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Hey, I'm John.
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, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. Hey, Becky, what's happening?
I am so excited that we're talking to an incredible podcaster who is also a believer in their mission. Guys, you're about to hear an incredible story of that belief that we talk about when you start to build movements, you have to start from the inside out. And today we are introducing you to our friend Steven Hackett he was referred to us by an incredible good friend subscriber Matthew Reynolds. And he is the co founder of relay FM. But let me tell you a little something about Steven. He did something rather extraordinary. He's co founded and host all of these podcasts on relay FM. And y'all probably know that platform because you're a podcast listener. It's a brilliant independent Podcast Network for people who are creative, curious, maybe even a little obsessive. That sounds like us. But you know, they cover things like you know, companies from Apple and Google, they talk about robotics in the space industry. However, Steven took his belief into something that was very personal within his family. And he has started an incredible podcast a thon that has raised more than 2.2 million for St. Jude's since 2019. And so today, we are just so excited to bring another podcaster on talk about what fuels him what fueled this incredible growth of community to pour into this mission. This is a story about community collective giving. And it's just a great source of inspiration, as all of you are gearing up for giving Tuesday and all of your hearing giving campaigns. So tune in, get comfortable. Because Steven Hackett, we are so eager to hear about your story. Welcome to the warrior for good podcast.
Yeah, thank you for having me. It's always fun to be in a podcast that I'm not responsible for, you know, hosting or editing.
Right, you can just sit back and say whatever the hell you want. We want to know the story. We want to know what would take someone who is a podcast host and really inspire them to take that leap of faith and say I believe so deeply in something that I'm going to create an eight hour podcast a thon event, which by the way, as content creators, I'm trying to think about creating eight consecutive hours worth of content, John, are you not like overwhelmed by it? Yeah, but I know this comes from a very personal place. So take us back and tell us where you grew up. And what really led you to really launch this incredible community based effort.
Yeah, I'm from Memphis, Tennessee. It's my hometown of I've always lived here. My wife and I are high school sweethearts, and we got married in college. And after we got married, our first son came along Josiah. And when he was six months of age, we went to one of those you know, well, baby checkup, right? You go to the pediatrician, you're kind of like, okay, this is where they are. And the pediatrician had some concerns about some milestones that at six months, our son should have been approaching and he and he wasn't, and that concern turned into, hey, we're going to just do some tests. And then 72 hours later, we discovered that our, our six month old had a diagnosis of brain cancer had a pretty large brain tumors as an infant. So it was a really rough entry into parenting for Mary and I, and, and sort of skipped to the end a little bit that was in 2009. So what is that 1314 years ago, but now Josiah is getting ready to be 15 and is doing awesome. And that's because of the work at St. Jude and so now as a podcaster of into doing this for about 12 years, being able to take our podcasting and our content and our people and our community, and sort of aim them on the direction of St. Jude to raise money support and awareness is something that felt like a really natural move for us when we started doing it about five years ago.
Holy heck, I mean, yeah, as fellow parents were sitting over here trying to process in real time what that had to be like, and just on this side of the story, obviously, there's so much gratitude to be in your hometown, an organization like St. Jude, you know, just the resource that was there, I can see that your belief that came through that journey, but just also how you've seen the community surround this mission? What was it like translating that personal belief into something that you took to other people? What was that original organizing, like, How'd you get started?
Yeah. So for for years, my wife and I organized and sort of managed marathon team St. Jude has this big marathon every year here in Memphis. And I started through my blog and through some of my shows, just kind of talking about that, and like, Hey, we're doing this thing, if you, you know, like to donate to that, that would be awesome. And we we raised some good money that way. But about six years ago, I ran into a buddy of mine from college, who works at St. Jude, and Mike Hurley, my business partner, and really, he and I had kind of been talking about, you know, what would it look like if we did sort of a telethon and raise money for St. Jude, and honestly, y'all, we were just going to do it. Like, we were just going to pick a date, and maybe do like four hours and play some video games on stream or whatever, and try to raise some money. But when I ran into my friend, I mentioned this idea. And I'm sure you guys have had this experience. Sometimes you mentioned an idea or a thought to exactly the right person at the right time. And it turns out, there was a new part of the organization that was really interested in working with content creators and influencers, to build out campaigns to reach these communities, as they're really things fell right in line. So starting in 2019, we began sort of this formal relationship with St. Jude as a fundraising partner, their first podcasting fundraising partner, which is really cool.
Oh, they had so many now. You,
yeah, the the team has really taken what we've done and been able to duplicate it and other communities, which is just fantastic. So it really started as this as this thing of just hey, we're going to talk about St. Jude, we're going to do the first podcast that on that live show that you mentioned. We did the first one in 2019. And the one this year is 12 hours. So we're designed to really swing for the fences this time.
And Red Bull
this Yeah, so it's a cafe. And so throughout the month of September, we're talking about St. Jude's mission sharing about what they do raising funds. And then the podcast Athan is sort of a celebration towards the end of the month to, to not only do something visual because our medium is completely audio like we we don't do video podcasts or just audio. And so it's, it's a stretch for us. But it is it is so much fun to be able to do it and work with amazing team members, both at relay FM and at St. Jude to pull it off.
Okay, there's so much I want to talk about right here. Just on the half of a community that believes so deeply in generosity and philanthropy and pouring in to things that matter. I just want to thank you and your partner Mike just for diving into this. But I also want to say to our listener base, we have talked a lot this year, about one of our trends is lock arms for impact. And I gotta like point out a couple of things that you did that I think are really extraordinary. One Bravo to to St. Jude's for just releasing the control and letting you run. Do you remember when we had Mary Kate Tolan on John, do you know what episode that was? Number nine? We're on episode like for Saturday? Yeah, it was like so. I know, St. Jude's so early. And we know they're just such a prolific fundraising, and community based organization. But the fact that they allowed you just to run and interpret their mission through your eyes, through your experience, it really was a magnet to other people. And so I think that looking this is the controlling person talking to you out there. And I have to learn to let go, y'all. But when you let go and let your believers really interpret your mission and run with it in a way that's personal to them. It creates such a ripple and we want those ripples because they're going to get into spaces that we cannot get So bravo to you for that. And I'm just really curious about how you've galvanized the support. I mean, $2.2 million. You have raised in in what I would say is such a love song to Josiah and to all these families probably that you met. What have you seen that really resonated with those supporters with those believers over time? What are the key tenants that you've that have kind of made your eyebrow Quark To
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One thing we've really talked about is how to share the comprehensive story about St. Jude. For one, I'm just one patient dad out of a 1000s. And so while we talk about our story very early on, it was important to me for this campaign to be bigger than just my family. That was a good seed love for our community. But very quickly, I realized I want to talk about the science and research I want to talk about St. Jude's international reach. I want to talk about all these other things that the organization does a bunch of that stuff. I never interacted with rock I've never been in a clinic in another country that is using St. Jude's research and treatment options developed here in my own backyard. And so we realized, okay, we can we can plant the seed, we can route it and my story. But we want to expand past that. And that's really we're having a really good partnership with St. Jude comes in where we've got an entire team of people there that do these sorts of activations and campaigns. And we can work with them to access science and scientists and researchers and doctors and patient families and really tell the whole story. But of course, that is not to take away the personal emotional impact that a nonprofit like St. Jude has, right you're talking about kids who are diagnosed with a catastrophic disease at a young age. And while St. Jude has done a lot to move the needle in terms of survival survivor rate, so when St. Jude opened in 1962, it was 20% survival right now it's 80. So we can celebrate that talk about that. But also like, Hey, y'all, there's still that 20% And at 20% is not evenly distributed around the world. If your child is diagnosed with cancer in parts of the world, that survivor rate is way lower. And so it's important for us to sort of take this mission and the really the broadness of it and figure out a way to tell all those stories sort of in a comprehensive way. And we're really fortunate that we get to work with professionals it's it doesn't I'm not a professional fundraiser, right? I'm talking about computers on the internet for a living, but being able to, to partner with really good people who this mission is their their life's work, and to stand on their shoulders is a real honor.
Well, I gotta call this out, because also St. Jude is evolved to know that when they partner with you, they let you do the thing that your gift to that too. And I think that takes an evolved nonprofit to recognize as an influencer, you have your own voice and this you're bringing your own flavor to this, which is the beauty of it, you know, and that and you can bring your community alongside you. So I mean, explain this whole notion of a podcast a THON, like, what is what does it look like? What does it set it apart? And what do people expect when they're part of this?
Yeah, so we really wanted to sort of take the idea of the old telethon, right where you would have like charities. Yes, yeah, exactly. Right. We all grew up watching those. And we wanted to take that idea of sort of a variety, our, you know, fun and games type event, but do it in our context. So with the podcast hosts that we work with, with the content that we work with covering consumer technology, and sort of take that old idea and remix it in a new way. So the first one is really simple. It was me and my partner on a stage, St. Jude has amazing production facilities. And we were able to host off all five of them have been on St. Jude's campus, even through COVID we're able to make that work. And having my partner and I and other people we work with be a part of it, where it's this wacky mix of of games and challenges, but we're also talking about our content. We're fortunate in the timing. So for me, the new iPhone is like the tech Super Bowl. And so we can bring in our tech content. And then we can talk about St. Jude we can interview people associated with the hospital but then go back to you know, something else tech related like it's this big The event with lots of energy and lots of hype in our community. And it's it's been really successful, the bulk of the money we raised is outside of the podcast Yvonne because we do this for the entire month of September. But during the podcast with Don, we usually raised about 100 grand. And so we're doing donation challenges and, and engaging people who are watching the live stream to to be involved. And it was just this idea of like, Hey, we're gonna take this old format, and kind of apply like our sensibilities to it and sort of our our brand wackiness to it. And it's been really successful. And we've we've got 1000s of people who watch it every year, I always release the audio of it. And I made a joke on the show a couple of weeks ago that you're gonna have to be a sicko to listen to an eight hour video show. But people do it. Like, I don't know who's doing that. But it's really become this like moment of celebration and fun for our community. And also a really powerful tool to fundraise.
I'm just so proud of you like it, I don't mean that like, you know, to project anything that's insincere. Because you've really reimagined peer to peer fundraising. For me, I think a lot of people are probably listening right now, when they think about peer to peer fundraising in the traditional sense, they're thinking, somebody who's got their Facebook fundraiser going for their favorite charities run a THON, or I think about like somebody starting a campaign on pledge or give butter and inviting all their families. But you literally took this fundraiser to the place where you hang out with the people who already know and trust you, which is very, very interesting. And I think, the whimsy in it, the joyfulness in it, the gamification of it made it so tenable and something that your audience wanted to be a part of. And I think it's so ridiculous that that they wanted to be a part of it, I would want to be some part of something so ridiculously wonderful, as well. And so I want you to talk about what have you learned about the power of community in fundraising through this movement, what has their support and encouragement meant to you and to the wider community, you know, as you're raising funds for St. Jude, and your team, what, what's resonated with you?
I think the biggest thing I've come away from all of this is that if you can tell a good story about the mission, and you can show people like you're putting your money where your mouth is, and really putting a lot of effort into it, that when you can have an a community buy in to that and own it themselves. That's when you really find true success. So you mentioned peer to peer fundraising. We've been doing that for a couple of years now as part of this campaign. So a listener to one of our shows can set up a sub campaign, they can raise money, sort of sort of through those more traditional channels. But what's been so amazing to see over the last couple of years is members of our community, just doing wild things in their in their campaigns. We had a guy a few years ago, he's actually a moderator in our Member discord. And he's a big, big woodworking guy. And so he was doing giveaways of some cutting boards and things he was doing. But he had also moved into a new woodworking shop. And one of his things was for every X dollars raised, I'm going to put a St. Jude sticker on one of my new tools. He just bought all this new stuff for his woodworking shop. And now his woodworking shop. It's like kind of hard to look at pictures of it, because it's just like, everything's covered in stickers,
like a van wrap. Yeah, yes, totally.
But now it's like part of what he does, like Anytime he's at stream some of his working stuff. That's Andrew stuff is always there. And he's become like a real part of this fundraiser through his unique way of and what he's doing in his life. And so we've been really fortunate that members of our community have have that much buy in, and are really doing things above and beyond just donating. Because obviously, that's what we want. But I also want people to be excited about the work of St. Jude and think about it more than just in September. Right that Yeah, it's awesome. We're going to do this this month. But we really want our community to kind of be almost thinking year round about what could I do next year, you know, what, how could we take this to the next level, because I'm doing it almost year round now. Right? Like acidotic, seven or eight months to plan at this point. And, and so if if we can all if we can just kind of become part of the lexicon and the relay community. That's fantastic. Now, we're fortunate because we have that audience already, right, because we've been doing this a really long time. And we've we've built that trust and relationship with our listeners. And so when it came time for us to say, Hey, this is something we really believe in. You know, a bunch of them already knew my story because I've just talked about it over the years. But we're gonna put like our full weight and effort behind this and we want you all to come along with us. Everyone was on board because we've had that relationship for so long. And that can be hard to get to that point. But once you're there, it can be a really powerful thing.
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You say you're not a fundraiser, Stephen Hackett, you are spitting out some evolved truth. And and I don't want anyone to miss it. Because what you're doing to build belief for an extended period of time where people are still talking about it, not during campaign season, when people are still activating on it. It's become cultural, and it becomes a part of their like giving his identity. We talk about that a lot this year. And I just have to say on this Lastly, you as evolved so well. And I'm wondering if St. Jude helped you because even on your landing page, which you know, has the wonderful thermometer that I can't wait to see is blown out of the water. You talk about employer match, you've got links for employer match, you've got a matching donation challenge. You have donor advised fund links in there, you guys are getting very philanthropic Lee savvy. And the beauty of that is you're educating your audience about that, too. So I just noticed that and I wanted to call it out and say y'all out in the listening audience, you can do this too. I'm empowering you. Yeah, some
of those things are in response to what was happening in the community. So as you may imagine, a tech focus network, we have a lot of people who work in tech who listen to us. And almost all of those big companies have matching donation funds. In fact, most companies do like you don't have to work at some big tech company, like a lot of places have that. And so we realized really the second year, like oh, gosh, like there's, this is actually like a pretty big thing we could tap into. And so we've worked over the years, through our partners at St. Jude to make that easier for people to do, right, because maybe you got to go to some HR platform, or you've got to, you know, email this person or that person. So we try to have those resources, they're available. Same thing with the donor advised fund, right not. And it was not something I was familiar with, before we started this journey, but we had some people make some sizable gifts through that avenue. And so that this is new for that landing page this year, we're able to kind of get those pieces together this year, to tell people like hey, you know, if this is kind of where you are, this is how you give, then we can do that too. Right? You don't have to, you don't even have to let me know it's you. Right. In fact, some of that stuff is like direct relationship between the person donating and St. Jude, and I'm maybe not even aware of all of it. And so we just want to meet people where they are and make it really easy for people to give. An example that we wrestled with a few years ago was the addition of Apple Pay. So it's big in the tech community, right? Google Pay Samsung Pay, they're all very similar. And we appreciate that over here. Yeah, I'm all about it. And so we were able to using the platform or use Apple Pay a few years ago, and people were all about it and loved it. And Apple Pay was a pretty big chunk of the the giving ever since. And so we tried to be very sensitive to what the community is telling us they want, or things that they need, you know, so if you start a campaign underneath ours, we have a lot of resources now to help you get started. And so we want to take away as many challenges as we can to make it really easy to fundraise and really easy to donate however people want
to, again, yeah, they're so brilliant. And you know, this listening audience around our podcast is powered by changemakers. I mean, that's why a lot of us got into this work, but in our personal passions, too. So I want to ask you kind of a twofer question as we start to round out, but like what what would advice would you give somebody that wants to start something like this, whether it's a unique campaign or some kind of initiative? And then the second piece is what a nonprofits need to be doing to make this relationship really work because I can see I mean, you're so many years down the line and you're still so happy about this partnership, what does that look like? And what kind of resources are the nonprofits giving you, or support that you're giving you that that really makes it feel like a win win?
I think the most important thing is to find the thing that makes you tick. Right? So for me, and for my, my partner, or my family, it's St. Jude, right, my wife and I have been involved for so long now. And it was just a natural extension to bring the company into it. But you know, it's a lot of hard work. And there's a lot of long meetings and long hours trying to figure this stuff out. And if we weren't passionate about it, it would be really hard to see that through. But way more importantly, the audience knows, like, whoever you whoever you are, whoever your audience is, whoever you're trying to reach, they know if you're faking your enthusiasm or not. Because it's really easy to see that, especially over a long period of time, like this campaign runs four to five weeks, we've been doing it for five years, if we weren't super excited about it, people would have caught on by now. And it wouldn't be as successful. Yep. And so we really spend a lot of time and energy just internally making sure that, hey, even though this is really busy, and there's a lot of stuff going on, that we are aligned with the mission, internally, just like in here, so people can see that when we talk about it, in terms of what nonprofits should be doing. I think I go back to what I said a second ago about being sensitive to what the audience is actually telling you. Because they're not always gonna say it loudly. Right? They're not always going to send you an email, say, I want this, this and that. But it's about knowing your people, whoever they are. And it's about knowing where they are, and the tools that they are wanting or needing to make this possible. And so I think, I think some people will get discouraged. And they, Becky, you mentioned, like, Hey, I put this thing on my Facebook page and like, nothing happened. Well, you got to show that you're passionate about it. And then you gotta meet people where they are, right? It's the reason like schools have, you know, book fairs or whatever. It's like, oh, yeah, like, kids like books, we're raising money, we can put these two things together, it makes a lot of sense, right. So really knowing your audience, knowing where they are. I think that's the most important thing. And I think it's easy for people in the nonprofit world. I mean, I've got a lot of nonprofit experience beyond the scope of this conversation. I think it's really easy to kind of get into our own heads and into our own mission so far, that we sort of lose sight of the context that the people we're trying to reach are in. And I think that can be that can be problematic. And so I think really understanding where you fit in where your people are, is just huge.
Yeah, I agree with you. And I, I'm just curious from the nonprofit perspective, like, how did St. Jude equip you? Like, what did they give you? What did that partnership look like? And I know, there's people listening right now that says, you know, who approached to and what kind of assets? Do I give an influencer? That can be helpful?
Yeah. So we work really closely with our, with our partners there. And there's a lot of nuts and bolts stuff, right? So we spend a lot of time like, what's the campaign artwork going to look and feel like, and we work with their designers and our designer and figure out what that's going to be, you know, St. Jude is a little bit different than some other nonprofits, they are very, like, they're, they do a very good job with their brand. And so we have to play within the sandbox of their brand guidelines. But even if that's not your your MO, you know, having those resources available, okay, we're gonna share stuff on stories, or reels or whatever. Okay, like, well, can we help you? Or can we just hand off to you assets that work in those formats, right? Can we help you, or give you talking points and language to us that we have found successful in the past? And so we work with them on all that stuff. When we talk about St. Jude on our shows, we have several different sort of ad scripts that we give to our host, and then they're free to talk however they want to, but giving them hey, you know, here's a handful of numbers that we want to focus on this week about St. Jude's international work, right. And so we can give them real hard information. And it helps them tell their story, but backed with like actual information. Yeah. So St. Jude, we work really closely with them, both on the visual assets and the sort of the language of the campaign. And I would say, lastly, what they're what they're really good at what our team there is really excels that is pushing us into new ideas and new areas. And so while the podcast alone was initially our idea what it looks like today, the fifth one, there are so many things in that show that didn't come out of my brain or my business partners brain. It came from our team at St. Jude because they're also working with us and thinking through the have different ideas with us. And so it's a very collaborative process. And in terms of how do we talk about these things, how do we display them? And then what is the content gonna look like around it all. And that's really what I wanted, I wanted a partnership, I didn't want to work with a team that was just going to email me a JPEG and said, Good luck. You know, we work hand in hand with that team. And I think we have a really good relationship with them. Now. That's it, that means that when it's time to do this, again, there's going to be more new ideas. Because we do something annual like this, I think it's, it's hard to keep it fresh. And so we spent a lot of time with them, thinking about what could be new and, and pushing it even further. It's just
so good. I mean, in the flip side, it's like, you can't just set up a peer to peer page and just expect this level of engagement, you know, from the nonprofit. And so I love, we love celebrating partnerships here. And just it's fun to be on this side of it five years in and to see what you all have done collaboratively. So seeing we create space on our podcast to celebrate philanthropy and small moments, big moments, and asking you now to just take us back to a moment in philanthropy in your life that has stuck with you. It could be personal, or it could be you know, some of them through this podcasting journey.
So like 12 years ago, probably we were very early on in our St. Jude journey with our son. And it was years before. This actually would have been two years before we even started relay FM. So I was just change your dad and like my, who would be my business partner, he and I had like a hobby podcast at the time. And St. Jude is something that I'm sure a lot of people have seen during the holiday season. You can like round up to the next dollar, Walgreens or whatever, you know, a bunch of different things. And they usually have little maybe index card size things with like a picture of a St. Jude patient on it. And some you know some language and you can sign your name to is like, Hey, I gave it this place. So I'm from Memphis, that's where St. Jude is. That's just happenstance of the universe that was in my backyard. But I went to lunch one day at a local barbecue place with some friends from work. And I knew this barbecue place had been like a St. Jude supporter, you know that that's kind of part of their brand, almost that they are really involved with St. Jude. So I walk in this place with lunch with some friends. And there's about 500 of those little index cards, but it's my kid. He'd done a photoshoot. And they had used him and some of that material. And I'm not, I'm not a big crier. You knows that's not really my MO. But y'all I just like lost in the lobby of this barbecue place. And I'm worried because all these you know, just regular men fans who were getting barbecue, pitched a couple bucks towards St. Jude after you know, they paid their bill. And they all written their names on it. And it was it was overwhelming just to see like these people who like, don't know anything about me or my son, they just know like, Hey, this is adorable St. Jude kid, we're giving. And that has always stuck with me that day. Really telling me and reiterating to me that the work of St. Jude really is universal. And you know, all that stuff I said over this interview, like all stands true that we're building on top of my story in our community, and we're working on that engagement, but also that it's way bigger than us. And it was just it was just a real showstopping moment in my life walking in that place. And anytime I even drive by it. Now I think about it. And just how how amazing it was to see a little creepy. It's a little weird pictures of your kid looking back at you. But it was really cool. And it's something that I think about a lot. And I think in a lot of ways with this campaign, I'm sort of always kind of chasing what that day felt like,
Steven, I mean, that completely underscores what we have seen and what we believe working in this space for more than 20 years, which is philanthropy. Generosity is absolutely transcendent. And when you give to something friends, you know this, it comes back to you tenfold when you put something good out in the world. And I am sure that that barbecue place is one that your family has frequented many times because of that experience. And I just think this beautiful legacy of love that Josiah has brought with his life to so many people that is galvanized into 2.2. Actually, I'm going to say 2.3 Because you're already $100,000 in is just a beautiful story. And we add all of our shows with a one good thing. It can be a piece of advice. It could be a life hack or a mantra. What one good thing would you leave for our listening audience today?
It's something that I've been doing through this fundraiser, as you would imagine a fundraiser of this scale is like having a full time job on top of a full time job. I'm sure it's very, very busy. But really for me something that has been key for me through this process each year is when things feel overwhelming. And, you know, when you've got a bunch of emails from people who are confused about your giving page or someone's, you know, got a question, you don't have the answer to you, like when those moments of stress come, just trying to center and think about the reason that you're doing it. So for us, it's the life saving work of this hospital. But whatever your thing is, just coming back to that centering back on that when the stress comes, or the anxiety comes. And knowing that that stress and anxiety and the hard work is worth it in the end. Because it's really easy. I'm sure you all felt this way over the years, too. It's so easy to get swept away in the details of a campaign. Right? So easy to get sucked in, maybe you're like me, you get sucked into the metrics of a campaign, right? Like, y'all, I'm gonna like pivot tables everywhere, you know, because I tracking all this stuff. And that's good and important to know how we're doing. But if I get if I become about those things that I'm off mission, and I try to every day, or every couple of days, or in the moments of intense stress, really think about why I am where I am, and the reason for what we're doing. And that has really been a healthy and good thing for me over the years. You are a
purist, my friend, John, and you are you are welcoming to John and I's ridiculous idealists club. I mean, we believe in it. There are a lot of people in this community who are going to really respond to that. But as we close out, I really would like to end with Josiah. And I would love for you to tell us. Where's he at today? How's he doing? And what the heck does he think about this thing that his dad is?
Yeah, so he's getting ready to be 15. He doesn't remember his treatment. I mean, he was done with treatment. By the time he was about about two. We did 18 rounds of chemotherapy assigned to you too much of surgery and stuff. very traumatic time. But he has either he doesn't remember that. He's grown up at St. Jude, right? They they're doing annual checkups to this day, probably forever. And so he's been around this his whole life. And so he is always very excited about our fundraiser every day when I'm picking him up from school. The first question is like, what have you raised today? Yeah, he just wants to mass awesome. So I can tell him when I pick him up today that we broke 100,000, because I think I've been this morning after I dropped him off. And so that is fun. But he's doing so well. I mean, that treatment saved his life. And he is he is joyous and fun. He's a great big brother. So we have two other kids younger than him. And he's so kind and sweet with them. And he's really good with young kids. He really has a gift for sort of junior kindergarten and down. We have several young cousins in my family right now, you know, kind of 234 and he's on the floor with them, playing with them talking with them. And that just does me so much good to see that this kid who got dealt a really bad hand early in life, came through it and came through it in a way where he is kind and generous and joyful. I don't know if I could be that way, you know, is that if that was my story, so I look at him and I'm I'm inspired to
be better. Steven Hackett, holy cow, what a story. You have your family story, this legacy you're building, just feel grateful to be in your orbit today. tell folks how they can connect to you. I mean, you're podcasting all the time. So where can people find you? If they want to follow your voice and everything that you're doing online?
Sure. Yeah. So all of our shows are@relay.fm. And I'm gonna couple those weekly. We work with, like, 50, great podcasters around the world. So we have a big team now. And it's, it's really an honor to get to work with all of them. And you can find me on Instagram and threads is mh 86. Over there. So throughout the month of September, we're talking about St. Jude, and then I'll get back to you know, talking about old computers or nerdy stuff. Or, you know, I live in the south and was a post about my pickup truck, you know, can't can't escape it. But those are the best ways to find me.
Well, kudos to you. Bravo on what you've done. In the 38 minutes. We've been talking you've already raised $800 It's just a machine going in the background. I've been watching it tick up, could not be rooting for you more mightily. And thank you for sharing the story and keep going can't wait to follow this journey, my friend. So grateful. Yeah, thanks.
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