Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs. It is a cold spring day spring, in quotes here with Steve. Hi Steve. Hi there, John. And, uh, Kevin is on vacation at a warm place. The, uh, the Minnesota Wild have. Have been on national television, so it gives him, uh, several days to get outta town without having to pack a bunch of suits and stuff to, uh, to mug for the tv. So he's, we'll say he is on assignment, but he's on a vacation assignment. And I'm sure he'll come back with some grand stories of kindness that he experienced while he was, uh, while he was down in Phoenix with his, uh, his special friend Chrissy. Um, I've been thinking about today's program. Yeah. I, I, I guess and I, uh, so you look very deep in thought on this one. Yeah. Well just, you sound like it so yesterday mm-hmm. there was a shooting Yeah. In Nashville, Tennessee. Yep. And it was at a, uh, a Christian school and, uh, three kids were killed. And three, Adults were killed. Yeah. And watching the news coverage of it, um, brought me back to thinking about something that Fred Rogers, who I think we've decided is like the Grand Master of kindness. Yeah. He's definitely, as if you've seen the documentary about him and have seen the film starring Tom, uh, Hanks. um, you don't re you didn't realize how amazing of a person he was. I mean, just in, when you're watching his little kid show, you know? Absolutely. Lovely person. Yeah. Well, the real deal. Yeah. The, the quote that that comes to mind. I gotta get on my cheaters here cuz I'm old now. I wasn't old yesterday but I'm old now. He said when I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to. Look for the helpers. You'll always find people who are helping. And what struck me when I was watching the news coverage is that no matter which channel you were watching mm-hmm. and I was slipping between what side you're on, kind of whatever side of the political spectrum that you're on. Yeah. these people were obsessed with wanting to politicize. Yeah, of course. You know, so the person that, that, that did the shooting was a, uh, a transgender male, which means born, assigned at birth, a female. Okay. And identified as a he, him, it was right on their, uh, their LinkedIn profile. Okay. And, The people on the left, when I watched cnn, all they wanted to talk about was the Second Amendment and these crazy, you know, gun control people. Somebody who was trying to blame this on, on Trump, of course. Mm-hmm. And then when you turned it on Fox, all they wanted to talk about was, well, there you go. There's one of your transgender crazies. That was, yeah. there was an interview that was done by a local Nashville station that I happened to watch. Okay. And while you're hitting all the channels, I was, I was obsessed with this. I was obsessed with this because I think it was, I, I mean, to me it was the perfect time to demonstrate. To see who could, would demonstrate. Yeah. Kindness. Goodness. We would. Well, okay. We've been through many of these. Yep. Right. So you were kind of dissecting this one, seeing how it's playing out more. This one different, one time different, this one's different. For starters, it was a biological woman. Yeah. Who identified as a male, yeah. That was the unique, that was unique, right. It was very unique. So it gave the, oh boy, you know, one side of the, the, the aisle talking points that normally don't exist there but I just wanted to see, you know, how that would be handled. And it was handled exactly as I expected it would be. Yeah. Played out totally politicized. Well, there was this one guy that was interviewed by a local Nashville station, and the reporter tried to go there with him. and he said, you know, why are we talking about this? There are three dead children. Mm-hmm. there are three caregivers that have been murdered. Yeah. Look around. Look at how people are comforting each other. The story should be about those people that are comforting these people in a time of, of, of sadness and a time of need. You know, let them figure out that stuff later. But right now, let's focus on the helpers. Yeah. Let's focus on the people that are trying to do something good. Yeah. As opposed to immediately turning this in the blames and the, the, the blames point finger pointers. And I don't know, did you hear, uh, president Biden yesterday when he talked about, so he was, he was, uh, presenting to some small business, uh, event and clearly President Biden is. Declining in his ability to communicate. Yeah. And he, he's an old guy. He's an old guy. He's an old guy and so is the other guy that's running against him. He's an old guy. His just manifests in a different way. Now I'm probably pissing off everybody by talking about No. Is this the political Chronicles? This is the This right now, today gonna be the, but the point is, yeah. So Jug Joe got down there and he said something like, So he is, he was there to speak to this group about, uh, women in small business or something like that. But he was instructed, he was told by his, his staff that this happened, that, and we need to address this. Yeah. Well, he gets down there and he says, you know, I'm Joe, I, I'm, uh, Dr. Joe Biden's husband. I, uh, I heard that they were serving chocolate chip ice cream down here. and he goes, I love chocolate chip ice cream. That's the only reason I'm here. You know, I got a whole refrigerator of it. And he's, he's stumbling through this, trying to be funny or trying to be funny and the timing was not good. Yeah. Now you could give him grace and understand that, you know, what he's experiencing is just some sort of discomfort with the, the, the topic at hand. And maybe that's how he's coping with it. Yeah. And you know elderly people very well. I know elderly people. You know how he's an elderly person? Yeah, he is. And he's, he's struggling to communicate, but it was like people wanted to attack him. Yeah. Now there are plenty of things you can attack him for. And there are plenty of things you can attack the guy that was in Waco, Texas or wacko Texas doing his thing. It's just the world is insane. So I want Fred Rogers' Angel, what's your name? I want Fred Rogers. Yeah. To be our kind of guy for president. Yeah, I know. He is deceased. Yep. But there have to be there. There. Those people are out. and we live in a world, we live in a country right now that is just so divided, that is so angry, and it's just, you know, I think there are, it's not a neighborhood anymore. I think there are a lot of people in politics for the right reason. It's not a, it's not a sexy thing to jump into when you're a young person or a, you know, it's. It's if you're trying to do something right for the community, there's people that are dedicated to it that really are out there. They're not just trying to get power. You gotta wonder when they get to that level, you know, they're, what their reasoning is. But yes, there are, there's dedicated people that are trying to do the right thing and are, and are doing the right thing every day. Yeah. We happen to have one of those people that's gonna be on with us today. Oh, yeah. Uh, before we get to that, yeah. I just want to, I want to just have a little quick moment with you and tell you, you, oh moment, you moment mention you made a reference to, uh, uh, that it was your birth. Well, it was, you made a slight little, I got it. I dunno if the, the, the audience, our listeners got it. But I, I, uh, I got you something. And, and Kevin would, would be going in on this with me, I think. Oh, really? In spirit. In spirit. Okay. So, so a gift I got you. I got you a, so chocolate chip cookies. Oh my God. Some mini chocolate chip cookies. Perfect gift for the guy with diabetes But I will be pounding these things, And I love the Kowalski's chocolate chip cookies. Yes. Well that's, this is for, I know that you're kind of lonely. Your, your wife is traveling. My wife is travel alone. It's your birthday. Yes. Weekend week. You know it's your birthday week. But I've also got something considering your age. I know that. Is it Metamucil? No. I mean, you're a, you've hit a, a special year. What is it you wanna say? I'm 55. 55. I think 55. Kevin would agree. Oh, Jesus, you need Jesus. Some prunes. Jesus. He brought me a pack of prunes. A nice small pack of prune just for, just for all the medicinal reasons that you have prunes. You know, you are a great guy. You are a great guy. Let's just really quickly talk about my birthday. So yesterday, so my wife is out of town. My kids are, you know, either in school or working. And sad. I got, I had a lovely dinner with my, uh, mom and dad at a place in North St. Paul called Max. Have you been to Max? Uh, max Diner. Max Diner in North St. Paul. Yeah, I've been there. It's so good. They remodeled it now. I haven't been there a long time, but it is, so I went there back in the seventies. My dad's office was next to Max. We used to eat burgers there all the time. Well, this is a brand new Yeah, yeah, yeah. Joint. Yeah. And, and I had a burger and it was outrageously good. Like out outrageously good. That's a crazy choice. Okay. That's my mom and dad. You know, they're, you know, they wanted to go there and meet at four o'clock for dinner. I'm sure they'll be pounding the prunes. Prunes. So anyways, we met, they brought you out there to Max and North Park, and then after that I went and, uh, the, there's a group of us from the class of 86 at, from Hillary Yeah. That get together every other month. uh, it started out as the group that organized the class reunion, or, that's right. Okay. 35th class reunion. That's still, that's cool. So this group is slowly growing. Oh. And it's so neat because it's, it's like people that I did not really hang out with that much in high school. Yeah. Um, but just great people. And one guy that I want to acknowledge, and I think he listens is Frank Bock. Do you remember Frank? I, yeah, I, I remember him. Frank, my brother knew him. It was from your class? Yeah. Yeah, Frank was, Frank was in Dan's cl Dan's birthday is tomorrow, I believe. Yeah, it is. Dan. I'm, I gotta get him some friends. He's always been very respectful of me because of, you know, respect your elders um, could give'em some prunes. Don't give'em any cookies, man. Those are mine. Those are yours. Anyways, so Frank Bock, I mentioned to Frank Bock the last time that we were together, how much I love Duran Duran Uhoh, and I forgot about that. He bought me. Do you not like Duran Duran? I, I do, I do. Not to the level you, you, I just, I, that was, that was kind of like the music, the, the soundtrack of my life was, I know was Duran Duran. It was great music. And Johnny Clueless that too. I don't think so. But D Duran Duran and he bought me this book about Duran Duran. Wow. and um, was it called Hungary? Like a wolf? I don't know what it was called. It was, but it, it, it's, it was sort of like a tiger beat, you know how those magazines Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kinda a fanzine kind of thing. It was a fanzine, yes. Did you, did you, um, Uh, fold your pants a certain way and do your hair. I totally, I thought I was John Taylor. Thought I was could collar to the top. Absolute. Well, Frank did. Frank was, Frank was, uh, was voted best dressed in our, in our graduating class, and the dude was. Fashion forward. Yeah, he always has been. Yeah, he always will be. Yeah. He even still looks like, you know, she's got this kind of cool flippy hair and I mean, he's just, he's cool. Cool. But I just wanted to say thank you, Frank. Yeah. I started reading it last night when I was home alone on my birthday It was kind of pathetic and sad, but. It was just, I thought that was really nice. Good. Well now you can continue reading that with your cookies. Cookies. And then throw, I'm gonna b and I'll have a good mark. Yeah. Wake up nice and relaxed. Good. We're gonna visit with Krista O'Malley. Yes. And we're gonna call her right now. Why don't you gimme your phone number? Yeah. Okay. we'll be right back after this. And We're back. Back Hey. Um, so I have a guest, John, uh, that we, uh, we talked a little bit with her ahead of time, but I want to tell our listeners about her. I wanna bring her on. She's, uh, someone I've known for a very long time. I know her family. Uh, her sister Dawn and I went to, um, to college together. And also I worked with her at Target, but we reconnected, um, on a target event that we did a bunch of years ago. And, uh, and she is. She's an owner of a company called Command M. They are experiential marketing kind of company. She also is a founder of this really amazing thing called My Power Pack, and I want to talk to her about that. I want you to hear all about that and I wanna listen to hear about it. So Krista O'Malley, welcome to the Kindness Chronicles. Thanks for having me today, Krista, we, the theme of our show this, uh, this week is, uh, we decided that we would like somebody like Mr. Rogers to be our president. Um, and we, we are kind of obsessed with, uh, Mr. Rogers quotes, and one of them I think applies very. Uh, directly to my power pack, and it is, um, all of us at some time or other need help, whether we're giving or receiving help. Each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That's one of the things that connect us as neighbors in our own way. Each one of us is a giver and a receiver. And when I discovered my power pack, Um, I instantly thought of that Mr. Rogers quote, because I think it encapsulates what the objective of my power pack is. But instead of, uh, giving it away, why don't you tell us about this amazing app that you've created, this, uh, amazing tool that you are providing the, uh, the world. It's very unique. It's super unique. Tell us about it and how you decided that this was something that you wanted to. Sure. Uh, it, that's actually a really amazing quote, and so we'll have to steal that from you sometime and, and, and maybe use it for sure. But, um, yeah, so My Power Pack is a holistic caregiving app that, you know, we hope is an inspiring place for people to give and receive care and support, um, whenever it's. Um, and that could be something really positive, um, in life where you had twins and you need some extra hands on deck or whether it's something more medically serious. You had an injury, an accident, or a diagnosis or something like that. Um, but it really kind of came to fruition for me. A good friend of mine, um, was diagnosed with cancer, uh, breast cancer, and, um, she had been, she and I had been in, uh, a couple of different business groups together and had created, you know, a network of friends all throughout the country. And when that happened, um, kind of us, uh, from from across the country decided to support her and. Kind of get her cocooned with love and support the best that we could, um, you know, through her journey. And we didn't really know what to expect with that. And it was actually a really amazing experience. I got out of it way more than I ever anticipated. The sense of community belonging, kind of that whole neighborhood idea, lifting somebody else up actually made me feel really good. And so doing this as a shared purpose was really, truly unique and amazing. And so all this goodness and love that we created in and around Jen, um, was phenomenal. But then there was all the challenges that, you know, 10 women from across the country had to deal with, which was spreadsheets and trying to figure out a birthday calendar and yeah, radiation and chemotherapy and, and all these different treatments. And there's like all this friction. When alls we wanted to do was love and care for somebody and, and, and really do our best as, as friends to, to make this journey easy. So I just kind of put my thinking cap on and um, you know what Steve had mentioned that what we do for a living is experience design. and thought there's a better way. And I think caregiving was ripe for innovation. There wasn't a lot of innovation Yeah. In the space. Um, and nobody really thinks about it, and people kind of don't really wanna, you know, talk about it too much. Right. It's a, it's a private thing a lot of times, so, I knew there had to be a better way. So I set out to, to build something a bit more holistic and encompassing and kind of what you need in today's world to bring together all those different aspects of people's lives. Whether it's high school friends and college friends and coworkers and jobs you've left and you know, your hockey friends or your soccer friends, or you know, all these people from church or whatever groups and organizations into one area and do everything that you. Depending upon, you know, what people's gifts are to kind of take care of somebody that you love and care about. It sounds too good to be true. But I know John, you dove in pretty deep into it because it's, it sounds like this, this magical thing, but it is. Well, tell us about your experience, cuz you dug into it really deeply. So, you know, I, uh, downloaded or do you upload or download an app? I think you download an app. Yeah, I think so. Whatever it is. I hit the get thing on the app thing, the app store. I'm not very technically savvy, but what I, when I started looking at it, my head was going to explode cuz I. you know, I'm, I'm in the caregiving business. Yeah. Um, you know, whether it's at the nursing home or at our cancer center or the children's hospital. And I was looking at what you created and I thought, how is it that this doesn't exist? And I think that there are elements of this that exist out there, but it's not organized and it's not coordinated in a holistic way that you have and. I, I w like instantly I started thinking about all these applications that could be, well, for instance, you mentioned just before you and I were talking about this, um, uh, one of the person you know very well that was going through something and yeah. Everyone, yeah. Talk about that cuz that was really interesting angle. And so what left people? So I, I think, um, Krista, this will, uh, this will resonate with you. Um, we had a woman in our community. Who was dealing with a, a significant health crisis, and she has lots of friends in the community and everyone wanted to help her. Everyone wanted to help her. And what ended up happening was I think that she got so bombarded with casseroles and pizzas, lasagna and lasagnas and all this other stuff, what was intended to be something that was nice turned into a burden for them on the receiving end of the thing. Yep. And yeah, it, it was more about what we wanted to give them. Yeah. As opposed to what their needs were. Yeah. Yeah. And what their desires were. And this thing handles that way better. Well, tell us a little bit Yeah. If you would, and, and I, I'll fill in the blanks because I've gotten to know the app pretty well. But that's awesome. You know, all of the different things that this app offers, the, the, the different, you know, bullet points is kind of how I looked at it. As you're scrolling down the app, these are the different. What's the word that I'm looking for? Elements, uh, uh, pieces to it, right? I don't Elements, pieces. That's not the right elements of the word. No, we, yeah, definitely. Tell us about, I'll share'em with you, Yeah. So there's a journal, right, which people are pretty familiar with, right? So there's a lot of different places out there that you can do journaling, but the journal here, um, first and foremost, maybe I should say is privacy is up to the individual. Yeah. Right. So you can make your, um, pack, we call'em packs, and it's p a k. and your power pack, you can make it private or you could make it, um, public. And if you make it private, you know, if somebody sends you the link, you would have to wait in a queue until somebody lets you in and they can let you in as like an inner circle supporter, kinda like a best friend or a family, like close people. You know, it's just like real life. We try to make it like your best friends or your closest family. They probably know what's going on. And then information disseminates out. And so you can kind of keep it private and let people in that inner circle, or they can be a regular supporter or you could have it open so if somebody gets the link, they could just join automatically. But that was really important to us and it's that feature you can use on journal posts and you can use it on asking for volunteers and all kinds of things like that. Um, but's, can I, can I just interrupt you for just a second, Krista? Of course. When we talked yesterday, you, you, you mentioned that, you know, when I hear about the journal, I instantly think of, uh, uh, caring Bridge Giving. Yeah. The, the, you know, caring Bridge is, is an, or is a site that has done a good job of, uh, of capturing that piece of it, but it's not really interactive. Um, and tell me, you had mentioned that your friend had an interesting response when you suggested carrying bridge. Yeah. You know, when we first re re, um, when we re we said to Jen, Hey, you know, like this would be a good way to keep people involved. you know, for her it had a, it had an end of life stigma that she just wasn't willing to accept. No. And so, you know, for her, um, you know, this was breast cancer, she was going to beat it and, and fully intended on that. And it was kind of like this is a non-starter for her. It wasn't something that she wanted. Yeah. And I think, you know, for us, you know, that always kind of kept in the back of my mind because during that early days, bombarded, like you guys said with the casseroles. It was, you know, her family was bombarded with questions about what's going on, and I think we've heard that time and time again, and I think we've really tried with design and language and colors to keep it really positive and inspirational that this. My power pack, the app might be something that you use for two weeks and you don't get on it again until somebody else needs you, or you're on it for a year, or you know it's temporary and you use it when you need it and then you're off it. It's not something that, you know, we would want someone to be on, you know, for long term, but if they had to, we understand it and wanna make it, um, as friendly and as uplifting as we possibly. Yeah, so you got the journal. Yep. What else you got? So we, so we've got the journal, and then we have a calendar which is super interactive and it allows people to manage volunteers and ask for them or assign tasks to them. So if you wanted, you know, somebody to rake your lawn or clean your windows or give you a ride to the doctor or pick up, you know, siblings or, um, you know, just anything or the meals, the casserole, you can. It on there and put it out to maybe the inner circle or your entire group of people and people can volunteer for it. And you can be really specific. Like, um, we had Dawn, uh, my sister was using it when, when her husband, um, was sick with leukemia and, you know, she put on there like, the kids aren't picky eaters, but would prefer, um, proteins, fresh, uh, fruits and fresh veggies. Wow. Um, you know, no pasta, please. Yeah. Right. And so it gave them a good opportunity cuz they were getting a lot of lasagna. Yeah. And other things, which were great, but you know, it, it was one of those things of can you direct it a little bit more specifically? Yeah. And so the calendar allows you to, Ask for volunteers or just assign people to it. If, if that's something that's easier, say it's like for an older parent or something and they need a ride, you know, you sign it to your sister, you sign it to your brother versus, you know, volunteering, you know, that kind of thing. So the calendar's pretty interactive and it, and helps with, um, volunteer management and coordination. And then the messenger is pretty cool because, You can chat with people within the app. So for example, um, you know, on Steve's pack, there was a guy that I used to work with, uh, when I was going through college at Red Lobster, who I worked there, uh, put myself through college and, um, he contacted me through the app and I hadn't spoken with him in 25 years. Right. So, wow. It was really a neat way to connect with people and it's a neat way to connect with like, you know, Steve might know John, your neighbor or know of them, but maybe he doesn't really know them and you know, if it was something for you, he could message there and say, Hey, um, you know, is it snowing? Did somebody come over to shovel, you know, the driveway or, so it's the sidewalk or. It's all private message. You can go messaging private to people within it, right? Is that what you're saying? Yep. Within a pack? Yeah. Wow, wow. So, you know, it's connecting like neighbors, you know, that your good friend might know of your neighbors, but they don't necessarily know them directly. So like I had several people, um, you know, reach out and say, Hey, I worked with Don at Target, um, you don't know me. You know, obviously we have the same last name. So they knew I was her sister and said, I wanna organize something, you know, can you help me, you know, do that. Um, and we just would not have, you know, I would've had to go through Dawn Yeah. Who doesn't need one more thing to do. Right. Right. Or they find you through like Facebook or something and it's kind of convoluted communication. It doesn't really connect to, to the source of why you're trying to do this. Yep. Absolutely. Be before I know we have, um, be before you continue, I just have to ask. Did they have Lobster Fest at at Red Lobster back when you were there, Yeah, they did actually. So was that a good time to be in the lobster business or was that like chaos Well, if you're serving like I was, you were making decent money, but making good money. I mean, if you were waiting in the lobby, For an hour and a half to get a table. It probably wasn't the best, but I just envisioned all that super butter wrecking everybody's clothes. It's flying around. It's not good for the lobster. I'm sorry, I digress. It's not a good day for the lobster. Lobster. That's true. Okay, so we we got the journal calendar. Calendar, the messenger. What else? Yep. We're paying attention. And so then there's a marketplace. So we have a, a marketplace. A lot of people wanna give gifts, right? Like you said, it's typically we look at through the lens of what we want, um, and we're giving things that we want. Yeah. You know, so it's like kind of the golden rule. And we kind of wanted to flip it here and say, what's, oh, how about the platinum rule, right? Like, I'm gonna treat you ho you wanna be treated versus. The golden rule of like, I'll treat you how I wanna be treated. My favorite quote, love it. Nobody knows the platinum rule, except for you and me now speak. I never heard it before. Yeah. Do unto other, not do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. It's do unto others as they'd want you to. This is not in the Bible we're, it's not in the Bible. We just came, Kristin and I came up. I like it. I like it. That's, that does sound perfect for this. Isn't that cool? Yeah. So. I mean, you know, if you think about it, we have, we have this marketplace, so we have goods and, and services in the marketplace and, um, gift cards. You know, you could buy someone a DoorDash gift card, which was really awesome for people, you know, like Steve was in the hospital for a long period of time. Yeah. And people could send them Panera gift cards or target gift cards or whatever, gift cards. Baskets, um, you know, different items, you know, some people were sending, which I thought was super cool, was sending cookies to the nurses through the app. Right. Wow. And that kinda thing. And so think, forget about the nurses. Oh God, that's pretty cool. You know, like, Right. Like, that's super neat. So seriously, my head is gonna explode. I've, there's so many great ideas in this. Okay, now now, hold on. Now to get a little nerdy about this. I don't actually know a lot about this, but I've, I've been around it enough to know, I feel like Krista, this is kind of like the guts of a C R M in a way, right? It's, it's sort of like, It's sort of like the, the, the mechanisms you have now. Now for those of us that aren't in the business world, what is a crm? I don't even know what it stands for, but it's like a marketing, uh, software that holds onto calendars and you can have customer relations, management relations. Yeah. All that kind of stuff combined. It feels like the software is somewhat similar to what you'd get on that because it's calendar management. It's, uh, you've got, I don't know. I feel like it's all kind of connected. Is that, is that, am I off base? You know, I, I don't think it's super off base. I think it's like kind of a little bit of that vein. I've actually never heard anyone compare it that way, but I, I think it's pretty, you know, I think it's pretty accurate. So, you know, what we were trying to think about is like, what stops somebody for doing something? Yeah. Right? So like, it's like you think about somebody, you wanna do something, you wanna send'em a message, you wanna send'em a gift card or something, right? Like, what stops you from doing that? And in this situation, Like the hurdle is like where are, like, where's their address? So if like we're friends from high school, you've moved a couple of times and like now I'm, I I've heard that maybe you need some support now I gotta find somebody that has your address, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so many steps. It's like, how can I do this quickly? So for us, we, you know, We do have the person's address, right? Cause they've figured that piece. We've have that in our system. So alls you have to do is go on and buy a gift. We know where they are. It automatically gets sent. So we could send a card. You put the message, we hand write it, put the stamp on it, send it in the mail. And the cool part is like we've paired it with, uh, wishlist. So if you think about like someone getting married or having a baby, all these like super positive moments, people can just registry, ask for. Yeah. But people, when they're need help, they don't wanna ask for things. Right? Yeah. Yeah. But, but, but I like totally wanna flip the script on that. Like, can we make it easy for people to get meaningful things for them in a time of need? Right. And I, they don't need. I think that literally flipping the script is exactly the, you know, it requires a person who is in need to be willing to share what their needs are. Yeah. Which is not easy. Yeah. It's not easy. But I think that that people, you know, we're all givers and we're all receivers at some point in our life, and I think that a gift that the person that might be struggling with cancer, struggling with an illness, The gift to the people around them is to tell them what they need. We all often talk about the, the, the oxytocin that you get from acts of kindness and Yeah. And you know, essentially you're giving these people the opportunity to know exactly what's going to help you, which will help them get that dose of oxytocin. Yeah. Which is what Krista got when she started putting this together. Well, and something that you just said, so real quick, I have to ask this. You clearly are an entrepreneur, you're a salesperson, you're not a coder, are you? How does, how does an app like this get built? Yeah, yeah. No, I'm, uh, not, they call, what I'm considered is a non-technical founder. Right. Oh, okay. So, um, sounds like something I'd like to do. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So I think, you know, from, from our background of, of experience design, right? The u the user experience, the user interface, the ux, the UI piece of it. is really like, kind of what our jam is, right? Yeah. Whether that's in the physical world or you know, here it's, it's software, right? It's, it's digitally, but it's really thinking about like putting our feet in the consumer's shoes and understanding at that time or when they're using this product, like, what's going on and how do, how do we do it best? So we have people on our team that code and do the software engineering part of it. Um, and we have, uh, a cto, uh, woman, um, uh, Chicago that, um, functions as our, um, part-time cto. So you took the, the, the, the approach you take with experiential design and just kind of laid that into the foundation of this kind of different need. It's, it's actually, it feels like a big pivot, but the way you've explained it, it it less of a pivot than need. Yeah. It fits your, it fits your team's expertise and, uh, I've seen what you guys do. You're very good at, you know, adapting what the needs are and put it to what, what the client's needs are. And you, you, you fulfill it amazingly well. Okay, so here's an. That you, so I've been trying to think of, I mean, there's so many applications for this app. Um, in the world that I live in, the world that I work in. And you mentioned something that just the light bulb just, it blew up in my head. Uhoh. No. The idea of, you know, when you're, when you're being taken care of, so say you're in a transitional care Yeah. And you're recovering from, uh, heart, uh, heart surgery or a hip replacement. Yeah. And you're surrounded by these caregivers and you wanna show how grateful you are to the caregivers, but how do you do that when you're tied to a bed? Mm-hmm. And, you know, I, I, I love the idea of mm-hmm. on this app saying, you know what? I got this nurse that I just love that has been taking great care of me. She mentioned that she likes chocolate chip cookies, you know, Would somebody provide us with some chocolate chip cookies as a gift to this nurse or something? Wow. That's spread of signs. That's pretty cool. It's real. But what it is, is it's, it's not a gift for me. It's a gift for my caregiver. Yeah. Mm-hmm. which, and I mean, you want to care for your kids, which is a gift, which gift for you because you want to do that, right? So, Krista like, walk us through this. Say, um, you know, Steve got me cookies for my birthday and I'm gonna crack him. He's got chocolate cookies on his mind. say, you know, uh, my, my father died a few years ago. Say when he was starting to decline, we, we were all kind of scrambling, trying to figure out what to do. Walk me through how it would work with you guys with the, my Power pack. How, how would I, how would that start if I know that I need some help? Where does it go from that point? Yeah, so you, you would just start a pack, right? So you or your mom or whoever, whoever you know, it doesn't matter. A friend of yours even could start, John could start it for your dad too. It doesn't, it doesn't really matter who, who starts it, but you download the app. You download the app, okay? Yep. You download the app so you can, if you're on on, you can use it on a computer. Any type of computer web browser, it's my m y power p o w e r p a k.com, just all one word. Um, and you can use it on a computer, you can download it, um, onto a uh, Android device. Um, via that way too, or go to the app store if you have any Apple device. So if you have an iPhone or a iPad, that's what I idea. Mm-hmm. Yep. You can go right to the app store and we're in the app store and you download it and then it'll ask you, um, you know, if you wanna set up a pack for yourself or somebody else. And you know, if it was for your dad, Steve, you want, just wanna set it up for him. and then you, you can invite guardians or you know, invite people to it. So you set up the page, you put a little bit of information on there about your dad and kind of what's going on. Yeah. And then you would create the pack and it would give you a link. and so you could share, again, you set it to private or public, and you can share that link out any way that you want. You could tweet it out if, if that's what you wanted, but you could email it, you could text it, you could send it, um, via social channels, Facebook, whatever, Instagram, it doesn't matter. LinkedIn, whatever you want. and then people can sign up and join the pack. If it's private, they wait in a queue and just one of you or your, you know, John or whoever's managing the page, and you can have multiple people that are guardians managing the page, let people in, or if it's public, they just come in automatically and then you can, you know, just start creating events on the calendar. You know, you could even set like visiting hours are this time. You know, please don't just randomly come and drop off food or Oh yeah, here's when we want food. Or you know, to your point of here's the caretakers, we'd love to send them cookies or brownies or whatever you want. Um, you can set up your wishlist if you want it. You could also give donations. We didn't talk about that, but instead of like creating another account to go fund me, you can set it up. Cash donations and people can, you know, use a credit card, um, and send, you know, donations as well, right through the app. Um, so it's really kind of holistic in that manner too. And, um, as people pass the link around, you know, as more people hear about it, then more people will join. So we have packs, some of, you know, some of them have 30 people and some packs have, you know, several hundred people. So it just kind of really depends on. You know, how comfortable people are sharing their journey and how big their social circles are and, and that kind of thing. Could you use the, okay, John, you had a question? I was just gonna say, I discovered that it's free. That it's free. Yep. Yeah, totally free. Which of course is another, you know, someday we'll have to figure out the, uh, the economics of, uh, creating something like this. But yeah, that's for another time. Well, okay, so I, I have a, do you have another question? Go ahead. No, I, I have another, I mean, I could imagine you could apply this to other things. Carrying bridge is, does have a, does have a sense of, you know, it's like final and it's, to me it's like hospice. Yes. Yes. And that's not what it's intended to be, but that's sort of how, that's kinda what it's falls. Yeah. But I feel like this has to more than like you could do, I mean, could you do this for a baby, you know, like a. For, well, yeah, so, so we, we, we, there's a lot of people actually. So, um, one of my classmates, um, from Germany, um, his wife, they, they, she's not from Germany and so she's kind of an expat in Germany and she said that they, for babies, um, they, they have this. this thing called Mama Down, or, and that's what they call it. Okay. And it's like, kind of after the baby's born, the, the mom needs help. Mm-hmm. And so they set up kind of, you know, bringing all kinds of different things, whether it's, you know, diapers, formula, meals, et cetera, to the family. And she's, she's like, we have a lot of challenges with that. Just the same kind of thing that we had when, you know, Jen initially got sick. You know, all the great things of the love, but the friction points of, you know, you know when to bring things Yeah. And what to bring and who's doing it and, and when, um, and the changing schedules. And so she's like, this would be amazing. Um, you know, for that application especially, she's like, these are all expat moms that have married, you know, people from Germany are living in Germany, but you know, it's, it, they might not be native to that area. They're kind of alone, out be incredible. Yeah. They don't have resource. Well, and I just think about you military. Yeah. You know, God, you, you're one step ahead of me, Kris. I was just gonna say that. No, I'm sorry. I, you know, you think about military families, for example, like they're stationed down at Fort Bragg and they're, the, their, they're the husband is, uh, deployed. She has a baby and she's down at Fort Bragg, basically by herself. Yeah. And her network of care of friends are in Minnesota. Yeah. I would imagine that you've probably of applications for this, like you've probably discovered through the, the way, the different ways that people use this, just how, um, flexible this app can be and how many different things that it can do for people. Yeah. There's a ton of use cases. You know, I, we talked about elderly parents, like it's a big one. Um, and especially if, if, or, or someone just elderly in general where they're, they're, you know, Network isn't near them or, or maybe has passed on before them. Mm-hmm. Um, but also special needs. Um, oh yeah. A lot of different special needs. Um, organizations we've talked to really think that this is a huge kind of game changer for families where it's like, You know, just keeping them up to date and informed in kind of one central place, maybe, uh, a sister or brother that's gone to college, but still kind of needs to, you know, understand kind of what's going on at home and, and that kind of thing. So, you know, there's always, every time we talk to somebody, there's another. Use case that pops up that, you know, we didn't even think about really. Well, and I, you know, I, I think about the, uh, the people that we take care of at our nursing home and why, you know, we should be sharing this app with those families to rally people around those folks. And, you know, I think about the Masonic Children's Hospital and, you know, making sure that the families are giving people in their circles the opportunity. To do something. And I, I just, it's incredible. Um, I, I, I also have a question about the, uh, the, the name, my power pack. Yeah. Now, when I first, Steve first told me about my power pack, you know, I instantly think of like superheroes and stuff like that and the, the, the, the brilliance of the name. Like, it's, it, there's so many different angles that you, how did you come up with the. Well, you, you kind of hit like, you know, the what? The, okay. So when Jen was, um, when we were caring for her, the 10 women are all CEOs, right? And so we, we kind of decided we are her power pack, right? So if you think about it, like she's gonna rely on this group of women who, her pos have her back and like, we're gonna power her up through this journey. Um, it's kind. Thinking about, you know, you, your phone's about on, you know, 2% left and you just wish you had a power pack to get you to the next charge. And what can you rely on kind of that super power pack, um, of, of, of everybody that you've collected through life. It's like kind of coordinating all those different people. Um, but the women really are, are the power pack. So we kind of, the 10 ladies are kind of the OG power pack Um, that, that, uh, started. And so that's kind of where the, the name came from. And, and that's John, that's why she's our guest on the Kindness Chronicles because this was born out of a, a, of kindness, pure love and kindness for their friend. And, um, Krista just happened to have a, a, you know, a way to think through this and, uh, coordinate it and put it together with her team to create this pretty cool thing that, that is born out of something that was. Pure, pure love and kindness. So I think it's amazing. One of the things that, when we spoke yesterday, um, that struck me was, uh, the, the brilliance of this not being a nonprofit and here's why. Um, having started a number of nonprofits, understanding how long the ramp is to get a nonprofit started, you regarded the or or referred to this as a, as a B corporation. Can you explain what that means to you? Because I. I think it's really a, a, a clever way of describing, did I get that right? A B Corp? Yep. A B Corp. So a B Corp kinda sits between, it's a for-profit company, um, that I, I kinda describe it as sits between the nonprofit world and a for-profit world. It's a for-profit company that has a environmentally and socially chartered mission. And so basically what that means to me and and to my power pack is, I want it to be free. Um, I always want the app to be free to anybody who wants to use it. I mean, I, I really wanna shout it from the rooftops that like, you know, if, if your entire ecosystem volunteers and can use this tool to make your somebody's life better, like, that will make me happy till, till you. From here on. And for people who can, you know, have people that can donate and buy things, you know, they'll fuel the, those that can't. And I think everybody has some of each in, in their world. Um, but I think the B Corp allows us to do that. It allows us to make money, allows us to be more agile. It allows us to go faster. Um, what I think. And it also eliminates a lot of the BS that you have to deal with when you're, when you're a 5 0 1 I mean, it really, it allows you to be, to do things, uh, quickly to be nimble as you've described. You know, one, uh, B Corp that comes to mind is Love your melon. Um, I'm sure you're familiar with, you know, love your Melon is the organization that, uh, hats the hats. Yeah. I mean, they've now got all kinds of apparel and all this other stuff. It's really, it's a great, and the other thing is, is, is there are people that I'm sure that have invested in this. the reason that they've invested and have given you the opportunity is because they're motivated by, you know, something positive at the end. And those people tend to be the kind of people that are also very charitable with those dollars that they make. So, I, I applaud you for the, uh, the entrepreneurial spirit that you have. Yep. And just the, the savvy to understand that this didn't have to be a nonprofit to make a meaningful differe. No, I think it's, you know, it's, it's interesting. Um, we're self-funded, right? So we haven't gone out, um, to get any external funding. Yeah, I, I think at, at some point we'll probably need to do that. And I think you're probably right about, you know, those individuals that'll go. But I, I think it's important for a company, um, especially a technology company at the end of the day, cause it's so expensive, it does have a way to. Feed itself, right? And, and allows it to grow and continue because that's, I think what happens a lot of times is you don't have the money or access to, to resources. Um, you know, in the, in the nonprofit piece of it, And you can, you know, by making a monetary, by having a monetary engine, you can kind of keep it fresh and current to needs of, you know, if somebody came with a great idea and said, or, Hey, we're seeing things where people wanna use this. We can go after that part of it. Well, and all you have to do is, you know, look at Love Your Melon as a, as an example of an organization that you know has really done some amazing things. Yeah. And they've done it through a model that's. Been very successful for them. So, but I think, uh, what Krista has here with, uh, my power pack is more, has, has much more legs of use for so many more people. So many there, so many different, yeah. Applications go. How many times are we gonna use that word today? Well, thank you so much for your time, Krista, this is amazing and we're so excited that you shared this with us and we'll share it with our millions and millions of listeners. I'm not sure that's an accurate depiction of Oh, okay. Hundreds and hundreds of listeners. There's. That So, so that's awesome. So we're sort of like the B Corp between the Exactly. Millions and the hundreds. Yeah. Um, that's a perfect sweet spot, right? It's a perfect, that's, that seems to be the spot where, uh, where we've wedged ourself into. Well, good luck with the, the rest of this and maybe we'll check in with you again and see how it's going at some point. And, uh, have a, have a, have a great one. And thank you for joining us. Awesome. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And off we go.