279 - She's the "Raise a Dream" co-founder: Tom interviews Rebecca Kirstein - Screw The Commute

279 – She’s the “Raise a Dream” co-founder: Tom interviews Rebecca Kirstein

Rebecca Kirstein is a serial entrepreneur and a human connector. She has firsthand experience over several decades founding small businesses, tech startups and investment corporations. And then she founded, with Charmaine Hammond, Raise a dream. She's the founder of Rethink Thinking the Summit. And she's a speaker, advisor, idea generator and collaborator, fueled by her experience that when entrepreneurs connect and collaborate, we all have the capacity to create stronger, more sustainable communities.

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Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 279

How To Automate Your Businesshttps://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/

entrepreneurship distance learning school, home based business, lifestyle business

Internet Marketing Training Centerhttps://imtcva.org/

Higher Education Webinar – https://screwthecommute.com/webinars

[03:34] Tom's introduction to Rebecca Kirstein

[04:54] Last real job was at 19 years old

[06:54] Becoming a photographer when having a “job” didn't cut it

[14:18] The genesis and future of Raise A Dream

[17:33] Improving your collaboration skills

[24:08] Sponsor message

[26:46] A typical day for Rebecca and her vision for the Raise A Dream movement

Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast

Higher Education Webinarhttps://screwthecommute.com/webinars

Screw The Commutehttps://screwthecommute.com/

entrepreneurship distance learning school, home based business, lifestyle business

Screw The Commute Podcast Apphttps://screwthecommute.com/app/

College Ripoff Quizhttps://imtcva.org/quiz

Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! – orders@antion.com

Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there!https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel

How To Automate Your Businesshttps://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/

Internet Marketing Retreat and Joint Venture Programhttps://greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/

Happy Pawshttp://www.happypaws.ca/

Raise A Dreamhttps://raiseadream.com/

Internet Marketing Training Centerhttps://imtcva.org/

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Charmaine Hammond – https://screwthecommute.com/278/

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Episode 279 – Rebecca Kirstein
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody it's Tom here with episode two hundred and seventy nine of Screw the Commute podcast. I'm here with Rebecca Kirstein. She is part of Raise A Dream Week, and we heard from her partner in crime, Charmaine Hammond, Wednesday on Episode two Seventy-eight and Charmaine said about Rebecca that Rebecca is a finisher. So we want to see if she's a drywall finisher or what exactly that means. But I thought it'd be appropriate that she finished the week out for us. So we'll have her on in a moment. Now, how would you like to hear your own voice here on Screw the Commute? If you if the show has helped you out at all in your business or given the ideas that help you start a business, we want to hear about it. Check Screwthecommute.com and then look for a little blue sidebar that says send voicemail. Click on it and talk into your phone or computer and tell me how the show's helped you. And don't forget the put your website in there so you can get a big shout out on a future episode of Screw the Commute. Now grab a copy of our automation e-book, it's twenty seven dollar e-book, but it's yours free for listening to screw the commute. Grab it at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And this book has literally this isn't an exaggeration. We figured this out a couple years ago, saved me seven and a half million keystrokes and allows me to take care of customers and prospects lightning fast. It's all the things we use around here to automate the business. So make sure you grab a copy of that while you're at it. Get a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app. And we've got instructions there to show you how to take us on the road and your cell phone and your tablet. Now we're sitting here in the middle of this pandemic, and this is a first for me. I mean, there's been smaller things like with Ebola and SARS and things like that. But this is kind of a worldwide thing and it's got everybody hunkered down at home. And I get people calling me all the time. Are you okay? Are you okay? Well, it's not much different for me. I've been working out of my home since I started formal business 43 years ago and 26 of it on the Internet. So it's not much different for me. But work from home searches are going crazy on Google for people learn how to do this. So we have a school that I've been preaching this since 19, roughly 96. I started selling on the Internet in ninety four to teach you how to do these things so that you have high profit, low risk. And when things like this happen, you're not stuck. So check it out at IMTCVA.org and also have a mentor program we'll tell you about later. But the school was a great legacy gift for your grandchildren, your children, nephews and nieces, because it's a highly in demand skill. Every business on Earth needs this kind of skill and they don't have to spend five, six years and 10 years in college learning how to protest and and coming out with debt and competing for jobs at Starbucks. So we don't want that.

[00:03:36] All right. Let's get to the main event. Rebecca Kirstein is a serial entrepreneur and a human connector. She has firsthand experience over several decades and you will believe that if you saw her. She looks like she's like 12, founding small businesses, tech startups and investment corporations. See, doing all this stuff keeps you young, apparently. And then she founded with Charmaine Hammond. Raise a dream. We're going to talk a lot about that today. And she's the founder of Rethink Thinking the Summit. And she's a speaker, advisor, idea generator and collaborator. And she's fueled by her experience that when entrepreneurs connect and collaborate, we all have the capacity to create stronger, more sustainable communities. Rebecca? Are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:04:28] I am.

[00:04:28] Yeah. That's good. I'm always happy when somebody actually answers that question. Just sits there dumbfounded.

[00:04:37] I was born ready.

[00:04:39] All right. So, Rebecca, how are you doing?

[00:04:42] I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Yeah. Like. Like you. I've been working at home for a really long time.

[00:04:48] Yes. I was probably in my 20s. Not new for me.

[00:04:52] You screwed the commute. That's good. So. So we're going to talk about Ray's the dream for sure today. But you got a long history. I mean, did you ever have a job?

[00:05:04] I had a job back when I was about 19 was the last real job I. Oh, I love it.

[00:05:12] Yeah. What was it?

[00:05:14] Well, I worked for a pet food company, a natural pet food company.

[00:05:18] And was it really natural? Because, you know, there's whole books written about how sleazy pet food company there actually is.

[00:05:26] And the reason I worked for this pet food company, it's I'm a big animal lover, was that they were, in fact, actually a natural pet food company.

[00:05:33] Is it still around? It's still around. Yeah. What's the name of it? It's called Happy Paws. Happy Paws.

[00:05:39] I haven't heard of it. You know, I'm a total animal not to have saved hundreds of dogs and miscellaneous animals, so I love them. I used to feed my dogs wrong also. But but I go clear up one hundred miles to the farm and get the chicken carcasses as their friend. And then one of the dogs just couldn't handle it. Like talk to her butt up terribly and she almost died over it. So I had to quit. But a big, big proponent of raw feeding it because most of the commercial stuff is really beautiful.

[00:06:16] Absolutely. I could not agree more. All right. So how did you get. Then what happened?

[00:06:22] Then what happened? Well, a guy. Then what happened? You know what? Do you know what actually happened next? I thought I might open up whenever I had a government job and decided that I was never, ever going to have a job again.

[00:06:36] This is Canadian government, right? Canadian government, good government.

[00:06:40] And, you know, no offense to the Canadian government, but I'm not good at sitting still and I'm not good at doing the same thing over and over again.

[00:06:49] And I very quickly figured out that this whole job thing wasn't for me. I needed to solve problems.

[00:06:55] So. So what did you do about it?

[00:06:57] So I went at the time I went to photography school and I became a photographer for 20 years. Wow. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:07] Which was I could not I could not imagine a business that changed more over the span of my career in terms of the technology and ability.

[00:07:20] And yet the whole the whole industry changed repeatedly throughout my career. So it taught me to be really resilient and really adaptable to change.

[00:07:29] Well, that's that's interesting that you would give up a cushy government dog food job to a job.

[00:07:38] Oh, no. It's making dog food. We should get concerned.

[00:07:45] So. So what type of photography you read? Was it landscape or portraits or what was it over the span of my career?

[00:07:53] I did just about everything that I started doing, babies, weddings, engagements, all that kind of stuff. And and very quickly, as YouTube and the whole craze of social media came into play, the world changed pretty dramatically. And it was exactly the same time that digital SLR became, you know, everybody's everybody's was a photographer. All of a sudden, everybody had access to equipment and tools that professionals had access to pretty much overnight. And that changed the game.

[00:08:26] And I shifted into commercial photography and I shifted it shifted into what I refer to now as product type thing, a service.

[00:08:35] And what do you mean by that?

[00:08:37] And what I mean by that is that we took what was what was previously a service and turned it into a product line. I'll give you an example. A lot of women back then were really interested in what we call boudoir photography. You know, sexy photos for for themselves, for their partners, for.

[00:08:56] Hold on. Hold on. Supposed to be sexy photos. Some some that I have seen. And the boa industry went really big during that time.

[00:09:04] I think I feel differently.

[00:09:07] And you did? We did a much more non studio natural light locations, very, very actual sexy kind of kind of vibe to it. But what we did was we turned it into an event and we called it Sex and the City, and we actually really changed the game around how those kinds of shoots would happen in our city. It became something that started to get copied.

[00:09:34] We started seeing it all over the they're out in public and in lines, rainstorm, private locations, but outdoors.

[00:09:42] Oh, you have like an audience or something. Audience, no audience at all.

[00:09:47] Very private. But it was in private, private homes and banners in front locations and things like that. We live in a very, very beautiful part of the world where those kinds of locations are not difficult to find. And we partnered with a whole bunch of sponsors, everything from wine and cheese to hair and makeup to venues to jewelry, to clothing, lingerie, all of the above. And we created a real event experience from it that people would buy tickets to. And we and we ran it very exclusively only a couple times a year. And people look forward to it.

[00:10:19] And we had business clients that would that would come to the event every year when we are losing me.

[00:10:24] I thought you said this wasn't open to the public, but now you said you're selling tickets.

[00:10:29] Oh, no. Listen here. Yeah. No, we sold tickets.

[00:10:33] It was it was open to anyone who wanted to buy a ticket, but it was very, very it was a very exclusive event in that we only sold 40 tickets twice a year.

[00:10:44] Well, that's pretty cool way to adjust the business because probably a lot of photographers just folded that time.

[00:10:51] Yeah. And we did that with many things. We did that with headshots.

[00:10:54] We had a headshot event that we converted into a networking event. We called them photo mobs. We did all kinds of things like that to really turn our services into products and events that people would look forward to, though.

[00:11:09] When you say we and our. Were these your ideas or that you collaborated or would cause your collaboration?

[00:11:16] Yeah, every every single business I have ever started in my entire life and been successful at has been in partnership, including Raise a Dream with Charmaine.

[00:11:25] But my photography studio was in partnership with Anna. These crazy ideas are usually my crazy ideas, but they would never see the light of day without people like average me.

[00:11:35] Oh, see, they said the opposite. They said exactly opposite. Charmaine said that she was the guy comes up with ideas, but she'd never get them done if it was for you.

[00:11:47] Yeah. And this is I would say Charmaine and I are a bit of Muse's for each other.

[00:11:51] We were slightly different than every other relationship I had in terms of partners in that we are both idea generators and Charmaine is a workhorse.

[00:12:00] She works all day long, all the time. She loves to work. I am not. I'm lazy like you Tom. And so I am all about the finishing. What is. What does it look like to get from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible?

[00:12:14] And that's that's what I do.

[00:12:17] So. So this raise a dream. I understand you two didn't know each other really when that came together, is that right?

[00:12:25] No, not at all. We were introduced by a coach that we were both working with independently knows it's a Canadian thing.

[00:12:33] The partnerships work because most of them fail miserably and people like road rage to shoot each other down here in the States.

[00:12:41] Yeah. Yeah. I think it's very Canadian thing.

[00:12:45] I've had a lot of successful partnerships, but I will say that there's, I think, a really solid level of emotional intelligence AQ involved in successful partnership.

[00:12:58] So I don't think it's specifically Americans trust each other.

[00:13:03] How do you how do you tell just by talking to somebody?

[00:13:06] Yeah, I certainly can tell by how people handle adversity and difficult situations. And even just when you listen to somebody talk about how they handle their ex wife or their ex husband and the kinds of relationships they have in other partnerships that maybe didn't go as well as they could have. We'll tell you a lot.

[00:13:24] That sounds like a book to me right there. It definitely would be if I had time to write a book. I got about nine of them in my head right now.

[00:13:33] Me the finisher gets me there.

[00:13:36] I need somebody to finish this.

[00:13:38] So. So you have quite a diverse background here. You've got investment in tech startups and things like that. I mean, that's quite a broad range to be involved in.

[00:13:49] It really is. I guess I have I have a lot of different interests, but there is a common thread that runs.

[00:13:57] All right. Tell us about that. What's the common thread that runs through all these?

[00:14:02] Solving solving a problem and having the opportunity to be creative every day because, I mean, either a business or an industry that is constantly evolving.

[00:14:15] So now that is true during pandemics. That's true for everything and everyone.

[00:14:19] Yeah. That's for sure. So let's let's take it to the raise the dream again. So what was the genesis of this and what's the goal and the future of Raise the Dream? I called it a movement. And Charmaine was happy about that rather than just a program.

[00:14:37] Yeah, well, both both Charmaine and I really believe in the concept of collective brilliance that we are all so much stronger than the sum of our parts than as individuals. And and really, collaboration, just like a partnership is a collaboration, is not always easy. And and there's there's so much benefit to effective collaboration's that really raise a dream is about bringing people together.

[00:15:06] I'm really teaching people how to have really effective collaboration's. It's a lot about the communication, the resilience, the give and take. What do you do when things go wrong? How do you set things up so that when things do go wrong, they're much easier to manage?

[00:15:18] Because it's like life. Business is is not always predictable and sometimes things don't go as planned.

[00:15:26] And so really kitting activity, you're really hitting about that.

[00:15:31] They don't always go as planned. Right. Why didn't somebody tell me? Oh, wow.

[00:15:39] So if you had to pick the top three things that you think to talk about, another common denominator of what has kept you, made you and kept you successful, what do you think they would be?

[00:15:54] Constantly being focused on one of my favorite mentors likes to say, you are the work. And I really believe that. So constantly staying focused on being better and doing better.

[00:16:09] Yeah. And that's that's a lot of work. And it isn't always the pretty work. It's kind of the stuff we'd like to ignore.

[00:16:15] Sometimes it's like, you know, everything from communication to building teams, leadership. All of that is about doing your work. You know what makes you better at what you do. And. And I'm a better communicator and a better leader. So that's number one for sure for me is is staying focused on that because it's hard to do. It's it's hard work to do and it's hard to find the time to do the things that aren't necessarily burning and urgent.

[00:16:39] So you are the work.

[00:16:40] That's where you are, the work. And that's definitely number one.

[00:16:44] And and and really, like we're all we're all in this together. You know, there is there is so much so many opportunities left on the table to collaborate, to make a greater impact to whatever whatever your goal is, make more money and change the world. I like both. I like to mix both. I think we can make a lot of money and change the world. And I don't think you can really have one without the other. And so that is a really big focus of mine is how to bring people together. I talked to somebody earlier today that called themselves a compulsive connector.

[00:17:20] That is a really good description because we should always be looking for ways to can, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with us that connects people that that can potentially provide value to one another, because that's that's ultimately what scale's change.

[00:17:35] All right. Now, before you give me number three, let's dig a little deeper on collaborate. This is something that's a skill that you can improve on.

[00:17:44] Absolutely. Watch.

[00:17:46] What would you do to improve your collaboration skills?

[00:17:50] I think the number one thing that I would do is notice that that's where I would start, is notice where you can be of service to other people, because that is where collaboration is always begin. So if you're talking to an investor or talking to a customer or talking to somebody who's in the same industry as you potentially a competitor is, notice what causes them pain.

[00:18:14] What is difficult for that? What challenges are they facing and how could you help? And that is that is step one to being a good, good collaborator is noticing where you can help and being willing to put something out with no promise of anything to gain from it other than it feels pretty darn good to help somebody with a significant challenge of theirs.

[00:18:33] So that's where I think a lot of the fields around here is that people go in with the attitude. I got to find somebody to do something for me.

[00:18:43] Rather than what you just said.

[00:18:45] Yeah, it's you know, I'm not going to stereotype. Not not all Canadians are like that either.

[00:18:53] But it's certainly it's a struggle. A lot of people face, and particularly in times like this where, you know, people really have a tendency to fall back into a scarcity mindset. And you see examples all over the world of people right now who are living in scarcity and the terrifying fear of that. And people all over the world who are offering whatever they have to give and how much they're getting in return as a result is, you know, is proof in and of itself.

[00:19:21] You know, I saw this thing. I get this email every day from the good news network.

[00:19:26] I love it. Have you seen it before? Yup.

[00:19:29] Yeah. So today, six year old boy is sitting out on the roadside. As he always wanted to do a lemonade stand. But you can't do it because the social distancing know he's given away jokes. So got to drive by jokes. There is six year old with his corny little jokes just making people smile.

[00:19:54] Everybody can give his six year old.

[00:19:56] Right, but it's so often. And, yeah, you're seeing examples of that popping up everywhere.

[00:20:01] And that that is exactly the mindset I'm talking about, is look for ways to ways to help. And even if it's just making people laugh, you know, I mean, it doesn't have to be some huge, grandiose effort, you know?

[00:20:13] Did you see that one guy in England who he is? He's like 100 years old. And he was going to walk around his garden a hundred times to raise a thousand dollars for, like first responders or something awful.

[00:20:29] You know, how much money is there for 30 days or more than a thousand?

[00:20:33] Thirty two million people live. Thirty two, really? Just look it up. We're to be good. I got to follow that story. Pretty to really. There is a guy just looking for what he could do to help. He's got a walker. This is going to get around this garden a hundred times. He's probably got a. Another hundred, yeah.

[00:20:54] Yeah, there's another old veteran standing on the side of the road giving away meals to truckers because truckers are having trouble because all the restaurants are closed, they can't even find a place to eat. But they're hauling all our goods around.

[00:21:06] And, you know, they're kind of heroes, too. So these people were given what they can. I just did it last night. I got on TV yesterday morning and told him, hey, you know, we're called the Hampton Roads area. Here's seven big cities around here. And I said, I'm going to do free marketing classes at eight o'clock every Wednesday for everybody stuck at home. So I'm doing what I can do. You know, I wouldn't be any good, you know, taking meals to the elderly because I'd eat them all on the way.

[00:21:35] So I go. You go. We all have our strengths. Oh, yeah. It's like Clint Eastwood say a man's gotta know his limitations.

[00:21:44] So what else can they do to learn to collaborate better notice and be of service? What else?

[00:21:50] Yeah.

[00:21:50] And and I would say to add to that that sort of the second step of that you can notice, but then you can act on that and actually put put put yourself out there, you know, offer whatever it is you have to offer.

[00:22:07] You'd be surprised at how many times when you ask people the question, how can I help? They'll actually answer it. They'll actually tell you how you can help. And sometimes that directly benefits you and sometimes it doesn't. But in many ways, it's about, you know, paying attention and keeping those things top of mind, because the amount of times in a day where I have an opportunity to go, oh, that thing I heard about last week, you know, this new business or this news service or, you know, a fund or grants or whatever it may be, you know, this is perfect for this person or this particular situation and just really paying attention to how the dots connect and how you can sometimes connect them for people that they may never, never otherwise connect. I mean, as a master at that.

[00:22:51] All right. So bottom line is you can learn to be a better collaborator.

[00:22:55] That's when there's more stuff, I'm sure.

[00:22:58] But you can learn. All right.

[00:22:59] So anything it is a practice.

[00:23:02] Right. So scores of two things so far as you are the work and collaborate. And what would be the third key to success?

[00:23:10] You are the work, collaborate, and all this is hard to pick. It's hard to picture.

[00:23:16] Yeah, exactly, yeah. For me, it's persistence and consistency.

[00:23:21] And when everybody asks me, it's is the first thing it blurts out of my mouth because I just won't quit. You know, if something's worthwhile going after, you know, most people quit too early, so. And then consistency is good because people know what to expect from you. And so if they don't never know what you're going to come up with or do, they can't depend on you. Say so.

[00:23:43] So those are I'll throw the third one in there for you from from my perspective is persistence and consistency is always important in personal and business life.

[00:23:55] So I would I would wholeheartedly agree. I'm glad you filled in the blanks for me. In other words, are solid.

[00:24:01] There is.

[00:24:03] There is so many moving parts to success for sure. But these are the ones that you and I boiled down together. Awesome. So we got to take a brief sponsor break. When we come back, we're going to ask Rebecca what a typical day looks like for her. If there is such a thing and her vision for the Raise a Dream movement. So so, folks, about 20 years ago, I kind of turned the Internet marketing guru world on its head because guys at my level were charging 50 or 100 thousand bucks upfront to small businesses. And I knew a lot of these guys, if they got the money as the last you'd see of them, they wouldn't even help you. So so I thought, you know, that's not right.

[00:24:45] I'm going to a charge of a fraction of that as an entry fee to a program. And then I'm going to charge a percentage of profits. That's capped. So for me to get my big money, you had to make way bigger money and then you're not stuck with me the rest of your life. And you know that I'm not going to disappear on you because I won't get my money right. So people seem to like this. And seventeen hundred students later, it's still going strong like that.

[00:25:14] So that's our great Internet marketing joint venture program that's very unique. Has an immersion trip to the grave, their net marketing retreat center video studio. We shoot videos with you. We teach you all kinds of stuff.

[00:25:28] And then the other unique thing is guys at my level won't even talk to you at all. But in my program, I can't get results. You. If I don't talk to you and help you one on one. So myself and my entire staff are at your disposal by appointment, one on one. So I'm not having to you know, I everybody lumps a bunch of people together while the beginners are lost all the time. And the the people that are advanced are bored all the time and then they all quit. So I don't like that. So it's a very unique program. So check it out at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com. And with it comes a scholarship to my school. And some somebody join this program and gifted the school to their daughter, who they had spent eighty thousand dollars on her crap education, and she was working some menial job. And after four months, she's still in the school. She's making six thousand dollars a month on the site. All right. From what she learned there. So. So it's very, very powerful. It's a highly in demand skill. Internet marketing. And when something happens where you're forced to be at home or you're sick or you're hurt, you can still have money coming in. So check it out at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com.

[00:26:49] All right. Let's get back to our main event. Rebecca Kirstein is here and she is the co-founder of the Raise a Dream movement. And so, Rebecca, what's a typical day look like for you?

[00:27:03] Oh, that's a good question. Well, before all this, my days were never typical, but it's becoming Groundhog Day over here.

[00:27:11] I mean, so I really take a granular like, do you get up really early to exercise breakfast? What would you do? Look good.

[00:27:19] What's a day like? I definitely am not an early riser. By nature.

[00:27:25] On I have for the last 20 years woken up without an alarm unless I'm catching a flight or some other reason to get out to a lifestyle booth.

[00:27:35] This beautiful.

[00:27:37] Yeah. So I get up when I wake up. It's usually before 8:00 a.m. but that could very. And yeah, I get up I. I have had an on and off practice my entire life of meditation and getting better and better and better at being more consistent about that.

[00:27:57] And I walk every day for at least an hour, sometimes two.

[00:28:02] And I try to do you know, when we're not in pandemic land. Like we are right now, you know, everything from tennis to kayaking to hiking to swimming to everything. We live in a beautiful part of the world where all those things can happen all year round and. And. Yeah. And then I get to work. And so I work. And I work in chunks of time. So I will write in the morning or I will take meetings only Tuesday to Friday or I chunk everything because I involve Im involved in so many different ventures.

[00:28:33] How long are your trunks. Because I think Charmaine talked about this Wednesday that her chunks are different length than your chunks.

[00:28:41] Yeah, totally.

[00:28:43] We don't necessarily work in exactly the same way, but like I don't, I don't take meetings on Mondays and so Mondays I'm, I'm writing I'm catching up on things that require a lot of focus where I have to get into something for many, many hours sometimes. Yeah, that that is that is my more creative kind of time on a Monday. And I love having my weekends kind of move in to having some flexibility on that on a Monday. And then I take meetings generally only in the afternoon, unless they are specifically, you know, events and things that happen at specific times where I have to know where I choose to really let that into my into my mornings because my mornings are always getting stuff done, responding to email, making sure my tasks are all kind of managed and handled. And then my afternoons are usually a lot.

[00:29:39] I've spent a lot of time on. I talk to a lot of people in a different world.

[00:29:43] So my my days is commonly spent on Zoom for a pandemic and now much more so during it. Right. Yeah. And then my evenings are with my family. I have a daughter who's almost 18 and she's stuck at home with me right now. So she's forced to hang out with me, which is awesome.

[00:30:01] And so her and my fiance, a friend and I spend a lot of time together.

[00:30:04] You know, we go to the beach, we take the dog for walks where, you know, we're a lot lower key than we used to be.

[00:30:09] We were always doing stuff and hanging out with friends and and socializing in the evenings and weekends. But I also have quite a few startups on the go. So I sometimes am and working longer hours, but in most cases by choice, like, you know, I get really into something and all works twelve hour days for a week and then I will not work as hard for a few days. So it's really based on my own sort of schedule and, and moods and and such that I have that flexibility to make room make room where I call the women pace.

[00:30:42] You just you know, a lot of people say work. You believe your work is where it's right. Because it's not you. It's me. Yeah. It's my winning pay. So you're.

[00:30:52] I didn't want to say that's they're losing pace, but I'm thinking anyway, it's something you get used to.

[00:31:00] I'm really, really fortunate because now when I look at, you know, sort of an alternate universe where people work, you know, very specific hours and, you know, are much more stuck to the clock. I can't imagine not because it's been so long that I haven't had to work really hard, but I don't work any harder than I want to work.

[00:31:19] Well, they say an entrepreneur work 18 hours a day to get out or working for somebody else all day long.

[00:31:25] And I will do that.

[00:31:27] So what's your what's your vision for a raise? The dream? What's going to what's it gonna be in the future? What's it going to look like?

[00:31:33] Yeah, sorry. I really started raise a dream.

[00:31:35] You know, we started with the intention of raising a million dreams, so helping helping other people achieve their goals, that that made a significant difference and impact in other people's lives. So in some ways, you know everything from people who are working with grief and death and helping people cope with that, you know, changing the world through feeding young people in schools all over the world and, you know, different organizations that are. Doing different things to make the world a better place. We decided very early on that those are the kind of people we wanted to work with and support by connecting them and supporting them and building collaborations and partnerships and ultimately sponsorship into their businesses and into their business models to make more impact. And so that's really where we started. And we won't we won't stop until we had a million dreams. And then we'll just keep going like that. Like that old guy circle.

[00:32:31] Yeah.

[00:32:32] And the only thing I don't like about it is nobody comes up with a, you know, feed the Internet entrepreneur campaign, you know, likes to show up at my door with some food.

[00:32:45] Well, you know, in this climate, Tom, I could very I could very quickly have food delivered to your door. Oh, that's true.

[00:32:50] That's true. Then, though, I had somebody going to rent an apartment and they they said they work for GrubHub.

[00:32:56] And I'm thinking, how much money can you make there? I could turn 40. Forty four hundred dollars a month for Grover. They said we're just making bank nowadays as well. I wonder if that will last afterwards. But they were clean it up now that's for sure. So, so. So I asked Charmaine. The last question. What's she thought about you? So now you're going to tell me, what do you think about Qaumi?

[00:33:23] What do I think about Tom here? Oh, well, that's that's that's a really good question.

[00:33:28] I'll show here. Oh, so I better not say anything revealing.

[00:33:35] No. I mean. Has she absolutely came into my life as a business relationship. And, you know, we have become friends through the work that we do. We obviously share a lot of the same values and things that we're passionate about in the world.

[00:33:49] And I've never met anyone as selfless as Charmaine. Charmaine's entire existence depends on supporting other people to be successful, sometimes to her own detriment. But in many cases, she's getting better at that. She's getting better at looking out for her own self and her health and all of those things that she she will do anything for anyone to help make their lives better for other people.

[00:34:12] And one dog and one dog that she loves. Yeah, absolutely. But she she just she just shows up for people. I've never met anyone who shows up the way they Charmaine does. And yeah, I'm super grateful to have I have a friend and a partner like her in my life because that is that is quite rare. You know, we sometimes say those things about people. That is 100 percent true about Charmaine.

[00:34:34] So how do people get a of you? How do they be part of their raise the dream movement?

[00:34:41] Oh, they can find us at raiseadream.com and we're on so creative.

[00:34:45] It's really creative. I know, right? You knew that. But you are always available. She said the both of you are rare.

[00:34:54] Anyway, we have.

[00:34:55] Exactly. Raise the dream. Please call it rad behind closed doors.

[00:35:01] So raiseadream.com. Great. Well, thanks so much for catching this up on this.

[00:35:07] This is Raise a Dream Week.

[00:35:08] I was thinking of an important thing to have during the pandemic to try to give people hope that there's bigger things out there. And I thought, who can I have on? And I didn't really know you that well known Charmaine for a long time. And I kind of figured, though, if it was your friend to Charmaine's, you must be pretty darn good.

[00:35:30] So I decided to have both of you on for Raise Dream Week. This is the Raise the Dream Week. And we should make it an annual event. How about that?

[00:35:37] I totally agree that often. Thank you for having me.

[00:35:40] All right. So, folks, this has been Rebecca Kirstein and she's part of the Raise the Dream movement.

[00:35:48] And I hope everybody out there is not only dreaming, but doing you know, that's the one thing that I don't like about people.

[00:35:56] That only dream is they never. They're called dreamers, which has got a negative connotation to it because they never do anything. But Rebecca and Charmaine are doers. And if you hook up with them, you're going to see a significant increase in the value of your life.

[00:36:15] That's for sure. All right. Everybody will catch on the next episode. See you later.

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