Friendship Bench. We Forget Human Connections Offline. Danny Brown

“Always stand up before you flush.” Humanitarian Danny Brown promotes the welfare of non-profits. His work is known worldwide. While observing an older woman in a cafe a spark was lit within his soul. Danny says that ‘we forget human connections offline.’ What do you observe when you are out and about ‘offline’? Be still and let your soul catch up.

Transcript
Catherine:

Hello, this is Catherine, your host of the podcast, your positive imprint, the variety

Catherine:

show, featuring people all over the world whose positive actions are inspiring positive achievements.

Catherine:

Exceptional people are rising to the challenge.

Catherine:

Music by Chris Nole.

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ChrisNole.com.

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C H R I S N O L E.

Catherine:

My website, yourpositiveimprint.com.

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And of course you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram or connect with me on LinkedIn.

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Listen to my podcast from any podcast platform, apple podcast, Google podcast, iHeartRadio,

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Spotify Podbean, or of course your favorite podcast platform, your positive imprint.

Catherine:

What's your P.I.?

Catherine:

'Do not judge by appearance.

Catherine:

A rich heart may be under a poor coat,' a Scottish proverb..What is it that you

Catherine:

observe when you are on a walk or shopping?

Catherine:

Do you think about the people whom you observe?

Catherine:

What comes to your mind and through your own soul?

Catherine:

Well, Danny Brown of Scotland is inspired by those around him, but not his friends and

Catherine:

colleagues alone, but by those he observes or meets through eye contact or a friendly head nod.

Catherine:

Part of being a proud Scott is to listen to the silence, be still and let your soul catch up.

Catherine:

His work for those in need, non-profits, is globally known and his famous quote resonates worldwide.

Catherine:

And I absolutely love this quote.

Catherine:

'We forget human connections offline'.

Catherine:

His soul was touched by a woman he observed eating ice cream.

Catherine:

Danny Brown.

Catherine:

I'm so anxious to hear your story.

Catherine:

And of course your positive imprints.

Catherine:

Welcome to the show.

Catherine:

Thank you Catherine.

Danny Brown:

And that's quite the entry you have that down, pat.

Danny Brown:

Whenever I do a podcast, I have to do like an intro 10 or 20 times, and then maybe get one snippet.

Danny Brown:

So I was pretty impressed.

Danny Brown:

Listen to you.

Catherine:

Oh, well, it's, it's about you and, and, , I love, I love featuring people like

Catherine:

you and, and having you share your stories and of course, positive imprints and inspiring

Catherine:

others so that they can go out and do the same.

Catherine:

So how are you today there?

Danny Brown:

I am good.

Danny Brown:

Thank you.

Danny Brown:

I'm in the Muskoka, , area of Canada, Ontario, Canada.

Danny Brown:

So we get a lot of snow and cold which is one of the reasons we moved here, , to get that proper winter.

Catherine:

Let's hear a little bit more about you.

Catherine:

I was on your podcast and that's how I met you.

Catherine:

And you also unbeknownst to me work for captivate FM, Mark Asquith'scompany, which is a podcast host.

Danny Brown:

That's correct.

Danny Brown:

We host the audio file is also help you distribute the show.

Danny Brown:

Promote, it , et cetera, for that.

Danny Brown:

Yeah.

Danny Brown:

Mark speaks highly of you as well.

Danny Brown:

I told him when you were on my show, I spoke to him about it and he says, oh yeah, Catherine's awesome.

Danny Brown:

Catherine's great people.

Danny Brown:

So you've got a big fan there.

Catherine:

Oh, that's so sweet.

Catherine:

Well, he and I have a very good working relationship and I absolutely love his input.

Catherine:

, I so much appreciate him.

Catherine:

And I appreciate you, and that you're on the team.

Catherine:

So, I think that, people would love to hear a little bit about the culture of Scotland.

, Danny Brown:

yeah.

, Danny Brown:

I mean, Scotland is a weird place.

, Danny Brown:

I'm sure like any country in the world, it's it's very much broken down into areas.

, Danny Brown:

So you have the lowlands, which is the, the border area, you know, border on England.

, Danny Brown:

Uh, you have the Midlands, uh, which is where I'm kind of from, from Edinburgh.

, Danny Brown:

And then you have the Highlands.

, Danny Brown:

So you get up into the likes of Inverness sky and all the islands beyond that, uh, Eila where the

, Danny Brown:

make amazing whiskey single-malt whiskey, um, and each, each section has its own little subsections.

, Danny Brown:

So you have in Midlands, you've got Adam Rover.

, Danny Brown:

Inaudible.

, Danny Brown:

It's a big sort of unspoken of rivalry there between which is the true capital of Scotland

, Danny Brown:

official Edinburgh but most people think is Glasgow.

, Danny Brown:

Um, so it's, it's interesting.

, Danny Brown:

And then I lived into borders for about 10 years.

, Danny Brown:

My parents moved down to the, the borders when I was 11, 12 year old.

, Danny Brown:

And I sorta went to high school there and sort of grew, went from my teenage.

, Danny Brown:

Uh, there before I left Scotland about 20, 21 and moved to England to, to work, et cetera.

, Catherine:

what are some of the things that you absolutely love about being a Scot?

Danny Brown:

Um, so, so the funny thing is , I also have a Scottish accent.

Danny Brown:

But I find it so soft compared to a lot of accents that you can hear.

Danny Brown:

And I certainly stronger accent when I was younger.

Danny Brown:

, Edinburgh Edinburghen Glaswegian accent is very similar as you grown up.

Danny Brown:

, Glaswegian is stronger.

Danny Brown:

It's more guttural if you like.

Danny Brown:

But as you've grown up as a kid in Edinburgh, depending on which part of Edinburgh you live in

Danny Brown:

it can also be pretty strong, but I found it's gotten softer over the years because I've been

Danny Brown:

around in different countries and different places and, and you, you adapt with people.

Danny Brown:

People can understand what you're saying.

Danny Brown:

Um, but I think that's one of the bonuses of being Scottish is it's similar as one

Danny Brown:

of the most trusted accents globally.

Danny Brown:

So when you hear people speaking and you hear a Scottish accent and it's trustworthy like

Danny Brown:

the Irish, uh, I think is trustworthy, , so there's various accents across the world.

Danny Brown:

And it also helps spark up conversation because people say, oh, where are you from?

Danny Brown:

So that's a good icebreaker

Danny Brown:

. Catherine: It is an icebreaker and that's

Danny Brown:

our countries, our cultures, ourselves that is, is so absolutely wonderful.

Danny Brown:

, and something to be said for educating others as well in acceptance of each other.

Danny Brown:

We're going to get started unless you have anything else that you wanted to share about Scotland,

Danny Brown:

Uh, no, it it's funny.

Danny Brown:

You mentioned acceptance though, because one of the reasons, , I moved from Scotland to

Danny Brown:

England at the time was I was finding that the environment around me was becoming very

Danny Brown:

toxic, , very racist against England of all places.

Danny Brown:

There was a lot of nationalism coming to the Scottish, or the mindset because of what had been

Danny Brown:

happened during the Margaret Thatcher years, , and, seventies and eighties, in the UK and how that impacted

Danny Brown:

Scotland with stuff like the poll tax, et cetera.

Danny Brown:

So long story short, it was becoming a very toxic place, a toxic environment, and I

Danny Brown:

couldn't buy into that.

Danny Brown:

, it didn't feel right.

Danny Brown:

And so that was one of the reasons I moved up.

Catherine:

I think it's so fitting because I use that Scottish proverb in

Catherine:

the beginning, do not judge by appearance.

Catherine:

A rich heart may be under a poor coat.

Catherine:

Danny brown left Scotland and eventually made his way to his new home in Canada.

Catherine:

While visiting Niagara falls with his wife, Danny noticed a woman eating an ice cream cone in a cafe.

Catherine:

He watched her and even after leaving the cafe.

Catherine:

He could not get her off his mind.

Catherine:

This one observation changed his life.

Catherine:

Forever.

Danny Brown:

On my, , my 30th birthday my wife took me to Niagara falls, , I moved to Canada when I was 37.

Danny Brown:

It was an amazing weekend.

Danny Brown:

We did all the touristy things.

Danny Brown:

We went under the waterfall, everything was amazing.

Danny Brown:

Uh, and so it was just on the last day we were having some breakfast.

Danny Brown:

I think we had gone to a diner for some late breakfast, and preparation for coming back home.

Danny Brown:

And we just sat there, uh, talking away and diner was pretty busy and I noticed that an older lady to

Danny Brown:

me, maybe at the time she was older or looked older.

Danny Brown:

, but she came in and she sat down and got a little coffee and she had an ice cream.

Danny Brown:

Um, and she just sat there . All by her own.

Danny Brown:

For whatever reason.

Danny Brown:

It just, it caught my eye that of all the hustle and bustle there was this

Danny Brown:

lady, eating an ice cream on her own.

Danny Brown:

, I I'd like to think of myself as someone that, that you mentioned a little about, you know,

Danny Brown:

connecting with people and, and sparking up conversations, et cetera, or getting to know people.

Danny Brown:

But at that time I didn't, I, I didn't go over to say hi, you know, how's life, et cetera.

Danny Brown:

And it bugged me all the way home.

Danny Brown:

It bugged me that nothing was said.

Danny Brown:

And I, I wondered about the story of this lady sitting on her own in a packed dining area.

Danny Brown:

in a packed restaurant.

Danny Brown:

So I spoke to my wife about it, and I think, the, the thing that really bugged me about not initiating

Danny Brown:

any conversation, I'm one of these people like to sit down on a park bench and a wide open park in

Danny Brown:

the summer and just people watch and watch and go by , and make up, I don't know if you've ever done

Danny Brown:

it, but make up little stories about their lives.

Danny Brown:

Complete Balderdash.

Danny Brown:

And so I was thinking about this lady afterwards and I was thinking, well, maybe she was in there

Danny Brown:

because possible her husband had just passed or maybe it's a place that has certain memories for her.

Danny Brown:

Oh a hundred other reasons that she was there on her own.

Danny Brown:

. , and the more I thought about it, the more I got frustrated, I hadn't got across because at that

Danny Brown:

time I was really into blogging and my blog was very much about the community, like the online community.

Danny Brown:

We should all be connected and we should all welcome each other.

Danny Brown:

But I didn't do that for this, this lady.

Danny Brown:

, so for whatever reason, I was thinking about that.

Danny Brown:

, and I was, I'd been giving to various charities at that time.

Danny Brown:

, I know a lot of people in the nonprofit charity space, um, but it struck me that it was easy for me to do

Danny Brown:

something like give, but that's a single transaction.

Danny Brown:

There's no follow on.

Danny Brown:

There's no tangible effort that you're putting in.

Danny Brown:

You could automate it from your bank account and never know where the money

Danny Brown:

is gone or who's benefiting from it.

Danny Brown:

So I think there was a whole bunch of things came together that just tied in at the right time.

Danny Brown:

And I thought, you know what I've got at the time, I had a fairly decent presence on social media.

Danny Brown:

, I was in the fortunate position of having a voice and a platform where I sort of of influence other people,

Danny Brown:

if you'd like for one of a better word or description.

Danny Brown:

So speaking to my non-profit friends, I was just curious what their biggest problem

Danny Brown:

was when it came to the nonprofit world.

Danny Brown:

And the biggest problem was getting donations because of all the admin side

Danny Brown:

and how difficult it was to get people

Danny Brown:

to donate because of the, the red tape and the loops you had to go through and how to reach these

Danny Brown:

people because traditionally at that time, uh, this was back in the very early days of social media.

Danny Brown:

Traditionally people would bang on the door or stand on street corners or down in shopping Plaza.

Danny Brown:

And basically

Danny Brown:

trying to collect donations.

Danny Brown:

And that does so much, but I'm with social media and the opportunities that had, there

Danny Brown:

was a huge opportunity to cut a lot of that and really connect the potential donor with the

Danny Brown:

organization and really help the organization get their story across in a really human way

Danny Brown:

that touches more than just 50 people on a shopping Plaza or the odd person walking down the street.

Danny Brown:

So, so that's where that really came about.

Danny Brown:

Um, and as I thought more about it, that's where the, the 12 for 12 K project, , came about

Danny Brown:

back in late 2008 and then launched in 2009.

Catherine:

The lady eating the ice cream cone will never know the positive

Catherine:

imprint she instilled in Danny that day.

Catherine:

Danny worked hard and became known as the one man who used social media to raise

Catherine:

$91,000 for charities around the world.

Danny Brown:

That's 12 for 12.

Danny Brown:

I actually, the journalist that wrote the piece, I actually reached out because the article title I

Danny Brown:

felt was misleading because it was very much a team.

Danny Brown:

Yes.

Danny Brown:

I, I kicked off the project and I was the, the figurehead, if you like, but it was very

Danny Brown:

much a team that was a core team of us of eight people that were all volunteers and

Danny Brown:

every single person had their own strengths.

Danny Brown:

So I had John Hayden who sadly passed from cancer a couple of years back.

Danny Brown:

He was my go-to for my nonprofit expertise.

Danny Brown:

He's amazing.

Danny Brown:

And John Hayden's hugely respected in the nonprofit world.

Danny Brown:

Amazing guy.

Danny Brown:

, Susan Murphy, over an Ottawa.

Danny Brown:

She did all the, the videos with Cheryl Game, and Rachel Key, who she did all the PR and communications.

Danny Brown:

So it was huge team that does.

Danny Brown:

And then you had the, the supporters themselves.

Danny Brown:

And what I liked about the 12 for 12K project is , you could donate as little or as much as you wanted.

Danny Brown:

There was no minimal effort.

Danny Brown:

We want the buy-in to be easy.

Danny Brown:

And if you couldn't donate it because you were under your own hard times, just help be a blogger, a blog

Danny Brown:

partner, , share the charities on social media, get your social media and online community involved.

Danny Brown:

so there was a huge team and community behind it, and I felt the, as much as the article really

Danny Brown:

helped focus attention on the project I thought it was a bit disingenuous to the rest of the team.

Danny Brown:

So unfortunate that title is still there, but it was very much a team effort.

Catherine:

I love that you explained.

Catherine:

It I so appreciate that you're sharing and that you are inspiring others to also see that view because

Catherine:

positive imprints come from every authentic person.

Catherine:

So could you for listeners explain the 12 for 12 K

Danny Brown:

yeah, for sure.

Danny Brown:

The 12 to 12 K project, the idea was to create, an ongoing, uh, non-profit or charitable

Danny Brown:

initiative, over the course of 12 months.

Danny Brown:

And we'd pick 12 charities with the goal of raising, $12,000 for each charity.

Danny Brown:

So you've got your 12 charities, 12 months $12,000.

Danny Brown:

So that's kind of the 12 for 12 K idea.

Danny Brown:

And the idea behind it is to purely raise donations and raise awareness using social media.

Danny Brown:

And having a , a core website so the 12 or 12 K website where everything sort of came into and we, we

Danny Brown:

shared what the new charities were, how to support, how to get involved on a local level, et cetera.

Danny Brown:

And then we use a little platform called chippin, which, you know, things that aren't

Danny Brown:

anymore, but it was really effective at the time.

Danny Brown:

Chipping as a, like a payment gateway for nonprofits if you like that, you could

Danny Brown:

essentially embed on your website and people could use that with either credit card orPaypal

Danny Brown:

to make donations to the charity.

Danny Brown:

And the great thing with chippin is it allowed you to have a running total of how much you'd raised that

Danny Brown:

month for that charity, but everything went straight to the charities, financial income, if you like.

Danny Brown:

So there was no middleman.

Danny Brown:

There was no admin from our side..

Danny Brown:

It made it really simple.

Danny Brown:

And the fact that you could see how much was raised was a, a great visual cue for us to,

Danny Brown:

to try raise more awareness, to get more, donations or whatever for that particular month.

Danny Brown:

So it was, it was cool to just use social media and we create a lot of sort of a frame for your

Danny Brown:

social media avatars that mentioned 12 for 12 K

Danny Brown:

and that got a lot of buzz online.

Danny Brown:

People were asking what it was and once they started asking, you could explain, they got real

Danny Brown:

interested in what it's not how they could help.

Danny Brown:

So, because social media was so nascent at that time, I think it was done at the right time.

Danny Brown:

I don't think something like that today with all the different platforms and

Danny Brown:

all the different ways you can do stuff

Danny Brown:

I don't think it would have had the same effect as something that was, ah, the early days.

Danny Brown:

And probably one of the first sort of, nonprofit initiatives the sole use social media.

Danny Brown:

So I think we were more fortunate in the time and, and the limited platforms that

Danny Brown:

were available with that time as well.

Danny Brown:

We learned a lot of mistakes going along.

Danny Brown:

We'd never done it before.

Danny Brown:

Like I mentioned, we had John who was our nonprofit expert.

Danny Brown:

But even John had limitations, as to knowledge for certain areas or certain or

Danny Brown:

non-profits, so we'll learn by mistakes as well.

Danny Brown:

And how we approached, fundraising campaigns, how we approached promoting how we approach creating

Danny Brown:

media, how we approached, , taking donations.

Danny Brown:

And so there was a lot of things that people learn from.

Danny Brown:

I know, John heard from, non-profit organizations that had watched the 12 for 12

Danny Brown:

K project and had adapted some of our stuff.

Danny Brown:

So for example, for , , the 'no kid hungry'.

Danny Brown:

I think it's 'no kid hungry' campaign in the U S um, we Tweeted nonstop.

Danny Brown:

We got a gentleman in Canada called Scott Stratton who tweeted nonstop for 12 hours.

Danny Brown:

Uh, got a lot of his connections to donate prizes like iPods and, you know, video cameras and stuff.

Danny Brown:

It was amazing what he did.

Danny Brown:

And you start to see more 'Tweeter-thons' after that, that event.

Danny Brown:

That 12 hour event raised about $15,000 for the 'no kid hungry' charity in one day.

Danny Brown:

So it was, it was crazy.

Danny Brown:

It was amazing.

Danny Brown:

So I, I know in speaking to people that it certainly helped pave the way for some, I think some would

Danny Brown:

already been thinking about it anyway, in the mobile land, from our mistakes and made it, made it

Danny Brown:

better with their own stuff, but it's cool to see.

Danny Brown:

And 12 to 12 K was inspired, by a wonderful woman called Stacey in the U S

Danny Brown:

uh, I forget her sur name unfortunately.

Danny Brown:

It's been a while since we've connected.

Danny Brown:

um but she had , an online platfrom

Danny Brown:

purely using Twitter, that raise awareness for various non-profits and organizations,

Danny Brown:

but she was more solely dedicated to Africa.

Danny Brown:

And, uh, the kids growing up in Africa, , that needed schools and libraries, , and

Danny Brown:

buildings and fresh water, et cetera.

Danny Brown:

I saw that and I got inspired . So I think everybody gets pulled something from somewhere.

Danny Brown:

, tweetsgiving.org was the organization that was all Thanksgiving month of November in the U S.

Catherine:

We all have something in our souls that lights a spark to become motivated.

Catherine:

Sometimes that inspiration comes from our experiences.

Catherine:

And those experiences may be positive in nature, but we also learn from our struggles

Catherine:

or even struggles of those around us.

Catherine:

One of Danny's many positive imprints was building a friendship bench for his community.

Danny Brown:

Yeah.

Danny Brown:

So the friendship bench came about, through a personal tragedy of a close friend, , Sam Fiorella.

Danny Brown:

And he lost his son to depression.

Danny Brown:

, he was 19 year old and he took his own life in 2014, I think

Danny Brown:

. And nobody knew that it was depressed.

Danny Brown:

He was a bright, bubbly, outgoing person.

Danny Brown:

, he was getting great grades at college.

Danny Brown:

Everybody spoke highly of him, , and he seemed very happy.

Danny Brown:

Like a lot of people that suffer from depression, it was eaten away at him inside

Danny Brown:

and he didn't publicly acknowledge it.

Danny Brown:

So unfortunately he, he took his own life.

Danny Brown:

, so that also had a huge impact on Sam and his family.

Danny Brown:

, and when at the funeral of Lucas, who was a young, the young kid took his life other kids

Danny Brown:

that went to university with Lucas went up to Sam and his wife to tell them how Lucas had reached

Danny Brown:

out, in the corridors of university or whatever.

Danny Brown:

There was some like almost whether it was an empath or something, you had to sum any (inaudible)

Danny Brown:

knowledge that something was wrong with this person.

Danny Brown:

So he would reach out and, just say, 'hello, how are you doing?' You know, and just talk about anything.

Danny Brown:

And through that, he learned that they're suffering from depression or

Danny Brown:

thinking about taking their own lives.

Danny Brown:

And so he'd stay with them.

Danny Brown:

He'd he talked to them, he'd encourage them to get help and they'd get help.

Danny Brown:

And so, at Lucas's funeral, a lot of these kids from the university came up and told Sam this.

Danny Brown:

And this, this was amazing to hear because A.

Danny Brown:

, nobody knew that Lucas was suffering, but B to know that he'd himself saved a bunch of lives

Danny Brown:

through the single action of just saying 'hello'.

Danny Brown:

It was incredible, inspiring to hear.

Danny Brown:

So we wanted to, to continue that legacy.

Danny Brown:

So what we did is we, we came up with the idea of the 'Friendship Bench.'And this would be a

Danny Brown:

bright yellow bench that sits on campus as a focal point to remind you to speak about your

Danny Brown:

mental health and that it's okay to not be okay.

Danny Brown:

And that you're not alone.

Danny Brown:

There are people here that are going through the same things as you or , can help you not

Danny Brown:

overcome, but, but deal with what you're going through better and understand it's natural.

Danny Brown:

And this is how you can cope.

Danny Brown:

And these are the daily things you can do, et cetera.

Danny Brown:

So the 'Friendship Bench'was born.

Danny Brown:

And it wasn't meant to be a bench where you sit

Danny Brown:

to say I'm suffering from mental health issues.

Danny Brown:

We didn't want to make it a focal point and it could lead to potential bullying or, people being

Danny Brown:

sarcastic - oh look, somebody's sitting there.

Danny Brown:

They're not right in the head or whatever.

Danny Brown:

We don't want to make it like that.

Danny Brown:

It just needs to be a focal point to say there's people on campus that can help.

Danny Brown:

All you need to do, come back to Lucas's approach is say 'hello', and that's the whole campaign.

Danny Brown:

We built a campaign out of it called 'yellow is for hello'.

Danny Brown:

So if you see a yellow bench, you know it's okay to say hello, and either open up yourself or

Danny Brown:

just check in on your roommate, check in on your classmates, check in on your friends on other

Danny Brown:

campuses and just ask them how they're doing.

Danny Brown:

Let's spark a conversation about mental health and mental health issues amongst the youth.

Danny Brown:

Because in Canada, teenage suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst, 18 to 25 year olds.

Danny Brown:

And it's, it's crazy.

Danny Brown:

It's, it's scared of the numbers.

Danny Brown:

Um, so this is where we sort of, we built the friendshipbench.org organization,

Danny Brown:

and the, the impact is as being

Danny Brown:

amazing.

Danny Brown:

There's about on average, it's about an 18% increase on- so on campuses that have the

Danny Brown:

'yellow bench' installed was about an 18% increase in kids coming forward and speaking

Danny Brown:

to someone, it could be a health counselor.

Danny Brown:

It could be the teacher, the friend, but there's been that rise.

Danny Brown:

We've also seen uh, Uh, really cool mental wellness features being installed on these

Danny Brown:

campuses to compliment what they already have.

Danny Brown:

And it's just, again, it's a way to continue the conversation and make sure that nobody ever feels

Danny Brown:

alone, you know, especially college and university, which can be a stressful time as it is without life

Danny Brown:

that we have to deal with at themoment as well.

Catherine:

And there is a lot of life that we are dealing with.

Catherine:

So has the 'friendship bench' gone global, so are our other universities, or even other organizations

Catherine:

across the world, putting up these yellow benches?

Danny Brown:

So at the moment, it's just Canada only.

Danny Brown:

Um, it's, uh, again, it's a purely volunteer driven organization.

Danny Brown:

There's no funding behind it or anything.

Danny Brown:

We do it on top of our normal day jobs.

Danny Brown:

So it's purely Canada based, but we do offer templates.

Danny Brown:

We've got a couple of people in the U S I've taken a template and they're doing similar

Danny Brown:

in the U S where they're creating a program around it.

Danny Brown:

And it may not be the bench.

Danny Brown:

It may be like, um, one of the things that we saw, which was really cool in some of

Danny Brown:

the campuses was having a yellow wall.

Danny Brown:

And on the yellow wall, you would put post-it notes or stickers or whatever of positive messages.

Danny Brown:

So it could be, you know, you're not alone.

Danny Brown:

And again, it's just a visual focal point that really lets people know, you know, I'm not alone.

Danny Brown:

So we're seeing that adapted, uh, some colleges and campuses outside of Canada.

Danny Brown:

We'd love to be global

Danny Brown:

. Realistically speaking, we'll probably stick

Danny Brown:

Right.

Danny Brown:

We'll probably stick with Canada, but we're more than happy to advise if you like, or,

Danny Brown:

or help colleges outside of Canada get a similar program set up for their, their campus.

Catherine:

That's one of the positive things about getting messages out via podcasts.

Catherine:

Your message is there.

Catherine:

There's people all over the world who work at universities.

Catherine:

Maybe that is something that will spark their soul, their interest, and

Catherine:

bring about their own friendship bench.

Catherine:

It's providing an outlet and, that's something that has been missing that is still missing because we don't

Catherine:

know how to target these folks because they are so

Catherine:

depressed inside and we don't know it.

Catherine:

Thank you so much for sharing that and for taking the steps with the team to move

Catherine:

forward with the friendship bench and.

Catherine:

You don't have to talk about this, Danny, but I know that you could have been a statistic.

Danny Brown:

No, that's true.

Danny Brown:

Yeah.

Danny Brown:

I, I, um, I attempted to take my own life when I was 19.

Danny Brown:

So the three co-founders of the 'friendship bench', their son, two lost his son.

Danny Brown:

There's myself and then Robert, who attempted to take his life at 19.

Danny Brown:

So yeah, I did that at 19.

Danny Brown:

Thankfully my sister found me, got me to the hospital and here I am today.

Danny Brown:

Um, yeah, so, yeah.

Danny Brown:

It took me a long time to be public about that.

Danny Brown:

I, I did a blog post, they think 10 years ago, maybe, uh, for a friend of mine

Danny Brown:

in the U S Sarah Robinson, who's got

Danny Brown:

I think she's still got the blog.

Danny Brown:

Um, but at the same should a blog or a website that was about, um, positive stories of redemption.

Danny Brown:

I'm sure I gave the description wrong.

Danny Brown:

So Sarah, if you're listening to this, I do apologize.

Danny Brown:

We got talking and this came out and she asked me to share that and it got such a huge

Danny Brown:

reception, where people opened up and talked about their own struggles that they

Danny Brown:

had gone through or were going through.

Danny Brown:

And I think that's when it, it made me realize that, you know holding it inside it doesn't help anybody.

Danny Brown:

It doesn't help you because you've got this like guilty, dirty secret, if you like.

Danny Brown:

Um, and that, again, that's the goal with the 'friendship bench' to show that, you know, there

Danny Brown:

is absolutely no shame in not feeling okay.

Danny Brown:

And if you need somebody to talk to.

Danny Brown:

One of the things I, like, you mentioned podcasts, Catherine.

Danny Brown:

One of the things I like about today's world is we do have access to various

Danny Brown:

medias, platforms and technology.

Danny Brown:

Uh, so one of the cool things that happens when you go to the friendship bench

Danny Brown:

website, for example, whether you're on your desktop or your smartphone is it'll ping.

Danny Brown:

It asks you , if we can have your IP, like your address, what location you're at.

Danny Brown:

Um, uh, so then what we'll do is there's an interactive map on the website

Danny Brown:

and if you all have access to your IP, we'll ping where you are on the map, and we'll

Danny Brown:

bring up the nearest, , resources for you.

Danny Brown:

There could be health clinics, the on-campus support team, et cetera.

Danny Brown:

So it's a cool way to make it anonymous cause all we're saying is your IP.

Danny Brown:

We're not seeing your details, your name, your demographic, your gender, or anything, just purely

Danny Brown:

on IP, but as a quick way to get help without even needing to ask anybody, it just, okay.

Danny Brown:

I can now go to this clinic again, over to this campus resource.

Danny Brown:

Just having technology available, but being willing to speak about something that happened to yourself.

Catherine:

Things happen in our lives where we could be having a very good day today and then

Catherine:

tomorrow, a really bad day and our whole body, our chemical balances changes and that changes, you know,

Catherine:

messages to the brain and changes the way we think.

Catherine:

And so those are times when we do need someone to talk to.

Catherine:

But also most definitely people that are going through something really horrific in their life.

Catherine:

You know, and doctors always ask, when you go in and you've had this big change in your, your

Catherine:

blood pressure and, and your anxiety levels are up and they, what is their first question?

Catherine:

Have you had anything stressful take place in your life lately that could cause these changes.

Catherine:

So.

Catherine:

Uh, the friendship branch, obviously something that is needed worldwide and I commend

Catherine:

you and your team for putting it together.

Catherine:

And you might want to mention to Sam that there is an organization Alliance of

Catherine:

Hope, which is for survivors of suicide.

Catherine:

He's a survivor of a family suicide.

Danny Brown:

I can never understand what that would be like for them.

Danny Brown:

And to your point, I think it needs people in the same situation that can actually have

Danny Brown:

true empathy , as opposed to the generic empathy for one of a better word, um,

Danny Brown:

where you're trying to say your best.

Danny Brown:

You're trying to say the right things, but it doesn't matter.

Danny Brown:

I know Sam mentioned it in a blog post that he did, , about the aftermath of losing a child

Danny Brown:

and, and everybody wants to say the right things.

Danny Brown:

The organization sounds amazing for sure.

Catherine:

Danny continues, his positive imprints with many different nonprofit organizations.

Catherine:

He cannot even attempt to discuss all of them.

Catherine:

But here is one more.

Danny Brown:

The second charity, I think that we got involved with, with the 12th, 12 K project,

Danny Brown:

um, was one that dealt with, uh, child abuse.

Danny Brown:

And it was about providing support and resources and shelter to kids have been

Danny Brown:

sexually abused or physically abused.

Danny Brown:

And sometimes both.

Danny Brown:

As a human being, any kind of abuses is bad, but I think there's a raw

Danny Brown:

emotional connection if it's children or animals, because essentially they're helpless, they're

Danny Brown:

innocent and they don't have a clue what's going on.

Danny Brown:

Animals, I think have a better clue and they know when they're getting abused . So I really connected.

Danny Brown:

It happens in our backyard.

Danny Brown:

It happens at our streets.

Danny Brown:

Uh, it happens in our countries.

Danny Brown:

It's an awful horrible thing, obviously.

Danny Brown:

You've got organizations like a BACA.

Danny Brown:

BACA, which is bikers against child abuse, amazing organization.

Danny Brown:

And they're essentially.

Danny Brown:

For one of a better description, Hell's Angel Bikers.

Danny Brown:

All the gear, all the dress up, all the bikes, et cetera.

Danny Brown:

Um, and they go and they help families, help moms get, the kids are getting abused, sexual abuse.

Danny Brown:

They also form a line of protection when these cases come to court.

Danny Brown:

So you can imagine being the abuser come into court and you've got 20 or 30 hairy, heavy-set dudes in

Danny Brown:

leathers looking angry as hell, just staring you down.

Danny Brown:

And it's a way to provide support and comfort and strength to the victim and show them, you know what?

Danny Brown:

We've got your back, your dad or your mom.

Danny Brown:

Cause obviously sometimes it can come from both fronts, but we've got your back.

Danny Brown:

Your parents can't hurt you anymore.

Danny Brown:

Not in here.

Danny Brown:

Not outside.

Danny Brown:

And now with two kids of my own, obviously I'm very wary of, of stuff that can happen.

Danny Brown:

I was getting a good visual of those bikers and I certainly commend Baca, ' bikers against child abuse'.

Danny Brown:

So thank you for sharing that.

Danny Brown:

So much appreciated.

Danny Brown:

, so take the time to give us the name of the podcast which is basically sharing the voice of

Danny Brown:

us podcasters behind the scenes and in our lives.

Danny Brown:

Podaster stories where I get to meet, you know, amazing folks like yourself, that,

Danny Brown:

that share your personal stories as well as your podcasts in general, which has been

Danny Brown:

really eye-opening for me from as a podcast.

Danny Brown:

Again, to know the stuff that you do is as a podcaster

Danny Brown:

. But getting to know all your stories.

Danny Brown:

I'm sure I'll have you back on the show to continue, because there's a lot more, a lot

Danny Brown:

more to talk about on top of the stuff we already spoke about in the initial episode..

Danny Brown:

Yeah, and it was fun.

Danny Brown:

And I do enjoy your, your show because, you know, podcasters, we, we hear their voice and,

Danny Brown:

but we don't know much about them I'm one of them I'll get emails from my listeners...

Danny Brown:

What can we learn about you?

Danny Brown:

, it's nice to be able to share a piece of, of our own lives because it, it provides , more

Danny Brown:

of a personal aspect for the listeners.

Danny Brown:

I was on, I think it was season two, episode seven.

Danny Brown:

And I thank you again for doing that podcast, Podcaster Stories.

Danny Brown:

And where can listeners find you

Danny Brown:

? if you want to check out the podcast that

Danny Brown:

PodcasterStories.com, and I'm online at, uh, Twitter Twitter, like four slash username, Danny brown CA

Catherine:

Well, Danny, is there anything that you are wanting to share that we haven't talked about?

Danny Brown:

Um, it's like a job interview, right.

Danny Brown:

Um, is there anything else you want to ask about the company or anything and, you know, I'll

Danny Brown:

get back to in three or four days, I'm sure.

Danny Brown:

I'll think of something.

Danny Brown:

No, it's been really enjoyable.

Danny Brown:

Good.

Danny Brown:

what I like about your format it's, it's, it's just really easy goin and like two friends

Danny Brown:

conversing , um, which, which I real enjoying.

Danny Brown:

And I feel that's a nice, relaxed way to talk.

Danny Brown:

Yeah.

Danny Brown:

You know, share stories and stuff.

Danny Brown:

Um, I guess the only thing maybe would be if anybody's getting married or has a special event or a birthday

Danny Brown:

, and you need someone, you, you don't need to lay a whole bunch of money on like a band or a DJ or

Danny Brown:

whatever, if you want someonewho can play any tune

Danny Brown:

using a pencil and just their teeth.

Danny Brown:

Give me a shout and I'll be there.

Danny Brown:

Whoa.

Danny Brown:

There you go.

Danny Brown:

I'll do a zoom call and then I'll do the wedding dance or whatever, using my H two lead pencil.

Catherine:

Oh my gosh.

Catherine:

That is so interesting.

Catherine:

So are you able to play anything for us?

Danny Brown:

Um, I do have a pen.

Danny Brown:

I've got a pan, I guess, and this might work.

Danny Brown:

It has to be something I knew obviously, but, uh, what, what tune , so what are the

Catherine:

copyright laws on this?

Danny Brown:

I know, well, it's Phil used, there was only 10 seconds.

Danny Brown:

Um, how about just for like a, a silly thing, like, um, you know, like that music where like

Danny Brown:

the little cartoon guys chasing someone, right.

Danny Brown:

Okay.

Danny Brown:

I'm ready.

Danny Brown:

Let's try and not bump the microphone.

Danny Brown:

Okay.

Danny Brown:

Or something like that or not

Catherine:

so interesting.

Danny Brown:

I have no idea where I even learned that I've been doing that for years.

Danny Brown:

I don't know.

Danny Brown:

Maybe I was just bored one day tapping a pencil class.

Danny Brown:

Probably right from the one that, Hey, if the podcast doesn't work out, I can always fall back on this.

Catherine:

Ah, that's funny.

Catherine:

So, and, and thank you for your comments about my own podcast.

Catherine:

I do like the, the very raw conversation and nothing's scripted.

Catherine:

So yeah.

Catherine:

Thank you for that.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Catherine:

And again, thank you for, for all that you do with captivate FM and of course, mark Asquith.

Catherine:

So.

Catherine:

Inspiring words do you want to end, as you inspire the listener?

Danny Brown:

Hmm, I'm going to, I'm going to use a quote.

Danny Brown:

My grandad said it's not a court as such.

Danny Brown:

It was just my granddad, who was my pretty much my all-time hero.

Danny Brown:

Um, and I think granddads get away with a lot of stuff or grandparents get away with

Danny Brown:

a lot of stuff because they can do things that parents wouldn't allow kids to do.

Danny Brown:

They're like the little devil on your shoulder cause they know come back to the parent afterwards.

Danny Brown:

Um, but my granddad was really supportive of a lot of things of what to do as a kid and stuff.

Danny Brown:

Um, and he used to come up with the weirdest sense.

Danny Brown:

You just you'd be talking away and he'd say something that would just take your back, but

Danny Brown:

you think backwards and you think, you know what?

Danny Brown:

That actually made sense, maybe not at the time, but it made sense, but there was something

Danny Brown:

he said, and I don't know what the reason was behind it, but he just said that 'this is why

Danny Brown:

you should always stand up before you flush.

Danny Brown:

Which I, at the time it was funny.

Danny Brown:

I just thought that's ridiculous.

Danny Brown:

And course you should stand up before you're flush, but then you, you suddenly think, I

Danny Brown:

mean, this, this thing sort of come back to me a lot over the years for different situations.

Danny Brown:

And it's, I think it's a simple saying it's obviously a very simple saying , but I think it

Danny Brown:

has a deeper meaning where, you know, you might think you're in control, but unless you take

Danny Brown:

action a whole bunch of mess is going to happen.

Danny Brown:

So it's up to you to take that action to either prevent that mess or at least mitigate

Danny Brown:

some of the fallout.

Danny Brown:

And I re I realized that fallout , when we're speaking about toilets and flushing, it might

Danny Brown:

not be the kind of visual you want at the moment.

Danny Brown:

But, um, yeah, I, I, it's just something that's always stuck with me and I've used it in various

Danny Brown:

blog posts I've used, I've got a picture somewhere that I printed out and framed and just put that up

Danny Brown:

. So it's just something that stuck,

Danny Brown:

multitude of environments and surroundings.

Danny Brown:

. So I guess that would be always Stand Up Before You Flush.

Catherine:

Danny brown always stand up before you flush.

Catherine:

You have been standing up for organizations and you've been standing up for people who are not online.

Catherine:

Danny brown.

Catherine:

Thank you so much for your positive imprints and what you're doing globally.

Danny Brown:

Thank you, Catherine.

Danny Brown:

It's been a pleasure.

Catherine:

Your positive imprint.

2 Comments

  1. Becky Hover on 07/15/2021 at 3:01 PM

    The world needs more Danny Brown’s.

    • Catherine on 07/19/2021 at 2:06 PM

      Becky, thank you so much for listening to the show. I’m so glad you enjoyed Danny Brown and that you are inspired by his humanitarian work and openness. Thank you again. Catherine.

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