Leading With Purpose: Driving Impact Through Innovation

Alana Muller:
Welcome to Enterprise.ing, a podcast from Enterprise Bank & Trust that's empowering business leaders one conversation at a time. We'll hear from different business leaders about how they've found success in cultivating their professional networks and keeping them healthy and strong. I'm your host, Alana Muller, an entrepreneurial executive leader whose primary focus is to connect, inspire and empower community. We at Enterprise Bank & Trust thank you for tuning in to another episode.

Hello listeners. Welcome back to Enterprise.ing podcast. Today, help me welcome Micheal Lawrence to the program. Micheal is the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Kansas City, where he has led the agency to become one of the fastest-growing Big Brothers Big Sisters, increasing the number of children served by more than 80% under his leadership. Big Brothers Big Sisters has been recognized as one of the top performing agencies in America, earning the prestigious Gold Standard Award numerous times, an agency of the year, four times from Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Micheal Lawrence, welcome to Enterprise.ing podcast.

Micheal Lawrence:
Thank you. Thank you.

Alana Muller:
I'm so glad you're here. We've had the opportunity to interact a little bit in the past, and I just admire your work so much. I love the organization, and I know that you have a unique story that explains how you were introduced to the mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters. If you're willing, I'd love for you to share that story and tell our listeners how that origin story keeps you engaged in your work today.

Micheal Lawrence:
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's a long story that takes the journey of how I first learned about the mission and where I'm at today. So I grew up in a small rural town of Butler, Missouri, about an hour south of here. I'm the first in my family to go to college. I'm very proud of that. I went to William Jewell College on a football scholarship, got a psychology degree, and I knew early on, like, sophomore year that I wanted to work with youth, that I wanted to find a path that somehow was my career. So first year out of college, I took a job as a runaway counselor. So I worked with children who were running away from home. It was a state-based program in Kansas. We would interview young people as they came in, determine whether to send them back home with a lot of help and support or, in tough situations, take children away from their family and place them into state custody and find living arrangements for them.

So I did that for two years, and became the director of that program. But it was hard. As you can imagine, sad, but it was also frustrating because it was a state-based program. There was no room for innovation or flexibility. We simply followed the rules of the state even if we didn't believe in the outcome. So I was a little disheartened with that, but I sat down one Saturday afternoon with a thirteen-year-old boy who I'd interviewed the night before when he came in, and he was in a really bad situation, and when I said to him, "Look, you may never see your family again." His response was, "Can I still see my brother?"

Alana Muller:
Oh my God.

Micheal Lawrence:
And he just talked about his “big brother” through Big Brothers Big Sisters. So that was my first exposure to the mission and just telling the story. Now I can remember the feeling knowing that in a moment of chaos and crisis and change, this young person only truly cared about a volunteer. I was moved by it. I had two small children at home, but knew I had to be a part of the mission. So I was doing some research about becoming a Big and found that there was an entry-level job open. So I applied for that job, was accepted, and now 32 years later, I serve as the CEO. So I have grown up here. I found my place. And it's so different than my first experience because here, we expect innovation, we apply common sense to everything we do. We do whatever it takes and whatever makes sense for our children, for our families, for our staff, for our culture, for our branding, our fundraising. We do what makes sense.

Alana Muller:
I love that. And so at that time, was that the first time you were able to not only go to work for the organization, but did you get a little brother at that time as well?

Micheal Lawrence:
I didn't. You know what? I shifted and jumped in and had a chance to take my background and interview our children and families and find out what's going on in their life. How could we help interview potential Bigs, determine what's their background and experiences, put the right two people together and create these matches. That filled me up so much to be able to make hundreds and hundreds of matches introducing people that would not have met without the Big Brothers Big Sisters mission. That was my focus, my passion. Again, two small children at home. The timing wasn't perfect, but as soon as my wife and I became empty nesters, we became a Big couple, a match for our little brother Jesse.

Alana Muller:
That's amazing. So how long have you and Jesse been with one another?

Micheal Lawrence:
Yeah, Jesse was in second grade when we first met. It was just him and his mom, and he was pretty excited to have a friend, even if I wasn't his age. And as a second-grader, he thought we were super cool. Everything we did was new and fun and exciting. He's now 24 years old.

Alana Muller:
Cool, that's so great.

Micheal Lawrence:
He's grown up. I've seen a lot of stages of growth and development in him.

Alana Muller:
Well, okay, so I just have to carry on from that point. That's just so inspirational. And as you know, my personal area of focus is building better, more meaningful professional relationships. So in your work, as you've just described, you're interacting with so many different constituents. So really what my question is, how do you cultivate authentic relationships among Bigs and Littles? How about with your team, your donors and the community in general? So maybe starting with that Big and Little connection, you were talking about being able to match hundreds and hundreds of people together. How do you make that work?

Micheal Lawrence:
When you think about what we do — quite simply, we create friendships. Friendships that wouldn't naturally exist, but really not just a friendship, but just, a powerful, life-changing friendship. So we want to get it right. So we do spend a lot of time with our children and families and we want to know their history, their background, their personality, their likes. And we do the same with our Bigs. We want to make sure it's the right time to be a Big, obviously want to make sure it's a good solid character, but we really get to know our Bigs so we can make the perfect match. And by the way that we do it, spending so much time getting to know each party. When we put a Big and Little together, we feel really good that we've created a friendship. It's really a cool experience that we hear it over and over and over, that it fast-tracks because of the background we put into it, and it becomes a solid, fast friendship.

Alana Muller:
That's so nice.

Micheal Lawrence:
That plays into everything we do, right? This is our mission, creating friendships. So we do it with our board members, with our corporate partners, our community partners. We go through a great hiring process to select the right people to join the team, to fit the culture. That's been really incredible for me, to have three decades of linking the right people together, and I love that as a mission. And then also just in my professional life and networking and being a part of the city.

Alana Muller:
Love that. One of the things that strikes me is having been peripherally involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters Kansas City myself. One of the assets that you have that I'm very familiar with is your facility, your gorgeous facility, and I love to hear how the organization acquired it. I think now buildings, multiple buildings and how that's helped to foster community connections because I know that you've created space not just in a figurative sense, but in a very literal sense to bring people together.

Micheal Lawrence:
That was very intentional. It goes back a little over 10 years ago. I used to think that we didn't need a building to carry out our mission because our Bigs and Littles get together on the weekends after work on their own time. But I recognized the need to create an incredible space to bring people together. We're a very social agency, so we were all over the city renting other people's spaces and trying to find a place to gather, and we had a vision of, let's create a first-class facility for our staff and create a recruitment advantage to hire the most talented people in our city because they wanted to come to a cool space. But we also wanted to make it a place to bring others to us, and it's really worked for us. In the last decade, we've had great growth, and we host thousands of people here in our building, and we haven't rented other people's spaces for quite a while because we were able to bring people to us.

So it played out, and we wanted to strategically get to the Crossroads before the streetcar opened, and we did that. Now we've outgrown our space. So we had an opportunity, a very unique opportunity to purchase the building next to us, and we will connect the two and create the campus of our dreams where we'll have two rooftops, outdoor multipurpose entertainment space between the two buildings, just more assets for our Bigs and Littles to enjoy, but also to bring the community together and do some remarkable fundraising events.

Alana Muller:
I think that's so beautiful. So thinking about the journey that you've been on all these years, what are some of the biggest obstacles that you've faced and how were you able to overcome them? I know that you are so well-regarded in our city and have continued to emerge stronger and stronger as a leader. So I'd love to know, how have you sort of taken on those challenges head on?

Micheal Lawrence:
One of our guiding principles is yes, we're nearly a sixty-year-old organization, but we don't want to look our age or act our age. We want to look and perform as if we were a startup, and we recognize there was a need or an opportunity in the community. So we created something. So that keeps us fresh, keeps us always thinking forward, trying to create the next thing. That fills me up. I have an entrepreneurial spirit and just love to think of new ways to advance the mission. We can't do what we do without funds, so we get creative on the fundraising side, and then we're a volunteer-driven organization, so we need more big brothers and big sisters. So we have a strong marketing presence and just continue to elevate our brand and get creative in how we fundraise to carry out the mission.

Alana Muller:
So beyond the building, what's something that you're working on now that you're particularly excited about?

Micheal Lawrence:
If we were doing this interview maybe five years ago and you asked, what's next? What are you working on? I would've said something with a number to it, like more children or double the number of children. What I'm excited about is now that we have the mission is having more impact for every child and every family. So we're creating a new initiative we'll be launching next year called Big Futures, and it's taking our history of creating relationships and friendships and the mentoring and kind of modernizing that. So we will now with each Little starting in eighth grade guide that Little to the right career path. So we will stick with our Littles until they're meaningfully employed.

So that means today, or up until now, our Bigs are always hanging out with the Little doing fun things together, which we love. That's our mission. But sometimes we want to do more. As the Little gets older, we want to make sure they're on a good trajectory. So our team will now help guide each Big to help that Little explore career opportunities or things within their interest to help set them up for the future. So we will do more to work alongside each Big and help each parent/guardian and Big support the Little.

Alana Muller:
That's so beautiful. I just love that. What a special thing. Well, and if I'm remembering correctly, I believe that Big Brothers Big Sisters Kansas City was actually selected, you specifically were selected to help lead more of a national brand transformation. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Micheal Lawrence:
Yeah. I go back to 2018 and looking at the entire Big Brothers Big Sisters network across America, there was a real decline in volunteers as we plotted out 300 agencies across the country. Kansas City was in a quadrant by itself. We were the only agency in America that was growing in the number of new matches we're making and revenue. So as an outlier, the CEO of the national organization gave me a call and asked if we would lead a brand transformation for all of America. So we partnered with Barkley, one of our great neighbors here in the Crossroads, and put together a task force of leaders from across the country, and over a year and a half with a lot of focus groups and studies and feedback and design, launched a brand new logo, brand taglines, messaging, and it spread across the entire country. So it's really cool. That work we did here in Kansas City when we traveled to conferences, we're just dropping another city. We can see our impact across the entire country.

Alana Muller:
I love that. Congratulations. What a cool project. And I have to tell you, my good pal Andre Davis was sporting your new logo on a very cool, I think, golf shirt recently. So congratulations on that.

Micheal Lawrence:
Yeah, absolutely. We didn't set out to change the logo. That was not an original assignment. It was just to refresh the brand, and it became apparent to us that there was an opportunity here to create something that was a little, stand the test of time, and a little more grown up and modern.

Alana Muller:
Well, it kind of goes back to what you were talking about with that entrepreneurial spirit and the ability, unlike your government-related job all those years ago, you have the chance to think innovatively and creatively to do some new things and try some new things that you might not have anticipated, but it's really making a difference for you and for the national organization.

Micheal Lawrence:
Yeah, love it.

Alana Muller:
Yeah, that's so great. So I'm going to turn the mirror on you a little bit. You're doing all this work to help Bigs and Littles match and connect. How about you? Do you have a mentor? Is there someone in your life who's had a meaningful impact on your career and personal journey?

Micheal Lawrence:
Yeah, I'd say I had a high school teacher. I did not have a vision of college. No one in my family had ever gone to college. It wasn't on my mind, but sophomore year I had a teacher that convinced me that I had potential. I started taking school seriously, ended up on the football scholarship, went to William Jewell College and it set me on a different path. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by incredible people. Part of the experience for me over three decades is I get to be surrounded by positivity. When you think about it, our parents and guardians reach out to us and ask us to be a part of their family. Our Littles want a Big, our Bigs want to be matched to a Little. Our staff wants to be here. We have these amazing board groups and partners. So I am truly surrounded by positivity. So I've met some great leaders. They're a handful over the last few decades that I would say have had a big influence on me, for sure.

Alana Muller:
Yeah. Oh, that's so nice. That's so nice. Well, I really loved our conversation. There is one question that I ask of every guest, and I'm going to ask it of you as well. If you could sit down for a cup of coffee with one person, it can be living/non-living, fictional/non-fictional, who would it be and why?

Micheal Lawrence:
Andy Reid.

Alana Muller:
Oh, I love that. Our good old Andy Reid coach?

Micheal Lawrence:
Absolutely. Yeah, and here's why. I would love to know how he makes all the adjustments that he makes, right? Because he's constantly having to make an adjustment based on what player is available. When you go through a season, a long season with injuries, he's able to make quick adjustments. But I also love that during the off-season, he really kind of does self-scouting. He evaluates his own performance and creates a new concept. So I would just love to spend time with him and hear how he does that.

Alana Muller:
So great. I hope you get that chance. I bet you will.

Micheal Lawrence:
I actually got to meet Andy Reid one time. I got a chance to speak to the team last time they were undefeated. Then I came in to speak to the team, and Andy Reid had his sheet of all of his details, and he said, "Okay, Micheal, you have six minutes. Four minutes would be better."

Alana Muller:
Oh, I love it.

Micheal Lawrence:
Yeah, I got the point. We were supposed to be quick and to the point.

Alana Muller:
Love it. That's very cool. So he was sort of living his truth. I think that's great.

Micheal Lawrence:
Yep.

Alana Muller:
Right. Well, Micheal, it's been such a privilege to have you on the program. Micheal Lawrence, where can our listeners go to learn more about you and about Big Brothers Big Sisters Kansas City?

Micheal Lawrence:
Yeah, bbbskc.org, you can find everything. There's some incredible stories of impact, a chance to learn about our team, our staff, our individuals who are carrying out the mission here. Everything you need is right there, bbbskc.org.

Alana Muller:
Fabulous. Micheal Lawrence, thanks so much for being on Enterprise.ing podcast.

Micheal Lawrence:
Thank you.

Alana Muller:
Thanks for joining us this week on Enterprise.ing. Be sure to visit our website, enterprisebank.com/podcast to subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. If you found value in today's program, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or telling a friend about us. Enterprise.ing, powering business leaders one conversation at a time.

The views expressed by enterprising presenters or guests are those of the presenter or guests, and not necessarily of Enterprise Bank & Trust or its affiliates. All content of this podcast and any related materials are for informational purposes only. Enterprise Bank & Trust does not make any warranty, expressed or implied, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, and specifically disclaims any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented.

Enterprise Bank & Trust is not under any obligation to update or correct any information provided in this podcast. All statements and opinions are subject to change without notice.