Ep. 54 with Alisa Rabin Bell | Founder of Lionheart Ventures - Reclaiming Your Hue

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:01):
Good morning Alisa.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Good morning Kelly.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
How are you?
I'm good, good, good.
Now I think it's important toshare with our listeners how it
is that we got connected and,truthfully, I don't I can't even
remember this.
Actually, I think I do.
Why don't you go ahead andshare it sounds it looks like
you've got a better idea of itthan I do, but I think I do.

(00:25):
Why don't you go ahead andshare it?
Looks like you've got a betteridea of it than I do, but I
think I've got it.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
I had to look it up too, because I couldn't remember
either.
So I looked back at ourconversation and I had just met
Diane Erdman, and then I saw apost that she had done, that she
was going to be on your podcastand listen to her podcast,
listen to her story, and I thinkI reached out to you, but then
after that, somehow we keptrunning into each other at just

(00:50):
about every event andorganization, amplify Mission
and some other events.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
So yeah, yeah, it was through LinkedIn, so I got a
message.
I think I got a message fromyou on LinkedIn and then it was
that tie to Diane and then Ijust love like then I'm, I'm
bumping into at Amplify or Ithink one of the people that you
were like hey, you shoulddefinitely connect with her was

(01:16):
Laura King.
I bumped into her at an event.
Your name got brought up.
Yeah, it was.
It's just.
I love how the world works.
I love how God works.
It's just incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
He's pretty amazing, yeah, and it's a.
It's a small community here inthe Twin Cities.
It's getting it seems smallerevery day, every event, and I do
a ton of networking and everyevent and opportunity that I go
to, I see more and more peoplethat I know or that I've met
recently.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
And it's very cool.
It's very fun.
It really is.
I want to.
We're going to dive into thisnetworking that you do.
However, let's table it forjust a second.
I want you to share with thelisteners what came first for
you.
Was it motherhood or was itentrepreneurship?

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Definitely motherhood , and I was thinking about a
little bit.
Some of your previous podcastssparked some reminders for me
which I thought was interesting,very type A working in.
I'd been in the nonprofit spacefor many years and at the time

(02:24):
I was at a big hospitalfoundation in town and my well,

(02:44):
let's see.
So my daughter was born in 2004, november of 2004.
And within minutes of me havingher, I'm like I cannot go back
into corporate America.
I don't want to go back to myjob and was blessed enough to be
able to stay home with her fortwo years, but it was during
that time that I started a MaryKay business, a home you know a
home business, thinking I can dothis.
I want to work for myself, Iwant to be an entrepreneur.
And that didn't last very longin terms of entrepreneurship.

(03:05):
I did go back into working fornonprofits and doing some other
work after that.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Okay, cool.
Isn't it so funny that until Ihave these moments too, alisa,
so just bear with me, but wehave until we get the date down,
we're kind of like, when wasthat?
When was that?
Oh, that's right, it was that.
And then you can, okay, basedoff of this, this state, then
all of this stuff started tohappen.
Yeah, I am so like that now,like everything has to be based

(03:35):
off of, like when Maddie arrived, or pre pre like meeting Joe
and getting introduced to theboys.
It's just just wild.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Because all of the major transformative stuff for
me personally didn't reallyhappen until family unit
happened.
Maddie came and all of a suddenthere's just this fundamental
change that happens for you as awoman when you have a family

(04:05):
unit, when you have children.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, From type A to.
I need to stay home with thischild.
No one else can raise her butme.
I need to be with my family.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Still a little type A there, right.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, I'm back to type A now, I think, but at the
time it just went away, I waslike I need to be, I need to get
away from work for a while.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
And be a mom.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Tell me, like so it sounds like that happened pretty
, pretty quickly for you, thatyou were like this just isn't
gonna work for me in terms ofwhat were, what do you feel, the
reasonings for you making thatswitch, that mindset shift?

Speaker 1 (04:51):
I have no idea.
I think it was hormonal.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Sure, sure.
Well, let me back up.
Yeah, perhaps maybe giving youa little bit more context.
I do feel like I've had manyother women on who have come
from that corporate setting andthere's just specific aspects of
being in a corporateenvironment that perhaps aren't

(05:14):
conducive to, or there is.
There is conduciveness to adegree, and then anything above
and beyond that becomes a littlebit more challenging when it
comes to having a family unit inplace.
So were there things that youwere kind of picking up on
during your pregnancy and thenafter the fact where you're like

(05:37):
that just is not going to workfor me.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Well, interestingly enough, I had planned on going
back to work.
However, during my maternityleave, I remember not actively
looking for daycare, notactively finding someone to take
care of her when I went back towork.
And then I got to the end andI'm like where did those three,

(06:03):
four months go so quickly?
And I had to scramble.
And so that month that I wentback to work, I literally had a
different woman from church.
I had to put together acalendar because my brain wasn't
working.
I put together a calendarbecause a different mom from
church would watch.
I'd literally drop her off at afriend's house every day of the

(06:27):
week.
For a month.
I went back to work, put in mytwo weeks notice, had to work
two more weeks.
I worked for a month, couldn'tremember where I left my kid.
I had.
Thankfully, I had a printedcalendar to say oh yeah, she's
at so-and-so's house today andso-and-so's house today it's a
different person's house.
I did that for a month and andthen I'm like I need to be home.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, it was crazy.
Nothing about that seemsappealing whatsoever.
And stack on top of it theemotions that are already
running high because yourhormones are super out of whack.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
And the emotions that come around being away from
your child to that like there'ssome real raw emotions.
I came across a video of like.
I think it was on Instagram andI don't know the full context
of of what it was, but it was inrelation to like, when you have

(07:26):
children here in the US andthat maternity leave time frame
that you get.
Versus other parts of the worldwhere that maternity leave can
be extended, it's much moreextended, there's just more time
, and you think about it and yougo interesting that we get.

(07:49):
For some people it's like twoweeks.
You know, if you are in thisentrepreneurial world, it's very
, uh, indicative of like whatsort of industry pathway that
you're down, that you're goingdown.
But I, just where I'm goingwith all of this, lisa is like

(08:12):
how high our emotions arealready, as is, stack on top of
it, this notion of like havingto be away from your child.
And then also, how am I, how amI gonna like really work
through all of this stuff withgetting back into the work
environment?

Speaker 1 (08:32):
It's tough yeah compartmentalizing your brain is
hard enough, but when you, whenit's flooded with hormones and
you're emotional and all thethings you're going through,
it's not easy.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
But something that I enjoyed hearing you say is the
importance of like even justthis small habit of having a
calendar in place to keepeverything straight, instead of
trying to do it all solely, likein your own head.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely had to keep track of
that.
And, um, and my story goes back, I'm a little older than you,
and so my little daughter is 20years old and on her own now.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
So um.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
I mean, that's a whole other, that's a whole
story.
But uh, at at the time, youknow, I don't even think we had
a cell phone like it was evenbefore cell phones, so
everything was like papercalendars.
I had a ginormous day plannerthing that.
I carried everywhere and and soeverything was written down and
having that printed outcalendar, so I knew exactly what

(09:47):
I was doing.
Where was so important?

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Absolutely so.
Let's give frame of reference.
So this would have been about20 years ago and and you decided
that you were going to stayhome with your daughter and you
just have just one right.
So you stayed home with her, andwhat a blessing to be able to
do that, um, because thatcertainly creates a massive

(10:15):
peace of mind when you're like Idon't have to worry about
financial constraints or youknow any other sort of
constraint that otherwise mighthold me back from making this
decision.
Um, but what was the timeframethat you stayed home with her?

Speaker 1 (10:34):
It was about two years two years.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Okay, and what do you feel like you learned in those
two years?
Like, did you experience anysort of like ups and downs while
being at home with her?
Or did you feel like, wow, Ijust just absolutely love this
nurturing time that I'm havingwith her.

(10:56):
Yeah, it was it was great.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Actually, I really appreciated all of the time.
I mean, she was obviouslypretty little but we were able
to do so much.
I took her everywhere I went.
She became kind of my mini me,and when I started the
home-based business I took herto networking meetings.

(11:20):
She'd sit in her little highchair at some of these little
breakfast networking meetingswith me.
So she, she went everywhere she.
And as an only child she haskind of a different perspective
in that she was around adults alot.
So we started early with, youknow, language and and

(11:42):
relationships and communicationand that sort of thing.
Um, but it was fun, it was uh,it was a good time.
I mean it was hard, it wasn'teasy.
My um and this will take usdown another path in a minute
but but my husband was stillplaying baseball, so he was.
He was a minor league umprofessional athlete and wasn't

(12:04):
around a lot, so it was reallyjust her and I for big chunks of
time while he was still in thatworld and so we bonded and had
fun and parks and museums andall the things you do with an
itty bitty.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yes, oh my gosh, I can imagine the bond that you
have.
And now you're in a.
How long have you been in thisphase of empty nester, or is she
?
Or is she at home still?

Speaker 1 (12:33):
No, so she.
First of all, this is very fun,the term empty nest.
I had a friend who corrected mewhen I said that she says
you're not an empty nester,you're a birdwatcher, and I'm
like that's fabulous.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
I did a LinkedIn post on that.
I was just going to say itbecause I was like this is so
cool.
Yeah, we're not empty nesters,we're birdwatchers.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
So she didn't go to college.
She chose a different path,just really quick.
She was a junior senior duringthe pandemic and spent a lot of
time in her room and just wasn't.
She wasn't having it.
She's like I cannot sit infront of a laptop or in a cube

(13:18):
the rest of my life, mom,there's no way I'm I can do that
.
I don't even want to go tocollege, and you know, of course
I went.
Wait, what right?
You know, college is a thing,you have to go to college.
But with her very strongartistic ability she's
incredible.
Um, and during the pandemic weall started.

(13:40):
You know what we all did?
We binge watch shows.
Uh-huh, we came across a showcalled Inkmasters and her light
bulb.
I have never seen her light bulbgo off because she had been
depressed as a lot of teenagerswhere we all were during the
pandemic, but especiallyteenagers and she was just going
to settle in her life to dowhat she had to do and do art on

(14:02):
the side.
Her life to do what she had todo and do art on the side.
We saw Ink Masters and she litup.
She said wait a minute, you cando something as cool as
tattooing and get paid to do itand you can be an artist and get
paid Like that alone was mindboggling for her.
So she decided not to go tocollege, stayed home for a

(14:22):
couple of years and worked.
But right after she turned 18,she walked in confidence.
This girl has confidence.
She was a Montessori kid.
She walked into a tattoo shopin Minneapolis and got herself
an apprenticeship.
The youngest artist in the shopdid that for a couple of years
at the shop and before sheturned 20, became a licensed

(14:44):
tattoo artist.
So super proud of her.
She's amazing.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
That's incredible.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, we're just really proud of her.
She's done some gorgeous,gorgeous work and, trust me,
tattoos were not on my bingocard.
Certainly not tattoos in your50s.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
You sound like my mother.
She got her first tattoo andshe called it her like midlife
crisis.
Yeah, and now.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
I have three.
So yeah, but she picked up inFebruary and moved to
Massachusetts.
So she's out there right now.
Her boyfriend's finishingcollege.
They're they're doing the thing.
They've been together like fouryears.
They're wonderful and, um,hopefully they'll be back by the
end of the year.
We'll see.

(15:31):
And she's she got herself a jobout there.
She's very confident.
She's incredibly talented.
We're proud of her.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
So we're watching I a couple of things that I just
want to note and I love that youare sharing.
So we're watching such a youngage and being around you know,

(16:05):
older individuals like adults,and having that exposure can
only help, as long as it's apositive, influential, you know,
impact, right, Because we couldgo the other way too with that,
but it seems like you werearound some pretty incredible

(16:25):
people yourself, which has animpact on you as a mother and
then how you're able to show upfor your child is it's it's
impactful, Right?
So then it has an impact on her.
And here she is, you know,walking in to get an
apprenticeship without any sortof like.
You know, I'm sure she had somenerves, but she may have hit it

(16:48):
Well, like we've got a childhere in this house that is very
confident but does have nervesand hides it very, very well.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Well, if you don't have nerves, you know yeah, you
know.
I think having a little bit ofnervousness means you're in the
right spot and you're doing theright things.
Nervousness means you're in theright spot and you're doing the
right things.
You're walking the right path.
She wasn't familiar withMinneapolis so, to be honest,
she was very nervous.
I drove her to her appointment.
I drove her to her interview.
Mom, you have to stay in thecar though.

(17:20):
So fine, I wasn't a helicoptermom at all.
I waited in the car patientlyfor an hour while she went in
and had her interview and talkedto him, because she just didn't
know the road, she didn't knowthe city, and that was fine.
Plus, I didn't want her drivingnervous.
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
But she walked out standing tall, I got the job, I
got the apprenticeship.
Standing tall, I got the job, Igot the apprenticeship.
And yeah, I mean, I think partof it is how we raised her, I
think part of it is herMontessori experience.
You know, when you find goodadults, good people around your

(18:04):
they, they learn from them aswell.
They're you know, she had somegreat, uh, adults that spoke
into her life and and um, that'sa whole different experience.
That Montessori was great.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yeah, so cool.
The um, my bonus boys, uh, bothof them went to a Montessori
school in Richfield and it justseems like those kids have such
incredible manners and I dothink a lot of it stemmed from,
like being a part of thatMontessori setting.
And now, with our daughterMaddie, she's in a daycare.

(18:44):
That's an, it's an academy andit is foundationally like a part
of the Wooddale church, sothere's a faith component to
that as well.
But because she hears mannersflying around this place and if
manners aren't like happening,then we're correcting it pretty
quickly.

(19:05):
So then, same thing with her.
Like she's seeing that it'sbeing modeled for her and I just
think it's so cool.
I think it's so cool.
It is I want to step back tothis this moment in time and you
just kind of glossed over it,your experience with Mary Kay

(19:26):
just kind of glossed over it.
Your experience with Mary Kay Ido think let's talk about this
because that was really sort oflike your first step, Like you
dipped the toe inentrepreneurship.
That's, network marketing, is afantastic way to begin the
journey of entrepreneurship.
I mean you are literally, you'reliterally dipping your toe in

(19:46):
all of these different areas.
It's like you have to advocatefor yourself in a network
marketing environment.
You networking is veryimportant.
You're networking within thatbusiness, right, but then you
have, you're, you're networkingwith your sphere of influence
and then outside of that as well.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Right.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Let's talk about what this experience was like for
you, perhaps the impact it hadfor you, what it meant for you.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, so I remember very clearly I'd been to a
couple of Mary Kay parties, likeat one point in the early early
2000s and I don't know if it'sstill going on today, because I
don't really get invited tothose much anymore but, like, I
was getting invited to candleparties and basket parties and
makeup parties and all kinds ofyou name it off the wall kinds

(20:36):
of things that people weretrying and doing, and I had been
using some of the products fora little while and just found,
you know, with my I think shewas Raelynn, was probably about
six months old, and I rememberclearly my Mary Kay friend came
to my house and Raelynn'ssitting in her little high chair

(20:57):
you know she was right there,and I said, yeah, let's give
this a try, and I jumped into itwholeheartedly.
It was a lot of fun.
I loved doing the parties.
I loved, you know, doingdecorative kinds of things.
You do displays and that kindof thing, and the makeup.

(21:18):
Of course, that was a lot offun.
What I found really quickly,though, was, I mean, it wasn't
cheap, right, like you want tohave products on your shelf and,
and I could sell products, butthe challenge I think with
network marketing is bringingmore people in to work with you,
to partner with you, comealongside you, and I think that

(21:39):
was the part that I struggledwith a little bit.
I had some people say that Imade it look too complicated, so
I thought, well, that's aninteresting statement, that like
I could wear the makeup, Icould look good, I could do all
the things that went along withit and sell product.
But like, to get someone tocome alongside you was a little

(22:01):
more challenging.
And I think if you've donestrength finders, you're
familiar with the one of thevery bottom ones.
Woo like winning other peopleover, right?
Yeah that is not high on my listof strength finders.
It's interesting.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
The interview that I just had last week.
I won't share her name, I won'tshare her name, I won't spoil
it for everyone, but, um, she,she does a lot with this
strength finders and likecoaching people through it.
Now she, her, she's got twoseparate businesses.
She does coaching but then shealso has another business.

(22:38):
Again, I won't, I won't sharetoo much.
Um, but she, she was like thisstrength finder thing is there,
like it's very important andusually your strengths, like
it's not going to shift, like itdoesn't mean that you
necessarily have to do it overand over and over again on a

(22:59):
consistent basis, like thereshould be some consistencies
with your strengths.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Well, what's interesting?
You think otherwise A littlebit.
I think it adjusts a little bitdepending on where you are in
your life, depending the seasonsmatter and your uh, your, your
emotional state when you'redoing it.
So the very first time I didstrength finders, I think was in

(23:24):
2009.
And I did it through work and Ijust nailed it Like everything
that was going on was theperfect timing for where I was
in my life, what I was doing,everything lined up.
And then I did it again,probably about eight, nine years
later, I think, maybe 2017.

(23:44):
And what I found was I had, ofthe first five, the first time I
did it, two were the same and afew were different.
But if you look, what'sinteresting?
I have a friend who looks atthe top 10.
If you look at the top 10, theywere very similar and they did

(24:05):
a little bit of shifting around.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
But they were still kind of in there in the top 10.
I'm pulling mine up right nowand I want to just I'm going to
rattle these off for youConsistency, futuristic empathy,
discipline, connectiveness.
So those are like she wastelling me, she's going to do an
assessment with me.
Through all of this, she's likeI want to see all of them,
though, like all of the 34, 35,it is so she's like I'm going to

(24:37):
go through all of it with youand I was like really Okay,
sounds good.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, yeah, the first time I did it, my top I can't
remember my exact top five likecommunication, adaptability,
restorative activator and belief.
That was the first time I didit.
I remember those very clearly.
And then, when I redid it,they're now harmony those very

(25:06):
clearly.
And then, when I redid it,they're now harmony maximizer,
arranger, adaptability andindividualization.
So they're.
They're different, but but whenyou look at the top 10, there
is a lot there.
Those first five are still inmy top 10.
They've just adjusted and movedaround.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
So this is what it's worth.
Yeah, I'll just touch on thisand then we can continue down
your story path.
I should ask her and I actuallyyour episode is going to drop
after her, so I will mention hername.
It's Catherine um Gaiola.
I'm pronouncing her last namewrong.
I'm totally butchering it, justlike I butchered your first

(25:40):
name, um.
But I should ask, like, what doyou feel is the amount of time
Like is there when you have likepivotal moments in your life or
seasons?
Like I do think, going back towhat I was sharing earlier about
how we as women fundamentallychange when we have children,

(26:05):
Yep.
Fundamentally change, and so Iam.
I will ask her this question.
I'll report back, um, butanyways.
So going back to this, thismoment in time, with Mary Kay
and that experience, how longwere you doing that?
How long were you?

Speaker 1 (26:22):
doing that Actively probably five or six years, okay
, and then just kind of dwindledoff and just had been buying
products, which is kind of all Ido now.
Okay, yeah, it's not a big partof anything anymore, it was.

(26:52):
It was just kind of thatinitial when I was thinking
about motherhood versusentrepreneurship and the timing
of it.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
It was very close together because I was trying to
figure out how to not go backinto corporate America.
Yeah, I just again I have totouch on this because I do think
it's important, like networkmarketing, while some people poo
poo on network marketing andcall it pyramid schemes and
stuff and I'm like, hey, we're,we're in a specific century now,
like we can kind of get awayfrom this pyramids scheme

(27:14):
concept.
Yeah, some, there are peoplethere are pyramid schemes out
there.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Be careful, be careful.
There are legitimate companiestoo, but there are legitimate
companies too.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
But there are legitimate companies and what
I've advocated before becauseI've been a part of a couple of
network marketing opportunitiescompanies and there's so much
growth that can happen from it.
Self-growth and learning is veryimpactful to being in this

(27:43):
world of motherhood and thenalso in entrepreneurship right
Like we're ever evolving, we'reever growing, but I've always
said and advocated for thecompanies that push that, where
they encourage this growth andlearning and like how are you

(28:06):
like pushing the narrative inthe envelope for yourself so
that you can be a better person?
I'm like do it, do it like, doyour research on the company
Absolutely.
However, if it's a, if it's acompany that's based on a good
foundation they've been aroundfor a long time, like Mary Kay,

(28:28):
for instance it's a greatcompany.
It is a great company.
Yeah, absolutely.
I had to mention that and bringthat up because I think that
was like and maybe I'm justmaking that connection but it
cool to go back in in thatamount of time and go.
That was kind of a start foryou.
So let's, let's kind of carrythis, this storyline, on from

(28:52):
there.
What happens next?

Speaker 1 (28:56):
What happens next.
So, yes, I was home with herfor a couple of years and then
went back, and this is how Ilearned about Montessori and how
we got her into Montessori is.
I went and worked for anorganization called the
Montessori Training Center inMinnesota and I was there for
about a year when an opportunityto run the Woodbury Community

(29:20):
Foundation came up.
And so I got a chance to workcloser to home and help really
launch an organization.
They'd been all volunteer runand I was the first executive
director.
So that was amazing.
I had a lot of flexibility.
They knew I was a new mom.
I was able to put my daughterinto Montessori school.

(29:41):
She started before she turnedthree.
She was at the at school and umwas there.
I was at the Montessori schoolfor about or excuse me at um
Woodbury community foundationfor about uh four or five years.
Okay, and um.
Then family stuff came up, tooka little time off.

(30:02):
Um was trying to figure outwhat was next.
Um got an opportunity to uhwork at an association
management firm.
From there, keep in mind, I hadbeen at the hospital foundation
for about eight years prior tothat.
So I had a long career innonprofit space and and
different, different nonprofitkinds of work.

(30:25):
So the association managementfirm I did that for about a year
.
That was probably the mostinteresting year of my career.
Too much to go into details,suffice it to say.
A new guy came in.
They hired as a COO and hefired me pretty quick, like okay

(30:49):
.
So yeah, having you know jobloss is a big part of my story.
It's not fun to be fired, but Irealized that that was the best
thing that had ever happened tome.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
It was a weird environment.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
I was there for a year.
There was a lot, of, a lot ofupheaval.
Okay, let's just, let's justput it that way there's a lot of
upheaval there and it was a.
It was a tough year and, um,this guy was, he wasn't a good
guy, but whatever.
And uh, I took probably a dayto be angry and then I'm like

(31:24):
this was great.
I didn't really want to bethere anymore.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
And now I can look for the silver lining.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Oh, it was great silver lining, I mean it was.
It was shocking and stressfulat first, but then I took a
little more time and was able tokind of dig in a little deeper
and go okay, what do I want todo next?
So my husband's an IT guy.
He says, well, why don't youlook at going into IT?

(31:50):
And I thought I don't knowanything about technology.
But he said you know, well,there's the people side of the
tech world, right.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Human resources, marketing and sales.
Well, I had just spent I don'tknow how many 15, 20 years in
the nonprofit space and Ithought, okay, I've been
fundraising and if you've everdone fundraising, you're
basically selling happy, goodfeelings and then going back and
asking for more money withoutgiving people anything other

(32:22):
than more happy, good feelingsand appreciation.
It's hard.
Fundraising is not easy.
God bless all the fundraisersin the world.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Certainly not for the faint of heart.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
It isn't for the faint of heart.
And when you get paid to do it,it's one thing, but volunteers,
it's another, whole other story.
So people that are doing that,it's amazing work, it's
important work, it's hard work,it's important work it's hard
work, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
And you did that for how long?

Speaker 1 (32:50):
I think it was in the nonprofit space in one way or
another for about 20 years.
Okay and yeah.
So I started poking around theTwin Cities to different tech
companies, thinking I cantotally translate my fundraising
skills into sales, no problem.
And every tech company I hadtalked to and interviewed with

(33:13):
looked at me like I was crazy.
They thought there's no way youcould translate sales,
fundraising and nonprofitmanagement and program
management all the things that Ihad done in the nonprofit space
into technology.
But I could see it and Ifinally found a company, a big

(33:35):
tech company out of SouthCarolina, that had just bought a
little tech company here inEdina and they sold into the
nonprofit and foundation space.
And so when I went and met withthem they said you're just what
we're looking for.
You speak the language we canteach you how to sell.
Perfect, Pick me, I'm in.

(33:59):
And it was amazing.
It was so much fun to actuallyget paid to do some work.
I got commissions.
I'd never seen a commissioncheck before.
It was so much fun to actuallylike get paid to do some work.
I got commissions.
I'd never seen a commissioncheck before.
That was crazy.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
And that world is crazy.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
It is, it was but it was a lot of fun and uh, so I, I
was in that space.
I got to travel around the wholeupper Midwest and and going to
South Carolina a few times and,on someone else's dime, this was
amazing and I just you know myfamily was really supportive.
My daughter was old enough thatit wasn't a big deal for mom to

(34:33):
be gone for like three, fourdays at a time and really what I
felt like I was showing herbecause I was I think I was 45,
46 when I made a complete careerchange, Like from nonprofit to

(34:54):
tech sales and what I felt likeI was able to show her was that
you can do anything, first ofall, and you can redefine
yourself at any age, and that'sI wanted her to be proud of me.
That I think that was always myunderlying motivating source
for pretty much everything I didin my career was for her to be,
for her to be proud of me, forher to see that her mom was

(35:16):
capable and, you know, smart andcould, could do anything too,
and that was really important tome.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
I empathize with this so much.
I certainly have those, thoseemotions that are are really
rolling through me and probably,if I'm going to kind of dig
into the subconscious of KellyKirk, probably had a lot to do
with me making a transition fromwhere I was at before in the
mortgage industry to what I'mdoing now, not only with the
podcast and having theseconversations and talking about

(35:56):
these transformations that canhappen and the reinventions of
us as a woman.
That can happen.
But then going into businesswith my husband too, I'm like
we're doing a lot of modelingfor all three of the kids and
it's so cool.
But I love that you're bringingup this like I want to be able

(36:19):
to show her and let her see thatlike this reinvention of self
can come at any time.
It really can.
It can happen as early as youwant it to, it can happen all of
the time in between and it caneven happen when we quote
unquote from society.
Think that we're like at theend of our rope, right Like the

(36:42):
forties and fifties.
And now I'm like seeing Gary Vgo.
You're not even halfway throughyour life, where our, our
lifespans are extending out likereinvent yourself if you want
to in your forties and fifties.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
What's stopping you?

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
For the longest time, it has been how society has
viewed us in in terms of age andageism and I just am so like
wow, wow, wow, wow.
It's so cool, yeah, Well, yeahit was fun I did.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
I ended up in tech sales for about seven, eight
years, through the pandemic,through the ups and downs of all
of that, ended up at aginormous tech company that
shall be unnamed in 2021 andthought, oh yeah, no problem, I

(37:42):
can sell for them.
And it had come because I hadgotten laid off from the
previous job.
So the other factor that wasnew to me was layoffs in the
tech space during all of thechaos.
So I'd gotten.
I left the first company, wentto another company, was there
for the two years during thepandemic and survived some

(38:02):
layoffs, got caught up in someother ones, met some amazing
people and then got let go atthe end of 2021.
But was already in talks withthis other behemoth company and
I thought, okay, perfect, I'lljust go do that.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
What I didn't realize was how big it was and how
difficult it was going to be.
I'd come from a company thatwas like 600 some employees, and
the previous one was maybe 3000.
This other company is like150,000 employees around the
world.
I was like barely a number anda blip in anyone's radar and I

(38:40):
was selling a product that, inproducts that I just to be
honest and to be, you know,really transparent, I just could
not wrap my brain around.
I went from software tohardware and it just it didn't
make sense to my brain.
Well, the future, you know,follow up of going from

(39:00):
motherhood, what was next was,you know, then I'm in menopause
and didn't know I had meant wasgoing through menopause, had no
clue because, for a variety ofreasons, wasn't didn't know that
was even going on, and so my,my brain couldn't wrap around, I
couldn't focus, I couldn'tunderstand everything that was I

(39:21):
was trying to learn, understandeverything that was I was
trying to learn.
Well, so this next part of myjourney so I started in, like I
said, november of 2021, at thiscompany, by May of 2022, out of
the blue, started havinghorrible vertigo attacks, was so

(39:42):
sick and couldn't figure outwhat was causing it.
I do have what's calledMeniere's disease and so losing
hearing in my right ear, andhave had dizzy spells off and on
over the years, but nothingmajor.
This was crazy.
So May of 2022 through Januaryof 2023 was so sick I barely

(40:06):
could get off the couch for twoor three days at a time.
My husband had about 10 secondsto get me from my office chair
to the couch with a washclothand a bucket next to me and like
covering my head, like I washaving just this incredible loss
of everything.
It was horrible, just horrible,and we were thinking part of it

(40:32):
was part of it had to have beenmenopause and hormonal changes.
Um, but finally had a friendwho said you need to go see this
doctor.
I have a friend who visits thisdoctor down in Red Wing and he
was a Christian.
He's a chiropractor but anatural health care doctor, and
he ran all kinds of tests on me.

(40:53):
Keep in mind this was sixmonths of this.
We were just desperate and hesays oh well, here's the problem
.
You're gluten sensitive.
I'm like, excuse me, crazy.
I sat in my car and cried afterhe gave me this diagnosis
because I'm like I don't evenknow what to do with this.
So he says you need toimmediately go cold turkey, no

(41:16):
more gluten, no dairy, becausedairy mimics gluten.
Wow, you need to be drinkinghalf your body weight in ounces
of water every day.
You need to be doing all theseexercises.
You need to eat like gallons ofvegetables every day.
You need to be there, all ofthese things and it just shook
my world, just shook me, but Idid because I was so miserable.

(41:39):
I'm like something has tochange.
Um, but by then it was too latefor my job and so we mutually
decided I didn't want to workthere anymore, which was fine.
So March of 2023, left thatcompany and have been feeling
worlds better since.

(42:00):
The other thing that was highon his testing was adrenal
glands.
My stress levels were off thecharts, off the charts.
I mean most tech companies, mosttech sales.
It's like you have.
You have monthly and quarterlygoals and KPIs you have to meet.
This company was weekly.
If you weren't producing likehundreds of thousands of dollars

(42:20):
weekly, you were, you justweren't going to make it.
It wasn't going to work and andfair enough.
Like there are people that aresuper successful and they're
doing that and they're great andthey know that.
It just wasn't right for me,right, and and thankfully, we
figured that out pretty quickand it worked out.
So, yeah, so since then, I Ipretty much took the rest of

(42:42):
2023 to to heal, to learn how tocook differently, learn how to
eat differently, cleaned out alot in our house.
I mean, my family still eatssome of that, but I've been
helping them eat healthier.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
And I haven't had an incident since, thank God.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
What a game changer.
Game changer Absol a gamechanger, game changer.
Absolute game changer, and Iknow that you brought up that
this individual down in Red Winghas the Christian background
too, and how that probablyplayed a fundamental role.
Hold on a second Did it play afundamental role for you, or

(43:24):
were at that point, because Iknow that there's a story too
you had talked through this whenwe first got connected right
about your faith my faith.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, so my my faith journey is a whole story.
I mean, yes, the the doctor isa Christian and every everyone
that works for him is a strongChristian.
And they were praying over meas well, like every appointment,
every, every therapy that I wasgetting, cause I was down there
.
I was down there a couple oftimes a week.
For the first month or so, myhusband had to drive.

(43:56):
I didn't drive for a good sixmonths.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Yeah, I mean if you have a vertigo spell it's it was
dangerous.
It's yeah, you are.
You're a danger to yourself andother people Exactly People at
that point.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
So, yeah, so they, the faith factor was really
important.
They were praying over me andand and even for myself on those
days where I was laying on thecouch and couldn't function
there, couldn't watch TV, Icouldn't read a book, I couldn't
do anything.
I just needed to be and I'd layon the couch with cold

(44:32):
compresses and ice packs.
I've got those migraine freezerhead things you put.
I looked crazy, but it felt sogood to have that ice pack on my
head and I just would lay thereand pray and there were
scriptures that that would cometo me and just talk.
I just laid there and talked toGod because I didn't have a

(44:54):
choice.
I I needed healing.
There's a um, there's a Solomon.
For the life of me I can'tremember off the top of my head
right now, but it was basicallyin one of the Psalms where I
prayed to God for healing and hehealed me and it was powerful.
I just kept praying that overand, over and over again and it

(45:15):
just was what I needed at thetime.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
So yeah, so I guess, backing up almost 30 years now,
my faith story.
I'm Jewish, I'm 100% Jewish.
I grew up in SouthernCalifornia.
Both my parents are Jewish.
Just was part of my culture.

(45:39):
It's just as who I was wasn't.
We weren't religious.
We didn't go to synagogue, butexcept for if someone got
married, got bar mitzvahed ordied like that, was pretty much
the only time we were in asynagogue.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
So have you ever heard of the term priesters?

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
It's sort of like that the equivalent of 100%, yep
, but.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
But the thing is about Judaism is that it's a
nationality, it's a culture andit's a religion.
It's genetic.
When you do those DNA testspeople do DNA tests, right Mine
shows up as like 99.5% Ashkenazi, jewish.
It's DNA, it isn't just areligion.

(46:26):
And then a lot of people, Ithink, make the mistake thinking
that it's just a religion.
It isn't, it's in your DNA andso yeah, so I Thank you for
sharing that.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
That's something new for me and I'm really walking in
this faith journey and owningit, but I have yet a lot to
learn, just in terms of thedifferent you know different
religions and like how thatplays into Christianity as well.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Yeah, so yeah, so I grew up in Southern California,
I went to UCLA.
So yeah, so I grew up inSouthern California, I went to
UCLA, and at UCLA I met aMinnesotan.
Didn't even know whereMinnesota was on the map and met
this Minnesota guy who wasdifferent, and we hit it off.
We dated for four years andthen, after college, we got

(47:21):
married.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
So this is now your.
No this is not.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
This is not no, so this is part of my story.
This is um 1993.
We got married out of collegeand um picked up, moved to ann
arbor, michigan, put him throughgrad school, he got his, he got
his mba, michigan and um, whilewe were there, like I had to

(47:47):
work, I had to do somethingwhile we were there for two
years.
So I got a job at Domino's.
That was fun.
Yeah, um, they have a great big, cool uh headquarters in Ann
Arbor, michigan, so I worked inthe.
That was my first it job.
Actually I worked in the littleIT job and little IT department
.
It was great, it was a lot offun.
We moved back to Minnesotabecause he got a job with a

(48:11):
company here and within a yearof moving back here we got
divorced.
So here I am, 2000 miles fromhome.
I had just started a new job atthe Hospital Foundation and on
my own, bought a little townhome.
It was great $90,000.

(48:32):
I think it was.
I know this was 1997.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
What a time period.
Right, I know, bought a littletown home.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
I'm like Mary Tyler Moore, which I love.
You know the Mary Tyler Mooreshow.
Grew up watching her again,didn't know where Minnesota was
back in the day.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Now you know now, it's now you're connecting.
Now I'm connected.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
So here I am, I'm like I'm going to toss my hat in
the air.
I'm going to stay in Minnesotaafter this divorce.
I'm going to do this on my own,for you and like, I bought a
town home and I, I had a job andI had new friends and through
the divorce I found there's alittle church near our house.
It was through the divorce thatI came to faith, actually.
So I, he wasn't, he wasChristian, and so a couple of

(49:18):
times I go to church with him,but it wasn't really like that's
fine, that's for you, it's notfor me, I'm not interested, but
I'll go with you.
Sure.
So I had been to church.
It just wasn't anything thatsparked anything for me.
Sure, but during this divorce,during this terribly painful
time in my life, we walked intoa little church in Woodbury and

(49:43):
everyone there was so nice andso just interesting and kind and
conversational and relational,and they welcomed me in.
And what was interesting was Ialso started digging into my own
faith a little bit more.
I'm like, okay, well, I'm goingto go to a synagogue and see

(50:04):
what that's about, because maybeI'm supposed to be Jewish,
maybe I don't know what I'mdoing.
The interesting thing was.
I went to a synagogue.
I went to a couple of Judaismclasses just to kind of learn a
little more Because, like I said, we were very non-religious
growing up.
And the synagogue that I went toa couple of times.

(50:24):
I remember very clearly walkingin and sitting by myself and no
one said anything.
It was okay, they were sort ofwelcoming, but just not really
remember telling the pastor, thepastor, the rabbi.
I went back and was talking tothe rabbi and and told him that

(50:52):
I wouldn't be coming backanymore Cause I had discovered
Christianity in this littlechurch and I and I was going
down that path and he was hesays, well, like what?
Why you can't do that, like wedon't want to lose any, you know
, jewish people, whatever his,his reasoning was.
But I said well, you know, itdidn't feel I didn't feel
welcome here, like I.
But you can bet the next time,like I did go back like one or
two more times just to likewhatever, and I got bombarded by

(51:15):
people there she is.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Go say hi to her, go get her.
Let's see if we can swing herback.
The other direction.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
It's fine.
The interesting thing is,through this transition, this
change in my views, I opened upa lot more about all of my faith
.
I'm much more Jewish now thanI've ever been in my whole life.
I'm much more into reading thewhole Bible I don't just read

(51:48):
New Testament.
All the scripture, all thestories, all the gospel, the
Tanakh.
The Old Testament is beautifuland amazing and interesting, and
so I'm much more in my faith asa Jewish believer.
Is how I refer to myself as aJewish believer.
In my faith as a Jewishbeliever is how I refer to

(52:09):
myself as a Jewish believer thanI ever was prior.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
That's so cool.
You took it upon yourself to gookay.
Yeah, I feel so welcome at thischurch that has a Christian
backing, but I do want toexplore what my roots are.
Yeah, absolutely, and to thenbe able to go like how does it
all?
Kind of like, how can we spinthe plates together?

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Well, one of the cool things was the pastor at the
little church in Woodburyintroduced me to a young couple
that was there.
The interesting thing was, asthey were, you know, here I am
seeking out, you know,christianity and like what is
this all about?
And who is this Jesus guy?
And wait a minute, he wasJewish.
Like what's up.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Seriously, this is something that I just like.
Did you just learn?

Speaker 1 (52:56):
that Jesus was Jewish .

Speaker 2 (52:58):
I did, I know, and some of the people who are
listening right now are probablylike really, but it wasn't like
like I watched the Chosen.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Yes, brilliant.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Like I'm such a visual person and I've really
appreciated the dive that I'vebeen doing into specific parts
of scripture, understanding theimportance of Old Testament, new
Testament, how New Testamentreally reflects a lot of the Old
Testament.
But it wasn't until I watchedthe Chosen.
Now I kind of take some of itwith.

(53:31):
You know, a grain of salt,right.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Right, we weren't there.
They have to assume some things, yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
You know, peacock, some of that a little bit but it
was just so impactful for me tokind of connect those dots of
what I've been reading and thenwhen we're at church on Sundays
and going ah yes, like Iremember watching part of this
in the Chosen and just like itwas super impactful for me.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Yeah, well, what's amazing to me was this young
couple at the church that thepastor introduced me to.
They were seeking out theJewishness of their Christian
roots as I was seeking out theChristianity of Jesus if that
makes sense, right, so we werekind of at this crossroads
together and they ended up goingto be missionaries in Israel

(54:26):
for like 14 years through anorganization and it just was
just so cool.
It was just amazing to me and Ifelt more called to be like
sharing the Jewishness of theChristian faith with my Gentile
friends here.
So, like I've done teachings onPassover which we just had and

(54:47):
I've done, I don't know, I'veshared with Gentile friends who
don't know that Jesus was Jewish, right, yeah, and going through
some of that with folks thatare answering questions that I
can answer for people.
I mean, I'm no biblical scholarby any means, but lived

(55:07):
experience and that sort ofthing, so yeah, so it's just
interesting to me when I meetChristians who, or anybody who,
just people who are only lookingat New Testament, right, and
when you only look at half theBible, you're only getting half
the picture.
Yeah, jesus only had OldTestament.

(55:30):
We call it Old Testament.
He only had the Tanakh.
He had the Torah, the Nevi'imand the Ketuvim, the books of
his father and his time,anything that starts in and then
filling all of it right yeah,so it, yeah, it's amazing.
um, I feel very blessed to haveI joke that we get all the

(55:54):
holidays.
Um, how cool, right, we, we do,we do, uh, you know, we do a
messianic hanukkah.
We do a Messianic Hanukkah.
We do a Messianic Passover.
You know, we do Christmas andEaster.
Although my husband and I wedidn't actually go to church on

(56:16):
Easter because it was so crowded, we left, we decided we're
anti-Christers.
So we're going to go to churchon every day except Christmas
and Easter, because everybodywho's the Christers show up on
those two days, and I mean it's,it's a joke.
It's funny but it's.
It was just a lot, it was.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
we just don't do a lot of crowds, so it's kind of
funny, fair enough, and so thishappened.
Um, like, all of this happenedkind of off the heels of the
divorce.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Divorce yes, Divorce was happening and off the heels
of that Okay so, picking up thestory there, got divorced and
lived a carefree life for acouple of years.
New baby Christian had a lot offriends.
I was working, I was having alot of fun, I dated a little bit
.
Christian had a lot of friends,I was working, I was having a
lot of fun, I dated a little bit.
And then a girlfriend invitedme to a St Paul Saints game.

(57:16):
She had a house down here inMinneapolis somewhere.
She rented out rooms to some ofthe players and coaches when
they needed space, and so shegot free tickets to games all
the time.
Sure, I'll go to a game withyou, and it was right before the
all star break in 1999.
Go to a game with her.
Game's over.
I am not a night owl, I'm likeI'm going home.
No, no, you have to come withme.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
She wanted to go.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
She's basically dragged me to a little, a little
restaurant, bar restaurant thatwas near the stadium that a lot
of the players hang out at.
Okay, fine, so I go there andplayers show up and different
people, and we're talking.
You know, everybody's talking,having fun, and I think I'm what
am I?
I think I was like 28 at thetime and so just young, carefree

(58:01):
, having fun, young, carefreehaving fun, and the party, the
bar shuts down, the party movesto the apartments next door, so
we're all like this whole groupof people, and people were
having fun and drinking andtalking and eating and whatever.
And so I'm at this, I'm at thisapartment and one very drunk

(58:24):
baseball player starts playinglike Stairway to Heaven or
something really cheesy, and I'mlike shaking my head, going
okay.
And then I look over in thecorner over here and this big
dude, big brown dude, bald guy,arms crossed, scowling, just
shaking his head, going he's anidiot, don't listen to him, okay

(58:49):
.
Well, the big, tall, brown guyin the corner came over to me
and looked at me and saw that Iwas wearing a UCLA sweatshirt
and that was enough for him tobe brave and have a conversation
.
We started talking, realized wegrew up 40 minutes apart from
each other in southerncalifornia.
He had just gotten to the team,he had just gotten to minnesota

(59:09):
and he was a pitcher for theteam and it was all-star break
and we had a couple of days tokind of hang out and talk and we
went on our first date the nextnight.
So this was, I don't know,middle of summer 1999 and we
have been together since.
So, oh my gosh, the funny.
It's just funny because, umwell, one everybody's like oh,

(59:32):
watch out for professional ballplayers, for all kinds because
they're about all professionals,right, all professional
athletes.
They got a girl in every port,that kind of thing yeah.
And he, just, he was different.
He didn't, he was.
He was treated me like a queen,like just an amazing, an
amazing man.
Um he uh.

(59:53):
He traveled a lot for baseballbut you know, when he was around
we'd hang out.
We had a ton of things incommon.
Our first date, we went.
It was very funny.
He didn't have a car here, so Ipicked him up.
We went to grand avenue insaint paul and and got dessert
and coffee.
And then we walked down thestreet and went and got another
coffee because he was very tiredhe was.

(01:00:15):
He was on running on fumes andpicked up a newspaper because
they still had newspapers backthen, picked up a newspaper that
we saw lying around.
I'm like, oh, star Wars justcame out, star Wars Episode One.
We were both total Star Warsgeeks.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Gotta love this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Right, we went to see Star Wars Episode One.
It was probably like a Tuesdaynight at like 10 o'clock that
there was no one in the theater.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
It was just fun and you were not getting out of
there until after midnight.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
yeah, it was late it was a long movie, it's late, but
it was so much fun and andthat's kind of where our love
story began we, we, we met in1999.
We dated.
It was probably it was by theend of the season.
He, I thought, oh, this is fun,this was a fun, you know, yeah,
summer fling boys, you knowboys of summer kind of a thing.

(01:01:04):
And so at the end of summer hesaid I think I'm going to stay
in Minnesota.
I'm looking at him like he'scrazy.
No, this was just a summerdating for a little bit thing.
I said you need to have a placeto live, you need to have a job
and you need to have a car,because I can't support you,

(01:01:25):
you're not living with me, I'mnot, you know, we're not doing
that.
Sure enough, within a week hehad all three and I'm like, okay
, lord, I see you, I see you.
And we, he stayed.
He was very cold winter, by theway.
He, he had never experiencedthat before.
And, um, yeah, and so that was,that was 1999.

(01:01:51):
Um, we, we dated.
You know, he stayed here.
He came back, played baseballagain the next year for the
saints.
He played for team usa springof 2001,.
He went to Taiwan to playbaseball for six months overseas

(01:02:15):
, and I went to Israel to visitmy friends who were over there
and spend a couple of weeks inIsrael, and it was during that
time instant message was juststarting to be a thing and so we
would message from Israel toTaiwan and I was at a point
where I think I was going tobreak up with him because I'm

(01:02:37):
like I don't know this is, I'mnot sure this is going to work,
that sort of thing, and he couldtell, like he could read me
through messages, through Idon't know, I guess I'm that
readable, I don't know.
And he, he just could tell andand he's like well, good, have a
nice life, see you later.
Bye, huh, well, that wasinteresting.

(01:02:59):
Well, I ended up.
Well, I ended up, his.
His mom took me and one of hissisters to taiwan in summer of
2001, went over there and heproposed we got engaged in
taiwan.
It was crazy.
We we had so I don't know whatchanged for both of us, for me,

(01:03:21):
but it changed and we gotengaged in the summer of 2001.
We're like, oh, we'll getmarried in february, we'll do oh
two, oh two, oh two.
And then 9-11 happened and hebarely made it home.
They were having typhoons, theywouldn't let him leave, they
held his passport.

(01:03:42):
He finally comes home.
Like our whole wedding story isa whole other long, complicated
but amazing God story.
He barely made it home two daysbefore we got married.
I planned the whole wedding inthree weeks.
You know the world's going toend, let's just get married now.
We wow, it was.
It was crazy.
All there were so many littledetails and things that happened

(01:04:03):
that were off the charts and umyeah so he gets home on october
5th and we get married onoctober 7th in 2001 wow and
still to this day, have nevertaken a honeymoon we, we never
did either, because we were.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
I mean well, yeah, we were pregnant, yeah we.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Well, the world was ending in in 2001, 9-11, so so
nobody was flying anywhere.
I had, I had walking pneumonia.
He played baseball in Mexicoand then he came home.
That was a whole other story,but yeah, all the things.
So anyways, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
I knew that this was like such a because for the
listeners.
Um, when guests come here, weoftentimes are having
conversations before we go onair and then there's a lot of
amazing conversations thathappen after the fact too.
But you had mentioned, like Ihad shared, a little bit about

(01:05:03):
my story.
You, you know, with meeting Joeand getting engaged and all the
stuff that happened, I thoughtplanning a wedding in two and a
half months I don't even thinkit was that was tough and you
did it in three weeks.
So, bravo to you.
But you were sharing with meabout how cool your guys' story

(01:05:25):
cool and crazy your story was ofgetting married and he also.
So now you can say yeah, we'retalking about you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
Talking about you, rich.
Yeah, this morning he says makesure you talk about me.
Yeah, he's kind of funny, that,like that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
Well, let's let's spend a little bit of time
talking about Rich too, becauseI would like to hear about your
transition into what you'redoing now and I don't want to
gloss over anything.
So if we miss something, justlet me know and we can share
that with the listeners.
But let's talk about thesupport that you have around you

(01:06:02):
.
How impactful Rich has been.
I'm sure he would love to hearthis.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
Yeah, well, you know talking.
We talked earlier about myhealth in 2022.
He was incredible.
Like there's no way I wouldhave survived it without him.
He jumped into nurse modeimmediately and took care of me
for better or or for worse.
For better or for worse.
Man, those are true words Ifyou're newly married, just so

(01:06:29):
you know, for better or forworse, for richer or for poorer,
it's all 100% true.
Yeah, so he's been anincredible support.
There have been, like I said,throughout my career.
There have been times whereI've taken time off of work,
where I had two years off whenour daughter was born.
I had a year off here, a yearoff there, some some of our own

(01:06:52):
choosing, and some where I gotlaid off and had.
You know, it wasn't my choice,and this last time wasn't
totally my choice, but it wasbecause I just couldn't.
I couldn't work there anymore,and and so that was in March of
2023.
He is.
He's been an incredibleencouragement, incredible
support, and has been helping meand driving me to do this.

(01:07:17):
You know, find what my next is.
You know we're notindependently wealthy.
I do need to work, I need tohave some income, and so you
know, his encouragement and hissupport has been off the charts.
It's been.
You know, I couldn't clearlyhave done any of it without him,
and so he's been encouraging meto find my next, and so what

(01:07:43):
you know, coming back aroundfull circle to entrepreneurship
and that sort of thing.
Um, in 2023, 2024, as I Istarted thinking about what I
wanted to do next and what my umyou know career could look like
.
What it was that I wanted to bedoing.
Every time I had you know, I'dI'd send resumes and it was like
, oh, I don't know,entrepreneurship.

(01:08:05):
When I think about it, it's abig part of my family.
A lot of my family members aredoing their own thing.
My dad, from the time I canremember he started his own
computer consulting businessback in the I think it was in
the eighties, before computerswere really a thing.

(01:08:25):
Um, he had, he had studiedcomputers in college and started
his own computer consultingbusiness back in the day.
Um, my, my brother out inCalifornia, um went to school,
master's, phd, all the things,spent a lot of time in school
systems and then I think it was2019 started his own consulting

(01:08:46):
business, consulting back anddoing like infographics and
information for schools, schooldistricts and in the education
system.
It's, it's fascinating, it's.
He's so talented.
And even my mom she, you know,she's done admin, different work
, different kinds of things, butshe's always been a writer and
loved those sort of things.
Well, she's in her 70s and shestarted her own resume writing

(01:09:10):
LinkedIn profile business a fewyears ago.
She's killing it.
Wow.
She wasn't even on LinkedIn in2020, and she starts getting one
or two followers, one or twoconnections Look, look, I have
30.
I have this Now.
She's probably blown past me inthe the number of people and
she's a master on LinkedIn.
She's really good at what she'sdoing.

(01:09:32):
Women's in her like lateseventies, like dang and, and so
entrepreneurship is just kindof always been an idea,
something that I've alwayswanted to do, and I've been
trying.
I'm still trying, to figure itout.
To be honest, I'm not supersuccessful at it yet, but I'm
not giving up, but I'm.
I'm still.
You know, it's still an idea.
It's still a work in progress,but I decided to take a look at

(01:09:56):
what I've done in the past and,um, looking at my, my nonprofit
experience, and wanted to comeup with something that was
unique, something different.
There's a lot of you knowthere's there's people that are
doing a lot of the same thingsout there, and I know there's
plenty of work for everybodythere's.
You know, you can have all thethe I don't know salespeople and

(01:10:19):
coaches and career people, andyou know recruiters and other
kinds of things out there.
There's plenty of work foreverybody.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
But I always felt like I, I, I wanted to do
something different, somethingunique to me, and so, thinking
about that, I I went.
You mentioned Laura Kingearlier.
I went through her pursue yourpurpose workshop and that's
where it solidified for me was Iwant to do corporate
philanthropy.
I want to help these corporatecompanies with their employee

(01:10:49):
engagement, employeevolunteerism, grant making,
giving their money away, thatsort of thing.
And so I call it fractionalsocial impact, which is I don't
know.
Whenever I talk to people aboutit, nobody's ever heard that
term or that phrase.
It's like I'm kind of makingthings up as I go because why
not?
When I needed to have businesscards and I wanted to put a

(01:11:14):
title on there, I didn't evenknow what to call myself at the
time, and so I put chiefconnector, because I love
networking and all of the things, and my husband's just laughing
.
He's like you can call yourselfthat, I can call myself
whatever I want.
It's my business.
So I made up, I just make upthings as I go along and
hopefully they work out.
But the the idea is the idea isto help private small and

(01:11:38):
mid-sized business ownersfaith-based.
So I talk about like I'mnarrowing this, this niche is
really narrow Faith-based.
So I talk about, like I'mnarrowing this, this niche is
really narrow Faith-basedbusiness owners with aligning
their values to the nonprofitsthey're supporting, the

(01:11:59):
community that they'resupporting.
There are all kinds of strongstatistics these days showing
that people really want to workwith companies that they align
with in their values, on allsides of the political spectrum,
and we don't need to go downany of that.
It's just people want to workwith companies that they align
with in their values, on allsides of the political spectrum,
and we don't need to go downany of that.
It's just people.
People want to work withcompanies that that they share
values with.
They want to buy from companiesthat share their values.
Right More than ever, becauseof social media, because of the
internet, people can see andknow who you're supporting, what

(01:12:24):
you're doing, what that lookslike, and so I want to help.
I want to serve kingdom-mindedbusiness owners and help them
find those nonprofits that fittheir values, to help them set
up processes and procedures andtechnology all the stuff right,

(01:12:45):
but help them do that because Iknow the technology.
I know a lot of that stuff andhelp them brainstorm, help them
come up with ideas, help themsupport their employees.
Recruitment and retention, aswell as customer loyalty, are
all impacted these days by allof this.
And so if you are, you know, abusiness owner, you and your

(01:13:10):
company have the backbone ofJudeo-Christian values.
You want to partner withorganizations that fit those
values and, to be honest, it'sbiblical either way to put it
all over.
You know to tout it and shareit in social media and you're
telling everybody what you'redoing and what you want to.
You know the organizationsyou're partnering with cause
you're, you're lifting them up,you're sharing and helping them.

(01:13:33):
But it's also biblical to saywe want to do this quietly,
because God says you know yougive your money away.
You do it quietly, you don'thave to tell anybody, and I I'm
all about that too.
Like, if you want to keep it toyourself, you don't put it
anywhere on your website, youdon't put it anywhere on your
social media?
Cool, we can do that too andjust quietly support and partner

(01:13:56):
with nonprofits that you'realigned with.
So that's where I'm at nowworking to build some clientele,
working to build a pipeline,working to find people and, like
we said at the very beginning,my daughter's moved out of the
house.
I can go anywhere in thecountry.
I'm not limited by geography.

Speaker 2 (01:14:16):
It's so cool Like you're literally giving me a
segue into having thatconversation about like seasons
of life, right, I've had such avast I mean you're my 54th
interview so far and, like I'vehad women on here who just had
babies within six months and arein business with their husbands

(01:14:39):
.
I've had people on here whohave been in business for 10
plus years and it's a hummingbusiness and you know a couple
children as well.
And I've also had individualson here who are in, you know,
either entering into this seasonof life where there are
becoming birdwatchers, emptynesters or, you know, have a

(01:15:01):
couple years of that emptynester birdwatching already
under their belt and it's just adifferent.
It becomes a differentmentality.
Yeah a different season of life,but at the core of all of it,
you're still a mom that nevergoes away.
That never just is mom in adifferent capacity.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
So let's talk through what this has looked like for
you over, you know, the lastcall it year or so, and going
back to us talking about howmodeling has impacted your
daughter.
Well she's an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
Right, she's got her own little.
She's got her own business.
She's she's selling herservices.
Um, she's using social media.
She's using word of mouth.
Um, she was confident and boldenough to say I don't want to do
what everybody else is doing,Um, and chose a different path.
So she, yeah, she.

(01:16:04):
She decided not to go tocollege, decided to do her own
thing and is building her ownclientele, building a business,
building a reputation.
Um, her artwork is, it's allover her, it's on her social
media and her, her Instagrampage.
If people want to follow her,her ink sense on Instagram, her

(01:16:26):
ink sense.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
I'm going to make sure to drop that into the show
notes.
I would love that, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
She always laughs.
She's like where are all thesepeople following me from?
Oh, I talk about you all thetime.
I'm always at a networkingevent or somewhere and I brag on
her as much as I can and showoff you know, the couple of two,
three tattoos that that I havethat I can show and and share

(01:16:51):
and show give people if you'reon Instagram.
Here's her page follow her,I'll be, following her here
after this.
So we'll make sure to get thatpopped on to but like, let's
talk.

Speaker 2 (01:17:04):
Um, I love that you are sharing more about her, but
let's talk about how you havesort of like evolved in what
you're doing and how, in makingthis transition into
entrepreneurship, how have yousort of harmonized that with
what season of life you're in aswell?

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:23):
Being a birdwatcher, so yeah, so it's.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
it's interesting, like if you're in as well, yeah,
being a bird watcher, so yeah,so it's, it's not a bird like if
you're just hopping on rightnow and listening, elisa's not a
bird watcher, it's just she.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
Instead of calling herself an empty nester, yeah,
she's calling herself a birdwatcher, right, because our kids
are soaring, they're not yeahwe didn we.
We do kick them out of the nestsometimes, but you have to kick
them out of the nest, butthey're but but we're watching
them with their own wings,watching them soar.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
Um, for me, this stage of life, um, there's a lot
of freedom.
Um, there's a lot of new joy.
Um, my husband and I and Ithink you know all relationships
go through ups and downs.
We've been together 25 years,that's to say lots of ups and
downs.
Right, We've had our good times, We've had our tough times.

(01:18:13):
It's never been perfect.
However, we're just reallyenjoying the two of us.
We have our two dogs.
We're enjoying this season oflife.
The two of us, we do stuffaround the house, we go for
drives, we go for bike rides,our two dogs.
We're enjoying this season oflife, the two of us.
Um, we're, you know, we dostuff around the house, we go
for drives, we go for bike ridesnow that it's warming up again

(01:18:34):
and and so really enjoying thatit's.
It's us and and my husband isincredibly supportive of the
work that I want to do Um, andhe's, you know, he's been, he's
been pushing because, you knowagain, not independently wealthy
, but he's he's been, you know,a huge encouragement and, and I

(01:18:56):
love that that he and I are kindof renewing our relationship
and our love.
Twenty five years is a longtime.

Speaker 2 (01:19:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:04):
For those of you who are newly married or with itty
bitties at home, when you lookback, you also blink, and like
don't blink is what I'm saying.
Like you don't.
You don't know where the timegoes.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
Find the tape.
Tape the eyelids open Right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:20):
It all goes.
I can't believe that we've it'sbeen this long and I've had
this kind of a career, and Ifeel very blessed to have this
opportunity now to be steppinginto entrepreneurship.
I think what I struggle withright now, one of my challenges,
is am I supposed to be doingthis all on my own?
What I'm trying to figure outnow, and what I've been noodling

(01:19:44):
on and praying about, is I feellike I need to be doing this in
partnership with one or morepeople, like with some other
folks and, um, and I don't knowwhat that looks like.
You know what I'm saying.
And I I feel called to this.
I feel like this is a reallyunique idea or unique concept
and and that I'm uniquelycreated to do this, and I feel

(01:20:15):
like I need to find people to doit with.
Yeah Right, and that's.
Entrepreneurship doesn't meansolo, it doesn't necessarily
mean you're doing it totally byyourself, and so that's kind of
a new revelation, a new aha.
For me is like I'm trying tofigure out how to do this better
, do this really well, and andfind some partners to do it
alongside, because I I thinkI've struggled to to do

(01:20:36):
everything I get.
I get bogged down into the,into the weeds.
I mean I'm you, you, you do thepartnership with your husband
on both the podcast and your,your business, and and and
having even one other person tocome alongside so it's
instrumental, it really is.

Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
And I mean I, if this isn't something that I would
say, a lot of the women who havebeen on the podcast have
probably, and maybe they haven'topenly shared it, but, like I
have to believe that there'sjust been this moment in time
where you go, I literally Ican't do it on my own, I can't

(01:21:19):
and whether that means you hirean executive assistant to be
alongside of you or you'rehiring on a social media manager
, or you're getting to thisscale of business where, like,
it is time to scale and whatdoes that mean in terms of
calling somebody else into thebusiness?

(01:21:39):
What you're saying is like Imight need a couple of partners
to come alongside me to likepush this further down the road,
because there is an opportunity.
I wholeheartedly agree with you.
It's like.
It's just like continuing thenetworking.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
Yeah, lots of networking and the prayer is
very important.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
God's timing is going to be very important in all of
it too, and when that happens,you're going to look back and go
, oh, because I needed to learnthis, or oh, I just it took.
I had to wait for that personbecause they had their timing.
That needed to happen.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
I am wholeheartedly hanging on to God's timing for
everything right now.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (01:22:34):
Yeah, yeah, 100% on that.
Yeah, there's a lot that Ithink about with relation to all
of this and you know, kind ofcoming back to the networking
thing, I feel like I've done alot of connecting, a lot of
networking, a lot of seedplanting over the past year.

(01:22:56):
I'm waiting for God to sproutmy seeds, planting all these
seeds.
I'm waiting for things tosprout and to come full circle.
I'm trying to do some thoughtleadership online.
I probably could I need to dosome more posting or some
articles on LinkedIn.
The I think the hardest thingis I've got like lists and lists

(01:23:16):
of all these things I could bedoing and should be doing, and
so then I, you just kind of areall over the place.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
And so.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
I need to just like pick, pick something and do that
pick that and focus on that anddo that I did with all the
networking.
There's a ton of events that goon around the Twin Cities all
the time and you could you couldbe busy, you know, eight, 10
hours a day going to networkingthings, being someone who lives

(01:23:45):
on the far east side of the TwinCities cities.
If you're not from around here,I live in woodbury, I'm
practically bumping intowisconsin yeah and all of the
networking is on the far westside so driving 45 minutes to an
hour each way depending on theseason it could be longer in
winter is a lot, and I've beendoing that for the last year and
a half.

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
It's a lot, you a lot .
You found a problem.
I found a problem, so I startedmy own networking event.
I was just going to say there'sa solution, there is a solution
.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
I started my own.
I started a women's networkinggroup called the Moxie Mixer.
It meets out on the east sideof town, basically St Paul to
Hudson, wisconsin, somewhere inthere.
I'm always looking for speakers.
It started out just as like,hey, let's get together and have
drinks at a bar.
And it's expanded now to wehave a speaker, we have an

(01:24:37):
eight-minute moxie message iswhat we call it.
I have a featured nonprofit tohark into and be a part of.
My philanthrop, myphilanthropic roots, um, and
there's a lot of networking andhosts and sponsors, but the the
idea is that the hosts are women, business owners, women, um,
women run businesses out on theEast side and and to bring women

(01:25:01):
together to to learn from eachother and and um and connect.
But you know, women live on theEast side of town too.

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
A hundred percent.
I and I I couldn't agree morewith you Like there is, there is
a need out there.
Um, I formerly lived inWoodbury.
Now I was in a very differentseason of life, that was my
mortgage era and so thenetworking there was a ton of
networking that was happeningover there, whether it be
through the chambers or throughRotary or BNI, just to name a

(01:25:36):
few of the things that I dabbledin.
But it's totally dependent onwhich arena you're looking in,
right.
It's totally dependent on whicharena you're looking in right.
And so I love, love, love thatyou saw a problem and said
there's got to be a solution.

(01:25:56):
I guess I'm just going to do itmyself.

Speaker 1 (01:25:59):
Well, a lot of my career was doing event planning
and bringing people together andnetworking and that sort of
thing, so anyone's welcome.
The information's on my websiteLionheartventuresbiz is my
website.

Speaker 2 (01:26:12):
I love it.
I'll make sure to drop thatinformation to the show notes as
well, because for all of yousad women who are just in dire
need of some networking and somegood feels and amazing
connections, this would be foryou.
Yeah, I want to start to landthe plane.

(01:26:32):
We might do it gradually, but II we've touched on so many
different things.
We've touched on the networking, we've touched on your business
, we've touched on the storyleading up to all of those
specific aspects.
I am curious what has throughall of this and we did talk

(01:26:54):
pretty heavily on this bigbenchmark of health with you but
what has self-care looked likefor you?
Maybe that had shifted afteryou had your visit down to Red
Wang, but let's talk throughthat for the listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
Yeah, I was thinking about that kind of in
preparation for thisconversation, in that one of the
things that my grandmotheralways said was always take your
vitamins and exercise, I mean,and she was in her 70s, 80s, she
was in her 90s when she finallypassed away a handful of years
ago.
But for younger women like I'm,in my mid-50s, weird stuff can

(01:27:39):
happen at any time and we justhave no idea.
But the thing that I wasthinking about that is one of
the most important is what theyalways say.
You talk about landing planePlain analogy you put your mask
on first before you can helpsomeone else.
They always say that, right,it's so true.
If you aren't taking care ofyourself as a new mama, as an

(01:28:00):
older mama, as a friend, as aspouse, if you're not taking
care of your own health first,you can't help anybody else.
And as women, we're naturalnurturers and we want to help
take care of everybody.
I mean, even when I'm workingfull time, I'm still doing all
the things that I like to do andwant to do to serve my family
at home.
So for me it was so importantbecause our household just

(01:28:24):
stopped, like everybody had totake care of me, and I hate that
, like I don't want that.
So I'm very careful about whatI eat.
I'm very careful about makingsure I exercise, you know, at
least three, four, five times aweek, if not more.
I'm very careful to.
You know I take supplements andvisit the doctor once a.

(01:28:46):
You know I go get achiropractic adjustment once a
month, and so for me that's justit's.
You have to take care ofyourself.
You have to as much as you wantto put everybody else first.
If you don't take care ofyourself, you can't help anybody
else.

Speaker 2 (01:29:02):
I love this analogy of like, putting the mask on
first before you go to helpother people, otherwise you're
going to pass out.
You know it's like.
And to put that even in moreclear concept like you, if
you're not taking care ofyourself, what's the end result

(01:29:24):
that could happen?
Like, do I need to say itplainly?
Like I, I love, love, love thatyou, you had this advice that
was given to you from somebodywho was older, wiser and and
carried that through andcontinue to carry it through.

Speaker 1 (01:29:43):
You've probably heard this too.
Because if you, in addition toall of that physical care, is
your emotional and yourspiritual care and prayer and
being connected to God there'sso many analogies being plugged
into the source if we're notplugged into God, our light
can't light, we can't shine forother people.

(01:30:04):
Our light can't light, we can'tshine for other people, right?
You've heard the.
I think there's another onewhere you have to pour into
yourself with I journal.
Every day I read scripture.
Every day I spend time with Godin prayer.
Just sometimes driving, I turnthe radio and the book off in
the car and I just talk to Godwhen I'm driving, the book off

(01:30:28):
in the car and I just talk toGod when I'm driving.
But if you're filling yourselfup, then you have leftover to
pour into other people.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
Well, I think I've probably alluded to this on
other podcasts, but it's likethe proverbial, like pouring
into your cup and letting thatcup pour in to let it overflow
into other people and plugginginto God.
And not everybody who's been onthe podcast, not everybody who
listens to the podcast is ofChristian faith, right, but like

(01:30:54):
whatever that like plugginginto needs to look like for you
so that you can get that renewedenergy emotional spiritual care
, yeah.
And then that energy can flowinto the people around you,
first and foremost your, yourfamily, and then everyone else
around you too, yeah, it's justso impactful.
I love that.
This is the approach thatyou've taken and I think it's

(01:31:18):
incredible, it's so cool, itreally is.
Um, and there's a lot ofparallels that I have with how
you approach that and almostsome aha moments for me, like
you know.
I think some people probablycan relate to this, some of the
listeners right now um, you havesometimes we have our moments
where we just kind of, you know,like we do real a little bit.

(01:31:41):
I think about how it's beenEaster and candy and I'm like
little bit I think about howit's been easter and candy and
I'm like, oh my gosh, I've justlike ate a whole bowl of candy,
but the rest of like 90, 90, 95percent of the time we're still
human, doing a doing a prettydarn good job.
But but I do think that like howwe pour into ourselves well,

(01:32:02):
whether it's physically,emotionally, spiritually, and
the food, that in the nutrientsthat we're getting, whole other
topic of conversation that wecould go to a whole other
podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
Food is life.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
Yes, yes, yes, like if I could create a garden back
here, like I'm actually thinkingabout it.

Speaker 1 (01:32:22):
Come garden.
In my house we have a garden.
I put it we built a gardenbecause yeah, that.
I love that's.
That's my happy place in thesummer.

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
Oh, we should talk about this off air.
I've got a couple of things Iwant to talk to you about off
air, but yeah, I just I thinkthat, like for us as women,
especially after having children, there's just so much that's
evolving and changing with ourbodies, with our hormones, and
the nutrient replenishment hasto be important as well.

(01:32:55):
So, you know, vitamins or thegreens that we're intaking and
all of that stuff.
Yeah, I mean, this could be awhole other that's a whole other
podcast conversation.
Who?
Who would be a whole other,that's a whole other podcast
conversation.
Who who would be a goodconnection for you in this given
moment?

Speaker 1 (01:33:11):
oh, um, business owners, uh, faith-based business
owners who are looking toeither start or expand their,
their giving into the community.

(01:33:31):
They feel called to do morethan they're doing for their
employees, for their, theircommunity, in terms of
volunteerism, donations,engagement, that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
Love it and if you are listening right now and you
have somebody that would be areally great or key connection
for Elisa, we will make sure todrop all of the information of
how to get connected with Elisa.
So, with that being said, howcan people get connected to?

Speaker 1 (01:33:59):
you.

Speaker 2 (01:33:59):
And then I've got two more follow-up questions.

Speaker 1 (01:34:01):
Okay, my website lionheartventuresbiz.
I'll contact information's onthere or LinkedIn.
I'm on LinkedIn, ElisaRabin-Bell.

Speaker 2 (01:34:12):
Cool Three questions.

Speaker 1 (01:34:14):
Oh, three questions Go.

Speaker 2 (01:34:15):
How did you get to the name of your business?

Speaker 1 (01:34:20):
My first tattoo.
Okay, so it's on my back.
My daughter drew it.
It was her again.
Part of her tattoo story, shedecided she wanted to be a
tattoo artist.
She had to have a tattoo.
You can't get them in Minnesotaunder 18.
She and dad drove to Coloradobecause you can get tattoos, and

(01:34:40):
then the next year she's likeMom, you need a tattoo too,
really.
Okay, fine, well, it's got tobe your art at a minimum.
I know she couldn't do it, yetit had to be her art, so she
drew.
So on my back I have half of alion face, joshua 1.9.
Do not be afraid, be courageous.

(01:35:00):
It's got a Star of David, aStar of David and a cross and
then our birth flowers and it's.
It's beautiful.
I'll show you after but it so.
So that's the lion, the lionheart piece and, yeah, the
ventures piece.
Now, this is kind of funny, butI might need to rebrand my

(01:35:23):
company here anytime soon,because I keep getting calls for
people who think I'm a venturecapitalist and I'm like I don't
have money to give you.
But here's who I am and what Ido and let me help you.
So it's yeah, so we'll see.
I might be rebranding, we'llsee, but I, I like the Lionheart
piece.
So I don't know, but that'swhere the name came from.

Speaker 2 (01:35:39):
I have somebody who I might be able to connect you
with in terms of the branding.
That could be very much, or youmay actually know this person.
So anyways, um, what's a pieceof advice that you would give?

Speaker 1 (01:36:11):
a younger version of yourself, knowing all that you
know.
You're in this lane and you canonly do this thing.
Do more than one thing, becausethere's a lot of options out
there do more than one thing,because there's a lot of options
out there.

Speaker 2 (01:36:29):
That's so good and, spoken like a true, true
individual that's been throughyou know all of the different
avenues.
That's applicable to your life,right?
So what's a piece of advicethat you would give a woman
who's listening right now?
Um, that's nibbling on theedges of entrepreneurship that's
nibbling on the edges ofentrepreneurship.

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
Let's see One don't give up your day job.
Do it on the side, do evenings,weekends, whenever you can.
First, and build up a clientelebefore you.
Leap, but leap.

Speaker 2 (01:37:06):
Do it because it's worth it.

Speaker 1 (01:37:06):
It's absolutely worth it.
You need to do it, but don'tgive up the day job first.
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:37:12):
I like it Practical.
It is very practical.
I can appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:37:16):
Realistic.

Speaker 2 (01:37:17):
Well, Elisa, I have been just so so over the moon
about hearing your story and um,all of the fun different, like
tangentals, that we went down.
This is so indicative of thepodcast, by the way.
So there's no, there's nothingunique about that tangential in

(01:37:39):
in our conversation, but I'm sograteful to see you again to
have the opportunity for theopportunity for the listeners to
hear your story, your adventure, how you have, in a way, shape
and form, reclaimed a differentkind of hue along the way, and I

(01:38:01):
am looking forward to hearingmore about your rebranding and
how all of this continues tounfold with potential
partnerships and stuff.
So, again, if you're listeningand you have enjoyed Elisa's
story and what the impact isthat she is having, do yourself
a favor and connect with her anddo yourself a favor.

(01:38:25):
If you've got that keyconnection for Elisa, do not
hesitate to reach out to her andget her connected.
So, thank you from the bottomof my heart.
I feel so blessed to know youknow more of your story, how you
are impacting, and so Iappreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:38:42):
Thank you so much.
This has been a lot of fun.
Good, I'm glad.

Speaker 2 (01:38:45):
I hope you have a great rest of the it.
Thank you so much this has beena lot of fun.
Good, I'm glad.
I hope you have a great rest ofthe day.
Thank you, you too, thank you.

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Ep. 54 with Alisa Rabin Bell | Founder of Lionheart Ventures

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 54 with Alisa Rabin Bell | Founder of Lionheart Ventures