The Gentlemen Project Podcast
Bi-weekly podcast highlighting impactful stories of parents and what they do to be successful at home and at work. Helping you turn the time you have with your kids into time well spent helping them learn the most important lessons in life. The Gentlemen Project Podcast is hosted by Kirk Chugg and Cory Moore-friends who are passionate about fatherhood and raising the next generation of great kids.
The Gentlemen Project Podcast
One Kind Act a Day: Cultivating Compassion in Communities, Business, Families and Politics with Curtis Bennett
In a world craving positive transformation, Curtis Bennett emerges as a radiant stream of hope and inspiration. This podcast invites kindness advocates, community leaders, and parents alike to embark on a profound journey exploring the unsung power of generosity woven into our daily lives.
Introducing the Non-Profit 'One Kind Act a Day' Curtis tells heartwarming stories of how simple acts of kindness are reshaping the tapestry of communities across the country. Curtis delves deep into personal tales and new initiatives that are redefining the essence of human connection in business, politics, and social fabric. With 'One Kind Act Today,' learn how the silent revolution of kindness can speak volumes and forge pathways to unity.
To learn more about "One Kind Act a Day", visit thepowerofkind.org and sign the kindness pledge.
Check out the show on any of your favorite platforms and give us a like and follow if you like our content!
Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gentlemen-project-podcast/id1536669294
Audible
https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Gentlemen-Project-Podcast-Podcast/B08LG4HBLR?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp
Amazon Music
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6a91bd19-279b-41f5-bab2-b2cecfed7beb/the-gentlemen-project-podcast
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/thegentlemenprojectpodcast
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thegentlemenprojectpodcast/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/gentprojectpod?lang=en
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-gentlemen-project-podcast
Welcome to the gentlemen project podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Kirk Chug and I'm Corey Moore today in the podcast room we have the man, the myth, the legend, none other than Mr Curtis Bennett, and we're taking two Right we're. This is the second recording today. This is our first recording. It wasn't working. Great, that's fine. Curtis has a big smile on his face, going to do the last half hour or we're again, so that's great because we had a great conversation.
Speaker 3:It was one way or the other. We had a conversation.
Speaker 1:So anybody that follows the podcast knows that Curtis was one of the first probably 10 guests on the podcast, and he was that because when Corey and I got together and we said who should we have on the podcast, that is a gentleman that would espouse gentlemen qualities, curtis Bennett was at the top of that list for both of us.
Speaker 1:Curtis has been involved in a lot of really cool projects throughout his career and has been a leader. He's been in the service of his fellow being almost constantly throughout his life and as long as I've known him, I've seen what he's done and I just want to follow Curtis around and just be on his coattails, because everything he does and everywhere he goes, it seems like magic happens. And he is involved with a new organization that we're going to talk about today, extensively called One Kind Act Today, and it's so cool. I know more about it now than I did about 45 minutes ago and I'm super excited for everybody to hear this and get involved with this initiative that Curtis is a part of. It's so cool and welcome Curtis.
Speaker 3:So first of all, let me just tell you thank you for allowing me to come back. I am honored to be a second timer for the two of you here at the Gentleman's Project, and I just think what you're doing just works so perfectly hand in glove with what it is I'm trying to accomplish, and so I think this is for me not only a thrill, not only an honor, but it's a perfect way for me to be able to talk about what it is we're trying to accomplish with One Kind Act Today.
Speaker 2:So, curtis, tell us a little bit about where did One Kind Act Today come from and why did you choose this versus other things you could have chosen? Because you've been a CEO, you've ran companies, you've done lots of things in your career, you've done service missions, lots of lots of things. Why this? What interested you and what's the origin story of One Kind Act Today?
Speaker 3:So in our community we have a gentleman by the name of Khazra Simnani, who is a very successful businessman, and thanks to him and the Simnani Family Foundation, we have this charitable organization One Kind Act Today, in 2022, at the height of COVID and the height of the weaponization of politics and COVID, and with riots in the streets and looting in the streets and all of the challenges that we were experiencing because a nation was hurting in many respects, and he woke up one morning and said we really have to do something about this. We have to accomplish.
Speaker 3:We have to do something better, we have to reframe the narrative, we have to go back to a better narrative. And so as he got to looking into it, he decided that if we could get individuals to perform one single act of kindness a day, what would the ripple effect be, what would that butterfly effect be, and how could we change the world? And it's interesting when I go in and I study kindness and as I have studied kindness, it's really impressive what happens when a single act of kindness is performed and how that does ripple and how it does reverberate and how it lives on. And we'll talk about that more. But he decided that he was going to start this organization and he had a big press conference and, interestingly, I'd been invited by a friend of mine to attend that press conference and I had no idea what it was all about. And as I heard him speak, and as I heard our governor speak and as I heard a doctor speak and and and and extoll the virtues of kindness and what it was he was trying to accomplish and the fact that he had funded this in such a way that we'll never need funding. We don't seek for donations, we don't ask for donations. I get to just focus on the objective, which is to amplify the message of kindness.
Speaker 3:And I said to myself I'm sitting in that press conference, I could, I could do this, I could work for this guy. This would be really fun. Think about it, just being able to go and be a lobbyist for kindness for all intents and purposes and so. But then I got my t shirt and I got my yard sign and I went on home and loved it and I followed it a little bit, but I didn't think anything more of it until about a year and a half later I got a phone call and it was Mr Semnani and he'd done some research on me and he'd looked me up and he said would you be interested in coming and talk with me?
Speaker 3:So I went and visited with me, just flatly said why don't you come work for me? Why don't you run this campaign? Why don't you do this? And I got to thinking about it. I thought this is perfect. This is exactly what I want to do. This is exactly what I'd like to try and communicate, not only to my family but to the world, that we can. We can do something about this. And what I really like about his attitude is yes, we're going to change our community and yes, we're going to change businesses in school, but we can change the world with this. And I like that ambition and I think that's true. I think we can change the world with this.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't, I don't know very many, if any, charities. Just to restate what you just said, because, in case you didn't hear that, they don't take donations, you don't ask for donations, they're self-funded.
Speaker 3:Exactly. In fact, when people ask us where can we make a donation, we say find the charity of your choice and go make a donation. If you want to do make a donation, find a charity of your choice and go to donate to them. And so one of the hardest things for me to do, particularly when we go in and talk to schools we'll talk about this in a few I think.
Speaker 3:But when we go in and talk to schools, a lot of them think well, what's the catch? What are you going to ask from me? Nothing, you know. We're just going to ask you to be kind. You know what's the fee? There are no fees. What does he ask? There is no ask. We just want to help. That's all we want to do. So we get to focus on that objective. How?
Speaker 1:powerful is that? Tell us about how this program works in a school.
Speaker 3:So schools are our favorite place to be. It's really so much fun to watch students dive headlong into the whole concept of kindness. When we approach a school, we go to school and we say here are the benefits of what we know you're going to experience. Here are things that we know are going to happen. It's universal. Almost we can predict it. First of all, when we do a kindness initiative in a school, we can tell you almost immediately bullying is going to be reduced. Now, if that was the only thing we accomplished, that'd be worth a while, and most educators feel exactly the same. But we're going to create a better learning environment for the student. We're going to create a better teaching environment for the teacher. We're going to make parents feel more comfortable that their kids are in a safe environment and that they're being dealt with in the way that parents want their kids dealt with in a kind, positive, productive manner. And so we can tell them that these are going to be the benefits. And then what we do is we come to them with a template guidelines of things that they could do in a kindness initiative, but we don't want to tell them this is what you should do, because each school is different. Each school has their peculiarities and each school has their beautiful individuality. And so, whether we're talking about the students, who are talking about the educators, whether we're talking about the administrators, whether we're talking about the janitor Okay, because you can have a janitor, for example, you can make a big difference with the students because he's so good and kind and effusive with these kids. So it doesn't matter. But you, you go into these schools and we say to them here's a template, here's some best practices, here's some things that you could do. Let's tailor, make a program for you specifically, let's make something work for you. We have a particular school that we're working with right now, an amazing, an amazing school, and I mentioned this before. But their principle is, as far as I'm concerned, wonder Woman. We should get her a superhero Decree and and I I'm grateful to know that their educators like her that are caring for our kids Well today.
Speaker 3:But she started an initiative 22 days of kindness in the school. They wanted to do 10,290 acts of kindness and they came up with that number because that's how many students they've gotten, how many People on their staff, and they said in 22 days, we can do 10,290 acts of kindness. They were two-thirds of the way through and they were at 22,000 acts of kindness. It stickers on the walls for every single act that they were performing. In one class I walked into had 45 30 students. They had 4500 acts of kindness and just that that group of kids. It's amazing to watch and it's fun to watch these kids just jump into it. They love it.
Speaker 2:Well, what you think about, you bring about right. So you're really getting people to have this habit of kindness, and you and I talked about this months ago at breakfast. But I really believe that what you think about, you bring about. That. If you choose Kindness, if you choose happiness, that is a choice a lot of times. Not that bad things don't happen in life, not that you know there are times to be sad and upset, sure, but most the time being kind is a choice and a habit without a doubt.
Speaker 3:In fact, one of the things we talked about and I've really come to to Absolutely embrace this, this whole concept that people say you know, I've been doing your kindness initiative and I've been, I've been committing to this Kindness pledge and we'll talk about that, I hope. But it's become second nature for me. It's become second nature for me and I was talking with social psychiatrist, psychologist about this and he says you know what I like what they said and I like what there's, what they're accomplishing. But let's change the the phrase a little bit.
Speaker 3:It's not second nature, that's our first nature. Our second nature is to default to or to choose to be angry or to choose to be upset or to choose to be frustrated. That's not our first nature. Our first nature, our human organism, responds to kindness. Our human organism is much healthier when we're kind. Our body Responds to the whole concept that if I'm kind, I'm gonna feel less stress, I'm gonna have less anxiety, I'm gonna be less likely to be depressed, I'm less likely to suffer from heart disease, I'm less likely to do any number of different things. There even studies out that suggest I'm better looking when I'm kind. Okay, and I need all the help there.
Speaker 1:I can know you don't hear. That's why you're so good looking is because you're so kind.
Speaker 3:Well, so, so we've got you know it's, it's part of our first nature, and so the only thing I would change about that is you're you're embracing your first nature, because our second nature is to make the choice To be contemptuous, to be difficult, to be angry, to be upset. Okay, so I really love that concept. I'd rather I I'd rather have more experience with my first nature and experience with my second nature.
Speaker 1:I love the way you explain that, because I think a lot of times People hear kind and they think I'm gonna do something kind for something for someone else and they're going to benefit because I did something kind for them. And that's kind of where my brain goes. It's like, yes, it'd be really nice to be kind to a lot of different people because it will help their day, it will help them and their trajectory, and you know that butterfly effect. But what actually happens is the benefit is double-sided, exactly. You don't.
Speaker 1:You don't realize how good, it makes you feel to be kind, and so I love this first nature Vernacular like that's. That's so good that if we can embrace that and say this is, this is really who I'm meant to be, and this is the easiest way to be. It's. It's not the, it's not the hard way to be. This is who I'm, who I'm made to be.
Speaker 3:Studies show that there is nothing in our, in our evolutionary makeup that is violent. That's not part of our evolution. Okay, our evolution shows that it's the kindest, it's a kinder societies that actually evolved better than those who were contentious, or or or Confrontive or conflictive. Those of us who were conflicted, those of us were kinder, evolved better, evolved more quickly, and so there's nothing in our evolutionary makeup that says we're a violent people. It's quite the opposite. And then the other thing that I would say is that all Altruism is reciprocal, altruism, meaning if I'm altruistic, then altruism is going to reciprocate to me, and so there are benefits. And some people say, well, if you're only seeking for the personal benefit, then you're not being altruistic. Well, the fact of the matter is it's impossible to avoid the reciprocal benefits of kindness, and so if I'm going to be kind, I'm going to receive kindness in turn, or I'm going to receive the benefits for that kindness. So it's not bad for me to think I'm going to do it for the good reasons, it's OK.
Speaker 2:That's good. So you mentioned about these initiatives in schools. Let's talk about some of the initiatives in business and then maybe you could talk about how do we insert this into politics?
Speaker 3:OK, perfect, we really do like working with businesses as well. What's really interesting when we go into a business kindness for all intents and purposes, seen as this out there ethereal, nebulous type of thing is can we really get a hold of it? There is substance to kindness. There is a lot of substance to kindness. For example, it takes a lot of courage to be kind. When you have an employer that is berating you or treating you with contempt or disrespect, it's really courageous to respond with kindness. When you have a client that's doing the same thing, it's really a significant act of kindness. When a person makes the choice, I see your disrespect, I feel your contempt, I'm feeling your anger. Nevertheless, I'm going to respond with kindness. So there is a significant substance to the whole idea of kindness. It's not just something that we can't touch or feel. We can see it, we can touch and feel it. It's tangible, and so one of the things that we like to do with businesses is we like again to come in and tailor, make a program for that particular organization. We have one organization that we're dealing with now. They made the decision that they wanted to do something internally first, because they felt that they couldn't be kind to their clients and they couldn't be kind to their vendors unless they were kind to themselves, to one another first. And so the first phase of their initiative is to do an internal initiative, and they're having a ton of fun with this Again, one of the things that I talk about when we whether we're with schools or political organizations or anyone we say, above all, have fun.
Speaker 3:Okay, if you're not having fun, then don't do it. We want you to have fun in this whole initiative. But with these organizations, they love the idea that we can develop a culture of kindness within our own ranks. Okay, and then hopefully, we can communicate that culture of kindness with our vendors and with our and vendors. They almost automatically say wait a minute, I need my confrontational relationship with my vendor in order for me to get what I want at the price I want and to be able to beat them up the way I usually beat them up. No, and then we can do this with a different paradigm and see if there's a better way of accomplishing this. So it's an impressive thing to watch as you're looking at an organization that characterize themselves as kind, come to the realization wait a minute, we could have done better way back when and we're doing better now, but we can still better, still do better in the future.
Speaker 1:Now talk to us a little bit about politics. For those of us that follow politics, we see how divisive it's become, and for those of us that think that perhaps that's the way it's always going to be, give us your thoughts on how kindness can infiltrate politics.
Speaker 3:So I was sitting in a in a restaurant with a number of my friends and we were talking about a lot of different things. We were talking about politics and at the end of the day, literally everyone kind of threw up their own hands and said there's nothing I can do about it. And I feel bad for any one of us who feels like we're in such a situation that there's nothing that I can do to make any any change, and we disagree with that. One of the one of the most common forlorn looks that we get from anybody when we talk about the things that we do is when we talk about politics, people look at us almost apologetically and they look at us as though we're we're just deceived that we can make any kind of change at all. It's a few fools, aaron.
Speaker 1:Pying the sky.
Speaker 3:Right, it's a fools, aaron, I think that you can do anything within the political realm and we disagree. There are two initiatives that I'm particularly fond of and there are others that I think are are wonderful out there. But one of the initiatives that's out there is the governor, spencer Cox, who is a governor of Utah, who has he's the chairman of the national governor's association. I think I called it right, but he's got an initiative he calls disagree better, and the whole concept is let's get people on both sides of the table to agree that they disagree. But let's all agree that we can disagree better and we can disagree with respect, and we can disagree with kindness and we can disagree productively. I don't have to agree with you on all points. In fact, I probably don't agree with you on many points but let's figure out a way for us to be able to do this so that it's not feeding the fire. Billy Joel said we didn't start the fire.
Speaker 3:It was always burning since the world was turning, but we're doing what we can to put the fire out, and so I really like that initiative.
Speaker 3:The whole concept of disagreeing better, I think, is something that we need to better embrace. As a people, I don't have to agree with everybody all the time, but I can choose to make my response to be something less contemptuous, less conflictive, so to speak. Then there's the other initiative, that's the Dignity Index, run by Tim Shriver and a great team, and what they do is they actually look at political I almost said the word rhetoric but they look at political speeches, and then they gauge those speeches based on their dignity, whether scores low or high, and it's really interesting. Somebody can say something really nice about somebody, and it starts to trend high, but then they default into the narrative that we're used to hearing and that the exhausted majority is exhausted about, and so we need to figure out a way to change that narrative. One of the things that he says that I really like is that the only way to cure contempt is to call it out, and that's what they do they call out contempt.
Speaker 2:You were talking earlier, Curtis, about people believing that the reason that we see the negative is because that's what gets clicks, that's what drives media right. Talk to us about that, and how do we get kindness to drive clicks?
Speaker 3:do you think? Great question. So the statement has been made to me on a number of occasions If it doesn't bleed, it doesn't lead. Kindness doesn't get clicks, contempt gets clicks, controversy gets clicks. In fact, we were talking with somebody the other day about conflict entrepreneurs. You have people out there who are legitimately conflict entrepreneurs. Their job is to create the conflict and then to profit off of that conflict. And if there isn't, I don't know of an area in our society greater than the political arena that is driving conflict entrepreneurs. So what can we do? We need to be kindness entrepreneurs. We can decide that we're not going to respond in like manner. We can make the decision that we're going to do something different. We can disagree better, and so we talked about that.
Speaker 3:I was in visiting my family in Germany last week and we watched this film. As I'm watching, I'm wondering where was this film all my life? And it's Matilda and it's a musical, and what I really liked was, at the very end, the bullying. The students were tired of the bullying, they were tired of the anger, they were tired of the contempt, they were tired of the chaos and they were tired of the anxiety that they felt. And they sang the song and it goes we are revolting children living in revolting times. We sing revolting songs using revolting rhymes. We'll be revolting children until the revolt is done and what they're saying is we're tired of this, we're not going to do it anymore. And so they respond with kindness, they respond with friendliness, they respond with positivity and we're going to revolt with those values as our weapons, as our arms. Now revolt has a negative connotation, but we can revolt against this. We can say that we don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 3:There was a really interesting book written out there. I really encourage anybody to read it. It's called the Healing Powers of Doing Good and it was written in 1991 and it shows all of the. It has all of these studies that have occurred as to what are the healing powers of doing good. The reason why he wrote the book was he wanted to start a movement. He wanted people to realize that there is so much personal benefit for the human organism when we're good that maybe, if we can convince people that it's so good for us that we can get a movement towards kindness okay, towards healthy giving.
Speaker 3:Another person wrote a book, arthur Brooks, called Love your Enemies. He wrote this book with the same objective in mind, but, what's really interesting, both authors feel like they failed. Both authors feel like that they failed in their effort to try to create this movement towards a better narrative, to a kinder narrative, to a more positive narrative, and that's really unfortunate. I was in a meeting with Arthur Brooks and he said that he said my book failed, and I had the opportunity to visit with him for just a minute afterwards. I said maybe it failed generally, but with me it was wholly successful. And he said no, I understand that, and if we can do that one person at a time that's really what we're up to. But there is a movement that needs to take place. There is a revolt that needs to take place. We need to finally decide. We don't want to do this anymore, and so one kind of act today is I don't want to suggest that we're starting a revolution. We're really starting a movement and we want it to be positive, we want it to be good.
Speaker 2:So what can you do as an individual or in your home? How do we work on our businesses? We can work in our schools. You have communities that are focused on this initiative. What do we do personally and in our home to focus on kindness?
Speaker 3:So, it's really interesting. There is in this book, the Healing Powers of Doing Good, these critical steps to healthy helping. Okay, first of all, when a person helps, they have what they call the helper's high and it's similar. It was described as being similar to a runner's high, something I've never experienced before and I do a lot of running, but I've never experienced a runner's high. But the helper's high is a high that you get and it kicks in and it helps. You feel good about the good that you've done and you not only feel good about it, but you want to do it more. In addition to that, there's an immense calm that comes after the helper's high. That's the heartwarming experience of doing good. But there were these critical steps that they talked about.
Speaker 3:What are some things that we can do? So number one was your kindness has to have personal contact. It's one thing to write a check. We want people to write checks. We need people to write checks and we're grateful that they do but there's no personal contact there. We want people to collect food for the food bank and they may assemble a whole bunch of food, or they may gather a whole bunch of blankets or things. We need people to do that. But when we have helping, that puts me in contact, direct contact with another individual. Not only are we having an inner personal relationship with that individual, but we're seeing what my kindness may actually create and what will happen as a result. So having that personal contact with individuals, and so, yeah, we can say we're going to be kind of one another in the house and that's good. But to take our family and to go out and serve at the soup kitchen is another thing. That gives our kids and our family a basis upon which they can understand that there is a personal contact, that there's good that can be done. Frequency is a second thing, and it's not that it has to be done every day. One kind act a day, yes, but that kind of helping doesn't have to happen every day. What there has to be in a family is a culture and an expectation that we're going to do acts of kindness as a family and that those are really good things to establish in the home. And so when the time comes that we are going to go work at the food pantry or we are going to go give out coats, we are going to go do this. No one is is belly aching and upset about it. This is because that's the culture of our family, that's what we do.
Speaker 3:Helping strangers is another one. It's interesting why helping strangers has such a huge impact in the lives of the helper, and the reason is because they get to make this choice of what I'm gonna do, what I'm gonna do it, and there's a self-control that adds to the experience that says I wanna go help somebody I don't know. What's interesting is when we help a family member of a friend, there's this have to. I'm obligated, and so there's this have to component, and it's not that it's bad, but that have to component is taken away. When I go help a stranger, okay, I'm making the conscious decision to go help somebody. I don't know.
Speaker 3:The other thing about youth what's really interesting with youth when they go help a stranger, what they like about that concept is I'm helping somebody who doesn't know me. They don't know my frailties, they don't know what my friends know about me. I'm starting with a very clean slate with this individual and so whatever my self-worth is based on, what my structure of friends is is completely out the window and I get to start anew with this individual and the fact that I'm helping them brings self-worth to me, and that self-worth brings self-forgetting, and that self-forgetting helps us to become less anxious about some of the challenges that we may be dealing with. Empathy is another one, so shared problem. Just making the effort is an important thing. We're not always successful in our efforts to help, and when we make the effort and we continue to make the effort, even though some of our previous efforts may not have been as successful as we want if we continue on, we'll finally ultimately find our groove and we'll figure out what it is that we do that's best.
Speaker 3:And then the last thing is let go of results. When we walk into a situation and we say to ourselves I am determined that me helping you is gonna change your life, we're instilling, we're imposing our wishes on that individual and that doesn't help them. We need to let go of the results and just be happy with the fact that my efforts to try and help you at this particular time may not ultimately lead in you making a major change in your life, but I've done something good for you and it's been good for me. As a result, that makes sense, yeah.
Speaker 1:Totally. If you don't wanna talk about this, you don't have to, but on the elevator ride up, you were telling me about something that your family is doing right now. That blew me away and I think if anybody is going to give credence or validity to the words of Curtis today, they're gonna say, yeah, but what's this guy doing? And I know you're the most humble guy and you would never bring this up on the podcast. So that's why I'm doing it, because I think this is going to give you more credence with the people that are listening today. What are you doing right now at your home? Showing kindness to others?
Speaker 3:So the best way to start with kindness is in your home. The best way to start with kindness is with those who you love the most. What's really interesting is, oftentimes we are so exhausted. At the end of the day, the people who deserve the most kindness from us don't often get that kindness because we're done or we're exhausted, we're spent, and so the people that are closest to us and we love the most are often the ones that receive the lesser amount of kindness from me, for whatever reason.
Speaker 3:So as we were talking, on our way up the elevator I've got kids who live at home with us. One is married with three boys and they're living in our basement, and one is a daughter and she's married with her little daughter and they're living in the upstairs in a couple of the rooms. We were talking about the whole idea that in the United States we don't have this familial, communal living down very well, if you go to just about any other country in the world, they embrace families living together. They embrace families being together as a support to one another. And so when our kids are in between and we've got a son who's in between, he's just got his master's degree and he's trying to figure things out and what they wanna do. And then we have this daughter. They just finished her education, she's just got a new job and they're also trying to figure things out, but home prices are such and living is such and it's challenging. And so they asked if they could come live with us until they get their feet on the ground. Absolutely, first of all, this little granddaughter she's so much fun to play with. So those three little boys, and so we have a ton of fun with them.
Speaker 3:But what we do is I don't charge them rent. We don't charge them rent. We're not charging them for the food. We're not charging them for utilities. We're not charging them for the internet. We're not charging them for anything. What we're asking them to do is to take the equivalent of what they would spend on rent and on food and put it away. Save it so that you can save money for a down payment for a house.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our expenses has gone up and we're going through a lot more food and we're going through a lot more laundry soap than what we were before, but we don't care. As mom and dad, we really feel like where our kids are concerned, we wanna do everything that we can within our power not to facilitate everything so much or to enable them. We just wanna help them so that they can get their feet on the ground and have the lives that they really wanna have, and so it's just one of the things that we feel like we can do as parents for our kids. At some point in time. We've done that for all of our kids, except for a daughter who'll call me up and say you didn't do it for me, and she's right, we didn't. But she's married to an orthopedic surgeon right now, so it's gonna be all okay.
Speaker 2:So Curtis talked to us about the kindness pledge. We've talked about that in the past. Tell us what the kindness pledge is, what comes with that? How do people access the kindness pledge?
Speaker 3:So if anyone wants to help us in growing this community of kindness and that's what we're trying to get people to do is to join us and to become a resident in our communities of kindness, whether that's with your business, whether it's with your home or whether it's your church, we just want you to be a part of our group, we want you to be part of our community, and so go to thepowerofkindorg thepowerofkindorg, and then you have this option to take the kindness pledge. In the kindness pledge, you are, for all intents and purposes, committing that you're going to do a kind act today. It doesn't cost anything. We're not asking anything. We just want you to be kind. As a result, you get to opt in to receive, if you'd like start a kit, some things that we just send to you, that we don't charge you for them. We'll send them to you so that it kind of prompts you to do kind things. And then we'll send you, if you opt in, either a text or emails twice a week wherein we send you a quote that's kind of quote and we send you a kind of reminder, something that you could do open the door for someone, write a note to somebody you haven't talked to in a long time, make a phone call that you've been wanting to make, call your mom and whatever it is. Let's do something kind today and then again you become part of our community. We're hoping to grow it.
Speaker 3:What we really found to be really interesting about this when you do an email campaign, you get a high number of unsubscribes. We don't. We're at like 0.05% unsubscribe rate, because nobody unsubscribes from kindness or narside, or we get this incredible open rate on our emails. That is unlike anything I've ever experienced in my days professionally and that's heartwarming to see when people respond in that way. The same thing is true with our texts. We have very, very, very few people who opt out. They like what we get. In fact, we get a lot of emails back saying we love this quote or we love this statement and we love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and sometimes it's not that you have to do what's in the text. I get these texts, but it sets your brain in motion to say I can't do that right now because I'm not with anybody, but I can do this and search to build those habits, yeah, yeah. So what an incredible initiative. Thank you, I applaud you, I applaud the organization. I hope that everybody listening will take action and go to thepowerofkindnessorg the power of kind, the power of kindorg, the power of kindorg and sign the kindness pledge and get involved. If you've got a business, a school, a church, an organization or just in your family which is the ultimate goal is to get it to the family level right that you'll take action and follow this man. If you don't know Curtis, he's one of the kindest individuals I've ever met, so he's in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing right now.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. I'll end with this one quote that I really like, and I think it's true. It was by a gentleman named William James and he says can there be, in general, a level of emotion so unifying, so obliterative I love that phrase obliterative of differences between man and man that even enmity may become irrelevant? So I believe there is, and it can really just simply start with kindness. It can obliterate enmity between man and man or woman and woman. It's that powerful, it can change the world.
Speaker 1:It's awesome. It also reminds me of the podcast that we did with Curtis Morley, where he talked about the difference between nice and kind. It's easy to be nice. Sometimes it takes courage to be kind. It takes an emancipator to be kind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is a difference, curtis, and I have talked about that in the past. This idea of if you're kind, in my opinion that's more like charity, more like true love. Kindness doesn't mean you don't tell your children, hey, you need to do these things and you need to be accountable. It doesn't mean you don't have tough conversations with associates or customers. You just do it kindly but you don't be.
Speaker 2:Being nice has this connotation of and I think, if you look at the definitions, if you're just nice, you don't have the tough conversation, you're just being nice. Right, being nice is not what we're after. Being kind where you truly authentically want to be your kids, to be the best they can be. You can't always be nice, you can't always be kind. If you have a tough situation at work and you're morally feel like you're doing the right thing, well then you need to be kind, but you also need to stand up for your morals. So I think to your point. I think that's a good thing to talk about this idea between nice and kind, and we want to be kind, not only just artificially nice.
Speaker 3:So the kindest thing we can do is to be truthful to people. And there's a difference. Am I doing a good job? Oh yeah, you're doing a great job, but they're not. Then there's the difference is just just look good on me? Oh yeah, that looks great. Maybe I'm being nice. In that particular instance, my grandfather used to say do you want me to be nice or do you want me to tell you the truth? And because sometimes the truth isn't, but it's what you need to hear, so you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2:There's probably some classes on that. Out there Be kind versus nice and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:Kindness is more enduring. Nice cities are gonna. They'll ultimately fade away. Kindnesses, I think, are long remembered. Nice cities are quickly forgotten, I think.
Speaker 2:Well, we always in the podcast, the same way as you well know, and I think we've talked about what it means to be a gentleman, essentially, or a lady the entire podcast. But maybe you could talk about in your mind what does it mean to be a lady or gentleman? And maybe you can connect that to kindness, although we've done that near the whole time. Curtis, talk to us about your thoughts on being a lady or a gentleman.
Speaker 3:So there's a wonderful study that's done out there on the Ritz Carlton and people wanted to ask. People asked the question how can you get a low paid individual to treat our customers and give them such a high luxury experience? It's uncommon for people to receive a low wage and to give a really great experience. Well, their mantra is we're ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen, and the idea being is that they instill in their employees that you are as much a lady and a gentleman as the people that you're serving, and they embrace it, and so that's what I think it is.
Speaker 3:One of the things that we need to do in our society is we need to go beyond the general definition of what family is. We need to look at the basic, human, kind aspect of it. When we insert religion or ethnicity, or socioeconomic or politics, we create these differences. There isn't a soul out there that isn't in some way shape or form, that isn't a brother or sister. Every single one of us are connected in some way, shape or form, and so if we can look beyond what the traditional, I'm gonna retract that but if we can look beyond the whole idea of what does family really mean? We're all part of one big family and let's treat each other with the kindness and respect that we deserve all of us deserve, no matter who we are.
Speaker 1:Amen, well said, thank you Well said, as always, one of the best spoken men I know.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, curtis, thanks for your time, thanks for this one kind act, a day initiative and focus that you have. I think you are gonna change the world, one kind act at a time.
Speaker 3:Well, let's all do it together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, there's your call to action. Everybody, go to thepowerofkindorg and sign the kindness pledge. Get involved with this wonderful organization and take action today. If you felt a prompting in your gut that you needed to be better at this, if you wanna take this pledge, if you wanna change the culture in your home, in your office or in the places that you spend your time, be the one that makes that change, to change the culture, and challenge you to do that. Thanks so much for joining us today, for spending your time with us. If you like this podcast, please hop over to Apple and give us a rating and a review. We're we got one four star rating, like three years ago, and then the guy's like I love your podcast. So if you wanna really help that five star rating, get up there. Hop over there and give us a five star rating and a review. If you didn't like the podcast, you don't have to do that. We love you. Thanks for your time. Thanks, curtis, for joining us today. I play. I'm Kirk Chug.
Speaker 2:I'm Cory Moore. I'll do one kind act today.
