morning everybody I’m very blessed and
honored to be given the opportunity to
share my story my name is Matt Serra
acusa founder of a company called we
won’t
it’s a one-for-one grande kind of like
TOMS shoes we sell socks so every time
somebody buys a pair of our socks we
donate a pair so I’m going to talk about
how a lot of people know me as the
serial dreamer I’m always thinking
beyond where I am now and I love where I
hand out but I’m always thinking how to
make it better and these past couple of
years my focus has been on other people
so I’m even more passionate about it
because I take myself out of the
equation and as I fine-tune and sharpen
all my ideas I realized a lot of people
can be helped because of that so I came
up with a couple steps of a serial
dreamer okay
one is experienced life the second is to
recognize a problem so while you’re
experiencing life you might come across
a person or a situation that eats some
fixing you dream up a solution you fight
the fear of failure so the everyday
things are life that you go through the
struggles just fighting through that you
know figuring out who the people are
around you that you’re so afraid to
disappoint and realizing that the real
people that are gonna support you are
going to be there no matter what and
once you remove that fear from you you
can do amazing things you put your dream
into yeah put your dream into action and
then you fine-tune the plan and then
last is repeat so the first the first
story I’m going to talk about is a
ministry that I started in Hartford
Connecticut that serves breakfast to the
homeless every Saturday morning so we’ll
start with step one experience life I
found myself sinning and
Church on Main Street and downtown
Hartford and I was at a funeral service
for the homeless that happens once a
year I’m looking around I’m like how the
heck did I end up here you know I don’t
even remember who invited here how I how
I was there but I was experiencing life
experiencing something that I mean there
was probably only 20 people in that room
that weren’t part of the homeless
population so a very small amount of
people were experiencing what I
experienced it basically once a year
they honor all those that were lost that
didn’t get a formal funeral and
afterwards I saw this man he was wearing
camouflage he was all really looking you
know scary scary looking guy that most
people wouldn’t necessarily go out and
talk to you and I just I heard this
voice in my head you know go talk to
this guy and ask him ask him where he
lives so I asked him he lived down by
the qolt building right along the river
and I just all of a sudden I said I love
to cook and I said hey would you like it
if I came and cooked you breakfast and
whoever whoever else lives lives around
where you live in and said yeah that
would be great I said okay what time he
said 5:00 in the morning I was
acknowledged at the time I was playing
hockey I was also in the army so I was
doing all these things at once and I was
I was like you know what I wake up early
five days a week I could certainly
sacrifice a Saturday one Saturday right
but so I experienced life I recognize a
problem there’s there’s people that are
hungry right they’re not getting you’re
not getting food on a Saturday morning
so I dreamt up the solution to go out
grab a Pullman camping grill and just
start cracking eggs and bacon egg
sandwiches but then the fear the fear
Creek tent right you know what if I get
attacked what if I fail what if nobody
shows up what if it’s only one
person all these different things
started going in my mind five months
later I decided I’m gonna do this I’m
finally gonna do this so I called the
bunny on a Friday night
again I Mysterio dreamer not a serial
planner so I call them up on a Friday
night and I said hey I’m gonna call up a
couple more guys which people want to
meet me in the morning we’re just going
to set up on a sidewalk right in Main
Street and we’re going to cook breakfast
I said sure so we bring this little tiny
cooler right we have we have maybe 50
eggs in there you have a milk orange
juice and one box of joke
we’re like perfect we’re going to we’re
gonna cook for a few people it’s gonna
be great so we fought the fear failure
we put the dream in action we set up
there before we even lift a grill there
is a line of over a hundred people on
the side back hmm
and we were like oh my gosh this is we
are not prepared we’re not prepared for
this so that day we probably spent close
to $500 my one buddy kept getting in his
car running back and forth to the store
and work he kept getting box of Joe’s
which are very expensive
they only serve like 20 cups of coffee
or something so we had to fine-tune the
planet we sent out a massive massive cry
for help
here’s our logo here it’s called Sparrow
ministries that it still goes on every
Saturday for the past for the past four
years so we serve upwards of 500 people
on Saturday so do the math over the
course of four years every single
Saturday of faith and people showing up
it’s a lot of mouths admin server just
from fighting that fear and going
through so we fine-tune that plan right
and we were like well we need more
volunteers and we need more food so
Facebook can be a very positive and also
a very negative tool so we we used it
for its positive side and we put out a
cry for help I put out a video saying
hey this is what we do
this is what we need within seven days
the next Saturday we had over 20
volunteers and we served close to 500
people we had food left over so we’re
able to bring food to the pension next
door so we went out there we fought that
fear of failure and all these people
were helped we just thought we got two
or three people and if they were just
gonna walk by or we’re gonna cook upon
order you know just having one sandwich
I mean you can’t stop cooking and it’s
really amazing what goes on today and
the topic of our discussion here here
this morning and we were all supposed to
focus on synergy so here’s a picture
actually of my father and I on that
first morning I was cooking I was
cooking on one side I was cooking the
meat and he was cooking the eggs on the
other side and it was it was really
really a special moment but it was it
was stressful and we realized you know
we needed to need to make this thing
work better so let’s talk about synergy
the cooperation of two or more
organizations to produce a combined
effect that is better than what can be
accomplished alone so I realized you
know me and my two buddies and my father
we were just a tiny little organization
right on that first day and we needed so
much more than that so since then
sparrow has partnered with an
organization called urban Alliance
churches from all over the state all
these other nonprofits just show up and
we’re able to feed people we’re able to
help people with resumes were able to
purchase people suits just to go on an
interview a lot of people s that’s the
only thing holding them back so where I
thought all I was going to do was serve
people sandwiches again that repeat that
last step we kept repeating and doing
this over and over and it just keeps
expanding into more and more like I said
I since ended it over to two ladies that
were with me
the very beginning and they’re doing a
wonderful job so that leads me into my
business that I started and run today
and you’re some more pictures in Severo
there’s all the people those are just
all volunteers so we went from four
people over 20 everybody was happy it’s
it’s really a special special place as
you can see we’re outside here’s okay we
were on the news a bunch of times again
we’re just asking for health and people
people answered alright we got a little
video here so our next problem unless
people are cold right we hit the
remembers you just see this lady she’s
literally she’s crying she’s just
telling me how cold she is and that
didn’t sit well with me so again we
fine-tune the plan in the ministry and
we said we got to talk to the church
that we’re outside but let’s see if we
can bring this inside they have a
state-of-the-art kitchen let’s see what
we can do here so I think we can go to
the next one here so we put signs up all
over we got approved and we were able to
come inside and now we run it inside
every single Saturday morning so people
are able to for a couple hours take off
all their layers let things dry off and
and we’re able to sit down and really
have a discussion and just eat breakfast
with someone who maybe doesn’t talk to
anybody in a couple of weeks so I’m
going to talk about we wolf for a moment
here and how that developed from my
process of being that serial dreamer so
I’m one of those snowy mornings where
the governor shut down the highway we
still showed up a Saturday and a friend
of mine once told me how they kept socks
and underwear in a bag in their car they
were just anytime somebody needed them
there and I said well it’s really cool
to this point I never I never ran into
the opportunity but I have the bag and I
was coming home it was an absolute
blizzard and there are certain people
that can’t make it into the warming
centers and shelters there’s just not
enough room and I started to drive
around and all these streets and I would
just roll down my window and I’d say hey
bro you want a pair of socks give the
first the very first guy give a pair of
socks to start bawling his eyes out I’m
a young 20 year old college kid that has
a sock full of drawers I could literally
wear the same pair of new pair of socks
for a month without doing my laundry and
I’d still have a fresh pair in the
morning this guy started crying and I
was like okay again I’m experiencing
life right we talked about going to a
homeless room we talked about we were
not allowed to be on the roads
and I’m not saying great laws and this
and now I was just saying experience
like break away from your Facebook feed
right and all these articles that you
have to determine whether they’re true
or not go out there put your feet on the
ground talk to people experience
something so then you can say no this is
my story this isn’t something I read
about this is something that I I know
needs to be done right so I started
going to Walmart and spending all my
money I’m going broke like I mentioned
before I was in college and I said this
is this is not this is not going to work
I need to figure out a problem
so we experienced life right I gave a
man a pair of socks he cried it
absolutely showed me to the fork right
recognize the problem people eat socks I
soon found out that they’re the least
donated item because they have to be
brand new so you can’t take your you
socks and put them in those
you see in the grocery store parking lot
you have to be brand new so it’s
difficult so I dreamt up the solution
while people are buying socks why not
buy them from a company that’s going to
go out there and turn that purchase into
a donation fight the fear of failure
again this is probably the hardest thing
to possibly do so my wife and I we got
married and I’m all Italian so we
basically have this bag that people just
give you money to add an Italian wedding
great so we were like we’re we’re both
very modest people and we had a pretty
sizable chunk of money all of a sudden
the next day and we didn’t know what to
do with it
so I started dreaming up this business
and I know met with investors here met
with investors there and one guy said go
it was on a Friday they call me Sunday
I’ll have a check ready for you on
Monday said great I called him on Sunday
said never mind so hard meeting was like
as if it’s my dream is day
that’s if this guy was so successful it
doesn’t want to be a part of it and it
must not be writing and I said you know
what we have we have the money or I
don’t need to take out a loan I don’t
need to have an investor we have the
money we need so I bought seven thousand
plus pairs of socks never sold a pair of
socks in my life know nothing about the
industry and it was terrifying in that
very instant within a couple days my
wife had a miscarriage and we all we
want to do with your parents right and
that just destroyed us
I wanted to curl up in a ball I just
purchased seven thousand pairs of socks
dry a kitchen that are being made and
now my wife and I our life is over right
we’re just like it’s so devastating well
we got out of it our love our love
carried us out of it I made it through
that kernel okay now I get my email the
socks are ready they’re on their way
great my father calls me my best friend
so I called this kid every day on the
way home from work every single day just
a devastating loss and now I’m thinking
oh my gosh I have calyx full of socks
coming to my home office what am I am –
I’m going to call the guy he’s gonna
sell them back to him for for less than
what I bought for that sale give it up
no I thought I fought through that fear
because other people were relying on I
want you all to hopefully walk away from
today’s you may have a dream but it
might not be you who’s going to benefit
in that group there might be someone out
there that really needs you to fight
through those moments because they they
need your dream is for them your dream
is to is to help other people if you
have a dream or a business it could be
your future employees that are dying for
a job to work for you so I just
encourage you to fight through those
those life moments that feel like are
just going to drag you down because from
experience it’s been it’s been amazing
to say you know what I can go through
anything and make this happen and if it
if it failed I knew there’s people
around me that we’re going to support me
so I talked about all these points the
synergy part of our business right so
now we have our customers there are
mainly group there are heroes of our
business where do we donate the socks to
so we partnered with World Vision who is
one of the biggest nonprofits in the
entire planet and they have a footprint
under countries and now we’re able to
tell our customers all of our donations
go to them and they they they put them
out to the communities in the US and all
over the world so if you’re thinking
you’re dreaming about something and
you’re thinking it’s not possible in my
case I was right it wasn’t possible but
I left out a certain work it’s not
possible it wasn’t possible to do a loan
right but it was possible to do with my
friends that were amazing photographers
and took pictures of my products for
free my other friend took videos of me
right world vision teaming up with us
and being able to say oh we’re really
doing this right so it wasn’t it wasn’t
possible for me to do on my own but it
was it was possible to do and again our
topic is synergy here and it was it was
so amazing for me to think my whole life
story up to this point lies on synergy
right I grew up playing sports and if
you had a bad game there isn’t there is
a team to pick you up right all you have
to do is come back I play hockey come
back out the next shift and do better at
that time right it’s no different in
business it’s no different in a marriage
it’s no different in a friendship right
you need to you need to work together to
do really big and amazing things and
even the small things too so just the
next time you think I can’t do this
maybe you want a calm now that other
words say I can’t do this alone right
because I bet you there’s a lot of
dreams that die every single day because
people stop without adding that work so
I want to thank you all today for
listening to my story I know we have a
lot of amazing people that are gonna
follow me here and again just thank you so much for allowing me to do this
honored to be given the opportunity to
share my story my name is Matt Serra
acusa founder of a company called we
won’t
it’s a one-for-one grande kind of like
TOMS shoes we sell socks so every time
somebody buys a pair of our socks we
donate a pair so I’m going to talk about
how a lot of people know me as the
serial dreamer I’m always thinking
beyond where I am now and I love where I
hand out but I’m always thinking how to
make it better and these past couple of
years my focus has been on other people
so I’m even more passionate about it
because I take myself out of the
equation and as I fine-tune and sharpen
all my ideas I realized a lot of people
can be helped because of that so I came
up with a couple steps of a serial
dreamer okay
one is experienced life the second is to
recognize a problem so while you’re
experiencing life you might come across
a person or a situation that eats some
fixing you dream up a solution you fight
the fear of failure so the everyday
things are life that you go through the
struggles just fighting through that you
know figuring out who the people are
around you that you’re so afraid to
disappoint and realizing that the real
people that are gonna support you are
going to be there no matter what and
once you remove that fear from you you
can do amazing things you put your dream
into yeah put your dream into action and
then you fine-tune the plan and then
last is repeat so the first the first
story I’m going to talk about is a
ministry that I started in Hartford
Connecticut that serves breakfast to the
homeless every Saturday morning so we’ll
start with step one experience life I
found myself sinning and
Church on Main Street and downtown
Hartford and I was at a funeral service
for the homeless that happens once a
year I’m looking around I’m like how the
heck did I end up here you know I don’t
even remember who invited here how I how
I was there but I was experiencing life
experiencing something that I mean there
was probably only 20 people in that room
that weren’t part of the homeless
population so a very small amount of
people were experiencing what I
experienced it basically once a year
they honor all those that were lost that
didn’t get a formal funeral and
afterwards I saw this man he was wearing
camouflage he was all really looking you
know scary scary looking guy that most
people wouldn’t necessarily go out and
talk to you and I just I heard this
voice in my head you know go talk to
this guy and ask him ask him where he
lives so I asked him he lived down by
the qolt building right along the river
and I just all of a sudden I said I love
to cook and I said hey would you like it
if I came and cooked you breakfast and
whoever whoever else lives lives around
where you live in and said yeah that
would be great I said okay what time he
said 5:00 in the morning I was
acknowledged at the time I was playing
hockey I was also in the army so I was
doing all these things at once and I was
I was like you know what I wake up early
five days a week I could certainly
sacrifice a Saturday one Saturday right
but so I experienced life I recognize a
problem there’s there’s people that are
hungry right they’re not getting you’re
not getting food on a Saturday morning
so I dreamt up the solution to go out
grab a Pullman camping grill and just
start cracking eggs and bacon egg
sandwiches but then the fear the fear
Creek tent right you know what if I get
attacked what if I fail what if nobody
shows up what if it’s only one
person all these different things
started going in my mind five months
later I decided I’m gonna do this I’m
finally gonna do this so I called the
bunny on a Friday night
again I Mysterio dreamer not a serial
planner so I call them up on a Friday
night and I said hey I’m gonna call up a
couple more guys which people want to
meet me in the morning we’re just going
to set up on a sidewalk right in Main
Street and we’re going to cook breakfast
I said sure so we bring this little tiny
cooler right we have we have maybe 50
eggs in there you have a milk orange
juice and one box of joke
we’re like perfect we’re going to we’re
gonna cook for a few people it’s gonna
be great so we fought the fear failure
we put the dream in action we set up
there before we even lift a grill there
is a line of over a hundred people on
the side back hmm
and we were like oh my gosh this is we
are not prepared we’re not prepared for
this so that day we probably spent close
to $500 my one buddy kept getting in his
car running back and forth to the store
and work he kept getting box of Joe’s
which are very expensive
they only serve like 20 cups of coffee
or something so we had to fine-tune the
planet we sent out a massive massive cry
for help
here’s our logo here it’s called Sparrow
ministries that it still goes on every
Saturday for the past for the past four
years so we serve upwards of 500 people
on Saturday so do the math over the
course of four years every single
Saturday of faith and people showing up
it’s a lot of mouths admin server just
from fighting that fear and going
through so we fine-tune that plan right
and we were like well we need more
volunteers and we need more food so
Facebook can be a very positive and also
a very negative tool so we we used it
for its positive side and we put out a
cry for help I put out a video saying
hey this is what we do
this is what we need within seven days
the next Saturday we had over 20
volunteers and we served close to 500
people we had food left over so we’re
able to bring food to the pension next
door so we went out there we fought that
fear of failure and all these people
were helped we just thought we got two
or three people and if they were just
gonna walk by or we’re gonna cook upon
order you know just having one sandwich
I mean you can’t stop cooking and it’s
really amazing what goes on today and
the topic of our discussion here here
this morning and we were all supposed to
focus on synergy so here’s a picture
actually of my father and I on that
first morning I was cooking I was
cooking on one side I was cooking the
meat and he was cooking the eggs on the
other side and it was it was really
really a special moment but it was it
was stressful and we realized you know
we needed to need to make this thing
work better so let’s talk about synergy
the cooperation of two or more
organizations to produce a combined
effect that is better than what can be
accomplished alone so I realized you
know me and my two buddies and my father
we were just a tiny little organization
right on that first day and we needed so
much more than that so since then
sparrow has partnered with an
organization called urban Alliance
churches from all over the state all
these other nonprofits just show up and
we’re able to feed people we’re able to
help people with resumes were able to
purchase people suits just to go on an
interview a lot of people s that’s the
only thing holding them back so where I
thought all I was going to do was serve
people sandwiches again that repeat that
last step we kept repeating and doing
this over and over and it just keeps
expanding into more and more like I said
I since ended it over to two ladies that
were with me
the very beginning and they’re doing a
wonderful job so that leads me into my
business that I started and run today
and you’re some more pictures in Severo
there’s all the people those are just
all volunteers so we went from four
people over 20 everybody was happy it’s
it’s really a special special place as
you can see we’re outside here’s okay we
were on the news a bunch of times again
we’re just asking for health and people
people answered alright we got a little
video here so our next problem unless
people are cold right we hit the
remembers you just see this lady she’s
literally she’s crying she’s just
telling me how cold she is and that
didn’t sit well with me so again we
fine-tune the plan in the ministry and
we said we got to talk to the church
that we’re outside but let’s see if we
can bring this inside they have a
state-of-the-art kitchen let’s see what
we can do here so I think we can go to
the next one here so we put signs up all
over we got approved and we were able to
come inside and now we run it inside
every single Saturday morning so people
are able to for a couple hours take off
all their layers let things dry off and
and we’re able to sit down and really
have a discussion and just eat breakfast
with someone who maybe doesn’t talk to
anybody in a couple of weeks so I’m
going to talk about we wolf for a moment
here and how that developed from my
process of being that serial dreamer so
I’m one of those snowy mornings where
the governor shut down the highway we
still showed up a Saturday and a friend
of mine once told me how they kept socks
and underwear in a bag in their car they
were just anytime somebody needed them
there and I said well it’s really cool
to this point I never I never ran into
the opportunity but I have the bag and I
was coming home it was an absolute
blizzard and there are certain people
that can’t make it into the warming
centers and shelters there’s just not
enough room and I started to drive
around and all these streets and I would
just roll down my window and I’d say hey
bro you want a pair of socks give the
first the very first guy give a pair of
socks to start bawling his eyes out I’m
a young 20 year old college kid that has
a sock full of drawers I could literally
wear the same pair of new pair of socks
for a month without doing my laundry and
I’d still have a fresh pair in the
morning this guy started crying and I
was like okay again I’m experiencing
life right we talked about going to a
homeless room we talked about we were
not allowed to be on the roads
and I’m not saying great laws and this
and now I was just saying experience
like break away from your Facebook feed
right and all these articles that you
have to determine whether they’re true
or not go out there put your feet on the
ground talk to people experience
something so then you can say no this is
my story this isn’t something I read
about this is something that I I know
needs to be done right so I started
going to Walmart and spending all my
money I’m going broke like I mentioned
before I was in college and I said this
is this is not this is not going to work
I need to figure out a problem
so we experienced life right I gave a
man a pair of socks he cried it
absolutely showed me to the fork right
recognize the problem people eat socks I
soon found out that they’re the least
donated item because they have to be
brand new so you can’t take your you
socks and put them in those
you see in the grocery store parking lot
you have to be brand new so it’s
difficult so I dreamt up the solution
while people are buying socks why not
buy them from a company that’s going to
go out there and turn that purchase into
a donation fight the fear of failure
again this is probably the hardest thing
to possibly do so my wife and I we got
married and I’m all Italian so we
basically have this bag that people just
give you money to add an Italian wedding
great so we were like we’re we’re both
very modest people and we had a pretty
sizable chunk of money all of a sudden
the next day and we didn’t know what to
do with it
so I started dreaming up this business
and I know met with investors here met
with investors there and one guy said go
it was on a Friday they call me Sunday
I’ll have a check ready for you on
Monday said great I called him on Sunday
said never mind so hard meeting was like
as if it’s my dream is day
that’s if this guy was so successful it
doesn’t want to be a part of it and it
must not be writing and I said you know
what we have we have the money or I
don’t need to take out a loan I don’t
need to have an investor we have the
money we need so I bought seven thousand
plus pairs of socks never sold a pair of
socks in my life know nothing about the
industry and it was terrifying in that
very instant within a couple days my
wife had a miscarriage and we all we
want to do with your parents right and
that just destroyed us
I wanted to curl up in a ball I just
purchased seven thousand pairs of socks
dry a kitchen that are being made and
now my wife and I our life is over right
we’re just like it’s so devastating well
we got out of it our love our love
carried us out of it I made it through
that kernel okay now I get my email the
socks are ready they’re on their way
great my father calls me my best friend
so I called this kid every day on the
way home from work every single day just
a devastating loss and now I’m thinking
oh my gosh I have calyx full of socks
coming to my home office what am I am –
I’m going to call the guy he’s gonna
sell them back to him for for less than
what I bought for that sale give it up
no I thought I fought through that fear
because other people were relying on I
want you all to hopefully walk away from
today’s you may have a dream but it
might not be you who’s going to benefit
in that group there might be someone out
there that really needs you to fight
through those moments because they they
need your dream is for them your dream
is to is to help other people if you
have a dream or a business it could be
your future employees that are dying for
a job to work for you so I just
encourage you to fight through those
those life moments that feel like are
just going to drag you down because from
experience it’s been it’s been amazing
to say you know what I can go through
anything and make this happen and if it
if it failed I knew there’s people
around me that we’re going to support me
so I talked about all these points the
synergy part of our business right so
now we have our customers there are
mainly group there are heroes of our
business where do we donate the socks to
so we partnered with World Vision who is
one of the biggest nonprofits in the
entire planet and they have a footprint
under countries and now we’re able to
tell our customers all of our donations
go to them and they they they put them
out to the communities in the US and all
over the world so if you’re thinking
you’re dreaming about something and
you’re thinking it’s not possible in my
case I was right it wasn’t possible but
I left out a certain work it’s not
possible it wasn’t possible to do a loan
right but it was possible to do with my
friends that were amazing photographers
and took pictures of my products for
free my other friend took videos of me
right world vision teaming up with us
and being able to say oh we’re really
doing this right so it wasn’t it wasn’t
possible for me to do on my own but it
was it was possible to do and again our
topic is synergy here and it was it was
so amazing for me to think my whole life
story up to this point lies on synergy
right I grew up playing sports and if
you had a bad game there isn’t there is
a team to pick you up right all you have
to do is come back I play hockey come
back out the next shift and do better at
that time right it’s no different in
business it’s no different in a marriage
it’s no different in a friendship right
you need to you need to work together to
do really big and amazing things and
even the small things too so just the
next time you think I can’t do this
maybe you want a calm now that other
words say I can’t do this alone right
because I bet you there’s a lot of
dreams that die every single day because
people stop without adding that work so
I want to thank you all today for
listening to my story I know we have a
lot of amazing people that are gonna
follow me here and again just thank you so much for allowing me to do this
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