← Them Before Us Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
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B
Welcome to the Them Before Us podcast. We are back after a bit of a break for the holiday season. But it's so nice to be back together and nice to see you, Katie.
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A
It's fun to see you and catch up. We were just like, right before we started recording, like, what happened? What was your Christmas like, what you do, you know, because it's crazy not to have some, you know, we're in contact regularly, but we really genuinely got a break from work, you know, not that we were all totally off, but, you know, it wasn't the frenzy that it often is. And so then once I saw you, I'm like, and now tell me everything.
- [00:39]
B
We have to catch up. We love joking and our colleague Josh, who lives over in the east coast, we will joke that we haven't seen each other and then we'll see each other in the airport going somewhere together. Like the first time I've seen you is, oh, you're coming from New Jersey and we're going to Vegas together and we haven't seen each other in a few weeks, which is, it's always fun.
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A
To know we live like 40 minutes away from each other.
- [00:57]
B
Yeah. So, yeah. And it's really neat to be able to share. Part of the reason we were all able to just relax at the last part of the year and the holiday is because with all of your help, people who listen, the people who are following us on social media, who read our newsletter, funded us, supported us and helped us raise over $300,000 in kind of our fourth quarter annual campaign this year. So that was amazing. We were so thankful, so blessed, so blown away by all the people who joined us this quarter.
- [01:33]
A
It's, it's moving. I mean, that's like the only way that I can express this. Like, I just know like money wise how tight things can be, especially when you still have kids in the home. And then it's like, I follow, I follow incredible nonprofits doing amazing work and there's so many places where people can choose to contribute whatever amount of money extra that they have. And that you guys would support us means so much to me. So much to me. And that you would do so generously to the point where we are going into 2025 and we really are able to say, let's hit it, let's really hit it, let's go big. And we are still going to working out exactly what that's going to look like and when. But when I say we are hell bent on a global takeover on behalf of children, the kind of generous contributions that were made, especially in the third quarter are really going to allow us to advance that in ways that are really substantial. So if you are a financial supporter of them before us, thank you. We're so grateful.
- [02:47]
B
Yeah. It's been so neat. And I love that aspect of working for a nonprofit is you're seeing folks who, they're just giving what they can, right? There's people who are donating 10, 15, $20 a month. But over a long time, you just, you get to be in relationship with that person. We get to send them notes. We've met friends who are donors at different events across the country, which has been so neat. So it's, it's. And then we get those huge astronomical, I didn't even know people could write a check that big gifts, right? And we need, we just need both. And we want there to be such a wide spectrum of folks who support us. So, yeah, if you'd love, if you want to be a part of what we're doing, we would love you to join, you know, our monthly giving and just so we can know you and be in touch with you. And then you're going to get that first wave of information for the things that we're, we're up to. But we'd love to start with a little bit of a recap of 2024, since we're a little in the fundraising space. Let's talk about the events we did. This was the first year. Well, gosh, now we have five full time staff. Josh is our executive director. And he jumped in and said, let's, he's the vision guy, he's the money guy and the vision guy. And he's like, we've had no events. Let's do a Seattle gala. And then the next year, I think we did five different fundraising events. Is that right?
- [04:04]
A
Katie 2 so we did another Seattle, we did Charlotte, we did a couple in Austin, kind of at 2 in Austin that were sort of official events for them before us. And then of course we do, you know, if you're doing like a 2025 recap or 2024 recap, one of the things that wasn't on my radar at all was just meeting with donors. Like we started to kind of have this rhythm of if you've contributed to us, we're going to find you. If we're in your area, we're going to get together with you. We're going to get together for you, with you for coffee or for lunch or something like that. And that was just my it was just incredible to me because every single person that touches this ministry, I want to be best friends with. Like, I just don't know any other way to say it. And then, like, even if we weren't in your area, we tried to zoom and meet virtually with donors, but also just followers. I mean, I probably did maybe 200 Zoom meetings with people that were connected to this ministry at some point. And it was a blessing. It was a blessing. So the fundraising was really just a massive relational, like, full court press. And it was. It was incredible.
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B
There's a term, too, called friend raising. So sometimes it's just getting connected and meeting someone. Someone says, oh, well, I want you to know this person. And we get connected that way. Some of our events in the last year were more in sort of the friend raiser thing. Like, we had a great connection in Texas who had us into. They had us into their home, and they invite a bunch of their friends, and you just get to present. We have great food, we hang out. We have books and resources. But it's not necessarily. We walk out with a lot of money, but we walk out with. I think we walked out with a board member in that one. Right.
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A
So, yeah, it's so awesome. And. And lots of connections that are introducing us to legislators or people that. Where there's overlap or somebody that could be a contractor for us or. Yeah, that one family in Texas has. That was our fifth that we've done. Just get. Just get a bunch of your friends together, come for the evening. Have incredible charcuterie. And. And let me just tell you about what we're doing. And there's been so many wonderful, incredible relationships that have come out of that.
- [06:17]
B
Yeah. And our Seattle gala was kind of the pinnacle event. I mean, obviously, because we live here probably, but that was our. And I would say a good number of the them before us. Foundational relationships and donors are probably in the Seattle area. Cause that's where you live. That's where I live. And we were kind of the first on staff, but we had some drama at our Seattle event. It was beautiful. It was so well done. Our colleague Mary, who's on staff, and another gal, Amy, planned it from the east coast, which is awesome. I decided to show up. Yeah.
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A
Check, like, write down the list of spiritual gifts that I don't have. Event planning from afar.
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B
Yeah. I can't have planned an event from the same city. So I was just like, I'm happy to show up, but we did have some drama with some vendors. So do you want to chat about that a little bit.
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A
Well, yeah, like, we're on site, we're getting everything set up. And one of the vendors just, even after they were starting to set up, got up, walked out, said, oh, you know, even though we've had your slides for a couple weeks, we just looked at them and you're intolerant. So we're leaving. And of course you're like, this is so interesting because A, it was a breach of contract, but B, like this state, Washington state, sued a grammar into oblivion because she refused to make flowers for a same sex wedding. She was serving the people, but she wouldn't serve the event. And in essence, that's exactly what they were saying is we don't want to participate. This violates our conscience. And so they want to be able to be intolerant in their realm, but everybody else needs to be forced to align with their version of tolerance. So there is a certain amount of irony there. And. And we definitely are going to see what we can do to put the screws to them in terms of their breach of contract. So there was a little drama there. Another vendor faithfully completed her duties, even though she later wrote us an email and said that made me very, very uncomfortable. And I wrote back and she told me why. And I wrote back and said, thank you. Thank you for continuing to do an excellent job even though you disagreed with us. And then I really tried, attempted to sort of shepherd and minister to and explain why, you know, we're not against her. We're four kids. So. Yeah, it's, it's, it's kind of like this is what happens in Seattle.
- [08:47]
B
Yeah, our colleagues were, I think, a little more incensed than we were. I think you and I were more like. Shrug. Yeah, I mean, it's Seattle. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. But it is an interesting when you're on this side of the political spectrum or perceived like, because I wouldn't say what we're sharing or the way we are portraying ourselves was particularly political, but these are issues that are talked about in politics and in the culture. And so obviously there's so many opinions about it. But, but, you know, people saying, well, you are on this side of the spectrum, so I don't want to engage with you. It's like we have to be a lot more vigilant of, hey, you know, what we stand for ahead of time. Are you gonna be okay with it? So we don't get walked out on a few hours before the event. And here's the thing too, if they thought that that was gonna mean we couldn't do the event. That's not gonna happen. You know, I mean, again, thankfully, because we're local and we have different connections. And I had some people ready to go, you know, take down materials from somewhere else and bring them that we needed. So I was just thankful that it didn't. It wasn't a make or break to we're not gonna be able to have the event now kind of thing. But.
- [09:56]
A
Well, what I love is Josh Wood, you know, who is our executive director in Charlotte, which is a much. An area much more friendly to our message, let's just put it that way. They can, they really can go out and kind of boldly share. Whereas in Seattle, we are a little more cautious and need to be a little more vet, you know, who we're going to do business with a little bit more. You know, they said to him, we're not going to help you raise any money. And he said, we're going to raise so much money off of your refusal to do business with us. And it really just added to the air of the whole event of it is us against the world. It is we who are going to fight on behalf of children. And not only are we going to be battling all of these well moneyed, well organized interests that have like a global reach, it's right here too. It's these principles of adults need to do hard things on behalf of children. It runs up against some of the greatest cultural narratives that we're facing today. And it really is us on behalf of children against the world. So I just felt like the whole environment was electric, like really exciting. Like I just. It was a delight. It was an absolute delight of an event. Even though it was, it. It certainly looked a little more humble, you know, than we. Than we had intended it to be.
- [11:10]
B
Right? Yeah. And it was funny, like when you shared from on stage what had happened, the room is, is almost even more immediately with you now than they would have been if everything was perfect. And like you said, it looks glamorous and perfect. So, yeah, it was kind of the, the Christian, the scripture that says what the enemy intends for evil. Right. God will use or bring about for good. So we're always just thankful God. It does feel like God's hand is on them before us, is guiding you, guiding Josh in the directions and the things we're doing. And God is taking care of us. And so we're not going to need vendor here, vendor there. It's like you can walk out if you want God's going to do something incredible.
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A
I am. I accepted a challenge to read and, and, or listen to the Bible, entire Bible in 30 days. And it's very. It's like the shred. You're going to shred it. And so it's been awesome, though, because I am a junkie. I'm an, I'm an addict, and I've never done this before. But I'm like at the end of Joshua right now. And so often there's so much reiteration. I mean, talk about, like, going up against the world, right? This teeny little people who are not the most numerous, who are, you know, there's nothing special about them. And yet God says, you are going to be unstoppable if, if you stay close to me, let me fight on your behalf, if you adhere closely to everything I have commanded you. And I do feel like. I'm not saying we have been blameless. We haven't. But I will say that we are not fighting alone. The cause of children is God's cause. And if we can carefully adhere to his strict requirements for child protection, he will go before us.
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B
I like that you say too, on the social side of things, you're never on the wrong side of history if you're on the side of children's rights. Like, and we're seeing that with the trans ideology. It's writing itself. There's too much exposure now. I can see the surgeries on Twitter on X. So it's, it's being exposed. And now we're watching country and school and college dismantle or, or, you know, put a stop to their things. So we're just, we're seeing that culture starts to write itself when it's exposed, when people stand up and start fighting for the right thing and fighting for children.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Okay. I'd love to hear from you what some of your favorite, whether it was just travel to meeting with people or meetings or speaking events were in 2024. Maybe. It's hard to choose just a few.
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A
It is hard to choose. There was awesome. I mean, it was a great year. Favorite things, definitely the book was at the top of the list because we went from a year ago. We hadn't even conceived of something like this. We really started to formulate a plan in February and signed a contract in April and had it out by September. And the contributors were unreal. And I learned so much through the process. I really do feel like the book Pro Child Politics is going to be a critical resource just to help people think through putting Kids first on everything. I feel like it was a awesome opportunity to sort of take our branding and our mindset and start to train everybody to think about putting the kids first in their area of expertise. So that was certainly. It was challenging, but amazing. I got to speak at the Turning Point USA Young Women's Leadership Summit, and that was really. It was great. It was great because they put on a great event, and the other speakers were fantastic. My kids. My husband got to come because it was our 26th anniversary. So he was, like, in the crowd filming. It was like, he's like, I was surrounded by Barbies, like, because all of the girls were just absolutely adorable. And they had, like, a dress suggestion of, like, coming adorable and cute and floral and. And, you know, dresses and all of that.
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B
Very pink.
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A
Very pink. The whole thing was very, very pink. And. But I was like, they're Barbies with brains. I mean, you talk to these women, and they know exactly. You know, they have ideas about toxins in their food and, you know, reducing government waste and, you know, forming families in ways that are good for them and good for their husbands and good for their children and all of that. But he took a video of me coming out on stage, and my kids go back and they replay it all the time because it's hilarious. I mean, like, there was a fog machine. There was, like, bass, you know, and there was, like, a preview clip of me speaking in different, you know, platforms and stuff. And my kids laugh so hard because it's me coming on stage like a rock star.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So anyway, that was super fun, and it was a very fun trip to go with Ryan. Of course. The Colson center was so fantastic. We got to see a lot of people that are very them before us, aligned, that have. That are supporters that are followers that give us tips. You know, they'll just send us, like, hey, have you guys seen this article? We love the Colson Center. We feel like they're one of the best worldview formations organizations around, and they generously let me speak twice and do and lead a workshop. So we had tons of fantastic contact with. Contact with all of their. Their attendees. What about you? What were some of your 2024 highlights?
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B
Oh, man. Well, let's see. Did we. We went to ARC for the first time in 2024, right? Was that.
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A
No, it was 2023. It was November.
- [16:53]
B
So long ago. Well, I wrote. I think I chatted about this in my, like, one on one. How was your year with Josh? And I loved our California Vegas trip. So we got to Go to California and just meet with local. It was a bunch of advocates for children in a bunch of different kind of spheres. Right. It was like some family policy people, Catholic organizations, political organizations. But it was more of a brainstorming session and trying to help them with messaging. And that was a really fun, interesting meeting. And I just love that you kind of see still the old school thinking. The things that were. We've talked about, you've talked about why them before us came around in large part was because the social arguments, the arguments for why we should do marriage and, and, or a certain way and protect children, we just kept losing, losing, losing because we were not centering the proper victim. We weren't talking about it from the proper perspective. And some of these settings you step into, you still feel like it's kind of this same way of thinking. Let's, you know. Well, it's religious liberty arguments or whatever. So it was really neat to be in that conversation and hear you advocate for. This is why it's better to center the children. This is why it's a winning argument. We are having success. We gave everybody a book, we had some resources. So those things are really fun. And then we were at a, like a legal conference, which was really fun and really interesting because, you know, I'm sitting at a table with a bunch of lawyers. People of faith, but a bunch of lawyers. So it's just a totally different context than I was used to. But I love those opportunities to meet with people and get to share about what we do and give people resources and things like that.
- [18:38]
A
Yeah, that was a very busy and very good trip.
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B
Okay, 2025, what are we looking forward to? See, I mentioned the arc that is one of the big things coming up in the beginning of the year next. Next month for us.
- [18:51]
A
Yeah, yeah, next month. So that's super fun. Of course we love ark and I actually am going to be one of the hosts of the live stream while we're there, which is really fun. They're really trying to not only have a massive in person audience but, but they also want to create an online option as well where people can pay a much more mild participation fee than the in person ticket and join via live stream. So I'm going to be one of the hosts for the social fabric stream which is going to be really fun because it's like if I have a spiritual gift, it's emceeing like that's what I do best.
- [19:28]
B
Yeah.
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A
So that's going to be really, really fun. Happening in February, of course Great opportunity to just be with the other advisory board members of arc. Um, we are in conversation with Jordan Peterson's team to get a interview with him, which, you know, we had talked about, he and I had talked about at our in person meeting in October, I guess. So then it's just sort of a calendar alignment thing. So that's really exciting. Like, we love arc. We're going to be able to sponsor the Social Fabric Dinner again there, which is sort of the signature event for our part of arc. So, like ARC has five or so different streams and emphasis, you know, governance and environment and kind of the purse, the, the story that we tell about our civilization and then social fabric, you know, how it is that we weave ourselves together in relationship and that has to do with family and community and institutions and things like that. So we are one of the advisory board members who really focuses on the social fabric. So it's an honor to be able to sponsor, thanks to some really generous partners, Social Fabric Dinner, which is the main place where all of these people interested in social fabric issues get to come together. And last time when we did it, it was just raucously joyous. It was so wonderful.
- [20:47]
B
Now that was. I remember. Was he a representative from Hungary?
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A
Was it Hungary? I think it was a smaller or it was. It was some small, like former Soviet state.
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B
There's so. There's so many of them European countries. What. And what do you play? Ode to Joy or something? Yeah. And it was like people just cheered so loud after. And it's, it's just. You feel that feeling. We're from all over the world. How many was it 70 something countries represented? Not necessarily just in that room, but in the, in the conference as a whole, but many different people represented in that room. And we're all fighting for the same thing. We want children protected. We want marriage and family to be strong for the good of our countries. And so you just feel that sense of camaraderie from across, you know, all the different nations. It was, it was awesome. Another big project that we are going to be, I think, doing filming for. We've been doing a lot of the planning. Creative is the documentary. So you can you tell us more about that?
- [21:49]
A
Yeah, that has been a real delight to formulate with the production team, with our partners at Focus on the Family, who is co producing it with us. We are going to have the first round of filming just in a couple of weeks in dc, which is so exciting. And we've got our. Another round of filming that'll take place probably in Seattle at the end of March for a couple of weeks, and then other creative elements that are going to need to be captured as well. It is quite a process. I've got massive new respect for people that put together documentaries, but ours is not going to be the typical documentary like it is going to be. It is going to be a hybrid of testimony, social science reenactments, and it's going to be beautiful. Like the production company that we are working with, they produce beautiful things. And so I'm really excited just about not just the content, but the presentation as well. So we are going to be hitting that hard over the next couple months. Lots of activity happening, and then my part is going to die down. Maybe I shouldn't say that. Filming is going to die down and planning is going to die down around May, and then it's just going to be editing, which will be a little more things that I can do from home and things like that. So I'm really excited. We have a delivery. We are going to have it done by September and then when it will be released. And what that's going to look like is sort of the next phase of conversation we're going to have. I would love to screen it in a few places, but we certainly have plans to have it streamed on major platforms because we want the ordinary mom and dad scrolling on Hulu to be able to see it. We want partners across the globe to be able to use it, and we want people who really need answers to a lot of these questions to be able to just pull it up, you know, on a free platform, I hope, and. And have their minds changed.
- [23:45]
B
Yeah. One of the benefits to a documentary we talked about is how easy it can be to add the subtitles for a variety of languages. You know, click it on, choose your language. Some of our other resources, whether it's a webinar that we do or our small group curriculum, can be more complex to add Spanish subtitles to. So a documentary can actually have a lot of power across different cultures and languages. So that's really exciting. It was really fun to be a part. I just got to come to that initial creative meeting because they were local and it was so fun to see some of that process, you know, really writing stuff on sticky notes and then sticking it on the board and just basically throwing everything out to see what sticks. So that would be really fun to see that finished product and promote it.
- [24:32]
A
Yeah, I can't wait.
- [24:34]
B
What else? Anything else as we're wrapping up here that you're really looking forward to in 2025.
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A
Well, we have. This is, this is the really exciting thing about hitting our fundraising goals is now we can choose from a menu of killer options of how we want to attack these forces that are trying to bring down children. So, you know, we've got, my gosh, we want to create a database of states that, and figure out like, who's violating the rights of children and who's protecting kids and just have a map for our different policy and legislative partners to be able to take a look at and understand very, very quickly what are the areas of weakness in my state, what the things that I can fortify and then hopefully get to the point where we can grade those different states so that we want to be the go to source for policymakers at the state level and the federal level when it comes to protecting children. So that would be a huge undertaking. And thankfully we've got the right staff to, to initiate that project. We also have had a lot of people ask us to create materials for teenagers that, you know, we've got our Raising Conservative Kids book, which helps give parents an idea about training their children up in the good, true and beautiful. But there's really not a lot of materials out there for teens. And I would say especially for middle schoolers, you know, we're in pretty tight with people like Hillary Farrer, who wrote Mama Bear Apologetics. And we're connected to a lot of the different worldview organizations and obviously partner with people like Focus on the Family. As far as I know, nobody has something specifically for middle schoolers about all these different areas of culture that impacts kids. So we would like to develop that. I would like to develop that. I mean, that is really kind of the intersection of a lot of my passions, child defense and equipping kids. So we are hoping to be able to create some kind of material for that. And it might end up being multifaceted. We also want to attack the Human Rights Campaign. We hate them. We hate them with the force of justified hatred because they are one of the most nefarious players when it comes not just to undermining the family, but targeting children specifically. So we have some ideas about how we could do that. And we had a generous donor help to advance that, that aim. And so now we just need to really figure out what that might look like and, and, and what we're able to accomplish this year in related to it. So that's wonderful. We also want to formulate some curriculum for people who are recovering from family dysfunction and help them break the cycle Obviously, we're very concerned about family structure and the way that it victimizes children. But there's also a big problem with American youth that they are not getting married, they're not having children, and many of them are not even having sex because they have been so damaged and broken by the anti human, anti child technology culture and laws and their own history. And so for those up and coming teens, college students, young adults who say, I want to break the cycle, we want to provide resources for them. So, I mean, like, there's so many, there's so much need. We are the people to meet the need. What can we do and when. And what is it going to look like is what we're going to be hammering out in the next month or two.
- [28:14]
B
I mean, work as not just them before us, but all these organizations. It's like, we're coming for abortion, we're coming for the porn industry, we are coming to take down trans ideology. We are going to take down Obergefell. Like, we. It's. It's. The sky's the limit. People have thought that this is just, you know, it's the settled science. Well, it's the law now. Well, it's like, no, if it's not just, then we're coming to take it down. And that's a pretty exciting place to be, especially because we're seeing heart change and we're seeing law change and we have our finger on the pulse of a lot of what's going on. And so it's, it's a very exciting time to be doing this work, I think.
- [28:57]
A
Yeah, don't let anybody tell you that it's a done deal. When you're talking about child victimization or really just anything that goes against natural law or what is clear and evident in the created world, right? Like male and female, like what marriage is, like how important it is to protect children. Like, it is never a done deal. Never a done deal. When you're victimizing kids, there's always going to be somebody. There must always be somebody who rises up to defend them. And I think that you're right, Jen, that there does. I feel like there's been a sea change. I think a lot of it took place when we hit peak trans and people said, this has gone too far. This has just gone too far. And now, I mean, like, okay, you can call me a trans foe, but I'm going to stand up and I'm going to fight this. And you can see it with things like, just in the last couple days, there has been a Lot of press around, like, mute this if you've got kids in the area, okay? But there has been a lot of press around the rape gangs of Rotterdam, which was largely Pakistani men that abused and raped young white UK girls for about a decade. And it was covered up by the authorities. And it was horrifying. It was horrifying and sickening the things that they did. But there was such a preference for political correctness that they would literally feed their daughters to be raped and burned and killed for the sake of trying to keep the peace and trying to maintain this sort of, you know, multinational utopia, utopic vision that they were trying to promote. And just in the last couple days, like, it has burst way open and everyone is like, how could you let this happen? And so I really do think that a lot of the forces that have been keeping people quiet and pushing us along this pathway of social overhaul are starting to crumble. And, you know, sort of tangentially, Bible sales are massively up.
- [31:00]
B
Wow.
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A
You know, like, I think that typically, you know, the market share increases like 3% a year, and last year it was up by 22%. Wow. So there's been a huge, like, resurgence of people going, whatever the world is offering me is not working. I need something else. And I'll tell you what, anytime somebody embraces biblical truth or a biblical worldview, it goes hand in hand with child protection. It goes hand in hand with restoring the social fabric, whether that is marriage, whether that is spiritual and religious communities. And so I do feel like we're at the place where we are turning a corner. And then before us is going to go like gangbusters. Like, I just feel like a horse that just needs to be released from the stable. And then we are just going to run with all of our mic.
- [31:50]
B
It's exciting. This is an exciting time to be doing this work. So, yeah, if you're listening to us, thank you so much for your support in 2024. We're so excited for 2025. Sign up for our newsletter. If you haven't yet, jump on and be a monthly donor and be a part of what we're doing. We're so thankful for all of you. Thank you for listening to this episode. We're excited for the things we have in the future with the podcast as well. Thank you for listening. Thanks for joining the movement.