Tell me about your vision.
Well, first of all, thanks for having me. But it's probably easiest to start with our foundation. You know, we donate
100% of everything we do, both on the coaching side and book sales, journal sales, course sales, etc., to our
foundation, Send a Student Leader Abroad. And our goal, I sold my business a couple years ago. My life's ambition for,
I call it Phase 2, is to send 1 million kids on life-changing trips. And they're, think middle school kids that go to
Europe in the summer. And we're partnered with EF Tours, who is an amazing $7 billion company, but they've treated us
like absolute gold. And we're partnered with them to facilitate the trips. But ultimately, it's kids that couldn't
afford something like that. And the idea is to send them on a trip that they wouldn't be able to afford so that they can
understand that there is no them, there's only us. And that the other 7, 8 billion people in the world want the exact
same things they do. And what they look like and what they sound like and what they do isn't a real thing once you leave
your bubble. And we want them to have that experience that they might not otherwise have, and then bring that back to a
community that is not having those conversations. And our hope is that the ripple effect from that is massive.
So in a few words, what would your vision be if you have a statement for it?
That everyone understands that we are all one human family. That's awesome. Where did this vision come from, Rodrik?
I was that kid. I was 13 years old and grew up poor and would never have been able to afford a trip like that and can
distinctly remember hearing my mom and dad argue about it at the kitchen table that was 10 feet from my bedroom. And
ultimately, mom won, spent money she didn't have to send me on that trip. And it, without a doubt, changed my trajectory,
not just as a business person, but as a human being. And it inspired my love for travel. It taught me empathy and it
taught me resilience and it taught me things that only travel can teach someone. And since then, I've been to 65
countries on six continents. And I did all that while building my businesses. So while my primary work is in coaching and
teaching others how to reclaim their time, sanity and profits, my passion is to help other kids that were just like me
understand both what's possible and what the world really looks like when you step outside your local area.
How did you get started on that path?
The entrepreneurial path?
Yeah.
I mean, born and bred entrepreneur. I grew up with nothing. So I learned really early on that if I wanted a Nintendo or a
bike or new shoes for school, I was going to have to figure out how to earn that money. And that started with mowing
lawns and washing cars and collecting golf balls to sell back to the golfers on the weekends. And by the time I was 18, I
had my first two legitimate companies. And fast forward to 42 years old, I had, you know, a dozen different companies over a
variety of industries and was fortunate enough to exit one. And they gave me a lot of runway to be able to put these ideas in
place.
And when did this idea of you helping kids come to fruition? And when how did that take place? I know the I know because
you went on trips, you want others to go on the trip. So how did that start?
Honestly, the so when I sold, sold the business, I took a few months off, I was in Thailand, actually, when all of these
ideas came about. But that's the book Million Dollar Flip Flops. That's where that idea started. And then I've always
given a lot, whether it's time or money to different charities and organizations, mostly when I was in Charlotte, but
Habitat for Humanity and the shelters and those kind of things. And so I knew when we did the next thing that we wanted
to, so you know, all the profits from the book are donated, all the profits from that whole side of the business are
donated. So we knew we wanted to go somewhere, but we didn't know where. And we, we honestly searched for a lot of
different charities. And we just didn't quite, it didn't feel right. You know, it's like, Okay, we're gonna give you
guys all this money. What are you gonna do with it? Where's it really gonna go? The same questions we all ask when we
donate, right? And so we said, Well, why can't we start our own? And so we did. And that's, that was really the nuts and
bolts of it. And it's, it's grown into, we have our first pilot program this year with a school in Texas. We had 100
schools apply to be part of the program. And we'll be sending our first kids. They'll be selected by December this
year. So this, this idea that we had on a beach in Thailand, the same time that I was decided to write that book,
they've kind of built concurrently. And it's, it's been an education. It's been, it's been a lot of lessons along the
way about how these things actually operate. And like most things, they look easy on the surface. And they're not once
you dive in, but the end result is worth it.
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 building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.