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Each season of Just Stories has a different eight-episode theme. The show kicks off with “Recycled Dreams,” featuring eight CEOs who have woven giving back into their business strategies.
These episodes will give you a blueprint for doing the same in the most efficient way possible, which is making their learnings your reality.
Solutions to problems tackled in this episode:
- Not sure if starting a charity makes sense for your business?
- As a leader, you are trying to be involved in every part of the company to ensure success, but not.
- People in your life are doubting your dream, and you are believing them! In this first episode of Just Stories, there is NO ONE on earth I would rather talk to about giving back and how that intertwines with business than Dale Carlsen.
His story is absolutely amazing, he went from investing everything he owned into one little sleep store, to building an empire and selling it for nine figures.
But his legacy has nothing to do with money.
Dale is the most caring, selfless, person I know whose charity “Ticket To Dream” has helped so many foster kids around the U.S. it is remarkable.
Listen to this episode to be inspired, learn and get motivated to get involved in giving back! S
Season one of the podcast is titled “Recycled Dreams” because each episode focuses on CEOs who have utilized giving back as part of their main business strategy.
The purpose is to use the art of storytelling to motivate our business communities into giving back more because when you do, everybody wins!
Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and never miss an episode.
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Full Transcription:
Brett Thornton:
What is going on everybody? Welcome to Just stories with BT a podcast that utilizes storytelling to allow us to get to know CEOs and super successful people, who they are behind the job or behind the giving back campaign. And we have a very exciting guest today because if it wasn’t for this guest, I would not be doing this podcast today, I can guarantee you that. So, this first eight-part series is called recycled dreams. And the reason that I did this is that I wanted to have and highlight CEOs who have utilized giving back as the main part of their business strategy. So that a can motivate you all out there on to do it if you’re not but be also gives you some insights may be on how to do it, why it works, why it’s important. And so, today’s guest is Dale Carlson, who I used to work with for a long time. So welcome.
Dale Carlson:
Thank you excited to be here.
Brett Thornton:
Yes, I can guarantee you, I’m more excited than you. Because we haven’t had a chance to catch up in a long time. And, you know, as I said, this is an eight-part series. So, there are eight different CEOs, and you are number eight. And so, this is just exciting for me. And I know a lot of people out there are going to know you, right? They’ll know the legacy of Dale, but there’ll be a lot of people who don’t. And so generally with podcasts, you know, there’s an introduction period. And so usually, you know, the host will say, hey, you know, tell me about yourself and then that can be like this long rant, but we want to get to the nuts and bolts of your story. So, I can’t afford the risk that you’re just going to go on and on Right. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to intro you to you, okay? So, think about this. You’ve seen a spin Shira obviously,
Dale Carlson:
Yes.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah. So, there’s a scene in there, where he goes looking for Ray Finkle and he goes to their house, it’s like one of my favorite scenes and he pulls up and he said, I’m looking for Ray Finkle, and then the guy pulls out this shotgun, you know, the dad or whatever. And he’s like, and a clean pair of shorts, you know, and then he goes, what do you know about Ray Finkel? And, and then he goes, and he gives us whole history real fast. So that’s what I’m going to do for you.
Dale Carlson:
All right, go.
Brett Thornton:
Everybody. So, here’s Dale in 60 seconds. All right, Dale was born in Walnut Creek. He grew up there and also in Greene County. He grew up skiing, both water skiing, snow skiing, and he was into airplanes got his airplane license to fly when he was 17, which is a whole other story. His first job was at MMG hamburger shack, just like Kanye says, you know, started with mopping next week. It was the prize. And then, of course, the shakes and burgers. When he was 17. In high school. He graduated early a semester early. And so, while all of us were still trying to finish high school, he was already at Sac State doing a semester getting ahead while he was in route to Cal Berkeley, but fell in love Sac State and so he ended up staying there for all of these years, which thing I’m sure sec states very thankful to that. In 1982. While he was going to school, he started working for California mattress, that’s where he got a little bit into the mattress industry. But he was studying to go into real estate and that’s what he wanted to do. That’s what he was studying. That’s where he got his degree in 1984. But when he finished school, he had a choice which was to go to the bottom wrong and real estate pay your dues to make no money. Or the guy that owns California mattress said hey, you could come work for me as a sales rep. You can make a good salary and I will give you a sports car to drive around in which for anyone just getting out of school who’s young and single, that sounded a little bit better. So he gets into that takes the job gets into mattress into the mattress business. But as he’s cruising around, he realizes nobody is doing this right at the time everyone still had plastic wrapping around their mattresses, no one’s allowing customers to lay on them. So, Dale thought to himself, I could do this better. And in 1985 opens up the first leaf train store up in Sacramento. That ended up becoming a massive thing that grossed over 300 stores during that time in 1991. He got married to his wonderful wife, and of having two kids, and 95 and 98. And as the company grew, so did Dale’s heart on giving back. So he started getting involved in charity, especially with foster kids, and in 2008 launch a ticket to dream foundation that helps support foster children. And then as the company continued to grow, so did the interest from other companies and in 2014 Mattress Firm acquired sleep train, which was a big deal. They’ll make a couple of dollars. We’ll let you look it up on your own. And then that allowed Dale in 2015 to go full time as the CEO of the ticket to dream and focus on foster kids where we are today.
Dale Carlson:
That’s an impressive read.
Brett Thornton:
What were the big things I missed?.
Dale Carlson:
You got it all I think that’s all the highlights. That’s awesome. Great job, Impressive.
Brett Thornton:
Awesome. All right. So now we know a little bit about you just the super basics. But I want to before I allow you to tell any stories and I go into some questions I do want to like one of my favorite stories is that I want to listen to your listeners to understand out there that tell the story of when you started to sleep train and how it all worked with your dad and your mom leaving all that’s one of my favorite stories.
Dale Carlson:
Well, you know I was a mattress salesman on the road and sales manager actually of the company at that time and just saw an opportunity. And so, talk to my dad said, hey, I think I want to open a mattress store and he goes, you’re crazy. That’s not possible. Do you know? No, he didn’t go to school to open a mattress store, you know, do your real estate thing that you want to do, you know, continue doing the mattress thing with there, maybe you can get some ownership there. But no, you don’t open a mattress store. My mom, on the other hand, said, you know, you can’t make a limit. How many? How many beds does somebody buy? You know, how can you make living selling mattresses? Well, unfortunately, for me, my dad and stepmom took their first trip out of the country. They got they won a prize and, on the radio, actually and went to London for two weeks. And then that two-week period is when I bought a truck, leave some space and quit my job, and decided I’m doing it no matter what came home and my dad wasn’t happy with my decision, but said, you know you’re on your own. But I’ll give you one piece of advice. And that’s if you want to be successful, surround yourself with good people treat them right, and make everybody successful. And that’s really what happened is, you know, I got great people like us, and I got to work with and enjoy and grow the company. So, it took off from there. Well, it didn’t take off from there. It took a long time. But then it took a load that so.
Brett Thornton:
I love that So actually, I want to backtrack real quick, too. So because I didn’t know this, you know, how do you how did you get your pilot license at 17? How’s that even possible?
Dale Carlson:
My dad lived on the airpark up in Cameron Park outside of Sacramento. So, he had a Cessna 172. And he would fly to his clients. He was a CPA, and he would fly down to the Bay Area to see some of his clients. And he told me that if I paid the gas, paid the oil, and pay for the instructor that I could use his plane to learn how to fly. So, I paid my way for the instruction and the gas and the oil and got my driver’s my flight fires pilot’s license, and now it’s just kind of a cool thing to have when you’re 17 that’s a great way to go on the date. Hey, why don’t you suppose down to Monterey and have dinner?
Brett Thornton:
That is next level? Yeah, I was kind of similar. I was driving my mom’s minivan You know. So yeah, they’re very similar you know.
Dale Carlson:
Yeah
Brett Thornton:
You didn’t say Monterey or anything. So, Dale, we want to get later into the purpose of this which is having episodes geared around giving back right, and obviously, that was a big part of sleep train you know before you ever launching to get the dream and then launching it and having both companies at once and now doing a full time. But before we get into that, you know, I want the listeners to be able to get to know you a little bit and in the way that I tend to learn in my favorite form of kind of taking in information and getting to know someone well is through stories. And that’s why I love just asking people to tell different stories and so you know one thing I always like to start with before asking serious questions and serious stories is just something as you think back in your career. You know what funny memory or entertaining memory can you think of you know, it could be a time sleep train because the dream is right it sticks out to you that is just a great story you love to tell
Dale Carlson:
Have read. I mean so many great stories with you know, I was very blessed to have great people to work with and sleep train. And so, the activities we did and the fun we had were inspirational to me to be surrounded by such great people. You know, lots of lots of good activities as you know we had our presidents club which is over in Maui that was always a spectacular event got to see our team relax with their spouse get to know them to get to know who they were what they’re about what they’re what drives them and so forth. So that was always just a joy for me to be able to sit down with someone and get to know their wife get to know the kids get to know the family what do they do what do they like watch them for the first time see a whale you know and reach out to you and just you know seeing one of our warehouse guys he’s big huge dude just almost cried like because he’s seen a whale jump in front of them it’s just you know some of my best memories were on that trip and all of our activities and picnics go into the picnics that we would have and bring in watching the kids grow up you know from because we for so many years you know they bring them as babies and the thing is they bring them to the teenagers to their final adults at the at these picnics it was just great to see the family grow.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah, I remember you know one of the things that always sticks out to me about those the company picnics in the events and whatever was and I want to ask you about this too is that you know there was always corporate representation and everything we did so either Dale was there different you know CFO you know executive VPS You know why? Why did you make it such a priority to always send kind of the top executives to all these events?
Dale Carlson:
Well, in my opinion, you know, all year long our team, our employees work worked hard to make our business successful. And these events were meant to honor them. And the way you honor them is by giving your time and your heart. And so to me, you know, with my team, it was okay, look, this is your time to get to know our team, this is your time to be with them to understand I felt it was just very important that we had that direct connection. And I think that’s what how grew to grow the culture that we had, as a team, because it wasn’t, you know, we put pants on one leg at a time like everybody else executives do. But so often the executive filler in a higher place, and they don’t, they can’t take the time to mingle with those that are doing the work. To me, the people doing the work are the people you need to spend time with. And I thought that it was a very valuable way to grow a culture.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah, one of my when I think of like, just great memories, I have 1,000,002. You know, I was there for a long time, 14 years. And what can you tell the story of the announcement when you got when you announced that we were you were becoming an Esop.
Dale Carlson:
That was a that’s one of my favorite all-time things, I still get goosebumps thinking about it. Now, for those of your listeners that don’t know when he saw his employee stock ownership plan. And my wife and I had looked at the great employees we had and said, how can we give that to them? How can we help them to see because if you remember, my dad’s quote, surrounded yourself with good people, I’ve done that treat them? Well, we did and make everybody successful. Well, the make everybody successful was how can we make that happen. And so, my wife and I looked and said, well give them part of the company that they’re building. So, we gave him 25% of the company to build the Esop, but they didn’t know that was coming. Now, there had been the company had grown at that time, pretty substantially, and there were constant rumors throughout the company, is the selling hope he doesn’t sell, you know, and so forth. So, we had our annual management, leadership retreat, probably what we had, have that about 300 plus people, I think, you’re going to have 50 people that retreat. So, everybody’s out there. And I always started the retreat by getting up and giving a little, you know, State of the Union, and I got up and as, you know, well, I’m kind of an emotional guy. So, it’s kind of hard for me to hold it a night. So, I kind of stuttered a little bit and said, I’m okay, I’ve got something really important to share with you all, something that, you know, I’ve had to think long and hard about something that’s, you know, will impact everybody. And, you know, as you know, that we’ve grown the company out, and, you know, I’ve told you, I would not sell this company, unless I can find someone that could treat you right? Treat the community, right? treat their employees, right to treat our customers, right. And I, you know, I found somebody, and then you can see the Hush, and their actual I was watching from the stage, there was anger in people, you could see them starting to get mad, he’s going to sell, well, I can’t believe he’s going to sell, then there are people crying, there are people just shocked. And I go, you know, but you know, let me tell you, I’ve looked for the right person to do this, the right people to sell this company to. And so, we they couldn’t be here, they couldn’t all be here today. But they did send you something to kind of get you to know who they are. So, there’s a box on your table. If you could just take your box and open it, you will see and understand who the new owners of this company are going to be. And they opened the box and there was a mirror that facing back at them. And they loved. You know, you haven’t said what had Why is this? What do you mean? And then I said, that’s right, we’re selling the company to you, the employees, were going to give you 25% of the company, you don’t have to pay for anything, just the work you’re doing will earn your way to get 25% of the company. And the end that transfer that translated out to be $117 million transferred to employees. So, it was such a great day. It was a great day.
Brett Thornton:
So, my story of that day is a little different. Yeah, so the way this all happened for me was different. So, the week before that announcement the week before, I guess two weeks before the manager retreat. We had won a prize from Simmons and Simmons said that they were going to host a ski trip up to bigger and selling in the Southern California mountains. And so, I remember I was working with Scott Higgins at the time, and he said hey man, you know, like one of us has to go and be like you know, in case someone gets hurt or something we got someone of us has to go There are 30 people from our team going so I’m like all go because I love to snowboard or whatever. And so, I was there to make sure no one got hurt and everything was good, but that’s when I shattered my collarbone and my shoulder. up on the mountain and I mean I had to get your foot in the big thing and ski down, it was the whole ordeal. I have a big still have a big metal plate, eight screws all that still in there. But so yeah, I was I just came out of surgery a couple of days before the retreat. So, I wasn’t there I was at home. And so, Anderson my boss at the time, Matt Anderson, my very close friend, had sent me the package and said, Dude, whatever you do, you cannot open this. And then he had figured out a way to video me and live, I think on Skype. So, he was holding his like phones Skyping as you’re saying it and I was holding this thing. So that’s how you know so there’s a funny way that’s how I experienced it and then found out a release off you know this through this little phone and I was all sitting there just I just came out of surgery. So pretty.
Dale Carlson:
I forgot that story. Right? Yeah, so that was awesome. That’s awesome. But yeah.
Brett Thornton:
For any companies out there listening to anybody in Esop is such an amazing thing to do, if you have the opportunity, right. I mean, I cannot stress enough, the mentality switch that happened, you know, I mean, it was, you know, your every salesperson to where it didn’t matter who you were, you know, you did everything you could to make sure that we saved every dollar, you know, because every dollar we save went to the sock, you know, every extra mile you went, it just went to furthering for everybody, you know, it’s like, you would print paper and then be like, you saw someone throw it away, be like, Whoa, you could have flipped that over, you’re going to use the other side, you know, I mean, it was just because I already stopped, you know, and, but it was, what I love about it. And I know you hate talking about things like this, but the reality is, you set it up in a way to sell it at a low valuation for you. So that we.
Dale Carlson:
Well, that’s it, my wife and I talked about it, because we had our, all of our advisors, you know, we’re saying, this is not the time to do it, because this is we did this in 2010. So, this is after the recession, and you know, we were at our lowest value. And, you know, I said you don’t understand, I want everybody to win in this growth. And it proved out to be the best thing to do. Because of that ownership mentality, as you just described, there is nothing like ownership mentality. If you’re an owner, you just do things differently. And so, to get that, and to get that out of all of our employees, what it translated to do was from that the valuation when we started to when we sold, we increase the value 800%. So, I gave away 25% we increase the company by 800%. I think it was a win for everyone. And you know, the stories you talk about stories, one of my one of the values of the Esop was I had, you know, we have a place out on the north coast, you know, and we were having delivery and this is years after, I’d already sold and it was gone. And one of the delivery guys came out and delivered the bed to me. And he was leaving, he left, he went to the truck, then he came back, he goes, I just got to tell you, how you changed my life, said, you know, he was a delivery guy. And he said, my mom’s house lives in Mexico, my mom’s house fell. And she had no home, I was able to buy her a house because the Esop, you allowed me to have me buy my mom a house. So, and I’ve heard story after story after story of people that say you don’t understand what a difference that made to me in my life. And so, to me, that’s where you get great joy, right? When you understand that you’ve helped somebody else have a better life or do something that they wanted to do. So, it said, it’s, the ESOP is so valuable, and I highly encourage anybody to look into it. It’s, it’s a lot of work. And you got to have a great team to do it. But it is well worth it. Because that ownership mentality and the ability to have everybody win is a great, great, great thing to do.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah. So, I want to shift gears a little bit, you know, one of the things that I love to ask, you know, CEOs, people that have had businesses, you know, I’d like to ask about the time when you fail, right, like or time wins, you know, you were in a dark place or not looking good. You know, and if you can think of a time or a story throughout your career that was, you know, you would look back at, wow, that was a really tough time, and then explain, you know, kind of how you got through it, I’d love to hear.
Dale Carlson:
Well, you know, you go through a lot of those. So then through the years and you know what I would have to say just looking at these times if the recession was probably the biggest challenge that I had, and I you know, I was always an optimist that I can make this work. You know, my old boss used to say I’m like a dog with a sock if I can’t make it work this way, go that way. And I just, that’s my attitude. I’m going to make it work one way or another. But we talked about the management retreats that we have now leadership retreats, I do distinctly remember the one in January after the crash and what is that? 2007 I guess it was 2008 of January, I guess. You know, everybody was canceling these management retreats, leadership retreats, you couldn’t do, everyone’s cancels all across the country, you know, everything was down, our team came together and said, you know, if there’s ever a time to be in front of you, your team, it’s now they’re scared, they’re, they’re confused, they’re lost, they don’t their families are scared, now is the time we need to be in front of them, to talk to them. So we agreed to go ahead, even though it’s going to cost, you know, several $100,000 said to do this, at a time when you know, money was very scary, you know, we said, this is the time to do this. And I remember that I had built the company when we had built the company, without any debt, we had never taken out a bank loan until we bought the country in 2005. So now all of a sudden, I have a huge debt, which I never had before to deal with. And we have the economy crashing all around us. So I just so distinctly remember, right before going on stage for that opening of that retreat, I have never been so scared. And so unsure of myself as I was that moment, I look back at that time just going. I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t I don’t know how to lead out of this. I don’t know what if we can make it through. And yet, I’ve got to get up and stand in front of all these people and tell them, we’re going to make it through. But I walked up on that stage prep. And I looked out at the people that I was so blessed to be surrounded about. And I saw their energy, I saw there, drive to do whatever they needed to do. And so, I it was them. It was the power of the team that was looking back at me, they gave me the power to get through that point. It was not me leading them. They led me at that point because I could see I said, okay, here’s where we’re at. This is the situation we can get through this. We have challenges. We have a bank loan, we have this. If you know during that time, Rob Kilgore, who is there right now guys, did his first presentation, later on, became Robin omics. And that was dumbing down the economics to a level two, everybody could understand, here’s what is happening, here’s why it’s happening. So, people could go home and understand what happened to our economy. I mean, that you know, and so, and from there, and we looked at everybody that we need your help this, we can’t do this without you. And that’s when we started getting all the ideas of the solution, how to cut costs, how to how to improve sales, what to do what we could do, and we just, it was the power of our team, the power of everybody working together, they got through, but that, I just so distinctly remember just being more scared than I’ve ever been in my life. People are walking on that stage of not knowing how to get through that. But I had great people. And we did, well.
Brett Thornton:
No. What I remember distinctly about that, that retreat, you know, and it’s funny, because I’d love to hear that your, you know, your side of it, hey, you come out, you’re terrified. But one thing that you guys did, and if you remember this, but you guys launched this content, where you gave everybody in the company money to go do like, create an ID or do something that would drive more business. And then the person who drove the most or got voted the most was going to win, like 1000 bucks. And, and I remember, so at the time, I think I was like, you know, running, So Cal training or something like that. And that’s when I got all the chairs together, and we pooled our money. And we hired my brother-in-law to make those DVDs, those sales DVDs. And we produce these, like role-play, sales DVDs, and send them to every store in the company. And it ended up being awesome. And I remember we won. So, everyone got to split the money, and they were all excited. But what I love about that is that it was like this idea that you implanted everyone, which was like, let’s be in the office. You know, let’s, we can’t just sit back and let the economy take us down or like, let us just shut it down. It’s like, no, okay, now let’s have the event. Let’s bring everyone in, let’s inspire confidence that hey, no matter what we can do it, it’s going to be hard. And then more than that, hey, go out there and think about what aren’t we? What are we missing? What are what being we thinking about? There were a lot of good ideas and a lot of things that came out of, you know, I love that. I just remember coming out of there. That was like a big way in working was like we’re going to win this. We’ll figure it out. Do you know?
Brett Thornton:
Well, that’s great. I do remember the DVDs. Those are great. But we actually, recently I don’t know if you remember David Reich, and he was one of my trainers on his DVD. And so, he sent a text out to like all the crew now and here it is, you know, whatever. 12 years later, something and we were watching it, oh god, it’s pretty comfortable. I’ll tell you the ties that we used to wear.
Dale Carlson:
Yeah, that’s, you know, once again that this underscores the power of letting your team do what they need to do, you know, and nonstop trying to direct down but let that creativity, that excitement Come forward.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah. Don’t want to transition a bit, you know, and tell us what, how did you get started in, you know. Giving back and starting to work with foster kids like before taking your team started, like how did it even come about?
Dale Carlson:
Well, one I got to give credit to my parents. I mean, I was raised that you got to get back, you know, I my grandmother, quite frankly, she was a very philanthropic person. I mean, she always doing something my dad was in rotary, and they were always doing events and doing things and raising money and so forth. So, I kind of saw that growing up. But I, when I started the company, I go, okay, well, what is my thing? What am I going to do? What can I do, and I had always had a passion for kids, kids are always, to me, so important? And so, as a matter of fact, my wife, Katie is you know, she’s a pediatrician. And our very first conversation was about kids when we first met, I mean, who has their first conversation with a girl about kids and having kids and, and so forth. So, but it worked out. We’ve been married almost 30 years, so. But, you know, when I was at Sac State, I’d done a research project on a group home. And I looked at that and said, okay, with these foster kids, and these, at that point, it was just the greater population of at-risk kids at risk is, you know, they don’t have some of the things they need. And I looked, I said, I had no money, right, because I started this thing on a shoestring. You know, I, had, I bought a house that I was in college, right. And so, I was able to buy this through a divorce sale, and I had two roommates paying $250 a month in rent, and my mortgage taxes and insurance, everything was $599. You know, so I had $99 worth of my overhead of the house, and everything else in the rest, but I took out a household finance loan to start the company at a $5,000 loan when I started the company at 22.95% interest. Try paying that loan back. That’s difficult. But anyway, so needless to say, I have no cash, right? I have no money because everything I have is going to pay off. But what I had was access to mattresses and mattresses. And I had looked at what these kids were sleeping on. And they were sleeping on the banana beds, you know, the big, sagging beds or no bed at all, in some cases. And so, I started with our mattresses for kids’ program, and said, okay, that’s going to be our focus, we’re going to do mattresses for kids. And I went to Simmons, I went to see Lee and I said, hey, we you guys helped me, you know, what I what I’d like to do is, you know, we had at that time, I think I’d open my second store. And I said, I’d like to buy 10 mattresses per store, at your labor material costs no profit. And then I like you to give me 10 more mattresses to match that so that I can give, you know, 40 mattresses too, to these organizations that need them. And so, we agreed to do that they agreed to do that, you know, they agreed at that time to do that. They didn’t know in the end; we’d have 317 stores. But you know, we did the mattresses for kids, you know, in the end, we were giving away 1000s of 1000s of mattresses, obviously, but it was just important to me to do that. And I was also raised though that in your giving you don’t promote your giving you do the right thing. Yeah. And so, I was always challenged with how to do it other ways that, so we never really promoted it or didn’t do that. But by this point, I’ve been on several different boards and realize the cause needs awareness. Yeah. So, you don’t need awareness as the person helping but the cause needs awareness. So that’s we decided that you know, we could do something outside. So, we started looking at that and at that time was when in 2005 we bought matches or seat country and the country had just done a program where they started to collect items in the store. And so, we said okay, that sounds like something we could do. And so we decided to try that. And as we did that, we realized that well to do that we needed to have a 501© (3) established so that people could donate to the charity.
Brett Thornton:
I had 99 dollars for my overhead of the house, everybody else in the rest, but I took out a household finance loan to start the company as a $5,000 loan. When I started the company at 22.95% interest, try paying that loan back. That’s difficult. But anyway, so needless to say, I have no cash, right? I have no money because everything I have is going to pay off this. But what I had was access to mattresses, and I looked at what these kids were sleeping on, and they were sleeping on the banana beds, you know, the big, sagging beds or no bed at all, in some cases. And so, I started with our mattresses for kids’ program, and said, Okay, that’s going to be our focus, we’re going to do mattresses for kids. And I went to Simmons, I went to see Lee and I said, hey, will you guys help me, you know, what I’d like to do is, you know, we had at that time, I think, I’d open my second store. And I said, I’d like to buy 10 mattresses per store, at your labor material costs, no profit. And then I really like you to give me 10 more mattresses to match that so that I can give, you know, 40 mattresses to these organizations that need them. And so, we agreed to do that they agreed to do that, you know, they agreed at that time to do that. They didn’t know in the end; we’d have 317 stores. But you know, we did the mattresses for kids, you know, in the end, we were giving away 1000s of mattresses, obviously, but it was just important to me to do that. And I was also raised though that in your giving you don’t promote your given you do it because the right thing.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah.
Dale Carlson:
And so, I was always challenged with how to do it other ways that, so we never really promoted it or didn’t do that. But by this point, I’ve been on several different boards and realize the cause needs awareness.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah.
Dale Carlson:
So, you don’t need awareness as the person helping but the cause needs awareness. So that’s when we decided that, you know, we could do something outside. So, we started looking at that. And at that time was when in 2005, we bought matches or seat country and, we had just done a program where they started to collect items in the store. And so, we said okay, that actually sounds like something we could do. And so, we decided to try that. And we as we did that, we realized that, well, to do that we needed to have a 501(c)(3) establish so that people could donate to the charity, and then we would give it to that. And that’s when we started taking a dream so that we could have a 501(c)(3) that allowed people to take their deduction and to give their donation to the charity, and to grow it from there.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah. And how did you know? Why did you hone in on Foster
Dale Carlson:
Foster kids? Well, I looked at foster kids, you know, I started with at risk kids, and in my process of going out and delivering things to, to kids and so forth. I got to understand the foster kid dilemma and challenge. These kids first of all, did nothing wrong. Right? They simply had parents who couldn’t care for them. And then they’re dumped into a system that’s so severely broken, that they’re bounced around from house to house, back to their mom back out of their arms out back cinema back out, dad’s, you know, often in jail or not around, you know, all sorts of things, they get bounced out. You know, most kids on average are in three homes. Many go, we’ve talked to so many that have been in 20 plus homes. He imagined 25 homes before you’re 18 I mean, it’s just it’s so sad and so ridiculous that they have to go through this and they don’t have the basics. They didn’t have you know, they’re, you know, new shoes, you know, it’s like the you need to be that kid in school with those rundown shoes. You’re that kid you know, you don’t have the confidence to do what you need to do so new pair of shoes meant a lot to them a backpack with school supplies, you know, when I was a kid school supplied everything, you know, they you know, we had everything was given to us. But nowadays, you know, you’re a parent, you have to your kids have to have backpacks and paper and pencils and all that stuff. You have to buy well who’s buying this for them? You know, they don’t have all the supplies if you can don’t have the supplies, how can you learn to get learn? How do you get out of the situation that you’re in? jackets, you know, they’re cold feet, you know, the just endless things. And one of my big issues is extracurricular activities. You know, that’s the opportunity for these kids to be on a sports team, to learn to ride a horse or to learn to dance, to do these things that teach us accomplishments teaches that that pride of success that teaches how to be part of a team that teaches the skills that you need the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. Nobody is paying for these kids. To do that, so they get left out once again out of that. So we wanted to find ways that we could help these kids achieve these, the regular life have them have a normal childhood is depth as they could. And so that was something so important to us at the time, and now
Brett Thornton:
Still explain for people who don’t know, who aren’t familiar. So, if you’re a retailer out there, you know, you got a bunch of stores. Explain how this collection drive works?
Dale Carlson:
Well, you know, from a, standpoint, I mean, it was I did not know at the time we did it, what a brilliant business decision it was. We were doing it because it was at the right thing to do for our, you know, for the community. But in the end, it turned out to be excellent, because what we would have is you have barrels in the store, we would, we we’ve committed 10% of our ad budget, we would spend on our foster kid advertising. Now mind you, as you know, we never ran a buy a bed, save a kid type ad, which said, here’s our sale price do this and I and here’s you know this, we always kept the cars separate. So, we advertise the cars as a separate standalone ad. And then our sale ads as a separate as a separate sale. We believe that that showed the true authenticity of what we believed in that we actually were committed to the Wasik and so we spent 10% of our ad budget on that. And then we went and asked all our media partners to help to by leveraging up our added value, give us more spots out of our added value. So, we were able to get a substantial amount of exposure for foster kids. And the cause. Because once again, that was what I thought was important to do to the public is to show the public what the cause is. So, we were able to do that. In the end what it did, though, it reflected that, the community would come in and drop items off. I mean, we’re a mattress store, you come in there once every three, four years at the best, you’re in a massive store, but they would come in, you know, three, four times a year to drop off stuff. So, when they were in the market for a mattress, where would they go? They needed sheets, where would they go, they need pillows where they go, you know, they knew where to go, because they would come into our store regularly to drop off items. And you would just you know that the stories from the store serve folks of just watching the families come in, watching the kids, you know, give put the donations in and the teachings that were going on for the community was awesome. And so being able to bring those in, and then we would distribute them out to everybody just really it ended up being a win all the way around the foster kids. One, the community one, the customers one and we want as a company.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah. No, I love that so much. You know, I, for the last few years, I’ve been using this term called experience or giving. And that’s literally the exact definition that was, what you just said, which is, you know, a consumer can come in and do something, whether it’s a donation, or they buy something or whatever. And then obviously, you know, a foundation gets something in return, right. But the part that often we forget is how that employee feels, you know, so the people who are actually on the front line doing this or making a sale or helping with the donation event, like they end up getting so much fulfillment out of it. And so truly, it ends up becoming this really cool circle, you know, and obviously, there’s a lot of companies out there that just, you know, at the end of the year for tax purposes, they write this check and that’s great thing send checks to nonprofits, you know, all day long, but, but what happens is they miss out on that big element of the company, the employees be involved in it, and feeling like good about what they’re doing.
Dale Carlson:
Right now, that you know, that’s where the business success of that was, would that allow us to do as our retention is, you know, was sky high. Because people felt they worked for a company that cared, they saw it in action, they got to see people bring the product in they got to go out to deliver the product. You know, one of my, I remember one of my most experienced fundamental early-stage experience that told me this is the right thing to do. We were delivering a mattress and a basketball to a young boy we delivered to the whole house we had matches and play sorry, you got someone outside my door delivering a mattress and ball to the kids in this house. And we set the mattress up in this this young boy’s room and he we gave him the ball first of all and then we took the mattress up and he went over and looked at the mattress. And he goes is this for me? For me? and I go, yes, that’s for you. It’s a new mattress where he goes just for me. Mine? I no one else. No one else has peed on it before. No, it’s just mine. He didn’t care about He jumped on it and hugged the mattress. Yeah. Because it meant so much to him that someone cared enough to give him a mattress that it was that that meant more to him than the basketball, he had been wanting so bad was that mattress meant the world to them. So, and to see that in that young boy’s face to hear him say that his is just something that will change my life, and said, This is what I want to do. So,
Brett Thornton:
Yeah. And tell me as you’ve been involved in this, for now, a couple decades, you know, at least in my perspective, I feel like I’m seeing a pretty big cultural shift, you know, we’ve got Millennials are now 3035, right? They’re in careers they’re doing, they got families. And I feel like something that is extremely important to them is that they want to work with companies who are giving back. Like, that’s like a big thing, right? Like, hey, I don’t want to just buy the product, I want to look it up, I’m going to research, I’m going to figure out, hey, are you given to the planet? Are you sustainable? Or you have a philanthropy side? Like, these are just things that come up all the time now. Whereas I don’t feel that way. It was like that 10 years ago, you know, and I know there’s a lot of companies doing it, but I didn’t think people didn’t seem like it was like God to do this. But I feel like almost we’re headed in a direction where companies like, users, really, they need to get involved.
Dale Carlson:
It absolutely is. I think it’s a mandate now from the incoming consumer, and a consumer that’s out there. It’s a mandate for that. But it’s not only mandate from the consumer, it’s a mandate from the employees. They only want to work for companies that are doing something, they’re making a difference. So, on both sides, the pressures on for people to do something that makes a difference. And why shouldn’t we we’re so blessed as companies that have the success we have. And one thing that Katie and I we talk about all the time is, the more we give, the more we get, it seems like every time we do more, we give more, something else happens and we get more, and we get it just goes and goes. So there’s such a reward internally and personally and emotionally, to be part of something that makes a difference in the life of someone else’s. So it’s but it’s I agree completely with you. I mean, the studies are out there over and over now that just show the companies that have actually something that’s authentic, my view and that’s key, it’s so key to be authentic, it can’t be I’m doing this because I have to, it can’t be just throwing some money at something and saying, look at us, we gave money to this or look at us, we did that you actually have to do something. And to make it truly successful, in my opinion, it has to be ingrained in the company from the top down. It has to be something that the company fully believes and believes in, it has to come from the executive team down, that this is what they believe in. So, everybody knows that they are committed. And this is something that matters. And that’s where you get the change. That’s where you get the reward from the employees, the retention, you get everything is when you’ve really integrated it fully into the program and making a difference. And we’re seeing more and more companies do that. We’ve had, you know, several different companies that have joined us and are helping us do more across the country. Because one of the things that when I left that matches firm to take oversleep or taking the dream was how do I grow this? One of the reasons that I sold the matches firm was quite frankly, to take taking the dream nationwide. I wanted to help foster kids across the country, not just on the west coast. So now we’re currently there’s at any given time, there’s 400. And what is it 420,000 foster kids in the system in a given time, and we are on an annual basis, you know, close to 200,000 a year that we’re getting items who and stuff. So, we’re getting there across the country. And we now, we actually operate in every country, every state of the union, and can get product to everyone across the country. So, it’s, but we’re seeing people join us famous footwear is one of our new big partners, you know, they take it on as a national program, and their top down is bought into this. And they have done a fantastic job of making this important. And there’s little things from the just at the checkout counter, to just have the ability for and this is What amazed me early on, we found that, but to give the customer the opportunity to donate, it is amazing to see how giving they are, you know, hundreds of 1000s of dollars a month we’re raising for foster kids just add the counter. Yeah, I mean, it only took with a little bit of programming at the credit card machine to say Hey, would you like to donate 5,10 or $15 or whatever, you know, and people say yes, so I’ll just say that. But to make it really work, it has to be ingrained in you know, the sales team needs to know what it is. So, this is what we’re doing. We’re helping foster kids. So.
Brett Thornton:
So let me ask you this, right, it’s personal question. Okay, so you sell sleep training. To match affirm 2014 right. And it was a obviously huge celebration. Everyone on the Aesop got paid out, you know, you made a few dollars. So, walk me through the decision to go and takeover tickets dream and hear your you know, whatever it is six years later like working hard growing this thing when you know you at the end of the day, you know, you fulfilled this American dream of like you had this business you built it up, you sold it, you have enough money to sail off into the sunset. Like why like, why keep grinding? Why keep doing it?
Dale Carlson:
It’s you know, quite frankly, it’s just I’ve never been happier, never been happier, you know, knowing that we’re able to take our knowledge, take our finances, take our abilities to make a difference in kids’ lives that, you know, didn’t do anything wrong, that simply needed help. And so to make that difference to everyday, were rewarded with the stories of what we’ve given to somebody and a young kid and what it means to them, you know, from the they take COVID I mean, COVID was just, it’s hard for everybody, it’s hard for you, when you’ve got kids in school, you know how hard that is? Think about a foster child that doesn’t have a laptop, how do they make it through COVID, we’ve given away hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of laptops to foster kids, because they need that in order to do school. Otherwise, they can’t do school, you know, giving them simple things, or, you know, the during COVID the craziness of, you know, someone loses their jobs, and in the layoffs and everything like that, and they’re a foster parent, now they can’t provide for the kids. So we need to be able to help them get through that period, or the kid that’s emancipating at 18, and doesn’t can’t get a job because of that all the different issues there and needs, it needs some help and getting the job or getting into college. You know, we need to be there. So, we’ve we do all sorts of things now to do that, to watch and to see hear the stories of people saying, okay, you saved me, because this would have been a bad scenario. Otherwise, you know, I’ve told you this this stat before, but you know, 63% of foster youth are dead homeless or in jail. Within 18 months of leaving the system, dead, homeless or in jail, we need to stop that that’s wrong. And that’s on us. That’s not on them. We didn’t give them the tools, we didn’t give them support, we didn’t give them what they need to, to achieve. And we need to do that. Now, in order to say that more than 70% of the people in the California prison system went through the foster care system. That’s how bad that system is. So, by doing this, by giving them the opportunity to go to school, 80% of Africans want to go to college, only 3% graduate from college. So, you know, make being able to see that talking to the kids graduating, that we’ve been able to help get into college and graduate there. I mean, that’s the reward. I mean, that’s money is money. You can buy things. Yeah, I can travel, I can do things I get to have fun life, you know that, you know, I get to enjoy what we have. But nothing is like the feeling of knowing you’re making a difference. And so that’s what I enjoy being part of. Yeah.
Brett Thornton:
So, tell me, Zidar don’t know this, you know, but where did the idea come about? To throw? You know, what I think is the greatest golf tournament fundraiser in the world in the Dickinson dream like golfer and how did that come about? And how to in question to is, and how did the themes come about? Because you got to just tell the tell the listeners, like how every year there’s a theme?
Dale Carlson:
Well, it actually was Brian Baxter, Mike Ravel and Mike Wilson, who, you know, were saying, Okay, how do we take this to the next level? What do we do? And they said, Well, what about a golf tournament? And so I said, Yeah, that sounds great. You guys, and they teamed up and put the first one together. And, you know, I said that I thought it would be a theme. And I think Mari as well. And so far, so our theme and as you alluded to our tournament is like no other. It’s not about golf. It’s about the kids. And it’s about having fun. And so, part about the kids is having fun and dressing up, right. So, we have a costume contest and people wear things. We’ve done everything from what we did Caddyshack one year. That was a little interesting. We’ve done you know, just different all sorts of ankarana drunk gambling and all these different things you did?
Brett Thornton :No. tell everyone about when you will die when you were….the pirate theme. Oh my word I had. Well first of all we choose to have we and we’re actually moving the date right now because well, partly because the COVID but it’s always been the last part of September and in Sacramento. For some reason. The went the Wednesday that we have the German is the hottest day of the year, it just seems to just skyrocket on the day of our tournament. And we did a pirate theme. So I have long hair wig on, I’ve got the full leather jacket, you know, the, the Pirates of the Caribbean lawyer, beard and everything, as I always had, and I’m out there and it’s 105 degrees over there. And it’s just like, I came back in they go, you don’t look good. I go, I don’t really feel ready to pass out from heat exhaustion. But it was so hot, very hot. That we did games over that I just saw a picture the other day, and I can’t believe I wore this. But it was the Candyman costume that I wore. So, he was the Candyman. And it just his costume was just candy all over me and everything. But to me, it’s all about having fun and being willing to, you know, let go of your ego and just have fun. And we had a great time. And obviously, as you know, we’ve raised over a million dollars every year prior to COVID. And, you know, been able to do really well with it. Yeah, one of my absolute favorite events. I always think back one. One year we did a member he did like an Oscars theme. So, you could go as any, like movie character that was like nominated or won an Oscar. And I went as the Heath Ledger Joker. And like, I remember like crazy makeup and the whole nine yards. And one of our district training managers up in the bag was terrified of clowns. I didn’t know like, terrified. And I remember, I come walking up and did you know at the banquet before the dinner, and I sit down and he just gets up and runs and I thought it was a joke. It turns out like he did get afraid of glass. So, all night I kept trying to sneak up on him and drink.
Dale Carlson:
Beer me hear me. That was funny though. He was really it was fantastic. actually showed my kids recently.
Brett Thornton:
I’m like, yeah, check this out. I had it. It was when Instagram first started, I think years ago, and I had like, one of my first pictures. I was like, so yeah, those dinners though? I’ll tell you though, I mean, the when the different, like kids would come up and speak. Yeah, I don’t think there’s a dry eye. You know, just thinking about it would still just like take me down.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah. And if you hear their stories, and you’re in your apparent that all, you know, you sit there and go, you just imagine your child and having to go through and you just can’t imagine what they go through. And so knowing that you can make a difference in their life, that you can give them that leg up, you can give them that confidence, you know, simply through a pair of shoes, or backpacks or an extracurricular activities that your kids get to play in every day. And they don’t I mean, it makes a difference in them and change their life.
Yeah. Tell us I know, we’re getting near the end here. so there’s someone out there listening, right. So they’re, you know, they’re working at a company, maybe they’re leading the company. And they’re not currently, like utilizing any type of giving back strategy, you know, like, what would you say to them? How would you encourage them that this is something that, that they just got to do?
Dale Carlson:
One I would, you know, from, let’s say, they’re some of this running a company, this from that standpoint, the one thing that and we as you know, we didn’t do it because of it, but I found that it is a true business secret, that you do it and you do a right, it will grow your business beyond belief. And so, to understand that, and to trust that, I can just tell you, it works. You need to do it. And it’s important to do it, it’s important for your company, if you care about growing your company, this is one of the easiest ways you can do it and make a difference. You will retain your employees for longer, they will do better work, you will change the community, you will grow your customer base, and you will w grow your company and the pride of your company by simply making a difference in someone else’s life and not being just about the company. The one thing I would say that we did that I think really worked is we chose one category. Yeah. I mean, we chose foster kids. So that was our one charity. What that allowed us to do is that’s who the company was. Now it did not mean that’s all the company was. But it allowed us so that when somebody would come to me and want us to donate or to do something for other causes, we could say great, cause Good luck with that. That’s awesome. But unless your area works with foster kids, we only do foster kids. And the person asking for the money would not look ,you look down on you because they knew the work you were doing. Yeah, so they understood and appreciated what you were doing. So it allowed us to have more time to focus on our business, and not as much on all these different causes. But one cause but the way we kind of crossed over was we realized that not all of our employees was this their motivation. So as you know, we lead we each of the teams, he said the department’s hadn’t had money to spend local giving local activities. So I mean, I know you went out to a food bank before you’ve been out there, you build stenches out of that One place that you know, we’ve, done painting everywhere. So we’ve done stuff all across other different areas that we allowed our employees to do. And we support it, we gave everybody two days off, to go do work in the community of their choice. So that we could help other causes. But the company’s focus was just one antibody company having one it really allows the company to become branded as that’s what they do. And I think that’s, that’s a secret that worked really well. And is something to do so it doesn’t matter if it’s foster kids or some other cause. One of the things that foster kids when we started, as you know, no one really knew about foster kids. Yeah, I mean, I would have people’s hands. Well tell me more about the songs because I don’t get it now. Everybody understands, foster kids, that’s where because we get brought the cause up. So we had a cause that, you know, was there, it’s a cause that, you know, in our case, is a cause it’s not political, but yet touches all the political areas, it touches, incarceration, it touches on education, it touches on homelessness, it touches on human trafficking, you solve and work on all these issues without being politically in that room, you’re just talking about the child and helping the child. So but it’s a from a business standpoint, it’s a must do. from a personal standpoint, you will be so much prouder of the company you own or your manager you run when you’re doing something for others, and then just from your employees and your customers base. Now it’s a mandatory thing for them. So it’s it, I highly recommend everybody do it. It’s a win across the board. Everybody wins. There’s no loss in it.
Brett Thornton:
Yeah, no, I love that. I’m going to those last little parts going to be the PSA. Hey, all you business owners listen to this, you know, So, no, I thank you so much, Dale, for coming on. You know, I wanted to finish by just thanking you, you know, and explaining something that I think is, the last part of that, right, which is, you know, we don’t oftentimes, you know, when we talk about athletes, you know, we talk about legacy, you know, we talk about maybe, you know, big figures in the world, you know, college politicians or whatever, you know, these terms go around, but when you think about, you know, people in business, you know, we all do leave a legacy, you know, we leave a trail behind us, of people we worked with people we impacted along the way, you know, and I think that, you know, one last part I would add to that, as far as this win scenario is that, you know, when you give back and you do it for the right reasons, you know, you inspire people along the way to do the same, and you show them, Hey, you know, business doesn’t have to be about cutthroat step on everyone to get to success. You know, that’s, that’s not the mentality that you need to have. Because what you want to do is inspire the people that you’re around to show them that you can do both, you can be successful in business, and you can also give back, it’s not or it’s an errand. And when you do, it has a ripple. And so just for me, personally, you know, like, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing right now, if it wasn’t for you starting to work with foster kids, right, because my, as I grew at sleep train, and became each level, I would progress as far as my, title or whatever, and work with more people, you know, the DNA was that we give that that was just, it wasn’t like a thing that was over here. It was just part of what we do. And so what I learned was that, that’s just the fabric. And then it was funny, because I went to go, you know, we went to math firm, and then I’m living spaces, and you’re now at avocado. And it’s like, it’s been great to see that, hey, if there was a need, like at living spaces, you know, we had these great, amazing people who were doing so much work were over there was giving away millions of dollars, but no one knew. Because they didn’t have a program. You know, like, it was just and he did it for the right reason. That’s the cool thing about him. He was literally writing checks, you know, oh, there’s a disaster. Here’s a million dollars, but no one would know. And I was like, Grover, people want to buy from companies who are giving, you know, like, how do we do this. And that’s when you know, we were able to package revive with this whole giving program around foster kids, or veterans or whatever. And what we learned was a, at least is what I learned. People used to be like, that was such a cool thing you did. And I was like, I didn’t you know, I had an idea. I connected some dots, but it was everyone out there who took and took it and ran with the reason it was successful. Because all the employees got so excited about it, and they made it a huge thing. And I sit back and think after do their first couple events, you know what I was like, wow, this is cool. Like everyone’s getting really excited about it. But ultimately, that all this came from what I learned at sleep. And so what I’m trying to say and in a roundabout way is a thank you, but also be for people listening out there like those are the long term ripples of the effect that you have when you when you give back for the right reasons, you know, and I think that as you look back, like you said in your career, you know, if it wasn’t for that, you know, you wouldn’t be sitting doing what you’re doing now, you know, here you are you, you at 21 when you got that sports car, you know, in Rome health mattress and you thought about it, like, Who would have thought, yeah, I would sell his business all these years later and be really successful, but then end up doing foster kids full time, you know, I mean, it’s just it’s crazy out all wrapped around.
Dale Carlson:
Well, thank you, Brad. I really appreciate what are my great joys is watching all the people I was blessed to work with and seeing that ripple go out and seeing everybody what they’re doing. I mean, it’s you. You’re right, it just seems to have stuck with everybody because I see it across the board. And just knowing that that difference is happening out there is so incredible.
Brett Thornton:
Awesome. Well, thanks, Dale. I appreciate it all the time, and best of luck to you. So last thing is to tell people if someone wants to get involved with tickets, reviewing specifically what’s the best way they can kind of reach out to you.
Dale Carlson:
Go to our website, you’re taking the dream.org to continue to dream that org. You can contact me and contact Gina. Gina Davis is our executive director, all the contact information is on there to donate, you can donate on there. You can learn more from there, but just let us know we’d be glad to help anybody where you know, we have all sorts of partners that we partner in many different ways. One of the exciting things we have is that I’ve got a top-notch branding officer who runs our organization because she did all the branding, particularly for matches for him and for the train and now she does stick in the drain. So, we can do anything.
Brett Thornton:
We can do. You can do anything. I do believe it and you’re proven and so thanks, Dale. I hope to talk soon.
Dale Carlson:
Thank you, sir. Take care. Have a great day.
