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Hey everybody, this is Craig from The Homeowner Show. So glad you could join us for a special episode here live with the BCB Group live at Blackwood Gun Club. So glad that you— yeah, shout it out so people on the— yeah, there you go. Let everybody at home know you're there, that I'm not just talking to my pretend friends. Yeah, see, somebody didn't turn their volume down. Anyway, we are here tonight. I was asked to share a little bit about the show, where it came from, how it came to be. So here's— we'll just be very transparent. In 2009 was probably the worst year of my life. I was fired from the second church I had been working

for. It was a career that I really thought that I had been called into. I had gone to graduate school for this. It's really what I believed God was asking me to do in my life, was to serve in ministry. And I'd just gotten fired. I was having multiple interviews at really big churches that everyone was saying no. And to make ends meet, at the time, I was teaching music in daycare, which was fun, but I think I lost money with the gas that I was buying to drive to the daycare centers and play guitar for these kids. And I was just at a loss. And my dad, all along the way, since I'd started my career in

ministry, had been like, hey, come on back to the family business. Come on back to the family business. And I fought it and fought it and fought it until— up until a point where— My previous employer was coming after us, and we were about to lose our home. We had our first kid, and I just, I really didn't know what to do. And I just kind of broke down and said, God, I don't know what to do with my life. I'm tired of chasing the things that I feel like you don't want me to do. I'm just— and I'm just tired. And so I literally almost— I felt kind of like the prodigal son. I went back to my dad, and I told him, I'm here.

This is what I feel like I'm supposed to be doing. All the other doors are closing and you've just been so gracious with me. And I think it was like 6 months later he fired me too. That's a totally different story. He hired me back. It was fine.

Yeah.

But I've been running that business for the last 10 years and about year 5, into running that business, I noticed that I had a lot of friends who had businesses like ours, and what I noticed about most of them, what I was really good in our business was the marketing side of stuff. I really enjoyed doing the social media, putting together, going out and making sales, and just meeting new customers, and I noticed that there were so many talented guys in similar industries to mine whose marketing sucked. They were so talented, but they couldn't get in front of the right people. And my background had been in music and in recording. And so I had all this gear laying around my house, and I wasn't using it anymore. And I went to my wife and I said, I

know all these guys whose business could use a boost. That if they could just get their message out to the right people, their business could grow. And I said, I think I can put together a show where I can interview them, talk to them about their business, share their story, not just like what they do and their specialty, but like, why are they in business? Who are they? Where did they come from? Most people have an incredible story if you're just willing to ask the right questions. And so I said, I think we can do this. And so we started doing it in my living room, me and the youth pastor at the church we were going to. I think our very first interview, was a guy that had a pool cleaning company.

Jason Hernandez was our first interview. He came and sat in our living room while my kids slept in the next room over, and I was just petrified that they were going to come in naked on the video. And yeah, so it went off without a hitch. I think it was interview 3, we had the mayor of Oak Ridge on the show. And we had done this interview about some water services that they were having. It seemed cool to us 'cause we had a mayor on the show, and the interview had gone live. And it was the next morning, we had an email from a CEO of this large corporation that was threatening us because we had had this mayor on who was talking bad about their company. Scared the bejesus out

of us. And, but we pressed on, and we've been at it for 4 and a half years now. I was just sharing with someone earlier, at this point in time, we're in the top 1% of all podcasts, which sounds more impressive than it is because there's over 2 million podcasts out there in the world, and there's even more than that on YouTube. I think there's like 280 million users on YouTube or something like that. So it's a big, wide open space. Being at the 1%, It's not because we have a huge audience. It's because we've just been doing it consistently every Tuesday for the last 4 and a half years. And a lot of people ask us why we do it, because

the fact is, is that we really don't make money doing the podcast. We've made money because of the podcast, but we don't make money with the podcast. You know, we don't have big corporate sponsors or anything like that. We've made a lot of connections through it. It is the network that we have that has created the value of the show. And one of the things I think a lot of people don't realize is the value of creating content. And for those of you guys here, most everybody here is a business owner/operator. It's, I think one of the most difficult things is to convince yourself every day is to create some piece of content. And because you don't wanna feel stupid, or it feels

overwhelming, or you're not a camera person, or whatever it is. What's weird is most everybody in here would probably agree with me that social media has too much power when it comes to social issues or political issues, right? I mean, I think most everybody, can we get a show of hands, like, agree with that statement? Yeah, okay, just about everybody. But wouldn't think that social media could be leveraged in the same way to grow your business. Like, that connection can't be made that like, well, it can influence elections, but I can't sell my cereal. But that's just not true. It has so much potential. And so like, it has a value in the sense that you can, you can

create a message and a narrative for your business that reaches far beyond just where you're located. And so, like me, for instance, I am not in real estate at all, but because I've been doing this show called The Homeowner's Show for 4 and a half years, I can't tell you the number of people that ask me about real estate deals. Is now the right time to buy a home? What's a good interest rate I should be looking for? What kind of loan should I use? Who's the best inspector? What plumber should I use? Who does a good job on air conditioning? I mean, all these questions come constantly to Kevin and I about these kinds of issues. The other thing

is, and this is something I heard from somebody else recently, is if you could have 100 hours of video footage of your grandparents right now in your hand, what would you pay for that? Probably a lot. Probably a lot. Maybe you didn't like your grandparents, but pick one that you liked. Maybe a dear aunt, I don't know. In vino veritas. But what would you pay for that content? I have zero video footage of my grandparents. I would pay a lot of money to have 5 minutes of my grandfather giving me advice, talking about something, what was happening in his brain at that time in his life. I now have probably, gosh, 500 hours of video footage and audio of me just

talking. And my kids may never want to listen to it, and my grandkids may never want to listen to it, and that's fine. But if they do, it's available to them. And so it goes beyond just building a business, having influence, and all the other— And most people think that you get into podcasting and making videos on YouTube to make money. That rarely happens. That being said, there are over 2 million people on YouTube right now who have quit their jobs and are working full-time making 6 figures making nothing but videos. 2 million. That's crazy. And so the power of the platform is incredible and the potential is almost limitless. Most people, so many things are moving away from mainstream. Newspapers, they're done. Magazines

are done. Anybody actually like buy and/or read those anymore? No, everyone in the room is shaking their head no. Do you read? Yeah? Is it paper? Is it paper? Yeah? Good for you, man.

Me too.

Do you really? That's awesome. No, I like, I love old books. I love that kind of stuff, but like statistically, it's just not happening anymore. And so everyone's moving over to a digital platform. If you have any kind of larger platform, you are now building your own network.

It's offline.

It's offline? Oh no. Well, that's okay, we're still recording. I think the video's just down, but the audio's still there. Yeah, I think this camera right here just died, which is fine. We'll just adjust it. There we go. Thank you for that heads up. So anyway, that's pretty much all I have to— yeah, thank you. Crystal, why don't you come on up while I move this camera? I apologize to everyone that's having to watch on this camera to get my Roman nose profile. It's Roman all over the place is the problem.

Roman.

Yeah, so you volunteer with Hands of Justice, which is one of the partner ministries with with BCB. Could you tell everybody a little— pull that right up to your— there you go. Tell everybody a little bit about what Hands of Justice does.

Hands of Justice is an anti-trafficking organization. It was founded by Rebecca Carey, who is a dear friend of mine for the past 15 years, and unfortunately, a human trafficking survivor, a sex trafficking survivor. And she has gone through a lot of healing, and about 6 years ago, she started Hands of Justice. We have an economic resource center, empowerment resource center, right down 2854, so we're right literally down this road and right before 45. And at that center, we opened July— will be a year ago, so not quite a year. And what we do at the center is we offer trauma counseling. We have trauma counselors on staff at our facility who help girls and guys, but primarily women who come out of trafficking, to help them work through their trauma and to lead

productive, healthy lives. As you can imagine, it's very heavy to break free from that lifestyle. They've been trafficked in various different ways. You know, people think trafficking is like the movie Taken. It's not like the movie Taken. For maybe a very, very small percentage of people, isn't like the movie Taken. Trafficking happens by kids being groomed in school. Trafficking happens by kids being solicited at a mall and told that they're pretty and to come do some modeling, and then it turns into bring your parents in, build this trusting relationship, and then it turns into something very deeper and darker. And it's very real. And it's also right here in Montgomery County, not just in big major metropolitan areas.

Yeah. And you said a word just a minute ago that I think a lot of people hear in articles and in news cycles, but like grooming. What is that?

You know, I brought some notes. I wish Becca could be here tonight, but we have another event, so I'm kind of pinch-hitting for her. But she sent me some notes so I don't forget anything.

Okay.

So what you wanna look for with people who are being groomed, they're going to, you know, our kids, if you have teenagers, I've had 2 female teenagers at some point, they can't stand you. And groomers will come in through online or through kids in school and tell them like, your parents are awful, you don't deserve that. They start giving them gifts and they convince them that they can offer them a better life. And why don't you just run away? And that sort of thing. And they make it very convenient.

Yeah, I ask that because I know a lot of people, they hear that word and they think that it's very in your face, but what you're saying is it's very subtle. It starts very subtle.

And primarily online.

Online. Yeah, it's rarely done in person.

It's— I mean, it is, but rarely. If it is in person, it's through someone else, like at a high school, who's already being trafficked, maybe has, yeah, someone that is encouraging them or paying them to bring in other people.

And is— if it's happening online, is it, is it happening through social media? Is it happening in chat rooms? Is it— what, like, where, where are we seeing, or where are, you know, people investigating these things seeing it actually happen?

I mean, you know, in, in our training for our organization, anybody who wants to volunteer has to go through a training. What we do is we go over all sorts of different apps online. Snapchat is a huge— Oh, really?

huge red flag for connecting.

Okay. Yeah.

I mean, and here's what I think would be interesting just for the room. Does anyone in here actually use Snapchat?

No.

Yeah, I'm not seeing any hands.

Good answers.

Yeah. Yeah.

Does anyone in here have kids who use Snapchat?

Yeah.

Monitor your kids' online activity.

Yeah.

Have their passwords.

Yeah. Well, and I think one of the reasons, if I'm not wrong, Snapchat is one of those that deletes the message after it's been sent, right? So there's, it's almost impossible to see what someone has said. Yeah, okay, it's disgusting.

So can we go through just a few more things?

Yeah, yeah, please.

You know, you wanna look for people who are being isolated, kids who kind of remove theirself from the classroom at school, sit in the back, you see changes in behavior that are very obvious, or they stop attending school, they start dressing differently, They have new friends that you just kind of have a pause about that you're not comfortable with. Get in your kids' business.

Yeah.

My daughter's 32. When she was in high school, she had a friend and I had just a poor feeling about this friend. And I got on MySpace, I'll age myself and my kid back then. And her name was, let's just say Elizabeth, but her MySpace name was Elizabeth Ecstasy. see. And I'm like, no, you're not going to be friends with her. And she'll say, well, Jesus hung out with sinners. And I'm like, good morals corrupt bad character. And you're not Jesus. No, we're not going to do this. You love her from afar. You pray for her, but no.

Be like him, but you ain't him.

We're so afraid to offend our kids, but we need to protect our kids.

Yeah, for sure.

And she can be mad at me for a little while, but I mean, we're best friends now.

Yeah, she got over it. With some of the girls that you're talking— and I assume it's mostly girls. I know it does happen to boys as well, but how far along into it are they before they realize that it's happening to them?

Oh, so far into it. I mean, I'll just refer to our founder, Rebecca Carey. She had been trafficked years ago. It was through a relationship, and she was at Sam Houston University studying criminal justice.

Oh my gosh.

And as they're giving the course, she literally had to get up and walk out because she was like, she did not identify. She didn't realize that she was trafficked. You know, let me read you a few statistics that 41% of victims are children, 80% are under 10 years old, 40% Gosh, I don't see it on here, but oftentimes it's familiar trafficking. It's—

You mean people that they know?

I mean, their family.

Their family. Okay.

Their family, parents trafficking children. But I think what's more prevalent in our area is the grooming, is online predatory behavior, seeking out kids who are vulnerable, playing on their vulnerabilities.

Yeah.

And kids are invincible. They think it could never happen to them.

For sure, yeah.

And I do have a couple personal stories.

I was gonna say, you—

For sure, that I wanna share with you, but I do wanna share a little bit more about Hands of Justice.

Sure, yeah.

I want you guys to know that we have survivor-led support groups all over the country. We have 12 in the surrounding area, primarily women. They're all led by overcomers who have gone through Hands of Justice, through some healing, and have developed as leaders. You mentioned men. We have a sexual abuse study, right? I'm sorry, a sexual abuse recovery group right down the road that meets. once a week. I believe it's on Sunday evenings for men who've been sexually abused. They may not have been trafficked, but the men who lead it have been sexually abused. And it's a shame-based thing for men as well as women. And it's important that those guys go through healing. And these are great men that lead this group and great women that lead these groups.

Yep. So tell me, you were telling me earlier that you actually have a friend that lives nearby that her daughter actually experienced this.

Aaron, I don't know if you have the video, the picture. Aaron, I don't know if you have the slide or the picture of that. I'd love for them No? To see— I have a picture I can show you afterwards. Yeah, I sent Aaron a picture earlier today.

It won't be on the video.

It won't be on the video, but this is my friend Nikki and her beautiful baby Maddie when they come up. Maddie was 15 years old, and they moved, and Maddie met some new friends, and her new friends weren't friends at all. You know, when we think about people who are trafficked or teenagers who are trafficked, we think about people on the the other side of the tracks in seedy parts of town like I did. This baby was well-loved. She loved her family. Guys, here's the photo. I'm going to walk around. So yeah, through personal relationships, through new friends, she was groomed. She was brought into trafficking, and she's no longer alive because of it. And when you look at her picture, you'll see that could be my kid and me. That could be your

kid and you. Her mom's an incredible warrior who fights every day to honor her memory. And she did give me permission. I would never share her story without it. But, you know, if there is any good news in this, it's that it rarely happens that the predators, the abusers, are convicted. And hers was, and he just recently was sentenced to 30 years. But her parents will never have their child back. I mean, they moved to an area that's a great area, and it's in the Houston area. I have another friend whose daughter is still missing. She was abducted and brought into trafficking. I say abducted, but lured into trafficking from spring in 2020.

Mm-hmm.

Her mom battles every day wondering where she is.

Still doesn't know.

And a mother and son—

How long has that been?

2020.

Okay.

Right down the road in Spring. A mother and son have been accused and convicted of her trafficking, but we don't know where she is.

Well, I think you just said something else that to me rattles a preconception. I think most people think of this as being men doing this to women. And I think a lot of people don't realize that a lot of times it's women doing it to women.

Well, I think a lot of times women are like, play the mother role and bring them in, like act like they're caring for them, they're nurturing them. I understand your parents are horrible, like come here. I mean, this girl who's missing from Spring, she was in ROTC, like she was a good kid, right? Maddie was a great kid. They're both great kids.

Yeah. And so we— and the reason I bring that up is because I think a lot of people Like most parents, they're not going to hire a teenage boy to babysit their children. They're going to feel more comfortable with a teenage girl babysitting their children. And so, I think most parents feel more comfortable leaving their children with another woman or however that works. And it's like, if you don't know them, don't do that because they're just as vulnerable. I mean, I don't know the numbers that you guys have, but I would imagine they're not like, it's not like 50/50.

But I think it's more dominant men for sure. Yeah, for sure. But I think women do play a role and I think there's a common pairing between a man and a woman and it's an evil combination of playing on vulnerability and being authoritative.

And from other people that I've talked to, from what I understand, it's not— these are not necessarily like— I don't want to characterize them as evil women, but sometimes they are groomed, and trafficked to do that to other women, you know.

And you can have traffickers who end— you can have people who are trafficked who end up with criminal charges against them because they're victims who are victimizing.

Right, right. All right, so to kind of bring this all back around, what can these people do? What can people listening online do to get involved, to help? What is the next step?

Man, there's so much.

Okay.

It seems like such a tremendous issue, and like, in our hearts, we realize we wish Hands of Justice didn't have to exist, but the reality is we do. And so, of course, it takes financial support. You know, we are a nonprofit. We are not funded by grants or federal-type things. We present that we are a Christ-based organization. We love these girls to the Lord. We know that without healing from Him, you won't have full restorative healing. So, financially, we need contributions. And But practically, we do a couple of fundraisers a year. We have one coming up on April 21st. It is—

sorry, sweetie cherry. Oh, you're good.

It is called Fashion for Freedom, and it is a fashion show at the Glade Art Gallery in The Woodlands. Some of our survivors will be models at the show on the runway, some won't be, and we're looking for local boutiques to to donate outfits for the models to wear and to present. And then at the end of it, it's a silent auction. You bid on the outfits that they wear to help raise money. It's gonna be at 10:30 in the morning. We have a great lunch planned, and it's a fun time just to get together. You know, anybody can write a check or hop on PayPal and make a donation, and we love those. But for survivors to show up and see people visibly

there supporting them, loving them, Mm-hmm.

You can't put a price tag on that. Not at all. And real quick, one of the things I want to point out, because you're a faith-based organization, I know there might be people listening at home or listening here going, well, why can't you get a grant? Why can't you get federal funding? And it's probably because you are a faith-based organization and those kinds of grants aren't always readily available, at least in the big money federal grants.

I don't know. Becca could answer that much better than I can. Oh, I know. But I will tell you that we've had, yeah. I'm sure, and I'm sure there are probably things that we wouldn't agree to that would be asked if we got received grants. But I do know that there are companies like Goya that have come in and donated a lot of money to our organization. They've used Becca in, you know, flew her out to California to be in a short film that they did about trafficking awareness. There are a lot of organizations coming and partnering with us, and we're very, very grateful. So financially, but also boots on the ground, you know, we have a training at our center coming up in March. Anybody who wants to volunteer can go through training and

volunteer. It's a very informative training. We love to do education. So if anybody has homeschoolers, kids groups, youth groups at church, we can come and do training to help kids learn about online predatory apps and the things to look out for with grooming. Um, we really love spending time with kids, helping them learn how to be safe.

Yeah.

And they can hear it from their parents. I don't know about anybody else's kids. My kids are awesome, but if they hear it from me, it's not real. It's not penetrating. But if they hear it from other people, it definitely gives some more weight. And we don't want anyone else's kids to go through what Maddie and the other girl that I was referring to, or any other—

Absolutely not.

Yeah.

So if anybody wants to get in touch, what's the website?

It's handsofjustice.org.

Okay.

And Becca would be here tonight, but she had a fundraiser, so she's there.

I've enjoyed talking to you.

Well, she's way better.

Cool, we'll wrap it up. If you guys haven't yet, subscribe, thumbs up, follow, all the good stuff. Thank you for joining me. Appreciate it, and we'll see you guys next time.