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Hey, I'm Jon.
And I'm Becky.
And this is the We Are For Good podcast.
Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started.
Yo, yo, Becky, what's happening?
Oh so excited for this conversation today.
Oh, me too. I mean, it's not often that we get to meet IRL in real life, before we get to meet someone on the podcast.
That hardly ever happens.
Rarely happens. But about a month ago, we were invited to go to Denver to the stand together kind of conference meeting of the minds where they have, you know, their catalyst program that really comes together encourages one another shares their stories. If you don't know about that, like go back and listen to some episodes with Evan Feinberg on the podcast. And it's really fascinating, the way that they just really curate really powerful individuals who have used their lived experience to channel massive change. And so we're sitting there and you know, we are what's the word softies. But we also love the power of business mindsets, and entrepreneurial mindsets to really fix a lot of the problems. And we're sitting here listening in Kelly walks up front and center of the stage. And for the next like 12 minutes. Our hearts were just so captivated by her personal story, but of her like heart for this mission that she has created. And so it is like an unbelievable honor to have Kelly come into our house today and really share her story. And so I'm gonna introduce you a little bit to her. This is Kelly Lin guard. She's the founder and CEO of unchartered and this is a 501c3 so it's a nonprofit social enterprise whose mission is to end the addiction relapse cycle to ethical sustainable fashion. Are you surprised by the word fashion they're right?
I love this. This is this is such a brilliant organization is so
cool because they provide jobs skills, training and employment for women in recovery to help them build a path toward economic stability and sustained sobriety. And in June of 2021, and shattered celebrated six years of employing women in recovery in his experience only a single relapse for their employees. Like absolutely phenomenal program. The success of shatter has been lauded as far as the White House who recognizes and shatter for their creative and effective work in fighting the opioid crisis. And know Kelly's background, has this education in engineering physics, her title CEO, but her calling is ambassador of possibility. And I'll just say she is completely hardwired to this, but also the design aesthetic as your resident designer here on the podcast. You got to see what this team of women creates because it is magnetic. And the story behind it. I'm just so excited to unwind with y'all today. So Kelly, get in this house. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for being here.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for the privilege and the honor of getting to tell our story here I'm grateful for you guys showcasing work like Unshattered, those of us that are in the world trying to do good. So love listening to the work that you guys are doing. Thanks for being out there ahead of us
course where your allies
Yeah, so I mean, we want to start with story we want to hear about Kelly, we know a little bit of your backstory we get the privilege of that with you would, you know bring along our listeners today catch us up with what got you to this place today. And what led you all the steps to start on shattered?
Yeah, not something I ever thought I would be doing with my life. But it was an intersection in just hearing the lived experience of somebody that was totally different than I expected. So I come from a corporate background, I was an executive with a fortune 20 IT firm. Before I was 35, was moving up that corporate ladder never thought that I would leave that role and I happened to attend a women's event at my church one night, and they were featuring an organization that was helping women get to sobriety. And I like to say that I walked in the room that night being the person who thought that people that struggled with addiction just needed to get their act together and be more responsible and stop sticking a needle in your arm, get a job. What's the matter with you? Until I actually heard the story of some women in recovery which blew my mind. So was one in particular Emily, who came from broken home. Her mom was ill in bed a lot with lupus and at eight years old Emily's taking care of herself her mom, her brother, a 15 year old neighbor thought it would be funny to get an eight year old high, and when I heard that, I just thought, like, why this is entirely different than I thought the story of addiction was. So this team has taught me that the drugs and alcohol work the problem initially, they were the solution to the problem of pain. And I had no idea the things that people faced in their life that were so painful, and no idea how difficult it is, particularly after somebody gets to sobriety to sustain that for the long term when they don't have resources or safe community on the other side of our recovery program.
Thank you for tone setting, with just a powerful testimonial. And I and I want to value a line here. And I don't know how many of our listeners know this story. But Jon, Julia and I, before we jump to we're for good, we were actively working for about five years on building an addiction and mental health recovery center here in Oklahoma. And until you have sat across from an addict, from an addicts family, and heard the story of the lived experience, and seeing the pain up front, I can tell you, if you do that, as a human being, it will change your worldview completely on this, and I want to like put an asterisk or a bold mark, or an exclamation point on the fact that you have had one relapse, which is positively shocking for anyone who doesn't know the recidivism rates in addiction, which that's the relapse rate. It's usually like only 12% of people make it through treatment without having a relapse, you know, within a certain timeframe. So you have somehow flipped those numbers completely. And I just want to know about this mission, what are you doing, that connects so deeply and humanly and I got a feeling you know, because we've gotten a taste of this of your story, community and seeing the one human being is going to be a part of this. So take us back and talk to us about on shattered talk about your mission and your overview and make us fall more in love with it Kelly?
Yeah, absolutely. So like I said, that intersection was just hearing somebody's story and realizing that the journey of substance abuse was way different than I thought. So I got involved with a local recovery program. I just fell in love with the hard work women in particular do to get to sobriety that is a lot more emotional labor than I will ever have to do in my own life. And so I have tons of respect for it. And while these programs are amazing, it was devastating to start to learn that even when people go through a 365 day program, residential program for a full year, I call it the day 366 problem. What happens next? Yeah, there's nothing. And so you're congratulated and celebrated for getting to sobriety and getting to the program. But in most cases, you don't have job skills, you burned nearly every bridge in your life, you most likely didn't have the chance to get an education. Most importantly, there's no safe community to go back home to. And so I just learned that it was about a whole lot more than determination and started piecing together all of the things that it looks like people needed to continue that journey. So at Unshattered, we say that our mission is to end the addiction relapse cycle. That's what's happening. People are getting sober, leaving a program relapsing if they don't die during the relapse. Hopefully, they get back into a program. But it's many, many, many attempts to get to sobriety and hang on to that for the long term. So we're paving the road between sobriety and long term success. So I initially thought I was doing a fundraiser for this recovery program, I learned how to sew growing up. I love handbags, I like to say that I go to the store to visit the handbags in the same way that people go to the zoo to visit the animals. And after my grandfather passed away, I received his suede coat, too big shoulder seams are ripped out I was never going to wear it and hung in a closet for a long, long time. Sentimental piece I'm never going to get rid of. But eventually I decided to cut it apart, use the good pieces of suede and sew it into a tote bag. So I intersected the story of recovery in this recovery program that I was learning about and really had a lot of respect for, oh, we can help them raise some money. I'm sure I can teach a couple of these ladies how to sell. I'm sure we can get some people to donate some old leather coats they don't wear anymore. We can make some bags and raise some money for them. So my big dream was to raise $10,000 for this program. That happened very quickly. And as it did, you just started to witness when these women made something beautiful that somebody wanted to buy, it changed something in them. They felt value that they had something to offer. They were being creative. They were making design decisions. They were learning team leadership and problem solving and just this emergence of something meaningful that mattered in their life. It was really incredible to watch. I thought then, okay, this seems great. I'm still watching this relapse thing happen on the back end. So I thought, Oh, I guess they just need a resume. What if they do a six month internship and they have a runway and they can tell their employer like, here's somebody that you can call to speak on my behalf. That still wasn't working. So then it got to the point where some of these ladies really seem to like this. There's a need for employment, community, housing, transportation, knowledge and education. What if we could turn this into jobs? And so we did that in June of 2016. And haven't looked back.
Whoa, I mean, wow, there's just like this thread of empowerment in all aspects of that. And I think that giving people the agency, you know, to be able to step in and own something and have pride in something and just the values that you've kind of embodied in this in this process is just so beautiful. So at the tail end of your bio, you, you know, included that you call yourself the ambassador of possibility, break that down, what does that mean to you?
You know, part of our sort of unspoken mission is creating that moment that I had for other people who have thought the same way about people that have struggled with addiction, of changing that mindset. When you encounter somebody who's a designer and a leader and having built a website or doing product photography. And then you hear the story that they are a felon, or they were homeless, or or they struggled with addiction, or they were prostituting, to support that habit, that cognitive dissonance of how can this thing be true about the person that I see in front of me, and reshaping that mindset to help us all understand that addiction to a substance is going to pull people away from their capability in their value set, but we can bring them back to that this group of the women group of women is the most creative, tenacious, hardworking, community oriented group of people I have ever worked with. Mind you, I came from the IT space of working with someone.
You didn't work with people you worked with resources, right?
Oh, my God.
Yeah, right. Right. Right. And so to just watch this latent talent emerge, and give them a runway where they can choose to thrive, choose to learn, choose to solve problems, choose to contribute, they want to, yeah, they just have such high barriers to getting somebody to believe in them and give them an opportunity. I don't know the origin of this quote, but one of the things I've heard that I just find really fascinating is that part of the root of poverty is not the lack of money, it is the lack of connections. And that truly is part of the gap that we're solving. And just when I can get connections built throughout the organization of people across the country and across the world, and the women can gain the confidence that they're worth the investment of somebody else. When you plug those two things together, they're unstoppable. Right, they get to reach out to a network of people across the world, and move towards whatever life goal that they have. And that's a really beautiful thing to watch that unfold. So it's a fun part of our process is we have this sort of journey map where they enter and they think, Oh, I can't I can't do this. It's impossible. I'm not good at anything, I'm gonna fail. It's terrible, everything's gonna fall apart. And then they start to learn and they're like, okay, okay, all right, maybe, maybe I can do this, maybe I can. And then they start to go, oh, I can do this. If I can do it, you can do it. So they start to reach back for the next woman. And when you get to this point where they move from sort of believing that they can do what you ask them to do, the first level of aspiration is I want to do what she's doing. So they start to aspire to what they can see somebody else on the team is doing. But the moment they start to imagine what they can do, and have an aspiration that they don't see elsewhere, but they know that they can do that when you're just like, like, our job at that point is just to stand back and tear, right? So it's building up that confidence and building up that network such that when they get to that moment of belief in themselves, they're completely unstoppable. And we've given a pathway to move towards whatever goals that they have.
This is just such an applicable story for anything in life that if you can show up with an open hand, you can show up and see an individual and see their potential rather than seeing the stigma that's been created, you know by something that here I come on my soapbox, Jon, you knew it was gonna happen. This is a brain disease. This is not unlike a kidney disease or heart disease and why it has the shame and stigma assigned into it is so limiting to the way that we can be vibrant human beings for each other. And so you said, you know, they believe and it really harkens back to this core value number four that we have in our company, which is we believe that believers are more powerful than donors. But I put that in every context about the word donor, you know, believers are going to be more powerful than just an employee who shows up to get a living wage. A believer is somebody who wants to be a conscious consumer and buy something that they need from someone who gives who has put their life on the line, to, you know, put their hand out and try something new. And I think you're just really onto something, Kelly, because the way that women gather, and in circle around each other, especially in times of struggle, I mean, I just see my mom with her casserole, you know, in her potholders, like showing up at somebody's house, when something happens, this is an innate natural gift for women, and you've harnessed it in a way that builds businesses, that builds livelihoods, that builds confidence that builds network, I mean, I just think of the outputs of that. And so I want you to talk a little bit about what sets Unshattered apart I mean, it's more than just jobs, share how this combination of employment is, and community together, is really critical to how unshadowed paves the road between recovery and long term sobriety.
Yeah, yeah. You know, Jon, it goes, it goes back to your question of like, Why do I call myself the ambassador of possibility. And it's not just me, that's how we refer to our donors, and our buyers and carriers of the products and the women themselves. That's all we're about is being ambassadors of possibility to show what can happen on the other side of getting healing, whether your issue was a substance, or not. And so we have really intentionally built into our , our organization values around community around purpose around healing, and around possibility of constantly trying to say, what have we learned this week? How can we push the envelope? How can we go a step further in what we're building for our lives individually and collectively. And I love that you mentioned those circles, in fact, just this morning, well, we're in the process of purchasing a much larger building to expand and serve more women, you know, we've proven our model, we have demand for our product, we want to do more of this as quickly as we can. And so it's kind of an old, you know, you look at it and think manufacturing building, it's not that pretty right now. But we're trying to put in the upfront design work to think of the facility as a piece of art. And if the goal of art is to make people feel something or move towards something, how can we use this building to move women towards healing and community? So we were just talking this morning of this principle of what if we just committed to make every space of community in the building round tables and round circles, and that we're looking at one another, we're not collectively working in a room, we're looking at one another, and always being beheld by somebody else who believes in what's possible for us.
Jon is dead right now. He's on the floor.
I mean, I'm dead. But I'm also like, I hear this like thread of intentionality. And I remember sitting in Denver listening to your story, and you talked about the intentionality of even how the bags are designed. We haven't even really talked about the product piece of this yet. But there's a gold thread. Yeah, and I don't want to steal the thunder. But I want to give you the floor to just explain the intentionality of how you've been designed these bags. That's part of the story.
Yeah, well, first of all, they're all made out of donated discarded materials. So we use things like retired military units.
I really love it.
Premium designers in New York City, or just we like to say that we're in the backyard of the fashion capital of the world. So when they're sampling fabrics and leathers that's going to landfill now that's coming to us or we work with a couple companies that do really high end hotel renovations, of course, you're purchasing hundreds or 1000s of yards of a certain fabric, there's going to be some scrap left over that's going to landfill so we rescue all those things. The original interior of the 1955 Mercedes Benz upholstery, we have a partnership with Southwest Airlines repurposing leather from their planes. So the bags themselves are metaphor of the lives of the women, something that was perceived as discardable, and without purpose, being thrown away, remade into something of beauty, purpose and meaning. And then the bags themselves have three secrets so I don't think you guys got to hear the other two when you heard
we're so excited. The first story of this is amazing. I mean, just the the intentionality and the humanity baked into everything is outstanding. I'm Sorry, keep going. We do want to know the other two. Yeah.
So the first secret is every bag is named after somebody that we know of who is still struggling with addiction. So we were sorry, first names only, I would invite people to do that on our social media. Send us a message if you have the name of a first one, first name of someone that you know who's struggling with addiction. So we pray for that name at every step of the production process. And then the bags come with the card. So the carrier knows that they're carrying that bag in honor of somebody that we hope finds healing to. And let me tell you something incredible.
Gosh,
we have a woman on our team who has an employee right now, whose name was on a card a couple years ago. I mean, not awesome.
I'm trying to hold it together, keep go. I mean, this is what creative mission delivery is all about. You're literally carrying the impact in the weight of what you're carrying around. Wow.
And then every bag inside the liner, it's a secret message, you can't see it unless you rip the bag apart, which we don't encourage unless you're going to buy another one. There's a method from the artists who made it maybe her number of days of sobriety, a song lyric averse, I don't know what they put in there something meaningful to the artists that she gets to hide inside the bag. So you're carrying around probably a little blessing inside the bag whenever you have one of our bags. And then the third is that gold seemed like you talked about and that is our nod to the Japanese art form of Kintsugi, which was when a piece of pottery was broken. They would use gold in the cracks to put it back together. It was so beautiful that that became a form of art with those gold seams through it. The term can Suki means more beautiful for having been broken. So really a philosophy behind our whole business isn't that those places where we have all experienced brokenness can be become our places of strength and connection and beauty.
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I want to go bag shopping. That's one, two. Ladies, let me just tell you, as a female who loves accessories, for shoes and her bags, these are gorgeous, gorgeous bags. And this is this is not your grandma's sort of retail line. This is high end beautiful accessories. And I'm just like, hey, nonprofits, if you want to build something that means something in this world because here's the thing, this is how to do it. I feel your values when you talk, I see how your values are represented and the output of your product. I see your values when I go onto your website. And I'm gonna guess those models that are holding your bags or your or your girls are those your ladies?
yes
and I just think the layers of how you have empowered and built something radically different. That has deep deep resonance and meaning. That is why community is attracted to you And, and the beauty of that is you're bringing us along into the story I want to know, you know, if I have Kelly in my purse, I want to think about Kelly when I pick up my bag, and I want to buy a Kelly bag for my sister, you know, because that means something. And now we're all in community and we're all rooting for. And I think one of the stories that sticks with me the most about our last fundraising project in when we were trying to build this addiction center, this will be really interesting for everybody is we had an exec who was very anti putting names on the doors, naming rooms, didn't think it was didn't think it was appropriate, didn't think it would be aesthetically pleasing. And we had a donor that had named a room and it was a big gift for them to be able to name this room. And I asked them about what do you want your name to be on it. And he said, I want my name and my community to be on it. Because I want people to know who are placed in that room, that this community has their back. And that when they walk through the doors, this isn't just their room, it's a room, we wanted to prepare for them that would be peaceful, and healing and that they're not alone in this room, that we work so hard to bring them to this place. And we're with them. And I think that's what's so beautiful about addiction recovery is that it's gonna take a village to get through this healing. And you Kelly have built an incredibly beautiful village.
Thank you. Yeah, I'll go another layer deeper on that bag you were talking about? Not all of our bags are $2,500. But
that was a really special ones. Yes, yes.
about that for a second. So we got a fairly sizable lot of a very beautiful kind of robin's egg blue leather, which is rare for us to get a lot of fabric and a particular color. So we set that aside as our investment collection. So those bags in that blue leather are for people that are donating to this project's growth, which we call project possibilities to purchase, renovate a building and expand our mission. So when you see somebody carrying one of those, it means they have made a donation through the purchase of this bag, you get a tax deductible receipt back for everything except for the bag value, but it's actually a donation. And then you get to carry that to show off that you're part of this group of people that believed in Project Possibilities to get us all to the next level and help us serve more women. So there's a tassel, there's a wristlet. And then there's the handbag that you were looking at, but they're all beautiful.
I mean, goodbye Louis Vuitton, I want the Unshattered exclusive one, it means something. But I do want to say like even the beautiful products that you have, I'm looking at crossbody bags, I'm looking at toiletry kits wristlets. I mean, these are very affordable from $28, you know, all the way up to maybe 135 or $300. So just thank you for making it so attainable for anyone at any price point to be connected to this, which is just wonderful.
And there are bags, of course for men on there, duffel bags, toiletries, we do some wallets, we just recently did a line out of some high end, luxury automobiles. So we have some leather from Bentley and Porsche and Aston Martin in there. That's been a fun project. And then we do custom and made to order as well. So if you have a particular style that you like, you can schedule an appointment with our designers, our fabric, your design, out of pocket, shortness strap, choose your hardware color, or we do custom bags out of family heirlooms, like I talked about my grandfather's coat, but if you have a wedding gown, a child sports uniform, we've done some out of Grandma's aprons, leather coat, military uniform, just about anything you can think of. We've done some really special ones with people that have lost their pets, and then taking maybe their pets favorite blanket or their dog bed or something and turning that into either a pillow or some kind of bag that was really special. So those are fun ways to get to know our team. We do that virtual consult as well. But to see the studio, get a little bit of a tour, meet the team and really customize your products.
I mean, the juxtaposition of I think of Kelly climbing the corporate ladder, flying in the private space, right? In pre 2016 How did that experience really prepare you for this founding? And what have you learned, you know, along the way?
Yeah, you know, people always say what on earth this must be so opposite of your old job. I mean, first I always sort of cracked the joke of like, I used to have people write whatever, and then you guys Unshattered. I'm like, How do I get a pen around here and I would like to get your own pen. Right so a little culture shock coming from a large company. But really my background in physics and engineering is pattern, pattern repetition and recognition. And so I think that that is what has benefited Unshattered the most is my ability to see that there are patterns in this journey of recovery, both of things that work and things that tend to go a ride. And it has helped me figure out how to address and support. So I'll give you an example of that is that about six weeks in for every single person, they start to lose ground, and you can just see this moment where they wobble, right, they come in very enthusiastic, really thrilled to be here. And then they start to say, I think I want to go back home, I think I'm fine. I think everything's fine. I'm just not going to use this time. But what is happening that we have figured out is that they have to grieve their old life. And so they're still, they're recognizing that there were some positive things like they did have a community was not maybe a healthy one. But there were rhythms and meaning and identity, they knew where they knew who they were on the street. And so the difficulty and the the long horizon of trying to rebuild, all of that is difficult. And so you start to look back and only see the positives. And so we've learned that in this 10 week training curriculum that we have to start them off. On week number six, the discussion that we have is grieving your past. And it is okay to both feel like I miss it. And also move forward. Just because you miss it doesn't mean that you want or should go back. Right? So it's those moments where it's like, why does this thing keep happening right here, and being able to recognize the pieces that are causing women to sort of become, destabilize a little bit and then strengthening the program that we're delivering to help them navigate through those times?
Wow, I just keep hearing you know, this, this level of intentionality and listening and learning and and I just, we say so much on this podcast that the answers to our missions problems reside in the communities where they are. And if we can just listen, and care and be empathetic, I hear something like that, Kelly. And I'm like, Well, no wonder the relapse rate is so incredibly low, because you're really doing the root work in this, in a way that's very human and seen. And I think acknowledging pain and wrapping people who love us around that pain, makes it just a little bit easier to walk through. So I want to know about your dreams for Unshattered. It just feels like you have such an amazing nonprofit here. This is this is what we want to see more of, you know, nonprofits being economic engines and community drivers. What do you see when you look over the horizon for Unshattered talk about your dreams?
Yeah, short term for us is being able to expand, we've been this sort of hurdle of 10 people for a couple of years now. COVID, knocked everything. We that's a whole whole different story of having to rebuild through that and shift what we were doing in the middle and whatever everybody has had to figure that out. But trying to get over this hurdle of critical mass of growing beyond the small space that we're in. And getting to the next level of growth, we know that we have a product that mark that the market desires, it breaks my heart to turn away big opportunities because I don't have capacity to produce as much as there is demand for it breaks my heart to know that I can't add additional women to the team when I have people in waiting and I literally don't have the physical space to put them. And so first of all, to break through that wall and expand to be increasing the number of women that we serve. Part of that growth is strengthening the the way that we individualize the personal professional development that we offer. And so inside of the organization, everybody gets 10% of their paid work hours for personal professional development. So we will pay for therapeutic counseling, they can take it on the clock hours, they can have a professional mentor of their choosing in the community. They can take take paid time to do it. We have weekly workshops where we're bringing in professionals all over the country by via zoom to be teaching our women everything from financial management to healthy eating to principles of yoga, to you name it.
10% Yeah.
I was like a 10 person is crazy,
like leading edge level.
Yeah, just a little bit of aside I do this is one of my favorite highlights from our last year is that one of our women who came from a background of substance abuse, incarceration, she's a felon, homelessness, prostitution was named 40 under 40, business leader for our County last year with just
you Go girl, we're so proud of you.
Yeah, so those moments are just incredible testament to the capability of these women but, but we're delivering that program a little bit ad hoc now. And it's sort of everybody's coming, when we do a weekly training, everybody's coming to the same one, right? I would really like to tailor a finance program where you can kind of enter that at whatever point you are whatever point of education that you need, you know, doing better matchmaking with mentors, where we know that people are really aligned with somebody's goal, doing more sort of job skills assessment, and helping women just really dialed in on their strengths. So getting more individualized attention there. And doing that in a place that is really purpose built. For the work that we're trying to do, again, thinking of this space that we're using, as art that is moving our community towards healing towards connection towards growth. And so the building that we're hopefully just a couple weeks away from closing on is literally called the castle was a nightclub back in its day.
I love it.
It's incredible,
adding to the redemptive story. Wow.
And the skilling is so great
if that building, and then sort of navigating from there, we would love in the future to open a cafe or a coffee shop, expand the market of skill sets that we're offering running the same model. But we also have this strange phenomenon that people come in to shop for handbag, and then they just say, and hang out. Feels really good in here. So so we put a chair in our boutique, because we finally stay here as long as you want.
community wants to hang out, like that's so amazing, and the opportunity for the women to interface with the buyer and the exchange of story and lived experience. So I'm geeking out about that.
And then kind of beyond that, we're thinking hard about what does it mean for the community that we've built? If and when they decide to move on, right? And so there's other places that they're going to get paid more as they grow their career. Not all of them want to work in this business and fashion for the rest of their lives. And so what does that mean, when they are no longer an employee, but they want to remain part of our community. So how can we craft a place where they can stay connected with us as they move and grow. And we have really found a sweet spot serving women with small children. So one of the recovery programs that we partner with, allows women to keep their young kids with them while they go through recovery, which that in and of itself is pretty rare. But it's nearly unheard of then to have employment waiting for that woman on the other end of her recovery program. And so getting to a point where we can have on site daycare, I talk a lot about durability of investments, it is a big lift to invest in these women. You know, you go back to that old adage of you, you give a man a fish he eats for a day you teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime. I don't actually think that's true, because unless somebody gives him a fishing pole and a pond his knowledge doesn't do him any good. And so we see this durability of investment of making an a big upfront investment to train these women to teach them how to build community around them. So they're not dependent on us for the rest of their lives. But that wherever they go in life, they can build a safe community around them and thrive. And so while it's a big front end lift, you don't have to do it over over over over to put this woman back in recovery back in her recovery until odds are she dies from an overdose.
Yeah.
I mean, the threads of this conversation of building this magnetic culture that you live out your values, and it's attracting your rabid fans that people don't want to leave, you know, when they come like yes, your heart that you want to send these people out to if this isn't where they want to spend the rest of their life, then that's okay with you too. But I love that you're investing in the people and putting money and investment straight on that. So goodness, that is an answer to what's my dream. So I must say if you're a leader and you're looking for just like that.
Are you looking for a job?
You may not have him Kelly,
kind of turn this into a telephone to
Me. Seriously, this would be the place to call it out. Who do you need? What skill sets do you need? Well find them.
I love it so much. I mean, you have got to have some crazy stories of where philanthropy has met this. This story that you've kind of opened for us today. Is there one that has like stuck with you and really sticks out as a moment of just philanthropy really doing the thing that it does bring us together in a special way?
Yeah, I think our most powerful ones to me are. Well, let me preface that by saying in the beginning it came from my network of people that I had worked with. And that was super gratifying in knowing or feeling like the integrity that I had done my prior career with, so to speak, earned me the trust and respect and partnership with a set of people that would then come along with me and help fund this next thing that I was gonna go build that they believed in what I was capable of building that was really meaningful. You know, of course, we've had partners come in along the way, who just have fallen in love with our work and are all in. But I think the ones that are unexpected, mean so much, because it maybe this is an odd thing to say. But when you find people that are so aligned with the work, that sometimes they don't even need to meet us first. It's just really special to feel like, the mission is right, that we're communicating it well, that we're backing it up with a really excellent product. And so we had one a couple of years ago, where a pretty significant order came in online. Usually we don't get orders that big. And so when we get some, you know, when they're sort of a little bump like that, I always like to reach back out to the customer and say you thank you so much. Where did you learn about us, you know, you're new to us, tell me, tell me more, you know, you're taking a risk on this big order on a product that you haven't seen in person. I'd love to know who you are, and just be able to tell you, thank you. And it turned out to be a really incredible partner of ours who has been with us for several years now, and has just really spoken into the life of the organization. There's kind of an as a circle of women that's developing that I've been talking to them as just being the midnight midwives for this vision. Right as they speak into the work that we're doing and encourage me and encourage the team and believe in these ladies and start to call forth from the team members what what they're capable of and what they respect about them. That that I think becomes really special when it's somebody who shows up because they believed in the work, not because they have an obligation or friendship or relationship. To me.
I mean, the feel goods just go on and on with this story. And I just keep thinking like hand it to an engineer, and they will architect the most incredible thing in this world, even if it's a nonprofit, you know, that is all about empowerment. So Kelly, as we're winding down, we like to ask all of our guests at the end of our conversation for a one good thing. And we wonder what your one good thing that you would offer to the community is whether it's a quote or a life hack or a mantra, what would you offer up?
I'm just going to reach back into being an ambassador of possibility that whatever is in front of you that feels like that barrier, or that feels like is the reason that you can't be who you want to be or do what you want to do or reach who you want to reach it is possible. And the way that it becomes possible is being open handed, right and just allowing somebody to reach toward you and reaching towards them to allow them to help and that is takes a lot of humility, especially from somebody who wants to be the one to craft it and build it and achieve it. But I just learned like you'll if you were to sit in one of our team meetings, like often you'll see me just lay my hands palms up on the table, trying to give my body that reminder that I am here to just receive and I get to go do my job to architect with what I learned. But when I can be really present and learning and receiving. It makes the things that I want to achieve possible and that's true for all of us.
Kelly Lyndgaard I want to read your leadership book a bit. Thank you for not being completely terrified when we swarmed you at that after reception where we met you because we're like this person is uniquely special. You're a wonder and I'm so thankful that you made that pivot in life because the ripple that we can even feel from 1000s of miles away is just really tactile so let's connect all the ways we want people to connect with and shattered and all of your work so how can people find you online?
Yeah, we are at unsheltered.org you can find our stories of possibility there you can find our products there we are on all the socials at unshatteredNY. If you're anywhere near the Hudson Valley come and visit us we would love to have you in and I cannot do this alone. I have a big vision. We have a great track record. We have an unlimited number of women that need a pathway to rebuild their life and thrive on the other side of addiction and I need help to do that. Whether that's shopping, whether that's donating whether that's Listen, I have this amazing skill set and I'd love to help you can I move to New York. But all of those people that are ambassadors of possibility for the work that we're doing, and for the women themselves, come on in, we'd love to have you as part of our community.
And I can't let the timing of this go past us because we're coming up on the holiday season. And if you're listening to this episode sometime in October, you know, you have two months to get the woman or man in your life, something that is really, really heartfelt, please go to Unshattered's website shop, if you don't have the means to shop, drop a name of a friend in there that they could put into their bag that we could, you know, put into the fabric of this incredible nonprofit, Kelly, you're an amazing human, I am so glad you listen to your nudge and follow this winding path. We're just so blessed to know you. And I just want to tell you to keep going. We're rooting for you in every possible way. And I want you to know we are rooting for every single woman that is actually behind you as well.
Thank you so much. I'm grateful for you guys being out there sharing the word even just having people share on social media goes so far we don't like to spend our money on the marketing. We like to invest in the salaries of the women that we're serving. And so thank you for making that possible and building futures for them. I'm really, really grateful for your generosity of this platform and for your community around you who is stepping into belief in our work.
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