574. Mental Health Week: Transforming a Telephone Booth into a Beacon of Hope + Empowering Mental Health Through Community - Gloria Umanah, Hope Booth

Meet Gloria. She is alive today because of one four-lettered word: hope. And she’s on a mission to leverage her life for the good of others so that they too would choose hope and choose to live💙 Alongside her team at Hope Booth, they’re transforming old telephone booths into immersive, evidence-based experiences that spread hope, offer mental health care, and connect people to vital resources. Tune in to hear this incredible story of resilience and the life-changing power of hope✨

💡 Learn

• The power of hope + making it accessible
• The mission + history of Hope Booth
• The role of community + collaboration in driving innovative solutions

This episode includes discussions about mental health challenges, including suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, please seek support from a mental health professional or contact one of the helplines below:

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (US): 1-800-273-8255 or dial 988
• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
• Samaritans (UK): Call 116 123
• Lifeline (Australia): 13 11 14
• International Helplines: Find resources here

Today's Guest
Gloria Umanah, Founder + CEO, Hope Booth

Episode Highlights

• Overview of Hope Booth (3:15)
• Gloria’s story and journey to where she is today (4:45)
• Gloria’s “Marking Moment” (8:45)
• The science of hope (17:00)
• Hope Booth’s launch + the public reception (21:45)
• The dreams for Hope Booth (33:15)
• A powerful story of philanthropy in Gloria’s life (37:45)
• How to help the Hope Booth today (43:05)
• Gloria’s One Good Thing: Fight to choose joy. (47:25)

For more information + episode details visit: weareforgood.com/episode/574.

This episode is part of our Mental Health Week series presented by our friends at Givebutter. Explore all the episodes, find resources + more at weareforgood.com/mentalhealth.

Chapters

• 0:01 Hope Booth
• 4:26 Identity, Hope, and Transformation
• 16:35 Building Hope Booth
• 28:07 Expanding Hope Booth Across Communities
• 34:38 The Impact of Philanthropy
• 48:01 Choosing Joy and Spreading Hope

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, I'm John.

Speaker 2: 0:02

And I'm Becky. And this is the we Are For Good podcast. Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

Speaker 1: 0:15

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.

Speaker 2: 0:23

So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world. So let's, get started.

Speaker 3: 0:36

Hey Becky, what's up man?

Speaker 2: 0:38

Well, I've been teasing this episode, for I think about six months.

Speaker 2: 0:41

And today is the day and before we introduce our guest today, I need to do some level setting here, because we have a profound privilege at we're For Good that we get to meet some of the most extraordinary people with the most extraordinary ideas who are helping humanity. And I just have to tell you that when I met Gloria, the world kind of stood still on its axis for me just a little bit. And, john, you know my story enough to know that my life goal is to just sit at the feet of a stranger and hear their story and feel changed by it. And this glorious story I want you all to just sort of settle in today, because this is going to be a gift. Today we're talking about hope, and we're talking about hope on a very profound level and I hope when you leave you're feeling lighter and more secure and confident within yourself and you're feeling more love, because that's what Gloria is going to bring in. So please let me introduce our incredible guest today.

Speaker 2: 1:43

Her name is Gloria Umana. She is the founder of the Hope Booth and if you've not heard of the Hope Booth, buckle up, because I think it's about to change your life in the way that I feel like it's changing mine, but Gloria is a first-generation Nigerian-born Atlantaan. She's from Atlanta, georgia, and, having lived below the poverty line for the majority of her childhood, gloria lived in over 10 different motel rooms along with her family of four sisters, an immigrant mother and, over the span of six years, and through such a challenging upbringing, gloria overcame homelessness, fatherlessness, depression and suicide. She has got an extraordinary story. We're going to pitch it to her to tell it in just a second. But, gloria, we are so excited you are here. We got to talk about the Hope Booth. Welcome to the we Are For Good podcast.

Speaker 4: 2:29

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I've listened to many episodes here, so it's exciting to be an episode. So thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 2:37

Well, I got to give Dana Snyder a shout out. Dana sent me your name one day on text and said I really think you all need to talk to this human being, and today is the day, and we just want to get to know you. So start at the beginning. Take us back to little Gloria and tell us about where Hope Booth really started within your story. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 4: 2:56

I feel like it's fair for me to first describe what Hope Booth is, so people get a pretty good idea and understanding of what we're even talking about here. So I get the privilege and opportunity of being the founder and CEO of an incredible organization called the Hope Booth, where our main mission is to make hope and help free and accessible to all and pioneer movement where no one goes unseen. And how we do it is extremely unique, out of the box, very extraordinary. So what we do is reimagine old telephone booths and we turn them into these three minute interactive, immersive experiences that are evidence-based, designed to spread hope and then connect users to local help and support, and that could look like help and support within a five mile radius from wherever a hope booth is installed. So these installations go in street corners, in schools, outside of libraries, prisons, hospitals, wherever people are. That's where we believe the Hope Booth should be, and so the goal is to make hope and help free and accessible. Whether it's 2 am or 2 pm, whether you are living below the poverty line, like I did growing up, or you're someone who is a multimillionaire, we've realized that hope is necessary for all, in all of our lives, and so we wanted to create something that was unique and innovative, that can give people the opportunity to experience hope at all times, and so this I think, oftentimes, when we talk about innovative solutions, sometimes there is a group of innovation that comes from and derives from just a cool thought and a cool idea. But I have this saying that I say all the time.

Speaker 4: 4:26

I didn't just become a mental health advocate. I didn't choose that on my own. My story is what led me to that, and so, growing up, I was in an immigrant household, just like you said. Growing up, my four sisters, my mom, we lived in so many different hotel rooms and I think one of the difficult things growing up as a child, as an immigrant, especially in an affluent area, we didn't have a lot. As a child, your identity is rooted in what you have, and so, because I felt like I had not, I felt like I also was not. So my identity was very, I think, shrunk down into I don't have what everyone else has. I can't afford what everyone else can afford.

Speaker 4: 5:08

I remember the school bus would pick us up outside of the Motel 6. And it was such an embarrassing experience because the bus is coming from all of these massive homes, all of these neighborhoods with all these kids whose parents are doctors and lawyers and had all of these great things. And I'm getting on at the bus stop outside of a Motel 6. And I'd get on the bus and people would make fun of me. And then, on top of that, I was Nigerian American. So my first name is not actually Gloria, my first name is Fianfolua, which has a really cool meaning. It means all glory to God. But I remember, even growing up, my teachers would refuse to say my name properly. And at the core of identity, your name is what you have. That is where everything begins and that's where everything ends. And even for something like that, to have been made fun of, my identity suffered a lot of crippling.

Speaker 4: 5:57

And so, going throughout all of my school years middle school, high school our family dynamic just incredibly intense. Even our upbringing. My parents went from working in pretty high capacity career fields making decent enough money to transitioning into becoming full-time missionaries. It was wild to me. My brain as a middle schooler didn't understand the transition when it was happening. I just knew why would you ever make this decision Like? This is when our family made that transition from having a home, to no longer having a home, having a car large enough for our whole family, to no longer having a car large enough for our whole family, to being able to bring our favorite restaurant food to school, to now being on the cost reduced program. So it was almost night and day difference of what I was experiencing. And through all of that, a lot of anxiety started to come upon me and I didn't know how to navigate these feelings and emotions.

Speaker 4: 6:53

And also, I'm Nigerian.

Speaker 4: 6:55

Once again, we don't talk about anxiety.

Speaker 4: 6:57

We don't talk about mental health. This was not something that we talked about. If we ever brought up any type of feeling that felt overbearing or overcoming, no-transcript, that, hope Booth, is the solution. There is not a single innovation on this planet that is geared towards and directed towards mental health that could actually solve everything. But the beauty is what happens when we come together with all of these different innovations from different vantage points and we say, hey, look at what happens when, instead of competing, we collaborate. We then see a holistic approach and that's when we start to see change.

Speaker 4: 7:55

And so, for me, I wish I had understood that growing up. I wish I understood that when I was struggling with anxiety and when depression started to creep into my life. I wish I knew that there were tactics, that there were strategies. I didn't even recognize that hope was an accessible thing, something I could actually grasp and hold into my hand until one particular day. I talk about this all the time because it's the day that revolutionized my life, and I'll probably cry about it here. I cry about it every single time.

Speaker 2: 8:22

I'm going to cry about it. I cried about it. Every single time. I'm going to cry about it, I cried about it the first time.

Speaker 4: 8:25

I'm going to cry about it again Keep going. Truly revolutionary. But October 29, 2011 is a year I will never forget. A day. I will never forget a moment I will genuinely never forget, and I call this my marking moment. I think sometimes people have these marking moments in their story where they can recollect 20 years, 30 years, 40 years from now, and I think the beauty of the work that we do with the Hope Booth is that we're creating marking moments for people. The same way I had a marking moment that revolutionized my life, we're believing that people will have those same marking moments, and mine was October 29, 2011. I'll never forget.

Speaker 4: 8:59

I remember this was after my sophomore year, struggling so much with anxiety and crippling depression. I never told my parents anything that I was experiencing. I didn't talk about it. I was a very reserved kid for the most part. I'm really good at putting on a mask and just faking it till I've made it, and this was the timing of my life where I felt like I couldn't make it anymore. I was experiencing some bullying. I was experiencing some racism. I was experiencing just the intensity of our upbringing and our living situation in general, and I remember crying myself to sleep every single night for about a year and nobody knew. Gloria was always the tough girl, the strong girl, the one that was compassionate for other people, but no one ever recognized that behind all of the armor that I was wearing was just a small girl that needed to be seen.

Speaker 4: 9:46

I felt invisible more times than not, and so I remember on this particular day, I had a plan to end my life. I was over it. I didn't want to continue living, and I think this is very true for most people who experience suicidal ideation. No one actually ever wants to end their life. What people want to end is the pain that they're going through, and that was my story. I didn't want to actually end my life, I wanted to end the pain, and I also wanted to know that people thought I was worth fighting for.

Speaker 4: 10:15

And so I remember, on this particular day, going to a youth gathering kind of like a D now, if you will where it was like a local church that was hosting this event. We all had to come and I had no choice. My parents were like you're going, and my parents are also Nigerian, so no is not really a response in our family, and so I ended up going to this gathering and I packed with me everything I planned to use to end my life that night. And I remember sitting in the auditorium as they had music going on in the gathering and I prayed a very simple prayer and I just said, god, if you are real, would you encounter me? I didn't know what that meant. I hear this concept of faith the size of a mustard seed very often. That that's all you need. I don't know if you've ever seen what a mustard seed looks like, but it's pretty microscopic. It's very, very small, teeny, tiny. So I would say that prayer was my mustard seed that night.

Speaker 4: 11:08

And even beyond having that faith, I still had a lot of doubt that there was no way that this supposed God of the universe was going to intersect my story. There's so many other things to worry about, there's so many other people to worry about, there's so many other things to do who is Gloria Aymara? That there would be a moment of an encounter on this particular day. So I remember time starts going by and during this timing this is the timing of Twitter really making its entrance into the world and cyberbullying was at its all-time high I was getting messages from people that I thought were my friends, that were telling me man, gloria, you suck, your life sucks Like you shouldn't continue here. I mean, the bullying was pretty intense, all sorts of really negative, harmful, hurtful things. And I thought to myself in that moment if my presence isn't appreciated, perhaps my absence will be. And so I grabbed with me everything that I intended to use in my life as I walked towards the exit of the auditorium.

Speaker 4: 12:07

I got all the way to the door in the back of the room, put my hand on the door and the person who was leading the room in that worship gathering said there's someone in this room who's getting ready to take their life. God wants to encounter you. And I'm sitting here at the door and I'm like what on earth? Like no way. This is not real. This can't be real.

Speaker 4: 12:28

And suddenly all of the possible lies that could come to my mind were coming to my mind. People can't know that I'm struggling with this. I'm a pastor's kid. If they find out, they're going to make more fun of me. I can't handle any more shame. I can't handle any more condemnation and I just began to feel overwhelmed and overcome even with the concept and the idea of people, knowing that this is what I was struggling with.

Speaker 4: 12:50

Even though there was this opportunity of hope that was standing right before me, there was still a fear right there in that moment. And I remember just thinking these things and the person leading the room says I know, right now your head is probably full of lies. What are people gonna think about me? What are people gonna say? He said well, if that's you, I want you to know. Your encounter for hope is here today.

Speaker 4: 13:14

And I remember hearing that and I'm thinking to myself is this actually the encounter that I just possibly prayed for, that my heart has been yearning for every night that I cried myself to sleep. This is the hope that I have been wanting. And so I'm standing there and he says if that's you, on the count of three, I want you to put your hand up. There's about 800 people, all high schoolers, in the room and I am nervous. I'm thinking to myself. I put my hand up. My friends, everyone's going to know. But I thought to myself I think hope is worth it at this point.

Speaker 4: 13:47

And so he counts, he starts his countdown. He says one, don't be afraid. Two, this is your moment Three. And I shoot my hand up in the air. When I shoot my hand up in the air.

Speaker 4: 14:00

I looked around the room and was stunned by what I saw. I could not believe the amount of hands that went up in the air, of people who were prepared to take their life on that particular night, who would not have encountered hope if it wasn't for that man who felt that divine mandate to actually give people hope in a moment, and so that's why I talk about the power of marking moments. He may have felt like that wasn't even that crazy to have said to actually give people hope in a moment, and so that's why I talk about the power of marking moments. He may have felt like that wasn't even that crazy to have said hey, if this is you, put your hand up. Does putting your hand up solve everything? Absolutely not.

Speaker 4: 14:33

But what it did in that very moment was truly show me that I was not alone. I think I hear that phrase often, like, oh, you're not alone. There's other people who are struggling and fighting. But for me to actually have seen that with my own two eyes in a moment of pain, in a moment of genuine hopelessness, that's when I realized, oh, I really am not alone, and that was a marking moment in my story, because I would say I am alive here today because of the hope that I experienced on October 29th 2011. And that has catapulted my greatest desire and joy in doing the work of Hope Booth.

Speaker 4: 15:10

I don't do this just because I think it's cool. I do this because I know it can change lives. It changed my life, and so now I want to do everything possible to make hope accessible for people, to help provide people a pathway, a next step in their journey and their story. So those who felt like I did, who felt invisible, who felt like their life wasn't worthy didn't matter, but it didn't matter if they didn't have enough finances or if they didn't have enough resources or if they didn't have the courage to talk to someone. They would have the ability to still encounter hope regardless, and so I'm just honored and excited to get to do this work, honored and excited to get to live this life and to live this story. As hard as it was, I would go back and do it again just for the sake of being able to stand here today and stand on business and say I know the power of hope create the pause of like.

Speaker 3: 16:02

Thank you for your willingness to share your story. Um gosh, my heart is like in a million pieces, but at the same time you're like putting it back together. At the same time, like I'm just grateful for the. Um goodness, the way that you're showing up and the word hope has been like a through line for you Like. I mean I see it.

Speaker 3: 16:22

I see it in your work now, and we've been so excited about this conversation because of just how beautiful your mission is and what it's doing about providing these intersections of hope for people that are at least expecting it to. So I'm curious what, what that word looks like and how you define it today. You know compared to in your teenage years. What does it look like in your head?

Speaker 4: 16:43

Yeah, I feel like hope is a word that has always been so ambiguous for so many people, but I've kind of boiled it down to a very simple definition. Hope is action oriented strength that's fueled by the belief that, though everything might not be okay right now, I will be okay and I have the power to make it so. And so I think oftentimes people can think hope is just optimism or great thinking. No, great thinking alone doesn't change me. Great thinking alone is a great step, and I think it's the beginning step. If you will, we talk about the science of hope.

Speaker 4: 17:16

There's basically three categories within the science of hope. It starts with having a goal. So I had to have a goal to say I want to live. That is a goal. It seems very basic, but it is actually the goal that I needed on that day I need to live. And then the second category within the science of hope is having way power. The way power is determining. How am I going to make this possible? I have to figure out how am I actually going to make this possible, what's the strategy, what's the plan? And it can be as simple as keep going another day. It sounds so simple, but sometimes that is actually as simple as it needs to be Keep going another day. Or for some people, way power might look like putting your hand up in that room and they say is there anyone who is struggling right now? Sometimes way power is I need to go and ask for help, I need to invite people into my story.

Speaker 4: 18:03

And then that third category for the science of hope is willpower. So sometimes we can have a way, but we have to have the will, the genuine desire, and that's where that action oriented strength comes from. And sometimes that is very difficult. Having the will is very difficult if you do life alone. Having willpower comes in the form of community.

Speaker 4: 18:28

It comes in the form of other people speaking life into your bones where you feel like it has grown weak and weary. It comes from you looking yourself in the mirror and speaking the truth of what you know, of your identity. It comes from those affirmations and those declarations to tell myself like, okay, this is a hard moment, but this is not forever. That's one thing I say about anxiety often is anxiety is simply just present. It's not permanent. I will not go through this forever. And my willpower comes in those moments when I realize, oh, I can overcome this. I might be experiencing this today, but I'll make it through. So that's why we say that hope is action oriented. It's action oriented strength, and it recognizes the truth of where I'm at, but it also recognizes the power of where I can go and where I will be.

Speaker 2: 19:18

I'm so proud of you. My heart grows every single time I'm around you. I am in awe of your boldness, your vulnerability, the way you teach. I think you're such an educator and a healer and I really believe that every time you speak, you're speaking to someone very specific. I know you're speaking to someone very specific on this podcast. I know you were speaking directly to me in a really hard time when you and I met and you didn't even know it, and I think that through line of community is where it's at, because I really hear you preaching. We are for good values back at us.

Speaker 2: 19:54

I mean, we are not just a community who talks about things we do talk about a lot of stuff, because story is going to stay with us, insights are going to stay with us. We do need to have mindset shifts, but the activation point, the doing part, the willpower that you speak of, is the hard part. It really requires us to be bold, it requires us to pick ourselves, and these are things that are not Aiken and wrote to us. These are not reflexes, these are things that we have to cultivate. And when I hear you telling me the story of Hope Booth and how you're coming together and you've got all these young millennial and Gen Z are sitting around a room going, what can we do to bring accessibility to people, to bring hope in a way that helps people feel seen?

Speaker 2: 20:49

And so I want you to talk about this incredible team that you have, and I want to know what the response has been from the public as they interact with the Hope Booth and please walk through our listeners. What happens when you walk up? Because there's like a minute video or two minutes. I watched it on your website before we met for the first time and I told you I felt so visibly shook by it and it was two minutes and as a marketer, that's pretty impressive to get somebody to have an effect that way that quickly. So talk about the team. Talk about the public's reaction.

Speaker 4: 21:24

Yeah, absolutely so. I'll start by saying when we started Hope Booth, mental health was not what we were thinking about. Actually, it was far from it. What we were thinking about was people living on the streets, and the reason why that's what we were thinking about is because we heard this statistic that the average person living on the streets goes three to six months without being looked in the eye, and I remember hearing that for the first time, living in Atlanta.

Speaker 4: 21:48

There's plenty of people who are unhoused living on the streets and I thought to myself man, how do we make people feel seen Like, how do we help close that gap? How do we help people feel less invisible? And that's when I remembered my own story, knowing that feeling of invisibility. And so I got together with my team and I said guys, I know a lot of the work that we did at the time was helping other organizations and nonprofits tell their stories through spoken word, and so that oftentimes looked like work on stages and I said I think we need to pivot from the stage to the streets. What does it look like to use our creativity to impact people where they are, who are never coming to another gathering, a conference, a church, a workshop, a retreat, any of those things ever again. How do we create something that's accessible and embedded in our culture and our community? And the reason why a telephone booth came to mind for me is because I remember, I know, I look young but hey, I saw them.

Speaker 4: 22:42

I remember as a kid we would drive around the city of Atlanta and it was so easy to spot a telephone booth, especially at night because of the light that shines through it. And I thought to myself well, that's the perfect depiction of hope. It's light in the midst of darkness. And I thought the beauty of these telephone booths was that they were embedded into the community. It wasn't there one day and gone the next. It was drilled into the ground. It was available 24 seven, and all it took was 10 cents to be able to access whomever you needed. And I thought to myself well, shouldn't mental health access be the same? Shouldn't it be embedded in our communities, in our culture? Shouldn't it not require much money, if any at all? Shouldn't it be available 24-7, around the clock, not dependent on if a therapist is available or not, or your pastor or your friend, or how do we do that? And so that's when our team sat together and said, well, let's just remodel telephone booth. And I said, okay, does anyone know any carpenters? And they were like what? And I was like I don't know anything about this. I quite literally don't know anything about this. I just have an idea in my head, and that's when I realized the power of community truly and inviting people into the story of what you're building. I think sometimes we could be overly protective over vision and ideas, but I think to myself, if I had never invited people into the story of building and developing Hope Booth, it actually would still be on a piece of paper, it wouldn't have manifested into reality today, right now, because of my own insecurity or my own fear, or sometimes even pride, and so realizing the beauty of what happens when different people with different strengths kind of come together, that's when we sat and thought through okay, how do we build this thing? And so, in 2020, thought through okay, how do we build this thing? And so in 2020, I want to say 2021 or 2022, I don't know. After 2020, I don't know what year is what, but I think I want to believe it was 2022.

Speaker 4: 24:46

Yes when we built the prototype of the Hope Booth. It was as janky as it gets, but we did our best. I'll tell you, we did our best with the little we knew. This is coming from someone that was asking if anyone knew a carpenter. So we ended up getting invited to London, England, to debut our project. And I thought to myself I don't know, are we prepared for this, Like the team's? Like, do we have time to pull this off? So we ended up raising enough money and building it. Within a three month window. We go out to London for our debut and it was amazing.

Speaker 4: 25:15

We didn't anticipate on actually allowing anyone to use the Hope Booth on this particular day. We just needed to film a promo video because we hadn't told the world about what we had created. And so we're actually carrying the Hope Booth that was about 300 pounds on our shoulders like a casket throughout the city of London. It's wrapped around with bubble wrap so you can't see exactly what it is. And so we set it down in the middle of Notting Hill. We unwrap it just for the sake of this promo video. We're not thinking about the fact that there's people around. None of this is clicking in our brains at the moment.

Speaker 4: 25:46

We unwrap it, take it apart, and it was almost like the city stood still, Like you could see people pause, pulling out their cameras, silence I mean, it was silence as construction workers left building their construction to come over and they're like what is this? And then we were like I guess you guys have to experience it. And so we ended up having a line of about 30 people to experience a Hope We've Got I hadn't even experienced yet. We had just built it. You told me this was your literal first time. Yes, my first time seeing it Literally. We're coming from New York to London. We show up and people are like, oh my goodness, can I try it? I'm like, I guess, so I hope it works.

Speaker 2: 26:28

The revolution started before you launched which is amazing, Truly amazing.

Speaker 4: 26:35

It was so cool because the very first person who experienced it his name is Marazio, I'll never forget he showed up by himself and he said man, I moved here from Italy and I live here by myself and I feel alone. Even though there's so many people everywhere, I feel alone and in those short three minutes I'm somehow reminded that I'm going to be okay, Like I'm somehow reminded that my life matters and I can step out and actually reach out for someone's hand. And I heard him say that and I thought to myself are you sure, Is that really what you concluded from this? Because I'm still unsure of what we really created, to be honest. And so the next day we go to our official debut and we see this woman at the Hope Booth in tears and I'm like what did we make here? And afterwards I end up talking to her and she says Gloria, you have no idea what this three minute just did for me.

Speaker 4: 27:25

I came in here today depressed. I came in here not sure if I wanted to live another day. I came in here really feeling low and this just reminded me that I can to live another day. I came in here really feeling low and this just reminded me that I can keep going another day Like this, just put inside of me the actual hope that you guys have plastered everywhere, Like I feel it inside of me. And she was like it feels different, Like I feel different. And that's when I thought to myself if three minutes, if one moment of three minutes, can feel different in someone's life, then we've created a marking moment. That same way that a short little three minutes October 29, 2011, changed my life, then I'm a firm believer. It's changing the lives of individuals today, and we ended up doing so many other things. We went on an incredible 30-day 19-city beta tour where we just wanted to test out the whole booth, and this was a cool-.

Speaker 3: 28:13

In an RV. John, this was a cool RV.

Speaker 4: 28:16

I mean, you'll never see a group of black kids in an RV.

Speaker 2: 28:19

I don't know what we were doing.

Speaker 4: 28:22

I don't know what we were doing in there, but we said, hey, let's go, and we knew we wanted to. I mean, it was the response of London, of people saying we want a whole booth in Scotland, we want a whole booth in South Africa, and we said, guys, we've got one. We don't really know how to do this. And so we said, okay, well, let's go crowdfund, let's figure out how to raise $40,000 to take the Hope Booth on a tour across the country to just collect data so we can create this thing with accuracy, because accuracy is really important to us. And so within 12 days, we ended up raising about $56,000.

Speaker 4: 28:55

A random church in Tulsa, oklahoma, saw and heard about the Hope Booth and said, hey, we're going to write you guys a check for $50,000. Go ahead, go on the tour and have the best time ever. And I'm like what on earth? Okay, and so we ended up going on that 30-day, 19-city tour and at the very first stop in Nashville, tennessee, I remember being in the back of the RV as the team was out setting up, and I'm having this crippling moment of just anxiety. I'm having this moment of what did I rope everybody into? Like how can a telephone booth help anyone? Like every possible thought is coming through my mind.

Speaker 4: 29:30

We call it imposter syndrome, but I think it's just an accurate response to doing what you've never done, because you're showing up in a way you've never had to show up before. And so I remember coming out of the RV and I see a girl about 19 years old at the Hope booth in tears and I'm curious what her story is. And so she comes up to me afterwards and shares that on that particular day a year ago, her mom died by suicide and her mom's name was Hope. And she said this moment right here, this moment right here, just brought my mom back to life and encouraged my soul so deeply. And we're sitting there like this is the first day of 30 days, and we had the audacity to doubt what we've created, like the audacity to doubt that this wasn't going to lead to marking moments again for people, encounters again for people, and so that was a story that I'll never forget because ever since that day, we're like we've seen enough proof. We've seen enough proof to know, and our technology has gotten so advanced at this point where we have such incredible numbers and data statistics We've got about 83,000 people who've experienced the Hope Booth and right now, at about a 73% increase, just after one experience at the Hope Booth, one solid three minute moment got about 56% of the people who are engaging with our support system, who are actually connecting to local shelters and local therapists and finding the help that they need, which is incredible. And so we see some of these numbers and we see some of this data and we're recognizing.

Speaker 4: 31:02

I may never know any of these people's names, I may never know their stories, but I can see from our backend that this data is proof of lives being changed, and it's so beautiful because it has nothing to do with me, my name is not anywhere, I'm not at the forefront of it all and I've decided in my life as an innovator I'm okay being a person of the fine print, I'm okay being someone whose name may show up somewhere way down, but it's not the headline.

Speaker 4: 31:29

We want hope to be the headline of the story here. We want hope to be the headline in people's lives here and we have seen how that has just revolutionized, even just taking the pressure off of ourselves, because we have seen the work for itself. The work proves itself. We've seen the impact prove itself. We've seen hope does the work Even when we take a step back. That's why I was able to take a sabbatical, because we've created a product that can thrive out in the world and it's been amazing and outstanding and hard work. But I'm just so grateful for our team and our commitment to just making hope and help accessible, whatever that looks like and whatever innovation that takes and requires.

Speaker 3: 32:09

I'm crying.

Speaker 2: 32:11

The snot is flowing Like it's. You are what this world needs. Hope Booth is what the world needs. Hope, thank you.

Speaker 3: 32:20

And the way you're going about it too. I mean, you're teaching our values. To us in that community is everything. And this is so baked in community. Even the posturing of that. It's not about you. It's about the people that this serves.

Speaker 1: 32:34

Everyone matters. It's so, even the posturing of that. It's not about you. It's about, like the people that this serves, like that is how we can change the world.

Speaker 3: 32:37

You know like that kind of posturing, so just thanks for being a leader in that way and for sharing your story today I'm curious, like what's on the horizon, you know? I mean, it feels like y'all are just embracing that hope booth. Is this living, breathing hope that? Keeps changing? What are the communities and partnerships you're excited about, kind of?

Speaker 4: 32:56

moving into in the future too. Yeah, absolutely so. We have this big, audacious dream over the next year, to install a hundred Hope Booths in different languages. We actually just launched Hope Booth Spanish, which is exciting, but, yeah, our hope and goal is to get these in prisons, hospitals, schools, street corners and really just getting ahead of the curve. We know what our world is planning out to look like. It's not getting easier for people. We kind of see the crisis ahead of time, and so we're hoping to be a little bit more proactive instead of reactive, instead of waiting until these moments of hopelessness come and overtake our world. How do we get ahead of that and start partnering with the right people? And so one of the things we have found to be extremely helpful in partnerships is actually partnering with commercial real estate companies, and so, for example, if you're familiar with Atlanta, where we're based here, we have a whole booth at Ponce City Market. Ponce City Market is similar to Chelsea Market in New York, actually owned by the same commercial real estate company that also owns Google's Visitor Experience, which a Hope Booth is coming to soon. Which also owns Dear Deli Square in San Francisco, which another Hope Booth is coming to soon. Yeah, and so we're finding that these commercial real estate partners seem to be the best bet.

Speaker 4: 34:16

My dream would be Simon, a partnership with Simon Properties, because that's every mall in the United States and there are so many people who frequent malls and I think a Hope Booth outside of every mall would be beautiful. I think a Hope Booth outside of every university would be beautiful. I think a Hope Booth inside of Subways would be. I mean, there's just not a single place I can think of that. A Hope Booth wouldn't fit. I oftentimes get texts from my friends and they're like oh my goodness, gloria, a Hope Booth would go so good here. Have you thought about it?

Speaker 4: 34:43

I'm like, of course, I sleep thinking about this, I wake up thinking about this, every waking moment I'm thinking about this, and so I think the beauty of what we're doing, even when we're talking about community, is finding these partners who carry the heartbeat of the work that we're doing.

Speaker 4: 34:58

Instead of having to waste our time and energy convincing the wrong people, we want to connect with people who are already convinced, who already carry the heartbeat of this work, so that we can expedite the work we're doing and create a ripple effect of impact and really help people. I think we talk about just the uniqueness of the work that we do. It's so unique that you can see the manifestation of your giving and your generosity right at hand. And I think, in a world where people are a little skeptical towards charities and organizations and nonprofits, I think we have an upper hand and advantage there, because when you give to a Hope Booth you actually see it go into the ground, drilled into the ground in a community to help and support people, and that's the work that we're committed to. So I'm just excited to see them as frequently as we saw telephone booths in our cities they were everywhere and I think mental health access should be the same.

Speaker 2: 35:53

Absolutely. I mean, when I got off the phone with you, I called a local company that I know here in Oklahoma City and the conversation was so interesting because I was like, hey, not only do you need to buy that this, but I think it should go either here or here, because I think there's this amount of traffic the most in Oklahoma City and I think you see people have that level of passion for it. Because I do want a healthy community, I want a whole community with humans who are looked in the eye. I don't want anybody walked past you know going past people for three to six months without actually being seen and so we are for good community.

Speaker 2: 36:34

We are going to manifest Gloria's dream. So if anybody has a connection out there to Simon's, to Mal's, let's reach out to. Gloria and let's make it happen, because I do think that what you're doing is you're making hope accessible. You're reminding people that they have value. You're reminding people that they have value. You're reminding people that they're not alone.

Speaker 2: 36:55

And so I just appreciate this beautiful story that you have brought into our community. I have so much hope in what you are perpetuating, not just with the physical product but what it's doing internally, and we really celebrate stories so much on this podcast, gloria, and we like to lay some ground just so we can sit and hear about a story of philanthropy that may have happened in your life. Maybe it's a story of generosity or love that has stayed with you. Do you have a story like that? You'd?

Speaker 4: 37:24

be willing to share. I do. But I actually want to backtrack to another story as well that just moved me deeply. That, I think, would move our listeners and you guys as well. So a couple months ago, right before I went on my sabbatical, we got an email from a mother and she said hey, you guys don't know me, you don't know anything about me, but I live in Atlanta and my son lives in Atlanta too and he has been struggling deeply with suicidal ideation and depression. We can't afford any medicine. We can'tation and depression. We can't afford any medicine, we can't afford any therapy, we can't afford any solutions. But he's been going to the Hope Booth every single day since his diagnosis and that has kept him alive. And so when I hear stories like this, I think about this idea that even when we talk about philanthropy, these are the stories that I share, because I'm helping people realize you're not making my life better, you're making other people's lives better. When you give and your support, you're keeping people alive. Like I think about that young man who can't afford any type of resource or support, who is kept alive here today because of something we've installed in a community. And so when I hear these stories. I am just moved into recognizing that generosity has the ability to keep people's hearts beating. It's that simple Generosity has the ability to do that. And so we don't have a ton of donors, but the ones that we do have, I tell them all the time like thank you for being a part of this life saving truly life saving work.

Speaker 4: 38:59

I remember in our early, early days we weren't sure how we were going to fundraise for any of this. I mean our whole team. We don't come from money. It's very hard to fundraise in black and brown communities. We don't have as much access to things. And I remember us knowing, okay, for us to actually move a next step forward, we're going to have to be able to rally around and find our first donor who can give at least $150,000 so that we can hire. Our whole team has been volunteer based. It sounds unbelievable that we've gotten this far that way, and I remember just recognizing, okay, we've made it really far, but we can't go any further like this.

Speaker 4: 39:42

And we started asking our board do you know anybody who could help? Goodness, I'm just a weeping mess here. Do you know anybody who can help, anybody who could support? And we just racked our minds for so long and we couldn't really pinpoint who in our own networks. And I remember just finding a connection through one of my church friends of a guy who is just deeply passionate about mental health and their family runs some tech company in North Carolina and I asked hey, would you be willing to go to dinner? I would love to tell you a little bit about our work. And we ended up going to dinner and I said, hey, we really need like at least $150,000. Would you be willing to give that? He said, well, actually, what if I gave $300,000 instead? And I'm sitting there with one of the co-leads on my team and we're just like weeping because we I mean, this is the first time we had ever been given a six-figure gift. The year prior was our first time being given a five-figure gift, and so we had been seeing like the compound effect of people seeing our work and saying you know what we want to support, we want to give. And so that moment right there made us recognize what is possible, even when it doesn't feel possible.

Speaker 4: 41:00

We hear stories about so many organizations who raise hundreds of millions of dollars and we've always thought to ourselves we have no clue how that's going to happen.

Speaker 4: 41:08

They're, honestly, all led by white men.

Speaker 4: 41:10

We're not white men, we don't have access to these people, and sometimes we sit in these meetings and interviews with people who want to know more about the work of Hope Booth, but then they look at us and they see us as kids and I'm like could you just look at the work, look at the impact of what we've done, and so to be deeply seen.

Speaker 4: 41:28

It's the beauty of we're doing the work to help other people feel seen. But now we feel deeply seen in a moment that gave us, like all of the hope that we needed Again that action oriented strength. We had that strength to continue doing the work so that we continue hearing stories of individuals who can't afford therapy, who can't afford the help that they need, finding access to the help free of charge, every day, all day, 24 hours, around the clock, and so it has been quite a journey and that has made me even become more compassionate in the work of being philanthropic in my own life, and so I'm just excited for this work, I'm excited for the beauty of generosity, I'm excited for people who choose to make others feel seen by supporting the work that they do, and just grateful that I get to live this life.

Speaker 3: 42:17

Gloria man. This interview is going down in the books for me. I want to put up like an 800 number and move this into full telethon mode and get. But we're going to get to a one good thing. But first, like I'm just curious, like how can people help you? People listening, I can assure you want to be part of this mission. What's the best way to support y'all right now and what's the link is up on that?

Speaker 4: 42:45

Absolutely so. There's three really incredible ways that can anyone can help support today. So we recently launched our monthly donor community called the Movement, which is really exciting, and this is just people who want to commit day in and day out, every single month, to supporting basically installing and the maintenance of Hope Boots that go out in the world. And so we have 100% model at the Hope Boots. So we have a large group of people who have been giving monthly to support the building, the installing and the maintaining of Hope Booths out in the world.

Speaker 4: 43:18

The more people who give towards that, the more booths can go out into the world. And we did that because we didn't want to wait and have to wait for large donors or large sponsors to cover the cost of a Hope Booth itself single-handedly. And so, as the movement continues to grow, that's giving us the ability to install more Hope Booths out in the world with our real estate commercial partners. And so for anyone who wants to commit to making hope and help free and accessible around the globe, you can join the movement and become a part of our donor community. That's giving monthly, whether that's $5 or $5 million, I'm not going to say no, that's your seven-figure year, or $5 million, I'm not going to say no.

Speaker 4: 43:59

And then we also have something called our founding partners, and so these are families who commit to giving, at minimum, about $50,000 for three years to help us hire our full-time team so that we can keep the movement solely funding the installation of the whole book. Yeah, that we can keep the movement solely funding the installation of the whole book. Yeah, so we can keep the movement funding the Hope Booth. And so families who would say, hey, I want to commit at a higher level to supporting the workers of the work, because that's the non-sexy thing that people don't always love, but they don't think about the fact that it's quite literally impossible Hiring an engineer to function. The entirety of the Hope Booth is quite a lot of money. And so people who want to support in that capacity those are usually like our investors and people who have ran businesses and know how hard it is. I would like to invite you into that. And then, lastly, our favorite is for those who want to single-handedly sponsor a Hope Booth. Those range between $15,000 to $25,000 to get out into the world and we actually just got a family who lost their daughter to suicide two years ago who sponsored a Hope Booth in her name for the university that she used to go to. And so there's some really incredible places Hope Booths can go in honor of certain people.

Speaker 4: 45:15

These are some. There's some really incredible places Hope Booths can go in honor of certain people, in places where hopelessness has been a prominent factor. We talk about areas that have been affected by gun violence. These are places that we believe Hope Booths should be. Our dream is to see one in Uvalde one day. Our dream is to see one at Columbine one day, to see one in Buffalo, new York, at Topps Grocery Market in Buffalo, new York, at Topps Grocery Market. And so there's so many beautiful places where we have the partnership and ability to get Whole Foods out in the world, but we need the funding of those who want to help sponsor these Whole Foods, whether that's a company, whether that's a family, whether that's a community of people coming together. Those are the three primary ways that people can support today.

Speaker 4: 45:49

And of course, sharing anything that we post online can really help get the word out as well.

Speaker 2: 45:59

Thank you for that. I mean because I think if this episode is speaking to you and you want to be an active change agent for home, please lean in with whatever you have and I will also put this out there. I saw that you launched your monthly giving club at the monthly giving summit and I want to join it and I am going to join it today and I want to join it and I'm going to join it today, and I want to put anybody else out there who feels compelled to join this monthly giving club with me.

Speaker 2: 46:20

Please be a part of the movement. I want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of how hope is popping up. I just connect with that mother who says he's walking out there and we don't know what else to do. I want to eliminate the ability to even need a hope booth. So join me in that. And, gloria, we want to round it out with a one good thing, and I feel like you've given us so many hopeful good things since you've been on this podcast discussion with us. What's a one good thing you would leave with our community today?

Speaker 4: 46:54

A one good thing. Is that like a quote, is that like a?

Speaker 2: 46:57

thought. It can be a quote, a life hack, a mantra you live by. It can be whatever is speaking to your heart right now.

Speaker 4: 47:05

Oh, that's a great question. What's been speaking to my heart lately? So I've been in Nigeria for the last. I don't even know how many days. My trip was about 46 days or so.

Speaker 4: 47:15

So I'm just coming back now and one of the things I noticed while I was there is that there is a very high level of disparity, People who are living below the poverty line, who, I mean, are living in conditions I would have never thought was even allowed on this earth. And something that really stood out to me when I saw a lot of this in the community with young people, older people didn't matter what age they were. There was still somehow a deep joy that I saw within them, and it wasn't predicated on their circumstance. Clearly, they still found a way, despite the difficulty that they were going to, to smile, to engage with each other, laugh with one another.

Speaker 4: 48:01

And I'm looking and I'm like what am I sad about? Like what am I frustrated and upset about? That? I can't choose joy every single day. Despite what you're going through, despite how hard it might feel, fight to choose joy, because that is the medicine, that is the remedy for our souls, and I hope that one day, hope will be the answer to our entire lives, but it's because we choose joy every single day. They work hand in hand together, and so that's just my encouragement that I would leave with everyone. Despite where you're going through, fight for joy and then fight to spread that joy contagiously.

Speaker 3: 48:39

Holy cow I mean Becky talking to Gloria was worth the six month wait Like this has been, so hope filling. I'm just grateful for the way you show up, the way you walk through this world, my friend. I mean, how can people listening today connect with you and where's the way you walk through this world, my friend? I mean, how can people listening today connect with you, and where's the best place to follow you online?

Speaker 4: 48:57

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there you go. I'm available online and Hope Booth online. I'm at Gloria Yuma on pretty much everything or at the Hope Booth on pretty much everything as well.

Speaker 2: 49:08

Gosh. Okay, I just want to say thank you to my dear friend, fianfo Lawa. You got it. It's important to look at you and say your name and say you're changing the world, you're making it better, that you and your team did something that was ridiculous and it was amazing and it continues to be amazing. We are going to continue to amplify it here and, friend, if you have something ridiculous on your heart that's calling to you, let this be the inspiration you were looking for. Let's all go out and fight for joy.

Speaker 2: 49:41

Let's fight for more hope, rooting you on Gloria every step of the way.

Speaker 4: 49:44

Thank you. Thank you so much for this.