Welcome to the win at home first podcast. I'm your host, Cory Carlson. This podcast is where we talk about how successful business leaders win, not only at work, but also at home. On this podcast, we will go behind the scenes with great leaders to hear stories of how they win. Thank you for listening and on to today's episode.
(00:24): Hello, this is gory today's episode. Kent Willington is a great one with lots of different nuggets and get as a successful attorney has a couple of non-profits, but we talk about our he's won a home first twice, and so his first wife passed away from cancer. And so the lessons that he learned during that time and how you and I can apply them to our own homes. Now he's involved in two nonprofits. We talk about how does he manage his time and prioritization things that will help you and I, and our own lives. Let's talk about a vision statement that he has, that he uses kind of as a through line to all that he does, plus his new fiance and how they have a vision statement for their life. So a lot of neat things that we can apply to our lives to help us win at home and win at work. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did the conversation. Thank you.
(01:15): Hello, it's Corey Carlson. Welcome to the win at home first podcast today. I'm with Kent Wellington and he's just the man and I've had a chance to be in a mastermind with before and just see and watch him do a lot of neat things. He's an attorney. He has two kids. He has started a basically almost two nonprofits. We'll talk about more of those as we go along one called Saturday hoops, and the other is caring Willington foundation for living with breast cancer, which is a foundation off his wife who had passed away. And he just does a lot of amazing things. And so when I had a chance to talk to you Kent on the podcast, I was very grateful for the opportunity. So thank you very much for being here today. Thanks. Glad to be here, Corey. So Kent, what is that key trait that leaders need to have to win at home and at work?
(02:02): Well, I always say it's faith and a sense of humor, and I'm not sure which is more important, but I know they are related and kind of diving into your story a little bit already. And we talked about the foundation, you know what I mean? Your wife passed away from cancer. And so how did faith and sense of humor look during that time? I mean, how were you able to, you know, stay strong? Well, Karen was diagnosed with breast cancer at the ripe old age of 30. Our kids were one and almost three and she battled it for 10 years and died in 2007 at the age of 40. But you know, there are a lot of ups and downs there, but I think we were able together and with our family and friend group to really lean on our faith, I say a sense of humor because you know, when the wheels are coming off, everything, everything goes wrong at times. So, you know, having a little gallows humor doesn't hurt.
(03:00): In fact, we would, we would end each evening, you know, not just with prayer, but with a Seinfeld episode. So we went to bed with some laughter. I think that really translates to when, at home and when at work, you know, you gotta, you gotta be positive. And when things are really looking the worst, oftentimes, you know, that's God using you and using what he's thrown in front of you and giving you a chance to react to it in a way that might have a positive ripple effect that you don't anticipate.
(03:32): Well, you have two kids. How old were they when Karen passed away? The youngest was 10 and the oldest was 12. So they were in fourth and sixth. Great. You and I have talked about this before, but you know, my mom died when she was 40 and I was 15. And talking to you in previous conversations and seeing a lot of how you sound like you led your home is a lot how I know my dad let her let her home because after my mom passed away, there was three kids at 15, 12, and 11. And here you are with 12 and 10. Yeah. And what I find fascinating Kent is a successful attorney, but yet you were still able to be a single parent lead your kids. Well, when I talked to leaders all the time, now it's like, I don't have enough time. I'm too busy. How did you looking back at that time when you have the 10 and 12 year old, and obviously going into the teenage years as an attorney, as a single parent, how were you basically winning the day so that you could, you know, Excel succeed in both areas?
(04:42): Yeah, it wasn't easy. You know, it's all about, it's all about rhythms and healthy rhythms and learning from your mistakes. You know, fortunately I work at a great firm. The grading law firm is the oldest firm in Cincinnati celebrating our hundred 50th anniversary today. I'm in my 30th year here. And, you know, they were very accommodating to me. I continued to work, we call it Christ hospital up the Hill and Mount Auburn bed and breakfast because we were there so much. And I would often roll off the Hill late at night when things are under control and get back in the office. So the work-life balance is a bit of a challenge. And then, you know, you really need to prioritize, you know, everyone's got 24 hours in a day. No, one's got any more than anyone else. So you've got to prioritize around. What's important.
(05:32): So, you know, a faith foundation is crucial. You build your, build your life on a faith foundation on a rock. When the storms come, you know, you're better able to, to move forward. You know, second where my two kids, you know, I didn't really have a whole lot of time to feel sorry for myself. You know, I had saw it as well, you know, you know, they needed to get up and go school. And you know, the other thing, their mom was so strong that I had to kind of prove to them right away that dad could pull this off. Yeah.
(06:06): Yeah. I think in my scenario, man Lord willing nothing was happening to Ali, but if something was to happen, I mean, it all, he carries out. I mean, so I would have to prove myself. I mean, they don't look forward to when Holly's out of town because I make Sam, I have to make the sandwiches or whatever. And I've messed those up. Your faith being strong. Then how did you leave home with your faith? Because I know I'll talk with a lot of business leaders and well, you know, I went to go talk faith and the kids rolled their eyes. When I went to do a devotion or dad, we always talk about God, you know? I mean, how did you push through that, but yet pull them along because you still have a very close relationship with them now. And matter of fact, you know, your daughter's involved in your foundation. So how did you manage to lead with faith, but yet not scare your kids off?
(06:57): Yeah, I think it's always was always a part of our family. Our kids went to faith-based schools, you know, we were regulars at church. You know, we talked about it, but you know, as your kids get older, it's kind of the old adage when Marvin Lewis was with the Bengals and OTO, Cinco was always talking about how great he was. Marvin Lewis, Lewis used to stay. I see better than I hear. And as my kids got older and became teenagers, they to see better than they hear. So it was less about what I was saying and more about what I was doing and how I was behaving and where I was putting my priorities. And, you know, with these, you know, family ministries, I call them that we, we work on outside of the Workday. They got to see dad making some priorities that I think we're, we're very faith fundamental, and I'm not surprised that they have continued to be very involved in those efforts. And that was all because of the rhythms that our family just got in before Karen passed away. And during the 10 years of cancer and that we just continued.
(08:09): One of those is Saturday hoops, which all that you, I mean, my family's participated a few different times in Saturday hoops. And just say, I guess, do a brief deal on Saturday hoops. Why did you get involved in that? And with limited time everything we talked about, why was that a choice?
(08:25): You said yes to, well, I think it was God led. I think both the family ministries were very God led when my 26 year old was a first or second grader, we connected with a guy named ed Berg who was a urban missionary from the West side of town and a guy named Joe Wilmers, who was a social worker and Washington park elementary. And we started meeting on Saturdays with some high park kids and some downtown kids and playing basketball. We had 700 vulnerable kids, about 500 volunteers meet every Saturday. We've got a faith component. We start with faith and with faith, it went from basketball for boys to co-ed. We now have circuit training and yoga and a reading room. We have a huddle lawsuit brings breakfast, a different outside group brings in lunch. And then we just hammer home our faith-based core values.
(09:22): And that are three things. Our kids are cheerful givers, God loves a cheerful giver. And so do we hard workers and over commerce, those three things really connected. We have a pledge that we do that weave those in. We also preach to the kids, what we call the X, and that means different things in this town. But the upward escalator in life is faith and education work on those things. Don't worry about all the craziness and the drama. If you work on your faith foundation, you do your homework, you work on your education, you do well in school. Things tend to work out for you. That's because you're on an upward escalator, that's taking you places. And then we preached the downward escalator. That's the other part of the guns and drugs you get on that you get on that path. It's a race to the bottom.
(10:13): Our kids know that. So every week we see our kids in the community, you know, even if we can't shout to them, you know, we can give them X, we can remind them of that. We can remind them of our core values. So it's worked and you know, we're in a, over the Rhine and the West end. And we piloted a location in Winton terrace, which is probably one of the most difficult parts of town right now, but full of kids with potential that was going great before COVID hit weeks. We had 150 new kids and 50 new volunteers and we have some really great partnerships. So we're really excited to get back there and some of the other communities as well, Avondale's knocking on the door and I can see a day where there's a Saturday hoops and in virtually all of these Cincinnati recreation commission facilities that often are dormant on Saturdays. Yeah.
(11:06): That's fantastic. Congratulations on doing that and what you do before we dive into your other foundation with a question I'm thinking, I know others are listening as all right, great. Ken you're, you've got Saturday who's you got this other foundation and yes, your kids are out of the house. And so may have freed up some time, but you're still a very busy attorney. How do you stay focused on, you know, the different pieces? What is the kind of the mindset rhythm that you're running, being an attorney? I mean, things are dialed down to the minute, so you probably got away to do it.
(11:40): We are, you know, but it's, it's, they're very consistent. All three, being a lawyer, working with Karen's foundation, I will talk about what with vulnerable kids, you know, you're a problem solver. That's what it's all about. And, you know, I tend to focus on the biggest problem. You know, if we have a Saturday hoops kid who's gotten into some trouble or need some advice or better yet a Saturday hoops kid without a father who has called me because he wants to tell me about something good that has happened to him. And he doesn't have someone to tell that to. I make time for those people. If we're dealing with a late stage person with, with Karen's foundation, I'll make time for them. And I'll, and often clients are, you know, very time sensitive issues. So, you know, you really have to balance them and be ready to move. And I do a lot on the go, I move a hundred miles an hour, but you know, I really kind of keep that focus on, you know, who is the priority of the day? What problem, you know, what fire is raging the most? I put those out without the fire consuming me and my family and my friend group
(12:46): 100 miles an hour. Obviously your faith is strong. What is your daily practice look like to get in the word to get grounded, do, to hear from God? Are you, are you a 4:30 AM guy or do you, when, when do you, when you in the word and of
(13:01): Through next steps, I'm a night owl. I do start the day with the Bible app. So my fiance Alexia, and I always start the day with the Bible app and, you know, the weekend we work on our faith as well. And you know, I like to go, you know, in good times, I like to go to you know, do a service on a Saturday, you know, before we go out to dinner, it kind of frames the question and gets us focused on our faith. And that really runs through everything we do. So being engaged to a person of strong faith has been huge. I mean, there's so much we do together, you know, while we're on a walk, you know, we are talking about things that are expanding the kingdom of God. It's just very evident to us. It's not easy for anyone, but you know, Galatians six nine is, you know, my verse brother do not grow tired of doing good.
(13:58): That is what it's all about. And you know, with a lot of our family ministries, people will grow tired. You know, they they'll run a hundred meters or they'll run a 5k. So which is fine, which is fine, but I want to be a marathoner on those things that God puts in front of us. So that takes, that takes planning, that takes taking care of yourself. You know, you gotta get rest. I'm a sports guy. So, you know, I'm always running biking or swimming and that's often my one-on-one time with God. So I fit that in, in healthy times.
(14:34): Thank you very much for listening to today's episode. I hope you are enjoying it so far before we go back to the rest of this episode. I want to share with you my book when at home first, some of you have read it. So thank you very much for others of you. You have not. And I encourage, if you're looking for a, to help you
(14:52): With these times of your work is now in your home and your home is now in your work and what this looks like. This book is being helpful to many leaders like you whores magazine said it was one of seven books. Everyone on your team should read in the book is broken up into four different sections to help you versus about you understand who you are. The second is marriage in ideas and tips to help with your marriage. Third is parenting and then last is work. So these four different sections to help you recalibrate during this time and to help move forward. So if you are needing additional resource, I encourage you to check out my book went home first. It is available on Amazon, as well as audible and so on to the rest of the episode. Thank you very much. So, Carrie,
(15:44): Yeah. Tell me about that and how you started that. That's a big, bold move to start a foundation. And then, well, it was never the plan. You know, we always, we always joke we have two family ministries and one we picked and one picked us. So, you know, we pick the basketball. I was you know, I was a college football and basketball player and I work basketball camps for the summer. So Saturday hoops is just right in my wheelhouse and many ways Karen's validation was not at all. I mean, I didn't have cancer on the, on the, to do list until it's to get away from cancer, you know, circling around it more. Right. So, you know, she battled and she was a wonderful role model. You know, she did a lot after cancer. She, you know, she painted after cancers diagnosed with cancer, she sang in a cover band after being diagnosed, diagnosed, she coached her kids' soccer teams.
(16:40): She was pizza mama school, she decorated houses. She did all these great things. And then, you know, when we lost her in July of 2007, we were in hospice and the phone rang and it was the newspaper wanting to know where the flowers should go. And I thought back to a very brief conversation. We had had years before where she said to me after chemo one day, wouldn't it be cool if once we beat cancer, we could go on a vacation each year and we could send someone else. And the chemotherapy chairs next to me. So we could not even think about doing that during the 10 years we were battling cancer, but that day we said, okay, let's no flowers. Let's just, let's collect some money. And let's send one woman and her family on a vacation. And one, you know, one led to two and two led to five and five led to 20.
(17:35): And you know, we're now in year 14. And we just gave our 1000 gift of fun. It was a vacation to a, this is appropriate for COVID 2020. It was a, it was a vacation for a ICU nurse to had breast cancer at the Christ hospital. And she had to put her wedding on hold. So we're sending her and her Beyonce to Maui for a destination wedding 2021. So it's really cruised along and we've got chapters in other cities and it's, it's this completely, God led, I mean, don't get me wrong. We've got a wonderful group of mainly women who just work their tail off, but it's a real labor of love. And it's, it's just a joy to work with.
(18:23): Oh man, that is unbelievable. And a thousand families. It is, it is so neat. Well, I mean, well done and thank you for doing that as a, I mean, as a family that had a a cancer, you know, as I mentioned, my mom and we never went on vacation like that, but just knowing what that must be like for those families. Man. Yes. Thank you. It's incredible.
(18:48): It's important, you know, about 30% of our vacations, our last vacations. So, you know, as you, and I know it's important that you end well, and you know, if that last image we can leave that family with those kids with the mom was the smile on her face, you know, with a glass of Chardonnay and the, on the beach with a bandana on her head, laughing at dad, you know, being silly, you know, that's a pretty good last image because those images are going to last a long time. Yeah.
(19:21): So you probably got a book already brewing in your mind of things to think about, but you experiencing, Karen's kind of, or you know, her last days you made a comment that all these things she did after cancer, the painting, you've been close to these thousand families and seeing 30% of them being last vacations. I mean, is there something you're telling people all the time of, I mean, make sure you do these things or live bold or, I mean, are you coming up with these like three taglines or something of just like, almost like kicking people in the butt? Like, let's go get off your phone and get out. Yeah,
(19:58): Yeah. You know, life's all a sports metaphor to me because half my brain is useless sports knowledge, but I, when I'm coaching kids in basketball, there's two things I say on the offense at the end of the field, on the other floor, I tell them the move, you know, the easiest guy to guard is the guy who stands still. So you got to move and that's the same thing in life. You know, you can't be looking at the past, you got to move forward. And on the defensive end of the floor, I always played man to man defense. The thing I always am constantly yelling at the kids is help, you know, help, help. I mean, the only thing that's going to score is the ball. So see your man and see the ball, so move and help. And that's really what it's all about.
(20:41): And the great thing about Karen's foundation is that the women who go on these trips get as well. You know, what we say is that going on vacation is great, but they really are living with breast cancer when they come home and they take off the victim's hat and put on the givers hat and try to do something nice through our foundation, through someone they know in the chemo chairs, exactly what Karen was looking at. And it's amazing, you know, they just come alive. A big part of the foundation are the 70% of recipients who stick around and, you know, that's the lifeblood of what we're doing. You know, we've got chapters and stuff, Florida and Boston and in Nashville and Dayton and Columbus and Cleveland and other places as well. And there's going to be growth there. That's great. And then we've also really been able to harness at a young age, these little people who see what we're doing, you know, as first graders, they help send their teachers, sister on a vacation with an out of uniform day at school where pink lemonade sale.
(21:50): And then they get a little older and they send it to someone else. And then they get onto high school. And my daughter sent the school custodian, her, her senior class on a trip on senior night when my son was at UC. And to this day, the Greek system there looks out for those university of Cincinnati moms living with breast cancer. And they, they all bond together and send it forward. And now that they're adults on their own, they're thinking about people in the workplace or people, you see it, you know, people you see at Kroger, you know, who, who are clearly, you know, battling cancer or people you hear about, we really want to reach all of them. Our vision for Karen's fan diet foundation is that all women, all women living with breast cancer will experience fun now, before it's too late. So for someone who sees that woman or has that woman in life go to the website and submit the name, and I'm sure there's this whole step-by-step process to make it happen.
(22:50): Yeah, it's pretty easy. I mean, it's a real simple model. You know, we have a hundred plus families who are fortunate enough to have vacation homes. So people like that give us a week a year. So, you know, the sun shining on them. And then we have this other camp over here who is going through the worst year of their lives. And if we introduce the two, we're the bridge between the two, we connect those vacation homes with people don't use 52 weeks a year. We just say, give us one a year with someone who just needs a break. And we do spa days. And we do, you know, we do Bruce Springsteen concerts in Chicago and we do zip-lining and whatever's fun and unique to folks. We did a, a, a ZZ top concert here in Cincinnati. And as often happens, the family was too sick to go. So we said, no problem. And we just had them go to their oncologist and printed out the concert schedule. And he circled a date that fit within their treatment protocol. We flew him to St. Louis and they got backstage passes. And it was just a wonderful thing. It turned out to be a last vacation, but I'll tell you that was pretty sensational. Last vacation that was on their Christmas card that year.
(24:02): Yeah. Way to go out in style. My goodness. Oh yeah. You got a ton going on already that God's speaking to you. What, what are you hearing from God right now?
(24:12): I'm here more of the same. I'm here in Galatians six, nine. Don't grow tired of doing good. I mean, I tell my kids all the time that when things are going well in one of these ministries and we've done a lot of philanthropic things, there's a lot of people in this awesome community have done, but you know, when things are going well, when it seems like wind, the wind is at your back. That's God's saying, go move, do more, get to more people. You know, there are millions of people living with cancer. Millions of people are going to be diagnosed this year. There are millions of people who have vacation homes that aren't going to be used this year. Let's connect them, let's connect them and see what happens. You know, there are great people in our community who would be wonderful mentors or role models, models of vulnerable kids, but you know, how do you connect them?
(25:00): Once again, Saudi hoops is a bridge. We put all of these vulnerable kids and all these caring adults under one roof for two roofs or one park. And we just have them find a way to engage. Wow, common denominator is a faith foundation, but we, you know, we don't get overly caught up on that. You know, you know, people will ask, Hey, you know, I don't have my faith. Isn't where it should be. And we say, come on in, in fact, every week when we train our volunteers at Saturday hoops, we say, you know, you can help our kids see God, or you can help them see, good. You pick it's fruit from the same tree. The words are very similar, but it's moving in the same direction.
(25:41): Yeah. I like how you made a comment. One of the nonprofits, the foundations found you, and then you found the other one. And I actually just had a, a call with it with an individual for you. And I got on, but basically my encouragement him is I've been shared with myself, is this idea as everywhere would go have open hands as opposed to closed hands. Like if we have closed hands of am busy, or I can't do this, or this is what I believe my vision for my life is if we're closed fisted, then of course we're not gonna have any nonprofit come out to us. But if we go into life just open-ended, there's going to be some amazing relationships, amazing colleagues we hear from God that we can be obedient to. So I love how you just modeled that so
(26:28): Well. Yeah, I think we've, you know, we haven't been afraid to swing for the fences as well. You know, I think, you know, my fiance Alexia, and I talk about this all the time. I mean, we believe in a, you know a guy who thinks big, he wants us going forward. You know, he wants to, you know, our, our prayer, one of our goals right now, and we just got back from Tampa, St. Pete is to own a home, own, a vacation home that we can give 52 weeks a year to women and families living with breast cancer. And we've, you know, we're praying about it, you know, we're dreaming about it. And if, if that drops in our lap, great, if not, we're going to need to do something about it to get it right.
(27:08): It's neat how your fiance supports everything. Obviously that's why you would not be engaged at a dinner, but it reminds me of my step-mom who supports everything that happened in with my birth mom's life. And we'll acknowledge even her birthday to this day date. It's like, wow, it's so neat. So you've got that. Ken is you talk a lot about the passionate about Saudi hoops. You get passionate about the Karen Willington foundation, which I completely understand. How do you stay focused at work? Like how do you still be excited about works? I'll work with a lot of individuals and clients who is kind of get bored. They get bored the day job, and there's going to other shiny objects that are out there that they want to go do. And so what is your recommendation advice to them? How do you continue to Excel it at your, you know, attorney job when you get all these other neat things you could be doing?
(28:02): Yeah. I think you kind of remake yourself over and over. I mean, you know, I clerked with Graydon the summer of 1990, so that this is how long ago the Bengals had just been to the super bowl. The reds went wire to wire at one world series in 1990. So that's, you know, when I started here, but I've, you know, I've done a variety of different things at, at this firm, you know, from leadership positions to different practice areas. Right now, one of the things I like to do with a tax and not-for-profit lawyer is advise other families who want to start a family foundation. So, you know, so Matt Lake in our office is great with the technical stuff. I've obviously formed family foundations and, and learn. And I've, you know, we've hired people and we've moved to different States and dealt with different state laws.
(28:49): And to me, that's very interesting whether you're coming to me with breast cancer or you're coming to me with, you want to honor, you know, a daughter who was an opioid victim, or you have a successful construction business, and you want to give back to your community, you want to start your own five Oh one C3. Or if you just wanted to use one of the, one of the great organizations in town, like the greater Cincinnati foundation, or it's to say scholarship validation to set it up. You know, I know enough people in those areas and I've done this enough, myself, that I could be a value and I can weave the family ministries into the practice of law in a way that helps these other families with work and with their passions.Do you have a personal vision statement? I do. Yeah. What is it? It is build and
(29:42): Inspire a community of goodness for healing others. And that was, you know, my, my fiance Alexia is a, you know, a coach and, you know, we worked on that. And in fact, we put a mission statement together. Her mission is around freedom. Mine is around goodness, and we put those together and we, we focus on that. So it's been, it's been helpful in a lot of our, you know, a lot of our team members with the foundation in particular, you know, they will be quick to let you know what their mission statements are. They all kind of weave in some way with the foundation, but it's different for different people. And, you know, people are wired differently, but we've been pretty intentional about figuring out, you know, what our mission is, not just as a foundation, but as individuals and an Alexia, my experience together.
(30:37): And I give, and I completely agree and love that in the fact that that ma your, your vision statement, that you mentioned becomes a through line, and you're able to integrate everything you do, because you just compartmentalize life that you're living. But instead Saturday hooves caring, Wellington or Graydon, and even as a fiance, and then soon to be husband, you're able to vet that vision. One of the first things we'll do like through our coaching program is help identify, do you have a vision? And a lot of people don't have a personal vision. And I know for my, my own life, when I've put together my vision statement years ago, where it's connect to connect people to greater performance and even more significant purpose, I could do that if I was president of sales for the national contractor, like I was, or whether I'm coaching, but it helps me think through how I show up each day, same thing with you.
(31:27): And so when I have a lot of people who start to lose their way of work, or start to think, Oh, I don't know what to do next. It's like, who are you? What is your vision? What are you about? And so it's neat to hear you say that. Then the second piece is working with couples and or families, depending on where they're at, right? What is your vision and values for your family? And it seems like you guys are already doing that and it's good stuff. And it's, that's why I asked because I'm like, you've got to have that through line. I can just tell by hearing you talk.
(31:56): Yeah, I do. You know, it's, it's, I don't hesitate to talk to clients. I mean, whether it's about my faith or this through line, you're talking about, I mean, it's often directly relevant to what they're going through. You know, I, I talked about the family foundation work I do, that was kind of new, you know, that came after we started Karen's foundation. You know, I've been a labor and employment lawyer, you know, a people lawyer up, you know, I, I deal with individuals who are dealing with death, you know, and you know, injury cases. And you need to bring more than a law degree to those family rooms. You know, you better bring a lot more than that. And if all you're thinking about are the legal issues, it's not going to work out. It is not going to work out empathetic when you're just thinking up.
(32:40): Yeah. And you know, you need to be objective, you know, once they trust you and they kind of know, you know, you've been through the washing machine yourself, you can be objective and you can point out to them that, you know, there is still a lot of goodness out there. There's still, there's still some lemonade that could be made out of these lemons that you're facing. You know, that this employment situation that looks like it's the end of the world. I think God has bigger plans for you.
(33:09): Yeah. I love that. It's that truth and grace where you're inviting that relationship, but then you're, you're, you're challenging to say, Hey, you know, just don't wallow in your, in your sadness instead, let's go forward. Let's move forward. Right?
(33:24): Yeah. I tell people all the time, I said, you know, the sun will shine again. All right. You know, they've lost a loved one and it doesn't look like it's going to, but the sun will shine again. And you know, the best way to accelerate that process is to be a giver. You know, at Karen's foundation, we follow a give first philosophy. You know what we are, hyper-focused on giving. And every year there's still a few loaves of bread and a few fish leftover, even though we've been super focused on giving. When we started chapter, we tell the chapters and we've never started a chapter on our own. They've always reached out to us. So we say, okay, this first year, give don't ask for anything. Just go find people who are having the worst year of their lives in Nashville or South Florida or Columbus and give. And what we've found is there is this backdraft, this ripple effect that just permeates through and people want to get involved and we continue to grow and grow. The other thing is, as a person of faith, I say this all the time, no one believes me. I have zero concern of failing. If we run out of fish and we run out of bread and we run out of money, that's God saying, I got another plan for you.
(34:45): That's good to hear as a business owner myself. And just as I work with a lot of individuals, I mean, failure causes a lot of people not to take big, bold steps, not to move forward. Yeah. And so for you, I love that idea of, so how do you step forward? Not knowing if all the resources are going to be there. Is it just, just one step at a time and God will shut the door if it's not meant to be,
(35:12): It is, but I would be lying if I didn't say it was a little easier now. I mean, I'm year 17 of Saturday. Oops. You know, I'm in a year, 14 of Karen's foundation, you know, God has, has proven himself year after year, but it's a little bit like living with cancer because people would always say they see me in year nine and 10, and they'd be like, how do you do it? You know, you got these little kids and you know, you got work. How you, how do you do it? I'm like, well, I'm in year nine, 10 about year one. No. If I had to be year nine cancer in year one, I wouldn't be able to handle it. I'd be in the fetal position, you know, but because I'd been strengthened through God and a faith foundation and I, and I saw that we could get through cancer in year two. And in year three, even though the stakes have gotten higher, the cancer became more ubiquitous. The challenges were more difficult. The treatments weren't covered by insurance, the financial burdens of, you know, having a house, a mortgage, and a couple of kids that you know, needed to go to school college one day, you know, it's tough, but you get through that and you look back and you think, all right, God carried me through that. I mean, there's nothing, he can't carry me through.
(36:31): I know. And I hit my low points. Reflection is such a powerful tool because he hit your low points. You reflect and say, God, God got me this far. He's not going to just leave me hanging. He got, you know, Gary would like to foundation this far. He's not just going to, it's not just going to end, you know? And like you said, if there is different plans and new doors will open up and so his encouragement take more risks.
(36:55): Yeah. You know, some days I think it would be easier. One of them did it, but I, again, I'm not in control of that, you know, control that, you know, you've got to be focused on that path. That's put forward in front of you and be willing to pivot when things show up. That's why it's important, you know, to have friends and people to kind of help you on this faith journey and coaches like you to help move you along and point out what goals God's calling you to do. Yeah.
(37:28): I just, I just try to help encourage and give accountability, Hey, you said, you're going to do this. Why don't we do this? So get what you got, any ideas or new things in, in, in early days,
(37:39): I would say more of the same. You know, I talked about the dream of owning a vacation home. That's got me kind of jazzed up. That's good. You know, the D the day, this was a God moment. The day we got done looking at houses with a real estate investment guy, who's a friend of the foundation down in Tampa, St. Pete, we're tired. You know, we've looked, it's got, you know, property is more expensive than we expected, but it's so perfect. The climate so perfect for families who just need a break. We're driving back to the hotel and the phone rings. And it's a, it's a buddy in Atlanta who calls and says, Hey, you know, we're thinking about being a little more generous to the foundation. And have you guys ever thought about buying a vacation home of your own goodness? And they've mentioned a number that was a nice number. And I turned to Alexia and we just, you know, said, all right,
(38:37): Now are the signs we get from God are not always that direct. And there's not always a phone call from Atlanta, but I need to start using your Bible app. That gets you a direct phone calls. I can have some quiet, quiet times. Yep. I love what you're doing. Not only you are impacting lives in Cincinnati, but now it's just obvious, obvious it's going national as you continue to impact more. So thank you for what you do. Thank you for the time here today. You know, when I went home for his podcast and just man, it's, I'm inspired and excited. I know the listeners will, what's the best way for people to get ahold of you can, you can Google me pretty easy. Kent Wellington, you will be hard to find me, but Kara Wellington foundation is alive and well on the internet and through social media as a Saturday hoops, which is a program of this insight, youth collaborative. So I had, if it's a Saturday morning, you could probably find me on a basketball court somewhere. And during pink October, you can probably find me at some event pouring into some women and families living with breast cancer.That's incredible. Thank you
(39:53): Very much for your time and for what you do. Thanks, Corey, appreciate the opportunity. I want to thank you for listening to my podcast. When at home first, I am so grateful to hear from listeners like you, that this content has been helpful. So now I would love for you to pay it forward. I want to get this message in the hands of more listeners. We need leaders to be winning both at home and at work, especially during this time. So please take a minute to share this episode with somebody you think would find value in it, as well as rate and subscribe as a thank you, please visit my website@coriumcarlson.com to download a free resource that people are finding value in. Thank you very much.
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