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We talk about diapers perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
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So, if you don't have six to eight diapers to drop your child off at daycare, you can't go to work and you can't go to a job interview. So, they're stopping.
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It's really like a block for women and parents being able to go to work.
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So, it's really this symbol of poverty.
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That's how we look at diapers.
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The number one health and wellness podcast. Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty.
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The one, the only Jay Shetty.
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Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world, thanks to each and every one of you that come back every week to listen, learn, and grow.
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Now, you know, one of the things I'm fascinated about is people who find a passion and are able to turn it into a purpose.
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People who have a cause that they care about and they're able to get organized around it to make a change and impact in the world.
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And today's guests have done exactly that.
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Nora Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patrickoff are the co-CEOs of Baby to Baby.
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Baby to Baby is a national nonprofit organization that serves more than 1 million children living in poverty every year.
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Serving children across all 50 states, Baby to Baby distributes diapers, formula, clothing, and basic necessities that every child deserves.
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The organization has distributed over 450 million essential items to children in homeless shelters, domestic violence programs, foster care, hospitals, underserved schools, and families who have lost everything in the wake of disasters.
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Since last year, delivered more than 1.
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5 million emergency supplies to children affected by the Maui wildfires.
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Please welcome to the show Nora and Kelly.
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Thank you both for being here. Thanks for having us.
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And I'm so grateful to have you both here.
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And honestly, when my team and I met you both last year, we got to come and join your volunteer program, which was a service day for our team.
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We made a commitment at the company that we wanted to find programs that meant of some importance to the team, causes that people were passionate about on the team, and yours was right up there, and the team wanted to get right behind it.
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And getting to be there that day and learn about the incredible work you were doing, I was totally blown away.
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Uh very much in admiration of both of you and your stories and journeys.
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And then of course, I got to attend your gala, which was phenomenal and spectacular.
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And I can't even remember now how much you raised.
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Was it 12 million in that gala that you raised?
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Like We remember it was 12. 6. We're like, hold on.
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I was like, this is Yeah, yeah. 12.
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6 to be I love that, Kelly. Good. Be exact.
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It was just a It was incredible to see just two people who are so passionate about a cause, active on it every day, and creating amazing value from it.
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So, congratulations first of all, and thank you for this opportunity. Thank you. Yeah. All right.
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Well, let's dive straight in.
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Uh Nora and Kelly, I want to talk to you both individually and collectively about your respective journeys.
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This is not what you've done forever.
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I believe it's 12 years now that you've been building Baby2Baby. We just hit 13. Just hit 13. Amazing. Congratulations.
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So, let's talk about your individual journeys.
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And I want to find out when you were in your previous lives, was this a passion of yours?
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Was this something you were aware of or were you lost in a completely different world?
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Whoever wants to go first. I will.
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I looking back I think this makes so much sense that this is where I've ended up.
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Um as a kid, I was giving back.
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I think it's really important when parents instill that in their children.
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Um I went to Hebrew school and giving back was a core part of what we learned.
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We had something called sadaka, which was bringing change every week to school and whatever you could collect in your house and that money was going to go toward helping others.
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We also had a food pantry that was attached to our temple and we would go on the weekends and my parents would bring me and we would give food to people who were less fortunate.
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Fast forward, I became a lawyer.
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And in my law firm, Skadden Arps, which I love dearly, it's a big corporate law firm doing giant securities cases, but there's an option to do pro bono work.
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And pro bono work is obviously helping people who are less fortunate without charging them.
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Um and that's what I gravitated to immediately because it was just to me that was so obvious.
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Why would you want to work on a big automotive or oil case when you got to help a low-income woman get housing.
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So, it was a no-brainer to me.
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I was I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to do that from the law firm and that's just all I wanted to do.
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So, looking back I was going toward this direction of giving back and Baby to Baby is certainly a huge extension of that, but I do think it was always there and I do think it's important to teach your children about giving back from a young age.
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I think a lot of the people we meet on this journey that care, they started caring as a child. Mhm. I love that. Thank you so much. Kelly, same question. Well, I was a model.
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So, you know, you wouldn't think of that probably as a giving back career, but it was a career that took me all over the world, but also when I was home in my home base of New York, I would volunteer at a Head Start center in Harlem that I knew people who worked there.
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And so, I would work with kids in my free time.
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I always loved being with kids.
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I wanted to be a teacher when I was younger.
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And so, I was in the classroom with these children and they had no shoes that fit, clothes that were, you know, too small.
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They would wear the same clothes to school every day.
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They wouldn't come to school because they didn't have these basic things.
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And so, that sort of instilled in me this you know, need to help children with basic essentials.
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Like I saw what could happen if they didn't have them.
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They couldn't get an education.
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They wouldn't show up to school.
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So, that was something that was part of my free time, but I loved it so much.
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I was really passionate about it.
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And when I moved to LA and Nora and I met, my father-in-law happened to introduce us cuz he knew I had a passion for giving back to children in need and Nora did as well.
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So, he set us up on a blind date. And that was how we met.
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And so, it all sort of happened from there. That's genius. Yeah.
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What I'm I'm sure he's taking all the credit now. That's He definitely is. Trust me. That's amazing.
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No, what I love about both of those stories independently and I love what you're saying Nora, this idea of how giving back has been a part of your culture ever since you were young.
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And I can definitely identify that and recognize that.
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I remember my parents didn't have a lot growing up, but giving back was always part of their life.
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And I think even when I was growing up, there were times in my mind where I thought, "When I have more, I'll give more." Uh-huh.
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But I found that that was the wrong mindset, it was the wrong mentality.
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What I found is whatever I have, whatever I can give, is a great place to start, whether it's time or energy or money or whatever else it may be.
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And I guess did you feel like in your career, Nora, when you were going down that path and you were choosing pro bono work, did that positively or negatively affect your career?
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And and how did that impact, you know, being a lawyer and navigating that world?
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It it was positive in every way because, again, I the the the big firms do take on this pro bono commitment and they owe the hours and so they need some of their associates and partners to be people who love it.
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Um and so I that was that was lucky.
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And then you get so much legal experience because at a big firm big complex cases, as a junior lawyer, you're having a very minor role in a big complex case.
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And pro bono cases, you work directly with individuals and so you you're you advance that much more quickly.
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You're you're in court, you're in front of judges, you're with a client.
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And so I I actually think it's a win-win for the law firms because you're you're gaining experience and also Yeah. giving back.
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Yeah, the reason I ask is I feel like people always feel and I wonder whether you come across this, but I I feel a lot of people always feel like if I give back I'm going to slip behind. Right.
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to fall behind or if I focus on that.
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And I remember I was at a consulting firm, Accenture. Uh-huh.
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And giving back was a big part of their culture as well and we had service days in the company and uh we had something called ADP, which was Accenture's area of doing pro bono work and it was encouraged, but I find that that's newer and growing now. Mhm.
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Whereas, you know, I I imagine like 10, 20 years ago, that wasn't the norm.
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So, Kelly, how have you felt about that in terms of like this identity of giving back?
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Do you feel like it's kind of seen positively or is it always something that people think, "Oh yeah, I'll think about that later."
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How do people approach that?
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I think what we do at Baby to Baby is we try and make giving back fun and interesting and we try and make it for whether you're an individual, a company, you want to come with your, you know, whole class from your school and you're a teacher.
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So, we try and make it, you know, fun and trendy and we've tried to like, you know, bring some excitement into giving back.
10:07
And as you saw when you came for your team building day, I think it's really working and I think we get so many great different organizations from, you know, your team or the Girl Scouts come in or we'll have classrooms full of kids, but we also have big studios come in and different companies come in for their give back day and we've been able to really make that part of Baby to Baby from day one. People love it.
10:32
People I I I agree that it's changed, but I think and I think for um reasons for all kinds of reasons.
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I think a a lot of individuals are just love it and love giving back.
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I think children organically like to give back.
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I think companies have to give back and so there are companies that have it in their culture because it's organic and the leaders want it and there are companies that just have to have it because I think employees demand it.
11:01
So, what we're finding is that when we, you know, we're obviously a national organization, but even in our headquarters our volunteer sessions where we have the most they fill up in seconds after we put up and we have two two of them we have sessions twice a day and the minute they open up about a month ahead of time and they are they fill up immediately and people are calling to get, you know, can they come later at night?
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Can they come on the weekends?
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People want to teach that they people I think are desperate to teach their kids to give back and I think actually the more they have a lot of times people rec you know people are they recognize how much they have and I think they really think it's a responsibility especially if they didn't grow up that way.
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way. I think we talked to a lot of people who didn't grow up with as much now find themselves in situations where they have so much and they don't know how to teach their kids the way that they were taught and how could someone
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in a privileged situation teach their kids that that is not how the world lives and so I think people are just dying for dying for I think people are are really craving opportunities to give back and I don't think there are that many. So we have found that it's often
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So we have found that it's often expensive to have people volunteer or there's nonprofits that are on a smaller scale where I'm sure they would want help but they can't always afford to have people come in.
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It's messy, it's time consuming and so there aren't as many programs as there actually used to be and so I think when people identify a place that can really use them in a way where they know that they're being used in a purposeful manner and not just doing busy work and when they're at Baby to Baby they're seeing they are folding outfits for children and putting together.
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We try to make it very specific so that people understand how they're giving back and even though we talk a lot about big numbers and 450 million items we're giving out in a million kids people want to focus on individuals.
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So when they're folding an outfit and choosing what outfit to give a two-year-old who's in foster care who they know is coming in such a horrific circumstance and they're going to get to choose the outfit that goes to this child who's in such need people feel a lot of pride and want those opportunities. Absolutely.
13:14
Yeah, I remember when we were there that day I felt your team did a phenomenal job.
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Obviously we met but I thought you and your team did a great job of educating us in what we were actually doing and and where it was going and how it works and I and I found that to be you're so right.
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Like as a volunteer, you felt so much more closely connected to the work that was going on.
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So, when you both meet, was it love at first sight?
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Was it like, "I love this person. We're in sync.
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Like, we should do something together."
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Like, what was that energy like?
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Because obviously this was a a warm intro, I guess.
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It was from someone you trust and respect.
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But, what what was what came out of that initial meeting?
13:50
So, we had dinner with our husbands um just down the street.
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And um we were, you know, probably 10 minutes of the conversation was about I was giving back, you know, I was modeling, living in New York, just moved here, and giving back at the Head Start Center.
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Nora told me about her pro bono work with women and children.
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So, we sort of connected on that and then sort of went on our merry way. And that was kind of it.
14:12
And then, I think we reached out to each other um later on, but it wasn't that it wasn't like the next day.
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It was a little while later, and we had coffee, and we were talking about like how could we start something?
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What could we do to help, you know, women and children?
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That was both of our passion.
14:32
And what we decided to do was go and meet with different nonprofits in Los Angeles at the time and see what was missing.
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So, we went to homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, um Head Start centers, schools, um and we asked what was missing. Where what was the need?
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And across the board, no matter who we talked to, it was, "Oh, we're doing the programming, but what's missing is families are struggling to afford diapers, food, these basic essentials."
15:03
And sort of a light bulb back to the Head Start Center where I saw the children who couldn't come to school cuz their shoes were three sizes too small or they hadn't eaten breakfast or all of these basic things that their needs weren't being met.
15:16
And it all came together, and what happened was we um talked about what we wanted to do.
15:24
Diaper need was one of the things that every single person said. Wow.
15:29
And at the time, you know, there was this statistic that one in three families were struggling to afford diapers.
15:36
Obviously now, later, 13 years later, unfortunately, that statistic is that one in two families now struggle to afford diapers.
15:43
So, we kept hearing this theme of like diaper need, diaper need, and what could we do about it?
15:48
And so, it was a problem that we kept seeing that we wanted to solve.
15:52
And so, day one, that was sort of like, "Okay, how could we make this work?
15:56
What could we do together to fix this?"
15:58
So, that was sort of like the lightbulb moment for both of us.
16:03
I love that process and I want our audience to take note of that because I think one of the biggest things I hear from my community is, "Jay, I care about so many things.
16:09
How do I choose what to focus on?"
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Like, there are so many challenges in the world and I don't know how I fit in.
16:15
And I think often those questions are very sincere and genuine, but they stop us from making change and having an impact because we kind of get lost in decision-making and choosing.
16:26
And I love that approach that you both had of, "Let's actually go and research. Let's go and learn.
16:32
And let's listen to say, 'Where's the gap? What's missing? How can we solve that?'"
16:36
And sorry, go on, Norrie.
16:39
Yeah, I can see you like because it it is all of that, but it's asking the people who need the help.
16:42
And I think that was like the key that we discovered, which was that we And this is helped us for 13 years, is that we can't assume what someone needs.
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You have to go to the community and ask.
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And that helped us on day one when we were asking, "What is the basic need?"
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So, that you'd understand cuz I don't think it's what we were expecting.
17:04
We weren't expecting that they were going to say the whole need is diaper need.
17:07
We But then it made sense when we listened.
17:09
Well, no one's going to come to our parenting class.
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No one's going to come for a well visit.
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No one's going to file their insurance claim.
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We can't get to these people, specifically moms, if they have a baby in a dirty diaper.
17:21
It's just logically doesn't make sense.
17:23
But then today, with when we're dealing with our disaster relief program, and we talk to we're talking to our team is talking to families or the social service agency that serves the families in a disaster, again you're saying, "Don't assume what someone needs in this particular hurricane. Ask them."
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Because maybe they'll say, "Well, in this case the water has been contaminated and we need water before we need anything else to make formula."
17:56
Early on when we knew people needed gear like cribs and strollers, we thought we worked with companies that had big fancy strollers.
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And we thought, "Let's get Let's try to get those donated."
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And then we went to the community and they said, "No, we don't want a big fancy stroller.
18:11
We want a fold-up $20 stroller.
18:14
We're getting on the bus.
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We have multiple children.
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We're walking to school and work."
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And so again, our assumption would have been, "Let's get the highest tech stroller out there."
18:24
The reality was, "No, we actually need a practical stroller."
18:29
So I feel like we learn that lesson over and over in everything we do.
18:33
Listen Listen to the community you're serving and let them tell you what they need.
18:37
Yeah, that's such a great insight.
18:39
I feel like it's such a privileged position to think you can predict what someone needs and what someone wants.
18:45
And I think even when I came in you were doing my diapers, I was like, "Really?" I couldn't believe it.
18:50
Like I was I was somewhat like mind-blown by the fact that that was the missing link.
18:53
And then when you start learning about it and how much more it affects as opposed to you think it's just the diaper.
18:59
And I know we can go into just, you know, the extent of impact that has and all the other supplies that you both focus on providing.
19:07
You almost think, "Wow, I I would never have known that."
19:09
Like I wouldn't have come to that off my own accord.
19:10
And I think sometimes a lot of us are trying to figure out what people need Right.
19:13
in an in a silo, isolated from the problem, from the situation, from people, and we're rarely going to get to the right answer.
19:22
What did it feel like, you know, you're both having successful careers, you're happy doing service work on top of that, like you're doing the pro bono work, you're going to Head Start.
19:32
Like in one sense, it's almost like, well, this is great.
19:33
I serve, I work, I have a good career.
19:37
What makes you both go, okay, no, we need to do this full-time.
19:39
Like this needs to be our primary focus.
19:42
Because that feels like a genuinely big leap and commitment.
19:49
And taking away from two great career paths.
19:52
How did you say, no, no, no, this is enough of a priority?
19:56
Was it something you were building while you were working, or did you both go, no, we're going to stop working and start building?
20:01
Which way around did it go?
20:03
It all happened very fast.
20:03
So, I think we were um slowing down on our other on our other careers and projects, but once we started, it was it took off very quickly.
20:16
So, there was immediately no room to do anything else.
20:18
Um we actually had a event very early on where we wanted to kind of announce this that we had taken over Baby2Baby and that we wanted to make a really big impact, and we wanted to work quickly.
20:35
We both are, I think, have very big ideas and dreams.
20:40
And so, we put together a small event to just make this announcement.
20:44
And we didn't want to spend any money, so we went to friends and had a publicist help, get a photographer there, and a friend who had a hotel space to donate, and some alcohol.
20:56
So, if case we were asking for money, we wanted to make sure people were in good moods. And um Does that work? Yes. Yeah.
21:04
It's one of our big secrets. Got it.
21:08
As you probably saw at the gala. Yes.
21:10
Yeah, we had this event talked a little bit about the mission of Baby to Baby and where do we where do we want to go with it and two of our day one board members Jessica Alba and Nicole Richie both came to the event and had their picture taken by the pro bono photographer and the picture showed up a few days later in Us magazine.
21:33
Kelly and I at the time had one intern and we had a very small 600 square foot storefront space and we got a phone call a few days later from a big publicity company that represented Kimberly Clark who owned Huggies diapers.
21:53
And they said we answered the phone and they said they had seen the picture and they wanted to know if they could donate a hundred thousand dollars and a hundred thousand diapers.
22:07
Again this is week two on the job.
22:09
We had a four boxes of diapers sitting next to us and we were like yeah, we'll take a hundred thousand diapers. Thank you.
22:17
Please send them over right now and then they said well do you guys accept pallets and we're googling like what is a pallet?
22:25
We're like yes, we take pallets.
22:27
and a model not a lot of pallets in our life.
22:29
And then they're like do you guys have forklifts?
22:30
I'm like of course we have forklifts.
22:32
Yes and I'm like where do you rent a forklift?
22:35
And we're trying to figure it out and we're like sure no problem no problem and then the truck shows up.
22:41
The biggest truck we've ever seen taking up wearing these shoes with your heels in case they're listening and we got on the truck and our intern popped on too and a very nice driver and we learned quickly what it meant that they were on pallets, which made them difficult with the exacto knives, getting the plastic off and the crates open, and trying to unload them ourselves with the truck driver and the intern, the four of us.
23:12
But we did it, and we filled our small storefront space and spilled out a little bit.
23:17
And the moral of the story is, well, there are two morals of the story, but we gave them out in one day.
23:25
So, we called this is 100,000 diapers.
23:27
It's a lot of diapers, and we called contacts at homeless shelters, some schools, some local hospitals, and said, "We have diapers for free to give out.
23:39
Would you like to come get them?"
23:39
And it was astonishing to see.
23:41
They were truly We say they were truly like gold that people were picking up and how what it meant to people and the relief that it was showing.
23:53
Again, this was not You know, we don't serve individuals directly because it's in general because it's has been more efficient for us to scale to give to other organizations that can give them out to their clients and fill the whole shelter or school or know who's in the most need, which is important to us.
24:09
But they get they went out the door in one day.
24:11
Now, we can talk later that that was 100,000 diapers.
24:16
Now, to date, we've given out 200 million, but at that time, it was so many, and I think it taught us probably our two most important lessons.
24:24
One, diaper need was enormous and not going anywhere.
24:30
And two, the power of these celebrity endorsements and sponsorships.
24:35
So, just from two women getting behind us, a company wanted to give us that, and we have created that into a playbook where with dozens and dozens and dozens of amazing women, actresses, celebrities, entrepreneurs, CEOs, we've been able to take advantage of their platforms and that is what is catapulted us to be able to give away hundreds of millions of items. Yeah, absolutely.
25:03
What a first week at the job.
25:05
That's That's pretty intense.
25:07
And I can And I can totally resonate with I remember I was 16 years old and I used to work at a grocery store and I remember on I remember unloading my first ever truck of pallets of water and I had one of those manual forklifts like not even like that. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:25
They wouldn't let me do that.
25:26
And so they were like you're you're 16 you should be able to And literally I remember putting this manual forklift in, putting it in a pallet and I then pulling it out and it was one of the heaviest, most arduous tasks ever.
25:36
And now that I've been to your warehouse and seen just how many not only diapers you have but supplies you have and just the the scale of what you're dealing with is I wanted to read out, you know, I was looking at some of these statistics because I just want people to understand uh the the problem statement or the level of challenge.
25:54
I This just blew my mind and I want to share it because yeah, it's super important. Listen to this everyone.
26:02
So, Kelly already said this one.
26:04
One in two families struggle in the US to afford diapers for their children.
26:09
I just would never think of that.
26:10
Diapers cost $80 to $100 per month per baby and the average low-income family pays nearly $1,000 a year for diapers.
26:19
This part I think was Wait, just to interrupt, those numbers are all true but getting worse.
26:24
So, with inflation we're finding that our the families we serve are saying the prices are 30% up from that in the last few years.
26:33
So, the problem is getting worse. Wow. And then this one.
26:37
Diapers are the fourth highest household expense after rent, food, and utilities for families with diaper need.
26:43
Child care centers often require 6 to 8 diapers per day for children to enroll and attend daily.
26:47
Uh That's the one we want people to know about.
26:52
Yeah, we talk about diapers perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
26:54
So, if you don't have six to eight diapers to drop your child off at daycare, you can't go to work and you can't go to a job interview.
27:02
So, they're stopping it's really like a block for women and parents being able to go to work.
27:07
So, if you could don't have the money to afford diapers and you can't drop your child off at daycare, how can you go to work?
27:15
So, it's really this symbol of poverty.
27:18
That's how we look at diapers.
27:18
Let's Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit more because that's what I meant earlier when I was talking about how like diapers is almost like the Mhm.
27:24
the central point of all these other issues that the work actually affects.
27:28
So, poverty is one of them. That's a core one.
27:32
What are the others that you feel are massively affected?
27:36
Well, we know that when we give families diapers, that they're paying their rent, putting food on the table, and keeping their lights on.
27:42
And as you already said by reading off all our favorite stats, that um that is something that a diaper is stopping people, you know, from doing anything.
27:52
It's really you can't leave your house if you don't have diapers.
27:56
Families are using newspapers or towels as substitutes.
27:59
So, if you don't have a diaper, how can you go and take your baby to the grocery store to even buy food for your other children?
28:04
It's just diapers are this symbol of poverty to us that that's why every day diaper need is the number one thing we're focused on. Yeah, absolutely.
28:14
I mean, I I'm going to go on because these To me, these were just these were huge.
28:18
These were some amazing stats about the incredible work you've done around it.
28:22
So, in 2021, Baby to Baby developed your own diaper manufacturing system Mhm.
28:27
producing diapers at 80% less than the retail cost in order to help meet meet the exponentially increasing demand.
28:33
Walk me through that direction because now that's like you're going from having 100,000 diapers sent to you Right.
28:41
figuring out that it's too expensive.
28:43
Well, we've been getting diapers donated from companies like Huggies, for example, with the Jessica Nicole event and um the story Nora just told, but also, you know, corporate partners have been a huge part of Baby to Baby's growth.
28:57
Using Jessica as another example with Honest Company, they donated 10 million items to us, a lot of those being diapers, but diapers are just the number one thing we're, you know, trying to get and we're doing it in every which way.
29:12
So, we're trying to get corporate sponsors to donate to us.
29:14
Then, we've gone to Sacramento to testify to have the sales tax removed from diapers.
29:19
That was something we were able to do.
29:21
Um then, we did a Goop campaign with Gwyneth Paltrow where we launched a fake luxury diaper that was intended to make people angry and it was a spoof and Gwyneth was like, "I I'll take the heat for this."
29:37
And she launched a diaper and it had, you know, diamonds and fur and it was made of like alpaca fur and it was $120 for a pack of 10, but it was meant to show that $120 is what you need to diaper your baby for a month.
29:52
And once she did the grand reveal, it was like, "Yeah, this is meant to piss you off because diapers are taxed like a luxury item. How insane is that?
30:00
And what can we do about it?"
30:03
So, then you were able to go onto Goop and Baby to Baby's shared platform and reach out to your state senator and say like, "This is ridiculous.
30:13
How can we still tax diapers like a luxury item?"
30:15
And since we did that, seven states followed suit.
30:20
There are still 26 states left that tax diapers, but we're still working on that.
30:24
That's, you know, more to come on that.
30:26
But, manufacturing the diapers was something we started because we were able to buy diapers for cost from our manufacturer.
30:34
So, they were giving us low-cost diapers, but at some point, the manufacturer who we were working with understood our mission, knew what we did, and we talked to them about like, "Okay, what if we stripped off the cartoons and made these diapers plain and white and we just use one color for the packaging?
30:51
How low would you make them for us?
30:53
How, you know, what could we get the cost down to?"
30:55
So, 80% less than retail is how much they're were making them for now.
30:59
They're Baby to Baby diapers.
31:01
They're plain white, but they work just as well as any, and we've been able to distribute 200 million diapers because of this relationship and because of manufacturing.
31:10
So, it was something innovative we came up with during COVID because the need was so great, but it's really been able to, you know, stretch our donor dollars so much further and been able to diaper a lot more babies.
31:24
I think we had really kind of hit rock bottom with the desperation for diapers during COVID.
31:28
So, it was already, I mean, we're saying it's one out of two families in the United States.
31:33
It's just an impossible statistic to digest, but it was seeing and hearing one by one the alternatives that the families were taking like using a newspaper to diaper their child, like using a towel, like taking a diaper off a baby, cleaning it, hanging it to dry, and putting it back on their baby.
31:55
And there was a point during COVID where the diapers were also off the shelves.
32:00
If we, you know, you can remember, most people were talking about the toilet paper shortage, but diapers were right there with them.
32:08
And um it was just so upsetting to everyone at Baby to Baby that our team really made this I really had this idea to say, "We have to do something about this."
32:22
That our our need had gone up 500% just at Baby Baby to Baby alone in the weeks when COVID started.
32:29
And so, we that was when we kind of in desperation went to these manufacturing partners and said, "We know we're doing a lot. It's not enough."
32:38
And we talked about scratching surfaces earlier.
32:40
You know, we're even now, we're proud that we've given out 200 million diapers.
32:45
It's more than any organization like ours in the country, but it's not enough.
32:51
We have this year alone, just from the families we serve, we have requests for 1. 5 billion diapers.
32:55
So, we just had to do more, and it was manufacturing and the manufacturing system that allowed us to really take the leap.
33:06
Because now, when we get donations, we know they can go so much further. So, we're making packs.
33:12
Families in our program are buying packs for an average of $20.
33:14
We're making packs for 350, and of course, not charging them, and donating them, and it's it's something that manufacturing is allowing us to move the needle.
33:26
Still scratch the surface, but move the needle. Absolutely.
33:30
No, definitely moving the needle.
33:31
And I mean, I'm blown away because it's like it's incredible marketing mixed with incredible systems, incredible management.
33:38
Like, you know, the campaign that you were just mentioning with Gwyneth and Goop, like that is like something out of like a movie, like to be able to pull something like that off.
33:47
And to actually think about it in that innovative way, and to then build a system that's manufacturing your own diapers because you see the value of cost.
33:55
I mean, you're operating like an incredibly innovative, fast-forward fast-forward thinking company.
34:03
And you're applying it all to doing good in the world.
34:05
Like, has that always has this strategic marketing brain always been between you two?
34:09
Like, how have you you know, how have you been able to think about changing the world in this way?
34:15
Because I think that, like you said, I think change can often feel boring, it can feel like slow, it can feel like it has to be done in a certain way, but you are willing to like push boundaries, and maybe some people get upset in the beginning to get them to make a point.
34:28
Like, that's a really original, unique way of thinking about change.
34:33
I think we're not scared to push boundaries and I think both of us, you know, people say to us all the time like, "Oh, did you ever think be this big?"
34:41
And we say, "Yes, we did. We did." Because we saw the need.
34:43
We saw, you know, what we needed to do and we went for it and we do that every day.
34:50
And so, being innovative and coming up with fun, you know, exciting marketing things or whatever we're doing, I think bringing the community together and collaborating with whether it's celebrity or corporate partners is something that we love doing and that we will continue to do and we've done it in so many ways.
35:10
Like this year, you know, we talk about all the time, um, we partnered with the White House and HHS in 2023 last year and we launched a pilot program that was creating maternal newborn supply kits.
35:24
And we did it for the three states with the highest maternal mortality rates and the highest child poverty rates.
35:30
And so, it was a pilot program for these three states, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana.
35:34
And in partnership with the White House and HHS and the Vice President came to launch it with us.
35:46
This year, we're now able to go to 10 states with Huggies, back to Huggies.
35:51
Huggies came back in and their partnership with a multi-million dollar pledge, we're now going to take it to 10 states.
35:57
So, that pilot program, you know, it's public private partnerships, it's corporate partners, it's using, you know, celebrity like we did from day one.
36:06
We just had Olivia Wilde, Kelly Rowland and Ciara came to help spread the word that we're, you know, now in 10 states and we're bringing this pilot program to 10 states this year and just being able to do things like that, I think definitely keeps our days exciting and, you know, makes it interesting and innovative and I think nonprofit can be.
36:28
So, I think we're trying to like make that part of nonprofit.
36:30
It doesn't have to be boring.
36:33
It doesn't have to be status quo, you know? Mhm. Mhm.
36:37
everyone won in that example that Kelly just gave about our uh maternal mortality initiative.
36:42
Um in that the the celebrity ambassadors who are so amazing, the three women that came to uh get attention for the program, they care deeply about maternal mortality.
36:55
Um obviously your audience is familiar with how in the United States the maternal mortality rates are worse than they were 20 years ago, and that black women are dying at three times or four times, up to four times, the rate of other women, and I think everyone wants to come up with a solution, I hope.
37:18
And so, in that example, it really was a real public-private partnership with Again, we had the White House and Department of Health and Human Services on that end, needing to give it legitimacy and the platform that they bring to the table.
37:34
Huggies was such an important partner on the corporate end, because these programs need money and they need supplies.
37:39
And so, they had the diapers, they had the breastfeeding supplies, and they they were able to donate those.
37:45
Um women like Olivia Wilde and Ciara and Kelly Rowland, they care deeply about maternal mortality and wanted to bring use their platforms, use their enormous social media numbers, and bring attention to a problem and show that they were coming up with a solution.
38:00
Baby to Baby has this incredible team that is there to have worked for 13 years to identify which states and which organizations in which states have the most vulnerable mothers who could get to the right hospitals these items that they so desperately need.
38:14
So, I think it it's really attacking I think one of the things that Kelly and I really love about it is attacking these problems from multiple angles.
38:21
And so yes, we bring in the like we understand um and can explain to people why we need the help of the corporation, what the government can do to help, what part the celebrity or ambassador can play.
38:35
And I think they all appreciate that and again, it's led to this great program.
38:41
Yeah, what I'm hearing is like a very deep understanding of the problem is what's allowing you to engage with all these stakeholders.
38:47
Like the reason you're able to get the government involved or get corporations involved or get celebrities involved is because you deeply understand the intricacies of the challenge.
38:57
And I think often when we want to do good in the world or when we're trying to do good in the world, we're hoping that that good intention is enough or we're hoping that that passion is enough and actually deeply understanding the challenge and the stresses that people are experiencing, the problems people go through on a daily basis is at the heart of that.
39:16
And one of my favorite uh thoughts is from Martin Luther King where he said that people who love peace need to learn to organize themselves as well as those who love war.
39:29
And I love that statement because I often feel that those of us who want peace in the world or goodness in the world can be kind of a bit woo-woo about it or we can be a bit like, you know, peace and love and it can be kind of like this really nice idea or nice ideal, but it doesn't have systems, organization, strategy.
39:47
And it seems like you've both been able to take your passion and intention and bring that in so wonderfully, uh which is such an incredible example for so many not-for-profits.
39:56
Thank you and I think we really don't differentiate between nonprofit and for-profit in that way.
40:02
And so that's that's something that we care about, reminding people that again the the the work is different, but the way that you run a company in our minds should be the same and that's kind of who we model ourselves after.
40:14
Um Unfortunately, but I we have seen a lot of well-intentioned people not give back in the right way.
40:23
So, to your point, I think in disaster relief in particular is an area I know we talked about on your tour, and we see a lot of people trying to be helpful in disasters and doing it in an actively unhelpful way.
40:37
And that is the place that I think the most we've watched people and it's hard to watch and we're trying to kind of correct people's behaviors in in how they react to disasters because the public, I think, and I'm sure your listeners care deeply about disasters.
40:54
And by disasters, I'm mainly talking about natural disasters.
40:56
So, hurricanes, fires, floods, mudslides.
41:02
People feel so helpless in those moments.
41:05
I think people watch them on the news, they get so much attention, they see horrible things happening, and they don't know how to help.
41:10
And what we've done at Baby to Baby is try to very specifically help children and help families in those instances because a lot of great organizations are helping.
41:22
They're typically focused on adults, and we focus on children.
41:24
But in terms of people helping in sometimes a misguided way we often go to the spots where the disasters are occurring, and we'll watch people and they show up with bags of used clothing and used coloring books or um unsized things or half-opened games and toys and things.
41:53
Again, I think that people care so deeply and they're wonderful, and they're seeing a child on the news and thinking, I need to go I want to go give that child my blanket or this game or a toothbrush.
42:06
But what we've learned is that you have to listen and understand what these families need.
42:10
And tied for as important as that is what the organization who's helping them needs because in an in a disaster, everyone is spread thin.
42:18
Often the people who are helping in a disaster, their own families are suffering from that same hurricane or fire or flood.
42:26
And so, and the organizations are often small.
42:29
They're not always large-scale organizations.
42:32
Often they're small volunteer-based groups that are trying to do their best to give out supplies.
42:38
So, when you inundate them with things that they don't need at that time, they don't have room, they don't have the man or woman power to accept the items.
42:48
People fly planes into places without having a the right destination or um And so, we we talked to partners who are on the ground saying, "These donations are blocking the roads."
43:02
So, they're not just not helpful.
43:04
They are actively unhelpful.
43:06
They are blocking our roads.
43:06
We are trying to find missing people.
43:08
We are trying to get emergency services out, and people are in their very, very well-intentioned ways really hurting the system.
43:16
So, what what we have learned organizationally is to listen so carefully and not just understand you need blankets, you need diapers.
43:24
What size diapers do you need? How many do you need?
43:28
Because if your space can only accommodate three pallets, you cannot send them six in the middle of a disaster.
43:34
You have to send them three at a time.
43:37
And I think for people listening, you have to listen to organizations you trust in how to help. It might be money.
43:44
It might be the most helpful thing would be to send $10 to an organization.
43:47
It might be an organization that allows you to say, "We need toothbrushes."
43:51
But you can't guess what people need.
43:55
You have to step back, listen, and then try to help people in the way that they need to be helped. Absolutely. Yeah, no.
44:02
And And And so again, it's such a alien space when you're not on the ground or you're not aware like you it's it's just something you would never know about.
44:12
Like when do you ever learn about what's needed in a disaster or how you're trying to help in a well-intentioned way whether it helps or it doesn't or or gets in the way.
44:20
So I really appreciate that kind of spotlight on that topic which which you wouldn't come across at all.
44:26
Walk me through like you've like you said and you're both modest and humble beings and so there's the feeling of like there's more to do and I think there's a honest side of you that sees that as well and that there's just obviously so much more work to do.
44:41
But walk us through some of the resistance that came early on like building something this big or some of the challenges or pitfalls that you both had.
44:49
had. Days where you woke up wanting to make the biggest change but things weren't going in your favor because I think again whenever and this is why I love podcasts it's whenever we hear about something we always hear about how amazing it is and the glory of it and you don't really get to see like how
45:04
much hard work goes into it every single day and the times when it isn't the big celebrity turning up to the you know front door and it's and it's not always like that and and yes you've had amazing support and I'll we'll talk about that in a second but that's not you know as we were talking about earlier that's not 364 days a year. There's all of this
45:20
There's all of this time where there's real work happening and I'm sure in the and I'm sure getting a sales tax change is like a arduous process with so many you know I'm I'm guessing and I could be completely wrong but I'm guessing there's like multiple steps to even get one state to accept that let alone the numbers you have.
45:39
Walk me through some of the key challenges you've seen in trying to build an innovative fast-growing impactful nonprofit.
45:45
We talk about this a lot.
45:47
We have yes days and we have no days.
45:50
Okay, what is yeah tell me about the So yes day is if everything's going right and we're asking this celebrity to host this event for this you know corporation and we're going to get a donation of 5 million diapers and 5 million wipes and everything's going great and they say yes and then you're reaching out to a donor and saying, "Oh, you know, we need a grant for formula.
46:12
The formula shortage is still continuing and we are trying to provide like, you know, a million more bottles across the country because another plant is shutting down."
46:22
Or we're asking for a sponsor for our holiday event so we can take over Dodger Stadium again this year or back to school so we can take over Madison Square Garden and bring kids to like have the most spectacular day of their lives and kids that never get to do those things.
46:39
So we're asking all day long for things and some days there's yes days and we get yeses and then a lot of days there's no days.
46:47
So we've we got this advice very early on that if you're having a yes day, keep asking.
46:52
So we keep asking, we keep going and then when we're having a no day, we're like, "Oh, feels like a no day."
46:58
and we'll give like some of our team members like, "No day, everyone. Stop asking for things."
47:04
But, you know, we're not afraid to ask and I think we learned this very early on because we're not asking for ourselves.
47:11
We're asking for children who don't have diapers, who don't have clothing, who don't have food, families who are struggling to afford these basic things.
47:18
So never are we afraid to ask and even if we do get no's, which we do all the time.
47:24
It may from afar appear, "Oh, Baby to Baby so successful." Sure.
47:30
It looks like that text and email chains where we've written to the person like 15 times and it's all blue or green or We're not hearing back and we were Yeah, Yeah, we're used to that.
47:39
It doesn't matter cuz we're not asking for ourselves.
47:42
We're asking for, you know, children who are struggling to afford these basic things. So it never phases us.
47:46
Two examples of some challenges.
47:49
One is we did not get the sales tax repealed on our first try.
47:56
In fact, we got very directly rejected on our first few times going to Sacramento trying to get California to repeal the sales tax in California.
48:06
We just got big no's and we were sent home and packing.
48:13
Um but we went back and again, I think we really don't take these things personally.
48:18
I think we feel the two of us, that is another thing we share.
48:21
We feel so strongly that our mission about our mission and what it is and what we're doing that it it's like, well, you lost the opportunity.
48:32
That's a mistake on your part to the state.
48:34
So, we just kept going back.
48:38
On the third try, we brought Julie Bowen with us, which was helpful.
48:41
Again, we always learn sometimes an ambassador is what is what um closes the deal.
48:49
Um Governor Newsom was extremely helpful to us and it was a third time's the charm example.
48:55
But we were shut down and if we hadn't gone back a number of times and of course, you're correct.
49:01
That is not what we post about and talk about the two the times that we got back on the Southwest flight from Sacramento with a big thumbs down.
49:07
We're not posting about the no's.
49:09
Um but it, you know, it worked and then and so that was a good story.
49:13
I think one of the hardest decisions we've had to make is that at the beginning of Baby to Baby we would allow people to drop off or send us and mail in gently used items.
49:30
Clothing, toys, um cribs, car seats, you name it.
49:33
And it was a beautiful thing because it it's really where the name Baby to Baby comes from is the idea of giving another child something that you have used and now this other child can grow from that is wonderful and we hope that smaller organizations continue to do that, whether it's an organization or a religious institution or a women's shelter or it it it's wonderful when people can do it.
50:02
What we found was in order to scale Baby-to-Baby, that could not be the core of our mission because getting tons of pounds of people's gently used stuff, as noble as it sounds, was not working for us.
50:21
It was expensive to go through because it's so important to us that that everything we give out is something that is in pristine and perfect condition to these children who deserve things to be in pristine and perfect condition.
50:32
And so, we had to have someone touch every single item of clothing and see that a onesie had spit up on it, see that a puzzle that was 300 pieces had 300 pieces and not 258 because no child wants to do a puzzle with 258 pieces.
50:47
It doesn't matter who you are.
50:51
And there were expired things, there were things that weren't for children, and people again, I think they were well-intentioned people, but they dropped in their adults what are some things that we got.
51:04
Oh, some nice bras, some nice hats, bras, all sorts of things.
51:10
And only about 1/3 of what was donated when we were accepting gently used items. At best, 1/3 was usable. Wow.
51:19
And that's expensive and time-consuming and not helpful.
51:21
So, we have the the lion's share of what we do now is all corporate donations.
51:28
Um we gave out $63 million of goods last year.
51:34
Uh we still we don't want to scare people off with those numbers because one a donation of four cans of formula is amazing for us.
51:44
There is truly no day too big or too small.
51:46
Because four cans of formula is many bottles for many babies who need it so deeply.
51:54
So, we love small and big donations, but that but we take new and corporate and palletized donations because it's what it's the way we're able to give out 50 450 million items.
52:06
But, that was a very hard turning point and when you're talking about lessons and challenges, um I think it was upsetting to a lot of people because I think people really love the idea of passing things forward.
52:16
And again, we love it, too, which is why we adopted it in the beginning, but it proved to be not effective for scaling.
52:23
And so, that was a that was a hard decision to have to make.
52:29
Yeah, what I'm hearing is just this idea that you know, these things are beautiful and they're all wonderful.
52:34
And when we can share what we have and something that's been used in advance and if it helps a community center or someone in our local or family member or something that's recycled is beautiful.
52:43
But, when you're trying to scale across the country, it's and and also disasters as well, that isn't necessarily the most effective way.
52:52
And I feel that that's again going back to this idea, no wonder Time 100 named you one of the most innovative companies.
52:58
Like, that lesson of being able to adapt and be flexible and learn and grow and say, "Okay, well, we actually believe in this, but it doesn't actually work."
53:08
Yeah, it was very hard to say that.
53:09
Yeah, I can't imagine what that feels like cuz you're like, "Wait a minute, this obviously makes sense to us and it makes sense to me listening to you both."
53:15
But, then like, "Oh, I get why that isn't the idea that takes off and that isn't the idea that works in practice."
53:21
I mean, that thinking that thought process goes back to being of a fast-thinking company.
53:24
This These challenges the they they haven't like it feels like you both have just got more passionate, more driven. right through them.
53:35
Yeah, yeah, it feels like that.
53:35
Like, I mean, like, you know, I'm talking to you both today and I don't feel any dwindling of enthusiasm in all you're building.
53:43
It feels like you're full steam ahead. too.
53:45
They're like, "Oh, so are you guys, you know, bored?
53:47
Are you guys ready to it at all. Yeah. No, we're like, no.
53:50
There's We're reaching 1 million children across the country.
53:53
There are 10 million more children in poverty that we're not yet reaching.
53:56
We talked about we've distributed 200 million diapers. We need 1.
54:01
5 billion, and that's just to cover the kids we're serving now, the 1 million children.
54:05
So, we have so much further to go, and I don't think either of us are stopping or done anytime soon. fun things happen.
54:13
I mean, we do have We are We've built a place, and we're so lucky about this with these amazing ambassadors, where we also we we work Our team is the hardest working team on the planet.
54:24
But, we also get some great incoming calls.
54:27
I mean, we get calls to say that someone I'm thinking Julie Bowen again, but that Julie Bowen played on a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and won $500,000, and can Where Where should she send the check?
54:39
We have Kim Kardashian raising her hand at our gala to give us She's given us over $2 million, and then we'll say for our Mother's Day event, can she donate SKIMS and the makeup products so the moms feel as good as they should at Mother's Day.
54:59
We have Chrissy Teigen just, you know, designed a wagon for us, and it was for hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company.
55:07
Or we have all these like ambassadors all day long that are doing these amazing partnerships.
55:11
Molly Sims just did a Erewhon smoothie to benefit Baby2Baby.
55:15
Just like all day long we have these exciting things, and some of them are just incoming, and some of them we're reaching out to people.
55:21
Jenna Dewan, 9 months pregnant, just hosted our Mother's Day event, and was the ambassador, and Aquaphor gave us an amazing donation of product and money.
55:34
And so, just on and on, we have these amazing people supporting us and showing up for us.
55:40
like the Gwyneth story, I mean, Gwyneth gets all the credit for that campaign.
55:43
So, people are coming to us.
55:46
I think once you once we um you know, we were saying how we had Ciara at the headquarters the other day, and she was helping us amplify this maternal mortality project.
55:58
The next day, she called us that she had just talked to a sponsor, and she wanted to see if she could they could help donate items for these kits in the future.
56:06
She also wanted to tell us that she and Russell Wilson, her husband, wrote a children's book.
56:12
Could she donate thousands of books to put into the bag?
56:16
So, I think when we're the more we educate uh all of these women about what Baby2Baby's doing, they then they bring us these amazing opportunities cuz they they want to help, and I think other people that haven't that don't have careers in giving back, they have extremely busy lives, but they want to give back. They love the idea.
56:39
So, if we can give them a tangible way to give back and not spend a lot of time and use their platforms and use their connections, they're excited to help and do that.
56:49
I think Kamala Harris, I think you know, we're so grateful she came to the warehouse to launch the program.
56:56
She met with mothers in our program who were giving birth and was hearing from them, and I think she was also proud to be there.
57:02
So, we do we have a lot of we have a lot of fun incoming phone calls these days.
57:07
How how was it the first time like what was walk me through the interaction of getting Jessica Alba and Nicole Richie to get involved when it was just like there was nothing there in one sense. It was beginning days.
57:20
Like what was that conversation like?
57:22
Why did they get involved?
57:22
And Well, they were friends, but also I think um when you're a mom and you they just both had babies around 13 years ago.
57:29
and I think when you understand that you know you need all these things when you give birth. As an experience.
57:39
Yeah, and you see how much you need.
57:41
You see how expensive it is.
57:43
You see the wastefulness of people are giving you seven strollers for your baby shower. You need one stroller.
57:49
What could you do with the other six? Who could use them?
57:53
And it was a lot about that.
57:56
I think you know, mothers, parents, people connect to the cause because it's such a simple cause.
58:00
Children are going without basic essentials. How could that be? What could I do to help?
58:05
And we make it very easy.
58:07
We say, oh, you know what?
58:09
Here's what you can do to help. We'll make it very easy.
58:10
We'll make it very simple.
58:11
We need you to show up here to this one event.
58:13
And they got their photo taken.
58:15
It was in Us Weekly and that really put us on the map and that really spurred on like these celebrity partnerships.
58:22
It taught us the power of celebrity, what they could do to help children in need and how we could help make that happen.
58:29
And so we've continued that for 13 years, but we really do look to them as the two people who sort of set off that light bulb for both of us and really started the whole thing.
58:38
I think that these women trust us and trust that has been so important to build.
58:44
So now when there is a you know, there's hurricanes going on and there hurricanes and tornadoes in the in the Midwest, when there were the fires in Maui, when there um was the formula shortage, when there are news headlines that and people as moms and as humans care about them, they call us to say tell me how I can help ever since that day.
59:10
So they're saying, you know, during COVID we had Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and Gwyneth Paltrow and Jen Garner and Jessica Alba and um they they came and put backpacks into cars that were driving by and putting lunch and backpacks with mask full masks putting them into windows in our baby to baby distribution drives because they knew we would have one.
59:36
They knew we'd be set up and they'd be able to help.
59:38
And so I think what that caused on day one was this trust and then they will disasters a big part of it.
59:47
But when there is a any issue they care about in any state we have ambassadors from Texas and Oklahoma and New Mexico and New York and they know if there's something big or small.
59:58
Sometimes it's a building fire that impacts the city and they know there were families there.
1:00:05
When they see families and they see babies are outside or not being taken care of, they know that baby to baby's disaster team is going to be there and they call us. How can I amplify it?
1:00:13
And sometimes the answer is they can post on social media.
1:00:17
Sometimes the answer is even though this person might be famous what we what we need right now is money.
1:00:24
So we need you to do one of two things.
1:00:25
We need you to ask your followers for donations or if you're in the position, we need you to donate to us yourself.
1:00:32
So in the Maui wildfires for example, um Matthew and Camila McConaughey Camila is one of our many angels and they had a they had a deep caring for Hawaii and Maui, knew that we would be on the ground there, knew that we would know how to help and what to help with.
1:00:53
They called, they asked how they could help and the answer there was we were trying to get cargo planes in.
1:01:00
We knew the exact menu of what these organizations needed.
1:01:05
Maui's was a very specific example because it was easier for us.
1:01:10
Our history had been in trucking.
1:01:10
And Maui can't truck to Maui.
1:01:13
So these things now had to go on planes and it was a and the fires were ongoing and horrific and they said how can we help?
1:01:22
And we said, "Actually, what we need you to do right now is help us pay for this first cargo plane to get out cuz we know if you do that, others will follow."
1:01:29
So, they That was just pure funds.
1:01:31
They gave us, the cargo plane went out, it got to Maui, we helped so many families.
1:01:36
9 months later, we're still helping families.
1:01:40
Disasters do not end a week later.
1:01:42
The families, they're still displaced families, there's families living in hotels, there's families that have lost jobs.
1:01:46
And because of that initial vote of confidence from two very well-known ambassadors, we had people all over the country sending us $25 donations that add up significantly and have allowed us to have this long-term recovery.
1:02:03
And Matthew did a video with his son that went viral and it was, you know, everywhere.
1:02:09
It was all over Instagram, it was in People, and it was saying like this is what my family's doing.
1:02:15
I want to help these families in Maui.
1:02:16
We are going to come together and we're donating this amount. Please join us.
1:02:21
And because that video went viral and he used his platform, and that really took off in such a way, that's why we've been able to continue helping for 9 months because we were able to raise that money in that moment and that really extended our, you know, finances to be able to pay and ship and send more and more pallets and pallets of basic essentials into Maui for the families we serve there.
1:02:46
And speaking of Maui, a quick shout-out to our program and disaster relief teams, something that made us so proud during that horrific period was that because of the year-round work we do, getting to know these partners, listening to them, our team had 2 days before the fires broke out had made a delivery on Hawaii.
1:03:05
So, that when it was impossible to get anything in from the mainland United States, our stuff had just landed because we were helping families who were living in poverty beyond the fires.
1:03:17
And so, immediately we were able to start distributing.
1:03:21
And talking about, you know, listening to the community and listening and asking questions and seeing what's needed, we have these partners that are in Maui and we were able to say to them, "Do you need help?
1:03:34
Do you You know, what do you need?"
1:03:36
And the water was contaminated and babies There was no baby food. There was no formula.
1:03:40
So, we immediately were able to send on that very first cargo plane water, formula, and baby food.
1:03:44
plane water, formula, and baby food. And then our team later, 2 weeks later, because we didn't want to inundate the island with, you know, at the time, I think there was such an outpouring, but to listen and wait and talk to our
1:03:58
partners and they asked us to come 2 weeks later and then we were able to do distributions on the ground to families ourselves and really see the need and meet with families, but we were alongside a woman who had lost her home, who worked for the diaper bank that it was our partner. She lost her home. Her, She lost her home.
1:04:13
Her, you know, her baby was off in the, you know, office of the nonprofit that we were serving.
1:04:21
She was there alongside us doing distributions.
1:04:24
So, you really have to listen to the community that you're serving and that was something we definitely learn with everything we do, but that was definitely a learning moment for us.
1:04:33
This is It's such incredible work and it's so inspiring like even hearing these stories of all these different spaces and the nuances and the differences and the incredible ambassadors that came on board.
1:04:43
I know that a lot of my community here today who's listening and watching will be thinking, "How do I help? How do I get involved?"
1:04:49
And I think as that culture that I think you both have lived in your own life and wanted to create and something that I feel is amazing is if we can start helping from where we are, no matter where we are and whoever we are and every, like you said, everything does matter and it does make an impact.
1:05:06
And I've seen that through fundraisers we've done for charities I've worked with.
1:05:09
What can this community and audience do if they want to support Baby to Baby today? Where should they go? What can they do? How can they learn more?
1:05:17
I think we say every little bit helps.
1:05:20
And when we say we've distributed 200 million diapers, that's a big number.
1:05:25
But one pack of diapers goes to a family who's struggling to afford diapers or food, who's choosing between diapers or food.
1:05:32
So, if you can give one pack of diapers, five packs of diapers, whether that's $10 or $25, those things really make a difference.
1:05:40
And we we always say no donation is too small.
1:05:45
Those things really matter to us.
1:05:45
And that's one family who has formula for their baby, who has diapers for their baby that week.
1:05:52
So, we're not shying away from any small donations at all.
1:05:57
And a lot of what we do is on our Instagram, Baby to Baby, and or our website, babytobaby. org.
1:06:03
But one of the things that we talk about as well is that, you know, follow us and see what we're doing.
1:06:10
We are posting all day, you know, what we're doing right now, sending supplies.
1:06:15
We just sent 300,000 supplies to Oklahoma and Texas, to the disasters that are going on there.
1:06:23
So, it's always, you know, something's happening in the world.
1:06:26
Climate change is really making these disasters worse and worse every day.
1:06:30
And supporting our work helping families in need in those moments is really important to us.
1:06:36
I hope you've learned getting to know us. We're very direct.
1:06:38
And so, we'll be direct with our followers.
1:06:41
And I think we tell our ambassadors and any donor or fan of Baby to Baby, we will tell you what we need.
1:06:49
And so, we'll say we right now need toothbrushes and toothpaste because there is a reason that there is a shortage of those.
1:06:58
Or we will tell you in the formula crisis what we need exactly.
1:07:00
And even though I did say that we don't take, you know, we're are looking for big donations of gently used There are some exceptions to that and that's basically diapers and formula and some of these top things.
1:07:10
So, it might be your own diaper packs and formula cans that you haven't opened.
1:07:16
It might be going on Amazon or another platform and sending us actual items.
1:07:23
It might be making a smaller large donation.
1:07:25
It might be an introduction to a company that can make a very large donation.
1:07:30
Um but it might be that you have a small clothing brand and you have you made some pajamas and they came out in a slightly different color than you intended and we would love to take those.
1:07:42
And it might be that your toothpaste came out a different um flavor and as long as it's good and healthy, we want those calls.
1:07:49
Would you like our, you know, these pallets of toothpaste that we haven't given out?
1:07:53
Um so, we we again, following us means trying to listen to what the disaster is, what the everyday poverty is.
1:08:01
If there's a specific city or town or um that you're in, we're happy to respond to those questions.
1:08:10
Our team is uh but we want people to help in those um and and if someone wants to donate millions of dollars so we can reach our goal of giving out, you know, we can get to all billion diapers, you know, if someone has a foundation who will do that, we're ready for that phone call as well. But we're say that.
1:08:31
We've built the infrastructure and we know how to get these items out to the community and to the country and we're just looking for the funding to go even further.
1:08:39
So, the 1 million children we're serving, there are 10 million that we're not yet reaching and we are ready to reach them.
1:08:46
It's just really funding that comes down to it.
1:08:49
We also have programs where people can get involved at different ages.
1:08:51
So, if you live in an area that's you know, if you live in Los Angeles or New York or somewhere where we have volunteer sessions, obviously you can come in and volunteer.
1:08:59
But we also have programs that the whole country can participate in where during the holidays you can shop for a child, but not just during the holidays cuz a big lesson of Baby to Baby is you children do not just need help during the holidays.
1:09:11
So, we have programs that are about to start this summer because there is a summer slide and children aren't in school.
1:09:16
And so, not only are they not getting the meal the schooling during the summer, they're not getting the meals that they depend on for school.
1:09:24
So, uh so, they're they're lacking in basic essentials even more.
1:09:29
And so, we have programs we have back-to-school programs where you can take your child out shopping or go yourself and you can shop and we'll give you a list of what a child needs.
1:09:37
And maybe they want a blue Hello Kitty backpack and Cheez-Its and a new pencil case with um pink hearts.
1:09:47
And you can really I I a lot of people like that again that specificity and that customization.
1:09:51
We will let you you can reach a child on a very individualized basis or you can help us with a donation of 600,000 pairs of pajamas. That's beautiful. I love it.
1:10:04
I want to go back to where we started uh which was with your personal journeys of service and giving back.
1:10:10
And Nora, you brought this up earlier this idea of parents wanting their children to have a culture of giving back.
1:10:19
What have you found works?
1:10:19
Because I find like when you're young giving back is not cool, it's not the thing to do, it's it it isn't part of our culture ordinarily at least that you don't see that very commonly. How How do we do that?
1:10:31
How do we create a culture in our families to begin with?
1:10:35
A culture of giving, a culture of service in young people.
1:10:40
Like, what does that take?
1:10:40
What have you seen works? What doesn't work?
1:10:42
And what has been effective?
1:10:46
We wrote a book about it actually.
1:10:46
Um we wrote a book with Jessica Alba and it is about a little girl who has a teddy bear and it is a gently used teddy bear.
1:10:57
and then she receives the same one, but a brand new one, and she has to decide what she's going to do with the second one. Will she keep it?
1:11:04
Will she give it to a friend?
1:11:06
Are you going to tell them?
1:11:08
Are you going to spoil it? Yes.
1:11:08
And then when she decides to give it to a friend, the you know, she goes through the process of which one should I give to him?
1:11:17
Should he have the one with no eye and missing an arm, or should she should he have the new one?
1:11:22
And he she talks about it with her mom, and they figure out that of course someone who's in need would want a new bear just like one day you had one.
1:11:31
So, that was something that we did because it's so important to us to teach children how to give back, but to give back with dignity because all of the children that we're serving, we want to make sure that we're giving with dignity and pride so that they're receiving things that are new and just like our kids would want.
1:11:50
So, that was something that was really important to us.
1:11:53
I think you can teach your kids at the earliest of ages to give back.
1:11:56
And you know, maybe they'll understand 5% of it and then 20% of it.
1:12:01
We have stories of taking your kids to go shopping for another child.
1:12:05
And when when you when they're four, maybe they stop in the store and have a and cry and say, "I want that toy.
1:12:14
I don't want to give that Barbie to someone else."
1:12:16
But you hold your ground.
1:12:18
You don't give them the Barbie.
1:12:19
You explain the Barbie is for someone else.
1:12:22
And when they're six, it starts being easier.
1:12:24
And maybe when they're seven or eight, they're asking you to go shopping for a Barbie to give to someone at Christmas that doesn't have it cuz now they understand.
1:12:34
Or they're an adult and they look back and understand why they were doing that and they start doing it as an adult.
1:12:38
But I think people are afraid to explain poverty to their children in particular at too young of an age.
1:12:47
And we've just been amazed by the children that come into Baby to Baby, the children that come to volunteer.
1:12:53
They have such amazing questions and they understand and they point out things that we wouldn't have even thought of.
1:12:59
You know, you'll say to them, "What do you think a child might need if if you didn't have a home? What might you need?"
1:13:05
And you think they're going to say, um you know, food or and they'll say like, "I think they would need a nightlight."
1:13:13
Or I think you know, they just say things that surprise you and they are paying attention and I do think they understand and I think you have to drive on the street and not ignore people experiencing homelessness.
1:13:22
I think you have to point it out to your children and talk about what you should do and talk about how they can help and let them think about do we want to can we help with money?
1:13:33
Can we can we give them food?
1:13:36
Can we talk about why and how they're suffering and why they don't have a job?
1:13:41
And I think you have to bring your children to any opportunity you have to participate in community service.
1:13:48
I think it just changes people's perspective entirely to practice to to read about it, yes.
1:13:54
To hear about it from your parents, yes.
1:13:57
To hand someone who doesn't have food a a bag full of food, I really think changes your life and changes your perspective and I think children I think children are it's a great place to start.
1:14:10
I love that about Baby to Baby that there's a lot of problems in the world.
1:14:14
I think people everyone can relate whether you have kids, you don't have kids, you are a kid, you are elderly, people understand and resonate with the idea of children not having basic essentials and clean diapers and they empathize with children.
1:14:32
People love babies and so I think it's a great place to start is that a baby needs this and you should talk early and talk often and show them and teach them and bring them and do everything you can to instill it at a young age and I we've seen it working. Mhm.
1:14:50
Yeah, my daughter I remember when I took her for the Christmas shopping, we call it family-to-family cuz it's one family giving to another family, like baby-to-baby.
1:14:59
Um, and it was the moment where, you know, yes, I want the Barbie, yes, I want the pink Elsa nighty, too.
1:15:03
But then when we got down the list and I was like, "Okay, well, we need underwear.
1:15:10
Should we get Elsa underwear or should we get Sleeping Beauty underwear?"
1:15:12
And she looked at me and she was like, "She doesn't have underwear?"
1:15:17
And you want to protect your child maybe in that moment and I was like, "No, she doesn't have underwear.
1:15:20
She doesn't have any of these things."
1:15:22
And having like the light bulb for her and her understand like we weren't just buying her a Barbie.
1:15:28
Like she didn't have underwear.
1:15:30
She didn't have a blanket.
1:15:31
She didn't have a warm coat.
1:15:31
And really like I think instilling that into your kids or kids around you is just so important.
1:15:39
It's something that, you know, both of us want to make sure that baby-to-baby is teaching children about giving back. Mhm.
1:15:46
What do you think parents are scared of in in doing that?
1:15:49
Like you said like facing the homelessness, having that moment in saying, "No, she doesn't have underwear." Like what is the fear?
1:15:56
that they're too young to understand or it's too like scary.
1:15:58
The reality is too scary, but I think being able to tell them from a young age, and obviously in a age-appropriate way, but that's what we try and do.
1:16:07
We try and keep, you know, kids come in from seven and up and they're volunteering and they they understand.
1:16:14
There's a baby who doesn't have a blanket, who doesn't have a onesie, who doesn't have a pacifier, and I'm going to make this for them and I'm going to put this together for them.
1:16:21
And then when I leave here, it's going to get delivered to them.
1:16:24
And I made it and that pride that kids feel in that is really important and I think really instills that giving back.
1:16:30
And then maybe you can consider for your birthday party either having people give presents for kids who need presents more than you do or if that's difficult, which it is, and I'm not saying mine were so excited about it.
1:16:46
I think sometimes our kids were like, "Wait, does this mean I never get a Barbie?"
1:16:50
I just want to be clear, cuz we are just constantly telling them over and over.
1:16:54
We have a joke where where we would put their baby blanket in the car, and they'd be like, "Is that going to Baby to Baby?"
1:17:00
And we'd be like, "No, no, you got to keep that." Right.
1:17:04
Um, but but the part but it could be maybe you choose one toy that you got out of the 12 kids that came to your party, and you pick one toy, and you give that away.
1:17:12
Or you, you know, just little little ways to start incorporating it early.
1:17:16
And as far as what people are scared of, I think I think adults are scared of people experiencing homelessness.
1:17:23
That's why I think they're scared to tell their kids, cuz they're uncomfortable.
1:17:26
But I actually think kids are much more comfortable.
1:17:29
And so, if we can raise this generation to not be afraid, and to think of ways to help, I think that's our that's our obligation.
1:17:37
I know that I said this, but I think this concept that I learned as a little girl of tikkun olam and tzedakah and repairing the world, I think it it sticks with you, and you you have to trust that these kids are going to be a generation that are going to think, you know, you said before, maybe people don't think it's trendy or cool.
1:17:59
I I think I think most people with companies would say that their customers feel otherwise, and they only want to buy from companies who have a give back component.
1:18:07
And it's not just TOMS anymore, and that we have companies calling us all day saying, "We have to find it. We are giving back."
1:18:13
And again, yes, because they're have a wonderful leadership teams, but their customers demand it.
1:18:19
And so, if this generation of children can grow up saying, "We we are going to be a part of this change," then I think um, and that's just been kind of a bonus of Baby to Baby, cuz we didn't start it to teach kids to give back.
1:18:34
We We it to first and foremost, we want kids who don't have what they need to have what they need.
1:18:40
And we want children in poverty to have basic essentials.
1:18:41
But there is this bonus is that in the process, if it can teach people who do have what they need to be a part of the solution, I think that's where the special stuff comes in.
1:18:57
Kelly and Nora, you're you're both phenomenal leaders, truly inspiring.
1:18:58
I'm very touched by both your stories and even the space we just got to now of hearing this deep, personal, much more individual, intimate version of what it looks like in your family is with your own children, with with people around you.
1:19:15
I mean, it's it's really truly moving.
1:19:17
And before we end the show, we always do a final five, which is a fast five segment where you have to answer every word in Sorry, you have to answer every question in one word or one sentence maximum.
1:19:28
But before we do that, I want to ask you, is there anything that I haven't asked you that you really feel compelled to share or something that's on your heart that you feel you want to share with my community or audience that maybe we didn't touch on.
1:19:41
Just that um you know, growing every day.
1:19:45
13 years later, we are serving a million children, and we've distributed 450 million items.
1:19:51
And that from afar, that it may seem like a success, but because there are still 10 million children that we're not reaching, we have a lot further to go and a lot more work to do.
1:20:04
So, looking from afar or looking on Instagram may it may seem like we're done or everything's great, but no, there's a lot of work to be done, and we need to raise a lot more money and to reach a lot more kids.
1:20:16
So, it's we're not finished, and we definitely need help. Yeah, brilliant. Well said. Yeah.
1:20:24
Nora, anything you want I concur. We talk about that.
1:20:26
We know that we get, you know, we're lucky to get that our ambassadors get attention.
1:20:31
We are so lucky to be on Jay Shetty.
1:20:33
We have all of this these great platforms, but the only negative of it is that it does lead people to think that we don't need help or that their help isn't enough because they see if Kim Kardashian is helping what how could I really be of help?
1:20:51
And if they're on, you know, when we're talking about $12 million, well, I don't have $12 million to give.
1:21:01
And so I concur, it's the same lesson of please know that no donation is too small.
1:21:06
Celebrities are wonderful.
1:21:06
They are not fully funding our program.
1:21:09
We and we need we do need so much and it it really is the entire community coming together that is going to allow us to keep doing more and more work.
1:21:19
I think what's really beautiful also is that I'm sure some of our listeners are inside organizations that could be giving more and part of communities that could give more and maybe want their school to come and volunteer.
1:21:32
and volunteer. Like, you know, I think there's so many beautiful ways to give back, which is how I got involved with all of you, which was my team and I picked you to come and volunteer at for a service day and it's led to a more longer-term relationship and I think that I think you have so many access points and I also want to encourage everyone to
1:21:50
to hear that message, too, that I think what we can trust is that you're listening, you're learning, you're adapting, you're figuring out what the gap is and that's why we can all help and support in that we can trust that constantly trying to figure out what really serves the need, what really closes the gap, what really is going to have an impact. Well, thank you. And, Well, thank you.
1:22:09
And, you know, 13 years in, we view ourselves as a startup still and we really have the startup mentality where we are looking for the phone to ring and we are looking for other people to bring our team innovative ideas and we want that help.
1:22:27
We want someone to say, "I have shoes, but I have an idea."
1:22:32
Um and so Yeah, Nike, if you're listening, we're desperately in need of sneakers. All right.
1:22:37
I'll We'll we'll have to We'll have to go We're We're ready for the game. No, I love it. Yes. Uh thank you so much. All right.
1:22:42
Here's your fast five final five.
1:22:44
Same questions to both of you.
1:22:46
I'll just say the question and then we can go for it.
1:22:50
Uh so the first question is what is the best advice you've ever heard or received?
1:22:55
I would say, we talked about it the yesterday.
1:22:56
I think saying yes to opportunities, especially in the beginning.
1:22:59
We've had to reel that in a little 13 years later, but saying yes to opportunities was a big part of how we grew Baby to Baby from day one.
1:23:07
First day at my law firm, Skadden, Arps in New York, 136 associates, managing partner came out and said, "I want you to assume that every single email you write will appear on the New York Times tomorrow morning. Be careful."
1:23:19
And I That's good advice.
1:23:24
Great Both great answers.
1:23:24
Uh question number two, what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?
1:23:28
That 8 hours sleep isn't necessary. Isn't necessary? I agree with you. It is for me, too. I agree with you.
1:23:37
Um to that you have to go out of your lane.
1:23:40
I know lots of business leaders think you have to keep going outside of your lane.
1:23:45
I think in our case, we have a very specific mission.
1:23:50
We are nowhere near done with what we're doing.
1:23:54
We I want our lane to be as narrow as possible, and then we want to crush our lane. Mm. Nice.
1:23:58
Uh third question, what is your proudest achievement personally? I guess Baby to Baby. It can totally be Baby. Yeah.
1:24:07
Yeah, I think Baby to Baby.
1:24:07
I mean, I think Something specific at Baby to Baby, maybe?
1:24:11
I think when we started, we were serving 500 children, and it was the two of us and one intern.
1:24:15
And looking 13 years later that we're serving a million children across the country, and we have warehouses across the country, 52 employees here in LA.
1:24:26
Just the growth of definitely a proud achievement for me. Beautiful.
1:24:31
We were just honored to be named to Time's most influential 100 people in the world list.
1:24:40
We absolutely take that on behalf of our incredible team of people.
1:24:43
It is certainly not just the two of us.
1:24:47
Um I read Time magazine with my dad growing up and would look at the covers every week and read it and um that honor for Baby2Baby was a big one. Yeah, I love that, too.
1:24:57
I love that they honored a service-based organization rather than just a uh for-profit organization as well. So, that's beautiful. Uh question number four.
1:25:10
Why is it important to serve and give back?
1:25:14
I think the world needs it, especially right now, and I think that if you think about, you know, elections and outcomes of elections, that organizations like Baby2Baby are so important because it's not based on the outcome of that.
1:25:28
It's based on helping families in need and meeting them where they are and making sure they have what is necessary and basic essentials, no matter what's going on in the environment and in the world.
1:25:41
I think giving back is everything.
1:25:41
I think it it's because it's not about you.
1:25:44
So, I think it is the number one way to learn empathy and about other people and to rem- remind yourself that everyone is going through something.
1:25:57
Everyone needs help, and giving back is about others. Mm. Well said.
1:26:01
And fifth and final question, which we ask to every guest who's ever been on the show, if you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?
1:26:12
Mine would be that people and leaders li- led with empathy. Mm.
1:26:19
I would say that service is mandatory and not just for high school students or interns, that it's mandatory for people of all ages from every background.
1:26:32
And I think people if they're not allergic, should have dogs. I love that.
1:26:37
Nora and Kelly, thank you so much for being such phenomenal guests on on purpose.
1:26:41
Everyone who's been listening or watching, I hope you go and follow Baby to Baby right now.
1:26:43
I want you to look at how you can find a way that you can help, your communities can help, your company can help, the schools around you that can help.
1:26:52
How can you get involved in being a part of this mission?
1:26:55
I think when we feel like we're a part of the solution, the problem feels a little smaller every single day.
1:27:02
And so, I encourage you all to become empowered to take on this opportunity to join Nora and Kelly on this mission.
1:27:06
And again, Nora and Kelly, thank you so much.
1:27:09
I'm so grateful to have spent this time with you.
1:27:11
Thank you for being here with my community and congratulations on all the work you've done and I'm rooting for you and forever in your corner to see you succeed.
1:27:19
So, Thank you so much for having us, Jay. Thank you.
1:27:23
If you enjoyed this podcast, you're going to love my conversation with Michelle Obama, where she opens up on how to stay with your partner when they're changing and the four check-ins you should be doing in your relationship.
1:27:37
We also talk about how to deal with relationships when they're under stress.
1:27:41
If you're going through something right now with your partner or someone you're seeing, this is the episode for you.
1:27:47
No wonder our kids are struggling.
1:27:50
We have a new technology and we've just taken it in hook, line, and sinker.
1:27:55
And we have to be mindful for our kids.
1:27:57
They'll just be thumbing through this stuff, you know, their their minds never sleeping.