WEBVTT
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The topics and opinions express in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are
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condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helen n believes that certainly
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applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at
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W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com
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and now your host, Kevin Helenn.
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Thank you everybody for joining in today. I am Kevin
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Hallan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio
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on W four C dot com. We're streaming live on
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talkfour TV dot com. That's the number four, and of
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course we'ru on Facebook live at Winning Business Radio and
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absolutely we're available after the show and podcast form on YouTube,
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I Heart Radio, Spotify, Apprile pretty much wherever you listen
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to your favorite podcasts. It's hard to even count how
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many outlets. We're on the mission of winning business radio
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and TV. As regular viewers and listeners know is to
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offer insights and advice to help those Yeah, I'll try
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that again, to help avoid the mistakes of others, to
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learn best practices. Those are the how tos, the what
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not tos, the what too's, to be challenged and hopefully
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to be inspired by the successes of others. Those others
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are consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and owners, entrepreneurs, people
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with expertise. But you know, every virtually I can't read today, Erica,
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We'll get there. Virtually every successful person I've ever had
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a chance to talk to has had some form of
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failure in their lives and careers. So while we all
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have to get our knee skin once in a while,
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I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery.
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Let's endeavor to learn from history, just like we do
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every week, so we don't repeat it. I've spent the
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better part of my career equipping businesses to grow, and
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that's from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies, all
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the way up to the Fortune fifty. And I've seen
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some of those companies win, and to varying degrees, i've
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seen some of them fail. I've had the opportunity to
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rub elbows with some of the highest performing people around
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and with some who probably should have found other professions.
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So in my own businesses, I've had lots of success,
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but some failures too, And I like to think I've
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learned a lot from those experiences. So, yeah, you'll hear
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a little bit from me, but mostly you're going to
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hear from guests, and today is no exception. My returning
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guest is Erica Wasserman, and here's her bio. Erica Wasserman
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is considered the go to financial empowerment expert. She's a
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dynamic force in the world of financial transformation, armed with
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a finance degree from the Universe to You of Florida
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and a decade long career at IBM. She's also made
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waves in the organic food industry, bringing a unique mix
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of corporate savvy and innovating innovative thinking to financial wellness.
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Newly published author with Wiley Conversations with your Financial Therapist,
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Stories and Scripts to Grow your Financial Mindset reflects Erica's
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passion for making money talk both accessible. Money talk both
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accessible and transformative. Her own journey reads like an adventure novel. Marriage,
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relocating to Asia, raising kids, divorce, dating, and the loss
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of a parent, experiences that have shaped her empathetic, holistic
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approach to financial well being. Erica is just one of
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one hundred certified financial therapists in the country, and she
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holds a graduate certificate in financial therapy from Kansas State University.
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She also created Let's Talk Finances conversation cards igniting meaningful
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dialogue at every stage of life, and those are available
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on Amazon. She's been quoted in national media including The
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New New York Time, New York Times, US News and Report,
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NERD Wallet, and Yahoo Money, and of course, now Winning
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Business Radio. She's based in Sunny South Florida, Florida. She's
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a devoted single mom to three teenages wow teenage girls,
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and an avid traveler who explored forty nine countries and counting.
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We'll talk about that whether through her engaging one on
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one sessions, impactful speaking engagements, or innovative tools. She's all
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about guiding her clients on a path to financial clarity
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and confidence. Erica welcome to Winning Business Radio.
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Excellent. Thank you so much.
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I feel like I need to keep you everywhere with
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me with that interest.
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Let's go, let's go take me. I've been to Asia.
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It was not a great trip because it was two
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days to get there, two days there and two days home.
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It was a work trip in and out. Use stayed
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there for much longer. But and I will try to
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be less tongue tied today. I don't know what's going on.
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I'm making you nervous.
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Oh, I'm so nervous. I don't get nervous. That's funny.
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But let's before we get started, tell me about your girls.
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Yes, so we just had prom this past weekend.
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Nice.
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So I have three teenage shutters that are all in
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high school.
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Yep.
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Uh huh, yeah, that gets a yikes from me. Father
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of two and two two ghost boys.
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Yeah.
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And so the joke around here is I live in
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a sorority house. So there's always noise music, somebody's hungry,
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somebody's crying, somebody's shopping. Amazon loves our house. I don't
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even know anymore. But but it's fun. That's you have
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the right attitude.
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It's fun. It absolutely was is Yep.
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But Yeah, we just had prom. This past weekend. My
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mom was in the hospital with back surgery. You know,
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we talked about work life balance, and last week was
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really about life.
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Right.
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I got to spend some time with my mom in
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the hospital, A couple spent a couple of nights there
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with her, and then get my daughter ready for prom,
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and then today alone. I've been on a webinar, a podcast,
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and now a radio show. Right, we're locked into work
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this week.
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I gotta love it.
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How you work life balance. It's never on the same day,
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is what I've experienced.
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That's okay, that's okay, as long as you make it work.
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Did you grow up in southern Florida?
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You know what I did?
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I am a Florida name, which is rare. And when
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I worked for and I ended up overseas, So I
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ended up living two years in Tokyo, have my oldest
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daughter there, and then Shanghai, and then back to the US.
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Had two more kids, so I had three kids under
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the age of four when I was told I was
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getting a divorce.
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So in that the way, by the way, news flash.
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Right, like the banner coming underneath us, right, newsplash, This
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is what's happening.
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How is your day? By the way, By the way.
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Go to Florida. Your parents will be more helpful. And
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so the girls and I packed up and we did.
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We came down here fourteen years ago, you know, the
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next town over that I grew up in, and it's
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been really nice because of the community. You can't replace
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community when you're raising children, so it's been a really
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good place for us.
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All right, let's wind the way back machine high school ish,
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What were your early interests.
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What were you into.
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I mean, my first thing is dance, so I was,
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you know, a competitive dancer and then all of that.
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So for me, that's where my outlet was, my creative outlet.
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But my passion was math. I always loved math. I know,
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cool kid, right.
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No, that's good, me too. Actually my dad saw that.
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In me, and he didn't have sons, so who knows genetically,
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you know, if our family dynamic was different, and he
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saw that I liked math, and so we would always
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be talking about math, you know, either going to the
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grocery store, paying the register back when cash was king, Yeah,
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and you know, he would say how much change do
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we get back? And over the years he showed me
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the binder. But then we started going into the end
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of life binder talking about.
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Insurance, you know, do not do that. Yeah, I didn't
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know that though.
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This was my upbringing and his best friend was an accountant,
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so talking about taxes was normal at lunch if I
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went to lunch with them, you know. And it was
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when my dad passed away that the shock really hit.
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Not only did I lose my accountability partner, but my
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mom of fifty years had lost her accountability partner.
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But it's not like she was probably well prepared for
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the non emotional part, you know, the business part.
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The business part was all in place. The binder was there,
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she had seen it but never been in it. And
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then I spent the next year really coaching her, supporting
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her as best as mother and daughter can do on
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some days, you know, on the understanding, the comprehension and
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building the confidence and without thinking. She actually became my
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first client in financial therapy. And then I went and
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got a graduate certificate in financial therapy and then get
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certified in the field because my passion is really helping
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me people and this is something that I can do.
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There are a lot of things in life I cannot do.
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Can't replace my roof. That's you know, decided to get readone. Right,
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These are not my skill sets, but we talk about
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decision making of when to replace versus patch. I will
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brainstorm and structure brainstorm with you all day long. But
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the actual physical work, I don't know how to build
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a roof.
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So you've got a finance degree versus a math degree.
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Did you know you were going to go into financial
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That's a dumb question. Did you know you were going
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into finance? There we go, because you ended up in marketing.
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Well, well that was.
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Part of my luberdy loop of roller coaster life. Okay,
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so yes, I got a finance degree and I went
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into consulting, and so that's what I did for a
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decade with IBM when I was living in China. At
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that point, I had a four month old and I
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was on the search for organic baby food, very very
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hard to find. This is eighteen years ago hard to
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find kind of period forget about hard to find in
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you at the time, and there was a British mom
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that was using the pouch baby food. Now you see
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it as apple sauce in everywhere.
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Now my grandkids eat it, yep, but it.
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Wasn't back in the day. So Ella's Kitchen was a
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British brand. Paul Linley. Ella's dad created Pouch Baby Food,
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and so I was importing it from Hong Kong. And
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then when I moved to the US, I had friends
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from London shipping it to me. There was nothing in
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the market in the US, and so I emailed the
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company being who I am, like, when are you coming
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to the US? This is crazy, and they said, we're coming.
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We just got to deal with that with my babies
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are us. And I was living in Connecticut at the time,
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and so I met the CEO and a Dunkin Donuts
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and the Lower East Side and he hired me on
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the spot.
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Very cool, and in that.
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Moment I then pivoted careers started growing brands in the
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organic food space. Not only did I in the marketing,
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but also the sales side, because nobody had seen the
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pouch baby food trade shows with the sales team who
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were older men right who didn't have babies at home,
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and I had to have pictures of my kids eating
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the food and showing people how you could eat the
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food because it hadn't been Now it's everywhere, but at
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the time nobody had seen it, and it was really
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fun working with an international brand culturally, not only that,
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but breaking into new category, into the shelves and a grocery.
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What was into it is mind boggling.
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Yeah, for those that don't know, that is a very
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difficult space to get.
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It is impossible. It's not impossible. It just costs a
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lot of money. So that's where it comes into money mindset.
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Which stores are you going to pay? So Babies are
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Us was their initial store, but it was nationwide. Coming
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from the UK was a good plague.
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We're all over the country.
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As you know, in the US, the country's big. How
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do you decide marketing budgets? How do you decide target clients?
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Nebraska and New York City have different moms that you're
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talking to on different platforms, and so we had to restrategize.