Well, hello, ladies and gents Robert Sykes Quito Savage.com. Today I'm get special repeat guests in good friend. Robin Switzer on the podcast. She is the brains behind Quito con, queso con is just a few months away in April, so I wanted to bring it on the podcast to dive into some of the exciting things ahead. As it relates to, at the conference, we get some new vendors coming. We got some new speakers coming. We got all kinds of new things
coming. She is a extraordinary when it comes to throwing this conference. I'm super excited about it. I'll be speaking on Sunday. And it's going to be great. We're going to have a booth, there's going to be lots of boots there, so definitely want to just bring it on the podcast and do a deep dive into Kita akan. We also talked a little bit about her backstory, what got her into Quito space?
Following this lifestyle, what she's excited about going forward as it pertains to the keto Community as a whole. And we do have quite a bit into business and mindset from the perspective of a conference promoter. And I also just general business. So thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, always a pleasure chatting. Robin. I've got no doubt that you will take something from this so that for their do sit back, relax and do a conversation with Robin Switzer. And we are live Robin, how are
you? I'm great. How are you? I'm wonderfully. Well, as well. So you have been on the podcast. I think you've been on the podcast every year prior to Quito con. I think the time that strategically like that, but we get you to talk about the amazing conference that is Quito Khan, and we get some, we got some new things coming this year with, you do con like it's a new tie. Time, same location but lots of new things new festivities. Let's just, let's just start off
with a bang. We'll just dive into Quito con for a second and then we'll just go off on tangents. Okay, you want to hear what's new aikidoka on this year? Yeah, lay it on me. What's new? So there's several things that are new one is that we're going to be doing a cold plunge experience.
Nice. So we have a company coming in bringing in the tubs and the ice water and the ice and you'll be able to if you have the appropriate clothing with you, which we will hopefully be able to have enough time to warn everybody to bring to do a cold Plunge. And so I'm really, really excited about that. It's something that I've wanted to bring to the event for a while and we just had such a hard time finding a company that could afford to do it, that could bring the equipment.
Just the equipment alone in the setup is expensive. Endeavor. Have you ever done it before? And that's, I beg your pardon. Have you ever done a cool planet before I have? And it's one of my favorite packs. One of my favorite tools and even if I didn't know how great it was for me, I'd probably do it anyway. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I was going to do it Chris. And I've been doing it for probably about two months like every single day now consistently. Uh-huh. We love it. Like, it's what?
I mean, there's all this supposed health benefits, like, you know, increase Brown fat improve metabolism. You know, all that good stuff, but even if none of that was true, I would still do it. Just for like the, the mental benefit that comes with doing that first thing in the morning. It's just amazing. I agree. I really enjoy it. I've also done cryotherapy which I really enjoyed to, but I like the cold plunge better.
First of all, it's just less expensive and and also because you can do it at home as opposed to having to go somewhere and stand in a cryotherapy chamber. So yeah, I really enjoyed it. So that's one thing that is new this year. Another thing that's new this year is Saint experience.
So we have a couple of different Frank companies that are bringing saunas to the event and not that anyone's going to sit in a sauna for 10 minutes during a conference but they'll have an opportunity to, you know, test it out for a minute, see what it feels like, one of them actually has the red light therapy as part of the sauna inside of it. And so people will be able to do that as well. Cool, very cool.
And then so there's red light, there's sauna there's cold plunge and then body spec will be back again this year with do Double the amount of fans that they brought last year. So they'll be doing dexa scans, all day, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I was looking at their reservation site, they're doing like 60, 60 a day. I think each day maybe it was 75 but I sent out an email earlier this week letting everybody know.
And gosh, I saw probably 100 reservations made right off the bat so they do it for a Youkilis lead discounted price and so I really I like bringing that kind of experiential stuff to the event. I think it just adds an element of fun and it keeps people interested in other things other than you know, what's going on on the various stages and so forth. So yeah, I'm really excited about that. Yeah, no, that's awesome.
I feel like Kevin, you know, new vendors, they're having, you know, some of the same vendors in the new faces, just be able to kind of expose people to New things is great, especially like, in the packing space because people just want to see these things experienced them firsthand, like everybody hears about the benefits of sauna, but like, there's not really a mini opportunities where you can just go sit in a sauna and not pay for it just to see if he would write to pay for it, you know.
So that's pretty cool. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's interesting this Kyoko is changing and I guess it's it's kind of like a natural progression. Where we were once all about only about the ketogenic diet, which is still the underlying theme of the event, the value of utilizing ketosis to improve your health, but the I'm seeing a lot of interest from companies outside of like the keto food
product space. So if you look at our website you'll see we've got about 70 companies signed up so far this year and more than half of them are not food. Chuck's. So that part is super interesting to me to see how the evolution of the event happens. It's something I've always wanted to do and I really didn't know how to move from like one Focus to another but thankfully
it's happening on its own. So, the those there's a lot of conversation happening at the event, about the research and the evolution of the ketogenic diet. In, you know, in the consumer if you will space or just everyday people who are utilizing utilizing that protocol to improve their health, but the we've got a pretty strong carnivore influence this year too because there's just so much happening in that space and so many people are utilizing that protocol to improve their health.
They're not necessarily focusing on, am I in ketosis, but They are focusing on whole food and improving the metabolic health. And Healing a lot of problems that were related to poor metabolic health. So I'm interested to see how the community responds to that as well. And I'm just really excited about all the different topics that the new speakers are bringing to the table. It's going to be a different event this year than we've had in the past, for sure. And I feel like it's cool
though. That it's all like it's new, it's evolving but it's still very Minutes to roots. And like, if there's a balance to be played with that because like, you see some people, some brand, some companies, they try and evolve so rapidly that they just dissolve. And then you see, a lot of people, I don't know II, appreciate consistency, probably Above All Else, and you've maintained the same Aura of what Kita akan is and always has been, but you're willing to bring on new ideas.
New philosophies new Oh, Ducks new companies and I think that
is great. Well, thank you, I've been so blessed, Robert. I mean I this is exactly what I wanted to happen with the event, but there's no way I really could have forced it. It did happen, it's kind of like organic, it organically happened and, and I'm really excited about it. And I'm very grateful because the being the I love doing what I do and I love producing this event and I that I get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing that I'm helping other people especially at this point in my
life. I want to feel like I'm making a difference and when I can bring so much to the table, I feel like I'm helping other people exposing people to things, they may not know about or have learned about or have experienced anywhere else. Yeah. Yeah, and kids, Kita akan the first kilcommons 2017, right?
Yeah. Finn 17. So since 2017, there's been all kinds of ups and downs in the conference space but in specific to Quito Khan as a conference and you I'd love to just kind of like here the evolution of Quito con from Robins perspective because you know like you and I know each other, we've stayed in contact Threat all these this.
It's like, I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on it, but I feel like a lot of people don't and I feel like they hear of Quito called the hear about how great it is. They either go or they don't go and it just kind of like conference to them, but like, I'm passionate about keto calm. Because I've seen it, you know, go through all these highs and low. So could you kind of just peel the curtain back on that as both the promoter?
But then also just like like the the person behind it on you've had people behind you and helping you for sure but like just Just from your perspective, what has that Journey look like, it's been painful to tell you the truth. Well, when we first started in 2017, when I was working for Brian, when it was, it was, hey, let's put together an event where we can get all these people that are in all of these
Facebook groups that we have. And let's get everybody together and have a party, and we can have a few speakers, a few vendors. And to be a safe place for everybody that Is following a low carb /, ketogenic diet to socialize and learn and evolve and that's really what I mean in 2017 was all about. And then in 2018, it became, wow, people really like this. Let's level up our game. Let's do a better job of making this a real event for people to
come and And experience. So, in 2018, we doubled what we did in 2017. And then 2019, we doubled again, and that was kind of like, We had to get more help because I couldn't do it all by myself anymore in 2019. So that's when we brought Ryan on board to help with the exhibitor sales. So I could focus on the production and the orchestration of the event.
And then, of course, covid happened, the following year, and we were planning for 2020 to be of equal size if not greater than what we had in 2009. But in March we had to put the brakes on because it was just shortly after covid-19 being a thing and it was everywhere on the news, but we were not getting any consistent information from the city of Austin or the Palmer Event Center on how we were going to pull off doing a live event and we weren't sure.
How things were going to flow when we finally got some
direction from them. It was clear that it would be impossible to do it. So we postponed you know with the hopes that we'd be able to do it in 2021 which we all know didn't happen and then we decided that we would postpone again until 2022 and then finally the world started to turn around again and we realized we'd be able to do the event in 2022. So, I would say that the best part about 2022 was the fact that the people that did come, we're very, very excited to be there.
The vendors, the speaker's, the attendees. Everyone was just so thrilled to be back at a live event and seeing the people that they had seniors prior, seeing the speakers, Talking to the vendors just coming back together. If it made me realize that we definitely have built a community that a lot of the people who come to this event, come back every year. Mmm, so 2022, there were a lot
of disappointments. There were a lot of hardships, we had like 30 companies, about six weeks before the event contact is us. And say, you know, we've got supply chain issues, we've got staffing issues. You know what we can't. We are staff, doesn't want to take the risk of traveling whatever. So we had a lot of companies pull out.
And so I mean in retrospect, the event was not everything, I wanted it to be in 2022 but it showed me that The people who were supporting us and the people who wanted to be part of this, still wanted it and it also showed me that we survived 2020 and 2021. Yeah. And then it put me in a position where I had to decide. Okay. We did it. We survived. Now, what is next for this
event? And so we booked the dates and started planning again and like I said that the changes the evolution of this event has happened. Very organically there. I'm sure there are a lot of things that come into play. Other events that are no longer happening, new companies, with new products companies that have not been in the live event space and to Years, you know, they're ready to make a move back. The supply chain issues are no longer as significant as they were before.
So a lot of things are happening that have occurred in my favor, if you will. It just set the stage for us to be successful again. This year, was there a point at which the idea of just Stopping it all seemed really appealing to you. Oh man, there have been many times where I have been Terrified to do it again. However, it's never occurred to me to quit.
It's never what occurred to me was Transformation or adjustment to try and be, you know, flexible and how we how we move forward but honestly, it never occurred to me to quit. It's kind of like it's what I do. So if I were to just stop doing this, I really don't know what I would do. I'm not ready to retire. I certainly can't afford to retire, so no, it never occurred to me to stop because this is pretty much your main thing right now. This is It takes up all your time. Yeah.
This is pretty much my life. I mean I also have a product called ballistic keto which is a powdered MCT oil, that is flavored and unsweetened that we still sell. But that's I've I haven't done a good job of growing that business line. It is popular with the people who liked it but I have not done a good job with the marketing of it. We also have a coaching Line, the ketogenic lifestyle coaching and that program has grown and shrunk and grown and shrunk, depending on the time.
And then I also have certified ketogenic where I work with food product manufacturers, and while that hasn't been huge, I I really attribute that mainly to the fact that it's kind of the Wild West in this space, and you can put a keto label on anything. Yeah.
And there. There are few companies that there are a lot of companies that care about their products, but they're misled about ingredients and then there's a the big companies with the super Deep Pockets that all they care about is margins and they do not care about ingredients and those the ones that slap the keto label all over everything. I've had a lot of conversations with food product, manufacturers and I haven't necessarily certified them, but I've given
them guide. Was on removing these problematic ingredients that that they feel are going to improve their margins but it's certainly not going to help anybody. So I mean, I guess I'm kind of doing that out of the passion that I have for this protocol and this way of life and I don't, I'd love to be able to build that business line, but it's not something that I think will happen. I think it always be relatively small. So, in answer to your question,
yes, I mean keto. Khan is what I I do all year. I'm always on the lookout for new companies, with new products with, you know, for brands that are bringing value to the space, for speakers and for researchers who are doing interesting research and, you know, publishing it or sharing their treatment of Patients, you know, using these protocols to improve people's lives. So this is what I live. I live this. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Now I appreciate that.
I feel like there's so many businesses out there and there's a lot of different ways to build a business on different ways to make money, lot of different ways to lose money. And I like there's a lot of ways to skin the cat as the saying goes. But it's it's refreshing to talk with people that are building a business based off of Passion rather than just simply building a business to make money.
And like, I don't know, like, the people that I've met over the years that have built a business, bootstrapped it from the ground up, simply because they're passionate about making a difference in people's lives like that to me, totally regardless of the money that they bring, in the sense of fulfillment that comes with that far outweighs any financial gain that they get. Yes, I do. No, like I I don't think I'll ever, you know, be a man.
I don't know who knows where I'll be and as time that, but but I am proud to say that I can confidently, hang my hat and everything that I've been in business and feel good about the intentions behind. It, have conducted the business and just what it's been designed to do from the get-go. And I feel like you can say the same mosquito gone, I would agree. I would agree a lot of what I've done. I've always operated with.
I've had a lot of hard conversations mean you and I have had those conversations after we had to postpone Quito. Con those conversations were probably the hardest thing I've ever done. But I from that experience, I learned that I can do it and I've learned that even when the person on the other side of the line doesn't like what I have to
say. If I'm operating from a place of honesty and to try to do the right thing, the best I can that I can put, you know, I can lay my head on my pillow at night and sleep. So that's, I mean, it sounds so basic, but that's really how I operate. I'm just trying to do the right thing.
NG all the time admitting it when I've done something wrong and apologizing and having those tough conversations and I feel that what the the end result is that people trust me and that means a lot to me. Yeah, yeah I know it sounds so simple and really is very simple, it's not easy, it's the farthest thing from Easy more often than not, but this simple Act of just always Is doing the right thing and doing so with you know while maintaining your integrity and just being
brutally honest and transparent like that, a lot of people don't do that and I feel like the past few years has been a stage for people to Showcase them. Not doing that. And yeah, I don't know, like it really just makes me appreciate those who are upfront with things very forthright and very just honest and transparent with how they How they conduct business and I feel like I've never once had a conversation with you with any of your endeavors and hung up the phone
being like, yeah. I don't know about Rob, I don't know what she's doing this time. This this sounds a little sketchy. I've never had that that that emotion come over me after talking with you. Hmm well thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. So what else we get some that the time frame is different for keto con this year too.
Yeah, we'll be in Austin in April this year rather than July and August, which is going to be a really nice chain and should because the weather will be beautiful there. It's probably in the 70s the whole time we're there and in cooler at night and so I'm excited about that. We've never been able to get early dates like that. As a matter of fact, I've been working on booking days for 2024 and I'll have to I'll have to move to met in 2024 because I
can't get the April dates again. The Palmer Event Center books up so fast and they won't allow me to book anything more than 18 months in advance. So yeah. But I'm the April dates are going to be awesome. It's going to be nice outside the, you know, the City of Austin is a great place to hang out and Adventure. So to be lots of things to do and people won't be so uncomfortable. It's like when it was in July 112 degrees, Unbelievably brutal. Yeah, no, it's definitely always toasty there.
So, I'm excited about it. Being in April. For sure, what I guess. It's just with Palmer Events centered. It's kind of like, right there in the heart of Austin. So I feel like the the man for that place just must be through the roof, it is, and they aren't, they have a, an Austin Convention Center, but it is
triple the size. So I think that between the two of them, they stay booked up quite a bit and The Palmer Center is small enough to where it's it doesn't it's not overwhelming like a convention center but large enough to accommodate it, you know a big group. Yeah. So and then accommodate all the different stages and breakout rooms and so I really really like that venue for that reason and I feel like we've developed a brand that says that we are in Austin event so I'm not ready to
move. Yet although you never know we could move to Florida or who knows where but for the next couple of years will be in Austin. Yeah. No for sure, with the with all the conference's, you know, post pandemic kind of coming back to life, it seems there's more conferences than ever with in the keto low carb Corner Force Base conferences, or like, like meetups some. Some big, some small, do you feel like, what's the overall Vibe amongst other?
It's promoters within the space that because it pretty you know, pretty cordial or is it pretty competitive and like a Cutthroat got away. That's a great question. No one's ever asked me that but I've also made I think that there's One other event planner that I've actually spoken to. So I don't know if it's Cutthroat but I'm going to guess it's probably competitive because I've never been
contacted by anybody. So if I was if I was going to put on a conference which I probably will at some point, I'd be calling everybody ever thrown a conference but hey Robin. What should I do different? Which that I'm not do. Like I'd be contacting everybody, right? Oh, And I would be the one who would definitely sit down and talk to you. Yeah, it's weird. That, that that's not the case. I don't know. I mean like in the food products based like with keto brick like
we're, I don't know. We're so different than a lot of other bars so it's not really the same but I always try and just like so many people have contacted me. They're trying to build their own, you know, bar or food product company and I just tell him, whatever I've learned and try to help them. I feel like, I don't know, I kind of subscribe to the whole Rising tide. Raises all Ships kind of philosophy. I would agree with you. I just don't know how that plays
out in this space. Yeah, it's interesting. Very interesting. What, what are some things that you would totally have done a 180 on? As far as conferences? Go had you been able to do it at a do-over? Like is there anything that you've kind of like you know, backed yourself into a corner with so to speak. Last year and this is just from
a business perspective. Last year, we did cooking Demos in the venue and the cost for the stage, and the speakers and the microphones and everything was expensive. And we only ended up using the space like four times. So, At the time, I wasn't thinking of it from the financial perspective, I was thinking of it as a way to bring experience and experience to the attendees.
But in retrospect, now I know that you never have the venue create space where they're staging and lighting and microphones and chairs and all that kind of stuff. If you're not going to use the real estate for the entire show, Yeah, it's the first thing that came to my mom and you brought up that was a mistake on my part. What else? I'm one of those people that if you come to my house for dinner, I'm going to have enough for probably an army rather than just one or two people and I do
the same thing with key token. So I always I always over-order stuff instead of being realistic or maybe even under ordering stuff that we won't need. So I have wasted money and that regard ordering too much material for different things. What else? Can't think of anything else but I love the AV team that I work with even though they are my largest expense. It seems like you would definitely want to invest in quality people there.
Like, if you were to skimp on them, that can be a nightmare and a half. I'll never take that chance. Yeah, I worked with Cuttino TV from day one and the owner of the company Michael Cuttino is he he has worked with me on a consultative basis from day one, so I knew nothing about this,
the AV world at all. And not only has he been Teaching me this side of the business, but he's also been giving me really good advice on what we can use to improve the experience where I can cut back to, you know, meet my budget needs. He's been a true partner and yes, that's probably if I had to cut out. Any other thing I might be willing but I would never be willing to cut this out and cut out gatina TV.
Because in this situation, with this relationship, I give Michael a list of the speakers on all the different stages on a schedule, and he does the rest. So, the speaker send him their presentations. He goes through each and every one making sure there's no, you know, formatting issues or anything he communicates with the speaker's.
If there's a problem, his team puts make sure that everything is showing Right stage at the right time and if I never go to the keynote stage, or any of the breakout room stages throughout the entire event, I know that everything is being taken care of. So, yeah, that product, in my opinion. That's one of the most important things. Yeah. I think, I mean, that's always seem to run pretty Falls from my
perspective. So I think, yeah, he's definitely got a great crew there for sure, for sure. What do you think about the breakouts in the Keynote? Note stage being separate like, have you gotten much pushback on that or is pretty pretty people? Pretty pretty on board with it, from the speaker's. You mean from the audience? Oh, Last year. Last year I got some feedback that we had too many speakers. Yeah and I committed to not having so many speakers this year and I I broke my promise.
So, we have a lot of speakers again this year. However, this year, I am recording all of the presentations on all three stages. So we'll be able to share those presentations with the speakers and then we're also selling like a virtual replay pass. So that people if they miss a presentation because there's two people, they want to see that are speaking. At the same time on different stages, they'll be able to see
it after the show. The breakout room is really are a great opportunity for people who are not accustomed to speaking in large groups. But they're, you know, in the breakout room, if you speak to 150 people, you still can have a really impactful and engaging discussion with that group, on the keynote stage mean, you're speaking to a thousand people minimum. And first of all, that can be kind of overwhelming for someone who's new to speaking.
And but it also does not lend very well to a like a personal discussion. So I think there's pros and cons for each one. Yeah. No for sure. I feel very blessed. I mean you've given me the opportunity to speak every single year which is crazy. I mean, selfish question here, why in the world have you? Let me speak every single year, when there's so many great speakers out there, as I love you. Well, I certainly appreciate it. I'll definitely keep coming as often as you'll have me.
You're a great speaker. Ever, the community loves you, the audience loves the message that you bring and I wouldn't do it any other way. You bring so much to the event. I would, I would always want you speaking. I'm excited about this this year. I haven't even started my presentation yet, but there's, there's a lot of different directions I'm going to take it. Potentially, I mean, I'm going to have started my prep at that point so it'll probably be a little bit, you know,
nutritionally speaking in there. But I think I'm just going to do a deep dive into, you know, mindset. It. But in a way that, like, grips people by the freaking Soul, so I'm excited about that. So it should be good. That's, that would be awesome. That's definitely a conversation that needs to be had. Yeah, for sure for sure. I kind of want to switch gears to round out, the keto con discussion. Where do people get more information on?
Keto can get tickets, get set up and do all that good stuff. So, key token dot-org is our website. Is get tickets get tickets button in the upper right-hand corner, and there are several options. There's the virtual paths, which is for people who are not attending the live event. There's a three-day pass which
is currently $250. There's a VIP ticket which is all-inclusive and then there is a one-day pass for Sunday only so it's for people who really just want to see the expo hall and maybe see some of the speakers that are speaking on Sunday. So those are the ticket options and then who will see if I beg your pardon who all speaking on Sunday is something a full day I have day Sunday is I mean, it's till 4:30. So it's true.
I mean for all purposes is a full day. nice, so the the tickets the 3-day pass can be discounted and your community can use the code bricks. And they'll get $50 off the three-day ticket and so that three day ticket right now is 250. They will get the ticket for 200 and the price actually goes up on March 1st, and at the door. So, the ticket at the door will be 350 for the three-day pass.
So if anyone and who is listening to, this hasn't gotten your tickets yet or wants to get tickets, make sure you do it. Soon, and use the code bricks, and then you'll be able to save $50, boom. I love it. I love it. It will be printing shirts again this year, which had a lot of fun. Don't last year to. Yes, that was a lot of fun and we got some great feedback on that and I owe you my choice on shirt options. Yeah. And Rec is just about done with the design work.
So I'll be able to have that to you soon too, sweet. And we'll start getting that stuff ready to go just as soon as possible. Awesome. I'm super excited about Kita, akan, it's always an amazing conference. And I'm Eager to hit the ground
running with that. Now, to kind of like, round out this podcast, I'd love to talk a little bit more about just just you personally, you know, like you are the face of the conference and people associate, you know, you with Quito con but they don't know that much about you.
And I feel like you've got an incredibly interesting story as well and I feel like it only does Kita akan story that much more Justice to kind of know the backstory If you a little bit more so Health Journey, yeah, Health Journey, but then also kind of like just, you know, I feel like you last time we spoke we do a little bit into the mindset of everything and just kind of like, having a healthy relationship with time meditation and just outlook on life and I kind of want to dive
deeper into that. Okay. So yeah we'll start just for the sake of it being I don't know nutrition conference nutrition Cod Castle. Let's start a little bit with your nutrition Back Store. Been what kind of And switch gears and talk about the mindset. So I struggled from about the time. I was 10 years old, until I was in my late 40s with a bunch of different when two different things. So it started out with a desire to lose weight and that was for many many, many years, my
biggest driver. So I thought I was overweight and I went through multiple diets and protocols to try and get rid of that weight which never lasted long, I lose weight and gain it back, lose weight and gain it back. But in in that experience, part of that experience, I developed a lot of problems that were symptoms of metabolic disorder. So I had My A1C was close to Six. No one ever said a word to me about it. My blood sugar was always high. I was very emotional.
I had hormonal dysregulation problems, and I was addicted to food. So I struggled with all of those things for many years, until I discovered the Atkins diet and started Playing around with low-carb and what that meant. By the time I found the ketogenic diet and things resolved on their own as a result of removing. All of those problematic foods for my diet and the appetite correction that comes with the ketogenic diet, after doing it
for a while, my body. he naturally found its Baseline, if you will. Mmm, and I've never really had to work. In the way that I thought it would have had to work for to normalize. So, I think that looking back on it, I struggled with so many different things. The Depression was kind of debilitating from going in and out of the addictive food
behaviors. Yeah. When when I found the ketogenic diet and started you know, diving into this world it just all happened naturally and at the time I was working for a large global bank. And I had always because of all the years of my diving into Health Nutrition and fitness had it. I always wanted to get out of corporate America, but I didn't
think that I had the skills. And I did, really didn't know how to translate what I did know into something new, and that's when I discovered, the key evangelist Facebook group, and that Brian, and he asked me to come work with him. so, and so, What happened with me and that was a very summarized version. But what happened with me was really my challenges eventually, became my calling my crisis became my calling because all I never would have found what I'm doing today.
If I hadn't struggled for so many years to try and find what would work for me. And when you made, like, when did you leave that that big bang that global bank about? Six months before we did the first kid work on and you were held in if you don't mind me asking that was in 2016. So I was 50. 4:54. I feel like so many people are plagued with this idea that they can't ever reinvent themselves, change course, and follow their passion. Once they've made it as 27, 28, 30 years old.
And here you are totally changing course in your 50s. And I mean, imagine if you had never done that, like I would imagine I want to speak for you, but I would imagine your sense of fulfillment in life would Just paling in comparison to where you feel now having done. What. You've got the past several years. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I was feeling the lack of fulfillment when I was at the bank, for sure. The only thing I was doing was helping big companies, make more
money. There was no fulfillment in that of, although I did have, you know, some great relationships, it wasn't fulfilling my soul. It was just, it was fun. You know, when it was fun. It was fun, having the friendships with was nice but it definitely didn't give me a sense of purpose. Yeah, at all. Yeah. And you know, I made some decisions in those days that I don't, I, they were the right ones for me, but I don't know if I would tell other people to do
the same thing. I mean, when I left the bank, I had no promise of compensation. It was just a dream of building something and I the only thing I had to fall back on was the money that I had saved. So, when I left my husband, I agreed, I would do it for one year, and if the business didn't take off that, I would go back, but obviously, that didn't happen. And the other thing is that, I,
my kids were grown. So, the responsibility of supporting children was not there anymore, so it was, it was time for me to make to take that risk for myself. and, Thankfully, I had the courage to do it. Yeah. Feel like that courage is. I don't know. I've been doing like a deep dive into, I don't know, like just societal pressures and the current state of humanity I guess. And I feel like a lot of this upheaval that we see in the world today is a result of people not having the courage to
go out and do something. This scares them but something that they know they would be fulfilled by doing. And if you knew that in succeed with it, like your level of confidence is just, I guess it's just hard to hard to Fathom and it's hard to quantify and have to tell you something, Robert. The truth is the confidence comes after you make the decision and you do it. Yeah.
For sure, for sure. Like you don't, you're not, you're not like when you are right there at the brink of, you know, stepping out of corporate American doing. Nothing like there's zero confidence at that point. Like yeah, reason have confidence but like that comes after you do that hard thing and then start to see some success with it. And so many people I feel like aren't, you know, going for that they're not pursuing that and they're just fill with this void that just weighs down them.
It's like this, this massive weight that they carry and like, I might lose it all tomorrow. I made like Quito brick, may go kaput, you know, Who knows what's going to happen, but even if that happened, I would be able to like feel so accomplished and proud of just believing in myself enough to try, you know. Like, I think that is, there's so much value in that. Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I wish I had had that kind of Courage when I was your age, but I didn't, it took me a long time to get to the place where I was ready to like jump off the cliff and even when not like you said, he when I was doing it, I was terrified but I definitely do have confidence now in my ability to make hard decisions and To trust to trust my gut on. What I'm what decisions I do need to make. Yeah. yeah, I definitely have a sense of Calm or peace, when it
comes to that kind of stuff now. And I believe that I built that as a result of making some really hard decisions and following through with them and seeing that I could handle it. How do you know I kind of talked about this last year's Kita akan Comforts actually but like this concept of balance which I don't really subscribe to versus 10 segregate which is kind of what I talked about with my tunc but like How do you feel? Like we're both very driven, you know?
Task-oriented people, how do you have that person? I'd type but then also have a life outside of kidoh:. oh, the truth is that there are times when I'm really good at it. And there are times where I'm not, yeah, I'm coming with, you know, we're two and a half months out or two months out from the event now, I would say I'm not doing a very good job of it right now. However, A couple of years ago I
shared with you. My first granddaughter was born and I was up in the middle of the night, helping take care of her. When her mom was trying to recover and rest, I was sleeping on my son's couch with the baby, and I was holding her and it's like, 2:00 in the morning. And I was overcome by this tremendous amount of joy. joy and love and gratefulness, and That flipped a switch in me to remind me to never take that kind of stuff for granted, and when I was younger, I know I did.
But now, I catch myself in moments like that. Where the I'm going to sound really flaky right now, but I find myself saying, thank you. Thank you for this moment or wow. I'm spending the afternoon with my three-year-old granddaughter, who adores, me and this is all that's important at this very moment.
I also am dealing right now with, I have an elderly father who is as Ms, and he's in a nursing home and kind of ease at end-stage Ms. So when I go to visit him, there are times where my head is full of Ki token stuff before I walk in the door, and then when I go to sit with him and talk to him all of that stuff, Doesn't exist anymore. And I never had the ability to do that when I was younger, but I do have the ability.
Now to focus on what's important in the moment, my struggle is always making time for those those moments to happen. Yeah. And the other thing I do, I hope I don't sound too flaky cheer listings right now. Know the other thing, the other thing I do is at night when my head hits the pillow, I think about the people in my life that are closest to me, and what I see as their struggles and kind of pray for them to have the strength to overcome them or to
find peace or to find love. Or I pray for my dad, when I close my eyes at night and that he finds peace that when he passes, he's he's able to find some peace. It was those are the kind of things that I do to keep me grounded. Even now when my life is probably, as chaotic as it will ever be in the, you know, the last two and a half months leading up to the event. That's that's really all I do. Ya know.
I think that that's important, you know, like when you when you actually like stop and take stock of your life and how you're spending your time, like time is the most precious commodity, and it's crazy because Like there's all these things in life that we prioritize. There's things in life that we place high value in.
But most people would say that, you know, like if they were held at gunpoint, what do you care most about, you know, it's gonna be the people in their life, their family, their relationships, their kids, their their spouse. And then it's funny because like, you have that realization, but then so much of your 24 hours is not spent focusing on
that most important thing. Yeah, when you do spend time with him, it's often a disconnected time in which you're like scrolling through Instagram or not really being present and I feel like the more you can just be made aware of them and truly be in the moment in those moments is is so so important. Otherwise like what is everything else? Even for like, yeah, he tokens great you're making a whole lot of people see a ton of value and
you're having a massive impact. You're changing lives and way you don't even realize, but But you always gotta like, keep that you gotta keep your father front of mine. You got to keep your granddaughter, top of my like all those things? That's what life's all about right there. Yeah, totally agree. And I think it's definitely hard. It's hard as an entrepreneur to do that for sure. Because you're wearing so many different hats.
There's only 24 hours in a day and as I'm sure you can relate to, there comes a point in your business when you need help. And you can't afford to get help. And so everything is falling on your shoulders. So I feel like that's kind of, that's a challenge. Finding that balance when you're an entrepreneur, making those decisions to prioritize what's most important making the time
to be with those people. And there are times where there are things that need to get done that can wait until tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. Totally agree. Totally agree. I think, you know, for me, having like the mornings and the evening's kind of as in camps the day and those are like Precious blocks for like I try
not to work. Sometimes I'm still guilty of it for sure but like, having those times where I could just fully be with our son with Crystal, I mean, that's Like I don't answer emails and phone calls during those times for a reason, you like because like that that's just where it's it's meant to be just there with them, right? But yeah that's that's not always easy. I mean, having the discipline to hand those boundaries is not easy.
And as you said like when you're when you're trying to do everything yourself and you're very perfectionist, minded It's it's easy to justify. Just burning the candle at both ends at all times. Mmm. I'm very guilty of that. Yeah, but that's why it's therapeutic for people like you and I to talk to each other. That's right. So totally Robin. It is always a pleasure chatting with you. I benefit personally, talking with you. I feel like we're more to the same beat here.
I'm super excited. About key, dokkan. I'm super excited and honored to have the privilege to speak again, Akito con. So yeah, we, it's going to be great. It's gonna be very great and I'm hopefully, you are not stressed out to too much and you take time to smell the roses in leading up the heat gun. Well, thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to chat and for always supporting the event for speaking every year for being there. As a company, every year, it means a lot to us.
Yeah, wouldn't miss it for the world and just just to re-emphasize it. Sceeto conda. Org is repeating to go. Correct. Awesome. And I'll pin you use the code bricks? Yes. Yes. I'll put that in the show notes to make it easy for people to find you. Okay, great. Lawson Robin. I will see you in just 2 months, I guess. Yes, you will. Thanks so much. Robert. You bet take care and keep in touch. Bye-bye.