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Hello, this is Leslie Kane. I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast. This is a podcast

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to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, why not today? I started this podcast

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to honor my father, Patrick Kane, who often said, why not today? I am based in Reston,

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Virginia, a Planned community right outside of Washington, C.C., and thanks for joining

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us today. And I'm super excited. I'm always excited about my guests, but I'm really excited

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about my guests today and the day that we're doing it. And as many of you know that I am

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a sales director at Mary Kay. This podcast is not about Mary Kay. And although I've had

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a couple of Mary Kay people, we really haven't focused on Mary Kay. But today we are going

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to focus on Mary Kay. And I'm super excited. My guest is Jennifer Cook, who was Mary Kay's

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personal assistant secretary. I don't know your exact title. I don't even know for how

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many years Jennifer will talk about that in a minute. And she is here to share about her

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courage to write a book called Pass It On, but then also Mary Kay's courage. And I'm

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excited about the date we're doing this. So we're recording this on Tuesday, September

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13th, which happens to be Mary Kay Corporation's 59th anniversary. So how appropriate to have

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Jennifer sharing her story today and some courage from Mary Kay. But before we hear

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from Jennifer, I always like to say, you know, talk about connections and how you meet people

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and how you get to know people. So I am part of a Mary Kay directors group. And a couple

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weeks ago, we had a guest speaker come on who was Jennifer. And it actually was rescheduled

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for another date. And so I was glad to be able to hear you and your stories. I thought

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you would be a perfect person to talk to about Mary Kay's courage stories. And it was funny,

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I friended you on Facebook and I sat there and like, okay, should I ask, should I not?

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I went back and I'm like, my dad always said, what's the worst thing somebody could say

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is no. And so I asked, and of course you were gracious and excited to share. So and then

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of course it worked out for September 13th, which couldn't be a better date. So Jennifer,

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thank you for being on and joining us today. So why don't you share a little about you

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and fun fact about you. And then we'll go into the why not today and courageous stories.

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Well, I was born in Dallas, Texas. I'm one of the very few people in the Dallas area

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that was born in Dallas. And I have three sisters and one brother and my, we lived here

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all my life and within this area. When, so it's kind of natural that I would find my

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way at Mary Kay being a Dallas based company. I took secretarial school in high school,

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but I was always intending to go to college and I worked my way through college at Mary

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Kay and I was going to become a teacher, but I loved Mary Kay so much. I loved the company.

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I loved the people. And when I got my degree, I thought, Oh, I hope I don't get a teaching

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job, but I had actually got a scholarship from the Irving public school system. So I

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thought, well, I need to apply to them at least because they gave me this scholarship

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and I applied to them and there were no job openings. And I think I'm probably one of

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the few people that was really excited that there was no job for me because I got to stay

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with Mary Kay and I worked there for 45 years, 25 of those. I was with Mary Kay and I became

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her assistant when I was just after I graduated, when I was just 23 years old. And I look back

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right now and I think, you know, what was she thinking? I was so inexperienced and so

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naive, but I have to look back and see that I learned so much from Mary Kay and she influenced

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me so greatly. She was a fantastic mentor and just watching with her and being with

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her was an inspiration. And the fact is that, like I said, I took secretarial courses, but

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my parents always encouraged their kids to have two careers, you know, just a career

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in something that, you know, anybody could do. But what we did was not what anybody could

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do, but you know, and then a professional career. So mine was in the secretary world

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and my fun fact is that I lettered in shorthand in high school. And, you know, everybody else

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had their football letters, but I had actually have a letter from my high school that, you

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know, to put on my jacket that says shorthand. That's funny. I did not know that was such

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a thing. That was one of the things that really helped me. It helped me in college to take

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down the notes in college. It helped me when I worked for Mary Kay because when she would

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just start spouting things off, I could get it all down. And it is something that I never

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regretted having done. And I still use it today when I interview people.

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That's awesome. My mom actually took shorthand in high school and she knows it too. I'm like

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totally don't understand it. So wow, you started working, you worked for Mary Kay or with Mary

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Kay for 25 years. That's awesome. And so were you her only personal assistant from when

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you were in high school? No, actually Mary Kay had a special assistant. And that was

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the person who really worked with Mary Kay on more of her personal items. Like, you know,

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she did a lot of the appointments, but she helped Mary Kay with her gowns and just a

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lot of personal things. She worked with the nationals a lot. Whereas I worked more on

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the administrative end, I was the administrative assistant. And so as we grew and Mary Kay

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started hiring staff, I was the one who supervised the staff and just kept everything running

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within the office. And at one time there was like 10 of us, you know, keeping up with Mary

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Kay because she could really generate the work because she had a lot of ideas and a

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lot of people. We have some great stories about her, which

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I can't wait to hear. So before we start, what does courage mean to you? What would

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be your definition of courage? Well, when most people think about courage, you think

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about peril and, you know, coming to the rescue and showing great courage in the time of trauma.

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But to me, courage is really stepping out of your comfort zone. There are so many people

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with dreams and aspirations and they never make them come true because they don't have

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the courage to take that first step to following their dream. It just seems too big for them

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and they can't see that they really could make their dreams come true. And that's what

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I loved about Mary Kay is that she showed women that they had unlimited potential and

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that if they would just set a goal and put a plan of action together, that before they

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knew it, you know, they could be climbing the ladder of success. They could be one step

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closer to their dream if they would just set a small goal, make that happen, set another

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goal, make that happen. And eventually the big goals would come true.

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Right. And I'm sure working with Mary Kay, not only did you have Mary Kay courageous

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stories, but so many people in the sales force and corporate. I mean, I admire Mary Kay,

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the corporate side, so much that there's so much longevity that people have been there

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for so many years. So I started my business, it'll be 28 years in November. So my very

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first seminar, which was 1995, Mary Kay was there. And then I guess the next year is when

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she had her stroke. And the only other year she came back to seminar was the only year

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I messed up until the last couple of years because of COVID, unfortunately. But so I

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never got to know Mary Kay. So I heard stories and my mentors knew Mary Kay, but I've never,

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I've, you know, I've heard stories of Mary Kay, but never got to meet her personally,

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experience it. So you worked with her every day for 25 years. And I know even after she

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had her stroke, you were still very close to her. So I would love to hear, you know,

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courageous stories of Mary Kay and maybe what you saw her, you know, starting the company,

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first of all. So when did you start working for Mary Kay?

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In 1971.

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Okay.

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When I first came to Mary Kay.

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Company wasn't even 10 years old yet.

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Right. It was, it was eight years old. And actually I started in what I think was the

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year that the company was about to really take off because the company had just opened

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its first distribution center out in California. And we also had just debuted the first two

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national sales directors, Helen McVoy and Dailene White and opened the first international

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subsidiary in Australia.

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Oh, wow.

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So there were all, all signs were there that this company was going somewhere and this

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company was about to grow and take off, which it, which it truly did. It really was an exciting

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time to join Mary Kay and be a part of something that went from 12,000 beauty consultants to,

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you know, over 3 million beauty consultants. It was an exciting time to be a part of Mary

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Kay.

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And were they at that point public or private?

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They were what was called the over the counter market. In 1968, they needed to raise capital.

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For inventory and for the manufacturing. And so to raise that capital, they began to sell

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the stock and it was on the over the counter market. It became so successful though that

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in 1976 they went on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Okay. And then they ended up buying the company back.

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Right. And that was in 1984.

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Okay. All right. So I know you wrote a book called Pass It On, sharing Mary Kay's stories

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and lots of her stories, other people's stories. So share some of your favorite, maybe Mary

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Kay courage stories or people, maybe start with Mary Kay. And then if you know of other

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ones that inspired you, I mean, she's got so many Mary Kay stories, I'm sure.

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Well, I think the first courage story that I want to share is about Mary Kay and having

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brain surgery back in the 1950s. Mary Kay had a hemifacial spasm. Her right eye would

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tick. Her right. And she was a motivational speaker. She would give a really great speech.

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And instead of people come up and saying to her, oh, I loved your speech or I loved what

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you said, they said, oh, your tick isn't as noticeable this time. And she realized that

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people were watching her face and not really listening to what she had to say. So she went

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to a neurologist here in the Dallas area who identified her problem as a hemifacial spasm

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and told her that if something weren't done about it, after a while, this side of her

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face would be paralyzed and she could lose the left side of her body. And so it was a

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serious condition. And he referred her to the Cleveland Clinic, which was the only one,

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I think, doing this type of surgery back in the 1950s. Now, this was very dangerous surgery

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back then. And of course, I think that Mary Kay, you know, had to have had fears of what

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was going to happen during this brain surgery. But she, you know, she took that step. She

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had the courage to go ahead and have that brain surgery. And it truly was a serious

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operation. You know, Mary Kay, ever the optimist felt that she'd have the surgery and be back

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at work in two weeks. Well, it was four months later. Oh, wow. She was able to because she

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of course, she almost died during that. And just the rehabilitation from this was a four

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month procedure. But she always said that if she hadn't done that, she wouldn't have

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been able to found the company. Because, you know, without the tick, then people started

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listening to what she had to say again. And that made her the great motivational speaker

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that she became.

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I had never heard that story until you shared it the other day.

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Yeah. And I think most people don't realize how serious that was. And yeah, was she a

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single mom at that point? Or she married? I think she was a single mom. Yes. It's even

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scarier. Yeah. Because it was back in the in the 50s. Yeah. The second courageous thing

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that I think she did was when she quit her job. She had worked her way up to the director

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of training for a direct sales company. And she she you know, she loves sales, she loved

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motivating people. But they promoted a gentleman over her that you know, she kept hiring assistants,

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she would train them and then they would promote these gentlemen over her. And she would always

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say ask, you know, why didn't I get that promotion? And the answer was, well, they have a family

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to support. And Mary Kay always thought that's not fair, because I'm a single mom, and I

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have a family to support. And, you know, there came a time when she just had enough. And

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so she quit her job. And you know, as she says later, when she went home, she got to

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thinking about it. And she said, if they'd called me and asked me to come back, I probably

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would have gone back. But that wasn't God's plan for her. God's plan for her was that

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she start this company that would give women opportunity that she had been denied. You

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know, she said it took her a long time to get into the boardroom of a company. And when

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she got in the boardroom, her ideas were totally discounted. And they would just tell her,

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Oh, Mary Kay, you're thinking like a woman. And of course, the sales force, they were

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women. And so it was just kind of like that male mentality that it has to be the male

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way and or no way. They wouldn't listen to her. So she wanted a company that valued women,

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she knew women could do great things. And she wanted to show people what people could

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do. But she wanted to show women themselves what they could do if they believed in themselves.

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Her second motivation was to found a company based on the golden rule, which she did. And

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just this combination of a company based on the golden rule, with an opportunity for women

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to succeed financially and professionally was appealing to women back in the 1960s.

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And the mission for Mary Kay, which what started with and is still today the Mary Kay mission

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is to enrich women's lives. And that's not domestic. You know, I often say, you know,

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we do so much more than the company itself than just products. And she came up with the

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business plan before she came up the product line, which was great. And then the third

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courageous thing that she did was, of course, founding the company. And, you know, she retired

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from that other direct sales company in May. And in September, the doors of Mary Kay cosmetics

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opened, which was called Beauty by Mary Kay. That was the first name of the company. Well,

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if you think about it, that was four short months that she put this all together. And

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I had no idea it was that and and launched her company. And she, she and her husband

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were going to do this together. Well, he died of a heart attack at the kitchen table a couple

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of months before they launched. And she and her children sat down and thought, you know,

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well, should I go on? And her children were very supportive of her. They said, Mother,

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we know that you can do anything that you set your mind to do. And Richard said, I'll

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come and join you in the business. Her son, Ben, had saved $5,000 and he gave it to Mary

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Kay to help finance the company. And then her daughter took a showcase down to Houston

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and became the first sales director in Mary Kay. So they were very supportive of her.

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Now, they were the only ones because her accountant told her that she could not have the commissions

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that she had and stay in business. And her attorney sent away to Washington for a pamphlet

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on how many cosmetic companies go broke every year. Wow. And then she met another gentleman

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who was a businessman. And he told her that, you know, you might as well just tell me the

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formulations right now, because you're not going to be a success. But she believed in

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her dream. And she had was able to convince nine other people to believe in that dream

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with her. And she always said they were just friends of mine who felt sorry for me, that

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I had joined her when they had the grand opening, which was the beginning of Mary Kay. But,

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you know, to go ahead and follow a dream when your husband's just died. And, you know, it

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was with all of her life saving. That was a big step that I think took a lot of courage.

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Absolutely. That took major courage. Yeah. And that one step of courage for that one

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person, how many gazillion lives that has touched. Right. And it truly has. You don't

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know how many lives and, you know, not only just the Salesforce, but then the family of

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the Salesforce and community of the Salesforce and customers and so many ways we've touched

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so many lives. I often wear and I do have it on net today, a starfish necklace. And

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because of the story of the starfish. Do you know the story of the starfish? Yes, I do.

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But why don't you tell it? Because I'm sure other people will want to hear. So the story

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of the starfish is this man was walking down the beach and there were millions of starfish

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on the beach. And this young kid was picking them up and throwing them in the water. And

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the man's like, what are you doing? You can never make a difference. There's millions.

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And he picked one up and threw it in the water. And he said, I made a difference in that one

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person's life. And I think that's what Mary Kay really does. You just never know the lives

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that it can touch and where it can go. And who would, I mean, my life is completely different

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when I started really just to get my products at a discount. Who would have ever thought

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the life I would be created. And then fast forward to I'm on a call with you who worked

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for Mary Kay and was day to day with Mary Kay. I never got to meet her. So like how

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many lives have been touched and yeah, just, you just never know. And just being courageous

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to do those things and get out of your comfort zone because it's not just your life, but

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so many lives you can change. And you know, it's not only the comfort zone with Mary Kay

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that she inspired. I've met women who were beauty consultants who had dreams of something

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that they wanted to do for a lifetime. And because of Mary Kay and the skills that they

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got, you know, they were able to step into those dreams. I'll give you an example. There's

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a chocolate here here in Dallas and she makes a chocolate high heels and chocolate Texas's

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and she's, she's got the cutest line of stuff, chocolate lipsticks. It was a Mary Kay beauty

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consultant and she had, she was a single mom. She had three, three daughters. She raised

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her daughter doing, doing Mary Kay because you know, she needed the income. But then

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after she got her daughters raised, she thought, you know, I've always wanted to do this and

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I'm going to step out in faith and do it. But she said, because of her Mary Kay training,

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because Mary Kay had taught her to believe in her dream, she was able to do this. And

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now she's like around the world with her chocolate. She's in the Neiman Marcus catalog. Oh wow.

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Mary Kay has influenced so many women. We always think about the women that are in Mary

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Kay who were influenced by this company, but there are women who were part of Mary Kay

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for just a short time who realized the power of vision and dreams and God had put a vision

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in them about something else. And they, this is a great place to start, to get a foundation,

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to build a business. Absolutely. I always tell people that, you know, you can learn

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things. It's Mary Kay is an amazing personal growth program and things to do so many other

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things. So there's a lot of other things I do in this world that aren't just Mary Kay

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and most of them because of what I learned from Mary Kay and the skills and the talents

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and the people and the tribe and the connections we've built because of Mary Kay. You just,

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you can't even imagine how big it goes. So one of the things that I know Mary Kay was

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courageous about, which coming from a corporate background is not prevalent in corporate America,

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we talked about Mary Kay's philosophy of the golden rule, but also is faith first, family

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second and career third is one of the principles of Mary Kay. And to have a company, a corporate

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corporation that you can even talk about your faith, but live it out loud is, was very courageous.

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So you don't talk about that, Jennifer and how she-

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Well, yes. From the very beginning, you know, Mary Kay said God first, family second and

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career third. And she really did live this. And I always say that Mary Kay was genuine

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and she was humble. And there was one of the major reasons for this was that she realized

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that God was using her, that it wasn't her that had started the company and made it successful,

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but that it was because God wanted her to help women. She took that leap of faith. She

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always acknowledged him. And because of that, he blessed what she was doing. And she was

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also a great proponent of giving other people credit and recognizing people. And she would

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say that one person, she herself could have not built this company to the great company

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that it has become, but she always acknowledged that every staff member had an important role

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and every beauty consultant had an important role and that together this company had been

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built. And because she talked about our faith, that is one of the things that when you talk

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to people about Mary Kay who knew her, they will always talk about the spiritual growth

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that they experienced in Mary Kay because of her courage to talk about it. They never

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felt that they had to be compromised about their faith. Mary Kay's faith was just a part

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of her everyday life and they made it a part of their everyday lives. But Mary Kay never

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preached. She never preached. What she did was she lived her faith. And she would talk

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about her belief in God and how God had moved in this. She would give her testimony, but

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she never preached or made people feel uncomfortable about what she believed. And that was just

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a great gift to her. And because of that, she was able to influence a lot of people

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to have that spiritual growth that many look back and just say what a blessing that was

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to do that. And I can absolutely say one of the things we always say we got out of our

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start a kid from starting this business is my spiritual growth. And right before we came

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on this call, I was on a Mary Kay director Bible study and there's like 250 of us on

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this Bible study that from all over the country don't even know each other. But one director

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stepped on our faith and started this and it's touching so many lives and you just never

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know. And I love that part about Mary Kay that the God first, family second went off.

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Not just Mary Kay stories, but her faith part of it. You want to share that a little bit?

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You went off for me for a minute. What was the last question, please?

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Just that you had shared the other day when you were talking about writing your book that

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you want to share Mary Kay's the faith side of Mary Kay.

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Right. Right. And that is something that I think that most people don't realize was that

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Mary Kay had a deep and abiding faith with her and herself. And I wanted to let other

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people know that she was a great leader, but not only was she a great leader, but she was

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a great Christian leader. And people kept asking me to write my book, write down my

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stories and I really didn't feel like I was qualified to do that. What, you know, what

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qualified me to write a book about Mary Kay? But one night I was woken, I was awakened

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with this thought that I think came from God, that I was to write a book about Mary Kay

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and that it was a book about what her faith was and that that was the most important thing

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to her. That's what she would want to be remembered for. Of course, she wants to be remembered

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that she was a great businesswoman, but I think more important, she wanted to be remembered

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for the fact that she was a great Christian businesswoman. And before that, it was like,

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I would always say, no, I'm not going to write a book. No, I'm not going to write a book.

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But after that, it was like I would, I was being awakened every morning and just the

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words would just come off of my pen onto the paper. It was like I was being inspired to

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write this book. And I interviewed so many women who had fantastic stories about how,

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you know, Mary Kay had given them success and given them self-confidence, but also about

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the spiritual growth that they had experienced as a part of Mary Kay. And just listening

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to these women and hearing their inspiration reinforced how special Mary Kay was and what

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a great company this has been that has touched so many lives in so many ways and made dreams

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come true.

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Yeah, we could go on and on and on and on and on about stories and faith.

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I wanted to say something about, you know, once you decide that you're going to do it,

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why not do it? It's like, you know, God called me to do something that was totally out of

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my comfort zones, totally something that I didn't know how to do. But I just didn't sit,

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you know, I sit down and wrote what the Lord told me. But I realized that there's more

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to making a dream come true. There is preparation and work. And so, you know, the first thing

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I did is I took courses on writing proposals. I took courses on writing a book. I knew that

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this was going to be a memoir for six months. I read other people's memoirs to see how they

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had done it and just to get some ideas of how people had written memoirs themselves.

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And I talked to other authors. I put a lot of foundation into this book. I just didn't

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say, okay, I'm going to write a book and just flippantly do it. I mean, when God tells us

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to do something, lots of times there has to be preparation. That there's a foundation.

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The foundation has to be built for a big dream to happen.

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Right. But, you know, and you write in the book, it was that prompting of God and saying

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why not today? But yeah, and then you got to put the work behind it and be smart about

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it. So yeah, with why not today, it's making that decision, but then being smart. This

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Bible study I'm doing is called, the book is basically saying yes to God, which is,

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you know, why not today and what you did. And then it said you have to have insane obedience

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or something like that and then be obedient to the steps into getting it done. Yeah. And

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it's not easy. And I'm sure you've had days that you're like, why that?

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Yes.

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People you've been around or why don't you tell us a fun Mary Kay story since you've

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got, since we're with the Mary Kay storyteller.

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Oh, okay. A fun Mary Kay story. Well, this is one that happened to me and it's one of

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my funniest ones because Mary Kay was always on a diet like most women. And she was very

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interested in nutrition because of her work in cancer awareness. And she would take these

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cancer newsletters and of course they always had articles about nutrition and they had

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these recipes, which I tried one one time and I thought, oh, this is the most horrible

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recipe I've ever tried. But a group of us, there were four of us at lunch one day and

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they, Mary Kay started the nutrition talk before we had our lunch. Well, the waitress

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came up and she said, I'll take your order now. And Mary Kay said, well, you'll go first.

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So we all ordered turkey sandwiches, diet cokes and salads, because after all we'd had

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the lecture. Then Mary Kay turned to the waitress and she said, I'll have a cheeseburger, french

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fries and a chocolate malt. And she had a twinkle in her eye and you know, just that

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I gotcha look in her eye. And to make matters worse, she slurped her malt to prolong her,

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you know, enjoyment of fooling us.

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Yeah, she definitely had a sense of humor from one of her and lots of fun stories. We

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could go on and on. So what would you say to somebody to empower somebody to be courageous,

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to start that business, to write a book, to say why not today? What would be your encouragement

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for somebody?

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The promptings, you know, if you get a prompting and we argue with ourselves, we think, oh

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no, I didn't really hear from God or oh no, that's not really what I was meant to do.

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We're trying to talk ourselves out of it. Well, why not? I mean, why not try? What's

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the worst thing that could happen to you? As Mary Kay, she had this little saying, she

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would say, become a member of the Din Din Club. Well, Din Din stands for do it now,

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do it now. So when you get those promptings, if you just take that first step, it would

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be amazing the doors that will open for you. If it is meant to be, those doors are going

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to open. Just take the first step.

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Absolutely. Totally agree. So, oh my gosh, so many great stories and so much great information

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about Mary Kay. So I always try to tie back my guests to a connection with my father because

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this podcast was kind of started in his honor. Now, obviously, I've never met my father and

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he did pass away. But I was trying to kind of think of different things. And with you

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and with Mary Kay, one, his faith was very strong and he was definitely part of the Din

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Din Club. And he often said, as we always talk about, why not today? But also, two,

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what's the worst thing that can happen if you try and you say yes or ask that question

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or just start? He did own his own business and worked for himself for years. So I kind

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of saw that modeled in my life, which was then gave me the courage to do what I've done.

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And I know for Mary Kay, family was very important. And same with my father. I mean, he worked

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for himself so he could be there for us. There were six of us kids. And I remember like it

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was yesterday when I started Mary Kay, my dad was a little leery because I'd just finished

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my master's degree. What are you doing? But when I qualified for my first car, I'll never

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forget, he talked to my senior director and said, complimented her and Mary Kay and how

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it had changed me. And so it wasn't about the car, but the person I was becoming with

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qualifying for the car and the personal growth in the business. And he was very leery. But

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one of his one of my biggest cheerleaders and because of Mary Kay, when he was sick,

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I was able to be there when he passed away and I was sad, I was able to be sad and, you

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know, not take time off. For me to be where I am doing the things I am right now. Oh,

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I think my internet's being a little unstable so we can hear us. So anything else you want

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to add before we say goodbye, Jennifer?

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Well, you know, it's so obvious that your dad was a great influence in your life. And

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you know, his philosophy has been passed on through you. Mary Kay always told us, pass

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it on. And so I commend you because you are passing on the philosophy that your dad taught

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to you and the philosophy that Mary Kay taught to you. And it is a great thing when we have

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positive mentors. And if you don't have a positive mentor in your life, I can recommend

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one and that is Mary Kay Ash. And I did write the book to show what a great leader she was

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and my book is on Amazon.

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Where can we find your book and how can we connect with you?

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And you can connect through Facebook. I have a Facebook page that's jennifercook-author.

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And I had so much fun interviewing national sales directors that I'm continuing to do

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that. And I post I continually post stories about Mary Kay that their experiences with

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Mary Kay and it's just a lot of fun to talk to them. But it's a lot of fun, I think, to

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read the articles to see how Mary Kay interacted with people and to know that she was just

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a down to earth person who was truly an inspiration to everyone who met her.

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Yep, absolutely. Well, I will share in the show notes or on Facebook and everything how

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people can find you on Facebook and find your book and I have not I admit I have not got

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the book yet. I'm going to order it today. But thank you again. Gosh, what a special

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day. Spotify, iTunes, I think I added to Google pretty much anywhere you can find a podcast.

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We do have some fun Why Not Today gear. We've got t shirts and cups and vinyl. So if you

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want to start the movement with us and say why not today, let me know. We are working

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on the website. We will have that ready hopefully soon. So again, Jennifer, thank you for joining

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us and happy 59th anniversary to Mary Kay. That's right. So much luck with your book

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and I can't wait to get my hands on it. So thank you. And don't forget everybody say

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why not today. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you.