https://www.listennotes.com/e/6eb5bcb12e474646b6ec0dcd5f85a83b

Foreign. Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of the surf and sales podcast. I am Scott lease here with my good friend and co host Richard Harris. How's it going today, Richard?

Apparently I'm technically frustrated. I had microphone issues of wrapping a wire and then when I hit the record button, it didn't say, this meeting's being recorded. So clearly something is up with Richard. I guess I've spent too much time in ChatGPT today. So anyway, other than that, I'm good, Scott, thank you for asking. How are you doing?

You know, the thing about spending too much time in chat GPT is you just become dumb because it means you don't have to learn anything yourself. You don't learn anything, learn prompts. That's it. You don't have to study anything.

Well, I. Let me. I'm going to introduce our guest because she is literally one of my favorite people. I quote her all the time. Cynthia, I actually have mentioned you in blog posts with links to your LinkedIn profile and website because you're there. I want to introduce a good friend of ours, Cynthia Barnes. If you do not know Cynthia, if you do not follow Cynthia, she is a queen. She is amazing, inspirational sales leader, female leader, person of color leader, just. And just a good human being. But I'll give you a little bit more. She's an executive Coach. She's done TedX speaking. She's a LinkedIn top voice. She's the first black woman to keynote a national sales conference. And she's a four time, along with Scott and I, salesforce top influencer. She was the founder of the national association of women's sales Professionals and creator of. Thank you. It's true. She has a strong focus on helping anyone. But I think, Cynthia, correct me if I'm wrong, a certain passion for helping women you have a certain passion for. I don't know how that breaks down to supporting people of color because let's face it, Scott and I get a lot of natural support. Unfortunately, we understand where that is not in a bad way, just the way the world works. So anyway, Cynthia, welcome to the show.

Hi.

That was the longest introduction ever. How are you doing?

Hey, how you doing? Thank you.

You're welcome. You're welcome.

Thank you very much to be here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the thing I want to jump into is Scott was talking a minute ago about how ChatGPT makes you dumb. Right?

Yeah.

And if you.

Idiocracy all over again.

So meanwhile, if you're, if you're not watching the YouTube which these are now available on YouTube. Cynthia was like, look beside herself, like she was going to jump through the microphone and. And, you know, whip that hat off Scott's head that says, pray for surf, and slap him with it a few times. So, Cynthia, tell us what you think you know, tell us what you think about that thought of ChatGPT.

I think if you don't know how to think critically, it will make you dumb because it allows you to press the staples easy button. It allows you to go in and ask a really benign question and have a low expectation and take whatever you receive and label it as gospel gospel and put it in your pocket and then carry on with your life.

But I think that you ask the question, you get the benign answer, and you're like, wait, that's not the question I went to ask, and you get better. So I. I think that happens. I don't now. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe most people are like, oh, well, that's the answer. And, you know, they sort of. They do the. The Pete Davidson, huh? You know, from the Saturday Night Live sketch. Yeah, okay.

Yeah. See, there's two types of people, though, Richard. There's those types of people. When our parents. When we asked a question, our parents said, go look it up. Right?

Right.

And I'm gonna date myself, and we have Britannica on the shelf, or Funk and Wagnall's on the shelf, and we had to go look it up. There are also people whose parents told them the answer. Those two different types of people are in Chat GPT. And that is the differentiator between those who say, oh, that's not right. They don't question whether or not what they're receiving is. Is the right answer. They just take it as gospel and say, must be right, because it's Chat GPT and they're smarter than I am.

Well, what happens if I'm a parent and I'm telling them to go look at Chat GPT because we don't have Encyclopedia Britannica, which I had back in the last century along with you, but then the kid doesn't know how to.

Actually keep probing, then God help us.

That's exactly right.

You just. You just made. You made Scott's weak with that, because.

I can see his point. We have a whole generation of unconsciously incompetent people who are not asking the right questions and don't know to ask the right question, don't know how to think critically, don't know how to question authority, to say, what if this isn't the right answer. And that's really scary.

Well, that's like, this is why I tell people to follow Cynthia. She is unafraid to say the absolute truth. And she says it. And Scott and I do that too. But she says it much more professionally and nicely than we do. Scott, you know that that's all right. I want to talk for a second, Cynthia, like, and then I'll let Scott ask a question or two. You know, when did you know you were passionate about sales? What was that moment for you? Because I think we all have that moment of like, aha. Oh, sales is a thing. What was it for you?

When I realized I was allergic to being broke.

I'm telling you, she's the smartest allergic to being broke. Scott has that allergy. In fact, it might even be a disease. More than an allergy for Scott.

Yes. When I realized that the lifestyle I wanted to attain, then maintain required financial gain.

But what, what was going on in your background? That lawyer doctor account, like lots of careers do that. What was what was going on with you? And then what made you choose sales? And maybe it was both. Maybe it was situational.

The achiever in my strengths profile realized that the harder I worked, the more money I could make. And there was a direct correlation between the effort I put out and the money I made. And there was no limit. And I figured as long as I was willing to work hard, make sacrifices and keep improving my skill set, the sky was the limit. Because they print new money every day.

Yeah. And Richard, you brought up like being a lawyer or a doctor or whatever. Do you know how much the average general practitioner earns per year, Richard?

I'm going to guess 200. 250.

Yeah, it's $220,000, which is from Chad, more or less like a mid market account executive can earn that has about three to five years of experience. Ish. Obviously there's exceptions, but like, you know, respectfully, that's not a lot of money.

And you have to trade hours for dollars to get it.

Yes. And you had to wait until you were 30 something years old because you went to school for God knows how long before you could actually start earning. And unless you came from a certain economic background.

Say it.

You are now in a heap of debt.

Yes.

Because mommy and daddy couldn't send you to the best, like medical school and all this kind of stuff. So, okay, now I'm 30 whatever years old, I'm a doctor, I'm in debt from going to school and I realized, fuck me, I'm actually Not earning that much money. This 23 year old AE is out earning me.

Yes.

So it's not as viable as an option as you might think if you really want to be financially secure.

Correct.

And some of us who have an allergy to being broke recognize this.

Yes.

And live by it a little bit. A little bit religiously.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

I want to ask you a question about the diversification of income streams because you are somebody who does a lot of different things. And my perception is most people think of they have their regular job and then is there like a side hustle or two that they can do and then they go into business for themselves. And when they go into business for themselves, they think, okay, I'm going to do only this thing. And they think of themselves as working on just this one thing. And I think that that's wrong. People stop having the like multiple streams of income conversation with themselves when they start working for themselves often. And you've done a great job. You do speaking, you do coaching, you do community, you do all these different things. All of these things, presumably in your mind, are revenue streams all flowing to the same ocean of income and wealth. How did you actively build these streams? Is it all at once? Is it one by one? And how do you think about that in the context of this career portfolio that all of us are building or should be building?

I thought of it from the build your pipeline type of mentality. If I go to the end of the quarter and I have five deals in my pipeline and I need four of them to land or else I'm not going to hit quota, I'm screwed.

And you're in trouble.

If I have 100 in my pipeline and I need four, I'm looking pretty good. Same thing applies to streams of revenue. The more I have going, the better. The caveat is I don't want to spread myself so thin that I do none of them well. So there's a saying, man who chased to rabbit go hungry. I'm a firm believer that you do one thing, do it very well, get to become a member of the 2 comma club, then you do something else really well, while that other thing has systems to run itself. So if you've read the book, the one thing. Yeah, it's, it's the, the Pareto principle broken down to that 4% of the one thing that then you can take time to start another thing. That worked for me because if not I would venture off into, oh, that's a good idea, That's a good idea. That's a good idea. If I find an opportunity that I want to invest in, I will find a way to take the money and make it work for me versus me having to be in it. And that's the power of leverage.

I want you, I want you to explain for those of us who don't know, including myself, and I don't run to chat GPT. 4%. You talked about the Pareto. The Pareto principle of 4%. What is can, can you give a brief explanation as it relates to this topic? Because I think that'll help people.

Sure. I will even use chat GBT for those who want to AI it you. Pareto was in Italy and he realized that the majority of the land was owned by 20% of the population. That is how the Pareto principle came to be. So if you go into Chat GPT and say, this is my ultimate goal, what is the 20% of activities that will get me to my goal? ChatGPT will tell you, here's the 20% of activities, which is about five activities. If you spread yourself too thin and do these five activities, you will get nowhere fast. You have to take it a step further and then say, what is the 20% of those 20% of activities, which is 4%. And you keep asking it until you get to the one thing which, which is 4% of the 20% of the 20%.

Got it. Scott, do you do that without knowing that that was the formula? Because you, you're very good at. Scott is very good at this principle as well.

And I don't, I probably do it, but not consistently enough is probably the accurate answer. And I, and I happen to be lucky enough to do it like accidentally versus strategically. It's just like in me, I don't know why or where, but because you're that. Yeah, I, I don't, I don't take it all the way to where I probably should, where I make it very conscious and scientific for myself.

I guess it's one of the positive things of the allergy.

Imagine that focus, though.

Yeah.

Imagine as a rep, a sales rep, if you were to say, what is the one thing I should concentrate on for 90 days and spend the majority of my time on? Is it learning how to make better cold calls, prospecting, email, whatever. And you leveled up in that one area for 90 days, you would be freaking unstoppable. But too often we try to get better at everything at at once and we end up getting better at nothing.

Yeah, I, I, I have found that to be more and more true. The older I get as I have more responsibilities, more things going on or whatever. That used to be quite easy for me. If I was 27 years old and it's like, what's the one thing you need to do? I would do that one thing for, like, 16 hours straight.

I.

Nobody could distract me. It wasn't going to happen. Now as I'm older, I'm like, oh, gosh, I got to do this. I got to do that. I got to go to this practice, got to go to this game. I got to drive three hours of this thing. I feel. It feels less under control. Which is probably the part of me, Richard, where I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna let 50 of my day kind of go on autopilot, and the other 50 of the day, I'm gonna be very, very focused.

I wanna. Yeah.

Glimpses. You see the glimpses of it like that. And I execute well when I apply it. And the other half of my day at this season of my life, I'm like, it's okay.

I'm gonna compliment you, Scott. Which, you know, we might. Now we have it recorded. No, no, no. And. And I'll ask Cynthia the same thing is that when you're younger and you have time to spend 16 hours, part of it is you need to spend the 16 hours because you don't have the knowledge. Theoretically, just because you threw out that number, I would bet you're 16 times faster than you were at 27 at figuring it out.

Probably true for all of us.

That's. That's wisdom and experience.

Yeah.

Not that it's going to take away the frustration you have, because I know you just like to be busy, but I. I think you're pretty good at it, man. Like, I. Like I've known you long enough to know that, like, Scott can dial in, like, you know, I call it that. You've heard me say it's the professional athlete, where they can just distract themselves. They don't get distracted from anything other than I am going to make sure for the next 90 days, as Cynthia said, that I can increase my vertical jump by two inches. Right. And then they just go. And they bust out on that.

But that's the reason that I am where I am and not where Cynthia is and not higher and higher and higher is because I'm only applying it so much. If I applied it more, I would be better. I know that.

But, Cynthia, I know that.

I know that I'm not 4% of the 20 of the 20. I'm somewhere in that equation. But I'm not at that smallest number. I know that. I'm okay with that for now. I'm not delusional about it. I don't.

Until he heard Cynthia say it today. Until. Till you heard it doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean I don't get competitive and get. And, you know, get inspired now and then. Yeah, but it's. We make sacrifices, right?

We do.

And they, they evolve and change as things are going on in our, in our life.

They do.

Priorities change. We do.

Our priorities do change. What was important to me a year ago is not important to me now.

Well, now I want to double click on that for a second. What. What is something that you're comfortable sharing that is. Was important to you a year ago. That is not important to you now? What's a. What's a good example of that?

Exiting an abusive marriage.

Wow. I'm sorry to hear. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

Weren't expecting that one, were you?

No.

No, I sure wasn't.

And again, this is why I love Cynthia. She keeps it real. She will tell you. Yeah, that's a tough one.

Yep.

Can you, without getting into the details, can you define a learning principle of, we all know it's like, I probably should have done it sooner and all those things. Right. How have you applied that? Is there some other place in your life where you're like, you know what? I did that and some other thing, and maybe it wasn't an abusive relationship. Maybe it was like, I just need to leave a toxic workplace or I just need to change my career or something. And you feel that that principle is the same. Right. Where that principle of, like, I need to make a big shift and it's not easy and it's going to take some courage and some scariness to do it. Is there another place?

Yes. There were times in corporate when I didn't ask for what I knew I was worth, as in my marriage. I knew I was in a situation that was less than what I deserved, and I kept trying to make it work. I kept trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, trying to. Trying to change who I was because I had made a commitment. I did the same in corporate because I'm. I was loyal to my company. I didn't ask for the raise because of whatever reason. I knew my worth. I knew my abilities. But I accepted treatment because of whatever reason. So looking back, please, over all of those situations, my client Jody said something to me about two months ago that sums up everything That I wish I had known then, that I know now. No one ever got a pony who didn't ask for it.

That's so true. Oh, my God.

The moment. The moment I decided to choose me, the moment my dad said to me, cynthia, there are only so many more moments where you get to start over, because you are getting to the age where you don't get to start over as often, and you're going to look back and wish you had started over. He said, it's going to be painful, it's going to be hard, you're going to be lonely, there's going to be tears. But aren't there tears now? Aren't you frustrated? Aren't you angry and sad? Is this the type of life you want? And then I thought to myself, is this the behavior and the woman that I want my niece to see? And I said, no. So I chose myself. I chose my hard, a different hard. And it was the greatest decision ever. That marriage, as hard as it was, was the biggest blessing of my life, because had I not gone through that, I would not have emerged the woman I am today. I'm more confident, I am more giving. I have stepped into, I believe, the woman God wanted me to be all along. And now I'm able to look at women and say, here is proof that you could overcome anything because I did it. And let me help you walk beside you and help you do it, too. Yeah.

I've spent a lot of years talking about my health struggles and how going through this thing that will be hopefully the hardest thing you ever go through in your life. When you get out the other side of it, you emerge different. You have a different sense of urgency. You have a different sense of appreciation for opportunity. You have a different sense of giving and the almost a requirement like I have to teach other people to have this same mindset and mentality. And it becomes an anchoring point, I believe, for future scary choices, business or personal, because you can look at it and compare whatever you're going through right now with this other thing and look at it and be like, this thing I'm worried about now is nothing by comparison to this scary thing I already emerged from. So what do I have to lose? I am fearless now, in. In a way, and I. I for sure would not have had that mentality without the experience that I went through. And I would imagine you would not have the same perspective if you hadn't gone through what you went through in order to do that. And now I would also imagine moving forward. Anything that's a little bit scary or dodgy and you're like unsure what to do. You're going to have this perspective of, well, that's actually nothing compared to this other thing. So I can move kind of in a more fearless kind of manner. Right. I would imagine that's somewhere in there a little bit of how you might feel and how you could apply that.

Yes, it is very true. And it also, it helped me. The journey was not easy. As I'm sure those who have been in, in serious situations know. The journey is not easy. Anything worth having is, is worth working hard for. And that's what makes, it, makes you appreciate it is because you have sacrificed so much to go through it. There were times when I didn't know if I was going to make it through. There were times when I thought, I can't do this by myself. And I thought I could do affirmations. I'm reading all these self help books. I'm listening to podcasts, podcast. I'm, I'm trying to reshift my mindset from that of someone who got into a marriage and allowed that to happen to them to now I have to shift my mindset, basically reprogram myself to someone who sees their self worth and self esteem. And I'm trying to learn about brain science. And I come across this, this phrase, thank you, it's true. And it's from as far as I can find. It's from the women of East Africa. In Uganda, they accept compliments by a phrase. Thank you, it's true. Here in the US we deflect compliments by saying, oh, these earrings, I got them on sale at Target. Yeah, the women in Uganda are gracious and they say, thank you, it's true. And at first it was just cute. But I thought, what if by saying thank you, it's true, I could create a new neural pathway in my brain to infuse confidence by accepting a compliment. And I wondered whether or not I could do that, if I could increase my confidence that way rather than saying the affirmations, I am a badass, I am beautiful, I am. Because that wasn't working for me. So I sought out to accept every compliment with thank you, it's true. And it was hard because I didn't believe I was beautiful. I didn't believe I was smart. What I did believe that I was worthy of being married to someone who put water in my gas tank because they were mad at me. I had a lot of work to do.

Yeah, I got, I've got two things I'd like to share one is actually went to Uganda a few years ago. We went and did the trekking with gorillas, which, Cynthia, if you've never been, talk to me offline. I will tell you all about it.

It's okay.

Phenomenal. And yes, it's true. Women would say that. Like, I, I had. You said this, and I'm like, wow, okay. Yeah, I think I heard that once or twice. So one, I can confirm what you're saying. The second thing is I've known, you know, I don't know you as well as I know Scott. I know you decently well. And I share this with others who are faking it till they make it because it kind of feels like maybe that's what you had to do for a while, you know, you know, whether intentional or unintentional, because I would never have known. I would never have known a. About that. But I would never have known that you thought you weren't confident. I would never have thought that about you. I would never have known that you don't see yourself as a beautiful woman inside and out, right? Because I, you know, those kind of things. Like. And so I say, and I'm saying this because I want people who are listening to know that we've all done it. Scott's done it with his medical stuff. I've done it with depression. Cynthia has certainly done it. And if you're in that moment, try to give yourself some space and grace to, to just think about what you'd like to change. You don't have to go do anything today, right? Don't go. You know, just give yourself the space and grace. Because I think that's where we often stop ourselves, is we. We're like, oh, this is better than X even when it's not, or I don't have time for it, or I'm afraid of what's on the other side. Like, I might be alone. I'm not going to have support or those things. And. And it can feel scary. So anyway, I just wanted to pause for a second because I was, you know, I was. I was typing into to Scott in the chat. I'm like, I could just listen to Cynthia go all day. You know, I could say changing tires, and Cynthia would have an amazing story and come up with some amazing quotes and some quips about what it means to change tires. And okay, she's like, well, I just changed all these tires. I changed my marriage and I've changed my business and I've done my 20% of 4% of 20%. Like, those are the tire. Like she would just find a way of some bizarre topic. And so anyway, I'll, I'll shut up now. And, And I can't believe. Holy cow. That we're kind of. To the end. So this is the part where a. How do people get a hold of you? We're going to ask you what you'd like to ask us or what are some other topic you'd like to talk about, but how do people get a hold of you?

LinkedIn. Is, is great. LinkedIn. Instagram. I'm always on LinkedIn.

Yes, please, Instagram. She. She the first person that said Instagram.

Yeah.

Aside from you done 500 episodes. And she is the first person that said, you can get a hold of me on Instagram.

LinkedIn and I are having, having a. You know.

I'm, we're. Scott and I are in an offline chat about that. I'll share some ideas with you.

I'm in. I'm in an offline chat about that 365 days a year here, so.

Right.

That resonates with me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What would you like to ask us? Or, or, or is there a topic you want to discuss? Like, we like to turn it over to you a little bit.

I want to talk about curated experiences because I, I see a shift from massive community to connected, smaller group, intimate, like surf and sails. And I want to know what was the catalyst that, that you, that you experienced that said, you know what? I'm not building this massive thing. I'm building something smaller.

I'll let Scott answer because he loves to tell this story. Unless you're tired of telling it. You want me.

No, I'm not. I'm not tired of telling the story. The first thing I have to say is this was not a, like, strategic, analytical decision.

Okay.

Where you look at the landscape and you're like, you know what's needed? I, I don't operate like that. I trip and fall into movements like this at the right time. I don't really understand it, but Richard and I were on a family vacation. His family, my family in Costa Rica. And he was talking about how all these trade shows he's got to go to and this, that and the other. And this is eight years ago. So the kids were, I don't know, eight and six years old or something like that.

Yeah.

And I'm like, dude, your life sounds terrible right now. You have to go to like, St. Louis and Chicago and Omaha and all these, like, terrible cities, and you got to Go to the Marriott or the Hilton every single time. And it's just like, that's my worst nightmare, right? Half socializing with all these people, or you got to go to these big, huge conferences like Dreamforce and all this stuff. Also my Nightmare, where there's 50,000 people trying to sell me something and scan my badge and all this shit. And I'm like, this is a horrible experience. Nobody really likes this experience. Everybody likes to say that they like the experience because it's taboo to not say you don't like the experience. And so, you know, I was like, how come nobody has a cool event in a place like this, like in Costa Rica? And why does it always have to be so big? Big is not always better. It doesn't scale. Like, you lose authenticity the bigger something gets. You lose quality control. The bigger something gets, your goals, without realizing it change. If your main goal has to be to get bigger all the time, it just morphs and evolves. I'm like, why don't you just lock it into, like, 15, 20 people in a cool, unique place? And why does it have to be content all day long? I don't want to sit in class for nine hours a day. I can't do that. We don't learn like that. We gotta do these things in, like one and a half hour sprints and then spend the second half of the day just hanging out and just talking and learning about each other and helping each other out and whatnot. Richard has now called these the in between moments. So that's where it came from. It came from an aversion of mine to these big, huge, bloated events, to the lack of intimacy and true fellowship that happens and wanting to do something completely the opposite of that. That gives people a chance to learn as well as relax and network. But instead of walking away with 50 business cards that you barely remember who the person is, you go away with a dozen or two dozen friends.

Yes.

And colleagues that you actually would help and will help forever. And that was late 2017. And we've been specifically running surf and sales summits all over the world now, you know, ever since. And I see this shift now in communities. God bless some of the big communities that are out there. But people don't want that anymore. I don't want to be in a community with 40,000 people. I'd rather be in a little group text thread with 15, 20 people. Or I'd rather be in a community of a hundred people instead of a hundred thousand where everybody's actually active, rather Than dormant, where attendance is strong, where if you ask a question, you know you're going to get people replying rather than crickets, these types of things. And people are seeking these out now, and it's become more and more common, and I, for one, love to see it. Richard, you want to add anything to that?

Yeah, there. There are a couple things. Part of it is knowing Scott, that when he asked me that question, I said, I don't know. Why don't you build it?

Yeah, he did say that.

I, you know, I can always.

Immediate challenge.

Immediate, like. And there are many times where I'm like, okay, dropping the gauntlet. You bet. You can't do this. And then just knowing his thing there. So that was one thing. The. The other thing that I will say is, again, to Scott's point, of like, sort of falling into it, we kind of got a little lucky in the fact that we started this in 2018. 2020 came along with COVID and the influx of community and interconnectedness became immediate, where we were all disparate, and we needed these communities. Right. We needed these things. And, you know, Scott was really good at building out a couple of different communities from that. And now the bigger companies are kind of getting on board. Right. As we all know. And some are doing it well and some really are not, which we all know. But I think that's the genesis of it, and I think that's the. That is one of the positive things that came out of COVID is, you know, this people wanting more real connections. I think we're also experiencing the backlash of that a little bit from the business side of back to the, you know, stfu. Get back on the phones when you're in sdr. Right. You know, and that's generational. Like, I think that's. That's slowly dying. It's. It's long. It needed death. So I think that's a big piece of where it is. I mean, is that what you experienced because you built a community? I mean, is that what you have experienced in terms of smaller communities and approaching things?

It's what I want. I don't know. That's the feeling I get from others, but that's what I want. And if I were to go out and build anything again, that is not just me. It would be a small group of people that I would want to invite to my home.

That's a great way to put it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have. Go ahead.

Sorry, Yoga pants, sweatshirts.

Yeah.

If I would invite you to my home. This is the type of atmosphere that I would want. Whether we get an Airbnb at the Outer Banks and spend a weekend, have the chef come in, whatever. We make meals together. That's the type of atmosphere that I would want rather than putting on the glitz and glam of a conference. I can do glitz and glam any day of the week and twice on Sunday, but I want to have real conversation about what's going on in your world and solve real problems and move the needle. Because I just went through some real. And didn't have anybody except two people to go through it with and to talk through it with. And had I not had those two people, I may not be here.

Different outcomes. Yeah.

Yeah. So I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna drop a gauntlet on you, Cynthia.

Yeah, yeah. Give her the same treatment you gave me.

Right. Bring it on in. A couple of months ago, couple people, you know, from our salesforce influencer group text me and said, hey, we're going to get together at a lake house in Austin, and we don't know what we're going to do. We might do some content, we might hang out and play some golf, whatever. That's happening in two weeks at Scotts lake house. And there's about eight of us now, we all know each other from, you know, from this business world, really, like, that's where we know each other from. So I'm going to encourage you to, when the time is right, because I, it's, I know you're a year out, right. From your situation, and you've got priorities. Don't wait for that to happen. Right. Which, you know, but, you know, go be that catalyst. Get that Airbnb. You know, I, I, I will not wear yoga pants, I promise, if you invite me, but. Because that would not be appropriate. But, you know, I can't unsee that. Yeah, me either. Yeah, neither can our other six listeners.

No, but that's, that's the, that's the gauntlet.

That's the gauntlet. Okay, Cynthia, if that's what you want.

Yeah.

Yes.

And, and by the way, if you want an experience like that, you damn sure better believe that means other people do, too.

Yes, I have to believe that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Doug. You know, Doug Landis once said to us, I don't know if you know Doug, really good guy to know.

Not yet.

He once said, he, he once said, you know, your brand finds you more than you find your brand. Right. Like, we put a bunch of things out there, Right. But then we start to figure out what's working, which means your brand is finding you. And I think you just identified that. That part of the brand has found you. Now, how do you execute on it? If you have time, if you want to execute on it, do you want to be in charge of it or find someone else to do it? Like, that's a whole other conversation. But, you know, I. You're not the only one, Scott, and I can attest to that. I will gladly get on the phone and talk to you about it. I'm sure Scott would, too. Like, here are the things and how hard is it? And. And, you know, blah, blah, blah.

But I'm gonna take you up on that.

Awesome. I look. I look forward to hearing about it. I look forward to hearing all about it, so. All right, Ms. Cynthia. We went a long time, and it felt like 10 minutes. I feel like I need to just schedule a quarterly call with you to be inspired.

I would love that. So you inspire me.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. But anyway, Cynthia, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you very much.

This is. Thank you, and thank you for your vulnerability like that. That speaks to the type of your character, and we appreciate that.

I appreciate you, and thank you for creating the space so that I could be vulnerable. Thank you.

You're welcome. You're welcome. All right, everybody, thank you so much. Like us on YouTube, subscribe to the podcast. Better yet, come to Portugal in October 2025 to surfing sales. So we're down to four slots, right, Scott?

Yeah, four.

We're down to four left. Four. Four out of 18. So thank you, everybody, and thank you again, Cynthia.

Thank you.