So you all have read posts about Nelson’s friend Fran. Yes the guy that had a nose job at 77, somewhat insane at times and certainly a good laugh to be with. He is now playing the Fiddle. He and Nelson are taking lessons together up in the Lobster Capital of the US, Boston. Ya’ll have fun and play away!

Heading to Singapore in September to be the keynote speaker at a Global Forum for Philanthropy. This is such a honor for me as our charity is being recognized in many ways including Impact, growth and solid management.

At the talk I will focus on the celebrities that we give shoes to, the 300 million children that are in need and the overall focus of how the charity evolved, the couch and the point of where we are today.

I am honored to accept this time and looking forward to my time helping the world – make a difference.

This weekend, since Saturday around 2PM has been insane. A legend, Steve McNair was murdered in Nashville which leads to a host of feelings in me for multiple reasons. Steve was involved in Soles4Souls when we were first getting started. He supported the cause and several times that I met him, he was always smiling and motivating people. He was a great guy, not perfect as all of us, but really made a difference in peoples lives.

I Twittered about Steve this weekend and have been interviewed about his contribution to our charity, Soles4Souls. Believe me, I have received some nasty emails and calls about it. My response has been the following: Focus on the positive impact he has made on Nashville, Tennessee, the USA, his family etc. We did not walk in his shoes and do not know the entire story and candidly will never know it. It is not our place. Steve spoke with his “hands” not his mouth and made “making a difference”  a priority in his life. Candidly, the responses that I got back was OK, Thanks, Appreciate it and only one nasty one. But I believe that, he is a man as you and I are. Do you know any perfect men or women? Think about it, there was only one!

A tribute video is now live at www.soles4souls.org - check it out.

Thank you Steve McNair for helping us Change the world one pair at a Time.

Would you get a nose job at 77? Who knows what went through his head. Call him and ask him! 508-612-8738

My daugter even asked me” Daddy what is wrong with Fran getting a nose job?” Maybe it is me, I guess.

I had to give a talk a few weeks ago to a group of people and I once again focused on the “Wayne Elsey” version of the key to success. Normally, I am very bottom line - get off the couch, good attitude, etc but I needed more. So here you go…

* Do good wherever you are and who cares what people have done to you. No poor me, victim, etc. This is hard as we all focus on the bad things at time or how someone hurt us but we need to rise above that and do good right where we are. This is very hard for me honestly and struggle with this often. I have a “wall” that I put up when people wrong me. Candidly, working on this but it is hard. How about you?

* Do your absolute best at whatever you do. Stand out by your character and competence. Why do something if it can not be your best?

* Go for help when you need it. I am not too good to hire people that are better than me at something or have stronger strengths. I surround myself with the best and not beneath me at all to ask for help from colleagues, associates or strangers. It is your responsibility to seek help, as mine. I also surround myself with older people. Older people are wiser, more experienced and just cool.

* Do a simple thing - lend a hand. There is no room for old fashion pride. Get rid of it and humble yourself and help someone out.

* Stand up and tall. Be a leader by your actions not words.

Tonight I had a drink and dinner with a great guy – which I will not name. We had a few minutes to chat and he is always complementary of me, sometimes uncomfortable as I just want to be me and not a celebrity.

We began to talk and he was sharing things about his past, his son and daughter as well as life in general. The conversation came to me saying, “XXX, you are a great guy, you have hit a bump in the road and need to get off the couch and change your ways.” We discussed the fact that is wife brings home the bacon and his job for a few hours at night – answering the phone – just does not cut it. “You need to take control of the situation and even if you become a greeter at a store, you need to get out of bed, off the couch and move around,” I stated.

We continued, I bought him a beer, finished my diet coke and dinner. Before I excused myself, I told him “ because I care about you if why I gave you my thoughts.” He commented that he knew and that meant a lot.

I hope that I inspired XXX to get off the couch and do the right thing for himself and his family. He was telling me that he followed me on Twitter, Facebook and on my blog. So I wrote this for him – because I care!

You can do it my friend!

I know it has been a few weeks and I promised but candidly, I have been way busy. This past week was a whirlwind of meetings, conference and visitors. Among the normal, I had a trip to go on. But no excuse, I know.

I wanted to touch on the “steeple or people” as I mentioned this on TV the other week and at a church that I spoke at. I think I hit two cords with this statement 1) people that agree and 2) Disagree.

My comment was simple, “I feel the local church is the HOPE of the world and that the local church needs to forget about the steeple and focus on the people.” What I meant is it does not matter what your building is, how big it is as size does not matter or what seat you sit in. It is about the people. I continued to say, “the church people need to leave the building and speak with their actions.”

This last year I have spoken at many church’s congregations and candidly, I have been motivated and discouraged at the end of the day. I love the connection after speaking. Most of it is very encouraging and motivating. A few negative comments that I have received were. “you should have wore a tie, we always wear ties.” I wanted to say and “yes you also always wear polyester” but did not. The most discouraging statement was when I was told that “our church distances themselves from people like that.” I was floored and responded, “then you are not a church, you are a group of judging people. If you left the walls of the church and dealt in your local community and around the world, you would see the hurting and what the church should do is lend a hand to the hurting, not judging them.” The lady that I said that to responded, well that is just not what we do.” 

What do you do then I thought? I know, you sit around and make critical remarks about people, judge them and focus on yourself.

Can you believe this happened?

What an incredible week. Thousands of dedicated people across the country stepped up to join Soles4Souls in making a huge difference in the lives of people in need.  It was an inspiration to behold, and we are incredibly thankful for you.

When we started this charity a few years ago, we recognized that the way to really get people excited about what we were doing was to just get out of the way.  The concept is simple enough, the need great enough, the supply big enough to make a big impact…as long as we have true grassroots support.

Anyone can create “awareness” — a media stunt is easy to do with a few dogs and ponies, but the lasting effects aren’t there when you have that kind of mentality.  In the information age, we are aware of everything; in fact, we are over-saturated with information.  We have all been presented with thousands of charities and cause marketing programs in the past six weeks, and if you’re like most people you automatically tune out 99% of it.  Just “getting your message out there” is like spamming people right on the street.  It doesn’t really work.

We think that the real trick in communicating your message is to get everyday, ordinary people to cross over the line of awareness and into participation.

Someone who joins us (even casually, at first) in one of our participation programs is highly likely to catch the Soles4Souls fever.  When they personally experience the “transaction” of putting a brand new pair of shoes on a needy person’s feet and see the response that comes from it we know that they will remember that for many years to come.  We call it the “magical moment” and we don’t need a detailed “cause marketing” plan, because that simple moment is all it takes.

Someone who actively participates in Barefoot Week becomes engaged with the Soles4Souls mission — they stop thinking in terms of the event and start visualizing what else is possible with Soles4Souls.  Before long, they stop referring to Soles4Souls as “THAT” charity and start referring to Soles4Souls as “MY” charity.

And that’s what Barefoot Week is all about.  Creating “owners” of Soles4Souls who take it upon themselves to create a personal, meaningful impact on their communities.  Without owners we would be a virtual charity; a group of people meaning well but ringing a loud bell from across the expanse of the Internet.

Barefoot Week belongs to our Owners. The following are some random notes to them, and I hope you’ll read it to get a sampling of what many of our owners did for us this week.

(You probably know who you are.)

You helped us load trucks in Alabama and Atlanta and Indy and Portland and LA with thousands upon thousands of brand new shoes.  They still had tissue paper stuffed inside the toes and smelled brand new when unpacked, and most of these shoes were much nicer than the ones you were wearing, and yet you didn’t complain or ask for a free pair because you felt there were people in greater need.

You didn’t get a lot of the credit because you didn’t show up on the Channel 5 News or appear in the background of the photos, but make no mistake about it — your efforts were incredibly vital to the people who received the gift of those shoes.

You dialed hundreds of phone numbers until your fingers hurt, just trying to locate the founders of participating shelters or board members who might be able to help identify the truly needy residents in your community and let them know about the event.  You helped us find and direct volunteers in Indianapolis/Birmingham/Atlanta/LA/Portland and even thousands of churches across the country.

There’s you, our little semi-retired, wonderwoman firecracker.  You took it upon yourself to call friends, neighbors, co-workers, competitors, family members and total strangers (sometimes 2 or 3 times) to invite them to come down and join you in handing out shoes to our own homeless and disadvantaged.  And later that week, when you saw a news report on the event YOU helped put together, you didn’t feel envious that you weren’t on TV or the radio, but you felt happy and relieved (and okay, a little proud) that you helped ease the lives of many people with your hard work, and that’s all you ever wanted.  And you said, “Wayne, if you put my name in your blog again I won’t talk to you for a month.”  So there: no name, but you know who you are.

Then there’s Finish Line.  You own hundreds of awesome retail shoe stores, yet you treated each homeless person who came to get a free pair of shoes like one of your best customers; you looked them in the eye and literally jumped to help these valued “guests” find just the right fit for their tired, bruised feet.  And despite the fact that you’re a very large, very successful company, you consist of people who truly, truly care.  Not only that, but you decide to extend the shoe distribution into September under your own campaign called Sole Destination.  How incredible is that?

There are thousands of you Soles4Souls owners out there.

You arranged for porta potties and chain fences to be delivered; Soles4Souls banners & signs & flyers to be posted; you set up distribution stations in homeless shelters, city parks and even on the infamous Skid Row out in LA.

Near the end of the day you helped ensure a few tardy visitors could get into line so they could receive their shoes, even though they spoke no English and you speak the same amount of Vietnamese… it didn’t matter because a few simple gestures conveyed the entire meaning of our charity without a single understandable phrase except: “Thank you.”

You run a restaurant delivery service called Delivered Dish (which has nothing to do with shoes) and spent money out of your own pocket for doughnuts and pizzas and didn’t ask for any credit in return.  And when the frizzy haired lady stopped dead in her tracks and asked, “Free shoes and food?  What’s the deal here?  Who does that?” you quickly and politely said, “Well, everyone you see here, Maam.“  And then you invited her to join you handing out doughnuts.

What’s the deal here?  Who does that?

You are a reporter that came to do a simple little report for the evening news and ended up going barefoot with the other volunteers just to report more accurately on the spirit of the event, and found yourself totally sucked in by the time you had to leave and file the story.  You even called our office line after hours (a little emotionally, I might add) and offered to volunteer the next time, anytime, we are in town.  We will take you up on that.

You are a newly retired gentleman that privately donated permit fees, licenses, and you even secretly arranged for people whose sizes were not available to receive a new pair of shoes from a local retail store (which you bought at full price).

Anne McDonald bought a couple plane tickets to fly 320 miles so she could participate in giving shoes to people in need while also giving her step-daughter an up-front and personal lesson in why it’s important to give back, and what it looks & smells like in the front lines of our homeless communities.

You went to great lengths to round up tables, chairs, security posts and rope, Brannock devices (the little measuring things at shoe stores), shoe horns, hand sanitizer, flyers and banners and everything else.  You rented three U-Haul trucks so we could cart 5,000 pairs of new shoes from a warehouse to a city park, and you spent hours and hours helping plan and execute the event.  You even printed 75 shirts with the Soles4Souls logo and you showed up on your birthday, for crying out loud. And your employees joyfully showed up, thinking they weren’t getting paid for the day, yet you paid them anyway.  I’m talking to you, Shoe Mill.

What’s the deal here?  Who does that?

And what about you, adidas?  When you heard we were having an event in your city, you decided to send 1,000 pairs of brand new shoes and 3,000 pairs of new socks, even though we didn’t ask you to something that amazing.  You felt it was important to make a donation to your own city and demonstrate to your own employees that you know the meaning of community service.  Yet the biggest contribution to your event were the incredible people you sent: more than 70 employees at final count that came down for the day to take part in a team building charity exercise.  You were pleasantly surprised to find everyone on your staff coming away with big smiles and some tears and hundreds of new friends from other companies and the streets, and you actually experienced “Brand Blindness” and found yourselves joyfully putting many different brands on the feet of needy people; something you’ve already relayed to dozens of people at work, in your house of worship, in your neighborhood, at the pub.

(It’s that magical moment, and it’s still bubbling inside of you, isn’t it?)

And then there is you, Zed.  You are staying at a rescue mission yourself, even though you don’t look “homeless” by the common perception.  Your tech job recently vanished and your support system isn’t the strongest, and so you wound up seeking help from a rescue mission in one of the most challenging times of your life.  But instead of taking on a victim’s role, you seized an opportunity and showed up early, helped unload thousands of boxes, set up dozens of tables and you diligently explained the mission of Soles4Souls to anyone in line or even passing by on the street.

You even stayed afterwards and helped recycle the cardboard and waited until the last of the garbage and the porta potties were picked up, and when you left we realized that you never received a pair of shoes even though you were one of the heroes of the day.

But we know your size and we know where you’re staying, and I have someone bringing by a new pair just for you, Zed.  Because you proved you don’t have to own a home to be an owner.

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed during Barefoot Week.  We hope that you’ll join us for more exciting events in the very near future.

This week I will be blogging on a recap of Barefoot Week - which will amaze you! Also, we will share the front cover of a popular magazine that the charity and I are featured and a HUGE announcement will come this Friday! So, heading to a Barefoot Sunday here - where millions around the world are leaving their shoes at the alter and leaving barefoot. Then off to several days of meetings - back with you in a few days.

Thank you for following me and helping us Change the World one Pair at a time!