Founder of PlayHard GiveBack, Spender Brendel on Different Hunger Podcast

hey everyone super stoked about today's podcast guest Spencer brindle uh Spencer graduated from college just over a year ago um and his senior project actually turned out to be his career currently which is working for um play hard give back which is the organization that he founded um it's a super awesome company they partner athletes with social

causes so it's a really unique and interesting way to give back um and Spencer has a great story and it's something that 20s somethings like you and me relate to so let's go ahead and listen in hello everyone I'm here with uh Spencer brandle he is um the founder of play hard give back back Spencer how you

doing today good how are you I'm great thanks for uh coming on to the podcast today yeah absolutely I'm excited awesome man so uh why don't we just get into uh you know who you are and your background um you know where you went to school and uh you know just kind of give the listeners um you

know an idea of uh who you are and your background yeah so I grew up here in Sun Valley Idaho um went all the way did Elementary School to high school then moved away when I was 14 to Colorado Springs Colorado to pursue my hockey career um went there for a year then moved to Salt Lake City

um to play hockey once again came back halfway through my senor year in high school and got to graduate with all my friends and then after high school I uh went to Sweden and lived in Sweden for a couple years uh playing in the elite League um which is a pretty high level hockey over in Sweden I

was in a southern town called tin next to Malo and vea and that was awesome you got to travel around played a tournament in Norway and then after the season uh got to travel around Europe a bit so that was defin definitely a really cool experience and uh had a fillet family over there which I am still

very close with they've come over here and visited and I've gone over there a couple of times since then awesome and then I got recruited to the University of St Thomas and St Paul Minnesota after Sweden and played my four years in NCAA hockey for them um and then just graduated in December and moved back here awesome

cool so um talk to us about um your trip to Africa and Asia um and how that really kind of you know kind of changed everything and you know really kind of opened up your eyes and you know led to you creating this uh organization yeah for sure um I was nine years old when I went on

my first trip to Africa um we went to Kenya Nairobi and then traveled around a little bit outside of Nairobi uh went to M Mara and some other places but I mean as a as a 9-year-old it definitely you know inspired me and opened up my eyes especially coming from you know kind of a unique Community such

as Sun Valley um you can say that we kind of you know somewhat live in a bubble and so you know traveling to these third world countries it was like holy cow you know we have it you know really good where we come from and so that kind of was a eye opener um I got to Clan

Mount Kenya while I was there I was the youngest one at that time to ever climb out Kenya with my grandpa nice and that was really cool but and then the year after that I traveled to Asia and got to traveled down to Cambodia um and you know go to some pretty rural areas uh there as well

and so you know combining those two two trips uh really you know instilled in me at a very young age to you know want to give back and knowing you know what's out there um and it also you know changed my life and made me very passionate about traveling um that's you know one of my biggest passions

is traveling and being in a certain situation or environment that I've never been in and you know I don't really know what to do I really like that feeling so that's kind of uh you know the outcome of the African and Asia trip cool yeah I actually didn't know that you went there uh when you were that

young but that's super cool that you got to do that um and Africa would be a crazy awesome place to get to for sure um yeah so could you talk to us about what led you to create uh Play Hard give back and also kind of kind of uh describe to us what what you guys do yeah

so it all started about two years ago um and my dad and I took a trip down the coast of California on Highway One in our 29 foot winnabago and uh kind of did some sou searching and you know being involved in the athletic Community growing up and then going on those trips I really wanted to combine

uh those two and so still wanted to be you know involved in the athletic community and working with athletes and you know taking the trip you know wanting to give back to certain causes both Al and you know throughout the US and throughout the world um so we kind of came up with the idea of it on

the road trip and you know we came up with the trail mix idea because it was kind of most customizable it was cheap we could literally you know go to the store buy nuts and berries put it in a bag and that's kind of how we presented it to our first athlete uh which was Travis ganam and

he just finished fifth in the Olympics this last winter and he's nth in the world now for downhill skiing um and so you know after the road trip I came back to Sun Valley and applied for a entrepreneurship Grant through a locally based organization here in Sun Valley called wild gift and wild gift is all about empowering

Better World entrepreneurs and their program is you go into the white clouds in the boulder mountains here in Idaho for 20 days and you backpack you know over 100 miles and you work on your business plan every night you have different mentors that come in and out um of the track uh you're with four other entrepreneurs or

they pick four entrepreneurs a year and it's an awesome program so when you come out of the Wilderness without any distractions of you know quote unquote the real world with emails and phone calls and social media and whatever yeah you get this Clear Vision and this plan um that you know you want to pursue on your business

plan and they supported me through throughout the last year with quarterly dispersements of $2,000 and mentorship along the way um I took that business plan to college and used it as my senior project and worked on uh with a couple other classmates and kind of really got it going got some more steps um dialed in and then

presented it and when I turned it in my professor in exchange handed me a $7,000 check and she Saidi want to be your first investor so I was like all right right on let's do this and um so graduated college and then came back here I'm full-time on play our give back um we've raised you know more

Capital since then and brought on new team members um so play hard give back is a online platform that aligns athletes with social causes and giving back efforts and we help facilitate their fundraising needs uh through selling play hard give back products uh on our website so we're kind of piggybacking off of the girl scout model a

little bit um and some other crowdfunding websites and really combining you know the best of you know one platform and the best of another platform and kind of combining it into our own um and we're currently right now working with 16 athletes most of them being Alpine athletes but we are bringing on um some mountain bikers some

cyclists uh a surfer hockey player um and we're trying to go into you know more of the Youth Sports organizations and giving you know the Youth Sports organizations the same opportunity that we're giv to our Elite athletes um I don't know if you know any of you listening Ever Raised money as a kid uh playing like soccer

football selling cookie dough or wrapping paper Christmas reads and you know I just remember it was so boring and not engaging at all and the indust indry hasn't changed in you know 30 years and so that's what we're really trying to disrupt is that fundraising Market awesome yeah awesome love that and you know so here you are

a postgrad devoting you know your career to an organization that focuses on social causes which I mean that's that's speaks a lot about you and you know what you guys are doing but unfortunately that seems to be pretty rare and you know in your opinion why why do you think it is that you know a lot of

kids right out of college are just really they're not really concerned with um you know doing things that are uh kind of transcend making as much money as possible or you know get in that sweet car or land in that killer job um you know could you speak to that a bit yeah for sure I mean I

do think the majority of you know graduates um do concentrate on just you know the corporate world I guess um they just kind of want to move up the ladder and have you know that security of having a good job and getting paid and establishing themselves but I kind of look at it as you know you only

are young once and might as well try to do something cool and inspiring while you're young instead of you know waiting until you're old I guess um but I just think that you know there there are more kids uh in our generation starting to think about you know social causes and giving back efforts and you know going

green but uh yeah I don't I don't know I think that it should be more you know involved in the educational programs um I did a little bit in college but maybe starting in high school I think would be a good idea I'm just getting the kids more you know stoked about working with nonprofits and educating them

about the benefits of you know social causes and giving back um so yeah I don't really have a you know a really good answer on why you know the generation uh that I'm with uh doesn't really concentrate on giving back or social causes after graduation but uh I hope I hope to inspire more so that you know

the kids coming up below us uh do concentrate more on social causes yeah exactly you know obviously we're we're 20s something We're not gonna have all the answers but you know the the least we can do is at least you know devote at least some of our uh you know time and efforts to these causes and again

hopefully Inspire other people um another thing uh you know a lot of people don't really concern themselves with these kind of causes until they themselves you know become aware of for example poverty whereas uh you know you went to Africa and Asia and you saw poverty there or um another instance would be you know losing a loved

one to a disease or something like that um what do you think needs to happen for you know younger people 20s somethings to begin to be more concerned um with causes greater than you know uh making money Etc um I would suggest traveling I mean that's kind of what opened up my eyes I think traveling is a

huge huge educational tool if you can make it work I know sometimes that you know financially it's hard to do but there are you know really cool ways that it is possible um you know grants or you know going on a trip and working at a farm or you know doing something just completely out of the ordinary

and putting yourself out there uh that's kind of what you know inspired me to work with social causes is just being Hands-On in that kind of environment and you know it literally took you know traveling halfway across the world to be like ho week out this is crazy we should probably you know try to figure this out

um so my suggestion would be travel get out there and you know have fun and just go wherever you want there you go it's as easy as that guys cool yeah and you know I I couldn't agree more I'm I myself am a huge huge fan of travel uh you know currently saving up to do just that

but um again back to what you said earlier about you know you kind of lived in a bubble before you went to these other places you know I I do feel like we do kind of get stuck into a routine and and where the growth really comes I believe is getting outside of your comfort zone like you

said um because again it just really opens up your eyes and you know gives you a perspective and all that so for sure um next question um so I follow you guys on Instagram and and I've seen um obviously we are 20-some so we are caught up in all the social media Instagram hashtag and all that good

stuff um but I've seen several images uh on your page uh hashtag gives you purpose could you talk to us a little bit about that yeah um it started as a little um jab if you will um against Red Bull okay it gives you wings so we kind of played off that and wanted to make it more

meaningful and so we came up with givy purpose and you know we really believe in living in the present and doing stuff with intention and so you know when you do your sports or you give back um I think that it's really important to consciously you know think of it as you know why are you doing this

there's got to be a reason behind it there's got to be a purpose so you know really live in the moment and do it with purpose so that's kind of where that hashtag came from and um we just kind of want to be true and real to the company and uh we thought it it fit really well

awesome yeah for sure and um you know like you said it is so important to have a purpose and how do you think you know having a purpose and being motivated Again by things that transcend the the traditional motive uh motivations you know has contributed to your success and you know your company success um so could you

kind of talk to us a little bit about purp the role of purpose in um in your company and whatnot so yeah I mean um I think everyone has you know is is on the same page uh in our office and all believe in the same philosophy that we strive to promote um and you know whether it's

coming to work with purpose or you know doing a certain task with purpose um you know going out and taking a lunch break and going on a mountain bike with purpose uh I think that it really just makes us you know strive in the right direction um and you know work harder we all know you know why

we're here everyone's getting underpaid for you know because we're a startup and we can't pay anyone what they're worth but you know everyone shows up every day ready to work because they believe in what we're doing and you know they believe you know about the purpose behind uh what we're trying to do and and so that's that's

kind of where we stand awesome yeah and I'm sure it doesn't hurt that you're surrounded by you know mountains and lakes and uh all that all that nice stuff yeah I guess that doesn't hurt cool man so kind of Switching gears over to the more kind of business side of things um what have you learned from you

know founding your own business like what is the kind of Journey been like and um you know any advice to other people who are perhaps thinking of you know starting their own gig um so yeah um might be a vague question but I guess you know don't be afraid to fail um one of our Motts inside the

office is fail fast and and just kind of you know putting yourself out there and fail fast and then learn from it and move on uh don't try to make things perfect just get it done but you know some of the main things that I've learned are communication skills and you know team management is is a huge

one just kind of managing your employees and really communicating on what you exactly want them to do and then you know give giving them uh you know positive reinforcement and then also uh you know listening to what they have to say um I think is huge time management is another one that's kind of you know really really

stressful at times and it's really overwhelming because you know as the founder um you kind of step back and you see all these things that have to be done and it can be definitely overwhelming um but if you just narrow your focus and concentrate on one task at a time um you know it's definitely a lot easier

that way it's kind of something that I learned from my entrepreneurship Trek is you know just taking one step at a time one you know mountain peak at a time because when you look you know when you look ahead when you're on top of mountain and you're like all right we're going to hike a 100 miles that

way you're like what no way and uh if you just take it one step at a time you you know two days later you're there but um yeah I mean you learn a lot it's definitely stressful um I think you know the all the paperwork and the back end of things uh kind of like the legal work

and all the stuff that you don't really think about when you're wanting to start your own business um was was definitely eye opening um changing my organization from an LLC over to a C corporation um is a lot harder than I thought so that I'm right in the middle of that and uh learning a lot with you

know lawyers and our accountants and uh all the back end stuff so you know every day is a learning experience and I'm very you know grateful to be in this situation um but if I had a suggestion for everyone you know make sure you're definitely passionate about what you want to start because it's a it's a full-time

deal and um you know it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort and you sometime question yourself you know why am I doing this this is way too hard um but then other days you know you have the best day in the world and you land a deal and you can think of anything else

that you would want to be doing so it's definitely a roller coaster but uh I think it's it's definitely well worth the ride whether it's successful or or not um I think that I'm in the right place for the right reason awesome cool and yeah you know you guys are a startup you know it definitely seems that

you have really good handle on things and you know your mindset um you know my my website also focuses heavily on positive psychology and um you know that's basically just all about how your thoughts and you your mindset you know translate to you know tangible change and actions so definitely seems like you've got the right idea going

on so definitely seems like you guys are on to make uh some awesome stuff happen so um to wrap things up um you know like like we said um in regards to 20s somethings you know we don't have tons of money uh you know we can't donate a million dollars to ex organization or you know go spend

a week doing uh whatever but um you know in your experience is it is it necessary to have you know a lot of money or um you know all the con in the world to make you know tangible and impactful change absolutely not I mean one way they could give back is going on to play our get

back and buying some trail mix there you go no but seriously I mean he told me to ask that question just so we could give you the pitch yeah um no not at all uh that's you know part of the main reason why we started the company is because you know as an athlete you don't have the

time and you don't have the resources and you don't have the money to you know necessarily give back in a big way um and so that's why you know we created this platform for people to you know buy healthy products be inspired by the athlete and be able to give back at the same time for a you

know very minimal uh cost and so that's kind of where we believe uh we can make a huge change is that if we get a lot of people just spending you know a little bit amount of money on you know a really great healthy product while supporting athletes and social causes then I think that we can have

a pretty big impact awesome man and um you know for others who do kind of want to get involved in um you know various social causes and giving back and uh other stuff like that um where do you suggest they go and how do you suggest you know they get in touch with other people who are like-minded

yeah um well definitely you know follow us on playhard getback.tv and then if you just hop on our website under causes you can scroll down and check out all the nonprofits and social causes that we work with um and also follow them on all the social media uh platforms and um you know there's some really great people

that are involved and you know I think that if you align yourself with good people good things will happen awesome man and uh for anyone who wants to follow you guys um and you know keep up with your events or your different fundraising uh opportunities uh how how could we get in touch with you guys and follow

your progress go to play hard give back.com and sign up for the E newsletter for sure uh we have a really cool intern from University of Washington in Seattle that has been putting out some awesome newsletters and some blogs so check that out and then also follow us on Instagram uh play hard giveback all one word and

then Facebook play hard giveback awesome man well thanks the time for coming on today and uh it's been awesome learning how to change the world and uh you know ready to get out there and go do it so thanks a lot and appreciate your time bro thank you so much have a good day