Kathy Fester | Why You Need More Gratitude

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And now your host, Joel Mark Harris.

Joel: Hello, and welcome to the publishing for profit podcast. This is your host, Joel Mark Harris. We are on episode number 20 today, and we are interviewing a very special guest, Kathy fester. She is the co-founder of the Gratitude Appreciation Summit. She is also a provider of send out cards. And we talk about both those today.

But primarily we talk about gratitude, how you can show more gratitude and appreciation in your life, how you can make it a habit and use them for your daily practices. So hopefully you enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with Kathy. Hi Kathy. And welcome to the show. How are you today?

Kathy: I’m doing great, Joel, thanks for having me today.

Joel: Welcome. So I’m going to start with a bit of a preamble and that is, I was invited to your gratitude appreciation summit, and I guess it was a bit of a, a teaser. and I never really thought about gratitude in my own life. And how important is, so I want to start off there. What is gratitude to you and why do people need to, to think about it?

Kathy: Wow. I think being in a space of gratitude, first of all, is a healthier place to be. it’s a much nicer place with our hearts as, as. Weird as that may sound it’s, it’s really where our heart is placed. I am a full believer in kindness and sharing that kindness to others. I don’t share anger. I don’t share frustration.

What I am angry or frustrated. I’ve got a really good reason for it because generally I’m a pretty happy person. And I just think this world needs more, more of that on a daily basis, especially through the times that we’re in right now, we really need to share how grateful we are. Not only with one another, but even with ourselves, like give ourselves a Pat on the back once in a while for, Hey, I did a good job.

This morning, I got up for BNI. I’m really proud of myself today and I’m very grateful. I was cause I was able to give back, during that meeting. So I’m grateful to myself. I’m very grateful to my friends. I’m grateful to my working partners. I just think it’s a really, really healthy. Place it’s not, being nice, really lined up with it really in terms of givers gain, right?

This BNI mantra is givers gain. Well, I’m very much, I’m very similar with that. Is that what I give I get back tenfold.

Joel: Maybe just explain for those who don’t know what BNI is.

Kathy: Oh sure. BNI is a business networking international. It’s an international body of business. People that basically share referrals back and forth, and it’s in a very structured, educational, format.

So that people are not only giving those referrals to one another but learning from one another and learning how to build our businesses and create those relationships on a higher level, rather than just walking into a store and purchasing something and walking out, it also comes with, I love it.

Giving referrals to be an I people because I know I’m going to get the best quality possible and the best price possible for the quality, because. If they don’t provide that, I’m not going, they give referrals to them from other people. So it’s again, the giver’s gain. And I know that even I take care of a 93-year-old lady across the street and she called me the other day.

And the thing she asked me to do was to break your hair of all things, just to braid her hair. Well, I walked out there with walked out of the house. Wow. And scars and a table cloth and great conversation and learning more about this incredible woman from Austria. you know, that, that fills my heart and it fills my cup.

Joel: So I, you know, we’re, I’ve, a lot of people are busy myself included, you know, I think about my clients. I think about the business. I think about my family. Gratitude is definitely not one of the things that is top of my mind. And I think that’s the case for most people. So what are some things that. I can make it top of mind and something that maybe you could practice every day to help, just show that gratitude.

Kathy: There’s so many different ways. I think showing gratitude, it’s a habit. It’s a, it’s a skill will that you develop. It’s like trying to live on your promptings on a daily basis. and being thankful, being saying, thank you. Not just, Hey, thanks for opening the doors. Like. Thank you for opening the door, and creating that habit in your life.

It’s like brushing your teeth. You don’t think about brushing your teeth anymore because it’s a habit. It’s the same sort of thing. there’s lots of strategies that you can use to develop that skill. It’s exercising the skill. some people use a gratitude jar. or a gratitude journal or, have a whiteboard and today I’m grateful for, and that’s what they live their day by.

I of course work with, Send Out Cards and share gratitude that way I send lots and lots of different cards and gifts of thanks to people just, and their heartfelt. They’re not like from your dollar store, then not like a hallmark where 10 people get the same birthday card they’re, they’re custom made to the person creating that relationship.

And that’s really what it comes down to is making that human connection on a true heartfelt, grateful way.

Joel: Can you maybe talk a little bit but more about the journaling, especially I’m a big believer in journaling. How can you practice that? And tell me a little bit about the jar technique as well. Cause that sounds interesting.

Kathy: Yeah, sure. well the journaling is something that, I do it at nighttime. A lot of people do it. First thing in the morning, wake up in the morning, you have a book by your bed and you just write today. I am grateful for, and, and you review that, and you review it at night saying check. Yes, I did that.

that’s the most common way. ladies, get a little fancy with it and put it in a scrapbook clip form with pictures and drawings and coloring and all that kind of stuff. I’m not one of them because I’m horrible at that. but the jars another way where you have a piece of paper and some people will do it for a year, some people will do it for a week.

Or month where you put, you just write down on a scrap piece of paper, anything that comes top of mind on that piece of paper and put it in the grateful jar. And then at the end of the month or the week or the year you go through that jar, just remind yourself. So you’re making that individual connection to that piece.

it’s incredibly powerful writing things down. as you may know, when you write things down, It becomes part of you, it’s, it’s a brain connection. I did my master’s degree on a lot of brain research and how that works. And, it’s not just looking at a screen and re trying to remember what you see on the screen.

When you write it down, it makes that connection in brain and, and I believe it then connects to the heart. So that’s the importance of it. I think.

Joel: I think that’s amazing. And especially during these times COVID and everything, like you said, everything that’s going on in the world to have, I think that’s, I’m going to start doing that actually, that the jar technique sounds really interesting because.

It’s not only the act of doing it, of writing it down and placing it in the jar, but then, you know, you know, recalling those, those instances. And I think that’s, that’s very healthy, especially when you don’t have that connection right now that you would have a pre COVID. So, yeah, I think that’s great.

Kathy: It’s giving yourself a hug.

We can’t get a hug in person right now. Right. So why not? Yeah, exactly. So can you tell me

Joel: a little bit about how you practice gratitude on a daily basis and what are some things I know you mentioned the, the lady with the braiding, her hair, but what else do you do? that’s. You know, that can be habit forming and that gives you joy and that gratitude every day.

Kathy: I think through, all of the personal development that I’ve gone through in the last few years, especially the last two years, I’ve learned to slow down. I’ve learned to snow debt, slow down and smell the roses. I’ve got some beautiful Calla lilies in my front garden that just keep blooming and blooming.

We’ve got black ones purple ones and whites ones. And they’re just beautiful. Of course Kelly’s, Kelly’s where my wedding, but rather than walking by them really fast, I actually. Take in the moment and take it in and be grateful for those beautiful colors. I take in the moments of the beautiful sunshine and take the moment and being grateful for the fact that I have the most amazing husband on the planet.

a day doesn’t go by that. I’m not grateful for him. I don’t think a moment goes by, same thing with my daughter and my other family members. You know, it’s just taking a moment. We get so wrapped up on our daily busy lives. And, and I know what that’s like. I burned out twice in my career where I had to leave my job and go to another place.

I’ve been there. I’ve been at rock bottom, a lot of them a couple of times, and I’ve had to learn and train myself. How to smell the roses. Take some time. I walk in my backyard periodically and bare feet just to get grounded with the earth. And again, it sounds kind of funny, but it works. It works so well.

So that’s my daily practice and yes, I slip up some days I get wrapped up with the stress of life. We all have it. But during this COBIT time and it’s not going away anytime soon, I don’t believe we have to find new strategies to cope. we watched people having mental health issues all around us and it’s like, okay, wait a minute.

Let’s back up. And let’s learn from it. I think there’s a reason why it’s happening in 2020, 20, 20 vision. Right. And we all took that as 2020 vision to make right. Our business better. I think it’s bigger than that. I think it’s, let’s have a look at how we do things. And how can we make an improvement on that?

So we don’t end up the same way we were before. And I’m grateful that we’ve had that it’s time. so it’s really bad, but I’ve been thankful for this COVID in some ways, because I’ve accomplished things that I would never have accomplished otherwise, because. I’m home. I’m with my loved ones. I’m making the relationships matter most by taking the time.

Joel: yeah, no, I totally agree. I started this podcast, and doing COVID and there’s definitely something that would have never taken foot, outside when. You know, now I do have extra time. I’m not commuting to work. And, and so it’s definitely a time to try new things and to keep learning. So I think that’s, that’s very important.

Can you give us some strategies about how to. Slow down and how to take your time, because I think again, that’s super important. It’s something, you know, full disclosure I’m terrible at I, you know, I, I’m definitely a go, go, go personality. So any suggestions that you could give me the audience on how to.

Kathy: Yeah, no, I get that. I think it’s finding something that you, can connect to, a hobby. I’m forced to slow down, helping my daughter. we go for drives regularly and I don’t drive fast. I take back roads. I, we have found all sorts of really cool neighborhoods all the way out to Chilliwack.

Sometimes we go, sometimes they’re two hour drives. I know it’s not great for the environment. However, I’m going really slow and we’re actually stopping. And. And looking like the herons. So I’ve, I’ve sort of been forced to slow down and I’m, I’m so grateful for my daughter, even though I hate seeing her struggle so much, it’s been a gift to me because those special moments, taking the time to set up a nice dinner table for your wife.

Right or having a special moment, reading a book or watching a movie last night, I watched Hamilton as a family. Right. which was really, really cool. It’s not something that we do normally. So it’s just finding those special things. I don’t think we can be in the moment a hundred percent of the time, because there is life.

You’ve got to pay the bills. You got to do the dishes, you got to cook, you got to clean, you got to do the laundry, you know, all those regular life things plus your business. but even five minutes is better than no minutes. You know, take five minutes. I know that one technique that I’ve used, I used during my teaching, online was the, Oh no, the name has left me.

where you are focused on one time only. I think that’s part of the problem is any of us are multitaskers. We like to juggle balls a lot. It’s like we’re trying to prove something. And I don’t know what we’re trying to prove because we’re not proving anything to anybody, but focus on one thing for 25 minutes.

Just one thing. And every time you go off task, you put a check Mark on a scrap piece of paper. And the idea is that you train your mind, focus on one thing for 25 minutes, take a break for five focus for 25 minutes, take break for five, focus, something for 25 minutes, then take a half an hour break. And I taught that to my students.

And by the end of it, no check marks because every time you put a check, Mark is when your brain. You know, went somewhere else and wasn’t on task. So the idea is to get rid of those check marks. And I find that cut by car compartmentalizing. Is that a word in short little snippets? Like I schedule it. I’m a scheduler queen, man.

You schedule those chunks here and there for the different aspects of your life that you’re responsible for. That’s made a huge difference, including five minutes to take a breath. I’ve put that in my calendar. When I feel things getting all ramped up and I really need to take a breath or I get a look for my husband saying, Oh, you know, it’s like, okay, five minutes at this time.

And I stick to that. I put an alarm on, right. As weird as that sounds. And it makes it so much better. It’s time for yourself, right?

Joel: Yeah. So I think that’s, I think that’s important too. I know, I guess a side note, I. I’m one of those people who thinks that multitasking is a myth that you can normally, your brain can only focus on one thing at one time.

So, I think, yeah, no, it’s, that’s important. Can you, so how do you schedule, like, is there any tools that you use for your schedule? Is it just a. Like plain, like paper and pen, or do you use like Google calendar or is there any, any trick to it I guess is what I’m

Kathy: yeah. Yeah. I think the only trick that I have, and I learned, I learned this from Steve Harvey, and, was on Sunday nights.

I write a list of the list of things that I want to get done. And then I only do three tasks a day. And his method works really, really well. Don’t add anything. If you’ve got extra time, then do one of those meaningful things. but only a tactical three things on one day. if you’re doing more than that, you’re not giving your best product.

And I learned that from him. And that’s been really helpful. I used to use paper, but during COVID I’ve really been using the electronic calendar. mostly I Cal when I start working on doing school, again, may have to go back to paper. I don’t know. It depends because when I’m teaching, I teach music.

So I can’t have a computer in front of me all the time. So the ICL doesn’t work very well, but I have paper in front of me all the time. So I’ll have to figure that out. It’s a light, that’s a lifelong goal. I tell you because I’ve got five different calendars, right? Yeah, me too.

Joel: I’m bad at that.

Kathy: Well, I have different calendars that I keep track of, so it it’s kind of juggling that way, but I wouldn’t do it any other way.

There was a time before I had children that I could remember it all, but now not anymore.

Joel: You mentioned, you’re a teacher, you teach music and you’re also an advocate for music programs and fine arts. Can you tell me a little bit about why those are important in school and I guess in life as well?

Kathy: Well, you’re opening a big Pandora’s box. You know that right? Oh, dear. well I guess, I’m a real advocate for, Fine arts education for all the fine arts, specifically music.

I’ve been president of the provincial board. I was president for. I have to look at my thing here for years. And, I was secretary on the board for many years. Basically. I served for 12 years on the board. and now I’m a senior person I’m now, now the mentor. Wow. I can’t believe I’m that old, but, people come to me with, okay, my principal is deciding to do this.

How do I handle it? I work with educators around the province still, in an informal way. totally voluntary because we believe so strongly that music is a must. in all students’ lives, we do lots of music with babies, right up until preschool. And then all of a sudden it’s like, it’s sketchy.

And if you think about it, music is the unspoken word. It’s how people express themselves. I could, I could give you many, many, many, many examples. when I’m so passionate about, I did my masters in fine arts education on that at the time I was teaching grade six, seven classrooms in the middle school and year one, I taught the traditional teacher way book come paper.

Traditional French class, French class, math class, math class. then in the second year I taught French and math and PE and all that kind of stuff through art, drama, dance and music. So I had the kids learning the curriculum in all their subjects through those four disciplines. And the data that came out of that was just.

Unbelievable. And there’s so much research out there as to seeing the value of it. And if you think about, and I’ll use one of the, the hardest hit things with nine 11, I’ll just use that as a quick example, nine 11 happened. It was the change of our that we’ve never seen before. We’ll never go back to the way it used to be ever, ever.

I watched the second tower come down on TV live and it still affects me when I think about it. And, a long story short, but a couple of my friends, their string players went, they lived in New York and they went to, the fire hall where all the firemen were coming to get food in between their shifts to take a rest before they went to the recovery sites.

And, They just played music because there were no words to express the emotions that were going through people worldwide. We turned to music every single day. We have it on the radio having a TV. We have it in movies. Can you imagine this world without music? Well, We’re not looking to have music education, to have a bunch of musicians in the world.

We’re having musicians in the music, in our school systems too, to develop the brain. It helps stroke victims. If you sing in a choir, singing in the choir is the one thing that will get the whole brain activated at once. And can actually, we train the brain in areas that, or damaged for the stroke so that you actually heal faster.

And. Don’t even have signs of stroke anymore. Oh, I could go on. I told you it’s a Pandora’s box. There’s just so much research, so passionate about it. And now that my mentors are passing away, there’s really only one left here. and he’s very well known. All of North America is a very good friend of mine.

Now that he can’t do it anymore. It’s up to the older generation to, to pick up the sticks and start conducting, you know, and, and helping others. and it ties in with, gratitude. so, well, I use it daily with my students. Every one of my kids and families got a card in the mail saying, hang in there, hope you found some toilet paper.

you know, all of the different challenges. I had some kids that were on, suicide watches. That I had to report. And it was just because of that relationship that I build with them and with people that, Hey, something’s up, something’s up. Let’s make that personal connection with them. So again, taking time to breathe so that you’re aware of what’s going on.

Even this morning at BNI, we had an incredible presentation given. None of us knew what her background was. We spend as a society making assumptions that people are just the way they present themselves. But you know, everybody’s got a story to tell why not show that through kindness and gratitude.

Joel: Wow. I’m not, I’m a little bit speechless. Yeah.

Kathy: Oh, I’m sorry.

Joel: No, that’s, that’s amazing. That’s fantastic. Okay. Have you seen where I want to go is, you know, I’ve, I’ve probably those posts on Facebook, social media, about how, you know, you know, the arts in general, you know, me being an artist as well in terms of writing, not in music, but you know, writing and everything.

These are the. Things that we live for. It’s the art, it’s the science and healthcare obviously super important. And they’re the ones that that’s what sustains life. But the reason we are, you know, we want to live, I believe at least is that is for the art, for the music, writing all those, you know, the films and the books.

And so I think, Yeah. I don’t know if you want to comment on that

Kathy:  You’re absolutely right. It’s part of what society is built on and because it’s so not understood, it’s like science, if you don’t understand why something happens, it’s like COVID people not understanding code because you can’t see it.

So it must be okay. It’s the same sort of thing because you can’t necessarily. See how it’s created and where it comes from as an art form. It’s just always in that. Well, there’s way more to that. Right? last night watching, it was Hamilton that we watched, my husband and I were sitting there watching it with my daughter and it was like, wow, we had no idea.

Like we knew a little bit about Hamilton. There were so many messages in this musical, like so many, and this was in the late 17 hundreds that this happened and all the issues that were in this musical are still here today. And it’s like, Oh my goodness. But what did they go to? It was an art form. Right.

It was an art form to express those things. I’m also a, I’m a Potter. I have a pottery studio in my basement and that is that’s my Zen zone. That’s where I get true. true Zen moment where I can, I can spend eight to 10 hours throwing plots and it feels like two hours. Cause I just, I love it. I absolutely love it.

I go somewhere. Wouldn’t it be nice if everybody had a Go-to place to go, you know, that has that kind of effect. My husband’s a fly fisher when I watch my husband. Oh, he’s a different guy. He’s so relaxed and so calm and just. Yeah, just so grateful. Yeah. But no arts are incredibly important. And again, I could go on, I’ve got books and books, some research and research having done my masters.

Right. yes, it’s so important. And I think what’s, what’s interesting is, is music is the one thing that’s intangible. You can see the dancing, you can see the drama, you can see the art, but you can’t see music it’s all in here. So it’s yeah. Very powerful, great questions, Joel.

Joel: So how can somebody support the arts?

And you can take this in whether, if, you know, if you want to talk about school or, but you can take this.

Kathy: Oh, well, actually what’s interesting is we actually have, two bodies political bodies in our country and our province called the coalition for music. and they are parents that run the boards and do the fundraising and do the political efforts.

So when the government needs to hear how to do things. Quite often the PA the parents’ voices are always louder than the teachers. People do not listen to teachers because wait, wait, wait right now, I’m not, but that’s the impression that people have, right. because people don’t truly understand what we do.

even the government doesn’t understand what we do, right. They run us like a business. We are not a business, but we’re forced to run like a business. so the coalition of music, BC and there’s a coalition of music in Canada, and they were bodies set up for that. And they, they are always looking for new members and they’re always looking for donations.

I know that, for example, September, we don’t know how school’s going to be. So they have, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the month of July as being on that advisory board, along with the coalition and our. BC music, educators, association, and coral and drama and art, and looking at what’s it, what can it look like that safe in September?

And the government is actually looking to us for that advice as a coalition, which is really great because there’s no political. There’s no political gain by it. It’s all about a belief system. Right. So, I mean that’s one way.

Joel: Yeah, that’s cool. I think a school especially is going to be up in the air com I mean, it’s really only what, like a month and a little bit away.

Right. And if we do have a resurgence, which it kind of looks like we will and, you know, I think it’s going to be, very challenging to yeah. For everybody, for sure. but anyways, I want to talk about the gratitude appreciation summit. Can you, so it’s October 3rd, I believe. can you give us a little bit of a sneak peek about what that is?

Why should somebody attend and maybe just a little bit about the speakers cause the roster, it looks very exciting.

Kathy: Oh, it’s yeah. We’re really excited. In fact, Angus reads books arrived at my front doorstop today, getting those all ready to send out. yeah, the gratitude appreciation summit is a, A brainchild of a good friend of mine, Jeanette Martin.

she read this book by Kody Bateman human connection. I think you’ve got a copy of it too. I was just looking through it and to prepare for this podcast today. And I’m like, Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Like every time I open it, I come up with something new to think about. so she read the book and came up with this idea of, of having a gathering of people, all in one space and sharing harvest tables and networking with one another and having vendors, be there to share, some were gratitude category vendors and others were appreciation category.

Vendors have, there’s a difference between gratitude and appreciation. Quite often, those two words are used together. There’s a difference between the two gratitude is the emotion appreciation is the action. And sometimes it’s the appreciation that gets forgotten. Right. so it was finding guest speakers to come and share their knowledge as to how they implement that with their business, with one another and with themselves, Unfortunately, we had to change that format.

So we’re now virtual. So what we’ve decided to do is have a one-day event on October 3rd, with a variety of different speakers. And we have two special guests that are towards teens. We’re actually inviting teenagers onto this. Chloe. Johnson, Chloe Johnson. she’s from San Fran Cisco area. She’s an entrepreneur.

She homeschools 13 and he teaches other teenagers how to do business. And that’s why she homeschools because she’s so busy travelling the States and doing online education moments with teenagers and so forth. And she started her own business at age nine. And with the support of her mom, she’s now the humanitarian award winner, a recipient, sorry of a w Bush senior, for the States.

she’s. The smallest little package of energy I’ve ever seen, and I’ve only met her online. She just, she’s just amazing. And we have a young fellow here named Noah, here, actually in Coquitlam and, there forces together and share their entrepreneurial shift together, for teenagers. So while we, as adults are working on, different.

Topics that aren’t necessarily suitable for students, teenagers. like it’s a much deeper level that teenagers will be an adult front room working with the two of them. And there’ll be a variety of different opportunities to have one on one discussions with some of the guests. That over there. Angus Reed is, one of our headliners, retired BC Lions football player.

He was at our preview, event in June. A fantastic, fantastic guy, really made me think differently. Cheryl Bishop who is in charge, founder of resilient women in business. Diane Rolston is a business coach life coach. she’s fantastic. She has a really unique way of, helping your business grow and she drives and she brings it out of you rather than her telling you what to do.

Oh, my goodness. Who else is coming? We’ve got an RCMP officer. That’s going to be saying a few words of granite to the public actually. he’s got a really unique story to share. We have a lady who is a cancer survivor. The vision of gratitude to help her sustain herself through cancer surviving.

Oh, we’ve got so many stories. Those are just some of them. but the event goes from, we, we sort of start at quarter to 10, the events starts at 10. and we go till four 30, we’ll have some breaks in the middle, so you can go get the snack or lunch or what have you, but it’s basically a convention. in person online as impersonal as we can be.

And our whole vision is to take this worldwide. We already have, Chicago’s asked us to come Hawaii, Seattle, Toronto, and Belgium. So we see big things for this movement. It’s really a movement. it’s art goal genetics, and my goal is really high. How can we extend? the whole vision of send out cards with Kody Bateman, because he really is the backbone of this.

it was all in a prompting that he had when his brother passed away suddenly, in an accident and he didn’t. Tell him that he loved him before he passed away. And he has lived in breeds since 2004, this company and how we can build that whole mission statement on a much more global level to create kindness in this world.

There is so much ugly. And I still believe there’s more kindness than ugly out there, but I’d like to see the kindness more on the forefront. And that’s really what our mission is with this event. So we’ve got an early bird price on now till the end of August that will include, and this book, this book, and four other books, plus our swag bag, because it was supposed to be in person.

So we’ve got pins and swag bag and Nate and name tags. Special name tags, and books, of course, that we’re going to send to any early bird. The person that registers and you’ll get it before the event starts, which is really, really cool. so yeah, we’re really excited about this. It’s just the beginning.

Joel: I know we’ve had this conversation, numerous times, but I think it’s important to bringing up again is that I just. I open Facebook, you know, I scroll through or, and all I see is negativity. You know, like people should be doing this. People should be doing that. And so this is definitely a, some fresh air, you know, so

Kathy: We need it right now. We need to have those virtual hubs right now. We, we are hungry for connecting, in a, in a, in a meaningful way. Right?

Joel: Now, I think it’s, you know, you mentioned send out cards, Cody Bateman. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got involved with them, what they are, and yeah, why, you know, why.

Kathy: Oh boy. Well, sent out cards was quite a fluke that it found me. I, my husband and I spend an exorbitant amount of my, adding 350 square feet on our home and we did it right. Unfortunately when you do it, right. It costs a lot of money, more money than you plan. And we were literally bleeding money.

We were literally bleeding and it’s like, Oh man, like we just, we can’t, we’re done holes, getting deeper and deeper and deeper. And both my husband and I are, it’s not like we don’t get a good salary. It’s just. It was just not a good position to be in. so I thought, well, one of us has got to get another job.

Well, I know my husband’s not because he works 24 seven, so there’s no time for him to do that. I like to juggle, yes. I admit it I’m a juggler. So I got invited to, I’d done some MLM companies in the past and they just ended up being, too expensive. Great products. Love them. Absolutely adore the companies, but it just too expensive.

Can’t afford it. So I had to give that up. One of them was a little joke on the side. One of them was a skin company. I was like, how old do I really hard sell skin products to make yourself look younger when you look like me anyway. So I abandoned that one really fast. Anyway, a good girlfriend of mine. A friend of mine kept inviting me to these home parties.

And I said, no, no, no. My husband and I have decided I got to find another way of making an income. Well, she wore me down and one of the leading, people with the company was yes. in Burnaby and, Oh, okay. I’ll go. Cause her husband’s a good friend of mine. I’ve you know, I went to university with them.

We work in the same district, dah, dah, dah, dah. So I went and my, my socks are knocked off. It’s like, this is affordable. Like Holy Cow, who can’t not afford $17 a month. Like, like that’s easy. I can do that. I signed up as a customer for a while and, not only did it help us pay off our debts, and it took a few years.

Absolutely. Not only does it help us pay off our debt, but it now pays for our air travelling and now we’re really saving because there is no trial. So, yeah, but like we went to Hawaii, my husband and I said, I had our 20th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. our Christmas dinner was subway sandwiches. Cause that’s all we could find for Christmas dinner.

And, it was awesome, but it was my business that paid for it. so. What became as a result of that, it not, it helped us financially now. I work the business, but not the way I used to because it’s become more of a philosophy. It’s a living philosophy for me. sending a card, sending a gift, I’m sending a thank you, sending I’m thinking of you, to, to people literally all over the world, on a regular basis and helping people feel good.

So I’ve, I’ve morphed into another philosophical background to that. the professional development, that I have received from the company has been enormous. I am a very different person today than I was six years ago. Very different person. I understand the business a whole lot more would never have understood that I’m just a teacher.

And I know my friends keep saying, don’t just say that, but I am just a teacher. We don’t, we don’t get to go to the bathroom. We don’t get to have lunch breaks. You know, like we don’t get to go to the grocery store in the middle of the day, you know, like, I didn’t realize until I was on mat leave how abnormal teachers’ lives are.

Right. We can only shop on the weekends. What is the busiest, you know, So what’s happened out of it is this philosophy and becoming a leader within the company and, and sharing that philosophy with others. send out cards is a great company. Like I said, it’s been around since 2004, it’s growing. It’s actually grown during this pandemic, because of the need.

There are different ways of sending cards, it’s packages that are available for any financial budget. and they’re always improving and always changing and always building. it’s, not the same company. It was in 2004, technology. Wasn’t what it was. That it is now. so it’s, I’m excited. I did to be part of it.

It’s really great. And it is, you know, he’s your motorcycle, Harley Davidson, rough around the edges kind of guy, but man, he’s got a heart of gold and he, just believes, believes, believes, in. In the relationship marketing piece, it’s all about building those relationships to build your business. And I think the biggest piece out of the book, the human connection that he made on how relationship marketing is transforming the way people succeed.

It’s the whole 80 20 rule, right? 80% of your work in your business should be building those relationships. Only 20% should be the marketing. and there’s, there’s a marriage between the two. Absolutely. But we need to spend less time. I don’t know how much junk email you get. I get a ton and it’s, it’s annoying.

That is not creating business. That is not creating relationships. And how many people delete those. I know I’m not the only one. Right. So that’s really the nuts and bolts of it. And I’m thrilled that I am able to bring it. This whole philosophy was in my classroom. It’s made a world of difference. I almost want to do my master’s degree on it.

Joel: A company that wants to, you know, this, they say, this is great. This sounds good. they want to get started with send out cards. What’s a good place to start and how, yeah. How can it help them build those relationships? Get more business.

Kathy: it’s really coming up with a strategy to, keep in touch with that client.

It takes. No eight to 12 contacts, whether it’s a phone call. Oh, wow. Yes. Foams get back to using phones. People. an email sometimes gets through, Facebook. LinkedIn is a very powerful tool as well. and then of course cards. Yes. I think that tangible card, send out cards has a system and a service in place that makes it really, really easy.

We have it on our phone and we haven’t, and you can also use it on your computer. So, it makes it really, really, really easy. you can, and you can custom make it with photos off of Facebook, off of you, your phone out of here, whatever, whether it’s using send out cards or a different system that you create yourself.

It’s all about those touchpoints. It’s all about that a month down the road. Hey, thanks for coming into my store the other day. how is it working, you know, for you? Is there anything I can do no marketing involved at all. It’s just like, Hey, how’s it going? Right. That’s huge. That is absolutely huge. it’s just that so happens to send out cards as assistant Fest system.

That’s already set up for you. That makes it easier. You don’t have to create it from scratch, but anybody can do it. I have a number of clients that used to hand write cards and send them now that you send out cards because. Literally they’re too busy. They don’t have time to handwrite cards anymore. there’s a famous, salesman, a car salesman and the name has left me now.

I should’ve written it down. but he did that. He actually had sold so many cars that he had to hire ladies to do the cards for him. And he never missed a birthday of anybody. Even if they didn’t buy a car, he would send them a birthday card and he’d have lineups at the dealership. And he’s the world’s record holder for the most sold cars.

It’s like, wow, like that’s what it is. It’s making a connection. Yeah. So it’s a case of, if you want to see what it’s all about, I do free I’m free. I do offer one free cards to anybody that’s interested, to, to look at it. No commitments. Yeah, it’s the same one free card just to trial the system. And, and then I’ve got services that I supply to people that are too busy to create campaigns. And there’s the group sends it. I don’t know. There’s so many different ways you can use it.

Joel: Can you talk a little bit about the campaigns and yeah,

Kathy: yeah, yeah. The campaigns are really cool. I’ll use a real estate agent for as an example, the campaign could look at like for a real estate agent as, you sold the house, you take a picture of the house.

Congratulations on your new home, send a card, send a pack of brownies. That’s our number one seller pack of brownies. Welcome to your new home. A months down the road, have another car or in your campaign saying it’s been a month. Is there anything I can do for you? How’s it working out, in the campaign have Christmas card or a new year’s party.

So in the campaign have a one year, a time, verse three for the purchase of your house. And you can set those cards up ahead of time as many cards as you want, press the button. Once you set the dates, press the button once, and you never have to think about it again, the system will send it for you. the company actually has premade, premade, Campaigns as well that you can actually use.

but anybody can use it. contractors, electricians, car dealers, repair guys, insurance salesman, real estate. It’s a no brainer. Dentists doctors, like anybody anchors, any walk of life, can use the system in one way or another.

Joel: Yeah. Okay. So this is a. Question. I ask all my guests and I think I know the answer to this, but I’m going to ask it anyways.

And what is your favourite book?

Kathy: Oh, goodness. I don’t have a favourite book. I really don’t. Joel. I have my professional development books. I have my downtime books. I  I’m starting to read the Biography of Hamilton. It’s like 2000 pages, it is really big. I think for professional development right now, my two favourites is selling from the heart.

I had him as a guest a few months ago. He’s an awesome guy. It’s selling authentically learning how to do that rather than being the typical salesman. And then of course human connection. but I have like a whole bookshelf. This is one of many bookshelves full of books. and I’ll be a little corny might go to relaxation at the cabin book is Daniel’s Steele.

She’s got a formula easy to read. I can totally relax, but I’m an avid reader, my husband and I kind of joke. We have so many books in our house that, we have a bookshelf in every room in our house, except the bathroom. We even have one in our kitchen. I am serious. A bookshelf. Every room. It’s crazy because we’re avid readers.

We love learning and reading and, but I really don’t have a favourite book. I know that’s a terrible answer, but I’m a reader. I’m a reader. Okay,

Joel: Kathy, thank you so much for being on the show. Really appreciate you taking the time for people who want to reach out, just to connect, maybe buy a ticket or learn more about our cards.

Where can they find you?

Kathy: kit@fester.ca that’s my email. And you can also check out, gratitude appreciation on Facebook. That’s actually every Thursday, I forgot to mention this every Thursday night we’re doing, A talk at seven 15 live every Thursday night. our gratitude and appreciation Facebook, you don’t have to be invited.

You can just find it, search it. and then our website is gratitude appreciation summit, gassummit.ca.

Joel: All right. Thanks. Thanks so much, Kathy.