Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by Bee’s Charitable Pursuits and Resources. We put the fun in fund raising. For more information, go to Bee’s Charitable Pursuits. Dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruitt.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:45] Good, fabulous Friday morning. It’s another fabulous Friday with three more fabulous guests. This is your first time tuning in. This is Charitable Georgia. And this is all about positive things happening in the community. And this whole show is about community. We’ve got three guests who pour their heart and souls into the community. So we’re going to start off this morning with Wilma Zalabak. Welcome, Wilma.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:01:06] Thank you, Brian.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:07] So Wilma and I have known each other since 1988. She came to the church I grew up in. I’ve been here since 1979 and been at the Marriott of 70 Evidence Church since then. And she came and she was one of our pastors. She does she’s a great teacher and she’s just got a real passion for a particular part of Marietta. But first of all, Wilma, just give us a little background about you and how you got involved in the seminary and why you’re teaching. And just give us a little bit of background of yourself.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:01:37] Yes, My first love, of course, is the Bible. I’m a pastor. I knew I was called to preach the Bible when I was 12. And it it was quite a long journey getting there. So in 88 I had just finished my BA in Religion and landed in Marietta. And by God’s grace we were able to start the one of the churches over here in Woodstock. So it was it was a great time. But then I wanted to I’m skipping over into Franklin Gateway now. And so.

Brian Pruett: [00:02:12] Well, let me just before you get into that. So she she has a passion for people like you said, and Franklin Gateway, if you don’t know, is the Franklin Road area in Marietta. And she has two big things, at least two things she does during the year that I know of. But I know she does a lot for that area. So you do stuff at the school back to school and then during the Christmas time. So go ahead and share. Why is that area your passion and why do you feel like you need to help in that area more so than others? But you do help other people but just share what you do for the Franklin Gateway?

Wilma Zalabak: [00:02:41] Yes, I was looking for how to to spread the love of the Bible. And I decided just by logic, that a place I would look for as my mission area would be where there were a concentration of residences. And just driving around in Marietta, I saw the Franklin Gateway was 16 apartment complexes with. Hundreds at least units with each one. And I, I decided, prayed about it and decided, well this was going to be my area began doing storytelling children and adult. And then I found out that the city had already designated that area as a place that needed federal funding and got the grant for five years for weed and seed. And so I was able to hook up with that grant the things that were going on with them and add to them. They did two big events each year. One was back to school bash in the summer. And I said to them, I said, Well, do you have any medical work going on with that back to school? Bash Because I thought I could gather up some doctors to help us if we wanted to do screening. And so that’s how we got into the back to school. Bash We just bring doctors to do the screenings that are needed for school. Then they also do a winter event holidays around the world. And we got gathered into that one, too. We give away books and some food. We give away groceries at both of them.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:04:39] So with those two going on, I just supplemented. There were some classes I taught on listening. I care about communication a whole lot and there were classes I taught on Bible school now for the last. Six, eight, maybe ten years I’ve been preaching on the street. There’s a there’s a gas station right about in the midst of the area who allows me to bring my truck and set up and preach off the back of the tailgate. And I know it sounds rather strange, but I was looking for a place to to share my love of the Bible. And so that’s one of the things that that I love. Also, one of the churches, the one that Brian and I attend, agreed to work with me on a Christmas event to where we gather up names and wish lists for 150 children. And then the church goes out and buys according to the wish lists. And we have an event where they all come to and we we put up staging like Bethlehem. And it’s kind of a fun thing. Since the pandemic, it’s all drive through. So that’s in a nutshell, I guess. Franklin Gateway work. Oh, by the way since Weed and Seed and I think our prayers lots has happened on Franklin Gateway so that several of the worst apartment complexes that were really buggy and bad are gone now and there are beautiful businesses coming in. So I think God has been blessing.

Tyra Wingo: [00:06:34] I didn’t hurt either, did they? Right. I did come in right. It didn’t hurt. Oh, wonderful.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:06:39] And the sports complex and more coming.

Brian Pruett: [00:06:42] What I think is really cool, especially from from our church, is when you especially when you do the back to school. Bash Seeing the different doctors from the church go out there from the dentist to the eye doctors, you got several nurses that go out there, physical therapists. I know you get a lot of support from the church, but how is the other part of the community, how are they supporting you.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:07:02] The Franklin Gateway community?

Brian Pruett: [00:07:05] You know, just Marietta in general, Do you have other folks that that kind of come aboard by that look? It looks like it’s just Marietta Church.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:07:12] I have brought other churches along. Sometimes my aim has been to bring churches together on it, but it hasn’t come alive as much as I would wish.

Brian Pruett: [00:07:25] Well, maybe this will help. This will help. So you also have a passion and helping kids. You teach piano. So you shared before we got on the air. You have 29 students right now, is that correct? That’s correct. And you have a recital coming up. And in our church normally would probably be where you have a straddle. But we had a Christmas Eve. We had a water pipe bust. And so they’re still working on that. So she’s currently if anybody out there listening and has a place for a recital, she needs a place for a recital for a 29 kids coming up to you. What made you decide? I mean, you said your love of the Bible and everything to get in seminary, but can you you’re from the North or the Midwest? Michigan, right? Wisconsin.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:08:07] Wisconsin. Yes. I grew up in Wisconsin. Cheesehead. That’s true. We had the Braves first.

Brian Pruett: [00:08:14] That’s true. You did Milwaukee. They did, although Boston had it before that. So what was your reasoning? Just for the love of the Bible is that But you decided to get into the seminary. Is that why you wanted to do the preaching?

Wilma Zalabak: [00:08:27] Oh, yes. It’s it’s that the Bible speaks to me or I like to say the Bible listens to me. The Bible understands me. It feels like when I’m in it that there’s I’m being listened to and and I’m just driven to want to share that joy that that resource with people.

Brian Pruett: [00:08:49] I talked to some people before about you are a tremendous teacher when it comes to the Bible, right? Because you sit down and stuff and a lot of times you’re just reading or you listen to other people. Some people use scare tactics, but you actually go above and beyond as far as the education piece of it, and you want to make sure people understand it because it is a beautiful piece of work and a lot of hope, you know, and stuff like that. So you also are an author. Yes. Share a little bit about the books you’ve written.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:09:20] Well, since you were talking about beauty here. I just have to pull in on that because the the book that is coming off in April is Beauty in the Bible. And I’ve never seen anyone do this with understanding the Bible before this before before me, too, where just in the way the Bible is put together. Compared to novels and poetry. The structure of it to me is beautiful. And so, yes, that’s what I had to do. And then the first tiny book I got was in 2000 about listening. So that’s another one of my passions. But the first one that came off the press was the the happiest book I ever read is The Revelation of Jesus Christ because of the beauty in it.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:17] Where can people find your books?

Wilma Zalabak: [00:10:19] Amazon.com. Except that first one, you have to get in touch with me and I’ll give you one.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:27] So if they’re looking it up, just if you don’t mind, spell your last name for people.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:10:31] Oh, sure. It’s Z, as in zebra. A L, a B as in boy a K.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:38] If there’s folks out there who want to talk to you about I know you got 29 students, but are you open for more if people want to talk to you about.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:10:45] I am. There are several thinking about it.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:48] All right. So if people want to get ahold of you for the lessons or helping in the Gateway Franklin Gateway, how can people get a hold of you?

Wilma Zalabak: [00:10:55] My phone is (770) 546-4573, and I work maybe best by email. That’s my last name. Z a l. A. B, a k. M. D five. At gmail.com.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:15] Can you share with some folks real quickly how they might be able to come aboard and help you with the Franklin Gateway?

Wilma Zalabak: [00:11:21] Well, there’s always a need for seconds, you know, people who can come and help lift. I’ve gotten to where I can’t lift even the speakers very well. So on Saturday and Sunday is when I’m preaching on the street. Could have helped there. Otherwise, there are other things going on that I can connect to with the leaders of those events. I’m pretty much a connection person on Franklin Gateway. So you call me and tell me what you’d like to do and I can probably connect you with someone that you can do it with. Awesome.

Brian Pruett: [00:12:01] So I like to ask this question Why is it important for you to be a part of the community?

Wilma Zalabak: [00:12:05] It’s because, don’t get me wrong, follow me through. It’s because I love the Bible. Because I. I’m not the kind who’s going to push the Bible on someone. But I know that if I’m part of the community, if I’m doing things that are helpful in the community, people are going to know why I do it, because I’m also involved in these other things. So the reason it’s important for me to be involved in the community is because it it builds friendships for my passion.

Brian Pruett: [00:12:41] You just shared a lot for them. And thank you for for sharing all that. Do you mind sticking around listening to these next two stories? Because I think there’s a lot of synergy here in this room with you guys, so.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:12:51] I’d love to. Thank you.

Brian Pruett: [00:12:53] Awesome. Well, thank you. All right. I don’t know where to start with these two. They’re kind of like two and one, so we may just have a natural conversation with the two of them. Yes. I am going to start with with Angie Sims, though. Angie, welcome to the show.

Angie Sims: [00:13:05] Thank you.

Brian Pruett: [00:13:06] You have a tremendous organization. As I mentioned earlier, all three of these ladies pour their heart and souls into community, and Angie and Tyra both pour their heart and souls into the women in community. And you have an organization called the League of Girlfriends. But if you would, I’d like for you to share a little bit of your background. You came from Pittsburgh. Yeah. And you have a really cool story. So do you mind sharing a little bit of your story?

Angie Sims: [00:13:30] I’d love to. Thank you so much for having me. So yeah, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and as soon as I get out of there, I did. So I went to Penn State, and then after I left Penn State, I never really came back home, maybe for a couple of months. And I worked for an aunt who was a lawyer, so I definitely had to leave. But essentially I moved to New Jersey, where my dad was at. I wanted to be closer to my father. So in moving to New Jersey, I found a career in financial services. So I said I wanted to have my first job and I wanted to make $30,000. Right. That was going to be my first job. And I stuck to it and my job ended up being $50,000, thank goodness. Right. Working in New York City. So I lived in Hackensack, New Jersey, which is seven minutes from George Washington Bridge, which takes you to Manhattan. I spent many years, about 15 years in financial services and executive jobs, such as I was deputy director of diversity for Citigroup Smith Barney. I also ran their online training platform, and I loved being in the big city. I loved it until September 11th. Right. A lot of people don’t know this story. Tyra knows a lot of people don’t know that. I was actually there, actually heard the plane because it went it used my building, which was the Travelers building with the umbrella on the side of it.

Angie Sims: [00:14:50] They used our building as a way to navigate to the towers. And I am my back is to the Hudson River. And we hear, yeah, but we thought the plane just went into the river, right? And everybody comes out. What was that? And we go, I go across the hall and see the the billowing smoke coming out of the building. And our building was the only one that was as high as that one that we could see directly into it. And then immediately CNN says it’s a plane. I’m like, no way a plane could fit in there, right? So I said, Well, let me get back to work because I’m going to get in trouble. Right? Let me get back to my job. Go back to my seat, call my grandmother, call. I don’t even know how I became to tell the story. I hardly I hardly ever. I’ve told the story a few times since I’ve been in Georgia. I’ve been here almost eight years. I’ve only told it probably five times. Make my way back to my seat and said, Let me call my grandmother and tell her, when you wake up, you’re going to see something. But know that I caught the earlier train because I caught the train that went through the basement of the World Trade Center every day. And I happened to catch the early train that day. Just before you wake, when you wake up, Don’t worry where I am. I’m fine. I caught the early train, and then my my bonus mom calls me my step mom.

Angie Sims: [00:15:56] She’s been my step mom since I was seven. So my other mother calls me and she sees it on the news. I’m like, Oh, no, I’m fine. One thing about me, I’m also at this point, I’ve been an event planner for 25 years, so I had a wedding coming up and I happened to have my floppy disk. I’m really dating myself. I had my floppy disk in my computer. So what happened is that I heard people screaming, right? So by this time it is nine, I guess 915. I don’t know what time the second plane hit, but I go to run over to see what’s happening because I hear people screaming saying, Oh, what’s going on? And I see almost as if you’re watching a movie. One of the people that I work with just moving his hands saying, everybody get out. Everybody get out. Right. Just immediately because some of the people that we work with were military, former military people. So instinctually they know one plane, maybe two planes, no terrorists. They’re like, everybody get out. So I run back to my desk, pop out my floppy drive, throw my tennis shoes on, and then began to witness what was one of the most horrific things, you know, I mean, because my building was eight blocks. So I see the jumping and I and we saw it fall. Still a hard thing to talk about. It’s so many years later and you have some of this survivor’s guilt because literally I did not come out of my apartment for days.

Angie Sims: [00:17:19] And it was always like, you know, field of Dreams when if you put your foot across the line and something changes, I literally was afraid. Thank you. To come outside of my apartment because why, why, why did I survive? Right? But then, you know, even as a Christian, we question, right. And I think we’re allowed to question because I. Think he could take it. Right. So really difficult time. But I was really over the big city glamor after that. Once you survive something like that, you know, but continued to have a great career in financial services. As I mentioned, deputy director of Diversity, and I ran the online training platform. It was so much fun in financial services until it wasn’t right. So when you work for a big company like that, sure, I made six figure bonuses. They couldn’t even explain why I got the bonus. But thank you. Right, but it was an illustrious career. It was a great time, especially working in New York City. But when you have those real life things happen, you realize how less significant it is compared to life. My husband had tried to convince us to move. I got married, by the way. I skipped that part. Been married to my husband. I grew up together as babies or we played together as children and our mother said they were best friends since first grade.

Angie Sims: [00:18:35] When they get older, they get married. Right? So essentially, my husband kept trying to convince me to move down south. He said, Why don’t we move down south with your energy and your knowhow? Because event planner, executive coach, all these things, we could do great down there. And I used to tell him, why would I move down south and start making the French fries when I’m telling people how hot to dangle on fries should be. Right? But what that tells you is that I took myself too seriously, right? And I took business too seriously. And at the end of the day, God cares about I feel your heart and what you’re doing to help people. So I actually got laid off from that big time job where I was telling people how hot the fries could be. Right. But why? Because they couldn’t lay me off because it wasn’t my company. So we moved down south about eight years ago to Acworth, Georgia, which was an incredible for us. And I didn’t have a job. I had a pot full of money but didn’t have a job and wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do. So I had my event planning business. I said to my husband, What should I do? He said, Why don’t you do what you always do? Tell people what to do. You’re good at that, right? So I started he actually bought me, you know, those things you put on your desk that have what your title is and it has a pen in it and a picture and it says Business consultant.

Angie Sims: [00:19:55] And I thought to myself, Why would he do that? I’m a wedding planner. Why would he do that? Well, because you’re bossy and you tell everybody what to do. So essentially one day I woke up and something was telling me and I just spoke at the Paulding County Empowering Women’s Luncheon. And I always tell women, stop saying something was telling you because, you know, it was God. You know, something told me not to make that right. Something told me I should call Sarah. It’s not something. It is the intuition that God gives you. Yes. So this something. God moved me this certain morning and had me go to my computer because also I build websites and I started building a website, wasn’t sure what it was for, but literally sat there for 3 or 4 hours, built this website, which is not magically I could build a website because I had been writing code and building websites since 2000, right? But now they got to drop and drag, so that’s way better. So I’m putting buttons and I’m putting all different things and I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. I was thinking in my head, maybe he’s having me do something for couples because there’s so much to do here in Georgia for free. And and my husband and I used to run our church as couples ministry when we were in New Jersey. So essentially I pushed away from the website a few hours later and literally looked up at it and was like, legal girlfriends, whatever God.

Angie Sims: [00:21:13] And I press publish. See, some people will question it and then go pray on it and then talk to 14 people about it and then hum on it. Then go. No, but see, my message was a direct line connection so I didn’t have to go talk to the source that already told me to do it. So when I press publish, I pressed it believing, knowing that it was not my thing because when I was in New York, my staff was scared of me. I was not a girlfriend, I was not a girlfriend ish. You would not have mistaken me for your girlfriend, right? But essentially I believe that God had me found this incredible organization and built it from nine members to now 500 and close to 50 because he wanted to give the League of Girlfriends to the least likely girlfriend to show how dope he is. And he did that, right. He did that. But it comes with believing. And as a Christian, it doesn’t mean that you always believe, but when you got to listen, I get enough trouble by myself. I don’t have no time to not tire besides you. Yeah. And we double trouble, right? Double trouble here with my sister. But essentially that’s how the League of Girlfriends became. And it started out as a social organization where I thought, Why don’t we get together as girlfriend? I thought, well, he thought, why don’t we get together as girlfriends and do stuff social? And Tyra here, my sister, who you hear from shortly, is my member number three out of 500 and something girlfriends, right.

Angie Sims: [00:22:34] She’s actually one of the first eternal girlfriends. So we made her a lifetime girlfriend last year. She was girlfriend of the year 2020, 2022. But essentially so many women, it’s lonely being an entrepreneur, right? And so you have people that you’ll start a business and they’ll say, Oh, I’ll support you, your friends and family, I’ll support you and I’ll support you with your makeup. And they go to work. And by Mary Kay from the girl in the cubicle next to them. Oh, I forgot you did that, right? Or why don’t you just go get a job, right? It’s really lonely being an entrepreneur. And you need women that at the core of themselves want to support you in your guts. No matter what you look like, no matter what your experiences are, you know? And I find myself, my premier business as a coach, you know that. Brian We talk all the time, so I end up coaching some men some time to, you know, wherever the Lord leads me, right? But essentially it’s so women with girlfriends are happier, they live longer and they make more money, right? So why not be connected with women that really, really get you on your journey to help you not just in business but also in life?

Brian Pruett: [00:23:38] That’s pretty you know, again, I always say this and again my mom and says, you need a new word, but it’s just awesome, right? I mean, that’s how we say it. So thank you. You do a lot for the community, not just for that because you helped with a big expo, right? Just happened. Can you share a little bit about the Expo and who did it and what was for?

Angie Sims: [00:23:54] Yeah, sure. So as an event planner, I still do a lot of event planning. As a matter of fact, I’m finding myself doing more and more event planning all the time. I just got a new event yesterday. I’m doing for some celebrities. Just came out the blue, right? I not out the blue again. That’s God, right? So essentially there’s a gentleman I’m connected with. His name is Corey, the network King Moore. Right. And he and I have been networking together since I’ve been in Georgia. Ships in the night, passing each other in one day. He found out I was an event planner. This was the September of 2022. He said, Hey, do you want to be known for that? I was like, Not really, but I love doing it. So it reignited my love for events. He does something called The Taste of Urban Atlanta, which he and I have collaborated. Now I’m the national executive director for this. It is supporting black businesses and we do it every other month at the foundry at Puritan Mills. Most people that do expo shows like that do a once a year, maybe twice a year. And maybe it’s for the beauty industry, maybe it’s for something specific. But this supports black business owners and we have about 65 to 70 every other month, and now it’s turned into an adult only affair. But then what we did in February, we said, we’re going to take it up a notch. There’s this event that was all around the country years back, especially when I was in New York. I would go every single year at the Jacob Javits. It was called the Black Expo, and it has hundreds of black business owners, everything from food to cake to to drinks to beverage to products and services.

Angie Sims: [00:25:13] And we we support the black business owners, but everyone is invited to come. So you’re getting a taste of the urban culture Right now. We only allow black business owners to exhibit unless you’re, of course, a sponsor or a supporter of us. But it really we’re trying to elevate and move the black dollar in Atlanta specifically right now before we go around the country. And what we do is we train these black business owners how to take their business to the next level. So it’s not just buying a vending booth and come and setting up. We do two training sessions and we teach them how to make money before, during and after. Because a coach, if I’m not teaching you how to fish, what am I doing? And that’s one of the things Tyron and I work on a lot with women specifically because there’s so many gaps we have in our lives and in our businesses. And if I’m just throwing you fish, you’re not feeding your family. And it’s women really that feed the whole family. You know, my husband is definitely the head of my household and I’m Deion’s wife first, but I’m the neck that turns that head. Right. But so this is. One of the things we do with the Black Expo Taste Urban Atlanta and I do between 50 and 75 events every year, some specifically for women, some specifically for the culture. But, you know, any events, even personal events I do still weddings and things like that. But this taste of urban Atlanta in the Black Expo is really, really moving and elevating even the mindset of black business owners because you have this grind, grind, grind mindset and not this fruitful mindset. And God wants us to have a fruitful life.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:43] I think you and I have sat down and talked before and look, if you guys want somebody to sit down and talk to and just have some heart and soul poured into you, sit down and talk to Angie. Thank you. But I think and I’ll ask you the same question I asked Wilma, but I think I know a little bit of the answer you shared with me that you have a grandmother that was the first for something, right, in Pittsburgh. Share that, because I think that’s what leading into why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Angie Sims: [00:27:07] Yeah. Yeah. And so one thing I do and I’m going to be speaking at Atlanta Black Chambers Annual Women’s Conference. And one of the things I really want to impart on people is that I don’t miss the fact that everybody didn’t have what I have. When you hear from Tyra, you’ll find out she had a dad that adored her, worshiped her. I did as well. I also had a mother that told me the cup is not half full, the cup is not half empty. That sucker is running over. But only you could see it, right? So I had people pour into me. There was a level of expectation for me, for me, nobody surprised. They all thought this is who Angie was going to be. And that level of expectation really does help you meet where God sees you, right? So my grandmother, which is my mother’s mother, was the first and the longest serving black woman and longest serving person to be a national city and state committeewoman with the Democratic Party. And when she passed away, they had her picture up at the DNC because she was the longest serving and she served until the day she died. She was still an elected official in office at 92, going on 93. So, you know, when when you see greatness, it’s an elevation that you know that that’s where I’m supposed to follow. And it’s not. You better do, you better do. It’s just that you just you’re in the around in the environment. My dad as well, when I was three years old and my parents separated, my dad was a heroin addict. And I don’t even know if I ever told you that. Did you know that my dad was a heroin addict? My father ended up being one of the top record executives in the country. People say Clive Davis made Whitney Houston black. People say Tony Anderson made Whitney Houston. So my father was a great leader in the record industry. So I was surrounded by people in a level of expectation to be where I am now and greater.

Brian Pruett: [00:28:53] So I don’t have to ask you the question why it’s important to me because you just figured why. Yeah. Yeah. So. All right, I’m moving over to your sister. I’m sure we’ll come back around to you in just a second. But Doctor Tyra Wingo.

Tyra Wingo: [00:29:04] Yes.

Brian Pruett: [00:29:04] Thanks for coming this morning.

Tyra Wingo: [00:29:05] Absolutely.

Brian Pruett: [00:29:06] So you are another one that pour your heart and soul into the women. You if you don’t know Tyra, if you do know Tyra, you know that she loves elephants, right? And you’ve started a thing called the herd.

Tyra Wingo: [00:29:18] The female herd.

Brian Pruett: [00:29:19] Right. So share a little bit of your story. Why are you doing what we’re doing? We’ll get back into the community aspect of it. But just if you don’t mind, share a little bit of your story. Yeah.

Tyra Wingo: [00:29:27] So my dad started entrepreneurship when I was eight and we had a construction business. He had Wingo Wingo Construction and my first job at eight years old was pick up everything that didn’t grow and I made $0.25 an hour. So at the end of the day, I could tell you how many quarters was going home with me right at the end of the day and didn’t really understand it until late into adulthood. Why he did a side business. Aside from the fact that my mother stayed home when there was child number two. So it was single income two parents, but he also did it to where he could earn money and spend time with his kids. And so then it was like, oh, a double whammy. But not only spend time with us, but teach us life lessons that you should be getting, you know, that you normally wouldn’t get. So it was a double whammy for him. I get to earn money and spend time with them and teach them accordingly. So I’m the oldest of three, but in addition to working starting at age eight, he said, You’re going to go to college, y’all are going to go to college. You just tell us where. And so we moved to Acworth in 1979, and so I’ve coined the phrase, Now you might be worthy, but are you act worthy? Yes, it’s going on a t shirt. And I love our town. I love Cobb County, but I love Acworth and been there way before most of the people that moved into there. So I can tell you that corridor of Cobb Parkway used to be Woods.

Tyra Wingo: [00:30:55] It did, right? So we’re on the farthest end and later found out that he moved us up there because he knew development was going there. He was with the phone company and they had already started doing lines. In fact, my grandfather laid the tracks for 75 North going through Barrett Parkway with Dot. So he knew that development was going there from Smyrna. So that’s we ended up in Acworth and so on. 22 acres, pitch black, no friends, no neighbors, gravel road and wild animals. I mean, it was just crazy. So again, back to college. He’s like, you’re going to go to college, you just tell us where. And so I set the bar being the oldest and went to Kennesaw State after high school but really wasn’t supposed to get in. That’s a whole nother story. I was told several times. You need to find a vocation. I was like, I had a vocation. I’ve been operating heavy equipment. I mean, at 16, I was driving a dump truck, getting paid to haul dirt and heavy equipment. At 16, I was making $10 an hour. That was 1986. Most grown men weren’t making $10 an hour in 1986. But he kept pushing and kept pushing. And his aunt, my great aunt, was like, Ronnie, why do you get these kids to do this? Why do you make them work like this? He said. So they go to school so they don’t have to do this, but they’ll always know how to do this. So I’ve changed my kitchen sink, I’ve changed my toilet.

Tyra Wingo: [00:32:22] I’ve identified issues. When I get people to come do work that I don’t want to do and I tell them X, Y, Z, they’re like, Oh, no. I was like, Oh yes, I was there. When we put it in, Sorry, I was right there by my dad as we installed that. And so he also started the Wingo isms and one of them was, Don’t tell me, can’t no such word, no such word. And so I have no children, but I have two nephews and a niece. And so those Wingo isms carried through. So when they all started walking and it’s the I can’t and I fell. Did you break something? Are you bleeding? Did the floor crack? No. Then get up. You are fine. Let’s go. You fell four inches, move on. And so it was just continuation. And we lost my dad 18 years ago. But it’s still part of our dialog. As what Papa Wingo would be saying. And sometimes it’s not so nice because he was a marine, once, a marine, always a marine, and so went through college, graduated in four years from the person who wasn’t supposed to do college. And then six months I was like, You know, there’s really got to be more to life than retail. I’ll go back to school. Dad was like, Great. So I started a master’s program, got done in two years from the person who wasn’t supposed to be in college, then landed in the technical college system and was told, Oh, you’d be a great teacher. I’m like, I don’t know who you’re talking to.

Tyra Wingo: [00:33:46] I am not. Teacher material started teaching in 1998, teaching psychology to nurses, and by 2000 she was like, You really need to think about a doctorate. I was like, What is it with you people? Are you talking to my dad? Have you been talking to him? And she’s like, You really need to get another degree in order to go farther. So my my goal was set to be a technical college president, and that was in 2000. He got sick. In 2004, we spent a year with him being sick. He died in Thanksgiving. And then I spent the next 12 months literally drunk, just escaping. And it took a reality jolt to go. You really need to finish and you need to be done. And so I was hooded in 2008 to be done with a with a doctorate. So I have 13 years of college, but my parents paid for 17 years of college cash, but neither one of them had degrees because both my sister and my brother also are graduates. But it was just part of that. And then my Love for Elephants came about middle school. And as we go develop or develop other people, and especially in education, what I found is more women were coming into technical editor and they were later in life. So I started teaching at 28. My average student was older than I was, and here I’m teaching them about consequences and parenting because it’s all behaviors, right? And then the attitude of Don’t tell me you can’t. And if you keep saying it, that’s what you will, the result you’ll get.

Tyra Wingo: [00:35:21] And then it was all these other women need the guidance that I had, but they didn’t get. Not everybody is lucky to have a father like Ron Wingo, you know, bless you because you did it. But not everybody gets that poured into them. And so it was like, I need to be able to do that. So when Angie asked me to be part of League of Girlfriends, it was a natural fit because being the oldest child and an educator and a teacher and no behaviors, it was a blend. It was a natural blend. And so she talks about the fact it was social. After about six months, we were into the organization. I was like, Why don’t we have like really fun after dark events? Because again, don’t have children. And I like martinis. And she says, Do it. She’s on her way to Pittsburgh. She’s like, Just do it. So I planned a Girlfriends After Dark to where I just invited them to. Come and be social. The first one we had like 25 people because women do need and want that, that it’s not kid related, it’s not family related, even if it’s outside their job and outside their comfort zone. So I do the after dark events because no kids like to have a martini or two. And so it wasn’t long after that having a sit down with her. And Brian, I think you have already been victimized of that. From what you’re saying, be careful. If she says let’s have coffee, you know, because she picks.

Brian Pruett: [00:36:45] Really good.

Tyra Wingo: [00:36:46] Restaurants. She does.

Angie Sims: [00:36:47] It’s all about the grit. Yes.

Tyra Wingo: [00:36:49] Yeah. Reveille is awesome off the chain. So as she’s sitting there, she’s like, tell me something I wouldn’t know. And that’s where the elephant obsession came in, because it was always just sort of on the back burner, right? And she was like, No, really? I was like, Oh, I have hundreds, hundreds of elephants and I have hundreds of pieces of jewelry. It’s the benefit of no, no kids. You get to splurge on yourself, right? And so then it was like, well, how can we use it? And so in addition to that, she also encouraged me to write my book. So my book is called These Nails Don’t Do Dirt. And it’s just because they’re manicured for a reason. I don’t touch dirt anymore and I’m allergic to fertilizer. So it’s a good excuse to not do dirt. And then it was okay. I probably need to start monetizing on the obsession that I have. And so that’s where the jewelry line came in. So it merged the two passions that I have. I’m usually if I’m in public, I’ve got bling on not necessarily elephants, but bling. And now I tell people I sell exclamation points. So it’s a statement, but mine are exclamation points. And so then as we just went through the continuum and I’ve been an entrepreneur, left education in 16 and really took entrepreneur full time and you have to have more than one. You can’t do just one main stream.

Tyra Wingo: [00:38:09] I kept running into other women that had my issues. Okay, so you get into any type of business because you want to. So mine was jewelry and it was then all the other things that go with it. So it’s more than just peddling the jewelry, it’s more than just selling it. It is the advertising, the EIN, the LLC, the all this that I just zone out on. And I’m like, How many others are like me? So my other small passion is acronyms. And so that’s where Female Heard came in and heard stands for help her develop, help her develop. And that’s what it is. So it’s teaching and it’s bringing the resources together because I’m not going to do my taxes, but I need to find someone who will and understands that I’m not going to do the website I zone out. But let me see your wardrobe and some bling I got you, but I can’t do all that other stuff. And it’s like how many others also suffer and and get lost in that muck of everything that you do have to do to make it right. And so we launched last month and had about 25 women. And so it’s networking on steroids because it’s back to behavior driven and you got to get out of your comfort zone because part of a life of a circus elephant is they’re tied to a chain and that chain has a diameter.

Tyra Wingo: [00:39:31] It has a perimeter, and they’re conditioned to go just far enough until you get a tug. And as women, how many of us are tied to a chain that goes to a perimeter and we stop just shy of that tug and an elephant does not know their strength that they could take the circus down. They could one yank that tent’s coming down. How many of us don’t question or don’t push the envelope enough to say, you know, I really need to yank my chain and let the circus drop. So I encourage people to get out of their area code and get out of their zip code. It’s not just your close inner circle. If your close inner circle would have made you rich, you wouldn’t be struggling. So it’s get out too and find the new ones. And so we did some of that. Beginning of February was when I launched it and ironically launched it on my dad’s birthday. So we did it February 1st and we do it again at the end of this month, the 28th. And in tying and we’re wrapping up International Women’s Month. And how we can celebrate each other versus throwing rocks and tearing each other down. And so we shouldn’t have time for that. That’s part of female nature and we have to outgrow that. We have to get past that. And it goes back to the the parenting that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

Tyra Wingo: [00:40:50] But sometimes behaviors have more. Loud words than actual words do. And so that’s where I had come up with the herd. And I’m sure there’s more elephant acronyms coming. I’m not going to be done. I think I do need a t shirt line. I do greeting cards. I’m a big card sender, just that we need reinforcement. We need that, that the world slows down and you get something in your mailbox that’s really handwritten to you and it has your name on it and it has a special note and it has a special meaning. So I do have a greeting card line that goes with a positive quotes. And I also tell people when along in in general conversation, when I ask, I say, you know, the common how are you doing? And then they say, I’m good, I’m good. You know mine is very few times will I not say I’m fabulous or fantastic or, you know, something else. And if you do have a little bit more conversation, I say, you know, really, people don’t want to know if you’re bad. They really just don’t care. I mean, it’s like, oh, now I have to stop and listen. I learned that 20 plus years ago and so you might as well be positive. Because if you don’t and you don’t hear it, then your actions and behaviors won’t change. Because I’m very action oriented and positive oriented.

Brian Pruett: [00:42:11] So I’ve been a recipient of some of your cards and it’s pretty awesome to get that because you’re right, you know, you know, you come home, you get the mail and you get those bills, that junk, and then you get that one of Tyra’s cards. And it’s just amazing to get lifted up. So thank you for that. Your Elephant isms, you said something the other day at the Connections I thought was cool. You can you actually can be the ones to just sell out of your trunk. That’s right. So I think you should sell out of your trunk. While one was preaching right in the back of her trunk. Car trunk. Yeah. That’s good. You I have to ask this. How did you guys meet? Because you are very similar. So how did that happen?

Tyra Wingo: [00:42:48] Through another networker. Diane Oh.

Angie Sims: [00:42:51] Okay. Yeah. So long. I don’t remember. It feels like we’ve been together forever.

Tyra Wingo: [00:42:56] Yeah, it was another. What was her business? Oh, business.

Angie Sims: [00:43:01] Imbalance. Yeah.

Tyra Wingo: [00:43:02] And I just found this lady and went to her event. And this was outside comfort zone. This was Smyrna. Even though I’m from Smyrna, it’s not your town, you know? And so we went to that at the community center, and her and Angie were tag teaming. And then Angie is follow up queen, too. And so she followed up and then found out we were neighbors. We only lived like two and a half miles from each other in the north part of Cobb County.

Brian Pruett: [00:43:26] That’s why Cobb County police keep going that direction. That’s right. Looking for us? That’s right. You also have like my mother. You have an amazing mother. My mother is almost 78. Your mom just turned 70. 76, 76. Both of them still working full time. And your mother is a caregiver? Yes. So is why is it important? I think I know the answer. But share. Why is it important for you to be part of the community?

Tyra Wingo: [00:43:48] Well, because I think community as a whole, aside from my parents and you find anybody that has lived a long time, Acworth, you couldn’t escape anything. And so it was everybody else’s parents were responsible because they would make and this was way before cell phones and get you on camera. They were making the phone call to the landline, right? And they knew Ron and Phyllis and my parents were very active in the Athletic. My dad was president of North Cobb Youth Association for like 15 years, helped expand Kenworth Park. They were all PTA driven. All of us played sports and so they were always at the gym. And so it was a community. Bob Brooks, his mother was our original banker in 79, and I still have a relationship with her. Several of the teachers, several of the business leaders, Jones Tire and Acworth, he was the first ones that my dad went to. And so now if you go and take a tire and I have sent this one to Eddie Jones and said, Go see Eddie, because if Eddie says anybody at Eddie says, you need a tire, you need a tire, they’re not going to upsell you.

Tyra Wingo: [00:44:56] That is part of a community that holds you together and holds you accountable as well. And so Acworth is special, but any hometown can be special. But that’s why it’s special to me. And so when people come across me, they go, Oh, I know so and so. If you know one Wingo, you know all of us, you know, because we were just part of it, even though we went to three different high schools and never moved. It’s crazy. I’ve been to the track twice with my nephews and have come across people that I have known 25 plus years. And so it’s telling them, Oh, I can’t come here and misbehave because I don’t know who my aunt knows, much less my parents. I don’t know. Who knows? Because everywhere we go, rah rah, I know someone. And so that is important to me too, that I have more than a couple sets, you know, looking out for our prize possessions. Christian’s one of mine. Her little ones. One of mine too. And so that’s why community is important. It takes a village. It literally takes a village.

Angie Sims: [00:45:56] Yeah. Let me add something to that, because being from up north, we think something about you Southerners, just so that, you know, not that you care, but so that you know, so especially I don’t know if you could tell I’m African American, right? So up north we have a feeling or an idea of what we think it means to live down south, which is another reason why I never wanted the history, the history of down south. You don’t know what you’re getting when you’re interacting with people that aren’t your race, right? And we have these ideals. I want to give homage to our dear sister, Susan Guthrie, who is having some health challenges that she is combating today. But Susan was actually my first girlfriend in Georgia, I want to tell this really quickly, went to Acworth Business Connections meeting, which is was at Gustin’s, which was something else back then. It was my first meeting. I had just moved here October 24th. I went to that meeting November. I opened the Acworth. It wasn’t Acworth connections, it was something else. Then I opened the magazine, circled it and went to this networking event, about 12 people there. And I said, okay, I’m the only African American, only black girl. It was another black man there. But we all introduced our businesses. This is civilized. It’s pretty cool. So everybody told what they did. I stood up and said what I did. I was an event planner. I’m here. New to Georgia. Susan Guthrie came over to me and said, Well, welcome to Georgia. I’m having a meeting next Wednesday. Why don’t you come and I’ll pay your way? And I thought to myself, Pay your way where they grow these people at, right? But essentially it allowed me to shift my mindset about people in general and not to assume like, you know, you’re not supposed to make assumptions about people.

Angie Sims: [00:47:36] You don’t know who people are going home with. You have no idea what their life is like. You can’t assume anybody’s one way or another way just by what they look like. And Susan allowed me to come to her meeting. She did, in fact, pay my way. It was at the Marietta Country Club. Thank you very much. And she introduced me to everyone there and told everybody to use my services, right? So she allowed me to borrow on her trust. Big thing, because if you send somebody send, you know, send your clients to people and they mess up, you’ve risked your own reputation. Not only they’re going to fire that person and fire you, too, Right? So she allowed me to borrow on that. And my sisterhood here with Tyra, even during the George Floyd, all of the things that have gone on in our nation, people have questioned Tyra, I guess, why are you friends with Angie? And people have questioned me. Are you and Tyra still really close after all this? Well, why wouldn’t we be? I say all the time if your friends think because she is a Republican, I’m a Democrat. If your friends think just like you, you need new friends. Right? So in our sisterhood is at the core of our guts. Because when you cut us open, we’re exactly the same.

Angie Sims: [00:48:45] And it’s really an important lesson that when I moved down here, my husband said to me, Oh, people down here are so nice. I’m thinking, whatever. We’ll see when I get well, whatever. Because now not only do I have the Pittsburgh mindset, which Pittsburgh still unfortunately is very racist still today. Right? And then I go to Penn State and got all that stuff and happy supposed Happy Valley, right? But you have all these concept concepts of how you grew up, right? And being around other people that aren’t like you. And then you find out that God’s truth will speak through with people that are supposed to be around you. And I have. This has been the most transformational experience for me and my family moving down south, being so welcomed, being so genuinely loved, I mean genuine from everybody. And you’re going to have some jerks here and there, but they could be jerks of any color, right? But that transformation and that having a genuine closeness with other people that don’t even look like you has been incredible for me and for my family. Right. And it sounds crazy even talking about it because do you guys are like, isn’t that natural? And that whatever, it’s not what everybody does, right? Not above that Mason-Dixon line. And I just it’s been such a wonderful community thing, connecting with women and connecting with people all over. And Brian, we had a great conversation. When it comes to community, to me, though, I like to say that it says, am I my brother’s keeper? I say I’m not my sister’s keeper. I am my sister.

Speaker6: [00:50:15] Right.

Angie Sims: [00:50:16] It’s just really important the connections that we have and people even ask us, Well, you both have a women’s organization. How does that go? Well, we pour into each other constantly. That’s what we do. Time will come and say, I’m going to do this. I said, Hey, she’s on my board for League of Girlfriends, of course. So we sit down and we commune and we talk about this is what we should do, this is what you should do and ought to be like. She said, It doesn’t sit with don’t sit down with me because I’ll come up with 15 other ideas. I’m on my fifth book and I’ve helped 17 women become first time authors. But every time you meet with me, it’s going to be this is what your books, you say this and I probably did it to you too. Brian That’s right.

Brian Pruett: [00:50:50] We talked when we sat down and talked to you. You know, it’s a shame that in society today you can’t just see, you can’t have a friendship and not be a Republican or a Democrat. Right. Share your values, but be friends.

Tyra Wingo: [00:51:03] I still want the same thing. Exactly. Genuinely, I can’t say that one group wants high taxes, right? We still want our kids to be safe. We still want them to to grow up like we did. I don’t care what party you.

Brian Pruett: [00:51:16] Are, right? And like you said, we all God, we’re all God’s people. Right? And I shared with you this story. I grew up while I moved here in 79. I was seven, but I went to a I was born in Kettering, Ohio. I went to a church school. And my parents, you know, raised me. There is no difference racially, you know, religion, whatever. We’re all the same. And I came home kindergarten and told my mom that she would be able to tell the difference between the students and the teacher. Now, my teacher was an African American and she thought, Oh, great, here we go. And and she’s like, Well, why can we tell that she’s different? And I looked at her and said, Well, Mommy, she’s the only big person in the picture.

Speaker6: [00:51:59] Big person, you know?

Brian Pruett: [00:52:00] So, you know, the point is, is we all just need to get along and stuff. And I was going to come back to you. You talked about being an author yourself. So share about your books, if you don’t mind for a minute.

Angie Sims: [00:52:11] Yeah. So when I have a girlfriend named Toria Virginia Vaughn and she teaches people how to write books in 30 days or less, and when I came to Georgia, I ended up being connected with people like Diana Perez and Tara Avant, who were building movements themselves. And we became really close friends and we began to coach one another. And then they would hire me to actually plan their events. And while I’m planning their events, one of the things I do that I love doing now is I help people plan profitable events because people want to plan events, but they don’t think about the money aspect. So as an event planner and as a business coach, I marry those two together, which I’ve been doing this whole time. Now it’s just formally structured. So I Tara was having a class in Buckhead, Buckhead Library, and she was teaching you how to be a speaker, write a book, be on social media. I said, Well, let me go to my friend’s class because ain’t nobody going to show up, so let me go and just support her, right? I go to the class and there were maybe ten people there. And she taught you how to write a book in 30 days or less. And I thought to myself, I didn’t come there for that, but I could do that, right? I went home and wrote my book and actually 30 days from writing to publishing, that was my first book and it was going to be all about event planning.

Angie Sims: [00:53:20] But I actually everybody should get a coach. I had a coach and as I began to talk to her, I started talking about marriage because I was just coming off of my husband and I running our church as couples ministry. So my first book is called Wake Up Girlfriend Simple Truths to Get the Marriage That You Want. Right. And it’s very comical. Really quick read. So I did that book. Then I did a book collaboration which again, God, I did not want to do, right? I went kicking and screaming until I opened my computer. I kept saying, You need to do a collaboration. Have other women become authors. I didn’t want to do that because again, remember, I’m not the girlfriend, right? So I opened my computer one day and saw that I had already done the cover about three months before that. And for guidance, I was like, All right, God, here you go again. So I did this incredible book collaboration with seven other women, helping them become first time authors. So through this whole journey, I have, like I said, I’m on my fifth book and I’ve helped 17 women become authors, and I’m proud of every single one of them. And that’s been incredible for me to feed in that way, right? The most incredible stories that my husband had a woman he called his godmother.

Angie Sims: [00:54:24] When we moved here, I had to meet her. She was his mother’s good friend. We called her Aunt Barbara. She lived in Douglasville and she was very active in the church out there. And she kept on saying, I want to write a book. I’m going to write a book one day. And actually, her son passed away. I ended up selling five books at the funeral because of her, because I do this tactic when I’m doing books and I show people how to make the double the investment that they made with me by pre selling the book before they even write a single word. And all of my authors have done that. They’ve made double the money before they’ve even written a word. So she was in the book through her name, got in my first book. So she was selling it at her son’s funeral. Hey. And wrote a book. Go get it. Of course, I had him in the car, so I did sell them. Right. So But Aunt Barbara said she wanted to write a book. She’s always wanted to write a book. And at 73 years old, she became a first time author. She and I wrote her book together in 45 days, the book she had been waiting her whole life to do. There’s so many people say, I got a book in me. Somebody said I should write a book.

Angie Sims: [00:55:18] One day I’m going to write a book in the book. Goes to the graveyard with them. Right. Barbara wrote this book, published this book. And I remember taking it every time I go to Hobby Lobby. That’s where I and Hiram that’s where I met her to show her the book. And when you first see it, it’s like a new baby, you know? And she was crying because she waited her whole life. And unfortunately, a year ago, when she was 75, she passed away. Just eight months after my mother in law passed away. But she did become an author for the first time. And it’s just such a blessing that she trusted me with her story, because that’s the hard thing sometimes about writing a book, especially when it’s going to be about your story. When Tyra was writing, when she came to me and we were helping her write her book, her book was already written, but then she had to take a pause because it was about her daddy. And it gets to be so, so much sometimes. And as a girlfriend, the business coach has to take the backseat and I have to say, what’s going to be the best thing for my friend is not to push her to a publishing date. Right? It’s what’s our journey? Because part of it’s cathartic, right? Part of writing a book is healing as well.

Tyra Wingo: [00:56:25] Five pages have to wait five days. Yeah, right. Ten and have to wait because it is a process, especially when it’s personal.

Brian Pruett: [00:56:34] So if somebody wanted to get a hold of you for any of your services and how can they do that so.

Angie Sims: [00:56:40] You can get a hold, get a hold of me, you can email me at League of Girlfriends at Gmail. You can email me directly. But I would love for everybody just to take a journey through the League of Girlfriends website. And we are membership based, so our members are called Vgs, very important girlfriends. And we we actually have a goal this month that our goal is usually ten new members a month, but we are striving for 30. On Wednesday was International Women’s Day. I think we got seven new members just on Wednesday and one yesterday. So we are about maybe 15 shy of our goal. But we’d love for people to take a journey through the through the website to find out there’s so many opportunities and the thing that we do is build women up. So we’re looking for lots of speakers because we started the empowerment movement this year that helps fill the gaps for women in business, finance and and wellness. And if that is your business in any of those capacities and you have a message, you have a widget or something you want to share with women, we’ll build it out for you. Tyra and I planned the event. We market the event, we bring the women there and you come there as a member and share what it is that you have to share and then invite people to join your business. Because we’re all about helping you build your business financially and helping you build yourself up personally.

Brian Pruett: [00:57:47] If people wanted to find your books, where can they get those?

Angie Sims: [00:57:49] My books are on Amazon as well, so go to Amazon and just search me. So it’s Wake up girlfriend Simple truths to get the marriage you want. It’s the girlfriends stories, right? Wake up girlfriend girlfriend stories. And then I did a book with one of my members, Linda, and we did a journal. She does these inspirational thoughts every day and she gets hundreds of people. So we did an inspirational journey and I have an e-book, Five Tips to Having Profitable Events. And the book that I’m working on now is called Girl Lead Now, which I’m going to start selling to the businesses in New York City because there’s so many women that get in their own way to leadership positions. I was able to double my salary and skip titles because my dad was coaching me. He was telling me exactly how to walk in the industry, all with all with white men. And I was doing things they weren’t able to do because my father was coaching me. My my manager would say, Who is coaching you? Not who’s coaching you? Black girl? Who is? How do you know what to say to me as an executive? Right? So there are so many things that we miss out on women because we’re in our own way, you know? And so that girl lead now is an incredible and that’s our leadership academy, too. We do that. So we’d love for you to to go on the website, find out about our academy and join league girlfriends.

Brian Pruett: [00:59:01] Tyra If people want to get a hold of you, find out about your jewelry, your book, or just any of your services. How can they do that?

Tyra Wingo: [00:59:06] I’m all over Facebook with Tyra Wingo as well as Ella Framed and the female herd, but this is a female herd.com. And then email is the female herd at Gmail. And you can usually find me in Acworth your book.

Brian Pruett: [00:59:19] On Amazon as.

Tyra Wingo: [00:59:19] Well. No, it is a book I went out of print, so it’s a book that they can get off the website the female herd.com.

Brian Pruett: [00:59:26] All right. Last question for the three of you. I like to wrap up the show this way. So I want to ask the three of you to share a nugget, a quote, a word, something that people can take today and the rest of 20, 23 and beyond to live with. Well, I’ll let you start.

Wilma Zalabak: [00:59:39] Well, I guess I’d say what most people need is a good listening to Angie.

Angie Sims: [00:59:45] So I’d say that there’s nothing new under the sun, so stop trying to figure it out and get some help. So stop trying to reinvent something that God has already invented. If you’re trying to put the puzzle the pieces together, just come. Give me a call.

Tyra Wingo: [01:00:00] Tyra Mine is the old jingoism, as if you always do what you always did. You will always get what you always got. So if you want something different, do something different. And a lot of times that starts with thinking something different.

Brian Pruett: [01:00:14] Awesome. Well, again, Wilma, Angie, Tyra, thank you for coming this morning, sharing your stories. Everybody out there, let’s remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.