Interview with Merit Kahn, Founder of Merit-based Business

Merit Kahn wanted the American Dream. But #hoshimo’s changed that picture. Divorce, a gay parent, a year wandering the world, starting a business, life altering medical diagnosis culminating in a stand-up comedy act made a much more interesting story. Listen in! #hoshimo #csuite #csuiteradio 

Transcript:

Julie (00:01):

Welcome back to another episode of The Conversational. My name is Julie Raim, and it is my pleasure today to welcome my guest Merit Khan. She's the founder of Merit Based Business, author of Myth Shift, Challenging the Truth that Sabotage Success. She's the creator of The Merit Method, sales mastery program and the writer, producer, and star of her own one woman inspirational comedy show The Book of Merit. With more than 20 years of sales, sales management, coaching, training, consulting, writing, and speaking experience, she obviously has worked with thousands of clients across multiple industries and at the same time she is certified in one of the coolest things I've ever heard of, emotional intelligence.

Julie (00:45):

She earned the highest designation in the National Speaker's Association, one held by less than 12% of all professional speakers worldwide. She also, in her spare time, to relax, performs a one woman comedy standup show. So that's not stressful, right? She also, prior to forming her company Merit Based Sales and Leadership, she was a Senior VP of Sales for a nationwide sales training organization, and was the youngest general sales manager for a startup radio station in the country's third largest market. Was that market Merit, Chicago?

Merit (01:21):

Yes it was.

Julie (01:23):

Yes it was. Okay. Love Chicago. Spent a lot of time in Chicago myself. We have that in common for sure. So welcome. Thank you for being a part of the show. I'm excited to have you. So as a Chicago native, I know you were born there and then you moved out, I think, my way when you were young. So tell us just a little bit about your background. Like where you were born, your parents. Give me the whole, the early days. Absolutely.

Merit (01:53):

Give you the spiel. Absolutely. Well my dad worked for the Chicago Tribune right out of college through retirement. And when he was working in the Chicago office, they "temporarily" transferred him to the New York office to be the international director of recruitment advertising for the Chicago Tribune. I was about three years old at the time, and so we moved out to White Plains, New York. My mom sold real estate, she had a brokerage business. And my dad didn't end up moving from New York until after I had my child. So, if that gives you an idea of what the Chicago Tribune's version of temporary is. That was my entire life and then some.

Julie (02:37):

Wow. I guess so, that's crazy. So you were out here near me, which is interesting. It sounded interesting that the Chicago Tribune would have him move out here to a suburb, of the city, of New York city?

Merit (02:54):

Yeah. I'm sorry his office was downtown Manhattan, but my parents decided it was really important for them to raise me in an environment where it was multi-dimensional and diverse. So, obviously Manhattan would have been diverse, but they really specifically chose White Plains because of the diversity in the schools there and it was great.

Julie (03:21):

It's a great town, a great mall. FYI, for those of you. Right, got to know what's important. So are you an only child, Merit?

Merit (03:32):

I am. Spoiled rotten to the core.

Julie (03:35):

Love that, right. Only child. But as an only child, I think you had told me that your parents, their marriage didn't last. I just, I always think that in cases like that, I want to hear about what that was like for you and what happened. But just generally speaking, as an only child, I always think that's harder on only children, singular children because you don't have a sibling to commiserate with. So anyway, just sort of an observation, I'm sure the whole thing was difficult, but I always think it's probably harder. You feel much more alone in those situations.

Merit (04:11):

Yeah. I mean, I obviously don't have anything to compare it to, but I definitely remember vividly feeling very alone. I had a little notebook I kept, that I called my, I Hate Life Journal and I used to lock that up in my little red safe. I know so sad, right? But yeah, the problem that was that there was nobody going through that shared experience. So, and a lot of my friends, none of their parents were divorced and it was the mid eighties early eighties and-

Julie (04:52):

Were you young? Like grade school?

Merit (04:54):

Yeah, so they started having problems when I was real young and I'm trying to remember the timeline. It's one of those things, I think I just blocked out the actual timeline, but I always have it in my head that it was maybe 11, 12 something like that when my dad finally left the house, and I don't think my parents' divorce was final, but they were separated for quite some time. Then I lived with my mom and then we had this falling out and then I ended up living with my dad. And you know, there was a lot of drama around that time. Probably exacerbated by the fact that, beyond the typical issues that couples have that cause them to get divorced, it came out that my dad actually was a gay man, so they [cross talk 00:05:51] That had to have taken a toll on my mom.

Merit (05:55):

That's not an easy thing to hear. Sure. And I think, if you think about it, it's not like it was today. Today everybody knows a gay friend, everybody has somebody gay in their family. It's very known and it's accepted and it's so different then it was back then. And I just remember when I learned that my dad was gay. I remember my first thought was, "Oh my God, do the Lewis's know?" That was my best friend and her very perfect family, in my estimation, and you're a teenager, right? So it's like, the world's all about me and nobody can know this and I feel ashamed. I'm not sure what to do with this. It was hard.

Julie (06:43):

Worried about the judgment that other people have on you, but and I imagine, and to your point, in the 80s, I think the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which was recently out is just a great one for people who didn't live in that time or who weren't adults in that time to realize just how difficult it was to be a homosexual person at that time and the judgment and the questions and the attention. That coupled with the AIDS epidemic and it was, I'm sure that was a scary, I'm sure the whole thing, to your point was difficult, but made, talk about a holy shit moment for you, made even more frightening by all the news that was constantly going on about the gay community and this horrific disease.

Merit (07:32):

Yeah, no doubt. It was very frightening. On the one hand, I was afraid for my father. On the other hand, I was afraid for what this meant for me in my life. Remember I was a young teenager at that time. So, everything was through the filter of "How does this impact me?" It was, yes, definitely a frightening time. Yeah. I don't know.

Julie (08:11):

Oh, it's, I mean enough said. I'm sure that had a huge impact. As you were growing through that and you were living in between your mom and your dad, trying to make your way in what you wanted to be, as you were growing up, you were pretty convicted, as I recall, in what your future would look like, right?

Merit (08:34):

Yeah. I think I bought into the typical "American dream", right? So you grow up, you go to college, you graduate in four years, you get a job, you find the person you love, you put up the white picket fence, have 3.2 children and a dog, and that's life.

Julie (08:54):

Life happily ever after. Yep.

Merit (08:58):

Yeah. Happily ever after. That's how it was supposed to go. Except when you go through an experience like your parents getting divorced and then finding out your father's gay, it's like, "Huh, well that didn't really work out that way. So there's a new American dream." And I always knew I was going to go into sales of some sort. Because even, my grandfather had a used car lot. My grandmother sold Avon, my dad sold advertising, my mom sold real estate. So it was never really a question of "What's Merit going to do?" It was more of a question like, "What's Merit going to sell?"

Julie (09:34):

Always. So you went and studied this at Michigan state?

Merit (09:40):

Yeah.

Julie (09:41):

Party one, as they say.

Merit (09:43):

Yes, that's right.

Julie (09:47):

[inaudible 00:09:47] Michigan. I'm very familiar with all the slang.

Merit (09:50):

Yeah.

Julie (09:51):

So did you get your degree? Did you end up with a business degree or how did you finish your college years?

Merit (09:59):

I studied advertising, so my degree is in Advertising Communications. As soon as I graduated I knew I wanted to work in radio. In college I worked at the student newspaper, and if I remember correctly, I did a few things with the radio station, but when I was 15 years old, I had gone to California to visit my uncle, my dad's youngest brother, who was working as a sales rep for a radio station, and he picked me up from the airport in this beautiful black, shiny Porsche 911, it was gorgeous and it had the radio station call letters on the license plate. I think I got in the car, and before I even clicked the seatbelt, I just looked at my uncle and I said, "Uncle Rich, what do you do for a living?" You're 10 years older than me, you're picking me up in a Porsche. I want to do what you do. So that's pretty much how I decided what I wanted to do with my life. As materialistic as that may sound, I was a very impressionable young, 15 year old.

Julie (11:12):

The go, go eighties, right? Abundance and access.

Merit (11:16):

Totally, yeah. And he'd started telling me liquid lunches and this and that and parties and concerts. And I was like, "Yep, I'm in."

Julie (11:23):

So what happened then? Where did you, you took a job at the radio station? What were your early career years like?

Merit (11:34):

Yeah, so right after college I moved to Chicago. I always knew I wanted to live and work in Chicago. I got a job right away at a small suburban radio station, it was called WCBR. And we played alternative music and I sold commercials. They were about $16 for a minute and I was on 100% commissions. You had to sell a lot of advertising to make ends meet. After about six months, I figured, okay, now I'm ready to go to a big downtown Chicago station. Like I've learned what I needed to learn in the suburban small market. And I went to interview with this guy and he said, "Well, I really want somebody with nine months of suburban radio sales experience and you only have six months, so why don't you go back and call me in another three months."

Merit (12:28):

And I looked him dead in the eye and I said, "If you can tell me what I will learn in the next three months that I don't already know, I will gladly go back and learn it."

Julie (12:36):

Good for you.

Merit (12:38):

Right? And he looked at me and he goes, "You're hired".

Julie (12:42):

Good for you. You go, girl.

Merit (12:45):

He was just testing me. He was just testing to see if I had the cahones to stand up and ask for the order and I did.

Julie (12:52):

Right, like 90 days more was going to change your life.

Merit (12:54):

Right. Exactly. So I got the job and I did really well. They called me the pit bull of new business and I just called on new business and I closed deals. It was one of those moments in your life where you don't know what you don't know.

Julie (13:11):

Of course.

Merit (13:11):

And I just went out and did it and no one taught me formally how to do it. I just picked up the phone. I drove places. I got in the door. I just had sales conversations and I just, I did really well. Yeah, it was fun.

Julie (13:28):

In your blood, as you said, right? A little bit in your blood and you've been surrounded by it and you had a passion for it. So it makes, makes perfect sense. How long, so I know from, we shared your bio a little bit about how you were the first or the highest, you had some distinguished title in terms of the radio station, right? That you earned. So after earning that, what made you pivot away and go and create your own company? What was that impetus?

Merit (13:58):

It was actually interesting there. Before I became the youngest general sales manager in Chicago at that time, I had, actually after about only three years of working after college, I felt very burned out. It was exhausting. Just oh, the real world of work for three full years. And I had looked at the women in that business and those who had really achieved management positions and high levels in the radio industry, and none of them really had what I would have considered as my ideal life. They didn't have families and there wasn't, I didn't see balance. I decided that I was going to take about 25 years worth of two weeks vacations upfront. So I quit my job, I put everything in storage and I backpacked around the world for a whole year on my own.

Julie (14:58):

Oh my God. How old were you?

Merit (14:59):

I was 24 at the time. I had my 25th birthday in Indonesia and it was-

Julie (15:06):

Oh my god, how awesome.

Merit (15:08):

It was completely amazing. And again, totally different time. People ask me, "Would I let my kid do that today?" And I think, it was so amazing for me. It changed my life. And that was pre-9/11 and maybe it wasn't a different world and I was just naive, but it feels very different now. But anyway, I had a great time and when I came back, the station that I had worked for had asked me back as a manager and I didn't think I was quite ready yet for a management role. So I put myself into sales manager training and I took a different job just going back to sales and I trained myself for the job that I wanted.

Merit (15:55):

Even though I looked around and I thought maybe women didn't have the, women in management in that industry, didn't have the balance, maybe I could figure out a way to do that. So, that was my plan. After a few years of that and having worked as a manager for a station called WYPA, it was personal achievement radio. We played a hit idea, like a music station plays a hit song. So it was the perfect place for me because we had an arrangement with Nightingale Conan, which was the company that put out all the motivational speaker's cassette tapes at the time that's dating myself. So, we played Les Brown, he had a show on our station, he was in our studio every week. I got to know him. We did events with Tony Robbins and Joe Theismann and Harvey McKay.

Merit (16:53):

It was just amazing. I felt on top of the world. Then I decided, that radio station was being sold and I realized I just didn't want to start over at another station. The guy that I had been taking training classes from, sales and sales management training, said, "I bet you'd be really good at this." And I just decided, okay. Maybe it's time to hang up working for someone else and start my life as an entrepreneur. And so I did, I started my own business. I started an S-corp in 1998, and I was an independent contractor selling sales and sales management training courses. Then over time I delivered courses, I developed courses and I started speaking in front of groups to market the business.

Merit (17:47):

Then one day somebody asked me, "We'd really love to have you speak for our group. We don't think we can afford you." At the time I would have spoken for free, just to get in front of the group because that's how I was going to make my money and fill my classes, but they didn't know that and I said, "Well, I appreciate the invitation. Tell me what is your honorarium that you typically offer your speakers?" And they said, whatever they said. And I said, "You know what? It is lower than my normal fee and I'll make an exception", whatever. And there I was, bam, overnight, a professional speaker. And then I realized, "Oh yeah, this, this feels good". I like it.

Julie (18:27):

I'm just so impressed by your bravery of taking this job where you were excelling and, to your point that you were loving it and instead of finding another version of that after they sold that station that you were like, you know what, I'm just going to go off and do this on my own. I just, it takes a little, I've done it myself, but I applaud people who step away. How old were you when you chose to do that?

Merit (18:52):

That's a good question. 28.

Julie (18:56):

Oh my god. Well, I guess that's the benefit of being young, right? To your point, you don't know what you don't know. And so it's like, "Sure, I'll just go do this". But it's still pretty courageous. Right. So you fell in love with the stage in many ways. Yes?

Merit (19:11):

Yes, oh yes. Which actually, probably started very young, even in high school, I was on all those shows and I was in front of crowds as a cheerleader and I was a Baton twirler. I did all that stuff. So being in front of people, speaking in front of people, that was never really an issue for me. I really gravitated towards those kinds of experiences.

Julie (19:38):

Yeah. Okay, so this is going on. So you've got this company, it turns into a wild success. You're doing really well. You're loving what you're doing. What happened in your personal life? Did you get married? Kids? What happened there?

Merit (19:57):

I did. I got married in 2000. I had a baby in 2003, and I thought life was pretty good. Honestly.

Julie (20:08):

You were getting the picture you drew for yourself, right?

Merit (20:11):

I didn't have any need to write in the I Hate Life Journal I had as a child. Life was good. By all accounts, I was on top of the world. Just having the most fun a person could have and somewhere, when my son was probably about three, so six years into my marriage, things got really difficult. We were just arguing all the time. It was just really hard. I had this beautiful, perfect healthy baby and I was more in love with him than anything in the world, but my husband could always find a way to make drama, to pull the focus onto to him and away from all the things that were good in my life. And it was really difficult, really difficult.

Merit (21:06):

I made the mistake of thinking that maybe we just needed a change of scenery and then things would be better. And so in 2008 we moved to Colorado and so I left my business partnership that was smooth and running well.

Julie (21:26):

Successful, yeah.

Merit (21:28):

Successful and money was flowing and I again just decided, I just needed to start over and I was just going to do it all on my own without any business partner. So I moved to Colorado and I thought, we could be very happy. Maybe we just needed less traffic and better weather or something. And that didn't change the difficult marriage. And then to make matters worse, because I really was the breadwinner of the family, in 2010 I learned that I had tested positive for the BRCA gene, which meant, yeah. So my risk for getting breast cancer at some point in my lifetime was 87%.

Julie (22:10):

Oh my god. How frightening?

Merit (22:14):

It was completely frightening, and my risk of ovarian cancer was 57%.

Julie (22:22):

Wow. Geez Louise. Yeah.

Merit (22:24):

I'm in a difficult marriage. I'm starting over my business from scratch in a brand new city that I don't know, and I've got a five-year-old.

Julie (22:36):

Positive with an 87% chance that you're going to develop cancer, right. At some point in time. Wow.

Merit (22:42):

Exactly. So as soon as I took that test, I realized because, and the reason I took it was there was a history of breast and ovarian cancer in my family. So now I'm a real advocate that people really understand their history. The history of my family is actually on my father's side. So I never really thought I was at risk because in the past when a woman would go to the doctor, he/she would say, "Is there a history of breast or ovarian cancer in your family? Like mother, grandmother, sister, aunt." So it was always on the woman's side. And since that was never my issue, I didn't really think about it. And what I've learned since is that there's cancer riddled all over my father's side of the family and that's what had me test positive. Then I was faced with a choice, because as soon as you have that information, you realize it's really not a question of if I'm going to get that, it's more of a question of when.

Julie (23:50):

Right.

Merit (23:51):

And so I was lucky. I consider myself very lucky to have that crystal ball. I was able to take preventative measures as a young and healthy woman. I figured I'm never going to be younger or healthier. So I might as well take action now before I get a diagnosis and then I'm fighting a disease as opposed to getting ahead of it.

Julie (24:15):

Right.

Merit (24:16):

And so I did preventative surgeries. I had a double mastectomy and a total hysterectomy. I went through all the breast reconstruction surgeries and so pretty much the entire year, 2010, I was in and out of surgeries. Somewhere in the middle of that I was, I remember being outside, it was a beautiful sunny day. I was so excited because I just had my last doctor's appointment with my plastic surgeon for a while. I had three months where I wasn't going to be in and out of doctor's offices because I was just at that phase of the recovery process and I literally, I was walking around having fun with my son and there was a puddle by the sidewalk and to be a fun mom, I said, "Jake, let's jump in puddles", that's fun for a five year old. So we jump in this puddle, but I'm wearing Crocs. The water gets through the hole in the Crocs and my foot slipped inside my shoe. And the next thing I know I'm down for the count.

Merit (25:17):

I broke my wrist, I broke my phone and I'm lying in this puddle with a broken wrist going, just looking up at the sky going, "Are you kidding me right now?" Yeah, that. I just, sometimes you have a slew of holy shit moments, right in a row.

Julie (25:40):

But the fact that you come out on the other side just speaks volumes about who you are. So you're in Colorado when this is going on.

Merit (25:50):

Yeah.

Julie (25:51):

Okay. So you're in Colorado and this is happening. You're, having marital trouble, trying to start a new business. Oh my god. Okay. So you're well today? Healthy?

Merit (26:04):

I am well and divorced.

Julie (26:09):

Did that happen in Colorado? Did you move? How did that go?

Merit (26:13):

Yeah, so I stayed in Colorado and after I had healed from the surgeries and everything was fine. I got my business back up and running. My son was doing great and it was time for my husband and I to put a little bit more effort working on the relationship. So we were doing therapy and all kinds of things. Then the therapist used, let my husband know at the time that he is a narcissist. And I know that a lot of people throw that word around like it's synonymous with just a selfish person, but it's not, it's a legitimate personality disorder. Based on her professional assessment, he really did qualify with that label. I started to research it and I realized that there was nothing that I was going to be able to do to positive think or therapy our way out of being this really difficult relationship.

Merit (27:15):

Once I understood that for what it really was, I was able to take action and go through the divorce process. And I think every relationship has one of those moments where you just can't deny that it was right in front of you, and mine was at an NBA game. My son wanted to go, it was a fun family night and we went to the Nuggets Bulls game in Denver and I just had that moment. It was almost like you're sitting in this stadium, there's 18,000 people laughing and high fiving and smiling and having a great time because who doesn't have fun at an NBA game? Well, the three of us were sitting there and not smiling and not enjoying ourselves. It was almost like a movie, right? Like everyone else's in color and we're in black and white and they're in slow motion. It was just like, "Oh my god, this is my life". If I can't even have fun with my family at an NBA game, I've got to make a change.

Julie (28:24):

Right.

Merit (28:25):

I Googled divorce attorneys that night. Six months later our divorce was final. And three years to the day from that game, I performed a one woman comedy show for my 50th birthday that looked at my entire life, all the ups and downs and the drama with my narcissistic ex and all of it. I looked at all of it through a lens of comedy and I sold out a theater of 175 people laughing their asses off at my life's journey. It was just, from the holy shit moment where you think you hit rock bottom to three years to the day later, being able to laugh and encourage everyone else to laugh through the ups and downs of life was, I think just the most inspiring thing I've done. I'm almost inspired by it myself, I think.

Julie (29:24):

But it makes total sense, right? I mean, in some ways it's a catharsis. I mean, that's first of all the funniest. Always the funniest comedy shows are those that are based in truths, right?

Merit (29:34):

Absolutely.

Julie (29:34):

I mean, that's a fact.

Merit (29:37):

Yes.

Julie (29:37):

But, for you to be able to do it based on your personal truths, I'm sure was cathartic for you in many ways and allowed you to have perspective. So did you happen to do this in Colorado? Or had you moved back to Chicago?

Merit (29:55):

I did, yeah. I'm still in Colorado. I love it here and now my son is a teenager and I didn't want to uproot him, but I have such a great network here. It's just a great place to be. So I stayed here. Yeah. I rented a theater in Denver and I wrote the show. I had an associate writer, Karen Ruth White. She helped me put the whole show together. My dad, who's been a director of theater for his whole adult life, he actually directed the show for me. I essentially produced it myself and costumes, sets, props, the whole nine yards. Yeah, it was a full, it was a 70 minute show that I wrote and performed. It was just amazing. I'd love to do it again. I expect to do it again.

Julie (30:49):

Okay. You just did it the one time? You just performed at the one time?

Merit (30:52):

Yeah. It was really meant to just be a celebration for my 50th birthday, right. Originally, the idea was 50 minutes of standup comedy for my 50th birthday and then my dad got involved in and when Robert Khan gets involved in a project, it becomes an event. So, through his direction and as I kept working on the show it took on more of a feel like some of the work that I do in my business as a keynote speaker. So instead of a straight stand up set, it was stories and acting out different pieces of my life and inviting you to meet different characters and just the whole piece of it. So yeah, it was just a lot of fun. It was, I hope to do it again.

Julie (31:47):

Can we, could I go back and could I go watch it? I mean, I would love to see this. Is it someplace on YouTube or something?

Merit (31:53):

You could, well I put it on, it's been picked up by internet station called C-suite TV C dash suite TV. And so it's listed as the Comedy suite with Merit Khan. And I put all, I put five episodes, there's one episode per decade, and you can watch the entire show online for free on that station.

Julie (32:20):

Oh my god. Okay. So I'm totally it. So, here we are living in the COVID area where I can't stream enough content. So great. Now that I've finished Ozark, I need something.

Merit (32:31):

Oh yeah, it's a perfect compliment to Ozark. Definitely watch it before Tiger King, after Ozark. Perfect.

Julie (32:38):

That's hysterical. So what are you, just speaking since we're living in COVID-19 world, at least for a little while longer probably. Have you considered going back and doing it again or doing something virtual?

Merit (32:51):

Yeah, I would love to. I actually had a theater booked for, May, but we're not far enough out of the COVID scenario to comfortably gather in large groups yet. So I canceled that show. But that was why I made the decision to put it up online, because I feel like one of the things I can do to help people right now is just provide some comic relief. So once we're back to life as normal, my plan is really to take the show on the road to a few cities to perform the show for people who hear about it through friends or family or just through some of the publicity.

Merit (33:36):

I actually was booked, I have a booking for September, a company that has a conference that's primarily women and they really wanted something inspirational that was more personal for their attendees then all of the straight business focus, and so they actually invited me to do the show for their evening opening entertainment to open their conference. And then the next morning I'm coming back to do the morning keynote where we pull back the curtain and I help the audience see the story of their life. So they look, they've seen my story and they've been able to laugh through my journey. And then I help them see that we all have a story, that there's comedy everywhere.

Merit (34:24):

If we're willing to shift our lens just a little bit to find the ways to laugh at even the more painful moments in our lives. Really the show is about the journey back to who I've always been and how some of those difficult times in my life just got me further and further away from that young girl that loved to perform and make people laugh and help people feel good and inspire people and show people possibilities. I lost that for a long period of my life. I didn't do that for myself. Then how I found my way back. I think we all have that journey somewhere in us and I'd love to be that person through my show and the keynote to inspire people to find their way back.

Julie (35:12):

I love, I love hearing that and I loved, I mean first of all, that's genius. And I do conferences and we do those and it makes total sense. In fact, I'm going to put you on my list to call because I love that idea. But what I love also about your story and your back story is this, how you've taken all of these moments so your direction, your dedication for what you wanted to be, and then the radio with these motivational speakers and then finding your groove with sales and speaking and then on a stage and all of these things have come full circle to this entrepreneurship and I think your fearlessness in that and the life challenges you faced along the way, to bring you here. I mean it really is, I love seeing things like this come together just so organically.

Julie (36:11):

Where you are makes perfect sense. But it also wouldn't have happened had you not faced those crazy holy shit moments along the way. It wouldn't have been funny, right? The comedy, not that it's funny, it's not a comedy show without that. So it's that texture that makes you who you are. I just love it. Loved your story.

Merit (36:31):

Well, thanks. Yeah, I think of all the things that I've done, really studying standup comedy and allowing myself to find the funny moments in the most painful moments and memories of my life, it forever changed, not just how I saw those negative or painful experiences, but it allows me to move forward with my life, to be brave because I now have this mindset of what doesn't literally kill me, will make for a funny standup bit pretty soon. I just need a little time. It's almost like those comedy tragedy masks and they say, with enough time you can turn tragedy into comedy, but no one really told us that it had to take a lot of time. That's not a rule. So my goal is to, as quickly as possible, turn something from painful to hilarious. That's what I learned to do and that's how I do my life now.

Julie (37:48):

It's great. And because it's comical, because it's entertainment, I think it stays with people longer. That's the kind of thing that they will always remember and there's so many teachable moments with them and I think so much courage that can be gained. I just, it's amazing. I just want to thank you so much for being my guest today for coming on and sharing your amazing story. I cannot wait to go and stream your comedy show.

Merit (38:09):

Thank you.

Julie (38:11):

It's a C-suite just for people, because I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to go and listen. So would you, where is it again? Will you give the location?

Merit (38:18):

Yeah. Probably the best place to go, the easiest thing to remember would be my website is meritbasedbusiness.com.

Julie (38:28):

M-E-R-I-T.

Merit (38:29):

Yep.

Julie (38:30):

business.com.

Merit (38:31):

And then there's a forward slash and then the letter C dash suite S-U-I-T-E dash T-V. So meritbasedbusiness.com/c-suite-tv I know it feels long, but that's how you'll get there. And yeah, you can learn about the business side of me and laugh along at my life.

Julie (39:00):

So many teachable moments. I love it. Well, Merit, it has been a true pleasure. Thank you for being my guest today. I'm just blown away by you, so thank you and good luck with this. I hope that you do a few more of these.

Merit (39:14):

Well, maybe one of your listeners has a way to get onto Netflix or Amazon Prime and who knows. That'd be great.

Julie (39:22):

Who knows. You never know. All right, well, thank you again.

Merit (39:26):

Thank you, Julie.