philanthropy is really the love of mankind in the simplest form.

when you think about the world we live in, that word love, is something

that you just don't hear very often.

But philanthropy at the root, philo meaning love, is the love of mankind.

What does it mean to truly live your legacy through strategic giving?

Today on Seek Go Create, we welcome Baron Damon, a seasoned philanthropic coach and

nonprofit executive with over 20 years of experience as the managing partner of the

Business of Life Coaching and Consulting.

Baron has dedicated his career to teaching individuals and organizations how to align

their giving with their deepest values.

From creating an award winning giving circle to founding the BK Damon

Foundation alongside his wife, Dr.

Katrina Damon, Barron's work exemplifies a commitment to making

a tangible difference in communities while fostering lasting legacies.

Barron, welcome to SeatGoCreate.

Thank you, Tim, for having me.

I'm so excited about being here and have an opportunity to talk to you.

I'm just excited about the conversation.

I am too.

It's going to be a great conversation.

You and I, I think we're going to connect very well on a lot of the

topics and some that you may not even be aware of yet, just from me doing

some research and studying on you, Barron, but, but let's start this way.

If, if you're out and about, I don't know, Church business, or just in

the community and someone bumps into you and they ask you what you do.

What do you typically tell people when they ask what you do?

I tell them I help, people create a strategy for

their philanthropic giving that aligns with their deepest values.

In other words, I help people give money away.

And when you say that, when you say that, what

kind of response do you get?

I guess a lot of people probably say, I don't have any to give.

What are you talking about?

People are stunned actually.

And they say, I've never heard of that before.

You know, tell me more.

so at least they're intrigued enough to want to ask additional

questions because it's not something that you hear about every day.

So one thing I'm curious about just right at the beginning here,

you mentioned that you bring that up if someone asks you what you do and, and, and

I'm sure that you, you probably have the EQ to know whether you should go into that

in certain environments and when not to.

I mean, sometimes you probably say I'm a, I'm a husband, I'm a

dad and other things like that.

But what kind of, you mentioned the response, and I think this is going to

lead into a lot of the conversation.

How many people.

Have ever even thought about that topic that you bring up?

I mean, I'm sure you get quizzical looks.

You probably get, huh?

And then sometimes you get, I've been meaning to talk to someone like you.

I'm guessing

that's rare that you get that.

Correct?

It is rare, but.

I find it's starting to happen more often.

and, and usually people are inquisitive.

People know about nonprofits and they know about donating money.

but they don't have a strategic plan around it because most time, and I have

a podcast and when people come on the podcast, I say to them, can you tell me?

Or declare that I am a philanthropist.

And they're like, they have this moment where they don't know or sure.

Now you can look and see what they've done.

I mean, they're, they're philanthropists, right?

But they don't have the confidence or they have a misconception

of what philanthropy is.

And then they will say, I am a philanthropist.

And it's one of the most powerful moments, on the show.

And I always get these chill bumps.

Cause I'm like, wow, they got it.

And then they feel empowered.

The shoulders is up straight.

They're like, I am a philanthropist.

This is what I do.

I help and support people and I make a difference in people's lives.

Sure.

so do this for me real quick, and then I'm going to veer a few directions.

And then we're going to come back to this, this big topic.

Define philanthropists.

For, for someone listening in, it's a mighty big word and I joked

with you before we hit record, you know, I'm from, I'm, I'm from, you know, little

town in Georgia, outside of Atlanta.

And I like to joke, I don't, I don't know a lot of big words and things like

that, but philanthropists, somebody asked you, so what is a philanthropist?

What do you tell them?

Yeah, I tell them, and I try to demystify the word for

people because I, people do kind of mispronounce it or struggle with it.

And I say, philanthropy is really the love of mankind in the simplest form.

And you know, when you think about the world we live in, that

word love, is something that you just don't hear very often.

It's a lot of bickering.

It's a lot of dissension.

But philanthropy at the root, philo meaning love, is the love of mankind.

And that's simply what it is.

And there should be actions that back up that love.

You know, you brought up that word love.

I do think the word is, Thrown around a good bit in our society and culture.

I'm just not sure it's thrown around.

Well, I mean, people love pizza.

They love their wife.

They love, you know, their, their favorite TV show.

And I think it may not, my word is may have been watered down.

Yeah.

A little bit.

So speaking of love, this is something I think right before we hit record,

I shared with you, you've, you've written a book that's available.

That's called Monday morning man.

And, and I know we want to talk about legacy, but to me, this is

a great foundation for legacy.

And.

And I, I didn't read the book.

I don't think in the way you designed it, it's designed as 52 weekly

devotions and things like that.

But I want to say this and then I'm going to let you respond and just talk about it.

And I think we can build on the conversation.

As I was reading through it, and it kind of drew me in because I started

it early this morning when I was just in my quiet time, and I knew that I

was preparing for this conversation.

I started reading it and I just kind of kept going and going and going.

And here's the reason why.

To me, it was part journal, As a, as a father and a, and a follower

of Christ and things like that.

And, and it is rare that you get a glimpse inside someone's journal.

And I thought that was kind of cool, especially if you're about

to have an you know, an hour long conversation with someone.

It's really valuable.

Right.

And then, and then I also thought.

It was, it was really part of a devotion.

It had devotional aspects to it, which I like.

But what I really said as, as the father of grown children, I

have two grown children myself.

I really felt like it was just a love letter to your children.

That's really what.

It seemed like to me, and I see you nodding for those listening.

He's been nodding.

so so did, did I capture all that?

Well, is that, was that the intent or what was the story behind it?

I know I read the, you know, the beginning of it, but, you know, tell

me a little bit more about that.

Yeah.

Did we talk about this already?

Tim, you know, based on what you said, we had to talk about it already, right?

this was all of those things, right?

It's a devotional.

And how it started, I would say kind of mid pandemic, My daughter

was in college at Virginia Tech and my son was, you know, really kind

of struggling during the pandemic.

And I had just finished writing a 40 day devotional and that was a

lot, you know, to, to the family.

And I, I wanted to continue to do something, but not at that pace.

Right.

Every day.

And so I said, you know what?

On Mondays, I would start writing.

And it was really kind of an extension of that 40 day, but it was a little more

intimate into my own kind of personal life in the lives that we have as a family.

And I started sending them on Mondays, you know, and, and the, the.

My kids and my wife was like, Oh, this is great, honey.

You know, pat you on the back.

That's wonderful.

You know, and it just kind of kept on going.

I had no idea or no design to, to write these for 52 weeks or more.

It was just part of the plan.

I just wanted to be able to communicate to my family in a way that was God centered.

And also for them to learn some lessons along the way, as I was also learning

my own lessons and processing what God was dealing with me about, right?

and my family is an extension of me, me being the leader in my family.

And as I started writing, probably a few months into it, my wife says to me, she

said, Honey, you should name it Manna.

Monday morning manna because it feels like God is speaking to

you through this, this process.

And so we started calling Monday Morning Manor.

and it was good because the kids would respond in certain ways.

My son didn't hardly respond.

You know, my daughter would say fire emojis and it was great.

And I really got something from this and I was really excited about that.

And I'm like, son, how was it?

it was okay.

Yeah.

You know, he said, I'm getting it dad.

I'm getting it.

and then about halfway through, I say, I'm going to stop this.

And then the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, this is not about you.

This is not about you.

And I heard that very distinctly and I kept on writing and I didn't

know that this would be a book, probably November of last year.

it just kind of came to me.

I believe God just, Urged me and prompt me to do it.

And I reached out to a friend who was an editor and we

started having a conversation.

She said, when do you want it by?

I said, by Christmas, I want to give it to my family as a legacy gift.

And I would put their names on it as authors.

And she was like, that's very ambitious, but we were able to pull it off.

and I surprised them Tim, the day before Christmas, cause we always exchanged

gifts and I had it in this black box and it had legacy box on it and they

opened it up and they were just amazed.

I mean, and my daughter said, dad, why did you put our name on this?

And I said, because we're a family and we did it together.

even though I was the one doing the writing and through that whole

process, I mean, God taught me so many.

Lessons personally, place at times when I just needed to grow and develop

or, you know, maybe there's some fears or apprehensions that I have in

terms of moving forward in business or some of the struggles my Children

were having in individual places.

And we addressed all of it.

and it was a love letter, so to speak, right?

to them.

And you can, you can hear it.

In the language.

I love you at the end, or, feel like Paul, you know, in the Bible, beloved,

you know, something like that, but it turned it out to be a great opportunity

for me to share with people about legacy.

And then Tim, something amazing happened.

I sent the book out to just friends and family and they read it.

They started reading it and they started sending it to other people.

And.

And I was like, wow, I mean, texting me in the middle of the night or

early in the morning or getting emails saying this really helped me this.

It blessed me.

I'm like, wow, this is amazing.

And so God can take this little.

Thing right that you desire to just be a blessing to your

family and amplify it for others.

And I find that fascinating that God can take a little thing and magnify it

into something much more than we expect.

Yes.

And it had really nourishing spiritual and, you know, devotional things.

But let me tell you the big thing that I got from it, because.

As a father, my wife and I, Gloria and I have talked often about how

we thought that when our children became more grown adults, that

we would be a little bit freer.

It would be, you know, all of these things and our, our children are doing great.

You know what I mean?

It's not like, it's not like we've got.

Issues or anything like that.

However, as I was reading through and I knew it was weekly, I

knew you wrote this every week.

I experienced through you the ups and downs of your children, because I

know you were experiencing the emotion of doing well this week.

Yeah.

Gone through a challenge and I, and I think where I'm at, I'm,

I'm probably around Thanksgiving.

I mean, you know, we've been through your son's gone through some moves

and changes and I could tell, I know that he's attempting to find his

place in the world during this year.

Your daughter, you know, she moved and she's working.

I mean, And, and the reason I think that's, I think it goes into this

legacy conversation, because as fathers, I think there's sometimes this

perception of being disconnected and you know, we're out doing our own thing.

I lived your children's life through you in reading that.

And I could tell that your mood.

Now, my wife and I've tried to determine if this is a good thing or a bad

thing, but it went up and down based on what your children were experiencing.

Is that correct?

Yeah, because it was, it was to them and also my wife because we, we

went through some, some challenges, you know, quite a few during that time, but

it was, it was all of them and, and me included that needed to be, encouraged.

You know, and support it.

And even though we were, you know, at one point you mentioned my son, Joshua,

he was in San Diego, and now in Hawaii, you know, and my daughter was in DC

and, and we were just, and we were so close as a family, we were used to being

together and it was the distance itself.

That was a challenge for us and not being able to communicate and talk.

But yeah, it was all of that.

It was.

the ups and downs in them, you know, because I don't know how old your children

are, but they're becoming young adults and it doesn't, you know, every phase is

great and different, but I'm a coach now, I'm not just dad, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm

trying to coach them up and you can hear even some of that in the book, there was

some, obviously some spiritual lessons, but there was some life lessons too.

Like, as a father, let me talk to you about your situation and your

issue, and hopefully you can handle it

this

Yeah.

And I think the compassion that I saw was that, You, and I'm sure

you and your wife, were, were going through what they were going through.

And I, I, I think that is a reflection of our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

I feel very confident that He is going through what we are.

And sometimes we feel isolated.

And if that's not the case, we know it's the case.

Interesting.

Our son's name is Joshua also.

And

Oh, wow.

a few years older.

Our son is, he just turned 30 and our daughter's 33.

We're grandparents.

So let me

just, if you haven't experienced this, the best thing is when all of a

sudden the grandkids start showing up.

That's when things get really,

That's what they tell

really cool.

So, so Baron, another thing, because the, the theme of this is legacy.

My father passed away a little over a year and a half ago, with dementia and

cognitive issues and things like that.

And, and one of the things that I hungered for was to find

something that he had written.

And, he, he was a, an educator.

He had a successful career.

He communicated, he was a soft spoken communicator.

My mother used up about 98 percent of the words in the household,

if you know what I mean by that.

And, he had very few words.

And, and I, and I found at the age I was, I was just looking and I

couldn't find anything he had written.

And so to me, what you've done with this is you've really established what could

be some of the most powerful legacy items.

Listen, I know we're going to talk about finances and money and all of that.

To me, those things, and we've got good examples of this sometimes

become some of the least That we should discuss as far as legacy.

So did you have legacy in mind with the book?

I think you mentioned that earlier.

so you did want to

leave something with this book also, right?

It was a legacy gift, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was a legacy gift.

I some months back, I started, as a philanthropic coach, I started looking

at generational wealth and specifically the Rockefellers and my daughter, she was

working at the museum, the White House Museum, as an event kind of coordinator

while she was still in college.

And She sends us a, because we also have an event business.

So she sends us a table with the Rockefeller's name on it.

They were at that museum having the event and it just struck me.

I said, Hmm, Rockefeller was, that was over a hundred years ago.

Right.

And here, my daughter at 23 years old.

name Rockefeller.

You know, I was fascinated by that.

So I started doing some research and found out that there are

seven generations strong.

and that's very unusual for even wealthy families.

They normally go for three generations.

And, so I was thinking about that and what could I do if I don't

have billions and Or millions that I can still leave this legacy.

And we have some legacy pieces, but I thought this book

would be one of those things.

If Amazon went out of business.

You still have your copy, right?

and the grandchildren could read it.

They can read it to their Children and then their Children, right?

I figure I can get at least three generations out of the book.

but that was the best part of it for me was for me to be able to say Look, you're

going to get it to an inheritance, right?

We're that's why that's wise to be able to do that.

and you're, you know, whether it's some material or some financial,

you'll get that, but if I can give you something that will last.

help your soul for years to come.

That's what, that's what we want to do.

And I think we, we were able to do that because Tim, guess

what's happening right now.

in January I told my family, I'm a step back and I want you guys to take the lead.

And so now everybody is writing on Monday.

We just pick a Monday to write.

Very good.

So they're participating and really, so what you're doing, this is legacy

stuff too, is that not only are you creating and, you know, doing something

that can be seen, words on paper.

Can be seen for generations.

And, and, and I was reading something recently about the, the Dead Sea Scrolls,

and I'm just thinking to myself, wow, the the legacy of something that has been

written for thousands of

years.

And, and now what you're doing is you're teaching.

That's really the, you know, preparing the next generation as

you're preparing them for that.

That's good.

You know, it reminds me of, we, gosh, it's been a couple of years now.

We interviewed Mitzi Perdue here, and she was from two

pretty strong legacy families.

She married

into the Perdue family.

And then

she had a, her family that she was a part of was a hotel family

for three, four generations.

There was

one thing that they did.

I asked her a good bit.

We had a little bit of a conversation about this and

I know you'll appreciate it.

She said that one of the things that they require or ask, or I don't know

exactly how they do it, was when people reach 60 years old in their

family, they write their autobiography.

And they've got,

if it's not published, that's fine, but they have a library

in their family, you know,

library where they put it there.

And I think that is so powerful.

And, and it seems as if you're, you're, you're training for that.

anyway, that's, that's, that's good.

Let

so let's talk though.

me get you before we transition.

when my son was 13 years old.

So when I first became a Christian, I wrote all these scriptures down,

you know, you're just trying to digest the word and all of that.

And I had probably a hundred scriptures.

And when he turned 13, I laminated those scriptures.

I mean, this was 1992, the scriptures, right?

And they tattered and all of that, but I laminated them.

And on his birthday, we had a birthday party for him.

And I gave him those scriptures, those same ones that I used when I

first became a Christian, and that was, you know, pretty powerful.

He didn't really.

Understand it at first.

But as he grew in his faith, he began to understand how important that was.

I think it's interesting.

You brought this up earlier that you weren't sure, especially with your

son, that he was grasping, even when you were sending out your Monday

morning items and, and the way I think about things like that, I wonder if

there are times that with my heavenly father, I've done similar, where

he's poured something out to me and I've almost, I haven't ignored it.

It's, it's, it's been

Yeah,

taken root, but I haven't acknowledged it.

There's so much value

to acknowledging that, right?

Doesn't it make you feel so good?

exactly.

Exactly.

we're not, we're not at the take action stage yet, right?

All right.

so that word legacy to me is so rich.

It has so much to it.

And yes, there's a financial component.

But one of the things I love Baron that we've done here in this portion

of the conversation is we've talked about the family portion of it.

We've talked about obviously writing and passing along things, but to me,

especially the scriptures that say you should leave an inheritance, not just

for your children, but your children's children, if we leave them all of these

assets, I'll call them these we'll call them even worldly assets, We know

that those treasures may or may not last forever.

But to me, the legacy is the relationship with earthly father,

like you've talked about, and then heavenly father speak briefly

about that before we kind of go down into the financial component of the giving and

all that, just speak about the importance of that foundation, because many people.

And we've seen it.

We've got examples of this in our culture that they've been

left a nice big inheritance,

but yet they don't have the soul, the healthy soul to handle it.

Talk some about that.

yeah.

You know, I grew up in a Christian home, even though I was probably, probably

Far away from that as you can be.

My father was a pastor for 15 years.

and I had no desire whatsoever to be a Christian.

I thought it was good for them, but I was on a different level, right?

So called I was, you know, educated and, and, and clever

and I can do this and do that.

And of course, I realized.

Real quickly that, that wasn't the plan God had for me.

Right.

I mean, I was a person who really had to hit rock bottom.

I really, I really did because I was so self sufficient, in who I was and

who I thought I was, And even though, I mean, when I went to college, Tim,

I probably couldn't quote you two scriptures and I stayed in church.

I mean, you know, on Sundays and Wednesdays and all the other days.

Right.

but the foundation was set.

And I saw my grandparents, as well were in the faith.

And so it was important for us, my, my wife and I, and her parents, you know,

like my parents at the time, been married for 40, you know, 50 years and, love

God and had a standard of living, you know, a standard of holiness, not just.

Name recognition.

Oh, I'm a Christian.

Yeah, but serious about a relationship with God and that's something that was

really important to me that I wanted to make sure I pass it down to, to my

children and not just to say, cause at one point, you know, I think the

statistic was 78 percent of the people identified as being a Christian.

I don't know what that number is now, but that's very different

from having a relationship.

And I wanted to stress to them that it was so important for you to have a

relationship with your heavenly father.

And if you got that, and I can show you example of what that could look like from

the natural perspective, you would be, you'd be healthy, be happy, and holy.

So one thing, interesting, I didn't know you were a preacher's kid.

This is,

It causes me to, causes me to ask a couple more questions here.

Sometimes I'm always amazed, there's typical preacher's

kids do one of two things.

They, they totally rebel and go the opposite direction.

And it sounds

like you were skirting that a little bit.

Maybe you, I think sometimes you see too much.

You see too much of behind the scenes and all that's going on.

And then.

There's other folks that they, I don't know if they want to try to prove

something or something like that.

Sometimes that may be more with, with with females, but, but it, it

always perplexes me, see, I didn't grow up around church at all.

We,

we, we popped in from time to time.

I didn't, I didn't, you know, the Lord reeled me in through a beautiful

young lady named Glory that I.

Was smitten with and then got married.

And, you know, that's when I had my literal come to Jesus moment.

And but with you, you were around it, you were exposed.

Did you see too much?

Was there too much of like, Ooh, I see how this church, these church people are.

And I don't know, or what was the story, man?

Why, why are you running?

You mentioned self sufficient.

I get that.

I get that.

You know, you know, to me, the church that I was a part

of, it was a very strong biblical based church and, but it was boring.

I mean, boring.

Right.

And so here I am, you know, it's kind of very well known kind of star

athlete and just kind of doing my thing, you know, friends everywhere.

And then I will go to church.

And the young people there, they would see me on the news or some

highlights, sports highlight, and they want it seemed like my life, you know,

opposed to me wanting their life.

And so I was like, well, I'll become a Christian.

They want to be like me.

You know, so it was just no appeal during that time.

Now, if I was probably in another, another congregation where they had

youth ministry and it was active and live, that would probably have been

different, but that wasn't my story.

So I just didn't see what was appealing to me.

so the, oh man, I got to, I got to ask this, it's going

to, I don't think this will be an awkward conversation, but for those

listening in and they know me, I'm, I'm a white guy, Barron's African

American, and I have rarely heard people.

That have been around, primarily African American churches say that they're boring.

So you gotta, you gotta dispel some rumors or you gotta clarify

something for me because I went to a multicultural racial church for

the longest when I first got saved.

And part of what I loved was the music that came with the diversity.

Does that make sense?

Did I

say that well?

Oh, yeah.

Oh,

was boring.

Come on now, Baron, you're messing with me here.

Hey, I mean, there was there was many a days where my head was nodding.

You know, I was tired from a football game or basketball game or tracked me.

But, the music was hymns.

You know, the Bible talks about spiritual hymns, right?

Hymns are great.

I, I still, sometimes when I'm being really reflective, those

hymns come back to my heart that I've learned during that time.

but the teaching was good, but it just wasn't, it just wasn't, and I'm not a.

theatrical person, right?

You don't have to put your finger in your ear and hold your head

back and start screaming for me to feel the spirit, right?

But, it was just different.

Now, my experience quickly changed when I went to another church, denomination,

the Church of God in Christ, And there was nothing boring about that experience.

it was like, calisthenics, you know, during the worship

The, the Lord shows up when there's a bass and some

drums up on the stage, right?

Exactly.

Exactly.

So I, I had these very different experiences and I also went to an all

white church, called good morning Jesus.

And we were the, it was hundreds of people in there.

We were the only black.

So, Yeah, I've had some diverse experiences, but now I actually attend

a multicultural, church and I absolutely love, we have Hispanic ministry and,

Asian ministry and, half white, half black Africans, you know, you, you name it, we

have it.

And I really enjoy that experience because it's not just the music I like.

It's music.

You know, that everybody can participate and enjoy.

Yeah, the cool thing, I think that's the way the kingdom of God looks.

And I like when I hear about situations like that, I was very similar.

I, I was just, I was a kid of the seventies and eighties and

I wanted to make me some money.

And I

just kept in church world.

I kept seeing just nothing that appealed to me or excited me.

I saw some, you know, man, be pambi preachers and stuff like that.

And so anyway, but obviously the Lord got our attention and we,

we stepped in and Things like

that.

Um, let's talk, let's move.

I think that's important part of the legacy though.

And, and so what's been, what's been some significant things along the

way, positive or negative, by the way, I think if I were to tell my

story, there's a few negative things.

I don't like to use the word failure negative that probably have drawn me

closer to thinking about these topics than anything else, and we don't shy

away from You know, the ugly stuff here, if you, if we have to go into that,

but Barron, what have been a couple of significant events along the way that

have led you to this place now where you call yourself a philanthropic coach?

Well, the main one was when I went to college, my second semester in

college, I was headed back to my dorm.

My cousin was visiting us and I was just leaving our campus party.

And I heard this, I heard some voices behind me.

A guy say specifically, That somebody is going for a swim tonight.

And I was walking by a reflection pond and I really didn't pay attention

because there was a few people outside.

Not a lot.

Next thing I know, Tim, a guy came from behind and hit me with this fist.

And I mean, if you've never been hit by somebody with your fist, I mean,

it hurts, but I was so shocked and stunned that it happened that I just

took off running, you know, and that was really defining moment in my life.

And I think that really epitomize you know, what I was doing,

running, you know, from God.

And I could, I mean, I ran because I was running a 45 in high school.

So I was moving, 10 100.

So I started running.

And just running in the guy came behind me because it was multiple people.

We found out later on that they were actually going on these

college campuses and they was just picking people out randomly.

I call them random acts of violence.

and we ended up getting to a tussle.

Police came and put us in the police car and said, what's going on, guys?

Of course.

You know, it's two African American males.

and the guy said he was talking about my mother.

And I said, I've never seen him before, you know, and it was just one of those

situations that escalated, but when I got out the police car and went back

to my dorm, I was embarrassed, you know, just ashamed of what happened.

I was hurt and I was discouraged.

Here I am on the college campus where I wanted to feel safe.

And he took that away from me.

He robbed me of that.

and I started having all kinds of emotional challenges as a result of that.

And then I ended up getting, I went, I went home for a couple of weeks

and came back, took the exams, did horrible, and ended up, you know,

failing that semester horrible, horribly.

And then, I was on academic scholarship.

And so I was put on probation and then eventually lost my scholarship.

And so my life just started unraveling.

You know, I mean, I can't now when I even think about it and I tell the story how

quickly it happened, you know, from this kind of celebrated person to somebody who

got kicked out of school, lost everything, friends and even tell my family members.

I didn't tell my, my, my, my parents because I was ashamed and didn't know.

I didn't want to put a burden of finances on them because,

you know, I was on scholarship.

and so it just went from bad to worse really quickly.

And, but it was that, that season of my life that God was in hot pursuit.

You know, the Bible says for whomever he loved, he chased

and it was a full, full sprint.

And I remember the night I accepted Christ as my personal savior.

I said, God, if you just leave me alone, I'll serve you.

You know, that's the optic word, right?

That

makes no

just leave me alone.

and that night in the loft of my sister's house, I accepted Christ

and my life changed in the instant.

and as a result during that time, I did a, internship at the Columbia urban league,

and it was a interesting, internship because it was stopped the violence.

God has an interesting sense of humor, right?

Here I am was assaulted by some young men, and now God puts me

in a place where I have to help.

help young people who are dealing with all kinds of issues.

And it was the longest summer of my life because all I wanted to do like

you, I just wanted to make some money.

I want to drive a nice car, have a corner office.

I can look over the city, you know, but that wasn't the plan.

And at the end of the summer, I was so glad Tim, I was like,

woof, I'm glad this is over.

and I said, those kids need some help.

I don't know who's going to help them.

And God said, Hmm, that would be you.

I was like, what are you talking about?

You know, like Willis back in the day, when you talk about God.

We just showed our age there.

Someone is going to go, what do

Yeah, I know.

Right.

I gave, I teed it up.

I teed it up.

but it was interesting because.

that was the moment where things shifted for me and I applied for one

job and I got a call from the CEO, executive director for Big Brothers,

Big Sisters, and she was a believer.

So God had this thing all kind of sorted out.

And she says to me, she said, Baron, I saw your resume and

if you, she said, opened it.

And it was 130 something applications or resumes.

And yours came opened up, you know, I saw yours and she said, the

Holy Spirit told me to call you.

And I was like, what?

You know, cause I'm just getting familiar with this whole notion of the Holy Spirit.

Right.

And so she calls me in, I go talk to her and she said, I don't know why

you, but you supposed to be here.

And that's the only job I applied for.

And I worked for big brothers, big sisters in South Carolina, North

Carolina for the next 20 years.

So that was my first kind of exposure to, giving back and God really taught

me empathy, which I did not have before.

I didn't care about anything but me.

And when I started seeing some of the challenges and issues that people

were having, I mean, real life issues.

I was like, whoa, this is some serious stuff.

And God just began to massage my heart and get me to a place

where I actually cared about other people and I wanted to help them.

And I got to a point where I started serving them, which was different, but

it was a, you know, a process for me.

One of the things that comes up often here when we talk

about this journey or leadership journey or whatever that people go on

Baron is we, we use this word.

I think it's thrown around a lot in our society and culture.

The word success, like we were talking about earlier, love,

you know, we're using some big

words here.

We've got philanthropy and legacy and all that.

Well, well, word success is something that we, it's fascinated me because

very similar to you, I think I was living for myself of the time.

And then when an event occurred for me, I don't think the Lord

brought it on, but I think he

used it to get

my attention.

It sounds like that's what happened with you.

So tell me, and it could be brief or, you know, we still have a few minutes.

How did you define success on?

And then if you could contrast it with how you define success now, as best

you can, you know, this could be a deeper question, but just contrast your

definitions of success over the last, you know, 20 years, you know, whatever,

go back and then compare it to today.

Success for, for me years ago was definitely money,

possessions and recognition.

You know, simple is that, my mother, passed away and before she passed

away, she, she struggled with, depression for a number of years.

God just healed her miraculously.

Her last several years, she was just at peace and happy.

as a matter of fact, I wrote her a poem called living free.

And as a result of that, I began to think about success very differently.

I was like, here, my mom is.

You know, she don't have a whole lot, but she was at peace and she was just as happy

and God had delivered her and healed her.

She was like a brand new person.

And I'm sitting here just kind of, you know, finished school by then

and went back to get my master's degree in trying to build businesses.

I'm like, I'm struggling.

I don't feel that same peace.

You know, and I started that process of redefining what success was for me.

And my son really helped me.

He was probably three years old and we were in the car one day.

And he said to me, we was out all day.

I mean, just literally all day going to parks and doing different stuff.

And we were going home.

He said, dad, what's next?

He said, what's next?

And I said, son, what are you talking about?

We've been gone all day.

We're going home.

He said, what's next?

And then God reminded me, he said, this is you.

This is your life.

You always talk about what's next.

You don't take time to appreciate the blessings, the

things I've helped you with.

I brought you through.

You just want to get to the next.

And I started Tim, that process of changing how I thought about success.

It wasn't about the next thing to conquer, but it was the focus on my family.

I say my relationship with God, my family and the community in which I serve.

And if I do those things.

I'm very successful.

I'm a very successful person, you know, because my family, they love me.

and they're happy and I served my community.

Well, I served my church well.

and and I served my clients well in business, and I think that's important.

So I feel like I am very successful.

I think that's good.

I we've interviewed, talked to a number of people where this comes up.

And what you

said, you said it in some different words, but it, it really is my story.

I think it's a lot of stories and and I've heard people say that they had

an addiction to more or someone worded

it, that they were actually addicted to tomorrow, which is what your

three year old son brought up to you.

It's like, You know, I remember our

daughter one time, we, you know, my wife and I are thinking we're at Disney world.

This is the greatest thing ever.

You know, they should be enjoying this.

And our daughter said something to the effect of where's our next vacation.

Yeah.

We're

Yeah.

Disney world here.

Come on,

I spent thousands of on this vacation.

let's enjoy the moment.

And, but you know what I think it's.

I think the enemy, I think that's the biggest thing that the enemy

does for people that are wired, that, that are wired like we are.

So let's shift a bit.

Let's move into this legacy conversation with what you're talking

about now that we've, I think we've laid a very good foundation for

talking about some of the practical things, because I think if people

don't get some of those items, this is

really just a spreadsheet type conversation.

And I don't think legacy is spreadsheet.

And I think I'm supposed to pause and let you respond to that.

So what would you like to say with that comment?

I just made that legacy isn't just about the spreadsheets.

Yeah.

Legacy.

I, when I first started talking about legacy, probably about two years

ago, I, when people hear the word legacy, they think about death, right?

They think about, like, what I need to do afterward or something.

And I remember, you know, having conversations with people and saying.

I want you to think about death, but just for a minute, because when

you think about death, hopefully it'll make you think about life.

And that's when we started having the conversation about live

your legacy, opposed to just.

you know, the legacy conversation and thinking about the afterward.

And so that live your legacy conversation that we have now is

what are you doing this moment today that will help you start, creating

the impact that you want to have.

And so when that dash, when you do get to the dash, right, and we all will get

to the dash, what do you want it to say?

And most of the time people are not thinking about it like that.

I was on a podcast with this young guy, business owner.

And when I met with him first, you know, you know, you had the pre conversation.

He said, Baron, it's all you want to talk about.

He said, that's all you got, you know, and I was like, kind of held back because it

was the first time I was doing a podcast, and, and during the conversation, after

the conversation, he was like, wow, he was like, I never thought about, he

said, I'm 27 years old, starting this company, and I never thought about it

from that perspective, and so we challenge even young people to think about how

you want to live your legacy right now.

The interesting thing about that is my wife and I, towards the tail

end of last year, we were recording this in, you know, I guess early or mid spring

ish of, of 2024 tail end of last year, we kept feeling the nudge that the Lord

wanted us to understand the word eternity.

More or better.

I don't think our human minds could ever grasp it on this side,

on this realm that we're in and,

and what you're talking about is thinking more, you know, not in the negative

way we were talking about earlier of kind of being addicted to tomorrow or

addicted to what's next, but, but thinking more long term, bigger picture, what's

beyond me and, and a lot of people.

We'll think this is money and financial.

And so why don't we for a few minutes here, go ahead and talk about

the money in the financial piece.

I know as a philanthropic, you know, coach and as you know, with, with giving

and all that, that money's part of it.

So let's go ahead and just lay that on the table, talk about

money and how it fits in with this.

Yeah.

And so money is, as you know, Tim, it's just a vehicle, right?

It's just a vehicle, a tool that we can, we can use, for a variety of things.

I choose to help people focus on, helping others with it.

Right.

And so we do work with financial advisors and we work with estate planners and

attorneys because, the bottom line is.

People want to pay less taxes, right?

Because Uncle Sam is going to get 40%.

and that's the bottom line, right?

And so I would rather show you help you prepare, and reduce those

taxes and feel good about it.

And a lot of times that's what financial advisors talk to me.

They said, you know, bear, I have this person who is, I

mean, making a lot of money.

They don't have time to do philanthropy stuff.

I was like, they need to make time, you know, because if not, they're just

giving that money away to Uncle Sam.

And I'm sure Sam loves to get it.

But there's some organizations out there, that could use it.

And so we help them, you know, we go behind the veil, so to speak, and we

help them create their philanthropic why.

Because that's part of the big challenge.

Right.

They don't know the issues that they care about.

Because I didn't care about no issues.

You know, you asked me 25 years ago or so.

I'm like, I don't know what I care about.

and just because people have some resources or you don't have resources,

you might not have any issues that that's really important to you that you really

care about or want to invest your time, your talent, or your treasure with.

And so we help them discover that.

And once they discover that and start getting empowered by that,

We helped them create their mission and their vision around it.

we created years ago.

One of the best things we did was create a mission for our family, right?

And this is the thing that guides us as a family.

25 years later, 26 years later, it guides us.

And so we want that same mission and vision to guide our clients in terms of.

What they want to do philanthropically.

And then we put a whole strategic plan together and we have a team of

researchers and they research for for us.

I mean, for the for them.

We know people don't have a lot of time.

They're not thinking about philanthropy.

We talked about that at the onset of the show, right?

But we want them to carve out some time, but we're going to take the time

to help them do the due diligence.

And that's really important.

The word.

We've been using big words there, right?

Due diligence is important because we take the burden off of them

and remove some of those barriers and do all the work for them.

But we empower them with the information that we have so they can make the

decision that aligns with their deepest

Right.

So Baron, do you, the first thing that.

Kind of came to mind when you were talking about the need to understand

their mission or their vision.

I do wonder how many people really understand where they

would like those resources to go.

I mean, I, I guess maybe this is I'll, I'll pose it in the form of a question.

How many people that come to you say, listen, we want to support Blank.

We, we want to help eradicate sex trafficking, just as an example.

And we want, you know, 80 percent of our financial resources to go towards that.

To me, my guess is most people that come to you haven't gotten anywhere

near defining something like that.

Would that be correct?

Right.

That would be correct.

and a lot of times, even when people have, and the research says, if people have

donate advised funds, right, those are funds that you can put away, get the tax

break, and they just kind of sit there.

and part of the challenge is that, people have with donate advised

fund, the money is accumulating, but they're not giving it away.

and they supposed to, because that's a part of this, tax benefit.

and so we help even those people who say, man, I have this money

just kind of sitting there.

What can I do with it?

And if, if they have a vehicle, at least.

They are ready to have that conversation.

and 75 percent of the people who at least have some kind of vehicle, it

could be a foundation like we have, or it could be a donated advice fund.

They're ready now to at least have a conversation about

where we want to put the money.

So there's two, two issues.

The first one I mentioned is they don't know issues they care about.

And then secondly, they don't know where the money is going to go.

Right.

So let's talk about where the money goes.

I love talking structure.

I had a trust conversation with a client that I work with yesterday.

done a lot of real estate and I'm not a

lawyer, not an accountant, but I know way too much about this stuff.

We actually, our family has a family foundation.

Also, I noticed that you've got a foundation.

We're not going to go into details on them, but just

talk about some of the, the tools or structures that, and we're probably

going to give people enough information to say, I got to talk to Barron

here, but what are some of them?

We mentioned foundation, which, you know, it can be a 501 C3.

It can be an operating or whatever, but talk about some of those, just

kind of lay a few of those out for us.

So I think the one that's most popular that I just mentioned, the

donor advised fund, and you can start those funds with, we started with 5, 000.

My wife got a bonus on her job and we decided that we were going to put

that 5, 000 in and it removed some of the, The work for that particular

philanthropist or donor because they don't have to worry about from a tax

perspective, they, that, that organization where they put the money in, they

do all the back office stuff, right?

So at the end of the year, they send you the receipts, all the information,

but you just go online and select the nonprofit that you want to support.

And they've done some due diligence, not like what we do, but at least they know

if that organization is a legal 501c3.

and then you have more advanced vehicles like a charitable lead trust.

You know, that's something that, people can take advantage of where, you know,

for 20 years, your family members, beneficiaries can get the money.

And then, for the next, however much money you have, a nonprofit could be

designated to get that money, right?

That's a, that's a wonderful vehicle.

If you want to go that route, a But you can also do something like a, a channel

remainder trust where the nonprofit gets the remainder of the money up front.

And so there's different ways I was reading.

I'm actually taking my, my license, my life and health

insurance license right now.

and I was reading about annuities.

I was like, Ooh, I gotta be able to tell my clients about there's some annuities

that you can use for charitable giving.

And so all of those, all of those are wonderful opportunities.

to, you know, do philanthropic giving through those

Sure.

And those are things that people probably have interest is.

Peaked.

They need to gather more information.

I think one thing I'd love to do here in our last few minutes, Baron,

is I'd love for you to speak to someone who is, they're listening

in and they're intrigued, but they don't really know how to get started.

Maybe that means pick up the phone and call you, but let's

just assume that they're, they may not think they're ready for that.

And they just want to kind of start getting in the mindset or getting some

practical things going along just to get started with this, philanthropic mindset

and also what, what could you tell people maybe a few tips or just some get started

items to think in a philanthropic way,

The first thing I would say, and Tim, I will send you a free PDF that,

you know, I love to give to people because I always say, if you don't work with me,

if you give, I'm still benefiting, right?

I don't know who you're giving to, but I'm still benefiting because I'm

a philanthropist and I love mankind.

Right.

so the first thing they can do is decide what does you care about?

That's the number one thing you can do.

You can do some soul searching around that area.

What are some of the things, you may not even think about that you care about it,

but something maybe that irritates you.

You know, and sometime it comes through irritation.

You're like, I really don't like this particular thing.

That's something that you actually care about and start

exploring that a little bit more.

And then once you kind of figure that out, start doing

your research on the nonprofit.

and making sure the last thing you want to do is just like any investment, you

don't want to give your money away to an organization that's not going to value it

and they're not going to use it properly.

And sometimes, Matter of fact, I just had an article published, just

found out today that was published.

This is why nonprofits are good unless you've been catfished, right?

So, there's a lot of uncertainty out there.

Fifty one percent of the people say I don't give because I don't trust them.

I don't trust nonprofits.

And those are the two things you can do.

Figure out the, what you really care about and then do the research.

Or you can, if you have some money you want to donate, you can go, to

one of the, the community foundations and talk to somebody about opening

up, a DAAF, a Donate Advise Fund.

And that's a good way to kind of get started because at least

you can have it sitting there.

You know, because you've made that commitment to give it and say, you

know, I'm gonna put 5, 000, 10, 000.

I'm not sure exactly yet what I want to do, but at least I have

some time to start giving it away.

But once you put that money, it's irrevocable.

So it's not like, Oh, I changed my mind.

Let me get that back out and do something else with it.

That ain't happening.

so at least you can kind of lead with that.

And that will spur you on to, to make that decision about, starting

your philanthropic journey.

Great tips there, Baron, I appreciate that, especially for the

person that may not have even thought about any of that before this call.

If someone says they want to work with you or get more info from

you, where do you want them to go?

Direct them wherever this is where you could promote whatever you need to.

And if you do have a

PDF and we may include a link or something down in the notes, but

anything like that, share that now.

You can reach, reach me at baron damon.

com real simple, baron damon.

com or go to LinkedIn baron, Jay Damon, you can find me there and I respond

pretty quick and we'll, connect with you.

You can go to our website, business of life, right?

cc.

com as well.

but those are three main ways that you can get in contact with us.

Very good.

We'll include all that.

Make sure you reach out to Baron.

If you are intrigued or want to learn more Baron, we're seek go create

those three words, I'm either going to force or allow you to choose one of

those over the other two as my final question, seek, go or create and why.

I would say go and I would say go because this philanthropic

journey that I'm on, it's, it's my, my mission to go, you know, as the Bible

says, go out into the highways and the byways and share, share the gospel.

And we want to share the gospel.

We also want to talk to people the importance of giving, because

we see that through, through the Bible, all through the Bible.

And the greatest gift that was given to us was.

God's son, Jesus who died on the cross for us.

There's no greater gift.

And so I even talk about that when, you know, when I can, that great gift.

And we have a responsibility, to teach and share with the next generation,

how important it is to give back.

So I would say go into all the nations.

I appreciate that Baron.

I've enjoyed the conversation.

I loved, loved the money morning manna conversation.

We have loved

the conversation about giving and philanthropic giving and things like that.

I appreciate you joining us here.

Make sure you check out all Baron's.

Barron stuff.

We are SeatGoCreate.

We release new episodes here every Monday on YouTube and

your favorite podcast platform.

Your support does mean the world to us.

If you like what we're doing here, we invite you to support us

and you could do it financially.

Just go to SeatGoCreate.

com forward slash support.

And there's places there where you can make contributions for as little as 1.

Or as much as you would like, since we've been talking about giving, you can just be

in that giving mode and give some to, to what we're doing here at seek, go create.

You can also leave comments there that we love to get from you.

Make sure you visit seek, go create.

com forward slash support until next time.

We appreciate you being here until next time.

Continue being all that you were created to be.