Episode - 182 - Nadine Huebel

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Tuesday's Thanks. I'm excited to be joined today by Nadine Hoybel, advisor at Mentoro. Mentoro is a nonprofit movement that connects experienced professionals with the next generation of young leaders. Since its launch in 2016, Mentoro has connected over 1,200 mentors and mentees across various industries in Montreal, Miami, and New York. Nadine, thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me, Brian. I'm very excited to be here and talking to you. Great. So listen, we have a lot to talk about today. Let's jump right into it. I'm going to start like I always do. You're a young girl growing up in Germany. I believe that in the countryside. And for the American audience, the way that the German education system works is a little different, obviously, than over here. So tell me how you were selected or how you chose to do your education in conjunction with working at Hugo Boss. How sweet is that? Yes. So, as you mentioned in Germany, we have different paths and different options after graduating from high school. And after being in school for 13 years, I felt like I don't want to continue just being sitting on a desk and listening to my professors. I wanted to do something a little bit more practical as well. So I chose a path where you find an employer. And this employer employs you for about a three-year period. And then part of this three-year period, you also are assigned to a college. And then what you do is you work for a month and then you go to college for a month. This really allows you to get to know the company. You go through all the different departments and it also helps you to really understand where your preferences are. Because I feel when I was a 19-year-old girl, I didn't know what I wanted to do and where my preferences are. So that's something that was my thought process. And then I started to apply. And the first company I applied to was Hugo Boss. It was the biggest company in my region. So very natural that's the company you applied to. And then I was invited to a assessment center. And I remember very well that I had this assessment center to do. And then after this, you go and meet the responsible for the program for an interview. And I remember the reason why they said why they were so interested in to me was because Hugo Boss does a lot of sports bonds or in there were lots of sports questions. And because I'm a daddy's girl, I always been and my dad is a big sportsman, I answered all the sports questions correctly. And they were so surprised that at that time that a girl was able to answer all the sports questions that they got really intrigued by me. And that's why then they thought we need to know more about this woman. We need to learn about her. And then I interviewed and I need the interviews and I got the program. Wow. Now, this is back in the 90s, I believe. Yes. Correct. 1996. So was it a lot of football really like like European football or was because I don't recall Hugo Boss being that big in sports, maybe in Europe, obviously, but not here. No, they were. They were sponsoring Formula One and the sponsoring soccer teams as well. And just in general, really, that was also, I would say, part of the target group. So the questions were all over, it was Olympic games, it was soccer. Yeah, it was very different questions. And as I said, I think I got them all right. Wow. So I guess the first big thanks, and I'm sure you'll talk about it later, goes to dad for ingraining the sports stuff into you because what a great company to join. Yes. Right out of finishing school. So I guess it's like an internship program, right? Because like you said, one month work, one month school. And how did it take you a full three years to go through the cycle of the internship? Or at some point do they say, you know, no, it's a three year program. You have to go through the three year program to really then also to graduate, to be able to graduate. And you graduate with, I would say, something equivalent to a bachelor title. And in the journey, in my three year journey, I also spent six months abroad. I went to a college for three months in the UK. And then also worked for Yugobos in London for three months. And maybe one fun fact around this, the school, the college I went to in Germany, they had a partnership with a private college in southern England. And for whatever reason, on very short notice, the college wasn't able to accommodate us. I think they had financial problems and they couldn't take students from abroad during that year. So my school had to find a new college. And the only college they found was an agricultural college in South Wales, which had nothing to do with business, but they wanted to send us abroad, so they sent us to this college. We were in the middle of nowhere. And it was truly an agricultural college where they had stables and where they had cows and sheeps and where actually the sons and daughters of the local farming community would go and learn about farming, but also from a business perspective. And that's where I ended up for three months. It was great. It was very different. We took Welsh classes so I learned a few sentences or Welsh as well. And it was, I think, also the first time for me being in an environment where maybe I shouldn't be and then you just make the best out of it. Oh, that is too funny. Yeah. So did you learn how to milk cows and all that kind of stuff? No. No, we didn't. We didn't. They tried to find a business curriculum for us and they were really, and I think that's maybe also, then, I think I want to give to the school accommodating us and making sure that we would get something out of it. So they organized field trips to the local business community. They gave us marketing lessons and so forth. They were really trying to personalize the curriculum to our needs. Yeah. So when you're finished with the three years, are you, is it mandated? Are you committed to Hugo Boss for a certain amount of time after that? Because they've invested a lot of time and money into you. You are not committed, but of course what you aspire to do, especially when you are able to lend an internship as such a big company like Hugo Boss, what you aspire to do is stay within the company. And that's what I actually did. Yeah. Yeah, because you had a 12 year run at Hugo Boss. So what was the first real job you had when you finished the internship? What did you start as? So I started in a travel retail department. And as you can see through my, out my career, this was really then at the end where I ended up being throughout my whole career in a travel related business. So I was in a travel retail department. It was a division which was looking after the airport, the Hugo Boss Airport stores and we were a growing business. And my title was I was the area manager for Middle East and Asia. Oh, wow. And were you based out of, where were you based out of? So we were based out of a small town called Metzingen, which is still the headquarter of Hugo Boss. It's about 30 minutes south of Stuttgart and Stuttgart is maybe known for putting the home of Porsche and Mercedes. And so as a young, so three years, you're arguably 22? Yes. You've now got this manager position. I'm assuming a lot of travel is involved if you're in travel retail, right? Because you've got to go to the, how many, like how many retail outlets would you be responsible for in different airports? So I had about at that time, I would say about maybe 25. And my, actually my first business trip took me to South Korea as a 22 year old. Wow. And so it's amazing to me that you go through three years of schooling and internship. And then you're given oversight of so many different retail outlets. And now you've got to travel. Your young single woman traveling around the globe must have been exciting as I'll get out. Oh yeah, it was very exciting. And also don't forget the way travel was at that time. So for example, I was in, when to South Korea and to Japan, this were two of my markets. And Western mobile phones wouldn't work there. So I went there and I had, wasn't, we're not able to really communicate, although mobile phones were that big of a thing at that time. But at least there was no communication possible other than dialing in the evenings through a very slow, not even Wi-Fi system. I don't know how we called it when we had to pull in the cable. Yeah. Yeah. And so as a young lady doing that and you complete it your three years, was there someone at Hugo Boss that takes you under your wing to, I would think after that type of an investment in you, they would kind of give you a mentor for lack of a better term. or someone was there someone who took you under the wing Guy, did you win those first couple of years? - So I was lucky, because when I joined Hugo Boss as a student, or I'd have to high school, I had a mentor assigned to me, somebody who had been working with the company for quite a bit, and she actually worked in the adjacent department. So she was sitting not far away from me in my travel retail division, so I could always go to her and ask her questions, but there was no structured mentoring program. My mentor was basically my boss and my colleague, I had. - Wonderful, okay, cool. So now, when we first connected, the one question that I've been dying to ask you, and it's, I'm probably jumping ahead, but I'm gonna ask it now, 'cause I just don't understand. I'm a guy who traveled 225,000 miles a year for 10 years, and so on and so forth. I have to be honest with you, I've never spent a dime in a retail store in an airport, and I've always wondered to myself, other than getting a snack here or a book here, I've always looked at these stores that they're selling shoes and bags and clothes, and say, who the heck shops in there, and how did they even make money? And so, what would be through, who shops in these stores? - Actually, more people than you think shop there. So just to give you a few facts to the travel retail industry, it's also called the Six Continent, because it's really from a size perspective, the revenue perspective, it's huge. It's a $70 billion industry, retail only, we're not talking about the food, what he mentioned. And people shop because they forgot something. People shop because otherwise they don't have time, and this is the only time of the day or of the week or the month they can really spend on browsing and shopping. They shop because they want to reward themselves, because they want to bring a gift home. There are so many reasons for shopping in an airport, and people always also think it's about the price, and that's also maybe a little bit of a misconception because price is an important factor, because sometimes it's cheaper, but it's really more around the convenience of shopping. The majority of people don't know that they're gonna shop when they come into an airport. - Yeah, I agree. The only time I've ever come close, and then I'll, as always, I digress on these shows, and then we'll get back on track here, but the only time is I used to be a big watch guy. I won't even tell you how many watches I own, but I used to be a big watch guy, and of course traveling internationally and traveling around the country and whatever. There's always some great watch stores in there, and I would go in, but I never pull the trigger, 'cause I'm a big airport lounge guy, which again, we'll talk to you later. So you hit all my, you check off all my boxes, 'cause I've always wondered in my wife and I, we were just out in California, we were walking through one of the airports, and they were opening up the Johnston Murphy store, and I actually said to myself, I go's in there and buy shoes in the airport, unless you've ruined a pair to your point, I don't know. So anyways, I digress. So you start off as an area manager with you go with the travel retail. I know you work your way up to being the head of retail travel for all of you go boss, correct? - Correct. - And so that, how did that progression go to you go from area manager, what's the path? - So what, yes. So what happened was my boss, the head of travel retail, he got actually promoted to a bigger role, and he moved from Germany to Spain to head up the Spanish market as the managing director on the CEO of Hugo Boss Spain. And then the question was, who should succeed him? And the thinking behind it, I was actually very early in my career, I was only 26, 26 years old. And the thought process at that time was that we had reached maturity in the business, and that this would be a great opportunity for some young talent the company had invested in, as you mentioned, to take over the business, because it would be more about really maintaining what has already been achieved, and making sure that the stores which we had already opened that they would just continue to run. I am really grateful, first of all, to my boss at that time, his name is Priyak Pino, and I think I owe him a lot in my career. He was maybe one of the toughest bosses I ever had, that I learned so much from him, and he was just an amazing mentor for me. And so I'm really thankful that he saw something in me. He thought she's young, she's only 26, but we can trust her to do it. And then also Priyak's boss, the head of international sales, his name at that time was Christoph Noyser. They both said, okay, we give her a chance to do this. - Wow, and like you said, you're a young lady not too long in the thing. So like I said, you had a great run, you were with them until '08, and then you made a move, which I know must be difficult because you started with Hugo Boss at a very early age. And so you've grown up with them, you've had great success with them. What prompted that change to, am I pronouncing this right correctly, Heinemann? - Yes, that's correct. So Ben with Hugo Boss, as you mentioned for 12 years, and I felt a little bit hunger to do something different. And I think that Hugo Boss at that time, they were very happy with what I was doing in travel retail. So they didn't really want to think about putting me in different roles. So Christoph Noyser, who I had mentioned earlier, the person in charge of international sales department, he actually moved to Heinemann to be a warm member of Heinemann. And I had mentioned this to him at one point too. He was already at Heinemann, and I just mentioned really casually mentioned to him that hey, I feel like I want to do something different. And then he said, why don't you join me? And so this is how I ended up joining them. But I also wanted to mention what you said that it was extremely difficult. So when I got the contract from Heinemann, and this is not joking, I cried for three days before I was able to actually quit. And then I remembered that I called my boss, somebody else, I'm very grateful for his name, it is Garrett Retzel. He called him and I said, we need to meet it was Saturday. But I had to be done on the Saturday because we had this time's contractually, certain times we can only quit our jobs. So I called him, we need to meet, I went to see him. And as it happens, I came into the building and he walked down the stairs and I saw him and I started crying again. And then I told him, then he said to me, oh my God, what happened? Did your boyfriend split up with you? And I told him, I said, no, but I'm splitting up with you. And I continued crying. So yeah, it was very difficult for me, but he really, he was so gracious when I told him about it. He was happy for me and really wished me all the best. And in Germany, I had six months notice period. So I had to continue working for six months and we really worked very well together until I then moved over to Heinemann. - So two things, Heinemann is not a household name. So I'm gonna ask you two things. One, you went over his head of category management distribution. I have no idea what that means. And then what is Heinemann? - Yes. So Heinemann is an amazing company. It's one of the big players in travel retail, actually. And they are what we call in Germany one of the hidden champions. It's a company which was founded in 1872. Oh my God, I don't know 100% anymore, I should. But so it's now run in the fifth generation of the family. Still 100% family owned. And as I mentioned, they are big players in this travel retail world. And they have two pillars. One is they run their own retail stores. So duty free stores. But then the other part they have, it's what they call distribution. And this is they are a supplier to companies who decide that they wanna run the business themselves. So give you one example. Munich Airport, they run their retail business themselves under a company, under a holding company. And then Heinemann supplies them perfume cosmetics and liquor and tobacco. But it's not just a supplier relationship. They also build promotional plans. They do the training for the staff. So it's really a full service provider for certain categories. Got it, yeah, 'cause I was wondering, I had no idea what the title was. And then so you spent a little bit of time there and then you jumped over to be the sales director in flight catering, right? Correct. - What does Heinemann do for the inflite catering? Are they providing the stuff or? - Yes, so this was part of, the inflite catering was part of the distribution division, and we were working with either the airlines directly or the subcontractors which the airlines have appointed to run their duty free business. At that time, it was mostly about the trolleys. I don't know if we remember the trolleys, which were pushed through the cabin. - Yes. - And so we were providing the profume and the cosmetics and the tobacco and the liquor to those companies. And then we extended and also then provided what is called food for sale or buy on board products. And this were the snacks and the miniatures and so forth. And it was we were operating in mainly in Europe. - So mainly in Europe. And then I guess you got to a point where you came over to the States as were you the CEO of the American? So you were CEO of Heinemann North America for lack of a better? - America's because we also covered the South American region. - And it's Heinemann still active in that business? Yes, right? But nobody, the public would ever have heard of these guys, right? It's 'cause it's. In the US, not your right, not really. That's why I always also have to explain when people ask me what did you do before. And that was also one of the challenges we had when we entered the market here. In Europe, they are quite known because many of their stores are actually called Heinemann duty free. So when you, for example, when you go to Frankfurt or then you see Heinemann duty free or when you go to Istanbul, you see a Heinemann logo on top of the store. So in Europe, I would say it's more of a household name, it's maybe too much of a world household name, but it's quite well known. And in the industry, if you are in the travel industry, then Heinemann. - Yeah. And how did you get the opportunity to head up the North American kickoff startup? - Yes. So when I joined the in-flight and catering division, I had a task to really, I would even say bring back the division to life. It was a division which was very close to the owner's heart because in-flight and catering was a division which was founded or started in the '60s, or maybe even before with the likes of Lufthansa and Condor, which was a big child company at that time. And when I took over our clients, the Lufthansa's and the Condors and the Airborne's of this world, they were not really happy working with us. And they even said it. They said we work with you because there is no other option in the market, so we really have to work with you. And that's not a good place to come from. So I was tasked to turn this around. And then I was also tasked to grow the business. And I did both, really turned around the client satisfaction I'd say after two years, they really enjoyed working with us again. I'm still in touch with some of the clients today. So this is now 14 years later. And the team also, the team I was working with, my team was just amazing. So big thanks to everybody who worked in the in-flight and catering team. And then we also won a contract with the local's carrier Ryanair. Ryanair is a little bit the southwest of Europe. And knowing to be really tough to get a contract with. And even tougher to maintain the contract. Which this contract I just learned is still in place. So also again, after so many years still working well. And this gave us a lot of credibility in the market. And so we grew the business. And in the time I was there, I with my team not just me with the team together. We grew the business by 5x. And so this was in a way my entry ticket or my business card to go to the Americas. - God, and did you come over as a CEO? So they made you a CEO and then they, and of course learning the American way of business versus the European is a tough thing. I mean, you ran the Heinemann North America, I think for what, six years or no? - Yes. - Five or six years? - Yes, six years. - Yeah. And so what was the biggest thing if you've recalled that you had to learn about leadership and how to manage people in the States versus over in Europe? - So I would say a few things. And one was that I realized that it's very important to lead your teams with the purpose and the why and the goals. And you really need to talk about it constantly. I felt that's not something and I don't can't really explain why, but that's not something we had to do that much in Europe. But I feel like this was very important to tell the people, why are you showing up at work every day and why are you showing up at work every day with passion and enthusiasm and energy? So that was a part. And then another part, for example, where we learned, as I mentioned to you the company, it's a 150 year old company, they are too last for the next hundred and fifty years. So everything is about long term. So that's also why in Germany, there was no bonus system. Because we don't think short term, we really think about every decision you make might be short, might be harmful for the short term, but it might be very good for the long term. So that was our thinking. But then one of the things I realized here is that, yes, you can instill this long term thinking, but then there needs to be also short term incentive. So this was one of the changes we had to make here in the US to really to bring a bonus system back. And another thing, sorry. No, go ahead, go ahead. No, then one thing I had to learn about myself is that I'm usually, I'm very humble, and I'm, what is the word I can use here? I never want to brag about myself, rather to say less than more. And I remember that we had hired a PR agency really helping us to position the company in a good way here. And one of the things she said to me, Nadine, you are, you need to talk more about yourself. You need to talk more about your successes. You need to be able to, because you are the face of the company and they associate you and what you do and what you have achieved with the organization. So that's really one of the areas I had to learn and had to be really completely different from who I was before. - Yeah, no, it's definitely, when you're in that seat, your actions set the tone for everything that the company's gonna be, people, they're always watching you. And so that sounds like some great advice from your PR strategy company there, because that is a big difference. It was once, especially in this country, when you're the CEO, there's a, you've got to be much more outgoing than perhaps you're comfortable with and used to. - Yeah, and that's maybe, I've always, has always also been kind of a red thread through my career. I always got roles where I was maybe not 100% ready at the moment that the people who got me into the roles really saw that I could be ready. So I always had to grow into the role as well. And I think when I came, I was definitely not a CEO when I started my role. But I can confidently say that when I left my role, I was definitely a CEO. - Exactly. So like I said, you had a good run, 'cause theoretically, you were with Heinemann from '08 to '22, right? I'm not real good at math, but that's a lot of years. - A lot of years. - Yeah, that's a lot of years. And so as with everything in life, things change, and you ended up leaving Heinemann in '22 to join NewMark as their managing director, which is also a travel and retail company. And was NewMark, did NewMark find you or did you find NewMark? - Good question. I think we found each other. That's what I would say that I had been in touch. So NewMark is actually the big real estate company here in the US, and they had a travel retail division. So in acquisition, they had made back in the UK, they inherited a travel retail consultancy practice. And the person who was leading up this practice, Simon Black, and myself, we had known each other and we had talked a little bit. So I ended up joining him and helping him build the practice in North America, 'cause they had no business in North America. - Got it. And stood with them and then joined Reclaim, and I don't know anything about Reclaim. - Yeah, so Reclaim is a startup in the pre-owned luxury space. A tech startup in the pre-owned luxury space. And I was found by an executive search from, they found me. And what I need to maybe say how I ended up there was already during COVID, I got very fascinated by the startup and scale up world. So I started being a mentor and an advisor through different organizations, but also directly with some of the startups. [BLANK_AUDIO] some very, very tiny angel investment. So the whole ecosystem I was very fascinated by and I always felt one day I want to found my own company, I want to be an entrepreneur because I do think that I have a very entrepreneurial mindset but maybe more one in a corporate setting. So when I heard about this opportunity at Reclaim where the two founders were looking to find their first employees, so employee number one, I was very intrigued by this opportunity to join and build something basically from scratch. Cool. And so I know that was in your term a very short, it was short because it was about a year, right? Yes. Yes. And then we jumped forward to Sadexo Live which I want to talk a little bit about that because as a guy who lived on the road and lived in airport lounges first with continental and then with American and United and I'm still a United Club member, the value of those clubs if you live on the road and you're traveling for business all the time, there's nothing better. It's great. So how did that come around? Because again, it's not really travel retail but it is travel related within the airport ecosystem. So how did that all come about? So this came about that I got approached by another executive search from and the reason why they had approached me was because the CEO of the airport lounges Susie Kitscher, she was looking for somebody with a new perspective and she wanted to have somebody added to the team bringing a different perspective but still somebody who understands the travel ecosystem but not necessarily need to be with the food background. And I would imagine now I think your title was senior VP of operations, one word of the lion's airport lounges for North America, right? Yes. So I have to believe that unlike your other positions and your other roles, especially the CEO role, which were very much more probably strategic in nature, this one was more operationally transactional as to how to maintain the service standards and the service levels within the club. Correct. So that must have been a big change for you. Absolutely. That was a big change and I also again had to learn a lot. I had to adapt my thinking and one of the the things in operation is it's very fast pace and it's also it's not perfect and you can't wait for the perfect moment. You just need to keep on going. There's going to be mishaps and mistakes happening every day and what really marks successes, how quickly can you recover from those successes and me coming from this world of being very strategic business plans. It took me a little bit of time to really understand that it's that decisions need to be made fast and the decisions can be far from perfect. Progress over perfection. That's what somebody from my team actually once taught me and it was very good. No, it's very much true. Having run hotels for my career, it's never going to be perfect and it's really learning how to deliver hospitality versus service, right? Because service is just making sure that the soda machine is working. But the hospitality side of it is how do you make the experience connect with that traveling public? And I've got to believe that the majority of the traveling public think that United Club Lounge or Admiral's Club are run by the airlines and they're not, right? They're run by you guys. That's correct. How many when you were there, how many airlines clubs did you have under your belt with Sadexo live in North America? So I had 37. We had 37 launches in one world and we had just won also the Alaska Airlines contract when I was we were we were mobilizing when I was leaving which would have added another seven sort 40 43 lounges. And so how did you find that going from that strategic role to operation? Did you enjoy it or was it just not your cup of tea because not every role is going to be your cup of tea and from being a CEO and all these strategic distribution and sales positions and roles that you had. Did you enjoy it or was it like okay I tried it not my cup of tea? So I at the beginning I absolutely I absolutely enjoyed it because I am always driven by learning and this was an amazing opportunity for me to learn. First of all like you Brian I have lived in airport lounges many years of my career so really learning and understanding what it takes to actually deliver this experience was for me was fascinating mind blowing humbling really many words. Also I come from a non-food retail site having to learn all about how the food industry works was also just amazing. I had never heard about the health and safety audits. I had to learn all about this. I had never learned I never ever heard about how a kitchen works or how you bring a culinary program to life. So this was just really amazing for me to learn all all this and really extremely grateful because I do think that I had the best teachers in the industry for me. So that's a life and the airport loungetie vision is just really at a different level. But then over time I realized that really what's my superpower what really excites me on a sustainable base it's really more the strategic it's the strategic approach it's growing being involved in growing businesses transforming businesses and looking for the next big thing. And that brings me to what you're doing now right because you've recently left Sadexo live and you're writing a book. Correct. So what's the book about? Yes. So my book is going is called Untitling and it's going to be launched next year most probably in late spring 2027. And the whole idea started when I left you mentioned I was with Heinemann for 14 years and I left Heinemann and I thought it's going to be very easy for me I'm just going to move to a different company and life will continue as life continued before. But what I realized was that really my title CEO had become my identity. There was no Nadine beyond the CEO title and when I lost this title I was completely lost. You mentioned I had a new job I did different things but the inside me I was lost. Then one day I launched a or I published a post on LinkedIn. At that time I wasn't posting a lot now it's very different but at that time I didn't and I posted about I'm having an identity crisis and the reaction from people was just amazing. People reached out to me and said wow thank you for saying this I feel exactly the same and then from there I started conducting interviews and at the beginning it was not meant to be for a book project. It was just really I was curious again I'm leading with learning and being curious so I was curious to understand how are other people dealing with this and what can I learn from it and how can I get over this. So fascinating interviews with people in different walks of life and one day somebody said to me I think you should write a book and then I put it aside because life happens I worked at Cedexo, traveled, it was very busy and now as I'm as I stopped I said no now I need to go back I need to really be serious about this book. I just finished an author's camp I am now also found a hybrid publishing house and I'm in the process of writing the book and the book is going to happen. I love it because especially in this country more so than maybe some other parts of the world but you are identified with your title right. I was the COO of Bridge Street and that's where I was this or I was that and I know when I retired back in 2020 and said I'm going to stop working and I say retired but I just didn't want to work on the daily grind anymore and I'm doing a bunch of other stuff but your identity kind of just falls off the map and I talk about it when people ask about how did you set up your your consulting company had and you have to develop a whole new network you have to I develop a whole new identity I know people don't respond to my emails I'm saying wait a minute when you're the COO everybody responds to your email right now that I'm this dumb consultant and hot podcast host nobody cares about me anymore and so you have to build this new identity and I can see how that would deeply affect different people everybody's going to react differently obviously but I can see how that can be a big thing so I can't wait to see this book because I'm going to be fascinated from the learnings from it I think thank you that's very encouraging right that you say this that you feel that there is a need for oh yeah I think you'll have a big audience for that once you get that going so we'll look for that in the spring of 27 did you say correct yes so we'll keep that on the radar so listen I could continue talking to you for another five hours, but nobody would listen to this five hour podcast. You've thanked some great people, and I'm not gonna try to pronounce all their names, but React, Kristoff, Garrett, and Simon, I got four of them. And obviously, we talked very briefly about your dad with the sports thing. So I'm gonna turn the microphone back over to you, Nadine, and let you thank anybody else you'd like, and then I'll let you go back to writing that book. - Thank you so much. So yeah, I really wanna thank my girlfriends, also my friends who are part of IWF International Women's Forum, my teams I work with, and so forth, but there is a particular thing I wanna give to my parents, and why is this? Because I don't think that I would be where I am now without them, when without their support. My parents, they live in the German countryside, they are blue color workers, used to be very tired, and I think that very often they don't know what I'm actually doing. And for many years, they haven't known this, and really understood it, but their support is un, how do you say un-revering, or what's the English word for it? It's just incredible, that's what it's like. - Unwavering. - Unwavering, exactly. They have what everything I did, they have always supported me when I was in school, and I wanted to do school exchanges to Italy, they were in it, we didn't have a lot of money, but they always found money to help me do this. They supported me with working for Ugo Boss. Then I, and then I left our little hometown, I went to Hamburg, I'm the only child, and I think it must have been very difficult for them just to see me go from our little area to move up North, and they supported me. And then I told them I was going to the US. My dad had never been on a transatlantic flight, he was never planning to do it, and they came to visit me. My mom started learning English on Duolingo, she does Duolingo every day, just to be able to talk to some of the people here. She comes to visit me by herself, and she had in her wildest dream never thought that she would do this, and they were just leaning in to support their daughter, and that's just amazing. I must have, I'm a girl dad, so I have two daughters, and I can only imagine I come from a law of a corporate family than it sounds like yours was. My father worked in banking and stuff, and I knew the anxiety of sending your daughter 3,000 miles from the East Coast to California for school. I can only imagine your dad when you said, oh, I'm flying to South Korea as a 22 year old for business. I don't know what that would be like, so I can only imagine that the support you receive from them has been outstanding and amazing, and the great thing is they've lived long enough to see it. - That's true, that's, I'm very grateful for this, and I'm actually going back next week to Germany. I'm actually going back, no, not next week. I'm going back tomorrow, and I'm celebrating my 50th birthday with a big group of people next weekend in Germany, and they are part of it, and as usual, they have already been fully embedded and involved in these festivities, and I'm just proud that I can be part of it. - Listen to your father, my life. - Yeah, no, it's so important. So listen, like I said, we could talk for hours, and we're going to talk for hours when you get back from Germany, 'cause I still have to figure out how those darn stores make money. But let's cut this off now because I know you've got other things to do, but listen, continue success. I'm serious, I can't wait to see the book, so let's obviously, we'll keep in touch now that we've connected live. I'm anxious to see that book and whatever else next, and you're still a young lady, so you still got a long run way to do a lot of cool things. Nadine, thank you so much for being on the show, and I guess I'll end this like I always do, folks. If it's Tuesday, let's get out there and thank somebody. They're going to love it, and you're going to feel good doing it. So Nadine, continue success, safe travels, and we'll see you when you get back to state side.