Navigating Tough Times: Resilience, Reinvention, and Relentlessness in Business and Life

Kym Yancey [00:00:00]:

We learned something there. People buy energy.

Sandra Yancey [00:00:04]:

They do.

Kym Yancey [00:00:04]:

They buy vibe. They buy. They buy engagement.

Briana Dai [00:00:09]:

I was actually meeting our stylist at my house later that day because he was going to help me pick out some outfits to take to Bali. Like, I was, like, on a. I was living life, you know, and I was going to go treat myself at this med spa, and I literally almost.

Sandra Yancey [00:00:22]:

Died and come to find out it was real. And they could just go in, just like, maybe the IRS and just take $135,000 out of your savings account.

Briana Dai [00:00:45]:

Welcome back to another episode of she Links Millions. I'm your host. We never done that before.

Sandra Yancey [00:00:56]:

That's okay. You can be the host. Go for it, girl.

Kym Yancey [00:00:58]:

Aren't we each host?

Briana Dai [00:00:59]:

Yeah, But I was gonna cue up the three.

Kym Yancey [00:01:02]:

Okay. All right.

Briana Dai [00:01:03]:

That's fair, I guess. I'm the co host.

Sandra Yancey [00:01:05]:

Everybody noticing what I'm going through right here. Just saying, listen, let's just get into the damn show. Okay?

Briana Dai [00:01:16]:

So I am not going to introduce myself, but I'm Bright. Briana.

Sandra Yancey [00:01:21]:

Okay. Okay. I'm not going to introduce myself either, but I'm Sandra.

Kym Yancey [00:01:25]:

I'm the husband. How about that?

Briana Dai [00:01:28]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:01:28]:

I'm Kym. Yeah. Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:01:30]:

And so, yeah, today I thought that we could dive into something a little bit on the deep side, and we get questions about it on our ask cards always, usually. And that is how we navigate tough periods. And I think that that's something that is, like, an issue that every entrepreneur, every person entrepreneur or not, everybody faces tough times where they just want to give up.

Sandra Yancey [00:01:55]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:01:55]:

And I think that if there's one thing that this family has proven over and over, it's that we are resilient. And we could probably talk about this for hours.

Kym Yancey [00:02:05]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:02:06]:

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Can't be in business as long as we have and not be resilient, you know, 26 years. If you just look at all the things that have gone on over the last 26 years. You know, the creation of Google. Actually, Google's been around longer, but it's not been a verb for 26 years. And of course, social media and the market shifts and changes and the Internet bust and the market crash and Covid.

Sandra Yancey [00:02:41]:

And just all the things. And that doesn't even describe or take into effect the personal, you know, catastrophes.

Briana Dai [00:02:50]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:02:50]:

You know, losses, scares, you know, all the things that we've endured over the past 20 plus, 25 plus years.

Briana Dai [00:03:00]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:03:00]:

What's something, Sandra? What's something in particular that you can think of? So I. I remember, you know, like, our first Sponsor and talking to them about sponsoring our very first conference. And what made it tough was because it was our first conference, all we could do is give a projection what we were shooting for, what our goal was. This is where you think, well, our goal was, you know, three to 400 people. That was our goal. So that was our projection in terms of what our attendance would be like. And on the day of the event, our attendance was like 79. I mean, it was like, you know, we're doing everything we can.

Kym Yancey [00:03:38]:

I remember you were. That was the only time I remember where you kind of collapsed to the floor and I put my arms around you like a bear hug.

Sandra Yancey [00:03:47]:

You know what I mean?

Kym Yancey [00:03:48]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:03:48]:

I felt so responsible, you know, we both did. We'd never done a conference before. We really didn't know what we were doing exactly. I mean, I'd barely thrown a dinner party, let alone put on a conference, you know, and so we just put this project. We were brand new. I mean, we just launched September, and we were doing our first conference that following May. So we were only in business, what, seven, eight months. And we thought, oh, we'll have three or four hundred people there.

Kym Yancey [00:04:14]:

All I can say is, good thing you were crying, because then that took care of me. I didn't have to cry.

Sandra Yancey [00:04:17]:

Yeah, exactly. I just. I was like, oh, they're going to ask us for the money back, you know, and we'd spent it.

Kym Yancey [00:04:25]:

Yeah, yeah. And I remember the day of the conference itself. It was a long hallway. We were at a five star hotel in Dallas called the Adolphus. Very classy. It looked fantastic. I think you contacted all the grocery stores to see if I get the flowers you're gonna throw away.

Sandra Yancey [00:04:43]:

I did. There was a grocery chain, there is a grocery chain still, still in Dallas called Tom Thumbs. And somebody told me that, you know, you could call them and at the end of every week, they get a replenishment in their florist department of new flowers. So they throw away old flowers. The old flowers. And so I call. Since we were doing our event over a weekend, I. And they would donate.

Sandra Yancey [00:05:08]:

Every store would donate an arrangement. And so I called them and I called each store one at a time. And I tried to get them to coordinate. And they were like, we can't coordinate. You know, this one store might do yellow, another store might do red, another store might do pink or whatever they're like. It just depends on what flowers we have left over. And I said, okay. I was driving a Volvo at the time.

Sandra Yancey [00:05:32]:

And the day before the conference, there I am Sandra. Driving to every Tom Thumbs. There had to be like 12 of them in and around the area and running in and getting the arrangement and putting it in the car. Right. And gathering them and gathering them and having them in the trunk, having them on the floor, having them in the back seat, in the front seat, on the floor, whatever. And that was me then driving all the way to this five star hotel, unloading all these flower arrangements so we.

Kym Yancey [00:06:03]:

Could put them at the table and the table and on stage to create, you know, this, this whole look. And, you know, and you know, prior to the event, right as we were leading up to it, because our attendance was at that point it was like 71 or so. And you know, and I was writing copy for the email invites that we'd sent out. And I remember writing the copy, trying to write in Sandra's voice, and we both read it and we realized that the copy at that time was kind of like, you know, ladies, this is the time where we've got to come together and pull together and.

Sandra Yancey [00:06:39]:

And we sounded so desperate.

Kym Yancey [00:06:41]:

Yeah, we sounded so desperate. We realized, Marie, we sound so desperate, you know, you know, you know, coming in, please come, please come. And we didn't send that out. We tore that up and wrote another email.

Sandra Yancey [00:06:51]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:06:52]:

And that email said, we're so excited to be seeing you in. In another week, you know, all the.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:01]:

Right people will be in the room.

Kym Yancey [00:07:02]:

All the right, you know, and that increased our attendance, you know, by 8. We got 8 more. 79. And I mean, we just were feeling so distraught, you know, so your whole thing around navigating, so distraught. I remember we get to the. We're actually at the venue now. Sandra and I are walking in one way and the sponsor is walking toward us from the other way.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:26]:

Long haul.

Kym Yancey [00:07:26]:

And this is when I discovered that Sandra had another career because she could talk with her mouth closed. We're walking toward them.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:34]:

Oh, my God, here they come. Oh, how are we going to handle this? What are they going to do?

Kym Yancey [00:07:42]:

So, so we meet up with each other in the middle and they reached out and hugged us and, and they said, I can't get over the energy.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:52]:

In the room, people.

Kym Yancey [00:07:54]:

Everyone is so nice and it's electric inside there.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:58]:

No mention of the numbers.

Kym Yancey [00:08:00]:

Actually, they did. They said, oh my God, there's got to be 400 people in there now. Let me tell you something.

Sandra Yancey [00:08:05]:

Oh, that's crazy.

Kym Yancey [00:08:06]:

This was Sandra and I. This is our big aha. Prior to the event, these tables were set up for eight. Eight people at around we had them set it for four people at a round.

Sandra Yancey [00:08:17]:

We had lots of tables so it spread out.

Kym Yancey [00:08:19]:

And we did not realize this years in advance that we were doing social distancing way back then and had lots of aisle way for people to all around the tables. It gave the appearance of being much bigger. And so when they said there must be four people in there. Sandra and I are thinking, what? They showed up. Oh, my. They showed up. We're thinking the crowd came through. Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:08:44]:

We had all these walk ups, you.

Kym Yancey [00:08:46]:

Know, it wasn't the case, however, we learned something there. People buy energy.

Sandra Yancey [00:08:52]:

They do.

Kym Yancey [00:08:53]:

They buy vibe, they buy. They buy engagement.

Sandra Yancey [00:08:57]:

It's not the size of the crowd. It's the right crowd.

Kym Yancey [00:09:00]:

It's the right crowd.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:02]:

Yes.

Kym Yancey [00:09:02]:

You know, they. They buy authenticity. They buy hope. They, you know what I'm saying? All the positive things that make a person feel. Feel good. And we had it. We had it at that event. Everybody was pumped up.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:16]:

Yes.

Kym Yancey [00:09:17]:

You know, we had spent a lot of money. You know, to us, it was a lot of money, but it was thousands of dollars in flying speakers in and paying for speakers. Paying for speakers.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:26]:

We had a little sound system. Looked like the wizard of Oz in the corner.

Kym Yancey [00:09:30]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:31]:

You know, the movie, the wizard of Oz behind the curtain. And that was Kym. Kym was the sound guy. It was about the size of a. For people that could remember turntables. Yeah. It was about the size of turntable tables. I think we rented it and they taught us how to use the knobs or whatever.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:48]:

And that would be you in the corner adjusting the sound. It's. Think back to just the craziness of.

Kym Yancey [00:09:54]:

And I'd bring out my radio voice every now and then. Up next is Roseanne. So funny, you know, but people loved it.

Sandra Yancey [00:10:05]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:10:06]:

And the meals were first class. And I even remember other leaders of other women's groups, you know, because we were researching people and what was going on. Had flown in.

Sandra Yancey [00:10:16]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:10:17]:

Had bought tickets to our. To our event because they were intrigued about what are these people doing? You know, but the whole thing is that was a frightening time for us. A lot of anxiety, a lot of prayers. And to see that you show up, you put on your best face, you put on your best intention.

Sandra Yancey [00:10:38]:

And we lost money on that event. But it became. When you look at the cost of the event, the event by itself. But what we gained was the trajectory of the business. There were people that had women who had brought friends from other cities that inquired about being a managing director. And just before you knew it, you Know, it became really, as I look back, a real launch pad.

Kym Yancey [00:11:05]:

Well, the biggest surprise of all is that you were an emcee. You didn't speak, you didn't teach.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:11]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:11:12]:

It was like your expertise and knowledge. Now here you are, your master's degree, Gestalt Institute certification, and all the work that you've done.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:18]:

Right, right.

Kym Yancey [00:11:19]:

And on your own stage. In the beginning.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:22]:

Yes.

Kym Yancey [00:11:22]:

You didn't feel worth it.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:25]:

Worthy.

Kym Yancey [00:11:26]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:26]:

But would you say confidence and confident, for sure.

Kym Yancey [00:11:29]:

Get on that stage and teach when she had been doing it in corporate America.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:34]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:11:35]:

But in this class, you know, you referred to the other speakers. It was pretty. It was pretty.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:40]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:11:40]:

I mean, that was a major navigation moment for us.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:45]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:11:45]:

To get through that, to navigate through that. As you said, it. It created a spin off of other things.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:51]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:11:52]:

You know, a lot of press.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:53]:

What comes. What comes to mind for you for navigating tough times?

Briana Dai [00:11:58]:

Yeah, I mean. I mean, the obvious. For me, the first one that comes to mind is my health scare, for sure.

Sandra Yancey [00:12:04]:

You know, so fresh. Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:12:06]:

You know, that. That. That was the hardest chapter of my life.

Sandra Yancey [00:12:10]:

Me, too. Me too. You know, as a mother.

Briana Dai [00:12:13]:

Yeah. In April 2024, I was literally just going for an outpatient driving home. I had plans later that day. I was actually meeting our stylist at my house later that day because he was going to help me with pick out some outfits to take to Bali. Like, I was, like, on a. I was living life, you know, and I was gonna go treat myself at this med spa, and I literally almost died.

Sandra Yancey [00:12:36]:

Literally.

Briana Dai [00:12:36]:

And, yeah, I mean, that was definitely getting through that. And then also when I finally started to come to, and I realized, like, it's April, and I sold an event, my AI Edge event that June, and I felt such a responsibility to these women to get it together. And I don't think that they realize how much of a driving force and motivator that they were for me.

Sandra Yancey [00:13:06]:

Yeah, it was. It inspired you.

Briana Dai [00:13:08]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:13:09]:

I mean, when I saw that, I mean, you were working eight to 10 hours a day, one therapy after another therapy after another therapy, you know what I mean? To get better and better. And if you. And I was like, there ain't no way this is happening. But I didn't want to say anything to you because you saw it as the motivator it was.

Briana Dai [00:13:27]:

And I feel like everything with. In my life, if I don't have a deadline or a date or some kind of skin in the game, then it's not gonna happen. And so I think that's for me, a lesson with navigating tough times is put a date on the calendar. That's gonna really hold you accountable to pushing through it, you know, because.

Sandra Yancey [00:13:49]:

And then don't keep it a secret. Communicate it. Because then, you know, this is the whole thing about people. Just, these are my goals, and I'm just gonna keep them.

Briana Dai [00:13:56]:

Yeah, right.

Sandra Yancey [00:13:56]:

Well, it's easy to blow it off when you haven't told anyone.

Briana Dai [00:13:58]:

Exactly.

Sandra Yancey [00:13:59]:

But when you put it down, write it down, communicate it, and, you know, Kym, you always used to say, if we want to get something done in the house, let's plan a party. Because there's something about having people come that makes you get that thing done right. It is.

Briana Dai [00:14:12]:

And I'll never forget my first day. Once I went through, you know, hospital to inpatient therapy where I lived at a therapy rehab, rehabilitation center. And then I got discharged and started outpatient, where I was driving back and forth. My first day at my outpatient therapy, I was in the speech therapist office slash cognitive therapy. It was like speech slash cognitive therapy. And they're doing that initial kind of testing to see how. What they're working with, you know, and she asked me. I can't remember exactly what she asked me.

Briana Dai [00:14:46]:

Maybe I just volunteered it. And I just said, I just need you to know I need to be out of here by June 13th. I need to be graduated. I need to be better by June 13th. Is that what I told her? I said, I need you to get me better by June 13th. And she's like, like, okay, we'll do our best. We'll work on that. You know? But she.

Briana Dai [00:15:04]:

You could tell on her face that she was like, that is not gonna happen. And I'm like, well, you wait. You know? You wait. And that's why I would get. I would get so insulted when I would go to therapy, and they would. They'd put me in some kind of a group therapy task where I just felt like, this is not relevant to my recovery at all. Like, I'm not gonna. They would put us in a.

Briana Dai [00:15:25]:

A group and have us play the board game, like, headbands. And I think that it was supposed to be a cognitive exercise because the whole thing is somebody has a headband on with a card that has, like, Marilyn Monroe, and you have to basically give them clues as to what's on.

Sandra Yancey [00:15:40]:

Your forehead so they can guess it.

Briana Dai [00:15:43]:

So that you can guess what's on your forehead. You can't see what's on your forehead, but imagine you're giving me clues as to what's. What's on my forehead.

Sandra Yancey [00:15:49]:

Who.

Briana Dai [00:15:49]:

What's the name or what's the place or the thing. And so I think that that was the point of it, but to me, it was an insult. I was like, don't give me a board game. Headbands. This is not conducive to what I need to learn to do. I need to be able to speak, I need to remember things, and I need to be able to drive. Those are. That's why I'm here.

Briana Dai [00:16:07]:

That's what I need to focus on. Let's do that. And then get me out of here, because I got places to be, you know? And I think that having that deadline and that goal is what really helped me drive through that process. The first was getting home. I wanted to get out of inpatient therapy and get home because I missed my baby. And then once I was home and I had the next stage, it's like, I need to get back to work.

Sandra Yancey [00:16:33]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:16:33]:

I needed a reason.

Sandra Yancey [00:16:35]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:16:35]:

You know, and I think.

Sandra Yancey [00:16:37]:

And of course, secretly they were telling us, you may never drive again.

Briana Dai [00:16:40]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:16:41]:

You know, I mean. And I was like, well, you know, she's gonna have a driver then. How about that? I've always wanted one. She's gonna get one kind of thing. It was a scary time. You know, I. I can tell you that, you know, I've. I've searched long and hard around all the meaning that I can make of that time, because as a mother and.

Sandra Yancey [00:17:07]:

And now. Now you're a mother. You can only imagine. Right. I mean, it was just the worst. And the blessing that I've taken from it is that I now know what a bad day is. And nothing has. I mean, I will say nothing since that day, April 11, has ever even come close to a bad.

Sandra Yancey [00:17:37]:

I just don't have bad days anymore. I might have a bad moment, but I can so quickly, you know, get out of it, because I know what a bad day is. When you walk into the hospital and see your child on life support, you know, and it has reshaped how I viewed the rest of my life.

Briana Dai [00:18:00]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:18:00]:

Including the. The. And you know. You know how much I love you, and I've always loved you.

Kym Yancey [00:18:06]:

But.

Sandra Yancey [00:18:07]:

But just. There is a day that doesn't go by, Briana, to this day, there's a day that doesn't go by that I don't thank God for your recovery, you know? Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:18:23]:

Yeah, I. I do remember I had one specific moment where I came to terms with the fact that, you know, I lost you. I was by myself. And the pain was so great, it's like I couldn't. It's like, oh, my God, don't go there. Don't get, you know, I mean, it was almost like I pushed myself emotionally pushed myself away from that reality because I could not handle it. And so my attitude through the whole thing was, hope, she's going to get through this. She's going to.

Kym Yancey [00:19:02]:

You know, I found that to be a better use of my time and my preservation.

Sandra Yancey [00:19:10]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:19:10]:

To not allow myself because, man, when I touched that, when I touched that, it was too great. It was. It was literally too great. It would have broke me, you know, but in navigating, that was our tough time. What other thoughts do you have on navigating through as you think back?

Sandra Yancey [00:19:32]:

Oh, I mean, I remember, you know, Covid, I mean, we were a 100% live event business. We'd had the best year ever in 2019, and we were 30% above plan for January and February of 2020. We had just had our. Just completed our Platinum Summit, our two and a half day private Platinum Summit for our Platinum. Starting to hear things about COVID I left the Platinum Summit, I think I did two events, I want to say Calabasas and Orange county, and came home. And the world shut down.

Kym Yancey [00:20:12]:

Yeah, that was it.

Sandra Yancey [00:20:13]:

Yeah, the world shut down. And. And our business was. Was 100% live events. And our managing. We weren't online, you know, we weren't doing online events at all in any way. And we didn't have the technology to manage the chapters, to be able to register people, how to facilitate it. Most people didn't have Zoom accounts.

Sandra Yancey [00:20:39]:

A lot of people didn't even know what Zoom was. You know, we had just gone to the. I think it was the first Zoomtopia. They used to do a conference and we'd heard about this thing called Zoom, and Richard Branson was speaking there and we said, let's go, let's go find out what this is all about.

Kym Yancey [00:20:58]:

I do remember that we were disappointed that we found out that Richard Branson was being zoomed in.

Sandra Yancey [00:21:02]:

And we should have figured that out, but we didn't. It wasn't obvious in person since it was a Zoom topia. They were demonstrating how Zoom works on a stage.

Briana Dai [00:21:11]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:21:11]:

And they zoomed him in anyway. I. So we had, we. We'd had. We knew that there was this technology that existed, but a lot of people just didn't know it. None of our managing directors, I don't believe at the time that I can recall, had a Zoom account. You know, we called them and said, how do we open up business accounts? And, you know, but I do remember at one point going, it's been 20 years. It was our 20th anniversary.

Sandra Yancey [00:21:39]:

And I was thinking, I don't know, do I have. Do I have the stamina, the strength to reinvent this business 100%? I remember having moments thinking, 20 years is not a bad run, you know, and then I remember being in the shower doing. Having an ugly cry, just feeling so overwhelmed. The mayor, I think it was one of the judges in the area that we worked, shut down the work area, and so everybody had to go home to work, but not all of our employees had computers to work from home, and they weren't wired in to be able to get access to all of our online files. And they were looking to us to get them set up and to make that investment and all of that kind of thing. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. I mean, it was just coming from every direction, and I just. I remembered just wondering how we were gonna do this.

Sandra Yancey [00:22:39]:

And I was crying in the shower. And then there's just something that happens for me in the shower. It's almost like a cleansing. And I was just like, you know, if I go out, I'm going out on my terms. I'm not going out because of COVID We are going to figure this out. But it was scary. I'll tell you one thing that happened, and a lot of people don't know this, but when you take credit cards, you sign a lot of paperwork when you take people's credit cards. And we got an email.

Sandra Yancey [00:23:11]:

I got an email from the. Not the bank, but the credit card company that works with the bank to process the cards.

Kym Yancey [00:23:21]:

Yeah. Behind the scenes for the bank.

Sandra Yancey [00:23:22]:

Yeah, yeah, remember that? And they said that they were going to take $135,000 out of my business savings account, and they could just go in and take that money. And I remember forwarding it to my. I had a new business banker at the time because the business banker that I had had. Had left the bank, and I hadn't gotten to know her very well yet. And I forwarded it to her, and I'm like, you know. And she replied back, and she says, oh, no, it's not real. You can disregard it. It's called fishing.

Sandra Yancey [00:23:57]:

That. P. P. H. Yeah, fishing thing. And. And I said, oh, great. But there was something on the back of my neck that was just like, little hairs, like, I don't know.

Sandra Yancey [00:24:12]:

And so I ended up contacting the Guy that was my business banker and sending it to him, he said, since it send it over, I'll look at it. And he wrot. He said, no, Sandra, I actually think this is real. And so I went back to her and walked it up the chain and come to find out it was real. And they could just go in just like maybe the IRS and just take $135,000 out of your savings account.

Kym Yancey [00:24:41]:

It was really bizarre too, Sandra, because it's at a time when everybody's trying to figure it out. Our income from events went to nothing.

Sandra Yancey [00:24:48]:

Nothing.

Kym Yancey [00:24:49]:

So it's almost like, oh, let's stab them while they're down.

Sandra Yancey [00:24:53]:

Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to take the money out of my savings to retool the business to go online. And I've got, and I look them up. I'd never even heard of this company before and they were a $14 billion company. And I am like, I am so mad, it's not funny. And so I find out who's the boss, who's the boss, who's the boss up the chain. And I get a hold of this guy, his name is Richard, I'll never forget in New York. And I get his phone number and I call and I just, and I get his voicemail and I leave a message and I said I'm Sandra Yancey. And I, and I explained the situation and I said and you and I need to talk.

Sandra Yancey [00:25:33]:

And I said I know that I'm a really small fish in the ocean of clients that you have, but I want you to know one thing and that is that I'm also a CNN American hero. And while that might not seem relevant to this at all, what I want you to know is CNN did a big story on me. I happen to have the producers names and phone numbers in my phone and I think this is a story that you are allowing this billion dollar company to come after small businesses like me and grab when I've never had an issue, ever had an issue with credit cards. And that what they were doing is they were trying to get ahead of what must have been happening. And that was people were getting run, companies were getting these runs on their credit cards of people like stop payment, stop payment, stop payment kind of thing. And anyway I just, and don't, you know, he called me back, he got a call back and next thing I know I had a meeting the next morning at 9 o' clock in the morning for us, which was 8 o' clock in the morning for them. And let me Just tell you. I could tell when we were on a speakerphone before.

Kym Yancey [00:26:39]:

Zoom.

Sandra Yancey [00:26:40]:

Of course, you know, so we're all on this big speakerphone. I could tell, you know how you know when you're on a speakerphone. And I just said, okay, so I think everybody needs to introduce themselves. I want to know who's on this call. And there were like eight of them, including the guy that wrote the letter to me. And there was me, you, and our CFO Carrie on the line. And I just said, so you called the meeting. What do you want to talk about? And the guy, Vaughn was his name.

Sandra Yancey [00:27:06]:

Said, well, I just want you to know we've reviewed your account and, you know, we're sorry for all the alarm and we're not taking the $135,000. And I said, well, that's great. And I just want you to know my ear is to the ground, and I better not find out that you're doing this to all of my members, too.

Kym Yancey [00:27:26]:

So it's really, you know, you really advocated for yourself and the company. And I think there's a. There's a lesson in that.

Sandra Yancey [00:27:32]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:27:33]:

In terms of the choices at that time could just been low. Look what this is. And you.

Sandra Yancey [00:27:36]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:27:37]:

You're trying to figure out how you're going to pay them. Right?

Sandra Yancey [00:27:39]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:27:39]:

Versus saying, wait, stop. Stop the train.

Sandra Yancey [00:27:42]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:27:42]:

You know, this is not right.

Sandra Yancey [00:27:43]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:27:44]:

You're doing is wrong. I got a stellar relationship with you. I don't deserve this kind of treatment. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Because you can't. Because at that time, you couldn't be. No. You couldn't negotiate with other banking institutions and things like that.

Kym Yancey [00:27:56]:

I mean, it was just. It was a tough period. Yeah. Tough times.

Sandra Yancey [00:28:00]:

Tough times. Right. Yeah. All different kinds of challenges that we have. Personal business, I think, too, we've learned.

Kym Yancey [00:28:07]:

Some lessons, navigated some lessons in what I got. What do I want to classify this as? I've had in my career two occasions where two males within the company. One was in the eWomenNetwork. The other was in my advertising agency that happened to go a little further. My advertising agency had a guy who took one of our. Who was a vice president, take one of our employees who was new out to dinner and decided to tell her about his personal life and what. What his home life wasn't and that kind of thing.

Kym Yancey [00:28:45]:

And he had. No. He shouldn't have. He shouldn't have been doing that.

Sandra Yancey [00:28:49]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:28:49]:

And that day, I found out that next morning what had happened.

Sandra Yancey [00:28:52]:

And she was very uncomfortable with It.

Kym Yancey [00:28:54]:

Yeah. And by the end of the day, I had to let you know I had let him go. Like, I remember saying to him, and let's just call him Jack for now. Okay. But I remember saying to him, jack, you had no business talking. You weren't authorized by the company or whatever, but the fact of the matter was he was hitting on her and trying to figure out how he could have a. Yeah. A relationship with her.

Kym Yancey [00:29:15]:

And I had in that right away. And I had the same thing happen in eWomenNetwork where someone smart, talented, you know, went to an eWomenNetwork event, drank a little bit too much, and became flirty with, I think, one of our.

Sandra Yancey [00:29:31]:

One of our managing directors.

Kym Yancey [00:29:33]:

Managing directors. And.

Sandra Yancey [00:29:35]:

And she complained, and we took fast action. Will not be tolerated.

Kym Yancey [00:29:40]:

Will not be tolerated.

Sandra Yancey [00:29:41]:

Walked him to the door. He was fired.

Kym Yancey [00:29:43]:

Just really important that you know that you do move on these things. I tell you, when you got any kind of cancer in your organization, you know, it's something that. What we. We've learned that you have to be decisive and you have to be quick.

Sandra Yancey [00:29:57]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:29:58]:

You know what I mean?

Sandra Yancey [00:29:58]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:29:59]:

Don't let it fester.

Sandra Yancey [00:30:00]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:30:00]:

Because you pay a price for it.

Briana Dai [00:30:02]:

I think the thing that's popping up for me is I'm listening to each of us talk about the hard times that we've navigated, whether they're getting the business off the ground in that first conference or being 20 years in and getting knocked down again, or dealing with a health scare in the middle of it. Every single common denominator with navigating each and every one of these, I think has. For me, the word that's popping up is just being relentless.

Sandra Yancey [00:30:25]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:30:26]:

You know, and I think that that is the secret to navigating any tough time in your life, is being relentless and knowing that you have a purpose. And if it's a calling, you say it all the time. You can give up on a dream, but you can't give up on a calling. So even when you want to or even when all the odds are stacked against you or you're given, you know, a 1% chance to live. Like, what does that 1% mean? Like, lean into that.

Sandra Yancey [00:30:55]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:30:55]:

Because you could be that 1%.

Sandra Yancey [00:30:57]:

Yes.

Briana Dai [00:30:58]:

You know, even when every single odd is stacked against you and things are not looking good, you're not getting the numbers you want. The business model has been shattered because of a pandemic that's out of your control. Your health gets taken away from you in a nanosecond. If there is any glimmer of hope, then you just have to lean into the glimmer.

Sandra Yancey [00:31:16]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:31:17]:

And just know that you are going to figure it out. If it is your calling, you cannot give up on it. And that is the secret.

Sandra Yancey [00:31:25]:

Navigating my mother used to talk about. You have two voices in your head, like two wolves. It's based on a fable, I believe. And one is called fear. And. And. And one is called faith. And the question is, which one wins?

Briana Dai [00:31:41]:

Which one wins? Fear or faith?

Sandra Yancey [00:31:43]:

The one you feed.

Briana Dai [00:31:45]:

Yes.

Sandra Yancey [00:31:46]:

And so if you feed fear, you'll prove yourself, you know, that all of those fears will come true because you will act in accordance with it.

Briana Dai [00:31:54]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:31:54]:

But if you lean into that faith, even if it's just 1%, that 1% is like just a flicker. And we all know that one flicker can turn into a flame. And a flame. Right. Can really burn bright. Yeah. Yeah. Powerful.

Sandra Yancey [00:32:10]:

Great summary.

Briana Dai [00:32:11]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:32:12]:

You know, I hear. You know, because a lot of our members are solopreneurs and they have either a small staff to. No staff to just working with vas. But I will tell you, I think it's critical that you as the leader, have to project positivity, have to project forward momentum, have to evolve. Because if you don't evolve, you'll be evicted. As simple as that. You know, you become, you know, you know, an asset that's not an asset anymore. You know what I mean? That people would just go buy you.

Kym Yancey [00:32:45]:

Because, listen, things happen so quick. There's no way that we as entrepreneurs can keep up with it all. I mean, the assortment, variety, and the total avalanche of get rich quick, do this, do that. I mean, you know, and. Yeah, listen, I've been a victim of it. I mean, I've been a victim where I bought a program myself and I should have never done it because it went against my performance nature. The way I perform. It went against my nature.

Sandra Yancey [00:33:14]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:33:15]:

You know what I mean? But I bought it because it was a good sales pitch. I love, you know, as a salesperson, I loved a good sales pitch. And I think it's just. It's just really when you really get down to looking from an introspective standpoint at yourself and how you actually operate and how you perform the best, you know, that will help you make informed decisions about where you invest money, where you spend your time, you know. But I think most people I talked to have all been kind of victims themselves of buying something that they did not follow through with. They bought it, but they didn't follow through with it.

Sandra Yancey [00:33:54]:

I think it's a rite of passage. I mean, we all have that stripe. You know, we've got to learn certain lessons, all of us, I think, in some form or fashion. But I will. I will end with this. And that is. It really does. It's so important to know who you're surrounding yourself with, because those people, you know, they fill your tank when you're running, when you're running on empty.

Sandra Yancey [00:34:15]:

And everybody needs to be reminded that they're not in it by themselves. And, you know, the best way to ruin a really great team is to tolerate a bad performer, right? So, you know, making sure that you're constantly doing your people math. Who's adding and multiplying versus who's dividing, you know, and subtracting and up leveling your circle is, I think, so important in up leveling your impact.

Briana Dai [00:34:47]:

I love it. Well, y', all, I think that that is a beautiful cap on today's episode. So why don't we pick up on the next one? So until then, she doesn't just mean business.

Sandra Yancey [00:35:01]:

She means millionaire.