March 29, 2023 • 48 mins
We visit with Krista O'Malley, founder of My PowerPak, a community-based digital caregiving platform that empowers ordinary people to give and receive extraordinary support when it is needed most. Fascinating!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:20):
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where we hope to
inject the world with a dose ofthe Minnesota nice that it
desperately needs.
It is a cold spring day spring,in quotes here with Steve.
Hi Steve.
Hi there, John.
And, uh, Kevin is on vacation ata warm place.
The, uh, the Minnesota Wildhave.
(00:42):
Have been on nationaltelevision, so it gives him, uh,
several days to get outta townwithout having to pack a bunch
of suits and stuff to, uh, tomug for the tv.
So he's, we'll say he is onassignment, but he's on a
vacation assignment.
And I'm sure he'll come backwith some grand stories of
kindness that he experiencedwhile he was, uh, while he was
down in Phoenix with his, uh,his special friend Chrissy.
(01:06):
Um, I've been thinking abouttoday's program.
Yeah.
I, I, I guess and I, uh, so youlook very deep in thought on
this one.
Yeah.
Well just, you sound like it soyesterday mm-hmm.
there was a shooting Yeah.
In Nashville, Tennessee.
Yep.
And it was at a, uh, a Christianschool and, uh, three kids were
(01:27):
killed.
And three, Adults were killed.
Yeah.
And watching the news coverageof it, um, brought me back to
thinking about something thatFred Rogers, who I think we've
decided is like the Grand Masterof kindness.
Yeah.
He's definitely, as if you'veseen the documentary about him
and have seen the film starringTom, uh, Hanks.
(01:48):
um, you don't re you didn'trealize how amazing of a person
he was.
I mean, just in, when you'rewatching his little kid show,
you know?
Absolutely.
Lovely person.
Yeah.
Well, the real deal.
Yeah.
The, the quote that that comesto mind.
I gotta get on my cheaters herecuz I'm old now.
I wasn't old yesterday but I'mold now.
He said when I was a boy and Iwould see scary things in the
(02:11):
news, my mother would say to.
Look for the helpers.
You'll always find people whoare helping.
And what struck me when I waswatching the news coverage is
that no matter which channel youwere watching mm-hmm.
and I was slipping between whatside you're on, kind of whatever
side of the political spectrumthat you're on.
(02:32):
Yeah.
these people were obsessed withwanting to politicize.
Yeah, of course.
You know, so the person that,that, that did the shooting was
a, uh, a transgender male, whichmeans born, assigned at birth, a
female.
Okay.
And identified as a he, him, itwas right on their, uh, their
(02:52):
LinkedIn profile.
Okay.
And, The people on the left,when I watched cnn, all they
wanted to talk about was theSecond Amendment and these
crazy, you know, gun controlpeople.
Somebody who was trying to blamethis on, on Trump, of course.
Mm-hmm.
And then when you turned it onFox, all they wanted to talk
about was, well, there you go.
(03:13):
There's one of your transgendercrazies.
That was, yeah.
there was an interview that wasdone by a local Nashville
station that I happened towatch.
Okay.
And while you're hitting all thechannels, I was, I was obsessed
with this.
I was obsessed with this becauseI think it was, I, I mean, to me
it was the perfect time todemonstrate.
(03:34):
To see who could, woulddemonstrate.
Yeah.
Kindness.
Goodness.
We would.
Well, okay.
We've been through many ofthese.
Yep.
Right.
So you were kind of dissectingthis one, seeing how it's
playing out more.
This one different, one timedifferent, this one's different.
For starters, it was abiological woman.
Yeah.
Who identified as a male, yeah.
That was the unique, that wasunique, right.
It was very unique.
So it gave the, oh boy, youknow, one side of the, the, the
(03:56):
aisle talking points thatnormally don't exist there but I
just wanted to see, you know,how that would be handled.
And it was handled exactly as Iexpected it would be.
Yeah.
Played out totally politicized.
Well, there was this one guythat was interviewed by a local
Nashville station, and thereporter tried to go there with
him.
(04:17):
and he said, you know, why arewe talking about this?
There are three dead children.
Mm-hmm.
there are three caregivers thathave been murdered.
Yeah.
Look around.
Look at how people arecomforting each other.
The story should be about thosepeople that are comforting these
people in a time of, of, ofsadness and a time of need.
(04:38):
You know, let them figure outthat stuff later.
But right now, let's focus onthe helpers.
Yeah.
Let's focus on the people thatare trying to do something good.
Yeah.
As opposed to immediatelyturning this in the blames and
the, the, the blames pointfinger pointers.
And I don't know, did you hear,uh, president Biden yesterday
when he talked about, so he was,he was, uh, presenting to some
(05:00):
small business, uh, event andclearly President Biden is.
Declining in his ability tocommunicate.
Yeah.
And he, he's an old guy.
He's an old guy.
He's an old guy and so is theother guy that's running against
him.
He's an old guy.
His just manifests in adifferent way.
(05:20):
Now I'm probably pissing offeverybody by talking about No.
Is this the politicalChronicles?
This is the This right now,today gonna be the, but the
point is, yeah.
So Jug Joe got down there and hesaid something like, So he is,
he was there to speak to thisgroup about, uh, women in small
business or something like that.
But he was instructed, he wastold by his, his staff that this
(05:43):
happened, that, and we need toaddress this.
Yeah.
Well, he gets down there and hesays, you know, I'm Joe, I, I'm,
uh, Dr.
Joe Biden's husband.
I, uh, I heard that they wereserving chocolate chip ice cream
down here.
and he goes, I love chocolatechip ice cream.
That's the only reason I'm here.
You know, I got a wholerefrigerator of it.
And he's, he's stumbling throughthis, trying to be funny or
(06:04):
trying to be funny and thetiming was not good.
Yeah.
Now you could give him grace andunderstand that, you know, what
he's experiencing is just somesort of discomfort with the,
the, the topic at hand.
And maybe that's how he's copingwith it.
Yeah.
And you know elderly people verywell.
(06:25):
I know elderly people.
You know how he's an elderlyperson?
Yeah, he is.
And he's, he's struggling tocommunicate, but it was like
people wanted to attack him.
Yeah.
Now there are plenty of thingsyou can attack him for.
And there are plenty of thingsyou can attack the guy that was
in Waco, Texas or wacko Texasdoing his thing.
It's just the world is insane.
So I want Fred Rogers' Angel,what's your name?
(06:48):
I want Fred Rogers.
Yeah.
To be our kind of guy forpresident.
Yeah, I know.
He is deceased.
Yep.
But there have to be there.
There.
Those people are out.
and we live in a world, we livein a country right now that is
just so divided, that is soangry, and it's just, you know,
I think there are, it's not aneighborhood anymore.
(07:09):
I think there are a lot ofpeople in politics for the right
reason.
It's not a, it's not a sexything to jump into when you're a
young person or a, you know,it's.
It's if you're trying to dosomething right for the
community, there's people thatare dedicated to it that really
are out there.
They're not just trying to getpower.
You gotta wonder when they getto that level, you know,
they're, what their reasoningis.
But yes, there are, there'sdedicated people that are trying
(07:31):
to do the right thing and are,and are doing the right thing
every day.
Yeah.
We happen to have one of thosepeople that's gonna be on with
us today.
Oh, yeah.
Uh, before we get to that, yeah.
I just want to, I want to justhave a little quick moment with
you and tell you, you, ohmoment, you moment mention you
made a reference to, uh, uh,that it was your birth.
Well, it was, you made a slightlittle, I got it.
I dunno if the, the, theaudience, our listeners got it.
(07:53):
But I, I, uh, I got yousomething.
And, and Kevin would, would begoing in on this with me, I
think.
Oh, really?
In spirit.
In spirit.
Okay.
So, so a gift I got you.
I got you a, so chocolate chipcookies.
Oh my God.
Some mini chocolate chipcookies.
Perfect gift for the guy withdiabetes But I will be pounding
these things, And I love theKowalski's chocolate chip
(08:15):
cookies.
Yes.
Well that's, this is for, I knowthat you're kind of lonely.
Your, your wife is traveling.
My wife is travel alone.
It's your birthday.
Yes.
Weekend week.
You know it's your birthdayweek.
But I've also got somethingconsidering your age.
I know that.
Is it Metamucil?
No.
I mean, you're a, you've hit a,a special year.
What is it you wanna say?
I'm 55.
55.
I think 55.
Kevin would agree.
(08:36):
Oh, Jesus, you need Jesus.
Some prunes.
Jesus.
He brought me a pack of prunes.
A nice small pack of prune justfor, just for all the medicinal
reasons that you have prunes.
You know, you are a great guy.
You are a great guy.
Let's just really quickly talkabout my birthday.
So yesterday, so my wife is outof town.
My kids are, you know, either inschool or working.
And sad.
(08:56):
I got, I had a lovely dinnerwith my, uh, mom and dad at a
place in North St.
Paul called Max.
Have you been to Max?
Uh, max Diner.
Max Diner in North St.
Paul.
Yeah, I've been there.
It's so good.
They remodeled it now.
I haven't been there a longtime, but it is, so I went there
back in the seventies.
My dad's office was next to Max.
We used to eat burgers there allthe time.
Well, this is a brand new Yeah,yeah, yeah.
Joint.
Yeah.
And, and I had a burger and itwas outrageously good.
(09:19):
Like out outrageously good.
That's a crazy choice.
Okay.
That's my mom and dad.
You know, they're, you know,they wanted to go there and meet
at four o'clock for dinner.
I'm sure they'll be pounding theprunes.
Prunes.
So anyways, we met, they broughtyou out there to Max and North
Park, and then after that I wentand, uh, the, there's a group of
us from the class of 86 at, fromHillary Yeah.
That get together every othermonth.
(09:41):
uh, it started out as the groupthat organized the class
reunion, or, that's right.
Okay.
35th class reunion.
That's still, that's cool.
So this group is slowly growing.
Oh.
And it's so neat because it's,it's like people that I did not
really hang out with that muchin high school.
Yeah.
Um, but just great people.
And one guy that I want toacknowledge, and I think he
listens is Frank Bock.
(10:02):
Do you remember Frank?
I, yeah, I, I remember him.
Frank, my brother knew him.
It was from your class?
Yeah.
Yeah, Frank was, Frank was inDan's cl Dan's birthday is
tomorrow, I believe.
Yeah, it is.
Dan.
I'm, I gotta get him somefriends.
He's always been very respectfulof me because of, you know,
respect your elders um, couldgive'em some prunes.
Don't give'em any cookies, man.
Those are mine.
Those are yours.
Anyways, so Frank Bock, Imentioned to Frank Bock the last
(10:23):
time that we were together, howmuch I love Duran Duran Uhoh,
and I forgot about that.
He bought me.
Do you not like Duran Duran?
I, I do, I do.
Not to the level you, you, Ijust, I, that was, that was kind
of like the music, the, thesoundtrack of my life was, I
know was Duran Duran.
It was great music.
And Johnny Clueless that too.
I don't think so.
But D Duran Duran and he boughtme this book about Duran Duran.
(10:47):
Wow.
and um, was it called Hungary?
Like a wolf?
I don't know what it was called.
It was, but it, it, it's, it wassort of like a tiger beat, you
know how those magazines Yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kinda a fanzine kind of thing.
It was a fanzine, yes.
Did you, did you, um, Uh, foldyour pants a certain way and do
(11:08):
your hair.
I totally, I thought I was JohnTaylor.
Thought I was could collar tothe top.
Absolute.
Well, Frank did.
Frank was, Frank was, uh, wasvoted best dressed in our, in
our graduating class, and thedude was.
Fashion forward.
Yeah, he always has been.
Yeah, he always will be.
Yeah.
He even still looks like, youknow, she's got this kind of
cool flippy hair and I mean,he's just, he's cool.
Cool.
But I just wanted to say thankyou, Frank.
(11:30):
Yeah.
I started reading it last nightwhen I was home alone on my
birthday It was kind of patheticand sad, but.
It was just, I thought that wasreally nice.
Good.
Well now you can continuereading that with your cookies.
Cookies.
And then throw, I'm gonna b andI'll have a good mark.
Yeah.
Wake up nice and relaxed.
Good.
We're gonna visit with KristaO'Malley.
Yes.
And we're gonna call her rightnow.
Why don't you gimme your phonenumber?
(11:51):
Yeah.
Okay.
we'll be right back after this.
And We're back.
Back Hey.
Um, so I have a guest, John, uh,that we, uh, we talked a little
bit with her ahead of time, butI want to tell our listeners
about her.
I wanna bring her on.
She's, uh, someone I've knownfor a very long time.
I know her family.
Uh, her sister Dawn and I wentto, um, to college together.
(12:13):
And also I worked with her atTarget, but we reconnected, um,
on a target event that we did abunch of years ago.
And, uh, and she is.
She's an owner of a companycalled Command M.
They are experiential marketingkind of company.
She also is a founder of thisreally amazing thing called My
Power Pack, and I want to talkto her about that.
I want you to hear all aboutthat and I wanna listen to hear
(12:35):
about it.
So Krista O'Malley, welcome tothe Kindness Chronicles.
Thanks for having me today,Krista, we, the theme of our
show this, uh, this week is, uh,we decided that we would like
somebody like Mr.
Rogers to be our president.
Um, and we, we are kind ofobsessed with, uh, Mr.
Rogers quotes, and one of them Ithink applies very.
(13:00):
Uh, directly to my power pack,and it is, um, all of us at some
time or other need help, whetherwe're giving or receiving help.
Each one of us has somethingvaluable to bring to this world.
That's one of the things thatconnect us as neighbors in our
own way.
Each one of us is a giver and areceiver.
(13:21):
And when I discovered my powerpack, Um, I instantly thought of
that Mr.
Rogers quote, because I think itencapsulates what the objective
of my power pack is.
But instead of, uh, giving itaway, why don't you tell us
about this amazing app thatyou've created, this, uh,
(13:42):
amazing tool that you areproviding the, uh, the world.
It's very unique.
It's super unique.
Tell us about it and how youdecided that this was something
that you wanted to.
Sure.
Uh, it, that's actually a reallyamazing quote, and so we'll have
to steal that from you sometimeand, and, and maybe use it for
sure.
But, um, yeah, so My Power Packis a holistic caregiving app
(14:05):
that, you know, we hope is aninspiring place for people to
give and receive care andsupport, um, whenever it's.
Um, and that could be somethingreally positive, um, in life
where you had twins and you needsome extra hands on deck or
whether it's something moremedically serious.
You had an injury, an accident,or a diagnosis or something like
(14:29):
that.
Um, but it really kind of cameto fruition for me.
A good friend of mine, um, wasdiagnosed with cancer, uh,
breast cancer, and, um, she hadbeen, she and I had been in, uh,
a couple of different businessgroups together and had created,
you know, a network of friendsall throughout the country.
And when that happened, um, kindof us, uh, from from across the
(14:52):
country decided to support herand.
Kind of get her cocooned withlove and support the best that
we could, um, you know, throughher journey.
And we didn't really know whatto expect with that.
And it was actually a reallyamazing experience.
I got out of it way more than Iever anticipated.
The sense of communitybelonging, kind of that whole
(15:13):
neighborhood idea, liftingsomebody else up actually made
me feel really good.
And so doing this as a sharedpurpose was really, truly unique
and amazing.
And so all this goodness andlove that we created in and
around Jen, um, was phenomenal.
But then there was all thechallenges that, you know, 10
(15:34):
women from across the countryhad to deal with, which was
spreadsheets and trying tofigure out a birthday calendar
and yeah, radiation andchemotherapy and, and all these
different treatments.
And there's like all thisfriction.
When alls we wanted to do waslove and care for somebody and,
and, and really do our best as,as friends to, to make this
(15:55):
journey easy.
So I just kind of put mythinking cap on and um, you know
what Steve had mentioned thatwhat we do for a living is
experience design.
and thought there's a betterway.
And I think caregiving was ripefor innovation.
There wasn't a lot of innovationYeah.
In the space.
Um, and nobody really thinksabout it, and people kind of
(16:16):
don't really wanna, you know,talk about it too much.
Right.
It's a, it's a private thing alot of times, so, I knew there
had to be a better way.
So I set out to, to buildsomething a bit more holistic
and encompassing and kind ofwhat you need in today's world
to bring together all thosedifferent aspects of people's
lives.
Whether it's high school friendsand college friends and
(16:37):
coworkers and jobs you've leftand you know, your hockey
friends or your soccer friends,or you know, all these people
from church or whatever groupsand organizations into one area
and do everything that you.
Depending upon, you know, whatpeople's gifts are to kind of
take care of somebody that youlove and care about.
It sounds too good to be true.
(16:59):
But I know John, you dove inpretty deep into it because
it's, it sounds like this, thismagical thing, but it is.
Well, tell us about yourexperience, cuz you dug into it
really deeply.
So, you know, I, uh, downloadedor do you upload or download an
app?
I think you download an app.
Yeah, I think so.
Whatever it is.
I hit the get thing on the appthing, the app store.
I'm not very technically savvy,but what I, when I started
(17:20):
looking at it, my head was goingto explode cuz I.
you know, I'm, I'm in thecaregiving business.
Yeah.
Um, you know, whether it's atthe nursing home or at our
cancer center or the children'shospital.
And I was looking at what youcreated and I thought, how is it
that this doesn't exist?
And I think that there areelements of this that exist out
(17:41):
there, but it's not organizedand it's not coordinated in a
holistic way that you have and.
I, I w like instantly I startedthinking about all these
applications that could be,well, for instance, you
mentioned just before you and Iwere talking about this, um, uh,
one of the person you know verywell that was going through
(18:02):
something and yeah.
Everyone, yeah.
Talk about that cuz that wasreally interesting angle.
And so what left people?
So I, I think, um, Krista, thiswill, uh, this will resonate
with you.
Um, we had a woman in ourcommunity.
Who was dealing with a, asignificant health crisis, and
she has lots of friends in thecommunity and everyone wanted to
(18:23):
help her.
Everyone wanted to help her.
And what ended up happening wasI think that she got so
bombarded with casseroles andpizzas, lasagna and lasagnas and
all this other stuff, what wasintended to be something that
was nice turned into a burdenfor them on the receiving end of
the thing.
Yep.
And yeah, it, it was more aboutwhat we wanted to give them.
(18:45):
Yeah.
As opposed to what their needswere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what their desires were.
And this thing handles that waybetter.
Well, tell us a little bit Yeah.
If you would, and, and I, I'llfill in the blanks because I've
gotten to know the app prettywell.
But that's awesome.
You know, all of the differentthings that this app offers,
the, the, the different, youknow, bullet points is kind of
(19:06):
how I looked at it.
As you're scrolling down theapp, these are the different.
What's the word that I'm lookingfor?
Elements, uh, uh, pieces to it,right?
I don't Elements, pieces.
That's not the right elements ofthe word.
No, we, yeah, definitely.
Tell us about, I'll share'emwith you, Yeah.
So there's a journal, right,which people are pretty familiar
with, right?
So there's a lot of differentplaces out there that you can do
(19:27):
journaling, but the journalhere, um, first and foremost,
maybe I should say is privacy isup to the individual.
Yeah.
Right.
So you can make your, um, pack,we call'em packs, and it's p a
k.
and your power pack, you canmake it private or you could
make it, um, public.
And if you make it private, youknow, if somebody sends you the
(19:48):
link, you would have to wait ina queue until somebody lets you
in and they can let you in aslike an inner circle supporter,
kinda like a best friend or afamily, like close people.
You know, it's just like reallife.
We try to make it like your bestfriends or your closest family.
They probably know what's goingon.
And then informationdisseminates out.
And so you can kind of keep itprivate and let people in that
(20:10):
inner circle, or they can be aregular supporter or you could
have it open so if somebody getsthe link, they could just join
automatically.
But that was really important tous and it's that feature you can
use on journal posts and you canuse it on asking for volunteers
and all kinds of things likethat.
Um, but's, can I, can I justinterrupt you for just a second,
Krista?
Of course.
(20:30):
When we talked yesterday, you,you, you mentioned that, you
know, when I hear about thejournal, I instantly think of,
uh, uh, caring Bridge Giving.
Yeah.
The, the, you know, caringBridge is, is an, or is a site
that has done a good job of, uh,of capturing that piece of it,
but it's not really interactive.
(20:52):
Um, and tell me, you hadmentioned that your friend had
an interesting response when yousuggested carrying bridge.
Yeah.
You know, when we first re re,um, when we re we said to Jen,
Hey, you know, like this wouldbe a good way to keep people
involved.
you know, for her it had a, ithad an end of life stigma that
(21:14):
she just wasn't willing toaccept.
No.
And so, you know, for her, um,you know, this was breast
cancer, she was going to beat itand, and fully intended on that.
And it was kind of like this isa non-starter for her.
It wasn't something that shewanted.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, for us,you know, that always kind of
(21:34):
kept in the back of my mindbecause during that early days,
bombarded, like you guys saidwith the casseroles.
It was, you know, her family wasbombarded with questions about
what's going on, and I thinkwe've heard that time and time
again, and I think we've reallytried with design and language
and colors to keep it reallypositive and inspirational that
(21:58):
this.
My power pack, the app might besomething that you use for two
weeks and you don't get on itagain until somebody else needs
you, or you're on it for a year,or you know it's temporary and
you use it when you need it andthen you're off it.
It's not something that, youknow, we would want someone to
be on, you know, for long term,but if they had to, we
(22:21):
understand it and wanna make it,um, as friendly and as uplifting
as we possibly.
Yeah, so you got the journal.
Yep.
What else you got?
So we, so we've got the journal,and then we have a calendar
which is super interactive andit allows people to manage
volunteers and ask for them orassign tasks to them.
(22:41):
So if you wanted, you know,somebody to rake your lawn or
clean your windows or give you aride to the doctor or pick up,
you know, siblings or, um, youknow, just anything or the
meals, the casserole, you can.
It on there and put it out tomaybe the inner circle or your
entire group of people andpeople can volunteer for it.
(23:01):
And you can be really specific.
Like, um, we had Dawn, uh, mysister was using it when, when
her husband, um, was sick withleukemia and, you know, she put
on there like, the kids aren'tpicky eaters, but would prefer,
um, proteins, fresh, uh, fruitsand fresh veggies.
Wow.
Um, you know, no pasta, please.
(23:22):
Yeah.
Right.
And so it gave them a goodopportunity cuz they were
getting a lot of lasagna.
Yeah.
And other things, which weregreat, but you know, it, it was
one of those things of can youdirect it a little bit more
specifically?
Yeah.
And so the calendar allows youto, Ask for volunteers or just
assign people to it.
If, if that's something that'seasier, say it's like for an
(23:43):
older parent or something andthey need a ride, you know, you
sign it to your sister, you signit to your brother versus, you
know, volunteering, you know,that kind of thing.
So the calendar's prettyinteractive and it, and helps
with, um, volunteer managementand coordination.
And then the messenger is prettycool because, You can chat with
people within the app.
(24:04):
So for example, um, you know, onSteve's pack, there was a guy
that I used to work with, uh,when I was going through college
at Red Lobster, who I workedthere, uh, put myself through
college and, um, he contacted methrough the app and I hadn't
spoken with him in 25 years.
Right.
So, wow.
It was really a neat way toconnect with people and it's a
(24:26):
neat way to connect with like,you know, Steve might know John,
your neighbor or know of them,but maybe he doesn't really know
them and you know, if it wassomething for you, he could
message there and say, Hey, um,you know, is it snowing?
Did somebody come over toshovel, you know, the driveway
or, so it's the sidewalk or.
It's all private message.
You can go messaging private topeople within it, right?
(24:48):
Is that what you're saying?
Yep.
Within a pack?
Yeah.
Wow, wow.
So, you know, it's connectinglike neighbors, you know, that
your good friend might know ofyour neighbors, but they don't
necessarily know them directly.
So like I had several people,um, you know, reach out and say,
Hey, I worked with Don atTarget, um, you don't know me.
You know, obviously we have thesame last name.
(25:10):
So they knew I was her sisterand said, I wanna organize
something, you know, can youhelp me, you know, do that.
Um, and we just would not have,you know, I would've had to go
through Dawn Yeah.
Who doesn't need one more thingto do.
Right.
Right.
Or they find you through likeFacebook or something and it's
kind of convolutedcommunication.
It doesn't really connect to, tothe source of why you're trying
(25:32):
to do this.
Yep.
Absolutely.
Be before I know we have, um, bebefore you continue, I just have
to ask.
Did they have Lobster Fest at atRed Lobster back when you were
there, Yeah, they did actually.
So was that a good time to be inthe lobster business or was that
like chaos Well, if you'reserving like I was, you were
(25:53):
making decent money, but makinggood money.
I mean, if you were waiting inthe lobby, For an hour and a
half to get a table.
It probably wasn't the best, butI just envisioned all that super
butter wrecking everybody'sclothes.
It's flying around.
It's not good for the lobster.
I'm sorry, I digress.
It's not a good day for thelobster.
Lobster.
That's true.
Okay, so we we got the journalcalendar.
Calendar, the messenger.
(26:13):
What else?
Yep.
We're paying attention.
And so then there's amarketplace.
So we have a, a marketplace.
A lot of people wanna givegifts, right?
Like you said, it's typically welook at through the lens of what
we want, um, and we're givingthings that we want.
Yeah.
You know, so it's like kind ofthe golden rule.
And we kind of wanted to flip ithere and say, what's, oh, how
about the platinum rule, right?
Like, I'm gonna treat you ho youwanna be treated versus.
(26:35):
The golden rule of like, I'lltreat you how I wanna be
treated.
My favorite quote, love it.
Nobody knows the platinum rule,except for you and me now speak.
I never heard it before.
Yeah.
Do unto other, not do untoothers as you would want them to
do unto you.
It's do unto others as they'dwant you to.
This is not in the Bible we're,it's not in the Bible.
We just came, Kristin and I cameup.
I like it.
(26:56):
I like it.
That's, that does sound perfectfor this.
Isn't that cool?
Yeah.
So.
I mean, you know, if you thinkabout it, we have, we have this
marketplace, so we have goodsand, and services in the
marketplace and, um, gift cards.
You know, you could buy someonea DoorDash gift card, which was
really awesome for people, youknow, like Steve was in the
hospital for a long period oftime.
(27:16):
Yeah.
And people could send themPanera gift cards or target gift
cards or whatever, gift cards.
Baskets, um, you know, differentitems, you know, some people
were sending, which I thoughtwas super cool, was sending
cookies to the nurses throughthe app.
Right.
Wow.
And that kinda thing.
And so think, forget about thenurses.
Oh God, that's pretty cool.
You know, like, Right.
(27:37):
Like, that's super neat.
So seriously, my head is gonnaexplode.
I've, there's so many greatideas in this.
Okay, now now, hold on.
Now to get a little nerdy aboutthis.
I don't actually know a lotabout this, but I've, I've been
around it enough to know, I feellike Krista, this is kind of
like the guts of a C R M in away, right?
It's, it's sort of like, It'ssort of like the, the, the
(27:58):
mechanisms you have now.
Now for those of us that aren'tin the business world, what is a
crm?
I don't even know what it standsfor, but it's like a marketing,
uh, software that holds ontocalendars and you can have
customer relations, managementrelations.
Yeah.
All that kind of stuff combined.
It feels like the software issomewhat similar to what you'd
get on that because it'scalendar management.
It's, uh, you've got, I don'tknow.
(28:19):
I feel like it's all kind ofconnected.
Is that, is that, am I off base?
You know, I, I don't think it'ssuper off base.
I think it's like kind of alittle bit of that vein.
I've actually never heard anyonecompare it that way, but I, I
think it's pretty, you know, Ithink it's pretty accurate.
So, you know, what we weretrying to think about is like,
what stops somebody for doingsomething?
(28:39):
Yeah.
Right?
So like, it's like you thinkabout somebody, you wanna do
something, you wanna send'em amessage, you wanna send'em a
gift card or something, right?
Like, what stops you from doingthat?
And in this situation, Like thehurdle is like where are, like,
where's their address?
So if like we're friends fromhigh school, you've moved a
couple of times and like nowI'm, I I've heard that maybe you
(29:02):
need some support now I gottafind somebody that has your
address, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's so many steps.
It's like, how can I do thisquickly?
So for us, we, you know, We dohave the person's address,
right?
Cause they've figured thatpiece.
We've have that in our system.
So alls you have to do is go onand buy a gift.
We know where they are.
(29:22):
It automatically gets sent.
So we could send a card.
You put the message, we handwrite it, put the stamp on it,
send it in the mail.
And the cool part is like we'vepaired it with, uh, wishlist.
So if you think about likesomeone getting married or
having a baby, all these likesuper positive moments, people
can just registry, ask for.
Yeah.
But people, when they're needhelp, they don't wanna ask for
(29:46):
things.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, but, but I like totallywanna flip the script on that.
Like, can we make it easy forpeople to get meaningful things
for them in a time of need?
Right.
And I, they don't need.
I think that literally flippingthe script is exactly the, you
know, it requires a person whois in need to be willing to
(30:10):
share what their needs are.
Yeah.
Which is not easy.
Yeah.
It's not easy.
But I think that that people,you know, we're all givers and
we're all receivers at somepoint in our life, and I think
that a gift that the person thatmight be struggling with cancer,
struggling with an illness, Thegift to the people around them
is to tell them what they need.
We all often talk about the,the, the oxytocin that you get
(30:34):
from acts of kindness and Yeah.
And you know, essentially you'regiving these people the
opportunity to know exactlywhat's going to help you, which
will help them get that dose ofoxytocin.
Yeah.
Which is what Krista got whenshe started putting this
together.
Well, and something that youjust said, so real quick, I have
to ask this.
(30:54):
You clearly are an entrepreneur,you're a salesperson, you're not
a coder, are you?
How does, how does an app likethis get built?
Yeah, yeah.
No, I'm, uh, not, they call,what I'm considered is a
non-technical founder.
Right.
Oh, okay.
So, um, sounds like somethingI'd like to do.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
So I think, you know, from, fromour background of, of experience
(31:19):
design, right?
The u the user experience, theuser interface, the ux, the UI
piece of it.
is really like, kind of what ourjam is, right?
Yeah.
Whether that's in the physicalworld or you know, here it's,
it's software, right?
It's, it's digitally, but it'sreally thinking about like
putting our feet in theconsumer's shoes and
(31:41):
understanding at that time orwhen they're using this product,
like, what's going on and howdo, how do we do it best?
So we have people on our teamthat code and do the software
engineering part of it.
Um, and we have, uh, a cto, uh,woman, um, uh, Chicago that, um,
functions as our, um, part-timecto.
(32:06):
So you took the, the, the, theapproach you take with
experiential design and justkind of laid that into the
foundation of this kind ofdifferent need.
It's, it's actually, it feelslike a big pivot, but the way
you've explained it, it it lessof a pivot than need.
Yeah.
It fits your, it fits yourteam's expertise and, uh, I've
seen what you guys do.
You're very good at, you know,adapting what the needs are and
(32:28):
put it to what, what theclient's needs are.
And you, you, you fulfill itamazingly well.
Okay, so here's an.
That you, so I've been trying tothink of, I mean, there's so
many applications for this app.
Um, in the world that I live in,the world that I work in.
And you mentioned something thatjust the light bulb just, it
(32:50):
blew up in my head.
Uhoh.
No.
The idea of, you know, whenyou're, when you're being taken
care of, so say you're in atransitional care Yeah.
And you're recovering from, uh,heart, uh, heart surgery or a
hip replacement.
Yeah.
And you're surrounded by thesecaregivers and you wanna show
how grateful you are to thecaregivers, but how do you do
(33:11):
that when you're tied to a bed?
Mm-hmm.
And, you know, I, I, I love theidea of mm-hmm.
on this app saying, you knowwhat?
I got this nurse that I justlove that has been taking great
care of me.
She mentioned that she likeschocolate chip cookies, you
know, Would somebody provide uswith some chocolate chip cookies
(33:32):
as a gift to this nurse orsomething?
Wow.
That's spread of signs.
That's pretty cool.
It's real.
But what it is, is it's, it'snot a gift for me.
It's a gift for my caregiver.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
which, and I mean, you want tocare for your kids, which is a
gift, which gift for you becauseyou want to do that, right?
So, Krista like, walk us throughthis.
Say, um, you know, Steve got mecookies for my birthday and I'm
(33:52):
gonna crack him.
He's got chocolate cookies onhis mind.
say, you know, uh, my, my fatherdied a few years ago.
Say when he was starting todecline, we, we were all kind of
scrambling, trying to figure outwhat to do.
Walk me through how it wouldwork with you guys with the, my
Power pack.
How, how would I, how would thatstart if I know that I need some
help?
Where does it go from thatpoint?
(34:14):
Yeah, so you, you would juststart a pack, right?
So you or your mom or whoever,whoever you know, it doesn't
matter.
A friend of yours even couldstart, John could start it for
your dad too.
It doesn't, it doesn't reallymatter who, who starts it, but
you download the app.
You download the app, okay?
Yep.
You download the app so you can,if you're on on, you can use it
on a computer.
(34:35):
Any type of computer webbrowser, it's my m y power p o w
e r p a k.com, just all oneword.
Um, and you can use it on acomputer, you can download it,
um, onto a uh, Android device.
Um, via that way too, or go tothe app store if you have any
Apple device.
(34:55):
So if you have an iPhone or aiPad, that's what I idea.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
You can go right to the appstore and we're in the app store
and you download it and thenit'll ask you, um, you know, if
you wanna set up a pack foryourself or somebody else.
And you know, if it was for yourdad, Steve, you want, just wanna
set it up for him.
and then you, you can inviteguardians or you know, invite
(35:19):
people to it.
So you set up the page, you puta little bit of information on
there about your dad and kind ofwhat's going on.
Yeah.
And then you would create thepack and it would give you a
link.
and so you could share, again,you set it to private or public,
and you can share that link outany way that you want.
You could tweet it out if, ifthat's what you wanted, but you
(35:40):
could email it, you could textit, you could send it, um, via
social channels, Facebook,whatever, Instagram, it doesn't
matter.
LinkedIn, whatever you want.
and then people can sign up andjoin the pack.
If it's private, they wait in aqueue and just one of you or
your, you know, John orwhoever's managing the page, and
(36:01):
you can have multiple peoplethat are guardians managing the
page, let people in, or if it'spublic, they just come in
automatically and then you can,you know, just start creating
events on the calendar.
You know, you could even setlike visiting hours are this
time.
You know, please don't justrandomly come and drop off food
or Oh yeah, here's when we wantfood.
(36:22):
Or you know, to your point ofhere's the caretakers, we'd love
to send them cookies or browniesor whatever you want.
Um, you can set up your wishlistif you want it.
You could also give donations.
We didn't talk about that, butinstead of like creating another
account to go fund me, you canset it up.
Cash donations and people can,you know, use a credit card, um,
(36:44):
and send, you know, donations aswell, right through the app.
Um, so it's really kind ofholistic in that manner too.
And, um, as people pass the linkaround, you know, as more people
hear about it, then more peoplewill join.
So we have packs, some of, youknow, some of them have 30
people and some packs have, youknow, several hundred people.
(37:05):
So it just kind of reallydepends on.
You know, how comfortable peopleare sharing their journey and
how big their social circles areand, and that kind of thing.
Could you use the, okay, John,you had a question?
I was just gonna say, Idiscovered that it's free.
That it's free.
Yep.
Yeah, totally free.
Which of course is another, youknow, someday we'll have to
figure out the, uh, theeconomics of, uh, creating
(37:26):
something like this.
But yeah, that's for anothertime.
Well, okay, so I, I have a, doyou have another question?
Go ahead.
No, I, I have another, I mean, Icould imagine you could apply
this to other things.
Carrying bridge is, does have a,does have a sense of, you know,
it's like final and it's, to meit's like hospice.
(37:46):
Yes.
Yes.
And that's not what it'sintended to be, but that's sort
of how, that's kinda what it'sfalls.
Yeah.
But I feel like this has to morethan like you could do, I mean,
could you do this for a baby,you know, like a.
For, well, yeah, so, so we, we,we, there's a lot of people
actually.
So, um, one of my classmates,um, from Germany, um, his wife,
(38:09):
they, they, she's not fromGermany and so she's kind of an
expat in Germany and she saidthat they, for babies, um, they,
they have this.
this thing called Mama Down, or,and that's what they call it.
Okay.
And it's like, kind of after thebaby's born, the, the mom needs
help.
Mm-hmm.
And so they set up kind of, youknow, bringing all kinds of
(38:30):
different things, whether it's,you know, diapers, formula,
meals, et cetera, to the family.
And she's, she's like, we have alot of challenges with that.
Just the same kind of thing thatwe had when, you know, Jen
initially got sick.
You know, all the great thingsof the love, but the friction
points of, you know, you knowwhen to bring things Yeah.
And what to bring and who'sdoing it and, and when, um, and
(38:53):
the changing schedules.
And so she's like, this would beamazing.
Um, you know, for thatapplication especially, she's
like, these are all expat momsthat have married, you know,
people from Germany are livingin Germany, but you know, it's,
it, they might not be native tothat area.
They're kind of alone, out beincredible.
Yeah.
They don't have resource.
Well, and I just think about youmilitary.
(39:14):
Yeah.
You know, God, you, you're onestep ahead of me, Kris.
I was just gonna say that.
No, I'm sorry.
I, you know, you think aboutmilitary families, for example,
like they're stationed down atFort Bragg and they're, the,
their, they're the husband is,uh, deployed.
She has a baby and she's down atFort Bragg, basically by
herself.
(39:34):
Yeah.
And her network of care offriends are in Minnesota.
Yeah.
I would imagine that you'veprobably of applications for
this, like you've probablydiscovered through the, the way,
the different ways that peopleuse this, just how, um, flexible
this app can be and how manydifferent things that it can do
(39:54):
for people.
Yeah.
There's a ton of use cases.
You know, I, we talked aboutelderly parents, like it's a big
one.
Um, and especially if, if, or,or someone just elderly in
general where they're, they're,you know, Network isn't near
them or, or maybe has passed onbefore them.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but also special needs.
(40:15):
Um, oh yeah.
A lot of different specialneeds.
Um, organizations we've talkedto really think that this is a
huge kind of game changer forfamilies where it's like, You
know, just keeping them up todate and informed in kind of one
central place, maybe, uh, asister or brother that's gone to
college, but still kind of needsto, you know, understand kind of
(40:37):
what's going on at home and, andthat kind of thing.
So, you know, there's always,every time we talk to somebody,
there's another.
Use case that pops up that, youknow, we didn't even think about
really.
Well, and I, you know, I, Ithink about the, uh, the people
that we take care of at ournursing home and why, you know,
(40:57):
we should be sharing this appwith those families to rally
people around those folks.
And, you know, I think about theMasonic Children's Hospital and,
you know, making sure that thefamilies are giving people in
their circles the opportunity.
To do something.
And I, I just, it's incredible.
(41:19):
Um, I, I, I also have a questionabout the, uh, the, the name, my
power pack.
Yeah.
Now, when I first, Steve firsttold me about my power pack, you
know, I instantly think of likesuperheroes and stuff like that
and the, the, the, thebrilliance of the name.
Like, it's, it, there's so manydifferent angles that you, how
(41:40):
did you come up with the.
Well, you, you kind of hit like,you know, the what?
The, okay.
So when Jen was, um, when wewere caring for her, the 10
women are all CEOs, right?
And so we, we kind of decided weare her power pack, right?
So if you think about it, likeshe's gonna rely on this group
(42:02):
of women who, her pos have herback and like, we're gonna power
her up through this journey.
Um, it's kind.
Thinking about, you know, you,your phone's about on, you know,
2% left and you just wish youhad a power pack to get you to
the next charge.
And what can you rely on kind ofthat super power pack, um, of,
(42:24):
of, of everybody that you'vecollected through life.
It's like kind of coordinatingall those different people.
Um, but the women really are,are the power pack.
So we kind of, the 10 ladies arekind of the OG power pack Um,
that, that, uh, started.
And so that's kind of where the,the name came from.
And, and that's John, that's whyshe's our guest on the Kindness
(42:47):
Chronicles because this was bornout of a, a, of kindness, pure
love and kindness for theirfriend.
And, um, Krista just happened tohave a, a, you know, a way to
think through this and, uh,coordinate it and put it
together with her team to createthis pretty cool thing that,
that is born out of somethingthat was.
Pure, pure love and kindness.
(43:07):
So I think it's amazing.
One of the things that, when wespoke yesterday, um, that struck
me was, uh, the, the brillianceof this not being a nonprofit
and here's why.
Um, having started a number ofnonprofits, understanding how
long the ramp is to get anonprofit started, you regarded
(43:27):
the or or referred to this as a,as a B corporation.
Can you explain what that meansto you?
Because I.
I think it's really a, a, aclever way of describing, did I
get that right?
A B Corp?
Yep.
A B Corp.
So a B Corp kinda sits between,it's a for-profit company, um,
that I, I kinda describe it assits between the nonprofit world
(43:50):
and a for-profit world.
It's a for-profit company thathas a environmentally and
socially chartered mission.
And so basically what that meansto me and and to my power pack
is, I want it to be free.
Um, I always want the app to befree to anybody who wants to use
(44:11):
it.
I mean, I, I really wanna shoutit from the rooftops that like,
you know, if, if your entireecosystem volunteers and can use
this tool to make yoursomebody's life better, like,
that will make me happy till,till you.
From here on.
And for people who can, youknow, have people that can
(44:32):
donate and buy things, you know,they'll fuel the, those that
can't.
And I think everybody has someof each in, in their world.
Um, but I think the B Corpallows us to do that.
It allows us to make money,allows us to be more agile.
It allows us to go faster.
Um, what I think.
(44:54):
And it also eliminates a lot ofthe BS that you have to deal
with when you're, when you're a5 0 1 I mean, it really, it
allows you to be, to do things,uh, quickly to be nimble as
you've described.
You know, one, uh, B Corp thatcomes to mind is Love your
melon.
Um, I'm sure you're familiarwith, you know, love your Melon
is the organization that, uh,hats the hats.
(45:16):
Yeah.
I mean, they've now got allkinds of apparel and all this
other stuff.
It's really, it's a great, andthe other thing is, is, is there
are people that I'm sure thathave invested in this.
the reason that they've investedand have given you the
opportunity is because they'remotivated by, you know,
(45:38):
something positive at the end.
And those people tend to be thekind of people that are also
very charitable with thosedollars that they make.
So, I, I applaud you for the,uh, the entrepreneurial spirit
that you have.
Yep.
And just the, the savvy tounderstand that this didn't have
to be a nonprofit to make ameaningful differe.
(45:59):
No, I think it's, you know,it's, it's interesting.
Um, we're self-funded, right?
So we haven't gone out, um, toget any external funding.
Yeah, I, I think at, at somepoint we'll probably need to do
that.
And I think you're probablyright about, you know, those
individuals that'll go.
But I, I think it's importantfor a company, um, especially a
technology company at the end ofthe day, cause it's so
(46:22):
expensive, it does have a wayto.
Feed itself, right?
And, and allows it to grow andcontinue because that's, I think
what happens a lot of times isyou don't have the money or
access to, to resources.
Um, you know, in the, in thenonprofit piece of it, And you
(46:42):
can, you know, by making amonetary, by having a monetary
engine, you can kind of keep itfresh and current to needs of,
you know, if somebody came witha great idea and said, or, Hey,
we're seeing things where peoplewanna use this.
We can go after that part of it.
Well, and all you have to do is,you know, look at Love Your
(47:03):
Melon as a, as an example of anorganization that you know has
really done some amazing things.
Yeah.
And they've done it through amodel that's.
Been very successful for them.
So, but I think, uh, what Kristahas here with, uh, my power pack
is more, has, has much more legsof use for so many more people.
So many there, so manydifferent, yeah.
(47:23):
Applications go.
How many times are we gonna usethat word today?
Well, thank you so much for yourtime, Krista, this is amazing
and we're so excited that youshared this with us and we'll
share it with our millions andmillions of listeners.
I'm not sure that's an accuratedepiction of Oh, okay.
Hundreds and hundreds oflisteners.
There's.
That So, so that's awesome.
So we're sort of like the B Corpbetween the Exactly.
(47:45):
Millions and the hundreds.
Yeah.
Um, that's a perfect sweet spot,right?
It's a perfect, that's, thatseems to be the spot where, uh,
where we've wedged ourself into.
Well, good luck with the, therest of this and maybe we'll
check in with you again and seehow it's going at some point.
And, uh, have a, have a, have agreat one.
And thank you for joining us.
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
And off we go.
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where we hope to
inject the world with a dose ofthe Minnesota nice that it
desperately needs.
It is a cold spring day spring,in quotes here with Steve.
Hi Steve.
Hi there, John.
And, uh, Kevin is on vacation ata warm place.
The, uh, the Minnesota Wildhave.
(00:42):
Have been on nationaltelevision, so it gives him, uh,
several days to get outta townwithout having to pack a bunch
of suits and stuff to, uh, tomug for the tv.
So he's, we'll say he is onassignment, but he's on a
vacation assignment.
And I'm sure he'll come backwith some grand stories of
kindness that he experiencedwhile he was, uh, while he was
down in Phoenix with his, uh,his special friend Chrissy.
(01:06):
Um, I've been thinking abouttoday's program.
Yeah.
I, I, I guess and I, uh, so youlook very deep in thought on
this one.
Yeah.
Well just, you sound like it soyesterday mm-hmm.
there was a shooting Yeah.
In Nashville, Tennessee.
Yep.
And it was at a, uh, a Christianschool and, uh, three kids were
(01:27):
killed.
And three, Adults were killed.
Yeah.
And watching the news coverageof it, um, brought me back to
thinking about something thatFred Rogers, who I think we've
decided is like the Grand Masterof kindness.
Yeah.
He's definitely, as if you'veseen the documentary about him
and have seen the film starringTom, uh, Hanks.
(01:48):
um, you don't re you didn'trealize how amazing of a person
he was.
I mean, just in, when you'rewatching his little kid show,
you know?
Absolutely.
Lovely person.
Yeah.
Well, the real deal.
Yeah.
The, the quote that that comesto mind.
I gotta get on my cheaters herecuz I'm old now.
I wasn't old yesterday but I'mold now.
He said when I was a boy and Iwould see scary things in the
(02:11):
news, my mother would say to.
Look for the helpers.
You'll always find people whoare helping.
And what struck me when I waswatching the news coverage is
that no matter which channel youwere watching mm-hmm.
and I was slipping between whatside you're on, kind of whatever
side of the political spectrumthat you're on.
(02:32):
Yeah.
these people were obsessed withwanting to politicize.
Yeah, of course.
You know, so the person that,that, that did the shooting was
a, uh, a transgender male, whichmeans born, assigned at birth, a
female.
Okay.
And identified as a he, him, itwas right on their, uh, their
(02:52):
LinkedIn profile.
Okay.
And, The people on the left,when I watched cnn, all they
wanted to talk about was theSecond Amendment and these
crazy, you know, gun controlpeople.
Somebody who was trying to blamethis on, on Trump, of course.
Mm-hmm.
And then when you turned it onFox, all they wanted to talk
about was, well, there you go.
(03:13):
There's one of your transgendercrazies.
That was, yeah.
there was an interview that wasdone by a local Nashville
station that I happened towatch.
Okay.
And while you're hitting all thechannels, I was, I was obsessed
with this.
I was obsessed with this becauseI think it was, I, I mean, to me
it was the perfect time todemonstrate.
(03:34):
To see who could, woulddemonstrate.
Yeah.
Kindness.
Goodness.
We would.
Well, okay.
We've been through many ofthese.
Yep.
Right.
So you were kind of dissectingthis one, seeing how it's
playing out more.
This one different, one timedifferent, this one's different.
For starters, it was abiological woman.
Yeah.
Who identified as a male, yeah.
That was the unique, that wasunique, right.
It was very unique.
So it gave the, oh boy, youknow, one side of the, the, the
(03:56):
aisle talking points thatnormally don't exist there but I
just wanted to see, you know,how that would be handled.
And it was handled exactly as Iexpected it would be.
Yeah.
Played out totally politicized.
Well, there was this one guythat was interviewed by a local
Nashville station, and thereporter tried to go there with
him.
(04:17):
and he said, you know, why arewe talking about this?
There are three dead children.
Mm-hmm.
there are three caregivers thathave been murdered.
Yeah.
Look around.
Look at how people arecomforting each other.
The story should be about thosepeople that are comforting these
people in a time of, of, ofsadness and a time of need.
(04:38):
You know, let them figure outthat stuff later.
But right now, let's focus onthe helpers.
Yeah.
Let's focus on the people thatare trying to do something good.
Yeah.
As opposed to immediatelyturning this in the blames and
the, the, the blames pointfinger pointers.
And I don't know, did you hear,uh, president Biden yesterday
when he talked about, so he was,he was, uh, presenting to some
(05:00):
small business, uh, event andclearly President Biden is.
Declining in his ability tocommunicate.
Yeah.
And he, he's an old guy.
He's an old guy.
He's an old guy and so is theother guy that's running against
him.
He's an old guy.
His just manifests in adifferent way.
(05:20):
Now I'm probably pissing offeverybody by talking about No.
Is this the politicalChronicles?
This is the This right now,today gonna be the, but the
point is, yeah.
So Jug Joe got down there and hesaid something like, So he is,
he was there to speak to thisgroup about, uh, women in small
business or something like that.
But he was instructed, he wastold by his, his staff that this
(05:43):
happened, that, and we need toaddress this.
Yeah.
Well, he gets down there and hesays, you know, I'm Joe, I, I'm,
uh, Dr.
Joe Biden's husband.
I, uh, I heard that they wereserving chocolate chip ice cream
down here.
and he goes, I love chocolatechip ice cream.
That's the only reason I'm here.
You know, I got a wholerefrigerator of it.
And he's, he's stumbling throughthis, trying to be funny or
(06:04):
trying to be funny and thetiming was not good.
Yeah.
Now you could give him grace andunderstand that, you know, what
he's experiencing is just somesort of discomfort with the,
the, the topic at hand.
And maybe that's how he's copingwith it.
Yeah.
And you know elderly people verywell.
(06:25):
I know elderly people.
You know how he's an elderlyperson?
Yeah, he is.
And he's, he's struggling tocommunicate, but it was like
people wanted to attack him.
Yeah.
Now there are plenty of thingsyou can attack him for.
And there are plenty of thingsyou can attack the guy that was
in Waco, Texas or wacko Texasdoing his thing.
It's just the world is insane.
So I want Fred Rogers' Angel,what's your name?
(06:48):
I want Fred Rogers.
Yeah.
To be our kind of guy forpresident.
Yeah, I know.
He is deceased.
Yep.
But there have to be there.
There.
Those people are out.
and we live in a world, we livein a country right now that is
just so divided, that is soangry, and it's just, you know,
I think there are, it's not aneighborhood anymore.
(07:09):
I think there are a lot ofpeople in politics for the right
reason.
It's not a, it's not a sexything to jump into when you're a
young person or a, you know,it's.
It's if you're trying to dosomething right for the
community, there's people thatare dedicated to it that really
are out there.
They're not just trying to getpower.
You gotta wonder when they getto that level, you know,
they're, what their reasoningis.
But yes, there are, there'sdedicated people that are trying
(07:31):
to do the right thing and are,and are doing the right thing
every day.
Yeah.
We happen to have one of thosepeople that's gonna be on with
us today.
Oh, yeah.
Uh, before we get to that, yeah.
I just want to, I want to justhave a little quick moment with
you and tell you, you, ohmoment, you moment mention you
made a reference to, uh, uh,that it was your birth.
Well, it was, you made a slightlittle, I got it.
I dunno if the, the, theaudience, our listeners got it.
(07:53):
But I, I, uh, I got yousomething.
And, and Kevin would, would begoing in on this with me, I
think.
Oh, really?
In spirit.
In spirit.
Okay.
So, so a gift I got you.
I got you a, so chocolate chipcookies.
Oh my God.
Some mini chocolate chipcookies.
Perfect gift for the guy withdiabetes But I will be pounding
these things, And I love theKowalski's chocolate chip
(08:15):
cookies.
Yes.
Well that's, this is for, I knowthat you're kind of lonely.
Your, your wife is traveling.
My wife is travel alone.
It's your birthday.
Yes.
Weekend week.
You know it's your birthdayweek.
But I've also got somethingconsidering your age.
I know that.
Is it Metamucil?
No.
I mean, you're a, you've hit a,a special year.
What is it you wanna say?
I'm 55.
55.
I think 55.
Kevin would agree.
(08:36):
Oh, Jesus, you need Jesus.
Some prunes.
Jesus.
He brought me a pack of prunes.
A nice small pack of prune justfor, just for all the medicinal
reasons that you have prunes.
You know, you are a great guy.
You are a great guy.
Let's just really quickly talkabout my birthday.
So yesterday, so my wife is outof town.
My kids are, you know, either inschool or working.
And sad.
(08:56):
I got, I had a lovely dinnerwith my, uh, mom and dad at a
place in North St.
Paul called Max.
Have you been to Max?
Uh, max Diner.
Max Diner in North St.
Paul.
Yeah, I've been there.
It's so good.
They remodeled it now.
I haven't been there a longtime, but it is, so I went there
back in the seventies.
My dad's office was next to Max.
We used to eat burgers there allthe time.
Well, this is a brand new Yeah,yeah, yeah.
Joint.
Yeah.
And, and I had a burger and itwas outrageously good.
(09:19):
Like out outrageously good.
That's a crazy choice.
Okay.
That's my mom and dad.
You know, they're, you know,they wanted to go there and meet
at four o'clock for dinner.
I'm sure they'll be pounding theprunes.
Prunes.
So anyways, we met, they broughtyou out there to Max and North
Park, and then after that I wentand, uh, the, there's a group of
us from the class of 86 at, fromHillary Yeah.
That get together every othermonth.
(09:41):
uh, it started out as the groupthat organized the class
reunion, or, that's right.
Okay.
35th class reunion.
That's still, that's cool.
So this group is slowly growing.
Oh.
And it's so neat because it's,it's like people that I did not
really hang out with that muchin high school.
Yeah.
Um, but just great people.
And one guy that I want toacknowledge, and I think he
listens is Frank Bock.
(10:02):
Do you remember Frank?
I, yeah, I, I remember him.
Frank, my brother knew him.
It was from your class?
Yeah.
Yeah, Frank was, Frank was inDan's cl Dan's birthday is
tomorrow, I believe.
Yeah, it is.
Dan.
I'm, I gotta get him somefriends.
He's always been very respectfulof me because of, you know,
respect your elders um, couldgive'em some prunes.
Don't give'em any cookies, man.
Those are mine.
Those are yours.
Anyways, so Frank Bock, Imentioned to Frank Bock the last
(10:23):
time that we were together, howmuch I love Duran Duran Uhoh,
and I forgot about that.
He bought me.
Do you not like Duran Duran?
I, I do, I do.
Not to the level you, you, Ijust, I, that was, that was kind
of like the music, the, thesoundtrack of my life was, I
know was Duran Duran.
It was great music.
And Johnny Clueless that too.
I don't think so.
But D Duran Duran and he boughtme this book about Duran Duran.
(10:47):
Wow.
and um, was it called Hungary?
Like a wolf?
I don't know what it was called.
It was, but it, it, it's, it wassort of like a tiger beat, you
know how those magazines Yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kinda a fanzine kind of thing.
It was a fanzine, yes.
Did you, did you, um, Uh, foldyour pants a certain way and do
(11:08):
your hair.
I totally, I thought I was JohnTaylor.
Thought I was could collar tothe top.
Absolute.
Well, Frank did.
Frank was, Frank was, uh, wasvoted best dressed in our, in
our graduating class, and thedude was.
Fashion forward.
Yeah, he always has been.
Yeah, he always will be.
Yeah.
He even still looks like, youknow, she's got this kind of
cool flippy hair and I mean,he's just, he's cool.
Cool.
But I just wanted to say thankyou, Frank.
(11:30):
Yeah.
I started reading it last nightwhen I was home alone on my
birthday It was kind of patheticand sad, but.
It was just, I thought that wasreally nice.
Good.
Well now you can continuereading that with your cookies.
Cookies.
And then throw, I'm gonna b andI'll have a good mark.
Yeah.
Wake up nice and relaxed.
Good.
We're gonna visit with KristaO'Malley.
Yes.
And we're gonna call her rightnow.
Why don't you gimme your phonenumber?
(11:51):
Yeah.
Okay.
we'll be right back after this.
And We're back.
Back Hey.
Um, so I have a guest, John, uh,that we, uh, we talked a little
bit with her ahead of time, butI want to tell our listeners
about her.
I wanna bring her on.
She's, uh, someone I've knownfor a very long time.
I know her family.
Uh, her sister Dawn and I wentto, um, to college together.
(12:13):
And also I worked with her atTarget, but we reconnected, um,
on a target event that we did abunch of years ago.
And, uh, and she is.
She's an owner of a companycalled Command M.
They are experiential marketingkind of company.
She also is a founder of thisreally amazing thing called My
Power Pack, and I want to talkto her about that.
I want you to hear all aboutthat and I wanna listen to hear
(12:35):
about it.
So Krista O'Malley, welcome tothe Kindness Chronicles.
Thanks for having me today,Krista, we, the theme of our
show this, uh, this week is, uh,we decided that we would like
somebody like Mr.
Rogers to be our president.
Um, and we, we are kind ofobsessed with, uh, Mr.
Rogers quotes, and one of them Ithink applies very.
(13:00):
Uh, directly to my power pack,and it is, um, all of us at some
time or other need help, whetherwe're giving or receiving help.
Each one of us has somethingvaluable to bring to this world.
That's one of the things thatconnect us as neighbors in our
own way.
Each one of us is a giver and areceiver.
(13:21):
And when I discovered my powerpack, Um, I instantly thought of
that Mr.
Rogers quote, because I think itencapsulates what the objective
of my power pack is.
But instead of, uh, giving itaway, why don't you tell us
about this amazing app thatyou've created, this, uh,
(13:42):
amazing tool that you areproviding the, uh, the world.
It's very unique.
It's super unique.
Tell us about it and how youdecided that this was something
that you wanted to.
Sure.
Uh, it, that's actually a reallyamazing quote, and so we'll have
to steal that from you sometimeand, and, and maybe use it for
sure.
But, um, yeah, so My Power Packis a holistic caregiving app
(14:05):
that, you know, we hope is aninspiring place for people to
give and receive care andsupport, um, whenever it's.
Um, and that could be somethingreally positive, um, in life
where you had twins and you needsome extra hands on deck or
whether it's something moremedically serious.
You had an injury, an accident,or a diagnosis or something like
(14:29):
that.
Um, but it really kind of cameto fruition for me.
A good friend of mine, um, wasdiagnosed with cancer, uh,
breast cancer, and, um, she hadbeen, she and I had been in, uh,
a couple of different businessgroups together and had created,
you know, a network of friendsall throughout the country.
And when that happened, um, kindof us, uh, from from across the
(14:52):
country decided to support herand.
Kind of get her cocooned withlove and support the best that
we could, um, you know, throughher journey.
And we didn't really know whatto expect with that.
And it was actually a reallyamazing experience.
I got out of it way more than Iever anticipated.
The sense of communitybelonging, kind of that whole
(15:13):
neighborhood idea, liftingsomebody else up actually made
me feel really good.
And so doing this as a sharedpurpose was really, truly unique
and amazing.
And so all this goodness andlove that we created in and
around Jen, um, was phenomenal.
But then there was all thechallenges that, you know, 10
(15:34):
women from across the countryhad to deal with, which was
spreadsheets and trying tofigure out a birthday calendar
and yeah, radiation andchemotherapy and, and all these
different treatments.
And there's like all thisfriction.
When alls we wanted to do waslove and care for somebody and,
and, and really do our best as,as friends to, to make this
(15:55):
journey easy.
So I just kind of put mythinking cap on and um, you know
what Steve had mentioned thatwhat we do for a living is
experience design.
and thought there's a betterway.
And I think caregiving was ripefor innovation.
There wasn't a lot of innovationYeah.
In the space.
Um, and nobody really thinksabout it, and people kind of
(16:16):
don't really wanna, you know,talk about it too much.
Right.
It's a, it's a private thing alot of times, so, I knew there
had to be a better way.
So I set out to, to buildsomething a bit more holistic
and encompassing and kind ofwhat you need in today's world
to bring together all thosedifferent aspects of people's
lives.
Whether it's high school friendsand college friends and
(16:37):
coworkers and jobs you've leftand you know, your hockey
friends or your soccer friends,or you know, all these people
from church or whatever groupsand organizations into one area
and do everything that you.
Depending upon, you know, whatpeople's gifts are to kind of
take care of somebody that youlove and care about.
It sounds too good to be true.
(16:59):
But I know John, you dove inpretty deep into it because
it's, it sounds like this, thismagical thing, but it is.
Well, tell us about yourexperience, cuz you dug into it
really deeply.
So, you know, I, uh, downloadedor do you upload or download an
app?
I think you download an app.
Yeah, I think so.
Whatever it is.
I hit the get thing on the appthing, the app store.
I'm not very technically savvy,but what I, when I started
(17:20):
looking at it, my head was goingto explode cuz I.
you know, I'm, I'm in thecaregiving business.
Yeah.
Um, you know, whether it's atthe nursing home or at our
cancer center or the children'shospital.
And I was looking at what youcreated and I thought, how is it
that this doesn't exist?
And I think that there areelements of this that exist out
(17:41):
there, but it's not organizedand it's not coordinated in a
holistic way that you have and.
I, I w like instantly I startedthinking about all these
applications that could be,well, for instance, you
mentioned just before you and Iwere talking about this, um, uh,
one of the person you know verywell that was going through
(18:02):
something and yeah.
Everyone, yeah.
Talk about that cuz that wasreally interesting angle.
And so what left people?
So I, I think, um, Krista, thiswill, uh, this will resonate
with you.
Um, we had a woman in ourcommunity.
Who was dealing with a, asignificant health crisis, and
she has lots of friends in thecommunity and everyone wanted to
(18:23):
help her.
Everyone wanted to help her.
And what ended up happening wasI think that she got so
bombarded with casseroles andpizzas, lasagna and lasagnas and
all this other stuff, what wasintended to be something that
was nice turned into a burdenfor them on the receiving end of
the thing.
Yep.
And yeah, it, it was more aboutwhat we wanted to give them.
(18:45):
Yeah.
As opposed to what their needswere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what their desires were.
And this thing handles that waybetter.
Well, tell us a little bit Yeah.
If you would, and, and I, I'llfill in the blanks because I've
gotten to know the app prettywell.
But that's awesome.
You know, all of the differentthings that this app offers,
the, the, the different, youknow, bullet points is kind of
(19:06):
how I looked at it.
As you're scrolling down theapp, these are the different.
What's the word that I'm lookingfor?
Elements, uh, uh, pieces to it,right?
I don't Elements, pieces.
That's not the right elements ofthe word.
No, we, yeah, definitely.
Tell us about, I'll share'emwith you, Yeah.
So there's a journal, right,which people are pretty familiar
with, right?
So there's a lot of differentplaces out there that you can do
(19:27):
journaling, but the journalhere, um, first and foremost,
maybe I should say is privacy isup to the individual.
Yeah.
Right.
So you can make your, um, pack,we call'em packs, and it's p a
k.
and your power pack, you canmake it private or you could
make it, um, public.
And if you make it private, youknow, if somebody sends you the
(19:48):
link, you would have to wait ina queue until somebody lets you
in and they can let you in aslike an inner circle supporter,
kinda like a best friend or afamily, like close people.
You know, it's just like reallife.
We try to make it like your bestfriends or your closest family.
They probably know what's goingon.
And then informationdisseminates out.
And so you can kind of keep itprivate and let people in that
(20:10):
inner circle, or they can be aregular supporter or you could
have it open so if somebody getsthe link, they could just join
automatically.
But that was really important tous and it's that feature you can
use on journal posts and you canuse it on asking for volunteers
and all kinds of things likethat.
Um, but's, can I, can I justinterrupt you for just a second,
Krista?
Of course.
(20:30):
When we talked yesterday, you,you, you mentioned that, you
know, when I hear about thejournal, I instantly think of,
uh, uh, caring Bridge Giving.
Yeah.
The, the, you know, caringBridge is, is an, or is a site
that has done a good job of, uh,of capturing that piece of it,
but it's not really interactive.
(20:52):
Um, and tell me, you hadmentioned that your friend had
an interesting response when yousuggested carrying bridge.
Yeah.
You know, when we first re re,um, when we re we said to Jen,
Hey, you know, like this wouldbe a good way to keep people
involved.
you know, for her it had a, ithad an end of life stigma that
(21:14):
she just wasn't willing toaccept.
No.
And so, you know, for her, um,you know, this was breast
cancer, she was going to beat itand, and fully intended on that.
And it was kind of like this isa non-starter for her.
It wasn't something that shewanted.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, for us,you know, that always kind of
(21:34):
kept in the back of my mindbecause during that early days,
bombarded, like you guys saidwith the casseroles.
It was, you know, her family wasbombarded with questions about
what's going on, and I thinkwe've heard that time and time
again, and I think we've reallytried with design and language
and colors to keep it reallypositive and inspirational that
(21:58):
this.
My power pack, the app might besomething that you use for two
weeks and you don't get on itagain until somebody else needs
you, or you're on it for a year,or you know it's temporary and
you use it when you need it andthen you're off it.
It's not something that, youknow, we would want someone to
be on, you know, for long term,but if they had to, we
(22:21):
understand it and wanna make it,um, as friendly and as uplifting
as we possibly.
Yeah, so you got the journal.
Yep.
What else you got?
So we, so we've got the journal,and then we have a calendar
which is super interactive andit allows people to manage
volunteers and ask for them orassign tasks to them.
(22:41):
So if you wanted, you know,somebody to rake your lawn or
clean your windows or give you aride to the doctor or pick up,
you know, siblings or, um, youknow, just anything or the
meals, the casserole, you can.
It on there and put it out tomaybe the inner circle or your
entire group of people andpeople can volunteer for it.
(23:01):
And you can be really specific.
Like, um, we had Dawn, uh, mysister was using it when, when
her husband, um, was sick withleukemia and, you know, she put
on there like, the kids aren'tpicky eaters, but would prefer,
um, proteins, fresh, uh, fruitsand fresh veggies.
Wow.
Um, you know, no pasta, please.
(23:22):
Yeah.
Right.
And so it gave them a goodopportunity cuz they were
getting a lot of lasagna.
Yeah.
And other things, which weregreat, but you know, it, it was
one of those things of can youdirect it a little bit more
specifically?
Yeah.
And so the calendar allows youto, Ask for volunteers or just
assign people to it.
If, if that's something that'seasier, say it's like for an
(23:43):
older parent or something andthey need a ride, you know, you
sign it to your sister, you signit to your brother versus, you
know, volunteering, you know,that kind of thing.
So the calendar's prettyinteractive and it, and helps
with, um, volunteer managementand coordination.
And then the messenger is prettycool because, You can chat with
people within the app.
(24:04):
So for example, um, you know, onSteve's pack, there was a guy
that I used to work with, uh,when I was going through college
at Red Lobster, who I workedthere, uh, put myself through
college and, um, he contacted methrough the app and I hadn't
spoken with him in 25 years.
Right.
So, wow.
It was really a neat way toconnect with people and it's a
(24:26):
neat way to connect with like,you know, Steve might know John,
your neighbor or know of them,but maybe he doesn't really know
them and you know, if it wassomething for you, he could
message there and say, Hey, um,you know, is it snowing?
Did somebody come over toshovel, you know, the driveway
or, so it's the sidewalk or.
It's all private message.
You can go messaging private topeople within it, right?
(24:48):
Is that what you're saying?
Yep.
Within a pack?
Yeah.
Wow, wow.
So, you know, it's connectinglike neighbors, you know, that
your good friend might know ofyour neighbors, but they don't
necessarily know them directly.
So like I had several people,um, you know, reach out and say,
Hey, I worked with Don atTarget, um, you don't know me.
You know, obviously we have thesame last name.
(25:10):
So they knew I was her sisterand said, I wanna organize
something, you know, can youhelp me, you know, do that.
Um, and we just would not have,you know, I would've had to go
through Dawn Yeah.
Who doesn't need one more thingto do.
Right.
Right.
Or they find you through likeFacebook or something and it's
kind of convolutedcommunication.
It doesn't really connect to, tothe source of why you're trying
(25:32):
to do this.
Yep.
Absolutely.
Be before I know we have, um, bebefore you continue, I just have
to ask.
Did they have Lobster Fest at atRed Lobster back when you were
there, Yeah, they did actually.
So was that a good time to be inthe lobster business or was that
like chaos Well, if you'reserving like I was, you were
(25:53):
making decent money, but makinggood money.
I mean, if you were waiting inthe lobby, For an hour and a
half to get a table.
It probably wasn't the best, butI just envisioned all that super
butter wrecking everybody'sclothes.
It's flying around.
It's not good for the lobster.
I'm sorry, I digress.
It's not a good day for thelobster.
Lobster.
That's true.
Okay, so we we got the journalcalendar.
Calendar, the messenger.
(26:13):
What else?
Yep.
We're paying attention.
And so then there's amarketplace.
So we have a, a marketplace.
A lot of people wanna givegifts, right?
Like you said, it's typically welook at through the lens of what
we want, um, and we're givingthings that we want.
Yeah.
You know, so it's like kind ofthe golden rule.
And we kind of wanted to flip ithere and say, what's, oh, how
about the platinum rule, right?
Like, I'm gonna treat you ho youwanna be treated versus.
(26:35):
The golden rule of like, I'lltreat you how I wanna be
treated.
My favorite quote, love it.
Nobody knows the platinum rule,except for you and me now speak.
I never heard it before.
Yeah.
Do unto other, not do untoothers as you would want them to
do unto you.
It's do unto others as they'dwant you to.
This is not in the Bible we're,it's not in the Bible.
We just came, Kristin and I cameup.
I like it.
(26:56):
I like it.
That's, that does sound perfectfor this.
Isn't that cool?
Yeah.
So.
I mean, you know, if you thinkabout it, we have, we have this
marketplace, so we have goodsand, and services in the
marketplace and, um, gift cards.
You know, you could buy someonea DoorDash gift card, which was
really awesome for people, youknow, like Steve was in the
hospital for a long period oftime.
(27:16):
Yeah.
And people could send themPanera gift cards or target gift
cards or whatever, gift cards.
Baskets, um, you know, differentitems, you know, some people
were sending, which I thoughtwas super cool, was sending
cookies to the nurses throughthe app.
Right.
Wow.
And that kinda thing.
And so think, forget about thenurses.
Oh God, that's pretty cool.
You know, like, Right.
(27:37):
Like, that's super neat.
So seriously, my head is gonnaexplode.
I've, there's so many greatideas in this.
Okay, now now, hold on.
Now to get a little nerdy aboutthis.
I don't actually know a lotabout this, but I've, I've been
around it enough to know, I feellike Krista, this is kind of
like the guts of a C R M in away, right?
It's, it's sort of like, It'ssort of like the, the, the
(27:58):
mechanisms you have now.
Now for those of us that aren'tin the business world, what is a
crm?
I don't even know what it standsfor, but it's like a marketing,
uh, software that holds ontocalendars and you can have
customer relations, managementrelations.
Yeah.
All that kind of stuff combined.
It feels like the software issomewhat similar to what you'd
get on that because it'scalendar management.
It's, uh, you've got, I don'tknow.
(28:19):
I feel like it's all kind ofconnected.
Is that, is that, am I off base?
You know, I, I don't think it'ssuper off base.
I think it's like kind of alittle bit of that vein.
I've actually never heard anyonecompare it that way, but I, I
think it's pretty, you know, Ithink it's pretty accurate.
So, you know, what we weretrying to think about is like,
what stops somebody for doingsomething?
(28:39):
Yeah.
Right?
So like, it's like you thinkabout somebody, you wanna do
something, you wanna send'em amessage, you wanna send'em a
gift card or something, right?
Like, what stops you from doingthat?
And in this situation, Like thehurdle is like where are, like,
where's their address?
So if like we're friends fromhigh school, you've moved a
couple of times and like nowI'm, I I've heard that maybe you
(29:02):
need some support now I gottafind somebody that has your
address, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's so many steps.
It's like, how can I do thisquickly?
So for us, we, you know, We dohave the person's address,
right?
Cause they've figured thatpiece.
We've have that in our system.
So alls you have to do is go onand buy a gift.
We know where they are.
(29:22):
It automatically gets sent.
So we could send a card.
You put the message, we handwrite it, put the stamp on it,
send it in the mail.
And the cool part is like we'vepaired it with, uh, wishlist.
So if you think about likesomeone getting married or
having a baby, all these likesuper positive moments, people
can just registry, ask for.
Yeah.
But people, when they're needhelp, they don't wanna ask for
(29:46):
things.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, but, but I like totallywanna flip the script on that.
Like, can we make it easy forpeople to get meaningful things
for them in a time of need?
Right.
And I, they don't need.
I think that literally flippingthe script is exactly the, you
know, it requires a person whois in need to be willing to
(30:10):
share what their needs are.
Yeah.
Which is not easy.
Yeah.
It's not easy.
But I think that that people,you know, we're all givers and
we're all receivers at somepoint in our life, and I think
that a gift that the person thatmight be struggling with cancer,
struggling with an illness, Thegift to the people around them
is to tell them what they need.
We all often talk about the,the, the oxytocin that you get
(30:34):
from acts of kindness and Yeah.
And you know, essentially you'regiving these people the
opportunity to know exactlywhat's going to help you, which
will help them get that dose ofoxytocin.
Yeah.
Which is what Krista got whenshe started putting this
together.
Well, and something that youjust said, so real quick, I have
to ask this.
(30:54):
You clearly are an entrepreneur,you're a salesperson, you're not
a coder, are you?
How does, how does an app likethis get built?
Yeah, yeah.
No, I'm, uh, not, they call,what I'm considered is a
non-technical founder.
Right.
Oh, okay.
So, um, sounds like somethingI'd like to do.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
So I think, you know, from, fromour background of, of experience
(31:19):
design, right?
The u the user experience, theuser interface, the ux, the UI
piece of it.
is really like, kind of what ourjam is, right?
Yeah.
Whether that's in the physicalworld or you know, here it's,
it's software, right?
It's, it's digitally, but it'sreally thinking about like
putting our feet in theconsumer's shoes and
(31:41):
understanding at that time orwhen they're using this product,
like, what's going on and howdo, how do we do it best?
So we have people on our teamthat code and do the software
engineering part of it.
Um, and we have, uh, a cto, uh,woman, um, uh, Chicago that, um,
functions as our, um, part-timecto.
(32:06):
So you took the, the, the, theapproach you take with
experiential design and justkind of laid that into the
foundation of this kind ofdifferent need.
It's, it's actually, it feelslike a big pivot, but the way
you've explained it, it it lessof a pivot than need.
Yeah.
It fits your, it fits yourteam's expertise and, uh, I've
seen what you guys do.
You're very good at, you know,adapting what the needs are and
(32:28):
put it to what, what theclient's needs are.
And you, you, you fulfill itamazingly well.
Okay, so here's an.
That you, so I've been trying tothink of, I mean, there's so
many applications for this app.
Um, in the world that I live in,the world that I work in.
And you mentioned something thatjust the light bulb just, it
(32:50):
blew up in my head.
Uhoh.
No.
The idea of, you know, whenyou're, when you're being taken
care of, so say you're in atransitional care Yeah.
And you're recovering from, uh,heart, uh, heart surgery or a
hip replacement.
Yeah.
And you're surrounded by thesecaregivers and you wanna show
how grateful you are to thecaregivers, but how do you do
(33:11):
that when you're tied to a bed?
Mm-hmm.
And, you know, I, I, I love theidea of mm-hmm.
on this app saying, you knowwhat?
I got this nurse that I justlove that has been taking great
care of me.
She mentioned that she likeschocolate chip cookies, you
know, Would somebody provide uswith some chocolate chip cookies
(33:32):
as a gift to this nurse orsomething?
Wow.
That's spread of signs.
That's pretty cool.
It's real.
But what it is, is it's, it'snot a gift for me.
It's a gift for my caregiver.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
which, and I mean, you want tocare for your kids, which is a
gift, which gift for you becauseyou want to do that, right?
So, Krista like, walk us throughthis.
Say, um, you know, Steve got mecookies for my birthday and I'm
(33:52):
gonna crack him.
He's got chocolate cookies onhis mind.
say, you know, uh, my, my fatherdied a few years ago.
Say when he was starting todecline, we, we were all kind of
scrambling, trying to figure outwhat to do.
Walk me through how it wouldwork with you guys with the, my
Power pack.
How, how would I, how would thatstart if I know that I need some
help?
Where does it go from thatpoint?
(34:14):
Yeah, so you, you would juststart a pack, right?
So you or your mom or whoever,whoever you know, it doesn't
matter.
A friend of yours even couldstart, John could start it for
your dad too.
It doesn't, it doesn't reallymatter who, who starts it, but
you download the app.
You download the app, okay?
Yep.
You download the app so you can,if you're on on, you can use it
on a computer.
(34:35):
Any type of computer webbrowser, it's my m y power p o w
e r p a k.com, just all oneword.
Um, and you can use it on acomputer, you can download it,
um, onto a uh, Android device.
Um, via that way too, or go tothe app store if you have any
Apple device.
(34:55):
So if you have an iPhone or aiPad, that's what I idea.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
You can go right to the appstore and we're in the app store
and you download it and thenit'll ask you, um, you know, if
you wanna set up a pack foryourself or somebody else.
And you know, if it was for yourdad, Steve, you want, just wanna
set it up for him.
and then you, you can inviteguardians or you know, invite
(35:19):
people to it.
So you set up the page, you puta little bit of information on
there about your dad and kind ofwhat's going on.
Yeah.
And then you would create thepack and it would give you a
link.
and so you could share, again,you set it to private or public,
and you can share that link outany way that you want.
You could tweet it out if, ifthat's what you wanted, but you
(35:40):
could email it, you could textit, you could send it, um, via
social channels, Facebook,whatever, Instagram, it doesn't
matter.
LinkedIn, whatever you want.
and then people can sign up andjoin the pack.
If it's private, they wait in aqueue and just one of you or
your, you know, John orwhoever's managing the page, and
(36:01):
you can have multiple peoplethat are guardians managing the
page, let people in, or if it'spublic, they just come in
automatically and then you can,you know, just start creating
events on the calendar.
You know, you could even setlike visiting hours are this
time.
You know, please don't justrandomly come and drop off food
or Oh yeah, here's when we wantfood.
(36:22):
Or you know, to your point ofhere's the caretakers, we'd love
to send them cookies or browniesor whatever you want.
Um, you can set up your wishlistif you want it.
You could also give donations.
We didn't talk about that, butinstead of like creating another
account to go fund me, you canset it up.
Cash donations and people can,you know, use a credit card, um,
(36:44):
and send, you know, donations aswell, right through the app.
Um, so it's really kind ofholistic in that manner too.
And, um, as people pass the linkaround, you know, as more people
hear about it, then more peoplewill join.
So we have packs, some of, youknow, some of them have 30
people and some packs have, youknow, several hundred people.
(37:05):
So it just kind of reallydepends on.
You know, how comfortable peopleare sharing their journey and
how big their social circles areand, and that kind of thing.
Could you use the, okay, John,you had a question?
I was just gonna say, Idiscovered that it's free.
That it's free.
Yep.
Yeah, totally free.
Which of course is another, youknow, someday we'll have to
figure out the, uh, theeconomics of, uh, creating
(37:26):
something like this.
But yeah, that's for anothertime.
Well, okay, so I, I have a, doyou have another question?
Go ahead.
No, I, I have another, I mean, Icould imagine you could apply
this to other things.
Carrying bridge is, does have a,does have a sense of, you know,
it's like final and it's, to meit's like hospice.
(37:46):
Yes.
Yes.
And that's not what it'sintended to be, but that's sort
of how, that's kinda what it'sfalls.
Yeah.
But I feel like this has to morethan like you could do, I mean,
could you do this for a baby,you know, like a.
For, well, yeah, so, so we, we,we, there's a lot of people
actually.
So, um, one of my classmates,um, from Germany, um, his wife,
(38:09):
they, they, she's not fromGermany and so she's kind of an
expat in Germany and she saidthat they, for babies, um, they,
they have this.
this thing called Mama Down, or,and that's what they call it.
Okay.
And it's like, kind of after thebaby's born, the, the mom needs
help.
Mm-hmm.
And so they set up kind of, youknow, bringing all kinds of
(38:30):
different things, whether it's,you know, diapers, formula,
meals, et cetera, to the family.
And she's, she's like, we have alot of challenges with that.
Just the same kind of thing thatwe had when, you know, Jen
initially got sick.
You know, all the great thingsof the love, but the friction
points of, you know, you knowwhen to bring things Yeah.
And what to bring and who'sdoing it and, and when, um, and
(38:53):
the changing schedules.
And so she's like, this would beamazing.
Um, you know, for thatapplication especially, she's
like, these are all expat momsthat have married, you know,
people from Germany are livingin Germany, but you know, it's,
it, they might not be native tothat area.
They're kind of alone, out beincredible.
Yeah.
They don't have resource.
Well, and I just think about youmilitary.
(39:14):
Yeah.
You know, God, you, you're onestep ahead of me, Kris.
I was just gonna say that.
No, I'm sorry.
I, you know, you think aboutmilitary families, for example,
like they're stationed down atFort Bragg and they're, the,
their, they're the husband is,uh, deployed.
She has a baby and she's down atFort Bragg, basically by
herself.
(39:34):
Yeah.
And her network of care offriends are in Minnesota.
Yeah.
I would imagine that you'veprobably of applications for
this, like you've probablydiscovered through the, the way,
the different ways that peopleuse this, just how, um, flexible
this app can be and how manydifferent things that it can do
(39:54):
for people.
Yeah.
There's a ton of use cases.
You know, I, we talked aboutelderly parents, like it's a big
one.
Um, and especially if, if, or,or someone just elderly in
general where they're, they're,you know, Network isn't near
them or, or maybe has passed onbefore them.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but also special needs.
(40:15):
Um, oh yeah.
A lot of different specialneeds.
Um, organizations we've talkedto really think that this is a
huge kind of game changer forfamilies where it's like, You
know, just keeping them up todate and informed in kind of one
central place, maybe, uh, asister or brother that's gone to
college, but still kind of needsto, you know, understand kind of
(40:37):
what's going on at home and, andthat kind of thing.
So, you know, there's always,every time we talk to somebody,
there's another.
Use case that pops up that, youknow, we didn't even think about
really.
Well, and I, you know, I, Ithink about the, uh, the people
that we take care of at ournursing home and why, you know,
(40:57):
we should be sharing this appwith those families to rally
people around those folks.
And, you know, I think about theMasonic Children's Hospital and,
you know, making sure that thefamilies are giving people in
their circles the opportunity.
To do something.
And I, I just, it's incredible.
(41:19):
Um, I, I, I also have a questionabout the, uh, the, the name, my
power pack.
Yeah.
Now, when I first, Steve firsttold me about my power pack, you
know, I instantly think of likesuperheroes and stuff like that
and the, the, the, thebrilliance of the name.
Like, it's, it, there's so manydifferent angles that you, how
(41:40):
did you come up with the.
Well, you, you kind of hit like,you know, the what?
The, okay.
So when Jen was, um, when wewere caring for her, the 10
women are all CEOs, right?
And so we, we kind of decided weare her power pack, right?
So if you think about it, likeshe's gonna rely on this group
(42:02):
of women who, her pos have herback and like, we're gonna power
her up through this journey.
Um, it's kind.
Thinking about, you know, you,your phone's about on, you know,
2% left and you just wish youhad a power pack to get you to
the next charge.
And what can you rely on kind ofthat super power pack, um, of,
(42:24):
of, of everybody that you'vecollected through life.
It's like kind of coordinatingall those different people.
Um, but the women really are,are the power pack.
So we kind of, the 10 ladies arekind of the OG power pack Um,
that, that, uh, started.
And so that's kind of where the,the name came from.
And, and that's John, that's whyshe's our guest on the Kindness
(42:47):
Chronicles because this was bornout of a, a, of kindness, pure
love and kindness for theirfriend.
And, um, Krista just happened tohave a, a, you know, a way to
think through this and, uh,coordinate it and put it
together with her team to createthis pretty cool thing that,
that is born out of somethingthat was.
Pure, pure love and kindness.
(43:07):
So I think it's amazing.
One of the things that, when wespoke yesterday, um, that struck
me was, uh, the, the brillianceof this not being a nonprofit
and here's why.
Um, having started a number ofnonprofits, understanding how
long the ramp is to get anonprofit started, you regarded
(43:27):
the or or referred to this as a,as a B corporation.
Can you explain what that meansto you?
Because I.
I think it's really a, a, aclever way of describing, did I
get that right?
A B Corp?
Yep.
A B Corp.
So a B Corp kinda sits between,it's a for-profit company, um,
that I, I kinda describe it assits between the nonprofit world
(43:50):
and a for-profit world.
It's a for-profit company thathas a environmentally and
socially chartered mission.
And so basically what that meansto me and and to my power pack
is, I want it to be free.
Um, I always want the app to befree to anybody who wants to use
(44:11):
it.
I mean, I, I really wanna shoutit from the rooftops that like,
you know, if, if your entireecosystem volunteers and can use
this tool to make yoursomebody's life better, like,
that will make me happy till,till you.
From here on.
And for people who can, youknow, have people that can
(44:32):
donate and buy things, you know,they'll fuel the, those that
can't.
And I think everybody has someof each in, in their world.
Um, but I think the B Corpallows us to do that.
It allows us to make money,allows us to be more agile.
It allows us to go faster.
Um, what I think.
(44:54):
And it also eliminates a lot ofthe BS that you have to deal
with when you're, when you're a5 0 1 I mean, it really, it
allows you to be, to do things,uh, quickly to be nimble as
you've described.
You know, one, uh, B Corp thatcomes to mind is Love your
melon.
Um, I'm sure you're familiarwith, you know, love your Melon
is the organization that, uh,hats the hats.
(45:16):
Yeah.
I mean, they've now got allkinds of apparel and all this
other stuff.
It's really, it's a great, andthe other thing is, is, is there
are people that I'm sure thathave invested in this.
the reason that they've investedand have given you the
opportunity is because they'remotivated by, you know,
(45:38):
something positive at the end.
And those people tend to be thekind of people that are also
very charitable with thosedollars that they make.
So, I, I applaud you for the,uh, the entrepreneurial spirit
that you have.
Yep.
And just the, the savvy tounderstand that this didn't have
to be a nonprofit to make ameaningful differe.
(45:59):
No, I think it's, you know,it's, it's interesting.
Um, we're self-funded, right?
So we haven't gone out, um, toget any external funding.
Yeah, I, I think at, at somepoint we'll probably need to do
that.
And I think you're probablyright about, you know, those
individuals that'll go.
But I, I think it's importantfor a company, um, especially a
technology company at the end ofthe day, cause it's so
(46:22):
expensive, it does have a wayto.
Feed itself, right?
And, and allows it to grow andcontinue because that's, I think
what happens a lot of times isyou don't have the money or
access to, to resources.
Um, you know, in the, in thenonprofit piece of it, And you
(46:42):
can, you know, by making amonetary, by having a monetary
engine, you can kind of keep itfresh and current to needs of,
you know, if somebody came witha great idea and said, or, Hey,
we're seeing things where peoplewanna use this.
We can go after that part of it.
Well, and all you have to do is,you know, look at Love Your
(47:03):
Melon as a, as an example of anorganization that you know has
really done some amazing things.
Yeah.
And they've done it through amodel that's.
Been very successful for them.
So, but I think, uh, what Kristahas here with, uh, my power pack
is more, has, has much more legsof use for so many more people.
So many there, so manydifferent, yeah.
(47:23):
Applications go.
How many times are we gonna usethat word today?
Well, thank you so much for yourtime, Krista, this is amazing
and we're so excited that youshared this with us and we'll
share it with our millions andmillions of listeners.
I'm not sure that's an accuratedepiction of Oh, okay.
Hundreds and hundreds oflisteners.
There's.
That So, so that's awesome.
So we're sort of like the B Corpbetween the Exactly.
(47:45):
Millions and the hundreds.
Yeah.
Um, that's a perfect sweet spot,right?
It's a perfect, that's, thatseems to be the spot where, uh,
where we've wedged ourself into.
Well, good luck with the, therest of this and maybe we'll
check in with you again and seehow it's going at some point.
And, uh, have a, have a, have agreat one.
And thank you for joining us.
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
And off we go.
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