Luke Mickelson, The Man Behind Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Rich & Wendy 0:00
Hey everyone, it's Rich Bennett. Can you believe it? The show is turning 10 this year. I am so grateful for each and every one of you who've tuned in, shared an episode, or even joined the conversation over the years. You're the reason that this podcast has grown into what it is today. Together, we've shared laughs, tears, and moments that truly matter. So I want to thank you for being part of this journey. Let's make the next 10 years even better. Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios Hartford County Living Presence conversations with Rich Bennett. 

No, no, it's just truth is. 

Rich Bennett 1:00
So imagine tucking your kids in at night and realizing they don't have a bed to sleep in. No mattress, no blankets, just a pile of clothes on the floor. That moment changed everything for today's guest, Luke Michelson. What started in 2012 as a simple project in his garage has has exploded into a global movement. Luke walked away from us because a successful 18 year career to build beds, literally, for children who didn't have one. Fast forward to today, and his non-profits, Sleep and Heavenly Peace has built beds for well over 250,000 kids. going to say he's probably getting close to 300,000 now across four countries with more than 550,000 

volunteer hours fuel in the mission named one of CNN's top 10 heroes featured on NBC PBS TEDx and the man, Mike Rose the way I heard it with Mike Row, Luke's not just building furniture, he's building hoop dignity and connection in communities around the world. If you think one person can't make a difference, Luke's story is going to change your mind. Luke, I have to thank you right away because we did, I'm president of the Lions Club here in Leo Club advisor, and we did a bed build, a bed build with our local chapter and the kids, because that's what the leaders are, kids between the ages of 12 and 18, got so much out of it, learned so much, and of course, the adults us Lions, some of the Lions were inside helping with the bed build, me and a couple others decided let's bring food and grill for everybody, it just started 

Luke Mickelson 2:57
a trend, 

Rich Bennett 2:57
and then when Karen stepped away, we stopped doing it, but oh my god, the stuff that we learned, so I gotta thank you for that because if you wouldn't have started this, we wouldn't have been doing 

Luke Mickelson 3:09
oh well Rich, thank you for the intro, that was 

Rich Bennett 3:13
that. that, 

Luke Mickelson 3:13
amazing. Wow, I'm inspired, I'm inspired by your intro. I know it's not alright, yeah, you know, it's funny and I'm sure we'll get into it, but you know, a lot, a lot, there's a lot of things been variables that went into why sleeping on the piece started, 

Rich Bennett 3:29
It's 

Luke Mickelson 3:29
but one of the big ones was, was wanting my own children to enjoy the fruits of service and joy that comes from that as well as appreciate what they have, so anytime I hear stories of children being involved with builds, you know, feeling the impact, seeing seeing their own friends sometimes on the conditions that they sleep in, and hopefully that teaches them a lesson of, you know, joy of service as well as appreciate what they have and then reaching out and helping others, and so when I hear those kinds of stories about the kids, man, it's a hit right home, so, 

Rich Bennett 4:05
oh, oh, it's awesome and I know my one buddy who's in the club, dynamo, he just, he always went the night before to help, I guess, cull all the way, everything, 

Luke Mickelson 4:16
and 

Rich Bennett 4:17
and it's, it's funny, but it's not funny, it's like when the local chapter here fold it, it's like it took a piece of his heart with 

Luke Mickelson 4:26
it, oh shoot, 

Rich Bennett 4:28
and now that it's back and running again, 

Luke Mickelson 4:30
yeah, 

Rich Bennett 4:30
it's like his heart's fulfilling, he's like, yeah, we gotta go doom again, we gotta go doom again, I said, brother, I'm with you, man, 

Luke Mickelson 4:37
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 4:38
but whatever, whatever you're ready, I am ready, and actually, I wanted before we get into sleeping heavily, I gotta ask you what was your career before it 

Luke Mickelson 4:48
is. So I was in this much shock, he was an outside 

salesman, yeah, I, um, 

Rich Bennett 4:54
okay, 

Luke Mickelson 4:55
you know it's funny, I like to talk, I love meeting new people, and 

Rich Bennett 5:00
right, 

Luke Mickelson 5:01
I just feel like I could read people pretty good, get them relaxed and so, you know, sales was an easy door for me, and I loved it. Right, you know? 

Rich Bennett 5:10
When 

Luke Mickelson 5:11
When I was growing up, I'm from a really small town, right, and I tell everybody, 

Rich Bennett 5:15
right, 

Luke Mickelson 5:16
you're from a small town, I mean, we, I graduated with 69 people. I mean, that was it. And so it's, 

Rich Bennett 5:20
wow, wow, 

Luke Mickelson 5:21
you, 

Rich Bennett 5:21
that is small. 

Luke Mickelson 5:22
It is small. And if you know how to, you know, how to pick up a ball and throw it relatively in the right direction, you know, you had to play sports and so, so here I was, you know, the small town playing sports with my friends, you know, everybody in town, you know, 

Rich Bennett 5:36
your, 

Luke Mickelson 5:36
everybody in You know, a student body, vice president, then student body president, you know, I just was really active. And my, my mom, I, I could around my mom, I'm raised by a single mom, and, of course, we didn't have, we didn't have much, right? She 

Rich Bennett 5:50
right? 

Luke Mickelson 5:50
actually was a secretary. This is funny, she was a secretary for the elementary principal, right? So if you thought I could get away with anything, heck no. Down there, 

Rich Bennett 6:00
[LAUGHTER] 

Luke Mickelson 6:01
I did, you're not admitted, I went to high school. Any guy who's a small school, right? She gets promoted, I swear this was on purpose. She gets promoted to be the secretary of the superintendent. And you got, I bet you can get what her applicant was, was right in the high school. I mean, there's no such thing as me ditching school. I mean, I'd be sick, and parents come to my mom, "Oh, there's Luke, there's Luke OK today." And they do, they 

Rich Bennett 6:24
[LAUGHTER] 

Luke Mickelson 6:24
do. Because I wasn't at school. Oh, man, I, I, uh, I love my mom, but man, she, uh, she had me down, she had me down. (laughing) 

Rich Bennett 6:32
She didn't follow you to 

Luke Mickelson 6:34
she? 

Rich Bennett 6:34
college, did 

Luke Mickelson 6:34
(laughing) 

Rich Bennett 6:34
she? 

Luke Mickelson 6:34
I got to know, no. (laughing) 

Rich Bennett 6:36
Okay. 

Luke Mickelson 6:37
(laughing) 

Rich Bennett 6:38
What, 

Luke Mickelson 6:39
there 

Rich Bennett 6:39
what, 

Luke Mickelson 6:39
had been 

Rich Bennett 6:39
actually, what, actually, 

Luke Mickelson 6:40
stories that, uh, yeah, the mom. (laughing) 

She's good, and my mom is always, I mean, single mom. She, 

Rich Bennett 6:47
Yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 6:47
she's amazing. Like, you know, I played all the sports, right? You know, every single sport that's available, in fact, I kid around, there was two weeks of the entire year that I didn't either have a game or practice. Now, if you think about that, I mean, some of these parents nowadays, and I have kids, --that that some play a little bit of sports, but, and that's 

Rich Bennett 7:06
right, 

Luke Mickelson 7:06
it. So, and you're busy, and, you know, here's my mom, five kids, by herself, and I don't think she missed a game, you know. She came to 

Rich Bennett 7:14
one. 

Luke Mickelson 7:14
every 

Rich Bennett 7:14
one. 

Luke Mickelson 7:14
single 

Rich Bennett 7:14
Wow! 

Luke Mickelson 7:14
(laughing) And so, yeah, I've got to really, I'm a mom as a boy, I mean, you know, I got a real soft heart for my mom, and she's, you know, and I'm 

Rich Bennett 7:21
Nothing 

Luke Mickelson 7:22
grateful. 

Rich Bennett 7:22
wrong with that, brother. 

Luke Mickelson 7:23
(laughing) 

Rich Bennett 7:23
Don't forget that. 

Luke Mickelson 7:24
She's the one, she's the one that really inspired, and got me enjoying, you know, the joy of serving others. And, you know, there was one time at Christmas. Oh, I can't remember how old it was. Probably seven or eight. I remember the old Walkman's. Remember the Walkman 

Rich Bennett 7:41
Oh, yeah! 

Luke Mickelson 7:42
came out. They had the four-second delay. So, you could go, you could go walking without skipping the, it was really interesting, and I wanted one so bad. But, I mean, there's no way my mom could afford it. Well, were they shooting out the, to check the mail. And in the mailbox, there was a stack of cash, $1500. 

Rich Bennett 8:01
What? 

Luke Mickelson 8:02
Yeah, the neighbors and the friends gave my mom to help us kids out, so I got my Walkman. I mean, it was just, you know, just to, those kinds of things, you know, you don't hear about those as often, or certainly not as loud as some of the, you know, the other Spitfire, you know, stuff that we hear in social media. Those kinds of things are really stick to people. That always stuck with me, and I always kind of like from then on, I'm like, you know what, wow, someone did that. For us, you know, I thought about all the things, you know, their kids missed out on because they helped us, I was like, you know what, I wanna be that kind of guy. I wanna be that guy that wants to give back at health, and like, my mom has teaching me, and so, you know, living in a small town and with a single mom, five siblings, learning how to serve and give back to others. Trust me, there's a lot of opportunities to do that. (laughing) It was awesome, I loved it. 

Rich Bennett 8:55
it. You know what, but I guess that's one of the benefits of such a small town is everybody's looking out for each other, you know, which is good, and that's, you don't see that a lot today, 

Luke Mickelson 9:06
No, you don't, right? Well, there's too much social media, too much bones and screens and, you know, they just don't get together. I mean, you know, we didn't have computers. I mean, you get dead, but you never mess with them, right? You're 

Rich Bennett 9:17
no. 

Luke Mickelson 9:18
always getting in trouble running around and going hunting and fishing and, you know, doing what young kids back then shouldn't be doing, but it was fun. You build a story 

Rich Bennett 9:26
out out of it. 

That was real socializing. 

Luke Mickelson 9:28
Hey, man, brother. 

Rich Bennett 9:30
(laughing) 

Luke Mickelson 9:31
You know what, I feel bad for my kids, we, you know, we're pretty strict in our home about screen time and stuff. 

Rich Bennett 9:36
So 

Luke Mickelson 9:36
So much, so much good out there, you know, and sleeping only piece kind of started with that in mind, you know. 

when I was in 2012 when Slough Company started, I was what was called a Young Men's President, which is in my church. It kind of like a youth pastor. 

Rich Bennett 9:55
Okay, 

Luke Mickelson 9:56
you know, I wasn't a youth pastor, but I was responsible for the spiritual growth as well as the activity arm of the Young Men's Program, ages 12 to 18. And 

Rich Bennett 10:07
Okay. 

Luke Mickelson 10:08
in Wednesday night, we called it Mutual Night, but Wednesday night was the night where we did the activities. And at the time, the activity arm of the church was the Boy Scouts. So basically I was like a meter of the leaders of the Boy Scouts, right? I think they call it a venture leader, but anyways. 

Rich Bennett 10:26
Okay. 

Luke Mickelson 10:27
in the middle 

of one of our leadership meetings with the church, they were talking about the families we were helping, and there was one family in the particular, the father suffered some mental health issues, could hold a job. And mom was a bus driver. I mean, you can imagine she wasn't a very, very high-income family, and the sad thing is, again, from a very small town. And they lived in an area of the town that I had never heard of. I mean, it was just, that's how remote it 

Rich Bennett 10:58
Really? 

Luke Mickelson 10:58
was. Yeah, it was really crazy. And of course, they were talking about the things that were helping them, and one of the things that came up was that the kids didn't have any beds. And I remember, I was like, wait, can I just hear that right? They got beds, right? They're something, and like, no, no, no, they 

Rich Bennett 11:14
Yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 11:14
sleep on the floor. And I instantly, I mean, hit me like a two by four, I was like, wait a minute, I said, here's a great opportunity for my Boy Scouts to get out from behind the screen, get an Xbox controller out of their hands. Let's put a drill and a sander in it, and let's teach them something, as well as solve this problem. And so, as a Boy Scout leader, or just a father of a teenage nowadays, to try to find an activity that's meaningful and fun, and 

Rich Bennett 11:46
But 

Luke Mickelson 11:46
it doesn't involve a screen or a sport. It's not an easy thing to do. So when I proposed this to the Boy Scouts and say, hey, why don't you guys come to my house? And I've got a bunk bed that I'm going to pat on this after. Let's build them in bed. It'll be fun. You know, they kind of hear them how to round about it. But when they finally came, and we went to town on it, Boy, they had so much fun. And I was hoping for that. It wasn't expecting it, hoping. And man, it was great to see these kids just light up, build them the bed, build them the bed for this family. 

Rich Bennett 12:17
All right. 

So with that first build and correct me if I'm wrong, unless you were doing it on the side, because I was in sales too, a matter of fact, both of my brothers run run construction, owned their own construction companies. My father taught them how to do construction. He tried to teach me, then when I smacked his finger with a hammer, he would not teach me anymore. I tied him up in sales. So when he came to the tools, I didn't have a clue. 

Luke Mickelson 12:49
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 12:50
Did you, were you doing stuff on the side? Or did you have the tools to do it yourself? 

Luke Mickelson 12:55
Oh, man. Dang it, Richie. Yes, wrong 

Rich Bennett 12:58
[LAUGHTER] 

Luke Mickelson 12:59
question, man. You probably know the answer to she looked talker. 

Rich Bennett 13:03
I'd 

Luke Mickelson 13:03
You know the-- 

Rich Bennett 13:04
know. 

Luke Mickelson 13:04
That thing is, here's the cheers, guys. OK. I'm going to admit this. I wasn't a stranger. Tools like I actually built my wife. She was a hairdresser in blah, blah, blah. And my third day in my garage, I built her a room because the song was an estranged-- I've never built furniture before. 

Rich Bennett 13:22
Right. It's a big difference. 

Luke Mickelson 13:24
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I did not have all of the tools. So yes, I had to borrow my wife's tools. [LAUGHTER] My man, Paard. 

Rich Bennett 13:35
So your wife was the builder. 

Luke Mickelson 13:37
Yeah, well, she actually-- She had this framing company, framing meaning-- she'd make picture frames and stuff. 

Rich Bennett 13:43
Oh yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 13:44
So she did artsy fartsy type stuff. And so I'm sorry. That might be an Idaho term, I don't 

Rich Bennett 13:51
know. Oh, no, I've heard it a lot. 

Luke Mickelson 13:53
yeah. And so yeah, I had to grab her drill and some sanders she had. It was fun. And the beauty of it was just having fun with the kids. We had 

Rich Bennett 14:04
Yeah, 

Luke Mickelson 14:04
the Boy Scouts out there. And honestly, I probably built most of it myself, but they were helping and sanding and just enjoying it. And it was a great time to help remind them, hey, listen. Think about your own time or your own bedroom if you didn't have a bed, if you be sleeping on the hard floor, not just a night or two. I mean, every night think about that, you know, so I try to help and remember what what we're doing and, you know, I think it really sunk in. You know, I still had some boy scouts years, years later come up and say that was one of the funnest things they've ever done. And the funny sad part of the story was I didn't get to go on the delivery when we delivered the beds. My garage was a mess because we sanded and had wood everywhere. So I had to clean my garage, but, you know, the boys took their parents and the other scout leaders and they went and delivered this bed, and so next day in church, they were telling me how neat of an experience it was, you know, these kids and the family and how they're grateful and the conditions that the kids were sleeping in. And then I was just man, I was, you know, did all the work and didn't get the reward, you know, that part of it anyways. I was a little bummed, but I was happy, right? I mean, and the biggest thing is, at the time rich, and I don't know if I had imagined people go through kind of mid-like crisis. That's why they have the term. And I don't know what I was going through other than, you know, I had a great job. I 

Rich Bennett 15:29
"Mm-hmm." 

Luke Mickelson 15:30
didn't 

Rich Bennett 15:30
like, 

Luke Mickelson 15:31
hate my job, right? I loved my job and I had great family and I was coaching and I was doing activities. But there was just something, I don't know, you hit maybe this period 

Rich Bennett 15:41
and your something was missing. 

Luke Mickelson 15:42
something's Something's missing. You know, just, and I couldn't, you know, I'm a preparer, I'm a planner, I'm an entrepreneur, so I want to make sure I'm thinking ahead and trying to get things ready, and you know, you're coaching, you're preparing, and I just couldn't figure out what it was. And some of it, it's going through a little bit of a faith crisis, you know, who am I? What do I believe? What, you know, what's this life about? You know, you start asking these questions when you get in your mid-30s and, and at least I did and, and just can have a lot of great answers. And when I, when I built that bed with that, with those kids, and I'd done service projects before, but there was just something about. 

Rich Bennett 16:17
What about that, 

Luke Mickelson 16:17
Something about that. And, and it really just filled my soul, right. And so when I heard these stories about, about delivering this bed and how amazing it was, you know, I was, I was a home and it's Christmas time. I'm a home and I'm kind of, you know, you're, you're, you get to get back into your routine, right. So I'm 

Rich Bennett 16:34
right? 

Luke Mickelson 16:35
back into this, this, this, I could feel this whole being created again and kind of getting it down the dumps and blah, blah, blah, you know, and then my, and this stinking Xbox control or Xbox game commercial comes on and you know, I'm just looking at my kids going, don't you freakin' dare. Don't you dare. I don't, you know, like, like every parent knows here comes the ask and, 

Rich Bennett 16:57
and, uh, 

Luke Mickelson 16:57
and it was a perfect time because, again, here it was falling back down into this whatever depression, it wasn't a depression, I don't know what you call it, but just this, this whole that I was feeling I didn't want to go back into 

Rich Bennett 17:08
seasonal depression is basically what it is. 

Luke Mickelson 17:10
it was something, something that, that had been striking me for a few years, I had this amazing moment and then now my kids are talking about presence, they know I'm not going to buy them, right. I can't 

Rich Bennett 17:22
Yeah, 

Luke Mickelson 17:22
afford that and and it just hit me I said, you know what, custing it, here's an opportunity that I could take advantage of of teaching my kids the same thing I just taught my boy scouts, you know, I just got to get my butt off the couch. You just got to get it off the couch, you know, and people that suffer from depression or, or are down the dumps, that is sometimes the hardest step, right, just getting your butt off the couch, dropping those three inches from the, get your feet on the floor, and I remember I popped up and start walking to the garage and everybody's like that, where you going. And what we got left over wood I'm going to build another bed and gosh dang it, you're going to come and help me and so on and my kids at the time were 10 and 6 and I think one. So my 10 6 year old, they came out and we had the best time I mean my daughter's out there in the garage, drill him, you know, we're in a little too to oh yeah, it was great they had a great time and and and then when we were done, you know, here I had another bunk bed, I had no idea what to do with it. I mean, 

Rich Bennett 18:28
I sleep in heavenly peace wasn't even born 

Luke Mickelson 18:30
Oh no, you know, we had, I had only heard of this child that was in my church group here, 

Rich Bennett 18:37
yet, right. 

Luke Mickelson 18:37
there's the only child I knew that had, they didn't have a bed. I mean, I didn't realize the childbedlessness although not a real word is a huge and real problem nowadays and it represents greater than 3% of the total population. You know, you think you're in a town of 100,000 people, which you know are surrounding areas when you combine, we're pretty close to that here in here and I know. Yeah, that's 3000 kids, 3000 kids are on the floor. Oh yeah, it's a ton It's 

Rich Bennett 19:05
too many. 

Luke Mickelson 19:06
way too many and so so 

Rich Bennett 19:09
one is too many 

Luke Mickelson 19:10
Yeah, you're exactly right. And so here we were, you know, built this bed, didn't know what to do with it. Someone says, "Hey, why don't you throw that on Facebook?" And, you know, one of these Bicell Trade groups. And I don't know, I wasn't a Facebook guide. I posted on my pictures of my surgeon, I'd catch and stuff like that, but that's about it. It's all of a sudden, between my fishing posts, here's this one little post that says, "Hey, me and my family is a family Christmas project, wanted to build a bed for a child that didn't have one. If you know of a child, please let me know. I'm not a carpenter, but I did my best, and we'd like to give it 

Rich Bennett 19:44
right. 

Luke Mickelson 19:44
cool for Christmas." And as a free bed. And I was worried that, you know, I was going to get every Tom Dick and Harry, that wanted a free bed to, you know, to jump on there and ask for one. And we got a little bit of that, but honestly, two things happened. Number one, I started hearing and reading the stories of actual kids that were sleeping on the floor, and the commissions that they were in. And then, the second thing was, I had friends that I had talked to for 20, 25 years. People coming out of the work. People I never even met were like, "This is amazing. How can I help? Oh, wow." And I realized, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, there's a lot of people out here that can you imagine. If we just got together, we could really do some damage here, you know?" And so, one of my friends, she was helping a family, she was a social worker. She was helping this family come out of homelessness, and this is my nearly story. So, Haley and her mom were homeless. Haley had been sleeping in the back seat of her mom's car since she was born, six years old. Six years old, never had a bed. Never had a pillow, right? And they finally get home, and I said, "Perfect. This is the exact situation that I wanted me and my family to be able to build a bed for. Right?" We go out to this town called Barley, and we go into the home of Haley and her mom. And you can imagine, I've seen poverty before, I've seen homelessness, I've seen transition homelessness, all this stuff. But I've never seen it through the eyes of a child before, and that really hit me hard. My gosh, this little six-year-old, number one, you couldn't tell that she was in poverty, because she got a house. She was so happy, and she had a room, right? She had a bedroom. And it's funny, you mentioned I was on the way I heard it with Mike Row. 

Rich Bennett 21:29
Yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 21:29
You know, Mike, I know Mike pretty well, and he said, "Look, you know Luke, he says, I've been thinking about you, and when you talk about kids and bedrooms, if they don't have a bed in it, then it's just a room." 

Rich Bennett 21:43
Oh! 

Luke Mickelson 21:43
And I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, Mike, that's right. You're right. It's just a room." Like, no more, no different than the dining room in the kitchen, it's just a room. Until you put a bed in it, right? It really escapes the room. And that's when I walked into Haley's room, that's, I mean, that's what you felt. It was just a room, there's four walls, closet, tears in the carpets, you know, holes in the walls. You could imagine, it just wasn't the greatest place. And no furniture, nothing, the only thing, and this really got to me, and I want all your listeners just to kind of walk with me as we go through this room, you walk in this room. And in the corner, there's this pile of clothes. And you instantly, 

you instantly know what that is. And I'm telling you, rich man, it hit me so hard I looked and said, "You've got to be kidding me. This little girl comes home from school." She takes her clothes off, puts her pajamas on, and sleeps on her school clothes. And then in the morning, you know, reverses the cycle, I'm like, "No way. You can't, you can read about this stuff. You can even hear about it, or maybe watch a video on it, but until you're in the room, 

Rich Bennett 22:49
and you 

Luke Mickelson 22:50
it oh until you're in the room and you see this little girl, and you instantly start seeing in this life that she's living, and then you start comparing that to your own kids. What would that be like? Oh, man, it just hit me so hard. So we were really excited to bring this bed into this room now, and make it a bedroom, and the minute Haley started to realize what we had brought in, and as we're putting the pieces together to the bed, she just blew up. I mean, just hugged us, hugged the bed, kissed the bed, I'd never seen that before. 

If that wasn't enough, you're already on the floor of our rated diet. 

Rich Bennett 23:25
So 

Luke Mickelson 23:25
so great. You look up and here's the single mom again, I'm raised by a single mom. I get it. I remember when I wanted to go to football camp, quarterback camp, cost $100. That was it. Back then, 

Rich Bennett 23:40
back yeah 

Luke Mickelson 23:40
back 

Rich Bennett 23:40
back 

Luke Mickelson 23:41
then, they were 

Rich Bennett 23:41
a lot 

Luke Mickelson 23:42
than it is 

Rich Bennett 23:43
more 

Luke Mickelson 23:43
now. I remember, I just wanted to go on my mom's like, I mean, we've kind of gotten a fight about it, right? Well, an hour later, she comes down, she's like, I don't know what we're going to eat tomorrow, but here's your $100. I mean, it's just that I just understand the struggle that these single parents go through, and here I 

Rich Bennett 24:02
Yeah, 

Luke Mickelson 24:02
am. 

Rich Bennett 24:02
and as kids, we don't realize. 

Luke Mickelson 24:03
No, of course not. Yeah. Not to have your own kids, right? 

Rich Bennett 24:06
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 24:07
And here I'm looking at this mom, you know, just six years of tears, just pouring down this lady's face. And they were tears of joy. You know, just, and I'll tell you that, Rich, right then, I knew this is, this is more than just a bed. This is more than just a good night's sleep, right? This is for, this is for the mom. This is for the siblings. This is for the family, you know, and we, we, we teach our chapter presidents, keep some beds on the side because foster care situations pop up, you know, 

Rich Bennett 24:37
Oh yeah! 

Luke Mickelson 24:38
if they don't have beds, they don't, they don't go into the home. And sometimes these are two kids. The parents are gone. I've had this story, I've had this, this example happen to me, two, two kids parents are gone, grandparents look back, these can't take them. The only two people they know in their life is each other, six and seven years old and they're going into a foster care family. But the foster care can, he can't, can't afford two beds. And judge said, you got 24 hours to get another bed or we're going to have to separate these two. I mean, those are the conditions. That's why it sits more than just a bed. You know, we're able to supply a bed and hold them. So when, when we got done after our first delivery, we had about a half hour drive home, me and my buddy, and we didn't say a word. I mean, it was just that powerful, right? That that that much emotion. I remember just thinking, you know, here I am, I'm a typical Idaho farm kid, love the hunt and fish and, and you know, watch college football on Saturdays and, you know, it's been me or weekend outside. And I remember that changed in an instant, change in instant. I no longer really about that kind of stuff. And 

Rich Bennett 25:46
And right, 

Luke Mickelson 25:46
it was a big passion of mine. Now it for for spending a couple of hours a night for the last, you know, few days to build a bed and solve that problem, that's well worth my time. Well worth my time. 

Rich Bennett 26:01
It's a it's a bigger passion. And it just it fills your heart a lot more than say catching that sturgeon. 

Luke Mickelson 26:07
Oh yeah, 100%. When you feel like, again, it's like, I didn't have a bad life. I mean, on paper, I think 

Rich Bennett 26:13
Yeah, 

Luke Mickelson 26:13
99% of the population would love to have that. But for me, I just knew that there was more. I knew I could do more. 

Rich Bennett 26:21
right. 

Luke Mickelson 26:21
And, and I know I could help other people more. And I really wanted to do that. So when this came across the came came about, boy, I grabbed on there. I remember we got home from that delivery. And I finally looked at body and I said, you know, no kid is going to sleep on the floor in my town if I have anything to do with it. And I was serious. I mean, I said I was almost I was almost angry. I was almost mad, you know, that's how passionate I was about it. And he felt the same way, you know, he lived in Boise, which is a couple hours away. He went up there. And then we started, you know, every year, we only built one time a year back then. So I build mine. I had my build day and we built the next year, we built the, you know, 25 to our 51 beds, or out of 25 bunk beds, between the two of us and deliver them all before Santa showed up, you know, we just had the most amazing thing there is, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:13
Yeah. Wow. 

So, I guess after that is when S. was born. 

How long did it actually take you? Because you're five of one C three, right? 

Luke Mickelson 27:26
Correct. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:27
How long did it take you to get that five of one C three status? 

Luke Mickelson 27:30
That's a great question. So when we were done, well, after that first delivery, and, you know, and I said, I didn't want any kids sleeping on the floor in my town, you know, 

Rich Bennett 27:38
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 27:38
we started, I started looking into what we can do. And I remember I went to this big orange store that we all know about and said, 

Rich Bennett 27:44
Ah, 

Luke Mickelson 27:45
this is what I'm doing. I need some help. And, you know, when they were fine, they were nice. They offered me, I think, a $25 gift card, and I'm 

Rich Bennett 27:52
like, like, 

Luke Mickelson 27:53
by two pieces of lumber, I what 

Rich Bennett 27:55
the 

Luke Mickelson 27:55
to get. end And I went to the lows. I went to lows and lows has been our number one sponsor from very, very beginning. The store manager looked at me and said, Dude, whatever you need, I'll take 50% off anything you buy, which is a, I mean, it's one of the other costs. Right. So they, they really helped out. And from that, we built, we built what would have been, we ended up building 21 beds total that that Christmas season. And I remember my wife at the time, says, well, you know, you got to call this something. You know, as a finely Christmas, Christmas project, people want to know about it. And I said, I got the best name. How about beds for babes? She looked, she looked at me, Rich. And she's like, no, try again. And I said, what's wrong with 

Rich Bennett 28:43
that? 

Luke Mickelson 28:43
I tell everybody, it's, it's not a good Google search, you know, just, 

Rich Bennett 28:47
didn't no, no. 

Luke Mickelson 28:49
So she's like, you know, it was 

Rich Bennett 28:51
all bad. 

Luke Mickelson 28:51
Christmas time, and you know silent night. Who doesn't love silent night, right? Just the ultimate Christmas song and of course sleep in heavenly peace. We loved it. It was just one of those phrases 

that, that told exactly what we wanted to do, right? It's just, 

Rich Bennett 29:07
right, 

Luke Mickelson 29:07
kids sleep in heavenly peace. And, and so that's what we did, you know. And then the next, the next year we did another build in 2013, and then after that build was done, we were already planning for the next year. I mean, it was 10 months away, and we're planning, and I thought, you know what? I've got a lot of companies now that are interested in donating, but we're not a non-profit, right? So then I had to find out what that's about. And so we, you know, we spent 2013 working on getting our non-profit. So we actually became sleep in heavenly peace, the non-profit in 2014. You know, for 2008-2014. And so, from then on, you know, then, then we're able to do these build days, we call them, with other companies. Like, and what we, what I found too rich was, yes, there's a lot of kids that are sleeping on the floor, but I also learned that I am field and surrounded by a community that have people that really want to give back. They just don't know how, right? They're looking for that, like I was, you know, they're looking, 

Rich Bennett 30:07
yeah, 

Luke Mickelson 30:07
niche that really feels their heart and brings satisfaction and fulfillment to their service projects. And so when we started inviting more people to come and be a part of a build day, even though they may have never touched a drill or a sander in their life, we could come and teach them how to do it. And man, that was the avenue, that was the the platform that really brought about change. And I also learned more we delivered, and the more we presented what we were doing on social media and things that to the public, the more applications we got and the more stories I got and the more I read, and I just like, oh my gosh, this is a much bigger issue. This is not going to be solved by one dude from Idaho, right? 

Rich Bennett 30:53
right This right. 

Luke Mickelson 30:54
This needs to be something that our community needs to get behind. So, you know, through the next couple of years, we started forming and shaping what we, you know, kind of like a franchise, but a really atemplate that every day, every day, shmows like me could learn how to do what we do and do it successfully in their own hometown. Right. And so the foundation of the growth of sleeping on the piece started to form, and so in 2017, kind of a funny thing happened, you can imagine this took a lot of my time and at my own job that I was doing full-time. You know, I was the executive vice president over sales and marketing. I was going to buy the business from the owner, and so I had all these things in place. My career was set, but all of a sudden, I just spent I was spending a lot of time not business hours per se, but a lot of my vacation time and whatnot trying to fit in sleeping at the piece. And it just got to the point where, you know, the owner is like, hey, listen, you know, you spent a lot of time doing this. And I'm very grateful that he saw that in me, because 

Rich Bennett 32:07
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 32:07
it forced me to make a decision. It was a hard decision. Do I quit my job and do SHP full-time, hope, and I can find, you know, some suitable income, or do I just stop SHP and do what we all do, which is, you know, go to work and provide. And it was a hard, it was a hard decision, but then it wasn't a hard decision. You know, I already knew what we were going to do, 

Rich Bennett 32:30
and that was somebody we were speaking to you. 

Luke Mickelson 32:31
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, and I had a lot of good backing. A lot of my wife at the time, my family, my friends, you know, they're like, you we can do this. And I was lucky, you know, when I quit my job to do SHP full-time, I got hired on a couple months later by another company that really supported me, you know, 

Rich Bennett 32:49
right. 

Luke Mickelson 32:50
And that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for, you know, for, and I would have had a hard time paying bills if it wasn't for that company. You know, so here we were quitting my job in 2017, and we had about, we had grown to about seven chapters nationwide. Heartford, you know, Maryland was one of them, you know. 

Rich Bennett 33:10
Wow. 

Luke Mickelson 33:11
And so we were super ex-grouped 

Rich Bennett 33:12
they grew pretty pretty fast. 

Luke Mickelson 33:14
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, we hit this, we hit this. We were, we were putting on a chapter about a month, every 

Rich Bennett 33:20
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 33:20
other month or so, and then something happened. And this is when Mike Rose shows up. So Micro Dirty Jobs Guy, he's doing this Facebook Watch series on Facebook, returning the favor. He comes to Infos. He highlights SHP and me, and and then gives us a warehouse that we can use for free for four, for four years, which was awesome, right, that really helped us locally. But what it did for us, it, it was a megaphone announcing to the whole nation what Sleep and Emily piece was on, 

Rich Bennett 33:55
yes. 

Luke Mickelson 33:56
And we went, 

Rich Bennett 33:56
that's how I found out. 

Luke Mickelson 33:58
Oh, really? Yeah. Right on. 

Rich Bennett 33:59
Oh, yeah. Oh, I mean, Mike's from here. So I had to watch everything. He was doing. 

Luke Mickelson 34:03
Yeah, Yeah, yeah, 

Rich Bennett 34:06
yeah. You're listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

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Luke Mickelson 35:27
You know, so we went from that seven chapters to the very next year, February of 2019, a year after that thing aired two over two over 150 chapters. And now we've trained over 400 chapters. We're in almost every single state, four countries. Last year, we built and delivered 75,000 beds. You know, this year we're shooting for 90. You know, we're going, yeah, we've, if we're not over 300,000, we're, we're not going on the door there. 

Rich Bennett 35:56
Yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 35:57
And so it was just a huge growth. And I'm really grateful that, you know, it took a long time. It took seven years to get to that point. And even then, when it hit, my gosh, it was such a tidal wave. We were scrambling, you know, COVID slowed everybody down, which we were kind of grateful for, because we were, we were expanding. 

Rich Bennett 36:14
Did you chance to catch up? 

Luke Mickelson 36:15
Well, yeah, we had to catch our, you know, our software and our programs and, and all these things that nonprofits need to know. I mean, I never ran a nonprofit. So we were learning as we go flying this, building this plane, why we fly it. And, and I'm really grateful for that. I'm now, I even, I even now coach and, and consult with nonprofits that are trying to grow because of those, those things, those potholes that we went through. And how we navigated it and how we grew. We, we've got the best people in sleeping only piece with the biggest hearts. And that's really what made us super successful. 

Rich Bennett 36:49
I I want to go back to the first, the first girl's name was Haley, right? 

Luke Mickelson 36:54
Yeah, Haley 

Rich Bennett 36:55
Haley has 

Luke Mickelson 36:56
has actually named her names really not Haley, I, 

Rich Bennett 36:58
well, well, yeah. All right, but has, has she or her or anybody else that you have built beds for? Have them and their parents actually turned around and helped you now? 

Luke Mickelson 37:12
Oh, absolutely. You know, it's, 

Rich Bennett 37:14
that's all I love about 

Luke Mickelson 37:15
Oh, yeah. I haven't tracked down Haley. You know, back then we didn't keep records really, and all it 

Rich Bennett 37:22
about it, right? 

Luke Mickelson 37:23
was nothing more than just a family Christmas project. So I hope someday I get to run into her again. Oh, absolutely. We encourage our families. And quite often there's a lot of them that do come back and help build beds. And we have chapters that if you need a bed, come over to our build, then we'll build you your bed. A lot of fun things, activities that happen 

before and after deliveries and things that nature. We have surveys that we take of what's your conditions of your sleeping, and not just sleep, attitude, grade of school, all this stuff. Versus 30, 60, 90 days later, what does it look like now? 

It's massive improvements. Massive improvements. These kids, they don't have a bed in their room. They can't have sleepovers. They feel embarrassed when kids come. I mean, there's so much stacked on the simple fact that they don't have a bed that when you provide one and when you bring it to these kids and they see it, and we don't, hey, this is your bed. A lot of times these kids don't have anything, right? This is your bed. 

Rich Bennett 38:27
it Oh, yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 38:28
Parents, it's yours. Man, it's just such a neat thing to see these kids light 

Rich Bennett 38:33
Oh, it is. And the thing, I remember when Karen posted some of the videos are the beds that they were delivering. And it's not just the tears on the kids face 

Luke Mickelson 38:43
up. Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 38:43
and the parents face that's getting, it's the people that are delivering the beds and building the two, how big it, you know, how hard it hits. Well, I want to say hard, how big it hits them because 

Luke Mickelson 38:54
it's 

Rich Bennett 38:54
very emotional, but at the same time, a lot of times it's tears of joy. 

Luke Mickelson 39:00
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:01
And that's, I think that's why people are always going back for these build days and to help out. 

Luke Mickelson 39:07
Well, I remember I learned a good lesson one time. We had just, it was 2015, I think. We had just got this run down, POS warehouse. 

Rich Bennett 39:21
(laughs) 

Luke Mickelson 39:21
Sorry. 

And, but I was super excited. We finally had a warehouse, I mean, it was bad, but 

Rich Bennett 39:27
Yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 39:27
we had this warehouse. And I remember it's my very first public build. I put it in the newspaper, you know, blast sounds, you know, if you want to come down to help build beds, Saturday morning, blah, blah, blah. Keep in mind, middle of Idaho, in the middle of the winners, not exactly the warmest place in the world. And this warehouse wasn't heated. So I'm like, yeah, come on down Saturday morning, 17 degrees outside, no heat, you're going to sweat. It's going to be awesome. How do you sell that, right? (laughs) And so, 

Rich Bennett 39:55
people showed up though, 

Luke Mickelson 39:56
Oh, 

Rich Bennett 39:56
didn't. 

Luke Mickelson 39:57
yeah. Absolutely. And I remember there's one guy, my name's Hank. And I loved Hank. Hank comes walking in, he's like this. Man, he got him in 85 years old. I'm just an old guy kind of, you know, slumber and over. 

Rich Bennett 40:08
Mm. 

Luke Mickelson 40:08
And my first thought was like, oh my gosh, my first public build and I'm going to kill a guy. 

Rich Bennett 40:13
Oh, 

Luke Mickelson 40:14
(laughs) And 

Rich Bennett 40:14
God. 

Luke Mickelson 40:14
the guy, you know, and the cool thing is, Hank, I can tell, like, he could volunteer to places before. I mean, he's handing out these little cards that says, thank you for your service. I'm like, oh, this guy's done this before. So, I go over to Hank and I said, hey, hey, how you doing, man? Like, you know, thank you for coming. What do you do? And he's like, well, I was a 30 plus year carbender. And I'm like, ah, I know where do you need to go? Put you on a cut 'n' because there's one thing you can't screw up, you can't cut it wrong, right? And so, I put him on the saws and he went to town. Well, if you've ever been to a build, you know, picture, there's 70, 80 people running around, you got stations and you're helping people and fixing this and teaching this. I mean, you just forget about people 'cause you're just running like a, you know, chicken with your head cut off. 

Rich Bennett 41:02
Yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 41:03
Well, the build was finally done and it dawns on me. I'm like, oh my gosh. Where's that, where's that, Hank? Where's that 80-year-old guy? (laughing) I look around and there's Hank over in his station just covered in sawdust. I mean, 

Rich Bennett 41:18
Wow, 

Luke Mickelson 41:19
is white hair matched? Is white shirt now? Is he scuba, and I'm like, oh my God. I went over to my Hank. You know, hey, thank you. Sorry, I told you, are you okay? And this is where I learned a lesson. He looked at me and he says, you know, Luke, He's like, I volunteered my whole life at events. He says, never, never have I shown up to an event within five minutes was given a job and I didn't stop the whole time. And my first thought was like, sorry, 

Rich Bennett 41:47
wow. 

Luke Mickelson 41:47
you know, my bad. And he says, 

Rich Bennett 41:49
(laughing) 

Luke Mickelson 41:49
he looked at me and he goes, thank you, thank you, that was the funnest thing I've ever done. And I'm like, that right there, I learned that the happiest volunteer is the sweatiest and the dustiest. And it's because, 

Rich Bennett 42:01
yep. 

Luke Mickelson 42:02
They want to feel like all of this. If we're going to take time out of our day, especially cold, miserable days, winter of Idaho, in the middle of a warehouse, freezing our butts off, getting sweaty, and dust, you know, this, I want to, I want to feel like I really contributed. And that's what sleeping animal piece provides, the volunteer. You're right. You see smiles, and joy, even frustration, but good frustration on the 

Rich Bennett 42:25
if you 

Luke Mickelson 42:26
faith. 

Rich Bennett 42:26
need Yeah, 

Luke Mickelson 42:26
come people as they, as every would, every piece of wood that goes by you, that you either, you know, you either stamp, or drill, or sand, or do with something to it, you know that's going to a kid. And when you think about that, man, it really brings a lot of joy, tears, gratitude to your heart. 

Rich Bennett 42:45
you That's one of the things that not just the kids, but even the adults, when we did the one build, one of the things that really, They I mean, doing it brought them joy, but one of the things they really loved, and I think it showed that they accomplished something was when the builds were done, and they were able to go out there and brand 

Luke Mickelson 43:07
stay 

Rich Bennett 43:07
the bed. 

Luke Mickelson 43:08
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 43:09
With the brand 

Luke Mickelson 43:09
we don't hey This 

Rich Bennett 43:10
and iron, 

Luke Mickelson 43:10
is 

Rich Bennett 43:11
and the, which I gotta give you credit, that logo. such a Oh, God, that is one of the best logos 

Luke Mickelson 43:18
just it's just 

Rich Bennett 43:18
because the age looks like the bunk bed. 

Luke Mickelson 43:20
You know what's funny about that rich? Here's the true story. I wanted to do a bunk bed with the age. I mean, how can you not? It's the perfect letter to make that happen. And the funny thing is, I was the only one in the organization that liked that idea. No one 

Rich Bennett 43:36
because 

Luke Mickelson 43:37
did 

Rich Bennett 43:37
really. 

Luke Mickelson 43:37
very Listen, I hate to say this and I'll never use this again, but I'm going to use some executive authority and say, I don't care what you guys say, we're using the bunk bed because it's a perfect bucket. And, you know, it's just turned out really good. You know, sleeping heavily, peace, SHP. I had some friends tell me that, you know, it's funny, you call it sleeping on the piece or you, you know, your acronyms, SHP because growing up, him and his sister, they kind of lived in a kind of a rough house, I think, rough neighborhood and rough, rough parents. And she says, she said, our, our bed was our secret hiding place. It was our SHP. And I'm like, oh, 

Rich Bennett 44:13
Why? 

Luke Mickelson 44:13
my God, beautiful. And, you know, and the, the branding of the bed, the funny story is very first year, you You know, I wanted to deliver a bed to a child and I wanted them to know it came from the community, right? This didn't come from a store, right? This came from your community, the people, you don't even know that love you and they're here to help. So we, my my my sister is pretty artsy far too. She, she made this tag, SHP, we love you, blah, blah. We, we, we like hanging on the, the bed, right? And I'm like, 

Rich Bennett 44:43
right? 

Luke Mickelson 44:43
this is going to last like three hours and get ripped off, but it's something, right? So I was telling my buddy the next year about, you know, I wish we could like tag these beds somehow. Well, he's a farmer, he shows up with a welded SHP and the 

Rich Bennett 44:55
85 

Luke Mickelson 44:56
H. 

Rich Bennett 44:56
years Oh, wow. 

Luke Mickelson 44:56
slumber little bit bigger than the S and the P, which I loved. 

Rich Bennett 45:00
guy Yeah. 

Luke Mickelson 45:00
And it was just a simple st st st stencil, right? And so we branded all our beds with this little SHP and that. So there was a lot of, a lot of people's ideas that went into the logo. And it's very simple. You know, there's, you know, I don't know if you can see my hat. There's a little st似 

Rich Bennett 45:18
A 

Luke Mickelson 45:19
here, you know, and that symbolizes 

Christmas time. And of course, the one iconic bed that, you know, everybody knows about. And so it's there's a lot of meaning behind the, the, the logo, a lot of special meaning. And I remember if you ever, if you watched the returning the favor episode, I held it together pretty good, Rich, until they 

unveiled that logo that, that's kind that went on the building. I lost it because that, it just, it was seven years of working hard, you know, doing the best I could to provide as much as we could. And this logo much like our American flag, this logo symbolized all the volunteers, all the hard work, all the kids that we helped up into that point. And it was just really emotional time. So the logo and our mission mean a lot 

Rich Bennett 46:14
to me. So did you, did you go back and thank your wife for that logo because think about it, 

Luke Mickelson 46:20
learned a 

Rich Bennett 46:20
Luke. god 

Luke Mickelson 46:20
lesson. He looked at me and he says 

Rich Bennett 46:21
Luke Wow 

Luke Mickelson 46:21
you know, 

Rich Bennett 46:22
Beds and babes are beds, beds for babes. 

Luke Mickelson 46:24
my whole life at 

Rich Bennett 46:25
The logo would have been kind 

Luke Mickelson 46:27
Never have 

Rich Bennett 46:27
of, 

Luke Mickelson 46:27
oh, it'd have been, well, out of been tricky. 

Rich Bennett 46:30
was given a job and 

Luke Mickelson 46:31
I remember, you know, funny story about the name too. I was sitting in an airport, Delta Skyclub, whatever. And I look over and I'm like, as with my wife, I said, Hey babe, I think that's Rob Schneider over there. that she's like, really? And it was during COVID, right? So you know, 

Rich Bennett 46:47
there 

Luke Mickelson 46:47
Rob 

Rich Bennett 46:48
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 46:48
Schneider, you know, you can 

Rich Bennett 46:49
learned 

Luke Mickelson 46:49
do 

Rich Bennett 46:49
And 

Luke Mickelson 46:49
it. That guy. But he had a mask on and he's all by himself, which is kind of weird. I'm like, I do you think you'd be mugged by a bunch of people and I'm like, "I can't be him," right? Tilly spoke, like I can hear-- oh, I've been like, "Yeah, how can you miss Rob Schneider?" And I'm like, "So we're sitting there, you know, talking about, "Oh, I'm not gonna be that guy and go over there and do that." You know, I'm just gonna-- 

Rich Bennett 47:10
Sleep and Uh-huh. 

Luke Mickelson 47:11
So, I mean, we sat there and talked about it for 20 minutes, and I looked down, and if you've never been in the Salt Lake Airport, if you're in Terminal A and need to be in Terminal B, in like, 10 minutes, you're gonna be-- you ain't gonna do it, right? And that's what happened. We missed our flight because 

Rich Bennett 47:24
provides. 

Luke Mickelson 47:24
we were-- 

Rich Bennett 47:24
Oh, 

Luke Mickelson 47:25
...when after frickin' the Rob Schneider. You know what, he's the funny story is, we went back because we had to wait another 3 hours for our next flight, and he was still there, and I'm like, "You know what? I'm just gonna do it. I'm just gonna go up to Rob Schneider." And so I went up and 

Rich Bennett 47:37
"What 

Luke Mickelson 47:37
said, 

Rich Bennett 47:37
the 

Luke Mickelson 47:37
"Hey, 

Rich Bennett 47:37
fuck am I?" 

Luke Mickelson 47:38
yeah, why not?" And I said, "I just walked up very apprehensively, right?" And I went up to him and said, "Hey, Mr. Schneider, look at the wanna-bawdy of it, just wanna let you know, huge fan." You don't ever know what a rump, everybody doesn't know who he is. It's 

Rich Bennett 47:49
right. 

Luke Mickelson 47:49
just 

Rich Bennett 47:50
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 47:50
weird, right? Huge fan, right? And dude, the nicest guy, he jumps up and he says, "Oh yeah, great, blah-blah-blah, you know, get your wife over, we'll take a picture about it so we take a picture and..." And he's like, "So what do you do?" And I'm like, "I got you." 

Rich Bennett 48:03
which I've got to give 

Luke Mickelson 48:04
logo. 

Rich Bennett 48:04
you I 

Luke Mickelson 48:05
pull out this flyer and I'm like, "This is what I do, right?" And he was super nice like he took it, he talked about, you know, that some of the-- some of the things that he's doing with his family and, you know, helping kids out with college in Mexico and all this. And then we went back to our seat and he went to his and blah-blah. But I'm kinda looking over at him and he's thumbing through this brochure I gave him with sleeping and the piece, just going through it. Pretty soon he stands up and starts walking over to me and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what's going on?" He comes over and says, "Hey Luke." And I'm like, "oh, you remember my name, this 

Rich Bennett 48:34
again. 

Luke Mickelson 48:34
is Austin." 

Rich Bennett 48:35
But I'm going to use some 

Luke Mickelson 48:36
thordian And 

Rich Bennett 48:36
executive 

Luke Mickelson 48:36
he's like, "You need to tell me more about this." It was so cool and so we spent like three minutes talking about it. Him and I, we've done some videos together and, you know, we've seen him and blah-blah. And the funny, whereas going to the story is he calls me, "Oh, I don't know, maybe a month or two after we met." And he's like, "Luke, you know, your charity sounds like a funeral home, right?" And I'm like, "Well, I've never thought about that, but that's all I can think about now. Thanks for having me. I appreciate 

Rich Bennett 49:04
that." 

So 

Luke Mickelson 49:07
And you yeah, there's a lot of fun stories there and the logo just does meet a lot, right? 

Rich Bennett 49:12
You know, Oh, 

Luke Mickelson 49:13
a 

Rich Bennett 49:13
it's 

Luke Mickelson 49:13
bed We 

Rich Bennett 49:13
awesome. 

Luke Mickelson 49:14
call it SHP Magic. You know, something's just happened within our organization that we can't explain. I mean, there's a great example of one of our chapter presence needed. 300, it was like $314. 72. I mean, he went down right to the penny of how many, how much is going to cost to get all the betting for his bets, right? 

Rich Bennett 49:34
to Wow! 

Luke Mickelson 49:35
Well, like a week later, he goes to this convention, he sets up a booth, and you know, you don't really make a lot of donation, cash donations from a booth, right? You're just really raising awareness. He came home with an exactly count of $314. 72. I mean, it was down to the penny. Those are those little SHP Magic, SHP moments that happened. I'm sure it happened in other nonprofits as well. Where you're like, "Yeah, we're doing something right, and someone's, someone's behind this." You know? 

Rich Bennett 50:06
the logo. Alright, a crazy question. 

Luke Mickelson 50:08
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:09
You know, Because there, I mean, just hearing, here, you know, the different moments from, you know, Karen, when she was running the chapter here, now what you're just talking about. Have you thought about actually starting a podcast for SHP and talking about those moments, getting people 

Luke Mickelson 50:25
logo 

Rich Bennett 50:25
on? 

Luke Mickelson 50:26
and a lot Great, great question. When COVID hit, right, everything shut down. We all know that. 

Rich Bennett 50:30
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 50:31
And slipping out of the piece did. We can't, it was hard to go into homes and hard to get big groups together if you're ready to remember. So one way that I thought, well, we need to keep the troops fired up, right? We need to keep them informed. So we started Humans Helping Humans podcast. Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 50:45
I held Oh, 

Luke Mickelson 50:46
And we ran two seasons. And we'll trust me. As God is my witness, we're going to start it back up again 

Rich Bennett 50:54
together 

Luke Mickelson 50:54
because 

Rich Bennett 50:54
good. 

Luke Mickelson 50:54
I loved it. And we shared all these great stories. We interviewed a lot of chapter presidents, asked them the wise, the wise they showed up and shared their experiences with kids on tier. It was awesome. And we're going to, we're going to get a kickback up. But I mean, we have maybe, I don't know, 20 or 30 episodes, something like that. Not a lot. But 

Rich Bennett 51:12
is there still 

Luke Mickelson 51:12
beds for 

Rich Bennett 51:12
out there? 

Luke Mickelson 51:12
babes. should be. Yeah, it should be out there. We're going to re-kick. We just actually it's funny. You bring that up. We just talked about it a month ago and we're figuring out how to do it. God I understand, let's sleep in that piece. We operate very lean, right? We only have 

Rich Bennett 51:24
and babes are 

Luke Mickelson 51:25
just a handful of employees of a huge nationwide global wide nonprofit. So we operate as lean as we can when you operate lean. A lot of people wear a lot of hats. And so 

Rich Bennett 51:35
It 

Luke Mickelson 51:36
we're now grown to where we can dish some of those hats off. And with that, now we're, we're able to concentrate a little bit more and maybe have more help with our podcasting. But it's coming back. It's coming back. 

Rich Bennett 51:47
Okay, good. So something very important. Tell everybody the website and how they can go about making donations. 

Luke Mickelson 51:57
Yeah, but 

Rich Bennett 51:58
sponsor and a build 

Luke Mickelson 51:59
yes, 

Rich Bennett 52:00
and even requesting a 

Luke Mickelson 52:01
You 

Rich Bennett 52:01
bed. 

Luke Mickelson 52:01
bet. So listeners out there, let me tell you something like, if this strikes you, there's something that you want to help out with, something that you can get behind, or if you don't know yet, just go to our website, shtbeds. org, sleep in EmilypieceBeds. org, and when that page comes up, it should be the page of your closest chapter. We've got a Geotrack. So it should come up with your closest chapter. You come up with Maryland, right, or Hartford. And you're going to start seeing what's happening locally. You're going to see how many kids 

are requesting beds. You can see what they've done so far. And there's a bunch of ways that you can help. Number one, let's talk about donations. That's simple, right? Every nonprofit needs donations. But I want, I think it's really critical and we spend a lot of time, energy, making sure that this happens. When I started a nonprofit, I did not want it to be this big, huge nonprofit where you donate money. It goes pie in the sky. You have no idea where your money went, you know, you just hope it went to the right cause. No, I wanted to be transparent as much as possible. So when you donate a dollar to sleep in, Emily piece number one, it goes, you can pick any chapter you want. But if you pick your local chapter, which I hope you do, 90%, 90 cents of your dollar stays in that community. 

Rich Bennett 53:17
Wow. 

Luke Mickelson 53:18
We pull 10% because this is a business as well. We have to. 

Rich Bennett 53:21
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 53:22
pay insurances and pay rolls and stuff like that but it's 

Rich Bennett 53:25
Just all 

Luke Mickelson 53:26
only 10% it's only 10% nationwide standards like 37% by the way anyways 

Rich Bennett 53:31
that. 

Luke Mickelson 53:31
so your money stays locally the beds that we build stay locally we don't build beds in Hartford Connecticut or Hartford, Maryland and ship them to Miami they stay local so donations are very important and we we train chapter so look if you're in a line buying something for SHP and you have that 

$100 bill that person behind you if that person behind you gave that $100 bill you have to ask yourself is what am I buying right now would he approve of that here she approves that so that's kind of the mentality we have it's very sacred donated dollars number two is a volunteer right every chapter the more the more core team volunteers people that want to help out on a continuous basis the more we have in the chapter the more successful it is we have some chapters that build 2000 beds a year right but they've got 60 70 people that help out on an ongoing basis the chapters that only have two three four people they struggle because it's it's a lot of work um 

Rich Bennett 54:31
It's 

Luke Mickelson 54:31
so if you can spread this out if you have time I mean we're talking one two hours a week it's not much right if you have time find your local chapter extend that hand of volunteer ship and and I promise you you'll enjoy it the third thing is which might even be more important than all of them it's just help us raise awareness let people know this child bedlessness bulk rap needs to stop right and we need your help to to do that let people know that this is a thing our governments and civic leaders right now nothing against them there is nothing out there that talks about or support children that doesn't have any beds there's no there's no grants there's no money 

Rich Bennett 55:11
not 

Luke Mickelson 55:12
this there's not it's because it's such an unknown thing so we need to raise awareness with that and the last thing if if this really strikes home and they're you live in an area that you don't have a chapter close by you can start a chapter on our website there's a button says start a chapter trust me it's I mean it's work but you work at your own and we 

Rich Bennett 55:34
it's rewarding. 

Luke Mickelson 55:35
will oh it's way we will and we will not let you fail we have a very robust training program very robust training staff that keep and stay with you and walk you through the whole thing you know I I've been training hundreds and hundreds of these chapter presents and I always ask people and I want to tell your listeners this usually the biggest the hardest thing the biggest thing that's scary to starting on profit for for you know anybody especially the number started one is I just don't know how to raise money I don't how to raise money and I tell chapter presents maybe I shouldn't say this publicly oh well too late written I say listen you start sleeping I'm the piece money will be the last thing you have to worry about because the mission sells itself it just sells itself I remember when I was me and my buddy Jordan we were we were months and months away from doing our bill but we were at lunch in the middle of a restaurant talking about you know hey this is what we're gonna do and we'll you know we're excited to do this build it and we were just talking about slip in the piece and the and the deliveries we just went on next thing I know there's this lady standing next to us by our cue or our table there and she looked up our looked up at her and I said can I help you and she's like listen I'm sorry I just listen to your whole conversation I hope that's okay here is all the money in my wallet and I went what 

Rich Bennett 56:54
Wow. 

Luke Mickelson 56:54
and and right there Rich I realized that the mission of what we do is so important I mean we knew it was but to have other people realize the same realization we had that kids sleeping on the floor should not be bed should not be a luxury for kids you know we can provide the need we can do something about it I call it tiny moments your listeners right now we all go through these little tiny moments in life where if I just did this or maybe I should try this or maybe it's just these little little moments and oftentimes we dismiss them we don't have time for them they're not that big of a deal blah blah but I'm telling you right now if you just act on some of those just act on some of those you never know what happens I look back 13 years ago feet dangling over that couch listen to my kids talk about this commercial and it brings tears my eyes to think what would have done if I hadn't gone off that count. I hadn't followed that tiny moment. Literally hundreds of thousands of kids, hundreds of thousands of volunteers, companies. Great, I mean, there are stories of 

SHP-saving marriages and kids' relationships. I mean, it's more than just a bet, but that came from some dude, normal schmo like me getting off the couch and following a tiny moment. If you have those tiny moments, just follow 'em. Just follow 'em. They may not result in some big thing, but they're gonna help in an area that you probably won't recognize or see, but it's gonna help. 

Rich Bennett 58:26
Absolutely. 

telling you, people get out there and take part in 

Luke Mickelson 58:32
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 58:32
this. 

Luke Mickelson 58:32
I'm 

I 

Rich Bennett 58:37
can't even explain how good it makes your feel. 

Luke Mickelson 58:39
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 58:40
It's just, well, I always say the Grinch. You know, the Grinch at the end of the show, how his heart grew. 

Luke Mickelson 58:48
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 58:50
That's what it 

Luke Mickelson 58:50
like. 

Rich Bennett 58:50
feels 

Luke Mickelson 58:50
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 58:51
So Luke, before I get to my last question, is there anything you would like to 

Luke Mickelson 58:56
You 

Rich Bennett 58:56
add? 

Luke Mickelson 58:57
know, just that. I want your listeners to know that you can make a change in the world. You know, I do a lot of public speaking now and get hired to speak keynote speeches. And I've kind of framed the process of how I went from point A to point B with what I call the TBF method, which is two by four, I thought it was kind of cute, right? I do. 

Rich Bennett 59:21
I like 

Luke Mickelson 59:22
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 59:22
that. 

Luke Mickelson 59:23
And it talks about transforming, building, and then flourishing and the steps that happen within those different transition spaces and how sleeping in the peace. I saw it with sleeping in the peace. I saw it with my own kids. I saw it within me, you know, being ready for transforming, being ready to transform myself, because I want a change. I want things to be different and then get to the build stage, you know, things, which is basically action, right? Things don't happen without action. And your desire, listen, your desire to change the world, to change your life, to change your, to be different, to be the good, your desire to build, your desire to act, has to be stronger than your desire to transform. So how many times we have great ideas? Man, I wish we could do this better. I wish I did this better. But if you don't act, and if that desire to act is not stronger, then it'll always be a wish. It'll always be a dream. So people focus so much on what can I do? What can I do? And these dreams really where the attention needs to be is on your act, your desire to act. So get yourself to a point where you're desiring to act. Sometimes it's rock bottom, rock bottom. I hope we don't get to that point. Don't let yourself get to rock bottom. Go and increase your desire to act on your transformation. And then you flourish, and then comes, and flourishing is not an end point. I mean, sleep in the only piece. Flourish is every day, we double every year. That's because the TBF framework is always in effect. It continually goes on. So you listeners out there, you can make a change. You can make a difference in your life, in your kids' lives, in your work, in your self-improvement, you can make a change. And if this rattles your heartstrings, and pulls at them, find us on our website, find a way to help a child get a bed. And when you see that, it'll change your heart. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:28
And speaking of pulling on heartstrings, my last question for you. Can you tell us about Heather Allen in the award? Was it the guardian of mission? 

Luke Mickelson 1:01:43
The Garden of the Mission Award. Absolutely. So my buddy that I talk about, Jordan Allen, best friend for 40 plus years. He was the first guy, one of the first guys anyways that they and he came all the way down from For from Boise 2 hours away to come and help me build beds in my garage, you know and him and I we Like any older friendship. You know, we saw each other a couple of times a year We'd go do a trip or talk about 

Rich Bennett 1:02:08
Right. 

Luke Mickelson 1:02:08
so when he showed up on my doorsteps And hey, I'm here all week to build beds with you. It was such a great. I mean two high school buddies building beds It was just super fun, right and his wife would come down and then when they started doing up there She went up there and she was on our board She was very instrumental on you know the growth and the start out of our of our non-profit And of course, you know, they have kids and the mom she's got really busy So she had a step away. But she was very instrumental and Jordan He's our executive director now. You want to talk about guy? That's that's got a vision and heart for what we do You know him and his wife really started the 

Concept of chapters and and growth and things that nature with our organization And so when she stepped away we wanted to honor her Well, when it comes to nonprofits and this is something I train and teach on is Mission creep mission creep can kill a nonprofit super fast As well as other businesses, but to keep your mission pure and focused and driven and Transparent is not necessarily easy to do Heather Heather Allen Emplified what it means to stay focused on the mission and her husband two the Allen's did a great job so when she stepped away the Her stepping away we wanted to honor her with the best the best way we could right and And and and to show the example of what she did for the organization which is keep the mission pure She guarded that mission with her life and so the guardian of the mission award Which is our highest honor is named after Heather Allen and we we issue that to a chapter present and and their co-present oftentimes a husband a wife We issued that once a year and so we've had I think man I'm trying to remember six six scar in the mission awards now. So Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 1:03:59
Let 

Luke Mickelson 1:03:59
wow 

Rich Bennett 1:04:00
her legacy continue on even though she stepped down 

Luke Mickelson 1:04:03
Oh aps well, and you know And all these all these guarding the mission awards. I mean you understand these people aren't paid They're spending 30 40 hours a week sometimes working on sleeping on the piece some of them retired some of them aren't right 

Rich Bennett 1:04:16
right. 

Luke Mickelson 1:04:16
But they I mean they are the perfect example of a of a human helping a human and these are real humans And these people have a heart for these little humans these kids are in these situations not because of their choices because of Someone else's choices, so let's help make those choices our choices help them have a better life and these guardian missions Award winners as well as so many so many of our chapter presents just have a heart for what we do and we're super 

Rich Bennett 1:04:48
grateful Yeah, it's I Saw that like oh man. That is great. And it's amazing how many Non-profits or even businesses don't have an award like that or any awards. 

Luke Mickelson 1:05:00
Yeah 

Rich Bennett 1:05:01
And why not? 

Luke Mickelson 1:05:02
Yeah, I don't I don't you know it's it's you get busy, you know, you get focused and 

Rich Bennett 1:05:06
Yeah 

Luke Mickelson 1:05:08
Sometimes too focused so recognition and being grateful is really at the heart of what we do You know because we recognize and I and I coach non-profits listen You want you to grow your nonprofit? You're providing a service for someone. You know like kids We providing airs for kids, but you have to provide a service for your volunteers to you know And lot of nonprofits don't realize that they're so focused on the end result Which is good. Don't get me wrong But the people that gets you there They need to be recognized and that process needs to be fulfilling for them or else you're just gonna You're gonna burn out you and yourself and your volunteers and you're just gonna have a hard time So you know recognition and bringing you know our currency is is the satisfaction of fulfillment We give people for changing the lives of these little humans 

And the least we can do is think them, you know Yeah 

Rich Bennett 1:06:07
Luke, I want to thank you so much. God bless you and and thank you for everything that you're doing and 

Man, you gotta come back on in another five years when you're 

Luke Mickelson 1:06:19
doing it 

Rich Bennett 1:06:20
I mean you're at four countries 

Luke Mickelson 1:06:22
country 

Rich Bennett 1:06:22
now There's 

Luke Mickelson 1:06:22
more country my my my sweet my secret goal Yeah 

You know, we want to start in other countries, I mean we're already, I've been talking to Ukraine and Germany and Australia and London and you know we're out the years right and we'll get there, we'll get there. You know, we've just really felt our board, our executive team, and myself as well, you know, have felt like we want to get there. We just, there's so many children just in our own United States that we need to get secured. We're to a place, we're very close to a place where, you know, we've got this foundation planted, it's running, the structures running amazing, all these, all these new concepts and ways that we help chapter presidents and serve them because there are workhorses out actually out there. It's getting better and better, which is only opening up more opportunities for us to get to other countries, other areas because we feel like the platform that we have both starting chapters being successful. Is a successful platform and one that can be mimicked very easily in other countries and so we'll get there, we'll get there. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:31
Oh, yeah, you definitely will. Luke, thanks a lot. 

Luke Mickelson 1:07:34
Brother. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:35
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love it if you could leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at conversations with rich Bennett dot com for updates, giveaways and more. Until next time, take care, be kind and keep the conversations going.