Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / I Have Evidence

Transcript

I Have Evidence · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast.
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  With the number one small business expert, Melinda Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business
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  failure, and she'll give you the information you need to succeed and live the life you dream
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  of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady
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  self, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small Bishat podcast?
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  Well, it's time every Wednesday we offer listeners by size actionable tips
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  to start and grow a successful small business.
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  And just 20 minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
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  business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the small bitchhead podcast today.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  Welcome to another episode of the Small Bishop podcast.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and this is a
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  solo podcast.
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  And I I'm actually so grateful to be here today to be able to share this story with you.
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  Today's podcast is called I have evidence.
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  And let me tell you,
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  what I have evidence of is just really going to shock and awe and amaze you, I think.
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  I have owned my own home for over 27 years.
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  And, I had a situation recently where I literally
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  could have lost my life in my home.
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  And it's only only
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  because of god's grace that I didn't.
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  So let me let me tell you let me tell you the story because it's actually really crazy.
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  So, back in the middle of August, I had a water issue in my house.
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  Apparently, I had a a leak that that, came from my son's room through the walls all the way
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  down to my living room and ended up with how I found out about it.
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  Was because I ended up with mold on the
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  back of some pictures that were on my wall in my living room.
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  And upon further investigation, the water was actually in the wall soaking
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  up the insulation, and it
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  was so bad that it came through the wall, came through the dry wall, and and became mold.
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  And I don't
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  know how many of you guys are major allergy sufferers out here, but but mold is bad.
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  And then mold, actually, black mold is actually dangerous.
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  So that was, like, the first thing that happened
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  over this let's just say 12
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  day odyssey that I had So I, you know, took a bunch of pictures, called my insurance company,
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  and they immediately sent out Servpro.
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  And Servpro came and they put, blowers and dehumidifiers on two different
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  floors in my house.
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  And as you can imagine, that was pretty loud.
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  Right?
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  You know, and I often work from home.
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  And so I sometimes I work on this First Floor in my home, and then sometimes my my basement
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  is actually my studio.
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  Actually, where I am recording this today, I had it tricked out pretty nice to record a
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  video and my podcast and make it sound all nice
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  and crisp.
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  So anyway, because of this whole water loss thing and the blowers and how
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  loud they were, I actually moved my office back to my basement.
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  And, in my
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  basement, of course, I mentioned to you guys that I I have had my basement tricked out by a
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  professional interior designer and
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  It's really beautiful down here, but I really only use it for recording.
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  I don't work down here day to day, but I thought, let's get away from the noise.
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  I don't want it to bleed over to my Zoom calls or anything.
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  So I said, ah, let's just move back to the studio and work out of the studio for couple
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  weeks so we get all this stuff resolved.
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  Well, long story short, my insurance company cop fell asleep.
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  Didn't, like, kinda get a plan together.
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  So the surplus stuff ended up in my house, like, oh, 10 days.
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  Before I finally heard from them and and now we have a plan to do the, you know, take the
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  drywall down and all this stuff and pull up the carpet.
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  I mean, it's a whole mess.
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  Baseboards are messed up.
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  But then I had another issue.
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  And I just, you know, this stuff, I can't make this up.
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  This is totally a true story.
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  It's like, you know, when you watch law and order and they say, these are based on true
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  events, but the actual characters are fiction.
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  Well, this is all real life.
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  This is my real life.
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  So, anyway, I went out to dinner with some friends, a couple of Saturdays ago, and I I
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  grabbed my son from college and one of his best friends from college.
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  Her mom his mom called and said, hey.
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  Let's all go out to dinner before the boys go back to school for the year.
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  I was like, great.
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  So, picked up my son.
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  Rolled out to this wonderful Italian steak house in, suburban Philadelphia and King of
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  Prussia where I live.
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  And I have a habit if I'm recording something, of putting my phone on silent.
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  So just know that my phone was on silent.
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  When this when this latest situation broke out.
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  So anyway, we're having dinner, laughing joking, having drinks, ordering dessert.
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  And meanwhile, my phone was blowing up, but I didn't know it because my phone was on silent.
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  I don't have it on vibrate because I think that's rude.
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  So when I finally came out of the restaurant at 10:30 and got in the car with my son, I noticed
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  that I had missed 10 calls, 10 calls, which is crazy because it was, like, 2 a half hours.
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  I missed 10 calls.
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  And they were from both of my neighbors and from an unknown number that I didn't recognize.
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  So I called one of my neighbors back and said, wow.
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  You know, what is going on?
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  And he said, well, there was a major gas leak, on the block.
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  And the neighbors called to because they thought the gas leak was coming from their
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  house, but as it turns out, the gas leak was coming from your house.
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  What wait a minute.
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  What gas leak at my house?
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  And he said, yeah.
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  And the leak was so high on the meters from the electric and gas company that They actually
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  called 911 and called the fire department and the police department, and they had to get into
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  your house and vent your house out.
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  They evacuated us on either side of you they were worried that your house could actually
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  explode.
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  And I was like, wow.
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  You gotta be kidding me.
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  So it was so bad that they actually cut off the power and gas to my home.
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  So when I got home that night and I opened my front door, I could totally still smell the
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  gas.
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  So it wasn't safe for me to stay there, so I went and stayed with some friends.
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  But then consequently, it was quite an ordeal to actually figure out what was wrong, like,
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  where the leak was coming from.
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  So I called the power company up, and they said, well, you have to call the plumber, and
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  the plumber has to come out and do a test and find the leak.
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  So guess how much fun it is to try to call plumbers on Sunday.
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  Not very fun at all.
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  Nobody wanted to even come out and those that did come out $300 just to come look at my job,
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  not to do the test, but just to come look at the job.
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  And I was like, oh my god.
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  This is crazy.
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  I'm not dealing with that because I have no idea how expensive it was gonna be on the other
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  side.
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  So then the next day, I had a plumber come out.
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  A plumber told me they were coming about 8:39 o'clock.
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  So I was here without power waiting on the plumber to come.
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  He finally came, and he did what was called an air gas test.
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  And when the air gas test was done, he couldn't find a leak.
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  He was like, this is crazy.
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  I can't find a leak.
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  And then he pointed at me and said, well, you were at your house all day on Saturday.
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  I said, yes.
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  He said, well, you must have left an eye on in your stove.
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  Now you guys, I didn't
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  cook with my stove that day.
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  I actually have trying to been
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  I have been eating healthier, and I've been using my air fryer.
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  So I actually didn't even touch my stove that day.
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  So I think I did it, but I couldn't dismiss it.
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  I had been in the kitchen, but I just, you know, kinda didn't make sense.
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  So, anyway, so he pulled out my stove check the stove.
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  Pulled out the I have a hot water heater that's gas.
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  He checked that.
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  My HVAC.
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  He checked that.
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  He claimed that he checked the dryer, and he said, couldn't find a leak.
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  Double checked it.
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  He did a one pound test and a four pound test.
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  He said the lee the air was holding.
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  Couldn't find a leak.
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  So I was like, ah, okay.
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  Well, I guess it must have been me.
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  Maybe I accidentally left an eye on.
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  I have no idea, but Okay.
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  So then the next day I called Pico back and they came and they cut my electricity back on,
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  and then they cut, my gas back on.
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  And when they cut my gas back on, They said that they weren't sure that that plumber was
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  right, so they were gonna double check his work.
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  So they checked the stove.
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  No leak.
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  Check the hot water heater.
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  No leak.
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  Check the HVAC.
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  No leak.
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  Then he checked the dryer.
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  And not only was there a gas leak in the line from the dryer, there was also gas emanating
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  from the drum of the dryer before he had even cut the gas back on.
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  So my super expensive Whirlpool dryer was in fact the culprit.
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  But the thing that was really, really dangerous about this whole thing is that not only did I
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  have the gas leak from the dryer, Apparently, the venting from my dryer had come a loose, and
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  there was a ton of lint underneath my dryer.
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  Now I don't know how many of you out here know this, but Dryer vents in gas dryers are the
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  number one cause of fires in most people's homes.
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  So not
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  only did I have a gas leak, I had kindling on the floor that would be, you know, an
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  accelerant to a fire or potential explosion in my home.
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  And what was even crazier is oftentimes when I'm sitting in my office and I'm working, guys,
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  I like candles at my desk.
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  So my my basement is a pretty good size.
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  It's a finished
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  basement, but let's just say
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  I was 20 feet on my dryer directly facing it, lighting candles on my desk that whole week
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  before this, major gas leak happened.
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  And thank god for my neighbors because I actually had no idea.
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  There was a gas leak in my home.
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  Had no idea.
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  It was coming from my dryer, and I
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  was working in this space all day 4 or 5 days in a row, before this happened.
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  And that day before I went to have dinner with my friends, I went upstairs and took a shower.
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  Well, when you cut on hot water, thought water heater tends to come along with the spark.
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  Right?
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  So there were so many things that could have gone wrong, that could have taken my life, and
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  not just my life, but that of my neighbors.
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  And I am just so grateful that god spared me.
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  And I was thinking about this, you know, this is, like, way too much bad luck to, like,
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  befall one person.
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  Like, it's just water loss and then then the gas leak, then the guy not being able to find
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  the gas leak and then going out to dinner and the house almost blown up and the neighbors
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  having to be evacuated.
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  I mean, it was like, what in the world?
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  What in the world?
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  Right?
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  But then I was talking to a good friend of mine, a good spiritual warrior friend of mine.
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  And she told me that Melinda, you are under a spiritual attack.
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  This is this is spiritual warfare.
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  Like, this is not regular.
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  This is not normal.
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  This is not Mercury and retrograde.
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  This is old fashioned.
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  The devil is coming after you because you have an incredible mission on your life, and my
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  mission is to end small business failure.
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  My mission is to help women entrepreneurs around the world start and grow successful
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  businesses.
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  And I'm in a few weeks, I'm heading off to Cambodia to train women entrepreneurs in
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  Cambodia on e Commerce.
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  And I'm so excited for that.
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  And this is the first time that I'm going to specifically train.
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  I've I've traveled all over the world and done keynote speeches before, but I'm going to
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  train, several different groups of women.
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  And I realized that because I'm on my mission to change people's lives.
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  Of course, the devil would come for me.
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  He can't allow me to walk in my mission that god has called me to do.
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  He can't do that.
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  So it's almost like, you know, what happened to Job?
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  I mean, I'm not comparing myself to Job.
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  You know, the devil has not taken my son or anything like that.
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  I haven't lost my wealth.
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  It's been very, very expensive 2 weeks, but I haven't lost all of my wealth.
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  But what I can
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  tell you is you have to recognize who the enemy is.
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  And when you have evidence, you can't just ignore it.
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  The major water loss, the mold, the the gas leak, the the plumber being kinda incompetent
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  and not finding the gas leak.
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  And then, going out to dinner and my neighbors having to call, they probably saved my life
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  with no.
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  I know they saved my life with that call because you can't sleep overnight in a home
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  with with a gas leak.
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  You don't wake up the next day.
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  And so the
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  reason why this solo podcast is called I have evidence because what I'm gonna tell you guys
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  is that I have evidence that god is real.
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  I have evidence that his blessings are new each and every day.
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  I have evidence that it is a blessing to have good neighbors that, have good good sniffers.
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  I'll just tell you that I'm just grateful.
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  I'm just so grateful, and I'm I'm grateful to have the opportunity to even record this
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  podcast.
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  And there's a couple of things I wanna tell you guys.
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  Number 1, you need to look up on Yelp.
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  Any person that's called to your home to do work, because you need to know who they are.
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  Also, once a year, if you have a gas dryer, you need to move it and clean out from under it and
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  make sure that you have a professional come in and check all of your lines and chords because
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  it is, in fact, the number one cause of fires in homes And if you smell gas, call the police,
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  and make sure that all of us have a carbon monoxide detector in our basements where these
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  where hot
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  water heaters and gas dryers
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  reside because carbon monoxide side is even more dangerous than gas.
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  At least gas can be smelled, carbon monoxide cannot.
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  So I just want to let all of you know that god is good.
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  He is good all the time.
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  It is his love that never changes and he saved my life.
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  And I just wanna thank you all for being such loyal listeners of this podcast and just of my
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  brand in general supporting the small business lady brand.
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  And if you're looking for a resource to support your small business, Check out
• 16:49
  smallbizladyacademy.com.
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  It is a private confidential community of like minded women entrepreneurs.
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  And whether you're just starting out or you're ready to scale, you're ready to build a
• 17:01
  business that can run without you We have everything you need.
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  I've taken my 16 years of training entrepreneurs and put it in this platform, and
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  we have an army of coaches there inside the platform also ready to serve you.
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  So please go over and check out smallbizladyacademy.com.
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  It is really cool.
• 17:22
  It is brand open brand new, and it's finally open.
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  So I want you guys to check it out.
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  Subscribe sign up because I'm gonna give you guys a lot more access to me.
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  In my platform.
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  Alright.
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  Well, you have been listening to the small biz chat podcast, and I will leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thanks for
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  listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next
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  Wednesday for more fancy information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.