Anthony Jarrard Simmons II and 501c3Me: People Give to People

Jason: Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we celebrate the people and stories that make our community so special. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and more importantly, everyone here matters.

Mindy: We're your hosts, Jason and Mindy Hoover, and we're passionate about shining a light on individuals who are making a real impact right here in Middle Tennessee. This is about community, connection, and the incredible people who are making a difference.

Jason: Let's dive in as we uncover powerful stories and meet remarkable people whose journeys will inspire us all. Right here on You Matter Nashville.

Jason: Hey friends, welcome to You Matter Nashville. I am Jason Hoover here along with my beautiful wife, Mindy. And we're so glad that you're spending part of your day with us. And today we're joined by Anthony Jarrard, who has spent his career on both sides of the table between nonprofits and the people who fund them. Anthony, so glad to have you here.

Anthony: Hey, thank you, Jason. Thank you, Mindy, for having me to be a part of your platform today.

Jason: Absolutely excited to get to know you more. But as always, I like to share with our listeners a little bit about who we have on the show. So, Anthony is the founder of 501c3Me Nonprofit Solutions, where he helps nonprofit founders get better access to funding, resources, strategic partnerships, and technology. He's also behind an artificial intelligence platform that will be contributing to the nonprofit sector.

Jason: It's a newer platform aimed at bringing more structure and helps funders decide who to support. He also leads a private community of more than thirty thousand nonprofit leaders and families. And he is a TSU alum who also still records content on campus. Anthony, you are a busy man and I can't wait to share with everybody all that you do. But

Jason: So excited to have you here and I will let Mindy take

Mindy: Yeah, I'm so glad you're here. But now before we get into the business side of everything that you do, I'd love to hear a little bit more about you and what kind of got you to this place of coming up with this solution for nonprofits and the donors.

Anthony: Absolutely. Well, thank you, Mindy, for asking that question. So I started my journey in the nonprofit sector in 2017. I had the opportunity to work for Circle Ten Council, Boy Scouts of America, where I was an executive there. And during my during my time there, I won numerous awards from the Southern Region. I had consecutive membership growth year after year.

Anthony: Did a lot of amazing things for my district where it was actually West Dallas, South Dallas, and Highland Park, Texas. And through the excitement, through the knowledge I acquired, through all the awards that I was able to receive, and when I was blessed to, you know, go on to some bigger and better opportunities, I felt like I wanted to make a contribution to the nonprofit sector.

Anthony: With 501c3Me Nonprofit Solutions, with the knowledge I acquired. I had some great people that were that I was working with, some great committee members, some great board of directors who pretty much gave me their time, their talent, and a lot of their treasures. And because of my experience, I just felt like I had to provide some solutions to the nonprofit sector just through the credibility I acquired.

Jason: Okay. So this all started in a Dallas area. So at some point you moved here to the Nashville area. How did that occur?

Anthony: Yeah, so give you guys a flash, you know, give you a fast forward, right? So 2010 is when I graduated from Tennessee State University. When I graduated, I moved back to Texas. And then about three or four years ago, I moved from Texas to Atlanta, Georgia. And so almost and then living in Atlanta, Georgia for about three, three years, I decided to move to Nashville.

Anthony: It's only about three hours away. Yeah. And I felt like I had a really good village in the support system. And I felt like this would be a good place to scale the business as we plan to penetrate the market with artificial intelligence.

Jason: It was just drawing you back, huh?

Anthony: That's what I really miss Nashville. I really love Nashville. I have some of the best times of my life. I've been in about seven weddings in my lifetime, all the time in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jason: Yeah, something about Nashville just keeps you here because I moved here when I went to Belmont, way, way, way back then. And I it wasn't going to be my stopping place, but it ended up being it's been twenty five years something like that. I thought this was gonna be just a stop on the way, but it I'm we moved actually we moved to Texas.

Mindy: Yeah, so

Mindy: We didn't really.

Jason: We moved to Texas and three years later we moved back.

Mindy: We like Texas. No knock on Texas. I mean, we had our son in Texas, but and he'll let you know that. Yeah. Yeah. Just because he was born there, he thinks, yeah. But then yeah, we had the opportunity, we moved back, and it I think Nashville just has that draw. And plus we're we're the volunteer state, right? I mean we are like the home of nonprofits and people wanting to help others, which is a very unique personality to say that a region has.

Jason: He's got the Texas attitude.

Mindy: So yeah, you kind of like moved back into the pocket of the volunteer nonprofit sector, which is great. It's where you're needed.

Anthony: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I love it. No, I love Nashville. This has always been my second home. And you know, Nashville has been amazing, let me tell you. I fell in I've been in love with Nashville since I visited back in 2005 to visit Tennessee State University. And myself and my mother, she's unfortunately deceased. My father, we came and revisited, and we just fell in love with the city. And it's just grown so much since I graduated.

Anthony: You know, so now everybody's running to Nashville, right? So

Jason: Right. True. Now we wanna we wanna get into what you do with the company, but before we do, since TSU, Tennessee State University has made such an impact in you, what did you study and what about it that drove you to love it so much?

Mindy: We were here before it was cool. It's okay.

Anthony: Yeah, that's a great question, Jason. I think what really drew me to Tennessee State University was the College of Business. They had an accredited college of business. And I knew that was something that I wanted to pursue while I was in college. Not only that, but something that I've always been passionate about as a youth, right? Entrepreneurship, you know, things within that world. And so I just, you know, we

Anthony: Came, we visited, and we just had a great opportunity. We had a great experience during that visit. And it's crazy. Coincidentally, when we came back home before I started my freshman year, I ran into some people just randomly. Myself and my parents were at dinner, and we met a few people from Tennessee State University that had been in Dallas, Texas. And

Anthony: And it's kind of like you know, I won't say it was a coincidence. I believe things happened for a reason. Yeah. And we met some great people at that time back in 2005, and they carried me to graduate in 2010. And so I was had some great experiences there. I was the market economics chairman for Students in Free Enterprise at Tennessee State University. I was involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters in Middle Tennessee. I love that association.

Anthony: I love absolutely the Collegiate 100, which is another collegiate based organization for college youth to empower different youth in high school settings and middle school. And I was a part of that. As well as I received a grant to study at Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, Jamaica, at through Tennessee State University as well. So I have nothing but good things to say about those guys and

Anthony: I love the college of business and the staff and just nothing but great memories.

Jason: That's awesome.

Mindy: You could have your own commercial for them. Just like that.

Jason: Yes, if you're listening.

Anthony: They'll get this stuck in the

Jason: Let's dive into your business and did you wanna take us from there or

Mindy: Well, I was just wondering like where you started, where you birthed this from and just start from there. I'd love to hear about where the ideas came from, where the passion for that came from and yeah, take it off.

Anthony: Absolutely, yeah. So the business started almost four years ago. And I'll tell you a little side story. I was helping a nonprofit organization, and someone was encouraging me, saying, Hey, you should start, you know, an organization really doing this. And I wasn't a person to really be, you know, known to being on social media or being behind the camera or anything along those lines. And when he asked me, I said, no, that's not something I want to do.

Anthony: I don't have a problem with just helping you out directly, kind of giving you some insight and you know some knowledge that I was able to acquire from my award-winning nonprofit career. And he asked me again, and I went ahead, I said, okay, I'll go ahead and do it. And so I started a private Facebook group with about 20 nonprofit organizations. And the beautiful thing about it is it was so organic because I didn't even know actually what it was when I started.

Anthony: I just and it's crazy, right? I just knew I just knew that I had a lot of credibility in raising sustainable finances for nonprofit organizations. I knew the importance of recruiting key manpower for nonprofit organizations. I knew the importance of nonprofits running impactful and effective programs, right? And I also understand the importance of

Anthony: Nonprofit organizations increasing their membership, right? Which is essentially falling in the realm of, you know, what I excelled at being an executive and an award-winning nonprofit executive. So I just started just posting gems. I would post gems like, hey, the importance of manpower, right? Having successors involved in your nonprofit, right? On your in your board, on your committees, right? Understanding that you have to have

Anthony: Collaboration and you have to have good relationships with other charter organizations, right? And also advising, put it posting up gems on my private Facebook group, telling them to be okay with starting small. Yeah. You know, that's one of my biggest things I had to relay because a lot of nonprofits, they feel like they have to fight the final boss when they first start.

Anthony: And you know, and that's not the case. The case is you know, you really discredit the story when you try to run to the mountain at the top versus you know appreciate the journey, you know, and recruiting, you know, the people in your community to help scale and help grow, right? And so we did things like Manpower Monday and you know, and Membership Monday, and we did Spotlight Saturday where we highlight different nonprofit organizations.

Anthony: And you know, we would intertwine, you know, gems and insights, you know, in those four in those four avenues. And before you know it, we just kind of grew organically.

Jason: You know, I love that. It's a collection, you know, been in your and appreciate you allowing me in your Facebook group. And yeah, there is, for everybody listening, it is a Facebook group. The you have to request to be a part of it. But there is a lot of entrepreneurs. I mean, obviously that's what it's focused on, and but a ton of information, a ton of people helping out. And I was just amazed and

Jason: Kudos to what you've done and for it to be organic. You know, I think a lot of people try to compare and try to be bigger than who they are at first. And they think it's for credibility purposes, but I'm in the belief that I think people I'm more interested in seeing the journey and seeing somebody start from scratch. And if they fail, you know, it's part of the story.

Anthony: It is, Jason. It is. And that's what nonprofit founders need to understand. And that's the message that I relay, that I've relayed in the group. And that's how we've been able to continue to grow. And we've had a lot of excitement. We've had a lot of just organic growth. And the reason why that it's more so a private group is because you know, I felt like I wanted to focus more so on quality as well. Also, we would have

Anthony: Quality nonprofit organizations where we can actually, you know, really touch them and reach them. If they're in Nashville, right, or if they're in Dallas, Texas, or if they're in Cleveland, Ohio, right, we will have those relationships where we can utilize that to continue to grow and provide, you know, some additional contributions as we're, as we're scaling.

Mindy: Yeah. I mean that you had mentioned too about just the collaboration piece. And that is probably one of the biggest things we talk with, you know, all the different people that come on the show is the importance of collaboration with businesses and with other nonprofits. Because you may I mean you don't have to be the best at everything, you know. You know, you can find your little sector, excel in that, and then partner with other nonprofits that are doing their own thing that are

Mindy: Really, really great, collaborate and I mean we see that and that those are the most successful people who they know their lane, they know the importance of their lane, but also know when to refer people or work with that's right.

Anthony: But could I mention something as well? Mindy, because you kind of triggered something when you just said that. I also had to include that a lot of the foundation that I received, that I was able to receive even with this group was from a youth when I was, you know, when I was a lot younger. Yeah. Because not only was I, you know, working for as an executive for the Boy Scouts of America, but I'm actually an Eagle Scout as well, too.

Jason: Awesome. That's so cool.

Anthony: Absolutely. And so those experiences and th that foundation definitely, you know, provided some sort some additional value to what to what I've already created and leading currently.

Mindy: Yeah, not to get too far off track, but I mean, you have been with Boy Scouts of America during a very vital change. I mean, you know, over the past fifteen years. It has really grown and changed shape and everything. So you are kind of like in the midst of that of that change. So that's pretty cool.

Anthony: Absolutely.

Jason: Now when you had the idea for this, take us back to that moment. Because there's always that moment in an entrepreneurial's mind that it was that moment. Do you know what that moment was?

Anthony: Yeah, that moment was about nine or ten months ago. And that moment was, you know, as we've been scaling for the past four years, it was a moment where I realized, wow, I have enough market research information from the nonprofits that we've worked with where I feel comfortable enough to embrace funders and high net worth individuals and

Anthony: You know, those who are on the, you know, the other end of the who are on the funding side for nonprofits to actually provide some real-time solutions. And that's the beauty of it. Where, like I said initially, that we didn't know what it was when we first started, we just wanted to provide a solution. And now looking at the four years of build and all the relationships we've built, we can honestly say, Hey, we have enough data, we have enough.

Anthony: Credible organizations that we know, right, that we can provide a solution to. And it was just through it was just through trial and error as well also. And so yeah.

Jason: So I like the fact that you're helping with what most nonprofits struggle with, and that is funds. Yes. And everybody we ask, you know, what's your major obstacle? It's always something to do with you know be money or goods. Right. So take us through how that works with you. If you know I'm a nonprofit and

Jason: Needing funds or you know something along in your lane, what does that look like?

Anthony: Yeah, so it would look like where I would first I would like so it starts off with us profiling the organization where I like to meet them in person, right? And so we meet in person and you know, I'll at least get a better understanding of your mission, your vision. We'll get a better understanding as far as how much money you have raised, right? Getting the understanding as well as far as the consistency of your nonprofit.

Anthony: You know, how have you guys been having consistent board meetings, right? How much money have you raised? You know, and especially understanding your goals, right? And you know, different milestones you want to attain. And so for me, when I work with nonprofit organizations, I work with them directly from the standpoint of helping them get funding from people. Because one thing I've learned is that people give to people and aligning

Anthony: Their mission and their vision with funders and those that can and have the ability to give, that's you know, essentially how we're able to roll out what we do for nonprofit organizations.

Jason: And so they would just contact you and is that through your website or is that

Anthony: Yeah, they're through the website, through mainly through the group 501c3Me Nonprofit Solutions. You can join it on Facebook, right? And you can reach out to myself on the admin or Rick Busby, our chief operating officer. And we can get it started for you.

Jason: Yeah, that's perfect. Now I know and Mindy knows firsthand, especially, that it is tough to run a nonprofit. And there are many, many challenges that come along with it. Talk to us about what it really takes to build and sustain a nonprofit. You mentioned, you know, some of the qualification is your board meeting regularly.

Jason: It's are you being consistent, are you treating it like a true business or is this more of a side hobby? And I shouldn't say hobby, a more of a side helpful yeah. It's more than a hobby, you're helping people, but you get what I'm saying.

Anthony: Absolute. Absolute.

Jason: So yeah, take us through that.

Anthony: Yeah, absolutely. Jason, there's only one thing you have to have and it's quite simple, is passion.

Mindy: That's so true.

Jason: Yes, yeah.

Anthony: I've never did this for the paycheck. I never did that for financial sustainability was, you know, not on my bucket list when I decided to help nonprofit organizations. And, you know, that's what's kept me going, you know, this long. And I believe that is a reason why, you know, the national charitable statistics reports that 30% of nonprofit organizations fail within 10 years is because.

Anthony: You know, there's there's really not enough passion. But I think that if you're really passionate and that you care and you have a good mission, you have a good vision, that's going to ignite you. That's what's going to keep you going. A lot of people really that start, you know, nonprofit organizations, Jason and Mindy, let me tell you, they started from just pulling money out of their own pockets. Yeah. You know. And that right there is one of the key ingredients.

Mindy: Yes.

Anthony: Right, to that's gonna essentially make that's gonna give you the green light, right? To sustain your nonprofit because it's gonna get tough, it's gonna be there's gonna be challenges, there's gonna be times where you're like, What am I doing? How did I get here? Exactly. Like, how do I get into this? But you know, and th this is a part of life, but when you have your

Anthony: You know, mind made up on a on a on a goal and a vision and you just you know, you don't give up and you know, you're doing it more for, you know, the betterment of life and of being a humanitarian. That's what matters. You know?

Jason: Community.

Mindy: Well, I know that you are pretty young in this in your in this new venture, but I am sure you already have some amazing wins of j of just connecting people. You seem like a really incredible connector. So I'd love to hear a success story or some amazing connection that you've already made for some the nonprofits that you have.

Anthony: Yeah, so I'll tell you. So there's there's a nonprofit organization that is actually in Chicago. You know, and it's, you know, it's actually called the Dream, and they help out a lot of youth in, you know, within the communities in the south side of Chicago and abroad. I have a sponsorship with an organization called Kingdom Lux Travel, and they donate 50% of their commissions book.

Anthony: Two nonprofit organizations that are vetted through their business, right? And so it's a one it's a beautiful thing. And it's a huge win. And so for me, to have that collect connection with Kingdom Lux Travel and to be able to connect that organization with, you know, someone in the 501c3Me family was a huge win. Yes.

Anthony: It's a huge win. And so it was, you know, it was, you know, sometime not too long ago where they were sent me an email and they said, Hey, Anthony Jarrard, thank you. I just wanna let you know that I did receive the donation from someone that you have essentially advocated for and endorsed in this private community that you created. And that right there was my compensation.

Jason: Yeah. Yeah. You it you can't really put a price on that because it has so much value. Because you it you're you're seeing the fruits of your passion and what you're putting into. And I love that you said that it's passion because you're gonna have those hard days. You're gonna have those days that well let's just be honest. I mean, we're not we don't jump into nonprofits to make a high living, right?

Jason: We do it because of passion. We do it because we are steered that way. And whatever any of y'all's faith are and we believe we're it's faith driven for us. And so we're we and essentially we're we're following directions that are provided to us, right? But you know sometimes there's myths about what it takes to run a nonprofit and

Jason: The sustainability of those, and you kind of alluded to it a little bit about, you know, 30% fell within I think you said 10 years. Yes. Kind of talk to some of those myths that happen or that people have about nonprofits and starting them.

Anthony: Sure. So the first myth, well, the one myth I can definitely chat with you all about is from funding. Because everyone is obvious obviously everyone's talking about funding. And so the biggest thing is people disqualify other sources of funding. Everyone is just seeking funding from the federal government or, you know, or particular grants.

Jason: Okay, yeah.

Anthony: But we have to understand that people give to people. 70% of the money that nonprofit organizations receive doesn't come from grants. It comes from people.

Jason: Yeah.

Jason: Wow, I did not realize it was that high. That's fantastic. And I'm sure Tennessee would be in the higher bracket there.

Mindy: You would help.

Anthony: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I moved back.

Jason: Well you've seen you've definitely seen a lot and you've you've you have a library of experience that you can help with these nonprofits. So you know that's fantastic that you built this community. What is the community like? About being like in the Facebook group, helping each other. What's that community like?

Anthony: Well, the community is like this. There everyone knows they have a mission, they have a vision. And the community is like it everyone is in sync, but in different categories, right? We hope focus on helping single help providing insight information and resources to organizations that help single mothers, right? Women that have experienced domestic violence, creative education.

Anthony: You know food pantries, right? You know, there's environmental sustainability, there's clean water initiatives, right? That those are pretty much a lot of the categories that our organization focuses on. And you know, that's kind of what it looks like. And there's some more causes out there, but we try to focus more so on those, you know, those essential, those essential categories when it comes to

Anthony: Making people's lives better. The homeless veterans, right? The general homeless population. That's a huge one for us as well.

Jason: So it's pretty it's it's just wide open. So if anybody was curious, well, you know, if what I'm starting a pet adoption or something or other, I mean they're still a great place for them. So it's really it's really open for anybody, it's just nonprofit. So you also we mentioned this earlier, you also are working on artificial intelligence and leveraging that to help nonprofits

Anthony: Absolutely.

Jason: Could we speak a little bit more on that?

Anthony: Yeah, absolutely, Jason. And so we created, we're we have a we have a platform that's currently in beta right now, and it's actually created to provide additional resources to nonprofit organizations in the forms of funding. Right. When I we chatted a little earlier, we talked about the, you know, that there's myths when it comes to funding for nonprofit organizations. And I believe that there's a lot of platforms that are overcrowded.

Anthony: And underfunded. And this is the primary reason why our organization is leading, is creating a social enterprise to better connect funders and nonprofit organizations to provide financial sustainability.

Jason: That's amazing. And AI is I know there's you can go either way on it. I embrace it. Mindy can vouch. I'm sitting in my computer every single night with Claude on one screen and chat on the other. And I mean I'm embracing it, but I love that you know you're taking it and you're helping people help people. So that's that's amazing. Do you go to bed with a smile on your face?

Anthony: I do. I really I really do. And I'll really like sharing So the one of the main reasons when why when I was an executive, Jason, I witnessed a donor do something that well two things. I witnessed two donors do something that really also played in the part of us even creating this social enterprise. I witnessed a donor send a kid to camp.

Jason: Yeah, we should.

Anthony: And he could not afford to go to camp. And when we presented him the opportunity to have a big, you know, check amount, you know, a check presentation and balloons and things like that, he respectfully declined. Yeah, he respectfully declined because he because he didn't want he wanted to make sure not only that the youth was able to go to camp, but he just had a motive to give.

Jason: Right.

Anthony: And you know, and he didn't have to he felt like he didn't have to be acknowledged, right? And so the platform was created not only because of that, but also I witnessed a donor who gave, you know, a million dollars to the nonprofit I was working for, and it was for an anti-bullying campaign because his son was bullied as a youth.

Anthony: And so the biggest thing is that I will say the biggest thing is that my experiences and the creation of the platform allows funders and nonprofit organizations to be as congruent as possible from a social impact standpoint on the nonprofit side and from a donation financial sustainability aspect on the funder side.

Jason: The y you reminded me of the that Secret Santa. I'm sure there's probably multiple ones, but there was the one that gave what was it like a million dollars every season? But he would he purposely didn't want anybody to know who he was. And so he would go out on the streets giving out money or gift cards or something like that. And it's like, man, that's what

Mindy: We was. Yeah.

Jason: That's what I want to do when I grow up. Do it. I just need that, you know, the money.

Anthony: Exactly, exactly, exactly.

Jason: But it yeah, there are good people out there just like yourself and a little

Anthony: Absolutely.

Mindy: Pairing them up. That's just the key. Finding what their passion is and connecting them with the nonprofit. I think that's beautiful. So

Jason: It is beautiful. How do you how do you make those connections or is that the kind of the secret sauce we don't talk about?

Anthony: Well the secret it that is a part of the secret sauce, but I will share that it is through a lot of a lot of organic relationships that I've created. Not only here in Nashville, Tennessee, the volunteer state, but back in my hometown in Dallas, Texas, the Lone Star State. And so I do know that with some, you know, some of the credibility that I've acquired, I know that I've had opportunities and

Anthony: You know, I have the right people in my corner that can, you know, take things to the next level rather quickly. And that's why I've taken a lot of time just being very being very dedicated and being consistent over the past four years. So when I can at least sit down with those people and you know continue to do so that they'll know that I didn't just show up overnight.

Mindy: Right.

Jason: And do you do you do you help with helping them come up with campaigns? 'cause I see a lot of them do events. Is that something in your wheelhouse?

Anthony: Absolutely, absolutely. Absolutely. We help them come up with campaigns. If they don't have any fundraising experience, or if that is, you know, not within their world, then it, you know, we can help them come up with, you know, an event or a gala or a situation that will at least catapult them to get the wheels going to create some sort of financial sustainability, right? That is definitely something that we do, Jason, absolutely.

Jason: Yeah, 'cause I know a lot of people, there's anxiety when it comes to creating those, putting them on. I know Mindy is great at event planning and doing that stuff. If it was up to me, we'd be in for a train wreck. I'm I'm not the promoter. I'm not the I'm not that person. Now I'm the speaker. I'll get up on the stage and speak all day long. But

Anthony: Mm-hmm.

Jason: Yeah, all you gotta do is tell me where to be, when to be, and what to talk on and I'm good. Yeah. Huh? Outside of that.

Anthony: You're blessed, Jason.

Mindy: I like to throw out a good party, what do I s what can I say?

Anthony: You are blessed, Jason. Let me tell you, you are blessed, Jason.

Jason: I am, I am.

Mindy: Finding the connections to make great parties. I'm really great at that. And you know, that's the word the passion comes in. I don't mind calling a business and saying, hey, we're doing this for so and so and making it happen. Like you said, it's it's about the relationships and finding the right people to connect with your with your nonprofit. And I used to hate, now I still hate calling, asking for money for my own business, but for nonprofit, I don't have a problem with.

Mindy: Yeah 'cause I don't get paid for that. It's all volunteer, right? Right.

Jason: You don't want to help little kids?

Mindy: So yeah, it's it's easy to get people to help. But yeah, I love that you're helping in all of that aspect because it's it's it's more than just asking for money, it's making a presence in your community and like you say, 'cause it's not about just corporate and getting the big funds. It's the five dollars a month. It's the monthly donors that can do what they can that all adds up. And that comes through presence, events and

Mindy: So that's awesome that you guys do that as well. I didn't ma I didn't realize that when I was going through your stuff, but that's awesome. And now I know that you've talked about what you are doing, what you have coming up with the AI. What is your dream? What is your dream five, 10 years from now? What is your dream, your goals for your company and how you are helping people?

Anthony: I would say just like this, Mindy. The goal for the company is for us to be the number one brand in the nonprofit sector as it helps nonprofits get funding. Just like that.

Mindy: There you go.

Jason: Sweet to the point. Well, I love it. As a as a business entrepreneur myself, I love how straightforward that is because you know I teach people getting it because we're in real estate in real estate in many different facets, but also selling real estate. And so I coach a lot of new agents. And one thing I tell them, I said, you are an entrepreneur. You're you're a realtor, yes, but you're an entrepreneur. You got to treat it like a business. And the first thing you got to know is.

Jason: Or first thing you gotta do is not muddy the message. Do not muddy the message. Make it clear so people know. And that is exactly, you know, that follows suit with what you were saying. So you've got to you've got to be completely focused and don't keep steering or people get tired. They can't they can't keep up with you. Yeah. Speaking of keeping up, how do you how do you keep this all together? Because it you do have a large

Anthony: Absolutely.

Jason: Large span, yeah, large umbrella. And I know we only we all only have so much wavelength that you know we can spin. How do you how do you keep focus without spreading too things?

Anthony: Well, the thing is that, you know, it's not I'm blessed just to be the leader of the team, but I do have a team. And I understand the importance of, you know, delegation and aligning with, you know, like-minded individuals who are also passionate about helping homeless veterans and people that are also passionate about helping, you know, in the category of youth re-entry. And so, yes, we do have, you know, a chief operating officer, Rick Busby, who is

Anthony: You know, based out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, right? We have a chief technology officer who's in Prosper, Texas, Ray John. And you know, we have youth re-entry director Cleon Mitchell, who actually flew to Dallas to Nashville to speak at Standing Tall Detention Center, actually a couple of months ago. And so I can't say that you know, I started out as a one man band, but now I have someone playing the drums, I got someone on the piano, I got someone.

Anthony: You know, playing the Yeah. Yeah. So we have so we have we have a team of people. So I can't just take all the credit. All that is just through, you know, finding like-minded individuals who are passionate, you know. Jay Holland, you know, our videographer, Jay Griggs. Just a lot of great people who just said, hey, you know, we believe in what you're doing and who you're leading and how you're providing a solution. And we gotta be a part of that.

Jason: Amen. I love it. I mean you just made me want to be I don't even know what it is, but I want to be a part of it.

Jason: Now speaking of Jay Griggs, share a little bit about him and his company and how that how that came to be with you guys.

Anthony: So Jay Griggs is actually one of my really good friends. He's actually one of my best friends. I met him at Tennessee State University. And he actually has a videography company called GLOtography. And I was actually one of the groomsmen in his wedding last week. And he actually just got married last week, actually. Wow. Absolutely. But anywho

Jason: This is what twenty years looks like if you wanna

Anthony: Exactly 20 years. I met him when I was 17 years old. We had the same birthday and you know and so he is has a videography company called GLOtography. And when I started this adventure and I first started 501c3Me Nonprofit Solutions, I knew I needed to have a you know a high quality videographer, someone who could help out in that regard.

Anthony: And he, you know, said hey, I'm your guy.

Jason: And that's that's worth its weight in gold.

Anthony: Exactly.

Jason: Yeah, it really is.

Anthony: Yes. Yeah. So he helps out a lot. He is he's come on the road with us and he's been a part of doing the videography as we feature nonprofits not only here in Nashville, right? But he came with me when we went to Cleveland, right? We went back to Atlanta. He records all the content at Tennessee State University's campus for me, still to this very day.

Anthony: And so he's someone that I definitely have to pay homage to because there this wouldn't be possible without him.

Jason: Okay, so that's the connection to you said that you know recording content still at TSU. Is that and that's where he records his office or his production studio?

Anthony: So he spends a lot of time on TSU campus. So we're both alumni. So we both he graduated with his degree in health science, I believe. And he's still been residing in Nashville as I've been, as I just moved back to the Nashville about two years ago. And so he you know had the perfect settlement, the perfect idea. And you know, he's had the relationships there on campus as well, also where it was just like, hey, we can just plug and play.

Jason: So he remained in Nashville while you decided to go take extra adventures everywhere else and you finally came back, right?

Anthony: Yes.

Jason: So TSU is has been very important in your life and especially still to this day. What would you tell somebody that's interested in TSU?

Anthony: Tell them that if they want a you know a good experience in academia, if they want to meet new people, if they want to be a part of a great historical black college or university that's based in Nashville, Tennessee, that does a lot for the community, that does a lot for their alumni, and that makes their students a priority, I believe they should attend Tennessee State University.

Jason: We're we're working with our son and doing all the college campus visits and stuff. So and he's he's kinda landed on maybe one or two. Yeah. We've been doing this for a little bit. It is a process, but what I'm getting at is you don't really know a university until you go and step foot on it and actually experience a little bit of it, you know, these

Mindy: Man, it's a process.

Jason: Campus trips are fantastic. So definitely I would say you probably agree is to at least give it a chance. At least give it give it an opportunity.

Anthony: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Mindy: I mean Oprah went there, that's all you gotta say.

Anthony: Oprah went there, Oprah went there. Absolutely she did.

Jason: Who's gonna argue with Oprah? That's right.

Anthony: Exactly.

Jason: Man, how do you do it? I you're my new favorite friend. How do you how do you help all these people? I love I just it's just that heart that you have is just amazing to me. And I'm the community's fortunate for you and fortunate for what you do and the people that you connect with. And like you said earlier, it is you want to connect with like-minded people and that is so true.

Jason: In business period or even not even in just business your personal life you the person that you want to be you gotta look at who your friends are you gotta look who your associates are and you know that's nothing groundbreaking it's nothing new it's been talked and tip talked about for years so being in a group like yourself that you've created is a perfect place to

Jason: Go and meet other like-minded professionals. So I'm glad that you've created that.

Anthony: Absolutely.

Jason: So you do so much for the community. And you know that's the reason we even kind of created this podcast is to in one sense shine the light on people that are doing good like yourself because so many times it is a thankless position or thankless job. But we wanted people to know that they matter, that everybody matters.

Jason: Because so many and that's part of the mental disease. It's a lot of people start but truly believing that they don't that what they do in life doesn't doesn't matter. So that being said, what you know, everybody has different ideas of what it means, but what does the statement you matter? What does that mean to you?

Anthony: Man, Jason, You Matter means to me, it goes like this, where you are willing to provide a solution passionately and removing all the barriers and obstacles for those that are trying to get to a better place. That's what You Matter means to me.

Jason: Removing obstacles. You know, we all we all have different battles we're we're fighting every day. Yes. And it's so easy to forget that. Especially in traffic apparently around here. But anyway, we can go down a whole different path on that. But it's it's amazing to me that so many people have such a great heart.

Jason: And once you start looking for it, you start finding those people. And those become your people. It's you are you are or you share a common passion, right? So I love I love that you have been doing that and you've got a lot of experience behind you. And we've talked about a lot. Obviously, there's much more to Anthony Jarrard.

Jason: Than we've been able to uncover here in this past hour. I would I would love for people to reach out to you, get involved, get connected. How could they do that?

Anthony: Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Mindy. This is how you can get connected with Anthony Jarrard at 501c3Me Nonprofit Solutions. Simply join our private Facebook group and we'll allow you access. Reach out to us directly. Myself or our Chief Operating Officer, Rick Busby, will contact you directly.

Jason: Perfect. There you have it. Well, Anthony, thank you so much for sharing your story. Thank you for just putting forth the time, the effort, the heart. I can tell you've got a big heart, man. You got a beautiful heart. And actually I look forward to meeting you in person. Maybe we can connect for lunch or something like that. Yeah, I would I would love to because I love I love being around people like yourself and it just it really I think it's it

Anthony: That'd be great.

Jason: It spurs the energy, the love among people when we when we all get together, even well even God said to collaborate with yeah one another. But yeah, thank you so much for being on here, spending part of your day with us.

Mindy: Yeah, and I just want to say just from one connector to another, I just feel like that's one of my giftings as well is to connect people and to get the ball rolling. So I love talking to somebody that loves doing that. It's passionate about that as well. That's how you make the dream work. So keep doing what you're doing. So glad to have you here.

Anthony: Hey, thank you, Jason, and thank you, Mindy, for having me. Thank you.

Jason: Absolutely. And everybody that is listening, thank you for taking time out of your day. And until next time, always remember that you matter.

Mindy: Thank you for joining us on this episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope you found inspiration on this episode and are reminded that no matter where you are or what you do, you matter.

Jason: If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and even share it with your friends and family. Also, stay connected with us on social media and tune in next time for more incredible stories from the heart of our community.

Mindy: Until then, remember, your story matters, your voice matters, and most of all, you matter.