 Thank you for joining me on Think Tech Hawaii. I am Sheena Park, your host for Money Talks. My guest today is Cindy Ayodeis. Welcome to the show, Cindy. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here. And happy to have you on. I'm happy. I'm looking forward to learning from you. Can you tell us a little more about yourself and how are you connected to Hawaii? Yeah, so I grew up in a towing family on the East Coast in Connecticut. My parents had seven kids thinking that they would have tow truck drivers, secretaries, and build this massive empire. And I don't want to be a tow truck driver. I don't want to be a secretary. And when I was nine, my grandparents had vacationed in Hawaii and gave me a little license plate with my name on it. Said the Allah state and Cindy. And I did a book report that year about how people in Hawaii lived to grass huts. And then I went to my parents. And I was like, hey, I want to move to Hawaii. They're like, you're nine. You're nine. You can't move to Hawaii. And so I knew I was meant to live in the islands. And so I saved my babysitting money and my newspaper route money. And when I was 18 and graduated from high school, I was on my way to live in the beautiful island state. So I've been in Hawaii for a long time. Honestly, I left because I didn't want to show the tow truck. Well, that's a great excuse to leave and move to the state of Hawaii. That must have been a really big commitment for you. I know how it's a big deal to move anywhere that you grew up and make a whole transition to a new state. Yeah, well, honestly, when you're 18, you have no fear. I'd only been on a plane with my parents when I was really little. I hadn't traveled on my own at all. And I literally had a one-way ticket to Kauai, actually, as an 18-year-old. And I had just gotten my first license. And my goal was to go to Hawaii and go to school and just be the first in the family to graduate college and really be the first to move out on my own because everybody else stayed back to be part of the towing business, which I missed out on a lot. I have some regrets of not being there because my family is amazing. But I ended up going to film school and photography school. And I had something to offer the family that wasn't driving a tow truck or answering phones. So that's incredible. And I feel you even deciding to move and taking that leap of faith, you're right, when you're young and 18, I feel like that's something to do because you do have no fear. So I know this week it's a precious, under-seeking week. What is the significance for you? Yeah, so my family has been greatly impacted by the death of my oldest brother. So in that family business, my brother, Cory Aedes, he learned to drive a tow truck before he knew how to drive a car. And actually, he wasn't that good at driving cars. He was good at driving super big trucks. And on April 22nd, 2020, just after the pandemic started, he was struck and killed by a driver who was going 90 miles an hour under the influence, weaving in and out of traffic. And witnesses reported that the guy was locked in like he was a race car driver. Yeah, Cory had his emergency lights on, was helping a disabled motorist and off the road and this guy crossed the shoulder, the white line onto the shoulder. And the medical examiner said there was nothing Cory could have done to save his own life that day. And it was so tragic. My dad is in the Hall of Fame, the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame for building, helping Connecticut build their towing industry. They raised our family and the industry. And this was the worst thing that could happen. A first responder helping a motorist who's been struck and killed by another motorist. And because of that tragedy, and I'm a filmmaker and a media maker, I thought there's got to be something we can do to raise awareness that drivers at every state has a move over law. And the drivers need to know what the lie is and know what to do when they see anything happening on the side of the road. And so my relationship to Crash Responder Safety Week is that I work now as the CEO of the non-profits Slagman Inc., our mission is to save lives of first-ish monitors, highway workers, the motoring public by raising awareness for slow down move over laws and dumb. And so now I'm running Slagman Inc. Well, that's incredible. And first and foremost, I'm so sorry for your loss. I actually had no idea how recent you lost your brother. I can definitely relate to you because I had lost my sister. In a similar situation, ending up December 2020, but I truly believe that you are making a huge difference. And it's incredible to see, you know, you turn a big tragedy like this and educate people. And because I feel this is a really big topic that needs to be talked about, right? So could you share more about Slagman and why you started? I know you shared a little bit of why you started this on Prop 2, but I know you have a video as well. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, all of our friends in Honolulu and in Hawaii are creatives, media makers, cell makers, work in marketing and advertising. And so after I got home, so I was with my family for six weeks and when Corey died. And then as soon as I got home, we started meeting on Zoom. And I was like, is Slagman move over the right language? Do we need a, like, what can we do as media makers to come in and make a big impact to raise awareness? And so I don't know if you remember Smokey the Bear, but we were like, it's gotta be like a Smokey the Bear. Like you see Smokey the Bear and you think Horusfire. Like he prevents Horusfires. And so a member of our team, our creative team said, what if we animated Slagman, the character that you see on the sign? He's got universal recognition, right, Slagman. He's typically seen at a DOT construction site. Sometimes you'll see a live Slagman, but we decided to take that orange sign with the black Slagman character on it and animate Slagman and have him come up the sign. He's a little bit irritated because you didn't slow down to move over and he's gonna, he's every driver's best friend and he's gonna talk to the driving public about just how dangerous it is out there. So when we came up with the concept, I was like, oh my God, that would be amazing. And so I contacted our animation team and said, can you do this? And they sent me back this like nine second prototype of the character jumping on the sign, running into a road and like doing a dance and they go, we can do this. And I was like, oh my God, that's amazing. And so out of that, those early days, which was still in 2020, believe it or not, we came up with the idea of Slagman being every driver's best friend and an animated character that we know while we're just at the construction site so that we see, you know, in our public service analysis. Wow. I'd love to see that video and how it came to life. I know it's a quick 30 second video. So if we can share that right now and we can watch it. Don't you see someone working here? You know, on average, a tow truck operator is killed on the job every six days. You can help avoid that. When you see a tow operator on the side of the road, slow down and move over. Families and their loved ones depend on it. Wow, what a short and impactful video. I love the message behind it. And the Slagman too, you're right, it's such a universal, everyone knows about it. And I love how you brought this video to life with just your idea. Yeah, so I have nieces and my family and that are, at the time they were, I think one was nine, one was 12, one was 15. And so when we had the prototype, I sent it to them and I said, what do you guys think? And they're like, we love how Slagman jumps on and off the sign. I was like, okay, cool. This is going to appeal to kids because that's important, right? That we work to change the driving culture and not just in America, but internationally. And then when we had that 32nd video done, I sent it to them again and they said, we love it auntie, we love it. And I said, well, what do you love about it? And they said, we love how Slagman comes off and back on the sign. And we love that he's protecting daddy out on the road because my brother Crystal works as a tow truck driver in the family business. And that's when I knew, okay, we've got something really terrific here that the kids that resonates with the kids. And a couple of days later, they called me and they're like, auntie, auntie, we just saw Slagman on the side of the road. And it was to identify the sign in their community. I was like, okay. Why are your nieces located? They all live in Connecticut. My family is where our towing family business is and everybody pretty much stayed in Connecticut to sort of be centered around the family business. But that's amazing. It doesn't matter what state year and everyone is familiar with that logo. Yes. And I know you had mentioned too that you have exciting things coming up in Hawaii. Could you please share more about that? Yeah, so first I wanna say that after we have the PSA done, which hasn't been launched yet, we're hoping to be launching in Hawaii this year, we thought we need an education outreach program like dare, you know, or I don't know, there's been all kinds of things over the years like Matt comes into schools and talks to kids about drunk driving and that kind of thing. And so we thought we need to build an education outreach program so you can go into the schools and teach kids who works on the side of the road. What are they doing? What are they doing? What are they driving? What are they wearing? And what can we all do to help them get home safely? And so I called up my nieces, Maddie and Jamie and Lizzie and I said, hey, you guys, like when you have school assemblies, like what makes you wanna pay attention? And they were like, well, when we get gift cards for participating, they're like, okay. They're like, you know, simple, like Boba T, $5 gift card. So Boba T, I was like, okay. Or pizza, ice cream, or, you know, smoothies or whatever. And then I said, what else? And they said, we love it our friends are up there, like on stage and then we wanna pay attention. So we built this education outreach program that we launched in April in Connecticut. And the assemblies are like 20, 25 minutes. And so there's like a police officer, firefighter, paramedic, a tow operator and a highway worker. And they demonstrate, slow down, move over examples with the help of the student volunteers. So really what we're trying to do is we're trying to teach the first responders who the kids are in the community. And we're trying to introduce the kids, the first responders. So the first responders, the kids say to their parents, like, hey mom, that might be Lieutenant Smith with that fire truck on the side of the road. We should slow down and move over. And so we launched this program in Connecticut. Now mind you, I babysat in that community. We did it in the schools that I grew up in. And after the program was over, you know, in number one kids who didn't think firefighters and paramedics worked on the side of the road now know, like we went from 23% understanding who worked on the side of the road to 90% now understanding everybody who works on the side of the road. Those ditches, big difference, even survey. So yeah, we taught kids what the slow down move over laws in their state and also the difference between a primary and a secondary crash because my brother was killed in a secondary crash. And firefighters are being struck on the side of the road in a secondary crash more often than not. And so we wanted to teach them that. But then I started getting all these emails and messages from the kids that I used to babysit for in that community who had kids in the school. I didn't even realize it. And they said, were you in, you know, Millhouse school today because my daughter came home wanting to talk about Flagman. Well, I told you before the show started that I'm in Connecticut right now at the, at a firefighters conference for the statewide union. And a firefighter just came up to me from that town and said to me that she had volunteered with her daughter's fourth grade class to do something at the beach. And she was with like six parents. And when the bus pulled up and the kids got out they surrounded her cause she's a firefighter. And they just started chanting slow down move over slow down move over. We just saw Flagman from the bus. Wow. And I was like, oh my gosh, like I hadn't heard that story before. I didn't know that that had happened. And on the flip side, some of the firefighters that participated in our education outreach program since April twice their fire truck was hit on the interstate while they were up there assisting a disabled motorist. And so Lieutenant Smith, who was at this conference told me that it was a like changing moment for him because even though they weren't struck and killed their lives flash before their eyes. So we did the pilot program in Connecticut to 8500 kids very successful. But we all live and work in Hawaii and our hearts are in the islands. And so the Hawaii department of transportation contacted me and said we would like to launch Flagman here in the island. So we've been working with the department of transportation and the department of education. So we will be launching the Slagman K-12 education outreach program on Oahu and then most likely Maui County. So we're gonna go to Molokai and Wana'i and Hana probably are the three school systems we're gonna do in Maui County. And once we launch in Hawaii, we'll be an every year program. And then the goal will just be to scale up because Flagman is an every year program kindergarten through 12th grade. And we are working to change the driving culture which was safer culture by educating kids now long before they get the driver's license. They're gonna educate their parents and they're gonna become responsible road users. And so Flagman's gonna be like, so good to bear. You're gonna see Flagman and you're gonna be like, hey, slow down below. We're just like those kids on the school bus. Yes, I love what you said too about educating through all grades because the driver's ed is really fantastic. Isaac driver's ed and the importance of safety because a car is also, it could be a weapon, right? And a lot of times if we're not driving responsibly, tragedy strikes and it is just very, very heart wrenching. You know, to those that get affected like both of us. And I feel that with you and your mission going out there just to educate not only are you saving lives, but financially too. It's making a big difference because it does cost a lot. You know, the less you know, the more it costs at times, right? And I was told you have bought a lot of your own money into Flagman and I would like for you to elaborate on that because you're doing amazing things. I know I didn't just get to where it is now overnight, so please share more about that. Yeah, well first off, I'm glad to hear that you were fortunate enough to get driver's ed because I learned from the Department of Education last week, we were in a meeting at their office and they said that most students don't get driver's ed in Hawaii and that it's optional and not easily available or affordable, even though it's a relatively affordable program and it's not mandatory in Hawaii. Yeah, so I'm glad to hear that you have had that advantage and opportunity because I think it's really important and we do expect to bring Flagman into driver's ed in fact, we were talking with the driver's ed trainers in Hawaii statewide, you know, about how to target students who are about to get their license because we found in the Education Outreach program that kids were nervous about getting on the road. You know, there was a lot of anxiety for what that would look like. So, you know, when I came up with the idea with my team for Flagman, Kenny Tom from Advanced Towing in Honolulu, I had met him at a tow show and then I was out with my dad in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And so we were already friends and I called him out and said, we want to shoot this PSA, but we don't have any money. And then I went to my media team. I have a like a filmmaking travel team, like we go everywhere together and they work on my projects. They're part of my team. And I just said, you know, we don't have money but we need to shoot this PSA. And I thought, well, if I shoot this PSA, surely, you know, people will jump on board, but it hasn't been easy to raise money because I think being a brand new nonprofit, and by the way, we just turned two on October 28th. And I don't know, it's a really big deal. The only way I've been able to raise money is one-on-one pitches. And then like, if I pitch flag man to somebody and I can convince them of my passion and my vision and my drive, I might be able to get a donation, but it's not easy. And there hasn't been clear paths to money. So I just decided to use my credit cards and whatever credit limits I could to build the nonprofit. So the first thing I did was I hired a webmaster so that we could build a landing page and the intention of the landing page at flagmansafety.com, that's a landing page. That page, we designed that page so that people who are interested in road safety, interested in helping us save lives could go on there and make donations. Well, it doesn't really work that way. Even though the page has gotten some donations, it's not an ongoing thing. Even though there's a donation tab, we make it as easy as we can. So I had to keep going. You know, I had to keep going. I didn't raise first funds. My first check came from a friend of my father's who is my father and had let him a tow truck back in the, I think in the 80s, maybe late 70s and said, you need to learn how to do heavy duty wrecking, trucking. And so Bobby, you know, after Corey died and after my dad, my dad ended up dying, actually around the time that his sister died, my dad died on December 17th, 2020 from COVID. So we had two major losses that year. But anyway, Bobby Barbieri from Chippie's Towing said meet me at the shop. So I was in Connecticut and I met him at my dad's shop. There was nobody around. And he opened his wall and he had this tattered old shack that he was saving for a rainy day. And he pulled it out and he made a donation. And he was my first donation. And it wasn't like enough for me to do anything. It just was enough for me to know I need to keep going. And then we had a couple more donations like near the end of February. But by that time I had already invested, I wanna say about $100,000 because I thought if I build it, they'll come. And it's happening and my team likes to tell me, remember how new we are and how far you've come. And so I wanna say, and I haven't looked at the numbers in a while, but in addition to what I put in, I wanna say that I have been able to raise about $200,000 on top of that. And 75,000 came from the Connecticut Department of Transportation to help with the grant. But the, you know, Flagman needs a lot more money than that. We, 8,500 students is not enough. We wanna be in every state wall to wall. We wanna be, you know, we've got partners in Quebec and UK already waiting for us to bring the education outreach program and it needs funding. And so, you know, private donors are great. And I'm gonna have to try to ask again for people to donate again to help me keep going. And then there's some federal money and there's, and I always applied for grants. So this year we signed a contract with Honda. Honda, I don't know if you know about Honda, Shayna, but they, their vision is zero injuries, crashes and deaths by 2050. And so I thought, oh, that's a perfect partner for us. We're doing the same thing and we have the program. We just need the funding. So they didn't give us what we asked for, but they gave, they opened the door for me. They gave us a little bit of money. So I've just so reapplied to Honda. And I just had a meeting this week with Amazon Global Road Safety. Oh, that is really big crime. They said, don't be afraid to be very specific about what you need. And I said, well, I need money. You know, I need money. And so we're gonna meet again in a couple weeks and talk about next steps, but we're trying to figure out a way to work together because I don't know if you know this, but Amazon is opening this massive warehouse on Sand Island. Yep. There's gonna be more trucks on the road and vans and, you know, they're, you know, they're sprinter vans. And, you know, so I said to them, you guys are, you know, moving in and Hawaii, you know, Hawaii would be a good place for you guys to contribute to the education outreach. And so really the more money we get, the more students we can reach, the broader expansion we can make. And now, Flagman is in Connecticut. Next year we'll be in, we'll add to Fairfield to another town and then we'll be in Hawaii and every year we'll add in Hawaii to where everywhere. And, you know, we've got five, 10, 15 and 20 year plans, but by 20 years from now, it's going to be in every state and it's, you know, our goal is seven countries in 20 years. I see big things for Flagman and thank you for sharing about how much you put in financially. I feel, or at least from my perspective, I never thought starting a nonprofit would cost any sort of money. I don't know, I just assumed you start something and that's it, no money gets put into it at all. And 100,000, you know, put in of your own money, but to raise that much money as well, it just shows that there's a really big mission. So finally, what does it look like, you know, what more would you need and how would that money help you get to where you need to be in Flagman? Yeah, so we've written many different budgets just trying to appeal to potential funders, whether it's grants, donations, federal money. And like ideally, our first year budget actually was right around 1.3 mil. If we had gotten 1.3 mil in our first or second year, we would be able to focus on not just being in Connecticut and Hawaii, but Pennsylvania's waiting, New York is waiting, Virginia's waiting. You know, I've had an opportunity to go and speak at different conferences in Seattle, Lifesavers, Flagman was awarded the Peter K. O'Rourke Traffic Safety Award in Times Square in August. I just got home from New Orleans where we were a finalist of the Green Cross Safety Award and then AAA Northeast gave us their Traffic Safety Hero Award and all of those opportunities are great because then we can get in front of audiences that we maybe haven't reached out. But if we had 1.3 million dollars, I could hire, you know, I could hire the people that I, you know, right now there's two of us that are like full-time meaning, you know, we're not getting paid but we're doing full-time hours and we've got a third marketing, our marketing guy, Jason, who, you know, we meet with every week and he advises us and mentors, you know, the advancement of Flagman but there's literally two people working on this bunch of those and we need a team of people. We're trying to do what Matt did 41 years ago. We wanna be in every state, regional, we wanna have offices everywhere so that others can run the Flagman Education Outreach Program. That's incredible and Matt is a big organization that I look up to as well because we also have our own nonprofit but I believe with everything that you're doing right now and the time you're putting in, Flagman will be known worldwide. So what are your 2024 goals for Flagman and what's your vision moving forward from there? Yeah, well, China land funding, like we have a plan, we may get a million dollars and we'll know by July of 2024 but if we get that, then we can hire, expand the team, expand our reach and start growing outside of the two states that we're in. So that's really, our eyes are really on that. We're finishing our branding right now and we're gonna have all of our own materials for the Education Outreach instead of buying third-party materials that you could see in the pictures. Those were things that I bought online. Everything will be Flagman branded. So our goal is, my goals are very much to, my team keeps telling me to slow down, slow down. Flagman is gonna have its time but I would like to be in three states by the end of 2024 and I would like to find international funding so that we can go to the 500 American students in Quebec, Canada and start with their English-speaking schools and then translate Flagman into French so that we can reach the French citizens. So we've got, that would be great. That's not gonna happen in 2024 but I'm hoping that's gonna happen in 2025. Well, I see really big things coming your way and thank you so much Cindy for sharing about your family, your brother, your mission and your vision. I know that Flagman will heavily affect Hawaii in the most positively possible and for the future generations to come. I think this is so important and needs to be talked about more as a everyday conversation. Yeah, well, I'm sorry for your loss and I just love and adore your mom and I love and I learned about you. I was like, wait, what? I wanted to tell you when I went to the Lifesavers Conference in Seattle, there were women there just like you and me. I had suffered losses and are doing something about it so thank you for everything that you're doing. Thank you so much and thank you so much again for being on the show. I really appreciate your time and your knowledge. Looking forward to working together. I look forward to chatting with you soon. Okay, the next episode of Money Talks, I'm Sheena Park, a Gen C inspiring lives of liberties. Thank you. Thank you, Sheena.