Meet the Trifecta: Our Origin Story, Entrepreneurial Resilience, and Building a Movement

Sandra Yancey [00:00:11]:

Welcome.

 

Briana Dai [00:00:13]:

Welcome to she Means Millions. This is the first ever episode of the she Means Millions podcast. And I'm so excited because this is a way overdue show. We've been talking about it for years, and it's just now finally coming to life. And so some of you know who we are, but some of you may not. And I think the first place to start before we really get into the content is to introduce ourselves a little bit. So do you want to kick us off and introduce yourself?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:00:38]:

Yeah. And it's interesting. We've been coined the trifecta, so people that are in our community, the eWomenNetwork community, and know us well often refer to us as the trifecta.

 

Kym Yancey [00:00:49]:

Yeah, we didn't come up with that.

 

Briana Dai [00:00:51]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:00:51]:

You know what I mean? It was really the community. Right, right. Kept referring to us that way. I love it. The trifecta.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:01:00]:

Okay. And so anyway, I'm Sandra Yancey and I'm the founder and CEO of eWomenNetwork. And we are in our 26th year of business, which seems almost unbelievable, honestly. I mean, truly, it does not feel like it's been 26 years.

 

Kym Yancey [00:01:17]:

I mean, there's not been another women's business network of any sort of. That has survived that long. I'm talking about since we started. I know there was NABO and. And the legacy that NABO has, but in terms of since we've started eWomenNetwork, there's never been another women's organization.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:01:37]:

I think we know why. Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:01:38]:

And we know why.

 

Briana Dai [00:01:41]:

We'll get into that.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:01:43]:

This is hard, you know, but all small business is hard, right? You just kind of have to pick your heart.

 

Briana Dai [00:01:48]:

Why did y' all start it 25 years ago? Let's hear it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:01:51]:

Well, we moved from Dayton, Ohio, where we met and got married and had our babies, and we moved to Dallas. Because you had a wonderful opportunity with a client when Kim had his advertising agency. And I at that point, had my own consulting practice and thriving consulting practice, doing a lot of organization and systems change work. We called it RE Engineering at the time. And my clients were Coca Cola and Levi Strauss and John Deere and AT&T. And I mean, the list goes on. Just a bevy of really great clients. But I wasn't happy, was the truth.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:02:29]:

Making a lot of money. But I just was doing it all. I was wearing all the hats, and it was really hard, and it felt like I kind of went from the frying pan right into the fire. I thought it was going to be easier to do it on my own, but it was a real wake up call for me when I realized that I didn't have the tech department to call when the computer wasn't working, or someone to help me to change the. I'm embarrassed to say, all the tech people. Exactly.

 

Briana Dai [00:02:57]:

I know you needed that. Their help.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:02:59]:

Right, right. But even just changing the toner in the printer, you know, all of that was new for me. And so I had been talking to Kim about it. He had the opportunity to move us to Dallas. He had a client that loved him and wanted him to come where they were headquartered. And I was like, let's go. Because I saw Dallas's central time zone, central location, you know, if I needed to get on a plane. And so we came here, and then I thought, gosh, I don't need to get on a plane.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:03:29]:

In our backyar was Ross Perot's EDS at the time, Frito lay's headquarters, Texas Instruments, the like. And I was like, I mean, I. I can just work in Dallas. I mean, all these headquarters are here. And so I started networking. And it just became very apparent to me that while everybody was that Southern kindness and welcomed me, no one was really inviting me to play, if you will, bringing me in, making strategic introductions and that kind of thing. And in traditional networking groups. And Kim said, well, maybe you should try women's groups.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:04:05]:

And that was my first time kind of doing to women's, going to women's networking organizations. And I found it to be demoralizing, to be honest with you. I mean, it felt like at the time we're talking 1999, it was just a lot of hobbyists, you know, people that I was like, if I'm going to be away from my kids and my family, I want to have something to show for it at the end of the day. I mean, like, I want to make millions kind of thing. And it was really Kim that gets credit for saying, you ought to build it, you know, you ought to build it, Sandra.

 

Kym Yancey [00:04:39]:

Well, I think I. I think it's also important that you guys know what Sandra's made of. Now, what I'm thinking, because you skipped over a lot of stuff, but give you an example, you know, she went to the local. Kotlin, got married. She went to the local college in Dayton, Ohio, Sinclair Community College. Community College and got her associate degree. Now I'm. In the meantime, I think I was finished with the band at that point.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:05:06]:

No, I think you were still. Still with Capital Records.

 

Kym Yancey [00:05:08]:

Yeah. Okay, so.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:05:10]:

So your gal, your album had gone gold.

 

Kym Yancey [00:05:12]:

Yeah, but, yeah, you were still in 1978. But. No, but Sandra went to Sinclair Community College, actually.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:05:20]:

To be a secretary. Yeah, yeah, to be a secretary to this day. Thank you very much.

 

Kym Yancey [00:05:26]:

Yeah. I will never. Listen. I will never forget when we met. So we're going to tell you some stories here, you know, so you understand really what, you know, kind of like who we are. But I remember in our first apartment, Brianna, we had no furniture. I mean, nothing. We had box.

 

Kym Yancey [00:05:42]:

We put the tv, The. Hand me down TV on a box crate or something.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:05:47]:

They were orange crates. Orange crates that we asked the supermarket if we could have. And you had taken Holiday Inn towels from, you know, being on the road with the band. And we covered those crates with white towels with the. At the time, the green Holiday Inn stripe down the center.

 

Kym Yancey [00:06:06]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:06:06]:

And then we put your stereo on it.

 

Kym Yancey [00:06:10]:

Yeah. So she made reference to the band. The band was. We were on Capitol Records. And so we had a national recording deal and touring all over the world and recording. You know, that. That was the band. But prior to the band taking off, I remember we were in our first apartment, and this is how I knew that there was really.

 

Kym Yancey [00:06:31]:

That really, you were the girl for me, you know, is. Is. You know, we just didn't have. Have enough money. I mean, just with bills and expenses and trying different things. And I remember we went. You in figuring out where we'd have dinner or something. I remember you saying to me, hey, baloney's on sale.

 

Kym Yancey [00:06:53]:

And you could get fried bologna sandwiches. We can have fried bologna sandwiches.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:06:57]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:06:58]:

Wonder Bread on Wonder Bread.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:00]:

And you would take the bologna and you'd cut four little slices so that it wouldn't curl up.

 

Briana Dai [00:07:04]:

Yep.

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:05]:

Am I pointing?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:06]:

The house smelled like bologna sandwiches for three days. Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:10]:

Not to diminish any of you that are like, you know, baloney fans. I'm just saying.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:15]:

I'm still a bologna.

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:16]:

Yeah, I'm a bologna fan, too. In fact, it's been a long time since we had baloney.

 

Briana Dai [00:07:19]:

I know, but that 50 off baloney hits.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:22]:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:24]:

No, but. But, you know. All right, so. And my point in that story, Sandra, was the whole notion of, hey, whatever it takes, we'll we got baloney and we're good to go.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:07:33]:

Baked potatoes.

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:34]:

I kind of felt like, you know.

 

Briana Dai [00:07:36]:

Baloney and we're good to go.

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:37]:

I kind of felt like we're in a sound bite. Like, imagine it like a foxhole. Okay. Like, you know, a military foxhole. Okay. And we had each other's backs and just back was against my mind, was back against Her. And we thought, whatever the world dishes out, we're going to, you know, as long as we're doing it together, you know. And it wasn't, you know, but.

 

Kym Yancey [00:07:57]:

But I think it's important they know. Community college. Then after community college, she got her.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:02]:

Bachelor'S in organization side capital. University.

 

Kym Yancey [00:08:06]:

University. But you were commuting back and forth, man. And then she got her master's at American University and she's flying.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:16]:

It was every, it was every month. It was an executive master's program. And so the company had to sponsor you. And so I flew every month for a week and went through that program. It was great. It was really great. I use a lot of the fundamentals that I learned still to this day, those things didn't expire like a lot of skills expire. And then I.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:39]:

I did a two year postgraduate certification program after that at the Gestalt Institute in organization and systems design.

 

Kym Yancey [00:08:49]:

Yeah, yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:08:50]:

She.

 

Kym Yancey [00:08:51]:

Mrs. Yancey is deep.

 

Briana Dai [00:08:53]:

Talk about opposites attract.

 

Kym Yancey [00:08:55]:

Yeah, well, you know, first of all, we never. I mean, I was so different from her, you know, because I'm in music and the band and all that. And I ended up. Ended up doing jingles after I left the band and started an advertising agency. And we used to get in, not arguments by any means, but we used to have these things where I said, you work for a major corporation where people there to pick up your trash and do this and do that. You know, I have to buy the pencils. I have to, you know, you know, I'm out there cleaning up the office. But I felt that she did not understand the life of an entrepreneur back in the day.

 

Kym Yancey [00:09:32]:

She'd understand what I was going through.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:34]:

I didn't.

 

Kym Yancey [00:09:34]:

You know what I mean? And because she would give me all kind of tips and suggestions, you know, you got up to 40 employees. You know, it was, it was, you know, it wasn't a huge advertising agency, but it was significant. Yeah, it was award.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:09:47]:

The awards were significant.

 

Kym Yancey [00:09:49]:

Yeah, tons of awards. But we, but we were. I think it's important to know is that we were that couple that if someone said, have you guys ever thought about working together? And she'd say, work with him. You know, I can never work with him.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:10:07]:

Not too much. Unlike you, Brianna.

 

Briana Dai [00:10:08]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:10:09]:

When you were like, I will never work in the family business, people would.

 

Briana Dai [00:10:12]:

Ask me all the time, say, you ever gonna join the company and be a part of the family? No, absolutely not. I am my own person, quote, unquote.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:10:20]:

Exactly. In fact, you dropped the Yancey name and Went by your middle name.

 

Briana Dai [00:10:24]:

Well, that was always intended. Yeah, I did do that, but I did it because you named me Brianna Day for a reason.

 

Kym Yancey [00:10:31]:

Yeah, well, Sandra, you know, your. Your mother got the first name. We agreed. Okay, Sandra, you get the name.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:10:36]:

We couldn't agree on a first name. The way we agreed was I get the first name, you get the second name. So I had no input on the second name.

 

Briana Dai [00:10:43]:

Do you like it? How did you feel about it?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:10:45]:

I have to tell you, I had some other choices for you. Kim was know. I can see it up in lights. Brianna Day, you know, and you just.

 

Kym Yancey [00:10:58]:

From the very beginning, you got the first name, I get the second.

 

Briana Dai [00:11:01]:

And she's gonna spell it with an I instead of a Y and throw everybody off. You know how many people think I'm Asian? Because it's like an actually very common Asian name.

 

Kym Yancey [00:11:09]:

Oh, wow.

 

Briana Dai [00:11:09]:

Yeah. People are like, are you Asian? And, like, do I look. I'm like, everything but Asian.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:14]:

But anyway, that's how I know how to pronounce Hyundai.

 

Kym Yancey [00:11:18]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:19]:

Because it ends in dai, and I know you're a day, so it's. I. It's amazing how many people don't pronounce Hyundai correctly.

 

Briana Dai [00:11:27]:

I think it's just Hyundai.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:28]:

Okay.

 

Briana Dai [00:11:30]:

I think the why is silent.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:34]:

Okay. Well, yeah, some people don't know how to pronounce it, but at least I got the. The last part right. Hyundai. Yeah, that's how. Okay. But some people call it Hyundai.

 

Kym Yancey [00:11:44]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:44]:

And I know it's a day because you're a day. And it ends in dai.

 

Briana Dai [00:11:47]:

Exactly.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:48]:

And I bet you there are people that are listening to this right now.

 

Briana Dai [00:11:51]:

Who are like, they are wrong.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:11:53]:

They will forever be changed. They now know how to pronounce Hyundai.

 

Briana Dai [00:11:56]:

You're welcome. There's one thing you take away from this podcast. I hope it's the.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:03]:

We should call them, ask them if they'd like to be a sponsor. Yes.

 

Briana Dai [00:12:09]:

Anyway, where were we?

 

Kym Yancey [00:12:11]:

Yeah, so I. I just, you know, wanted to make sure that people knew, you know, Sandra's, you know, full background, you know, because she is unbelievably substantive.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:23]:

Yeah.

 

Briana Dai [00:12:24]:

So she's substantive. She's crushing it as a consultant. You've moved to Dallas, and you have this amazing opportunity. She's struggling with the whole networking thing. You're suggesting that she builds it, and now all of a sudden, you're like, maybe we should do this together.

 

Kym Yancey [00:12:39]:

Yeah. I mean, it. It was. I was excited about it. I was excited.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:42]:

I was excited about it, too, actually. I think part of it was we Moved to Dallas and we knew no one, and we built our house, and we were the second house on the street. And then it was cornfields.

 

Kym Yancey [00:12:56]:

Right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:12:57]:

It's hard to believe now when you look at Dallas, but it's hard for.

 

Briana Dai [00:13:00]:

Me to wrap my head around, too, because y' all moved here when I was five and Ryland was one, which is the same exact age as Tatiana and Bryant, My. My babies. And so I'm trying to imagine moving away from my entire support system and having no one. And I literally can't imagine. But anyways, I digress.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:13:18]:

Keep going. No, it was a major deal. It really was.

 

Kym Yancey [00:13:21]:

I mean, actually, we look at ourselves sometimes and we think, how on earth do we do it?

 

Briana Dai [00:13:25]:

How?

 

Kym Yancey [00:13:26]:

I mean, you know. You know what your childhood was like.

 

Briana Dai [00:13:28]:

I can't imagine not having Lovey Pepe and Nona and Papa to call for help, you know?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:13:35]:

You know, what's interesting is, truth is we talk about that more than I think most people could ever fathom, how much we talk about. How did we do it.

 

Kym Yancey [00:13:46]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:13:48]:

I mean, it is a. It is kind of a regular thing that we talk about time to time. You know, like, how did we. How do we do this with two little kids and no support system? Like, we didn't even have neighbors.

 

Briana Dai [00:14:03]:

Yeah. I remember you guys when you decided to start the company. I again, I'm five years old, so I didn't know what you were doing, but I knew that you were working crazy hard. And there was a spare bedroom above the garage that you converted into an office. And you had desks on opposite sides of the room, facing each, facing each other. Well, you had two. So they were like. Like a front and back desk.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:14:27]:

Yeah.

 

Briana Dai [00:14:28]:

You know, so you had like your working desk and your computer desk kind of a thing. But then there was this little aisle way in the middle where the printer was.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:14:34]:

Yeah.

 

Briana Dai [00:14:34]:

And I just rem being, you know, a little five year old and getting scared and wanting to sneak down to mom and dad's room to sleep with them, but you weren't there. They weren't in bed. They were in the office working and burning the midnight oil. And I would bring my little pillow and my blanket and sleep on that little area in between your desks.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:14:54]:

Yes.

 

Briana Dai [00:14:55]:

Just to be close to you. But you were busting your booties to get this business off of the ground.

 

Kym Yancey [00:15:00]:

I was more of the salesman, too. And sewer she in this office. And one of my memories is Sandra was talking to a group of women. Sandra was talking to a group of women. And Sharing with them about eWomenNetwork. And I was making notes about what she was saying and writing down tips on the phone, like, say it this way or this one.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:15:21]:

I was on the phone.

 

Kym Yancey [00:15:21]:

Yes, you're on the phone. Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:15:23]:

And he was handing.

 

Kym Yancey [00:15:24]:

I was handing her notes of things not to forget. You know what I mean?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:15:27]:

I got so mad at him. Just, like, handing me a note like, here's another thing you should. And here's just scrap notes. And I finally started taking the notes, remember, and wadding them up and throwing him.

 

Kym Yancey [00:15:40]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:15:41]:

She like, stop it. Stop. It was throwing me off. You know, I couldn't keep a rhythm between what I was trying to say and reading what he wanted me to say. And it was. Yeah, well, you know, definitely was our growing pains.

 

Kym Yancey [00:15:53]:

I mean, for sure, eWomenNetwork has taught me so much as it relates to appreciating the style differences between men and women. You know what I mean?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:16:04]:

Let me tell you, it got so bad. Do you remember Trading Spaces, the television show Trading Spaces? And they were. That was when faux painting first came out.

 

Briana Dai [00:16:13]:

I remember this.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:16:14]:

And I went to Home Depot, and I walked in, and they at the time were doing these things called do it herself workshops. Okay. And you could sign up. And so I walked over, and they were teaching faux painting. And so I signed up, and they put me in, you know, these painter, you know, garb and all that kind of stuff. And you sampled. They gave you a board, and you sampled. And I loved it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:16:42]:

And so I went from there, and I bought all the paint, and I bought the sponges, and I bought the cheesecloth, and I bought all the things. And about four hours later, I come home and I'm coming in with all this stuff. And Kim's like, where have you been? And, you know, what are you doing? And I just said, watch me. And I go upstairs. We had this other room that was a smaller room that we used for kind of like workout equipment. And its greatest workout was clothes hanging on the handles of things. Right. And so I took all the stuff out, and I started moving that moving equipment out by myself.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:17:19]:

And Kim's like, what are you doing? And I said, I. But I'm moving out. I'm converting this little space to my office. And you. That office, right?

 

Kym Yancey [00:17:29]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:17:30]:

And that's what I did. And there was a neighbor, I don't know how, we started talking, Sherry Holley. And she was redoing her room. She had this extra desk, and I said, I'll buy it. She said she was getting rid of it. I said, I'll buy it. I need a desk. And it just happened so fast.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:17:49]:

And I painted that like an eggplant purple. Remember that? With mauve undertones, all by hand. Really bad job. Really bad job.

 

Briana Dai [00:17:59]:

It wasn't bad.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:00]:

It wasn't.

 

Briana Dai [00:18:01]:

It wasn't.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:01]:

No, it was good. It was amateurish. Yeah, I know. When we sold the house, the realtor asked me to paint it. So there you go.

 

Kym Yancey [00:18:13]:

But understand those style differences, but, you know, backslid. You have a little bit of the backstory. The. But E. Women Network. It was a timing thing. I mean, Sandra, you were busy with all those consulting clients.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:25]:

Yeah, it was an overlap, you know.

 

Kym Yancey [00:18:27]:

And then, you know, and then I was building with marketing projects. But when we decided to go ahead and start eWomenNetwork, which, by the way, that wasn't the name. The name got changed in the 11th hour. 11th hour. The name that we had picked out or where you was using was Female Connect. Yeah, Female.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:18:47]:

We still have binders that have Female Connect on it, so. And you got a call from a friend who was a graphic artist that you were telling about it, and we were ready to go. I mean, it was 11th hour. We were ready to go. And he said, hey, I just want to kind of like share with you that when I think of Female Connect, I'm starting to get, you know, like X rated vibes.

 

Kym Yancey [00:19:09]:

Well, he also said that he shared it with other women.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:19:12]:

Adult movie.

 

Kym Yancey [00:19:13]:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, he also shared with other women who yet also had a female connect. You know, like, we had not gone outside our world. Right. Other than us, we were justifying the name to ourself, you know, female Connections. You know, Female Connections. We'll just call it Female Connect and.

 

Kym Yancey [00:19:30]:

But yeah, people read it. This is a classic. Right? And I should have known better, you know.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:19:35]:

Well, but, you know, your own stuff, you get close to your own stuff. You can't be, you know, you can't, I think, sometimes really diagnose your own business. You need an outsider's perspective. And so we, you know, and I listened to that and thought about it. I can still remember being in the backyard walking around and thinking about that and coming back in saying, you know, I think he's right. I think. And it was a male.

 

Kym Yancey [00:19:59]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:20:00]:

And I. I said, I think we. We should change it and change the E. Women Network. I mean, in no time, how far from that moment to launch was it? It was really close.

 

Kym Yancey [00:20:12]:

Yeah, yeah. It was more than 30 days because we were working on launching the company and all year, and we actually do you remember it was September, September 18th. And I want to say it was like nine in the morning. Like we. Yeah, we were working, working, working. And you know, I mean, let me say this. What's not talked about much is how we built a culture and a kind of a, for lack of a better word, a movement, you know? You know, because I remember when we had launched the Women Network, there was some decisions that we had to make. Brianna, we had to make the decision that this is going to have any chance of survival.

 

Kym Yancey [00:20:51]:

We have to get off the fence and jump into even network 100%. In other words, Sandra had to stop doing her consulting work. I had to stop the other different side projects I was doing because it wasn't giving us anywhere near the time we needed. And we also knew that can't steal.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:21:11]:

Second base and keep your foot on first.

 

Kym Yancey [00:21:12]:

And, you know, it's pretty strategic. When you think that we were thinking, you have to remember the time here, like, this is now.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:21:19]:

Well, it was 1999, in December, when we decided to launch the company. It took all year from January to September before we officially launched it.

 

Kym Yancey [00:21:28]:

But the decision was with everything going on with dot coms, and they were busting, like left and right, you know, and people just thought, oh, I'll do a company called, you know, windowshades.com and I'll do something. Well, none of us knew then that Window Shades was a good idea. You know what I mean? That it would segment like it would, but people weren't making money, right? I mean, I mean, even Amazon. I mean, I remember Jeff Bezos seeing him on the front cover of magazines. You know, how he felt like the investment community's favorite pinata boy. I remember that statement. He was constantly getting beat up on in the press. Like, Amazon went and turned a profit.

 

Kym Yancey [00:22:06]:

Well, we all know the deal is now, but the point is, is that we made the decision, we looked at each other and said, listen, we. We got to be all in on this. And, you know, instead of straddling the fence, let's pull our leg over and let's both jump into eWomenNetwork and put all of our attention there. So to become a member, we. We started selling memberships immediately.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:22:28]:

Right?

 

Kym Yancey [00:22:29]:

And remember, I love that, that the first people that got on board, they. They joined and then they were like, so who are we going to be networking with?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:22:39]:

We're working on it.

 

Briana Dai [00:22:41]:

Yeah. Like someone had to buy the first fax machine.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:22:44]:

That's right.

 

Briana Dai [00:22:45]:

You know?

 

Kym Yancey [00:22:46]:

Yeah.

 

Briana Dai [00:22:46]:

The first telephone.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:22:47]:

And then say, so who can I fax to. Yeah. And salesperson had to say, I'm working on it. Yeah, yeah, it really was like that. Yeah, it was.

 

Briana Dai [00:22:56]:

And now.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:22:56]:

And a lot of the apps were coming in over the fax and you know, we would come in, remember, we'd come in the garage and we would immediately turn around and go upstairs and see if we got any memberships. My mother, that was one of her greatest memories of just remembering us, you know, always coming in and running up and seeing if while we were out, maybe we got a membership.

 

Kym Yancey [00:23:20]:

Yeah, it was incredible. We, you know, but we knew that we had the charge right away. You know, we weren't, we weren't going to be a free organization. We were going to create a different kind of culture.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:23:32]:

And most, most networking organizations were nonprofits.

 

Kym Yancey [00:23:38]:

Right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:23:38]:

And we structured ourselves as a for profit company with a nonprofit arm for the reason to just give back. From the very beginning.

 

Kym Yancey [00:23:49]:

From the very beginning, when we opened.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:23:50]:

Up our, our business account, we opened up our nonprofit account. And that was before I didn't even know you had to have a 501C3. I just went to the bank and said, I want to open up a, a non profit. And they said, well, do you have your papers? I'm like, what papers? I mean, I didn't even know. And they said, well, we can't, you know, we can't give you the. And I think it was something like $8.95 monthly fee that they give that they waive if you've got your, your nonprofit papers. And I just said, well, that's okay. Just set me up as in a charity account and you know, I'll pay the monthly fee, the monthly service fee until I figure out what this paperwork is that I gotta get in.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:24:31]:

And I just didn't even know what that was. People weren't really online yet. You know, it was. You just didn't go and do a search back then? I mean, in, in the year 2000.

 

Briana Dai [00:24:42]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:24:42]:

You know, and you remember one of our members was also a neighbor two or three blocks away. And sheweman network was going. And she had joined the network and she said, hey, I'm having a few women over. We're having a little get together. It'd be great if Sandra and you came down. You know what I mean?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:25:07]:

I want to introduce them to ewomen network.

 

Kym Yancey [00:25:08]:

I want to introduce them to e women network.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:25:11]:

It was December. In fact, I can tell you I'll never Forget it was December 4th. Can you believe that? I remember that it was December 4th of the year 2000.

 

Kym Yancey [00:25:20]:

Wow. And we got in our car to go down to the little. You know what we think is a.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:25:26]:

Little cul de Zach. Emily's mom. Yeah. Your friend. Your best friend's mother.

 

Kym Yancey [00:25:31]:

Yeah. And we said to each other, oh, man, this is really bad. She's having this little get together, and somebody.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:25:36]:

A holiday party.

 

Kym Yancey [00:25:37]:

Having some big holiday party. There was no place to park. I mean, you were going down the street, like, man, where do you park? You know, and we had to park, you know, a block or two away, you know, and we went in, went up to her house, and all of a sudden we realized her house is filled to the rafters with women.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:25:56]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:25:57]:

Remember?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:25:57]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:25:58]:

And she wanted you to speak. And you got on the steps.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:26:00]:

I got. I got on the. I got on the hearth of her fireplaces and stood up on the hearth of the fireplace to talk about Ewomenne Network. And at the time, everybody had. It was potluck. Everybody brought an appetizer, and we had forms, and we needed more forms. And she had a. She had a copier, and she went and people signed.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:26:22]:

It was great. And, you know, some of those members are members to this day.

 

Briana Dai [00:26:27]:

Wow.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:26:28]:

To this day, 26 years later. Wow.

 

Kym Yancey [00:26:32]:

But it was, you know, but, you know, people even today are trying to figure out, you know, how do I build a community? And that kind of thing. And we've always found that face to face. I mean, literally going from city to city and meeting people. And what was beautiful is that people would tell other people about it, you know, other members would tell someone. I remember in St. Louis, there was a woman. What was her name? Preston. Marianne.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:27:02]:

Marianne.

 

Kym Yancey [00:27:04]:

Fabulous woman. And she flew to Dallas to see an Ewen network event to see if we were legit for sure. In fact, that was a big day because I remember personally being really upset that day. We were at a country club. The place was packed with women business owners who were learning about Ewomen network. And I knew we had this incredible opportunity. And again, I did my note thing. I'm giving Sandra, I'm giving you notes, you know, like, here's some stats and here's some figures and all that.

 

Kym Yancey [00:27:36]:

And Sandra gets up.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:27:37]:

I wasn't a salesperson.

 

Briana Dai [00:27:38]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:27:39]:

You know, he was the salesperson, the ad guy that he had the charisma. I'm more of an operations. And I just. I hadn't found my confidence to be, you know, really standing in my power at the time. And.

 

Kym Yancey [00:27:54]:

And so I remember behind the main ballroom, there was a little hallway for the caterer, catering people to come out and deliver. And I was back there and the head of catering came over to me, says, Mr. Yance, is everything okay? And I looked over to him and I said, actually, no, it's not. He said, my wife, we get this huge crowd. She's just bombing out there, you know, all these potential members. She's not doing any of the tips that I gave her. She's not, you know, any of the facts and numbers. None.

 

Kym Yancey [00:28:29]:

She did none. Completely did her own thing. She gets off stage and we have a huge signup of new members. That was the last day, last time I gave her any sales advice.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:28:44]:

Yeah, no. Selling to corporations is so different than selling to women business owners, you know?

 

Briana Dai [00:28:51]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:28:52]:

You do have to adapt to your environment.

 

Briana Dai [00:28:54]:

Yeah. So that was kind of the beginning and it starts spiraling. You start getting chapters all over you go global. Like, when did things really kind of start to shift? Like when you think about moving Clarendon to. To where you're at now? Well, how.

 

Kym Yancey [00:29:09]:

Here's the first thing it's really important to know. There's just these lessons we learned along the way. For example, when we first started talking about e Women network, and there were no events. It was a network when everything was supposed to be online. Everything's gonna be online. So every seemed like every woman we talked to said to us, right, oh, I love it. No more meetings to go to. Remember that?

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:32]:

Yeah. The message, the theme was, we don't want to do meetings. We don't wanna do meetings. So it was kind of. It was an idea before its time because everybody was still on dial up, you know, and everything was all plain text. There was no rich text, There was no color, There were no. There was no video. There were certainly no photos.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:29:49]:

And, you know, back in the day, we were saying, well, we want to create online profiles. And so people would literally, Briana, mail us their photographs, snail mail. I would drive up to Kinko's, have them scan that photo onto a cd, and. And then I would come home and I would load the cd and then there I would be just really typing up their. Their. Their profiles. But the truth be told, and this is where things really start to shift, is that we got a phone call and people said, you know what I want? If you can tell us where people are in certain zip codes, I would love to have that. What kind of members do you have in these zip codes? And I was like, well, what would you do if I told you that we're going to call them and have them over to our house.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:30:42]:

We want to meet these women. And that's when it dawned on me that women will say they didn't want meetings, but how they really create connection is the face to face, eye to eye, heart to heart, knee to knee conversation.

 

Kym Yancey [00:30:57]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:30:57]:

It would really be changed our business model completely.

 

Kym Yancey [00:31:00]:

It really became, you know, you hear what they say, but watch what they do.

 

Briana Dai [00:31:05]:

Yeah, yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:31:06]:

You know, so when they say, oh, no meetings, and I can network online and all that, it becomes, how's that working out for you? I mean. Yeah, you know, we realized that we had to create a meeting structure and that became a huge undertaking because of.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:31:22]:

We knew nothing about the event business.

 

Kym Yancey [00:31:24]:

Yeah. Nothing about the event business and the technology to drive it and to make it work, you know, I mean, you know, today, you know, events, people are registering for events every single day all over the country, going to different events in their community, and a whole culture has been developed, you know, but back then when we were launching this, you know, we don't want to go to meetings. It was the very thing they wanted.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:31:50]:

You know, that was the fun part, but the hard part was just trying to figure it out.

 

Kym Yancey [00:31:56]:

Don't you think with AI too, that there's, you know, honestly, I almost envision events now that say, this is not an AI. There'll be real humans there. There'll be real humans in the room. You know what I mean?

 

Briana Dai [00:32:09]:

Yeah, yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:32:09]:

What's so great? I mean, what I love about AI is people are finding us on AI, as you well know.

 

Briana Dai [00:32:14]:

Yeah. It's the new. It's like the new. Just Google it. You don't just type in Google searches anymore. You just ask ChatGPT, you know, ask Claude, ask Gemini, ask whatever, GPT of choice, like, and it'll give you the answer right away.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:32:27]:

Right.

 

Briana Dai [00:32:27]:

It's fascinating.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:32:28]:

We've actually had people find us via AI, then go to our website to validate us, which has been very powerful for us to understand the importance of having a great website. Yes, right. And then finding our phone number, you.

 

Briana Dai [00:32:44]:

Know, and I think that is really just to your whole point around women buying differently and wanting that human connection. Because we had a woman that called the office and she was so stunned that an actual human answered the phone. And it wasn't just a bot with click here and click here and click here and do this. It was an actual human. And she joined on the spot.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:33:05]:

On the spot in a city where we have no chapter. She just wanted to get access to our online community. But you have to watch Your buyer's journey. And we're starting to see that shift. They're finding us on AI, they're validating us on the website, they're calling us and they're getting real people. And I think when you've kind of got that 360 touch point. Yeah. You know, I think in as I look at the mega trends of the future, that's going to be a requirement to grow and maintain a real movement.

 

Briana Dai [00:33:40]:

Yeah, for sure.

 

Kym Yancey [00:33:43]:

Yeah. People are looking for, I mean, like the quick fix. eWomenNetwork is not a, by any means a quick fix. I mean, it was, you know, first of all, we didn't get any loans or anything like that. So eWomenNetwork is self funded, you know, and it really.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:02]:

Bootstrapping.

 

Kym Yancey [00:34:04]:

Bootstrapping with two little kids.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:07]:

You know what I mean? I mean, I really do look back, you know, it's easy to start something when you have nothing because you have nothing to lose. But, you know, we started this with two really healthy careers, you know, and.

 

Briana Dai [00:34:21]:

Poured everything into getting this off the ground. I, you know, I have so much respect for the two of you because growing up I couldn't appreciate the risk that you took going all in on the business. I do now because just the thought of, you know, both Travis and I leaving a comfortable position to start something from scratch with no proof of concept or anything, like just going for it.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:34:48]:

A big house, two kids with the.

 

Briana Dai [00:34:50]:

Big house and two kids that are my kids age at this stage. I mean, first of all, I don't think my husband would be able to. He's just not cut from that clock. But the point of the matter is, you know, it wasn't easy. And I remember being maybe six, five or six, seven and being invited to Six Flags with friends and being so upset because you wouldn't let me go. And I didn't know at the time because times were really tough. I couldn't afford it because everything was being poured into the business. And Six Flags is like an amusement park.

 

Briana Dai [00:35:27]:

So like a Coca Cola is like $7, something ridiculous, let alone a ride and admission, all of that. And so I couldn't go with my friends. And I remember being so upset and.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:35:37]:

I didn't want to tell you. Yeah, I didn't want to tell you we couldn't afford it. I mean, I was embarrassed.

 

Briana Dai [00:35:42]:

Yeah. And then all of a sudden you go into their pantry and I'm sure you had a cry and a panic attack and you looked around and you saw balloons and you came out with balloons and you were like let's have a water balloon fight. And we went and we had a water balloon fight. And it ended up being such a great core memory. I'm going to get emotional, but it really is powerful to look back and recognize the sacrifices that you made. But how you always, no matter what, figured out a way, whether it was with the business or with your family, but you just figured it out and now you have a network, is a global company. We have chapters all over Mexico, us, Canada, I mean everywhere. And you started this so humbly bootstrapping with nothing and everything to lose.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:36:26]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:36:27]:

And you know, the other thing was the chapters that, that ushered in a whole another opportunity, but also challenges because there are things you had to do for your chapters and, and, and, and the managing directors. And we put in a model back then. I mean we have it today. Right. Where our managing directors are compensated. Well, other organizations don't do that.

 

Briana Dai [00:36:48]:

Right.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:36:48]:

You know, based on volunteers. So there's just a lot of inconsistency, you know, and. Yeah. And you know, building a chapter takes work. It's deserving. Yeah, it's deserving to be, to be paid for that.

 

Briana Dai [00:37:02]:

Yeah.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:37:02]:

You know, talk to me a little.

 

Briana Dai [00:37:04]:

Bit because I'm sure there are people who would love to have a global community and don't even know where to start. And you two decided to go with a licensing model instead of a franchise model. Talk to me about that decision making process and why you chose licensing over franchise.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:37:17]:

One of the things that I'm thankful for that we did early on and that is that we got some real great legal advice like how do we really structure this business? And we were trying to. We didn't have a lot of money for legal fees. I'll never forget it. We talked to a couple of different law firms. Then somebody told you about Brucello. I can't remember who told you, but anyway, and we just, we went in and painted the. I can still remember just me and you and David, our attorney at the time, who's now since retired, but he. At his law firm, the big conference room and you know, just painting the picture of the vision, our moonshot, you know, this is what we envision.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:38:01]:

And, and David looked at me and he said, I really like what you're doing. I want to really help you. And he gave us a quote. And I looked right at him and I said, gosh, that's an awful lot of money. Can't quite afford it. He says, okay. And this was a defining moment. He said, I believe in you so much.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:38:23]:

That I'm going to lawyer for you for a year and you're not going to pay me for a year. I'm not giving it to you free. We're going to add up. We're going to keep a tally of all the hours, all the services that we provide over a year. Then at the end of the year, we're going to get together and if we still like working together, I still believe in you, you still believe in me. We still want to move forward. Right. Then you will go on to a monthly retainer and that will start paying me back.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:38:52]:

But. And he basically, in some ways, that was a bit of an investment that he made in us. I mean, we were gonna have to pay him back no matter what. If we walked away, we were gonna have this bill. But. But what it did for us was it just really got things going. We started to learn very quickly about, you know, intellectual property and getting things protected and the right way to structure and whether we were gonna do a C corp, an S corp, an llc. I mean, all the decisions that you have to do to set your business up.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:39:19]:

Right. We, I mean, we really did it. Right. But we did it by creating those very important strategic relationships. Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:27]:

You have to also remember that your business is your baby. It's our baby. I mean, literally, I can almost picture Eva network in my arms. And if you aren't willing to promote your baby, get out, introduce your baby.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:39:45]:

And protect your baby.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:47]:

Protect your baby. Who do you suggest should?

 

Briana Dai [00:39:49]:

Yeah, yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:50]:

You know, I mean, that's an analogy. Who do you suggest should?

 

Briana Dai [00:39:53]:

Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:39:54]:

And I.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:39:54]:

You think about everything you would do for your baby, Bryant, right now. Your. Your littlest one, or Tatiana for that matter, in kindergarten, how you would protect her till the end. Right. You, you kind of have to be that way and all in on your business too. Yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:10]:

I love it.

 

Briana Dai [00:40:11]:

Wow. I mean, we could talk forever. I feel like this has triggered so many follow up episodes because I would love to get into more of, I don't know, when you brought the biggest change to the company on board. No, but in seriousness, I would love to talk more about the dynamics of working together when you moved out of that office. And then we didn't talk at all about when you got a physical office. We didn't talk at all about when you got your first big sponsors. We didn't talk about when you started going on tour. And the, I mean, there's so much goodness and juiciness that I think is to come in the follow up episodes.

 

Briana Dai [00:40:48]:

So I'm really excited to dig into that more, but I think we should probably wrap it up for today. What do you think?

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:54]:

I think, I think, I think, you know, you get the wheels turning, you know?

 

Briana Dai [00:40:58]:

You know, I know we do.

 

Kym Yancey [00:40:59]:

We have a lot to talk about.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:41:00]:

You know, share that other people I think will learn from and can take our lessons and apply, adapt them and apply them in their own business.

 

Kym Yancey [00:41:11]:

And let us know, too, if you like the approach of this podcast. You know what I mean? Give us, give us some feedback.

 

Briana Dai [00:41:16]:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Kym Yancey [00:41:18]:

Subscribe for sure. Ready?

 

Briana Dai [00:41:19]:

Subscribe, Leave a comment. Give us the feedback we want to hear because we're creating this for you.

 

Sandra Yancey [00:41:23]:

And what do you want to know based on this? What do you want to know?

 

Briana Dai [00:41:27]:

Yes, definitely. So subscribe, comment, share with everyone. Let them know that this was valuable to you and what your favorite part of this episode was. And we can't wait to come back.