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.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Oh, I thought I knew the kind of life that I would need.
[00:00:29] Speaker C: Thank you for joining us today on Hope House's Life reviewed podcast. I'm Lisa Schlarbaum. I'm the director of development here at Hope House today. I'm so excited to have one of our longtime supporters joining us, Wayne Anderson from Westminster, Colorado. You know, Wayne, I was driving in this morning, and I was thinking about growing up and, like, how that our backgrounds tie into Hope House. Like, I feel like mine started a long time ago.
I had the unique pleasure of talking to one of our other donors who does genealogy work, and I was mentioning to him my grandmother's maiden name. And he goes, oh, I wonder. I wonder if we're related. I'm like, oh, no, there couldn't be any possibility. Right? So anyway, he gets back to me, and we're 11th cousins.
[00:01:18] Speaker D: Oh, my gosh.
[00:01:19] Speaker C: So it was pretty funny that he mentioned that to me. And he also pointed out to me that my great grandmother was a teen mom that I did not know. So I went back and I talked to my mom about that, and she goes, I don't think I knew that either. So there are some teen moms in my family, teen parents in my family. And I just started thinking about that. Like, it's so interesting how we all grow up and everything. So I thought if you would give us a little bit of background about yourself, where you're from and how you grew up and everything, that'd be great to start out with.
[00:01:51] Speaker E: Well, I'm originally, excuse me. I'm originally from New York, and.
And I don't have a problem saying the ghettos of New York. And it was kind of an interesting story. My oldest sister was a teen mom, and the things that I saw happen with her and the things that, the way people treated her, I would always, although I was much younger than her, I always tried to defend her. Okay.
And then my nephew and I became very, very close. But that's kind of sort of the beginning of my story. But later, almost as a result of some of the ways that now we were being treated, both my oldest sister and myself, I ended up leaving New York, and I did that by joining the Navy.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: So how old when you left New York, then?
[00:02:56] Speaker E: 17.
[00:02:57] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:02:58] Speaker E: Yes. I joined the navy when I was 17. Wow.
And that was during the Vietnam War and all of that kind of stuff. So it was a little bit of arm wrestling to get me into the military, but I went into military, spent most of my time in the Mediterranean.
And although the Vietnam, I wasn't in the Vietnam War. I was a part of the Mideast war, 1967. I used to say I was in the first Mideast war, but then I realized that was about 2000 years ago, so.
[00:03:31] Speaker C: So don't say that.
[00:03:32] Speaker D: So I don't say that. So now I say the 67 war. But nobody cared about us because of the Vietnam War at the time.
[00:03:41] Speaker E: And I have to say that, that although as a child, we weren't encouraged to accept God, but we also weren't discouraged.
It was kind of neutral. So I could say that my introduction to God was actually in the navy.
[00:04:02] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:04:03] Speaker E: And it was kind of, to me, interesting the way it came about. I was a junior person and I was on watch one night and on watch. Understand, this isn't a cruise ship. Most of the lights are out on the ship, and there's no street lights out in the middle of the ocean. Okay? So when you're sitting out on a watch, it's like really dark. But what's nice is that you can see all the stars in the sky. And I was just starting to get into astronomy. And so I started looking up and I'm looking at the stars, and I'm understanding how this solar system works and how the universe works in terms of the galaxies, et cetera.
And then I had this thought that, wow. When you look the other way, atoms work the same way.
[00:04:55] Speaker F: Interesting.
[00:04:57] Speaker E: You got this hot thing in the middle with things that go around it.
We call that a nucleus and other things, electrons.
We have a hot thing at the big side. We call that a sun. What? Things that go around it, we call those planets.
That can't be an accident.
[00:05:19] Speaker F: That's fascinating.
[00:05:21] Speaker E: That can't be an accident. And all of a sudden, that's when I started studying. Now, people say that, well, people with scientific backgrounds and all of that stuff are generally not religious. I totally, totally disagree. First, my expertise was information technology.
I got out of the navy a little bit early, too, and so I got a chance to work with a lot of technicians and engineers, and guess what? They had come to a similar conclusion as I did.
[00:05:54] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:05:55] Speaker E: When they actually started understanding how everything worked, it was. Wait a second.
This isn't an accident, okay? This didn't chaotically somehow come together.
And so that's kind of where my journey began.
[00:06:14] Speaker C: Okay, that's funny that you bring that up, because just this morning on my walk with my husband, we were looking at the moon, and there was this big star next to him. He pulled out the app that you had recommended to me. I can't remember the name of it, but.
[00:06:27] Speaker E: PC universe.
[00:06:28] Speaker C: Yeah. We use that all the time to identify different things that we're seeing on our walk. The stars might still be out or whatever.
[00:06:34] Speaker E: Sure, sure.
[00:06:36] Speaker C: Of course. This morning we got sidetracked by a coyote crossing the street in front of us. It was still kind of dark, and I was like, oh, my gosh.
Okay. Anyway, I love that you shared that with us this morning. So how many years were you in the Navy?
[00:06:51] Speaker E: I was in the Navy four. Well, three and a half.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: Three and a half.
[00:06:54] Speaker E: Okay. I actually got out a few months early to go to go to school.
[00:06:58] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:06:58] Speaker E: Okay. I got accepted into college while I was in the Navy.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:07:05] Speaker D: A little bit of a side story there.
[00:07:08] Speaker E: I had applied for colleges, and I was applied for colleges for information, for data processing.
[00:07:14] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:07:14] Speaker E: Unfortunately, at that time, data processing was so new. I know I'm giving myself away in terms of my age, but data processing was so new, you couldn't get it in a four year college. They only had it in two year colleges. And so I had applied to NY from New York, so NYU, Baruch, a number of those colleges, and I hadn't heard anything. I didn't hear anything. So it was getting close to the end of my enlistment, and they talked me into reenlisting. So I filled out all the reenlistment papers, and wouldn't you know it, immediately after I got the papers filled out, I got a letter from NYU saying, we'll accept you, but what we would like you to do is go to Manhattan Community college first, and then we'll take you into what they call the B's MBA program. And I'm like, wow, okay. Uh oh. I already followed my re enlistment papers.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Oh, jeez.
[00:08:13] Speaker D: So what are the toughest? And God's hand isn't everything?
[00:08:19] Speaker E: One of the toughest things I ever had to do in my life was stop a reenlistment.
[00:08:24] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:08:25] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
[00:08:25] Speaker D: Once they get you, they got you.
But fortunately, not only was I able.
[00:08:31] Speaker E: To stop the reenlistment, but the ship was on its way back to the Mediterranean. And through some.
My yeoman, he was amazing. Through some magic, they were able to get me off the ship, because if I went back to the Mediterranean, I would have missed my school day to start.
[00:08:52] Speaker C: Oh, geez. Okay.
[00:08:54] Speaker E: But all of that, somehow, all the.
[00:08:56] Speaker D: Work which I have, I still don't know how it happened, but it all worked out.
[00:09:03] Speaker E: So that was my military. I went to school, got my associate's degree, and was in NYU when you might have heard this name before, Ross Perot.
I got a call from him and wanted me to come work for him. And I'm like, wow, this is great. At the time, I worked for at and T and New York telephone and was going to school at the same time, and he called me up and he says, we really need you, blah, blah, blah. Okay. So finally I accepted that, but he didn't tell me it was in Texas.
[00:09:43] Speaker C: Okay, you thought it was gonna be in New York?
[00:09:46] Speaker D: I thought it was gonna be in New York. It's actually in Texas. So the longer, the short of it is, it took me a number of years to, I got three degrees now, but it took me a number of years to finish up my schooling the way I wanted it to. And as a result, I lived all over the country.
[00:10:07] Speaker E: I think I've owned something like 13 houses in my career, in my life. It was crazy. But a couple of unique things I think that was that I can talk about. One you're probably gonna relate to, and the other one, you. Oh, I don't know, you might relate to both. So if you've ever flown United Airlines, you see that little star and it's the Star alliance.
[00:10:35] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:10:36] Speaker E: Okay. I have the dubious honor of being the guy who led the international technology team that created the Starbucks.
[00:10:44] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:10:44] Speaker E: Okay.
Yeah. With that and about $7, I can get a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
[00:10:53] Speaker D: But it's always been in there.
[00:10:55] Speaker E: The second thing that you might relate to, when Dia was first opening up, okay. Remember it was. Had the big problem with the baggage system.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: Yes, yes.
[00:11:04] Speaker E: I have the other dubious honor of being the guy who led the team that fixed the baggage system and got the airport open.
[00:11:15] Speaker C: So that would have been like 90.
[00:11:17] Speaker E: Yeah. It was in the mid nineties.
I was working for United Airlines. What people don't know is united was the largest carrier here. And what people don't know is that even though the airport wasn't open, the companies were paying landing fees.
[00:11:35] Speaker F: Oh, wow.
[00:11:36] Speaker E: Okay. And so united finally said, you know, forget it. You know, we're going to take over the project. We're going to figure out what's going on, etcetera. Of course, I was their chief technology officer at the time, and so I didn't. I mean, I didn't know any. I was out in California doing stuff, and my boss, who was in Chicago, calls me up. He says, I need you to meet me at DIA. Well, I had a number of people working here, so I thought it was, you know, some chaos. Excuse me, kiosks we were putting up or something. I didn't know. So anyway. And now, by the way, at that time, Pena Boulevard was 9 miles of nothing.
[00:12:13] Speaker F: Right, right.
[00:12:14] Speaker C: I remember that.
[00:12:15] Speaker E: Actually, it was less than nothing.
[00:12:16] Speaker D: There was just nothing.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: There was nothing out there.
[00:12:19] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:12:19] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:12:20] Speaker E: So we take this trip out to the airport, and I meet my. Well, I met my boss at.
What was the other airport? Gosh, I forgot. Just that quick. But anyway, we methadore at the airport.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: At the old airport.
[00:12:33] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. And drove out there. And we get up to right outside the station manager's office, and he says, oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you, when we go in there, I'm gonna tell him that you're gonna figure out what's wrong with the baggage system.
He was a really big guy, and I looked up at him and I said, andy, I thought you liked me.
[00:12:56] Speaker F: Oh, my God.
[00:12:56] Speaker D: Why don't you just fire me? Why? Are you gonna put me through this?
[00:13:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:01] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:13:01] Speaker D: But the long and the short of it is we did figure out what was going on.
[00:13:04] Speaker E: I got more to that story, but I won't waste this time with it.
[00:13:08] Speaker D: But in any case, figured out what.
[00:13:10] Speaker E: Was wrong with it. Then they talked me into actually leading the team to fix it.
And actually, I did both the Star alliance and a baggage system at the same time.
[00:13:22] Speaker F: Oh, jeez.
[00:13:23] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. So I wasn't home a lot, and I was, like, somewhere on the planet.
[00:13:29] Speaker C: So did you move to Denver from Texas, then? No, no, no.
[00:13:34] Speaker E: I would actually just come in usually two or three days a week. Okay. I had a pretty big team. I had a team of 250 engineers that were working on things all over the place. I had a project manager, who, by the way, still lives out in Aurora.
[00:13:52] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:13:52] Speaker E: And, yeah. So I would only come in a couple of days a week. So the first half of the week, I was someplace on the planet, and the second half of the week, I was usually here.
[00:14:04] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:14:05] Speaker E: Then I'd go home. I lived in California. Then I'd go home for a day or two and back out.
[00:14:11] Speaker F: Oh, my gosh.
[00:14:12] Speaker E: Yeah. So anyway, but between the corporate, the companies I work for, and I was blessed to be in the senior management teams of most of the companies that I work for. So I helped shape the company develop people. And matter of fact, that second piece of development people is how I got to do what I'm doing today.
I left the corporate world at this point about 20 years ago. I hate saying that, but about 20.
[00:14:43] Speaker D: Years ago, because I just wasn't fun anymore.
[00:14:47] Speaker E: Okay. And so I left the company started, and at that time, I wanted to write a book to help. I was a chief information officer most of my career, and so I wanted to write a book to help chief information officers. Okay. Because the lifespan of one was about 18 months when it comes to their job. Yeah.
It was very tough to be successful. Well, I had always been successful, and I tried to study well. Why? Okay. So I figured it out, and I wrote my first book, which was called Unwrapping the CIO, and started a company to help CIO's to be successful. Well, in the fall of 2008, I got a call from a CEO who wanted me to a chief executive officer who wanted me to help his chief information officer. That was fine. That was not unusual, but where he was calling from was unusual. So I asked him, how did you get to know me? I mean, how did you even know I was on the planet? And he said, my book was on forbes.com CEO book list.
[00:16:01] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:16:02] Speaker E: I didn't even know that.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: I mean, you got your first call.
[00:16:05] Speaker E: Really?
[00:16:07] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:16:08] Speaker E: And the reason that's important is because then people who were not chief information officers started contacting me to help them in their careers. And so the early part of April, early part of 2009, people were calling me and they'd say, oh, I went to your website, and all I saw was this it stuff. Where's your other website? Well, being a good entrepreneur, I create another website.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:37] Speaker D: Which is the leadership science institute, which.
[00:16:39] Speaker E: Is why you're doing today. So April of 2009 is when we started. So we just went over 15 years.
[00:16:46] Speaker F: Wow, congratulations.
[00:16:47] Speaker C: That's a big deal. It's a really big deal.
[00:16:49] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:16:50] Speaker C: I can remember I moved to Denver in 1990, and it was the old airport, and I worked, like, right across the street from that, and that was the shortest route to the gate. I would just take the hotel next to us. I would take their little shuttle over there and hop on there and walk down to the gate, and you'd be there in, like, 30 minutes or less. It was so great. I miss the old days. That was before the screen check and all that kind of stuff. You would just walk onto the plane and stuff.
[00:17:20] Speaker E: Yeah. It's funny you should mention that, because I did a lot of as I mentioned I did a lot of international travel, and it was not unusual to fly into places like, you know, London. London airport or the Paris airport or one of those airports and see soldiers with guns.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Right.
[00:17:42] Speaker E: And I always thought, oh, my God, I'm so glad I live in the United States. And we don't go through all of that.
[00:17:48] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, here we go.
[00:17:49] Speaker E: Then came 911.
[00:17:50] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:17:52] Speaker E: Unfortunately, it looked just like the rest of the planet.
[00:17:55] Speaker F: That's right.
[00:17:56] Speaker C: That's when everything changed. Yeah.
[00:17:59] Speaker E: So, in any case, that's how I got to the company I have, and it was sort of my journey getting there at this point. I've written eight books.
[00:18:09] Speaker C: Wow, eight books.
[00:18:10] Speaker E: Yeah. And I got a couple more in my head.
[00:18:12] Speaker C: But you got time.
You got time to do that.
[00:18:17] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. Oh, I will. Actually, that's one of the connections that I have with Hope House is because after we met at United Wolfville Methodist, I had just finished one of my books. It was called.
It was called how you like that?
[00:18:42] Speaker B: My brain.
[00:18:42] Speaker E: My brain just disappeared.
I am unemployed now. What do I do?
[00:18:47] Speaker F: Oh, that's right.
[00:18:48] Speaker E: And if you remember, right after that, I brought a whole bunch to the teen moms that were here at the time.
[00:18:55] Speaker F: That's right.
[00:18:55] Speaker E: To help them figure out how to find jobs.
[00:18:57] Speaker F: Yeah, that's right.
[00:18:58] Speaker E: And I got a chance to sit.
[00:19:00] Speaker D: On the floor, chat with them.
[00:19:01] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:19:03] Speaker D: For a while.
[00:19:05] Speaker C: So I'm trying to think. You and I meth at Broomfield United Methodist Church, and I'm trying to think. I can usually tell the year by. You remember how old Max was or how little Max was?
[00:19:16] Speaker E: Yeah. Oh, he was. He was young.
He was young. So I would have to say that it had to be 1011.
[00:19:26] Speaker C: He's turning 20 next month. So over ten years.
[00:19:30] Speaker E: It was definitely over ten years.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: Yeah. I was trying to think if it was before I went to Hope House or was it after I was already at a hope house?
[00:19:36] Speaker E: You had just started.
[00:19:37] Speaker C: I had just started.
[00:19:38] Speaker E: You had just started. That's how we got into the conversation. You had just started there, and I was asking you about your new job.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
So that was 13 years ago last week, so. Yeah, that's right. Max would have been pretty little.
That's crazy. So I remember you gave me those books, but I feel like there was also, like, a Wednesday night dinner at the church. Where the girls came to the church.
[00:20:06] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:20:07] Speaker E: Yes. That's what it was.
[00:20:08] Speaker C: That's what it was.
[00:20:08] Speaker E: That's what it was. The girls came to the church, and we actually sat on I remember sitting.
[00:20:13] Speaker D: On the floor with them and talking.
[00:20:16] Speaker E: Them through, helping mostly the ones who were trying to figure out how to get jobs and just giving them tips on how to do it. And that book I wrote only because during the 2008 downturn, I found a lot of people were coming to me, not for me to help them with their careers, but to help them find jobs, because these are people that had been working 1520 years, and for the first time, they had to go look for work. And so I had so many of them, I said, wow, this is a pervasive problem. So that's when I wrote that book. And I don't know if you know it, but Pastor Brown and Thomas and I wrote another version of that book.
[00:21:09] Speaker F: I do remember this.
[00:21:10] Speaker E: Yes. And so it's entitled I am an unemployed christian.
Now what do I do?
[00:21:18] Speaker F: Now what I do?
[00:21:19] Speaker E: And in the original book, every chapter had some kind of a business quote of. Okay, in the later version, it had kind of inspirational quotes, but also every chapter had a quote from the Bible.
[00:21:40] Speaker F: I love that. I love that.
[00:21:41] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. That somehow related to that portion of the book.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: Yeah, that was a really interesting time when things went south in 2008, in 2009, in March of 2009, I got laid off and was like, the very first time that's ever happened to me. I remember I came home and I called my husband. He's like, why are you calling me from home?
[00:22:07] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:22:08] Speaker C: I was like, well, I had to turn in my cell phone because I got let go today.
And it was. I live in a cul de sac where there's probably ten houses, and I was the first one. And then it was like every single house was affected by that. It was crazy. And I look back at that, I was unemployed for, like, six months.
And it was very stressful for me, even though I had, like, obviously Jeff was bringing home the bacon, but I was still stressed out.
Cause I was, like, all tied up in my self worth was about my job, you know? And then I watched all these other guys getting laid off in our cul de sac. That was really interesting timeframe and stuff like that. I wish I could have enjoyed that six months more, but I couldn't enjoy it until I had the next job lined up. It was. It was really stressful. So I think about, like, our moms when they lost their jobs or when they're going through it, they don't know how to navigate transportation, childcare, like, all the things that we all have to navigate and everything, but they don't have the support or the network around them that can help them. And that's what I love about Hope House is that we have people that I got a call yesterday that a girl needs. She's moving into a new place, but she needs a washer and dryer. I've got another girl that's moving. She needs stuff for her kitchen. You know, it's like, gosh, how lucky that we are able to step in and help eliminate, if it's silverware or glasses or dishes or whatever. It's really lucky that we're able to help these girls with those kinds of requests and stuff like that.
[00:23:46] Speaker E: One of the things that still puts a smile on my face is when people ask me, well, what do you do when you're not running around helping executives to be successful? And I tell them, well, I sit on a couple of boards and inevitably they'll say, so, what's your favorite board? And they say, oh, Hope house, definitely. And they'll say, hope house. What is that? And I start explaining, hope house. And now when I add on the.
[00:24:14] Speaker D: Early learning center to it as well.
[00:24:16] Speaker E: And how that came about, oh, my God, the look on their faces is amazing.
[00:24:24] Speaker D: And I just did there a smile.
Yeah.
[00:24:27] Speaker E: Because, and it's amazing how many of them are able to tell me stories.
[00:24:33] Speaker F: That relate to that.
[00:24:34] Speaker E: That relate to teen moms.
[00:24:36] Speaker F: Yeah, that's cool. That's very cool.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: Well, I think you and I had a moment when we were walking over here to the house today, standing up on the deck of the house and looking at the resource center, looking at the early learning center and just going, oh, my gosh, I cannot believe it. We're just commenting about the size of each of the buildings and stuff like that. And I think about, well, my first office was probably directly above us. It's now the bathroom of the live in apartment here. And then I was in the server room for a little while, and then we went over to Westminster. You were in that Westminster space, and that was rented warehouse space. It was 2200 square feet. And we were excited about, I was excited about being in that building because then people would come to visit us and we would do tours and stuff like that, and they could see that we were more than just residential housing and stuff like that. So I think about, wow, in 13 years. Like, we've done a lot in 13 years, which is pretty cool.
[00:25:36] Speaker E: I remember coming to the ribbon cutting of the, when the resource center had a ribbon and I just stood there and I guess having seen where you.
[00:25:49] Speaker D: Came from, I just couldn't believe it.
[00:25:51] Speaker E: I mean, I just. No matter what, you know, I went out and I was telling people about it and. No, you're kidding me. They did? Yeah. And they're debt free, and they're being.
[00:26:01] Speaker D: Able to take care of.
[00:26:03] Speaker C: That's amazing.
[00:26:04] Speaker E: More teen moms. And I would just rattle it off. And it's funny because at that point, I had, you know, hadn't been a part of the board.
[00:26:14] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:26:15] Speaker E: And I remember I was. I don't even remember why I was in the building, in the resource building.
I might have been either coaching somebody or doing some kind of training or talking to one of the moms. But anyway, I was in the building and I was on my. Just about to walk out, and Lisa Stevens came up to me and said, I have a question for you. And I said, yeah, sure. She said, would you be interested in joining the board? I said, yeah. When?
[00:26:49] Speaker D: Wait a minute. There's a board. What we gotta do.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: There's a prospect.
[00:26:52] Speaker E: Fine.
[00:26:54] Speaker D: You mean you wanted me to think about this?
[00:26:56] Speaker C: That's awesome. Yeah. I'm trying to remember exactly how that went down.
Obviously, we met at church.
[00:27:03] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:27:04] Speaker C: You got involved with the girls a little bit.
I think I started my coaching. I did coaching with you.
[00:27:10] Speaker E: You coached me and you did.
[00:27:12] Speaker C: Was it after that you joined the board?
[00:27:14] Speaker E: I was here. I was here coaching you.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: Oh, that's right. Okay. Okay.
[00:27:17] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:27:17] Speaker C: Yeah. That was great.
[00:27:19] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:27:20] Speaker C: That was great. I can't remember why was I here with me, probably.
[00:27:24] Speaker D: I was here coaching you.
[00:27:26] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:27:26] Speaker D: And I was on my way out when Lisa Stevens came out.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:27:31] Speaker E: How'd you like to join the board? I said, yeah, sure. When.
[00:27:34] Speaker D: When do you want me to start?
[00:27:36] Speaker C: Okay. I could picture that. Well, there's a process.
[00:27:39] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:27:40] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:27:40] Speaker D: We have this process we gotta do. Oh, okay, fine.
[00:27:45] Speaker C: And the rest is history.
[00:27:47] Speaker D: The rest is history.
[00:27:48] Speaker C: That's great. That's great. Yeah. You've coached several people here at Hope House, I think, over the years. Yeah. Are you currently coaching, coaching anybody?
[00:27:57] Speaker E: Well, they're on my list, but they've been very busy.
[00:28:00] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:28:00] Speaker E: So, Lisa, KP.
[00:28:01] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:28:02] Speaker E: Okay. And Ashley.
[00:28:06] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:28:06] Speaker F: Oh, I didn't know that.
[00:28:07] Speaker E: Yeah. And, well, Megan has been off and on.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: Okay. Okay.
[00:28:16] Speaker E: Yeah. So. But you know how my coaching works. You have my link and to my calendar, and when you're ready, you just jump on it.
[00:28:23] Speaker C: I did. You did some coaching with our team and stuff like.
[00:28:26] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:28:27] Speaker C: So I remember that. That was very helpful. That's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:28:31] Speaker E: So, yeah, it's. For me, it's anything I can do to help.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:40] Speaker F: You definitely have that personality where you're.
[00:28:43] Speaker E: Trying to help people, and that's, you know, for years.
And I'll take you back to that point in time. I told you when I was on the ship, really dark, sitting out there looking at the stars, I was questioning why I was here.
[00:28:59] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:29:00] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:29:01] Speaker F: What are you doing? Yeah.
[00:29:02] Speaker E: And it wasn't until after, and this is kind of sound, a little strange, after a person who was working for me had left, had quit. Okay. And I kind of encouraged her. It was a job that was going to be.
She was going to be, I was a senior vice president, and she was going after a job as a vice president. And it was one of those where they, they seeked her out, and she came to talk to me about it, and I encouraged to take it. Okay, you are ready, etcetera.
And it was at that moment I thought I just helped somebody be very, very, you know, or on the path to being successful in their lives. And that's when I thought, that's why I'm here. And I, in the rest of my corporate career, I focused on how can I help people to be better.
And some of the techniques I came up with on my own, because there wasn't anything, there wasn't any books on it or anything like that, so I had to kind of create them on my own. Many of those techniques is what I teach executives today.
[00:30:24] Speaker F: Awesome. That's awesome.
[00:30:26] Speaker E: And I tell executives that there's two jobs they have.
One is the obvious one, get the job done. The other one is the development of their people.
Tell them, if your people are at the same level next year as they were this year, then you should be fired.
[00:30:45] Speaker F: That's interesting.
[00:30:46] Speaker E: You did not bring value to them or the organization.
So your job should be to help improve people. Okay.
[00:30:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:58] Speaker E: What does Hope House do?
[00:31:02] Speaker F: Well, we're trying to do that, help improve people's lives.
[00:31:06] Speaker E: And so when people ask me, so, what does Hope House do? And I say, you know, we support teen moms. And I usually follow it up by saying, we improve their lives and create for them an environment that they otherwise wouldn't have.
[00:31:22] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:31:23] Speaker C: This is their safe space one. Right. This is, if you just need the basic needs, we're gonna help you with the food, clothing, shelter, so you can concentrate on all those other things that are out there that you wanna think about and stuff like that. So. Yeah.
[00:31:38] Speaker E: Which created a problem. Right. Because now that they would have to go to be able to get jobs and go to school, what happens to the kiddos.
[00:31:44] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right.
[00:31:45] Speaker E: Oh, guess what? We built a learning center.
[00:31:49] Speaker C: That's right. Well, we always talk about, like, the three basic needs that our girls or the obstacles that got to overcome, and one of them is transportation. Like just being able to, like, navigate, get around and do what you need to do. Right. Like getting your driver's license, having a car that runs and stuff like that. That's so imperative. Right.
Having childcare. I mean, how are you going to do it? How are you going to keep moving if you don't have a safe place for your child and your child can not keep learning about whatever they need to do? You know, we used to say housing was never on those top three, top three list, but now all of a sudden, housing is huge.
[00:32:30] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:32:31] Speaker C: I mean, you and I can, like, look back and go, hey, when I first started at Hope House, we used to say, oh, if you had a job that was paying you $12 an hour, you couldn't afford a two bedroom apartment. And we used to have, like, the girls would have a bedroom for their kids and a bedroom for themselves. Well, we don't always necessarily implement that today because that's not the case.
You got to be making a lot of money here to afford a two bedroom apartment here in the metro area.
[00:33:01] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. And I hear that a lot, too, by the way. Yeah. As a matter of fact, with some of the people that I work with, they're talking about how their kids are coming back to live with them because they're working and everything, but they just can't afford.
[00:33:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:22] Speaker E: The rents and things that are out there right now.
[00:33:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, when I first moved here, I'll never forget this. We had hud homes. Do you remember that?
[00:33:29] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:33:30] Speaker C: Like, people were upside down in their houses. So you could buy a pretty decent house here in Colorado in 1990 for $100,000.
[00:33:37] Speaker E: Sure.
[00:33:38] Speaker C: I mean, I wish I had my first house here, but I don't.
Anyway, we're trying to, like, that's probably the next big barrier for us to work on as an organization is to figure out more housing. Like, I think we served, well, I know we served 250 moms last year, and I think we, over half of them were served in the housing area.
[00:33:57] Speaker E: Wow.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: So you can see, like, where that's becoming a bigger and bigger thing. We've got, this is a twelve bedroom house.
[00:34:03] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:34:03] Speaker C: So we can only serve so many moms at a time out of this space. So we've got like a number of different housing partners and everything. But that's that's the next big thing to tackle is figuring out the housing here.
[00:34:15] Speaker E: Yes, I can see where that. That has to be a major challenge.
[00:34:21] Speaker C: For them right now.
[00:34:22] Speaker E: Has to be.
[00:34:23] Speaker C: Well, and obviously, we're looking to expand our reach by all the affiliates that we've got coming on board and everything. So northern Colorado is up and running. Canyon cities is up and running. We're talking to Orange county. So that's the next one, our first out of state one. So we're hoping with Lisa's book and everything, that that's going to open some doors in some other states and stuff for us.
[00:34:49] Speaker E: I'm excited about that, by the way.
[00:34:50] Speaker C: Oh, you did? Oh, good, good.
[00:34:53] Speaker E: And actually, I wrote a post about it a few months ago, I guess.
[00:34:58] Speaker F: Good.
[00:34:58] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: No, thank you for doing that. I think the thing I think about when I left and came to work here is just I wanted to. I remember calling Ken Brown back then, and I said, I can't wait to see God working up close and personal today. And that book is all about that. All the amazing God stories and stuff like that that are in Lisa's book, a place to belong.
I can't wait for people to read that and hear about what God was doing the entire time.
[00:35:30] Speaker E: Every time.
[00:35:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Like in the beginning, like, things were just happening. Like, it's crazy. Some of those stories and stuff like that.
[00:35:37] Speaker E: So that was some of my airplane reading.
[00:35:42] Speaker C: Okay, well, that makes sense.
[00:35:44] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:35:44] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:35:45] Speaker C: Anyway, Wayne, I thank you for joining us today. I'm trying to think if there's some things we haven't talked about.
[00:35:53] Speaker D: I don't think so.
[00:35:54] Speaker C: I mean, you started at the very beginning, like, where you're from, and traveled all over the world. And you're still traveling?
[00:36:01] Speaker D: Oh, yes, still travel.
[00:36:03] Speaker E: Mostly the US and Canada right now, but.
Oh, I guess one of the things I think, you know, I'm a big cruiser.
[00:36:11] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:36:12] Speaker E: And I actually still have two cruises left this year. I try to take two or three a year, but I also just booked a cruise for March 2026.
[00:36:23] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:36:24] Speaker E: It's gonna be a twelve day cruise to New Zealand.
[00:36:28] Speaker C: Oh, that sounds.
[00:36:29] Speaker F: That sounds awesome.
[00:36:30] Speaker E: I am just.
[00:36:31] Speaker C: So you haven't been there before?
[00:36:32] Speaker E: I've been to Australia a number of times. Also, when I was working at United Airlines, I was in Australia, and I met a number of people from New Zealand, but I never got a chance to go, so that's one of the ways I'm gonna take care of myself in 2026.
[00:36:53] Speaker C: I love that you've planned that far out. I mean, obviously, self care. We talk about that at Hope House. So, Wayne, you're all over that. That's good.
[00:37:00] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:37:01] Speaker C: And Jenny Gonzalez, like, she's. Her mom is from New Zealand, so she might be able to give you some information about New Zealand.
[00:37:08] Speaker E: I didn't know that. So next time I come by, I'm gonna have to stop and chat with her.
[00:37:13] Speaker C: You're gonna have to do that.
[00:37:14] Speaker D: Get supporters.
[00:37:16] Speaker C: You're gonna have to do that. Well, thank you for all your support with our moms and hope house and being on the board and being an encouragement and working with our staff and everything. We really appreciate that today.
[00:37:27] Speaker E: You're very welcome. Again, I don't believe I do enough, but.
[00:37:32] Speaker C: All right, well, Joe, you heard that Wayne wants to do more for us, so we'll rope him in for a little bit more.
[00:37:38] Speaker E: Sure.
[00:37:40] Speaker D: I don't think you'll have to twist my arms, just like Lisa didn't have to trust my house to join the board.
[00:37:44] Speaker C: Okay, that's good. All right, well, thank you very much for joining us today on Life reviewed, and I'll wrap it up here. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Thank you.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Precious soul. The things I didn't know the things I didn't know about you.
Oh, precious.
The things I didn't know the things I didn't know about you about.
