Transforming Lives with Donovan Noble and Habilitat

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE:
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate Show, home of the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne and I’m Attilio, and if you have any questions, just give us a call at 799, 9596 or check us out online at Team lally.com

ATTILIO:
our guest today shares a transformative journey from adversity to achievement, overcoming a troubled past through Habilitat, he has excelled for over two years, emerging as a business leader. He’s

ADRIENNE:
a versatile professional, skilled in sales, marketing, PR, entertainment, event coordination and fundraising. His growth journey highlights habilitats, transformative impact. Please welcome back today’s guest, Donovan Noble. I

ATTILIO:
just want to add. Donovan also likes writing, poetry, painting, and one of his favorite creations is Japanese haikus. Well, I just made all that up, but, you know, we like to have fun on the show, hi, Donovan. Hi, Donovan. So Donovan, the what you got for us? Well,

ADRIENNE:
I would say like that, not all of our listeners are familiar with Habilitat. What is Habilitat? So let’s just start with that. What is it tell us?

DONOVAN:
Well, Habilitat is a organization, nonprofit, as well as a treatment recovery program we’ve been around for over 53 years now, where we provide vocational training and a lot of cognitive behavioral therapy within the first six months. And doesn’t just stop there, though, because it is a two and a half year program with once you reach the second phase of the program, roughly around six to eight months, we go into what we know as our vocational training, some people might recognize us from our Christmas tree project, our haunted house at Aloha Stadium, or even some some people noticing us from doing residential maintenance in their yards or fences. Those are different types of vocational trainings that we have in there. And habilita is just an organization that’s purpose to save and change lives. Yeah,

ATTILIO:
and, you know, so it, it, you know, the what we’re looking at is, is that, you know, people have had some challenges in their life, you know, facing, facing addiction and things like that, and then when you when you’re in that situation. And it causes you not to make the best decisions for you, or

ADRIENNE:
hanging with the wrong crowd and not knowing how to really like, you know, get out of that, you know, those habits Right? Talk

ATTILIO:
about the recidivism rate for you guys versus comparatively nationally with other programs. I know that’s a big plus positive.

DONOVAN:
Oh, that’s a huge thing. So a lot of people either they went through it themselves, or knows of someone who’s gone through addiction. A lot of people also know about a bunch of different programs in the entire nation, but what they don’t know is that ability is there’s only one facility here in Kaneohe, Hawaii, yeah, and it’s known to be the toughest but most successful program in the entire nation, if not the world. Yeah, we have three times higher the national than the national average of success rate. And

ATTILIO:
that says something in itself, because a lot of times we can talk about a program and what it is, but at the end of the day, you got to have results, and those are awesome results, I mean, because a lot of times, in correct me, if I’m wrong, Donovan, sometimes people, they’re at a crossroads, and it’s either incarceration or the habilitate program. And I will tell you, the recidivism rate I know for incarceration here in the US is terrible.

DONOVAN:
It is. There’s so much people in OLDC, Maui Triple C, Big Island Triple C, there’s, they’re flooded. They have a lot more people there, yeah, than they do anywhere else.

ATTILIO:
And all you doing is locking them up. And then we know, you know, contraband gets into those systems, and it’s just, it’s hardening people, as opposed to opening up their hearts and and doing the work and doing the work and creating an opportunity. So I like, I like too, because we, you know, we we’ve gone there to teach classes and, you know, come donate books. You guys, library really love your program and like supporting it. That’s why we have you guys. I think we’ve had you guys on the show, like, I don’t know, six, seven times promoting all your events, yeah, and we feel it’s important, because the work that you guys do there, the multiplier effects was, like, one person going through this program is probably worth 50, you know. And I’m being anecdotal and not factual, but it’s my opinion, and it’s our radio show. So I can, I could say that, but I would say it’s probably 10 times more effective than somebody being incarcerated and then coming back into the community, coming back to their friends,

ADRIENNE:
or even, like, if someone has had an addiction, yeah, problem, like, it’s like, you go to the rehab, but then you have to keep going back to rehab. But with the habilitate long term program, yes, it’s just about changing, you know, your habits and, yeah, and who you’re around, and giving you those, those skills to, you know, to stay clean, right?

ATTILIO:
All right. So a lot of and tell us about the source of funding, because that’s probably going to dovetail into some stuff fundraisers that we have you’re talking about. But how does you guys find your your,

ADRIENNE:
your, how do you fund this program? Yeah.

ATTILIO:
Where does the money come from?

DONOVAN:
It’s 100% self sufficient. We don’t get any government funding. But how’s this so, like I mentioned earlier, we have our Christmas tree project, and people know us from locations all over the island, yeah, and buying a Christmas tree, but I guess not. What everyone always knows is that we actually partner up with 80 plus schools and sports organizations to not only benefit us, but it benefits the school and sports organizations help them raise money as well. Yeah, and that’s one of the biggest, that’s the biggest fundraiser that we have, and a few other ones that we’ve had in the past, is like our luau. I’m sure a lot of people know about the luau we just haven’t had in a while. Yep. And was it was last year we had our haunted house drive through Aloha Stadium, our online auctions. We just had two major auctions, Yes, last year with the with Granger, a whole Granger auction and our own auction where we get signed memorabilia, um, arts,

artwork, yeah,

gift certificates, so hotel stays, vacation packages, jewelry, you name it. We we auction a lot of things off, and it’s really because of the support from other organizations and companies that are willing to support Habilitat. And I’m talking about not from Hawaii, I’m talking about people from New York, yeah, are supporting us, people from California, Oregon, they’re all supporting habilitai because they kind of believe what it is that we’re doing. And yes, we cannot express enough gratitude over to them, saying, Hey, thank you. And that’s the gist of it, as part of what we can do at that moment. But we’re always thinking, always trying to do more Donovan

ADRIENNE: 34:41
now we mentioned some of the like with the vocational things that you guys do. So I’m certain that if our listeners are hiring habilitat For what is it like fencing? Tell us all the congestion. Yeah, tell us is on so that does. Come back to the program, right? It helps to fund what you guys are doing.

ATTILIO: 35:03
Yeah, tell us about what the services you guys offer.

DONOVAN:
Um, well, we have, we have quite a few. I know that a lot of people like to have a nice yard. You walk into your walk through your front door like, oh, man, this is so much bushes over here, right? I don’t want it anymore. All you have to do is call habilita and we sent out four of our services department guys who clean up your entire yard and maintain it for nice for however long we keep doing it, we keep going back to customers who are very satisfied with what we do. And if, hey, if you want to build a barricade around your house, known as a vinyl fencing, or wood fencing, chain link fencing. We love to do that too. We do fancy. A lot of us come from either incarceration and homelessness, like myself, but we learn the skills to be able to do these types of trades through Habilitat, through Habilitat, teaching us. We pass it down word of mouth from the older residents here in the program participants. I mean, there’s people older, they learn it, and then they teach the next person that comes in that goes into that same type of training. Yeah. So we had the fencing we have the residential maintenance, we even have catering events. People hire us for catering events, and are just like our fencing department, our culinary arts department, not everybody knows how to cook and trust and believe me, I, I can. People

ATTILIO:
shouldn’t be cooking like Adrienne microwave, though, yes.

DONOVAN:
You know, microwave is an art to me. Art form for me, yeah, I use that for hot pockets, pizza rolls, everything, yeah. But yeah, we we cater to events large, up to hundreds of people, and we’re talking about like, five course meals, three course meals, seven course meals at times, yeah, steak, lobster, many different types of foods that we do for our catering events, nice and some other things that we do to help raise funds is, like I said, the Christmas Tree Project, the haunted house drive through, yeah. And really, a lot of supportive individuals outside, yeah.

ATTILIO:
The other thing that you guys also supply meals, I think, is it for US Vets or Yes, meals for,

DONOVAN:
um, we, we actually just picked up a new contract with, it’s a it’s called WUCS, W, U, C, S. Over in town, we actually provide about, I don’t know the exact number. I’m guessing around third, 20 to 30 people per meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Over there and do for US Vets, Kapolei, Waianae, civic center, care Hawaii Meals on Wheels and CER so rough, estimated about, what was it? 300,000 a month. Wow, the meals a month or

ATTILIO:
so? Yeah, wow. That’s a lot of cooking. Yes, cranking out the cooking. Yeah. And

DONOVAN:
what’s we do have a big family too, so we like to eat, yeah?

ATTILIO:
And you know what I like is that you guys is, it’s a live in program, yeah, yes,

DONOVAN:
it is. It’s a two and a half year program where we live in, we all live here, and after that, six months after, six months after we graduate. And by means, in order to graduate, you must have three things. You must have a job before you can graduate, you must have your GED before you can graduate, and you have to have a place to live. And I’m not talking going back. Hey, mom, hey dad, can I live with you? No, you will find your own place to live at. But we do provide that as well. Yeah, our Executive Director, Jeff Nash, has actually provided housing for us to transition a little bit easier to get to getting back into society. Yeah,

ADRIENNE:
so Donovan, where are you at in the program? I feel like we’ve known you for a little while. Where’s your where’s your placement in the that program?

DONOVAN:
My placement is. I’ve been here for over 41 months now, so three and a half years I’ve been in this program, and I decided to stay on another year, because I want the best possibilities that I can have in my life and my journey. Yeah, I am in the sales and marketing department where we kind of just host, I host some of the largest events on the island, such as the Christmas Tree Project, yes, the haunted house events, the open houses. I coordinate the open houses. For the past few years, I have gained a position to be the overseer of our entire fundraising department, where we’re seeing roughly 12 to 15 individuals. And now I’m also the public relations representative, which I’ve been for a past year now only I was doing entertainment coordinating, and I kind of push that over to someone else, so I’m teaching them how to coordinate with entertainment, some music, some songwriters and singers. I’m more so reaching out to more of a public relations type of people now, and I’m also trying to. Reach out to celebrities who are interested and can relate with habilitat to kind of just share the insight of abilitat.

ATTILIO:
We’re going to do a reach out right now, because I know these people listen to our show. Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, The Rock Johnson and Jason Momoa, if you guys want to help, come support I know you guys are avid listeners of our show. No, they’re not listening to the show.

ADRIENNE:
Well, maybe, well, we did mention Mel Robbins too. Mel Robbins,

ATTILIO:
yeah. Show. You guys want to come help support a great organization. You should, by the way, here’s the backstory on Donovan with the entertainment division. He was the official fire fire dancer, and he went burned down that shed one time. So they said, No more fire dancing for Donovan, we taking you out of entertainment. We’re gonna move you into sales and fundraising. And he’s been knocking it out of the park ever since. So good job on

ADRIENNE:
that, Donovan. I You guys do have some events coming up, why don’t you share with our listeners, yeah, what’s going on, what’s what’s coming up over the next couple of months that they could, you know, be a part of or participate in. Yeah,

DONOVAN:
I’d love to. So we’re about to wrap up our online auction. It just is going to end tonight, and we’ll be distributing all the items on this weekend. But in December, we’ll be having our Christmas tree fundraising, where we’ll have our locations all over the place, where, right now, actually reaching out to people in the community to see if they like to pre order their Christmas trees. Now, nice. And then the Christmas Tree Project. Our main goal is we’re not going to have any pine left. We did the last year we got rid of every single pine, as in, wreaths, door charms, candle rings, Christmas tree sizes two feet to 20 feet. Yeah, a shout out to the 20 foot tree. Yeah. I would love to tell you one more thing, one more event that’s coming out, but it’s still to be determined, so I can’t really give the details out of it yet. It’s just talk about, and I will definitely let you guys know once we get that certified and move forward with it, it’s gonna be super exciting. I think it should be an awesome event where a lot of individuals will be able to network with each other. So, yeah, look out for that. Yeah, I

ATTILIO:
think that’s a great opportunity, because when you get a bunch of business people together to network with each other and do more business with each other, and then, most importantly, to open up the checkbook and start writing some checks to make donations. You know, Donovan, I want, I want to before we let you go, because we have a couple other things to cover, and we’re coming to the end of the show, I want to talk to you and give you this tool here, called for benefit marketing. For benefit marketing. Adrienne Lally, hear about for benefit marketing to begin with,

ADRIENNE:
I believe it was in a book about Tom’s shoes.

ATTILIO:
The CEO of the of the shoes called Tom shoes. Tom shoes, you know, they’re like, I don’t know. I don’t know. They kind of goofy looking shoes, but they look like house slippers or something that I don’t know what you would call them, but anyway, they’re very popular with celebrities and very trendy shoe and what they’re for benefit marketing is, if you buy a shoe from them, what happens to the other another pair?

ADRIENNE:
They give a pair of shoes to someone in need, who doesn’t have shoes, who doesn’t

ATTILIO:
have shoes. So what we found, or what he discovered, and why he wrote this book is he wanted other businesses to incorporate for benefit marketing in their business model. And this is the approach Donovan that you can talk about and talk to these business owners, that when the consumer takes a look like, let’s say you calling, I don’t know, let’s say you calling one insurance agency and you like when help them donate for your program. When, when consumers look at all the insurance agencies on Oahu they don’t they cannot tell the difference. But when they see that the insurance agency that’s approaching them gives back to their community 95% of the time, they choose that insurance agency or fill in the blank with any other company where the consumer cannot tell the difference the majority of the time, pick the company everything being the same. Pick the company that’s giving back to the community. So I want you to approach all your business people moving forward with what we call for benefit marketing. And you know what you’re gonna start the quest. You know what life is all about? The questions we asked Donovan, so when you you can tell your crew when they get on for ask for donations, by the way, real quick. Have you heard of for benefit marketing? And Joey, who owns his whatever pest control company, is like, No, I never hear for benefit marketing. What is for benefit marketing? Well, I’m glad you asked. And then go through and explain what I just explained, just like that. Okay, so business owners out there for benefit marketing, please open up the checkbooks. Do you guys have a donate button on your website? We

DONOVAN:
do, yes, yeah, yes, we do, yes. So, so

ADRIENNE:
donate there and or, like, even if you’re not a business owner, please take a look at Habilitat opportunities with the Christmas tree and any of the serve. Is that they offer, have them come, quote out a fence or landscaping. They do a great job. Or if you have, like, your next party, you know, maybe catering last

ATTILIO:
thing, if you want all fun out there and you’re like, Oh, you kids rotten, you know, like, leave them nothing. Leave it to have a letter. Can you guys be a beneficiary in somebody’s Will or Trust and then get all the assets and then put it into the program. Would that be okay with you guys? Yeah, just say, yeah,

DONOVAN:
yeah, yeah.

Why not?

ATTILIO:
Why not? Because it is people actually can do that. You actually have, we gotta. I know I heard this before from either,

ADRIENNE:
yeah, there’s a strategy in doing that with um, with giving like they

ATTILIO:
can, like they can, like benefit. Forgot what it is. But we’ll have Kyle how Shimoda from, and he’s going to talk about, like, literally, if you, if you kind of structure that, if you bequeath the property to a nonprofit, you actually avoid a whole bunch of taxes. Like, now, yes, so, but we’ll, we’ll circle back on that, and then we’ll suck when then Donovan, you know what? We’re gonna share that with you so that you can also that will could be something that you can talk to people about also, all right, I

DONOVAN:
definitely would love to learn more about that. Attilio age Adrienne, I want to tell you guys I absolutely appreciate being on here again today. But also, I, I’ve been watching you guys videos all over. Yeah, super fun. Just watching you guys do the rushing of the running through the houses every Yeah, it’s as if I’m watching a five star movie. Yeah,

ADRIENNE:
Donovan Be on the lookout for we are going to be doing a speed tour where Attilio gets wet. Yeah, that one is coming out.

ATTILIO:
We did one already. Where, I think we did one already, when we get get in the pool.

ADRIENNE:
No, I think it’s come it’s coming out soon. Oh, coming soon. Coming soon. So be on the lookout Attilio is going to be getting wet. And whatever, I did

ATTILIO:
a speed tour where I jumped in the ocean, and then I jumped in double wet and then I jumped in the ocean.

DONOVAN:
Oh, wow. Okay, yeah, your speed tours are awesome. Guys, thank you. Thank

ADRIENNE:
you, Donovan, thanks for being on.

DONOVAN:
Thank you guys for having me. You guys have a good

ATTILIO: 47:11one. Oh, Donovan, again, what’s the website?

DONOVAN: 
Habilitat.com.

ATTILIO: 
Habilitat.com. H, b, h A, B, I, L,

DONOVAN: 
H, A, B, L, i, t, a T,

ATTILIO: 
T, A T, Habili tat. Got it.

ADRIENNE: 
Thank you. Donovan,

DONOVAN: 
absolutely. You guys have a good one. All right.

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