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initiative and what areas of Fiji have you been focused on lately?

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Well, this particular areas of Fiji we've been focused on lately,

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well, we always do top-up donations, but the main island is called Viti Levu.

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So we're primarily focused on there and then the seventh biggest island is called Tavaiuni.

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So there are some schools we had to finish up there, but I'm glad to ask that question

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because we've just packed up a shipment and it's 57,000 books or a smidge over 57,000.

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And so that 44 schools will be helping by the time they collect them.

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So yeah, we feel pretty good about that. It's a gargantuan effort.

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And what was the other part of the question is what books am I reading? Was that it?

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Yeah. So I'm not from Fiji, so I don't think through these things,

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but you're like, wow, you got all these islands to get library books to in order to help these

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children and that's y'all's focus. You mentioned some of the larger islands.

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Yeah. Let's just dive into this logistically.

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Yeah. So there's over 300 islands in Fiji. So the logistics, even in...

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So the biggest island, you can see there Viti Levu where it says Suva.

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There's a lot of touristy stuff there and modern infrastructure,

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but if you go right into where it says Fiji and the map, so in the interior of Fiji,

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some of these schools don't have roads to them. And yet three hours away, there's the Sheraton,

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the Radisson Blue. It's almost astonishing.

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So are these the islands that I have on my screen? These ones out here to the right,

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are they also part of Fiji? They are. So it goes right down almost to Tonga.

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So it's... Where's Tonga? Tonga is... There we are. All the way over here.

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Yeah. So there are Fijian islands that are closer to Tonga than they are to the main island of Fiji.

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I had to click one and see what's there. Yeah, do it.

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Just interesting to see what's... Okay. So you got a little church on this island that's mapped out.

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Let's look at the satellite real quick. Yeah. So every island, every village will pretty much

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have a church. That's a given. I just found the super secret building.

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That's probably people playing around with Google, but...

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I'm not sure what that is. Wow.

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Yeah. You can see it's quite sparsely populated. Right.

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And 57,000 books. Over what time period? So I mean, we've been... So it usually takes

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six sessions to pack up a whole shipment of books. And we usually do that with groups of

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school students. So the first group packed, we had two sessions in November, then we had one in May,

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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

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days, virtually over two weeks. It's just so punishing on the body, Jackson, because you are

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lifting boxes of heavy, heavy books. I'm the boss in charge of 25 students and their teachers.

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And you're very aware that there's dangerous equipment in a warehouse, but also no one works

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harder than the boss, right? The boss isn't there scrolling through Instagram. The boss is... So I'm...

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I guess I would say I'm a loving, but I'm not a drill sergeant. That doesn't work with volunteers,

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but I'm pretty good at keeping them on track and on pace, because the job needs to get done.

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The harder they work, the more kids we help. And I spill that out to them. And I...

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I've moved a lot. And the boxes that I dread the most are the books, right? It's like, oh my gosh,

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like not that box. And that's all you're doing is books and boxes of books. So that's... That is

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incredible what you're doing for these kids. Thank you. Well, I mean, it's... And it's very

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heavy work, but it's not just that. It's like the mental load of... I mean, I'm pretty good at...

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Because I used to be a teacher managing groups of students and whatever, but you might have

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groups... They're grouped in groups of four and each group is doing a different task.

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And they want to do it 100% correctly. And so, you know, I'm getting peppered with questions.

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So I'm walking so fast, I'm practically running. Like you're just on the double, but you know,

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you've only got the volunteers for a certain amount of time and they have to... So like in a

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really, really good packing session, they'll pack up about 15,000 books. And it's roughly a

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thousand books of school, because you've got to give the school what they can mean. See the photo

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there, the Fijian guy with the wheelbarrow up the top. Absolutely. Yeah, they're books in the

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vernacular, which means books in the dialect that we have to buy in Fiji. And that photo shows the

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lengths we go. So we usually don't deliver books, but we delivered those. And then they go in a small

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punt, like a fiberglass boat, open topped. And, you know, they're propped up on life jackets and

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I'm wrapping them in garbage bags because no one cares more about the books than me. And that

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shows the links we go to. And then if you scroll up a bit, Jackson, you can see my daughter in the

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scoop of an excavator. And that shows that that was genuine. I also got a ride in the scoop of

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the excavator, as did my operations manager. That shows what some of the terrain is like. Like we

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are talking hardcore adventure stuff. I've been waded up to mud, up to the top of my chest,

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you know, in an open top boat with spray going in my face. Yeah, it's pretty wild. It's a wild ride.

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That's incredible. Yes, it is. And I'm so grateful you don't, Vinda. I'm going to continue to show

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this. You've got a tenacity about you, a diligence and a mission that you're on to really help people

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in a way that these people wouldn't receive the help if somebody wasn't, you know, doing this,

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wasn't willing to go and do this hard work. So what are three resources that you recommend for

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other visionary leaders out there? Three resources. Well, you need a strong support network. I think

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you need a spouse slash life partner that backs you unconditionally and is on the same page.

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Because in the early days, you need a sounding board. So you need a strong support network and

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particularly with your other half, that'd be the first thing I would say. The second thing I would

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say is you need to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. And what I mean by that is, I mean,

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what is an entrepreneurial mindset? I guess it's a willingness to solve problems mixed with a

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creativity and kind of innovative mindset. And then a willingness to ask others and then just a

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tenacity because there's so many obstacles. It really is like a nonstop obstacle course.

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So for like for the entrepreneurial mindset, I think I just developed that myself naturally,

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but I did do a social entrepreneurship course at INSEAD. So to your listeners that might not be

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familiar with INSEAD, it's like Harvard or Yale. So they call it Business School for the World.

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And it started in Fontainebleau in France as a campus in Doha, one in Singapore. So I went to

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their Singapore campus and was lucky enough to win a scholarship to attend their social

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entrepreneurship course. And honestly, Jackson, the people in that room, I have never been in a room

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full of more high achieving freaks of nature in my life. I was the only one without an MBA for one.

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One lady developed like an iPad or a tablet for blind people. So Braille on a tablet. Another

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lady invented a bionic arm. Yeah, one guy, a Nepalese guy, works with the scheduled cast. So the

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lowest, most discriminated against cast, getting women to be job fit. So incredible, incredible

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people. So that was a lot about social impact, entrepreneurial mindset. That's the thing, the

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course at INSEAD. And the third thing I would say is just the absolute unwavering belief in what

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you're doing and therefore to keep on learning, keep improving, keep trying to refine your skills

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and refine what you have. So I mean, your biggest resource is yourself. So you've got to make

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yourself strong and keep yourself refreshed. And I mean, one thing I do Jackson is it's not like I

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get up at seven o'clock in the morning or six o'clock in the morning and I'm typing away. Like in

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terms of emails and sitting at a desk, well, I've actually don't sit at a desk. I mostly sit on a

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roller and very naughty doing my emails on my phone. But there's a lot of thinking time is

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required. And for the best result, generally my day needs to have breaks in between for ideas to

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come. And it's usually on a walk or in the shower or doing exercise. It's like you're to be constantly

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sort of creating and pro-acting. You need space in between. Otherwise you're just reacting.

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Wow. That's incredible. And you shared two, I'm going to ask for one more resource. You just have

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so much depth, Fiona, that I just can't miss the opportunity. You mentioned strong support

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and the other half of the equation. I'm a single father of four. And so I'm looking at like,

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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

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answer, but if there was a resource you could share with me to look into in order to become the

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man who attracts that other half or whatever it is I missed in life to find that, what would it be?

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What would be one resource I should look at? Well, I personally, I mean, I've never done dating

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apps. I personally wouldn't go down that route. Very good. Very good. I just feel like it's, I feel

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like by swiping and basing things on a little bit of information, the way someone looks, I don't feel

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like it gives you the secret source that an actual human to human interaction gives you. I think

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going to, I mean, if it was me, going to things with other like-minded people.

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But what about preparing yourself? What did you do to prepare yourself?

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Because I think sometimes we look externally, right? We look for the person to be the solution

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rather than trying to figure out what do we need to do on our end. So what'd you do for yourself?

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For myself? Well, I mean, I was, it's not like when I started, I was the person that I am now. I was

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much more tentative, taking risks and whatever. I mean, I do tons of things like I meditate,

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I exercise, every day I'll read an article from Harvard Business Review. I read lots of articles

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on leadership. I speak to people pretty high up in business. Those are awesome. You just gave me a

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ton. You gave us all a ton. Those are the things I'm looking for there. The intangibles that

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sometimes get overlooked. And it's always fascinating to me that the people that I interview

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who are successful and who've done amazing things, almost all have those same principles.

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But I don't want to overlook it or take that for granted. I don't want people to think that

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those things don't exist because some people, they don't see it. They don't see those core values

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of meditation, of exercise and self-discipline, self-care. So that was awesome. We're going to

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take a short break. Everybody will be right back and we're going to dive into Fiona Lou's vision for

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Fiji Book Drive and her life and just soak in everything that we can. I'll be right back

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after this break. All right. Welcome in to Vision Pros Live with Jackson Callum. I'm your show host.

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We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building

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fantastic visions out there. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome in to another episode of

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Vision Pros Live. I'm your show host, Jackson Callum, founder and CEO of First Class Business.

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And I am so excited to have Fiona Luth on the stage today. We're talking about the founder and

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CEO of Fiji Book Drive. And we just talked about a shipment of 57,000 books being given. And

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Fiji, I think about this paradisical island that is perfect and everybody probably has everything

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that they want. I don't think about the reality that there's 300 islands as part of that chain

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of islands and all these schools that exist on the individual islands and kids that don't have

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reading materials. And then here's a warrior hero such as Fiona gathering books and striving to get

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those books to these remote locations so that those kids can have the same types of opportunities

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and access to opportunities and knowledge that the rest of us perhaps take for granted. So very

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excited to dive in with her. Before I dive in and we explore that vision though, we always want to

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give even more resources to you and opportunities that are out there. So first things first, I want

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to talk about Dave Morrow from the Hard to Kill podcast, hardtokill.org. Dave's helping 100,000

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veterans lose 2 million pounds collectively. He's got an award-winning podcast. He'll be at the

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Military Influencer Expo in Georgia coming up in a couple of weeks. And he also has the world's

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easiest workout plan. One thing I love about what he's up to is he's very pragmatic in his approach

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to working out and doing the little things. He's also very aware of quotes like Socrates quote of,

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I don't remember the exact quote, but when he talked about Socrates talked about our civic

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duty of taking care of ourselves and putting ourselves in the best shape that we can. And

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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

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best self. So definitely check out what he's up to. If you know any veterans, I highly recommend

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sending them Dave's Way as well. Then there's Magic's Productions with Peyton Childers. In fact,

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what you're looking at right now is our event, First Class Networking. Peyton was on the production

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crew of the Sam Houston University Championship football team, also on the Texas Rangers champion

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team in terms of video production. His hospitality skills are incredible. What he did was he was

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allowed, he allowed us to create B-roll from different angles from, that means footage from

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different angles from that event. We were mic'd up as well. We can use that content so many different

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ways in addition to his live stream. So if you're looking for a tech guru that also is big into

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AV for your event or for your podcast, I highly recommend seeing what Peyton is up to. Then there

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is the Water Project. I have never been thirsty in my life. I mean, I've never been without water,

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always had access to something. So when it came across my radar that there's people out there who

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don't have access to clean drinking water and who have to leave school or leave work in order to

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gain access to it, I became really impressed with what the Water Project was doing and how they're

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helping people gain access to water. And I saw this picture of these kids celebrating water like my

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kids celebrate Christmas Day. I was like, man, if there's a cause I'm going to talk about,

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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

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pick the community that you support. And once you can pick that community and you see it get funded,

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you actually get to see the transformation. They'll send you picture proof that what you donated to

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actually came to existence and how they go about creating these borehole wells or these sand dam

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projects. And so if you're in a position to give back, then please definitely consider the

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opportunity with the Water Project. And while we're at it, let's also make sure to consider

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getting involved with the Fiji Book Drive and seeing what we can do to support Fiona and her

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efforts. So without further ado, I'll bring her back on stage and Fiona, welcome to Vision Pros

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Live. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Fiona, what is your vision for those of you who serve

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books, you know, ending up in the hands of children and adults, I'm assuming as well

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on these islands. What do you foresee happening because of these efforts?

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Well, what I do see happening and I see it right now is so a lot of teachers are referring to

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our Workers Nation building and I completely see that that's that is what is happening. So

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once this next shipment is in the hands of the Fijian schools and whatever, it'll be 238 schools

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we will have helped, which is pretty good for a small not-for-profit. We're like the mouse that

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roared. So what's my vision? What do I see? I see us, I don't want us to help all the schools in

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Fiji because they have Fiji Library Service and I never ever, you never want to disable, like you

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want the country to do as much as it can for itself rather than relying on someone from, you

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know, a wealthy developed country like Australia. But they need our help. So working in conjunction

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with Fiji Library Service, delivering the best possible service, you know, the more money we

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have, the more we can refine our processes. So paying one of our employees like a full-time wage

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in Fiji so he can go around talking more about literacy boosting strategies, which we do, and

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having enough money in the bank account to buy every school, books in the vernacular. So books in

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the dialect, dialect, books in their first or second language, which that reflects Fijian life

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because children have to read in their first language first. Even though old schooling in Fiji

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is compulsorily in English, to learn to read in your second or third language when you don't

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really have books in the home or in your community is a very, it's a big ask, it's a significant ask

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and really we need to have, you know, more books in the vernacular. So that's really my

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vision, speaking on more panels, that sort of thing, getting paid for consultancy. But

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for those who I serve, I see more of the same and just deeper impact, more money to deepen our impact.

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That's amazing. So and we did start to touch on that a little bit towards the end there. I'm curious

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about your vision for you. Are you going to be the Fiji superhero forever or is there also a

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potential for a Madagascar trip or a Canary Islands expansion? What does that look like?

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Yeah, I think, I mean, I don't know how long it's forever. Certainly for quite some time,

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I can't see myself doing anything else. And I mean, you know, we're still growing and like

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like I said, you know, we're small. So we're working towards me taking a wage. So I haven't

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taken a wage for 13 years on this. So I'm not sure that anyone would even take it over unless they

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got a wage. But so I see that developing. I see me getting paid more and more for public speaking,

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which is happening already, and consultancy because everyone hits you up. They want your advice on

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sending booked to Zimbabwe or whatever. They want your intellectual property, and I'm now

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going to charge that like I've actually given away too much for free. So my vision is me getting

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paid more for consultancy stuff and public speaking and further refining what we're doing. So

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that's really it. I mean, I think, you know, investing in children, like nobody can argue

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with investing in children's education and improving literacy, like it's kind of impossible to

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dispute it. I mean, the only wild wacky thing people have said is, oh, what about everything

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goes online? And you're like, wow, you really don't understand the context if that's your comment,

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like, and in addition to which even in rural areas, like, you know, I think it's a really

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resource countries, children still learn to read on an old fashioned book. Yep. Even if all that

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they take home their work on an iPad or laptop or whatever, they still learn to read from a book.

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Yes, it is. There's so much nuance around that. And it's interesting when people who don't have

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kids like to give advice or run policy for people who do have kids. There's the

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reality and then there's the desire for people to control. So I won't touch that too much,

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but I did have an interview today with somebody I needed to cancel for the sake of because of my

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relationship with my four kids as a single father and the individual, you know, their response was,

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well, I wish somebody from your team had told me in advance, you know, and I'm thinking like,

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well, no, that would have been nice had they all known, right, that this happened. But

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when people don't have kids, they can't necessarily relate to the reality of what it looks like. So

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I'm with you. Books are incredibly important and a huge value for the education. The internet

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certainly can help in some regards. The intellectual property you talk about, I want to talk about

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that side of your vision, because everybody on earth, to me, in my opinion, we should all get

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abundantly compensated for what we're able to provide in the world. And here comes Greg

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Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea, one of my favorite stories about a philanthropist. And he's got a

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board member that decided to come out with another publication. The publication was called Three Cups

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of Deceit. And he starts tarnishing Greg's reputation with the CAI Institute and how he's

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building girl schools and all that. And again, I'm not an investigator, so I don't dive into

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either side. But I'm like, man, any board member could get hurt at any time by feeling like, well,

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they don't respect my authority or they don't respect my ideas. And then comes out and attacks

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what this guy's up to to help in the world. How do you balance personal ambition, personal success,

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and this drive and desire to do good in the world, in a world that wants to tear people down?

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Where do we go with that? How do you balance that? I mean, well, first of all, I mean, I don't know

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to do what I do that there is any balance. I think you actually have to be obsessive.

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And I mean, you know, to build something up from scratch that, you know, is basically two different

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entities because you've got the Australian side of things and the Fiji side of things,

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you've got to be obsessive. There's like a huge amount of detail. But how do you balance that with

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a world that wants to tear people down? Well, I mean, I think the lucky thing for me and what I'm

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doing is if you're doing good, one thing I've learned, and people are inspired by that, it

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magnetises an incredibly reaffirming, incredible bunch of people to you. And through doing this

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work, I've just met the best people of my life, no question, in Fiji and in Melbourne, you know,

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busy CEOs that will give me half an hour of their time, people that just unconditionally back what

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you're doing. So I think if you are doing real good, and people can see that, and maybe they

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don't have the time or the energy to do that themselves, then they're not going to be able to

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then they will help you and that feeds you. But I mean, certainly being a change maker,

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it's an interesting point. It's a harder road. It is. It's brutal. So, and it does come at a cost.

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You know, people sometimes say to me, you know, they might see all the success and, you know,

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the Instagram story or when I'm speaking at a lunch, they don't see the heartbreak. They don't

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see the sleep of the night. It's like, it's about 95% grind. Yeah. You know, how do you balance that?

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First of all, I don't know if you can be balanced, but I think you can insulate yourself somewhat if

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what you're doing, if it speaks for itself, then good people will come to you and they'll help you.

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Yes, I love that. And I think that one of the challenges is being willing to focus on that.

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Oh, I'm right. It's instead of focusing on the grind, focusing on the impact. This is 194 schools

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since 2012. That number has gone up, hasn't it? And that number is 291,000. It's now 330. Wait a

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sec. What's the math? Yeah. 338,000, something like that. Whoo. That's awesome. You're on fire.

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All right. So for, you know, entrepreneurs out there, again, life's not always peachy and rosy

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and perfect. There is a grind, there's a hustle, there's a diligence, and it really depends on

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what we're called to do, you know, as well, right? If the people that we're trying to help, like the

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water project, you know, trying to reach people who might die if they don't get the water they need.

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Yeah. I mean, I can understand that the grind's needed. What is, out of all your experiences,

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the worst leadership experience that you've ever had? Yeah. I mean, I've had a few, but probably

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the worst when people are unethical or basically completely lacking in compassion. So I had one

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experience. So being a book charity, we send about, you know, between 50 and 60,000 books a year on

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average. That might mean we sort through 80 or 90,000 books. So we need a huge amount of storage.

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And we had a partnership with a very, very well-known Australian storage company.

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And it was absolutely amazing, this partnership. And there were 26 drop-off points in Victoria,

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the state where I am. So really convenient for most people. And they sent around an email saying,

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I'm paraphrasing, we're really kind. We're a great company. But now all our charity partners,

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we're going to charge them 50% of retail. So no charity can suddenly come up with that money out

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of the blue. So it's a way of knocking you out. Yeah. And I read that email and I thought, no,

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we're so safe in the partnership that doesn't apply to us. So they had you pro bono originally,

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and now they've put it at 50%. That's a massive hike. So no charity can do that. And so I appealed

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to the CEO. I wrote the best letter I've written in my life. Got a lot of friends to look at it.

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Got it delivered by courier. So he had to sign it. So it was a handwritten letter explaining what

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we're doing, explaining how the end of this partnership was absolutely catastrophic and how

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thousands of children would not have access to books if we didn't have someone to store them.

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The CEO in the short term didn't reply to me. He handballed that to the state manager who texted

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me and said, let her receive status the same. And then I had a phone call with that state manager

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who must've thought ending a partnership was like ripping off a band-aid. You just do it hard and

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fast. And it was brutal. Anyway, it was just so brutal. And anyway, then I spoke to him about 10

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days later when I called out and I said, I'm going to give you some feedback on that. That was

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possibly, that could not have been handled any worse. And he said, yeah, I take that on board.

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And so that was, it was just brutal to learn that an Australian stock exchange listed company

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could do that. It was just, and when I felt that I was not surprised at all. And I was like, wow,

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yeah. So that, and that took me a long time to get over that because I was like, how do we pick up

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from that? It's pretty hard to get, like that partnership might've been worth, if you were to

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tally it up, could be maybe, I don't know, 70,000 Australian dollars. How do you get that pro bono

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warehouse space again? I knew it was out there, but in a way COVID was a little bit of a lucky

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thing for us. So we just, we had to send around emails to all our donors. And then, you know,

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all those librarians had packed up and some of them got pretty ticked off. And so we, volunteers

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ended up having books in their house and we used the top of a well-known hotel to store the books.

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And eventually after about a year, we got some pro bono storage, which was amazing. But yeah,

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that was my worst leadership experience ever. It was, it was just brutal and the lack of care

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and the extraordinary thing was, so these charities, the other charities they helped,

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one was called Men's Health Shed. So it's like men getting together, tinkering away,

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it's a mental health initiative. Another one was a very well-known Melbourne priest called

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Father Bob. He stored homeless people's valuables. And so that had nowhere to go. So, and then the

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irony was the CEO's daughter posted on LinkedIn, oh, mental health, so important, please give to

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Lifeline. I'm like, are you kidding me? You've just like nuked a whole lot of mental health

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charities and like that's the disconnect between the top and the, I just couldn't believe it.

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Right. Well, and I think it's important because this relates to the visionaries and

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entrepreneurs listening in. It doesn't necessarily exist only in the business world.

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It exists only about storage, right? Pro bono storage. This aspect of being

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discompassionate and not being aware of the effect of your actions. I see so many entrepreneurs

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doing this to virtual assistants. I see so many entrepreneurs doing this to their team members,

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where they're severing relationships like on a whim and trying to do what you talked about,

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that just pull it hard and fast, get the bandaid off. And they don't realize the repercussion that

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that has not just on the life of the individual, but on the status of their brand and anybody else

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who has access to seeing what is taking place and happening with that. We've got to exercise more

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humanity and our relationships with people and realize that now there's always a compound effect

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of treating people that way. And yet so many of us feel like, oh, well, I hired them on Fiverr,

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so they're not that important. Or I hired them on Upwork. So it's just a transaction. And we treat

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that situation like we're buying a pair of shoes at Walmart, instead of realizing that there are

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relationships that matter beyond the ultimate decision. So thank you for sharing that. I hope

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people will take that to heart and consider how it may be showing up in their lives more than they

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realize. Let's dive into the opposite side of things. What's the best leadership experience

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that you've ever had?

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Whoa. Well, I mean, there are so many, but I think an ongoing one is literally seeing all the

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people that are part of, let's call it the Fidji Book Drive family. So whether they be board

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members, whether they be volunteers that pack, whether they be people that partner with us,

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I constantly, and I feel like this is no exaggeration, I reckon I get to meet the

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best people in Melbourne consistently. So I think my best leadership experience is ongoing,

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just meeting exceptional people, like people who just want to help, people who want to exercise

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their kindness muscle, because we all want to know that we're good humans. We know, at least here

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in Melbourne, not everybody, but most people, yes, we've got a cost of living crisis, but if you've

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got a roof over your head, clean water, food, we're pretty blessed on a world scale. And people

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know they're privileged and they want to do something to help people that aren't. Like we do

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have this need to be altruistic and compassionate. So I guess for me, the best leadership experience

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is dealing with deeply ethical, compassionate, and also highly accomplished people.

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Awesome. I appreciate you sharing that. That's, it's one of those, you mentioned earlier, we have

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to get into places, into communities and get involved in order to find people who reciprocate

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that. So that's one of the best things I think that we can all do to make sure that we're aligning

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with people who will support us fully on the initiatives that we're after. My next question

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for you, if Fiona, if this was your last interview ever, what powerful lesson can other visionaries

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learn from your experience? Grit. This is a bit of a wild card one, but doing hard, well, the hard

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physical thing I do to increase my physical grit, which I think in turn boosts my mental grit is,

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so I swim in the sea in Melbourne all year round, so including in winter when it's nine degrees,

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and that's icy, that is cold. And I think that's the most powerful thing I've ever done.

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And, you know, I wear a wet suit and whatever, it's still pretty tough. So I think doing hard

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physical things and doing things that make you, whether it be physically uncomfortable or mentally

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uncomfortable, we only grow when we're a bit uncomfortable. So doing things that make us

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uncomfortable, and then we push through and then we go to the next level. So I guess getting

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physically uncomfortable, but also getting mentally uncomfortable in order to grow, that would be my

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first lesson. Another lesson is years ago I read Jack Canfield's book, what's it called? Something

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like The Success Principles or whatever, and something he said which I thought was already

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drilled into me when I was a child, but I've become an absolute stickler for it, is not just

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thanking people, but if people do anything even just a little bit of a proactive thing, or whether

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it's sharing our post or what it linked in, I've written them a handwritten card, and I reckon I've

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built a charity up from scratch, largely due to expressing gratitude. Like I go around saying,

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you know, what's it like running a charity? Well I'd say Vinaka, that's thank you, that's the first

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thing you do. Your people will not do anything for you unless they feel valued, appreciated,

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and you know, like they've done something really worthwhile. So I guess my next point would be

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expressing gratitude and doing it in a highly personal way. So that's why I'm a big fan of the

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handwritten card. What other powerful lessons can you teach?

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You're gonna hose this with all the powerful lessons. This is great. I like it. I want to

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double down on the handwritten thing. I do actually get some of those from people who shows

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I've been on, but it just doesn't hit home. Like it doesn't, because you can see that it's kind of

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like a rush situation. Everybody gets one. You know, it can feel very disingenuine too, but you're

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talking about making sure that the effort that we take to express gratitude is absolutely sincere,

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and I love that. Absolutely, and the way that you do it. So even for every email for people that

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donate, I will get my assistant to look and see if they've donated before, and I'll refer to that.

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I'll look and see what their connection to the charity is, and I'll refer to that. And every

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single interaction like that, I'll personalise it. So if I'm writing a handwritten thank you card,

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I make a point of pointing out three things that they did well. So for example, in early June,

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I spoke at my old school, which is absolutely wonderful. The principal wasn't there to see me

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speak, but I wrote her a card detailing every single thing the school did right, like courting

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me as an alumni. And I made a point, someone who wouldn't normally get thanked, who's like an events

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manager at the school, so not a teacher, not necessarily going to get Christmas presents from

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parents and whatever, and really highlighting how welcoming she was. And I went straight to the

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boss of that handwritten card. That's awesome. It reminds me, I got to give a huge shout out now

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to Ashton of Minds Eye Creative. Ashton does these workflows, like sketch workflows, and she

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teaches people how to do this. And so I got a thank you card from her about being on my show.

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And while she was on the show teaching us how to do this, she was making her own version of what she

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does, her little sketches. And so she ended up sending those to me as a means of saying thank

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you for being on the show. And it's like, yeah, no, I keep that front and center at this point,

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because of how awesome that was. This is somebody who did that for Steve Wozniak, by the way, of

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Apple. She's very, very good at teaching how to make your notes in illustration format so that

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you remember what to do with them. But it's that type of discipline, that type of care

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that is often overlooked and underappreciated in the world. But when we dedicate ourselves to

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showing up for people like that, it creates something unforgettable and majestic in nature.

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Not to romanticize it too much, but thank you for diving in on that. Let's hear about,

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let's just dive in a little bit deeper. We don't have too many minutes left, but I'd love to know

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anything more about how can we support you on VG Book Drive? What type of messages do you want

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to share for the rest of the time? If there's any question I didn't ask that I should be asking,

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Fiona, this is the time to say Jackson, let's dive into this.

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Thanks, Jackson. Well, I mean, I would love for people to follow us on Instagram,

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Fiji Book Drive. That's an easy thing. I mean, lead the way, you keep going.

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Yeah, they can check out our website, www.fibgbookdrive.org. I mean, I think it's,

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you know, yeah, people can check us out. What else? I mean, if, you know, if they're feeling

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particularly generous, they can donate money, they can talk about what they're doing, they can

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listen to any of the podcasts on Fiona Luth on LinkedIn. So that's more directly about

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the journey that we're doing. But, you know, we'd love more engagement from an American

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audience. Absolutely. So any engagement from American friends who are thrashing it. Well,

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they're not thrashing us in the Olympics, but they're, you know, they're doing pretty well.

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You know, that'd be great. Any, no, I think you've been very thorough and

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very detailed in your questions. I can't think of any more questions that you haven't asked.

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Well, that's awesome. Well, those of you listening in, if you have questions, don't hesitate to drop

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those in the comments. We'll make sure that Fiona gets access to those. I mean, we'll do our best

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to answer as well. And of course, you know, if you're in a position to contribute to this,

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it's going to be money well used. We've got to educate this world. We've got 8 billion people

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out there who need our help. And Fiona's going about and finding the people who are not even on

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the map. As you guys saw earlier, as we were trying to look at, well, what's going on in these remote

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places? And they're using wheelbarrows to get these books, you know, into the hands of these kids that

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likely crave that information. What percentage of those islands have access to the internet?

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Do you know? I don't know the exact answer to that. I mean, it's interesting even in the,

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I don't want to use the word impoverished, even in the most under-resourced communities,

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everyone has a phone. It may not be a smartphone. It might be like a Nokia phone. They may not have

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network, but they might have somewhere where they can go once a week in the island to access it.

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Percentage that have access to the, I couldn't tell the exact percentage. I mean,

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in the mainland, there is internet connectivity. That's one thing, but then, you know, the school

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probably doesn't have computers or they might have old computers or...

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And there's the cost of electricity that we forget about too, that's associated with that.

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There's so many obstacles that exist there. And then there's the value of books and having

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your books. And, you know, I think of the boy who harnessed the wind. You know, that's, if you

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haven't read that book, my friends, take time to listen to it or learn the story or watch the

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Netflix movie at least. But this is about a kid in a remote place who's trying to get the

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power. This is about a kid in a remote village in Africa that learned about electricity, became

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fascinated by it, the books in his library, and ended up creating a windmill that generated

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electricity and eventually found his way over to MIT and is now able to help different villages

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in Africa. And all that came about by whoever it was that prioritized having a library in his

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little town, right? And that's what Fiona's up to. We have the opportunity to get back to that.

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Those of you who want to, down below, you will see the action steps of how you can take action

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and help out with the Fiji Book Drive, how to connect to Fiona. If you're looking for a stage

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presenter as well, I highly recommend Fiona. She's been an absolute blast to talk to. And the

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tangibility, right? The resources she has to showcase the work that she's done is just

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absolutely awesome. And in addition to the resources that are down below, there is one more

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resource that's in the top right corner. It says, be our guest. If you have a vision, if you're out

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there trying to make something happen, whether you're delivering your first book or you're on

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your 300,000th book like Fiona, we'd love to hear about how you plan on helping the world and what

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types of visions you want to bring to fruition. As long as it is something that is giving back

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and serving and helping others, we'd love to hear about it on our show. So we thank you all for

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tuning in today. Fiona, thanks for being my guest. This was an absolute pleasure.

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Fiona Rundell Thank you so much, Jackson. I really appreciate the opportunity.

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Jackson Hickman Absolutely. We look forward to having you back in the future.

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Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking

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forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get

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more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to

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participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time