Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today my special guest is Heather Brady. Welcome to the Project, Heather.
Heather Brady: Thank you. Thank you very much for having me, Toni.
Toni: You’re welcome. So, Heather, take a moment and tell us just a little bit about yourself.
Heather: Basically, no one knows, but I was born in Oklahoma, but I’ve lived in Berks County ever since I was six months old. I’ve loved every minute of it, and everyone I’ve met, and I’ve come back as an adult to make a difference here, and I’m ready to share that with you today. Me and my husband launched the Do It Local fundraising app a couple months ago with the American Cancer Society right here in Berks County with Barb Bieber and Amy Miller being our big advocates. I can't thank them enough for all their support getting to this point.
Basically, what we took was the old, antiquated entertainment book or coupon book concept of fundraising and modernized it, streamlined it, and turned it into a mobile app that only features local businesses and helps to promote and fundraise for local charities, so creating a tool that connects local businesses with local charities so that they can easily work together to cross-promote and make a difference right here in Berks.
Toni: I love that. That is very inspiring, and quite the entrepreneurial spirit, correct?
Heather: Yes.
Toni: Alright. Let’s go into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Heather: Inspiration to me is something that happens when a contagious, powerful explosion happens between positive passion meeting creativity; an impact creating a team all by itself working towards the same goals; when you have such a great idea that everyone wants to get involved and help you accomplish the same goal.
Toni: When all of these worlds collide and these feelings collide, is it an idea at that point?
Heather: It’s an idea. A natural team that forms all on its own.
Toni: That’s a very cool way to define inspiration. When that happens—and it has happened—how do you put that into practice here?
Heather: Basically, by reaching out to some of the vast local businesses here in Berks and the local charities. There’s a countless number of them. We are creating a team by creating the tool that allows them to work together and feed off of each other’s success while making an impact in Berks County by promoting buy local, which obviously helps our local economy.
Whenever we shop local, three times more money stays in our local economy here, creating more jobs, creating more money to fix our roads and do things here rather than in national headquarters across the U.S. Clearly, that should be important to all of us here in Berks County, and just making it easy for people to remember to shop local.
Then also with the charities, they don’t always know about all the local businesses, because they’re not the ones that are all over the newspaper, other great advertising mediums that we have here in Berks County. They can't always afford all of those advertising mediums, so sometimes the charities don’t know about the local business owner who is absolutely so passionate about what they do, and that’s what’s driven them to start their own business.
It’s an easy way for them to discover those local businesses who want to be a part of the movement and be a part of really inspiring Berks to come together and work together. We’re really a simple tool connecting these great entities and establishments that are already here in Berks County to work together.
Toni: It all sounds awesome, but let me go from a personal perspective. Do you know when you’re inspired? Can you feel it?
Heather: Yes.
Toni: What’s it feel like for you?
Heather: Oh, it’s amazing. It’s explosive. It’s what gets me out of bed at 4am with crazy ideas. When I hear stories of even the local business owners who potentially could be making soup; it’s a passed down recipe for decades and years upon years and family members and generations—just to hear everything that’s gone into other people’s business and their successes, and what made them take the leap of faith to go out on their own, it fuels me. I just want their story told, and I just want to see other people, hear their story, and look at them not as an exchange platform where you’re paying money and you’re getting a good, but more of just part of their family and part of what we are here in Berks County. Just helping each other. Friends helping friends, and communities helping communities.
Toni: What I’m hearing from you is that you are really inspired by the human transaction.
Heather: Yes.
Toni: Yes. The human transaction of business, too, right?
Heather: Absolutely.
Toni: Alright. So, who in Berks County inspires you?
Heather: My mom, hands down. She has, and always will be my best friend. She has been through a lot herself—more than I can ever imagine—and always comes out with a big smile and a heart of gold willing and ready to help everyone and anyone she comes across to the best of her abilities. It’s definitely contagious, and definitely explosive. Everyone loves my mom. She’s just everything I hope to be.
Toni: What a great tribute to your mom. That’s amazing. I love the words “contagious” and “explosive.” I really do. You’re putting them in such a positive way around inspiration. That’s amazing. Anybody else you want to talk about that inspires you?
Heather: A lot of people here locally are very inspirational from a leadership perspective. Obviously, Eric Savage is someone that always stands out in our community, always putting his best foot forward and trying to do his best to help everyone with his life improvement business. Meggan Kerber has been touching lives forever, whether she’s working with one of her awesome nonprofits, or doing something on the side to pull people together. I always turn to her for advice and for ideas. She’s just a super awesome friend, but also such a big impact on our community. The list is pretty endless for me, but those are definitely two that I look up to.
Toni: It doesn’t take you long to be inspired, does it?
Heather: No.
Toni: This is an audio interview, but I get to see your face, and the passion and inspiration just comes shooting from your eyeballs, so that’s cool to see. So, what do you want your legacy to be, Heather?
Heather: My legacy is all surrounding Colten, my son, of course. If I’m lucky enough to have other kids, definitely them as well. I just really want to enable them to have confidence and drive to determine their own passions and pursue them, whatever it may be. I want to have enough resources so that they can figure out what their dreams are, aspirations, and the confidence to pivot when necessary, because we all think our dreams are perfect, but we always come across hurdles and boundaries that we have to overcome creatively. I just want to give them everything they need to follow their dream and live a happy life, and at the end of the day go to bed smiling and ready to contagiously share their smiles with anyone around them.
Toni: Well, it has been a pleasure to interview you this morning. Thank you for being part of this wonderful Get Inspired! Project, Heather.
Heather: Thank you, Toni, for having me, and Berks County Living.
Toni: You’re welcome.
