S7E7 - John El-Maraghy
This week’s guest is John El-Maraghy, non-profit professional, and Director at Archangel Raphael's Mission (ARM).
John is was born and raised in New Jersey where he is currently based. He started his career in impact consulting and then transitioned into non-profit. He made the move when during a time of self-discovery, he he realised he wanted to be of service.
For John, it is important for him to believe in the mission of the organization that he is working for whether it is non-profit or for profit and in both his full-time job and his volunteering with ARM he has found that.
ARM was founded to be a support system for people in need. After starting out as a food service organisation, they shifted their focus to health and hygiene interventions providing mobile showers and a mobile barbershop.
Topics covered:
Career transition
Service to others
Finding your purpose
Treating others with humanity and dignity
Importance of being aligned with an organization’s mission in any type of work
How to get into volunteering
Note from Rabiah (Host):
You won’t hear it but I had SO much trouble saying the name of the organization! Thank goodness for acronyms. I learned that Archangel Rafael is the patron saint of healing and the work that ARM does definitely serves that purpose. John and I spoke about ARM’s affiliation with a church but how the involvement of the church doesn’t extend to evangelism. It is so important that when any of us set out to do charitable work as individuals or organisations, that we remove personal gain from the objectives and that’s just what happens here. I mention it to John but one thing I really appreciated in our talk, besides how he is going about giving, is the respect he has for the people he is serving in the way he talks about them. It is something I’ve thought about again in editing. I volunteer for a charity that serves the homeless in London and often think about how people are treated depending on their social status.
Sorry it has been so long since the last episode. If you’re listening for the first time, I hope you’ll go back and listen to the 100+ episodes that have been published and join us next time!
Rabiah (London) and John (New Jersey) talk about career shifts and service.
Transcript
Rabiah Coon: [00:00:35] This is More Than Work, the podcast reminding you that your self-worth is made up of more than your job title. Each week, I'll talk to a guest about how they discovered that for themselves. You'll hear about what they did, what they're doing, and who they are. I'm your host, Rabiah. I work in IT, perform standup comedy, write, volunteer, and of course, podcast.
Thank you for listening. Here we go.
Hey everyone. Welcome back to More Than Work. So my guest today is John El-Maraghy and he is the director at Archangel Raphael's Mission, also called ARM, which I'll be sticking with cause I couldn't say that twice now. So thanks for being here.
John El-Maraghy: No, thank you so much for having me.
Rabiah Coon: And so, John, where am I talking to you from?
John El-Maraghy: So I live in Jersey City so right outside of New York, but ARM operates primarily in Central and North Jersey. So we [00:01:35] go probably about as south as the Jersey Shore for those who are familiar Not from the television show, the real Jersey Shore. And we go about as far north as basically where I live. So cover about a 30, 35 mile line across the Central and Northern part of New Jersey.
Rabiah Coon: Awesome. That's great. And did you grow up in New Jersey?
John El-Maraghy: Yep. Born in Jersey, raised in Jersey, and all indications or that I'll die in Jersey.
Rabiah Coon: That's what it's seeming like. Yeah. No, it's, it's cool. And I know you're right across from New York. I was definitely in Jersey City a few times when I, when I lived over there. But what did you start out doing before you were working at ARM?
John El-Maraghy: So, ARM actually started for me in college. So at the time I was in the service industry which I think definitely there's a a connection there between kind of the hospitality component of what we like to offer at ARM. My wife and, well, my then girlfriend, but now wife and co-founder also at college.
Also a hospitality professional at the time. And then after graduation, my [00:02:35] wife ended up becoming a nurse. She's a nurse right now in New York, actually at the Mount Sinai Hospital. And I went on to a career originally in consulting. But then transitioned to the nonprofit sector, which is where I currently work.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah. Yeah. And it's, I mean, they're a lot different for sure, consulting and non-profit. So when you went into consulting, were you doing business development or what kind of stuff were you doing there?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, so I was working primarily in like borderline impact consulting. I call it impact consulting. So we were primarily doing commercialization and exposure work. So things like, like pitch competitions, like very Shark Tanky things to highlight new and upcoming technology specifically in the health space.
And we would work for clients like the IFC, the World Bank, the City of New York, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. So very, you know, very nonprofit adjacent. But yeah, there's, there was definitely a distinction between my consulting life and my nonprofit administration life.
Rabiah Coon: Mm-hmm. And then so what brought you to [00:03:35] deciding to move into non-profit?
John El-Maraghy: Well, you know, I think for me that was always where I wanted to be. Like, actually, one of the reasons I left my consulting role is because the, the makeup and culture of the company had had switched more towards traditional McKinsey style consulting, where we would kind of just do management consulting and business administration and things like that.
And I've often found that, you know, and I kind of sometimes call it a curse. I mean, it's a beauty and a curse, but I really can't work well, you know, at at the level that I like to be producing work at, unless I really believe in, in the mission of the organization that I work, that I work for.
It doesn't necessarily have to be nonprofit, you know, it can be for profit, but you know, it really does have to be there has to be a mission alignment for me, and that's why I knew that if I, if I transitioned into the nonprofit world, I would never have to worry about a, a culture shift like we had when I was in the consulting world.
Rabiah Coon: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that makes sense. And especially as things have evolved over time, I mean, people are looking for more meaningful or mission driven [00:04:35] work and even in our lives we try to be more intentional. Some of us. I won't say everybody.
John El-Maraghy: Hopefully. Yeah, exactly. That's the goal.
Rabiah Coon: Do you know what brought you to that kind of mindset? Just cuz I'm someone who relates very, very much to being service minded and being of, of the thought that that kind of even mindset about working somewhere that you believe in their mission and values is important. Whether I do that or not all the time is another thing. But do you know what drove you to that kind of thinking and life?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that question. So, you know, for me it was very much like a journey of self-discovery. So ARM was kind of a expression of a, of a level of maturity that I hadn't reached up until that point. I was in college. I actually, I think at the time that I, it's hard to remember that far back, but at the time I believe I was actually working full-time, having not graduated college. College had kind of gone to the wayside and, you know, I was, I was kind of just focusing on living like a [00:05:35] young bachelor life going out, that kind of stuff. And, and I realized, I had a moment of, of self actualization where I was like this is extremely selfish and I could very easily go down the wrong road here. And it kind of brought up the, the conundrum of, well, a lot of folks who end up like me and are lucky enough to progress professionally, and folks who don't, the deciding factor is usually just a support system. So that's where we kind of, the initial thought behind ARM was, well, can we be a support to people in our community that maybe don't have a significant of, of a support system?
So it was, it was definitely an expression of growth and, an expression of appreciation for, for the position that I'm in and, and the ability for us to affect change like that.
Rabiah Coon: Hmm. Yeah. And that's a big insight to get especially kind of at the age you were at too. Cause I think it's hard to recognize, I mean, what is often labeled as privilege or, you know, luck or different things like that, [00:06:35] right?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. You know, it, it really comes down to luck. I mean, you know, I had friends. In similar familial financial circumstances that, that that experience a significantly more hardship. And I had, you know, friends who didn't have as, as much circumstances go on to, to be very successful.
So, you know, for me it really was a realization that, a, a support system is, in my opinion, more of a privilege than having money in your bank account. There's little that you can't do with people behind you.
Rabiah Coon: Mm-hmm. And so besides being an inexplicable tongue twister, for me, there's no reason it should be, what is ARM?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, no, it is, it's it's impossibly long. We always make jokes about that ourselves. So at the time when we started ARM and actually grew out of an existing church outreach or service, so I kind of got connected to this group after having this realization and kind of, it kind of more and more became my responsibility as folks [00:07:35] moved or got married or, you know, their life took them on a different course.
And at a certain point we realized that it was, it was important to spin off. But before that all church programs within our parish at least needed to have like a patron saint. And so ours was Archangel Rafael and who was the patron saint of healing.
But so that's where the name comes from?
Rabiah Coon: Oh, cool. Yeah, and I mean, I don't know, it's like he's easy for you to say. I don't know why I kept, I kept thinking, Michael, there's one called Michael, right?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah. Yeah. There's, I mean, I'm by no means a theologian. There's a, there's, there are a couple archangels, I think I wanna say, I, I wanna say there's either four or six. I could be wrong there, but yeah, there, there are multiple an arch Raphael happened to be the one that was the patron and state of healing.
Rabiah Coon: Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. I don't know why I'm gonna have to look up Michael, because it's been in my head like the whole day for some reason, knowing we were gonna have this conversation and so, so right now, are you guys a nonprofit that's not affiliated with the parish, or are you still part of the parish?[00:08:35]
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, that's a great question. And that's another thing that one of the main reasons we go by ARM is because, especially where we are here in like central and North Jersey, you know, organizations with religious sounding names tend to be automatically associated with evangelistic organizations, which we're not.
You know, my wife and I are Christian, but we have atheist members. We have, you know, Muslim members. Like, no, nothing that we do is inherently evangelistic and And so it's, that's one of the main reasons we do go by ARM because we want people to get the right impression of us. There's nothing wrong with evangelistic organizations, I just, it's just not what we do.
That being said, though, we do receive a lot of support still from our church community. So, I'm a member of the Coptic Orthodox Church in New Jersey and a lot of folks there are very generous and very loving people, and they continue to support us and we definitely appreciate their support.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah, for sure. And so what do you guys do as an organization?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, so, we primarily focus on health and hygiene interventions through the lens of hygiene and dignity. [00:09:35] So initially when we had first started, it was really more food service oriented, so making sandwiches. We always like to joke that we started making sandwiches on the hood of my Subaru. Which was very not, you know, health code appropriate.
But, you know, we've, since we've since learned we don't really do as much food service or it's really, it doesn't comprise like the center of what we do anymore. That being said, we are part of a feeding agency in town. We are one of a number of agencies that engage in that kind of behavior. But our, you know, hero services or our primary services revolve around two major programs.
The first one is, The big one, the shiny one. This is our mobile shower program. So we have a trailer with two shower stalls in it. We provide free hot showers to folks in need, and similarly along those veins. Everything for us is mobile oriented. We also have a mobile barbershop that we just launched this year.
Um, Yeah, which is super exciting. So it's a three chair mobile barber shop that we're able to pull into, you know, the exact same places that we'd be pulling in for showers. So we're, we're [00:10:35] looking at probably alternating those services throughout the the summer. So we primarily operate in the warm weather months, so from about early June through to mid-October.
Rabiah Coon: Mm-hmm. And how did you come up with the idea that this was the way to go? And I'll just say, look, I live in a part of London that, you know, we do have a, an unhoused community for sure. All over the US you're seeing this. I mean, I'm from California. I lived in San Diego for years, that it's a major thing there, but, so there are, like you said, people handing out sandwiches all the time, though. How did you come to decide that showers were the way to go and now haircuts?
John El-Maraghy: So for us, we initially had started with, you know, food service and at the time Rutgers had like a very vibrant food truck culture. And so we thought it'd be kind of cool to get like a mobile food truck like a mobile soup kitchen, which is still innovative, but much more common throughout the world.
And actually my wife saw this video of another organization out west that kind of, [00:11:35] I would say, if not started, popularized the idea of mobile showers. They're called Lava Mae. She saw that video about four or five years ago. Over the last four years, we kind of shifted that focus towards showers.
And like you mentioned before as well, you know, we really like the idea of being able to do something that wasn't replicated in the community. There's a lot of social work organizations, there's a lot of housing organizations, there's a lot of food organizations. There's effectively zero hygiene focused organizations in our area.
And so it was an, it was an an awesome opportunity for us to provide a, a needed service, a service that wasn't currently being facilitated, and also allowed us the freedom to partner with a lot of organizations without existing in a competitive space. So it was kind of a win-win, win.
Rabiah Coon: And so what impact are you seeing this have on people? Because I can imagine just not being able to shower is, I mean, if you go on a trip like overseas and you get off the plane, you wanna take a shower, so, It has to be a really big impact on someone not being able to do that.
John El-Maraghy: Funny [00:12:35] enough I've actually been talking to a lot of people about The Last of Us for this. So the, you know, the, the popular zombie and there's like a number of episodes in this series or in season one, where like a character finds out that there's running water and that they can take a shower and they are like, blown away, you know?
And so it's, it, it really creates that same experience. And, and I'm so glad that, really good actors and and writers have kind of included this multiple times throughout the series. So I encourage, I don't, I'm not paid by HBO. I wish I was, but I, I encourage everyone to, to go watch The Last of Us.
Specifically, I think it was episode three that, like the one that everyone's like very emotionally touched by. There's a, there's a, a portion there where a character is like offered a hot shower and it's like, it's very invigorating for them. It's really the same experience that we see every day.
You know, I always like to say a shower's not gonna change someone's life, but it is gonna change their day and it's gonna make them feel supported in the community. Especially as we look at this from [00:13:35] a, like a cause area perspective. There's an importance of creating more availability for hygiene in our community.
So showers are a very obvious one, but like, I hate the idea of like locked bathrooms. So like, you know, bathrooms for paying customer only. There are all of these kind of ways that we can discriminate against people who lack hygiene access in our community so that the shower is kind of the hero product, so to speak.
But really the goal is to get people to understand the importance of cross access for hygiene, because there are moments where we need it. I can't tell you how many times I've been out. I have my huge hydra flask here. I really need to use the restroom and because I look the way that I look, there's really a few restrooms that are off limits to me, to be perfectly honest.
But
Rabiah Coon: Yeah.
John El-Maraghy: if I look differently, that'd be a different story.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah, that's true. And, and just the idea too, I mean this one pub I go to, they always let people use their, the toilet there. And I'm not gonna say which one cause I don't want everyone running there, not that I have that many listeners. And I [00:14:35] asked the manager that one time, I'm, well, I just said, you know, I go, it's cool that you guys do that cause not everyone does.
And he's like, well, more often than not, it's just someone who can't find a place to go and they need to go. So it's better they go here than go on the street, which a lot of people do, or, basically just have a health issue eventually or something. And it's interesting to me that it's such a basic thing, but then I've, I've been in that situation where I'm like, where can I go?
I have to go now. You just mentioning that, that makes it more I think.
John El-Maraghy: No, it's so true. And, and like the, like the owner of that pub mentioned, there's this philosophy or there's the, this belief that if you make certain things illegal or off limits, they just disappear and it's just not true. You're only gonna have cascading issues associated with that.
Whether it's that person is now gonna relieve themself on your property or that person is gonna re relieve themself publicly and then they're gonna get in, in try. I don't know what the rules are over there in the uk, but it's a pretty serious offense to get caught relieving yourself in public here in the States.
And you know, again, we talk about [00:15:35] cascading effects. You could have someone who's right there on the cusp of, of being okay and self-sufficient, and they get a court date and then they have to pay for a lawyer and then they miss their court date. These things spiral very quickly and it's, it's the rule, not the exception most times, unfortunately.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah, totally. And how are you staffing the mobile showers? And then how are you staffing the, the haircut arm of it too.
John El-Maraghy: Yeah. So the, so the, the haircut component, so we have like, on our board we actually have two owners of a barbershop. So that's obviously extremely helpful and they've been, in addition to their general excitement for our work overall, they've obviously been particularly excited about the barbershop component. So we generally work with them or other barbershops to provide professional barbers. That's definitely a big rule for us, that whatever service we're offering, we're utilizing a professional. And then, we rely very heavily on volunteers you know, every, every setup will usually engage at least three [00:16:35] volunteers, three to five volunteers over the course of three to five hours for a setup, maintaining the area, keeping it clean, managing the line, cleaning out the, the shower. So we clean every shower after every use, so everyone's walking into a nice clean shower. And then we also hire a part-time employee to manage our programs in the summer. I'd love to make it a full-time employee. Fingers crossed that, that that could become the case eventually, but right now we're, we're utilizing part-time labor to do kind of the towing and the maintenance and, you know, kind of working with the heavy equipment essentially.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah. That's great though. And it's like creating a job for someone, opportunity for people to volunteer and then of course helping people in the community. Have you gotten feedback from people directly who have used the, your programs and just what they've said about it and you know, kind of affirmation that yeah, this was something that was needed?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah. Yeah. There's always a couple that stick with [00:17:35] you. There was one guest. So Fridays is when we provide services in New Brunswick, and he's a New Brunswick guest. And he goes, Fridays are the day. He's like, this is my day to shower.
He's like, you know, I have to lock myself in a bathroom otherwise. So just the like, people plan their day around it and it's, unfortunately, it's sad, but at the same time it's also very touching to know that we've become such a big part of this person's life because of the service.
We're able to provide them that they, they build their schedule around us. We've had other people say kind of like what you typically would expect, someone who hasn't had access. That feels great. I feel so refreshed. Even visually you'll see someone they walk in, they're a little grumpy, obviously, they might have had a hard day up until this point.
They walk out, they look like a million pounds was lifted off their chest. It's a, it's a really great and transformative experience, especially the, the haircuts. I mean, the haircuts are literally visually transformative. They sit down in a chair. 20 minutes later, 30 minutes later, they literally look like a different person.
So it's all great feelings. And we we're very happy to have [00:18:35] very positive feedback from our guests about the services.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah, I mean I've seen even like on TikTok or something, like someone get a haircut and the change in them and just their demeanor and how they can carry themselves cuz they just, they do feel different and they do feel more, I'm sure human in a way, right? Because I think that's one
John El-Maraghy: a hundred percent.
Rabiah Coon: Big thing like you, like, I like that you called the people guests, you know, and just kind of seem to talk about them in a way that gives dignity where a lot of people don't, you know?
John El-Maraghy: Thank you. Yeah, that's very important for us. You know, we, we always use very hospitality focused language, so guest services, offerings. We always try to frame things as a... just like you would when you go to a hotel, right? When you go to a hotel, people are thanking you the entire time that you're there.
They're asking you what they can do for you. You know what I mean? Like in a pipe dream, I'd love to hire someone from like hardcore hospitality background eventually to, to run some of the programming for what we do because that's definitely, [00:19:35] we always say we want to facilitate as close to a spa-like experience as we possibly can.
I appreciate you picking up on that cuz it is a major component of our work and we've noticed that there are, you know, we're obviously not the only folks that do this in our communities. And I, I hazard to say we're the favorite and I think a lot of the reason that we're the favorite.
Is because of the way that we treat folks. It's not just, here, use it. You know, be thankful that it's here kind of thing. You really, you're thanking people for joining you. You're thanking people for supporting your work. You're thanking people for trusting you because it's a very intimate thing.
You know, it's, it's easy to go to a soup kitchen and you grab your food and you're on, you're on the go. You could, there's a lot of, you can make up a story of like, oh, you know, I forgot my lunch at home or something. It's a very intimate thing for someone to admit that they do need access to a shower, and so you have to, you have to really be cognizant of that in the way that you provide services to people.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah. Huh. Yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way. That was really, that's a good insight. And [00:20:35] so John, when you look at your career and you switched from consulting to non-profit and then you're doing a lot of work with ARM as well; first of all, what was the transition like to go from consulting to nonprofit? Can you talk a little bit about what you're doing in that space now?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah. So, you know when, when I initially had moved over from consulting work so this was about three and a half years ago. I went from essentially project management consulting. So a lot of I, a lot of what I was doing was operating programs for sponsoring agencies to fundraising. And in that role it was a lot more writing.
You know, I definitely miss the interpersonal. So it wasn't like, I basically never had a call on my calendar. My, the whole day my calendar was just writing grants, writing grants, writing grants, writing grants. And I, I think I, I definitely got, I, I got sick of it to be perfectly honest. So, um, I ended up moving back into the operations side of things as a volunteer [00:21:35] director and and then that was great because that was all ops, I was in the field three to five days a week.
It was very, very engaging. But then also I uh, I missed the fundraising component. And so in my, my most current role that I moved into earlier this year I have the, the pleasure of kind of combining both of those. So I do uh, corporate fundraising for a volunteer agency. And so what.
I do is it's a lot of kind of sales and fundraising, person to person, fundraising, calling people, managing relationships. But then there's also a component of being in the field, making sure people are happy with the, the service that they've invested in, in the nonprofit. So it's a nice combo and very, very different from the for-profit world in that regard. You know, in the for-profit world, it's, it's primarily based around very strict timetables. You're a lot more kind of at the mercy, for lack of a better term of your client.
In the nonprofit world, there's a lot more partnership oriented [00:22:35] work, which is nice. So there's, you're a little bit more of an equal partner in that regard, and I definitely appreciate that. I don't like the idea. Categorically, I mean, a across life. I don't like the idea of one group having, you know, a ton of power over another group.
I'm more of an equality oriented person, and so in the nonprofit sector, when it comes to corporate partnerships, you really are kind of working together as partners to achieve a mutual goal of your choosing. So in this case, it would be volunteer events.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah. That's awesome. And it's cool that you were able to, you've been able, now I'm a project manager by trade also. I've transitioned outta that role myself. But that's, I think once you are one, that's what you, you are in a way, Yeah.
It doesn't, doesn't change you. Your brain doesn't change that much, but I think it's cool that you've been able to apply that to go into nonprofit space and also for your career, but then also as a volunteer.
And one thing I wanna ask you about, cause you've mentioned a couple times that you rely on volunteers for quite a bit and then you yourself are one. And one [00:23:35] thing I try to tell people is whatever capacity you have to give people will be able to accept that from you if you can give it. And I think you're a good example of showing that people might just be cleaning the showers or they might be doing what you're doing, which is a more director role.
And so what's your experience been, both as a volunteer and working with volunteers? And do you agree with what I've said? Basically, mean,
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. You know, I would say And I would also say that, you know, for folks who are looking to volunteer, really, think through it in terms of how you want to impact the world. Like I, what I always find is like you get a lot of entrepreneurs in in some kind of social space because they have a very specific picture of what they wanna do and you actually can find a vol almost.
To a T you can find a volunteer role that will give you that experience if you do your homework on like, okay, what cause area am I interested in? What kind of volunteer [00:24:35] engagement am I interested in? Are you the kind of person that likes washing feet, for lack of a better term or are you kind of on the road, you wanna do the dirty job or do you wanna do what you do as a professional for a nonprofit? For example, something that I would love is someone like me who has a fundraising background that can join me on the fundraising side, right? And that requires skill and it also requires time.
And that's another thing too, is. Are you looking to do one-off volunteer engagements, a couple hours here, a couple hours there? Or are you looking to do a long service with one agency? Are you looking to become an advisory board member or someone that's really built into the volunteer staff of the agency?
I can say from personal experience that if you can think it, your a nonprofit of choice probably needs it. Even big ones. We're just so talent starved in the nonprofit space because there are a lot of societal expectations. I actually just saw an article on LinkedIn about how they, I forget who it was, but they did a study and they said that nonprofits really should be spending close to 30% of their income [00:25:35] on operate on admin in order to really accomplish their goal. And the societal expectation is about a third of that. So they, they usually say, people start to, to give a weird look on your financials if you're doing more than 10% administrative costs. So, so volunteering is a great way to kind of get in the middle of that and say, Hey, listen. I'm an accountant. I can do your books for you. It takes an accountant, almost nothing to do, to have one more client as, as a bookkeeping client. And it means the world to a nonprofit. So, whether it's you getting involved individually or getting whatever your firm is involved, that's a huge way to make a massive difference in whatever cause area you care about.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah. No, that's great. So John, one thing I'd like to ask everybody who's on the podcast is like, do you have any advice or mantra that you want to share with people? Just something maybe that you follow or something you, you think is important for them to think about?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, that's a great question. So I would say Something to think about is something that I like to think about is always [00:26:35] how can I provide a more dignified experience? So whether that's having a I think about people in traffic. When you're sitting in traffic and there are folks that are panhandling asking for money or supplies or whatever.
You know, how, how can you have a more dignified experience with this person instead of just looking down at your phone or pulling your car up, which we've all been guilty of, by the way. I'm not, I'm not here to judge people, but a couple things that I, I have tried to challenge myself to do in a situation like that would be opening the window and saying, Hey man, I'm sorry I don't have anything, but I hope you have a great day.
It's free, it's easy. It affirms the dignity of the person that you're dealing with. Another thing that my cousin likes to do, which I love, he takes he makes care packages with his wife and he keeps a couple in his car at all times. If you're not the kind of person that likes to give out money, I don't really get involved in that debate, money or goods.
But the important thing is that you're offering someone something that might be helpful for them. So that would be, that would be my mantra or thing to think about. How can you always make this experience more dignified for the [00:27:35] person that you're working with?
Rabiah Coon: Nice. That's great. Well, thanks.
Rabiah Coon: And the last set of questions I have are called the fun five, and they're just questions I ask every guest that have nothing to do with what they do or how important our conversation just was.
So first one, what's the oldest T-shirt you have and still wear?
John El-Maraghy: I actually have a hand me down from my uncle. And that is his high school football like a, like a championship shirt. Like it lists all the years that they were champions. And I wanna say that was from 74. So it's got, got, yeah, it was that. Is that 60 years?
Is that 50 years?
Rabiah Coon: Well,
John El-Maraghy: 10.
Rabiah Coon: 50.
John El-Maraghy: 49 years old.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah.
Yeah. Cause I was gonna say that's getting close to my age and I'm like, I'm not 60, so. Awesome. All right, cool. That's great. If every day was Groundhog's Day, what song would you have your alarm clock set to play every morning?
John El-Maraghy: So back when [00:28:35] my car used to like automatically play the first song in my library.
Rabiah Coon: Yes.
John El-Maraghy: no matter what. And I, I'm so glad that car manufacturers have figured that, that that is not a good system. It was "A Punk" by Vampire Weekend. And it's nice and upbeat, so I guess, I mean, I don't know how many times I could listen to that every single day for the first time, but it would definitely wake me up and it, for at least the first couple times, it would put me in a good mood.
Rabiah Coon: Awesome. Yeah. That is so, so annoying. Totally. Yeah. And this one is coffee or tea or neither?
John El-Maraghy: Oh, well, okay, so technically for me it's energy drinks. But those are very bad for you and I don't recommend people drinking energy drinks. So my second would be coffee, and that's the one that I'm trying to make my first.
Rabiah Coon: Nice. Well, what energy drink do you for though, if you're gonna go that way?
John El-Maraghy: So I was like borderline addicted to Red Bull. I would have two Red Bulls a day because that was
the deal. And that's how they get you. It's two for two for five.
So you [00:29:35] just, you, you start off your day, you get two, you drink two, whatever. Um, So for me it was Red Bull. It was um, and uh, I haven't had a Red Bull since.
That was my New Year's resolution. No more Red Bull. So I'm completely off Red Bull, but I will from time to time drink a Celsius. I do like, you know, they claim to be slightly healthier. I don't know how true that is, but that's, that's the one that I'm drinking now whenever I do need an energy drink.
Rabiah Coon: Gotcha. All right. Yeah, that's, wow. See, had you had a lot of wings for a while?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was winged out.
Rabiah Coon: Nice. All right. Can you think of something that just makes you just crack up, like laugh so hard you cry, or just kind of, I don't know, even chuckle to yourself when you think of it, or the last time that happened to you?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah. In general dad jokes. I love dad jokes. When everyone pops into my head, I just, I laugh to myself, you know? It's, I love 'em. I can live for 'em.
Rabiah Coon: Yeah. Nice. Alright, so the last [00:30:35] question is, who inspires you right now?
John El-Maraghy: So we have a, a, a couple volunteers in the organization who um, they're probably about 20 or 21. I'm 31 as a, as a comparison. So I'm about a decade older than these kids. And these young adults, excuse me, And they are like, they hound me with ideas and ways to make the organization better. And like, whenever I think this is all too much, it's time to just focus on my professional life.
It's, it's these young, idealistic people who take as much time as they possibly can to make the world a better place. Uh, an inspiration to me.
Rabiah Coon: Nice. That's awesome. It's really cool to hear. And so just to close out, where do you want people to find you? Or if you just want them to look up the organization, what, where do you want people to go online and what would you like them to do if there's an action you'd like them to take?
John El-Maraghy: Yeah, thanks. [00:31:35] So, I mean, obviously we'd never say no to a donation. But honestly just getting involved. Following us. Learning more about the organization. So the best way to do that we are at ARM give (@armgives) on all of your favorite social media profiles. So Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and if, and our website is ARM dot gives (arm.gives), so very easy to remember you know, connect with us.
Come say hi. We actually have. A couple of events going on. We have a, a mixer series going on through the summer, and then we have a like a panel discussion event going on in November. So if you're around and you want to join in visit arm.gives or @ARMgives on your favorite social platform.
Rabiah Coon: Awesome. Well, thanks a lot for being on More Than Work, John, I really appreciate it.
John El-Maraghy: No, thanks for having me. I appreciate you inviting us on.
Rabiah Coon: Thanks for listening. You can learn more about the guest and what was talked about in the show notes. Joe Maffia created the music you're listening to. You can find him on Spotify at Joe M A F F I A. Rob Metke does all the design for which I'm [00:32:35] so grateful you can find him online by. Searching Rob M E T K E.
Please leave a review if you like the show and get in touch if you have feedback or guest ideas. The pod is on all the social channels at at More Than Work pod (@morethanworkpod) or at Rabiah Comedy (@rabiahcomedy) on TikTok, and the website is more than work pod dot com (morethanworkpod.com). While being kind to others, don't forget to be kind to yourself.
