Building Unbreakable Brands

Meghan Lynch: Welcome back to Building Unbreakable Brands, the podcast for leaders with a generational mindset. I'm Megan Lynch, founder of Six Point Strategy. Today's episode is a little different and very special because my guest is someone who's not just inspiring to me as a business owner, but also as a mom. My son, Henry Lynch, is usually my co-host on this podcast, but today he is the one in the hot seat as guest. Now, Henry is only nine years old, but he is already the founder of a new business, Henry's Recycling that I know he's very excited to tell our listeners all about. So Henry, welcome to your very first guest appearance on building Unbreakable brands.

Henry Lynch: You're basically just saying, welcome to my own podcast.

Meghan Lynch: Exactly. I thank you. But welcome. How does it feel to be the one being asked the questions instead of asking the questions?

Henry Lynch: Well, I feel like this just seems crazy. I've just been waiting for this forever. I wanted to start a company. I didn't know what I thought about doing a lemonade stand with my friends, but I thought that I should do something bigger. I should do a website.

Meghan Lynch: So tell us about the business that you started recycling and why did you decide to start it?

Henry Lynch: So the reason I started Henry's Recycling was I've seen a lot of people in the streets. They have nowhere to go, and I thought instead of giving them lemonade or whatever, I should be giving them something else. And that's where I kind of got to with you. We wanted to give them change or something, but we just never did it. I don't know why. I guess we were busy or something, and we were just always forgetting. And I keep reminding her like, ah, shoot, we should have. So I decided to stirred up a business where you're not only just giving them change, but you're giving them food and you're donating to charities.

Meghan Lynch: So where are you getting the money to do this donation? A big part of it is doing the donation, buying food for people who are homeless or hungry. But where are you getting the money in order to do that?

Henry Lynch: Well, I take people's bottles and cans, and a lot of people will just wonder, why can't I just go to the trash truck? And we have a little thing where it's better than the trash truck recycling, and just the reasons why would be that we have many workers and we just kind of like all my friends help me, and we sort out all the cans and sometimes beer bottles and we just drive over to Connecticut and we go to the recycling center and we bring in all the cans. And the reason we drive all the way to Connecticut, which is a 20 minute drive from us, it's because they give us double the money. So usually it'll be five where we live, but you get 10 if you go to Connecticut, 10 cents.

Henry Lynch: So I thought that this would be just a perfect way. And so now over near the kitchen table, we have care packages with food and change and a bit of candy. And so I think it's just been successful so far. We have a website, we have posters up around, and it's just all this really cool stuff that I think in my mind, all this awesome ideas, and not to brag, but good ideas, they all come to life and it means a lot to me that I'm fulfilling not only my wish, but my mom's wish. So that's always just been something big for me.

Meghan Lynch: And there was a video at school that inspired you?

Henry Lynch: Yes. So another reason I got this idea was one of my amazing teachers at school. Everyone loves him. He's awesome. He's nice. He's quite funny except he's leaving next year. And because I have just about a week of school left, I have to wait until I'm in middle school in seventh grade just to see him for history class, and his whole class is getting shut down now. Yeah,

Meghan Lynch: That's such a bummer.

Henry Lynch: Yeah. I've tried petitions, so I haven't really finished them yet.

Meghan Lynch: Mr. A showed you a video. What was the video and why did it make you think like, Ooh, I could do that too?

Henry Lynch: So there is Orion's Recycling and he does the same thing, but he donates all of the money, all the money, all to, it's like a Seal Wildlife Center, and it helps sea lions and seals, just all this pollution and waste that is just outrageous. Yeah.

Meghan Lynch: What was it about seeing Ryan's video and hearing his story that made you think like, oh, maybe I could do recycling? You were thinking Lemonade stand before you saw that video, right?

Henry Lynch: Yeah, it really fit in with both of my ideas, except I wanted to do something different. I wanted to be inspired from him, but I didn't want to call it on Rent Recycling 2.0 and donate to the same charity and all that stuff.

Meghan Lynch: So you kind of made it your own?

Henry Lynch: Yeah, I made it look and sound and of course, act not really even that, but just be different. But yeah, it's been really successful. We've had two customers though, but they gave us a ton of cans and beer bottles. We got a lot of beer bottles, so I feel like it's just so worth it.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah. Is there something that surprised you about starting your own business? Was there anything that was either harder than you expected or easier than you expected?

Henry Lynch: I feel like it would be harder to come up with ideas for the care packages, but as we were at the glorious Stop and Shop with the Robot Martin brainstorming ideas, we were there to do the cans that they didn't accept at the recycling center. And even some of those declined. But either way, we went on our glorious journey and just decided, well, we're going to be getting food anyways, so why don't we just get it in one scoop, two birds with one stone, and then here we have Ziploc bags, so we just put 'em in those. And I got to remember this, but I think we had Pop-Tarts in two different flavors. Go-go squeeze two different flavors. We had this iced tea lemonade, it was like Arizona iced tea lemonade flavor, and we had a little mini Oreo packages and mini chips, a hoy packages and a little nutter butter things, but we had to put a label warning that they had peanuts.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah. That was good thinking.

Henry Lynch: And yeah.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah, they're nice that their care packages that I would be excited to get, you got picked out a lot of good stuff to put in them,

Henry Lynch: But it's not just that makes me smile. It's just that we are not only making someone's day, but we're giving them this hope and positivity and just all this awesome stuff. And the most important of all, we're giving them food.

Meghan Lynch: Exactly.

Henry Lynch: They're more snacks, but I feel like it's just perfect because a lot of the time they're just ignored so much.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah. That's really special. So you found that the putting the care packages was actually easier than you thought it would be?

Henry Lynch: Yes. Cool. But yeah, it ended out a lot simpler to just take on two things at once, because I mean, one step at a time, it's good, but if you want to make your business fast, then my advice, because I'm a business owner that I would recommend that if you have the opportunity to make something faster, but it's not just, it's good, but it's fast. If you have that opportunity, then take it and just dive into it. And it's why when I see a bit of a problem, oh, we have to plan all this stuff for the care packages, me and my friend Ilyas brainstormed and we're just like, why can't we just do it here?

Meghan Lynch: Yeah. I thought that was such a good idea.

Henry Lynch: You said that we should do it after we do all the beer cans and bottles. I said, fine. Then we'd have the money, and we got 20, $30, almost 30.

Meghan Lynch: That was awesome.

Henry Lynch: And I feel like just for a first day that I'm really proud of, not just me, but my friends, Ilyas and Michael and Leland and you mom. And I've just felt like that not only Ryan can be an inspiration, but everyone can, and everyone can just do so much good and all this awesome stuff if they give not only themselves, but give other people an opportunity.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah, exactly. I can tell you're already thinking like a CEO, which is just awesome to see. I'm curious, do you have any big dreams for the future of Henry's recycling

Henry Lynch: Big dreams? Wow. I think we just have goals more than dreams, because dreams are like a source. But not only that, but goals are just all this positivity and encouragement. It's making a New Year's resolution. You might, some people might not want to do it, but sometimes you just take little steps of, if you have a New Year's resolution to keep your room clean, then just do all these little tiny things every hour or day. And it can just be something that you find simple, putting away your shoes, and it's not super fast, but it's effective. And not only is it effective, but it's also really you make yourself proud when you're on the last step.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah. It's so satisfying to make that progress.

Henry Lynch: Just all the progress. But I feel like goals that we have and want to achieve would be just to really make someone's day, and that's all that matters.

Meghan Lynch: That's awesome.

Henry Lynch: Yeah. You don't need dreams when you're living in a dream, it's just like, wow. You kind of amaze yourself and wow, just every day I did this one teeny tiny thing for something, and now it's turned into this. Wow. I have done five sit-ups every hour, and now I am already super strong, and I find stuff a lot easier to handle, but it can really be with anything is just the only thing you need is hope. And if you live on that hope and you strive to achieve your goals, then you're going to get there and it's not going to happen. It's not going to take a year to happen. It's just going to be, Just all happening right in front of your face. Awesome. Yeah.

Meghan Lynch: I'm feeling like fired up right now.

Henry Lynch: Me too.

Meghan Lynch: Go do something.

Henry Lynch: Yeah.

Meghan Lynch: I'm curious, if somebody has never heard of Henry's recycling before, what do you say to them to get them interested in participating, being a member, giving you their cans and recycling instead of the trash truck?

Henry Lynch: Well, yeah, like I said in the beginning, all that awesome stuff. We do it for care packages. We don't just do it to take money.

Henry Lynch: We have missions, we have goals, and we're pointing to use stuff that can't be recycled, and we're going to turn that into little creations.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah, I'm curious about that.. Is there anything that you're imagining building?

Henry Lynch: I have no idea, but we'll figure it out. Cool. But I feel like I want to be a beam of hope and positivity to everyone to show them that it doesn't take much to do good. Yeah.

Meghan Lynch: So it sounds like that is already some great advice, but I'm curious if there's other kids who are listening to this or if their parents are listening to this and the kids want to start their own business or help their community, do you have any advice for them?

Henry Lynch: Start small, start tiny. It doesn't matter because at one point you're going to be a huge business, and especially if you set these little goals, it doesn't matter if it's doing something small or if it's doing half of what your business does to do whatever, make money. But I just feel like that if you set your goals and if you start tiny, you're going to become really big and it's going to happen right before your eyes. And so you might start really small with a lemonade stand, and then it just feels like, and then you're already in your swimming in gold. It's crazy. It is just having positivity and having hope that helps spread positivity and hope.

Meghan Lynch: I love it. Oh, this is awesome. Okay, so last question for you. Why do you think it's important for people of any age to build businesses that take care of the planet and help others?

Henry Lynch: Well, I feel like that at some point it's going to be too late. And so what I'm doing is I'm starting early, so it's simpler to just make up my mind and I have so much more time. But I feel like I've been saying this just about all this conversation. It's all about hope and positivity.

Henry Lynch: If you think that you can become a stunt man when you're eight and when you're 18, you realize that you have so much stuff going on. There is always room, always room for hope always. And there's just always room for your dreams. There is no live a piano lesson now, but my favorite movie's on It's okay on it. And it's just all about practicing. Except the thing with hope. You don't have to practice. There is no practice. It's just believing. And so if I can believe that we will come to a big business, then we will, because I believe in that and I believe in hope.

Meghan Lynch: I love it. That's great.

Henry Lynch: And so it doesn't matter what age you are, it matters what, not just what your strategy is, but what's your choice?

Meghan Lynch: Yes.

Henry Lynch: If you make these tiny changes, it can still affect a lot, except it's not stressful If you have belief, if I am doing posters and I'm doing it on this podcast, I'm advertising kind of, and people are living far away, sometimes it'll take away the hope that will become a big business. But who says we have to stay here?

Meghan Lynch: Right? Yeah. Don't have to be just in Massachusetts. Could be anywhere.

Henry Lynch: Yeah. You could be in California someday.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah.

Henry Lynch: But that's just all about believing, and I can believe that we'll be a big business someday.

Meghan Lynch: Alright. All right. I love it. On that note, I think that about wraps it up, but usually I know on building unbreakable brands, you usually end with a joke.

Henry Lynch: So today, yeah. I also usually do a majority of the questions.

Meghan Lynch: I know. And now you're in the hot seat and I have a joke for you.

Henry Lynch: No.

Meghan Lynch: Yes. Are you ready? Why is the recycling bin always happy?

Henry Lynch: I dunno. Why?

Meghan Lynch: Because it has a can do attitude.

Henry Lynch: Yeah, I was thinking something with cans.

Meghan Lynch: Get it. Can do attitude.

Henry Lynch: Yeah.

Meghan Lynch: You're not laughing.

Henry Lynch: It's not funny. But I have a joke for you that I came up with myself and not used ChatGPT or AI or something like you always do.

Meghan Lynch: Alright, let's hear it.

Henry Lynch: What did the trash or recycling bin use to paint?

Meghan Lynch: To paint? I don't know what

Henry Lynch: A canvas.

Meghan Lynch: A canvas. Oh, that's awesome. You just came up with that.

Henry Lynch: Yeah, I came up with it as soon as you were planning the questions, like I usually do, but it wouldn't make sense for me to ask questions to myself.

Meghan Lynch: True.

Meghan Lynch: Right, Henry, bring us home. How can listeners learn more about Henry's recycling?

Henry Lynch: Well, I think the most obvious thing would be to go to our website recycling.org. There is no space and there is no, there's no uppercase. It's just henrysrecycling.org.

Meghan Lynch: All right. Perfect. We can link to that in the show notes, so they can easily sign on. If they're in the area, you can sign up to get your cans collected. And if you're not in the area, you can definitely follow along the journey and see Henry's recycling grow from a small business to who knows what. Some big

Henry Lynch: Enterprise, and this is not really on the topic, but because I've given them just about no credit, I have to shout out my friend Ilyas He is just such a big inspiration.

Henry Lynch: Yeah, so, oh, I, something I didn't add, dang it. Using my little salary to get little prizes. And so we have a little system that's also inspired by my teacher, Mr. A, and so he gives out little tickets, and when you get three of those tickets by the end of the month, you can cash in to get a prize or you can save up, except the prizes don't change. And so I've done that except it's credits and I'll mark you on a chart. I'll take your first or last name or whatever, and I'll say, oh yeah, the Rand Quartz, who is an actual customer, the Rand Quartz have one credit, and instead of by the end of the month, it's just the next time you donate, you can have that chance to do a little cash in. The next time you come or we come to you, we can bring a prize bucket.

Meghan Lynch: Nice. So a little customer loyalty incentive to keep coming back. Keep bringing those cans

Henry Lynch: Over. Yeah. I know that there is a lot of people that the thought in their mind is, I can't, but the mindset that you're not going to do well in business for that, the mindset you need to have is I can, but if I try,

Meghan Lynch: Yes. That's awesome. Alright, well, thank you Henry, so much for being a guest on your own podcast.

Henry Lynch: A special guest.

Meghan Lynch: Special guest on your own podcast and answering questions. And I'm sure if listeners have other questions for you, they can leave a comment and you'll get to those and answer their questions if they leave a comment on building unbreakable brands. Right?

Henry Lynch: Yeah.

Meghan Lynch: All right. I'm happy to answer. You want to know why? Because I always have time. There is no, I don't have time for this or that.

Henry Lynch: You make time.

Meghan Lynch: Yeah, I make it happen.

Henry Lynch: That's awesome. Alright, well thank you, Henry. I'm so proud of you and so proud of everything you've done and so proud of the positivity that you're spreading. It's really, it truly is inspirational to be your mom. And I can't wait to see what's next for Henry's recycling and for you.

Henry Lynch: Yeah. And mom.

Meghan Lynch: I

Henry Lynch: Love you. See you. I'll see you in the same room.

Meghan Lynch: Okay. Bye.

Henry Lynch: Love you. Love you.