You are now tuning in to Discover Your Potential. So listen, participate, be inspired, know that you can discover your potential. I had the extreme blessing of being exposed to needs far bigger than me and opportunities far bigger than me. Growing up, mom and dad really pointed out just how people live and sadly, oppression of people. And the needs that are real and tangible. So what a wonderful opportunity to be able to make a difference. It's something we can all do no matter our economic situation. There is always something we can do whether it's giving of our time, our talents, our treasures, our prayers. It's all needed and appreciated. Something I have to say though, whenever you are considering getting involved with a nonprofit, I encourage you to do your own vetting. And for me, this includes, and I've made changes in some of the nonprofits, I support based on discoveries, based on changes in how companies are run. So you can have the biggest heart and do really good work and be not a good business person and not a good steward. And so the monies raised are not going to those who truly need them or not a big enough percentage. Or you can go through someone's financials and see that they're very good stewards with the money, yet their ethics might not align with yours. So it's really important to do those deep dives. You know what? Life is hard. It just is. And we got to come to grips with that, but not be defeated. So to answer your question for me, it's my relationship with Jesus. That's what it is. And in my favorite book, it says, be anxious for nothing, but in all things with praise and supplication, make your request known to God. And the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. I cannot and will not impose my faith on anyone else, yet anybody who wants to know, thank you for asking the question, that is before I get out of bed in the morning Zen, I, my first meeting of the day is with the Lord and my last meeting of the day is with him. And when I don't do that, when I try to just get through life on my own strength and just muster up, you know, whatever that is, I usually make a big mess out of it. And by 7 a.m. I'm apologizing to someone because something's blown out of my mouth. I still struggle and stumble. You know, we all do. We're all failed. Yet that's what it just helps. It gives me perspective and, you know, Anna with potential. Yeah, we, I love that because there's so much potential. And then as you both are talking about anxiety and depression and how that just, it just paralyzes us. And it is not what we were made for. We've got value. I mean, each one of us were unique. There's nobody else like, like us. And there's so much potential. So I just encourage people, don't let anybody just feed you the lies that you can't do something. You're not valuable enough or whatever. It's just a bunch of lies. So we've got to just get rid of that and recognize each one of us has value. And it's not based on what our bank account looks like or what we can do or what we look like. Any of that superficial stuff that can be gone instantaneously. It's, you know, I believe it's because who made us and he doesn't make mistakes. Now you can add motivational speaker to your accomplishments. I know my next question really pertains to this, but it might be the same answer, Kathy, but thank you for bringing up value and potential because that's really what we are hoping to, in part to the audience listening is just your sense of value is everything and how you appear in life. But I'm kind of going towards balancing your career and your personal life. And how do you strike a balance, Kathy? It might be the same answer, but can you go any deeper? Or what advice would you give people that are striving for balance in life? Such a great question, Anna. And some days I'm not balanced at all. It's hard. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves. Like we have to have everything, you know, balanced and do everything. I was in my 40s before I learned that no is a complete sentence. And I think, especially in speaking with women, you know, we're really good at multitasking. And we can be really good at what we do. So I think we tend to take on too much. And for some of us, it can be an issue of control. It can be many things, or we just want to be helpful. And we don't want to say no, we don't want to hurt someone's feelings. We want to be there for them. But we can't do everything well. And, you know, something I love, someone told me years ago, oh, this wonderful wise man, he said, you know, we have to say no to good things. An effort to say yes to great things. And that's so true. So I recognize that putting our priorities in place is important. So each person, I think it's important for each individual to recognize what is important to you, what are your values. So for me, it's my faith and my family, and then being in service through our work. And that's the order. When that order gets messed up, I'm not feeling it. And I'm a mess. And we've got to put boundaries in place to protect those those priorities, those values, they will be challenged, they're likely going to be challenged daily. But got to put, and sometimes it just, it might just sound very elementary, but I'll take post it. I'm going to look to remind me. And that's really helpful. But I can't accept every business opportunity. And that's okay. Hey, DYP listeners, I don't know if you pay attention to national days, but I used a podcast about them. And I've realized that April is Financial Literacy Month, which got me wondering, how did you learn about money? 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How are we going to spend it each day? And just really stand firm on what our values are. I've really been an entrepreneur since I was a little kid. My first job, I was four years old selling rocked from my wagon that I would point. I was that annoying kid going door to door trying to wash people's cars, water their plants, whatever. So I've always worked my mom the ultimate entrepreneur from starting her own babysitting service, housekeeping, business to going back to school to becoming a nurse, making clothes, selling them at art fairs. So she could always do anything and watching her pivot as life is continually changing gave me that courage that I could always do anything for a living. So what a wonderful gift to not have that fear and to know that we can adapt and do different things and it's far more powerful to initiate positive change than simply react to the change that is coming. So to be anticipatory, keep our eyes on the horizon, our ear to the ground and recognize that. So the modeling was not part of the plan. It ended up being a great education for business and then something you said about our family responsibilities and that it makes us a better person. I have to say some of my strongest CEO skills come from my mom skills. I mean conflict resolution, time management, no kidding, all of it. It's those mom skills. So we started with a pair of socks. In the beginning we were in a handful of sporting goods stores. Big Five was one of our retail partners, great people, major mass retailers started carrying the socks and everything changed. We were just, you know, people talk about small businesses. I prefer to think of them as independent businesses because when you pour your heart and soul into your business it's not small. So independent, we had to take out the first in a series of loans to get started. People said we were crazy, can't start a brand with a pair of socks. I mean every kind of naysaying and those were the kind people. So every kind of comment, we did our research on the people manufacturing the socks that included surprise factory inspections because you learn a lot when you show up unexpectedly. And just love the product, love the people. But going door to door, knocking on doors, presenting those socks to retailers, the comments that people made, the doors that slammed in our faces, the biggest gift of my modeling career was all the rejection. And it wasn't fun at the time. But what a gift because when somebody says something mean or uninformed or maybe it's informed and it's mean whatever it is, it doesn't defeat me or destroy me and no means we're talking. All right, I'll come back tomorrow. Maybe you'll be in a better mood or your circumstances will have changed. So that was a powerful lesson. But an answer to your question, Anna, a big pivot was when this mass retailer who our company became dependent on, they went bankrupt. And that was hard. We were in debt and starting over and pulling a lot of 24 sevens and just changing course chip, but not being defeated. It's like, all right, this is where we are. What are we going to do moving forward? We had already made some plans to move into the home industry. This was a completely different retail channel. This was the independent retail channel. And again, people said you can't start at mass and then go into the independent channel. It's never been done. It's never been done does not mean that it can't be done. So don't let excuses stop you from living your dream. You got to get the information, do the research. But when you have a clear goal and you've done the research on the path to get there, you just move forward and don't let the naysayers stop you. So we went into the home industry and a lot of work, but what a great industry, great people. And so many lessons along the way. I would say know what it is that you want to accomplish. Don't assume anything. Some of my biggest mistakes I've made in both traditional business and non-profit have been from assuming. And assuming people are going to think the same way I do and approach things the same way I do. Get it in writing. Get it really clear. And once you've gone through, it might feel cold, especially if you're working with friends or family, whatever. You got to do it to protect the relationships. Once every i is dotted and t is crossed, you can put those contracts away, treat each other as family and move forward in that team spirit. But really know what you're doing and how you're doing it. That's one thing for certain. And also to that young entrepreneur. Know what differentiates you. What is your distinctive? What sets you apart from the crowd? How are you going to, when I had a paper route, is that I know we've talked about this before, but great advice my dad gave me when I was 11 years old. He said, Kathy, if the customer expects the newspaper on the driveway, you put it on the front porch. And he said, always give 110%. So that was the foundation of my learning to under-promise and over-deliver. And it's something I believe in today and seek to accomplish. It's not always easy, but we've got to get all the needed information so that we can accomplish that. What are the expectations of the person with whom I'm working? I got to understand those expectations so I can exceed them. You're such a good motivational speaker. I agree. I'm like, I've gotten so many takeaways and I've got post-it notes now in my head that are going on the mirror. Kathy, you're a beacon of hope. Well, you're both amazing inspirations. I want to know from both of you what inspires you and what would each of you say to the young entrepreneur out there? As far as our work goes, we started with a mission of finding solutions for families, especially busy moms. And today it's solutions and it's solutions for everyone. So as far as our work goes, it's continuing to be alert. And I love the people that we serve. It's men and women, yet it's primarily women. And I love how direct she is with me, the information she lets me know. She'll let me know when she's happy and when she's not, when we've got to do it better. So listening to her and serving her, that's wonderful. And then it's a hard world. I mean, when we recognize what's going on around the world from Israel to Burma to Haiti to Sudan, there's a lot to our own country. There's a lot going on. There's a lot to be done. And so I just want to be ready and able to not react but respond to whatever is going on in whichever way that I can. And that inspires me. And I seek to, you know, you asked earlier about balance. While I don't accomplish it every day, it's really important. And you also, both of you talked about mental health too. I think it's really important for our mental health also to have that balance in our life too. You know, Zen, you talked about the passion. And Anna, you talked about, you know, don't let your failures define you. Oh my goodness, that is, those are such great pieces of wisdom that we all need to live by. So that gives us the courage to move that passion forward because, yeah, I'm going to fail, I'm going to fall on my face and I'm going to get up again. I have a dear friend. Her name is Fanchen Stinger and she has a nonprofit called Gritten Grace. It's a mentoring program for girls. So Fanchen, I mean, she's just this awesome woman involved in bull riding. And, you know, you think about it, it's like a 2000 pound animal that just wants to buck you off. That's the whole purpose of it. And the, you know, the bull riders holding on with one hand, the other hand hold it up and they just have to stay on for eight seconds. But we think about, they get bucked off, they get back on again. And the world is going to buck us off. We fall down, we get right back up again. And we learn, we don't try to make the same mistake twice, but we learn from what the world would call failures. To me, that's education. That's my school. And we just keep going another day. Thank you. Thank you both so much. This is Cindy Gilman and you're listening to Discover Your Potentials. So until next time, do something nice for yourself, but do something nice for someone else.
