289: Giving Back Insights #108 — Colorful characters and reconciling doing well & doing good with Rob Lowe

The world is filled with many colorful characters.

Welcome to the 108th episode of Giving Back Insights! Insights are our solo show to celebrate how our guests and their charities serve others, explore actions each of can take to make a difference in people’s lives and connect.

Today we’re talking about Colorful characters and reconciling doing well & doing good! Enjoy today’s episode and keep your comments and feedback coming.

Key Takeaways:

The handsome fella on today’s cover is Chris Stafford, a really nice guy AND one of the most successful real estate agents in the entire San Francisco Bay Area.  In addition to his own real estate activities, Chris also advises other agents to build their business. A cornerstone of his success is integrity, always working with his clients’ best interests at the forefront.  You can check him out at:

https://epiclistingagent.com/about-me/

I have the honor and privilege of working with Chris on the non profit I founded in 2018, Strong Communities.  Strong Communities harnesses the power of real estate to strengthen and rebuild communities across America. Our mission is to help nonprofits build their capacity to serve so they can do MORE amazing work in their communities.

To fund Strong Communities and invest in nonprofits we work with, we turn vacant and underperforming real estate into working capital for nonprofits to build a stronger organization.  America has a nationwide inventory of vacant, abandoned, underperforming, and unwanted real estate. Strong Communities’ 5-year goal is to transform $10 Billion in real estate towards solving problems in our communities.  

This, ladies & gentlemen and is a BHAG — a big, hairy, audacious goal.  And not only is Chris a right person to make this happen, he’s a great FIRST person, to make this happen.  

I subscribe to this fun daily service called TUT, “The Universe Talks.”  Each day, I get a fun and uplifting quote from Mike Dooley and the TUT team about my place in the world around me.  It’s surprising how good I feel about these silly little emails, I do look forward to them like others eagerly anticipate a positive horoscope.

https://www.tut.com/

Anyway, I received one on December 20th that I kept and it went like this:

“The world is filled with many colorful characters, Rob, one or many of whom would be absolutely thrilled to play along in any drama you’d care to create – romantically, socially, financially, comically – any.

You just have to let me do the casting – have to.

Truly thrilled,

The Universe”

Chris is one of those colorful characters.  It’s not just his success in real estate, his ability to see the “big picture”, or his desire to make a difference in people’s lives that makes him a perfect fit.  Nor is it Chris’ sense of humor, his high energy, or his willingness to take a risk. There’s this aspect of being in alignment between what he does and who he is that makes Chris special.

I really got a sense of that earlier today.  Yesterday, we talked about Strong Communities and some of the work we each have to do and I was feeling super jazzed.  He texted me this morning to discuss “a philosophical question”

The philosophical question was essentially this:

Rob, this is going to take off and we’re gonna do a lot of real estate business.  I know this is going to help a lot of people, but how do we explain ourselves making a lot of money on this work?

Isn’t that beautiful?  I mean, behind those dreamy eyes of his lies the soul of human kindness.  To even think, let alone be a little troubled by how to reconcile doing good and doing well says a lot about Chris.

It just so happens that after Chris and I talked yesterday, I wrote in my journal about doing well and doing good. I told him about The Universe Talks, and I shared with him the TUT email I got on December 12th:

“The entire world will be a richer place, Rob, once you help millions of people every day and have your beautiful vacation home.

We knew this when we helped you pick your dreams.

So let’s get cracking,

The Universe

I explained to him that the reason I picked a beautiful vacation home as a material goal along with my life’s purpose of helping millions of people is that I’m so bleeping cheap, I’d have to have a LOT of money to buy a vacation home.  And as long as my wealth comes from being of service to others, I can feel good about it. Literally, the more people we help with Strong Communities, the more money we make. So let’s be proud and transparent about our business model, and know that it fits in perfectly with helping nonprofits develop their own sustainable revenue streams.

I hope 2019 has gotten off to a great start for each of you.  If 2019 is still evolving, go out and find one of the colorful characters waiting to join you on your journey of progress and purpose.

Remember: Always err on the side of love & kindness.

Love & Gratitude,

Rob

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Mentioned in This Episode:

Giving Back Podcast

https://www.tut.com/

https://epiclistingagent.com/about-me/