← RKD Group: Thinkers
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- [00:05]
A
Welcome to the RKD Group Thinkers podcast. Ronnie. Justin, you got 90 seconds.
- [00:18]
B
Okay?
- [00:19]
A
You got 90 seconds. You got all the pressure in the world to pitch yourself. Go.
- [00:28]
B
I'm crumbling.
- [00:30]
A
No, do it right now.
- [00:31]
B
No, I'm falling. I'm telling you, I'm doing it right now. I'm falling apart. I can't do it.
- [00:37]
A
Are you, Ronnie, are you like me in that every hotel room you walk into, you somehow find your way into watching Shark Tank?
- [00:48]
B
It does actually. Come on. It's amazing. Unless my kids are with me and then somehow, you know, we end up on the Cartoon Network, even though they're teenagers now, still ends up there.
- [01:02]
A
Yeah, yeah. The. You're going to do an intro of our guest, but I, I'm, I'm reflecting on like the bits and pieces of her story and the role that even, you know, Shark Tank and, and pitching and compassion all playing together and it's fascinating. It's so fascinating. Tell us a little bit about our guest today.
- [01:24]
B
Sure, yeah. So our guest is Mallory Martin. She's founder and CEO of Mended and it is a social impact business that partners with survivors of human trafficking. And she works with them. They create these block printed textiles. And in our conversation, she kind of explains what that is. But think tablecloths and towels and bandanas and things like that with prints on them. And her path to getting there in our conversation is really, really fascinating. And we sort of connected with her because we're based in Dallas. She is as well. We worked in the sports industry in our previous parts of our career. She did as well. But the way it kind of the dots connect for her to go from pitching these corporate sponsorships for a hockey team to working to pitch donors to support the international justice mission. And then now she's, you know, like you mentioned, Shark Tank, she's having to pitch this new business she's starting. So a really, a really fascinating connection all the way through.
- [02:39]
A
Yeah, I love that. And I love, you know, a lot of times we talk to people that are in the either in the non profit on the nonprofit side proper, or that are squarely in the for profit around the non profit side, which is kind of like our known world. And so to have a chance to hear the path, the journey, the perspective of a social good entrepreneur and someone who has just taken purpose head on into their life is very cool. So without any further ado, here is Mallory Martin of Mended on the Arcadia Group Thinkers podcast. Mallory, we were just talking prior to hitting record about the small world that we live in. And so I have found that across, I think, all of the conversations that we've ever had, no one has had a path so similar to me. And so I would love for you to just frame for us how you fell into the nonprofit space and fell out of the sports space.
- [04:06]
C
Oh, great question. Thank you for having me this morning. I wouldn't say fell. I would say kicking and screaming a little bit, if we're going to be honest. I, during undergrad and grad school, I fell in love with the for profit business world. I loved it. I was soaking it up. I. I loved learning about all sorts of businesses and entities and how they operate. And I think I was supposed to read or I ended up reading too many articles about misallocation of funds. No one's actually solving a problem. All the brilliant people go into the for profit business sector. And so there was some callus in my brain about against the nonprofit space for a really long time. And so that plays a role in my story, to be honest, because I loved humanitarian work, I loved the idea of helping people, but I wasn't confident at, in my college age that there was anybody really doing a great job at it. And so it plays a role in my story because I went into the business world loving it. I loved the sports industry. I loved water cooler chats. I loved what I was learning. I loved sales.
- [05:23]
B
I.
- [05:23]
C
All this aspect of business I really loved. And then I had kids. I had my son Russell in 2014. And everything shifts, right? You go, oh, I don't actually want to go to hockey games every night. And I don't actually want to drive 40 minutes to a job because I want to hang out with my kid. And so I wanted to work, but I didn't want that life anymore. It didn't interest me the same way. And so I saw a job description for international justice mission on LinkedIn as an ad on the side of LinkedIn. I clicked it and it kind of rocked my world. I had a bit of an identity crisis during that process, but that's kind of more of a kicking and screaming journey than a fell into it journey.
- [06:13]
A
No, that's the. That, Yeah. I mean, I think that it's maybe instead of fell into it. I think oftentimes what we look back on is that those things draw us in. Like we're not expecting it. Right. So there's some sort of force that draws you to it. Whether or not that was that you were looking for, you know, more of a work life balance, which is funny because it's easy to say work, life, balance now in 2026, but I'm totally with you. Like, when you've got. How many regular season hockey games are there?
- [06:51]
C
41. 42 home games.
- [06:53]
A
Right. Home games, Right. And so, you know, we had 71 home games in minor league baseball or 17 home games in. In soccer. Like, those are weeknights and weekend nights that you are, you know, just flying around an arena and not spending that time with. With friends and family and raising your kids, et cetera.
- [07:18]
C
And it was. It was a total blast. I did love it.
- [07:22]
A
Yeah.
- [07:22]
B
Of course.
- [07:23]
C
I just needed. I said, I want to work full time, but is there another option? Is there another way?
- [07:29]
A
Yeah, yeah. Were you familiar with
- [07:35]
B
the.
- [07:36]
A
The International Justice Mission caused at that point, or was it something that, like, it was more of a fit of that balance that you were seeking. And then it was like, oh, and I. I can get on board with this actual work. Like, how. How did you come to that conclusion?
- [07:52]
C
So in college, I went to the University of Missouri, and a girlfriend of mine interned at a nonprofit in Uganda. And she came back and she said, I met a group of people while there called International Justice Mission. And there's this thing called trafficking. There's this thing called human trafficking. And she began to tell us about it when she came home after that summer. And for the first time in my life, my bubble was busted. Right. I had lived a pretty great life. Not a lot of trauma, not a lot of exposure to hardship. And so when she described what humans trafficking was, for the first time, I wasn't the same. And so it always was in my brain what International Justice Mission does. I never thought I'd go work for them, but I just thought, okay, of all the nonprofits that I have calluses against, maybe this one's different. And at the time, I thought, this is just a giant group of lawyers doing this work. And so I'm just going to put them over here because they're probably really smart and they're solving a world issue. So fast forward to when the job description popped up on LinkedIn. I clicked it and I thought, oh, my skill set has a role in this organization. And so I knew about it. It was in a corner of my brain. And so when I clicked on it, there was familiarity there.
- [09:18]
A
Yes.
- [09:19]
B
So you're at the Dallas Stars. You have this moment, you feel this calling or this, you know, need to change, and you start working at International Justice Mission. Tell us a little bit about. You said it was, it was. It was very similar to the role you were doing. But what was different about it? Was it, I mean, that's, that's a pretty big difference between sports, hockey and, you know, human trafficking. Those, those are hugely different.
- [09:46]
C
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So the actual role that I had at the Stars was selling sports sponsorship. So I was selling advertising to large companies that were spending significant amounts of money with the Stars. And so that became something I was comfortable with. Asking for a hundred thousand dollars, asking for a transaction related to advertising, getting in the room and pitching a million dollar deal was fun for me and became easy, if you will. So the role at International Justice Mission was fundraising with families that were giving significantly to the work. And so not that there was a transaction. They weren't getting anything on the back end other than this really incredible feeling that they were supporting significant work. So similar roles, way different topic. I really struggled the first three months working at IJM because you're spending your days talking about hockey, uh, which is a blast and delightful. And you would talk to folks that knew all the players and knew the game last night. And so that's an easier transaction than opening somebody's eyes for the first time to human trafficking and what's actually going on in the world. And so for the first three months, they put me in this role I was having, meeting the donors without yet having a significant amount of time with our founder gary haugen in D.C. right. So I was having these conversations, going to bed at night sobbing. And I am not a crier enneagram. Three emotions are tucked away where I don't even know that they exist. I don't cry often. And so the first three months I thought, well, this won't work. I can't have this rule. I can't talk about this all day and actually live a life that's gonna sustain that. Then I went to D.C. gary Haugen, who is real life hero, I am just. He's incredible. He said, this is not your weight to carry. He said, the weight of slavery. There are 50 million people held in modern day slavery today, which is more time than any other point in history. More than the transatlantic slave trade. About 50 million people held in slavery today. If you go to bed at night with the weight of that on your shoulders, you will not wake up with joy or energy to do anything about it. We are gifted this responsibility for our joy, but it's not actually up to us. Like, how funny that we think we can do something about it. We just get to play a role in what God's doing with it. So first few months, super difficult and I didn't think I'd be able to sustain the work. But then that perspective actually changed my whole life of the this is not my weight. I just get to be a part of this. This is a joyful responsibility. And that helped significantly.
- [12:49]
A
I golly, that totally tracks. In the last week, had the opportunity to be sitting in a room with one of the organizations that we get to serve, and it's a rescue mission in one of the largest cities in the United States. And as we were even starting the conversation, the CEO, he framed his introduction as I'm so and so and I'm serving as CEO. That it like, it was just something about the way that he emphasized that serving as we went on to have this conversation about we are just stewards, we're stewards of the moment and. And we have been gifted small things to steward and then, you know, more responsibility around that, etc. So there is definitely a biblical lesson in there, but there's a bigger lesson about, I think, what it means to work with purpose and to understand. Like you said, you can't have the weight of all of that on your shoulders. You can reframe it to God. What an opportunity for me in this time to be able to serve in this capacity. And that changes the way that you talk to corporations to get them to open their pocketbooks or to individual donors or to the teams that you're leading. Okay, so then how did we go from there to what sparked the idea of minded?
- [14:29]
C
In 2019, I was able to bring a group of donors to South India to see one of the offices that IJM runs in. In India, one of the most prevalent types of slavery is called bonded labor slavery. It is where an amount of money is borrowed from a family that doesn't have $30 for an urgent medical bill, doesn't have $50 for school tuition, sincere levels of poverty. So they borrow from a local brick factory owner and they say, I need $50. And the brick factory owner goes, okay, I'll give you $50, but you and your entire family have to work for me and until the debt is paid off. But what happens is the individuals borrowing the money are not educated, so they do not understand interest or their actual rights or the actual laws. And so they are trapped for generations to pay off a $50 debt because they're charged false, exorbitant interest, they're beaten if they try to leave. Their kids aren't allowed to go to school, they're not allowed to go to the Hospital. There's absolute violence within those situations. And so I brought a group of donors to meet these survivors. And I just absolutely fell in love with them because they were so joyful, so resilient, so courageous. They were going on rescue missions of other people in their community. And I just was transformed. I had been to other IJM offices and fell in love with those groups of people. But this particular trip stirred me in a different way. Covid hit I learned that they were sewing masks for each other, for their community. And so my husband and I decided to buy a thousand masks to give them a little bit of work and to see what a project would be like. And my heart was stirring at that time. I loved ijm. This is the mission I wanted to be on for the rest of my life. But I also loved the business world. I loved the for profit sector. And so God was stirring in me. And I always had this dream of building a business. I didn't know what that looked like. I never had the right idea, but that was all happening at the same time. And then I learned about block printing, which is just the coolest, centuries old textile printing technique where any wooden block can be carved with a design. I'm showing you one that says the word joy. This was hand chiseled by an artisan. It's dipped into dye and then hand printed over textiles. So the moment I learned about block printing, I had just finished the mask project and I thought this is was so clear to me that we could make a product that had not only a cool handmade story, but a story of who's making them. And that was end of 2020. And so since then, we've got about 23 survivors who are printing full time for us, trying to grow and sell as many tea towels as humanly possible. So I left IJM a couple years later. It was a slow stair step off the cliff of stability into instability. But I left IJM in the summer of 22.
- [17:58]
B
So you've worked in the corporate world, in the sports world, in the nonprofit world, now as an entrepreneur starting your own business. In each of these facets of your career, what lessons have you learned that kind of bring forth into what you're doing today.
- [18:21]
C
More than I thought I looking back, you go, why did God have me in the sports industry? Or why did I go work for the nonprofit space? And now for the first time, you can look back and go, oh, that makes so much sense. I learned sales while I was in the sports industry. Two of my mentors, advisory board and investors Came from that initial work in the sports industry. Oh, I fell in love with this mission of ending slavery while I was at ijm. And now, obviously that is so central to what I'm doing at Mended, but, oh, I fell in love with business at college because this was what I was made to do. So it's amazing to look back and go, nothing was wasted. Every part of my journey absolutely made me into who I am today for this mission. I also think I didn't know who I wanted to be when I grew up. When I was 20, I didn't know how God made me. Right? And so now over the last five years, I've gone, oh, I have about three skill sets. That's it. I was made with about three skill sets. Everything else I'm either figuring out as I go or I'm delegating. And it's a really cool, freeing reality when you go, I don't have to be good at everything. And as long as I'm aware of what I'm good at and I play that role, that is actually how this is supposed to go. I wasn't supposed to be in the role. I was at IJM for that long because I was made for something different. My skillset was actually, I'm a builder. I like taking something from 0 to 1 or 0 to 2. I'm really bad at taking it from 6 to 7. And so you just go, what brings me joy? What makes my heartbeat faster? And I think I'm learning that more than anything as an entrepreneur, of honing in on what I'm good at and then becoming crystal clear at what I'm bad at. When you're an entrepreneur, you're just in the fire and really learning those things quickly.
- [20:33]
A
So as all aspiring entrepreneurs, I would assume, have like on their bucket list, there is some sort of Shark Tank experience, like in their dreams. And you've recently had the opportunity to be a part of an experience like that. Tell us a little bit about pitching at the Clover by Shark Tank Summit.
- [21:00]
C
Goodness, you're exactly right. I mean, what a dream. What an experience. Truly a miracle that I was chosen to get to do it. And that's a fun story for another day. But out of hundreds of people that submitted their entry to Pitch, Mended was chosen. And in front of 4,000 people, I got to walk on a stage and pitch to Kevin o', Leary, David John and Tabitha Brown. The idea of Mended. It was a 90 second pitch followed by 8 minutes of Q and A. And so did I say 90 minutes? I meant 90 seconds. If I said 90 seconds.
- [21:38]
A
Yeah, 90 seconds.
- [21:39]
B
90 minutes.
- [21:41]
C
90 seconds.
- [21:42]
A
I mean, look, you're talking to people in advertising. We know that some. Yeah.
- [21:47]
C
So 90 seconds to hone in on a pitch that would capture their attention. And it was incredible. One of the things I enjoy, one of the things I can do is be really, really nervous up until you hit a stage and then it was just gone. And there was a total peace and clarity that came over me as I was sharing the work of Mended. And they were so good. There were three of us that got to pitch and they awarded all three of us $35,000 in grant money. And so different than Shark Tank, I didn't get rejected on stage. You know, there were some comments made that will live in my brain forever about how we suck at social media. But that's okay. It's great. I learned from it. But I didn't have to give equity away. Right. I didn't have to endure millions of people watching me get turned down. So it was just really the best of all the worlds. And at that time, to be vulnerable at that moment. September is a tough cash flow moment, going into a great cash flow moment. And so you're ending this tough season, which in all retail, the summer is the worst. And it just felt like this huge hug and encouragement to keep going of, you've got this, you're okay. Here's a little oomph in your step. And so it was a huge, huge, fun moment for me.
- [23:19]
B
That's really cool.
- [23:22]
A
And yeah, I can only imagine the pressure that I would put on myself up until the moment that you walk onto that stage and 90 seconds goes quick.
- [23:38]
C
Yeah, yeah. I'm surprised I didn't get sick leading up to the moment because I was quite nervous. And Shark Tank has an incredible production crew, folks walking you through, honing your pitch, teaching you how to use that time. And so they walked us through what that should look like pretty excellently.
- [24:05]
B
So you've touched on a couple of things about entrepreneurship, cash flow building, something from nothing. Thinking about that. If there was someone you were talking to about maybe starting something in the mission driven space, starting their own company or organization, and maybe they're sitting there a little bit afraid to take the leap. What would you tell them? How would you counsel them?
- [24:35]
C
Is your heart beating faster when you think about this concept? Are you called to do this and you're just afraid? And if the answer is yes, which most of them would know in their soul if they're supposed to go do something, then you're not going to be at peace until you do it. And even if that is to bring you through the journey and then it only lasts for two years or 10 years, trying it and failing is going to be better for you because it's what you're being called to do, than not trying it and always wondering, that was a big part for me of, if I don't go do this, I'm going to have regrets. I'm going to always wonder, and I think I'm going to miss out on what God's asking me to do. So I would absolutely encourage people to walk in that. I would also say going to be harder than you think it's going to be. It's. You will never have enough cash and your markers need to be. I have three personal checkpoints that I talk with my advisory board about every quarterly meeting. First one is this glorifying God, and that's between me and God, but I just hope that he tells me. The second is, is this actually benefiting survivors or are we just saying that? Are we just using that as an excuse to sell products or is it actually benefiting who we say it is? And the third is, is it bringing me joy? And if it's not doing any, all three of those things, I have no interest in doing this. I don't. What if I'm not joyful? Now, that doesn't mean stressed out. It doesn't mean I'm happy all the time. It means I, on a regular basis, can I look back and go, this is joyful for me, Then I would say go, but it's harder than you think. And cash is going to be tough. There's just so many learnings, I think, also in this social good space. One of the things I've tried to do from the beginning because I have a product, is not make a subpar product. I don't want to be a pity buy. I don't want people to buy it once and think the quality is terrible, it's not beautiful, I'm never going to buy it again. Now, mine's handmade. So at the beginning it was my sweet friends buying this product from us. And now we're to the point where, like, okay, I'm confident in our quality, I'm confident in their ability to print, but don't create a product that's terrible because there's enough of those and that will mean it won't be successful.
- [27:37]
A
Mallory I think that there are threads of wisdom for anyone that's working in the nonprofit or social good space and what you share there, not just if you're an entrepreneur. Because ultimately, I think that the antidote to compassion fatigue is often that joy, renewal and checking yourself on those things that, you know, that we see the challenges of the world. And sometimes, as you mentioned earlier, you put those on your shoulder and carry them for too long. And so the antidote to that is all often that sort of renewal of taking a step back and saying, why am I here? What can I do? Like, what's my span of influence? And so thank you for sharing that and for sharing a part of your journey with us today.
- [28:35]
C
Absolutely. Group Thinkers is a production of RKD Group. For more information, including how you can partner with RKD to accelerate growth for your fundraising and nonprofit marketing needs, visit rkdgroup.com.