Rai Cornell 0:02
Welcome to Season 2 of the Soar! Podcast, the place for creative entrepreneurs who want to build healthier, happier, more profitable, self employed businesses. I’m your host Rai Hyde Cornell, business mentor at Chiron Consulting and CEO and Senior Copywriter at Cornell Content Marketing, get ready to soar!

Robotic Voice 0:27
This is a podcast takeover.

Rai Cornell 0:32
Welcome to the Soar podcast! On today’s episode, we’re doing things a little differently. I’m going to be handing over the mic to Emma Kobs, who is actually going to be interviewing me. So Emma, take it away.

Emma Kobs 0:44
Thank you so much, Rai. Hi, everybody. I’m Emma. I own a copywriting agency that I really owe a lot to Rai. And thanks for building it. Because I don’t really remember a time when we didn’t work together, even though I know 2019 was the start. But I mean, it’s coming up on 2023. And it’s been so great. So it’s really- I’m excited for this interview today.

Rai Cornell 1:13
So needless to say, you know me very well, and I know you very well, which should make this pretty fun and interesting. I mean, we’ve, I feel like you and I have gotten to a point where we’re not just in this like client-business-mentor relationship. And you’ve also done writing for our clients on the Cornell side. So it’s not even like a-I mean, there could be like an independent contractor and client relationship there. But also, we’ve hung out in Montana when my husband and I went up there, and we got to spend some time together. And I mean, we just like chit-chat all the time as friends. So there’s like many layers to our relationship. And I feel like, of anybody to interview me? I think you are definitely the most informed about what to expect with the quirks and the intricacies that come with working in either of my businesses.

Emma Kobs 2:07
Oh, well, thank you so much.

Rai Cornell 2:09
No pressure, no pressure at all. No.

Emma Kobs 2:12
Oh, let’s get go to dive deep into your subconscious. Next 40 minutes.

Rai Cornell 2:17
Yes. Yeah, exactly.

Emma Kobs 2:19
Well, I do have some questions for you. I would love to get started. And I mean, I don’t know anybody who starts tuning into a podcast midstream. So I’m sure that everyone listening, you know, we all know Rai. We know what she does best. You know, and she does many things best. There’s actually, I’m not sure how I would rank those myself. But when I sat down to put these questions together, you know, I wanted to kind of explore who I feel like she is on a more personal level. Because yes, I’ve been the listener, I’ve been the student, but I feel like you know, there’s some fun stuff that just hasn’t been delved into yet. And so I wanted to start kind of broad and go a little narrower. So because we all know about Cornell Content Marketing and Chiron Consulting, you get the vibe, right? You know, the white and the gold, navy blue, the writing, the coaching, like really getting in with entrepreneurs and business owners. But I thought, you know, if you had to pick another industry to launch a business, do you have one? Is there a top three?

Rai Cornell 3:31
Yeah. Oh, my God, that’s such a good question. So, I feel like my husband should be on this interview for this question. Because I swear- so we actually just got back from vacation. We went to New Mexico, we went to this little mountain town called Ruidoso, where we rent a cabin, and we go hiking, and we feed the forest puppies, you know, apples for the day. And it’s like a five-hour drive. And he’s just now joining Cornell as our project manager. He’s been my web developer for years, he’s kind of like our tech guy. But now he’s really coming on since he retired from FedEx at the end of October, he’s coming on as a project manager. And so during this five-hour drive there, and then of course, if I project back, he’s like asking me all these questions about the businesses that we’re working with and things like that. And we have within Cornell, we have a really broad roster of clients. We have subscription brands that are product based. We have service-based businesses that are consulting firms, we have a fertility clinic or fertility agency. We have a CPR platform that does like e-learning and things like, our clients are all over the map.

And so my husband, even though he’s had been an employee for the last 20 years, he’s very entrepreneurial-minded and he’s like, how can we make money and his thing is always like, okay, so if I have, let’s say, a product-based business or a subscription box on our client roster, and he feels like really interested in them like cuz we’re talking about metal box or, you know, carnivore club, we have friends over at conical fork club and we have a couple other little ones. He’s like, okay, so how can we do that? Like, what kind of subscription box would we launch? You know? And I always tell him like, No, I don’t want to do like, small price tag like low ticket stuff, because then you have to deal in volume. So I don’t think as much as like he gets excited about that. I don’t think I would go into like a product based business. And particularly recently, we’ve been working with a dispensary in New Mexico and launching their marketing and helping them open up and everything. And so Wes is going okay, so what if we open a dispensary? What if when we move to Montana, like what if we open a dispensary what goes into that? And he’s like asking me all these questions. And I’m like, the compliance dude, like the compliance in the cannabis industry is bonkers, like, don’t want to deal with that. So part of me is like, even though, I feel like we could do something really intricate like that. I’ve been running two very intricate businesses for 15 years now. Well, Cornell for 15, Chiron for 3 and a half. And if I were to launch another business- is my very long winded way of finally answering your question- I would go into something that is more simple, I would go into something that is less intricate, more, just like simple transactional. And I would keep my creative hobbies just for me, as opposed to really doing like a creative service based business. So I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad that I launched Cornell and ran Cornell. But at this point in my life, I’m like, man, I’m tired. I’m tired of having to constantly come up with new ideas and write things for people. So one of the things that we’ve talked about is like, buying property and building a storage space and renting out storage space, because like, how simple is that? You know, I don’t know if it gets any simpler. I mean, like, if someone doesn’t pay rent, we just cut the lock off and sell their shit. That’s pretty much as easy as it gets. So that’s what I would do if something happened and Cornell and Chiron totally fell apart, and the world imploded, I started storage.

Emma Kobs 7:24
I’ve never-you couldn’t, if you had put a gun to my head and made me guess, the top 50 industries or jobs, that would not have made the list, but I absolutely love it. And I can see you guys having your own like Storage Wars.

Rai Cornell 7:43
Well, and I think also, like, my husband is very good at security. I feel like I’m good at marketing. So I could market it and market it differently than all the zillions of other storage places that you see. And then also, I would want, like, I would want a storage unit for myself, I can make that like, I don’t know, I don’t even paint but I’m like- it will be my painting studio. Fuck it, I don’t know, I’m just gonna, like, have a random place where I can do random artsy stuff. And I think after a while, and this is something that I think a lot of service based entrepreneurs, especially creatives need to be aware of is when you pour all of your creativity into your business for your clients. It tends to deplete that for yourself. And so I don’t really do anything creative for myself, I rarely even actually, I was going to say I rarely even read books nowadays that aren’t related to work, but that’s not true, because I actually am working on one right now. So it just seems like the creative side of things dwindles when that’s your primary focus for your work. And so if I were to do it again, I would love to have a business that is less creative, so that I can enjoy more of my own creativity outside of work.

Emma Kobs 8:58
I think that’s so smart. And that’s something that I hope if somebody listening is thinking, yeah, 10-15 years down the line, I need to maybe make an adjustment. I think that’s great. Yeah. And then you can get that energy back.

Rai Cornell 9:12
Exactly.

Emma Kobs 9:14
That’s awesome. And I think that leads perfectly into what I wanted to ask you next because I mean, I know firsthand that freelancing solopreneurship, all that kind of stuff. It can get pretty lonely, you can start to feel a little like, when you’re sitting alone in an office or couch for me, you know, day after day, and clients can be unexpectedly difficult. And if you’re an army of one, or maybe one with a VA, can drive you crazy. And so you’re someone who has this poise, this grace, and so far, some for the last three years of response to everything, a solution to everything. So I want to know a little bit about the Rai that I haven’t gotten to meet maybe the one that was like, ARGH! with clients that have driven you crazy, do you have any stories? How did you handle them?

Rai Cornell 10:08
Okay. So I will say, I haven’t had to work with a lot of, I’ve had my fair share of bad clients. But when I say my fair share, I’m like, I think I can count on one hand, the number of clients who I’m just like, fuck this, like this person is terrible. And I attribute that to setting standards for myself. And I think this is something that everybody needs to do. Because a lot of us think -especially in the beginning, when we’re starting out, or when we’re trying to hit new revenue goals, even if it’s not in the beginning, but we’re like, oh, I want to now hit five grand or on hit eight grand, or I want to hit 10 grand a month, we’re like, I just need to take any work that comes my way, even if the client is a dick. And that’s not true. The more that you say no to the ones who are not a good fit for you, the more the perfect fit clients come in. And I’ll give you a few examples of this. So I had this one guy, he was probably, I think he was in his mid 60s. And we connected on LinkedIn, and he wanted me to do some copywriting for him, and he also wanted to basically like syndicate my marketing services on his platform, because he was creating this network for, I don’t know, it was like the Costco for pharmacy medications and stuff like that. I don’t even remember, this was probably like, 5 or 6 years ago. But we would hop on a zoom call, and he would just tell me everything that I was doing wrong. And he would always put my age at the forefront. So we’re recording this at the end of 2022, which means I’m 32 years old. And I think I was like 27 or so when this guy and I were talking. And he would always ask me, he’s like, how old are you? Oh, I’m three times your age, I have a daughter who’s older than you. You need to listen to me. And this one thing that he said to me, it just sticks in my brain, he said, you will benefit more from knowing me than I will from knowing you.

Emma Kobs 12:07
Oh, my God

Rai Cornell 12:09
Oh, yeah. And I was like, I’m done. And I had actually taken some of his recommendations. In terms of like, the way that I show up on Zoom, which I don’t actually do any more, this was all back then I was like, kind of taking his advice and implementing it and, and doing all these things and making all these tweaks and signing up for these different tools that he thought I should use. And this was over the course of like, a two week period, because he actually, like, he knew his stuff. But he was so condescending in the age factor, that I was just like, fuck this, I’m just gonna trust my gut, do away with all the things that he recommended unless, like I really felt good about it, and just move on. And I cut ties with him. I mean, he really did have the potential to send massive volumes of work to us. But it wasn’t worth feeling belittled and feeling like I don’t know anything, because I’m only 27, like that, at the time, I don’t know, I’m just thinking of like, Chelsea, our social media gal, making clips of this later, just isolating the part where I say I’m 27. Sorry, sidetracked. It just wasn’t worth it. And so that really taught me that anytime you start to get like these condescending vibes from a client, now run the other way, I’ll tell them, I don’t think we’re a good fit. Let me refer you to someone else who might be and I just move on. Similarly, I had a client who was actually, earlier this year, we had been working together for about three or four years. And this client and I, she and I actually became pretty close friends. But she just treated me like an employee. And I was writing copy for her clients within her agency. And it got to the point where like, she wouldn’t even ask me hey, are you available for this? Or is it okay? If we put this on your calendar or anything like that she was just throwing shit at me and expecting me to do it for prices that she was stipulating. So she would set prices and I was like- I’ve given you a rate sheet or we haven’t talked about this, why didn’t you ask me for a quote on this? It was just very disrespectful. And so I just cold turkey cut ties. I sent her a goodbye note, I finished all the projects that I had open with her, closed out everything as professional of manner as I could, but I really drew a hard line and ended that professional relationship. And even though that was sending probably anywhere from six to $12,000 a month to Cornell, it wasn’t worth it. And the second I did that, 2 perfect clients popped up on my radar that are now providing two to three times what she did. And I love them and they value me and they respect me, there’s so much, I’ve actually had two meetings with them earlier today, like back to back, and they’re completely separate companies, but I totally believe in what they’re doing. I love our conversations. I don’t look at my appointments with them on my calendar and think, “oh, shit, not this one again” I actually go, “oh, okay, I’m meeting with Tyler,” “Oh, meeting with Eloise, great.” And it’s just easy. And so if there’s any lesson to be taken from that it’s the more you say no to the things that make you feel icky, the more things that make you feel great and excited and energized. And like, wow, this is such an amazing opportunity, the more those come your way.

Emma Kobs 15:43
I couldn’t agree more. And I feel like one thing you said, sticks out so much. When I start or when someone starts to treat you like an employee, that’s my internal barometer. It can be something as mild as like someone’s tone in the email. And I’ll know immediately, oh, they think I work for them and they think that they’re entitled to my time. That is something that for anybody listening, you can discern that from an intro email, you don’t have to go through all the steps of actually onboarding them to realize that they are entitled and terrible. That’s definitely a great barometer, a great way to tell because sometimes, I mean, for me, I know, you can just feel icky and not know where the ick is coming from. But you can kind of pinpoint, this person is entitled to my time, feels entitled to, you know, my opinion, my feedback, is sending me dozens of emails, and it’s really easy to just cut them off. Yeah, once they crossed that internal line.

Rai Cornell 16:48
Yeah, and you need to do that you need to do that not only for your sanity, but also because once you do that, it teaches that personal lesson, they might take them a while, or it may even take them a few more experiences for that to sink in. But the more that freelancers and independent contractors can set those firm boundaries, especially nowadays in the post-covid gig economy, virtual everything, remote everything world, it’s really important that we draw and hold those boundaries. Otherwise, you start getting taken advantage of to the point where people expect you to be on your computer from 9am to 5pm. They expect you to answer emails within a few hours, they expect all these things that are directly contradictory to the reasons why you went freelance in the first place.

Emma Kobs 17:38
Exactly. Yeah, you did not do this, just to copy and paste the work environment that you hated. 100% totally. Well, you know, speaking of the 9-5 culture, the hustle, the grindset (Oh my God, that word) I know. It’s like you’re getting bombarded with these messages. Oh, quiet quitting. You know, every week, there’s a new term. So before I ask you the next question, let’s talk about quiet quitting. It is a load of crap, in my opinion, that boomers invented to make younger people feel bad about hating their work environments. So when you read an article it will describe, depending on who writes it, you know, it will describe quiet quitting as this sort of younger people giving up on jobs, giving up on work, they just kind of don’t try. They don’t put the effort in and they leave the slack for other people. But if you flip the coin, quiet quitting is actually I believe, the result of being set up with the toxic relationship that a lot of workplaces can develop and suck you into. And when you feel like there’s no alternative, like you can’t, well, I can’t start a business. I can’t go freelance. When you feel like a workplace is your only place to be, you start to just kind of let go as a form of either protests, of preservation, something to keep yourself from going insane. And a bunch of people have decided, well, that’s quiet quitting. And I’m like, well, what would you prefer-loud quitting? Because you know, you can always leave.

Rai Cornell 19:24
Right? Yeah. And I think, you know, this is a really interesting, generational dynamic where the boomer generation- they were taught you work and work as hard, and nobody likes their job. That is literally the messaging that was instilled in them as children. Whereas, I feel like our generation and younger generations have grown up being told you can do anything you want, you can be anything that you want to be, you know, that’s kind of like what I heard as a kid. And it was not just from my dad, but it was also from teachers and coaches. And it was just very different. And now, either as a direct result of that, or because of other factors like technology, and accessibility and connectivity, and all of these other things, I feel like our generation and younger generations, we have a different mindset around work and our standards for our life. So we tend to have higher standards for what expectations we have for life-we want magical lives, we want things to be exactly as we want them, we want to have these, like grand dreams, and then live those dreams. That’s what we’d expect. And some people call that delusional or you know, head in the clouds, but look, like a lot of us are making that happen. When you stick to that mindset, you can make it a reality. And we also have a lower threshold for bullshit, because of how open people are. And I won’t get on my soapbox about this but things like social media where something goes wrong at work, and people are on social media venting and bitching about it and calling leadership out and calling managers out. It’s a much more vocal generation. And so between those two things, having higher standards for ourselves in our lives, and having a lower threshold for bullshit and mistreatment? Well, of course, we’re going to leave job after job after job after job when it’s not perfect. And then ultimately go fuck it, I’m going to do it on my own, I’m going to do my own thing. That’s typically the pattern that tends to happen with people. All right.

Emma Kobs 21:33
It’s so you’re absolutely right. And one of the things I do the most right now in my business is resume writing. And I hear over and over again, from not just clients, but just people in general, because I try to stay on in the pulse of the culture, young kids working. They say, well, I have a lot of jobs on my resume, job hopping, how do I showcase that. And what I tell people who asked me directly is that that’s absolutely not something that you should ever feel bad for. Because those are environments that you left for good reason. And those are environments you didn’t create. So there’s of course, and I won’t get into it ways to make it look good on a piece of paper. But if you continually left environments that were not serving you well, and were maybe actively damaging you, good for you, do not feel guilty about job hopping.

Rai Cornell 22:25
Exactly. And the company that also has the values that are the antithesis of the toxic work environment where they want to create a healthy work environment, a supportive one, one that nurtures creativity, that doesn’t encourage burnout, they’re gonna go, oh, yeah, that makes total sense why you would leave this job and this job and this job and this job, and we’re the right fit for you, and you’re the right fit for us. Because we do the opposite of this, and this and this and this. So, long as you keep your eye focused on what it is that you want, you’re going to find the company who wants exactly what is showing up on your resume.

Emma Kobs 23:04
Absolutely, yes. And I think it’s, it’s the antithesis of the previously held ideal that you can just pick a job a habit for 40 years, and then just, you know, die, you know, at work, but you just it just isn’t that way anymore, because companies are not built that way anymore. They fold. They grow up in folds, almost like within a day’s time. There’s all kinds of opportunities out there. And I think it’s, you’re right, it does say more about somebody who’s continually looking for a better fit versus “Well, I took the first thing that came along, and I guess this is my life now.”

Rai Cornell 23:40
And, you know, like I said, my husband is retired at the end of October. And he’s was with FedEx for 20 years. And on our trip to New Mexico, we were talking about this, and he was telling me about something he heard about Jeff Bezos. And keep in mind, this is third hand and I don’t read the news. I don’t pay attention to any media shit. But what he said I thought was really interesting that Jeff Bezos tries to create a culture where people leave after about three or four years, because he wants that high employee turnover, which was mind boggling to me. But Wes was saying that, in this article that he read, it said that Jeff Bezos feels like after three or four years, people get complacent, they get comfortable, they get a bit lazy, they kind of start letting important things slide. And they’re not so much worried about keeping their jobs anymore. And so he wants to create a workplace where people are actually working for shorter amounts of time. And that to me is just mind-boggling. Like, I hope all the writers on my team want to stay with me forever, and I want to create a place that they want to stay in. So how can you blame employees for job hopping, when a lot of places either want high employee turnover to keep people sharp or to keep people feel like their job is threatened or they’re not offering benefits packages like they did in our parents generation. They’re not offering health insurance benefits and coverage like they didn’t our parents generation, like a lot of those work perks have gone away. And it’s really rare to find a company that offers those really strong incentives to stay with a company long term.

Emma Kobs 25:23
Yes, absolutely. What I ended up seeing because I was a job hopper, because I think the only person I can work for is myself without losing it, but I felt what I would encounter is companies talking out of both sides of their mouth saying, “We want you to stay” but offering absolutely nothing, no incentive to stay.

Rai Cornell 25:44
Yeah, and I’m the first person to go I am very anti the W2 traditional employment world. So these are just a few of the many reasons why.

Emma Kobs 25:56
Yeah, absolutely. How many times am I going to say that word in the next 10 minutes? I hear myself. So speaking of bullshit, what is the biggest load of BS masquerading as business advice that you’ve seen? And if you could maybe switch it around? Put your own take on it? What would it be?

Rai Cornell 26:19
Yeah, so especially when I was starting out in content writing and copywriting, the so called leaders or mentors, or people who had figured this shit out ahead of us, were telling us you have to niche you have to niche you have to niche you have to niche. And on the one hand, like I get that, like people who and I do have friends who are very successful, accomplished, like cybersecurity or technology writers or travel writers, you know, I had Misty Milioto on the show earlier this year and she’s a very accomplished travel writer, like those are niches-those are solid niches. But for people who don’t want to niche into these kind of like, super complex industries, not that travel writing is complex, but things like cybersecurity, technology, finance, legal, if you don’t want to do those specializations that require a lot of expertise. I don’t think you have to niche. I mean, look at my client roster- I have a cannabis consulting firm, a CPR training platform, a fertility agency, a snack foods company, a leadership consultant, like all over the place, our clients are all over the board. We have around 25 clients on the Cornell side, none of them are in the same industry. Actually, no, I think we have three woodworkers. Other than that. And that’s just because one of our woodworking clients were referred us to all his friends.

And so this idea of niching, I think, is a big myth that you can’t make good money niching or that you can’t be well known and build up this referral network without niching. That’s not true. What is true is that you have to figure out what’s unique about you, is it your particular philosophy on what you do, whether that’s design or photography, or web development, or copywriting? Is it your particular philosophy and way of looking at it? Is it your area of expertise? Like my background is in psychology, I could have gone and written for a number of psych businesses and things like that. Is that what you want to be known for? Or do you want to, for example, within Cornell, we’re known for my unique way of looking at marketing that I don’t do any paid media, I don’t do any of this advertising in your face, I do very organic, get into the mind of the customer, figure out what problems they’re dealing with an offer a solution that they’re gonna be so grateful to have. That’s my particular take on marketing. And that’s what my clients enjoy. And so if you can figure that out, you don’t need a niche. And for me, having clients in all different industries, keeps it so interesting. It means that- because I love to learn, I’m just like, I just crave new information. And so I get to learn about all these different things. I have a ridiculous amount of knowledge on a ridiculous number of subjects purely because I’ve written for companies who do whatever the thing is, and when you if you mean if you decide to niche, it can get boring really quick, because then you find that you’re writing about the same thing for different clients. And it’s like, okay, well, I can’t just copy paste the blog I wrote for client a to client B. That’s plagiarism. So how do I keep it just to me, is a quicker road to burnout. If you are going to niche into something well Like a lot of people want to nation to health, wellness, pets. Dear Lord, how fucking boring would that get if all you wrote about was cats all the time? I mean, I wrote for pretty litter for three and a half years. And I was struggling to come up with more ideas. And it can you imagine if you had like, five cat brands that you’re writing for? Oh, my God. So the niching thing that’s, that’s my I think it’s a misconception. And I think it’s something that that people who’ve been around longer than us need to stop forcing down the new beats throat?

Emma Kobs 30:36
Hmm, do you feel that niching is just another version of the-like a funnel, like just do something as quickly as you can to make as much money as you can, and then be done with it and then move on to a new niche and then, like, burn it out? Because it does seem very short sighted, doesn’t seem like a long term plan.

Rai Cornell 30:57
Yeah, it could be. And again, it depends on the industry. So if you’re going for some of those, like easier, low hanging fruit industries, like health, wellness, pets, travel, like those are the things that pretty much anybody can write about. Yeah, like, and a friend of mine, has built a marketing agency where that is their model, they create this perfect marketing funnel for dentists. And then they run it and run it and run it and run it until dentists wise up, they get savvy, and then they realize, oh, this is a marketing tactic, and they back off, and they no longer enter the funnel. And then he goes, Okay, well, let’s go build one for therapists. And he does the same thing. But he creates a different funnel specifically for them. And he runs it, runs it and runs and runs it until the therapists get savvy, and they no longer respond to his marketing tactics anymore. So I think that is a risk. And if you’re okay, with hopping around from industry to industry like that, then yeah, you might be able to do something like that. But also, to me, that seems like a way to build a lot of short term relationships. My goal in my business is to build a lot of long term relationships. Most of the clients that we have, are either clients that I’ve been working with for three or four years, or referrals from those clients who have been working with for three or four or more years. And so, that’s my strategy is let me be a long term presence in these businesses lives, and then be their go to person for all things writing and marketing. And then I haven’t had to go seek out a client in ages. So I feel like that’s a more lucrative, long term strategy, as opposed to just kind of like, focusing so heavily on one thing that either you burn out, or that industry burns out on your sales tactics.

Emma Kobs 32:52
That makes a lot of sense. Yes, I think often, we don’t think about the industry burning out on us versus us burning out. There’s a lot to be said about, you know, thinking about things in terms of longevity, and not what’s going to make me the most money in the next six months, just thinking about having multiple cat brands. I’m gagging a little bit.

Rai Cornell 33:16
Yeah, exactly. And, and it really all goes back to why are you doing this? Like, what is the plan for your business? Do you want to just make tons of cash right now and, you know, make half a million in three years and then be done? Or do you want something that is actually going to carry you for decades, that you can tweak and refine and tune and, you know, create this well oiled machine that runs without you or just with very little effort on your part. And you will have that stability from, I should say, the stability that the old world of employment would promise you, but you can create that for yourself now. You just have to think about that long term plan and what’s actually going to work as opposed to getting caught up in-it’s kind of like the marshmallow experiment, right? Like the kids who didn’t eat the marshmallow were given two marshmallows. They just had to wait 20 minutes. Go for the two marshmallows. Just wait, just do the smart thing. Not the instant gratification thing.

Emma Kobs 34:21
I love that, two marshmallows media coming to you. Oh my god, now I’m thinking about hot chocolate. No, this is a perfect, it’s perfect because I was about to ask because, you know, speaking of delicious snacks, and things like that, I know that that’s kind of what I look forward to every day. But I mean, we’re not-we’re almost similar but not quite the same person with the best part of your day?

Rai Cornell 34:51
Ah, I love my mornings. So four days a week I work with a personal trainer and my sessions are at seven. And so I just love I like getting up in the morning, it’s super quiet, go to my workout, go tend to the chickens. Sometimes my husband’s still asleep, so I can do my meditation like, the mornings are the best time. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I don’t start my meeting, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my meeting days. So that’s where I do all my calls. And I don’t start my meetings until noon. So I do meetings from noon to six. And like, that’s my workday. And so my whole morning is mine. I just do whatever I want. And on my other days, Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Wednesday, is my day off. I don’t do anything on Wednesday, I just stuck around. I don’t know, I don’t know what I don’t do it. Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday are my writing days. And I can start at nine or I can start at two or I get- it doesn’t matter. So the mornings for me are just my favorite part is just like quiet and peaceful and I feel rested and recharged and gets to cuddle my chickens. Yeah.

Emma Kobs 35:29
It makes me wish I was more of an early bird because you make it sound like such a lovely time. I’ve tried, you know, I’ve tried to get up earlier, it’s, it’s every time it’s worth it. I’m so impressed by the amount of stuff I can do and the fun that I have. But maybe I just need to get a bunch of chickens, and then I’ll wake up earlier.

Rai Cornell 36:17
Yeah, so if I didn’t have a personal trainer, and if I didn’t have chickens, I would wake up around 9,9:30,10. Every day. Like that is like naturally when I want to wake up. But because for the last 11 years, my husband has been getting up at 5 to go to work at FedEx, and I get up with him because otherwise, I’d sleep until mid morning. And then I’d stay up until midnight and he would go to bed before me and I just don’t want to be off sync with him. I forced myself to get up at 5 with him. Now that he’s retired, I have to build things into my schedule, because I do enjoy the morning time so much. I have to build obligations into my schedule, like my personal trainer at 7am. Or, oh shit, I gotta let the chickens out. You know, whatever that may be. And it’s always things that I enjoy. It’s always things that I’m glad that I’m doing. But like, I’ll book my doctor’s appointments for 8am. Because I know it’ll get me up get me going and there’s less traffic and I just get it over with I don’t have to wait in line. I’m the first one in the door. Super easy. So it’s like, you have to figure out if you really do want to wake up early, and redefine what early means to you. Because to some people, it means 4am, and that’s nuts. But think about like, how can you do this in a way that’s actually going to be easier on you? Because when I know I have a gym appointment, I’m like, okay, I’m good. You know, as opposed to like, oh, I have nothing planned in the morning but for some reason I’m making myself wake up at 6am. Don’t do that to yourself.

Emma Kobs 37:42
I was just about to ask, does your trainer come to your house?

Rai Cornell 37:45
He used to, for the first like year or no, I’d say for the first like four months that we’ve worked together because I had very specific back problems. And then once we kind of figured out what was actually going on, and he knew me well enough to know, like, Okay, this is what it looks like when she’s actually about to hurt herself. Or this is what it looks like when she’s tired or when she can actually do more repetitions, we switched to zoom. And so he’s in my town, but he does. He works with people all over the country. And so we do everything over zoom.

Emma Kobs 38:16
That’s so awesome. Yeah, there’s nothing like a little bit of just a little spoonful of obligation to get ou going.

Rai Cornell 38:22
And it can be like book a yoga class or you know, like, with the doctor’s appointments, book your hair appointments, you know, whatever first thing in the morning, just get it over with and yeah.

Emma Kobs 38:32
I actually yeah, I have one this Friday, a hair appointment that I’ve keep rescheduling. So it’s good to myself to stop doing that and just go to your appointment because I’m, you know, a shaggy dog now. And yeah, and you know, I did want to ask you because, unless you’ve been living under a rock and you’ve never engaged with Rai at all in any form. You maybe you’ve not you’ve missed or not seen this like mane of hair that she has. And I know nobody’s asked this yet. So I want to be the one to ask it. What is your hair routine? What are the secrets? What is the shampoo, I want to know about it, we all want to know about it.

Rai Cornell 39:11
Okay, so, I might disappoint you a little bit here. Because I tend to think of myself as pretty low maintenance when it comes to like, you know, grooming and beauty and whatever. Like I wear mascara, eyeliner and this like sparkly red chapstick. This is like, that’s my makeup kit, like three things.

So, first of all, I’m naturally like my hair colors like naturally a brownish red. So if you go on Facebook and you look at any of my wedding photos from May 2018 you’ll see that’s my natural hair color, but I haven’t been that since like June 2018. I did this like and actually it’s really faded right now. So this is really terrible for anybody who’s watching the video. This is like really embarrassing because I’m changing shade of blue that my hair is so it’s super faded right now, but the top half of my hair, think like if you could put the equator on my head, the top half is blonde or brown with so many blonde highlights that now it’s essentially blonde. Except for the low lights that my gal did that are a little chunky. I’m getting them fixed tomorrow. The bottom half of my hair is blue, like a navy electric blue. Shampoo wise, this is where I’m gonna disappoint you. I use suave. I use suave clarifying shampoo. It’s like $3.

Emma Kobs 40:36
Oh my gosh, I was I was gonna say if this girl says suave, I am, yeah, I’m terminating this chat.

Rai Cornell 40:44
I do I just, I liked the way it leaves my hair, like my hair tends, I tend to like be more oily, like my face is oily, my hair gets oily at the end of every day. And it like clears my hair. And also it gets the blue out of the blonde really well. And so I use that clarifying shampoo. And then I have this tea tree conditioner that I use. And this is all for the blonde half by the way. I know I said I’m low maintenance but I have to treat the blind half differently from the blue half. And then on the blue half, I use overtone, extreme blue conditioner. And then once I do that, and it’s not every day, it’s like once a week, and then I condition it with a color locking shampoo or conditioner so that the blue doesn’t bleed into the blonde because I’m very neurotic about the two tone hair color. And I do not want to ever have this like green tint to any of my blonde. Which if blue goes onto yellow, it’s gonna turn green. That’s it. That’s the big secret but it’s not really a secret and it’s-I wish I had more for you but it’s really not that exciting. I don’t have any like secret products or anything other than, overtone, if you’re thinking about coloring your hair. Oh my god, I love overtone. It’s the only color conditioner/shampoo that does not like give me a rash on my scalp.

Emma Kobs 42:08
Really? Okay, because I have seen the ads I’ve been curious just to have some fun at home and get one of their you know, things and do it so yeah, well, I mean, I guess I never thought about you doing the blonde in the blue separately Of course you’d have to take care of them separately and I guess also leave it to you to have two diametrically opposed shades of hair on the same head and being like I must maintain them something must never

Rai Cornell 42:35
But you know why I have those colors, right? Because that’s my Cornell colors-blue and gold.

Emma Kobs 42:42
Because it’s you know, minor dye-ing. Tricky on a scalp versus, you know, a wall or a business card.

Rai Cornell 42:51
Yeah, it definitely took me a long time to figure out how to keep the blue out of the blonde. And now like there are some days where if I’m in a rush, I will just shampoo my hair and condition it all at once been I’ve gotten to a point where I know how to get the blue out of the blonde if it bleeds without destroying my hair and I hydrated a lot and oh, and then the other thing is I blow dry my hair upside down. So I put my head upside down, blow dry it upside down. And I use a round ceramic brush. My hair is naturally wavy, but it looks straight.

Emma Kobs 43:21
My hair is naturally wavy. This is we’ll have to you know, we were going to do another episode. It’s just going to be about hair for that one. Well I did you know, I wanted to ask more about because I know you’ve had this new journey this year of becoming a chicken parent to multiple chickens and coparent with Wes. And I wanted to ask, you know, rarely does it ever stop with the chickens. So it’s kind of like, you know, putting a bow on this. What’s the dream farm scenario here?

Rai Cornell 43:52
Yes, so we’re currently living in Texas. And for now even though I really really, really, really, really want to go. Wes won’t let me have a go. Because we’re only on an acre. And he’s like no, and the goat is gonna butt heads with our Pitbull who would love that. But I’m just like, no puppy concussions. So for now we have a cat, a dog, a gecko, a crested gecko. And 12 chickens-11 of which are hens. So we’re drowning in eggs every day, a dozen eggs every day. We initially wanted six. But when you ordered them from the company, they’re like, hey, just a heads up, some of them might die in transit. And we’re like, Oh, shit. And if you we had three different breeds that we got. And if you end up with only one of a breed, the others will gang up on that one. And we didn’t want that to happen. So we were like, Okay, so, you know, heaven forbid, one of them dies in transit, we need at least two left. So let’s order nine, three of each breed. So that just in case something happens. Everyone’s safe, except the one who died of course. It’s really sad to think about and then the company that we ordered them from sent us four of each. And then one of which ended up being a rooster who I absolutely love. He’s the sweetest thing in the world, his name is Ghost, Ghost Pepper. And he really likes cuddles and hugs. And he’s beautiful. I’ll post pictures of him someday. But yeah, that’s how we ended up with 12 chickens. We wanted six-ended up with 12. And so once we leave Texas we’re planning on buying property up north. We don’t know if it’s going to be in Montana or South Dakota or Wyoming or Idaho. We don’t know yet. But once we do, we want our cat, our dog, our gecko if he’s still around, he’s pretty old, he’s like 12 years old. Our chickens and I would like to get two goats. And that’ll be it.

Emma Kobs 45:44
Okay, I was waiting for llamas, alpacas, horses-

Rai Cornell 45:47
No, nothing huge. You know, I want like, if a really bad Blizzard comes, I want to be able to put everybody in the garage.

Emma Kobs 45:54
Okay, I think that’s fair. Especially. I’m coming in from Montana. We have about a foot of snow on the ground. And so yes, that’s a real-that’s a real thing. Yeah, it was 70 in New York yesterday and 10 here.

Rai Cornell 46:08
I love the cold. I cannot wait. I love it.

Emma Kobs 46:11
Wonderful. Well, my gosh, Rai, I can’t thank you enough for having me on, letting me do this takeover and just getting to dive in and talk more about the stuff-the fun stuff and the not so fun stuff.

Rai Cornell 46:22
Always, it’s always so much fun talking to you. Thank you so much for taking over this episode. I was so glad you could be here.

Emma Kobs 46:29
Thank you, anytime.

Rai Cornell 46:43
Hey, Rai here again. Thanks for listening. If you’ve liked this episode, please subscribe and rate us in your favorite podcasting platform. Want to be a guest on the show or know someone who has an amazing story of entrepreneurship? Apply on our website at chironconsulting.us/podcast.