Lean into the Positive (Cindy Aplanalp Ruzicka)

Cindy, I am so excited to talk to you today. We have known each other for years now. Can’t even remember how many years, but it’s been a wonderful time that we’ve gotten to know each other. And I think of you as a friend at this point, and it’s just been so fun to watch your progression over time. And I’d love to just start with, how did you find me in the first place, and how did we end up working together?

So the way I found you, Gail, is when Southern Living Magazine used to have like designer network and you were one of the speakers and I want to say it was in someplace in the South and you spoke and I waited a very long time to talk to you because you, I was like, okay, this woman has what I need because you had the ability to understand the design world and have walked a mile in our shoes,

but you also had the financial background to really help us understand what was happening with our numbers and how this can really be a profession. If we treat it like a profession, you know, like it’s a serious profession, you can make some really good money doing this. You can support your family. You can educate your kids. Like, you know, I always tease that my kids have straight teeth and are well -educated, like thanks to you. And, you know, to turn it into a real business. And even though I had a great business manager,

They didn’t understand the nuances of design. And it’s really, really different because our forecasting, we’re not selling somebody else’s product. We’re not selling into the same group of clients, know, the same thing. Like we’re not selling widgets. We’re selling creativity. We’re selling one of a kind. We’re selling things that we don’t even know about yet because we’re creating. And oftentimes we’re creating on the fly.

So figuring out what the framework is for that creativity to be able to live and prosper and grow and expand was really helpful. And you helped me do that greatly. that’s so good. I’m so excited about it. And you’ve built a really great design business. We’re going to talk about your second business in just a couple of minutes. Sure. Let’s talk about how you originally got into being an interior designer. well, that was I used to clean houses. was I nobody should ever trust me with their kids.

because I was terrible babysitter. One time I locked my cousin, I was supposed to be babysitting and I locked all my cousins out of the house and one of them fell out of a tree house and almost died. So I should never make, no one should trust me with children. I can’t even believe God trusted me with children. I have two of my own and they’re fine. so I started cleaning houses to earn money, right? And so I would take all the stuff off of his shelf.

and dust it and then put it back and put it back differently. And I kind of, got good at that. I got good at personalizing those types of things. Cause I, really mattered to me what was on those bookcases and how they were displayed. And could be a nightstand. It could be like all those things, right? All those personal things. And I was really crafting, like I was seeing the memories or seeing the life that my health cleaning clients had.

and I was putting it in a format that was really expressive to them. So maybe something tender by the nightstand or some, know, putting their life in their bookcase. So I could see their travel and their family and like things that were important to them. And that became meaningful to me. And I got a lot of clients doing that. Like as a kid, I’m like 14 years old and I have a house cleaning business. so, but I didn’t know it was a profession.

I never thought it was like a way that I could make a living. And so when I went to college and, you know, life happened and I have a degree in business management and I just moved that direction. I did a bunch of marketing stuff, but in the background I was always doing my own projects, like flipping, flipping stuff. I’ve painted my cabinet several times, incorrectly mind you, like all the learning curve was on my dime.

I flipped a lot of houses, never made any money because I always put too much into them because like I’m going to live there. So, right. was terrible at that, but I had a lot of experience and then, I, I was a single parent. had one child, one daughter, and then I married a man that had four children and I had, I had, like a not very nice stepmother.

And I wanted to have our home have a completely different dynamic. Like I wanted us to be a family. So I would use space and how the things that we were created to be able to house like the kinds of memories that I would like to make with my new children and our blended family and all that kind of stuff. So they really had a living laboratory of how to manipulating space and elements and color and time and sense and all like all these things, right?

had no idea that I was crafting my next profession. And I was married for like 10 years, tennis years, and the writing was on the wall, but that was not gonna be a long -term situation. I kinda joke and I’m like, well, I went to design school in my mid -40s. I moved from my Rolex neighborhood to the Timex neighborhood, which was separated by a street. And I got into design.

And I had no idea that all that stuff, all that living that I had done in the past counted. It was credible. It was important in my evolution as an interior designer. And I think that that life that I lived really helped me come to an understanding of how much space a home takes, how you really, I really didn’t want to concentrate on, is that going to soil my fabric or is that going to leave a

right, my countertop or whatever, I wanted to concentrate and focus on what am I doing in these relationships? Am I showing it? Am I making love? Am I holding the space for love and meaning and purpose to happen? And I wanted to get all those things out of the way. I wanted it to be beautiful and comfortable and welcoming and warm and like think of every other good word, right? That’s what I wanted to create. And so I was, I had years and years of that experience.

And then somebody that didn’t even like me mentioned that, you know, you’re really good at this. You should, you should go to school for interior design. And I’m like, I never thought of that. And so that’s what I did. And 10 years later, well, actually it’s more than that. Cause I worked for another firm for about seven years. So would, chairman just had our 10 year anniversary. So 17 years later, ta -da. That, mean, it’s crazy how life happens like

That’s so crazy. So you did design before you knew that you needed to be a designer and before you knew that it was a profession. I love that. But you know, sometimes we have to live organically in our lives to find our true passion and to find what’s really right for us. And I am so excited for you that you found this this path. And of course, now it’s deviating again. And I can’t wait to talk about that. So since you’ve

run a successful business for a long time on your own, what are the five keys to success that you see in running a great business?

I would say there’s more than five, but I can probably, I’m going to tell you one story really fast that comes it all up in a nutshell. All right. So I had this like on my learning curve, my son Dakota, who’s now 28 and it’s a good thing he was so cute when he was little because when he was three years old, he caught our house on fire and he flooded our house and it was thousands of dollars of damage.

like wiped us out, right? And my contractor was very handsome man named Joe Caffaro. And Joe was, he always smelled good. He always dressed nice, you know, and he always like showed up with, you know, just in the nick of time. And this was a really distressful time for me, but he would, he would always say, Hey, Cindy, this or something better. Like when something would happen that was like unexpected, he was like, it’s okay, this or something better. And I will tell you in business,

That has probably been the thing that I’ve told clients when something happens that’s unexpected or something doesn’t come in or I have an employee that is not working out or it applies to every situation. If you hold the door open for this or something better, but you leave the room for that something better to show up and you don’t get so attached to it has to be only this way.

You know, like it’s the only thing that will work. When you get so bound up and tied up with it only being in a small tiny ball, you miss that possibility of expansion. And so like Joe Cofaro, those like my kids teach me all the time, like that’s probably gonna be on your tombstone. You know that, right? And I’m like, yeah. And I’d be okay with that. Cause I’m going someplace better. Again, would really say that attitude and

the ability to share that attitude and have that be the energy that you project, like always leaning into the positive, because what will drive you crazy in design is all the things that are out of your control. And I do know every designer’s heart is one of service. We tend to be people pleasers. We tend to be perfectionists. And it will drive you crazy when things don’t work out as planned. If you don’t,

leave the bandwidth open if you don’t hold the door open for the something better. And I can tell you countless times there’s not a single time that the some, you know, when this didn’t happen, the something better wasn’t like, my God, I never would have thought of this. This never would have happened had it not had, you know, I exhausted all the possibilities or like close my mind for that. I would have missed out on, you know, all the something

So I’m effervescent on that because if people listen to this and they take away one thing, I would say it’s that attitude of there’s something better, this or something better. Love that. Yeah, it’s all true.

Yeah, like don’t think you my head like of all the something betters that I’ve experienced in my life, right? And it’s been crazy. It’s so crazy. And having known you for so many years now, I just think about your journey in the time that I’ve done you and how much has happened to you. And so many ups and downs and where you are now is just so fun to see. So let’s go back to the keys for success. You have this or something better.

And what are the other four that you’d like to touch on? I would also say, your financials. Like have a very good, sincere understanding because we can do a lot of really great things if we know where we are. Right. And so, and so if you know where you are in your financials, you know when you need to hire that next person. You also have that safety net of having

being able to sustain everybody that’s in that room if the bottom falls out tomorrow for a period of time, like our business goes on. I can also sleep at night, because I know that I’m not commingling client funds with my funds. I know how much money I’ve, even though there’s commas and zeros on my checking account, it’s not all mine. I would say that. One of

Biggest things, Gal, that you actually taught me and I use this every day in multiple things is ideal client profile, like knowing who you serve. And I can tell you over and over, when we’ve deviated from our ideal client, it’s a buzzkill for everybody. For the client, for our team, for the stress that it puts on my team, like as a leader, really narrowing down that scope

Hey, this is our sweet spot. We hit it out of the park with these people because if we say yes to a person that’s not right for us, that means we have to say no to somebody who could be right. So it’s worth just, just pausing and really having your true intent of who you want to serve. And those people will come if you just hold that edge. Okay. So that’s three and number four. I’m really pushing you today.

I know, let me think.

I would, it kind of relates to this or something better, but it’s that attitude of perfectly imperfect. so as you progress in life and you’re looking, I only know this by looking backwards, that all the things that seem to be like a bust or didn’t like, you know, it was not happening as quickly as I wanted it to now with, you know,

almost 62 years under my belt, I can look back and say, that was perfection. That was perfectly imperfect. And it was all unfolding to what I needed it to be. And

I can see that in my business too. originally when I wanted to buy the firm that I worked at for seven years. And when that transaction didn’t come to fruition and I was really upset about it, right? Cause that was my plan, right? That was my perfection. And when that didn’t happen, then chairman happened and that all rolled out and I would have ended up spending a lot more money than I needed to, to buy a preexisting business

the creation of chair mode was at my fingertips. Like I could do this. Does that make sense? It does. It totally matters. And so don’t get so caught up into it has to be one way. Like give yourself the room for it to be like, yeah, it feels imperfect. It’s perfectly imperfect because these are the things that I need to know. This is, these are my lessons and they are extracting gifts and talents that I didn’t even know I had. And that’s, that’s what happens. That’s great.

All right. I have one more. good. And I have one more because I have five. And I would say that learning that my team that’s in the other room, that’s my client. That’s my number one client. If I don’t have them, I don’t have a business. You’re absolutely right. And so so nurturing their nature, like understanding their nature, understanding who’s in that room

and what their nuances, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, and being a leader that leads with that level of understanding and care for my staff, because there’s not a road roadmap to this skill. Like every project’s unique, every client’s unique. It’s not like we’re selling widgets, right? We’re not selling windows and doors. You know what I mean? Like it’s all so important as far as the team member.

the client and even the whole environment of how we’re solving problems and serving others. And it really, as a leader, it really matters. Because I, people being mean to my team or disrespectful to my team, right? really, can. You have to protect your team because if somebody is treating them badly, they don’t need to be the ones that are providing dollars in your business. In fact, to me, that’s painful money. Yeah.

I agree. I gave you five. Okay. I love it. You are such a good podcast guest. Thank you. it’s so funny. Well, I want to talk about your personal life a little bit because there’s an intersection here with your business that I think is so interesting and valuable. And all the things I wanted to talk about as we came on to prep for the call today, I was thinking, I’m going to

the questions that I had for you. And I’m going to go back to the questions that I’m most interested in hearing about. And I think our audience will also be interested in hearing. So let’s take a segue and talk about your 100 dates. Yeah. That was so fun. So we were actually at the genesis of 100 dates because we were in like Del Mar. And so I was I was about to have a significant birthday and I was like I

had really been single for a period of time and kind of made a decision that I was, okay, so you know the movie, Runaway Bride? Yes. Where she doesn’t know how she likes her eggs, like that’s the thing, right? Like one guy says she likes a fry, the other guy’s scrambled, the other guy’s over easy, right? And she’s like, I don’t know how I like my eggs. So I was figuring out how I liked my eggs. I was saying, okay, I might give love one more try, maybe.

But first of all, I gotta know me. And so I really spent a year just dating myself. I got the car I wanted, I got the bicycle I wanted, I did some good girl trips. I like really caring for myself. And I also had the idea of, okay, I’m gonna join a dating service and I’m gonna have a hundred unique men, but a hundred celibate dates, right? So I’m gonna take that off the equation, like out of the room, right?

I’m the table and I’m just going to be gut level honest. And I’m just like showing up with, you know, me, all, you know, all the things that have made me me, how I, how I got here and just being gut level honest. And so I started out on that adventure and the last line in my Bumble profile said, seeking epic equal. Okay. And so I’m like, okay, that’s pretty good line.

And I’d written a lot of things down, right? Who I wanted to be, like what this epic equal would look like. And a couple of the things were they had to have peace in all their relationships. So if they had been married, they had to get along with their ex, peace. They had to get along with all of their kids, their parents, their brothers and sisters. Like I needed to know that they valued relationships like I do. That they had long -term friendships, that they

you know, 30 and 40 year friendships, right? To be able to maintain that, that was important to me. And another one was they could never break a commitment to hang out with me. Like if they already had plans, they need to keep those plans because commitment was a big deal to me, right? And because that’s how I would respond. Anyway, those are just three of kind of things. So my third date was with Dion.

And we met and I told him all these things. First of all, I gave him the wrong restaurant to go to. Then I was like, hey, that was one. And then second, I’m like, and I’m going to have 100 celibate dates and blah, blah, blah. I told him the whole thing. He’s like, whoa, lady, that’s a lot. Sure, sure, ma ‘am. And then I shook his hand at the end of our night. So he had really, he was going

another trip and I was going on a trip. just like texted like maybe twice and I didn’t hear from him. You know, we didn’t talk to each other for like three months. And then out of the clear blue, I get this text. Hey, I’m in clear. Like, can you fit me in? And I’m like, not for me. Like, clearly not for me. He was, he was contacting like a lady that gave him massages. And so like days later, I respond, Hey Dion, and he’s like, Whoa, Cindy. Anyway, our second date was August the

at 8 p .m. and we’re essentially still on our second date because he never went home. We got married 21 days later and now a year and a half later, we’re still married, still wildly in love, but that last year and a half has been nuts. Frickin’ nuts. So he was my, so the third date, our second date was really my 64th date. And so I didn’t make it to 100, but I learned so much about myself and so much

about women in general and men in general. And I will tell you that women, we’re in our heads so much and we tell each other so many stories, ourselves so many stories. We’re a mess. we are a Guys that have done the weird are so much better than we are. Like I’m just generalizing. nobody don’t send me any hate mail. I’m generalizing, broad strokes, right? But as a gender,

We tend to live in our heads more instead of in our hearts. And we tend to storytell and make stuff up and have our fears become so real and such roadblocks. And it’s so needless. It’s just a big, huge waste of energy because there’s really just love for us and all the things like it’s just really perfectly imperfect. Like all the things that got you here, all the imperfections that like all the bumps and all the twisty windy roads.

that landed you here right now, it’s perfect. You’re exactly like, this is a perfect exchange of five years of being friends, right? Six years of being friends. This is what it landed at. Perfectly imperfect, right? Okay. What did you learn about men? That they really just want to be loved. They want to be seen.

And they don’t expect us, they don’t expect perfection. They don’t expect physical perfection. They don’t expect us to get it right all the time. They just want us to be who we are and to be authentically ourselves and allow them to be authentically themselves. And when you forgive something, really forgive it. Don’t keep it in your hip pocket to come out and, know, beat you over the head with later, years later, whatever, right? Let it

Because I can tell you, felt like I didn’t really want to tell them all the roads that it took me to get here, right? But when I was gut level honest, they were honest too. nobody judges anybody at this point. There’s no point in judging anybody. You just appreciate that this is how you got to here. Well, OK, that’s how you got to here. Whatever. It doesn’t really even matter what it was.

how you got here as your true authentic self, like be the best version of yourself right here, right now, today. That’s all. And so I think women, we don’t have that love of allowing with ourselves. That’s just me. I love it. And I love the fact that you’re so open and authentic.

I think what’s so interesting, you’re talking about being in your head. So that implies to me very much the judging, self judging, of course, and a little bit of left brain thinking. And one would think that as women, we lead with a heart. But sometimes I think we do lead with a brain. And I just love that you said that. So fascinating. Tell ourselves so many stories like we make up stuff and

You know, like I’ll tell Dion like something my husband now, like I will tell him something that I’m thinking and like how I got there. And he’s like, that’s what you thought. Like, how did you get from here to here? Like, like that. And I’m like, that’s, that’s what I do. And I think that’s largely what women do is we go from zero to 2000 like that. And even though something is not true,

I have a dumb story. I was traveling a lot and I do a lot of breath work and I had a blister in my nose because I was in a dry climate and I was breathing hard, like on purpose, right? And I have a little sore in my nose. Like it’s just tender. It’s not a big deal gal. Like it’s so nothing. And I went from, I have a little sore spot in my nose to, my God, I have nose cancer. I’m gonna have to get a prosthetic nose. Like,

from here to there. Oh my goodness. less than 20 seconds. And I told my husband, he’s like, you nuts? Like, you’re fine. And I’m like, I know, but this is what we do. This is what we do. And even though I’m fine, my body’s not fine. My body went through the whole experience of, my God, I’ve got a nose issue. I have a serious problem. It couldn’t have been further from the truth.

I’m fine. I have nothing wrong with my nose. But I had that whole experience and that’s just a real life situation where it’s completely nuts, completely unfounded, totally made up in my head. Well, good for you that you’re just totally fine. I’m totally fine. I love that you just shared that with Dionne. And that must be very interesting on the outside for a man to have that visibility into the way you think.

especially when it seems so odd that we come to such odd conclusions, right? So crazy. I, so this journey has been interesting. Like lots of things have happened and that coming, the self -examination and really allowing to see where those feelings come from and see where those thoughts come from and see what that programming is. Like, how did I get from here to here? You know, that was fear.

And to be able to catch it, to be able to stop that runaway train before it has a whole life of its own, right? Like it’s a whole road show of its own that’s running rampant. That’s not even me. It’s not my conscious self. That’s my subconscious going like ham on some fear. Being able to catch that has given me a new life. It’s given me a new life.

this makes me think of is what if someone like a writer who writes for movies could interview women about all these crazy thoughts they have that take them from zero to disaster and write a funny movie about it? I think it would be great. Just put that on your list. read that down zero to disaster. Zero to disaster. Because that is exactly what we do. And actually,

Sometimes when in my dream space, I’ll see myself like as a, in a sitcom and I’m like looking like, this is how I dream. I dream really vividly and I’m looking down and I’m looking at what I’m doing in my life, you know, like some goofy thing. And it’s, it’s like, I’m like cringing at the character that I’m playing. Like, don’t do that. Don’t do that. Like, and I’m seeing, I’m seeing this character of Cindy do it was such love

like she’s bumping into things that are avoidable. And so now as I’m the director, like this is my show, Cindy’s show, right? I’m now the director. Now I’m the writer. Now I’m the author of the script that’s happening. And so I’m informing this character much better. Love that. It’s true. That is so great. You’d ask me, like my favorite book, like that was one of your questions.

And I would say it’s probably J .R. Spina, change your mind. Because having the ability to see yourself not so personally enamored and ego and not so attached to anything, you know, that this character does, even a thought, that level of a detachment has given me unconditional love for myself. Because I’m, I am, I’m able to see

how this is playing out. I’m able to make better decisions about my behaviors and my thoughts and behaviors because I’m looking down on myself with such love and admiration and honoring the courage that it takes for all of us to have a human experience. Are you kidding me right now? And to do our job, like our jobs are challenging and we, to be able to do design as a job.

You have to really be able to live on your heart and really, really be willing to put it out there. And I think we’re brave. I think we’re incredible, particularly in this field. That’s just my taste of that. not have heard more. I think you’re absolutely right. And let’s talk about courage because right after, it wasn’t that long after you got married that you found out that Dion was ill. So tell me what happened and the journey that you’ve been on since

So we got married August 29 of 22 and by October of 22, he was really sick, like had lost 30 pounds, he was just out of gas, could barely make it through the day at work. His lymph nodes were always swollen and he had had a lot of dental work. So we’re thinking, oh, it’s related to that. And they kept telling us it’s not cancer, it’s not cancer, it’s not cancer. And then,

Christmas morning, he woke up with this dream. He was supposed to take super cold baths, right? And we’re like, that sounds awful, but if you do, I do. And we didn’t know until January where he finally had his lip nodes biopsied that he had lymphatic leukemia. That’s why he’d been sick and he lost weight and all these things, right? And so that weekend, we just researched everything that we could and we found deliberate cold exposure. This guy named Wim Hof, we also learned

It was just like YouTube University. Like, what are we doing? Right? Like, what can we do to get better? Because we were really, really desperate. And fortunately, we found some good people that were lifelines for us that we didn’t know, but we knew their work. And we knew there was a guy on Wim Hof’s, like we watched every video he’s ever made, and a guy that had cancer. And he was talking about, you know, he was doing traditional medicine. He was really, really sick. But he felt

deliberate cold water exposure, that was the thing that he could do that he felt in control of his body. So that really spoke to us. so we started doing that. And we started getting in really cold water, like a big tub, like a bathtub. And the water’s like between, let’s just say 45 and 38 degrees and staying in there for a period of time, like a minute to three minutes and then warming up and then

getting in a sauna, like warming up naturally and getting in a sauna. And so that’s called contrast therapy. And we didn’t know at the time about contrast therapy, but what it does is it helps your nervous system. It helps you to calm down. So you get out of your head, you get out of that to be able to maintain cold water, you have to learn how to breathe. And when you learn how to breathe, you learn how to control your nervous system. So you can get out of that fight or flight state.

and get in the parasympathetic, which is rest and repair. But beyond that, you learn how that rest and repair state feels. You understand what it does to your physiology. You understand what it does to your heart rate. You understand what it does to your breathing. So even when you’re not in cold water, you have a roadmap back to that state, that feeling. You can get there any time. You can slow down. You can take a beat. You can pause.

you can focus on the perfectly imperfect things, right? The perfection in your life or the something betters that are coming your way. Like it just, for me, it just cleared the slate. It just gave me more, it gave me spaciousness in my mind. And I can’t tell you how great it is. Cause that spaciousness gave the opening

the something betters to show up in my life. And the something betters have just been incredibly profound. So the something better is an evolution. So you started here and in getting that really difficult news, you just got into action, decided to solve things for yourself, which I find very fascinating. And I know that

Let me tell you about that for a second. can tell you, Gail, was when we got that news and the way that we found out he had lymphatic leukemia is my chart, not a phone call, you know, like these big scary words, like all of your lip nodes all over the place. And that was so frightening without a back, know, like no phone call, no face to face. Like that system’s broken. Like I don’t want to diss on that system, but it’s just broken.

So don’t expect anything from that community, right? That, you know, because they’re doing the best they can, but it’s broken. When we got that news, it was like an immediate, had a, like Dion had that dream to take called Baz, but I had this impression. just like filled me up. It was like an energy that came over me that said, this is a gift and you’ve been

and you’re not going to blow it. Don’t worry, you’re not going to blow it. And I mean, I was like, okay. And that, that encouragement, that, that knowing helped me pivot, like to turn away from the fear and to look forward to the something better.

That’s crazy. I mean, you know me like that’s not even like, I’m a mess. I freak out. I write but something came over me that was like, you’re going to be okay. You’ve got this. And it was it was literally like, this has been entrusted to you. I almost had the impression that I was had been preparing lifetimes for this. Like, you got this like it’s been

The path has been uphill, but it’s been smooth. Like whatever something, you know, disappointing has happened, there’s always been a push from behind or an encouragement or something else that really good has prospered from it. So I do believe it’s this or something better. And I know that we’re not going to blow it because the things that have opened up to us.

And we didn’t mean to do any of this. We didn’t mean to start lowly. I was doing fine with Chairman. And then I didn’t mean to do any of this, but it just unfolded. And I think that’s the wonder and the magic of life is that when you get out of the way and you don’t resist, you have no idea what this flow state does.

water’s most powerful element there is, right? And I feel like this water has just pushed open doors and it’s just been, it’s been nothing short of magical. So you started lowly. At what point in this journey did you start lowly? Well, okay. So we needed to, we had two places that we were going because we needed to do this cold water thing. We did it in our bathtub and we tried to, you know, we live in Houston, our water’s never cold here, it’s not like Colorado, right? Right.

So we’d like ice, we’d put like ice packs, and we’d like freeze milk containers to put in our bathtub, and that was unsustainable. Plus I’m too bougie for that, so that’s not gonna work. And so we found a couple of places to go, and one place was great, their water was always cold, but it was about an hour to get there, and they didn’t have a towel service, always had wet towels in my car, all for a week, week long, and

It took about an hour to get home. were getting home at like 930 or 10 every night. That’s not sustainable. And then another place, their saunas were really hot, but their water wasn’t cold enough. And we live in a high rise. because of that, the good place was too far away. Dion started to get sick again because we needed to do it every day or like with a high degree of frequency. And so he literally bought two plunge tubs on his way to work and was like, babe, figure it out.

I don’t know how, but I have to do this. And we figured if this was working for us because some big changes had happened, he had a major health tick, like he started getting better quickly doing this. Well, I started getting better too. Like the thing that I started getting better about is that I started being calmer and sleeping better and not being so frazzled when things weren’t.

perfect and being kinder and more generous and more loving to myself and to.

forgive myself of the past and when things didn’t work out, you know, as I had planned, right? I became far more accepting and I’m like, what’s happening here? And I was able to release on some really big things. Like one of the things that was, I was able to release on was alcohol. And that was a big thing for me. Like I was a daily drinker. And I think a lot of people, like women, especially, especially women my age,

In my profession, particularly, use alcohol to relieve stress, to calm down, to sleep, and socially. And it’s really prevalent in our industry. And alcohol, if you study it, it doesn’t do any of those things. It’s the anti -relaxation drug. It’s actually the anti -social thing. It’s like a lot of things. And I’m not dissing on that in moderation.

I’m just telling you for me. And for me, it was something that I was able to use cold and mindset and breath to just let go of things that weren’t serving me. And that was something that wasn’t serving me. was damaging my, it had damaged some of my relationships, particularly with my kids. It wasn’t good for me. Like if you saw a picture of me two years ago, I was

Like I was 38 pounds heavier and I was all full of inflammation and my neck was always red and it was inflammation. So it was like one of those things. So we, learned that, wow, okay, well, if it can do this for me and then, you know, the whole uptick of mental health stuff, cause we would do this every day together. So we’re in this red light glow of, you know, a sauna together and, and your cell phone won’t work in there.

You know, so you’re not distracted and you have 30 to 45 minutes of just talking, just doing something good for your health together. And you get this dopamine hit because it feels really good because your nervous system is now under control and you do this with your beloved and you’re stacking like these good feelings with these good behaviors. And it just, it just took off. It took off in our relationship and it expanded.

the possibility, well, if this works for us, probably work for somebody else too. Like if we create a place that we’re the very best clients, it works for us, and we’ve had documentable, know, provable results, then why wouldn’t this work for everybody else? And that’s what’s been happening. And beyond that, you know, now the merging of what I’ve done in interiors,

home lifestyle, wellness lifestyle, longevity strategy, because we’re all living longer. It’s like, man, I really want to bring this knowledge base and these experiences into my residential design work, because I want everybody to feel as good as I feel. there’s support. Like, our bodies are amazing. They want to support us. There’s self -healing. We’re incredible. We just need a little more support.

We need a little more sanctuary in our homes. That’s what I’m learning how to do. That is so great. Isn’t this cool? It is so cool. And I want you to share how Dion is doing now. Well, so he used to go to MD Anderson every three months. there was a time where he had, before we knew it was leukemia, he had a pick line with antibiotics that were like little grenades that he had.

really powerful antibiotics, right, which is napalm to your gut bio. And he was, he was having that experience, right. So, and he had lost 30 pounds. Now, now you’ll have to look on our Instagram. He’s up for Mr. know, Mr. health and fitness kind of thing. He’s, he’s a pitcher of health. He’s really doing great. And it’s, it’s like all the things it’s not one thing, but I will tell you our bodies are incredible. And

Cold water is legitimate. It’s like dipping in the river Jordan. It’s like simple science. It’s a simple thing that’s available to anybody because what it does is it energizes your mitochondria, which is the power supply for our cells. And we are just the health of our cells. So if we can strengthen that, then it makes sense that everything would get better. Like everything.

your attitude, your sleep, your tone, your fitness, your weight, you your overarching, how you fill in your mind, in your head. It’s been incredible. It’s amazing. And so he’s cancer free now. Yep. Yep. He goes back every six months now. And so he’ll go again in June and his doctor is like, I don’t know what you’re doing, but you do you because, you know, I don’t even know. And so MD Anderson tracks his progress.

He’s had not one single drug. I’m almost 62. I don’t take any medication at all. I don’t take anything for high blood pressure. don’t take any hormones. I don’t take anything. Not even an aspirin because I don’t need to. I’m not against those things. I just don’t need to. That’s so amazing. And I used to do all those things. That’s so interesting. And I remember seeing your post on Facebook several months ago when you stopped drinking.

and you showed your before and after picture and I’m looking at your face right now. And for those of you that are watching the video, you’re going to see she is glowing and she has this wonderful, healthy face and it is a difference. It is a significant difference. So it’s totally different. Yeah. It’s completely different. And if I hadn’t lived it, I would, I really wouldn’t believe it. And I also, it hadn’t happened to me. I would think it was so hard.

because the reason I didn’t ever quit drinking was because I didn’t think I could. Interesting. Interesting. And now I feel as if I can do anything because I getting in cold water, it’s hard. 38 degrees is cold. Every time it’s cold, it never gets easier. Never gets easier. when you get good, like you get good, you know that you’re good at doing hard things, right? It makes like the next hard thing. Well,

Well, I already did that, so I can do this, right? It just gives you, it kind of gave me like a point of like, okay, I did that, so now I can do this, right? And it’s not going from here to here, but it’s just little increments. It’s just little drops of, okay, like courage, encouragement. And pretty often when I’m getting in water, like I’m thinking, okay, what is an attitude or a weakness that doesn’t really serve

Like what am I leaving behind before I get in? And when I get in, I’m installing something new. So it might be procrastination that I’m leaving behind. I get in that water and my self -talk is I’m a woman of action. I keep my word. I’m good for it. When I see a problem, I look for the solution. Like I can feed myself all these things that I would love to have in my playlist, right? Just my automatic, my go -to. This is my cartridge.

that I’ve taken out something that doesn’t serve me and I’m installing because I’m shocking my body so my mind is open. It’s almost like self hypnosis a little bit. Like if you know much about that, it’s like when your body is in a shock, you’re in an open state. So you can accept something new. I mean, but how great is that, Gil? Cause you can change anything if you have a tendency

be think that people are like their motives are skewed. Like, well, she’s just like, like maybe like a something that you’re always glass half empty instead of glass half full about a particular person. But, and maybe that person’s your daughter -in I don’t know. Right? Like let’s do something hard. That’s not the case Morgan. That’s I’m not talking about you at all. But, but I’m okay. Maybe you have a hard

and you want to give it a chance for it to prosper and grow and do better, you can leave those negative emotions and those predetermined stories that you’re, the playlist that you’re running in your head. You could stop that. Like we have that kind of power.

This has been so fascinating. And I could have talked to you for hours about this topic. And I had other questions, but we’ll just leave those behind because I think that the message that you had from what we talked about today is so incredibly helpful for everyone. And I want to just share that I think that there are a few things that just stood out to me in this. So if you’ll allow, I’ll just share what I thought was so amazing. Yeah.

First is action, taking action, just making a decision that you are not going to let anything stop you no matter how bad it seems is so powerful. And the courage that you talked about. So that’s the second thing is having the courage to do the hard things because those are the things that change our lives. And I think that last one was about this or something better. And I will continue to remind myself of that because

That’s a great message for all of us, no matter where we are in our lives or careers. We need to remember that whatever doesn’t happen the way we think it should is probably for our good. And gosh, Cindy, this is so great. Thank you so much for your incredible insights today and for being so open and vulnerable to share your stories with us. Absolutely. And if anybody wants to reach out, if they’re struggling with alcoholism like I was, I’m glad to talk with you personally.

And it really is true this or something better that mantra. If there’s not one single situation where that doesn’t level up, it’s like the universe is always conspiring for our good. And just know that even though it doesn’t feel that way sometimes, that’s really the truth of it. my gosh. So wonderful. Thank you so much for your time today. And I look forward to sharing this podcast with everybody. I love you, Gal. Thank you for all your help.

a life gift for

Love to you. Love you. God bless.