Hello, everybody. Welcome to the SunLeaders podcast. Sun leaders are a vibrant community of like minded individuals dedicated to fostering collaboration, community engagement, business education and leadership development.

I am Eric Nutting. I’m the owner of the growth coach of St. Pete and the founder of the Sage Approach. We specialize in group and one to one coaching for both personal and business growth.

We’re recording today here at our studios in the Florida Nest, located in what I call Camelot, also known as St. Petersburg, Florida. And our sound engineer, just to the left of me. If you can close your eyes if you’re not driving and visualize.

This is Jordan Rosenberg. He is of the hit band PM Tiger, an indie rock band. That’s how we’re calling you.

Right? Today’s episode is inspiring Women in Leadership Today with my friend Whitney Smith. Whitney is a fellow Sun Leader and also one of our podcast hosts. Whitney.

Hello. Hello. Welcome.

Thank you. I’m so excited. I’m excited as well.

Now we, your fellow SunLeaders podcast host, you just recorded an episode. Can you tell us a little bit about that? I am super excited. It was with Luce Colon.

She is the owner and CEO of Hyvix Group. Excuse me. She’s a real estate agent for Keller Williams and she has an amazing collaborative concept, which is where she got the name of her group, Hyvix Group, to be like a hive.

And she is the queen bee and Ox, Hyvix. So Ox is her husband, which is the. Gives it the foundation that it stands on.

It’s so great. Sweet. Yeah.

So that was a good discussion. People can look forward to that, I think. Absolutely.

In a few weeks. Yes. February.

February. And I believe as you and I have been in discussions, you’re kind of going with an overall theme for your podcasts, aren’t you? Yes. And what is that? I am focusing on female leaders in either the real estate industry or affordable housing communities.

Sweet. So let’s jump into the real estate portion of that first. Can you tell everybody who, who you are, our listeners, what you do? This is, you know, as a business coach, which is what I do.

I always want people to have the opportunity to expand their circles and this is a great opportunity for that. So who are you? What do you do? Yes, I am a real estate attorney and I am the owner of your rental property Attorney, pllc. It is a full service real estate firm, law firm, but we focus primarily on landlords.

So our goal is to be a landlord’s attorney from the time that they form the llc, draft their leases, Handle their tenant disputes and then, you know, to the end of their. The livelihood of their property. Yes.

And you know, I’ve known you from the beginning of your journey. You are not necessarily a serial entrepreneur, but you’re an entrepreneur to the core and you’ve grown incredibly in this business, right? Yes. And looks like the sky’s the limit here coming up.

I mean, hopefully. Yes, absolutely. So if we need your services, how do we, how do we contact you through your website? Is that the best place to get a hold of you? Yep.

Everything you can find me, it’s all your rental property attorney. So on Facebook, on Instagram, that’s my website URL. Your rental property attorney on calendly.

If you want to schedule, it’s calendly slash your rental property attorney. Okay, super. I try to make it obvious.

So real estate. Got it. Women in leadership.

It just so happens that you are a woman. Yes. Why is this important to you? Why are women leaders important to you? Well, I’m biased first.

Maybe that’s the only reason. That’s a good reason. We all have our biases, right? We all have them.

I mean, I am fond. I just think that we’re incredible as, you know, the other species on earth. And honestly, we have been put through so much that I think really isn’t even really realized by women ourselves.

For instance, when we think about women in leadership, we think about obstacles that are put in front of us from the other gender. Right. From men.

But there are a lot of obstacles that are put in front of us from other women in different generations because of what those women had to go through in their time trying to make it up to the top. And so there’s like, it’s very, you know, and I think if we celebrate women and, and, and we can fortify the relationships between women, then that is how we’re all going to make it to the top. So it’s really interesting that you mentioned this generational aspect of it.

What’s. What are you, what are your discoveries? Or can you speak to that a little bit more? What would tell, tell the listeners what you mean by this? Sure. Well, if so, in my own experience, I have been in and out of corporate life.

I have owned my own businesses and then closed those businesses and gone into corporate, corporate corporations and then hate corporations and go into my own business again. And I’ve kind of continued that cycle. When I’m working in a corporation setting, I’m not at the top.

Right. Not in the beginning. And so I’ve had to deal with Other women leaders, most of those leaders have been older than me.

Gotcha boomers. Or like, even the early stages of Gen X, because I believe Gen X starts at like, 1965. So, you know, 10, 15 years older than me.

And they. They start in their careers. They started in a time where there was only room for one woman at the top.

Right. I mean, if you think about it, this is going to be a sidebar. But like, domestic violence itself was.

Was not even made illegal until, like, the 70s or the 80s. That’s crazy, right? So you think if you’re a woman and you’re trying to make it in the career, in a career in the 80s, you’re also working in a framework where the man next to you can go home and hit his wife and not really suffer any consequences because it just became illegal. Right.

So that woman really had to fight, you know, maybe in her personal life, but also like in the workplace. So she carries that forward. And now she carries an attitude of, I had to work this hard, I had to fight.

I had to have this attitude. So, you know, when the next woman comes up, which is maybe younger than her, in a different generation, in a different mindset because we didn’t have to fight as hard, it can be a struggle. It could be a power struggle between those two.

Because, you know, I’m. I feel like I’m a xennial. It’s like the cusp between Gen X and millennials, right? 1978 to 1983.

So I kind of been told I can be whatever I want to be, and I didn’t have to fight as hard, except that I find that sometimes I have to fight other women. It’s really fascinating to me. So are we getting better? Yes, definitely getting better.

And I have huge hopes for Gen Z. I think they’re amazing. I always wonder sometimes when I think of leadership.

And that’s really what Sun Leaders is about, the ego and how it relates to leadership. So when you talk about having to fight, fight, I think I somehow connect that thought process to ego. Do you agree with that, or is fighting necessary to be a leader? What do you think? I don’t think it’s necessary.

I think it can be. I think it’s used, like I said, from. From a different mindset, from maybe an older mindset that is necessary.

I don’t think it’s the way as an attorney, I’m constantly fighting. Right. And I don’t even think that’s the way.

Like, I’m very careful how I speak to opposing counsel because it’s not our fight. I do think that it can be ego. And ego’s a good thing.

Right. It gets you to the top. Like, it gives you the confidence.

It’s important. So the thought process is opportunity. Do women now have the same opportunity as men? I can only speak from my lens, which is a white female, and I’m going to say in that frame, yes, I do think we have the same opportunities.

I don’t think everybody realizes we have the same opportunities. Meaning that I could. I do have the capability of getting to the top of a company.

Maybe not everybody in that company realizes that, and I’m going to have to prove myself a little bit harder, but I am afforded the same. I don’t think that we should use our. We should have this crutch of, you know, I’m a female, so I can’t get here.

You can. You might have to be clever. You might have to convince somebody.

But I do think that we all are afforded the same opportunities. Okay, well, I definitely want to keep our focus local, but just for the sake of the discussion, we’ve not had a female president yet. We have a female vice president.

We’ve not had a female governor. I did a little bit of research, and we’ve got 18 states have never had a female governor. So I do want to keep this local.

But looking through, you know, the big lens. Right. We’ve not had a female president yet.

We have a female vice president. I did a little bit of research, and we have 18 states who’ve never had a female governor. Florida is one of those 18 states.

And then in my research, they talked about the most powerful women in Florida. I was just looking at Florida specifically, and the most powerful woman is considered the first lady of Florida. Yeah.

So am I looking too deeply at this or is there something to that? No. I’m curious if the 17 other states are also in the South. Many.

I can tell you, I’ve got them right here. It’s, well, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, California, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. So they kind of spread out.

Progress is slow. Right. I mean, I think that’s really it.

It’s just. I think especially now with social media and having so much equal opportunity to getting our faces out there, getting our voices heard. I think that, what can we say, it’s been slow, but it is changing.

I mean, I believe. I think it was Stetson. I could be wrong, but it was a law school in Florida that has.

Now the students are more female Than male. It’s like 60% attorneys. So you have to say in three years, we’re going to have more female attorneys potentially out there than males.

The. The tides are changing. Okay.

It’s slow, interesting. But I do. But I don’t think that’s a reflection of that.

There’s not opportunity. I think that’s it. It’s.

It is a mindset, but it is being changed. You know, I hadn’t thought of this prior to our discussion, but it comes to my mind now because, you know, I’m 57. I’ve been married for a while, Diane, and I have five kids.

And I think sometimes that process, at least for my generation, having a big family really did kind of get in the way of her. Well, I shouldn’t say get in the way. I don’t think that’s the way we want to look at.

Affected her career path. Is that still true? Oh, yes. Yes, we are still.

And, you know, I honestly don’t know if there’s a fault to be placed because I think women naturally are. I can speak for myself. I was a single mom.

I raised two kids, put myself through college while I owned my first business, and then put myself through law school. And, you know, now my kids are grown and out of the house. But I am a natural nurturer.

So even when I was married, I was doing all the things because I wanted to do all the things. Right. So some women choose to stay home, and that’s perfectly okay, but it is a struggle.

You know, it is hard because we do tend to do everything, and maybe in our family lives, we are still expected to not only work, but also come home and take care of the kids and the households and the dinner. I do think it’s changing a little, but not a lot. Yeah.

So societal pressures in that were different than what they are now. Now I feel it’s more economically driven, don’t you? Before, I think it was our preconceived ideas of what a family should be. Do you agree with that? And that we’re now.

Well, and maybe by force. Right. Because especially this year.

I mean, look at this year. Everywhere you go, something’s $5. Oh, my gosh.

You can’t go to the grocery store for less than $120. And that’s one person a week. Right.

So we’re almost forced to think economically, you know, we’re almost forced to think of, how am I going to feed my family. But what was your question is that I don’t remember because I’m Gonna go into a different one. So, you know, to that thought process.

So it really does take two incomes to make a household work. Now, if we don’t want to make sacrifices, we still make sacrifices, but you know what I’m saying. Absolutely.

So now if we talk about maternity leave, and now it’s starting to increase a little bit with paternity leave. And I’m not even talking about leadership. I’m just talking about being able to get out there and make a.

Make a living. Are we where we should be? What is society? Society’s. What should they be responsible for in this process? What should the government be responsible for, if anything? I definitely.

I mean, in order to take the pressures off of families, whether it’s, you know, traditional families, mother and fathers or non traditional families, there needs to be a bigger support system. If we’re speaking politically, like, if you don’t mind, like, we do need a bigger support system to support our leaders and family. Right.

So one is healthcare. I mean, that’s the biggest cost along with food and rent right now. I mean, there’s always a cause and effect basis.

For example, minimum wage was, you know, expected to. We just passed the law that by 2025 it has to be $15. Well, also, everything has gone up, right, because companies see that benchmark coming up and so they’re raising prices.

It’s a catch 22. Right. Because you actually need that minimum wage to afford today.

But also now today is really expensive because of the $15. Well, that’s one factor. Right.

So yeah, what can society do? Allocate funds to where they actually need to be, stop wasting funds and put them into our basic necessities. It’s interesting. So if we talk about a support system which is.

I’m huge in that thought process with all my coaching, I always ask people, do you have a great support system? And if not, who do you need on your team? So if we look through the lens that you kind of experienced that of a single mother, what was your support system like? Where were you empowered? Where were you not? And if somebody was in that situation today, what would we want to do to reach them? Well, I have to give a shout out to my kids grandma because she was my absolute support system.
She’s not my mother. She’s actually my ex’s mother.

And she is the reason why I was able to go to school. She is the reason why I was able to work doubles. I mean, she basically, she was my kid’s second mom.

And they’ll tell you that. So I Was incredibly fortunate to have her. And a lot of single women don’t have it.

I mean, you know, my best friend, she lived in Florida for the past three years. She just moved to go be with her family because she had no one here. I mean, I and other single moms are not the best support system because we’re all busy, right? So, like, I couldn’t babysit her kids because I have my own children.

So, I mean, if women don’t have what they need in their family, then they need to be able to go out and look for it in the school system, in the community support systems. For example, from my. I have a son, and I didn’t want him to.

His father is not going to be around all the times, and I wanted to have that role model. So I put him right into sports. Right.

Because that’s where he was going to find his male role model figures. And it’s not just single women, but also single men. They have to find that support system outside if they’re lacking it within their family.

Right. It’s hard sometimes to ask for help if it’s not within your immediate family. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Especially if you’re me. Well, it’s interesting. I’m reading.

I’m back to reading this book, Blue Zones. I think you and I have had a discussion previously about it, and a big portion of longevity is, in fact, community. Your village.

Absolutely, yes. So thinking about the village, and they say it takes a village. Should it take a village to raise a kid? Yes, I think it should.

I think that’s how we always have been. I mean, back from the, you know, caveman days, cave woman days. We started in small little communities, right? Small little villages where all the women took care of all of the children.

Yeah, right. And I think, you know, America as a concept is very individualist. Right.

Fences make. What is it? The fences make the best neighbors. And so we’re very isolated into our own little society, our little families.

And, yeah, we don’t really. We don’t really reach out. I think even in older generations, it was just, you know, maybe it wasn’t like the right concept, like anybody could discipline your children because I would not let anybody discipline my child at this point.

But I mean, that was the thing, right? You used to have to sign a waiver to see if you’re sure back when you could SWAT kids in the classroom and everything. Right. What were we waving? That wasn’t that long ago.

I mean, not that that’s correct, but it was the idea of, well, everybody can discipline your child, everybody. I can’t do anything with them. You do.

You take care of it. That’s what we would say back then. Yeah.

Yeah. So. But no, I absolutely think that it takes.

It takes a village to be a leader. It takes. I mean, I think that’s what a leader is, is cultivating a little village.

I agree. Thank you for tuning in. Do you like what you’re hearing? Have you been thinking about starting your own podcast for your business? Well, we here at Neiman Creative can help with our audio services ranging from custom music scores, sound branding to podcast production, and so much more.

We can elevate your business needs with our audio system services. So feel free to reach out to us today, and we’ll be happy to help you get something started right away. So leadership, specifically, when I have these discussions with people and I’ve been challenged at times in my life, they go, oh, Eric, you got to lead more.

And I get a little bit salty on it. And I go, really? Who am I supposed to lead? Because I don’t like to be told what to do, first of all. So to that point, I’ll ask you a simple question.

Do you see yourself as a leader? Yes, I do, too. And a great accountability partner. So who are you leading? Who are you in charge of? Who do you influence? Who do you want to influence? What effect do you want to have on people? Well, so to answer your first question, professionally, I lead a very small team of one, one other person, and I hope to expand that in the next two years to a team of maybe three.

In my personal life, I’m a leader for my children. I strive to be. Now, that dynamic is different because they’re older.

So it’s gentle leadership. And then I hope that my colleagues and my friends look at me as a leader that could they can learn from, that can educate them, that can benefit them in some way, that if they need me, I can step in and pick up where I can. I think that being a leader is something that you carry in all spheres of your life.

Right? I agree. It’s actually one of the concepts that I work on in personal coaching. I want people to lead themselves first.

Self acceptance, self responsibility. And then when we get grounded, that way we can have a greater effect on others. And I do think that we’re supposed to be having a deliberate positive effect on others.

That doesn’t necessarily mean, in my concept that we’re leading them somewhere. I want to know where they want to go more than I want to lead them somewhere. So here you are in this community.

You’ve been in this community forever. Remind me. Pretty much.

I was born in St. Petersburg. I spent a little time in New York and then came back to Tarpon fifth grade, and then back to Pinellas park in 19. I was in Pinellas park for 20 years.

So, yeah, I’ve been all over Pinellas County. So what do you see in our local community? Who do you see as leaders? Let’s say female leaders specifically? Do you have anybody that leaps out at you that you think, oh, they’re a good voice in our community? I’ve been really entrenched in my own little world in the last two years. So when I think of female leaders, right now I’m looking at other female attorneys specifically, because that’s what I’m focused on.

And there’s amazing female attorneys out there. And what makes them amazing is not only how successful they are in their careers, but their willingness to mentor and guide and be a friend for other attorneys. You know, and most of that I have found, which kind of backtracks to what we were saying about this equal opportunity to access is going to push us farther, is because I have found those women, even though they’re low local.

I’ve. Some of them I haven’t even met personally, and I found them online through Facebook groups. And then also, like the Sandy Bean from St. Pete Girlboss.

I’ve never even met her personally, but I am a St. Pete girl boss, or, you know, I’m part of that group and that community, and that’s an amazing leadership group for women entrepreneurs. Yes, in St. Pete’s specifically. That just.

I mean, they’re doing. They’re educating women. They’re empowering them.

It’s. It’s amazing that group. And Sandy comes up so frequently in discussions and that she was somebody I pulled up here.

She won the 2023 Most Valuable Burger Award, CEO of St. Pete Girl Bosses, so obviously doing some great work. And groups that we definitely need. Where do you rest now on groups? Oops, Sorry about hitting that mic.

Jordan, where do you rest now on groups exclusively for women? I love it. I love it. We need more of it.

We do need more of it. I think it’s amazing. I mean, there are so many groups.

Maybe they’re not specifically for men, but they’re for men. Right? For sure. We do.

What’s your thought process on that? That’s fine. I mean, I’ll say. So we love it for women and it’s fine for men.

Yeah, it’s fine. It’s Fine. We all need our community that can relate to us.

Right, right. Like, I, you and I can be great friends, but am I ever going to know what it’s like to walk in a man’s shoes? No. Thank goodness.

Right. I was going to say you could borrow mine, but yes. Right, right.

No, I, I, I, I do appreciate what you’re saying. And, and not just. And, and, and communities need to get smaller.

Right. Like, I’m so excited to be a part of things like pfol, which is Pinellas Florida Lawyers association, or Female Lawyers association for Pinellas. And, but also, there are communities that even get smaller than that.

Right. For African American women, you know, Asian women, whatever. There, there needs to be a place that you can go where you can be completely honest with that other person because you’ve been in each other’s shoes or very close to it, and that’s, that’s important.

I love that perspective. I think that is so well put. And I think that’s important, connecting to what you’re talking about.

So then we can go out again outside of that group and tell people of this perspective and then get back to this thought process of making everybody one big community. Right, Exactly. It’s not to the exclusion of other groups.

It is as a benefit to the other groups. Yes. Right.

I love that. So you have come across people who have a mentor’s heart in your profession specifically, and I see this in you. I see you maybe not in your field specifically, because I don’t follow you around every day at work, but you definitely have a mentor’s heart.

You reach out to people and you try to nurture them. And that’s part of your core temperament, is nurturing. Are you active in that process, or does it just happen naturally? I think it happens naturally.

I think that’s actually a positive aspect of just being a woman, honestly. And I don’t think that that should be something that we try to shut down or be more manly or, you know, nurturing is what makes women wonderful. Yeah, right.

We’re, we’re natural nurturers. I haven’t seeked out to mentor anyone, but I’ve been asked, and that’s like the most. I’m just so blessed to be asked.

I mean, it makes you feel great. You know, it’s interesting to me. It comes up so often now in my discussions.

Maybe that’s because I continue to want to wrap my mind around it. Obviously, I’m a white male, born a white male, identify as a white male. You and I are talking about men and women in their places.

And now we are starting to maybe not necessarily blur the lines, but we definitely are at a place in our society where we want people to identify, self identify. Does that complicate things? Where are we at with that? What are your thoughts on that? And so now when we speak of men in leadership and women in leadership, does it matter? I don’t think it should complicate things, but it does. It definitely does.

Right. I’m also not, I’m careful because I can’t speak through any other frame of network than a white female that’s 45. Right.

Which I think is important then, since I can’t speak for it, that I have compassion and just believe the other person. So when we’re talking about maybe other groups that aren’t as that are still that are struggling to have their voice, voice and acceptance. Right, Right.

I think the best thing for us to do is to just believe what they say. You know, if someone is telling me, I am struggling because this, this and this is happening, why, who am I to say, no, it’s not. No, you’re not.

Right. You know, so I think that’s what we can do. If we find ourselves in our own frame, in our own sphere as leaders, the best thing to do is to open the floor to other.

Right. So when we think of leadership professionally, we’re always thinking of competence, aren’t we? Are you competent to do the job? If we’re talking about the people within our, within our business, and if you are, we’re good, we can move forward. Super.

No problem. But how does that, how is that different than maybe leading in a community or leading in a group? It’s not necessarily about competency. It’s more about involvement, isn’t it? It’s about contribution.

Well, I would also say in a professional setting, it’s, yes, competency, but Competency in what? Right. Because not everybody you hire is going to be skilled in. For instance, you have to find somebody’s strength.

Right. You have to find what your employee excels at and what their weakness is and then set them up for success. Well, if you’re not good at, you know, selling, I’m not going to put you in a customer service basis.

Maybe your, your greatest asset is writing. So I’m going to put you in the back end where you can just go ahead and, you know, draft emails or whatever needs to be done. Right.

And that’s kind of the same when we’re going out into the community. Right. You’re not looking at exactly everybody’s going to be competent in something, but what is it? Where is everybody’s strengths and weaknesses? Does that make sense? I do hear what you’re saying.

It’s interesting when you. When we think professionally, I. I do think we run into a point in our. Particularly in bigger companies, where we go, okay, we have to find their strengths and coach them on their weaknesses.

But in a perfect world, we’re hiring the right people for the right position. It just doesn’t always work out that way or the way our growth happens. We continue to try to move people in a different position.

So. Yeah, I hear you on that. So when we think of community and leadership, we have girl groups and boy groups.

We’ve already talked about this. Now we’ve seen. I want to look at Scouts, specifically Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts.

Scouts of America. It used to be that we’re separating everybody. We still have Girl Scouts, but now it’s just Scouts of America.

I don’t think it might still be called Boy Scouts, but I don’t think it is. I didn’t even know that. Yeah, but we still have Girl Scouts.

That’s interesting. Yeah, it is interesting, isn’t it? You said that we should have. It’s okay.

We celebrate women groups, men groups. Should we start this at a young age? Should we have girl groups and boy groups? Yes. What do we do when we have people who kind of fight that and go, oh, you gotta let everybody in.

Well, you can. You just have another group? I mean, I think we need to figure out who’s in our. In our community and build them a group.

But I guess it also depends, like, what we’re talking about. Are we talking about sports or are we talking about, like, Girl Scout sports? Let’s look at sports. Yeah, let’s look at sports.

What are your. What are your thought process on that? I did not know this is how the conversation was gonna go. Me either.

I haven’t planned that. I have thoughts about this. We’re already.

We’re already through my notes. My notes are gone. We’re just freewheeling now.

Yeah, I mean, I think that probably goes back to strengths and weaknesses. Right. We have to be honest about our strengths and weaknesses.

So when it comes to sports, there’s a reason why there’s a divide, because there’s strengths and weaknesses in our genders, and we’re only capable of doing so much. Well, there’s a big deal right now with transgender athletes, and that’s where we’re going to see that kind of work itself out over the next 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. I know for me, if you’re talking about combat sports, I have a big challenge with the thought process of some biological man fighting.

And you just mentioned domestic violence. I just don’t. I just don’t think it’s.

I don’t think there’s a place for it in society for men to be fighting women. So if we’re talking about combat sports, I don’t know, I don’t feel right about it. It’s a little yucky.

Yeah. Well, I think that there’s a solution out there, and it’s probably a third one. Okay.

I mean, I don’t think that we need to be so black and white about our thinking, and it needs to be one way or the other. I don’t think that we need to reinvent the wheel. We can just create something else.

Okay, what do we create? Another group. Okay, interesting. And that kind of goes back to what we were just talking about before.

Right. That you can. And it is important to condense groups so that you can relate to the other person.

So you really know that you’re in a safe space and that there’s a fair playing field and, you know. So, yeah, if we’re going to. We can create enough groups so that everybody is included within their group.

There’s no doubt that if we get back to the thought process of the village and community, people need to be accepted. Yes. And where there’s a will, there’s a way we can accept everybody.

Just seems that so many people are hurting for whatever reason. Do you get that sort of feeling sometimes? In my work, I come against it. Frequently people feel they’re broken or they’re told they’re broken and they’re hurting.

And we’ve got new labels for everything. Every year, new labels come out. Oh, well, that’s why I’m this way, because I’m broken.

Do you find that to be true in your travels? Yeah, I actually like those memes. Are they called memes anymore? I don’t know. But they say the same sentiment, like, I’m broken.

I cannot stand them. No, you’re not. You’re not broken.

You’re just going through a rough time. Time. It’s rough on these streets.

It’s part of life, right? It’s part of the journey. And then. And then.

And then I check myself and go, well, was I just privileged? Am I just privileged or is it my mindset? I don’t know. I. I don’t. I. I’m.

I’m too close to the. Too close to the subject to give you an honest assessment of it. But I would like everybody to think that there’s possibilities.

I don’t want people to lose hope. And I think that’s from my lens. That’s where we’re at now with women in leadership.

I think there is possibilities and I think there’s always a hope that I can be anything I want to be. Absolutely. And I think it’s.

I honestly think it’s getting better and better every day. Like I said, I think that we have the same opportunities, just not everybody knows it yet. Whether that be the men that we face on our way up or the women that we face on our way up or, you know, it’s just pushing forward.

We’re going to get there. We’re really close. We’re catching up with every other.

We’re really, really close. We’re going to have 18 states with female govern governors. And the most powerful woman in Florida will not be the first lady.

Nothing against the first lady. I don’t even pay. I honestly, I swear to you, I don’t even pay attention to politics anymore.

I bet she’s a baddie. Ah, well, I wish her the very best in her journey. I mean, I just don’t know.

I didn’t, you know, I want to care, I just don’t. I care about people individually, but I don’t know. I have a.

I’m not. I’m not super duper with politics in the whole scheme of things. I’m a recovering poli sci major if that makes you feel good.

Oh my gosh. Well, that makes sense to me though, with, you know of where you are now and knowing you, I think there’s great value and I just think I became disenchanted and disenfranchised and dis in whatever else, disinfect whatever else sort of disin there is. And I’m kind of the same way with sports now.

Man, I was a sportaholic. I just couldn’t. I’d get up back when, hey, for you listeners out there that are really young, we used to have newspapers.

And every morning I’d get up and I’d look at a newspaper, I look at the box scores and see who’s batting average was what and where and I just don’t care anymore. Yeah, I. Back in my undergrad when I was interning somewhere, I had that first moment of, oh, this is not for me. I was talking about people wanted me to run a campaign to get on, to get in there.

And I was talking to someone that was doing pr and he told me that there’s a fine line between BS and priority. And I was like, oh, yeah, this is. I’m too honest.

I’m not electable. Gosh, that’s funny. All right, well, we’ve covered a lot of stuff today.

Yeah, I have, I guess maybe two more questions, three more questions, maybe four. I don’t know. My first question to you is, what would you go back and tell the 8 year old Whitney? Don’t worry, stop worrying, it’ll be fine.

It’ll all work out. You’re, you know, you got this. So that’s sound advice, right? Yeah.

I wish I had listened to myself. Now, what would you tell, you know, a group of 12 year old girls as far as where their place in life is? They are capable of any opportunity that they, this is so, so like I was raised in the 80s, but it’s true. And what they put their mind to, they really are.

It’s just like a matter of mindset. Like you can’t, you really do. If you want to do it, you can do it.

I can’t say it without sounding corny, but there’s so much truth in that. Right. The challenge is because of the capacity that I work in.

I say, yeah, you can accomplish anything you want to accomplish. You just have to be willing to pay the price. You have to, you know, if the concept of energy, energy replaces energy, you have to give something to get something.

I don’t think that formula ever changes. And I. And now that we’re thinking about 12 year olds today on social media, it really is true because it’s instant gratification. Right, right.

And short, short attention spans and it looks easier and everybody has their highlight reel and it’s not easy at all. So get off social media. That is what I would tell 12 year olds.

Get off social media. But it’s difficult, isn’t it? Particularly now thinking about women. This term influencer is such a big thing now and we can make so much money being an influencer.

And this is the same way now when we’re talking video games. I don’t mean to be gender specific, but. And there’s problems here with men and women in video games as well now too.

But men see a chance to make millions playing a video game. And a generation ago it was parents would go get us. Right, right, right, right.

Or rappers. So it’s difficult. I hear you.

It’s like, yeah, unplug, man. Just unplug and think of the world. Get outside, find silence.

I always say Truth is found in the silence. Just get out there. But when we see that shiny object and those riches and that, you know, we’re always trying to be accepted externally.

I think it’s a tricky thing. Tricky thing to wrestle. Right.

And it’s like those professions. You can make a lot of money doing it, but what you’re seeing is not the work that was put into that. It’s much harder than that.

It’s a 247 job. Being an influencer. They’re on their phones 24 7.

Like, they’re always thinking about the next shot or their entire lives are consumed. They don’t have a personal life. It’s mixed with their professional life.

It might not be worth it. So it’s just like any other profession. You can be that if you want to, but research it, know what exactly goes into it in turn, as an influencer, to see you actually like it.

You know, it’s just like back, you know, when I was in high school, everybody wanted to be a rapper or a guitarist. Right, right, right. Which you can make a lot of money or a football player.

Right. You can make a lot of money, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to get picked. You have to put in the work to make sure you get drafted, to make sure you get signed.

Right. You know, so you got to put in the work. There’s no doubt about it.

All right, I’m going to give you a few seconds to tell the people again one more time who you are and what you do and how they can contact you. Then we’ll close that out. But I want to tell you, I really appreciate you being here.

I appreciate you as a human being. You mean a lot to me and it’s been a very enjoyable discussion for me. It was fun.

It was a whirlwind. I didn’t know. I did not know what I was sitting into, but thank you so much, Eric.

My name is Whitney Smith. I am the owner and attorney at your rental Property Attorney pllc, which is a law firm for landlords. And you can find me at your rental property attorney.com.

excellent. Thank you so much. Once again, I am Eric Nutting with the growth coach of St. Petersburg, Florida.

My thanks to Jordan, once again with PM Tiger. I want to give our audience a chance to interact with us. It means so much to us because when we think of leadership, you don’t lead alone.

We are a community of people and it’s not always the same leader in Sunleaders, we’re just a group of people trying to support each other and move each other forward. So first of all, thank you for listening today. Ways to interact with us.

We have a Facebook group we would love if you would check into that, ask for access and we’ll get you in. And then we meet here at the Florida Nest, which is in St. Petersburg, Florida. We meet the first and third Friday of every month.

Drop us a hello and we’d love to see you in person. I guess that’s it for today. My name is Eric nutting with the SunLeaders podcast.

We’ll talk to you next time. Sam.