736. Meet the Nonprofit Building a Brand + Movement Around Unity - Adam Mizel, Us United

Speaker A: Because if you're not telling your story, nobody's telling it. You, uh, know it. You are the most impactful spokesperson for it. And the way you're going to ultimately find funding is you're sharing and telling that story. You have to figure out the most effective way and the right channels for you to be telling that story and doing it all the time. Some of it's going to be social and technological. Some of it's. I mean, it can be meetings, it can be wherever it is, but you gotta be telling that story. If you're not constantly doing that, it's very hard to raise money.

Speaker B: Hey, I'm John.

Speaker C: And I'm Becky.

Speaker B: Uh, and this is the We Here for Good podcast.

Speaker C: Let's get started.

Speaker B: Hey, Bea, what's happening?

Speaker C: We are talking about how we're gonna come together. We are building unity. And we brought an expert in to help us do just that.

Speaker B: Yeah, we did. And I feel a kinship with my friend here. He's kind of a road tripper. He's gone across the US to, like, dial this in. And I felt the same thing. Our family traveled the US for two, and I always kind of came back to the same thing that it's like, man, we all are fighting for the same stuff. People generally care about the same core things in the world, but our friend here is doing something about it. So it's an honor to introduce Adam Meisel to our community today. He's the co founder and CEO of U.S. united. It's this nonprofit that's building unity across America. And we're going to dive in because they're doing some really innovative things. But Adam's story is interesting, too. He spent more than 30 years thriving in finance and entrepreneurship, working for Morgan Stanley, private equity, hedge funds, digital media, and running public companies. But then everything shifted in May of 2020. And here's, uh, another parallel to the we are for Good story. This is right around the time we were about to launch. But Adam was feeling frustrated with the state of the country. And he was having a conversation with his wife Tanya, and she asked the question that changed everything. And that was simply, what are you going to do? And he decided not to just invest his dollars into this, but his time and his energy, teaming up with Sheriff Chris Swanson of Flint, Michigan, and Ken in Wadi K, the free hugs guy, to launch this initiative now US United in 2021. So the work that they do is joyfully hands on from everything from like, a holiday spectacular that lifts up families in need to unity seats bringing strangers Together at live events and a, uh, sheriff unity network that's nearly 100 strong and even monthly 30 for us conversations. He has spent two and a half months driving across the country in a purple and white pickup truck, filming hundreds of hours for a documentary called It Starts With Us. So my friend here is a proud Princetonian. He's class of 91. He rolled his own classmates into this cause and just really lives by this mantra that a friend gave him decades ago. Dare to fail gloriously. That's at the very heartbeat of this mission. It's an honor to have you in the house today. Adam, thanks for joining the podcast.

Speaker A: Wow. I'm blown away by that introduction. Thank you. I mean, it sounds more impressive than I feel I would tell you, but thank you very much.

Speaker B: Honestly, we're hyped to hear your story, and we're really excited to dig into the mission that you've created here, but would you take us into some of your personal stories, too? I mean, what, what were those formative experiences and really take us into the moment that launched, uh, you into this work? Take us back.

Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, there's always been a part of me that thought I was put on this planet to do something good and make positive impact. I didn't know what that was. It's part of a journey in life. And for a long time, my answer to that was, I'm going to work really hard in finance and in business, and I'll be successful and, um, I'll be able to make donations, and that's good enough. And it was never quite good enough. But inertia's a really powerful force, and I did enjoy a lot my business career. But as you said in the background, I was watching all the news stories in May of 2020. You see the George Floyd protests and Covid protests, and Matt, I'm like, this is not the country that I think we are and that I love. We are far from perfect, and there are lots of flaws, and there's a lot to be angry about at times and protest about, no matter where you stand on any issue. And that's great. Part of our democratic republic is the right to peacefully protest. But that was not what I was seeing on television. And we still don't in many ways. And I'm yelling at the scream of the tv and like, this isn't, you know, and Tanya's sitting next to me, and Becky, as you pointed out behind me, I'm a big New York Yankees fan, so. Got him. As long as I've known you and we've been married. You've been yelling at the Yankees in television and they've never heard you. So why do you think anyone's going to hear you now? I had this epiphany moment. I'm like, look, you know what the obvious lesson in business is that you invest in people and people are the ones who make success happen. I'm like, look, I'm an entrepreneur. I will figure it out. I'll get on a journey. And as you talked about, that led me to Flint, uh, Michigan. And the Sheriff Swanson, who while I was yelling at television, was on television doing something right. He was literally on that May 30th burgeoning, ah, protest in Flint, rolls up and tells the stories like you could see guns. He's like, you could see that this was going to end in violence with my officers armed, a bunch of armed protesters, everyone emotionally charged. And he authentically, now that I know him really well and he's a very close friend, you know, took off body armor, guns, helmet, and walked into a crowd and said, what do you all want? We want to be with you. You know, we're not. I agree with you that what happened in Minneapolis to George Floyd is ridiculous. That's not what law enforcement is. It's not who we are. And they had started chanting, walk with us. And he said, all right, let's walk. In over six hours, thousands and thousands of people in Michigan, in Flint came together and they marched arm in arm. And eventually we got connected and it led us to this idea. We need to build a movement for unity in America. People live and they work and they social media and ever shrinking bubbles. And outside of those bubbles, categorize. We categorize and then we label people. And I asked you, when's the last time that you compromised with a label? You don't, you gotta have personal interaction. But that could be on a, on a zoom, on a, on a Google Meet, uh, or it's in person, but it's not, it's not on a text, it's not on social media. And it's not only with the people you live around. And so we've got to get people out of bubbles. And then we looked around and we said, God, there's so many brands for division in this country. Where's the brand for unity? And that's what we're building at US United. How are you going to have unity without a brand? Let me hats like I'm wearing T shirts. But also media, storytelling, inspiration, ideas, leadership, like all the components then we gotta change culture, right? Our politics and our media, for different and similar reasons, are rewarded by and invested in division that in our culture. You know, people watch fighting. We're not gonna change that. But how do we at least make unity in the same conversation, cool, relevant in culture, right? And so, as we'll get into, we said what still unifies Americans, three main things. Number one, by a distant margin, is sports. Just look at the World Cup. Look at the Knicks winning in New York. Music. We get unified by music and food. So we said we got to tap into those cultural drivers with unity and elevate from that. And so we'll talk about unity seats and things we're doing. But, like, at the core, that's why we created Us United, because we're not going to get unity if we don't do those things.

Speaker C: That is aspirational, it is inspirational. And I feel such a kinship to what you're doing because we have felt the same way about generosity. There are lots of disparate things that we can do to help someone get connected, to help make a more generative world. And I just congratulate you for taking on such a bold initiative. I want to go into US United. What can our listeners understand about what you're building and the power behind it?

Speaker A: One of the things at the core of U.S. united is, and I saw this firsthand and heard this firsthand driving across the country last summer for two and a half months. And all of the traveling, I mean, I'm, um, on planes a lot and traveling and talking to people, is that Americans do not think we are this divided. They know we're being manipulated by politics and media. But the consistent things is people are like, I need hope and I need inspiration, and I need to figure out how I get engaged. Because what I hear from lots of people, what am I gonna do? I'm just a, you know, I got to go to work, I got to take care of my kids. I, uh, paid mortgages, I've got to go to school, whatever it is. So we try to figure out what can you do to engage. Well, one literally, you know, wear brand like, you know, be on the team to. We ask everybody take our unity pledge and more importantly, change the algorithm. The simple thing that I said to everyone, you can do, right, if you once a week would post something you did or you saw in your community, that was kind, that was compassionate, that was community building. Literally, if we all did that, we would change what comes out of these social media algorithms. And that's. That's one or two minutes a week. You can do this. Unity is not political. It comes before. You can't even get to politics if you don't start with unity. How do you talk to each other? How do you respect each other? How do you listen to each other? So again, immunity pledge. Change the algorithm. We do something, as you said, 30 for us. If you want to get out of your bubble, join a zoom. We'll put you in a breakout room once a month with random people, and you'll be talking about a current topic. Well, you're out of your bubble right then. Unity seats. That's our biggest focus at the moment. And it grew out of the road trip where we first did it with in Boston with the Red Sox and in Pittsburgh with the Pirates. This simple idea of how do I make unity relevant in culture? How do you get rewarded for it? Tell you what, unity seats. I'm getting half a dozen tickets from all kinds of professional sporting teams all over the place, and working with sheriffs in our sheriff network. And we identify two groups of two people don't know each other, put them in the unity seats to watch a sporting event. And sometimes we work with influencers and we run contests. It's a very open, public. How do you get to be in the unity seats? Ask and be a good person and try to bring people together. And if you spend two or three hours watching your favorite team in a game, at the end of that, what happens? You're friends with the other people, you know, you have a common interest, you talk to each other. If a tougher question comes up, you don't say, I'm right, you're wrong, you have a conversation. And our big, big next thing is on September 11th this year. It is the 25th anniversary of the 911 attacks. I was, and this is a whole nother story, I was literally six blocks. I lived six blocks away. I was at ground zero that night serving meals to first responders. I mean, all kinds of memories, but we can't forget that. So this year, it's Friday, September 11th. We're taking unity seats and making them huge. We're doing planning unity seats at 500 to 1,000 high school football games on September 11, each of those led by, ideally, the local sheriff in the unity seats. Moment of silence from fallen heroes and families that don't know each other in the seats. And the point is, hey, look, it's still here, 25 years later. Here's unity. From the smallest communities to the biggest cities in every state in the country, we Got unity seats. So that was a long answer to your question of what does S United do we do that and we show you what it looks like. We give you the hope, we give you ways to participate. Be in those unity seats on 9 11, take the unity pledge, change the algorithm, wear purple, wear hat, get in the moment in the game. You don't have to be crazy like me and change your whole life, but you have to do something. Because if you don't do anything, which is more of what goes on than not, now you can see what happens. So just do a little.

Speaker B: Adam, um, your dream is so freaking big, and I'm obsessed with it. I think people, we get so much in our silos to your point that we're missing the plot of what it actually we could accomplish in coming together. I'm also just so interested in your story because you spent 30 years in finance and entrepreneurship. What is it like to redirect into something that's so intangible as, like, moving the needle on unity and, like, what have you had to unlearn? Or what are you bringing into this project? Mentally?

Speaker A: It's not that different. It's still, uh. It's building a business, which is what I've done my entire life as an entrepreneur. Right. We just happen to be building a business that doesn't measure its success by profits on the bottom line. It measures its success by, yes, this is the intangible by members of a movement, followers of social media, participants like. And yeah, that's hard because no different than business donors. They want to see how their money makes impact. And how do you measure that? Right? And it's really hard because I can't say we built these 103 houses like Habitat for Humanity. We fed these 103 families like this shelter. We're the ACLU and we're doing this in court. It is a challenge. And I mean, honestly, uh, the fundraising is the hardest part of what we do. So if you ask me, from a business perspective, that's the biggest challenge. I mean, I've raised lots of money in my career for equity and debt, for lots of things. That was easier because the profit motive was clear and you can measure the return. And people made a decision. My friend group, you always raise. Start with people you know, right. Are type A analytical, financial people. There isn't a spreadsheet for U.S. united. I can show you. You put in a dollar, and here's how it goes through my financial model and not the other end comes forgetting $3 out. The other end comes you know, three unifiers, or whatever it may be. And a lot of people look at what we do and say, I love the vision, I love the dream. I love the goal, I love the mission. But. And the but from a lot of people is, I don't think it will work. One, they're looking for that model return. Two, it is, as you heard, like, it's amorphous, right? Building, brand building, following engagement.

Speaker B: Those.

Speaker A: Those are not things that are easily understood in the business world. And then three, and this is the biggest, hardest one, which is for many people. They don't see the urgency in unity. You know, they live in their bubble. So my challenge continues to be how to create the mixture of the urgency of what we're doing and the belief that what we're doing can make a difference and can actually work. And so if you ask me the biggest challenge, that's the biggest challenge.

Speaker C: Well, welcome to the nonprofit space where fundraising is challenged in so many ways. But I also want to say I hear you and I see you, because while you were talking, I was thinking one, that there are so many similarities to we are for good and us united, because we are also. We're all trying to push toward an intangible thing. And in some ways, when it's at its most vibrant is when you're not controlling it. That's what we found. When you can let it be wild. And not all of that is trackable. We don't know when someone goes up to somebody else IRL in their city and says, hey, I listened to this podcast, or, oh, I came to this event, or I found this resource. You don't know someone who was pulled into an event because of someone else, and that's part of it. And so thank you for continuing to pursue this. But I also want to just go to this concept about how to build unity as a brand, because so much of what we see, not just in the nonprofit sector, but in social impact at large. You know, they're doing so many extraordinary things, and the work is cutting through, but it never gets seen or funded. So what would you say to leaders who are listening, who are steeped in this brilliant work, but are still working to build a movement and a brand around it? Where would you tell them to start?

Speaker A: Look, I think. I mean, humans throughout history, we are storytellers. That's what differentiates humanity from most other species, is we tell stories. And back to looking at the old paintings on cave walls, right? And clearly, in the world of technology we live in today, my least favorite word in the English language is influencer, but

Speaker C: hilarious.

Speaker A: But if you're building a not for profit, you're an influencer. Or you have to be, because you have to be sharing your story, your wins, your reasons, your missions far and wide. I mean, it's Becky a little bit. You said you don't know who's going to see it. You don't know who's listening to that podcast, who sees it on your Instagram or your TikTok or wherever it is. Because if you're not telling your story, nobody's telling it, because that's right, you know it. You are the most most impactful spokesperson for it. And the way you're going to ultimately find funding is you're sharing and telling that story. Now, I'm not saying you have to go be an influencer and yada, yada, yada and whatever, but you have to figure out the most effective way and the right channels for you to be telling that story and doing it all the time. And some of it's going to be social and technological, some of it's going to be. I mean, it can be meetings, it can be wherever it is, but you got to be telling that story. If you're not constantly doing that, it's very hard to raise money.

Speaker B: I mean, it's the heartbeat of connection. We talk about storytelling often on the podcast. We just wrapped a series about it. Uh, I love that you brought it back to that. And it's honestly a tee up for where I wanted to go because we feel like there's these stories in life that happen to us that just stick with us. Certain things just hold in our heart for a long time. And I wanted to ask you for one about generosity. Like, is there a moment that you would point to that generosity or philanthropy you experienced or got to be part of that stuck with you over time.

Speaker A: Long time ago, when I was living in New York City, I ended up on the board of a Catholic school in Harlem called Saint Aloysius that was affiliated with the archdiocese. But it was basically, think of it, almost like a charter school in that context, where an amazing woman named Laurel Singer and Rick Burke, she was the head and he was the principal, they took this over and they developed an incredible educational program, community engagement program and support network for kids in Harlem who don't have the same stable home life that you assume in a lot of schools. People have that basically their simple insight was, we can provide a great education, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't actually deal with the Stability of the home. I got on that board because a good friend of Tanya's, who's still a good friend of both of ours, was teaching there and they weren't super connected into finance. Like we need someone who knows that world. And I joined this board and I think, you know, and my friend Karen, I mean she. And she, they adopted two or three. They took in foster kids like from the school. I mean, like they were doing anything and everything to help these kids and it was just selfless and 247 and I saw like, wow. I mean that is an incredible commitment and. But you could see the impact. I mean the school, I mean.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: The school was massively changing lives. I learned a lot from that experience in the not for profit world, long before I became part of the not for profit world.

Speaker C: This is a call to something bigger than any of us. And if you are feeling hopeless, just think how many times one person seeing you or one little action can make this massive difference. I think, John, you're such a huge proponent of this that the little things matter. And if you believe little things matter, then you can't imagine what little things compounded with other people's little things could lead to. So I just think it's a beautiful story and we want you to kind of put a big bow on this for us a little bit, Adam, because we like to ask all of our guests for a one good thing and it can relate to this topic. It could be, um, a quote or something you live by. What's something you want to leave with the audience that you have learned through this experience. That is your one good thing.

Speaker A: I'm, um, going to cheat in two things. I mean, one dare to fail gloriously.

Speaker C: Love that line.

Speaker A: If you want to make change in anything, whether that's in your job, in your personal life, in the world, you have to take risk. I mean, you don't have to. You can be smart about it, but you have to be willing to fail to really succeed. And so that's one. And then a quote that I use a lot was recited to me on our road trip, was part of it from Dr. King was, you know, basically the greatest question of life is not what you've, what you've done, but what you've done for others. Whatever you're doing, it's back to those little things. What have you done for someone else? And I met so many people last summer who have so little, relatively speaking, but do so much for so many other people, whether it's feeding them, caring for them, Clothing them, seeing them. Becky, to your point, whatever it is, you know, be conscious and remember your humanity and help others. I mean, that is what we're here for. I mean, that's the foundation of every religion. Is that the foundation of so much of what our society is that help other people?

Speaker B: I mean, you're a kindred spirit. Appreciate. Just like the way you're moving through the world. Huge fan of what you're building through US United. Uh, let's point. People listening to how they can take a next step and just the best way to stay connected with y'. All. Certainly the unity pledges on your website, is there other places that you would share that people can find and connect with you online?

Speaker A: Us uh-united.org our social media. We are sharing all kinds of content all the time. And you can take all of our pledges and all of that is there. Then, you know, down the road, you want to donate, great. I'm, um, all. I mean, we. We do that. You know, I sell these baseball caps. I mean, there's all kinds of things, but start by just showing up, getting engaged.

Speaker B: I love it.

Speaker A: Being, you know, being part. Being part of a movement. And don't get angry. What are you going to do? Same thing Tanya said to me. Don't yell at the television. What are you going to do? Right. Well, easy M. It's good pledge. Change the algorithm. Be part of a community. You're making a difference.

Speaker C: What a beautiful message. Please go check out U.S. united. Please get in the game. Adam, we are friends for life as you continue to nurture this community.

Speaker A: Thank you very much, and I really appreciate all your kind words. And it all starts with we the people. Let's go.

Speaker B: Hey, friend. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you find yourself looking for a place to stay connected and keep learning between episodes, I hope you'll come and join us inside the we are for Good community. Yeah, it is free. It's full of incredible nonprofit leaders like yourself, and it's now an app in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. So you can take this community with you wherever you go. Head over to weareforgoodcommunity.com to find us. We cannot wait to see you inside.