276 | Erin Colleen Arnett - An Expert on IT and Business Consulting

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Welcome to positive talk radio. Our goal is simple to explore evolving ideas, one conversation at a time. So stay with us. Right now. We present

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the entire time we've got an IT and business consulting coach, and she is with us. Her name is Aaron. Colin, our net. And she is talking to us from the key from Key West are the keys. And I think you just call it the keys. Yeah, the keys. I'm in the middle, you're in the middle of the keys. And welcome to the show. It's great to have you here. How are you? Thank you, Kevin. It's great to be here. When you you've been on the show before I have. But there's a couple things that we didn't get a chance to talk about. And I I find the coolest little nuggets and in our pretty little talk about what's going on with you and, and stuff like that. And and I wanted to talk about something that you called the 75 hard is that right? It's 75 hard? Yes, it's a challenge. And where to first of all, where did this challenge come from? Where did you find it? I was scrolling through YouTube one day watching somebody and she the girl on there was saying, you know, this is how I lost weight to Andy for Sella. He's amazing. So of course, you know, I clicked on it, how you lose weight. Wonderful. So it's a mindset challenge. You've got certain tasks that you have to do every single day and you do them for 75 days. If you miss one, you have to start back over at day one. Oh, wow. That would be that would really suck if you are like on day 70. Yes.

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Then that becomes 140 Day Challenge. Exactly.

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So what is that? What's involved with that challenge? It was sounded really like, like heart to me. Maybe that's to do two workouts a day. 45 minutes each and one of them has to be outdoors. You have to drink a gallon of water. You have zero cheat meals, zero alcohol. You have to read 10 pages in the entrepreneurial or self help book. And what was the last one? a gallon of water? I said that already? Didn't know. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Can you everyday Oh, and stick to some type of diet like I picked? I stuck with my macros.

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What's the macros? you balance your fat, your carbs and your protein? Oh, is that hard to do? Is it hard to put together? It's a little tricky. At first, there's math involved

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in algebra, I'm a computer nerd. So yeah. So my girlfriend did it with me. And she didn't eat any sugar. So that was her diet. So you pick some type of diet that you stick to? Well, she is sugar Holic before. Absolutely, it was very difficult. She messed up about day 2526 and had to start over. But she stuck with it. She finished it. And what were the results of doing that? Did you find that you lost a bunch of weight or you're feeling better or all of the above? Well, the interesting thing is that I only lost five pounds. But I went down to dress sizes. So I completely changed the composition of my body. Once I did that, like my body started changing, because you're doing two workouts a day. Like it could be walking even. But I just I I enjoyed it. It became a habit. And I still do it now to some extent. But just my mind, my mind became a lot freer and I was a lot happier. That was the biggest takeaway. And then I made some really, really good friends because there was a group of us that did it together. And we all cheered each other on. You would need to do that with a group of friends. Yes, yes. Yes. So we're still on a group text together. And it is hysterical.

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It was what I will have to have a group of them on to talk about that. Because I think that is something again, it's community. Yes. Oh, it was definitely I could not have done it without that support network at all. Well, I don't know how you could because you could be like, I don't know, it's a Sunday afternoon and your favorite football team is on and your brother in law's over and he brings a half case of beer and then he starts you know, watching the game and having beer and wings and you're sitting there with a celery stick and water and

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if you don't have somebody you can call and say help. I'm in trouble here. Oh, yeah. So I did it before football season I finished before football season. Because yeah, right now, I'm not sure I could pull it off. But there was one evening in particular. I was like, I don't want to do my second workout. I don't want to do it. But I just pictured my girlfriend's face and how disappointed she

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would be, so I'm out going for a walk at 1030 at night. But I got it done.

Unknown Speaker  5:08  
Well, congratulations, I think I think and uh, you know, the interesting thing is, you lost five pounds, but you've dropped two dress sizes, which means you firmed up and created more muscle, which also will help your metabolism that will help you be able to maintain that weight a much better than me than a regular diet. Absolutely. And I have maintained my weight. I've even stuffed it up a little bit at the gym since then. Oh, good for you. Confidence. You feel better. You look better. You wear better clothes. And you just you sit up a little bit straighter.

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Yep, you got all you got a whole nother wardrobe that you can play into now. Exactly. I was digging in the back of the claws.

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Like, Oh, I haven't worn this in forever. And the reason is, if it didn't fit now it does exactly. That bring out the strikes are supposed to go like this. And I kind of

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yeah, there's a couple of those. I have no idea what you're talking about.

Unknown Speaker  6:09  
Well, congratulations, I think and plus, I'm sure that your significant other thought that that was a pretty cool thing that were you able to convince of Well, first of all, do you have a significant other right now? No, but thanks for asking.

Unknown Speaker  6:22  
Do you want a significant other I can put the word out? You know, I wouldn't mind. It'd be nice. But unfortunately, you have to move to the keys well as or fortunately, yeah. There's a great place you can you can snorkel and you can scuba dive and you can go walk on the beach and and wait for the hurricane to come. And so the joke here, it's not a dating pool. It's more of a dating puddle?

Unknown Speaker  6:51  
Well, you know, I don't know how many people live in the keys. Do you have any idea and marathon there's about 8500 and Keywest. I think it's between 20 and 30,000. But like keys wide? I don't know the actual number. So that is a panel.

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There isn't a great deal of available, people that you would bet that aren't carrying around a trailer load of baggage.

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Well, my dad asked me one time he's like, why are you still single? I was like, Well, my standards are just a little bit too high. I need shoes, and a full set of teeth. So you know, they don't have to be all theirs. But you know, it's got to be like, you know, something? So he was here and it was offseason, he had to find a tire. So he had to go to a couple different shops and talk to some of the locals. And he comes back home after a while he's like you're fine. stay single. He got to meet some of the wildlife that lives here.

Unknown Speaker  7:51  
Well, I imagine it's a completely different lifestyle than most people are used to. It is it's very laid back. It's very slow paced. It's not like it is up on the quote mainland.

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So when you get when you get down there, and it's like, you got to fix the brakes on my car so I can drive it. I'll get around to it. It'll be I don't know, maybe I Gosh, I don't know, next week, week after I got it. I don't know, sometimes is that kind of how it goes? Yeah. And everybody knows everybody else. Like my mechanic. I love him to death, but he is slow as molasses. But he takes very good care of me. But I used to coach his daughters and swimming. And his wife is a very dear friend of mine. So he doesn't have a choice. He has to put up with me.

Unknown Speaker  8:40  
Well and his wife and his wife says to him, honey, Aaron's car needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed. Now put into the front of the list, please. Yes, exactly. So I don't call him I call her. Like, hey,

Unknown Speaker  8:54  
that's why you're an IT business consultant. Because you're pretty smart there. Yeah, and I trade a lot of services here because a lot of people need my services.

Unknown Speaker  9:07  
I can Oh, there's a computer here. I don't know how it works. Can you fix it for me, please? Yep, yep. I manage a lot of the small businesses here. Oh, good for you Good for you. Well, you know, that's that's a niche that you because you're also do

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real estate appraisal. And and you work doing that. And you also make T shirts and you're just an all around angst entrepreneur and you're also a business consultant. And you help people kind of figure out, make that transition from an entrepreneur to a business owner and that can be hard. Yes.

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Mostly most people become an entrepreneur because they don't want to have a boss.

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Don't want anybody telling them what to do. And then they realize, Oh, what did I just do?

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Exactly the last time I was in

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Loyd? Well, no, I worked for King County Metro, I drove a bus. But that was like, you could just go drive your bus and nobody would bother you all day. So it was easy. Yeah, you were fine. But when I was working for another guy in the, in the podcast or in the broadcasting industry, and he owned the show, and I was the host, and he would come up with all these ideas and tell me what to do, and, and stuff like that. And one day, he looked at me, and he said, you know, you're not very good employee.

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So

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it wasn't very long after that, that I no longer was the host of that show. Oh, yeah.

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It was like, Do what I say. and stuff. So yeah. Anyway, it's great to have you here. And

Unknown Speaker  10:47  
you're a lot of fun to talk to. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Well, yes, indeed. And we're gonna talk about your IT and business consultant in coaching and and how did you how did you get into that? Did you kind of fall into it? Because you're computer literate, and most people around you ate? Um, yes, I kind of developed it over the years. So I'm self taught with computers. I grew up around on my dad's and it was just something I always did. I worked for the government here for about 10 years. And you want to talk about having an employer. That was interesting stint, but I was the IT director here. So I gained a lot of new skills. It's a such a small community, you know, a lot of people and there was definitely a need for the IT, end of it. And then the business consulting is just something I enjoyed doing. So I fell right into it. I'd been doing it for years, I didn't realize it till I met Allison. And she, you know, pointed it out to me. And she's like, maybe you should do this for like a living. And I was like, huh, I was like, Let me think about that. And as I went around the next couple of days, I'm like, by golly, I'm already doing it. You might as well get paid for something you're already doing. Well, exactly. You know, and the people that you were working with, I'm sure we're just pleased as punch to be able to get that service for nothing. Right, exactly. They're like, what I gotta pay for it. Now. I understand.

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Because my times and then No, did you just tell them? Well, that's just the way it is? Or did you go through all of the while, you know, my time is valuable? And I'm busy. And I've got this time to do that? Did you explain it to him? And he just say, Well, you know what, you can hire somebody else. That's the kind of very nicely you know, well, you're more than welcome to go find somebody else. Or like, No, No, we're fine. We're fine.

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Like, okay.

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So if you had somebody if you knew somebody that was an entrepreneur that, that or was a, once an entrepreneur wannabe, that wanted to start their own business, what advice would you give them from the very first get go? Oh, a business plan? If you don't have it in writing, it's a hobby.

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You know,

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I wish you hadn't said that.

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Why?

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Do you have a hobby? Apparently, I do.

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Know, I have a consultant that works with me, her name is Holly. And she and one of the things that she's always said is, We need a business plan, we need to put together a business plan for you. And I said, Why don't I just selling a little advertising and want to do a few things like that, and, and I want to do podcasts, I want to do radio shows. And she said, Well, if you wanted to continue to do that, then you're gonna have to treat it as a business. So the other day she sent me an e a talk that someone who was having a five things you need to do if you're going to have a business and not a hobby, right?

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Listen to that. And and so I'm acting on that because I want this to be a viable business. Yeah, once you put it on paper, then it becomes real. And that's, that can be scary going into it. So one of the biggest things I do is help you boost your confidence. So you feel comfortable doing your business plan.

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And she put together the business plan, and it is like 26 pages long. Yeah, that normal? Yeah, yeah, I'm still working on mine, actually, because I do so many different things, to try to articulate it on a piece of paper. Yeah. And then in the future, if you ever want to get financing, if you need a loan, the bank is going to want that business plan. So it's very, very important. That's what she said. She also said for angel investors, or for folks that want to, you know, just invest in your business or they want to if you ever decide to sell stock and they want to buy stock, and they're going to want to look at all of that, all of that financial stuff, to make sure that they're not just throwing money down the drain. She sounds like a really smart girl, that she needed a job

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opening

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Did you have to move there? No, no, no, no you can do you can do things virtually these days. Oh, so let's talk about that for just a moment. And what kind of I'll interview you about it? What kind of opening? Is it? What would it be doing? Well, she could help me on the consulting end of it, the business consulting, just see if when my clients come in, be like, here, Holly provides these services. And she'll be working with you over here. Oh, very nice. And then she could do it because she lives up here. Yeah, she could do it. Because she's got a very unique resume. Oh, one of those.

Unknown Speaker  15:37  
Well, it's even more unique. I gotta, I gotta tell you, I met her.

Unknown Speaker  15:43  
Well, let me let me tell you the sad story. My mom died.

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And my sister who was in charge of the estate, had a funeral home that we would, that we were going to make arrangements with. And so we were going to do a zoom call. And shortly before the Zoom call the the person that was my sister's contact, called and said, I can't make it. But I've got an associate, who's a director that does all of this really, really well. And her name is Holly. So I get on the Zoom call a little early. And this is one of this is one of those things, by the way that happens, it has happened in my life that I consider

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a gift from God. Yes.

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Because so I get on the Zoom call just a little early. She sees you know, the headset that I've got to the microphone, and she got it. And she put two and two together because she's a smart girl. And she said, Are you in broadcasting? And I said, Well, I have a podcast. She said, I love podcasts. And I said, Wow, this is what it is. And you should go listen to it. She did. She liked it. And we are about ready to celebrate our one year anniversary of working together. Oh, that's wonderful. I love that I love when people are putting my life like that. Yes. And and so she works for me a couple of days a week, she still does Funeral Home stuff.

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And we in the course of our time together, she started out in the funeral home business by

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body removal. Oh.

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And

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the words are?

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Well, and you know, she just sort of told me some stories that would curl your hair about the likes about the 350 pound man that died on the toilet, and they couldn't. And so they had to call the fire department to get the guy out of an event. And then she worked in the crematorium.

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And she explained all how all of that worked. And then because my mom, you guys have very lively conversations.

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You have no idea. And but she's she's really is

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a really cool lady. I will have her call you. Okay, yes, please. And if you if you need somebody that gives you just she, as a matter of fact, the really cool part of the story is, when I met her, she was just finishing up her bachelor's degree in business.

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And so she was saying, Well, I can't do anything with you now because I'm finishing up my degree. And suddenly, she finished it early. And that was and so she got and she graduated from from business school. So she's got all this knowledge rattling around in your head of how to operate a business and how to help people do it, and stuff like that. And then she comes up with someone like me, who I'm not a very good employee, so it's hard for her to tell me what to do. Because I don't listen. So good. Right, that's where US business consultants come in. Because you're the talent you don't know the business side of it. You just you know, broadcasting because that's what you do. So you need people like Holly and people like me to come help you build your business to make sure it thrives. Exactly. And you're exactly right. Because if I could, if I could sit here and have conversations with you all day, five days a week or, and other people as well, and and everybody else handle all the other stuff. I would be just happy as I wouldn't be happy to nobody likes paperwork.

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Apparently somebody does, because he just did 26 pages of it. That's just

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so but it's for me, it doesn't. It doesn't work in my brain doesn't work with it. Yeah, you know, and, and then it was like, well, here is in and she showed me a document that was like 35 pages long. And she said, Well, first of all read this and then we'll build the business page based upon that because that's what she used for her for her schooling. And it was like for me, it's like the Charlie Brown talking to his teacher. Wow, wow. Wow. Wow. Read the same sentence.

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four times before you give up, you're like, I don't know what this is. I have no earthly idea how it works. And I really don't care, quite frankly, because that's not in my wheelhouse. Right, exactly. This is what I this is what I do and, and, and stuff, so, but I'm glad that there are people like they're out there like you who are able and willing to help people like me who otherwise would just flounder

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to to have a direction, and to really move forward in their in their career. Because most entrepreneurs are you they have a good heart, and they really have something out there that they feel whether it's the best chocolate chip cookie in the world, or it's a broadcasting company, or whatever it is. If you are passionate about it, you still need help. You need to help people who actually will say, gee, you don't have to we do the business plan. Then there's the market is like, Oh crap. Yeah, that marketing plan that see that the marketing is not my strong suit.

Unknown Speaker  21:05  
I've got a couple people that I use. I'm like, great, you just tell me what to do. And I'll go do it.

Unknown Speaker  21:11  
Oh, that is so cool. By the way, a good friend of mine that I did not ever know that she even listened to the show. Her name is Krista and she just liked it. So. So I'm glad she tuned in.

Unknown Speaker  21:24  
Yeah, so So being an IT coach and a and a business consultant in the keys. That must be just a nice, relaxing, fun sort of thing, or is there a lot of pressure involved? No, there's not much pressure, usually when I show up is because something's gone wrong. And they're usually very, very happy to see me.

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Because I'm here to fix the problem.

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Actually, when I first go into a business, it usually takes me a little while because I've got to undo what they've been doing for all those years, and then put it back together and organize it so it runs properly. And then after that, it's just so maintenance. So I really, really enjoy it is all small mom and pop maybe 30 employees at most. So we're not you know, we don't have big servers. We don't have big mainframes, we're just you know, small.

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Now, I gotta ask you, though, I want your opinion on this. Do you advocate the use of or the creation of

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maintenance contracts?

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Says since it's such a small town down here, I don't have to. But on the mainland, yes, I vote.

Unknown Speaker  22:36  
Because and for those of you that don't know what a maintenance contract is, I want you to tell me what is a maintenance contract? Well, it's where I come in, I maintain your computers for you on a regular basis, whether they're broken or not, I just show up every once in a while, and I make sure everything's running smoothly. And that it's all works and make my recommendations like this thing is getting a little old, we might want to update that and look, the rats chewed on that cord, again, it's gonna, you know, it doesn't have much life left in it. So down here, I have a lot of verbal maintenance contracts. But if I were to practice on the mainland, I would definitely have it in writing. And what they would do then is they would pay you a monthly fee. And then anytime that there was an issue, you would handle the issue. And you would do

Unknown Speaker  23:21  
regular maintenance of the equipment and that kind of thing. And that's what they ended up paying for. And it's kind of like insurance.

Unknown Speaker  23:28  
You know, the only thing that the only thing that I would suggest that somebody not do is if you are interested in buying somebody else's

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company that does preventative maintenance, don't because it's all a relationship. And a lot of times that individual will they'll pick that particular time. I don't know why, but then to reassess what they want to do and what they're spending. Yes, absolutely. So you can drive your you can buy a thriving business and drive it into oblivion in a couple of months. Yep, very very easily. Watch I watch it happen a lot here. Yeah, my I have a friend who did that to his daughter Believe it or not, oh no.

Unknown Speaker  24:19  
He sold her the company that and she was actually like the active secretary in the company. But she wasn't really the the driving mechanic but they had an a guy that could and this was in the printer business. And of course the printer business was also going away at the time.

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And so he sold it for good money to his daughter, and then it folded, so Ouch. I know and they still like each other that's pretty amazing. Okay, as long as they still like each other because you know families the other F word.

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You don't want to you make T shirts too, don't you? I do I make silly t shirt.

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shirts for fun. Not that.

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That needs to be on one of your T shirts. Oh yeah, we've got a list going

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like, Oh, God gave me red hair because he knew I needed a warning sign. That's my favorite.

Unknown Speaker  25:20  
I like that. But family is the other F word I that that is that could be a bumper sticker. That could be that's, that's a really cool. Oh, I can make magnets to that that would make a really good refrigerator magnet. Yes, yes, it would. And you also do business cards and that kind of stuff. Do you do printing and stuff? Not printing? No. But design graphics? Yes. Very, very good. Where'd you come up with all this talent?

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It's a natural. It's God given value that you have to ask my parents because it's just it's always been there.

Unknown Speaker  25:52  
And when you were a kid, how did it express itself? Well, I grew up Mormon, and Mormons do a lot of crafting. So

Unknown Speaker  26:01  
everybody in my family is very crafty. My little sister, she makes the T shirts too. So we joke back and forth that, you know, our childhood did very well for this hobby.

Unknown Speaker  26:15  
Know, Dale, are you are you still a practicing Mormon? No, I'm not. But it's it's it was a great religion to grow up. And it's very family oriented. And everybody in the Mormon religion is has been absolutely wonderful. I know all of them here. And they're just delightful people. They really are a good friend of mine. That's, that's a Mormon. And he's actually going to retire so that he can. He's in a financial position where he can retire. And you can I guess do this and become a missionary for them somewhere anywhere in the world. And there he and his wife are willing to go anywhere that they're gonna send them. Yeah, we have an elder couple here right now in town. We get together and have dinner every once in a while. And they're from California. So they're in the financial position that they'll be here for a couple years as missionaries. Yeah, I found that to be a really interesting idea. That is a great concept. Yeah, my parents did it to once empty nesters, yes, they have seven children together. That is that is a common that's like the that's like the average of a Mormon family, that small Mormon family.

Unknown Speaker  27:26  
My mom was always in competition with her brothers. So one of her brothers has nine kids and the other one had six kids. Then it became a competition of who had the more grandkids.

Unknown Speaker  27:39  
So I think that's so funny that your your sister had a competition with her brothers. And and if the wife's weren't involved, it's like, well, what about me? I'm the one asking you to do this. You just get the fun part.

Unknown Speaker  27:53  
Yeah. And so my mom's youngest brother, his wife, she would get epidurals when she would give birth. And my dad was like, I'm glad they didn't have that when your mom was pregnant, because we would have a whole bunch more kids.

Unknown Speaker  28:09  
My mom was over the age that my dad wasn't allowed in the delivery room, they would just come and bring them a baby.

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Congratulations.

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When I was when I was born, I was the youngest of three. I was born in 1957. And my mom said in the morning, I think I'm going into labor. So my dad packed her in the car, took her to the hospital, dropped her off to work,

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came back after work. And I was there. Oh, it's amazing.

Unknown Speaker  28:45  
It's amazing how times have changed. Yeah. So my sister when she was giving birth to my dad's granddaughter, he got to be in the room and he was very uncomfortable. He did not like it at all.

Unknown Speaker  29:00  
That's one of those things you have to prepare yourself for? Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So I was I was in the room for both of my children's birth. And it was like, Okay, I'm concerned with this part. This is the head. Yeah. I'm gonna be concerned with that. You guys take care of all that stuff.

Unknown Speaker  29:19  
My husband was crouched right here at my head. He did not move the entire time. He was just I'm right here. I'm right here. And so my mom because she had so many kids. By the time I had kids, we had the same gynecologist. So the gynecologist down there with my mom going, okay, but now you were like this and your daughter's like that. And he's just, you know, you've got your legs up in the stirrups. It's like wow.

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And she's like, What, honey, I'm fine.

Unknown Speaker  29:52  
But it was neat that we had the same gynecologist. She delivered my little sister. She delivered my niece and she delivered my two kids. How

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was she when she delivered your kids?

Unknown Speaker  30:03  
I'm one of the older kids. And so I'm 10 years older than my baby sister. And then my kids are 10 years, but so it's me. 10 years, my baby sister 10 years, my kids. So she was in practice like 30 something years. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it's, it's good work down there because usually you don't have to retire because not a lot of competition. Right, exactly.

Unknown Speaker  30:27  
And in fact, if you do retire, somebody's gonna say, but but but no, wait. Yeah, yeah. It's like you can't retire. Well, my mechanic keeps threatening to retire. I'm like, you're not allowed to retire. What am I supposed to do if you retire? I'm not allowing this.

Unknown Speaker  30:43  
So I'll be showing up at your house. Exactly. Which, you know, is it does he work for himself? Yes, of course. Yes. Is he? We have to see around here. It's a little bit different than that. But everybody, but down there, everybody kind of just runs their own thing and doesn't Yeah, it's one of those. He's either second or third generation mechanic. I know, he had the newspaper clipping when his father bought the building that he's still in for maybe $60,000. Like, way back when? And yeah.

Unknown Speaker  31:21  
You know, times have changed so much. Oh, my goodness, I'm glad that there are areas of the country that are still kind of operating in that old southern style of relaxed so but, but the difference is, you've got different food than than they do in like,

Unknown Speaker  31:41  
you know, the heavy gravies and stuff like that. You don't have that necessarily. You got a lot more seafood and stuff. Yeah, yeah, we will. When you eat fish, it was swimming in the ocean that morning. So I've come a little bit like a fish snob. Like I don't eat fish at certain restaurants. And if I leave the keys, I definitely don't eat fish.

Unknown Speaker  32:01  
It's just different. Now, the there's shrimp down there too, right? Yes. The Key West pink Trump. And is it do you see Forrest Gump there ever? I've seen the movie.

Unknown Speaker  32:17  
I've never seen him down here. No, no.

Unknown Speaker  32:20  
By the way, I gotta ask you because you've got a beautiful picture in your background. What is that? Yes. That's Audrey Hepburn.

Unknown Speaker  32:26  
Oh, very nice. Yeah. And then I finally got my dar certificate. I am a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. That took quite a bit to get that. Wow, that's that's really cool. You know,

Unknown Speaker  32:43  
Holly, I fried bring her up again. Just having a birthday. So I just turned 65 and I on September 11.

Unknown Speaker  32:52  
Thank you very much. And her birthday gift to me was for six months. Every month I'm going to get a actual Wealdstone an actual but it's going to be a a copy of an historical document. Oh, that sounds something right up your alley. It really is. Because I like I like history. I like learning more about stuff like that. And, and, and it comes with a

Unknown Speaker  33:17  
I don't know why I haven't seen it yet. So I'm gonna get one in October. But but that's the that's kind of thing. That's the kind of thing I would hang on my wall. Yeah. Back then. Yeah, yeah. I'm very proud of that. Like the paperwork, the amount of genealogy involved in the mount.

Unknown Speaker  33:32  
Government documents. Yeah, there was a lot. So my dad had fun getting that for me.

Unknown Speaker  33:39  
That's awesome. That's awesome. By the way, I wanted to mention because I interviewed a gown a couple of weeks ago and her family was decimated by the Holocaust. So much so that she didn't she was Jewish. And her father was she wasn't born yet. But her father was in the camps and eventually escaped. But when she wrote a book, she wrote her book, which is called identity from Holocaust to home. And we did a trailer movie trailer for her. We've produced that for her, which is really cool looking. And in any event,

Unknown Speaker  34:13  
she had a gentleman in Australia, who put together a family tree now he was Mormon. And the as you know, the genealogy in the in the Mormon church is really really extensive. So she learned a whole generation of people that she didn't even know existed. Yeah. Oh, no, they the technology they have put into their their genealogy is like astounding. They have family sis, family history centers at almost every church that the public can go and use and then just the extent of information they have, and they keep adding more and more resources. Like Find a Grave. You can go and find gravestones, and they're documented. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So the LDS church has purchased Find A Grave

Unknown Speaker  35:00  
So there are people wandering around taking pictures of headstones. Yes, yes. I had no idea. Yep.

Unknown Speaker  35:08  
I was a little creeped out at first, but now it's normal. I was like, what?

Unknown Speaker  35:14  
When I was growing up, I we live next to the cemetery. So I even got thrown by my older brother into a grave that had just been dug. Oh, that's horrible. That sounds like something a brother would do. He thought it was pretty damn funny, quite frankly. Did he get in trouble when you got home? No.

Unknown Speaker  35:34  
Do not to say anything. It was well, I'd see. I didn't consider that to be a big deal at the time, but it would have been a bigger deal now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He had he had to help me out because six feet down was a long way for a little kid. Yeah, exactly. How old were you? I was like, five. Oh, you were weighed.

Unknown Speaker  35:56  
was like, wow, somebody better help me out of here.

Unknown Speaker  36:00  
You know, so but but that's the other thing is that there was a crematorium there. And it creeped us out when the smoke was coming out of the burning people. Yes, yes. And you know, we

Unknown Speaker  36:14  
I loved when we can talk about just about anything and everything and you're just delightful. crematoriums have come up twice. And

Unknown Speaker  36:24  
apparently, I'm fixated on them

Unknown Speaker  36:27  
that way.

Unknown Speaker  36:29  
So it's been, it's been great to talk to you. But let's, let's go over some details. If you want to find out more about about Aaron go to pearls of wisdom by erin.com. And that's e r i n because I am an Irish girl and not a Jewish boy.

Unknown Speaker  36:50  
I'm sure that's come up before. Yeah, Siri doesn't know the difference.

Unknown Speaker  36:57  
Can you imagine when you gave me years ago, when I remember the days before there was answering machines that were way back? Yeah. Where you know, rotary phones and answering and no answering machines. And so if if, if the line was busy, you knew somebody was home. So you would keep dialing back? And nobody answered the phone, you have no idea. But then the answering machine and all of that came up? And then but can you imagine living in those days and saying, you know, one day, there's going to be a device where you can just call out what you want? And it will answer you. Yes, sometimes it's right. And sometimes it's not.

Unknown Speaker  37:42  
That's right. It depends on your pronunciation and, and what others understand. So yes, Siri doesn't like me unless I enunciate clearly and efficiently. Exactly. Exactly. So if somebody wants to get in contact with you, as an example, if somebody would like to hire you as a business coach, business consultant, how do they do that? Well, like you said, pearls of wisdom by erin.com, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm on LinkedIn.

Unknown Speaker  38:11  
See, no tic tac I'm not only videos, and we're not up to that yet.

Unknown Speaker  38:17  
Well, the thing about Tiktok that I've noticed is that the the ones that get a lot of hits are not wearing many clothes. Yeah, yeah. And I'm not not going there. This is the big thing is, and this is for all the kids out there because I'm old, and I can say this No, is that don't do anything online that you're going to regret when you're 50.

Unknown Speaker  38:42  
They're like, what, I'm not going to regret this. This is fine. Like, okay, okay, well, when you're 50, and the church Deacon brings you down and says, do you recall doing this when you were a kid and showed up on the on my feed? And I just want it you know, so? Yes, I'm very grateful that there was no tick tock or Instagram when I was in high school. Oh, no kidding. No kidding. I made a mess of that. So

Unknown Speaker  39:09  
I would have had to have been self employed.

Unknown Speaker  39:13  
Yes, well, you know, but being self employed is good, isn't it? Oh, I'm enjoying it.

Unknown Speaker  39:19  
But how many hours a week do you work doing what you do? Oh, well, that's the thing. I love doing it. So I'm never not working. So even if I'm at home, I'm still working like the phone will ring or I'll have an idea. Let me jot it down. I mean, it's always it doesn't feel like work. It's it's Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  39:39  
Well, that that makes it easy. Yeah. And like, you know, I'm going laying in bed at night and you know, I'm like, piecing things together and Oh, I gotta do this and then that and like, so it's just it's always on.

Unknown Speaker  39:51  
I'm the same way. Yeah. You know, because this is, this is what I call work. Now. I'm retired. Technically, I'm retired now because I was driving up

Unknown Speaker  40:00  
So now I can so here I am. And but this is what I would call work and but it's not this is just, it's just pure joy that I can I can talk to someone like you we can have a good time. And, and we can also talk about some stuff that can have meaningful people. Yes, absolutely. That's the whole point. Exactly. I wanted them to have you mentioned because there's an event coming up in October that you're going to be part of there is power, yes, you're gonna be speaking at it, you're gonna be onstage just like, just like if you were doing a TED talk or something, exactly, I'm giving a keynote speech. Last year was my first time being on stage at behind the power. So I'll be the back again this year. And I'm very excited. It's the 19th, the 20 and the 21st of October, and it's in Atlanta, Georgia. But there are in person tickets, and also virtual tickets available. And from what I understand, they've gotten a great IT team that is going to be an audiovisual team, yes, it's going to be able to put that together and to and to make it seamless so that you can be online. And it's almost like being there not quite, because you're gonna miss some of the breakout rooms and things but and the hugs, you're gonna miss the hugs. The hugs are a big deal. Right? And you'll miss the pool on the top floor of the hotel as well. I know I was. I was looking forward to that. Unfortunately, I have to miss that. But I will take pictures and be sure to send them to you. Don't worry. I appreciate that. I discussed it already.

Unknown Speaker  41:32  
Yes, yes, we have. Well, and the cool thing is, is that if you decide to make a little mini vacation out of it, I have, you can because you can fly in on Tuesday, spends and spend on Tuesday night, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then leave Saturday. Yes. And so and that's all inclusive in the hotel. That's

Unknown Speaker  41:57  
lunches included. There's a great in hotel, a restaurant, there's shops right there, within walking distance. Yeah. So it's it's and like I like we said, By the way, if you if you weren't paying attention, and it will be on YouTube and positive talk radio.net. And that is we did a conference where we did a show yesterday on KK and W with all 13 coaches, plus, Allison plus me all doing the show at the same time, which could have been a real disaster. But we're all professional. So it went off without a hitch. It was just amazing that Yes. And everybody everybody got to say what they're doing. And what I found was that during the course of the three days, the keynote speakers, are the speakers are covering a really broad range of issues. Oh, yes, there's all kinds of different issues. So you're gonna get so much out of it. Because it's not just one topic. Everybody's got a little bit different, something a little bit different to talk about, all the way from sexual abuse, sexual abuse, to chemical dependency to narcissism to a bunch of what I forget what what John is going to talk about as important. You remember the tenancy code? That's it codependency? Yes. Oh, he's amazing. I love him so much. He's so intelligent. Oh, I love having conversations with him.

Unknown Speaker  43:28  
And he is he is one of the smarter men on the planet because he's completely surrounded by women. Yeah, right. He's no dummy. What's your wish means two things. Number one, you've got free access to the men's room.

Unknown Speaker  43:43  
And two, you get to talk to a bunch of really smart people who are dedicated to each other and dedicated to the process. Exactly. And his wife's in the program with us. And she gives the best hugs ever.

Unknown Speaker  43:57  
And she also is a painter who does soul painting. Yes, she is so talented. She did one for me last year. And I have a reading with her actually on Monday that I am super excited about. Like she just looks in your soul and tells you things and oh my goodness. Wow. Experience. And and she does it all with the intent of giving you the tools that you need to create a better life for yourself. Exactly. A better soul connection. Yeah. So most of the ladies in the group, there are animal communicators, or they're intuitive. They're all very, very spiritual. And then I join and I'm like, Well, I can fix computers. And they're like, Oh, my goodness, that's so amazing. I'm like, you can talk to animals. Like I could just fix a computer. Yeah, but if you don't know how to fix a computer it is and your computer goes down. Yours today in today's world. Yeah. You're yours. Your water. Yeah, do anything. Yeah, you can't see behind me by

Unknown Speaker  45:00  
There's a pile of computers waiting to be fixed.

Unknown Speaker  45:04  
Are they all yours? Or theirs? Oh, no, they're all somebody else's.

Unknown Speaker  45:09  
I have one computer. And as you are, I'm on it right now. And so, but you also get into the guts of the computer and work on the I do computer repair. If you need to upgrade your hard drive or your hard drive failed, you need a new laptop. Yeah, new monitors the whole Yeah, I'll get into the guts of it. Absolutely. Are you finding that because the price is coming down so much that people are just throwing their computer when replacing them or, but there's a lot of information on their computer that they have there. I do a lot of taking the old computer and putting it on the new computer. But prices on computers haven't come down. They're still going up there, they're expensive to replace. Wow, that's that then don't replace them?

Unknown Speaker  45:56  
Well, I can get special deals, I can get refurbished, still certified computers that have a warranty left on them. One of my superpowers is I asked you a whole bunch of questions, I figured out what you need, and then I go get it for you. And then when I hand it to you, it's already set up and it's got backup. And you don't have to think about it. And it just works. So so how much does a like a

Unknown Speaker  46:22  
pretty good, not great, but a pretty good laptop cost these days? Oh, a minimum of 1000. Wow, yeah, that's gonna be your base price. And then you have to load in all this stuff and all that kind of stuff. So you have to have your Microsoft subscription. That's a must have these days? And yeah, if you want the bigger hard drive, if you want more memory. Yep, well, well, what I'm looking to do is to get a laptop that I can do remote broadcasts, using the laptop and stream yard and a couple of headsets with microphones. I think that'll work. Do you think that'll work? Oh, yeah, I've done it before. My daughter's real big into broadcasting. So yeah, we've definitely done that from laptops, you would have to get one with a better graphics card. That's where the big bucks come in.

Unknown Speaker  47:14  
What did she do in broadcasting, she, it's a hobby of hers. So she's always done it RoosterTeeth, Florida, it's a production company. It's a community group that she used to run. Now she's a grown up and she's got a real job.

Unknown Speaker  47:29  
So she doesn't do that as much anymore. But it's definitely one of her hobbies. Well, I tell you this is this is a hobby that I'm trying to take into a business. And we'll see how that works. But, but what I'm finding is, is that, well, I'll tell you what we just did for somebody, the gap that I was telling you about about the book from the Holocaust, we took that I wrote copy for it, I voiced it I voiced the segment, which is three minutes long about the book about the story. And then we created a music behind it and created a film to go on top of it that's got pictures and, and period pieces from the time and all that kind of stuff. It really I think looks professionally done. And professional. I suppose it should.

Unknown Speaker  48:20  
That's what I was thinking aren't you are professional? No, but you know, it's, it's, I've been always been an audio guy. And everything is so specialized these days. Like you say I'm in computers. Well, do you do websites? Do you do computer repair? Do you do networking? Like you got to be specific? Like your audio? You don't do video? Yeah, I've never gotten into that. But I've got an assistant who's really gifted at it. Yeah. And so it's it takes a special talent. I've dabbled in it. And there's a lot and it changes so fast. New technology is always coming out. Oh, I know. So. And my nephew is he does programming and he knows like seven or eight computer languages and still has to go to school to learn more. Yeah, it's always changing. always moving. always growing. Yeah. So do you have to do that as well? No. Oh, yeah. Keep up with it. Yes. But on the business end, it changes a little bit slower. Because business owners they buy a computer and they want to keep it for a long time. Because Exactly. They don't like to upgrade and I don't blame them. It's usually a big production. Yeah. And then you can lose stuff and and, and they want to basically they want it for what they want it for. And if it works, it works. And then you have to come fix it. Yeah, so I imagine you are really really popular. Yeah, yeah, they they either your best friend or your worst.

Unknown Speaker  49:47  
I had a lady who she'd been asking me for years about upgrading her computer and like yeah, sure, sure. Well, it finally died and she brought it to me. This computer. I think it was from the 90s I

Unknown Speaker  50:01  
So I get her new one, I got most of the information moved over like most of it. And she's like, I don't know how to use this computer.

Unknown Speaker  50:11  
It's like, well, my hourly rate is.

Unknown Speaker  50:15  
But it was a challenge because like, I had to go in the Wayback Machine. I'm like, I don't remember how to use this.

Unknown Speaker  50:23  
That's, that's it. That's amazing. Because it my mom did went through computers and cell phones and cell phones. And because

Unknown Speaker  50:34  
I guess you get to a certain point and you don't, it's difficult for you to understand how it would be different. And how does it work? And so it was very complicated for her. The older I get, the less I like, change. It's amazing. Can you Can she was 90.

Unknown Speaker  50:53  
So when you don't like change? Very much. No, no, no, no.

Unknown Speaker  50:59  
And you know, they did something that you and I had to laugh at her because she she always liked to go play bridge. Have you ever played bridge Do you ever have? That is a dying game? Is is like the old card games? Yes. Yeah, that's an old people card game that was that used to be the rage when I was a kid. There was they had bridge parties all the time. I never learned to play. But my parents would go to bridge parties. And they all understood how to play. Now the kids, nobody, nobody under 50, I think has any idea.

Unknown Speaker  51:35  
If we have a yacht club here, and that's usually they have their bridge club. Absolutely. I think they have a knitting club too.

Unknown Speaker  51:45  
It's a nice relaxing time. Exactly. Oh, by the way, we've been talking with Aaron Colleen our net and I have to sadly, we have to go. But before we go, I want to make sure that you have a couple of moments to tell our audience anything that you would like them to know, the ones that are listening now or the ones that are going to listen to this in the future. Behind the power the book comes out during the event it'll be launching on Amazon prior to behind the event.com are behind the power event.com tickets are still available. So please, please, please come and see me up on stage. And we're looking that'll be great fun, I'm gonna be there digitally.

Unknown Speaker  52:29  
So that so that we can be there by the way. Do you know a gal by the name of Kim Michelada? I do know Kim. She's up next. Oh, she's amazing. You're gonna have a great conversation with her. And what are we going to talk about? I don't know. I'm not an intuitive like these girls.

Unknown Speaker  52:49  
So she's she's an intuitive and and she does soul work. And she works with folks. And then Lee is she's another one of those very intelligent, very just like beautiful, beautiful soul. Wonderful. And I'm going to tell you said that. Okay, good.

Unknown Speaker  53:07  
Make me very happy. So Erin, thank you for being here. And

Unknown Speaker  53:13  
it is now almost six o'clock your time? Yeah, it's now time to go have a fish brew lay or or something along those lines? Or maybe a steak? I don't know.

Unknown Speaker  53:26  
So you have yourself a wonderful day. All right, you too. Thank you, Jay. If you wait right, this, stay right there. And I'll be right back, by the way. Remember, go to Allison roberts.com To find out more about behind the power. And it's going to be a great presentation, and everybody should go. And thank you very much. You were right there. Hey, thanks for enjoying this episode all the way to the end. Please give us a like and subscribe to this channel. This has been a production of positive talk radio.net Please visit our website oddly named positive talk radio.net For more details about us and our mission, which is to provide great positive programming designed to inspire us all. I'm Kevin McDonald. I'm proud of these shows, and I truly hope that you'll like them and share them with friends and family. So on behalf of our entire team, remember, be kind to one another because each other's all we got to do