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Rebuilding with Heart: Stories of Hope and Renewal with Simone Bruni · Learnings and Missteps by Depth Builder

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Their pain.
• 0:00
  Speaker 1: They lost their memories and it was at that moment that I realized someone's pain was greater than mine.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, we were all in the same boat, but I realized I was single, like who cares.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: And that's when I started to kind of look around and say I think that's when we get our best inspirations, is when we think of we're putting others first.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: And that is when I said okay, I'm going to do something to help, but I don't know what it is yet.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I didn't have the demolition.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: What is going on?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: L&m family.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: We are back with a super inspirational story.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm inspired.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: At least, for sure, I'm going to get to know, with you listening, miss Simone.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: She is the founder and president of Demo Diva.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Y'all got to check out her website because it's like fire, and there's no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a heartfelt, meaningful conversation, because the little that I've gathered is that she turned the devastation of Hurricane Katrina into the source of inspiration to help people restart their life, and specifically the name of her website, demo Diva.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: She's transformed the idea of demolition into a source of hope, progress and rebirth, and that don't happen by accident.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I'm already getting chills just thinking about what she's going to bring to us and, with that, folks.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: If you're new, this is the Learnings and Missteps podcast.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: You're about to get to know Miss Simone and the lessons that she learned along the way on her path to success.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: So, ms Simone, how are you doing?
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm doing good, I'm doing great.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: It's the 19th anniversary month of Hurricane Katrina and I can't believe I have weathered it so years yeah.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: My goodness, well heck, so let's just dive into it.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I pulled out some stuff from your website and what I gather is Hurricane Katrina was kind of the epicenter of where you're at today.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was where it all started after Hurricane Katrina, but when you look back over 19 years, there's a lot of failures, a lot of failures.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: So there's many successes along the way.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: The Hurricane Katrina story was just really the way where it started.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But I like how you said something at the beginning to measure success, like what is success, what is the pinnacle we're all going for, and so those are the questions I'd like to explore with you today.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: My goodness.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Good, because that's my favorite subject, that's what I love to dive into.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: And so this because you're a human being, right, you were a human being.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Before Katrina hit, that was like a turning point for you, or maybe it could be more like of an anchoring point, right.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: But before Hurricane Katrina, what were you?
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Did?
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: You always know you were going to start Demo Diva?
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: What was the pre-Katrina Simone doing?
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's a great question.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: So I'll tell you where I was wired as a young person and I was in my very early 30s when Katrina struck but I really always thought that I was going to be a missionary.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I grew up I know I grew up with.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: My faith is huge.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: It was a huge part of my life and I always had visions that I would be like serving Jesus in Brazil, where I was born.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: My dad is Brazilian, my mom is from New Orleans Her serving him in an African nation.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I love Africa and so that was sort of like the tape that was playing in my head in my formative years.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And so after college I went to go work for an inner city ministry here in New Orleans.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: It was in the Desire Housing Project, and so I worked there serving with education through tutoring programs and to more challenged community where they didn't have access.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: So Tulane and Loyola college students would come in and tutor.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: So I worked in that capacity in college and after college.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So I worked in that capacity in college and after college and unfortunately I just realized I was really like tied to my parents.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I did not want to leave home.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I think that the storyline of being a foreign missionary was more exotic than the actual doing it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I would like dabble and talk to people, but to people.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: But I just didn't want to leave home.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I was very close to my family.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: So I felt like God said no problem, I'll bring the mission field to you.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: And so that's really kind of like my heart was there.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: My heart was to serve my community and so after doing those few years in the ministry locally, I said it's time to go make some money.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I got to move out of my parents' house.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, I lived at home through college.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: It was like it's time to grow up.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: So, I went into the hospitality industry.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I worked as a corporate event planner for 10 years.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I did conventions, inbound, selling Southeast Louisiana, our beautiful culture, our bayous, our music, our food.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I mean we have a very distinct culture here in Louisiana which is an amalgamation of African, creole, caribbean, french, spanish, american.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So American was a culture that came from the Northeast Canadian I mean, we were two Canadian brothers who really founded us.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: So all of this was like I was so excited about my faith and my culture and I just embrace it all and life can.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Sometimes there's pivots in life that just like allow you to go pivot and then there's the things that just take you down.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Katrina was a take me down.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: It took us all down and in a matter of a day, life changed.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: We were not expecting Hurricane Katrina it was.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: That trajectory was going to the panhandle of Florida.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: The night of August 26th was the first time any of us heard about Hurricane Katrina.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: It was a Friday.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: We were all going around our business.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Everybody was, you know saints game.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's a hurricane in the Gulf.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, We'll cook some gumbo.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: We'll be out of, maybe be out of electricity.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Well, in a matter of hours, and I mean from like 5 pm to midnight in that window we were blessed, unlike people who suffered tornadoes and fires.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: We were given a window to prepare and that was it.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: It was like pack your birth certificate and your jewelry and your dogs and children and roll out.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Go yeah.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: It was like that and so it was surreal.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I did exactly that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I literally put all of my paperwork, the title to my house and all of that stuff in a rolling ice chest.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: And I'm like 30 years, 32 years old at the time and I'm like all right, cat, dog comforter, a change of clothes for three days, and let's put it all in a rolling ice chest and I got in my car and life would never be the same ever.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: New Orleans and every region, every parish touching Orleans, parish, was affected, affected.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: No electricity.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, we were down for the count for 18 months, there was no conventions, I was laid off, I was flooded, my parents were flooded, my brother was flooded, and there's the story.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my goodness, that's pretty darn dramatic and I think I love the way you framed it.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: There's some things that help us pivot and some just take us down, but clearly this was not, this did not take you down.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: The fact that you have a heart of service, that was maybe the rock you stood on to lay a new path and start experiencing success.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Absolutely, absolutely.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: It was already ingrained in me.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I was wired with a heart and a compassion for community.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Community, just the word.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Community has many onion layers to that Layers and layers.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: It does and it's the people who you do life with.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: That's community and it's doing life.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: It's not an agenda of doctrine.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: It's who is your neighbor next door who cares what his politics is, who cares the car he drives.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: It's not religion and it can be.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's not only that.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: It's really like who do you love and who makes your world more vibrant?
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Just a little parentheses here across the street from my house where I'm sitting right now, there's a man and he's the only person in this entire neighborhood that pretty much is like sort of a hoarder and he's colorful, and I went through a crisis here in my house.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I was alone, it was COVID and everybody in the neighborhood for years and years we all would fuss because he had cars in the driveway and his grass would get 10 feet high.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but, but before we get to learn more about Miss Simone, I want to give the L&M family member shout out to.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Ms Megan Shapiro dropped this comment earlier this week.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: She says this was some of the most action-oriented, impactful five and a half hours I've spent.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Thanks to you and Jennifer for creating such an amazing opportunity for shared learning.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Megan is a baller and what she's talking about is the cultivation crew and it wasn'ter.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: And what she's talking about is the cultivation crew and it wasn't.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Five and a half hours all in one sitting.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: It was over three separate calls.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: We had a ton of fun, Megan.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you taking the time and hanging out with us.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: When we found ourselves alone.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: We were the only two people here during COVID.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Everybody seemed to stay away.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: We started to exchange food and he's an older man by himself and I was single by myself.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I found a friendship in him and you've got to look beyond the prejudices and the preconceived ideas to quickly jump when a crisis hits.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Whether it's COVID and you got these judgments on a neighbor Because, guess what he came to my rescue and I think that was the mentality that I was in.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I think when you are trying to get to a place of success, you're really looking at other people's pains.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: What's a pain point for someone?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: In my community?
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: And I'll jump into my story right here we were hit by Hurricane Rita.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: 17 days later, we had more water.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: It eventually started draining out faster, but it took that long for us to get going and then it was the chaos of where do we go?
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Katrina was not a natural disaster, Just to remind your listeners.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Katrina was the failure of walls built by the government.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Our levee system collapsed.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: The sheet tiles were not driven into the clay bed far enough and the walls laid down.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: This was not like a tornado in other cities.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: We're a fishbowl.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: We're 10 feet below sea level in parts of our city, so that's what happened.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Then, when the water was gone, everybody was paralyzed for months, not weeks.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Months and months Do we rebuild?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And where's the assurance of the government and all the so?
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: There was paralysis time, so we all had to drag our trash to the street, we had to empty out our house and we had to bring everything to the street side.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: So the government could come by and scoop it up.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: So everybody, over a period of time it took months.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Everybody would come in at their pace.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: They were evacuated in other cities to come in and bring their personal belongings out to the exposure of everyone rotten clothes and photo albums and all that.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Well, my neighbors brought their stuff out.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: So I was dumpster diving before I even owned dumpsters and I was looking in their trash pile and I noticed that they had a baby album in their wedding album.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: And as I was looking I was kind of they weren't around.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I was rooting through their trash pile to see what goodies can I find and when I saw their wedding and baby album it really really spoke to me and I said I didn't lose a wedding album.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: And I said they're paying, they lost their memories and it was at that moment that I realized someone's pain was greater than mine.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, we were all in the same boat but I realized I was single, like who cares, like I do, to help someone else.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: And that's when I started to kind of look around and say I think that's when we get our best inspirations, is when we think of we're putting others first.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: And that is when I said okay, I'm going to do something to help, but I don't know what it is yet.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I didn't have the demolition.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Like you, had a calling.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: I need to do something, and it's connected to this.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Correct, correct.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: And because I speak Portuguese, I had access to labor.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: There was a huge amount of Brazilians from Boston, so Boston is a huge Brazilian community, and they all came down to New Orleans.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: I mean like massive amounts of Brazilians.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: To come help.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Carpenters, floor installers, granite guys to come help.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I never thought this one teeny, weeny skill that I had to speak Portuguese of all languages would lend itself in this atmosphere.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: So these two Brazilian brothers start helping me.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I'm the first one on my block to start gutting my house.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I'm like I can't afford to demolish my house.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Let's just gut the house, empty the house.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: I'm going to sit there and look at my studs and figure out what do I do next.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Well, everything is contagious, being positive contagious, being negative is contagious.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: And so I was positive.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I said I'm coming home, I can't afford to go anywhere else.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: This is my home, these are my people, and I'm here.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: I was the first one to gut, and that got us going.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Those two Brazilian brothers.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I love to share this story it's part of my dialogue everywhere I go, that I learned the American dream from two Brazilian brothers, those two Brazilian brothers.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I was sitting on a five gallon paint can and I'm holding my head and I'm like, oh my God, what am I going to do?
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: What am I going to do Like I don't have a husband?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I don't have a husband, I don't have a family, I don't have a job, I don't have a community.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: And they said what is your problem?
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: What's your problem?
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: He said you are an American.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: You have every right to own your own business.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: He said, simone, we came here and everything we own is out in our van.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: We bought it with our own two hands.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: He said, with the work of our hands.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: And on Friday nights we drink our beer and eat our steak.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: And do you know how happy we are?
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Man, jessi, fire in the belly, exactly.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Wake up, girl.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you I have a college education.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, my dad was a doctor in Brazil.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: And he grew up on a very modestly, and I grew up a very nice middle class income life.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Sure, but I think that there are things that get lost in the American education system.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: And I think that there is a new mantra out there, and that new mantra is technical community colleges.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I think the new mantra is success does not have to be only through a four-year education.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: It can be with the work of your hands, and those two brothers showed me the way and they ignited a fire in my belly that I didn't know was there and I am so immensely grateful for them.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So, before I move on from those two brothers, one of those brothers married a Harvard medical doctor, nice, and he went on to be the very successful lead carpenter on a museum here, very successful lead carpenter on a museum here.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: So it was a museum dedicated to slavery in the South.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: And so I just I'm so proud of him.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: His name is Jim and he's very successful and happy.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: But from that point on, that's when I said, I looked around and they said help other women who were scared like you.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: And that's when I said, okay, I'm going to come up with a name for demolition targeting women.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: And, to my pleasant surprise, I started Demo Diva with $250, a $30 box of business cards, a $50 pair of magnets to go on my car, make me look legit as I drove on down the road, and yard signs.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: And I put the yard signs out on properties that I didn't demolish, Like other men and like semi.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: They weren't even construction companies, demolition companies.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: They were like guys like that pulled their excavators in from their farms and they were all over the city but they did not know how to capture the marketing.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: And in my business in hospitality.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: All I knew was brand brand, brand, get your name on that brand, the party brand, whatever it is.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: So I knew brandy pretty well, and so I looked around.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I saw these nice sandy lots, and in one week I put out a hundred yard signs yeah, and it looked like I did a hundred demolitions.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: So your phone started ringing.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Phone started ringing.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: So that is the background on the how we got going.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you made some phenomenal points, simone, that I want to make sure the L&M family doesn't miss.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: You talked about community.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Community is the people we do life with.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Like that's a t-shirt, sister, or a neck tattoo.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: I'm kind of every now and then I think about my neck tattoo.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: It's so powerful, right, like cause, yes, that's exactly what it is, we don't need to complicate it.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: The other thing you pointed out is the two brothers straight up said girl, what's wrong with you?
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: You're an American, you have.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I think we take for granted how much autonomy we have as an individual.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Like yes, there are things right, we all have friction, we all have things that we have to overcome and dynamics and da da, but we can make things happen with our bare hands, which is what you did.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: And then you talked about oh man.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Wait, let me jump in right there.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: It's not about working necessarily with your hands, because I think that there is a way to work smarter, not harder, but there was a stigma that seeped in somewhere along the way that to be a welder, be a pipe fitter, was less than.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And now the way that we work remotely or contractually or subbing things out is that you can be a king of your kingdom and yet still be an Indian in someone else's.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: And just even in the last oh my goodness, the last 10 years, how things have changed in that regard.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: But I love I'm on the board now of North Shore Technical Community College here in my community and absolutely see opportunities for women and minorities and the diversity in the workforce that they really can drive their destiny.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: There's no more glass ceiling.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: I mean through Google AdWords, through you can build your profile and with the work of your hands, in a little smarter digital marketing, you can really build your future.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: So I just wanted to jump in there and elaborate on that.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: No, I love it and thank you for that, because all I can say is yes, and I'll say this my career is the other way around.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I began in the trades and most of the family members out there know I started my dad's a plumber, started off an apprenticeship, spent about just over 20 years on the trade side of the business and the skills like the most I learned, developed a lot of skills in doing the installation and fixing and all that that are 100% transferable into me starting my business.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: I just didn't see the transferability right.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Being able to take some information, some tools and some material and actually do something with them is what we do as craft workers.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: It's the same in terms of starting a business.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: There's some tools I need, there's some information I need access to, and then I got to pull them together, to make something
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: happen.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Now, on the same line of thinking of those hidden skills, you pointed out that your ability to speak Portuguese like you didn't see it as a skill and it turned out to be like a big seed or contributor to where you're at now.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, like along the way, because it's been quite a path.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: You were celebrating, you said, the 19th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: What other hidden skills that you like, inherent skills that you had, have contributed to the growth of your business and the growth of you as a human being?
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, that is an excellent question and I'm going to answer it so many different ways, come on.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: So I want to address first the thing that had me paralyzed I was a single woman, I did not have a family, I don't have kids, but at that point you think that's so monumental.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, I don't have anyone to protect me, I don't have a man to provide for me.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, who's going to fight my battles?
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: And that sing song is just playing in your head and human nature goes to.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, I see giants in the land and I can't do this alone.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Well, I want to say to everyone write down everything you think is your weakness.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I lost my hand in an accident.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I lost my leg in an accident.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I can't see peripherals, so I didn't get my pilot's license.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: You make a list of everything you think is your weakness because, like a double edged sword, there's a side that cuts sharper on the other side and I said wait, I don't know, it just took.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I had to have, I had to have my pity party.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: But when you get alone and you allow God to help, you see things through a different prism.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I'm like wait, I'm single, I don't have kids Be like anchored to anybody.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I don't got anybody to answer to, let me go get some answers for everybody else.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Well, guess what?
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: All those married people where kids had to go plug their kids into schools in Texas, florida, arkansas.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: They needed like I was nimble and flexible to get answers for my community.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Suddenly, little single party girl, simone, is now the voice of the community.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, simone, have we been robbed?
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Can you drive by my house?
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Have we been vandalized?
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Simone?
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Can you get me on the demolition list with the church, simone?
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, and like.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Suddenly, all of a sudden, the thing that I thought was like my weakness became my strength.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes, and that's what we have to see.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: So the fact that I was a woman became my strength.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes, and that's what we have to see.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So the fact that I was a woman became my strength.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Guess what else?
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I brought compassion, I brought femininity, I brought softness to something that generally was perfunctory, male rock, like equipment, and it's so robotic.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: And so there's this fear, and you hear the grind of metals and suddenly I'm crying, with people on their front lawns as we demolish their house.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I'm saying a prayer over the phone because they've lost all their family photos for generations.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: So there's deeper things.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I don't want to go too negative, but people lost loved ones, not only in the flood but as a result of like.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: My mother was in an old folks home and she got evacuated to another state and through the trauma she died.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Things like that yes.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: With all of that, there was all this emotion I never saw.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: The word demolition is so beautiful in my realm and world.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: It means hope, it means a Calvary, it means somebody's coming and they're coming with equipment and they're coming with.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I never heard the word low boy in my life.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Ok, and a dually and a skit.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I never knew what a skid steer was.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, I sold tablecloths and flowers.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I did not know what a hydraulic thumb was and all of that meant something.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: It meant that hope was coming.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: So back to your question.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: All of these things being a woman, being single, being like not being a mother All of that, I thought, worked against me, worked for me.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Wow, how have I used these things?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'll tell you another example.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: We got to find the silver lining in everything I don't fish, I don't hunt, I don't ride motorcycles.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I don't play poker, I don't do things that men do.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And in this industry, as one can imagine, in the construction industry, people do business that they know like and play with.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, for sure.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Men in particular have big toys.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I don't have a motorcycle.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And so I looked around and once I realized, okay, I'm here, how do I network with the decision makers, how do I get in front of those people?
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: And so all of those characteristics that I just described to you compassion and womanhood I said I love charities, like I love philanthropic work, and so I said, well, decision makers are on boards in there.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: So I said I'm going to get involved in my community, I'm going to get on like things I love.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: I love animals.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I serve on the SPCA, I served on my high school board, I served for Salvation Army, and you get to know the community that way and those are also like-minded people who are community influencers.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: So that was another aspect to how I could leverage my weakness into a strength.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: The silver lining idea.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: At heart, I'm still a dumb dude, so sometimes, when I hear the idea of silver lining, it's like yeah, yeah, whatever, but I know what you're talking about.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Like I've experienced that, okay, this kind of stinks, but there's something here, provided we look for it.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: And I think that maybe that's the important piece is, you'll never find a silver lining If you ain't looking.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Period, you ain't looking, you're right, there ain't one, but when you're looking, you'll find it.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Now, here's the difference, though you got to take action.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: When you find it, and you did, you said wait a minute.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Okay, I don't have all these things, I don't want to go get a fishing license, I ain't all about hunting, but what do I appreciate?
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: What do I value?
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Where are those people at?
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: And so you went this other direction, which, I think, again, your heart of service came back into the picture and said well, let's rather, I'll say it this way applause to you for not deviating from who you are at your core and staying true to who you are at your core and carving another path.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: I think that's that is amazing, so amazing.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, along the way I made a lot of mistakes, a lot of failures.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going to confess this is so monumentally dumb.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I did not know that you sell metal.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: No way, so give us.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Can you give us?
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: How did you figure that out?
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Because I want people to hear that.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: That's how dumb and I'm going to use the word like I really was I got in there and it was like birds and butterflies.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: But I was tearing down a Burger King Game just exploded Like Demo Diva, the marketing.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: So I had hot pinks and black sign.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: I came out the gate with this color of hot pink and I did not own my excavators, trucks or anything yet.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: So today I own only four.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: But I own four excavators, 200 dumpsters, hot pink dumpsters around New Orleans.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: So I have.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: So I got into the branding but at the time I didn't and I was subbing everything out and those subcontractors knew that I didn't know and they weren't telling.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: And so one day it was a Saturday morning I was watching a subcontractor from afar.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I parked a few blocks away and I was watching him tear down my contracted Burger King and I noticed that he kept putting all of the metal on the side.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I had no idea and he had somebody like pulling copper out and then he was putting like I-beams on the side and I was like why isn't he just letting the trucks were coming?
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: But the truck just pulled that away.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, you got to confess what you don't know.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: I love it, I love it.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: And when I saw that and then a truck came and I sat there and then another truck and he loaded all that metal into the truck and he put the copper on the back of his truck and I was like what's going on?
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: And it dawned on me.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: It literally was like, oh my gosh, and that's how bad.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: So the demolition business is truly a commodity business.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: You're selling antique bricks off of a job, so it has to be the right color, and so a brick.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: We're selling concrete, so we bring the concrete to a concrete yard and they're paying us per load, or sometimes they come pick it up for free.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Obviously we're selling scrap metal dirt.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: And the other thing is here in New Orleans is that we are a city, we are a 300-year-old city.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Our antique heart pine, our pine, is gold.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: There should be laws against throwing this wood away, and I did not know this for years.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: How much I threw away, I could weep.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: It's like sin.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, oh my God, like this gorgeous wood that will never, ever be again these houses, anything formed up before 1910 is framed by 300 year old wood or more.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: That got me into the wood business.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I then I was selling my wood and then I eventually bought a wood mill and had that for about eight years but, one slide to the other.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: But my point is that nobody taught me.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: They thought that I was a joke, or they were threatening.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: And I had to learn on my own.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: So those were the school of hard knocks.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Well, first I want to say thank you for sharing that story, because I 100% appreciate and value your vulnerability, because that is vulnerability.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: That's a demonstration of vulnerability, because you can hide it and act like you've just woke up one day and knew it all.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: You learned the hard way.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: It was embarrassing, and I bet that you're not the type that's going to hoard that knowledge and laugh when other people are doing it wrong.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: You're going to share that knowledge, am I wrong?
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, I want to inspire other people to come into a trade, whether it be demolition, whether it be a young girl or a minority.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: There are very few minorities at the National Demolition Association and I'm on the board of one of the committees and we are working very hard to make that that is open to everyone.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: We've become so pigeonholed that Brazilians only do hardwood floors or Brazilians only do granite countertops.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Brazilians are very educated engineers.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, where are the Chinese in our industry?
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: So anyway, my point is that, yes, I want to share whatever it is I've learned along the way and inspire others.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: And so you started your business in my head I don't know if you can tell like my wheels are grinding over here the way you jumped on the opportunity to put signs pink signs, I'm assuming they were pink with black font, black lettering in front of previously demolitioned spaces because they weren't doing it, and you just saw that opportunity and I'm thinking how many of those opportunities am I missing?
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Because I'm right now where I'm at on my personal development journey is learning about marketing, right Marketing and branding and all that Like that's such a huge ocean.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: But anyways, I'm just like son of a gun.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: I got to have some empty lots in my world, somewhere that I can go put signs in front of.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Where are they?
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: So that's how you started.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: It grew.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Now you said you have what?
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: 300 pink dumpsters.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: So let me jump back on that.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: I think that, for me, I am, my core and as I was describing it to you, is that I'm like I'm very evangelical.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I want to share whatever good news I have.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you so, whether it's I just learned that this alkaline water is going to make me feel better, or whether I learned that magnesium is going to make me sleep, or whether I learned that this particular oil in my car just got me farther down the road, I'm going to tell you so, when you're wired like that, it's really like a licensing.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: It's like I love licensing, so you're using a platform to tell a story.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: The platform that I use initially was a nice sandy lot and I wanted to tell a story.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Bam, woman's here, woman in the house, right, I moved from that sandy lot to my pink Volvo excavator and I painted it pink.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: And now the story just took on to another platform and you've got to keep going.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: And then I said, okay, I need another platform.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: So I took my dumpsters and I went into the dumpster business and I said you know what, If the general contractors aren't calling me, I'm going to get the public to call me.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: So I welded 12 foot panels onto my dumpsters and made them my mobile billboards.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: So if I have 200 dumpsters, I've got 400 signs on each side that are screaming Gemo Diva.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't go like spray paint an acronym and like this big onto my dumpster.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: If I'm paying for a dumpster to roll around town, I'm going to pay for a sign to go on it.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: I've noticed some copycats coming up around town.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, they're going to come.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: You know that they're coming, but my point is that it's a platform to tell your story and where you tell your story best.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Digital podcasts are awesome places now to tell the story.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Obviously, any place on social media is a platform to tell your story.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: But so shall we get strategic?
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: I purchased demolitiontownhallcom Okay, and I've not done anything with it, and it is going to be a place that I am going to make it like an expert center, so you become an expert in your realm and you open the door.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Or to be a platform of conversation, and so it's just different levels of branding and how you get your message out there.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love it the word you use.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: You're an evangelist.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: You're going to share the good news.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: If you find something cool that's helpful to you, you want to introduce the world to it.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: You know how to leverage the platforms, the venues that are available to get that message out, to find people exactly where they're at and help them know that you're here to play with them whenever they're ready, which is, I think, like OG level, Heart of service, Amazing story and I would go ahead.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: I'd like to share with you.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: You can't do it by yourself, and where it started today was community.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: And I haven't had a lot of mentors.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: I've learned through the School of Hard Knocks, but I've had friendships and alliances along the way, and so to your listeners I would say go out into your community and build those alliances.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: I chose to go with Volvo equipment.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I'm brand loyal Along the way.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: The local Volvo dealership has become not only a partner, but they've shouldered my hard times.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: I just had recently the first excavator that I bought, which is one of my oldest and she's still running.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Her name is we call her Smashing Star because she looks smashing.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: She went down and I called my mechanic shop at the dealership and I said I need this part and he's like it's going to be $7,500.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: And I said I'm not doing it.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I've brought her back from the dead so many times.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Financially I can't do this.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: And he said I understand, so he calls back.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: A few minutes later he said Simone, I went and spoke to our vice president and he said you need your machine.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: We're going to go ahead and put the part on and you're going to pay us when you can.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: We know you're good for it, but we need to get you, your machine, up and running.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: And I literally was brought to tears.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I was like it's only in alliances.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: They knew that I'd been loyal to them and they came back in my dark hour and they were loyal to me and that has happened over the years with my truckers.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: So I don't want to paint a picture that I'm some sort of brand savvy girl whipping and through the demolition world.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: No, there have been people along the way my vendors, my suppliers, my truckers, my guy who is an independent sand hauler he's been there for me, tri-axle guy.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: So you got to build your alliances along the way and it's your community, it's who you're doing life with and you know it's success, like when we can just all oh God, we got through that one and celebrate and just be like let's go celebrate somehow together.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: But that's the importance in this realm of success.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: It's lonely if you don't share the dark hours with more than just one person.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: You're sharing those sweet moments and those bitter moments together.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I wish I could continue drawing out all the inspiration that you're giving me, ms Simone, but I got to ask you the closing question Are you ready?
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: All right, what is it?
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: What is the promise that you are intended to be?
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: I promise to myself that I will be a writer one day.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: I love and that.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Just saying that, that makes me want to cry.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: I love writing, I love story, I love building a story.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I love inspiring others.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I love story.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I love building a story.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: I love inspiring others.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: I love nature and to see how lessons in nature are just God's little breadcrumbs to each of us to say keep going, look at the flower.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: If I feed the bird, won't I feed you?
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: And so look how beautiful the flower is, clothed Well, aren't you more valuable to me?
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: So it's those things that I don't have the time.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I'm literally in the trenches, stressed out, running a demolition business and trucks, and I am running my business and I don't always have these little like nuggets of time to like decompress.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: And so that is my commitment, the promise to who I will be I will be a writer.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, more chills.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you, did you have fun?
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I loved it.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: This is one.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: I hope you have me back one day.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: You are so fun.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: You're full of energy.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to have.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: We'll figure it out, Maybe even in person.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: I got to make my way down to Louisiana again.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: I will personally make crawfish, monica, for you.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.