Franchising as a Cure for the Entrepreneurial Loneliness Epidemic

00:00:02
And then I read the intro script, and I don’t think I’m going to need any of these questions, but we’ll talk about what we just talked about. All right, sounds great. Excellent. All right, here we go. Hello, everyone, and welcome to, or welcome back to the free agent podcast.

00:00:20
My name is Meg Schmitz, your lovely host. This has been a labor of love, and I I’m at the tail end of my fifth season looking at starting number six. This discussion is so personal and so wonderful. It’s so self serving for me. This is all about free agency.

00:00:38
This is all about taking control over your financial future. The mission of my show is to share inspiring conversations with real people who took the leap into self employment, business ownership, sometimes franchising, but more or less freedom from corporate refugees and executives tired of the desk job to entrepreneurs and investors looking to share Camaraderie and inspiration through their own business journey. My podcast aims a spotlight on real people who stepped into the unknown to control over their destiny and became their own boss. Today, my guest is Kasie Valenti, and she has such a great story to tell. It’s going to weave in military entrepreneurship loneliness that happens for all of us who are out here fighting the good fight every day as entrepreneurs and business owners.

00:01:29
So I’ve been excited about this one. Kasie, so welcome to the free Agent podcast. Thanks for having me, Meg. I’m so happy to be here and talk about this, and I loved your intro. You really set the stage.

00:01:41
Where would you like to begin? I guess it might be helpful to share a little bit about my background and how I got to where I’m at, and I can share a little bit about that. So after I graduated college, I decided to join the military, and I served as a logistics officer for about seven and a half years. I met my husband in the military, and we decided that being dual military wasn’t the best lifestyle for us to raise our family. So I got out of the military.

00:02:08
He stayed in. He’s still in. He’s pulled me all over the world. Last year, we were living in South Korea. We have been all over the place.

00:02:17
Right now we’re in Tampa, Florida, Florida. He just got back from Israel. He was gone for a while, and there’s been times where he’s been gone for a year. We’ve lived separately because of different assignments. So it’s been a journey.

00:02:30
And that journey, like many other military spouses and veterans, we find ourselves underemployed and or unemployed. And I think that’s so relevant to your podcast and your audience of being free agents, because instead of staying in those statistics, we need to realize that we are free agents and we can take control and embrace entrepreneurship, franchising all of these other opportunities. So that’s kind of how my journey to entrepreneurship, self employment, and just being a free agent really began. Yeah. And before we hit record, we were talking about how lonely and isolating it is as not just as an entrepreneur, but as a female entrepreneur with a family, with a husband who maybe isn’t exactly in alignment with our entrepreneurial leanings.

00:03:21
Do you want to talk about that and what that challenge has looked like and how you’ve tackled it every day? Sure. So I love working. I love aligning my passions with work. It gives me purpose.

00:03:35
It’s stimulating. I need it. I love it. And so. And all my children are in school now.

00:03:41
They’re all school age. And I found, especially when we were in South Korea, that’s when I recognized that, wow, I’m doing a lot of this on my own, and not because my husband doesn’t want to, but because his career is so demanding of him, and he spent a lot of time away from home, and it’s incredibly lonely. And you recognize, wow, I’m solo parenting. I have three kids. I’m working.

00:04:02
And you’re in it by yourself. You don’t talk. I mean, at the time I was in South Korea, no, I did not speak Korean. So on top of just being in the thick of parenting and working, I also didn’t speak the language of, you know, of the country that I was in. So that’s probably the most lonely I’ve ever felt.

00:04:22
And that’s actually when I started my first company. I felt like I was in a little incubator, being so isolated. So that’s how. That’s when it really hit me the most. The loneliness.

00:04:34
And it’s lonely then for so many obvious reasons, more so than being here in the United States. Wherever you’ve got a community, you’re a civilian. You can travel and roam freely. When you were in South Korea, did you have a community? Did you have mentors or a posse?

00:04:53
So what I did when I was South Korea, there were a few Koreans that spoke English in our apartment building. We lived on the economy, so I was able to talk with them a little bit. But keep in mind, it was kind of coming off the tail end of COVID And so that was limiting. But you know, what I think is interesting is coming back to the United States, where people do speak English, and I can speak to them. I still find it lonely, I think, because my kids are in sports, they’re in school, I’m working.

00:05:24
By the time I get to the end, I’m like, I haven’t talked to another adult all day, and I’m in the country that speaks my same language, and I have access to community and support. But there’s, you know, right now, my children, all through them, participate in sports. Two sports for one kid. And so, I mean, I’m just busy raising children, and a lot of times on my own, but I have found online communities to be helpful. I participated in a program called service to CEO, and that was a virtual community I was able to tap into.

00:06:00
I’m building an entrepreneurship program right now that is completely virtual with american corporate partners. And so hopefully that provides some community for entrepreneurs, which is so necessary, because sometimes entrepreneurs end up ending their entrepreneurial journey so that they can go back to being employed, to have that community. That is so true. And I’ve seen it happen so many times with the people I work with. Her making the transition from the executive world into business ownership, that.

00:06:36
That camaraderie, it’s very similar to the military. It’s very similar. And I have had some people get into business and say, I can’t deal with this. I don’t. I hated the paycheck.

00:06:48
I hated the oversight. I hated having a boss. But I miss having community. Yeah. And luckily now with the Internet, there are so many online groups you can participate in, networking groups, LinkedIn.

00:07:01
There are other ways to connect and tap into entrepreneurship groups, and I think that’s key. Finding mentors, finding an online community, or in person, your chamber of commerce, something like that to really tap into. And you brought up veterans. Veterans, like one out of four are more likely to become an entrepreneur. And they love camaraderie.

00:07:24
It doesn’t go together. No, but franchising does. Then they can be entrepreneurial, and they get that camaraderie. They get the team, they get everybody. I use this analogy a lot, Kasie, with sports and military, being in a franchise gives you the team.

00:07:43
You have the purpose, you have the plan, you have the field of battle. You know what a win looks like. You’re all waving the same banner, you’re pulling for the same outcome. You each know your role. It’s different.

00:07:59
But if you align as a team, there’s no I in team. So there. The franchise world is a great place for military, and we’ve got so many programs that. That serve the military discounts and other rebates or opportunities to get in at a lower investment level. But it was on my mind this morning to ask you, why do you think military people do so well?

00:08:32
I don’t know. They do so well. Why do you think so many military gravitate to entrepreneurship? I think one, we’re really driven. We’ve been taught to take chaos and turn it into a controlled, sustainable mission in the military.

00:08:52
Every two years, I started a new job. I walked into a mission that was chaos and I had to turn it into control. And so we love that challenge. We love it. We embrace it.

00:09:07
We do really well with it, especially if you’ve been in the military for longer than four years. You’ve really honed in on those skills of taking something and turning it into something so much better. And we love that challenge and we love being adaptable, resourceful. We just have all of the skill sets to be entrepreneurs.

00:09:28
Yeah. And I think it’s hard to be under someone else’s leadership when you’ve been a leader. Maybe for me, that I’ve noticed that. I love your story when we first spoke about the competition that you and your husband participated in and how even though you worked on the same project, you each had to pitch it separately. Tell that story again.

00:09:53
That was such a good. Yeah, that’s okay. So my husband and I met in a logistics officer school. His last name is V. My last name starts with V.

00:10:02
So we sat next to each other. We ended up getting the similar assignment, the same assignment, and we were able to work together on it. And it was a very serious assignment. Everyone fears it going into this school, like, oh, you have to work on the icos, big assignment, and a lot of people stay up overnight working on it. And we worked together on it, and he kept getting stuck on the data and the crunching the numbers.

00:10:24
And I’m like, we have to, if you get stuck on that, you’re not going to get through the rest of the presentation. And anyway, so we were able to work together and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Get to the end, we go to delivery, and you deliver. You present it separately. He presented it, I presented it.

00:10:38
The next day, our grades posted. He got a c and I got an a plus when he was the one doing all of the number crunching. And he made me look so smart. But he, he’s a little bit more introverted and I’m more, I can present, I guess, a little better. And such a great moral to the story there.

00:10:55
In the world of business ownership, so much of it is adaptability and in the moment, how do you present yourself? Who shows up? Yes, you need to have the knowledge base and the facts because you’re running a business, who runs a business or who’s doing a project to not get a positive outcome that serves you so well in your day to day as the face of the business, because you’re going to know your metrics and your KPI’s at the back of it. But people do business with people they know, like and trust. And I’m sure a lot of you, too, I know it is, is your ability to listen and engage.

00:11:33
And, you know, something else we talked about before we were recording is just this partnership. You have a similar partnership with your husband where your strengths complement his weaknesses and vice versa. And I had never considered franchising until I met you. And although it’s not right for me right now, my husband being in the military, I think once he gets out, that story is almost like a case study of how well we might do as franchise owners. Just, he’s good with the numbers, I’m good with marketing.

00:12:02
Like, our strengths really complement each other. When he. When is his retirement or when does he plan to exit a. Oh, good question. Because he’s coming up on his 20 years, but I think he wants to be a lot longer.

00:12:15
Yeah. So he. Yeah, it’s a lifelong dream of his being the military, and he’s been playing with little green army men since he was a little kid. So. I remember the little Gi Joe’s.

00:12:28
That’s my grandfather over there. I was. He was colonel in the army world war two. None of the rest of us in my family have served in the military in any capacity. And that’s why getting involved with ACP was so important to me.

00:12:45
We’ve talked about that a little bit. The mentorship program and working with, whether they’re currently in or recently exited, how many entrepreneurial dreams are fostered while they’re serving our country? And then when they get out, what kind of opportunities do they have to connect to real business owners and find out in the trenches, what is it like now in the trenches of business and building something from scratch? I love that program, the energy and the people I have met and been able to mentor. I don’t think I told you this.

00:13:21
I was invited by my current protege to come out and speak on her panel at a women’s retreat in Richmond, Virginia, in October. Oh, that’s awesome. The reverse on all of this is how much I have learned from Nina. I’m the mentor, but she’s a good 20 years younger than I am. And so there are all these great lessons that I’m learning from my protege who’s going to make me look really great when I get out there in October.

00:13:55
Do you feel like attending those events and mentoring your protege helps fill, because you’re an entrepreneur, you have to feel lonely at times. Participating, participating in the program, has that helped feel like you have a sense of community? Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s.

00:14:12
I can’t tell you how many times I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m praying. I’m asking the universe I am. And my mom calls it awfulizing or crooked thinking that happens in the middle of the night, and then I wake up in the morning, I think, why are you, why are you so lonely? There’s so many people at my fingertips thanks to Zoom and the other groups that you were talking about. And the answer is yes, because I take on so many challenges.

00:14:48
And right now I’ve got two in particular. I said to my husband yesterday, I’m coming into a season where I know I’m running two marathons at the same time. Oh, wow. And this is not going to be easy. One is my parents, my dad, 92, tripped and fell and broke some ribs.

00:15:04
He had the concussion. Now their executive function and other skill sets that are deteriorating. Another one is, I recently took on a new business challenge, and that’s going to be slower uptake than what I was expecting. So I’ve got, my mother is pulling on the one, and for me to come back to the Chicago area and help with my dad, and then I’ve got a business in Milwaukee that needs my time and attention as well. Is it lonely?

00:15:32
Hell, yeah. Now, how do you navigate when you’re put in those situations? I think, like, you hit on it earlier, there’s a fortitude that some of us have, and I’ll be so bold to say that I see it more in women. For whatever reason. In Milwaukee, I have more females stepping up to go into franchise ownership.

00:15:59
Really? Yeah. And so I see in my own networking group, the participation, who shows up, who’s asking questions, who’s willing to show their vulnerability and ask for help. That’s a very typical nurturer female trait, is to ask for help. So I do turn, I, frankly, have had three men who are great mentors, but I’ve got more women now from my own network who are coming together as a collective to create our own camaraderie and support.

00:16:35
And I would welcome you to that as well because it’s three of the other women. Two of the other women are our former military, and we’re all entrepreneurs. I’d love that. I would love that. That would be so beneficial.

00:16:47
When I started my first company, one, I was over in South Korea. But regardless, I carried that over here. And that was the biggest downside to me. You face challenges as an entrepreneur, and when you’re alone, you want to quit. You’re.

00:17:01
It’s not worth it because you don’t have, at least for me, I value camaraderie and teamwork and motivating each other. And when there’s no one else in the fight with you, you’re like, what’s the point? And, yeah, I would have really valued that community back then, and I’m still. I would still love to join it. Good.

00:17:17
Well, we’ll make that happen. With your I. With your move back to the United States, what were the shifts in your business that you had started there? Is it continuing and what have you shifted into now? Yeah.

00:17:31
So, actually, funny, before I met my husband, I was putting together a business, and then we got married, and I had to close it because it wasn’t portable. So I had already kind of learned to think through the portability of a business. And having a web based business, I had already learned that lesson, luckily. So when I built Sigma forces in South Korea, it was very mobile, portable, automated, very self service, online courses on demand. So I built it in a way that was incredibly efficient, seamless, and there was no struggle with the transition at all.

00:18:14
If all I needed was access to the Internet and to check on it about ten to 15 minutes out of the day, I was able to do that from my phone, traveling, and I had no issues at all. But I had to start an entire business before that one and learn a really hard lesson about the portability of a company. And luckily, I had that lesson under my belt. Another reason for starting a business is to monetize it. What were your lessons learned in the first one and the lack of portability?

00:18:42
You use such great adjectives here. Portable, mobile, automated, efficient, seamless. How’s the monetization different this time versus the last time? Well, one is a different target market, completely different service. So this is, since it’s web based, it’s a lot easier to market.

00:19:08
Let me share with you what’s happening right now. So whenever I started the company, it was really geared towards serving the military, which is a very small segment of the audience, and I do not feel good about charging the military. So I offer seven of the courses, the most popular courses, for free. And I love that I’m doing that. But now I have to think, two years in, how am I going to make this profitable so that, you know, I’m not looking to earn an income off of it, but it needs to, it needs to be positive so that I can keep it going.

00:19:41
I love that it serves the military community, doesn’t take any of my time, and it’s beneficial, and it’s helping people get educated so they can fight underemployment. But what I’m going to do this year is reposition it so that it faces the civilian audience as well. And the civilians would then have to pay for the courses, but there will be a military pathway with a discount program. So I’ve learned another lesson about generating revenue, and I’m adjusting and adapting and retargeting to a new market.

00:20:18
That is an excellent example, too, for people who are listening, the necessary pivots that become obvious. Let me ask you this. How long did it take you to recognize and act on that pivot? I know you had a move in there, but was it like a light switch where you’re like, duh. Yeah, I would say about, and think about it for a while.

00:20:44
There was a lot of excitement when I first launched the company, so it was doing really, really well. Not well enough for me to quit a full time job and give it 100% of my attention. So it kind of leveled out a little bit around year one because I’m having to work full time job. And so from nine to five, all of my energy and creativity and marketing skills and everything is going to promote not my company and so, but about a year, I recognize that it’s earning enough to cover the overhead, but it’s not enough to ever leave my full time job and give it the attention that I wish I could give it. So about a year into it, I recognized this someone is trying to by my brand.

00:21:34
So I’m waiting for that to go through with our, my ip, with my IP attorney, and I’m hoping that they buy the brand and it’ll, that was a huge, I believe things happen for a reason. And the fact that someone wants to buy my trademark, um, allows, that’s like a huge nudge to, in my mind, to confirm that I need to rebrand and retarget and reposition the company. So when that happened, I just thought that was a huge sign from whoever to tell me that this is the right decision for the company. So I’m waiting for that to go through once that happens, I’ll use the money to rebrand it and reposition it. Perfect way to use a.

00:22:17
Call it a peaking moment. You are now at a point where you’re able to take a situation and turn it so that your new audience, your new revenue and your new profitability can really refocus into what you want it to be. And so many of us are. And I won’t really call myself an entrepreneur. I’ve started companies, but I’m far more successful as a franchise owner and as a business consultant.

00:22:50
Pivoting into these lessons learned and the timely, universal or goddess messages that come to you to say, this is a great time now to focus on revenue, but profitability so that it is sustainable and it creates an exit strategy for you. I think, too, when you have those moments of pivot where you need to pivot, I think a lot of people take it as a failure and because it can be really demoralizing, discouraging, and you want to quit. But I think once you recognize and just realize that it takes years to make your business successful and you have to be in it for the long run when things aren’t going right, I think you just, you can’t quit. You have to look at it as, what do I need to? How do I pivot from here?

00:23:38
How do I make it better? And just look at it very objectively. Because when it’s your own company, a lot of times you can really take it to heart. I mean, branding for Sigma forces, it worked so well. It was really like play off a special forces to attract really high performing projects.

00:23:57
And it did, it worked so well. But now it’s. That’s not working. And that’s okay. It’s not a failure.

00:24:04
It did its job. The company is still alive two years later, but it has to change. And not looking at that as a failure, but looking at it as just an opportunity to grow and change. Yeah, yeah. Someone I was talking to the other day, we were talking about passion and where does it fit into objectivity?

00:24:28
We start a business because we’re passionate about something and we see an opportunity to disrupt or offer a new solution in a way that has never been done before. Again, surrounding yourself with a posse who it’s going to support you, but clearly understanding your point of view and in your heart, it’s a Simon Sinek, why you really need to crystal clear, write it down, have it in somewhere concrete, your reason for doing this and what your point of view is, because people will lovingly, family, friends, they’ll ask and they’ll question, poke and prod and challenge you on why you’re, why are you doing that? Look in your face, of the face. My son does this. Why are you doing that?

00:25:17
Like, Eric, that’s an ugly face. Oh, yeah, I know. And, you know, it’s funny is when I first started that company, no one really took it serious, but I knew that I was going to give it my all. And now family members are almost bragging about it, like, oh, she started, she started a little company, you know, and so I have a new idea and I’m not telling anyone, and until it’s launched, and because I don’t want any of that influence to persuade me otherwise, I know that it’s a really good idea and it’s going to disrupt, and I’m confident in it now that I’ve had several tries as a small business owner. I kind of get it because of the lessons I’ve learned, and I’m applying every single one of the lessons I have learned into this, and it’s only getting better and better.

00:26:08
And I’m keeping it a secret because I don’t want any negative influence at all. Good for you. My, my mom, I refer to my mom a lot. She’s been very much a source of inspiration and grounding for me. She would say, maggie, everybody doesn’t need to know.

00:26:30
Tell the people who need to know and first vet those people and make sure that they’re in alignment with you. There are all sorts of detractors out there. We know that. There are plenty of detractors. So my mom, who said know, who needs to know and only share with those people, but vet them first, that they can be trustworthy to align with your mission and be flag waving, staunch supporters who, in your darkest moments, are going to help you right your own ship and stay the course.

00:27:03
I love that. You know what advice my mom gave to me? Tell the person you’re going to talk to, specifically my husband, what type of response you’re looking for. I do not want advice. I just want you to listen to me.

00:27:17
Just validate my emotion. This is what I, I’m going to share this with you, and I’m not looking for any feedback or advice. I’m just sharing. So you are aware that is excellent. Advice, and I need to implement that today.

00:27:33
He’s actually goes into what I’m building my new company. Oh, it’s all that inspired it. Yeah. You’ll have to bring me on and like, by January, we’ll come again and we’ll talk about it. I can’t wait.

00:27:48
This is what I love about having my own podcast and being able to invite my own guests. I get reach outs all the time. Oh, here’s somebody we think would be great for your podcast. Like, no, I know who would be great for my podcast, and this has been a great interview. There’s so much that I look forward to learning more about you and including you.

00:28:07
So I’ll send though. There’s a first Friday group that I run, and that’s a business networking group. Those are the. Anybody I ever worked with is invited once a month for free. It’s always free.

00:28:20
Let’s meet and talk about who you are, what is your business and how can we help? What doors can we open, what problems can we solve? And then there’s that other group that. Not quite sure what I’m going to call them, but girls who swirl is one idea, because we can do it virtually like a cocktail hour. Okay.

00:28:36
And talk about our entrepreneurial journey. I’ve got the same group that is meeting physically in Milwaukee and we just meet at a local wine shop. And I wish I was there again. It’s the. It’s that value of the one thing and that’s having the camaraderie because it is so dark and lonely.

00:29:00
And take it from me, the. I’m 61 years old and I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years. I have dark thoughts. I get desperate and all jungled up, bungled up. We all do.

00:29:14
It’s normal. But you keep surrounding yourself with great people who can smile and laugh. That’s the other thing. Sometimes it’s serious as a heart attack. And I’m going to die if I don’t get well.

00:29:28
You’re not going to die. You’re really not. Yeah. Coming from the military, you know what the field of battle looks like. There are real people who really are defending our country and they’re putting their life on the line.

00:29:40
What we’re doing is, as my husband says, this is just folly. This is what. But when you’re first starting out as an entrepreneur, the first little challenges that you face feel life threatening. When I first started Sigma forces, the very 1st, 30 days, I had a thousand customers, but I also had someone that was doing wrong with my intellectual property. And at the time that felt, that shook my world.

00:30:09
That’s an assault. Yeah, it was. It was such a horrible experience. I was in a foreign country by myself and had all I needed at that time was someone who was in the game a little bit longer than me. To tell me that’s a good thing.

00:30:24
If someone wants your brand, that’s usually a good sign. You should be patting yourself on the back and fast forward because of that situation, it made me trademark all of my stuff, and now someone wants to buy my trademark. Had that situation not happened, I wouldn’t have a trademark to sell. I wouldn’t have the money to reposition my company. So it’s, when you’re faced with those challenges, you have to know that it’s an opportunity.

00:30:52
It’s not a bad thing. Challenges are not a bad thing. Yeah, it’s, are you going to face it? Are you going to fold? And if you can face it and overcome it, you’re.

00:31:00
And you’re, you won.

00:31:10
Yeah. When you own your own business and it is so personal every day, at the end of every day, it’s a win. I don’t know about you, but I get to Fridays. Fridays are my favorite. I check in with everybody I’m working with.

00:31:25
I love building entrepreneurs and I want to talk to them, but at the end of the day, we can say, who did you talk to? Who is inspiring? What, what carrying into the weekend? How’s your energy? What, what are you feeling?

00:31:37
So I love getting to the end of the week as an entrepreneur and being able to say, I gave it 100% because I’m 100% kind of girl every day, all the time. I don’t always hit the mark. I get dejected and I miss the mark. It didn’t, that great idea wasn’t so great after all, but I’m still in business and fighting the good fight. You think it’s not good, but fast forward.

00:32:03
And years later, you’re mentoring, you’re like, oh, you know what? I, for me, I tried to start a company and it failed. But, and now I’m able to mentor people and ask them, are you going to be moving a lot? You really need to think about the portability. So you think it’s a failure in the moment, but you don’t know that in years to come, that experience was meant for you because it’s shaping you as a leader to inspire other people, mentor other people, mentor yourself.

00:32:32
All the hardships I’ve had have helped me later on, I just didn’t know it. So now, sometimes when challenges happen, I’m like, all right, how is this going to help me in the future?

00:32:44
And that’s the beauty of getting older and gaining these experiences. I interviewed a gal last week who started her first company when she was 17, and she said, you know, 17. I was fearless because I didn’t know any better. I had never tried to climb that mountain. I’d never slipped and fallen.

00:33:02
I’d never. She went flying off the mountain and crashed in a pretty significant way. And so now, at almost 40, she said, I don’t use that word fearless anymore. I’m passionate. I’m strong.

00:33:17
I’m a visionary. I’m capable, but fearless. That was for when I was young. Now I’m experienced. Yeah, I love that.

00:33:25
And, you know, it shows up in all ways of life. My daughter’s 13 years old. Last year, she tried out for the JV volleyball team. She didn’t. Well, she tried out for the volleyball team at her school.

00:33:35
Didn’t even make JV. Devastated. Devastated. I said, just stay in the game for one year. We are in an outside volleyball league.

00:33:45
I said, just practice for one year. Just for me. That’s. You don’t have to do any chores all year long. Just play volleyball for one year and give it your all.

00:33:54
And she did. And you know what? This year, she made varsity. Oh, my gosh. So the lesson is, it just.

00:34:02
It. It just taught her such a valuable lesson that I could not have asked for a better lesson for my daughter to have at this age, that if you work for something, even if you fail and you keep working at it and you really do give it your all, chances are you will succeed. And it is. Oh, I’m just so happy she got that lesson at such a young age. I want to just tell you, as we’re wrapping up here, as a person who acknowledged last night that I need to prepare.

00:34:31
I need to train for two marathons that I don’t really want to run. The timing of this interview has been so beneficial for me. I’m sure it will be for my audience as well. But, Kasie, this has just been such a gift to be able to interview you today. So thank you so much for your time and joining me on my free agent podcast today.

00:34:54
I’ll let you know when we’re ready to launch it, and I’m sure it’s going to be awesome. All right, well, thank you so much for your kind words and for having me on. We’ll have to do it again, definitely.