An Army of Normal Folks - JT Olson: Raising Money for Adoptions by Helping Widows (Pt 2)

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

This title doesn't make much sense, unless you listen to the episode. JT is the founder of Both Hands, whose own Army of Normal Folks in 45 states has raised $21 million to adopt 1,648 kids by serving 1,632 widows! Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with An Army of Normal Folks, and we continue now with part two of our conversation with JT Olson, right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight.

I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr. and Charlemagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well.

I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before. Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits.

They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like be respectful. We're made out of the same things, bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's return now to JT on getting their adoption in motion.

On December 26th, I remember so clearly, I mean like right away that morning. My wife was on it like a dog on a pork chop She was I'm talking about she was on the phone calling ambassadors You know, I mean she was all over the place and it was you just described the woman that you have said is beautiful Hi, the most amazing thing in the world the sexiest thing that ever walked on two legs as a dog with a pork chop Hope she's not gonna listen to this because you're gonna be in the dog house with your own pork chop. That's right, okay.

So she was dog with a pork chop. She went after it with zeal. Vengeance. With zeal, she was attacking with zeal. She was zealous. Yes, yes. So? Well, I mean, through a lot of stories,

I mean, it was amazing. I remember she did call, I think it was Sudan, because our church was doing, I mean one of the things that happened that caused me to do this, to have this attitude that I had in the attic was we were given a video from our church and the whole theme was less under our tree, more into the world's tree. You know, the picture was an upside down Christmas tree and they gave us a video of some people in Sudan, this village that we were supporting as a church. And we had made a difference.

It had been there for four or five years. And they had this one part of the video that it was good for family. Then they said, this next part, you might want to let your kids see it or not see it. And our youngest, I think, was six, Max. And we said, well, this is real. We're going to make sure our kids see this.

But it was sad because there was a guy, you know, he said, now, these kids, he said, now, unfortunately, some of these kids you see probably won't be alive when you see this video because they're being persecuted and there's hunger and things like that. And it was kind of a somber moment and we're watching with our four kids And my youngest max says you mean all those people gonna die because they love Jesus or because they don't have food And he said yeah

Well, we could be their mom and dad couldn't we? And it's just like And he says, well, we could be their mom and dad, couldn't we? And it's just like, okay then, let's sit, let's get ready for dinner. But it was one of those moments where you just hit you like, yeah, but we've been given what we've been blessed with. Why, why shouldn't we not have less under our tree, more under the world's tree? That was just our attitude, but that's one of the things that hit me

when I was in the attic. And I just thought, what's wrong with using a life savings to save a life? So eventually we ended up, but I was gonna go with that. The Sudan, she'd called the ambassador Sudan. And she didn't mention we were Christians or anything like that.

She just said, wonder about adoption? She says, no, the ambassador, somehow she got him on the phone. I do not know. That was another thing that was kind of weird. Same way she got 25 people to come sell books. Kind of. Kind of. Zealous. I think. Zealous. I think we've defined, I think we've decided that's the word.

Yes. People who know her would say, yeah, yeah, that would describe her. But he did say, man, we've never, no no one adopts from Sudan we don't do that and He said but can I ask you why do you want to adopt from there? She's well, we just we just want to adopt and and make a difference and help out. He said well Thank you very much. You said and may God bless you She hung up and it was weird. We never had a chance to contact them again But eventually I mean we didn't know if we're going to do a domestic, international, but eventually we read a book. I can't remember the name of the book, but it was really gave a really clear picture

of what was happening in China to these girls because of the one child policy and all this other stuff. To be clear, for those who don't know, when the one child policy came through, families wanted men and so oftentimes they would throw infant babies literally in the river. Or if they didn't have the stomach to kill their child, they would do what apparently was the kind thing and leave them on the doorsteps of an orphanage. At one time in China, there were orphanages full of little girls because of that policy and because Chinese culture wants a male to take on the Chinese life. I've done a little research on that. I know a little bit about that story and I assume that's

what you're talking about. Yeah, they don't have social security over there. If a family grows old, the families will live together multi-generational in the same household. And it is the son's responsibility to take care of them. And if you don't have a son, you may not be taken care of. So if you have a girl, you rid yourself of that girl. Got a little short term thinking there. They usually play the long game on a lot of things, China does.

But on this one, they weren't thinking. One of the problems that they figured out was, well all the girls are gone and we got all these guys, how are we going to procreate? I know, I know. We might need to change this up a little and they eventually did. But for a decade and a half, that was a real lot of policy. Yeah, and that's one of the reasons why we knew so many people who were adopting from China. I mean in our community and just around the country. And largely girls. Yeah. Oh yeah. Almost all.

Unless there were special needs or something. But even then a lot of them were special needs. But that's how we got Gracie. We ended up... Gracie. Gracie. Yeah. And we decided when we adopted, yeah, we always...

I love the name Gracie and I'm a George Burns fan. You know, good night Gracie. Good night Gracie. Say good night Gracie. Good night, Gracie. Say good night, Gracie. But yeah, we named her that. And it was one of the things that really hit us. How old was she when? 17 months.

Wow. But when we were getting information about her, I mean, we would wait a year, year and a half, a year. But we finally, I think it was in the 2003 in the summer or the first part of the summer we got word here's you've been selected here's a child's been selected we got a picture of her and we got a little bit of a dossier and it came in the mail and I was working I came home from work that day for lunch all the kids were there you know we homeschooled and so the kids

were at the house. My wife says, we got all this information, come on home and let's talk about it. So we looked at it and, oh, and my wife was, I didn't know this at the time. She did tell me it later, but she was having a lot of second thoughts about this adoption. Really?

Yes, because she thought, did I do this? Because I just wanted to be like other families. Did I get us into this family? Is this the wrong thing because we got this You know, she said we can't have a baby. I don't want I don't want to we want an infant We don't want one that's that's older than 17 18 months We don't want one that's born in May or April because May or April were all our birthdays are shit I don't need another event. I don't just not that and there were two or three other things

She said no not this and all of more this this this and this and she says what have I done? And we got a we got a picture grace We got the the info on her and my wife called the adoption agency and said I don't I don't think this is our baby and and I'll never forget what my wife said the adoption lady said she said Sarah you're about to steal one from the gates of hell. And Satan is doing everything he possibly can

to make sure that doesn't happen. He said, I want you to pray about this. I'm not going to put the refusal in yet. You pray about this. Well, in the meantime, we got the dossier on her. And we read it. Oh, she's got this. Sarah was looking for anything that says yes. This is our baby

And so I went back to work and then I looked at the thing again and I'd looked at the very top the one part I didn't cover when we went home for lunch. It said shoushu Semicolon grace And And I called my wife I said, hey, did you tell the adoption people that were going to name her Grace? She said, no. I said, well, look at this.

And she was looking at it and she said, and so she called and said, well, what's this deal? Well, when the lady at the number three school in her district found Gracie in a box on the store's doorsteps with a bottle and a little rag, they named her Grace. And that's been her name. And my wife was just elated. She said, there it is. This is our baby. This is our baby.

This is our baby. That was kind of a big deal. That's kind of a big deal. And so when someone says, why'd you go to China? I said, cause that's where Gracie was. You didn't go to China. She brought you to China. It feels like a most cosmic magnet. Yeah. And because we have very generous friends and they love what we were doing and everything,

one friend gave us all his airline miles, United. I mean, we were able to take all four kids to China with us. And it was right after some virus thing. So the country was shut down for three months. Hotel rooms are $50 a month a night. I mean, it was amazingly cheap. China was trying to get people in. And so we were able to take all four kids to go get Gracie. So it was a trip of a lifetime.

Incredible. Okay. Yeah. So that's Gracie. So now you're a family of five. You know what it's like to be orphaned. You know what it's like to be orphaned. You know what it's like to be rescued. You've rescued mothers, pregnant mothers, so that they can have their children. You've experienced the life of Deb and her daughter and her two fathers. You've now adopted, I mean,

this 12 to 42 year world is crazy. And then you've you've told the story about the the the golf tournament and you came up with this idea and then you decided you found a widow and a bunch of people came up and you raised $70,000 so that this guy could adopt the four kids from Moldova. And at that point you've had a great time and it's time to just raise Gracie, be grandparents, retire and live happily ever after. Right? Yeah. And I, you know, you use the word rescue. I probably wouldn't use, I use the word rescue when I refer to myself because I do feel I was rescued, but I think

we were just doing kind of what anyone would in those situations. I just, you know... I get it. I just... Anyway. I get it. But now you've seen the widow's house get fixed and this guy gets $70,000 and the same entrepreneurial spirit that happened in the book world and in starting the recruiting company, you have an epiphany.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when we raised 70,000, I thought, oh my word, because I was expecting 10 or 15. I just, I had no idea. You covered it for the guy. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

And, well, you know, about six months after that first product, another buddy of mine from Southwestern, you know, he, because my first one was a buddy, was one of my students who I actually managed and worked with for five, six years. So it was, it was a lot of connections. He said, I always deal with Don, would you help me and Lisa? He said, we're adopting from Guatemala. Said, yeah, let's do it again. It was fun. And we, um, they need to raise about 13,000. And we had, they had just, they said, we've already got the will picked out, you know, and, um, Ms. Diane and Ms. Diane, we knew her.

She was actually the worship leader at a church we'd gone to and her husband had been tragically killed in the car accident seven months earlier. She had a fourth, in fact, her husband was one of my kids teachers at one point. She had a fourth grader and an eighth grade daughter. Yikes. And she needed a new roof. And you know it's a nice house but she needed a new roof. And I said, yeah let's do it again. And another, here's another thing where just, again it's a tapestry thing. You wonder how is it all woven together? As a recruiter, the last couple years I was in the recruiting business, one of my areas of expertise, so to speak, was the local commercial construction. I was placing superintendents and project managers with these people.

I happen to know the presidents of all the local construction companies. So she did a new roof. I thought, oh oh man how are we gonna do that and I said well I'll just pick up the phone and call we gotta give people a chance to say yes that's kind of a zig-zag thing right. And I called up the first guy Mike and I said hey Michael. He said yeah what's up well I just want to run something patch you just see we doing something we're fixing up this widow's house

And we're doing to raise money for an adoption. He said was that you in that video in church? You go to fellowship He said yeah, cuz it church after we did the first project our church has like 3,000 members at the time They showed a video one Sunday and it was about the both hands project and it was amazing. It was a really cool video He said is that you I said, yeah, that's us. He said what do you need? Sunday and it was about the both hands project and it was amazing. It was a really cool video. I said, is that you? I said, yeah, that's us. He said, what do you need? He said, this is awesome. I said, well, we need a new roof. He said, send me the dimensions. Everything you need will be in the front yard on Thursday morning. Wow. I mean, it's just a little thing,

but man, it turned out to be a big thing. And then I talked to a pastor at a church. He said, JT, I put on six roofs. He was like the works pastor, the hands and feet kind of guy. And he said, I got six guys. You get the supplies, we'll get it done. And then I remember standing on that roof that day of the project. It was a beautiful day, April day, April of 2008. And it was my daughter's prom night and I stood in that roof and I looked out

and I counted 52 people. We had transformed the back of her yard. We had transformed the front of her yard and we're putting on a new roof and I'm looking at Miss Diane. She's there with Bill and Lisa. She's crying and she's blown away by how much love. So thankful. And then I count the cars on the street and I counted 19 cars. And I thought, what a testament to the neighborhood.

This is how you serve a widow. This is how you bring comfort to somebody who's going through a hard time. And it took me back to the farm. I mean, I sat there on that roof and I remember getting off about a month after the accident, getting off the bus, beautiful April day

in Iowa. Our bus stops about a half mile from the house. It's on a hill. You can see a lot of the farm from our house. Stepped off the bus and there were all our neighbors in our fields with their tractors and their plows and their discs and their planters. I mean, Leland Meyer, Bob Grana, Everett Elveson, Bert Juvick, Ed Cooper, Doc Wyamell, Jack Melcher, they were planting our crops. These are all my dad's buddies, making sure their buddies' kids were taken care of. I mean, I know it's like to have your feet washed.

I know it's like to have something given to you that there's no way you can repay it. And there's no way the people who are giving it want you to repay it. They're doing it because they just, they want to serve. So standing on that roof, that's what came back to me. I thought this is living.

We'll be right back. and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out, like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun,

even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlamagne the God. We're gonna take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the

news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before. Season 2 is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated.

All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks. Let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account, or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but be respectful. We're made out of the same things, bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers.

Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ["When You're Invisible"] My wife and I went out to eat that night. I was excited. Honestly, the 10 years I've been running the recruiting industry, that is not in my

gifting. It was fun building a company. That part I like, but the actual doing that kind of sales, that's more just selling. It's not relational selling. It's more transactional. That's not my sweet spot. My sweet spot is working with people and what can you do with college students for 20 some years, you know? But this was fun. And my wife, I remember a couple things she said to me that dinner that night when I was talking about it, she, she looked at me and she said, you are positively a glow. And she said, I haven't seen you this way in years. This is, and, and she said,

later she said, I felt like I, I got my husband back. This is the guy I married. And, and, and I said, I think I'm supposed to do this full time. Now, she said, stay at home, homeschooling mom with five kids. She had questions. Like, have you thought about health insurance? Have you thought about, like, a paycheck? Have you thought about this? I said, yeah, what would you think about going to work outside the home? She loved what she was doing, but you know, a couple months later she was working at Belmont. She took an entry-level position in admissions. She got health insurance.

We got tuition, the advantage of tuition. She started working. Part of the story, a lot of it is what she's done because she worked there for seven years, three or four years in admission and three years in development, where we met some amazing people who loved both hands and loved Belmont. And then she got recruited to Concerned Women for America, where we met some people who just believe in God and they believe in our country. When I read about your wife with four children and an infant Gracie leaving being a at stay at home mom, homeschooling kids, raising kids, loving kids, going back to work

to get insurance so that you could chase this scream. That is why I said a while back, she's just germane to the story because without her it doesn't happen. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. She's, Hey, you describe her like a dog with a bone. Oh my goodness in heaven. I don't know what to say about you. I also said Stark Raven gorgeous. Don't forget that honey. Don't forget that. You didn't say that. So you transition and now So you transition and now both hands becomes a career, a calling and a thing. So tell me about the first year.

Well, you know, the first year, and I got to tell you, I mean, I would be remiss and I think it really does give a clearer picture to make sure I effectively paint myself as the non-hero. Because somewhere after that first project, we had a good, the first project happened in March of 2007. I had a good friend of ours, she had been saying, come on, I just, I wanna get together, I brought Christmas time. She says, can I bring my Christmas card over to you?

I said, sure, but Sarah was busy, I was busy. You know, I was this is before we started both hands she's got the kids and Finally, I said yeah, she called me say can you meet me? I said let's meet at the YMCA I'm you know, we'll meet there so I pull up She's in her truck. I get into her truck And she said here she handed me a card here's your Christmas card I said do you want me to open it she says yes so I opened it and there's a nice Christmas card family picture and this is a family we've probably done some

things with you know we put something and um there was a check for a fifty thousand dollars made out to both hands not made out to both hands. Not made out to JT Olsen. Made out to both hands. It scared the living daylights out of me because I thought, oh my gosh, because I was asking God, God, can you show me, give me a sign. Give me a sign. This is what I'm supposed to do. Well, yeah, I've been praying like, is this something you want me to do? You talk about a sign. You talk about putting a fleece out and, oh yeah, leave that part dry and this round around it wet. It was amazing.

But at the same time, we started both hands. My wife had questions. She knew that was in an account somewhere, but she also knew that living where we lived with raising five kids, that's not going to last forever. If we're going to start a nonprofit, we got to. But I'm just giving you, there was a little bit of a net. I don't want to make it seem like I'm... That's not much of a net with five kids living in Nashville. I know. But still, there was a bit. There's a bit of a net.

It was certainly something that said go. Yes. I see it less of a net, more of a swift kick in the rear end. Yep. Okay, so we started it and it was amazing. We had five products that first year. So now let's redefine this. What we do is we get a bunch of people to donate materials and time and we find an unwed mother or a widow or something like that who has issues at their home and you go fix that home with, with volunteer people and hopefully as much materials as you can get donated and

you get people to sponsor that activity for the widow. But the money you raise, you then turn around and invest in families who are having to incur these massive amounts of money to adopt so that they can adopt. So you're creating funds for adoption by caring for widows with the use of volunteers and donations for the widows' homes

and benefactors giving money to support that cause, donations for the widow's homes and and Benefactors giving money to support that cause Understanding that their money to support that cause is actually going to help families adopt children. That's pretty close. That's pretty close. What'd I miss? Well About 10% of our products are not necessary adoptions We do group projects or else orphan care adoptions. I just want to make sure people know that. Okay, because a lot of people love this model. I mean, it's great. It's the most irresistible nonprofit in America. You're fixing two things at once. I know. It's great. And I think somewhere in some book it says, take care of the widows and orphans. Yeah. Okay. And it's doing both.

So a lot of people see this and they say, what a cool thing, but I wish I was adopting. So we pivot a little bit. I mean, early on we said, yeah, if you want to raise money for an orphanage somewhere, you know, in Moldova or in Honduras or Mexico or someplace, or you want to raise money to help women who are in traffic, trafficked women, if you want to raise money to help women who are in traffic, traffic women, if you want to do something for foster care, a foster care closet or any kind of thing that's been... So now you're able to use the same model to help in any number of needs.

Anything that helps kids. Anything to help kids. That's the thing. It helps kids. It helps kids or these kids coming out of foster care, you know, things like that. So there's a lot of organizations that need money. Because the 12-year-old you knows what that need feels like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Somewhere there's a 12-year-old crying on a cold cement floor wondering what the heck's going to happen. And there's heroes who step up and they answer the call. We want to do everything we can for people like that because I know what it's like and I'm blessed, grateful for everything I was given and it's just, I don't know how you can be in my position and not feel like, okay, let's get back. Let's do something.

So we did, so that's how we started in 08. Oh, and you know, another thing I probably ought to mention is that 100% of the money that we raise goes to the cause we don't take anything out for operations. Yeah, how do you eat? I read that. I don't understand how you eat. Okay. Well, when we started this, I really, I saw another organization, Lifesong for Orphans, that was kind of doing it that way. And I thought, I like that. Because I was just, I just wanted to, I wanted to make it irresistible. And I thought, well, the way to do that is

100% of the money that we raise goes towards the cards. Let's not take anything out for operations. Because people always say, well, how much does a 501C3 take out? Well, that's a fair question. Because there are some 501C3s who administration's costs are 40% of the money raised. And I get things, but that feels top heavy.

But you've gone the complete other way. 100% of the money raised when you're fixing these people's houses go for the kids, whether it's adoption or orphanages or whatever. But how do the operational costs get covered? You go out and raise that separately. Yes, that's exactly what we do now. We don't do a concert, which we could do a concert, because we know a lot of people in Nashville

who could do a concert. If you're gonna do a concert, Memphis or Nashville would be two places you could do a concert. That's right. Or else our auction, be it silent auction, we don't do that. What we do is our own both hands project.

Now, every year it's got, we call it the vision project. So you do a both hands project and you tell everybody, and this is for the operations of the organization. Yeah, and that is 100% of what you donate is gonna go to operations. Staying true to your focus. Yeah, and it's gotten out of hand. This last year we had 300 people show up

at a church there in Franklin, and we served 20 widows in Franklin. How much money did you raise? A little over 400,000. That's fantastic. Yeah. Which gives you plenty to do what you got to do operationally, pay yourself and everything else. Well yeah, we got the staff has grown because now we're grown, there's more people, there's some more, it's just it's gotten bigger and as in anything like I'm understanding, I was, I ran a business, I understand when you grow there's expenses increase, like just getting audited, you pass over a million dollars

in revenue, all of a sudden your auditing cost goes up. I bet you are. No, it's amazing how these costs go up the bigger you get. CRM software, there's a lot. And then you got to pay people. So that's one way we raise money. Another way we do it is monthly donors. A lot of people just love what we do.

I got a lot of friends in Nashville. They just love it. They said, Jay, and what they say is... Give me a hundred bucks a month or whatever, but if you get enough people doing that... And I have guys say, JT, you do the hard work. All I have to do is cut the check. You keep doing what you're doing and we'll keep supporting you. Don't we worry. And then we have a lot of generous people at Christmas time. So that's just... And this started in basically 2008. Yeah. 16 years later. Yeah. You've done, these may be old numbers,

but I think they're right. You've done 1,352 projects in 45 states. 1,541 widows have been served. 1,571 kids are no longer orphans. And you've raised to to date almost 20 million dollars. Yeah that is that those are passe that those are passe stats. We got new stats. What are the new ones? 1,400 and we had five projects this past weekend. 1,452 projects in past weekend. 14. 1452. Projects. In 45 states. Okay.

1,632 widows had been served. And 1,648 kids. And we just passed 21 just passed 21 million. 21 million. All because... Doesn't that make you giddy? It just makes me giddy. But it all because some dude in Moldova found out George had three siblings.

Yeah, it's all because some dude took my letter and sent it back to me, had the guts to send me a letter. I always think of Proverbs 27.6. That's really where it started. That's how it started. Because you were in a goofy golf thing and your buddy said, nah, I'm not going to do it. If you helped a widow maybe, but I'm not paying you to play golf. Yeah. Proverbs 27.6. Wounds from a friend can be trusted. That's a great proverb. That's a great proverb. We'll be right back. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted.

But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlamagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well.

I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all, I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz.

My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before. Season 2 is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys,

but like be respectful. We're made out of the same things, bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So how many people are inside this organization now?

We have nine employees, two of them part-time. We have a marketing person and that's someone who helps her. We have a financial guy who takes, makes sure, you know, that we don't get arrested. And you know, he's really good. We have an executive director. They changed, they took a lot, about three years ago, three and a half years ago, they took all that stuff of executive director off my plate.

They made me president and founder, which, and then the whole thing was, JT, you just do what you're good at. You do what you like doing. We're gonna take care of all the details. And the executive director, Jared, has done an awesome job. He's smart, he's young.

And my wife met him when she was at Belmont. She was in charge of the Bruin recruiters, the ones who give to her campuses. He was the president of that group. When we were looking for an assistant, she said, you ought to talk to Jared. So Jared came on many years ago as my assistant, my personal assistant, and now he's the executive director. That is crazy. Yeah. You talk about my wife being germane to this whole thing. Yeah. She's had a huge role.

Tell me what a day looks like at a widow's house and what people are doing and what they are when they show up and what they are when they leave. I'm thinking about some of the messages I've got from volunteers and some of the things they say. Some of the things they say is, this has been, I'm not exaggerating. This has been the best day of my life. I can't believe this.

This was so much fun. I've never done anything like this before. Do they come back? Yeah. I mean, if they have a chance to, but they're just, you know, and a lot of them end up being monthly donors, you know, or they give at some point because they had a chance to experience it and they want to pass it on to give to other families. You know, a day at a widow's house on a sat most, it's almost always Saturday, between

10 to 30 or 40 people will show up depending on the family. A lot of times a family will be able to gather 25, 30 volunteers. Those are folks that are really pretty involved in their community. They've got a lot of friends. And prior to that, they've all sent letters out. Well, not all of them. You wish all of them would, but you try to get about 500 or 600 letters out for every project.

The widow is there and people are setting up. They have donuts. They get their name tag and sign their waiver for things like that. They circle around the widow. The widow just has a chance for four or five minutes to say thank you and tell her story a little bit. They just kind of pray and give out directions and here's what we're going to do. And then they kind of down set hut break and everyone, depending on what they're doing, every project is different, but every project is the same. Sometimes they're just kind of

deep pleading widow's house. Sometimes they're, I mean, we've seen where they put, I mean, that's the one last year where they put a retainer wall in and they got Because somebody on the team had the equipment said, what do you need? Yeah, we'll put a retainer wall in. Yeah, what do we have? Where do you want it? Okay over here? We'll do it I mean, it's just the people with everything from roofs to retainer wall to paint. Yes Siding yes yards to drainage to plumbing. I tell people, keep it simple. When I'm coaching, because of all those 1,600 and some products, I've personally coached all of them.

Wow. That's one of the main things I do. I mean, I love coaching. I love, I especially love that first call with families where I'm getting to know them a little bit, and I say, OK, here's how you're going to recruit the team. And then we talk about that. And then I say, here's how you find a widow in your community.

And I teach them on all that stuff. But I just, I'm coaching about what to do in the widow's house. I say painting, cleaning, decluttering, and landscaping. Now some people, you look at a both hands video and there's 1,400 of them out there right now. You'll see some that look like an extreme makeover and you just gotta remember whenever you see something like that, like they're putting on a roof, it's like someone in that,

someone on that team owned a construction company and they were able to get all those supplies donated, you know, but most of the time I try to tell them to keep it simple because we encourage them to get all their supplies donated so they're, they don't spend any money in an ideal situation. And very seldom do you have ideal situations, but ideally the only cost a family should have would be stamps for the letters. I get it.

But sometimes they have to pay for motion. And sometimes you get families to say, I don't care what we're doing. I love this widow. We're going to serve her and we're going to do this I don't care what we're doing. You know, I love this widow. We're going to serve her and we're going to do this. And they'll go to Home Depot. And I've had Home Depot's to give people $25 gift certificates. So we've had Home Depot and Lowe's give people $800 worth of material

and say, that's free. Take it, go get it. We love what you're doing. It all depends on. I've heard that before, by the way, in similar stories. It makes me feel really good about both those organizations. stories. It makes me feel really good about both those organizations. So why write The Orphan, The Widow and Me? What was the inspiration there? Whenever I would speak someplace at a church or any kind of group, someone would always come up

to me and say, dude, you should write a book. No, no, okay. I'll write a book. Okay. So we did. And I had some help writing it. Sat with a guy for three full days, and we talked. And he helped me put it together. And then my team and I, by then my team was, I think we had three people, four people on the team, then three. We went through every page.

And there's a couple chapters I changed. It's always that. But it was, I mean, put a lot of work and a lot of chapters I changed. There's always edits. But it was, I mean, put a lot of work and a lot of time into it. Because people just say it was a great, you know what, it's been a great story. What is it? Is it just the story of the story?

It's a story of my life starting from when I was, I guess it started off when I was 12. Talking about, I talk a little bit about the farm and growing up on a farm and what it was like living on a farm But it's really good because every chapter I just tell people, you know Read the first chapter to give it a shot see what happens, you know, it's a fast read But I've had people besides my family say it's a good book. Yeah

And that's right. You can go to both hands dot org and you can get yours today If somebody is interested in, I mean if someone's listening to us now and they love the idea and they know an area of need for a child and they know a widow, they can call you and you will help facilitate this form, I guess. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean if they, yeah if they, if they're adopting they can go on one and most people are adopting especially if they, yeah, if they, if they're adopting, they can go on one. And if most people are adopting, especially if they're in the. So if they're adopting and they need help raising money for the adoption, they reach out to you, find a widow and you guys all put it together.

Yeah, that's simplified. Yeah. Right. But they contact us. There was an application on our website. How do they contact you? Emailing most of the time they email us because their adoption agency, they've sat with their adoption agency counselor and said how are we gonna afford this and they'll say well here's the list of a bunch of things you can do and here's some Christian organizations that you can work with, both hands is on that group you know and Lifesong for Orphans, Lifeline, I mean there's several organizations,

religious groups that will do that. And that's where we fall. And we've had a lot of people come to us because people said their adoption agency told us about them. So how does somebody get in touch with you? What is the email address or the WhatsApp? I'm sorry, bothhands.org. Bothhands.org.

Yeah. And there they can find out more. Oh, you'll find out more. I'm sorry. Both hands dot o RG both and start or yeah. And there they can find out more. Oh, you'll find out more. You can see some videos. You can see all the videos. And you know, every year, we, every time we cross a million dollars, we do a kind of a, most of the time it's a funny video. It's entertaining. And we just came out with our $20 million one, but while it was in works, we crossed 21 million. So it's kind of our 2020, you know, it happened so fast. We didn't have a chance to make another video. And so it's starting to work. We're raising like $2 million a year now. That's fun. It is phenomenal.

And it's where it started. It's just phenomenal. I mean, you know, I've never heard this story, but now after a year and a half of an army of normal folks and continue to tell these stories, I can't tell you how many amazing things, just like both hands happen when somebody sees an air need, they have a passion and the ability and they collide. And that's really what happened in your life. And as a result, they collide and that's really what happened in your life. Yeah. And as a result, 452 projects, 632 widows and 648 kids to date and growing with $20 million,

$21 million raised is, is happened and I've got to, I got to believe that it's probably been a bigger blessing in your life than any of the people you've ever served. Yeah. It's incredibly humbling. That's what it is. It's incredibly humbling. I mean, I'm just a small little cog in this thing.

I mean, if you look at my story, and when I spoke to a college group last week, a couple classes with some freshmen at Valmont University, because there's a professor there who loves, he wants to have me come and talk every year to his class at school. But I remember telling him, I said, as I tell this story, you know, you might want to try and count the number of nonprofits that were involved. And if you go back and you think about it, there's seven of them. Like the guy I sent the letter to, the reason I knew him was I was in a Bible study, a two-year Bible study with 12 men. I didn't start that Bible study.

Hal Haddon did 40 years ago. And you know the Fellowship Bible Church, that's the group that took the money. We had to have a place for people to write the checks because I wasn't a 501c3 when we did this first project. I didn't start Fellowship Bible Church. You know and Bethany Christian Services, the reason I was on that board, I didn't start Bethany Christian Services. You can go down the line, and there's a whole bunch of things that were all set up for me. And I've always heard, I don't know if it was Charlie Shremendous Jones. I don't know if you ever heard Charlie Jones, the motivational speaker. He used to come to Southwestern to speak, but funny guy, he'd beat up people in the front row. He'd go up there and he'd

just hit you. But I remember he would say something on the front row. He'd just go up there and he'd just hit you. But I remember he would say something I'll never forget. He said, you're going to be the same person today as you are 10 years from now, except for two things. The people you meet and the books you read. And the people I've met, the people God's allowed me to be introduced to, and the books I've read, or you might say the sermons I've heard, or the podcasts I've listened to, that's what's influenced it and I just I Just feel very fortunate. I'm blessed because You know, I had a chance to do this not bad for a 12 year old farm kid who lost his parents at 12 I just think God could take something that's hard and painful and turn it something that's beautiful I just and I don't know what if it's the imagery that fires me up

The imagery I have in my head what sometimes when I'm and I just't know what if it's the imagery that fires me up but The imagery I have in my head what sometimes when i'm and I just need a little fire up. I just say, you know When when when satan gets up in the morning with his little minions and he's got his little list and he gets to my name I don't want him checking the box. It says not a threat I want him thinking He's up again You know and and I just want to make an impact. I think we got to live for impact, not ease. We'll be right back.

Hey, everyone. It's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's,

to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Estet Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlamagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about?

Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before. Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account, or else I can't get disability benefits.

They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like, be respectful. We're made out of the same things, bone, body, blood. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the MyCultura podcast network.

Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We talked about when it's over and the day is over and the widow served. I asked you, do people come back? Meaning do the people who've worked on a house, do they do it again? I guess what I'm really asking is have you noticed a lasting impact on the volunteers themselves? Yes. I meet a lot of people and sometimes you meet people that they just do

phenomenal things. I think about my aunt and uncle doing a phenomenal thing by taking all five was kids, which is still incredible. The more I think about that, the more I'm like, holy moly, they were 33. That's incredible. And she just lost her sister and her best friend. I mean, it's just, it's, you know, but they stepped up. But sometimes, and I get to go to these conferences where I meet some just phenomenal people,

work with phenomenal people, you know, when they do a project. But I remember meeting this one couple, they were like in their 50s, late 50s. I'm in my mid 50s, that's old. I'm starting to feel old. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And they had, and I talked to them. Had they volunteer it on a house is that the deal No, well, so I met them at this conference and they're nice couple just come up and you know How you doing and start finding out they've got like a? 28 year old they've got a 31 year old and a 33 year old. Yeah, like people in their late 50s Yes, they're empty investors and they've earned it and I said, what do you do. Yeah, like people in their late 50s. Yes. They're empty investors and they've earned it. And I said, what do you do at this? So what are you doing at the conference?

Well, we've got three kids. We just didn't think we had enough. I said we tried retirement. I've had guys say, we tried retirement, but it's just, I did it for a year or two. I just didn't like it. So we've got 11 year old, a 12 year old and a 15 year old now Are you I am not kidding you talked about in spring inspiring I get to go to conference I get to meet people like this people who just do crazy things Because they just they want to live a life of impact

Not ease and I think that's how we're I think a lot of us are made that way I think I think there's more joy in impact than there is an ease I love to golf and I love it when a good shot hits and you can play a beautiful course and it's beautiful you know three good friends and you're having a great time that's really fun to me but nothing beats a widow saying, I thought God had forgotten all about me. Yeah, that's incredible. That is incredible.

Do you stay in touch, does the organization stay in touch with the widows and the families at all that you serve? Is there a way to, I mean, do you get a five year followup? How's the kid going and how's the roof hanging out? You know what I mean? I mean, do you? We haven't done that with widows. That's a little bit difficult.

You know, again, over 1,400 widows right now. I mean, so not all of them are still here. But you have your families? We have, oh, there's some families. Oh yeah, some of these donors that we have that are monthly donors, those are families who did Project 5's 10 years ago. No kidding.

And they're giving, oh yeah, they're giving back just a little bit each month, you know, because they were blessed I got a card. I just saw two weeks ago. I Got a card from a gal. She was eight years old or nine, but it was she had some writing says This is dear. Mr. JT. This is what I do. I'm in third grade. I'm doing this I like this and this. My mom and dad did a project eight, nine years ago to get me home. Wow. That's enough. I mean, at that point, well done, good and faithful servant. Yeah. That's as good as sinking a 30 foot 30 any day. That's right. That's awesome.

That's living. The guy from Chicago, Bob, baseball, Meselkowski, he always said, hotel earth, baby. Hotel earth. We're only here for a minute. Hotel earth. That's right. That's great. So JT, after all those numbers of the 452 we've gone over, and 632, 1648, 20 something million, I think it's an unfair question to say the favorite story,

but share with us just for perspective one of your favorite stories that hide the group of the work that was done for the widow and the family that was aided in the adoption. Just give us a perspective of one of your favorite stories of how this really can work when it's perfect and beautiful. A couple things come to mind. One's a really short story, but I remember being at a widow's house when the project was just starting.

It was a local one, so I could stop by in the morning and kind of help kick the group off. But I talked to the widow, kind of went around back the house and there she was in the kitchen and I went in and talked to her and everyone else was out front and I said I just want to say thank you for letting these guys work on your house. She said thank me and she started breaking down, she said thank you, she said I Thought God had forgotten about me Wow And she said you guys have made this thing amazing and when you see here a widow say that to you You just go you you don't you know, it's just you realize the impact of it

So that's the end there. We have several letters like that It's just you realize the impact of it. So that's the end there. We have several letters like that We had some projects happen this last two weeks ago. They were just amazing projects But one of my favorites is a family. I think in California they did a project. They were adopting from Ethiopia From Ethiopia, right? This is back in the early years 2009 10 11 12 when Ethiopia was open Got it. And a lot of people were adopting from Ethiopia. This family did a project and the widow they served became like a grandmother. And I mean, literally when I heard from them, oh yeah.

A grandmother to the kid that they adopted from Ethiopia? No, to the whole family. Oh, you're kidding. The whole family, they had a role. I mean, she became integrated into their family. Well, a few years later, this family was gonna do another project to go back to Ethiopia to adopt again.

And this time they served a different widow and they did a both hands project. But when they flew over to Ethiopia to get their child, the widow from the first project flew with them. That's the great one. Yeah. That is phenomenal. No.

And just the relationships, the things you see, the before and after pictures of these families. And just, I mean, here's the good thing about both hands is that even when a family does a product, and our average family right now is raising $21,000. Wow. That's amazing. I just, a lot of spaghetti dinners.

Yeah. You know, and that's a chunk out of the whole thing. You couple that with a 16 or 17 thousand dollar tax credit people get, all of a sudden you're getting close to 40 thousand you've raised and that's a chunk of what it's going to cost. So, you know, it's good. But sometimes families don't raise that much for one reason or another. Most times because they don't quite do everything the way I suggest they do it, which is fine.

And they only raise three or four or 5,000. But whenever I talk to those families, they're never mad or bitter. It's funny, but the first thing they say when I get on the phone with them, I say, well, how was it? JT, let me tell you about this day. I mean, we figured out pretty quick, this was not about us raising money.

This was all about this widow. Let me tell you what happened that day. And they're gonna tell me this story. And you can feel the joy in their heart. And that's when I never realized when I started this, that there's not a, there's not a downside. No, everybody wins. Everybody wins. I mean, a hundred percent goes down. The widow wins. The families who give their life away wins. And it's just, ah,

just fires me up. That's why I'm saying it's the most irresistible nonprofit in America. I love it. So, what's next? I don't know, you know what I'd love to do? I would love to tackle the foster care problem in the state of Tennessee and in the country. And there's a lot of people working on it. Good men and women are working on it.

And a dream job would, I better not be careful, shouldn't I? I better be careful. But I think a dream job would be to go to churches all over the state and tell the both-hands story and talk about the importance of foster care and kinship adoption and adopting kids out of foster care. Have Because you don't- Have you seen Angel Studios' movie about the church and possum trot? I have seen the guy talk three times at sessions. I haven't seen the movie. That pastor's been a guest on our show.

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, possum trot. And when you talk about the church and foster care, Alex often will tell you that if there are more houses of worship in the United States than there are kids in foster care, and if 85% of the houses of worship in our country had one family to adopt, one kid out of foster care, the foster care system in the United States would be over. I know.

That's the message I want to preach. I want to preach that message because I think there's a little church somewhere in McMinnville, Tennessee or someplace in Chattanooga or someplace in Olive Branch that they're not even aware because that's not the culture. They don't talk about it. But if someone came in and said, hey, folks, even for 15 minutes, here's the situation. Do you realize if one of you in here, not everyone's called, but think of yourself in front of a church. Someone in this church is called to adopt and

there's eight or nine of the families who are saying, I like to but I really don't feel equipped but I'll help. I said, then you're gonna help that one person. It's called the wraparound system and it, we could do it. But, ugh. So that's what's next. You don't have any hands left because you are already using both hands. So maybe you call that both hands and feet. Right. JT, it goes without fail that every one of our guests, somebody wants to know how do they do that? There's somebody listening that wants to be involved, that thinks it's a great idea, that's working in a philanthropic project of their own and wants to scale it and grow it and I just I want our listeners to have the

opportunity to reach out to you personally if they want to. What's your email address? It's real simple. JT as in just terrific at both hands dot org. JT at both hands dot org. That's right. And www dot both hands dot org for the organization to check it out. Or they can go to info at both hands dot org. Got it. But I would just suggest people though, if you do go to our website, bothhands.org, click on the videos, click on the stories, find them. I imagine they're just terrific. They are. They are. And they will like the $21 million ones. I just got to give you a hint. Watch the 20 million dollar, 20, 21 million, because we went to Bristol Motor Speedway and you know there's 145,000 seats. Yeah. And that's about

the same number of people who've made everything at both hands happen in the last 17 years. That's pretty crazy. It was amazing. That's a big group. It's amazing video. It's a big group. JT Olson, thank you for your service, thank you for your story, thank you for both hands and thank you for joining me and telling me this. It's inspirational, it's awesome and I know people when they hear it are gonna be really inspired by it. Well thank you for what you do because I really am grateful when I heard you tell the story and when I tell people about you, I always tell the turkey story.

Are you a turkey? Well, it's the holidays, so it's the right time to read through with it. I know it is. And I'm just so grateful, so grateful for everything you do and sharing your impact with other folks like me and Mr. Possum Drive. I appreciate that. Thanks for being here. It's been a blast and happy holidays to you and yours. Possum Drive. I appreciate that. Thanks for being here. It's been a blast and happy holidays to you and yours.

You too. And thank you for joining us this week. If JT Olsen or other guests have inspired you in general or better yet, by adopting a child, applying to both hands for help with funding and adoption, by donating to both hands, or something else entirely, please, I'm begging you, let me know. I want to hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normalfolks.us and I swear to you, I will respond. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends, share it on social, subscribe to our podcast,

rate it, review it, join the Army at normalfolks.us. Consider becoming a premium member there. Any and all of these things that will help us grow, an Army of Normal Folks. Thanks to our producer, Ironlight Labs, I'm Bill Courtney, I'll see you next week. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch,

right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee and Charlamagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about?

Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. When You're Invisible is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped me. Season 2, share stories about community and being underestimated.

All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks. Let's do something about it. We get paid to serve you, but we're made out of the same things. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag. This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not.

No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.