She started a foundation in her daughter's name called the Elisa Andrew Burn Foundation, and they were responsible for catapulting stop, drop, and enroll into schools welcome back to The Art of Connecting Podcast. This is your host here, Haydynn, back with another episode for you guys. And today I have my good friend on with me here, autumn Ruch. And me and Autumn met at a conference called Raise Fest that a guy named Hunter puts on and I was there to raise money for my fund. It turned out no investors were there whatsoever. It was all people looking to raise money to. But I made some amazing connections with people and Autumn was one of those connections. So I'm so glad that you're on the show today. Yeah. Thank you for having me. I am, I'm excited. I'm excited to be here. Me too. I, I feel like this is much awaited. You scheduled this show like a month ago. I know. Usually like when I, usually when people schedule, it's like a week later. We're on, we're on camera together. But yeah, auto made me wait. I like to build the anticipation. Absolutely. You're just too busy. You're too busy. You gotta make sure we, we book a month out. I'm so busy just doing busy boss work, you know? You know how it is. Oh, absolutely. If you don't mind, autumn, if you'll go ahead and just introduce yourself to the audience and let people know what you do. Yeah, I mean, that's such a loaded question. What do you do? Because I feel like I do so many different things and I'm in so many different avenues, but yeah. My name is Autumn, autumn Roush. First off, I own a, I co-own a business with two other people called Great Stone Wealth. It is, has three like branches. It's really like tax planning, investments and insurance. And mostly property and casualty insurance, which is like the branch that I run. And then besides the business I'm a filmmaker. I am directing a documentary right now about the family origin story of stop, drop and roll. The first ever cases stop, drop on roll was my dad when he was a kid. So yeah, I'm creating a whole documentary I've been working on for like almost a decade now. So, yeah, just I'm, I'm someone who really enjoys the arts and wants to continue doing art and film. And I also happen to own a business. So while you were talking about your film, which we talked about pretty, we talked pretty well at length at the at the fireside chat we had. Yeah. I was thinking of my friend Isaiah, who I went to. He just un, un. Unveil or what do you call it when you finish a film and you, like, he just premiered it? Is it like, yeah, sure. We'll go with that. It's on angel Studios. It's Angel Studios picked it up. Oh, wow. And so we went to his open house, whatever you call it. I, I don't premier the film Premier. It's film premiere. Yeah. Yeah. So we went to that and me and him work out at the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday, here at the office. So I'm gonna connect you to him so you guys can talk. Yeah. Yeah. So I came out What? And you said it's angel Studios picked it up? Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's called oh gosh, what was it called? It has it was, it was the, the, he was the director. The producer was like some really famous guy that wrote a book. I can't think of the name it off the top of my head. I'll send it to you after this. Yeah, perfect. Because it was really good. It was about like, it was about quiet, totalitarianism. So the, the theme behind it was how totalitarianism had taken over in other countries in, in Europe and, and how like governments basically quieted their people and made them do what they wanted. And how that's starting to happen again, but it's not like in your face. Mm-hmm. It's just more like mm-hmm. The radar. Mm-hmm. And so it was really it was Think Not by Lies, I think is what it was called. Oh, that's really fascinating. It's like the quiet, slow brainwashing of like, of a whole like mass population where you're just like, people start to just follow along slowly. Yes. But yeah, exactly. It's Live Not by Lies. Season one is cool. Yeah. And it was really cool'cause it was talking about Big Brother and stuff, and I'm reading the book Big Brother right now. And so, Oh really? Yeah, it was, it's but yeah, I'll connect you to Zay. He ran the whole thing. JD Vance was at their unveiling. Shapiro was hanging out. It was really cool. Yeah. The premiere. Yeah. Screening. It was like a screening. Yeah. I like the, I like unveiling. I'm gonna start using that. Yeah. I mean, you're basically like taking the veil off of your film. Unveiling of my bill. Yeah. It's like way more like magical sounding sounds way cooler. I think you should just change the name, right. Start saying that. Come to the unveiling. Perfect. Yeah. So I'll connect you with him. Art of connecting automatically, like shot through my head. You guys would be a great, you know, great connection. Nice. Cool. So I wanna talk first about the business. Yeah. I typically kind of do that and then we'll stray into life in a little bit. There's no schedule to this, you know, we're just hanging out, having a conversation. So let's talk about the business. How did you end up getting into financial services, wealth planning? It, I kind of stumbled into it, to be honest. I, in 2020, I like just really wanted to change careers. I wanted to like, to be honest, like what I really wanted was residual income and I needed, I wanted to figure out a way to do that, to help people and to like really to create, to create an income stream so that I can. Have my, have freedom to, to create my own finance or to create my own, like creative projects, to do my own creative projects to, and to not just be like beholden to a desk job. My dad is in He owns a mortgage and real estate company. And he, although he's like, he just talks on the phone for a living, he has to always constantly be on the phone all day long. And he has since I was a kid. And so he was telling me like, oh, like I have like all these friends and insurance and they've created that residual income for themselves and you should learn how to do it. And so it started with insurance and so I, yeah, so I got my health insurance license and my life insurance license, and then I got into like the world of Medicare and like helping seniors get on Medicare. And I was really like. Started with my grandmother who was just like confused and needed help. And then I, like I found a mentor, which I think is really important when getting into anything is just finding someone who's better at it than you and who's been doing it for a long time and just like getting a blueprint and doing exactly what they've done. So yeah, I found a mentor in like the Medicare world for a while. His name was Greg and he actually. He was just like creating residual income for himself. He had like barely needed to. To even get new clients. He still did. But he did it through sending these booklets out, these very personalized booklets out to people every month. That would just like make sense of everything that's going on in Medicare because it's a very convoluted thing. And these people, when you turn 65 or just getting like high, like your mailbox is just getting hijacked by all of this promotional Medicare type stuff, it's like hard to know which. Wrote to navigate. And so he just sent them like a very personalized booklet and it worked. And so I started doing that. I started like sending out my own booklets. I started like growing in that field and like learning about that and helping people in that. And then of course, like my dad came back to me again and he's like, you know, I have all these clients that I'm working with that, are needing, homeowner's insurance, liability insurance, business insurance, like all these things, you should also get that license. And so I was okay. So I went and I got my property and casualty license. And then of course again, found a mentor in that business, and I'm actually still working with that mentor now. He's an attorney, his name is Dawn. And he did like very niche, very niche p and c insurance for people who are spending like astronomical amounts of money on their insurance premiums and basically like creating their own business for them and running the insurance through it and paying people on their own insurance through our commissions. So that's a very like high level overview of that. But yeah, so I started doing that. And then I, I just honestly, my story is just me, meeting more mentors in like me learning more, like grow. So I, I did that for a while and then I had my life insurance license too, and I wanted to learn how to leverage that and who was the best in that. And so I met another guy and he's like a family friend and he owned a financial advising firm. Called WD Wealth and you know, I had been talking to him for like a couple years, just like I would stop in sometimes I would ask him questions. I'm trying to learn and grow in this field. I. And eventually, you know, I brought up PNC and like maybe adding a branch to their business and then he ended up hiring me. And so I, am now hired at this financial advising firm, even though I started in this like insurance realm. Because what they did at that financial advising firm was a lot of life insurance and infinite banking strategy and insurance for investment purposes, not just the death benefit purposes. So I was starting to learn about that. So I got hired there as like a paraplanner is what they called the role. And I was like working under financial advisors. And just started learning about the financial advising world and then taking tests in the financial advising world and getting licensed in that world. And so yeah, it's just kind, I, I feel like I just, through knowing people through mentorship, through just like talking to people and getting out there and trying to learn stuff I like inadvertently ended up in the financial advising world and then met all the people that I now own this business with at that firm. And we all left and started our own firm. Wow. Yeah. That's a heck of a story. Yeah. So I want to, the first thing that popped to my head as you were talking is how did you get connected to your first mentor? The Medicare guy that did the booklets? Yeah. Family friend, I just leveraged, so my dad being owning a. Mortgage and real estate company, it does help in some ways. I'm, I, it's not like they worked together in any, in any way, but I think that when you own a business, you cross paths with other, entrepreneurs, it just happens. And so yeah, they were just they were just neighbors. And my dad started talking to him, and then I just was I, he, my dad suggested to me Hey, maybe you should go into this. And so I reached out to him myself and just started learning and he was luckily willing to talk to me about it. And so, yeah, that's, it happened. Just family friend. Something you just said there really stood out to me, and that is when you own a business. You just automatically cross paths with other entrepreneurs. Yeah. And did, did you ever work in a, like W2 role where you were in the job? Yeah, I remember my W2 days and I felt like I was, I almost never met business owners.'cause when you're in your W2 you too, you're in an alternate reality almost like you, you're 40 hours of your day. Or not 40 hours your day, 40 hours of your week are taken up by this thing where that's all you think about. And then the rest of the time you get to figure out how to fill it. And that's, you know, if you have a family, a lot of times it's family and then you get a few hours to yourself and that's literally it. So if you were getting into this again, and you were in your W2 role, how would you surround yourself with business owners if you had to have that time commitment into your W2? Yeah, I talk about this with my friends too all the time. I would just start going to networking events. That's honestly how I, how I started meeting people within a W2 role. Still, because I was at that financial firm, like that was a W2 role. But I knew that I wanted to branch out and I knew that it, I wasn't, I wasn't meeting all the people I was going to meet at that place. It was it's its own little, bubble in your own, its own little ecosphere that if you never leave, you just never meet, meet different kinds of people. So I just started going, I started looking up on Meetup. Networking events. I just, I'm like, oh, okay, this is a free networking event. It's just at a brewery. Actually literally earlier today I connected someone who lives in San Diego'cause my dad wants to start investing in things in San Diego'cause it's just growing so rapidly right now. And someone that I met at a networking event, you know, while still in a W2 position, is this big investor there and is very well connected and I connected. Them this morning just because I thought about it and they hopped on a call within like 30 minutes of me contacting them, reaching out to them. So yeah, meet up is great. Just like goog, literally Google networking events near me and start going, just start meeting people. Yeah. Yeah. Facebook events too is another amazing. That's where half of my attendees come from is Facebook. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I wish it was like some actually I don't wish that because it's the thing is like, it really is way more simple than I think a lot of us make it. Like you just have to walk outside. You have to walk out your door. You have to start meeting people that are not in your ecosphere. If you don't wanna be somewhere, then like just. Leave, go somewhere else and meet the people who are doing the things you wanna do and just start learning from them. Hmm. That's great advice. It sounds so simple. Yeah. But I feel like oftentimes we're afraid to offend somebody or lose friends, people who we think are friends. I use air quotes there for those that are listening to audio that aren't even our friends, they. As soon as you stop benefiting them, they would go away. Right? And so we've gotta it's hard. It was really hard for me at first to walk away from a lot of the people that were, that I didn't even realize, but they were just holding me in that same pattern of going to work, getting the check, going back to work, going to school, going to the bar, going back to work. That was my routine. And so it was really difficult to break out. Yeah. Do what? I just have to decide you don't wanna be stuck in that same routine anymore. My sister, my sister, one time she gave me this word or this phrase and I would, I started saying it to myself and it was really helpful. But it's quantum leap, like she's like, all it takes is start making little decisions every day that you normally wouldn't make and watch within like six months. How much has actually changed? Like, Hmm. Go talk to that person. You're, your inner self that you've like that, that you have created at this point in your life, like through all your experiences and everything you've told yourself up to this point, says no, but do something that you normally would say no to, and just, just do it. Go talk to that person. Like see what happens. You know? And like I feel like that's helped me so much is just. Just a one little, two second thing of courage to get outta your comfort zone. Even if you're stumbling on your words, even if you don't know what to say, it starts to get better the more you do it and and you can just watch your life change in front of you. So, yeah, I, I was just at a conference that was, that I was telling you with Yami last weekend, and there was probably about 40, 50 people there. It was a two day conference and it was very intimate. You know, 40, 50 people is, you know, it's decent, but it's not unbearable where there's so many people there, race fest where you have like 3000 people there. So the speakers were all mixed in with the group and I just kind of I love to sit back and just kind of watch sometimes and then. Some eventually, it's kind of funny. By the end of the event, all the speakers were coming to me and we were Hey, we need to link up. We need to talk, you know, I've heard about your event. I've heard about you from this person and that person. But in the beginning I just kind of sit in the back and just kind of hang out and wait and just talk to people. Mm-hmm. And it's funny'cause I watched most of the attendees they just didn't interact with the speakers. They, the speakers would be sitting there hanging out and. They wouldn't go and talk to them, they would just sit in their table and scroll on their phone in the breaks or yeah. That's wild. A lot of times though, that's not because they don't wanna talk to those people, it's because they're afraid to. Yeah. I've been, I felt it. And I've been, that's the thing. I've been there. I'm afraid to talk to them too. I just do it anyway. Yeah. And sometimes, sometimes you sound dumb and that's okay. It's like standup comedy, you know? You get up on stage and you're going to bomb at some point, you're gonna bomb. But that's part of the journey, You have to, in order to get better, like you have to go up to someone and be like, hello. You know, in order to just be okay, that wasn't even that bad. Let's just keep going. And then you realize that every single person is just a human. They're just a person. No matter how much money they have, no matter what they've done, it's another person, right? Yeah, they put their pants on the same way as we do. Yeah. And most of the time they're actually interested in what you're doing, right? So I, I watched when people would interact with the speakers. They're like, oh, that's awesome. What are you doing? Oh, I'm investing in two properties, nothing like you. And it's like, no, you're doing great. Yeah, I, I had, I've had someone, I have, I have a, I have on the phone with a a, an investor. It's gonna be putting into our fun suit. And he was like, I'm not a big fish like you. I was like, dude, I'm a minnow, a min, I'm a, I was like. Hey. I mean, I was thinking in my head, I was like, you're the one who's putting 250,000 into my fund and I'm the one fundraising. But it's so funny how we like in our heads, just because we see someone doing things that we want to do, we put them into this hierarchy of where we, you know, in our heads, and I'm guilty of it too. It happens to all of us, but we think oh, this person's like way up here. Mm-hmm. And then in reality you go have a conversation and you're like, oh. That guy's just a dude or that girl's just a gal. Yeah, they're chill. And I think, I think for me, and this is actually something, me and my co-founder, Kimberly, she's awesome. We're actually, we're writing a book right now about your, like left brain, right brain. The creative, the creative, authentic self that you bring is like such a benefit to business. And like, I think a lot of people. And especially like where I'm at, like in film and art, in painting, whatever, artists feel like, you know, that's just not my bag. I don't know how to do that. You know? And then it can be intimidating to go in a room full of like a bunch of black tie type suit people and like talk about something that you're not super familiar with, but I think it's like you being the different one in the room and your brain working like different is what makes you interesting and what makes you stand out in business. So I think just like leaning into that is so important. I've had so many people, even just at the conference last weekend, that were like, I saw you in your Hawaiian shirt. And I was like, what the hell is that dude doing? He looks like an idiot. Yeah. He was like, that's how he, he was in the beginning I was like, he was like, I was just thinking in my head like that guy, why is he dressed in a Hawaiian shirt? And then he was like, then I thought about it for a second. I was like, that guy's a freaking genius. Yeah. Because I'm never gonna not be able to see him in that room. And like, and he was like, and he's a brand strategist, so he's the one who built yamo from, like, helped her build her account from 1500 followers to 150,000 and to build her mastermind and her brand and stuff. And he was like, we had a meeting the other week, last this week and he wants to start working with me to build the brand.'cause he was like, he, he was like, that's super smart. Like he, he, he thought through it and he was like, I know what you're doing. Yeah. And there's some times where I'm like. Looking around a room, I'm like, I feel like an idiot.'cause I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt. I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, what am I doing? Yeah, guy next to me is an Armani suit and I'm just here wearing my Hawaiian shirt and you know, and then That's authentic though. Yeah. Then I go talk to that person. They're like, dude, I wish I could just wear a shirt like that. And I'm like, why can't you? And they're like, I know, it's like, where, who's, who's telling us that we can't, like, where are these rules coming from? Yeah. He's like, oh, the image, like, blah, blah, blah. And then I'd like just started to realize that image is just, that it's something that's stale on a screen, right? When you look at an image, there's no vo, there's no, there's no depth. It's, it's 2D, there's no depth. Right? Yeah. And so we care so much about our image that we forget that we're all people. Right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's important to remember, no matter who you're talking to, no matter who you're talking to, and regardless if you're gonna make money off of them or with them or whatever it is, you're talking to a human being. So. So I, I want to ask this'cause you deal with a lot of wealthy people. So when you meet with a lot of wealthy people,'cause I, I know we're on the clothing, I wanna kind of talk about this. Yeah. What is their appearance usually like? Are they usually super dressed up, wearing suits and ties? Are they wearing oh, they're short, so casual, a t-shirt or what does that usually look like? Oh, hey there. It's me again. I know you expected Morgan Freeman to come on and talk about the biggest company in the world. Well, I'm sorry, but you get the next best thing. This show is sponsored by the company that I co founded, Acadia Capital, and acadia is a hard money lending fund originating loans in Southeast Tennessee and Northern Georgia on residential one to four unit renovation properties. We are regulation D five Oh six C fund and are actively seeking accredited investors. We provide fantastic first position real estate back returns. If you're ready to get your tired and lazy capital to work with a minimum 8 percent return, go to Acadia loans. com backslash invest. Not only do we accept standard investments, but we can also accept self directed IRAs and other self directed retirement accounts to take advantage of tax advantage investing. Thank you so much for listening to art connecting now back to the show. I feel like mostly people are casual, as really wealthy people. Really wealthy people are casual, you know, new money, wealth is pretty dressed up. Old money wealth. They don't care. Yeah, and that's great. One time I met Rick Rubin, who is like this huge producer, music producer, and I thought he was a homeless guy. I'm not even kidding. I. I was like, who wants that? They were like, that was Rick Rubin. He, it was like some event, I was working some audio event and he was there checking out the audio, the, the speakers and stuff. And he's just in basketball shorts and slit slides and a t-shirt. And his hair was kind of a wreck and. So it's that's where, that's what I aspire to get to is like that kind of money. We're I really don't care. I don't care. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was I was with one of my mentors, he owns a bunch of hotels in town and we were walking in his 400 room hotel and it was the first time I'd ever seen him not wearing a suit. He's 74 years old, so Ken is always wearing a suit. Yeah. And and he wasn't wearing a suit that day. He had khakis on and a, a, not an undershirt, but nicer than an undershirt, but a white T-shirt material. Yeah. I was like, Ken. I've never not seen you in a suit. And he turns around with a scowl on his face. He goes, I've never seen you in a suit. We need to change. That was so funny. Have you, have you ever worn suits to events? Have, did you ever start like being like, okay, I need to dress up, or you were just back in the day. Yeah. Yeah. Back in the day. I, I mean, I wouldn't wear it to like a, a normal networking event. I would usually wear a polo and like khakis, you know, just business casual. I worked at the insurance company that I did, so Yeah. And then now I'd wear, if I have to wear a suit, if it's a black tie event mm-hmm. I wear my suit jacket over the shirt. Oh my gosh. Yeah, with with nice dress pants. Yeah. And nice dress shoes. Yeah. I literally still, I think I, I don't remember, I think it was in my Orange, Puerto Rico shirt or this one, but I wore a shirt exactly like this to go to the governor's mansion and meet with the governor of Tennessee. Just because it's my thing, right? And some people say, I look gay what someone gay would wear, but yeah. Why is that gay? Whatever. I, I don't know. They probably, I don't know. But anyways, I wore that and anytime that suit tie, this is my, I just literally, I put my suit jacket on over this and people love it. It's like, well, they love it or hate it. And if they hate it, they don't tell me, but they, they, most people love it. Yeah. Weed people quickly. That's the thing. It is. That's a, it's like you're, you be so, you you be, yeah. So you that anything that's not you, it just falls away. Yeah. So you that anything that's just not, that's not me. Cool. At least we have this information like right up the right off the bat. I, we don't have to pretend the people who know me and who respect me and who I get it, will get it. So yeah, think about Alex Hor moey. He was talking about how he took his private jet into Vegas to go to this private event and he, he knew that the dress code was like you had to have whatever on at this, at this restaurant. Yeah, he was like, I'm not getting outta my tank top and Gem shorts. Like, this is what I wear. And they wouldn't let him in, Alex or Mozy. And so and he was I'm not gonna change my principles and my outfit to go and hang out with Rich Nudie people. So he got back on his jet and went home and good for you. What a flex. You know, it's like, I, I really I hope to embrace that same type of mentality because. I'm gonna be the best connector if I'm being myself, right? Yeah. And if I feel I'm wearing the clothes that I would wear and, and have the appearance that I would have, I always feel so much better when I go and connect with people at a pool party. Everyone was wearing khakis and polos, and I had my shirt off laying by the pool. I was the only one with my shirt off at this event. I was like, it's a pool party. Yeah. Well, it's just so freeing, when you decide to live like that and you're just you know what? People who get it will get it. And like, and I do think, like I, I think we're very blessed to live in a world The entrepreneurial world is like growing and it's not as stiff anymore and you don't have to like follow an exact guidebook. So I mean, that's really cool. And I'm I'm happy about that. And I think that as like the younger generations like start to take over, it's like we're gonna start seeing that and feeling that more Is that authenticity is welcome and just, you know, we care more about The content and the value that you're bringing rather than your appearance. So yeah, I love that. All right, I'll stop talking about clothes now. Okay. I wanted to ask about the film, and we talked about this for probably an hour, I feel like. But I'm really would love to talk about the inspiration behind the film, what you're working on and how it's going. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, the, the doc, this is a documentary I started probably seven years ago now. The inspiration behind it is my family because, you know, ever since I was a kid, my dad's has scars on half of his face, and I've always known the story since I was a kid, very, you know, on a surface level, I could tell kids why, why does your dad have scars on his face? And. It was, you know, you know, he was in a fire when he was a kid and you know, his sister ended up dying in the fire at eight years old. And, you know, and then my uncle, who was 10 years old, grabbed him, threw him to the ground and saved his life. And yeah. And then that was the first ever recorded case of stop, drop and roll. So it's I always knew that it was like this, folklore type family story, but I knew it because I would get asked why my dad had scars on his face, you know? So as I got older and I connected more with the story and I connected more with my grandmother, really who I'm so truly blessed to still have in my life. She's 87. But I started, when I moved to California, I moved there for film and acting. So that was nine years ago now. And so it was really just I was out, I was auditioning, I was doing stuff, and then I decided I'm the one in the family. Who's in film and someone has to make a movie about this. So I guess it's gonna be me. So yeah, I just started connecting with my grandma more, connecting with the story more learning about it. Interviewing. I just started by myself, interviewing people and my family. I've always loved interviewing people and learning about people and hearing people's stories. And the fact that this was my own family story obviously added a whole nother layer of interest for me. So yeah, it was like it all started as this hero story, my grandma started a foundation. So a quick overview, backyard barbecue. Grandfather was barbecuing. Flame jumped into a can of kerosene, exploded. Lit. My dad and his sister on fire. My dad was five, his sister was eight. My uncle who was 10, the oldest, grabbed my dad and ther to the ground, put the fire out immediately. My aunt kept running till her whole body was on fire. They were, she was finally put out with a blanket. They were both rushed off to the hospital. My dad obviously survived. My aunt ended up passing away at eight years old in the hospital after six to eight weeks or something. My grandma, who is grieving very heavily and pregnant, which I, I always mention that because it's That just adds another layer to the, to the grief, I think, and to the emotions of it all. She started a foundation in her daughter's name called the Elisa Andrew Burn Foundation, and they were responsible for catapulting stop, drop, and enroll into schools across the nation. So this foundation is still around. I'm a camp counselor there. It's, I'm actually gonna be going there in a few weeks. A camp counselor for burn survivor children, ages five to 17. And it's really cool. It's a really powerful thing. Getting to see those children who are burn survivors. It's kind of, it kind of came full circle for me, having like these five-year-old kids get off the bus who are burn survivors and they get to be at this camp where they just get to be kids and they don't have to think about their scars or what's hurt them or any of that. They, they just get to have fun and be kids. And so these five-year-olds get off the bus and I'm like. Oh my gosh. That's how old my dad was. He was a baby. He was a child. He was still very much a human and aware of everything that's going on, but he was a kid and he went through so much and he didn't have this camp. He didn't have, he didn't have all those resources. Can have all of that. So it just opened up a whole Pandora's box of questions and more curiosity and you know, talking to my grandma and me being okay, this is a documentary kind of revolves on my grandma and she's this hero and this is hero origin story of how she you know, beauty from the ashes, like Phoenix rising outta the ashes kind of thing. And I told her how do you feel? That you started this foundation and it inadvertently saved all these lives and stuff. And she just said, oh, that's not gonna bring my daughter back, is it? And it was this mic drop moment of oh my gosh, this story is not about, the story is not a hero story. It is not a villain story. It's just a story about grief and. How different people walk through it and how some people just never fully deal with it. And generational grief and how people who weren't even born yet when a tragedy happens are still feeling the aftermath of it. So that's where I kind of came in and I started to become more a part of the documentary. And it's the story through my lens and how it's affected me, and how it's gone through the generations and. How it's still affecting my dad and how it's still affecting my grandma. And just kind of learning about epigenetics, which is the study of how your experiences affect your genes and then you pass those genes down. And so yeah, it's, that's, that's kind of the overview of the whole thing. And when are you expected to have it out? This year we're finishing it. We have been, we have been filming so much. We have so much footage, honestly. And we're just at the point where we wanna just put something out there regardless of it's perfect or not.'cause I think we've kind of let some, perfectionism head hold us back or getting the right funding, hold us back or all of that. So. We've gotten chunks of funding and we've, we film with it and then we'll get another chunk of funding. Then we'll film with it. And I think at this point, we're really okay with it being this really artsy type film. We're we were gonna use animation to do a lot of thenar, to narrate it a lot. And I'm the narrator voice and I'm using a lot of poetry'cause I write poetry and that's a lot of how, I express. You know what's going on internally with me, and so yeah, it's gonna be. Done this year, and we're just gonna put together, the last chunk of filming is happening like next month with, I'm gonna do so I've gotten so much with my grandma, so now it's gonna, I'm gonna start filming with the younger generations a little bit with my cousins and stuff because, you know, they're affected by it all too. And it's kind of cool to see the generations healing together and stuff. I just recently did art therapy with my dad and grandma a couple months ago and that was really powerful. So now I'm gonna do some art therapy with my cousins. And then we're gonna film some Champ Camp stuff, which is the, the burn survivor camp. And then we're just gonna finish it this year. It's gonna be done. So keep your eye out. You can check it out at stop, drop and roll film.com too. There's a trailer that people can watch. Yeah, that sounds fantastic. And I'll connect you with Isaiah. Yeah. Maybe he can provide some resources for you too, to help make it reality. Yeah. For sure. That's awesome. Well, cool. So I wanna ask you a few more questions about, you know, kind of how connections have helped you in your, you know, your life and your business. So I kinda wanna go to Hollywood'cause we had some interesting conversations about your time in Hollywood and going to some parties and stuff like that. So, when you first got to Hollywood. How did you get jobs'cause I know that could be really difficult. How did you go and find work? I mean, I worked in the service industry. I served tables, so that's how I survived. And then I. How would I meet people is honestly, I, acting class was huge. I loved my acting class. I met so many people through their, I honed in on my craft and then those people will be going out to parties and they'll be like, you know, I see something in you. And then they'll plug you into an audition or plug you in, and then you have to, then you have to go and look for agents and people to represent you. And there's that. It's, it feels like a big, it does feel like a big game. And I think at that age, I. I was just way more sensitive to rejection. I built walls way quickly and it's just so silly because it's the job that you cannot be that sensitive to rejection because the job is rejection. The job is constant rejection. And so I think that me creating my own projects became such a big motivator for me because I was like, I don't even like these projects. These people are making, I don't even, you don't want to use me in your project. I don't even wanna be in your project. There was a lot of that kind of attitude. And to be honest, I still have some of that mentality where I'm I do wanna create my own projects. I have so many stories to tell. I have, I am writing a screenplay and I am directing a documentary and I do. Still love acting and I think it's so much fun. But the attitude has shifted more. But yeah, when I was there, I hated what I thought was networking. Now I know I love networking, but at the time I thought networking just meant pretending to like people that I didn't like and having to go to parties I didn't really wanna be at and pretend to be these girls or these guys or these Hollywood types that I just really didn't fit in with. Well. Don't get me wrong, I fit in with the artsy type, I fit in with the actors. I fit in with the kind of like out casty type. But there was a level of. I felt like competitiveness in Hollywood, especially with women and especially with just how you needed to look all at all times and with fashion and with your weight. Especially'cause I was in the modeling world too, a little bit and like there was a lot of you're never skinny enough and you're never the, you're never enough. It felt like you were never ever enough. And so it was a lot of picking your, picking myself apart, picking other people apart, realizing that. There was so much darkness in it. There was truly a lot of dark. And as I'm in business and I'm realizing, you know, oh, we wanna just attribute those qualities to Hollywood. But you know, it's, it's here, it's now too. It's in this world too. It's in everywhere. It's in every industry that you go into. Hollywood is very saturated with it. A lot of you know just, just people using people to get somewhere. But it's, it happens now and so in, in finance and insurance and all of it. So I think what I learned about that world and be, and connecting with people in that world is just finding your people. And so that's what I learned to, that's what I learned to do. At the beginning. I just I found my people that I really enjoyed. There was a handful of them, and I just hung out with them. And I knew that, if I found something that was, you know, good for them, I would try and plug them in and vice versa. And it just you, you find people that, you, you feel like you can be yourself with and you feel like you can trust. And then I still have those people in my life. I don't really lose, it's really hard for me to lose friends because I, I don't, I pick really good people to be around. Mm-hmm. And that's something I've, I will pat myself on the backboard.'cause I haven't always made the best decisions, but I've made, I have really good friends in my life, so I think that's what I had to do. I just had to learn how to make friends there and real friends. And there wasn't a million of them. There was like a handful. So yeah. Hmm. Yeah. That's so awesome. Thanks for telling that story. Yeah. That's I'm sure there's plenty of like, lots of people resonated with that. You go into a room and you just feel like I. You're not being yourself. Yeah. You know, because you have to, because it's just part of the industry. It's part of whatever. Yeah. Your mask when in reality Yeah. Yeah. You're creating a mask, you mm-hmm. When reality, that's not how you have to live. No, no. And it's so Oh my goodness. How good does it feel just to be like just to be yourself and to say whatever comes to your mind. And to be silly, because the goofy, silly, like laughter se like, is really who I am at my core. And like if I can do that, if I can connect with people at that level, like that, guttural, laughter, silliness level, I'm like, we're good. The business stuff will happen, because I trust you and I know that like we can connect on that level together. So it's that's who, those are the kinds of people I wanna be in the room with and I think for a long time. Even until like a year ago, I feel like I compromised a lot and I'd be like, you know, I would leverage myself in a way that didn't feel good. okay, well I'm a woman and this guy, I don't know what his intentions are, but he's gonna, he's gonna let me in this room because maybe I'm like a pretty girl or something, you know? And like, but then I'll use that. And I'll be like, okay, well then invest in this because of, because you, I don't know what you're trying to, I don't know what your intentions are, but I'm just gonna pretend that those are intentions aren't there. And here, here's this, you should invest in this and then I'm gonna try and make money off of you. And it became like dirty money, it felt like. It felt like there were strings attached to that money. And so I just am in the place now that if I feel like there's any ulterior motives that I just, I just wanna, I'll release it. I you know, we've talked about, that prayer where you're you slam shut the doors that are meant to be shut and you open the doors that are meant to be open. God, Please, I surrender that because I don't, I don't wanna perpetuate this kind of mindset. I don't want my daughter one day to think that that's what she has to do in order to be successful in life. And I think it's really easy to be, no, it's not easy to be a woman at all, but it's easy to leverage being a woman sometimes in a very male dominated. Business world because there are weird people and there are weird intentions and you can be like, well, you know, whatever. I'm gonna use that. And I'm gonna see, I'm gonna, I'm gonna leverage myself in that and I'm gonna have them invest with me because, because whatever, whatever they think, I don't care. I'm just gonna pretend that it's not there. But it's it is there and it, and it does perpetuate a narrative of people can use money to manipulate you. Or to put you in a situation that you're even slightly uncomfortable in, I just don't want to, I don't want any part of that anymore. So I wanna be around people where I can fully be myself and fully feel you know, we're all here for each other to help each other and there's no weird intentions. So I think that's something I've actually recently learned. It took me a very long time to learn that. So. Hmm. That's awesome. Well, we've come up on our time here, so I wanna ask you our final question, and that is, what is a connection to a person or group of people that changed the trajectory of your life or business? Yeah, that's a, it's a, I've thought about this question a lot because I feel like. There's so many people that have changed the tra trajectory of my life. But I'm gonna, yeah, shout out my, my co-owners of my business now, Moog and Kimberly. You know, me stumbling into the world of finance, felt really weird and I was why am I here? And Kimberly, she was such a cool boss. I just remember being I feel this way. I can, I could talk to her about anything. And her leaving that company was the reason why we have this company now because she, there was, there was stuff going on in that company that we all of us felt uncomfortable about and we were starting to feel like, okay, we need to, we need to maybe step, step out of this. And Kimberly was the breaking point, for us to leave. She was the one that was I'm starting something new. And I was like, I'm gonna start it with you because you are such a good leader. That you made me want to do, go wherever you're going and to and she's not only the type of leader. And same with Moog. Like we both, we both felt that, and Moog was such a good teacher, but Kimberly was the type of leader that wasn't I want you to stay under me. She was type of leader that put her hand out and brought you up with her. And so. That now we're, we're in business together and we've learned so much all of us together. Moog's a, a certified financial planner and he's really deep in that finance world. So it's really cool that we can balance each other out. And Kimberly is this CEO type, but she's also an artist and she went to school for painting. And so it just feels like such serendipity that I've met these people at that firm at that time and now we started our own business together. So. I just think it's a testament to connection and relationships. Hmm. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It has been. Yeah. So fun having time flies by on a podcast. I know. I feel like we just started talking. I'm oh my gosh. Did I talk too much? I'm sorry. That's the whole point of the podcast is I get you to talk. So that's the whole reason why we're here. But yeah, so if people want to catch up with you or if they have questions or wanna learn more about what you do, where can people get connected with you? Yeah, absolutely. So you can get connected with us through great Stone wealth.com. There is, there's a Calendly link. You can book a meeting with us whenever, you know, and, you know, I like to tell people too, at our last firm, I feel like we worked with ultra high net worth people. And now we're at the point where we just wanna work with everyone. We wanna talk with you. If you need help, setting up a plan, we'll set up that plan with you. Because we've, you know, we started ex we started somewhere small and we've grown into this business and we wanna help other people do that too. So, yeah. So great Stone wealth.com and if you wanna check out the documentary, that is stop, drop and roll film.com. Awesome. Well, autumn, thanks so much for coming. It's been so much fun. Yeah. And guys, if you're still here listening to the show, I just wanna tell you, thank you so much. You listening to the show is the reason why I do it. If I didn't have listeners, it'd just be me. I. Having a conversation with my friends. So thankful that you're here, and if you can do me a favor, there's two things that I ask of you, and that is one, if you can leave a review for the show, a five star review. If you're on Spotify, it's up at the top. If you're on Apple Podcast, it's down at the bottom. And then also, if you can just share this episode with a friend or two, that's the best way for a podcast to grow naturally. So with all being said, thank you so much for listening to the Art of Connecting. I'll see you on the next episode. Thank you.