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SPEAKER_01Today we'll be discussing the defining moments of a leader, and we're joined by Dave Sanderson. And just to set the scene here, I'm sitting here landlocked. You know, this is a Houston Baptist University podcast, so many of you are familiar with what's happening. If you've been watching the news or been on social media, you know our city of Houston and the Texas Coast, Louisiana coast, are literally getting dumped on with trillions of gallons of water. And so I'm sitting here landlocked. The only way out of my neighborhood is by boat, which I don't have. Actually, probably every boat in this area has been put in the service of rescuing those who uh who need to be rescued. And this uh Hurricane Harvey is expected to be the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States and has already set a record for the highest amount of rainfall in the history of the U.S. So as we get started here, I just want to encourage you to please continue to remember our area and your prayers. And uh Grace Church here in Houston is my home church and is currently a shelter for hundreds of evacuees. And you can hear about what's going on there at Grace.1 and you can also contribute there. And fortunately, the floodwaters haven't reached inside my house, and I do have electricity to do this interview, so I figured one of the most helpful things I could do, at least until I can get to some of the shelters around here, would be to spread some awareness about the need here in Houston and to interview a person who can teach us some valuable lessons about viewing adverse circumstances as defining moments in our leadership journeys. So our guest interview today is with Dave Sanderson. You probably remember when Sully landed. It was depicted in a movie with Tom Hanks where he landed a commercial jet and all of its passengers safely in the frigid Hudson River in New York City back in 2009 after its engines failed as a result of a bird strike, which, if you're not familiar, is when a bird goes into the engine and just seizes it up. And uh that event was called the Miracle on the Hudson. And our guest today was the last person off of that airplane after he helped everyone else get to safety. And despite the hazards to himself, Dave thought only of helping others and emerged from that wreckage with the mission of encouraging others to do the right thing. And in his book, Moments Matter, he details this close encounter with death and teaches how one defining moment can create a lifetime of purpose. So, Dave, welcome to the Christianity and business podcast. Well, Darren, thank you for having me today. I'm blessed to be here with you. And you're doing a lot of work with the Red Cross as well, which certainly is setting up shelters all over this area. And we're gonna hear a little bit more about that uh in in just a little bit uh because you are one of their one of their spokesmen, and with what you've been through, you certainly have the credibility to know what to do in the midst of uh of a disaster. So take us to the place where you were sitting on that U.S. Airways flight 1549 on January the 15th, 2009. Uh, what was the miracle on the Hudson like from your perspective?
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you, Darren. Uh, first place, I wasn't supposed to be on that flight. I was scheduled to be on the five o'clock flight because uh I always in business, I would always schedule the last flight out because you never know how the day is going to turn out. Uh and I was the end of a three-day business trip starting in Sarasota, Florida, going to Petersburg, Virginia, and ending up in Brooklyn, New York. So we we were working the last day in a distribution center in Brooklyn, which opened up at 2 o'clock in the morning. So we started our day at 5 o'clock in the morning because we wanted to be right in the middle of all the action of what goes on in a distribution center because that's where pretty much all the shipments start coming in in the middle of the night. So we got done at 10 o'clock that morning. So any chance to get home to my wife and my four kids a little early, I usually try to take advantage of that. So at 10 o'clock that morning I called the trial agent work with her, and she put me on flight 1549. So I gave up a first-class seat at 5 o'clock for seat 15A on 1549. But nothing extraordinary about the day. It was 11 degrees and snowing, and you know, but it's not unusual for New York in the middle of winter. And I I was one of the first, one of the first set of passengers to board the plane because I was a chairman. I was top tier at U.S. Airways. So I went back to my seat and did exactly what I did every single time when I got on a plane then. And I tell people I had hallucinated what they do on a plane now. And I I went back to my seat, put my you know, briefcase down, put my wall of the briefcase, pulled the magazine out, and I started to read. I didn't listen to the flight crew and I didn't pay attention to instructions. So, yeah, I was a typical passenger who thought they knew everything uh by not paying attention. But uh about 60 to 70 seconds after we took office when I heard an explosion on the plane, and it was a loud explosion, which caught my attention. So I looked up and I looked out the window and I saw fire coming out from me to the left wing. So I knew something had happened, but you know, I fly so often thought a plane lost an engine. No big deal. It really didn't start on me too much at that moment. But uh see, that's where I think God's grace entered for the first moment on this flight, because no one knew at that moment in time what happened on the left side of the plane where I was sitting, also happened on the right side of the plane at the same exact moment. See, it usually would happen, you know, boom, boom, but the birds hit it simultaneously. So everybody heard this one explosion on the plane, so everybody thought, oh, we got another engine. No big deal. And I really think that that contributed to how the passengers reacted on the plane, because I truly believe if they were cross-reference and checked in, people could have started panicking, people panic, people lose their heads. But uh no one lost their heads, and I think that was a one part of the saving grace of what happened inside the plane that day. So now the the plane was had just taken off, correct? 60 to 70 seconds about after it took off is when the bird struck. That's correct.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you're you're just kind of you know getting settling in for the flight, and and you're just expecting we're going up and up and up, and and all of a sudden, boom, boom. So so people weren't they weren't panicking? You didn't, I mean, were they I would think people were gasping? I mean, what was what was that like? And what were you doing? Like what was going through your head?
SPEAKER_02Well, first it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I don't think anybody really put two and two together because like I said, no one was talking, so no one said, hey, what happened on what happened uh on your side of the plane, what happened on the other side of the plane? So I think that was a major thing. Plus, the passenger maker by the plane was primarily business people coming out of New York. So roughly 90 plus percent of the people on the plane were business people, so who pretty much are into themselves, who can handle things themselves. So they didn't, you know, no one really panicked. You know, I didn't panic. I thought the plane lost an engine until the guy next to me elbowed me and said, Hey man, what's going on? And I said, I think he's going back to LaGuardia because I felt him banking. I thought he was just turning around and going back to the airport, but I didn't know he was banking to go down the Hudson River. Um, because I think that uh I think that as soon as he crossed over the George Washington Bridge, and he only cleared the bridge by roughly 400 feet, and the bridge is roughly 600 feet up. So at that moment, he was somewhere between a 900 and a thousand feet descending. Um, and at that point when he said the captain said brace for impact is when I think that I think, and I think everybody else on the plane thought this is uh this is not gonna turn out well because we're heading straight towards the Hudson River.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I can remember on the movie when the the flight attendants were just you know going through their procedures, telling everybody brace, brace, brace. I mean, do you hear that those words kind of playing back in your mind? Gosh, I can, I mean, like even just watching the movie, like I I think about that pretty often.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that, you know, I I I there were things that trigger that. And so definitely when I saw the movie, that that that's when I started getting emotional, I think, when I s when I was watching the movie is when I heard that command because it just resonated so quickly with me, because that's exactly what I heard on the plane is brace, brace, brace, heads down, stay down.
SPEAKER_01Wow. And then take us through those next few moments um to making impact.
SPEAKER_02So as we crossed over the river uh or crossed over the bridge towards the river, I I I prayed. And one of the things I prayed, I prayed to God to forgive my sins. I don't know anything between God and me at this point. We're we're going down and I want to go up, and it ain't looking good right now for me. And but once once I said that final prayer, I put my head down and I tell people, and what's what's interesting, I tell people is I I had a had a friend from our church who was survived the earthquake in Haiti, which happened the following year. And she uh she was in one of the buildings and she got out and didn't get home for a few days later. But she and I sort of traded stories on that last moment when you think you're not gonna make it. You're going down, and it's like, okay, this is it, you know, at my last moment of life, what's gonna happen? And she and I had a very similar circumstance where we both saw the movies of our lives pass before our eyes. We things, you know, with things that I saw when I was a child and growing up and marrying and babies being born, and you know, I and I tell people the clarity you have in that final moment when you think you're gonna die is when you find out what your purpose in life is. And all of a sudden it sort of comes to you. And that's it not only happened for me, but it happened to this lady likewise in the in the rubble and the earthquake in Haiti. So the last moment was uh you know, it was roughly 60 to 70 seconds after he crossed over the bridge until impact into the river. Uh it was so much clarity. I saw things, and it's like you're the whole everything slows down. You know you only have 60 seconds, but everything everything is so slow motion because you're seeing things with clarity.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So now once you landed, it was it long after that before you you really I mean, what part what point did the hope kick in that you know what? I think we're gonna we're gonna get out of this.
SPEAKER_02Well, when we hit and I went back in my seat and I looked up and saw a light in the window, which I tell people I think was a great metaphor for me. Um, I knew I had a shot, but I wasn't out because if you saw how the plane landed, the bottom of the plane was stripped and somebody actually did listen to the fly cream, went to that closest exit, which may be behind you, and tried to open up that door. Water started coming in immediately from underneath and the back of the plane. So what the plane was filling up with water pretty rapidly. I where I was at 15A, which is four rows behind the left wing, but the water was somewhere between the knee and the waist level at that point. The further back you got it was higher, the further forward you got was less, because if you saw the plane was sitting in the river, the back of the plane was already submersed in the water. Um so why I was already in the water, so I didn't have hope at that point. My my because my game plan, Darren, was to get to the aisle, get up and get out, because I didn't want to be drowned in a plane. Right. Because water's coming in rapidly, and people and that's that's when the term that I I used that night on CBS in the interview that I did with Katie Courick was controlled chaos. That uh, you know, no one lost their heads, no one was pushing people out of the way. There's nothing like that. But there were people moving fast and people moving with purpose. So no one was waiting around to say, all right, let's uh let's wait for someone to come in and get us. Uh it's time to get out.
SPEAKER_01But despite you're about to uh, you know, and I I'm hearing stories about, and we're right in the middle of this flooding, and just so there have been a lot of thoughts we've been having here about the idea of drowning, like in a f in a flood and encouraging people to stay out of their attics, you know, go to your roof. I mean, just that thought of drowning is so terrifying. And yet you were the last one off the plane.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the last passenger off the plane. Captain Sullenberger was technically the last person off the plane. I was the last passenger, but that wasn't by design. My because my game plan, once we got down, it was get to the aisle, get up, and get out. I mean, that's exactly what I thought. But what happened to me, Darren, is something that uh, you know, I think not only changed that day, but probably changed where I was going to head the rest of my life. Is my mom, who had passed away in 1997, kicked into my head and started talking to me. And what I heard her tell me in my head was if you do the right thing, God will take care of you. And and one of the I tell people, one of the great things about my mother was she'd make she'd give you a choice. She wouldn't tell you what to do. She would give you a choice and make you make the decision, and hopefully your your value sets would give make help you make the right decision. Uh but my decision was to go towards the back of the plane because I knew that I was alive. And you know, I grew up in playing sports and athletics and Boy Scouts and teams, and you know, I was always we ever when I grew up, everybody, all the guys had each other's backs. You know, so I went to the back of the plane because I knew I was alive. I didn't know anybody back there needed help. So I got in the back of the plane to see if anybody needed help. But if you saw the movie, the elderly lady who was in the wheelchair, if you saw that lady in the movie, that that person didn't want to go. She was like sitting there, and so finally two ladies and I was behind them, it's like, let's go, let's go, let's move, move. So they got her up and we started pushing her towards the front of the plane, and I wasn't behind them, walking behind them up the aisle, as they were taking that lady up out of the plane. And when I got to to the exit door on the right, um, and I tried to get out, uh, I looked out the wind, looked out the door, and there was no room on the wing or the boat for me. So you know, I looked out and you know, there's nothing there. So that's why I was inside the plane, waist deep in the 36 degree water for about seven minutes, holding on to the lifeboat, because the lifeboat kept floating out to the river and they kept yelling, hold on, hold on, because they, like all of us, who reads the brochure, the instructions, is tethered to the plane, but no one knows that when all stuff's breaking loose. So I held on to the little lifeboat waist deep in 36 degree water inside the plane, and that's how I became the lap at last passenger off the plane. Whew.
SPEAKER_0136 degrees. Probably weren't feeling a whole lot at that point.
SPEAKER_02So, yeah, go ahead. No, I said you're exactly right. A little bit different than what's going on in Houston, where it's pretty warm water, but they have they're having a very similar situation with water rushing in very quickly.
SPEAKER_01Indeed. So now take us from that point where you had stepped off the plane to where you really started to get that clarity about this this newfound sense of purpose. You know, you've gone from now uh you're you've you're pretty convinced that this is the end, and you are making your peace with God, you are confessing uh, you know, any any hidden faults uh before God, and and then you land, there's the fear of potentially drowning, and there's just this controlled chaos to get off the plane, and and you started to have that glimmer of hope, but then at some point it it occurred to you that this is this is gonna be a significant part of my life's message from this point on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that it it we're still a little bit away from that because I had to swim to the the ferry because um I felt the plane shake because a tugboat hit the front of the plane as it was backing out with passengers, and I thought I the first thing I thought was Titanic, so I thought the plane was going down, and my thought was man, don't be sucked down in a plane. You know, you're almost out of this thing. Don't be sucked down in a plane. So I jumped in and swam to the closest ferry, which was at the end of the wing. Finally, had two guys help me get on the ferry, and that's the moment I thought, man, I made it. You know, I I made it. But all of a sudden, what happens is all that adrenaline that you have to get out, that you don't feel anything, all of a sudden that all that cold kicked in because it was 11 degrees air temperature, 36 degree water temperature. I've been in the water for seven plus excuse me, seven plus minutes. I was so cold. That's the moment actually I thought I'm not gonna make it. And I give the example of of what you see, you know, these pictures of these firemen, and I do a lot of a lot of talks for firemen where the pictures of the firemen are rushing into the fire, right? They have all their equipment, they're rushing in, and the next picture you see of the fireman is him sitting or her sitting on the curb, right? They have no energy left because they've given it all, and that's exactly what I had. I have nothing left, and I was so cold, I'm not gonna make it. Now I'm gonna die of being cold. But uh, you know, fortunately for me, that didn't happen. It got me to shore, and that's when uh two EMTs and a gentleman from the American Red Cross for the blanket were there to help me, and that's why I speak so passionately for the Red Cross. They were there that day, knowing the New Jersey side where I was, but also on the New York side. But then I go to the triage center and they stripped all my clothes off, and now I'm in my underwear, and and now a guy comes up with a card and says I need your name and date of birth, and I give it to him, and he walks away, and the only thing I and puts a tag on my right foot, and the only thing I could put together with that is the TV show MASH, where they tagged your toe and you're dead. And I thought I was dead again. I'm like, I didn't make it. Maybe all this is like that movie Ghost, where it's true, you're watching yourself die and you're talking, and no one's answering. It's like, I didn't make it. I really am dead. But then the EMT comes back and takes your blood pressure, and you know, it's like good, I got blood pressure, but it's 190 over 120. So now you got another problem. You have a heart attack or stroke, she goes. So then you get in, yeah, you know, they take you to the hospital really quick and they started working on you. So I didn't really understand. I'm really telling not to tell you this whole backstory to tell you really every every detail, but what happened was I didn't know until probably a couple hours after that, after I made it, I was in the hospital. I knew I was I was gonna be alive that you know what, my life's really gonna change now. And whether it changes, you know, what a different direction or whether I'm gonna do something different in my career or whatever. But that's when it started changing. I said, you know what, my whole life, this this but this is a defining moment of my life because I survived a plane crash and and we worked together as a team to get this thing done, and all of a sudden, you know, my life's gonna change. And that was the moment I think is in the hospital bed.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow. So I mean, uh after after nearly having impact on the ground, you could have died that way, you could have died drowning, you could have died of hypothermia, you could have died of you know heart complications or just you know things that uh that that kind of trauma would have triggered. And and then in the hospital, that's that's when you really got some time to start to process what had just happened to you.
SPEAKER_02I guess yeah.
SPEAKER_01And were there any other thoughts you had, any of other sort of you know God consciousness about that that God was involved in the situation, that God was that was near you, or did it just kind of feel like uh you only kind of sensed that in retrospect? Or how how much of a God consciousness do you did you have in the midst of that?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, when I prayed, I knew God's God's hands were on it. And that was the first, actually, the first magazine interview I did was with um guy by name of Rick Warren. Um and it was about how God's hands were on us the entire time where you know you're not thinking about it, but you got that presence of feeling that, you know, I said my peace. You know, if I go, I go. If I don't, you know, hopefully I'll do something better with my life. But I knew that God's hands were on this because there's too many things happening in the right way. In in normal crisis situations, which we're like even what we're seeing now in Houston, there's a lot of things happening the right way, but there's a lot of things happening in the wrong way. Um that day on the plane, everything really happened for the right way. Whether you whether it was the captain, the right captain, the right seats, you know, the right passenger makeup of the plane, the ferries being there in two minutes, right? I mean, it was just so many things that happened right. So I knew God's hands were on it. And I so I show a picture when I speak there of God's hands holding the plane up until all the passengers get off, and then he lets it go. That's it, this drops it, right? Because I think that he uh I my personal belief is God wanted to make a stand in a message with this. There were so many negative things happening in the country, there's so much negativity, but all of a sudden you have a captain, a crew, a passenger do something that had never been done before, and God's hands were on it. Maybe God was saying, I'm still here. You know, I want to I if I have to show you in the busiest, uh busiest place in the world at rush hour, at the busiest time in the world, that I am still here, I'll do something big. And I think he was he was this was a statement from the higher being saying, you know what? You gotta believe because you know there's better things ahead if you believe that believe in me and what's going on. Uh so if I physically show you that, I'll show you that.
SPEAKER_01And because you were just right in the middle of that, that you got an even greater sense of that. I mean, it it's just absolutely unmistakable. I can only imagine actually walking away from something like that, um, to to to just have this uh this deep connection. Conviction of the power and the sovereignty of God. And so you you moved on from that point committed to helping others really really capitalize and really view have the right perspective on the adversities, probably a lot of adversity. You know, you're speaking to uh people, firemen, you're speaking to people that have gone through very uh traumatic circumstances. Um, you know, what are some of the things that you say uh to the people that you're speaking to?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, uh it depends on the audience, but one of the things I'm most passionate about right now, and and one of the reasons I did a TED talk in in Canada earlier this year was uh one thing I've realized is there's a lot of people who go through a traumatic life event, whatever that is, who go into a depressed state. Um, see, Darren, I've had the honor and privilege of going to places like Fort Hood over in Texas. I got to go to Oklahoma after the tornadoes a few years ago, and I got to go to the eastern shore from North Carolina after Superstorm Sandy. And I'm I'm probably making a trip to Houston or or South Texas area here in the next year. And because I get a chance to talk to people. And what I find out is people like me who are in the middle of it, most of us you know get taken care of. But a lot of times people go into a depressed state. So one of my big messages now is only telling them about the miracle, it's about how's the how how can you actually grow from a traumatic life event instead of going to a depressed state? And that that term is called PTGS, post-traumatic growth syndrome. And I didn't know what it meant at first, but I was I was approached to do an interview by AARP magazine now three years ago now, and and can only I did not know why they want to interview me. I had I didn't even know what AARP was. I thought I was too young for it anyway, right? Um I was a young guy, but here's AARP calling me. But they found out that I helped raise over $12 million from the American Red Cross, and they want to know the strategies I used to grow from this thing called a plane crash, why so many other passengers went into a depressed state and needed therapy. And they they told me this phrase called PTGS, and they said, You are the example of PTGS. We want to write about it and help people learn how to grow from this. So I did this interview and shared some of the strategies that I used to grow from a plane crash, and which now I talk to firemen and military, and uh hopefully I'll talk to some people who have gone through what's going on now, and people have gone through avalanches over in the Himalayas, uh, who have who have a challenging situation. I and I share these strategies with them. And that's one of my, I think one of my big missions now is to get this message out so people can get out of PTSD or even even depression, whatever they want to call it. Um, but that's part of my messaging right now.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So it it actually reminds me, uh are you familiar with Man Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel?
SPEAKER_02Yes, I am. I actually wrote a blog about it.
SPEAKER_01Wow. I mean, your story sounds so similar. I mean, for those who aren't aware, Victor Frankel went through the the Holocaust uh during World War II, the Nazi Holocaust, and and he's he was a psychiatrist and he studied those before going through the Holocaust in the midst of the Holocaust, and then their experience with reintegration into society following the Holocaust and that sense of meaning was the defining uh factor and whether or not a person would would not decide first not to take their life, that they wouldn't just live in a pit of despair, but that they would move on and do something great with their lives. And that's exactly what you've done. And I love that acronym, PTGS. I'd never actually heard of that. So that's uh that that's like a clinical uh concept that's being talked about now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what I what I found out when I did this interview is that uh there were two studies being done about this subject, one at North Dakota State University and one at UNC Charlotte, and they used me as an example, and that's how AARP found who I was. It's uh this I finally started putting the pieces of the pie together. And they're doing studies on how do people grow from this? Because there's so many people that go just to the opposite direction, even on that, even what happened to Miracle on the Hudson. There are people who, as even you saw in the movie Sully, the Captain Silver went through PTSD. And no one we knew something was going on with him because he just didn't seem uh uh jovial when we were around him, but no one knew to the extent until I think the movie really came out. But yeah, it's called PTGS Post-traumatic growth syndrome, and um it's something now that's being studied, and hopefully I can add value. And my my TED Talk is called bouncing back uh personal experience with PTGS on TED Talk. So uh people want to hear more about uh about that, they can dial and check that out on uh on TED Talk. Wow, excellent.
SPEAKER_01Well, for those who are maybe they haven't yet gone through uh why don't we start there with those who have not yet gone through one of these traumatic uh circumstances, what what would somebody need to do in order to be prepared uh to walk through that with with boldness and with victory?
SPEAKER_02Well, uh one of the things I talk about is you know, those who have the humility to prepare will have the confidence to execute when their moment comes, and their moment will come. Uh, you know, Darren, whether it's you, me, anybody, everybody in their life's gonna face this personal plane crash. Something's gonna happen. Right now, the people in Houston and South Texas are facing their personal plane crash. So I tell people, you know, the the way that I prepared for it, you know, I don't think you can ever prepare when it's gonna happen, but I learned, you know, I invested in personal development. And one of the some of the things, strategies that I used that day were really two different things. Number one, state management, how to manage my mind when all stuff's breaking loose. And I share the strategies I learned on that, and I actually implemented that day. And the second thing is is uh the terms called sensory acuity. How do you communicate in an effective manner in the modality that other people who are going through something are in so you can get something accomplished? And and and people say, Well, what's that? And I give an example of the lady who was standing in the middle of the wing and I was hanging out the door and she had a baby and she didn't know what to do, and she was stifled because she was so in herself in a kinesthetic, what am I going to do? So I had to do something radical to break her out of it. So I used a skill called sensory acuity, which I broke her pattern by yelling something very crazy at her, yellow, throw the baby, and broke her pattern of she she looked at me and I got her attention, somebody else got the baby and she got off the wing into the lifeboat. So I tell people, you know, I don't know if you could ever uh prepare for a situation, but you can prepare yourself by learning these skills. And this is some of the things that I teach right now is and then uh is about these skill sets on how to prepare for uh for that time that's gonna come.
SPEAKER_01Beautiful. And Dave Sandersonspeaks.com is the place where people can go. Is that the best place?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Dave SandersonSpeaks.com is if it's the first best place to go. Uh if you want to get any information, of course, Facebook on Dave Sanderson Speaks is uh my Facebook page or LinkedIn at David Sanderson or Twitter at Dave Sanderson too. But um they can check me out there. But I'd also like to offer something that, you know, if if you want to check out some more information around some of these topics, just text 797979 and put Brace, the number four impact, and I'll send you free the first uh video of my new video series um that you'll get to hear and sort of some of the strategies that we were used that day is my gift to you for listening, uh listening to Darren and I today.
SPEAKER_01Excellent.
SPEAKER_02Can you give us a 797979? Text brace B R A C E 4, number 4 Impact. Brace Brace 4 Impact to that number, and then uh you'll you'll get a free video, the first video of my new video series, which will be going out this fall.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. Well, if people didn't get a chance to write that down because you're driving or whatever, we'll make sure that that's in the show notes for you. Uh and and also tell us about the Red Cross and the work you're doing there and maybe how somebody could get involved with Hurricane Harvey here in Houston.
SPEAKER_02Well, I appreciate that because I'm really passionate, like I mentioned. Um the one of the first three people I saw hit when I hit Shore in New Jersey were two EMTs and a jump from the American Red Cross. So I came up, became a national spokesperson for the American Red Cross, speaking all over the country, helping them raise much needed funds, um, which everybody across the country uh you know is going to face something. Right now, unfortunately, it's Texas. And, you know, one of the things that happened is about four months, well, three months ago in April, I uh spoke in South Padre Island and in Harlogen uh for two Red Cross fundraisers, where they basically where the hurricane hit. You know, hit right at Rockport, which is a little north of where that is. So I actually spoke there and got to meet the people there. Um so I have a I have an affinity on what's going on with the folks in South Texas right now. So uh I would say right now the best way you can get involved is is you know donate a few dollars here or there because right now they need money for supplies to help people because you see that you know they need boats, they need extra. You know, General Honore came out today and said he'd recommend more helicopters or more boats to get these people moved, and that takes money and finances. And the Red Cross is one of the best ways they could use being able to use money because they can multiply money pretty quickly on how they do things. So I would uh you know if you go to my website, Dave Sanderspeaks.com, go to the link, you know, my Red Cross link. I have money right now targeted the disaster services, so it goes directly to the disaster services and what's going on in Texas. It won't go to any place else. Uh because I want I would really encourage people to donate whatever you can, a dollar, five dollars, ten dollars, because every dollar adds up. And once again, they can multiply dollars like nobody's business. And one of the great things about the Red Cross, as you're finding out in Houston right now, Darren, is they know how to do logistics. They knew how to how to move things quickly, even in places where they can't move things quickly. So um no, I am I'm passionate about this, and if anybody can do that, I'd really uh that would not only mean a lot to me, but I know a lot to the people in Houston because Darren's sitting in the middle of it now, he's not as affected as it sounds like as some people, but there's a lot of pain going on now. It's gonna take a lot of a lot of time and money to to get this that area back to where it needs to be, and and every little bit helps.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, Dave, it's interesting right now. I'm looking out of my street and I can see the street starting to fill up with water because the water from up north is being released into our uh through our drains. Uh just I guess to give some relief, you know, they've been releasing dams into certain areas that aren't as uh aren't as bad. Um, of course, that people are having to get evacuated out of those places as well. Um, so we don't know what is to come, but it certainly is is bad and and much worse in other areas. Um but this uh this talk has definitely been very inspiring for me, you know, being here on the ground, because it's gonna be uh, you know, these places are underwater and uh it's gonna be a long, long journey ahead. And you know, this this being this is a business podcast, you know, I think about companies like HEB, and this is uh you know a company founded by with Christian owners, Christian founders, Christian principals, and and and these businesses as business leaders, you know, we are put in these places uh for a reason and whatever resources we have. I mean, HEB has got at the same time multiple stores underwater. And then at the same time, they've got the other stores that are being depended on for the the disaster relief. And and so uh what would be your parting advice to business leaders on this topic of defining moments when it comes to maybe they're not in the midst of uh uh a disaster zone, but you know, though these defining moments are happening every day. What would be your parting piece of advice?
SPEAKER_02Well, I appreciate that because I you know what we're finding out, you're seeing the best of people right now. Some of the your company, whether it's my company, little company, or bigger company, yeah, every one of our companies is going to be affected by something. And and whether it's your location, geography, or store, or some people. And I would say just remember, be there for your people. Um, and the best companies that I've been around are there for their associates in time of need. And I'll give you just to end up with to give you a couple examples. That what I learned when I got back to Charlotte, and I got to went to my church uh that weekend, and the lady who was in charge of Waukovia, who is now Wells Fargo, her bank's emergency response goes to my church, and she came up to me just crying and saying, I wish I knew you were there because I would have put you on our company plane. And I didn't even know that the companies were flying planes up because I was injured in the hospital. But what I found out from her and Bank of America and Lending Tree and some of these other companies, they had people as part of the miracle on the Hudson, that they were left there and their companies flew their private planes up to go get their employees. They were there for them in their time of need. So I would say, tell these companies, every company could be affected by something, whether it's local or it's distant, be there for your employees, have compassion because every one of your associates will go through a personal plane crash, a challenge in their life, whether it's a car accident, a personal situation, a heart attack, a flood, a fire, whatever it may be. You can make raving fans out of your customers by doing that, or by your associates by doing that. If the company I was with had done that for me, I'd still be with that company and I'd be their biggest officeman out there talking about it. But they unfortunately weren't there for me as much as I thought I needed them to be there. So I moved on. So the people who are a part of the miracle on the Hudson are still with their companies because of the way their companies took care of them. So take care of your associates in their time of need.
SPEAKER_01Wow. That's a great parting piece of advice. Dave Sandersonspeaks.com is the website, and you can also link to the American Red Cross and get involved with what's happening here in Houston. Uh if if you're if you're wanting more information, you can also email us at CCB as in Center for Christianity and Business at hbu.edu. Um we can check that email. The school is has obviously experienced a lot of flooding, especially that southern part of Houston. Um, but we'll make sure that you get a response. And if there's something that you um there's some way that you can help out, uh, we'll definitely try to figure out how to make sure you can do that. Uh, Dave, thank you for the work that you're doing, for your message, and we just celebrate the miracle that that you are and uh the miracles that you will continue to um help God to facilitate uh in our world to redeem these tragic situations that are all around us.
SPEAKER_02Thank you very much, Darren. May God bless you, may God bless your audience.
SPEAKER_00We greatly appreciate it.