The Incredible Story of How One Christmas Project Changed 400,000+ Children’s Lives

0:00 Looking for real stories that lift you up? Welcome to Inspire and Impact. The podcast where purpose meets perseverance? This is where transformation begins and your story continues. Welcome to the Inspire Impact podcast show. I’m your host, Daniel Rosenstein. Today I have the honor of interviewing Luke uh Mickelson. Luke, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Hey Daniel, thanks for having me. This is uh it’s gonna be great. So yeah, we were kind of discussing before you’re the founder of Heavenly Peace. Um, can you maybe share with the audience a little bit about like yourself and the nonprofit? Absolutely. Yeah, thanks for asking. Yeah, you know, Daniel, I I tell I’m just a farm kid from Idaho. You know, I grew up in a small town, only about 3,500 people or so, small high school. Uh, you know, and the beauty about living in a small town is you know everybody and they know you. And you know, maybe at the beginning that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but uh but you learn that you you you you learn how to care for people. You learn how to support and be supported by your local community. And so I was always one of those guys that just loved working and and and being around other people. You know, I played sports because in a small town, small school, if you know how to, you know, pick up a ball and and use it in any any uh level of accur accuracy or effectiveness, you’re going to play sports whether you like it or not. And uh probably kept me out of a lot of trouble to be honest with you. But uh yeah, I I played sports. In fact, there was only there’s only two weekends the entire year that I didn’t either have either have a practice or a game going on. So, it kept me pretty busy. But, you know, sports, I think, helped me enjoy being with other people and learning how to work with work on a team and and be a

1:50 team leader and and be a follower when I needed to be a follower. And all of that, I think, culminated into uh why sleeping on the peace. When I when I came across this problem called child bedlessness, I think I was pretty equipped to uh to put it in a in in a place or or in the trajectory that that it is now. I’m super grateful for it. Can you maybe like share the story of like how did um you know you start Heavenly Peace like you know why did you started like how did that come about? Yeah you know I don’t know Daniel well this is this all started in 2012. Um maybe maybe it even a little bit further back uh about a year or so before that I had been kind of going through a little bit of a midlife crisis I guess whatever you call that you know you you you get to a point in life where you got some kids and you got you got your job and you you’re going in day in and day out you’re doing your normal stuff you know and you you look back and and you can see what your measure of success was based on. When I grew up in a single parent home, it was just me, mom, my mom, and five kids. You know, she pounded in our heads to get your education so you get a good job and you don’t suffer like we did and all this stuff. So, I my measure of success was making sure that I made good money.

3:10 Well, although that that is a nice measure of success, it certainly wasn’t fulfilling to me, you know, and I always say fulfillment doesn’t or I should say success doesn’t equal fulfillment, at least not all the time. And for me, you know, the more money I made and the more toys I got, it just didn’t seem like I cared about that stuff anymore. You know, you you you think more about your kids and you think more about your life and the the impressions you leave and the footprint that you’re going to leave when you pass away. And you know, we hear all the time that listen, you know, you’re not going to be able to take this stuff with you when you go and when you pass on. Well, I really took that to heart, you know, and and start thinking, you’re right. like what’s important now is the people I interact with and the the social connections that we make, not the money I made. You know, I think it helped it helps you connect with people and help more people when you make money. But honestly, I just really cared about what was most important in life.

4:06 Uh and when you start asking those questions, you know, what is the most important thing in life for yourself? Um, that’s really deep questions, you know, and it it’s hard questions. And when you don’t get answers to them, or at least not very clear answers, man, you really start to doubt yourself, you know. I start doubting my religion. I doubted my, you know, not not like in a negative way, you know. I wouldn’t say I was like this, you know, this walking zombie or anything. I just I just didn’t like who I didn’t like the the thought of not knowing what I what I was meant to be on this earth. um not couldn’t find a passion that really was significant or or meaningful really. Well, it was in this kind of state of mind in 2012 when I was sitting in church and I I served in church in a position called the young men’s president where I’d help boys ages 12 to, you know, 17 or so, uh with the activities of that we do during the during the week and and things of that nature, which was basically Boy Scouts. Um, so I was like the leader of the leader of the Boy Scouts. Well, in this position, you uh I attended a bunch of meetings each each week or so. Well, in one of these meetings, a lady stood up and started talking about a family that she had visited that lived in my small town. And it kind of caught my ear because I’d never heard of this place that she spoke of, you know, and I’ve been riding my bike around this town since I was five, you know. So, I kind of knew my my way around and I said, "Wait a minute. Where’s this place?" Well, she, you know, and then she talked about the things that the family needed.

5:41 You know, they were short on rent and they needed help with food and the kids didn’t have any beds and they needed a rides to school and work. And I I I I quickly stopped her and I said, "Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. Did you just say the kids don’t have any beds?" And she said, "Yeah." And I’m like, "Well, well, certainly they got like mattresses, right?" and she says, "No, no, they’re just sleeping on the floor." And Daniel, that just really hit me. You know, I I don’t know if it was because of what I was going through um personally, uh you know, cuz we had helped other people out with wheelchair ramps and, you know, uh blood drives and all sorts of stuff you did with the Boy Scouts, but this one really was different. Um I thought about my own kids and what it’ be like if they slept on the floor day in and day out, right? And then I thought about my boy scouts and I thought, you know, here’s a great opportunity to take an Xbox controller out of these boys’ hands and put a drill in it and teach them something, right?

6:38 You know, as leaders that work with these youth, that’s hard to do to find a an activity that doesn’t involve a screen or a computer or a game of whatnot. Have it be fun for them. Now, I’d never built furniture before in my life, but I, you know, hey, I’m a farm kid. I figure it out. You know, I’m not a stranger to tools. So, um, I went back home that night pretty excited. My daughter had a bunk bed, and I went down and kind of patterned it after that bunk bed. Went to went to Lowe’s, our our local do-it-yourself store, and and bought all the materials and went back and and the boys and I for a couple of days that night, we built or that week rather, we built this bunk bed. And it was just an awesome experience. You know, these boys got a chance to, you know, we got to talk about what would it be like to to sleep on the floor. What how it feels when you go and help and serve other people. The good feelings that that spark that you get, that passion you get when you go and help other people and how that how that can carry on and help you in your own life, deal with your own problems as you stop looking at yourself and seeing how you can help other people. You know, these are the lessons that I was excited to teach these boys.

7:47 Well, the the day this Saturday came around to go deliver this bed. And the word kind of got out in the community what we were doing. And you know, next thing I know, you know, some seemed like half the town showed up to deliver this bed with us. And and I’m like, look, we can’t send an army over here. So me and a bunch of people stayed back. I had to clean my garage anyways. It was a mess. And the boys and some leaders went and delivered this bed. Well, after they were done, I heard just amazing stories, testimonials of kids that just, you know, got it right. They they saw the the conditions these these kids were sleeping in. You know, it was hard for them to see. Um some of them cried. I mean, it was it was really emotional for them, which is man, when you look at that as a leader, you’re like win-win. I mean, that it couldn’t have asked for something better, you know? Honestly, I was a little jealous. I didn’t get a go on the deliveries because I wanted to see that for myself. But hey, you know what? These boys went and we had a great time.

8:44 Well, the next week comes around, you know, and and you It’s funny how life kind of creeps itself back in, right? You you get back into the same rut. And I didn’t want I could feel it coming. And and it was almost worse now because I got this one spark, this this this flush of passion that that I got really excited about. you know, something I hadn’t felt in a long, long time. But it was over. You know, we we [clears throat] had solved child bedlessness. We built the bed, the only bed a child didn’t have. We built it and delivered. It was it was great. But now I’m back on the couch. And now I’m thinking about, you know, all the stuff that I’m was previously thinking about, trying to answer questions, trying to figure out what’s most important to me and to my family. And and it was in this state that we were watching, me and my kids were watching Big Bang Theory, which is like our favorite show back then. and and a commercial come on and it was some sort of Xbox commercial. I don’t even remember but I remember being the fact it was the first part of Christmas.

9:43 My kids looking up to me, dad, can we can we have can we get another Xbox? You know, and here I am sitting on the couch struggling internally for many years by myself. No one knew. I didn’t let anybody know. I’m just that type of guy. I can deal with it myself. And I struggling. Wasn’t doing a good job and worried about what’s important in life. What am I supposed to do? What? What? How can be a better dad, a better husband? And my kids here, they they’ve got a bed. The these these other kids didn’t have a bed. Now they want another Xbox. They have an X. I mean, it was just this noise, this noise going off in my head. Well, then it kind of stopped and I had this real clear thought, just this little voice. I call it my tiny moment. And it said, "Luke, go teach your kids something." You know, and I thought that’s perfect. You know, that that’s exactly what I need to do is stop complaining. stop worrying and let me go teach my kids just like I taught the Boy Scouts the value of service and giving back. So, I didn’t even say anything.

10:41 You know, this is all just in my in my head. I stood up and started walking to the garage and my kids said, "Dad, where are you going?" And I said, "You know, I got another bunk bed or excuse me, I got I got another some leftover wood. I’m going to build another bunk bed and you’re going to come and help me." And sure enough, they they came out in the garage and for the couple of nights that week, we built another bunk bed and had a blast. You know, I got pictures of my daughter in her little pink dress, you know, drilling screws into wood, my son in his Boisey State jersey, you know, hammering away. We just had a great time as a family. Well, the ironic thing was is I didn’t build this bed because I knew child bedlessness was a thing. I built it because I wanted my kids to know the joy of service, the joy of giving back and how passion feels when you’re when you’re thinking about helping someone else out. Well, at the end of the day, here we had this bunk bed. I I didn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t know that child bedlessness was a thing, you know, as far as I was concerned. We solved it last week. Well, my wife says, "Well, why don’t you put it on Twin Falls Buy, Saleell Trade, one of these Facebook groups, right?" Um, and this is 14 years ago. I didn’t really even know what that was, but okay, sure. And when I did that, a couple of things happened. The first thing that happened that was astonishing to me was how many people commented on this post. People I’d never met before.

12:05 People that were in my hometown that happened to catch this and and decide to make a comment on a complete stranger’s page. Or they were people that I, you know, friends I hadn’t seen or talked to in 20 years. There was a lot of them. That was that was shocker number one. And the next surprising thing was is they all knew kids that were sleeping on the floor. All of them. And they told me what they were sleeping on. The conditions that they were sleeping in. You know, three or four to a bed or on concrete or on pallets or on couches. I mean, it was just I didn’t know that was even a thing. I didn’t know that was going on in my little small community. So, I got pretty excited. I had this bed that I now could find a kid and apparently there were many that I could go deliver this bed to. Well, then I got a call from a friend of mine that said, "Hey, Luke, uh, have you delivered that bed yet?" I said, "No. Why?" She says, "Well, let me tell you about Haley." So, Haley’s a six-year-old girl that’s never slept on a bed before. Never. She’s only slept in the backseat of her mom’s car.

13:05 They were homeless. And my friend, who worked in the social service sector at the time, helped them get a house. So, I thought, "Oh, this is perfect. This is what I’m looking for." So, me and my buddy loaded this bed up and drove the 30 minutes to this town over to deliver Haley’s first bed. Now, she didn’t know why we were there. And and I’d seen poverty before. I’ I’d witnessed, you know, these kinds of situations before, and but I’d never walked into this walked in this situation looking at it through the eyes of a six-year-old. And when you do that, you realize that there’s no couch or TV here to watch cartoons in the morning like I did. You know, there’s no kitchen table or chairs to eat cereal at in the morning before you go to school like I did. There was nothing in the house. The only thing in the house was a hot plate that had a can of soup on it. And that was it. But this little girl was so excited and although she didn’t know why we were there, she wanted to show us all over the house, including her bedroom. She was really excited. come show let me show you where your bed where my bedroom’s at. Of course, we walked back there and you can imagine what this thing looked like, right? There was holes in the carpet and tears on the wallpaper and you know the closet door was gone and there’s used toys everywhere. It was just it, you know, you know the scene. But of the of the worst of it, of all of that, the worst was what I looked when I looked in the corner of the room, there’s a pile of clothes there and that’s where Haley slept. It was her school clothes. She come home from school, you know, put her PJs on, sleep on her school clothes, you know, shirt for a pillow and pants for a blanket, and then put those same shirt and pants on the next day and go to school.

14:44 You know, I did I didn’t I didn’t know what to expect, but I guarantee you I didn’t expect that. I I didn’t have that even cross my mind of of having a child sleep on her cool school clothes day in and day out, you know. And so I after being a little upset about the situation internally, I got pretty excited because we had brought her her first bed. And as we were bringing it in, you know, again, she didn’t know. So I watched her. I wanted to see what her reaction was when she realized what it was. And sure enough, the minute she realized it was her first bed, she just erupted. It was like Christmas morning. You know, she went over there and hugged these two strange guys, you know, making all sorts of noise in her room and and thanked us. And then she went over to the to the bunk bed and did something I’ll never forget. She went and wrapped her arms around it, hugged it, and then she kissed it. She kissed it like it was her mom. I’d never seen that before. And you know, I’m Hey, I’m a I’d like to think I’m a big strong farm kid from Idaho, you know, kind of tough guy. And you know, I’m I’m doing my best, brother, to hold this thing together. And then I look up and here’s mom, you know, and I did not think about mom. I did not think about what I was about to see. Six years of tears just pouring down this poor lady, single parents face. And I and I was raised by a single mom, too. So, I know what they meant. I knew the tears.

16:03 I knew the guilt and the worry and the frustration that that this parent fought for many, many years trying to provide for her daughter, sacrificing so much of herself just to bring food and clothing to her. You know, a bed unfortunately is just a luxury at that at that point, which is a terrible thing for a child. For a bed to be a luxury, you know, and not something that like you and I know as as just a common common house h household item, right? No, they they don’t have a she didn’t have one, you know, and and and that wrecked me. I just I didn’t know what to say. Like, you know, I I’ll tell you what happened to me was, you know, I’m a I’m a farm kid that just loves hunting and fishing and outdoors sports and college football on Saturdays. And Daniel, I loved that for 35 years. And I kid you not, in a snap of a finger, none of that mattered to me anymore. I just didn’t care about it. I I cared about the fact that we spent me and my kids spent a couple of nights that week to build a bunk bed to solve that problem. Yeah, that’s well worth my time, right? And and that’s when I knew, listen, no kid’s going to sleep on the floor in my town if I have anything to do with it. So, we started building beds. That’s how it started.

17:21 That’s a really amazing story, Luke. And thank you so much for sharing that and being so open and brave enough to tell us all about that stuff because it’s it’s shocking to me. I mean, I live in Florida and I’ve done, you know, relatively little amount of volunteer work. I I was uh, you know, a a big brother, the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for like 10 years. I I did some volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity. I’ve done stuff for food drives like you know preparing foods helping people that are you know packing stuff like uh for shipping foods to people who have you know are hungry a and you know a few other things but I I and I’ve seen a lot of homelessness in in Florida we unfortunately it’s gotten a lot worse uh I would say in the last 20 years but I honestly didn’t know that there there was like a problem of kids not having beds cuz I like the the kids I paired up with the Big Boss sisters.

18:21 They like lived in poverty and they had beds and I just So when you I started telling you like the story, I was like my mind. Yeah. The funny thing is is when I told when I told people what I do even to even to this day, you know, when I tell people what what I do, I usually get two two comments. The first one is is well, it’s not that big of a problem, is it? Like it’s it’s only a little bit of little a few kids, right? And I said, ‘Well, statistically, we have found that greater than 3% of the total population of your town represents kids sleeping on the floor. I mean, so if you’re in a town of 100,000 people, there are greater than three 3,000 kids that are sleeping on the floor. I mean, can you imagine, right? And and and the the second comment was, "Well, yeah, not in my town. My town’s pretty rich and blah blah blah." I’m like, "No, I promise you it might fluctuate. Obviously, it’ll fluctuate a little bit. Some some places have 70%.

19:22 You know, some of these some of these way out in the way out in the middle of nowhere. But but no, it it is pretty statistically on average 3%. I mean, we have a we have a a a chapter in Pinehurst, South Carolina, which is like one of the richest counties in the country. We have a chapter there, right? Because poverty, or I shouldn’t say poverty, child bedlessness doesn’t necessarily equate to poverty. You know, it doesn’t care about economics. It doesn’t care about geography. It doesn’t care about race or religion or politics. It doesn’t care about any of that stuff. It just knows hardship. It knows house fires. It knows, you know, lost jobs. It knows divorce. It knows, you know, escape from from bad situations. You know, it just knows hardship, right? And this and the sad reality is because it’s so unknown, no one knows to fix it, right? You can’t fix something you don’t know about. And so when I found out about it, I mean, my first thought was is, "Oh, everybody’s doing this." Like it but but seems like there’s a problem.

20:26 I’ll start a nonprofit that that’ll that’ll, you know, just take care of the kids in my own hometown and that’s fine. So, we did that. Well, the more we built and the more we delivered, the more kids came to us that needed more beds and more people wanted to help. It was just the weirdest thing. I was getting called from, you know, calls from CASA or CPS, child protective services, you know, foster care programs. I was like their best friend. I didn’t know why, you know, but later on I found is because they said, "Luke, you don’t understand like getting a bed for a child in these types of situations is often times the hardest thing for us to get." which blew my mind like really like food, clothing, shelter, bicycles, all that stuff. That’s easier than getting a bed for a child. They said yes, absolutely. And I didn’t realize until later on the reason why is because when I wanted to be a nonprofit, I did like every anybody else would. I I went and scoured the internet to try and find another nonprofit that did what we what I wanted to do and just kind of copy them, you know, or at least figure out what they’re doing and figure out how I could make it work here. Well, I only found one one charity in the entire country that was providing beds for kids and it was called beds for kids. I thought it was a cool name. That was it.

21:47 So, I didn’t have a lot of help there. And I realized, okay, this makes sense. These people, these agencies have zero help, zero resources to get beds for kids. That’s why it’s the hardest thing ever. So, I was going to solve that problem. The bigger problem was that problem was much bigger than I thought. and extended way beyond my own boundaries, my own towns, my own cities, my own state, even my own country, you know, it it it was all over the place. And I I knew then, which was, you know, 2013, 2014 when we became a charity, I knew if we were really going to solve child bedlessness in our country, we’re not going to solve it by some farm kid from Idaho pumping out beds out of Twin Falls. You know, this is a local problem. We need to find local people that are willing to step up and and and feel and have the same passion that we do for building beds for kids. And so I needed to create a platform that is easy to enter. It’s it’s simple. It’s transparent. It’s as pure as possible where people, common day people like myself can learn how to start a chapter, run a charity, build beds for kids in their own hometown. and even better yet include their own hometown in as part of the solution. Help them come help the kids that live next door to them. So that’s what we did.

23:14 Wow. So do you I I saw a statistic I I think I may have found on your website. You’ve now delivered about 400,000 beds. Is that correct? Yeah, we actually So we’ve delivered it’s probably about now pretty close to 450,000 beds. We built almost 500,000. And you got to remember this, we re we started in 2012, but we we got a big big launch in 2018 when we were featured on a hit show called Returning the Favor. It was viewed by 10 million people. And so that’s what really launched us to the to the nation. Well, really, we’ve built we only built a couple of thousand before that time, before 2018. So really, it’s just been the last, you know, eight years that we’ve been able to build that almost half a million beds and serve uh 450,000 kids so far. So it’s we’ve grown like a weed, which is only attributed, Daniel, to a few things. Number one is tribute to by the amazing men and women that are a part of Sleeping Heavenly Peace that I mean no one’s ever been a part or been employed or worked on a project building beds and growing an organization that builds beds for kids. We are all didn’t know what we were doing. We’re all building the plane as we fly it, which has been some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen is people that have no business otherwise doing what they’re doing, but they do it so passionately, it becomes extremely successful and it inspires other people to do it. And that’s why we’ve been able to grow so much, you know, and it’s because of those men and women that have created Slipping of the Peace to what it is today. And attributed to there are so many people in this country um in your own towns and communities that want to give back, Daniel. They just don’t know how, right? They, you know, we’ve all been a part of the soup kitchens and the and the packing backpacks and doing all those things, which is a great service,

25:10 but there’s something about when you take a raw piece of lumber, right? And you apply tools to it, you cut it, you sand it, you mark it, you drill it together. You do that, not someone else. You do that. There is a level of fulfillment that comes to people when you actually do hard work for a cause like getting a child a bed that’s never had one. I mean, it is. We have people that show up to our build, big strong guys like me that show up to build and they walk away weeping or they go on a delivery and they just they almost can’t go again because they know what it what it means and they can see it on the kid’s face what it means to them when you bring them their very first bet. You know, most of the time when when you go in there, the little kid, you know, hides behind mom because there’s all these strangers in their in the room making all sorts of noise and bringing all sorts of weird things in. But the minute that that kid realizes, oh my gosh, these people are building a bed for me. He comes out from behind mom totally unapologetic, totally excited, grabs drills, grabs wood, starts put starts help building his own bed. That’s how eager they they are. And I kid you not, it’ll be 3:00 in the afternoon and that child will crawl in that bed and go to sleep cuz he’s never had one.

26:36 He’s never had a bed. I mean, it is the most crazy, emotionally charged, overwhelming thing that I’ve ever seen and ever witnessed. And I can tell you, we can talk about it. You can see it on videos and pictures and listen to me and other people tell it, but it doesn’t do it justice until you’re in that room and you see and feel what that child feels for something as simple as a bed. You know, Daniel, I speak all over the country and stay in all sorts of nice hotels and sleep into some really nice, comfortable beds. I’ll be honest with you, but I promise you none of them. I would I would rather sleep in none of them if I could sleep in my own bed because that’s my sanctuary, right? That’s the place that you and I get to go when we’re have a hard day at work, the boss was rough, or you know, we had a fight with someone or or worse yet, you got the flu. I mean, my gosh, when we’re sick, what is the one place on the planet that we all just can’t wait to crawl into and forget the world for a while? It’s our bed, right? And these kids don’t have that, you know? So, so when you realize that that’s a that’s a real thing and that you in your local community can actually do something about it. you can actually grab tools and grab wood and have someone teach you how to build a bed and then go and deliver it to that child who may live literally next door to you. I’m telling you, it’s just a level of service fulfillment that most people I talk to have never felt anywhere else and and including myself. So, it’s it’s just one of those one of those things in life that I happen to be the guy that stumbled upon it. I just think any guy would have done the same thing in my shoes. But but I’m so grateful that I was in a place in my life where it struck me hard enough that my desire to

28:34 change, you know, cuz I wanted to change, right? My desire to act was much greater than my desire to just change. Cuz we all want to change, right? We all want to make be different and and improve ourselves. And that’s good. We need to do that. We watch we watch motivational speakers. We listen to podcasts. We reach we read self-help books. All of this to improve ourselves, which is great because we have a desire to change. We have a desire to improve. The problem is is that desire is not strong enough or stronger than our desire to act. And we need to work on the acting part. We need to work and practice that. You know, Daniel, when we’re out shooting shooting free throws and we want to get better at shooting free throws, what do you got to do? You got to go shoot some free throws. You know what I’m saying? You got to go out and practice. How many of us practice acting on tiny moments?

29:29 How many how many excuses? How many times do we excuse these tiny moments away? You know, we all do it. You know, we see we see something. We walk down the road or you’re walk you’re you’re looking outside your window or driving around and you see a problem, right? We see them all the time. But some of those problems really hit you. You feel them. You feel them stronger than others. And that’s good. We all feel things differently, which I’m so grateful God did that for us because now when I see a problem and I really feel for it, that’s that’s something telling me I care about that and I should be able to be able to do something about that. Right? So that’s when that’s when you get these tiny moments cuz you see it, you feel it. Now you have a little tiny moment, you have a decision to make, right? How can I help? And too often we dismiss these tiny moments with some of the most ridiculous but legitimate as well excuses like I’m I’m too busy. I don’t know how to do that. Right? My my helping is not going to make that big of a difference. Right? These are very common phrases.

30:36 But I tell people, listen, if you want to get good at acting on tiny moments, and why would you want to get good at it? Well, I’ll tell you why. If you want true joy in life, right, we got to stop looking at ourselves and see how we can help some other people. Because you know when when you go and serve, right, Daniel, when you go and serve, your problems in life, they just don’t like magically disappear, right? I wish they did, right? I wish they just magically disappeared, but unfortunately, they don’t. But what do we do as human beings when we when we don’t want to face a problem? when we when we’re hiding from it or or it’s too it’s too too strong for us, we throw it in a closet and try to forget about it. Well, that’s when this weird superpower kicks in that us humans have. We that that monster that we put in there now starts growing all sorts of arms and fangs and gets bigger and uglier and hairier, right? We just do that to ourselves and it even becomes harder to open the closet door to face it. But when you go and serve others, when you stop thinking about your own problems, and you see other people’s problems, and then you go help other people with their problems, you know, that’s when you can now open up that door, that closet door, and you’re in a state of mind where your perspective is so different, right? And it’s because of that new perspective that you have that you can actually now look at this problem and go, "Huh, you know what? If I’m gonna lose my job, it’s not the end of the world, right? If if I if I have to go talk to my spouse or tell my kids or confront a friend for something I know is going to be difficult to say, it’s not the end of the world. Service puts us in a perspective where we can handle those kinds of decisions, right?

32:25 So why do you want to get better at acting on tiny moments? Is because you can get better on solving your own problems, right? And when you solve your own problems, listen, when you hear and see a tiny moment, when you have a tiny moment, you know, I tell people, listen, it most the time’s not going to change the world, right? Of course not, right? But I promise you, it’ll change someone’s world. And 99% of the time, that someone is just you. It changed your world, right? You might even know it, but it changed you. And it changed it for the better. Right? Why don’t we want that? You know, why don’t we learn how to act on more of these tiny moments? Because the other benefit is you’ll eventually find a passion like I did that’ll change your life. And that passion will ultimately always lead to purpose. And if there’s nothing worse in the planet than someone walking around without purpose. You know what I’m saying?

33:28 I I 100% agree with you. I I mean, I’ve talked to so many people on this podcast and and even in real life that you said they have jobs that some of them get paid a lot of money and and they walk around with no purpose and they don’t know what to do with themselves. They’re very confused and some of them have like serious like drug problems and it’s a huge mess. And well, some of the problem there, Daniel, if you think about it, if you really think about it, why why do rich people have problems, right? Why do they sometimes commit suicide or or they’re depressed and stuff like that? It’s because you’re exactly right. They don’t have a purpose, right? And and worse yet, when you’re, you know, my wife and I were walking out in the backyard and I I’ve built decks and built a pool and built a gazebo and built all this stuff, right? I’m no carpenter. It probably if I had a carpenter go look in my backyard, he’d laugh at me because there’s so many mistakes, right? You know what I’m saying? But guess what?

34:23 They’re my mistakes, right? I’m the one that went out and built that and the fulfilling feelings I get when I accomplish something like that. That that’s the purpose that I’m talking about. You know, I fear the the richer that you become, obviously the less incentivized you have to go and build something yourself because you can hire someone else do to do it and it’ll look 10 times better than you did it, but you rob yourself of that one little thing which is the purpose, which is the fulfillment that comes, right? And and and I really think that’s that’s a difficult thing. The the more money you make, the more temptation you have to not experience that. And and listen, I’d love to be richer. I’d love to think that it would solve a lot of my problems, right? But I also fear that it’ll actually present some options that aren’t healthy for me, which is, you know, get out and and work hard and accomplish and have purpose. Um Even if that purpose is nothing more than to just improve yourself, which I hope that’s a lot of our purposes are just to improve ourselves because there’s you got to get yourself right, you know, before you really can make a difference in helping other people and and making this world a better place to live in.

35:39 You know, I’m a little bit curious. You talked about being rich, running your own business. What was it like? Like you said, like you started this as like a small little project and now you’re a national organization. Did it like happen almost like overnight type of thing or do you was there struggles or obstacles that came in the way like when you try to like build you know this uh momentum of yours of of helping as many kids as possible you know of course like any business you growth is always not necessarily awesome you know it means there’s more work to be had there’s more challenges to be faced with you know for example I didn’t get paid for the first eight years really of of SHP’s existence. You know, I didn’t I didn’t actually take this as a full-time job till 2020, right? I mean, it was eight years down the road. It certainly wasn’t something that happened overnight. Um, and even then, you know, it was it was pennies compared to what I was making. I had to quit my job. I was forced to quit my job. Uh, because I was focused so much on my charity. You know, that was a those are tough decisions, right? Those are those are tough milestones in your life of you know really understanding I is this about the money I make or about the fulfillings the feelings and the fulfillment that I feel um in life and you know so those are both really easy and really hard decisions to make and when you scale when you scale as fast as you do when I say fast when we when we went from we went from zero to about five or six chapters in eight years and then when returning the favor hit we went from about eight chapters to 130 in one year. Right? So that was massive scale, massive growth. And we still grow between 50 and 60 chapters a year. We’re still growing really fast. And every single year, every single growth puts you on a different level or a different plateau that that has its own set of

37:31 challenges, you know. So trust me, growth is not all bells and whistles and and you know, parties. It’s it’s it’s recalibration. It’s re readjusting. It’s new new policies or procedures because the old ones are too, you know, they’re out of date or they’re or they don’t apply to, you know, 50 chapters because now you’ve got 250 chap, you know, there’s just it’s a constant state of growth and change and adapt adaptability. If you can’t do that or if you put things in place that are so structured that they can’t change, you won’t grow. Right? So there’s a lot of challenges and a lot of things that come in place when you see growth. And really, and this is all to to all those, you know, leaders out there, if you think you’re going to do this by yourself, oh man, you are you are in for a real rough time, right? You’ve got to find people that are as passionate as you are and or maybe not as passionate, but someone that really is passionate for what you’re doing and believes in the mission. Bring them along and listen to their ideas. Listen to what they have to say. you know, just because you started it, you know, doesn’t mean that you’re the smartest guy in the room, right? In fact, you’re probably one of the dumbest guys in the room when it comes to a lot of things that you need. You know, I’m not a techsavvy guy. And had had we not had some techsavvy guys in SHP, we’d be still running off spreadsheets and and you know, word docs, you know, it’s just you gota you got to learn that that scale is going to happen and challenges are going to happen. I mean, I I told I I created a culture. I wanted to create a culture and sleep on the peace where this is a family, you know, because families are tight and families are close and you do things for family members because you want to, not because you have to. And you have to put up with family members because they screw up and they say the wrong thing and they get mad at you and you get mad at them, but at the end of the day, you love each other and you work on it, you get through it. I mean, that’s what a family

39:26 is, right? And I I would argue that’s what a company needs to be is just a family unit, right? totally understanding, totally expecting. You’re going to have challenges, you’re going to have fights, you’re going to have disagreements, right? But at the end of the day, those disagreements, they only what only matters is moving the mission forward and and and having a single focus on that. And when you have people that that’s what their focus is, then they don’t have to win every argument. They don’t have to have every one of their ideas come to fruition, right? They can they can compromise. They can adjust. They can be malleable. Malleable, right? They can they can work with one another. Even though they one might be a Democrat, one might be a Republican, one might be atheist, one might be Christian. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter when your focus is where it needs to be. And in our case, it’s we have child bedlessness is a major problem in our in our country. No one knows about it. And we just want to solve it. And we want to find every, you know, every walking human being or or not walking, you know, any human being on the planet that wants to help. We just want to we want to provide an opportunity for them to be a part of it.

40:43 Was there ever like a a time that you thought because you said like there was definitely obstacles coming up where you felt like, hey, this is too overwhelming. I don’t know if I’m making the right decision. Maybe to go back to getting a job. Do you ever feel like like just giving up on on this endeavor? And you know, if so, like what made you decide to like keep on going like, you know, and really say, "Hey, I’m whatever obstacles coming my way, I’m going to keep doing this, you know, no matter whatever happens." It’s a great question. Honestly, um, no, not not for the longest time. I never it I never wanted to stop. Even when I was faced with, you know, hey, if you continue, you’re gonna get fired from your only paying job. I mean, I had a mortgage and kids and I mean, it was a little scary there for a while. And never never once did I did I think I I need to stop doing this or I didn’t want to do it or or I would stop doing it.

41:38 Never once. There was times, you know, I would say even fairly recent within the last three or four years, I went through a phenomena called founder syndrome. And a lot of people don’t know what that is. founders don’t even really know that they’re going through it. But it’s a really hard uh uh problem uh syndrome really that that founders go through where you know your organization grows beyond you you know and and this organization one that you built and you put your blood, sweat and tears in and your your identity is your is so fused with it that any sort of change or or or passing on quote quote of the of the baton to someone else is like passing on your your your own identity or pieces of your identity, it can be very uh alarming and very disconcerning. You know, you start acting very defensive and very controlling and and almost egotistical because you feel like you just have to defend your your uh uh your your identity because it’s being it’s being ripped from you when the fact of the matter is it’s not being ripped from you. You’ve just created an organization that’s so successful it’s growing beyond what you can do. You know, sometimes that’s hard to see. And there’s only been a few times when when I’ve really been hit with what I call relevance wounds where I didn’t feel relevant anymore and I felt like um you know I I I wasn’t needed, right? And and the problem when with founder syndrome and and and other like you know imposttor syndrome and other other these types of scenarios when you feel less needed you instantly feel less valued, right? And the minute you start feeling less valued, you know, your passion goes down. Your purpose or your your focus on your purpose goes down. I’ve had a lot of nonprofit leaders that tell me they’re like, "Man, I’m just losing

43:31 passion for what I thought I’d never lose passion for." And it was fun. It was fun to be able to say, "No, that’s not what’s happening right now. You’re not losing passion. You just feel like you’re less valued." Oh, yeah. That’s it. That’s exactly how I feel. Yeah, I know. Yeah. and you feel less valued because you feel like you’re less needed, which is partially true. You’re not needed in everything anymore, right? You’re only needed in very specific roles. And it’s very hard to shift from being responsible for everything and making all the decisions and and everything comes through you and you know, good, bad or right or wrong, you have to be the one that bears it all. Guess what? You don’t have to do that anymore. Right? And you you you feel like everybody’s like, "Well, wouldn’t that be amazing? That’d be a great thing." Yes. However, right, that’s what your identity turned into. That’s what your organization warped you into being that that center focus of solving all the problems. So, when that is taken away, that literally feels like your your uh identity is being taken with it. And who wouldn’t fight to the bitter end to lose their identity? Of course you would, right? You just need to realize that’s that’s what your identity is being ripped from you. You actually have a completely separate identity. Uh you’re you’re person. You’re not your you’re not your organization. And that sometimes takes a little while for someone to wrap their minds around. I actually do some coaching on it. So wow, that’s really amazing. I want to also ask you because a few minutes ago we talked about you know there’s um certain number of people out there that they’re living life without passion or or purpose like what advice can you give to those people that you know they haven’t found their passion or purpose yet like is there like a first step or like some directional advice that you

45:24 can give them like this is what you can potentially do to find your your purpose in life 100% 100% and the first step is realizing number one you everybody has value. Everybody, the bum on the street, he has value. He just doesn’t see it. Right? So, I I tell people, listen, if if anything, just believe me. Don’t believe yourself. Just believe me, you have value, right? Look, and and and even if it’s just a little spark, man, just a little bit, right? That’s okay. You can build on that, right? and and in my experience and I can only speak for myself right as well as well as others that I’ve ch talked to and coached if you want to find true joy and if you want to find passion right the very first step and there’s a lot of psychology behind this the very first step is just stop thinking about yourself stop there’s a there’s a good clinical psychologist named Jordan Peterson he’s very popular he talks about how when people have social anxiety and they they’re going to a party, right? You know, they don’t know how they’re going to handle they they don’t like be around people. It’s a Christmas project. I go talk to people.

46:31 I don’t want to do that. Blah blah blah. And he sit down. He says, "Listen, really what I want to tell them is like, listen, just go to the party and stop looking at yourself. Stop thinking about yourself. Just go have a good time." Well, the problem with telling someone not to do something, what do they go and do when you tell someone don’t think about yourself? Well, they’re just going to think about themselves, right? It’s just our human nature, right? So, he says, "Tell you what he says. says, "I stopped telling my my clients that." I said, "Now," I said, "When you go to the party, think about this for a minute. This is brilliant. When you go to a party, find someone that’s at the party and make sure they’re having a good time." See the distinction? Now, he didn’t say, "Stop looking at yourself." He gave them a different focal point, which is basically so they won’t look at themselves. And not only that, they’re looking at how they can help someone else out, right? And that that came with, you know, a wave of success. And it really is very simple. When you’re struggling right now, when you’re struggling to trying to find passion and certainly purpose in life, right? The best way that I’ve found, the quickest way is number one, when you stop thinking about yourself and you think about someone else and when you start acting for someone else. Even if it’s guys, even if it’s just a smile at the at the gal at the grocery store, right?

47:51 Or or a simple comment like, "I really like your hair." You know, those are the small little acts of kindness that if we continue to practice, I promise you, they build into an opportunity that will eventually fall in your lap. an opportunity that will lead to passion that you will not even begin to comprehend um how it can change your life and will turn to purpose eventually, you know. So that that’s my advice. You know, I I actually teach what I call the tiny m tiny moments framework where when you see something and then you feel it, right? That’s the big key. You see a lot of problems, but there’s some that you feel really passionate about, right? That’s coming from somewhere. You know, Daniel, don’t hate me, but I don’t give two craps about cats. I’m not a cat guy.

48:46 I just don’t like cats. I don’t know why. I just don’t like cats. Dogs, however, man, I’ll I’ll cross the street in the middle of busy traffic to go save a dog all day long. And that’s good. There’s people that feel that way towards cats, and that’s good, too. If we all felt the same way, boy, dogs would be in heaven and cats would have a hard time. You know what I’m saying? So, it’s good that we all have these different things that we feel. So, why do you feel that? Why is it different from one someone from someone to another person? Well, the only logical explanation is because that means something to you. And that means that when it means something to you, there’s something behind that scratching you going, "Listen, listen, listen, go do go do. I promise you there’ll be more behind this door if you just open it. And I can’t open it for you, but you got to go and listen to the scratching, you know, listen to that itch that you’ve got when you see and feel something and build up the courage to act even in the smallest ways. Go do the smallest task.

49:50 Go smile at that cashier at the grocery store. go make a a pleasant comment and the next day make something maybe maybe something a little bit different. Maybe maybe you go mow your neighbor’s lawn that you know that is a single mom or old lady without even being asked. Man, I just can’t express enough these tiny moments, the more you act, the more fulfilling feelings you get, the more opportunities that get presented. I mean, Daniel, you get looked at. Hey, if you want something done, I know that Daniel over there, man, he he really helps out people. Oh, he does. And it might produce a great job opportunity for you. Someone’s looking for that nice, you know, give back type of guy. Now, all of a sudden, you find yourself in a better job, right? Which is a higher pay. And then you meet more people and you meet more influential people and then and and more positive and you make more friends. I mean, do you see how this ball just rolls and rolls all towards the positive? All because you just stop thinking about yourself. It’s just so to me, it’s so plain. It’s so in front of me. But, you know, it happened to me, right? And and and so I’m a little I’m a little um I got a little help. So, I hope that this helps other people.

51:06 I I think you explained it really well. And I think you’re absolutely right. Sometimes we have to like stop and smell the roses type of thing where it’s like and look at the tiny things. I think sometimes people get overwhelmed when they see too much. It’s like way too much going on. But sometimes just take taking these small things like you said like mowing somebody else’s lawn can mean such a huge difference to you know like your neighbor or or somebody really needs it even yourself. It makes a dramatic difference. Well, I think sorry I was going to tell you real quick and and the thing about that too is we some of the excuses we have Daniel is like, "Well, that’s not going to change anything, right? Me mowing my neighbor’s lawn, he’s still a jerk. He’s still going to be a jerk." You know what I’m saying? You’re right. It might not change anything for him, but I guarantee you it’ll change you, right? And and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to change and improve yourself because the more you change and improve, the more you can help other people out and the better you become and then the more people you help and the better you can become. You see the circle that happens. It’s all for positive. That circle also goes down too, right? You know, the less you help, the less value you feel. The less value you feel, the less you want to help, the less help. I mean, it’s just there’s a spiral down too, you know? So, why not pick the one that goes up? I don’t know.

52:29 So, I I want to know because like you mentioned before, a lot of people don’t know about like this this issue of kids not having beds. So, how is it like you’re able to like convince people to believe in your vision and and get people to volunteer for heavenly, you know, sleep in heavenly uh peace when it’s not like like a well-known, you know, it’s not like a big name, Boy Scouts or Red Cross or, you know, big names like, oh yeah, I’ve heard the Red Cross. I everybody knows Boy Scouts, but sure, no, most people haven’t heard about this yet. So, how do you really get, you know, people on board with your vision? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty easy, actually. Um, number one, when you tell someone that there’s children sleeping on the floor, right? That they don’t have a bed. They’re sleeping on a concrete floor, right? Your first impulse, mine was too, is no. No, there’s not that many pee. There’s not that many kids. I’d have heard about it, right? I’d have I’d have known. I would have found out. Like, someone would have said something.

53:31 So, you know, it’s that, let’s use the word disgusting to them, right? It’s it’s so terrible. It’s it’s literally unbelievable. I get it. I was the same way. So, I tell people, go prove me wrong. Go ask your school teachers. Go ask the school counselors. Go ask first responders. Go ask CASA, foster care, right? CPS. Go ask them how many kids are sleeping on the floor. Ask them the conditions that these kids are sleeping in. That’s all it takes, man. Because once they do that, every single chapter president that we’ve trained, and we’ve trained over 500 chapter presidents, I should say chapters, chapter presidents, usually two. So, we’ve trained, we’ve literally trained thousands of people that come to be a part of SHP. And every single one of them has said the same thing. Every single one of them, they said, "I had no idea, no idea that this was a problem in my town." And we’ve had some teachers said, "You know what? I’ve seen a couple of kids like I’ve kind of known." They come in tired and get bad grades and and some of them may have even experienced it, but they had no idea how bad it is, you know, and how how much of a pandemic problem it really is in our country. And I promise you once they investigate that and they realize, oh my gosh, that Luke kid, that guy from Idaho was right that there is this big of a problem in my own hometown. And guess what, Sleeping Emily Peace, you can either be a part of a chapter or you can start a chapter. Now the ball’s in your court. You know what I’m saying? You know, Daniel, you’re from Florida. I I’m not going to solve your problem in child bedlessness in your town. That’s your responsibility. You know, mine is in my own town, right?

55:15 And that’s where we’re at is is trying to find people that have a passion that this is what they feel, right? If you don’t feel it, that’s okay. You’ll find something else. But if this is something that you feel and you want to be a part of or at least be a part of the solution for these kids, you know, you can go to our website, shpbeds.org, and you can learn all about it. You know, the cool thing about our website is it’s not some big national web page, right? It’s actually going to take you to the closest chapter that’s to you because we want you to see how many kids are on the waiting list. How many kids have that has that chapter helped and built beds for? You can find activities and builds and delivery days that you can be a part of. You don’t have to have any experience. A lot of our volunteers have never touched a drill before in their lives and they’re out there building beds after a couple hours. They’ve got it down, right? You can go on a delivery. you can donate 90% of your dollars stays in that community, right? I got to turn the lights on, so I got to take a little bit of money, but you know, 90%.

56:19 Right? You could start a chapter. And best yet, if you have a child on the floor, if your neighbor has a child on the floor, if your friend five states over has a child on the floor, you can go to our website and apply for that child. And depending on which zip code you you pick, right, or the zip code that the child lives in. If a chapter president has accepted that zip code as a deliverable area, then the chapter president gets the application. And it’s not first come, first serve. It’s based on need. And most of our chapters have far more applications than than they have bed. So it takes a little while. In fact, as you and I speak right now, on average, typically all the time, really, we have over 120,000 kids on our waiting list, and it never goes down. I mean, we try to try to keep keep on top of it. We only cover 30% of the United States. So, when you got 130 on your 120 130 on your waiting list and only 30% of the United States, doesn’t take rocket science to realize what what kind of need there really is out there.

57:23 Wow, that’s really amazing. So, I mean, you’ve been, you said, you know, working on this uh for a long time now. How do you think you’ve changed personally from like when you first started, you know, creating your first bet all the way to now? How do you think you’ve changed personally through like this whole journey? Oh, Daniel, I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned so much about myself really. You know, I can only speak for myself. I I’ve made some amazing friends, lifelong friends, some amazing experiences I’ll never forget, relationships and and and bonds that I’ve made, but like internally, right? I And maybe I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m getting older. I I maybe it’s some of that, too. In fact, it’s my birthday today. Oh, happy birthday. Oh, thanks, man. You know, m maybe maybe it’s because you get older and and you learn this. I I don’t know other than I’ve had experiences, good and bad experiences in my service work with sleepingly peace and they have always turned out to be a lesson I needed to learn, something I was able to pull away from and improve myself with. Right now, I think that takes some of my my internal thought process. Some of it was harder to accept than others. You know what I’m saying? You know, we all make mistakes, right? And mistakes can either make you or break you. you know, you really get to you really get to choose.

58:48 And I’ve made some doozies. I’ve made some big mistakes, right? And rather than letting them define me and and ruin me, you know, I’ve chose to look at them as a as a less a lesson so I can I can build from them, right? And now those experiences I have, those choices I made, I know what it feels to make those choices. I know why people might go through and and and say or do things that they they shouldn’t, right? um and and can understand them better. I wouldn’t have had that perspective had I not made those choices. Now, I’m not advocating you go out and make bad choices. Don’t get me wrong, you know, but I’m saying make the best of it, you know. You know, there the the the one path is always forward. It’s always moving forward, right? There’s no there’s no justifiable reason to sit or certainly go back, right? Always move forward. And moving forward means learning and and growing from your mistakes and growing from your successes, right? learning what worked and and why it worked. I couldn’t have told you about tiny moments framework, you know, even 10 years ago, right? I didn’t know that that was happening to me and and how to how to get past that.

59:58 And now, my gosh, Daniel, what a better program, what a better formula to find happiness than the tiny moment framework. There’s not a better formula out there. Not that I’ve found and not the quickest way to find good happiness simply by stop stop looking at yourself and serving others. What are some of like the the volunteers that like you know that have been involved in in your organization? What what type of feedback have they been giving you? You know, it’s it’s one one of our core values in Sleepy Peace is the volunteer experience. And the reason why that’s important is because we learned a long time ago that our mission doesn’t get carried through unless we have volunteers, right? And I remember I used to make the volunteer experience as easy for them as possible. I’d be the guy running around and lifting the heavy stuff and moving this and doing the hard work. And I wanted my volunteers to feel comfortable and feel like, you know, hey, let’s get you on an easy job so you’ll like it and you’ll come back. All I was doing was robbing them of the real fulfillment that comes from working hard. I had a 70-year-old guy teach me that when I put him on the saw and forgot about him and four hours later I went back and he I thought he was going to complain to me about working hard and I didn’t give him a break and he couldn’t go to the bathroom and all this stuff and I apologized up one side down the other and he wouldn’t have it. Daniel, he wouldn’t have it. He held me up, told me to stop. He says, "No, Luke, thank you. Thank you for giving me that hard work because it it dawned on me, right? That if you know the happiest volunteer with Sleep and Emily Peace is the sweatiest and the dustiest. And when you really think about it, if you’re going to spend time out of your good day, your Saturday, your day off at 9 in the morning, it’s cold out. You know, you got probably better things in your life that you’d like to go do than to go freeze your butt off building beds. But you do it.

1:01:57 And at the end of the day at when the build’s over and you look at that what was a pile of wood 3 hours ago is now 20 beds that are going to go to kids that have never had one. That is a level of fulfillment that you can’t get otherwise. You can’t get without going through the tough with going through the cold, going through the cuts, going through the the sanding and the drilling and the hours of of constant repetitive, you know, boards flying through. But the cool thing is is at the end of the day, you get to look over there and there’s there’s 20 beds and I touched every single piece of wood that came through that that bed, right? My fingerprints are on that. And that child is going to sleep in the in a good bed for the next 10 years because I showed up. You know, that’s the volunteer experience that you hope all nonprofits try to achieve. And so we, you know, our volunteers, they they they pull away tired, sore. The next day they they talk about post post build body. It’s a real thing, trust me.

1:03:03 But they sign up again and again and again because it’s like going to the gym. It’s hard to get to the gym, right? But the the sore you are after the gym, the more you feel like you did something, the more you know you you actually worked hard. And that is a fulfilling feeling that you can’t get otherwise. You just can’t get it and unless you go through it and that’s what we provide. So just to be clear, we’re going to put the website in the show notes. Uh so if people want more information, they can. Is that the best way if they have questions either for you or they’re interested in getting involved? Yeah. Yeah. Go to our website and shpbeds.org. You can learn about us. I mean, heck, you can email me. I’m just lukemic at shpbeds.org. You can go to my website. Um, mine’s just lukemicon.com. You know, you can learn about who I am and learn about SHP. If you’re struggling with your own nonprofit or or you’re going through something as a founder that you don’t like that may sound like founder syndrome, let me know. Shoot me an email. Be happy to help. You can find me on all social media platforms. Just type in Luke Mickelson. You know, you’re you’re going to find me. I promise you. I’d love to work with you. And and trust me, there’s kids in your hometown right now that are sleeping without a bed. And you could actually do something about that. Think about that for a minute, right? You know, think about how just one small afternoon you could get 20, 30, 40 kids a bed. Bring your family, bring your kids, bring your buddies, bring your your next door neighbors. Go build beds together. I promise you, at the end of the day, you’re going to feel something you haven’t felt for a while.

1:04:47 Well, look, I I can’t thank you so much for everything that you’re [clears throat] doing to help like these kids. I I I think it’s extremely meaningful and you definitely open my own eyes. I’m sure a lot of people who are watching this, they’ll also be like, "What is going on here in our own country? It’s like people are buying thousand iPhones, but this like kids, but don’t have a bed." It’s just mindboggling. Um I mean I created this podcast specifically for you know to bring on guests like you who are or share inspirational stories and to inspire people to do you said take acts of kindness take you know good deeds helping people out make you know make people realize that there’s really wonderful people out there like yourself that really care about you know your local town and helping people especially things like kids and giving them beds. I mean, that’s so important and I’m so I have so much gratitude for you coming on. So, thank you so much for that.

1:05:44 I I mean, I’m going to try to promote this as much as I can online. No, thank you. And hey, listen, thanks for having a podcast. I mean, I tell people, look, I know Daniel makes a million dollars doing this, right? Not exactly, but right. Yeah. Hey, listen. and it’s your own money and and your own time that you’re doing this for for a great cause. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a platform to share this with. We, you know, we couldn’t get the word out of child bedlessness. So, thank you for your time and effort and money that you put in personally to make that happen for everybody. That’s awesome.