140 – From Dumpster to Dynasty: Tom interviews Annie Meehan

Episode 140 – Annie Meehan
[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.

[00:00:25] Hey everybody it's Tom here with episode 140 of screw the commute podcast. Let me ask you how many of you have built up a business and sold it. Well that's just one of Annie Meehan's accomplishments and we'll meet her in a minute. Last episode was 139. That was podcasting behind the scenes it was one of my Monday training sessions but I brought on my right hand guy Larry Guerrera and he was telling you all the things we do with the podcast after it's recorded. There's a lot of stuff there. Now our podcast app is in the iTunes store. You can also check it out at screwthecommute.com/app where we have complete instructions to show you how to use all the fancy features so you can take us with you on the road. And also please tell a friend about this. You probably know somebody that always wanted to start a business or struggling in business. Well this would be a great podcast for them. So tell them about it and they can subscribe over and iTunes or any place really. We have probably 25 different places where quality podcasts are listed and we're everywhere. Now I've got a big freebie to thank you for listening to this podcast. It's my twenty seven dollar e-book how to automate your business and just one of the tips in this e-book has saved me over seven million keystrokes probably since we did that a couple years ago probably seven and a half million keystrokes. All right so you really want to get that check that out at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and I've got an extra little bonus over there for you I think I think you'll like. All right. You know what folks I turned the Internet marketing training world on its head around the year 2000 people at my level were charging like 50 or 100 thousand dollars up front to teach what we knew to pretty much clueless business people who refused to learn it on their own. Now I'm a small business advocate and I knew many small businesses could never afford that kind of upfront money. So. So I made all those gurus mad by charging a relatively small entry fee to my program that also got a percentage of profits that was capped. So you're not stuck with me forever. So for me to get my big money you had to make way bigger money and plus you know I'm not going to disappear on you because I won't get any more money. So our sponsor this week then is me and the Internet marketing retreat and joint venture program where myself and my staff work with you for a year to either get you started in an Internet business or to use the Internet to take your existing business to the next level. And you can check all the details at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com and of course everything we mentioned today will be in the show notes so you can easily click on things if you're driving or working out. And I also took it one step further. It's never been done before I have a big estate home and a TV studio where my students as part of their year long training come and actually stay in my house for an immersion weekend. And that's just one of the unique features of this program so greatinternetmarketingtraining.com.

[00:03:47] All right. Let's get to the main event Annie Meehan is an international motivational speaker based out of the Minneapolis area. She's published five books and three workbooks and won a national award. She's the president of the National Speakers Association chapter in Minnesota and Annie was a 12 year Snap Fitness franchise owner. She bought one in 2006. She built one in 2007 and she grew the first one to the top 10 percent of all their franchises. She sold one of them in 2010 and sold the other in 2018. I can't wait to hear that story. She's been a leader in direct sales with AdvoCare a high quality supplement team a certified life and wellness coach Annie loves inspiring people to live an exceptional life in the office in their homes and communities. Annie are you ready to screw. The commute.

[00:04:49] Let's get going.

[00:04:50] Let's get screwy all right. So Annie tell everybody what you been it's hard to get a hold of you. You're double triple booked all over the place. So tell everybody what you're doing.

[00:05:02] Well I am traveling the world inspiring people to eliminate their excuses and live their exceptional life. So I speak and I teach and I write. And really what I hope is every day I'm a difference maker through the work that I get to do with my clients.

[00:05:17] Yeah. And you've got a lot of roles your mom and a wife. Every time I call wait a minute Tom we got to do this now because things are going crazy.

[00:05:29] I am a wife and a mother. This week I will celebrate twenty two years of marriage. I started my mothering as a single mom and now a couple of my kids have out aged me. I think of myself as 28. I have a son that will be 31 and a daughter that will be twenty five and a few weeks. And my youngest just turned 21 years old. So three adult children which that in itself is a miracle raising kids and staying married.

[00:05:55] Well that that math works for me. I'm sure you remember Jack Benny never made it past thirty nine. That was probably even before your time. So. So how do you. You say you inspire people do you do it online or do you speak speaking with what's the way you do it.

[00:06:15] The majority of my work is going to conferences and opening them up with a keynote just kicking them off with high energy content passion and really asking people some questions for self reflection of you know especially when we're working with the service industry the health care and the educators. How are you taking care of yourself. But when I'm working in the financial industry I'm always asking how do you go to that next level and how do you value your clients beyond their checkbook or their bank account. And so most of my work is done speaking at live events. I do some online work. I mostly work in large audiences with the keynote. But then I also after people hear me say Hey can you come back and consult with our leadership team our sales team. So I do some of that as part of my business and small group. I do some one on one coaching and consulting and I do that either in person or do that through zoom and then my written work people buy my books and use them as tools to train themselves up to just kind of get to that next level. Going from stuck to successful and then they use them also to train their own teams in whatever industry they're in.

[00:07:23] So what are some of the titles.

[00:07:27] The first one that I wrote is called past detours and possibilities and it's filled with questions quotes and a few still short stories. And I wrote that to inspire people to write their own story when I would meet people and audiences they would tell me you have an amazing story you better write a book. But what I really believe Tom is we all have an amazing story and journey and there's lessons inside of it. So write your stories teach your lessons was my first book and then the next was be the exception. Seven Steps to transformation and at that point when I wrote that one it took me about 20 years to write that I was writing a book called dumpster to dynasty about growing up in a physical financial and emotional dumpster and moving out of that into this dynasty life. A publisher said any don't tell us your memoir instead. Show us how we can get there when we walk through death devastation divorce disaster because everybody goes through something personally professionally. So I went back over my life and thought what were the seven steps ways of being more than doing that I had to take to get to where I am from where I was and that's what the exceptions about that's the one that won the National Award in the category of self-help. The next book is because I speak in Christian communities at times they said why isn't that a Christian book. And I said hey I mean as many people on barstools as Pew benches and I love them nonetheless and so they said write about what God says about your seven steps. So I wrote a bible study based on be the exception and took those seven ways of being and said What does God say about being honest and being kind to ourselves and rewriting the stories that no longer serve us. After that I wrote a gratitude journal for a company that was celebrating their hundred year anniversary and they said We'd like your philosophy on gratitude Danny. Can you write that and we want to buy it for all our employees. And really it looks like a blank book because it's really for you to write the first page has directions and what it says is if you write down every night three to five things you're grateful for and read them every morning. That's a good thing. You'll have a good life keeps your mindset positive before you go to bed wake up but really that's all about you. And I don't believe you can have a great life when you're just all about yourself. So if you want to live a great life and also write down one or two ways you were generous by buying someone a cup of coffee by offering a smile by going out of your way to offer kindness and encouragement to those around you and that I think we go from good to great. So that's the next book.

[00:09:52] So that one didn't take 20 years.

[00:09:54] That did not well more than 20 minutes but not quite. People loved that tool though. I got much more positive and I got less about myself less self focus. That's one great tool. And then my last one just came out and actually this Thursday is my book launch on it. It's called the pineapple principle and I heard a poem and it goes like this your pineapple stand up straight. Wear a crown and be sweet on the inside be a pineapple. So that's kind of cute right Tom. Yeah. But being cute is not really how I teach because I'm a person that believes there's depth to people into life in the business. And so I said what how can I take this home and make it a principle. And I share stories of the impact that my message has had across the world. And the feedback and comments that I've gotten because when you stand up straight you are able to look people in the eye and really see them. And when you see people they feel valued and in a world where most of us are looking down their phone or looking ahead at what's next. We have lost the value of seeing another person and a lot of people are lonely in this world and so seeing people helps them to feel valuable wearing your crown teaches you that even though I want to lay in bed and eat donuts every day I get out of bed and go to the gym because I'm valuable and I'm worth it. And so it's just taking those those simple words and saying what if we lived in a world where we were sweet on the inside and what came out of our mouth and through our keyboard was kindness encouragement positivity we can I hope to make a movement and everyone goes around wearing pineapples now. That's my goal.

[00:11:31] Hey let's take you back. Did you ever have a job.

[00:11:35] Well I've been working since I was seven years old. My biggest job was from 21 to 30. I worked for Piper Jaffray headquarters and I got nine or five promotions in the nine years. It is exactly financial investment. When I left there I was in the institutional trading side of it. So not the retail but working with the large companies on small trades and millions of shares. So yes high intensity if you've seen the movie Wall Street I kind of lived part of that movie. So yeah.

[00:12:09] So that cracks me up. Institutional Sales because it makes me think of a nuthouse. Probably is in some ways.

[00:12:18] So much yelling so much stress and on the floor I worked on when I left there was four hundred and forty of us and only 20 were women so 20 men yelling 10 20 women occasionally crying. Tense environment let me just say.

[00:12:33] All right. Was that the the only job you had before you started your own business or how did you transition to having your own business.

[00:12:41] Yeah it was an interesting time. At that point I had my youngest Alex who was 30 years old. And as I was at home on maternity leave my company was Piper Jaffer was being bought by U.S. bank which was very short lived but about a third of our income was bonuses and the structure of our financial institute compared to a bank is very different so they would not be paying us out in bonuses like Piper had when U.S. bank bought and I was on maternity leave and actually the stress of that job and having three kids I knew in the back of my head I wasn't sure I wanted to go back to that and my husband really wanted us to buy a business together. And so the U.S. Bank said to me Well they invited me to come back as a manager in the trade settlement area which would have been a lot calmer but still quite a few hours every week and with three kids in daycare my husband said Why didn't you stay home. And I was like I don't want to stay home I like making my own money I make good money I'm an independent woman and my neighbors all said you're a silly girl your husband wants you home and you don't want to stay home. And so I thought about it for a while and and then I just was like OK fine and they gave me a really nice retirement package. So actually I'm considered at 30 years old I retired from U.S. Bank. So every year I'm invited to the retirement luncheon with 80 year olds and I go because why not. I make some new friends. Yeah but what I came home after that primarily to raise the kids and volunteer. But during that six years at home volunteering as a soccer coach and a PTO president and everything because I can't sit still at church community. My husband's just saying what sort of business would you want to buy if you could buy anything. And we have had some family members own restaurants and bars and so we talked about that. We just talked about the cash the how cash can be missing and you're so dependent on employees. So we decided against a bar restaurant or liquor store. Then we moved into what about a maid service. And I thought well I don't even like cleaning my own house I don't want to own a maid service. From there we talked about ink cartridges which was a little hard to get passionate about. But ultimately my husband said what about a gym. And I said Well I don't love to work out but what I love about gym ownership is that nobody leaves a gym less happy than they came in. So no matter how crabby you're stressed you are if you go into a gym you'll always leave with a little bit of relief or. Yes and I love helping people. And so I got really passionate about being able to show people the value of their health and that is so we talked about it for a while and we actually did up buying our first gym in a small town that I had heard of but I had never even been there. So it's about forty five minutes south of me in a community of 5000 people. And the previous owner said he hated owning it after six months and what we buy it. And and so you know I got excited I thought What can I do with these broken down equipment. Snap Fitness as a franchise. And after just four months of owning it we were in the top 10 percent and the headquarters called me with a hundred potential franchisee buyers on the phone and I said Annie what did you do to take this business. And after I signed the contract the guy said to me just say you know I've been bleeding for months and now I'm hemorrhaging. Good luck to you. So he was he was down below 75 memberships. You need about 200 to break even and that can be you know a thousand clients because a membership can be one to six people. And he said good luck to you and really I knew he didn't mean it. And they had been trained up that they could run these absentee owner. But we know Tom that no business at least I've got a lot to learn from you. But no business fully runs in automation mode. You have run some care some concern and a gym in particular you need someone to keep it clean you need the equipment working you need people to return calls and to sell memberships and so people ask me what did you do and I said you know I worked really hard. I knocked on every door. Joining the chamber I joined the Rotary. I created a book club for some of our members. I hired incredible trainers.

[00:16:56] Hey hold on a second. I'm hearing some some kind of noise in the background. What is it. That is my dumb dog scratching in the corner.

[00:17:04] Oh. People love those silly dogs right.

[00:17:08] Yeah. I got 30 dogs there right this move. Thirty thirty. Yeah. Gosh. Yeah. I think we'll leave it there. Now I know it's a dog. What does that noise.

[00:17:21] He wants me to lift him up and say Mom Mom it's all right.

[00:17:27] We're going to leave it.

[00:17:30] So anyway so you turned this joint around.

[00:17:32] I did.

[00:17:33] And then how long did that take four months.

[00:17:37] Only four months. And that's what they said. What did you do. And I said I work hard and I do believe in working smart. But I also believe in working hard and just created an incredible community of members. And my trainer was awesome and just was an incredible adventure challenged.

[00:17:55] How many members did you build it up to.

[00:17:58] Well when we hit that point we were over 450 memberships but that's probably about two thousand members. And this was in a nineteen hundred square foot facility so these franchises when they first came out Snap Fitness were designed to be two thousand square feet or less. So that is a small facility for a gym. Our second one was 3400 square feet so.

[00:18:19] So you said in the intro it said that you built the next one. So what does that mean exactly.

[00:18:25] So that when the first one that we bought it existed. So I bought it from a previous owner. The next one you buy the franchise agreement and then I had 18 months to find a facility. And so this one is right outside of St. Paul five minutes out of downtown St. Paul. So I looked at different buildings and when you are starting a business for those of you out there looking at it you can find better rent more affordable rent an older building but often we had one place we looked at it would have cost tens of fifty thousand maybe to get it up to code with all the electrical plumbing and restructure that we would have had to do. And then there was another building down the street which was brand new beautiful. But the rent was two to three times as much. And so you have to think about do you want to invest on the front end. So we ended up going with the more expensive building and I from that was just a bare open space. We built it up into a beautiful facility 3400 square feet gym at one point we had four different personal trainers working there and a great part time staff. But just a beautiful facility and it backed up to a gated community.

[00:19:37] So did you just pay for all this or did you get loans. How did you finance the getting the place ready and the equipment and all that stuff. How's that work.

[00:19:47] Yep. Some of the majority of the money we were able to work from our first gym because we were doing really nice cash flow on that and able to reinvest it in the second. And we knew a year ago we wanted to because initially we had bought that area but the other one came up for sale. So part of it was that part of it we did against our home equity loan. So we were able to use the money on that which was nice rather than applying for a small business loan which wasn't as easy to get. Had a little bit higher interest rate so we have a nice credit line against our home which is paid for. So whenever we're starting a business or investing in a business we can borrow against that to use it to help support growth in the business.

[00:20:30] Now would you suggest that everybody is a financial person that seems like that has a tremendous amount of risk.

[00:20:36] I honestly would not. I probably said we probably wouldn't even go there with these questions because I think that money. I mean I tell people to be debt free and be conservative with your spending. You know pay off your home. I'm really cautious at telling people anything about finances I'll say. Talk to your financial advisor because I am not a retail financial adviser. That is not what I did at all. So no I probably wouldn't give anybody any financial advice. The best financial advice I'd give is I was looking through your questions is. Have plenty of savings. Don't assume because you have an incredible product or service that other people are going to see how incredible it is. You have a lot of money. Months of it and I think also dip your toe. So no I wouldn't necessarily suggest we do it. It's worked out very well for us because we were able to buy and build and sell and sell. But it's not what I would suggest for every person.

[00:21:35] You know the stuff of all the stuff that I teach is doesn't have like one thousandth of the risk of what you would just described. Of course it's all digital stuff now. And even if you're you know in the books you made you know there's very low risk in doing that. You put a lot of time like 20 years in one book. But yeah for the digital age you can you can really start stuff with almost zero risk. I mean most people have all this stuff on their computer already to do the work if they just have to come up with ideas both worked for you and how'd you sell the second.

[00:22:11] Well the second one we decided as our kids had grown we decided OK we're ready to travel more so we want to sell the second one and before we went with a broker. My husband I sat down and we had four people in mind that we would consider selling it to directly and we and also not everybody's financial in a place where they can operate by. Sometimes they do it in payment plans whatever but we had two personal trainers. We had a chiropractor and we had a guy that does some sort of skinny weight loss program through freezing them all had expressed interest. The first person was our head trainer who was really interested and who really had great relationships with that client. And right away he said You know I love the training but I don't love the business side. I don't want to buy. And then the next two doctors both said no. And the fourth person we asked was a personal trainer that worked in another gym in our neighborhood and we had known him for years and become friends and him and his girlfriend said absolutely we want it. So for us we're again really blessed that we knew someone directly that wanted to buy it that it wanted to own their own gym. They'd been training at other gyms and they wanted a space that would just be there. She's a cook and he's a personal trainer and now he has seven personal trainers that work there so we're really it worked out really nice. It took us about six months from the idea of wanting to sell till the closing of the sale.

[00:23:37] But that first when you said the franchise had people begging to buy your first one right. Do they always have people ready to buy.

[00:23:47] Oh I'm sorry. They weren't begging to buy our franchise. They were big. They were they had contacts. So this is headquarters of Snap Fitness had contacted me and said Will you teach 100 potential buyers. So I got on a call with 100 buyers across the United States and I step by step. What did you do to take one that was hemorrhaging as the guy described and take it to success. They weren't begging to buy ours. No. In fact ours up in that case sold to somebody that lived in that community and was a member and knew everyone and really wanted to own a business and his wife owned a business and he wanted something for himself and so he bought ours in that time and we have great relationships with both of our owners. So.

[00:24:32] So what do you like best about working for yourself and what's the worst part.

[00:24:38] I love that. I love that I have freedom and I heard a speaker the other day and NSA speaker and he said everybody has a negative characteristic. And he put all these negative characteristics up and then you had to pick one. And the first one came in my head was messy but then you chose yours. He said there's a positive to it and the positive to messy people is they're super creative. So when I talk about freedom I love I am a very creative person I get up with five new ideas of new businesses new places new people that I need to connect with every day and so that freedom to be who I am the freedom to not have somebody tell me what I have to do that flexibility it just I love that I love being able to get up and plan my own day. I love that there's no limits to how how far my reach can be and how big I can grow. I love working for myself because I think I crack myself up all day. And that's why I love being able to work inside or outside. I love that I can travel and still work. There's so many things about owning my own business and the extension of my impact that I can make that I know would be restricted if I worked for somebody else.

[00:25:58] Yeah I know that messy thing. I saw an article one time and I just latched on to it because it claimed that. You have a really stark desk that's all perfectly lined up that everything's on is perfect. Yeah. It's actually harder it makes your eyes more tired because of those sharp angles. And so I thought perfect excuse for me. I work day and night. I never get tired. And that's that's the reason I'm messy. Yeah. What's the worst part.

[00:26:35] There's two I thought about that and I thought the first one is that lack of Schedule I love also can be a detriment because there isn't someone here telling me what I have to do and giving me a deadline and having to get it done. I am highly motivated and self driven but there's days that I think you know what. I'd rather go to the movies or I'd rather play outside or whatever so that lack of schedule can be a detriment. And the other hard part of working for myself more than anything is that it's inconsistent pay. You can have one month where you are rocking and rolling and doing great and you can up the next month and there can be nothing. And that is a really challenging thing to budget especially when you are helping kids pay for college and you're independently buying your health insurance. Those places don't care if you made money or not. The bills still do right whatever the bill is so. Inconsistent pay is a challenging part of working for yourself.

[00:27:29] So what kind of things do you look for. Business was like Who. Who hires you to speak. What kind of things. Where can people go buy your books and all that stuff.

[00:27:39] I feel like I'm pretty blessed that I get hired about my day. I'm hoping to speak 100 times this year. I just put my 52nd one for the year and I speak to a lot of different audiences and more than anything because I'm talking on people skills. So from sales teams from financial industry to health care to nursing too I'm going leaving tomorrow to speak to a company that works with cars and credit. So I have a variety of audiences but people find me mostly word of mouth. I mean I spoke out last week in Vegas and I walked away probably with 50 speaking leads from all across the U.S. and Jamaica. So I'm really excited about that. Where can people find me. Well my Website if they google Annie Meehan they will most likely find me somewhere. I have almost 200 videos on YouTube. If they google me they can find me on YouTube. My website is the same as my name. My email is the same as my name. Amazon has three of my books on it. Out of the five and so I'm out there a lot. I have an online course a few people have bought that it's a small number still but that's a great way if people can't afford me or have a time or money restriction they can download my online course and watch it over and over again. It will take them through steps and stories of how to use these tools to apply to their own life and their business and how to grow it to the next level I mean I'm always growing I'm always setting the next level goal. What else can I do. How many more lives can I impact. How can I teach people to be kind and encouraging to themselves and their staff.

[00:29:24] Yeah and we'll have the links we'll dig all the links up to that stuff and have them in the show notes so people could just click but they can Google it. Your name's fairly easy to spell. So Annie we're going to take a brief sponsor break when we come back we're gonna ask you what a typical day looks like for you maybe one on the road and one at home and then how you stay motivated.

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[00:30:51] All right let's get back to the main event Annie. So what's a typical day look like for you. Let's let's say if you're on the road speaking and then let's say if you're in the home working. So which gives us both.

[00:31:03] All right. So one or two days a week usually I'm in my home office and I get up about five thirty and I try to go do some form of exercise. So sometimes that means taking the dogs for a walk. Sometimes that means I belong to three gyms I still belong to a snap fitness the one I previously owned and then I also belong to a yoga studio and I also belong to Orange theory. That doesn't mean I go but I got memberships so I try to get up and exercise and then I come home and I always have a to do list. I try to write it to do list before I go to bed at night so I get up in the morning and I know what's on my schedule. You know am I running to the post office mailing books out. Am I writing for more choose letters. I do a choose letter twice a month and I try to sit down at least once a month and write down 10 of those my following up on leads from previous speaking or my doing outreach to new leads. I try to fill out at least two RFPs if I'm in home at the office. RFP Request for Proposal people that are looking for a speaker and they want to know What's your topic and what's your takeaways. What will be the outcome of the audience. And then I mean it's amazing how fast a day goes to Tom doesn't it. Yes I can start early and I can still not be done by 8:00 at night and I don't mind that because I truly love. I love my work when I'm on the road speaking one of the things that I try to offer all my clients is if I'm opening or closing a conference I will always come in the night before and I will try to stay for as much of the conference as I can. It helps me build relationships. It helps me make connections and often leads to more referrals but even more importantly than that I spend time at conferences because I want to listen to other topics I can learn from them and bring that into my presentation. But also when you go in and get to know your client and get to know the audience what happens is they feel like you're talking with them not at them. So and also some of my best researchers at the bar the night before I speak because getting honest in bars and right behind them they'll tell you stories you know. So I really try to be fully engaged and fully present for my clients as I speak. And often there is one or two people there that know me that referred me to be at that. So I'd like to go find them thank them again connect with them. I try to go above and beyond and all. I offer my clients I try to have a schedule with my social media. That is one thing I try to be consistent with I do a blog on Mondays. I do a Tuesday testimonial. I do a blog so a video blog on Mondays and then a blog written on Wednesdays I do a linkedin or Facebook Live on Thursday. Right now I'm presently working with a client customer contact we got to Vegas is coming up so every Friday I do different posts to promote their events. I get to speak at that Magic Johnson as the closing keynote for it. So I'm I'm pretty excited to be invited into that conference to speak. So Fridays I do those I always my nickname's Authentically Annie so when I'm on social media I'm always trying to represent my professional but also my personal side so that people know not just what I do but who I am and so they can align with that and feel connected to me as a human being. Because sometimes when you're on the stage people think you're you have it all together and you're perfect and some people want to represent that. But I never do I always want to represent authentically. I struggle I have challenges. I have a lot of success but it's not easy for me and not every day is perfect or easy but I'm always going to do the work to make it the best day it can be.

[00:34:44] So what what motivates the motivator.

[00:34:46] Yeah I would say Tom the thing that motivates me the most is how I grew up and I was a very sad depressed young lady from the time probably as young as I can remember till I was 20. And I think at about 20 21 and I was a young single mom I remember thinking No I'm done being sad I'm done feeling sorry for myself I am going to become. And that motivation is so huge internally in me and I know that I going to make a difference in people's lives that that gets me fired up every single day that it is not just a speech. It's not about money. It's not about power and influence. It is about truly and all of me knowing that I have the privilege to be a difference maker and to speak that into people's lives that everybody has excuses everybody has struggles. Everybody has stories but each and every one of us each day can make the choice to live extraordinary to live exceptional to be kinder than people are to us to be more generous than we've been given to truly believe that our little piece of the world our little piece of impact can make a bigger difference in the world than any politician or that any figurehead. And that's what I try to teach people. People get mad about the news or politics and I'm like What if it's about you. What if it's about you being the difference maker what if you're the one person that does it. Tom It drives me every day on my tired days on my worn out days I'd get up and I think you can do this because your words today will touch someone in a way that they've never been talked to or seen or heard. You'll have the privilege to speak encouragement into another person's life. So my work my work as my driver because it really makes me feel like I make a difference in the world.

[00:36:36] Now where was your woes as a child from a traumatic event or just from a family environment or what.

[00:36:43] Yeah pretty much all of it. So at 10 our house was flooded at 11 we lost everything in a fire at our house. At 7 my mom left my dad. I'm the middle of seven kids raised by a single mom who my dad drank himself to death as an alcoholic. My mother is mentally ill undiagnosed and untreated. And so I grew up in a garbage house. I grew up so that's why I say dumpsters like physically we grew up in a hoarder house. I didn't know anyone else lived like that. We. My mother was severely depressed. There was a lot of tears a lot of yelling a lot of violence. And financially we were so poor we literally got food out of dumpsters at seasons in our life. And by the time I was 18 I had moved eighty three times. I never had a home that really felt like home until this one that I live in today and so. So I had a lot of trauma and being the middle of seven kids I lost a brother to suicide his son then his son 22 years after that took his life. So there's a lot of sadness trauma and not all my siblings feel like I do like some are still bitter like we had an unfair life. Why are you kind. Why are you happy Why you. Nice for me. Tom every day I get a get up and go oh my gosh I'm alive. I have a beautiful family. I have a beautiful home. I'm healthy. How can I go out in the world and bring good because I know somebody has a story like mine or one piece of my story and is living in sadness. What if I can help them break go into this place of joy that I live doesn't mean life isn't hard doesn't mean they aren't sad days but ninety nine days out of 100 I'm happy. Ninety nine days out of 100 I have a perspective of gratitude and the privilege to be generous to other people and that brings me tremendous joy.

[00:38:26] Wow. Very very inspiring in fact I can hear the dog getting inspired. Come on Mom let's go let's go play.

[00:38:36] They are waiting to go to the dog park.

[00:38:41] Well thanks so much for taking the time Annie very very inspiring. I'm sure the you've touched tens of thousands of people around the world because most of us didn't have that kind of mess to start with and you somehow turned it around which was just amazing. So thanks so much for all the for everybody listening Annie's stuff will be in the show notes. Make sure you get a hold of her books. And if you need a inspirational speaker. There you go. Right there. So thanks so much Annie. All right. We'll catch the next episode.

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