How Building Authentic Relationships & What's the Role of Communication in Networking? | Session 6

Well, welcome to another episode of Authentic AF. I'm Dr.

Stephanie Arjery, and with me is Rene Deceuninck from the Netherlands at this very moment.

From the Netherlands? Oh my goodness, Rene, you are just such a world traveler. So tell me about the Netherlands. How's the weather over there? And, um, actually You're a little bit ahead. So what time is it over there?

So right now it's 8 PM, 8 PM in the Netherlands, and the weather is like, yeah, it's winter, you know, it's cold, it's not really freezing. We had some freezing days, but now, right now I'm literally next to the ocean, so we have a lot of wind and a lot of storms and a lot of rain and a lot of— but you know, in the meantime, when I have to do some grocery shopping, I do it by bike, by the way. I, I have, you know, my very like, I'm very well dressed. And, and, but you know, it's, it's, you know, you can go by car, you can go, you know, but when you do it, I do it on a bike, by, by the way, because I love, you know, the challenge with the weather. The challenge is cold, it's freezing. I'm like, it's like, yeah, it's very tempting for me to tempt the weather, and I just love it. I mean, I could take the car, you know, that's not an issue, but I love to like Yeah, being in that cold weather, you know, have the rain is like nails on your head because sometimes it's hail, right? So yeah, it's my way of, yeah, of living. But the Netherlands is good for now. Yeah, it's very well. Can't complain.

Okay. Okay. Well, I had a full visual of you on the bike. I'm like, okay, is he on a bike with a backpack? Is he on a bike with a basket? Is it a little old lady bike? Is it a high-speed, I'ma run you over messenger bike?

Or what's your bike? The bike is probably 30 years old. It's probably the oldest bike here in the Netherlands. You really have to— it's exercise. I guarantee you it's exercise. I have a backpack on, and when I do grocery shopping, my backpack is full with groceries. So then I have to come back with my bike. And I have to really— yeah, it's exercise at the same time. You don't have to go to the fitness center, you know, you just make sure you do groceries on your bike and you'll be surprised how many— how much fitness you do in that very moment. Absolutely.

Well, listen, I'm all for multitasking, but, you know, and, and making sure that you do so safely. All right, well, don't tell anyone that's probably trying to insure you because they may have second thoughts about, you know, the safety of you you know, and putting yourself at risk as a CEO. So be careful.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, absolutely, absolutely. That's for sure.

Well, I'm so excited about our topic today because I think this is a great time to really think about, um, our topic, uh, building authentic relationships, the role of communication and networking. A lot of holiday parties and events, time to meet people. But I think a lot of times people get it wrong in terms of networking. And so there were two references for our topic. One, the story of LinkedIn and its purpose as a platform and the valuable relationships that are there to be mined. But also, I don't know if you read the book by Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone, and his ideals about building authentic relationships through effective communications. And, and how that's so important in networking. I think most people get networking wrong, you know. You go to an event and people press a business card in your hand and, and walk away, and they think that they have exchanged some type of networking, uh, communication. Or the people that share information and that you respond and they never follow up, you know. So it's like, well, what was the point, right? You weren't really trying to connect. What are your thoughts?

Well, most of the time that business card lands in the garbage can when they arrive at home. And I know people, they save the business cards and then 10 years later have a box full of business cards and then they put it in the garbage can anyway. So business card today more than ever, it might be important. I don't have any business cards at all, but I do know that networking, what the book is all about with Keith Ferrazzi, is I, I never, I never read the book, uh, but his point is very, very important, is like, hey, networking is, is the thing to do. But what I miss with people is— and I had, uh, it's funny we talk about this right now— is that I had a 2-day coaching session in Belgium, uh, with a CEO, and I said, could you like present yourself in 60 seconds? What do you do? Who are you? And he says Man, that's difficult. I said, why? I said, well, in 60 seconds, I mean, like, tell me, who are you, what do you do, and, and why would I become a client in your company? And he says, well, um, um, um, I said, let's, let's do an exercise. I knew that was going to happen because that is what's happened, happening with a lot of people. They think the, the, the convenience of having a business card and say, here, this is my business card, call me, uh, when you need anything or whatever, and, and this way you have my information, and That's not how it works. People are not interested. They said they want to know who are you, what do you do. And if you can touch that emotional string, like, like a guitar string, right? If you can touch that emotional string with a person and, and say why you do what you do, I guarantee you people say, oh, I want to know more, right? Because in everything, everybody, everybody buys on emotions, based on emotions. That's, that's for sure. And there's an amazing video about the Golden Circle talking about people say what they do, they say how they do it, but they forget to say how, why they do it. And it's the why that is so important. And I said, listen, let's, let's, let's ask some questions. And he says, what do you mean? I said, I'm gonna ask you 6 open questions starting with the W and then one with the H. He said, what are you talking about? I said, Why are you doing what you're doing? What are you doing? Where are you doing it? Which, which is the best client for you? How do you do it? So the, the 6 W's and H's— why, what, where, when, who, which, and where, and when, and whatever, you know, you know what I mean, right? So when you ask yourself that question and you answer that question, and then with those answers you make one sentence, you'll be answering every single question about what people have about you. And you say, people, hey man, uh, nice to meet you. Hey, what are you doing? And then you pitch that. You answer every single question, and people say, wow, that's interesting, tell me more. But a business card, you know, people like to be comfortable. Hey, this is my business card. This, this is not networking. Networking is more than that. Networking is saying, hey, I am, I do, why do I do it, what do I do, how do I do it, but in a very short period of time, like maximum 60 seconds. And that's what I did with that CEO. We practiced it and he said, wow, this is amazing.

I said, yeah, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice.

And I said, we're gonna follow up on this and I wanna— I want you to tell me next time we follow up, I want you to tell me— and he's a big shot in Belgium, believe it or not. I want you to tell me, I want you to pitch me, who are you? And I guarantee he's going to do it. I mean, we have a very strong bond and that's, that's how it works in terms of networking, if that makes sense.

Now, but do you think you really can create a sticky state change for him or is he going to fall back into his old habits? Because the other problem that I see in so-called networking environments is that people make a number one big mistake is they go and look for people that they already know, and they kind of huddle in their little cliques, and those cliques become closed circles. So if you're outside of the clique, how do you enter the conversation without sort of being intrusive? And I think sometimes people do that on purpose to keep their clique closed.

Well, the thing is, is that I had a conversation, um, with Grant Cardone. I don't know if you know Grant Cardone. He's a real estate guru and he has his own educational company. And what I remember from, from what he said is that your friends and family have nothing, a stranger that has everything. So you have to take that. The question is, what do you want, right? This is the first question. What do you want? Tell me, what do you want? If you want to stick to where you are, why are you calling me? Okay, and if you're calling me and you want to be trained and coached, let me know what is it that you want. And, and people say, yeah, this and this and that. But when you stick to your network that you already have, that's good, right? Keep them. There might be good clients, there might be good contacts. But make sure to contact strangers. Strangers have everything. They has— they— you contact them, you said, hey man, I'm this and that, we're doing this, and can I have like 10 seconds of your time, because people never have time, right? They're not interested in you, they don't want to buy anything, and they will make time for what they will— they want to make time for, and especially not for you because you're calling them, right? But networking is, is know who you are, what your value is, why you do what you do, what you do and how you do, and then make sure you have that pitch and then make sure you use that pitch. And then people might say, oh yeah, yeah, tell me. But your friends and family, they have nothing, right? And if you stick to your friends and your family, that's good if that makes you comfortable, but you're not going to do big business. Forget it.

I mean, absolutely. But you know, when we think about this, and if we were to incorporate this kind of, you know, body language, um, and I'm saying, you know, kind of these closed networks because again, holiday party— parties are coming. Here's a great time to go out and practice some new skills, networking and meeting new people. So how does one expand their network, especially when they're not part of, if you will, the group, and they want to insert themselves into a conversation, or, you know, go and introduce and become part of the communication circle that seems to be happening.

But remember, we met in Vegas in '23, right? In December '23. Remember that? I mean, I remember it like yesterday. I didn't know you at all.

What? But see, we had some help because I had people running around making— finding people and introducing and then bringing them to me because I ended up stepping into a role that was a little bit different than planned. I was just to be a guest at the event like everyone else, but the producer of the event asked me if I would help him out. He was in a bit of a bind, and I was willing to help him out. Um, didn't realize what I'd signed on for, so I really ended up, you know, helping him out in a much greater capacity than I expected, which took away from my ability to socialize, um, to the degree. So I had to have a few people, you know, be my front-end socializing, and I invited several guests. So I had a room full people. Um, and so I just kind of had them be my, my fillers. And that's how you and I ended up not really, you know, we met, but it wasn't even— we weren't in the direct conversation. It was the people who were out filling who connected to you. And I don't know how they first approached you or you approached them, but I did not know one person, not one, in Vegas.

I mean, I arrived there, I was on— I was invited by a few people. Hey, you have to go, we have to do this, you have to do that, and I went. I said, you know what, let's go. And I went and I did not know one person. But the first thing I always do is when I meet— so this is, this, this is the hard part for a lot of people. They stick to their little friendships and this and this and that. But if you really want to grow in this world, if you really want to network, you talk to strangers. But, and most people are so scared of doing that. First of all, why? You got nothing to lose, right? That's the first thing. The second thing, I will always ask for permission. I said, hey, uh, Dr. Stephanie Audrey, can I ask you a question? So what I do, I ask your permission. 99.99% of the time people say, oh yeah, sure.

Ah, and what's the question? What's your million-dollar lead-in question?

I was noticing you and I was like, I was wondering, what is it that you do in life? I really, I'm curious.

Interesting. Ah, okay.

The best moderators are the best, are those who ask questions. And you can ask questions, a million questions, but you ask questions, open questions, so people have to come up with a story. That's how you network. And if I ask you, hey, Dr. Stephanie Argy, tell me, what is it that you do? And then I zip it, and then you come up with this— nobody loves silence, by the way— and then you'll come up with a story. And I would say, Dr. Stephanie Argy, this is— that's amazing what you do. So, so why are you doing this? Can— would you be able to share that with me, please? And then you come up with another story. And then I said, wow, this is amazing. So where, where does that happen? Can, could, like, could you explain that to me? Where does that happen? And then before you know it, you're speaking for half an hour, 45 minutes, an hour. And then it's up to you being the moderator to wrap it up, say, hey, Doc Steffi, this is amazing. Would you be, would you be interested in, like, sharing details with each other? I mean, this is my, my, uh, and then I have an application on my phone so with a QR code. So you have a smartphone, right? Would you, would you like, uh, take my information with the QR code with your camera, and then you have all my information and we can stay connected and see, you know, you never know what happens in the future, right? You don't sell, you don't talk about money, you don't talk about products, you don't know about— you just share. You build a relationship first. This is what I had to learn myself. I was chasing people, trying to sell, trying to get money And you know what? Everybody was walking away from me, running away from me. And I started understanding. I mean, I'm talking about a long, a long time ago. But what I did, what I did have to learn is to build relationships first. And then when you have the relationship, what comes after, that's a different story. But it's that breaking the ice, you know, hey, can I ask you a question? So you ask permission and then you go with the why, what, where, when, who. Who, which, and how questions. And then you will do all the talking. So I'll give you all the significance possible because you are able to talk. I'm not talking, you're talking. I give you significance.

Oh, I love it.

Body language. I will read your body language to see if you're lying to me or not, if there's congruency or not, because you are doing the talking.

Right.

Now, based on the answer you're giving me, I can prepare my next question. And the list goes on and on and on. Yeah, yeah, that is how you network. And don't be afraid of connecting with a stranger you don't know at all. The only thing that can happen is no, thank you, next. That's how I work.

Interesting, because that's one of the things that I encourage, um, especially when I'm telling, um, teams and especially just I tell my leadership team, if we going— if we're attending an event, then the goal is for everyone to spread out and be the only person in a— in a— at a table at, you know, open seating at a dinner event or a networking event. Everyone go in a different direction again so that you can meet different people, and each person can then sort of bring together who they've had an opportunity to meet. And if it is that those relationships are valuable for the team, then now we have, you know, a little— a larger way of making impact. Another way that I also plan events is if I know that I'm going— say I'm going to a conference, and before I even decide to go to the conference, I usually look to see who the speakers are, and I'll look and see their bios.. And if there's someone in particular that I know that I want to connect with, maybe I decide that there's 3 to 5 people that I really want to meet. So then I'll do a deep dive on those people and be prepared to meet them. I remember I wanted to meet this VC up in Silicon Valley, and he was going to be one of the presenters on a panel. And I did that. I, you know, kind of take it— took a deep dive, purchased his book, read his book, and even brought his book with me. And I just knew I was going to meet him. It was so interesting. And sure enough, when the opportunity presented itself, I was prepared to have a meaningful conversation. I could reference something that was close and personal to him, and therefore I stood out in that, uh, uh, conversation. And so I think it made a little bit more of a meaningful connection, uh, because I was so prepared. I find it odd that people won't even prepare themselves when they're coming to interview with your organization, much less when they're thinking about meeting you. And it's so easy to Google people these days.

Yeah, I always ask people, when was the last time you Googled your own name?

Adam.

And when was the last time you went on your Facebook, your Instagram, and your LinkedIn? And if you would be a total stranger and read what you posted, What will your opinion be? What would your idea be about yourself? That's— and, and, oh, you know, because I check on people on LinkedIn, especially on LinkedIn, because I do business— most of my business, not to say 80% of all my business is through LinkedIn, uh, because it's a business platform. Um, but on, on Instagram, on— and somebody asked me, are you on TikTok? I said, absolutely, with my business. I'm not dancing, I'm not singing, but I'm there with my business. The reason I'm on Medium, on TikTok, on Tumblr, on X, which was Twitter before, on all these platforms, I'm on 27 platforms, by the way. The thing is, I had a conversation with Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk, and it was in London in 2018 backstage. And he said, you should be on at least 10 different platforms or you don't have any reason of existence in this industry. Wow. And I said, I'm on 27. He says, God bless. I said, thank you so much.

Wow. Well, then I have work to do. Yeah.

But the thing is, is that is also part of networking, being on social media. Make sure your social media is clean. Is, is related to what you do, if that's important. That is, I mean, it has to be important. Some people say, I'm on Facebook just for family things. I say, okay, that's, that's no problem, but do know people will check you out if they want to do business with you. And I check people out if I want to do business with them as well. I have a, I have a new people, a new person, sorry, a new person now starting the 6th of January on Monday in sales. I checked the lady out. I said, I want to know who that is. I mean, this is normal. This is a normal way of— I mean, and people check me out, you know, and people call me, they check me out and say, Rene, um, I was looking at your profile and said, uh, and who are you? You know, but, um, yeah, but it's very important to be on social media, but it's also very important if you're building a business to make sure that your social media is clean. That your social media, if people check you out, that it is related to your business. That is, if that is important in that very moment for you, for your business. That is, you have to take a decision yourself. But for me, if you look on my social media, I think 0.0001% might be one photo of myself, so privately taken in, in the UK or whatever, but it's— you're not going to find too much of myself. Because I took that decision to make sure that my social media platform is related to my business. And in the end, um, you are using social media, and what happens to a lot of people, social media is using them. And, and that's an— and that's something that Prince used to say, the singer. You know the singer? Yes, Prince. He used to say that in the '90s when internet was not really No, he says make sure you use it and it doesn't use you.

Very valuable points. But also, you know, we also have this culture where I would say there's— which again is why we decided with this Authentic AF, uh, conversation is because what I realized was there are so many folks who can't seem to discern between the truth and fiction. And there is a desire these days, especially when I'm in the huddle with millennials, where the conversation is not just about the brand that you're building, but who's building the brand. And so they're really interested in having some type of connection to you beyond, you know, early on I owned an advertising agency and I was brilliant at my work. But what I did was I, I wasn't promoting myself. I was brilliant at promoting my clients. I kept myself out of the stories. Well, I would say these days, you know, some of that has kind of bit me a little bit because people like, well, if you did all these things, why didn't we see you? And I'm like, because I did it for my clients. It wasn't about promoting me. You know, there were some people that I actually won accounts because they were so busy self-promoting um, but they were negligent in taking care of the client outcomes. That was never my problem. My clients had great success, and I was actually doing a list of case studies, uh, just as a refresher, but I was looking for some information and I came across some of the stuff and I'm going, wow, if I just wrote out all of the different case studies. And then also I had, um, cases where, you know, I spoke, and there were individual evaluations. And I— and at the time, it seemed excessive that if I was doing, say, a 6-week training session, maybe that meant twice a week, that after each session they completed an evaluation. But I have thousands of evaluations, and, you know, those kinds of things. So it's like, no, I have the receipts. They're just not public in ways that you see. And so of late, it's been a bit of a conversation of how do you bring some of these things into today's current digital environments that demonstrate the credibility or the history of who and what I have done, who I am, how I've done it. But more importantly, what that has to do with what it is I'm building, because I really have been building, you know, building blocks, I like to say. So my history has been strategic for my right now and my future.

But it's, it's, yeah, it is very important to, um, if you build a business and you're serious about your business, is to make sure you have pictures and videos as much as you can. Um, testimonials, people speaking in front of the camera. I was in the Middle East a couple of weeks ago, and I was asking the organization, can I have like 3, 4 people speaking in front of the camera sharing the experience that they had with my seminar? And there was not one that wanted to do this because they were all so shy and a bit scared of cameras and scared of, you know, I said, well I mean, 3 or 2, or I mean, at least a couple of people, and they did a big effort. And finally I ended up having 3 people doing a testimonial in front of the camera. But you know, that testimonial on the cam— in front of the camera, I'll put it on my website. And why do I do that? Is because I'm building credibility. I want people— and I, I was not there during the interview, it was somebody from the company that interviewed their own employee and, and they, they were like having a conversation about what was all about, and I was not there. And I was afterwards, I was watching the video and I was like surprised. People say this, they say that, what they learned, what the experience was. I said, wow, that's amazing. So I put it on my website. Now next time when somebody is checking me out, because they're going to check me out, they're going to check you out, they're going to check everybody, whatever. They, they call somebody, they want to check out, do you have a website? Yes, it's the first question all the time. 'Can I have your website?' And then they go through the testimonials and they go through the gallery. They know what you do, but they want to see proof. What is your credibility? And that's why it's so important to have testimonials, written testimonials, less than videos, because people are not making— taking time to read. This is, this is so well known and so well documented that people don't read anymore. They won't see a video, and if the video is longer than 20 seconds, they scroll away. This is what's happening today in society. This is reality. But if you know that reality, what should you do? You know, react upon. And that's what I do with my testimonials. I keep them short, to the point, and lots of pictures, lots of testimonials. And then when you have that online on your business platform or on your website or on your LinkedIn or whatever it is, people will look at you like, oh, and then they will send you an email, hey, can— when can we have Zoom? When can— and then you build a relationship. You ask questions. You don't talk about your product. You don't talk about money. You don't talk about invoices or offers or whatever. You build a relationship. And it's that relationship— that's what I learned, is that with that relationship, you're gonna make more money than ever before. But if you sell something for $1,000 and just because you want to sell $1,000, you might sell $1,000. But if you don't sell $1,000 but you build a relationship long term, you might sell for $20,000 or $100,000 because you work long term, because you build the relationship first. And it's— that's— that's so important when— when you want to build that relationship, people will check you out. And if you don't have any pictures on your website or on social media platform, you have any testimonials, they'll scroll away. They said, oh, another trainer. You know, there's a thousand, uh, living next door and there's a thousand there. And you have coaches and trainers everywhere today. But if you have credibility, then there are people say, oh, interesting. And make sure— maybe this is what, what I would like to add too— if you network is to make sure you have a niche. And I remember 30 years ago somebody said that to me as well. I had a supermarket with all kinds of personal development products and I didn't have any clients. I said, how come? I'm so good at this. I'm not doing this, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. And I used to teach in the armed forces. I know what teaching is. It's not about the teaching, but I had too much in my, in my supermarket in terms of personal development products. And then somebody said, Renee, you have to have a niche. And I went and I said, yeah, sure, sure, sure. And I went home and I said, what's a niche? That's how I started. I didn't know what a niche was. But then, you know, slowly, bit by bit, now we're 3 decades further down the road. And it's so important to have a niche in a sense that make sure you specialize in something. Because if you have too many products, people are not interested. They want a solution for their specific problem. And if it's body language or it's changing a mindset or it's grieving— I have a lady, she's into grieving. Teaching people how to grieve about when they lose somebody. It is amazing what she does, and she has so many clients, but she's specialized in a special niche, right? And it's the same for you, it's the same for me, same for everybody else. I mean, would you agree on that?

Oh, absolutely. I would say that, you know, really, um, it's true, you know, when I think about mindset and where my focus on mindset is around, you know, resilience launching something new, creating, innovating, right? And that's a different type of mindset that's necessary because it's a mindset that says, hey, I'm going to be creating something where there's not necessarily a roadmap. So the fact of the matter is, is that I'm not going to necessarily be able to lean into community buy-in. Many people are not going to understand what it is that I'm up to. So how far can I go on my own, you know? Um, and what kind of tools must I have available to keep myself motivated when I see something that no one else sees yet. You know, a visionary. I'm a visionary. I've always been a visionary. I tend to see 10, you know, 15, 20 years ahead. A futurist is what they call it these days. So, you know, what does a mindset of a futurist look like as it relates to executing on what it is that they see, but more importantly, being able to sort through what you see? Because not everything that you see is something that you want to lean into. Some of the things that you see, you go, OK, that's information. I'm glad to have that information. But that's not necessarily what resonates with what I'm up to. And I think it's really critical, especially when we talk about this stage where, again, you have, you know, people retiring every day. You have people exiting from a particular phase of their journey and entering a new phase. So what does that look like? And if you've done something for the last 20, 30 years, but now you're looking to do something new, you may have some of the tools that you're bringing into that thing new. But truthfully, if it's something new, then it requires you to develop new skills. And a lot of times the process of developing those skills, you've gotten a little rusty. You've been basically doing the same old things that are easy and that are comfortable. When we talk about change management, Change is, you know, you make a decision in an instant, but then can you lean into that decision every single day? Yeah, in order to execute.

And in terms of innovating, is like, what's your X factor? What, what, what difference do you make in the world nobody does? And is that X factor— it changes all the time. It enhances. There's a new X factor and then a new— that's called innovation, right? Right? And when you innovate and you are on LinkedIn, and if you want to network on LinkedIn, and if you're serious about doing business, I can only say go on LinkedIn, make sure you have a premium whatever account, and make sure you use it to, to, I mean, to the fullest of its potential. Because LinkedIn is, is amazing. I've been working on LinkedIn for so long now, I got 20,000+ followers. The thing is with LinkedIn is that people are serious. Their company, uh, CEOs and leaders and, and And, and, but make sure then that you know what you're talking about. Make sure you got a niche. Make sure when people ask you, hey, what is it that you do specifically? Can you, can you give me an answer that makes sense? Where most people will say, oh, good question, didn't think about that one, right? Make sure you have an answer ready. I mean, when people say, what do you do? I said, I mean, I'm teaching body language. Because if you realize that 93% of all communication is nonverbal and 80% of society is not even using it Would that make sense to dive into that, to grow your business, to, to go to that next level? And they go like, hmm, interesting, I want to know more, I want to know more about that, right? And it's the same for you with mindset, right? If you have a specific like sentence that you use with a question at the end, an open question, we're like, oh wow, interesting, I want to know more about it. But that is why it's so important to make sure to be prepared, make sure to have a neat a very tight LinkedIn account to make sure you network on a regular basis. And make sure to network with people you don't know, because the stranger will be interested in you. He has no clue what's happening, and it's that stranger that will say, hey, yeah, I want to know more about you. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Because your friends and family, they know you, because, oh yeah, sure. Have you ever tried to do a training session for your family or your friends and charge them like $10,000?

My very first training session, my mother came to my very, very first training session. I remember I did my first speaking engagement, you know, but that was just, you know, her leaning in and supporting. But it was an outstanding training session nonetheless. But no, beyond that, no, no, I wouldn't expect You know, my friends and family think, hey, they're going to say, are you nuts?

Are you— you know, it's not going to happen, right?

Right, right. No, they think they should get it for free, or they only want the, um, the rewards of your work. They're not necessarily leaning into, you know, your work, right?

Bless them. I mean, they're, they're your family, you know. You should love them and bless them. Yeah, they're doing business, real business.

Yeah.

Do it with strangers, people you don't know. Approach them and say, hey, can I ask you a question? You ask permission and then you start what I mentioned before. And that most of the time it works all the time. It's, um, yeah.

Well, excellent. Well, as usual, we have come and run out of time. You know, uh, last time you chimed in and reminded us about an upcoming event that I think is worth mentioning again. Um, you want to share with our guests? About, um, this upcoming, um, activity?

Sure, sure, sure. So we are having our retreat in Jamaica in February. I have to check for the exact days because I don't want to say anything that is not correct.

I think it's the 10th through the 16th or something like that.

Um, it's on our, um, and the, the connection is scrolling along the program, so Yeah, so the Jamaica retreat is from the 10th till the 16th, which is in the week of Valentine's. So we only have space for 5 couples, not more than 5 couples. And if you can see, my tummy is a little bit red. I have been eating beetroot. But, but, uh, we only have space for 5 couples, and from 10th till 16th, Valentine's is included in it. It's going to be an amazing time. I— there's a little short video on, on, on the landing page And, uh, I'm— I can't wait to be there. I mean, I'm so looking forward to that. But also the content we're going to share during those, uh, 6-7 days, it's gonna be— yeah, it's gonna be mind-blowing. I've done that before, and each time we finish a retreat, it goes like, oh my goodness, this is good, this is this. And then you see people, when they went to a retreat like ours, um, you see people changing as a couple, as a man-wife, as a— they don't have to be married, but if you're a couple, you know, all of a sudden you see people making decisions. They change their mindset. I mean, what— that's, that's the thing, what you do, right? And then they use their body language, and then they speak about their body language with each other. Because as advice always give to people is like, it's not because I'm teaching you body language, why don't you speak about it with your partner? Because you can only grow together with it I go like, yeah, this is interesting. So that retreat, just go join us.

Absolutely. And February in Jamaica, actually, to me, just about any time in Jamaica is fabulous.

I saw the video, the cooking and the— yeah, it's going to be— yes, and the ocean and the fish.

Oh my goodness, it's definitely my happy place. I can't wait. I'm counting down. I should be there, you know, any day, right? I'm headed, heading back to to my happy place. And I, I think I'm so giddy I can barely sleep at night because I'm like, you know, it's time to get to my happy place and get out of the cold, the good old cold.

Uh, and in the video they showed that they, they, uh, one specific day we go to the ocean, to the beach, and then they have the catch of the day, and which is a fish they catch out of the ocean and they put it in the barbecue. And so I mean, I'm— water is coming into my mouth when I think about it.

I mean, it's like And that's every day. I mean, think about it, you know, uh, number 3rd food dest— best food destination in the world according to TripAdvisor. You know, that coupled with the Medi Spa integrated immersive treatments, oh my goodness, you can't go wrong at all. It's going to be a fabulous time. So we can't wait to host guests, and in fact, it would be a great holiday gift Plus there's promotional pricing still happening, um, to the end of the month. So hurry up and get your couple, uh, package, uh, secured so we can see you in February in Jamaica. Yes, yes, looking forward to that.

Yeah, I'm so looking forward to that. I mean, I saw the video and we're like, whoa, I can't— oh, I saw myself already there. I mean, it's gonna be amazing. And also the people we're gonna meet with, the people we're gonna share stuff with, it's gonna be— and it's a variety of things. It's not only coaching or training, it's, it's a variety of different things. The cooking, the food, the coaching, the training, the, the personal, uh, conversation we're gonna have because it's only for 5 couples. So there's not 1,000 people there, it's going to be only 10 people there. So yeah, I really look forward to that, honestly.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, don't freeze over there in the Netherlands. This evening. It's probably not time for nap time or bedtime, but it's probably getting closer. I'm still at the front end of my day here in good old— I'm in Nevada.

But what's the time where you are?

It'll be right at about 11:30, 11:30, 11:45, right before noon.

Oh wow, here is 8:40 now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, all right. Well, guess what? If you're just tuning in, tune in every Monday at 11 AM Pacific time for an episode of Authentic AF, where Steph, me, and Renee join to share information with you about mindset and body language and how you can use those tools to deliver your authentic self. So until next time, have a great rest of your day or evening. We'll see you soon. Take care.

All right, take care. Bye-bye.