How to Build a Brand People Trust with Scott Harrison: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:02John Lee Dumas:Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. And on today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down how to build a brand people trust. And to drop these vibe bombs, I brought Scott Harrison into EO Fire Studios. Scott is the founder and CEO of Charity Water, a nonprofit with the mission of bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. And today we talk about how being born in a village without water changes everything about your life and how being a brand that inspires the best in people, not shame or guilt, and encourages them to contribute time and money to help others and to owe so much more.

0:37John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Scott and our sponsors. Fire Nation, is your business stuck? Join Eric Trump and Clay Clark's life-changing business conference, November 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn the specific proven systems Clay Clark has used to create thousands of success stories today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Again, request tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.

1:14John Lee Dumas:Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highleveelfire.com. highlevelfire.com. Scott, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, man? It's great to be back. I think it's four years since we last chatted. I think maybe the idea that you can't give what you don't have. I think a lot of people when they're building their company or when they're building their organization, they're not giving. They're not giving money to their own organization or to other things because they're trying to achieve this milestone.

2:01It's like, when I get to this milestone, then I'm going to be generous. Then I'm going to give money. Then I'm going to have margin. And I've found giving along the way as you're building is one of the greatest secrets to success.

2:17John Lee Dumas:And you planted that concept in Gary Vaynerchuk's mind long ago, and he has utilized that and preached that from the pulpit. Yeah, I think he was going to buy the Jets, and then he would start giving. And I'm like, man, you're going to miss out on 20 years of opportunities to use your time and your talent and your money in the service of others. You're going to miss out on getting involved in all of these great causes. you know living vicariously through your money at work as you try to buy the jets so uh yeah i think he's he's done a lot of good in uh in the 10 years since that meeting he really has and it's just a just commitment to giving now that like you said can be so amazing and so impactful and can again just help you achieve your dreams congruently which is super cool and as i mentioned in the intro, we're talking about how to build a brand that people actually trust, which when it comes to a charity, that's very important, trusting that charity.

3:19John Lee Dumas:And it's actually, like you mentioned, been a long time. We had you back on in 2016, then again in 2018. So now it's been four years since our last chats. So give us a little reminder. What is Charity Water? Well, the beauty is it's exactly what it sounds like. We are a charity which helps people get clean water to drink. And, you know, since we've talked, I think the world has made a lot of progress. Yeah. We are now down to 771 million humans without clean water. And I'm a little tongue in cheek there, but it's now only one in 10 people alive. And it used to be one in six people alive. However, it's 770 million people right now that are drinking disgusting water, you know, two Americas full of people.

4:05So we think that number should be zero, and we continue to try to grow the movement and the brand to bring that to zero, to make sure every single person on earth has the most basic need met, clean water, the most basic need for life.

4:24John Lee Dumas:There's many things I love about you, Scott. One of the things that I'm really fascinated and impressed by is the fact that you really live what you preach because you were a nightclub promoter in New York City. We're talking Manhattan for 10 years. And you went from being a nightclub promoter to founding a charity because there's a lot of people listening right now that are like, I'm in this industry or I'm doing that. I'm so far disconnected from running a charity or from committing to a charity or from giving to a charity, and it's just not true, and you prove that. So tell us the story of how you went from that nightclub promoter to founding a charity.

5:00Yeah, well, I moved to New York City at 18 to rebel against my conservative Christian upbringing. You know, I gave church the finger, I gave family the finger. I wanted a drink, I wanted to smoke, I wanted to have sex, and I wanted to do drugs, and I wanted to party for a living. And I learned there's actually a way you can get paid to do that as a nightclub promoter. And I thought I was, you know, the king of New York, 10 years working in nightlife, working at 40 different clubs, you know, driving the BMW, wearing the stupid Rolex, you know, dating girls that were on the cover of magazines, because I thought that those were the markers of success.

5:39And I was trying to collect, you know, all of these things that I thought would bring me fulfillment. And 10 years later, you know, I woke up one day at 28 and I had most of the things I was chasing and I was miserable. Uh, I, I was morally bankrupt. I was, you know, spiritually bankrupt. I was emotionally bankrupt. None of my relationships, you know, had any depth. And I realized, you know, if I, if I left the earth at 28, I would have left a negative contribution to the planet. You know, my tombstone would read, here lies a guy who got a million people wasted in clubs. And, you know, kind of realized how far I'd come from, you know, the way I was brought up and, and, and, you know, how far removed I was from living a life of any purpose.

6:33And I just made a radical change. I sold everything I owned and said, you know, a pivot is not needed. The opposite of everything I do and say and think is needed. Let me go and try that. And that led me to the poorest country in the world, volunteering on a medical mission in Liberia, West Africa for one year. And my entire life changed when I was exposed to people who were drinking dirty water. And in contrast, I was selling Voss water in my nightclubs for$10 a bottle to people who wouldn't even open the water. And I landed in a country where half the people were drinking from swamps and ponds and rivers.

7:20And half the disease in that country was because people were drinking dirty water. And, you know, there was just something about that extreme, you know, the extremist that I said, maybe I could do something about this. Maybe I could come back to New York City at 30 years old. and instead of getting people drunk, instead of partying like an idiot, maybe I could promote something that actually mattered. Maybe I could promote clean water for the world and see if anybody wanted to join me.

7:50John Lee Dumas:Well, sneak peek, Fire Nation,$700 million plus raised and bringing clean water to 15.5 million people and growing every single day. But before we get into that, you did really decide to reinvent yourself. And we talk about this on the show a lot, about reinventing an industry, a niche, a product, a service, becoming the best solution to a real problem in this world. You found a real problem in this world, and you said, what is a solution that I can create? But you realized that you didn't want to do it the standard way, but you wanted to reinvent charity with charity water. What does that even mean?

8:31Well, I had the advantage of coming back from Africa, my heart on fire, having this issue I wanted to solve or make a dent in. And I didn't have any experience. I wasn't a philanthropist. I had never worked at a charity before. So I just started talking to my friends who went to clubs and who worked at MTV or Goldman Sachs or Sephora in the mall. And as I was talking about this issue, I realized so many of them didn't trust charities. They were skeptical. They were cynical. Where does my money go? I'm going to give into a black hole. I don't trust the people running these things. And I realized there was an opportunity to maybe reimagine the way a charity could function, the way it could operate, the way it could interact with its supporters.

9:23And I just had a really simple idea, which was what if 100 % of every donation that was ever given to Charity Water went directly to build these wells and water projects in Africa and India and Southeast Asia, and none of the public's money ever went to overhead? No salaries, no office rent, no flights, no toner for the Epson copy machine. what if we opened up a separate bank account and I tried to find a small group of people to pay for those nasty, unsexy overhead costs. So that, man, I remember going down to Broadway and Bond. It was a commerce bank at the time in Manhattan, opening up these two bank accounts, not knowing if this would work, but believing that maybe I could take the most common objection people had and just take it off the table and say, if you give$1 or$100 ,000, every single penny will go to people in need.

10:22And then the second big idea just was, well, actually, then we could use technology to show people where their money went. You know, what if I could show a satellite image to a donor of a well they sponsored and said, hey, your money went exactly here to this village in Uganda. Here's a picture of the well. Here's a picture of the 250 people drinking clean water. And here's a satellite image of what you made possible. So this kind of proof idea, you know, closing the loop came from that. And then the third thing was just wanting to build a brand that was not shame-based or guilt-based, that invited people to bring the best of themselves, to bring their time and their talent and their money in the service of others.

11:13And it wasn't a bummer. We believed that people would find purpose and joy through giving, through generosity. not because they had to, not because they bought too nice of a car or were wearing clothes that were too expensive, but because it was an opportunity to use what we've been blessed with and provide the most basic human need, right? An inarguable common good in clean water. And I just put those three things together. And, you know, wow, 15 years ago, threw a party in a nightclub, gave everybody open bar for an hour and just asked for a$20 donation at the door. And the money that we collected that night built our first well, and that was over 111 ,000 wells ago.

12:01And it just started from one and just taking those simple principles, hyper-transparency, showing people where the money went, closing the loop, and then asking them to engage again has allowed us to build a movement.

12:15John Lee Dumas:That is the definition, Fire Nation, of reinvention. So ask yourself, how are you reinventing your business, your industry, your niche, your product, your service, if you want to achieve these kind of levels of success that Scott has achieved over the years? And we're going to be talking about this in a lot more detail when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, is your business stuck? Join Eric Trump and Clay Clark's life-changing business conference, November 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn the specific proven systems Clay Clark has used to create thousands of millionaire success stories.

12:50John Lee Dumas:See thousands of success stories and testimonials from real people just like you who Clay Clark has mentored and coached into prosperity at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Clay's proven business coaching program is month-to-month and it costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Yes, it's month-to-month and costs less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Schedule your free personal 13-point assessment with Clay Clark himself today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. Because Clay only takes on 160 clients and only allows 300 attendees to each business conference, you will interact with Clay directly.

13:23John Lee Dumas:See thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the Thrive Time Show two-day in-person workshops featuring football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, today at thrivetimeshow.com slash eofire. become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star and entrepreneur Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at Clay Clark's next business conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner.

13:56John Lee Dumas:High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape. No juggling five platforms. Just one clean system for your business and their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something execution roadmap, and more.

14:35John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Scott, we're back. And as I mentioned before the break, you've raised over $700 million since you were founded. You brought clean water to over 15.5 million people. I mean, this success is stratospheric. How have you achieved such success? I think we just show up. I mean, you know, it started with one well, and then, you know, it turned into 10, and then it turned into 100, and then it turned into 1000. And we, you know, we were so clear on where we were going. If you'd asked me 15 years ago, what are you doing? I would say, I'm on a mission to bring clean water to every single person in the world before I die, or I'm going to die trying.

15:25And we have never wavered from that hyper focus. People need water. Let's invite people into this movement. Let's invite them to give. And then let's deliver clean water in the most transparent, effective way possible, and then show them those results. So I don't know. I mean, I guess I'm just still here, right? We talked in 2016, and the impact was much less. And then we talked a couple years later, And I'm still kind of here saying the exact same thing. And last year, we raised over$100 million, you know, thanks to the generosity of a community now that spans 150 countries of kids out there selling lemonade, you know, of tech founders writing big checks of companies getting involved.

16:11You know, we've just continued to say the same thing and invite people into the mission and it continues to grow. Stories are so important.

16:21John Lee Dumas:I mean, I've built entrepreneurs on fire on the backs of stories. I mean, I love how history is broken up into his story, her story. I mean, it's so powerful. Scott, what are one or two of your favorite stories out of the over 15 and a half million people who now have clean water? Well, the first one's a rough one. And, you know, it's a really personal story from Ethiopia. I've been to Ethiopia 31 times now. we work over 29 countries and it's just, it's a country I love. It's a place I keep going back to. It's a place we make an impact. And, you know, I was there years ago and I was in this crappy $5 a night hotel room and the hotel owner comes into the, the, the little room and kind of the waiting room.

17:09And he recognizes me and he says, you're the water guy. And I said, yeah. And he said, let me tell you a story. And he says, I'm from far away. I'm from hours from here. I grew up in a remote village and all the women in my village used to walk seven hours a day. And he said, one day, one of the women walked seven hours and she was carrying this clay pot and she comes back to her house and she's got this heavy clay pot. And he said, she slips and she falls. And before she got home, she smashed her clay pot and the water that she'd spent the entire day walking for spilled out on the ground. And he said, let me tell you something about this woman.

17:47And he said, she didn't go back for more water. She didn't pick up the pieces. She took a rope and she hung it around her neck and she climbed a tree and she jumped. And he said, we found her with a noose around her neck. And he let that sit. And he said, the work you are doing here is important. And walk back in the kitchen. And man, I remember thinking, there's no way that's true, right? Like, you know, checking Snopes or whatever. Like that's what you tell an international aid worker to encourage them about the work. But I just couldn't get this visual picture out of my mind. And a couple of weeks later, I sent our local partners out to his village and they confirmed that a woman named Leta Kiros Hailu had hung herself in this village.

18:34And a couple of weeks later, I asked my wife, I said, I need to go there. I need to walk in her footsteps. I need to connect in the most visceral way with the urgency of our work. And I wound up flying back to Ethiopia, hiking nine and a half hours to her village and living there for a week. And I walked in her footsteps and I met her friends and I met her family and I visited her grave. And at the end of the trip, I remember standing on that path, looking at the tree. and what I didn't know going into the village was that she was 13 years old when she killed herself I had imagined this to be a woman at the end of her life it was a 13 year old girl who was just too tired too despaired to walk for water anymore and the shame of slipping and falling and spilling the water and breaking this clay pot, which was a valuable asset.

19:37It was too much for her. And I remember standing near her grave, just this little pile of rocks behind a small church and thinking to myself, you know, everybody agrees 13-year-old girls should not be hanging themselves because they spilled water and no one should live like this. and you know those unfortunately i've heard stories like that you know from from all over the world of the you know women being attacked by hyenas or crocodiles women being raped on their way for water the just the this thing that so many of us take for granted the 90 of the world that lives with water coming out of taps you know water we buy in bottles that we don't even need to But yet, if you were born in a village without water, your life is so different.

20:30Maybe just one story not to end there. There was a woman we were able to help in Uganda named Helen. And man, Helen was this radiant 65-year-old Ugandan woman. We went into her village. We wanted to see the well. And we said, Helen, tell us how your life is different now. You have water next to your house. You don't have to walk anymore. And Helen said to our team, she said, well, I'll tell you how I'm different. Now I am beautiful. And I remember we were like, of course you're beautiful, Helen. You're a beautiful, radiant Ugandan woman. And she said, no, no, no, you don't understand. She said, I always used to walk for water.

21:11And I had a family to support. I had kids. I had never had enough water. And I would have to make these decisions every day. Do I clean my house with the water? Do I keep my kids' school uniforms clean? Do I keep my kids' bodies clean? Do I cook, right? Do I garden? She said, I was making choices every day. And as a Ugandan woman, I always put my family first. And she said, I didn't use the water for my face and my body and my clothes. And she said, now that there's a well in my village, she said, I can take all the water that I want. And now I'm beautiful. And she said, look at me. I'm looking so smart, right?

21:51I'm so pretty. And, you know, maybe the contrast of a 13-year-old girl in despair is a 65-year-old woman who waited her whole life to feel beautiful, to have her dignity restored through something as simple as clean water. And, you know, knowing we've been able to make that possible for, you know, 100 ,000 or so villages is what animates us and what drives us to keep going and inviting more people into this.

22:22John Lee Dumas:I mean, Fire Nation, look around right now. I bet all of us, myself included, I'm raising my hands, at least the vast majority of us have some form of water or drink within eyesight right now or a way of turning a faucet on to get that or pressing a button on a water fountain. And it is true. We do take this for granted. And it's crazy that two Americas, 771 million people every single day are struggling with the very thing that we take for granted on such a high level. So if people are listening right now and they're inspired, and I know they are because you can't be an empathetic human being and not be inspired by the stories that you just shared, Scott, what can we do to help?

23:08Well, we have an amazing community of people that show up. Sometimes people give once. We have this community of people called The Spring who show up every single month. In the same way they show up for Netflix or Disney Plus or Hulu or Spotify, The Spring is a community of people who give whatever they can, knowing every month 100 % goes directly to help people get clean water. And then we show them the impact of those gifts. So it's called The Spring. I'm a member. My family, my wife is a member. My kids are still kind of giving allowance money. They're really young. But it's an amazing community of people who are just showing up for others.

23:51And that's thespring.com or just charitywater.org.

23:55John Lee Dumas:Fantastic. Thespring.com, charitywater.org. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with SH and JLD today, so keep up the heat. If you head over to eofire.com and type Scott in the search bar, the show notes page will pop up with everything we've talked about here today. And by the way, go ahead and listen to 2016 and 2018's episode, Value Bombs were dropped there as well. And I know, Fire Nation, when you see that monthly bill come in or that monthly, I should say, money go out to an organization like Charity Water to the spring, you're not going to be like, oh man, that's money going out.

24:38John Lee Dumas:You're going to be like, no, that's a feel good moment that you know that you are helping somebody and people in a place in dire need. And that's so impactful. So I really hope you take that call to action. And And whether it's giving up one of your probably six or seven streaming services you have, like a new plus, and taking that$7 a month and giving it to the spring. Or if you are able to do more, again, I know that every time you see that come through on a monthly basis, you're going to be like, that feels good because it will. So Scott, thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

25:17John Lee Dumas:For that, we salute you, and we will catch you on the flip side. Thanks so much for having me back. Hey, Fire Nation. A huge thank you to Scott for dropping value bombs. And Fire Nation, what can 3 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to One Common Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle that you've been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs. And you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com.

25:57John Lee Dumas:And I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, is your business stuck? Join Eric Trump and Clay Clark's life-changing business conference, November 5th and 6th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn the specific proven systems Clay Clark has used to create thousands of success stories today at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Again, request tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.