← Living Your Legacy
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A
I'm addicted and obsessed with achievement and I don't know what's wrong with me, but if I'm not doing that, I'm not happy. But yet I reach a point where I want to help other people become motivated and excited about achieving success as well. Like the joy is the journey and if you're not enjoying the journey, then what's the point of doing it?
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Kimberly Bathe is an innovative, resilient and visionary entrepreneur and the founder of Golden Openings. Known for building a global ceremonial products company from the ground up, she now helps entrepreneurs grow through cutting edge success.
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A
I'm the type that will jump off a cliff, take a risk and figure it out on the way down. But if you don't do that, you're not going to make anything happen. That is my why. That is why I live. That is why I get up in the morning.
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B
That's all.
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A
Hopefully that's what you want to hear and that's what I live and breathe and dream for. That's what makes me happy. My money is good and it's fun in the end, but that's not what motivates me. It spans the globe like a super high cold Internet.
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Elvis Presley.
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A
Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
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B
It's not over until I win. The Living youg Legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible has been. Oh, that is sensational.
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A
Jordan, Open Chicago with the lead.
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B
You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet.
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A
You can live your dream.
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B
Welcome to another episode of the Living youg Legacy podcast for Inside Success. I am Ray Gutierrez. Joining me today is another maker of legacies. I have her card here. She is the president of Cutting Edge Success, Kimberly Bathe. Kimberly, how are you?
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A
Great, thanks. I'm happy to be here and it's an honor and a privilege to be a part of your series and your show and your podcast. Out of all those celebrities and famous people, it's just an honor to be one of them that I can share my story and hopefully inspire others to go on and do the same great things and help the world make a difference.
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B
Kimberly, your story is quite unique because you literally. Let's talk about the first company you sold. Folks like to inaugurate open things and they do a big spiel. You've got gender reveals on your right and then you've got ribbon cutting ceremonies on your left. You, my love, are literally the giant scissors to said ribbon cutting ceremonies. If there wasn't any product market fit better than this I don't know what is talk about this journey, Kim.
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A
That's correct. So ribbon cuttings existed. I can't take the credit for inventing ribbon cuttings. So you are right, I am not that good. But there were no props, there was no magic. There was nothing behind the scenes to make it happen. And I worked at the North Hennepin Chamber of Commerce out of college. I thought I wanted to be a radio or a broadcast TV anchor. And my journalism teacher told me I was much too animated, much too pretty, much too charismatic and creative to do that. Plus he said, you'll never make any money. So I went home crying that night and said, okay, my hopes and dreams are squashed. What am I going to do with the rest of my life?
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B
Look at her now. Oh yeah, look at me now.
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A
And I said, okay, fine. Then I'm going to take a job at the Chamber of Commerce. And luckily it was fun. I always like to be in the know of what's going on in the city and what's going on, but not quite like the political stuff, not elected positions, but it was perfect. And so they would send me off to ribbon cuttings with my desk scissors, all rusty and gross. A little hair bow ribbon no wider than this and say, go make magic happen. Well, sometimes nobody came. Sometimes there was no food. And I'd be like, this is awful. I'm responsible for this. And then I'm supposed to ask them to join the chamber because I was the membership director. I'm like, oh my God, I'm so embarrassed. So I asked my dad to construct a three foot pair of scissors with razor blades that met. And they were the talk of the town. And I was in Minneapolis at the time and General Mills wanted a pair with all their logos on them with their cereal. 3M wanted a pair, Target wanted a red and white pair. And my dad owns a construction company. And at the time he's like, I can't keep making these. He's like, I love you, but Kimberly, you're killing me. And they were dangerous. I said, I'm probably gonna be sued by the time I'm 26 years old. Mayor would cut and then they would slide their hand down the blade. I'm like, oh my God, I gotta stop this. So literally, I gave my two week notice, joined the chamber and said this could be a business cause businesses were popping up then and there was no Internet, there was no way to research. But I couldn't find anyone. Even Fiskars, the orange handled scissor company said no we don't have any big scissors. Or if they did, they were 1 ups. So I patent and trademarked the first big scissors. Told my husband I was starting a business. He's like, you got 50, 50 days to make a profit or you're going back to work. I'm like, okay.
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B
I love how the husband's like, all right, dear. Okay, dear.
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A
Nothing. Let's go.
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B
You know, funny story. Many mangle seasons ago, I used to live in Austin, Texas, and my clients at the time was the Art Institute.
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A
Okay.
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B
And they opened a campus in Bastrop.
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A
Absolutely.
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B
And at the time, they were just using regular scissors.
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A
Oh, gosh. Or hedge clippers. I've seen garden clippers out there. Oh, my gosh, that hurts my heart.
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B
I'm pretty sure. Even though they went out of business, unfortunately, because I didn't have a large scissor. I shit you not. I'm in the photo, looking at this, and I'm like, you know what we really need?
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A
Who?
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B
Is there someone out there that I am not messing with you? And then the fact when your email started coming in, I'm like, you're kidding me.
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A
You're my man.
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B
I'm like, are we related?
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A
Yes, we are.
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B
And here you are like, you know what we needed to invent giants scissors.
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Absolutely.
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B
How the hell has no one before you just did the thing like, it wasn't Batman Returns when the Penguin.
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A
There was a scene in it.
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B
Where are those giants? Here they are.
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A
You know, it's just someone that takes an idea and you run with it. I'm the type that will jump off a cliff, take a risk and figure it out on the way down. But if you don't do that, you're not going to make anything happen. And I'm that type of person. And it wasn't just ribbon cuttings. It was groundbreaking, too. There was no gold shovels. There was no chrome shovels. There was no keys to the city. Oh, my gosh. Someone called me one day and said, do you have giant light switches? What do you think? I said, yes. We didn't. But guess what? I found a wood person, a woodsmith, that would make me giant light switches. And we sold three foot, four foot, five foot, six foot and seven foot light switches, all customized for the city Christmas ceremony. When you flip the switch, the whole town lights come on. Or like for, you know, like the parts of the solar companies when they're. Anybody that needs them for anything. We couldn't even keep giant light switches in stock, but we didn't have them. But I said, yes, we can. And then I made it happen. So it was the whole ceremonial niche. And, you know, if you don't take a chance or you don't blaze new trails, nothing's going to happen. But you figure it out and you do it. And that's just how I was born and raised, is to make stuff like that happen. And then you go figure it out and you do it, and then you gotta live on the edge. But you can't tip over that line to where, you know, like, my husband is more conservative and laid back, and he's like, oh, God, what did you do? Or what did you say? Or did you lie or did you cheat or did you tell something that's not true? I'm like, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna figure it out. I'm gonna do it. And I did it. But it was real, and I knew who to do or how to pull the connections and just did it.
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B
How much of that business is from Miami? Because Miami is very.
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A
Oh, boy. Well. So first of all, in full disclosure, we've done events on every continent except Antarctica. Holy moly. So Miami. Yes, Miami, California, Texas. The bigger states, obviously, the more volume. Some of our main customers, all the Fortune 500 companies, Oprah, Disney, the White House. We did a world record ribbon cutting in Cutler Blais, Florida. 4.5 miles of ribbon. We broke the world record for the longest ribbon cutting. And I was there.
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B
It happened in that. That happened. Cutler Bay. In Cutler bay.
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A
Yeah.
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B
That's 20 minutes south of here. My sister, my stepsister, has a house there.
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A
Yeah. So it was a big new recreation complex. And it was incredible.
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B
None of that was there after Hurricane Andrew.
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A
That's too bad. So I have to do it again.
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B
Yeah, it doesn't matter. That was 33 decades ago. Anyways. How fun is your life? Do you have a museum? Do you have a warehouse with Giant everything?
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A
Yeah, my whole life is actually like that. So everything I do has a story or something behind it. Like, I ran Boston Marathon the Year of the Bombs. Didn't get a finish. I do Ironmans, like, in my spare time. I get up at 5 in the morning and train. And here's me, burn the candle at both ends. I literally have the key to success, to all the events, and make things happen. I could drink at every event, but I'm disciplined. And I go and I get up and I work out, swim by. I could run, do Ironmans. My daughter swam for University of Kentucky. She's a competitive athlete, got her master's degree. So I just take a chance and I say yes. And I'm addicted and obsessed with achievement, and I don't know what's wrong with me, but if I'm not doing that, I'm not happy. But yet I reach a point where I want to help other people become motivated and excited about achieving success as well. So I mentor a lot of students. I had special needs students work for us at my office. And I never thought I would say yes to something like that, but it really changed who I was as a person. And I'm always the point. Like, the joy is the journey. And if you're not enjoying the journey, then what's the point of doing it? But yet I see that there's no finish line because we're not ever done achieving learning every day. I don't have one mentor. I have a million mentors. I'll learn something from you today. I hope I already have.
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B
Yeah, I've learned a lot from you. So talk about the extravagance of what it is literally to live bigger than life and some of the craziest desires and the crazy imaginations from your clients and yourself and what you're truly creating day to day.
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A
Right? So if people. I always say, be the expert in your industry and embrace what you're doing and live out your true joy and do what you love. Steve Jobs said that. And if you truly do what you love and you're passionate about, you're gonna be the best at it. And I don't care if you're cutting hair. So embrace it. Write a book about it. Have a podcast about it. Buy big scissors and cut somebody's hair and it'll go viral. That actually happened. You know what's the best product for frizzy hair? My hair turned frizzy on the way over here. I was like, ah, what am I gonna do? So what product should I get? If you have gray hair, what dye is good? And just embrace it, own it, and just be the hair expert of the world. And that's kind of what I did with scissors and ribbon and ceremonial products. And I go outside and they're like, there's the big scissor lady. And I'm like, I'm okay with that. I hope you're describing big as the scissors and not big as me, but it's okay, you know, I'll be the big scissor lady, and that's fine. And you can't not type in. Kimberly Bathe. Kimberly Morford. Golden openings. Cutting edge success. And my name is Everywhere, all over. And it's connected to the White House and Oprah and Disney World and keys and anything that's linked, it always comes back to me. And I've just embraced it and loved it and wrote books about it and I've been interviewed on Times Square and it's just contagious. And then I use that to help other people and say, well, I can't find a job or my son needs help with his resume. And I always say, yes. A little boy came to my house the other day, ran uphill and said, will you bring your Corvette to my lemonade stand? I just got this new blue Corvette and it's this rapid blue. It's like rapid blue. It's beautiful. It's a really strange blue, almost like that color, but I can't describe it. And Eli's like, will you bring your car? It'll bring more people. Smart kid. I'm like, sure, I'll come down and do it. Well, I was like, five minutes later, he came back. Are you still coming? Absolutely, I'm coming. So I came and I brought these gold coins and, you know, and then all these k started coming. And he's like, this is the greatest thing ever. And I'm like, well, what are you saving for? He's like, oh, we're not going to spend the money. We're saving and we're going to invest it. And I'm like, yeah, and you can start your own business someday. And then they asked what I did and I started telling them about scissors. And pretty soon they posted it on Facebook and it got like 100 likes. And it's just those little things that you do for people every day that makes a big difference. That is my why. That is why I live. That is why I get up in the morning. That's all. Hopefully that's what you want to hear. And that's what I live and breathe and dream for. That's what makes me happy. Money is good and it's fun in the end, but that's not what motivates me.
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B
That's amazing.
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A
That's true. And I think that's why my business was so successful. I know that's why it is. I was helping other people reach their dreams and goals. And that's what I'm doing now with cutting edge success. When I sold my business last year, we had reached the peak of the mountain. I'll say we had all five star reviews. We grew 32% every year for 32 years or 28 years. Grew 84% in 2021 survived. Covid pivoted. I said, if we're going to sell this, it probably should go out on top. I don't want the bad reviews if people don't want to work. If vendors can't get back to me, I said, let's do it, let's go. And so we got a great offer. And I said, I can still continue to speak. I can do, I can do different events, I can sell parade float stuff. I can help consult, I can speak, I can do websites just fine. And so we did. And I missed the adrenaline of the credit cards and the go, go, go, go, go. I was working 20 hour days. I had fake hair, dry shampoo. I lived on caffeine, but it was going to kill me.
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B
Oh, yeah, yeah. Because you're, you're addicted to. I know exactly what you mean. When you're, when you're on fire and everything's hot and you can just, just see the reality, react to all of your actions. Yeah. The superpower.
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A
People needed it and there was a deadline and it just went boom, boom, boom, boom. And pretty soon I wasn't coming home. My husband was like, are we still married? I'm like, I don't know. And it had been 28 years and two kids and they graduated. So I started working more. Pretty soon I didn't see the dog and I'm like, this isn't healthy. I quit working out.
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B
Oh, no.
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A
Oh, boy. Yeah.
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B
So you sold.
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A
Yeah.
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B
How does one sell a dream or chapter of their life and move forward?
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You don't. That's why I started another business. I couldn't. I love it. I was crying and I wouldn't sign the paper. I couldn't do it.
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B
So I'm imagining you sold giant scissors. So your next business was obviously tiny scissors, right, Francis?
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A
Well, I can't compete. I can't sell any scissors.
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B
What was your next venture?
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A
So it's called cutting edge success, ironically. And it's helping other people reach their dreams and goals. And I can do anything that's not on the Golden Openings website or product line, which was hard because we had 2000 products and we have a 5 year non compete. And so I'm doing a lot of public speaking, a lot of entrepreneurship guidance, speaking at colleges, universities, businesses, schools, teaching other people how to build their business and reach their dreams. Five star reviews. We won the US Chamber Small Business of the year, which is the highest honor you can receive in 2017 for small business. So I learned a lot even after I'd already been in business so many years about your mission, your vision, your values, your core motto. And I thought I already knew all this, but I didn't. And then we grew even more after that and made it like full circle of what it takes to start a business. Run, grow it. Everything has to be full circle. And you can't put all your eggs in one basket. Networking, connecting, meeting your neighbors, your business, your community, your officials. And if it doesn't all work in the website and the funnels and everything Rudy talks about, if it's not all connected, you are going to fail. And nobody can keep up with how fast it's changing either. So I'm on a mission to help other people be the best business they can be.
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B
You mentioned Rudy and you did it organically. How do folks like you and I, I clearly work for the man and he's. And I treat him like my baby brother.
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A
I don't even know him, but I feel like I know him.
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B
But that's what that was my point. Like how I'm sure you've got your tribe. I'm part of Rudy's tribe. I'm building my tribe as we speak. Where. Who are you looking for? What is your ideal client? Is it folks that kind of get you or folks that want to learn more about you or don't get themselves? Who is your ideal client?
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A
My ideal client is anyone that wants to help themselves grow their business because they might be struggling with five star reviews, they might be struggling with their website. They have a good website, but it might have been built in the 1990s or 2000s like golden openings. Originally, my husband built my website and we reached a point where we weren't getting the SEO, we weren't getting the Google algorithms, and it's constantly changing. And so when we built Cutting Edge Success, we actually found someone that knew AI and knew and understood it. And we're partnered with them now to build websites. So we can go in and run a website analysis and it'll tell you what your website is ranked A, B, C, D or F, just like school. And it'll tell you. And now our website is connected. So AI will go in and answer questions, it will bring you up, it'll show you, and then it brings up all your awards, all the boards of directors you sit on and it's all connected. And then same with everything else you're doing, it has to be full circle. So I feel like I have done all of it. I've run the run, I've walked the walk, I've talked The talk, it's not just a textbook answer. It's the real life scenarios. And if someone wants to apply for an award. We've won 37 awards. I know how to nominate someone. I just did Bob Brown Chevrolet in Urbandale, Iowa. I nominated the them for small business of the year for Urbandale Chamber and they won. So it's just an example of how do you need help and how can I help you and I'm not gonna get rich off of it and that's okay. Or it might be like parade floats. That's something we didn't sell at Golden Openings and everyone has a parade. I can get this stuff in Pakistan and China and Vietnam even with the tariffs and still be cheaper. And it's stuff that you haven't even seen yet.
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B
Holy moly.
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A
Yeah. If you want a little. If your theme is Jaws, I can get little Jaws coasters that might have him bleeding off the cuff and you drink out of it and you wouldn't even have seen it yet. And I can get those like in my mind is constantly looking at that stuff. I can't get it out of my head. But I'm such a theme person, such a prop person. I love every holiday so it's just addicting.
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B
Would you ever design a haunted house slash nightclub called Murder palace with me?
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A
Well let's do it.
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B
Let's go. Because I so I happened to own
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A
Halloween's coming pretty fast.
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B
I so happen to own the name and the brand attention. That's my church called where do you
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A
want to have it?
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I don't know. You tell me. Wherever I decide. Today is Friday but it's coming fast. But that's the thing. If the experience is you. So it's Halloween every day and it's not really about Halloween. It's.
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A
I love Halloween. This is my house.
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B
I. I can just imagine. Hun. I guess my. My next follow up question besides my plug in my own projects. But it's clearly energies in the world.
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A
Let's do it.
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B
Why do folks like you and I are. Are attracted to. To leaders like Rudy? Why. Why are the weirdos attracted to someone aware weirder like what is happening here?
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A
Why? Because they're full of energy, passion, excitement, dreams. They're not done. There's no finish line. It's funny that Rudy does Iron Man's because that kind of attracted me to him because I do too. And we're crazy. We're just beasts and it's like the more you push the more pain you feel. But once you push past the Pain, you don't feel it any longer. And that's just something you can't describe to someone. I don't know what. We are nuts. We are a different beast. And I can't explain it either. But it's a good feeling once you get there and you just want more. I don't know if you think I'm completely on my route.
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B
No, you're absolutely right. Let's put it this way. I left Rudy and then came back. Let's put it that way. There's three of us.
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A
Is at the end of the day that I know my name and I'm going in the right direction. But I just keep doing it and I love it and somehow people love it. And I've gained followers and admirers and haters and I respect people that respect me and follow me and pay me and it's worked and I'm completely happy with where I am and what I'm doing. And I just keep doing it because
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B
you are literally the cutting edge of success, lady. You literally made millions making giant scissors and light switches. It's literally Pee Wee's playland in real life. Congratulations.
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A
Well, thank you.
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B
I am so eager to actually film your Legacy Makers episode with you. What are we gonna learn about you? Give us a teaser, a preview of what will I learn about you in the next 90 to 2 hour session?
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A
Boy, I mean, I think we might need. We might have to have two or three movies because I don't know if we can do it in one movie. But we'll try. I mean, everything good. And the joy is the journey. We're all on this experience together and it's not what you do or how you do it, it's why you do it. And that's because you're passionate and proud and we only go around once. So let's do it and go big or go home.
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B
Cuttingedgesuccess.com Kimberly Bathe present. Kimberly, such an honor and a pleasure. What a way to wrap up our Friday. I'm eager to learn more about you. Cutting edgesuccess.com Would you mind saying your website in your dot com? I want to make sure you say it because it's very powerful.
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A
Sure. Cuttingedgesuccess.com Kimberly Such a joy.
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B
That concludes and wraps up another episode of the Living youg Legacy podcast. We're about to film our episode in real time for Inside Success. That's Kimberly and I'm Ray Gutierrez.
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A
Sam.