Cathlene Miner’s Journey to Better Lives Through Self-Perception

Sponsored by Elite Power Washing

In this inspiring episode of Conversations with Rich Bennett, Rich sits down with Cathlene Miner, founder and CEO of Hopefull Handbags Global, to discuss her incredible journey of empowering domestic abuse survivors and their families. Cathlene shares her personal connection to the cause, the impact of her nonprofit’s innovative programs, and how her book, Self-Perception Makeover, is transforming lives. From addressing financial stability to promoting self-defense, Cathlene’s mission is to create lasting change and provide hope to those in need. Tune in for an uplifting conversation about resilience, empowerment, and building better lives through self-perception.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro & Celebrating 10 Years
• 1:00 Introducing Cathlene Miner
• 2:38 Cathlene’s Childhood Dreams and Shyness
• 7:46 Founding Hopefull Handbags
• 13:04 Beyond Handbags: Programs for Empowerment
• 15:19 The Importance of Self-Perception
• 17:33 Hopefull Handbags Goes Global
• 20:59 Empowering Through Self-Defense
• 28:48 Workshops and Certification Opportunities
• 42:29 The Self-Perception Makeover Book
• 49:02 Tips for Healthy Living
• 54:21 ZZatem: A Platform for Voices
• 1:00:00 Closing Thoughts and Sponsor Message

Transcript

Rich & Wendy 0:00
Hey, everyone is Rich Bennett. Can you believe it? The show is turning ten this year. I am so grateful for each and every one of you who've tuned in, shared an episode, or even joined the conversation over the years. You're the reason that this podcast has grown into what it is today. Together, we shared laughs, tears and moments that truly matter. So I want to thank you for being part of this journey. Let's make the next ten years even better. Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios. Harford County Living presents conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Today, I'm going to get kind. 

No, no, no. The truth is. 

Rich Bennett 1:00
Thanks for joining the conversation where we explore the stories and experiences that shape our world. I'm your host, Rich Bennett. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome an incredible powerhouse of transforming fashion. Kathleen Meiner. Kathleen is the founder and CEO of Hopeful Handbags Global, a non-profit that's changing lives worldwide by supporting domestic abuse survivors and their children through innovative programs like Shine New and Carolyn's Haven of Hope Bridge, Housing. She's also the author of the best selling 30 Day Self-perception, Makeover and its Teen Edition, helping people reshape how they see themselves and unlock their full potential. With over 30 years of experience and personal training, Kathleen has dedicated her life to empowering women through physical and mental wellness. But her talents don't just stop there. She's also the creative force behind Zizi and ICOM, a fast growing blogging platform to amplify voices from all walks of life. Kathleen's journey from being a stay at home mom to a global change maker is nothing short of inspiring. And I cannot wait to dive into this story because going through your website, there's some things I saw is like, Wow, she really is a power. 

Cathlene Miner 2:22
Well, ask me any questions. I think we're all powerhouses, to be honest. Just. 

Rich Bennett 2:27
Oh, yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 2:28
Whether what we're doing and whether or not we get a chance to talk about it and spread the word to help others. 

Rich Bennett 2:34
Yeah, well, first thing I want to talk about is a little bit about you 

Cathlene Miner 2:38
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:38
growing up. What was it that you always wanted to do? 

Cathlene Miner 2:42
I want to be a movie star. 

Rich Bennett 2:45
Oh, and why is that? 

Cathlene Miner 2:47
I don't know. I just did. 

Rich Bennett 2:48
Hmm? 

Cathlene Miner 2:49
I have no idea why. I just really wanted to be a movie star. What's so funny? Well, I guess I could say. Do you remember the soap opera All My Children? 

Rich Bennett 2:56
Oh, yes. 

Cathlene Miner 2:57
Okay, so my grandmother watched it. My mom watched it. I was to the point where I would record it with the VCR, you know? 

Rich Bennett 3:04
Aha. 

Cathlene Miner 3:05
So I can maybe catch up on the weekends. But All My Children was one of those. Those soap operas. Just like them all. Like you could skip five years and still go back and. What was going on. I may actually miss those. Right. So Susan Lucci played Erica. 

Rich Bennett 3:20
Oh, yes. 

Cathlene Miner 3:21
All my children. So I always thought I could be her daughter on the. 

Rich Bennett 3:26
I could see that. 

Cathlene Miner 3:27
Because I dark hair, you know, I was 

Rich Bennett 3:29
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 3:29
a. Oh, that's kind of cool. So I guess I'd say what sparked it. That was that was my goal was to be Susan Lucci's daughter. So I was a little disappointed when they stopped soap operas and it wasn't there anymore. But you know what? And funny in saying all of this, I was a very shy kid, so it wasn't like I was this outgoing kid that would probably have done it when I was young. 

Rich Bennett 3:50
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 3:51
And my mom put me into modeling to break me out of my shell. Now, I'm not very tall. I'm like, five, three. And when she put me into this, it was it was modeling. But it was a program basically where it was one on one with an instructor. And they teach you how to not just walk, but talk like in front of. 

Rich Bennett 4:12
Oh, 

Cathlene Miner 4:13
So the modeling shows that we did, we're actually at events like women's events and things where we would 

Rich Bennett 4:20
yeah, 

Cathlene Miner 4:20
wear an outfit and we would have to go around to different tables and explain what we had on and answer questions. It was really ingenious as I got older and looked back. So it wasn't that I was just stuck up on a stage or taking pictures out and put in a magazine or a sales ad, right? Because 

Rich Bennett 4:40
right. 

Cathlene Miner 4:40
they allowed stuff because that's what you can do when you're shorter. But it was more of getting you out of your shell. But they called it it was called modeling. But so anyway, it's so funny because now it's kind of one of those things that I talk all the time and my mom sometimes because I was younger, she's like, I don't know if that was a good idea or not because it does not stop. But it didn't really bring me out of my shell. It brought me out to be able to realize, Oh, I can't talk in front of people and not feel uncomfortable, or because I was just really shy. I was really. 

Rich Bennett 5:11
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 5:12
Kid. And then I really think, though, that that along with, you know, doing I had a radio show before I did podcasts. I used to do a lot of lives. 

Rich Bennett 5:25
Okay. Are we related somehow, like twins or something? 

Cathlene Miner 5:29
Related to Santa. And I think you're pretty close. 

Rich Bennett 5:33
No, but I mean, everything you're describing right now sounds like what I went through. With the exception of I didn't want to be a movie star. I wanted to be a rock star. But I was. I was scared to sing in front of people. 

Cathlene Miner 5:45
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 5:46
And also did radio. 

Cathlene Miner 5:48
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 5:49
It's just it's weird. And I was very shy. 

Cathlene Miner 5:52
And those are the things, though, that whatever it is that we wanted to do did happen just in the. 

Rich Bennett 5:57
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 5:58
Way. Right. Because that's what we were meant to do, was something a little bit different and inspire people in a different way. And so, yeah, I mean, I never although these days. Be real. I think of movie stars as different, and I wouldn't want to be that. You know what I mean? I like my privacy when I want my privacy. I don't consider movie stars, you know, heroes. You know what I mean? Like, I mean all of those things, I think. 

Rich Bennett 6:30
We still look up to them 

Cathlene Miner 6:31
Right. And unfortunately, I don't anymore. Now, there 

Rich Bennett 6:34
now. 

Cathlene Miner 6:34
are really good people. I'm not saying that there's not, but they unfortunately have given themselves the reputation of. 

Rich Bennett 6:41
Mm. 

Cathlene Miner 6:42
Kind of gone with trends. And that's not that's not me anyway. So there's a reason why we ended up on the path that we're on, basically. 

Rich Bennett 6:51
And what you're doing now is even better because you're out there helping people. And 

Cathlene Miner 6:56
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:56
that's a big thing. I think we need more people doing that to be 

Cathlene Miner 7:00
Absolutely. It takes us all in it and it takes some people coming in and helping. So I definitely don't do it all alone. I mean, I'm 

Rich Bennett 7:07
right. 

Cathlene Miner 7:07
starting, you know, hopeful handbags, the organization, for instance. But I am definitely not doing this alone. You know, we've got 

Rich Bennett 7:14
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 7:15
a 100% volunteer organization. So everybody that helps is volunteering their time. 

Rich Bennett 7:22
And actually with that we've hopeful handbags because the one I belong to a nonprofit here which. Ran by one of my co-hosts. And they have recovery homes for women in addiction, as she mentioned about doing a handbag, bingo or whatever she. But what made you first of all, when did you start hopeful handbags and why did you start it? 

Cathlene Miner 7:46
So I started in 2017 and I started it because my mom grew up in a very abusive home. 

Rich Bennett 7:53
Mm. 

Cathlene Miner 7:53
So my grandfather, unfortunately, he didn't only abuse my grandmother, but all of the children as well. And there were a lot of 

Rich Bennett 8:02
God. 

Cathlene Miner 8:02
there was and there were like 30 years in between that, you know, there was like different decades of meaning that I have aunts and uncles that are my age and then like the old guy. So I'm 50 I will be 53 in a couple of weeks. And then I had aunts and uncles that are in their seventies, right? So big, big spread. And we lived across the street from my grandparents when I was little. And I always wondered, you know, I knew something wasn't right because we didn't live the way across the street. Like, I saw what's going on over there, 

Rich Bennett 8:37
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 8:37
and my mom's younger siblings would come and say, Debbie, Debbie, you know, I need you to come help. And they would send them across the street with my sister and I, and then my mom would go over to break up all the chaos, you know, and try to get things straight. But we still knew I knew what was going on because I knew that wasn't normal. And then it dawned on me, too. I started to figure out why we lived across the street. It was really from my mom, who was very much of a caretaker and a protector. That's her person. 

Rich Bennett 9:02
Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 9:04
To take care of everybody else that was still there and her mom. So anyway, that just stuck with me for years. My grandmother always had her handbag on her. Even the time she kept going back, but the time she decided to leave. She'd always have everything she needed in her handbag. And it just that just stuck with me for years. And unfortunately, my grandmother passed away long time ago, probably over 35 years ago now. Times what? 

Rich Bennett 9:28
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 9:30
You know, of a brain aneurysm, which I think you can only be 

Rich Bennett 9:33
Oh, 

Cathlene Miner 9:33
it so many times. I mean, it was it's just in my grandfather, you know, he ended up changing. He had he did end up seeing the light and changing. 

Rich Bennett 9:42
yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 9:42
And fortunately, it had already done a lot of damage to a lot of his kids. And so, anyway, in saying that, I started that because I always wondered if my grandmother had a place to reach out to that would not judge her at all. Would you 

Rich Bennett 9:56
hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 9:56
have done that now? Now there are more resources out there, right? But back then, there wasn't. There really wasn't. I mean, the police, even if they were called, they kind of kept it in the house. And the other thing was a lot of times, even if the police would get called in to go out to my mom's house when they were younger, she told me stories about how know my grandmother and this happens a lot. They would say, No, no, no, everything's okay. Everything's fine, you know, and 

Rich Bennett 10:22
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 10:22
send them back away. 

So when we started collecting handbags before we were registered as a non-profit so that we could start donating them and raising hope. So that was the goal. Raise hope to these women 

Rich Bennett 10:36
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 10:37
and men and men to So we do help men as well, but. It is women, and it's mainly the women that will come forward. 

Rich Bennett 10:45
Yes, that's very true. You're right. 

Cathlene Miner 10:48
So it's not that we don't help men. We do quite often, believe it or not, but. 

Rich Bennett 10:54
I think. Do you think that that men are embarrassed? 

Cathlene Miner 10:57
Yeah, I think I think they are. And because you know abuse and you'll see on our Web site and everything we don't use the word domestic violence. We use 

Rich Bennett 11:06
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 11:06
domestic abuse. And we do that because when you say domestic violence, that word violence, people typically think of physical. That's the first thing they think of as visit 

Rich Bennett 11:15
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 11:15
islands. Like somebody laid a hand on them, punched them, hit them, whatever. But that's not always the case. Sometimes it's psychological abuse. Financial 

Rich Bennett 11:23
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 11:23
abuse is a huge one where there's control with finances. 

Rich Bennett 11:27
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 11:27
And they're literally trapped. And that typically goes along with isolation and being. 

Rich Bennett 11:33
Hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 11:34
Coercive control. And they're literally like. They can't go anywhere. And that that abuser, whether it be male or female, that abuser has totally had these people alienate everybody that cares about them and loves them. And 

Rich Bennett 11:50
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 11:50
then they only look at that abuser as being their person. This is all because they topic know. They already said, I'm the only you know, they're the only one that's here for me. And that abuser has made it that way. So there's so many things, but we don't use the word violence for that reason. 

Rich Bennett 12:07
I like. 

Cathlene Miner 12:08
So we started that to raise hope and we started originally donating it to different shelters and things like that until we got to a point where there was so much more that needed to be done. So the handbags, do you open up the conversation and but we help people with anything that will help them to safety, health, well-being and long term financial stability. So that's our key, is that long term financial stability, because without that, you know, 85% of survivors will go back. They go back for financial reasons, don't want that to happen. And even the main there are some survivors and we call them survivors that are victims. But the survivors that they were the main breadwinners, but they never had control of their finances. So therefore, you know, they're starting over again to. So even though 

Rich Bennett 13:04
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 13:04
it was not like they were down and out, I mean, some of these people live in beautiful houses, gated communities. It's not this these aren't just people that are down and out that you would look at and say, oh, gosh, there's something going on there. A lot of times you would never, ever know. 

Rich Bennett 13:21
Yeah. The sad thing with that is too, these are the ones that were the, you know, making all the money because the other person was controlling it. They may not even know how to balance a checkbook or any. 

Cathlene Miner 13:32
Exactly right. That's. 

Rich Bennett 13:34
And as early education part comes in. 

Cathlene Miner 13:36
Right. So that's with our program Shiny New, which are African acronyms, and they stand for things. And wherever somebody comes into our program, 

Rich Bennett 13:44
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 13:44
it could be out of order. We just had to come up with acronyms because when you're trying to explain it to people to about what you do. 

But it's not like there's a certain order. Right. But I will say for Shyne, the first one is safety. That is always our first concern. 

Rich Bennett 14:01
Number one. Yup. 

Cathlene Miner 14:02
Always, always, always. Once we know they're safe, then we can move on from there. Another thing that we do that's a bit different from a lot of other organizations is we don't look backwards, right? So therefore, we don't try to dig up the past. We don't. You know, I mean, if you need to vent and talk to us about it, that's fine. We do have counselors that. 

Rich Bennett 14:23
I was going to say that's what a counselor. Therapist. 

Cathlene Miner 14:26
Well, it does. But what I have noticed now since I've been doing this now since 2017, are those ones that keep going to therapists and counselors excuse me, that aren't helping them move forward, but want to keep digging into their past. 

Rich Bennett 14:39
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 14:40
Stay stuck. They just stay stuck. So a majority of our people, a majority of are our survivors. Meaning there are ladies. 

Rich Bennett 14:51
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 14:52
They don't see therapists or counselors. And that's because we're moving forward. We're leaving it behind. We're doing this way. And the only reason way that we can go forward is to stop bringing up the past, because unfortunately, it happened. It's horrible. And I'm not saying that it didn't like damage or scar you in some way, but you can 

you're never really going to heal, meaning, unless you move forward. 

Rich Bennett 15:19
And I think if you bring up the past, it only has to be brought up one time. That way you're finding the root of what the problem is 

Cathlene Miner 15:25
Right. 

Rich Bennett 15:26
and then move forward from there. 

Cathlene Miner 15:27
Absolutely. So we always say, here we are. Let's move forward Now. Not to say. Do I hear the stories from the past a lot? I do, but I'll typically. 

Rich Bennett 15:35
Yeah, 

Cathlene Miner 15:35
Well, myself and the volunteer was the. Okay, okay. That's that's good. We talked about that before, but now let's go. Where are we going forward? And that's where the self perception comes in. So when I wrote that book, so Perception Makeover, it was really because when I was a teenager, I, you know, really didn't think very highly of myself. And I, you know, I needed to work on myself. And that's a whole nother 

Rich Bennett 15:58
right. 

Cathlene Miner 15:58
conversation. But it really helps with this. So every survivor goes through the self perception makeover, which is what 

Rich Bennett 16:07
Huh? 

Cathlene Miner 16:07
you think and feel about yourself. Because what we think and feel about ourselves is the base of everything in our lives, right? It dictates the chances we take, the choices we make and the people we end up staying with personally and professionally, and the ones that we say, you know, this isn't working. This doesn't 

Rich Bennett 16:23
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 16:24
feel right. I'm moving on. So what we have found is everybody that's done that and gone through that and we keep going back to those things. Don't go back to those abusive situations and they question themselves if they're in a relationship, whether it be just a friend or romantic or whatever, and they say, Gosh. Something doesn't feel right here. Something doesn't feel right. And so they think about that, which they didn't before. Right? Because a lot of people, not just people that have been through abuse, just humans in general, will go to what's most comfortable. And unfortunately, if you grew up a certain way or you've been in a relationship, a certain amount of time, that wasn't a healthy, comfortable relationship. Unfortunately, those situations feel more comfortable to you, even though they're uncomfortable, they feel uncomfortable because you know what to expect. They don't know what to expect with this new stuff. If somebody is treating them well, they're like, Whoa, whoa, whoa. That just doesn't feel right. 

Rich Bennett 17:22
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 17:23
So that's the basis behind self-perception. 

Rich Bennett 17:27
How with the with the nonprofit, how did you end up going global? 

Cathlene Miner 17:33
So we just started having people reach out to us in other countries. 

Rich Bennett 17:37
Wow. 

Cathlene Miner 17:38
The other thing is we are very close. You'll see on our website we have now officially partnered with an organization called Moms and Business International, and they started over in the United Kingdom. It is the largest women's business networking group literally in the world. They have 

Rich Bennett 17:53
Really? 

Cathlene Miner 17:54
chapters anywhere. Yeah. So with the combination of them, we help. I mean, hundreds, if not thousands, yearly of women in different. 

Rich Bennett 18:04
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 18:06
And that's that's how we spread globally. And what we have to do when it comes to sustainability is look at the culture, look at where people are and say, okay, how can we help them? Because obviously it's different in the United States than it is in Kenya. It's going to be a little different in the United States than it is in the United Kingdom. Not much because we're first world countries, but also another thing that we do a little differently as far as a global organization goes is that anything that's donated stays within the areas it's donated in. 

Rich Bennett 18:40
Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 18:41
Specifically earmarked. Meaning? So if you donate something in your area because there's a hopeful handbag drop off, your donations will stay within your area or the surrounding counties that might attack. 

Rich Bennett 18:53
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 18:54
Right. 

But if we're having a campaign to put another water tank in rural Kenya, then you're going to know that that's where your money is going. We don't take money and then just give it to different places. 

Rich Bennett 19:08
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 19:09
So that's something that's different that we do as a global organization because I think it's really important for me as well. I feel very passionate about helping our own people in our own country and areas before we help others in other areas. Now, if it's a passion of yours, though, to donate to other countries and you want to help them, great, that's fine. But know that if you donate in within your areas or within your country, it's going to stay with. 

Rich Bennett 19:39
Hmm. And actually, I'm glad you mentioned that. So the very important. Tell everybody how they can donate. 

Cathlene Miner 19:46
You can go to hopeful handbags dot org and that is hopeful with two L's. It's like full of hope. Full of hope. Yeah. Hopeful handbags dot org and we have a donate button 

Rich Bennett 19:59
Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 19:59
and if you if in you'll see our logo on there and there's a spot on there that you can write in type in where you want the funds to go and then if it's an area that we don't have a hopeful Handbags chapter at this point, then what we do is we work very closely with shelters and different organizations. So then we will we'll get it to where it needs to go. 

Rich Bennett 20:24
Okay. And something else very important with hopeful handbags, because I noticed also on your website and it's funny, when you when we started, you said you're five three. 

Cathlene Miner 20:35
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:37
So I had a young lady on recently who is I think she's five two. 

Cathlene Miner 20:43
We're about the same. 

Rich Bennett 20:44
She's a sensei. We were talking about Krav Maga and. 

Cathlene Miner 20:49
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:50
Krav Maga. I'm sorry. 

Cathlene Miner 20:51
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:52
And all that. So explain. Because you're. Are you teaching that or is it just that the strike back is associated with. 

Cathlene Miner 20:59
Yeah. Okay. So I am I am an instructor with Strike Back 

Rich Bennett 21:03
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 21:03
and I have been so I said at the beginning, I've been a personal trainer for over 30 years for women off and on a stay at home mom for over 20 years as well. But I was able to do some of that in there. 

Rich Bennett 21:14
For those of you listening, that means she started when she was five. 

Cathlene Miner 21:17
Yeah, just about. Actually, I started when I was 22, and that's just crazy because I'm like, Oh my God, 33 years almost. How did that happen? 

Rich Bennett 21:25
It goes by fast. 

Cathlene Miner 21:27
Does. So when I first started teaching aerobics, I because I got certified about everything you can imagine, I started teaching kickboxing and I started teaching it, though as self-defense because those were the 

Rich Bennett 21:38
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 21:38
classes I was taking. It was a love hate relationship with the instructor I was going to because I kept going back to her class. But she would kick my butt every time. I would be like, Oh my God. But I kept going back. And so when she taught the class as self-defense, so that's when my first passion came into self-defense. Was that. 

Rich Bennett 22:01
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 22:02
And so then as time went on, my younger kids, I have four kids. Oldest is going to be turned 33. Youngest is 19. So I have 33, 30, 20 and 19 and my younger two have their one's the second degree black belt in taekwondo and one's first degree, and they also do jujitsu. I'm telling you the background because even though if I wasn't teaching at the time, I was in it because I really. 

Rich Bennett 22:27
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 22:29
So then Gulshan bano came into my life through Mom's and Business International, and she has the only all women's Krav Maga in self-defense schools in the United Kingdom. You'll see she has another official unofficial partner. So I went through what her certifications were and was certified through strike back as well. So I have other certifications like DO RFA and different kinds of. 

Rich Bennett 22:56
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 22:57
But that's how that came about. So we are really we love self-defense. We think everybody should know self-defense when we teach self-defense. It's not just for the survivors of domestic abuse. This is for everyone and 

Rich Bennett 23:12
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 23:12
everyone. Because when it's with caution and strike back, those are only women and or teen or preteen girls and also children. we also have Stinger Robinson. So Stinger Robinson is our president of Hopeful handbags in the Caribbean and think I don't look my way till you see Stinger Robinson There's probably a picture of him on the on our board page there is he is going to be 53. He doesn't show his abs in that picture, but he doesn't have a six pack abs. He has an eight pack abs and he teaches self-defense to men and women. And he has been in martial arts for about 35 years. 

Rich Bennett 23:53
Wow. 

Cathlene Miner 23:54
So martial arts has been a big part of our organization, to be honest. Martial arts and self-defense. So it's more of a self-defense club. So strike back use as a base of Krav Maga. When I'm teaching, I use the base of Krav Maga and also kickboxing stinger has a base more of taekwondo and karate 

Rich Bennett 24:17
Mm 

Cathlene Miner 24:17
jiu 

Rich Bennett 24:17
hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 24:18
jitsu. But either way, the goal is to get away then. But we're not here to. 

Rich Bennett 24:23
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 24:24
You know, I can jujitsu when you want to roll and choke somebody out. Like that's not our goal. We do use some of the moves because they're great. Now, like you said, the sensei, she could probably do the same thing. I'm getting ready to say, you know, I could have a £200 person on top of me. And I. I don't know. I never weigh myself, but I probably guess I'm like one 2125 I could have a £200 person on top of me because you know, the right move to make. I can roll over and get that person off me fast enough. I can get away. And that's our goal. And also we teach that. Contact is the last form. We don't want to have contact with these people. 

Rich Bennett 25:02
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 25:03
Another thing that sets us apart is that we teach self-defense in. How do you de-escalate a situation? How do you not get into this situation? Because we don't want you all to have contact at all. And if you feel like you're in a dangerous situation, you do your best, best defense. Also, is your voice. 

Rich Bennett 25:25
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 25:26
Right. You know all this, but. 

Rich Bennett 25:27
Oh, yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 25:28
Somebody starts coming close. I don't care how awkward you think it feels. And so we practice the yelling stop or whatever your word is right. Some people choose very choice. Curse words. Right? What? 

Rich Bennett 25:41
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 25:42
Comes out of your mouth, you go for it. It draws attention. 

Rich Bennett 25:46
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 25:47
That and all the studies that they've done with people that are in prisons that have attacked people, they're like they go after the low lying fruit. They're not I mean, if you look like you're going to be trouble, they're not going to strip you. 

Rich Bennett 26:00
Now. 

Cathlene Miner 26:00
Also, because typically they're after something you have or what they want from you and they're going to find and it's usually, you know, in sometimes it can be somebody, you know. So you just have to be able to read the room as well. 

Rich Bennett 26:15
I was just talking about that the other day with somebody and talking about, 

I gotta get this for my wife and daughter. they they don't want their wife or daughter to carry a weapon because. That can be turned against you. So he got him. It's like a little pocket thing. And you pull it and I forget how many decibels it is, but it's a siren and. Attracted attention. Wow. 

Cathlene Miner 26:45
Those are great for anybody to have because again, it's 

Rich Bennett 26:47
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 26:48
engine. You've got to bring attention to the situation. And it's not a bad idea for a guy to have either because you. 

Rich Bennett 26:53
Now? Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 26:54
You can have your hands full. I mean, or you could have your grandkids or your kids with you. Like, you know what I mean? Like, we're not always when, where and when people are attacked, are they not? Always by themselves? 

Rich Bennett 27:06
Now 

Cathlene Miner 27:06
Sometimes. 

Rich Bennett 27:06
they are, especially in today's world, 

Cathlene Miner 27:08
Yeah. So I think those are great things for anybody to have, especially when you can just pull it. But the thing is, is people have to remember whatever they do have, they have to make sure they have it accessible. And you can't 

Rich Bennett 27:19
right? 

Cathlene Miner 27:19
be digging around in your bag like, Oh, I know, I've got that thing somewhere. 

Rich Bennett 27:23
Yeah, Basra. He stood still to get away. And actually, don't you believe it's also with the self-defence? It helps with the mental health as well? 

Cathlene Miner 27:33
Absolutely. It always helps with. Yeah, it absolutely does. In the things that you learn in the confidence that you get. Right. I mean, when I see people when we do these workshops and there are people that they feel weak and they can get, you know, a £200 or £250 person off of them, they're like, oh, God, I mean, the idea the like they're like, oh my gosh. Like they feel like they can conquer the world. So 

Rich Bennett 28:01
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 28:01
it does help mentally as well. And many, many ways. And I mean, we're not saying it's going to give you the I don't we still don't want you walking around by yourself in a dark alley. Like like let's just. 

Rich Bennett 28:09
No. 

Cathlene Miner 28:11
But at least if you're ever in the situation, we hope you'll never have to use the skills, because now we've gotten to the point where we actually can certify people to teach self-defense. 

That is what we do. Also, we have workshops. We'll be planning one for the spring here in Florida too, for people to come, and then they can be certified to teach other people. And then it's a good way to make money. I mean, we the only thing we charge when we charge for the certification, then half of the money goes back to hopeful handbags. And the other four, you know, So it's still you're still. 

Rich Bennett 28:48
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 28:48
Charity. But in saying that if you're certified, you can go on and teach whoever you'd like. Now, when we're giving the workshops, though, survivors of domestic abuse are never charged to take the workshops. That's just what we do through the organization. We sponsor them and we make sure that all that's paid for. 

But but in saying that these skills are not these are for everybody. Like everybody. But Stinger. So Stinger also can certify people. And he does men and women. 

Rich Bennett 29:21
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 29:22
He does men and women. And it's really if the way singer does it, I think is so awesome like he'll actually get people. And the ones that go through the certifications. And down in Trinidad, he's in Trinidad, 

Rich Bennett 29:37
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 29:39
and he'll show up randomly with somebody and like, do like a fake attack. 

Rich Bennett 29:46
Are. 

Cathlene Miner 29:46
Like he tests people where you show up on you randomly and try to jump you. Just so you know. However you might, if you're if you're being trained by Stinger because he wants to make sure. 

Rich Bennett 30:01
I'm loving this because this just from where I'm at, I'm thinking. Of some of the other nonprofits around here to help with people in domestic abuse and even addiction. I think something like this I think all these nonprofits should have something like. 

Cathlene Miner 30:18
Yeah, they should. And that's the kind of thing that honestly, when we, you know, Goshen is amazing. So she's based in the United Kingdom, but she travels over to the US often. 

Rich Bennett 30:29
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 30:30
get enough people together in one area, we'll travel and do a workshop. 

Rich Bennett 30:34
Oh, really? 

Cathlene Miner 30:35
Shops typically are about 4 hours to get it all. And then there's like a break in the middle so you can get some you know, you can drink through out. We're not going to make it, you know, but to eat something and then 

Rich Bennett 30:45
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 30:45
it's one. And even the workshops that we do with the kids and Stinger does that too. Down in Trinidad. But the workshops with the kids, I have three grandkids and I, they've been to the workshops a few times and my middle grandchild, the first time she did it. She had just turned five. And I'll test her every once in a while, like just randomly when she doesn't know. But, like, what do you do? What do they do when somebody comes up behind them and tries to grab them? Those are the kind 

Rich Bennett 31:15
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 31:16
of things we teach them. Right. What do you do? And basically, you wiggle, you kick, you wiggle yourself out of their arms. 

if you haven't been shown it, we don't know what we don't know. 

Rich Bennett 31:29
Exactly. 

Cathlene Miner 31:29
So and that would to some people seem natural but it's not. I mean, you're in so much shock, right, that somebody just came up behind you and did this that if you've been shown it, it's muscle memory, right? And you're like, Oh, I've seen this before. My. Your brain can take over. So even with the kids, it's important for them to know their boundaries and. Meaning somebody starts coming close to you and you're uncomfortable. So many. I could be here all day. I'm very about. And I have lots of stories. We unfortunately have a scenario not too far from where I am a couple of years ago with a teenager who was out running and in a neighborhood, a regular neighborhood. 

Rich Bennett 32:13
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 32:14
Safe. Potentially you no normal neighborhood. And and they caught this on camera because of somebody's ring camera that was on 

Rich Bennett 32:23
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 32:23
the garage, which was great, because they could find the guy. But basically what end up happening was he must have stopped and asked for directions, which people don't typically need directions these days because they've got their phones. 

Rich Bennett 32:34
Ah. Huh. 

Cathlene Miner 32:36
So Rosa went. 

Rich Bennett 32:38
I'm sorry, can you say that one more time? Because I think that's very important. A lot of people don't realize that. 

Cathlene Miner 32:42
What? People don't need to ask for directions anymore, that they have their phone. Right. So if somebody comes and asks you directions from a car or up to you, don't get too close so you can see the window going down. She leans up to the car and the next thing you know, she looks like a piece of jelly and falls. 

Rich Bennett 33:02
Oh, God. 

Cathlene Miner 33:03
Just falls to the ground and somehow. She musters. Do you see it on the video? Musters her weak body to get up. As she's slowly running away, she keeps falling and the guy then is walking around the car to try to because he was going to pick her up, I guess, 

Rich Bennett 33:23
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 33:23
in the car. She eventually gets to somebody's house, like literally, you know, and she doesn't remember a lot of it, but he sprayed her with something. 

Rich Bennett 33:33
Oh, God. 

Cathlene Miner 33:34
So basically he rolls down the window, asks for directions, sprays something in her face. She goes right down. So these are things that we don't think of. We either think of that. When I was younger, 

Rich Bennett 33:47
Now. 

Cathlene Miner 33:47
it really wasn't a thing. And and you're trying to be nice, so gosh. And it's such a great job of reminding people it's not your job to be nice. I mean, you want to be mean to people, but you've got to realize that you can't this. 

Rich Bennett 34:01
You got to be aware. 

Cathlene Miner 34:03
Right. And this stuff is really happening. So if somebody rolls down their window, you do not get close to that window. 

Rich Bennett 34:09
Now. 

Cathlene Miner 34:10
Do not head. Put your head in. Don't even get near the window. And a lot of people don't think about that. So it's those kind of things that we teach as well as to how to de-escalate the situation in and to get out of one before it starts, because you have never thought that that would happen. And thank God she had the strength. She was in good shape. And a young girl who fairly, you know, healthy. Right. 

Rich Bennett 34:33
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 34:33
Somebody who wasn't as healthy or didn't already have that stamina. She was a runner, right? So she was probably like, I'm getting the heck out of here. Whereas somebody might have been too weak to do that. 

Rich Bennett 34:44
And I believe stuff like that should be taught in schools, first of all. 

Cathlene Miner 34:49
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 34:50
Because you look at human trafficking. 

Cathlene Miner 34:52
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 34:52
Most of the people that are trafficking are women and kids. 

Cathlene Miner 34:56
Yeah, that's absolutely true. And so we go into colleges and teach this. 

Rich Bennett 35:02
Okay? 

Cathlene Miner 35:02
Hard to get into the school systems. We get a lot 

Rich Bennett 35:05
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 35:05
back, unfortunately, which I'm hoping will change here with. 

Rich Bennett 35:09
Yeah, I hope so. 

Cathlene Miner 35:11
Only because this is important stuff. This is 

Rich Bennett 35:14
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 35:14
stuff for us as parents. We want our kids to know. In Trinidad, though, thank goodness. Stingers in schools every week. He's teacher. 

Rich Bennett 35:23
Is he 

Cathlene Miner 35:23
Every week in the in all all the ages he teaches. 

Rich Bennett 35:27
good? 

Cathlene Miner 35:27
Yep. And they, they welcome it, which is interesting. But I think too, they know that crime's a problem. Then they see this stuff happening and they want to try to. In 

Rich Bennett 35:37
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 35:38
in in it is let's be real. It's a smaller place than, say, the US where you got a whole bunch of people that have to agree and have a meeting to have a meeting to have a meeting to 

Rich Bennett 35:45
Uh 

Cathlene Miner 35:45
agree 

Rich Bennett 35:46
huh. 

Cathlene Miner 35:46
on. I think that nothing gets done. But you know, it's a we're going to make it happen. It's fine. 

Rich Bennett 35:52
Yes, we will. Yes, we will. Now I'm really loving this. So those of you listening, make sure you go to again. The website is hopeful. Full with two L's because full of hope. I love that. 

Cathlene Miner 36:06
Of. 

Rich Bennett 36:07
Her for handbags dot org. You're listening in on the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

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4107059274. Again, it's 

4107059274. Tell them rich from horror for candy live in such a. I want to talk a little bit about the book. 

Cathlene Miner 37:35
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 37:36
So how long ago did you write that self-perception makeover? 

Cathlene Miner 37:40
It's probably been about eight years maybe. Maybe seven. Honestly, the time is flying by so fast. 

Rich Bennett 37:50
It is the kids and grandkids that keep you busy. 

Cathlene Miner 37:52
Well, they are, because I'm thinking my oldest granddaughter's now nine. So, you know, I think it was about that amount of time. And it's information that I gather, you know, just throughout the years. So. 

Rich Bennett 38:04
So was it like a guide book? 

Cathlene Miner 38:06
Yeah. So I have it written as days. And 

Rich Bennett 38:09
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 38:10
I wrote it to how I like to read. So I'm more of a magazine reader. I don't even buy magazines anymore, but I like short things that are to the point. 

Rich Bennett 38:18
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 38:19
Tell me what it is and I'm going to do it and I'll be fine. Now, I'm not I don't like to read long books. I'll be honest. I don't. So I have this written. In short, like, column days instead of chapters. So you read it and then it gives you something to think about and you're going to journal along with it. So the first thing really is what do you think and feel about yourself? Like, have you really ever sat and written that down? Now, those of us that are around our age, this is probably crossed our mind at some point. 

Rich Bennett 38:50
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 38:50
But but most people it hasn't because they've let the outside world dictate the way they feel about themselves. Right. And that starts when you're younger and then it's by no fault of our parents either or our grandparents or whoever our people 

Rich Bennett 39:04
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 39:05
are we hang out with. I mean, I remember my great grandmother, she used to say, Honey, you're not fat. You're just chunky, you know? And and that was out of love, right? 

Rich Bennett 39:16
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 39:16
You're just a little bit bigger than the other girls. But you know what? You're fine. But I think I thought about that as, Oh, my gosh, why am I so much bigger than I really wasn't? But, you know, I put that in. 

Rich Bennett 39:27
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 39:29
So all I'm saying is I think over time, we we don't realize that, oh, that's somebody else's opinion, but what do I really think? talk about that's like number one, and then we have to to put those things into perspective and say, well, that's that's not really what we think of ourselves. Or if it is, we've got to change it. So that's when I started putting this together, when I was personal training, because I was working on how I thought and felt about myself because I started to realize that things in my life were changing. 

Rich Bennett 39:59
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 40:00
And they were shifting. And the things that I was thinking about that I was excited about were going really well, like they were going so well at my job. And in promotions and all this stuff was going so great. My kids and then the things I wasn't thinking about really well, which was myself. Was it going so well? You know, I didn't feel good. I was, you know, I just there was just things and I was like, I've got to change this. So I started working on my own self-perception and when I was personal training women. So back in the day, I was a supervisor at Mayo Clinic. So those of you that are in the US know about that. And I worked my way up. But in saying that, I also had I would go after work and I would personally train women. That was what I did as a second job. 

Rich Bennett 40:44
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 40:44
So I would go and I started the women. I was personal training. I would say, Let's work on your self-perception as well, because I was doing it with myself. I was like, I'm going to test this out, basically. And so the women that said, Oh, sure, let's do this. I can look back now after all these years, and they're still on a really good path. And when they start to fall off the path, they know what to do to get back on, right? They know, 

Rich Bennett 41:11
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 41:11
hey, I got to change the way I'm thinking. I've got to ask myself these questions. I do this self-perception makeover every six months, every six months. I do my own book because it takes about 5 to 6 months for the outside world to start to bombard you again and have your subconscious mind start to think, Oh, this is you know, they tell you what you think about yourself. So anyway, in the ones I had some people that said to me, you know, I don't need help with that. I just want you to help me because I can get you in really good shape inside me on the outside. I. 

Rich Bennett 41:40
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 41:41
And but obviously it takes help on their part to know I can't do it all for you. You got to do the exercise and you have to watch what you're eating. But but the ones that didn't want to do it, sticking with stuff in and they were they would get into shape, say, but mentally they weren't in the right space. So they would go back to old habits. They would go back. So that's why because there's also we talk about good habits versus habits that are moving you forward and habits that are holding you back. And that's one of the days. Right. We all have to. Sometimes we just don't give ourselves enough time to think about it. So it's not rocket science, but it's but it is stuff that we need to be talking to ourselves about that we typically don't do because we just get into everyday stuff in the world. So. 

Rich Bennett 42:28
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 42:29
That's kind of the base of it. And then I started using it when I started hopeful handbags, because, I mean, you either go into an abusive situation with a low self perception or you come out with one. I mean, you don't come out feeling like the best you've ever felt. 

Rich Bennett 42:42
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 42:43
The ones that leave do have like that weight off their shoulder. You know, They're like, Oh, okay, I feel a little bit of relief, but they're mentally, mentally and physically worn out and down. They're worn down because they've been told that they're not good enough for a really long time. 

Rich Bennett 42:58
Right. So was this book, though, this is something that people can keep going back to. 

Cathlene Miner 43:05
Absolutely. You should go back to it. 

Rich Bennett 43:07
Which I love that. 

Cathlene Miner 43:08
At least every six months. And it's really fun because throughout the journey of even 30 days, you you start to see it shift and you see a shift of the people around you. I talk about this in the book 

Rich Bennett 43:20
Uh 

Cathlene Miner 43:20
as 

Rich Bennett 43:20
huh. 

Cathlene Miner 43:20
well, that if you start to notice certain people are leaving, veering themselves away, maybe they're not calling you as much. Maybe that might be a good thing. Don't go anything. Those people, you know, because things like they're they're feeling something different about you and you're not feeling whatever that negativity was. So it. 

Rich Bennett 43:42
Bingo. 

Cathlene Miner 43:42
Yep. So, you know, misery loves company and you don't want to be in the misery. 

Rich Bennett 43:47
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 43:48
We're doing you a favor here. Just. Just don't go chasing after them. And that was a huge wakeup call for me, because sometimes there were things I'm like, okay, well, if I try harder and try harder and try harder. If you better try that hard for something, just rethink it. It is not 

Rich Bennett 44:03
Exactly. 

Cathlene Miner 44:03
for you. It's not for you. And it has taken us, you and I, years to come to this, right? I mean, I think a lot. 

Rich Bennett 44:12
Oh, yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 44:13
Is is knowledge with years behind us. Right. And just living life. Life experiences, I think also help the way and think that way. 

Rich Bennett 44:23
Oh, absolutely. 

Cathlene Miner 44:23
But my hope is and it does help 17 additions as well for it to at least be back there in your head so that when things happen, you say, wait a minute, this must be what I read about, which was if things are that hard, I need to rethink it because it's probably not meant for me. So that means there's something better. There's something better, and it's hard to see when you're in that moment. Believe me, I get it. But it gives me some you know, it's so great, though, to see the people who have gone through it and the shifts that they've had in their lives. That they stay with. But it's not going to the gym. You can't go to the gym for two weeks and decide, you know what? I'm good. I'm never going back. I don't. 

Rich Bennett 45:06
Got to continue. 

Cathlene Miner 45:08
Right or I ate things that are good for me this week. That's good. I don't have to do it again. But it's the kind of thing that we have to continually take care of and work on and keep going back to. 

Rich Bennett 45:21
Oh, absolutely. I started a diet. Why? Let me rephrase that. started a diet for the second time. 

Cathlene Miner 45:29
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 45:29
Because. Because the first time I was up to £300 at one point. 

Cathlene Miner 45:33
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 45:34
Yeah. Cap, having chest pains and everything. So I went on a diet and was doing the DDP yoga and I lost £50. I got down to 250. 

Cathlene Miner 45:45
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 45:46
And then over time, they started putting on weight again because I stopped. See what happened. I wanted to downward dog and hurt my back and just. Stop doing the yoga for some reason. And back in June, I guess it was, I went to my doctor to did the annual blood work and my older brother, my sister, my younger brother, all three have diabetes. Get tested every year. Doctor, say your A1 c As I said, you need to go on a low calorie diet. I was like, okay, what's a low calorie diet? 

Well, because you hear about, you know, cut out card 

Cathlene Miner 46:24
Right. Right. Right. 

Rich Bennett 46:26
I was 275 and I started through and I used the app called Noom. 

Cathlene Miner 46:31
Yeah, I've seen it. 

Rich Bennett 46:32
Oh, my God. I love it. 

Cathlene Miner 46:33
Yeah, people. That's great. 

Rich Bennett 46:35
Oh, yeah. But the weird thing is, I mean, what's not weird? Like, now I'm down to 246. 

Cathlene Miner 46:42
Oh, awesome. 

Rich Bennett 46:45
It's like I had so far. I keep certain my weight goals and I keep, Oh, my God. Kathleen, I am the biggest fan of Frozen red seedless grapes. Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 46:58
Oh, they're so good. They're like. 

Rich Bennett 47:02
Oh yeah. But like for I when 

something 

ate too much. 

I wouldn't, I even though I ate too much that day for the diet. 

Cathlene Miner 47:19
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 47:21
There's no way I could have eaten as much as I used to eat 

Cathlene Miner 47:24
right. 

Rich Bennett 47:24
because I got a fork too quick. And even like grilling out and drinking, you know, drinking a beer or whatever. 

Not as much, but I'll get right back on track again because I say that that was a cheat day or a treat day. 

Cathlene Miner 47:40
Right. 

Rich Bennett 47:41
Time to get back on track. 

Cathlene Miner 47:42
You have to because if you have. 

Rich Bennett 47:43
Oh, yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 47:44
Days, they end up being your lifestyle. And then another good one to me to try is the frozen. I really like blueberries, but. 

Rich Bennett 47:54
All I have to. 

Cathlene Miner 47:54
Frozen blueberries are great. You can even buy them already frozen. Just make sure. 

Rich Bennett 47:57
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 47:58
To not have Google Steam on them and some of them still have a little stem on them when they're first. 

Rich Bennett 48:02
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 48:03
It would be crunchy, will hurt. But the great thing about blueberries is they don't mess as much with your glucose levels as. 

Rich Bennett 48:13
Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 48:14
Yeah. Blueberries is one of the best berries that keep can keep it level, whereas grapes have a lot of natural sugar in them. 

Rich Bennett 48:23
Oh, I didn't even think about that. 

Cathlene Miner 48:24
Yeah, but the only thing about blueberries is you got to brush your teeth because you eat too many of them and you get 

Rich Bennett 48:31
You 

Cathlene Miner 48:31
to. 

Rich Bennett 48:31
look like grimace 

Cathlene Miner 48:33
But I have found that the Colgate they have a Colgate toothpaste out now, and it's like says Colgate 15 on it using it its take off like 15 years of stains off your teeth. But. 

Rich Bennett 48:45
Really? 

Cathlene Miner 48:46
Yeah, I will say, and I use that now and my teeth are white and I love to drink decaf coffee. So listen, I'm drinking stained things, but if you brush your teeth with that, the blue will come off. I'm just saying, because sometimes I've eaten so many blueberries that you just have a tinge of blue in your. 

Rich Bennett 49:02
That's good for you. Yeah, because I drink coffee every morning, and I've fallen in love with matcha, you know? 

Cathlene Miner 49:11
Yeah. Yeah. No. I love my decaf coffee like I love deep. I love coffee in general. But as I've gotten older and wiser, it doesn't decaf doesn't give me energy anymore. It just. 

Rich Bennett 49:26
Me neither. 

Cathlene Miner 49:26
Anxious and makes me feel like I'm you know, it it doesn't do me any good. But I love the taste. So I love to experiment with different little cream like series. Like, I, I don't drink. I haven't drank alcohol since I was probably 24, 25. 

Rich Bennett 49:46
You're not missing anything. 

Cathlene Miner 49:47
And even when I did, it was not, you know. But anyway, and that was true I had anyway. And then I found out I'm allergic to sulfites and my body doesn't. It doesn't do well with yeast. So there goes all that. I was like, Forget. 

Rich Bennett 50:01
Wow. 

Cathlene Miner 50:02
Is it worth it to me? But anyway, so I'm getting what I'm getting at. There's a point to this story. You know, my cabinets in my house that we live in came with the little wine things, you know, that you. 

Rich Bennett 50:14
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 50:15
I don't think I don't use it. What am I going to use it for? So it's been that way for years. And now I'm an empty nester, right? My kids are all at the house. And I was telling my dad because my dad can just fix and do anything. I was like, Wouldn't it be great if this was a coffee station? So we just cut out those things and we put trim on it and made a little. Anyway, I have the cutest coffee station now that used to be made for wine, because even the instead of the wine glasses that go up in the little. 

Rich Bennett 50:45
Aha. The. 

Cathlene Miner 50:46
A little looks in there to hang the coffee cups. So anyway, I. 

Rich Bennett 50:51
That's a great idea. 

Cathlene Miner 50:52
Yeah. I was like, Wouldn't this be the cutest thing? And then I could I could talk about DIY all day. 

I had this little refrigerator that's like this big whatever, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm going to put that in the cabinet below it. So. 

Rich Bennett 51:09
Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 51:11
I know I've got not only a coffee session, you open the cabinet and I have a refrigerator down there that has all my coffee stuff. 

Rich Bennett 51:20
When you refrigerate the coffee grounds. 

Cathlene Miner 51:22
No, but I refrigerate. 

Rich Bennett 51:23
Like your creamers. 

Cathlene Miner 51:25
And then I make like if I have if I make like a pot of percolated decaf, it's like espresso. Decaf. 

Rich Bennett 51:32
Yeah. Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 51:32
I'll put it in like a glass bottle. And then if I want something cold. 

Rich Bennett 51:37
Ice coffee. 

Cathlene Miner 51:38
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:39
Smart. 

Cathlene Miner 51:40
So I love my coffee. I don't know how we got on the coffee subject. So I will have I'll sometimes have four or five cups of decaf coffee a day. Easy. 

Rich Bennett 51:51
Wow. Yeah, I can't drink that much. And I got my problem was I would get up, I would have coffee, I would drink coffee throughout the day till I got home at 9:00 or 10:00. Now. I'll have a cup in the morning. That's it. And then later on today, I may have a well when it's cold out a cup of hot chocolate, because, you know, Santa Claus 

Cathlene Miner 52:12
Right. You got that And always. 

Rich Bennett 52:14
Or the green tea or majesty. 

Cathlene Miner 52:16
Yeah. The mom just loves going to. 

Rich Bennett 52:18
Oh, yeah. I'll put that in my smoothie every morning, too. 

Cathlene Miner 52:21
Ooh. And smoothie. 

Rich Bennett 52:22
Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 52:22
A good chew, depending on where you put it. Those are good. 

Rich Bennett 52:26
oh, strong strawberries and bananas, the matcha, the whey protein powder, oatmilk. 

Cathlene Miner 52:34
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 52:35
That's about it. 

Cathlene Miner 52:36
One day. 

Rich Bennett 52:37
Sounds like a lot, though. 

Cathlene Miner 52:38
One day you should try this instead of a full banana per half of banana and put in. Some blueberries or something. Because when you say that to me, I'm thinking, that's great. And I know we're not here to talk about nutrition and we're gonna do that to. 

You know, bananas have a lot of natural sugar, too, so. 

Rich Bennett 53:00
Man I got. I got to look into that stuff. When he said, Look, Valerie, I'm just looking at the calories. 

Cathlene Miner 53:07
Well, right. So and that's I guess it's since they do test you because you have, you know, genetically. 

Rich Bennett 53:15
Yeah, 

Cathlene Miner 53:15
Diabetes. That's why I'm saying I would just sort of. No, you don't have it. But it couldn't hurt. Like, 

Rich Bennett 53:22
right. 

Cathlene Miner 53:22
bananas are great for shakes because they will firm it up. So that's the good thing about it. However, if you just still just cut the banana in half, you've just halved that. And then if you needed a little more sweetener, which you probably don't, you probably will not notice much of a difference with half a banana versus a full banana. 

Rich Bennett 53:40
Yeah. Hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 53:41
You won't notice a difference, but your body will be able to tell the difference because you're not having to let out as much insulin to bring 

Rich Bennett 53:48
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 53:48
down your glucose levels, which everybody's glucose levels, when they eat certain things are going to go up, right? It's just your body's not working as hard to get the insulin out to bring it down so you don't have as much. 

Rich Bennett 53:59
I'm really looking forward to going back to the doctor this time. 

Cathlene Miner 54:02
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:03
Mainly for the blood. Well, for the blood work, but also so when I get on the scale. 

Cathlene Miner 54:08
That's right. 

Rich Bennett 54:09
He can look at me. He's like, Oh, you finally did it. 

Cathlene Miner 54:12
That's right. 

Rich Bennett 54:13
You know, so the little Z add on, which is 80 M. 

Cathlene Miner 54:20
Correct. 

Rich Bennett 54:21
Dot com. First of all, what are you, a Z top fan? 

Cathlene Miner 54:25
No, I'm actually not. 

Rich Bennett 54:27
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 54:28
It just sort of went like, okay, how do we come up with a name that is easy in the I guess it's not easy, but Z just sounded cool. Also, Z you know, for the like when you when you're on zero and you're on your computer, the Z that comes up, you know, on the little 

one's the icon. But you know what I mean. The little. 

Rich Bennett 54:51
The favor can. 

Cathlene Miner 54:52
Yes. Flavor. 

Rich Bennett 54:53
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 54:55
Faber Kohn Yes, so yeah, so it's a web. It's a web and also an app, and it's for blogging. So what we did was Leona and I, who she is, the one that's also the founder of Moms and Business International, I was telling you about 

Rich Bennett 55:12
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 55:12
through the years with the things that I've done, I've also helped women, you know, with their dreams, write their dreams, which are typically, you know, I want to do this, I want to do that. And a lot of it contains business stuff, but it's about being able to just talk about things, write things. And that's how it was born, giving people a platform. Now, there are other blogging sites out there. But what we've done is we've gotten with the developers in the background. Now, Leona helps people grow their businesses every day. That's what she does. That's her. That's her thing. And she's amazing at it. But what what we do is with the developers in the background, we have it so that the crawlers and the stuff from the web are being able to pull these keywords right from the back. 

Rich Bennett 56:00
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 56:00
So when you're blogging, whether it be on the ATM or any other site, it's not that people are going to keep going to your page right away and you're going to go up really fast and search engines. However, your information is traveled out there. More in the background, right, of the World 

Rich Bennett 56:19
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 56:19
Wide Web. So you are getting more hits in that way, which will eventually bring you up in search engines or searches. So we do that and that's something that whether you blog. So it's not a I'm going to go to this and I'm going to click and I'm going to buy this. Now, you can because you can put your links in the blog if you'd like. 

Rich Bennett 56:39
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 56:40
But the benefit of blogging is that you're out there longer and farther. You get a farther. 

Rich Bennett 56:46
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 56:47
Way farther reach. So we even have some podcasters. They they'll sum up their podcast and then they'll put a link to their podcast on their. 

Rich Bennett 56:57
Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 56:57
Yep. And so you just make an account, It's free. And how to how do we do it? We actually have to. Our people can advertise on there as well. We have featured blogs. We've got a little bit of a different look coming to the site. We've been working with the developers. So there's all these things that I've learned, right? Like, I'm not I, I guess I consider myself a tech person now, Tech person. 

Rich Bennett 57:21
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 57:21
I'd have had to learn about, about developers and about coding and all these things that I had no clue about. I do now and I know what questions to ask. I know what to look for. I know you know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to sit there and build you a whole site with code. How? 

Rich Bennett 57:41
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 57:42
I do understand it because that is one thing, whether it be with the book or even when I was a stay at home mom for over 20 years, I'm actually homeschooled. My two younger kids. I mean, I just. 

Rich Bennett 57:51
Oh. 

Cathlene Miner 57:52
Yeah, there's so much that I've done, but what I'm getting at is in. I used to have a personal assistant when I had the book stuff, but I was mainly focused on all that. I got to learn how to do it first. Even if I'm not, I don't know, nuts and become an expert at it. I will learn how to do it so that I know what I'm asking people to do. You know, I need to. 

Rich Bennett 58:14
Smart. 

Cathlene Miner 58:15
Have an idea and it's coming. My dad's always said, you know, he has two daughters. My sister and I, we're like 15 months apart and he's a car guy. As one of his hobbies is redoing cars. And so we he always taught us what to ask, what to look for, how to do things, so that if we do bring our car somewhere, you know, I have an understanding of what it is I'm asking you to do. I may 

Rich Bennett 58:39
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 58:39
be able to do it myself or be an expert, but I do know what I'm talking about at least. I mean, I'm always learning, obviously. But so anyways, he had a great, amazing blog site. You will get lots of views. We have lots of backlinks, lots of crawlers 

and our people are just really happy because we're here to help. So if you have any questions about blogs, I, I can honestly say I become a blogging expert at this. 

Rich Bennett 59:07
Blogging is still very important. 

Cathlene Miner 59:09
It really is. With any business. Any business, it's important because the more you can get your stuff out there and searched. Right. And can you put it on your own site, too? Absolutely. You can put the blog on zero and you can put a link to your own site within that. 

Rich Bennett 59:26
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 59:27
Doing it that way. The difference is unless you've got developers working in the background on your personal website, then you're probably. I'm not saying nobody has it. There are some people that probably do spend the time and money to get all of that stuff done in the background. But if you're building your own site on a on a site, just a platform site and you have your blog on there, you nine times out of ten, you don't have the background crawling stuff that you're going to need to get. 

Rich Bennett 59:54
Exactly. 

Cathlene Miner 59:56
And so that that was our our vision behind it. And we would like to get more people on their blog about finance stuff and real estate. That's something that's I find finance in real estate very, very exciting as I've gotten older and the investments that I do and I say that because I think that's interesting. I think that's interesting to people not 

Rich Bennett 1:00:19
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:00:20
building a business. And same thing with podcasters. So I'd love to see your stuff on there because it's a great way for people to find other things that I wouldn't typically maybe listen to a podcast, you know, they're out reading stuff and then they go and they find a podcast. So we are working on it. You'll see a little bit of a change over there, meaning our landing page is coming, so you don't go directly to blogs. But in saying that it's still it's very super easy to to use the site. You just click create. And if anybody has any issues, they can just message us and somebody will get back to you quickly. The one thing that we do is we're humans, right? So 

Rich Bennett 1:01:00
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:01:00
anybody that's looking is human, meaning we've we really pride ourselves on having a human connection with people when they ask the questions. You're not going to get a bot answer or anything. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:14
Good. Yeah, because I think we're a lot of people mess up when it comes to blogging. They forget some things. Mainly a photo. 

Cathlene Miner 1:01:23
You have to have a photo. Well, we made it to where you can't publish without a photo. So. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:28
Good. 

Cathlene Miner 1:01:29
Published without a photo. And we tell you right on there, 1200 by 600 is what you need to have for the photo. I mean, you can put a different size. However, I can't promise what the pixelated stuff looked like. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:41
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:01:42
Site. But these days, with free apps like Canva and stuff like that, I mean, super simple. But that's another thing that we have people that if you're just starting to blog and you message us, well, we'll help you with that stuff because it's not 

Rich Bennett 1:01:58
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:01:58
hard. Once you do it once or twice, you're like a pro at. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:02
So have if somebody wants to sign up to start blogging on it, what do they do? 

Cathlene Miner 1:02:08
They just go to zero dot com. Go to the top right hit register. You'll fill out your information, basically your name, website, name, email and password. You'll make up a password and then you'll get a confirmation to your email. You click that on and it brings you right on. And then you just click create and you start. So it's 

Rich Bennett 1:02:29
Really? 

Cathlene Miner 1:02:30
super simple because again, just like I told you how I wrote the book. Very simple. You get you read like a page and then you're done. Like, it's it's not hard. We wanted we want this to be user friendly and very simple, not complicated. And that's that's what we've done in our developers. I do have to say. 

You have done a really good job and I'm just kind of laughing inside because it's been times through the process where I'm trying to explain what I want in 

Rich Bennett 1:02:57
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:02:57
the developer and somebody that's creative and somebody that actually uses stuff like I do think differently. So I'll say something and what I'm saying, they're taking as different. Well, it's almost like drawing pictures now, This is what I'm all that. We're on the same page, and there's nothing wrong with it. It's not their fault. It's just that we. It just goes to show me, too. It reminds me how differently people think, depending on where you're coming from and where. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:28
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:03:30
because my mind isn't on the coding in the background. I'm just saying this is what I need it to look like. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:35
Yeah. 

So let me make sure I got this straight. You're looking for a real estate agent there or worried about real estate, right? 

Cathlene Miner 1:03:45
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:45
I may have somebody for you. And what else are you looking for? 

Cathlene Miner 1:03:48
People that write about finance because we find those are really sought after and what we're doing is so in each. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:53
Okay. 

Cathlene Miner 1:03:54
Finance is a pretty broad category, but teaching. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:56
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:03:56
About different kinds of things. How do you make money? How do you invest money? Maybe just how you do simple things with finance. Like things. Maybe some ideas people haven't thought of. So we have our main page, which has featured articles. Right. So. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:12
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:04:13
We Z.Z. Adam will go by where we see people are having most engagement and we'll move those articles up so that when people go there and they're seen first and then will rotate them around. But also people can pay to have some feature, but it's not all paid featured, meaning 

Rich Bennett 1:04:30
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:04:30
we're going in and looking at this stuff. The other thing is we've got categories. So within the categories we also move people up by the interest. What we've seen people that are interested in in that way 

Rich Bennett 1:04:44
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 1:04:45
go to that category is the first thing they see, and then that gets more engagement. We also, with our feature people, whether they're paying to be featured or whether we have chosen them to be featured, we put them out on our social media and on our emails. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:00
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:05:01
Then they're also getting out in that way, which something that years ago I didn't understand. But even if an email goes out and you've got keywords in there that email's going in the background too, right? So if you're being chosen for your to go out your article, your blog, I always call them articles because I'm more of a magazine type person. I always think of blogs as magazine articles because they typically could be the size. But if it's going out in the background and you're actually getting out there again on the World Wide Web because of the subject of the email and they're in your picture and all the stuff that's in there. So it's it's really great. And I think that if I could just encourage people to if you're going to use I to help you write a blog, 

which is I get this, there are some good things about I. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:56
It's always got to be edited. 

Cathlene Miner 1:05:58
It always has to be edited. You do have to fact check it. And I'm going to tell you one thing. If you write conclusion at the last paragraph of your blog, I know that you used a i a like I know you did. It takes 2 seconds to make. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:16
God. 

Cathlene Miner 1:06:16
It takes 2 seconds to take that out. Okay. And so just throwing that out there and the reason why that's important is that these search engines, not just Google, but all the ones that are out there, they're picking up on that, too. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:33
Yep. 

Cathlene Miner 1:06:34
So. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:34
And they're upset if you're out making it with a high. 

Cathlene Miner 1:06:37
So there you go. Yeah, right. So you think you're going to move? You're not going to move up as fast on the search. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:45
Though. 

Cathlene Miner 1:06:45
Because they're putting that basically into a spam window because this person and there's too many things is kind of like when the schoolteachers do it right for the college students and the high school students, you know, they're flagging things they are because they can run it through a system. Well. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:01
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:07:02
So I just wanted to bring that. I think I think that I has a place and I think it's great for ideas. I do think it is good, but you have to edit, you have to do your own work and put your own work in and maybe ask it some things. But please. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:17
It's good for giving you ideas. 

Cathlene Miner 1:07:19
Perfect. I'm not saying don't 

Rich Bennett 1:07:20
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:07:20
use it. Yeah, but there are certain words that will clue me in right away that you use in in this fast paced digital world. You got that in your in your in your blog. Maybe people are starting to use that wording now because I uses it. That could be it because it uses 

Rich Bennett 1:07:40
There. 

Cathlene Miner 1:07:41
so much and it doesn't sound bad. That's just a typical line for a. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:47
The one thing I did notice with I, especially if you're writing a blog, you care. Again, you can ask for some tips, but you can even ask it for after you write it. 

Cathlene Miner 1:07:59
Mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:00
You can ask a I. What are what are some of the good key phrases for? 

Cathlene Miner 1:08:06
Absolutely. So that's what I'm saying. If you have written a blog, I would 100% tell you to put it in there, ask it to pull out your keyword. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:15
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:08:16
Because it knows what the up to date keywords are that have the best chance of done. Ask it those questions, ask it to give you a high ranking search engine meta description. Now, when it gives you the high ranking search better description again, edit some of the words, it's going to give you some keywords that it typically uses, but your your keywords will still be in that description. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:43
That's one of the things I love doing with it is and I'll use two different sources for this when I'm editing the podcast. I'll upload a manuscript which helps me to like it. You know, different parts. Intro, but then I'll ask you to suggest several titles based on a EMV value of 70 or more. 

Cathlene Miner 1:09:07
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:08
That helps me come up because, you know, headlines are what sells. 

Cathlene Miner 1:09:12
That? Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:14
And of course, now all eyes are, I'm sorry, 70 characters or less. sure I put in, of course, my guests name because sometimes it may be just the guest name that is going to drive that. 

Cathlene Miner 1:09:27
Right. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:28
Score higher. 

Cathlene Miner 1:09:29
Right. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:30
But yeah, there's so many good things you. 

Cathlene Miner 1:09:31
There are so many things about. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:33
But don't use it to write everything for. 

Cathlene Miner 1:09:35
No, just. You are okay if you're going to just change some of the words because, I mean, it's a glaring I mean, that that word conclusion to me is there's. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:48
I see that you. 

Cathlene Miner 1:09:48
I. Can we give that money? You used to write the whole thing. So I will all I won't know. If not, I'm not. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:56
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:09:56
Some of those blogs are good. I'm just saying I think that, number one, it does kind of give it a little read the whole blog and then I'll see conclusion and I'll be like, okay. But then but also, as far as search engines go, you're going to there's what they're saying. The research is showing that they're starting to knock those down. So they're not giving them the intent. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:18
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:10:19
Because they want people to do their own work and then they now they want you'll do their own work. However, they're coming up with more apps. I mean, I don't know where it's confusing, but. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:31
And I think with Google Age and all of them, the reason they have their own eyes now is because they know people are going to use them. But this way, too, they know if you do use it, then they're not going to help you in the search engines as much. They're going to go back and they're going to look at the originals. So I got to give them credit there. I think that's the main reason they're doing 

Cathlene Miner 1:10:53
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:53
it. 

Cathlene Miner 1:10:54
Which is a great business move. I mean, that's what 

Rich Bennett 1:10:56
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:10:57
some of these people. I'm like, Well, why didn't I think of that? You know, like, you're just like, Well, that makes sense. Oh, but yeah, blogging is is really important to any business. And even, you know, if you're somebody that has a website and you. Well, it still could be a business. It's a business if you've got a website right. If you're a psychologist. Right. Some stuff if you're like I think I we all find real estate fascinating. I think even if you don't. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:21
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:11:21
Not somebody that buys and sells houses. But I think also investment in that type of stuff. As I've gotten older, I've realized the importance of obviously now I've been doing it for years and years, but investing money in certain different things because 

Rich Bennett 1:11:35
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 1:11:35
just having money doesn't. I mean, it's good, but you got to grow it. Especially if 

Rich Bennett 1:11:41
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:11:41
I'm working forever. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:43
Oh, yeah. Well, before I get to my last question, because I'm looking at the time. 

Cathlene Miner 1:11:47
Yeah, I know. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:48
Number one, tell everybody the website. Well, actually, your main website they can get to your other ones from. 

Cathlene Miner 1:11:55
Intercom will actually bring you to the other websites. And I will say as far as the book goes, it's already self-perception make over. If you purchase it on the sites, either hopeful handbags or mine, all proceeds go to hopeful handbags. 

that because if you buy it off Amazon. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:12
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:12:13
I mean, basically, I don't know. I mean, I. They make $0.30 on the book. I don't know. I mean, Amazon is. But, you know, I'm just saying, if you're going to buy the book, buy it. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:24
Get it from the website. 

Cathlene Miner 1:12:25
So then we can help people and help more and more survivors. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:29
Right. 

Cathlene Miner 1:12:30
Because them all the money goes directly there. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:32
Kathleen, is there anything you would like to add before I get to my last question besides that? 

Cathlene Miner 1:12:37
No, just thank you very much. This has been a lot of. This has been a lot of fun. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:42
So Susan Lucci's daughter. 

Cathlene Miner 1:12:44
Yeah. Yes, that's. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:49
big thing for Kathleen Minor? 

Cathlene Miner 1:12:52
Oh, gosh, that's a big question. And I say that because I'm not 100% sure, because, you know, I am kind of newly in the past year or two. An empty nester, I guess. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:04
Right? 

Cathlene Miner 1:13:05
And after being a stay at home mom for over 20 years, this has been a huge shift for me. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:10
Mm hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 1:13:10
Even though I've had my businesses, I've done different things right. But my main job was a mom. It's a mom. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:18
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:13:18
And that's I'm just now I feel like I'm almost coming out of that fog of wait a minute, like my kids dictated my schedule. My kids do. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:28
Yeah. Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:13:29
And now I still stay on a schedule. But anyway, in saying all of that, it is it is definitely to grow hopeful hand bags, meaning to help more people. I don't I don't care how big it gets. And that to me doesn't matter. But to continue helping people daily like we do in literally changing lives, I mean, we we just do. Because, you know, there's absolutely no judgment. There's nothing somebody can tell me that is going to shock me at this point, to be honest. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:59
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:14:00
And I think I've heard everything. And then I hear something else like, 

Rich Bennett 1:14:05
hmm. 

Cathlene Miner 1:14:05
All right, this is where we are. We're going to move forward. So it's really just to help as many people as we can and spread more hope and also with people's businesses, their zero. I'd love to see that grow more and more people to be able to use the blogging site and to be able to grow their businesses in a different way instead of always feeling like they've got to post on social media every day 

Rich Bennett 1:14:26
Mm. 

Cathlene Miner 1:14:26
because people are getting lost on social media, they're. 

Rich Bennett 1:14:29
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 1:14:30
Lost now me as a person. My what I see is just me doing some more traveling, doing some, you know, going and just seeing my kids more, spending more time with my grandkids. That's really what my goal is in life. 

Rich Bennett 1:14:46
Well, I want to thank you so much. It's been an honor. And the door is always open anytime you want to come back. know 

Cathlene Miner 1:14:55
You 

Rich Bennett 1:14:55
there's. 

Cathlene Miner 1:14:55
know. 

Rich Bennett 1:14:56
I know there's a lot more that we could actually talk. 

Cathlene Miner 1:14:59
There really is. I think we need to hit some more on self defense. We need to hit some more on 

helping people and hopefully. 

Rich Bennett 1:15:06
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 1:15:07
Now we can. And also, we love to collaborate with other organizations. Love it. Like that is what we do. 

Rich Bennett 1:15:15
You must have been reading my mind, because one of the things I was thinking about doing is a I love doing roundtables. 

Cathlene Miner 1:15:23
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 1:15:25
Yeah, we've done mental health roundtables, 

Cathlene Miner 1:15:27
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:15:27
we've done addiction, but I'm thinking a virtual nonprofit roundtable. 

Cathlene Miner 1:15:33
That would be absolutely amazing. And even when you talk about the addiction, so that's something that with, you know, when we go to help survivors, sometimes there is an addiction. There's an addiction. 

Rich Bennett 1:15:42
Yes. 

Cathlene Miner 1:15:43
And that has to be dealt with first. We get them to, well, number one, safety, we have to deal with that addiction, because what I find what I have found and you probably just. You're seeing people that are addicted and people who know people who are. We can't move forward because it's never consistent. 

Rich Bennett 1:16:03
Yeah. 

Cathlene Miner 1:16:03
We move forward and then they, you know, up. But I had to have. 

Rich Bennett 1:16:06
Back up. Yep. 

Cathlene Miner 1:16:08
Or I had to have that. Okay. Well, now that means you're probably not showing up for work. You're not doing the best job again, you know, I mean, so we have to do that first. So I think collaboration with other organizations and even if somebody hey, if we have a whole plan bags in your area or we want to do a handbag drive and we get these persons together and you want to storm in your closet to give to people to raise hope, let's do it. Let's do it. That's what they're for. 

Rich Bennett 1:16:37
We're going to make it happen. 

Cathlene Miner 1:16:38
Yes, we are. Yes, we are. 

Rich Bennett 1:16:40
Kathleen, thank you so much. 

Cathlene Miner 1:16:42
You very much for everything. This has been amazing. 

Rich Bennett 1:16:46
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoy today's episode and learn something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love if you could leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at conversations with Rich Bennett dot com for updates, giveaways and more. Until next time, take care, be kind and keep the conversations going.