initiative and what areas of Fiji have you been focused on lately?
Well, this particular areas of Fiji we've been focused on lately,
well, we always do top-up donations, but the main island is called Viti Levu.
So we're primarily focused on there and then the seventh biggest island is called Tavaiuni.
So there are some schools we had to finish up there, but I'm glad to ask that question
because we've just packed up a shipment and it's 57,000 books or a smidge over 57,000.
And so that 44 schools will be helping by the time they collect them.
So yeah, we feel pretty good about that. It's a gargantuan effort.
And what was the other part of the question is what books am I reading? Was that it?
Yeah. So I'm not from Fiji, so I don't think through these things,
but you're like, wow, you got all these islands to get library books to in order to help these
children and that's y'all's focus. You mentioned some of the larger islands.
Yeah. Let's just dive into this logistically.
Yeah. So there's over 300 islands in Fiji. So the logistics, even in...
So the biggest island, you can see there Viti Levu where it says Suva.
There's a lot of touristy stuff there and modern infrastructure,
but if you go right into where it says Fiji and the map, so in the interior of Fiji,
some of these schools don't have roads to them. And yet three hours away, there's the Sheraton,
the Radisson Blue. It's almost astonishing.
So are these the islands that I have on my screen? These ones out here to the right,
are they also part of Fiji? They are. So it goes right down almost to Tonga.
So it's... Where's Tonga? Tonga is... There we are. All the way over here.
Yeah. So there are Fijian islands that are closer to Tonga than they are to the main island of Fiji.
I had to click one and see what's there. Yeah, do it.
Just interesting to see what's... Okay. So you got a little church on this island that's mapped out.
Let's look at the satellite real quick. Yeah. So every island, every village will pretty much
have a church. That's a given. I just found the super secret building.
That's probably people playing around with Google, but...
I'm not sure what that is. Wow.
Yeah. You can see it's quite sparsely populated. Right.
And 57,000 books. Over what time period? So I mean, we've been... So it usually takes
six sessions to pack up a whole shipment of books. And we usually do that with groups of
school students. So the first group packed, we had two sessions in November, then we had one in May,
and then I think we had two in May, and then we had one on Sunday. So I mean, I used to do it six
days, virtually over two weeks. It's just so punishing on the body, Jackson, because you are
lifting boxes of heavy, heavy books. I'm the boss in charge of 25 students and their teachers.
And you're very aware that there's dangerous equipment in a warehouse, but also no one works
harder than the boss, right? The boss isn't there scrolling through Instagram. The boss is... So I'm...
I guess I would say I'm a loving, but I'm not a drill sergeant. That doesn't work with volunteers,
but I'm pretty good at keeping them on track and on pace, because the job needs to get done.
The harder they work, the more kids we help. And I spill that out to them. And I...
I've moved a lot. And the boxes that I dread the most are the books, right? It's like, oh my gosh,
like not that box. And that's all you're doing is books and boxes of books. So that's... That is
incredible what you're doing for these kids. Thank you. Well, I mean, it's... And it's very
heavy work, but it's not just that. It's like the mental load of... I mean, I'm pretty good at...
Because I used to be a teacher managing groups of students and whatever, but you might have
groups... They're grouped in groups of four and each group is doing a different task.
And they want to do it 100% correctly. And so, you know, I'm getting peppered with questions.
So I'm walking so fast, I'm practically running. Like you're just on the double, but you know,
you've only got the volunteers for a certain amount of time and they have to... So like in a
really, really good packing session, they'll pack up about 15,000 books. And it's roughly a
thousand books of school, because you've got to give the school what they can mean. See the photo
there, the Fijian guy with the wheelbarrow up the top. Absolutely. Yeah, they're books in the
vernacular, which means books in the dialect that we have to buy in Fiji. And that photo shows the
lengths we go. So we usually don't deliver books, but we delivered those. And then they go in a small
punt, like a fiberglass boat, open topped. And, you know, they're propped up on life jackets and
I'm wrapping them in garbage bags because no one cares more about the books than me. And that
shows the links we go to. And then if you scroll up a bit, Jackson, you can see my daughter in the
scoop of an excavator. And that shows that that was genuine. I also got a ride in the scoop of
the excavator, as did my operations manager. That shows what some of the terrain is like. Like we
are talking hardcore adventure stuff. I've been waded up to mud, up to the top of my chest,
you know, in an open top boat with spray going in my face. Yeah, it's pretty wild. It's a wild ride.
That's incredible. Yes, it is. And I'm so grateful you don't, Vinda. I'm going to continue to show
this. You've got a tenacity about you, a diligence and a mission that you're on to really help people
in a way that these people wouldn't receive the help if somebody wasn't, you know, doing this,
wasn't willing to go and do this hard work. So what are three resources that you recommend for
other visionary leaders out there? Three resources. Well, you need a strong support network. I think
you need a spouse slash life partner that backs you unconditionally and is on the same page.
Because in the early days, you need a sounding board. So you need a strong support network and
particularly with your other half, that'd be the first thing I would say. The second thing I would
say is you need to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. And what I mean by that is, I mean,
what is an entrepreneurial mindset? I guess it's a willingness to solve problems mixed with a
creativity and kind of innovative mindset. And then a willingness to ask others and then just a
tenacity because there's so many obstacles. It really is like a nonstop obstacle course.
So for like for the entrepreneurial mindset, I think I just developed that myself naturally,
but I did do a social entrepreneurship course at INSEAD. So to your listeners that might not be
familiar with INSEAD, it's like Harvard or Yale. So they call it Business School for the World.
And it started in Fontainebleau in France as a campus in Doha, one in Singapore. So I went to
their Singapore campus and was lucky enough to win a scholarship to attend their social
entrepreneurship course. And honestly, Jackson, the people in that room, I have never been in a room
full of more high achieving freaks of nature in my life. I was the only one without an MBA for one.
One lady developed like an iPad or a tablet for blind people. So Braille on a tablet. Another
lady invented a bionic arm. Yeah, one guy, a Nepalese guy, works with the scheduled cast. So the
lowest, most discriminated against cast, getting women to be job fit. So incredible, incredible
people. So that was a lot about social impact, entrepreneurial mindset. That's the thing, the
course at INSEAD. And the third thing I would say is just the absolute unwavering belief in what
you're doing and therefore to keep on learning, keep improving, keep trying to refine your skills
and refine what you have. So I mean, your biggest resource is yourself. So you've got to make
yourself strong and keep yourself refreshed. And I mean, one thing I do Jackson is it's not like I
get up at seven o'clock in the morning or six o'clock in the morning and I'm typing away. Like in
terms of emails and sitting at a desk, well, I've actually don't sit at a desk. I mostly sit on a
roller and very naughty doing my emails on my phone. But there's a lot of thinking time is
required. And for the best result, generally my day needs to have breaks in between for ideas to
come. And it's usually on a walk or in the shower or doing exercise. It's like you're to be constantly
sort of creating and pro-acting. You need space in between. Otherwise you're just reacting.
Wow. That's incredible. And you shared two, I'm going to ask for one more resource. You just have
so much depth, Fiona, that I just can't miss the opportunity. You mentioned strong support
and the other half of the equation. I'm a single father of four. And so I'm looking at like,
what do I need to do? How do I need to be ready for that? So I know you can't give me the exact
answer, but if there was a resource you could share with me to look into in order to become the
man who attracts that other half or whatever it is I missed in life to find that, what would it be?
What would be one resource I should look at? Well, I personally, I mean, I've never done dating
apps. I personally wouldn't go down that route. Very good. Very good. I just feel like it's, I feel
like by swiping and basing things on a little bit of information, the way someone looks, I don't feel
like it gives you the secret source that an actual human to human interaction gives you. I think
going to, I mean, if it was me, going to things with other like-minded people.
But what about preparing yourself? What did you do to prepare yourself?
Because I think sometimes we look externally, right? We look for the person to be the solution
rather than trying to figure out what do we need to do on our end. So what'd you do for yourself?
For myself? Well, I mean, I was, it's not like when I started, I was the person that I am now. I was
much more tentative, taking risks and whatever. I mean, I do tons of things like I meditate,
I exercise, every day I'll read an article from Harvard Business Review. I read lots of articles
on leadership. I speak to people pretty high up in business. Those are awesome. You just gave me a
ton. You gave us all a ton. Those are the things I'm looking for there. The intangibles that
sometimes get overlooked. And it's always fascinating to me that the people that I interview
who are successful and who've done amazing things, almost all have those same principles.
But I don't want to overlook it or take that for granted. I don't want people to think that
those things don't exist because some people, they don't see it. They don't see those core values
of meditation, of exercise and self-discipline, self-care. So that was awesome. We're going to
take a short break. Everybody will be right back and we're going to dive into Fiona Lou's vision for
Fiji Book Drive and her life and just soak in everything that we can. I'll be right back
after this break. All right. Welcome in to Vision Pros Live with Jackson Callum. I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome in to another episode of
Vision Pros Live. I'm your show host, Jackson Callum, founder and CEO of First Class Business.
And I am so excited to have Fiona Luth on the stage today. We're talking about the founder and
CEO of Fiji Book Drive. And we just talked about a shipment of 57,000 books being given. And
Fiji, I think about this paradisical island that is perfect and everybody probably has everything
that they want. I don't think about the reality that there's 300 islands as part of that chain
of islands and all these schools that exist on the individual islands and kids that don't have
reading materials. And then here's a warrior hero such as Fiona gathering books and striving to get
those books to these remote locations so that those kids can have the same types of opportunities
and access to opportunities and knowledge that the rest of us perhaps take for granted. So very
excited to dive in with her. Before I dive in and we explore that vision though, we always want to
give even more resources to you and opportunities that are out there. So first things first, I want
to talk about Dave Morrow from the Hard to Kill podcast, hardtokill.org. Dave's helping 100,000
veterans lose 2 million pounds collectively. He's got an award-winning podcast. He'll be at the
Military Influencer Expo in Georgia coming up in a couple of weeks. And he also has the world's
easiest workout plan. One thing I love about what he's up to is he's very pragmatic in his approach
to working out and doing the little things. He's also very aware of quotes like Socrates quote of,
I don't remember the exact quote, but when he talked about Socrates talked about our civic
duty of taking care of ourselves and putting ourselves in the best shape that we can. And
I was like, man, that's the type of call I needed in order to make sure I'm doing my best to be my
best self. So definitely check out what he's up to. If you know any veterans, I highly recommend
sending them Dave's Way as well. Then there's Magic's Productions with Peyton Childers. In fact,
what you're looking at right now is our event, First Class Networking. Peyton was on the production
crew of the Sam Houston University Championship football team, also on the Texas Rangers champion
team in terms of video production. His hospitality skills are incredible. What he did was he was
allowed, he allowed us to create B-roll from different angles from, that means footage from
different angles from that event. We were mic'd up as well. We can use that content so many different
ways in addition to his live stream. So if you're looking for a tech guru that also is big into
AV for your event or for your podcast, I highly recommend seeing what Peyton is up to. Then there
is the Water Project. I have never been thirsty in my life. I mean, I've never been without water,
always had access to something. So when it came across my radar that there's people out there who
don't have access to clean drinking water and who have to leave school or leave work in order to
gain access to it, I became really impressed with what the Water Project was doing and how they're
helping people gain access to water. And I saw this picture of these kids celebrating water like my
kids celebrate Christmas Day. I was like, man, if there's a cause I'm going to talk about,
it's going to be this one. We've got so much more that we can do. What's really cool is you get to
pick the community that you support. And once you can pick that community and you see it get funded,
you actually get to see the transformation. They'll send you picture proof that what you donated to
actually came to existence and how they go about creating these borehole wells or these sand dam
projects. And so if you're in a position to give back, then please definitely consider the
opportunity with the Water Project. And while we're at it, let's also make sure to consider
getting involved with the Fiji Book Drive and seeing what we can do to support Fiona and her
efforts. So without further ado, I'll bring her back on stage and Fiona, welcome to Vision Pros
Live. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Fiona, what is your vision for those of you who serve
books, you know, ending up in the hands of children and adults, I'm assuming as well
on these islands. What do you foresee happening because of these efforts?
Well, what I do see happening and I see it right now is so a lot of teachers are referring to
our Workers Nation building and I completely see that that's that is what is happening. So
once this next shipment is in the hands of the Fijian schools and whatever, it'll be 238 schools
we will have helped, which is pretty good for a small not-for-profit. We're like the mouse that
roared. So what's my vision? What do I see? I see us, I don't want us to help all the schools in
Fiji because they have Fiji Library Service and I never ever, you never want to disable, like you
want the country to do as much as it can for itself rather than relying on someone from, you
know, a wealthy developed country like Australia. But they need our help. So working in conjunction
with Fiji Library Service, delivering the best possible service, you know, the more money we
have, the more we can refine our processes. So paying one of our employees like a full-time wage
in Fiji so he can go around talking more about literacy boosting strategies, which we do, and
having enough money in the bank account to buy every school, books in the vernacular. So books in
the dialect, dialect, books in their first or second language, which that reflects Fijian life
because children have to read in their first language first. Even though old schooling in Fiji
is compulsorily in English, to learn to read in your second or third language when you don't
really have books in the home or in your community is a very, it's a big ask, it's a significant ask
and really we need to have, you know, more books in the vernacular. So that's really my
vision, speaking on more panels, that sort of thing, getting paid for consultancy. But
for those who I serve, I see more of the same and just deeper impact, more money to deepen our impact.
That's amazing. So and we did start to touch on that a little bit towards the end there. I'm curious
about your vision for you. Are you going to be the Fiji superhero forever or is there also a
potential for a Madagascar trip or a Canary Islands expansion? What does that look like?
Yeah, I think, I mean, I don't know how long it's forever. Certainly for quite some time,
I can't see myself doing anything else. And I mean, you know, we're still growing and like
like I said, you know, we're small. So we're working towards me taking a wage. So I haven't
taken a wage for 13 years on this. So I'm not sure that anyone would even take it over unless they
got a wage. But so I see that developing. I see me getting paid more and more for public speaking,
which is happening already, and consultancy because everyone hits you up. They want your advice on
sending booked to Zimbabwe or whatever. They want your intellectual property, and I'm now
going to charge that like I've actually given away too much for free. So my vision is me getting
paid more for consultancy stuff and public speaking and further refining what we're doing. So
that's really it. I mean, I think, you know, investing in children, like nobody can argue
with investing in children's education and improving literacy, like it's kind of impossible to
dispute it. I mean, the only wild wacky thing people have said is, oh, what about everything
goes online? And you're like, wow, you really don't understand the context if that's your comment,
like, and in addition to which even in rural areas, like, you know, I think it's a really
resource countries, children still learn to read on an old fashioned book. Yep. Even if all that
they take home their work on an iPad or laptop or whatever, they still learn to read from a book.
Yes, it is. There's so much nuance around that. And it's interesting when people who don't have
kids like to give advice or run policy for people who do have kids. There's the
reality and then there's the desire for people to control. So I won't touch that too much,
but I did have an interview today with somebody I needed to cancel for the sake of because of my
relationship with my four kids as a single father and the individual, you know, their response was,
well, I wish somebody from your team had told me in advance, you know, and I'm thinking like,
well, no, that would have been nice had they all known, right, that this happened. But
when people don't have kids, they can't necessarily relate to the reality of what it looks like. So
I'm with you. Books are incredibly important and a huge value for the education. The internet
certainly can help in some regards. The intellectual property you talk about, I want to talk about
that side of your vision, because everybody on earth, to me, in my opinion, we should all get
abundantly compensated for what we're able to provide in the world. And here comes Greg
Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea, one of my favorite stories about a philanthropist. And he's got a
board member that decided to come out with another publication. The publication was called Three Cups
of Deceit. And he starts tarnishing Greg's reputation with the CAI Institute and how he's
building girl schools and all that. And again, I'm not an investigator, so I don't dive into
either side. But I'm like, man, any board member could get hurt at any time by feeling like, well,
they don't respect my authority or they don't respect my ideas. And then comes out and attacks
what this guy's up to to help in the world. How do you balance personal ambition, personal success,
and this drive and desire to do good in the world, in a world that wants to tear people down?
Where do we go with that? How do you balance that? I mean, well, first of all, I mean, I don't know
to do what I do that there is any balance. I think you actually have to be obsessive.
And I mean, you know, to build something up from scratch that, you know, is basically two different
entities because you've got the Australian side of things and the Fiji side of things,
you've got to be obsessive. There's like a huge amount of detail. But how do you balance that with
a world that wants to tear people down? Well, I mean, I think the lucky thing for me and what I'm
doing is if you're doing good, one thing I've learned, and people are inspired by that, it
magnetises an incredibly reaffirming, incredible bunch of people to you. And through doing this
work, I've just met the best people of my life, no question, in Fiji and in Melbourne, you know,
busy CEOs that will give me half an hour of their time, people that just unconditionally back what
you're doing. So I think if you are doing real good, and people can see that, and maybe they
don't have the time or the energy to do that themselves, then they're not going to be able to
then they will help you and that feeds you. But I mean, certainly being a change maker,
it's an interesting point. It's a harder road. It is. It's brutal. So, and it does come at a cost.
You know, people sometimes say to me, you know, they might see all the success and, you know,
the Instagram story or when I'm speaking at a lunch, they don't see the heartbreak. They don't
see the sleep of the night. It's like, it's about 95% grind. Yeah. You know, how do you balance that?
First of all, I don't know if you can be balanced, but I think you can insulate yourself somewhat if
what you're doing, if it speaks for itself, then good people will come to you and they'll help you.
Yes, I love that. And I think that one of the challenges is being willing to focus on that.
Oh, I'm right. It's instead of focusing on the grind, focusing on the impact. This is 194 schools
since 2012. That number has gone up, hasn't it? And that number is 291,000. It's now 330. Wait a
sec. What's the math? Yeah. 338,000, something like that. Whoo. That's awesome. You're on fire.
All right. So for, you know, entrepreneurs out there, again, life's not always peachy and rosy
and perfect. There is a grind, there's a hustle, there's a diligence, and it really depends on
what we're called to do, you know, as well, right? If the people that we're trying to help, like the
water project, you know, trying to reach people who might die if they don't get the water they need.
Yeah. I mean, I can understand that the grind's needed. What is, out of all your experiences,
the worst leadership experience that you've ever had? Yeah. I mean, I've had a few, but probably
the worst when people are unethical or basically completely lacking in compassion. So I had one
experience. So being a book charity, we send about, you know, between 50 and 60,000 books a year on
average. That might mean we sort through 80 or 90,000 books. So we need a huge amount of storage.
And we had a partnership with a very, very well-known Australian storage company.
And it was absolutely amazing, this partnership. And there were 26 drop-off points in Victoria,
the state where I am. So really convenient for most people. And they sent around an email saying,
I'm paraphrasing, we're really kind. We're a great company. But now all our charity partners,
we're going to charge them 50% of retail. So no charity can suddenly come up with that money out
of the blue. So it's a way of knocking you out. Yeah. And I read that email and I thought, no,
we're so safe in the partnership that doesn't apply to us. So they had you pro bono originally,
and now they've put it at 50%. That's a massive hike. So no charity can do that. And so I appealed
to the CEO. I wrote the best letter I've written in my life. Got a lot of friends to look at it.
Got it delivered by courier. So he had to sign it. So it was a handwritten letter explaining what
we're doing, explaining how the end of this partnership was absolutely catastrophic and how
thousands of children would not have access to books if we didn't have someone to store them.
The CEO in the short term didn't reply to me. He handballed that to the state manager who texted
me and said, let her receive status the same. And then I had a phone call with that state manager
who must've thought ending a partnership was like ripping off a band-aid. You just do it hard and
fast. And it was brutal. Anyway, it was just so brutal. And anyway, then I spoke to him about 10
days later when I called out and I said, I'm going to give you some feedback on that. That was
possibly, that could not have been handled any worse. And he said, yeah, I take that on board.
And so that was, it was just brutal to learn that an Australian stock exchange listed company
could do that. It was just, and when I felt that I was not surprised at all. And I was like, wow,
yeah. So that, and that took me a long time to get over that because I was like, how do we pick up
from that? It's pretty hard to get, like that partnership might've been worth, if you were to
tally it up, could be maybe, I don't know, 70,000 Australian dollars. How do you get that pro bono
warehouse space again? I knew it was out there, but in a way COVID was a little bit of a lucky
thing for us. So we just, we had to send around emails to all our donors. And then, you know,
all those librarians had packed up and some of them got pretty ticked off. And so we, volunteers
ended up having books in their house and we used the top of a well-known hotel to store the books.
And eventually after about a year, we got some pro bono storage, which was amazing. But yeah,
that was my worst leadership experience ever. It was, it was just brutal and the lack of care
and the extraordinary thing was, so these charities, the other charities they helped,
one was called Men's Health Shed. So it's like men getting together, tinkering away,
it's a mental health initiative. Another one was a very well-known Melbourne priest called
Father Bob. He stored homeless people's valuables. And so that had nowhere to go. So, and then the
irony was the CEO's daughter posted on LinkedIn, oh, mental health, so important, please give to
Lifeline. I'm like, are you kidding me? You've just like nuked a whole lot of mental health
charities and like that's the disconnect between the top and the, I just couldn't believe it.
Right. Well, and I think it's important because this relates to the visionaries and
entrepreneurs listening in. It doesn't necessarily exist only in the business world.
It exists only about storage, right? Pro bono storage. This aspect of being
discompassionate and not being aware of the effect of your actions. I see so many entrepreneurs
doing this to virtual assistants. I see so many entrepreneurs doing this to their team members,
where they're severing relationships like on a whim and trying to do what you talked about,
that just pull it hard and fast, get the bandaid off. And they don't realize the repercussion that
that has not just on the life of the individual, but on the status of their brand and anybody else
who has access to seeing what is taking place and happening with that. We've got to exercise more
humanity and our relationships with people and realize that now there's always a compound effect
of treating people that way. And yet so many of us feel like, oh, well, I hired them on Fiverr,
so they're not that important. Or I hired them on Upwork. So it's just a transaction. And we treat
that situation like we're buying a pair of shoes at Walmart, instead of realizing that there are
relationships that matter beyond the ultimate decision. So thank you for sharing that. I hope
people will take that to heart and consider how it may be showing up in their lives more than they
realize. Let's dive into the opposite side of things. What's the best leadership experience
that you've ever had?
Whoa. Well, I mean, there are so many, but I think an ongoing one is literally seeing all the
people that are part of, let's call it the Fidji Book Drive family. So whether they be board
members, whether they be volunteers that pack, whether they be people that partner with us,
I constantly, and I feel like this is no exaggeration, I reckon I get to meet the
best people in Melbourne consistently. So I think my best leadership experience is ongoing,
just meeting exceptional people, like people who just want to help, people who want to exercise
their kindness muscle, because we all want to know that we're good humans. We know, at least here
in Melbourne, not everybody, but most people, yes, we've got a cost of living crisis, but if you've
got a roof over your head, clean water, food, we're pretty blessed on a world scale. And people
know they're privileged and they want to do something to help people that aren't. Like we do
have this need to be altruistic and compassionate. So I guess for me, the best leadership experience
is dealing with deeply ethical, compassionate, and also highly accomplished people.
Awesome. I appreciate you sharing that. That's, it's one of those, you mentioned earlier, we have
to get into places, into communities and get involved in order to find people who reciprocate
that. So that's one of the best things I think that we can all do to make sure that we're aligning
with people who will support us fully on the initiatives that we're after. My next question
for you, if Fiona, if this was your last interview ever, what powerful lesson can other visionaries
learn from your experience? Grit. This is a bit of a wild card one, but doing hard, well, the hard
physical thing I do to increase my physical grit, which I think in turn boosts my mental grit is,
so I swim in the sea in Melbourne all year round, so including in winter when it's nine degrees,
and that's icy, that is cold. And I think that's the most powerful thing I've ever done.
And, you know, I wear a wet suit and whatever, it's still pretty tough. So I think doing hard
physical things and doing things that make you, whether it be physically uncomfortable or mentally
uncomfortable, we only grow when we're a bit uncomfortable. So doing things that make us
uncomfortable, and then we push through and then we go to the next level. So I guess getting
physically uncomfortable, but also getting mentally uncomfortable in order to grow, that would be my
first lesson. Another lesson is years ago I read Jack Canfield's book, what's it called? Something
like The Success Principles or whatever, and something he said which I thought was already
drilled into me when I was a child, but I've become an absolute stickler for it, is not just
thanking people, but if people do anything even just a little bit of a proactive thing, or whether
it's sharing our post or what it linked in, I've written them a handwritten card, and I reckon I've
built a charity up from scratch, largely due to expressing gratitude. Like I go around saying,
you know, what's it like running a charity? Well I'd say Vinaka, that's thank you, that's the first
thing you do. Your people will not do anything for you unless they feel valued, appreciated,
and you know, like they've done something really worthwhile. So I guess my next point would be
expressing gratitude and doing it in a highly personal way. So that's why I'm a big fan of the
handwritten card. What other powerful lessons can you teach?
You're gonna hose this with all the powerful lessons. This is great. I like it. I want to
double down on the handwritten thing. I do actually get some of those from people who shows
I've been on, but it just doesn't hit home. Like it doesn't, because you can see that it's kind of
like a rush situation. Everybody gets one. You know, it can feel very disingenuine too, but you're
talking about making sure that the effort that we take to express gratitude is absolutely sincere,
and I love that. Absolutely, and the way that you do it. So even for every email for people that
donate, I will get my assistant to look and see if they've donated before, and I'll refer to that.
I'll look and see what their connection to the charity is, and I'll refer to that. And every
single interaction like that, I'll personalise it. So if I'm writing a handwritten thank you card,
I make a point of pointing out three things that they did well. So for example, in early June,
I spoke at my old school, which is absolutely wonderful. The principal wasn't there to see me
speak, but I wrote her a card detailing every single thing the school did right, like courting
me as an alumni. And I made a point, someone who wouldn't normally get thanked, who's like an events
manager at the school, so not a teacher, not necessarily going to get Christmas presents from
parents and whatever, and really highlighting how welcoming she was. And I went straight to the
boss of that handwritten card. That's awesome. It reminds me, I got to give a huge shout out now
to Ashton of Minds Eye Creative. Ashton does these workflows, like sketch workflows, and she
teaches people how to do this. And so I got a thank you card from her about being on my show.
And while she was on the show teaching us how to do this, she was making her own version of what she
does, her little sketches. And so she ended up sending those to me as a means of saying thank
you for being on the show. And it's like, yeah, no, I keep that front and center at this point,
because of how awesome that was. This is somebody who did that for Steve Wozniak, by the way, of
Apple. She's very, very good at teaching how to make your notes in illustration format so that
you remember what to do with them. But it's that type of discipline, that type of care
that is often overlooked and underappreciated in the world. But when we dedicate ourselves to
showing up for people like that, it creates something unforgettable and majestic in nature.
Not to romanticize it too much, but thank you for diving in on that. Let's hear about,
let's just dive in a little bit deeper. We don't have too many minutes left, but I'd love to know
anything more about how can we support you on VG Book Drive? What type of messages do you want
to share for the rest of the time? If there's any question I didn't ask that I should be asking,
Fiona, this is the time to say Jackson, let's dive into this.
Thanks, Jackson. Well, I mean, I would love for people to follow us on Instagram,
Fiji Book Drive. That's an easy thing. I mean, lead the way, you keep going.
Yeah, they can check out our website, www.fibgbookdrive.org. I mean, I think it's,
you know, yeah, people can check us out. What else? I mean, if, you know, if they're feeling
particularly generous, they can donate money, they can talk about what they're doing, they can
listen to any of the podcasts on Fiona Luth on LinkedIn. So that's more directly about
the journey that we're doing. But, you know, we'd love more engagement from an American
audience. Absolutely. So any engagement from American friends who are thrashing it. Well,
they're not thrashing us in the Olympics, but they're, you know, they're doing pretty well.
You know, that'd be great. Any, no, I think you've been very thorough and
very detailed in your questions. I can't think of any more questions that you haven't asked.
Well, that's awesome. Well, those of you listening in, if you have questions, don't hesitate to drop
those in the comments. We'll make sure that Fiona gets access to those. I mean, we'll do our best
to answer as well. And of course, you know, if you're in a position to contribute to this,
it's going to be money well used. We've got to educate this world. We've got 8 billion people
out there who need our help. And Fiona's going about and finding the people who are not even on
the map. As you guys saw earlier, as we were trying to look at, well, what's going on in these remote
places? And they're using wheelbarrows to get these books, you know, into the hands of these kids that
likely crave that information. What percentage of those islands have access to the internet?
Do you know? I don't know the exact answer to that. I mean, it's interesting even in the,
I don't want to use the word impoverished, even in the most under-resourced communities,
everyone has a phone. It may not be a smartphone. It might be like a Nokia phone. They may not have
network, but they might have somewhere where they can go once a week in the island to access it.
Percentage that have access to the, I couldn't tell the exact percentage. I mean,
in the mainland, there is internet connectivity. That's one thing, but then, you know, the school
probably doesn't have computers or they might have old computers or...
And there's the cost of electricity that we forget about too, that's associated with that.
There's so many obstacles that exist there. And then there's the value of books and having
your books. And, you know, I think of the boy who harnessed the wind. You know, that's, if you
haven't read that book, my friends, take time to listen to it or learn the story or watch the
Netflix movie at least. But this is about a kid in a remote place who's trying to get the
power. This is about a kid in a remote village in Africa that learned about electricity, became
fascinated by it, the books in his library, and ended up creating a windmill that generated
electricity and eventually found his way over to MIT and is now able to help different villages
in Africa. And all that came about by whoever it was that prioritized having a library in his
little town, right? And that's what Fiona's up to. We have the opportunity to get back to that.
Those of you who want to, down below, you will see the action steps of how you can take action
and help out with the Fiji Book Drive, how to connect to Fiona. If you're looking for a stage
presenter as well, I highly recommend Fiona. She's been an absolute blast to talk to. And the
tangibility, right? The resources she has to showcase the work that she's done is just
absolutely awesome. And in addition to the resources that are down below, there is one more
resource that's in the top right corner. It says, be our guest. If you have a vision, if you're out
there trying to make something happen, whether you're delivering your first book or you're on
your 300,000th book like Fiona, we'd love to hear about how you plan on helping the world and what
types of visions you want to bring to fruition. As long as it is something that is giving back
and serving and helping others, we'd love to hear about it on our show. So we thank you all for
tuning in today. Fiona, thanks for being my guest. This was an absolute pleasure.
Fiona Rundell Thank you so much, Jackson. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Jackson Hickman Absolutely. We look forward to having you back in the future.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get
more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to
participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time