[00:00:00] Josh: hey friends, welcome into the show. This is episode 232. We're gonna take a bit of a sidestep in this episode and get into a topic that is a little bit different for this podcast, but is nonetheless so important, particularly when life happens.
[00:00:16] Josh: And by saying life happens, that could be any sort of situation that pulls you away from your business and just brings you into a tough season of, of life. And the reality is, one thing that I've learned as a parent, uh, some of you know, the, the journey we've been on with my daughter recently and have been in the past, it's that sometimes life brings a lot of challenges and a lot of struggles.
[00:00:39] Josh: The bills keep on coming and business keeps on going. So to be able to manage your business, to grow your business while taking on a tough situation is extremely hard. And I know when I went through it, I felt very alone. So I wanted to have a colleague of mine onto the show in this one to share her experience this past year with being diagnosed with stage four cancer, going through multiple surgeries, rehabilitation and chemo.
[00:01:08] Josh: All while keeping her business afloat. Actually not even keeping her business afloat, but get this in 2022. She actually had her best year ever. I'm so excited to welcome on Betty Kea. Now, Betty and I have been in a mastermind group together for over a year now, where once a month we get together with a couple of other entre awesome entrepreneurs and we just talk business and shop and share some challenges that we help each other out with.
[00:01:32] Josh: And I saw Betty go through this situation. This past year, and I am so incredibly inspired by her mindset, by her. And by her willingness and transparency to help others who go through a tough life situation as well. So this episode, I hope it gives you some encouragement and some inspiration. For those of you who have been through something, maybe you'll find this very relatable and have some things to add if you're going through something now.
[00:01:59] Josh: I hope this helps you. In all the ways that I just mentioned, and maybe for those of you who maybe are gonna go through a a season at some point in your life, I hope you can come back to this episode and learn from Betty, because she's truly a shining example of just an incredible person on how to take on hardships and grow her business, and she's just incredible and I think you'll find that out as well.
[00:02:19] Josh: So without further ado, Here's Betty. You can find more about [email protected]. She's a business coach for courses, betty kemba.com to find out more about her professionally. But for right now, let's hear her story and how she battled cancer still while having the best year ever for her business. All right, let's dive in.
[00:02:42] Josh: Betty, welcome to the show. Thank you show so, so much for coming on and for taking some time to chat today.
[00:02:49] Betty: Yay. I'm so excited to be here. You're, uh, one of my favorite group of humans and when you asked me to, to pop in and have a little chat, I was excited to have this conversation with you, so Yay. Well, and
[00:03:01] Josh: you just told me before we went live you really have not told many people or opened up about your story and its fullest here. So I feel honored that you would be willing to do that with me and everyone listening. And, and the reason I wanted to, to have you on, and I mean, we could talk about a hundred different topics, but True, you have, you have been through a lot this year and I have some students who have been through a lot, um, with family emergencies, medical emergencies.
[00:03:26] Josh: It just, and I, me and my family just went through, uh, a really rough patch in our life, rough season. So I just feel like I've seen you do so well through a tough season. I would love to get a feel for how you did this. So thank you so much for being open.
[00:03:41] Betty: Yeah. Oh my gosh, absolutely. And thanks for asking me. I think I need a little push to be able to share my story because, um, you know, when you go through something, Uh, hard it, it can be difficult to open up, but I think when we are all ready to open up about whatever the hard, everybody's got something, right? We all have something when you're ready to open up, I think that's always a good thing because you can always help at least one other person by sharing your story
[00:04:11] Josh: and, and this conversation, I have no doubt will help hundreds, thousands of people. I mean, the thing I realized that I just went through and, and I don't know if you experienced this, but when you go through a tough season in life, no matter what it looks like as an entrepreneur, you generally feel alone. Yes. Or at least that's how I felt just a couple months ago. Like you feel like you see everyone's highlight reel on Instagram and all the socials and you see everyone killing it and growing and you feel like I, you know, like I feel alone in this.
[00:04:39] Josh: So that, that's what I, that's kinda the main reason I wanted to do this is to make sure everyone knows you're not alone and every like, life happens to everybody. Absolutely.
[00:04:47] Betty: Absolutely. Yeah. True, true, true. Yeah. You're not alone. And when you're going through the tough stuff alone, it makes the tough stuff tougher. so always looking for that community. Um, yeah. So, yeah. Where do you want me to start? Uh, as far as my story ,
[00:05:01] Josh: I'd actually love just, just to give folks a, a, a. Feel for what you do, Betty? Sure. What is your, what's your elevator pitch like when you, when somebody asks you what you do, what, what do you tell them? And then we'll dive
[00:05:10] Betty: in. Okay. Let me warm up the elevator pitch. So, , uh, my name is Betty Kpa. I'm a business coach for coaches. Uh, I am a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. Uh, I am a IPEC graduate. That's where I was certified as a coach. Ranked one of the top coaches in Denver by Influence Digest, and the founder of the Corporate to Six Figure Coach Academy, where we help corporate renegades ditch the nine to five and repackage their genius into a six figure coaching business.
[00:05:38] Betty: And our goal here, of course, is to allow, uh, people who have the call, it's a calling to coach. If you've got that calling, you wanna feel passionate about what you do. You wanna enjoy the freedom of entrepreneurship. That's my mission is to help people. Build that bid uh, coaching business and replace their corporate income. Ah,
[00:05:57] Josh: I love that you're so clear about your mission. It's been so clear since I met you in our little mastermind group that you are a rockstar and thank you. I think this will give us some context for what we're about to talk about, but how established is your business now?
[00:06:09] Josh: Like how long have you been in business? Because when you go through a rough season in life, If your business is brand new, it probably looks different than if you have a team and you're established. So where's your business at now? Truth, truth?
[00:06:19] Betty: Um, oh man. I think we've been five years, about five years at this point.
[00:06:25] Betty: Five years.
[00:06:25] Josh: So at this point mm-hmm. five years. And what is your, um, heading into 2022, maybe early 2022. What did your team look like? Like how bigs your team? Uh, what did all that look like as far as your support
[00:06:37] Betty: system behind you? Yeah. Okay. So these are good questions. So, heading into 2022, what did my team look like? Um, I had a couple VAs. I had a VA who was more like my admin, VA, did all my posting on social media, my admin, and then one that was more video editing graphic designer, so two part-time VAs, totally part-time. , um, out in the Philippines. Uh, so two of them I had, uh, two part-time. Uh, I call them accountability coaches, so they're on my team.
[00:07:10] Betty: I'm the the head master coach, but I have two accountability coaches underneath me who work more on one-on-one with my clients, um, as well. Um, and then I had just hired my first full-time salesperson, so I had just hired my first full-time salesperson. So, uh, and I had a Facebook community manager as well.
[00:07:33] Josh: Gosh. That's right. I forgot. I remember in our little mastermind call you had mentioned the salesperson, and then it was like, I don't know, maybe the week after. Jason let us know that, that you, you know, you got the, the news about cancer and everything, so Yeah. Maybe just if you would, what did the, like what, yeah, what, what happened?
[00:07:52] Josh: What, what, okay. What was the start of this journey? Yeah,
[00:07:55] Betty: so, well, the start of this journey, so I would say December of, uh, Okay, we're in. I'm like, what, what year are we in? 2022 . December of 2021. Um, I was a very active person. Um, I was running half marathons. I was, I had just finished a half marathon in like, I don't know if it was like Decem or November, and I was in training to do my next half marathon in Key West.
[00:08:19] Betty: Very active. I was going to Orange Theory. That was my little like thing that I love to do. It's this, um, kind of interval training and very active and as I'm doing all these things, I'm noticing while I'm training that my back is starting to hurt, and I just kind of randomly thought like, I don't know. My back is hurting.
[00:08:38] Betty: I didn't, I didn't know what it was. Um, I, I, I tried to figure it out getting massages. I, I paid thousands of dollars for a fancy chair thinking it would fix my back. The back kept hurting. Couldn't figure it out. . Um, then I noticed in my training, I'm stretching and I'm feeling really sore, kind of in my armpit area, and, and that was weird.
[00:09:01] Betty: And I, I'm thinking, what, what's going on here? My body had always been pretty healthy and I go home and I'm trying to kind of just think through this, and it's the first time I noticed in December, and now I find a lump in my breast. And so I still haven't at this point put everything together. The back hurts armpit is sore. Now I've found the lump in my breast. I,
[00:09:24] Josh: and this was the, this was the end of
[00:09:25] Betty: 2021, right? December. Correct. This was the end. So I immediately, you know, rushed to the doctor the second I, I see that. And she, you know, confirms. Yep. There's a lump. Um, the tough part, I will say, and, and this is something I don't have answers for, but I'm on a mission now to, to fix the system. Um, once they found the lump at, at least where I am, it was very, very hard to get in to get the actual mammogram and, and biopsy to determine yes, it's cancer. And that was actually one of the bottlenecks that was pretty frustrating.
[00:09:59] Betty: Um, It. I had to, I couldn't just get in and get the mammogram, so we had to wait some, some weeks, almost a month to get in at least where I am located and that, and that's something that I'm a mission to figure out. Why is it like that here and how do we fix that?
[00:10:14] Josh: Wow. A month. Like, wow.
[00:10:17] Betty: Time, time. And we were looking at hospitals everywhere. Just seeing like, who's the earliest I can get in? I remember sitting in my car after they told me, yes, it's a lump, but we don't know if it's cancer or you need to get the, uh, the diagnostic or, or whatever the kind of mammogram was. I'm sitting in my car. I remember I had a list of all the different places I could get it, and I'm just calling.
[00:10:36] Betty: I'm dialing, I'm dialing, and nobody had openings until January. So it was not a cool experience having to go through Christmas, just thinking in the back of my head, like, what, what is going on here? And, and what is this gonna be? So come January, I, I finally got in, they did the mammogram, they did a biopsy in it, and it was cancer.
[00:10:57] Betty: Um, and yeah, you hear those words and. I just, you know, you know, it's prevalent, but of course we all think it's not gonna happen to me. I'm, I'm healthy, I'm, I'm active, I'm this, I'm that. Right. So it was a major shocker. Um, and more tests. More tests. More tests, and come to find out that the back pain was related.
[00:11:22] Betty: Mm-hmm. , because it was stage four. Stage four cancer. So the breast cancer had, uh, metastasized and gone to my bones. So there were some tumors in the bones in my back, which weirdly, how would I ever realize that the back pain was actually coming from the breast. Sure. Um, so that was, that all happened in January.
[00:11:46] Betty: My world kind of came crashing in and on top of everything else. Um, you know, before they could even get me into some hardcore chemo, we had to do surgeries because they came to find out, Betty, you're walking around with multiple fractures in your back. Wow. That's, I was running and training with multiple fractures cuz my bones had gotten weak, so they had to do immediate back surgery.
[00:12:09] Betty: I then had to have right after that, uh, a hip replacement, all these things. I had never had surgery like this before, and I kind of had to stop everything to do all these surgeries and then I could start this heavy duty duty, uh, chemotherapy treatment. Hmm. Uh, after all those surgeries. So that's been my year.
[00:12:29] Betty: That's the, my gosh. The icky part.
[00:12:31] Josh: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Betty. I mean, I just, yeah, I, you know, I know, I know most of this because we're in a mastermind together, but just hearing you say it, I just, I can't imagine. I can't imagine. I mean, we just went through some stuff, but you have been through so much this year.
[00:12:45] Josh: My God, I'm just, I'm honestly like, I'm astounded at your resilience and even. I will say too, this is one thing I, I remember right when that happened is like you did not lose your optimism. It was like, I mean, I'm sure you've, you've had your moments and eyes and lows, but my gosh, to see somebody go through all that and then stay optimistic and look ahead and not let that, you know, Ruin their life, basically.
[00:13:11] Josh: Like how many people would've just called it quits right there. I just hats off to you for that determination and that perseverance. Thank you. Where does that come from? I'm kind of curious, like, do you Yeah. Where do you, do you feel like it's, uh, it's been a mixture of the hard things that you've done in your life to get you to this point that makes you more resilient?
[00:13:27] Josh: That's
[00:13:27] Betty: a good question. Um, yeah, I mean, truth, I've definitely been through a lot in my life. Uh, while we're one, just divulging everything to your audience. I am also, uh, in, in, in recovery. I'm, so, I've been sober 11 years. I've been sober, sober 11 years. So that was definitely something very tough that I went through, you know, going through, uh, recovery and coming out on the other end, 11 years sober.
[00:13:51] Betty: So, yeah, that's true. There's some resiliency with what I've. Been through in life. Um, I think the other magical kind of part of it is being a coach. So I'm trained and certified as a coach. I went through eight months of intensive training and as coaches we are, it's this magical door that opens up once you become a coach where, , you learn how to use the power of the mind.
[00:14:13] Betty: Mm-hmm. to, you know, make choices on how you wanna show up each day and how you wanna feel and, and how you wanna perceive perception. So I, I actually created, I have it in front of me too. I'm, I don't know how far down the rabbit hole we wanna go, but, um, I created this Google Doc pretty quickly after I got diagnosed.
[00:14:33] Betty: Um, and I just combined. All, all these, all these facts and, um, helpful things that I would review each morning. So it ha I, I made a list of good news statistics. Mm, so good news statistics that kind of powered me up. Like, okay, I can do this. Good news statistics. I had a healing meditation playlist that I would listen to and it.
[00:14:54] Betty: Talked about like healing yourselves, and it was just this healing meditation playlist. I do it every morning. I made a list of inspirational stories of cancer survivors who battled through and came out on the other end, some of whom are our friends that you know very well. So I have a list of people who did the dang thing and came out on the other end.
[00:15:14] Betty: I would review that list every morning, so-and-so at stage three. Got to the other end, so-and-so at stage four. So I'd review my inspirational story. I had, and then I would say at the end of that, if they can do it, I can do it. Um, I, I then had a list of affirmations, and again, I'm not, uh, I'm happy to go through them if you want to at some point, but I had a list of powerful affirmations I'd read out loud every morning, um, and then I would get into prayer.
[00:15:43] Betty: And I would look to a higher power and I would pray knowing that God's got my back and that there's a plan for me and there's a reason I'm going through this. Um, and then of course I had a, a collection of some of my favorite, uh, inspirational quotes.
[00:15:58] Betty: And I would end, and this is all stuff I would do every morning. I'm going through prayer, meditation, a, it's like, it's like a boxing match. I'm training every single morning prayer, right? Hook, uh, you know, affirmations left, jab right. I'm dealing this every single morning, and then I, I end my morning with gratitudes.
[00:16:17] Betty: All this stuff I'm grateful for. That's what would kind of pump me up each day. But to be clear, yeah, when I got the news, I sink to the bathroom floor and cried. And there were some days that I. Cry and lay in bed and hug my, you know, my, my significant other and you know, it would be tough, but anchoring to this kind of foundational stuff that I learned through coaching is what really got me through it.
[00:16:44] Josh: You gave me chills here in that little bullet list of the, those things you went through. I don't know if that Google Doc is something you'd open to sharing with my audience. Sure. I know there might be some That'd be great. That would, yeah, that would be amazing too. I would love to link that in the show notes if we could do that.
[00:16:58] Josh: Sure. And then, yeah, I mean, what a gosh, uh, so much good stuff there. Betty would just like taking control of your mind first, cuz you know, every day's gonna be tough and they're gonna have its own challenges. But if you start with a primed mind, this is such a timely reminder for me, and I'm sure a lot of folks listen in, that no matter what we're going through, whatever the season looks like, Start with your reminder, what you can control and prime yourself to take on what's ahead.
[00:17:23] Josh: Gosh, what a good reminder I needed to controlling control. I needed to hear that. I needed to hear that in the personal season that I'm in, so I so appreciate hearing that. I love what you did there. Um, I have to ask business wise now, what did that look like? Because yeah, you get to this point where business is, you know, I know you were firing on all cylinders and, and you're hiring and you're, you know, the trajectory is going up and up and up.
[00:17:45] Josh: You got momentum. Yeah. And then yeah, from the business front, you know, now you're dealing with this stuff personally, you're going through surgeries, you're taking time off. So I mean, So many questions, but what did that look like early on with your business?
[00:17:57] Betty: Yeah, good question. Yeah, you're, you're right. Yeah. I was kind of like, I don't know how you like describe it, but it was an upward trajectory when you were like, grow, growing, growing, growing, growing. And then this happened and I was like, whoa. Like, you know, my mind was blown and, and I did have a choice, you know? Um, And by the way, no judgment. You know, for some people that are like, yo, I wanna step back.
[00:18:20] Betty: No judgment. Like, we all have to do what feels right for us, right? So there's no like, you know, beat yourself up that you didn't do X, y, Z with your business. No judgment. Um, but, but it is a choice, right? So I kind of looked at my business and I'm think. What the heck? I just hired this first, my first full-time hire, my first salesperson.
[00:18:41] Betty: I've got all these new clients, like, what am I gonna do right now? So, um, yeah. I mean, first and foremost, um, I, I did. Share the news with my clients. My clients are like my family. Mm-hmm. . So I definitely share the news with my, I'm gonna be real, I keep it real, like this is what I'm going through. Um, that's
[00:19:01] Josh: all I wanted to ask about that. Cause I know a lot of people, if they go through something, they don't let clients know because they're afraid of that. Maybe they're not gonna stick with me or they're afraid of that. Sure. I'm not gonna be able to, I was afraid too. Yeah. Yeah. It's also different with a coach when it's like, is you like, yes.
[00:19:16] Josh: If you, if you have a product that you sell and you have a team and they don't necessarily have contact with the, the owner Yeah. Or whoever. That might be a little bit different. But Yeah. When it's like a personal thing and you are the, the person that they ultimately see, um, and it probably puts. Puts a different light on it, I would imagine.
[00:19:32] Josh: Yeah, yeah,
[00:19:33] Betty: absolutely. And I was scared. There was a part of me like, oh my gosh, are people gonna leave me? Are people gonna still believe in me? Are people, and then there was another part of me that's like, I just, I gotta keep it real. Like I, I became a coach partly cuz I wanna be my authentic self. Mm-hmm.
[00:19:48] Betty: and I'm not gonna put on it, pretend the, i I call it the corporate face I used to have to put on when I went to corporate America. This, everything's fine. Everything's, I'm like, I'm keeping it real with my clients. So, um, awesome. Yeah, I, I shared with them. I, I didn't share with my larger audience. I just wasn't.
[00:20:04] Betty: Just wasn't ready. And again, no shame for anybody out there going through something tough. You don't have to feel like you have to share with your entire, you know, audience. All your, all your people that you're connected to, whatever you're going through until you're ready. Yeah. So for me, I kept it private.
[00:20:18] Betty: I just shared with my clients, uh, my friends and my family. I created a, it's a private caring bridge account where I could just update people on, cuz people wanna know. You know, did you get a surgery? Did you come out? How are you doing? And instead of getting a million texts, we just created a private caring bridge account to say, yes, this is a latest update. This is what we're going through.
[00:20:38] Josh: So I'm glad you mentioned that. I did that for my daughter, Bria, when she was, did you, when she was born, not this last time, but when she was born, we were in the NICU for 56 days with her for two months. Gosh. And so we, uh, I did that just because, yeah, I was like, well, we had no idea how long it was gonna be and once.
[00:20:54] Josh: It got to a week and two weeks and it was like, well, I'm getting flooded by messages, which is amazing. So much support, but yeah, like I'm not gonna just text the same thing over and over or copy and paste. So yeah, that's a great resource for anyone. I mean, my audience are web designers, so there's a lot of options people are pretty savvy with, with creating some sort of update side if they wanted to but Caring Bridge is also a great, I mean, that's what it's built for. Yeah. It's like a private, you. Type of type of side. So
[00:21:18] Betty: I love that you did that. It was helpful. It was super helpful. So yeah, I, so January, I mean, the first thing I did, uh, I mean, I guess step one, uh, let me back up. I was also in January in the middle of about to do a massive launch.
[00:21:33] Betty: A massive launch, uh, in my business. I invested a ton of money on Facebook ads and hiring a team for the launch specifically. I mean, I thousands and thousands preparing for this launch, and I actually got the news, um, like a couple days before the launch. Wow. So I had to, and, and I, and then I was. Oh my gosh, I gotta tell hundreds and hundreds of people out there that I'm canceling, but I didn't feel ready yet to share with strangers my diagnosis.
[00:22:05] Betty: So, you know, I just said, Hey, you know, due to unforeseen circumstances, you know, I'm so sorry. We have to reschedule this, you know, uh, bootcamp that we're doing and, you know, we'll keep you updated, et cetera. So that was felt painful to do, you know, but I wasn't re ready yet to give them full details, but mm-hmm.
[00:22:23] Betty: I guess the first thing I did was pull together my team. And I just gave 'em the news and we, you know, cried some tears and, you know, we over zoom, you know, just gave everyone the news and my team stepped up and they're like, okay, what do you need us to do? So they took the reins with like communicating about the launch, launch cancellation, and that we were gonna reschedule, um, something that was.
[00:22:45] Betty: So couple things that were really important as I started, because the first thing that happened is I had to go in for surgery. So I was gonna be in the hospital for a long period of time. So it wasn't just for me like, you know, chemo and then come home. It was, I'm gonna be in the hospital, I'm gonna be getting surgery at first.
[00:23:02] Betty: Um, so there were a couple things that kind of saved. Uh, the business as far as it continuing to run, uh, even with me in the hospital getting surgery. Um, the first thing is we have SOPs, standard operating procedures in our business. So, you know, even before I hired staff, I had Google Docs. Of step by step, this is how I do this.
[00:23:25] Betty: This is how I do that, this is how I do this. And even easier, I then started to just record my screen and say, today I'm gonna do this task. And I'd record my screen and I'd do the task. And I created a private. YouTube library of each little task I was doing. Mm-hmm. so that when I did start to hire virtual assistants and coaches and staff, I had this little video private library of all my little to-dos, and they could see a walkthrough of how I did each thing.
[00:23:53] Betty: So, that was one thing that saved us, is we had SOPs and are my SOPs perfect? No. Do you have to have perfect SOPs to continue to run your business? They don't need to be perfect. You just need to put something out there on paper or on video some. Yeah. And I think that's what holds a lot of people back.
[00:24:10] Betty: Like, oh, I gotta get every step in everything. Perfect. No you don't. Just the best you can. You know, get it to paper or get it to video. So we did have SOPs, um, and when I went into the hospital, this is another very important thing. Um, the two part-time coaches that were my accountability coaches, um, you know, I'm, I'm mentoring them now.
[00:24:32] Betty: Both of these coaches, they're part-time working for me. They're also graduates of my program. Mm-hmm. . So they know my program back and. They're both certified in my program. They're certified as a coach. I have them already working with my clients privately. That's part of you join the program? I teach at a group level, and then my accountability coaches work with you privately.
[00:24:53] Betty: Um, gotcha. One of the gals is, is I'm truly, you know, mentoring her. She's incredible. Shout out to, I mean, they're both incredible. Shout out to both of them, but Rochelle is one of the gals that I was mentoring as as a business coach. So she was very knowledgeable on business and marketing and sales. So when I went into the hospital and she came through mm-hmm.
[00:25:13] Betty: she's, she was literally like, so, so this is the other thing. Y'all surround yourself with good people. When you're hiring a team, it's not just like, oh, these people are smart, or they have this, that they're good humans. So when I went through this, she's like, what do you need? I will literally do anything.
[00:25:29] Betty: Uh, this is a girl that I, I don't, I was like, I'm not gonna cry today. Um, she sent me a bracelet. A cancer, you know, survivor bracelet, like a pink and white. And she said, Betty, I'm wearing this bracelet too and so is my mom. And she said, we're not gonna take it off until you get through this. So like, good people.
[00:25:48] Betty: Darn it. Here I go. Um, so long story short, uh, Rochelle stepped up and while I was in surgery, she was teaching my. So she was teaching my group while I was in surgery, so she's hot seat coaching and teaching and I'm, I'm, I'm the hospital. The group is still running on cuz I have a mentee. So everybody should be thinking about whether you're going through cancer or whatever it is, you know, who is my mentee?
[00:26:15] Betty: That if something should happen because life happens, that, you know, they can step in and run the thing. You know, if you should need to go out, your business should be able to keep going with or without.
[00:26:27] Josh: Oh, that's so good. And I think, first of all, thank you so much for sharing that, Betty. Yeah, yeah. I, I'm gonna have to go to some tissues here at some point I think in this conversation because it's just, uh, and I think it might be different for a lot of web designers.
[00:26:42] Josh: Depending on where they are on the journey, they don't have a team. Some, some do for sure. A lot of folks here have like small teams and and smaller agencies for folks early on, I think the next best thing would be like a tight-knit community. Yes. Would you agree that like having a network of close colleagues that could step in quickly if need be? I mean that's really, I would imagine the next best option. Absolutely.
[00:27:03] Betty: And in fact, you know, I'll say that too. I, I bring in to my program often, uh, other master coaches. Like I have a money mindset coach, a copy coach. I have other master coaches. I bring in experts all the time to teach in my program. So same thing, they, they stepped up too and said, Hey, I'll teach a class while you're gone.
[00:27:20] Betty: Hey, I'll teach a class while you're gone. So whatever that looks like to you with whatever your business model. Um, having, yeah. A strong group of people that are good humans that are gonna step in and support you, you know, if sh something should happen.
[00:27:36] Josh: And I'm kind of curious, how, what was your involvement through the first couple of months as you were going through surgery? I mean, were you pretty much off the grid or were you checking email on the. And just keeping up to date, like, you know. Yeah. And we were, we were talking before, went live. When, when you go through a storm, like I've never enjoyed getting the email as much as I had. I know more recently it's like, oh, I can just sit and quiet and get in my email and do some work. It was amazing. Did you do that in the hospital or, that's
[00:28:02] Betty: a good question. Gosh, let me give you an honest answer. Let me think about that. I think, well, I, I was in the hospital multiple times for multiple surgeries, and I, let's be real, I was in shock at first. Sure. I, I was in total shock, so. Um, gosh, it's hard for me to even remember like what I was thinking or going through.
[00:28:20] Betty: Well,
[00:28:20] Josh: um, and I think one thing it's important too, is I, it didn't sound like there was much time, like it wasn't like, okay, in a few months there's no crap. I'm gonna get my, it's like, boom, here we go.
[00:28:28] Betty: It was, I was in, so I think the way I was doing it, I, I was rolled in, went to surgery, got outta surgery. I think I was mostly keeping contact to my mentees, right?
[00:28:38] Betty: Like I said, the one gal, I had a, uh, somebody who was, I was mentoring her, and she kind of took over running the group while I was gone. So it was more the people I was checking in with were, were my team, my mentee team, my team, um, that was kind of more, and my clients, because I was honest with them, we're just like, let her go through the surgery, you know?
[00:28:57] Betty: So I wasn't getting a lot of messages from my clients. Again, I had just trained, um, Rochelle is just such a strong coach and such a strong mentee that she was able to, you know, effectively train just as strongly as I could, you know, while I was gone. So, yeah, I was checking messages, but not like responding to this, responding to that. It was more just the team checking in. You know, that
[00:29:24] Josh: totally makes sense that you start with team and, and the, the utmost important type of things that would keep things going and keep the business afloat. And then the next question I had was about clients. Yeah. How was that received with your clients?
[00:29:36] Josh: Because one thing that I've experienced and that a lot of my students who have been through nothing, I think quite like this, but points of whether it is cancer or whether it is a surgery or a life just situation happening, clients are people too. And let's be real. Like 99% of people are gonna understand and they're gonna give grace.
[00:29:57] Josh: Yeah. And in fact, um, one of my students more recently said like, her clients offered to pay her more like pay through the year. Oh. To help keep her afloat during a tough time. You know what, like, so, and I experienced some of that kind of stuff as why clients like donate to our family when we went through our nicu, stay of the, so there.
[00:30:15] Josh: I say that to say I wouldn't be too afraid. If you feel like you should let your clients know because it's gonna impact them. I would not be afraid that they're all gonna piece out and run away. Yeah. Like most people are gonna be so supportive. Did you experience that as well? Oh, that's a good question.
[00:30:27] Betty: Yeah. They really, my clients rallied around me. They did. And you know, I, they were sending care packages and, you know, thoughtful things to help me, like feel cozy and better and, you know, supportive post and, you know, letters and yeah, they rallied around me. And, and here's what I would say. If you do get the occasional client that's, You know, like, oh, this is a problem then that's not your kind of client anyway. Who wants to work with the client? Like there's the door, you know, and
[00:30:56] Josh: honestly what type of person, I mean, that would be a heck of a person be like, dang it, Betty, I'm, you know, how dare you going to surgery and, and help with your cancer while my project should take precedent. Yeah, no,
[00:31:07] Betty: everybody was great. And for, you know, I have a group coaching and one-on-one coaching, so the one-on-one. Um, you know, I just extended their contract. They had a, a contract with me and I said, Hey, I'm in the hospital. Gotcha. Let's extend it by X amount of weeks. They were totally fine with that. And the cool thing is with my one-on-one clients, it's a two for one deal.
[00:31:26] Betty: So even though they're depending on me as their one-on-one coach, they still had access to the entire group coaching program. So that just to be like, explain like what this looks like, even though I wasn't, you know, I'm in surgery. They had a group coaching call once a. So they had, and that was still being led by my mentee.
[00:31:45] Betty: They had a copy coach call with the copy coach, a mind money mindset call with the money mindset coach that I have an entire digital platform with, you know, an on demand learning center, videos on every module, worksheets on every, I mean, the information is all there. It's not like, gotcha. My clients had to wait for Betty to get back the info's all there. They just had to continue to implement without. Which is what the rest of the team was there to help them do. That's
[00:32:12] Josh: awesome. And that may differ from web design projects in a way that, like going back to our NICU experience, the newborn intensive care, for one, I did not know how long that would be. I didn't know if it was gonna be two weeks or if it was gonna be months.
[00:32:24] Josh: It ended up being two months. We were afraid it was gonna go longer. But what was interesting and what made that extra stressful for me personally, was I had just landed our biggest project ever as a $15,000 website, which. My biggest project, and we started at the end of, let's see, I'm going back now. We started at the end of March and we were collecting content and stuff, and then they wanted to go live by June 1st, so just, you know, about two, two and a half month window or so, a couple months.
[00:32:51] Josh: And then my daughter was born on April 9th, and that's when our NICU journey started. So as that progressed, one thing that was daunting for me was like, I'm supposed to get this huge website down on June 1st. I can't even think right now. So what? But I just talked to him and I told him the situation. I said, we don't know how long it's gonna be.
[00:33:09] Josh: Are we okay to bump this back a month if we need to? Yes. Or even a little longer. And guess what he said? Absolutely. Totally understand. And, and yeah, there were some points where he was checking and I think was like, so, I know you're going through a lot, but how are things going and, and I just had to get a little more hands on deck and help through that situation.
[00:33:25] Josh: But we did it and yeah, it was, yeah, it was about a month and a half later than we had had initially planned, but it was that same situation of just being open about it but then also doing the work when I could and, and Right. You know, just do what you can when you can. Yeah. Working in the hospital sucks.
[00:33:41] Josh: Uh, sometimes if, if you're able, I mean, personally I enjoyed it, like we just talked about. It was kind of nice to like not hear from doctors and not just sit and think about things. You could just do some work and it felt amazing.
[00:33:52] Betty: Yeah. Amen. And, and I will say for myself too, you know, and, you know, I, I was definitely, while I was in the hospital, like answering questions, my team was kind of, um, what do I, how do I wanna describe this?
[00:34:02] Betty: Clients would ask them something and if the team didn't have the answer, V, uh, slack me. So I was audio messaging back and forth with the team. Gotcha. Um, but to your point, once I got out of the hospital, um, I was like raring to go with my business. I was like, let's go because Oh, that's awesome for me. And again, no, I don't want anybody to feel shamed if they have to step away from their business when they're going through a tough time.
[00:34:28] Betty: I'm just saying for me, Because I'm so passionate about what I do, and I don't know what it is the way I'm wired. For me, my business is a bright light that helps me to like, to your point, unplug from all the medical, the this, the that, the stress, the what if that it, like, it was just like, yes, like this thing that I love where I can serve and help people.
[00:34:48] Betty: So it, it gives me the chills. It gets me excited. I get pumped up. Even Ryan, my, my partner said, you know, When you're a tough day and then you go into your office and shut the door, I hear you on the, the zoom with your clients. You come alive. And, and that's what I use my business as this year, is this, this like blessing, this bright light that pumps me up and gets me excited and it's actually helped me to get through going through something so tough.
[00:35:16] Betty: And it's amazing, you know, that's, You know, that's how it worked for me. And, and yeah, we, we, I
[00:35:22] Josh: was just gonna say, I was gonna say, what a shining example of building a business you love that energizes you. Yes. Yeah. Business can be tough. Yes. We've all had our seasons with business. Yeah. There's stress and stuff, but at the end of the day, if, if you are creating, which everyone listening and watching this, you can create the business you.
[00:35:39] Josh: You absolutely 100% can do. That's one reason I absolutely love the online entrepreneurial world and web design world. You can do the things you love to do, work with the people you don't wanna work with, and you can do the just that. You can go into your office or go to a coffee shop or have, go down to the lobby in a hospital and do work, and it fill you up and you like you love it and you enjoy fills your cup and you'll join.
[00:35:59] Josh: You'll enjoy it even more when you go through a season like this, I've found, because it's like on a normal day, okay, I'll check some email. Well, recently I was like, oh, I'm so excited to check some email and see where things are at. Yeah, yeah. There's some things I gotta get to much. It's light. Yeah, it's a bright light, so I love that encouragement.
[00:36:14] Josh: I think this, you're all about getting away from the corporate world where the opposite is. It's like you go to work, oh, I gotta go to work. It's like no matter what you're going through in life, work is gonna be a drag in the online entrepreneurial world. We can make it the complete opposite. So I think it's such an important note to hit on and a message that I wanna get out there that.
[00:36:34] Josh: It can be that it fills your cup, like you just said. It's that it does, it's that bright light that can, that can cheer you up and yeah, I love that. So I didn't mean to derail realize, I just, I
[00:36:42] Betty: love that part. No, no. I was just gonna say too, cuz I, and I tell this to my clients all the time too, cuz I, you know, I'm not a special unicorn without what I'm going through. Everybody's going through something. Every single person listening to this has something in their life that they're struggling with. Whether it's a divorce, whether it's a death in the family, whether it's, uh, a sickness in the family, whether it's financial issues, like everybody has something.
[00:37:04] Betty: you can choose whether you're going to allow that thing to stop you in your tracks from going after your dream, or whether you're going to allow that thing to be your rocket fuel to, you know, set you on fire to going after that dream even harder. And for me, you know, instead of allowing this to be like a, a blockade, To, to achieving my dream of, of running this business. I allowed it to be my rocket fuel and I let it fuel me to go after this even harder because it lights me up, it makes me happy, and I'm serving other people. And that's what I feel like I was put on this earth to do.
[00:37:43] Josh: Do you find that the experience as a whole, and even at that point, just a couple months in, do you feel like it made you appreciate your business more and appreciate the monotony of, you know, just
[00:37:53] Betty: day to day? Oh my gosh, yeah. I said all the time while I was going through this, in the beginning I used to say like, imagine if I was still in my corporate nine to five going through this, like I, I, I mean, I know you can get time off in your corporate job and they can give you leave of absence. I understand that, but at a certain point, like I would have to either quit or go back to work. You know, it's right because I'm going through this like all year and I just was like, man, I can't imagine.
[00:38:19] Betty: Having to go back in to a nine to five, put on dress pants, like sit there at my computer, be in these meetings, like, I'm like, I literally, my brain would explode. And the fact that I can be in this space where I am wearing pajama pants as we speak, Josh, like I'm doing whatever the hell I want and I can, you know, this is, I'm free to my day.
[00:38:40] Betty: I have a C e O schedule. I work with clients Tuesday through Thursday. I have Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday that are my own, my instruct, my schedule, how I want. That was a big piece of h what allowed me to heal because I control my
[00:38:53] Josh: schedule. That is such a good point. You are hitting like the utmost passionate part of my heart with why I do what I do with teaching people how to build web design businesses because the same is true.
[00:39:06] Josh: My, my entire mission is to help people build freedom and a lifestyle they love. Yeah. Not only for the day-to-day to travel or have a family or whatever they wanna do, but to be able to get through life situations and not have to be tied down to going into work or doing a certain schedule like it that really.
[00:39:26] Josh: Became true for me during that first NICU experience because yes, it was super difficult. It was a long journey. Lot of tears, highs and lows. But at the end of the day, I saw so many other families that either the mom had to go to work and the dad would be there, or the dad was at work and you know, just one parent was with the kid, or no, parents were with the kid for the whole day.
[00:39:45] Josh: And that broke my heart and it made so appreciate web design and this online world that I could work in the room if I needed to. I have my laptop. I can go down in the lobby and do some work for an hour and then pop back up and not miss any doctors coming in. I'd go across the street to a Panera, do some work, then come back like.
[00:40:03] Josh: That is such a good reminder that yes, there are so many hardships and stresses and challenges running your own business, but at the end of the day, in my mind, nothing, nothing will top the freedom to be able to have the lifestyle you love and then deal with life when it
[00:40:18] Betty: comes up. Oh my gosh. I. I always say my, my worst day as an entrepreneur is still better than my best day in my corporate nine to five. Give me the worst day as an entrepreneur. Any day over the best day in a corporate nine to five like this. I don't care how hard it gets. And it's not, it's, yeah. I'm not saying it's easy being an entrepreneur, it's not. But I'll ta I'll take the worst day of being an entrepreneur any day.
[00:40:40] Betty: And even going through this like this, this month, like there are definitely, you know, days where I would take a client call and then I go lay on my bed. You know, my back's hurting and I lay flat for hours and I take a nap in a day. Yeah. And that's the beauty of it. Like I can , yeah. Care for myself and allow myself to heal just as much as I need to because I'm in control of my schedule. And that's what I did
[00:41:04] Josh: this year. Oh, that's awesome. Now I'm kind of curious because this was not a quick type of situation. It's not like you broke your arm and you were out for a couple months, you know, like yeah. You had these surgeries, but then you started chemo. Like what did that look like as things progressed? Because I'm sure the challenges evolved as well, right? When you started chemo and got into the, the weeks and months of recovery.
[00:41:24] Betty: Yeah. Yeah. I know this was an interesting journey, journey for me, cuz yeah, there were the surgeries and the hip replacement with the bones. Uh, side note. I had to cancel two launches. The first one when I got the diagnosis and then I set up the second one. I'm like, okay, well Brenda, do the second one like a couple months later, I was like, okay, I got the back surgery.
[00:41:43] Betty: I'm good to go. Good to go. I'm not kidding. I set up the second launch. It was, I'm not kidding. The day of the second launch, I was so geared up. We had more people than ever. I threw all this money at it again, I was excited, right? Something take my mind off everything. Literally got a call from the doctor the day of the second launch.
[00:42:01] Betty: Get off your feet immediately. We found X, Y, Z fractures when need to immediately do a hip replacement or your bone could collapse, get literally get in a wheelchair and you're coming directly in and wow. And once again crying, got on the phone with my Zoom, with my team, canceled my second launch, feeling embarrassed that what is my audience gonna think, right?
[00:42:25] Betty: But at the end of the day, All work worked out. Finally, after going through the surgeries, yes, started chemo. Chemo that ain't easy. Uh, started chemo. Um, and for my form of chemo, it was an all day. All day chemo sicken, all day. Interesting too. Fun fact, with, with the chemo I was on, um, this is kind of cool, some of the advancements they've made in the medical field, uh, to keep your hair, you can wear this kind of like cold cap and so you freeze your head while you're undergoing chemo.
[00:42:58] Betty: So I would have, I mean, I'm chuckling. It's not, cancer's not funny, but I, I gotta laugh at something. I ha I would have a cold cap. I'd have cold mittens so I wouldn't have neuropathy. Cold slippers, so I wouldn't have foot neuropathy, and I'm just sitting here freezing, going through chemo, and I'm there for the whole day.
[00:43:16] Betty: Anyways, come back. Finally. I'm like, okay, chemo's not easy, but I'm gonna do my third launch. We're gonna do it this time. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. I had canceled the first two. Did the first launch record number of people attending that launch because the first two got backed off. I had to cancel.
[00:43:32] Betty: Sure. Record number of people attending. Highest number of sales we've ever had in my entire life. We pulled in in one week, $225,000 in sales.
[00:43:44] Josh: Oh gosh. That's so amazing, Betty. I remember that. And just being, remember that floor, like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. Crazy, crazy stuff. And how long, how long, so the third launch was you, you were able to do it? That was the, the biggie. How long was that from the first launch that you had to cancel? Was that like a few months From that time? It was like
[00:44:01] Betty: maybe two months later.
[00:44:03] Josh: Okay. Yeah. Okay. So it was just long enough to where, because I'm sure a lot of the people were like, sup, super supportive, but I'm sure they're curious, like when, you know, when is this on this shit gonna happen?
[00:44:13] Josh: Yeah.
[00:44:14] Betty: Yep. Yep. So it was incredible. Um, and not just money, it's just, it's just, it was such a hard year to see that. That this dream of mine could still come to fruition, even with the year I had and the team is celebrating, and one of my employees told me the, the first full-time hire I ever hired, the salesperson, she's part, part base, part commission.
[00:44:41] Betty: She, she made so much money in commission, not launched. She set Betty for the first time ever. I'm taking my kids on vacation, uh, since my husband and I, you know, divorced, I'm taking the kids on a vacation. And so it's just such a cool moment to see my team being able to celebrate, um, you know, pay off some of the medical bills that came along with that, and just the whole thing was, and pay it forward too.
[00:45:05] Betty: So many people have have shown up for me while I'm going through this. So Ryan and I, my partner and I have really made a with what I've gone through this year to always look for ways to pay it forward. So we're constantly looking for ways to pay it forward with, um, especially people in the cancer community.
[00:45:23] Betty: Um, and that's been a joy too, just finding these little pockets of people and, and different ways, whether it's monetary, whether it's, um, products, gifts, services, time talking, just ways to pay it forward with this community. It's been a blessing just to see humanity at its finest. Yeah. With how people supported me and how we can support
[00:45:46] Josh: others.
[00:45:47] Josh: Oh, that's amazing. Gosh. Yeah, so, so much good stuff. I mean, I, when you think about somebody going through a hard time, usually the last thing you would think about is, is gratitude or them having, like having a, a giving spirit. But I have found that to be true and it, that's what we experienced. My wife and I like, we didn't know anything about rare chromo kiddos, which my, my, my oldest Bria has, she has a rare chromosome situation.
[00:46:12] Josh: And that led to a cleft lip and cleft palate. I didn't know anything about that. I never knew much about Nicki's stays. Like there are all these things that my, my heart is being opened up to, and I want, I want a hundred percent. You know, we, the plan is to be able to invest more as time allows, as our family like, to be able to, to not only donate, but just to do something to support that community. Because we're going through it. Yes.
[00:46:33] Josh: We're in the heart of it right now, so, oh, it's such a good point. And. I'm kind of curious, like, do you feel like at any point during that process, I don't know how long and, and where you're at now? I don't even, we haven't talked quite about where
[00:46:45] Betty: things right now. Yeah. I have to share where I'm at now too. When you're ready.
[00:46:47] Josh: Yeah. I'm, I'm just kind of wondering, like, was there a point where things not got easier but turned a corner Yeah. To where like you feel like you were past the worst of it? Yes, I
[00:46:55] Betty: do feel like that. I mean with, um, what's the word? Optimistically cautious, right? Because mm-hmm. Yeah. I kind of have gotten to
[00:47:04] Josh: cautiously optimistic, say
[00:47:05] Betty: optimistic there. It's, I've gotten to a point where I'd love to be like, yeah, it's over for good, but with the type that I'm dealing with for the rest of my life, every three weeks I'm going to be taking some kind of a shot, some kind of medication, which is a blessing.
[00:47:22] Betty: I'm like, bring it. Bring it cuz I'm living, I'm, I'm gonna live a long life. So if that means medicine for the rest of my life, then I am so grateful that there's medicine and technology to allow me to live a long and healthy life. Um, but there, yeah, definitely a turning point. Couple turn. I think there are milestones throughout this process. So throughout I think that that successful launch, it was just so fun for the first time to celebrate something, you know, cuz it just had one hit
[00:47:50] Josh: after another. I'm so glad that worked for you because especially after two, it's like, it's one thing we need to cancel one. But then for the second one, I didn't realize it was like the day before day of it was like, oh, that's, uh, you need a win.
[00:48:02] Josh: That was the
[00:48:03] Betty: first need win. I needed a win. So that first time, um, that was once, I think once I was done with the major surgeries and um, that was good. Just getting outta the hospital, man, I wanted out so bad. I was like, yo, I'm gonna. Take these like, and by the way, God bless nurses, God bless nurses, they are angels.
[00:48:24] Betty: Like, yes, love my nurses. But I was ready. I'm like, I'm gonna be, I'm breaking outta here. Um, so I think turning point, I think once I was done with chemo, the heavy duty chemo that was making the hair fall out and, you know, it was an all day thing. It was very intense. Uh, once I was down, done with my chemo and I got to ring the.
[00:48:46] Betty: I think that was one of the biggest turning points. Of course, you know, we recorded me banging the bell and the nurses all stood in a row and they cl chat, you know, clap for us and I'm hugging them and that was a really cool moment. And then I think, you know, I had to, I went from being a runner to have to be in a wheelchair, you know, so my first walk, my first steps, uh, you know, I, then I started using a walker.
[00:49:11] Betty: So then the first time I walked without using a walker, and then the first time I, I ran my first couple of steps. So, Um, there, I think there are many. There wasn't like a turning point, but there are many beautiful moments as I continue to kind of crash through these milestones, uh, in both personal life and business.
[00:49:32] Josh: Oh, that's so beautiful. Which is like, Oh, now I'm gonna get emotional. Cause I'm thinking of like my daughter who is still recovering from a prolonged seizure and it was super scary. Eight day hospital stay. And um, she's still working through paralyzation on her left side. And I think I mentioned to you our, our baby boy came while she was in the hospital.
[00:49:53] Josh: Oh man. I forgot about that. Yeah, it was a Monday morning, October 10th. I'll never forget it. We found her. We found my daughter. In her bed, just having this seizure that may have been happening all night. We had no idea. She looked fine on the monitor, so we had no idea. I go to the squad, I, we call the squad.
[00:50:07] Josh: I go into Children's with her, and then, yeah, we're there. Um, she's starting to wake up, make recovery. My little boy comes and then the, the day after my daughter came home, my wife had a preeclampsia scare and was. Uh, emitted for two days or two and a half days in the hospital for her because she was like, probably hours away from like serious, serious situation.
[00:50:28] Josh: Oh, oh my gosh. So it was just all that stuff's, you know, all rains at poorest kinda situation. But as we've been home and we're recovering and my daughter's starting to get a little more use outta her left side, we're in pt, she's doing things, but she's not where she was. And it just, I say that, say it makes these little things just so precious in life.
[00:50:46] Josh: Like now she's crawling. I mean it, you know, it's part of it. Like I, I get teary every time I think about it because I, I just wanna see her walk again and enjoy her normal four year old toddler self. She will. Um, but, and she is, she is making progress. It's just very, very slow. But like, uh, two days ago, she got up on the couch all by herself while using her little left arm to get up there.
[00:51:08] Josh: Yeah. And it just makes that like press. Before her seizure and everything that happened, I would, it was just no big deal. I was like, oh, she got on the couch. Now it's like the most precious, amazing little thing. So I say that to say like, I think going through this situation, I'm sure what you've experienced it, it does just make you look at life differently and it makes you appreciate the small little things.
[00:51:28] Josh: My wife and I were joking about how excited we were just to be bored again, like to just have like a boring day with raising littles , uh, just makes. It just makes you appreciate like the level of appreciation through the roof. Oh, yeah. Through the roof. Yeah. I'm with you. Yeah, so I'm, I'm so glad Little moments.
[00:51:45] Josh: I'm so glad that, you know, that's what you've experienced and, and you know, you're able to, and I'm sure that implements in the business too. It's like, it makes you just appreciate the littlest things and not stress over some of the stuff that you may have been super stressed about. Let's small
[00:51:57] Betty: stuff, man.
[00:51:57] Betty: Don't let us. Everything is a gift. Everything is a gift. Um, and, and, yeah. And yeah, your story too, man. Yeah. When it rains, it pours. And, and I love hearing her milestones as well. And she, she will get there. She will get there. and so am I, you know? We'll, yeah. Taking our first steps together. So,
[00:52:17] Josh: um, you guys are warriors that there is no doubt about that. Like I'm surrounded by warriors. Your story is so amazing and you know, I, one of my students who I know got in contact with you, like she's going through, uh, a cancer situation as well. So it seems like I'm just, I'm seeing this more. Yeah. And I think it was interesting you talked about whether or not to, to share it with certain clients or, or certain levels of clients.
[00:52:38] Josh: Like you have your immediate clients and you have your audience. I chose to share it publicly just because Mm. Number one, I, well, I needed to pause my podcast and I didn't know, right? Like, is this going to be another several month thing that we're in the hospital? I had no idea. So, um, I felt like it was important to share, but by doing that out of the woodwork, so many people sent support and love and, uh, had a lot of similar stories.
[00:53:00] Josh: What, like, I, I didn't know anything about the world of seizures and now I'm like experiencing and, and finding out that it's very common and there it happens. It's something that is, um, Yeah, not uncommon, at least in in the world of Kingdom. Especially when it comes to special needs and stuff.
[00:53:15] Josh: So anyway, I say all that to say so many there, there's so much light. I, I, I know everyone goes through different situations, but finding the light and seeing the light during all this and just appreciating life and, and the littlest things, I think so important. So, I'm so glad. I'm just, long story short, I'm so glad to see where you're at with this Betty, so thank you.
[00:53:33] Josh: It's amazing.
[00:53:34] Betty: And, and I'm in a good place now just to kind of like, cuz I know it sounds scary when I say stage four cancer, people are rattled by that. I was rattle. I'm good. I feel good. That's amazing. I don't have any, any pain. The pain in my back has gone away. Uh, my, I was blessed to be, my, my partner is a fitness trainer, so Ryan is cooking me healthy meals and we're downstairs in the gym four times a week.
[00:53:59] Betty: I'm walking a mile and a half per day and then he's got me doing weights and stretches and, um, I feel incredible. I have an amazing medical team. Uh, technology medicine has come such a long way. Yeah. Um, I have been told I'm going to live a long. Life. Oh, that's amazing. I, I am so blessed to have the medicine.
[00:54:22] Betty: So when we get these hard things that we hear and we think it's the end of the world, um, there's hope and I'm, I'm living proof of that, and every day gets stronger and stronger. And one of these days I'm gonna be back to my half marathon status and yes. Raising money for cancer as I, as I, you know, run, run some kind of a, a half marathon coming up here. So, um, oh,
[00:54:45] Josh: that's so amazing. You are truly inspirational. Every, every meaning of the word. I mean, I just, I I love your story especially, I like that we're talking now, that we're, you've been through all this and you've learned so much, particularly just solely on the business front with everything you laid out with how to keep your business going. But it starts with you. It starts with your, my everything. Rising mindset is
[00:55:06] Betty: everything. Yes, everything. That's what got me through the whole thing. And we are now, we've already this year in business, you know, so personally, health-wise, am I ever gonna be able to say like, oh, I'm a hundred percent now, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm almost in remission, you know, but I'm, I'm feeling good business-wise.
[00:55:26] Betty: We've already more than doubled what we did last. And the year isn't even over. So we're, we're crushing records this year. So, um,
[00:55:35] Josh: like you say, so proof, proof that even if you go through a life best year challenging experience, you can still have your best year ever. Best year
[00:55:42] Betty: ever. And not at the, and not at the, um, what's the word? It's not like I had to spare my health to have a good. You're in business. It was both. I, I absolutely rallied around my health first, mental, emotional, physical that came first. And because the business was set up, systems, processes, s o p team, community, right? We had all the pieces set up. That's what, you know, allowed a plus the mindset piece us to have the best year.
[00:56:14] Josh: That's amazing. I was gonna ask you for a final thought to put a cap on this, but I can't think of anything better than that. I absolutely love what you laid out there and you said it. Mindset, mindset, mindset, mindset, everything. Man, mindset, everything. Well, Betty, yeah. Thank you so much for your time.
[00:56:27] Josh: Thank you for being an open book on your situation. I know this is gonna help so many people and yeah, everyone's situation looks different, but even with, with, with what I personally went through recently, like everything you said has hit me so heavy and so hard on this in a good way as far as like the things to do.
[00:56:43] Josh: And, and no matter what the situation is, when you're pulled away from your business and life hits you, whether it's a death in the family, whether it's something with your, your littles, whether it's your partner, whether whatever it is, whether it's you personally. All the challenges are similar in a, a lot of ways with just things being outta whack and not being normal.
[00:57:00] Josh: So I love your, your mission and, and just the reminder that it starts with you, starts with your mindset and have all these things in order. Betty, you're so awesome. You're a warrior. Thank you for your time today. I'm excited maybe to chat for, uh, for the next time to see what the next year looks like with this new level of appreciation and everything get going.
[00:57:17] Betty: Yes. I love it. Cool. Awesome.
[00:57:19] Josh: Thanks. Betty