The Story Only You Can Tell (And Why You Should) with Wendy Romeu: Podcast Ep. 466

The Story Only You Can Tell (And Why You Should) with Wendy Romeu: Podcast Ep. 466

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Resilience isn’t something you build in the moment—it’s something you build long before you need it.

In this episode, I’m joined by one of my clients, Wendy Romeu, founder and CEO of Alluvionic, to talk about what happened when her business was suddenly put to the ultimate test.

But this isn’t just a conversation about leadership; it’s about story.

Wendy shares how she took a deeply personal and emotional experience and turned it into a powerful talk that resonates with audiences.

We unpack how to know when you’re ready to share a story, how much detail to include, and why the specifics—not just the summary—are what create real connection.

We also talk about the internal shifts required to step into your voice: trusting that your story matters, allowing yourself to be seen, and delivering your message in a way that truly moves people.

If you’ve been holding back from sharing a personal story—or wondering how to turn your experiences into thought leadership—this episode will show you what’s possible.

Wendy and I talk about:

  • How to know when you’re ready to share a personal story on stage or in your content
  • Why the details of your story—not just the headline—are what create connection and impact
  • How to turn a real-life experience into a compelling, structured talk
  • What it takes emotionally to share vulnerable stories with an audience
  • How storytelling transforms your message from information into true thought leadership

About My Guest: Wendy Romeu, a seasoned Project Manager and Process Improvement specialist with over 30 years of industry experience, founded Alluvionic in 2013. Alluvionic is a successful business specializing in providing Project Assurance® through the implementation of top-tier project management tools and techniques. Under Wendy’s leadership, the company has expanded its services to include engineering and cybersecurity capabilities, experiencing rapid growth. Recognized as the SBA’s Woman-Owned Small Businessperson of the Year for the South Florida District and the State of Florida, Wendy is acknowledged as a rising female entrepreneur in Central Florida. SpaceCoast Business honored her with the Business Leader of the Year award, recognizing her outstanding achievements. Alluvionic, under her leadership, has been named one of the 50 honorees for the Florida Companies to Watch awards by GrowFL, highlighting the state’s fastest-growing companies.


About Us: The Speaking Your Brand podcast is hosted by Carol Cox. At Speaking Your Brand, we help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their brand message and story, create their signature talks, and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it’s through women’s stories, voices, and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems. Check out our coaching programs at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com

Links:

Show notes at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/466/ 

Wendy’s company’s website: https://alluvionic.com/ 

Discover your Speaker Archetype by taking our free quiz at https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/quiz/

Work With Speaking Your Brand = https://www.speakingyourbrand.com/work-with-us/coaching/ 

Connect on LinkedIn:

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466-SYB-Wendy-Romeu.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

466-SYB-Wendy-Romeu.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Carol Cox:
You probably have a story only you can tell because you are the messenger. Your audience is waiting for. Hear how my client, Wendy Romeu, decided to share hers on this episode of the Speaking Your Brand podcast. Hi, and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. Today my guest is Wendy Romeu, who we have worked together since 2017. I can’t believe it’s been over nine years. And this is the first time Wendy has been on the podcast. So this is a long time coming. Wendy is the founder and president of a project management firm, but it does a lot more than project management, cyber security, engineering, all kinds of stuff called Alluvionic, which she founded in 2013, and it has grown to having over 100 team members today. It’s based over on this base in the space coast of Florida, here in Brevard County, in the Melbourne area. And Wendy is such an amazing leader and manager and CEO of her business. She has been recognized as an SBA woman owned Small Business Person of the year for the South Florida District in the state of Florida.

Carol Cox:
She’s also been acknowledged as a rising women entrepreneur in Florida. She’s been recognized as a business leader of the year for herself and the incredible culture and team that she has built. And so Wendy and I have worked together one on one. She also attended a three day speaking Your brand in-person retreat that we held back in the beginning of 2024. So it was great to have her there with us and the other group of women. But then something happened just a couple of weeks after that retreat that obviously surprised everyone. And so I want Wendy to come to talk to us a little bit about what happened, but the lessons that she learned from it, but the lessons that also prepared her for what happened prepared her business for what happened. So no matter if you’re a solopreneur, it’s just you. Maybe you have some assistance or some contractors, or if you’re growing a team, we all need to have a resilient business and really a just a resilient life in general because we never know what’s going to happen. So Wendy, welcome to the podcast.

Wendy Romeu:
Thank you for having me here.

Carol Cox:
All right. So let’s go ahead and dive in and tell us a little bit about what happened in two years ago in March of 2024. So I’m going to have Wendy kind of just share the story because Wendy sharing the story is going to then help to lead us into the rest of the conversation we’re going to have today about how do you know when it’s time to tell a story about a situation that happened to you? How do you take that story and universalize the lessons for your audience and how to sharing a story like this change you both personally and professionally. So we’re going to get into that conversation. But first, Wendy, please tell us a little bit about what happened.

Wendy Romeu:
Absolutely. So early 20, 24, I had done a major reorg to the organization and basically separated the organization into three different business units and hired or promoted five brand new leaders. I was about to have a offsite retreat, but first decided to go on a family vacation with a five of our six adult children. And while we were in Puerto Rico while we were there, my husband saw some paramotors and he was doing Paramotoring in Brevard County in Florida, where it’s flat, and decided that he would try it in Puerto Rico. Um, he, he rented the equipment. We went out, he went up and things weren’t going well. The winds were bad. The equipment wasn’t his equipment. Uh, it just wasn’t it wasn’t a good situation. So when he came down, unfortunately, he had a pretty bad landing. He, uh, he landed, he bounced off the ground, broke his femur and landed face down into a ditch where the paramotor broke his back. The instructor that was there, Abel, was able to flip him over and so he didn’t drown. So that was great. And we spent about a week in Puerto Rico, um, where things just got from worse or from that bad to worse. And, uh, ultimately had to take him out of Puerto Rico on an emergency flight to Miami. Um, we, he was, uh, we did find out that he was paralyzed and he is now still paralyzed from the waist down. He’s paraplegic. Um, in Puerto Rico. We spent a week there, uh, had to let my team know and then also have them basically take over the reins. Even though I was checking in periodically, they had to quickly, uh, rally around each other and rally around this brand new team to keep iluvien running.

Wendy Romeu:
And even today, a lot of our customers don’t know everything that happened. We went to Miami, found out that Miami was a spinal cord injury of excellence, one of 12 in the United States. So we ended up staying in Miami for seven months so that he could get, you know, recover and get the the, the full medical benefits of being in a place like that. During that time, you know, I would check in with the office I was, we had systems in place already that allowed the employees to know what they needed to do when they needed to do it. Um, and I would say that we, uh, fortified the organization before we needed to, to do that. Um, by focusing on processes that needed to be improved throughout, throughout the life of the organization and, um, continuously making forward progress. When the accident happened and before the accident happened, and even after, so because we had our culture in place, we were able to continue with the organization. And that first year, we actually grew 28%. So not only did the company survive, it thrived while I left. And really the big deal is we had everything in place. So when something happened, it could just keep going. I didn’t have time to prepare. You know, I didn’t know this was going to happen. Oh, I have a week or two or a month to prepare so that when I’m gone, I mean, I was gone in an instant. So, um, but now we’re back and things are better. He’s doing great. He’s back. He he helps run the technology side of the company. He’s back running that and, and the company is doing very well.

Carol Cox:
Well, Wendy, thank you for sharing that. And it is amazing to me that again, as the CEO and you have this leadership team, like you mentioned, many of them were just coming on board initially, so you hadn’t even met some of them yet, much less getting them all plugged in and that they were able to, just like you said, take the reins and then have the business actually grow in revenue. That year is really a testament to the culture and the systems that you had built. And I know we worked on your talk that you recently delivered. And one of the things that really, I think what surprised me and surprises people in your audience is how you thought about culture and HR from the very beginning. So can you share a little bit about that?

Wendy Romeu:
Absolutely. So, you know, people are surprised that when I only had six employees, I hired my first full time HR person because I knew that culture had to be built from the ground up. It’s very difficult to change culture or fix culture when you have a lot of people. And the vision was always to have a lot of people in in many different states. We’re in 17 different states right now. And, um, culture has always been part of our strategy and it’s always been a focus every single year as part of our strategic plans and in our strategic projects throughout the year. So by doing that, I do think that, uh, and it’s hard to, it’s not tangible, right? It’s not, it’s not necessarily something that you can see or feel. It’s what you feel, but it’s not something you can see or touch. And when I left, that could have really broken the company and people could have been infighting, who’s who’s, who has power, who’s doing what. But because we had the culture in place, really everybody rallied around everybody. And it was really amazing to watch from afar. And even coming back in, there’s still that culture is still there. And that couldn’t have happened when I left. It had to be built all those years before.

Carol Cox:
Right, exactly. And, and same with the systems that you had in place in the, the different frameworks that you use and, and the systems that run the business, not just the systems, you know, software systems and things like that, but how people make decisions. Because as a CEO, I’m sure that everyone likes the leader to make the decision because then they don’t have to be responsible for it. But how did you manage over the years to remove yourself from having to make. Having to be the one to. To make all the decisions.

Wendy Romeu:
Great question. So we implemented iOS, which is just a framework. There’s a lot of frameworks out there. That’s the one I resonated with many years ago, and it has an escalation process. It has decision making framework around it all. We also made sure that we let people know they can make decisions based on our core values, and they can’t make a bad decision as long as they made it based on those core values, I can fix anything as long as it was based on those core values. So we had all of that in place and really nothing changed when I left. The only thing that really changed is everything filtered through my CFO who had just hired, you know, half a year before that. And him and I would talk daily. And those questions that he couldn’t deal with are needed just to inform me of. He would tell me and we would we would talk about that. But those were. And the very beginning, that wasn’t even like a regular scheduled time. It’s just whenever I can reach out to you, I will. Type of thing. So nothing changed. Everything just kept running. And they would keep me informed or wait and ask me questions when I needed, when they needed to. But nothing stopped. Everything just kept going. Just like. Like I was there.

Carol Cox:
And I think that for so many of us who have businesses and I have a very, very small business, especially even compared to yours, Wendy, is that we that, you know, the CEO or the leader, we are the bottleneck because either everyone wants to come to us to get that sense of approval and validation or to make sure that whatever decision that they want to make is the, is the right one, quote unquote, right one. So we are the bottleneck because of that, or we are the bottleneck because we like making the decisions. We don’t want to let go. We like, you know, being in being, oh, I’ll speak for myself knowing what’s going on, right? Like, what is everyone doing? Okay, sure. I can help with this. Okay. Sure. I can see what’s going on with this. I want to know what’s going on on this side. How? As you were building your company, how did you manage to let go? Or was it easy for you to do that?

Wendy Romeu:
That is the hardest part for sure. So building the company to where I wasn’t involved in every single decision was key. So I first realized I had to hire the right people. You know, you have to make sure you’re hiring competent people so that you feel comfortable letting go, delegating, making sure that people understand what they are responsible for and what they’re allowed to make decisions on is really, really important. And working on myself to let go has been a work in progress, and I’m still doing that today. And even my leaders struggle with that as well because they need to delegate down, you know, to their people. I would say that’s the hardest part in building a resilient business, because it takes time to build your own confidence that they’re going to do what’s right. And that you don’t just come in and fix everything. You know, try to try to try to answer everything. Because if you continue to answer them or give the answers, they’re going to always come back to you. So sometimes there is a problem where I do have to dive in, and I will dive in deep and stay with the team until it’s, it’s either resolved or we’ve decided how to resolve it. But the big important thing is for me to get out. If I don’t get out, you won’t get out. You will stay in there forever because they will continuously ask you the questions because you’re standing there. So get in, help fix things and get out. But the key is getting out and that’s with the day to day. That’s with when there was a problem. You have to get in. And if you don’t keep reminding yourself of that, you get stuck into the well, I can just answer, it’s faster if I just do it. And you have to train yourself and continuously remind yourself to get out. Otherwise it won’t. It won’t happen.

Carol Cox:
So talk to us a little bit about how how did you feel when you knew? Well, I guess, you know, for the first week when the accident happened, obviously, you’re spending so much time just focused on your husband and making sure that he’s getting the care that he needed and figuring out what that care would look like, and then getting him to Miami. So you’re, you’re focused so much on that. Did you did you just assume that your team had it like they had the business handled and you didn’t have to worry about it? Was there a part of you where you’re just like, okay, I feel like I should be checking in more with my team to make sure that everything’s taken care of. Like, how did you balance that?

Wendy Romeu:
That was very difficult in the very beginning. I didn’t have time or the energy to. I just had to trust that they had it. I didn’t have the ability to to. I checked in as much as I could and I, I didn’t have the ability to do anymore, so I had to give myself grace there. When we got to Miami and especially after he was out of ICU and, and and out of inpatient Where I was actually living in the hospital with him for those four weeks. And we moved to the apartment, and then he was an outpatient for all those months. That’s really when that transition happened of when I started feeling super guilty about not being there more. And I was able to engage more during that time, but I still had to watch my energy and watch that I wasn’t I wasn’t doing too much so that that balance was hard for the entire. We were in Miami. And even now it’s just something that founders and CEOs do. We want to be involved, like you said, in everything. So even now that I’m back, I have to restrain myself to say, nope, they’ve they’ve got it. And, uh, it’s it’s hard even now, even though they were doing it all for a long time, I still find myself saying, they’ve got it, they’ve got it. So, um, that that’s a internal, uh, message that you have to let yourself know that they do have it. And if they don’t, you’ve got to let them fail occasionally, right? And they’re going to learn and usually they won’t do the same thing twice, the same mistake twice. So just giving them the, the leeway to take, you know, take the reins and to, to succeed or to fail and to learn, just like we did when we were going up in the ranks and knowing that it’s going to be okay.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. Having that trust, the trust in them. Yes. So Wendy, I know that I, we exchanged text messages as this was going on. You know, I tried to check in with you periodically, just, you know, to see how you were doing. And I think it was some point, maybe about a year after the accident. And I, you know, I get your company newsletter and I think you had written a blog post about what had happened. Obviously, you’ve been sharing the story with your friends and loved ones and people on your team. So you’d been talking about it quite a bit then, but then I saw that you had written the blog post about it and I replied back to it. I’m like, Hi Wendy, you think it’s ready for you to do a talk, you know, around this so that you can because because your team, you know, was able to basically not even step in like they were there, right? They were able to, to take the business, like just continue on without missing a beat. Grow the business. I think that was an incredible testament to the entire team and to your leadership. So I felt that there was a story, like a message in there that more audiences could benefit from. So I remember I wrote back, I wrote back to you like, are you ready? You know, to create a talk around this? And how did you how did you feel about that? How did you feel about sharing this? The story in a more public way and feel like, okay, now is the time for me to start doing this?

Wendy Romeu:
Well, your email came at the same time that someone asked me if I wanted to speak. I’m like, okay, well, it must be a sign. It’s time. Um, I do feel like there’s a big message here because I think people think that something’s going to happen and they’re going to have time to tidy everything up and what we did. Couldn’t. That couldn’t have happened. I was gone. Like I was here. We were supposed to have our executive retreat the week I got back from vacation to, you know, bring these two teams, the legacy team and the new team together. And I was gonna explain the history and the vision, and it was going to be this amazing, amazing meeting that we were going to have, and that didn’t happen. And if I wouldn’t have built the culture and the processes and the systems beforehand, I think the company would have crumbled. I’ve watched CEOs leave and companies crumble, and the team was just amazing. They just really, again, rallied around each other. And you can’t build that overnight or in a couple of days. And I literally had no time. And I feel like it’s really important that people understand that it can happen. You something horrific can happen. And if you if you care about the people that you’re leading, you’ve got to put the systems in place.

Wendy Romeu:
You have to take care of culture. You have, you have to make sure that they’re going to be taken care of when you are gone for a week or a month, a year. And you know, the CEO’s that can’t take vacations. I truly take a vacation. Then if something happens to you, your company is at great risk. So I feel like this message is important because there are so many founder CEO’s that are in that position, and they’re really putting their company at risk. They’re putting the employees that they lead at risk because they’re not doing the things that they need to do to get them out of every single decision. And until they do that, the company is not resilient. And I felt like that it was time to tell people and let people know that, because I don’t think there’s enough stories out there. We hear it, but to know someone that went, went through it and successfully came out the other side even stronger. Our company is so much stronger than it even was before the accident because they rallied together and there’s, there’s such a bond there. I just I just was ready for people to hear that. And I think that needs to be out in the world.

Carol Cox:
Well, and to your point, we hear about this in the abstract all the time. Yes. Yes, always. You know, make sure that your business can run if you have to step away or have a contingency plan or have all your stuff in one place so people know where to act. Like we hear these things and it’s always like, sure, sure, I’ll do that later, right? Like, I’ll set those systems up and I’ll have those backup plans and I’ll do that later because there’s always more urgent or we think important things to do before doing that. But like to your point, sometimes we have a little bit of time to prepare and sometimes we literally have none. So did you have any reluctance to share Ricardo’s story? Like, you know, your experience? Did you just feel like, okay, let me just tell them like this accident happened, tell the audience this accident happened and I had to wasn’t there for my business. But then, you know, I had to spend seven months away and all that and just kind of like, say it in three sentences. Or did you feel like you wanted to share more of the details of it.

Wendy Romeu:
I felt comfortable sharing the details. Part of it is, I don’t know if people want to know the details, and that’s where we’re working with you was super helpful because I don’t think I would have shared as many details even, even today, I didn’t share as many details, right? Because we don’t have as much time, but I don’t think I would have shared as many details of all the things that went through. But I think it does help when people understand that this really happened. And it was horrific and I couldn’t get back to the company. Right. And again, it puts it into perspective. And I think without the details, people don’t make that connection. So I would have thought you would have absolutely just, you know, this is what happened. Make your company more resilient. It’ll be fine.

Carol Cox:
Yes. And, and I think that’s a and that is what I call. It’s not really even just an anecdote, but it’s more just like a reason for the message is when you just share a few sentences about it versus sharing the details. The details is what makes it a story. And the reason I think that’s so important is because as the listener, the person in the audience, as you’re sharing the details of the story. So, you know, we were in the port of the hospital in Puerto Rico for a week. And then the doctor said this like sharing the dialogue. The doctor said this to me, and I felt this way and that I had that I realized I had to make this decision and then this would happen. If I’m like going through those details and going through what happened day by day is that I’m sitting there in the audience thinking, what would I have done if I were in that situation? What would my team have done? What would my business have done? And as you’re sharing the story, you know, it takes about ten minutes or so, I think about 10 or 12 minutes in your talk that when you deliver it, and that’s what obviously I’m feeling for you and empathizing with you and Ricardo. But I’m also thinking I’m putting myself in that situation. And I think that’s where the lesson gets applied in a way that it doesn’t. When you just say, we had this accident, I couldn’t be a part of my business for seven months, but now I’m here.

Wendy Romeu:
Yes, that’s exactly right. And, and you have to be in a frame of mind to give that to give that talk, right? Because it is emotional and you’re almost putting yourself back into that state and that, uh, just that state of mind and then where you were with it and then getting through it. And then I also think about the audience because now I’ve just brought them through this like journey of, of trauma with me. And then, oh, by the way, here are the lessons. So helping again, you helping me understand that that was an important step so that the audience really connects with that was super helpful.

Carol Cox:
Yes. And I think you did a good job of keeping the, the, the, like the tenor of the talk, very positive in the sense of, you know, this was the outcome. And you two can, can like you want the audience to have a resilient business. You want them to be able to, to grow their business, regardless of, of anything ever happens. And hopefully it doesn’t. But if it were to happen. So you mentioned about having to prepare to tell the story because it is obviously a very emotional story. And it only happened at this point two years ago. So what did you do leading up to this speaking engagement to help you prepare?

Wendy Romeu:
Oh, so many things. So first, uh, well, we had our VIP day, which was super important. It helped me strategize how the story would be structured, where it fit in, what I should include, what I should include, and even the structure of, uh, of the messaging, you know, the steps, the steps that you’re going to take, you know, talking about culture, talking about systems, talking about self, right? And then how so that was the what we were doing then how are we going to do it with the fortify focus and having forward progress? So just having that structure in place not only helped me tell the story, but but hopefully structured in a way that people would remember the story. Right? So that was super helpful. And then even, um, you know, public speaking isn’t necessarily my favorite thing in the world. So just having the support around getting over some of those public speaking blocks of, of why do I get nervous standing in front of an audience? And so I had the structure, I was able to get through some of those nerves. And then, um, before the presentation, you know, I was there the night before. So I went down and looked at the room. I met people before I was able to talk about some of the other presentations during my presentation. So all those things were super helpful to help build my confidence and, and deliver the message that I think a lot of people needed to hear.

Carol Cox:
And I know that you did practice it ahead of time. You sent me some practice videos and you did it. You did a good and I remember you were initially practicing from your notes, and then we put together some slides, you know, so that you would have some cues, you know, to go along. But then I, you videoed it on your phone because I said, please at least get it on your phone so I can watch it. And I watched it and you did a great job. You knew the entire, the, all the content, you know, that came that came with it. It flowed really well. And it was it the story was the heart of it. But really there was there were very, very tangible, real world takeaways for the audience. And based on the questions they asked afterwards that I heard they got the value from that.

Wendy Romeu:
Yeah, absolutely. And I even had a note, a little one single sheet of paper, which was great with, you know, just the bullet points, just in case I need to get lost. But I forgot to wear my glasses while I was standing there, so it didn’t do me any good anyway. So, so, you know, I used the slides, but I had practiced so many times that I don’t feel like it was memorized. It was it was just the talking points and how the flow went. And it just kept me on track. And yeah, it wasn’t. And even the slides were not. There weren’t a lot of words on the slides. It was mostly pictures or a word. So it was, I think, the perfect mix of giving a visual and yet telling the story and, and keeping me on track. So it worked. I think it worked out really well.

Carol Cox:
It did. And here’s why I always say like you, you meaning you, Wendy, but you listening like you know your content. It’s just that once you figure out, okay, I’m going to say it in kind of this order, like this is the, you know, the, the, um, the culture, right? The systems and the self and then the, the s the fortify the, uh, no forward progress is at the end. Focus, focus and then. Right.

Wendy Romeu:
Yes.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. So as long as you put them in threes and you’re going to remember it. Yes.

Wendy Romeu:
So it was great. It was fantastic.

Carol Cox:
Okay, so then Wendy, How has how has doing this talk. I know this is only you’ve only done this once. Speaking engagement, and I know that you’re going to be asked to do more talks, more speaking engagements on this topic going forward. Do you feel like it has changed anything for you personally or in your leadership?

Wendy Romeu:
Well, personally, I do believe that I need to I need to speak more and get this message out because I don’t think there’s enough, uh, enough of these kinds of stories out there with real people that, you know, that it’s not just a slide up there. This really happened. This is, this is, this is a horrible thing that happened, but these are all the amazing things that that came out of it or that were put in place before so that we have this amazing life, um, coming out of that accident that the company can still support all of my employees and everything. So for personally, it’s given me the confidence that I need to and the drive that I need to get the story out. For my team, it really did give me a time, you know, to reflect on how amazing they are. It just really what they did, you know, their, their leader was, was plucked out of their company, literally just taken away and they just rallied together. And I just get so proud of them. And I think it’s important for people to stop and reflect on things like that, but we don’t do it. So this speech actually let me reflect, and every time I think about it, it just makes me very proud of of the team and what they’ve done and what they continue to do every single day for our customers, for each other. It’s just, it’s really just inspirational to me.

Carol Cox:
Oh, I love hearing that. It’s almost like you like, took all these things that, you know, like you know them, but you kind of like literally put it on paper.

Wendy Romeu:
Yes. And I’m telling the world about it.

Carol Cox:
Yes. Yes. So for listeners who may feel reluctant about speaking, you know, with a, you know, a personal story that they have or something where they, you know, maybe the, the self-talk that they have is, oh, no one’s going to want to hear this or it’s not relevant to anyone or it’s not relevant to, you know, my business or kind of the business message that I want to share. What would you tell them?

Wendy Romeu:
Yeah, you have a voice and you have a message and you have a story to tell and people need to hear it. And just I would, I would say just go and do it. It just takes the first time to go and do it. And then each time you do it, you’ll get better and better and build that confidence. You need to understand that. They have a story to tell and they need to go tell the story. Mhm. And people want to hear it. People want want to hear what has happened. And they they want to know that what the lessons were that you learned. And some people, somebody in that audience is going to take that message and do something. You are going to change someone’s life because you presented your story. And it might just be one person, but it was one person. Likely it’s more. But yes, I mean, it’s about changing lives and we have to we have to tell these stories.

Carol Cox:
Yes. As I say, you are the messenger your audience is waiting for. And yes, and your audiences are waiting for you. Wendy. And I know that also out of this, you are starting a non-profit. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Wendy Romeu:
Yeah. So that is one of our visions is to start a non-profit that will help people that are in the situation like, like we’re in. So people in wheelchairs. It’s about education. It’s about giving them a place to recover. There’s not a physically and mentally. Also helping people learn the lessons that we learned the hard way. There’s not a lot of places like Miami. Again, there’s only 12 in the US. And you know, we live in Brevard County and there’s the resources are not here. So starting here with with helping Brevard County build some of the resources that we know were in Miami will be a big push of it. And then educating those either new to the situation about what we learned because, you know, we got a lot of education because we were in Miami. And I feel really strongly that we need to continue pushing that forward so that people are able to, uh, really acclimate to the new situation when there’s a parallelization situation that happens to their family. We have a lot of tools and techniques that we use. And of course, Ricardo’s an engineer. Uh, he’s already designing new chairs and, and new ways to make people in our position just make their lives a little bit easier. And we want to bring that out to the world. So this nonprofit has a lot of goodness that it wants, that I want it to do. So we’re just kind of in the, the forming stage of, you know, what’s the mission? And then how will it, how will we roll it out? And you know, what will we do first? We can’t do it all at once. So that should be hopefully coming in the next year or so.

Carol Cox:
All right. Great. And I know you have a big goal for your company.

Wendy Romeu:
Yes. So of course, of course. How can we not? So yes, our company, you know, we did grow. We’ve grown every single year. Uh, two years ago, it was 28% where our goal is to be a $1 million or $100 million company by 2034. And we have a roadmap to get there. It’s not it’s not super aggressive. So we’re excited about achieving that accomplishment.

Carol Cox:
That’s incredible. Wendy. I can’t even imagine $100 million. So yeah, that’s congratulations on that.

Wendy Romeu:
Very early.

Carol Cox:
I well, yes, yes. No, but I but I’m not surprised that and I know you can do it. Well, Wendy, thank you so much for coming on the podcast for sharing your story, the lessons that you learned with all of us. And I, you know, I, of course, I will, uh, keep track of you and what you’re doing and keep encouraging you to get out there and to talk to more people.

Wendy Romeu:
Well, thank you so much for having me. And I’m confident that you will keep track of me.

Carol Cox:
Yes I will. All right. For those of you listening, make sure to connect with Wendy on LinkedIn. I put her the link to her LinkedIn profile in the show notes as well as her company website. All right. Thank you again, Wendy. And until next time, thanks for listening.

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