Meet The Disruptors: Tim Ballard of Operation Underground Railroad On The 5 Things You Need to Shake Up Your Industry

The best way I’ve found to manage that fear is to think about the children I’m walking in to rescue and put the face and name in my mind’s eye the name of the one of my own children closest in age to the key child (or children) we’re going to help. As the father of nine children (which include two children we adopted following one of the rescue operations in Haiti), there is sure to be someone at or near the age of the children we’re rescuing in a current operation. So, I say to myself, “Would you do this for XXXXX?” and visualize the face of my own child in my mind. Like every parent, my answer is “Of course I would.” And that gives me the calmness and strength to go forward.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tim Ballard, Founder and CEO of Operation Underground Railroad (OURrescue.org), which has been shaking up the war against child sex trafficking and exploitation since 2013.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I am Founder and CEO of the non-profit Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.). In my prior life, I spent more than a decade working as a Special Agent for the Department of Homeland Security where I was deployed as an undercover operative. I’ve worked every type of case imaginable to dismantle child trafficking rings and have worked undercover in the U.S. and multiple foreign countries to infiltrate and dismantle child trafficking organizations. I was led to this career path as I’ve witnessed the heartbreak of the children and families who’ve been so deeply affected by these crimes.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

The issues of child trafficking and sexual exploitation are horrific and growing. CyberTipline reports that online enticement for sexual exploitation in the U.S. nearly doubled in 2020 during the COVID lockdown, largely due to the opportunity that chatrooms and social media give predators to lure children to trust them. Education can only take us so far, and law enforcement agencies are flooded with cases and under-equipped to deal with this evil. So, we’ve stepped in to help, by employing prior law enforcement and security operatives to work with U.S. agencies to find exactly what they need to fight child exploitation in their communities. O.U.R. continues to supply cutting-edge technology and Electronic Storage Detection dogs (ESD K9s) for law enforcement agencies across the country. Internationally, we support law enforcement by infiltrating the trafficking organizations to extract and rescue the children who have been victimized by traffickers, and then provide aftercare to the children and families as the children are returned to their homes, with extended family or, where necessary, are placed and supported through recovery facilities.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

We’ve learned and evolved from our very inception to become more effective. For example, we work only in cooperation and conjunction with law enforcement. While we used some of the same strategies law enforcement has been using for decades to pose as pedophile clients, we are keenly conscious and aware of the importance of not inadvertently creating the perception of more demand to the perpetrators that would cause them to force more children in trafficking in the hopes of closing bigger transactions.

In our earliest operations, we learned how much trauma these children experience even after they’ve been rescued and shortly after we started O.U.R. Aftercare to support their recovery journeys and the re-integration with families.

We vet our team members more carefully than ever and make transitions where needed. But rather than dwell on the things that could be considered mistakes, we embrace the learning process as a challenge in the perpetual evolution to do better and to achieve more.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I’ve had many mentors. I’ve written six books that outline my thoughts on the historic heroes that inspire my philosophies and thinking: “Slave Stealers: True Accounts of Slave Rescues, Then and Now” is the book that perhaps best describes the historical heroes who’ve inspired my thinking and much of our current work.

Present-day heroes and mentors include Glenn Beck, who has worked tirelessly and contributed heavily to advancing the war against child trafficking. Tony Robbins has been an avid proponent and an inspiration for our organization. Also — while the misuse of modern media and journalism can be brutal, I thoroughly acknowledge the courageous mentorship and influence of so many members of the media — ESPN, Fox News, the Glenn Beck Program and many others for so actively advancing the news of what we are doing and the education we so desperately need on what families and communities can do to support this battle.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

It’s highly interesting that you bring this up, because I would maintain the biggest factor in the disruption of an industry or a system is courage. In the historic Underground Railroad, the people who supported the extraction of human slaves in our American system were putting their very lives on the line for what they knew to be right. In this case, these heroes were working independently of the existing systems to disrupt it, to protect and rescue the people affected, and to put their lives and energy into re-creating systems that would give better protection to all.

O.U.R. has worked diligently to support the system. I have personally briefed the President of the United States and other cabinet members on issues of child trafficking. I’ve also testified before the U.S. House and Senate on multiple occasions. As a disruptor, I’ve fought to do what is needed by adding support and serving as a catalyst for positive change in the current systems instead of working against them.

In the “not so positive” — while members of the press have been highly instrumental in advancing education and support for what we are doing, there have likewise been self-styled vigilantes who have worked with vehement energy against us. Others in the press (generally in the “vigilante journalism” sector but some in the mainstream press as well) have dedicated extreme energy to disparaging our work, making false claims, asserting that we’ve exaggerated our influence and inflated results, misused donor funds. Those efforts unfortunately have slowed our ability to rescue children by creating distractions and costs. The downside is painful to me as well as for my family personally and for everyone associated with our organization. But we maintain our focus on the children and on the evil we’re addressing, instead of letting these negative efforts derail us.

Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey?

I’ll give you six: “Would you do it for Gardy?” (or whoever the name might be of a child we are working to free in a particular operation). Gardy is a dual U.S.-Haiti child kidnapped years ago who is one of the main reasons that I started O.U.R. Gardy was a little boy who was kidnapped in Haiti shortly after the big earthquake in 2010. It was suspected that he may have been taken by traffickers. When I heard about the case, I was working for the U.S. government. Since Gardy was a U.S. citizen, I tried to do everything I could to help, but the case was too far out of our jurisdiction. I met his father, and after learning his story and the evidence he had about where Gardy might be, it killed me inside to not be able to look for this little boy. This was one of the cases that motivated me to leave my job and start O.U.R. as a private organization that could work with law enforcement in any country on cases like this. We will never stop looking for Gardy. It’s a case that motivates me to this day.

There are times in the international operations where I’ve needed to walk into situations posing as a “customer” of the child traffickers that would fill any living person with abject fear.

The best way I’ve found to manage that fear is to think about the children I’m walking in to rescue and put the face and name in my mind’s eye the name of the one of my own children closest in age to the key child (or children) we’re going to help. As the father of nine children (which include two children we adopted following one of the rescue operations in Haiti), there is sure to be someone at or near the age of the children we’re rescuing in a current operation. So, I say to myself, “Would you do this for XXXXX?” and visualize the face of my own child in my mind. Like every parent, my answer is “Of course I would.” And that gives me the calmness and strength to go forward.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

We’re going to answer the detractors we’ve faced, straight out, without fear, and rectify (and end) the wrongs that have been done in the process. We’re saying “no more” to the damage they’ve inflicted in slowing down the number of children we can rescue and the pace of the good we can do. That’s it. Also, we’ll absolutely continue to learn and evolve to be using the best methods and the most meaningful programs to improve and advance every aspect of the work that we do.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

There are multiple. One that stands out strongly is Glenn Beck, and all the work he has done in spreading the word about what we are doing from his show and from his presentations. We interviewed Glenn in our documentary “It’s Happening Right Here,” and in that interview he shared the very vulnerable story of a night during the pandemic lockdown when his own 16-year-old son had nearly been lured to slip out of the family home“ which has enough security arsenal to take down an army,” he said. Glenn had gone into his kitchen with a loaded gun, saying “Show yourself” to protect his family from whomever had infiltrated his system. Instead, he found his own son, attempting to go outside to meet with someone who’d been grooming him over the chat function in a video game. This was a hard story to re-tell, but one that speaks to the core of the fear and protective instincts every parent would hold, and I am compelled by his courage in sharing.

I am inspired by many of the things Tony Robbins is doing. He and Sage are dear friends and such inspirations for this work. Interestingly, Tony actually participated with us directly in one of our rescue operations in years past.

I’m inspired by Lewis Howes and his podcasts, “The School of Greatness” I actually appeared with him on one of his recent episodes, here.”

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My strongest influences have come from the scriptures I’ve studied. A particular quote that continually inspires me is this one: “When we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help.” -Thomas S. Monson, former president of the LDS church.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

It should come as no surprise — the mission I’m passionate about is the one that O.U.R. is advancing, to fight in every way the war against child sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children.

Since 2013, O.U.R.’s operations and aftercare efforts have led to the rescue more than 7,000 survivors and the arrest of more than 6,000 predators. We have expanded into over 40 countries and all 50 U.S. states. Readers can follow our operations by visiting OURrescue.org, and we invite you to join us in all ways possible. And thank you to Authority Magazine for the opportunity to share this message with all of you!

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.