Jason Gillikin, Earfluence CEO, Executive Producer Hustle Unlimited:

Welcome to the Hustle Unlimited Podcast with serial entrepreneur Donald Thompson! You are listening to episode 7 of season 2. Last week, we had the executive director of Shop Local Raleigh Jennifer Martin on to talk about why it’s so important to support local businesses. And today, we talk about supporting the community in a completely different way, and that’s through giving back and supporting the less fortunate.  I’m Jason Gillikin, producer of Hustle Unlimited and CEO of the Earfluence Podcast Network.

And today, our guest is John Luckett, CEO of the Raleigh Rescue Mission.  Raleigh Rescue Mission is a Faith-based non-profit agency providing meals, shelter, warm clothing and most importantly, the opportunity for a changed life to homeless men, women and children in Raleigh, and surrounding areas.

On the show today, you’ll hear about John’s background in poverty and then in business success, why he abandoned his corporate career, the challenges that the Raleigh Rescue Mission is facing, and the impact it’s having on the community here and how John hopes to replicate that success to different cities as well.

Such an important interview today.

But before we get started, if you want these episodes in your feed every Monday so you can be inspired for the week ahead, be sure you subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Give us a rating and review as well and share this episode on any social media platform.  That helps us find more great inspirational guests  – the hustlers, the trailblazers, the movers and shakers, and the people like John Luckett who are making their communities a better place.

So let’s get started. Here’s Walk West CEO, investor, speaker, mentor, advisor, and all around hustler himself, host of the Hustle Unlimited Podcast, Donald Thompson.

Donald Thompson, Walk West CEO, Host of Hustle Unlimited:
Hello folks, this is Donald Thompson with Hustle Unlimited. I have the opportunity to talk to you and bring to you today John Luckett from the Raleigh Rescue Mission and one of the things that we’re doing here at Hustle Unlimited is we’re bringing to you not only folks from the business community and nonprofit community, but number one business and nonprofit leaders that are taking things to the next level in their chosen field. In this case with the Raleigh Rescue Mission, it is a very, very powerful story about how to help people become more, become better so they can be their full self and not let their current circumstance define their future. John, welcome to the show. We are super glad to have you. Let’s jump in, tell us a little bit about you as an individual and then we’ll kind of dive into what you do, but tell us background, where you’re from, family, all that good stuff and we’ll jump in as friends.

John Luckett, Raleigh Rescue Mission CEO:
Well, I grew up in Mississippi in the 60s. Okay. So I have the uniqueness of being in a little town called Carthage, which really the only distinction we had that we were 30 miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi. So you probably remember a story in history where the three freedom riot kids –  freedom rioter kids – two white and one black were killed and their bodies were hidden for a period of time. And so I grew up 30 miles outside of that city. Very scary time. So, that’s kind of the beginnings of growing up in poverty. When my parents were uneducated and we actually stayed in that particular environment for a couple of reasons. There was a white family that basically gave my dad a job offer and protected us during this time period. So we stayed stable, which people say, why would you want to be in that situation anyway? Because a lot of my extended family left the state, went North. We stayed there and I was able to finish high school. Through the influence of teachers, which was first segregated and then integrated in 1970 teachers that took an interest in me and said, Hey, you know what, I think you have potential that you can go to college. I think you can do other things. So it was a very, very different, uh, I have a different life now than I thought I ever would have.

DT:
And what do you think, I mean that’s an amazing as a backdrop, right? So growing up in the 60s and then grown up in the deep South Mississippi.  I was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, which is about three, four hours from Jackson, Mississippi. But I have relatives that grew up in Mississippi. So that’s deep South. And everything that you can think of from a racial undertone or just the quality of life and education, what gave you the capacity to believe you could do and be more?

John:
Well I tell people looking back, cause I didn’t really understand all this coming up cause I, you know, I grew up angry and frustrated about what was happening around me cause there was a lot of negative things going on. But looking back, it was people that believed in me before I believed in myself. Some, some people intervened in my life. I can tell you right now, Mrs. Gilmore my first grade teacher, African American lady, she said, Hey, you got potential. You’re going to be great. And you need someone outside of your family unless of course your family is very prominent or something. But to validate them and that’s what she did. So I can remember most of my elementary teachers, and my high school teachers, which by the way were white teachers too, that, uh, spoke, you know, positive things into tomorrow.

DT:
I mean that’s powerful. I mean everybody has the opportunity to do great things, but we don’t all see it within self. And so having somebody that believes in you, that cheers for you, but more importantly equips you, right. So that you can be really, really successful. And it seems that you had that. When you think about growing up in Mississippi and now transitioning, when did you move up North? Or when did you move to North Carolina? Give me a little bit more of the story of from Mississippi forward.

John:
So I went to college, which was a pretty big achievement, first generation going to college. So that was a big deal. Uh, after college I went to Atlanta. In that time, that was Mecca. Yeah, that’s big city and opportunity man. So I went there, started in the banking industry and got my first break and started with a company called Chick-fil-A as an owner operator. And that was through a connection through a business person that once again saw potential in me as a banker and said, Hey, what do you, what do you want to do longterm? And I had a desire put in me by my dad that I wanted to own my own business because my dad had already said, you know, when his dream, his life, which he never achieved, was to own his own business. And that way he wouldn’t have to have someone else have control of what he could produce and how much he could make. And so that was one of his dreams he passed on to me.

DT:
Oh, that’s phenomenal. I mean, one of the things that people think about entrepreneurship is number one, the road’s not easy. So I want to get some, some feedback and lessons learned as a business owner that you can share, but more important is that opportunity to really build something for yourself and for your family and everybody, a lot of people, I don’t want to say everybody dreams of it, very few people actually take the leap to do it. What gave you that confidence, that drive to actually move from that stable career now in banking, things are looking up in that arena to now go into that entrepreneurship route.

John:
Once again, this gentleman this successful businessman in Atlanta. He said, I think you have the ability and intellect here to really do this. And at that time, Chick-fil-A was moving out of the malls into the freestanding buildings. So I started with them and they believed in me, obviously because there was a partnership there that if you know how Chick-fil-A works it’s as a close partnership. And so that was one of the things that launched me into that franchise and it was a great experience. I learned a lot of things about business that I would’ve never been exposed to. I hadn’t been in that environment. As you know, your environment really determines a lot of your success, who you’re around, who you relate to, what type of business people you’re around.

DT:
So this is very progressive country in the power and the level of your dreams. I mean if you’re around people and business people that have a big vision, then it is deemed okay for you to have a big vision along with them. The most successful people are supportive of other people’s dreams and unfortunately most people that aren’t successful always are kind of trying to pull each other back a little bit. One of the things that I’d like to know, and I know our listeners would as well, how did that transition now from Chick-fil-A, this very successful franchise, doing well, moving in those directions. How did you transition to the Raleigh Rescue Mission and what caused that you’ve now taken up that mantle and responsibility you have now?

John:
So Chick-fil-A was the first big break, but it wasn’t the only one. After Chick-fil-A, I became a Wendy’s franchisee. So there’s a partnership with another, a financial partner, and we moved to Texas to do that. I sold that business and then I got into what I call the wave of the senior living industry. Back in the early 2000’s with Sunrise Senior Living. So while there I, at that point, it was very successful as a public company. We were serving the top 1% of people across the U S because it was very expensive to move into properties that I managed and oversaw. So all of a sudden, unbeknownst to me, out of the blue, I felt like God was tapping me on his shoulder and said, Hey, you know what? You’re very successful. Your kids are set. I want you to go back and help people the way I help you.  So my wife really thought about it for a long time because as you know how it works in the corporate America, once you get to a certain level, you know there’s a lot of money and things coming in. And so we really believed we wanted to leave a legacy, not only for our kids, but for other people because I wouldn’t be in the position I was in if people hadn’t taken the time to invest in me. So we quit the corporate job starting with a nonprofit in Atlanta, a Good Samaritan health center, which was a great experience. My first time being in the nonprofit world and while working there was exposed to homeless individuals as well as the working poor. And my heart was just drawn to the homeless individuals. I’ll tell you, up until this point in my career, I would write a check and I was, I didn’t really understand what was going on.

And really when I tell people – 1960s poverty is totally different than 2019 poverty.

DT:

Okay. Expand on that.

John:

So back in the 1960s my dad could find work even though he couldn’t read and write. Today, if you don’t have the education, you can’t find work. McDonald’s doesn’t hire people that can’t read and write. So when you’re talking about the opportunities – manufacturing was available, there was a lot of labor jobs that my dad could do. My mom could do things. So, you know, I was never fearful that we would be kicked out of our home because we couldn’t pay something. Now I was fearful because of other reasons going on in Mississippi. There would be burned out or something. But that’s a whole different kind of stress level there. But once my eyes were open to this. I said, me and my wife said we have to do something. And so, uh, this is when really we began to talk to many people about what is the key to getting people out of homelessness in the 2000’s as opposed to what it was like in 1960s and seventies eighties and so that’s where we stumbled across Raleigh Rescue Mission and their vision and desire.

DT:
That’s really powerful. And so that’s a lot to unpack. It’s one, it’s to walk away from a very successful career and maybe not walk away, but transitioned into something that’s very new, very different, and not being able to see the impact right in front of you. There’s not a big monthly paycheck coming next. Validates your worth. In terms of corporate America. So that’s one thing. But the second thing that’s powerful is thinking in terms of that give back, right? And that responsibility that we all have to be thankful and to move from thankful to action of, of how we can help another generation move forward. Tell us a little bit about the Raleigh Rescue Mission and the broadness of services because, and I’ll tell you when we first met, and I shared this with you before and I thought, Rescue Mission, fine. I’ll write a check. And they’re helping feed people that are homeless and hungry. They’ve got a soup kitchen going on and they’ve got a food pantry going on and it’s so much more. Take a minute to describe really the depth of what you’re doing and the vision of bringing people from homelessness to that next level in their life.

John:
Exactly. Well, it starts out with something that sounds simple. We really believe that each person has sacred value. So when you start there, one of the things that when a wife says, we want you to do this, and the board was behind this because the rescue commission had been around since 1961 and they have been able to evolve and, and address the issues with a business person’s mindset of outcomes because it was started by business people. So with that in mind, the question is if these individuals have sacred value, they have the same sacred value as my children or your children. And so would it be okay that if you said, Hey, it’s okay if my child doesn’t have education and they work a low paying job where they can’t make ends meet and they can’t live in a decent housing? The answer will be no.

So we started with that simple concept and came up with a six phase approach that really mirrors what we did with our children and what many people do with their children. You know, we started out with saying, Hey, what are your real needs? What are you needs? And we look at a total comprehensive educationally, medically, mentally, uh, what are your real needs? Because one of the things we found out in my research, because I left some time when I was with the organization in Atlanta, I did a lot of research on what was happening, what were the outcomes, what kinds of things were happening would be we were addressing these needs. Because you’re right, it’s a broad spectrum, but a lot of times people think, well, it’s okay if I give you a meal and a place to sleep. We wouldn’t say that for our children.

We wouldn’t say, Hey, it’s okay. I don’t care what you do between seven and three. You know, you’re on your own, but you can come back home and you’re going to have a meal and you can sleep here tonight. We want to develop them and help them. We say full potential. So one of the things we found out is, uh, if you can imagine this doctor that you and I, and two of your friends went to the doctor’s office and we were sitting in the, in the lobby there and they called all of us back, all four of us back. And the doctor was in his office and he saw us coming, he said, have a seat. And he finished up writing a script and he gave out a script, each one of us. And we’re like, what is this?

He said, Oh, this is your script to go get some medication. All you people are like, so what’s the problem? We’d say, wait a minute. You haven’t done an exam. I’m not like this other person. That’s right. You don’t know me. That is almost how we have began to treat homeless individuals and people in poverty in the US and that was not the case earlier on. Even under segregated South and racism, people were treated differently based on what their needs were and how they could support individuals. So we said, Hey, we’ve got to start doing that. So phase one is what do you need? We partnered with Sylvan learning to do an assessment of all the kids, which, so we have about as many kids as we do women. And then we also have men. So we do assessment on everyone, especially the kids because 87% of kids who are homeless are going to drop out of school before graduating high school.

And let me just tell you, middle schoolers are not being hired by McDonald’s and that means you’re getting what’s called a school to prison pipeline. So this is a huge problem that’s right in front of us and we don’t see it because it’s kind of hidden. So once we finish the assessment, we set them up with the proper counseling because many of the kids and the parents are went through adverse childhood experiences, ACEs. And the adults that didn’t stop at age 18 domestic violence is leading in number one thing. It’s not going away. You remember the Me Too movement? That’s the top 1% of the women. What do you think happened to the bottom 1% of the women in our country? So they are really being impacted with domestic violence and other things. And there’s a lot of other things that’s been happened.

John:
It’s 16 different things in the, in the ACEs and the CDC says that ACE is our number one issue as a society cause one of these items is happening to close to 70% of our population. In our world, 100% of the people who come to us have four more of these adverse childhood experiences that continue on into adulthood.

DT:

So you said a lot of things that are powerful and impactful, 87% of the kids that are homeless are going to drop out of school before they finish high school, did I hear that? And then that creates a school to prison pipeline. Like that is of all the things that we argue about as a society in a macro economic environment. But there’s so much more that we can do to address that. Super proud of you for what you’re doing to address that. But I think sometimes we all need a little bit of shock treatment to realize where some of these problems are that we want to overlook. Tell me a little bit about how you’re getting word out and how people can help and benefit what you’re doing or what are the key things they can do?

John:

We’re at the root level. We’re dealing with some things that people don’t like to deal with. Going in and doing the tutoring and the counseling, it costs money. It really does. And so the time, so we’ve beefed up our staff so that we have a full 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM children’s services for all of our kids. That’s before school, preschool, afterschool, and then evening enrichment because we want to come alongside the parents. You know, in today’s society, if you have a child that’s acting up, everybody blames the parents.

Well what if the parent doesn’t have the skills or the abilities to really guide the child? So we come alongside the parent, the woman in our situation. And sometimes we have men with children there and we come alongside both of them and say, Hey, we want to help you grow both. And that’s a new thing to be quite honest with you because a lot of times people focus on the adult, they don’t focus on the children. So we’re focusing on both. So there’s a couple things I will tell you. Where else? Invest in us from a financial standpoint. You can go to our RaleighRescue.org and look online.

DT:

So RaleighRescue.org. And you can donate online. Okay.

John:

And then we want volunteers, passionate volunteers for the children or if you’d like the adults, but to come alongside. Cause once again, remember somebody outside of my family spoke truth into my life, hope into my life because it used to take someone out of the situation that you’re in to say, Hey, I think you can overcome this.  We need that for our adults, men and women and we need that for the children. We really believe that we can break the cycle easier with the kids than we can with the parents right now because there’s a lot more damage that has been done to the 25 or 35 year old woman that’s had all these bad things happen to you. You have a daily fight with depression and hope because you, you’ve been knocked down multiple times. That’s right and, and the women, and I’ll tell you about the adults who come here, this is the misconception. All these people don’t want to work. They don’t want to do these things. No, they choose to come there. No one’s forced to them. They’re not assigned here by any court. They choose to come here because they said, I want to be back in mainstream.

I want to pave my own way. I don’t want to be dependent on other people. Those are the type of individuals we’re working with.  We just looked at some statistics nationwide. Most of the people that are homeless, 84% of them, are what’s called situational homeless, 16% are called chronic homeless. Guess which one our media focuses on.  Chronic homeless. And those are the ones that get the bad name. The rest of the group is called the hidden homeless. Like you and I, if something…you know..I tell people, if I had a business and it blew up and went bankrupt, you think I’d be on Facebook saying, Hey, my business just went bankrupt. Check me out. No, you would withdraw. That’s what these individuals are, they’re withdrawn. I say, well, somebody helped me just relaunch my life. Now we know what happened in 2006 to 2009 a lot of people lost their jobs. They went back at themselves together. They got lost. They’re back on track. I knew several friends making great money, doing great things, but they were able to fall. They lost their house, but they were able to go back what their parents retool, reskill,  boom and they’re back out there. That is what we’re doing for these people.

DT:
No, that’s powerful. That 84% of the situational homeless. And I think that’s part of why we’re so glad that you’re here with us and really shining a light and creating that hopeful opportunity for us to engage and make a real difference. And I think that’s super powerful. Do this for me in, in our time together. Share with us a couple of success stories. Put some scenarios together that have gone through your six step process and how that has worked for some examples.

John:
Yeah. So like you said, we go from homelessness to home ownership, which includes getting a job, which is critical, getting a vehicle and a place to live. So I have this one young lady, so she made a decision. She had been living in what we’ll call section eight housing in another city and dealing with domestic violence. She decided one day that she was leaving that situation, came here to Raleigh, found us out and came on board. And she was very shy young lady at the beginning, but she was determined. She said, I can not live like this anymore for my kids’ sake. So she went through the program, you know, went to all the things. She was great trooper, got her a job. She has an apartment and now we’re in the process of getting her a home and so she is a person that has a determination and she’s not, this is what people say, well that’s an outlier.  Now that’s actually the majority of people we’re looking at and her success story is based on the fact that she said, I want to be example for my kids.

I didn’t have this example for myself, but I want to have this example of my kids, so that’s one young lady that did that. We have another gentleman who went through a severe situation and this is going to be a little heartbreaking. He was actually doing well as an adult and his wife and kids were killed in a car accident. He went into severe depression for like 10 years, substance abuse, all those kind of things and then he said, you know what? I just can no longer live like this. You came to us. Same thing. Stuck with us, went to the program. He’s got a job now. He’s doing well. He works at Carolina Country Club. He’s got his car, he’s got a place to live and so he started a new life. So those are the examples that give me hope everyday. I tell people, I have one of the joys of seeing miracles happen every day in people’s lives and all we’re doing is assisting people.

I tell people, people say, are you helping people? I says, no, we don’t help people. We assist them. But I said, why are you saying you don’t help people? I says, cause they’re not helpless. We’re not dealing with helpless people. We’re dealing with people who need some assistance. Every one of us who were in business and then successful had assistance. So, so this looking down on the individual, because they’re in a temporary situation that is not a helpless person that we choose. We do not need to look down on them or treat them in some paternalistic way. No. Come alongside them with dignity and respect and say, Hey, where do you want to go? Let’s do this together. Let me take my resources and my contacts so that I can help you be what you want to be and that’s what we’re doing.

DT:
That is powerful and the example of the lady and the gentleman that succeeded in your program, what you’re also doing is you’re changing that pipeline from that pipeline to prison. It’s that pipeline to prosperity and that is super powerful because it’s almost like you get the multiplier effect because not only did you help save a family or assist the family, you also created an opportunity for an example and a beacon of light that other people can believe that they can do it too. To your point, which I really resonate with and has been a part of my life, any success that I’ve had personally in business, in life, there’ve been people that have assisted me. I’ve worked hard, I’ve learned my craft and different things, but I’ve had people that have held out a hand and pulled me up or opened up a door that I could go through. And so I’m right there with you that for us to look down on people that need assistance is a little bit arrogant and a little bit forgetful of the majority of our personal situation. And so I appreciate the way that you said that and the eloquence.

John:
I got one more. So there’s a child that, uh, came to us, this is what I call the stereotypical 10 year old African American child. A boy that’s in school that is identified by the teacher as not following the rules, not doing these, all these kinds of things. He goes into the Sylvan class and all of a sudden they do the assessment. They say like, this kid is really smart. So they began to start working with him and interacting with him. He was actually bored in the class and he was acting out because that’s the only thing he knew to do. So now he’s on the Duke TIP program which Duke University Talent Identification Program and so he’s been very successful that we have so many kids like that.

DT:
Wanna slow you down. I’m being rude. I’m interrupting you. So this was a young man, 10 years old, stereotypical African American kid acting up in class but was tested as gifted and talented and with the assistance is moving in a totally different direction.

John:
Exactly. So we have so many kids come to us that we know they’re diamonds in the rough but they have not had the time and environment that many people have. And so I tell people your environment does matter. If you’re in an environment that encourages you to grow and develop and use your God given talents, it’s going to be a totally different situation. The environment and does it and let’s be realistic, everyone needs someone to come alongside and coach and teach and train. That’s how everybody becomes better and everybody needs encouragement. Everybody needs encouraging.

DT:
I mean, it’s like a, one of the reasons you’re inspiring me just in general, but specifically even in this conversation is because now it starts to flash through your minds or what am I supposed to do to create that inspiration, right? For the next person and to make sure that next young person that you guys have the awareness, the funding, the support, right? So that not one but two but 10 but a hundred or you go get that testing is in growth. So if you had to switch gears a little bit, okay, but knowing what, you know, your background, if you had a magic wand, what would you change in our society if you had the magic wand?

John:

So I’ve thought about that. You know, the idea that I’m going to have this massive place in a hundred acres and do all this kind of stuff, it’s really not the American model. The American model is franchising, right? You actually figure out a way to do something and you multiply it and you do it because you use some of that personal contact when you get something so massive and big right? It becomes numbers rather than individuals. Right? So our idea is that we want our perfect what we’re doing, we only, this is the, we’re only one year into this and we took one year to study everything around here in Raleigh because I think things are local. You know what works here in Raleigh and the Triangle is unique. You made the tweaks and things. If you in New York City, Chicago, I think the core is there. Well we’re trying to do our work, trying to create a model and be a support system so we can spawn other individuals to do this. So we want it to be scalable. We’re saying, Hey, if a person comes to me individually and say, Hey, what can I do? I just want to impact one person. I’m like, great. That’s actually a great situation. We can put your support system, you can talk to someone, you can do this individual, you can do this. A church can do this. A civic organization do this cause there’s so many needs. But you know what? People respond to personal interaction. So one of the things I said about ACE that I didn’t tell you before is that – what breaks that? What causes a person to be resilient? And it’s one loving relationship. If you can have one loving relationship, it’s been proven consistently. There’s a lot of other things around environment but it’s that one loving relationship. We’re break the cycle of adverse childhood experiences and that causes a person become resilient. And I think about that if we could just multiply those relationships, cause I’m sure all of us, you me and think back through our life and say, Hey, this was a relationship that I had with this person that really changed my life. I look back on my life and this person at this moment in time for this season of life made a difference in me. That is the key. So we really want to be incubator here, a model that others can duplicate because you know, I’m out of the franchise business so you know I’m not, I’m not trying to make money but I am trying to change lives.

DT:
And one of the things that I will just extend that and just to make sure we’re all on the same page. So ACE – adverse childhood experiences and breaking the cycle can be done with one loving relationship and making that difference. And the goal being of the Raleigh Rescue Mission is to perfect a platform that can be scaled. So that you can create and keep that localized impact. Right. But you can bring it to the masses. That is a powerful testament for what you’re trying to do both in the now, but both creating a framework that can outlive what this team is doing right here in Raleigh, move it around the nation. Let me give you some space here. Anything that you’d like to share with our audience? Anything that we missed? I’ve enjoyed talking with you. I want to encourage everybody that I know to go to the RaleighRescueMission.org and be a very good steward of your organization. Anything else you’d like to share as we close things up?

John:
Well, I would tell you what this city is prime. As you probably know, this is the third most family friendly city in the world. So we found, what I found here, I moved here from Atlanta is that there are a lot of people that really want to make a change. And that’s why we’re so excited by tell them here’s how to do it. Here’s the blueprint, here’s the blueprint. Cause a lot of people are very passionate and loving in the Triangle. But the details and the mechanics is where the challenge comes in. So that’s really what caused us to create this model so it can be duplicated.

DT:
That’s awesome. So one of the things that I want to make as an offer, I want to put this on tape and different things. At Walk West, we’re gonna start doing some live events and live training for marketing material and different things. Now from time to time, I’m going to invite you or someone from your team to have a couple of minutes while we’re talking to these business executives, just to talk about what you guys are doing at the Raleigh Rescue Mission. So if we pulled together business leaders that are very successful in different things and we’ve already got them there, they want to learn about marketing, then want to learn about taking their company to the next level. I also want to give an opportunity and space for them to learn how they can be an impact in their community.

And so I’ll reach back out to you over the next coming weeks and we’ll talk about some different ways that we can do that so that certainly I can personally be benefit, but I can use whatever platform I have to help you guys get out there in the market place as well.

John:

Sounds good. Thank you so much.

DT:

Thanks so much for having taken the time to be with us folks on the Hustle Unlimited platform and listeners today. We’re here to make a difference and hopefully the time that you spent today with John,  hearing about the Raleigh Rescue Mission, hearing about the six step process and the fact that they’re using business outcomes to impact people that are homeless and that we’re assisting people. We’re not looking down on people. We’re not treating people like they’re less than, but we’re assisting people to their level of greatness. Thank you so much for your vision and spending time with us.

John:

Thank you.

Jason:

That was John Luckett from the Raleigh Rescue Mission.  To see what you can do to have an impact on the Raleigh community, whether that’s through donations, corporate sponsorships, education, or volunteer work, head on over to RaleighRescue.org.  With the holidays and the cold months up ahead, they could use as much help as they can get.

Thanks for tuning in everyone, and thanks to John Lockett for such an inspiring interview and it’s truly amazing how some people in this community are making a difference and touching so many lives.

This episode was edited and produced by me, Jason Gillikin, for Earfluence. For more on the Earflucence Podcast Network, visit Earfluence.com or check us out on social media, we’re AT EarfluenceMedia.

Intro and outro music for this episode is “You Can’t Stop Me” from Jensen Reed. You can find more of his music at JensenReed.com.

Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time on Hustle Unlimited.