Barry Shore: Coming from Personal Trauma to Success and Helping Other Succeed
Barry Shoreis an ambassador of Joy.
Because of his successes in business and recovery from full body paralysis he has built an “Eco System of Good” internet platform that enables people to Give to their Favorite cause at No Cost.
Barry was an instructor in the Diamond Program at the GIA, an author of a world wide resource book on diamonds and an international wholesale diamantaire with sales exceeding 100 Million dollars.
After a brief retirement at age 33 he returned to business and built an international telephony company. From this grew an innovative process in 1999 that enabled faxes (sic) to be sent and received via email (think dial up) to 17 countries for FREE (!). Barry was awarded Two Patents in this space and built a stellar executive team. He then sold the Company 18 months later for more than $10 million dollars and the acquiring Company is today a $2 Billion market cap.
Then he built a predecessor to Skype (enabling people to call to 17 Counties for FREE) which was funded and then bought within 9 months by a NASDQ company.
Then on 17 September 2004 Barry became a quadriplegic (paralyzed from his neck down!) overnight from a rare neurological disease (GBS).
His journey since to regain mobility caused him to GO MAD: Go Make a Difference.
He envisioned a Platform that enables People to GIVE Money to their Favorite CAUSE at NoCost to the Giver and attracted smart caring talented successful players to build the System.
He has been granted a Patent in the process and has found the Formula to Create the “ECO System of GOOD”: where Supporters, Brands, Causes All Participate for Mutual Benefit.
Barry’s Mission is to Make Everyday Giving Effortless and his Big Audacious Goal is to facilitate the Giving of One Billion Dollars without costing any Giver a penny.
He is the Founder of the KEEP SMILING Movement (thedailysmile.com) which has distributed more than 1.2 MILLION KEEP SMILING Cards throughout the world in 27 languages.
He is the Founder of the MOL (minute of Love) Podcast produced 6X/week.
He has become an avid swimmer (2 miles/day/6x/week) and has accumulated enough miles over 9 years to swim from Venice CA (his home) to Shanghai, China.
Barry is focused on transforming the giving space.
More Information at https://www.dlyted.com
Here's the Transcript for the Interview
Hugh Ballou: Greetings, it’s Hugh Ballou again on The Nonprofit Exchange. As usual, we have quite an amazing guest today. This guest and I have met passively over the last ten years here and there, just touching base. Recently, a mutual friend connected us, and there was some real synergy. I got to hear Barry’s story again. We all have stories. Very few of us are as good as telling the story as Barry. Barry, today, instead of my normal routine of giving us a bio and telling why you do what you’re doing, I think we are going to build this conversation around your story and what you have created. I’ll tease people: it’s called Dlyted. We won’t tell them about it yet. Introduce yourself, Barry Shore. You’re in California. You take it from there. Tell them about yourself, and then let’s hear your story.
Barry Shore: Thank you, Hugh Ballou, for being here, being who you are, and being a conduit for good and channeling. Here is my greeting to everybody out there listening. Hello, beautiful, bountiful beings, and good-looking people. How can I make the statement that they are good-looking, Hugh? I know the people who are listening and watching are always looking for the good.
Hugh: Outstanding.
Barry: The story about Barry Shore is a young, dynamic, debonair, 69-year-old chronological being. The 17thof September, in the year 2004, a mere 14 years ago, I was standing up in the morning just like everybody I hope, watching this Facebook live, and listening to our story. That was in the morning. In the evening, I was in the hospital, paralyzed from my neck down. I became a quadriplegic overnight, in a matter of hours, from a rare disease, not an auto accident, a rare disease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome, GBS, for the cognoscenti. I went from being a healthy, happy, wholly, hearty, dynamic 55-year-old who had been extremely successful in business, married 27 years to a wonderful wife, had a 17-year-old son (at the time), traveling around the world, came back to California for holidays, and now I am paralyzed from my neck down.
Here is a great part of the story. The other day, I saw my doctor who has been treating me for a number of years. He likes to recall every time we see each other, “Shore, I remember the first day you called me from the hospital. You said, ‘My name is Barry Shore. I am coming in to see you. All I can move is my mouth.’” Imagine that. In the morning, you’re up and doing, and in the evening, all you can move is your mouth.
I will give you the back of the baseball card statistics for the moment, Hugh. That’s how we live in this world, giving people ideas of some things. I am in the hospital for over four and a half months in various kinds of rehabilitation centers. I was in a hospital bed in my home for over two years. Couldn’t turn over by myself. I was in a wheelchair for four years. I had braces on both legs from my hips down to my ankles. Today, thank God, I am able to be vertical and ambulatory with the help of a six-and-a-half foot walking wand that was made for me by a zen master. But I still have help 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and I can’t walk up a stair by myself or a curb. But hear my voice. Feel the passion of life that flows through me because the good Lord has been so kind and giving to me that he activated in me something that enabled me to become a real giver.
Here is an example, Hugh. Before all this happened, I had built two Internet companies, one of which I sold for many millions of dollars, was doing very well. Of course, I am a giver. I am generous. I wrote checks. But it was all part of what you do. You help people. You write a check. That’s it. You think you’re a giver. That’s not what a giver is. A giver puts the other beings first. What can I do to be of benefit? It wasn’t part of my very soul. That was the genius and the benefit, what others call adversity. This test and a testament to the good Lord in being able to show me a path that I was able to go from complete, total paralysis to literally being able to now get out of bed, albeit with difficulty, and stand up, albeit with help, and to be positive about that, and to be thankful, and to turn that energy into a channel of goodness. That is the beginning of the story.
What I’d like to do as we speak is tell a few incidents along the way that helped me gain this insight.
Hugh: Sure. As you go on, some people are listening to this that have problems that pale in comparison, like me. I am listening to it trying to understand and learn about myself. What are the motivational factors? What inspired you to not give up to this disease that had a lock on your very body? This is fascinating. Please continue.
Barry: Thank you, Hugh. I truly hope that this is beneficial to people listening, and that we all recognize these great words: Never give up. I am living it. I am only here as a channel to be of benefit so that others can say, “If he can do it, I can do it.”
Let me give you two small incidents that I think may be of help. The first one occurred after I had been moved out of the ICU, where I had been for about 11 days. They put me in a telemetry unit. A telemetry unit is where nurses can watch you from monitors and such. I had this great run. I was a single occupant in a great hospital. Not moving anything of my body, I am just there. They had to set up something special on my bed just to bump my head because I couldn’t hit a call button. Here I am in bed in the telemetry unit. A nurse came in at midnight or so. I am not able to sleep because you are not moving a lot. They have to inject drugs in you to get you to sleep. The nurse said, “Mr. Shore, would you like to watch a movie? Maybe that will help put you to sleep.” I assented and chose a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Of course, we all know how that turns out. Not so good. Toward the end, I had tears in my eyes.
Imagine you are lying in bed with tears in your eyes. Everybody knows that tears are salty. They hurt. What do you do? You wipe them away, right? Well, I can’t move my hands. I can’t move my arms. I am new to this stuff. Nothing in my body is moving. I couldn’t move my head left or right enough to move the tears out, and the button that had been put up behind my head had been moved somehow. I couldn’t reach the nurse. Of course, I can’t just sit there because it hurts. I resolved, I am going to call out. I did. “Help! Help! Please!” My voice had been compromised also. I could barely speak. I resolved to count to ten and then call out again if the nurse doesn’t show up. I got to four, and the pain was too much. So I called out, and I mustered all of my strength, “Help! Nurse, please!” By the time I counted to four, the nurse was at the door. “Mr. Shore, did you call?” “Yes, my eyes!” She came over and saw there were tears in my eyes. She cleaned them and fixed the button behind my head. Looks at me and says, “Is that all?” “Yes, thank you.” I recognized then no one really knows the pain of another. She didn’t know how much it hurt. I couldn’t express myself. Thankfully, she came in and cleaned it up.
About a week later, I am being wheeled on a gurney from a test they had run on me. People picked me up, took me on the gurney, ran the test, and brought me back. There was a male nurse taking care of me. I had interacted with him three or four times over the past few days. Pleasant fellow. He looked down at me and asked, “Mr. Shore, can I ask you a personal question?” I said yes. He says, “I am a male nurse. I see people in your condition frequently. I have never met anybody who is not angry and bitter. You’re paralyzed. How come you’re not angry and bitter?” I realized he was asking me the great existential question: Why me? Why dear Lord did you do this to me? But I wasn’t thinking like that. I was asking the question: Why me in the sense of who am I? I am just a guy. What do you want from me, dear Lord? What can I do?
At that moment, Hugh, I reached deep inside of me, and I asked the good Lord, “Please help heal me. Please show me my purpose.” A wave of serenity and calm came over me that I had not known in 55 years. I was now determined with the good Lord’s help to walk again. That was a major turning point in my life.
Hugh: So nothing gets Barry Shore down. That was how many years ago?
Barry: That was in 2004, almost 14 years ago now.
Hugh: You had a very successful career before that.
Barry: Correct.
Hugh: You sold that enterprise, you said?
Barry: Yes.
Hugh: And then this condition- how do you say it?
Barry: Guillame-Barre syndrome. It is actually two French doctors, Guillame, which is the French for William, and the other doctor’s name was Barre, like Barry.
Hugh: I have known people in the past who have had that, who have come through it. It’s quite a traumatic experience. Today, you are in a different place than you were with your business. But you have focused on doing good for others. Is that right?
Barry: That’s correct.
Hugh: I looked at a website called- Spell it for us.
Barry: It is spelled D as in David, L as in Love, Y as in Yesterday, T as in Terrific, E as Enthusiastic, D as in Dynamic, DLYTED.com. I am Dlyted to be here.
Hugh: I can see that. What is Dlyted about, and what was the passion and inspiration behind you setting up- Dlyted is more than one thing. It’s more than one program, isn’t it?
Barry: Yes. Dlyted is an engine of philanthropy. Let me digress for just a moment because it gives the background as you want to hear. It’s very important. I was deeply affected by something that I learned from a great man called the Four P’s. Those four P’s are Purpose, Prayer, Perseverance, and Patience. Those four P’s have been active in my life. I was able through them to begin this process of healing, both in a spiritual and physical sense, and bring out through purpose and prayer, the great perseverance, which I will demonstrate in just a moment, and patience, this platform, which has a mission and a goal.
Let me tell you how it came about. It has to do with my wonderful wife. I would not be sitting here as strong and capable and handsome as I am, speaking with you, if it was not for my amazing, dedicated, fabulous wife, Naomi. It’s hard for me to speak without choking up, but I am going to try and do it.
I will just tell you a brief story as it deserves longer, but time is always of the essence. Released from the hospital about four and a half months later—they wouldn’t keep me there longer because insurance wouldn’t pay, and we had already racked up bills over half a million dollars—I was in the special hospital bed. When you are in the hospital, by the way, one of the more important things to be afraid and aware of is bed sores. They are debilitating. We had to get a special bed, which the insurance company didn’t want to do, but they were forced to because of circumstances. It is a special air mattress that allows the body to conform without the issue of bed sores. We brought this bed to our home.
While in the hospital, every night, you have to turn people over who are paralyzed because if you keep people in the same position, the body deteriorates. They have a team who goes around the hospital every two and a half to three hours, two people with back braces, usually strong people. Together, they turn the person onto the side, then the other, to give some sort of normality to your process in the hospital. This happened throughout the months I was in the hospital.
Now we come home. We had sufficient funds, so we were able to have help in the home 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except for one thing. My wonderful wife did not want people staying overnight in her home that she doesn’t know. She is very protective. We had help until 10 pm, and then help would come again at 7 am. But during the evening, she was going to take care of me, and she was in charge. Her home, her rules. Great.
One small situation, though. My wife is all of 97 pounds, 5’1”, very beautiful. Remember, I just told you in the hospital, you have to be turned over every 2.5/3 hours. Here I am, almost 6’. Because of my situation, I had been reduced from 195 pounds to 137. But still, 137 pounds, and she is all of 5’1” and 97 pounds. She said that she is going to turn me over. She did. Every two and a half hours, throughout the evening, two or three times a night, night in and night out, week in and week out, month in and month out, for two years, this amazing woman turned me. That is love.
I say this as a preface to the following incident. I mentioned also I was in a wheelchair for four years. Thank God we could afford it. I had a motorized wheelchair and a fancy Olympic-style wheelchair. Together, they cost almost $10,000. The lightweight wheelchair we needed because in addition to having private therapy, I also went to group therapy in the hospital. It’s important to be with other people who have situations and challenges when in a situation like this, just to be in comradery. At these situations in the hospital, I noticed not everybody could afford the kind of wheelchairs I had.
One day, I came home and was still back in bed. I said to my wife, “Honey, would you please find a place that helps people get wheelchairs? Let’s send them a check for $1,000 and help out.” She said okay. She left the room. I am feeling great. I am just a quad lying in bed, but I am feeling good. I just gave $1,000 to help people get wheelchairs.
About five minutes later, I called out, “This is dumb! This is dumb!” I didn’t raise my hands. I called it out. My wife comes running into the room and asks, “What’s the matter?” I said, “This is dumb. Just because I was moved and we can afford to write a check, why isn’t it that there are tens of thousands of people not giving money every single day to help out other people? Why not?” My wife said, “Hey, Mr. Shore, you’re smart. You build stuff on the Internet. Make it happen.” And she walked out of the room.
I am laying there. I said, “Okay. Dear Lord, why not? Please help me.” I had a few parameters. One was it has to be easy. If it’s not easy, Hugh, people don’t do it. Right, Russell? That’s number one. Number two is it has to be vast and almost fun. Imagine that. We put the fun back in fundraising. Number three, you’re going to love this one, it has to be free. What does that mean? I mentioned to you I already built two Internet companies, one of which I sold for many millions of dollars. Both of those companies were based on the free model. One was faxing for free, and the other was speaking for free. They were built on the ability to do something for free. How do you give money for free? Russell is scratching his bald head not understanding that. I think I believe you, Barry Shore. You’re a friend of Hugh’s, but what do you mean give money for free? Those were the parameters. I tried to go to sleep.
The next day, I was doing a lot of exercise. We had people coming to the house. I am still a quad. I have people moving my body around trying to get it to do things. Move your arm up, move your leg, do stuff like that. To this very day, I can’t wiggle my toes. I can’t move my feet up and down. I am able to get around. After a very exhausting therapy session, they put me back into bed. I am laying there, closing my eyes. My eyes pop open, and I see a vision. I see three circles intersecting like the circles from the Olympics or a Venn diagram. Not only that, but each circle was labeled, to show you how the good Lord works. It was a simple, elegant answer to the questions. If it is not simple and elegant, it doesn’t work. If it’s too hard, it doesn’t happen. The best problems are simple, not simplistic, but simple to solve.
The first circle was labeled “Mobile” or cell. About ten years ago, it was the first year of these things called Smartphones. Think back ten years. Just coming out. Well, hey, I am in the Internet, I am in the world. I realized this was not a trend or a fad. This is a complete disruption in human communications. Look what we are doing now, ten years later. This stuff did not exist. This is a change in the world.
The next circle was labeled “Gift cards.” You can’t walk into a store and not be assaulted by racks of these things. Those are plastic. What does it have to do with this? There was a line moving from the second circle to the first circle and an arrow labeled “Digital.” I got it! You hit a button on the iPhone and you say, “Give me $50 of Starbucks,” and it gets sent in seconds. Wow.
The third circle was the most important though. This is what is critical to all of us. The third circle was labeled “Cause.” Here is what gets really interesting. We know as adults that sometimes what isn’t said is almost as important as what is said. Didn't say “charity.” This is a pet peeve of mine. Bear with me. It wasn’t labeled “charity.” To me, a charity is the following. Someone has a hand out, and you put a dollar in that hand. The next thing, he goes into your pocket to get more. That is a charity. A cause is something I want to help. It’s attractive. What can I do?
I thought about these amazing beings called millennials and younger, the generation after them. Some of the most caring, giving people ever. At least they say so. We want clean water. We don’t want pets to die. We want to make sure everyone has shelter. We want to do all of these things. We, as a little bit older, and some of us have gray hair, and some of us even have hair, we recognize it all costs money. Watch this. Put these three circles together. You mean I can hit a button on my phone and order a brand I am going to shop at and love anyway, whether it’s Amazon, the Gap, TGIF, the movies, ordering pizza, hundreds of places. I hit a button, pay what I’m going to pay, and get the exact amount sent to me within seconds. Because I did that, and Barry Shore arranged it with the brand, some portion of that goes to the cause of my choice. You hear this? I am going to drink coffee, I am going to go out to eat, I am going to go to the movies, I am going to go shopping. Just because I do that, some portion goes here.
It has to be fast. It has to be easy. It should be fun. It doesn’t cost the giver a penny. Out of this came the two most important sentences I am going to say. A mission and a goal. Hugh, you mentioned to me you work with a lot of groups that are mission-oriented. It’s a mission to go out and spread the word of the Lord. It’s a mission to help people with food. It’s a mission to educate. We are a mission. We need a mission statement. Our mission is four words: Making everyday giving effortless. You like that? Making everyday giving effortless. That is the mission. What is the goal? The big, hairy, audacious goal: the facilitating of giving one billion dollars without costing any giver a penny.
Hugh: That’s quite amazing, Barry. That is the overarching framework for Dlyted. Is it operational?
Barry: Thank you for asking. Dlyted attracted great people in the Internet world and investors. We are here to transform philanthropy. Over the past three and a half years, we have built the platform that enables everything to happen that I told you about. I am happy to tell you that we function every day, and we help organizations all the time. We do all the heavy lifting. We build a landing page for a cause, whether it’s a church, a youth group, American Cancer Society. Now they will have their own page where when people come to that page and register, whenever they do their shopping through Dlyted, the money automatically goes to that cause. It is not going to 30 different causes. It goes to that cause. We are concerned about how people can make sure they have an attachment to and stay with their cause, their church, their group, their organization. It becomes fun. Yes, we are operational. We raise money. We have some great stories. People love it. Once they hear about it, think about this. Here is the biggest problem we face. Too good to be true. Am I right?
Hugh: Barry, speaking of that issue, let’s address that right away. There is money that goes to the charity from the purchase. Where does the money come from?
Barry: I will give you the simple economics. An Example is Gap. Everybody knows Gap. Millions of people shop there. We negotiated with Gap what we call on the highfalutin language arbitrage, which is the difference between the buy and sell price. When you walk into the store and you see those racks of gift cards, the store makes some money out of selling those. When somebody buys one of those, the store makes a percentage. That percentage, instead of going to the store, is going to be going to the cause. Let’s say a $100 gift card for Gap we are able to get at $90. $5 goes to the cause. It costs us 3.5% to process with a credit card. We get the $1.50 to keep the business going. Each brand has its own particular amount they are able to share with the cause. Instead of going to the store that sells it, it now goes to you.
Here is where it gets really exciting. I call this the four C’s. The four C’s are the following: Conscious Consumers. Whether you are talking about a 17-year-old who is fired up to change the world or an 87-year-old who understands it costs money to do things, these are conscious consumers. People who want to use their money and time well. I care about what I eat, and I care about who I shop with and buy from. Those are conscious consumers.
The next C is Conscious Capitalists. I am proud to say that more and more people who run businesses are becoming aware that capitalism is not a dirty word. It is the word that will enable all of us to raise up this great world if we recognize that living together and not squeezing profit is the best way to live. You can turn your profit and become prophetic, from an f to a ph. If your business wants to stay around and really grow, bring in those conscious consumers who want to work with conscious capitalists and are willing to share the bounty.
The third C is Conscious Causes. There are some causes out there who call themselves charities who are there just to raise money. That’s what they want to do. They don’t want to go out of business. American Cancer Society would like to be out of business in the next few years. Why? Because they cured cancer. We are not looking to raise $100 million so we can have people who have fat salaries. We want to maintain and sustain and grow.
The fourth C is what I call the Collaborative economy. Are all these three working together understanding? Hugh, you were kind enough to share with me this idea of a number of Methodist churches in Virginia. Collaboration amongst one or two or a number of these can oftentimes yield a greater amount than just being on their own. When you literally collaborate hundreds or thousands of people who are now consciously shopping, again using Dlyted doesn’t cost you money to do it, it may take you a few extra seconds to say you want $300 of Southwest through Dlyted, but I had to do that extra step. Now because of that, $15 just went to help out a mission for kids to go someplace. Think of collaborating 1,000 people with that mindset. These four C’s now become powerful. A lever.
Let’s go back to Barry Shore. I want to tell you a story about my recovery that may illustrate some of this. May I do that?
Hugh: Yes, sir. Then I want to hear from Mr. Russell. Go for it. You keep talking, and then we will hear from Russell.
Barry: Let me tell everybody a story. I am enjoying telling these stories. Hugh, I gotta thank you again. I am loving this. Russell, I hope you are loving this also. I hope all the people listening are loving this because it’s my wife that is the backbone here. It is the good Lord who gave me the energy and the ability for me to be able to express my thanks for allowing me to be of benefit. As I mentioned to you before, everybody thinks they know what www stands for. You think you know. WWW stands for What a Wonderful World. That’s your acronym. We do that ASAP, which stands for Always Say a Prayer. Watch this one, kids.
Remember, I am a quadriplegic for years. A quad is somebody who is paralyzed from the neck down. As my doctor said so eloquently, “Shore, all you can do is move your mouth.” But you are still moving. Watch this.
In the course of healing, the good Lord sent me an amazing person who happened to be a neighbor on my street. He saw me in the wheelchair one day and said, “What happened to you?” I told him what was going on. He said, “I am going to have you up and walking in a year.” Hmm, okay, fine. Why? Because he is one of the leading people in the world of aquatic therapy. As you can hear, aquatic therapy means you put somebody in the pool, and you move them around to get your muscles moving, and you get better response in the water. For me, it’s very important because when they were trying to get me up on my feet, oftentimes I would fall down. When you fall down because of gravity on pavement or on the earth, it hurts. I have even sprained and broken bones because of it in therapy. I was very open to this aquatic therapy.
Gets me in the pool and works with me over the course of months. When they had me in the pool the first time, I had floaties on my legs and my tummy and my arms so I wouldn’t sink and drown.
Fast forward now. Over the course of a number of months, got me to the point where with floaties on my legs and floaties on my belly, I was able to be on my back and move my arms over my head in the water that I was simulating a backstroke. I am going to make the story a bit shorter because I can go on. Over the course of a year, I was able to swim at the end of the year one mile on my back without stopping. It took me over two hours to do that, but hey, I am in southern California. I am swimming outdoors. I have a great tan, don’t I? I am in the warm pool, so why not? And I am moving my arms. For a quad, that is big time stuff, kids.
Now I am going to the make the story more amazing. Suffice it to say, within the next year, after I had already swum more than 75 miles, I was able to get on my tummy and still with floaties on my legs, otherwise I would sink, and I had paddles on my hands because my fingers don’t close or the water goes right through, and I use a snorkel because I can’t move my head enough to breathe in. So we have a snorkel, paddles, floaties, and I am outdoors in a warm pool in southern California. I am on my tummy, and over the course of time, I was able to swim a mile on my belly. I put it together, and I was swimming two miles a day six days a week. I have been doing that for almost nine years.
Hugh: That’s amazing. I am going to let Russell comment. We are heading to the last part of our interview. Anybody out there who thinks they have an excuse probably thinks by now they don’t really have an excuse. You had insurmountable odds. I want to learn more about Dlyted and how people can benefit from the charity they represent. Russell has been patient. Russell, howdy.
Russell Dennis: Greetings, good to see you again, young Mr. Shore. It has been a long time. What a remarkable story. I love the platform. It just doesn’t- Let me give you an idea of some of the people who are out here. He mentioned a few. Amazon, AMC, AirBnb, Groupon, Southwest Airlines, Xbox, Regal Cinemas, GameStop, Starbucks, Under Armour, Target. These are just a few. What do they give back? Amazon gives 1%. AMC, 5%. Home Depot, 2.5%. You can see exactly what these people are giving to the charity. This is 1, 2, 3. This is what Barry is talking about. Make it easy. Where do you shop? You can buy your stuff online. Sign up, create an account, one. Pick a card, any card. This is not a trick. Then step three, type in who you want to support. It’s that quick and easy. You type them in, that card is locked in. When you run that card, you are supporting that charity. Who can you support? Anybody who has a listing. There is a SynerVision landing page in here.
Hugh: Oh, there is? I didn’t know that. How did you find that?
Russell: You must go in and play as you set up your account. It is in here. It is so easy. This is very intuitive. It is very easy to use. You can do this in a matter of minutes. Within three minutes, you are making a donation to your charity. You go to the home page, you click on Start Giving. There is a place to create an account. You can either sign in or create a new account. There I am. I am going to drop my name in right now. There is my name, email, and password. I got fat fingers going here today, guys. Create an Account.
Hugh: What do you mean, today?
Russell: I have fat fingers every day. That’s why I have a fat finger tool that is not on my desk. I now have a Dlyted account. Verify my email. It will send me an email. I can go in here now. Amazon.com is my poison. Trust me, I collect books a hell of a lot faster than I read them. It’s that easy. I think it would take a total of three minutes to create an account, pick a card, and pick somebody to support. Once you have set it up, your card is there. Whether you are shopping from your phone—I have friends who have flip phones, I am working on them, Barry. Once I have converted them, I can get them signed up. Hugh doesn’t have a flip phone. I want to say out loud now that Hugh is not one of my flip phone carriers.
Hugh: Despite my age and mental condition.
Russell: Oh God, we didn’t make it. We almost made it without that comment.
Hugh: I’m sorry, it was a cheap shot. Russell, you work with nonprofits everywhere. Many of them struggle to put some funding strings in place. Part of what we teach at SynerVision is there are eight different ways to create revenue streams. This one we group under Earned Income or Business Income. It’s affiliate fees. We recommend or are tied to help people find products they would buy anyway, and a portion of that goes to the charity. Barry’s story is quite remarkable. He did not give up, but he took adversity and reframed it into a benefit for a whole lot of people. That is quite a compelling story. Coming from your position of helping charities think about their funding options, what do you see and hear is a benefit for all those nonprofits, churches, synagogues, that are struggling?
Russell: Easy is good because a lot of these folks are wearing 6-7 hats. They don’t have the revenues or the support structure. This is collaborative. You get people on your team. It’s low hanging fruit. This is a high-powered platform that has been around for a while. It’s getting better all the time. It’s mobile-friendly. It renders beautifully on my iPad. You have to render beautifully on any mobile device because more giving online is happening from these mobile devices. Any time you can put a platform together that combines online giving, so a charity could very easily share this site, and leverage this, this is something they can earn revenue through. It’s very simple. It’s very easy. Everything is set up. It’s just about driving traffic, which is telling as many of their supporters about it as they possibly can. This is powerful revenue. It’s passive, yet people are coming in. Every way that you can find to support yourself, you should be driving people to that platform. This is stuff they buy all the time.
They are going to buy it whether they are supporting you or not, so they need to know that platforms are in place like this to leverage this. People are just shopping. Once you set it up, you pick your charity, you can pick several. Once you pick, you’re done. Every time they buy, they don’t have to think about this. They get full dollar value for what they purchase, yet the charity gets a certain percentage depending on the merchant. It’s just getting people to take an extra step. This is something they are doing all the time. It’s not onerous to the person.
Hugh: Now that you have signed up, you are going to select SynerVision Leadership Foundation as your cause, right?
Barry: Let me jump in here for a moment. Russell made some remarkably beautiful points. One of the famous studies done on what people fear most, #3 was fear of dying. #1 was speaking in public. Remember that, Russell?
Russell: Public speaking.
Barry: #2 is asking other people for money. You said something so genius. What Russell was saying is that the real beauty and benefit of Dlyted, in addition to the fact that you are giving and doing it anyway is that you are sharing. You know why? I sit on a board. I need to raise $1,000. I call up my friends, “Russell, we do business together. You’re a friend. You love me. Can I put you down for $250?” Even if he says yes, which he probably wouldn’t, as sure as we are sitting here, in six months, I am going to get a call from Russell, “Hey Barry, I am raising money. I need your help. Can I put you down for $250?” I am a jerk? I am going to say no? He just gave me $250. So I might as well have just written the check myself. With Dlyted, you can now share this with everybody in your social world because you are never asking anybody for a penny. I don’t fear it anymore because I am not asking you for money.
Here is where it gets really amazing. You have these Methodist churches in Virginia. You have Russell in Denver. You have Lola who lives up in Alaska. Anybody anywhere in the United States can now support an organization using Dlyted. Whether you live in Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, anywhere, you can now be supporting this little place in Indiana or in Denver. It spreads anybody anywhere anytime, and you never ask anybody for money, so you share, share, share. Everybody has 300 people they talk to. You get a church of 1,000 people, so you could now be talking to tens of thousands of people. You can help us, and it won’t cost you a penny.
Russell: They are writing a check without writing a check because they buy this stuff anyway. If you spend $500 on Amazon, you are going to give us money. Just go here. You’ll get every penny that you invest in that card. $50 on Amazon will be $50 you spend, but you will be sending $2.50.
Barry: Watch this one. You just gave me an idea. We have Mother’s Day coming up soon and Father’s Day and birthdays. When you do your gift-giving, because people will send gift cards online, through Dlyted, not only are you giving the gift, but you just made a contribution. Think of Mom. Hey, I just gave Mom $100 of Macys, but I just gave $5 to the church doing it. Mom would love that because I gave her something, and Mom would also be proud of me because I just gave money.
We touch the two deepest emotions in a human being: I am smart, and I am good. How much smarter can you be than to do good that doesn’t cost you anything? Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries, holiday time. It’s all part of the flow. Just taking that extra step. Once you get into the habit of doing good, you become a hog, in the Habit of Good.
Hugh: That’s amazing.
Russell: You can build a campaign calendar using just about anything. People can do stuff all year round.
Hugh: Russell, we are moving to a place where we are not going to leave the money on the table. If we don’t access and redirect this money to the charity, it doesn’t go anywhere. It goes to the company. There is that money that is part of their marketing budget. They redirect part of their marketing budget to people who directed the sales.
Barry, we are on the wrap-up of this inspirational interview. I want to make sure that people understand that I invited you here to tell your story of how leaders do not accept challenges as failure. Leaders succeed because they get up one more time than they fell down. Leaders succeed because they are purpose-driven and they do not see failure as an option. Success is the option. Your creation is something you have done because you care about leaving a legacy, building goodness in the world, and helping other people generate revenue. We are going to continue to talk about ways that SynerVision can help you spread the message. You are a very good and compelling storyteller.
Thinking about leaders out there, there are people who are on the verge of giving up, who feel like they are so over-loaded they are never going to succeed. There are people out there who don’t see the daylight as they are really there. I am going to give you the last two minutes to give people a tip, thought, or challenge as they go forward.
Barry, we have spent an hour telling a story. It seems like two minutes to me. We are almost done here. Last two minutes are yours. What do you want to share with people as a parting thought, comment, or challenge?
Barry: Thank you again, Hugh and Russell for the opportunity to address these amazing people who are making a difference. Go mad, everybody. Go make a difference. I have to leave you with two things. Here they are.
The first is the four P’s: Purpose, Prayer, Perseverance, and Patience.
As I mentioned to you, I swim two miles a day, six days a week. I have accumulated enough miles to swim from Los Angeles, California to Hawaii, from Hawaii to Taiwan, and from Taiwan to Shanghai, China. More than 6,578 miles, and I am not stopping. Never give in. Never give in. Never give in. Thank you.
Hugh: Barry Shore, you are an inspiration. Russell, thanks as always for being here.
Russell: Thank you. Good to see you again, Barry. I will be doing my shopping on Dlyted.
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Coming from Personal Trauma to Success and Helping Other Succeed | The Nonprofit Exchange: Leadership Tools & Strategies podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
