Episode 140 – Carleeka Basnight-Menendez

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Automated Transcription

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Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  0:00  

I was sick, I was silent and I was stuck. And so I was sick with the eating disorder, anorexia, and I was anorexic starting on the 10th grade, all the way up to my early 30s. So you all I am almost 41 I know I don’t look like it, but that’s okay. And so that was the sick part. But it caused me to be silent as well, because I was suffering in silence. No one knew about it. And being Of course, being an African American woman, that wasn’t a thing that we did. So they said, and so then I was stuck. I was stuck in between, nor my passion, nor my purpose, and figuring out what is my position to play in life. And so one day I sat in the mirror, at 80 pounds, and I was just crying because I’m like, there has to be more to me than this. I don’t want to have to make the decision of do I want to live or do I want to die, I was literally addicted to losing weight when I say I could not get skinny enough. And I thrived on that. I live in a two-parent home, going to church, all those amazing things, but no one knew so I have my own secret. And so it was more so about having control over my life. So that’s why I say I was sick, I was silent and I was stuck. Because I was stuck in a box of perfectionism. And that was paralyzing me in every aspect of my life because I was waiting on that moment, waiting on that time, not realizing I was literally killing myself.

 

Richard Matthews  1:33  

Heroes are an inspiring group of people, every one of them from the larger than life comic book heroes you see on the big silver screen, the everyday heroes that let us live the privileged lives we do. Every hero has a story to tell, the doctor saving lives at your local hospital, the war veteran down the street, who risked his life for our freedom to the police officers, and the firefighters who risked their safety to ensure ours every hero is special and every story worth telling. But there was one class of heroes that I think is often ignored the entrepreneur, the creator, the producer, the ones who look at the problems in this world and think to themselves, you know what I can fix that I can help people I can make a difference. And they go out and do exactly that by creating a new product or introducing a new service. Some go on to change the world, others make a world of difference to their customers. Welcome to the Hero Show. Join us as we pull back the masks on the world’s finest hero preneurs and learn the secrets to their powers their success and their influence. So you can use those secrets to attract more sales, make more money, and experience more freedom in your business. I’m your host, Richard Matthews, and we are on in 3…2…1…

 

 

Hello and welcome to The Hero Show. My name is Richard Matthews. And today I’ve got live on the line. Carleeka, Carleeka, are you there?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  2:36  

Yes. Hi, Richard. How are you?

 

Richard Matthews  2:39  

Awesome. So glad to have you here. And you know, for those of you who have been following along with ours, our travels as we run this podcast, we are still in Florida. We continued on from Sarasota. We’re back in Kissimmee. For for you know, this post-election sort of stuff. And you said you were coming in from Georgia? Is that right?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  2:57  

Yes, St. Mary’s, Georgia. So it’s a small town. Not too big. But we’re right at the Georgia border line. So I cross and see Welcome to Florida on 95 in like two minutes.

 

Richard Matthews  3:10  

Nice and close to where we are. Maybe we’ll have to stop by on our way up the East Coast this next summer to get coffee or something. That’d be cool.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  3:17  

Yes.

 

Richard Matthews  3:18  

So Carleeka, you are do a brief introduction for my audience who may not know you, you are a motivational speaker, a life coach and an accountability partner. And you are sort of the founder of the F-IT method, which is something we’ll see we’ll get to hear a little bit more about today. So with with that sort of brief introduction, why don’t you start off by telling us what it is that you are known for? What’s your business? Like? Who do you serve? And what do you do for them?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  3:48  

Okay, so for my business. Thank you. First of all, let me say thank you to Richard for the opportunity to share with you all and so yes, I am a award winning life coach, I work for the city of Jacksonville as the best life coach. So that was exciting. I have a nonprofit organization as well. INSO Inc, which we serve women, empowering them to gain more awareness, visibility, and engagement. We are all in this virtual space. So Zoom is blowing up. Everyone’s on it. Everyone’s on social media 24 seven now. And so, as entrepreneurs, if we’re not creating an online presence, you’re gonna get lost in the sauce and no one’s gonna know that you exist. And if no one’s knowing you at this, guess what, not probably making any money either. So that is my goal to help women gain more visibility and be accountable accountable. You said you’re gonna write the book, I want date. I want times When is it going to be finished? And all of those things and so that’s who I serve, and I love it. I love it. I love it.

 

Richard Matthews  4:57  

That’s awesome. Yeah, I may have to chat with You later about your nonprofit organizations, I think our our Push Button Podcast agency might be really helpful for the women in your group. So that’s cool. So what I want to find out from you then is your origin story. How did you get into this type of business where you’re helping women build their online presence and that kind of stuff? We say on the show, every good comic book hero has an origin story. It’s the thing that made them into the Hero they are today, we want to hear that story. Were you born hero? Were you a bit by a radioactive spider that made you want to get into into this brand building stuff? Or did you start in a job and eventually switch over to becoming entrepreneur, basically, where did you come from?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  5:36  

So basically, I feel that everyone is born, there’s a hero and everyone, you’re born with something, right? However, you don’t always exist as that. And so you go through this journey. And so for myself, I was born a hero. I’m gonna pat myself on the back for that. I was born a hero. But I had to go through a transformation to get to the place that I am now. And so I often say I was sick. I was silent, and I was stuck. And so I was sick with an eating disorder, anorexia, and I was anorexic, starting on the 10th grade, all the way up to my early 30s. So you all I am almost 41. I know, I don’t look like it. But that’s okay. And so that was the sick part. But it caused me to be silent as well, because I was suffering in silence. No one knew about it. And being Of course, being an African American woman, that wasn’t a thing that we did, so they say, and so then I was stuck. I was stuck in between, nor my passion, nor my purpose, and figuring out what is my position to play in life. And so one day, I sat, in the mirror, at 80 pounds, and I was just crying because I’m like, there has to be more to me than this. I don’t want to have to make the decision of do I want to live or do I want to die, I was literally addicted to losing weight when I say I could not get skinny enough. And I thrived on that. I live in a two parent home, going to church, all those amazing things. But no one knew. So I have my own secret. And so it was more so about having control over my life. So that’s why I say I was sick, I was silent. And I was stuck. Because I was stuck in a box of perfectionism. And that was paralyzing me in every aspect of my life. Because I was waiting on that moment, waiting on that time, not realizing I was literally killing myself, killing myself slowly. And so that’s my origin. And so even with the nonprofit inside out, that’s where I got the name from, because I literally had to heal and come to terms with some things that that number one was a mental illness. And we that stigma over mental illness and all those things, thankfully, is being birthed out even more in this day and age than back during that time with me. But um, yeah, that’s where insideout came from. Because if I did not allow myself to heal, if I did not gain control and get more momentum over that area, I definitely wouldn’t be sitting here. So that’s my origin. That’s why I say everyone has a hero in them. But you have to transform into it.

 

Richard Matthews  8:22  

Yeah, yeah, that’s, uh, I mean, it’s, it’s tough to overcome addiction. I know. I’ve had some friends in that situation from you know, everything from alcoholism, to, to drugs to eating disorders, and it’s not an easy thing to overcome. So congratulations on that. I know, it’s something you probably struggle with the rest of your life, but you look very healthy. Now. As you’ve said a minute ago, you don’t look at 41 years.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  8:44  

Look, let me tell you, y’all, I’m in menopause. So you keep transitioning, right? I was thrown into menopause 10 years ago. So I’ve had some weight gain and different things, all from menopause. But we’re bringing awareness to menopause even more one woman at a time. That’s what it’s about.

 

Richard Matthews  9:03  

Yeah, yeah. So did you spend any time working in the corporate world? Or have you always been working in as an entrepreneur? No.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  9:11  

So um, I was the educator for seven years. And then I was like, Okay, I’m a little tired of this part. So let me go into the hospital. And currently, I’m not a full time entrepreneur. I might as well be. As soon as I get off at seven or eight o’clock in the morning. You all Yes, I work, the worst hours ever. 1 am I so about 7:30-8 o’clock as a histotechnologist, so I study tissue and diseases. I’m a science person. That’s what my background is in science, science, science. So that’s why I thought this was really cool and exciting because I’m like, right, I’ve always thought I was this like superhero with all these magic potions. Yeah, yeah. So I have a science background.

 

Richard Matthews  10:06  

Nice. So so you’re, you’re sort of in the process of taking, taking this and turning it into a full-time gig? 

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  10:13  

Yes, yes, yes. Yes. So once I’m off in the morning, I feel like I already do it full time. Because I pour so many hours, I have clients when I get off, and different things, and of course, interviewing and writing the book and doing all these different things. Richard, you better get you some sleep. You understand me?

 

Richard Matthews  10:31  

I know I have a baby at home. it’s it’s a it’s rough.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  10:36  

How old? How old is your baby?

 

Richard Matthews  10:39  

She is she just turned 20 months. She’s 20 months. She’s one of four we have here.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  10:44  

Oh, wow, I have three. But they don’t keep me up. I have an 18 year old 16 and 10. So everyone’s grown.

 

Richard Matthews  10:53  

I have, I have a 11 year old, a seven year old one who’s about to be four who keeps coming into our bed in the middle of the night when she gets scared. And our 18 month old who we just kicked out of our bed. And we’re going through the rough transition.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  11:07  

I’m gonna keep you all in prayer. So you can yawn you can right. We appreciate it. Go ahead and take your nap if you need to. Cuz that sounds rough.

 

Richard Matthews  11:22  

It’s just it’s it’s the it’s the constant never ending thing. But I’m really excited. Because once she’s like solidly in her bed, it’ll be the first time we haven’t had a kid on our bed for seven years. So I’m like, really excited

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  11:34  

for you guys on the real superhero.

 

Richard Matthews  11:40  

At least to those three babies.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  11:42  

Yes, yes. That’s why I stay mine. But your yours are at the stage where they’re still running up to you. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, mine, we have to come into their space. Hey, what’s going on? How’s it going? So we have now we’ve transition.

 

Richard Matthews  11:56  

Are you still here? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, what’s going on? My my three year old comes up every morning. And he tells me that I gives me a hug and tells me I’m the best daddy ever. So I’m like, it doesn’t even matter if I never sleep again. Good.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  12:10  

It is those moments that we have to enjoy. I’m all about maximizing my moments. Because I’m really busy. My husband’s really busy. I mean, he’s a personal trainer. He works on the base. But we make that time because I’m like, we have to maximize it. We have to maximize the moment maximize the time. So yeah, enjoy. And while we are still running up to you, and not just from my end Absolutely.

 

Richard Matthews  12:32  

I have a I have a couple of friends of mine who all have their their teenagers. And it’s it’s interesting spending the weekend with them. Because I’m like, this is what my life looks like in 10 years. So I know it’ll still be fun. It’s a different stage, but I’m gonna miss this stage when it’s gone.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  12:53  

Yeah, just all I say is like, we have a lot of pictures. So I just look at a lot of pictures. At times like Oh, I remember when you were this small. Nope

 

Richard Matthews  13:02  

I feel like I feel like I’m going to trade, the lack of sleep from getting woken up by babies to the lack of sleep because I’m worrying about my teenagers and what it is they’re doing with their lives. And that’s the

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  13:12  

transition. And so even when we’re talking about superheroes and that power as parents, it is a different worry. So like my 18 year old Of course, she drives and all of these different things. And I’m just like, Oh my God, alright, be safe. Text me call you when you get there, this, that. And third, and it is it’s a different set of it’s a different set of worries.

 

Richard Matthews  13:35  

Yeah, I remember. I remember I got an if when I was like when I was 17. I got in a fight with my mom, which I regret now but I got a fight with her cuz I didn’t want to call her when I got places. I thought it was childish for me to call her and let her know that I got there safe. And it’s funny because like now as a parent, I’m like, Man, that was ridiculous. And I have since apologized to my mother for that because like I totally get it once you’ve grown up a bit, but man when I was 17 I was like you’re cramping my style. Wow you turn and got a turn with my life.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  14:08  

It’s like, no, yeah.

 

Richard Matthews  14:10  

She’s like, She’s like, all I’m asking is for you to call me and let me know that you made it there alive.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  14:16  

That’s it. That’s what I say mine. Yeah, we want to make sure you make it.

 

Richard Matthews  14:21  

And what’s funny is like now, my wife and I four and four kids travel all the time. And to this day, I still call or text my mom and be like, Hey, we’re leaving today. I’ll let you know when we get where we’re going safely because I know she worries.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  14:33  

And you know what my mom? And I’m 35. And look, I Richard I’ll be 41 next month and my mom lives in Virginia. And so when we go out of town or anywhere, she knows, I talk I took and talk to her on my way into work just because she’s like, I just want to know that you made it there safe because of the time of you know wee hours of the morning. But it’s fine. I want to give her that comfort because with so many things that’s always happening you just never know.

 

Richard Matthews  14:59  

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I know you mentioned that you, you, you do a lot of science work and do some other cool things, you you have superpowers, one of the things we talked about on the show is your superpowers, right? Every iconic hero has a superpower. And you know whether that’s a fancy flying suit made by the genius intellect, or the ability to call down Thunder from the sky, or maybe in your case, the ability to detect all the diseases in human tissue, or whatever it is, heroes in the real world have what I call a zone of genius, which is either a skill or a set of skills that you were born with, or you developed over time, that really energized all your other skills. It’s the common thread that sort of brings all of your your skills and experience together. And it’s what sets you apart and allows you to help other people slay their villains and come out on top in their journeys. So that sort of framing What do you think your superpower is?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  15:48  

I think my superpower is just being able to really be so transparent and relatable to people. It doesn’t matter what their background is. I’m a principle person. Principles and motives. That’s like my whole thing, where we’re all alike in some form or fashion. Like you said, earlier, I may have been addicted to losing weight. But every one of us have had something. And so just bridging that gap of regardless of anyone’s ethnicity, regardless of anyone’s background, I’ve definitely been blessed just to say, Hey, I’m just like you. And we’re relatable in some form or fashion. So I’m thankful for that and being creative.

 

Richard Matthews  16:32  

Yeah, that’s, that’s that ability to take your, your experience and bridge the gap of someone else’s life experience and show how you are, you know, we’re living this sort of same story together we have fellowship is it’s how you it’s like, this is the base of relationships. And it’s how it’s also the base of persuasion, which, you know, you’re in the business of helping people get better results in their life. Right. And that’s all it all starts with, you know, internal persuasion, like changing your actions. Yeah. So you you sort of have to have that baseline skill in order to help people move and change.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  17:09  

And you do and sometimes people, I say, it is a superpower and a gift because sometimes people can’t fathom trying to actually relate to that other person when you can almost physically and mentally put yourself in their place. Yeah, yeah. I

 

Richard Matthews  17:26  

mean I exactly, it’s empathy as a superpower. If be, what do you call it? To kill a Mockingbird, you know, you really know a person when you can walk a mile in their shoes. And I said, My, one of my, my best friends and business partner a lot of things is, that’s a superpower too. And it’s amazing where you can come at pretty much any situation from writing a sales letter to sitting down with someone to getting on a podcast like this, and just immediately step into the other person’s reality and look at the world through their eyes and really understand them. And that’s a hard and rare skill. So

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  17:59  

It is it’s hard and is, it can be draining at times, too. It can be very emotional and draining at times, too, because sometimes you can almost literally feel someone’s hurt. And you’re just like, Whoa, they really hurting. It’s also, you probably also have a really hard time being angry at people or having

 

Richard Matthews  18:23  

enemies because you can see the world from their eyes. Yeah, I’m always internalizing because. If I had to guess it probably makes you obscenely optimistic. Right, someone pulls you out, you know, cuts you off on the road. And your thought is they’re probably rushing to get their wife to the hospital instead of some other thing.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  18:43  

Or like, yep, they didn’t probably leave early. So you can have the road. I’m fine with it, I just want you to have it, you can have it. I just want to get to my destination safe. You can have it. So that is true. I’m not an angry person. Most most people are like, Oh my god, you’re always happy. And I’m like, Well, I’m alive. So you don’t have any challenges? I do. I really do. I tell them often I’m a real women with real issues. But I come up with real solutions. I don’t believe in staying stuck. I don’t believe in repeating the problem. Let’s get a solution. What are we going to do about it? Okay, it’s time to move forward.

 

Richard Matthews  19:25  

I like that, that I’m not a fan of repeating the problem. One of the things I tell my kids all the time is that the lesson is repeated until the lesson is learned. Right? In, in our current situation. It’s the two year old who keeps climbing up on the thing we keep telling her not to climb up on and she keeps falling off of it and hurting herself. And I’m like, babe, like this lesson is going to be repeated. You’re going to continue to hurt yourself until you learn to stop doing it.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  19:52  

I’ll get one day not today though.

 

Richard Matthews  19:56  

Not today. I’m still gonna push the boundaries and see what see how it goes, Well, you go, I mean, it’s your, your body your life, right? That’s what they tell us if you want to continue to injure yourself doing this thing I’ve told you many times not to do. Yup you own it basically.

 

Yeah, yeah, my, my favorite was my. She’s seven now. But when she was two, we were baking cookies. And she pulls the cookies out of the oven, the pan is hot, right? And she stands, she wants the cookie. And I’m like, don’t touch that it’s hot. And you know, I told her like three or four times it’s hot, and she’s looking at going hot. And she couldn’t help it. She reached out and tried to grab a cookie and burned her hand on the hot pan. She’s crying and she’s going hot, hot. Now you understand? That’s what it means.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  20:45  

I mean, I guess Think about it. Think about when we were maybe not even their age, or even as adults, how many times as an adult? Have we done the same thing? Thinking that we’re going to get some different results. And then you’re beating yourself up? Because it’s just like, Oh, my gosh, I know, I shouldn’t have did that I should have did this or I shouldn’t have spent that money or I shouldn’t have went that way. Think about the directions. I’m sure your wife from don’t go that way. We probably need to go that one slide no is this way, I think I’ll just say you know what, okay, I went the wrong way.

 

Richard Matthews  21:18  

Or when you when you take that client on and you knew you shouldn’t have and it goes poorly. You’re like, dang it shouldn’t have done that. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, did it anyways. But eventually, eventually you learn your lesson, you start holding to your holding to your standards, the standards you hold yourself to. So listen, the flip side of your superpower is your common enemy. Right? Every superhero has an arch nemesis, right? It’s a thing that they have to fight against in their world. In the world of business that takes a lot of forms. But generally speaking, we put it in the context of your clients, right? It’s people who hire you or come to you for help. And it’s a mindset or it’s a flaw that you’re constantly having to fight to overcome, right, so that you can help them actually get the result that they came to you for. And so like if you had your magic wand and someone came to you and hired you or were, you know, in your audience, and you could just pop them on the head with your magic wand and not have to deal with that and help them get their results better. What is that arch nemesis for you?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  22:13  

It will be overthinking just overthinking. Literally, okay. I’m a planner by nature. So I need A B C D I gotta plan it all the way probably up to E ain’t don’t work. Okay, go to the next one. And so just overthinking. And looking so far ahead was something that I’ve even had to tell myself Hey, pullback, and even in my personal life, enjoying the moment right here. You’re in this space right now enjoy this moment because my my mind to be like, Okay, I got this to do this to do, this to do. Okay, yep, yep, yep, yep. Right. So I would definitely say overthinking, I see that quite often. which, to me, it paralyzes you big time. Because you’re waiting to think okay, well, if I do this, and if I don’t do that, but if I do this, this may happen. So just the overthinking even when you’re doing afraid or even take the leap, you can still end up overthinking at home. Maybe I shouldn’t say that. Maybe I shouldn’t do this. And then I’m like, Oh, well. I did, just do it.

 

Richard Matthews  23:18  

So so I have to I have to completely agree with you on the overthinking thing, just from like a personal experience standpoint, the thing that really changed, changed a lot in our business was a realization that came from our travels. And we started traveling, the first couple of months, we were traveling, my wife and I planned out like every day for several months in advance, like where we were going to be and what the things were and all this stuff. And found out that planning even a few weeks in advance, while you’re traveling full time is very, very difficult, very stressful, and it never goes the way that you plan, right. So you’re like, you plan something three, you know, two months out. And then you know, today, you bust something on your rig. And now you have to spend an extra two days fixing it, everything has to be changed all the way down the line. And it’s, you know, very, very difficult to do that. And very stressful. And we learned actually that it’s a lot easier to just sort of know the direction that you want to go and work towards that direction and have short term plans. Right? And once was, that’s what that sort of realization transitioned into my business and realize, Hey, you know what, I know where I’m at. And I know where I’m going. And I need to worry about what’s the next thing I need to get done. What’s the next place that I need to get to? Instead of trying to plan out you know, if I’m trying to go from California to New York, planning every stop along the way is not useful. But planning the trip from California to Las Vegas is useful, right? Because you can do that in an afternoon. You can get it done and you can then you can step on, you know work on the next thing right getting from Vegas to I don’t know Salt Lake City or something. And the same thing applies in your business. You’re like I’m here. I want to get there. Right. I want to get all the way to New York with my business. Yeah. But usually the plan, what’s the next step? What’s the next big way.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  25:04  

And I think if more if more entrepreneurs even took that aspect of it, then we wouldn’t get so overwhelmed and get so frustrated, which causes us to either put a long pause into things or either stop altogether. So that’s what I do in my business too. Even though I made plan, I’m like, you know, what, what’s the next step? And because if I know, I know, if I can take the steps where I want to be, I’m going to get there. And it’s like even dealing with our GPS, you may put in an address for your destination, I’m sure traveling, you all have been in areas where the GPS just stopped altogether. Okay, or when you had to use the GPS, any once you made a wrong turn, and they reroute you, it’s not that you’re not going to get to your destination, it may have added a few minutes to it, or maybe even taking you minutes off. So I love that concept, just one step at a time, my husband often says in his training, one rep, one step one pound at a time. I said, right, one step, one rep one pound at a time. And so I love that too. I love it.

 

Richard Matthews  26:12  

Yeah, and it’s one of one of the things that’s been really effective growing my business over the last many years has been learning how to be satisfied with accomplishing one thing a day. And it it’s it’s interesting that trying to accomplish a bunch of things. Kept my business stalled for a long, long time. Don’t get anything done until I was like, You know what, I just need to figure out what’s one thing I can do today doesn’t even have to be big, right? Like, get that done. And that’s it. And then if I get other things done today, that’s fine. But I got the one thing I needed to get done. And those things compound.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  26:49  

What I find with a lot of clients, too, they feel like they’re so stuck. And I’m just like you’re trying to do all the things. That’s why you’re stuck because you’re trying to do 50 things, and you haven’t even mastered one. Take one thing and say okay, this is what I’m going to work on today. And this is what I’m gonna finish today. And then like I said, because now you frustrated me, trying to do these 50 things I say I don’t do 50 things I said whoever said multitasking was an amazing thing. I was like they lied certain things you cannot multitask on I’m in a book in biology call finally free. And so yesterday I took I said you know what, I’m just sitting down, and I’m gonna write this chapter and a discussion, no distractions. I sat down and wrote a chapter in less than an hour or so. 1000 words. I said, That’s nothing but two pages. Just get it done. And I was like, Okay, well, that’s good.

 

Richard Matthews  27:47  

I like that. It just got done naptime. Yeah, ours is we got it done. Let’s go to the pool or go to whatever area we’re gonna go enjoy something. Yeah, go have a meal in a local place.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  27:59  

Hey, I love it, love it, love it. Speaking

 

Richard Matthews  28:02  

of I was told the other day, I’m curious your opinion on this, because you’re from southern Georgia, that the south, like the US the South ends at the Florida Georgia line, and Florida doesn’t count as the South Do you? Do you agree?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  28:20  

Sorta kinda. Sorta, kinda 

 

Richard Matthews  28:24  

sorta, kinda.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  28:27  

So originally, I lived in we lived in Virginia. So we’ve been here in Georgia now for eight years. So compared to Virginia, This to me is the South. I mean, I probably see more deer and hogs and stuff just roaming in the street and alligators and all these things than I’ve ever seen in my entire life. So anytime you can see an alligator in the middle of the road, and he’s not dead. To me, I’m in the zone. 

 

Richard Matthews  29:01  

That’s funny. Yeah.

 

Awesome. So I want to talk a little bit about your driving force right so you know the flip side of your of your common enemy. Your common enemy is something you fight against is your driving force. Is what you fight for? Right? So Spider Man, you know, he fights to save New York, Batman fights to save Gotham or Google they fight to index and categorize all the world’s information. What I want to know is what is it that you fight for in your business, your mission, so to speak?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  29:27  

Oh, my mission is definitely to empower more women not to be silent. I think as women we have so many hats that we wear. that a lot of times we put ourselves on the back burner. We put our kids we put everything our careers, everything is before us. And then one day we wake up and we’re just like, Whoa, what about me? I’ve done everything for everyone else and being what about me and allowing women just to be who they are breaking down those barriers of those self limiting beliefs self doubt, rejection and overcoming those barriers and things that they had from their childhood that some of them, unfortunately are still carrying in their late 40s, and 50s. And it’s just like, hey, it’s time to let it go, you have to let it go. So you can move forward. And so definitely, I’m always fighting for that. I’m always fighting for women to share their stories, because our stories are so important. They, they’re someone else’s hope we went through it. So we’re already done going through it. I’ve already went through the eating disorder. I’m not anorexic anymore. So but there is like, there’s another woman out there who may still be struggling, there was another woman out there who thinks that, hey, this is the way I have, this is what I have to do to have more control over my life, or whatever that looks like. So just fighting for them to speak up, stand up and show up show up being authentically them. And not having to wait for that for anyone or any anything.

 

Richard Matthews  30:58  

Yeah, and it’s a it’s an important thing too right? Because one of the things that cracks me up about my, I have a supplement business that we’ve run for a number of years, and we sell multivitamins, you know, men’s multivitamins, women’s multivitamins, teens, children, prenatal, that kind of stuff. And one of the things that, that made me laugh about that business, is that the best selling multivitamin is the prenatal vitamin. And the worst selling multivitamin is the women’s multi. Right, so the hardest one to sell. Right? Because women are, you know, they’re they’re just so wired to take care of other people that they forget to take care of themselves, until there’s someone else inside of them that they have to take care of, and they start taking care of themselves. And it’s a hard thing. So it’s, it’s like you have to learn as as a woman, and I know my wife has struggled with this. And I got three daughters. So I got to help them learn how to do this as well is is you know, you have to learn to learn to take care of yourself so that you can take care of others well.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  32:04  

I say that often where I have to be mentally good, I have to be spiritually stable. I have to be emotionally and physically stable so that I can show up as a mom, as a wife, as a mentor, as a coach. I said, because if I’m not good, I’m not any good for anyone else. I tell my kids that how it’s suppose is God and it is me like I’m right under Jesus.

 

Richard Matthews  32:32  

Yes, yeah, then you have to you have to do that. Right. And you. And it’s funny, because, you know, we say that’s a, you know, it’s a problem that females have, it’s a problem that everyone struggles with, right? We all tend to want you know, for guys, instead of putting other people first, a lot of times we put our work first, right, we’ll put you know, accomplishments or other things before we’ll put our own health first realizing that, you know, not realizing that if we don’t show up healthy, if we don’t take care of ourselves, we can actually bring our best game, right, we can’t actually come and actually, you know, do what we want. So it’s something that, that that everyone struggles with in various ways, but you have to learn how to, you know, to to quote scripture, Jesus comes out and he says, you know, what, what is it the guy asks him? What are the greatest commandments and he says, to love the Lord your God, and to love the neighbor, your neighbor as the as you love yourself. Now, the thing that I think most people missed from that is that it requires that you love yourself.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  33:26  

Yes, and you’re so you’re so right. That I do believe men and women were wired the same in so many ways, who just respond or act differently to things so with men, right there, because they’re so focused on supporting, and making sure that their family have, and especially depending on your background, if your family struggled and different things, so my family struggle financially. So my husband and I, we move in shake a certain way, because we refuse for the lights or something to be turned off, because I’ve experienced that growing up. So it’s like, I don’t care if we need to go work four jobs. We’re not sitting in the dark. Um, but that’s just how we’re wired. Because in our mind, we’re like, you know what, we have to make sure, ABC and D. And so when you say that I’m like, right? Most men, they support support support, and then they don’t have that balance sometimes of Okay, yes, I’m a great provider, but I still need to be present. So I think for most men at times that that can be a hard balance for them. And then for the women, it’s like, Hey, we you know, we appreciate everything that you’re doing to provide, but can you be a little more present? And that is almost taken as if were you ungrateful No, we’re not grateful.

 

Richard Matthews  34:51  

It’s a weird balancing act. We all we all have to we all have to learn how to do right and it just it takes it takes a little bit of life a little bit experience to learn that you you know You have to take care of yourself in order to be able to take care of others. And, you know, it just it sort of works both ways. Right? On, one of the things we talked about on the show all the time, just as a sort of a blanket principle for life is do you have to learn to give yourself what I call permission to play? Right? Yeah. Which is the idea that for whatever reason, culturally in America, we think that recreation is a reward for work well done. And we hold ourselves to high such high standards that sometimes we never even give ourselves that permission, when in reality, recreation is a foundational requirement for doing good work. Right? Right. If you don’t show up, rested and taken care of, you’re not going to be able to do the good work in the first place. So I tell people all the time, you need to give yourself permission to play, take the afternoon off, go for a walk and hang out with your kids do whatever it is, you like doing, read a book, crochet, my wife is in crochet, like, have something that’s yours, that you can step away from the providing or the caring for or the whatever, and just take care of you. Yeah, I love it. And, and that will bring you back to your work. So you can actually provide the value that you were put here to provide.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  36:17  

Exactly because it goes once again to that mind space. When your mind have so when your mind is so boggled, and you have either so much fog, and just so many things, just life in general. I mean, just that routine of things. Sometimes we have to break up the routine. Take that 15 minutes. I tell women all the time. I don’t care if it’s 10 minutes to yourself. I don’t care if you have to close yourself in your bathroom and don’t answer the kids at the door. They’re not bleeding, they’re not passing out.

 

Richard Matthews  36:45  

Ignore the fingers under the door.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  36:49  

Mommy, Daddy. Wait a minute, I said because you need that so that you can just refresh yourself. You need it.

 

Richard Matthews  36:58  

Yeah, yeah. My, my, I, my wife, lets me have this to myself all the time. But it’s like my morning shower is like my 10 minutes to self. No one’s bothering me. It’s like it’s leaving, I’m going to take a shower. My wife is like you take a long time to shower. Like it’s my it’s my time to myself. Take a warm shower. Nobody can get to me.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  37:24  

Hey we have to do what we have to do.

 

Richard Matthews  37:28  

My next question for you, is, is about is a more practical question, right. I call this our heroes tool belt. And just like every superhero has a tool, an awesome tool belt. It’s cool a cool gadget like batarangs and web slinger, laser eyes you know, a big magical hammer. I want to talk about the top one or two tools that you couldn’t live without in your business could be anything from your notepad for thinking your calendar for putting things together, your marketing tools, maybe something you use to actually help your clients with anything you think is essential to getting your job done today. Oh,

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  37:58  

my phone, I cannot go anywhere without it. I need my phone, and definitely my calendar. I even I have friends who want to have like a console and anything and I’m like, Hey, here’s the link, put it in get on the calendar because I’m telling you now. It is not in here. It’s gonna get missed. And I have the calendar on my phone, I use acuity which I definitely love. So it keeps me organized. But then I have a calendar on the wall that I’m writing stuff in there too. I’m like, okay, because I have a physical, visual, and then I have my phone. And so a few weeks ago, my phone would not charge. I thought I was gonna lose it. So I was like, oh my god. So this Saturday just was going bananas. Okay, I haven’t driving to Jacksonville. That’s about 20 minutes. Okay, no problem, get to the bank, deposit some money and do all these different things. I’m in the line waiting for the bank because they’re closed in the inside. I heard this loud pop on my car. The radiator. The car just started smoking. I said oh my god this is not be happening, today. What in the world? My husband is at his motorcycle class. About an hour away. Okay, I can let him know what’s going on. But there’s nothing he can do. I had to call my daughter. Wake her up. Hey, I need you to come pick me up. And my phone wasn’t charging. So I luckily I had took my seven year old phone I said hey, I’m gonna just take your phone. I’m so glad I did. Because that day would have went horrible. Richard, I’m telling you I would have been It was hot. outside. It was hot and humid. I would have been walking up and down the road trying to find something. I had to go to t mobile and come to find out my port was corroded. And of course they’re like well, you can upgrade I don’t want to upgrade. There’s nothing else wrong with the phone. They put it on a wireless charger. It was perfect. Thanks, I buy that. Thank you, my daughter had to come pick me up, I was just like, wow, this day. Um, yeah. All that Oh, so my phone and the calendar.

 

Richard Matthews  40:20  

thing to beIt’s interesting because the calendar is such a, it’s such a, like a deep seated tool for entrepreneurs, right that everyone I talked to on the show just about is like my calendar, my calendar is the thing. And if I didn’t have my calendar, my whole business would blow up in my face. And you hear that from everyone from his, you know, running solopreneur operations, where it’s just them to people who have huge teams of people, it’s the calendar, the calendar is what makes the business go around. And I think the reason that pops up so much is because like you were talking about is being present, it’s very difficult to be present, if you were trying to hold all of the things that you need to do at different times in your head. Yes, so in order to show up 100% for this thing, right? Whether it’s, you know, some event for your family or a meeting for work or a client thing, I need to be able to know that everything else is on the calendar and taken care of. So I can take this 15 minutes this hour, this two hours, or whatever it is, and just commit to this and be present.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  41:24  

Yep, yep. And I have reminders, I got like a 30 minute, then like I put like 15 minute, because you got to think about the time that I get in from work. So if I know I have something earlier in the day, I don’t even come in and go to sleep, I cuz I’m like, I don’t want to get into deep sleep. Because I like to show up, I like to be present, like you said being present. And if you didn’t have that type of organization, it could cost you a lot of money. It can cost you a lot of clients, and it can cause you to have a lot of bad reviews too. Well, she didn’t show up, or he didn’t show up and when they was X amount of minutes late and don’t do business with them. Because so I tell even people that I know, you don’t get on the calendar, I’m telling you now, it’s gonna be your fault.

 

Richard Matthews  42:06  

The calendar is the way and I’ve even had to like train some of my clients, where they’re like, Hey, can we get on a call? I’m like, nope, here’s my calendar, like

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  42:19  

And you have to end up like initially at I would, sometimes people that I knew I’m like, okay, yeah. Then I was like, No, no, no, no, no, here’s the link, because you have to train yourself, even with people that you know, because they know, you got to follow these rules, too. These are my standards. These are my business standards. It’s like I’m in the lab and stuff. We have our SOP’s to me, if I use that same concept, even in my business, these are my SOP’s, these are my standards of procedure. Here’s the link.

 

Richard Matthews  42:54  

Yep, here’s the like, you can hop on there. I haven’t quite gone so far as to putting a little family option on my calendar link yet. But I’ve thought about it. We’re like, you know, you’ve got the different event types on your counter page, you’d be like family, because that might be a good idea.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  43:12  

I told my husband one day I said, hey, let’s sit down and let’s do lunch, or whatever. And I said, so I have my phone out. I said, What date you want to get on the calendar? He’s like I’m not digging it on the calendar.

 

Richard Matthews  43:30  

What’s funny about that is what what my wife and I do, and this might work for you is I have my work calendar. And then we have a family calendar. And that’s shared with her phone and my phone and the kids, you know, tablets and whatnot. And all of my business stuff, it checks the family calendar for busy time stuff. So it’ll so my wife knows that if she wants me to be available for something, she can go in and be like, hey, on, you know, this Wednesday, we’re gonna go do something with a family, she’ll drop an all day event on there that’s just busy, right for whatever. And then nothing can be booked on my calendar on that day. Or if she’s like, Hey, we’re going out to dinner, or we’re going to your mom’s house or something like that. She’ll just drop it on there for several hours and make sure it’s marked as busy and then like, my calendar can’t get filled up with other things. And it’s like my, my, my family’s way to have have a bit of control over my calendar as well. So, you know, nobody else has ability, but my wife and kids do.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  44:27  

Look. I agree. Well, my husband says like, no, you’re not putting me on the calendar. You know, I said what we kinda have to because everyone in my house has different schedules, they have different things going on. You know, we’re dealing with teenager so even a 10 year old he has an agenda. So I’m like, hey, let’s check. So yeah, I love it though.

 

Richard Matthews  44:48  

Yeah, I’m not I’m not sure if I’m ready for them to have their own agendas like right now like the agenda is, you know, whatever mom and dad want to do because they’re all young. But I assume that changes shortly.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  45:01  

Yeah, I’m thankful

 

Richard Matthews  45:05  

What I’m super excited about is like we’re we’re almost a babysitting age with our oldest one. And that’s pretty exciting.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  45:14  

Yeah, I mean, my, my kids are pretty much homebody, kids, they don’t really like going to other people’s houses and all of these different things. So we’re kind of blessed in that aspect. Now, when they want to go out or whatever they typically hang with each other. So yeah, I’m like, well, we’re in complaining. That’s cool. 

 

Richard Matthews  45:37  

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So I want to talk a little about about your your own personal heroes then. Alright, so every every hero has their mentors, right? You know, Frodo had Gandalf, Luke had Obi Wan Kenobi Robert Kiyosaki had his rich dad. You know, Spider Man even had his Uncle Ben. So who were some of your heroes? Were they real life mentors, speakers, authors who were a couple years ahead of you, maybe peers, and how important were they to what you’ve accomplished so far in your life?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  47:37  

Oh, so years ahead would be definitely Les Brown. Oh, he’s like one of the top motivational speakers in the world. And so I’ve always as even as a young girl said, I’m going to be the next Les Brown, I’m going to be the next Les Brown for women, speakers, and so I’ve always followed him. So I would definitely say that that’s definitely a hero. Um, my husband, my husband’s a hero. Um, he’s a veteran and all those amazing things and through all the obstacles or different things that he may have endured as a, as a child and different things. Yeah, he’s a great guy. And he, I mean, he has to be he puts up with me. He puts up with me so he has to be and so and I will definitely say my parents cuz through the financial struggles and different things, what we did have was love. What we did have was you wouldn’t be able to tell me that we were like comp poor cuz we just, it just didn’t register. So we got older, we was like, we’re poor. But they did their their best. And we’re thankful for because when I look at some of our peers, or different ones who maybe had the things they really didn’t understand who they were, they got bullied so many other aspects that you all they had the things, but that aspect of just being bold and just knowing who you are. My parents really instilled that in us and so there’s no way someone’s gonna bully us. Because we will speak up, he wasn’t get ready to talk to us any kind of way, and different things. And so, and lastly, I will say my children, because we, I’ve learned a lot from them. Yeah, you learn a lot from them. They, they keep you on your toes, they keep you and just in having the opportunity to be a parent, the opportunity to have that bond with them, even though they’re teenagers now, the bond that we have, even now For them willing to hang out with me and they’re not embarrassed with me going anywhere with them, and different things, or vice versa. I think that’s a blessing. And so they’re my heroes, they, I think, as I was carrying them, they’re definitely my heroes. Because none of us should really be here. Like, literally, that’s how sick I was with them. And so they’re definitely my heroes, they, they’re smart. From the womb, I call them geniuses, and they haven’t proved anything else. Nothing else honor of students. And so yeah, my daughter’s in college now. And she had, every school she applied to, she got accepted in scholarships. So I can’t complain, even as a parent, I said, those things that we instill in them, when they go out into the world, all we can do is say, hey, go do what you’re called to do. Be you you don’t have to be anyone else except you. So those those are definitely my heroes.

 

Richard Matthews  50:59  

Awesome. Yeah. And, and it’s always interesting to me hearing people talk about who their heroes are, and how often it is a family member, a spouse, you know, a dad and uncle, a mom, you know, or your children and because they have such an impact on your life, right? They, they make you a better version of yourself. And, you know, I’ve got sort of this belief nowadays that for just, you know, from my own experience in my life and other, you know, men that I’ve watched grow up is that that until, until a man has has a wife and a child in his life. He doesn’t ever really get to be like, he it changes him, I did turn turns him into a completely different person that really understands that his life is really about helping someone else and it changes you.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  51:50  

It does. It does. It really does even being a a mom. And like I said, 10 years ago, I had a hysterectomy. So baby days are way over. Um, but I’m

 

Richard Matthews  52:04  

I can’t comment on being a mom, I’ve never been a mom. But

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  52:07  

right, you will never be a mom. Never. But you’re right. Just being parents, in general, it changes you to have someone to look up to you and love you so unconditionally. They they know no wrong from you. Especially at that age. They know, you’re the superhero, you can’t do anything wrong, they will defend you. And you’re just like, Hey, I got it, but they’re gonna defend you, they’re gonna make you laugh. They’re gonna make you a little upset.

 

Richard Matthews  52:40  

I had a mentor of mine when I was younger. He was speaking on stage. He wasn’t talking to me, but it felt like he was talking to me. He said, he said, Your, your kids one day are going to have a hero. He’s like, and if, and he’s like, it a damn well, better be you. Right? The implication being that they’re going to choose their heroes. And if you’re not worthy of it, they’re not gonna choose you.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  53:07  

They won’t. And they’ll be blunt and honest about it too.

 

Richard Matthews  53:11  

Yeah, yeah. And, and I think one of the most telling things that you will rep about someone’s success in life is their, their relationship there’s been.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  53:24  

So I agree. I totally agree. And I’m thankful that people have the opportunity to restore and mend those relationships. I’m glad that I wasn’t in the position where I had to restore relationships with my siblings, or my parents, or anything. And even with my own kids, we try to just be open. And be there, just be a parent, I’m not trying to be your best friend. I’m just your parent. I’m your parent. You’re gonna get on my nerves, and I’m gonna get on your nerves. And that’s okay,

 

Richard Matthews  53:59  

I’m not, not here to be your friend. I’m here to turn you into a productive member of society.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  54:06  

Thank you.

 

Richard Matthews  54:07  

Once you’re a productive member of society, we can be friends. Right? Maybe, maybe now my, my mom and dad now are all we’re all really close, have good friendships. Which is interesting, right? Because once you sort of transition from that, hey, I’m working on turning you into a productive member of society to being a productive member of society, that relationship shifts, right. That’s, it’s a fun aspect of growing up is sort of going through that transition. I have sort of a What do you call it? I look forward to it. But I also am regretting the day or so. You know, I don’t I don’t I don’t want it to happen. I’m just a little in small forever, but I know

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  54:48  

it’s not gonna happen. Yeah, and that’s our that’s why I’ll tell anyone just enjoy the moment. Like, enjoy them like never before because as long as They’re here. They’re gonna keep growing. They’re gonna, they’ll do like we did get married eventually move out or not get married and still move out or whatever the case may be. And it’s just like, it’s Hey, but I even with my being teenage I enjoyed the moment there are times where I’ll shut everything down. From where no laptops, no nothing. I’m not on my phone doing any business transactions. I’m just like, I’m all yours. Now. What? What are we doing? And we have we just have fun.

 

Richard Matthews  55:31  

Yep, my kids right now we’re into Pokemon. So we have Pokemon night and learn to play the strategy game with them and take them to the tournaments and have a good time, right?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  55:43  

Hey, our 10 year old is a gamer. DVD. Like he’s a gamer gamer. I’m just like, yeah, I’m not really into that. But if you want me to play with you, so you can beat me because I don’t know what I’m doing anyway.

 

Richard Matthews  55:59  

I’ll try.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  56:01  

I’ll do it. I’ll embarrass myself.

 

Richard Matthews  56:04  

I I was a gamer when I was his age. So like, I have skills to lean back on I haven’t played in many years. But like I pick up a game now and I can still hold my own against my son. He’s like, How are you so good at this Dad? I’m like, cuz I played video games for longer than you’ve been alive. Like what, how old are you? 

 

Like, cuz he doesn’t. She doesn’t see me play much now. But you know, still got the skills. It’s like riding a bike. You can pull them back out whenever you need them. Yeah, you know, yeah, sometimes your 10 year old boy needs to have his ass handed to him in a video game just so he doesn’t get to, uh, you know, in his own head.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  56:45  

Yeah. So his dad, and my husband, he’ll play with them. And he’s like, oh, oh, but then that gives us an opportunity to see where his sportsmanship is and everything. Like there’s a whole lesson afterwards, like, so you got upset over that? Well, I mean, he’s been playing longer than I have. I’m just gonna go read books, okay. Okay, that’s what you want to do. It’s funny, go right ahead. But, but then we turn it into a life lesson, because we want you to understand you’re not gonna win every single time. You have to have good sportsmanship and all those things. So everything is a lesson, some like lesson in there. And then he’s like, Okay, well, I really wasn’t that mad. Yes you are.

 

Richard Matthews  57:34  

My favorite thing is, is like, I never, I never go easy on my son for any of the things that we play, you know, whether it’s the Pokemon card game or video games, and it’s because, you know, he gets better and better. And we always talk about strategy and how to improve and what things can go on on the other side of it. Eventually, he gets to a point where he can play, like, he can beat me. And then I’m like, he, he’s earned it. I didn’t go easy on him. And he feels really good about that. So you know, I feel like we’re on the right track with that stuff.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  58:03  

My husband does that with a 10 year old. And he was like, you know, I’m not just gonna let you win. That’s not what we’re here to do. But it pushes him to the next time that they play. He’s like, Oh, I’m gonna get you. cuz I’ve been practicing. And I’ve learned some things. And you didn’t know you didn’t know how to do that. Know how to do it. But then he’s like, Daddy, let me show you how to do it. Let me teach you. So

 

Richard Matthews  58:29  

that’s where we’re at some of these games, my son is getting to the point where he’s like, keeping up with me. And I’m like, oh, man, give it a few more, you know, a little bit more time he’s gonna be beating me. And, you know, and I won’t be able to win anymore. And that’ll that’ll be okay. But at least I’ll have time some lessons along the way.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  58:45  

Yes, yeah.

 

Richard Matthews  58:48  

So, as we as we wrap up the interview, I want to talk a little bit about your guiding principles right now, one of the things that makes heroes heroic is that they live by a code. For instance, Batman never killed his enemies, he only ever brings him to Arkham Asylum. So again, here at the of interview, I want to talk about the top one or two principles that you use regularly in your life, maybe something you wish you knew me first started out on this hero’s journey.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  59:13  

Not even when I first started out, I would say two things that I use all the time is connecting with people. I think in this online space, this digital world that we live in, and different things, even pre COVID a lot of people still wasn’t just connecting with people. And when I speak of connecting, not just saying, Hey, we’re friends we are friends on Facebook, or you sent me a request, but actually taking the time to see how I can serve and support, what they have their movement, whatever they have going on. And so definitely connecting. And then the second thing would be building the relationship. It’s not enough just to connect, we have to nurture we have to build the relationship so that we can eventually possibly form a partnership and so well, that’s three things technically But those will be the three things right there connecting building relationship to form a partnership, where I think a lot of people have, I think during this time, more people have been able to do it even in a greater aspect. I’m connecting with more people from across all over the world. Because that we’re in this space here, we’ve had to slow down, we this is the way we’ve had to do things. And honestly, I don’t believe it’s going anywhere. Even when things get go back to where people are having more gatherings or whatever, it’s still gonna stay the same where, hey, this is a great way to connect. So I love connecting with people. But I want to take it a step further and say, Okay, what is it that you do again? Who is it that you serve? Because then in my head, let me build my own Rolodex up. So if I know someone, oh, this someone said they needed this. I shouldn’t have to go on the internet trying to research someone, I should already have someone in what I call my business Rolodex that I can refer someone to. So

 

Richard Matthews  1:01:02  

Yeah, yeah, being a connector. Being a connector is such a powerful thing for growing your business. Right? Because it’s, it’s interesting. A lot of times, at least I’ve seen this in my life is you’ll be remembered more for the powerful connections you’ve made for people then by the good work you’ve done for them.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  1:01:20  

Right. I agree. I totally agree. Totally agree.

 

Richard Matthews  1:01:25  

Yeah, yeah. People say I have gotten more referrals. I’ve gotten more referrals in my business from making good connections than I have from doing good work. Not that we don’t do good work, we do great work. But powerful connections lead to more referral partners, then good work does.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  1:01:41  

I agree. I agree. And I wish more people grasp that concept only simply because I think mentally Some people think if I connect this person that I’m losing out, and I’m like, you’re not losing anything, if anything you have more to gain, in in connecting are always trying to connect people with other people like, No, you need to connect with this person, because they’re doing some amazing things. And I can, I can see where you all have some similarities. And you all can serve and support each other. And they’re like, Oh, well, really? Yeah, I’m not losing anything, connecting you with someone. So I love it.

 

Richard Matthews  1:02:23  

Well, that makes a really good transition for this last thing I do in all my interviews, right, the speaking of connecting, I call this the hero’s challenge. And I finish every interview with this. And it’s basically it’s a selfish thing I do to help myself and get access to stories I might never find on my own. But the question is simple. Do you have someone in your life or in your network that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they first names are fine, and why do you think they should come share their story on our show? The first person that comes to mind for you,

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  1:02:53  

oh, first person. List of people going through my head.

 

Richard Matthews  1:03:01  

Rolodex right.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  1:03:04  

So quickly, a first person. Clarissa, she’s in Sweden. But she has an amazing entrepreneurial story. Clarissa..

 

Richard Matthews  1:03:23  

What is it that she does?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  1:03:25  

So she does, um, she’s a coach, and she’s an expert in menopause. And so she’s a woman empowerment and all of those things. So I just love her.

 

Richard Matthews  1:03:39  

Awesome. Well, we’ll connect later and see if we can get Clarissa on the show. But here for the last part of this episode and comic books, there’s always the crowd at the end, who cheers and claps for the hero for you know their acts of heroism. So as we close, what I want to do is find out where can people find you if they want your help in the future? Where can they light up the bat signal so to speak and say, Hey, Carleeka, where can I Can you can you come help us? And I think more importantly, than where they can do that, as who are the right types of people to reach out and actually ask for your help?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  1:04:09  

So if you are a new or aspiring female entrepreneur, I’m your person to come to. I am definitely the one that you want to increase your awareness, visibility and engagement so that you can get seen get heard and get paid, that I’m your girl, because that’s what it’s all about getting exposure and so you can follow me on social media, Carleeka-Basnight Menendez, that’s across LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram Carleeka underscore in so that’s I, N, S, O and if you want to send an email, that’s C Basnight at INSO inc.net and so I would love to connect with you all. Like I said, I love connecting with people, because your story is for someone else, you went through it, but your story is for someone else, you’re someone else hope and I would love the opportunity so that you can get that exposure

 

Richard Matthews  1:05:02  

Awesome. So we’ll make sure that people reach have that those links in the show notes if you want to reach out to Carleeka you can. And Carleeka, do you have any final words of wisdom for our audience for hit the stop record button here?

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  1:05:15  

Hey, look, you all just get up, get moving and show up, show up number one for yourself so that you can show up for your community, your audience, but show up, stand up and whatever you do. Don’t be silent and speak up.

 

Richard Matthews  1:05:32  

Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Carleeka. I really appreciate it.

 

Carleeka Basnight-Menendez  1:05:35  

Thank you Richard. I appreciate you.