Latest / Authentic Living / Systemic Barriers and the ROR: Return On Relationships (Part II) with Carolyn Treviño Jenkins
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
- 0:08things that really matter in our lives.
- 0:11And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
- 0:36Our interview last week was so good that we decided to turn it into a 2 part series.
- 0:41If you missed last week, you'll find the link in the show notes.
- 0:45It's not mandatory that you listen, but we wanna make sure that you don't miss out on this
- 0:51amazing conversation.
- 0:53Hi, everyone.
- 0:54It's Roxanne Derhodge.
- 0:55Thanks.
- 0:55For tuning in again to authentic living with Roxanne.
- 0:58Today, I have a colleague Carolyn Trevano Jenkins.
- 1:02I said I wouldn't, trip up on the Trevino there.
- 1:06And she is a someone that, is a Forbes Business Council, a tech technology business council
- 1:13member, and we were we were fortunate enough.
- 1:16I I popped into this wrong room and actually met Carolyn at that point at Forbes because I'm
- 1:22a part of the general business council and, we got to know each other and She's got a
- 1:30fascinating story as a CEO, and I invited her today to kind of share some of the things that
- 1:35she's been through our longer path that might help, some of us that are, female
- 1:41entrepreneurs, but also CEOs.
- 1:43So, Caroline, thanks so much for coming on today.
- 1:45Oh, thank you for inviting me.
- 1:47I'm really excited to be here.
- 1:49So, Carolyn, now
- 1:53You and I started off because we I think we were talking about diversity and, you know, I
- 1:58was fascinated by your background because visibly, I did not know, about your background.
- 2:03And you were sharing a couple of stories, I believe, that got me intrigued.
- 2:07Obviously, I'm from Turbago, so I would say visibly, I'm I look for and and and that
- 2:12changes that kind of sometimes the trajectory in a room.
- 2:15But with you, tell us a little bit about your background and kinda your path.
- 2:21I know you live in Texas at present with your family, your kids and your dogs and your lovely
- 2:26husband, but tell us a little bit about your path into kind of, you know, business?
- 2:34Well, that's a a big question there.
- 2:37So but Yeah.
- 2:39I think you were kinda sharing with some of the the background and stories you and I talked
- 2:42about about the way I look.
- 2:45I am 1st generation American, My my dad's family is from Mexico.
- 2:50My dad was 10 when they moved here.
- 2:53What I look like my mom, who's Italian, I don't look like my dad.
- 2:58And, you know, I sort of grew up even in my childhood where I never quite fit in.
- 3:05There were people, often the Hispanic community thought I wasn't Hispanic enough, and then
- 3:10sometimes the the you know, white community would say harsh things if they found out I was
- 3:17Hispanic, like, literally in 5th grade.
- 3:18I had a teacher tell me I was the dumbest Mexican she'd ever met.
- 3:22To my face.
- 3:23So I, you know, so life's an adventure, and I, and I really learned But early in life, I think
- 3:33that it's about how I can how I respond to life.
- 3:35You know, I can't control it, but I can control how I respond to things.
- 3:39And that was really important to me.
- 3:41And that's really been important in my business career because as I, you know, I finished my
- 3:48MBA many, many years ago, and and immediately wanted to go to work and then chose not to go
- 3:54to work full time because I had a special need son that was born in between my 1st 2nd year,
- 3:59and he needed a lot from me.
- 4:04And we had some disc discrimination in the Roxanne and in the medical system back then, as
- 4:12well before my last name was Jenkins, on the end of that.
- 4:16And just sort of that lived experience.
- 4:22Took that into the workplace.
- 4:24Again, when I finally went to work full time, I worked part time.
- 4:27And I sort of fell into the startup world.
- 4:30And I loved it.
- 4:31Like, I had a I was working in corporate America.
- 4:33I was doing really well.
- 4:35And one of my customers recruited me away to a startup in 1997 when there were not enough
- 4:42positions, there was the y 2 k scare and the internet bubble, and there were way more
- 4:48technology positions than technologists, and that's when I first jumped in the startup
- 4:52world.
- 4:54And never in a 1000000 years in 1997, could I have told you I would one day be a CEO.
- 5:00So So that that that bandy between I have to create a presence as the CEO.
- 5:09I wanna be connected But I need to be able to show, authoritativeness.
- 5:17Like, were the things that you really had to work on for that subset of skills, or did you
- 5:24find that it it because you've been in lots of different positions with startups of that team,
- 5:30easily to you?
- 5:33The connectivity, it was interesting.
- 5:36And and when I say it's like there were certain people in the company that we instantly had
- 5:41kinship and connectivity.
- 5:44There were a couple of people, managers in the company, that I'll tell you.
- 5:50I I I think I had their respect, but never maybe connectivity from them.
- 5:56Now we were a strategy execution software company.
- 5:59So as far as, like, the accountability that was easy, everyone had their objectives.
- 6:03They were all used to that.
- 6:04Holding people accountable for performance was easy.
- 6:08Trying to have a company team building event was harder than any place I'd ever been in my
- 6:17life.
- 6:18I'm like, it was so fascinating to me, like, once a quarter, we would go volunteer at the
- 6:24food bank, but we had some employees who were like, I'm not doing that.
- 6:27Like, I they and they wouldn't do it.
- 6:30We had we did one quarter we went to, one of those puzzle rooms, you know, where you have to
- 6:36get the, you know, when we went to eat and we went to a puzzle room and there were employees
- 6:39who like leaned against the wall with their arms crossed, and they're like, I'm not playing
- 6:43this stupid game.
- 6:44You know?
- 6:44And it was like, wow, I have, like, never seen this kind of attitude at any of my other
- 6:49companies where someone's like, I I won't even try.
- 6:54Oh, and I'll tell you there were a couple of them that I never went over but they did their
- 6:59job as employees.
- 7:01They met their objectives.
- 7:03You wouldn't say that they were bad performers, but from a culture, company culture standpoint,
- 7:09like, we just never connected.
- 7:11Never.
- 7:11And it felt like they never blended in.
- 7:14It wasn't just me.
- 7:14They never blended in to the company culture as a whole.
- 7:19And so it was hard for me.
- 7:21It was a struggle for me to say, are they the right employee then?
- 7:25Like, but they're doing their job.
- 7:27They're, like, doing a good job at their job.
- 7:29They're hitting their objectives.
- 7:30They're not a bad employee, but they certainly didn't elevate the culture.
- 7:35They weren't maybe what you would call a culture ad.
- 7:39They were maybe a culture, the tractor.
- 7:42Mhmm.
- 7:42Mhmm.
- 7:43And that was hard.
- 7:44That was really hard because I was used to being, you know, well liked, well respected,
- 7:54you know, when again, there were people I hired, which is different, I guess.
- 7:57You know?
- 7:58So Right.
- 7:58Because you're growing you're growing the culture from the ground up if a startup versus
- 8:02like you said, when you're inheriting, the context of what with prior leadership and, you
- 8:07know, I often say what is the context of what's happened within the culture, the business units
- 8:12changes.
- 8:13There's so many variables.
- 8:15And then, you know, you know, I talk about return on relationship, but ultimately, if
- 8:19you're connected and you're doing all the things that are key to to get people, you know,
- 8:25to function optimally, not everybody's gonna want to be as cohesive.
- 8:31Some some people are like, you know, just leave me in my kind of my back office.
- 8:35I'm gonna get stuff stuff done, and I'm not the type that likes to potentially play games, you
- 8:40know, or do puzzles, but I'm pretty good on my own kind of thing.
- 8:44So it it really depends, and it's oftentimes an individual thing as well.
- 8:48Yeah.
- 8:48It was really fascinating.
- 8:51Prior to me, the previous CEO didn't have company events.
- 8:56And I came out of a culture where we always had a quarterly.
- 8:59I mean, they had company meetings, but they didn't do, like, fund team building activities.
- 9:04And, of course, you can imagine my HR background.
- 9:06And then I was vice president of customer success.
- 9:09I was doing team things for my customers and it's just kinda core to my nature, and we
- 9:14always had these things at our companies in the past, and they were always a huge hit.
- 9:20I know, like, I even would have with I was I like serving the employees.
- 9:23I'm like, well, what do you wanna do?
- 9:25And those few people were like, nothing.
- 9:27Like, we've never had to do this before, and we don't wanna do it.
- 9:30And you're sitting there going, well, when they were hired, they didn't they were not their
- 9:35expectations were not set that they needed to do this.
- 9:39And so then how do I come in and penalize them or not wanting to do it, but it always felt
- 9:44awkward.
- 9:46So and I would like to think, had I been there longer?
- 9:50I would turned it around, but I'll never know because I was, you know, I got cancer while I
- 9:56was at that company.
- 9:57And so I didn't have the tenure there as CEO that I would have expected to have.
- 10:02And I would think, yeah, because the like to your point, if you're recruiting, you're trying
- 10:06to find fits, these are the the cultural norms within that that, environment.
- 10:12And if if office and it's a new thing, it would take people time.
- 10:17Right?
- 10:17So had you, to your point, I think it takes those kinds of shifts takes a bit of time where
- 10:22people are looking for consistency and, okay, why are you doing this?
- 10:26And, you know, uh-uh, we've never had to do this, since I've been here and all of a sudden
- 10:31now this new CEO decides, well, we're just gonna do this.
- 10:33Sometimes people some people are quick on to to just to change it.
- 10:38I think a lot of people aren't.
- 10:39Right?
- 10:40So but That doesn't mean that so long as they're functioning, they're not disruptive,
- 10:44you know, they're you're you're hitting your targets, then it becomes well.
- 10:48I, you know, if we're all kind of playing nice in the sandbox then, you know, that's what what
- 10:53counts.
- 10:54So let's talk a little bit.
- 10:56You mentioned the cancer that you had.
- 10:59And let's talk a little bit about how you coped with that.
- 11:04Like, here you are.
- 11:05You're at the pinnacle.
- 11:06You're, you know, you're at CEO now of a company that you didn't start and you're how
- 11:13old at that point, Carolyn, that this occurs that your children pretty young at that point.
- 11:17No.
- 11:18Actually, my youngest was a junior, a sophomore, junior, and high school.
- 11:27So my my my kids were she was not yet driving, but she was I she had her permit, but she
- 11:34couldn't drive by herself yet.
- 11:36And I had one who was, Well, when the this started, I guess she was in her senior year of
- 11:45high school, but by the time things got really bad, like, she went off to college.
- 11:48Like, I literally delayed one of surgeries to drop her off at college, and take her to to
- 11:53school.
- 11:54So they were older.
- 11:56They were older.
- 11:56And then
- 11:57my son's way older.
- 11:58So So you you get this news.
- 12:02And and then then what happens?
- 12:04Like, Like, what is the mindset that you go into?
- 12:08I mean, everybody hears that word, and it's like, you know, it's that worst thing that you
- 12:13can hear.
- 12:13So how do you adapt some of the things that you already told us to to deal with this situation.
- 12:21Well, you know, fortunately for me, we we did keep catch it early.
- 12:25And I think that's just important to share with everyone because if I'd been a different in
- 12:30place, I might have handled it differently.
- 12:31Right?
- 12:32This isn't a one size fits all kind of solution here, but we did catch mine early.
- 12:37And I pretty quickly was like, okay, I'm not dying.
- 12:41It's gonna suck.
- 12:44And lot too long after that, my next thought was How do I tell my board of directors?
- 12:51Like, they literally just hired me for this job.
- 12:53Like, I'm not that far into my job.
- 12:56And how do I go tell a roomful of men that I, I have breast cancer, which was very
- 13:03uncomfortable.
- 13:04Like, this is where my brain was spinning.
- 13:05I've not even left the doctor's office yet.
- 13:07And I'm sitting there going, well, wait a minute.
- 13:09You know, like, when you say someone like, oh, I I broke my foot.
- 13:12Everyone looks at your foot or, you know, like, someone's like, you know, what's what's your to
- 13:17do?
- 13:17Your wrist or, you know, it's just human behavior.
- 13:21When someone tells you they broke something, you tend to look add it because you just
- 13:25intuitively want more details.
- 13:27And so I'm going, okay, great.
- 13:28I'm gonna walk into this room full of men, and I'm gonna say, I have breast cancer.
- 13:32Like, What does one wear for this?
- 13:35Like, I know this sounds so ridiculous, but this literally crossed my mind.
- 13:38I'm like, is this like, do I wear a shot of work that day?
- 13:42Do I just wear a blazer?
- 13:44Like and then then, like, and when do I tell them?
- 13:48And literally this was one of the things where it's like, who's gonna, like, help me figure
- 13:51out when do I tell my board?
- 13:53They they they just hired me, and now I'm I've got cancer.
- 13:58And I couldn't find anyone to share that advice, but kinda goes back to all those other
- 14:03lessons.
- 14:04I mean, any other problem I wouldn't tell the board there was a problem until I had a
- 14:11potential solution for the problem.
- 14:14Right?
- 14:14So I don't wanna just call them and say, oh my god, we just lost our biggest client.
- 14:17You might call and, you know, oh, we lost our biggest client.
- 14:21Give me 24 hours.
- 14:22Like, I'm internally Like, what am I gonna do to handle it?
- 14:25Let me have a plan.
- 14:26Now I need to tell the board.
- 14:27You know?
- 14:30So I decided not to tell them anything until I had a plan.
- 14:35Like, how am I gonna handle the fact that I have cancer, but I knew I had to tell him
- 14:40sooner rather than later because we, again, we all worked in offices in 2018.
- 14:46And, like, people are gonna notice.
- 14:49Our brand new CEO sure is missing a lot.
- 14:52Like, where is she?
- 14:53Because I had all these appointments, and then I was gonna start having surgery, and, like,
- 14:56you can't hide that, but I needed a plan.
- 15:00So I decided to wait until I had my plan.
- 15:03And I was very fortunate that had a very, very supportive board.
- 15:08But everything that you learn and being a leader also just became this on a cancer
- 15:16journey, like, advocating for yourself, it's like advocating for your career.
- 15:20Don't expect someone else to do it for you.
- 15:24Look for mentors.
- 15:25Like, look for someone else who's had cancer and find that person to help you, even if it's
- 15:30just to listen, or to make suggestions.
- 15:33The best advice I got came from strangers.
- 15:37I maybe I shouldn't say the best, but a lot of good advice.
- 15:40Came from strangers who had walked the walk.
- 15:44And and sometimes that's how we get our business advice.
- 15:47Right?
- 15:47We we meet people who we think, you know, we look at their backgrounds and we're like,
- 15:52they've lived my experience.
- 15:53So let me listen to them.
- 15:55And see what I might discern that would help me on my journey.
- 15:58And that helped in cancer.
- 15:59This is just no der differently than how you might manage your career.
- 16:05Like, don't let it just unfold and happen to me.
- 16:08I want to drive the process.
- 16:11So you just kinda sat with it and really reflect it.
- 16:15Like you said, for, like, to your point, we've just gone to a we've gone to a renewal meeting
- 16:19and something has gone awry And, you know, oftentimes in those scenarios, you're trying to
- 16:24process it, but you see, you kind of took the same approach and then eventually kind of went
- 16:28back to them and was able to deliver.
- 16:31Now the fascinating thing is and this is the new startup that you're a part of.
- 16:35Right?
- 16:36And and it's called We are here.
- 16:41We are here.
- 16:41We are here.
- 16:41I was just trying to look at my notes.
- 16:43We are here.
- 16:44So I I love I love this story because it's So, you know, it just speaks to the the depth of
- 16:51how you're able to go into a scenario and glean out these amazing things.
- 16:56So tell everyone about the startup and what's involved within how how it's started the whole
- 17:03incubation of this the startup was through the cancer process for you.
- 17:08It really was.
- 17:08Like I said, that's that same visit where I was you know, told I had cancer.
- 17:14I got handed a binder.
- 17:16It's a, you know, thick binder.
- 17:19Indered.
- 17:20And I'm looking at this binder and, you know, again, someone who's been in technology for
- 17:24many, many years going, oh, what am I supposed to do with this paper binder?
- 17:29And I know that it's well intentioned.
- 17:34The, you know, medical professionals and their clinicians their number one objective is to
- 17:39save your life.
- 17:40And I wholeheartedly support that.
- 17:43But, unfortunately, what that often is that some of these other things don't get as well
- 17:48addressed.
- 17:49So this binder has, like, pages and pages and pages of URLs.
- 17:55But it would just have like a name and a URLs, and here's some resources for you to go type
- 17:59and look in yourself.
- 18:00And then but some of them had nothing to do with breast cancer, and some of them had
- 18:04nothing to do with my breast cancer because there's lots of different types of breast
- 18:09cancer.
- 18:09And then if you think of just about and I had options for how I got treated, So then there's
- 18:14all these things that have nothing to do with my treatment choices.
- 18:17And so it's it became a time waste for me, and I just I put the binder site, and I just never
- 18:23went and looked at it again.
- 18:24I'm like, I got this great binder that I don't even use because it it meant nothing.
- 18:28It was a use.
- 18:29And then some of the best resources were nowhere in the binder.
- 18:34And it was just too hard.
- 18:36It was harder than it needed to be.
- 18:39The nonmedical side was so much harder than it needed to be.
- 18:43So my first inkling of someone needs to do something was the binder.
- 18:47And I'm like, This should not be that hard.
- 18:50But right before I had a bilateral mastectomy, the nurse was explaining I was gonna have these
- 18:564 posts or and then hang that on the shower head.
- 19:07And I'm like, okay.
- 19:09You just told me I'm not allowed to put raise either hand over my shoulders.
- 19:14So how am I supposed to get on the shower head?
- 19:16And she's like, oh, get get your husband to do it.
- 19:19And this was a big turning point for me, because I'm like, first off, What if I didn't
- 19:25have a husband?
- 19:26Now I do, but I have a husband.
- 19:29He's not always home.
- 19:30He sometimes travels for work.
- 19:32His job is not a flexible job because he works in hazardous materials.
- 19:37He can't take an hour to off.
- 19:39He takes the whole day off or no day off, you know?
- 19:41So I'm sitting there and I'm just thinking like, how to what and I'm really independent.
- 19:45And you just said I can't shower for 8 weeks unless someone's home with me.
- 19:50That didn't work for me.
- 19:52But you're also assuming day one that with this, like, new sort of, you know, really my
- 20:02body with scars and pieces missing and drains with not attractive things in them, that I'm
- 20:09just gonna be like, oh, honey.
- 20:11Just come on in the shower and help me.
- 20:13Like, no.
- 20:14Like, I don't I don't like to think I'm vain, but I care.
- 20:20And I'm like, I don't know.
- 20:22That's the image I want burned in my husband's, brain, and he would be loving and supporting.
- 20:29It's just I'm not sure, like, you can't unsee that.
- 20:33And I don't I'm like, I don't know from day 1.
- 20:35I'm gonna be ready for that.
- 20:37Like but that's what you're assuming.
- 20:39And the answer was a $12 shower belt that it took me 2 hours to find.
- 20:44And then that was really sort of the turning point of when I'm done.
- 20:48Somebody needs to make this easier.
- 20:49Like, there are great resources out there.
- 20:52There's products out there.
- 20:53There's services.
- 20:54There's over 5000 cancer non profits.
- 20:57It is overwhelming and exhausting and too hard to get connected to exactly what you need when
- 21:03you need it, but technology is so right for doing this.
- 21:08So
- 21:08so here's that problem solver again in you, right, like thinking, you know, that's a that's
- 21:13a fascinating story.
- 21:14Like, exactly.
- 21:15Like, you know, if To your point, psychologically, emotionally, as women, we're
- 21:21gonna think about our breasts.
- 21:22Like, I mean, and then you're thinking, right?
- 21:24Like, do I I have to get accustomed to what I feel like about my body.
- 21:28And then, you know, like, to your point, you know, who do you want in that space?
- 21:33Maybe you're just getting accustomed.
- 21:34So you know, they're just the elements.
- 21:36So being able to come up this beautiful binder clearly had a lot of things, but the
- 21:41technological parts of what you you develop people can access online.
- 21:47Is that about the experience and and the support?
- 21:50And it is you know, each one of us as a human is very complex.
- 21:56Like, you and I, we have probably different family situations, you know, if you look at our
- 22:03economics, our location, our family, you know, all the different things that go into what you
- 22:10need for cancer, Like, how many people do you have to give you rides?
- 22:13How many people, like, are you gonna have your meals?
- 22:15Do you know, like, do you have kids that need to go to camp?
- 22:17But, like, your personal life is very complex.
- 22:22Your cancer journey is very complex.
- 22:25Like, you can have two people with the exact same cancer diagnosis, same stage, but maybe
- 22:33they chose different treatment paths.
- 22:33So everybody needs something so different.
- 22:38And they need it at a different time, but with technology, we can match all those complicated
- 22:43characteristics of an individual and their demographics, their social support, their
- 22:48economic support, and their lifestyle, what's going on in their life, and we can match that
- 22:54to all the resources so that we only are stirring up what they need when they need it,
- 23:00and we educate them about things they don't even know to ask for.
- 23:04I I have learned so many things I could have done had it just, but you don't know what you
- 23:10don't know.
- 23:10So with a solution like ours, we can gently nudge people, would you be interested in?
- 23:16For example, the divorce rate for cancer is higher than the national average.
- 23:21Out of all the many doctors I had and nurses, not one, said, by the way, be mindful of your
- 23:27marriage or be mindful of your relationship.
- 23:30Mhmm.
- 23:31Nobody said that, you know, but we can gently nudge people.
- 23:33We can share with them.
- 23:34Here's a statistic.
- 23:36We're not saying it, you know, we're not trying to tell people you getting a marriage
- 23:39counseling, but we wanna just make you aware of this and why.
- 23:43I mean, you think about why.
- 23:44I mean, the financial distress, the intimacy distress, all the things that if it's not
- 23:50cancer still impact marriages and you're taking them all on and once, right?
- 23:54No wonder it's so high.
- 23:57You're not often told a lot.
- 24:01We're getting better in this country, but you may not be told that there's an option for
- 24:05saving your hair because it's hard on the clinicians and on the infusion rooms if you
- 24:11decide to cold gap.
- 24:12It makes it more difficult for them.
- 24:14The technology is getting better.
- 24:16The infusion centers are getting more receptive, but, like, none of my doctors even
- 24:19threw that out there as an option.
- 24:21You know, and one of my co founders, they didn't tell her either, but her mom found it.
- 24:25And so she cold capped.
- 24:27You know, so we just wanna make sure we're educating people, empowering people, by giving
- 24:31them what they need when they need it instead of overwhelming them with a big fake binder
- 24:36that doesn't even have everything in it because Clinicians don't have the time to put
- 24:42everything in it, and then they're not gonna invest in technology.
- 24:45On this, they're investing in the technology related to your chemo, your radiation, you
- 24:50know, where they should be investing their their dollars.
- 24:53What a what a fascinating experience.
- 24:56Right?
- 24:56Like, I mean, out of something so adverse, came out something where you can give people, some
- 25:02kind of, like, if you're reeling in your marriage, Right?
- 25:05Like, maybe your Parker's still numb and you're numb.
- 25:08Kind of how to have those, you know, those conversations.
- 25:11Or like you said, how do I talk to the people on my board?
- 25:14Or How is it that I deliver this to my children or, you know what I mean?
- 25:18What nutrition?
- 25:19There's so many, different things that sounds like.
- 25:23So is it that when people come in, they're triaged based on what their needs are with
- 25:28their diagnosis like you said, every button each one of us is so individual.
- 25:32So their interaction with you is quite unique depending on on the case.
- 25:40It absolutely is.
- 25:41And so we have over 30 broad categories, but each category has a lot of sub you know,
- 25:48categories in it, if you will, but someone, you know, it might be that they need financial
- 25:53assistance, It might be that they need mental health counseling, and it might be that they
- 25:57need product recommendations.
- 25:59I mean, they get to sort of share with us what they see as their top 3.
- 26:04And the and we help throughout the whole journey and beyond, but we start with what are
- 26:09your top 3, because, again, we don't wanna overwhelm them.
- 26:12So it's like, let's just start knocking down things sort of systematically.
- 26:16But if I, give you the equivalent, the electronic equivalent of a binder, I give you
- 26:21an email and an and, you know, many many places do this.
- 26:26They they'll send you an email, well intentioned email, but it has, like, 20 links
- 26:31in it.
- 26:32Here's some resources for you.
- 26:34It's a little better because you didn't have to type them in, but you still have to go click on
- 26:38them read them.
- 26:38Like, it's only It's not that much buy better than the paper notebook, and we won't do that
- 26:43to people.
- 26:44It's what do you really need right this minute based on where you are?
- 26:47Let's take care of that.
- 26:48And we just stay in constant communication.
- 26:50So as their journey evolves, we're still there with them, and we help caregivers We help
- 26:57survivors.
- 26:59The very first person that we helped in 2022, January 2022, is still using us for resources
- 27:12today.
- 27:13Wow.
- 27:13Amazing.
- 27:14Amazing.
- 27:15So, Caroline, I know we're almost at time, but I'm curious.
- 27:19What is one of the biggest things that you learned going through something like this?
- 27:26I don't know if, Did I learn it or if I reaffirmed it?
- 27:30I I have had a couple of opportunities in my life, where there were extraordinary
- 27:39circumstances, if you will.
- 27:40Like, my, my son was born with special needs and almost died many times.
- 27:44As an infant, and then he was in a critical horseback riding accident when he was seventeen
- 27:49and almost died then.
- 27:50So I think I maybe had multiple times to get ready for the emergency being myself, but it
- 27:56was that affirmation that your personal attitude is a significant portion of the
- 28:09journey and how your body responds, like, your ability to find the positive your ability to
- 28:17find the joy in the daily, in the small, it doesn't mean a bunch of it doesn't stink or
- 28:22sock, but your day your ability to focus on the positive every day, makes a huge, huge
- 28:30difference in your experience during the journey itself, but also in your outcomes.
- 28:35Whether you're diverse, whether you're a female executive, whether you're CEO, or whether
- 28:39you're someone going through, things.
- 28:42And I often say to have lived as long.
- 28:45Most of us have been through something.
- 28:46Right?
- 28:47And it's that bounce back about, okay.
- 28:50Now I'm down.
- 28:51K.
- 28:51How long am I gonna be down?
- 28:53And what is it that I need to kind of pick up, accept, to your point, and then kind of go from
- 28:59there?
- 29:00So, Garland, for anybody that might want to know more about, your company or just even, you
- 29:06know, follow you to because I mean, I will I will say that, I'm always love to meet women
- 29:12like you that are out there in the world sharing such amazing richness and for younger
- 29:18women still coming up, you know, sometimes it it it gets debilitating to think, oh, there's
- 29:23so many things I have to climb over in order to get where I need to, I think, inspirations like
- 29:28yours and other women like you are are good to, connect with.
- 29:33So where is it that people can get a hold of you or you know, get connected with the with
- 29:38your company.
- 29:39Well, if you
- 29:40wanna get a hold of me, my LinkedIn profile, and it is my name, Carolyn Federino Jenkins.
- 29:46On LinkedIn and or just go to we are here.com, which is much easier to spell.
- 29:54Well, I thank you again for spending the time with, my audience.
- 29:58What am I what am I taking away?
- 30:01I'm taking away that it's all, you know, in how we deal with perspective, right, like whether
- 30:07it's you wanting to, look at your long term aspirations, whether it's something within your
- 30:14family, whether it's an illness, or whether it's something that you just want to achieve,
- 30:18what is your legacy imprint think about that and think there's gonna be trip ups along the
- 30:23way.
- 30:23And I know I've had my fair share of the of them and clearly you've had a lot of things.
- 30:28Happen, but don't let that define who you are, but it is not you.
- 30:32We all will go through things in life.
- 30:35So I am in launch week for my new book.
- 30:39So it's it's launching on, 10th June.
- 30:43So for anybody wanting to know more about, return on relationships and authentic
- 30:49leadership working with resilient teams.
- 30:52You know, please go to roxanderhodge.com forward slash book and you can, pre order a
- 30:59copy And again, Carolyn, thanks so much for spending the time and for everyone listening.
- 31:04Thank you so much.
- 31:05I'm so grateful that you take the time every single week to hang out with me.
- 31:09Take care.
- 31:10We'll talk to you soon.
- 31:12Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive health
- 31:18change.
- 31:18Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne.
- 31:24Visit rock and Durhaj.com/blueprint.
- 31:29We'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.