Conversation with Stephanie Olson on The Set Me Free Project (and a few other things) - UIA Trusted Partners Podcast, with Dylan Yoemans - Resilience & Relationships (R&R)

In this podcast episode, Stephanie Olson introduces the conversation with Dylan Yeomans from United Insurance Agency, sharing insights and experiences in the insurance industry.

Takeaways

Stephanie Olson hosts a podcast with Dylan Yeomans.
The conversation revolves around the insurance industry.
Dylan Yeomans shares his experiences at United Insurance Agency.
The podcast aims to engage listeners with informative content.
Listeners can expect valuable insights from the discussion.
The introduction sets a positive tone for the episode.
Dylan's expertise in insurance is highlighted.
The podcast format allows for an engaging dialogue.
Stephanie expresses her enjoyment of the recording process.
The episode serves as an introduction to the insurance field.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast
00:49 Engaging with Dylan Yeomans
01:05 Overview of United Insurance Agency

Transcript

Stephanie Olson: 0:00

Hi, I'm Stephanie Olson, and you are about to watch or listen to podcast that was done with Dylan Yeomans and myself from United insurance agencies. I had a great time recording this. I hope you enjoy it. You

Unknown: 0:30

Hey, welcome back to the UIA trusted partners podcast on today's show, I have a very special guest. I have Stephanie Olson, the executive director for the set me free project. Hey, Stephanie, how are we doing today?

Stephanie Olson: 0:41

Hey, I'm great. Thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it.

Unknown: 0:45

I'm happy to have you on, because the last time the set me free project was on, we had Kelly and we had Raina Garcia with then restored wings. Right now, Lily Haven so I'm finally excited to get you in the seat and get everything from the executive director stage. You're in the seat now. Yeah. So real quick, just to get things going here for us, for us, listeners and viewers at home, can you give us a little bit insight as to what the set me free project is and how long you've been servicing the

Stephanie Olson: 1:13

Omaha area? Yeah? So we and beyond and beyond, yeah. So we've been around about 11 years. We started because there were a lot of really good things happening in the counter trafficking movement in Nebraska, but no one was talking to the targets, so to speak, youth, young adults, the people that serve them. And that's really how we began. I am personally a survivor of sexual and domestic violence, and had been working with women for years in that area and addiction and and speaking, and one of my co workers at the time said, Hey, let's help sex trafficked victims. That's a quote. And really having no idea what that really meant, we started to research that. What does that look like? What should we be looking for? And it just opened up a whole new can of worms for us.

Unknown: 2:10

Yeah, yeah. And we're going to be diving into some of what the set me free project offers for a lot of people and individuals and businesses alike out there. So I think you kind of answered this one a little bit already, but I'm a little curious where you found that calling or drive, but it kind of sounds like it's a personal matter for you.

Stephanie Olson: 2:26

Yeah, you know, I always say I came into this work kicking and screaming. Actually, I'm not sure I had a calling for this, per se, but definitely for youth and for women, and I had also been working with youth in the area of healthy relationships in the schools, middle and high schoolers. And I think for me, it was just really seeing that so many people didn't recognize. And this is the foundation of everything we teach, that you have an intrinsic value that can't be changed. And I think that was the calling, that was my passion, that people learned that they have worth, they have dignity, and so many people don't see that in themselves.

Unknown: 3:14

Yeah, it really is one of those things you it's almost it's almost poetic, because some of the brightest bulbs can never see themselves shine, and it's, it's just crazy how they think. But that's where all of us come in and try to help reinforce some of that, right? I do love that now. I love to kind of dive in and start here with your ready to stand curriculum. What is it? And why should every person in business, okay, actually, just participate in this program.

Stephanie Olson: 3:42

Okay, so ready is an acronym. So you're gonna test me a little bit.

Unknown: 3:48

No, I test you a little, but if it's okay, yeah, the link to the website so you can read along, perfect.

Stephanie Olson: 3:54

Yes. So I'll talk about the curriculum itself first, and then I'll talk about the acronym, which I did not create, because acronyms are not my bad. They're not me. Oh my gosh, I'm so bad at them. So, but we started the curriculum start. We were the ones going into schools, yeah, and we will were the ones presenting to youth, adults of of all kinds, educators, parents, caregivers. The curriculum was in here, right in Yes, and I had little outlines, and that's it, and then I would train people to do that. And as we grew, we realized we actually need to get this on paper. It's probably a wise thing, and so we had hired an amazing educator. She, I mean, she was from the education world, so she had a Bachelor's and a Master's in Education with a emphasis in curriculum development. So, yeah, she. Is she has been with us one of our OGS, but she really helped, kind of put it down, and then we've grown since then. But the curriculum is now K through 12 for youth. So we have curriculum that Elementary. We're not talking about human trafficking, but consent and empathy and responsibility and social media safety and trustworthy person and all of that. And then once Middle School hits, we start having the conversation about human trafficking, sex, labor force, criminalization, but also healthy relationships and social media safety. And we do that really also college age, but then we have curriculum for adults of every facet of the community. And so if you're in banking, if you're in you know, education, if you're in met, whatever, everyone sees it. And so literally, there's not a business that couldn't benefit from what we train on. And once covid hit, we stopped going into the schools, obviously, and we became very digital when we went back, we realized schools were different, youth were different, teachers were leaving, and so that's when we thought, we really need to get this into the hands of the people who work with youth, their social workers, counselors, agencies that do this work, and we took a year off and just revamped our curriculum and packaged it to get in the hands of those people. And that's what we've been doing ever since. I think

Unknown: 6:40

it was so smart to kind of take that reassessment and re analysis of it, because, again, you're absolutely wrong. Everything changed after covid, everything, everything. I always see the jokes online of how we had it all with 24 hour Walmart and 24 hour Taco Bell. What happened? But no, I also want to just point out the fact that whether it's K through 12, whether it's going for a business or just personal growth yourselves, this is a program you should definitely look into. Yeah, again, link down the comments below or in the description below, so as we're talking, you can have this up in front of you and kind of looking at it as we're going through. That's perfect. But yeah, I another great thing on your website, here on the set me free project, is the curriculum and videos that you have, which I wanted to kind of point out for our viewers here, since there's one about grooming and social media, which you were just touching on, how much impact does social media have on human on the human trafficking world, both negative and positive?

Stephanie Olson: 7:35

That's such a great question, because, and here's the thing, I will never be one to say, get offline. Social media is bad. That's that. It's not a realism. It's not going away. Yeah, it's not going away. And so it's our job to help people safely navigate it. Social Media and Gaming both are absolutely a huge way that traffickers find and lure the individuals they traffic. And I think it's important to maybe define it really quick and then go back. But I would define human trafficking as the use of force, fraud and coercion, to compel an individual to provide services, labor or commercial sex acts that force, fraud and coercion, piece is really important for adults, particularly because you need to prove one of those for a conviction for minors does not need to be proven. For sex trafficking, any commercial sex is is considered sex trafficking, for labor trafficking, also for minors, it needs to be proven, but I think that we often have this mindset of kidnapping.

Unknown: 8:46

Yeah, I think that's kind of the default, right? Is like they get abducted, then it all transpires. But that's not the case.

Stephanie Olson: 8:53

No, it's not. And it's sensational, it's exciting.

Unknown: 8:56

Yeah, it's Hollywood, it's Hollywood. Eyes. It is, it

Stephanie Olson: 9:00

is, but the reality is that the majority of trafficking happens through that fraud and coercion piece, and so I'm building a relationship with you, and what a better place to do it than on Social Media and Gaming?

Unknown: 9:15

Yep, we're playing our favorite games together. Absolutely. How coincidental?

Stephanie Olson: 9:18

Yeah, absolutely. And again, it's not about I'm gonna find out all the things so I can come kidnap you in my van. It's that I'm just, I'm just gonna build this relationship. And that's the growing process, and that can take years. Yeah, it can take less than but it can also take years.

Unknown: 9:38

I think maybe our viewers also kind of try to put it into their brain a little bit. It's a heavy manipulation tactic. Yes, it's just like a puppeteer pulling the strings just one at a time. And it's very intentional.

Stephanie Olson: 9:49

I love I love that you said that, because it is very intentional. And one of the things that I think is important to remember, in fact, I have a you. Young high school gal say this to me, and I couldn't say it better. If someone is good at manipulating you, you do not know you're being manipulated. And I think that with trafficking, I hear a lot, I would never fall for that, or that would never happen to me. And you've heard the same, oh yeah, scams, or absolutely those things traffickers go after the vulnerable. Yeah, and we're all vulnerable to something, right? And that doesn't necessarily mean it's a weakness, no, it could just be, you know, my age, or, you know, for example, we all have a prefrontal cortex that is our decision maker.

Unknown: 10:41

Okay, okay. Sometimes I question if mine's there,

Stephanie Olson: 10:45

and when is that fully developed? Do you know 26 Yeah, it's like 2526 for women, and then it's like, it's like 50 for men. Really, oh, I'm kidding.

Unknown: 10:57

I knew we were kids at heart. But really,

Stephanie Olson: 11:01

no, it's like, it's like 25 ish for all of us. But with social media, it's actually getting later, like, interesting. Yeah, it is changing for all of us. And so even with that prefrontal cortex not being fully developed, it does not mean that we can't make decisions, right? Just means that we don't have the ability, maybe, to look around the corners, sure, and that's what traffickers count on. So that's not a weakness. That's just your whatever age you are, yeah, and that could be a vulnerability.

Unknown: 11:38

No, I get that, and I think a lot of times again, just to kind of keep this in people's minds, of the manipulation that can go on in this. Think about if you know you play with a game consistently with somebody that's doing this, right? We all have family members. We all have funerals in our lives. That's grief is one of the easiest targets. And I think a lot of people kind of maybe avoid that topic, because grief is a heavy topic, yes, but I think that's a really strong point to kind of make, especially when your kids are processing because let's face it, when kid loses grandma or grandpa or somebody even closer than that, what's the one thing they all do? They kind of want to recluse and go to what they love and what they know, games, whatever they enjoy, that kind of thing, those fascinations. So just a little point out for our viewing audience.

Stephanie Olson: 12:22

That's a brilliant point, and I would add to that, so many of us do tend to isolate during that time. But also, if you've got maybe a death in the family, and mom and dad are isolating as well, where do the kiddos go? And, you know, there's no blame, there's no fault, but it's just realities to think about. And how do we prevent some of those things to, you know, take advantage of our families,

Unknown: 12:51

yeah, and just to help keep our families safe in the process there. So I know it's a heavy topic on today's show, but I mean, it's a very serious topic in today's world, and especially when we all have the access to help do our part. So I think it's a very important episode today, and very important we touch on all these heavy topics now. We have a couple different things on your online courses that I kind of wanted to touch on here, human trafficking and prevention and response. It's an online course. How do I get signed up for these And when's the best time to do so

Stephanie Olson: 13:23

that's a great question. So yes, we have a few opportunities. We definitely do train in person, and we can train via webinar, but we created an online course so that people could learn about this at their own pace in their home. And we also do have those for businesses, for onboarding your staff. And that's great financial hotel, motel, and we're creating in literally in every in every single industry. We are going to have online courses for individuals.

Unknown: 14:00

I love that. And it just goes to show as somebody on the outside of this organization, as soon as you said hotel, motel, had not even dawned on me, yeah, at that point, but that has got to be a hot spot,

Stephanie Olson: 14:10

definitely a place where active trafficking is happening, and a place where you can, if you're working in those areas, you're going to see a lot of things that you can actually intervene and help somebody, and at the same time recognizing there are people in those industries that are complicit to that right. And so in our city, here in Omaha, we just had a major bust on that. And there were, I believe five hotels that were involved, and also a brow and lash place in one of our malls, and there were 10 minors, and I believe seven adults that were recovered out of those situations. Unbelievable.

Unknown: 14:57

Yeah, again, the seriousness of a time. It happens in our back door. We hear it every year, especially around College World Series time that's a localized, popularized, I think, topic to kind

Stephanie Olson: 15:08

of gravitate towards a lot during that time, right?

Unknown: 15:10

Because it's just such a hub for so many different places and people coming right?

Stephanie Olson: 15:15

And the interesting thing about the College World Series, we actually do a conversation every year around the College World Series, there is really no empirical data that trafficking increases during that event, which is good right now. Here's what I would say, anytime you have power and money, trafficking will occur. And although it's not the luring that would ever happen in those those events, but the selling, right? It is important to remember College World Series is more of a family event, and so you're going to see less of it than you might others. But I think because it is such a hot topic during those times, we will take advantage of any opportunity to educate people,

Unknown: 16:05

which I think is perfectly fair to do. And I think if people are going to be paying attention to the College World Series so heavily, and that's going to be a part of it, great help us bring that number back down, right? Because, again, great to hear that it doesn't increase. By the way, that was one of my concerns was like it doesn't

Stephanie Olson: 16:20

marginally just Yeah, yeah. You know, they used to say it increased 42% when the College World Series was around. That has not been proven at all, but I will never be one to say it does not happen at all. Right? I would never, I would never want anyone to think that it never happens during that time. And I also would never be so arrogant to say it's not happening. Yeah, we know it is everywhere.

Unknown: 16:50

That's absolutely true. Now, in that same kind of conversation, I had seen these on on your website, I kind of wanted to go through these and see what they are. What's it the human trafficking toolkit, and how do people get access to these?

Stephanie Olson: 17:02

Yeah, great question so, and I didn't answer your one before, but the online course. So no, I will do that. So, and both of these are found. All of this is found on our website, yes, in the link below. And please, you know, check it out. If you have questions, let us know. But the online course, you can purchase, it's like $20 Yes, and it is actually fun. I took it, you know, I didn't create it sure of amazing staff who does incredible things, and I took it knowing all the answers, right? But I had so much fun because it's interactive. It's not You're not just watching a video. You actually it's kind of gamified, and so you you get to play with it that's fun and at your own pace, just at your own pace. So that's how you find that. But the toolkit is really something that if you several things, if you want to share some social media posts on human trafficking. We have those to just download and share if you want to have posters for your school or for whatever. We've got those available. And then we also have videos that you can freely share that talk about all of those things, sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and what it is, what it's not, we talk about familial trafficking, which is Mom and Dad's grandmas and grandpas are the traffickers. So these are all little, short videos, maybe two minutes long, that you can use freely. So I

Unknown: 18:39

love that, because it's just the power of free knowledge. And knowledge is power? Absolutely, yeah, I love that, and I love that as part of what the set me free project helps stand for to back up for just a moment on getting some of those, the programs that you can download at home and you can go at your own pace. How I guess, would it be recommended that a family kind of goes through that together, or is there a certain level maybe you would recommend for a family to kind of encompass together, so maybe it's easier for the parents to present.

Stephanie Olson: 19:08

So glad you mentioned that. It's like you can read my

Unknown: 19:11

mind. Get out of there, a couple times

Stephanie Olson: 19:15

terrifying in there. Yes, no, actually, yes. So you can absolutely utilize just the HT 101, for knowledge and things like that. You can talk about it as a family. There's nothing in there that's going to probably traumatize a youth, but we are going to be launching a parent caregiver, online course, yeah, specifically on how to talk to your kiddos about human trafficking and social media. And we're writing a book that will coincide with that. So I

Unknown: 19:55

know I need my applause button. I know. Congratulations. Thank you. Resume, I had no knowledge.

Stephanie Olson: 20:04

So we're really excited about that. We're looking to really kind of do all that launch in the fall. But I think that the key is the human trafficking 101, is very much just generalized, but this will be really for parents and caregivers and how you talk to your youth about it. And there's just so much opportunity there.

Unknown: 20:28

I love that I had no idea. I love having groundbreaking news on this. Love that, yeah, that is awesome. And I'm really excited that it just keeps evolving and it keeps growing until it's gone, until human trafficking is gone.

Stephanie Olson: 20:43

And I will say, I think that's a good point. You know, a lot of the things I see out there, and people ask, what makes your curriculum better than anybody else's? Well, I will tell

Unknown: 20:54

you, I mean, it's pretty good, but I don't know if anybody repeats. But one of

Stephanie Olson: 20:59

the things I see out there is that there's like, maybe something they're offering one size fits all, yeah, and it doesn't change because, well, gets in it. Whatever our curriculum, we have 30 plus pieces for youth and adults, and we update it regularly, and so we're constantly looking at the trends, look for researching and trying to figure out, okay, what do we need? Is this working? Is this not working? All of our videos are made by us so that we can avoid stereotypes and and then we can really get okay. This is an actual story that's happening in your community, you know? How can we talk about that? So we really do have not only the most extensive curriculum out there, but we also update it regularly, and after a we have a couple more years with a grant from the CDC, but we will have one of the first youth human trafficking curriculum to be evidence based in the nation.

Unknown: 22:07

Wow. Congratulations. That's a monumental Yes. That is phenomenal. So big congratulations to everybody with the set me free project. That's fantastic.

Stephanie Olson: 22:16

Whole bunch of work, yeah, whole bunch of work, or mountains of work. University of Michigan, University of Nebraska, and the CDC, and it's, yeah, it's really exciting.

Unknown: 22:27

Big congratulations. That's super, super cool. I love it. So we'll get back on

Stephanie Olson: 22:32

on task here, now that we've just all these things. I've thrown out all these things, broke all

Unknown: 22:37

this news here. I'm gonna add a local news story clip in my episode here. But no, I love that. Thank you for sharing all that with us, because it's amazing news. I love hearing that everything's just still growing. I love it, of course. Can't let it slide, as well as growing you and keeping updated on all relevant things possible. You have a podcast, R and R, aka resilience and relationships, real talk for real life, besides the website for the set me free project, where else can we tune in and find these lovely episodes and what do you cover on the show?

Stephanie Olson: 23:09

Okay, great question. Well, any place that you can find podcasts, you will be able to find our podcast. And Rebecca and I are the host. Rebecca is our Director of programming, and we just have fun. It's really just an opportunity for us to chat about things that we love to chat about, and we talk about human trafficking and what that looks like. But we don't really stop there. We talk about all social media. We talk about, we just did one on family vlogging. And is that safe? Sharing? What does that look like? Addiction, all of the things. And so we are always open to conversation. So we'd love to hear like, what do people want to know and learn about? But yeah, we have fun.

Unknown: 23:58

Yeah, I love it, and I encourage viewers to check it out as well great episodes, whether it's, you know, kind of light hearted and having some fun, or some of the more serious topics that you guys kind of covered. It's very informative and very fun to be a part of it. So yeah, of course. Now every nonprofit, of course, one of the big things that helps it keep going is donations, contributions, things like volunteers. Never heard of that, right? So I want to know, what can we donate? How can we donate? Yeah, and when is the best time to do? So should I wait for a big event?

Stephanie Olson: 24:30

Great question. No, today, right now? Thank you. No, you know, there's a lot of things people can do, yeah, help in this area, and one of them is volunteering. Absolutely, that's fabulous. And there's a lot of different great organizations, depending on what your wheelhouse is, that you can volunteer for. We love volunteers. I think a lot of times people think, Oh, I don't want to just write a check. But what I would say. Is that, you know, donations, financial donations, are so important to the work we do, and I don't ever want anyone to feel like they're not doing enough if all they're doing is giving, because that is massive. Yeah, it's huge. Every dollar always counts. Every dollar makes a huge difference.

Unknown: 25:21

Yeah, I love that. And no, don't wait for the special event. For the event you can donate right now, even on the website that you're already looking at now. Social media viewers, of course, go on out and follow this. Set me free project. Where can we find you? On social media?

Stephanie Olson: 25:36

Yes, we are on Facebook. We are on X Twitter. X, we're on x, we're on Instagram. We're on Tiktok, yeah, all right, I mean YouTube and so we are on all the socials. We're on LinkedIn, yeah, we would love for you to go and check us out, and that's also on our website, so our little social links, but we're very active in all those places. And so

Unknown: 26:05

yeah, you guys are very engaged with your audience as well, which is really fun to see. So yeah, it's one of those that I think with what the set me free project does, and how you do it, I think really echoes and resonates with the community around I think it really does well.

Stephanie Olson: 26:19

And I think the beauty of it for me personally, is I've been able to see this organization grow and grow nationally, which is very exciting, yeah, but my staff is amazing, and I could not do I just, I have to kudos to them, because I could not do half the stuff Well, half most of this stuff without my amazing team, and they are really the backbone of the entire organization.

Unknown: 26:48

Yeah, I think when you were hosting the Omaha and power breakfast, you had kind of dove into how you needed to be basically told to stand down. Yeah, stop helping. You're not and kind of just have that trust be built.

Stephanie Olson: 27:02

You do, you know so many and I think it's, I think it's a CEO, founder thing. I think founders have a really hard time letting go like a baby, it is. And, you know, you think about like the baby bird, if you don't throw the baby bird out of the nest, they will not learn how to fly, but I think it's like a choke hold sometimes that we have on our organizations. I didn't think that I didn't want to be involved in everything. I thought I had to be. And when I had Kelly basically like, what are you doing? Is my job, and Kelly is now on our board, and our new operations person, Erica, said to me the other day, actually, my job is easier when you're not in the day to day. Yay. That's great news. So yeah, my my team is incredible. I adore them, and just a great, amazing group of people. And that allows me to do, you know, things like this.

Unknown: 28:07

Yeah, you get to go have some fun while still preaching the good word about the 73 project. Yeah, of course, you know, you don't have to wait for the big events to be donating. But there are some events coming up. I'd like to turn the table over to you and what you know what's going on.

Stephanie Olson: 28:21

So every year we had, now here's what I will say. There are copious events coming. We don't know what they all are, because we have a annual fundraiser. In the past we have had laugh your cash off. Comedy for change, laugh your cash off. We may or may not be doing that again, okay, but I guarantee we will be doing some sort of fun fundraiser. We have been talking about like, do we switch it up? Do we do different things? And the opportunity to do a silent live auction? So I will keep you in the loop on those events Absolutely.

Unknown: 29:01

And of course, I mean, best way to keep along is if give a follow and a like over to 73 project, that's how you step there.

Stephanie Olson: 29:07

We do have a newsletter that you perfect. Sign up right there, and that gets you. Not only does it help you know what's coming up as far as events go, but also if there are webinars we're doing, or anything like that, and we love to do those. So if you, if you have you know a group of people that you want to get together for training, that's what we love to do. So yeah, just let us know.

Unknown: 29:34

So be a friend and tell a friend, share it to a friend, friend and tell, I like that. I mean, it's the easiest way to do it, right? Be a friend, tell a friend, share a friend. It's easy. It's free. That's very good. I love it. Paul, you can steal that. I think I stole it from the Pat McAfee show. Okay, yeah, absolutely. Now, for those of us who kind of never get to see behind the curtain and get to kind of experience some of what you do, what would you. Say it's part of your job that you feel just it doesn't quite get that recognition or praise that you'd love it to get, but it's just not realistic.

Stephanie Olson: 30:08

You know, that's a great question, because we are such an out facing organization, and so we're out there. For some reason, everybody wants to be talking to you, yeah? Which, which makes me question them a little bit like you have to know how to talk to you. They're fabulous. I adore them. You have 30 seconds with you. Right world

Unknown: 30:31

intentions, man, if you are not

Stephanie Olson: 30:35

authentically caring about those people in front of you, just don't even bother. Because, yes, and also training. So we're very outward facing, so it looks like our whole work is super exciting. And, you know, glamorous Blitz and glamor, yeah, it's like, oh, look, they're on stage. No, I would say the majority of the work that we do is that the research the curriculum writing. We're constantly not only updating curriculum, but writing new curriculum. We're working on curriculum for new populations that need to hear this and and so I think that's the the work that people don't see a lot of people say, you know, I want to, I want to do a curriculum. I want to create a curriculum. This is all we do, curriculum and training. All we do. We don't do direct services, we don't do anything else. And it is a lot of work and it's hard, but because this is all we do, we can do it with excellence, yeah?

Unknown: 31:41

And you do it and present it well, which makes it seem like it's always glamorous, so easy for you guys. That's what I love about when you're so good at what you do, it comes off that, yeah?

Stephanie Olson: 31:52

But again, to your point, like figure skating, yeah,

Unknown: 31:55

it's one of the most impossibly difficult things to do. You're balancing on knives. Yeah? First true, you're bouncing on good point,

Stephanie Olson: 32:02

but the amount of practice, yeah, dedication that, yeah, and it's no different with, I mean, no knives are involved in the work we do. I just make that very clear, good it's, it's a lot of work, yeah, hard work, and it's ever changing work, and it can be stressful. Very sometimes we nonprofit work is stressful,

Unknown: 32:24

yeah, especially coming up with curriculum that has to change, yes, and is constantly evolving. I'm sure there's always some creative differences from time to time. But that's what makes a great team great, is overcoming those and making it to where, okay, well, that doesn't work, but how can we make it right, palatable, right? Yeah. So great collaboration all across the board for the set me free project, which makes it seem so seamless here. But yeah, I do love that now, a little bit of challenges and obstacles, because it's with every nonprofit. What are some that you've had to overcome, either for the organization itself or for those that you're

Stephanie Olson: 32:59

serving? Wow. How much time do

Unknown: 33:03

we have? We got all the time in the world.

Stephanie Olson: 33:06

You know, it was really interesting, because when we started, there were a lot of people who wanted to do what we were doing. It wound up moving very quickly for us. And again, part of that was because we first, some of it was bright spot, right time, right but some of it was just we were focused on that, and so we could do it well. And we did have some people who were trying to stop us, or were trying to do it, but it was just a very so early on, there was just kind of some resistance, even in the work in the industry, isn't that why? Yeah, well, the nonprofit world is

Unknown: 33:44

very competitive. It is, and I get it, I really do, because there's only X amount of resources, right? But, boy, but let that, yeah, let's be humans first, you know, yeah,

Stephanie Olson: 33:55

and let's work ourselves out of a job. I mean, seriously, take me out of a job. I will go the spa, so I don't get that. But so there was a lot of resistance. Because I think people, for some reason, really wanted to do what we were doing. And again, even I will look at it and go, Why? Why do you want to do this? Because it is hard, but I understand that the idea behind it, but I think you we didn't have a lot of resistance from the people we served, which is great, yeah, schools got it because they saw it youth. And here's what I will say about the way we present. We are different. I would say we are kind of counter intuitive in everything we do. And one of the things that we do that's counterintuitive is we bring a lot of humor into the work, and it's engaging. It's We come from a pedagogy standpoint, so we don't write the curriculum for the. Topic. We write it based on the learners who are going to be experiencing the topic. Interesting, yep. And so because of that, there's a lot of engagement. There's a lot of we ask a lot of questions. It's critical thinking. And so it is a very different way to present and and to train, and because of that, it's a lot of fun, and that doesn't make sense to people, right? And so we always say we take our our topic very seriously, but not ourselves, yeah? And I think that that really makes a big difference. And so we had, we had hardly any resistance from the people we were working with, but it was all kind of internal. And then, of course, the biggest resistance that I think you got in the nonprofit world, and this is very cliche, but funding is always an issue.

Unknown: 35:55

You know, cliche could be the term, but it's just a realism. Yeah, is every nonprofit's just a realism, because that's just, unfortunately, they're the biggest double edged sword. Exactly. We don't want them to exist, but they have to exist. And you know, if

Stephanie Olson: 36:10

so, we actually did a podcast about somebody said to us, you know, the way that I test nonprofit work is if they are giving 80% of their their funding to programming and only 20% to operations. Sounds great, right? Yeah, sounds perfect. If you were to look at our budget or PNLs, it would actually look like the opposite, because we are the program, right? We are the ones writing it. We are the ones going out and training, and so it does look skewed, and yet most of it's going to programming. But you you might not be able to see that, because we are right the programming. But the other question I would ask is, who's running the operations? If you're not paying for operations,

Unknown: 37:00

that means you have somebody flying by the seat of their pants somewhere,

Stephanie Olson: 37:03

exactly, exactly. And we need experts in this work. And why should nonprofit people be sitting on the donated chairs? Sure, it's really important job we do. Why do we lessen that? You know, it's like teachers. Let's right, according to,

Unknown: 37:23

yeah, it's almost like that, almost, I don't want to, don't want to use backhanded compliment, but it's like in that same degree, almost like you start, it's de characterizing, almost, because janitors used to be in that same boat, like maintenance workers, garbage man, they were just always like, oh, okay, it's just one of those, right, you know. And there's no reason,

Stephanie Olson: 37:42

none at all. There is no job that should know. I mean, I appreciate all the brain surgeons, believe you me, yeah. But I also think that when we look at the lives that people save in the nonprofit world, yeah, and our goal is to stop human trafficking before it starts so many lives that we don't even know that could have ended up there. And so, yeah, so funding is probably one of those biggest challenges and and I think it's a tough one to overcome, and it's consistent, but when people get it, you know, right? They know how important it is.

Unknown: 38:21

And I feel like when people start to gravitate towards something as important as the set me free project, it just starts to resonate further with them and start to echo to family members. Here's some friends getting it mentioned to now, I think it helps it grow organically. Is, I think what I'm getting at there, I am curious. So it's not all it's not all dark roads and vines and thorns on the path here. There's always some really, really exciting things and so just phenomenal moments. I'm curious, since you've been here since the beginning, you've been involved with it, you've seen all of the change from then to now, especially navigating covid, probably having to deal with certain people leaving and replacing I'm just curious, though, what is one of the best moments that you can think or just maybe instantly comes to mind every time you think about what the set me free project has given to you.

Stephanie Olson: 39:08

Personally, there's a lot, but one of my favorite stories is of a young boy in middle school, and this was when we were going into the schools, and one of our educators was talking to them the school about all the things, and we always start with, you have an intrinsic value, and usually there's an activity surrounding that. And afterwards, he approached her and said, I have never heard that. I have value. Oh, man. And so they talked a little bit about it, and then he disclosed that he was in an extremely abusive home and being sexually abused by family members. And so of course, we have to report, and usually when we report, that's the end. It, we don't hear anything else, because investigations happen and confidential, and so normally we never hear the the ending. But this young guy emailed us, and he said, Well, I was removed from my home, and it was very scary, but I am safe for the first time in my life, and that's because of you. That's why we do what we do.

Unknown: 40:24

I love that. Yeah. What a powerful thing to have happen, especially because you're absolutely right. As soon as that investigation starts, that's pretty much you will probably most likely never hear again about that. How cool of a moment to help bring that full circle of just a hey, you're doing the right thing. This is the reinforcement of what you guys are doing, really at the core of set me free project too. So I love that. Now, my final question here, before we get into some of the fun questions here, okay, what is something you want us, viewers and listeners to know more about, either when it comes to the set me free project itself, or about the nonprofit industry in general?

Stephanie Olson: 41:01

Good question. Boy, I could talk for hours about

Unknown: 41:07

you can take both as well. I mean, you can chime in on

Stephanie Olson: 41:09

either one. Well, I would say the one thing I think I would like people to know about human trafficking as a whole, is that this is something that I think we often identify for other people, sure, and you know, you those people over there. There are no those people. We are people. We are people. And with Social Media and Gaming, we say, you know, when we have access to the world, the world has access to us. That's a good way to put it. And so it's widened our it's it's large, large, and that's

Unknown: 41:48

not a word

Stephanie Olson: 41:52

enlarged our entire world. And so when we're talking about things like that, that means that we have to recognize that not only are our kids at risk, our grandkids at risk, but it's in our homes because of social media and gaming. And we often look at human trafficking like it's a border issue, right, or it's, you know, shipping people overseas issue or kidnapping issue. And I think the biggest thing I would say is no, this is in our communities, in our backyard, and wherever you live, Nebraska is a hot spot, yeah, but if you live anywhere else, you're seeing it, and it's in our schools. And I think those are the things that I would just really make clear. That's why we need to prevent it. That's why we, every school, every business, needs to know how to prevent this. So that community wide, we can say, go somewhere else, and then then we're there, yeah, and then we can prevent it there, and, you know, so on and on. But I think those are the biggest things this is happening to us.

Unknown: 43:08

Yeah. I want to issue a little challenge for the viewers at home. Why is Nebraska such a hot spot? I'll have you guys comment in the description down below, because there's quite a few factors that play into that, and I'm curious to see what our listeners and viewers can come up with there. Like that. Good. So when you're seeing this episode, comment down below on any of the social media platforms, whether it's Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, X, any of

Stephanie Olson: 43:29

those, you comment, yeah, I will be commenting too. Yes, I'll respond. I love that. Yeah, we'll be looking

Unknown: 43:35

I will throw my answer in there as well. Yeah. Alrighty. Well, that wraps up the we'll call them serious questions. Now we get to have a little more fun and light heartedness on the show to kind of help wrap things up. Front of the show Blake Martin with Fran N I always love giving Blake a shout out, because he's such a nice guy. Hi, Blake. Yeah. Hi, Blake. Hope you're recovering from the 50 mile march and spoilers for all of you watching this on Friday here. That was last weekend, and that was an endeavor. He great. He powered through it. Though I was, I caught up with a couple different times. And yeah, yeah, he he did. He did great. And just a another time for that story, but what he did for the donation part of things super cool. And hopefully when we have the 50 mile march back on, yeah, so we'll talk a little more about more about that another show, but today I have his lovely box of questions. So these have been asked on the show. These have not been asked on the show. Okay, pull three, and let's go back and forth and see what we got. Let's see. And if they're not very good, you can pull a new one, because there are some random ones in there that are various Okay,

Stephanie Olson: 44:40

so do I give you or do I Yeah? What's your proudest accomplishment? Wow.

Unknown: 44:46

Would you like to start that? Yeah, I

Stephanie Olson: 44:49

would say my proudest accomplishment is raising three amazing human beings. I have three adult children. Yeah, and they're fabulous people and and along with this, we are a very close family. And what I love, people will say that they can see it, and I, and I just that is probably my biggest that's, that's the coolest thing ever.

Unknown: 45:20

I love that, yeah, it's a great answer, yeah. Mine's not nearly as hard. Okay. Well, that's okay, you know, I borrowing the 50 mile march that I just took part of, yeah, that was an amazing experience. Overall. This show is probably one of my proudest accomplishments. Love that I have gotten to meet so many people and businesses in Omaha that realistically, there's a good chunk of these episodes that I would have maybe never ventured into that business. I personally, maybe that business is not for me. It doesn't market towards me, but I've gotten to know the people behind it, which I'm a big people person. I'm I love people at their core, so I always love to get to know people. So I think that's probably one of my proudest accomplishment seeing so much of Omaha because I grew up in the sand hills. I mean, I'm not an Omaha native, so now I get to experience Omaha through the eyes of the people who lived here and through the business operators in here.

Stephanie Olson: 46:12

I love that. Yeah, I think that's heartfelt. All right, I'll give a half heartfelt. Okay, what fashion trend you followed was very cool then, but now looks ridiculous.

Unknown: 46:30

Oh, there's a picture of me somewhere out in the world that I've got some very bright, frosted tip hair, and I even believe there was a partial puka shell necklace at one point in time I was very

Stephanie Olson: 46:44

young. Justin Bieber, ish,

Unknown: 46:46

no, prior to that NSYNC style, I was in that generation,

Stephanie Olson: 46:53

yeah. But yeah,

Unknown: 46:56

Sugar Ray, all that. It's like, okay, you gotta be cool. It's the 90s, and it was not cool, like, I don't think you're old enough for parachute pants,

Stephanie Olson: 47:09

you would be wrong. I didn't wear them. So I would say, Now, okay, now I have to be very careful, because this trend actually is coming back. But I am going to say I, I do think it looks ridiculous

Unknown: 47:29

now and then, wait the mullet. Yes, thank you the mullet.

Stephanie Olson: 47:35

And I my senior picture. My senior picture, I have this fabulous mullet, kind of like Prince, yep, back in the day, and, yeah, it's sad. There's capture forever, right?

Unknown: 47:49

There's a picture of my brother that I send him very often. It's a picture of us fishing as kids, and he's got the achy, Breaky Heart mode. If you've

Stephanie Olson: 48:02

ever seen it, mine was not as much party in the back. It was just, you know, but, yeah, that's mullet. Should go, yeah, if I've offended anybody, but I,

Unknown: 48:16

you know, there's just not a great track, just me. It's just me. Nah, I'm with you.

Stephanie Olson: 48:21

Oh, this one might be tough for me. So if you could, oh, well, okay, I actually do have the answer. But if you could have the front row seats to any concert, who would you like to see?

Unknown: 48:35

That's a really good question. Yeah, I personally think I would like to see like 1987 1988 Michael Jackson, I think that would be a phenomenal concert. Yeah, in that same breath, I'd probably mention like, Def Leppard in that same era. I'm a rock and roll guy, I you know. So those would be so good at concerts. I don't know if I could pick any others without rambling on and on, because I'm a music nerd, but how about yourself,

Stephanie Olson: 49:00

I'm gonna go the Beatles. Oh, good one. Very good one. I'm gonna go the Beatles. And actually, I will tell you, Aerosmith popped in my head. I saw them in concert, and it was phenomenal, but I was not in the front row.

Unknown: 49:14

Fun fact, I saw Steven Tyler Live in Concert. This was in 2014 I want to say so I was in Minnesota. I was at Detroit Lakes for a festival called We Fest, w e fest. Okay, yeah, and it's a country music festival for three days. At that point in time, I was in radio. I was in country radio, and that was just part of that lifestyle at that point, I was like, let's go check this thing out. And Steven Tyler, at that time, was doing country, wow. He came out with a pearl white piano to open the show, and played a piano version of Dream on. He is so talented. It was phenomenal. The entire crowd was just Yeah, pin drop, silent, yeah, for him to do that. It was amazing.

Stephanie Olson: 49:59

Okay. So I do have one more, because I can't let this one go without mentioning queen. Oh, Freddie Mercury, yeah. Oh, that man. Talk about talent. I would love to see. I would have loved to been in the front row

Unknown: 50:13

that vocal range of his unbelievable and I still believe is unmatched at this point in time. I don't think anybody's ever hit the same? I think Brendan Yuri from Panic at the Disco, okay, I think he has a close range, but they've measured people's rank, vocal range, and nobody's hit quite as far as he could stretch.

Stephanie Olson: 50:33

You know what he credits that to? He had extra teeth.

Unknown: 50:38

Oh, that were big. Over

Stephanie Olson: 50:40

by, over by, and he never had them removed because he was worried it would affect his his singing. He could

Unknown: 50:47

have been totally right, too. I know, who knows. Yeah, what an interesting guy. First of all, just truly one of those. If you could sit down with somebody and just ask him a couple questions, yeah, fascinating, unbelievable answers I'm sure you'd get from that guy. Crazy talent. Yeah, unbelievable, yeah, yeah, no, we'll keep moving. Great questions we

Stephanie Olson: 51:08

haven't had, and I just picked up,

Unknown: 51:10

I know, yeah, triple hit questions that were all great, yeah, good. So keeping the show moving here, I love to ask this question as if I'm coming in from out of town. I haven't been to Omaha before, and I'm talking to you about it. You've got to work today, so while you're working, what's like your Mount Rushmore that I should come check out?

Stephanie Olson: 51:30

I'm so bad at this.

Unknown: 51:31

It's okay, because I kind of pose this, because then it can be like events, it can be a place, it could be a restaurant. Okay?

Stephanie Olson: 51:38

I'm a big I don't even know if I'm a foodie. I just like to eat. I love food, right? I would say that you have to go downtown and you have to check out. Oh gosh, what is the name of it? It starts with an N, and it's one of my favorite Italian restaurants right on the corner. Do you know what I'm talking about do? Oh no, ladies, although that is very good, Nettie, is it? No, not. Nettie's. That's Mexican, also very good, also delicious. Um, oh

Unknown: 52:13

my gosh, I'm drawing a complete blank. I can see there's Yeah, oh no. I feel

Stephanie Olson: 52:18

so bad there all the time. We I mean, it's one of my favorite restaurants.

Unknown: 52:25

I'm gonna have to have editor, Matt put in a picture of what we're

Stephanie Olson: 52:29

talking about, and then I would say, go from there to and if my family were listening, they'd be screaming the name

Unknown: 52:39

at me, because see it in the comments, yeah, I

Stephanie Olson: 52:43

love it. It's so good. It's Italian. They have amazing ravioli. You can sit outside. It's a very small place, but it's perfect, yummy. So I'd go there, and then I would go over to Hollywood candy. Ooh, nice. And, you know, grab all that, and then I would go to ted and Wally's.

Unknown: 53:03

I love Ted and Wally's. Fun fact they're coming on the show. Spoilers for all of you watching out there. Exciting. Yes, I after so much of trying to just make it work and trying to line up times, right, we finally have landed on a good day. Okay, I'm kind of fan girling. I'm fanboy Don't worry. Because their lemon ice cream, they have like, five different flavors. I don't know exactly, or remember exactly, which one it is, their lemon ice cream is phenomenal because it's the only actual ice cream that's a lemon, not just a gelato, not a sorbet. They do an actual, like, lemon ice cream, and it's so good. I'm a big citrus guy, if you couldn't tell, but Tim always no.

Stephanie Olson: 53:45

Big fan of them. So that would be my this is what you need to do. Go to those, those places.

Unknown: 53:53

How well I actually just treated my girlfriend to Ted and Wally's for the first time. Oh, she had never gotten from here. She was over in the Lincoln area and small town before that. So treated her over to Ted and Wally's, and she was, she loved it. I don't think she's ever heard of it. Oh my. So it was one of those, like, You sheltered child, yeah, don't

Stephanie Olson: 54:14

have what they need. And

Unknown: 54:16

ever since then, it's like, want to go get Ted. And Wally's like, I mean, we can. So that sounds, yeah, super exciting. We're gonna be getting them on the show. That is

Stephanie Olson: 54:26

exciting. Good for you. Appreciate that.

Unknown: 54:29

Yeah, now, can't keep it here forever, as much as I'd love to, because we're having a lot of fun on today's show. All right, I think our viewers would sit there and be like, All right, he's like, kept her is she getting help? My very final question here for you, Stephanie, what is something here in Omaha that you wish either more people knew? About or supported more, I

Stephanie Olson: 55:03

would say Omaha. Very honest with you, I, I, I'm originally from the Chicago area, okay? And I've got a lot of family in other areas. And when we talk about Omaha, sometimes Omaha, I mean, was there to do there? What's not there to do here? I love them. I think it's a great there's a lot of amazing culture. I have a professional dancer in New York, and grew up in dance here. And there's amazing musical theater. I've got three of us are musical theater people and and so there's just amazing culture, and the food is the restaurants are incredible. And so, yeah, I think that there's just a lot of great things to do here. And yes, great city.

Unknown: 55:58

I think you hit on it. Our arts and music, I don't think get enough credit for what they do. We have so many different art museums and display areas on top of great orchestral performances, beautifully done, so definitely worth checking out if you're ever in the area.

Stephanie Olson: 56:12

Oh yeah, great city. I was in Tampa, not that long ago. Actually, it was a while ago, but it

Unknown: 56:20

wasn't that long ago in memory,

Stephanie Olson: 56:23

but it Tampa reminded me of Omaha, really. Yeah, it was a lot of especially in the old market, and there was just a lot of similarities outside of the weather. The weather wasn't so much as similar, but fair enough it was, yeah. I mean, we have a great city.

Unknown: 56:42

Yeah, I love our city, yeah. And I think more people are starting to recognize it, too. So which is a good I agree Steph, that does conclude our day today. Unfortunately, I'm so glad so fun. Now, of course, for you viewers, we had a distinct pleasure to sit down with our one and only Stephanie Olson, Executive Director for the set me free project, before we cut you free today. Is there anything else you'd like to leave us

Stephanie Olson: 57:05

off with? Check us out. Please. Let us know if you need anything. And I love this. I would, yeah, now I'm going to have you on our podcast. Yeah. I like it. Okay.

Unknown: 57:18

Be a friend. Tell a friend. Share this episode. Comment down below your answers as to why Nebraska is such a hot spot for human trafficking, we'll see you in those comments, and of course, we're going to see you next time right here on the UIA trusted partners podcast. You.