The Smoke Trail: S1 E12 Embodiment of Love - Making Dignity Moves With Elizabeth Funk

Episode 12: "Embodiment of Love - Making Dignity Moves" with Elizabeth Funk

Guest: Elizabeth Funk – Social entrepreneur, former tech executive (Yahoo, Microsoft), and founder of Dignity Moves, which builds interim housing to end unsheltered homelessness. Her contagious optimism drives systemic change, learn more at dignitymoves.org.

Setting: Recorded at Dignity Moves’ first site, 33 Gough in San Francisco, a vibrant example of hope amidst urban challenges.

Summary

Smoke sits with Elizabeth Funk at 33 Gough, Dignity Moves’ pioneering San Francisco site, to explore her journey from tech to transforming homelessness solutions. Elizabeth, a YPO ally, pivoted from microfinance—proving for-profit models can uplift—to leading Dignity Moves, born from a YPO group’s frustration with ineffective systems. They reveal how unsheltered homelessness, costing $80,000 per person annually, can be solved for less with interim housing, slashing trauma (17% mental illness at homelessness onset doubles in weeks). Elizabeth’s data-driven optimism—backed by successes in Santa Barbara and San Jose—challenges bureaucratic metrics prioritizing permanent housing over immediate shelter. Her “solve it” ethos, rooted in love and pragmatism, creates high-vibration fields that lift residents, like a hubcap artist finding worth via Etsy. This episode embodies love in action, urging listeners to pick a finite problem and act. Explore Dignity Moves at dignitymoves.org.

Learnings

• Pick a Finite Problem: Elizabeth’s advice—tackle a solvable issue like unsheltered homelessness—offers a blueprint for impact, achievable through focus and optimism.
• Challenge Broken Systems: Use clear-eyed analysis to rethink metrics, as Dignity Moves did, prioritizing interim shelter over costly, slow permanent housing.
• Leverage Love’s Field: Create high-consciousness environments (like 33 Gough’s pancake breakfasts) to spark residents’ inner divinity, fostering hope and agency.
• Act Without Permission: Elizabeth’s “ask forgiveness, not permission” approach—launching 33 Gough despite opposition—shows bold action shifts paradigms.
• Blend Profit and Purpose: Her microfinance success proves for-profit models can scale social good, a lesson for Dignity Moves’ emerging public-private funds.

Universal Truths

• Consciousness Drives Impact: High-vibration fields, like Dignity Moves’ love-infused villages, elevate souls, aligning with Smoke’s Hawkins-scale insights.

What is The Smoke Trail?

The Smoke Trail, hosted by Smoke Wallin, is a journey into awakening consciousness, weaving authentic stories and deep discussions with inspiring guests to unlock high performance and perfect health. Each episode delves into spirituality, leadership, and transformation, offering tools to transcend trauma and find your bliss along the way. It’s a reflective space for achieving peak potential and inner peace in a distraction-filled world.

Anitra: 00:00

Welcome to the Smoke Trail hosted by Smoke Wallin. Join Smoke on a unique journey of awakening consciousness, sharing authentic stories and deep discussions with inspiring guests. Explore spirituality, leadership and transformation, tools to elevate your path.

Smoke: 00:17

Welcome to the Smoke Trail.

Elizabeth: 00:20

I love it.

Smoke: 00:21

Thank you for being here. This is a lot of fun, and I'm super excited to have you. I'm excited to be here. Thank you. And I'm excited to be here.

Smoke: 00:29

We're at thirty three Golf which I know we'll talk a little bit about but this is our first Dignity Move site in San Francisco.

Elizabeth: 00:37

It was the very first one anywhere. Anywhere.

Smoke: 00:41

This was actually the first one that got put up.

Elizabeth: 00:43

Yes.

Smoke: 00:44

And remind me it was like four months

Elizabeth: 00:46

We started the construction started in January right after the holidays and we moved the first people in in early March.

Smoke: 00:54

Yeah it's a cool site and what I and now it's we're at least two years in. Yeah. And I understand the big problem is the people like it so much they don't wanna lose.

Elizabeth: 01:05

Right. So this parking lot there are actually two parking lots on both sides of an old city college building that was condemned for earthquake. And a developer has control of it and is planning to build mixed use but nobody's building anything right now especially with homelessness quite frankly. So it's been on hold. We had an eighteen month lease originally and then it got extended another two years and now it's being extended another two so we may be here a while.

Smoke: 01:30

Yeah. Well it's a it's a wonderful example of some of the work that you've done and we've done as a group and that you've let led our way and we're going to get into that a little bit. But what I like to do at the beginning of the Smoke Trail is, since it's my trail, this is a dialogue, it's not an interview, it's a conversation with us. My intention is to share some wisdom, share some thoughts that we have on our journey in life that it might be helpful to others who are on a path. Maybe they aspire to give back, maybe they aspire to help society or some, you know, they have something that they're that they really like think about as a cause but they really haven't figured out how to take action.

Smoke: 02:13

I think nobody illustrates the service for selfless service to a community better than you Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: 02:23

Well thank

Smoke: 02:23

you. And so I thought it would be really fun to have a conversation. We get into lots of things like spirituality and kind of what drives us, what makes us tick and so I'm going ask you some questions that maybe you know don't normally get asked because you always get asked about the projects but not necessarily about what makes you tick.

Elizabeth: 02:45

Yep. Great. Well I'm looking forward to it. Let's see where we go.

Smoke: 02:48

Awesome. Well one of the things that is so cool about Dignity Moves is that it really came out of like it really came naturally. It was a it was a it wasn't a contrived thing. In fact, was it was something that I I joke about this but it is true that I got invited to an original meeting that you were leading and it was like a it's gonna be in person and it COVID happened so we did it on Zoom and I thought it was a bunch of CEOs who were getting together to kind of complain about the homeless problem

Elizabeth: 03:24

Pretty much how it started.

Smoke: 03:25

And and basically to see like you know what was me how's and I was like okay I can do that and I little did I know that it would turn into a very fast moving active group that is solving for it and not complaining about it actually just head down doing things.

Elizabeth: 03:43

It was never intended. We did not intend to start a nonprofit. It was a group of members from Young Presidents Organization who came together out of curiosity, knowing nothing on homelessness, but we knew one thing. Whatever we're doing is not working. And there's arrogance to that, which is why POers saying, well, we're smarter than the rest of the people.

Elizabeth: 04:02

And but when we took a big step back and looked at it quite frankly with the cold analysis that business leaders do, it really was obvious. And we are doing doing it wrong. And I think that fresh look actually is what allowed this to be. Yeah. And a bunch of people when we first got started, I mean, weren't intending to start anything.

Elizabeth: 04:23

No. And the ideas that people had I mean, one guy was totally convinced we needed to buy all the the cruise ships.

Smoke: 04:28

Well, I said that.

Elizabeth: 04:29

Was that you? Yeah. Okay.

Smoke: 04:30

I talked to my friend Mark Tamas who worked for one of the big cruise lines. I'm like, could this work? You know, they're not they're not in use. Right. He said he said, you do not the the cost to run them.

Smoke: 04:40

Yes. You make it prohibitive. It it would make sense. I'm like, okay. It seemed like a good idea.

Elizabeth: 04:44

One guy wanted to do a wanted to take over some government property and just camp do the set up whatever we were gonna set up cabins and not ask for permission, then call the media and make people, you know, dare us to leave. Right?

Smoke: 04:58

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 04:58

Okay. That's one strategy. And then one guy in the in the group said, well, I make these backyard do it yourself ADU kits. I could design something for you. And one other guy, you know, knows the mayor and made a phone call, and somebody else knows how to do press releases.

Elizabeth: 05:15

You know, we just all leaned in Yeah. And did what we could do. And we were thinking we would do one project cause it was kind of a cool idea. And then wow, it exploded. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 05:26

And so we created a nonprofit and the rest is history.

Smoke: 05:31

You know, one of the things that always struck me and I correct me if I get the stats wrong, but the waiting list here in San Francisco was like thirteen years to get for there's a home unsheltered homeless to get into one of the shelter options.

Elizabeth: 05:45

To get into the permanent housing.

Smoke: 05:47

Permanent housing. And they and they're building units for 800,000 to a million 3 depending on the project and they're taking forever. Yep. And one of the things that made so much sense to us, to all of us and you know you articulated so well was like you the the streets can't be our our waiting room. Right.

Smoke: 06:04

You know, like, the like, the longer the more weeks you are on the street unsheltered, the less like you are likely you are to be able to get back into some kind of functional form where you can Exactly. Reenter society.

Elizabeth: 06:16

That was one of there were kind of a couple moments that just finally it's like oh man I'm gonna have to do this and one of them was learning that when people first become homeless less than twenty percent are mentally ill and have such a substance abuse problem that they would be unable to take care of themselves. Stability. It's about seventeen percent. That right there was shocking. Right?

Elizabeth: 06:38

Because the people on the streets today, pretty much all of them are mentally ill and use substances. And so what the trauma that happens from when they become homeless and become on the streets. Four weeks later, that seventeen percent has doubled.

Smoke: 06:51

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 06:51

And if your only option is to wait on a waiting list for fourteen years, of course, everybody's mentally ill.

Smoke: 06:57

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 06:57

The the trauma of that. I know how I don't how I feel when I haven't slept more than an hour a night. Yeah. Folks don't usually sleep more than an hour in a row. Right there.

Elizabeth: 07:05

I'd be losing

Smoke: 07:06

my mind. I know how I feel just on on a campsite with a nice plush sleeping bag and a tent and after a few days let alone you know being out. So so that was one of the things that you know struck us all. We and what you really I think you did it. We we made like 300 phone calls.

Smoke: 07:24

You made 297 of them and the rest of us made a few. But but but it was all about like who's doing this? Who is actually getting helping them get off the street quickly and getting into some safe place where you can lock your stuff and sleep safely. Yep. So that you can have a chance to get on your feet.

Smoke: 07:42

The answer was It's not happening. It really wasn't happening.

Elizabeth: 07:45

That was probably the biggest thing that that forced me to do it. When I learned that people first become homeless there's still big chance for them. Right? And then that the system is fundamentally opposed to wasting money on anything that isn't a permanent solution. Mhmm.

Elizabeth: 07:59

So shelters, by definition, are the least expensive they could possibly get away with. Yeah. They put all of the money toward permanent housing because anything interim is considered a waste of resources. That's for one very, very basic reason, which is that cities score themselves on reducing homelessness. And when somebody comes in from the streets into something temporary, they're still homeless.

Elizabeth: 08:20

They're just classified as shelters homeless.

Smoke: 08:22

Right.

Elizabeth: 08:22

So right there, a city would rather get one person into a million dollar apartment than 50 people into something temporary.

Smoke: 08:29

And and that so that right there, that is a arbitrary human imposed lens based on the bureaucracy and the the the system Yep. That was choosing help one person in a certain way because they get credit for it versus help 50 people in a different way because and because they wouldn't get credit

Elizabeth: 08:49

for And I'm sure back when we started talking about this stuff, that was probably a reasonable metric because you were either homeless or not homeless.

Smoke: 08:57

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 08:57

But this middle ground of people being on the streets, that's come about because our costs are so high to build. Yeah. And yet we still score ourselves on reducing homelessness. And that was such an moment to me that we started thinking about, okay. Well, what do you mean it's squandered resources to spend money on something temporary?

Elizabeth: 09:15

So the second moment was looking at what it costs to let people be on the streets. Yeah. I had no idea. Right? I mean, you know, it's expensive to clear encampments and whatever, but it's something like $80,000 per person per year Yeah.

Elizabeth: 09:27

That's on the streets. And if it costs $40,000 per person per year to give them three meals a day and case management and health care and all that stuff, it's such an obvious choice except that 80,000 is scattered across so many budgets that you don't see it.

Smoke: 09:41

It's the police department. It's the health system Yep. The hospitals, the you know, it's it's it's all of those things. And that and that might even be quite low because it doesn't count what does it do to the people that live in the neighborhood Right. And how did it impact them?

Elizabeth: 09:56

Conventions and lost tourism and all that economic that's just hard costs. Right? But it's classic economics externalities, which is that all the the entities that would benefit from ending it Mhmm. Are not tasked with that. The one entity that is tasked with it, the housing department is scored on reducing homelessness.

Elizabeth: 10:14

Right there and that is so solvable. That's just misaligned interest.

Smoke: 10:19

Yeah. That's just you know it's that you know they say the problems that we have won't be solved by the level of thinking that created them. The level of thinking, the level of consciousness that creates this dichotomy of metrics and solving for a solution. Yep. Is just it's just it's in it and they don't they can't see they have blinders on.

Smoke: 10:39

And so what we did is basically took a lens at a little bit higher level and said wait a minute let's just be practical here. Right. And let's just do it. Right. And that didn't make everyone happy.

Elizabeth: 10:50

It I mean, the powers that be in fact, I stood right here.

Smoke: 10:53

Powers that were, we like to say.

Elizabeth: 10:54

The powers that were. The head of the homelessness coalition in San Francisco toured around here, and she said, I'm gonna be clear with you. Your success is my worst nightmare, and I will do everything I can to make sure you don't succeed at this. The woman who runs the San Francisco Coalition for Homelessness, I toured her around here. And she said to me very clearly, she said, your success is my worst nightmare.

Smoke: 11:16

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 11:17

And I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure you don't succeed at If you have your little effing utopia and you get everybody in off the streets Mhmm. The city will think they're done, and they will build the permanent housing that we need. Right. And I said, what's the difference? Right?

Elizabeth: 11:30

Like, permanent housing in San Francisco, the single room occupancies are this out the same size. Right?

Smoke: 11:36

Mhmm.

Elizabeth: 11:36

I said granite countertops don't solve homelessness. She looked at me and she said, yes. They do.

Smoke: 11:42

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 11:42

But that thinking that thinking that this is squandered resources. So, you know, again, with a little bit of YPO arrogance, we thought, well, you know what? We're gonna do it anyway.

Smoke: 11:50

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 11:50

And we we raised the money for this project fully philanthropically

Smoke: 11:54

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 11:54

Because we have our networks. We got a million dollars from Tipping Point, which is the organization that now mayor Laurie, used to run that.

Smoke: 12:03

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 12:04

About half a million dollars in the hospital because hospitals are the ones who bear the brunt of the unsheltered problem. About half of the cost is medical. And $2,200,000, we've got 70 cabins, 90 people, nine dogs. Right? All housed with $2,200,000.

Elizabeth: 12:21

Yeah. Which, you know, in the demonstration effect of it was exactly what we wanted. Yeah. Because, you know, the woman that was opposed to it in the the city said any money we, you know, any money we spend on the stock department is a waste of resources. I said, well, lucky you.

Elizabeth: 12:35

It's gonna be free. And she said, anytime my staff spends talking to you, it's a waste of resources. But when we got down to it, she said, my nightmare is you're gonna walk everyone through it, and they're gonna love it, and they're gonna make me do more of these.

Smoke: 12:46

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 12:47

And busted. Right? Yeah. Exactly my goal. Well, nightmare came through.

Smoke: 12:51

And and then, you know, I have also have compassion for that woman. Yes. I don't know her but that, know, her intentions may well have been good.

Elizabeth: 13:02

Absolutely not. She just

Smoke: 13:03

stuck in this blinded system where, like, she just trying to maximize the the incentives that are in front of her.

Elizabeth: 13:10

It's worse than that because when you run a department Yeah. Your department has a budget and a specific goal.

Smoke: 13:15

Mhmm.

Elizabeth: 13:16

Her budget is not even big enough to do what her goal is, which is to get people in the permanent housing.

Smoke: 13:20

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 13:20

Right? So she's not a bad person, but in her lens

Smoke: 13:24

Right.

Elizabeth: 13:24

It would be a waste of resources.

Smoke: 13:26

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 13:26

And worse than that, because her budget also has to then care for the people. Right? Yeah. She every meal could have gone towards a permanent roof.

Smoke: 13:35

Yeah. Well okay so fast forward that that that was some of the initial thinking and the energy you can you can hear it right here with your voice and and this is we're in this. We're sitting in this this cool place. Fast forward, the the prior mayor who was not help not helpful in the process, but then she started doing press conference here.

Elizabeth: 13:58

Here. Yeah. I know.

Smoke: 13:59

Like a

Elizabeth: 13:59

bunch of Right?

Smoke: 14:00

Right? And we're like, don't we don't actually Absolutely. Who gets credit. Oh. It doesn't matter.

Smoke: 14:05

Like, what we can which

Elizabeth: 14:07

is what happened.

Smoke: 14:07

Solution. So now, there was a new election. Mayor Lori won the election. I got to meet him last year at a YPO event. He came and I told you like, I I think I texted you right after.

Smoke: 14:19

I'm like, hey, we I just met, you know, this candidate and he's he's on board. You're like, yeah, I know. I know him really well. Okay. So he comes in and, you know, we we we played a hand in kinda helping think about the problem.

Smoke: 14:32

Right? So I know you you were there.

Elizabeth: 14:35

Right here. Yeah. Right here. We did a press conference when he announced his homelessness plan. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 14:40

And I will be honest, I asked for forgiveness, not permission, because mayor Breed would not have been very happy to know that her competitor Yeah. Was hosting a press conference here, but I felt like he deserved it. He his organization funded And he stood right here, and, yes, I helped write that plan.

Smoke: 14:55

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 14:55

And one of the things is it said, I'm going to score my department on not on the number of people who are out of homelessness, but on the number of nights spent sleeping on the year on the streets per year.

Smoke: 15:05

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 15:06

That's the metric we're gonna measure.

Smoke: 15:07

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 15:08

I mean, you know whose words those were. Right? But we he announced it right here. And but, you know, the thing is it wasn't just that he was all of a sudden being brave. The system started to see the benefit of this.

Elizabeth: 15:19

And the probably the most important is nobody turned it down. Yeah. The outreach workers said they used to go out to an encampment, and they were lucky if they could get one out of 10 people to take a bunk bed in a warehouse. Then people follow them begging begging. Right?

Elizabeth: 15:31

Hundreds of people on the wait list. And right there, all of a sudden, when a mayor is getting a lot of trouble for get these people out of here.

Smoke: 15:38

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 15:38

All of sudden this becomes pretty attractive.

Smoke: 15:40

Yeah. For sure. Now, we we had some success pretty early on in Santa Barbara. And, know that that story is worth telling because I think that leads us to what is now going on in San Jose, what and what potentially can happen here in San Francisco. And that was you know we did a small village right there next to the town hall in next to Morgan Stanley.

Smoke: 16:02

And I remember those guys were like, we wanna do what? In our park in this parking lot next to us. And I think you walked out, you know, and and said, know, you see that person over there who's homeless Exactly. Sitting across the street, someone on the steps, someone across this, you know. And you're like, they're here already.

Smoke: 16:17

We're gonna give them a place to stay. And they're like, okay. Begrudgingly, they're kinda like, alright. You know, if you do what you say, we're not gonna oppose it. So we did it.

Smoke: 16:25

And we had the city, the community, the county, the the businesses, everyone said, you know what? This is this is good. This is what we need to do. Yep. And the the whole community got together and said, what do we need to do to provide enough on, enough housing so that we have no no unsheltered homeless.

Smoke: 16:43

Like, we can actually give play everyone an opportunity to get off the street and and get to the next level. And I can't remember what the numbers were. You can share bill in blanks, but that's happening. That's all that's that's live. That the whole county.

Smoke: 16:57

And now it's a it's a microcosm. It's a smaller place. Yep. But it galvanized the community. So, you know,

Elizabeth: 17:03

when I think about why I'm so inspired by this work, I've done a lot of soul searching about that, and it's less about homelessness necessarily. But for me, it's about something that is bite sized enough, and I can see where you could actually solve it. Right? Almost like a jigsaw puzzle. There is an answer, and you have accomplished something.

Smoke: 17:24

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 17:24

And not that global warming and all those things that are big and massive aren't important, but for me, unsheltered homelessness is solvable, like over eradicated. Mhmm. And that all of a sudden gets me really way more excited than building a 35 bedroom. And when Santa Barbara started talking that way, you know, we said, let's do enough for the whole county so that no one needs to resort to and no one will be allowed to sleep on the streets. Right.

Elizabeth: 17:47

And all the supervisors went in behind a closed door session so nobody gets in trouble, and and they all came out agreeing to do one in their district. And it's only 400 beds is what the gap was, but it will be ended in Santa Barbara County. And in fact, we're more than halfway there, and North County is gonna be at what we call functional zero in the next few months.

Smoke: 18:07

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 18:07

I mean, that's when all of a sudden you drive around the streets and you say, accomplished it. It is done.

Smoke: 18:12

And I think the total cost to go functional zero for the county is something like 15,000,000. Yes. Is that right?

Elizabeth: 18:19

That's when it's just like people's jaws drop because I think the biggest thing standing in our way solving this problem is people don't think it's possible. Yeah. When you take

Smoke: 18:27

Billions have been thrown at this.

Elizabeth: 18:29

Right.

Smoke: 18:29

And And you'll see. And you'd and you're like That's worse. It just seems to get worse. So that that's one of the biggest objections that we have. Yep.

Smoke: 18:35

When we talk to, you know, potential donors, private families, companies, corporations, foundations. They're like well what did the tens of billions of dollars that California has spent on this go to? Right. And our answer is that is that just because money was spent on misallocated and spent on things that were not effective doesn't mean this isn't. Right.

Smoke: 18:57

What we have done is demonstrate basically Yep. What you've done demonstrate that with very little resources it can be solved because it's a different way of thinking.

Elizabeth: 19:06

It's a different way. So the the data is that California has spent $24,000,000,000 on homelessness and during that same period homelessness went up by about 30%.

Smoke: 19:16

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 19:16

So no we stopped working right? Yeah. But if you look at say San Francisco and you take the number of beds you would need to reach what we call functional zero on shelter, the system has it up, $250,000,000. Our annual homelessness budget is $3.80. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 19:32

Right? For less than one year's budget, you'd have everyone indoors. Now to be clear, they're still homeless. Right? We don't claim this assault homelessness.

Elizabeth: 19:39

But if you have anybody on the streets, first of all, all the savings that happens. Right? But psychologically, like, it takes the pressure off the system. Yeah. And we do need to build permanent housing, but the streets aren't the waiting room.

Elizabeth: 19:51

People aren't getting desperately ill. And, like, the first thing you gotta do is get everyone indoors, and 250,000,000? Like

Smoke: 19:58

Yeah. Well, I I think about again back to the when you don't when we get an hour of sleep or you're camping and how it feels. And you're you're constant fight or flight mode. Right? You you're just trying to save yourself, protect yourself.

Smoke: 20:13

Just getting people sheltered for some period of time, their health improves, their mental mental situation changes so that where they could actually receive some Right. And and it, you know, it it again, like you said, it's a step. It's you have to get them stabilized so that we they can receive the help. Would get them to the next level. And, you know, you you and I are a little like we have a a wide ranging group of people that have supported Dignity Moves and a wide ranging people that we work with.

Smoke: 20:43

And, you know I would you know I'm definitely in the category of you know free market, self determinism, you know sovereign individuals. Everyone can can make a choice in their life and and also everyone deserves an opportunity to to to to to make a different choice. Yes. To to make a choice to do something different with their life, to get themselves out of the situation. Whatever the reason they got there, everyone deserves second chances.

Smoke: 21:14

And but they you we as a society that is very successful, very wealthy, very you know, we have everything. There's no reason we can't help these people get that chance. It doesn't mean everyone's gonna make a good choice. Right. But it is our obligation to give them that chance.

Elizabeth: 21:33

You know, I I spent a lot of my career before I started moves waiting

Smoke: 21:39

for signal It's all good.

Elizabeth: 21:42

I spent a lot of my career in the microfinance industry

Smoke: 21:46

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 21:46

Which is small loans to the world's poorest so they can build their own way out of poverty. And I really believe that, you know, if some poor woman in Africa, it would have taken her decades to save the $400 she needs for a sewing machine. Right? $400 loan changes her life.

Smoke: 22:03

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 22:04

And so, yes, we're helping. Right? But we're helping them help themselves. Yeah. Right?

Elizabeth: 22:08

And that's the similar thing here, which is that I don't believe philosophically that we should or owe people to take care of them the rest of their lives. Now society does owe people that's why we come together as a society, those who really can't care for themselves. Right. But this is about it's like every expectation that those people can get back on their feet. Mhmm.

Elizabeth: 22:26

Right? Yeah. But you can't do it from the streets. We walk by and we think, why isn't that person getting a job? Like, you gotta stop and think about they can't shower.

Elizabeth: 22:33

They can't plug in a phone. They don't have a printer for a resident. We gotta be kidding. It's just giving them the basics. And I really fundamentally believe that the privacy is way more than we realize.

Elizabeth: 22:45

Yeah. And, you know, my dad said I should name this organization a deep breath because that's what it is. Right? It's a place to come in and take a deep breath, right, and then get out of panic mode, and it takes a little while. If you've been sleeping on the streets for a while, you probably need several weeks here before you're very interested in

Smoke: 23:02

talking about I I think about well, I think about spiritual path and what it means at different levels of consciousness. And in the in the lower levels, you're stuck in shame, in anger, in you know, all kinds of negative emotions. In those lower levels, it's you're you're in a basically fight or flight mode. Yeah. You're in an animalistic mechanical mode.

Smoke: 23:29

Mhmm. You're just you're not there's no free will actually. Right. You're just you're just you're just You're just reacting. And it it's only when you get past, you know, in under Hawkins scale 200 and you get above that and you start to you're like, oh, there's other things here.

Smoke: 23:44

And you get into the more of the positive emotions and you work your way up to love and unconditional love. And but you can't get there if you're stuck in the Right. In that that mechanical mode. And there's tons of people in society who are stuck in those negative like vast numbers of Sure. Of our society are are in that negative mode and they're not homeless.

Smoke: 24:03

Right. But but they're still stuck there. And so, you know, when I think about the, you know, example of like the 12.

Elizabeth: 24:12

Yep.

Smoke: 24:12

You know which now that I've done a lot of work on and I've talked to people in it and I I realized and I'm now two years not not not drinking anymore. I didn't join a twelve step group but but the but the reason they work is because the field, the power of the group is at such a high calibrated such a high level of consciousness. So it's at you know this five forty unconditional love. And as long as the person asks for help and stays committed to the group, they're in they're under the influence of that that field and it can get them out of those lower those lower levels of emotion. And I look at Digging Move as as that.

Smoke: 24:49

Like, we are creating a field that's at a higher level from where they were in the for sure.

Elizabeth: 24:54

Yep.

Smoke: 24:54

Whether it you know, and I think the the intention of digging moves and what we do with these villages is at a very high level. If it's five forty or, know, it can be calibrated, but it's a very high level. And so that's one reason people don't wanna leave. Is that, like, there's love here. Great energy.

Smoke: 25:09

There is love here. And that that love is, like, it's inspiring to the people. It's like, it makes them, like, I wanna be better.

Elizabeth: 25:16

You know, you're you're you're onto something and and, you know, we're so used to treating people like cardboard. When we walk by, we tell ourselves. Right? And the you know, you often hear you should just look in their eyes. Right?

Elizabeth: 25:28

And that feels weird when you're on the streets. But but I was asking the staff. I said,

Smoke: 25:31

what You don't like don't like to look at each other's eyes. Generally.

Elizabeth: 25:34

I asked the staff. I said, what could the kids do? They're high schoolers who all wanna come help. And she said, facials. Because the act of touching them

Smoke: 25:42

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 25:43

You could just rub oil on their face. Looking in their eyes and showing that you care, she said, you have no idea how life changing that is.

Smoke: 25:49

Yeah. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 25:50

I mean, it just makes me teary. I mean, it's like

Smoke: 25:51

That's amazing.

Elizabeth: 25:52

And for kids, they're like, there she's so right. And Yeah. And one of the most beautiful things I think about this whole effort, every Sunday high schoolers come and make pancake breakfast.

Smoke: 26:01

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 26:01

Showing that you actually care. I mean, we it sounds so trite, they've got none of that message, that energy.

Smoke: 26:08

Well, it's because internal inside everyone has this divine soul. And the level of consciousness simply our separation from it. Mhmm. It's all it is. So, when we're in these lower levels of energy, it's because we don't recognize our own our own inner divinity.

Smoke: 26:27

And when someone does nice things and giving facials, doing pancake breakfast, building a village, know, giving really showing that there's care here.

Elizabeth: 26:37

Yep.

Smoke: 26:38

It speaks to their higher self. And it's like, oh, there is something there. And it's it's pretty magical.

Elizabeth: 26:43

Well, if you think about it, mean, somebody who's been on the streets for a while, they have deeply internalized the message that they're worthless.

Smoke: 26:49

Mhmm.

Elizabeth: 26:49

Right? That they can't accomplish anything. They've been told that, probably had parents tell them that. Right? And then it's played out in reality.

Elizabeth: 26:56

Right? Yep. And Well, it's

Smoke: 26:57

inside their subconscious and it's manifesting itself. It's reinforcing itself. And they're the hardest on themselves. Yes. Because it's been ingrained inside that right subconscious to where it's like, oh, you know, you're worthless, you're worthless, you're worthless.

Smoke: 27:11

You say you say that to yourself here. We all have this inner voice. Right. Right? And we're probably our toughest critics usually.

Smoke: 27:17

Right? And the work we do to cleanse that and Mhmm. You know, find your inner inner love to of yourself is what elevates Mhmm. All of humanity. Yep.

Smoke: 27:29

And so, these people are not only it's not just that their parents stole them. It's that they're telling themselves that over and over and over again. And you

Elizabeth: 27:36

gotta break that break that cycle. Another another special story. There was some kids who came and did a barbecue. Right. And one of those residents was had hubcaps, and she painting these beautiful paintings on the hubcaps.

Elizabeth: 27:50

And one of the students was like, wow. I love that. Where could I buy one? And she's like, really? You would buy it?

Elizabeth: 27:56

Why would anybody buy it? And that girl sat there and set her up on Etsy on an account

Smoke: 28:01

Oh, wow.

Elizabeth: 28:02

So that she could sell them and write a little story. Say, I'm homeless. This is my heart, you know, and really be vulnerable Yeah. On Etsy. And people go in and buy them, and this woman was so stunned anybody would want something that she'd created.

Smoke: 28:13

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 28:13

But, like, she just hadn't given herself permission to believe that.

Smoke: 28:16

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's I mean, we see it we see it in in privileged society, in society of, you know, wealthy successful people. And within that society, you've got negative self talk.

Smoke: 28:28

So it happens at all levels. But in at this level you know it's just giving everyone a boost. Yep. It's like you know hey a positive boost to give the get off your feet. Yeah.

Smoke: 28:38

Alright. So I wanna I wanna talk a little bit about the micro lending just because like that was that predated all this. Yes. It was like you've done that for because you've been doing social enterprise or some kind of give back Yep. Thing for now couple decades.

Smoke: 28:54

Yep. I think when I think when maybe when we originally met, you were running the the social networks at YPO and you know, I know you were really active there. Yep. I was running a beer wine and spirits network. Social as well but different kind of social.

Smoke: 29:08

But just give me a little like what what got you to that? Like what I know you had a very Yep. Successful tech career and you were at Yahoo and Microsoft and, you know, doing well and and then you pivoted. What what drove that?

Elizabeth: 29:21

And I and I've thought a lot about that too. And so microfinance, again, mean, it's a little bit of well, I'll tell the story, you'll figure it out, which is that, you know, I got smitten with the idea because I liked the idea of helping people up themselves. And coming from Silicon Valley, the power of entrepreneur I mean, that energy entrepreneurial energy Yeah. You could sell for a million dollars a drop if you could bottle that. Right?

Elizabeth: 29:43

And Totally. So very powerful to harness that. And so I became, you know, committed to the idea, and I intended to be a donor and get back to my you know, the real world. And then I was introduced to Mohammed Yunus, who's won the Nobel Peace Prize for for for microfinance work. And he invited me to potentially join his board, so I attended a board meeting as an observer.

Elizabeth: 30:05

And I'm looking at his documents. I'm like, wait a minute. You guys are profitable. Why are you a nonprofit? Right?

Elizabeth: 30:11

I might be able to get you a hundred dollar donation, but I could get you a hundred thousand dollars if you're gonna return the money to someone. And it's also a little hypocritical that you're expecting people to repay in full. And so I blurted out of the board meeting. He looked at me. Said, unethical to make money when doing good.

Elizabeth: 30:26

And then Steve Rockefeller put me aside the break. He could still worry about the ethics. It's just not possible. And I left there determined to do it just because I wanted to prove them wrong. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 30:35

Like, there was something about, like, the challenge.

Smoke: 30:37

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 30:37

And so I raised $7,000,000 from friends and family. I mean, not a big amount for, you know, investment fund. We had debt, not equity, so there wouldn't be perverse incentives to charge the highest interest rate possible. And we helped so many people, but I again, it was an arrogance thing in a way, which is I proved that you could do this with Yeah. You know, at scale in a more logical way because the bigger organizations get their economies of scale, they're dramatic, and you could afford to charge lower interest rates.

Smoke: 31:05

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 31:05

And I just knew I was right. You know? Mhmm. And I wanted to demonstrate. So that project, had Deutsche Bank and HSBC and Citibank all on my investment committee to watch and learn.

Elizabeth: 31:18

And sure enough, Deutsche Bank raised an $85,000,000 fund, and I was on the board of that. And now today, the vast majority of money in microfinance is for profit. And so there's a sense of just accomplishment of going against the grain and against the current thinking and say wait a minute logic tells me that the current grain isn't right and that's kind of where this has come from.

Smoke: 31:38

Yeah and and and that for profit mechanism you know it was a mechanism to attract lots more You know, the idea was you know, we could we can raise x amount of money from donations or from governments or whatever and there's only there's only so much that you're going to get that way. Right. But if you can create it's a ongoing it becomes a like a water wheel, you know, as in Yeah. You know, where it's it's replenishing.

Elizabeth: 32:05

So I kinda think of it like the way I dealt with the Mohammed Yunus accusations and and about, know, people getting wealthy off of the poor and all that stuff. Mhmm. So I feel like if you wanna solve one of the world's biggest problems, you take the sharpest tool possible. And if the sharpest tool is a full profit investment model and as a byproduct investors make a

Smoke: 32:25

return Mhmm.

Elizabeth: 32:26

Then that's great. It's just when you're trying to maximize return at the by doing something good Yeah. Right? Which is greenwashing. And so Yeah.

Elizabeth: 32:35

When I I spent a lot of time eighteen years, I ran impact investment And there's a full spectrum from for profit goals that you pretend are impact so that it looks good. And there's nonprofit that begrudgingly has a has a, you know, revenue model because they know they need it to stay afloat. Yeah. And there's everything in between. And quite frankly, all of those are valid.

Elizabeth: 32:56

What's not valid is not being an agreement from day one.

Smoke: 32:58

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 32:59

So when I've got my hot chili pepper company, if we're trying to help poverty alleviation, we wanna pay the most we can.

Smoke: 33:06

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 33:06

We're trying to maximize profit. We wanna pay them as little as possible.

Smoke: 33:09

Right.

Elizabeth: 33:09

We're not gonna debate that in the boardroom. We're going to have decided that in advance and in that example, our goal was to be able to grow the company enough that we could help more farmers.

Smoke: 33:19

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 33:19

Not maximize return but also not not be you know it

Smoke: 33:24

a lot. It's a balanced view. It's it's

Elizabeth: 33:25

But either is fine. I mean some of the the the environmental tech stuff hugely profitable.

Smoke: 33:31

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 33:32

And you know, I mean, spend your capital type, you know, returns.

Smoke: 33:35

But but that you can do even if you are just seeking wealth. Well, look. I mean, not to jump into a hot topic today, but you drove up in your Tesla. Yep. And it seemed to be scratch free.

Smoke: 33:48

There's a great example where you know, the the mission of so much of you know, a lot of society would like to have go to green solutions and the climate friendly things. That's the most successful company in the world doing that. Great and with great products. Yep. And very valuable and very profitable.

Smoke: 34:08

And, you know, it's the it's the best chance we have of shifting to a green environment. So there you got an When

Elizabeth: 34:13

when solutions that solve problems are highly profitable, then the problems get solved. Yeah. Let's just be blunt.

Smoke: 34:19

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 34:19

Right? I mean, green is very very powerful in its system. Yeah. Right? And so if you can set it up so that people could get very wealthy ending poverty, poverty will be ended.

Smoke: 34:28

Yeah. Well and I think one of the cool things that we're playing around with with Dignity Moves is a private public fund scenario that is designed to allow people to take advantage of the tax write offs for units which are you know basically if you've got passive income there's a way to use that as a you know to to Depreciate the option. Every dollar you invest in those those funds is basically at 50% you know you know it's it's it's a tax shield so it's only 50% actual cost to you. And there's a model that's emerging so it'll be interesting to see how that comes out and whether that is able to attract the large pools of capital that we think are necessary for this to build out the stock of, you know, of of homes basically that need to be built.

Elizabeth: 35:20

You know, the thing about people being judgmental of greed, right, is still very, very real it's very hypocritical. But but even right now when we're putting on a piece of state legislation that we're cosponsoring, the consultant two years ago, I talked about how since this is technically housing, there could be a scenario where people could pay rent, right, and be able stay longer. And that rubbed her so long that to this day she's convinced that I personally am trying to get rich by using you know inferior building codes and charge poor people a lot of money and get rich. Absolutely said that is her story about

Smoke: 35:55

It's it's a psychological term known as projection. Yeah. So it's and what you the worst thing that is inside that you project on other people insists to

Elizabeth: 36:06

And then the permanent housing that everybody's so committed to, that's backed by tax credits from Wall Street. You know how lucrative those are? Yeah. But somehow doing this in a way that would be profitable

Smoke: 36:17

Mhmm.

Elizabeth: 36:17

Or maybe even just have some income like rent. Yeah. Is somehow heresy and evil.

Smoke: 36:22

Yeah. And Well we're gonna we're you're helping to spell that and and I think rational minds, you know, again, this is not about judgment. And, you we're not judging the people that we're trying to get off the street. We're not judging the system and the people that have maybe done squandered billions of dollars in the ecosystem. It's about how do we solve for the greatest good?

Smoke: 36:48

And that's gonna include for profit, not

Elizabeth: 36:51

for

Smoke: 36:50

If

Elizabeth: 36:51

we tap into financial models, we will be able to solve this problem a lot faster. Yeah. Flat out.

Smoke: 36:56

Yeah. Alright. So you're talking to a 22 year old version of Elizabeth. And she's like wants to save the world, gung ho. She's on the fence.

Smoke: 37:10

She's watching this video and she's like, how do I do this? What do I do? What do I do? Like, what do you tell your

Elizabeth: 37:16

So so first of all, my twenty three year old self did not have any interest in saving the world. Okay. I was at Microsoft and then of course later at Yahoo and loved, like, coming up with new stuff that was really because it was new. Yeah. And in Microsoft, you know, I came on right when Windows came out and the first word

Smoke: 37:34

for Windows You're the one to blame for that?

Elizabeth: 37:36

I am. And it used to be a black screen with white text was a word processor. Yeah. And all of sudden it's colorful and you can see bold and all that kind of stuff. Right?

Elizabeth: 37:45

And I got to be involved in making what those features would be. And the the layers particularly, I'm just selling to the lawyers. Right? Like, do I know it's bold? It doesn't have a bold on and then bold off code around the word.

Elizabeth: 37:57

Right? Yeah. I'm like, because it looks bold.

Smoke: 38:00

Because it is bold. Right?

Elizabeth: 38:01

We had to have a feature called reveal codes that would turn on a bold on around the word and bold off because people weren't ready to think about what was a pretty obvious improved system. Yeah. Right? And, you know, that's that's the kind of thing that gets me really excited, which is, you know, we've sent men to the moon and decoded the human genome. Don't tell me we can't get four walls and a roof around people.

Elizabeth: 38:25

Right. Right? I mean, yeah. Totally. Where does that think about it.

Smoke: 38:28

Totally. So so you weren't thinking about saving the world. You were just thinking about doing things better and cool doing cool things which I can relate to. So it doesn't as a 22 year old, you don't need to try to save the world. Go do go be you.

Smoke: 38:42

Go accomplish something. Go just do whatever you do fully, right? Yes. And that will open up avenues for doing all kinds of great Now, you can also while you're at it, do things that keep you engaged in helping others, do it. You know, do Yeah.

Smoke: 38:58

Volunteer on Sundays for the pancake breakfast. Do something the way you you are connected to other humans and helping them back while you're pursuing your your goals. And then at some point, you're gonna have an opportunity, like you had the opportunity to kinda pivot your whole career Yes. And say, you know what? I'm gonna dedicate my life to doing these things.

Elizabeth: 39:17

And, you know, the reason again, it goes back to my advice would be find one thing that is so finite that you could actually accomplish it. Yeah. Right? And to be truthful, I care about homelessness. It could have been puppies.

Elizabeth: 39:29

I mean, right, it was a problem that I saw.

Smoke: 39:32

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 39:32

Wow. When you turn up your dials, we can solve it with a capital s. Solve it.

Smoke: 39:37

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 39:37

And this is just unsheltered homelessness. It's just one piece of a much bigger problem. But that's what drives me is because I know we're gonna freaking end this problem. Yeah.

Smoke: 39:47

Well, and it's it's like any big task. It's about pick something that you can actually fix and accomplish. Yes. Do that. Then look up.

Smoke: 39:58

What's the next thing that you can do? Yep. And so, doesn't mean don't think of a big, you know, big audacious goal that's Right. Like, you know, gonna be really really, you know, you know, whatever. Take bring man to the moon or the Mars Right.

Smoke: 40:10

Mars or whatever it is. But, you know, there's things you can do in the interim that you have to have success at. And so it is it's picking something where and then putting all the energy and focus Right. On accomplishing that.

Elizabeth: 40:21

And, you know, you also pick if you look at something that needs to be accomplished, you pick your little issue. What is also more attractive to me is that solving this one is actually really easy. And when I say that, it's because there's not opposition. Both sides of the aisle. Right?

Elizabeth: 40:36

If if you're humane care about the humane and the suffering, then you want everyone in off of the streets. Yeah. And if you care about fiscal responsibility and reducing welfare, you want that. Yeah. If you're the general public and you just think as a taxpayer, you deserve to have clean sidewalks and streets, all of those points of view

Smoke: 40:53

If you're if you're religious and you think it's wrong to have people, you know, living in squalor when All

Elizabeth: 40:58

living All all those things.

Smoke: 40:59

There's no natural opposition that should be there.

Elizabeth: 41:02

The only thing not in that intersection intersection is current policy and funding. Yeah. Those can be solved with the stroke of a pen.

Smoke: 41:09

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 41:09

It's that easy. Yeah. Just why I spend a lot of time with a very loud voice raising awareness of that and shining a light on it because it can be solved.

Smoke: 41:17

Yeah. And I think this 33 golf is is a great example illustration which is we just built one in the heart of homelessness. Just in the heart of like the city that's not working. We just did one. Yep.

Smoke: 41:32

And then it became this thing that everyone started looking at. So, oh it can be done. And that's the same thing like all all everything builds on success and then and people generally, unfortunately don't have. Well, they have at one point when they're children but they a lot of people lose their ability to imagine. Imagine what's possible.

Smoke: 41:52

Right. And so it take it does take someone to just you know, break through that all the naysayers and just it and do it and then show it like look this is we just

Elizabeth: 42:02

did this. Yeah and you know one of the other things that keeps me going you know there's a guy here that came up to me the other day and he heard that I was digging moves and was kind of tampering around behind me a little bit and finally he said, can I just talk to you for a minute? He said, I just want you to know you saved my life. Yeah. And he had tears in his eyes and you know what?

Elizabeth: 42:20

I started crying and said, you know what? We did.

Smoke: 42:22

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 42:22

We did. And it's real hard to not keep doing something when you feel that good about it.

Smoke: 42:27

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 42:27

And, you know, the other thing that's that's really driving me to be honest is, you know, I I I love the the public awareness and the, you know, that this is getting. And both mayor Mahan and mayor Lurie are both now, like, literally embracing our concept of what we call functional zero unsheltered, which means end it in your entire city all at once. Yeah. And, you know, this is the first time there's something fresh and optimistic on a very depressing topic of homelessness. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 42:59

And so, like, you know, we're getting a ton of attention and a ton of media. Actually, you're the one who introduced us to our PR team who was just totally excited about. And and you know that that's inspiring too because when people learn that this is really possible Yeah. I mean, I can't tell you how many people say this this is the most optimistic thing I've heard of in years. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 43:18

Well and I

Smoke: 43:18

think we've got a obviously a lot of change happening in Washington and that message is going to get there. It is getting there and you know there's a raw opportunity to rethink you know with through HUD and through all these different programs, rethink how we're delivering services. You know, I don't we you and I weren't in business or in this issue when when they decided to blow up all the mental health centers Right. And all the all the all the you know, hospitals that were out there. And I'm sure there were that the occasional one for the cuckoo's nest example of like going off the But like they didn't come up with a different solution.

Smoke: 43:54

So we've got the it's a there's gotta be a holistic view of this thing.

Elizabeth: 43:57

This is one part of it. So I get in trouble when I say this. But, you know, I actually think that when Trump is out there slashing entire departments and entire budgets and so forth, I think, you know, when they talk about how homelessness has been a waste of money, with all due respect, I agree. Right? Our current system has been squandering money.

Elizabeth: 44:17

And this when when all those housing vouchers go away, it may force the issue that we're gonna have to get over our perfectionist, everybody, idealism, everybody gets their own granite countertop. Yeah. It may force us to finally get to something pragmatic, which is that we're gonna have some place that is decent to be fair. This meets building codes set by the state. It is not Islam.

Elizabeth: 44:39

It is not but it's about the size of a dorm room in college. And by the way, my son's tuition bill says housing on it. Yeah. It's a room just about this size. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 44:47

Don't tell me it's not housing.

Smoke: 44:48

No. These are exactly.

Elizabeth: 44:50

Well, the system tells me it's not housing. It doesn't meet HUD's definition of housing. Meets my definition of housing. Right.

Smoke: 44:56

Yeah. Alright. So, on a personal

Elizabeth: 44:59

I can get worked up about it.

Smoke: 45:01

No. Look at it's the energy that drives it and that's why you have so many followers like me and people supporting what you're doing is because you know, this you know we believe. Yeah. And we believe because this energy you're right and we're you know and we're not right about every which way we turn, how we do this, how we do that. We've made mistakes, we've you know learned along the way.

Smoke: 45:22

But we what we're doing is like, if we have to change, we'll pivot.

Elizabeth: 45:25

It is the right answer.

Smoke: 45:26

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 45:27

Let's get everyone indoors. Yeah. And it and it

Smoke: 45:29

That that part

Elizabeth: 45:29

is is the right answer.

Smoke: 45:30

That's unequivocal. And it's like, okay. However, we have to do that, let's do it. And let's do it, you know, in an efficient way, in a speedy way so that these people have a chance to you know make a different choice and

Elizabeth: 45:44

and return being members of society.

Smoke: 45:46

They are sovereign beings and they forgot.

Elizabeth: 45:49

And it's so tragic that we are losing as society. We are losing the contribution that they could be making. And obviously, there's

Smoke: 45:58

a It's even greater than that. It's not just what we're losing there. It's what do we lose as a society by ignoring it. Our souls. By not solving

Elizabeth: 46:07

it. No.

Smoke: 46:07

I mean, there's a real thing there.

Elizabeth: 46:09

There's a real thing there.

Smoke: 46:10

It's not it's doesn't it's not it doesn't go unnoticed.

Elizabeth: 46:13

I get in trouble saying this one for sure. But, you know, when we studied slavery and the holocaust and the genocides and, you know, you start to think, how did the normal person get up in the morning and go, oh, well, that's what just the way it is. Right?

Smoke: 46:25

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 46:25

And and if you'd spoken up under Hitler, you would have gotten killed. So maybe you got a reason not to speak up. But we did not have that excuse that honestly, I hope our grandkids look at us and say, people slept where?

Smoke: 46:37

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 46:37

Like, what do you mean you just let that happen? Yeah. Right? And shame on us.

Smoke: 46:43

Yeah. No. There there's this is a great example and there's other other examples in society. But, you know, the most important thing that so what I would tell my 22 year old self or your twenty twenty two year old Elizabeth is, do exactly what you said. I totally agree.

Smoke: 46:57

Pursue passionately whatever you want to do and and go for it. But, you know, realize that every human is a sovereign being. Mhmm. And that it is up to each of us to recognize that. But you start with yourself.

Smoke: 47:13

Like nobody can help anyone else if you don't recognize it in yourself. Right. And so that's one of the things I I spend a lot of time on is talking to people who have realized that. Because the energy level of these higher consciousness is it spread it it affects everyone. You know, it's what digging moves is doing.

Smoke: 47:32

It's lifting people up. So you're doing. And you're not you don't talk about it like I'm talking about it, but you're doing it. So it's like it's a you're an embodiment of it. Right.

Smoke: 47:40

It's not not a you don't have to intellectualize it. You just are doing it.

Elizabeth: 47:44

And you just think about what your superpowers are, and that's always kind of a tough question to think about. But what is really when I'm in my zone, you know Right. What do I feel like? And I have contagious optimism. Mhmm.

Elizabeth: 47:54

And I'm well aware of it and I consciously feel like that is my obligation to the world Yeah. Is to be so passionately optimistic that this problem can be solved that it is contagious. And I think if I contribute only that, then I've done something really important.

Smoke: 48:11

You have and I can attest and you know when you have that kind of energy and that kind of contagious optimism you can take a bunch of arrows in the back, can take a bunch of hits you know, and you do. And it's like but you know what? At the end of the day, you're not there to to you're not there to please Right. The the the naysayers. You're there to solve and to do things.

Smoke: 48:34

Yep. And that is contagious.

Elizabeth: 48:36

It is contagious and the good news is the tide's turning.

Smoke: 48:39

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 48:39

Right? And this is gonna be the wave of the future. Yeah. And we are gonna solve this problem. And I think demonstrating it and then you could kinda sit back and watch.

Elizabeth: 48:48

Right? I mean, it will start rolling downhill. Yeah. Absolutely.

Smoke: 48:51

It's exciting. It is exciting. I thank you for everything you do and who you are and and and it is it's inspiring to me. It's inspiring to everybody involved. It really is.

Elizabeth: 49:01

Well, that's part of it too, which is that this is this problem affects us all in our souls Yeah. And in our pocketbooks. And this is an all hands on deck solution. Right? Anybody who contribute one white PO says he makes tiles.

Elizabeth: 49:16

He's like, can you use tiles? I'm like, I don't know. Sure. Right? If we're all putting in what we can, and it doesn't mean money.

Elizabeth: 49:23

Right? It means thoughts and brilliance and ideas and energy and then that's how it's gonna get solved.

Smoke: 49:29

Yep. And then there's other other societal issues that, you know, other people can can

Elizabeth: 49:34

I'm saying I'm taking on one. Yeah.

Smoke: 49:36

I know. Like it it it takes it takes a bunch of us. And and you know pick your pick your spot. Pick your Like you said it could have been home it could have been something else. Know and but pick something and and just really like do it.

Elizabeth: 49:49

And something finite enough that you could actually accomplish it. Yeah. Yeah. And really it cross it off the list. Right.

Elizabeth: 49:56

Polio, we could eradicate we could eradicate chronic homelessness. We'll never fully eradicate homelessness because and especially on shelf I mean, homelessness overall, but unsheltered. Like, it's like a bathtub and there's water going in and the drains flowing out. But as long as the drain is working well, right, we can chronic homelessness is defined as somebody suffering on the streets for over a year with with debilitating conditions. That means to be eradicated like polio.

Smoke: 50:25

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 50:25

And it can be. Yeah. It should never exist.

Smoke: 50:27

No. That is that is solvable and and we're doing it right now. Yes. And we're sitting in a an example of it. So I I would love to have you back on a little down the road

Elizabeth: 50:39

we can talk

Smoke: 50:40

more about this and and kinda check-in on where things are going and you know, you and I talk all the time. But I think it's it's fun to include this audience who, you know, if they're on the if they're listening to Smoke Trail, they're on some kind of spiritual path. Yep. They are inspired in some way and if they made it this long into it, they're you know, we're we're reaching them. Yes.

Smoke: 50:58

And that's pretty cool. And we're not trying to reach everybody. We we want the Yep. Motivated to hear it and to do whatever they wanna do.

Elizabeth: 51:04

Well, and it you know, for me, this is what gets me into my spiritual glow. Yep. Right? Because I'm maybe for some of the wrong reasons, like, you know, intellectual or, you know, it's good for the ego to be solving a big problem and all of that. But I'm so I mean, it's almost like a drug.

Elizabeth: 51:22

I mean, I'm just addicted to it because I'm so optimistic and I know when I can see it that it's it fills my heart. It fills me and takes me to a level I've never been.

Smoke: 51:31

So Look, Gandhi took down the British Empire. The greatest Empire of the world. Right? Had all the all the power but really that power was based on force. Yep.

Smoke: 51:41

It calibrated at a negative negative consciousness. Yep. And And Ghani was in the July which is a very enlightened level. So one little frail man, you know, would could could hunger badass and could do these things and and literally inspired a the creation of a nation. Mhmm.

Smoke: 51:59

So, whenever I think about like can can some one person make a difference? Of course. Like it is there's many examples of it. Yeah. And you know, it's and it's the the field that you operate at is so much more powerful than all the negative fields below that it makes a difference.

Smoke: 52:17

That's why we're we're solving that problem.

Elizabeth: 52:19

And we're doing it together, Smoke. Seriously, you've been such a such a cheerleader and so such a stalwart with me and your entrepreneurial energy that you know could take a company crashes take another one like you know that resilience I think and determination has been we're very like minded and Yeah.

Smoke: 52:41

You. We did have a few moments when we we had a few naysayers in our midst. Yeah. Saying, well, why don't we just do this one thing or this one thing or, you know, why are we trying to do so much? Right?

Smoke: 52:52

We did have a few I got a lot of that. Like that. Got a lot I definitely was on the on the the corner of the room that said, no. No. Let's solve this.

Smoke: 52:59

Let's go for it. Go for it. You're right. You're not you're not wrong

Elizabeth: 53:02

about It's important. Some of our senior team felt pretty committed to the fact that we are a real estate developer, and our job is to develop more projects. And that, you know, yes, we would make a lot of money, right, as a nonprofit or for profit if we built a ton of real estate projects. But we're about starting a movement. Right?

Elizabeth: 53:20

And Yeah. Overseeing hammers and nails is the least of the value add. We are about getting this message out and

Smoke: 53:26

Well and and along the way we we agreed to like let's create the the let's create the best practices blueprint and give it away. The playbook. Let's make the playbook and give it away. And that's what we that's what we're doing. That's what we've done with the city here, with the new mayor, what's we've done with down in San Jose.

Smoke: 53:42

Right?

Elizabeth: 53:42

Well, depending on when this gets it gets published Yeah. It's a sneak preview which is it's getting launched. We have a full open source playbook that's gonna be released in the next couple weeks. Yeah.

Smoke: 53:51

And that and that's like, you know, could we have like turn it into something where we're licensing it or doing, you know, make it a big consulting business? Yeah. But you know what? That's what our point is let's solve.

Elizabeth: 54:00

Put it out to the universe and see and help others do

Smoke: 54:04

it. It's exciting.

Elizabeth: 54:05

Thank you.

Smoke: 54:06

Thank you for having me. So happy to have you. Oh, thanks for you.

Elizabeth: 54:10

I'm honored to be here.

Smoke: 54:11

Yeah. This is cool.

Elizabeth: 54:12

Thanks.

Smoke: 54:13

Thank you.