Episode 212 - Ammunition to Fight Hunger with Carmin Black
With a $200 loan and a pocket full of old bullet casings, Carmin Black set out to wage war on hunger. Today, HALF UNITED is sold in more than 300 stores globally and has been able to provide more than 1 million meals to children in need and gainful employment to artisans all over the world.
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Episode Transcript
Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it.
Rusty Rueff: Welcome back, everyone, to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. I just want to tell you how much fun we have doing these podcasts for you and we can't tell you how much we appreciate that. once again, you've downloaded this episode. We have a great story for you today with Carmin Black. Carmin was a journalist who became disillusioned with reporting tragic news stories and then not being able to help the people who were in her stories. She wanted to do more. So Carmin took a short hiatus from journalism to work as a public speaker for TOMS Shoes. You know, TOMS, you bought a pair and then they gave away a pair. Well, Carmin traveled the country and shared the message of the one for one business model while traveling all across the US and sharing the message of this business model. Carmin decided just to leave journalism altogether and team up with her younger brother to start a for profit business which gives back drawing upon their childhood experience of helping their father. A former minister who served others in the community and working with their mother, a high end retail space designer. Carmin and Christian set out to create a company that relied on purchases, not donations, to fund their efforts to fight hunger and feed children in need. At the time, they had no formal business training and no go to market strategy. All they had was a $200 loan and a pocket full of old bullet casings. I'm going to stop there and I'm going to let Carmin tell the rest of the story. About half United and how half United is now in 300 stores globally and has grown to give over 1 million meals to people in need. This is a great story. Let's listen.
Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. I'm here with my co-host, William and Rusty brothers. Good morning.
Rusty Rueff: Good morning.
Henry Kaestner: Indeed, indeed it is. And if you listen to the podcast for a long time, you know that William is an Alabama fan. We are celebrating the fact that his team made it to the national championship because we are a glass half full podcast.
William Norvell: Oh, that's good.
Henry Kaestner: We're coming on Rusty's new rig. He's got this really new cool microphone going on, and we've got a really, really great guest today, Carmin Black. But before I bring Carmin on board, I do want to call out something that is new, and that is that William has a new gig.
William Norvell: Oh, wow.
Henry Kaestner: What are you doing?
William Norvell: I didn't. I didn't expect that. Yeah. So starting a new company. It's funny. I was having Greg update my bio there in our show notes because, like, that's my old job. Yeah, we've started a new company that we're excited about called paraclete, which is the Greek word for advocate and helper, someone who comes alongside and aid. And we're calling it the first social care platform for the workforce. And so what we're trying to do is provide guides, what we're calling them. And we've trained people in this methodology called soul care. We've been having great spiritual direction. People work with us and build a platform that says, hey, this is what, you know, soul care really mean to people to come alongside them in the journey of life. And so this is not a licensed therapy or counseling network and it's not an executive coaching platform, right? It's just someone to be there with you throughout your day, throughout your week, throughout your year, as you're navigating life and trying to do what God's called you to do in the workplace.
Henry Kaestner: Super cool. You have a website?
William Norvell: We do. joinparaclete.com.
Henry Kaestner: Check it out. You'll learn more about William and you'll learn more about his passion for helping someone to bring their whole selves to work. And that's a great way to bring spiritual integration into the workplace and be able to help people understand that there's a lot more than just the manufacture and distribution of widgets that motivates people and how they think about activity and working well together. And this what's going on in their personal health and their family health. So fired up for you on that. It's a big deal. You know a little bit about Faith driven entrepreneurship. I feel good about its prospects. It's awesome to be a small part of what you are doing and what God is doing through you. So we're all eager to hear how that goes.
William Norvell: Thanks to all our listeners. I mean, you know, the encouragement of five years of doing this is I mean, you can't be around this many entrepreneurs and not jump out at some point. And, you know, I tried to find my purpose and meaning, and that's what we're trying to help other people find this know really what is your purpose and meaning in life? Why do you get up and go to the workplace every day? And it's because of this audience and the guest that we've had come on that I guess graded away at me over five years. And here we are.
Henry Kaestner: So we have and as I said before, we're headed to the Tar Heel State. I had moved from North Carolina, California, just about seven years ago, and I miss it dearly. My oldest son is now a freshman at the University of North Carolina. So it gives me a chance to get back to talking to Carmin before the show went up and we're talking about football and she said that she's a Panthers fan. I think that's super cool. But what's more super cool is what she is doing and what God is doing through her. And you'll know if you listen to a podcast a lot that we. Tend to overindex toward entrepreneurs that are finding an opportunity to create a product or service, hopefully a redemptive product or service by solving a problem in the market. And we tend to overindex toward for profit entrepreneurs, and we want to spend a little bit more time over the coming months and years, also giving some really good weight to folks that are what I would call more social entrepreneurs and people who might start a business to do something like fight hunger. And that's what we've got here today with Carmin. Great story. Great person, Carmin. Thank you very much for being on the podcast.
Carmin Black: Thank you all for having me. What an honor. This is awesome.
Henry Kaestner: So we were talking about the fact that you're from Wilmington, North Carolina, which is the home of Michael Jordan. And talking about how awesome Wilmington is as a city, I think it is the largest, if not, is going to be one of the biggest downtown historical districts in the country. If you haven't been if you're listening this podcast, definitely worth checking out. But Carmin, I spent enough time in Wilmington to know that your voice betrays the fact that you're not from Wilmington.
Carmin Black: Whoa! Oh
Henry Kaestner: So where are you from?
Pick up on that. Yeah
Henry Kaestner: Indeed.
Carmin Black: You know, it's interesting that you would. And as I was like looking at our notes and I was like, man, how am I going to explain who are you and where are you from? So, okay, I am what you would call a PK, right? So my dad was a minister and basically my dad's job when I was a little kid was to basically go into churches that this is going to sound kind of bad. But where a minister had passed away or maybe was just resigning or whatever, and my dad would go in and he would sort of, I don't know, reestablish the church or reinvigorate it and stay there for a few years in an interim way. And then we would move on. And so when I was really little, I lived in Waipahu, Hawaii, and lived there until second or third grade. Then we moved to Fairbanks, Alaska.
Henry Kaestner: Oh, my goodness.
Carmin Black: Then we moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, then Charlotte, North Carolina, then Wilmington. And so I arrived here in middle school.
Henry Kaestner: Gotcha. Okay, so I guess you're probably too young to really remember, but I would imagine going from Hawaii to Alaska is a it's a culture shock. Do you remember what that felt like?
Carmin Black: I do. And I feel like I'm like an island child. Like I feel very comfortable in an island setting, no shoes on the water, you know, like even now as an adult, that's where I feel most comfortable and which probably informs a lot of why I work, where I do and this sort of thing. But no, when we went from Hawaii to Alaska, it was really tough. You know, like I remember my brother was a toddler at the time and when we first went to our home, we got off the airplane, first went to our house, and he tried to go outside with, you know, his boardshorts and no shoes and didn't understand what snow was. We had never seen snow, you know, and then for it to come down and be six and eight feet of snow and, you know, get dark at two and 3 p.m.. It was a culture shock for us. So we only lasted in Alaska for a single year and then our family moved on.
Henry Kaestner: Okay, got you. Okay. So, you know, Fairbanks, I'm not great in my Alaska geography, but I think like Anchorage is. South Alaska, Fairbanks is. That's crazy. Okay. All right. We're moving on. What is half united and what is the inspiration behind it?
Carmin Black: Sure. Okay. So half united is a socially conscious lifestyle brand? What we do is we basically design and develop like products that you can see behind me, anything from jewelry to t shirts, leather goods, linen products, all kinds of things. And basically the idea is to fight hunger with every purchase made. So we give meals with every purchase made, and we also create gainful employment opportunities with every single item that we design, manufacture and sell.
Henry Kaestner: Okay, so it's something like that has a story behind it, something, you know, you took it a different track and something must have inspired that. Tell us about it, please.
Carmin Black: Yeah, I mean, I think for me, I mean, practically, I can tell you how, you know, the business got off the ground and how that happened. But and I think this is true for all entrepreneurs that start something new or innovative or, you know, whatever different. For me, I think my love of fashion and my love of philanthropy is really the root of why I started this business. So, like I said, when I was a little kid, you know, I grew up in Waipahu, Hawaii, and Waipahu has the highest crime rate of like any city in the United States, not just in Hawaii. We specifically, you know, when we moved there, there was a lot of gang violence. There was a lot of drug use, there was a lot of petty theft. And so I go there with my family and I live in this community that was pretty hostile to us being there. We were [...]. We were outsiders, you know, all of my friends growing up were Samoan, Filipino, Hawaiian. And when I was a little kid and what I didn't tell you is my grandfather was also a minister on Oahu, but in a different part of town called Kaneohe. And so, you know, when I was a little kid, the memories that I have are walking with my dad hand-in-hand in Waipahu, going door to door, knocking on doors and, you know, people opening the door and us having bags of groceries and saying, hey, you know, I'm the new minister up the road. I wanted to meet you. I want to invite you to my church, but I really just want to get to know you. So here's a bag of groceries. Can we help you? You know, a lot of poverty in this area. So instead of doing soccer practice on Saturdays, I was with my dad visiting home, visiting the elderly, you know, speaking at weddings, funerals or whatever it may have been. And this is what shaped my childhood. Now, on the other hand, my mom was an interior designer who at the time was working at Gucci. And so I would go to work with mom and I would literally I have memories of watching Japanese businessmen pay like 100 grand for luggage. And so it was this dichotomy that I grew up with where, you know, seeing dad, seeing grandpa at the food pantries or helping people in need or spending many hours in the homes of people where these are adverse circumstances. You know, we were put in some uncomfortable situations where I had that. And then on the other hand, I had this elaborate, you know, fashion experience. And my mom is an artist and a designer and a creator. And so I think as I grew up, I never really thought that I would go into a line of business that was either ministry or fashion. But somehow that calling kind of never went away. And now I've combined the two, and that's what I do for a living.
Rusty Rueff: And that's very cool. So somewhere along the way, you and I think you're going to tell us the story of you and your brother. Right? Put this thing together. Did you have, like, that conversation that we always have? Like, Oh, okay. Well, when we're done with this, let's go solve world hunger. I mean, because you're you're solving world hunger, which is really cool. So, you know, take us into why half united. And is it true you started the whole thing on a $200 loan?
Carmin Black: Literally 200 bucks. Okay. So you've heard about my childhood and what's kind of informed, you know, why would you start a business like this? Why would you think that you could attack something like global hunger? Right. So, you know, obviously, you grew up I went to college, I majored in broadcast journalism. And I actually ended up for a short time of my life working on Capitol Hill, ABC News Bureau. And so I thought, okay, I'm not going to go into fashion, I'm not going to philanthropy. I can write. I'm comfortable with storytelling. I have a voice that I can use to interview and speak to people. And so I remember, like I had literally interviewed Hillary Clinton and we were talking about how PBS was like losing its funding. And at the time, she was a senator for New York and all this stuff. And I remember my apartment was on Constitution Avenue and I'm like, click, click, clicking in my heels, walking home from like the Russell Rotunda. And I remember thinking, I don't love this. Like I hung out yesterday with John Kerry. I attended, you know, the Senate's apology to lynching family victims from the Civil War. I saw the first signing of the first Constitution for Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton. I still do not love this. There's something seriously wrong with me like I don't love this. So what I did was I left my journalism job. I worked for my mom's interior design company for six months, would cry myself to sleep, would pray and beg God to please show me what to do. Applied for Columbia School of Journalism. I'm like, Maybe I should be a newspaper reporter. Maybe that's my problem. Never got in. Actually, the dean from the School of Journalism called me and said, Hey, listen, awesome application, but I hate to tell you, you don't want to be a journalist. Like, sorry, I can read between the lines. You don't want to be. I'm like, Yes, I do. I didn't know what to do with my life was one day online saw that TOMS shoes which at the time in 2008 was like the give back brand. They had championed this one for one mission.
Rusty Rueff: Maybe one of the first ones. Right. That really caught on.
Carmin Black: I think so. I think so. And it was odd because right when I graduated college, I had met Blake Mycoskie, the founder, at a conference I went to with my church and I was like, That man is incredible. What he is doing is genius. But still the lights were not. It has taken me a while. This was not clicking for me. I never thought that I would work for him, own a company similar to his. So when I was having this like existential crisis and didn't know what to do with my life, felt like God had like abandoned me. I got out on line one day. I was like, What's that guy Blake doing? What's Tom's doing? And I saw that they were hiring for people to basically travel the country and do speaking engagement at high schools and colleges and talk about the one for one mission. And I was like speaking, public speaking, journalism. I know this. I can do this. I was like, that's me. So out of thousands of people, they were only hiring 13 people. I got the gang. And it's while I was literally driving in a 15 passenger van from state to state, city to city to talk to either, you know, rooms of 2000 college kids or rooms of 12 college kids, depending on who showed up. I just something came over me and I called my brother. I'm laying on the back seat in the van. We had two other people, someone else was driving and I called him. I said, Christian, my brother, he's a drummer, he's a great drummer. He's really killer. What he does. He was in this band called Rio Bravo that had been on the Kardashians and they had like been in this movie and they were like having a little bit of success at the time. I said, Listen, you need band T-shirts for Rio Bravo. I'm working at Tom's. Let's take your t shirt company and turn it into a giveback brand. I'll teach you how to do this. And instead of you guys just selling t shirts, we can literally change people's lives with each purchase. He was like, Let's do it. So I once the tour with Tom's was done, I flew home from L.A. and Christian and I started this company, but we had no money, so my mom gave us $200. This is kind of embarrassing, but very entrepreneurial.
Rusty Rueff: And what year was this, Carmin?
Carmin Black: This was now in 2009.
Rusty Rueff: Okay.
Carmin Black: Okay. We would go to secondhand shops and buy let's say they had a few multiples of like a small, medium, large of a single style of t shirt. We would buy second hand t shirts that like all kind of looked like we would spray paint, then do stuff on them, you know, all kinds of crazy stuff. We would hand dye them, take them to street fairs and sell them and tell people that, hey, when you buy one of these t shirts, what you're really doing is paying for seven meals for a child in need here in Wilmington, North Carolina. And they started selling and we were like, we've got something here. And so that's kind of like where we started. For the first four years, we didn't take pay. We met at coffee shops and in my apartment and at friends houses and literally started this company on the backs of unpaid interns that were friends from like college or church or whatever. And me and my brother, we held part time jobs and they just did what we needed to to get it off the ground.
Rusty Rueff: So that's a classic bootstrap story there. Right? And then somewhere along the way, bullet casings showed up.
Carmin Black: That's right. So you have to remember, the only thing that I knew about social commerce or how to, you know, take a product and turn it into a tool to help people in need was what I had learned at TOMS. So all I ever did was mimic what I had learned because I thought, all right, the year that I was there in 2008, I think and again, who knows if this was really true. This was hearsay in the office. I was like, All right, this company is two years old. They made $15 million this year on selling these shoes and every time giving a shoe to someone in need sounds like, okay, I'm just going to do everything. I learned that they did and I'm going to be mentored by people that still work there. And so what I knew was that the Tom shoe was not and I hope nobody gets mad if I said so. But it wasn't hyper fashionable or hyper beautiful in my opinion. Right? What it was to me was it was a symbol. So when you were walking around 2008, 2009, 2010 with this art that got on that kind of looks like a house, you really what you were saying to people was, hey, this is a recognizable symbol of the fact that I care about people. So I was like, okay, our company, we can't just keep selling these t shirts and trying to be, you know, whatever brand we need a symbol of our fight against hunger. And we used a lot of different things. But one day and you know, for me, this is like a God wink or a God story. We were in my apartment and, you know, we were talking about, you know, Wilmington, North Carolina, very historic city. And so I lived in this old farmhouse at the time. And basically the bottom of this farmhouse was one apartment and then the top was mine. And so to answer the door, you know, the front door was like down the hall and then down, you know, these old stairs from the 1800s. So there was a knock on the door at my apartment and I asked one of the interns who was with us. I said, Hey, would you mind going and grabbing the door? I don't know what that is. So the intern goes down, you know, comes back up and has this box with them of bullet casings. And they were like, Hey, somebody from your church heard that you guys want to start making jewelry. They said that brass is expensive, but take these casings, melt the brass down and you can make jewelry out of it. I was like, What? What, what are you what? I didn't know how to to melt brass or and at the time, I didn't know anything about jewelry casting or jewelry plating or. Any of the things that I now know a lot about. And so I was like, What on earth? That's so weird. No stance on gun violence. Really don't own a gun like this has nothing to do with any. I'm like, what is this? So we sat this box of bullet casings down on the floor and I start looking at it and it's like, this is like another one of those, like, entrepreneur things. I was like, Oh, guys, what do bullet casings do? What do bullets do? And everyone was like, What are you talking about? Like, I don't know. They shoot, they whenever I'm like, guys, bullet casings, they fight, they fight. They're used for fighting. I was like, Look, what if we repurpose something meant to harm and turned it into something to heal? These can be our fighting hunger necklaces. I was like, Let's not melt them down. Let's drill a hole through it. Literally put it on a chain and let's call it our fighting hunger necklace. And it will represent your fight against hunger because we'll put the price of seven meals into the cost of goods when you buy. It will donate the money to feed kids. And they were like, No, that is weird. Like, we are not doing that. I was like, I know it's weird guys, but trust me, like, there is something here. Trust me. So what we did was a girlfriend of mine owned a shop at Wrightsville Beach called Holly. Lou took her ten of these necklaces. I seriously was sweating as I'm talking to her. I'm, like, nervous. I'm so embarrassed of this product and I'm like, Look, this is really weird, but I want to repurpose these bullet casings into necklaces that represent your fight against hunger. Can you track with me? And she was like, That's amazing. I will sell those for you. I'm like, You will? She's like, Yes. So she takes them and in a week, ten sell. Okay. We were selling ten T-shirts at this time. In a month. Really? So I'm like ten necklaces sold. So the next week we took her ten more. They sold out. And that's when I was like, okay, I knew it. I knew what this was something. And so, you know, fast forward probably two years after that, Nordstrom caught wind of this product, put us nationwide in all Nordstrom doors and in some cases a section of Nordstrom that has like costume jewelry. We would triple their sales sometimes. And so it just took off. It's been on Good Morning America. It's been like, you know, in press all over all as a recognizable symbol of your fight against hunger.
Rusty Rueff: That's really awesome. That's awesome. In fact, you know, here in the Bay Area, we have a theater that's working on a musical called Swept Away, and it's by the music from The Avett Brothers. And I know the Avett Brothers were like one of the first celebrities to get behind and start to wear your jewelry, right?
Carmin Black: They totally were. Yeah. Because they came here to Wilmington. We had a friend of a friend who, like, took the necklaces backstage and we're like, hey, this is a local company. Would you wear this product? They're like, Yeah, we'll do it. And then on their tour bus, they would take pictures and send them to us. And yeah, it's just amazing, you know, how things can kind of snowball.
Rusty Rueff: So it's an amazing story. I mean, you think about where you came from to where you are and God as provisioned you throughout. Obviously, you know, by not only giving you the vision to see that those bullet casings for the bullet casings to show up first. Right. I mean, it could have been something else, but it wasn't. And then, you know, to open up these doors that he's opened up for you, as you think about that and where you go next, what does the future look like for Half United?
Carmin Black: Yeah, that's a great question, Rusty. You know, the thing is, is that that is the fun like entrepreneurial story. That's the exciting part of. Yeah, like you say, these bullet. I still don't know who dropped those bullet casings off. You know, it's just it's wild the way that that happened. The truth of it is, you know, once we design the product and once we sold it, now we had to go and use the money that we generated from the sales to actually fight hunger. And so we did that in Fiji and Cambodia and Liberia and Haiti and many cities in the United States, including Wilmington. Well, what came with that and doing all of that was that every time we would go, for example, to Haiti, you can't unsee what you see. And so what happened was it started out as this feel good thing of like you buy a product and we give seven meals and like this is going to like really help people and it does short term hunger relief does help. And so I would never, ever say the contrary to that. It really is. You know, there is place for things like Feeding America and the food bank and this sort of thing for sure. However, you know, when you go to Haiti, like we now do very often and you go out into rural Haiti and you see like common sense, actually hold on. The problem here is that there is no infrastructure and there is no place. You know, here I am out in rural Haiti. There is no place for anybody to go get a. Job to make money. And even if they could get a job and they could make something to sell, there's oftentimes not people that have the money to buy. So we have a real imbalance here of need versus opportunity. And so where we are going now is we are taking everything that we have learned and we are getting to the root cause of why hunger exists to begin with. And we are saying, okay, so yes, people need jobs in America. Absolutely. Yes. And that is oftentimes why they are hungry. But especially in developing nations, people need access to gainful employment and potentially when they are creating something in their community, it can be something that they can buy or sell in their community. And that will help the economy. Or if we go in and we can create gainful employment for something they can sell outside of their developing nation when they get paid, they now take that money. They go to the local marketplace. They boost the economy through spending, through going to the doctor, through paying for private school, for their children, whatever. And so now what we're doing is all these products you see behind me from leather goods made in Peru to, you know, these beautiful hats handmade in Haiti to linen made in Lithuania, glass made in Mexico. You know, we have straw products made in Bangladesh. We're going to places where people are really struggling with hunger because they are struggling with poverty. And we're meeting both of those needs through employment.
William Norvell: Wow. What a journey. That's so fascinating to hear. Kind of where you started, where you ended up. I'm curious because this is you just went into it. I want to, like give you a chance to go a layer deeper into, you know, what is the hunger problem and how could, you know, people participate, you know, they're listening. You know, obviously there would be one, of course, I would imagine by products from you is one of them. And I know that's not why you came on the show, but just like every time I hear people addressing hunger, I mean, my heart just sinks, right? I mean, we may have not had a lot growing up, but we always had something to eat. Right? And so it's just like it's a very emotional reaction, I think, for a lot of people. And so I don't want to skip over that. If you had some thoughts on how people can address that or even what your I heard the gainful employment, so maybe that's the answer, but I don't want it to get tactical and like, what does it mean, seven meals? Where do these go? Who needs this? Like, is there a way to do it in your local area if you're there?
Carmin Black: Absolutely. And so here's the interesting thing about your question, and I think this is why it is such a complex problem to understand, and it's also such a complex problem to solve, because what now, after 12 years of owning and operating this business, I now know is that hunger has no singular root cause, and that's the whole problem with hunger. So in the United States, right when I visit and see families and meet families that are hungry, what I see, honest to you, is that perpetuation of and, you know, I'm going to have people that are going to challenge me on this. I'm just going to tell you what I faced like in person is there's just a perpetuation of poverty because of generational poverty, I think is a real thing that needs to be addressed. And it really I don't even know how to say this is the lack of hope. It is lack of belief in oneself. It's lack of believing that I am worthy of better than I'm just going to do what I was taught and I'm going to stick in this cycle and stay in this. Nobody believes in me. So honestly, if we got down to it, I don't believe in me. So I'm going to show you through my behavior oftentimes that I'm being stereotypical now, you know, and I'm not talking about black people, white people. This can span black, white, red, blue, anybody. Hunger doesn't care about your race, to be honest, I think it is really a generational problem. I think it's a lack of hope. I think it's a lack of education, I think is another problem that is, you know, stateside. You know what I have seen and what I have experienced in developing nations? Hunger is more visible. You can see it in somebody's body. You can see it in the way that they live. You can see it in the circumstances that they live in. But what I oftentimes have found in developing nations is there is hope. There actually is joy in those circumstances. There is happiness. And not to say in America, there can't be people that are hopeful and believe, believe in themself that aren't still facing hunger. You have that, too, which is why it's so complex. But I think in developing nations, it really is a lack of the ability to go out and go to a place to get a job, to make the money you need to support your family. And so you deal with these complex issues. And that's why, you know, here at Half United, we are really saying, all right, we still do believe in the Band-Aid solutions, which are plates of food, especially for children, because they can't solve this for themselves and they don't ask for the circumstances they grow up in. But when we get to know the children, we then need to get to know their parents. So, for example, a few single moms that we're working with in a housing community next door, it's okay. So you're unemployed. We're dealing with drug abuse, we're dealing with domestic violence. We are dealing with, you know, a lot of heavy things that you've got to kind of unpack alongside people. If I believe if there's a hope for them to say, you know what, I am so much better than this. I'm worth so much more than that. You're right. Let's together, you know, get out of this and move on. And so it's a complex thing. How can people get involved in their communities? People can find organizations that are doing the very things that we are doing. There are organizations out there that are feeding people and getting to the root causes. Spending time in an after school program and teaching kids who are so teachable and it's like their brains are little sponges. Go hang out with them, spend time with them, remind them that they can be anything they want to be as adults, that their circumstances don't define that. These are things that actually fight hunger and poverty. You know, empowering people, reading to them, educating them. All of this matters and all of it will stop the perpetuation of people being hungry or having their children grow up in poverty.
William Norvell: Hmm. That's really good. And if companies or listeners wanted to partner specifically with Happy United, what are ways that do you do that? Do you have company partnerships? Is it how did they think through that?
Carmin Black: Yeah. So we've got a couple of ways. So right now we're trying to let's say there's a company that's in another, I don't know, another state. And they say, look, we can't be the boots on the ground, but we really want to evangelize what you guys are doing. We have a corporate gifting program that now we are allowing corporations to join us in buying these products. And, you know, we will be the boots on the ground and we will work with the boots on the ground to make the change happen. But without selling products, we can't do that. We're working on some things right now. That would be the first thing that comes to mind, is partnering with us on purchasing, because when you purchase these products, we then can employ more people in need or help more families locally or in America.
William Norvell: Let's go one layer deeper, you know, corporate gifting program. I've heard about those before. I know companies do that. What's the pros and cons of partnering with someone like an organization? Right. What do they get out of that? How does that tactically work at a company? And I know they can call you to find more information, but just on the podcast, I'd love to hear a little bit more, you know, what does that mean as a partnership?
Carmin Black: Yeah. So like, for example, we have a company right now that you know they need some gifting for. You know, they have 800 employees and they need gifts for every time somebody hits like, you know, five years, ten years, 15 years with the company. This is not the exact product. But we are basically putting together kits of products that we are then selling to them to get to their employees as thank you gifts. When they get these gifts, they'll also get information about how this bag actually created three days worth of work for somebody in India and how this candle literally helped somebody that was formerly incarcerated be able to have a job in Charleston, South Carolina. And so it's sort of like an education piece. The company then helps fund these exact people who make this product and help us with also boots on the ground initiatives that take place at the places where these people work, like lunch programs or, you know, where we'll pay for education for employees, children in nations where there isn't public school. But then the person who receives the gift gets to learn about it and we hope will go out and talk about it or put it on social media or just help us evangelize what it is that we're doing.
William Norvell: Well, that's great. That's great. And it is amazing to hear that, because I know it's a complex topic if anybody gets bored and wants I don't know if you read the Twitter thread between Elon Musk and the director of the UN. On this topic. But it was fascinating. The director of the U.N. made the statement that, you know, he's talking about how rich Elon was and said, you know, hey, if there's if Elon would just sell 2% of his wealth, then he could solve global hunger by himself. And he tweeted back to the director that if you give me a plan on Twitter, I will sell 6 billion of Tesla stock right now. He said, I think there is 0% chance you have an actual plan to use $6 billion. But it was a fascinating thread of, you know, conversations where he said, I'm all in. Just do a public plan and hold yourself accountable. I'll sell the stock tomorrow morning. But it was a fascinating conversation that and all these people jumped in like, you can't do that doesn't work. Like what was your budget last year? And nobody knows where the money goes. And like hunger can't be solved with money. It was just this fascinating conversation that I think if anyone's interested in this topic, go Google that thread of Elon and some of the people talking through it. But I want to finish with a couple of things here I would love for you. I mean, your story's incredible. $200, bullet casings did not start a business. vans, TOMS shoes. I mean, it's like the beginning of an entrepreneurial book, right? Just like everything is in there. And you're 12 years in, and you're now you're doing corporate gifting. Now you're starting to hit the root cause of jobs, not just. I mean, it's just an amazing story. I would love if you would take a moment and say, do you have any advice for our entrepreneurs listening whether they already are or aspiring, you know, lessons you've learned or things you would pass along of your hard won wisdom?
Carmin Black: Yeah, totally. You know, here. Okay, I often think about this because I think there's a lot of things about business, entrepreneurship, you know, that we kind of like don't talk about like somehow. In fact, I have thought about writing a book that's called I Am Not a Leader. And the idea of I am not a leader is that, you know, as people and me as an individual, I came in to start a business because I wanted to make change in the world. And I love fashion and I love philanthropy. Well, beyond that, I'm I wasn't a very great leader in the beginning. You know, I think if we're talking about, like spiritual gifts, I think definitely I might have the gift of knowledge. Like, I can look at somebody and encourage them and call things out of people. And, you know, I think help people see things in themselves that they don't see. But like in terms of like leading a team and not confusing everybody in like a corporate setting and writing processes and following these things, it just was a real weak point for me. And as a result, I oftentimes felt like, gosh, my business is like really taking off. But like internally my team is like really crumbling. Our turnover rate is way too high, like something is wrong. And I struggled with this until actually recently where I just said to myself, okay, Carmin, write a book. And it's a it's a funny thing. The title, like, I'm not a leader. It's this idea of like, you know, when you come into entrepreneurship, I think that we're kind of like expected to be, you know, all things to all men and have all the answers and be this exceptional human and this exceptional leader. And really, I think what it is, is that I think God calls each of us to something specific and we need to get really comfortable. I would encourage entrepreneurs, get really comfortable with your shortcomings and make sure you are hiring for those shortcomings. And I know that's talked about a lot and everyone says to do that. But like even when those shortcomings are not like acceptable, like it's not acceptable for somebody to be the owner of the business, but actually a pretty bad people manager. Like, I really wasn't good at managing people. I overwhelmed them with too much insight about the problems that was going on in the business. And I kind of like shielded them from the cool stuff happening and giving. For some reason it was like onto the next and it was just a mess. Well, now I've learned how to hire for my weaknesses and just, you know, kind of like wrestle within myself. Hey, I am who God made me. And the way that he made me is really great. And He didn't make me to be everything in all parts of the body and, you know, all these things. And so I would just encourage entrepreneurs, don't be ashamed of that. Don't be embarrassed by that. Know what you're strong at. Believe in yourself for that. And when you are not strong, it's something. Even though everyone says you're supposed to be good at it, find people that can come alongside you and equip you and help you get better at those areas.
William Norvell: I think that's amazing. I'm not a leader. It's a great title, a successful entrepreneur. And that's good. That's good. You need to make that happen. That's awesome. Well, unfortunately, we are coming to a close of our time here and what we love to do at the close of our time is we love to connect our listeners and our guests to the Word of God. And so we love to do is invite you to share something that maybe God's teaching you from his word lately. It could be something you read this morning. It could be something you've been meditating on for a few weeks, would be something that God's been teaching your whole life, because that's the brilliance of God's word is sometimes we wrestle with 3 verses for ten years. Right. But regardless, we love to invite our guests to share a little bit about what's going on in their heart.
Carmin Black: Yeah, I love that. Now, let me tell you guys, you know, I did a lot of research before coming on this podcast. I've listened to many episodes. I think this podcast is absolutely brilliant and I am so, so, so glad to have it and to have learned from it. I wrote Andy Crouch, let's see Birdy Lawrence, Phil Bishop, Cheryl, I don't know how to pronounce her last name. They just taught me so much. And I'm just I'm so inspired. So I did come ready with this today.
Henry Kaestner: Thank you for that, by the way. What a great encouragement. That's that's really nice of you to say.
William Norvell: Incredibly.
Carmin Black: This podcast is where it's at. It is phenomenal. It's so applicable. It is incredible. You're doing an incredible job. Seriously.
Rusty Rueff: That may be one of the best endorsements ever. This podcast is where it at.
Henry Kaestner: No, maybe about it.
Carmin Black: I'm kidding.
Henry Kaestner: Great. Get that's great. Get that sound clip. We got to we got to put that everywhere. Yeah.
Carmin Black: Yeah. Use it, [...]. You okay? So we probably don't have time, but I actually have a lot of verses. But I'll choose this one from Isaiah 58:6-9. Okay. This is the kind of fast day I'm after to break the chains of injustice, to get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debt. What I'm interested in is seeing you sharing the food with the hungry, inviting the homeless and poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering, ill clad be available to your own families. Do this and I'm going to turn the lights on. And then let's see. He goes on to say, And your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. And then when you pray, God will answer your call for help. And I'm going to say, here I am. And for me at Half United, I can be very honest in that there have been times where we have had brilliant and I'm talking very, very successful entrepreneurs as mentors that, you know, look at our P&L and say, look, I'm sorry, you guys can't keep giving. Like your profits are not high enough to justify the amount of giving that you're doing. Like, you got to, like, really stop this. And when we were younger, this was like eight years ago, but when we were younger, we followed that advice. And so we thought, okay, maybe they're right. Maybe they know something we don't. You know, we've got to wait until we're bigger and stronger and better to give. Well, when that happened, our business really did crumble. And then when we go back to giving and being, you know, really great stewards of what God has given us and following the calling that he has given us, not on what makes sense, which is the conundrum of who God is, because it doesn't always make sense. Often it doesn't. When we are more faithful, when we give more than we even say to, you know, per product sold than we're supposed to give, that's when our business flourishes and when opportunities we never expect come our way. So I just encourage everybody listening, you know, take a look at that verse in Isaiah 58, know that God is faithful to his word, test and see, give, giving is living, give more you can not out give God, give, get, give, give, give. And it doesn't always have to be financially. But do not worry, he will never let the righteous be forsaken. And it'll come back to you. You'll be okay.
William Norvell: Amen. Amen. And for our radio listeners, we don't know, but also not set up. Henry got a giant "GIVE!" sign right behind him.
Henry Kaestner: Indeed I do. And down here. Yeah.
William Norvell: Gosh, I just I love that. I'm trying to add things to an incredible ending, because that's what I do. I ramble on because I like to add things and like to hear myself talk, but I think you should end it. So Greg can just cut me out of this ending here and I'll be great.
Henry Kaestner: Yes, Greg, do that. Yep.
William Norvell: I'm done here.
Henry Kaestner: Carmin, I'm so grateful for you. Thank you for your faithfulness and obedience. What a great way for us to start off our day out here early in the morning, California time. Just this is awesome. Thank you. Thank you for the kind words you said in your encouragement and just getting out there and making it happen. That's the key thing. That's the way that you've been a great blessing to our ministry is by getting out there and having an enterprise that is making a big difference and advancing God's kingdom and while bearing witness to the king. And you're now in it.
Carmin Black: Thank you. I really, that coming from each of you, that means more to me than you know. Thank you so much.