Beth Rashleigh
===

Vince: [00:00:00] As soon as one thought pops in, it flies away because a different one just took its place. The problem is I remember the things that I forgot in the most inconvenient times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I just, I don't have any way to record this. And then 10 minutes later, I'm like. Dang it. Or it's 3 in the morning, you wake up, you're staring at the ceiling, it pops in your head and I'm like, why the fuck now?

Like, what am I supposed to do right now? Like, it's 3 in the morning, I want to sleep. Yeah. Why 

Beth: now? I used to keep a pad of paper by the bed. I'm not great about 

Vince: doing that anymore. Yeah, it's likewise. I did the same. So I had, when I went to, before I went to this, I had, you know, like the tangible hardbound notebooks and then had multiple of those, which I was like, this is ridiculous.

I'm carrying three of them. So that's when I went to this, but I don't have this by the nightstand because, you I'd be that guy that at three in the morning grabs it, fumbles it, cracks it, cracks it. 

Beth: Wakes Cindy up. It's all over. 

Vince: Yeah. Just. All right. Perfect. So question and a statement. [00:01:00] Um, the first question, see, here we go.

I have our first statement. I was going to forget it. Statement or question? I'll start with the question. Um, here's the question. The podcast that you guys have, um, so centered around Ted Lasso, leadership lessons within those episodes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What happens now with the season, not the season, but the series?

Beth: Yeah, so we're, we're actually on hiatus right now waiting to see whether the show spins off. So our guess is that they're going to knock on wood indeed. Right. Um, I, my guess is they're going to spin off the women's team. Okay. Oh, interesting. Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah. From the very, very end, they show Keeley, um, like passing over a plan for a women's club.

Yep. So I think that's what they're going to do. Okay. Um, so we'll just wait and see if there, if it still ends up being a show about leadership. You know, maybe we'll pick it back up. They only had 

Vince: three seasons? Three seasons. Like, yeah. I'm not in that industry. Yeah. But like, come on. I mean, dude, you're, you're up here.

I, I, I get the idea of, you know, exiting while you're on a high, but. My 

Beth: [00:02:00] understanding is that they had a very clear picture of exactly what they wanted the story to be, and really stuck to it, despite that it went crazy, right? And I respect that. Like, I miss the show. I'm a huge fan. Obviously, I have a podcast about it.

But, I get that. And I would much rather have had them walk away. It's with really I think the best finale that and has ever been made in television It's 

Vince: uh, it's better than it being a lot of really good TV shows that just drag it out a couple to write a couple seasons That's right, right. Yeah, I'd rather than know maybe I say well We're gonna go two more seasons because we're up here.

Yeah, those two seasons gonna be great. Yeah, just Well, they finished right before the writer's strike, so, you know, they knew, knew what they were doing, I guess. So my, my statement is when I'm flipping through Instagram, I have some, uh, leadership folks. As soon as you follow one, all of a sudden, like five pop up.

We all follow. Yeah. It's like the algorithm. Yeah. We travel together. We need a new [00:03:00] mattress. And I did a Google search on mattress. Now every ad, every other ad is about mattresses of brands I've never heard of in my life. Anyway. There's too many. Mattress. Clear close. That's, it's just hassle. That's a whole nother topic.

Identical. But yeah, like the wording of the ad is almost identical, yet it's a different brand. Like does the same company own five D? It's all the same manufacturer in the back ends, different front end brands. Um. We're not talking about mattresses today, but that's weird. Uh, the statement was, so Ted Lasso or the, um, Jason, uh, Sudeikis, is it Sudeikis, Sudeikis, Sudeikis, Sudeikis, Sudeikis, I mispronounced it, sorry, Jason.

I'm sure he's watching. Yeah. Big fan of the final episode. Yeah. Big fan. He, uh, he, they'll pull different clips from episodes of Ted Lasso that he says, and, and they're like, I mean, his lines are perfect. Right. And there was some leadership. Clips in those, but they're four minutes long and I'm like, that's a little exaggerated, but I'm like, if I could remember that line, cause it was [00:04:00] so perfect, but it's not just a little five word quote, it's, you know, multiple sentences.

But whoever write, I don't know if he writes that or a couple of people write, whoever writes most of that is 

Beth: phenomenal. Yeah. I know he writes a lot. Um, actually, uh, Roy is one of the writers. Okay. Yep. Um, Brant Goldstein, um, I think Beard is also a writer, um, I mean, they're a killer and like Brene Brown has had them on her podcast.

I think a lot of it was intentional, like the leadership lessons being there, I think was intentional. They did that on purpose. So, thanks for that. That was really helpful for those of us in the 

Vince: industry. Well, so I'll put you on a spot here. How about this? Before we get rolling. Thanks everyone. Um, If you had to summarize all the different leadership lessons that you have pulled from that series What is the one what is one of them that really stands out to you?

Beth: Yeah, there's a really [00:05:00] great Great line and I believe the last episode the last diamond dogs meeting that they have in the office where Nate is back and Higgins is there. Okay, and Rory is talking about he's just like Beside himself about how he is just still him, like he's been trying to do all this growth and he's still him.

And Higgins has this line that's all, all we can ever do is ask for help and move towards better. And if you're a leader and you are approaching things with that lens, you're gonna be fine. Ask for help, move towards better. 

Vince: That's it. How many leaders are afraid to ask for 

Beth: help? Almost all of them. Right.

Yeah. Yeah, so I think that's one of the nuggets that has really stuck. 

Vince: Yeah, that's good I mean it talks about going down the path of self awareness. We talked about this in a different episode where Former CEO of a big company here in town. I was I don't either high school or college age [00:06:00] and I was working at a frozen yogurt store my mom's and he came up as a customer and I don't remember how the topic came Up, but he's probably asking like what I was doing for school or whatever anyway Um, somehow he basically said, look, I don't, I'm not an accounting or finance person.

Kind of a weird statement of a CEO of a public company to say, he goes, but I know that that's not my thing. So I surround myself with people who are really good at that stuff. I'm like, huh, good to know. Yeah. You think, Oh, he's probably perfect at everything. No, no one 

Beth: is. Yeah, no. And it's the leaders who know that and do exactly what he does that are successful, right?

You have to know what you're really great at. You have to know what you're really terrible at and you have to account for that and you have to be really upfront with people about what those things are. Yep. Also, people who do those the best. Those are the leaders that, uh, we read books about. 

Vince: That's a general rule.

We'll get into that. That's a great lead in. Jury's still out as to whether I'm very good at podcasts. Oh, come on. We'll find out. Yeah. Alright, on that note, let's get rolling. 

Beth: [00:07:00] Okay.

Vince: Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the summits podcast. Thank you all for joining us from wherever you guys get your podcasts. Or if you're watching us on the heroes foundation, YouTube channel, thank you for doing so. Um, if you are on the heroes foundation, YouTube channel, and you haven't hit the subscribe button, be a leader, click that button, click the little notification icon.

So you can be notified when new episodes like this one drop, we would greatly appreciate it. It won't cost you a dime. You don't have to watch another episode of tabla. So if you don't want to, but. If you do, go for it. All right. Today we are joined by Ms. Beth Rashley. Beth, welcome to the Summit's podcast.

Thank you so much for 

Beth: having me. I did pronounce the last name correctly. You did. You got it. Perfect. It's like Ashley with an R in front 

Vince: of it. There you go. There you go. Yeah. Um, why don't you do us a favor and introduce [00:08:00] yourself? Yeah. 

Beth: So, um, I am a, I, I think the thing I always, you lead with is I'm a ginormous leadership nerd and lifelong learner like I that's I'm just Really curious and passionate about things that I'm interested in I go deep.

I want to understand all of it I own my own company. I'm the president of rashly consulting We do leadership coaching and consulting and training mostly in the Indianapolis area I do have a few clients out of state, and I've been doing that for four years, but I've worked in the leadership development space for gosh, almost 20 years, which is a little bit depressing.

So we won't go into a ton of details, but born and raised in Indy. I left for about eight years and lived in the Washington DC area. Where the weird thing, you know how sometimes you'll be somewhere and they'll be like, tell us a fun fact. Yeah. Um, the eight years that I was in DCI worked for the CIA . Okay.

Which [00:09:00] is a weird thing that not a lot of people, um, have on their resume . So that's always 

Vince: my fun fact first. I think that's cool as shit. Yeah. 

Beth: It's cool. Yeah. It is a cool thing that I got to do. So, but I did what I always tell people I did a really boring job at a really cool. place. 

Vince: So here's my first, well, two questions born, raised in Indy.

Where did you go to high school? I went to a new pal, new pal. Okay. Oh, really? Yeah. What year did you graduate? 

Beth: Uh, five. Yeah. You're 

Vince: younger than I am. Okay. Yeah. We lost my senior year in high school. We lost a new pal 

Beth: and yeah, they're pretty good at football. That's that's back when new 

Vince: pal was in our same class, my, my high school.

It's grown a little bit, but it's more or less the same size as it was way back then. New PAL has obviously grown tremendously. I went to Chittard. Oh, I didn't know that. Um, yeah. Yeah. We're pretty much the same size. Anyway. Yeah. Off topic. No. Um, CIA. Did you have a job that you can actually share with us what you did or not so much?

Beth: No, I can do like high level like I can't [00:10:00] tell you lots and lots of details and that's okay Yeah, I did a various a varying thing So much like the military when you work in the intelligence community you move jobs a lot like they kind of rotate you through different positions so Everything I did there with one exception was training related So I started, I started my career there teaching people how to properly store electronic records.

So like an email. Obviously when you work for the government sometimes those things can be like discoverable. Um, by both citizens and legal entities. So anyway, there are all these procedures. So I taught people how to do that. I taught people how to properly classify documents for a while. Okay. And then I finally got picked up, um, into the leadership space.

So I started doing leadership training there, and that's what I was doing when I left. 

Vince: So that's how you got into leadership. Yeah, 

Beth: I had an HR background before that, before I went, um, to work for the CIA, and they liked that, uh, especially in the leadership space. That's a [00:11:00] skill set that's helpful. 

Vince: Wow, you're starting to pull the leadership nerd out of me all of a sudden.

Yeah. Yeah. I know Hollywood is Hollywood and, and, and folks actually in the CIA might look at some of those movies and say, like Tom Clancy movies and be like, uh, or hit the books that turn into movies and be like. Yeah. That's total Hollywood. It's 

Beth: not right. 

Vince: I like to critique. But points from some of that, what you said, I'm like, Oh my God, that would 

Beth: be so interesting.

Yeah. It is interesting. And, um, I have had really cool students in my classroom, like people who are doing really cool jobs coming in for leadership training. Um, and that was. It's a huge privilege. I was a post 9 11 hire, so, um, we were in the middle of, you know, the war with Afghanistan and Iraq when I started.

Right. There was a lot of, there was a lot to be, like, patriotic about when I was in the movie Yeah, so 

Vince: like, Zero Dark Thirty is a movie I probably watched. Yeah. Yeah. I can't tell you how many times, and it's also one of those where, you know, it's midnight, should be turning everything off, going to sleep.

Yeah. And I decided to channel surf, and then I come across it, it's got, you know, an hour and a half [00:12:00] left. I'm like, oh, I'm in. I'm in. Yeah. You got me. When you, when I watch that, again, don't know if that's pretty far fetched or if there's some reality to it, but when you're in that organization and you have to make some very big decisions based on as much intelligence as you have, but it's not foolproof.

Yeah. Yeah. They're guesstimating. As best you can. That's the whole leadership stuff. I could play a huge role with 

Beth: that. Absolutely. Absolutely. There's a lot of, um, I would say more of in a lens towards ethics and leadership there than probably anywhere else I've been since, right? Like that, that we have to look at things through an ethical lens and a leadership lens, right?

Vince: Which could be difficult at times. Very, very hard. Depending 

Beth: on the topic. Right. And who gets to decide what's right or wrong. Like, that's a hard call sometimes. Uh, 

Vince: rules of engagement to some extent. But those probably get bent a little bit. 

Beth: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Super interesting stuff. What I'll [00:13:00] tell you in general is if you watch CIA shows, anytime you see somebody in a movie on a cell phone in a CIA building, that's when you know they didn't do any research.

You're not allowed to have your cell phone. You have to leave it in the car. Um, you can't even have it on, you know, which was really hard, like, when my son was little. Yeah. Like, you don't have a great way for people to get a hold of you. 

Vince: So I used to... You go into the black box and you come out a few hours later.

And pretty 

Beth: much you come out, yeah. Um, so emergencies were like a huge thing. I had, like, whole systems, especially when I was teaching and in a classroom, so not at my desk. You can't reach me on my desk phone either. Yeah. I had whole systems for, call this person and see if they're at their desk and they can come get me.

Yeah. You know, it's... It's just, it's a different kind of lifestyle. And I remember when I left and started working in corporate, like the first, I walked by somebody who had like a camera attached to a computer and was like downloading full, you know, uh, pictures off of it. My first thought was like, Oh my God, there's a security violation.

There's a security violation. [00:14:00] Cause you don't, you don't get to attach stuff to a computer, you know, like it's all very close. So I had a lot of like just mental retraining to do when I got out. 

Vince: Yeah. That's well, I do know two local individuals who do business with the government. And I knew I was aware of the cell phone thing because they told me like, yeah, when we go there to visit, we, they actually have clearance to get in.

But like, yeah, when they're, once they're in there. 

Beth: You're in there. They're off the some areas have like lockers for you to leave stuff in in case you don't have a car But yeah, like you don't get to have it. So that's wild. Hope you don't need it. Yeah 

Vince: The more you know, that's right. That's well, that's cool All right, so New Powell High School Went to Ball State for undergrad, right?

Yeah degree 

Beth: communication studies 

Vince: communication studies, okay, it was the What was your first job out of Ball 

Beth: State? Um, I was a nurse recruiter at Hendricks Regional. Okay. That was my first job out of college. Interesting. Yep. I have weirdly mostly worked in healthcare. [00:15:00] Okay. Except for the eight years I was at the CIA.

Right. That's an 

Vince: interesting transition. 

Beth: So I worked at Hendricks, then Hancock Memorial, then I moved to D. C. I came back and I worked for a company called Trimedics. Okay. Which is a, um, like think of clinical engineering is like the MRI machine who fixes it, who makes sure it's like maintained properly.

Um, Trimedics is a company that like comes into hospitals and helps companies do that. And so I did all of their leadership development. And then I went to community health, um, which is a big system here in Indy and did all of their leadership development. Cool. And they're still a client. I still do a lot of work with clients.

Vince: Good. Yeah. You ever work with Kyle Fisher? Uh, 

Beth: yeah, I know Kyle well, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I always forget Kyle's on the board. Uh, he was. 

Vince: He's rolled off now, but, um, still very involved. Yeah, Kyle's a good guy. They're good supporters. Um, so, at what point did you say, Okay, we're gonna do our own thing? 

Beth: Um, [00:16:00] so ironically, I officially left community November of 2019, which was just, can I just say stellar timing for starting a new business, um, pre pandemic.

Um, but the thing that really, like I had always felt the pull, in fact, when we moved back here from DC, I thought maybe I'll start my own company at that. point, but I didn't have the network here anymore. You know, like I've been gone for eight years. I just didn't feel like I was very plugged into what was happening here.

Um, so I decided to, to get a job somewhere and, and just start things that way and, and had multiple times felt the pull and community was really, um, such a cool job for me. I loved the job. I had a great boss. Community is a really cool place to work just in general. I was leading really a dream team and I still felt the pull.

And I thought that's information, right? Like if I'm in the perfect job and I still feel like this is something I need to do, that's probably something I need to do. So I had kind of started ramping myself up and then a good friend at community [00:17:00] actually got diagnosed with cancer. Um, pretty rough diagnosis at the beginning.

She's fine. Um, but she's two years older than me. And I thought, why do we all walk around like we have all this time? Like, you just never know. And I literally, she told me on a Sunday I went in and gave my notice on Tuesday, because it was a holiday weekend. Um, I gave two months notice and, you know, had lots of stuff to wrap up, but that was really the push that shoved me out on my own.

Vince: Right. Yeah. That was November of 19, 2019. Okay. Fast forward a few, five months, almost St. Paddy's Day and the green beer hitting the fan. Was that, this is, we're kind of getting off the topic a little bit, but I like this stuff. Um, was the, was the pandemic a good thing or a bad 

Beth: thing for your business? It was bad.

It was definitely bad. Um, I had a really good first year set up of in person team buildings and trainings that went out the window. [00:18:00] Yeah. And a lot of that didn't convert to virtual cause that if, especially I do a lot of team building work and that's just not as. It's fun to do. If you're not 

Vince: all together.

Yeah. I'd say one on one, you could probably get away with 

Beth: it. Yeah. But team building, not so much. No, you just can't. And, pivoted to some different things. I did some, um, more consulting work, you know, you, you piece stuff together and try to make it happen, but it was definitely rough. And I feel like this year is my first year I've actually been able to run the business I thought I was.

Building. Okay. Cool. Because it's just been every year has been a little different and, um, I think the pandemic changed a lot of things for companies and the way we think about things and that certainly affected my business and a lot of my, uh, peers. I know I haven't been alone in that struggle. So 23 has been a good year that yeah, 2023 happy palms.

Yeah, it's 

Vince: been a good year. So she's living up to the LFG in 23. Yeah, exactly. That's good. So now, we just come up with our, our tagline, if you will, call it whatever you want, for 24. It's now, do more in [00:19:00] 24. Oh, okay. There we go. And it, it, A, it rhymes. Yeah. Yeah, it's very good. Um, that's a big component. Yeah.

It's important for a good, 

Beth: uh, motto. It needs to rhyme. Yeah. It has to rhyme very, very high. Or it has to be alliterative, one or the other. Yeah. 

Vince: The, they really kind of, the more I think about it, it's going to be challenging because I'm not an economist, but they were all expecting the latter half of 23, things would start really taking a dive and it hasn't so much.

It's been a little spotty, starting to kind of do this. Um, now they're just, they pushed it off in the 24. So here I'm saying, okay, do more on 24 and if, if we do have a technical recession or something happens where things do slow down, it's going to, it's going to be more of a challenge for sure. 

Beth: Yeah. But that's the, yeah, that's the fun of being a business owner, right?

Trying to figure that stuff out. 

Vince: My magic eight ball sometimes 

Beth: fails me. Yeah, no, mine's been really lousy. Here's a funny thing I said to myself when I started the business is I was like, Oh, like to pep, pep talk myself into it. I was like, well, what's the worst thing that can happen? If it's a disaster, you'll go find [00:20:00] another job.

You're very employable. Okay. It's true. Well, no, not in 2021. If I hadn't wanted to go back, who was hiring a leadership development manager at that point? Nobody. So that was. That was a 

Vince: little bit naive of me. The answer is you're probably correct. I could argue that maybe they should because everyone was a little starting to go cuckoo and trying to figure out, oh my God, now what do we do?

You could really argue, now would be a great time to have a sounding board and help guide people through 

Beth: this. Yeah, but training in general is almost always the first thing that goes. Like, if times get rough, that's what they cut. And I get that. You know, it feels extra. It's not, but it feels extra. Right.

Yeah, we can talk about that later. 

Vince: It feels like an easier cut. That's another conversation. Mm hmm. Yeah. Um. Love it. Well, Beth, what is your cancer 

Beth: story? Yeah, so I, like everybody, have been touched by cancer in a million ways. I think, you know, we all know somebody who's fought it. Our most recent, um, [00:21:00] experience with cancer, um, my, my mother in law was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2021.

Is that right? Yeah. 2021. Okay. And she went through a mastectomy chemo radiation, um, at the age of 79. Um, which is, you know, that's tough. That's a tough, um, recovery. I think for anybody, I think the older you are, I think the more it affects you. Yeah. Um, she's doing well. Um, she's Uh, back at home living on her own and is cancer free right now.

So fingers crossed that sticks. Um, the way that, like the biggest impact to us other than obviously just, you know, caring and loving for somebody who is going through that is that because particularly of her chemo treatment, she was unable to live alone anymore. Okay. She got to the point where, um, she caught basically strep throat.

I think on [00:22:00] like treatment three of chemo, which for her was that I never remember what it's called, but it's the red one, you know, the really hard one. I can never remember what it's called. Um, but she did four doses of that at the beginning and then they switched to something different. Okay. So while she was going through the really tough one, it just knocks out, you know, your entire immune system.

So she got strep throat somehow. We think probably from a nurse. And, um, ended up in the hospital because she just couldn't fight it at all. Yeah. Um, got really weak. She was already pretty weak anyway, but, um, a couple weeks in the hospital didn't help that. And... Her immune system's 

Vince: already depressed. 

Beth: Yeah.

Suppressed. Yeah. And at that point, the hospital was like, we don't think she should go home. Um, and so then we had to kind of figure out, okay, what does it look like to... Get some care for her. And we were really ignorant about what that help and support looked like and really [00:23:00] thought the options would be better than they were.

So basically the option that ended up being the only viable solution was she moved in with us. Okay. Um, which I don't think was on any of the three of us like bingo card or like wish list. Right. Like that was not something that we, 

Vince: um, had planned on. You're dealing with that transition that... At this stage of our lives.

We're starting to happen. It hasn't happened to me yet But we have friends that have and this the storage an example of that where all of a sudden We're now adulting for our parents. 

Beth: Yeah, and I also have a teenager So I'm I am that you know, I remember reading about the sandwich generation you know when I was You know any I think probably at Ball State like that there were gonna be you know that issue of caring for elder care and childcare at the same time right It's like I anybody who's lived through it will tell you it is try to do that and have a job in like we were 

Vince: just [00:24:00] 

Beth: You know it's a lot.

Yeah, it's a lot to take on yeah, so 

Vince: So, how'd it go? I'm afraid to ask. I'm like, do I answer this? 

Beth: Yeah, I think it was, you know, I think all three of us would say it was hard. You know, it was a lot of, she required a lot of care. Um, none of us were particular, neither of us, my husband or myself, like we're not nursing professionals.

My husband's an IT professional. I'm a trainer. It's not really, you know, a nursing skill set. So to have somebody in home who required a lot of care was a lot. Um, she stayed with us. She moved in, I believe, like May 12th and left the week before Thanksgiving. So she was with us for about six months. So she got all the way through radiation.

Um, and then finally was able to start. Yeah. 

Vince: Okay. Uh, is she living on her own now? 

Beth: She does. She's still [00:25:00] okay. Good. Like, we, we still evaluate a lot. You know, we check in a lot. She still has a lot of trouble. I'm sure people who've experienced chemo know. She, she got a lot of neuropathy. Yeah. Mm hmm. Um, she already had some issues with her hands and mobility in her hands, just because Again, because of age, she's got some arthritis and other things, so she still has a hard time, like, opening things and unscrewing lids.

So, about once a week or so, my husband goes over and opens a bunch of stuff for her, or like, you know, she needed the water filter changed in the fridge the other day because she couldn't get it unscrewed, you know, that kind of stuff, and that's fine, like, we're, we're happy. Um, to go and help her with those kinds of things.

But I think there's a clock, you know, there's a clock to how long she's going to be able to be at home. Right. And we'll deal with that. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. She live nearby? She does. She's about 10 minutes from us. Okay. So 

Vince: that's also helpful. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You've been very active.

Uh, well, let me go back. Your introduction to Heroes, was it through Kelly, Canada? 

Beth: Yeah. So I went to college with Kelly. Right. Um, [00:26:00] we were Alpha Chi's together at Ball State. Right. And have kept in touch with her over the years. And I think right when we moved back. I don't even know if you remember this Vince.

But there were, there was a period where I was helping a little bit with the website. I think 

Vince: I do remember that, yeah. 

Beth: She reached out to me and was like, Hey, we've got this thing and we need help. And I was like, I can try. Like, I don't know. Like, I'm technical enough to like, be mildly proficient. I'm by no means an expert, but usually between myself and my husband we can figure stuff out.

So I was helping for a while before I got really busy with work, I know. So that was really when I started, uh, with Heroes. We started going to the gala regularly, and I've just continued to try to help efforts. It's such a great organization. 

Vince: Yeah, well, we appreciate that. Yeah. Most recently, though, I'm going to touch on this.

Come on. I don't, there's no photos. Oh, there, oh, there are photos. Yeah, there are photos. We'll, we'll debate later after the episode if you want us to pop one up on the screen. Chris would love to do that, I'm sure. Uh, but you've been involved with the Team Joey aspect of Heroes. Thank you. [00:27:00] Most recently, um, a party that we put on over at P.

A. Meaning Children's when we did the, uh, the room unveiling as well. Yes. Um, from, I think I know the answer, but I'm going to ask it anyway. So, you dressed up in character, because we often will do, uh, characters as part of the, uh, pizza parties and whatnot. As an adult who has now experienced that, and probably, I think you've probably been to a couple, is my guess.

Beth: Oh, I've, I've probably been to five or six of those over the years. Yeah. How 

Vince: would you summarize that experience? 

Beth: Uh, well, first I would say when you get in the costume, it's really hot. So just know that. Right. Be prepared. Bring a fan. That's my first advice. If Kelly talks you into getting into a costume.

Uh, be prepared for the heat factor. But I, it, it is such a gift to like, Get to interact with families and kids who are going through really hard things You know, like I I have been so blessed with a son who's incredibly healthy I don't take that for granted, especially when you spend any time at a children's hospital It makes you go home and hug your kid [00:28:00] right and and be grateful for that health So like to see kids walk in a room and be so excited to see you in a very hot uncomfortable minion Costume like it makes it super worth that.

Yeah They're so happy, and anything that puts a smile on their face, like, fine, dress me up in whatever you want to, 

Vince: I'll do it. You just hit the nail on the head for two reasons. One, that's, that's my experience with it. Yeah. I remember the very first time I went, it was not the first time we did it, I don't think, but that same reaction was like, holy crap, that, like, just, what you, I can't describe the feeling, but to know you're going in there, and you're seeing these six kids, six kids, But then all of a sudden they like yeah, they light up a switch is flipped.

Yeah, I mean, it's it's so cool And there's one it's funny You mentioned the minion because you were dressed as the minion as a minion most recently, but this goes back a couple years We had a minion character as well With us and we're going around room to room and we walk in [00:29:00] and the child in the bed was Already dressed up like a minion PJs That was a mask or something, something like minion goggle things.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Had him, had him. Oh my gosh. That was a boy or a girl, I can't remember now. But didn't have them on, but they were next to her, him or her. The minion character walks in and, I mean, it could not have been more perfect. And the kids just freaking lit up. The parents were lit up. Like, the mood in the room.

Yeah. Yeah. To the total 180. Yeah. They end up doing a picture and they put, the child put their, the minion goggles on. We still have that picture somewhere because you like, you look at, you just look at it and you're like, Yeah. Yeah. That's 

Beth: why. Yeah. That's exactly why. That's exactly why. Um, and there was, uh, this particular this last time.

So there were three of us that dressed up as minions. And when we came out of like the dressing area to go up the elevator to the thing, and there was a little girl, I don't know, maybe six or seven. I don't think you were there yet. Um, I will have her [00:30:00] face in my head forever, right? Like her face when she saw the three of us come out was just like, you know, like she could not contain herself.

And that's it. I mean, she, and she had her IV stand and her, it was in her hospital gown, like, come on. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I don't know very many people who wouldn't do whatever to make those kiddos smile. 

Vince: So. Yeah. If that. Experience and or showing that experience to someone when trying to sell what we do to them.

And if that, if that still doesn't resonate with them, then it's just 

Beth: not, it's just not for, it's not for them. Yeah. 

Vince: Yeah. If you can't have empathy for them. They may or may not have something wrong with them. Yeah. I will go there. I think that's right. I'm biased. That feels right. It feels right. Yeah. Well, cool.

Um, so last question that I have. Um, What about Beth Ley? Do we not know? I mean, the CIA was a good one. I did not know that. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that was 

Beth: a good one. Um, well, I guess the other thing I would just like throw out [00:31:00] is that, um, during the pandemic, I wrote a book. That's right. Um, which was kind of a crazy thing that happened, um, just through a kind of strange series of events.

But I ended up, I was working with a lot of coaching clients that were struggling with. Suddenly, we shifted really into like a crisis mode in 2020 and what does leadership look like? Like, what do you have to do differently? And as I started to pull resources, like I just wasn't real happy with what I found.

It's like, I just don't think, I think we need to think about this in a different way than we've been thinking about it before. So I ended up like starting to pull thoughts together and it turned into a book and got published and. Yeah, it was kind of a crazy, crazy thing. And now you put author. I do. I'm an author now.

That's very cool. Yeah, which is 

Vince: cool. So the name of the book is Crisis Proof Leadership. Uh huh. Still for sale. Still for sale. You can get 

Beth: it on Amazon. Yep. Perfect. Barnes and Nobles. There's audio version if you're an audio person. Okay. Read by yours truly. Oh. So just know that. How was that experience? It was awful.

I thought that was going to be really fun. Yeah. [00:32:00] It was awful because you have to read it word perfect like you have and especially when you wrote it Yeah, do you know how easy it is to like just you know through the words? Yeah, and yeah, it was it was tough I felt really you 

Vince: have someone there like coaching you to say hey you need to repeat that 

Beth: line Yeah, like I had a audio engineer, huh?

I got really lucky. I got to decide how it was recorded. So I just happened to have a friend from high school that is a sound engineer. Okay. And I reached out to him and was like, Hey, I got to do this audio book. Would you want to help me? And he was like, I would love to, but I actually don't have time.

But I've got this guy who does work for me that I think would be great. Yeah. my house and turned my office into a studio basically and he was, you know, had headphones on and would be like, okay, I need you to try that one again or, you know, let's back up to here. And 

Vince: how long did it take you from start to finish to do the audio recording?

It was 

Beth: a long day. We did it in one day though. We had planned to do it in two, which I do honestly think would have been better. I was pretty fried by the end of it. It probably took us six hours or so to [00:33:00] get through it. Are there a lot of 

Vince: pictures in the book? No, there are no pictures. 

Beth: No, there are no pictures, but what I will say is I designed it with leaders in mind, so I think it's like 180 pages.

You can read it... In, in one sitting. Every fourth page 

Vince: is blank. Because by then we've, our minds gone off to something else. And it's very like, I did 

Beth: want it to feel like you were taking a leadership class. So it's like, okay, let's talk about this. Then there'll be a, a reflection to think about, or there'll be a tool to use.

Um, and I, I was really thoughtful about that piece of it. So I have heard from lots of people who've read it that it's number one, both really practical and second, like it's not a hard read. Right. You can pick it up and 

Vince: chalk it out pretty quickly. I don't know if you've read it yet. Here's your copy. You can do it.

I should have brought you one. Just slide it right across the table. I didn't think about it. Well, no, I, I think I'd have. You might have one. I'm going to make a note and see if I, if I don't, I know we're all jump on this afternoon and buy one. [00:34:00] Yeah, 

Beth: you might have one. Cause I did. I did. Um, when we were doing pre sales, I did give part of the pre sales to heroes.

Thank you for that. I know some people from heroes 

Vince: bought it. Have you seen a big disparity between people buying the physical book versus doing the audio book? No, I 

Beth: would say by, I mean, most of my sales come from the physical book, which I was a little surprised about. I thought the audio book, especially in the leadership space, I thought would be, um, more appealing.

Vince: I'm a tangible person. Daniel hates. Well, I don't know how to read. He's very annoyed that I still print stuff off to read. Like if it's more than a couple paragraphs, I'd rather print off and go to bed. Yeah, I feel that. So books, I gotta have an actual, tangible book. And I like hardback books more than I like salt 

Beth: or paper.

Wow, and so here's the sad, it's only in paperback. It's 

Vince: fine. No hardback book for me from buying it, but. Yeah. Yeah, I, I, audio books are, are for me, I don't know. Yeah. 

Beth: I'm a kindle, I'm a kindle girl too. So I, what I like about kindle, [00:35:00] especially if I'm reading like a nonfiction, like leadership type of book is it has that like highlight and note feature and then you can just go back and look at all your notes and that's so helpful when it's something, you know, you want to like reference.

So that's. I 

Vince: just, I have a very bad problem of, kind of like what you're saying, you, you start reading something and then I'll get halfway through the page and like, my mind has drifted onto something completely else and I have to re read this page. Right. Well 

Beth: that's what happens to me with audio books.

Okay, yeah. See. Like my mind will wander, especially if I'm like listening to one in the car, like I'll get distracted by something and then I'm like, crap, what was happening in my, in my book? Yeah. 

Vince: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Hopefully people don't eat it with our podcast, but you never know.

They would never. Hey, welcome back. They would never. Yeah. Pull them back in. That's right. All right. Well, cool. Hey, um, I just want to say thank you for all the things that you do for heroes. We appreciate your guys support and thanks for being here today. Not a problem. Thanks for having me. I learned 

Beth: something new.

That's great. That's always the 

Vince: goal, right? Now I'm even more intrigued with what you really did at the [00:36:00] CIA. Oh, 

Beth: yeah. I really promise I'm telling you the truth. 

Vince: Well, if not, we'll just let her watch. And I can pass a polygraph to 

Beth: prove it because that's the other fun thing about working at 

Vince: the CIA. Okay.

Next time she's on the show, we'll have the polygraph set up and we'll see how that comes up. 

Beth: God, that'll make me have flashbacks. 

Vince: Please don't do that. All right. Well, cool. Well, thank you for your time today. We appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys for joining us today on this episode of The Summit's podcast.

So for those of you that are joining us from wherever you get your podcasts, or if you happen to be joining us on the Heroes Foundation YouTube channel, thank you all for tuning in. Don't forget, if you're on the YouTube channel, hit that subscribe button, hit the little notification bell icon, so you can be alerted when new episodes drop like this one.

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