Creating connection, empathy and awareness through meeting 10K friends with Rob Lawless
This week on Unpacked we are chatting with guest Rob Lawless, founder of @Robs10Kfriends. Rob chats with about his mission to meet 10,000 people one one one for 1 hour at a time. Rob graduated summa cum laude from Penn State University with a degree in Finance and minors in Accounting & Entrepreneurship. After graduation, he had a career with Deloitte Consulting as a Business Analyst in Strategy & Operations. After 1.5 years into it, he pulled what he calls a Millennial move – took a large pay cut and left it all. Shortly after starting Rob's 10K friends. We chat about Rob's passion for the project, where his genuine curiosity in hearing people's stories comes from. We talk about the challenges to share a dream and a vision that people don't understand and the experiences of failures and successes as an entrepreneur. He shares his learnings from meeting over 5200 people for agenda-less conversations. The overwhelming theme to him is how every human interaction has the potential to change your life.
Unpacked is a podcast exploring life as messy people. It’s conversations with counsellors, leaders, storytellers discussing the experiences of being human. We talk about the strength that comes from big messy failures and vulnerable moments so we can learn to live more authentically. Subscribe and leave us a review!
LINKS
-Meet Rob
-Robs 10K Friends
Transcript
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Evan Dewald 0:00
Hi. I'm Evan Dewald. And I am joined by Tara Linsley, and we're the voices behind the unpacked podcast. On the unpack podcasts, one of the things we love to do is talk about life and storytelling and sometimes life gets messy and vulnerable and all those things. So we have conversations, conversations with counselors with psychologists with industry leaders, storytellers, and just regular humans that are making a difference in the world.
Tara Linsley 0:25
Yeah, and we're just helping to grow and reflect and heal together. So you can find our podcast anywhere you subscribe to your podcast. New episodes come out every Thursday. Enjoy.
Evan Dewald 0:35
Make sure to like and subscribe. See you there. Hey, Tara, Hey. How you doing?
Tara Linsley 0:45
I'm pretty good. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. Today was fine.
Evan Dewald 0:48
Yeah, it was fun. But it's a good guests. Yeah. Looking forward to this new ice challenge.
Tara Linsley 0:53
Yeah, we have a new challenge to try on rails, I
Evan Dewald 0:55
think yes. But related to the guests. We just had somebody we'll have to wait and do it right before we release that episode. Okay, deal was kind of a cool exercise that psychologists was sharing with us.
Tara Linsley 1:05
Yeah. And you're really promoting the idea of Slurpee. So I think actually, I'm gonna be the Slurpee. So I was just coming back a really cold Margarita. It's a cool thing between your brain. A margarita would be great. It's a cool thing between your brain and the ice. So we want to try this. Yeah,
Evan Dewald 1:18
yeah. And it's basically messes and messes with your head so that you can regulate your emotions. Yeah. So cool. is definitely not the technical description of what's happening, but hey, we strike. Yeah. I'm excited. It's, it's gonna be October here real soon. Yeah. Tober brings Halloween.
Tara Linsley 1:40
One of our faves are like Halloween. It's such a good night.
Evan Dewald 1:43
Although you don't want it's I'm not a big dress up person. I don't like to dress up. Ya know? That's good. Yeah, I like to be comfortable. Which means, you know,
Tara Linsley 1:54
yeah, yeah, me too. I have a bit of a challenge with the two because I'm like, if it's if I have a good idea, but I have a hard time like spending a ton of money on it. Yeah. For one night, and then you want to be comfortable. Yeah.
Evan Dewald 2:05
So it seems like all the costumes that adults have to pick out are like giant onesies or Slappy some Platt
Tara Linsley 2:14
or sledding for women, for women. Yeah, I
Evan Dewald 2:17
wasn't thinking they would be for me. I was thinking like plastic. The face masks that you wear for like two minutes at the beginning of the party have a new year like yeah, this is dumb. Yeah.
Tara Linsley 2:26
But we have a good idea this year that our group of friends is going to do what are we doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Oh, awesome. I mean, I'm putting it out there now. So now we'll really have to try and pull it off.
Evan Dewald 2:34
And and so even beyond the party, the sorry, the costumes. I hope we'll see how the weather turns and all that kind of stuff. What What kind of ambition we got kind of going on that night. But I love doing a fire on the driveway. Yeah, how come I just because the neighbors come by? Yeah, they come over they can you know if it's cool, they can warm up a little bit. We get lots of hot chocolate usually or hot dogs or something like that. And people are out and about kids are excited, you know to get into candy that you know all that kind of stuff. And you get a chance to meet your neighbors and, and just interact. And I love that.
Tara Linsley 3:07
It's so fun. It is a good night for it. Especially if you don't know your neighbors. It's a great night to meet them. Their kids
Evan Dewald 3:13
super fun and yeah, so hopefully we pull that off. And
Tara Linsley 3:18
yeah, I hope it's warm enough that we can do that. We don't have to wear like snow suits and just make the dads go out. There probably won't be a lot of little kids.
Evan Dewald 3:24
Well, there will be one our special little guy will be here. That's right. What. So here's the thing. Autos 13. He, well, he didn't dress up last year he went trick or treating. He cheated. But I think we all made him go with the kids. Yes. Yeah. So I you know, I'm not I'm not going out of obligation anymore.
Tara Linsley 3:42
If I go, wow, you're going because you would want to Yeah, my buddy should be
Evan Dewald 3:48
honored that we choose to go with him if I go anyways.
Tara Linsley 3:52
He won't tell you or show it.
Evan Dewald 3:53
That's right. That's exactly right. So tell me what's the what's the you're gonna dress up as?
Tara Linsley 3:58
I ordered him a firefighter costume. Oh, man, because he's obsessed with firefighters. You got to go to a fire station at home. And he's obsessed with fighting fires. So I thought that'd be fun like with his fists? No, he's really he understands that you use water. But we play a lot with the Paw Patrol. They rescue people and fight fires. So he's super into that.
Evan Dewald 4:20
Hey, today we have Rob lawless. Yeah. And he's he has a pretty ambitious vision and goal. So his goal is to meet and have a legitimate conversation with 10,000 people.
Tara Linsley 4:36
Yeah, one on one for an hour for an hour.
Evan Dewald 4:39
And he's like he's 5000 something now. Yeah, like halfway more than half over halfway. So he's starting to get a little bit of people are noticing them right. I think it's always you know, you have a big ambitious goal like this. It takes years and it's like the first few years is just gonna feel like you're never going to reach your goal.
Tara Linsley 4:58
And probably people don't Understand, really the vision you have for it or what you know, it could be. And he talks about that, like he shares with us some of the failures and some of those successes. Like I'm sure even his family didn't understand that, right? It's hard to grasp, how are you going to do this? And how's it going to happen? And he's meeting people like around the world, like he will meet you in person or on Zoom, or on Zoom. And then he writes up a little story.
Evan Dewald 5:20
It's true, even of coaching. Like I'm going to be a coach. My mom's like, what does that mean?
Tara Linsley 5:26
Welcome to my world. Nobody knows my communications.
Evan Dewald 5:30
Episode on that. Told me what is communications? Do you get an education for that? Or do you just talk a lot? Yeah.
Tara Linsley 5:38
That is what people think. Yeah,
Evan Dewald 5:39
yeah, we should totally do that. Anyways, he's got this big vision. We had a chance to meet with him for an hour. You met with him for an hour. Yeah, one of the 5400
Tara Linsley 5:49
people? Uh huh. Yeah, it was, it was super fun. He has like agenda list conversations. So there is no structure to it, which is kind of my worst nightmare. But I did it anyway. So he just gets on
Evan Dewald 5:59
there. And it's like, hi. Hey, so your name is Tara.
Tara Linsley 6:04
Yeah, he's actually really good at it. Like he's very calming, and he makes you feel really comfortable. And he'll ask some questions. But he also leaves a lot of space for you to just talk to,
Evan Dewald 6:14
yeah, tell whatever stories you want, or we'll talk about whatever you want.
Tara Linsley 6:18
And then he just kind of takes a snippet of it and shares it on his Instagram.
Evan Dewald 6:21
He clearly has a passion for meeting people getting to know people hearing their stories, and all of those kinds of things. It's funny because I was doing an Instagram story this morning. I didn't even post it was like ever think about purpose, like what you're you actually, like, I think we talk a lot about purpose. We find a job with purpose find like all of these things. And I was like, I think that's all good. I really do. And I think sometimes you have to do work, your job, whatever they might be. And I was trying to articulate to what's Evans purpose? Like, what do I want to be about? Eventually it came down to I want to be a safe person that helps people grow. Yeah, that's a good purpose. Yeah. But some days you have to like, do your bookkeeping. It's not all the dream, your purpose. You know, it's like it's hard work. To to achieve a purpose. Rob says this. That was hard work. But I'm sure you know, when you hit 1000, and you realize, Wow, I have 9000 more to meet my reach my goal,
Tara Linsley 7:20
and he kept going, and he kept going, and he'll meet anyone. So even if you want to go meet
Evan Dewald 7:25
today, call up and you want you need somebody to talk to call Rob to call him and be like, hey, I need somebody to talk to you.
Tara Linsley 7:36
You can share anything.
Evan Dewald 7:39
Anyways, I watch him on Instagram, he posts those conversations, and the story like a picture with the person and a little bit about what he learned about the person. It's pretty cool.
Tara Linsley 7:48
It is really cool. And he shares a lot of what he learned in this process, which was amazing to hear why he's doing this and with us, he shares you know what's been inspiring about it for him.
Evan Dewald 7:57
Anyways, he we're glad that you've decided to join us. Hey, I hope that you're liking you're subscribing, that you're leaving us a review. Some folks are doing that. Yeah. Hey, hope you enjoy Rob. Thanks for joining us. Hello, Hey,
Rob Lawless 8:21
how's going? I almost almost got a nice mic setup. Oh, and I did not
Tara Linsley 8:28
well, you can if you want you have a minute.
Rob Lawless 8:31
It's all good. i It would be my first time setting it up. It was like a last minute thought because my friend she had bought this for like a podcast or something used it like one time and then gave it to me and I have yet. Yeah, I just opened it up. I was like pulling her hair out of it.
Evan Dewald 8:52
I heard you I heard you woke Tara up really early this morning and had a long conversation with her.
Rob Lawless 8:58
I did it was her choice. It was I did give her the option of at
Tara Linsley 9:02
breakfast with a three year old in an interview doesn't.
Evan Dewald 9:05
Those don't go very well. No. We took the best route.
Tara Linsley 9:09
Yeah, it was actually great. Honestly, I've been early to everything today. My day home. I dropped out, dropped him off. And my day home lady was like, Oh, you guys are early. And I was like, I've been up for a bit. I'm ready to go to everything. Start the morning
Evan Dewald 9:23
at 530. You know, yeah, I
Tara Linsley 9:25
told Ryan Roque woke me up very nicely, which was great. Because he was up going to work and I was like, how about I don't set 17 alarms and you just wake me up? That
Evan Dewald 9:35
is actually really nice. Yeah, it is way better. Do you have like a ringtone on your alarm? Like, is it
Tara Linsley 9:41
it's obnoxious. Yeah, it's annoying. How else do you get up? Do people just like get out of bed?
Rob Lawless 9:47
I said to you. Do you hit snooze?
Tara Linsley 9:50
I do. Yeah, me too.
Rob Lawless 9:52
I try. I try to get up on on the snooze. My alarm for 648 and seven.
Tara Linsley 9:58
Yeah, okay, that's pretty reasonable.
Evan Dewald 10:00
I am not a snoozer. Yeah,
Tara Linsley 10:02
you just get up. Yep. Yeah, that's, and I
Evan Dewald 10:05
do actually, like legitimately just get up. They arrive I'm so excited, you decided to join us on the podcast and be a part of kind of what we're trying to do here. And it's funny, we were watching you and terrible kind of point out your Instagram to me was like, Hey, we should invite this guy on this rock guy is doing something kind of cool. And it kind of fits a little bit with what we're up to at atom packed. And so mostly we're I'm just hoping to have a really fun conversation. And she told me, she told me you have agenda list conversations, which is my wheelhouse. I absolutely love a generalist conversations, you're doing something so interesting. It's fascinating what you were up to. And so, so part of our podcasts on impact is that we we are trying to always unpack kind of the stories of people's lives and recognizing that those stories are they sometimes get messy, and that there is opportunity to grow and learn in the midst of the messiness. And, and, you know, this is kind of an interesting thing. I'm almost always trying to clean up the mess. Tara's admittedly less messy, but she she always encouraged me to slow down, not not try to rush through stuff. Some of the some of the things that as a co host, and good friend, that's something that we we definitely are learning from each other. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Like, tell us tell us about your life and where you grew up. And you got siblings, are you? Yeah, you have a great you have a great kitchen. I will point that out. It's very neat. That is that is a nice backdrop.
Rob Lawless 11:36
I get a lot of compliments on it. And I can't take any credit for it, because I'm subletting so none of this stuff is mine. I mean, I live in the Chinatown neighborhood of Philadelphia right now, which is basically it's like downtown, quite close to City Hall if you're familiar at all, but I've been here since January. And prior to that I was moving around a lot for my project. But I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. So in a town called Norristown, it's like 40 minute drive outside of the city, youngest of three. So I'm 31 I have a brother who's 33. It lives in New York City with his wife. And I have a sister who's 37 She lives back in the suburbs, where I'm from, like five minutes from my parents. She is Yeah, has married has two boys, two years old and six months old. So I'm an uncle, which is cool. And yeah, I grew up there. Nice, like, middle class upbringing. I went to Catholic school all the way up until college. Okay, then I went to Penn State and studied finance there. So not to be confused with Penn. So I went to the more of the party school than the Ivy League school. Nice. Yeah, that's my kind of school. Yeah, so 40,000 students, and it was very like, I liked it, because I felt like you got a lot of well rounded people there. And the social experience for me was more important than the academic one, I would say that it was a good balance. And you had to learn how to have that balance when you were a student there. And both my older siblings went there. So I had an idea of what to get involved with, and I really hit the ground running. I always love people. So joined a lot of clubs and activities. I did this philanthropy to raise money for the fight against pediatric cancer. I was a tour guide for prospective students that joined the fraternity. I did Habitat for Humanity trip. So I build houses over spring breaks. And I was part of our homecoming effort. So I would just like stack a new activity in each year, and the campus became really small. My brother was a junior when I was a freshman, but by the end of freshman year, I felt like I knew more people on campus than he did. And yeah, that was my experience for four years on top of studying finance. And then I minored in accounting and entrepreneurship, graduated 2013 launched into consulting for Deloitte. So I was in a very corporate environment was based out of Philly but traveled a lot for work. Then I left after a year and three months went to this tech startup. They had 24 million in funding, I was their ADF employee was on the sales team. So our sales team was like five people and is scaled up to 19. I started this project in that time. So I started this. And by this project, I mean, this mission spent an hour, one on one with 10,000 Different people in November 11 of 2015 was the very first person I met. And then over the next eight months, I met like 100 More people alongside work or on the weekends. And then the company I worked for was bought out. I was laid off. This is July 2016. I decided to jump into this project full time and the rest is history. And we can dive into it. But I'll stop there because that was a pretty long introduction,
Evan Dewald 14:42
though. That's yeah, that is Yeah. That's quite the quick the timeline of how it all plays out. Okay, so a couple of questions I have for you. favorite subject in school when you were growing up
Rob Lawless 14:52
math and art? Those are very okay. But it is my life is very similar today because I have This whole creative side of the project. But in order to have this be my career, he needs like the business kind of finance math side as well. So I liked that split, and it's I guess, has been constant throughout my life.
Evan Dewald 15:12
Okay, interesting. Okay, that makes total sense. Like it does take some creativity to pull off, well, anything entrepreneurial, and a little bit of like, actual mathematics and mindset and logic and some of those things. Okay, so, if you were one of three in your house, were you the kid who got in trouble? Or got everyone else in trouble?
Rob Lawless 15:32
No, that would be my brother was a I mean, we were all pretty good. But I think my brother's straight for this from my parents. I was great. They weren't up until recently. I like yeah, we're all good students and everything. But I always had the highest grades out of the three of us. And when I went to Penn State, so I don't know if it's the same in Canada, but they do like 4.0 GPA scale, here in the States. And yeah, my first semester, I got a 4.0. I got all A's in my classes. And I was also like, I was valedictorian in high school. So, and again, I don't know if it's the same in Canada, but typically, it means you're like, first in the class, and you give like the speech at the end of high school, or my school, it was, if you were in the top 10%, you could give you could present the speech, and then the faculty would choose. So that's what happened. I finished number three in my high school. It was a class of like, 170 people. So it was not that big. But I gave the valedictorian speech, and then went to school, like college, or for us University College, same thing. And, yeah, I got this photo. And then I didn't want to drop my GPA, and I couldn't go up. So I maintained that halfway through my third year. And then I dropped a little bit just because he was like a senior and whatnot. But yeah, so I always had a better GPA than my siblings, and I was always more involved than them. And then when I graduated, my salary was higher than both of my siblings, even though they had been out of school for years before me. Yeah, and I had a girlfriend that my family really liked. And then when I left Deloitte is when it all started to crumble in their eyes. So yeah,
Tara Linsley 17:19
I was great. What was your decision to leave?
Rob Lawless 17:23
Why did I leave Deloitte, I just wasn't fulfilled, and I was making good money. And I think the only promise I saw was more money in the future. And that just wasn't enough for me. And I looked in and saw the people who were ahead of me, as well. And it wasn't like, they got paid more. And they took on less responsibility, and they got to relax a little bit. It was like, they got paid more, and they worked even more, and they never saw their families. And work was always the priority in your life. And there's just not been that way. For me, I minored in entrepreneurship in school. So I've always been interested in creating my own path to and I don't subscribe to the belief that you have to work in an office for until you're 65 years old, and and then at that point, you can retire and enjoy your life. It's just not something that has ever been attractive to me. So when I was in that, and I had like, everything that you're supposed to have on paper, like, I had a great salary, I had great benefits as dating this girl, the program that I was in at Deloitte, they were going to pay for me to get my MBA at one of the top schools in the country here. So it would have been like Harvard, or Wharton or Columbia, whatever. It's where all my colleagues went. It just wasn't interesting to me. So my mindset was, I'm not going to seek to leave Detroit, but if the right opportunity comes up, I'm gonna hop on it. So I was actually working in Kentucky with a senior consultant. And like, I would fly from Philly every week, he would fly from Houston. And I was telling him about this interest in entrepreneurship. And he said, You should talk to my friend Ben. He's one of my best friends from high school. He's the director of sales at this new startup in Philly. And that's how I just talked to his friend Ben. And I told him, I don't want to join your company. I'm just here to learn about how you had gone through private equity into the startup world, because I could see myself making a similar jump someday. And then my jump was actually to the company that Ben worked for. So yeah, it just was the right opportunity. They had seven and a half million in funding when I interviewed and they liked me and they kept pushing me off. And then at the time, I was working in New York City and my girlfriend at the time I was living there. So I was in no rush, but I checked. I just googled the company one day, and they had announced they raised an additional 16 and a half million in funding. So I was like 24 million congrats. And then they messaged me back and they said, hey, it's time for you to join us. So that's how I made that shift.
Evan Dewald 19:49
So you decide not to take the like go to the next level of education that next all of those things. How does your How would your family like what Tell us about your parents. What are your parents Lakers? Like, was this a? You? I think you've already kind of suggested that they weren't overly impressed. But curious to know. Like, how did they handle that? What was that? Like?
Rob Lawless 20:11
Yeah, my mom cried when I told
Tara Linsley 20:13
her. Oh, that's hard. Yeah, yeah,
Rob Lawless 20:17
I have a great upbringing, my parents were really supportive. And it's funny because they created kind of the environment that would allow me to be competent enough to take on a project like the one I'm doing, or to be trusting enough of other people to take on a project or to not have any trauma from the past to be able to do this. So I'm very thankful for that. But they're also very traditional in the sense where they think you go to school, get your job, find your spouse, settle down, have kids, and then repeat that cycle for your kids. And my dad worked for Verizon for 35 years. So his idea of a career is very specific. And my mom like she was working for at nd T for a number of years. And then when she had kids, she became a stay at home mom. And then she worked in a local elementary school in the cafeteria for like 20 years. So they just they had a very specific idea of how life was supposed to go. And being attaboy it was like the top, it was right in line with what they wanted. And it's such a safe and secure company. Like if I was still there, today, I'd be making great money, I probably be made because it probably be something I was more focused on. I have my own house, my own car and whatnot. And that was what they wanted for me. Now I have none of those things. So I think they, and they were fearful. Like, for some reason I don't I think for me, it's just a very natural thing. It's just this idea to pursue my own path. But I guess I have that tolerance for risk. Like it doesn't bother me to throw caution to the wind. And part of it is I just trust myself to do the work. It would be a different story. If I said I was going to meet 10,000 people, and I met 20. And then I was like, oh, you know, I'm tired of this. Let me go hang on the beach for for three months. But I have not wavered from goal at all since I started. And I think they didn't recognize that as much as I did. It's hard to explain your vision to someone. Because you don't have the answers all of the time. And I think because I lacked the answers up front that made them nervous. But the difference was I was willing to walk in the darkness long enough to uncover those answers. And they didn't know that I was going to keep walking.
Evan Dewald 22:33
Yeah. As your parents, I'm sure they're also looking at you going no, we don't want you to be in the darkness. Like we want you to have the easy life and the life we always dreamed you would have. Like all those kind of things I have. I'm a parent of I don't have not I do not have 31 year olds in my, in my family, but I have a 25 year old so. And you're right, like parents, as parents, it's really difficult not to place your dreams on top of your children. And it's not just your dreams. It's like your expectation of what your children are going to be like, how they're going to interact with the world, they're going to achieve accomplish contribute, like all those kinds of words.
Rob Lawless 23:06
Right? Yeah. And I so I was 24 when I started this, and I was 25 when I took it full time. So imagine your 25 year old right now boom.
Evan Dewald 23:13
I mean, here's some. Yeah. I think it's fascinating though, to be honest with you, it's like as much as I might make that joke or whatever it's admire able to have the capacity and the freedom to have a vision, have a dream, start working towards it to make the sacrifices to make it happen, whether it's you know, this kind of an idea or anything you got. If you're an entrepreneur, it's the same thing. You know, you start a business and you're pretty much starving when you're starting a business like that's, and there's a level of desperation around what you're doing and how you're trying to get it done. So it is kind of it's admirable. Okay, one thing before we ask you one of the next questions, I'm curious, what what did you talk about at your, at your high school graduation?
Rob Lawless 23:55
I don't want to brag, but I was getting my hair cut. Like a year ago or so. The guy who cut my hair is two years above me in high school, and his younger brother was in ninth grade. And he was like, I still remember your speech.
Tara Linsley 24:08
That's impressive. Was there like, what's the theme of it? Or like what? No, you know, what's the life advice from it?
Rob Lawless 24:15
I got lucky because that was the year the Phillies won the World Series, which was the first time that any Philadelphia team had won a championship since 1980. Since 2008, or two that I graduated 2009. So it's the 2008 2009 school year. And the game that they won, they actually won the World Series. It ended up being a rain delay. So they played like the first half of the game and then it had to go into the second half. And I remember being like you never know when you're going to have a rain delay in life, but blah, blah, blah, you still go on and win your World Series. So I tied it in to that so that's why it was
Tara Linsley 24:53
nice. That's a good legacies. Really. That's smart. It actually ties in like Evan doesn't know this necessarily, but it ties in I mean our conversation earlier about now you are a public speaker as well. Like it is kind of interesting that there's some themes in your life for what you're doing that have played out.
Rob Lawless 25:09
Yeah, I similarly, people enjoy my speeches today, which is great. And I'm just as nervous today as I was back then. So it's constant.
Evan Dewald 25:19
Yeah. I, in my previous career, I was public speaking a lot. And it is true like, like, definitely when you get started, you're nervous, you got all those kinds of things going on, you want to, you know, change the world with everything. And then I, I ended up speaking to the same group of people consistently, week after week. So then then you start calming down a little bit more, and finding your own little groove of how you can be yourself and speak words of truth that are helpful for people in life and all those kinds of things. But, but you do calm down a little bit, when you're talking to people that you've built relationship with. So I had to speak with her two weeks ago, two weeks ago, in front of smaller group of people. I was nervous. This is a new feeling for me, or this is an old feel a familiar old feeling. Yeah. For me to stand up in front of people and talk.
Rob Lawless 26:05
Yeah, yeah. And it's like, fear of the unknown for me. And the more I do it, the more I know what that experience is going to feel like and what it's going to look like, because once I'm up there, and I know I'm not going to have a panic attack, I really enjoy it.
Evan Dewald 26:23
Once you get over the upset stomach, and you know, the bleeding ulcer, all those things. Hey, so I am assuming so you're 25 You started this project? You go full time. When you're 26. What
Tara Linsley 26:40
25? Or 26?
Rob Lawless 26:41
Yeah, so when I was 24, I went full time. 25.
Evan Dewald 26:44
Okay, okay. What is the I would assume you have a bit of obsession with people stories, if this was a vision, to hear this many stories? What what drives that? Where did you get? Where did you get the idea, but but also maybe more importantly, word, where it is a passion to hear people's stories come from, like for a podcast that really is about story? I'm just really curious, what inspired you there?
Rob Lawless 27:13
Yeah, it's funny when you say obsession, I don't, I don't even feel like it's an obsession with stories, obviously. You know, it appears that way. And it might be, but it's like, it's just a genuine curiosity. In people. It's like an adventure for me. So I think the why now is, I believe every human interaction, no matter how brief has the potential to change your life. Because if I look back at my experience at Penn State, my life has undoubtedly changed by the connections I made that I'm still very tight with my friends there. So a large portion of my fulfillment, as a human being today comes from my relationships with those people. And it was just so organic, like, we just happen to sit next to each other in class, or we just happened to join the same club or be at the same party. And that, to me, was so fulfilling. And then you graduate. And it's like, everything has to be agenda driven. It didn't make sense to me, why you would cut off such a valuable portion of your life just because you ended a phase of your life. So that was a big part of the inspiration was, I want to continue meeting people in the future, because it's been really valuable to me in the past. And for me, like, I'm biased, obviously. But there's only like, you can try new foods and taste new drinks and go to different sites so many times. Yeah, yeah. And like, that's what you can do or listen to different songs of our experience in the time we have on Earth. But a really great way to color in your experience is to chat with other people and hear what their experience was, because I just talked to a girl right before this, who's from Honduras. And to learn a little bit more about Honduras. It just opens up my mind to something I haven't really discovered before.
Evan Dewald 28:59
I know you know, how I can relate to what you just said to is that it's like, we started this podcast, me year and a half, maybe more than a year now. Yeah, maybe somewhere in there. And what I what I have found is real been really interesting. We started it actually, I started I was under duress, I was forced to do it by somebody,
Rob Lawless 29:22
whereas the world conditions Yeah,
Evan Dewald 29:23
the world condition. Let's put it that way. And then and then a colleague that I was working with at the time, who happen to be Tara, who was saying you should do a podcast because it will be so great. And then the pandemic hit there was like kind of a necessity for us to put put a little bit more content out there when I couldn't see people face to face in the in the job that I was doing, which was a people care job and I've met a couple of needs. And then pretty quickly, I was like, No, I'm gonna I'm gonna need a host co host to help me do this and then and then I was at the time terrorists boss. I'm not tears boss anymore. Now I'm her like business partner, but at the time I was her boss. So I was like, well, guess what? You had the idea. So now you're gonna be on the podcast with me. It's kind of worked out. But long story. To say this, it has given us one of the greatest opportunities to get to meet some of the most wise, interesting people that you just wouldn't have. You know, we've learned about indigenous things in Canada, like Canada's gone through. Recently, many settlers in Canada have discovered what, what it meant to turn Canada into Canada, and some of the darker things that, that we in particular, as people did to our indigenous people, we've gotten to hear just some of the most incredible indigenous people talk and tell their story, and some of the challenges that they experience and, and the podcast, I would assume is just like, you know, your 10k It's like, it gives you a reason to talk to really great people and, and motivation to do it. Like, because I would say it's like, yeah, I've always wanted to, you know, get to know and build some relationships with people who are like me, but also people who are smarter than me or whatever, on lots of levels. But you just don't do it. Unless you have a purpose. In that regard, I definitely can. I can, I can hear what you're saying. Okay, so I had one. I had a question though, for you. Because I am. So you're, where are you at in terms of like, how many people have you? Like, have I met?