Pip Seymour, chief marketing officer, digital specialist, responds

This interview took place on June 10, 2020.

Pip and I go back a few years. She found me in a Facebook group focused on selling techniques. Next thing you know, we met up in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World, and I've been a guest on her amazing online live show administered on Facebook. Now it's her turn to speak with me about how she's responding these days.

Guest bio:

As a Google search specialist, Pip operates her business, Seymour Digital Media, out of British Columbia, Canada.  Her popular online show, Geek Speak, is full of marketing tips for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Google ads, SEO, and social media marketing are services provided for her clients.

YouTube:

Podcast:

Transcript:

Sally Hendrick (00:09):

News stories were coming in about this strange virus in Wuhan China. It was weeks before we saw the first cases in the US as the numbers went up each day. My curiosity got the best of me, and I started plotting the curves here's stories from real people all over the world and how they've responded. I'm Sally Hendrick, founder of Shout Your Cause, and this is COVID-19 the world responds.

Sally Hendrick (00:39):

Hello! I've got Pip Seymour here with me today. Hey Pip, how are you doing?

Pip Seymour (00:44):

Good. How are you?

Sally Hendrick (00:45):

I'm good. Tell me a little bit about you because we work in the online business space together in a way we kind of serve similar clients or do similar things in the background behind the scenes with marketing. And and I want to know more about your story though. Like, how'd you get here?

Pip Seymour (01:04):

Oh, the story. So so yeah, I, so I currently do search engine optimization and so everything Google and the way I started. So I worked, I have a degree in psychology, just a BA and which is helpful for learning. But I remember saying one day I wanted to get into advertising and at university, I can remember where I was [inaudible]. My first job, a real job out of university was a magazine. And then I went into [inaudible] sold magazines. I've worked at newspapers as a sales rep. I've worked at a daily, a weekly then I moved to billboards. And then I moved to pay per click advertising, but I was selling it. I wasn't doing it. I was entering the information, but I was not doing the other work so that my dog passed away. And it broke me because if you know me, I am, I love animals.

Pip Seymour (02:07):

I have two dogs, three cats and 12 chickens. That's just the beginning. They're their fledglings right now. So that's before a year old, I just learned and live in a beautiful place called Maple Bay. It's a Hamlet. But so when I moved to China, I didn't stay very long. I stayed for three months. I taught English and I didn't realize I was looking for the beauty in the world again, because the beautiful thing in my world died. So China, where I was, was very industrial. It was not beautiful. And that's how I figured out. I was looking for the beauty. And so I went to Thailand and their flowers fall on you. And so there's so much beauty in the world. And so I moved back to Canada after like traveling a bit and I got a job at a startup and they sold everything websites, pay per click advertising, SEO.

Pip Seymour (03:01):

And, you know, the company was didn't care about its clients. They didn't mean to not care. They were trying to build a business, but they forgot about the people that gave them money. And so I was the middle person and I looked around and I thought I can do this. I thought I could. I wanted it to be that guy that did the search engine optimization, who got a paycheck and just knew what to do. And so there was that, and I had a boss and I've had so many bosses who have expected for me to look up to them, they can treat me like crap and I still have to be nice and not share my opinions. I am not a yes woman. So I did not move up in the ranks because I was not that yes, girl, I was a no, but no.

Pip Seymour (03:47):

And, and, and so that killed me. I had, I couldn't do it. I couldn't, I'm just so there's so much of me in me that bleeds out that it just was never going to work. So when I saw this company not doing a good job and I brought clients from my other advertising worlds, and I took them with me and I left and I started out on my own and I will tell you, Oh my God, I thought I could do it. It has been a path of learning and trying and breaking and failing and doing great so much. So in all of that, when I started my business, one of the things that pushed us over the edge, I have wonderful partner. And he was a brick layer. And he came home from work maybe a month after I started the business and said to him, Hey, can I start that business?

Pip Seymour (04:40):

He come home limping and I'm to make a long story, really short. We spent the next year, he was 30. We spent the next year going to doctor's appointments to figure out what was wrong with him. He couldn't walk more than 15 minutes and I would go outside and cry. I didn't know if he had ALS, we didn't know. And anyway, we figured out what the problem from one doctor and we're Canadian. So they said, Oh, well, you can get the surgery in two to five years. We're like, Oh my God. Or you can pay a lump sum money, like five grand and get, get fixed. So we're like, Oh two to five years. Oh God. Cause like, you know, and then we, because I had asked all these questions to other doctors, we already had another appointment set. And sometimes it's all about who, you know, we walked into that doctor's office with the paperwork and he said, Oh, well, we know what it is.

Pip Seymour (05:29):

I can get you in next month. And so he, it was just, it was a simple thing. So we're so fortunate. It was a valve that wasn't opening in his leg. So it was leaking blood. So blood was pooling and he got fixed. And in the interim, we had figured out how to get him into school to become a developer. So he became a web developer right after he had the operation. And then Ben, we were in, we were starving for a while and it was scary and stressful, but, but now we're a team. We're a team in love and in love and more, it's true. Our powers combined make us exceptional at what we do. So good. That's a good story.

Sally Hendrick (06:15):

The similarities.

Pip Seymour (06:17):

Yes we do.

Sally Hendrick (06:18):

Yeah. The a yes. Woman. Yeah. That wasn't me. I was always challenging things. And you know, this is how it's always been done was just not okay for me. I made lots of changes though, and, and really helped, you know, some things in the corporate world to be different. I was constantly looking for fixing inefficiency. So I, I can get that. I get that mentality.

Pip Seymour (06:47):

It's funny. Cause there weren't, I mean, there were women and the women that were high up where had to be strong and brutal because they were the only woman of a team of 20, you know, in high roles, it would have been very challenging. So it just trickled down right. To not work in.

Sally Hendrick (07:10):

So as far as bringing you up to date to where we are now, what has been your normal routine for like the last six months before? COVID let's do the, before COVID the BC of

Pip Seymour (07:26):

The BC, NBC. So yeah, we were a well oiled machine getting better and better where we've been in business five years now. So, you know, and I swear every year I hear things like, Oh, if you don't make it in year two, you're not gonna, you know, many businesses failing year two and then year three and four. So it's like every year I'm like, yeah, I made it. Yeah. And here we go. Right. And so we were, we were doing quite well. We work with a lot of local brick and mortar businesses, helping them with their online marketing, getting them found in Google. We also worked with companies that had they worked with like customers, so they worked B2B and then they worked B to C and so everything was great before COVID we were growing, we were growing, we were so insanely busy in December that we couldn't breathe.

Pip Seymour (08:25):

And then January hit and like all marketing, it kind of slows down. And we were like, Oh, they're just kind slow down. Like we had our regular clients, but we weren't getting the leads that we got and then February hit and everything was okay, got a couple of new, covert hit. We got a new client or two, which was very strange. And then we had our best clients starting to close their businesses because they couldn't have people come in. They like, so we were fine. It was the businesses that we worked with were going out of business or putting things on hold the devastation in people's voices. When they called us and told us they couldn't pass was heartbreaking. We still work with all the companies. So we decided if we were going to struggle and they were going to struggle, we were going to do it together.

Pip Seymour (09:22):

And so we, we helped every business that we were working with, who couldn't afford to pass because we know when, and if they get to open the doors, we're still their team and it was hard. It's a struggle. We're Canadian. So there have been some benefits to that in that our government has supported us if, if we came into a situation where we weren't making enough money to live. Right. So we, we did qualify for some help which we took for a couple of months. We are out of that now. So we are getting back into things. We've met some new clients. We've changed our business completely on the inside. And it feels amazing. It's a little scary cause everything's different from our sales process to everything.

Sally Hendrick (10:16):

So let's get into that for just a second. What did you change about your sales process? Because I did some changes too. I did some, I created some efficiencies and processes that I didn't really have before.

Pip Seymour (10:30):

Hmm. So one of the things, you know, it may sound cool that I have a degree in psychology, but I don't have a business degree. And we cobbled together our business. We use Trello for our project management. We use streak for our emails, so we never two of us. And we had four contractors before COVID. So we had to put everybody on hold and then we started taking the work internally. And I will tell you, do you want to hear a crazy story? You know how sometimes in life, the right thing happens at the right time, because you're just lucky. It's like good luck. I mean, it's good for [inaudible]. So I had a message in my Facebook page, my, my personal Facebook, some buddy friended me whenever I accepted, checked him out and he messaged me and, and it was, it was a little sales pitch.

Pip Seymour (11:22):

I was like, ah, didn't really respond and then read it. But it was so good. His wording was so good. I was like, okay, I'll talk to you. And and then, so we talked, we had a half an hour conversation. He told me about this mastermind. He does now. He did not tell me and I didn't buy it. At first. I bought on the second round of our talk. This guy is amazing. I bought something that I didn't even know what I was getting. There was no write up. There was no sales page that he directed me to. And it's the best thing I've ever bought for my business, my entire life. Anything, it's the best thing I've bought. It's changed my whole business from how I sound to how we do processes to how much I charge.

Sally Hendrick (12:05):

What, what is it, a software or just a process?

Pip Seymour (12:09):

It's, it's a process. It's a mastermind. So grow a mastermind, which I didn't. So I, it's a, it's a group coaching, but it's, you know what, you know how there's all these sales people online, you know, they're always selling, I can get you this, that to find a sales person that sells exactly what you do. So we, I met a sales person that helps marketing agencies do better, be better, their, their consultants. I do. There's a, Oh gosh, I'll have to tell you the name.

Sally Hendrick (12:40):

You are their niche market. You are exactly who they're helping. So like they would help me possibly.

Pip Seymour (12:47):

Yeah. Same thing. Yeah. So it's a lot of processes. So we do things like it's business. It's like going to business school for marketing agency. It's been brilliant. I'm in week eight. My whole business has changed. I am making more money than I've ever made before. I love the people I'm around. I am passionate and even with the world on fire and I had to stop watching the news from COVID to everything else I've cried a lot, not gonna lie. And this has kept me going. So I feel very fortunate that I, on the random bought something from somebody that changed my life.

Sally Hendrick (13:29):

That's cool. I've actually hired a coach. Who's helping me really follow my life purpose if you will. And then I also hired an intuitive coach. Then I'm about to meet with, who's going to help me map some things out. So they're very different.

Pip Seymour (13:50):

I'm going to give you this guy's name. You can go check them out online just because honestly, like I don't, like I've never bought anything that I didn't read up and make like a formal decision. And I have, I just like, I am, I can't tell you, like, I'm lost for words about just because you know, what the, where we struggled most was with our processes and taking the time to train someone takes away our time. And our time is so valuable because we need to serve our clients. That it's a very hard thing to get your head around, but it's actually easy.

Sally Hendrick (14:28):

Do you just record what you're doing and talk through it?

Pip Seymour (14:31):

Yeah, basically. Yeah. But there's more, there's more, there's more to that. There's a, how you then take that recording and what you get other people to do. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Sally Hendrick (14:44):

Yeah. Yeah. I've got I, do you know what I did for mine instead of hiring a coach, I actually went and worked for another agency.

Pip Seymour (14:52):

I was going to try that go.

Sally Hendrick (14:56):

It went well. I did it for about eight months. I needed to have some consistent income. I had just come out of an entire, almost year of deep, severe depression.

Pip Seymour (15:12):

I'm sorry. That's hard.

Sally Hendrick (15:13):

After my mother had died, it was like the week she was dying, I got like an, a really incredible opportunity. And I thought, okay, I'm really gonna push hard on this. And then she died buried. I went on a trip, came back and I was ready to just go whole hog. Cause I'm, I'm, I'm a worker, you know, I really work hard and really do a lot of I dunno, I pull a lot of things together.

Pip Seymour (15:40):

And you have three kids and a cat and dog. Yeah. I saw the husband once.

Sally Hendrick (15:49):

He's not here right now. But no, what happened was I thought I would be able to do it, but there were some things that I needed to work to, not to work on, but to actually feel and live in an experience. And when, when she died this, I thought, okay, this huge weight has come off my shoulders. Cause she had been ill for 16 years and, and was in a wheelchair for six. So it was just really, really tough emotionally in all those ways. And when, when that came off of me, I thought, okay, I'm ready. But I was weak underneath and I didn't know it. And so I ran into like, Oh brick wall. And it was like, no, I had to just do what I could to just maintain what I already had and that all I could do.

Pip Seymour (16:47):

And somebody wants told me and some of the best advice I've ever gotten. And it was when my dog died and my dog I'm telling you, he was my person. Like I know if other people are listening. They're like, what a dog? What? No, but he, he I had a manager that said to me, sometimes your 70% is your hundred percent and that's all you can do and you have to be okay with that. Yeah.

Sally Hendrick (17:15):

I was about 20.

Pip Seymour (17:17):

Let's see. Right? Like it's life gets in the way. And it's hard and it's beautiful and devastating all at the same time. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Sally Hendrick (17:29):

Thank you. I mean, that was something that, you know, it was just part of the process and her being gone was the best thing, because it was so hard for her. It was very difficult, but now what's, and I tried even that summer to start writing my book about the whole generational, this and that and the other and all these things about mother relationships and all this stuff. And I was just exploring and exploring. And I don't know. I mean, you know, it just kept going and then I just really got back into work and got myself back up to normal. And then here we are, 2020 was coming, you know, here [inaudible] was running into 2020 doing really great. And then COVID, and now the black lives matter. But the funny thing is, is that I'm back into the passionate stuff. I'm doing the activism being an advocate and I'm doing the work to bring that forth.

Sally Hendrick (18:39):

So COVID was the first thing. And I was like, Oh, this is like my background. I know how to analyze this stuff. I know how to read the data. And I know how to talk to people. I know how to make it sound mega, like it makes sense. I know how to tell them where to go and what to watch and what to ignore. Yes. And so I've, I've been doing that in my own small little world over here, but I've been doing it and they've been writing newspaper articles, not newspaper, but news site articles, you know, to publish that and just build this body of work around it. But then now with the black lives matter situation and this whole movement that's happening, it's almost like I'm, I'm getting back to my own story.

Pip Seymour (19:25):

Isn't that neat? It's funny how, you know, a lot of us went into this year, you know, out of last year going yeah. 2020 is going to be the best year ever. You know, and the thing about that is I think it might be just not the way we, we thought like, Oh my God, wouldn't it be great if women, transgender, black people, Asian people like native Canadians and Americans and, or Aboriginal people all were treated with fairness and dignity. I'm like, it would be good to see the world change for everybody. So it makes me very emotional.

Sally Hendrick (20:10):

Me too, but that's the hope, that's the hope with the whole COVID thing. I watched something this morning, this woman was saying how people have been able or been for, excuse me, been forced to kind of slow down and look at things. And with that, the COVID situation has created a lot of frayed nerves and a lot of upset of the Apple cart, you know, where we've got people who, whose businesses are closing like your clients, or at least they're slowing down to a point that they can't at the same pace or they're going to have to completely change. I've got a good friend who literally left town and moved to Texas because she was like, look, I just can't even sit here and pay all this rent. And she has enough, you know, she has no children or anything or her husband. So she had that opportunity to go and live with her parents for a while to get through this.

Sally Hendrick (21:10):

But it just didn't make sense for her to sit there and create this situation where she would just be financially destitute on her own and on her. Yeah. So she had that, but you've got a lot of people who don't have that. And if you're doing brick and mortar, that's a very different type of situation. Cause I work with a lot of people who were online or who have services that people just can't get away from. You know, like people can't not hire their accountants to help them get their taxes done. They, can't not, you know, a lot of people are doing the whole online fitness thing. I've got a lot of online fitness people in my, you know, repertoire, if you will. And so that it was easier for me, I think just because I knew the online world and a lot of people wanted to push to get to it. And so a lot of people really invested that money. At the beginning. I made a lot of money in the first couple of months.

Pip Seymour (22:10):

Interesting. We had a lot of people pivoting. So because my partner in crime can code and liquid, which is Shopify. We can do, we can do custom eCommerce sites. And because when we do search engine optimization, we can just, we can take everything you got and we can put [inaudible].

Sally Hendrick (22:27):

You can do Kajabi liquid. Yeah.

Pip Seymour (22:29):

Ooh, I didn't know Kajabi wasn't liquid. Oh,

Sally Hendrick (22:33):

Oh yeah. It just opened up a whole new world for you. Huh? And there's like 20,000 people in that group.

Pip Seymour (22:39):

Oh, Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. So I will, I will tell you that I'm going to come back to that after. Cause I, yeah. Forever now what group and yes. Add me group, user group, something like that. Okay. And so yeah, with all the things that happened, you know, to be honest, I wasn't surprised that the world blew up a little bit after this because if you take away people's businesses, if you take away people's jobs and you'll notice the timing of things was about two months after COVID. So if you can't feed your family and you can't support the people you love, and then you're getting, you're not even being like you're being shot at or killed by the people that are supposed to protect you, what options are there? Like you're going to be mad and frustrated. We know that we are susceptible to the environment that means heats cold.

Pip Seymour (23:44):

So if it gets really, we get irritable. If you can't support your families, you eat, I'm a bitch. I get hungry. Oh yeah. So, and like yeah, hungry little kids like, you know, and so people who are in relationships are stuck with their families, had a really hard time. People who are single, I've had a really hard time. I've made sure to call my friends who don't have partners in their house to call them every week and to make that. So like, we've, although, you know, there's been a lot of bad things that have happened. There are some good things that have come out with it, more understanding. I learned as weird as it sounds that we are pack animals. So I'm a hermit, I'm a little bit of a recluse. I love where I live. I live close to the ocean with my partner.

Pip Seymour (24:37):

We have animals. We, we stay home. I want to come see you. You're going to come visit. It's going to be great. Well, we'll knock elbows. It'll be awesome. We'll probably hug you get on a plane yet though. Right there. Fair enough. I am not there either. Maybe some driving in a boat. Right. But I will say that. Yeah. So one of the things, because I'm an introvert a little bit, even, you know, because I stay at home. One of the things that really changed for me was realizing we are herd animals and what affects you affects me. And so there should be more equality between us all because we cannot survive without one another. And you know, and all of us, all our differences make us up as humans. And so being a part of the human condition, like, and a herd animal where I got to work together. So yeah, it was good lessons, right. Hard times, good lessons.

Sally Hendrick (25:39):

Yeah. And it's hard. It's hard. It makes me want to cry almost every day. There's some things that I say that's just like, I don't even know what to do. You know? Like how do you fix this? Right. How do you fix it? And I'm a fixer. So it's really hard.

Pip Seymour (25:56):

One of the hardest things that I've done is I've asked some of my friends for documentaries or recommendations of books and things like that to educate me more. Even though I believe I am not a bigot, you have to unlearn everything you've learned because it's systemic, which means it's built in

Sally Hendrick (26:16):

Well, there's also other things like, you know, when you, I work with a lot of life coaches, a lot of people who do this law of attraction thing, the limiting beliefs and the, you know, all that kind of mental deep work, that emotional work that is so hard to, it's so hard to get to the crux of the problem, to the deep wound, which is what sets people free into, you know, being to move forward. And that's something that we've missed in our societies. If you will, in that we haven't given the mental health, the emotional health and the abuse and all the things we haven't given. Those things, the attention that they deserve, because it really does create this generational continuation of the problem. And it manifests itself in different ways, in different people and people's personal experiences have everything to do with it.

Sally Hendrick (27:14):

So when I first started working with them, it was back when I was leaving corporate in 2015, I met this woman who was like, she just, she just like ended up in my inbox, you know? And I'm like, she goes, I've got something. I think that would help you. I want you to come over here. And it was like some sort of law of attraction, infinite possibilities, kind of a thing. And I'm like, there's this lady. And she lives nearby, you know, like an hour and a half away. And she's willing to come see me and when she's starting this movement and this whole thing, you know, whatever, and wasn't interested, but I was kinda like interested, but I loved her. And I loved these people that she had gathered up. And I stepped into that world and I totally did not understand what they were talking about, but after a while, and after I started really digging in and getting to know people, I've really started to realize that I'm actually a lot like them interesting. And that I had all these stories that I needed to unwind.

Sally Hendrick (28:29):

And you have to literally unwind them all the way back to the earliest memories you have. And it's so hard. It is hard.

Pip Seymour (28:39):

I don't know if I would do it. I'm not, not, not, I don't think I'll ever be ready.

Sally Hendrick (28:43):

Yeah. So I didn't do it like all at once or with just one person. But over the years, I've kind of done it a little bit at a time in different ways. And I've watched other people's transformations and I've also had our own family situations going on. And my own depression that I dealt with in 2018, which was interesting because I mean, of course we're going off in these crazy conversations, but that's okay. I just went into like I have stories of having things happen in my life about every seven years. It same like that would have the seven year itch to you know, to step back and analyze my life. And yeah. And so I feel like, I feel like I finally figured out a lot of those things and I think that's what happens when we get turned 52. So it's interesting. I'm, I'm 46.

Pip Seymour (29:42):

And I will say I follow a couple people who speak my language. So although I'm like, I'm not ready, the thing. So they speak my language and that they, something I've always said to myself, you know, you, you have to be your own best friend versus your own worst enemy. I learned that when I was 30. And so the people that speak to that, the people, because of why, like what you're saying to yourself, so I am on the bandwagon. But so the people I've followed definitely push you to see like, where you're going wrong. And it's not really this, but it's this. And like dig in there and like ask yourself those real questions and like growth and, you know, yeah. Just trying to grow and be the best person I can. Yeah. So, I mean, we're so lucky that we're in different countries and we can connect with all these people now find it. We can find our people who speak the language. We need to help us grow into what we should be.

Sally Hendrick (30:50):

Yes. Yes. I felt that too. I felt that the planet, I call it planet Facebook, and that I've been able to meet a lot of people who I'm like, gosh, why didn't I grow up with you?

Pip Seymour (31:07):

You know what [inaudible] always says to me [inaudible] was my partner. As you know, but [inaudible] always said to me, cause I'm like, Oh, people don't like me, blah, blah, blah. He's like, have you met everybody?

Sally Hendrick (31:16):

Yeah. That's 7 billion people on there.

Pip Seymour (31:20):

And there you do have, we all have our people. We do. So it's you know, and, and to grow together is I think it's opened so many doors, so many. I have my eyes seeing things. Well, that made a lot of sense.

Sally Hendrick (31:35):

Yeah. But think about it too. The funny thing about it is that now I can also look back on people that I did grow up with and I'm like, I really get this person now or wow. I bet we would have been good friends. Had I known this?

Pip Seymour (31:56):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true. Being more open. And just so I have this little say vision today, loving understanding and empathetic. I've had it on my desk. It's just a piece of paper. It's a silly like notepad piece of paper, but it's the vision that I want to have to share because what you give out to the world, you get back you know, like, so what does that, when you have one finger pointing at somebody, you got three fingers pointing back at you. Right. So just like, yeah, just trying to be better. And I think,

Sally Hendrick (32:33):

Imagine, imagine that with the police. Oh yeah. Right. And what's coming back at them. Right, right. And it could be individuals, it's individuals, but you know what I mean? Like there's so much happening right now.

Pip Seymour (32:48):

Well, if you learn why police were created, I think that the police force was originally created, like going back and learning about those things and learning the things that are still in constitutions everywhere which should be removed. And and the fact that yes, mental health. So when my mom was having kids at 27, she would walk into a doctor's office and they'd give her a pill for her problems, whether that be Prozac or pills that don't exist anymore. So then in my generation, I don't know, we had like illegal drugs. So a lot of them in your kids' generation, they put kids on drugs because they acted out or that. So we're not dealing with mental health. We're not talking about things we're not taught. So cognitive behavioral therapy is a really great thing that we have learned is something that will, can change our behavior. We can change our behavior. We can change how we think of ourselves, what we're doing. We are not this being that is just that's it. So yeah, so we need to put more funds into helping people, not policing people, helping people

Sally Hendrick (34:07):

And not, and that's the funny thing. I mean, we've gone completely from this COVID to this black lives matter, you know, movement situation in the discussion, and it's all gonna come back to the COVID as well. And it's going to just kind of oscillate and, and happen together. And then we're going to have this US election. It's going to be insane.

Pip Seymour (34:29):

We are watching from afar. I will tell you it's it's very interesting. I think a lot of Canadians, if I can speak for our whole country really look on the States is as a partner and we've been devastated. And we're learning a lot of lessons from you guys and the what not to do or what not to do, what not to do and what we need to deal with and what we need to stand up for. And that there's so much hurt and pain around the world. That it's time that we all stand up together and it's, COVID COVID is not gone. COVID was the cause of all of this, to be honest, that cause of the breakdown, the cause of the, the inwardly reflection of love and right. So it's all there and it's not like it's gone. My parents are in their eighties in downtown Toronto and they're not going out. And I worry about them. I'm having zoom meetings with a seven year old for a dinner party. My brother's daughter. And so the world is definitely changed. I mean, when you hug someone in 10 years, will it feel weird when you see people too close together on television shows and you know, you do you go, Oh, they're too close, you know? Right. Yeah.

Sally Hendrick (35:53):

Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't know how that particular part's going to be, but I feel like, I feel like the distancing is almost a metaphor for, we really need to get right with ourselves.

Pip Seymour (36:08):

Interesting.

Sally Hendrick (36:08):

Can be painful.

Pip Seymour (36:11):

It's on it is I, I'm not gonna lie. It's not something you want to live in every day. Depression is hard. You know, a lot of us, a lot of people are on antidepressants or antianxiety or whatever. And the reality is, you know, so I, when I lived in Vancouver, I got, I got major anxiety. I got put on anxiety, drugs, and I had to hear something which was really interesting and it changed my perspective and it was well, number two, things, anxiety is just a, the same reaction as excitement in your body. It's just, you're identifying it as something different. You're, you're, you're processing it differently. Right. And anxiety is a natural part of life. Once I figured out those two things and that I was going to have it, but how do I manage it for myself? And that appeal won't make it go away or, you know, it can subdue it,

Sally Hendrick (37:04):

but I can mask it, but it doesn't make the problem go away.

Pip Seymour (37:08):

Right. And so we need, yeah, this is where we need to deal with things we're all hurting. And I will tell you I'm the first not to want to deal with it. And like the world forces me sometimes

Sally Hendrick (37:20):

Yeah. Oh, I've always been the one that, okay, let's just move on, you know? Oh, that happened. Oh, that was terrible. Okay. But I got to do this right now and it just, just, you know, vision focus. It was just always like that. And then it finally got to the point of like, no, no, no more.

Pip Seymour (37:39):

My dad's part of the silent generation and he's British. So we talk about things. I mean, we didn't even hug, you know? So yeah.

Sally Hendrick (37:50):

So then your hope for the future when we've kind of already brought that into the conversation, is what, what do you think will come out of it?

Pip Seymour (37:59):

Loving understanding, and empathy for one another team being a part of a team in, in the sense of a world team. I think that I am, I am willing to stand up and for other people's rights it's time. And I think that so many others are. So I see I see a bright future. I do. I see, I see a bright future. I'd like, that's what I imagined and what you put things in imagination they're going to come true.

Sally Hendrick (38:36):

Yes. I agree with you. And I think it's, I think. It's coming. I don't know how long it's going to take. It's going to be a lot of work. There's going to be a lot to do, but it's going to feel right.

Pip Seymour (38:46):

And that's the thing. I think one of the things that we all have to walk away doing is to try to try something different, to try a little bit harder, to have uncomfortable conversations. I have one scheduled for next week too, to start to understand a little bit more of the worlds and, and so more friendships. Oh my God, the opportunities are endless when we help one another. So giving back, helping people, feed people, food banks, super important. Like we're making sure that we are, every time we buy food, we're giving some food to the food banks because we know more people are going to need it than ever.

Sally Hendrick (39:24):

Yeah. That's good. That's good.

Pip Seymour (39:27):

You got to try to do your part. The littlest thing matters, you know,

Sally Hendrick (39:31):

It does. And then the bigger things will come. The teaching, the support, just acknowledging that this exists is big deal is huge because it gives people confidence that they can step forward. And that they're not that, that, that they're not going to get beat up along the way. So hard. They're going to have a layer of protection.

Pip Seymour (40:01):

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all be ourselves and be loved for it and, and be propped up versus pushed down. So, yeah. I hope to be the proper upper I'm like. Yeah. Yes. So for the proper upper, I just love talking to you. I love talking to you. I really appreciate all the things you're doing and, and for, you know, showing your cause because it's hard to stand up and shout for something that you believe in because you want people to accept you. But, so here's a couple of things. I'm a vegetarian and I love it. And I'm a vegetarian because I don't like how they treat animals in that situation. However, I'm not against you. If you're a meat eater, that's okay. And I don't need to change you. So that's one thing. I have a lot of gay friends. I have women friends that have turned into men.

Pip Seymour (40:59):

I have men friends that have turned into women. I, you know, I support environmentalism. I support gay people. I support LBGQ. It was a less free, it was less letters before LGBTQ. It was less before. So I do apologize. Like I am supporter of green energy of saving animals of helping people. So yes. And I'm going to start standing up and saying it, cause I've kept that behind closed doors. And it's not because I want anybody to feel bad or like, they should be like me, but because I want to be myself and have that feel

Sally Hendrick (41:38):

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes you have to do that and you will get attacked for it here and there. But you also have to just say your truth. It's just the way it is.

Pip Seymour (41:49):

Yeah. Right. And so, yeah. And I mean, attack, you know, hopefully we can grow from that. All of us. Right. I know it's easy to be mean online. It's also easy not to pay attention and delete comments.

Sally Hendrick (42:02):

Yup. And delete friends and delete friends. Yeah. Yeah. I've done that. I've done that too, but I don't want to, I don't want an emotional response. Every time I open up my Facebook, I would just be like,

Pip Seymour (42:14):

Right. Yeah. I try to keep Facebook fun and light. And then, you know, the real conversations happen really between in messenger a lot. Right. So the dark, dark social, they call it the dark social.

Sally Hendrick (42:34):

Yes. Well, it's been great talking with you and thank you so much for doing this with me and we'll get this out for the world to hear,

Pip Seymour (42:43):

Oh my God, I can't wait to send me a link. I'll share it everywhere. Yeah. And thank you. Thank you so much for doing what you do and being just so wonderful.

Sally Hendrick (42:53):

Thank you. Thank you Pip.

Sally Hendrick (43:04):

Thank you for listening today. Subscribe to this podcast, to hear all our episodes go to shoutyourcause.com to our podcast page for information on our guests and notes from this show.