Latest / The Jeff Crilley Show / The 1% Whisper That Changed Everything | Sandra Yancey
Transcript
- Coming up next on The Jeff Crilley Show, you're gonna meet a legendary entrepreneur, a good friend. She is the queen of networking. She is Sandra Yancey, the founder and CEO of e Women Network. Her incredible journey just ahead. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watched a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas Newsroom tonight, Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes a television network. We started slowly growing the company and we now have over a 100 clients and we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show. Well, my next guest is a dear friend, Sandra Yancey has been in my life for the better part of a quarter century now. I can't believe I'm saying that. Was still a reporter at Channel four when when you came into my life. She is a legendary entrepreneur, head of eWomen Network, a global networking organization and you have chapters all over North America. And The United Kingdom and Australia and Oh my goodness. We're saying global. Jeff, we're going for global. We're going for global. I want to start in the very early days because it didn't Yeah. Everybody wants to hear the entrepreneurial journey. Yeah. So, started in your home? Yeah. In a spare bedroom above our garage. Hotter than the hinges of hell here in Dallas. The summer because the garage heat I remember going up. But we were cooking up something pretty big, you know. We just didn't know it at the time, you know. Yes. We did what most I think small business owners do that have an idea and one day you kinda just pop up a shingle and you say, I'm in business. Yes. And if I would have known what I was getting into, I probably would not have done it. Well, you you started it like around the .com boom Yes. So it's called e Women Network. Yeah. And it originally started out just as a digital platform. Yeah. It was intended to be kind of the first Facebook for women business owners. And I learned a couple of really valuable business lessons. And one was that there's this thing called timing, and it's an important factor in success. And so while we wanted to go electronic, therefore the e women network, it just wasn't meant to be because everybody was still on dial up, Jeff. I mean, you know, everybody was everything was was plain text. There was no color. There was no pictures. There was I no mean, people were literally snail mailing me their photographs. And I was driving up to Kinko's. Is that for Kinko's? Yes. And I would give them the photograph. They would scan it, give me a disc. I drive back home, you know, put it into my computer, scan it up and I that was me building everybody's profiles. Mean, it was a great idea. It was just too many years before its time. But then you discovered that women want to meet and there's really meaningful connections that come from meeting. So, what year did you transition to first? I would say that was about 2002, and I learned another big valuable business lesson, and that is watch your customers. It reminds me of, you know, the Japanese and the car industry. They would go into, you know, parking lots of these big box stores, and they'd watch women come out with the kids and the groceries and the bags, right, and realize that their hands are full, and that's when they invented the swipe with your foot to get the trunk to open. And they watched and they listened to what their customers were saying versus what they want. Because I think business owners get in their head a lot, like, I want this, the shoulds, this is the way things should be. But sometimes we behave very different. So, while they said they didn't want other meetings, right, they didn't have time for another thing, the truth of the matter is I got a call one day from a member out of the Atlanta area that said, hey, listen, if I give you zip codes in and around the Atlanta area, could you tell me who the members are? And I said, well, sure can. And what would you do with that? And they were like, well, we'd call them. I mean, I'd like to meet them. I wanna be eye to eye. I wanna hear their story. I wanna And then I started to go, okay, there's something more than just a profile here. Yes. And we took that with, by that time there was the internet bust, so we talk about the boom to the bust. Yes. We had done all this, you know, branding around e Women Network, and of course, have the master marketeer, my spouse, significant other and partner in e Women Network, the co founder, Kim Yancey. And he said, just let me take this and run with it. And the next thing you know, he came back with this brochure. Remember brochures? I do. With this brochure with all these Es for entrepreneur and enthralling and exciting and enterprising and we just did a spin off, a marketing spin off on what that E was. Wow. Mhmm. Brilliant. We're gonna pull up your website and if we scroll down the website, I want you to talk about the benefits of joining. Yeah. Well, mostly the benefits of joining are that you get connected to other women who want to build million dollar businesses. I mean, is really our for forte. We're not for the hobbyists. If you're like, if I'm going to be away from my kids, if I'm going to be away from my family, if I'm going to work this hard, I'm going to have something at the end of the day to show for it. So you can make a thousand dollars a day, or you can make 10,000 or a 100,000. You tell me which box you would check. And if you're into checking that upper end box, that 10,000 or a $100,000, then you're probably our kind of member. Yes. Because there are other members that want to hang around other people that are building an enterprise. Right? Yes. And so, we are perfect for you to share who you are and what you do and who your right fit client is and how you transform their lives with the product or service that you offer. And we give everyone voice to be able to share what that is. And then our philosophy is all about we lift as we climb. So as you're sharing, Jeff, what you want, what you need, what you're looking for, whether it be a customer or a power partner, then all the rest of us do is say, do you know this person? Do you know that person? So, we're the ultimate sharing referral network, all based on giving. The cool thing is, if everybody's giving, everybody's also reciprocating. Yes. Right? From the benefits of that. And I've been to a number of your conferences and you had me on the main stage a couple Yes. It's just absolutely electric. I found a nice highlight reel, let's go ahead and roll that. Wow. And I love it that you guys set the tone, you you really say this is a spirit of abundance, it's not how many business cards you can collect or pass out. Right. It's really how can you give to the person to your right and to your left. Right. And especially now in this economy, the economists are saying that we are in a trust recession. Mark Cuban, one of Dallas's own, as you know, was recently published in Inc Magazine, talking about how and he's been such a proponent of AI. There's so many great things that AI provides, except for one thing, and that is that we're predicting within the next three years, most people won't know, you know, what's real and what's not real. And that's why this, you know, and this all face to face, knee to knee, heart to heart conversation is going to be more valuable than ever. So the days of, you know, sitting behind the computer, the COVID days, I mean, you got to get up, take a shower, get some pants on, and get out now. You know, because that's how people are going to create their initial connection. And as that trust rises, and then you leverage the acceleration of technology, the people that hit that spot, boom, those are the next million dollar makers without a shadow of a doubt and we're all over it. Wow. Well, I know there's a lot of trials and tribulation building anything. You and Kim are good friends of mine. Your daughter works with you in the business. Yes, yes. And there was And your son and daughter works with you. It's beautiful. It's just the greatest thing ever, could you imagine? I pinch myself every I know. And you were so blessed because there was a scare. Yeah. And I want you to set up this clip because they're gonna see it but they need some context. Yeah. So, what happened? So, two years ago, April 11, it's like a day you'll never forget, right? I talked to Brianna, our daughter, who was in the company. I talked to her that morning, I was doing my tour that year, I was in Denver and we chatted in the morning like we typically always do. And I told her I would talk to her later on or tomorrow even. And I go to the Denver event, and I step off the stage like I always do. And a woman came up to me and said, you need to I was told that the minute you get off the stage, you need to find a private room and call your husband. And of course, I knew immediately something was terribly wrong, terribly wrong. I was scared, quite frankly. And so I'm searching around, I'm at a venue, I'm searching around, there's people everywhere. I'd just gotten off the stage, people wanted to talk to me and that kind of thing. And I just kept, you know, excuse me, I'll be right back. And I'm looking around, I couldn't find a room, Jeff, and I found the kitchen. And so I went into the kitchen and I called Kim. We'd been together at this time forty six years, this is the only man I've ever known and I've ever loved since I've been 17 years old, And I experienced a side of him I'd never experienced before. I mean, he was inconsolable and he and I couldn't understand him. And he was crying and he was trying to talk to me, but I couldn't understand. I kept saying, what's going on? What's going on?' And he just kept saying, 'Our baby, our baby.' And I was like, 'Which baby?' We have a daughter and a son. And he just said, it's our Brianna. It's our Brianna.' And the next thing I know, the phone was saying, I was like, what happened?' And the phone was taken away and it was the doctor saying that there's been an unfortunate incident and I needed to get home. And so, you know, Jeff, at that point I didn't want to know what happened. Cause I didn't want to be that far away and and know something tragic had happened. I it was and I I just went in, I said I I and I was due to go to the next city. I was there was the woman there that was to drive me to the next city in Northern Colorado, and I said, I gotta get the airport. I gotta go home. So, I go home. I'm now calling my assistant. Is there a flight? She's like, there's an 08:00 flight, but there's an earlier flight, but they're not letting me they're not letting me book you. And I'm like, let me get there. If you've been ever been to the Denver Airport, it's ginormous. And I run-in to an American Airlines counter and it's like the seas parted. There was no one there. They were like in between flights or something. And little did I know that was the first Godwink. Mhmm. You know? And I run up and I'm just like, frantic, and I've gotta get home, I've gotta get home. She's like, there's an 08:00. I said, I know, but I understand there's an earlier flight, but my assistant couldn't book me on it. She goes in, she clicks in, she goes, they just released it. They just released it, swear to God, there's one seat left. And I said, I'll buy it. I'll take it. Whatever it is, I'll take it. And she's she goes, okay. And I'm like, here's my luggage, let's go. She books me like a running through, you know, all of their air tram things and get to the gate and I'm sitting there. I have about twenty minutes and I'm now starting to hyperventilate. And I want to call but I don't want to call. I I was too afraid. I I had I've had too much data. My father died on my birthday, tragically, in a car accident when I turned five years old. My brother died. He was 27. I was 26. Killed instantly in a car accident. I've been hit head on by a drunk driver when I was 14, had the top part of my face. I just, I had too many tapes going on. I felt too far away. And and so I I just started calling people to pray. I'm going home, people are like, what happened? I don't know. What do you mean I don't know? I don't want I just pray, something something horrible has happened, I gotta get home. So, I get home, there's a car service there, they rush me to the airport, Kim is standing outside of the hotel outside the hotel, outside of the hospital and and he's white as a ghost. I mean, face had a different shape to it. I can't even explain to it. But I looked at him briefly and the my driver was getting the luggage out, Kim took the luggage, we go in. We're kind of not talking, to be totally honest with you. And we get into the elevator and the elevator opens up and I'm like, what's happened? And and immediately interrupted. There are people there that the family that had started to gather and took my luggage and Kim said, come with me. And we turned left and we turned right. And before I knew what happened, Jeff, I walk into this room and I see my daughter on life support. And I I almost didn't recognize her because they had her intubated and, you know what I mean? And she's elevated and I mean, I knew it was her and I walked out to the nurses and I said, what's going on? And they said, take your time. She's comfortable, and we can keep her this way until you come to terms. Oh my goodness. I'm like, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? And I'm walking in, I still don't know what's happened to her, and the the in walks the neurologist. And she said, I I don't expect her to make it. I'm giving her one percent chance to live. I'm like, what do you mean? Her brain waves are too low, her, you know, her kidneys are failing, her she's been without oxygen for forty to forty five minutes, she's been manually kept alive, she's lost too much oxygen, and I give her all I kept all I could hear, the the reverberation was 1%, 1%, 1%, and she walks out, Jeff. They're not there to console you, they're like and all I know is I walk around where she was, and I lean into Brianna, I grab her hand, she's ice cold, they have her on this like cold cold cold, almost like an ice mat. Her hands are ice cold, and I just lean into her, and I just whispered in her ear, and I just said, It's okay, baby. You rest, you rest, let your body heal. 1%, Brianna. You've been a one percenter your whole life. Here we go. Here we go again. You know? And and then Kim takes me out, and he said, when they got her stabilized and intubated in in the emergency room for you to get here, he said, the emergency doctor had pulled me and Travis, her husband, over and just said, you need to focus on alternate plans, end of life plans. She isn't gonna make it. I'm like, Jeff I mean, I know I'm on this show and there's been other people that have lived through this, but there's nothing that can prepare a parent. For what I I mean, honestly, it almost feels in some ways like it didn't happen anymore. It was like this this, like, movie where you just get sucked into, like, they say, I'm three years earlier, kind of thing, you know what I mean? Like, am I living here? And Jeff, I mean, she came to and one eye was this way and one eye was that way and she wasn't responding and she had to squeeze, you know, she finally squeezed Travis's hand, that was step one, so that she was, she kept thrashing. And I was so worried that this, that she was gonna choke, and the nurses kept saying she can't choke. She thinks she's gonna choke, but she can't choke. And I'm looking at her and I'm crying like, oh my God, oh my God. And the nurse said, this is a beautiful thing. And I'm like, and I I'm like, how is this a beautiful thing? She goes, her brain knows that's not supposed to be there. Wow. Her brain knows that, and if her brain wasn't functioning, she wouldn't care. And I was I was like, okay. It gave me hope, Jeff. It gave me hope. And boy, were we into a journey because when she came when she started to come out of it, she she couldn't speak correctly. She had no use of her left side, they put a spoon in her right hand, she didn't know what it was, what to do with it, she couldn't walk, she couldn't and every step of the way the doctors are saying, this may be the best she ever is. Oh my goodness. Alright. We have a clip, and this is in Brianna's own words. Let's go ahead and roll the clip. I can't even imagine. Yeah. I mean, I watched the video, and it I I mean, it it really it takes me back. I feel this unbelievable pit in my stomach. I mean, Brianna went through everything, but as a mother, I mean, my cortisone shot, my shot up, my digestive system shut down. I was hungry, but I couldn't swallow. 35% of my hair fell out. I mean, I'm just trying to hold it together because she's the one, but I am inside just, you know, it was such a torturous time. Do you want to share what happened to her? Yeah, it was a she had just a regularly scheduled appointment. She was having a treatment that required a little bit of lidocaine, which I think people get and don't even think twice about it. And the doctor, unfortunately, injected the lidocaine too deep and it went into her bloodstream. And she had seven seizures, and she went into full cardiac arrest. And she had to be from the medical clinic she was at. She had an ambulance had to take her to an emergency room. She was then care flighted. They worked on her for, you know, over half an hour trying to stabilize her. They just could not get her to have a heartbeat. They had this little tool now in a lot of these care flights where they can measure and see if the organ, meaning the heart, has actually completely died. She had an electrical current, they saw how young she was. We went back and met these guys, they kept her alive, these two men that kept her alive for forty minutes to get her to the hospital. But the oxygen that you get from being manually massaged Yeah. To keep that heart alive is not the same when your heart is beating and you're getting the full oxygen of the body. Alright. Give us an updated So, she, I mean, so here's the bottom line. The very last procedure they would they would acknowledge was her her MRI. She had to go through all these EKGs, all these other kinds of things. Her kidneys regenerated. I mean, we just started seeing this this movement. It felt so slow, but when I look back, I think about the progress that was being made. And Jeff, she had the MRI, doctor, the same neurologist that said, I give her 1% chance, says, I have to tell you, I'm expecting a full recovery. And I'm across from her, Brianna's here, I'm across from her Kim, my husband's at the end of the bed, and he says to her, doctor, did we get did we get a miracle? It's the only time I ever saw her face, Jeff. She pulled down her face mask, and she looked at Kim, and she looked at me, and she said, you got a miracle. There's no medical explanation for her recovery. But we had the whole eWomen Network community praying for her. Boy, the power of the prayer. Boy, when people say, I believe in miracles, let me just tell you. And it's changed my whole outlook on life totally because I now know what a bad day is. Nothing will ever measure that day, Jeff. Nothing. There's nothing that will ever come close to that day. So the blessing now is that every day is a beautiful day. And not only that we got my my daughter back, but I believe when God decided to and for as much as I would mourn to my mother's lost loss, I was so glad she was in Heaven, because I know my mother was working on it. I was like, Mom, I need you. I need you to get to God. I know there's a long line, but you you need to maneuver your way. And man, he blessed us, and when he brought her back, Jeff, he brought her back better. I mean, you think I'm kidding, I am not kidding. He brought her back and he was like, you are gonna have a platform Wow. To let anybody and everybody know that if they have a 1% belief in their dream, she is living proof. That if you work for it, and she worked for it, eight hours a day of therapy, you know, every therapy you can imagine and she worked for it and she worked for it, it too can be yours. Wow. And she's a proud mom and you're Not proud only proud mom, she finally gets home and her and Travis have a moment. And the next thing I know, she's pregnant. And so, let me just tell you, it happened on April 11. This little baby boy was born early on March 11 at 11PM. And if you're into angel numbers and you know anything about the number 11, there are just no accidents in all of this. Wow. You know? This, you know, he had some complications, was in the NICU and all of that, but he's a healthy walking bundle of everything today, you know? Sandra, this is probably one of the most beautiful shows I've ever done. And I, we've got about And she's the succession plan. I mean, she's the future of The Women Network. You know? I always say, I'm the original, my kids have a copy, but the copy is more brilliant than the original. Yeah. More vibrant. In the final two minutes Yeah. You know, I know you're on a speaking tour right now Yeah. And you have a big event coming up Yeah. June 11. Yeah. Do you wanna give some final thoughts? Yeah. I'm gonna be in Allen at The Meridian on June 11 and really invite you to join me and, you know, a 150 plus other women. I'm telling you, Tony Caruso, who is our the reigning managing director of the year, happens to be here in Dallas. She'll be running that event. She's the best of the best, I'm telling you. And we're gonna be talking about Shift, the CEO advantage, because we are in such a powerful time in in our economy, in the marketplace, and we can focus on all the things going wrong, but I prefer to put my energy into all the things that are going right. And it is the right time to go big. And I'm gonna share with you five things that we've been doing at the Evening Network corporate office to 10 x our business, which less than 1% of all businesses do. And I've got five things we've done that already has moved us, not public information yet, but we've already generated the revenue in by the by April 15. So, quarter plus two weeks that we did through the June year. Wow. And there are five things that I want to share with every entrepreneur I know on what you can do to start to create the exact same results for you and make 2026 your best year ever. Wow. Sandra, I can't thank you enough for sharing your heart and your your story with us and making us all believe in miracles again. Yeah. I love you, Jeff. Yeah. I love you back. We're gonna end with the website which is ewomennetwork.com, the great Sandra Yancey. Thanks for coming on the show. That's it for now. We'll see you next time.