Emily Merrell  

Welcome to the sixth degree Podcast, the podcast where we grill our guests about the things that make them tick and find out how human connection plays a role in their life. I’m your host, Emily Merrill.

Hello, and welcome back to the sixth degree with Emily Merrill, the podcast where we grill our guests about the things that make them tick, and find out how human connection plays a role in their life. I’m your host, Emily, and today I am no I’m going to be laughing hysterically. I have Cheldin rumer CEO and executive producer of this isn’t network as today’s guest. Philip, welcome to the show. I’m already laughing. 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I know. Hi, how are you?

 

Emily Merrell  

I am so good. And you are just a ray of sunshine or a beautiful rainbow that I need to stop and admire. I can’t wait to just dive into so many. We’re gonna be like squirrels on this conversation.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I love it. I love it. It is well overdue. We spoke a while ago and we finally figured out some time to get together and I am so grateful. It’s gonna be so much fun. 

 

Emily Merrell  

I selfishly think I created a podcast so I can hang out with people and just have really funny conversations. 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

That’s the only reason I created a company. 

 

Emily Merrell  

Right? 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Yeah, 100% I get to literally meet new people all day long as if I’m having new conversations, meaning new, it’s selfish. 

 

Emily Merrell  

And then you get a charge your friends hang out with you. Right, you’re like, Oh, you you need my help.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I got I got it. I got it.

 

Emily Merrell  

Perfect. Well, so I had to think this was you know, I love to theme my podcast. And I pulled it from I was inspired by you, actually. So this is it is the theme of today’s podcast.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Oh, that makes me happy. This is it. It is not only symbolic, but the truth. This is it. This is all I’m doing.

 

Emily Merrell  

This is all we’ve got in our life. So why did you start a company and why did you call it this is it and take us way back to the origin story.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

So I am, there’s a lot of things. There’s a lot of things and we might touch on a couple of them. And so I proudly hit every checkmark you could possibly ever imagine. I am an immigrant. I was born in Sierra Leone, West Africa, Freetown absolutely wonderful, aggressively magical, West African family. I come from a family of complete academics. I’m the creative and everyone else has a doctorate or, you know, multiple master’s degrees. And I talk to myself on Facebook all day, our Thanksgiving conversations, right? It’s like how do people pay you like very confused as to what it is that I’m up to. But it’s always been a very much get there early leave late kind of work ethic and that has applied to everything both academically and career based as well as athletically. I was lucky enough to be a division one athlete, I played field hockey and ran track for LaSalle University in Philadelphia, which was absolutely wonderful. And I’m not gonna race you have noticed that was a long time ago, when I ran on purpose now I only run when people are chasing me

 

Emily Merrell  

when the tank

 

Cheldin Rumer  

and so that was really wonderful. I wanted to be on MTV, if you guys are might be those that are listening might be a little too young to remember when MTV had music videos. But for me, that was it. I used to watch MTV diligently and wanted to be in a bikini on spring break introducing Eminem, that was like my goal was to like introduce music videos and, and musicians and I went to LaSalle to study Media and Communications and, you know, was required to take an elective, and I had taken a marketing course and my advisor advised me to take marketing within the business within the business department. And I was like that’s how they make money. And the marriage between media and and marketing kind of started there. After graduation. I worked not in a sexy space I was selling advertisements help wanted ads for nurse practitioners cold calling that was not that was not a sexy lifestyle, but taught me the power of my voice and tone and inflection in sales. And so I believe everything and in every space happens for a reason. And But while that was happening not to age myself, but that was the height of the whole.com space. And so all of my guy friends from college launched comms at the time. So I’m getting went to school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so it was upcoming events.com, Philly tonight.com It was all of these cons that still exist and serve the community. I would leave my telemarketing for lack of a better term job from nine to five and from six o’clock until 2am. I’d work there launch parties and events with a clipboard and a headset. And I also begin to see again, if you put messages out into the world People will come. So I would send an email, and there’ll be a line around the block. And that was a very powerful thing to be able to invite someone and see that cause and effect that action based on what it is that you were doing. So I was reinforcing that during the day by cold calling, smiling and dialing, as we like to say. And then I was getting that again in the evening when we were utilizing the beginning of digital marketing, to be able to get people to show up for offline events. All of that to say I did that for quite some time. And then I opened the door. One of the toughest pieces of my life is when I decided that I wanted to own my own business and be an entrepreneur right out of the gate. And so I was driven by my guys with these calm spaces. And I can do it too. And very Jerry Maguire esque. I took my goldfish and left the telemarketing space. No one came with me. And I decided that I was going to start a printed magazine. Fast forward, I lost my shirt. No one could tell 21 year old Sheldon anything. I was like, I got this, I can do this. And I couldn’t and I didn’t. And I went home tail between my legs to my West African parents. It was not a good day.

 

Emily Merrell  

Oh my God, what did they say? What like? I mean, first and foremost. This is 2009 2000 up

 

Cheldin Rumer  

now. I’m 43. This is 2000 2000.

 

Emily Merrell  

Okay, so you weren’t so off base. So there was still printed magazines. That was not the crazy thing.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

It wasn’t the a track. I wasn’t trying to mass produce a track.

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, like Best of luck to you. When people told me they want to start a magazine now.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

But I wasn’t experienced enough to know you couldn’t tell 21 year old children, but I wasn’t. I had no idea. Like I wanted to make the publication pretty I didn’t realize that the advertising truly is what drove it. You know, and I didn’t understand the runway time like you have to be able to print a certain amount to get an adoption. And then the advertisers will come needless to say, Sheldon ran home. And so I grew up in Southern New Jersey. And so that was a little bit of a mess. Um, my father still to this day. So it was a pocket sized publication called our magazine Philadelphia’s guide to nightlife and lifestyle, please. And my father my West, by West African Father 76. He still has the magazines on his desk hasn’t

 

Emily Merrell  

printed it, you actually achieved like you’ve made it, you probably got to a point of completion for

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Four additions we have for four issues. It was crazy. It was just such a learning period and such an amazing space. And I went home to South Jersey. And then at that time, there was a casino that was that was launching for the first time in Atlantic City called Borgata hotel, casino and spa. And I lobbied difficultly and hard for a job. And when they opened they had 5000 employees and I was number 269. So I begged and pleaded and it was it was it’s actually a very beautiful story on how I got the job through networking. But it was it was a wonderful experience I traveled I went to my first Super Bowl at that time, I did a huge number of events and celebrity wrangling and all the beautiful fun stuff burnt out a bit and went home when I wanted to go back to Philadelphia. You know, though I love South Jersey, you know, I wanted to be in a metropolitan area. And I started IG creative from there. And so I do creative was a traditional PR marketing and graphic design firm. But we were working primarily with small business owners, primarily women. And what I found was, as you can tell, hopefully, if those that are listening, and my new friend Emily could probably feel it. By looking at me right now. I’m naturally energetic, and very much an extrovert. And what was really difficult for me to wrap my mind around is that I would be working with these small business owners. And I would ask them, let’s just say she’s a baker. And she had, you know, big sells chocolate chip cookies. And I said Why should someone buy your chocolate chip cookies versus someone else? And she could not part her lips to tell me you replaced the Baker with the woman who owns the bicycle shop could not tell me why you should buy the bicycles. You replaced the bicycle shop with the woman who sells the clothing. Why should somebody buy your jumpsuit? She can’t tell me and it was just this continuous space where I said there has to be an answer. There has to be a reason. I was booking these people on the Today Show and good morning, like good day Philadelphia and all these scenarios. And they would freeze and I would panic and I was like oh my gosh, you have to tell your story. So I pulled the camera from out of my desk. I was documenting things before documenting things was a thing. And I channeled my MTV VJ nervousness. And I said that I was going to you know, we’re just gonna practice. We’re just going to practice I’m going to get you comfortable in front of the camera. And this is it TV stem from that I would just interview my clients. They would always automatically dropped their shoulders and feel comfortable, I have a weird way of transferring energy from myself to other people. And they have the ability to finally find their voice. And I allowed for them a platform to make that happen. And after I did, too, I literally stood up and said, This is it. This is what I will be doing for the rest of my life. And that network started

 

Emily Merrell  

and that’s where we are and then you’re Googling it. This is it. Do we register it? No one has this as a name. This is amazing.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

It’s in trademark and a whole thing 

 

Emily Merrell  

That is incredible. The what didn’t What a beautiful story though, about all the different paths that you took to get to where you are because the telemarketer version of you? Do you think she would believe that you would be owning this agency right now? Or would she think that you were still

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I mean, I’m I’m the interesting thing about me is that I’ve always the woman, the young girl who left the you know, left work at five and when it six I’ve always been grossly ambitious and, and really always unnecessarily taking on things that I didn’t need to take on. And wanting to be to use my voice in a way I wasn’t sure how I was going to use it. Right. I originally thought it was on MTV. And then I originally thought it was in a magazine. And I you know, the the underlying theme of my life has been the same, the mediums and the tools have been different. Right. And so that has been the really interesting thing was finding my vehicle and finding my tool. And that really, to your point about magazines and timing that really was based on the timing of my life like this is it network wouldn’t have as it is today as a digital streaming service wouldn’t have applied to 21 year old children wasn’t even available for her right. So she had to live all of those lives in order to get here.

 

Emily Merrell  

And technology definitely as as you got older and as you learned more like technology definitely kept up with you are definitely improved over time. But you did mention it was IG agency that you said it was 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

IG creative. So our email basis still iDASH g creative.com. So everything was stemming from that and that so when this is IT network grew and was when I started doing those interviews with those clients. It was just a branch of what it is. Not until just recently. We’re we transferring everything into this production company of sorts, and it’s just been a wonderful evolution. 

 

Emily Merrell  

And that was pre Instagram, though that you started IG What the heck they’re like, Well, I mean, I could What were you doing? Yeah, no, but like in a way that was so probably so advantageous to you because then IG came out or Instagram did people correlate IG to Instagram or 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

a little bit a little bit and so we were doing we were doing a lot more traditional, traditional campaigns so you know, print again to your point so print ads and, and a lot of events and a lot of PR and we were going to we were producing events to create the story that’s when the beginning of the change in public relations happened right? It was the difference between pitching a story and then creating a story right? Where that used to be the thing you would put send out the pitches and hopes and and then somebody would pick it up and those kinds of scenarios but as digital came to life and as you were creating your own stories in the websites were more about the home in which your story is lived. You really gave your clients an opportunity to create their and really tell their own narratives right tell the story about not just about the chocolate chip cookie but about baking with their grandmother and there’s a black and white picture of them in the kitchen from 19 whatever it is and and really diving into the storytelling of things and so you know, it was before it was it was a unique way of looking at things we were before our time in that way where we were competing against other agencies that were strictly just pitching.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love that I love that transition. And I think this is that is the perfect name for what you do. But you know backing up you picked up your camera which I could imagine was more of like a handheld thing there was not recorded on

 

Cheldin Rumer  

your phone I could still flipping it at the time.

 

Emily Merrell  

You remember your flip phone the quality of the photos were just superb. They were extraordinary. But me I’m picking up your camera and you said that people their whole bodies changed when you would ask them questions. And you know I think you and I have this in common like we could probably be put dropped anywhere and walk out with at least one new friend and like a whole life story but there’s so many people that are intimidated, a to tell their story be to brag about their story and see to even put themselves in that same situation. So do you have any tips or advice for someone in like, if they were in front of you right now and you’re picking up your camera? What would you tell them to do?

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Yeah, no and and I am truly passionate about this the the on mission at this as it network is To encourage people to no longer whisper their wishes, but to in fact, stream their dream, to use your voice not only to gain intention, but to be intentional. And I think that we don’t realize the power of what we say even what we don’t say and what we post out into the world that will get us closer to what it is that we want. And we don’t realize that by sharing our story, by using our voice, we can make amazing and impactful things happen when I teach personal branding. And my definition of personal branding is what people say and think about you in your absence. It’s what that looks and feels like when you are not in the room. Right? That’s when the decisions are made. All of the major decisions in our lives are happen when we are not present, whether we get promoted, whether we get the job, whether somebody signs the contract, whether someone wants to buy your service, you’re not involved in that, right? They talk amongst themselves. They decide whether or not the husband and wife want to or the partner wants to buy the house, all of those things happen without you. If they want to hire you, it happens without you before they interview you they Google you, right. And so for me, I just found it really tragic that people did not take advantage of the opportunity of really honing in on their voice, one of the things that I believe to be the reason for that is that you are not prepared. So we put so much pressure on our expectation of what it is we want, what it is, we want people to think about, that we overthink it and I provide a simplistic way of doing so. So the only things you need to the basis of your personal brand should be grounded in who you are, what you want, and why you deserve it. Those are the three things you need to be able to understand in the present moment. Who are you? What do you want? And why do you deserve what you want? If you can create that straight line. And understand I call it your unique equation? Because only you want what you want as you are and deserve what you want as you are right. So yes, a lot of people have the resume that looks the same, but they’re not you a lot of people want what you want, but don’t have the resume or and are not you. So that’s your unique equation. And so I think that if you hone that, you know those things, I’m Sheldon Bartlett rumor. I’m a seasoned marketing executive. I’d love for you to watch this is it TV I’ve been on for the past, I’ve owned this business for the past 10 years, who I am, what I want, and why I deserve it. Right. And so it’s a very, again, I’m fluent, I’m an extrovert, so it’s comfortable for me. But the key is to practice that, right? And I tell my students, I’m like, How do you feel when you have studied for a test? You’re like, Oh, I got this no problem. You know, give me that test. Whatever. No problem, I can whiz through it. How do you feel when you haven’t studied for a test? It’s the same as how you feel when somebody asks you a question in which you are unable to answer. You’re not prepared. You’re making excuses. You’re fidgeting around, you’re looking at the clock You’re blaming your roommates at for keeping you up at night, right you’re making all of those excuses as to why not to do it. The key in delivering a message is to be in fact prepared and even prepare, right? And you have to think about it as your favorite athletes. You know, Serena Williams still practices Simone Biles still practices every day, they practice. And they are amazing at what it is that they do. And so it’s not a natural thing. You might have talent, you might be extroverted, but you still have to practice. So my goal is for you all to realize who you are, what you want, and why you deserve it. And recite that to yourself until you can take the test.

 

Emily Merrell  

That is such a great point, too about practice. And I think those examples of those individuals are like, well, of course they can take a vacation and they can take some time off. But even during the pandemic, like the basketball players were practicing and making makeshift gyms at their homes and you know, their body is there their business. But you know, it brings it begs for where do people practice and I’m going to totally plug networking right now because it frustrates me when people are like, Well, I have no one to practice with or like it’s not kosher for me to practice at a dinner party. And I’m like, Absolutely, it’s important for you to present yourself calmly and holistically at a dinner party. But networking organizations or networking events and making yourself feel uncomfortable, I think is the best way to actually strengthen that muscle. It’s like when you go to the gym, you’re not going to pick up the I’m not gonna pick up the 45 you probably start at the five and then the maybe the 10s and the 15th and you build up to the 45. So that and then I’m just gonna bench pressing 45 and looking like a rock star. But I love that and I think the other thing too is we have so many tools provided to us right now. We’re not limited to the religion 1000s, where you don’t have a flip phone that has a camera on it. We can stream Instagram Live, I think is just our Instagram stories. If you’re uncomfortable with saying who you are using that as a tool to look at yourself, how are you looking? Are you looking like a weirdo and the anxious while you’re doing this?

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Right? And it starts somewhere. There’s always a first video, everyone, right? I mean, and that’s the beauty of the story. Your story is any good story is messy, right? And what I encourage, what I encourage people to do is what I call become a best seller, right? No one wants to read the book of the perfect person, no one buys that book, no one goes to that movie. That’s not a black book, right. And so you need to find your blockbuster, you need to be a best seller, you need to understand that this is going to take time. And even though we believe that things are overnight successes, there’s so many stories and so many hurdles before you heard of them last night. And so I think that we need to become patient with ourselves in the journey that but we do need to use our voices, even in comfortable places. I was speaking to someone a little bit earlier about getting comfortable being uncomfortable. But that goes back to your want, right? So if I’m saying that I want more people to watch this isn’t network, if that’s my goal, what are the tools that I need to use in order to make that a reality? Like, if you’re hungry, you’re not like I’m hungry, I’m hungry, I’m hungry. And you’re hoping for food to manifest itself. Right? If you’re hungry, you’re like, I’m either going to order I’m going to cook, or I’m going to starve, right? But those are the choices. And so usually you take action in order for you to receive what you want. The same thing applies here. It’s just now we have an array of different 

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, I completely agree. And I’m very grateful my husband feeds me like clockwork regularly. I feel like I’ve been on podcasts and Bernie’s like food delivered like I would be a giant a part of this, but you said something that that I think I get stuck on and I think a lot of our listeners get stuck on is it is a journey to get through your story or there is usually like a aha moment that led you to your why of why you created it. And where do you where do you recommend like inserting that in without it being the biggest sob story in the entire world and bringing people down. But being the hero of your own story and letting people feel the emotions and feel that much more and measure.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I mean, I think we all want that come up, right? And we all want to hear like we are all even the most I would even say famous or flawed. And I think the vulnerability of who we are makes us approachable and aspirational. So if you pretend that perfection is an exhausting, and exhausting journey to be on, right, but to be vulnerable and accessible is a beautiful thing. And I think what overwhelms people is one, thinking that they have to tell all of your stories, and thinking that you need to let everybody into every single chapter of your life. What I encourage people to do is to focus on your highlight reel is what I like to call it, you know, as a former athlete, again, ageing myself used to have to they still do this, but you have to put together your tape in order to get recruited by colleges or universities. There was a lot of games I didn’t play well, right. But those weren’t on the tape. Right? I mean, the tape was children’s scoring, Sheldon diving children assisting children, breaking records that was on the tape. And I think you understanding and sharing the journey to those successes is really, really important. And really focusing on that highlight reel. Same example, as it relates to musicians, you know, when you go to concerts, you want to hear their greatest hits, you want to hear like, Yes, they’ve created something new in their basement. And that’s amazing. But you didn’t pay to park for that, like you paid to you pay me because you want to sing every word. And people are like, Oh, don’t get sick of that story that I told so many times. No, they came for the story, they came for that top 10 hit and and so I think that even though to maybe your loved ones, we’ve heard it before, you know, it’s not the cocktail party of life, your audience is different. And they’re they’re diving into you when they need you for that story. And for that inspiration, so keep telling that story. keep honing in that story. And really, you know, understand that that’s going to be a pillar in what it is that you’re delivering

 

Emily Merrell  

you had another kind of like, I don’t know, peak or valley that happened to you during the pandemic. And you were interviewing 700 plus women having this in person studio and as we know this small little panda global pandemic lives, yes, small little things, but even you not at all. You pivot on like, what’s the word I’m looking for? You pivoted beautifully. So tell us about, you know, when you had that realization that you’re gonna have Take what you were doing and reimagine it.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Yeah. So you know as you know, everyone that March of 2020 It was just one of those situations where it kind of abruptly hit but none of us were prepared nobody got the memo nobody got the in two weeks we will you kind of scenario and even when we got the initial you know, we were in this brick and mortar in Center City, it was great. space, we get that notice that? Yes, you’re supposed to stay home. Yes, you’re supposed to quarantine. We I initially thought it was for two weeks, I thought it was like for a couple weeks of kind of being at home. And, and being this isolated space, and then we’d be good, we’d be good. When we realized abruptly that that wasn’t the case, I was not well, I have to be honest, my new friend. I was not cute. By any stretch of the imagination. I cannot find my lashes. I we did I didn’t. I looked insane. I looked insane. My husband was very, I was eating Oreos, like, like fleas of Oreos, like a savage nacho cheese sauce, like I was not okay. not know what to do. Cuz you can imagine all of this energy was not you. And I just didn’t know how to serve. Like I didn’t know how to be present. For what it is that I was, you know what it is I was so accustomed to doing. I was fixated also on the studio experience. And you know, I loved Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I was people would come to us, and we take our pictures, and we sit shoulder to shoulder. And it was this beautiful experience that I got to kind of truly share with our guests who would really travel in to see us. And so what we did that was really, really great is that we open this up and did a call for guests. And so instead of there being any geographic limitations of people coming to me, I was able to join everyone else. And it was amazing. And so now we have contributors from Australia and Trinidad, and Toronto. And on any given day, I’m speaking to someone in New Jersey, and then speaking to somebody on the other side of the world

 

Emily Merrell  

I think that was like such a cool tool where we have all these tools in our toolbox, but we weren’t even using the tools. So now you’re talking to these people globally back in person are you feeling like this is pretty Wednesday,

 

Cheldin Rumer  

hybrid sphere, you know, what we do is we consider an educational entertainment so provides an insight that really drives and supports the entrepreneurial spirit. Our goal is to connect remarkable women to inspiring stories and to give them an opportunity to connect with each other. And so what we would love to do, and what we’re really looking into now for 2022 is having a studio space that allows for us to entertain, and engage individuals in studio through live programming, but then also being able to stream that to folks as homes, whether it be through a mobile device, as well as in the digital space. So really looking to be in the Apple TV, Amazon Fire space in in 2022. And really being on people’s smart TVs and in their handhelds in a really impactful way while entertaining them in a studio. So yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  

that’s so this is it. This is definitely the time to see her. Sheldon, how can people learn more about about you and about your programs or offerings? And if I, my gosh, I want to take some media training from you as well. I feel like that’s a gift that everyone should give them.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Oh my gosh, please. Yes, I I have it’s such a fun thing I do you know, personal training through our scream your dream training. And really our mission is to, again, elevate the voices of remarkable women. And so please, if you want anything to do with personal branding, or please watch this is it TV and this isn’t network, you can go to this is it tv.com for all of our latest episodes, you can find them at this as it.tv. And for any bit of inspiration that you need, you can follow fan and like us everywhere you find at TV.

 

Emily Merrell  

She’s never said that before I was here first day,

 

Cheldin Rumer  

every day, every day, every day, four times a day.

 

Emily Merrell  

Like I can say to my dreams. I

 

Cheldin Rumer  

know how to say it.

 

Emily Merrell  

I’m sure I know. I hope they’re plugging you they’re like in you know their high schools and middle schools or elementary schools just being like, Oh, this is it. What do you guys do tonight? Yeah, that’s great. Good. You train them early. Oh, yeah. We didn’t even talk about motherhood. That’s a whole another topic.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

You maybe you’ll have me back maybe I’ll be back and you’ll be on our show soon enough, I’m

 

Emily Merrell  

sure. Yes, we’ll have to have a whole new tangent on motherhood. But before we wrap up I love asking six fast questions. So oh yeah six fast questions that you don’t know what they are which is fantastic. So oh my gosh, first one. I feel like this was a mistake I made I learned so much right you already but tell us an unknown fun fact about you.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Oh, and unknown fun. This is a really really good one. I always wanted to sing, and I cannot. I can talk really well, but I cannot sing. I can also not swim, which is not a crazy fact. But I cannot swim.

 

Emily Merrell  

You cannot swim or you have not tried to swim. 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Oh, that’s that’s I have tried, maybe unsuccessfully, but I haven’t really, I can’t really say that I’m trying to swim. I just can’t swim, my husband would pay you any amount of money to get me to swim. And I’m just like that. And he’s like, You need to learn how to swim. I’m like, I don’t know. And he’s like, don’t you want to go and do the doing to why? And that? That’s a very small minded scenario. So maybe the challenge for 2021 2022 is Yeah. Do you get a lot of hair? I got a lot.

 

Emily Merrell  

I was gonna say follow up question. Do you get into a pool? Like do

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I happily wait in the pool with the cocktail and life in the suit and the whole thing? Absolutely. But I’m not paddling anywhere. 

 

Emily Merrell  

Okay, so you’ve not been like dropped into a lake or like,

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I have been thrown into bowls into pools? Yes, that’s your maybe it’s traumatic.

 

Emily Merrell  

It’s definitely a dramatic, you’re like staying to the edge. My, my dad as a kid, we would go to being in Michigan, we’d go spend a summer in Michigan, we’d have life fast on but it was his mission to throw us off the tube, which now I’m like, my insurance. Isn’t that good. I’m now pregnant. Like, please don’t do this. And you know, my symbols are like slower, slower, slower, like lazy river. But he would throw us off and we would just like, go through the air, knock our air out of our chest kind of land in the water. So I feel you if you have a traumatic experience.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I think maybe I’ve kind of muted it out. But yes, I cannot swim.

 

Emily Merrell  

This summer. She’s gonna swim. 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I’m gonna swim.

 

Emily Merrell  

She’s gonna send maybe a triathlon me? Down.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I’m gonna get out of the babies.

 

Emily Merrell  

Okay. Who would be a dream person to be connected with?

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Oh, I’m obsessed with my Oprah Of course. Oh, of course, my first and I but for me, it’s different. Well, I shouldn’t say it’s different. I don’t know what it is for everybody else. But for me, yes. She’s a billionaire. Yes, she is a talk show host and she’s a celebrity for me. She was my truth. You know, you know, I saw her. And I knew I could do it. I mean, representation is everything. And that for a girl that, you know, that was obsessed with television and equally obsessed with talk shows. There was never a doubt that I could do what I’m doing now. There was never and that was because I saw her. And yeah, and that is a difference. But yes, she’s a celebrity. And yes, she has her favorite thing. But not only was she present and my truth, she used her voice for good. and powerful. 

 

Emily Merrell  

And she needs to put you on my favorite thing. So Oprah if you’re listening, I know this is one of your favorite things to this is

 

Cheldin Rumer  

i awful, confident confidence that I will meet her and and she I and Gail will have

 

Emily Merrell  

I met Gail. So you’re almost there. It was. It was wonderful. And then I started a restaurant afterwards. And it took everything in my power not to go over and be like, Hi, remember, for an event? Do you remember I escorted you up to Bank of America’s tower? And you know, I didn’t

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I oh my gosh, soon soon. I went when they were both on tour when she was yeah, she was her beautiful tours. We’d all my sisters and I my mom we’d all go

 

Emily Merrell  

oh, I also like to see on your list. Eminem, you know, and I would love your VJ Day.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I have a long list for what I have. Yeah. I’d love to meet Howard Stern. Yeah. I love communicators. Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  

I love it. Okay, next question. Um, what? TV show? Are you watching besides your own?

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Fair enough? I just watched hack. 

 

Emily Merrell  

Oh, I don’t know how to get that 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

on HBO. Forgive me. I don’t Oh my gosh, it’s amazing. I watched um, what do I What if I’ve been binging? I have to be really quite honest with you. Everybody out that I love superheroes.

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah. Did you watch the boys?

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Of course, I watched the boys. I just liked the idea of super powers. In that way. I think that there’s something interesting about the uniqueness of the variation. I just think that and always the stories behind love a good story, obviously. And so superheroes is like, really anything that has superheroes in it is a big is a thing for me.

 

Emily Merrell  

And what would your superpower be?

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I would love to fly 

 

Emily Merrell  

same, 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

which is kind of boring ish. But I was when I was little I was very fast as a child and so a runner and like chitarra from Thundercats was like my my end all be all.

 

Emily Merrell  

He skipped the airport. There are so many perks to find. What book are you reading? Are you reading anything?

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Got, there’s actually there’s a bunch here. So go big now and then that’s I mean, I’m literally sitting here. Julia Posner, she’s Pilsner I want to say, she’s great. I’m in a book club. First of all, I’m not much of a reader, I have to tell you family that’s listening. Sheldon is not much of a reader. I’m a skimmer. And now Audible is my life. As I’m on the treadmill, I’m just listening to people share their joy. You can’t see me as I’m fake running. But like, Yes, that’s what I’m doing. Anything, you know, I have a ton of books. I care a lot of I do a lot of like marketing stuff and technique stuff, versus I don’t do real novels. I’m a huge fan of television and film. 

 

Emily Merrell  

I feel like if you, um, you know, the marketing books are great. And I have like a gajillion of them. And then I don’t know how to start reading a novel again. I’m like, Oh, how do I read fiction? This is so weird, 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

right? For so long. How do I really get out of your phone? Get your mindset, right. I’ve been self helping for so long. I don’t necessarily know if I can get it.

 

Emily Merrell  

I feel you have two more questions for you. What is your favorite emoji?

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Oh, the heart, the heart. I like the heart as boring as it is. It is the heart. I just I love a good heart. I mean, everybody needs just a little bit more love. I know, it’s simple, but it is my first and most popular one. 

 

Emily Merrell  

I think it’s so saying about you. So tell me about you. And then my final question for you is who is the person that either a inspire you or gave you permission to do the thing you wanted to do with your life? 

 

Cheldin Rumer  

My mother, 

 

Emily Merrell  

your mother.

 

Unknown Speaker  

And and it’s funny. So if you follow me on any social media platforms, I inundate you all with quotes on a regular basis, and and to the point where it’s gridded out, and it’s in that space. And when I was growing up, my mother and even the journal that I have with the quotes, is inspired by my mother and is a testament to her because when we were growing up throughout the house, there would be posted with quotes from athletes, musicians, scholars, physicians, scientists all over the house. I mean, to the point where we didn’t even recognize them really, we just be brushing our teeth, we move the post it brush it said we go over bad and open the drawer. There’s I mean, everywhere. And then as a noxious Yeah, I’m not just college kid, I came home, frustrated, maybe slightly hungover. And I was like, What is with these postings, like, annoying right at this woman, and she’s standing in the foyer of the bathroom and in the doorway, and she said, there will be a time in your life where you do not have the words. And you will need the words of others. And that’s why I do it. And and I was like, oh, so ungrateful. Like at that point, I was like, I’m gonna grateful child. Um, but it was the most poetic moment that I’ve ever had with anyone. And it was just telling, like, she did it for years, and still does it. She’s 76. God bless her. And they’re just everywhere. And now they surround my children. And now, you know, I’m passing that along. And so my mom, she just is unapologetically a hard worker, and has encouraged us always to arrive early and stay late and share the best of ourselves. So 

 

Emily Merrell  

I love that. And now you’re passing on her tradition by inundating all of us with

 

Cheldin Rumer  

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And that it inspires. It inspires what I do every morning. It’s called a morning message that I do every morning, it broadcasts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. And tomorrow is our 300th episode of the morning message. So I do it Monday through Friday, and I started it in the pandemic to hold myself accountable to show up every day, and 300 of them will be tomorrow will be 300. And people will ask me like, Don’t you get tired and, you know, oh my God, how do you know what to talk about? And I said, you know, what, if nobody watches it said, you know, I don’t know who needs me today. And just like my mom didn’t know which quote we needed. And so it’s just about really showing up and and doing what you can when you can

 

Emily Merrell  

and here you are now. Well, Cheldin, thank you so much for just such an incredible conversation and opportunity to learn about you I highly recommend our listeners. Check out this isn’t network it is extraordinary. If you want just like a hit of adrenaline just listen to one of her episodes. She has more energy than six cups of Dunkin Donuts.

 

Cheldin Rumer  

I 100% reset, have so much fun. This was so fun. Thank you so much for having me. I’m looking forward to staying connected.

 

Emily Merrell  

So likewise and listeners again, thank you again for listening. If you liked today’s episode, make sure to subscribe or follow. Share with friends and we’ll see you the next time on the sixth degrees