Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to Life Reviewed a podcast by Hope House Colorado where we invite you into conversation with teenage moms and the people who champion them. These stories of struggle, overcoming and perspective shifts will challenge you to review life as you've known it. One story, one person, one conversation at a time.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Welcome to Life Reviewed a podcast by Hope House Colorado. I'm Lisa Schlar. I'm the director of development here at Hope House and today I'm super excited. I have Jim Fortune, he is one of our vendors and he works for printpoint.
[00:00:40] Speaker C: Printpoint, yes.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: So why don't you tell us a little bit about printpoint, Jim?
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Printpoint is a, is a family owned women owned business in Denver and they've been in business for every bit of, oh, 20 years. And they are associated with other printing operations that are part of that same group and down in Oklahoma, in a variety of locations in the country.
And they do commercial mailing, commercial printing, envelope printing and virtually anything where ink hits paper.
And it's been a real pleasure knowing Hope House over the years. I was lucky enough to.
Lisa and I kind of go back a little bit in the printing industry, but. But we were just neighbors.
Our facility and Hope House at the time under Colorado Litho. And so went over there to introduce myself and started talking about things when it was. You had everybody stuffed into a very small, small operation, but very, very functional.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: That's when we were in the warehouse. We always joke about that.
Some of our girls will say that, oh, we were in that sketchy area of town.
We were in that warehouse. It really wasn't a sketchy area of town, but it was a little bit O for a place for Hope House to be at. But we were very fortunate. We were. I was originally working at the house here and then when we started we purchased the property, the two acres.
We found out we were out of our zoning and so we had to move all of our offices out of the house here. So that's when we got that space over in Westminster, close to the Costco 92nd and Sheridan. And that's when we moved in there. And we're able to kind of practice what we wanted to do in the resource center. So it was a really good opportunity for us to kind of grow and figure out our new programming and stuff like that when we moved over there.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: Sure.
Well, and it really came to my mind right off the bat when, when I started to realize the mission and the ministry that you have, you know, through Hope House. And I can go off on a little story if you want Me to.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:02:57] Speaker C: Okay.
When I was a, when I was a youth between six and 10, I came from a family of 10 and.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: I was one of the youngest and my folks were Irish Catholic in Omaha, Nebraska.
And so my father was a general practice attorney, family practice, and my uncle was a pediatrician, obstetrician. They did a lot of that in the 60s, combination type of things.
And so my father and my uncle would facilitate that, not only the birth of the child, but right through adoption.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:03:39] Speaker C: But the nice thing about it is where it really came home for me is I was.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: The young girls from western Nebraska primarily because they wanted to get out of the community for a period.
[00:03:54] Speaker C: They lived at our house and they would help my mom, you know, raise 10 kids, so to speak, and get some, some, some education from that limited perspective.
But they were, they were great girls and great young women and they, and in some cases they chose to go ahead and keep the child after living with us for a while.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: And, and then, and then they would, after they had their families, they really went, did a360 and came back and said hi to our, my parents and you know, and stayed, stayed friends. That's a great story through that process.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for sharing that. That's a great story. One of ten. So where are you in that lineup?
[00:04:37] Speaker C: Second from the. I, I, we're all still, still present.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:42] Speaker C: But, but my, I have a younger sister who lives here in Colorado.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:46] Speaker C: And, and the rest of my siblings are dispersed throughout the country.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Okay, okay. And what, where and I, what did you say you're from?
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Omaha, Nebraska?
[00:04:55] Speaker B: Omaha. Oh, oh, Omaha. Okay.
[00:04:57] Speaker C: Yeah. And great community.
Probably one of the most, I mean, I'm not promoting anything, but I mean they are probably one of the most Catholic based communities in the country for the reason that it was because of their location, the railroad, the meatpacking and all this kind of stuff. All types of different type, different types of.
[00:05:21] Speaker C: Folks would come through there. The polls during the 30s, the Latins, the, the, and just every, every type of people around the world came through there.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: That's awesome. I spent, I just spent a long weekend in Omaha I think in April. So I love going out there. That's really fun.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: It's changing a lot and it's been a good place to be from.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So what brought you to Colorado?
[00:05:50] Speaker C: The printing business. My brother was a general manager for a company called International Paper Company.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:59] Speaker C: And so he ran a plant there and he said they needed some sales reps in Denver and that was a Hot industry in the 70s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:13] Speaker C: And so there was a lot of business. Everybody was mailing because that was the way to communicate in the most effective way. And today we're learning a little bit more today about podcasts, which is really at the cutting edge, I would probably say.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. So I'm trying to think. Did I meet you when I was working at International Paper?
[00:06:33] Speaker C: When you were at International Paper, I was at. It went under Mailwell.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:06:39] Speaker C: Rock Mount. Those are some of the. The building never changed. We were always in the same building, but under different names and movements of ownership. But it was owned originally by Georgia Pacific and then International Paper.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Right, right. And I worked for GP too. Yeah. @ the.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: End. And.
[00:06:58] Speaker C: You'Re a great salesperson. And so somehow I was. My office was at the front door area, and when you would come in, you were making a big.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Impact.
Well, I don't know about that, but I definitely was the only female in that building at that point in time. That was in sales at that point. I think that was pretty funny. So that's going back a little bit.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: So what I remember about when you were working, when we were both working in Westminster, is that we. We had the alleyway. So we would just cross over the alleyway.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: And. So.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Convenient. So look at, like, what you had come up with. A direct mail piece, and I'd approve it or not approve it or whatever. That's crazy. Yeah, that was. Yeah, that would have been six years ago, at.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Least.
Every bit of it. When did you move into this.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Facility? So we just celebrated our six years in this. In the resource.
[00:07:46] Speaker C: Center.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Okay. So we were at that space, I think, for at least five.
So I probably met you. It's been over 10 years ago, then.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Writing.
International Paper changed their direction at about.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: 95.
[00:08:01] Speaker C: Okay. So that was my time frame. And then from that point, I was at Staples Print Solutions and things like this. But always trying to serve the same customers. Doing the same.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I worked in the food service business for a long time, and So I spent 18 years working for. It was James River, Fort.
[00:08:20] Speaker C: James.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And then Georgia Pacific at the end. And then I went to work. Then we went to work in the box.
[00:08:26] Speaker C: Business.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Right. And that was with International Paper and.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: Warehouser.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. That's.
[00:08:36] Speaker C: Crazy. Packaging is still.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: Strong. It's still very.
[00:08:39] Speaker C: Strong. It's stronger than ever. Probably because everybody's getting.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: Something. That's.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: Right. FedEx every day.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Or. That's.
[00:08:44] Speaker C: Right.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: UPS. One of my assignments, I think when I first got in the box business was they sent me to Walmart to research who was manufacturing in the United States, who was manufacturing in the Rocky Mountain region, and taking a look at that.
So that was kind of how I would like look for new customers and new leads and stuff like that. It's.
[00:09:05] Speaker C: Crazy.
It's been very, very good to me. I appreciate it. And I. And the biggest thing is the biggest, my biggest joy and really of all the customers that I've had of different natures, of Nordstro, the Denver Rio Grande and Western Railroad, Union Pacific. But Hope House has been the most fundamentally sound touch point, really. I mean, those are other corporations, but this is a little bit more personal.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Right? Well, I have learned a ton about direct mail from you over the years and everything. And we do three direct mail pieces. We usually do a spring appeal, a summer appeal and an end of the year appeal.
And you've been really good about your coaching around, you know, buying mailing lists, the length of the letter, what to, what to put on your envelopes and what to put on your return mailers and stuff like that. So I appreciate your coaching on all of that for.
[00:10:02] Speaker C: Us. Thank.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: You. And I think what's really the most powerful of all those pieces is the storytelling, right? Being able to get your story out there and stuff. So what would you tell somebody that they were working in this industry for the first time? What would you say about a direct mail.
[00:10:16] Speaker C: Piece?
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Try to make it personalized.
There's more, those kind of capabilities. Just like everything, all of the different modes of communication today, it's all personalized. And digital is probably a little bit easier to personalize things than necessarily printing. But printing has gotten that to where you can.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: Send Lisa a specific invitation and discuss how.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: Their giving patterns was so much last year. Would they be willing to go forward next year with a 5% increase of their giving.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: And those types of things to push the process along, which is ultimately to.
To support the.
The.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Mailer. So when I first started here at Hope House, there was a group of ladies that would come in from my church and we would print the letter. See here. And then they would come out. We would have them sit around the table upstairs and they would fold the letters and then insert them. Insert them. And then we'd have them all ready to go and they would mail out the letters and stuff like that. And there was probably, geez, I'm thinking like five to eight ladies that would come over from church and they would stuff them all and everything like that. Then finally I was like, okay, this is, this is getting too big for that group. And what's the secret behind doing direct mailing? And I think that's we first started like trying to figure out like, well, what do we need to do? What's the information that we need to.
[00:11:52] Speaker C: Collect? I think one of the things is now is, you know, is to, is to marry all these different connections up all the, you know, like they say, say it, say it again and then say it again forward, you know, so that your recipients are hearing that same message at that particular segment of the year.
So even if you're following up with a personal call to them, you can tie it to the name of this particular effort at that particular time. And then so that when the follow up mailing comes, they'll go, oh, I remember this, this touches a point.
Giving people a business reply envelope so that they don't have to pay the postage. Most people, that isn't a big deal. But anytime you offer somebody something, they, they have a tendency to bind to it a little.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: Bit. Right, right. I think that personalization goes a long way. Is like make sure if you're sending it to a married couple that you're naming Jeff and Lisa. I mean, you're sure you're saying that. I think that's super important to be that personal about it. And I do like that idea of you saying, hey, you gave, you know, $100 last year, would you consider 5% more this.
[00:13:06] Speaker C: Year?
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Sure. And maybe you're explaining why you, why you need that 5%, how many moms you're serving today versus last year and that sort of.
[00:13:14] Speaker C: Thing. And technically it's very easy now.
It's just part of the spreadsheet.
[00:13:21] Speaker C: Anybody who's listening might be familiar.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: With. Right, right. I'm always. Well, I'll back up a little bit. Like here at Hope House, we believe in transformational giving versus transactional giving. So we've all got those letters in the mail where.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: I'm not going to say anybody's organization out loud, but like basically it's just a letter. It's typewritten. Maybe there's probably, maybe not even a picture associated with it or bold print and maybe you feel like somehow associated with that cause or whatever. So you send a gift back in and everything and you rarely hear from that organization. Like you're not going to get a phone call, you're not going to get a thank you note or anything like that. And here at a Hope House, we try to make Those phone calls. And we try to get. We send a personalized handwritten thank you note, which nobody does that.
[00:14:09] Speaker C: Anymore. And that's truly.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Important. Yeah, I.
[00:14:12] Speaker C: Agree. I think some people kind of, you know, put it off and don't think that's important. But the personal touch is what especially I think Hope House is all.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: About. Yeah. We're trying to figure out, like, well, why did you send that gift to us? Like, what is it about a Hope House that makes you feel connected to our cause? Like, do you have a story kind of like yours where you feel like you kind of grew up with something, 17 moms. And maybe they're in your family or you feel. You feel connected somehow? So we want to know that about our donors and stuff like that. In fact, we didn't even call them donors. We call them champions. They're champions for our cause and everything. And I feel like that's one of the things that just attracted me to Hope House from the very beginning when I was on the board of directors and when I came off the board and joined staff, like that transformational giving, getting to know your donors. Kind of like the way I knew my customers when I was back in sales. Like, they weren't just people. They weren't just names on a piece of paper. They were. I felt connected to them. I knew who they. Who they were, where they lived in town, like, what. What their interests were and that sort of thing. So I feel like that's important.
[00:15:17] Speaker C: Along with that in sales. You know, you were able to.
We. In the day, so to.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Speak.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: Yeah. You were able to go right into a building and say, may I speak with Suzette? And, oh, sure. Suzette's just right over there. But yeah, you know, for security reasons and a variety of other reasons, that touch point isn't. Isn't as. Isn't as useful or can't be. Can't be achieved as.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: Much. Yeah, yeah, I've heard it's a lot different than it is than it was when I was back doing what I was doing in the day, where I'd walk into the front desk, I would say hello to whoever and I'd say, hey, I need to speak to so and so. And they're like, just go out onto the shop or walk back into the plant or whatever, and I'd put on my safety helmet, the goggles and stuff like that, and I'd walk right back out into the plant and everything and talk to the guys on the floor and stuff and find out what was going on or what was not going right or.
[00:16:10] Speaker C: Whatever.
Well, and of course, today with AI and how that would affect you is the ability to do very technically written letters that are very personal.
And that's kind of amazing. You know, it really is.
And it allows you to really increase your touch points than what you might have had before because it was such a direct mail project where it can be a little bit at a different.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Level.
Right?
[00:16:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:49] Speaker C: But it's also very confusing for me right.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Now.
Well, we're old school. Like, we're used to, like, having that personal relationship. And you're right, that has changed a little bit where you can always have that kind of personal relationship and everything. So I remember one year we were sending out our end of the year statements, basically saying, hey, you send, you know, $500 in. Here's your statement for the year and what you can use for your tax purposes and stuff like that. So there was several years in a row where Lisa and I would like write little notes on those letters and everything like that. And all because I sent a letter off to somebody and they said, oh, I got your letter. But, like, you didn't even put hi, Jim or whatever on it. I was like, oh, brother, I'm getting called out because I'm not personalizing the statements.
[00:17:36] Speaker C: Now. Right.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: Right. So, yeah, we try to do that.
[00:17:39] Speaker C: Once. Well, that's a really good way to definitely see people, is those statements.
Find a way to make that a personal touch.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: Point.
[00:17:47] Speaker C: Right. There's even ways what we'll do with, in some cases is it's an a. It's a mechanical process to put a sticky note onto the.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Letter. Oh.
[00:17:57] Speaker C: Yeah. So the statement. You get the statement, you look at it and. And you actually have a real yellow sticky note on there saying, hey, again, we wanted to thank you very. And. And from our standpoint, it's. It's printing an 8 and a half or 8 and a half by 14 sheet. And then another process, just stick it. And then that's really just pre printed stock, not handwritten.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Stuff. Right, right, right. Yeah. I think I was getting my chops busted because it wasn't a personalized note on the statement.
But anyway. Yeah, that's the old days.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: Too. Yeah.
[00:18:34] Speaker C: But some things never.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Change. Some things never change. Like, I still think people want to be in relationship. And when I think about, like, the success of our moms, I think they all feel connected to somebody here where they're really in a relationship with somebody.
And I see that play out long after, whether it's an employee that's moved on or whether that's a girl that's graduated and moved on, like they walk back through that door and it's just like no time has passed. We have a Satan here, like once a hope ass girl, always a hopeless.
[00:19:02] Speaker C: Girl. Oh, I think that's very.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: True. We say that whether they're a mom or whether a former staff and stuff like that. So I love.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: That. Very. Absolutely. And just a 360 is, as I was in my example of my personal family.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: And really, to put it into numerical standpoint, much different than you, of course. But I mean, there was probably six to eight girls that went through this process when I was a kid. And so that was, you know, a year apiece. And they had a way of staying in.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Touch.
So did your folks do that because they just felt connected to those.
[00:19:42] Speaker C: Moms?
Yeah, for one, it was a. Certainly a business process. You know, there was a reason for my father wanting to do that, but us. But usually it was the moms or the teen mom.
Their parents would drive that process and say, you know, and of course, the teen mom would decide whether she wanted to be a mother at that time or did she want to have the dude allow the child to be.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: Adopted. Right.
[00:20:11] Speaker C: Right. And.
And there's just. To me that's just right up there at the top is adoption versus some of the other options that we. That are. That society has to.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Me. Right.
So my dad was one of 12. And I've often wondered what it was like to like, grow up in a farmhouse full of 12 kids. I don't know that they were all there all at once, but there was probably definitely nine of them or so living there at a time and everything. And he used to tell me these crazy stories, like one about the dinner table. He would say that, you know, if you didn't have long arms, you sat next to somebody that had long arms, because there wasn't going to be seconds going around and stuff like.
[00:20:51] Speaker C: That.
It was kind of funny.
A friend of mine invites me over to their house for dinner. Just quick story. And so about eight or nine kids are all sitting there, but everybody's saying a prayer. They got their hands crossed, but they're all kind of looking at each other. Okay, who's going to take the first jump?
As soon.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: As. As soon as the prayer is over, boom, boom. Everything's on the.
[00:21:14] Speaker C: Table. You know, that's. That's something that really sticks with you in life.
Those.
And I mean, having those bonds.
[00:21:25] Speaker C: You know, and those connections with your family and all of my. All of my siblings are all successful professional people and retired now, certainly. But.
[00:21:40] Speaker C: And I think, at least in my part of town, so to speak.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: The church definitely drove that.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Process.
Yeah. I've recently read some articles about, like, kids growing up in school and not having enough food to.
[00:21:55] Speaker C: Eat.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: Right. And I often look back and think about was I, like, not seeing that when I was growing up or what was going on with that. And here, you know, we always make sure we've got plenty of food in the dining hall. And if a mom comes hungry, like, you can't expect her to be studying or attend the class or whatever. So there's always food here at Hope House. And even for their little ones. I can remember, like, Lisa saying, a long time ago, there was one little kid that they thought that we had made pizza every day. Like, every time he came to Hope House, there was always.
[00:22:27] Speaker C: Pizza.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think about that today, like, there's always food. There's always. Well, the girls love Chick Fil A, so we always have Chick Fil A probably once a week here and some of the other.
[00:22:38] Speaker C: Restaurants.
And clearly that's their family, you.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Know, I mean, that's.
[00:22:42] Speaker C: Right. As time goes on, they probably make connections that they'll be with for their. For their life in some way or.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Another. That's right. And we always make sure, like, there's diapers and wipes in the boutique.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: And.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: Right. We always make sure there's clothing, there's.
[00:22:56] Speaker C: Shoes. That's one of the big give items, isn't.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: It? Yeah. Yeah, we always need more diapers and wipes.
[00:23:00] Speaker C: And.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Right. I think I got a notified yesterday that we're out of wipes. It's like, oh, my gosh. Like, we need wipes in the. In the boutique and we need them downstairs, so we need them in all the bathrooms. And yeah, we go through a lot of diapers and wipes here at Hope House and stuff like that. So car seats, when we got like a wall of car seats, so we don't want anybody driving around without a car seat in their car and stuff like.
[00:23:23] Speaker C: That.
How long will they. How long will a teen mom be expected to stay in this environment before they move on? Is it strictly like a high school term from freshman year to senior.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: Year? Yeah, just sort of. Just depends. Like, girls can enter the program as young as 15.
The average age is probably more like 17, 18, 19, and then they age out at 25. So we just had a graduation last week where the girls graduate from Hope House. Like, the programming at Hope House. So they've attended all the classes that they have to attend and everything. And I think we had 12 girls that graduated, so that was pretty amazing. And then we obviously we do a big high school graduation. So when a girl finishes her high school degree, then we have a graduation for that. So we have like two different graduations that we offer throughout the.
[00:24:15] Speaker C: Year.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: Wonderful. Yeah, yeah. And it's.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Your new.
[00:24:20] Speaker C: Building. Is that what is that associated with, I mean, is what goes on in there? I mean, I've taken a tour of.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: It. Well, the new building that we opened, it'll be a year ago, A year, I think next week.
So that's an early learning center. So we're serving kids as young, we're serving infants. Right. And then they age out around 10 because we're offering summer camp. Those school age children, we can do the summer camp for those school age children. So pre K to.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: Infant. And this facility is a living facility, is it.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Not? Yeah. This the place where we're at now is the, our regular house that we started and this is how we all got started. So again, girls can enter this program. They can be under 18, but they need. Their parent would have to sign off that they're putting them into OPA.
[00:25:07] Speaker C: House.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: Okay. And stuff like that. But again they would age out at 25. But usually the girls that come here into this house, they're between 17 and 22 or so or something like that.
Yeah. And then, you know, they stay here. It could be any length of time. So everybody's on an individual program depending on where you're at with your education, education, how old you are. So the girls that are coming here are, they're like, we're looking at the applications and we're looking to, for girls that are really committed to moving forward and moving forward quickly and everything because you're getting pretty intensive care and support here if you're living here in the house.
So that makes a big.
[00:25:46] Speaker C: Difference.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: Right.
Well, we're going to take a quick break and then we'll be right back with.
[00:25:51] Speaker D: Jim.
Hi everyone, it's Celeste, development coordinator at Hope House Colorado. We have an awesome group of 233 champions called our Bedrock Builders who donate monthly gifts and we would love for you to join. This group is super special to our moms because it provides them stable support through an income stream that they know they can always count on. If you'd like to become a monthly donor, please visit hopehousecolorado.org donate now and make your recurring donation today. Thank you so much. For empowering our teen.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Moms.
Welcome back to Life Reviewed. I'm here with Jim Fortune. And Jim, I'm so glad that you were able to join us today and everything. And.
[00:26:30] Speaker C: You'Re. Thank.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: You. I definitely view you as the expert and the go to person when we talk about our direct mail here at Hope House. So I appreciate all your support over the years and everything. One of the things that you taught me about was that you guys can really market to different audiences. And when we do our direct appeal letters, like, you're able to say we want to look at certain zip codes, like around Hope I was or whatever. You've been able to give me coaching around.
[00:26:55] Speaker C: That. Well, in the direct mail industry.
[00:27:00] Speaker C: There'S a variety of. We outsource that type of information.
[00:27:05] Speaker C: From people who take that data and then bundle it together.
And it's just like any kind of a menu you may ask for.
I would like to. I would like the mailing to go out to Everybody who makes $50,000 or more or lives in a $200,000 house or has five kids or daughters. I mean, it can be, you know, split out a variety of different ways to meet your requirements from that standpoint. And it's not a big cost driver.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Either. Yeah, I know. We've liked, expanded our reach sometimes on direct mail pieces and stuff like that. And we're always looking like there are certain of our champions that always send in cash or send in a check when we do our direct mail pieces, which is really interesting to me. But the most important part for me when we're doing that direct mail behesis is even if somebody doesn't send in a check, I hope they read the letter or the story about that mom and see what's going on here at a Hope House. I love that.
[00:28:09] Speaker C: Part.
It can be so segmented. I mean, sending you a letter saying, you know, Lisa, how's your daughter Susie? You know, I mean, again, I'm just throwing that out, but, you know, it can be personalized outside of the sporti. The particular.
[00:28:28] Speaker C: Recipient of that piece to even family members, if you know who they are, of course. Yeah, that's, that's the whole thing. You don't want to make mistakes in those.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Areas.
Yeah, I don't want to get a note from somebody saying, hi, I don't have a daughter named Susie, of course, or that was my first husband.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: Lisa.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: That's. I'm.
[00:28:46] Speaker C: Unhusmated. It could be.
Be.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: Careful. Okay.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: Oh, brother.
So, Jim, how do you. How is it. I know you told One story about how you feel connected to Hope House. Can you think of some other reasons why you feel connected to Hope.
[00:29:00] Speaker C: House?
[00:29:02] Speaker C: You know, I find myself telling this story, the one that I told you.
Really, it never really left my mind until I connected with Hope House.
And then after that connection, I find it rewarding if the conversation is driving that way to some of my customers that are.
I don't think they would mind. Marilyn Hickey Ministries.
They're one of my customers, are focused on the family.
And so consequently, since they drive on the family connection, I try to relate to them based on other people that I have done business with.
[00:29:44] Speaker C: To no, no deep degree other than my. My personal story to them and how I connected to that. Yeah, but it's been.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: It's been very successful. It's a. It's definitely, like I say, one of the, One of the top connections that I have as far as just, you know, making a personal connection to a customer and understanding what they're doing more than.
[00:30:11] Speaker C: The sale of clothing or.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: Something. Right.
[00:30:14] Speaker C: Right. That they're doing, which is very good. It's just.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Different.
I. I think I'm thinking about one, how I feel connected to Hope. I also obviously connected a long time ago, but from a. From a daily perspective, like today, like walking through the dining hall and talking to a couple of our moms and there was a mom or a little kid that was knocking on my door today.
And just seeing all these kids grow up, like I think about some of those first moms I've met, like, those kids are going off to college. It's like, that's crazy. How can this be? Or they're going to high school, they're going to homecoming or whatever. And seeing that through my Facebook.
[00:30:52] Speaker C: Feed. Or there's the success story right.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: There. Yeah, there's the success stories. And just seeing everybody grow up and everything, like, just seeing their faces change and that sort of thing, it's just amazing to me, like, how much.
[00:31:06] Speaker C: Time has gone by here and their relation and the kids. Relationships with their parents and other people and their significant others will improve from their connection with.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: Opals.
I just love how. And then our moms know each other. Our moms are connected. There's a group that they maybe all lived in the house together or they're all doing the 5k together or whatever. Like they're feeling. They're building that. Their own community and their support system around them. Like they're going through these classes together.
I just love that. I love seeing that bond that they're creating and everything. And obviously they're their little ones are creating that same bond and everything. So I, I think that's.
[00:31:49] Speaker C: Awesome. So I'm just a curiosity point is Hope House, do they touch base with the Aurora or, excuse me, Arvada public school system though, or do they try to. They probably don't do their own thing, do.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: They? Well, we definitely have like teachers or counselors that will reach out to us from the different school school.
They'll bring moms or a future mom in for a tour, that sort of thing. So we definitely have those kind of connections that we are trying to nurture and everything. And that's going really well. One of the things that we I heard you talking into front desk when you came in today was you're hearing a little bit about our affiliate network that we're building out. We've got Hope House Northern Colorado up in Greeley and we have a Hope House in Canyon City.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: We're talking to a group in Chicago about what that would look like to have Hope House in Chicago.
We're also talking to a group in North Carolina today and we're also looking at Oklahoma City, which is.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: Crazy. Do you reach out to their account.
[00:32:57] Speaker C: Their contact.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Base? We haven't done that yet. But that might be something for us to explore when we get ready to go to some of these other.
[00:33:05] Speaker C: Cities and everything or offer those locations that service or.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: Connection. Yeah, we could. We're going to start. Well, we'll start by talking to what we're talking. We're looking for a galvanizing champion, so somebody who wants to champion that gauze coming into that city. And then we're looking for an affiliate developer so somebody who wants to do some of the, the lake work around, you know, what other nonprofits are in that city, what other connections? What are the resources are in that city? Because obviously you need both. You need someone who's going to be able to financially support the mission of getting Hope House up and going in that area. And then also you need someone who's going to be almost like the program staff, like figuring out like, well, who's going to be doing car repairs.
Is there a junior college in the area who's offering these other resources, housing and stuff like that for those moms and everything. So as we continue to grow, we're going to be looking for those type of, of resources for in those.
[00:34:04] Speaker C: Communities.
[00:34:07] Speaker C: Is this a, do you think that there's, I don't mean to use the.
But is this a growing situation not only just because of the population growing, but people's responsibility to themselves to do the. Do the right.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Thing. I think.
I think we all want to do the right thing. Right? Like, we're all. No matter what community you're part of, like, you're wanting to do the right thing.
[00:34:31] Speaker C: Thing. I mean, the kids, are they. Are they learning these. Maybe some of the things you may not want to do because it could lead right into it, into a problematic.
[00:34:41] Speaker B: Situation. I think from what I've, like, experienced up to now is that every city or every community is a little bit.
[00:34:48] Speaker C: Different.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Okay. And, you know, it's kind of interesting to me, like, one of the cities we're talking to, they were saying that they have all these resources, but they're not really geared towards teen moms. So how is it that you can take some of these resources and build. Build it into a Hope House? I think that would make a lot of.
[00:35:07] Speaker C: Sense.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Right.
And I think everybody wants to do the right thing. Right. Like.
[00:35:13] Speaker B: The environment we're in now, like, everybody's yelling at each other on social.
[00:35:17] Speaker C: Media.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Everybody has their own opinions and stuff like that. And I just keep thinking, like, well, what would happen if we all just kind of came together to solve some of these issues and stuff like.
[00:35:26] Speaker C: That? My wife, she's from.
From Rockford, Illin.
And it seems like a trend that people have children, but they don't have any marriages, and they. But they don't necessarily disconnect from one another. At least in her family situation, they're connected, but they're not married.
So.
[00:35:45] Speaker B: It'S. That's.
[00:35:46] Speaker C: Interesting. Well, I mean, it's. I was just wondering, is that. Is that some kind of a. I mean, it's. It's important. You know, marriage is important to. For the security of the mother and the child.
But for some reason, at least in the handful that I'm familiar with, that's not the.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: Case.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: I'm not gonna. I don't know what to say about that, but.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: I think it's important to have that community with.
Within your families and stuff like that. I also think there's something very powerful when a man and woman come together and have that bond. And I think there's nothing better than to show your children what good looks like. I think that's important to do that.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: I hope that's what my kids are thinking when they see.
[00:36:35] Speaker C: Me.
And that's what Hope House really brings, is the need for.
[00:36:40] Speaker B: That. That's right.
We always talk about red flags, and I had recently had somebody talk about green flags to Me. And it's just like, oh, green flag. That means you should continue on down this path because it's all looking good. So I like the idea of like talking more about green.
[00:36:57] Speaker C: Flags.
And what does that consist of.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Though? Well, we often talk about red flags here. Like, well, if you know that significant other is keeping you from your family, like, if they're. Then that's a red flag. Like, why is he doing that? Or that shouldn't be happening to you, you know, that sort of thing. So I think in the case where this particular person was talking to me about green flags, like, basically she, she was getting all the right answers and stuff like that to keep moving forward. Like, it's okay to keep moving forward with this relationship because you're getting all these green flags. He's saying all the right things to you.
There's no, there's no off putting words. Or he's holding the door. Maybe he's holding the door open for you, or maybe he's asking you the right questions or how do you feel today? You know, that sort of thing. So I thought that was really.
[00:37:49] Speaker C: Important.
Do a lot of the teen moms come from that same.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Environment?
I think we talk often about at Hope House how it's at generational poverty and it's that mindset of, my mom was a teen mom, my grandmother was a teen mom, that sort of thing. Maybe abuse runs in your family.
Maybe it's name calling and shouting.
It's just all those things that are probably not part of healthy relationship. And if you grew up like that, that's what you. That's how you think it is. Right, Right. So you don't know any. You don't know any different.
But then all of a sudden, when you see good models for you, then that's.
Then you realize that it can be better.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: Right? Yeah. It's.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Working. It's working. That's right. That's right. Well, Jim, I just want to say thank you for coming along and you didn't know what you were getting into today, but I appreciate you taking the time to come be with me on the podcast today, and I appreciate you sharing the stories and everything that you.
[00:38:46] Speaker C: Do. You get a couple salespeople together, we can talk. Well, you have to tell us to stop.
[00:38:50] Speaker B: Talking.
Exactly, exactly. I should have known what we were getting into today. So thank you very much. I really, really appreciate your support over the years at Hope House and teaching me about the direct mail business and how to fundraise in that asset aspect of it and everything. And I appreciate that. Thank.
[00:39:09] Speaker C: You. Looking forward to.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: More. Thank.
[00:39:11] Speaker C: You. Thank.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: You.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Oh, precious. So the things I didn't know. The things I didn't know about you.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: About you.
