Bob Dalton is a visionary entrepreneur with a heart for social change and advocacy. Turning personal struggles and hopelessness into a widespread source of inspiration, he founded the widely acclaimed Sackcloth and Ashes, a unique blanket company providing aid to homeless shelters for every blanket sold. Beginning as just an effort to help his mother, it is now a thriving company that has positively impacted countless lives. Bob's story is a testament to the power of empathy, perseverance, and determination in sparking change within communities and societies. With his unique perspective and unwavering dedication, he is an inspiring voice on how individuals can drive meaningful change.
In this episode, Steve and Bob discuss:
- Finding your Purpose
- Taking Responsibility to Solve Societal Problems
- Empowering Individuals to Drive Change through Advocacy and Philanthropy
- True Influencers of Society
- Taking Action
Key Takeaways:
- Discover the positive impact of incorporating social good into your business operations.
- Learn the importance of localism and community involvement
- Uncover how small actions can lead to significant changes in the world around you
- Recognize the potential of advocacy in driving societal improvements
- Feel inspired by stories of philanthropic achievements and their lasting effects
“Our mission is to inspire generosity and make a local impact.” – Bob Dalton.
Connect with Bob Dalton:
Connect with Steve and Jason:
- LinkedIn: Jason or Steve
- Website Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking
- Email: grow@rewireinc.com
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Listen to the podcast here
Bob Dalton - Don’t Talk About It. BE About It
I have a guest on the show that I don't even know how to introduce, to be honest with you, because what you're in for in this show is very unique otherworldly thinking. It's my hope that when we get to the end of this show, part of you goes, “What?” That's what I hope for. Without any further ado, hi to Mr. Bob Dalton. Bob, say hi to the readers.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for reading.
It's going to be fun. Bob is the CEO and Founder. Bob founded an organization called Sackcloth and Ashes. I cannot wait for you to read the story behind this. My hope is that it creates some insights in you that lead to creativity and to some very different thinking. It's a huge pleasure to have him on the show that I get to ask him some questions. Bob before we get going, we have this little tradition here at the show where I start with the question. I didn't prep you for this and maybe you've heard it before. Now, sitting wherever you're sitting, I want to know what you're grateful for.
My company turned older and I'm grateful to have made it this far. It's been a crazy journey. I feel like we beat the odds and we get to enter into the final year of our first decade. I'm grateful for my team and to have made it this far. It's been a wild ride.
I don't even partly know where to begin with that ride. I know we're going to go into some cul-de-sacs. I don't even have to ask you to thumbnail sketch this, but would you give us an overview of the ride? Who is Bobby Dalton, first of all? What are you about a little bit? How does that pertain to your organization? If you wouldn't mind giving us a quick sketch of that, that'd be great.
I started my journey out of high school getting involved in an organization called YoungLife. YoungLife had a massive impact on me when I was a teenager, so much so that I moved to a certain part in Oregon where they didn't have any YoungLife. At nineteen years old, I'm like, “I'm going to start YoungLife in this area.” I had no clue how to start an area or a ministry before. I just prayed every night.
I was like, “God, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm willing.” He opened up a lot of doors for me and I was able to help craft a team of people going to the high school, build relationships with kids, love them, go to their games, support them where they're at, and do this with a group of people. Being able to build a team of people on the mission was one of the best things that I could have learned and how it could have prepared me for doing what I'm doing now. I did that for five years.
In 2013, my mom ended up going through a difficult time in her life when she lost her mother and her brother. She spiraled downhill. She picked up an addiction and it wrecked her life like she lost everything. She called me up one day and she was like, “I am going to start my life over and move across the United States.” She booked a one-way plane ticket from Oregon to Florida, took with her suitcase with two pairs of interview clothes, and flew over there.
She thought her aunt would take her in and didn't, so she ended up sleeping on beaches and benches. As I'm transitioning out of YoungLife and trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do as a 24-year-old, my mom's going through this difficult time in her life and ended up homeless. I wasn't in a place where I could help her. She didn't want help. It was a weird, difficult, and dark dynamic. I started calling homeless shelters because I wanted to do something if I couldn't help her out.
I started calling shelters to see what they needed and they said blankets. I came up with the idea that for every blanket that I sell, I'll donate a blanket to local homeless shelter. Homeless shelters being all over the United States, I thought I'd be interesting to evolve the one-for-one model and localize it to where no matter where you live, if you buy a blanket, we'll send a blanket to a homeless shelter down the street from where you live.
Finding Your Purpose: If you buy a blanket, we'll send a blanket to a homeless shelter down the street from where you live.
I had no clue how to start a business. Once again, I find myself in this place where I'm like, “I've done this before. I have this experience of starting something out of nothing and it worked and the faith journey of it.” Starting a blanket company, I did what anybody would do. I drove down to JOANN Fabric, bought a sewing machine and a roll of fabric, and tried to learn how to sew.
I realized I'm horrible at sewing, so I hired a local seamstress to start making my blankets. I put the blankets in my trunk and started selling them to local shops. I named the company Sackcloth and Ashes because sackcloth and ashes is ancient Jewish symbolism, which means morning and repentance. The concept of it was every time somebody wraps themself in a blanket, it symbolizes morning over the homeless population and repentance by contributing to a shelter in your area.
I would walk into shops with boxes of blankets and be like, “Are you interested in buying these blankets? However many you buy, I’ll donate the equivalent amount to your local shelter.” I got into 10 shops out of 200. One of the shops I walked into was Anthropologie, a global women's boutique. I was like, “Do you guys want to buy some blankets?” They're like, “It doesn't work like this.”
I was like, “Here's my card. Let me know if your manager is interested.” About a week later, it was like 30 days after I launched my website and started selling blankets out of my trunk, I got an email from Anthropologie. They're like, “We want 8,000 blankets.” What had happened was their corporate team had come through that week and ended up looking at my card and looked at my website. They thought we were way bigger than we were and it was just me, my best friend who quit his job, and Tammy who's sewing blankets for us.
That was the first stamp of approval like, “This is going to work.” It was very quickly transitioning out of nonprofit, mom's going through a hard time, and starting a blanket company. Nothing made sense. My wife's thinking I'm losing my mind, then we got this little glimpse of hope. A company wanted 8,000 blankets. That's what sparked the whole beginning stages of Sackcloth and Ashes. Fast forward for years, I'm still at it. A lot happened in between.
By the way, there are about five of them in my house. We're hardly your biggest client. When I told my colleague, Stephanie, that we were doing this interview, she was like, “Tell him I love his blankets.” I'm like, “I’m sure he hears that a lot.” Tammy has been replaced by the country of Italy if I'm not mistaken. Your blankets are made in Italy. Do I understand that?
That's correct.
Not all of Italy. Is Tammy still with you, by the way?
Tammy quit on me. We filled up her house with blankets and it got to a point where it was clearly like, “We got to find other solutions here. Tammy's been worked to the bone.” She was great. She helped us early. She helped bootstrap the company. She made all the blankets. We'd swing by her house every day and pick up blankets that she'd make, and then we try to distribute them. She was with us for probably the first three months or so, then I had to find other options when we started scaling.
Listening to you tell the story about your mom almost chokes me up. Here's a kid who wanted to do anything to help his mom. Now here you are. I was in REI. I walked in and there was this big Sackcloth and Ashes display. I'm like, “What is happening in the world?” I thought that was super cool.
It's crazy. My mom's doing good now. She went on pretty much a journey of addiction for four more years after I launched the company. She was addicted to alcohol. It got to a point where I accepted she's going to die. She’s at that point. I got her in and out of rehab a couple of times. She was in and out of the hospital. That's when it got bad. I'd find out she's in the hospital and she's drinking to the point of blacking out. I just accepted it. I'm like, “My mom's going to die this way. This is crazy. My dad died of alcoholism, and here we are again with my mom.”
It was a crazy moment when I truly grieved my mom's death at that time. I flew to where she was at, packed up all of her stuff, and I got her back home to Oregon because I wanted to make sure that my sister and I could be close to her for her final days. I was doing a blanket drop where we passed blankets at homeless shelters up in Portland at a women's program called Shepherd's Door and doing our normal thing.
We pass out blankets, share the Sackcloth story, and talk about my mom, her journey, and what inspired the company. They're like, “Where's your mom now?” I was like, “I just moved her back to Oregon.” They're like, “We have 38 out of 40 slots filled in this program. Is there any way you could get her into this program?” Dealing with anybody with addiction, you know how it is. It's like, “I'll try.”
I drove to where she was at and she was drunk on her bed. I open up my car door and I'm like, “Mom, I have an opportunity for you that I think could change your life. This is your last shot. If you get in my car, it's going to be an opportunity for hope and redemption, but if you don't get in my car, I need you to know that I'm going to support you to the end. I'm going to roll with you and ride this thing out. I'm not going anywhere. There will be no hard feelings or bitterness if you choose that route.”
She got in my car. She got into the program and spent a year in the program and was sober for a year, then spent another year in the program to be sure. She got two years of sobriety. Now, she's at a point where she's a few years sober. She's helping run a detox program and helping people work through their addictions. Her story is a miracle. She's healthier than I am. She's doing well.
I keep speaking this out into existence, but my dream is that we hit nine years as a company. On our ten-year anniversary, prior to that, I'm going to produce the full-featured interview with her video where we're in a studio and I'm going to interview her and have the most raw conversation about addiction, recovery, how I was affected as her son, and what she went through on the streets when she was homeless. We will have a conversation about it all.
We've never had that conversation and I would try to capture that on video. I'm going to share it through our entire platform on our ten-year anniversary as a full-circle moment for us because she inspired this whole thing. Now it's grown into this crazy platform that we have where we can speak some powerful messages of hope. Her story is a testimony for people who get to the end of their rope that there's still hope for them. She was at rock bottom, as rock bottom as you can get.
Finding Your Purpose: Her story is a testimony that there is still hope for people who get to the end of their rope.
That's bedrock.
We both thought it was the end.
I'm on edge for that interview. It's a wonderful scope and goal. It's interesting, I have this inclination. I'm so interested and like, “It's nine years. You've got these goals.” The last thing I want to do is let's talk about business and how many you make. It doesn't even feel like that's the point. How many blankets in 2023 will you donate to homeless shelters?
In 2022, we sold around anywhere between 80,000 and 100,000. 2023 is a big question mark. There are a lot of big things happening for us now that if any one of them happened in the next few months, I don't know. We're in a good position now. We have 100,000 blankets in stock in our facility in Oregon. We're at a very interesting place as a business now. It feels like the first nine years was like building the infrastructure to scale this company. To answer your question, it could be 80,000, but it could be 160,000. I don't know yet.
When we were speaking before we interview, I get the impression from you that the one-to-one model, it's the other side of the one that is your personal driver. Do I have that right? We are talking about, “How do you do this business? How are you growing? How many people? What's your profitability?” That's all there, but if I'm not mistaken, you've kept your eye on, “How many are we giving away? How many people like my mom are we blanketing?” Do I have that right?
I would say yes and no. Blankets are a practical need to homeless shelters. It's always awesome for us to be able to send boxes of blankets out to different programs and get their responses, knowing that they're truly needed and helpful. What we're doing is so much bigger than the donation part of it because at least we're trying to start a conversation about localism. The local component to buy a blanket and we'll send a blanket to your local homeless shelter, at the end of the day, that's not changing homelessness. Everybody knows that.
I'm not going to say as a CEO of a blanket company that has donated a million blankets to say that's the real goal. In fact, I've started almost creating a practice of not saying that that's our main goal because what we're doing is trying to get people to think, “What can I do on a local level to serve my community?” You're going to start seeing a lot more of that coming from our company. Blankets are the bridge. We often say that in the company.
Blankets are helping connect us to people in communities all across the United States and helping them get plugged into local grassroots organizations. Us donating blankets on behalf of your purchase, it's admirable and helpful. It's a good thing, but it's not moving the needle. We're entering into a season in the second decade. We got one more year left to wrap up in the first decade. The second decade, we are going to be pushing localism massively.
Finding Your Purpose: Blankets are helping connect us to people in communities all across the United States and helping them get plugged into local grassroots organizations.
We've already created our foundation to help start that infrastructure. It's LoveYourCity.org. It's already a massive platform where you can search your city and see all of the grassroots organizations in your community and how you can help. That's going to become a much larger part of our conversation and our mission. Our mission is to inspire generosity and make a local impact. That is ultimately what we're trying to do. It's an interesting thing. Donating blankets is awesome, but it is not the main mission at this point.
I find myself sitting here. I got so many questions and I'm trying to scour my brain for the one. I don't want to be selfish about it because my own curiosity is piqued. It is what you said there about inspiring generosity. I love the idea that you have awareness around the fact that your actual product doesn't, in and of itself, move the needle, but it is a bridge to finding what does.
At the end of the day, if we're going to change the problem of homelessness, it's going to happen in two ways. It's going to have to happen on a local level. Homelessness is a local problem. Homelessness in Portland looks different than homelessness in San Diego. We have to approach any societal issue on a local level. The second is highlighting and supporting solutions. What's working?
We have to approach any societal issue on a local level.
There's a reason why we're dumping billions of dollars into these problems and they're getting worse. It’s because we're not focused on local and we're not focused on solutions. Having a blanket business is this crazy thing where the blankets are connecting us to this massive network of people who are buying our product and becoming more familiar with our brand, then we're going to have a way bigger conversation through our packaging, our website, and to the content we create.
You're going to start seeing it more. Local solutions, that's how we're going to solve problems. That's what I'm concerned with. That is far beyond Sackcloth. Sackcloth is just the vehicle that I get to do that through now, but if Sackcloth goes away tomorrow, I'm still pursuing my personal mission on this Earth while I'm here. That is to help people get plugged in on a local level and start seeing these issues change. Sackcloth is a great platform for resources, exposure, and marketing, but if it's not Sackcloth, it is going to be something else. Localism is my personal mission that's far more than business.
That's so great. I know you're on a lot of stages now and you're getting more reached to be able to speak about this whole thing which is beautiful. When someone reads this and hears a story about your mom, localism, inspiring generosity, and all that you've done with Sackcloth and Ashes, what do you hope they go do as a result of hearing the story or learning about Sackcloth and Ashes?
I got two things. One is identifying what your purpose is. I would say answer two questions. What brings you joy? That's the craft that you love the do, the thing that wakes you up in the morning. The second question is, “What injustice do you hate?” That's the thing that causes you to lose sleep at night. That’s the thing that may have happened to you or something that you've observed in society. If you can do what brings you joy to bring relief to the injustice that you hate, that's when you find your purpose.
If you can do what brings you joy to bring relief to the injustice that you hate, that's when you found your purpose.
A lot of people do what brings them joy and do the craft that they love. They do that their whole lives and they still feel unfulfilled because they're not utilizing what they're good at, what they love, and what brings them joy to bring any relief to the injustice that they hate. That's number one. It’s identifying what that is for you. It might not be homelessness. Figure it out. What injustice do you hate? How can you use what you're good at? What do you love to do? What wakes you up in the morning to bring some ounce of relief to that in your community? That's number one, it’s asking yourself those questions.
Number two is visiting LoveYourCity.org, searching your city, seeing what's in your community, and how you can get involved. LoveYourCity.org makes it easy for you to click on a nonprofit, learn about it, watch a video on them, donate money to them, and fill out a volunteer form. It's an incredible tool and resource for helping you identify what's going on in your community. My team did an amazing job building that and making it easy for people. We're not making money on that platform. This isn't a plug for me to benefit or gain anything from that. This is a public tool for you to use if you want to see what's going on in your community and how you can get involved.
You and I were talking. We had to say something controversial. You said, “Bring it on. Are you ready for this?” I figured out one of the things that you do. We're going to laugh at this and you can deny it. You inspire hatred for injustice. I know that's a funny way to put it and maybe people reading are going, “There's got to be a better way to say that.” We got to say something funny here.
That's fair. I can live with that if that's the most controversial thing that we have. I've contemplated replacing that word when sharing that concept. Why I've kept using it is because it shows the extreme seriousness. When something's been done to you like an injustice has been done to you maybe when you were a kid, growing up, in your marriage, or whatever, it's affected your relationships, you, or your health. That should anger us and cause us to want to do something about it.
If we're all honest, we all have something major in our lives that we personally struggle with or have seen affect our lives in a negative way and in a big way. We also have the ability to do something about that. We can do something about that. The win here is like, “What are you good at? What do you love to do?” Start there and do something about it.
We all have something major in our lives that we personally struggle with or have seen affect our lives in a negative and big way; we also have the ability to do something about that.
Someone might be reading and going, “My injustice and what I hate is this or that.” Maybe we have a sense of, “What can I do about that?” What I love about story is your life is evidence that you can. You can get a sewing machine somehow and someway, make a blanket, and sell it out of the back of your car. I mean that metaphorically because that might not be everybody's passion, but you can. You showed that we can. That's living evidence of what it is you're asking and hoping that happens in the world. That's fantastic.
Everyone can do something and everyone needs to do something. That's the thing. We all have a responsibility to do something in our communities. If we stopped relying on the government, philanthropists, and corporate leaders to fix our problems, we have the ability to do something about the injustices that pisses us. That's what inspired Love Your City. That's what inspired that platform and that work because there is enough resources to go around.
When we're only relying on the government or philanthropists to fix our problems, there's not enough to go around. If everyone contributes in a small way, we're way more powerful way than the government and philanthropists that hold the majority of wealth. Collectively, we have the power to change societal problems, but we're dishing off the blame to organizations, people, and government. They can't do crap about it anyway. That's the truth.
They're not going to be able to solve our problems. We have to be the ones who step up and take responsibility for the problems in our community. I can't reiterate that enough. We all have to play our own role. No one needs to feel the pressure you have to be some crazy hero of a community. Play a role. Do something small. Contribute in a small way toward something that you personally want to help. Everybody can do that. If everyone did do that, we will not have the problems we're dealing with now.
Finding Your Purpose: Contribute in a small way towards something that you personally want to help. Everybody can do that. If everyone did that, we wouldn't have the problems we're dealing with today.
That's awesome. Unfortunately, I have to say that's enough to chew on. I'm lingering on this idea. It's super inspiring, but what I can hear in you is inspiration without action is whatever.
Advocacy without action is worth nothing. If you're advocating for something and you're not doing anything about it, your advocacy is bankrupt. It means nothing.
Conversely, if you do take action in that, which you advocate, then your advocacy is wealthy.
Your advocacy is influential. If you're advocating for something and you're doing, you're doing something about it. You have a voice at that point, but you don't get to go on a Twitter rant. You can, but it doesn't mean anything that anyone because you're not doing crap about what you're talking about. You have to be about it. We are living in a world now where everyone's talking but not a lot of people are doing something about it. You can be an environmentalist, but you're not doing anything about it. That's how I sift out who I'm personally inspired by, who I listen to, and who are the people that are doing something about these things.
It's not the politicians who are influential in my life. I'll tell you that now. They're talking about stuff. The people that I want to get a photo with and I'm inspired by are the people who are grassroots leaders on the pavement showing up for their community every day. Those are the people that I'm like, “Those are the true influencers of society. Those are the people that we should be listening to.” Their advocacy means a lot.
Thank you. I feel bad about it. I want to keep going and I know you got to get on to some things because you're taking action. You're about it. I love that. That's great language. You're going to go be about it now. Congratulations again on your nine years. I cannot wait to hear the tenth-year anniversary interview. That's going to be great. I hope people read this. I hope they take action around it. I’m super grateful to have you on the show and I got to go be about it. I got to go because I'm going to go about it.
Love you.
Love you, too. Thank you. I appreciate it. Best wishes going forward. You're making a difference. The blankets are awesome. I know you never say that. My wife is like, “You know these are awesome, right?”
I'm trying not to speak about my own product or sell my own product.
I can because there's a bunch of them in my house and they're awesome. Thank you for being you and what you're doing. Best wishes going forward into that tenth year.
Thanks, Steve.
Thank you so much for joining us on this episode. As we say every day, my hope is that you read this and create some amazing insights. May your insights now cause you to be about it. We'll see you on the next episode.
