guy, there's, there's, you know, in a situation like that, there's all kinds of differences that that can help you feel for a person but not say you really get it.
Starting point is 00:19:27 But in your case, it's interesting to understand now that, you know, there were times that you would come home with a lights wroth and you know what it is to be scared and poor. And as a psychologist, you know, this better than anybody that's listening to us is that, of course, there was love in your house, and I hear that, and that's wonderful, but I don't care how much love there is in the house for an adolescent or a young teen
Starting point is 00:19:57 to come home to the lights off, that has an effect, and there is some trauma in that, and in my opinion, does guide where we go from there? Would you not agree with that? Absolutely would. I mean, you've got, you know, trauma is trauma and how we receive trauma is different amongst us all. You know, hearing my kids, my own kids complain about,
Starting point is 00:20:21 you know, not having whatever the next great thing is. And you process it differently through your developmental stage. Here I am 46 years old, processing what that must have been like for my dad to have to see that when he came home. And for my mom, to have to deal with those things, which you know in generational poverty, whether it has to do with not having enough cash assistance or whatever it is that you have going on, is it followed by depression, anxiety, stress, attention, deficit, hyperactivity is very predominant in that type of setting. And then also the family functional issues and substance use disorders, like all of those things follow suit.
Starting point is 00:21:05 You know, and when you, when you kind of are predestined in a lot of ways because your parents really don't even know that they're in it or don't know what it is that they're dealing with or know how to help you understand what the next step of your life is supposed to be, well, how the heck am I supposed to teach that to the next generation? How am I supposed to teach that to my kids? You got to have a pretty considerable amount of self-awareness to make it through. And how are the kids supposed to know anything different when that's all they see coming up?
Starting point is 00:21:37 You know, the interesting part was, I think, more than anything was the dignity associated with it, right? There was dignity associated with the fact that I could get a free meal at school. I know it's a weird comment to make, but it's the reality. That's where we found our dignity. It was, hey, the cash assistance just came in. That was our dignity, go into the mailbox. Here's why all this matters to me. I want to go forward and talk about the amazing things
Starting point is 00:22:14 that you and your organization have done, but this program is an army of normal folks. And most importantly, is that our listeners are normal folks. And most importantly, is that our listeners are normal folks. And all too often, we talk about the amazing things people have done. But I think it's important that we qualify what our normal folks is. And our normal folks is a guy who's the grandson of immigrants who moves to Florida with his family, who lives in generational poverty, who lived the lights being turned off in their house, and who played football, and who went to school, and got an internship at 21 and through that process learned that they wanted to be in the psychology field
Starting point is 00:23:10 and a kid plays frog or a class in interstate and it makes you interested in what makes them tick but in your own real experience, you also understand some of what makes them tick because you lived it. And I can't think of a more average guy than that. Yeah, I just kind of want to cry a little bit, Bill, like I haven't really heard my life summarized like that. You know, except for the conversations I have in my head about,
Starting point is 00:23:37 you know, the components of, you know, the reality of people not really understanding what I've been through. You experienced what you experienced. you grew the way you grew. It made you part of who you are. And now you're a psychologist dealing with kids who are poverty at risk kids who've been in and out of trouble with the law. And you're and and briefly just tell me so that those listen to us can understand it. You're sitting in your desk and you're spending 45 minutes with a kid and you're trying to
Starting point is 00:24:14 build rapport but it feels futile. Yeah, you know, the reality is, you know, I did have the altruistic views of sitting inside of a clinical office and doing treatment with families and teenagers. And so I specialized working with 14 and 19 year old teenage boys that were struggling with drugs and alcohol. That was my specialty. And rightfully so, it's what I gravitated to. I understood it.
Starting point is 00:24:40 I really enjoyed that part. And it probably a lot like you were, like you were saying, had to do with, hey, what could have I done better, which is, you know, you have the transfer and components of psychology that you have to be really careful, right? Transferring your own emotion onto another person. But, you know, one day just sitting in my office, just very, very frustrated with doing treatment inside of that clinical office, because you just don't get anywhere. I mean, if you ever asked to a 16 year old boy how they're feeling, you get the one word response, right? It's like good.
Starting point is 00:25:13 Fine. Fine. You know, and that's it. Cool. Fine. F you. How about that one? Yeah, well, that's two words, Bob.
Starting point is 00:25:20 Yeah. That is two words, sorry. Yeah. In Italian though, it's one, fungule. Yeah. That is too word sorry. Yeah. In Italian though, it's one fungle. But we can agree that you get a very dismissive tone, short answers because let's face it, a 16 year old boy really isn't interested in telling you about his feelings.
Starting point is 00:25:41 A lot of it was judges making them go see Bob and their business like Bob basically had 50 minute appointments to change their laws, which is ridiculous and will never work. So Bob said there's got to be a better way. So let me kind of you know, brief you on this story. So one day I brought a fish and rod to work with me and I had no intention of doing any treatment with any of the kids I was working with. I just was going to tie a dry fly on the end of a fly fishing rod. It's a plastic bait on a fly fishing rod and you could actually make them. This is like coming these little kids and you can make them.
Starting point is 00:26:17 So I'm sitting there with the first kid. We tie at this knot. We put it on the end of this fly rod and I said to the kid. Now we had no conversation. We didn't talk at all, right? Because you don't talk, because that's what's happening. It's like goodwill hunting in there. So I said, hey, how about we bring this rod out to the back of my office. There's a little pond back there.
Starting point is 00:26:34 I'll teach you how to cast the rod. The kids like, great, let's do that. We go to the back and I start teaching them how to cast this fly fishing rod. And with this little bait that he made on the end of the rod into the into the pond. And literally before the bait was hit in the water, the kids telling me all about his, you know, promiscuous mom, his drunk dad, and all the anger that he felt.
Starting point is 00:26:53 And I was like, okay, that was easy. I got him out of the office and he starts talking, right? Hands moving. And obviously their mouth started opening. So what I found was there was nothing unique about taking a kid fishing, but what I did next was really unique. I called a buddy of mine who was an ASC certified mechanic
Starting point is 00:27:12 and it was also in recovery. So we understood the processes of substance use disorders. And I said to him, my go, hey, would you teach these kids how to do automotive repair while I do psychotherapy underneath the hood of a car? And that was 13 years ago. do automotive repair while I do psychotherapy underneath the hood of a car. And that was 13 years ago. So Bob left a job where he was making $150,000 a year to start this nonprofit project
Starting point is 00:27:35 lift, where the first salary he took was $31,000. But Bob couldn't not do this. He felt called to try to save these at-risk teens, most of which are sent to him by judges for substance abuse and mental health challenges. And now they're doing therapy alongside a lot more than cars. So Project Lit, you know, this is the 30-second elevator speech on an area-loaded pitch on it, is that Project Lit
Starting point is 00:28:06 is a mental health and substance abuse program that utilizes the vocational trades as a vehicle into a kid's life, right? Because we have to take a look at replacement behaviors in a much different way, right? That's what that's all cognitive behavioral therapy is. It's replacing behaviors, it's resilience-based. So how do I enact resiliency inside of a kid
Starting point is 00:28:26 and effectively replace behavior and a various behavior? So when I went in front of a judge and I said, hey, this is what I'm gonna be doing, I'm gonna be teaching them the trades and we're gonna do replacement behavior with automotive repair and carpentry and boat building and welding and all these other, you know,
Starting point is 00:28:41 anything that we could get our hands on, we build airplanes here now, we have HVAC programs, we have 11 different trades our hands on. We built airplanes here now, and HVAC programs. We have 11 different trays that we teach. And when I went to them until actually we even do metal forging here. So that was a funny one going in front of the judge and saying, hey, we're making knives now with these kids. I'm a judicator, which was, which was a lot of fun.
Starting point is 00:28:59 And that actually happened on action. The kids backed you with a homemade party. Right. And that was a funny one, because we were up, doing an appearance with one of the kids, doing an update. And the judge said, his name's Judge Levin, one of the best judges in the universe,
Starting point is 00:29:16 totally got this system and was on board from day one. He was actually a chief judge at the time. I'm standing there with one of the kids, and the judge Leaven said, so how's it going over there, a project lift? And the kid goes, it's awesome, I made a knife. What we know is that if I'm sitting in a clinical session with a kid and having a behavioral session emotional or behavior, it doesn't matter. And I open up that therapeutic window on that kid and then close it back down with some tools that that kid can go home with
Starting point is 00:29:50 so that he can deal with the fact that he's getting the crap kicked out of him or he's dealing with the lights being off like we talked about earlier or just dealing with the shortage of assets or depression, anxiety and stress. Well, the bottom line is those tools are only gonna last so long in that kids
Starting point is 00:30:06 toolkit, right? And then eventually they'll disappear. And what we find is that the original behavior gets worse because the tools, the tools that we were teaching inside that 40 minute five minute session, we're gone now. But instead, if we replace it with something that has dignity, hope, and promise in a future, right? something that has dignity, hope, and promise in a future, right? Like, 2800 degree oxyacetylene torch, like teaching a kid how to, how to weld. Like, given them something that 99.9% of the rest of the world has no idea how to do, right? Gives them dignity.
Starting point is 00:30:36 It gives them an effective replacement. So instead of being a really great drug dealer, like, oh, you know, hey, I'm really good at this. I'm really good salesman. I always say my drug dealing kids are all, they're entrepreneurs. They're the easiest ones to change, right? Because all they have to do is just teach them the value of money. Not about the drugs.
Starting point is 00:30:51 It's about the money. It's about the money. Yeah, it's about the economy stupid. It's, and they're incredible entrepreneurs, right? And I often pitch it like that so that I can get that kid to really see it in a much different way, right? It's, I try to tell him like, oh, you know, how much does the average drug dealer make, especially when we're doing one of our manufacturing components here. You know, one of the things
Starting point is 00:31:13 that we have a partnership with a trust company here in our town and they, we teach them how to build the basic framework of a trust. And so I'm starting to teach them, you know, the value of each instructor actually teaches them the value of what you can make on the construction of a trust. And so I'm starting to teach them, you know, the value of each instructor actually teaches them the value of what you can make on the construction of that trust or a t-shirt printing or whatever it is that we do. And I always say to the kid, like, hey, how much do you think the average drug dealer makes?
Starting point is 00:31:35 And they're like, man, my such and such brings home two grand and I three grand, you know, whatever. And I go, no, I'm like, they make $3.13 an hour. And they're like, what? And take all the risk. And they take all the risk. And I said, no, Google it. And sure enough, you can gooslet, right?
Starting point is 00:31:53 You'll find that the average drug dealer makes about $3.13 per hour. And I said, and you're the one that goes jail at night. I said, now let's talk about the guy that just built this trust. And what he's taking home per hour, what that looks like. Or we'll do a manufacturing component that has to do with our t-shirts. So we print thousands of t-shirts a week out of here out of our social enterprise that we have here at Project Lift.
Starting point is 00:32:17 And they, you know, got a thousand shirts sitting there to be lined up. I take my drug deal and kid and I say, look, we're going to make two dollars on every single shirt that we print out there. We're going to print 900 shirts an hour. How much money are you going to make? And they're like, oh man, $1,800. You know, they're going to profit $1,800. And I'm like, man, that's drug dealing money right there.
Starting point is 00:32:37 I'm just kind of kick it back at. I mean, you know, that's where our staff is trained. They're trained with the, I love you, I care about you, and I can't wait to see you tomorrow attitude. Here's the deal. Yeah. You got Bob, who's a psychologist, who says, this isn't working,
Starting point is 00:33:02 catches lightning over a fish and rod, gets a buddy who's a recovering addict to help them in a mechanic shop, and it has grown to how many kids have been through your door now. We see about a thousand a year. Thousand a year. And what is the success rate of the kids that come through your program that don't, I guess, is recidivision. I don't know what the right word is. What's the word?
Starting point is 00:33:31 Recidivism is, you know, how many are reoffenders or adjudicated. So we've been actually measuring that for 13 years. And we compare that number from juvenile record to adult record. And we compare it every year, every single kid that's been through project lift which is Now we're looking at you know, well well over 5,000 kids at this point is We we compare that that juvenile record to the adult record and what we found is that 72% of the kids They come through project lift never get back into the system again. What is the national average that 27% So you're three times better. Three times better.
Starting point is 00:34:09 These are not 1,000 kids. These are 1,000 of the most challenged kids, right? You know, 87% of the teens and young adults that come through Project Lift can successfully complete our programs. 93% successfully complete them drug-free. So meaning that only, and I'll kind of give you the statistics on the back end here too, is 19% of the kids that come to project lift on intake, only 19% of them can pass a drug test, right? So the
Starting point is 00:34:38 other, you know, whatever, 81% can't even pass a drug test test and here we are with 93% of them at discharge Passing their urine drug testing, you know scenarios and you know to me that's really what it What it boils down to is clear-minded decision-making We'll be right back I am Daniel Tosh host of new podcast called Tosh show brought to by I Heart Podcasts. Why am I getting into the podcast game now? Well, it seemed like the best way to let my family know what I'm up to instead of visiting or being part of their incessant group text.
Starting point is 00:35:14 I'll be interviewing people that I find interesting, so not celebrities, and certainly not comedians. I'll be interviewing my plumber, my stylist, my wife's gynecologist. We'll be covering topics like religion, travel, sports, gambling, but mostly it will be about being a working mother. If you're looking for a podcast that will educate and inspire or one that will really make you think,
Starting point is 00:35:36 this isn't the one for you, but it will be entertaining to a very select few because you don't make it to your mid-40s with IBS without having a story or two to tell. Join me as I take my place among podcast royalty like Joel Olstein and Lance Bass. Those are words I hope I'd never have to say. Listen to Toss Show in the I Heart Radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. When Tracy Rakell Burns two years old, her baby brother died. I was told that Matthew died in an accident, and no one really talked about it.
Starting point is 00:36:10 Her parents told police she had killed him. Medical records fed that I killed my baby brother. I'm Nancy Glass. Join me for burden of guilt. The new podcast that tells the true and incredible story of a toddler who was framed for murder, and how she grew into an adult determined to get justice and protect her family. While we had prosecuted some cold cases, this was the coldest, this was frigid. But how does a two-year-old get blamed for murder? She said, we wanted a new life. You just don't know what it's like when you'll do anything for somebody.
Starting point is 00:36:54 Listen to Byrdon of Guilt on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ever you get your podcasts. I'm Grace Campbell, and on my new podcast, 28 Dates Later, I'm changing the narrative on how we find love. Join me on a wild adventure, as I go on blind dates. Finding suitors on the internet's strangest apps,
Starting point is 00:37:20 and only picking people who are the total opposite of my type. Dissecting my dates and listening in on all the cringiest moments will be my friend Ross. Every time I hear about it I go in and I call my boyfriend and I'm like, thank God! And my friend Dan. Okay, the dead is flirting I've never heard of my life. Who won't be giving me an easy ride? Honestly, if you have to say that to me on a date I would have walked out.
Starting point is 00:37:42 And after going on 28 of these dates in two months, will I find that special someone, or will this experiment prove that there's no good way to find love? And I should just give up on dating altogether. It's time to find out. Oh. Listen to 28 dates later, with me Grace Campbell on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,
Starting point is 00:38:04 or wherever you get your podcasts. Bob, I think about the 72% success rate and I think about all starting with Mr. Frogger going across the interstate and you know from that number one to 5,000. Tell me your favorite story. What is your favorite success story so far? Oh man, there's, I got so many of them. I'm going to, I have to go with two.
Starting point is 00:38:43 The first one met this young man this is going back years ago. His name was Bruce Tomas and it rolled on clay out of the western side of our town. He was the breadwinner for the family. It was probably 16 at the time when I met him. And I mean, it know, it was probably 16 at the time when I met him. And I mean, it's pretty normal, you know, a Hispanic family, and, you know, likely, you know, so many different things were happening, right?
Starting point is 00:39:14 So, I know one of the components was his dad had gotten deported, and you know, it was right around a time when they were really cracking down on illegal immigrants and all kinds of crazy things were going on. So I got hold of this kid and his family had been through some pretty significant trauma. He had an uncle who sure got caught in a chopper and one of those wood choppers and dragged him in. Just horrible trauma that had gone on in this family's life. After that's how I started seeing it was because of this trauma. And then, you know, shortly after that, his sister was killed in a car accident coming around
Starting point is 00:39:52 one of the bends. And at the time, we had kicked off project lift with a boat building program, restoration and boat building. And because that's pretty big in our area. And again, you know, when you look at, you know, expanding these programs, you have to see what the communities are doing. And so I, we started teaching that. So we started teaching, um, uh, what's called carbon infusion, right? So it's a technique of vacuum bagging, uh, holes of boats so that you can make them nice and smooth and then you can sand them down. And we started teaching Bruce, this technique got him connected with one of our industry partners and kind of cleaned him up a bit. And just in terms of his life, got him cleaned from drugs and alcohol, right, drug testing
Starting point is 00:40:30 all the time. He was numbing himself. I mean, the trauma that that kid had gone through, I didn't, I did not blame him one minute for wanting to numb himself, right? Sure. And got him clean and sober, got him kind of into the, into that position of, you know, feeling loved again and feeling hope and promise. Taught him how to do this vacuum bagging process.
Starting point is 00:40:48 Now, this vacuum bagging process, it's not a whole lot of people know how to do it. And it's carbon infusion. You see these big sport fishing vessels that do it. And we got him a job at a company called American Custom Yots. One of the largest boat builders in the country, right? They're known for their sport fishing yachts and all this other stuff. So it must have been two years, three years later, you know, after he had graduated,
Starting point is 00:41:14 been through, had the job and seen him for a while. And I was just, I was at 7-11, normal guy, right? Normal guy, 7-11. I'm walking through the thing and I hear Mr. Bob, Mr. Bob, and I look over, and it's Bruce, right? And it took me a second to grab his name, right? Because, you know, you know how it is with the amount of kids that you see through stuff. And I was like, oh my God, Bruce, how are you? How are you doing? He's like, he pulls up on his phone and shows me a picture of a 72-foot on his phone and shows me a picture of a 72 foot sport fishing vessel that he just finished vacuum bagging. And he was just like Mr. Bob, like this is the great, you know, he's just what's so proud to show me everything that he was doing. Then he pulls up a picture, you know, of his kid and all the
Starting point is 00:41:58 things were going on in his life. And I knew that he had done it. Now, you know, telling that story, I knew that he had done it. Now, you know, telling that story, it's not like this, this big burning bush story of something, right? But to me, it was like, I had done what I was supposed to do, you know, and that's what was important to me. That moment of seeing this kid who had never even heard of a vacuum bag before in carbon infusion and all the stuff now
Starting point is 00:42:28 it's important as family in a way that I I was I would struggle doing I mean it's just I'm amazing let me move on that is but that is that I mean, just think about it. Father deported, Uncle Kilden the Chipper, sister killed in a car wreck, 16 years old, drug and alcohol abuse, supporting a very broken family, whatever was left over, left of it, and through this work you've done it through the organization, it's got a spinoff's face and he has hope and he's clean. I mean, I get it.
Starting point is 00:43:07 That's. It was awesome. And for him to tell me the story, he's like, I'm the, he said he was the lead on that. He got, I remember him saying it was the lead. I was the lead, right? You know, and I, maybe I'll just tell that one story because it's enough for me.
Starting point is 00:43:22 No, I want to know the second one. Now, now you got me a little choked up. I want to hear number two. I got to say probably this one was this story. And you know, we have tons of recent stories, but I'd like the old ones because it was just me. I mean, you know, I think that's the the weird part is like it was just me and a couple volunteers at the time. And, you know, one of the things that we like to do at Project Lift is I, we like to give away cars.
Starting point is 00:43:48 So we've given away 155 cars now. So we get cars donated to us in our automotive repair program. We, we repair them and then we have the kids give the cars away to people in the community that need cars. So that's awesome. Well, it, it helps change their thinking, right? Well, yeah, because instead of taking their give it, right? And it helps change their thinking, right? Well, yeah, because instead of taking their give-
Starting point is 00:44:07 They're giving it, right? And it's a paradigm shift, right? And a lot of times these kids that are giving cars away like this with us every year, they're giving at bigger levels than most of the, you know, most of the people in our community give. I mean, you're giving away $5, $6,000 or a car to a family that's in need.
Starting point is 00:44:23 Like, it's something special. So I wanted to do that right from the very beginning. I knew we needed to give away something to our union, to teach the kid how to give. And I had this young man named Ray who was working for Project Life. I say working because I think it's an important delineation, right? It's a destigmatized processes. It's a mental health programming, but in their minds, they were delineation, right? It's a destigmatized the processes. It's a mental health programming, but in their minds, they were coming to work, right?
Starting point is 00:44:48 They're coming to work because that's a destigmatization process. So the local newspaper had caught wind of us giving away a car. So they sent over their best reporter, and she comes down, and I got this, a couple, there's must've been three or four kids I was working with at the time. And it was a Toyota 4 runner.
Starting point is 00:45:08 It was a, I don't know, it was a, I don't know, 1995 Toyota 4 runner or something like that. And the family we were given the car to, there was like seven, the lady had seven kids, right? And I said, look, you gotta stop having kids. They don't make a big enough car for you,'t know how I got to give you two cars, but you don't have anybody old enough to drive. So, so I'm standing here with Ray and I'm got my arm around him and we're all kind of posing for this picture. And
Starting point is 00:45:39 the kid Ray looks at me and he goes, just just just before the picture is taken, I actually have the picture somewhere. I got to find it. But he looks at me and he goes, just just before the picture's taken, I actually have the picture somewhere. I gotta find it. But he looks at me and he says, Mr. Bob, I'm used to stealing cars, not giving them away. Now, what's the moment that I knew we always had to give away cars? So, he's fast-forward. Raid did really well.
Starting point is 00:46:00 He ended up learning welding from us. He's kind of that introduction of welding. And we got him a position at the Pike Fitter's Union down in Palm Beach County. So he did go through an apprentice program and ended up going into the welding field, working across the country, doing you know pipes and all kinds of crazy things. And so it was fast-forward in one of our other kids that came through Project Live. They're not all successes, but we worked with them for a while. His name was Tyler and unfortunately, my dad would have called it like Shylock and guns.
Starting point is 00:46:36 He would loan guns out and so on. We're working with him and trying to figure out how to get him out of that scene and get him clean and get him a job and a career and all that stuff. But unfortunately, the street caught up to him and he was shot and killed. So I'm sitting right where I was sitting when I heard the news of that. So a little memory just flashing my brain. And then, certainly, as I talked to his mom and we go out there and we end up doing a, I get an opportunity to speak at his funeral. And I had some scripture and there's nothing that can make any of this better.
Starting point is 00:47:13 It's the worst thing that can happen. It's your worst day as a therapist. It's your worst day as a mentor. It's nothing good about it. So I leave and we're walking down the street and I was with my dad, I brought my dad and my daughters with me and we're walking out of the church and up comes from behind, comes Ray. And he says, hey man, I just wanna say, can we go out to lunch, right?
Starting point is 00:47:39 He wanted to go out to lunch. I hadn't seen him in years. He had been doing his thing out working in the fields and the pipe fitters fields and all that stuff. I said, yeah, I would love to, right? I wouldn't have recognized him if you had told me it was him, right? So we go out to eat and this was the really,
Starting point is 00:47:59 the part again, these are the moments that there's just the great stories. And I sat down with them and we ate dinner or ate lunch and he's telling me about his family and about all the things he was doing. And he said, I just want to say thank you for taking me in at the time. He was a Jamaican immigrant of family that was living out in one of the rural enclaves again of our town. And the check came to the table. And I went to go grab the check, right?
Starting point is 00:48:32 Because that's what we do, right? Is we do this. We get the check. We take the check because that's what we do. And he slapped my hand down on the table and grabbed the check and he's like, I got this. And to me that was one of the single best moments I ever could have imagined. And I wasn't going to steal his blessing. I let him pay for the meal because it was something that he really, really wanted to do to say thank you. And it was, I don't know, it just was a moment for me
Starting point is 00:49:11 of this major success of this kid that not only did he make something out of his life in a really bad situation, because he did come from, and you talk about generational poverty and raising himself, he was way down on that pole. And for him to come in and just say thank you and grab that check to me was, I'll never forget that. It is a unbelievably satisfying and rewarding thing.
Starting point is 00:49:45 unbelievably satisfying and rewarding thing. It's happened to me as well. When you see a kid who's had almost had been forced to grow up patently selfish to survive, to show as a result of some of the work that he's done selflessness, it is, I feel that story because I've seen it and I understand it for sure. I could tell you a success story after success for a job
Starting point is 00:50:13 and families and families being repaired, but when you see it at that level in a one-on-one moment, yeah, it's very personal. It changes you. one moment. Yeah, it's very personal. It changes you. We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Daniel Tosh, host of new podcast called Tosh Show, brought to you by iHeart Podcast. Why am I getting into the podcast game now? Well, it seemed like the best way to let my family know what I'm up to instead of visiting or being part of their incessant group text. I'll be interviewing people that I find interesting, so not celebrities, and certainly not comedians.
Starting point is 00:50:50 I'll be interviewing my plumber, my stylist, my wife's gynecologist. We'll be covering topics like religion, travel, sports, gambling, but mostly it will be about being a working mother. If you're looking for a podcast that will educate and inspire, or one that will really make you think, this isn't the one for you, but it will be entertaining to a very select few because you don't make it to your mid-40s with IBS
Starting point is 00:51:15 without having a story or two to tell. Join me as I take my place among podcast royalty like Joel Olstein and Lance Bass. Those are words I hope I'd never have to say. Listen to Toss Show in the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. When Tracy Rakell Burns was two years old, her baby brother died.
Starting point is 00:51:36 I was told that Matthew died in an accident, and no one really talked about it. Her parents told police she had killed him. Medical records fed that I killed my baby brother. I'm Nancy Glass. Join me for burden of guilt. The new podcast that tells the true and incredible story of a toddler who is framed for murder and how she grew into an adult
Starting point is 00:52:06 determined to get justice and protect her family. While we had prosecuted some cold cases, this was the coldest, this was frigid. But how does a two-year-old get blamed for murder? She said, we wanted a new life. You just don't know what it's like when you'll do anything for somebody. Listen to Byrdon of Guilt on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wall Street to Main Street and from Hollywood to Washington,
Starting point is 00:52:43 the news is filled with decisions, turning points, deals, and collisions. I'm Tim O'Brien, the senior executive editor for Bloomberg Opinion, and I'm your host for Crash Course, a weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. Every week on Crash Course, all bring listeners directly into the arenas where epic upheavals occur. And I'm going to explore the lessons we can learn when creativity and ambition collide with competition and power. Each Tuesday, I'll talk to Bloomberg reporters around the world, as well as experts and
Starting point is 00:53:17 big names in the news. Together, we'll explore business, political, and social disruptions, and what we can learn from them. I'm Tim O'Brien, host of Crash Course, a new weekly podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. Listen to Crash Course every Tuesday on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bob, I'm not a very smart guy, which makes me kind of meet potatoes and if I've got to pull it down, but if I listen to you, if I understand our conversation, it turns out if you give kids something interesting to do and reward them and allow them to change their addiction from weed to actual dollars, give
Starting point is 00:54:18 them a glimpse of what employing those things in their life and as an adult can do for them, it turns out they might be able to find some success in them. Yeah, well, it's more than might. You know, we have evidence to support that it's a pretty much a guarantee. You know, when you put an effect of replacement behavior in, and it's something that has dignity associated with it, that's the key. Right? You know, I got to, I'd be remiss if I if I you know I cannot say that this is all me. You know number one I point Point to my Lord and Savior like that. I gotta tell you like I can't do this without being faced down on the ground The people that work for these kids every single day the staff that we work with
Starting point is 00:54:59 They have the same mantra. It is I love you. I care about you and I cannot wait to see you again tomorrow. And when you have that as your first steps in, when you start with love, when you start with just that basic minimum viable product of love, that's where you see an amazing staff and amazing team come together and change lives. That is beautiful stuff. It is absolutely true. I have felt that in my own life. I've seen that in my own life. I've been on, I've been both a giver and recipient
Starting point is 00:55:35 of that and it is true. And it doesn't, you are living proof Bob that it doesn't take a bunch of money. It doesn't take some special degree. It's just an average guy paying attention to the things around him and finding a place where they can fit in and make a difference. And you, my friend, have answered a question. And for decades, I'm 53 years years old and I think the question has
Starting point is 00:56:07 been asked by the right, the left, Christian, non-Christian, every race under the sun, we continue to decade after decade ask the question, how do we break the proverbial cycle? And to hear that you are a guy who's found a way to help break that cycle, not only through being creative, not only through being willing to work hard, but also just showing some genuine human compassion. And you know what, that's something every single body on the face of this planet can do to make their culture and societies better. And that is what it means
Starting point is 00:56:51 to be a part of the army of normal folks. Now you're right, you know, I watched the documentary and you know, was I had so many knee jerks watching what you were doing. And the biggest knee jerk I had, take the football away, take the torch away, take everything out of it. What resonated the most with me was when you'd wrap your arms around those kids and say I love you. And it was And they'd never heard it before. No, they hadn't. And I'll tell you a story. You know, that was your seven.
Starting point is 00:57:33 Your two, I can't remember which player it was, unfortunately. But the kid was having a bad day. He showed up to practice pissed off. He screwed up a couple times and I've got a coaching mantra that is you can beat him up all you want to as long as you love him up twice as hard as you beat him up. And so I ripped on him pretty good because I hold my players accountable and black it tell he was angry, frustrated, he was sad. And so, you know, just tongue and cheek,
Starting point is 00:58:07 it's a joke I looked at him, I said, man, you need a hug. And he's like a hug, grown men don't hug, right? And I said, now come here, we're gonna hug. And I mean, he turned from a 17 year old six foot to 230 pound behemoth into a three year old child in the matter of seconds. He melted and it dawned on me that kids
Starting point is 00:58:34 who haven't had a lot of hugs have a long way to go. And if you just show them a little bit of love and you're willing to give to them a little bit of your time, you can change some things. And that is exactly what you've done. And I am just an all of the work you've done. So last question for you. How do we scale this, bro?
Starting point is 00:58:58 How do we take your dream? How do we take what you've stumbled across and then be creative with and then built and have such a passion for? How does if we want to break the proverbial chains? How do we how do we scale this and is it scalable and is there a way that other people could reach out to you if they want to scale this in their community? Yeah, you know, I am like that is my, the million dollar question and it's the question that I have on my brain actually every single day.
Starting point is 00:59:36 I put together expansion plans and playbooks and you know, you know, leaning on my football days to make sure that everybody understands exactly how this should work. And this is probably the most transparent program you'll ever see in your entire life. Because if we don't teach it to everybody and with transparency and fidelity and really, you know, putting the research behind it to make sure that it is, you know, a viable solution for every municipality or for every county across the country, then we really don't have anything. But the bottom line is, my vision and mission of vision
Starting point is 01:00:12 on this is that we should be in 60 cities, 120,000 people out of poverty and 30,000 kids served in the next 10 years. Now that was a big vision that have four or five years ago. And now I see no reason why we really can't see this in every single county across the country. Because it is a solution that you can bite the tire of. It makes sense. It doesn't, it's not like you, you, you know, you go to a program and you're,
Starting point is 01:00:40 and you got to wait to see what's going on. You walk in the doors here and it's like every kid has walked into their workplace. Every person is here, it's a shared work environment. Everybody's treated equally. They're given opportunities that they never would have been able to dream of, but it's all about the path to make that happen in any municipality that's across the country.
Starting point is 01:01:04 You could scale project lift the way it is. Just go in, do your development, you have three teams, operations development and finance and administration components of it. You take those three components, and you intertwine them equally, equally yok them. Work your development out,
Starting point is 01:01:20 understand where your funding needs to come from, have an ambassador from every city that wants to do this because I'm going to tell you, without an ambassador, you don't want to scale anywhere. It's very, very difficult for Bob's Akeo or for Bill to go into some community somewhere and say, hey, we're going to start this program without having that one person who believes deeply and understands the community because you can't just force stuff on a community that does or does not need it. And then you can do it in a lot of different ways. One, you can put the programs, you know, as they sit, you can't bastardize it. You gotta pull the emotional intelligence
Starting point is 01:01:57 components together with industry partners to make sure they're all working together. Because that's where the disruption is, Bill. It's like, if we don't follow industry partners through what it is that they need, like for instance, your lumber company, you're gonna need, I don't know, lumber at all. So I probably shouldn't even speak intelligently, but you've got certain positions that you need filled there. You have a talent acquisition issue going on,
Starting point is 01:02:21 you probably have a retention problem. Why are we not teaching emotional intelligence inside of the workplace and why aren't we teaching it to 14-year-olds? So we need to know exactly what it is that the lumber company would need in order for us to teach that to a 14, 15, and 16-year-olds so that they'd have more success in the future. They're going to spend 90% of their life at your company. It's a career. That's their new family.
Starting point is 01:02:44 We better teach them how to work well in that environment. Another way that you can scale project lift is you know by using already existing foundations that are that are running already. You know one of the ways we've done it here is besides just the traditional scaling components are we worked with the police athletically. So police athletically traditionally don't have strong foundations, foundational supports in their environments. So we teach them how to do that and then we put our operating system inside of different programs like that. So you have your job readiness, employability, mental health
Starting point is 01:03:17 components, hands-on high touch vocational training, and then obviously the destigmatizing of the mental health processes. Here's the process, here's the operating system, plug and play that right into your system that you have there at the police athletically, or a Boys and Girls Club, or big brothers and big sisters. So you can kind of use the Uber ride path of the system itself to do that. You even do it with veterans. I just piloted a program built with homeless. And I got to tell you, most people, when I say the word, hey, we're working with homeless folks, you automatically, you know, switch to access to diagnosis, gets a frenion, all these other things are going on. And I got to tell you, it works with them too, with that population as well. You can deep dive this system in just about any plug and play scenario. I choose my mission of vision, 14 and 19 year olds,
Starting point is 01:04:10 because we haven't taught them anything, and we need to get them in that position. So I don't know if that really answered your question bill, but I agree with you. I think it should be across the country, not just because I'm the founder of the organization, but because it makes sense. It works. Bob
Starting point is 01:04:28 Plug it. How do how do people find it? What where do they what are they Google? Yeah, just Google project lift.org ORG so PR OJ ECT L I F T dot O R G You know just jump on our website. You'll see everything I talked about is on there. Again, transparency is our number one policy. You could even call my cell phone number if you want. Is 7, 7, 2, 3, 5, 9, 2, 5, 5, 4? Call me.
Starting point is 01:04:58 I hope that you get 100,000 calls tomorrow. I want you to have to deal with it, but I hope that people listening us understand the phenomenal work that you and your organization are doing and the success. And I hope, folks, see that you can be a grandson of an immigrant and a son of a sheetrock guy and do amazing things in this country and Bob, you're one of them. I have really enjoyed speaking to you about this this evening. Me too. I cannot tell you how much I've enjoyed this conversation.
Starting point is 01:05:40 I've been looking forward to it all week and I can't tell you how much of an honor it is to be on the phone with you and having this awesome discussion about things that I'm just so passionate about. And I could see that in the, you know, I get to see the film and also, you know, one of the conversations that you've had on this, but having a conversation with you is a whole new level. Thank you. Thank you for that.
Starting point is 01:06:05 Bob, I wrote down a bunch of stuff. I don't even know what I said. Everybody, Bob Zacchio, project lift and Palm City, Florida. I've taken 5,000 kids, and I'm not talking about just normal kids. I'm talking about at-risk kids who've had drug problems and been in trouble with the law. And the court sent him to Bob and he's taken 5,000 of them
Starting point is 01:06:34 and 72% of them have straightened their life out as compared to 27% of those kids nationally. It's a guy who's an average guy. He's an army of normal folk making a difference in our world. Bob Zacchio, thank you, my friend. Thank you, Bill. Can't thank you enough. Awesome time.
Starting point is 01:06:54 Bob, I think we're good to go. Look, I mean, there's some production here and some cut and editing and all of that, but I hope we do enough, a good enough job that a lot of people hear this story because it's not for the production of the show when I tell you, I genuinely believe what you're doing is freaking phenomenal, dude.
Starting point is 01:07:16 The success rate says it, and you are one by one changing community, and if we could just get people to see people like you and what you do, we could fix a lot of what else is. And dude, you are a part of that army for sure. Man, I'm humbled and thankful to have had this conversation with you and. If you ever need me, Howard. I definitely will.
Starting point is 01:07:45 All right, my friends. Thank you for the great evening. Guys, to join an army of normal folks, just go to normalfokes.us. That's right. Normalfokes.us. And sign up and become a member of our movement. It only takes committing to doing one new thing this year
Starting point is 01:08:04 to help somebody else. And there will be a ton of awesome ideas on this podcast from the folks we're featuring. Some of them may resonate with you deeply and others may not at all, and that's okay, because we're called to do different things with the different talents each of us are blessed with. But together, with each of us doing what we can, we genuinely can change this country. We'd love to hear what you do. And if there's stories you've heard that you think we must tell, we'll tell them. Write me anytime at billatnormalfogs.us. As you've heard, everyone
Starting point is 01:08:39 we're featuring, myself included, we're sharing our direct contact information. We're not just putting on a show, guys, we're hoping to build a real community that's unlike anything America has ever seen. And if you enjoyed this episode, rate it, review it, share it with friends on social. All these things that will help us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Look forward to seeing you next week. Hi, I'm Daniel Tosh, host of a new podcast called Tosh Show. I'll be interviewing people that I
Starting point is 01:09:17 find interesting, so not celebrities, and certainly not comedians. We'll be covering topics like religion, travel, sports, gambling, but mostly it will be about being a working mother. If you're looking for a podcast that will educate and inspire or one that will really make you think, this isn't the one for you. Listen to Tosh Show in the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. When Tracy Rakelles was two years old,
Starting point is 01:09:47 her baby brother died. I was told that Matthew died in an accident. Her parents told police she had killed him. I'm Nancy Glass. Join me for Birdon of Guilt, the new podcast that tells the true an incredible story of a toddler who was framed for murder. Listen to Byrdon of Guilt on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Starting point is 01:10:11 or wherever you get your podcasts. The street stoic podcast is back. We are combining hip-hop lyrics and quotes from some of the greatest to ever grace a microphone. It's a line for Lauren Hill and she says, don't be a hard rock when you really are a gem. Along with ancient wisdom from some of the greatest philosophers of all time. Seneca, right?
Starting point is 01:10:38 And he says, your mind will take shape of what you frequently hold in thought. For the human spirit is colored by such impression. Listen to season two of the Street Stoke podcast on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.