Seventeen years ago, Bobby Hoffman was stuck in traffic on a Friday night with nothing waiting for him at home but laundry. A car cut him off. He was angry enough to consider ramming it. And then he heard a question that changed the direction of his life: were you paying attention?
That was the epiphany. Bobby called his friends, told them to show up with twenty dollars each, and sent them out into the community to “break the ball of stress.” What started as one night with a handful of guys became ePIFanyNow, a Mid-Michigan kindness movement now in its seventeenth year. Their first community event drew 350 people, including a biker gang nobody remembers inviting.
In this conversation, Bobby and Nicole talk about what it actually takes to turn good intentions into a movement, why kindness is not a soft skill, and why the kindest people are so often the ones who have been hurt the most.
In this episode:
- The drive-thru moment and the highway moment that sparked ePIFanyNow in 2009
- Why the name is spelled the way it is (E-P-I-F stands for Pass It Forward)
- The free venue, the phone call to the mayor, and the 350 people who showed up to the first event
- The science of kindness: why the giver, the receiver, and the witness all get the feel-good chemicals
- Bobby’s answer to the “you’re so Pollyanna” pushback, and where the term “soft skills” actually came from
- The difference between being nice and being kind, and why kindness can carry authority
- What Bobby does when he is the one who needs a break from kindness work
- Growing up as the bullied kid, and how that became the fuel
- Nicole shares the Botox study that explains why your face changes the room
- “Kindness changes the room before you ever say a word.”
About Bobby Hoffman
Bobby Hoffman spent more than two decades as Public Relations Manager at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts before founding Thought Partner Services, a people-first consultancy focused on leadership, culture, customer experience, and communication under pressure. He co-hosts FOX 47’s Morning Blend, produces the weekly Good Neighbors segment, and celebrates teachers through the Michigan Lottery’s Excellence in Education. He was named Michigan’s 2023 Volunteer of the Year.
Connect with Bobby
- ePIFanyNow: epifanynow.com
- Thought Partner Services: thoughtpartnerservices.com
- Email: bobhoffman11@gmail.com
Quotable
“It’s not a soft skill. It’s a missing skill in our culture right now.”
“Kindness changes the room before you ever say a word.”
Remember, what you look for is what you see.
