STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka

#27: Chris Rhodes

• Kelly Tshibaka and Niki Tshibaka

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Discover the groundbreaking way to align your shopping habits with your deepest values as I bring my son Josiah and our compelling guest Chris Rhodes into the fold. Chris unveils his innovative app, Veebs, lighting the path for consumers to make informed choices that resonate with their political and social beliefs. Together, we dive into the heart of financial freedom and explore how this tech marvel could alter the landscape of consumerism, transforming every scan of a barcode into a statement of principle.

In our riveting exchange with Chris, we highlight the journey of Veebs in the face of an ever-shifting corporate America. By presenting a variety of value packs, from conservative to liberal ideologies, we show how this neutral platform is paving the way for true consumer empowerment. Hear how our discussion ventures beyond the app itself, tackling broader societal trends and the ESG movement, and how you, too, can wield your treasure, time, and talent to influence corporate decisions and champion causes like 'America First' or veteran-focused initiatives.

As we wrap up the episode, we reflect on the collective power we hold and the stories of heroism that inspire us to take a stand. We encourage you to invest in what you believe in and to use tools at your disposal, like Google Calendar, for effective time management. Listen in as Kelly, Josiah, and our pioneering guest, Chris Rhodes, energize you to make your mark in both the marketplace and life.

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Kelly Tshibaka:

Welcome back to Stand where we help to make courage contagious. I'm your host, Kelly Tshibaka, former US Senate candidate and current chair for the Trump campaign in Alaska, and I'm joined today by my amazing co-host and son, Josiah Tshibaka, who soon is heading off to college. I'm so glad that you're with me. We're so excited to be broadcasting today from the frontier of Alaska. You can be one of our standouts by joining us on our website, wwwstandshoworg. That's where you can find all of our amazing past episodes and you can find all of our links to social media, our links to our YouTube channel all of our stand shows. Hit that subscribe button. Become one of our famous standouts. We'd love to have you join us and we're so excited to have you on our show.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Today we're going to be talking to Chris Rhodes, the CEO of Veebs. That's spelled V-E-E-B-S. Have you ever asked yourself why the heck do I want to give money to people who hate what I stand for? That's what Veebs, the app, is all about. It tells you where the businesses you're shopping for and shopping with align with your values. You don't want to be giving your money to people who don't believe what you believe, and this app tells you whether these businesses align with your political and social values. So it's just as easy as scanning the barcode. Super simple. We're going to talk to the Veebs founder today about how Veebs can empower your financial freedom. So welcome Chris. We're so excited to have you with us. Thank you for being with us today.

Chris Rhodes:

Yeah, and thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to be on here. I've listened to a bunch of your podcasts before and I just think they're great. Great stories by people Love the focus on action, and so I'm really happy to be here today and talking to your audience.

Kelly Tshibaka:

We're excited to have you and, speaking of action, that's what we stand for stand for freedom, truth, government by the people. So I want everyone to know. Veebs is available on the app store or on Google play. You can download it. I've got it. You want to get it. It is a new app, so you are on the cutting edge of your listening today. You want to get it. It is a new app, so you are on the cutting edge. If you're listening today, you want to find out how to maximize your financial freedom and take a stand financially. Get Veebs on Google play or the app store, whatever is your app preference of choice, but you can get it there. So, chris, let's jump in. What inspired you all to create this app?

Chris Rhodes:

Yeah, so, um, you know, first of all, like you say, veebs is the app that enables people to buy based on their values during their regular shopping trips, and so it works really easily. Veebs customers pay 99 cents a month. They pick a value score based on what their own values are, or a value pack based on the value what their values are. Then they go in the store, they scan the barcode and Veebs returns a V-score to them, and the V-score if it's high, that means the product aligns with the customer's values. If it's low, veebs offers an alternative so that the customer can find a product that more aligns with their values. We got about 4,000 companies in our database now and about 300,000 products, so when you go into the store, you can be pretty sure that what you're scanning is gonna show up. Our alternatives are they match what you're actually looking for. So if you want French onion soup, you're gonna get another French onion soup, not a tomato soup. So it makes it super easy to go into the store and find the companies and the products that match your values.

Chris Rhodes:

Now, we came up with this idea around 2021. There were a couple of things converging at that time. First of all, there was a big study that came out that said that over 75% of US customers want to buy products from companies that align with their values. So that's, across the board, bipartisan people want to buy from companies that align with their values.

Chris Rhodes:

At the same time that that was happening, we were seeing more and more companies that were taking hard stands on one side or the other of what we kind of considered to be 50-50 political and social issues, but they were still expecting to sell 100% of the products that they had been selling, and so all of that didn't quite match up for us, and some of the messaging was kind of strong-armed. We thought it went beyond just let's take care of the environment. It went beyond let's be inclusive, and it felt a little more like take your medicine, we know better than you. So we started in 2021 building out our database. It's actually pretty complicated to pull all that data because it's in all different formats. It's, you know, deep in financial disclosure sometimes, and so it took us a couple of years to build out the database, to build out the scoring for being so easy and then to connect it to the barcodes. But we opened kind of soft launched in July and are fully up and running now, trying to get people to buy based on their conscience.

Kelly Tshibaka:

I just want to identify something you just said. I love that I don't have time to go research what the French onion soup companies are investing in, so I'm going to be honest.

Chris Rhodes:

Exactly but.

Kelly Tshibaka:

I think we all saw what happened with Budweiser right. So when that hit the news, people voted with their dollars and it made a really big impact on the company and they had to make some big decisions about what they were going to do. I know one of the things that happens in our house is maybe my husband and I have some differences in how strongly we stand on some of these values or vote with our dollars. So a company will make a decision and I get really upset about, like you said. They will make a decision on a 50-50 kind of issue, and then they make a 100% stand and then expect me to kind of absorb their values, and so then I will take a 100% stand in response and then he gets upset that we can no longer eat at that restaurant or he gets upset that we no longer buy that product and if he brings home ice cream from that company it just goes in the trash. He goes upstairs and I just I don't care that. I just threw a $7 pint of ice cream out. And he's like what did you do? And I said, do you know what they stand for? And so there's conflict. So he just knows he can't bring home those products and but I'll tell you I don't have time to sit there and research what.

Kelly Tshibaka:

So I wonder how many other things you know. Like our son, one of our other sons he's really into basketball shoes and there are companies that I say you are absolutely not allowed to buy shoes from those companies. And we have this debate and he says but they're the best basketball shoe company. And I say, well, do you want to give money to people who wish that we not only couldn't speak but didn't exist on the face of the planet? Like we're literally supporting people who wish that we did not exist, and so I love that you're doing that research for us. So I'm wondering, like, what's your long-term goal with Veebs? What I'm hearing you say is you're not in this app. You don't cater your app to people like me. It sounds like people kind of pick their own values and then the value it's a neutral app. It just tells you this company does or doesn't align. So then, what's your long-term goal with Thieves?

Chris Rhodes:

Yeah, so you know. First of all, I think to kind of address the rabbit hole issue, that's what we call what you're talking about where, how do you learn about companies? You got to go right now. You got to go down the rabbit hole, or you have to wait for the new cycle to catch up.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Right, you hope mainstream media reports it.

Chris Rhodes:

That's exactly right. So you see, maybe a handful a year, or you're spending your days down internet rabbit holes learning about the companies that you're thinking about buying from. We replace all that. We make it easy for you to just know where these companies stand so that you can, at the point of sale, decide what you want to buy, and that way you also avoid throwing ice cream out right Like you decide in the grocery store, not once you get home and you know, realize that there wasn't what you wanted to get in the first place.

Chris Rhodes:

I think the other thing that we do is we stay on top of things like who actually owns the company. There's a lot of movement between brands and who owns them, and so we have to stay on top of that. It's not always clear at any particular time who owns the company and what they stand for. And then the other thing that we really try to stay on top of is how they're influencing. So some of the examples you gave are almost exclusively about marketing. So it's the company decided to say to the world here's what we stand for, here's what you know our marketing plan is. But marketing is not the only way that they take stands. They also use foundation money to pay for different types of advocacy. Even the way they're structured sometimes is an indication to what they stand for. We recently did a study on B corporations. So it's not just about the marketing, it's also about really where they're trying to influence kind of the global scene Long term. Like you say, the company is, in fact, neutral.

Chris Rhodes:

You can pick from a variety of different values packs, and some of them are liberal and some of them are conservative, and some of them are liberal and some of them are conservative. But what we really want to do is be the trusted source for data. We don't take any money from companies, we don't do any advertising, so we want to be the trusted source for data so that people can make informed decisions. We think that there's really nothing more American than giving people the choice of what they want to do, and so that's why we make our app neutral. You pick the values and you're able to decide what you want to buy.

Chris Rhodes:

We will continue to add different values packs. We've got seven now, a few in the works, a few in the works. It's turned out to be more complicated than we expected to just add values packs and do it consistently, so we can be the trusted source of data. But we'll see more values packs come online so you can tailor your beliefs a little more, and we'll also see us expand into new product areas. We right now do grocery paper products, alcohol products. We don't do restaurants yet, we don't do clothing yet, we don't do airlines yet, but we expect to do that in the future. The way we think about it is we kind of did the hard stuff first. Right, there's many more grocery items than there are types of shoes, for instance and so we try to do the hard things first and we're going to come back around later to other product lines.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's great, Chris. What's the best value pack, would you say, for people here at Stan, people who want to take a stand for freedom, truth and government by the people?

Chris Rhodes:

Yeah, so we have three value packs that are really focused on conservative values. There's conservative, which is kind of the general across the board conservative values. That's also where the right now the, the nonpolitical companies, fall. So if you really just want quality and price, that's probably the pack for you. Right, it's if the companies are not involved in the political scene, then they tend to fall into the conservative value pack.

Chris Rhodes:

We also have America First, so that aligns more with I believe you said I think you were President Trump's representative in Alaska. That's probably the best one for that group of people. It's kind of that how do we make America's industries stronger? It's pro-drilling, drilling for oil, things like that. And then we have a veterans focused um pack, and very often our conservative customers are really interested in supporting companies that support veterans. You can pick up the three and you can order them in a way that um, you know, kind of changes what the score turns out to be based on what's really the most important for you, but uh, that is, those are the score turns out to be based on what's really the most important for you, but, uh, that is, those are the three. I think that probably would most resonate with with your audience.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's awesome. Thanks for talking with Chris Rhodes, the CEO of Veebs. You're on stand with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka. My co-host today is Josiah Tshibaka. We'll be right back after this break. Check us out at standshoworg.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Welcome back to Stand. You're here with Kelly Tshibaka and myself, Josiah Tshibaka. We are on today with Chris Rhodes, founder of a company called Veebs. Mr Chris, one thing I'm wondering is what sort of problems did you run into during your creation and founding of Veebs?

Chris Rhodes:

Yeah, so I think it actually is a pretty good segue from what we were talking about before the break with marketing. That's where a lot of people get their information about what companies are doing, but the fact is that they're influencing in many different ways beyond marketing, and so to gather all the data that we needed was really the first challenge that we had to address. So how do we pull information about where their money is going, what organizations they're funding? All of that goes into the score, in addition to what they might be. That was the first challenge, and that data is all unstructured, so we have to pull it out of a number of different locations, then figure out how we're going to process it in a consistent way into a score. The second piece is how do you make it easy to use? Right? So there's 300,000 products in the database now. We didn't want to just make a repository of rabbit holes, right. We wanted to make it easy for the customer to use at the point of sale. So we had to connect all the data we were gathering, all the scoring we were doing, to the barcodes that people could scan or search from. So those were the kind of the two biggest problems from. So those were the kind of the two biggest problems. The third is keeping things up to date.

Chris Rhodes:

Like I said, a lot of companies or a lot of brands change ownership on a pretty regular basis in the food and alcohol industry in particular and so you see these companies change hands and then what they're focused on from a social and political perspective changes as well.

Chris Rhodes:

So we want to stay on top of that, and the reason is so that our customers can stay on top of it and we talk about. One of the things that we were so surprised about when we started down this journey is just how much money these companies are spending on political and social things, and that was really surprising to us, and almost all of that actually gets passed through to the customer, and so we want to be sure that, as we learn about these companies, we make it easy for the customers to know what they're spending their money on and that it's going to pass through. It's not reclusive billionaires and dark money that are funding all this. It's you as a consumer, buying from companies who then use their profits in different ways that you may not agree with. So it was really about kind of illuminating that and talking to the customer base, or potential customer base, about the power that they really have.

Chris Rhodes:

Consumers spend $20,000 a year on groceries and alcohol and paper products, and we want them to use that size of purchase power to best effect, or at least to the best effect that they want to use it for.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Absolutely, and Veebs is an excellent product to do that. It's available on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store, so standouts, go ahead and download that. As someone who's looking into business, and a bit of a businessman myself, I definitely would not want many of my consumers knowing if I were both marketing-wise openly and then also behind the table funding initiatives and policies that they did not like, and an app like this would really scare me because it would enable a lot of my customer base to not buy my product and would really hurt my business. What would you say to the businesses that are losing their customer bases through the creation of this app by giving consumers the ability to control their purchasing power?

Chris Rhodes:

Yeah. So I think the first thing I would say is we really hope that people are using the app to reward companies that do the right thing. And so you know, we want those companies who match the kind of general public's values to succeed. We want companies to focus on price and quality more. We'd love to see them kind of exclusively focused on those things rather than some of this other stuff.

Chris Rhodes:

But the other kind of part of it to me is all we're doing is shining a light on what the companies are doing, and so if they want to continue to do those things, that's fine. That's up to them. It's a business decision on their part, but we don't want them to do it in a way that people can't see, and we want people to be knowledgeable and empowered in how they make their purchasing decisions. So if companies want to continue to take some of these 50-50 political and social stands, that's absolutely fine with us. We just want to be sure that the consumer base knows it, and that's all we're doing is shining a light on it so we can better match customers with companies that reflect their values.

Kelly Tshibaka:

It's adding transparency back into a free market economy.

Chris Rhodes:

That's exactly right.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Right. So we have corporate accountability. It's almost like putting consumer protection just really into literally the palm of your hand through the power of an app. We hear a lot, especially here in Alaska, about this move through corporate America of ESG, and for those in the audience who don't know what that is, it's this new movement in corporate America called environmental social governance and their metrics that they're using to determine investment decisions and even corporate decisions, like you're talking about, chris, where they're going to now put investment in corporate dollars. You might even see it in some of the marketing. Like you know, buy our socks and we'll put 50 cents towards climate change, but, as you said, that means that that 50 cents is actually just passed on to the consumer and prices just go up so that they're involved in environmental, social and governance initiatives. And then that affects things like their shareholder decisions, their board of directors, board of governors decisions.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Everybody is sort of evaluating these companies based on their ESG metrics. It has also done things like really dissuaded people from developing resource development, whether it's oil, gas or mining in Alaska, because we don't fall high on the ESG scale, though. They're developing mineral development and resource development in other parts of America, just not in Alaska. So one of the things I hear you saying is it sounds like Veebs is really pushing back against this ESG trend by pushing this transparency, by pushing the ability of the consumer to say, actually we just want to restore the freedom of capitalism and free market economy. Did I capture that right?

Chris Rhodes:

Yeah, I think that's right. I think you know what we're doing is just making sure that if a company is going to spend money on those things, that everyone knows that they're spending money on that and what the implications are. You talked about climate. To me, that's a pretty good example. Companies are talking about climate, this climate, that. What is our commitment to the climate emergency? And I think that it's just gone overboard. I saw a study by McKinsey recently. I mean, that's not a conspiracist, that's McKinsey. The consulting firm said last year the global economy spent 5.7 trillion, with the T dollars on net zero goals and that's expected to go up to 9 trillion per year for 30 years. Just, that's basically 5% of the global economy spent on net zero goals and we're going to spend 300 trillion over the next 30 years. And it's just. It seems like an overblown reaction to a problem that's maybe not all the way defined yet, and you know.

Chris Rhodes:

I'm a business friendly guy about the environment.

Chris Rhodes:

But the things that are important to me from an environmental perspective there's like six or seven. You know soil, health, water cleanliness, a bunch of other stuff comes ahead of global warming or climate change, and the entire economy is changing because of that, and it's changing in a lot of. A lot of the reason that it's changing is because companies are pushing that. And so to me, you know, let's be clear about what companies are talking about, let's be clear about the types of influence that they're trying to peddle. And you know, from my perspective, alaskans, for instance, might want to push back on our companies, kind of ginning up a little bit too much furor over this one topic at the expense of, you know, maybe their prosperity for sure, and maybe even some other environmental issues. So that's, that's what we're trying to do is to say, you know, if you're worried about those topics, then see what the companies are doing, see what they're saying and see, see how they're influencing, and just make sure that what you're doing, what you're where your money's going, aligns with your own beliefs.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Well, and with trillions of dollars on their price tag, then, like you said, that's maybe it's not just inflation that's driving up our prices, it's these social agendas and quite possibly social agendas that we don't align with.

Kelly Tshibaka:

We just, uh, earlier this year had an issue that originated here in Alaska and then made national headlines about a woman in Fairbanks who saw a transgender man shaving of all things in the woman's locker room at Planet Fitness. And then she exposed that on social media and it went national. And then we subsequently saw a significant stock drop and enrollment drop of planet fitness memberships because people saw that exposed and said we don't, we don't want our little girls there was actually a little girl in the locker room at the time we don't want our little girls exposed to men in the locker rooms at planet fitness. And I agree with what you're saying, that if you didn't catch that news cycle and you didn't know, then you don't know that even afterwards planet fitness they suspended the woman's membership and continue to maintain that it's okay for men to be in locker rooms with little girls and that's their corporate policy. Well, if that's not your personal policy, you know, if you were to bring that ice cream home, then Kelly Tshibaka would put that in the trash.

Kelly Tshibaka:

My little girl will not be in a locker room with a man and I would suspend my membership. So that's what Veebs allows you to do. So, standouts, we are saying you want, you want to get this app. It's that, uh, uh, it's called Veebs V E E B S. You can get it on the app store or Google play. Anywhere that you download apps, we recommend it. Scan barcodes and then they're going to be moving on to other things like planet fitness, budweiser, airlines, et cetera. This is a new app, so you're on the cutting edge and, chris, we so.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Thank you for being with us today and we're so glad to have had you on our episode. We'll catch us next week on stand. You can catch all of our episodes, stand showorg. We invite you to subscribe. Follow us on social media and thank you so much for being with us. It's been a great episode and we'll catch you next week. Oh, no, wait, we're just going to be back after the break. So we will catch you next week, but we'll be back after the break. Josiah and I are going to have a conversation. Thanks, chris.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Welcome back from the break. You're here on stand with Kelly and Josiah Tshibaka this morning, which set an amazing interview with Chris Rhodes, founder of an app called Veebs, which empowers users in a free market economy to use their purchasing power to take a stand for what they value. So, mom, one of the issues that we run up against here in Alaska, which many of our amazing standouts are Alaskans, is we do not have nearly the variety and plethora of options that you can find in the lower 48, where Mr Chris has started this app and where the majority of the United States obviously resides. Since Alaskans might not always have those alternatives that are brought to them on Veebs, or just alternative options for buying from companies that do stand for their values, what are ways that we can take a stand and maximize our freedom, even if we aren't able to help but buy from these companies?

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, that's a good point. So we support free market economies. Anyone who's conservative supports the idea that the power really lies in the hands of the consumer. It's the same idea that the power really lies in the hands of the people for the government. We hold businesses accountable, we hold the government accountable and we do that through our purchasing power.

Kelly Tshibaka:

But not only is that a problem here in Alaska, it's a problem really in any rural or semi-rural community across the United States. If you've got your you know local general market where it's the only store within hundreds of miles, or you've got these communities, like even here in Anchorage for anyone who's taken an Alaskan, or you've got these communities, like even here in Anchorage for anyone who's taken an Alaskan cruise. You've seen some of our rural communities. Or if you've come to Anchorage, we've got a couple main grocery stores. But now they're talking about a massive corporate merger in the lower 48. That would actually merge those major grocery stores together, so we would really only have one grocery store and Walmart, and then, like you're saying that, it really limits our options. And so when you want to shop around, I think we'd still. Fortunately, in Alaska, if you're talking about peanut butter, we'd still have enough peanut butter brands. If you're talking about French onion soup, it might be a little bit more limited. Honestly, ice cream, you know, we I think we still eat more ice cream per capita than any other state. I still don't know why, but we definitely contribute to that. So in Anchorage we're still okay, but it still is a really good question for all of these other smaller communities.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's not just an Alaska situation but for all of rural and I think, fortunately, because of the widespread use of internet, we have a lot of internet options. A lot of people would sort of just default to Amazon or Walmart online, both of which ship. But I think that there's been this great spring up of mom and pop shops online that also widely ship, and we see that even out to a lot of our rural communities. Of course, the cost of shipping factors into the cost of products, but that has been a real communities. Of course the cost of shipping factors into the cost of products, but that has been a real blessing, I think, for being able to empower consumers to diversify the brands that they can shop at. It'll be interesting to see how Veebs accommodates for that, since you can't easily scan that barcode, but I'd like to see an ability for consumers to be able to get supplies from different locations, especially in our smaller communities.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Absolutely. Another thing that I can see end up being a problem. Even with that, though, is in business, consumers will always go for the most cost-effective option. They're going to balance product and supply and demand and price with convenience and how much satisfaction they get from it. So what would be your encouragement to our audience of you know giving over that extra three, four or $5 in shipping to get a product that's not as easily accessible?

Kelly Tshibaka:

shipping to get a product that's not as easily accessible. So I think I know people like to get cheaper products. I mean, this is one of the reasons why some of our big box stores do so well. But I also think people do shop their values, and so we see people who lean towards certain values or certain. Yeah, if a company is aligning with someone's values or they're offering a product that they want, they are willing to buy, to pay more, which is why some companies with more expensive product actually do better, or even more expensive marketing do better.

Kelly Tshibaka:

So I think for the ability to say you know, if you actually realize what these companies are doing and how they're affecting the bigger picture of your existence, it's almost like voting If you want things to change, then it begins with you. And then I actually just had this conversation recently with someone in your generation who was saying you know, I don't vote and because it doesn't matter and it's kind of the same argument the you know, the ice cream I buy or the tennis shoes I buy or the peanut butter I buy doesn't matter. If it doesn't matter, then how do you get around the Budweiser effect? If it doesn't matter, how do you get around the Planet? Fitness effect, wiser effect If it doesn't matter, how do you get around the planet? Fitness effect your few dollars does matter, especially when we do it in bulk.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And I made the metaphor about voting because one of the arguments was well, the voting systems are messed up. Okay, I think anything built by a human is going to have inherent flaws, and I come from a world where we, you know, analyzed and then modified internal controls to fix some of those inherent flaws. And IT systems have inherent flaws, just like your home computer has an inherent flaw and you put IT controls around it. Banking systems have inherent flaws, but all of us do online banking and our bank system, our bank accounts, are fine, right, so you can set up internal controls. We all inherit, we knew this intuitively to mitigate against these flaws and against attacks, et cetera.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And I said it's a little bit like a snowstorm. If there is a dusting, then you can still see the ice, the gravel, maybe a little bit of the dog droppings that are still on the road, and you can see the flaws. When there is a blizzard, all you see is the whiteout and that's what voter turnout's like. If there is a dusting, you're still going to see the bumps and the bruises and the stuff in the system. But when there's a blizzard turnout, then the effect of the people really matters, and that's what I think it is. With consumer effect. Yeah, you know what A snowflake probably coming down is like. I don't really matter, I'm just a snowflake.

Kelly Tshibaka:

But the fact is, when we turn out, if you don't show up, yeah, you're contributing to it just being a dusting and the companies still get away with imposing their values and their corporate agenda. And really you're talking about trillions and trillions of dollars on the global economy. Yeah, we're being taken. But if the people resist and say I'm not going to do that, I'm instead going to give to the one company not participating in that company becomes the global leader, then all of a sudden the people have spoken and the blizzard starts to turn the other way. The power is really in the hands of the consumer. The companies can only put product out and if we're saying, you know, as some people have said to me, well, it doesn't really matter because it's everywhere. I, you know, I have to watch these shows because there's no other shows. I have to buy these products because there's no other products. If you're just a helpless victim along for the ride.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Well then yeah then it's just going to happen to you. But I don't actually think that's the case. I don't think that's the way the system set up. The system is set up for the consumer to be empowered. We just have to take that initiative to do so.

Josiah Tshibaka:

It reminds me of that quote that you are ridiculously in charge of your own life. I find it interesting that as we, as we more and more as a society, move into this mindset of a victim mentality, oppress and oppressed just how many areas of our life impacts. I don't vote because it doesn't matter because I'm not empowered to do anything.

Josiah Tshibaka:

I don't take a stand against these companies, and it's just. It is so sinister this effect that it has on people, because it truly is the mass infection of cowardice. By choosing to be disempowered, or even believing that you are the victim, you're giving up courage and you're giving up your ability to take a stand for what you believe in.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's a good point. So let me ask you when did you see a whole bunch of people take a stand and it inspire you?

Josiah Tshibaka:

I really liked seeing everything that happened with the Budweiser Dylan Mulvaney incident. That was extremely inspiring. It was also humorous just to see a company be so out of touch with its customer base, but that was particularly inspiring for me personally, just because it's that's not the kind of product you would expect people to boycott and it's not the kind of product I would expect people to boycott so intensely and for so long and so successfully as well. Another thing that an event that really inspired me was when when all those Reddit users bought GameStop stock.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Oh yeah.

Josiah Tshibaka:

And totally saved the company from going under. And totally saved the company from going under. And it's just really interesting to me that within the last five years we're just seeing more and more incidents of consumers rallying together to out of the blue in a historic moment, make or break a company's fortune, and it's extremely inspiring to kind of take back power from corporate America and to not have to submit or be controlled by the big man in the sky. You know, yeah, guy, you know.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, I think those are both really good examples of inspirational and, like you said, unexpected acts. When there's this, this move across, but I think so. Something else that happened recently is we saw an article that Ben and Jerry's parent company decided to drop them. I know Right, and I think it might be around some of the same things we're talking about that they're just losing a lot of their customer base because of some of the really strong you know, like Chris said 100% political stands they've taken that really don't align with 100% of their ice cream eating pace and at some point it ultimately comes down to making money, and you've got to make money, and isn't that what this is about? I liked what he said. We want to just get people back to. Are we making money or are we not, which is what a free market system is supposed to be about. It's supposed to be about the basics of capitalism. So we'll be right back after this break. This is Stand with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka. My co-host today is Josiah Tshibaka. Thanks for being with us on the break. Hit standshoworg. Find our social media more of our amazing episodes and hit subscribe to become one of our standouts. We'll be back right after this Stand by.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Welcome back to Stand with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka. Today My co-host is Josiah Tshibaka. We finished an interview earlier this segment with the CEO of a new app called Veebs. You can download it on Google Play or the App Store. Josiah, I want to pick up on this concept we were talking about, which is this new victim mentality that's been kind of perpetuating and sweeping across our culture.

Kelly Tshibaka:

I don't really understand where it came from. When I think back to, like, your great grandpa, my grandpa and the greatest generation that fought in World War II passed on this amazing legacy to the baby boomers and modeled for us what heroism looks like and what taking a stand for courage and for things that are greater than us. You know, for a country for human rights and dignity, what that looked like fighting for people and going into some terrifying, horrific situations at the cost of their lives and then we can do something, we can take a stand, we can make a difference and we can win, and then even my dad and the Vietnam generation doing something similar, being brave and doing something for their country, and we have all these military heroes and these legacies right walking among us today, and then yet there's this victim mentality of, I can't do anything. You know everybody around me, you know even what is being taught in schools or in our culture of, like you said, these people are oppressing me.

Kelly Tshibaka:

I'm oppressed and this division among all kinds of groups in our culture that's just being perpetuated and people will kind of absorb it and think it and what I really kind of see it as is almost like a social collective discouragement, and then it festers as almost like anger and bitterness and resentment, but then really seeds itself as hopelessness so I can't do anything, instead of being this idea of individual empowerment I can do something and then community empowerment we can do something, our family can do something, our community can do something. So what are we going to do to make a difference and then doing something about it? So one of the things that I think is cool about this app is it makes it easy to do something, even if it's small.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Small acts make a big difference. A lot of times we'll even ask people you know who are the people who've made a big difference in your life? And it doesn't tend to be significant influencers, it tends to be almost invisible people who've made a big difference by doing small, important things, which means to us that everybody can make a difference, that even doing meaningful things in your life, just being there, loving on you, words of encouragement, building you up, can make a life-changing difference in someone's life. But I wanted to kind of kick that question to you to say what are your thoughts on small things making a big difference, being empowered, being empowered small things making a big difference, being empowered, being empowered Small things making a difference.

Josiah Tshibaka:

It just all that reminds me of that. Saying hard times make good men.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Good men make easy times.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Easy times make bad men, and bad men make hard times.

Kelly Tshibaka:

So we're on the cusp of some great men.

Josiah Tshibaka:

No, we are. We'll see them coming, but not right now. I think right now we are definitely in hard times, but I think people like chris rhodes are doing things like making apps called veebs and that will bring us into easy times, because it's going to empower people to take a stand. Where all of this victim mentality comes from? My best guess is it has to be indoctrination, because nobody is born thinking that they are a victim and no one reaches that conclusion on their own.

Josiah Tshibaka:

You have to be convinced that you are a victim, because it's deception, because it's not true. You're not a a victim, especially if you live. If you I'm sorry, if you live in the United States of America in 2024, you are in no way a victim. I invite you to travel internationally out of this country and look at some of the other people groups across the world and then come back to me and tell me that you are a victim. You are not a victim. You live in one of the most amazing places. You are, in fact, privileged to be an American, so I'll just put that out there right now.

Josiah Tshibaka:

If you're in the US, you are not a victim, but you have been convinced that you are, and so I think we have to go to the source. Who is convincing all of these people? And it is generally people of minority racial groups or just minority demographics who are convinced that they are, in fact, helpless. And why are people convincing minority demographics that they are helpless and causing minority demographics to enslave and disempower themselves? Why is that happening? Who's doing that? I think those are the questions that we have to ask and ponder, just as a society.

Kelly Tshibaka:

There's a benefit to them there. And then we have the idea we've all got time, talent and treasure that we can invest. And so choosing to invest our treasure wisely with groups that align with our values is one thing we can do to be empowered.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Exactly, and everybody has time, everybody has an equal amount of time.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Everybody has a talent and everybody has treasure to some degree, to varying degrees. If you don't have treasure or if you aren't able to put your treasure towards things that you value, you absolutely can put your time or your talent to things that you value. I remember we talked about that. I remember Harmeet Dhillon was talking about that that currently one of the issues that we see is in the GOP, leadership just expects people to volunteer. They just expect you to give over your time and your talent, Whereas on the other side, they use treasure to motivate people to give them their time and their talent.

Josiah Tshibaka:

So, even though it might be a flaw in the system when it comes to voter turnout, it's definitely not a flaw in the system when it comes to free market economy or saving GameStop stock or ruining Budweiser stock. You absolutely can take your time and your talent elsewhere and apply it to take a stand for what you value.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's really a good point. So then we would suggest that the best way people could take a stand is almost to take an inventory of how they spend their time, their talent and their treasure. It's a really good point. I remember actually taking a training on time management about midway through my career thus far. I realized I still have a long way to go, and so the coach was taking us through and he said something similar that where you put your time is where you're investing your treasure. That's what you're saying you value and you prioritize. And so we had to go through an exercise of analyzing our calendar, our work calendar and our free time calendar, and then, based on time assigning that those were our priorities, and then comparing that to a list that we had previously made out of the goodness of our heart of what our actual priorities were. So our time priority said these things based on our time allotments were our priorities. But then you know, our pure hearted priorities were these. And then how did they align? And mine were completely upside down.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Wow.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Right. And so then we had to do this disciplined exercise of realigning our calendars so that we blocked in the things that mattered to us. And it was so hard because, of course, there was no time for the things that mattered. And he told these most compelling stories, like, for example, he said that I don't intend in any way to suggest this, even that you're going off to college, this just came to mind. He said that every week or every day he called his parents, who lived in another state, and he talked to his parents every day and had a great relationship with them, and then his father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. But he wasn't sad, he was actually really good because he had this continuing. He built it into the calendar that he talked to them every day. And then there was this big family conflict with his siblings and everything, because they grieved very differently and hadn't done the work of maintaining the relationship with the parents, and that all came out at the funeral.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And he told this really long, compelling story. It was really good and it made me think, wow, what am I doing with my time? Am I investing it in the people that I want that when those days come, because those days come for all of us that I would look back and say I invested my time the way I want, instead of looking at this list that I had in front of me saying the whole pyramid is upside down. Actually I'm spending all my time. No one's going to get to the end and say I wish I'd clocked in another day at work.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Right.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Right, and oh, I wish I'd gone to more meetings, you know, if only I'd gotten another meeting in. So everyone's got time, treasure and talent to invest and to take a stand with, and those stands can actually make a really big difference in how you live life and the influence that you make on other people Right, and I think it's important to remember that you are you're always taking a stand, whether you realize it or not, because you always are giving time, talent and treasure to something and with those being your three agents of taking a stand, we'll call them your three legs for standing up.

Josiah Tshibaka:

you're always giving that to something. You just might not realize what you're actually giving it to.

Josiah Tshibaka:

So it's important to be very conscious of those things and even just thinking if you're a parent, you value your children and your family. How much time are you choosing to work overtime every week versus spending time with them? And it's just like that age old dilemma of I can, I can work more work to make more money so that they can have a better life, but then I'm not at home and then my kids aren't with me and we don't develop the relationship you know, and it's that whole dilemma. So, really taking the time to figure out where am I spending not only my time but also my talents and my treasure, and do those really align with my values? I would encourage all of our audience to just take a moment to do that this week. Think about what do you say you value and then what do your actions say you value?

Kelly Tshibaka:

Right, and then, what practical tools can you use to start aligning? So like, veebs is a practical tool, but it's not the only one that you can use to start aligning financial.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Google Calendar is an amazing one for time.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's an app that we use to time manage and what are some other ones you can use for time, talent and treasure. Even thinking through what are some of those talents you have and how you can lend them to taking a stand and what do you want to take a stand for? You know here we love taking stand for freedom, truth and government by the people, but what are the things you believe? This has been another episode of Stand with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka. Today, my co-host is Josiah Tshibaka. You can find us on standshoworg. Please hit subscribe and we will see you next week.

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Kelly Tshibaka

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Niki Tshibaka

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