Kathleen Gage: Power and Importance of Transparency

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Joining us from Oregon as a marketing and business strategist, Kathleen Gage has made it her mission to teach solo and small business owners, how to live a vibrant life in order to show up full to their business. She shows them how to dominate their market with proven strategies that begin with their mindset and daily habits.  

Kathleen, thanks for jumping on today. Hey Damon, it’s great to be here. This is a space that I’ve, I’ve grown really passionate about lately. I’ve been a business owner for 12 years and it seems like just now I’m, I’m kind of, it’s like Benjamin button, I’m going backwards. And now I’m starting to realize the importance more of, of daily habits and mindset.  

So why don’t you tell our listeners a little bit more about how you do what you do? You know, that is such a great question because, um, actually this morning, I, I went to a spin class and I, I do that twice a week. And I’ll tell you spinning. If you’ve never done it, you need to try it because it’s one of the most grueling exercises out there  

And one of the things I do is I have a daily exercise routine, whether it’s running, spinning, um, biking, weight training. And what I find is by having a morning routine, It sets me up for success for the day. And as I was getting ready to go to my spin class, there was a part of me that didn’t want to do it  

And I’ll tell you, Christine, how people will follow their feelings more than the logic behind a certain behavior, because it’s the behaviors that get us to the end result we’re looking for. And if we follow our feelings, we’ll never get anything done. We never would get out of bed period. Um, so as I was getting ready for spin class and headed down to the gym, I, I kept telling myself I can do anything for an hour.  

And sometimes that’s how, uh, how much you have to break something down is to say, I can do something for X amount of time and in some cases a minute at a time. So my routine starts with, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of hel L rod, he’s got the miracle morning and it starts with. Uh, 10 minutes of silence, 10 minutes of affirmations, 10 minutes of visualization, 10 minutes of what I call stretching and getting in my body.  

10 minutes of reading and then journaling. And that’s the start of my day because it lays the foundation for everything else. I love it. Um, you know, we’ve had a lot of other entrepreneurs on that, that talk about, um, habits like this one, gentlemen Del majors talked about the three second rule and, and he gives himself three seconds to just make a decision.  

And, and he’s found that. By forcing himself to say yes or no, that it just forces them to say yes, basically. Absolutely. One of the things that I’ve been doing, because I I’ve changed my niche in my market. I’m moving more into the whole plant based arena. I went plant-based about eight months ago. And I’m finding that it’s really in alignment with a lot of my values.  

And so I’m in the process of reaching out to meeting planners. I’m in the process of reaching out to organizations that are plant-based that I can actually do business with. And I set aside one hour a day to make phone calls and phone calling is another thing that we often don’t feel like doing, but it really grows our business.  

And so in that hour, that’s all I focus on. And I like that whole idea of the three second rule. Mel Robbins has the five second rule and it’s basically you count backwards from five and then you just do the action and left to our own devices. We’d never get much of anything done, but if you block out time and you say, okay, no matter what I’m going to do, X, Y, and Z, whatever that may be.  

And I love the idea of this three second rule, because in three seconds you have to make that decision. And those three second decisions will either make or break your business. Yeah, totally agree. Now, so your company is power, uh, power up for profits. And you work with clients who want to gain visibility in it and a niche market through the power of books, speaking in podcast interviews.  

And what I like about how you explained at the end is as you put in sharing the truth about who they are, um, I have a lot of, uh, I back you up a hundred percent on those vulnerabilities and sharing the truth. But why don’t you tell our listeners a little bit more about the value in that transparency?  

Well, when you share the truth of who you are, you, you polarize people because there are some people that won’t like you because of who you are, but then you start building a real community of people. I’ll give you a great example. Um, I’ve been with my wife for 30 years now. And, um, there are some people that when I say I have a wife, it’s like, they don’t want to do business with me.  

They don’t want anything to do with me. I get that. Um, and yet there are others people that that’s, that actually is something that’s a common denominator, if you will. And maybe not for them, but maybe somebody in their family. A few years ago, I hired a consultant who, um, really helped me to grow my business.  

And one of the first things she recommended that I do is come out to my entire list and I’m like, yeah, Why would I do that? Everything’s running, I had a multiple six figure business. It’s like, why would I destroy something so good? And she goes, what you’re going to find is that you’ll have a more loyal following as a result of it.  

So she helped me to craft a message and basically the subject line was I’m coming out. And when people opened up the message, it was like, no, I did that years ago when I’m coming out with this and consulting package. Well, what was interesting is I work it’s like, okay, boom. And what was interesting is I had more opt outs that day than I had ever had.  

I had probably a couple of hundred opt outs, but. I also had people who wrote me and said, Oh, thank you so much for sharing that. I have a brother who’s gay. I have a sister who’s gay. I have a nephew who killed himself because he was gay and they, they just really resonated with my message. So once that was put aside recently, I’ve been making a change in my business and I’m retiring a lot of my products.  

Now I’m going to be 65 in a couple of weeks. And for my 65th birthday, I’m doing a half marathon. So I’m not your typical, a senior citizen. And I’m. I kind of pride myself in that. Well, what I’ve been doing though, is retiring a lot of my products. So I actually wrote a message. I’m retiree. And it was interesting how many people opened up that message?  

And I said, no, no, no, I’m not doing that kind of return. What I’m retiring are my products. And, um, it was very profitable for me to do that because my open rate was really high. But the, the whole thing is, is that when you read it, create a level of transparency of who you are, right. Again, you’re going to polarize the market and that’s okay.  

Because some people, they try to be lukewarm and they try to get everybody to like them. If everybody likes you, then you’re not going to do very well in your business. That’s the bottom line. If you are controversial on some level, then actually what you’re doing is you’re creating that discussion. Yeah.  

Yeah. That’s true. And just like you said, you’re gonna get some people that don’t like you, but on the flip side, you’re going to get people that love you. And, and, and those are also the people that you’re going to want to do business with. So it it’s a disservice to yourself to not make that jump and attract the people that you’d rather engage with.  

You know, when I decided, why did you go plant-based about eight months ago? Um, that was another area that I, I polarize people because I, all of a sudden I had people writing me messages. I don’t want to give up, why are you forcing me to give up meat? And it’s like, I never said you had to give up meat.  

All I said was, I’ve gone plant-based and I’ve decided not to eat animal products, not to dairy products. And it’s amazing how attached to. Uh, a lifestyle somebody will become, and then you start pointing fingers instead of just saying, okay, you choose to eat meat. I choose not to eat me. And that actually, please.  

Another thing I, I, I find that, um, the more we strip away, the layers of who we are. The more we, uh, lose certain people. And the more we gain other people, because I’ve actually started a Facebook group for my whole plant based movement. And it’s amazing how many people, people are jumping on board with that, and really interested in that kind of a lifestyle.  

Yeah. And by the way you look amazing, I would’ve never guessed your age. So people that are listening, I, I can see her on screen here. And she’s good. She’s a very young looking lady. Well, thank you. Very, it’s all done with smoke and mirrors. Now. I actually, you know, I, I’m kind of a fanatic about my health because I’ve been sober for 35 years and in my past life, uh, I didn’t do much of anything, but nurse hangovers every day.  

And I gotta tell you, it was just. Crazy crazy making. And now it’s like, I don’t want to end up like my mother did, for example, because my mother had a heart  my mom had a long drawn out death and I saw the behaviors that led them to that. And I see that in our school society. I mean, you’re, you’re a very healthy looking young man.  

And I say young man, because you’re probably 30 years younger than. And, uh, the, the thing is, is that. In our society, we have become a very, very sick society. There’s a high rate of obesity. There’s a high rate of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, a lot of diseases that are preventable. And yet people oftentimes won’t take responsibility.  

And I see this in business where people say they want a certain level of success in business. But they’re not willing to do the work or they work like they have a nine to five mentality and it’s not that you have to work 24 seven, but you have to be really focused on what you’re doing. Yeah. Yeah. The biggest health problem I have is, is I have three children and so I don’t get any sleep.  

Okay. Yeah. I wanted to ask you, when you did your, when you send out your emails, um, with those kind of those polarizing subject lines, Did you find that you would get people that would reply without actually reading? They would just see the subject line and then make a jump and then send you a message.  

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that’s how a lot of people conduct their lives. They live in bite size pieces of, of what information they have. And, um, so yeah, I actually have had people that will respond and I had one gentleman with the oncoming coming out a message that, I mean, he made it. Personal mission that he was going to convert me to his religion.  

And it’s like, dude, you know, I get that, you know, that’s important to you, but please don’t impose your beliefs on me. Um, and with the whole retiring, Oh my gosh, Kathleen, I, I didn’t know that you’d ever retire kind of thing. That’s like, well, you, you need to read the whole message. Um, and I think that we’re so overwhelmed with information nowadays that we don’t take time to really be present with what we’re we’re doing.  

On any level. And so part of what I work with my clients on is to get really, really present actually, just before you and I started this conversation, I got a call from a client that a few days ago, I said, okay, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to make a commitment that every day you’re going to make an hour worth of phone calls to potential clients.  

When she called me up to say, I can’t tell you how powerful that was. I’m completely present with what I’m doing. I’m making the calls and it’s making a huge difference, you know? So it’s really about being more conscious with what we do on all different levels. Yeah. Now. So how did you get into this? I had asked you offline and you said that you always had a passion for marketing and promotions, and then you mentioned with a lot of hard work and hard knocks and great mentors along the way  

That’s what got you to where you’re at. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that journey? Well, I, you know, I like the law, a lot of marketers. I started with my little lemonade stand when I was about seven or eight years old. And, uh, went into having my first newspaper. When I was about 10 years old, I had a little, uh, print press that I would charge a penny per ad because we’re going way back  

And then I started a lawn care service, started a babysitting services and anything that I could do to make money. And, uh, it was all about having the passion behind what I was doing because. I grew up in a family where my dad taught us that we had to be responsible for the things we wanted to buy that were outside of the norm of the family.  

Um, I had to pay for my first car by, by working at a taco Joe’s, uh, at the age of 16. And I spent all summer getting the money so that I could buy my first car because the car meant freedom. And so my marketing goes way back, uh, to where it really was about. When you market yourself in the right way, you get the money to do things you want.  

Do they give you the freedom that you have as far as getting into my business? When I first started my business, I was working for GTE health systems. As a matter of fact, in salt Lake, it was down on, uh, a temp West temple. And I think one 75 Southwest temple was theater downtown. Yeah. Yeah. And I was working there.  

I’d been there for about three years and I really wanted to get into the demonstration division where I could go out and do demonstrations for clients. And I had a boss that just. He was a tyrant when it came to anybody they wanted to do, he would do all he could to hold them back. And I, I realized that, um, I was in the marketing communications department and I realized that if I really wanted to do what I wanted to do, it was a matter of me going out on my own.  

And I did what I don’t recommend most people do. I actually just, I left my job and went right into starting a business with very little knowledge of how to run a business effectively. And so I had a lot of, uh, ups and downs early on and where the biggest turning point occurred was when I was willing to invest money in hiring people that could help me cut my learning curve by as much as 80 and 90.  

For Sam. And I can remember those times where my palms were sweaty and it was like, can I really afford this, uh, years and years and years ago, I went through Tony Robbins training, the unlimited power weekend, and it was like a $600 investment. At that time. It was about 20, probably 25 years ago. And that was a huge investment for me army at the time.  

And I remember I was terrified that this may not work. And what they told me was if you do the work it’ll work. And so over the years, investments in consultants, in information products in seminars and distinction has always been when I make the investment and I do the work, I get a result. Where I see a lot of people get misguided is they buy the thing, but they don’t do the work.  

And then they say it didn’t work. It’s like, no, no, no, no. You’ve got to do the work. But, um, for me, it’s been, I’ve had, uh, I worked with Matt basic in the internet marketing space, Tommy T on Suzanne Evans on bill business consulting. I’ve had some of the Brendon Burchard. I was in his mastermind. And so I’ve made some pretty substantial investments in.  

What I realize is no one person can be your end, all be all. You get something from each consultant that you hire, or each coach that you hire. But if you hire somebody to be your saving grace, that it probably won’t work out for you. You hire them because they can give you some kind of an insight and something that they can help you grow in your business.  

Would you agree that, um, the worst type of coach is the one that says they can help you with everything and it’s better to find a coach that will help you with something specifically? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I think that somebody who says that they can pick it. So all your problems I would turn and walk the other way.  

Um, if they have a specific area that they can work with you in, uh, then I would say that’s probably, uh, somebody and if they, if they have had success in that area, um, because in the internet marketing space, for example, which I’ve been in that space for many, many years, The people that came on board, they read a book, they bought an information product and all of a sudden they’re an expert, but they’ve never done what they’re teaching people to.  

It’s kind of like when, um, if I want to be a high performing runner. I’m going to hire somebody that knows what it’s like to put in 10 miles in one stretch in a training day, when you don’t feel like working out, I’m not going to hire somebody who read a book about running and then said, okay, here’s what you need to do  

So you want to hire people. I believe that really understand the game of what you’re trying to win at. Yeah. W is there a single kind of the single most valuable lesson that stands out from working across the variety of coaches that you’ve worked with? Yeah, I think we’ve kind of hit on it, which is don’t expect one person to be an end, all be all.  

And if your gut says that this person really isn’t the person to work with, really trust your gut, but also look at where your fear resides, because sometimes you have to have the sweaty palms. I believe if you’re not, if you don’t have sweaty palms, you’re not playing big enough and you have to go based on what you’re trying to accomplish in life.  

At 65, my, my goal. So my desires are very different than they were when I was in my thirties. And so it’s looking at that and saying, okay, what do I really want to accomplish in my life? And right now, my big thing is, um, being in top physical shape and really taking care of my health. And it’s not just about the physical aspects, but it’s also about the emotional and spiritual aspects of taking care of myself and honoring the, the, basically the temple I’ve been given and.  

As a woman who’s in her mid sixties. My issues that I can I’m concerned with are forms of cancer. Uh, I’m at high risk for breast cancer and colon cancer, uh, high blood pressure, heart disease, all of those things are manageable and all of those things are actually reversible for many people. Um, and so my concerns with my health today are very different than what they were in my thirties.  

In my thirties. It was all about looking good. Well, now it’s more about being healthy. And the looking good comes with it. I truly believe. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Now you’re an author. I want to ask you two questions. The first one is why don’t you tell us about your book? And the second question is you, you made a comment that you didn’t realize prior to writing how prevalent, um, that would contribute to your business growth.  

So I’m curious to better understand how it’s contributed to business growth. Well, the, the first book I wrote was actually called message of hope and it was kind of an inspirational, um, just some thoughts about life. A book that I wrote, and I really thought that book was going to put me on the map as an author.  

So I didn’t do much of anything because I didn’t do a lot of marketing around it. Um, I thought I was going to get discovered by Oprah with that book. And, um, over the years I’ve written several books, but my, my most successful book was actually the book power up for profits. And that book was. All about how to use the internet to gain visibility?  

Well, that book was a theater into a three day event that I did. And that three day event was a figure into a year long coaching program that I offered. So on the front end, that book did really good on Amazon. We did a whole launch around it and it sold a substantial number of copies within a very short period of time.  

But what it did, I was very strategic about the whole marketing, anybody who bought the book, got tickets into it, my three day event. And at the three day events, I did a lot of it. I gave great content and then I made an offer for a $29,000 coaching program. And at that particular event, we made about a quarter of a million dollars.  

So there’s, there was a, a real, um, distinction in the way that I. Uh, marketed my first book, which was I didn’t market it at all to my book, power up for profits, where from the very beginning I had an end game in mind and I reverse engineer everything. Okay. And so I think for any author, um, especially for nonfiction authors, really look at what the subject matter of your book is.  

And where do you want that book to take you? Um, if you want it to take you there, what do you need to do between where you’re at and where you want to go? Um, do you have to do a lot of podcast interviews? Do you have to get out and be seen and do presentations, do you have to do, um, blogging? Do you have to do social media marketing around it?  

Do you have to bring in affiliate partners and collaborative partners? Um, I recently just introduced a program where I’m doing a 30 day mastermind. Where it’s called the 100 club and the whole purpose behind the 100 club is teaching people how to have a system in place and strategies to get 100 interviews, podcasts, interviews by years.  

And now that doesn’t happen by chance, that happens by having a very focused approach and reaching out to the. Targeted podcast hosts that want you on their show. And that’s the thing. A lot of people don’t realize they, they kind of throw a bunch of crap up there on the wall and hope something sticks.  

And what you want to do it is you want to make sure you’re hitting the right wall. That’s not true. I just made that up. Yeah. You know, it’s funny. Um, so with this podcast, I get, uh, I get a lot of people and you can always tell the people that make a sincere effort, not a little personalization versus the people.  

Like you said, to take the shotgun approach and throw something up on the wall. And, um, and, and there’s probably, there’s a gentleman that just reached out the other day. Maybe he works with you in some capacity. And, um, he’s doing 90 podcasts in 90 days. And, um, he reached out and that I got to give that guy a lot of credit.  

I mean, even a hundred over the course of the year is substantial because I don’t think people understand how much effort goes into, um, you know, reaching out, booking, recording, and promoting. Something as what most people probably think is just a podcast. Right. Right. You know, and they don’t, I’ve been on both sides of the microphone where I actually have a YouTube channel right now for plant based eating.  

And the only people I’ll let you interview are people that are a hundred percent plant based. That’s it? Yeah. And I’ve had people reach out and say, well, I do health and fitness and it’s like, that’s great. I really admire you for that. But that’s not what the messages that I’m trying to put out there. So, um, I actually have created a directory where, um, I sell this directory based on different categories and I have a whole section on plant based eating.  

And I have a note at the bottom of all the plant based shows. If you’re not a hundred percent plant based, don’t even contact this. Um, you know, it’s like somebody who might have a show on abuse. Um, if, if the person doesn’t have a good story around abuse, the host probably doesn’t want to talk to them.  

It’s the same with dog training. Okay. Jog training shows. Don’t bring your cat stories to the dog training shows, you know, so it’s really about being really fine tune. And I love that. I, I don’t know the person who’s doing the 90 and 90, but I love that idea. And for every yes that you get, you may have to reach out.  

To 10 or 20 host because there’s a number of reasons. One is. You might go on iTunes and search out shows, or you might go on blog talk radio, you might go on a Google search and you might find these shows, but it could be that the shows are no longer active. And there are strategies that you can use to find out is the show actually active.  

And that’s what I teach my clients. How do you really identify? Is the show active? Uh, one way is to look at when the last episode aired. The, um, the other thing is, is that sometimes hosts are so overwhelmed. That they just can’t get back to you in a timely fashion or your message didn’t stand out. There was nothing unique about your message and say, I want to be on your side and that’s it.  

It’s like, great. Well, what are you bring to the party? So it’s really like anything we have to be able to, um, make. Our message stand out in a way that’s appealing to other people. Yeah. Um, I agree with all of the above. Um, I have nothing to add  

your kids know now, um, you’ve touched a couple of times about how, uh, you know, your focus at this point in life is about health. And you’ve hinted on in the past, all the things you did to enjoy life. Now, you’ve also briefly mentioned offline that you barely graduated high school and you ended up on the streets in your twenties.  

And one thing I like to bring to the listener is not just the positive highlights of, of successful careers. But also the, the times where, you know, they went through the roof, our guests went through the rougher points and what they’ve learned from that. So whatever you’re willing to share I’d appreciate that.  

Absolutely. Um, it really, what it was is, uh, when I was in my teens, I discovered drugs and I mean, you know, I’m not going to beat around the Bush with that. And yeah, I had some really good times with drugs and alcohol, but then I crossed that invisible line that some of us cross and, uh, I just. Couldn’t stop.  

I mean, no matter how bad life got, I couldn’t stop. And it basically took me to a place where I was unemployable. I couldn’t show up for a job. I couldn’t pay my rent. And I ended up on the streets and, um, you know, by the grace of God, I made it out. Yeah, because the reality is as lot of people don’t make it out.  

And I was, um, it’s been 35 years since I’ve had my, my last drink and it’s been 31 years since I had my last drug. And it’s kind of interesting because we can really fool ourselves into pretending that our life. She is a certain way. And once I quit drinking, I was still doing a lot of drugs and I was a major, major pot head.  

And, um, and it’s so interesting because you know, state now pot is legal and it’s like, Oh my God. But the fact is, is that okay? I ended up where I was getting stoned all day long and didn’t do anything. And, um, when you don’t do much of anything, you basically, we end up with not much of anything, but what’s really amazing is I had some great mentors along the way, early on in my sobriety, who, if you will, they kicked my butt.  

I had one woman where I was blaming everything, but my self for why my life ended up the way it was, it was my ex husband. It was, uh, you know, this person and that person, whatever it may be. And she said, no, you know what? Your problem is. It’s not them. It’s you? She goes, you have it, the worst mindset. You need to start focusing on what you have to be grateful for.  

And I said, you don’t get it. I have nothing to be grateful for where she goes, that’s your problem. You don’t even recognize that you’ve got your legs. You’ve got your arms. You didn’t end up killing somebody in a drunk driving accident or, you know, I mean, she just really stripped everything away. And her job was to get me really humble.  

And once I was able to get to that place of humility, And really look at the simplicity of life and the simple things to be grateful for. I was able to build from there. Yeah. And what’s really amazing is now I get to share my story with other women and men, but primarily women who are in a bad place.  

And maybe I can share one jam with them that will turn their life around. Uh, as a matter of fact, in a few days, I’m going out to speak at the Eugene mission. Which is a shelter for people that are on the streets and I’m going to go in and I’m just going to share my story. I’m not there to try to sell them anything.  

I’m not there to wow. Them basically. I’m just there to share my experience, strength and hope. And what I know to be true Damon is that when we’re willing to share who we are with people who are there trying to travel a different path in life, oftentimes that’s the gift that gives us it, it just.  

The, uh, ability to see that I’m going to make an assumption about the woman that kind of called you out. And I asked this seriously when she kind of called you out about not being appreciative. How long did her honesty frustrate you? I well, you know, it’s interesting because, um, when she first said that I didn’t want to talk to her, I was just like, you have no idea, but the what made me respect.  

Her ability to do that was she had a few years of sobriety and she was able to share things about her own life and what it took for her to get those few years of sobriety. And so I really don’t remember how long I was upset with her, but all I know is that she literally saved my life more than once.  

Um, and. I remember early on in my sobriety, I asked somebody, I said, my gosh, how do you get 10 years of sobriety? What do you do? And they said, do you really want to know? And I said, yeah, I really want to know. I want 10 years of sobriety and I want it right now. And they said, no, no, no, you stay sober one day at a time for 10 years.  

And it’s just like, I want the success that somebody has a been in business for 10 years will then be in business for 10 years. Do the work show up every day, give it a hundred percent. And you’ll probably get that experience. When you reached that point where you wanted to change paths in life, was that the culmination?  

What was it a slow realization or was there a definitive breaking point? I would say yes to both. Um, I think there were, uh, periods where I realized that my life was completely out of control. I mean, I got to the point, I knew my life was out of control, but I really didn’t believe I could change it. Um, and honestly, when I see some of the people on the streets, uh, that are my age and I, and maybe even younger, but they look my age, uh, and I just go, but for the grace of God there go, I, um, But it was one day when I just completely want to do checkout.  

And I don’t much talk about this, but I was ready to do myself in and, and I, I actually attempted it. And even that didn’t work and I thought I’m such a failure. I can’t even kill myself. And it was at that point that I just realized that if I’m going to be here, Then I need to do things differently and it wasn’t like, Oh, the Gates of heaven opened up and all of a sudden life was great.  

It was painful. There were days that I literally, they had to white knuckle not taking that first drink and not taking that first drug. I mean, it was not an easy process, but then little by little, it got easier to the point. Now after 35 years, Um, it, it’s not something I concern myself with, but I also know that I could go back to who I used to be with one drink.  

And that’s the reality is you have certain behaviors. It’s just like in a relationship. If you want a loving, caring relationship and you want to have, uh, you know, a devoted, uh, you want to be devoted to your spouse. There’s certain behaviors. You just don’t participate. And anybody who tempts the hand of fate, Then, you know, you’re, you’re setting yourself up for trouble and it’s like in business too, you know, you can say that you want a successful business, but if you don’t show up every day and give it a hundred percent while you’re in your office, and that’s the distinction, you don’t have to work long hours, but while you’re working, give it a hundred percent.  

Uh, and before we shift topics, I’ll, I’ll ask you one more, um, on the sobriety note, how long into your path to sobriety did you, did you go, Hey, I’m making some positive ground here. Wow. That is such a great a question because I know that, um, at 10 years it was really hard for me because I, I should be further along than I was and what I know to be true about sobriety, what I know to be true about spiritual enlightenment.  

Yeah. Is that oftentimes our ego will kick in and tell us, Oh, you’ve accomplished nothing. Um, you know, even at 35 and yours, there’s times that I can compare myself to somebody else and say, well, why aren’t you, you know, making multiple millions of dollars in your business? Um, you’re such a failure and it’s like, well, where’d that come from?  

So I think. For all of us, we have these, um, if you will demons that kind of hang out and they’re just waiting to convince us that we haven’t accomplished much of anything in life. Right. And that’s why I know it. It’s important to really check with who we’re hanging out with, who we surround ourselves with.  

What we put into our mind, body and soul. That’s why health is so important to me because what we consume on all levels, whether it be what we eat, what we drink, what we read, what we watch, all of that is so important to, um, Either taking us to the next level of, uh, if you will enlightenment. Yeah. Or keeping us down in a place of life, comparing ourselves to everybody else without realizing the fact that we were born.  

The fact that we’re here right now is the gift. And what we do with the gift is, is really up to us. I read a, uh, interesting statistic, uh, at some point, and I have no idea how they quantify this, but it was something like your chances of being the person you are being born, where, and when at, at, at this point in history, Is one in 4 trillion.  

Yeah. Something like that. Yeah, just some astronomical number. Alright, amazing. Yeah, Kathleen, I am one in 4 trillion. Okay. So am I  

alright, so, so here you are, um, you, you’ve made all these gains in your life. You have a successful business and, um, you’ve shared all these great stories. And now you’re talking to your younger self. And who is our listener? What are you going to tell your younger self? You know, what I would tell my younger self is, um, be kind to yourself and, and go for your dreams.  

Sooner than later, because nowadays you never know when it’s all going to end. And today is really your point of power today day that you’ve been given to do that the best that you can do. And by doing the best, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to be in front of a thousand people, you know, while we, them, it could be that.  

You’re you’re showing kindness to that person at the grocery store that had a rough day. And you don’t know what they’re going through. Basically, I would say to my younger self, just be kind to yourself and others and do the footwork for what your dreams are and it’ll all work out. Fair enough. Well, Kathleen gage, I want to give you the opportunity to share your contact information and how our listeners can find out more about you.  

Thank you, Damon. Uh, well the first place would be power up for profits, plural, powerupforprofits.com and the other one for anybody interested in plant based, eating plant based, eatingforhealth.com. That’s cool. I’m going to actually check out the plant based, eating us something up and get into lately.  

Awesome. I appreciate that. Um, all right, so the last thing we surprise our guests here. I’m gonna push this little button here. Random question generator. You have a random question and yours is what is your favorite condiment?  

Wow. I’m salsa. Ah, he had my wife, both salsa lovers. Cool. Kathleen Gage. Uh, you’ve been a pleasure. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. It’s been delightful.