Chances are, you have seen one of Josh Liljenquist’s videos.
His stories of kindness, generosity and people helping people have reached millions — but behind the moments shared on screen is a much more personal story about where those values came from in the first place.
In conversations with Your Kindness Corner, Josh shared the people, places and experiences that shaped him long before social media became part of his life — from growing up in Fairmont, Minnesota, to the influence of his family, faith, brother Jacob and the generations before him.
Beyond the Viral Moment looks at the person behind the public figure and the foundations that continue to guide the work today.
And if there is one thing Josh hopes people take from it, it is simple: notice the people around you, show up when you can, help where you are able, and let one act of kindness become the reason someone else chooses to pay it forward.
Beyond the Viral Moment: The Family, Faith and Foundations Behind Josh Liljenquist
“Character matters more than recognition.”
Long before millions of people watched Josh Liljenquist help strangers, there was a kid growing up in Fairmont, Minnesota, learning something much simpler.
If someone needed help, you helped them.
There was no audience for it. No camera. No viral moment waiting on the other side.
It was simply what you did.
Josh has become known for stories of kindness, generosity and people showing up for one another. But in conversations with Your Kindness Corner, he wanted to go somewhere more personal — back to the people, places and values that shaped him long before social media became part of his life.
He begins with home.
He begins with Fairmont.
And most of all, he begins with family.
A Home That Made Room for People
Josh grew up in a family where making room for other people felt normal.
Exchange students from other countries stayed with the family. Others came into their lives who needed support, stability or simply somewhere they could feel they belonged.
As children, Josh and his older brother Jacob shared space, routines and attention as their family opened their home to others.
Only later did Josh understand what those ordinary experiences were teaching him.
“Helping somebody was never presented to me as this extraordinary thing. It was just what you were supposed to do.”
His parents, Julie and Trent, were at the centre of that example.
Josh watched them volunteer, open their lives to people and help those who needed somewhere to belong.
“They taught me that loving someone usually looks more like action than words.”
Sometimes the lessons came in much smaller moments.
For a period of time, Josh’s father worked in Minneapolis, roughly two hours from Fairmont. Yet during the week, he would still drive home to attend Josh’s and Jacob’s sporting events.
He showed up.
At the time, it may simply have felt like Dad being there.
Years later, the meaning is clearer.
Sometimes love is simply making the effort to be present.
Jacob and a Different Kind of Strength
Josh has been clear that his older brother, Jacob, belongs at the heart of his story.
The two brothers have always been different.
Josh was the outgoing one.
Jacob was quieter. More reserved.
But Josh has looked up to him throughout his life.
There were times growing up when Josh felt people mistook Jacob’s quiet nature for weakness or took advantage of his kindness. Josh’s instinct was to step in and defend him.
Jacob responded differently.
“You do not have to react to everything. You do not have to return somebody’s negativity with negativity.”
And then:
“Sometimes strength is fighting back, but sometimes it is having enough confidence in who you are that you can stay calm, turn the other cheek, and keep moving forward.”
That lesson has taken on even more meaning as Josh’s own life has become increasingly public.
Jacob remains one of his strongest supporters without needing recognition for himself.
Josh sums up one of the lessons his brother continues to reinforce in five words:
“Character matters more than recognition.”
What a Lifetime of Kindness Can Look Like
Those lessons extended across generations.
Josh’s grandfather Lee Liljenquist was a barber for more than 50 years.
Josh remembers him treating people the same regardless of money or status — sometimes giving someone a haircut for free.
There was no announcement about it.
No applause expected.
Lee was simply generous, patient, funny and consistent.
Through him, Josh learned that helping someone did not have to be loud to matter.
His grandfather Tom Westcott shaped him in another way.
Tom was deeply rooted in faith, family, patriotism and hard work. Through Fairmont Plumbing and Heating, Josh remembers his grandfather and family helping people who needed heat or assistance in their homes even when there was little financial return.
Josh explained the belief behind it this way:
“He believed you helped because people mattered, and because God sees what you do even when nobody else does.”
Tom also gave roughly 1,350 volunteer hours helping restore a Vietnam-era helicopter.
But one of the greatest lessons came after Tom passed away.
Seeing how many lives his grandfather had touched changed the way Josh thought about legacy.
“It is not one giant moment. It is thousands of small choices to notice someone and show up.”
Josh also remembers the way Tom loved his wife, Mary, and the lessons about loyalty and marriage that came simply from watching them.
Those lessons about family and marriage have taken on new meaning in Josh’s own life.
Josh married his wife, Ingrid, in October 2024. She is an important part of the life he is building today and, perhaps just as importantly, one of the people who helps care for the person behind the work.
Josh shared:
“Ingrid has been there for me when I’ve carried the emotional weight of other people’s stories and needed someone I trust to talk through what I was feeling. She has supported me in the moments when I needed her most, and her presence reminds me that caring for others also means allowing the people who love you to care for you.”
It is a quiet but meaningful reminder that showing up for others also means allowing someone to show up for you.
Faith When Nobody Is Watching
Faith is woven through Josh’s understanding of kindness.
One of the principles within his team is to “glorify God through service to others.”
But for Josh, faith also keeps the work grounded.
“I do not want kindness to be something I perform for a camera. I want service to be part of who I am whether the camera is there or not.”
He adds:
“My faith brings me back to the belief that people have value because they are people, and loving someone means truly seeing them.”
People may know Josh through a screen.
He wants those values to remain the same when no screen is present.
From Fairmont to Mankato
After Fairmont came Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Josh graduated in 2021 with a degree in Communication Studies, and his university years overlapped with the earliest stages of what would eventually become his career.
Around 2019, he began creating content.
At first, he was simply experimenting, making videos and trying things. Some of those early videos even included his dad.
“At first I was just experimenting with social media. I never imagined it could become my career or a way to help people at this scale.”
Then something began to change.
Josh started asking a different question.
If he had people’s attention, what could he actually do with it?
When “I Can Help” Became “We Can Help”
One of the earliest kindness videos Josh remembers involved walking into a grocery store and asking someone for a dollar.
When someone stepped forward to help, Josh was able to turn around and reward that act of kindness.
The experience stayed with him.
“That concept really affected me because instead of the video only being about getting views, something good actually happened because we made it.”
Then came another story.
Josh first met Beth at HomeGoods, where she was still working as she neared retirement and took the time to help him wrap a gift.
That small act of kindness grew into something much bigger when his community later came together to raise around $10,000 to support her.
That was when Josh began seeing the possibilities differently.
“It was not just, ‘I can help somebody.’ It became, ‘We can help somebody.’”
That small change in language represented something much larger.
The people watching were no longer simply an audience. They were beginning to participate.
Josh explains:
“The audience is not just watching. They nominate people, donate, offer services, ask for updates, pray for people, and become part of these stories. Somewhere along the way it stopped feeling like an audience and started feeling like a community.”
And that may be one of the most important shifts in Josh’s story.
Because one person can start something.
But a community can carry it farther.
Someone notices.
Someone gives.
Someone offers a service.
Someone shares the story.
Someone else decides to help.
The kindness keeps moving.
“How in the World Did We End Up Here?”
Today, Josh lives in Chaska, Minnesota, and much of his work happens throughout the Twin Cities and surrounding communities.
The scale is very different from those early videos.
But Josh says:
“I never feel far from the values I learned in Fairmont.”
When asked what the kid growing up there would think if he could see his life today, Josh answered:
“Probably the scale of it.”
He continued:
“I don’t think the kid growing up in Fairmont could comprehend that someday millions of people around the world would know who I am or watch the things I create. I definitely would not have imagined that something that started with making videos could become my career, grow into a team, and give me opportunities to help people for a living.”
But the numbers are not the part he thinks would surprise his younger self most.
“What would surprise him even more is what the platform has been used for. The followers and views are crazy numbers, but being able to walk into somebody’s life when they are going through something terrible and sometimes change the direction of that person’s life is something I never could have imagined as a kid.”
Josh imagines his younger self asking:
“How in the world did we end up here?”
And then:
“I think he would be pretty proud that, underneath all of it, a lot of the values are still the same ones we learned growing up in Fairmont.”
Live to Love
When Josh was asked what he hopes people remember about him long after the videos, views and numbers have faded, his answer had nothing to do with social media.
“I hope they remember that I genuinely loved people.”
He continued:
“Followers, views, money, awards, any of that can disappear. Eventually nobody is going to care how many views a video had. But the person who got a home, the family that was able to breathe again financially, the person who got a job, the person who felt seen when they thought nobody cared about them, those things are real.”
That is what Live to Love has come to mean for him.
“‘Live to Love’ has become the simplest way I know how to describe what I want my life to stand for. My faith has taught me that loving people is supposed to be something you actually do, not just something you say.”
And he hopes the effect reaches far beyond the people he personally encounters.
“If somebody watched one of my videos and it made them call their parents, forgive somebody, give a stranger a chance, donate five dollars, volunteer, or simply notice somebody they normally would have walked past, that matters to me.”
Then comes perhaps the clearest expression of what Josh hopes remains when everything else is stripped away:
“If people eventually forget the videos but remember that the work made them want to love people better, I would be completely okay with that.”
Maybe that is the invitation.
Notice someone.
Show up.
Offer what you can.
Give someone another chance.
Do something kind — and let that kindness become something another person can carry forward.
Josh once described the thread connecting these stories this way:
“Kindness did not begin when I turned on a camera, and the best result is what people do after the video ends.”
The kindness came before the camera.
What happens next is up to all of us.
Learn More About Josh — and the Kindness He Inspires
To learn more about Josh Liljenquist, the work behind Live to Love, and the people and communities his stories continue to support, visit joshliljenquist.com.
There, you can explore the stories behind the videos, follow the real-world outcomes of community support, learn more about the team and values behind the work, and see how acts of kindness — both large and small — continue to create meaningful change.
A heartfelt thank you to Josh for the trust, openness and care he brought to sharing such a personal part of his story with Your Kindness Corner, and for allowing us to look beyond the videos to the people, values and experiences that shaped him.
We are grateful for the collaboration and the opportunity to tell this story with him — and for the hope that, in sharing it, someone else may be inspired to notice, show up, extend kindness, and pay it forward in a way that touches another life.
Next in the YKC Special Series collaboration with Josh Liljenquist — Beyond the Viral Moment:
The Person Before the Post: Inside the Team Behind Live to Love
