Entrepreneurship, Legacy, and Investing in the Next Generation with Greg Alcorn

Scaling a company from zero to thousands of employees requires vision, grit, and leadership clarity. In this episode of First and Focused, we sit down with Greg Alcorn, founder and CEO of Global Contract Services, to discuss faith-driven entrepreneurship and building companies that create lasting impact.

Greg reflects on growing up as a minister’s son, stepping into risk as a young entrepreneur, and viewing business as ministry. We also explore his decision to launch ApSeed Early Childhood Education later in his career, investing in early literacy and the future of underserved children. From family priorities to executive leadership principles, this episode focuses on building more than businesses—it’s about building generations.

To check out ApSeed click here: https://apseed.org/

To connect with Greg Alcorn click here: Greg Alcorn | LinkedIn

Connect with Mark Greaves: https://www.markgreaves.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Having that to come back to and saying, like, hey, of all the other crazy things that could happen and get thrown your way as a leader, I've I've got this that's my stability.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

How's that help you? They're looking at me too. Yeah. And when you can say what we just walk walk through, that can build a base for integrity, knowing all that, that I've got the base. Yeah. I've got this foundation.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

There's different ways that people are inspired, but I think one of them is just consistency.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

1440 minutes every day. So I want to be able to do that and have a break. The character part part of it. And it I didn't see it when it was happening, but I can see it now.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Welcome to First and Focused, the podcast where faith meets leadership. I know you're going to put me on the spot. I don't know what you're going to ask me to say. I'm Mark Greaves, and in each episode, I sit down with business and industry leaders who put God first in their work and stay focused on building his kingdom through their calling. I can sit here and talk with you all day. Keep up the great work, brother. Lord is using you powerfully. I love you. I love watching what Jesus is doing in your life. Well, welcome to the First and Focus show. I'm your host, Mark Greaves, and this is where we interview leaders from various industries who are putting God first in their work and staying focused on his call through their missions. Today we are joined by Mr. Greg Alcorn. Thank you. Greg, welcome.

SPEAKER_03 1:21

Awesome to be here. I'm literally looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, man. I'm pumped. Uh so you're officially our first out-of-state guest here from the great state of North Carolina. Yeah. The sunnier, warmer state of North Carolina.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Not by much, not the last couple weeks like y'all have. I was gonna say, yeah, you've to hear that. You've been here on a couple of the goods.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

You've been here on like the best two days we've had in a long, long time. Yeah. If you were here about a month ago, you you wouldn't have been so happy.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Okay. All right. Well, you're welcome to come down to North Carolina anytime.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Oh hey, I'm I'll I will take you up on it. Okay. I will take you. You show me around now? Yes. Sure. All right, let's do it. Big state. All right. Well, everybody gets an intro. Okay. And um yours is is is pretty long because you've done a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

So we're gonna get we're gonna get to hear a lot of, we're gonna get to hear a lot of a lot of wisdom coming out of your uh your mic today. All right, here we go. I'm gonna hit do this as best I can.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Greg Alcorn, you're an American entrepreneur and businessman who has founded and led companies starting from zero to employees to numbering in the thousands. You're currently the founder and CEO of Global Contract Services, which provides contact center and book off back office support with outsourcing, contract management, and consulting for various industries and institutions. You're a graduate of Cattawal College in your hometown. You hold an MBA from UNC Charlotte. You author the book Seven Dumb Things We All Say: Smart Ways to Improve Every Relationship, Focused on Practical Communication and Soft Skills that Strengthen Teams and Relationships. Most recently, after being appointed to the North Carolina Board of Education, you founded Appseed Early Childhood Education, a nonprofit devoted to early childhood literacy in the pre-K and kindergarten levels, which is aimed at closing the resource gap for children across our nation. You're the son of a minister. You've kept faith at the center of your life. You're a husband, a father, and most importantly, a lover and follower of Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Yes, sir.

unknown 3:01

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Is that a good rundown?

SPEAKER_04 3:02

Yeah, that is. That did that worked all right.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah, I did my I did my research. Yeah. I told you before the show, yeah, you were you're easy to find because you've done so many interesting things. I didn't really know where to start.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Well, I can tell you uh the entrepreneur part is um intriguing to me because um well, first of all, I don't know how to spell it. And uh it is hard. That's a hard word, yeah. Yeah, and I don't um it's I don't wake up in the morning and say I'm gonna be entrepreneurial today. I don't have a I don't it just sort of there's these iterations of life that occur that that you look back through the rearview mirror and you say, Hey, we created something back there. Yeah, or we took something that was uh that that was at a a level like one or two employees and made it into 2000. Yeah, but we didn't that wasn't really what we wrote down to say that we were gonna do. But um that is interesting, isn't it? It's uh yeah, it's a lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yeah, and you've been at it for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yeah, I mean it's I'm gonna skip to my second question here because we're already on the track. But like you so looking at your bio, Somar, that's how you pronounce that, right? Somar. You started that in 1985? I did. So it goes back a little ways. Yep. But that literally was the business that started with just a couple of people. That's right. And it grew to thousands, right? Correct. Can you like tell us this? Like, how did you decide back then? All right, I'm jumping in the water, I'm gonna start something, because that's starting is one of the most difficult things to do. How did it go from something small to something so big?

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Well, I was the marketing director for a small um uh metals distributor ship called Southern Alloy. Okay, and then so then uh the uh person that ran that company, Dick Virtue, was a ex um Naval Academy uh graduate and and and he was an entrepreneur. And he said to us when we first joined the three of us, he said, uh, he said, My job is to give you the opportunity to run a company if you want to. And he said, and so I started in inside sales, went to outside sales, the marketing department. I was blessed to be able to have some experience in what were called computers back then.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

I hope I was gonna say in 1985, yeah. You you were getting to know something that was brand new. Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

I got to invent a bunch of stuff as far on the computer or transfer, you know, inventory and and sales and marketing and all these things onto the to the computers, and that was fantastic. And and we we had this method of making phone calls to prospective metals buyers. Yeah. And then we also had a the 30,000 uh name mailing list that had uh for machine shops and original equipment manufacturers throughout the southeast, and so we were going and we were sending mailings out to them.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

And so our insurance agent came by and was watching this machine, you know, pumping out all these letters and things like that. And uh he said, Hey, can you do that for me? Can we do that in the town next door? Like, yeah. Yeah, you know. So we were Southern Alloy's marketing department. We said, Well, let's start this company we've been talking about. So it's southern marketing and knew the Mason Dixon line was a very important thing. So that's what SOMAR said. So when we did things right, we would call ourselves So Marvelous. And when we did things wrong, we would call ourselves so what? Oh, that's awesome. But um strategic planning jumped in in 1988 and uh 1978, 88, where um uh the again the the the uh person that owned the company uh uh came back with strategic planning from this leadership conference he had. And we walked through all that. It was miserable, you know, having to answer all these questions about you know who what your what uh your competitors look like, what were the threats and opportunities, the all the SWAT stuff. Yeah. And then but what rang true to me was what is your competitive advantage and your distinctive competency? What can you do that you can uh do better than anybody else and do a lot of it? And we looked around and we had we were we were a marketing company, so we would do magazine ads, we do direct marketing, direct mail, we would do um uh uh uh TV ads and radio spots and stuff like that. And oh yeah, by the way, we did this um uh the telephone work with a predictive dialer that we had, that we were doing it for a um uh fast growing um uh uh grocery store chain called Foodline.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

And uh so we did all that strategic planning. We're going like, man, we're not good at anything, anything except that that dialer.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

So we scrapped everything except that and focused on that, got some great salespeople to help us to identify who were the big users of that type type of telephone work. We went from two to 20 employees in one year to 200 people the next year. In five years we had 2,000 employees in the public.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

It's funny because you picked the hardest one. And maybe that's why maybe that's why it was so easy to stand out. It's like anybody can put an ad in a magazine. Yeah, you know, anybody can send a piece of mail to a mailbox, but actually having a human-to-human interaction where it works and you can convert a sale, that's that's the hardest thing in that that pile of things you listed there, I think.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

Right. And then you've got human resources. Yeah, you know, you've got to deal with you know 2,000 people that's true, you know, to be able to do that. And so, you know, something's gonna happen every day.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Now, was that all out of Salisbury? Because my my first that's where you live, right? You still live in your hometown, which is right between Winston-Salem and Charlotte. So I had a question about that because I always think it's fascinating when people kind of put down roots, you know, where they were from. You grew up in that area, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 8:34

I grew up in Salisbury.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Okay, so give me the story on that. How have you decided to just invest your life there? Because it's it's kind of rare where you see somebody that's a leader of your caliber that's done the things that you've done, who they live in the hometown where they were born. It doesn't happen a lot.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

Yeah, well, um, you know, um family, you know, my mother and father were very important to me. You know, my church, I've always been I've been I've been the same church 60 years. You know, I've been able to have the doctor, you know, same doctors, same friends, and the friends, you know, I come back from doing something in New York City and I'm still the knucklehead. Yeah. You know, it's like, well, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

Yeah. So being able to do that, that's helped me focus on business initiatives or nonprofit initiatives that I don't have much, I don't I I can get rid of the noise. Yeah. So I've got 1440 every day, you know, 1440 minutes every day. So I want to be able to do that. Yeah, great. You know, it's what is it, 24 hours, 60, 60 minutes, multiply it out, and that's what you got. You just got to make the most out of that. And so to be able to come back to the same house that I've lived in, that my wife, Missy, and I have lived in for 26 years, to my wife of 35 years, to our children, to, you know, knowing all that, that I've got the base. Yeah. I've got this foundation. I can go to church on Sunday and I know, you know, I I can I can invest time in in talking to visitors, you know, that I don't have a, you know, they hadn't they haven't you thank goodness I don't teach Sunday school anymore. Yeah. So gosh, that was hard.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

You probably got like the little indent right where your butt goes in the pew, I'm sure. You you got you got your spot in church?

SPEAKER_03 10:11

No, I move around. Okay. You're right. Uh that's what that's what that's cool, though. It's like, you know, just keep it keep moving it. But that's helped me a lot to stay there and invest in that. And don't get into Salisbury, you know, it's between Winston and and Charlotte. So there's two million people within a 50 mile radius. Yeah. And so it's there's there's a lot to do uh to there. But I've probably been to 20 countries and and all over the United States.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

And do you think that groundedness, how's that helped you as a leader? Because it's uh when you're talking about that being a home base, it's resonating with me. Yeah. I mean, I love my wife, I've got my kids, we've got our church. I mean, having that to come back to and saying, like, hey, of all the other crazy things that could happen and get thrown your way as a leader, I've I've got this that's my stability. How's that helped you?

SPEAKER_03 10:56

I think if if uh from my leadership standpoint, I always like to be curious, like to be uh challenged, like to make sure I'm I'm I'm staying totally focused on all the people and and processes around me, but they're looking at me too.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

And when you can say what we just walked walked through, that can build a base for integrity, if you ask me. That's my my opinion. That they don't, you know, he's not running around, he's not doing, you know, he's got this base. So if he does that, then he believes he wants I that I want to tell tell everybody around me, I want that for you.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah. So that's that's it's a leader worth following for sure. Yeah, and yeah, I think that's what um there's different ways that people are inspired, but I think one of them is just consistency and decency and doing what you say you're gonna do and that home life that you've just described. I mean, that's that's gotta be a help. You know, it's definitely not a detractor from any of those things.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Yeah. And it's been interesting that, you know, because that's to me, that's character. Yeah. You know, it seems like is this brought to you by the letter C, you know, but uh the the character part part of it, and it I I didn't see it when it was happening, but I can see it now. That our core group that works with GCS, Global Contact Services, and Abseed, and some of the other uh entities, they're all solid people. They're all, you know, they they have their faith, they have their their their families, they have their com communities, and that helps keep us grounded. So we have the confidence to to work together through uh iterations that we don't know what the outcome is going to be, but we go ahead and can do it and can change when we need to.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So looking back on some of these businesses that you built, uh how do you see God's gifts playing out in real time? Like, do you do you know what your spiritual gifts are? And then like looking back, I'm like, all right, I had the guts to do some of these things. By God's grace they worked. But specifically, he engineered my strengths and the things about me to go out and execute that. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

Well, um I got wired by my uh my parents uh and by the activities in that little town, like we're talking about, that uh the everything was there. Um my father uh was not a um minister with a church, he was a minister with a conference. He had a region that he was responsible for, 142 churches. So he would go out and and be able to help in conflict resolution. He'd come back and he'd come back every night with a week because he'd have to get be at somebody's you know church going through some problem or trying to call a minister or something like that. Yeah we'd sit around at 11 o'clock at night and watch some comedy thing and and uh and talk and he would he would share with us with those with me. But by being a conference minister, he was uh he he was the conduit for people coming from all over the country and the world, you know, to be able to um minister or or or be able to present uh to Western North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

So two of those, one was uh Millard Fuller, who uh started um Habitat for Humanity. Yeah so he came to our house and then uh the the Harold Reverend Harold Wilkie came to our house and spent three nights in our um guest room, very meaningful to me, that he would go and and make presentations, go with my father and and and come back. Um the and and could do it all by him all all by himself without any assistance. Reverend Harold Wilkie was born with no arms. And he sat there with us at breakfast and lunch and dinner. He he he took his own bag and opened the old car door by himself. He went and made presentations uh all over the place. He is, and there's a picture at the White House of him and the South Walm with a picture with uh President Bush and some senators and other things signing the Americans with Disability Act AB ADA. And so he was out of place. And you know that that was just you good take that 360. I work with people with disabilities now with Global Contact Services.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

You know, we yesterday we did 47,500 conversations with people with disabilities to help them with their transportation needs because of the ADA, Americans Disability Act. So being able to have that and and one way.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

What a cool connecting. Uh I feel like God connects dots sometimes where they're just like, man, that's really hard, but you did it. I mean, that how cool is that? Super cool. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. So he wired you this way. That's yeah. He kind of like engineered you this way. Have you always been like a hard charger, like will able to work through adversity moments? Like because there's plenty of them in business.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Oh, yeah. What do you fall back on on that when it comes around for well, two things I think uh of many, two of two of many. One is work ethic, is I've always had a job since I was 10 years old, you know, and then being able to work through uh realizing that you know, in summers I could work 75 hours a week, you know, with 45 in the brickyard and three three nights a week till midnight at the at the uh local diner, uh uh places like that, that that work ethic really meant a lot to me. Um uh and that work ethic made it to where I could, you know, the the events of stress or controversy or things that might come up. It's just another day, you know, it's just something you know we've got to feel like that. The other was my mother. You know, my mother was a health educator, she was a seminary graduate, um, she was a uh the a community advocate. She I thought she was kidding, but she said her goal was to work 40 hours a week and do community service for 35 hours a week. And I and and I started to keeping score and she was doing it. You know, but it was a lot of time. Yeah, yeah. But uh but her gifts were things of organization and and and uh conflict resolution, and but but her gift was she was a great writer. And she was she she she could see things for example, there's the American AAUW, American Association of University Women, that she brought that uh a chapter to the Salisbury area. There was um a hospice, she brought hospice and wrote the grants and be able to do that, and she just taught me how writing is so important to be able to write. And so and then and then organizing meetings. If you ask me, one of the gifts that I've got that that I will share with everybody, and that is be able to um create agendas and with time frames on them and be able to and then don't have a meeting with no point.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

That's right. And if you don't come up with any value on it, stop having those meetings. Correct. You know, yeah. So so and then being able to write them in it. So that sort of bookends of organization around among people gave the people that were there confidence that this is of value.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

So uh that though those gifts, then being able to take those and bring those into growing companies. I mean, we were wiring the house with the electricity on with some of these things when you're going from two to two thousand. Oh, yeah. You know, when you're doing when when you know we we start GCS, the first thing happened happens when we start GCS is we lose our biggest client. You know, the second thing that happens is everything goes offshore. Yeah. You know, so you know, we we had to, we we were able to walk through those to pivot, to be flexible, to go and and and and work among those, and and from a leadership standpoint, I didn't mind showing my emotions. You know, uh I don't mean being I don't mean the mat, you know, I'm not a fiery guy. Yeah, you know, things like that, but yeah, gosh, I'm a little worried about these guys. Yeah, you know, here's what we're gonna do, here are the three things we're gonna do from a strategic planning standpoint, here's the steps we're gonna take, let's see what happens. Yeah. And to be able to pivot when we had to.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Well, I think that that's good because um if you're a leader and you're as you're actually going through a moment of struggle, yeah, people aren't stupid. They know.

SPEAKER_04 19:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

So if you gloss over it and you try to make it seem like it's all rosy, one of two things. They either think this guy's naive and he doesn't know what's going on, or he's lying to me.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

So just by being able to call it out, guys, this is an obstacle. This is gonna be tough. I don't necessarily have all the answers, but here's the plan. Here's how we're gonna go attack it. Then you can get people fired up about the opportunity again. And I think that's also, you know, people follow leaders like that. How do you okay? You you mentioned something here, and it resonated with me because I hate pointless meetings. Um, I love meetings with agendas that have a clear-cut goal. And if they only need to be 15 minutes or 30 minutes, make them 15, 30 minutes. If you're on the calendar for an hour, you don't have to fill the time.

SPEAKER_04 19:51

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Go give that time back and let people do something productive. How do you do it at GCS now? I mean, having the number of employees you guys have and the reach you guys have, how do you keep the clutter out of the day-to-day?

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Routines. So we have the routines where we have uh have the you have a meeting every month that might last an hour and a half, and then you have meetings every day that might that we call them stand-up fives. Yeah. So, you know, no, no, nobody's sitting down, you know, and then and we do them virtually now, so you never know what everybody's doing. But uh to be able to have those so that you can stay engaged. Um, you know, it's just like an attorney in a court uh courtroom. You never ask a question that you don't uh already know the answer to. You know, with with us, the thing is we never want to bring up anything that it will be a surprise. So so be being able to prepare folks, so we're gonna we're gonna talk about shutting down this this this uh uh area over here, this this call center over here. We're gonna talk about that in the meeting. So let's you know, here are the three things I feel like we should be talking about. So be be ready for that. So it's not a surprise when we talk about it and then there's another side is the this is the one where I get the I got most of the feedback is that I was uh moving too fast is we're gonna open up three more, you know, we're gonna go to go to these three three um geographic areas, and this is the explosive growth that we're built for. So let's let's do it. And that confidence, you know, business is vitally important. It's really important for me, you know, to be able to make enough money and I've done fine to be able to take care of my family and take care of the things that that uh are necessary to me, to be able to to give back to the community like you do, yeah. And and um and in your your process. Um but to to know that you know that's not all the stuff. You know, that the spiritual side of it is so good. I just follow the apostle Paul. I won't be him. That's right. I don't want to go to jail. Yeah, but I but I'll be.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

I don't want to get beaten and stone necessarily.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Right, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

I have to.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

But I'll but I'll be able to take that part of it. So it's been Um it's it's it's been fun to watch it play out.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Well, you mentioned some stories about your dad. Yeah. And obviously your dad was in full-time ministry and you know, you've been going to the same church for, you know, this almost your whole life. Yeah. Did you ever feel any pressure to go into ministry?

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Uh no.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Uh tell me that background because um yeah, just thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Well, I th I you know, grow where you're planted. And uh that I think what happened between age 10 and age 25 is I knew I was best in my ministry or what I could do was to be able to support um or or get use my gifts toward business activities and to watch that, that that would that was real important uh to me to see that. But then to also, like my mother had, you know, 40 and 35, you know, when when I when you're running a business, it's your life, you know, it can be. Yeah. And so to be able to do that, so I've always allowed us uh to blend to be able to blend time.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

You know, that's the the gift of being able to, if there's a two o'clock meeting at the church, I can be there. But if it but you know, but I also have to, you know, do the the copywriting for the next newsletter or what they want to hear from the president, that might be at 10 o'clock at night, yep, you know, to be able to to work with that. So I never had the uh the pressure or the uh approach that to go into the ministry, but you know, I feel like I live a life of prayer, yeah. And and to be able to be as supportive for others, you know, to to be into servant leadership as as much as I can. And I think that is my ministry.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, you just you see a lot of uh folks who maybe pressure to follow in dad's footsteps or something like that. So it sounds like your dad was an incredible guy. Yeah. Didn't put that pressure on you.

SPEAKER_03 23:51

Right. But it to be fair, he was he was uh the associate conference minister in the time when nobody kept score on hours. So now they uh the the the person in his position can work four tens, you know, blocks for 40 hours and things like that. He worked all the time. Yeah, you know, so every Sunday. He he rarely came to our church because he was preaching somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

So which we always joke that you know that all you needed was one sermon, you know, because he had to do that. That's true, nobody else heared twice. That's that's hilarious. That's good. So that uh so I didn't get to see him as much, and I regret that. That hurts that uh uh didn't really get to spend as much time with him. Yeah, you know, he got hit by a drunk driver when he was 51, had a heart attack, and and and really the last 10 years, my mother took care of him. Yeah, you know, so that uh I got to watch that and watch just what uh caregiving was about and and uh that's real love. Appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Yes. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. Well, let's switch gears into Abseed, because that's what you're obviously I you started this thing and it's your passion now. Most people at your age, uh, you know, when I when I you know, successful in business, you're thinking about all right, well, what's next for me is gonna be buying some golf clubs, kicking it back on a beach, yeah, drinking my ties for the next, you know, 20 or 30 years. You're not doing that. So tell us like the origin story. You know, how did you identify the problem and then what gave you the just the desire to go start this new thing? What's it all about?

SPEAKER_03 25:19

I was on the state board of education, and um the governor at the time, uh Pat McCroy, went to Catawba College where I where I uh we were classmates, and and he asked me to be on the state board of education, and that and and I think he asked everybody he knew and three dead people before he got me. Because there was no I didn't even know what it meant. And he said, No, I want somebody, a business person on state board education. And uh so I'm I I went and went through a very steep learning curve on what was what was going on there, and and uh the the very first vote that we made uh was to approve$30 million for um remediation uh expenses for the fourth graders in in the state. I didn't even know what a remediation was. And uh it's summer school and it's our after school care, it's it's uh you know the additional stuff. So$30 million for um uh uh buses and lunches for children that were behind in school. And so uh that that resonated with me. And then there the other part, because we went you went three days a w a month to to Raleigh to do this. You go up an elevator, doors open up, there's a big banner there that says, um, if if you graduate from high school, on average you'll make ten thousand dollars more per year than if you don't graduate from high school. So I do the math, you know, business person, ROI. Yeah. So 40, 40, you know, 40 you work for 40 years,$10,400,000. You know, if we can move the needle on graduation rates, one per 1%. Well, that's 150 children. Do the math every year and you're billions. Yeah, you know, you're really looking into a great return on investment just to get somebody to um graduate from high school, yeah. So my wife and I, we at this point, you know, I'm doing some soul searching because the businesses, I I'll just go ahead and say it, we're becoming very successful, debt, debt-free, being able to do some things, do some philanthropy work, didn't, you know, but just felt kind of empty. Yeah, you know, it's like, you know, I can I got my 1440 here, and you know, I just don't feel like I can really I'm doing everything that I can. Yeah, you know, let's do something with that graduation rate. So we worked, we said, well, let's help juniors in high school. Well, I was miserable in high school, yeah. So, yeah, let's do eighth graders and get them ready for high school. Yeah. And then let's do third grade reading test. Everybody all about that.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

That's a big deal, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

We bumped it all the way back to pre-K. And we said, you know, let's do something with a pre-K.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

How do I get to the root of the problem? That's it. Yeah, yeah. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Yeah. So you play volleyball if you don't, yeah, you know, if you you know, you don't you don't get to where you're in college and you and you don't know how what what to do, how to set somebody or things like that. You do you learn that very early.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

And so we walked it all the way back. We said, let's do something for a pre-K. And and it took about a year and a half, and then finally, you know, we there were like 10 epiphanies, you know, going on in this thing. In SOMAR and GCS and all the things that we've done from an entrepreneurial standpoint, if you want to say that, they're all scalable. They can all really grow and make it and just just explode, grow exponentially. I say, I ain't doing anything. I don't want to do anything unless we can make it to where it can really, really grow. And um uh GCS, I leaned on on that group a lot on this, going through it. And our information technology, our IT group, um, they had about 20 people in there, and their one guy had a three-year-old and a five-year-old at that point that were looking at Kindle, Kindle fires and going and going through theirs. I'm going like, that's it. Let's do that. Let's get those out there, let's do it as a nonprofit, let's get those out there. So that's where it started. And uh the um I started telling everybody about that, and then Apple Computer had heard about it. So Apple Education in North Carolina, she brought in six people on January 28th, 2016. Uh, we got 40 people in a room going through a strategic planning process, finding out what all we had to do. We were able to get the kindergarten experts to show us what types of apps for letters, numbers, shapes, and colors were necessary, you know, what kinds of uh just how sophisticated, which is not sophisticated, thank goodness. Yeah, you know, did the the the uh device have to be? Who were distribution points, you know, the whole sort of we put a real business approach onto it and got it started that way.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Man, and okay, so how did you boil down what's on the tablet? Because Abseed, so I I got a million questions hit my head all at once here.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Where's the name come from? Yeah. And then can you tell us a little bit about like, okay, how did you form the this is what needs to be in the curriculum if we're gonna get it in the hands of a kid? Or is there an approach of this needs to be something that we can get into a kid's hands that doesn't need parental uh assistance because you know, some of the you know, areas that are lacking resources, there might not be a parent that's right right over top of them helping them learn. That's probably the problem.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

Even if there is, they might not know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

So all right, yeah. What's the name? How'd you come up with the curriculum? What's it just give me, give it, give it to me.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

So um I consider myself more of a concierge than you know, a c a consolidator and being able to pull pull the right people together.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:41

So when the Apple computer people came, that's what we're gonna name it. So we named it Apple Seed and a Seed because we were going three or four years, it's just getting started. You know, the seed lien, and this was called a seed lien at one point. Yeah. So to be able to do it that way was was the name. Once we weren't able to use Apple's uh iPads because they were way too expensive, we had to keep the price point down. Yeah, then we uh we renamed it to AppSeed. That's one P A P S E E D. Yeah. And because their applications, you know, there are the the kindergarten experts told us about these letters, numbers, shapes, colors. They brought in developers for nonprofit organizations that could provide the uh games that were able to do this. So we've had pretty much the same 14 apps on the touchpad for the last 10 years because there is no 2.0 in the letters, numbers, shapes, and colors. They don't change. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, they don't change. So we were able to do that. We've done all kinds of uh refinements, but the other thing, the the key differentiator of the touchpad is that there's no Wi-Fi. So it's locked down. I was gonna ask you about that too. It's no it's locked down. No Wi-Fi, uh no internet connection, no um flashlight, no uh camera, and no keyboard.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Which means no weirdos are gonna get after these kids. Yes. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

That's right. So that was a big that was a big part because both both from your to you to your point that the parent doesn't know what to do. I didn't. Yeah. You know, I didn't I didn't know what the 40 different questions at a a kindergarten readiness assessment were going to be. I do now.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

You know, but to have it to where that's built into the to the touchpad, not all of them, but you know, 70% of what's on a kindergarten assessment are on the on the touchpad, that that helps the parent have the confidence that they can give this to the child. These are for three and four-year-olds or pre-K.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

You know, it ends up being for kindergarten as well. If they get behind, they can still use this to catch up. But to be able to do that, um, the number one um feedback we get from parents when they receive the touchpad and they're able to give it to the child, and they can watch the child use it, the child enjoys it, they can work together with it, they can leave the child alone with it for the confidence and knowing that it's not gonna get out of hand. The number one here we thing we hear from the parents is I've got my phone back.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

That's crazy. That's not that's not where my head would have gone.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Me neither.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

But you're exactly right. I mean, you go to any restaurant, you know, that's a kid-friendly restaurant, yeah, and what do you see? You know, it's not every table, but a lot of the tables is you know, parents talking, they're trying to have a meal and they're giving the kid the phone.

SPEAKER_04 33:29

Right.

unknown 33:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

To think that that's happening all the time in inside of a home.

SPEAKER_04 33:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Wow. And that's not good. No. There's a lot of stuff on that phone that we don't want kids accessing, and then vice versa.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

Yeah, because you can watch Barney.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

And then the next thing that goes to is Barney in a cage fight. Yeah. You know, and then Barney doing whatever. Uh-huh. So those the things that happen. So we were great, great, great to hear that.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Okay, so the question I have next is um you're on the State Board of Education, so you're seeing the behind the curtain of the traditional system. Okay. Why do you got to go solve this versus let the traditional system solve it? Why does it take a you know a new nonprofit and a business leader um to head this thing up?

SPEAKER_03 34:10

Well, I wish it wasn't that way.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

Um, but I can understand why it's that way. The traditional system is is um more of the bricks and mortar at the at the school, uh, the uh more in person that that part. The where where we focus is anywhere outside of the more conventional pla places, like a a child care center or a Head Start where they have a multitude of different learning apparatuses and and opportunities and the wonderful world word I use that is used that I can't understand. They have manipulatives. So there are plenty of manipulatives at the at the center. When they get home, you know, there's there in the folks that we work with primarily, nobody that you probably uh you or I grew up with or things like that, but they don't have as many things. They've got a TV, yeah, you know, and and TV dinners or something like that. The touchpad provides them at least one thing. It's not a silver bullet, shiny one, but it provides that three and four-year-old an opportunity to get closer to you know being ready uh for for kindergarten. So the traditional, there's not there's not a traditional model that goes into the home of three and four-year-olds and says, hey, do get ready for kindergarten. Here are the 40 things that you have to do, and and uh let's let's help you.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

So the question, another question I have for you, just hearing you talk about it, there's a lot of passion in your voice, and yeah, obviously you get fired up. I mean, uh, you probably didn't think that, you know, hey, you know, after I do all these things, letters, numbers, shapes, and I'm getting back way back to basics on this.

SPEAKER_04 35:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Why do you have a heart for the kids? Like, what is it initially it struck up because you're having business success. Yeah, and you got your 1440, and you're like, all right, I gotta go do something with this. Like, I'm God didn't bless me with this to just sit on for myself. Why this? Like, do you think that God presented you with this opportunity specifically?

SPEAKER_03 36:07

Yes. Yeah. And I think, I don't know, what's the term I try to use that doesn't make sense? Create serendipity, you know, to create it. And I create it by being, you know, making myself available to places like here. Yeah. And uh, but when I was when I was a basketball player in high school, that I was the most of the basketball team uh liked me. I was their best friend. You know why? I had a car. So a Ford Fairlane 500, three on the tree, no power staring, no power brakes, but man, it had some big seats. And uh I'd take them home. So, you know, so they I'd go into the projects and they got to where we were we and we're still friends, all of us, you know, that are still alive, but uh that that they would they would take me into their homes, and as I described earlier, that's what it looked like: a big TV, not a single piece of writing paper or anything to reading to read on there, and we would have conversations, and I would tell them that I said, You have the same opportunities that I have. You should be just as good in school as I have, as I I am. You know what they tell me? No, we can't, well, no, we don't. No, it's not, it's not we don't have the same opportunities. And they were right, I was wrong. Yeah, you know, so I reflect back on that from when I was 16, 17 years old to where I'm 60 years, you know, 50 years later, being able to look at it and go, like, we gotta change that.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

So that's why, you know, that's my you know, to being able to, you know, serve those who are are are are most in need and to be able to make a generational change. You know, some some you the the Maslow hierarchy of needs has it to where you if you don't take care of that base, for you you're not gonna teach them how to read, you know, you gotta you gotta do that.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Nothing on the higher level of this pyramid matters unless these basic needs are met.

SPEAKER_03 37:59

Yeah, so we're second, you know, second level, stuff like that to be able to to help them. So that's very important to me. And that's sort of a you know, that's that's back in I I reflect back in 2014, 15, 16 when we got started, that that you call it, if you want to call it the Holy Spirit, you call it, you you want to call it soulful, you can call it anything, but there was a feeling of of hope. Yeah, you know, that that I that I was I was able to take business principles, business activities, and apply that. Everybody has you can hear the passion, everybody has a passion. But you know, do you have the productivity to make it to where something that can really scale? Yeah. So you'll hear terms that we use that we want market saturation, we want vertical integration, we want continuous improvement, want all these things that we can be able to do. Oh, yeah, and passion. Yeah, you know, so passion plus productivity uh equals promise. So we so we think that's that's what we're about.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

You're firing me up. That helped I think Judah's gonna run through the wall here in a second. He's he's our producer on the other side. He's but he's getting ready to run through it. Yeah, this is awesome. I love it. All right, well, let's shift gears again. All right, um, marriage and family. Your husband, your father.

SPEAKER_04 39:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

A lot of our listeners are. Um, a lot of our listeners are folks in business, and they want some of the same things that you're talking about. They want a real mission, they want per purpose and passion behind their work, and they want to use it for something that's bigger than just themselves. And they're running hard at it, but it's hard to do that and then also manage being a father and a husband and being attentive to your top priorities. Like what are some of the secrets that you put in place that have kept your marriage strong and then your relationship with your children strong?

unknown 39:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

Um oftentimes I've watched leaders where they compartmentalize and they uh they uh uh hole up and they don't want to talk about what's going on. And so they're you know, they they they might be a different person or chameleon or something that that when they're they're different than when they are at home or or where they are at work. I'm not, you know, be the same person all the way around and be able to express when you're having a good day or a bad day, let them let let them know, but stay totally focused on where you are at that point, you know. So um by engaging uh my wife Missy into this whole process of APSE, by her going and traveling with me at GCS or Somar or those types of things, by being part of organization. By the way, I join everything. So, you know, just join, join as many things as possible. And you you all of a sudden um I equate it to the an octopus. An octopus has has uh eight tentacles and they're all doing eight different things. Yeah, you know, so you got something like that. So they uh that resonates with me. My wife, uh uh Missy, our two two adult children, um, they're both married. We love our in-laws. We are blessed to be able to have that type of racial relationships, you know, grandchildren now, and being able to, but they they see it when when when you know we run to the fire, or I do, when something happens in the business that um I've created enough of those deposits with uh the family. I do the dishes, you know. I'm over asked.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

I was told you have something called the Greg Alcorn dishwashing club. Well are you the only member?

SPEAKER_03 41:29

Yes, yeah. I'm the founder and the sole member. Yeah, yeah. You could do you could go. I actually might okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

Uh can I be this I might be the second member of that because I I I think I need to take that on.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

Start your own. I will. Okay, okay, all right.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Challenge accepted.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

That's right. Yeah. But to be able to stay in gay, it's it's just fun to be around, you know, the your family while they're doing what they love. They love to cook. I'm second-class citizen to say the the to put it at this highest point of of cooking, but man, can I clean it up? Yeah, you know, I don't let anything soak overnight. Oh no, no soaking overnight. You know, we're gonna clean, you know, the place is gonna be neat. Leave no trace behind, as they say in scouts, you know, to be able to have it have it that way. So um I it's it's it's uh it's it's not always perfect, you know, to to be able to be that, but it be, you know, have that, you know, utopia kind of a uh approach to to family, but it it certainly helps to to try.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Well you can sense there's a lot of love there. I think there's wisdom in that though. Just just be what you are in front of your family. Because it's um I I will say for some guys that I know that it uh where they would sit right here and say, Yeah, this is where I got it wrong, is where they bottled it up. Yeah, you know, they hit it. It was just uh you know stress and just the the pressure relief valve was just always waiting to come undone. And when it comes undone, yeah, a lot of times it's hard to control the direction it goes. Right. Um so just not not hiding it. Just let your family see who you really are. Yeah. That's that's uh there's a lot of wisdom there. Well, okay. So switching into this, what's the number one principle for you that you feel like has helped you not only on your journey as a business leader, but also in your walk with Christ?

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Yeah. I I I you know I alluded to it uh that I I don't take it lightly. I join everything. I try to be involved as many different things. So I see as many different aspects of people as possible. So that helps me grow.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:26

So you come, I if if you hang around with people that are just like you all the time, you're not gonna improve. You're not gonna grow. Yeah, you know, and you're not gonna change. So it's just so much, it's so enlightening. I would never be as good when we talked about uh setting agendas and doing minutes, something as simple as that, but that it sounds simple, but it's so powerful on being able to get stuff done. If I had not joined the American Association of University Women, you know, to be able to be with AAUW and watch my mother do that. You know, so Joining stuff because you know what what happens when you join stuff? You can always quit. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

I was gonna say, as long as you're not in charge, if you're just a member, that's true. That's that's actually really true.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

Yeah, if you're in charge, you know, it's because you've invested in it. Yeah, you know, you invest your time.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Yeah, you found something worthwhile.

SPEAKER_03 44:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Yeah, people just don't take enough shots sometimes. I don't know why that is. That's right. Do you see that?

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Yes. You see it all the time. I see it all the time.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

I mean, I just feel like uh every now and then people just need to say, hey, I'm gonna get out of my comfort zone a little bit and I'm gonna go. I'm gonna just be there's a lot of energy involved with that, and it's there's decisions that get made, but you don't have to commit forever. Yeah, but just go check it out because you don't know what you're gonna find behind that door. That's that's really good, man. Um, all right. When you look forward at life, how old how old are you? 68. Oh my god, you don't look 68. Yeah, you don't sound 68. Well, so I'm working on it. That's good. Well, all this stuff you do is keeping you young. Yeah. What are you most excited about when you look forward at life?

SPEAKER_03 44:58

Yeah. Um, the BHAGs, you know, the big hairy, audacious goals of being able to look to all different aspects of my life. I want to stay two C's, curious and challenged, you know, to be able to do that. So to do that, you've got to take, you've got to take risk, you've got to be able to do some things. 400,000 is the number for for Appseed. I've got some numbers with uh 400,000 kids.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

You want that many hands?

SPEAKER_03 45:23

Yeah, yeah. And we're just at we're just under 40,000 now. So we're almost 10% there.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

All right. Do you know if you know this number, I'll be impressed. But how many kids are in like the kindergarten pre-K age in our country?

SPEAKER_03 45:34

7 million.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Okay. And then 400,000, those are the ones that are like in the most, basically, they need it the worst.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Well, that's okay. The 400,000 is is a um is a goal uh by 2030.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

Then we'll get to 7 million after that. Hey, I'm in. I'm in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:53

All right. So what other what else?

SPEAKER_03 45:55

Well, we've got, you know, you just gotta have all kinds of stuff. So uh with with GCS, I have these uh seven-year contracts. So we've had two of them so far. We've we're we're in our 15th year of this is uh an extension year to the two two sevens, 15. I want another, you know, 21 years of that, you know, to be able to do that because that feeds the the um the the engine of being able to do some things with Abseed and beyond.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

So being able to do that. I've got all kinds of things in the community. You mentioned about being in Salisbury and uh you know, for for what I want to do with Catawba College, which I'm graduat I graduated from, I'm on the I'm a trustee, I'm very much deeply involved in that to be able to help that. Uh we've got a really cool, um, exciting program of being able to take our church, which is a traditional United Church of Christ, UCC church, mainstream, you know, downtown church, and move it over to Catawba, the the uh which has a terrific chapel and stuff like that, and then be able to have um a unique approach that the unchurched, the underchurched, the the students, faculty, staff, the alumni, the everybody within that'll be different because it'll have a music component, a lot like you know what some of the other um uh newer churches are doing, but also have a traditional component to it. So I'm excited about that too.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

That's awesome too. Wow, I just love that like I can ask you what you're excited about, and you don't have one thing, you've got three or four things. Got to.

unknown 47:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

I mean, but how awesome. The other thing that you just mentioned, though, is your motivation behind continuing to grow and have GCS thrive isn't just for yourself. It's like you're using that to go do something that's really deeply important to you at AppSeed.

SPEAKER_04 47:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

I feel like there's a lot of business leaders that need to hear that. Is when you get to a certain point in your business where you don't really need to grow anymore because you're not going to have any personal gain in it. And you're thinking, like, what is all this effort for? Man, channel it into something else. Yeah. It's other people, somebody else that you can go help and serve through your business. Because work is important, um, but missions matter a lot. So what are you using it for? That's right. So cool. That's right. All right, I got a last question here for you. Um, if you could give a piece of advice to the future generations of entrepreneurs, the young listeners out there, um, who do want to live an integrated faith and work life, what advice would you give that person?

SPEAKER_03 48:21

Um Well, I'll tell you, I'll I'll share with you uh the the way I reflect on that, or I would share with them, is to um is to testify how stress can just handcuff an entrepreneur that can handcuff somebody who wants to do something, can can suck the energy out of what you do, is to learn how to handle the stress. And I do it in four ways. I do it one, recognize it. When you recognize it, it's it's with you've usually you've had an un uh a communication you haven't done or something that you're frustrated with you that's that that you that keeps you up at night or makes you look really tired in the afternoon. Yeah, you know that's true. So you know that that part of it. And then and then I write it down, then I talk to somebody, then I do it. You know, so if that part, when I learn that through the uh the advice I would give everybody is to know thyself, you know, and to to be able to first of all do as many psychological tests that you and the the ones that you're confident with, psychological tests, and then you can apply their principles to that. And for me, the biblical principles are so important to be able to apply that, but I had to know myself first.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

Because then how can I how can I love other people before I have to love myself?

SPEAKER_01 49:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

And so that's that's that's part that that that stress part comes from knowing thyself, and then you know how to handle those things, and then you can apply.

SPEAKER_00 49:56

That's really, really good. Wow. Well, thank you so much for being here. I mean, I loved it. I uh we told the story beforehand, but I think you were supposed to be here. I think there's people who are listening to this right now who needed to hear what you have to say. Wow. Um, you've had uh a certain level of success in business that I feel like people will look at that and be like, well, how can I achieve that? But also you've kept so grounded in your faith, in your marriage, um, as a father, in your walk with Christ uh in your hometown. Like you you've kept the first things first and the right priorities. And um, I think that this is going to be inspiring to a lot of people to hear how you've lived life.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

Thank you. Um thank you for letting me share it. And uh thank you for everything you've shared with me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 50:38

So, where can they go? So if they want to learn more about AppSeed, um, and then also if they wanted to get involved, um, what's the best ways to do that?

SPEAKER_03 50:44

Uh just at the website. It's Appseed with one P A-P-S-E-E-D dot O-R-G. It's a nonprofit organization. On there, there's three ways to get involved. You can become uh a donor through as an angel investor or a foundation or help us get uh find public public funding from a partnership standpoint. If you've got a a church or an organization that you think would like to share this with their three and four-year-olds, then then you can reach out there. And then uh if you're a parent and you want one, let us know there too.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

That's awesome. Well, thank you very much. I'll put all everything in the show notes and then we'll be following the story. Um so we'll give some updates here periodically along the way on development and how things progress.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

But I hope I can I hope we can come back in a year or two and and and and uh tee it up again.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

Hey, if you're in town, man, I'm game. All right. So thank you very much. Um, we're gonna be over now, but if you want more access to uh shows, recordings, books, and other resources, you can get them all at marcreaves.com. Greg, thanks for being here.