Tell Us Your Story - Northern California
Welcome to Tell Us Your Story, the podcast that tells the diverse stories of businesses, leaders, and influencers throughout Northern California. Our mission is to ignite inspiration, foster education, and bring our community together. Join us as we unravel the path to achievement, discovering how these remarkable businesses and leaders navigated obstacles, conquered hardships, and transformed failures into success. Their stories will leave you reinvigorated and inspired with invaluable leadership insights and equipped with practical advice to overcome the challenges on your journey towards success.
Tell Us Your Story - Northern California
Overcoming The Odds, Figuring Out Who You Really Are, and Balancing Work and Wellness with Yvonne Pire.
The airwaves come alive with the season two premiere of Tell Us Your Story Northern California! This episode isn't just a chronicle; it's a voyage through the formidable life of Yvonne Pire, whose journey from a turbulent childhood to a distinguished Air Force career and onto entrepreneurial success embodies the spirit of our community. Yvonne, with her blend of tenacity and grace, illustrates not only personal triumph but also the wisdom she's gleaned from a life that's been anything but ordinary. Her story is one of grit and the transformative power of embracing the full spectrum of life's experiences.
Transforming from Yvonne's early struggles of chaos and abuse to the empowering atmosphere of her creation The Rising Zone, where the integration of work and wellness forms the heartbeat of her vision. Key in on the following themes that are weaved throughout Yvonne's story:
- Overcoming the Odds: A story of resilience and tenacity. From a tumultuous upbringing that seemed insurmountable, she defied the odds and became a symbol of hope. Engross yourself with the narrative of Yvonne's life, showcasing the strength of the human spirit in overcoming adversity.
- Taking Risks: Discussing the decisions she made, the leaps of faith she took, and the valuable insights gained from navigating uncharted territories. Her journey serves as an inspiring testament to the transformative power of taking risks.
- Passion for Work and Wellness: A central theme revolves around Yvonne's fervent commitment to both work and wellness. Yvonne's dedication to this dual focus shines through in her innovative approach to coworking, striking a harmonious balance between work and a healthy lifestyle.
Then there's the Rising Zone itself – a sanctuary where the balance between strength and serenity is not just a concept, but a practice. Here, Yvonne's commitment to wellness echoes in every corner, from the Strength Zone that echoes with the clink of weights to the Zen Zone, a serene space for minds seeking quietude. She emphasizes the importance of creating a space that not only fosters productivity but also prioritizes personal well-being. Her reflections on aging, self-awareness, and the richness of life are reminders that our journey doesn't end with success; it evolves with the wisdom we gather along the way. Join us, as we're not just sharing stories—we're igniting the flames of inspiration that will light up Northern California and beyond.
Welcome back season two, episode one, and we have made some very exciting changes. First, new brand Telesha Story Northern California. We have new guests and we are actually sitting in what we call the studio at the Rising Zone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been an exciting couple of months. It's been an exciting year. I remember when we started this together, I said I'd give it a year. Here we are. We are shifting. We're going to tell us your story, northern California. So we're actually going smaller to go bigger, as we were going through, and we started that podcast that was focused on leadership and it was focused on sales and those skills, and I loved it. But we did 40 interviews and what we found is the lessons of leadership and sales and life aren't everybody's unique journey, and so we've evolved and now we're going to be telling the stories of the businesses, the influencers, the restaurants, the wineries of Northern California, and how all of you are listeners, can take advantage of their services, you can engage with them, and we hope to do a fantastic job of just really taking everybody on the journey of those around in our community, what they do, how they do it and how they got to where they're at.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our network has definitely expanded. We have some I know we are always excited, but we have some impressive guests on the docket that are coming up and I'm just really looking forward to listeners getting to hear it. And as we grow our you know, podcasts and listener community, it's just opening so many doors. So I'm excited for the stories to be shared and the stories to come.
Speaker 2:I am as well, and as we sit here in what, like I said, we call our studio at the Rising Zone, I've been an incredible partner. Looking forward to really explaining in this episode what the Rising Zone is, where the Rising Zone is and who came up with this vision of where we're sitting today, in this particular studio.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Tell Us your Story, the podcast that tells the diverse stories of businesses, leaders and influencers throughout Northern California. Our mission is to ignite inspiration, foster education and bring our community together. Join us as we unravel the path to achievement, discovering how these remarkable businesses and leaders navigated obstacles, conquered hardships and transformed failures into success.
Speaker 2:In this episode we're going to speak with Yvonne Pyer, the CEO and founder of the Rising Zone, an Air Force veteran, an incredible mother and a very successful businesswoman. She's going to walk us through her journey and it's an incredible story. It starts with her as a youth and the obstacles she had to overcome with sexual abuse, her transition into the Air Force and then into civilian life, building a business, going through a divorce and then coming out on the other side in her 50s refreshed, re-energized and starting over with a new business in the Rising Zone. So you're going to be able to walk away with a lot of lessons today.
Speaker 2:Three things to key in on overcoming the odds. It's a theme throughout Yvonne's life. She's overcome the odds from the time she was a child and she's doing it again with the opening of the Rising Zone. That leads right into taking risks. As you listen to her and what she's done and the decisions that she's made throughout her life. Another theme is all of the risks that she's taken and how she's come out on the other and successful. And then her passions work and wellness. As we sit in the Rising Zone, as you walk through this building, you can see how she's incorporated wellness into a shared workspace. So sit back, relax and enjoy this episode of Tell Us your Story.
Speaker 3:I claim Mesquite Texas is where I grew up, oh really. However, when my mom actually looked back and counted how many times we moved, I moved 21 times before I was 16.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh that's crazy, so was it just you and your mom, or tell us a little bit about your family setup.
Speaker 3:So my mom got pregnant with me when she was 16 years old, got married, moved from Colorado Springs to Rochester, New York that's where I was born and I lived there until we left my dad when I was four years old and while we were there, because she was so young and there was a lot of alcoholism in both sides of the family, so they kind of jumped from home to home, staying with different friends and family.
Speaker 2:So both your mom and dad. So you as a family and were you the only child up to four?
Speaker 3:No, my brother was born. I have a younger brother that was born. He's two and a half years younger than me.
Speaker 2:Okay, and so left when I was four. So how would you describe your middle class, lower class, upper class? You're jumping from home to home. How would you? We were definitely lower class Okay and when you guys moved, when you were four, you moved back to.
Speaker 3:So from when we left my father when I was four, we went back to Colorado Springs where my mom's family was all from, and again now, at that time it was me and my brother and my mom and we jumped around. You know, she just lived with different friends and family again until she met another man and got married when I was six, got married to my stepfather.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're six, your brother's about three and a half four, and then been away from dad for two years. Is he in the picture? Not at all, not at all for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3:For the rest, Until I found him. I found him when I was 18.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're going to come back to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah or we'll get to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll get to that when they get married? Do you settle in one place or is there still a lot of jumping around between families?
Speaker 3:No, we ended up moving from. We lived in Colorado Springs for a while. We moved to Texas, then we moved back to Colorado Springs, then we moved back to Texas. My mom was with him for four years and it was a really horrible, abusive life for my younger brother and I. They had another son, and so I have my baby brother, who's about eight years younger than me.
Speaker 2:Okay, and did you call him your stepdad?
Speaker 3:Yes, but he actually became my legal father. To this day, he's actually still my birth certificate, Okay so he's dad. No, he was at the time. He was at the time At the time, yes, he was dad.
Speaker 2:Okay, and what did he do for a living?
Speaker 3:He also was in the Army, so I left that part out. But my father was in the Army, stationed in Colorado Springs when he got my mom pregnant and then, when she moved back to Colorado Springs, she met another Army guy that was my stepdad. He was in the Army.
Speaker 2:Okay, 10 years old, let's come back to 10 years old. And so do you settle in one place.
Speaker 3:No, my mom, we were with my stepfather from the age of well. They married when I was around six but at 10, my mom left my stepdad. That's when she found out about some. She found out about the abuse with me and we had, at that time we had left Colorado Springs.
Speaker 3:No, I'm sorry, we were in Texas. We left him in Texas and moved to Colorado Springs. So my mom just backed up her whole trailer and left all of our favorite Christmas decorations behind and went to Colorado, went back to Texas. Oh, so from Texas back to Colorado Springs. And then, when we were in Colorado Springs, that's when my mom, when we were in Colorado Springs, that's when my mom actually really hit her hard, that she was raising three kids on her own and the abuse that she found out about and she ended up almost killing herself. And while we were watching Dukes of Hazard, the police came because my grandmother, fortunately, had heard her on the phone and called 911 or I guess whatever if they had 911 back then, and so after that we went into foster care for two years.
Speaker 2:Oh wow. So let's go back a little bit. I'm going to ask you a question about the abuse. I'm assuming that was sexual abuse, yes, and what were the ages that you were abused?
Speaker 3:I was sexually abused. I believe it started when I was five and I know it lasted till I was 10.
Speaker 2:And I don't even know how to respond.
Speaker 1:It's horrific. Yeah, that's tough. Can I ask you know, the first 10 to 15 years of your life are like very formative years. So are all of your memories like I'm sure that's something that has played a big piece and probably you are and your entire yeah, so are. I guess the memories and everything go back that far, or have you kind of suppressed some of that?
Speaker 3:The vivid memories that I have. The most vivid memory I have is the very first time that he did something to me. I remember that very vividly. And then I remember certain instances super vividly, but I did block out, I think, a couple of years of it. So I remember very vividly certain experiences, and especially the first and the last.
Speaker 2:And so your mom is going through sounds like a breakdown.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you and your brothers go into foster care.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:So walk us through that. What is that experience? Does mom and grandma take you? Do they come get you Like? Paint that picture for us of that day? Do you remember it like vividly, I would imagine.
Speaker 3:I remember that day vividly. Yes, and thanks to EMDR, I can speak to it without breaking down crying anymore.
Speaker 2:And what's EMDR?
Speaker 3:I'm just going to ask yes, emdr is not going to state the medical term for it, but it is where they actually. You could do it two different ways where you follow a light frequency back and forth and the in this case it was my, my counselor, my psychologist that was walked me through it. They take you back in time to that exact moment that is you're holding on to and walk you through, help you remember how you felt at the time, what you were feeling inside, and and you're basically under a hypnotic state. And then they she actually sat there and actually allowed me, as the adult version of myself, to comfort the younger version of myself. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So, as an adult, the mom in me was able to take care of the little girl in me.
Speaker 2:That's incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very intense therapy, I'm sure that that must have taken a lot. Yeah, you can take it.
Speaker 3:I obviously cried a lot and it was a little worse, but that's why I can talk about it now. You know, I still get the tense feelings in my body, but it's nothing like it used to be when I talk about it now.
Speaker 2:During those two years, you 10 to 12 age range are you with your brothers. Are you separated?
Speaker 3:So I was. So to go back to, yes, I remember that day that we were taken away from my mom very vividly because I knew we were watching Dukes of Hazard. That night the fire truck showed up at the door and you know we were typical kids and all excited to see a fire truck show up. And they came to our door, knocked on the door and asked for my mom and I said she's sleeping and I know this was like around five o'clock in the evening. So I went and tried to wake my mom up. I came out and said she's not waking up and so they kind of moved us to the side, rushed in with the gurney and with a woman police officer, was with my brothers and I when they were willing my mom out of the apartment.
Speaker 2:Wow, and so when did you find out she was okay?
Speaker 3:I didn't. I actually don't know when I found out, because that was the last time I saw my mom for almost two years, because they immediately put us in foster care. They put all three of us in a temporary foster home and we were all three together for the first 90 days. Then they extended us for a short period of time. I remember spending Christmas there and then shortly after that they split us up, because temporary homes don't keep you that long and because it was myself and my two brothers, they weren't able to find a home for me. My aunt lived in Colorado Springs and she had two daughters, so she was able to put them in the same room and my aunt and uncle took my brothers and they kept my brothers. I went to a foster home by myself and back then they didn't have any ways of. I mean, I didn't have any kind of communication.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's a different time. It's so easy for us to forget today with cell phones and the internet. But what year was this?
Speaker 3:I would have been 10. So that would have been 1980. 1980.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's a phone with a cord if you're lucky and someone's got to let you do that.
Speaker 3:Well and they at the time they did not have. There's a wonderful program out there that I have volunteered for that we can speak to later, but they didn't have. There's a child advocates now that actually meet with foster kids and help represent you and kind of keep you informed. They didn't have that back then so I didn't know anything really going on while I was in foster care.
Speaker 2:This is a very chaotic upbringing. So a curious question you were going through the abuse and that man is gone and you're a foster. I don't know how to ask the question, but is there a sense of peace, being away from the abuse you had, even though you're in such a different like somebody? If I had to go to a foster home, I can only imagine the stress. But you're away from the abuse. Was there a sense of peace during that time?
Speaker 3:Surprisingly, there was the first foster home we were in was it was great at first because it was like this huge house and all these things I'd never seen before. I mean, we went from being super poor to in this big, huge house where I had my own room and I never had my own room, and so at first it was like the cool factor and it was like a sense of peace and feeling like it was calm. That first foster home, the foster mom ended up being very verbally abusive and so I ended up almost running away. I tried to run away while I was there, and that's shortly after. That is when I got taken away from my brothers and put another foster home.
Speaker 3:The second foster home I was in, though that home, I think, saved my life because it was an amazing couple with. They had already raised their own kids I think they had four kids or more but they had also raised multiple foster kids. We went roller skating, we did something every Friday. They did so many amazing things and it was the first man. My second foster father was the first man in my life that treated me with respect, and I didn't know what it was like to be treated in a decent way.
Speaker 2:It's something that we talk a lot about on our podcast, but the influence you can have on someone's life. Were you able to go back and tell him?
Speaker 3:I found them. I did find them years. It didn't follow because they didn't have emails and ways to keep in touch, but yeah, I was able to find them years later and thank them. And yeah, so to this day was Robert and Yvonne Dell. So I've always. I don't know where they are now, I'm sure they have since passed, but Robert and Yvonne Dell, it was pretty cool because I'd never met another Yvonne other than myself, and I also found out later that they were actually trying to adopt me and they were very close to adopting me before my mom got us back.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you're able to go back. It's one of the regrets we hear from people what through mentors or people that had an impact that they never got a chance to tell them. So that's special.
Speaker 1:So can I ask you? So your life is chaotic and there's these things that are happening to you, but what about you as a child? Were you being the oldest? What type of kid were you? Were you the responsible one, I'm sure? Scary situations Just like what, if you remember how you felt or how you were? How?
Speaker 3:was that. As far as how I felt, I'll start there. I had a huge imagination as a child. So my coping mechanism to get through that was I completely disassociated from myself and I created a make-believe world for myself. So my mom told me she used to walk in on me and I would just spend hours having tea parties with my stuffed animals and dolls and I could stay in my room by myself for hours. I created a safe haven for myself in my closet. That was like my closet was my safe place and so, yeah, I created a complete imaginary, make-believe world to deal with all that. Wow.
Speaker 2:Did you have a lot of friends?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:So let me bring you back. So your mom does, she come and get you, she gets healthy.
Speaker 3:So she will say she got as healthy as she could. And back then. This is 1982 now, and so back then the idea of a healthy woman that can get her kids back meant she had a husband. So, she got married a third time.
Speaker 2:Much different time, very different time, oh my goodness so she got married a third time.
Speaker 3:She had been sober and claimed that she was sober and she was married and she had this responsible man to take care of her and the kids, and so they drove to Colorado because they were leaving in Texas. They drove to Colorado Springs, got us all out of foster care and we moved back to Texas and we lived in another trailer out in the middle of nowhere and they were only together six months and left. I barely remember him.
Speaker 2:Wow, so this is in your mom's only.
Speaker 1:So if you're 12, she's 28 at the time. That's a chaotic life as I can imagine, yeah.
Speaker 3:So she got her life together as good as she could. I always say she did the best she could with what she knew at the time. And so she got us back and she was really trying. And when she got us back and after we left the third husband, we moved to Mesquite Texas, mesquite Texas. Now we're finally where I say I grew up.
Speaker 2:So you're in the 14, 15 year old range 12. 12. You're 12. Oh, because that was a short six months. Yes, Okay. As you're going through junior high, going into high school, the trauma you had being in a foster home and you are. You know you've created your own safe havens. What is your? What are you dreaming of? You're poor for lack of, maybe not even lack of a better team. We're just poor.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we were living in what they call subsidized apartments. So what's?
Speaker 2:your dream. What are you like? You know you know nothing about abuse. And so what are you dreaming about? What is what? Who are you going to be at that age? Do you, do you have another role model other than the foster parents you had?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the only aspirations I had at that age and dreams I had was all I could ever imagine was having a better life. Who knows what better meant, but just better. But I wanted. I knew I wanted to be a really good mom and my, my role models back then was my uncle Don and Aunt Nancy and my grandpa. So you know my, my uncle Don and Nancy, they were in my mind. They were great parents. They're always there for my cousins. They, you know my uncle Don made great money. He took great care of his wife and his kids and you know, when I did get to see him I really didn't get to see him that much, but when I did get to see him, I mean it was magical, it always. I mean he lived in this amazing house and so the only idea I had of what I wanted to be when I grew up was I wanted to have money and I wanted to be a really great mom. That's all I knew.
Speaker 2:From 12 through high school. Is it calm down for?
Speaker 3:you compared to, yes, yes, very much so. So now I view this as the first, we'll say environment, because our environment is what makes us who we are. But the first environment that really helped me was my second foster home. The second environment that helped me and helped stabilize me was I joined a church year group. You know, in Texas they come around on a, they come around on church buses and they pick up the poor kids in the apartments and you go to church youth group and it was a very fundamental Baptist church with a lot of rules that I don't necessarily promote the rules, part of it, but the love and the stable, you know, environment and just being around all these friends is the first time in my life I had a big group of friends. I mean, I never had more than one kind of friend because I moved so much. You can never. You can never create friendships when you do that much.
Speaker 3:So it was. It was my church youth group was from. I was in it. They picked us up shortly. I was in almost out of sixth grade, maybe seventh grade, and I was there. Yeah, it was the end of my sixth grade year. So they picked us up and I went there every every Sunday.
Speaker 3:Every Wednesday went on church youth group camps because the church would sponsor the kids who couldn't pay for it, and and so I got to experience what I would, what I considered a normal life, with my friends and my church, every Sunday, every Wednesday and every. You know. We went on trips in the summer and on the win in winter breaks.
Speaker 2:And did you block out what not block out, but did you set it aside, the trauma that you had been through?
Speaker 3:I, I completely blocked it out of my mind. I it was like it never happened. I once, once I went into that second foster home with the Dells, I created this whole new life for myself. Then, when we went through that kind of turmoil again with my mom, and then when I the second environment with my church youth group, like that was my environment and and I, you know, that's when I the responsibility side of me kicked in and I really I mean I was responsible for my mom and my you know what the time at that age I was more responsible for my brothers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can. I've watched your demeanor change through your story, so as you got to this time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can see it's more of a.
Speaker 2:It looks like it's resonating as more of a happy time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As you're going into high school, or when you're in high school, what are you? You're poor, so are you thinking I'm going to go to college? Did you have that vision? Were you a student?
Speaker 3:I didn't. Nobody really talked about college to me and I, you know, when I did get, I moved high schools but I did it. Actually I got. I would got into theater. And now, looking back, I know that this was a big deal, but I didn't know it was a big deal at the time. But I was in the theater program and I had competed, we had done some competitions and I won a competition and I actually had a scholarship for to go to college and I didn't take it. So I signed up for the Air Force before I even graduated high school.
Speaker 1:We didn't. We didn't really spend time on school. So it's like did you like school? Was it just a? Maybe the social aspect more? Were you good at that school? I?
Speaker 3:was horrible in school. Yeah, yeah, when you move that much, I never really learned very well how to write. I was a horrible reader. I was horrible at math the basic, basic skills you learn in elementary school.
Speaker 1:It was just too chaotic. Yeah, I was very chaotic.
Speaker 3:I moved four times in fourth grade that that time I told you about when the foster care four times in fourth grade. Yeah, so yeah school was very difficult for me. I barely passed high school.
Speaker 1:Wow. So, it's a military instead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if someone on the outside looking in. If that's where your story ended. You know your everything was stacked against you and yet we're sitting here with CEO of the Rising Zone and all the amazing things that we're going to get into, so I want to connect the dots.
Speaker 2:It's you overcame a lot, obviously, and this is a short podcast, so I know there's a lot more that it's not even being talked about. One of the decisions you made which I'm going to give you a hard time because I'm a Marine you were in the Air Force.
Speaker 1:So you had a choice? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Why the Air Force? Why not the Army, Navy, Marine Corps? How did you pick that branch?
Speaker 3:So in Texas, everybody takes the ASVAB test, and so when I took the ASVAB test, I got hit up by all of them. The ones that I was probably the most interested in was the Navy and the Marine Corps, and then the Air Force.
Speaker 2:I actually got very close to joining the Marine Corps.
Speaker 3:I think I just liked the recruiter.
Speaker 1:Was it like face to face, like just trying to? I was getting hit up by all of them.
Speaker 3:And the reason I chose the Air Force was because my uncle was in the Air Force. So, going back to my uncle, and he was the one I always wanted to be like he was in the Air Force, so that's why I chose it.
Speaker 2:Like I mentioned that before, but people don't realize the impact that they have on others around them and the decisions. I don't know if you ever knew that decision, but he probably didn't know when you were 10, 12, 13 that the decisions that he made were going to end up impacting the trajectory of your life and where you went. So I always think it's important, as we share these stories, just to you know, all of us impact people. Other people are looking at us. So you go into the Air Force, and how long are you in the Air Force and what do you do?
Speaker 3:So I went in as a security police specialist. So when I went in they had just let women back into the security police field a year prior, and so there was, you know, women just starting to come back into the security police field and I trained with. Marines and Navy in San Antonio.
Speaker 2:It's so interesting that when I look at Natasha like that concept probably doesn't resonate with you.
Speaker 1:I was like why can't women go? What the wrecking.
Speaker 2:So I figured and how long were you in?
Speaker 3:I was in for a total of six years and my first duty station was Germany, which was really amazing. And then I was deployed to Desert Storm in Inster Lake, turkey. That was where they flew a lot of the Air Force they called them Sordes out of Inster Lake Air Base. And then I went back to San Antonio. After getting transferred to San Antonio, texas, went back for Desert Calm in Riyadh, saudi Arabia, and that because that was after the war, they were actually allowed to go downtown Riyadh, and so I was able to experience a bit of Riyadh. Of course, because I was a woman, I had to sit in the back of the car, I had to wear the robe, I had to cover my hair.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 3:You know I wasn't allowed to drive, I wasn't even allowed to go eat with my fellow police officers.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It sounds great. It's still like that, yeah that's wild.
Speaker 1:What was the experience like in the military as a woman with your was it? I mean different countries and rules and things like that? What about with your peers? Was that? It was a very clear difference with some yes, with some yes.
Speaker 3:For me, this was what I say. This is now my third stable environment, so the military was a very stable environment. I mean you have consistency, they tell you where to go, when to go and what to do, and so it was a great stabilizing time for me. And again, now this is where I got to. I mean I had I created deep, deep friendships with. You know, you become brothers and sisters in the military and so you know my peers I just established great relationships with. I had a very sexist, racist supervisor when I was in Germany that you know I was the only woman on my flight, so flight is like your shift and he actually literally walked me outside, outside of the way, call the entry control point and told me where I come from. Women don't speak unless they're spoken to, and we really don't appreciate the way you keep jumping in on our conversation.
Speaker 1:So I cannot.
Speaker 3:And he was allowed to get away with it because this would have been 1991, I guess, yeah, it would have been 1991.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can relate because I was in the military and I just know you get such a melting pot from across the country of different social and economic backgrounds and there's just people are raised different and you tilt your head like, wow, it's unfortunate. I know the military has done a lot to protect all, all classes men, women. It's never going to be perfect but yeah, it was just a different time. Not not making an excuse for fighting means.
Speaker 3:No, I know.
Speaker 3:I mean overall at that time in the military. I mean it was definitely not easy for women in the security police field because we they had just let them back in and would have been in 1988. And so, yeah, it was. I mean it was challenging back then and some of the peers what happened? Oh, I would always say, when you want, when a woman walks into a new squadron as a security police officer, you're kind of like deemed, dried away, as either you know, you're like that really strong, like butch of a woman that's gonna hold her own, or if you're small and petite, you're probably a whiner and complainer. And so I was dubbed probably the whiner and complainer and couldn't care of my own. And it was amazing for me because I went from being somebody who couldn't even run a mile and a half to I was like running with, because we had trained with the army as well, and so I was able to do all of it and it it was the most empowering time of my life. You know, up up until now I guess.
Speaker 2:But and were you competitive with the men?
Speaker 3:Did it drive you? Yeah, totally drove me.
Speaker 2:So you know my wife, amy, and she was in the Marine Corps, so I know some of the, I know the environments for sure, and I know some of the, the things that would trigger her to be competitive and say oh this guy's not gonna, he's not getting away with. You know I'm gonna beat him in this mile, or whatever the case.
Speaker 1:Can I, can I ask your security place? So what was that role? I think I did a little bit of digging on your background. Did I think it might lead into the other company? You found a bit the security piece of it, like what was the? What did? What did you do in that role?
Speaker 3:So it as a security police specialist, when you first go in you know you're. When you're enlisted you're either guarding. You're either guarding planes or buildings. I was in the top secret command, so I guarded buildings and top secret SCI information. So it in the beginning of it was a very boring life.
Speaker 3:You're just walking around a building and around a fence line. So it was incredibly boring. And after I got to a certain point you can you can request a cross training and so I requested to cross train. I got into a pair to be a paralegal. But I got my acceptance for being a paralegal like after I had just gotten moved to the wing level and I was at the wing level working in this really amazing position. It was a. I was an E3 working in an E5 position and it was cool because I was designing security not security systems, but like security designs of where the camera should go and where access control would go and I was learning that at such a young age and I had a great supervisor that and I won like airman, airman of the year and airman of the year and I was winning all these awards and then, by cross training, paperwork comes through. I finally like this job. Yeah, because I was able to use my brain and not my things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a couple things in that, so very, very cool and sounds like you're an overachiever For those who had never been in the military it sounds romantic, right You're, you're top secret. And then because I didn't do top secret things, but I remember and then you spend six months walking around the same building.
Speaker 2:Yeah having people come by and ask you questions to make sure you know all of your general orders. And then an E3, and an E5 is for those that aren't in the military is an enlisted and it's ranking. It goes one, oh, yes. So as you're transitioning out of the Air Force, one, what made you decide to get out? And then was there a destination and path? Your life seems stable. Let me back up. Are you dating while you're in the Air Force?
Speaker 1:Oh, good question. Why didn't I ask that? That would have been a good question.
Speaker 3:I know, I know Usually. Well, yeah, I was dating. I think I dated a little too much in the Air Force. But I think that now when I look back, it's because, you know, I didn't really have a good idea of what relationships were.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, I was dating, but I wasn't with these other people in the military to yes, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I didn't have, when I was getting out of the military, to back up to the question of what made me get out. When I did get cross-stranded to paralegal, while I learned a lot about contracts and law and everything else, it kind of started moving back into boring for me and it just wasn't challenging enough for me. So that's why I got out, is I wanted something more challenging. And the thing I learned in the military that I did not like is you know, no matter how hard you work, you're going to get paid the same as the person sitting next to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah that works half as hard as you do. You know, when I was in that position where I was at the wing level, I loved it and I was in a, I was working in a position to pay grades ahead of me, but I still just get paid as an E3. So I realized then that I was not going to make the kind of money and have the kind of life from a financial perspective that I wanted staying in the military.
Speaker 2:Growing up poor, coming to the military. When I was in the military I thought I wasn't I won't say rich, but everything is taken care of there's always you always have food, you have a place to sleep, and then you have money to go explore and do that and usually spend it real quick. But is that more money than you ever had ever had?
Speaker 2:Yes, and so you get a taste of that getting out. What is your like? This is too low. I need to make more, and so you're starting to understand and formulate what your dreams are. What do you transition to out of the Air Force?
Speaker 3:So when I got out of the Air Force I was I was at that time dating somebody in a long distance relationship. He had gotten out of the military before I did, so he moved from San Antonio, texas, where we were stationed, to California, where he was from. We stayed in touch for like a year, kind of on again, off again relationship, and when I got out of the military I decided to pack up and move in with him. So I moved from Texas to California. Because you know why not.
Speaker 2:And you're 23, 24?.
Speaker 3:What would have been 24? I guess it was 1995.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, so you moved to California. What? What are you doing for work?
Speaker 3:What's the I was living with with my boyfriend and was I started doing. I started doing software training. So Microsoft Office was cut, was coming out.
Speaker 2:I had kind of come out. I do remember that, and I was really good at software programs.
Speaker 3:I just when I was in the military. They didn't have you know it text back then and so I was like go to it person and so I started teaching Microsoft Office classes, because they always had all these classes to teach everybody word, excel, powerpoint and access.
Speaker 2:It's so fascinating. It's just there. Now you go to YouTube. Yeah, it's there, yeah.
Speaker 3:So no, we actually had classes that people went to, so that's what I was teaching and I was finished and I went back to school to finish my degree and got my bachelor's degree, but I didn't graduate, as with my bachelor's, until I was 28.
Speaker 2:So were you going to school while you were in the Air Force? Is that where?
Speaker 3:I did do community college in the Air Force and then I wrapped up a little bit more community college when I first moved to California and then did my last two years at Cal State. Hey, word.
Speaker 1:And what was the? What was your major?
Speaker 3:Business administration with emphasis in marketing.
Speaker 2:And what was driving that? Why did you want to agree? So you went into the military, and there's a lot of military. That is the path I was. One I went to the military is I'm not going to go to school. You didn't grow up with that influence. So what was what was driving you to want to put yourself through school?
Speaker 3:My driving force goes back to my uncle. He had, he had, a college education and he put all of his kids through college and he very much believed in a college education and I saw it do well for him and you know, it was starting to do well for my cousins as well. And so it just it, and it was kind of that, that mindset that you can't grow to the next level without the bachelor's degree, and so that's why I did it.
Speaker 2:Aside from your uncle? What are you looking at so like? Are you reading books, Are you?
Speaker 3:not yet, not yet, and so this is just get the degree.
Speaker 2:This is what you're looking at. The example and you're like this is going to lead me to where I need to go Correct and which, when I think of you, know my kids and Natasha's the same age, so a lot of people don't know what they're doing before they're 30. They may think you have an idea and you go through all of these things, but a lot of when I talk to my kids and their friends and things like I need to know what I'm supposed to do. I should have this figured out and that's not true. Like there's a lot of time and like you're another example of you're going to get your degree but you still hadn't formulated other than you wanted to be successful. You didn't know exactly.
Speaker 3:I didn't know what that meant at all. Correct what? After I well, I was doing the software training I also went to go work for a federal technology company that was. They were federal contractors. So I worked for a period of time. It was a husband wife own company and I worked directly for the CEO. And so when I worked for the CEO I kind of I learned a lot there and and and then my I by this time I had already married no, we weren't married yet Backing up, so I went to work for this federal government contractor. I worked for the CEO there, and when I worked for the CEO at the time I learned a lot and so I had kind of thought about starting a company. And then also my ex husband worked there. And so after we, after I was having my degree, after we were married, then I started the company, started my first company because it was.
Speaker 1:Do Rick Kris, yes, but it seems like you also are not afraid to join the military. Go to different countries, start a business at 32, get out of a stable, money making military role. Was there ever scared of taking risks? Did any of that ever like? I don't know if I should, or you're just like I'm going for it.
Speaker 3:I think that there was a moment. There's always moments of fear. I think it goes back to the fact that I'm always like well, this happened to me before, so for me, nothing can ever be as bad as my past. And so, somehow or another, it's just ingrained in me to just go jump in and just try it.
Speaker 1:It's good, good for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Thanks so much this business that you guys started tell us about it. What was the business?
Speaker 3:So Trawflos Technologies is an IT and security systems integration company. So we had a lot of IT contracts and because I was in the military, my husband was in the military it was just natural for us to pursue military contracts. When I started the company, I used my paralegal contracts knowledge to put together a package that we submitted to the Small Business Administration for me to get what's called an A-Day certification and it's a program that the Small Business Administration has for minority and disadvantaged individuals that have been through some sort of discrimination so that discrimination from that supervisor. Back in the military. I actually submitted the documentation on that. I actually had a friend from the military that wrote a statement and that allowed me to get my A-Day certification. What that A-Day certification did for me is it allowed us to compete on contracts up to $3 million without it going. We were able to win contracts up to $3 million without going out to competition.
Speaker 3:So it just became developing relationships with people and my husband at the time we both had very different skill sets and because our skill sets were so different, it allowed us to grow the company massively quick because he was strong on sales. I was strong on building up all the backend part of the, I built the entire back office of the building or the company and ran the operations. Most of the time we kind of traded operations back and forth because neither was really liked operations. But yeah, we grew from 2002 to within five years we were up over $18 million and kind of averaging around $23 million a year in revenue. Oh wow. And so during this time, are you having children.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so funny thing.
Speaker 3:We tried for years to have kids. I went through several miscarriages and I thought I'd reached the point. I didn't think I could have kids. And so in 2001, is when I actually started truffles as a sole proprietor in 2001, just doing small stuff. But 2002 was when we incorporated, but I started, I quit my job. Kind of back to what you said. I had a very good job.
Speaker 1:I quit yeah, wow.
Speaker 3:But this when I graduated, I actually became the market training manager, and I was only 29 years old. I became the market training manager for what was CompUSA back then, for Sacramento, Vacaville and Roosevelt offices. So at 29, I'm managing a whole market of software training, you know business, and I quit that job and decided to start the business. I didn't think I could have kids, so I was like, okay, well, I'll just have this risk and do it. And I got pregnant shortly thereafter.
Speaker 3:And then got pregnant again and then again. So I went from thinking I couldn't have kids to having three kids Plus I was also, you know, I was helping raise my stepson, so I was already raising one kid and then, you know, my stepson, and then had three more.
Speaker 2:You're raising a family. You have a multimillion dollar a year of business. Don't need to get into the specifics, but I assume it's profitable, so life is going good. How long is this business in place? And so this takes you from 32,. Where is it still going?
Speaker 3:It's still going. I'm actually still running that company. Oh, you are still running that company. Yeah, I was like I was just, I was just all on your LinkedIn, looking all of it up.
Speaker 2:I was like, wow, like 22 or 20 plus years?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so truffles? I've been running truffles for 21 years, 20 coming up on 22.
Speaker 1:When you said that it grew really quickly. So that was just like how do you go and get you know these massive this is really just talking to people word of mouth referrals? Did you have to? How did you grow that part of your business?
Speaker 3:It was a combination of relationships and just proposal management and good contract administration. So you know, on the relationships, because I ended up having kids, my husband was doing a lot of the business development so he was out on the road a lot when I was with the kids and running the office part of it. So, yeah, it's contracts and you just get really good at writing proposals. So I got good contracts and good at the proposals. It's a big piece.
Speaker 2:Are you bored in business? I'll follow that question up with. We're sitting in the rising zone you have a very successful business that you're putting this together and I wanna talk about it, but what's driving you to go? Get to open up another business and we'll jump into it.
Speaker 3:So what drove me to do it is after growing truffles to be, you know, incredibly successful in 2015,. We went through a very, very difficult divorce and we split the company in half. He took half the clients and contracts and or almost and I took the other parts. So we split the company, downsized the business and I started focusing on just security with truffles, went through a massive unraveling emotionally and I pretty much got to the point that I just didn't care about the business for about nine months because the divorce and everything I went through it finally exploded.
Speaker 3:Everything from my past. So now that perfect life. So, from the outside, looking in, we looked like you know, we live in this. You know suburbia, rockland, and everybody saw my life and my you know my kids' lives, saw our lives as like the perfect family. We had this successful business, we were living on the golf course, we were always even with our businesses, both of us were very active parents, involved in all the kids' programs, so we balanced both and it just all came crumbling down. And so when it came crumbling down, it's like I had to hit my reality that I definitely need to learn how to take care of myself emotionally better, and so that's what happened is I fell apart, rebuilt myself back up again and I learned a lot of healing techniques, the EMDR they already mentioned they helped me with the one.
Speaker 3:I started doing yoga, I started doing breath work, all types of ways of being able I'd already gone through years of therapy and just really diving into alternative ways of healing. Because, after years and years of therapy, I mean I went to therapy when I was a kid because we had to, and then I did it again as a teenager. Then I did it again, you know, in my 20s and you know I did it multiple times through the years and I did it one in 2015. Then, when I finally got into these alternative ways of healing, I finally just realized that, you know, I needed to heal myself and I needed to heal the child within in order to build myself up as a stronger, better person.
Speaker 3:Because, while on the outside we looked very successful and I accomplished the two goals I had for myself, my dreams and aspirations as a kid, I became, I think, a great mom and I built the financial security to be able to take care of my kids and myself. But once you have that, there's no amount of money and no amount of you know parenting that can fill you up inside. You have to learn to fill yourself up and put yourself first. Even being a mom that was like a really hard thing for me to do is I always put my kids first and my company first. So all of that learning I went through then I wasn't bored with truffles. I have gotten truffles to an amazing point where I have a great group of leaders that are running the company very well and you know I still work in the company. You know a significant amount, but not overly significant to where I can't do something else.
Speaker 2:So I'm gonna come back to the rising zone T-R-C because I have some other questions. I think it was Jim Carrey, which is an interesting name to say this, but he said I wish everybody could be rich so they could see it doesn't solve any of your problems.
Speaker 2:Exactly, you're still gonna have the same problems when you're living that life and we'll go to the divorce stage just to talk about it. We're a similar age and then you know we have kids that are the similar age coming up, and there's, you know, as you go through different generations in life, you learn things right and you think, oh my gosh, what do they think about me from across the street? Or we've created this family and we've created this image and, at the end of the day, most people really don't care. They're gonna gossip and they're gonna talk, Regardless of you're doing great or if you're doing bad, they're still gonna talk. How much pressure did you put on yourself as you were going through and that world was changing and crumbling? I would guess from where it was. How much pressure were you putting on yourself from the outside, looking in? Did you care what other people thought, or was you just in a storm?
Speaker 3:I overly cared what other people thought. Yeah, the entire marriage kind of going. It was like we were not happy in our marriage at all. I mean, frankly, our business is what kept us together, because we were really good business partners. We were great business partners but I was very unhappy inside, as was he, but we always looked happy on the outside. And so while we were married and while we were growing the business, I overly cared what people thought and I cared too much about our image. I was incredibly uptight and stressed out all the time, all the time. But the unraveling is actually what saved me from that, because it was like my entire life crumbled underneath me and that happening allowed me to truly open up and figure out who I really was.
Speaker 1:And from the woman perspective, I think we have this right if the expectation is to lose it emotionally right Like oh they're overly emotional. But you also have to keep it together, I'm sure, for your kids, for your business. So was that also a pressure of like, like I need? It sounds like you needed to lose it to like, really figure it out, but you kind of don't, you don't want to lose, you don't think you have room to lose it. So was that? Was that dynamic?
Speaker 3:That was always my concern up until the split. When we split, I unraveled and I always, prior to that, was the one that you know I always make sure the kids were taken care of. I always make sure like they never saw anything bad in their life. And what was really hard on my kids that? It took me years of feeling bad about it, but it was really hard on my kids. I unraveled. My kids saw me crying. My kids saw I mean, my kids saw me at my worst Back to the closet. I would go hide in my closet to cry and try to let not let them hear me.
Speaker 3:But no, I unraveled and I unraveled big time. I I got down to 98 pounds when I was going through that divorce. But, yeah, I the unraveling, as hard as it was, and especially hard for my kids, it was what I needed to go through. And and when I did that, I opened it up and I didn't care. I no longer cared what people thought. And and I read, I realized that I needed to. You know, like I said already, I needed to heal the child within me.
Speaker 1:And do you think your kids and other people see a different side of you now?
Speaker 3:I'm a completely different person today than I was in 2015. And and that you know almost 15 years prior of marriage, and so someone's listening.
Speaker 2:you know what's your advice. It's it's nuanced and it's complicated because everyone's at different stages, but there's someone's feeling suffocated and it doesn't necessarily mean marriage, right, it could be a job, it could be anything.
Speaker 3:It could be anything Right.
Speaker 2:What's your advice there? Like when you look back what. What do you wish you would have done, Like two years before, three years before? What would your advice be?
Speaker 3:Really look at yourself and try to figure out who you really are earlier in life. That's the number one thing I tell my kids right now is figure out what you love, figure out what you're passionate about. You know, know what your strengths or weaknesses are. You know, really know you, because I didn't know who I was. I was just living the life of whoever I was around. So when I was in church, I was at all out, totally into church. When I was in the military 100% in the military. When I was married, I was 100% in his life. And when I was running a company, I was 100% in that company and I didn't really know who I was, and so I was. I called myself a chameleon, you know. I just adapted to the environment.
Speaker 2:I was in. A lot of us do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and and some of that's good and and you know, helpful, but not too extreme. So what I wished somebody would have told me along the way or I would have known, is is so important to figure out who you really are and what you really want before you venture off onto life and all your many. I mean I wouldn't, I mean I can't regret anything I've been through because it was my journey. But yeah, I wish I would have known who I was, because I didn't really start discovering who I was until I was 50.
Speaker 2:It's great advice. Every time I look like I'm going to be 50,. Every time I look back I was like, okay, I thought I knew I was at 40.
Speaker 3:I thought I knew I was at 30.
Speaker 2:It evolves. It evolves. Let's talk about the rising zone and how this came to be and tell us what the rising zone is and your role, and just lay it out for it, for everybody that's listening.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, the rising zone is a simple way, as it's a co-working center focused on balanced wellness, and it is a brand new concept that actually doesn't exist anywhere, but I googled it, I was trying to find some advice.
Speaker 3:I even flew to Denver to look at a place I thought was maybe similar to it, but the reason I call it a co-working center focused on balanced wellness is because what happened in 2020, when COVID shut down all of our offices I, you know, started working from home. Everybody else started working from home, and from just a co-working perspective or just from a work perspective, a lot of my people wanted to stay working from home when we, when they were able to come back I myself and the kind of person that I need to be around people- yeah, me too.
Speaker 2:I go to the office every day.
Speaker 3:But I also did learn to really love working at home sometimes. So I do like the hybrid model. So what's nice about the hybrid co-working model is that you can work from home sometimes but you can also come into the office and work as well. And it's an, you know, usually you know smaller space, less expensive, because you're sharing conference rooms, you're sharing event space. You know, I had a 14,000 square foot building slash warehouse for truffles in Sacramento, in Rockland, and close. That ended up moving us into a really small place in Sacramento because we really just needed the office and we just really needed the warehouse and a little bit of office space. But I did no longer have my nice conference room in my you know areas.
Speaker 3:So that's what's nice about the co-working.
Speaker 3:The reason it's focused on balanced wellness is because when you walk in the rising zone, the very first thing you see when you walk in the rising zone is the river on the floor. And the river represents I call it the TRZ river of life and it represents the fact that in life, while we always want to have a plan in our life and think you know, think about what we need to accomplish you want to also be willing to go with the flow, and what we need on one day compared to the next is always different. And when it comes to balanced wellness, you need all types of wellness. Just going to the gym every day and working in a high pressured military or professional world, you're constantly in overdrive and you're up in your cortisol levels all the time and you're not ever relaxing your body. That's why, you see, you know these supposedly healthy people that are running all the time and in the gym all the time, you know, drop dead of a heart attack Because their cortisol levels are always operating in high functioning mode.
Speaker 3:So the rising zone has three zones. One zone is a strength zone to take care of your body in the gym and the nutrition room. You got the recovery room to, you know cold, plunge, infrared sauna. So that's your traditional, you know. Take care of your body, build the stability of your body up. Then we have the Zen zone, which is to calm your mind, and we have all different types of alternative ways to calm your mind in the Zen zone. And then the better you take care of yourself both, you know, physically and mentally the better you can take care of your career.
Speaker 3:And so I just wanted to put it all together in one building. And so I, when I started this, when I opened the building not when I opened, but when I bought the building I made the decision to do it. It was one of those all in or all out things, because this is an expensive venture and I stood outside the building and I looked up at the building and I actually took a video of myself. I don't do that that often, but I took a video of myself saying some women, some women, use their money to buy a nice home. I just bought a nice office.
Speaker 1:Good for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And here we are, the new podcast studio in the rising zone, so we absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:I do. I love the story, so from the business side of it, so I'm listening to. This is it is.
Speaker 1:It's not all business right, this is this passion, passion, hundred percent passion, ice.
Speaker 3:I mean I went all in, I sold everything I have and I'm literally using my money that I make in truffles to build the business here. And the reason I did it is because I believe in the balanced wellness approach to living life so much that I was willing to invest everything into it. And yeah, my kids sat there looking at me like mom, you are Two years old, why are you starting a brand new business? And they're probably selfishly thinking and spending all of our potential inheritance.
Speaker 3:I wasn't gonna say Like that's our potential inheritance you're just throwing away. But I just believe in it and it's really hard to start any new business. But when you start we started truffles out of our house. You know, very conservatively we built very stable, secure, slow growth. Revenue wise we grew fast, but debt wise and risk wise we didn't take on a lot of risk and along the way it was more gradual. This wasn't you. Either are all in or not. It was a decision. Why about the building?
Speaker 2:yeah, and so it's not a charity. I mean, people are paying to be here, so there's a business model so within that, while it's passionate, it's all in. I'm leading with the question. There's a destination of this is a revenue yes and what does? What does five years look like? For now? Are there multiple rising zones across the country like what's the big vision that's going on in your head?
Speaker 3:so the big vision is going on my head is that I really is crazy as it sounds. I want to. I just want to transform the way people work and live and that you can work really hard and follow like basic fundamental business principles, also taking care of your body and mind. You can do them both. And when you create an environment and you consistently educate people how to do that, and then we just create we try to create multiple different experiences that allow people to experience something different everywhere they go in the building. And when you do that, I mean we all know that the environment we're in is the environment we sink to. So you sink to the environment and the people you're around.
Speaker 3:So what I envision the future is that the rising zone is going to be filled full of Businesses. That not only is a rising zone growing from a revenue and profitability perspective, but every business in here is, so we're helping. I'm creating a community when the community, the rise together community, is actually building each other's businesses up as Each of us grow. So when people move out of here, it'd be great to have an alumni program of businesses. Like anybody who's in a small office now, I would love to see them out, grow us and move into another office.
Speaker 3:So the long term goal is to really grow Entrepreneurs and business, businesses around us. And then, no, ideally I will be opening one up in Sacramento and fulsome by the end of the, announcing it by the end of twenty twenty four, and then I want to go. I already have markets I've already identified I want to go into, based on research already done and people that I know. But yeah, I want to be nationwide. I love.
Speaker 1:I love when we get a passionate answer and it's very, very clear that you are passionate about what you're doing. And it's really cool when we've walked through the building so I've seen it, we actually even come to the sea. We see the gym right, come in where the desk and I hear this end zone. So that does, you know, make you feel a little bit. But we notice, like the artwork on the wall right. You come up and then there's businesses and we have the studio right, like it's a very Like a diverse yeah, concept and how you said that you do.
Speaker 1:It's a feeling when you walk in and I just it's really really cool. So to hear you talk about it, I think is.
Speaker 2:It's so I want to peel back a couple of layers for those that are listening. So you say business, but this isn't just for businesses, right? So If, if, I want to come use your gym, I can be a member here and so you're creating a community.
Speaker 2:So for those that Are looking for a community are trying to understand, how would I fit in? Like I don't hear the name. You're talking about the businesses and health and wellness. I'm just that individual and I say, no, I want to be part of it. Sounds really cool, but I don't know who to talk to. I don't like I just knock on the door to go on the internet. Like how do I become part of this community?
Speaker 3:the best way is to walk through the doors so you can call us, but walking in the doors of the rising zone. We have a great Member support team at the front desk and when they come in they can explain the rising zone to them. But while the rising zone over all, we're trying to create a big community of businesses. The better the businesses are around us in the community, the more that we can support the individuals in the community. So I'm foreseeing multiple kind of call many communities, because we already have like our we call more our morning crew that works out in the gym. They have, they work for other companies and they just love coming here and supporting each other and Building each other up. They've been here since day one, there in here every single morning, five am, maybe a little bit later. And we have another group that's like this calm, this six, the six am group that goes in the phoenix room for yoga. So there's all these little mini communities where we want people to find their their vibe in their tribe of people within.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I'm religious at the gym. So I'm the five am person and I can tell you on any given day if someone I don't know is walked into the gym because you know who that tribe is in where you're at. So how would they, how would they find you? What's the easiest way to find the rising zone?
Speaker 3:Well, the name is pretty easy it's rising dot, so it's wwe dot rising dot zone. So we got that. We're on instagram pretty regularly. We're starting to grow on facebook and linked in. We just started doing linked in and then, of course, we've got our phone number on the website. I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:I do too. I actually was looking at some of the. I've seen that you've had certain work groups come in, even if it's kind of one of, I guess, the stop in right, so like for a day team event or something like that, some businesses might use it more regularly. So I think that, like it had more offerings than I've been new at the beginning, I feel like every time we come it's like something else which is really new experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can say like it's another experience and more education. It's working.
Speaker 3:Every time I'm like this is something else what I really want to grow the most in twenty twenty four on is having more educational workshops here where people can come in for all different types of education.
Speaker 3:You know this is probably for another story another time, but everything here is built around the maslow's hierarchy of needs, and so to be able to have different workshops in here that Really meet all the basic human needs as well as your professional needs Is what we want to build this year, just right here in twenty twenty four. And then the events so go. Abundance was one was the group that was in here most recently and they had a great event, like they planned their own agenda because they're already focused on wellness as well. They were entrepreneurs from across the nation that have meetings, they get together as a networking group and they had an event here and they did goal setting in the conference room. They use the energy enhancement system. They use, they did yoga, they do the coal plunge, the sauna, they worked on the gym. They experienced all of it for two days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's interesting, so it. If you're a business who's interested, you don't have to come here and say I want to run this space out to the events, like we're already maxed out on the offices.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you can so if somebody wants to hold an event here, if they want to have a wellness day, they're off site. You can come and have an off site here. Or if you want it as a reward for your employees or for family, for anybody, this is a space where you can rent out. And do you have like? Do you have the right word? Is not sales people? Do you have guides, and talk and say, hey, what's my package? Look like what? What can I get for a day, two days?
Speaker 3:Well, here in Rockland we have Brock or her. So yeah, brock is who at most you know, everybody goes through Brock and everything to set up whatever event they have. We're putting together. We already we've already talked about, we already offered the wellness programs for individuals and businesses and we have all these different group events. We're also putting together a corporate wellness program and the corporate wellness program is a means for companies in our area to be able to Send their employees here for either big events that they're hosting for the day or to be able to use any of the different services in the building, and they're not all TR Z services. We have a lot of entrepreneurs here. They're running their own businesses out of here it's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I love the concept. You're incredibly driven, love your story. So when, when we come back and visit you and or listeners come back and say, hey, where's she? At five years, we hold a. Tell us your story of that you're one of your many, you know what I mean we're thinking big here so who's the bond in five years? Where? Who are we going to see?
Speaker 3:In five years, I want to be able to be going from rising zone to rising zone and doing different. You know workshops myself. The reason I'm sharing my story is because I do want to inspire others to know that it does not matter what your story is, because your story is your past and it doesn't have to dictate who you are in the future. And I really want to inspire people that you can transform and change your life at any time in your life. If I can completely change my life at In my fifties and start something new, you know anybody can, and so that's what I want to do is just be traveling around and sharing my story more to inspire others you know it in any different level of where they're at, because overcoming challenges is clearly what I've my life's journey has been.
Speaker 2:It has and I think it's important to call out and you know we talk about overnight successes and I think we were talking about this before the overnight success that took 20 years to make. So, while you're incredibly, incredibly successful and you've gotten to where you're at, the work that went into this like it's a grind. I think it's important for people to know that, regardless of where you're at alive, you can change anything you want, but there's a level of effort that you have to put in, and you talk about that just for a minute when your day, the level of effort you're putting in like we're almost at eight o'clock tonight, so I don't know what time you got up in your day started so long day for you yes, I'm typically always up by four, thirty or five and I, now that I'm getting older, I do try to get in bed by ten.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I pretty I pretty much work seven days a week. The reason that it doesn't feel like work for me anymore, as you know all the time, is because I do love what I'm doing, but it there is. There is no way to grow a business or grow in any profession, be it sports or other profession. There's no way to really grow without the work. Hence the reason it's important to balance that with. You know and I don't look at work life balance, I work, I look at it is it's all your life. You know, when work is something you enjoy, you it's okay to be here at eight o'clock at night doing a podcast because you love what you're doing. So you have, you want to combine it, and I don't like to use the word have you want to. You want to combine your work life in an environment we back to. If you know who you are and you know who you are, then you can create a field. You know, whatever your profession is, of what you love and you work really hard at that.
Speaker 3:But success is not about financial. You know, for me, my path is building businesses. I just that's just who I am. That's what I want to do. But that doesn't. That's not what defines success for me. What defines success is when you wake up every day and you're living your life's purpose and you're living what fills you up. And we have, you know, a world full of amazing coaches that are influencing people's lives every day. They don't get paid much money. You know, school teachers don't get paid much money, but they have changed more people's lives than any of us will change in a. You know, I'll change more people's lives in a Short period time, the most of us like time so that's.
Speaker 3:What's important, I think, is just that, yes, I work very hard, but that's because I'm building businesses. But there's also people out there that love what they're doing and they're building amazing lives for themselves and they're working really hard at it too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I appreciate you sharing that there's. There's always that conversation within the maybe I'm old and maybe I'm looking at the I'm older than you, I know.
Speaker 1:He says that he looks at me too. I don't Okay go.
Speaker 2:You know, I think a lot of We'll just say people, regardless of generation, think you can get Instagram famous, or Facebook famous and it happens overnight, and you did, and maybe there's a shooting star and that happens, but for the rest of us it's a grind and to your point about. You know your whole theme around wellness and balance. You know you, I'm a big believer the better you take care of yourself, the fuel you put into your body, the way that you take care of it, that's going to allow you to work from 430 to 10. So If you don't balance the work with taking care of yourself, you will not. You'll either have a heart attack, you'll have a stroke where you will fizzle out. You cannot maintain your schedule and think that you can go eat what you want and drink what you want and do what you want without consequence.
Speaker 2:So I love it. I love hearing it when it's reinforced.
Speaker 1:I think wellness is around it, like you said. I think what you think about when you're 30 to 40 to 50 right, even just the type of like all of that leads in, like Diet and exercise and all that leads into it, but mentally and emotionally, like having that wellness as well at your age, it's you, I would assume. You probably feel like you're in the best spot or one of the better spots of your life, and I think that it takes time to get there right and you can't be great at other things if you're not great with yourself. I think the funniest when I turned 50.
Speaker 3:I was like on top of the world. I felt happier at 50 than I did any other birthday my entire life.
Speaker 1:I love that. I'm such a big believer that people get better with age. Yeah, such a big. So if you're trying, you get better with age. So if you stick a bottle of wine in the sun.
Speaker 2:It's not getting better with age.
Speaker 3:I love it, and you don't take care of that bottle of wine, it does not get better with age, but if you take care of that bottle of wine, you get much better with age. Sure, age like wine and some like milk. So yeah, but I love that, so one of the staple questions that I actually asked people, so it's kind of funny.
Speaker 1:You just said that. So, looking back, what advice would you give your 30 year old self, knowing what you know now, being the person you are now today, happiest you've been what would you tell your 30 year old self? So I already told you that I think it's important to get to know yourself.
Speaker 3:The next thing that I think is important is it kind of comes after you get to know yourself is to surround yourself with the right environment and the right people that are going to help build you up, because your environment and the people that you are around can either make you or break you, and so it's kind of up to you to decide I love that, and what about the business?
Speaker 1:side. You know entrepreneurs you're, you're working in building up businesses. Would that advice be the same as anything that stands out on that side, if you're those that are hustling right now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that advice does stay the same, because it's the same thing in business. The people you surround yourself with in business can either make you or break you. No those relationships are going to need those. You need good relationships, and the more authentic those relationships are, then that means you're being true to yourself and you're being true to them. So, yeah, I would say same for the business advice.
Speaker 2:Well, it's been an incredible conversation. So, before we close out, anything you want to leave the listeners with.
Speaker 3:I would leave them with the fact that, regardless of what your story was or is today, to always remember that tomorrow is what you make of it Incredible.
Speaker 1:I love. It's the premise of the podcast we wanted to the success in the business and all of that is fantastic, but the story behind how you get there right and how that story changes and where you can let that story go or change it Is exactly what we do here, so these are my favorite conversations. Thank you so much for today very, very inspiring, been through a lot and I think this is definitely one the listeners are going to take a lot away from, so I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate you. Thank you so much.
