Leading Radical Change | Scott Harrison

Summary

Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast: Leading Radical Change with Scott Harrison

Release Date: October 3, 2024
Host: Craig Groeschel
Guest: Scott Harrison, Founder and CEO of Charity: water

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1. Introduction

In this inspiring episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast, host Craig Groeschel welcomes Scott Harrison, a transformative leader who shifted from a prosperous nightlife promoter in New York City to spearheading Charity: water, an organization dedicated to providing clean and safe drinking water to over 8 million people worldwide. Scott shares his compelling journey, innovative leadership strategies, and the profound impact of storytelling in driving radical change.

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2. Scott Harrison's Early Career

Scott Harrison begins by recounting his early foray into leadership and entrepreneurship. At 19, he managed a struggling rock band, striving to secure a record deal by promoting shows and negotiating with industry players. His entrepreneurial spirit was evident early on—he borrowed money to buy a leaf blower and started a leaf-blowing business to repay his father (03:31).

Notable Quote:
“At 19, I jumped careers to become a nightclub promoter... working at 40 different clubs in Manhattan.”
— Scott Harrison [04:52]

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3. The Turning Point: From Nightlife to Humanitarian Work

After a decade in the nightclub scene, Scott experienced a profound personal crisis. Despite outward success, he felt emotionally and spiritually bankrupt. Seeking redemption, he sold everything he owned to volunteer as a photojournalist with Mercy Ships in Liberia, paying his way at $500 a month (12:09).

Notable Quote:
“I wanted to radically change my life... start trying to find my way back home to this foundation of morality.”
— Scott Harrison [12:09]

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4. Founding Charity: water and Innovative Models

Scott's firsthand experiences in Liberia revealed the dire need for clean water. Upon returning to New York, he founded Charity: water with a bold mission: to bring clean water to every person on Earth before he dies. Recognizing the skepticism around charitable donations, Scott innovated by ensuring that 100% of public donations directly funded water projects, separating operational costs into a sustainable funding model (22:53).

Notable Quote:
“What if we could promise the public that 100% of whatever we raised would go directly to the construction of a water project...?”
— Scott Harrison [22:53]

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5. The Power of Storytelling

A significant theme in Scott's leadership is the use of powerful storytelling to connect donors with the cause. By sharing authentic, emotional stories of individuals affected by water scarcity, such as the tragic loss of a 13-year-old girl in Ethiopia, Scott transforms abstract statistics into relatable human experiences (29:40).

Notable Quote:
“The story connects... These are real people and you try to bring them to life as a conduit.”
— Scott Harrison [33:08]

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6. Leadership and Team Building

Scott emphasizes the importance of building a passionate and skilled team. In the early days, he sought generalists who were deeply committed to the mission. As Charity: water grew, the organization transitioned to hiring specialists who excelled in their fields, ensuring excellence and mastery in every aspect of the operation (38:45).

Notable Quote:
“I was hiring generalists... passionate about the cause, would work really, really hard, and were values aligned.”
— Scott Harrison [38:25]

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7. Scaling and Innovation Challenges

Scaling Charity: water presented unique challenges. Scott discusses the necessity of constant innovation to overcome growth ceilings, such as shifting from one-time donations to a subscription-based model. This strategic pivot allowed the organization to achieve sustainable growth and continue expanding its impact (41:53).

Notable Quote:
“70% of Americans believe charities waste their money... So I had this crazy idea.”
— Scott Harrison [22:53]

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8. Faith and Secular Nonprofit Leadership

While Scott identifies as a person of faith, he leads a secular nonprofit to ensure inclusivity and broad support. He believes in embodying his values through integrity and service without imposing religious beliefs on others, fostering trust and garnering support from diverse backgrounds (50:45).

Notable Quote:
“I get to live out my theology through my work every day... No one is drinking dirty water.”
— Scott Harrison [51:00]

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9. Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Scott Harrison's journey from nightclub promoter to humanitarian leader underscores the power of vision, storytelling, and innovative thinking in driving meaningful change. His commitment to transparency, excellence, and inclusive leadership offers valuable lessons for leaders across all sectors.

Final Thoughts from Craig Groeschel:
“I hope you're inspired that there may be something in you that's burning right now... attack it with faith, attack it with vision, tell stories well, lead with integrity, and keep getting better.”

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Key Insights:

• Innovative Fundraising: Ensuring 100% of public donations go directly to projects builds trust and reduces donor skepticism.

• Storytelling: Transforming statistics into personal, emotional narratives enhances donor connection and engagement.

• Leadership Style: Balancing visionary ideas with a supportive, values-driven team fosters organizational growth and resilience.

• Faith and Inclusivity: Leading a secular nonprofit while staying true to personal faith can broaden support and impact without alienating stakeholders.

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For those inspired by Scott Harrison’s story and eager to make a difference, Charity: water provides avenues to contribute to the mission of providing clean water globally. Learn more and get involved by visiting Charity: water.

Transcript

[Scott Harrison]

Nobody's drinking your Kool Aid. Nobody is waking. Zero. People are waking up thinking about charity water today or why they would give. So I have to go out to 100% of the people and give them a reason to pay attention to what we're doing.

[Craig Groeschel]

Hey, it's great to have you back for another episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. Today I have an interview that I promise you is going to inspire you and equip you. Before I tell you about the guests, let me just say thank you to.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Those of you that are inviting others.

[Craig Groeschel]

To be a part of our community online. It means the world to me when you post, and if you tag me, our team may repost you. Also, I wanna make sure that you subscribe to this content wherever you consume it. And if you've never written a review or rated the content, please do so. That would be a gift to me. Let me tell you about our interview today. This story is fun.

[Scott Harrison]

It's.

[Craig Groeschel]

It's crazy and so inspirational. My guest is Scott Harrison. If you don't know Scott, he went from being a successful nightclub promoter in New York, one of the best around, to helping provide clean and safe drinking water to more than 8 million people around the world. In 17 years, with a million donors worldwide, his organization has raised almost a billion dollars and funded over 154,000 water projects in 29 countries.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

This guy is fascinating.

[Craig Groeschel]

He's on the Fortune Magazine's list of 40 under 40. He's on Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business. He's the recipient of the Salute to Greatness Humanitarian Award from the King Center. He's also a New York Times bestselling author. His book is called A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World. He's the founder and CEO of charity Water Get Ready. This story is fun. Today's guest is Scott Harrison.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Hey, Scott. Welcome to the podcast.

[Scott Harrison]

Thanks for having me. This will be fun.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah, man. I've been just a massive fan of your work, your heart. You've been one of the most innovative leaders I've seen from a distance, especially in the nonprofit world, making a difference. And so I can't wait to hear a little bit of your story. And the first question that I traditionally ask is, when is the first time that maybe you were a kid, junior high, high school, college, that you recognized that you had leadership gifts?

[Scott Harrison]

I joined a band and I grew my hair down on my shoulders.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Did you play or sing or what did you do?

[Scott Harrison]

I played and I sang. And I had really long hair.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

These photos are what kind of band?

[Scott Harrison]

A rock band. It was kind of the Counting Crows meets Pearl Jam. There were a lot of things wrong with this band, but I became the band's manager, and I was determined to get us a record deal.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

How old were you?

[Scott Harrison]

19. 18. 19. And I got us pretty close. I would book us at the right venues, and there was this one night where we got discovered by the Scorpions playing at the right venue. And then I went up to meet their manager on Park Avenue and was working the whole thing. And these guys just weren't interested in the business. Didn't know a thing about getting a record deal or meeting an A and R agent. And I worked it. I was also a little entrepreneur as a kid. I would borrow money from my dad to go buy a leaf blower, and then I would go knock on doors and charge people to blow their leaves and then pay back the leaf blower. So I had some.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So you were innovating early on. So you said you worked it and give me an idea. So you're 19, you're a band member, and you're still trying to put together a deal. What did you sell? Did you promote? Did you pitch? Did you tell a story? What'd you do?

[Scott Harrison]

You said the word promote, so that's actually what I wound up doing. For 10 years, I had been brought up in a very conservative Christian home. My mom was an invalid after a kind of freak carbon monoxide gas leak in our home. So I was brought up as an only child. Didn't smoke, didn't drink, you know, didn't swear, really. Just toeing the line of church. And at 18, you know, had this classic, really cliche and boring, you know, prodigal son, you know, rebellion act out. So the first thing I did to piss my parents off was to grow my hair down on my shoulders, join this band. And then I realized after we didn't get a record deal that the people who were promoting the bands were the ones making all the money. So I would bring the band, I would bring a bunch of people, and I would get 20 cents on the dollar of what we brought in. So at 19, at the end of 19, I jumped careers to become a nightclub promoter to the horror of my parents, and wound up for the next part of my life working at 40 different clubs in Manhattan.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Wow.

[Scott Harrison]

So that job was promoting. It was creating the sense of scarcity, the sense of I need to be inside this club to be seen by the right people, to spend $25 on a cocktail because then my life has value. And we would put out velvet ropes and we would create one way glass and we would hire the right DJs. And the more people you kept out, the more people wanted to come in and the more you could charge them.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So let's just take that principle and convert it to some of our listeners. Let's say someone's leading a youth group and they want to create the sense of scarcity. So people want to come in, or maybe they've, they've got. They're franchising some kind of a bagel store business and they want to. They want to create kind of demand. What went through your mind then and what have you learned about creating scarcity and drawing interest?

[Scott Harrison]

Well, there are a lot of clubs in New York and it was really about how do we distinguish ourselves from all the rest? How do we become distinctive and exciting and how do we capture people's imagination? How do we get them to talk about the experience of what they've heard we're building and then the actual experience as they come in and how they're treated? So a lot of it was just creativity. And most people weren't trying very hard. They would open up the doors, they would hire a dj, they would turn down the lights and they would sell drinks. I would go get lifeguards to sit on giant lifeguard poles, I guess, and I would get a thousand beach balls and we would create a pool party and we'd tell people to come in their swim trunks. We would create pajama parties and we'd tell everybody to come in their pajamas. So there were these themes to the nights. We would bring DJs in from Paris and pay them a little more because we knew that this would feel extra special and people would more than cover the cost of that expensive DJ and would want to come. So I think it was just a sense of something really exciting is happening here and I can't miss out on.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So I want to hear a little bit about, like, how did, were you good immediately? Did you grow into it? I'm assuming you had to pick up skills along the way.

[Scott Harrison]

You grow into it and it's really about a list. So you build a list and the more people come, the more information you capture, and then the more people you can continue to invite to future clubs. So it's a mix of. In some ways this sounds very pedantic, but like CRM, like you have to manage your database and you have to manage and, and label people correctly. If you're doing a party for Vogue, you know, that's looking for 50 people. You're not emailing the whole list. You need to know which 50 people to bring to that event. If you're trying to fill a field at a festival, it's a very different strategy. So it's both trying to market and promote that event through a sense of excitement and, you know, purple cow kind of, how does this thing stand out? And then being really organized.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So the statement being organized kind of leads me to what I'm trying to figure out. Can you rank in your mind? You're 19, you're 20, you're 21. You're probably one of the best promoters in Manhattan.

[Scott Harrison]

It's probably top eight.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Top eight.

[Scott Harrison]

There were four groups kind of running.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

The whole city, and you're at the top of your field in a competitive environment, how would you rank in your mind? Is it idea first implementation? Is it right, people? Is it organization? Is it culture? Is it strategy?

[Scott Harrison]

100% idea first, idea first. And I think as much.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So there's a vision, there's an idea.

[Scott Harrison]

There'S something futurist idea for us.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And your ideas are weird?

[Scott Harrison]

Really weird? Yes, they've gotten weirder.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

When is weird good and when is weird bad?

[Scott Harrison]

I think weird is normally good. And I think increasingly, as we're all fighting for attention, weird is more valuable than ever before. Boring doesn't work. Run of the mill. The standard story you might put out if you're a nonprofit. Oh, people need our help. We're standing in the gap. Will you join us? That doesn't. I'll just give you an example. I just shot a video. So Jerry, Water. Shooting a whole set of videos that we. We help people get clean water around the world. We work in Africa and India and Asia. I just shot a video with a bunch of kids in a backyard and a slip and slide, and the kid goes to launch himself and everyone's cheering in slow motion and he skids to a halt with a thud and goes, ow. Because there's no water on the slip inside. And it cuts to water. Changes everything. We shot a piece where somebody goes into a diner and orders coffee and the coffee grinds come out. There's no water to brew the coffee Pasta without water. We're shooting a spot where a woman is going to be on a high dive and getting ready for the early morning jump. Kind of adjust the straps of the bathing suit. And as she jumps, the camera pans up and you realize there's no water in the pool. And right before impact, we cut and say water changes everything. 700 million people live without water every day. So I'm always looking for ways to surprise people to get them into our issue. I probably wouldn't use weird as much as intriguing difference. Intriguing, shock, aggressive sometimes.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So if we're going to fast forward through there. So for almost 10 years, promoting, you're having some success. Now you're leading, arguably maybe the most impactful. What would you call it? Water.

[Scott Harrison]

Yeah, we'd be the biggest water charity.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Biggest water charity. Biggest water charity in the world. So that's a pretty big jump from. So what took you from a promoter to helping people get water around the world?

[Scott Harrison]

Well, I mean, act one, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to help other people. I wanted to help my mom, who was sick growing up. And then Act 2 was really playing out this just kind of prodigal son story. You know, the. The sex and the drugs and the girls and the BMW and the Rolex and other people's private planes and just trying to collect all these markers of success that I believed would make me happy. And I got my life to a point where I did have a lot of that. And I had the nice car and the grand piano in my New York apartment, and I was. I was a disaster, Craig. I was emotionally bankrupt. I was spiritually bankrupt. I was morally bankrupt. And while my life looked great on the outside, I was just rotting. I was full of self loathing.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

How many years into it?

[Scott Harrison]

10 years.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And so were you broken at year four or broken at year eight? When did it.

[Scott Harrison]

It was.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Was it slow breaking?

[Scott Harrison]

It was slow and then sudden. You know, that, that realization. That.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

That's a good way to say it. I think a lot of people listening would probably say, yeah, I've been there. It was slow and then sudden.

[Scott Harrison]

It was kind of a decline that was unnoticeable until you realized just how. Well, I'm actually at the pit here. I'm at the very.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So what'd you do when you realized this isn't working?

[Scott Harrison]

I wanted to radically change my life. And I think I realized that a pivot was not in order, that I would need a 180 degree think, say, do the exact opposite and see where that would take me. So I hadn't gone to church in 10 years. I was the least religious guy at all. But I kind of got this idea from growing up. What if I tithed a year? What if I tied time and not money? And if I. If I gave one year in service to others to see If I could be useful.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Interesting.

[Scott Harrison]

I mean, it's not. A nightclub's promoter skills are not immediately portable into the humanitarian sector, at least on the nose.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Scott Harrison]

So I, I have this moment where I, Craig, I sell everything I own. I'm going to start life over at 28, and I'm going to quit smoking and drinking and drugs and, you know, try to find my, my way back home to this found of morality. And I apply to 10 famous humanitarian organizations that I've tangentially heard of. So I apply to World Vision, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, 10 Orgs, and I'm denied as a volunteer by all 10 organizations. As a volunteer, they have no idea what to do with me.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Wow.

[Scott Harrison]

You know, Doctors Without Borders is looking for doctors, not club rats. So I was finally very fortunate that this one organization who is not on the top of the list writes me back and says if I was willing to pay them $500 a month, I could volunteer. And I had to go live in the poorest country in the world, which I'd never even heard of. It was a country called Liberia in West Africa. And I dusted off a journalism degree that I'd gotten at New York University, never used, kind of went from my dad's C minus student and said, hey, I'll be your storyteller. I'll be your photojournalist on this mission. I will pay you $500 and I will go live in Liberia. And everything changed in really in one instance where I walked up the gangway to embark on this 522 foot hospital ship and then sail into Africa with a group of doctors and surgeons who were offering free medical care on people who couldn't afford it. And I quit the smoking and I quit the drinking and I quit the drugs. And I wanted to have this kind of all in cold turkey moment. But I think I very quickly realized I could just promote something radically different that actually had meaning. I could promote the important redemptive, generous work of these doctors and surgeons and I could go back to my same audience, to 15,000 people who had been getting drunk for 10 years and just tell a different story.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And so that's. How did it get from there to charity water?

[Scott Harrison]

Well, I spent a year, I took 50,000 photos that first year and I was writing stories and I was. So this is all for the doctors? All for the doctors, you know, paying. They're billing my credit card every month. And I learned.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And you're still paying to work for them.

[Scott Harrison]

Still paying to work. And what was interesting about my club list was there were. There was an instant kind of rush of unsubscribes. Right. I signed up to go to that amazing Vogue party, not, you know, why is he sending me cleft lips from Africa?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So what percentage of those?

[Scott Harrison]

I'd say about 10,000. 10% of people dumped.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Well, that's not bad. Yeah. And.

[Scott Harrison]

But then the list grew. So then people would share these stories and say, oh, my gosh, did you know that, you know, for $300 you could provide a surgery and somebody would get their face?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Did people think you lost your mind or were they intrigued or how did they respond?

[Scott Harrison]

They were fascinated. You know, here is a guy they had been doing drugs with in a DJ booth who now is in West Africa running around as a photojournalist embedded with facial surgeons in a country with no electricity and no running water and no sewage. That's post war. They were fascinated. And the list began to grow, and people started sending in money to mercy ships. So I think I just. I stumbled into becoming a fundraiser by simply telling stories. I was raising money that was actually important.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And you can. You converted a nightclub list to a humanitarian list. To a humanitarian list. Crazy.

[Scott Harrison]

So then the second year, so I finished the year, and I actually came back to New York City. I put together an exhibition of my photos. At the end of the exhibition, there was a cash register, and it said, sponsor a surgery for $380. And I wound up raising 100 grand through that gallery and went back to Africa for a second year. And it was that second tour. So I was 29 at the time where I remember going into a village and seeing children drink from a green, viscous swamp. And I had never seen humans drink dirty water before. And I learned that half the country was drinking bad water and half the disease in the country was because people were drinking bad water. So I had that kind of eureka moment. Oh, my gosh, here I am with these doctors. We don't have enough doctors. We're turning thousands of sick people away because of capacity. And millions of people are drinking disgusting, toxic, contaminated water. Why is no one working on this issue? Why has no one jumped to the root cause of so much of this sickness? So the end of the second year, I came home and said, I'm 30. I've got a whole, hopefully new career ahead of me. What if I just try to bring clean water to every single person on Earth before I die? And what if I just adopted this simple mission and start.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So I want to just wrap back. So our Audience can track with you. You were successful, but in a totally different field. You had a total 180 degree turn, morally, spiritually. You gave. Not only did you volunteer, but you paid to volunteer. You took your gifts, you transferred it into something else. You turned a list from one purpose to another. You started raising money and you just did it. And I just want to highlight that because I know there are some people out there that may be in a similar place where you were, where it wasn't working and then it really didn't work. And just encourage them that even though you may feel like you're at a dead end right now, you're not. There's way more in you.

[Scott Harrison]

And day one of water. So I come back from two years, I'm completely broke and an old club friend takes me in and allows me to sleep for free on his closet floor. So day one of water. You've got me at 30, can't pay rent, had given all my money to mercy ships and the people that I'd met in Africa. And I'm living in Manhattan on a clock, on a walk in closet floor, with disguise T shirts and suits around me. And I'm going to go and try and bring clean water to every single person in the world before I die. So it felt pretty implausible.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Did people think you're crazy?

[Scott Harrison]

They did, but I think I had such a deep conviction and there was a real power in what I'd seen. So I came back with an eyewitness testimony. I had lived in these villages, I had seen it, I had 50. I could open up a laptop and say, this is how she's 13, this is the water she has been drinking for her whole life and we can solve this problem.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So, Scott, there have been people that knocked on my door. They're passionate about something and I just didn't believe it, didn't buy into it. Or I watch a commercial on TV and they'll tell me these animals are in trouble or these kids are starving. And some stories connect, some don't. Somehow, someway, you seem to create trust. And you're telling me they just believe you, There's a reason they believed you? And what is it about the story? What is it about you? How did you create trust when so many other people care but cannot?

[Scott Harrison]

I think there was such passion. I mean, I was opening up that laptop and I was making 10 to 15 presentations a day. I would go to a restaurant, I would go to a club owner's house, I would go. I remember once there was A dj. I was trying to get involved and I let myself into the DJ booth and while he's playing, I'm clicking through photos of people drinking dirty water saying, this is what I saw, this is what I experienced. You know, you could. You have the power to do something about this. And you know, he's like, okay, okay, I'll give. Can you just get out of the DJ booth? Can we talk about this tomorrow? So there was a. I would persist in some ways until people relented. And then I also got a lot of no's. Not everybody said yes in the beginning. There were people that said, you know, how are you in any way qualified to start? You know, what's your experience? I actually read Non Profits for Dummies. So I didn't know how to hire a lawyer and get a 501C3.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

I'm assuming you didn't know how to drill a well yet.

[Scott Harrison]

I didn't know how to drill a well either. I knew nothing about hydrogeology. I just, you know, there was a problem I saw that was not okay on my watch. I had sold Voss water in nightclubs for $10 a bottle for 10 years. And confronted with the fact that 10% of the planet was drinking disgusting water every day. And I actually could do something about it. I personally could advocate for them and could move money, could move interest. I needed to do it.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So you.

[Scott Harrison]

So there was a. There was a burning passion.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

There's a burning passion, yes.

[Scott Harrison]

And I was working 90 hours a week. I was single. I was living on a closet floor. Like I didn't want to sleep in the closet. The less time I spent in the closet, the better.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So I think there's more to this than what you meant even know because you're so close to it. So what I'm hearing is there is a creativity, there's a genuine broken burden where you're obsessed with this. You're going to grind it out. You're not going to take no for an answer. Keep coming back, but there's still more to it. You brought in the right people or you created a new innovative way for people to give. I've got a lot of listeners right now that care about something like you do and are not having the success. Can you tell me the thing behind the scenes? How do you think differently to create now almost a billion dollars you've raised for charity? Water.

[Scott Harrison]

980 million.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah, 980 million. If we just did it a week later, it might be a billion. So you're gonna hit a Billion dollars in raising. How do you think differently to do that?

[Scott Harrison]

Well, I listened to everyday people and I listened to their objections. So why they weren't giving to charity, why they were distrustful. And you know, at the time, I had the advantage actually of being 30, not knowing anything about institutional philanthropy. So I was unburdened by all that. You know, all of the trappings of this is the way that we do things. When you run a charity, when you run a humanitarian ngo, and my friends worked at Sephora and MTV and Goldman Sachs. So as I was telling them of this passion to get clean water, first of all, there's, there's an awareness problem. People are like, what humans are drinking dirty water. So I would prove to them by what I had seen and what I'd experienced that that was true. And then I said, well, what would stop you from giving? Oh, I don't know where my money's going. I don't know how much. Like, would my money even make a difference? Would it even reach Africa? So objection after objection kept coming in. And I realized, wow, what if I could create a completely different charity that would operate differently, that would think differently, where money would flow differently, they would speak to these objections. Could we get these disenchanted, disenfranchised people back to the table? Could we get them to give? Could we bring the cynic into the house of giving? 70% of Americans believe charities waste their money. So 7 out of 10 potential givers have a story in their mind that the charity is going to be a bad steward of their gift. So I had this crazy idea. What if we could promise the public that 100% of whatever we raised would go directly to the construction of a water project that would help the most marginalized people in the world? And in a separately audited bank account, somehow I would raise all that nasty overhead from a small group of business leaders, I don't know, donors, board members, who wouldn't mind paying for the Epson copy toner or the staff salaries or the office. So that turned out to be a distinctive if you go back to the clubs. We then became competitive over 99.9% of charities in the world, because we were able to tell people, if you have a dollar to give or a million dollars, every single penny will go directly to this cause. And then the second kind of big aha moment was, wow, I've just created a non fungible business model. Let's build technology to prove to people exactly what their money accomplished. So we became the first charity in the World just to geolocate on Google Earth and Google Maps every completed project. And we'd send the satellite images back to a donor so they could see exactly where their money went, where 100% of it went. And nobody was doing this, so it felt like a super charity. To people, this is transparent, it's innovative, it's digital. There's a feedback loop. And it started to grow really, really quickly. Maybe the third pillar was just I wanted to build a beautiful, imaginative, inspiring brand. So I wanted to look at this movement like Nike or Apple or Virgin, you know, the way Branson would look at it, the way Steve Jobs would look at it, the way not using shame and guilt to pedal the wares. But, you know, could we, could we just woo people into the most inspiring cause where they just had to be a part of it. They couldn't miss out on the opportunity of being part of this movement where the whole world gets clean water. Water. Where we realize this day on earth when every human has the most, every child has the most basic need for life met.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Okay, I'm taking notes over here, and I want to pause because people are driving. They'll listen at 1.5 speed and they're going to miss their brilliance when they do that. Here's what you said, just some of the words you said to be a part of this movement. So this isn't just a charity, it's a movement. And that even that word, you were creating motion. And then you talked about the brand. And so most people aren't going to think of. Your website tells a story. You're a walking story. And so you're talking about creating some kind of brand. You used the word, wow, inspiring. Cause they couldn't miss out. The whole world. These are big words, the whole world. This isn't small vision. And so I just kind of want to highlight for our listeners the ingredients we have here. We have a guy that didn't know what he didn't know, which actually became an advantage to you. So you broke some rules, you listened to the objections and you decided to completely, basically obliterate them and design something. Design something that spoke to the objector. Create it. You told a very compelling story and showed the need, listened to their objections, helped them be apart. And then you went and proved with technology, here's exactly where it goes. You eliminated the overhead and so you innovated in a space that was stuck. Traditionally, you stood out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if from a distance, I would say if there is with all that those Systems that are in place. That's how you think differently. Your ability to tell stories is probably the leading story of how you've been able to raise almost a billion dollars for charity water. Can you tell me as a leader how important are stories and how do I tell them?

[Scott Harrison]

Well, well, for us it is penultimate because I'm going to argue that 99.9% of people listening have never experienced this problem. They have never tasted dirty water in their life. The women listening have not walked eight hours carrying 40 pounds of dirty water on your back knowing that you could kill your children with that river water. If we were talking about a cancer charity, 100% of the listeners have been touched by cancer. Friends, loved ones, co workers. So the storytelling is so important because no one, no one listening woke up this morning and went through their routine and said, gosh, I'm so grateful for the clean water that just came out of my refrigerator, the clean water that I washed my kids soccer uniform with in the, in the washer, you know, the coffee that I made with the clean water for my tap. So we, it all starts with this story that, hey, 703 million people did not have that experience. 10% of the world today had a very, very different experience than you because of the situation they were born into, which is extreme water poverty. And you know, the. So, so that's, but then that's a statistic. So that doesn't move anyone. So you're like, okay, great, 700 million people. That's a number I can't even fathom.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Numbers.

[Scott Harrison]

Two Americas full of people. It's 10% of the world, okay, it's 1 in 10. So it's really, you know, if I told the story of a 13 year old girl named Leta Kiroshailu in Ethiopia who was walking every single day for water. And she would walk six hours a day, seven hours a day, and she had this clay pot on her back and she would use a rope and she would fasten it to her shoulders. And she lived on a plateau in this village called Maida. And she would walk all the way down to this ravine. And when she got to the bottom of the ravine, there were a long line of other jugs lined up. So she had to go down and wait because other people had gotten there first. And at the end of one of these journeys, this 13 year old girl walks back up to the village and before she reaches her home, she slips and she falls and she breaks her clay pot and she watches the water she spent all day just seep out into the dust. And in this case she takes the rope and she climbs a tree and she hangs herself. And they find this 13 year old girl's body hanging in the village with a noose around her neck and the broken clay pot on the path. And I actually lived in this village and got to spend time with her family and her friends and saw her burial site and got to walk in her footsteps. That gets people just to connect in a little different way. The image of a teenage girl who was in such desperation because of the situation she found herself in that she would end her own life. And what everybody in the village said is it was shame. It was shame because she had broken the pot, she was coming home empty handed, she had let her family down. Through that clumsiness, she lost hope. She lost hope not to end there. There's a woman in Uganda who got clean water from one of our first projects. And when we sat with her and we said, how is your life different now that you have clean water, that you're not walking anymore? And Helen says, well, yes, I did have to walk. And I would take these two cans of water and it was, my whole day was walking and there was never enough water. I could never carry enough water for my family. And she said every day I would make decisions. Do I cook, do I clean, do I wash my kids bodies, do I wash their uniforms for school, do I garden, do I keep my house clean? She said it was never enough. And as a Ugandan woman, I always put my family first. She said, so I never use the water for myself. And she said now that there's a well in my village, now I can walk feet, I could take all the water that I want. And she says now I am beautiful. And I remember our team is like Helen, of course you're a beautiful Ugandan woman. What do you mean? She says for the first time in my life I have water from my face and my body and my clothes and I feel beautiful. And you know, again, people don't think of water like that. The ability to restore dignity to a sacrific mother who is putting her kids first. And now because somebody wrote a check and there's a well in her village, the lives of 300 people are forever changed. And you have a dignified 65 year old woman who finally feels clean. That's how you bring people in, not through statistics.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Exactly. Those are very emotional stories you could.

[Scott Harrison]

Tell me and there are hundreds of those.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

You could tell me. Hundreds of millions of statistics versus one story.

[Scott Harrison]

And the story Connects and then the photos are important. So I'm my language as photos. We were talking before this started, that we spoke at the same way, same place once. And when I Talk, I'm showing 200 photos. So I show the audience, if I'm on stage, a picture of the tree and the path. And it's a tough picture because it's a frail tree and you imagine kind of being there, it is the actual tree. So there's a truth in that. It's not just a story. It's not a. Let's come up with some sort of formulaic story that makes people feel bad. A picture of her grave, which is a little pile of rocks next to a tiny church. And the priest who gave the funeral is waving at the pile. Helen. I show this picture of this radiant 65 year old woman who is beaming and she has on this green dress and the dress is spotless and her skin looks clean. So I think the truth in the stories really matters, that it's not hyperbole, they're not exaggerated. These are real people and you try to bring them to life as a conduit. I want to help all the Helens in the world get clean water.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So I would say I look up to you, admire you. When you speak, I can see it, I can feel the emotion. And then if I'm listening to this, I may say, okay, Scott, you got it easy, man. You're telling stories about people's lives change. If someone's in banking or someone's scaling up a yogurt business, or they're a realtor, how do stories matter? And what would you say in that case? Do stories matter?

[Scott Harrison]

Absolutely. And I've yet to find a cause where I can't find some idea of where the story would be. If you were working in medical research, let's say if you were working in cancer research, and there's billions of dollars.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Too easy, too easy. We're making tires. Let's go with the tire store.

[Scott Harrison]

I would talk about the values, the history, the first tire, like who started the tire store. What did the cars look back then? What was. Oh my gosh, I'm so interested in. I know nothing about tire making. How do you make a tire? How much rubber do you know that it comes from rubber trees? Where do rubber trees come from? Plantations of rubber trees. There's so many storytelling that you take an inanimate object that we have four on our car, and you imbue it with life, with mystery, with the process, how it actually gets made. What is the Difference between a high quality tire and a low quality tire.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So you could do it. I could hand you a cord and you could make it sound good. Someone who doesn't think like you. Tell me how you think, what goes through your mind, and if we're gonna tell a good story, what are the elements?

[Scott Harrison]

I think I assume that everyone is bored with and they don't have time for anything that we are going to say. So how do we capture their imagination? How do we find that?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Okay, so that right there is. Is we just need to. You assume that everybody's bored.

[Scott Harrison]

Yeah. And that they're not really interested in what I'm gonna say. They're not interested in tires.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So let's just talk about.

[Scott Harrison]

No one is interested in tires.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So I'm a pastor. Would. I assume most people probably don't care about church? Is that where I start?

[Scott Harrison]

I would start there.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Okay. Okay.

[Scott Harrison]

I think that's probably where you did start.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

You're exactly right. But I don't think everybody does. So everybody's bored and you're starting.

[Scott Harrison]

Nobody's drinking your Kool Aid. Nobody is waking zero. People are waking up thinking about charity water today or why they would give. So I have to go out to 100% of the people and give them a reason to pay attention to what we're doing.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So once you have a compelling vision and you've got a story and you've got the heart behind it, systematically, what did you need to do to build charity water? It's not just you raising money. It's not just you telling the story. It's not just you showing photographs. I assume you have a team, Probably a pretty big team.

[Scott Harrison]

Yep.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Who do you need? Who do you hire? What do you look for?

[Scott Harrison]

Well, at the beginning, you know, and I know a lot of people don't like this, but it was just brutal. 80, 90 hours a week. It was an existential risk that we would go bankrupt at any given day. So you are just trying to make sure that the thing can live. And you're always running out of money. And it is. It is. It is terrifying. I was hiring generalists. You know, can you work and can you, you know, go deliver water? Can you drop off checks at the bank? And can you bartend at a cocktail event in New York City that somebody said, you know, I'll give you all the profits from the bar if you can send a bartender. So we were looking for people who were passionate about the cause, would work really, really hard, and. And were values aligned as the organization matured. We pretty quickly went into specialist mode. So when I hired a graphic designer, I didn't want somebody who was passionate about the water. Cause I didn't want somebody. And in fact people would say this in the early days, I love so much, I'll clean the toilets. And we would throw out all those resumes. Then we looked at craft and mastery and excellence. So I wanted a graphic designer to say, I would like to be the best and most competent skilled graphic designer in America. Yeah, I'd like to do that at charity water or oh, how cool that I could actually do that for meaning.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So the mission was primary. Early on you have to have heart for it.

[Scott Harrison]

And later on and just a body would do. I mean, if I thought of that early team, it was a motley crew of interns and volunteers and it was.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Turnover really high early.

[Scott Harrison]

No, no, because they saw this thing.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Grow and so they grew with you.

[Scott Harrison]

And they grew with us. And then some of those people moved into specialization.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So I found a lot of times.

[Scott Harrison]

Those who start and then we outgrew a lot.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Those who start with you don't grow with you.

[Scott Harrison]

You. In the first couple years we, we kept people and then, yeah, some of them would, would move on if we didn't have that specialty position. I think, you know, as a leader, I was always trying to fill in for the stuff I was not good at. Six months ago, I hired a president after a two year search. And I had this really amazing kind of aha, leadership moment seven years ago where I was in Africa with Angela Ahrents. Angela Ahrens is the, she was the CEO of Burberry. She, she got brought over to Apple to lead 60,000 retail employees. And I was sitting with Angela and I said, you know, tell me about leadership. You know, you've got 61,000 employees, tell me how you think about it. And she said, well, I just wake up every day, Scott, and I just think about how to make every single person better. How do I remove blockers, how do I coach and mentor? And I looked at her and I said, I have never had that thought a single day in my life. That is the most unnatural thought. So I realized that early on that I was not a great coach, I was not a great mentor. I was a futurist. I would think about disruptive innovation, I would think about creative ideas. So I was always hiring the people who did care about others, who did want to coach.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

For the futurists out there, what kind of person do they need next to them? Who do you need next to you, for you to be successful.

[Scott Harrison]

Someone who really cares about the team and the people and the culture and their leadership development.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And does someone like you frustrate them all the time?

[Scott Harrison]

I give them a lot of autonomy.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So you're creating ideas. You're probably maybe changing direction some. Do they have to keep up with you? Is it. Do they have to see. I think they have to come seeing.

[Scott Harrison]

That as the superpower, seeing the ability for an organization to be agile and nimble and immediately seize an opportunity and actually shut down some resources over here to do something that was not in the plan, but that could have, you know, outsized impact on revenue or awareness that comes with the territory, because that is always going to happen. That said, you know, I had a business coach many years ago who would say, scott, you got to stop chasing squirrels. So I will understand, you know, that's a squirrel. That's a squirrel. No, that. That's a squirrel we actually need to chase. Because that could lead somewhere that is. Has a disproportionate and outsized positive impact.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Can you tell me, life cycle wise, if we've got the kind of the blast off the launch phase, you're broke, you're working hard, you're taking anybody, you're taking risks. You don't know if you're going to make it. You're going to run out of oxygen. Money is oxygen. And then you kind of hit the what some have called the Whitewater phase, where you're actually growing. It's starting to work. You're shifting now, you're hiring specialists, you're creating some systems. And then you get to a phase that some have called prime or kind of effectiveness. Are you in effectiveness now? Have you tilted over to where you actually lost effectiveness because you've gotten so big? What season are you in right now, organizationally?

[Scott Harrison]

I might think of it a little differently in kind of S curves. So if you look at 18 years or 17 years of water. So we did just the numbers. 2 million first year. 6, 9, 13, 18, 25, 35, 45. So we went from a party opening night where people threw $20 to a $45 million a year very quickly.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And for our listeners, just to you just rattle off the first eight or ten years of numbers. You have to know your numbers. You have to know your numbers.

[Scott Harrison]

I could tell you true. I could tell you KPIs that would surprise a whole lot of people. That I would know. Monthly turn to involuntary traditions.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

You have to know your numbers. Yes.

[Scott Harrison]

Okay, so then we had a Down year. So. So that was a really existential whitewater or the whitewater ended. We were just kind of sitting there in a canoe and the organization hadn't done anything wrong. There were a couple major donors who had really fallen on hard times and just paused their giving in one year. And what I realized was the biggest challenge is we start January 1st at zero. So no matter how hard we worked and how many people we brought in, it was only a one time donation business. And you know, that year, wow, we crushed it. We raised $45 million. We helped over a million people get water. The ticker rolls back to zero. How are we going to do that again? How are we going to work that hard? So it was really this realization that what got us here and in fact the products, the donation products, the marketing stories that got us here would not get us to that next level level. And I wound up shutting down what was one of the most successful business units in the organization, which was this idea of donating your birthday. We'd raised over $100 million in total as people would donate their birthdays to Charity Water shut it down because it was a one time business and we put all of that energy into starting a subscription business. So more of the Netflix model or the Disney plus or. And we had another kind of flat year and then the organization doubled and then doubled again and we went quickly to 100 million in revenue. Now we're stuck at 100 million and we're again in this phase where what got us up to 100 million a year is not going to double the organization. And we are working on some disruptive ideas. Charity Water is opening a retail store. This idea of getting people to exit through the give shop instead of the gift shop. And it's a 45 minute immersive experience where people will put on headsets and they'll watch a well being drilled and they'll walk into an immersive room with a treadmill and they'll walk for water alongside people in different countries to capture their hearts and imagination. And on the way out, here are the ways that you could give. Here's how you could move it forward. So we're trying and testing all of these new things. So there's, I think there's a constant, a deep dissatisfaction, a deep dissatisfaction by how little we've done. A billion dollars, Craig, is a fraction of what I thought we would have accomplished by now. It is a fraction of what we should have accomplished. So while it seems like a lot to others, you know, it's like the top of the second inning or maybe the bottom of the first inning. And the best must be ahead because helping 20 million people get clean water out of 700 million people who are waiting, it's 1 38th. I didn't start this to solve 2.5% of the global problem. So that next level of scale and energy and movement building is required.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So forgive me for doing this. I keep doing it and it's probably maybe even a little annoying to you. But I don't want our listeners to.

[Scott Harrison]

Miss I don't think like this. So this is fascinating for me to watch YouTube.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

I don't want them to miss what I'm seeing and hearing here. So in any organization, when you're scaling it up, you're going to hit ceilings. And they're your own mindset. They're the limitations to your people, their limitation of resources or whatever. And when you hit those, you innovated your first time you leveled out, you said, hey, let's go ahead and try something different. And I think you're really smart because if you're starting over at zero, if you don't have kind of a subscription based is really, really hard to do you version. Same thing for us is we.

[Scott Harrison]

Yep.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

So are very similar that we're going straight to men.

[Scott Harrison]

We transform, transform, reorganization over.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And so you take a risk, you reorganize and you're flat the next year. And that's typically what happens is you have to take some kind of a risk and then you're holding your breath. Is it going to work? And it doesn't always work. It doesn't always work. But you have to almost have that high risk in order to double it. And then you get to another place. And here's what I like about, I mean I love this is you are the biggest in the world and you're dissatisfied. And what you're doing really, really well is you're not letting anybody really call you big. You may know you're the biggest, but based on the need that you have out there, you're not big. And we do the same thing in a church is we resist the label megachurch because I don't like that we're actually not even a megachurch. We're actually a lot of smaller churches. And if you come to a service, we're actually really small churches. And that's. We're really small community. We're just a bunch of small communities. And a bunch of them together can do a lot. And so we always say if you compare us to the unriched people. We're like, we haven't even gotten started yet.

[Scott Harrison]

0.0000.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

We're not big, we're not successful. If we think we're big, we're going to be slow. We think we're successful, we're not going to learn, we're not going to innovate. So I just want our listeners to hear.

[Scott Harrison]

I think the ambition is really important and it animates the whole team. It animates a leadership team.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

You're just getting started.

[Scott Harrison]

Yes, we're just getting started. You know, I learned this from my friends. Daniel Ek. So he had, he started Spotify. I'm sure a lot of people use Spotify for music. And he stood up in front of the company when they had. They had 900,000 paying subscribers, right? Given nine bucks a month or so. And he stands up in front of the company and he goes, we're going to 100 million paid and we're going to do it in 10 years or less. It actually took him 11 years and today he's at 280 million going to a billion, and he will reach a billion. And I think sometimes that order of magnitude ambition is helpfully disruptive because you can't just maintain the status quo. If we really want to get 700 million people clean water, we will have to discover new paths, new revenue channels, new partnerships, new ways to bring people into the movement that are undiscovered. Because if we just keep plugging along, I saw the data the other day. It'll be 2060 before the world gets clean water. I'm going to be 80. I don't want to wait that long. I'm going to be in my 80s, so we have to go faster. And I think ambition sometimes can get a bad rap. But if you have a noble ambition, and that noble ambition could just be growing a company to provide for more of your team members and employees so that they can take care of their families and you can give them great benefits in retirement and give them a great place to work where they feel good about the values and the integrity of the company that they're representing. And maybe you're really generous with your profits and your revenue and you do great things in your local community, the global community. But having that, you know, we haven't succeeded vision, I think, is really helpful.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

It is. And based on what I see in you, I bet you do it before you're 80. Just the hardest thing.

[Scott Harrison]

I hope so.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

What I want to do, I want to ask you one more Question. But first I want to tell our audience about your book. It's totally and completely worth reading. The story, it's humbling, it's motivating, it's compelling, it's packed with vision and we all need vision. The book is called A Story of Redemption, Compassion and Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World. I want to give some of these away. So if you're on YouTube and you just want to type in the comment section, I want to make a difference. Just type that in there. I want to make a difference. And we'll draw five different names to send these books to. If you're listening on any other place, just hop over to YouTube and just type in there. I want to make a difference. And then I want to. Last question I want to ask you because I think it's really important. You're a person of faith, but you're leading what you might call a secular nonprofit and you have influence with some of the most visible business leaders who are, who aren't followers of Jesus. And you seem to do it well. Can you talk to me about kind of your heart behind. How are you faithful to your commitment to be a follower of Jesus and massively effective in loving people? Well, in a way that draws them to what you're doing and doesn't turn them off?

[Scott Harrison]

Well, a couple of things. I think to succeed in this vision, we need everybody. So that was just clear day one. I didn't want just people who did what I did on a Sunday or prayed to the God that I prayed to, to be involved in this really wonderful day where the whole world gets clean water. So that's kind of. That was starter. So then you don't have a faith based charity because that would turn off, you know, a huge amount of people who would never give to that. That was a really easy decision, I think. You know, the second thing is I've realized that I get to live out my theology through my work every day and I get to create a world. And as I imagine the kingdom of God, no one is drinking dirty water. No woman is walking eight hours, you know, at risk of rape or hyena attack as she goes to some far away river. So by, you know, making this mission of clean water, which is an inarguable common good, I get to live out my personal faith through my work with no strings attached. And it's really fun. I mean, you know, some of my, some of our biggest donors are, you know, one would describe himself as a rabid atheist. And he has no problem with Me, he thinks I pray to an imaginary God. You know, I'm a lunatic for believing that there's anything out there. But because I'm not trying, I don't have any secret agenda. I'm not trying to force my faith faith on our team members or on the people we serve with clean water. He's given over $25 million and has been to 13 countries with me. And I think that's almost now. I'm almost where I find the biggest problems with the Christians. You know, I'll go speak at a Christian conference and if it's not, you know, if we're not proselytizing or trying to convert, they won't give money. I said to this guy once, I said, all right, so I realize you're never going to give me money. You're only giving to, you know, faith based causes. How did you make your money money? He said, I'm a home builder. And I said, well, please tell me you only build homes for Christians. He said, no, I let anybody build in my home. So I said, well, well then you only hired Christian contractors and electricians and plumbers, right? And I'm like, well, why should I?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Right?

[Scott Harrison]

You know, but did you try to put your Christian values in the homes that you built? Were you trying to build, you know, affordable homes that were high integrity? Did you try to treat all of your contractors and your workforce with, with your, your values? Yes. So that's what I'm trying to do. So I, I typically only run into the, the problems from, you know, the religious people who, we're not ticking that box, but I find the, the more secular or progressive the business leader is, they're fascinated, they're intrigued by my faith. And it, it is not in any way a barrier to them giving generously to the organization. They ask questions about it.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

I love it. I think that's a compliment to the way you live out too because you, you, you treat people well. You're fun to be with. You're, you're, you're going to lead with a vision that is compelling and you're going to have integrity along the way. And so you don't, you don't give any, you don't give obvious reasons to discredit your heart, your motives, your vision. And, and you do it with a way that I think is, you, you rough, you reflect the kingdom of God in a way that I think is, would be pleasing to God.

[Scott Harrison]

Yeah, I like that James verse. True religion is, you know, serve others, look after the widows and orphans and keep yourself from being polluted. So this idea of kind of, you know, personal integrity in the way that you run your organization and treat people, and then I'm just lucky that we get to do the service with the actual work, and we get to change people's lives every day.

[Co-host or Interviewer]

And if people want to find out more about charity water, what do they do?

[Scott Harrison]

Just charity water?

[Co-host or Interviewer]

Yeah. It's worth going to Cherry Water, both to find out how you get help and just to learn as a student of how to tell the story well. And so, Scott, thank you for your passion. Thank you for your excitement. And to you, I hope you're inspired that there may be something in you that's burning right now that you think, man, somebody's got to do something about this. I think Scott said, not on my watch. And there may be something that's inside of you, and you may not know a lot about it, but if you have the faith to dream big, if you have a cause that really is weighing on you, you might want to start drawing some attention to it and attack it with faith, attack it with vision, tell stories well, lead with integrity, and keep getting better. Because we know that everyone wins when the leader gets.