Latest / Imagine Media Podcast Network / Hope Unlocked | Christian Testimonies, Hope &... - A Near-Death Experience and the Power of Loving People Where They Are with Holly Porter

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Hope Unlocked | Christian Testimonies, Hope &... - A Near-Death Experience and the Power of Loving People Where They Are with Holly Porter · Imagine Media Podcast Network

• 0:16
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• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: All right, friends, here's the Hope Unlocked conversation.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Please help me welcome Holly Porter to the show.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited to have her here today.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of a funny story.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: I have to share it because last week we actually were going to record and then we ended up talking so much that we're like, oh, wait, we gotta, we're gonna have to wait till next week because we're both connectors and I I'm gonna speak for myself, but I love to talk, I love to meet people, and I know that you're the same way too.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: So here we are reconvening.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Holly, before we get into your story and what the Lord has you doing these days, would you just be open to sharing a little bit about yourself?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, sure.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Happy to.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've always been an entrepreneur, I was raised by entrepreneurs, so I'd say I started my business about 12 years old and always wanted to just own companies and do my own thing.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And usually I've had anywhere from two to four at a time.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And as my kids, I got married young.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I graduated from high school early and got married young.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so as my kids grew, I had four biological, and then later I married someone with four.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we raised eight kids in the same house.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And in between having two to four companies, so I just like whatever my kids were involved with as they were younger, I did a daycare preschool, kids' clothing store.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then as they all started moving out, then I kind of went off into other other dealings, but always busy, always on the go, and always dealing with lots of kids.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm from a family at nine, so I've always been around a lot of a lot of people.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Were you in the birth order?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Number three.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Number three.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so is that significant?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, was it challenging to be?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I was part of a family of three, so was it challenging to be kind of in the higher older order of of things?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: Did you take care of it?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my mom had seven kids in seven years with a set of twins.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when I so she had five under four and a half, she had a four and a half year old, three-year-old, I was 17 months, and then twins.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, could you even imagine?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Is your mom still alive?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: She passed away from Parkinson a few years ago.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how did I tell you what?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: She was she was a rock star.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Fireball like you.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's my dad.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, I wish I had more.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: My mom's more like you.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: She's got that calming energy, and and uh yeah, no, I was definitely more like I would say a grandma and my dad.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: So that's I mean, you had that foundation of a large family and growing up.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, did you, you know, you said you were kind of the entrepreneurial spirit back when you were like 12.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what did that look like for you?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: What were you having?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Did you start your own business at 12?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so what I you know, I don't have tons of childhood memories.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why, but I don't.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I do remember I was 12.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I did little things around selling things, you know, around the neighborhood, things like that.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: But my dad put my sister and I, she was three years older.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So she was she was 15 and a half because I remember she could drive, you could drive with her permit without an adult.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like in Utah, we have to have an adult anyway.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So she could drive, and so she drove us to his office, and we both got hired.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm 12, she's 15, and you know, we're doing all the dirty work that the secretary didn't want to do, cleaning the toilets and vacuuming and filing and all that stuff.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember one day I was walking over to clean the bathroom and I looked on the wall, and they had the poster that said minimum wage required that they legally have to post, and it said three dollars and thirty-three cents.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And my dad was paying me two dollars and fifty cents an hour.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that my entrepreneur of mine, that's where it started.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Excuse me, I really you're breaking the law.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: He looks at me, he's like, Yeah, yeah, like your child labor, you know, you better be happy you have a job and you're getting anything at all.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And anyway, but he would have us buy all our own school clothes from I so from 12 on up, we paid for all our own school clothes, and he would buy our shoes because that was kind of the bigger expense, more even more so now.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you know, I I respect that, I think that was great because we were raised with we had more assets than we did money because my dad was construction, he was like top three in Las Vegas for masonry years ago, so he was very successful that way, but we never knew it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I I grew up in Vegas on half an acre with a pool tight score.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: We always had a motorhome boat.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I never knew we had money, never.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I just like I think that was really wise of him to that.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: We earned what we got, and you know, we had to know that.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's and that's I love that you were just like give me a raise.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah, I didn't get one.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I should he should have given it to me just because I brought it up, but yeah, you you noticed what what wasn't happening and needed to happen.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, and I see my sister, she's not she would have never asked, she would have never said that and would have never bought it because of that reason.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: But our personalities are still like she's never really been an entrepreneur, she's always been a worker bee.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you have this experience.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you were raised in a family where you had that opportunity to work for somebody who was entrepreneurial, right?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: So you're in high school.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Did you end up going to college?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Did what was next for you after that?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I really just wanted to be out of school.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I was a good student when I wanted to be.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I could get good grades when I wanted to get them, but I I liked boys a lot.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up graduating as a junior, not because I was so smart, I was just smart to figure out how to do it faster to get out.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: All my friends every year in high school, we started as freshmen, graduated, they were always seniors, so that like they were always leaving.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I just wanted to grow up really fast.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was an old soul, so I graduated at 17, and my parents actually let me move out at 17.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time I was 18, I was married, had a baby the year I was 18.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really I just wanted to like have three jobs and have kids and just have this life, and really nothing's changed.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it seems like that pattern's continued my whole life, and chaos, I guess, makes me happy.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, how like as an 18-year-old, you have a baby, and then did you start having businesses at that point?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what did it look like for you to move into the actual like business realm?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: What was your first business?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I I had gone, I had won a scholarship to beauty school, and I'd started that about five months before I got married.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and then when I ended up having the baby, I it just it was expensive.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I married somebody that had two children, so I'm 18 years old, an instant stepmom.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Three weeks after we get married, we have kids for the summer, and they're five and six.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I loved kids, I was always great with kids, and I had been a nanny, and so in between all that for a short period.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I know that seems like how were you doing all that at 18, but I did.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so we had the kids, then I had my first child.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I started doing daycare and I didn't get a finished beauty school.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of more my thing is more tech stuff.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Later, I mean, I can tell you I've taken more classes than any doctor probably would have ever required over all my years, but I took what I wanted, not what they told me I had to.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't that paper on the wall didn't matter to me as much as what I felt like I needed to learn for whatever skill I was building at the time, whether even when it became personal development.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I just I always had I had the kids' clothing or I had the daycare, then later I had a preschool, then I had a kids' clothing store.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So those were kind of all the years when my kids were growing up.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started a salon and spa of my own.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually lost all of my school hours.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: You had to have 2,000 in Utah at the time.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now I think it's only 1,200 to get your license.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: I lost most, um I lost all of those and had to start all over and do an apprenticeship in my own salon.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then four days before I was done with my hours, which by the way, I can only count eight a day, but I was working about 12.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And she about four days before I was done, she walked out on me and wouldn't sign my paperwork and then turned me into the state.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was just a whole mess.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like it just this pattern was like when I finally got my license in my hand, there was so much to it.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like I had about 6,000 hours for that 2,000 hour license.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I was very qualified, and so I had that for about 20 years.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because you technically like had received that schooling when you were 18, right?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so what age were you by the time you ended up getting your certification?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see, I would have been still early, maybe 20, 26, 27.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And but I had been doing hair all in between for family and everyone.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you could do back then, I could do makeup, skin, and nails without a license.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when I opened my salon, it made sense because that's what I was interested in.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I realized I was turning away business because hairdressers are a little bit flaky and they weren't showing up.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I was turning away business and I was working so hard to get it in the door, and then nobody was there to cut their hair when I knew I could, right?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I couldn't legally.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's when I did the apprenticeship, got it all done.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I was I was probably 26, 27 when I finally got that.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, way to persevere.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then you had that business for how long?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, almost 20 years.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: 20 years.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I also had a in between that, I I did real estate, got my real estate license, had that office in the I changed the salon locations like four times as I grew.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: I we had a fundraising company, we have a concrete company that we had for over 20 years.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, so like we've had several for 20 years, and then that's amazing.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: I so I want to know, and I I feel like maybe people are listening in today, maybe some or dads, right?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Who are like, How did she do that with kids and multiple businesses?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: So you didn't have just two kids, you had eight kids.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: Did I hear that right?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I had the salon for maybe I'm trying to think about how many years four or five years before Scott and I got married.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I was divorced, I was a single mom doing all that on my own, still running the salon.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think at that point I only had one business thing, but I volunteered, I was part of Rotary International, and so and I served on Chamber of Commerce, Women and Business.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I felt like you had to do that networking to run the business, but I was also juggling for four kids single then until I met Scott.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: And did you find that you had a lot of energy to do this, or is it just kind of this?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I know there's some people that just have more of an inner drive, like for entrepreneurial ventures, right?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and taking care of your kids at the same time.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like somebody just needs to hear what how did you make it through?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what did that look like for you?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I was running on empty all the time, but I was running still, and I did have a lot of energy.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: I I think when you when you love what you're doing, like for me, if I didn't love it, even if I had three or four companies going at a time, if any one day I wake up and I just wasn't happy, happy is a big deal to me.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Happy is success.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's my total definition of success, is happy, one word.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like when I wasn't, then I would sell it, I would close it, I would you know, I just like I didn't just walk away because I but I feel like yeah, it I feel like what was missing was presence.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was present, but I didn't have presence.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so I feel like that's where I failed.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: What what did that look like for you?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you could turn back the hands of time, like what would that look like for you to that word presence?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what would that mean for you?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think I let other people's urgency define my urgency.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is I would be at the soccer game, I'm there, I'm over 1400 kids that are playing soccer because I'm the regional commissioner of the soccer team, right?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Of everyone not only did you have eight kids, you had 1400 kids too.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: We were well, how I got stuck in there.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't really a that wasn't a love and by choice, really.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was over the fundraising, and we didn't have a regional commissioner.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the fundraising, the the group had like we were able to donate a to Snack Shack we had built.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was Rotary president that year as well, over 80 members, and we did lots of fundraising.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so we donated, they were this was 2008-ish.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So when the recession was happening, the rotary had a had a bunch of money and the soccer organization had a bunch of money.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I went off on a tangent here.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we were able to say I was in charge of both of them, and so we did a joint venture and we built a snack shack onto the bathrooms, and neither could own property or I mean own any real estate, and so we donated it back to the city, and so they were able to have this snack shack in a recession, but we needed to spend the money, and so I ended up being the regional commissioner because this group was a great.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, 1400 kids wouldn't have been able to play if somebody didn't step up, and so kind of like being over the money and the regional kind of like but we had other signatures.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, at least I know I can trust myself.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was an honest person, but you know, we were raising great money, and so I it was sitting there on the field, watching a soccer game, doing a real estate deal.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was also had just finished real estate school, I was pretty new into that, and it was like, yeah, I'm present, but I'm not present.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: I showed up, but I really wasn't there.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like who did I show up for?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm trying to do a real estate deal, you know, the salon's running itself at the time, you know, with whoever's working in it, because I'm not there.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's just it was a lot of chaos.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I just at night, I think one thing that maybe someone needs to hear at night I got to where there were lots of stresses, especially as we had a house full of teenagers.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we also lived 20 out 20 minutes out of town.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of driving, you know, so yeah, there was a lot of that.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then anyway, I just feel like at night I would just take my thoughts and my I mean, I'm very ADHD.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Everything's racing all the time, and I would just like put that thought, like picture a cloud sliding in and put that thought on that cloud and watch it float away.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: It might come back tomorrow and start raining or pouring, but today and tonight I need my sleep.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I can't function without my sleep.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned that really early on that that was just a skill I thought that I was able to develop that helped me just picture that thought, you know, just floating it away for a little while and let me get my rest.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then tomorrow's a new day.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I can decide different choices and that's so good.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, do you still do that to this day?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not as much.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think I've just learned, especially after I got sick.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just learned it it's it's more I can keep things out of my mind.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I listen to binarial beats and I wear a mask with the flat speakers in them.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have a paid YouTube channel, so it doesn't have any commercials.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I listen to like affirmations, binarial beats, and I'll notice.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I hope those are getting in my head because I feel like I'm not listening, I'm not listening, I'm sleeping.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I'm sure some of it gets in.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I feel like that'll bless somebody because you know, for those of us, I'm I'm the same.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I my husband's like, Do you ever stop thinking?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, Well, yes, I do at night, and I'm always you know, I'm thinking of ideas, and I'm sure you are too like entrepreneurial here as well, and constantly getting new ideas.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: So, did you find yourself like ever journaling or writing anything down too, like before you'd go to bed or funny you say that?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: So yesterday morning, so weird.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't I haven't got to read it to my husband.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say no, even though I I preach that to people.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm more of a talk texter.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the other or yesterday morning, I woke up and a lot of times I don't remember my dreams, but I was still kind of coming out of it, and it was more of a nightmare, and it was so interesting that so I I sat there and I talked text, it was morning, and so I talked texted out, and then I called a friend of mine who's very spiritual, and I read, I said, Let me read you this.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: I go, This is the weirdest dream.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I started like we started kind of dissecting it, you know.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, she was laughing because it was kind of weird, but it was also a little scary and creepy.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I would say for someone that's not a journaler, I had this came up in a conversation yesterday with somebody else.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Have your phone, even you know, water's so healing.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're in the shower, you get ideas.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, think about when you're in a tub in the shower, you get ideas.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Have your phone there and just a towel, a hand towel, whatever, dry your hand off.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just talk text it into your notes so it's there, so you have it down.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And also when you're walking, a lot of times people listen to podcasts and things, even if you're listening to this one while you're walking, you're getting ideas.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just grab your phone.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, you can walk and text or talk text it in your phone so you don't forget it later or a note, sometimes just one word or a little sentence or something that'll help your.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, that was a story they told.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to remember that story because I always think, Oh, that I'll remember that.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: That that made an impact.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna remember that.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Five minutes later, I forget.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, dang, why didn't I write that down?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's funny you say that.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I totally agree with you.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was just sharing with somebody earlier today.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like I need to have things written down, especially like bigger memories that you know you don't want to forget about, or like the ideas that come, they're always flowing.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I've had those moments where it's like, oh my gosh, I totally forgot this idea that I got yesterday because I didn't write it down.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I love too that what you said.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think this is for somebody who I'm a verbal processor, so I don't mind writing things down.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: I I can write, I don't mind writing, but to have that reminder that you don't necessarily have to like write it down or type it out, yeah, especially if you're walking or running.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, let's just be real.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably a little easier to verbalize what you want to remember, right?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then come back to it later.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do you keep track of like you know, all these years of ideas you've had?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have a way to kind of look back on on things?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, in my notes, I always think what are the words I could say at the top.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: So when I do a search, if I can't remember what I titled something, and so it's there.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, nothing, nothing brilliant to share there.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: That like I think you have to just figure out what works with you.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my chaos sometimes on my desk desktop right now looks a little chaotic because I screenshot so many things thinking I'll come back later.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I might need them.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a screenshot, you won't be able to get there.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so easy to screenshot from your phone nowadays.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, my photos have a ton of screenshots.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: So when I'm traveling, if I'm in the car as a passenger, if I'm on an airplane, that's my cue to clean up my photos because you know, you do photos and you do three of the same thing, pick the best one, delete the other two.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like clearing out always the chaos.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, that's extra chaos.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need and the notes, the notes kind of I do the same thing.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'll sometimes just scroll through my notes and be like, oh, I just like randomly pasted that in there to go put something on a social media post, but then I I needed to delete it, and so then you end up having you know 4,628 right, yeah, notes, and you're like, Oh, how many of those are relevant or what do I need?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I think how many pictures do you have on your phone then?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pictures, yeah.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna I don't know, probably 20 something thousand.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, I have like 40,000.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, be yeah, okay.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have isn't that many because I do clean it up, yeah.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I need to clean my mine up a little bit, it's easy to do because it's kind of fun, you know.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: Email, I was just talking about this the other day, too.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: So as a business owner, like for you too, with we'll get into what you're doing these days, but email, oh my gosh, it can just get so out of hand.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I've heard people who have like 40,000 emails in their inbox, like I know as a business owner, and you've you've done multiple things over the years.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how have you kept?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know why somebody needs to hear this apparently, but how have you kept up with your email and like stay on top of things?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: Because people want to hear back from you, right?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Delete, delete, delete all day.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's not the smartest way because really they say, Oh, just pick three times a day that you're working on your email.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I'm busy with a different schedule all the time.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's stuff, so it's easier for me just randomly, even like if I'm gonna run downstairs and get a drink of water when I'm working in my home office.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: I run while I'm running down there, delete, delete.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just like I won't even open stuff in the pockets.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of just know it's just like going.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't feel like I have a ton.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is it empty?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, because there's things that I'll mark, I'll look at it and then I'll mark it on read on purpose because otherwise it just gets lost in there.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you just need to find it's back to that system.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: What system's gonna work for you?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Same with the same with the photos.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna go back to that for a second.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I will find the photos that are relevant and then I'll put them in an album.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so now I've got an album.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, like if I need like my grandkids, I put them so those pictures still show up in in my scroll, but now they're also in an album saved there.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: You just gotta remember don't delete them off your main thing because it deletes them out of the album, unless I unless I'm doing it wrong.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty sure it does.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really smart.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: I advise stuff faster, right?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we just I feel like there's I haven't necessarily been diagnosed with the the four letters before, but I feel like I'm definitely and I can juggle a lot of things.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: Do you find that with I feel like we have special brains when I worked in corporate?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's a lot of things that I was having to do, multiple things all at the same time.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, do you find that your brain gets really tired though?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel like we compartmentalize things, and so it's like I can take this, I'm gonna put that on the shelf.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm here.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a million tabs open at all times.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: And my husband tells me all the time, I do not want to be in your head.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: He said, It is crowded up there.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do not know what you're thinking, do not want to know.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he cares.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying he's like, Don't want to be in your head.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's like super passive, and you know, yeah, he's the type you ask a question, be me.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you're like waiting for the answer, and he's like pausing forever.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Did you hear me?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'll repeat it.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm just thinking about it, and I'm just like, think faster.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, come on, buddy, you can do it.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a personality difference.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're total opposites, but so complimentary at the same time.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like, well, even like with a battery, you need the positive and the negative, not saying that you're the positive and he's the negative, but you just need those, you know, polar opposites attract work.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: Same with my husband and I.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: We've been together for 30 years, it's a miracle, right?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, well, I was almost 25, and yeah, raising eight kids and going through all the stuff we did.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can do anything.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: He out, he's very wise.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I would give him.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's wise, he definitely balances me out, and he'll say, In the end, it's me and you.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so true because those kids are adults now, they're making that's it's almost harder having them as adults than kids because you feel like you kind of have a little control when they're under your roof.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can take things away when they're adults, they're just like making their adult decisions, and you just have to hold your breath and say, This is your experience, this is this is what you need to learn out of this experience, and but yeah, in the end, it's true, it's it's me and him.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's so special, though.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost like something you'd have like framed on your wall.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just saying you guys get it like framed on your wall.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's just so special.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like that he would say that.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, he's a good guy.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we're in 2026.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: What are you up to these days?
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how how have things like what do you what are you up to?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my life, you know, looks so so much different now than it did even five years ago.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is my fifth year right now when I got super sick, spent 70 days in the hospital with COVID, and had a life-changing near-death experience, and and that really shifted a lot of things.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so last year, big accomplishment was to get my near-death shift book, Surrender, Hope, Intuition, Faith, and Transformation is what it stands for.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And while I was writing that, I was gifted, and I call it a God gift.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it was for me.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: I got this idea about a retreat association and being a realtor for 20 years.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm part of NAR, which is National Association of Realtors.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've been part of building associations.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I understand what associations do, but I also, it's my 12th startup company.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was not looking for another business.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I had a company, a retreat RR company, a nonprofit, and I was okay.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then that nudge came.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's like you hear listen to the call.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's yeah, that's part of the intuition.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the call.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: We get those promptings for a reason.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I really was stressed about my deadline for my brook book.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I pushed the idea away, but I did go down the rabbit hole because I am curious just to know that there wasn't one.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's two to three million estimated people in this ecosystem of retreats, yeah, counting venues and service providers and and retreat leaders.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And there has never been an association.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: So then I got super excited, kind of made a little deal with God that if he'd help me get my book done and not miss my deadline, which was 1111, one, one, one, one, part of my story, that I would give 110.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so we launched the book 1111, December of 2025.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: We incorporated International Retreat Association.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so moving forward, we opened up membership in May.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, that I want to say maybe not 110.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I feel like that is my focus, but I still work with buyers, you know, for real estate and things like that.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: So you're at like 100% now.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm like, yeah, because I mean, I love real estate.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Real estate pays my bills.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you're starting a new company, you either have investors or you're bootstrapping it.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: And my tendency is to have to bootstrap it, and that's you know, I just it's okay.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just I'm the right people are showing up, and it's gonna be a great place for people to come and learn.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: And really, the world has gotten now to where you don't even know if someone's I mean, you could be AI for all I know.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's so good.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can be having this conversation, and you're you're AI, and I don't even know it.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: But if you were in person with me and sitting next to me and I could actually touch you, yeah, then I know you're real.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I feel like you crave that, don't you?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, totally.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a nine, it's okay.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a 363 billion dollar industry by 2029.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's sitting right now at about 300 and or I'm sorry, 280 billion dollars.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: This industry is bringing in of people who are in it who are traveling, and it's not just family connections.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can do a retreat for anything.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: So travel, in-person events, retreats, people are gonna crave that more and more because of AI.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like there's opposition in all things.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: AI is good, AI is bad.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what do you want to attract?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's really a mindset, and it's there's bad things anywhere you want to be.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: People move thinking the grass is greener on the other side, but guess what?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe the problem's you and moving, you're taking the problem with you.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, how about we try to resolve this first and then and then you know make that decision based on intuition because everybody has it.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: So have you run a lot of retreats then?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, was this something that you'd done a lot of that?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, like everything that you've done, I feel like everything I've done, everything you guys are all doing that you are listening, you're listening today, kind of leads up to where you're at today, right?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so had you done a lot of retreats before?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I, you know what?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: I really have not kept track.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say when I guesstimate, I would say between it's retreats I've attended, retreats I've ran, created uh events also, you know, in that realm of things.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're still doing that, just might be in a conference room, probably about 75.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, like a big variety of things.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't done a ton of international things.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've loved to.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and for the last five years since I got sick, I have not been called to do that.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like it wasn't what I was really listening.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was focused on retreat RR, which was a software company building things, and now the association.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like not, however, just recently in the last couple months, my husband and I have decided we've always talked about doing a couple's retreat together.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't want to teach, like it scares him because and but guess what?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Our niche is for is for combined families.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: So families who have combined that been through divorce, now they're combining, they have you know, his mine and ours, or his and mine or hers and his, whatever that looks like for them.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like you know, we have so much knowledge in that.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like our eight kids are all alive and well.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: We did something.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell them everything not to do, if anything else, right?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: So my husband said, I said, you're facilitating.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, when you're talking and discussing and listening to scenarios, because he's got a totally different outlook than I do.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I said, You're just facilitating, and it's a story you know you lived it.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you're sharing your experience and you're sharing suggestions.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not therapists, that's not what we're wanting to be.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I feel like we have a lot to offer couples and bring them together because in the end, they need to stay as a united front, kids will play you against each other, and so that that's like our new retreat.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's called it, it's called blended and united.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love it for couples, for blended families, yeah.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, so I feel like this kind of like segues maybe in into a little bit of, you know, maybe somebody's hearing this today who has a business, you know, doing something that they're really passionate about.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe they've played with the idea of doing a retreat, but they're like, Well, I've never done it before.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe like your husband are like, Well, I don't know that I have anything to offer, you know, just all these lies that come for you to kind of keep you from doing something.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: Totally.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: What would you what would you say to them?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then how can the association help them even too?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because I imagine that this is gonna help bolster people who come into this space, right?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it really, you know, I mean, you can go down the AI AI rabbit hole for sure.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can go get anything you want from YouTube, university, all for free.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: However, it's not real life necessarily of what yours looks like, and you can do a retreat on any subject.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think of any product, any business, any idea, there can be a retreat for it.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Underwater, underwater, be well, can I speak?
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Underwater weed basking.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I was trying to say.
• 33:15
  unknown: Okay.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Underwater weed basking, whatever.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, make up it, fill in the blanks, you can do a retreat.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's just the structure and figuring out a plan and not just saying I'm gonna do it.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: I always stay use Stephen Covey's idea of begin with the end in mind and work backwards.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, that's something I offer.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll work with people for a few hours.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: I do a package where I just say, okay, we have three different calls and we plan it all out for you.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: We structure it.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: I share with you like calculators I have that are designed, you know, that you put in all your numbers and and things like that.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to look at insurance.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't want to say enough that's gonna scare someone to not want to do one, but if you're gonna do it, do it right.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do it as do it as a business.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some people only do retreats, that's our whole business.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: I like to say the author, speaker, coaches world has been my world for many years.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I like to say, hey, you have probably a high-ticket package, maybe you have a year-long coaching package.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Have you considered bringing retreats into that?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe the end of it is this retreat to celebrate the year-long coaching, whatever, or you're bringing people in now to decide if you want to work with them for a year, six months, whatever that looks like.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Get them to know, like, and trust you.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: How much easier is it to do by having a retreat and spending three to seven days with somebody?
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you know, like and trust them, they know better if they know, like, and trust you.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then you upsell them into that year-long program because now they see what kind of energy you have, they see what kind of teachings you're bringing, what kind of experience and how they felt and everything around that.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, those are kind of my suggestions if you're considering it.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: There is some ways to go about it, but make a plan.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then usually I would say a minimum of six months planning a retreat because so many plan a great experience and they can't fill it, so they have to cancel it.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, where's your tribe coming from?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times they're your friends and family in the beginning, and you know what, practice on them.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: It'd be okay with that, right?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: They love you, they'll support you, but or do something that maybe you're not going to make a lot of profit.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure your expenses are covered for sure.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: About a hundred hours go into planning a retreat, and so you'd want to have them there for feedback.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, I'm I'm gonna do this at a discounted rate.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's my first one, but I need testimonials, I need honest feedback, make sure you have a photographer there because now all those photos become your promotional marketing materials to keep doing it.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: So it sounds like you've you you know what you're doing here.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: And and for those who maybe haven't done retreats before really want to like kind of up-level your retreats for your people.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_02: I what I heard was that you offer a few calls where somebody can meet with you and you can help them kind of tease out what they're gonna be doing.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: What does it look like to be part of the association for somebody who's already like done retreats?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: They they're they're just they have a doctorate in retreats.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason you'd want to be part of an association, there's that first of all, there's never been one.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the professional standards that we've set are just really values and ethics and best practices for an industry.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: People, it's so fragmented right now.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: So people are all over the place doing all kinds of things.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: But we do give you a badge, and that helps with your promotional marketing materials.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: We will have members and do have members that have our very experienced people doing retreats already.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, they'll be newbies and we'll be able to help and support them so much.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: But service providers, like, think of what you do for your business.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: And is that a service you could offer to retreat leaders?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's going to be the main people in there.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if people are sound healers or photographers, videographers, chefs, if you're an attorney, think of contracts and trademarks people need for all these businesses.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you're tax strategists, like they're building retreat leaders are in business, right?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so think of all the different hats people can wear.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is an audience we are bringing together that a lot of people maybe have never considered marketing to.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, I hadn't even realized these are all these retreat industry.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: My business could serve them on top of what I'm already doing.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, it's endless of who could, would, and should be in the association.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have made it so affordable.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's$111 for the whole year.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, it's affordable.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want it that way so that everyone in the world can feel like they have a home, they have a place to be, there's master classes, there's events.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, we'll probably have our own branded retreat and things.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: There's so I have such a wish list, but I bet you have like you've got a lot of things.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, huge, huge, and people that keep saying the same things that are on the list.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, but we need members.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you gotta have people to be able to create things and and expand.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: So right now it's just that essential membership and a hundred founder memberships are open, and that that's it right now.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it's been so people like learn more about it.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a website that they can go to?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: It is yeah, thanks.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: International retreatassociation.com.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: So just the name.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously, it's it's it's new, it's a new yeah, the pioneering venture, right?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: It is, and have helped like do people help you with all of these things that you're doing?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have we have a team.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously we'll have more team as we grow, but I also have a leadership council that's like a paid mastermind piece of it that's kind of at the top, and they're the ones that are are the movers and shakers in it.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then the founding members will be like they're listed on the website for life, and so very affordable there.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Could just go check it out.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a business and you think you could serve the retreat industry, at least check it out because I think it's very valuable and very needed at this time.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it reminds me of you know, a lot of times, especially like I'm a solopreneur, right?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you're a solopreneur, you know, you you find people along the way and I'm a connector, but I know some people really aren't big connectors.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: I thought everybody was a connector because I'm a connector, so I thought everybody is a connector.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: So you're kind of doing the the you're taking the heavy lifting off people who are doing these retreats.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I think I told you last week, like if I ever did a retreat, I'd be like, let's fast for three days.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: Cause I don't I don't have the I'm not gonna say I don't have a hospitality gift because I can do it if I want to.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: But my the idea of hosting a retreat and having to like plan meals and make meals, it's like, oh no.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: But you shouldn't do that if you're a retreat leader.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, your genius is in what you're sharing and you're teaching your knowledge and things, that's where it needs to stay.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a big mistake people make.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so budget it in so you make sure that food cost includes a chef that's going to be on site, they are there to cook your meals.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, less money for you if they don't have to, if they live in the area, right?
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they can go home at night and you don't have to pay for those expenses.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: But oh yeah, they're they're there the whole time.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're cooking your mills all three meals plus all their snacks.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to lift a finger for that.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's really ideally, unless you're gonna start with a really small four to six people group.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's still challenging to be sitting in the kitchen trying to do that if you're doing the retreat.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't imagine.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's so I mean, there's so many ways to slice or dice it.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: So for somebody who's listening in today, like I do feel like you took a lot of the heavy off of somebody maybe that has thought about doing a retreat.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: Anything else that you would say to this person who's like just on the edge that would really help them to maybe take a take a step forward, right?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say to them?
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Nike said it best, just do it.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: Really one of my favorite things to say.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, seriously, it's the best.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's why they're still around and they're making billions of dollars and uh make a good shoe.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I would just say, yeah, go for it.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let I'm a I'm a risk taker, of course, and I love just taking chances.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: But you'll never know until you do it.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: But there is also a strategy behind it, and so I would say, don't and don't do international your first one.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: I usually would say start, I call it a day treat.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just do a day treat in your own backyard.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a nice home, bring people into your home and just have a day event, you know.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you do some chair massages, maybe you do some extra, maybe you bring someone in for some sound healing and they get an exercise, you know, listen and meditate while they're doing other activities and not while they're doing as part of the activities.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's great.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just start start small, start, but start and then do an overnighter and then make it and then do two nights on a weekend for working people, maybe that really can't get away, or they you know, that's just not when they can they can't do vacation, whatever it is for them, and then do it Thursday night to Sunday, and and then start thinking about something maybe international.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's a whole new thing, you know.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's just so much strategy.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, before you take people out of the country, you need to be there, first of all, and check it all out.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, yeah.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's so much.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I love I love everything you've shared today.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: You're amazing.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_02: I love your you just have so much energy.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's so fun.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I am gonna wrap up for today, but what is the best way for people to get in touch with you?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know people are gonna want to get in touch with you now they know what you're doing.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because I have a feeling a lot of people are gonna want to take part in this routine association.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's exciting times for sure.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're like on the cusp, right?
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: Today's a big day.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's go.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: I love hearing from people too.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a link tree, if you could put it in the show notes.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: That is really will take you to my nonprofit, my books, my personal website, the the association website, social media, like you name it.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's one link, it makes it super easy.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can go there and okay and find all things.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: Find it, find it all.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, as we wrap up, I I love doing this podcast for the one.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, if you can just get in mind that one who's listening in today, do you have any other words of wisdom or or encouragement that you'd want to share over this one?
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: The message I came back with from my near-death experience is super powerful.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole story behind it.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to hear the whole near death stuff, just go on YouTube and put my name and you'll find lots.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the message was love them where they're at.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it shifts the energy around everything judgmental.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just remember that with people when we're dealing with people on a daily basis, it can be challenging.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Our spouses can be challenging, our kids can be challenging, relationships, business, whatever, fill in the blank.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: Just remember to love them where they're at, and it will change all the energy around it.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: That is so powerful.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Holly, I am gonna wrap up with the Hope Unlocked anchoring verse.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: And that's Romans 15, 13.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you, Holly, for being a brave voice.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: You're setting many free and bringing breakthrough to many.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for that.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: I will be back with another episode next week.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, listeners.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Holly.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.