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Speaker 1: Hi, Sheep Pivots listeners.

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Speaker 2: I'm so excited to share with you that we've been

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Speaker 2: nominated for the second year in a row for Signal

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Speaker 2: Awards Listener's choice for Most Inspirational Episode for this season's

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Speaker 2: episode with Ukrainian refugee Tetiana Podle.

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Speaker 1: But in order to win, we need your vote.

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Speaker 2: To vote for our episode, visit the link in our

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Speaker 2: Instagram bio at Sheep Pivots the podcast, or search for

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Speaker 2: Sheep Pivots when you go to vote dot Signal Award

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Speaker 2: dot com. Tetiana story is truly incredible. As a Ukrainian refugee,

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Speaker 2: she's dedicated herself to volunteering in the war, and her

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Speaker 2: story starts long before she was even born as she

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Speaker 2: recalls the experiences of her grandparents in a post Soviet Ukraine.

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Speaker 2: She carries us through an emotional retelling of how she

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Speaker 2: went back to her home country just weeks after the war,

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Speaker 2: started to care for her family and eventually leading a

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Speaker 2: grassroots effort to transport supplies to her father's unit on

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Speaker 2: the front lines. It is truly an amazing episode, so

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Speaker 2: please vote and share it with your friends.

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Speaker 3: I've had a lot of adversity and when I'm handed

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Speaker 3: these things, I have to learn how to pivot and

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Speaker 3: survive and turn it into a good thing.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk with

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Speaker 2: women who dared to pivot out of one career and

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Speaker 2: into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted

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Speaker 2: these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Today we

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Speaker 2: have perhaps one of our most interesting guests yet. She's

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Speaker 2: a former police officer and the owner of Spalding Deacon.

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Speaker 1: What is Spalding Deacon, you may ask.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a crime scene cleanup company that rakes in

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Speaker 2: millions and profits each year, with hundreds of franchises across

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Speaker 2: the country. The journey to Laura Spalding's success was no

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Speaker 2: easy path. After eventually becoming a police officer in Missouri,

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Speaker 2: she had an upsetting encounter with the mother of a

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Speaker 2: victim who asked her when the police would be coming

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Speaker 2: back to clean up after the tragic murder of her son.

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Speaker 2: It was then that Laura saw the need for victims

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Speaker 2: and their families, and she launched her business. Laura's story

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Speaker 2: is one of adversity and perseverance, with some interesting complexities

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Speaker 2: thrown in. I hope you enjoy it and learn a

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Speaker 2: little something as I did.

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Speaker 4: My name's Laura Spaulding.

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Speaker 3: I live in Tampa, Florida, and I own a crime

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Speaker 3: scene cleaning company.

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Speaker 1: Not something we get on every episode.

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Speaker 4: No, probably not.

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Speaker 3: Where did you grow up? I moved around quite a bit.

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Speaker 3: My parents worked for the government, so we moved, you know,

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Speaker 3: every few years or so. So I lived in a

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Speaker 3: couple different countries, is several states. I called Tampa home

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Speaker 3: because I went to high school here.

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Speaker 2: Her parents worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and although

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Speaker 2: she did not go into great detail about her relationship

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Speaker 2: with them, it was extremely clear that it was and

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Speaker 2: will likely not ever be a positive relationship.

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Speaker 3: I have never had a good relationship with my family.

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Speaker 3: You know, I left home right when I turned eighteen,

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Speaker 3: so I didn't really have a place to live. I

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Speaker 3: was kind of bouncing from different homes to try to

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Speaker 3: put myself through school, and so, you know, they're never

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Speaker 3: there was never any I guess, relationship with my family.

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Speaker 3: I haven't seen them or spoken to them in over

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Speaker 3: twenty years. So what did you think you were going

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Speaker 3: to do when you grew up police officer?

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Speaker 4: I always kind of thought I would be in law enforcement.

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Speaker 3: You know, I kind of saw how it was exciting

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Speaker 3: and it was different every day, and there was no monotony.

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Speaker 3: You're not sitting in a cubicle. So I thought, you

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Speaker 3: know what, it's challenge, and I like a challenge. So

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Speaker 3: I went to college at the University of Tennessee, but

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Speaker 3: before that, not right out of high school.

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Speaker 4: But I was about nineteen years.

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Speaker 3: Old when I enlisted in the army, and I had

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Speaker 3: just completed kind of two years at community college and

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Speaker 3: that was pretty much all I could afford. So I

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Speaker 3: was at a stop situation where I had to figure

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Speaker 3: out I couldn't afford to put myself through the rest

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Speaker 3: of college. So the military, I thought was my only choice.

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Speaker 3: So I enlisted in nineteen ninety four.

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Speaker 2: Did you think of the army as a way to

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Speaker 2: finish education or did you think that the army would

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Speaker 2: then be a career.

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Speaker 4: No, it was a means to an end.

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Speaker 5: It was.

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Speaker 3: I enlisted specifically because of the GI Bill and the

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Speaker 3: benefits that you know, at that time, I didn't have

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Speaker 3: a place to live, so it was kind of an

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Speaker 3: escape from poverty and also a means to get my education.

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Speaker 2: It's also important to note the political landscape at the time.

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Speaker 3: Ninety three, Bill Clinton had passed Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

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Speaker 2: During my time working in politics, I actually worked on

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Speaker 2: the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, And even when

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Speaker 2: we were working on the repeal, it was widely known

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Speaker 2: that at the time of its passing, it was originally

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Speaker 2: thought to be a positive step forward, but it wasn't

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Speaker 2: long until everyone realized it wasn't Don't Ask.

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Speaker 6: Don't tell. Some veterans still cannot receive full benefits such

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Speaker 6: as loans and tuition and assistance and medical treatment, which

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Speaker 6: they earned because of their service, but because they were

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Speaker 6: not honorably discharged under that policy, they aren't eligible.

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Speaker 5: So it is not a perfect solution, it is not

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Speaker 5: identical with some of my own goals, and it certainly

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Speaker 5: will not please everyone, perhaps not anyone.

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Speaker 1: Clinton was right, so.

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Speaker 3: In nineteen ninety four, I thought it would be somewhat

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Speaker 3: safe for me to go into the service and just

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Speaker 3: you know, get in, get out.

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Speaker 4: Do what I needed to do.

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Speaker 3: And unfortunately, the upper ranks were not happy with the

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Speaker 3: fact that he had kind of passed this compromise, so

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Speaker 3: they led a witch hunt about four or five months

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Speaker 3: into it, and what the witch hunt consisted of is

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Speaker 3: literally calling every single female in our barracks out and

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Speaker 3: literally asking them who they thought was gay. So that's

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Speaker 3: kind of how they got around the statement act or

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Speaker 3: marriage because they couldn't ask us directly, but they could

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Speaker 3: ask us our opinion about others. So essentially three of

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Speaker 3: us were reported that people had opinions that the three

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Speaker 3: of us were gay, and so the three of us

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Speaker 3: got discharged.

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Speaker 2: Just based on the fact that others thought you were

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Speaker 2: gay exactly.

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Speaker 3: There was never any admission, There was never a statement,

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Speaker 3: There was never an act of marriage or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: Wow, did you identify as gay at the time?

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Speaker 4: Internally?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I was not out in the I kept to myself,

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Speaker 3: you know, you're in the military. For me, it was

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Speaker 3: again a means to an end. I was going in

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Speaker 3: for a sole purpose and getting out.

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Speaker 2: Before donast Intel, you mentioned that it was a compromise

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Speaker 2: before there was just a straight out ban on correct

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Speaker 2: gaze serving. So when you were going in, was that

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Speaker 2: part of your contemplation that you would have to keep

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Speaker 2: to yourself that donast Intel was in place.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, so I knew it was a compromise that I

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Speaker 3: would have to make in order to get the education

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Speaker 3: that I needed to kind of progress in my life.

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Speaker 3: So it was a big decision, but it was one

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Speaker 3: that I thought, you know, just stay to yourself and

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Speaker 3: keep your head down and get through it, one of

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Speaker 3: those things. But never in my mind did I think

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Speaker 3: that they would go on this rampage of a witch

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Speaker 3: hunt to try to get out as many people as possible.

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Speaker 2: In the military, when someone is discharged, it doesn't just

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Speaker 2: mean they're kicked out. It means you lose all rights

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Speaker 2: to veterans benefits. All of your paperwork is marked as discharged,

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Speaker 2: and there is an ink stain on your past. Laura

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Speaker 2: quickly realized that the path that she had hoped would

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Speaker 2: free her from poverty had fallen from underneath her.

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Speaker 3: Well, I was actually in a worse spot than I

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Speaker 3: was before I went in. My attempt to be in

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Speaker 3: a better spot actually put me in a worse spot

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Speaker 3: because they discharged me. They stamped my paperwork homosexual. And

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Speaker 3: I was nineteen years old. You know, little did I

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Speaker 3: realize that that would kind of be the tattoo that

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Speaker 3: I would carry for my life and trying to get

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Speaker 3: jobs and stuff, so I didn't have anywhere to go.

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Speaker 3: So I went with a friend that got discharged as well,

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Speaker 3: and her parents allowed us to stay in Michigan for

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Speaker 3: a while until we figured out what we were going

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Speaker 3: to do.

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Speaker 4: So one day we were.

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Speaker 3: In her basement and there was a map of the

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Speaker 3: US on the wall, and she said, why don't we

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Speaker 3: throw a dart and wherever it lands, let's go there.

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Speaker 3: And I was like, well, we've got nothing to lose.

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Speaker 3: I need you know, I had nowhere to go. She

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Speaker 3: had already had her degree. So we threw the dart

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Speaker 3: and it landed on Knoxville, Tennessee, and that's where we went.

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Speaker 3: I didn't know a single soul. I knew I would

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Speaker 3: have to wait a year to establish residency before I

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Speaker 3: could apply to the University of Tennessee. And that's exactly

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Speaker 3: what I did. And then I took out some loans,

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Speaker 3: the student loans to financial aid to be able to

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Speaker 3: make it through. The thing that screwed me though on

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Speaker 3: that aspect, was I didn't qualify for financial assistance despite

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Speaker 3: the fact that I was in complete poverty because my

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Speaker 3: parents kept claiming me on their tax returns, so it

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Speaker 3: prohibited me from getting any financial aid, and I couldn't

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Speaker 3: get them to stop. Even though I was submitting my

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Speaker 3: own tax returns and showing, you know, independent, the two

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Speaker 3: were in conflict. So every time they tried to get

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Speaker 3: me aid that wasn't alone like grants and stuff, I

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Speaker 3: would be blocked because it was based on their income

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Speaker 3: and they gave me zero whatsoever.

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Speaker 2: During her year establishing residency, she worked in restaurants as

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Speaker 2: a way to both feed and support herself. Finally, she

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Speaker 2: enrolled and earned her bachelor's in criminal justice. So you

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Speaker 2: were still really focused on law enforcement.

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Speaker 3: I think it was more because I didn't know any

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Speaker 3: other alternative, Like my life had never taken me to

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Speaker 3: a path where I could see other careers. You know,

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Speaker 3: I was just very honed in on that for the

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Speaker 3: lack of a better opportunity. And you know, you think

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Speaker 3: at some point I would be like, Okay, you know,

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Speaker 3: the military screwed me. The police department is essentially an

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Speaker 3: arm of that as well, so the chances of that

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Speaker 3: happening as well are probably pretty high.

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Speaker 4: But it didn't. It didn't dissuade me.

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Speaker 3: And I've always been very focused and very driven, and

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Speaker 3: sometimes to a fault, as you can see, So that's

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Speaker 3: kind of the path that I took when I graduated college.

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Speaker 3: I applied to basically every large city that I knew of,

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Speaker 3: you know, Phoenix, Detroit, Atlanta, you know all this stuff.

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Speaker 3: But Kansas City happened to be the one that hired

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Speaker 3: me first.

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Speaker 2: One would think that military experience would improve your chances

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Speaker 2: of entering the police force, but her discharge paperwork continued

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Speaker 2: to complicate things.

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Speaker 3: So what happened was this is kind of where the

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Speaker 3: stamp the scarlet letter followed me around. So I initially

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Speaker 3: I had applied to Atlanta PD. You know, on the

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Speaker 3: application it says have you ever been in the military,

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Speaker 3: and I put yes, and I turned in my DD

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Speaker 3: two fourteen, which says homosexual. Immediately got denied, and of

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Speaker 3: course they don't give you a reason. So I called

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Speaker 3: the military appointed lawyer that I had, and I said,

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Speaker 3: I can't get any jobs because I've got the scarlet letter.

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Speaker 3: And he said, you need to lie to these people

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Speaker 3: and tell them you were never in. He said, you

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Speaker 3: weren't in for very long anyway, so it's not really

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Speaker 3: going to be a giant gap, and he was right.

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Speaker 3: So I started checking no on all the boxes, and

225
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Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I got hired, So that was

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Speaker 3: definitely the reason.

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Speaker 2: And once you started, did you acknowledge that you had

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Speaker 2: served or you just kind of erased it from your history.

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Speaker 4: I erased it. I lied about it the entire time.

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Speaker 2: She started as a police officer in Kansas City doing

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Speaker 2: street patrol, but eventually she was able to choose a discipline,

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Speaker 2: and interestingly enough, she chose to go undercover in narcotics.

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Speaker 1: What was that like, You had to actually be undercover?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I was the only woman. Imagine that. It was

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Speaker 3: difficult because you had to create a persona that was

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Speaker 3: different than your own, and every time you went to work,

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Speaker 3: you would have to step in to that persona, probably

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Speaker 3: much like an actor would do. I had to alter

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Speaker 3: my appearance, which is more difficult for a female than

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Speaker 3: it is for a male, because the males just grew

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Speaker 3: out their facial hair, grew out their hair, and dress

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Speaker 3: like crap, right, so, and they could easily fit in

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Speaker 3: as a normal person, you know, not a cop. For me,

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Speaker 3: it's a lot different. So I couldn't do that type

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Speaker 3: of stuff. So I had to really come up with

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Speaker 3: a persona and it took me probably four or five

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Speaker 3: months to figure it out. As I'm just kind of

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Speaker 3: watching and observing. So what I did is I took

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Speaker 3: this stuff called blackout and it looks like nail polish,

250
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Speaker 3: and I blacked out some of my teeth to look

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Speaker 3: like I didn't have any teeth. And then I took

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Speaker 3: some coconut oil and I put it in my hair

253
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Speaker 3: to make it look greasy. And then I literally wore

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Speaker 3: the same clothes every single day for two years without

255
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Speaker 3: washing them, so like I would take them off in

256
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Speaker 3: my garage, put them on the next day for work,

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Speaker 3: and then just never because there's actually a smell to

258
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Speaker 3: the streets. But that wasn't enough either. So what I

259
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Speaker 3: had to do is I acted like I had special

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Speaker 3: needs and I was, you know, slow, and I had

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Speaker 3: experience in being around that population because I have an

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Speaker 3: aunt and uncle that are special needs, so I understand

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Speaker 3: how they speak and how they act and how they think.

264
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Speaker 3: So I was able to emulate that that language and

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Speaker 3: the manner of speech that they have, and that is

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Speaker 3: what I think really saved me.

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Speaker 1: But you know, did you have any guidance and this,

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Speaker 1: you know, it is more than acting.

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Speaker 2: People need to genuinely believe you, and the stakes are

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Speaker 2: incredibly high.

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Speaker 1: If you get it wrong.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I didn't have any guidance.

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Speaker 3: So being the only female, I really had no one

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Speaker 3: to emulate off of. And like I said, there's a

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Speaker 3: big difference between what the males do and how a

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Speaker 3: female can blend in. So, you know, at the onset,

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Speaker 3: I was told you can carry a gun, but if

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Speaker 3: they find it, they're going to know you're a cop

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Speaker 3: because it's a it's a nice gun, it's not like

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Speaker 3: a street gun. So you have to make a decision

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Speaker 3: whether you're going to carry or whether you're not. And

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Speaker 3: the same with the wire. You can wear a wire

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Speaker 3: or not, but if somebody sees it, your life is

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Speaker 3: in jeopardy. So I elected to go with no wire

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Speaker 3: and no gun. And there wasn't really any training, you know,

286
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Speaker 3: so to speak, other than kind of riding along with

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Speaker 3: others and seeing how they perform. But the issue is that,

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Speaker 3: you know, there's a different way of talking on the street.

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Speaker 3: There's a different way of acting, like you'd be surprised,

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Speaker 3: like your mannerisms, you could be identified as a cop.

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Speaker 3: Your verbal the way you talk could be you know,

292
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Speaker 3: I had to literally change everything and that took, you know,

293
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Speaker 3: about six months for me to kind of acclimate to

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Speaker 3: the street.

295
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Speaker 2: Being undercover consumed Laura. She'd finally achieved what she'd always

296
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Speaker 2: thought she would since she was young. But the job

297
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Speaker 2: was grinding and dangerous.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that was very, very difficult because I'm always looking

299
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Speaker 3: over my shoulder, always worried that I'll run into somebody,

300
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Speaker 3: or you know, the city required that we lived in

301
00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:13,280
Speaker 3: the city, So you're making me go undercover and then

302
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Speaker 3: live in the same city, like I had no escape.

303
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Speaker 2: How did you think about that time in the undercover piece, Like,

304
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Speaker 2: did you think, because I'm putting my life on hold,

305
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Speaker 2: this will be again like a means to an end,

306
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Speaker 2: like a limited timeline that you do it, or you

307
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Speaker 2: thought this was your career path.

308
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Speaker 3: No, so my initial thought at that time was this

309
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Speaker 3: is going to give me the experience that I want

310
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Speaker 3: to possibly go and work in the FEDS, in the

311
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Speaker 3: federal government, whether you know it's you know, atf or

312
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Speaker 3: FBI or whatever it was. And I thought I wanted

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Speaker 3: that undercover experience to see if that was a path

314
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Speaker 3: for me. But it came a point where I was

315
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Speaker 3: making thirty eight thousand dollars a year, like I was

316
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Speaker 3: barely surviving. I had to have a roommate just to survive.

317
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Speaker 3: And it was one of those kind of come to

318
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Speaker 3: Jesus things that you can put ten million undercover people

319
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Speaker 3: on the street, you will never make a dent in

320
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Speaker 3: the drug trade. So it became feudal for me. There

321
00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:19,520
Speaker 3: was no point there was. The risk was far greater

322
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Speaker 3: than any reward. So I don't see the spend that

323
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Speaker 3: we spend on this ridiculous fight against drugs because you'll

324
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Speaker 3: never get rid of it. So I felt like I

325
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Speaker 3: lost the purpose, my purpose of what I wanted to do.

326
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Speaker 3: And then I ended up leaving the department and going

327
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Speaker 3: to a neighbor apartment department and it was much slower,

328
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Speaker 3: very boring, And that's when I decided kind of I

329
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Speaker 3: wanted to go back to school and get my master's

330
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Speaker 3: degree and explore other opportunities. And that's really kind of

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Speaker 3: when it opened my eyes to Wow, you know, there's

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Speaker 3: a lot more than just law enforcement.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the decision to go back to school, you must

334
00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:01,399
Speaker 2: have already had some inkling that there's something else besides

335
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:02,640
Speaker 2: law enforcement out there.

336
00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:05,320
Speaker 1: Do you remember what? Was there a catalyst for it?

337
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:06,680
Speaker 4: There was?

338
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Speaker 3: So Actually what happened was I had made the decision,

339
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Speaker 3: all right, I'm getting out, and I just started applying

340
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,800
Speaker 3: for any and every job I could to start learning

341
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:18,760
Speaker 3: something new, because in law enforcement you don't really have

342
00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:23,240
Speaker 3: any transferable skills to anything else. So I got literally

343
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:25,840
Speaker 3: I was applying for jobs for two years and I

344
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:27,320
Speaker 3: wasn't even getting an interview.

345
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Speaker 4: So I knew that I had to.

346
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Speaker 3: Make a change, a drastic change. And I thought, the

347
00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:34,040
Speaker 3: only way I'm going to do this is I could

348
00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:36,040
Speaker 3: either go to law school or I could go to

349
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:39,520
Speaker 3: get my MBA. The reason that I chose my MBA

350
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:41,800
Speaker 3: is because that was two years as opposed to three,

351
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Speaker 3: and I was not getting any younger, and I was

352
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Speaker 3: really becoming just depressed about it. I was like, God,

353
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Speaker 3: I made the wrong decision here, Please tell me I'm

354
00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:56,560
Speaker 3: not stuck. And I just hated living in the Midwest too,

355
00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:58,640
Speaker 3: because the only thing that took me there was the job.

356
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Speaker 3: So I was just, you know, really at a crossroads

357
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:04,480
Speaker 3: at that time. She enrolled at Baker University to earn

358
00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:07,600
Speaker 3: her MBA. So I did it at night and I

359
00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:12,560
Speaker 3: made switch my shift to the afternoon shift. So it

360
00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:15,400
Speaker 3: took me two years, and that was an accelerator program.

361
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,280
Speaker 3: Did it help where I am today, I would say no.

362
00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:21,240
Speaker 3: But what it did is it opened my eyes to

363
00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:25,320
Speaker 3: other industries that I hadn't had any exposure to. So

364
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,399
Speaker 3: meeting those other students you know that are in finance

365
00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:31,880
Speaker 3: and banking and technology, like, I had never thought about

366
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:32,320
Speaker 3: any of that.

367
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Speaker 4: So for that I'm grateful.

368
00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:36,600
Speaker 3: I mean I was the only one, of course, that

369
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:40,400
Speaker 3: came from civil service. Everybody else was already in business

370
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:42,880
Speaker 3: and just looking to elevate their careers.

371
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Speaker 2: So had you been looking for businesses while you were

372
00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:50,760
Speaker 2: going through school continuing to work in the police force.

373
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:53,600
Speaker 2: Were you still looking for like a wholesale change of

374
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,360
Speaker 2: industry or were you thinking how to connect your experiences?

375
00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:00,000
Speaker 3: Well, I've I always wanted to do my own business,

376
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:02,600
Speaker 3: but I had zero money. Again, I still had a

377
00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:06,919
Speaker 3: roommate and I had about twenty five hundred dollars in

378
00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:10,080
Speaker 3: savings and that was about it. And so I was

379
00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:14,720
Speaker 3: looking at franchises, what businesses like. I was just literally

380
00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:17,359
Speaker 3: every spare moment I had, I was doing research, and

381
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,080
Speaker 3: I was just getting more and more disenchanted because I

382
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:27,960
Speaker 3: didn't have the backing, the financial ability to start really anything.

383
00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:30,960
Speaker 3: So I had to figure out what can I do

384
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:36,720
Speaker 3: that I can bootstrap that doesn't require an injection of

385
00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:37,440
Speaker 3: a ton of money.

386
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,000
Speaker 2: With little money and still working full time as a

387
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:44,000
Speaker 2: police officer, Laura felt like she had hit a wall,

388
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,680
Speaker 2: but she was committed to finding a new path in life.

389
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:50,399
Speaker 2: She utilized the career center at the school, she no

390
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:54,320
Speaker 2: longer attended, read books, and did her best to educate

391
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:55,880
Speaker 2: herself and find her ticket out.

392
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:58,359
Speaker 3: So I just started kind of reading a bunch of

393
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:02,480
Speaker 3: books on entrepreneurs and just kind of self education and

394
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:07,720
Speaker 3: still working my job, hating life. And that homicide came

395
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:12,800
Speaker 3: and a woman's son had been murdered, and I was,

396
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:16,040
Speaker 3: you know, working as that was part of my detail,

397
00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:18,320
Speaker 3: so to speak. She came up to me and said, hey,

398
00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:20,160
Speaker 3: when are you guys coming back to clean this up?

399
00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 3: And I was like, we don't clean that up. And

400
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,639
Speaker 3: she's like, well, then who does? And I'm like, I

401
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:29,320
Speaker 3: have no idea, but I'll ask for you. So, you know,

402
00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:31,399
Speaker 3: I kind of went on this fact finding mission of

403
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:35,240
Speaker 3: asking CSI homicide and they were like, we don't know,

404
00:21:35,359 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 3: we don't know, and I'm thinking, wow, this is really

405
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:41,480
Speaker 3: strange that I had never been asked this since seven

406
00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:44,600
Speaker 3: years and I've worked a ton of homicides, and these

407
00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:47,439
Speaker 3: guys work it every day. They either don't know or

408
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:49,919
Speaker 3: don't care. They're just you know, that's not part of

409
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:52,000
Speaker 3: what they do, so it's they're not involved in it.

410
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,040
Speaker 3: So I really just kind of started investigating it, and

411
00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,119
Speaker 3: I thought, you know what, I can do this, but

412
00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:59,840
Speaker 3: I need to see how do I do this? So

413
00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:02,960
Speaker 3: I just kind of started on this research of where

414
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:04,600
Speaker 3: can I learn how to do this. There's got to

415
00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 3: be other companies in the country that I could essentially.

416
00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,600
Speaker 4: Just you know, shadow or learn from.

417
00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:15,119
Speaker 3: So I found a company in Dallas, Texas no longer

418
00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:18,199
Speaker 3: there now, but this was back in five and I

419
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,480
Speaker 3: called him up and I said do you train people?

420
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:22,879
Speaker 3: And he's like, yeah, actually, and I said, well, how

421
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:24,760
Speaker 3: much is it? And he said one week is twenty

422
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,320
Speaker 3: five hundred and that's all I had. So I said,

423
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:30,280
Speaker 3: I used my only week of vacation, paid him the

424
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:32,359
Speaker 3: twenty five hundred, and I went there and I learned

425
00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:32,840
Speaker 3: how to do it.

426
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:37,840
Speaker 1: Wow. So how had you left crime scenes before that?

427
00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:41,600
Speaker 2: I mean, did you have an internal conversation about what

428
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:43,159
Speaker 2: would happen after you left?

429
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:47,800
Speaker 3: Are you just sort of continued on sadly? No, it

430
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,520
Speaker 3: never I never even thought about it. I'm embarrassed to

431
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:54,080
Speaker 3: say that, because, you know, I think I got so

432
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 3: entrenched in what I was doing in my responsibilities for

433
00:22:58,359 --> 00:23:01,840
Speaker 3: the crime scene that I never consider what happens when

434
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:03,320
Speaker 3: the body's removed.

435
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:06,879
Speaker 2: So she went to Dallas for the training and learned

436
00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:09,560
Speaker 2: all the messy details of crime scene cleanup.

437
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,720
Speaker 3: And I'm comfortable with these chemicals and everything, but I

438
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,600
Speaker 3: still was very uncomfortable with the business side of things,

439
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 3: the marketing, the estimating, like all that is, you know,

440
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,520
Speaker 3: is crucial obviously, so I had to learn as I go.

441
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 3: And you know, of course I made a lot of mistakes.

442
00:23:25,119 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 3: I undercharged a lot of people, but I chalk that

443
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,160
Speaker 3: up too. I got the experience I needed. How did

444
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:32,639
Speaker 3: you launch yourself?

445
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,200
Speaker 2: Did you do it immediately after you came back from

446
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:35,880
Speaker 2: this cleanup?

447
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 4: Yeah?

448
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:39,359
Speaker 3: So what happened was when I was in the training,

449
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 3: I was sitting next to to super nice guys and

450
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:47,440
Speaker 3: they were from Oklahoma and they were business partners. They

451
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 3: were talking about how they wrote a business plan, somewhat

452
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:55,320
Speaker 3: rudimentary business plan, and walked into their bank and got

453
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:58,879
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars loan like an SBA loaner.

454
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 3: So I was invigorated, you know when he said, you know,

455
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:03,720
Speaker 3: it was pretty easy.

456
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:05,919
Speaker 4: We just kind of walked in and it is what

457
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 4: it is. And I said, okay.

458
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 3: So he was kind enough to literally give me his

459
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:13,960
Speaker 3: exact business plan, and I just changed my name and

460
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 3: the name of the company, of course. And I went

461
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:18,920
Speaker 3: back home and I was like ready to go. Walked

462
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 3: into a bank, They're like, nope. Walked into a second bank, nope, Like,

463
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:28,720
Speaker 3: didn't even entertain it. I walked into four different banks

464
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 3: and they all said no. So I go back home

465
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,080
Speaker 3: and I call my new friend and I said, I

466
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 3: don't know what I'm doing wrong. I said, I'm literally

467
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 3: doing exactly what you did, what you told me, and

468
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:44,159
Speaker 3: he's like, I don't understand this. And then it just

469
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 3: clicked for me and it was like, oh, I get it.

470
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,960
Speaker 3: You're a male and I'm a female. That's why I'm

471
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,399
Speaker 3: not getting the lending. And then I started doing research

472
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,679
Speaker 3: into that and I was like, oh, only two percent

473
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 3: of females ever get venture capital, So like this is

474
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:02,160
Speaker 3: a systematic problem.

475
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:04,639
Speaker 7: Women are a growing force in the business world, but

476
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 7: if they own a company, they still struggle getting access

477
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,320
Speaker 7: to capital from banks. According to the online lending marketplace

478
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 7: bisdocredit dot com, women's business loan approval rates are nearly

479
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:17,119
Speaker 7: twenty percent below men's.

480
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 8: Currently, although women found thirty eight percent of US companies,

481
00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,360
Speaker 8: they only get two percent of the venture funding.

482
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 3: I am also a female business owner and I completely

483
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 3: self funded my business.

484
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,879
Speaker 8: Which I think it's the right time for something like this.

485
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 8: You know, when I was a bigger capital I never

486
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 8: saw any other women investors. I never saw any women

487
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,720
Speaker 8: founders of companies, And all of a sudden, we had

488
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 8: this perfect storm of women being interested in building businesses

489
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:52,680
Speaker 8: and capital there to support them, accelerators that were there

490
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:55,160
Speaker 8: to support them, and no capital.

491
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 4: So I had to get creative with it.

492
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:01,679
Speaker 3: And I decided to go to a fifth bank and

493
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 3: essentially lie and say I needed a home equity loan

494
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,919
Speaker 3: for new windows, and they wrote me a check for

495
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:13,120
Speaker 3: fifteen thousand dollars. So what that told me was, we'll

496
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 3: never take a chance on you, we don't believe in you.

497
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,200
Speaker 3: We need massive amount of collateral to give you a dime.

498
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 3: And sadly, seventeen years later and millions and millions of dollars,

499
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 3: that's still the case. We've still never had a business loan,

500
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,120
Speaker 3: never other than a mortgage.

501
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 4: Of course that's not you know, highly collateralized.

502
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: And what were the startup costs involved? Like is it

503
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:37,679
Speaker 1: what kind of runway did that give you?

504
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,520
Speaker 3: So what it did, it was just enough to allow

505
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,720
Speaker 3: me to bootstrap it. So I just bought the necessity.

506
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 3: I couldn't obviously buy a vehicle. So what I did

507
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 3: is I bought a pool behind trailer because I had

508
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 3: a paid off vehicle. I keep my vehicles for a

509
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:55,359
Speaker 3: really long time, So I had like a ten year

510
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 3: old Bronco and I bought this pool behind trailer. It

511
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:00,639
Speaker 3: was like twenty two hundred dollars, and then I bought

512
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:05,880
Speaker 3: just the basic Ppe chemicals and the Hepa vacuum. Those

513
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,359
Speaker 3: were the things that I couldn't cut out. Everything else,

514
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 3: like tool wise, I thought I can rent as needed

515
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,679
Speaker 3: and then kind of build up from there. So I

516
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:21,760
Speaker 3: used probably ten thousand out of the fifteen and then

517
00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 3: the rest was to print some marketing materials and things

518
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:28,000
Speaker 3: like that, and I couldn't afford you know, Google pay

519
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 3: per click or anything like that, so I literally went

520
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 3: door door. At this point, Laura was still working for

521
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:37,359
Speaker 3: the police department to make it all work. But eventually

522
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:40,160
Speaker 3: they gave her an ultimatum. It was either the police

523
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:44,359
Speaker 3: department or her business. And just kind of without hesitation,

524
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:46,320
Speaker 3: I was just so miserable there that I was just like,

525
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 3: I quit. When I quit, it was like the biggest

526
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:50,040
Speaker 3: sense of relief, and I'm like, why the hell am

527
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 3: I living here? I don't even like living here? So

528
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 3: I just kind of packed up my bags and moved

529
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:55,679
Speaker 3: to Florida.

530
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,240
Speaker 2: She had one friend in Florida that she had kept

531
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 2: in touch with since high school who let her stay

532
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 2: until she figured things out.

533
00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 3: So once I got here, I realized I need a

534
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:07,840
Speaker 3: job too, you know, starting a new business, I need

535
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 3: a job in conjunction.

536
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:09,880
Speaker 4: And I thought, what what.

537
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:13,440
Speaker 3: Can I do that will benefit me on my business

538
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 3: as well? And I needed some sales experience, So I

539
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:19,320
Speaker 3: started applying for a bunch of sales jobs because I

540
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 3: wanted somebody to teach me how to sell because I

541
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:25,679
Speaker 3: didn't know. And I got lucky and got hired with

542
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 3: a small medical sales company. And I had a pretty

543
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 3: large territory state of Florida, some of Alabama and Mississippi,

544
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 3: so I traveled a lot.

545
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 4: So what I did is I was able to double dips.

546
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 3: So while I was selling my medical equipment, I was

547
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:45,959
Speaker 3: also stopping at apartments hotels, and I was literally selling

548
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 3: all day long. And then I had two cell phones,

549
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,239
Speaker 3: and when one cell phone rang, I knew that it

550
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 3: was a job and that I would just do it

551
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 3: after hours.

552
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 4: I did that for a couple of years.

553
00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 2: How did you manage that the two I mean, if

554
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 2: you were going in a large territory, you probably had

555
00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 2: to travel again to take the cleanup job.

556
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, So once I started to get busier, I was like, Wow,

557
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 3: I'm going to need to have some people local while

558
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:15,479
Speaker 3: I'm traveling around. So I hired to stay at home moms.

559
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 3: They had never done it before, so I taught them

560
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 3: how to do it, and you know, initially I was concerned,

561
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 3: like are they going to be okay with this? Like

562
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 3: it's gross, and they were like, oh, we changed diapers

563
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 3: all day, this is nothing for us. And they turned

564
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 3: out to be great. You know, they stayed with me

565
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 3: three four years. So they took the days while I

566
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:36,240
Speaker 3: was traveling. I took the nights and weekends. And I

567
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:41,479
Speaker 3: eventually quit the sales job after two years and started

568
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 3: running everything full time.

569
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 2: You know, I do love to talk generally about all

570
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 2: of the business skills that come from parenting. Things I

571
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:53,920
Speaker 2: hadn't appreciated until I had multiple children and have to

572
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 2: manage and balance at all.

573
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 3: This was not an aspect I anticipated, not so much.

574
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 3: No me either, But they were actually a perfect fit.

575
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 2: Slow and steady, she began to build the business. She

576
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 2: started to pick up bigger jobs around Florida, and instead

577
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 2: of selling every day, she was fielding requests from hotels, apartments,

578
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 2: management companies, funeral homes, and even insurance companies.

579
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:21,920
Speaker 3: I would go with them and I would you bring

580
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 3: the technicians. And I was still working in the business

581
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 3: while I was also marketing. I mean it was exhausting.

582
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 3: I was working twelve fourteen hour days, but I was

583
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 3: building the business, building the reputation, and that way, since

584
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 3: I was there, I could manage the quality of the work.

585
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 3: I lived very minimalist and put all of my revenue

586
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 3: back into the business.

587
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 2: It sounds like, through all of these jobs, you're always

588
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:49,000
Speaker 2: working around the clock. Did you ever think about, or

589
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 2: how did you prioritize, if you did at all, any

590
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 2: semblance of personal life.

591
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 4: I didn't at all.

592
00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 3: It was always my priority to focus on my career

593
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:03,360
Speaker 3: and my growth, and if I had friendships along the way,

594
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 3: that was wonderful, but it was never my priority in

595
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 3: doing so.

596
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 2: At what point did you think, Okay, we're onto something

597
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 2: like I'm really I'm doing pretty well here, like maybe

598
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 2: I've made it.

599
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 3: I would say it was probably about two thousand and

600
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:22,760
Speaker 3: eight and nine. That was when the recession came and

601
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:26,160
Speaker 3: we started to get a lot of very large contracts

602
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 3: with banks for foreclosures. Initially, the contracts they were giving

603
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 3: us were just Florida based, because we were just in Florida,

604
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,440
Speaker 3: and it was everything from you know, these houses have

605
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 3: been sitting so long, there's mold everywhere, so we're doing

606
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 3: molder mediation. People were cooking meth in the home, so

607
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,640
Speaker 3: we were doing decontamination from that. There was crime scenes,

608
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:47,920
Speaker 3: there was biohazard, you know, just out of the norm

609
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 3: type stuff that we were helping them with. And one

610
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:55,680
Speaker 3: day our rep said, would you be willing to take

611
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 3: work in the whole country? And I said, as long

612
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 3: as you're you know that I would be subcontracting it.

613
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 3: And she said, I don't care because you'll be managing

614
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 3: it and if you can do you know, what you're

615
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,479
Speaker 3: doing in Florida and just that would help us out greatly.

616
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:12,520
Speaker 3: So I hired a bunch of admins and we essentially

617
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 3: just started brokering out the whole country, hiring subcontractors to

618
00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 3: do exactly what we're doing in a different state. We

619
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 3: were doing Alaska, Hawaii, I mean, all fifty states, and

620
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:26,560
Speaker 3: so we had I had a system that was really

621
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,840
Speaker 3: flowing very well, and that's when I knew this is

622
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 3: easily replicable.

623
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 2: So how are you keeping that quality control? Where did

624
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:37,719
Speaker 2: you put them through your own training?

625
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 3: No, so I was hiring companies that were already in business,

626
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 3: and I would give them contracts and their criteria that

627
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 3: we required for that in order for them to get paid,

628
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 3: photographic proof of you know, very specific photos from very

629
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 3: different angles, time stamp, date stamp, and they had to

630
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 3: follow every step of the way in order for them

631
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 3: to get paid. And then we got a percentage, of course,

632
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 3: of every job that came in.

633
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:07,480
Speaker 2: So at what point did you start to think about

634
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:09,760
Speaker 2: a franchise model as opposed to I mean, it sounds

635
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 2: like this this model was working, this ubcontracting model.

636
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,239
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was until it wasn't so.

637
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 3: Right around twenty twelve, the quality started to take a dive,

638
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 3: and I think foreclosures started to kind of slow down

639
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 3: at that point, and we weren't getting the same response

640
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 3: from our subs that we used to get. They would

641
00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 3: say that they're going to do an estimate and get

642
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 3: take the photos, and then we wouldn't hear from them

643
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:34,720
Speaker 3: for days.

644
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 4: So the chain started to break a little bit.

645
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 3: And I was talking to my lawyer just about something

646
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 3: completely different, and I was kind of complaining about, man,

647
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 3: I can't believe these guys are just kind of passing

648
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 3: up easy, free work, and he said, you should really

649
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 3: franchise this. He said, you've already built this system. He said,

650
00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:55,400
Speaker 3: if you franchise it, you'll have people under your umbrella

651
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 3: that won't flake out like these guys. He's like, these

652
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:01,360
Speaker 3: are subs. You have no control over anything. So I

653
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:03,840
Speaker 3: kind of blew it off at first because I didn't

654
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 3: know anything about franchising or what it entailed. And then

655
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 3: we revisited it again in twenty fourteen, and I thought,

656
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:12,719
Speaker 3: you know what, let me, let me actually seriously look

657
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:15,239
Speaker 3: into this, and that's when I kind of decided to

658
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:17,760
Speaker 3: move forward with it, and so we started in twenty sixteen.

659
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 2: Franchising is no easy task. In order to copy and

660
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 2: paste your business, you have to create an extremely detailed

661
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 2: operations manual, especially considering the training needed for this type

662
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:30,800
Speaker 2: of work.

663
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:34,440
Speaker 3: When we hire them, we have an online training that

664
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 3: we created and then they ride with a supervisor for

665
00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 3: ninety days and they train that way kind of on

666
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:43,880
Speaker 3: the job. And that's the kind of the bad and

667
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,239
Speaker 3: the good is that you can't train for everything in

668
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 3: a classroom.

669
00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 4: You have to be physically fit to do this.

670
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:52,560
Speaker 3: You're wearing a full ppe, it's very very hot, a

671
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 3: respirator which compromises your breathing. You feel like you're breathing

672
00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,880
Speaker 3: out of a straw. And you're in sometimes difficult and

673
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 3: vironments rats, roaches, you know, just tight confined spaces. So

674
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:07,239
Speaker 3: you have to have a high level of empathy for

675
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:11,359
Speaker 3: the client, for the family. But then when you're cleaning up,

676
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 3: you have to have the mindset of it's just a mess.

677
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:17,439
Speaker 3: There's no person there, and if you don't know who

678
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:20,080
Speaker 3: they are, anything about them. Sometimes we don't even know

679
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:23,360
Speaker 3: their gender. You're just cleaning up spilled milk. It's just

680
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,879
Speaker 3: a mess, you're cleaning up. Don't look too far into it.

681
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,360
Speaker 3: Because for two reasons. One it's none of our business,

682
00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:31,640
Speaker 3: and two it just makes it more difficult for you.

683
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 4: So don't get emotionally attached.

684
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 3: Get in there with the purpose of I'm going to

685
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:40,280
Speaker 3: take this back to pre incident condition and help the family.

686
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:41,799
Speaker 4: That's the best way I can help them.

687
00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 2: I want to jump in here because this is one

688
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 2: of the first times here on this podcast that I'm

689
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:49,759
Speaker 2: airing a part of our conversation that I didn't necessarily

690
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:53,200
Speaker 2: agree with or feel one hundred percent comfortable with. What

691
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,319
Speaker 2: I love so much and hope to achieve with Sheep

692
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 2: Pivots is telling complex stories and all the aspects that

693
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,080
Speaker 2: come with the pivots. But with Laura, she had decided

694
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:05,280
Speaker 2: to elevate her business in an unexpected way through social media,

695
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 2: and as you can imagine, it gets gruesome. Her perspective

696
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,800
Speaker 2: here certainly brings up a debate on the ethical responsibilities

697
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 2: of companies for what and how they post. So let's

698
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,280
Speaker 2: talk about the social media presence. You have a pretty

699
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:21,320
Speaker 2: significant social media presence.

700
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 1: How did it start?

701
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that was quite the story as well. So

702
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 3: back in twenty twelve, I believe we've out of the blue.

703
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:33,240
Speaker 3: I just started getting all these calls from reality TV

704
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 3: show producers saying, we found your company, we love the concept,

705
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:40,399
Speaker 3: and we think it could be a reality show. And

706
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:42,840
Speaker 3: you know, of course I don't know anything about that industry.

707
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,759
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, can we fly people down follow you

708
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:50,400
Speaker 3: and create a sizzle? I'm like, okay, whatever. So that

709
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:55,280
Speaker 3: happened quite a bit. From twenty twelve to about twenty eighteen.

710
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:58,760
Speaker 3: We were probably under contract with I think six different

711
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:04,719
Speaker 3: companies separately and to pitch the idea. And what was

712
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:07,399
Speaker 3: going on is they were essentially pitching it to your

713
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:10,880
Speaker 3: normal TV you know, your A and E, your lifetime.

714
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 3: And I always knew that that was that was not

715
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:16,720
Speaker 3: the place for the show because it would it would

716
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 3: require too much censorship, and the whole point that is

717
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 3: people want to see what we do, and if you're

718
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 3: censoring all of that, then it's kind of a moot point.

719
00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 2: Instead, Laura decided to go in a different direction. Instead

720
00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 2: of working with the TV network, she hired a videographer

721
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:36,399
Speaker 2: an editor and began posting themselves and it took off,

722
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:37,879
Speaker 2: so to.

723
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 3: My surprise, within like the first couple months, we had

724
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:43,080
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand subscribers, and we were getting like the

725
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:46,520
Speaker 3: YouTube Award, and I'm like, wow, So there's clearly an

726
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 3: audience for this here. And you know, now we're almost

727
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:52,600
Speaker 3: to a million subscribers and TikTok blew up we're four

728
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:55,360
Speaker 3: and a half million there, and so that told me

729
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:58,600
Speaker 3: that there's definitely an audience for this and the approach

730
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,840
Speaker 3: that we are taking is the correct one because people

731
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:06,399
Speaker 3: are interested to know what happens when you die, what

732
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,279
Speaker 3: happens to the body. You know, it's just I think

733
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:10,320
Speaker 3: it's a common interest.

734
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:13,080
Speaker 2: How do you maintain there's a lot of conversation now

735
00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:17,760
Speaker 2: about what's accessible online's you know, what's available trigger.

736
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 1: Warnings, So how do you manage that?

737
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 2: I think it's you know, same part of the conversation

738
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 2: with the respect for the victims and the families.

739
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:27,520
Speaker 3: So I think a lot of that is the platform.

740
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:31,880
Speaker 3: So the platform I think has age restrictions on the

741
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 3: content that they can view.

742
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:35,240
Speaker 4: So we can put.

743
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 3: Trigger warnings, but I can't prevent some kid in Idaho

744
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 3: from from watching it if they lie about their age.

745
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:44,840
Speaker 3: And I don't feel that that's our responsibility. That's the parents'

746
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 3: responsibility to make sure that your kids are watching what

747
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:53,920
Speaker 3: you find acceptable. We certainly can't be responsible for everyone's

748
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 3: kids and what they watch.

749
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:57,200
Speaker 1: On many of the posts.

750
00:38:57,280 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 2: I'm actually not on TikTok, I am on Instagram, and

751
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,760
Speaker 2: so I've seen your Instagram posts and your YouTube posts,

752
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 2: and you do put commentary in them, you know, numbers

753
00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:09,839
Speaker 2: to suicide hotlines, you know, reminding people to check on.

754
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 1: Their loved ones.

755
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 2: But with the franchise model, a lot of your franchisees

756
00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 2: have their own accounts. So does that end up being

757
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:20,359
Speaker 2: a piece of your relationship with your franchises to make

758
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 2: sure they still provide the same level of responsibility, of content,

759
00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:26,800
Speaker 2: of empathy and have relationships fallen apart if they didn't.

760
00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:30,680
Speaker 3: Absolutely, so from a corporate level, we actually manage all

761
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,600
Speaker 3: their accounts in conjunction with them, so they're allowed to

762
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:38,320
Speaker 3: post to and obviously they have parameters that we provide,

763
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 3: you know, the privacy aspect of it and the empathetic

764
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:44,680
Speaker 3: you know, hand and stuff, and they have for the

765
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 3: most part, been very very good at keeping the brand

766
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 3: what it's supposed to be. My point of the social

767
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 3: media is educational, because I don't want people to be

768
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 3: afraid of death.

769
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 4: It's just a natural thing.

770
00:40:01,719 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 3: And I think by us bringing the attention to it,

771
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 3: I'm hoping that it opens up a conversation because this

772
00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 3: country does a really poor job at mental health awareness

773
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 3: and helping people that need it, and I would love

774
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:22,480
Speaker 3: for us to have open and honest conversations about the

775
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 3: status of mental health in our country.

776
00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:28,160
Speaker 4: And it's hard to be a kid today.

777
00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 3: You know, there was no social media when I was

778
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:33,560
Speaker 3: a kid, and I feel really bad for them because,

779
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:35,439
Speaker 3: you know, if you're getting bullied at school, you could

780
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:37,520
Speaker 3: just go home and then you're safe, But now you can't.

781
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:41,040
Speaker 3: You know, they're following you on social media, and so

782
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 3: I just think there just needs to be more open

783
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,160
Speaker 3: and honest conversations about what these kids are going through

784
00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:50,399
Speaker 3: and what people are going through, and maybe we could

785
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,800
Speaker 3: address us some of the mental health issues to get

786
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:56,240
Speaker 3: people some help that they desperately need.

787
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:57,839
Speaker 1: I actually hear like a.

788
00:40:57,760 --> 00:40:59,719
Speaker 2: Little bit of a tension between some of our last

789
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:03,240
Speaker 2: quest questions that you know, there's so much on social media,

790
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,040
Speaker 2: but also like it would be on the parents to

791
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 2: regulate what their kids can see. Like I maybe talk

792
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:10,440
Speaker 2: more frankly with my kids about death, I think than

793
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:15,360
Speaker 2: other people, but not nearly as explicitly probably as you do.

794
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:17,759
Speaker 2: Are the conversations that you have. And I think quite

795
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,120
Speaker 2: honestly that if my kids saw what was posted from

796
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 2: you know, from your business, I'd probably be upset about it.

797
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:26,280
Speaker 1: So how do you think about managing that tension?

798
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:29,879
Speaker 3: Well, I don't think there's what's it called where they

799
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 3: put limitations or restrictions on your kids' phones, and I

800
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 3: have that online. You know, they can't see certain things

801
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 3: and they're not of that age yet, and you shouldn't

802
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 3: be having that conversation like you know about My kids

803
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 3: are five, you know, so I'm not going to say,

804
00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:47,959
Speaker 3: you know, this is what happens when you someone decomposes

805
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:50,399
Speaker 3: like they're not ready for that yet. I would say

806
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:53,799
Speaker 3: more fifteen, we can probably start having that conversation. So

807
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:57,320
Speaker 3: there's obviously parental responsibility. You don't want kids watching porn.

808
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 3: You don't want to want a certain element of violence

809
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 3: and stuff, and our content is not meant for children,

810
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:06,440
Speaker 3: you know. We every video we have it states eighteen

811
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:10,320
Speaker 3: or older, and if the platform allows us, we always

812
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:13,279
Speaker 3: put a trigger warning to it. So I can only

813
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:16,799
Speaker 3: be responsible for what we put out. I can't be

814
00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:20,319
Speaker 3: responsible for you know, a random parent in Wisconsin that's

815
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:22,440
Speaker 3: not paying attention to what their ten year olds watching,

816
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,640
Speaker 3: you know, I think that's just normal curiosity for kids

817
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 3: as they grow up and adult as well.

818
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 4: So if you look at, you know, the.

819
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:33,399
Speaker 3: Most popular TV shows and podcasts on the internet, their

820
00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:39,120
Speaker 3: true crime, law enforcement, medical, people are obsessed with the unknown.

821
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:43,360
Speaker 3: And I think that's just normal human curiosity. And we

822
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:46,800
Speaker 3: are not glamorizing death by any means. We are saying,

823
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:50,359
Speaker 3: we were called here, this is what happened, and this

824
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:51,640
Speaker 3: is how we're going to handle it.

825
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 2: So talk to me about becoming a parent this. Did

826
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:56,600
Speaker 2: you always think that you would be a parent?

827
00:42:57,120 --> 00:42:57,239
Speaker 7: No.

828
00:42:58,719 --> 00:42:58,959
Speaker 4: Never.

829
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:03,120
Speaker 3: I had such a terrible upbringing that I always thought

830
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:05,759
Speaker 3: that I would never be a parent. You know, you

831
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:09,560
Speaker 3: tend to do, say, an act like your parents, right,

832
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:12,919
Speaker 3: because that's your role model growing up. And I had

833
00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 3: terrible role models, and I wanted to make sure that

834
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,879
Speaker 3: I didn't emulate them in any way, and I thought

835
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:21,680
Speaker 3: the safest way to avoid that would just to be

836
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,399
Speaker 3: not to have children. But then I got married and

837
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:29,160
Speaker 3: my wife at the time always wanted children, and a

838
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:32,400
Speaker 3: lot of children. So the compromise was we would have

839
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 3: one and kind of see how it goes and you know,

840
00:43:35,719 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 3: the whole time, I was just terrified because I didn't

841
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:43,880
Speaker 3: want to become my parents. So I constantly make a

842
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 3: conscious decision to literally be the opposite. I have kind

843
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 3: of created my work schedule around my family. So because

844
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,239
Speaker 3: we're a blended family, you know, I share custody with

845
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 3: my son and my partnership's custody with her daughter, and

846
00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:00,879
Speaker 3: they're the best of friends. They look like twins. They're

847
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,560
Speaker 3: both five years old. So we have a good time together.

848
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:07,640
Speaker 3: And I never really thought about what my life would

849
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:09,799
Speaker 3: be like, you know, as a family, because I never

850
00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:12,680
Speaker 3: considered it. And it's a lot of fun, and I

851
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 3: enjoy being with them, and I look forward to it,

852
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 3: and I make sure that I'm not working on the

853
00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 3: days that I have them because I want my full focus.

854
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 3: Because you don't get that time back, you don't. I mean,

855
00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:27,319
Speaker 3: you know that day is gone and I can't believe

856
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 3: they're already.

857
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:28,439
Speaker 4: Five years old.

858
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 1: What is something looking back?

859
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 2: This is going to be a broad question, but what

860
00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:37,080
Speaker 2: is something that at the time you thought was a

861
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:41,000
Speaker 2: negative and now you see it as having really propelled you.

862
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:46,600
Speaker 3: The military experience, I thought that you know that that

863
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:52,680
Speaker 3: experience was a complete negative, and it left me with

864
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:56,800
Speaker 3: a scarlet letter. It left me with the trauma of

865
00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:00,040
Speaker 3: what we went through, being locked up, being threatened, and

866
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 3: with you know, five years in prison, the whole bit.

867
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 3: I thought that that was devastating. And now I'm in hindsight,

868
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 3: you know, it's been twenty five years or more years,

869
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,680
Speaker 3: thirty almost, and I can say that from the position

870
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:17,440
Speaker 3: that I sit now, that that happened for me, not

871
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:21,440
Speaker 3: to me, and I was able to really take the

872
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:24,560
Speaker 3: good experience out of that, and it added just to

873
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:27,839
Speaker 3: my ability to survive. And I've had a lot of

874
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:31,719
Speaker 3: adversity and when I'm handed these things, I have to

875
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:35,000
Speaker 3: learn how to pivot and survive and turn it into

876
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 3: a good thing. Because you can sit there and dwell

877
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:39,640
Speaker 3: and cry on it and it won't make any bit

878
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:41,759
Speaker 3: of difference. So the best thing you can do is

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00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:43,920
Speaker 3: kind of have the mindset of turning these negative things

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00:45:43,960 --> 00:45:44,720
Speaker 3: into a positive.

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00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 2: You know, some of the commentary that we have around

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00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 2: this show generally is that it is always privileged to pivot,

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00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 2: and there is privilege in it. You've been low, like,

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00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:58,120
Speaker 2: you've seen a lot of adversity. What is your response

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00:45:58,160 --> 00:45:58,480
Speaker 2: to that.

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00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,400
Speaker 3: I would say that you're gonna get punched in the

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00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 3: face and at least once or twice in your life.

888
00:46:06,239 --> 00:46:09,480
Speaker 3: It's what you do in that moment that will define

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00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 3: you for the rest of your time. So if you're weak,

890
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:15,200
Speaker 3: you'll sit there and dwell on it and use it

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00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:18,399
Speaker 3: as a crutch and an excuse. Or you can see

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00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:23,080
Speaker 3: the value of what happened for you and pivot and

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00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:26,839
Speaker 3: turn that into something positive. We all face it, some

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00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:29,879
Speaker 3: more than others, but there's always a way out.

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00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:33,080
Speaker 1: This is so so great. Thank you so much.

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00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:37,840
Speaker 3: Oh it's my pleasure, no problem.

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00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:40,760
Speaker 2: Laura still lives in Florida with her wife and kids.

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00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 2: She's continuing to grow the business with no sign of stopping.

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00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:47,640
Speaker 2: While we usually tell our listeners to find out more

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00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:50,319
Speaker 2: about our guests on their social media pages, I have

901
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:53,200
Speaker 2: to say I'm not sure you'll find much about Laura there,

902
00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:56,359
Speaker 2: so head over to she Pivots the podcast to find

903
00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:57,400
Speaker 2: out more about Laura.

904
00:46:57,960 --> 00:46:58,840
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.

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00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,879
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to this episode of she Pivots, where

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00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,239
Speaker 2: I talk with women about how their experiences and significant

907
00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:11,359
Speaker 2: personal events led to their pivot and eventually their success.

908
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:15,160
Speaker 2: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at she Pivots

909
00:47:15,160 --> 00:47:17,920
Speaker 2: the podcast and leave a rating and comment if you

910
00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:20,759
Speaker 2: enjoyed this episode to help others learn about it. A

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00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:23,560
Speaker 2: special thank you to our partner Marie Claire and the

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00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:27,200
Speaker 2: team that made this episode possible. Talk to you next week.

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00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:36,080
Speaker 2: She Pivots is hosted by me Emily Tish Sussman, produced

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00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:40,000
Speaker 2: by Emily Eda Voloshik, with sound editing and mixing from

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00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:43,759
Speaker 2: Nina Pollock and research and planning from Christine Dickinson and

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00:47:43,840 --> 00:47:44,680
Speaker 2: Hannah Cousins.

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Speaker 4: I endorse she Pivots.