William Thomas with Golf2Grow, Teresa Carter with Jazzy Hearts Foundation and Kimberly Jerguson with Wildlife Action of Georgia

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by B’s Charitable Pursuits and resources. We put the fun in fund raising. For more information, go to B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruitt.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:45] Good fabulous Friday. It’s another fabulous Friday morning. Even though it’s a little rainy outside. We do need the rain and it’s finally getting cold out there. Christmas is just around the corner. Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. We were off last week for Black Friday because the building wasn’t open and I couldn’t get in, so there’s no point having a show. So we again, we mentioned we got three fabulous guests. If this is your first time listening to Charitable Georgia, this is all about positive things happening in the community. And normally I start with ladies first, but the two ladies I have asked me to start with a gentleman first. So William Thomas from Golf2Grow, welcome this morning.

William Thomas: [00:01:16] Thank you for having me.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:17] It’s probably unusual for you to get to go first, huh?

William Thomas: [00:01:20] It usually is always me first, though. Honestly.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:22] Oh, it’s all about you, right?

William Thomas: [00:01:23] No, it’s just people want to see me mess up first. There you go.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:26] There you go. Well, you and I have met and talked, and we have a lot in common. We’re both Buckeye fans and. Yes, sir, unfortunately, we didn’t beat Michigan again. But that’s okay, right? You know, we still maybe have an outside shot. So we both have a passion and heart for helping others. So if you don’t mind, share a little bit about your background and we’ll talk about golf to grow.

William Thomas: [00:01:46] Absolutely. So I’ll just start first with my wife just because that’s the major part of my life. My wife and I have been married 22 years. We got married as teenagers. We have literally grown up together. We don’t know life as adults apart from each other. We have four awesome children, a 21 year old or soon to be 21 and 18 year old, a 14 year old and a 13 year old. Our three oldest are girls. Our baby is a boy. He is spoiled rotten and we enjoy traveling. That is probably a big major portion of our life is traveling. We believe in culturing our kids, getting them to understand and experience other backgrounds and lifestyles and and cultures. So we love to travel, especially with our kids, and we enjoy the game of golf as we’ll talk more about. I’m sure that’s at least I do my wife. Likes it from a distance.

Brian Pruett: [00:02:37] Well, you’re also a veteran. You’ve served in the Navy. Correct? Yes, sir. I do thank you for your service. So what did you do in the Navy? What was your.

William Thomas: [00:02:44] My my title and my rating was a sonar tech. But after two years, I was injured and spent the last two and a half years on limited duty in a legal service office, which really helped me transition out the military very well, made some great connections, got into finance and that really, to be honest, started my my career and where I’m at now, I believe.

Brian Pruett: [00:03:04] So we I already know a little bit about this, but you were sharing with Kimberly a little bit, but you were you are from Ohio, but your wife’s from here. So tell us how you got from Ohio to here.

William Thomas: [00:03:14] So my mom got remarried to a gentleman here in Georgia, and I, kicking and screaming, moved to Georgia. I was a big deal in Ohio. I hate to sound pompous, but I was fairly good at athletics. So, you know, I had some clout in Ohio. So coming to Georgia was not fun to me. And to be honest, I had never experienced life in the South. I’d never experienced some of the dynamics that culturally that maybe the South had, especially when I came here. So that was a huge shock for me. But to be honest, Cherokee County is a fantastic county. If you have somewhere to raise a family to, to worship, to play, to start a business, to be involved in the community, Cherokee County is absolutely the place I would not want to be in any other county, to be honest.

Brian Pruett: [00:04:02] There’s a few other counties that have portions of the county. There’s like Cherokee County, but I’ve never met anybody who lives in all parts of Cherokee County who talks about the whole county that way. So, um, all right. So. We’ll get into your business in just a second. But tell me why you just have this heart for helping organizations in the community.

William Thomas: [00:04:23] All right, well, I think it just comes to part of it is I. And maybe this is a bit personal, but at at 17, I became homeless. And it was a challenge for me to graduate high school, not because of grades or lack of effort. It was a lack of an ability to have a place to shower and get to school. And there were people that really, really stuck their necks on the line for me, including my school counselor. That allowed me to live with her the final six months of my senior year so that I could graduate. So I have a just a real heart for taking those who are overlooked, those that have needs that, especially in most cases if you just had a dollar, would make a difference. And in our community, that happens to be a lot of nonprofits that are serving our community, that are underserved, that where there’s needs that need to be met. So I just have, you know, a selfish passion because I know what it feels like to be didn’t do anything wrong, nothing that you had a choice on. You just find yourself in a situation that life is giving you. And if there’s some resources, if there’s some education, if there’s somebody that comes alongside of you, there’s a difference that can be made. So just because I personally experienced some some things, I just want to be able to help the next individual that is going through that. And I understand that I don’t have 30, 40, 50, 60 years of inroads in those services, but there’s organizations that have personally been affected by it that care about that, that if I can just help partner with them, to help them raise money, then they can take their passion and go with it.

Brian Pruett: [00:06:00] Well, you said it was selfish, but I don’t think it’s selfish because that’s why everybody in this room, I think, does what they do. There’s a reason everybody’s involved in the community because of part of their story. I mean, I haven’t shared my story yet on this show. Eventually I will, but I went through some stuff. Three of them were were life things that I shouldn’t be sitting here, but the community was with me and for me. And that’s why I do what I do for the community. So you also are kind of like me. And even though I don’t like golf tournaments doing them, but you like doing them. But you were sharing with Kimberly before we got on the air. You don’t go after the big boys as far as the big bucks and stuff like that. It’s more the smaller community and I’m the same way now. You raised probably a little bit more money than I do, but I average about $1,000 a month. And some of the events that I do, and whether it’s $1,000, $10,000 or $12,000, every dollar imaginable for a profit is goes a long way. I remember the first time when I started this January doing the trivia that I do. The first non profit is footprints on the heart, and they deal with people who maybe families who’ve lost babies. And when I handed her a $1,000 check, I wanted to be more just because of what she does. Right? And she told me she goes, if you hand me a $20 check, it wouldn’t have mattered. And then she said, but you just bought me five caskets for the year, right? It’s amazing when you get to hear that. So share golf to grow what you guys do, and then you’ve got an exciting thing that you just are getting ready to. That’s happening as well. Yes, sir.

William Thomas: [00:07:25] So Golf to grow really started by accident. As I said I like to golf. I don’t use the word love because I love my wife and I like my kids a lot, but I like, like like golf. And I’m kidding. I love my kids, but I like golf. But we were getting ready to head out of town, and I just wanted to have a little get together with some friends. So I asked them, hey, would you guys want to get a foursome together? Let’s go play some golf. A couple minutes later, some of the guys in the same circles texted me and said, hey, we’d like to play too. Can you book another foursome? A few minutes later, I started getting Paypals and venmo’s and and money coming to me saying, hey, book us a foursome too. Well, within a few minutes we’ve got a huge following or gathering of people wanting to play golf. So I said, hey, if we’re going to go out there in this big group, let’s raise some money and give it away. It’s just just, you know, let’s have some competitions, raise some money, give it away. And we were able to raise a substantial amount of money in about two and a half weeks. So my wife said, why don’t you do this for a living? And I said, well, who’s going to pay me to put on golf? Tournaments like that just seems so superficial.

William Thomas: [00:08:32] You know, no one’s going to do that. So we really we actually it’s funny because we’re going to Chicago this weekend. But last year we went to Chicago and we literally had our napkin presentation of the pros and cons of why this business model may work, who we would target, what our compensation would be if we took any. So we sat down and we said, well, there’s there’s a need in our community for non-profits to raise money. And during Covid, which we saw, charitable giving decreased, not because people are bad people because they didn’t have the resources, the extra money, but what they did not stop doing was playing golf. Like the golf courses were still always booked. So I’m like, and my wife was like, if people need to raise money and they’re still going to golf, even if they don’t have extra. Money, they will not cut that expense out. Let’s use the community who one plays golf to small businesses that still need consumers to come in in their in their offices and their stores and their warehouses to benefit these nonprofits. So we really put together a pitch to a couple of nonprofits thinking, you know, we do 2 or 3 this year, and, you know, we kind of see if this is going to work. And within a week and a half, two weeks, I mean, it was can we do it? Can we do it? Can we do it? Can we do it? It’s a no brainer, no brainer, no brainer.

William Thomas: [00:09:42] Can we get on for next year? Can we pay you already now for next year? Can we get on your schedule? Can we get on the waiting list? And it again, it started by accident, but we’ve had this last year we did seven golf tournaments. We had almost 400 golfers attend those seven tournaments. We raised over $58,000. We had 136 sponsors, which like, that’s freaking huge. I mean, excuse my language, but that’s freaking huge. And it’s exciting to know that we get to turn over a check to our nonprofits. There was a comment made by one of the executive directors, and he said to us, and his whole goal was, and I’m not going to share who the nonprofit is, but most of their money comes from Medicaid, so their needs are met. But what they don’t have is their wants. They don’t have updated equipment that their the people they serve need to have. They don’t have the ability to give their staff a two day vacation in Helen, Georgia, so they don’t get burnt out. You can’t promote that. You can’t tell people that, hey, I want to raise money so I can send my staff on a vacation because unfortunately, people get in their feelings about that and they say, well, you’re wasting the money. Well, they need it.

William Thomas: [00:10:46] They have to get a break. They have to get some time off because that stuff gets overwhelming, especially when it’s emotional or physical and things like that. So we’re able to write them a check and get them a check from these sponsors so that he can give his staff a vacation, something he couldn’t promote. But that is much needed to me. That’s that’s daggone cool. That’s awesome. So that is is kind of how Golf day grows started and where it’s at. And what we’ve realized is that there’s an opportunity here in Georgia to really do more than that. Right now, having seven tournaments a year is primarily because of the weather. When it gets hot, no one wants to play golf like in a tournament because it’s a six hour event. Nobody wants to be there. And when it’s cold, no one wants to be out there. So we’re limited to about seven clients a year. That is the maximum that we can do. So we started looking how can we do something year round? And that’s where the Golf to Grow indoor golf experience came out. So as you’ve probably seen on social media, we have leased the space. We’ve got a 4000 square foot building. We are putting simulators in there. We have started our build out, got the architectural designs in and the goal is to be live by February, but that will allow us to take advantage of like days like today, where regular people who just want to play golf but don’t want to walk in the rain or it’s cold or it’s super hot or they don’t have 4.5 hours can come and play, practice, learn.

William Thomas: [00:12:04] But then also we can have year round tournaments. We’ll have four simulator bays in there, so we can be able to bring on on board more nonprofits because we have multiple months we can add to our schedule that right now we just can’t. So we are it’s exciting that we’re in a community where obviously there’s nine there’s nine golf courses in Cherokee County, so obviously that makes sense as far as the business side of things, but that so many people just want to be a part of of meeting a need. And to be honest, when you take a nonprofit and you say, hey, can you help this nonprofit? A lot of people think, well, if I give $100 or I spend an hour volunteering, it doesn’t mean much. So they just don’t do it. But if they get to play golf and know that part of their money goes to that. There, they’re like, oh, I’ll absolutely do it. So it allows people in the community who want to serve, who want to be a part, but who feel like their dollars don’t go far to still want to be involved. And from the sponsor side of things, those businesses in I mean, I’m a I’m a marketing guy, you know, financial guy from just background.

William Thomas: [00:13:06] But for a business to want to sponsor a golf tournament, it makes sense for them. They know that 70 to 90 middle class consumers of products are going to be there, and they can put their service in front of those consumers. So from the the standpoint of the sponsor or the business, it makes perfect sense for them that we don’t have a problem getting sponsors because they understand the return on their investment. They do 500, they do 1000. They have 70 people who make 60, 80, 100 grand a year. Their spouses make 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 grand a year. They have 2.2 kids. They have a house. They have, you know, they need new fences, they need Hvac, they need a roof. They need to get plumbing done. So those businesses want to be in front of those type of people. And unfortunately, other than the nonprofit giving a pat on the back or a thank you, they really can’t give anything back. But when they do a golf tournament, there’s something that that that business can get back. So we found a business niche where the community benefits the services that that need to be provided from the nonprofits, those nonprofits benefit. And then also the golfers get to be a part of that. So it’s just it’s been fun. It’s been awesome.

Brian Pruett: [00:14:08] Well, you talked about your indoor facility, but you also said something you already on a two year waiting list. That’s pretty amazing.

William Thomas: [00:14:14] Yeah, it is pretty cool.

Brian Pruett: [00:14:16] So I shared with us earlier, I don’t know that you guys know this or have listened to my back shows, but Teresa, being from Bartow County, you probably need to know this. I don’t know how many there are in Cherokee County, but there’s 840 nonprofits just in Bartow County. That’s and Bartow County is twice the size or less two size smaller than Cherokee, which is insane. So, um, so I want to go back to your sponsors for a second. So I know some people have said to me with my events, hey, if you become a nonprofit and you’re a nonprofit helping a nonprofit, you find more people giving money because it’s more of a tax write off, it’s the same. It is. And I don’t think people really understand that. Yeah. You know, you’re but it’s. Uh, you get more, I think, by doing something like this for the marketing aspect of the branding aspect than just the tax write off. Would you agree?

William Thomas: [00:15:04] I totally agree. You get I mean, it’s it’s just you get I mean, for me it’s about feels more than the dollars. Like I like the feeling of doing it again. I think it’s kind of selfish, but but like I heard somebody ask me or had somebody asked me years ago, do you give your wife flowers because you like the feeling of her getting the flowers and knowing she liked it, or the fact that she likes flowers and to be honest, give her flowers because I know it makes me feel good, because she feels good that she got flowers. And that’s kind of selfish. But that’s why I do it. Like I like knowing I’m the conduit and that gives me jacked up feelings. So I’m excited about it more than I’m actually doing it for them, doing it for me because of the way it feels. So I think that energy comes through. So when we talk to businesses, when we talk to sponsors, and I don’t have a problem hearing the word no, and I’ll keep asking beyond the first no and the second and the third no. That’s why I’ve been married 22 years, too, because I keep asking. But, you know, I believe in it. I believe in what I’m doing wholeheartedly. So I’m not pitching or selling or convincing or coercing. I’m really believing in what I’m doing. And I think that these businesses, when I, when I’m engaging them, you know, obviously they’re generally good individuals anyway. But but I think they see that through me and through what we’re doing.

Brian Pruett: [00:16:19] Well, you keep saying that it’s selfish, but I like to just tell you that it’s not selfish because you said it makes you feel good, but you’re helping somebody else, even if you’re just handing your flowers, you know, flowers. Wife. Flowers to your wife. I’ll get it out in a second. One of those can’t see past my eye thing, because there are other selfish people out there who do stuff just for them, right? And while you’re doing it for yourself, it’s a different reason. So I just want to say it’s not so. Thank you. That’s very commendable. All right. Um, so let me ask you this. I’ve seen some pictures of you at the Canton Business Club. You do some networking and stuff. Well, there’s another thing we talk about down here is the power of networking. Do you have a positive testimony you can share about networking?

William Thomas: [00:17:00] Certainly. So I’ve BJ Mccranie is a good buddy of mine that he and his wife have become really great friends of ours, and that has nothing to do with business. It’s I got to meet great people, and I have people that are in my circle that I can count on, that I can call upon. I wish I could say there was some business that came out of it. And I mean, I guess there has been maybe I mean, he’s done some sponsoring, some small sponsorships there, but but it’s just a good friend and and to me, man, this. So I don’t want to keep talking too much. But I grew up without my dad, so I got really attracted to male leadership. And like, I don’t cry very often, but if men cry, I cry. And if and if men disappoint me, I get broken. I’ve had some mentors in my life, some leaders in my life that have really disappointed me because I’ve always been looking for male leadership, and I latch on to male leadership. And when they when they disappoint me, it literally breaks my heart. So I look for strong men, strong leaders, and people that I can I can have relationships with and and to me, that’s been the best thing that’s come out of networking is I’ve got some people that I’ve added to my foxhole that if something were to happen to my wife or to my kids, or if I needed something, I had a flat tire or whatever. I mean, just simple stuff that that I know they’d be there. And so that that I wish, I wish I could say, oh, some great business. I don’t really there’s.

Brian Pruett: [00:18:39] All things about networking because I think people have the wrong mentality when it comes to networking. Right? I was one of those first people when I first networked. I was the hungry sales guy. Here’s my card, here’s my card, here’s my card. Let me sell you. Let me sell you. And that’s not it. It’s about getting another person establishing that relationship. And it’s all about them, not you. I’ve got a good buddy who became a good friend of mine from networking, like you’re talking about, named Kevin Harris, and he has a nonprofit, all in, all Out. He listens every week. So I pick on him because he’s the one that I got started about crying. So you talked about men crying when he. So I made him cry four times in one night. So if you’re around him, you’ll probably cry. You’re welcome. Kevin. Yeah. Um, so let me ask you this. You started a business, obviously. Golf to grow. First of all, it’s kind of obviously in the name, but I’ll just tell me why you chose that name.

William Thomas: [00:19:29] Well, I’m big on Alliterations, so I like the double G’s. I mean, I’m just. Our kid’s names are Madison, Mackenzie, Macy, and then my son’s name is an upside down M. It’s William. So we we I’m very big on that. Their middle middle names are joy and grace. I mean, it’s just it’s I’m weird. I like patterns. So it just made sense. And I wanted something to connect it that was different than letters. So I, you know, golf to grow it. Just maybe if we would have thought it maybe differently, there may have been a different name because people ask us, well, do you guys do kids lessons and stuff? And we’re like, it’s coming, but it’s not there yet, because right now we just host golf tournaments. You know, that’s our primary model now. But that it just it was the alliteration and I wanted to separate the words with the number. So it just made golf to grow was was it. There you.

Brian Pruett: [00:20:19] Go. Awesome. So you mentioned obviously you’re already on a wait list for two years, right? Is it just Cherokee County that you’re, that you will serve people or you work with anybody outside of Cherokee County? That’s a.

William Thomas: [00:20:30] Good question. So we do have one that we’ve hosted this past year that was in Fulton County, and that will do again next year. They’re already in the books for next year. And that the primary reason we do that did that is the individual who’s on the board is a mentor of mine that I’ve known for 20 plus years, and I have a heart for what he’s doing in his community. And when he asked me, I couldn’t say no. If it would have been anybody else, I would have definitely said no. I don’t want to drive to Roswell. I don’t want to go that far. And again, there’s so much need in our 434mi² and Jackie County, like, there’s so much need here. So I’d much rather be in Cherokee County and and you know, I guess to be logistically sound. I have connections here too. And it’s, you know, it’s easier for me to engage businesses where I’m actually here and I’m actually engaged and I have some kind of, hey, I’ve used your services or I’ve been there, I’ve passed by or I’ve seen your sign. Da da da da. If I go out to to Fulton County, I don’t have that same that same impact. And, you know, I’m just a regular little guy. Fulton County is maybe above my pay grade. You know, it’s nothing bad about the people there at all, of course, but it’s just it’s above my pay grade, you know? Cherokee County, more of my people.

Brian Pruett: [00:21:49] Right? But if somebody wants to talk to you, you’d probably talk to them.

William Thomas: [00:21:52] To the chagrin of my wife. Yes. Because I’m like, I’ll help you. I can do it. I’ll fit you in the schedule. My wife’s like, no more William next year, you know, or the year after, you know.

Brian Pruett: [00:22:02] So. So let me, without giving away too much of the secrets or whatever, can you just give us a brief rundown of how it looks like when a nonprofit approaches you, or vice versa? Absolutely.

William Thomas: [00:22:13] So we we sit down and my first thing is, is what are your goals? What are you trying to accomplish dollar wise in the timing? What’s your what’s your your ask of the community? Do you want the dollars or do you want to be more known? Do you want golfers to see who you are and what you’re doing, or you’re just trying to to generate money? And neither one of those are bad. I mean, if you if you need money, you got to get money, of course. But if your goal is just to get the visibility out there, that’s important too. So we just find out what their goals are. We find out what their time frame is. We ask our clients we need at least a minimum of six months to get into a tournament. We are not doing it any sooner than that. So if you have a youth mission trip in March, you know next year I’m not your guy. I can’t help you. I’d love to, but I can’t. I’m just not fair to you. I’m not going to do as good a job and I’m going to start stressing and pushing, which doesn’t do anything well for your your cause. So at least six months we go through our fee structure. I am a big fan of being paid based on results. I’ve never been a really good salary guy, even in the Navy. That’s probably why I didn’t stay. Excuse me is I don’t I don’t like getting paid just for my time because I only have so much time. So I’d much rather get paid on my efforts.

William Thomas: [00:23:28] And that’s how our company is compensated. We get paid based on the results we provide. We don’t charge them billable hours. We don’t ask for a $5,000 retainer. We say, hey, if we raise X, y, z dollars, here’s the percentage we ask to get paid so that we only get paid when we produce the results. It doesn’t stick the nonprofit in a hole. They don’t have the money to pay me a $5,000 retainer. I can make $5,000. They just can’t pay me that up front. I need to get paid as the results come in, as they’re getting checks, as they’re getting their compensation from their various sponsors and golfers and things like that. And then we really look at their warm market and who they knew, who they serve and who has served them. If you know, and I tell people, you know, if if my barber was unwilling to give me something to donate to a golf tournament, I’d find a new barber. If I’m going to support you and patronize your business, I’m not asking you to give me a thousand, because you may not have it, but you can give me a gift basket with a free haircut and some lotion and some, you know, some skin cream. You know, if my wife goes to the salon and they’re unwilling to donate something, we’re going to find a different salon. And that may seem. Seem harsh, but. And I tell my clients that if you have people that have done your lawn for the last six years at your place of business or your place of your nonprofit, and they’re unwilling to support you in your golf tournament, you need to find a different maintenance system or maintenance care provider.

William Thomas: [00:24:44] And sometimes that’s kind of a bit harsh, but if you patronize someone’s business, they ought to patronize you back. So we go through and we’ll sit down with our clients and say, hey, who on your board has a business? Let’s try to get them involved. Who do they use for the services that they provide at their home and their place of business, their place of worship at church or whatever it may be. So we generate 30, 40, 50, 60, 100 names of potential contacts that they’re already close to that like them, care about them, love them, have supported them, have given them money before in the past, and then I engage them and say, hey, look, this is what it looks like to be a sponsor in a golf tournament. These are the pros and cons. These are the perks. This is the kind of return on your investment by being involved in front of 70 to 90 middle class consumers and being around, you know, 15 to 25 other businesses that are sponsoring. So you have the opportunity to network and engage as well. So so we really articulate that clearly to our clients. And then we tell them, let us do the work, we’ll do the work. We we will, we’ll ask you permission. If we get a sponsor that comes in, we’ll ask, you know, there’s some nonprofits that say, you know what Bacardi rum Company here in in Woodstock, Georgia, they want to give $1,000.

William Thomas: [00:25:54] But my nonprofit is a church and they don’t want that to be their sponsor. Okay. Let me ask you, do you want this sponsor? No, we don’t want to. We don’t want that local CBD store. Uh, we’re a sports organization or a sports nonprofit. We just can’t be. We can’t have that. But then there’s other ones that are like, I don’t really care. It’s money. We’ll take it, you know? So. But we just go through and tell them what we anticipate, and then we tell them to kind of sit back, wait till tournament day, and then we’ll ask you for volunteers and then we’ll give you a big check. You know, you’ll get gotten checks throughout the month as they’re coming in, but we’ll present a big check. We’ll ask you your reviews, we’ll ask for your thoughts, and then we’ll really do a debrief. About two weeks after, we’ll submit the solicitation report to the state, because I’m licensed by the state to solicit money for nonprofits. It’s a, unfortunately, a nefarious industry of people taking money from nonprofits. I’m licensed to do it. So it’s our company, and then we just see if they want to do it again next year and or if we want to do it again next year. You know, sometimes there’s pulling teeth that happens. Like, I need your list. I can’t call anybody. I can’t reach out to a business if you don’t give me a list. So, you know, we’ll we’ll determine if we want to engage them again. But every one of our tenants have been awesome.

Brian Pruett: [00:27:03] So do you have opportunity for people in the community that maybe. Can support you by volunteering at the tournaments. Is that available?

William Thomas: [00:27:12] We have a ton of people that show up. We have usually 7 to 10 volunteers every week. Some of them are consistent. Some have come twice or 2 or 3 times. So yes, we have and need that. And it’s you know they get they get they get a free lunch. They get to meet some people. They get to hang out on a nice day on a golf course, driving around a golf cart. So there’s worse things that could be done, you know, on a on a tournament day. So. But yes, we we love volunteers.

Brian Pruett: [00:27:40] Awesome. Let me ask you this because I’m sure there are some people that listen to this show that are thinking about wanting to be their own boss and starting a business. What advice can you share for that?

William Thomas: [00:27:50] So I played spades a lot. Spades is my game and I have there’s a saying if you’re going to be a monkey, be a gorilla. Um, and I have a pretty hairy, big audacious belief in myself. I believe I can do any and everything. There’s nothing I can’t do. I mean, I really believe that that I put my mind to or otherwise I won’t do it. Like, the reason I’m not good at pickleball is because I won’t play it. But the reason I’m good at running our business or leading our business and leading my household and being a father and being a husband is because I, I’m I believe I can do it and I’m going to get it done. So I would say the first advice is just believe that you can do it. Whatever your goal is, whatever your idea is, there is somebody and several somebodies that could use that. That vision could use that service could use that, that product. So go, go do it. And then to move everything behind it. I’ve leveraged my dollars, I’ve leveraged my energy. I’ve got my wife on board like I’ve hooked her on it. So, you know, you just can’t kind of tippy toe into it either.

William Thomas: [00:29:04] You’ve got to to get behind it. And then lastly I’ll say tell everybody I, you know, beyond the, the, you know, the tax write off of it. I tell everybody everywhere so I can write off what I’m doing. I mean, that just makes sense. You know, if, if I’m traveling, hey, guess what? I run golf tournaments right off. This food is good. You like golf right off, you know that? That makes sense to do it that way. But but I’m telling everybody, one, because you’re accountable to them. Like I’m accountable to what I said I was going to do now. Like I can’t go back on this. I can’t go hide somewhere. I’ve told everybody, this is what I’m going to get done. So it holds you accountable and and you get people that are cheerleaders you and champion you, you know, that will say, you can do it, you can make it. You’ve come so far. And to be honest, sometimes when the money’s not coming in and everything’s going wrong, those are the things that get you through is you can do it. So yeah, those are those are the three, three pieces of advice I would say awesome.

Brian Pruett: [00:30:01] How do you get the word out other than your networking and your social media and your website? Or how do ways do people how do people find you? I mean, is there do you guys do any marketing for your business?

William Thomas: [00:30:09] So my title is the Director of marketing. I’m not good at it. I really I mean, I we have some stuff on social media, we have some ads that we run, we do some stuff on Google and YouTube, but it’s really been grassroots. It is really being been me engaging initially, some some nonprofits, those nonprofits sharing what we were doing and then those nonprofits contacting me. We have a good problem, which is as I don’t have to market as much anymore, which is kind of weird to say that in just over a year in business, but we just. We just haven’t had to, which is kind of cool.

Brian Pruett: [00:30:47] Well, you’re a niche because there’s a lot of people and a lot of golf tournaments are popular and nobody likes doing them. Now somebody likes doing them and there you go.

William Thomas: [00:30:57] I like it a lot. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:30:59] Um. All right. So can you share where your indoor space is going to be?

William Thomas: [00:31:02] Yes, it is in Town Lake behind the Chipotle. So there’s right by Korean barbecue, the K-pop Johnny’s pizza. It’s right there on the corner. It is the largest space in there. Again, it’s 4020ft². As I said earlier, we’ll have four indoor simulator bays. They’re each about 340ft². They’ll have a inside the simulator. There is a cameras in there that automatically records your swing. It shows you instant replay on what your club path club face was looking like. When you hit the ball and made contact. It gives you stats. It allows you to really be able to track all the things that you’re doing. There’s an app that comes with it inside the space. There’s also a bar top, a seven foot bar top that’ll be there. There’ll be TV in there so you can watch and hang out and have some fun. Also inside the space is about a 300 square foot putting green with five holes so you’ll be able to practice. It’ll be a little undulated, so there’ll be some some actual real feel. Putting will have a large lounge members area where there’s 86 inch TV fireplace. It’s going to be really, really cool. Really good space to be and have fun. As far as the food that will have there, we thought about having, excuse me, a restaurant in there, but then we’d be competing against our community, so why not just use the community that’s already there? There’s eight restaurants between Johnny’s and K-pop and My Place and Soho Bagel and Azumi and Papa John’s and. And what’s the what’s the cupcake? Delicious. Or whatever it is down there. So small cakes. So there’s so many restaurants that are already in the plaza that excuse me, we want to just use those businesses. So excuse me. So we’ll be able to, to utilize those, those organizations, those companies, those businesses to, to provide the food. So it’ll be an awesome space.

Brian Pruett: [00:32:43] Awesome. All right. So real quick share how people can get Ahold of you in case they want to talk to you about your services, even though they may be a couple years down the road. All right.

William Thomas: [00:32:51] So I’m really old school. You can call me (770) 883-8493. But for those who aren’t old school like me, you can certainly go to our website, WWW dot golf2grow.com or Golf2Grow indoor.com. Or you can email us at William at golf2grow.com. But I prefer the phone call. I don’t I will respond to an email. It just may take a minute. So you call me, I’ll answer.

Brian Pruett: [00:33:17] So and that’s the number two, right? Not the word spelled out. That’s correct.

William Thomas: [00:33:20] The number two. Thank you. Golf. The number 2 grow g r o w. I’ve had people spell it like they’re from Louisiana. I’m like, what? That this is not this is not a, you know, Tammany Parish. Yes. There you.

Brian Pruett: [00:33:33] Go. There you go. William, thanks for coming and sharing a little bit. Don’t go anywhere. We’re not done with you yet, but we’re moving out to Ms Kimberly Jerguson. Kimberly

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:33:40] Hi. How are you?

Brian Pruett: [00:33:41] Good. Welcome. Welcome this morning.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:33:43] Thanks for having me.

Brian Pruett: [00:33:44] You realize you’ve known me since, like, 2008, right?

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:33:47] I know it’s been a while. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:33:48] It’s crazy. Yeah. So you’re here on behalf of Wildlife Action? Yes, but you do a lot of this other stuff within the community. You do hair and all kinds of different stuff. So we’ll get into wildlife action and what you do for them and, and some events coming up. But if you don’t mind sharing a bit about your background.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:34:03] I was born and raised in Cherokee County, so I have a lot of strong feelings to doing things in the community here. I am kind of have my hands in a little bit of everything. I bartend, I work at Gunsmoke gun store, I do hair for weddings and events. I, you know, work for a nonprofits, not work volunteer for a nonprofit. So a little a little bit of everything.

Brian Pruett: [00:34:29] So I’ll just go in and ask this because obviously because you’re from here. But why is it so important for you to be part of the community?

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:34:36] Um, I was growing up, I had some things happened as well that I needed a lot of community support with, and the community was always there for me. So it’s important for me to give back and be there for the community. And as he was saying, a selfish reason. My love language is gift giving, so I feel the same way that I’m being selfish because of how it makes me feel. But I love giving. It’s a wonderful feeling. I, you know, same at Christmas, like I’m the person that goes and buys 20 presents a person because I just love giving to people, right? And if it’s for a good cause that, you know, makes it that much stronger.

Brian Pruett: [00:35:16] Well, I think we’re all the same way when we feel like it’s selfish. But again, it’s not because it’s not like you’re doing it just because it’s going to benefit you. Financially or whatever the case is, you’re not flaunting it. You’re doing it for other folks. So again, it’s commendable. So don’t use selfish. All right. So again you do stuff with wildlife action. So if you don’t mind share a little bit about what they do and the organization. And you got some things coming up for them.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:35:40] Yes definitely. Wildlife action of Georgia. We are in Acworth in Cherokee County off of Lake Allatoona as our property. We lease property from the corps. It’s right on the lake. We have a lodge. We have a campground, hiking trails, different lodging areas, archery range, gun range, all things like that. It’s a wonderful spot for families to bring their children. If you need something you know, nice and wholesome to do, you want to be outside. It’s a great learning experience. We have a lot of homeschool opportunities there. I got involved with Wildlife Action through Gunsmoke because we would always do the gun transfers for them for their banquets, and I did that for two years, and then I always helped with the events when I was there. So they asked me to if I wanted to be on the board, and I was very grateful. So I’ve been on the board now a few years and have become the fundraising coordinator. I love planning events and the gift giving, but we are 100% grassroots feet to the ground organization and all monies raised goes 100% back into the community throughout the year. We have one main fundraiser is the banquet, and we use that money throughout the year for summer camp for kids. I use hunt, a disabled youth hunt, a turkey shoot, pumpkin carving, all things like that. So everything we do is free to the community.

Brian Pruett: [00:37:08] So I get to come to the banquet. Stone is actually on board too. So he is a it’s big for I know he loves doing that stuff and he loves being a part of that organization. So which was a great event by the way. So thank you. Um, you talked a little bit earlier before we got on the air that the even the higher ups, you know, most organizations, there’s 1 or 2 people that are employed by the by the organization. But you were sharing that this everybody’s a volunteer, even the higher ups.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:37:34] Yeah. Everybody is a volunteer, even the president. So it’s 100% volunteer. And like I said, that’s 100% of the money raised goes back into the community.

Brian Pruett: [00:37:42] Can you share how the organization got started?

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:37:45] I kind of a little bit sorry. No you’re fine. Prepared for that is out of South Carolina and South Carolina. A guy started it, I believe, in 1977, and it started spreading with local chapters across different states. I believe I could be wrong, but I believe there are six chapters in the United States, and with this one being in Acworth, which we actually, just to plug, just got chapter of the year.

Brian Pruett: [00:38:12] Awesome. Congratulations.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:38:14] Very exciting for us. But he felt there was a need in the community, one at a grass roots organization that all of the money raised did want to go back. You know, he wanted to go back into the community 100%, and that’s how he started it. He was very big on wildlife and conservation and preservation of land and animals, which is basically what the foundation is based on. You know, we teach the conservation and preservation. I said, if land and animals, we teach the Second Amendment and ethical hunting. So our slogan is to put back more than you take. So we want everything that we put in the community. We want the community to put back too, you know, so that we all become better. Right.

Brian Pruett: [00:38:59] So how does it look like? How can the community get involved with you guys? I’m sure there’s obviously other than the financial aspect of donating money, how can other people get involved and help Wildlife Action of Georgia.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:39:09] So we always take volunteers really for anything we do. We we also do community service on Saturday, every Saturday. So even if you’re not mandated to do community service, but you want to do something to help, you can come out and help on the property. We always just are upgrading the property and making things look better. Then we always need volunteers for events, as you know, such as summer camp or the turkey shoot. Pumpkin carving the event coming up, we can always use volunteers so you can be involved that way or you can get a membership. The membership, I believe, is $50 a year, and that gives you access to the property all year long as much as you want. So you can come out to the lake and sit on the dock, go fishing. We have fishing poles there for everybody. We have kayaks you can use, so that’s a way you can be involved and you can get a family membership as well for your whole family. And. Really. I mean, in anything anybody wanted to help with, I mean, we were grateful since it is all volunteer.

Brian Pruett: [00:40:11] Before we get your upcoming events, because I know you want to share that. But before we get to that, with you doing everything you do in the community, do you have opportunities to network yourself? And when I asked this question, actually when Scotland was here and she shared that events are networking and they are, you know, you don’t think of like the Canton Business Club, Woodstock Business Club as your typical networking groups, but everything, event wise is networking. Do you have a positive story you can share about networking?

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:40:37] Well, one positive story, I mean networking. Obviously. I know you’re from Chad and I know he’s been on the show, but had you not been at the banquet, I wouldn’t be on here today. Oh, there you go.

Brian Pruett: [00:40:50] So there you go. You can thank Stone too for that. So yeah. Awesome. All right. So share about you got upcoming some upcoming events. You got one that was actually I guess supposed to be tomorrow but you’ve moved it. But go ahead and share what that is.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:41:01] So we are having a polar bear plunge on Lake Allatoona. It’ll be December 17th at 2 p.m. it’s a Sunday, basically. I started this last year for a family friend that I went to high school with who has ALS. He was declining very, very quickly. He had just had a newborn, she got pregnant and three months later they he was diagnosed. So he was declining very quickly. And God was just pulling on my heart to do something for them. But I didn’t know what to do. I was scrolling on Facebook. I saw a polar bear plunge in south on the coast of Georgia to raise money for sea life, and I was like, well, that would be really cool to do something like that here, but where would we do it? And I was like, oh, well, we have property on the lake. There you go. That that’s how it got started. So I just, you know, hit the ground running and tried to get sponsorships, tried to get people to sign up. It’s it’s $40 to sign up and includes a t shirt. All that money raised goes to the family we ended up raising. And you were talking about dollar amounts and you were as well.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:42:11] Whether it’s a $20 check or 1000 or 12,000, we ended up raising $2,500 for them. Awesome. And it put her in tears. I mean, you know, she’s like, you don’t know how much this helps. No, it wasn’t ten grand. But for a family that’s struggling, I mean, that’s huge, you know. And then Wildlife Action also gave them some money along with it. So it turned out to be a really positive event. They asked me to plan another one this year. So this year the family we picked is her name is Savannah Bailey. She has cerebral palsy. She was born with cerebral palsy. She is wheelchair bound and she currently needs a she was. Put into a home. Her her main caregiver died. Her mother, and she got put into a home after that where she got third degree bedsores. Her aunt came in and took her in, and now they need their house handicap accessible. Like right now, their shower doors are ripped off, the floors ripped out. So just so they can get her in the shower. She also is looking to get a robotic arm so she can feed herself. So that is what we’re raising the money for this year. Well, if.

Brian Pruett: [00:43:22] There’s any contractors out there too, I’m sure if you want to donate, they’ll help you. They’ll take that to do that. So that would be amazing. For those listening who may not know what a polar bear plunge is. Tell them what it is.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:43:33] Basically, it’s freezing outside and you go and jump in the water. Yes. So the only downside of doing it in the south on the lake is we drain the lake every year. So the lake is lower so we can’t jump off the dock. So we literally just run into the lake, which makes it a little more painful. I’d say yes, but it worked out well. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:43:58] Go ahead.

William Thomas: [00:43:58] So for those who are conscious about the tax deductibility of it, if they donate it, it goes through wildlife. It does. It all goes to become a tax right?

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:44:09] Yes, exactly. It all goes through wildlife action. The sign up you can go to Wildlife Action georgia.com. And there’s a link at the top of the page saying 2023 Polar Bear Plunge. Everything goes through that through square. So it automatically gives you a receipt from Wildlife Action. Cool. So yes it is tax deductible.

Brian Pruett: [00:44:29] Awesome. Let me ask you this because obviously it’s you are part of founding this. But you’re you’re volunteering and you’re on the board. For those people who are listening, who have thought about, man, I want to be a part of a nonprofit. I don’t know how, but I would love to talk about volunteering or stuff. Just give some advice for somebody, because there are so many nonprofits out there and different things like that. Can you give some advice to somebody listening who might want to do something like that?

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:44:55] I would say, honestly, follow your heart and do what you know gives you passion. I have a strong connection with wildlife action because of how it started, how I got involved with Gunsmoke. Obviously, I’m a big proponent of the Second Amendment, and that was one thing that was important to me and to teach gun safety to children. I think that’s overlooked quite often, and that is one thing we focus on is gun safety with kids and just the knowledge and, you know, everything about that. So that was one of the passions that drove me to wildlife action. The other was that it was grassroots, that everything stayed in the community too. So I would say my advice, my advice is find something you’re passionate about. I am very passionate about wildlife action of Georgia.

Brian Pruett: [00:45:45] Well, and you mentioned too about being strong because you believe in the Second Amendment. And I’m sure you have guns and and like I shared a few times on this, you know, like with Kevin that I mentioned all that all in ministries, I can be passionate about helping somebody outdoors or somebody with an addiction or somebody who’s lost a child. But I’ve never personally been in that down that road. So it’s not as strong as somebody who has experienced that and helping them so well.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:46:14] And I will say. Um, I mean, it’s a little personal, but having a gun has saved my life twice, which is one of the reasons I am such a big proponent of the Second Amendment right. I think it’s important. I was a single mom for 13 years and, you know, was the his protector. I felt like I needed to be able to protect myself and my child, and I did, you know, having that right.

Brian Pruett: [00:46:41] By the way, I can’t believe how big he is.

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:46:43] I know it’s crazy going to college. I feel old, I feel old, and he even volunteers too, which, you know, he volunteered at summer camp this year. So even if there’s people listening out there that want their kids to be involved in something, it’s a great organization for that as well. You know, we always can use camp counselors and like just group coordinators at summer camp. It’s a lot of fun, like we do fishing and kayaking and hiking, and we always have guest speakers and, you know, it’s swimming a lot of fun.

Brian Pruett: [00:47:15] You talked about the property being in an Acworth and people were like, well, that’s not Cherokee County. But did you know that Acworth is the one city that’s part of four different counties? Yes. That’s crazy. Yeah. All right. Share about how people can find out the website and things like that. And if people want to help with volunteering or any of the fundraising can, they can get a hold of you. And if so, how can they do that?

Kimberly Jerguson: [00:47:35] Yes. So if you want to get in touch with me specifically for the Polar Bear Plunge, I’m old school as well. You can text me at (678) 697-3349. I say texts because I’m not sure of all the random numbers, but I will answer a text right away. You can also call the organization at (770) 924-7464. That is the president’s number, and he will answer and answer any questions you might have. If you want to sign up for the Polar Bear Plunge, you just go to Wildlife Action georgia.org i.com earlier but it’s dot org. There is a banner at the top that says 2023 Polar Bear Plunge. Just click on that and it’ll take you to register through a square site. It gives you also a description of Savannah and what we’re raising money for. There will also be, as I said, you get the t shirt. We will also have like fellowship and hot chocolate after the plunge and with a silent auction as well.

Speaker5: [00:48:33] Awesome.

Brian Pruett: [00:48:33] I think I know who doing that. Yes. Awesome. Well, Kimberly, thanks for coming on and sharing a little bit of, of your story. And then about wildlife action of Georgia and the things you got coming up. But don’t go anywhere. We’re not done before I come to you, Teresa, I wanted to ask, do you, William, do you have any more golf tournaments this year that you got going on that you need any volunteers or sponsors for?

William Thomas: [00:48:55] We are finished for the year. Okay. Our next tournament is not until March, and then we have 1st March, April and May. So certainly we’ll take sponsors for all of those. And then as you want to volunteer, you know, feel free to text, email or preferably call me.

Brian Pruett: [00:49:11] All right. Sounds good. All right. Now we’re moving over to Miss Teresa Carter from Jazzy Hearts Foundation. Teresa, thanks for being here this morning.

Teresa Carter : [00:49:18] I’m excited to be here.

Brian Pruett: [00:49:20] You are in the process of getting your 500 and 1C3 trying to work on that, but you have a very personal reason why you’re starting Jazzy Hearts Foundation. So if you don’t mind just sharing your story and I commend you because this is very fresh for you, right? So if you don’t mind and you might want to slide that over there, Kimberly. Just know. There you go. Uh, so but I just share your story and what you’re doing. And people need to understand about organ donation, which what you talk about and just a little bit. But go ahead and share your story. Well, I guess.

Teresa Carter : [00:49:52] I should start with my why. Who is Jaslyn? Carter’s her name, but everybody came to know and love her as jazzy. Um, she was born a healthy baby, so I was lucky, blessed enough to be able to have a healthy pregnancy and a normal baby for the first ten months of life, until one day she stopped breathing at school. That was the first indicator that there was something wrong. We found out a couple of days later at. She was transferred to Eggleston and we found out she had restrictive cardiomyopathy, which congenital heart disease is usually found in. One in every 100 children are born with some type of congenital heart defect or disease, which she isn’t one in the 100, but she also happens to be in the 1 in 1,000,000 with the restrictive cardiomyopathy, and was also the youngest that they had ever that they had ever a case that they had ever seen. As soon as they had told me the diagnosis. Of course, the only not necessarily a cure, but the only thing that could be done for that was a heart transplant. And so it was just a matter of keeping her alive long enough to be able to receive that heart transplant whenever the time would come. I say that she was created with great purpose as I started this organization, you know, with great purpose as carrying on her her legacy, which everything about her was just rare, I guess even the multiple times that she went into cardiac arrest, you know, it’s not most people survive from that.

Teresa Carter : [00:51:23] And she did five times survive from cardiac arrest before having that transplant thanks to CPR. And of course, you know, the hospital staff. Some of those times she was already in ICU. And, you know, already being there was a big help too. And the biggest thing, though, that really kept her alive was her having a Berlin heart put in, which was something that was normally created for a different type of cardiomyopathy than what she had. It wasn’t supposed to work for her, but it was. She was wanted to always just test the medical, her, the medical capabilities of what science can do, what her doctors can do. And they were just everybody knew and loved jazzy. And she was just like this big puzzle. They were just trying to figure out because she was just she was different. Her case wasn’t not that any any child’s congenital heart defect or disease is easy, but some a lot of them are. There are certain ways that they know have seen as successful in the past with other kids. And in her situation, there wasn’t a whole lot of options other than the transplant, and she wasn’t going to make it to the transplant.

Teresa Carter : [00:52:26] So they were willing her surgeon was willing to try something different with her, and because it worked, which we were happy, it was a very slim chance that it was going to work. Because that work, she was able to help save the lives of four other kids just at Eggleston alone. Wow. So that’s why, you know, I say that she’s created with great purpose and the medical aspect of things because, you know, it was like a ripple effect because that worked for her. It also worked with for other kids at Eggleston. That’s for other families that were able to experience the most amazing gift on earth, which is organ donation. That’s the most selfless thing that any family can do whenever they’ve lost somebody is to decide to donate, you know, their child’s organs to help save somebody else’s kid that they don’t even know. And so I guess we fast forward. She’s doing good after her transplant for a while. And. There’s a lot of routine, routine procedures and check ups and things that these kids have to go through even after a heart transplant. It’s not it’s not a cure, like a lot of people think it is. It’s just really it’s a bridge to a second chance at life to keep them going.

Teresa Carter : [00:53:34] But I think it’s 80 to 85% of these kids that have these heart transplants wind up needing a second one. The biggest leading cause of death for. Pediatric heart transplant recipients is something that’s abbreviated Cav. I think it’s cardio cardiac allograft vasculopathy. I don’t know if I’m saying that right. I’m not good with all the medical terms, which is ultimately what had. You know, sent her to heaven. But she was. She had. She had developed it so fast, faster than her doctors had ever seen happen before. It also happened so soon after transplant. It normally doesn’t happen until 10 or 15 years down the road after a transplant. This is the reason why they do these routine checkups is normally they’re able to catch. This is a disease that develops in the coronary arteries, and they’re normally able to catch it within in enough time to be able to hopefully relist the patient and hopefully be able to have that patient, you know, another heart if they can live long enough. And in her case, that just happened so fast, faster than I’ve ever seen it happen before. They just had she had her her one year checkup was only a few months before she wound up having this, this disease that came on the Cav. And her coronary arteries were perfectly healthy.

Teresa Carter : [00:54:56] So they were very shocked to see that, you know, that this was happening and that it happened so fast. And they had never heard of it before. So. Now they’re having to reevaluate how they can different ways of how they can check coronary arteries in these heart transplant recipients. And. Well, she actually got talked about at a conference in Chicago that one of her transplant doctors had went to because it had to get, you know, brought up. The issue is you can’t check the coronary arteries more than once a year because it’s an invasive procedure, as a lot of these other procedures that have to get done for these, these kids with ADHD and. So that’s the reason. That’s one of the main reasons why I started this foundation was because I wanted to be able to help to fund research for, for, you know, coronary artery disease that develops in these kids with these heart transplants. And, you know, they’re so young, they should be able to enjoy the rest of their life. And organ donation is such an important thing because it it has its own ripple effect. And when you’re saving one person’s life, well, you’ve also changed the lives of everybody that’s close to that person, because now they’ve. It’s almost like they’ve witnessed a miracle in a sense, because there’s prayers that have been answered and.

Teresa Carter : [00:56:17] I want to be able to make sure that I can. I can be able to keep that going and not have parents that think, you know, my child’s going to be okay now that they’ve had a heart transplant and just be able to give them a new sense of hope, I guess. And. Just to prevent what happened to her to happen to other kids throughout Jazz’s heart journey. Also, she she wasn’t supposed to live as long as she did, and so she was bringing together just a whole community of people that were just always praying for her and. Not even not even just saying, like praying on their own, but literally coming together in groups to make sure they pray for her, praying for her at the same time. And whenever she did come home from the hospital after her transplant, people would just look at her and just in such awe like they had witnessed a miracle because she wasn’t there. The Berlin heart wasn’t necessarily supposed to work for her, and it did. And even though we were stuck in the hospital for about four months, she was still able to receive that heart transplant and be able to come home and just be erased. Sunshine for everybody that she came into contact with.

Brian Pruett: [00:57:23] Well. So. No. That’s right. So how old was she when when she, when she passed.

Teresa Carter : [00:57:30] She was two and a half years old. Okay.

Brian Pruett: [00:57:31] And you said that this was earlier this year, right. Mhm. Yeah. How long ago.

Teresa Carter : [00:57:36] August 28th was when she passed away. Her one year heart adversaries which what we call it was in March of this year and everything seemed to be okay. And that’s why it’s. They know that there’s more research that needs to be done and how they can check coronary arteries in a less invasive way, because it’s obviously now it’s something that that can happen fast and not progress really slowly. And. But aside from Jazzy Hearts Foundation, just wanting to be able to fund research for coronary artery disease specifically for heart transplant recipients, I want to be able to more in depth, be able to share how God, how God played a part in her entire life, and not only just to get to me, because I know for sure that jazzy was sent here just to save my soul. My whole life, I had my doubts about God and kind of going back and forth whether or not he was real and this and that, and my first encounter that I had with him. We were waiting. It was in the hospital. We were we weren’t exactly like stuck per se in there, yet we went in. It was the beginning of 2022in January, and we went because she had had a heart monitor put in because she was having she by then she had already had a few cardiac arrest episodes, and they were hoping to be able to catch some kind of pattern. Well, it was forcing its way out. It didn’t want to stay in there, of course.

Teresa Carter : [00:59:00] So when we went in the first, it was January 1st of 2022. We went in and I really thought it was just going to be quick. We go in, they’re probably going to want to just take it out, reevaluate. Maybe we get to go home in like a week. One thing led to another. She ended up catching Covid, going into cardiac arrest again, and we went. That’s when we knew we were going to be stuck. And I remember being so frustrated one day in the hospital room as she was already asleep, and I was so frustrated and and like, he just came to me. It was like a so loud, like, she is mine. And I had to, you know, realize that I really have no control over what’s going on. I’m really just wasting my energy being so upset. I’m separated from the rest of my family and. That was really the first encounter that I had with God. I remember it really. It scared me. I’m not even going to lie, because I was I remember looking around the room like, what? What is that like? What is that voice? And and it was such a strong feeling. I remember being shook up. And so ever since then, I really since I was stuck in the hospital. Anyway, I really just started, I guess, my spiritual journey, you could say. And. I had more time there, I wasn’t busy. I have two other kids and a husband at home also.

Teresa Carter : [01:00:11] I should have already mentioned them by now, but my husband was at home holding down the fort. And you know, my kids play travel ball sports and we’re very, you know, just active in everything they do. Not just the sports, but even with school stuff, making sure that they’re going to be successful one day. And so I had more time while I was at the hospital just to focus on jazzy and focus on, you know, building my relationship with God. Because I know now that he’s real, because it wasn’t just a voice, it was a whole feeling that was inside of me. And. There was another encounter that I had. I don’t want to share all of my encounters because I don’t want to go too far into detail, but the one that really sticks out the most was one day I was listening to the church. We go to North Point Church in Dyersville, and I’m really grateful that they they always go live every Sunday. The services are. So that way I can listen in sometimes. It didn’t always work out for me to listen in while they were live, but I’m always able to go back. And it was late night and jazzy was already asleep and everything was quiet. And I can just remember just like taking notes, because that’s what I was doing, because I was really just trying to do a lot of learning, and it was like something had just kind of took over my hand.

Teresa Carter : [01:01:24] It was really weird, and it was just like, I remember writing off to the side and saying, you will lead them to me. At the time, I had no idea what it meant. I just was like, you know, okay, I know that didn’t come from me. I knew it came from God. And I just carried on with my studies and this and that, and now that everything’s unfolded the way that it did. I know now that somehow I’m supposed to help people. I really thought it was going to be jazzy. I can this last time we were in the hospital for 28 days this past August. I can remember thanking him in advance every single day because I just the way that she was bringing people together, I had people telling me they were going back to church. They were building their faith in God. We all just knew she was going to come home. Sorry. I can remember thanking him in advance because she was bringing people to God, and I was getting to witness it. So at the time, I thought when I wrote that down that I was supposed to help jazzy do it. You know, because she was going to come home and everybody was going to be in such awe because this unimaginable thing was happening to her. And, you know, she survived yet again, and everybody was going to get to see her. And just look at this little miracle that had from prayers being answered.

Teresa Carter : [01:02:41] Now that everything’s unfolded, I know that, you know, now it’s me doing it and she’s walking alongside me spiritually. But I have to keep that going for her. You know her always just testing the boundaries of what medical science can do. I can keep that going by saving other kids lives. Other family’s lives because it’s, you know, it’s not easy for anybody that’s lost a child, anybody that’s really lost anybody close to them. So there’s just two aspects to Jazzy Hearts Foundation. But I guess the biggest hurdle right now is just really just being able to raise the funds. There’s another nonprofit called Enduring Hearts. They’re on a national level that’s also doing the same thing as far as funding pediatric research for heart transplants. But they do a lot of other studies. Other, you know, research for pediatric heart transplants. But I know that I solely want to focus on the cardiac vascular. Goodness, I’m getting my words mixed up. Cardiac allograft vasculopathy. And they are willing to work with me. I just have to come up with 150 K and they will. Since they already have, they’re already established. They have their own committee of scientists and research cardiologists and things like that. But if when we come up with 150 K, then they’ll willing to work with us through their organization to fund whatever research of my choice, which would be Cav, and be able to have it solely recognized under Jazzy Hearts Foundation. Well, so.

Brian Pruett: [01:04:19] If you’re listening and you’ve got 150 K, you know, we got somebody that needs you. Um, real quick. So I know you’re in the middle of process of starting the 500 1C3 because you don’t have that yet. So there’s no tax benefit unfortunately. People want that. And it should be just because they have a good heart. But but go ahead and share with somebody how they can get a hold of you. If somebody’s listening right now and say, hey, I want to send you something or help you, how can they do that?

Teresa Carter : [01:04:45] Well, my telephone number is probably the easiest calling or text (678) 346-5134. We do have a website. It is jazzy hearts dot fit apparel.biz. We do also have Facebook. If you just go on Facebook and search on there Jazzy Hearts Foundation. We’re still in the very beginning stages. Like I said, my daughter passed away in August and we actually started the foundation the day that we had to go in to prepare for her funeral. Like how all of us have already said just a few minutes ago about doing something nice for somebody makes you feel good. And I wanted to know that I can. What happened to us doesn’t have to happen to somebody else, you know? And so I, I also feel good when you do something nice for somebody else. And that was part of the reason why we started it, particularly on that day. I didn’t want to have to deal with the thought of planning her funeral. So we are registered through the state right now. We’re just a domestic non profit organization, but we will be a 500 and 1C3 very shortly. I recently did a t shirt campaign and the funds that were raised from that were will be what’s going to fund for us to be able to make that happen. Is that still going on?

Brian Pruett: [01:06:02] Can people still go and order t shirts?

Teresa Carter : [01:06:04] That particular campaign is over with, but people can still order t shirts through this website. Jazzy hearts. Dot fit. Apparel.biz. So website is a merch store on there with all kinds of different shirts. Cool sweater like what I have on right now. All kind of different colors. And the proceeds to that, a portion of the proceeds of that will come directly to us. We’re also doing a toy drive. I feel like I have to speak on the toy drive, too. I know there’s a lot of companies that are doing toy drives right now, but this one we started last year. It was Jazzy’s first birthday. Being at home. It was her second birthday. She spent her first birthday in the cardiac ICU. And you know, no parent thinks to spend their child’s first birthday in the hospital and you don’t have anything. We were already there since her birthday is January 14th, so we had already been there a couple weeks, I didn’t. I’m a late planner. I guess I didn’t have like a party or nothing planned yet for her and. The only thing I could get for her was something from the gift shop, and I was in such awe when. Because we can’t sleep in ICU. They have little sleep pods that we slept. We slept in. The parents do. And I can remember early that morning when I got there, her nurses already had it decorated. They had gifts for her. She couldn’t eat because she had just went into cardiac arrest a couple of days ago. So she was on a feeding tube and one of the nurses, she made a it was a little like a smash cake.

Teresa Carter : [01:07:26] You know how they do for one year olds. But she made it with Play-Doh, so that way jazzy can still have something to smash, even though she couldn’t eat it. That was pretty cool, but that was definitely. It was happy tears that day because just knowing that, you know, they they had done that for her and the gifts came from the hospital, not necessarily from the nurses, although I don’t, I don’t know. Some of the nurses might have purchased some of the gifts. I’m not sure. Um, but that was how I found out real quickly that the hospital gets toys donated here and there for different other families. Different occasions, like everything is a ripple effect. You know, everybody, all the families that have come through there, there’s so many of them that give back because they’ve been whoever’s currently there, we’ve been in their shoes. And so I knew that when her first birthday, well, her second birthday, it was her first birthday at home had came around. Her birthday is right after Christmas, too. I was like, well, she doesn’t need more toys. And so we did this toy drive because I know there’s other kids that are still in the hospital that are spending birthdays. They’re just like, you know, jazzy did, and I’ve seen other kids, you know, have to celebrate birthdays in the hospital, and that’s not fun. And it was when they were still having the Covid, you know, regulations and things like that.

Teresa Carter : [01:08:35] And so nobody could come. They did make a special arrangement for my husband and my kids to come, which my husband was allowed to come and go whenever we were. Each patient was only allowed two caregivers at the time, but siblings weren’t supposed to be allowed. But we did get special permission since it was her first birthday for her siblings to to come visit that weekend. So anyways, yeah, we started the toy drive last year and it was. I was really surprised at the turnout we had. It was really cool and it was amazing for me. And jazzy went to go deliver the gifts over there. We did it. They were still under the Covid regulations, so it wasn’t like we got to go out and, you know, see anybody. But just to know that. The other kids that spend birthdays, holidays and I can remember even jazzy getting gifts sometimes on just the really hard days, you know? And even for the older kids, I’m sure there’s I can’t experience that. But, you know, there’s. Because jazzy was so young when she passed away. But they go through other kind of struggles with them being, you know, teenagers and being stuck in the hospital. And. Also, you know, for the kids that are there for a long time because has been had admissions that were significantly long and you have to keep those kids entertained. You know, so they get new toys periodically too. So we just want to make sure that the hospital, the Eggleston, always has a good stock of toys.

Brian Pruett: [01:09:51] So if somebody wants to take part in that, how can they get the toys to you?

Teresa Carter : [01:09:54] The fliers on the website. And there’s different drop off locations in the Bartow County area. There’s also an Amazon wish list on there. The majority of those items on the Amazon wish list are directly from the hospital’s wish list. And then I also added some more stuff on there that were toys that jazzy got while she was in the hospital too. But yes, the events are on that website. Also. Jazzy Heart’s outfit apparel.biz. Another event we have coming up is a fundraiser night at Henry’s, which I know a lot of people are pretty familiar with. Henry’s. Henry’s also, I believe it’s a liver transplant recipient. Is it liver? I couldn’t remember, I remember meeting him at a it was another. What was it? It was for something for the Georgia Transplant Foundation. It was a fundraiser. Goodness. My words are getting scrambled up. But anyways, that’s going to be on January 9th, and we’re going to just kind of do that. Have our family there as a, I guess, birthday dinner, you know, in memory of her.

Brian Pruett: [01:10:53] Well, I mentioned this to you a couple of weeks ago. We had Stone’s wife, Holly on here, and Holly is a kidney donor, so we need to get with her because I’m sure she’d like to be part of that as well. So I love hearing stories like that. You you mentioned something about, you know, the way God works because he does work in mysterious ways. And we never know, probably until we get to heaven. Why things, certain things happen. Sometimes we can look back and, you know, after several years and seeing, oh, well, that’s why that happened. Yeah. But you also and I think, you know, after talking with you and hearing more of your story this morning, your career is dealing with life insurance, right? It’s one of the things you do.

Teresa Carter : [01:11:29] It’s actually that is also kind of new. That started because one of the things with being a transplant recipient, any transplant recipient, any organ transplant, is you have to take certain medications. That’s what they call anti-rejection medications. That’s pretty much helping to keep you alive by keeping your immune system down, to make sure your body doesn’t try to naturally fight off the foreign object, which is the, you know, the new organ that wasn’t there when you were born. So. Goodness, I just lost my whole train of thought just then. I’m so sorry.

Speaker5: [01:12:02] You’re fine.

Brian Pruett: [01:12:02] We’re talking about life insurance.

Teresa Carter : [01:12:05] Yes, I started that because jazzy would get sick pretty often, and so she’d be at home. And I’m actually a private chef slash caterer. I have a catering company also that’s been on the back burner with having jazzy at home a lot. And then of course, being in the hospital, there were times I even had to cancel events because she would happen to be in the hospital again. So I knew that I had to think of something outside of catering that wasn’t that I could do from home, and that’s when I got into life insurance. And I didn’t get to. I remember finishing I got my license. I believe it was before she went in in August this last time, but I hadn’t started my training yet. And so now I’m getting back into that. And so it’s still kind of new, kind of fresh, but that’s a big, near and dear to my heart. Also because we have life insurance on our kids and there’s a lot of, you know, benefits that come with that even, you know, aside from jazzy passing away, just. Knowing that. If something ever happens to me, if something ever happens to them, that you don’t have to necessarily worry there. There’s certain things you don’t have to worry about, but there’s so much more to life insurance than just that. Like even for people that it’s for anybody even. And I remember growing up thinking like, oh, it’s only, you know, rich people that have life insurance. And that’s not the case. And I realize that when I came into my adult life, that it’s life insurance is for everyone. It’s just a matter of having the right, the right agent that can help you with whatever your needs are and work with your budget because you can get life insurance, life insurance on any budget. Um hum. Um, well, that’s.

Brian Pruett: [01:13:33] Important to talk about because you talked about having life insurance on your kids. My wife and I, we had life insurance on my stepkids. But, you know, you never think about. Yeah, I was an adult. I have life insurance, but you should definitely have it on your kids.

Teresa Carter : [01:13:45] Right away, too, because I was, I mean, which normally I probably shouldn’t mention it, but we’re going through a headache right now with Jazzy’s Life Insurance company. But we got her life insurance before we even knew that she had any kind of heart condition. So I remember, like when I was going through the the online course thing and learning about life insurance. And so I was playing around with some stuff, trying to I was like, well, what if we would have waited too long? Like, what if somebody would have tried to, you know, get and she wouldn’t have been eligible for any kind of life insurance because of her just being an organ transplant recipient.

Speaker5: [01:14:15] Right.

Brian Pruett: [01:14:16] So are you still have the catering business?

Teresa Carter : [01:14:21] I do, yes.

Brian Pruett: [01:14:21] So what’s what kind of events do you do?

Speaker5: [01:14:25] Anything.

Brian Pruett: [01:14:25] Anything? Yeah. What’s the name of the what’s the name of the catering?

Teresa Carter : [01:14:28] Reese’s way.

Brian Pruett: [01:14:29] Ooh, Reese’s.

Speaker5: [01:14:30] Reese’s way. All right. Can I ask another question?

William Thomas: [01:14:34] Yeah. Is it all right? Yeah. Go ahead. Have a question. In a in a statement of encouragement, I’ll start with the statement of encouragement so you can answer the question. Okay a statement of encouragement. So I’m a numbers guy and I’m all about life insurance I the last thing you want to do is worry about going back to work, going back to your job if you have to lose a child. So you have to have you have to have money, you have to have resources. So I am I will champion you all day on life insurance. But my statement of encouragement is, is being a numbers guy, I know 150,000 can seem daunting. That’s 12,500 a month which is 3125 a week. I’m a numbers guy. It’s $470 a day if you do it seven days a week. So in 2024, you need to figure out every day how you can get 470. That’s it. Just break it down that way. And because 150 is a ton of money and it’s frustrating and I’m sure you know, you’re like, how am I going get 150? But I’m.

Teresa Carter : [01:15:29] Honestly not even intimidated by that number.

Speaker5: [01:15:31] Like the.

Teresa Carter : [01:15:32] One is somebody I don’t. One of us has said something about not fearing anything. Or was that something I heard on the radio on the way here? I don’t know, but I guess just through everything that I’ve been through, I’ve got when I seriously say I fear nothing and numbers are just numbers. Money is just money, all right? It can always it can always be replaced. I don’t know, and I’m just I know that this is what I’m supposed to be doing, so I don’t feel intimidated. I know that I’ll get away to get 150 K, I believe whatever it takes. And I was just having a conversation with my husband yesterday. Did I cut you off?

Speaker5: [01:16:01] I’m sorry.

William Thomas: [01:16:01] I have a question.

Teresa Carter : [01:16:02] Go ahead. Oh, I had a conversation with my husband yesterday. And, you know, we’re just the type of parents we’ll do anything, whatever it takes to make sure that our kids are successful. Whatever their definition of success is, it doesn’t even necessarily have to be money. You know, just and I feel like and I was telling him this, I didn’t it didn’t occur to me until over the Thanksgiving break that I feel like somehow I’ve replaced jazzy with this nonprofit organization. I spend so much time doing so much learning because I’m new to nonprofit, it’s kind of different. It’s still, I’ve learned that I need to run it like a business, even though I’m not profiting from it. But whatever it’s going to take to make it successful, I’m willing to do. And I love so much that my husband is on board with it, even though sometimes I feel guilty, like I’m slacking being, you know, a mom and a wife at home sometimes because there’s certain things that aren’t getting done. But he’s so supportive and, you know.

Speaker5: [01:16:54] It’s awesome.

William Thomas: [01:16:55] So my question is, have you talked with Point of Dyersville to allow you to raise money through their non profit side so that people can so they can have everything set up on their website. People can give to the church essentially make it a tax write off. And then those funds directly come 100% to you or the organization. Have you talked to your church about doing that so that you can raise money and still. It be a write off for people?

Teresa Carter : [01:17:20] No, I haven’t actually. You’re referring to, like a fiscal sponsor.

William Thomas: [01:17:23] Have have the church just be the conduit through which people give. So right now as not being a a registered 500 and 1C3. People who want to give. Again I hate. And as you said earlier Brian, people should just want to give. But that’s just not how this work. This world works. People want the tax deduction, especially right now with it just being passed giving Tuesday, you’re getting to the end of your contributions. People are finding a way to shelter money, get rid of tax liabilities or just really want to do want to give it away but want the tax benefit of it too. Would your church be willing to allow you to have the funds received through their conduit, and then cut you the check specifically from that? So it doesn’t cost them anything, doesn’t bother them in any way. It doesn’t mess up their books. They receive money. They gave it out as a deduction for them as well. But it allows that individual who wants to give to have it considered a tax deduction for them because it’s going to a non profit, which is the church.

Speaker5: [01:18:13] Honestly.

Teresa Carter : [01:18:14] I did not even think about that.

Speaker5: [01:18:16] That’s what.

Teresa Carter : [01:18:16] I have been what.

Kimberly Jerguson: [01:18:17] We do with the polar.

Speaker5: [01:18:18] Bear plunge. That’s what it.

Kimberly Jerguson: [01:18:19] Is. It’s going through wildlife actions. So it’s.

Speaker5: [01:18:21] Tax I have.

Teresa Carter : [01:18:22] I was trying to look for a fiscal sponsorship because I know the 500 and 1C3 is going to be a little bit of a process. And I was trying to have something like that, you know, before the end of the year, because I know a lot of companies are wanting to kind of more likely to give away money at the end before they got.

Speaker5: [01:18:36] Their taxes and.

William Thomas: [01:18:38] See if they would be willing to do that. It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt them. I mean, they don’t lose anything, don’t gain anything. I mean, it’s just they’re the conduit so that they can get their write off. So anything like you said with the.

Speaker5: [01:18:46] There was a.

Teresa Carter : [01:18:46] Reason why certain companies. So I’m not going to say their names. But the couple companies that I did ask, I kind of I just didn’t get a response.

Speaker5: [01:18:53] That’s why.

Brian Pruett: [01:18:54] Yeah, that’s exactly why.

William Thomas: [01:18:56] Yeah. That’s like when we do our non profit golf tournaments, we don’t get the check because it takes away the ability to say it’s a charitable contribution tax deduction. So all of our checks go directly to our non profit. And then they compensate us. We get we get paid. So with the polar bear plunge it’s the same thing. I mean again I wish people would just do it but they want the write off. So they they get to say they’re getting the write off or that jumping in the lake, but it goes through the tax deduction of the 501C3. So that’s something definitely to consider and doesn’t stop you from getting money now and getting more money.

Kimberly Jerguson: [01:19:26] And if not, I know a few people that might be willing to do that for you.

William Thomas: [01:19:29] For you. There’s people out there.

Brian Pruett: [01:19:31] Say, this is why I love this show. It’s exactly why I bring more people on here.

Speaker5: [01:19:35] Instead of just having.

Teresa Carter : [01:19:36] One at a time. You were saying that the other day too.

Brian Pruett: [01:19:38] So I got a few other questions for you. So you talked about. Well, first of all, I’m going to go back to your catering just for a second. If if people want to get a hold of you for catering. Right. You know, I’m sure it’s holidays and things. They may have parties or even first of the year. How can somebody get a hold of you for for catering?

Teresa Carter : [01:19:56] Honestly, just my phone number. I don’t have a website or anything like that yet, but I’m learning all of that stuff now through the non profit organization.

Brian Pruett: [01:20:03] Okay. So I’m going to ask 3A3 part question. It’s all advice that I want you to give people okay. And it’s three parts. The one is it’s going to be very kind of personal. But there may be somebody listening who is going through a certain situation that you’ve gone through with their child. I’d like for you to give them some hope, you know, advice, even if it’s seem, may seem grim on the outcome. It’s really, as you said she was. Helped four other families, right? That’s the first part of the question. The second part is give advice on starting a business, because you’ve done that with your catering and you’re doing that with your life insurance. Right. And the third part is you’re going through the process of becoming a 500 and 1C3 nonprofit. Give some advice on what somebody should do to start a nonprofit. If you can’t remember those, I’ll ask them again. But okay.

Teresa Carter : [01:20:51] The first one is really hitting home because I was going to make sure I said it anyways. I just feel like I always have to tell people that God is going to meet you where you’re at, regardless of what it is you’re going through. He’s going to be with you at the high, the highest part of the mountains, all the way into the deepest lows of the valleys. He’s going to be with you and. There’s nothing you can really do wrong. There’s no manuscript on how you’re supposed to grieve. There’s. However, you feel like you have to get your fix. He’s still going to meet you where you’re at. He’s so good and his goodness is going to come through all of the bad. Everything happens for a reason, and it’s all because of the things that he’s working, things that he’s trying to make happen that we can’t see because we are only seeing what’s happening right in front of us.

Speaker5: [01:21:38] And there’s.

Brian Pruett: [01:21:38] No coincidences.

Teresa Carter : [01:21:39] There’s no coincidences.

Brian Pruett: [01:21:40] Hence the reason they just gave you some good advice about finding a nonprofit.

Speaker5: [01:21:44] To do that. Right.

Brian Pruett: [01:21:46] All right. Second question. Give somebody some advice on starting a business.

Teresa Carter : [01:21:51] Just go for it and be prepared to go through the blood, sweat and tears. You’re not going to get compensated in the beginning. You’re going to put a lot of time and not see not going to reap the benefits of it. So you have to know whatever business it is. What’s your reasoning for it?

Speaker5: [01:22:05] All right.

Teresa Carter : [01:22:05] Why is it important to you.

Brian Pruett: [01:22:07] And the same thing with the non profit. Why if somebody wants to start a nonprofit there’s a lot to do a non profit. More so than I would even say even for starting a business.

Speaker5: [01:22:16] I’m learning that. Yeah. Um.

Brian Pruett: [01:22:19] I mean, you and I sat down and talked yesterday and I mentioned something about insurance for your non profit. That was something you didn’t think.

Teresa Carter : [01:22:24] Wasn’t even on my radar at all. I have insurance for the other stuff for the other two businesses but not for the non profit. Um, I guess I think one of us had already said, I think it might have been you finding something that you’re passionate about. You know, in my case it’s this because it happened to me. I don’t want to be able to help other families. I want to be able to be that support system for them if they need somebody to talk to, too. So I guess if anybody’s listening right now that’s recently lost a child, or if you’re in the hospital right now, if you could give me a call at (678) 346-5134, sometimes it helps just to know you have somebody to talk to. And when it’s somebody that’s outside of your circle.

Speaker5: [01:23:03] Right.

Teresa Carter : [01:23:03] Because I did have that with somebody and it it makes a huge difference.

Speaker5: [01:23:07] Right.

Brian Pruett: [01:23:08] And I mean, it doesn’t matter the time of year. It’s tough any time. But this time of year particularly reach out to somebody if you need to talk to somebody. Yes. All right. Before I get to the last question for everybody, you’re fairly new to the Cardinal Business Club we introduced you to. Right. And so I don’t know if you’ve networked any time before that, but do you have a positive story you can share just from your networking, even if it’s fairly new.

Teresa Carter : [01:23:33] Before coming to.

Brian Pruett: [01:23:35] Anytime, even if it’s now or it’s.

Teresa Carter : [01:23:37] A more recent one. So Scotland that you had mentioned, she’s my husband’s well, she’s my cousin, she’s my family, I love her and I love what she does. But she had reached out to me and told me that she came and spoke on this podcast, and so she thought it would be good for me just to, you know, talk about Jazzy Heart. So I reached out to you, of course. And then you tell me to, you know, you’re inviting me to this Cartersville business club. And so I go there, and when I go there, I meet Paul and his. Well, I didn’t meet his partner then, but I met Paul, who said that he could help me to build a website and be able to continue selling the t shirts, which is him and his partner, Rebecca. That’s where the fit apparel on the the website, like Jazzy Hearts Fit apparel.biz. They’ve built this website for me for Jazzy Hearts, not for me, but it’s for this whole jazzy heart. Community is what I like to call it, to where people can go on there and they can purchase the t shirts and it’s at no cost to me, but they’re getting compensated. And then Jazzy Hearts is also getting compensated, and then the logo is getting pushed around for everybody to see also. And that that all came from just Scotland sending me a text message. And now I have a website and through through just talking with you and you put me on Game Wednesday this past Wednesday about the blink I think is how you pronounce it. And so now I have a digital business card, and I got to meet the manager for the new bank that’s getting this being opened. And I can’t wait to, you know, hopefully be able to work with them. And just it’s networking is it’s just a matter of taking the initiative. If somebody is like, hey, I know somebody that does this or this, they might be helpful for you. It’s just a matter of you taking that one step to reach out to whoever it is that contact is.

Brian Pruett: [01:25:16] Again, it’s not about you. It’s helping other people. Yeah. And Scotland didn’t tell you the story. The reason we know Scotland is because when we did the Northwest Georgia Rising Stars magazine, we did a story on her organization. And that’s been 2018.

Speaker5: [01:25:29] Oh okay.

Brian Pruett: [01:25:30] So all right, real quick, Kimberly, remind remind everybody the date of the polar plunge. And you need to send me the new flier so I can get it up.

Kimberly Jerguson: [01:25:39] Yes, it is December 17th at 2 p.m. at the on Lake Allatoona off of Kellogg Creek Road.

Speaker5: [01:25:46] Okay.

Brian Pruett: [01:25:48] Before we wrap this up, there’s two other questions or one other question that I’d like to do is for all three of you, I’d like for each of you to give either one. You’ve done this already, but one word, one quote, or just a positive nugget that people can live the rest of 2023, which is only a few days left and beyond with. So, Kimberly, I’m going to start with you this time. What do you got?

Kimberly Jerguson: [01:26:12] I’m going to go with our slogan is to put back more than you take, whether that’s in nature or family or faith or anything that you come across in life. Put back more than you take.

Brian Pruett: [01:26:24] Awesome, Theresa.

Teresa Carter : [01:26:28] While I already shared one little nugget, I feel like the other one is don’t be so hard on yourself. Life is just hard in general. And nobody’s nobody’s pain or struggle is necessarily greater than the next. Like sometimes when. I like. I recently spoke to one of my friends and she was saying like she just didn’t. Feel like everybody’s going through something. So I think a lot of us feel like we don’t want to talk about what it is that we’re going, whatever our struggle is, because in my situation, I feel like people look at me like, oh, you lost a child. Like your situation is so much worse than mine. And that’s not necessarily the case. Everybody’s everybody’s going through their own pain and struggles, and based off of their own experiences is the extremity of what it feels like, the weight of what it feels like to them. So just don’t be so hard on yourself. Life is hard. And as long as you’re trying your best, you’re doing great.

Brian Pruett: [01:27:13] William.

William Thomas: [01:27:15] It may be a bit inappropriate, just obviously with our indoor space and the fact that it’s almost the end of the year and you’re trying to push through, it’s literally go balls to the walls. And that’s literally what we’re doing in our space. So there you go. More apropos.

Brian Pruett: [01:27:30] There you go. The other thing that’s a lost art these days is the thank you. So I want to thank each of you, William, thank you for what you’re doing for all the different nonprofits and specifically in Cherokee County. Kimberly, thank you for what you’re doing in the community here in Cherokee and Acworth. You know, it’s Acworth, too. And then, Teresa, thank you for what you’re doing for all the community in Bartow, but also all the families that you and Jazzie have touched. Everybody out there listening. Let’s remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.