Marching Band, Entrepreneurship and Politics: The Inspiring Journey of Kathy Eshelman

[00:00:00] Betty Collins
So today we have a great guest on inspiring women, and her name is Kathy Eshelman and she is a natural problem solver. Aren’t all women right? But she’s very accomplished. I mean, her I can’t even read her whole bio. There’s so much here. It’s just amazing. And I know in her questions we’ll talk about it and get through it. But she’s a collaborator, which we need today, a decision maker, very enthusiastic team player. She’s exceptional with communication skills and her entrepreneurial spirit certainly thrives. You’re going to hear about that today. She’s she served as the PTO president of junior achievement. But also, this is a big deal to me is the White House appointee to the SBA’s National Women’s Business Council. I’ve been to Washington, D.C. once with Nabo, and it was the coolest thing. And we got to see some of this. And that was in 2019. You hold a degree in journalism. You’re from the and you went to the University of Texas or in Austin and you were the president of the Longhorn Marching band for two years. I love that. There we go. You played tenor sax. Do you still play?

[00:01:10] Kathy Eshelman
No, no.

[00:01:12] Betty Collins
No, I don’t. I don’t. The marching band is significant because she she marched in the inaugural parade for President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush. And that was probably a big highlight. That would have been a cool, cool. It was amazing. Part of. Absolutely stayed.

[00:01:28] Kathy Eshelman
Stayed in the barracks in Quantico. Oh, my God. Yes. That’s awesome. It was really an amazing trip. Oh, well.

[00:01:34] Betty Collins
But and what’s great, of course, with inspiring women, we’ve talked we have so many listeners who are all about entrepreneurship. I mean, we have many of you are in business as well. But she owned her own business and you started a business at age 25 and you raised 30 million, $30,000, not 30 million, but 30,000 to start grading notes and then build it into a $1.8 million enterprise. That’s very impressive. You also have something called patriotic jewelry.com. That’s going to be fun to talk about. And you served as the vice president of membership for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, where her team earned two national sales awards for member retention. So that’s really cool. You have a lot of passion. I think this is brave. You ran for the Senate. Anyone who’s in politics I think is brave, especially today. So we’ll maybe we’ll probably get into that as well. And you were featured. You were a Weld calendar. I was as well in 2020, the year of the pandemic.

[00:02:36] Kathy Eshelman
One was quite a long time ago, but I was still Miss August.

[00:02:39] Betty Collins
There you go, Miss August. I was. I tell my kids I was Miss December. They hate it when I say that, but.

[00:02:44] Kathy Eshelman
My family does too. I still do.
[00:02:46] Betty Collins
It. But you were also in the Columbus CEO magazine as boss woman and other media, including TV, newspaper and magazines. So we’re just going to connect and we’re just going to start right in. We have so much in common and so much synergy. I think today’s podcast will just be energy. You’re going to love it. This is a person who has an amazing resume and a lot of insight for us, but certainly I couldn’t even read. Your whole bio was crazy. So you certainly don’t allow any grass to grow under your feet. When you were 25 years old, you started a business and you founded Grade A Notes, as I said, was a $30 Million $30,000. Can you tell us what possessed you to follow this route at such a young age?

[00:03:29] Kathy Eshelman
Yeah. So it’s kind of like the horse trailer story from Texas, right? So my I went to school at the University of Texas and they had a note taking service. And I just thought it was fantastic. I thought it was ironic a little bit, too, because getting a journalism degree, you know, yeah, I was buying somebody else’s notes, but they were very affordable. And for me, they were just a supplement to you.
Make sure you kind of had every bit of information you could just to succeed in your classes and do well. And so from that, I decided, you know what? I’m going to I’m going to do one similar. So I looked around and the gentleman that owned that one was kind of doing some other universities in Texas and surrounding area. So I thought, Well, I’m going to get out of his hair. I don’t want him to feel any kind of competition. So I did some research. And Ohio State was the largest university in the country that did not have a note taking service. Wow. So that, you know, I don’t know how much deep research that was, but it was enough for me to loan my dad’s horse trailer, you know, come up with my. Yeah. And we, you know, my business partner’s dad drove us up. I mean, we were young, right? So. Yeah, Yeah. And I had got a friend of mine I knew from Longhorn Band to join me. He was fresh out with a advertising marketing degree, I believe, and thought I need a first job. Sure, I’ll go do it. Let’s do it. I don’t think he knew he was going to be getting ink under his fingers and printing a lot of things, but we had a really good time and got it off. Got it off the ground.

[00:04:52] Betty Collins
Well, what’s interesting to me is you knew Ohio State was the only school in the country that didn’t like large universities. You didn’t have. The Internet to Google. So you had to do your homework. Good point for sure. Right. And the other the other thing that’s interesting is back then, I mean, today, 25 year old young women start businesses, right? Absolutely. At that time, did you find that the glass ceiling was a real thing, all that, or was it did people not take you serious? You’re just some young girl. Your dad must have money, all that kind of stuff. You know, I think there.

[00:05:22] Kathy Eshelman
Was a little bit of that, but I didn’t feel like it was any kind of real negative.

[00:05:27] Betty Collins
It wasn’t a barrier for you?

[00:05:28] Kathy Eshelman
No, not at all. I mean, my dad always owned his own business. And so I think growing up and I thought that’s what I’m going to do on my own business. I mean, I just that’s what I saw. Right. He went to work for himself every day. And I just thought, I’m going to do this. My my mom thought I was a little crazy and she probably was a little right. But, you know, my friends and family, we put together a business plan and they invested $30,000 with us. And we were able to just move up here and open a checking account. You know, get an apartment, and you just start finding note takers. I often say people, you know, how do you do the marketing for that? Well, it’s one of the few businesses where, you know, where 100% of your clients or prospects are at any given time. So we we would take like notes the first day, have our note takers take notes. And then we had a little template that just said, get these notes at grade notes.
And it was brand new. So that was the kind of a little bit difficult thing I didn’t expect, is that you had to kind of explain to these students what this was. So it’s kind of like customized Cliff notes. Yeah, but we would literally go over there and stand at the entrance of the doors and people would come in and, hey, you can get lecture notes for this class, you know? So just really. Wow. Yeah. It was a it was a and it started taking off. You know, students didn’t have all the, of course, social media and everything now but they definitely still word of mouth spread pretty big. Sure.

[00:06:48] Betty Collins
Yeah. So you had an idea, you had a passion, you’re using your degree and now it’s reality. But how long did it take? Probably to really like, I can actually pay my rent. You know what I mean? Because a lot of entrepreneurs was young that are listening right now are thinking, Oh, I can just jump and do that. But it does take it does take some time.

[00:07:06] Kathy Eshelman
And it definitely took longer than I thought. Yeah. But again, you know, you’re 25 and you just I’m going to go do this. Right. And I you know, I think really it was probably I started in 87, so probably about three, four years before I could to pay the rent. But one of my business partners, one of my business partner, I had shareholders also, but the business partner, he actually, you know, kind of paid some of those bills. That was kind of his commitment. So I have a place over my head, a roof over my head.

[00:07:33] Betty Collins
No, but sounds like you thought it through. But that’s awesome. At 25 years old.

[00:07:37] Kathy Eshelman
We ended up opening six different locations across the country and physical locations. And what ended up being our best when, I hate to admit, was that at the University of Michigan. Sorry. That’s okay. Maybe they just need more notes up there. I don’t know. Could have to do with it.

[00:07:53] Betty Collins
Yeah, they’re just lazy. They want someone else, right? That’s right. I mean, I don’t know.

[00:07:57] Kathy Eshelman
They were, you know.

[00:07:58] Betty Collins
But you were. But you went to six different states because that’s that’s a task in itself. Not today. Today you can be in six states like it’s nothing, Right? Especially with the pandemic. Everything shuts down. You’re now we’re all on Zoom calls doing our thing. Back then it was you traveled and and or however you had. We did it.

[00:08:15] Kathy Eshelman
We traveled. You know. Absolutely. You know, we actually went we went Athens was our first our second location. And then it’s a longer story. But basically the bookstore at the University of Michigan, I got to know one of the VP’s of that bookstore chain. And they thought and I thought I kind of proposed to him, What if we put our grading notes store like in the in your store? So it’d be like a little satellite. And so I just that ended up being a wonderful idea. I mean, they, you know, they got their percentage and they took care of all the little expenses I had no, you know, the percentage was beautiful. Yeah. It was really a great thing. And that’s probably why the Michigan store ended up being so successful because that was a different model. Yeah, but we ended up with a University of Nebraska, Michigan State, University of Arizona. Anyways, it was it was wonderful. And then beyond that, we started doing custom notes. I mean, like custom course packs people might know them from getting them at a Kinko’s maybe. Yeah. And so we put those together and bind them and sell them to the students in the classes. And that’s how we went to doing over 100 universities. We sold them through bookstores all over the country. So that was that was fantastic.

[00:09:14] Betty Collins
Wonderful. Well, this year’s theme is courageous, being actually courage and being courageous. That’s a lot of courage. At 25, you know, when I was 25, I was already having kids. I wanted someone to be the employer and give me a check. I didn’t want to write the check. I didn’t want to, you know, do all the things. And so to me, when I hear someone that starts something like that, I. You can’t go back, man. If you’re 25 and you’re listening or you’re even 30 and you can go, I got this right. Don’t, don’t wait till you’re 38.

[00:09:47] Kathy Eshelman
Especially till you get more and more bills and house expense and children and. Right. You’re right. I just was.

[00:09:53] Betty Collins
You were courageous. You had a lot of courage back then to do something like that. Thank you. Maybe go. Oh, kind of sound like. To you is just like wearing going to earn my living. But to two people, watch it or hearing your story, it’s different. It was really awesome. Well, you’ve been the PTO president, a junior achievement teacher, but also a White House appointee to the SBA’s National Women’s Business Council. Those are huge things. Junior achievement is a big deal. I love Junior Achievement. It’s such a great thing. I wish there was more of it. I do too, you know? And it’s funny, as I’ve gotten involved with a little bit of university things, I spoke at a group of kids who their major was entrepreneurship. I love that When that went in the 80s, wouldn’t that have been great? We would have had. Right? And now they actually have it. But and then to be on the National Council, I’d love to hear more about that.
But have you always considered yourself a leader?

[00:10:48] Kathy Eshelman
I don’t know that I consider myself one, but I do like to be in charge. Yep, there you go. And I do love working with people and what I hope to think is motivating them and and I know like at great notes, we were, you know, I told everybody to treat it like a Jerome business. And when you empower people like that, they really do a fantastic job, right? I mean, we had a few full time people along the way, but we mostly had students that were either working in our store, you know, just as clerks or the note takers. A lot most of them were all just like seniors or grad students taking the notes in the class, maybe a TA. And then we had a couple of we we called him Father Time. I think they had a father time down, down at Texas. Also just an old guy, gray hair. Just I mean, he and he just wanted to sit in on classes. And we had a woman like that too, had been a retired teacher, so they were awesome because they would take 3 or 4 classes. And of course, their commitment was high. Right. And they really wanted to learn it. So they really took great notes.

[00:11:44] Betty Collins
Well, I mean, I look at leadership is if people follow your leader, I mean, to me that defines leadership. You can have titles, you can be in charge, you can do these things. If you don’t have a following, you’re really you’re not leading. So, you know, as a leader, what did you get to do with this SBA council?

[00:12:02] Kathy Eshelman
Well, it I actually represented the Women Presidents organization. I was a member of that. It was started in it started in New York City. A woman started it there. And then it was like a peer advisory group. So you’d meet like once a month and like a max of 25 women in it. And they were all had to be presidents of businesses that did at least $1 million in sales. If you were service based and 2 million of your a product based. So I barely snuck in at that point where we were. Right, right. But you got in that ended up being just one of the most I mean, some of my very best friends are from the WPA. Yeah. So the WPA held a seat on the National Women’s Business Council. There you go. And so Marcia Firestone, the founder, actually asked me if I would be willing to do it. She knew I was very involved and I loved it. Be anything. Yeah, this wasn’t really political, but it still was in that government public service. Yeah. So the greatest thing I think that happened was we had they had never taken the taken the information out to the people, if you will. So Tami Longaberger was actually the president at the time. Now, that was just coincidental. We were both from Ohio and I had met her a few times. Yeah. But we we had them maybe half a dozen of them around the country. And we ended up with the one in Columbus, Ohio. And it was by far the most successful. I mean, I think between Tami and I having, you know, enough contacts. And of course, Tami is just a great draw. So yeah, and it was we just brought people in and we had, you know, we had some just different speakers for them. And information about matters important to women business owners.

[00:13:33] Betty Collins
You know, I have clients who are in definitely in the WIPO and, and they don’t even see themselves as leaders, you know, but they really are. And they’re still trailblazers today because they’re still because the amount of businesses that are that are women owned that are not over $1 million is just awful, right? I mean, they’re just women were 40% of the women businesses that are starting are women business owners. Right. But they stop. It’s it’s stacked. It gets here. So to be over the million dollar mark, you’re leading the way. Definitely. That was great. Yeah, right. And I mean, you did it a while ago.

[00:14:10] Kathy Eshelman
So and I was surrounded by women who most of them were ahead of me, just, you know, for whatever reason. And it was just just imagine being able to sit around the table with women who’ve been wildly more successful than I had. You know, I’d like to think that I caught up a little bit, but and I’m still really good friends with them today. In fact, I hosted our monthly supper club Thursday night. Oh, nice. And, you know, we have 13 of us that just kind of started as a support one one woman we knew really well and needed some support. And we have a supper club every month doing like eight years, I think. And Thursday was at my house and it’s just amazing to get these women together. We’ve been friends, you know, depending somewhere around 97, but as people joined so it’s my best friends are from WIPO.

[00:14:53] Betty Collins
Well, in your spare time.

[00:14:55] Kathy Eshelman
You.

[00:14:55] Betty Collins
Ran for state representative for Ohio. Give us an idea what. That’s like, because I’ll tell you, women are running for office more and more right now. The Joanne Davidson’s the Betty Montgomerys in Ohio. They were trailblazers for sure. And what we’re even seeing at the national level now and state Senate, I mean, federal Congress. And it’s just off the charts. I would there’s a part of me who would just love to jump into it, but there’s a part of me going absolutely nuts. Do it now. You’ve got to do it. But tell me what it’s like to do it, because I love having women at the table in everywhere. I think it’s good to have a balance. I think it’s good, Absolutely.
Perspectives. But tell us about that whole process and what that was kind of like. You need to encourage women to do this.

[00:15:40] Kathy Eshelman
And that’s why I said you should. Anybody else watching you should do it. So it didn’t end the way I wanted, but it definitely was a pretty amazing experience. So what had happened was what had happened was, yeah, Mike Keenan was a city council member and then became mayor. But in the meantime, he had run for this district and at that time, 2010, it was it leaned a little left, not much. And I was, you know, I was a Republican at the time, so I still am sorry. I don’t know why I said that. Don’t apologize. It’s all good. It’s not to be political, But but, you know, it’s kind of like a everybody kind of understands if he’s going to run again, I’m probably not going to run for, you know, because he’s already in office. So our county chairman for the party called him to ask, hey, what are you thinking? And he’s like, I’m not doing I’m not running, I’m not running. And so he set up a meeting and I went over there and I remember thinking, I can this is when I kind of had that aha moment. I can do this. And he he’s, he reaches into a big cabinet and he opens up the cabinet and he’s got this kind of big banker’s box. He goes, I’m not running. You can have everything I have on it on the district, any of the issues, everything I had when I ran two years ago.

[00:16:50] Kathy Eshelman
And I’ll write you your first campaign check. Let me know when your account’s open. Wow. And that was early on in 2009. So I kind of got out early because, again, I wanted to kind of my idea was to clear the field a little bit. Yeah. And I mostly did. And then at the end, what I learned about politics, it’s very political. Yeah. And that may sound like. Didn’t you know that? Well, I did, but it’s just a long story and a lot of details. But essentially, you know, somebody had been upset because of something they didn’t get, I don’t know, eight, ten, 12, 15 years before that. And I was you know, I was on the team of people who had made that not happen for him. And he decided to just block whatever whatever. And he had a lot of power and just blocked my nomination. And it was I had raised more money than any other non-incumbent, you know, in the state, which I don’t mind asking for things. I mean, that’s just one thing about me. I will say that’s good advice. Don’t ask, don’t get. So and that’s probably the biggest reason why women don’t run, that they don’t want to have to raise money. They feel like they’re burdening people, but people want to help. That’s what I learned.

[00:17:57] Betty Collins
People want good candidates. They do, you know, and they want people that are going to get in there and be advocates for them on behalf of them or today, I think I think there’s still today. I mean, if it was you thought it was political back in zero nine, I can’t even imagine what it’s like behind the scenes. Right. But people want leadership. They want leadership, Right. You know, they want something to follow. They want something that they can believe in and go.

[00:18:22] Kathy Eshelman
And you just have to be able to communicate that to them. And and I did raise a lot of that money from my women presidents organization. Sure. Friends. So, you know, it’s just they were successful business people. And also from my I have another group of political friends that kind of become my our tribe, we call it. Yeah. And so I have two group texts on my phone going and just about any time. And I’m just blessed beyond all measure. I mean, those women supported me before they really even knew me because they knew of me and they met me. And so that’s what became really exciting. And then just, you know, I got out and met people all 2009, which was again, really kind of early. And but I loved meeting constituents. I loved meeting with all the central committee members, you know, that that I needed to get their vote. And the kind of interesting thing happened was we each got my the last minute candidate and I got to give a little speech in front of him. And then we. I don’t know. It’s like my people that were kind of some of the people for me are social like I am.

[00:19:25] Kathy Eshelman
So they cast their vote for me and then they decided to go down to the bar and go enjoy themselves for the evening. And it was a tie vote. It was a tie. I’ve heard Joanne Davidson say that so many times. One more door knock, one more door knock and I’ll be darn. It happened to me. I was like, Ty’s got to be so freaky. Well, freaky on me. I guess so. But yeah. So then, you know, it’s hard to go scramble my people back and then I end up winning. I mean losing by about 2 or 3 votes. But it was just heartening. I had some friends that never were really involved in politics, so were there with my my t shirt. Cathy Schulman for state Rep and a couple of them have just really had their, I don’t know, stomach turned about it. Like just I can’t believe that happened. I mean, I was the shoo in by most people would tell you that. Yeah. You know so anyways well I experience I learned a lot from it.

[00:20:14] Betty Collins
We need women to run. We need people. You need to be involved. If nothing else, you know, you look at the federal situation today and you go, it’s too uphill, it’s too big. But locally there’s a lot of issues. You can have impact locally. Right. And and go so but I just I always love talking about things like politics.

[00:20:33] Kathy Eshelman
One of the things that I met with Joanne Davidson, she was in Washington DC at the time and I was there for something else and we met for a late coffee. I love that woman. She has so much energy. She’s like, Well, I have a meeting tonight. Can you meet then?
Like Absolutely. Thank, thank you so much. And so she came and we talked a lot about me wanting to run for state rep and she said, you know, have you thought about city council? And I was like, Yeah, I thought about it, you know, but I live in a town that I think has run really well. What am I going to offer? You know, I love the town where I live in. Yeah. And then but, you know, it was 2009, ten, right after, you know, we were in a bad economy. So to me, being a small business owner, I thought I had a lot to offer as far as doing offering suggestions and things.

[00:21:16] Betty Collins
Well, people who show up win, Right. And so women need to do that more and more. It doesn’t matter what it is, but it’s a tough it’s tough hill to climb. But a mutual friend of ours described you as one of the most positive and optimistic persons that they’ve ever met. So can you share with us how you always remain so enthusiastic and upbeat?

[00:21:36] Kathy Eshelman
First of all, I am so humbled by her comments. I mean, I. Wow. To think somebody thinks that about you because you don’t know. So if nothing else, I’m just grateful this came up because I was able to feel that, you know, it was a great feeling, you know. So I my dad, both my parents were pretty positive. My mom always told me growing up, you can do or be anything you want in the world. Just use whatever you want. There’s no barriers. Just go do it. So when I was getting my degree in journalism at the University of Texas, I thought, of course I was going to be the next. Jane Pauley. Yeah, yeah. And then I was at Katie Couric that came after that. Katie get out. So I actually never pursued it, unfortunately, because the first jobs out of degree journalism with broadcast emphasis were down like, you know, tiny little towns on the border. And I just I wouldn’t mind, you know, having to work for little money, but I don’t know, It just seemed far away, even in Texas, you know, So and I just didn’t know.

[00:22:36] Betty Collins
You had entrepreneur in your heart.

[00:22:38] Kathy Eshelman
I did have entrepreneur in my heart. And that’s yeah, and that came along not too long after that. So I just I just loved it. So my dad always owned his business. And my dad, you know, he’s, he’s going to be turning 84 in April. My mom passed away with lung cancer, unfortunately, a few years ago. But but my dad always just had this can do spirit to him. Like, you know, for him also being an entrepreneur like he just I could, you know, we can do it. And I recently visited him cause he was having some health challenges and he still lives north of Houston. So I went down there and spent a couple of weeks. I hadn’t spent a couple of weeks with my dad in so many years. It really makes me kind of embarrassed and sad. But we had a wonderful time. But it was just I saw these people coming to see him and like the air conditioner guy put who he had been using for years. My dad had some rental properties and the guy walked in and he goes, Mr. Joe, I’m going to give you a free air conditioner. I’m going to install it. It’s not nothing charge for you. I’m going to do it. And if you need maintenance, let me know. And because my dad had just moved, that was all part of me going down there. And I was like, somebody just gave him a, you know, the guy was in the business and I just was so impressed. And then I talked to so many people along the way. You know, my dad’s very well loved in his community, and I kind of get teary eyed. But just hearing all these stories of people that say, oh, he did this for me and he did that for me, in fact, I’m thinking I’m not living up to that at all. But he’s just that, just that positivity. If he can help somebody, you know, he’s going to do it. And so it’s just pretty.

[00:24:10] Betty Collins
So you grew up around that? I did. So it’s just what you know. But today is a hard it’s hard to be positive today. You’ve got to work at it. So tell. The audience. What do you do today? I mean, you know, you’ve been away from your mom and dad. You’ve done so many things in life. You’ve got a full plate, full resume. But now it’s it’s hard. It’s hard to me, it’s I feel like every day is an uphill climb. Yes. You know, unless I choose to, to not think of it that way, which I.

[00:24:40] Kathy Eshelman
Bet you don’t think of it that way.

[00:24:42] Betty Collins
Well, you know, I have.

[00:24:43] Kathy Eshelman
To acknowledge it.

[00:24:44] Betty Collins
I work with small business owners who are exhausted. So my role as a CPA is not just to do taxation or whatever it is. It’s to keep them going. Like they got to be inspired. They’ve got to keep moving. Yes. You know, So how do you how do you do that today? Tell us how you do that. It’s not it’s not one of the questions, but I know you can answer it. That’s okay.

[00:25:04] Kathy Eshelman
Well, I mean, what’s interesting about that was I would say that I have struggled a little bit lately. I mean, but most people wouldn’t know that because I’m not a person that’s going to go out there and, you know, whine and complain. Yeah. But I just you know, every day I wake up, I journal, and then I, you know, I quiet and talk to God and I just figure out what’s going to be in store for me today. And then it was kind of funny driving over here, I was thinking, you know, I was running a little late. Sorry. Everybody knows that. I’m sorry, but I am sorry. Very sorry. Okay, But. But I was like, what music do I want to listen to? You know? And this is going to sound really crazy. Yeah. And I just looked really quickly through my. And I said, Born to be wild. Here we go. And I mean that, you know that song Get your motor run and and I was just like go just I felt like I was just born to be not necessarily wild, but, you know, optimistic and enthusiastic. I just like to be that way. It just feels good to me. Yeah. So and again, I, you know, I don’t know, just maybe I was born that way a little bit. My parents did that. My brother believes in me more than anybody. I have wonderful family and wonderful friends. It’s just it’d be hard not to be right. You know, You.

[00:26:16] Betty Collins
Have to you have to really be intentional about what you’re putting in. You’re in and out, right? My song is Bachman-turner Overdrive, which is that’s the group is taking care of business. I love that one too. There are days I have that just loud because I’m like, That’s what I got to do today. You got to take care of business. Take care of business today.

[00:26:35] Kathy Eshelman
Yeah. And that. And ain’t no mountain high enough. Ain’t no river low enough. And you know it’s to get to you. But for me it’s like to get to where I’m going. Yeah. So when we started the Michigan store, it was. It was hard work. I mean, we drove up there all the time. Yeah. And I would play that a lot. Just, you know, nothing’s going to stop me from getting up there and being successful.

[00:26:54] Betty Collins
So yesterday I did a podcast. We did recording on just my my approaches to life. It’s going to be really my four new approaches in this season because I’m getting ready to turn 60 this year. And and part of it truly is choosing to how am I going to get through the season? Oh, I bet. You know, it’s just tough. Yeah. But my mom will tell you optimism. I mean, she I mean, she the only war, of course, was World War Two, of course, the big war. And they saw depression. I mean, they did all what they had to do during that time. They saw a president assassinated. They saw the 60s come in after living this nice 50s. The 60s were like, what’s happened to the world? And in the 70s they’re in gas lines just like we are right now. And my brother paid. I remember when he talked about and I don’t know why I remember this because I was a teenager, but when his house interest was like 18% and went to 12, it was like a pay raise, you know? Isn’t that crazy? My mom will still say to this day she’ll go. But then came along Ronald Reagan, who led I mean, he just led with optimism. He did like optimistic people, ended up like liking him, whether they hated him or not. You know, they didn’t really I mean, especially as he won all 49 states out of 50 the second. Exactly. But he came in and he and he just said we’re we’re better than this, you know, And we’re I think we’re kind of waiting for that or we’ve got to be that right. We are one or the other.

[00:28:20] Kathy Eshelman
I agree.

[00:28:21] Betty Collins
I because his optimism in the coming out of with interest rates and all the things he he dealt with at that time. Yes. You just went okay. So it’s all up to us. But I mean, I feel for my kids generation. There’s that part going. You guys got to decide what you want this to look like and it’s on you.

[00:28:38] Kathy Eshelman
That’s true. And that’s that’s a tough, tough course. I will tell you. Might not be surprising to you. I do have a bust of Ronald Reagan on my buffet as you walk in my house.

[00:28:47] Betty Collins
I believe that.

[00:28:48] Kathy Eshelman
I love to. Right. I know some people might not agree with that, but, you know, there’s.

[00:28:52] Betty Collins
People that you aspire to. I mean, I could listen to Michelle Obama just in. She is an inspiring person. I could still listen to Reagan. Sometimes you see little flashes of him come up on social media that are just fun to watch. And you go, yeah, you know, you just, you know, or if I need it, I go to the Dean Martin days, you know, you go to those roasts and just they have fun. They just had fun. Have fun, Have fun. Having fun, making fun. It was just.

[00:29:19] Kathy Eshelman
You know, people kind of sometimes forget to have fun. Yeah. Not that they don’t want to, but they’re just so burdened with everything we all have to do. And I think social media is probably added to that. I’m very guilty, you know. But, you know, sometimes you just got to step out and say, what are we going to do? That’s fun, Right? Right.

[00:29:36] Betty Collins
Let’s get I mean, it’s a good day, right? It is a good day. Well, optimism. I mean, we could talk about that all day, But but our theme this year is courage. I just feel like we need courage in the every day in the big stuff. We need people willing to be courageous, which is willing and ready. Go. What would you say is the most courageous step you’ve ever taken?

[00:29:58] Kathy Eshelman
I appreciate you giving me the, you know, some ideas of questions you might ask ahead of time. And I have to say, this is the other kind of simple for me to fill in about my life. Right? And I really struggle with this a little bit. But I guess the thing that came to mind was when my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013 and I didn’t feel courageous. You just feel like I got to help my mom. Right? Right. But looking back on it, I mean, I realized that I didn’t know what I was doing. I mean, I needed to be a caretaker. I needed to be there with all the doctor appointments. And I mean, I remember, like, writing notes to myself, like, what can I do to do this better?
Right? And if things didn’t make sense, I always have this little saying. If it doesn’t make sense to me, it don’t make sense. So I love that, you know? Right. Because you hear people telling stories like. Right, right. But so ultimately, I kept looking and looking and I found somebody that could help me find they actually have a concierge at Ohio State. I don’t know if it’s the whole the whole hospital or just for the cancer center, but the concierge was a person who basically helped you maneuver, you know, the system because we didn’t know what the treatment would be. My mom was up for any treatment. And while I will say and I don’t know how this is going to sound, but my mom wasn’t necessarily the she was strong.

[00:31:17] Kathy Eshelman
I don’t know. That’s not right. She was strong. But I’ve never seen her be so strong as she was in that fight. I mean, she would take some treatment sometimes that were just she was just so weak. One time she really couldn’t lay flat on that bed to get the radiation. And she, you know, they finally just kind of gave up and brought her out in a wheelchair and she’s crying. My mother also didn’t cry a lot. Right. And I was like, Mom, she’s like, I’m sorry. I couldn’t do it. Like, she’s apologized to me. I’m like, Mom, it’s okay. We will find a way to get it done. And we did. It took some work, but we did find a way. And it’s just looking back on that, it was very every every new treatment, every new everything was kind of felt. Looking back, it was some courage to always be supportive of her. I always try to be optimistic and then also know my mom’s dying, you know? Exactly. So one thing that did happen to me, which I didn’t know if I was going to bring up or not, but that was in 2013 and blah, blah, blah, blah, ran into a person on on social media, actually, who was like a multi-level marketing company for a protein shake mix. So it was interesting. So I, you know, another diet. Sure. Here we go. Here we go. But take the.

[00:32:27] Betty Collins
Shake. Been there, done that. Right.

[00:32:29] Kathy Eshelman
So I started January. My mom was diagnosed in March and I was definitely falling off the wagon by then. I mean, you know, it probably started about four weeks in. And, you know, instead of taking the shake twice a day. Once a day. Once every other day. Right. And I remember, though, going to different doctor’s appointments with my mom. And I remember, you know, we needed we needed to meet with all of them. That was the plan. And we went to meet with the surgeon and the she’s like, I don’t want to meet with the surgeon. You know, I won’t survive. She’s unhealthy as well. I’m not going to survive a surgery. So we just skip that. I go, Mom, because I’m thinking, Oh my God, we have to go. Yeah. And so I print out a picture of him. He’s kind of a good looking guy. Yeah, I’m not going to lie. She’s like, okay, I guess I’ll go, Yeah. Again, what can I do to be creative to help my mom get through this? And I remember he walked in and he’s like, well, you know, got good news and bad news. And mom said she wanted the good news. And he goes, Well, the good news is you have a very small operable tumor. And I could go in there. It was in the upper left lobe of her lung. I could go in there and remove it. You wouldn’t lose much lung capacity. And I you know, and I think we could get it just like that. I’m like, oh, wow, dream come true.

[00:33:36] Kathy Eshelman
Good. And then, of course, like, what’s the bad news? He says, Well, I’m afraid if I put you on the table, I might not be able to bring you off because the other health issues. Can I just tell you, I did not know it at the time. I did not know it until I said her eulogy two years later at her funeral. I got on those shakes like there’s nobody business. And I didn’t I didn’t make the connection until the eulogy and I lost £100. Wow. I mean, wow, right? Wow. I never meant to lose that much, but it just worked. I started working out. I became an aerobics teacher. I was 53 years old. That’s crazy. I love it. But ultimately, of course, I’ve gained a lot of it back, so I got to get back on the shakes. But at our eulogy then I realized I was writing things down and it hit me. I got serious about losing that weight When I heard that surgeon say he could not brain her because of her health problems. And I think I said up here without even thinking, I’m never going to let that happen to me. If I have cancer, we’re going to go in there and cut it out. So my mom ultimately and her diagnosis ultimately, I think helped me. I’m still lighter than I was, but I still got to get it back off. Yeah, but I mean, that was an amazing time for me, just being all physically fit and, you know, £100, a lot of weight to lose.

[00:34:50] Betty Collins
You know, And the every day, the courage of the every day. That’s right. Drinking the shake every day, that is. We think courage has to be big, right? You know, we think it has to be like we got a cape on. We’re flying around. Yeah. I mean, you’ve done a lot of that. You have an amazing story. You need to tell it. You need to tell it all the time. Thank you. Because it’s just a lot of good in all that. I want to end with a couple of things. So tell me a little bit about the patriotic jewelry store or.com. I think that’s cool. Yes, I’d love to hear it.

[00:35:21] Kathy Eshelman
Well, a some friends and I started actually in 1999, kind of about the time they had all the hanging chads in Florida. And when my idea one of the other gals that I was on the beginning of AOL. Right and yeah yeah. Chat rooms so we one of them had the idea why don’t we, you know, if President Bush gets elected, why don’t we make a big W crystal pen and we’ll just take it to the inauguration and we’ll just sell them? Yeah, and that’ll be fun. And I was like, well, at that WIPO when they when WIPO started in Columbus, they held an info session, Bank one back in the day, sponsored it, and I met a lady there who also owned a business and she owned a jewelry making business, okay? And so she had I remember she had a pen that said Business is great and I had to have it. She actually like, I’m like, how much you want me to come to her shop? I’m like, I don’t do jewelry. Yeah, like, you know, I love it. So I had kept her card all that time and I go, I know somebody that can do this for us. And so I contacted them and sure enough, they absolutely sent me some drawings. And so we ended up getting a crystal one. And they were kind of, you know, they were kind of big. And then we got just a gold tone one and then we got red, white, red, clear and blue crystals. Yeah. So we got them made and we all went to the inauguration and we always laugh and say our best sales room was really on the elevators.

[00:36:43] Kathy Eshelman
We had our coats on. Yeah, like, can I interest you in a Rolex? Or how about some patriotic choice? How about a W? So her company also had patriotic items, so we carried some of those too. We probably sold more of the crystal w pins to the Texan, the Texan men who were there for the inauguration because they all had their black Stetsons on. Not all black, but a lot. Yeah. Boy, that crystal w looked really good on that stuff. So we’d laugh and go, Never thought about the man that’s, you know. So it just it’s just been a great business. I’ve had lots of fun experiences. I’ve gone to some national conventions, sold jewelry, and I just it’s just been a great I love it. And so I’ve kind of it’s kind of been a little bit like haven’t marketed it. I still have customers that still come because they know me. Yeah, but so is that a couple of jobs. So I’ve actually been working on it now and I’m going to relaunch the website and I just have new and expanded product line. You know, mostly I had pins, earrings, bracelets, all flag oriented. Very cool. So it’s just yeah, it’s been it’s been a great thing. And I mean, I love bling. Like, why am I not always get it on marketing? So it’s kind of like I feel like I You talked about turning 60. I turned 60 last year. Okay. And I just think this is my next chapter. I’m going to really dive in and make it a real right.

[00:37:56] Betty Collins
Ongoing business. Well, you’ve had amazing chapters. All the things we’ve talked about today. I mean, my audience, if you’re out there listening of what’s next, this is a person who’s lived what’s next and executed. Right? But I know when I look at 60, I, I go, okay, all I’ve ever known is accounting in business and doing what I’m doing. But there are things now that I want to do is I as I have different this different chapter. It’s not the last chapter. It’s just a different chapter. Right? Right. I look at someone like and I have a podcast on Aretha Franklin. She sang for President Obama and did her a Natural Woman. It’s a great video. It’s awesome. Right? But she’s singing like she’s 20. If you didn’t see her, you know, you would go, Wow, who is that?

[00:38:43] Kathy Eshelman
That’s a great way to.

[00:38:44] Betty Collins
Look at that. Right? And here she is, 70 and the crowds in her hands. She’s got the president, the person who wrote the song in the audience and it’s hers to take.

[00:38:52] Kathy Eshelman
Of that, you know so much.

[00:38:53] Betty Collins
She was at the beginning of the piano. She comes out in the middle stage, throws that fur off. You know, I love that thing. And she inspires me to go, no, whatever season because you’ve had all kinds of great seasons and challenges. I just look at this last, you know, kind of my last season as an employed person maybe, right? Which is a good five years out at least. But I’ll always want to be in the game. We’ll end with, is there anything you want to put out there or dangle a carrot? This is maybe something I would just love to take on as a challenge. I just need some courage to do it. Oh, that’s. Or is that another whole podcast? That’s probably another whole podcast.

[00:39:29] Kathy Eshelman
Well, I mean, you know.

[00:39:31] Betty Collins
I mean, what comes to top of mind like that? And then I’ll share mine if you share yours.

[00:39:35] Kathy Eshelman
Okay. I you know, I just I mean, I think for me, like, the patriotic jewelry business has always been kind of a side hustle. Yeah. I mean, we’ve had some really big events, if you can imagine. We started in December of 99 and then 9/11 came along and nobody carried patriotic items into retail stores. So we our business blew up and then we’re back down, right? But I’ve always had other lives going on, so I just really need the courage and I don’t know why I struggle with it a little bit, but I do. Well, I haven’t already done this like I have that self-talk with me all the time. Why am I why am I just letting that idle there?

[00:40:13] Betty Collins
Part of it is, I think probably patriotism is a hot topic. I mean, it is you know.

[00:40:18] Kathy Eshelman
What we talked about that maybe that is part of it.

[00:40:20] Betty Collins
But, you know, I would say if it’s there, be courageous and go for me. I have a dream, not a dream, though. I think it’s more other people’s dream. But I there’s a part of me that can’t let go of it. That’s to write a book I’d love to call it. I just know I’m 60. I just know. I don’t know if anyone would care about it, you know? But I have that. But. And then that’s the woman in me going, No one’s going to read what you have to say. Oh, my goodness. You know, and. Right. And I think.

[00:40:49] Kathy Eshelman
It is kind.

[00:40:49] Betty Collins
Of but it is it’s a it’s a daunting I look at that as a very daunting task. But I’d also love to take the advantage of the time we’re in with technology and Zoom and people are so much more taking webinars and come up with curriculum about being an entrepreneur. Oh, 101 man. And then there’s 201 and then you’re going to go to 301 and you’re going to want a partner.

[00:41:13] Kathy Eshelman
Or a contributor. Let me know. I would love that.

[00:41:15] Betty Collins
I would just love to have something where that happens. Right. And and you can inspire any age person you can to get. So that’s my maybe I can then my next chapter but you have you have a great story great book. Thank you for coming in. You didn’t write a book, but you’ve given us so much today. Thank you. And how can people find Kathy? So you’re on LinkedIn. I am. And you are? You have patriotic jewelry.com, but we’ll put your information out there too for people.

[00:41:44] Kathy Eshelman
That’s fantastic. Thank you. I guess if there’s one last thing I could do, I’d like to move to California and somehow find my way in a movie with Kathy Bates. So this is going to go worldwide. I’ll just put that on there. Kathy, if you’re listening. Yes, I could be like your and your sister, anything. I just think she’s amazing and I think I could be an actress.

[00:42:03] Betty Collins
There you go.

[00:42:04] Kathy Eshelman
There you go. Maybe that’s my 70 seconds. Hey, you never know. Thanks for having me. Really.

[00:42:07] Betty Collins
Thanks for coming today, giving us your time today.

[00:42:09] Kathy Eshelman
We appreciate it. You are fabulous. All right.

Automated transcription by Sonix www.sonix.ai