Workplace MVP: Drew Sewell, CKS Packaging

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting from the Business RadioX studios, it’s time for Workplace MVP. Workplace MVP is brought to you by R3 Continuum, a global leader in workplace behavioral health crisis and security solutions. Now here’s your host, Jamie Gassman.

Jamie Gassman: [00:00:32] Hi, everyone. Your host, Jamie Gassman, here. And welcome to this episode of Workplace MVP. In a recent Sherm.org blog post, they shared that US prisons and jails released nearly 700,000 men and women into society every year. They also noted that approximately 70 million people have a criminal record, one third of working-age US adults. When these individuals are released into society, they are then tasked with finding work, so that they can support themselves, their families and start to live a new life post-incarceration. Additionally, there are a number of people out there who have lost their way and fallen into behavior that is damaging to themselves, their families and their community.

Jamie Gassman: [00:01:15] How did these individuals and those looking to have a second chance find an employer who is willing to accept an individual as a candidate regardless of their past? Looking at today’s job market struggles with a shortage of workers, is there a benefit to employers to consider implementing Second Chance Programs as a way to augment their hiring approach? How can giving back to these individuals help the organization, community, and the employee?

Jamie Gassman: [00:01:41] With us today to share how implementing a Second Chance Program has benefited their organization, its people and the community is Workplace MVP Drew Sewell, Chief Operations Officer for CKS packaging. Welcome to the show, Drew.

Drew Sewell: [00:01:58] Thank you, Jamie. It’s good to be here today.

Jamie Gassman: [00:02:01] We’re happy to have you. And so, let’s just start off with you telling me a little bit about yourself and your career journey. And then, we’ll get into talking about CKS Packaging in just a moment.

Drew Sewell: [00:02:12] Okay. So, CKS Packaging is my family business. My dad is Charles King Sewell. And King is his mother’s maiden name. But he founded the company in 1985. And once upon a time, back in the early days of 1963, he started Sewell Plastics. His company made the first plastic milk jug in the southeast United States, and then the first two-liter Coke bottle in the world, and it kind of put us on the map and put us all across the country, 25 locations. He sold that and started over with CKS Packaging. He wasn’t able to buy his name back. And so, he was looking to get in in a small way, just five days a week, one shift.

Drew Sewell: [00:03:07] But because so many people were loyal to us, the customers, and we were a good supplier, that scene went out the window, and we needed more and more people. But today, we’re $600 million in sales, and we have 3000 employees in 27 locations across the United States. But he made a commitment, and I don’t want to scare people away when they hear a religious commitment, but he made a faith-based adjustment and said, “I’m going to tithe the profits of the company.” And when he did, things just went crazy for us. You can’t outgive God. So, we’ve just exploded over the years.

Jamie Gassman: [00:03:51] Wonderful, and you’ve grown to be global supplier and you know all of your locations and various different states across the U.S. So it’s it’s amazing to see that growth that you guys have built up. So now looking at the Second Chance program for your organization, so there’s a different there’s a lot of different reasons why an employer decides to put a second chance program in place. Some it is a method for just expanding their candidate pool, and for others, it’s a way to give back to the community and help people for six packaging. What were some of the driving factors in creating the Second Chance program?

Drew Sewell: [00:04:28] Where we are, our company is our headquarters is about 10 miles from Atlanta. And in nineteen ninety six, when the Olympics came to Atlanta, we they tried to push prostitution and drugs and crime basically out of Atlanta, and they pushed it out 10, 15 miles. And so that’s where we encountered it on the boulevard where we are a mile from. Our office was a number one hotel for drug and prostitution in the United States. And that was led to do something about it, because it was, you know, here we are, a big successful company. But the neighborhood was run down and scary. I mean, they would carjack you steal things. You know, if you had a landlord that ran out of gas and you left it by the street to go get the gas can, the land more was stolen before you could even blink an eye. It was just terrible. So we decided that we would go into the neighborhood and do a day of outreach. And we were doing free food, clothes, health care, haircuts. We painted the ladies nails. We had moonwalks, ladd’s popcorn, cotton candy, snow cone, all that was just to draw the people in. And then we offered to pray with them and it changed hundreds of lives.

Drew Sewell: [00:05:50] But what I found out was when that day was over with you did the crime came back, everything was still still the same, even though twenty five prostitutes left the street the first time we ever did it. That was 15 years ago. So I went and I talked to the people that were there, homeless, etc. if you will, get off the streets and go into a drug drug rehab or some kind of rehab for whatever lifestyle you’re leading, after one year, I will hire you to come to work for me. And I had a lot of takers and it took a while, but it got going off the ground. And what I found out was those that are incarcerated, one of the ministry partners we support on a monthly basis from our tyre’s is Prison Fellowship Ministries. Prison Fellowship as a pipeline to seek is to help supply us with good workers. So these people have made a mistake in their lives. And they paid for that mistake, but they had that blemish that nobody wants to hire them. But in today’s environment, so hard to find somebody to go to work for you. And you really have some very talented people that have made that mistake pay for the mistake, and now they can’t get a job.

Drew Sewell: [00:07:09] So we decided, you know what, let’s give them a shot. And that was about six years ago. And today, you know, you go through the numbers just like hiring other people. But we’ve got one hundred and eighty nine, what we call second chance workers at six is and they have been with us, you know, two, three years, and they’re moving up the ranks. It’s it’s amazing. They have mechanical ability. When you make plastic bottles, you have a lot of production equipment that needs to be worked on, needs to be kept up. These big keep running so you can be profitable. And these guys and ladies are filling in the blanks for us. And they are so grateful to have a second chance that they will never leave us. And we’re a family business anyway. And we treat our people. They’re our greatest asset. We treat them like family. When I walk through the plant, I know it’s not the thing to say or do, but I hug them. You know, I love them except for the grace of God. There go where they would be. Me would be them. And I just have compassion for them. And in our whole company is a family oriented that way.

Jamie Gassman: [00:08:21] Amazing, so looking at that program now, you said you’ve had it for about six years now. How would you say, you know, obviously from an organizational perspective, this kind of giving you a pipeline to some really able and willing workers, but how has it impacted the community and some of those individuals? Have they benefited from the program?

Drew Sewell: [00:08:41] It’s it’s totally changed their lives. I mean, if you if you don’t have a job, what are you going to end up doing if you come out of the prison system? Are you going to go back on the street corner and hang out with your buddies? And the next thing you know, you’re doing drugs again and you don’t have money. So you have to support that habit. You steal or you break in, you rob whatever you have to do. And so by changing their lives, I mean, now they have homes, apartments, they have jobs, they have benefits. I mean, it’s just it’s a total life changer for them.

Jamie Gassman: [00:09:14] Wonderful. And, you know, when we talked earlier, you shared with me, you know, that you’ve had some success stories where somebody has come in on the Second Chance program and really risen into some leadership ranks and in some roles. Can you share with our listeners some of the success stories that you’ve you’ve experienced from this, where somebody climbed your corporate ladder, basically?

Drew Sewell: [00:09:35] Right. So we we have a couple of regional quality managers. We have shift supervisors at several plants that are second chances. And it’s you know, it’s it’s it’s no different from any other pool of applicants that would be coming to your company to fill out an application. They all have, you know, credentials that they bring. Some a lot of them have college degrees. You know, they just they they make bad choices, but they paid for it. And, you know, we give a second chance. I mean, I probably had 100 chances myself, so, you know, thank goodness.

Jamie Gassman: [00:10:16] Yeah. Wonderful. So obviously we’ve talked a little bit about the benefits, but were there any challenges that you experienced or have experienced in implementing a program like this?

Drew Sewell: [00:10:26] Yeah. You know, it’s everybody that I meet. I mean, if I go out on the street into a crowd of homeless, drug addicted, you know, prostitutes or whatever, the first thing is, is, you know, what do you pay? All that us in is breaking the habits that they’ve got without going through something. So it’s kind of a forced rehab when they go when they get locked up in the prison, because, you know, they just can’t get the drugs anymore or whatever their choice it is. And so. That’s the hardest part is just getting them off of that, so but me still. And if you go into a rehab for a year, even if they don’t go through the prison system is still the second chance for them. And, you know, it’s usually the programs or you pay it will. We’re not going to pay for somebody to go through it if they’re willing to apply themselves and go into one that doesn’t cost anything. But the the rehab program uses their labor, their job that they go to every day after they’ve been cleaned up as a money to to keep it rolling.

Drew Sewell: [00:11:39] So, you know, they have nothing to lose. And if they’ll do, it is great or they come straight out of prison and nobody’s going to hire. I mean, think about it. Have you committed a foul on these on everybody’s application? Yeah. You if you lie, they’re going to find out, you know, because you do the background check and you say that that guy, he’s not working for me or she’s not they’re not even honest on their application. You know, what else are they going to lie about? So, you know, we just take that one off and just say, look, we go to the local halfway houses, if you will. I mean, there’s there’s a lot of organizations out there that that that’s what they do. They specialize and they bring in the it’s a transitional home. Out of the prison, back to the, you know, the the the work force environment. And they had to have a job before they leave. And so we’re just that the person we were. Yeah, and it’s just they’re so loyal when they walk through a wall for you. They absolutely love us.

Jamie Gassman: [00:12:50] That’s amazing, and I imagine at that time, especially the ones that are coming straight out of prison in those halfway houses, you know, that might be their opportunity for reflecting on why, you know, that that time where they don’t want to go back, you know, they’re committed to themselves to not go back, and they’re not being influenced by anything else in their environments that might bring them down the path that they were on before they went into incarceration. So that’s got to be really good opportunity in a time that you can capture their attention to working at six packaging and getting them on the kind of that right path to take a little bit more of a successful life.

Drew Sewell: [00:13:29] Wonderful. They’re very grateful. Trust me. And they they won’t let you down. They don’t want to go back.

Jamie Gassman: [00:13:38] Yeah, I can imagine that that is, you know, they’re coming off of the, you know, depending on how long they were incarcerated for. You know, that’s got to be that great opportunity to just kind of they can see an opportunity from that. Maybe they didn’t have presented to them before. I can imagine there’s some anxiety that they feel, you know, when they come out of prison, like trying to figure out how am I going to, you know, fulfill the obligations that I’m expected to do, whether they’re on parole or if they’re on, you know, other kind of conditions that they need to adhere to as part of being released. Do you you tend to see that where you kind of almost like our that breath of fresh air for them or that relief to that tension that they might be having.

Drew Sewell: [00:14:18] If most people are just they want somebody to validate them. They want to find somebody that believes in them. And if you you know, I mean, every family I mean, think about it. You get somebody in your family. I’ve got some in my family that is going on the wrong way with drugs or some kind of crime that they committed. They were at the wrong place at the right time. And so they just need somebody to believe in them. And people have been telling them all their life that you’re worthless, you’ll never amount to anything. You’re no good, you don’t have an education, don’t have a college degree. You’ll never get ahead. And then they come see us and they find out that we’re just real people. You know, like I said earlier, except for the grace of God there. Go on. I mean, I’m a family member. I’m a CEO, but you know, very easily I could be the guy in jail back in the day before they had video cameras. You know, every time on everybody’s phone, you know, they’d have the phones. No. One, fortunately for me, when I was a youngster, because that was a hell, you know, I’ll be honest with you. And so that’s probably why I relate to them, except for the grace of God. I could be, you know, an inmate myself or doing some crazy stuff. But anyway, it’s neither here or there. But you just have to believe in them and get them believing in themselves and change your life.

Jamie Gassman: [00:15:44] They’re human, treating them like a human, giving them that opportunity. So how can other companies, you know, whose culture is a little bit more diffuse than a closely held business like a family business like your own, how could they integrate a similar initiative like this into their company?

Drew Sewell: [00:16:01] Well, I would I would say that they could go to the the halfway houses. There’s there’s big pools. I mean, there’s there’s places that that have hundreds of just release formerly incarcerated people that need to transition back into society. And they have a unique skill set. They could go to the it is it is hard to get people to really believe that you want to do this. Number one, they’re not used to that. So you have to go and sell yourself and your company. But at the same time, you can ask for a unique skill set. Maybe it’s somebody that’s got skills. You know, I was looking for mechanics. Anybody that could work on their card has changed their or changed their own sparkplugs. You don’t do that anymore. But people that can. Those are the kind of people you know to you change your tire if it’s flat or you go triple A, whatever. So we were looking for people that were mechanically inclined. But you can any skill set you’re looking for, you’ll find talent is amazing. But you could just say, look, filter out. You know, it’s like going on the computer and filter out this skill set that’s all out war in the war going on zip recruiter and saying, I want this person and they’ll they’ll look it over for you and they’ll and you can go and address the group of people that are inmate that are trying to get out. And you can tell them what you’re looking for and basically sell yourself and your company. Don’t matter if you’re privately held like or you’re a public company. You just have to have the desire to do it. And I promise you, they’ll be the best employees that you’ve ever had because they don’t want to let you down because you believed in them. You gave them that second chance and they’ll do anything for you if you treat them right. Give an honest day’s pay.

Jamie Gassman: [00:18:00] So we’re going to just take a moment to hear word from our sponsor, workplace MVP is sponsored by our three continuum. Aa3 Continuum is a global leader in providing expert, reliable, responsive and tailored behavioral health crisis and security solutions to promote workplace well-being and performance in the face of an ever changing and often unpredictable world. Learn more about how ar3 Continuum can tailor a solution for your organization’s unique challenges by visiting ar3 Secombe today. So now I’d like to talk a little bit about maximum impact love. That’s your mission that you’ve set up, which I think you touched on that a little bit when you talked about that event you helped in your community. So in addition to your Second Chance program, you also establish mission impacts, love or maximum impact Luxx. Sorry, and that’s a mission based nonprofit that’s helped to enrich the lives of and this is the number that I believe I wrote down from our previous conversation with 50000 people over the past six years. So can you walk us through the work that this nonprofit does with the community? And I believe from what you’ve talked about, that’s also a source for where you get some of the second chance. You know, program candidates as well. But can you share a little bit about what you’ve done? And I know this is more concentrated in the Atlanta area, but can you talk a little bit about it?

Drew Sewell: [00:19:26] Okay, so so first of all, I was arrested at a red light on Fulton Industrial Boulevard in Atlanta, Georgia. With a prostitute. Through my windshield by the Holy Spirit. So, as I said, at a red light and I watched a little girl go across the street in front of me, she was caught up in prostitution. And my daughters at the time this is 15 years ago, that that six but 15 years we’ve been doing this got maximum impact, because I watched her go across the street in front of me. That was really. Impressed upon my heart, except for the grace of God, there goes your daughters. If you have got two daughters and at the time they were 12 and 14 years old, and this girl could have been they could have been bookends for this little girl that was walking across the street in prostitution. And it really broke my heart. And I began to cry. And at the same time, I felt the Lord speaking to me saying, what are you going to do about it? In. You know, I don’t know what you do, but every day I get up and pray and say, Lord, here I am, send me let me be a man after your own heart and. Here I am. What am I going to do about it? I don’t know what I can possibly do about that. So the light turned green and I quickly took off from a spot and I got about a thousand yards away.

Drew Sewell: [00:20:57] And I felt the Lord, the Holy Spirit, the spiritual boy, saying to me, what are you going to do about it? And I knew I couldn’t outrun it. So I pulled off in the first parking lot, not looking where I was, but I was at Starship Enterprise, which is an adult toy and video store. There was a liquor store. There was two strip clubs. And I just had my head on my steering wheel and was crying and saying, what can I do about that? Because I was sugar. He said, There goes your daughters. Except for the grace of God to go to your daughter. So, I mean, it just it really impacted me. That’s why I at maximum impact, I had a maximum impact from the Lord. And we make a maximum impact. So I said, I don’t know what I can do. What do you want me to do? And I felt like you said, go find the girl. Well, I went back and looked for the next two hours and I never did find her. But what also turned out to be the number one hotel for drugs and prostitution in the United States, and it’s a mile and a quarter from my corporate office right at Six Flags. Twenty ten miles outside of Atlanta. And I just saw a prostitute come out, get in company vehicles and go on.

Drew Sewell: [00:22:12] I saw drug runners come over to the car beside me and get up and say, I’ll take the money, go get drugs, bring them back. And and as soon as the kids say kids, they were teenagers would pull out another mom and dad’s sedan or a minivan would pull in and they would get the same thing. So out of all of that, I’m convinced today that that girl did exist, that she was just an angel to get my attention to do something about the neighborhood. And as I said, there failed him prior to that. I want you to do a day of outreach and prayer. And I knew what prayer was, but I had no idea what outrage was. So I went back and said we were a you were a Kurbanov company. We tied our profit to the company ACOTA at the time. We had twenty five or so ministries that we supported, above all canned. One of them was prison fellowship. One of them is. Is Heggie Institute, there’s just a lot of them that we did, and I called them all together and said, hey, this is what happened. What I do, what is outreach? And they started shared with me. You need to go in and do a day of of of feeding and clothing. And I’m talking about the homeless population. There was pretty serious. There was 40 or 50 a day just standing around, sleeping in wherever, you know, you see it all over the country.

Drew Sewell: [00:23:40] So anyway, I want you to play live music. I want you to feed them a hot meal. Would you give them clean, fresh clothes and socks and underwear? Would you to give them a haircut or you’d you take a before and after picture of what they looked like before in the shower or trucks there and stuff. And we did. And they looked like all new people took a picture before and after and gave it to them. And they were just amazed. A lot of them never had a picture of themselves in their life. But what happened was all of these people, I said, look, if you go into a rehab, you can’t quit drinking. You’ve been out here on the streets for 15 years. Somehow you’ve been out prostituting your body for 10 years after I met them and got to know them. And they knew they could trust me. They shared everything with me. So how about you go into rehab? It doesn’t cost you anything, but you have to stay for a year if you’ll stay for one year. I’m confident that you’ll be changed. From your vices and no to that, you’ll be ready to come to work. And I’ll give you a job, I promise you I have to go on third shift. And we were twenty four, six. So six days a week, 24 hours a day.

Drew Sewell: [00:24:53] We’re off on Sundays to let them go to church or do whatever they want do with that day of rest. But the point is, is they went in, they started coming out, and then people then they would go with me back down to the street and say, look, you remember how you look, how good he’s doing. If you were to go on at the same time, you’d be working, you’d be as good as him. OK, I want to go now. I want to go now. I mean, there’s a whole lot of I can talk all I want to. But, you know, the example was somebody they knew there was that I’d lifted up and said, hey, look at this from the stage while we played out of loud music. They’d give a testimony was out here with you. I was curled up in prostitution. I’ve got a job. I’ve got benefits. I’ve been reunited with my family, blah, blah, blah, you know, and it’s all good. And these people, these real what he says he’ll do, he’ll back it up. And he’s he’s honored everything that he said he would do. If you’ll just do what he wants you to do. So there you go. That’s how we started it. And it turned into we needed more people and we thought, well, you know what? Why don’t we go see somebody that is, you know, one of these halfway houses and talk to them? And I did and said, we want anybody.

Drew Sewell: [00:26:13] I want I want a mechanically inclined person, because that’s what we were looking for. You can’t find enough people today that can that are really good with their hands and their mind. So if they haven’t committed capital murder, armed robbery, you know, rape, kidnapping, then I’ll take them. And we have and we’ve got 189 of those. And every one of them has the same opportunity. And we were you know, we make plastic bottles, so somebody has to pack them at the end of the line. Somebody has to uniti palletized. Somebody has to drive a forklift. Somebody has to put them in the warehouse. Somebody has to take them out of stock and load a truck. And there’s just a lot of opportunity. Somebody has to make the machines work. So it works out. There’s, you know, especially today’s environment with the government wanting to pay these stimulus checks, but make it more money to stay home. Where are you getting your people from? You know, we haven’t had the shirt. There were an essential business. And we have grown in the last two years from four hundred billion in sales to over 600 million in sales because we have it starved. And all these companies that did stuff. We got a lot of their business. And so anyway. Hope that answered your question.

Jamie Gassman: [00:27:30] Yeah. No, it just it’s you know, I asked I was sharing that with the listeners. I had to share that with the listeners, because it’s just amazing the you know, the community outreach that’s tied to that and that giving back to not just giving a second chance opportunity for somebody to work, but also giving try. Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of today’s today’s work environment. But you’re also giving back to their families. You’re giving back to the community. And it’s also continuing to that you’ve got this opportunity for those who are willing to put in the effort to participate. So now I know that this you shared with me that this nonprofit has received some some pretty incredible awards. I know Fulton County declared it April 15th, Maximum Impact Loveday. And you also shared that you’re being honored with the humanitarian award. And I believe you said it was on September 11. So how how does that feel? And, you know, what was some of the premise behind this sonor?

Drew Sewell: [00:28:37] Well, so so out of the necessity I was doing or we were doing, I say, oh, there’s so many people that actually volunteer. A lot of people don’t know what they can do. So if your company is looking for a good cause, you know, go find something, go out in your community and see where the need is and then go volunteer. Maybe it’s to cut some people’s grass, clean up the trash, you know, whatever it happens to be here. But but anyway, out of that, that need you. I mean, there’s just so many people that want to want to pitch in and do something. But I lost my train of thought there for a second. So I apologize. But ask the question again for sure.

Jamie Gassman: [00:29:24] So just how it does it make you feel receiving or, you know, receiving these honors and some of the premise behind them honoring you with it?

Drew Sewell: [00:29:32] That’s where I was going. And, you know, I’m no I’m nobody I’m just a humble guy. Honestly, that has a lot of good people. Sometimes I feel like the Pied Piper because I turn around and people are following me because I lead from the front. I go out into the community and do it. I’ve had policemen say, are you crazy? You can’t do that. I don’t come out here unless I have my arm around. And he’s talking about his bulletproof vest, but I have the full armor of God only, so I don’t worry about that. But the main thing is, is you just find a good cause and people will take notice. So we have to have a a black gentleman that was it fell asleep at a Wendy’s drive in in Atlanta, downtown Atlanta, and he had been drinking. And you you probably know the story. They called the police. They got him out of his car. He overpowered the police, took on Taser shot, shouted at him, and they they killed him. And so the the the consensus was is back when people were burning everything down, they burned down the windows. And it was terrible. And I just couldn’t you know, I couldn’t sleep. What can I do to help? And I came up with this idea, and I know it was divine. But but because what we do have started to say earlier, we were doing three events a year, we found out that, hey, that’s great for those three days.

Drew Sewell: [00:31:09] But what about the rest of the year? So we started Maximum Impact Love and opened up of a warehouse where people can come and get groceries every day, Monday through Friday. And then we have people come in and volunteer and we pack the boxes, we go to the food bank and we buy the stuff and our profits of the company. We tied one of the recipients is me and maximum impact. So. We’ve got a 13000 square foot office. We were allowed people to come and get groceries every day of the week and then Covid here. And then so what are you going to do? How are we going to continue to do this? People still need the food, but they got Covid now. You don’t want to get your people infected. So how do you do it? We put a sign out front said don’t get out of your car call. We’ll bring the boxes out. You pop your trunk, we’ll put it in there. We’ll pray for you through the window if you need, and then you can be on your way into the same thing happened with the. With the Windies deal, the guy got killed there. What am I going to do? And I felt like the Lord told me to. Put the Atlanta Police and Fire Department out there up front.

Drew Sewell: [00:32:22] You said everything. So we did 10 different events where we gave away 400 boxes of groceries each. So over 4000 boxes of groceries and at ten different events around Atlanta, 10 different locations in people. And we put signs out free groceries today. And we did all the work, set it up, and the policemen in their uniforms and the firemen and their uniforms, put them into drugs, talk to them. Got all the credit. I don’t care about that. We just wanted to mend the community. And so it worked. And that’s where we got the proclamation and they got it. William Andrews flew all day, which is my full name. But the point is, is maximum impact. Love is not me. It’s the people behind the scenes that really make it happen. And so it’s been worthwhile. And that’s what’s going to happen with this. On 9/11, they’re going to give it a humanitarian award. And as is not me. So many people yesterday we had a big fundraising golf tournament. We had two hundred and twenty golfers in 27 holes, had to foursomes on each hole, and they can’t wait to give the money. And because they know what we do and it’s real and it works. And those are the kind of things you can do in your community, whether you’re a for profit or a, you know, a public company or a privately held company.

Jamie Gassman: [00:33:58] Wonderful. So now I if there were three things that if you that you wanted leaders to be aware of about the rewards that an organization and employer can get by giving back to the community and giving me a second chance, you know, opportunities for for people, what would be three things that you would want to leave these leaders with?

Drew Sewell: [00:34:22] Well, everybody wants to be somebody and they want somebody to believe in them. And these second chances really need somebody to believe in a rent. Imagine yourself in a six by six cell and you’ve got somebody in there every day with you to either negative or they’re they they have a distorted view of reality. And you just been fear negatives all day long. When you do get out, you get around more people like that. They need somebody that believes in them. They can say, look, I know you’ve made a mistake, but here I’ll give you a chance. There’s one, too, is. Be real. You know, you don’t have to have the pedigree, you don’t have to have the the MBA, the doctorate or all of that degree. But what are you really doing to make a difference? In the world period in other people’s lives. And just treat them like people. Except for the grace of God, there go use of. So those are three things.

Jamie Gassman: [00:35:35] Well, that so looking out over your career, if you were able to identify one thing that you’re most proud of. What would that be?

Drew Sewell: [00:35:46] Hmm. Well. I would that I would just say that, you know. They’re correct. Kerry, God, wherever I go. I mean, I’ve go out on the production floor and treat people like real people. Say hello to Garland by name. I made a in this deal goes on. I took a picture of every person that was that worked in any one of my plants. And at one time I had four plants and there were four hundred people that I knew, every one of them to name. How in the world could I ever know their names would take a picture of them? The thumbnail picture put it on to a board in in the front office. And before I went out on the floor, only any one shift, I would pick two or three people and I’d memorize their name and I’d go out there and purposely look for them and just tell them, hey, Jamie, it sure is good to see you today. Is there anything that I can pray for you about? And, you know, they just being hey, knows my name and yes or maybe not, but if they say it’s, you know, maybe you don’t feel like you can do this. But I got tired of people saying, well, you pray for me. And as soon as I and I say, yeah, as soon as I walk away and forget about it. But as I started, I felt convicted. So I started praying with them on the spot. It’s kind of uncomfortable at first. So you close your eyes and people are looking at you. They might not even be looking at you, but you feel like it is. And then if you pray for them, it really makes a difference. Then somebody will go out and say, hey, I saw him praying. Right? What was that all about? And then next time you go through, they’ll ask you to. And it’s it’s just a snowball effect. And it teaches people that you really care. They don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. You can’t really let them understand how much you really believe in them.

Jamie Gassman: [00:37:47] Oh, that’s amazing. So for our listeners, if they wanted to get a hold of you and be able to kind of seek additional information about how you you’ve been able to create your second, you know, you’re successful is the second chance program or have questions about the mission maximum impact love? How would they get a hold of you?

Drew Sewell: [00:38:07] Well, I would say go on our website at WW dot c k s packaging dot com. And then just click on there and you’ll see a little at the bottom of one of the pages, it’ll say Social Responsibility, click on that, it’ll have my story, it’ll have my email address, it’ll have my personal cell phone. I don’t you can call me on my cell phone and I’ll be glad to call you back. That’s how Ray called me. And we ended up doing this to begin with. But anyway, just be accessible if you’re real. I mean, it’s hard because you’ll get some calls from some people, but anyway, it’s worth every minute of it.

Jamie Gassman: [00:38:54] Wonderful. Well, I, I, I, I found your story inspiring and the work that you’re doing amazing. And I hope our listeners do, too. So thank you so much, Drew, for letting us celebrate you and all of your great accomplishments and for sharing your stories. The great advice for our listeners. We appreciate you and I’m sure your organization and staff do as well. We also want to thank our show sponsor, our three on for supporting the workplace MVP podcast. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. If you have not already done so, make sure to subscribe so you get our most recent episodes and other resources. You can also follow our show on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter at workplace MVP. If you are a workplace MVP or know someone who is, we want to know about them. Email us at info at Workplace Dasch MBP dot com. Thank you all for joining us and have a great rest of your day.