← Nonprofit Leadership Podcast
Nonprofit Leadership Podcast
This Leader is Changing the Landscape for Digital Wellness
00:45:30
In this episode, Dr. Rob Harter reconnects with Larz May, founder of the nonprofit Half the Story and the newly launched for-profit social enterprise Ginkgo. Larz returns to the show three years after her initial appearance to share her incredible grow...
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- [00:02]
A
This is Dr. Rob Harder with the nonprofit Leadership podcast, Making youg World Better. What does it take to be an effective nonprofit leader today? What are the biggest challenges? What are the biggest obstacles? How should nonprofits fundraise in an economy that is constantly changing? All these reasons combined led me to start this show. And it's my hope that through this series, people can learn not only what it takes to be an effective nonprofit organization, but to hear from effective leaders who are who are successfully making a positive impact in their communities. We hope you enjoy the show as together we hear how they are making their world better. Well, hello everybody and welcome back to the show. I'm Rob Harder and this is the Nonprofit Leadership Podcast. So glad you're here. Thanks for tuning in. You know, I just got back from a conference I went to in Washington D.C. and it was all about AI. And primarily the conference was for people in the corporate world, the for profit sector. But I was invited along with Julia Campbell. Many of you may know of the Nonprofit Nation podcast and Julia's work. She's a consultant as well. And it was great to have the two of us part of a panel. And the questions were all about how is AI impacting the social impact sector? And it was such a fascinating discussion and I think it's so important. In fact, I told the host ServiceNow was the ones who hosted this conference. I just thanked them and applauded them that they are bringing this conversation to the social impact spher here and to nonprofit organizations because AI is impacting all of us. It's not just the for profit world. It's not just for tech companies, it's for social impact organizations 100%. As you know, I've had so many people on my show to talk about the impact and it's really not a question anymore of are you using AI? It's how are you using AI and are you using AI for good for your organization? Anyway, so that was such a fun time. Really enjoyed my time in D.C. and that conversation specifically. And it really prepped me well for this conversation today because actually I'm going to be talking all about digital wellness. And it's because my guest, this is her specialty and her name's Lars May. And now that may ring a bell because almost three years ago I had her on the show when she was just really beginning to launch Half the Story, which is her nonprofit organization. And what's really cool about Lars Story is I become friends with the guest on my show and it's just been fun to kind of through LinkedIn primarily to see, see how this organization has literally taken off. I mean, she is on a rocket ship right now in terms of growth and expansion and scaling her nonprofit. Just a couple examples. She got on the Oprah show and Oprah's gotten behind what she's doing, giving her a nice, very generous grant. Melinda French Gates is also getting behind her. And what she's doing there has been wonderful. She's been working with the Clinton Foundation, Governor Hochul's office in New York. I mean, she's doing a lot of things and getting people around her to get behind this vision she has for digital wellness. And what I think is so powerful. In fact, if you haven't listened to her original podcast episode, it's a great one. And it's all about her story, because her nonprofit came out at a very personal story, her own story. In fact, she'll talk about that, how social media and technology almost killed her in the sense that it became such a problem for her. She considered suicide. And so that was really her story. And so she is so motivated to help other teens just like her to really find ways to bring in digital wellness into their life. In fact, she just talks about wellness, period. I mean, digital wellness is synonymous really with wellness, right? That's what her passion is, is how to provide resources and insights and tools to help kids really create digital wellness. Now, having said that, we'll also talk about her latest adventure. And that is she's created a social enterprise and it's a for profit business. It's separate from her nonprofit and it's a way to make money in order to fund half the Story, which is her nonprofit. And I'll ask her some questions about that. And it's really fascinating. In fact, she's got some great investment already into this company and she's really hoping that, you know, five, maybe 10 years in, she's now helping to fund other nonprofits, not just her own, through this amazing organization that you'll learn about. The name is Ginkgo. And you'll learn a little bit more about how she's launched it and what it's all about. And let me say this, I'm a parent of kids, and if you're a parent of kids, you'll definitely want to lean into this and find out what this company is, because this new business she's doing and she's launching is providing really, really helpful tools of how you as a parent can help your kids develop digital wellness. So there's so much in this conversation, but I think the Thing I want you to lean into through the lens of this nonprofit leadership podcast is I like to bring people on the show that talk about how are they growing their organization, how are they scaling things, how are they fundraising, how are they bringing people around to support their mission. So she'll talk about her trajectory and how she's been able to really be laser focused on her mission and gather people like an Oprah, like a Melinda French Gates to get behind her vision and start funding this nonprofit that she has had this passion for for years, but when she started, she didn't have much money at all. She'll tell you the story that she just really had a lot of passion and she had a clear vision. That's about it. So she needed to go out and get support and help generate excitement and interest in her mission and her nonprofit. So she'll talk about that and then she'll talk about how she continues to grow. And then she dedicates every Saturday, for example, to helping others that are starting to or trying to launch their own nonprofit or their own business because she was there once and now she's really gotten to a place where now she can turn around and help others. So I just love her heart to want to help others launch and get moving from all the experience she's had in her own journey. Think you're going to learn a lot. And at the end of the day, the very bottom line is if, again, if you're a parent, you're going to hopefully get some great tools to help your kids with digital wellness. Always good to have you here. Thanks for tuning in. Now onto my interview with Lars. This podcast is sponsored by DonorBox Donor Box, helping you help others with the best donation forms and in the business. Well, welcome everybody, to the nonprofit Leadership Podcast. I'm so glad to have a guest that I had on we figured about three years ago. But, Lars, it's great to have you back on in the studio and just really congratulations. It's amazing to see the trajectory of your career and your platform. What you're talking about is so important. So congrats first of all, and excited to dive back into it.
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B
Well, thank you for having me. It's been quite the journey, that's for sure. And I think, you know, today I was actually at lunch with one of our partners and it was nonprofits from really all different facets and phases. And, you know, it's, it's interesting to kind of just see every founder and where they are in their journey and that I think the big takeaway is there's always challenges, but it's really a choice to. On what you want to focus on. And so you can either be grateful or you can be longing for maybe something you don't have. And I think especially in the market and the world that we're in right now, it's, it's sometimes a little hard to find that for people. But I, I guess I just kind of want to acknowledge that, that it's the problems always evolve and change, which, you know.
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A
Well, yeah, no, so true. And, and yet I like that. I think that what I've noticed already and we're going to dive into again, giving the background for those who are my listeners that maybe are still new to what you're doing. But I think what has been interesting is you have been responding to the needs as they get, you know, more challenging and as your platform grows again, then you have more your own challenges to get the word out and to work with larger groups of people. So good job to navigate through that. That' any nonprofit that is on a scale where you're growing and you're having to kind of match the growth and keep up with the pace and that's not easy. So way to go.
- [08:06]
B
It's certainly not easy. It's certainly not. But I, and I'm happy to get into more of that too because I think it's all about the mindset in which you're bringing into the nonprofit space. And quite frankly, I think that the nonprofit mindset is a little bit archaic in terms of what it used to be or used to be considered. And now, you know, especially as the great wealth transfer is happening and a lot of money is being made from big tech, people want to be investing in innovators and people that are returning the most amount of impact with their dollars, which might have been different in the past, where you could have a hand up or a handout, whatever way you want to look at it. I think every nonprofit needs to be thinking about the day where they don't have to ask for money, but that they can generate it on their own. And I think it's just some of the things early on that they don't tell you when you go down this path.
- [09:01]
A
I love that. Let's definitely get into that because I think that you're exactly right. I mean, think about how many companies already mentioned a couple of them. They have their own social impact arm or they have their own foundation. Right. There's a lot of these social enterprises out there that are doing this very thing or incorporating A social enterprise within their nonprofit. And so love that. Let's definitely dive into it. Okay, so as I mentioned, you've been on the show before, but for my listeners, who again, may be new to you and to half the story, talk about half the story, give us the background. What first inspired you to start this digital wellness movement in the first place?
- [09:34]
B
Yeah, so I firmly believe that every innovator is often trying to solve a problem that they have for themselves, because quite frankly, the problems are usually so hard that it's really easy to get off the horse, given all the challenges it takes to stick with it. And what I'll say is that I really began this because I almost ended my own life. And as a young person, which now was a decade ago and it feels like yesterday, but also 10 lifetimes and also many careers. And honestly, it's. It's so wild being on the other side of it 10 years in. But for me, I was really the first generation to enter college where social media was a part of our life and technology was. I was really that first generation. And what I ultimately realized when I was living and scrolling more, that I was sleeping, walking, socializing, studying, was that technology really played a role in my mental wellbeing, my academic wellbeing. And it really led me to, after being in the IOP psychiatrist office for hours on hours, that technology can tell us so much about a person, how they're consuming with it, what they're posting. And what if we could actually teach young people how to use technology in a healthier way? Because we know that the average teen will spend 30 years behind their life and. But behind a screen in their life. And I think I was just so confused, like, why have we been taught how to study, to socialize, to go to gym class? But we know that kids are spending more time on devices than anywhere else, but we're not being taught how to protect ourself. It's beyond getting in a car without a seatbelt, quite frankly. It's like getting in a jet plane without ever, honestly even going to school to fly it. And for a mind that is incredibly vulnerable. And so half the story really came from the idea back in the day, what I did. And you'll see it here. I'll share with you. See, social media is only half the story. On my phone. I started really by studying Gloria Steinem and was like, hey, all I need is a story and a group of people. And if I keep doing that every single day for a decade, then maybe in some way, shape or form I can change the world because I know that I don't have the dollars to compete with back then, the science and the resources and the staffing. I need to figure out how to tell a story that sticks and just keep going. And it was wild cause actually for our 10 year anniversary, instead of hosting a fundraiser for half the story, I instead actually held a fundraiser at Gloria Steinem's house for her foundation and her legacy. And that was a really powerful moment to really come full circle and just, it's just honestly, it's one of the most magical and whimsical and, you know, challenging journey. But that was really where it began. And now really our mission is to empower the next generation of digital wellness activists and leaders. But really our vision is to make digital wellness accessible to every young person on the planet. And we really do that through strengths based education in school, after school, but also upskilling the next generation of leaders so that they themselves can have a seat at the table, can have a seat on the world stage. Actually, I was at CGI today and I was really lucky to be at the principal roundtable that Secretary Clinton held with the CEO of Pinterest. And at the end of the table, my call to action was to the different countries and world leaders was, hey, you know, we are creating a blueprint for what it means to empower and engage young people that lead to better healthcare outcomes, economic outcomes, academic outcomes. We would love to apply our blueprint to your place. And I think if I were to have all the money and time and people in the world, you know, it would be that. And sure it sounds a little bit like, oh, how could you do that? But at the same time, how could I have gone from a circle with a story to where we are now? And I think it's just not losing sight of the places that you can continue to go.
- [13:36]
A
I loved you telling a bit of your story because I've been able to watch it more through LinkedIn more than anything else. But because you were on the show before and kind of understanding the importance of your story, I love the fact you stuck to your story, so to speak, and you stuck to your community and you just kept looking for new opportunities to share that story and expand your community. And yeah, just to throw it out there for, for my listeners. I mean, it's pretty impressive, the Gloria Steinem, obviously connection. Melinda French Gates announced behind what you're doing. You were on the show with Oprah and you also had the first ever Teen Tech Council board meeting with the Clinton Foundation. You already made mention of that. You've just done a lot of different things working with New York State teens, and Governor Hochul actually has been involved with what you're doing. So all that is impressive. And I'm thinking for those who are listening, who maybe where you were 10 years ago, and like, I have no idea how would I even do that? Like, I have no connections. Um, what would maybe you say to them? What are some of the lessons you've learned, not just with telling your story, but scaling your impact? What would you pass on to my listeners who maybe do have a story, have a real passion, just like you did 10 years ago? What would you coach them to do?
- [14:43]
B
I mean, hopefully in the future, when I have space and time, I can write a couple books on that. But I think, I mean, there's so much that I learn, and even still every day, you just get so humbled by what you do, because the world, it's not always the easiest place to. To do good and have that really be your North Star, especially at a time where we are dealing with so much animosity. And I will say what I love about what I do is that it's one of the only bipartisan issues that still exists, and it's one of the ways that we can really unite America and our world. And quite frankly, I think that's part of what has brought us so much success, is that we're not alienating people. We know that anyone that has a device has to learn and reckon with their own digital wellness, and that we're really introducing that as a new terminology and a new language and a new healthcare outcome or economic outcome, if you want to talk about it, on the world stage or in capitalist markets. And so, really going back to. I think what I've learned and what I would share is that even though it's a nonprofit space, the biggest mistake that most people make is they believe that nonprofit means no revenue. And early in my early days, I'll never forget I sat down when I was 22 years old. I think my budget was $20,000 a year, and it was with the head of Crisis Text Line's partnerships. And I was like, you know what? I would love to have a Crisis Text line on the half the story website that I probably made myself. And I'll never forget that I opened an email and she sent me a document that was a partnership agreement, and it would cost, I think, 20 to $30,000 for that button. In that moment, I realized Crisis Text Line is not only a Helpline, but they're a data company. And I realized that if, hey, if I want to get out of this place, of honestly busking in the subway with my husband to make extra money, my husband now, and doing all of these wild things to keep this alive, I need to start thinking about this as a real business. And that was ultimately something that I wish I thought about a lot earlier on. And it's a big misconception that a lot of people have. So think about that from the beginning because you never want to shut down because you have your hand out and it's a bad year in the economy. I think the second thing I learned is that in nonprofit, having an edge, in a competitive edge will help you win. And when I say a competitive edge, I mean a cultural edge. And it's interesting that you picked up on that early on because one of the things that has made half the story successful is that we are constantly, and I am constantly thinking about what's, what's around the corner. And so a good example of that was, and I think what's amazing about half the story is that we have on them for 10 years and microwaves tested things that have worked. And now we have an evidence base where in the state of New York, when you pass phone free schools and you go to someone like Secretary Clinton to say, secretary Clinton, you want to have phone free schools be successful, but we can't do that from a deficit based place. We can't just tell kids that we want to take their phones away. What we need to do is we need to educate them and we need to empower them and we need to identify a body of student leaders that we can train to work with educators so that we can reduce the stress of educators, to make it fun and give them grants and get them to have screen free proms and redesign their lunch spaces. And so, you know, ultimately someone that was, was close to their team said, well, if you had the opportunity to create that for the state of New York to make this successful, would you know what to do? And I actually said yes. And so what I did is I.
- [18:36]
A
That'S a bold yes, well done.
- [18:38]
B
I said yes. And I knew that because, you know, in the room that I was sitting in, it was a lot of adults talking about the phone free policy, but there weren't any young people. And I always think like I'm the vessel for who they are. And I was that person. And so I basically just said, hey, look, we have the civics academy that we've been doing and I'd love to apply it to a state level and then from there, you know, actually what I want to do here is I want to make the case that by getting young people's buy in and leadership, if every student body president was trained to actually help bridge the gap between fear and fun and drive innovation and have money to create new spaces in their schools to deal with this, I think it would probably lead to a better outcome. And so my goal is that one, we can measure that, but two, we can actually build a blueprint for systems change and make sure that in all of these technological policies that, you know, we're bringing young people maybe not necessarily to design the policies, but to certainly share their stories, because the soul of that story is what's going to lead someone to make a decision and help move these things forward. And so I guess, you know, I would say, you know, keep your edge. I think, you know, the third is you can't have a plan B. And I think I grew up in the Midwest. My parents are still like, who pays for your healthcare? I'm like, I pay for a lot of people's healthcare now. And you can't have a plan, baby, because you're not going to win if you have a plan B. And not everyone is really wants to hear that, but it's kind of the truth. If I didn't go all in on half the story five or six years ago, move out of New York to an attic of a barn in Sonoma, I wouldn't have been where we are today. And I think there's just honestly a lot a level of self sacrifice that does come with a, the level of service and impact. And I guess I'd also tell people that too, that it's actually not glamorous. And sure, I'm in a suit and, you know, had to put makeup on today to sit at a roundtable, but it's, you know, you have to be ready to take punches every day and you need to be willing to take more punches than maybe the job rewards you fiscally on paper. And that's something that only passion can deliver for you is that drive to keep going.
- [20:59]
A
Okay, so list. You said a lot of things in there. And I love this hearing your own journey, the passion comes out. So a couple things. Number one, I've had people, we've talked about this on the show, actually. That passion is not always enough though, right? It's your patterns that really push you forward. You need to have the passion. And I know a lot of nonprofit leaders, a lot of social impact leaders. They have passion, but they probably don't have the pattern or the commitment that you have had. And you've said a couple of things of, like this competitive edge and whatnot. So talk about now. I'll put the perspective of a skeptic or someone who says, well, wait a second. We're in the nonprofit sector. We're all working together, right? We need to collaborate. This competitive spirit sounds more like what's more appropriate in the corporate world, perhaps. Talk to me about how you've read that line, maybe walk that fine line of you've got a really important message, you're trying to get out to as many people as possible. Like, literally, you're offering it to the state of New York, you know, to implement into their schools. You have to have this sense that this works and it's powerful. So how do you find that line, you know, between still collaborating with as many people as possible, but also being just laser focused on what your mission is?
- [22:05]
B
I believe in the power of collaboration, which is what really drives the competitive edge. So.
- [22:12]
A
Oh, okay, okay.
- [22:13]
B
At Half the Story, one of the partnerships I'm most proud of is the one that we launched with Girls, Inc. And they're one of the oldest organizations focused on girls empowerment. And we came together and said. I said, hey. They came to us. We initially spoke, and I was like, we're the underdog here, so let's see what we can do. And I was like, this is what I would love to do. I'd love to take a version of our programming, recreate it for you all, and go get funding to make this happen. And we were able to get Melinda French Gates at Pivotal Ventures, the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Fund, and the R12 Foundation. And a lot of that was honestly just being really, really fast and not letting anything drop. And a lot of persistence. And so. But. But the. The story, the power behind that story is that you take something like Half the story, which is very innovative, very on the pulsive with the challenges that young people are facing, and then you develop a partnership with an organization that has, you know, almost $40 million a year in just their national operating capital, and you say, hey, we're going to create a collaboration and a vessel for change, but ultimately put digital wellness on a map in that goes so far beyond what Half the Story could ever do. And so what I often say is that we're actually B2B to T and that we're business to business to teens or to teachers, because so much of our reach is actually through collaboration. But it's the collaboration with Discovery, Education and being on their platform or with Girls Inc. That gives us the competitive edge to say, hey, it would have taken us a hundred years to get there, but instead we're collaborating. And funders love that. They're like, that's right. You're taking innovation and bringing it with one of the most trustworthy organizations in the world, which is honestly more of a risk for them than it is for us. And let's see what you can do.
- [24:07]
A
I like, that's interesting. You're right. You've got a trusted organization which trusts everything in the social impact sphere, I think. Right. If you don't have trust, you're not going to have donors get behind you. And you also said something that's so true. Donors want to see social impact organizations working together. Right. Maximizing the funding they give so you have a bigger impact at the end of the day. And I think you're right. And you've done both really well. Was there any barriers or some challenging things to overcome in order to get all these different people coming together and then working in the same direction? Because my guess would be that's where it gets challenging, is number one, people have different ideas of what to do. Number two, if you all agree, maybe it's hard to stay focused on the mission and people have these pet projects who want to pull you in this direction or in that direction. Anything you bumped into at the time that you had to really work through and stay true to your principles and maybe have to have some real heart to heart talks with some of the other people you were collaborating with.
- [24:58]
B
With. Yeah. I mean, to be really honest with you, and I think this goes into any business partnership, you've got to decide if you want to be the quarterback. And I said, hey, look, I've got the opportunity to make a Super bowl moment and I'm going to construct this and I'm going to email the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Fund every single week after being on their show and create a really compelling opportunity, which is what I did. And to be really honest with you, I think that in a partnership, someone, and it usually is the underdog, has to decide that they want a quarterback because they need to prove that they are worthwhile to have a seat at that table. And I continue to be the underdog that winds up being able to prove what we're made of and prove that we can do a hundred X what other people can do with 200X. And I think the results speak for themselves. But you have to decide, do you want to be the quarterback and are you willing to take full responsibility for all of those actions, which is a massive, a massive thing to do. I think the other thing is that as you start to become more in the public eye, which is a very weird thing because it's almost like you, as soon as you have affiliation with principles, the way that people perceive you changes. And it's interesting. And you have to be really, really mindful about how you engage with people and, you know, just be really open. And also, I think I spend every Saturday actually supporting other founders and making connections for them to funders and both nonprofit and for profit. Because I just think we don't have enough people that are willing to like get on the ground and say, I've been there, let me help you. And so if I can do that in a small way and inspire other people to not be so fear based on, I do have hope that we can really change that infrastructure and those outcomes.
- [26:54]
A
Well, that's another thing I just want to say I applaud you to do that. I read about you had posted, I think something that in LinkedIn or I just read that, that you were doing that for other people. I love that. Again, I think that's something that typically social impact leaders, they are wanting to support each other, right? And the fact is you've talked a lot about growing your vision and growing this community and growing half the story. But at the same time you're reaching back and saying, hey, I remember what it was like when I was just pitching this. I was the only one I had to $20,000 in the bank and that's all I had. So way to go. I thought that's really, really cool. We'll be right back. Are you looking for an easy and effective way to boost your nonprofit's donations? Well, look no further than Donorbox, the online fundraising platform that streamlines your fundraising efforts, maximizes donations and simplifies giving for your supporters. With Donorbox, you can create beautiful donation forms, accept digital wallet payments, track donations and send auto receipts. And the best part, there are no setup or monthly fees and no long term contracts required. So what are you waiting for? Visit donorbox.org today to get started. That is www.donorbox.org and maybe you could talk about that a little bit. Now, when it comes to results and reporting back to donors and as you have grown and scaled this organization, how do you measure your results and then how do you report that back? Some of these big donors like Oprah Linda, French, Gates, the whole crew again.
- [28:25]
B
Going back to just the fact that this is business, is that you have KPIs and you either meet them or you don't. And for us, half the story was really, really lucky with the thanks to actually this incredible woman, Alicia London from Prospero Global, who really advocated for us. But really through that at Iconic Capital, they had a mental health fund where they awarded 5 or 25 organizations for 5 year unrestricted operating grants. And we received one of them and we're in year one. So what that means is that we have really clear KPIs that we're reporting on on a quarterly basis that is towards a larger vision that we're working towards. So we have a five year business plan and everything that we do ladders up to that. So for us it's very, very clear. And that's what I have to really align the team around more tangibly. I think one of the biggest things, and I say this to people that are in nonprofit at any stage, and if I had a billion dollars, I'd have a lot of different ideas of how I could support others, which maybe one day I'll be on the other side, but one of the most valuable things you could do. So when I had no money at half the story, the one thing that I knew was that research would matter. And I met an incredible woman, Dr. Rachel Hanabit, who was a PhD student at Vanderbilt University and was really passionate about this. And she actually grew up in really the digital desert, was the first person in her family to go to college. She's a genius, went to Harvard for her master's, Vanderbilt for her PhD before she was even 31 years old. And I met her, and this is a pattern for me is that I can tell really quickly if someone's going to be the right fit. And I can tell really quickly when someone is a hundred times more intelligent than I am at something, which is actually something that I run towards and it's not something I run away from. And she was one of those people. And I said, hey, look, I have this vision, I have $2 essentially, but I really, I want to get curriculum out there. I want to measure the effectiveness of our work. And what's amazing about PhD students is that many of them have to do a dissertation. Well, they all have to do a dissertation which requires research which is much more powerful if it's community engaged research. And so what I was able to do with her was actually work with Rachel to design evaluation instruments, even though we were so grassroots. So that we started building that body of research. Fast forward now we have the largest body of digital flourishing research for people under the age of 18. And she's now at Georgetown University. And that decision that early, sort of, I've got $3. Where am I gonna put that? Which is, as a founder, no matter where you are in your business, one of my favorite questions is, all right, you have three marbles. Where are you gonna put em? And I just think we don't talk enough about research and evaluation. And I think what's been really hard and what was so hard about being in. Even if you think about mental health, no one talked about that until five years ago. And then you think about the space that I'm in, which is mental health plus digital, which was honestly way too ahead of what people were ready for. There was no other people in the market. So from a data and impact measurement perspective, there weren't benchmarks, which for many funders, because philanthropy is risk capital, there's a lot of barriers, et cetera. There weren't a lot of people that said, hey, I love that you're going into our uncharted territories. I'm going to fund you now. That's changed. And I've been lucky to do things like go speak at Aspen Ideas, where I met one of our are my favorite partners ever. It's a foundation called the Gambrell foundation. And they basically fund bold leaders with ideas that want to make the world, like make it the world a better place, but ultimately help you have a good life. And I think. I don't know, I've just learned so much. One other thing I'll share, just because it's so practical, is I think I spent five years applying to grants that I would never get because I didn't realize that you had to know someone on the other side. And so, you know, I just had a lot of humbling learnings, but I. It's all about who you surround yourself with.
- [32:48]
A
Well done. Okay. And you've obviously done that really well. Okay. So now I want to switch a little bit because you've got a brand new adventure, or a new adventure, I should say, more specifically Ginkgo. You've recently launched it. It builds on your experience with half the story. Tell us more about it. Tell us about some of the challenges, perhaps. How does Ginkgo support families in creating really healthier tech relationships at all?
- [33:08]
B
Well, the first thing that I want to share is really the impetus for building this is that my vision has actually always been to build A digital wellness ecosystem. And in a dream world, what I want to do is for half the story to be the youth arm of everything that I do and create and fund. And then what I started having was a lot of parents reaching out and psychiatrists and doctors, and they started sort of asking me one, you know, how do we deal with these scenarios? How do we treat these scenarios? Because we know that technology is a part of young people's lives, but we're not connecting the dots between their inner worlds and their physical worlds. And so I started spending a lot of time at night texting parents, calling my best friend and business partner, who's an addiction psychiatrist, and saying, well, what do I tell these parents if their kids are being groomed or if these things are happening? And I realized there wasn't a medically informed place that was also a place parents could engage with to get support. But also I realized that there was such a big gap between what was happening in kids digital worlds and their parents worlds and that so much of the conversation was focused on just safety surveillance, but nothing, no emotional surveillance. And at the end of the day, for me, as someone that almost took my life, I'm like, at the end of the day, I think my parents would care more about detecting if I was depressed than just detecting if I had too much screen time. And that's where something felt off to me is like, where do we bring the EQ and the IQ together of your experience in the digital world and the time you spend there? And so ultimately, what that led me to do was build Ginkgo, which is a 247 guide to raising growing minds online. And it's a HIPAA compliant tool that's been built with thousands of scenarios that could happen to your kids in the digital world to help inform parents. So anytime you have a question, you can just ask Ginkgo and it will help guide you. And the vision for the future is that ultimately we're able to build Ginkgo into a tool that can help if you have a child predict early on, based on how they engage with their device, of other comorbidities that they might be experiencing, like maybe they're dealing with dyslexia, maybe they're struggling with focus at school, because tech is not, not all tech is created equal. And what that means is that we have to be able to decipher just like food, like what's fueling us, what's not, what are we allergic to, what is our media metabolism, what can that tell us, our children? And you know, the much bigger ecosystem and vision is, you know, my hope is that I can build Ginkgo and hopefully in five to 10 years, never have to fundraise again for half the story. And I want to change the way that the nonprofit ecosystem works and I want to be on the other side of the table in the next decade because I can tell you that the way that things have been built is not equitable. And I have been so blessed to be a highly educated white woman that is tall and can get into spaces and places and somehow get people to support me. But I know that my story is a lot of, yes, hard work, but working hard is not a lot of people work hard. It's a lot of random luck, magic, commitment, all of it. And I have a deep vision to give back. On the half the story front, I have a vision of raising a couple million dollars where when young people graduate college that have organizations in digital wellness, we actually take them in as entrepreneurs and residents, pay them salaries, healthcare, allow them to spend 30% on their nonprofit, the rest of their time under our youth arm. And they basically come in our ecosystem. We show them how do you do impact reporting? We give them exposure to donors and we say, hey, at the end of two years, like if you're able to, if you feel that you can go out on your own and run your org, great. If not, work with us full time or we can acquire your assets or go find another job and consider it a nice MBA in social impact. And so that's what I want to do. On the half the story front, my vision on the Ginkgo front is to bring screen freedom to every family on the planet and to really help improve healthcare outcomes and to hopefully be able to, to, you know, give money away to help drive innovation and to actually have venture philanthropy be something that exists because it didn't. And the fact that it took me 10 years to get someone to invest in us for 5 years is crazy given that, you know, I've also, throughout that decade also built two other for profit companies that I was also working at during the day and then funding half the story at night. And so I, yeah, so at the end of the day, you know, working hard is not something I'm afraid of, but I believe that if we change the way that capital flows, we can work smarter and see better healthcare outcomes.
- [38:05]
A
Okay, so if I'm understanding right with Ginkgo, that is an arm, if you will, or is it completely separate and it's in a sense that's your enterprise to fund Half the story, yeah.
- [38:15]
B
It's a completely separate enterprise, and that ultimately is so that I can fund and flow whatever way you want. And there's also a lot of really unique funding vehicles and companies, companies that are happening, which is great. But I think you have to do what's best for your business. And I'm gonna be honest, I knew that with half the story. I never wanted to have to compromise a young person's experience for the sake of anything else. And for me, knowing that that was where it came from. I knew that I needed to let the kids be kids, and I knew that half the story needed to continue on that path. But I'm excited and I. I have so many ideas and ways that I want to change this in the future. But I think what I'm excited about, and if I were to think about what my full life pursuit is, how do I support young people from the moment that they're born all the way until the moment that we pass? And I've been thinking a lot about geriatric care and how technology impacts older people and all of these sort of innovations in that space. And so I think as I grow up and I enter into these different phases in my life, I'll be inspired to help solve more problems.
- [39:27]
A
Well, one of the things I wanted to kind of close on is some of the trends you're seeing. And I just actually came back from an AI conference in Washington, D.C. talk to me about AI and how do you see AI impacting your work? Is it another level of technology now that's even more difficult perhaps, to have digital wellness with? Tell me your thoughts on that and any other trends that you're seeing in your world. Because this is like, say, digital wellness is your specialty.
- [39:52]
B
So. So first thing I'll say is I'll actually start with something positive, is that when AI is used the right way, it allows us to spend and maximize our output of human connection. And one of the things I invested in, and I think it's important to speak numbers, because sometimes when you speak, people think, oh, you spent 100k on that. You know, not true. So I invested $15,000 in a company called One Giant Leap, who has come into half the story, has met with every single person on my and is building an AI infrastructure for our CRM for everything to run through Slack, and it's going to increase our operational output probably by 3x. So what I'll say is that if you're a leader, what you need to be thinking about is how to upskill your nonprofit workforce, because that is going to allow you to. What I should be doing every day is raising money, selling our programming, or telling our story. And the more time you're doing that, the more money you're generating. And so that's the opportunity with AI. Now, in terms of the mental health hindrances, which. There was actually just a report that came out today that basically showed that 64% of the features that Meta had put out for their teen accounts have not been effective or have been removed. We're seeing the same things happen with OpenAI. We saw a child die. We saw OpenAI come out with parent features for safety. We saw them come out with a fund to help support mental health. All the things that you do after a crisis happens as a big corporation. Now, what people need to understand about AI and social media is that AI is social media under a pressure cooker on steroids. And the damage that social media has done can be a hundred axed with AI. Social media used to be a place where you could have someone post something or do something or say something, but you still had somewhat of a control over your autonomy and your image in AI. You could basically take a video of me right now and post anything that you wanted and turn it into a deep fake that could end my career. And what's interesting about AI is that in so many ways, we have to figure out how to rely on the human compassion and kindness because quite frankly, our innovation, our policies, are so far behind. And from sitting on the global stage today and seeing that we're still talking about social media 2.0, when quite frankly, we have about 100 AI companies launching a minute. And that AI is really a new infrastructure. It's not a new category. It's like saying, hey, I'm using a domain in the 90s. Well, heck yeah, if you need a website, you're using a domain. So now it's not, you know, are you going to use AI? It's like, hey, how can we use it to move us forward? And. And it's one of the things that I'm really, I'm proud of and that I keep pushing on, even to my EA and my chief of staff and the nonprofit. I'm like, guys, why are you doing this? This is something you could be using AI for. And I will call people in, which is funny, because most people are like, what do you mean your boss wants you to use AI? Yeah, I do. Because it means that you're being efficient.
- [43:09]
A
Ah, that's so fascinating. Well, this is such a great Conversation to get caught up. Number one, hear about your new venture with Ginkgo for my listeners who want to find out a little bit more about you and find out about Ginkgo and or half the where would you send them?
- [43:21]
B
So you can find me anywhere at Living like Lars and you can DM me and I usually respond to everyone, but you can go to halfthestoryproject.com or org and hey ganko.com so parents, hey ganko kids, half the story. And just honestly, like I said, every Saturday, I do try to help people and respond. And so if you need a word of advice, send me a message and I'm happy to send you a positive voice note back.
- [43:49]
A
Okay, that's great. Well, again, thanks for what you're doing. I mean, you are talking about such a relevant topic and what you're providing for. The space is so critical and so timely. So again, I just encourage my listeners to check out what you're doing. It's amazing to see how much you really are on the cutting edge right now and just getting into circles where your platform continues to grow. So I'm glad that, you know, one of these days you may be telling Mark Zuckerberg, hey, we need to do this with, you know, what you're doing.
- [44:13]
B
Listen to me. Hopefully, you know, I'm like, I really want to meet Mira Moradi. So I'm manifesting that into the world world.
- [44:20]
A
Okay, there you go.
- [44:22]
B
Not that you'll listen to this, but maybe if you ever do, I'm gonna find you. But anyways, Rob, thank you so much. This is really meaningful. And, you know, I might go back and listen to our old episode tomorrow because sometimes I think we're so focused on moving forward that we forget to look back. And it's important to do that. So thank you.
- [44:40]
A
Yeah, well said. No, well, thank you again, Lars, for being on the show and thanks for our listeners. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next week.
- [44:46]
B
Week.
- [44:47]
A
Hey, friends. Well, I wanted you to know that this podcast can be found on itunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google podcasts, and wherever you listen to other podcasts. I also want to encourage you to, like, subscribe and share this podcast with others. This will actually help us get this great content out to more nonprofit leaders just like you. You can also join the nonprofit leadership podcast community, find other resources and information, interviews of past guests, all on my website, nonprofit leadershippodcast.org well, thanks again for listening and until next time, keep making your world better. This podcast is Sponsored by DonorBox. DonorBox. Helping you help others with the best donation forms in the business.