Suicide prevention Saturday on a Sunday, because life doesn’t always go according to plan.

Hi everybody. It is Suicide Prevention Saturday, and why are we here? Because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths we hear about are suicides, and if we want to make a difference, we need to talk about mental health. And what's the bonus here? Oh, if we do the things that we talk about for mental health, hmm, it saves lives more than the ones that are taken by guns. And funny side note, it also helps prevent violence. Because our mental health is where we find violence, unfortunately. So with that, I want to welcome you to my special edition, because it's always a special edition when I have a guest. And today I do have a guest. Now, you guys have all met Jake before from Walk the Talk America. He's been on here at least twice, I think. And Michael Sodini has been on twice as well, because, you know, we got to keep things even. And then Jake met this lovely lady in an airport not that long ago and said that we should meet. So with that, I would like to introduce you to Miss Georgia. Hi, Georgia. Thanks for coming out today.

Hi, Brooke. Thank you for having me.

That is correct, right? You guys met in an airport.

That is exactly right. He was— I'm just one of those people that's like, hey, how's it going? Let's be best friends forever. And he was walking along. I overheard part of his conversation that had to do with mental health. And I just said, hey, I have to know you.

Oh, there you go. And then so she had to meet Jake, and so she talked to Jake, and then shortly thereafter I got an email from Jake introducing me to her, and then she sent me an email introducing her to me, and I ignored her completely for a day or two just because it was really busy. And, um, I reached out just last night and we're like, hey, I need a person, and here she is. So thanks for coming on and being flexible and hopping on as soon as possible, basically. So definitely. All right. So let's get one thing out of the way first. Georgia doesn't care about guns. She cares about mental health. And when we were having our phone conversation last night, that was kind of— she's like, you know, I don't really care. I'm like, that's okay. I don't really care about guns either. It's that because of guns, I found my voice to speak out about mental health. And that's how come I do what I do is because 2 out of 3 gun deaths being suicides is super important. And like Georgia being suicidal as a teen, I mean, I don't know, I don't know her story yet, because that's why we're talking now. But for me, the being suicidal as a teen, I had no reason to talk about it. But guns gave me that opportunity. Now, Georgia here has been doing candles for 20 years, hence Shorty's Candles. I can't point all the way over in her screen, but over there. So Georgia, like I said last night, feel free to introduce yourself and tell folks a little bit about you and Shorty's Candles.

Oh, well, thank you.

It's like, okay, now what? So give them the Shorty's Candle stuff, what you care about, mental health, and I don't know, when you start not having anything to say, I'll try to jump in.

Well, so with Shorty's Candles, we have been in business for 22 years. We started in 2002, and you know, it actually started a little bit before that. You see, when I was younger, I, I've always loved fragrance. My mom and I— my mom used to sell Avon, and in her selling Avon, we would sit around together and we would take out our samples and we would put them in different bags, and we'd sit there and smell them together. And that was a really fun adventures. I fell in love with fragrance. And then when I was about 15 years old, we lived in a really, really old house. This house should have been torn down many years before we moved into it, but it was our home. And it used to be an old office converted into a house. So there was all these tiny little alcoves of like bedrooms, and I had a bedroom next to a bathroom. And one day, I'm 15 years old, I'm not paying attention, I fill up the bathtub and I overflow the bathtub. I flooded the bathtub, the bathroom, the closet, my bedroom. It was really, really horrendous. But this smell came out of the carpet that nobody on Earth should ever have to smell. It was really bad, and I needed to get rid of that smell. And somebody said to me, buy a candle. So I went to the store, I bought a candle, I brought it back, I lit it, and nothing happened. And it just blew my mind. I was flabbergasted because I just spent like $12 on this candle and it didn't do anything. So I just thought scented candles were just so you could smell them and they didn't have a scent throw. Well, fast forward, I met a boy. It's 2001. I just gotten home from Europe. I've been traveling for almost 2 years at this point. I've got no money left. I'm poorer than poor. Meet a boy and I have to do something for him for Christmas. So I make him a candle, everything's good, he likes the candle. But I'm making candles for all my girlfriends at the same time. They end up giving me candle wax for Christmas and it ends up in a closet.

How did you find candle making?

Okay, well, that's actually a really good story because I'm just like, I'm like, wait, wait, hold on, we gotta—

because like part of me is like, I'm trying not to jump in, but I'm like, wait a second, I too flooded the bathroom but it was only like a week or two ago, and it was just after we had the whole thing redone. The horror. Oh, oh yes, and I flooded the basement and all of that. Um, our basement's not horrible because it was already wet before, so I'm gonna just go with it's used to being wet and all of that. But yeah, so, uh, traveling all over the place, getting into candle making, um, finding yourself making candles for everybody— is that the beginning of your journey into candles?

Well, what happened actually was— what happened was I was sitting on my boyfriend's couch. I'm sitting there talking, he's not home. I'm sitting there just wondering what I'm going to do for him for Christmas, and I'm talking to my sister-in-law. I just said, please, I just don't know what to do for this guy. I just met him a few months ago. I'm so confused. She goes, well, look around his house. What does he have? And I said, he's got a couch, a TV, a candle. She goes, Perfect. He loves candles. I said, I don't know how to make a candle. And to me, because of that experience of not having— of it just kind of being trash, it was stupid to me to make a candle. But she said, but he loves candles, so just— he likes it, so do something for him. And it kind of— okay, fine. So I went over to her house and I made this candle with her, and then I took the candle making stuff. Like, I went to the thrift store, I bought a 25-cent pan She gave me some old wax that was from like leftover candles, and we melted it down in her kitchen. Then she gave me the rest of the stuff that we had, and I took it home. I had just moved in with my girlfriends, and I took it home, melted all this stuff, poured some candles. They saw me making candles for them and for him for Christmas, but I didn't— they didn't know that I wasn't into candle making. They didn't know I was— it was like a one-time thing, like, I'm gonna make these candles and we're gonna be done. I'm never gonna make them again. And actually, when someone get— when they gave me the wax, I was actually really disappointed, to be honest with you. I was really bummed because it almost felt like a weight on my shoulders because I had been traveling for so long and I didn't own anything. And all of a sudden I had this chunk of wax. I had two 1-pound chunks that felt like I couldn't move anymore. It was like, ah, I'm stuck. I have this stuff and now I have to do something with it. So then Valentine's Day came and I bought a heart-shaped mold because again, I still didn't have any money. So I thought, well, I've got this wax, I'll make this boy another candle. Then I took the candle to work. I made him this heart-shaped candle, took it to work, and I ran valet at a casino here in Reno. And I showed it to the boys that that I worked with there, and they were floored. They were like, wow, this thing is so cool. So I gave it to this boy that I was dating, and the boys at work asked me to make them candles. They were like, could you make us some beer-scented candles? So I did. And with these beer-scented candles, it was really interesting because they were not like the candle I'd bought when I was 15. They actually had a smell. And I thought I'd invented something. I was 21 years old, so I didn't— I wasn't worldly at that point. I didn't know much about the candle industry at all.

I know that you're 42 now because I'm doing them. You said you've been doing this for 20 years.

I'm 43.

Okay, well, I wasn't trying to tell you the age, but I'm just saying, I'm like, well, you said 20 years, you would do this for 20 years.

So, well, it's 22. 22 years.

All right.

And yeah, so I have this candle. I— they— all these boys are freaking out about how amazing this beer scent is. And they're like, you have to sell candles. You have just done something incredible. No one's ever done it in the world. So I decided to go and sell at a farmer's market. And then day one, from day one, we had people that kept coming and they came on day two, like the second time we showed up and the third time we showed up. And it was really interesting because I I made something that other people appreciated, and I'd never done anything like that before. Like, no one had ever— I didn't see any value in something I could create, and that was pretty neat to be able to see that something I was creating was creating value for other people. So it just kept, kept going. We kept doing it. And then I got fired from my job, and then you had no choice.

You're like, all right, this is it, I have to go. And, um, yeah, it's sort It's like that whole thing where people say, God never gives me more than I can handle. And most of us are like, dude, please give me a break. I don't need to handle more right now.

Yeah, well, it's been fun.

So now I've been looking at your website and your— so this is her Facebook page and she's also got a website as well. And when I was on your Facebook page, I was looking at your reviews. And so it looks like you're like all over the place now. So you went from a farmer's market to Walmart and everywhere now.

Well, so you can buy them on walmart.com. Walmart.com called us, or actually emailed multiple times. I just ignored them because I thought it was spam, but then finally the guy was like, this is not spam, so you should probably respond to me. He asked us to be their high-end candle brand on walmart.com, and after we did some different research and we said, okay, sounds good. So now we sell on walmart.com, and it actually looks like it's coming from Walmart, but it's shipping from our location. So it comes on our pretty receipt that says Walmart on the top of it.

And then you also are on Amazon, because like I said, I'm, I'm, you know, it's like in the short amount of time since It's been less than 24, 12 hours since we last talked, or it feels like it at least. So Amazon as well, so people can find you all over the place. So if I'm hearing you correctly, the first step of candles as far as it relates to the mental health area of life is that I'm hearing you tell me that you felt from worthless to worthy because of these candles. Is that reasonable?

That actually is very reasonable. Yes, I've definitely— yes, I— yes, it's a journey though, because sometimes you don't realize how you are feeling until you kind of get stuck in a different situation and things come up, and then you kind of start to feel maybe like past feelings, and then you can start to work through them. So it's taken a long time. It's been a long journey, but it's been incredible. And I'm so grateful for the things that I've learned. Like, wax is my jam, and I'm so glad that, that I've been able to connect with this.

It's totally awesome because you just said moments ago how it felt like a huge weight on your back when you just had 1 pound of wax waiting for you to do something with it. And now it's just like, wait, This is the thing that changes everything. And last week's Suicide Prevention Saturday, we were talking about giving yourself credit for the things that you've gone through. And it's one of those things where it's like, so often the things in our lives that do not feel as though they are serving us are the best things that have changed the direction that we're going. And like you were just talking about the recognition of, oh, wait a second, this does not mean what I thought it meant. And I mean, I don't know, it's very exciting to me. I've got goosebumps over here. I'm not going to lie. I'm like, oh, it's so exciting to hear your story because there are things in my life that I thought they were the worst things that could have ever happened to me in my life. And with hindsight in 2020 being 2020, it's not 2020. Thank you, Lord. But, you know, hindsight being 20/20, it's just like some of the worst things in my life, like your pound of candle wax feeling like such a horrible thing at the time. It's like you don't know what is in store for you. And to have the ability to look back like, wow, that was like life-changing. And yet at the time it seemed like it was horrible.

Yes.

All right. There are so many things. All right. Last night you and I chatted a wee bit about, um, how you love the fragrance, and we touched on veterans. Um, one of my watchers and one of my friends here on YouTube is Mario Mosin, and he actually talks to veterans about PTSD, and he's a big proponent of that. So that might be another channel you want to go check out at some point. But, um, you were telling me about, uh, veterans, and you've got veterans in all states with your candles. Do you want to expand on that just a little bit more for our viewers?

I'd love to. We do, actually. So it's really interesting to me because I didn't realize how much fragrance helped other people. I thought it was just something fun and something neat to like rest on things, you know, and like light a candle and make things smell good. But it really does. It creates this moment that snaps us out of whatever we are going through at that time. And veterans have different experiences than so many other people. And there are a lot of people that suffer from PTSD from different situations, but veterans have a special place in my heart. And I, I've become really good friends with multiple veterans throughout the United States. And just in hearing their stories and the things that they've gone through and how they've been able to use our candles and our products to help snap them out of whatever is going on in that moment. And it seems to me that veterans really like being in the garage. And in my experience—

and it's so clear she does mean a literal garage—

they love being in like your vehicle's garage, and they will turn their garages into these amazing man caves and woman caves and just places where they can kind of step away from every— everybody and everything else and kind of be in silence. Or have their own situation going on in there, kind of their own, their own haven. And they'll light candles in there. And it's really, really cool to hear different stories. And we have this, this one lady keeps popping into my mind. Her name's Lise, and she has had some PTSD that's really traumatic and hard for her. I don't know if I could have said her name, but I didn't say her last name. But she's such an incredible woman. I love talking to her. Through her, and she has these stories that she'll share, but the candles help her snap out of things. And it's interesting because I, I have a veteran and he burns jasmine candles, and we have— at least she burns, um, gardenia candles. And then I have somebody else who really likes Lemon Blueberry Twist, and we have so many different— don't lose the camera, it's getting rocky around here. I'm getting excited, we're talking about fragrances. But it's so cool to be able to talk to these people who have gone through something and to see how something that we make, something that, that comes from my heart to somebody else's heart, makes such a huge difference and feels so good in their home. And it's one of those things that— yeah, we were talking yesterday about this concept called the fragrance flip. And that's flip, like I'm flipping a coin.

Uh-huh. Because I thought that she said fragrance slip last night when we were chatting, and so that's why she's making that, you know.

But really just being able to— it's like fragrance creates a pattern interrupt. So fragrance creates a pattern interrupt, and it's really nice to be able to have that moment where, you know, you're you've got something going on, and then something comes in and creates a change in that for you, and you can have something different. You can think something different. You can have a new situation. So for example, I was driving home one day. My son—

I—

it's maybe fourth grade, third grade, fourth grade, I think fourth grade— and we're driving home from school. I've just picked him up. This teacher at pickup has told me how he's done all these awful things in school and how You know what? He spoke in school and he was not supposed to. So I, of course, needed to stand up for the teacher and defend her. So for some silly reason, I decided I needed to yell at my child like he should be listening to what I want and not have a voice or an opinion. And I know that that's not good parenting, but you know what? That was where I was at that moment. So I'm yelling at this child. He's sitting in the passenger seat. I'm looking for places to throw him off a cliff, but I'm on a freeway, so I can't. And it's not just not the right thing to throw your child off a cliff either, but I was really, really mad. I'm yelling. I pull up in the driveway. I'm ready to take every single electronic piece in the entire world away from him. Phone's gone. Computer's gone. TV's gonna be off for the next 5 years. Anything and everything is gonna be gone. And we're yelling at each other. And I head inside the house. And he— I head inside the house, and my husband, while I had been picking my son up, he had lit one of our candles. And I opened the front door, and all of a sudden, wow, it just changed. It redirected me, changed everything. And all of a sudden, instead of being angry at him, I could breathe. I could just calm down. I could just go Oh, okay, I can do something different. And it was this pattern interrupt that I so desperately needed so then I could handle him and work with him in a real human-to-human, and I could see him outside of this bubble I'd created about needing to take care of the teacher and make sure that I don't hear anything bad about my son at school, so I needed to teach him a lesson. So I could walk away from that and walk into this, hey, wait a second here. What are you feeling? What are you going through? Let's work on this together. And then we worked on everything together and it made everything better. And I realized at that point in time that it was this flip that fragrance helps people with. It's that I'm just not able to do this. I can't make this work. I can't, you know, I think it's Mel Robbins. She has this to get out of bed.

Mel Robbins, she's my favorite. I love her pieces. I do. I listen to her as often as I can. And for those of you who don't know who Mel Robbins is, when I create the description, I'll make sure I put a link to her as well, because getting on her email list and watching her stuff is absolutely awesome. Sorry, I just— someone else knows Mel.

Yay! She is awesome. She does the 3, 2, 1, like when you're having a really tough time, like getting out of bed, just count 3, 2, 1, boom, get out of bed. And it's that little pattern interrupt, that recognizing, hey, wait, I've been in bed for 45 minutes and I need to get out. And it is tough. It can be tough some mornings to get out of bed, but having that pattern interrupt helps you just say, Boom, I don't have another choice. Countdown's done. Get up and out. And that's how I feel fragrances. That's what fragrances do for us, is it creates that, that 3, 2, 1. I smell that. I don't have to continue with this. I can go here. And it's a beautiful pattern interrupt.

And our biggest challenge is doing that for ourselves when we're in that position. Because when everything is revved up to a million RPMs, right, it's hard to remember that we have resources around us. And this is where the challenge comes, because you and I both know, right, there's things we know we can do, whether it's just take a deep breath, whether it's stand up, put our shoulders back, all of these things. Because some of the things here on Suicide Prevention Saturday we talk about is just physiology as well, right? And it's like knowing and being able to do those things in the time when you are feeling least resourceful is really the biggest challenge because it's just, we're so smart and we have so many things that we know to do, but when we're in that chaos moment of everything is horrible and we're, yeah, all I can think of is the million RPMs because my dad was a race car driver, so RPMs and redlining and all of that. So it's just like, yeah, that's what I go with. But, um, so yeah, it is— it's, it's having these things around you on a regular basis. Like, have your candles. Go buy some Shorty's Candles. I almost did last night. I'm like, no, no, I need to actually do my goals first. I'm just letting you know. I'm like, I was shopping. No, no, no, because I'm like, I'm looking at all of the fragrances. I'm like, oh, and I'm like, I did not see beer on there. But to be fair, I wasn't for beer.

It was no longer there. It was kind of a one-hit wonder.

Okay, well, we have a— we have a, uh, we had an ice cream parlor around here. They would make beer ice cream and champagne ice cream at New Year's Eve. So, but yeah, probably a big hit. Probably. I'm like, I'm like, I don't really like beer, but I think I would try beer ice cream just to say I've had beer ice cream.

This beer was like the beer that sat out for 2 weeks on a fraternity counter because no one cleaned. So awful.

I worked in the bar, I totally get that, because like for some reason when you're in a bar, that sort of stuff happens overnight, literally. You clean that counter, but no, not really. So, all right, so We know we've got veterans taken care of as far as, and those, the numbers on our veterans is horrible. It's staggering. It's still around 20 to 22 a day. In the shooting competitions, we do a lot of fundraising for veteran suicide prevention. And there's so many different groups out there. Mario Mosin, who I mentioned earlier in the cast, his One of his favorites is the Mighty Oaks, and there's Aiming for Zero, which was the first one that I met through competition. And we do competitions where we raise money for them as well. And it's just like, there's such a need, but it's like, there's a need for everybody. So many people like this past week, I'm gonna put a link into last week's Suicide Prevention Saturday as well, simply for the fact that we were talking about give yourself credit for getting out of bed in the morning, right? You're talking about the Mel Robbins thing of 3, 2, 1, okay, get up, and how hard it can be to actually wake up in the morning and just lie there and be like, I don't want to go. So just know, and then 3, 2, 1, go. All of these things—

That has helped me get out of bed many times. I'm not going to lie. And I would not say I have PTSD. I just— you know what I mean? So you add PTSD on the top of just normal everyday feelings.

Right. And you love what you do. And so you actually love your job. I do.

Very much so.

We were talking about how important job satisfaction is because did you know more people die on a Monday than any other day of the week? Hence, they've decided that job satisfaction is helps you with longevity because people die on Mondays because they don't want to go to work.

I didn't know that.

Random facts for you, or random theoretical facts, because everything is fake news these days, you know. So there's that. Oh my gosh. All right, so additional stuff. There's, um, all right, so you start talking to Jake because he's talking about suicide prevention or mental health or mental awareness. And we've just talked about the sense and the ability for that to change your focus. Right. And for those of you who don't speak our jargon, pattern interrupt is just that. It's just a change of focus. Tony Robbins talks about it. Mel Robbins talks about it. We're talking about it. It's in— hopefully you've all felt that. Right? You felt that moment where it felt like the roof is caving in, you're about to get crushed, then all of a sudden, puppies! And all of a sudden you don't care about the other stuff that's happening. So that's what a pattern interrupt is. And as far as all of that goes, it's just like, you need to find the one that works for you, whether it's 3, 2, 1, like Mel talked about, whether it's lighting a candle and smelling that.

It is the best one.

What?

Oh, that's the best one.

It is one of the stronger ones. We talked about the other day when we're on the phone about how when you're selling a house, realtors really do tell you to go ahead and bake a cake or bread or cookies prior to a showing. Because people feel through their nose like crazy. And very true, actually.

Yeah, your olfactory senses.

And so it's like, I'm sure you've got lots of praise over that. It's like, oh, the smells. Um, I didn't read all of your reviews, but it was— it's—

there's a lot. There's a lot.

I know, that's what I'm like, I didn't read them all, I'm not gonna lie. But it's like, what are some of your favorite reviews that you've gotten regarding, um, the candles and how they've changed things and made things better?

That is a great question.

Wow. Well, I'm thinking just like the veterans that you talk to, right?

Oh, okay.

Well, yeah, even though that's like not an official review on, on like your website or anything, but more a matter of it's like, okay, what, what, how have I changed people's lives? Because first you've got people people to appreciate who you are and something that you've done. So we all like that. Like, that's why I do Suicide Prevention Saturday is because people like— I had one person tell me, they're like, oh, in 15 minutes you gave me more to think about than my 3— ready for it— my 3 counselors over the past 4 months kind of thing, right? So it's not— I don't mean like a review review, but like the things, how impactful you've been on other people?

Well, when it's— we, we get reviews all the time, every day. So we get a lot of great reviews, you know, like, your customer service is fantastic, um, your candles are incredible, your melters are amazing, you know, just reviews like that. But then the reviews that really mean something— well, I mean, they all mean something, but the ones that really touch your heart are the ones It's a lot of times when people call in, to be honest with you. It's when someone calls and then you have a half an hour long conversation and one of us or both of us ends up in tears because you share a story, you know.

Yeah.

Um, we've had people share stories about lost moms, you know. My mom, I lost my mom. That's just one that happened recently. My mom passed away. This was her favorite fragrance, and I just, I had to— she loved roses, and I had to go, and I ended up finding one of your True Rose candles. I brought it into my house, and it was literally like I was sitting with my mom, and I could just close my eyes and I could feel her there, and I could just feel this beautiful moment, this connection to her through this fragrance. And that kind of stuff is really the stuff that touches your heart. And we have this— I don't know, for some reason this popped up in my head a few times, but we had, you know, business over 22 years. Business hasn't always been fantastic, and we've had so much, so many things that we had to learn. I did start it when I was 21, so I was just this little kid, and I, I am still a little kid, I think. But I, I started a company without understanding anything about business. And I didn't even really realize I'd started a company. All I wanted to do was share my invention. And I, I, yeah, I didn't know where—

craft people are horrible at business is what I found in general. It's like, if I had a choice, I would just go to the range and teach people. I don't want to have to worry about social media, accounting, following up. I just want to go teach. So yeah, it business is hard. It always has been. And when you're younger, it can be even more challenging.

Now I'm great at it. Now is a completely different story. 22 years in and a lot of lessons. Now I can make some good decisions. I can help other people make good decisions. But then it was just kind of going through the motions and trying and just not quitting. I think that that was our biggest thing, actually. I, I, I think that that's how life is. You You know, when we continue on and no matter what we come up against, if we just don't quit, that's when magic happens. Because when we quit, that's when magic ends.

And you only fail if you stop trying.

Yeah. Even, even though a lot of times you'll feel like you're failing. Like, I remember a time when we had $0.12 in our bank account. You know, I, I, we, I really—

Wait, wait, you just said $0.12, so I immediately think you have 12 aromas in your bank account.

Oh no, like 12 pennies. And you're going, I really hope that one check that I just wrote for $1,000 to pay that vendor doesn't actually get processed for a few days because I just need the deposit from this one thing to come in to cover it. You know, it's— there's— and that's kind of how, how things go when you're starting a business and when you're young and I, I remember there was this lady who called. She was from, um, we'll call her D. That was the first letter in her name. And, uh, and she lived in Florida. And she would— I remember she called one day. Oh wow, okay, this is taking me back. She called one day and she said— and I, I'd never spoken to her before, but I— we were in our garage at that point in time. That's where we're running our company.. And as I'm sitting in the corner of the garage at the computer, pick up the phone, she's like, hi, I found you guys online. You guys have peppermint candles. She said, I've been suffering from massive headaches for so long. I've tried every single thing. I've tried every medicine you can possibly imagine. I've tried every herbal remedy that you can. And she said, and I heard about peppermint. I heard that peppermint will help get rid of get rid of headaches, and I'm going to try your peppermint candles, and this is the last thing I'm trying. And then if it doesn't work, I'm done. And I didn't know what that meant because she was really, really like, I am done.

Yeah.

And when she said that, I went to a different— I'm like, I don't know what done means. She was done with the headaches. She was done with this emotional toll she was going through. And so we shipped her 3 fresh peppermint candles. She bought 3, 3 candles. We shipped them to her, and she called. It was 5-day transit to get them all the way to her, and she called on that 6th day crying, just in tears. And she said, I can't tell you how long I've had a headache.

Oh, so here's, here's a tip for you. Look up. Like with your eyeballs. Seriously, just look up, take a breath in, and it allows you to continue on.

But thank you.

You're welcome. Oh, trust me, I'm a big crier, so I need all the tips and tricks that I can about that. But if you want to continue on, you look up. If you want to get into your crying, you look down. And when you stay in the middle, you're just kind of, uh, arguing with yourself is how that kind of works. Um, because back to the olfactory nerves, your, uh, your eyeballs are actually the only nerve part of your brain that's on the outside of your skull, not on the inside. And when you move your eyeballs in different positions, it engages different parts of your body. So when you look down, you become very physical and emotional. When you look up, you can, um, get away from your body a little bit, so you become less emotional. Because you're looking to the sky, you're looking to God, and it centers you more. So there it is for the next time you're doing the next TEDx talk.

You did— I really like that, actually. But she called and she said, I just wanted to tell you that for the first time in years, I haven't had a headache. And then she continued to order candles from us. And I didn't realize how important that would be. But in those times, D was the, was the reason we kept going, because she made me promise that I would not get rid of our Fresh Peppermint fragrance. And so when I, I never have. We've, we've had ups and downs with it, like sometimes it's been a great seller and sometimes it hasn't, but I have always kept it because of that promise and because that day that she called me and said, I can, I don't have to end anything. It's not over. I can keep going. And she just— she ordered— she— I, I actually haven't talked to her in like a year and a half now, or well, since COVID started. So I don't know exactly what happened with COVID but yeah.

But well, but I bet maybe I'll buy a peppermint candle just for Dee. But I mean, and if anyone's watching that doesn't get what we're talking about here, is like when she says she's done, she means like she's ready to go check out. It's over. Because one of the things we talk about with suicide is that sometimes it is about quality of life. Um, one of my favorite/worst stories is for me is Robin Williams, because Robin Williams is just one of those favorite people that we all know his name. And we also, most of us all know that he committed suicide. However, many of us do not know that the reason he committed suicide was because his health was going to deteriorate in a way that he did not want to exit this world. So suicide sometimes is a quality of life thing. And if you are in constant and never-ending pain, there is a time when suicide may be your only option to get out of that pain. And the fact that this lady here— sorry, I forget it goes backwards sometimes— um, was able to literally save a life with candles. You should all buy some more candles.

It's actually really nice because like I have— I don't know, we're going camping and so I always take candles with me, but like there's just teeny tiny little ones, like little tea lights, you know. And it's just nice to be able to, to pick them up and smell them. And sometimes even if you don't light them, it's just nice to have that like, oh, okay. And to connect to something, you know, like I have eucalyptus leaf with me and it's such a natural smell that it's just nice to just connect.

Better than a bathroom rug, right? Yeah, better than the bathroom rug.

Better than the bathroom rug.

All right. So before we go, because we're getting into the, the 45, 40-ish minutes of this, so I figured we should probably talk about this a little bit. Do you want to tell us how your TEDx talk came about?

Sure, I will. Um, so my TEDx talk, it's about creating a sense of mattering in our youth to prevent teen suicide. So really, that comes from my own story. So if you, if you did watch it, it comes from my own story. And my story was, um, was just not really recognizing that I was loved and not feeling loved when I was younger. And I, I wasn't— I grew up in a situation where I had a really loving mom and I had a dad that was so busy that he wanted to love me, but we had 5 kids, he had one job that didn't pay very much, and he tried the best that he could. So we didn't really have a lot of time with my dad, um, and he, he didn't know how to work with us. He didn't know how to work with children, so he would kind of like my reaction when my son was little. He would react really, you're not doing what you're supposed to. And so he would kind of get real mouthy. I don't know. He would tell me I was mouthy, but I think he was mouthy too. So, but—

Takes one to know one.

Yeah, exactly. I learned from the best. But when I was, um, I was 14, I was a freshman in high school, and I had gone through all of middle school. I just didn't know how the world could change. I didn't know how things could get better, and I was the cause of everybody's problems.

I'm sure the oldest of the 5, or you're just in the middle.

You're in the middle. Yeah, I'm the middle finger. Thought about it. This one right here. I actually have never thought about it like that before.

Another pattern interrupt for you next time you need one. What number am I? Oh, I'm this one.

You're not missing me.

I will say that.

I think that was, that was the finger everyone wanted to give me. I was like, yeah. But, um, I just, I didn't know at 14 years old how to get along with other people, really. I didn't know how to take anything other than that people were, um, bashing me, and that I, I really started to feel really worthless. And in all of that, I, yeah, I just, I didn't matter. And when I was 14, I had been saving this Do you want me to share the story?

Yeah, it's fine. I mean, because I mean, if, you know, whatever doesn't, you know, it's like people can go watch the whole thing, right? It's a whole 14-minute story. If you want to give the Cliff Notes to tease people into going and actually watching your TEDx, we can do that.

The Cliff Notes would be, I I didn't feel like I mattered. I felt really alone, and I had felt that way for a long time. And while I was feeling this, all of this continual, uh, everything I'm doing is wrong, I can't do anything right at all, I need to be quiet because I'm making it hard for other people to think, um, I have all of these ideas and thoughts but they're not worth anything. So why are they here? Why am I here?

And I'm going to bet if you watch the replay, there's going to be a lot of folks over there that say, yeah, me too. But I'm sure at the time though, you don't feel that way at all, that there's anyone else that's experienced the same thing that you're experiencing, especially not at 14.

At 14, I couldn't, I couldn't see anybody else except me, and all I could see was that I was hurting. No one was listening. No one cared to listen. And no one cared to ask me who I was or how I was. I didn't have a voice. I didn't have an opinion. Everything was always, okay, cool, let's do it. And I just— nothing worked. And I failed at pretty much everything I had ever tried to do. I tried to grow grass in my backyard. I failed at that. I just—

I don't even know where you live. That's actually a big deal. But this goes back to last Saturday's where she's like, give yourself credit for what you you did. But I was like you as a teen. I was suicidal. So how did— but how did someone find you to do the TEDx? That was what I was— oh, it was like that.

Yeah. Well, to, to do TEDx, what I actually did was, um, I, I was a TEDx speaker coach. So I have helped people get on TEDx stages, and I've helped people— I've helped coach people through their speaking., through their speeches and hone their speeches so they can get, you know, 3 million views. And I've had a really wonderful time with that. But then in doing that, the organizer of one of the TEDx's, TEDx in Bloomington, Indiana, she heard my story. And so she actually reached out and said, I'd love to feature you. We have a State of the Mind TEDx coming up, and we would love to be able to hear about we'd love for you to be able to share your story. So I came on, shared my story, and talked about creating a sense of mattering in our youth to prevent teen suicide.

Gotcha. So I'm guessing that's very similar to your candle experience in that something you did really matters and makes a difference.

Yeah, but you don't recognize it in those moments though, you know what I mean? You don't always go, oh yeah, something I'm gonna do makes a difference. And sometimes it takes you, uh, it's really interesting because you still doubt yourself on some level to some degree a lot of times, and it takes a big moment to be able to come through. But you know, we all have those little stories that we created when we were younger. So when we replay those stories from our younger youth but not from our now perspective, those can jade us. So For instance, with candles, when I got that candle wax, this was an epiphany I had literally like 2 weeks ago, and it's made such a huge difference for me. And I, I realized, so when I got that wax 22 years ago, it was 23 years ago now, when I got that wax, I thought to myself, this is going to weigh me down, this is, um, clutter and This is just something that I don't need. And yes, wax has turned into something beautiful. Like, I got 2 1-pound chunks. I had 2 pounds of wax. Now we melt— we have 4 4,100-pound tanks that melt wax. We have 2 more 2,000-pound tanks, and then we have a 200-pound tank and a 160-pound tank that we— those, you know what I mean?

So those are small ones.

Those are for small batch ones. Yeah. We, we melt a lot of wax and we work with a ton of wax daily, literally a ton. But I didn't realize how this belief that I had about wax becoming clutter was actually holding me back from moving forward. So being able to see that, that story I told myself when I got that wax was stopping me from— because what was happening is I was having a hard time telling our candle story to people because I felt like if you wanted candles, then you would find them. But I couldn't share candles with anybody because I didn't want to create clutter in their lives. But instead of looking at it as being helpful and wonderful, I was looking at it as being clutter. And then in being able to go back and understand where that belief came from and to say, wait a second here, I don't have to have that belief anymore. That's holding us back. Now I can share because I know why candles benefit people, right? And it's not clutter. It's, it's a beautiful way to experience life. And I think that we can do that with all of our situations. So with our mental health, we can go back and we can say, oh, okay, I see how that happened. And also too, another thing for mental health, If you don't mind meditating, sometimes people are like, I can't do it. I can't do it. There's too much going on in my head. And I felt like that too for a long time. But if you don't mind meditating—

Oh, is it the cat?

No, I had this bracelet on. I've had this bracelet on since 2017. I kid you not. I've had it on since 2017. It was the very first time I ever spoke on stage. And I told myself, I will not take this off until I become a speaker. Okay. It was on last night and it was about to fall off because it was so frayed. But I'm so used to turning it. I turn it while I speak and it's gone. It's not on me. It's in every single picture since 2017.

It's in everything. Suicide Prevention Saturday is your new beginning as a speaker.

Ta-da! This just blew my mind.

I am so proud of you. Wow.

I think I just got my calling. Okay. The universe has said, girl, you got to go speak to share your story. But yeah, I had this epiphany about not limiting other people because of my past beliefs. And beliefs make such a difference. And but with meditation, if we can meditate, we can go back. You can, you can do these different journeys in your meditation. So you don't have to just sit there and try and clear your mind. You can sit there and you can go on a journey and go back and visit those different moments, those past moments that have been tough on you that you might be carrying forward. You can see them differently. You can change them. You can create new stories about them. You can experience them in a different way. And you can see them. Oh, you know what? My dad, when I was 14, he was yelling at me because he didn't have another way to work with me, but not because I was worthless.

Yeah, because we all have different tools and abilities. And to have grace for people who are not treating us the way we think we should be treated is definitely one of those clarity moments of I can't control how you act towards me. All I can do is control how I react to you. And that is a hard one to get through and actually live and love that one. To your meditation thing, ready? I shall teach you an instant meditation. Are you ready for this?

Oh, I am so ready. Can I do it?

All right, so shoulders back, head up, take a breath in and let it out. That natural pause between your out-breath and your in-breath is a mini meditation if you're paying attention to it. So it doesn't have to be a long journey. It can be short and sweet and instantaneous. So because we're all busy, crazy lives, and it's good to be able to pick those little tiny pieces. And for me, my— I'd been raised in a tree-hugging meditation family since I was in third grade, and I could never do it. I could never do it until I got on the gun range. And the gun range, having something in my hand that was so very important to pay attention to, was the first time I was able to be actually fully present. And so people are so funny, like, yeah, so people like, oh, you must go to the gun range, get all your anger out and violence. I'm like, no, dude. It is my zen. It is my moment of clarity where the kids don't matter, the laundry doesn't matter, dishes don't matter, the business doesn't matter. I have a gun in my hand. This is the only thing that matters. So for me, the gun range is that zen place. Um, as I've warned you last night, I'll let you know. So we're 50 minutes in, uh, which means that, uh, Hillbilly is going to be starting his show in about 9 minutes, give or take, because he starts roughly at the top of the hour. And so we've got 9 minutes to wrap all this up. And I know we could probably go on for another hour or two, which means you'll just have to come back another time and we'll do another one. Because like I said, Mike's been on twice, you know. I gotta get my friend G23 on here another time as well. But knowing we only have 90 minutes, um, let us just throw up the banners here a little bit and show, show people the stuff that you have for them. So first, uh, banner up is her actual website, and, uh, Light Your Smile— how cool is that? Fragrances, there's a lot of them.

There is a lot of them, and they are incredible. They are really, really good.

I am absolutely looking forward to getting some Rose, the true Rose series, because that's actually— it's so funny that you talked about someone's grandma, because yep, that's why I like that. And then, um, on the Facebook page— oops, the problem with looking at two screens is my mouse is in the wrong place. Um, on the Facebook page, that's where I was reading some of her reviews, and I did report one of them for being spam, the, you know, the investment ones that we all get on our pages. But if you want to go to her posts and you miss Jake, uh, she had Jake at her, uh, um, at her factory just not that long ago with the whole family making stuff. And I keep moving it because I know she doesn't like the thumbnail and she hasn't changed it yet. So anyway, go there and like that. And then as far as the TEDx goes, I will put the link in the description. Um, and that's that. Oh wait, I'm trying to get back to us. There we go. Hi.

Here we are. Um, so anyway, uh, I wanted, can I share one more thing about meditation real quick?

Yeah.

So I have this active mind that is like idea, idea, idea, idea, idea, idea. It's just everywhere. And a little bit ago I was sitting in a meditation. And I was having such a hard time just calming down. And a lot of times I do guided meditation, so I'll do them. I'll go on YouTube and I'll look up a guided meditation and I'll just listen to that. Or I have an app and, you know, you can find different meditations through that. But I was sitting there and I had my eyes closed and I just— it was almost like there was multiple people in my mind. And I asked this, like, really busy girl in my mind, to just be still. I just said, will you please just relax for a minute? And she said yes, and she sat down and she didn't do anything but relax, and it allowed me to relax. And it was the most beautiful experience of meditation that I've had, just to be able to truthfully relax. So if you have that in your mind, that like little— that, that smaller you, not like younger you, but that really busy you, that, that girl or that guy that's just got so much going on and wants to go over everything, to be able to come down and calm down and just ask them to relax. I give it a try because if it works for you as incredibly well as it works for me, I would encourage you to do that daily because it's nice to have that peace and calm from up there.

And it's very hard for most of us, especially in today's day and age. I mean, here we are on YouTube and Facebook, and, you know, they call it doom scrolling for a reason. It's because we just get sucked into these simple things. And to find the time to actually have that moment of peace— and that's why I share that mini meditation of just breath in, breath out, pay attention to it. And just for a moment you can have that because people are like, what? Because as I walk you through it, it's like you don't know what's coming, but now you do know what's coming. And so now you can use that whenever you like because most of us do not have any calm in our life. It's go, go, go, go, go.

So Brooke, can I ask you a question? Yeah. When was the time that you had a fragrance flip?

Oh, um, well, the rose The Rose is really kind of it, right? It's like the Rose is my grandma, and my grandma is the most demure, delicate, lace-like grandma. Pink, soft pink colors everywhere. Um, so it's like Rose is probably it.

Very cool. Do you have a specific, like, time that you remember? No, or do you have Do you have a time now where you're like, oh, if this happened, I would love to light this candle?

Sorry, it kind of goes a little bit back to your bathroom story in that our dogs have used our living room for the bathroom for a couple of years now. And even though we keep switching out the rugs right now, it's humid here. It's not allowed. So it's just like every morning I just want to get up and light any, you know, color flavor that's gonna be out there because it's like, oh, that the animal smell is not awesome in our house. I understand that. It, it is just like, I don't know, I just like— apple is another one of them where it's just like when cleaning and lighting an apple candle in the kitchen or lighting one of the cookie ones, um, Christmas time and that sort of stuff. So it's just like I've always enjoyed fragrances. Um, I have a wall of essential oils and I actually use those as well for like lavender, as you know, uh, eucalyptus when you've got a cold. So it's just like back to the tree-hugging granola version of me back with like third grade. So 8 years old on up and just understanding that so many things in our lives can be adjusted by that smell, by that olfactory nerve that we have going to our brain that makes all of these links. You and I were talking last night about the whole, most of us don't know the word words to a song until we hear the music. And that's the same thing with how our nose attaches to our memories and why smell is just so powerful that way. But yeah, I, it's, I don't know, it's always in every time. It's like there's, I, yeah, I, I can't give you a specific time and moment, but it's just like there's so many fond memories of different things like pine cones, um, Christmas time. Like, we always have had natural trees for our Christmas trees, so it's like lighting that up makes it more feel Christmasy and that sort of things. But did that answer your question?

It did, it did answer the question. Yeah, it's, uh, yeah. So to be able to have that, I— what I heard you say was, you know, sometimes in my living room I wish I had a new carpet., or sometimes I, I— it's, it's a little frustrating to walk in and just smell the dogs in there. And what I can do is I can enjoy other— I, I can light a candle and I can kind of become part of a different situation and not have to really worry about that because it's something I can't really change right now. But I can still experience the beauty of being alive and, and being here and just the beauty in the moment that exists through fragrance. Yeah, absolutely, without a doubt. Connecting to things like the Christmas tree.

Yeah, yeah. And like I said, it's, it's— we have, we have literally— I buy like a case of candles at a time.

So it's like, well, we've got Apple and Rose headed your way.

So, well, because we do a candle fundraiser for my daughter's, uh, volleyball team. And so, oh, you know, oh yeah, for then those of you who haven't checked it out, she does have fundraisers on her, on her thing as well.

So we do fundraisers.

Yep, we do. Um, all right, so we've hit the top of the hour. Hillbilly is starting soon. Any last things you want to say to folks? Um, anything you want to share? You don't have to, uh, usually everyone says, oh, do your little plug for all of your stuff, but we kind of did that. But if there's anything I missed, let me know, or let them know.

What do I want to— you know, I'd like to say the door that opens with love stays open. So open your doors to yourself with love so that it can stay open. And yes, fragrance is a wonderful part of that, but at 14, I didn't know where the world could take me. And so if anybody is ever having a hard time, you don't know what tomorrow is going to be. And, uh, we had— we actually had a jumper the other day. I don't know why this just popped in my head, but I was sitting there in traffic and they had shut the entire freeway down because of a jumper. And, um, in a location that they built, you know, but he had jumped— he had climbed over the barrier. And as I was driving past, I didn't know what was going on, but as I was driving past, he was jumping down back into like the police officer's arms. And it was really cool. And I, I got really emotional. Of course, I'm by myself driving, and— but it was really cool because I could see that he could see a new way to do something. And I could see that he was going to do something good in the future, maybe incredible, maybe incredible for him. And I think that when we are struggling, that we need to come back to remembering that we don't know what the future holds for us, and it's something beautiful. So stay positive, stay here because stay alive.

Don't—

yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's huge. It's, it's huge. So, so thanks for listening, thanks for watching, and thanks for having me on because this touches my heart.

So thank you. Thanks for, uh, not giving up on me because I didn't return your emails.

I don't quit.

I don't quit. All right, well, um, Georgia, thank you for spending time with me. And like I said, the description will have the links to her website, to her Facebook page, to her TEDx talk. So if you want to hear more about or from Georgia— yeah, that's kind of it. All right, well, I'll see you guys all next week. Have a great rest of your weekend, and thanks everybody for popping in and having a conversation over there. Thanks, guys. Bye, everybody.