Overcoming adversity
Linda Wagner-Schlesinger, the founder of Skinny Tees, overcame challenges and barriers to building a brand for women that continues to empower and inspire.
After 30+ years in the apparel industry, Michigan native Linda Schlesinger-Wagner was inspired to create a brand that filled a void in the women's apparel market. It started with a one-size-fits-most silhouette and has grown into a multi-million dollar brand featured on QVC and Macy's. Linda remains firmly rooted in her commitment to offering a product for all women - all sizes, all colors, and all ages. Linda remains firmly rooted in her commitment to offering a product for all women - all sizes, all colors, and all ages.
But business growth isn't the whole story. Linda shares the decades of life lessons along the way with Melissa and Amy. She's survived many heartaches and trials that come with a full life, from pregnancy loss to the premature death of her father and mentor. She's dealt with family addiction, divorce, and finding her voice. Her story is inspiring, and she keeps on giving. In her 70s now, she says she better live forever because she has a lot more to offer!
Schlesinger-Wagner is also a longtime advocate for women's and children's charities, actively working with many nonprofits such as The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, Super Saturday, and the Make-a-Wish Foundation. She has served as a Co-Chair for Jewish Vocational Services: Women to Work Program and has been involved in the non-profit Pictures of Hope, where she received the Salvation Army Angel Award. https://skinnytees.com/.
Learn more about The Kindling Project at our website: https://www.thekindlingproject.com/ and join our Facebook group for women looking for that extra kindling to start their next big fire! The Kindling Project - Ignite. The Kindling Project is sponsored by Memora, an experience design agency that creates memorable brand experiences. Memora is offering our listeners a FREE 30-minute brand consultation. Schedule yours now.
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Melissa: Welcome to the Kindling Project podcast. I'm Melissa Halpin and my friend, business partner, and unpaid therapist, Amy Parravano Drummond is my co-host. Today we are joined by the incomparable fabulous Linda Schlesinger Wagner. She's a designer, entrepreneur, philanthropists, and CEO of Skinny Tees longtime advocate of women and children. She's been honored for her work with many nonprofits, including the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, Make A Wish Foundation, Women to Work, Pictures of Hope and many others. She's a wife, mother, grandmother, community leader, friend to everyone she meets. And she's just the most generous spirit you'd ever wanna meet. Say hello, ladies.
Linda: Wow.
Amy: I know.
Linda: Wow. And I wanna say I need the free therapist too.
Amy: I got you.
Melissa: She's here. She's gotchya.
Linda: Thank you. That's really a great analogy and I feel like it's true because I let no dust settle under my feet ever. The older I get, the more energy I have for real, I have a lot to do still, so I better live a long time.
Amy: Yes. I love that. Is it, have you always been that way or do you just have more clarity on your purpose and your vision?
Linda: I think I've always been a worker bee. I raised my kids to be that way. I was just telling someone recently as a young girl, eight or nine years old, I remember at the holiday time, with a girlfriend, we made a Christmas wreath out of chicken wire and made those Kleenex flowers, and my poor dad had to take it over to Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn.
I'm mentoring a girl that I just meant today and this wraps it up. She said to me, it's been tough for her. Like it has for everyone. And she said I'm really gonna try and do this, and I said, Stacy, change the language. Try doesn't have anything to do it.
Amy: Yes.
Linda: It's your going to do it! Failure. Isn't an option. We're strong. You have great network of female friends and yes, we all need some men in our lives, but go after your female friends that are in business or been there or lost businesses because we all have a story, there's an education there for all of us. And I really strongly believe that. And I've always been a worker, be my whole life. And my kids are it's like almost some people think it's a curse. I don't know. I think it's a gift.
Melissa: I agree.
Amy: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Melissa: I agree. I think that's, I think that's one of the things that draws me to you. Work is really my fun and if you're my friend, and if you're my friend long enough, you're gonna, I'm gonna put you to work, cuz that's really what I do.
Linda: That's right. We all do it. We do it well. Or we mentor or we use our tools in our toolbox and we keep going and just,
Amy: Yes
Linda: and it's not always easy and every year isn't easy, but you keep going forward and you do it. And that just works for everybody.
Amy: Yeah.
Linda: Failure. Isn't an option. I just really believe that it isn't an option. .
Amy: Yeah. And you know what I find too, Linda, is that if somebody fails, then they're done. They're like, okay it's just not meant to be, I'm not gonna do it. But if anything, for some of us, that's more of a challenge. Okay it didn't work this way. Let's pivot and change the narrative. I love that you said that about the word try, because that is one of my mantras is that try to is lied to if I tell myself I'm gonna try it, that means I'm not gonna do it.
Linda: That's right.
Amy: And so we have to act as if, we have to act as if we are successful. We have to act as if we are confident. We have to act as if we do have a very successful podcast. So we have to act as if we're in the space where we want to go. So I love that you were giving those words of wisdom to that for that woman.
Linda: If you don't believe that you have the best podcast ever, who's gonna believe it? You have to be the strongest. I'm the best we're recreating it. We're giving women a chance to speak. You have to believe it. . That's, I go into meetings and I just feel that way. If I don't believe in me and think I'm the best and I do the best. How can I expect other people to feel that way about it?
Amy: Absolutely. And there's so much more to that. I wanna go back for a minute, regarding you, you describing yourself as a worker bee. So was that something, can you tell us a little bit about you growing up and where you grew up? Obviously you're a, you seem to be a Detroit native you're from this area. I know those Skinny Tees things that you had that had all of the cool locations.
Linda: Oh, the Detroit Has Legs.
Amy: Yes. And so can you tell us a little bit about. A little bit about your,
Linda: my history
Amy: please.
Linda: So I was born in Detroit. I'm the oldest of six children. I really grew up till I was 10 in Dearborn, and then my parents built a house in Livonia. Until I graduated from high school and went to college, that was my home. The year I graduated from college, my dad's business became super successful and he bought a house in Florida and was going back and forth.
Of course, the night I graduated from high school, I fell in love with the guy who I wanted to marry and I was going to Ohio State and it was a long distance relationship. After about a year and a half, maybe two years, I just came home and overheard my father, he was in the tool, manufacturing business, tell my mother that he had to unfortunately let go of her friend, his bookkeeper, who he found out had gone down and seen a buyer he had dealt with for his tool, manufacturing business. It's a big Nono.
So I begged him that night. I wanna, I don't wanna quit school. I wanna come back to Michigan. I'll go to Wayne. I was going to school for either nursing or special ed. Helping people. Hello, big story there.
He digested it with my mom, like for a couple hours, and then he said, okay, but you know nothing about bookkeeping. And I said, but dad, I can learn. And he owned a tool and die shop down on Telegraph and Taylor, a little one, and I knew nothing about bookkeeping. And he had his accountant teach me, which was for me many tears, many frustrations. Then when I got it, then it was a sickness because everything had to be, balanced to the penny. On that whole path, I was on, I got married to Jerry. I still worked for my father. The tooling industry was changing a lot in Detroit, not unlike today. He was a small tool and dye that did all automotive And in a few years there was a big tooling depression. He lost his business. He lost his house in Florida, my parents did my husband and I helped him because I saved every cent I made. I worked all the time and he started over and I was working with him and he said, I've learned a lesson, you never be dependent on one client, one customer. I got you a ticket. We're going down to Houston, Texas cold calling to Hughes tool and a couple other oil related industries. This is a lesson I, this really happened. I was 26 years old with my son, David and who was a baby who stayed home and cold called to Hughes tool howard Hughes still owned that, at that time.
Amy: Wow.
Linda: Walked in there. Yeah. Big office big reception. And my dad said, I wanna see the top buyer there is. I just flew in from Detroit. Of course, they're assuming he has an appointment, a guy's name. Never forget was Wilbur Graham. He became best friends with my dad and my parents' business went on to do all the rock bits for the oil industry, which is a tool that goes in the dirt and grinds, not only for the United States, but also for the, then it was called the People's Republic of China. He was a worker bee and he taught me a lot. And let me tell you, I saw my dad get his feet into everything. My mom was a stay at home mom.
Unfortunately at 54, my dad got pancreatic cancer and it was discovered when he was on a trip to St. Thomas by the family. I'm using the word. He would call it compound. It was a big house for all his kids and their kids and hopefully grandchildren. And he came home and to his credit and his personality, his credit, the man, he'd gave a very hefty down payment on, gave him all the money back. He did not have to do that. Because he was in St. Thomas. He did not have to do it.
He lasted about 10 months. And I was the girl who looked at life through rose colored glasses. I remember sitting on his lap and saying, dad, you're not gonna die. You're not, you can't do that. You can't do that.
He did die. I saw him cry one time in my life. It's the day he lost all his hair. He didn't know I saw him, but all he said to me and I was the oldest and he used to say to me, Linda, he used to call me little wrist, cuz I have tiny bones and I have little wrists and he said, your old man knows, you'll always take care of everyone because we take care of the world. And I want you to make sure I'm putting you in charge of everything and make sure mom always is taken care of cuz she's not a business woman.
He died. It was, it was, it was awful. But let me tell you, he told me and I did it. He died late afternoon on a Sunday. Guess where I was Monday morning before it's published in the paper, safe deposit box, said, get everything out of there and take it to the attorney. Oh. And people said, oh, I can't believe you did that. I said, that's what he taught me.
Amy: Of course.
Linda: That's what he taught me.
And I'm not Jewish. We were raised in a very free house. My mom was born a Catholic. Him Episcopalian. Back in the day when they got married, if my mom wanted to raise the kids' Catholic, they could not get married at Main Alter unless my dad signed a paper and my dad, he said to that priest, when is a man's word worthless? If you can't take my word, we will not be getting married at Main Alter and they didn't. And then when I came along and I was old enough, they said you can go to any church, any synagogue, any temple, any Jehovah Witness, we'll take you and go with any friend we're not going.
So of course, both sets of grandparents. One went to the Episcopalian church. One went to the Catholic in Latin. And then when I got older, this girlfriend was Lutheran and whatever I did it all, I didn't know anything. I just did it.
Amy: Yes.
Linda: It was a life lesson and I think, you know what, searching for something. On the night after my dad died, we had some people over to the house. He was cremated. He didn't want anything.
The landscaper turned up, my parents had a big, not huge piece of property. It was in condos, but the biggest piece of property in there on a little lake and the landscaper came up to me, he knew I was the oldest, and he said, do you know what your dad did for me? And I said, no, he did lots of things for lots of people. And what I know about, I cannot talk about, and he said, one day, your dad asked me a few years ago, what would be my dream? And I told him that my dream was having my own company. He was like the manager of the company.
And my dad said, how long, how much do you think that would take? And the guy said about 15,000, I've done all the work. And my dad went in the house, brought out a check to him for $15,000. I said to him. You will never pay this back to me. What you will do is help someone else. It doesn't mean you have to give them a check for $15,000. It means you can help 'em in business. You can walk someone across the street. There's no monetary value. That left such an impression on that, man. And when he told me, I wasn't surprised because I was in on a lot of things my parents did. Little things, much smaller than that, but obviously it made an impact on my life.
They were very giving and they were not wealthy people until this whole oil thing came. And even by standards today, I wouldn't say they were wealthy. So during the time, right before he got sick, David now was five. I was trying to have more children.
I ended up having seven pregnancies to get two live births. I had a stillborn, I had a series of very late miscarriages, like at four or five months. Oh. And it was determined they thought it was a genetic thing, which I freaked out about. And then they determined the last time I got pregnant, which I signed a lease for my kids' store I had in Birmingham, and of course you don't have another period and then they decide they're gonna stitch my cervix, which was something.
Then I have my daughter, Annie, and I couldn't get out of my lease. I had the kids' store at Somerset mall. I had my parents' business in Livonia, which they now had four tool and die shops and I was doing all the books for, so I put a lot of miles on cars and a lot of things, and I just learned great lessons. I have to say. I'm lucky that I got to see what I saw.
There's also another part of the story when I was a young girl and I'm going to say 15 and 16.
Amy: Okay.
Linda: I discovered, or maybe became more aware of my parents, that my dad wasn't home a lot at night that he, all six of us would go up to the corner to meet him for dinner, and my mom was that mother who made dinner every night. A lot of nights, he didn't show up .
Then one day my mom said to my brother and I was just turned 16 at the time. I want you to stay home from school. The police are coming after the kids are at school. I'm having dad committed to an alcoholic hospital. Gosh, I think it was in Allen park.
I can't do this anymore. You two are old enough that you're gonna have to pick where you're gonna live. And of course, my thing is, I'm with dad, not 'til I was older, and a mom, myself, did I realize how did my mom ever do all this?
I remember the police coming. I remember my dad sleeping upstairs. They went up, woke him up. He went softly into the night with them. And the next day my mom said to my brother and I, he was in this, Lynn hospital it was called, and said, dad wants to see you two. I remember we went in, it was very secure where he was and he said, your dad's done drinking. It's never happening again. I'm sorry. It took mom to be so strong to do this, but our life will change and our life really did change. He became, that's when he became really involved in building the business.
That sticks with me because I remember my mom had a surprise 16th birthday, down our basement with some friends. I already knew my dad had a drinking problem but he was never, he was always the happy drunk. Never the mean drunk.
Amy: Yes.
Linda: I was staying over and at my girlfriend's and her mom said, oh, Linda, your mom needs you. We have to go back to your house. My heart was beating and I'm thinking, do I tell him my dad is a drunk? Do I tell them that? I'm afraid something happened to him and she's taking me back and I didn't say a word. And then my dad was there drunk, of course, with the happy drunk. And it was a surprise you're 16, but it all left marks on me. I'm sure that's why I don't drink. I just, but I have four brothers and a sister who, four, my brothers all had a drug or alcohol problem and my sister never had any problem, but it leaves scars, or I wanna say lessons, their lessons because, boy when I became a mom kind of telling out a story, but boy, I looked at my mom and I go, how did you do that?
How did you put up with that for a couple years? She said I didn't, I finally did something about it.
Amy: Yeah.
Linda: But geez. That was in the sixties. You didn't even talk about that.
Amy: No, and there's still people that don't talk about it.
Linda: Don't talk about it. So I talk about everything. I do. I have a son who was a drug addict and it was awful. I was the one who discovered it. No one believed me. He lived in California. My daughter didn't even believe me. And I called a bunch of his friends nor did they believe it. So I finally called his boss where he quit a big job. And the boss said, yeah. Oh yeah. think he is a big problem.
Amy: Yeah.
Linda: That was on the track to, okay. What do we do with this? Cause this is a new reality and you do whatever you can. It was unfortunately, right at the time I was getting a divorce. So it all brought me to my knees.
Amy: I bet. Yeah. I bet. Yeah. Cause it's one thing. It's one thing for you to be having this divorce, this going on.
Linda: Yeah.
Amy: But it's another to deal with your son. So real. I wanna ask you, did your dad die sober?
Linda: Yes.
Amy: And did he-
Linda: When it was discovered and my dad came home from St. Thomas and he went to the hospital and they did a scan. He had pancreatic cancer. Came home because they couldn't do anything. I remember my mom calling me, we lived like a half a mile from them and she said, oh my God, Linda, I think dad went to the bar. I said, what bar? I'm going to join him? And she told me what bar. I said, mom. I'm going to tie one on with him.
Amy: Yeah
Linda: I went, I didn't find him. And he, I think he was really just driving around, just like hitting me, 54 and this is happening? Are you kidding me? He was a good man and bad things happen to good people. And it was a life lesson. And listen, my mom, that was hard for her. She was a mom of the forties and fifties. She wasn't a business woman and she got stuck with this tool shop. And I kept at it for a few years till I discovered some stuff going on. And I went to her accountant and her attorney and told them what I thought. And they did some research and it was absolutely true. And my mom being the woman of the forties and fifties, didn't know how to react to it and wouldn't react to it. And it hurt, hurt her financially in the long run. I said, mom, I'll always be on your team, but I can't stay and watch this. And I had my kids store and I was now a manufacturer of baby sweaters.
It was hard. When I look back at life, I regret not staying with her. I regret it. I should have, I didn't have a voice then. I sure would've now I would've beat him up, but I didn't have a voice then. I was intimidated by some people and I shouldn't have been.
Amy: We don't wanna should on ourselves .
Linda: No you're right.
Amy: You were also a product of your mom, of the forties and the fifties and the sixties and at that time, your role within the family business was very specific and,
Linda: sure,
Amy: after dad passed, then you take on this other role and you're learning these things. It's easy to still be in that mindset of, what was your dad's first name?
Linda: Jim.
Amy: Jim, you were Jim's daughter.
Linda: Yeah.
Amy: You did all of this, you kept all the business affairs in order, but it's easy to stay in that specific role.
Linda: Yes it's and, I tell people, I went to Wayne for a very short period of time, and then I got asked to do some one on one classes down at wine and design, just one offs. I said what am I doing? What am I taking English? And what am I doing? This is not what I wanna do it. I never. I never graduated from school. And you know what? I tell people, I have a doctorate in two things. One is a business doctorate from my family's business. And the second I have a doctorate, in how to lose money because I sure did that over the years.
I'll never do that again, but I knew how to do that. I had a big lesson in that over the years, you stay in it long enough, you see a lot.
Amy: I've been in social work for at least 30 years. And I always say, I've learned what doesn't work before I've learned what does work. And that's where the lessons are. That's where the, I don't even like to look at them as mistakes. I like to look at them as lessons and as long as they're not repeated, right, then that's a win. That's a win.
What an incredible insight that your dad had to go to Texas? Getting involved in the oil business, that was pretty progressive on his part.
Linda: You know what we do, stuff like that. I do stuff like that, don't tell me no, I'm gonna make it happen.
I had an opportunity to meet someone. It was an opportunity and I didn't even know it was a lead into QVC. I did not know that. I went to a meeting in LA that my son had planned. All he said was bring some Skinny Tees. When I flew into LA, of course, I'm a scatter-brain, I pack two minutes before I leave. I get to the airport. Back then a half hour before the flight left, of course I didn't bring the Skinny Tees but I had some that I was wearing. Nine o'clock the next morning, I'm going to a QVC headquarters in LA.
I see this, sign that on a door in Santa Monica. I go, what have you done? I, because I was nervous and it's hard to sell you. It was hard for me to sell my own stuff. And I had a meeting and they took me into this board room with 20 chairs and I'm going, I am so out of my realm of being comfortable and what am I doing here?
Then this man walked in, he said, Linda, you don't know me. I wanna introduce myself. And I just want you to know that your son David has turned me onto incredible business opportunities, which David had. He said, I made millions of dollars off of some of those. He was a very wealthy man, young, and he said, so I want to do something good for you guys.
He gave me a whole spiel and he said, I want to make an introduction to you of a woman named Linda, who's your age, who reps different lines to go into QVC and I'm going, oh, no, I've heard of horror stories. Oh no. He said, let me just tell you what I think. And he told me, and he said, so just stand up a minute and just tell me a little bit about what you do and how you started doing it.
I gave him my little spiel and I sat down and he said, wow, oh, they're gonna want you, and guess what? They're gonna want you to go on air. And I said, guess what? I don't go on air. I don't do that. That's not my comfort zone. He said, oh, Linda, you're an older, attractive woman. They're gonna want you.
Phone conversation with this woman, sent her samples, met her for breakfast outside of Philadelphia one day, she really is just asking me about my line. We have an appointment, you get, I forgot, maybe it was 30 or 45 minutes. Sell your line. I have eight styles, then, eight. And I don't know, maybe six colors. I put it up on the board, and about eight, six or eight young girls, if they were 30, they were old, and they look in their little notebook and their computer and this and that. They said, tell me about your line. I had to do it.
What I did, which looking back was great. I wore, besides showing the eight pieces, I layered all the eight pieces. So even the little tube skirt, I twisted it on my head. I used it for a belt. It was great. So by the time I was done with them, they were going, oh my God, this is incredible. What a great travel thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I give them the line list and they said to me, they're all they're doing when you're talking is doing numbers.
Cuz they're looking at prices, they're just doing numbers. And they said, we love it. You have to bring in, for a set of two camisoles, it was just camisoles, they bought the first time. You have to bring them in. It was some ridiculous thing. I can't even remember what, maybe $14 or something. And I was importing from China and I said, no, I wasn't, excuse me, I just had an LA rep. I didn't know any importers yet. And this is what I said, I can't make it in the United States for that. They said we don't care where it's made.
The girl with the mouth, the blonde, who knows no boundaries said, give me an order within a week, give me 90 days to deliver and you've got yourself, a new vendor. And they did it.
Amy: Wow.
Linda: Well, within 24 hours, I had a factory in China and guess what? They still do my work now. I love him. I've been there. He does great work for me. I wouldn't suggest people do that.
People use me for a networker, to meet people or to find things out. At one time, Ralph Lauren used to call me, they do all these antiques in their windows and I always would see them in Brimfield Massachusetts. Where can we get this? Lots of people did. I just always have had that gift of being able to find or locate things and don't tell me I can't. Don't ever say can't, no, we do. We do. We make it happen always.
I feel like because of that attitude, it's all come to me.
I was with the girl today and she said, I pray every night to whatever I believe in. And I say please let it happen. And all I wanna do is this. Please help me. And I said, Stacy, change the language. You can pray to whoever you want. It can be nature. It can be an orange on a tree, but you have to start thinking, I'm gonna do this. My thing was, I'm doing ,this. I have to do this for me. I have to do this for women. And when I do it, I will always give back to women and children. That was my thing I said at night, it wasn't please, God help me.
Why do people ask God or a higher being, always when they need something, you better be present when you just want someone to know in the universe, that you're gonna give back that you better give back.
You better honor a commitment and help. Look at the world today. We forgot to be kind along the way. And that's my thing. And that's what I told her today. And she's a very Christian girl and she said, oh my gosh, I never thought of it that way. I'm changing the language when I pray at night.
Melissa: Yeah. Change the language.
Amy: But you were taught though. To have a servant heart. It, I don't know if it's innate, but you grew up around service work and you have a servant heart.
Linda: Yeah.
Amy: One thing that I learned about my relationship with God, it used to be very one way, God, I need this and that.
Linda: Yeah.
Amy: Delivered by yesterday. But I've learned that it's about what do you need from me today? What do you need from me?
I think the energy that brought Melissa and I together with regards to our Kindling Project is,
Linda: yeah
Amy: We've been so blessed in terms of successful careers and evolving professionally and personally all this kind of jazz, but we wanna share, we wanna learn from others, as well. And it's women, because there is this gap, there's this gap of women that are just not being heard.
Melissa: Absolutely.
That's really, when I think about like Linda and I met through the Goldman Sachs program, which is a wonderful program and I recommend it, but not everybody has access to a program like that. And really it's for people who are further along in their Kindling Project or their passion project or their business, but there's a lot of women who, they just still have maybe an inkling or an itch of something they can do. And maybe they only have five minutes or maybe they just have, a couple minutes on Facebook or maybe they don't even have a friend or a dollar.
I feel like, I have a successful design agency. Amy is, an incredible therapist she's working on her PhD in her free time.
We have careers.
Amy: Yeah.
Melissa: We still wanna create a space, for women to, co-create and, find that little bit of extra kindling or that little, bit of fuel. There's so much potential and energy and that's really what we're here for. I feel people like yourself are super duper inspiring.
Like Amy said, it's important to hear the nitty gritty stuff because Skinny Tees, obviously super it's super inspiring. We could talk all day about the business aspect. We can talk about the revenue, we can talk about the product line. I love that stuff, but there's some down and out moments and people need to know, you gotta do the work
Amy: Yes
You gotta get yourself back up. There were hard moments for you, for your family.
Linda: Oh, horrible. Horribly hard.
Melissa: For all of us
Linda: For all of us.
Melissa: You have to listen to that intuition. And when you find yourself at QVC and all you have is the shirt on your back, just stand there and tell your story.
Linda: And make it work.
Melissa: And you have to make it work. Like your dad, that's just such a courageous story to get on a plane and go, and, pitch yourself.
Linda: And taking your 26 year old daughter, who I did know, I knew about a G grinder and a surface. I knew about all that because I was in it. I still know about it, but yeah, it was pretty courageous. But what a great lesson for me, it was a great lesson. And you're right. There are many women who have an idea and I'm sure they call you. They call me, I meet with them. I don't wanna hear from anybody. All the reasons you're not doing this.
Amy: Yes
Linda: I never say, okay, now let's put down all the reasons you're going to do this. I started Skinny Tees with a loan of a thousand dollars, with a loan of a thousand dollars. For real, that, that's what I started this with. All I did was turn the revenue, sold it, bought more. Sold it, bought more. Because I still worked five little jobs. One of them being three hours a week, one doing a huge multi-country holocausts project. A stylist. I did all kinds of things. I worked on Dan Gilbert's daughter's bat mitzvah. I worked for party planners. You do whatever you have to do.
Amy: Yes.
Linda: It worked for me and people know that because I do share that.
My standard joke is I have a girlfriend who owned a very well known woman's store with her husband and when I told them I was gonna do this with Skinny Tees, she'd say, oh, Linda. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work.
You're never gonna sell enough to support yourself. You're never gonna do that. I said, Wendy, I believe in myself. That's the difference with us. You're always, the glass is half empty. My glass is full girlfriend. When I said that to her, she said, but I do think you'll always meet a great man. So I'll say to her once in a while, Wendy, how's that Skinny Tees? And she goes, I know! I screwed it up, but I did tell you'd meet a great man and you did.
Amy: That's funny. So Linda, would you say that the adversity, the challenges, and by the way I am a Dearborn girl, I grew up in Dearborn, and did you go to snow by chance? Cuz you mentioned,
Linda: Oh my God. Yes!
Amy: I went to Deval, but you must have lived over by Scout and Snow cause you mentioned Oakwood.
Linda: Yeah. I lived on Culver. My grandparents lived on Hollywood. Oh my gosh. I love you.
Amy: I know. I, Ugh. That, and I think when you grow up with really deep roots like that, and then you start to experience life on life's terms and you start to deal with adversity. It's either gonna really make or break a person because there are people that do look at things that the glass is gonna be half empty.
Linda: Right.
Amy: Or, you know what, I'm gonna rise above. I'm gonna evolve and I'm gonna just dust myself off. And that's what it sounds like, you had that drive, but you also had people believing in you. This is one thing I tell my clients, you can have the most flawless or wonderful family people around you, but if you don't have that belief in yourself, forget it.
Linda: Yeah.
Amy: You might as well just stay home and watch Netflix because
Linda: that's right.
Amy: None of it matters.
Linda: You better have that fire girlfriend, you better.
We all need that fire. And we can all do it. There is so much available, Melissa. You know, that in this city, there is so much available for business women and grants and this money and that money and no one knows about it.
And Goldman Sachs, you can do it anywhere in the United States. I turned a a daughter-in-law by marriage onto it. She's in Crestview, Colorado. She had to do it all online. And then they have you come in to the east coast to do it. The final thing. But there's the Edward Lowell foundation. Yeah. They want bigger sales.
Melissa: Oh, and there's motor city match.
Linda: Yeah.
Melissa: And there's DEGC. And there's people too. That's the other thing.
Linda: Talk to people.
Melissa: Amy and I are just people. And we started a Facebook group, I don't know, six weeks ago. Yeah. We have 1200 women in there, in six weeks.
Linda: Unbelievable.
Melissa: These are just regular people raising their hand saying, how can I help you? Helping each other and co-creating is super gratifying.
Linda: The best.
Melissa: Just being able to say, I'll edit your book, or, I know an attorney, or I know where you can get that done. It's super gratifying.
Linda: All about that.
Melissa: Actually wanna show up for each other.
Linda: They do actually,
Melissa: After getting through this pandemic, hopefully we are through this pandemic. Oh, if we're ever gonna be through it. Yeah. But I think people do wanna show up for each other.
Linda: I agree. I hope so. I hope we've all learned a lesson. I know I will. I'm always mentoring people and always helping. What I tell people is you have to now do it for someone else. I sat there with Stacy today and, I'm telling her to be positive, but then I walk away. I had a take away, you get takeaways from talking to people, we all do.
Melissa: Yeah. Yep.
Linda: It's just great stuff. And I would also tell anybody, and this takes no money, but you have great resources. Get on a committee, get on a board, help our city do things. I'm probably today on way too many boards and you know why people want me, I know why they want me on their board because I'm not gonna sit there and just want my name on the stationary. I get up and do stuff.
Amy: You care.
Linda: I'm like, I'm in it. I'm not in it to waste time. Let's move it along. Let's come on. Let's go. I think if anybody does that. The rewards you get and the people you meet, the networking is huge.
Amy: It's so true. It's so true. Okay. It's good. We're positive. We feel good. We're motivated, but what did you do, Linda? What did you do on those days? Because we know we all have them, where it's almost, I describe those days as walking around with a wet weighted blanket, everything just feels heavy and it's hard and it's maybe just a few days or maybe it's a season or whatever it is. Tell us how you've dusted yourself off. How do you get through those times?
Linda: Okay. So I've had a couple of those really horrible times in my life. One being when I got divorced, and discovered my son was an addict, and had no money to help him because I am the silly woman who was married for a lot of years and didn't take half the money, because I believed I would always land on my feet. Not knowing that the whole mortgage crisis would come.
It brought me to my knees one night when someone was very cruel to me. And what did I do instead of asking for help, I took a bunch of pills, and I ended up in the hospital. My daughter in California, I wanna say she saved my life because I wasn't answering the phone all day. I was like, thinking this through. I don't wanna live in a world that is this cruel. This is not for me, nothing to do with my son, nothing to do with my daughter, and my daughter who lived in California at that time. It's sad to think that I put her through this, but she was nervous and listen, it's that instinct we have as women.
It's that instinct. And what did she do? She called Verizon in the evening and had them ping my phone, which by the way was off.
The next thing I know, I am a lucky woman who ended up in ICU and survived that.
Amy: wow
Linda: I'll never forget that my first thing I heard, and I understand I was on a ventilator, and I was out for a while, is the nurse whispering in my ear, she knew why I did that. People knew. My friends were there in the middle of the night unbeknown to me, and she said, I also did this, because of someone we may never ever let someone have that kind of control over our lives. This is an emergency room nurse or ICU nurse. She said, you have to find your voice. I could cry, and ask for help. And you know what? I did find my voice. My daughter flew in, crawled into bed with me, in ICU, crawls into bed, sobbing her eyes out.
I go, I'm done. I am. I need to find someone to help me some, not a therapist. Someone, an organization, someone to help me learn how to have healthy relationships with men, because my ex-husband and I did not have a healthy relationship and I felt less than.
I went to a place in Tucson that my friend went, my friend went as a young girl to a riding camp and it was now a rehab facility. And I remember going on a Friday. My daughter escorting me and my daughter being that tough bitch woman I trained her to be said, I don't see the walking trails, my mom's an avid Walker, where are the walking trails? And they said the parking lot, it's the parking lot. And she said, oh no, this doesn't feel right, but they wouldn't let her stay.
I went and I did the intake and they have you stay at the nurse's station cuz a lot of these people have gone through a detox, they need to be watched. So you had to sleep there. So what did I do all weekend? I went to all the AA meetings. I listened to them, which was actually a great experience for me. And Monday morning, I'm in my first group therapy and a nurse comes or someone in authority and said, you have to come with me right now.
Your daughter is on the phone in the main nurses station. And she refuses to get off and says, she's sending the police if we don't get you on the phone because they have a rule, no phone calls, no computers, no, this, no . I get on the phone and they're all standing there listening. And she said, and this is what my daughter said, who was at the time? I don't know. It was 16 years ago. I think she said, mom, there have been times in my life, where you have said to me, and as a mother, we've all done this. I know you don't understand, but just trust me, you're going to get it. And you're going to thank me for this. She threw that at me. And she said, a car is on its way. You're not in the right place. This is not the place. They're not gonna help you on relationship behaviors but I found a place and I want you to go there mom. And guess who owns it? Fred Siegel? I knew Fred Siegel from LA. I was in the garment industry and he owns the property and foundations rented it out.
I said, Annie, the truth is when you want help, I can be in a garbage dump and I'll get help. No, the car's on its way. I'll meet you at lax. You're staying at my friend Barbara's house for four days till they have a bed ready. She said you have to trust me. And I did.
And it was hands down, the best four weeks of my life. And I was there with, it was 20 clients, and I can use the names of who were there. It was Natasha Leone was there and because she talks about it, I can talk about it. John Peters was there. She had a drug problem. He had a workaholic problem. They all became my friends and I found my voice there. I found my voice, because of Natasha, because she would come into our morning group therapies at nine o'clock with the boobs hanging out, and this, and the bangle bracelets, and this, and after four days, I said, Hold it. Natasha. I borrowed every cent to come here and it's big money. I'll be paying this off for years. You have a limo still come and take you to casting calls. And so on this isn't feeling good to me. I want every moment of my time that I have coming and the therapist who's running, it goes, whoa, we've never had anybody do this. It was, had just been there two years and she said, how does everybody else, there were maybe nine or 10 women cuz there's only 20 clients. And they all said we agree with her. She comes in and she's this and this. And then we made a deal. We all voted on it. How many minutes are you allowed to be late? And if you're past those three minutes, sorry, you're not coming to group therapy.
Natasha. My last day, everyone there wrote me a beautiful letter. , I will cherish forever. I will cherish forever because she said to me, if I had a mom like you, my life would've been so different. And when she wrote that and then I went back to see her and say goodbye. I said, you know what? My son had a mom like me and he had a drug problem. So it doesn't matter really it's bad decisions we make.
The place has now burned in the fires, four years ago.
I was very involved in the alumni association, and what they started doing, the year after I was there, they invited me out, and paid for it, and they said, what we want you to do, we're having a bunch of social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists come to look at our program and we'd like on the bus or at breakfast or at the lunches we have.
I had .Dinner every Friday night with Morgan Fairchild because he went through that program and anybody can come back or anybody in AA, it was mind blowing.
Amy: Wow.
Linda: All they wanted from me is talk about the program cuz they knew I was about it.
Amy: Yes.
Linda: At the main dinner, they had over the long weekend, Catherine was her name and she ran the program and she said, this is the first year we're doing this, but we're going to make it, every year thing. We are awarding a client who went through the program. She came across and it was me and they gave me a Tiffany beautiful pen and pencil set. It changed my life. My takeaway was let all of us come for a week. Let all of us, let everybody come for a week and just do what we do.
When I got dropped off on a Friday and my daughter left me. There's angels all around, which I'm all about angels. And it's in a canyon in Malibu, and they have a house that the Dalai Lama built there. So I'm all about this.
I had lunch with everybody and everybody thinks I'm working there. That was the thing, even Morgan Fairchild, about the time they got a hot blonde!
I go, boundary! I'm not a worker, I'm a client, but you only give your first name and whatever. So two really cool things happen.
The first time was my biggest lesson in life, which I think many people and women can learn from, after lunch, they blindfold all of us women. It was hot. I remember so hot. They had us put our hands on the shoulders of the woman in front of us, and it was two male therapists, and they said, we're taking you on a little Trek in the valley here. And you'll never be put in danger. If you need or want anything, raise your hand and we'll come over, and softly whisper what you need. We're gonna do a little exercise. Okay. We're all going. And it's maybe a five minute walk.
And they said, okay, now we're taking your hands. Each one of you at time and we're putting it on, it was a giant rope. It was thick and they said, never take your hands off the rope. If you come to a tree, leave one hand on the rope and reach around for the others. And what you're looking for is the exit. He said and if you need to want anything, lift your hand and just don't say it out loud, or if you think you found the exit , don't say it out loud. So no one around, you knows.
I'm telling you 15 seconds, someone said they said, cuz you weren't allowed to talk. Oh, the first person found the exit after five minutes. There's two of us left two of us and I'm going, what the hell? I work hard. I'm sweating. I'm smart. Why haven't I found the exit? He said, we're giving you like two or three more minutes and then we're gonna ask you to take your blindfolds off.
At the aha moment. Oh, I think his name was Jonathan said, okay, take your blindfolds off. I go wait, I get it. I'm in the forest. It's dark. I can't see jack shit! Where the hell? Ask for help. That's why I'm here. I never asked for help.
Amy: Oh my gosh.
Linda: I thought I had, I let everybody think I had the perfect life and I didn't have the perfect life.
Amy: Wow.
Linda: I was afraid to ask anybody for help. And that's what happened to me. And that is a lesson. I don't tell everybody, but I tell a lot of people that need to hear it. Ask for help. All of us so easy to do, but we don't.
Amy: The hardest thing to do.
Melissa: The hardest thing.
Amy: Wow.
Linda: So the last day I was there,
Amy: it's powerful,
Linda: I asked my therapist who I'm still friends with, my social worker, and I said, cause no phones, no computers. You, nothing, you, all you do is work on yourself and work with your team. I said, could I have permission please, to use, they have one computer in there for the us, and you have to ask for permission, and she said, why do you want it? I have a letter to write to every single staff member that I've come across. And she goes, really? I go, yeah. And I'll do it at lunch because I know I'm in my exercises. And honestly, they made a program for me at the canyon about having healthy relationships with people and asking for help.
Amy: Love that!
Linda: It was the best.
Melissa: They probably need to have that program for a lot of people.
Linda: Everywhere.
Melissa: Everybody.
Linda: Everyone could go there. What I learned there. So I did all these letters.
Melissa: Amy's gonna send me there now.
Amy: We need one here. We need one here in Michigan.
Melissa: Maybe we need to start that program here.
Linda: Okay. I'm ready. I'm ready. And we can get Katherine, we could get her to help us,
Melissa: I think I could probably be the first client, Amy.
Linda: Me too. I could have a review. I could have a review.
Amy: A 2.0 version.
Linda: Yeah.
So I wrote everyone a letter and my second to last day, I was there, they have a staff meeting, like every, I think Friday was my last day, every Thursday at one o'clock. So I gave them to my social worker friend and I said, okay, here they are. You hand them out. I said, I don't have 'em for everyone here, but everyone who came in contact with me. She was like, blown away. She said, hold it, just sit here and wait for me, be here at one o'clock and at one o'clock she said, we want you to read 'em in the staff meeting. Everyone you wrote one won't be in here, cuz some are gonna be working exercises and stuff. I said, are you sure? I said, I'll only do it, if I am assured by all of you that I will get no staff member in trouble cuz there was one thing in one, like you're not allowed to sugar there, and she went and got us donuts one night. She said, we promise.
I read all these people, starting with the two guys who, it was a big joke, I said we know I'd still be in the forest. I'd still be there. Not asking for help. I'm so damn stubborn. But we laughed. And the girl who got the donuts, right to the people who came in and cleaned your room every, and I said, quit picking up of those rich girls, let them make their own bed. But that's how it was.
I had one, it so happens for everyone in the room of which maybe they were 15 or 20, except one man who I had seen the last couple days there and I said, I'm sorry, don't have one for you and I've never even, I haven't met you, but I've seen you around the last couple days, cuz it's a house you're staying at. There's the house for the women and another for the men. And he, oh, you don't understand, I rent, I'm the foundations. I rent this from Fred Siegel.
So, he came up to me after he said, would you have lunch with me? And it was a later lunch and I said, yes and he said, What would you change here? I like your whole thing. What would you change? So I'll tell you what, I'll change. It's so expensive here. I borrowed every cent. I'll be paying it back for years and that's fine. I don't have a problem with it, but you need to give back to the community. You have movie stars here, people with deep pockets, why don't you give a scholarship. Most of the people stay more than four weeks. They really want you to cause, you have drug or alcohol problems, sex addiction, you need..
Amy: It's a whole thing.
Linda: Yes.
Amy: For sure.
Linda: I said, and there is a young boy younger, college age and he's from Cincinnati and I know through talking to him, his parents got a second mortgage on the house. Why don't you give him a two week scholarship for his parents. And he thought about it for a minute. He said, I'll do that. But I'd like our very first scholarship to go to you. We want you to stay two weeks longer.
Amy: Gosh.
Linda: You bring so much to this journey here. You don't even know what you've brought and you know what? I looked at him and I had tears and I said, I'd love to, but guess what? You gave me the tools to go pick up my life. I have a yellow house in Huntington Woods to go fix.
But thank you. But thank you. And they then gave scholarships a few times a year of two weeks to people and they started a program so anybody can go for a reset, just to talk to like-minded people.
Amy: Yes.
Linda: I know it's because of me that they did those things and that feels good that I left them that legacy. And I walked away with a couple really great friends from there really great friends.
Amy: Yes. Yes. That's incredible. That's, it's like you survived together. You, you grab that, that piece of the boat and clung to it and you survived together and see firsthand what it's like to experience down days. What I heard from my takeaway from that is that it was the first time for you, Linda, it was all about you.
Linda: Oh yeah. Everything was about you all about me.
Amy: It's so easy in life to focus on everybody else because in a lot of ways it's a smoke screen. Let me focus on that. Let me focus on their shortcomings. Or when the kids get older, or when my husband gets clean, or whatever it is. And that's why getting real with ourselves, it's the hardest freaking thing to do.
Melissa: Can I ask, for you, how old were you when that happened?
Linda: I'm 74. So I'm gonna say I was 59 I'm 59.
Melissa: So I have time.
Linda: People will say , oh, but I could never afford that. I said, do you think this girl could? I didn't take half the money from my divorce. I didn't do that. Failure wasn't a choice for me. I had to pay back a lot of money and people say, oh, that's not available to us. There's lots available. I don't wanna hear that.
Amy: Those are excuses.
Linda: It's such an excuse.
Amy: Yes. It's easy to hide behind those too.
Linda: You can find anything. I can make four phone calls and find a free therapist for anyone or one that's darn cheap that wants to give back.
Amy: Absolutely.
Linda: You know that there's come on girls. We can do it. We can do it.
Amy: Yes, we do, do it.
Melissa: We can do it. Yeah.
Amy: Yes.
Linda: So that's why, it's not why, but it's one of the reasons that made me very driven. To make a success of this business, for myself, for other women to cover up when we bend over or reach up, not showing our skin when we're older. I found my voice, I found my voice in Malibu.
Amy: Yes.
Linda: I was afraid to go on TV or do this, or do that. Oh, bring them on, bring em on
Amy: Yes
Linda: We all have stuff to say and you know what? We all have a voice and there's, there's things available for all of us.
You guys should start a round table. They did something interesting. And I understand it's done at a lot of places where you sit in a circle, it's family day and the family comes and you sit in a circle and the client goes in the middle and they tell like their parents, or their wife, or this I'm angry with you because, or whatever. Then the family says, listen, whatever. And I didn't wanna do it. I wouldn't let my kids come. I did not. My son was going through his first bout of rehab and I wasn't taking him out of there. I felt like my daughter had enough. I didn't even tell him about it.
But they said to me, Linda, you should get in the middle and just tell, one part of your story. I did in my private therapy, my group therapy, all the girls knew, but I said no. And it lasted two days. Oh, here's the important part, I have to back up.
Who did my son's intervention? Crosby Stills Nash and Neil Young, only in LA, does that happen. Okay, wonder I was in debt. Okay. But he was the real deal and met with eight of us and told us the letter to write and this, that, and the other thing and was so brilliant. We needed him.
Okay. This last day, or this day where they have this round in the circle, I don't even know what it's called. They have a big lunch afterwards, and guess who was there? Neil Young. He saw me and he said, what the hell are you doing here? David fell off the wagon? I go, no, excuse me, I'm the client. I had a meltdown.
Amy: It is real.
Linda: Two days they did that and I, my therapist said, Linda, just do it, come on, just do it. It'd be so good for you. And I go, no I'm not, and then a woman who I really didn't have contact with, she was the sex therapist for a couple girls.
She came up to me and she said, you found your voice here. And we all know you found your voice, get in there, show em your stuff, girl. And I did. And I had John Peter sitting in circle holding my hand, Doug, who he's deceased now on the other hand. They held my hand and I was crying. I told a story of something that happened in my marriage that really brought me to my knees, and see my husband for who he really was.
I told this story and I used the F bomb in it. Then I apologized, to like an 85 year old woman who was across the circle from me, whose 60 year old Delta pilot son was in rehab there and I apologize. I said, I'm so sorry I did that, but I'm just, I'm so angry obviously. I did it, all these guys are crying and we're all hugging and it was so healing.
Afterwards we have this big lunch where I see Neil Young and then, to my utter shock, this little old, I think a little old lady, but I'm getting up there now, 85 year old, she goes, I, excuse me, I F'n hate your ex-husband. I said, oh my God, she's this like Boston lady and I'm, oh my God. I made drop the F bomb. She goes, no, if he was here, I'd beat him up for you. You can say the F word! So you never know who you're gonna meet up with.
Amy: You don't.
Melissa: Yeah.
Amy: You don't, and you know what it is, and this is something that that I say that I've learned is my superpower You are vulnerable.
Linda: Oh yeah.
Amy: You just exposed yourself and it seems as though, for so long, you were protecting and taking care and like you said, creating this facade . You truly revealed yourself and you were so vulnerable and that's what, that's what connects us today, is to be vulnerable and to say, I need help. Or no, I'm not doing that. Or listening to that instinct, to be vulnerable, takes a lot of courage and that's what you were demonstrating. And I could see how you were really resistant because look who wants to share these things?
Linda: Yeah.
Amy: It's just like being in an AA meeting. People don't wanna come in and say, I drank before I send my kids to school, or whatever it is. So, thank you for sharing that, because that really, I'm hopeful that people will hear that and they will say, if she can be vulnerable, then I can, too. There are a lot of excuses, though.
Linda: Oh yeah,
Amy: right?
Melissa: Oh, yeah.
Linda: But see, I feel like you ladies have a mission. You have a mission.
Melissa: We do.
Linda: Meet us one on one, one day, let's do this. Let's have workshops. There's a bigger thing here.
Amy: It is.
Linda: As someone who's been through this amazing program, I will tell you it's the best gift in life I ever got.
Melissa: We can feel it, anyone who hears this is gonna be able to feel it.
Linda: Do you know what I mean, though? It's a story, it's real. And we all have friends and me included. Who I call live their big fat secret life.
Amy: oh, yes.
Linda: Maybe tell me, and they'll tell another friend, they'll do nothing about it and laugh about it every day. Out of fear, I think out of fear, a lot. Fear's a horrible thing to have and I get it. I get it. It's hard to get over it, but there's a big world for us women and we are strong. We are strong. Yes. Strong.
Melissa: Yeah.
Amy: Yeah. And we have to move through that fear. That's the thing, we can let fear be our excuse and stop us. Or we can say, you know what I know for me, I replace that fear with faith. And this is something with Melissa and I, and we don't know, we just know, that this is a vision. We don't know where this is gonna land, but we believe that there's something bigger than this.
Melissa: We just keep making the space. If we just keep inviting the women in, just keep making the space. Also it's about what you don't let in. We're not gonna have gossip here. We're not gonna have lies here. We're not gonna have, there's a bunch of things we're not gonna have here and if we just keep letting in the being present and the vulnerability and the right people, I think the right things are gonna happen. They're already happening, Linda I can't believe just the speed in which the right people are showing up.
Linda: I get it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Amy: That's why we're so honored that you've stopped by and chatted with us and shared such personal stories. I can only imagine how amazing your parents, and your family, and the influence that they had on you.
Linda: Oh my gosh.
Amy: It's interesting because the things that you said that bring us to our knees, when you are in the hospital bed, in the ICU, my goodness. On a vent.
Linda: Yeah. Yeah.
Amy: And you're going to these places and, because of all of that, it's who you are today. That all got turned around. Gosh there's so much, but Melissa, is there anything else?
Melissa: We'll just have to have her back. We'll have a round table. We'll have an event.
Linda: We'll have it. I'll help.
Melissa: We'll have you back. Women need so much .
Linda: And touchy feel and,
Amy: oh yes.
Linda: You have a lot to do ladies and I feel you're going to do it.
Amy: Thank you.
Melissa: Thank you so much.
Amy: I know we're just, we're so encouraged by that. And we do have some goals for the fall to create some workshops and some spaces. We're actually looking at some property as well, because we feel like we, we just feel this drive for a location , a co-op type of place, where we can be outside too. And one of my, one of my side hustles, cause we all have side hustles, I've been a yoga instructor for years. So doing...
Linda: good for you
Amy: thank you. Doing yoga. See these are perfect for yoga, too.
Linda: I know. I know. Where do you teach?
Amy: I've been teaching at a place called White Buffalo. It's in Plymouth.
Linda: Oh, good for you.
Amy: And it's an old village Plymouth. Yeah.
Linda: Oh, I know exactly. Okay.
Amy: Yeah. It's a fun, it's a fun place. I've been teaching for about gosh, pretty about 15 years. Something like that.
Linda: Wow. So, Oh, good for you. Love yoga.
Amy: I know. Do you practice regularly?
Linda: Absolutely. And I do Pilates and I'm all about self-care girls. Everyone says, oh, you're so busy. You're so busy. Trust me. I take care of me, too.
Amy: Oh, yes. Yes.
Melissa: Amy and I wanna come hang out in the store. I haven't been to the store, like five years or something.
Amy: Oh, we have to.
Linda: Get your butt over here.
Amy: We will.
Melissa: If you want kindling project to come, and do yoga, or do a talk,
Linda: anything!
Amy: We have a lot of random talent.
Yeah. We all do though, right?
Melissa: We have a lot of random talents.
Linda: Okay. Me too. We all do. We do.
Melissa: Yeah
Amy: I know. I'm so grateful. I know. Melissa and I are very grateful, I know she's been friends with you. She has spoken so highly of you and just for you to carve out some time, we're really honored and thank you.
Linda: Oh my God. Anything you ladies need. Get me.
Amy: We feel the same about you.
Linda: Get me. We I'll be calling you. Let me tell you. Yeah, I'll be calling you.
Amy: Call on us.
Melissa: Yes, and maybe we should do some mentoring.
Linda: We should do that.
Melissa: I'm gonna do branding workshops for young entrepreneurs. Amy's gonna do some confidence, mindset workshops, like we have a bunch of stuff started to help people...
Linda: get over themselves! It's hard to get over yourself.
Melissa: Get outta your own way.
Linda: Yeah. Go girls move.
Amy: Exactly. Yeah. We're just look, you're going to either come with us or just have a seat. Cause this is where the train is going.
Linda: Get on the bench, girl, get on the bench.
Amy: Exactly.
Melissa: Yeah. We interviewed Sanya earlier today and she's like, a lot of people have a lot of complaints and they have a lot excuses, and I was like, those people are gonna take themselves out.
Linda: Yeah. They are.
Melissa: I'm not worried about them cuz they take themselves out.
Linda: Yeah.
Melissa: And the people that want it and the people that need it. Those are the people that will find it.
Amy: Yes. Yes.
Linda: I'm just going, whatever you need. I'm here.
Amy: We're gonna let you get on with your Friday.
Linda: Go on. Go girls. Thank you.
Melissa: Have a wonderful weekend.
Amy: Oh, I cant wait to give you a hug in real life.
Linda: We will.
Melissa: Say hi to your sweet husband for us.
Linda: I will. Thank you.
Amy: So good to see you.
Melissa: Okay. Bye byebye.
Linda: Love you.
Melissa: Love you.
Amy: Bye Linda.