Making Sense of the Messy Middle: Turning Life’s Detours Into New Opportunities

Sandra Yancey [00:00:00]:

Nobody was more surprised than me because I was so corporate-focused, being identified as a high potential and, you know, fast-tracking and all the things. And but I suddenly, you know, very short order realized that I didn't want that life anymore.

 

Kym Yancey [00:00:17]:

ABC wanted me as a solo artist, and I was so excited and then never heard from them again.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:00:25]:

No matter if it's a bad relationship or a bad financial situation or a bad business partnership or a bad breakup, Or whatever horrific thing that has her feeling like her back is against the wall, if there's even just a 1% chance, if you have the faith and the fight in you, you can make it happen. So there's a phrase I've had to hold on to, um, That has really been a guidepost for me through everything. And that is that, um, even if it doesn't make sense yet, it's gonna make sense one day.

 

Kym Yancey [00:01:05]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:01:06]:

The detours, the why is this happening kind of seasons, the years that only connect looking backwards. So that's where we're gonna go today on this episode, because I think that many of us find ourselves in the midst of a messy middle and we're wondering, why am I going through this right now? What is the relevance to this? Why am I being faced with this challenge or this thing? And The reason is because you don't even know yet, but it is gonna make sense one day why you had to experience what it is that you had to experience. And so if you're there, this episode is for you. And I thought I would just kind of kick it off and open it up directly to a question. So, Mom, um, can you think of a specific season right now that pops out for you in this conversation that didn't make sense when you were in the middle of it?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:01:53]:

Um, you mean like April 11th of, uh, 20.

 

Kym Yancey [00:01:58]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:01:58]:

24.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:01:59]:

That's mine.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:02:00]:

Yeah, it's mine too.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:02:02]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:02:03]:

I mean, after, I don't know how many, how many years had I been doing a tour? I mean, I just, I know it like the back of my hand. I've done it 20-plus cities for so many years, for so long. And to walk off that stage and somebody tell me, find a private room. I was told to tell you that the minute you walk off the stage, you are to find a private room and call your husband.

 

Kym Yancey [00:02:28]:

And I knew.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:02:28]:

Instantly.

 

Kym Yancey [00:02:29]:

Yeah. Because I needed a statement that you would no nonsense get off and, you know what I mean?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:02:38]:

Stop hugging people, taking pictures with people, get to a private room kind of thing.

 

Kym Yancey [00:02:42]:

Exactly.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:02:44]:

And it worked. It did it, boy. And, but I, you know, I'm trying to like smile. I just gotten off stage, you know, people are, I had just said, you know, hey, you know, if you're, if you've joined eWomen Network today, please come and give me a hug. So lines forming and And I'm like, you know, uh, but trying not to look panicked, you know, like anything's wrong. Didn't want to alarm anybody else. I didn't even know what was happening anyway. Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:03:09]:

So, uh, the whole thing, you know, of, of the, the, the, what is going on and why now? Why me? Why now? All of that. Yeah. I had those conversations. Um, and, um, but I, I do, uh, and I do look for meaning. And what's interesting is, um, I had a similar experience to this when I was 26 years old and way too young. to A, know how to handle it, and B, know how to process it. And that was when we got the phone call that I needed to get to my mother. And it was a freak fluke thing because evidently you answered the phone at 5:00 in the morning.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:03:49]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:03:50]:

It was a police officer, but you handed me the phone. And the time you handed me the phone, it was my mother who was screaming to come to her. And So I didn't talk to the police officer. I didn't know. And he didn't know I didn't talk to a police officer. And so it wasn't until we, you know, literally were on the street of my mom's house. We were like, what, 8 houses from her house? And I said, she had told me that it was Ricky, my brother, who was just 13 months older than me. He was 27.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:04:18]:

I was 26. And I said, God, I hope he's okay. And you said— Well, it's usually not a good sign when the police You know, uh, call, go to the house and then call. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He says, the police officer. I said, what are you talking about? And he said, didn't you talk to the police officer? I said, no, I talked to my mom. So in that period of time, we were like 2— that exchange, right?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:04:43]:

Right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:04:43]:

We were just 2 houses. So I, I was just putting together within a minute how bad this could possibly be. So I didn't, I was too young to understand it, to process it, to make meaning of it. You know, it took me decades. But you, on the other hand, um, I know it shattered your world and you've, you've so much wiser and smarter than me at your age have put a lot of, been able to put a lot of meaning to it. Which is just remarkable to watch. And for me, I've really been trying to process too, like, how did me walking in and seeing my daughter on life support and being told you had a 1% chance to live and you being told you should be working on end-of-life plans, you know, for your daughter. And the nurse is telling me, we can keep her comfortable until you come to terms.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:05:47]:

And, you know, Trying to process. But where I'm at now, what it has— as I've searched for whatever silver lining I can find out of this whole thing, what I've landed on most is that I am changed. And in many ways, but the one that really resonates for me now is that everything is in perspective to me about life like never before, because I now know what a bad day is.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:06:28]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:06:28]:

There is no worse day than seeing your child on life support or obviously losing a child. And I've always had a soft heart for any parent who has lost a child because my mother lost a child. She was never the same. So I knew that from watching my mom. For me, it was a sibling. But for me to have this almost happen with you. And so I just really don't get really riled up about too much for too long. Because I'm, I always have this other voice that says to me, but Sandra, really?

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:08]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:09]:

You know what a bad day is.

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:11]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:11]:

And like that, I can release and put it in check, in perspective.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:22]:

Yeah, no doubt about it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:23]:

And there's no business example I can give you that even—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:28]:

Comes close.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:29]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:30]:

Yeah, yeah, it's true. I mean, I feel like my life has been a series of detours. That was definitely the biggest one because I thought that I was on my way to have a banner year. Like, I'm a numbers girl, so I was feeling really really good about the numbers. It was— I turned 33 that year on the 13th, you know, so it was like 333 is a great number, you know, angel number. So I was like, this is gonna be a huge year for me. I'm gonna explode. I had just gotten promoted to VP.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:59]:

Travis had just found a job after having been laid off. We were getting ready to go to Bali. Like, I was—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:05]:

Oh, and that morning I talked to you and you were like, I'm launching my website.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:09]:

And my webs— my new website was launched in a day.

 

Kym Yancey [00:08:12]:

Yep.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:13]:

And the week before, um, I celebrated my goddaughter and then I got approached by a mentor that doesn't do one-on-one coaching and she offered me one-on-one coaching. I'm like, everything is aligning. This is gonna be the best year of my life.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:28]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:30]:

And I was humbled really quick, you know? And it was really hard for me to make sense of it cuz coming out of it was really hard. It rattled a lot of my relationships.

 

Kym Yancey [00:08:39]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:40]:

Not a lot of my relationships. It was one relationship in particular that you know, I thought was like a family member. And she and I just— it just totally changed. And, you know, so it was really hard for me to, like, make sense of, like, you know, am I just too different of a person now? Am I ever going to be the same? Because it took me a while to kind of get my groove back and to get my quick wit about me and to be, you know, and I'm still not as quick as I was. There's no doubt about it.

 

Kym Yancey [00:09:11]:

You can feel it, huh? I do feel it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:12]:

I do feel it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:13]:

Noticeable. My God, I don't know. In fact, I, I have to say, Brianna, of course, quick wit is something, but the introspection that you have now is, I mean, I'm telling you, no BS here. So beyond.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:31]:

Yeah. Well, talk about it'll make sense one day, you know? I mean, I, I do think in terms of being more present, it's required me to be. Because my injury totally rocked my, what they call in the brain development therapy space, divided attention, which in the real world just means multitasking.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:55]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:56]:

And, you know—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:56]:

Which is a horrible thing anyway.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:57]:

Which is a horrible thing anyway. So now, you know, I can't multitask. I have to singularly focus because if I'm trying to multitask—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:10:07]:

Single task, you're so—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:10:08]:

Yeah. If I, if I'm trying to multitask, I'm probably not gonna retain what I was doing over here or do it very well, or I'm gonna make a mistake. And so it's forced me to be very much where my feet are. And I think that forcing presence is kind of one of those, it'll make sense one day, gifts. Because I was a very, I kind of fancied myself a, a pro juggler of all of the, the tabs in the brain and the balls in the air. And, um, Yeah. And I, and I'm not that person anymore.

 

Kym Yancey [00:10:40]:

So, so Brianna, um, for those that know about our podcast and know about you, they know what we're talking about, but a brand new person has no idea. You need to give them a little context as to—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:10:54]:

Well, there's an entire episode on it, so go and, and find that, the 1% episode, because, um, I did do a whole solo episode talking about it in depth, and I don't want to monopolize the time, but I did go to a med spa one day for just a, like, easy outpatient procedure. I'd done it before multiple times, and this particular time was different. And they went in on lidocaine, and I was actually overdosed significantly with lidocaine and suffered lidocaine toxicity. And that caused me to have 7 seizures, and I went into cardiac arrest, and I was clinically dead for 45 minutes.

 

Kym Yancey [00:11:33]:

Wow.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:36]:

And was given a 1% chance to live. And, you know, I don't remember the seizures or the cardiac arrest. I just remember things going black and then waking up in the ICU. Actually, I wasn't even in the ICU. I think I moved out. That was the first memory that I have of waking up.

 

Kym Yancey [00:11:53]:

Hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:53]:

Apparently, I woke up before. I don't remember that though. But it was days later when I remember waking up. And I had no idea how much time had passed. I had no idea where I was, how I got there. You know, what are these tubes? What's in my neck? What's on my hand? Why am I in this hospital gown?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:15]:

Why can't I walk?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:16]:

Why can't I move? Walk? Why is it hard for me to talk right now? I know what I want to say, but I can't say it. I couldn't really speak very well. It was very disorienting.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:26]:

What is this spoon they just put in my hand, and what do I do with it?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:30]:

It was very disorienting.

 

Kym Yancey [00:12:32]:

And it's become probably more disorienting the longer you've been away from it at some level in terms of reflecting back on it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:40]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:41]:

Well, you know, so it's interesting because like 2 years post-incident, I started to have a lot of anxiety. And the anxiety was around, you know, now that life is starting, like the dust has settled, you know, I had an amazing son. He's healthy. And, you know, I've kind of found my stride. I feel like I've kind of gotten back to some level of normalcy in my career.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:13:05]:

You've been promoted to president.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:13:07]:

Yeah, but this was even before that. I started to have more anxiety. And I— and it was because things were good, and that's how I felt when everything happened. So I was like almost afraid to feel that feeling of joy in my life. And I'd always been an optimistic, always been a joyful person. And I didn't like or recognize this version of myself that was living in the '90s 99% of what could go wrong instead of leaning into the 1% that could go right. And that I've always been a let me lean into the 1% person.

 

Kym Yancey [00:13:38]:

Yeah, right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:13:38]:

You know, not the 99% what-ifs. And that wasn't my reality. I was very much afraid that something horrible was going to happen to me or a family member, somebody I love, because things are too good right now. So I sought therapy, I got professional help, and it's been a If anybody is struggling, you know, I can't say enough about the power of going to somebody, not just anybody, but somebody who is actually trained and skilled and knows how to help you process and make sense of trauma.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:14:13]:

Trauma.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:14:13]:

You know, because that trauma therapist really gave me a tremendous amount of perspective. And I don't remember what you asked me or how I got onto this, but I, Yeah, I find that now—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:14:28]:

What sense do you make of it?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:14:31]:

Yeah, now the sense that I make of it is I was given this second chance. God not only brought me back, but he restored me. He gave me the ability to walk, to have another child, to speak, and to be able to share my testimony, you know? And I feel an immense obligation to do that and to let any woman know that no matter what odd she's facing in life, no matter if it's a bad relationship or a bad financial situation or a bad business partnership or a bad breakup or whatever horrific thing that has her feeling like her back is against the wall, if there's even just a 1% chance, if you have the faith and the fight in you, you can make it happen. It can be your reality. And I'm walking proof of that, you know. And I think too many women find themselves in seasons and situations where they're like, why am I going through this? Why is happening to me? How am I gonna get through it? And it really is a matter of having the faith and having the fight. It's not one or the other. You have to have both.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:15:38]:

It does no good to have faith and to pray if you're not gonna back it up with the work. You know, he can open up the doors and the opportunities, but if you don't take them, if you don't take those steps, nothing is gonna come of it. You can't stay where you are and wonder why nothing's changing.

 

Kym Yancey [00:15:54]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:15:55]:

And that is what the experience did for me. It gave me a clarity and a message and a conviction and a certainty that I've never had before. And how ironic that eWomen Network's mission is to help 1 million women each achieve $1 million in annual revenue. And only 1.7% of women do that. I mean, my entire life is about living for the 1 percenters.

 

Kym Yancey [00:16:21]:

Well, I know, uh, like you, Sandra, you know, um, everything is kind of defined by that experience with Breonna.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:16:29]:

You know, it was COVID. I used to think, is that before COVID or after COVID? Now I think it's Breonna. Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:16:35]:

Before April 11th or after. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:16:38]:

Yeah. I think of a lot of things that way.

 

Kym Yancey [00:16:41]:

And I know for me, so what I had to go through pales in comparison to what we experienced with you, you know? But I remember, um, uh, one of the things that I had to go through was, uh, um, The Secret came out.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:17:00]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Kym Yancey [00:17:01]:

Which was, um, a heck of a personal development movie about, uh, the secret. And that, by the way, the secret of that movie is the fact that what, what you think about comes about.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:17:12]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Kym Yancey [00:17:12]:

You know, really, that's the secret. What you think about comes about. And I was so moved by how it was done and I loved it. And it, for me, it showed me a new way to do personal development. And I thought, while there's a secret out and our world is women, and Sandra was saying back in, this is 'cause this movie came out in 2008, Okay. And you were on your tour that year, but you were talking about women finding their glow, living in their glow. And which was the female word for your passion, you know, your strongest beliefs, you know, going after your goals, your dreams.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:00]:

That's your fire. What fires you up?

 

Kym Yancey [00:18:01]:

What fires you up? You know, it's your glow. And I remember, That movie deeply impacted me because I traveled all over the country along with an Emmy Award-winning videographer. And the whole point of that movie was to interview women. And in my case, we divided it up. There were 15 women in the movie. Half of them were major corporate players like, you know, the vice president of consumer products.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:33]:

Estée Lauder. The president of Hearst Publishing at the time.

 

Kym Yancey [00:18:36]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:39]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:18:40]:

And then we had entrepreneurs like Sheila Johnson.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:44]:

$30-some billion.

 

Kym Yancey [00:18:46]:

Yeah. Who was one of the founders of BET, you know, and Mary and Luna Brim, who had a place called Love Chrysler down in San Antonio.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:55]:

Corpus Christi.

 

Kym Yancey [00:18:56]:

Corpus Christi. But, um, they shared their story. It was done in such an artful way, uh, the way the whole movie was done.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:19:04]:

But I remember People that you look at that look like they have it all.

 

Kym Yancey [00:19:09]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:19:10]:

And they shared their deepest—

 

Kym Yancey [00:19:12]:

They shared their deepest, darkest, challenging moments. But incredibly, the net effect of it was it inspired so many people. I mean, I remember, yeah, I just remember countless women saying, gosh, I watched this movie and I feel like I could do more. I need to do more.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:19:29]:

It was so powerful. We debuted it in New York. And And the vice president of marketing for NASDAQ—

 

Kym Yancey [00:19:37]:

NASDAQ, yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:19:38]:

Saw it and was like, I want you to ring the NASDAQ bell. I mean, bring Glow into the world. It was very— she went to the president, advocated for us. And I mean, it was really very special. And—

 

Kym Yancey [00:19:51]:

And yeah, I remember when I finished the movie, the first cut of the movie wasn't put together the right way. And I went back out to California to work with the editor and the director. to put it back together. And finally we got it right. But I remember going back and I don't even know if I told you, I think I told you, but I went back when that was over and I cried. You know, I went back to my hotel room. I was just by myself because it was so hard to pull all the pieces together.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:20:19]:

Such a labor of love for you.

 

Kym Yancey [00:20:20]:

It was a labor of love.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:20:22]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:20:23]:

But, you know, it's interesting when you think about like, why did that happen? Like, you know, what had to happen to make that happen?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:20:33]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:20:34]:

And it had, for me, it was such a deep belief in what you were doing with wanting women to live in their glow and looking at, gosh, how do we bring that to life? How do we bring that whole system to work? And it really, that year was very special for eWomen Network. Do you remember?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:20:53]:

Oh, it's called The Glow Project. I think you can find it online.

 

Kym Yancey [00:20:55]:

Can't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's called The Glow Project.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:20:57]:

The movie, The Glow Project.

 

Kym Yancey [00:20:59]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:20:59]:

It's a project. It's a work in progress. You're a work in progress.

 

Kym Yancey [00:21:03]:

Yeah. Yeah. Glow, as in G-L-O-W instead of go, you know.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:21:07]:

Glow.

 

Kym Yancey [00:21:08]:

Yeah. But, you know, your core question around, you know, what have you had to go through to get, you know, to get you where you are now? You know what I mean? Or the impact that it's had on you, you know? And it, you know, it's very special being a male in a female-centric organization. And it's a real special privilege. It's a different thing. I mean, I feel an immense amount of appreciation and gratitude at the same time. You know, it's made me a better person.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:21:45]:

Well, you're part of my superpower that I have you. Because you do have a perspective of things. And you have been able to teach me things that men have been, have known and have been, have learned, have been groomed. I mean, you have a perspective that's, that's helped me. Not to mention just the fact that you're male, not to mention all the talent you bring and experience you bring. But, and you've been a big advocate, you know, especially with sponsors. Because if I, if I'm talking to sponsors, you know, Kim brings me in at the end to kind of button it up for the button-up process. But it just comes, it comes self-serving, comes off self-serving when I'm advocating for women to corporate sponsors.

 

Kym Yancey [00:22:29]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:22:30]:

I feel like sometimes, at least in the early days. And it's so different when you've got, you know, a man who has just as much passion and commitment to what we're doing to advocate for us. It's very powerful.

 

Kym Yancey [00:22:46]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:22:49]:

I want to talk a little bit about career pivots because we've all been through career pivots. And I think a lot of our listeners are going through their own version of a career pivot, or maybe they are rebranding completely, a business pivot. And you know, maybe struggling with how to do that or how to reposition themselves or even to like recognize, you know, everything that you've done up to this point, you're still taking with you into the next thing. You're not going to erase all of who you've become in the journey of getting to this post on the venture of getting to that one, you know. So, Yeah. What could— let's talk about maybe one of your career pivots and how that has played a part into eWomen Network and today, because you 40 when you started human work? 40?

 

Kym Yancey [00:23:33]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:23:33]:

You know, and by definition, for many people might be considered late. Yeah, for sure.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:23:39]:

Yeah. For many people. Although there's like some powerful thing out there that like Bara Wang started at 42.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:23:45]:

There's a lot of women.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:23:46]:

A lot of women really hit it at 40. Yeah. You know, which is really cool. I'm revving up, y'all. You don't have to say nothing yet. But, but, but But, but you weren't— you, you didn't expect to be running a global enterprise. Oh gosh, no. You know, so for both of you and you being in the music industry and pivoting into branding and advertising, I mean, all of those skills from your previous life have played a massive role in where you are now.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:24:14]:

So can you talk to me a little bit about your personal journeys to how you've made sense of all of those experiences and used them to really be your superpowers here at eWomen Network.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:24:28]:

Do you feel like you're drowning in your business? Like you're doing everything and something has to give, but you're afraid it might be you? What if I told you there's a network of over 500,000 women entrepreneurs all dedicated to supporting each other? A network of women helping women. I'm Sandra Yancy, founder of eWomen Network, And I'm inviting you to join us and become a member. ewomennetwork.com. We can't wait to meet you. So mine was, you know, I had left corporate America. I had worked for 13 years for a Fortune 500 company, worked at the world headquarters, was on the corporate staff, and had been you know, managing a team and traveling and beautiful office, you know, travel budget, the whole bit. And after 13 years of marriage, we decided to have you. And you were born and you were put into my arms and I was different.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:25:35]:

I could feel it. There you go. You'd have to go to the YouTube channel to see what she just did. But anyway, I was different. I was fundamentally a different woman. And nobody was more surprised than me because I was so corporate focused, being identified as a high potential and, you know, fast tracking and all the things. And but I suddenly, you know, very short order realized that I didn't want that life anymore. It took me— I mean, you were 18 months old, so it took me a good 18 months to muster up kind of the the confidence and the grit and what all the things that it took to resign and talk to you about it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:26:17]:

And you'd always been an entrepreneur, so you were like, come on, baby, you can do this. You know, I got your back, whatever. But for me, it was the paycheck and the benefits and, you know, just all the things, the luxuries of having a beautiful office and this beautiful tower.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:26:33]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:26:33]:

And just there was a lot of my identity wrapped up in all of that, my title, the whole bit. And so I felt like, who am I without that kind of thing? And, but I, I mean, after 18 months of having you, I knew that I need— I just needed something. So I resigned, I quit and started my own practice. And then, you know, I knew immediately that I had to get out there, that people needed to know who I was. And so I had— somebody told me, I can't even tell you how it happened. I certainly didn't see myself as a speaker. I was more of a facilitator. And but somebody told me about this opportunity to speak at this legal legal association thing.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:27:16]:

I think it was called the ALA back in the day. Anyway, I did it. I applied and they selected me. And the reason why is I knew a lot about the legal business because the Mead Corporation, which was the corporation I worked for, had one of its divisions was LexisNexis, online legal research and news research. And I had worked at the division level before I'd gotten promoted into the corporate staff. And so I knew a lot about that business. So I went out on my own. I contacted a lot of legal firms that knew me.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:27:48]:

I got hired. That became like a little niche specialty for me. I applied for this job to speak and I got selected and I spoke. And this woman came out of the audience and she said, I need you. You're just— you're perfect for our company and blah, blah, blah. And she starts telling me. I was like, so tell me what firm you're with. And she said, oh, I'm with Coca-Cola, the most recognized brand in the world at the time.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:28:13]:

And I'm like, I'm whatever you need. whatever date you need, I'm going to make it happen. And I did it. Fast forward, before that opportunity opened up, you know, all these major corporations. I mean, I had a portfolio of clients in my 30s. Woo! I'm telling you, Coca-Cola and AT&T and John Deere and Levi Strauss and NCR and Wall Street Journal and just all the— I mean, like, it was unbelievable how much I had grown my little practice. was interviewing for a major deal with Vanderbilt for them and the integration of their medical school, whatever. And I—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:28:50]:

Can I interrupt you for a second?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:28:52]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:28:52]:

Because you're a solopreneur. There weren't like VAs back then.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:28:54]:

Oh, no, I was doing it all. Yeah, that was part of the problem. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, like, you know, I underestimated the power of working in corporate America and the toner goes out in the printer and there's no help desk to call. You know, when you work for a major corporation, you call the help desk and they come and you don't even carry that stuff. They bring the toner in and change it. And thanks, Joe, you know what I mean?

 

Kym Yancey [00:29:15]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:15]:

And so I'm doing everything back in the day of Kinko's. I'm running to Kinko's, getting things printed and going to the post office and standing in line and getting things delivered. I mean, just all the things. And I was just running myself, making what I would call stupid money at the time and totally miserable. I'm like, this is not it. Kim had an opportunity to move to Dallas. Pivot number 3. He goes, do you want to move to Dallas? I'm like, in fact, we had been to Dallas.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:41]:

I said, I'm going to live Didn't I?

 

Kym Yancey [00:29:43]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:44]:

Yeah. I predicted it. I'm going to live here. This is the city I'm going to live in.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:47]:

Really?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:47]:

Yeah. Just like we went to a conference.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:49]:

You didn't hear it wasn't in August then, huh?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:51]:

No, it was definitely not in August. And anyway, and I was like, I mean, I, you know, it was unbelievable. And so I predicted it. And so Kim had the opportunity to sell his agency. I'll tell him about his pivot and move to Dallas, which brought me here. And I'm like, my world's going to change. I no longer have to be on a plane because I'm going to live the Big D and there's world headquarters for Frito-Lay and JCPenney. Cadbury Schweppes had a big thing.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:30:15]:

Countrywide Insurance had a big thing. Ross Perot had his big EDS complex. I'm like, I can work here and be home at night with my family. And so I started networking. Kim said, well, the problem is, Sandra, 'cause he was a master networker. He was the one that was telling me, people, you need to get out. People need to know you exist. So I'm now going to networking groups and they're predominantly male.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:30:33]:

I'm not a male basher. I'm not a male basher. I do not put men down. I've learned from men. And I had done it in corporate America because I was a facilitator of division presidents meetings, working at the highest of highest level across 38,000 employees. But this was a whole nother ballgame. And so, in my practice with Coca-Cola, that opened the door, that opened the door, that opened the door. I mean, things just were like word of mouth kind of stuff.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:30:58]:

So this was very different. I start networking and everybody is kind and nice to me, but I could not break in. And this is when I saw that men had been— they have learned to have this. It's innate. It's a trained thing, I think, almost from little boys, this whole sponsor kind of concept. Like, who's the next? Who do you know? Who can you bring? You know, kind of make an introduction.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:31:21]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:31:21]:

Well, girls didn't do that, you know what I mean? And I was watching it live in the networking space and I was dying. I mean, I was just dying. And Kim said— and I would come home and say, this is— everybody's nice to me, but nobody's inviting me to play. Nobody's making an introduction. Nobody's— and Kim was Like, you need to go women's groups. This is 1999. I go to women's groups and now I'm like, where are the women that if they're gonna be away from their family, wanna have something to show for it?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:31:46]:

Right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:31:46]:

I mean, if I'm gonna be gone for 3 hours at a networking event, do I wanna make $1,000, $10,000, or $100,000? Like, what box would you check?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:31:53]:

Right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:31:54]:

And I'm like, I wanna be talking higher level than finding my next $1,000 customer. I wanna find what do I gotta do to make $100,000? That's what I wanna do. And I couldn't find that. I'm complaining to Kim. Kim's like, again, over here, my secret sauce says you need to go build it. Go make your own network. Pivot number, what am I? 1, 2, 3, 4. Pivot number 4.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:32:14]:

I'm turning 40.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:32:16]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:32:17]:

I'm 39, turning 40. And I'm like, that's right. I'm gonna go do that. I'm gonna go find a few and say, let's come together. We're gonna know who we know and we're gonna bring people in. And then somebody brought someone that was from Atlanta. She says, I've got a girlfriend. Can I bring her? She's staying with me for the weekend for something, something.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:32:34]:

Can she? I'm like, yeah, sure. Bring her next week. She says, this is amazing. I was a facilitator, so I knew how to design a facilitation process that allowed everybody to talk about an issue, a problem that they were having that was unique and different that we now have trademarked and we use to this day with our strategic business introductions within eWomen Network. But I just was— and she said, we need to have this and can you teach me how you do this? We need this in Atlanta.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:32:59]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:33:00]:

And Kim was like, we didn't know anything about a licensing model, database building, You know, lead generation or doing events. Doing it. I mean, I could barely throw a dinner party for the family, let alone, you know, it's just one of those things. And, you know, we just kept leaning in and leaning in and leaning in, Brianna. And it became the everything led to your point, which is that everything led to then. And then I went from just wanting to have my own group to now what is eWomen Network. And I just tripped forward all the way to where I'm at. I mean, the thing I've learned about the mountain is that the person on top of the mountain just didn't land there.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:33:40]:

Right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:33:41]:

You gotta crawl and climb and this tool won't work anymore. The terrain has changed. And what do I need and what's in my tool? Oop, I don't have something in my toolbox. Help and find somebody. And you know what I mean? Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:33:52]:

But what's interesting is, you know, just even hearing again, cuz I wanna drive home the point that none of your past experiences were for nothing.

 

Kym Yancey [00:34:00]:

Right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:01]:

You know, like that corporate experience taught you how to be a facilitator, which She's taught you how to really now create a process that we could now trademark in our business. You know what I mean?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:10]:

And I was in my 20s.

 

Kym Yancey [00:34:14]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:14]:

It's crazy.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:15]:

It is crazy.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:17]:

The corporation had sent me away to be a master trainer in a system called— by Rummler-Brache at the time, which had helped the Japanese really take over the car market. And everybody was trying to learn. The corporation adopted it. And then that came into my department and we became master facilitators of it that then has taught me so many things that are in eWomen Network today. Yeah. Who could have imagined in my 20s before I had you that that was preparing me for this?

 

Kym Yancey [00:34:48]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:50]:

Nobody could have told me. No.

 

Kym Yancey [00:34:52]:

Yeah. And I—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:53]:

You've had a fascinating career.

 

Kym Yancey [00:34:55]:

Yeah. So, so for me, you know, it was— I mean, the music was the route. I mean, my first music tour on Capitol Records was with Peabo Bryson and Natalie Cole.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:35:08]:

Nat King Cole's daughter.

 

Kym Yancey [00:35:09]:

I know. And we toured and Peabo opened for us, you know. Of course, we thought, who's this guy singing? Oh my God, we're in trouble now. Because he's such an incredible artist.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:35:20]:

His soul, he just passed away, right?

 

Kym Yancey [00:35:22]:

Just passed away. And—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:35:24]:

If you don't know Peabo Bryson, claim to fame, which amongst a million things, but a lot of people know him for The Beauty and the Beast and bringing Celine Dion in large measure to the United States. The Beauty and the Beast song. But anyway.

 

Kym Yancey [00:35:36]:

But, um, you know, that took me into, you know, gosh, over 5 years with the band. And, uh, we were in Rio de Janeiro. And, um, I told the leader of the group, um, who I loved him. He was a phenomenal guy.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:35:52]:

Still is.

 

Kym Yancey [00:35:53]:

And still is. Yeah. We're good friends. He lives in London, England.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:35:56]:

Yep.

 

Kym Yancey [00:35:57]:

We live in Dallas.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:35:58]:

I spent a day with him.

 

Kym Yancey [00:36:00]:

You know, the music business is just like a business. I mean, it has ups and downs and those kinds of things. And the swings— I had just gotten to a point where I had lost belief in our management process for the group. And I just thought, you know what, if I'm going to go through what I'm going through and the swings I'm going through, I'm going to do it on my own...

 

Sandra Yancey [00:36:24]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Kym Yancey [00:36:26]:

this where I feel somewhat hopeless, helpless. And so there goes the first pivot. I decided, let me do this on my own. And I was using my royalty money working on my own private deal. And at the same time, the way deals work in the business, remember Sandra, I got a call from ABC Records in New York. They loved one of my songs, Jimmy and Sally, one of the songs.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:36:50]:

Find that on YouTube. That's a great music video.

 

Kym Yancey [00:36:53]:

Uh, they, uh, told me they wanted to meet with me and talk right away. This is the voicemail message.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:36:59]:

I wish I'd kept it. Larkin Arnold.

 

Kym Yancey [00:37:01]:

Well, Larkin was with Capitol.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:37:02]:

Okay. And I remember his voice on the answering machines.

 

Kym Yancey [00:37:06]:

But ABC, um, wanted me as a solo artist. And I was so excited. And then never heard from them again.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:37:15]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:37:15]:

What? You know, it's the classic kind of Hollywood scene. You know, you're great. We want to bring you on board. And then and then ghost you.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:37:22]:

Wow.

 

Kym Yancey [00:37:23]:

I don't know why, just how it works. But anyway, in the meantime, I'm burning up through royalties and ended up getting a job at a restaurant outside of town that none of my friends would know me because here I was, you know—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:37:39]:

Gold record.

 

Kym Yancey [00:37:40]:

Yeah, been on Soul Train 5 times, you know. It was embarrassing to that, you know, I had to make ends meet. And so I went to this restaurant where I was known as Robert. That's my first name.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:37:55]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:37:56]:

You know, I was Robert.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:37:58]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:37:59]:

And I ended up writing a jingle for them, for the restaurant I was working in, and put it together with some of my musician friends. They all had a good time. We put it together, And I presented it to the restaurant and they didn't buy it. They liked it, but they didn't want to spend any money for it. Hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:38:21]:

Joe's is official.

 

Kym Yancey [00:38:24]:

So, so, so, so I noticed a waterbed commercial on TV and decided, you know, they could use a musical jingle for their waterbed company, something exciting.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:38:35]:

And we could use a waterbed.

 

Kym Yancey [00:38:38]:

I went— I went— you're getting ahead of me a little bit. I went, I went to them, uh, and, uh, to talk to them about the idea of me producing a, a jingle for them. In fact, listen to what I did, I did for this restaurant.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:38:53]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:38:54]:

I didn't say they bought it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:38:55]:

I did it for them.

 

Kym Yancey [00:38:56]:

And he heard the jingle, says, hey, this is really good.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:39:00]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:00]:

He says, I'll do it. Yeah, let's do one. And I was so excited. I'm walking out the door of the restaurant, I mean, of the waterbed store. I'm walking out and dawned on me, he just told me he's gonna do this. I have not given him a contract. And most importantly, I didn't even get a little deposit. And at the time, our rent was due, which was $297, $293.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:39:25]:

$273.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:25]:

Yeah, $273.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:39:26]:

Imagine $273.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:28]:

Well, gas was cheaper then too. I mean, a whole bunch of things.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:39:30]:

Oh man.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:31]:

You could get some Hostess Twinkies for a nickel. Oh, my Lord.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:39:35]:

What a time to be alive. All right.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:37]:

Anyway, it was— $273 was our rent. And I went back to the guy and said, you know what? I'm sorry. I meant to get a deposit from you. And he says, oh, not a problem. What do you need? I said, $273. He says, that's a real specific number. I said, yeah. And he wrote me a check for $273, and I left there.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:01]:

And the first thing I did is I went to a phone booth. Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:40:04]:

No cell phone. No gas station.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:06]:

And I went to the phone booth and I called Sandra and she answered. I said, Sandra, you won't believe this. I got the rent.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:40:12]:

That's what I'd say.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:13]:

And she says, I knew I married a winner. And that began my jingle business.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:40:24]:

Wow.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:25]:

And I had, to use one of your words, Bevy, I had a Bevy. of musician friends, of musician friends in Dayton, Ohio that were all recording artists.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:40:39]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:39]:

Because Dayton, Ohio is the official funk capital of the world.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:40:43]:

I mean, Ohio Players, these were all your guys.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:46]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:40:46]:

Calling them, having them make jingles.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:49]:

They're all in the studio.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:40:50]:

They're off the road.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:51]:

And so, and so, I mean, I started a whole industry there because recording studios wanted me to come in because I was doing so many jingles for people and everything else. And finally, one guy I told him that I have been lured, lured away to a different studio. And he says, well, if you're going to go away, you might as well buy us because you're all of our business. So I ended up buying their recording studio. And it was something else. And—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:41:18]:

You know what I just had an epiphany of? You made a jingle for me to learn how to spell my name.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:41:22]:

That's right.

 

Kym Yancey [00:41:23]:

That's right. B-R-I-A-N-A.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:41:28]:

B-R-I-A-N-A. My name's Brianne.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:41:36]:

My name is Brianna.

 

Kym Yancey [00:41:40]:

And I know, I know that when you're in class and you had to spell your name, that jingle's going through your mind.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:41:48]:

Yeah, and he burned it on a little CD and he made a little cover with your picture. Do you remember that picture of you and the two of you?

 

Kym Yancey [00:41:56]:

Yeah. So, so So I did the jingle thing. My next pivot was I had clients that I was doing jingles for that said, listen, how do you feel about taking over our advertising? I said, oh, I do jingles. He says, yeah, but your jingles are far better than what we're getting from these other advertising agencies. You know, we'll help you just take over our advertising, do our TV ads, do our— Yeah. Next thing you know, I'm doing radio, I'm doing TV, I'm doing newspaper. I got 40 people. I'm doing ads.

 

Kym Yancey [00:42:26]:

creating billboards, you know, all that stuff. 15 years.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:42:30]:

You got like over 40 awards or something like that.

 

Kym Yancey [00:42:33]:

Oh, it was over 200 awards.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:42:34]:

Oh, excuse me.

 

Kym Yancey [00:42:35]:

Over the period.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:42:36]:

But the big busts, I mean, the Hermes bust for advertising, I mean, it was a really big deal.

 

Kym Yancey [00:42:41]:

You know, it was, you know, incredible. And what got me to Dallas is one of my clients was launching a television network in Dallas and it was all positive TV, positive inspirational TV. And I, you know, I was going through a phase in my life where meaning and purpose, you know, Like I needed, I could, it wasn't enough to make money. I had to have alignment with my soul.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:43:06]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:43:07]:

And that new television network coming out really fascinated me. And one day this found the CEO of the company when I was in Dallas for a meeting, asked me what it would take to get me to move to Dallas and take over their advertising. I mean, you talk about God winks, right?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:43:22]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:43:23]:

Like this happened. And, I told him and we ended up, I ended up selling the agency back to my employees and moving to Dallas. And we built the house that you—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:43:34]:

Grew up in.

 

Kym Yancey [00:43:34]:

Grew up in.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:43:35]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:43:36]:

And, but the real thing is it all led to, that experience led to us starting eWomen Network.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:43:46]:

Well then he, so he moved down, but you didn't like being an employee 'cause you'd never been one.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:43:50]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:43:51]:

And that was the time we moved to Dallas. I'm looking for, you know, my contacts. And so the collision of I can't find and he didn't like it and let's go create a women network.

 

Kym Yancey [00:44:03]:

Wow. It's like, it's, it's really ironic how our skills had to come together so that we could create this and make sense. You know what I mean?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:44:14]:

So cool.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:44:15]:

And then we had you and we were violating all the child labor laws by bringing you in.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:44:20]:

I love how you just claim that openly.

 

Kym Yancey [00:44:22]:

Like, it's fine.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:44:24]:

Exactly. You know, we didn't have a lot of money in the early days to give you for, um, allowance, but I was like, if you help us at the office.

 

Kym Yancey [00:44:33]:

But you know, it was, you know, what is that thing that you say that you're, you know, you, your hands have got to be available to catch your next blessing. And that's, they all led, you know what I'm saying?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:44:44]:

Very organically. Yeah. Even my path here. You know, like, I had no intention of ever being a part of it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:44:52]:

Yeah, I know.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:44:53]:

Like, people would ask me and I was like, no, I will never. You know, I'm my own person.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:02]:

And I'm gonna start going by Day. So yeah, I'm not a Yancy.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:06]:

Yeah, yeah. That wasn't so much not wanting to, to be a Yancy though. I mean, I, I went by Day because I always knew I was meant to go by Breanna Day. You know, it was always kind of the stage name, you know? And so it wasn't like an intention, like, I don't want to be associated with—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:24]:

I thought you wanted to be like, have your own identity.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:28]:

Yeah, I wanted to be a star.

 

Kym Yancey [00:45:30]:

Oh.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:30]:

That's what I wanted. Breanna Day was the star.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:33]:

Day and night makeup, you were thinking?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:36]:

Yes, I do. I remember I wanted day and night makeup. And then at one point, I wanted to open the Daygency. I mean, I've had all of these ideas. I still sit on the Dagen-C every now and then, but I— no, that's, that's, that's, that's a dream. That's not a calling. There's a difference.

 

Kym Yancey [00:45:51]:

But—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:51]:

Another episode.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:45:52]:

Another episode, yes. But yeah, I didn't ever see myself being here. But now that I'm here, it's like, wow, it all makes sense. You know, you can only connect the dots looking back.

 

Kym Yancey [00:46:02]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:03]:

And—

 

Kym Yancey [00:46:03]:

And what the conversation will be—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:05]:

But think about that. You went and did your own thing, and you moved to LA, and you came back, and you—

 

Kym Yancey [00:46:10]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:10]:

And then you, you started basically using offices here. I mean, if you hadn't done that, yeah, then it wouldn't have been. And when our marketing person was moving to Spokane, Washington and resigned, if you hadn't been here, I don't know that I, I mean, I walked over to you like, who do you know like you?

 

Kym Yancey [00:46:27]:

I got it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:28]:

I have an open position.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:29]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:31]:

And you were like, I don't know, but I'll think about it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:33]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:33]:

And then you called me a couple of days later. Was it a couple of days?

 

Kym Yancey [00:46:36]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:37]:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the nighttime. It was night. I was driving home to my Garland house, you know, and, um, yeah, it was dark. And I think I was like driving home and I was tired. I was doing the entrepreneurial thing. It's hard. It's hard to be a solopreneur.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:46:56]:

I was trying to build a team, but I didn't really have the capital to pay well. And so I was doing a lot of like trading, and I just was so burnt out on just the struggle, you know. And, um, yeah, I, I called you one night. I was like, so about that position. Yeah, what would that look like? Let's talk about that. It's so crazy.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:47:24]:

I know.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:47:25]:

But I think that, yeah, you're— you, you nailed it on the head. You have to have your hands open.

 

Kym Yancey [00:47:30]:

You gotta have your hands open.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:47:31]:

You know, because the season that you're in isn't necessarily the direction that you thought that you were supposed to go. Might not be the direction that you're meant to go, but it was preparing you for the next pivot, the next thing.

 

Kym Yancey [00:47:43]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:47:43]:

I think everything in life for me has been that, from wanting to be an actor and getting, you know, trained in film. Those film skills have been incremental to my business now.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:47:54]:

To this day.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:47:55]:

Yeah. You know, and then the makeup and the hair and learning you know, set etiquette and invoicing and—

 

Sandra Yancey [00:48:04]:

And working on big sets. You got on big sets, you know, and Houston at the NASA Center for— was it?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:48:11]:

That was cool. Yeah, that was a huge fashion magazine. I'll never forget the blouse was like $7,000 or something absolutely crazy. And we were shooting on the, the, the simulator, the moon simulator that the astronauts train on and shooting this high-end editorial for a European magazine. And I was like, what is life right now?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:48:33]:

You know? Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:48:34]:

I remember that weekend, that whole weekend I went to Marfa, Texas, and shot at the iconic, like, Prada pop-up in the middle of nowhere. And then I drove back to Houston and I'm doing NASA, and then I'm getting ready to go to Mexico with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Then I'm coming back and we're shooting the ESPN Body Issue. And I was like, this is really cool, but I'm exhausted, you know? Yeah. So it's just, it's interesting. And every one of those experiences led me to wanting to be an entrepreneur and training and hosting events that led me to realize that that's exhausting. You need to have some passive income. So let's build a membership.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:49:12]:

And then it's like, oh my gosh, this is a mini eWomen Network that I've created. Like, and suddenly it was this epiphany, like, wow, I never thought that this is where I'd want to be, but this is everything that I've been training for my whole life. Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:49:25]:

It's crazy when you looked back in the rearview mirror. Yes. How much it all was— you were paving, you know, another layer on the road that led you here.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:49:36]:

Yeah. And it's interesting because the pivots aren't always easy either. Like, I remember when I did decide to fully step into eWomen Network, I fully put the beauty industry down and I had a couple of girlfriends or women that I thought were friends rather who were kind of social media influencers, I guess you could say, that I had developed what I thought were genuine personal relationships with.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:49:58]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:49:59]:

And it was like, as soon as I can't be available to do their makeup anymore, they had no interest in our friendship. And like, that was a painful realization that sometimes when you pivot, you lose people that you thought were your friends.

 

Kym Yancey [00:50:12]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:50:12]:

And, you know, you talk about this oftentimes that sometimes people aren't meant to go with you the whole way and they're in your life for specific seasons and specific reasons. But that made it hard for me because it started to make me self-conscious about like, did I do the right thing? Am I supposed to do this? I'm like losing my friends and I— or who— people who I thought were my friends.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:50:33]:

Mm-hmm.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:50:34]:

It made me kind of shy about even stepping into and fully announcing it. It was a really weird identity shift for me for, I think, the first year it was hard. And I would, you know, still go live every morning and do my makeup every morning and talk about products and, you know, still kind of like held onto that past identity just a little bit because it was like a very weird internal evolution of who I was becoming and who I was letting go in the process. And I think that's another part of pivoting that often doesn't get talked about.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:51:05]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:51:06]:

Is the version of you that got you here isn't the version of you that's going to get you there. And not everybody's going to like that new version of you.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:51:13]:

Some people are really uncomfortable with the person that, you know, you must become. And I have come in hindsight now to realize that sometimes it's nothing that you have done. Other than what makes them uncomfortable is knowing what they are settling for, what they are not doing for themselves that you trigger when you decide to go to that next level.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:51:40]:

Yeah, there's those people. And then there's also the opportunists that you don't realize are in your life strictly for the opportunity. And the minute that you can't, you know, oblige to that anymore, there's no desire to be in the relationship. And some relationships, that, that's a known fact, you know. Some, some relationships are purely for the collaboration.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:01]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:02]:

You know, but, but I think it's hard when you don't— when you don't realize it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:05]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:06]:

And you think it's something that it's not.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:07]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:08]:

And, um, you know, and, and that was, that was kind of hard, to be honest. But I have no regrets now. I have an amazing circle, an amazing community, and the right people will And they'll support you and they'll cheer you on. But you'll realize really quickly as you start to pivot and grow into someone new, who is— who your real people are, who your real cheerleaders are.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:32]:

And what you just have to trust is that as some people go away, it's opening up space for someone new.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:37]:

Amen.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:37]:

And then you go, wow, you know, that you may never have had the time for.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:41]:

So true.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:42]:

You know, if— because we, we run pretty full plates anyway. Right. So sometimes you have to move something off the plate or it needs to move itself off the plate and it gives room for someone new to come in.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:52:54]:

So true. Oh my gosh, this was a great conversation. I think a needed conversation and hopefully one that has given somebody, you, some peace or some encouragement or just some knowing, even if maybe you're not post-pivot, maybe you're in the middle of one and it feels a little messy right now, that it will make sense one day that there is Trust. There's— you have to trust the journey and that everything you're facing and dealing and going through right now, it's important to sit with it and do the work and really recognize. Because when you do look back, you'll realize that everything you went through was for a reason. And she does not just mean business.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:53:32]:

She means business.