Episode 41 features Tina Hamilton, CEO of My HR Partner, and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and Cuban refugee.
We discuss the strength she got from her parents’ stories of survival, entrepreneurship, religion, faith, community, balance, and so much more.
During the episode we cover:
- Living history
- Our parents
- Being Jewish
- The Holocaust
- Stereotypes
- Lapsed religion/faith
- Anti-semitism
- Entrepreneurship
- Work / Life Balance
- Survival Instincts
- Time for yourself
- And much more…
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
It’s Time We Taught Antisemitism – American Jewish Committee
Working Definition of Antisemitism – International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:20:30
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent palmer.com. All right, all right, all right is more than just an oral history of Dazed and Confused. It’s about youth nostalgia in the creative process. Punch a chunk season one how James Turner built a community. One Minecraft block at a time. And the teaser trailer for The Edge of the world broadcast season two is out and very tantalizing.
00:00:20:35 – 00:01:12:14
Agent Palmer
This is The Palmer Files episode 41 with Tina Hamilton, CEO of my HR partner and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and Cuban refugee. We discussed the strength she got from her parents, stories of survival, entrepreneurship, religion, faith, community, balance, and so much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:12:19 – 00:01:32:31
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic, also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 41st episode is Tina Hamilton, CEO of my HR partner and a very successful entrepreneur. She’s the definition of a mover and shaker. She’s bought and sold businesses, but she’s earned every bit of her success. How much of it was hers?
00:01:32:41 – 00:02:03:09
Agent Palmer
All of it was hers. But was some of it genetic or maybe cultural? We get into that, and in doing so, we discussed being culturally Jewish as well as religious. We also discussed the Holocaust, guilt, survival, faith, hope, and generally cover a ton of ground. Tina’s story is one of perseverance, so sit back and enjoy the ride. Before we get going, remember that if you want to discuss the episode as you listen or afterwards, you can tweet me at Agent Palmer and the show at the Palmer Files.
00:02:03:14 – 00:02:33:47
Agent Palmer
You can find Tina’s business on the web at my HR partner, Inc.com. That’s my HR partner, Inc.com. For more information on what she has created and what they do, don’t forget you can see all of my writings and rantings on Agent palmer.com and of course email can be sent to the Palmer files@gmail.com. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
00:02:33:51 – 00:03:10:59
Agent Palmer
Tina, I have seen a lot of about pages and everybody comes at them from more or less the same perspective, but yours. When I came across, it mentioned that as an interesting fact. You are the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and of a Cuban refugee, which doesn’t seem like an interesting fact. That seems like star crossed lovers a little bit, but it made me think like we are definitely products of our parents.
00:03:10:59 – 00:03:34:32
Agent Palmer
I don’t think that there’s much at the nature nurture argument aside, but ever since I read that, I just keep thinking like, would I ever include my own parents in my own about page and I, as much as I am very much my father’s son, to my mother’s dismay, I don’t know if I would. So I guess, what was that like?
00:03:34:33 – 00:03:43:01
Agent Palmer
Because that’s not a you grew up in a house with living history, basically. Yeah. Well.
00:03:43:05 – 00:04:14:41
Tina Hamilton
Let’s see. So I never thought about it from your perspective that I wouldn’t include my parents in my in my biography. However, yeah, I do have, a unique situation with them. And I suppose I look at it in that perspective, I look at it as part of my identity. Yeah. My father. Yeah. My father. And my mother, they both lived, very unique lives, obviously.
00:04:14:46 – 00:04:32:08
Tina Hamilton
And, early on for sure. And so it it affected everything. You know, everything was different in the way I grew up and the music that was playing in my house, the languages that were being spoken, you know, all of that stories being told for sure.
00:04:32:13 – 00:04:51:01
Agent Palmer
Well, I, I, I joked with you when we first spoke, and I, I, I’ve been thinking about it like the guilt in your house, like could, could you, could you ever get away with anything? Like, was there ever.
00:04:51:05 – 00:05:12:33
Tina Hamilton
Let me tell you the worst. And I hate to start off saying this about my now deceased father, but the worst part in a funny way, I guess if it’s if you can call it funny of growing up with the as with the father that was in the Holocaust or five years is when you say, dad, I’m hungry.
00:05:12:33 – 00:05:31:37
Tina Hamilton
And he says, hungry. You know, no one hungry is. And then you wait for him to go into his rants. And, you know, as a teenager, you’re like, this isn’t the Holocaust anymore. I just want a sandwich.
00:05:31:42 – 00:05:39:19
Tina Hamilton
So yeah, guilt was definitely. And both my parents being Jewish. Yeah. There was just a lot of guilt laid on us, that’s for sure.
00:05:39:33 – 00:05:59:39
Agent Palmer
I, I my mother, my mother. I don’t know what the right way. My mother, I was immune to my mother’s guilt. My grandmother’s guilt? No, but my mother’s guilt never really hit me. And she always felt shortchanged by that.
00:05:59:43 – 00:06:01:01
Tina Hamilton
Well, why do you think?
00:06:01:06 – 00:06:17:52
Agent Palmer
Well, I, I have no, I have no idea. Yeah, I, I don’t, I don’t know, I, I’ve it’s so weird to think about it, because I, you grow up Jewish and guilt is just there.
00:06:17:57 – 00:06:23:35
Tina Hamilton
I don’t feel like it’s in Bible and the Jewish Bible. Thou shalt make their kids feel guilty.
00:06:23:39 – 00:07:08:20
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I I’m and I’m not saying she didn’t make me feel guilty, but, like, it never worked to the way she wanted it to. She could like, you know, you should maybe do the dishes. Yeah, maybe I should, but I won’t, you know, like, but but the other thing, and this is the part that is astounding to me, is that your parents lived through history, whereas I am so far removed from that, that, like when you’re learning about this stuff in actual school and you go home and you’re doing homework about World War two, that’s got to be like, well, let me tell you how it really was.
00:07:08:25 – 00:07:18:48
Tina Hamilton
Yeah. I have to say, when I was in school and that subject would come up, it was almost.
00:07:18:53 – 00:07:47:55
Tina Hamilton
It it’s almost like I was required in my soul to share. You know what? What that was like. Now, our neighborhood was Jewish. And so my father certainly wasn’t the only Holocaust survivor in our area that I grew up in Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia back in the 60s and 70s. That was how people congregated. They lived in neighborhoods of like minded or like minded religion, race, everything.
00:07:48:00 – 00:08:12:12
Tina Hamilton
I mean, the streets. At Christmas time, the streets were dark and on that was one particular street, Arnold Street, that, you know, we grew up in row homes, and there was one particular street where so did you cross the alley? All the lights were there. And that’s where all the Christians. So that was and there was one, one.
00:08:12:17 – 00:08:34:44
Tina Hamilton
So imagine that you’re living in they were really row homes. They were like double, twins. Right. So twins. And then in between there’s an alley where people just drive through or get to their parking spot in front of their house and the garage. So here’s this alley. And if I looked out my window, which was on the third floor of the house, I saw the Ducatis.
00:08:34:49 – 00:08:58:04
Tina Hamilton
So the Ducatis were the only Gentiles that lived in their neighborhood and and Irish, Irish, of course, Ducati and the stereotype was ridiculous. Of course, I didn’t appreciate it at that time because I was a young girl, but the husband was a drunk, so I didn’t even know what a drunk was. Jewish people aren’t known to be big drinkers.
00:08:58:08 – 00:09:00:34
Agent Palmer
No, no, definitely not.
00:09:00:39 – 00:09:23:50
Tina Hamilton
No. And certainly not in those days. And so I would hear him come home and I’d hear yelling, and she would lock him out because he would just get mean, I think, because I hear him banging on the door and I watch in terror. I honestly thought that was how all Gentiles lived, and that was because that was the only exposure I had.
00:09:23:54 – 00:09:24:53
Tina Hamilton
That was it.
00:09:24:57 – 00:09:48:57
Agent Palmer
Did you? So. So I want to talk about Jewish for a second. Did you? What? What kind? I mean, I’m, I’m a I, I was brought up conservative until about ten, and then we moved and I became a reformed Jew, and that’s where I was, bar mitzvahed. So I’ve been I’ve been Jewish light for most of my life.
00:09:49:01 – 00:10:17:37
Tina Hamilton
Well, it’s kind of it’s somewhat a similar situation. I don’t know what you would have called us. We weren’t orthodox, so I would. I guess we were probably conservative. We, growing up, I went to Hebrew school three nights a week from first grade on, Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, I would come home from school, have a snack, do some homework, and about 4:00, I think Hebrew school started and ended at 6 or 7.
00:10:17:37 – 00:10:42:31
Tina Hamilton
I think it was three hours. Yeah, seven. And then we’d walk home at night in the dark, completely different time in Philadelphia, in the city. But, that. Yeah. And then we would walk to synagogue on Saturdays and that all went on for most of our life. However, before any of us were born mitzvah, my mother became, you know, she had I guess she would back then.
00:10:42:31 – 00:11:01:02
Tina Hamilton
You would call it a nervous breakdown. But she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Okay. And, it was a different world then. So my father pulled us out of Hebrew school. Everything was hush hush. We weren’t allowed to talk to anybody about what was going on in our house. And it was just literally the room was pulled out from under us.
00:11:01:02 – 00:11:21:48
Tina Hamilton
So suddenly we weren’t going to Hebrew school, we weren’t going to synagogue, and nothing was explained to us. It was just, this is what’s happening. And that was the end. And so, so it was that many years before I even approached the idea of Judaism again. Like I just it was just shut out of my life.
00:11:21:49 – 00:11:44:50
Agent Palmer
So when you because I, I feel like I lapsed myself from it like it’s always been there. But practicing being a practicing Jew, has not it come and gone in my life when when you came back to it, was it familiar at all?
00:11:44:55 – 00:12:10:08
Tina Hamilton
It’s still familiar, but I have to say, I never really did much. I think about often and even lately. Honestly, it’s kind of strange that we’re having this conversation, because even lately I’ve been thinking about, I’m wondering if I should really, really revisit it. Maybe I’ll find something there that was missing from my life, but I haven’t rejoined a synagogue or anything like that.
00:12:10:13 – 00:12:31:12
Tina Hamilton
My kids both went to Jewish camps and did some things like that, but no Hebrew school. My son identified as Jewish. My daughter, she’ll say she’s Jewish, but she’s completely, like, really has very little knowledge of what being Jewish even is for my son, they’re 17 years apart. So my son was a little more aware.
00:12:31:17 – 00:12:32:15
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:12:32:20 – 00:12:32:41
Tina Hamilton
Yeah.
00:12:32:43 – 00:12:39:37
Agent Palmer
Of of that I, I mean, I’m definitely a cultural Jew. I’ve definitely picked up all of those things.
00:12:39:42 – 00:12:40:43
Tina Hamilton
Oh, yeah. Okay.
00:12:40:43 – 00:12:45:39
Agent Palmer
But I’ve also been the only Jew most of my life.
00:12:45:44 – 00:12:46:50
Tina Hamilton
Jew of your friends, you mean.
00:12:46:54 – 00:13:14:21
Agent Palmer
Or of my friends or, you know, I went, you know, I went to high school in rural Pennsylvania. Like rural northeast Pennsylvania. So I was, I was in I was in Wayne County in Honesdale High School is the only, I was one of two Jewish families until another moved in. So there were two siblings, 3 or 4 years ahead of me in high school.
00:13:14:30 – 00:13:35:32
Agent Palmer
So I was only I was only there with them for a little bit. Obviously, they were gone and graduated by the time I got there. And then at some point one year, another family moved in and there was another Jew in my class. Otherwise it was, hey, that’s the Jew. Let’s ask him what’s up. Right. And so it’s yeah, it’s always it’s kind of always been that way.
00:13:35:43 – 00:13:43:56
Agent Palmer
So I’ve kept up my own cultural religious education by answering everybody else’s questions.
00:13:44:01 – 00:13:46:26
Tina Hamilton
So I have general knowledge.
00:13:46:30 – 00:14:12:09
Agent Palmer
Right. More maybe it’s ingrained from Hebrew school. Maybe it’s from when I went to the Jewish summer camp. I’ve no idea where it comes from, but like, what’s Purim? All right, well, it’s the story of Esther, and, you know, so I like. And I can cliff notes that stuff, but like it doesn’t have without the ritual, I find myself kind of falling away from it a bit.
00:14:12:14 – 00:14:17:21
Agent Palmer
I’m not building anything in my backyard. I’m not dressing up for Purim. Right? Like.
00:14:17:33 – 00:14:18:08
Tina Hamilton
Right? Right.
00:14:18:09 – 00:14:47:13
Agent Palmer
At times I light the candles for Hanukkah. Sometimes I don’t, so it really comes and goes. It’s odd. But I, I’m kind of like you where I’m like, maybe. I mean, I have all the books. I don’t know, I have all the books, I prayer books, I have the Torah, I have the all of it, at least two shelves worth of just texts.
00:14:47:18 – 00:15:15:47
Agent Palmer
I always think, like, maybe this is going to be the year I’m going to reread it for myself and discover something. I don’t know what’s keeping me from that. I know there’s something more I feel like, everybody of faith has that, like hope and and it seems to always be related to faith. And I always feel jealous about it because I, I come and go with my religion.
00:15:15:47 – 00:15:26:37
Agent Palmer
And I never had, like, the faith or I’ve never felt like I’ve had it. So I’ve always been on the periphery, like maybe, maybe, maybe this is a year.
00:15:26:42 – 00:15:36:01
Tina Hamilton
Since you I maybe that’s a common thing because sounds like you and I are the same in that way. So do you. Do you or your family so go to synagogue or belong to one at all?
00:15:36:06 – 00:16:13:45
Agent Palmer
No, no, I it so I, I there’s the old joke, right, that there’s, you know, there’s a Jew stranded on a desert island. And when they come to rescue him, he’s like, oh, people are like, why are there two temples here? And he’s like, oh, this is the one I go to, and this is the one I don’t write like that’s and, and I, I know that, when, when my parents moved back to where they are now, they remained, a part of the congregation where they were because they enjoyed the rabbi.
00:16:13:50 – 00:16:36:41
Agent Palmer
But that rabbi then retired, and they’ve kind of been Congregationalists ever since. Now they could have joined some, realm where they are, but there were some, a rabbi on his way out, a rabbi on his way in, you know, and so, yeah, it’s just it, I don’t know, it was never it never ended up being, like, a super priority for them.
00:16:36:46 – 00:16:37:15
Agent Palmer
Right.
00:16:37:20 – 00:16:37:53
Tina Hamilton
Right.
00:16:37:58 – 00:17:03:32
Agent Palmer
And that it’s not that that’s trickled down to me, but I just feel like even when I was a part of congregations or a part of stuff, I, I always felt it was personal. Lord, you know, the community aspect was, something completely different. But when it came to faith, it was always going to be personal for me.
00:17:03:37 – 00:17:33:35
Agent Palmer
Yeah. So I, I have to do that on my own. I don’t know. Again, I don’t know what’s going to take that push, and I, I sincerely hope that sometime in the next year or 2 or 3 or whatever, like, I can get myself to at least reread that stuff without, like, a death in the family, like I, because I, we’ve all heard those stories like, oh, so-and-so died, or I lost my friend, or I lost a job, or this, that and the other thing, and I or I had a breakdown, and then I found religion.
00:17:33:39 – 00:17:49:07
Agent Palmer
I, I don’t want that to be the case. I, you know, you don’t want it, right? You don’t want to be forced into it. So I do want to make make it of my own volition. I just don’t, I, I, the timing’s not right. Not sure. Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:17:49:07 – 00:18:12:11
Tina Hamilton
I wonder if it’s comment and, you know, religion overall, it seems like people are moving away from it. There’s less faith. I mean, the Catholic Church, of course, you know, had such a big shake up with priests that was, you know, terrible a sin. And now it seems like people don’t have time for it. The one nice thing that I remember about it is feeling like I was part of a community.
00:18:12:11 – 00:18:18:04
Tina Hamilton
And I think that in itself, right, is something. But every everybody wants to belong to something.
00:18:18:11 – 00:18:42:08
Agent Palmer
But it’s I think it’s been replaced by the online communities because, I mean, when you boil it down. Right. Yeah. The, the Jewish communities, the, the communities that sprout up around churches or mosques, that’s, that’s self, those are kind of like Facebook groups where like, you hear what you what you believe. You already believe that stuff.
00:18:42:08 – 00:19:11:01
Agent Palmer
That’s why you’re going to said synagogue or said church. So you hear it’s it’s more of a reflection chamber. Right. And I feel like now that we can get those things online, we don’t need them elsewhere. Although, you know, I’ll let’s be fair, Facebook groups are devoid of the faith that you get from those other groups which would be very helpful to have, I think now more than ever, that maybe that might be why we’re circling back to it.
00:19:11:01 – 00:19:14:07
Agent Palmer
Right? Like it’s like, well, they there was hope.
00:19:14:12 – 00:19:46:20
Tina Hamilton
Yeah. Well, it’s interesting you’re talking about Facebook because the other day I try and hold myself back from commenting on things on Facebook because, you know, it’s just people are out of control. And the way that they write, comment, etc. but there was a story and I think CBS or somebody ran it on Facebook about a 95 year old Nazi guard, 95, that, 70 years ago, he was a guard at the camps.
00:19:46:25 – 00:20:07:58
Tina Hamilton
He had an opportunity to say, hey, I can’t, you know, this isn’t for me. And he would be placed somewhere else doing whatever it is that the military people did in those days. He didn’t. And not only that, he stayed, and he was part of the torture, part of the whatever, you know, part of the horror of the Holocaust.
00:20:08:03 – 00:20:36:25
Tina Hamilton
And they didn’t mention if his family knew. So there’s no way to know that. But he had an entire family, wife and children, grandchildren and whatever. He’s old. And he was discovered. Not only was he discovered, but he had still been receiving up until that moment, a couple weeks ago. Check a pension check from his position in the Holocaust.
00:20:36:30 – 00:21:01:51
Tina Hamilton
Actual pension check from Germany. So how? He was never caught until this moment? I don’t know, but he got deported and people were commenting. Let the guy go. It’s 95 years old. He was a kid. He was forced on. I feel very different, you know about that. So my father was in for five years. His entire family was murdered by the time he was 12.
00:21:02:00 – 00:21:33:17
Tina Hamilton
And then he spent five years, you know, ten different camps. It’s really hard for me to sympathize, with any. I don’t care how old they are. It’s hard for me to sympathize with someone that still was collecting a check, knowing what that check was. You know, my father, was offered. They actually. Believe it or not. I don’t know if you know this or not, but believe it or not, they in Germany wanted to make, like, retribution to the people that survived the Holocaust.
00:21:33:17 – 00:21:55:44
Tina Hamilton
And he was offered two payments. One was a social security check for working in the Holocaust, working, and the other was a pension. And he refused. He said, there is no way I’m taking that money. That is blood money, the blood of my parents and no, no, no, no, no. Well, he finally he retired and he was doing okay.
00:21:55:44 – 00:22:25:08
Tina Hamilton
I mean, he wasn’t in a bad shape, but he he thought it and thought, you know what? Whatever. Like I probably should take that money. Why not? You know, I mean, if anything, I leave it for my kids. And, you know, why should Germany keep my money? Yeah. So he changed his mind about it, which makes sense. And he started getting these checks and back payment and he was calling me and telling me, oh, I got check today for $3,000, mother, for $5,000 a month.
00:22:25:12 – 00:22:53:44
Tina Hamilton
For what? I don’t know why, just randomly, until he had something like $50,000 in back payments and, and then he would get a regular two checks. One was quarterly and one was monthly. And he got that until the end and until he passed. And then that, you know, that ended. So, you know, like, I guess, you know, you got to give something to Germany for doing that, you know, you know, it’s the best I can do.
00:22:53:44 – 00:23:29:49
Tina Hamilton
Right? What are they going to do? Can’t bring back to that. But this guy. Yeah. This guy. Excuse me. I’m sorry. This guy, this. This soldier was receiving checks for what he did, what he actually did to the Jews. Yeah. And that is completely unacceptable. And so I wrote a quick little story about my father and said, look, I’m not saying I’m not suggesting forgiveness or not forgiveness, but I have zero sympathy for a guy that continued to get a check for the work he did, because that, that, that at some point in his life he really felt like, wow, what I did was horrible.
00:23:29:49 – 00:23:51:31
Tina Hamilton
And he had, you know, he had sorrow for what he did. Then he should start getting those checks or depositing them in some sort of a fund. You know, nonprofit or whatever. And he did not do that. So people were arguing with me. And I’ve never in my life I mean, they weren’t being jerks. That pretty much, but people are arguing.
00:23:51:31 – 00:24:12:42
Tina Hamilton
They said, now he has a family. I might have had a family. Yeah, my dad had a family, and he never had them his entire life. His 12 on because of mentally Kim. And no, he had an option to get out and he didn’t. So I never had, something go viral that I posted. But I would say this went viral.
00:24:12:42 – 00:24:17:55
Tina Hamilton
I had I had 1400 and some comments what.
00:24:18:00 – 00:24:18:36
Agent Palmer
I’d call that.
00:24:18:38 – 00:24:38:36
Tina Hamilton
I mean, yeah, yeah, it’s pretty viral or checks, you know, whatever likes or whatever. A few people there was like a few people said to me, did you notice that some of the people put like the little laughing emoji? And I said, I don’t even know what to say about that. You know, like that. I’m not gonna approach it like that’s just we live in a sick world, you know?
00:24:38:36 – 00:25:04:00
Tina Hamilton
So in some cases. But I’ve never felt more Jewish than I have over this last administration when the Nazi, you know, the, skinheads or whatever you call them, anti-Semitic. Yeah, has risen. I mean, there’s no question, but people that are Jewish don’t pay as much attention to it. Like, you know, I’ve heard people say, oh, there’s not that much of it around.
00:25:04:00 – 00:25:10:16
Tina Hamilton
No, it’s they’re literally measuring the amount of they feel for they felt represented.
00:25:10:16 – 00:25:11:09
Agent Palmer
Yes.
00:25:11:14 – 00:25:12:46
Tina Hamilton
Yeah. And white.
00:25:12:51 – 00:25:48:06
Agent Palmer
It’s maybe, maybe there’s a weird like six sense to anti-Semitism that we have because you’re like, you’re right. It’s it doesn’t matter how many articles there are about this, that or the other thing, you feel it like there’s just you just feel it. It may not, like be in the air. It might be over in another state, but you definitely feel it as like, well, there’s something going on here and I’m not really I it doesn’t feel right.
00:25:48:11 – 00:25:56:39
Agent Palmer
And, you know, it’s it’s just weird to think that I thought we were making so much progress.
00:25:56:43 – 00:26:26:58
Tina Hamilton
Yeah. Right, right, right. Well, I mean, right after. And I’m not necessarily blaming Donald Trump, but right after he went into office that first week, I think it was swastikas were showing up all over Philadelphia. I mean, all over. And that’s, you know, that’s not a sign on. And then what is? And then it continued, you know, there were marches all of a sudden were there weren’t for know it’s always been anti-Semitic.
00:26:26:58 – 00:26:32:14
Tina Hamilton
So it’s never going to go away. But did you. Yeah.
00:26:32:16 – 00:26:58:39
Agent Palmer
Did did your father have the conversation about being different because I’ve so in with the, with the racial injustices that are happening and that have happened over the last year and a half, two years, the conversation has been that, certain minorities have to sit down their kids and have these conversations like, you’re different. If a cop pulls you over, this is what you have to do, right?
00:26:58:44 – 00:27:29:36
Agent Palmer
And I, I feel like at some point I remember not necessarily to that level, but I remember being told, you’re different and that’s okay. And I don’t remember who said it. I know it was in relation to my my religion and I know that was it. But did you because I, I remember in like Sunday school other people asking why everybody hates us.
00:27:29:36 – 00:27:40:56
Agent Palmer
I don’t know why I never asked that question. But was it ever something that, like your father talked about because it was different for him? I would, I would presume.
00:27:41:01 – 00:28:04:01
Tina Hamilton
Yeah. No, as a matter of fact, we grew up in such a Jewish neighborhood. Like I said, we walked to synagogue on Saturdays along with all the other neighbors who one time from Hebrew school, three nights a week, etc., etc. celebrated every holiday. It wasn’t for me. There was not. We we grew up thinking we were the majority.
00:28:04:06 – 00:28:26:08
Tina Hamilton
I had no sense that I wasn’t until in Philadelphia you take city busses. There aren’t school busses, or at least not in the part of Philadelphia. I lived in northeast, when I started middle school. Seventh grade was middle school, and we took a city bus, went to school, and that was the first time I was surrounded by, you know, non-Jewish people.
00:28:26:18 – 00:28:44:50
Tina Hamilton
I mean, there were Jewish people there, but there was more non-Jewish people. And that was when I learned nobody ever told me, us, that we were different. So that was shocking to me, like it was a reality check. This. Yeah. Did you did you feel different to anybody?
00:28:44:55 – 00:28:49:00
Agent Palmer
Was always in the minority. So like, it was like I just.
00:28:49:09 – 00:28:50:22
Tina Hamilton
I just seemed.
00:28:50:22 – 00:28:50:44
Agent Palmer
Like.
00:28:50:44 – 00:28:51:25
Tina Hamilton
You know.
00:28:51:34 – 00:29:04:59
Agent Palmer
Well, there’s not that many of us. So. Or you know what? Honestly, I, so I spent four months studying abroad in Israel as part of one of the Reform Jewish movement.
00:29:05:03 – 00:29:06:10
Tina Hamilton
Oh, wow.
00:29:06:12 – 00:29:28:08
Agent Palmer
Semesters abroad? In high school. And that was the first time that I was even remotely close to outside of, like, summer camp for a month. There was a first time where I was, you know, Judaism was part of daily life. And that again, I as I know there’s people that are like, well, that’s because you were in Jerusalem.
00:29:28:08 – 00:30:04:33
Agent Palmer
No, it’s really not. It’s because it was a Jewish program. And they made sure you didn’t forget it. You know, on the weekends I did what secular Israelis did, not what Jews did. Right. Like, you know, there’s there’s this difference, but outside of that, I, I’ve always felt like, outnumbered, I guess, in a way. And I don’t know if I feel like that’s made it given me some strength to move along and do, undertake things on my own, I guess.
00:30:04:38 – 00:30:25:53
Agent Palmer
But for you, like what? How do you get a that’s a clear like before and after there’s. Well, I feel like I’m into my majority and then. Oh my God, I’m not like was was was it an easy learning. What was the learning curve when you finally get there.
00:30:25:55 – 00:30:51:33
Tina Hamilton
It was I mean, again, for me it was definitely in junior high, which is that time in life where you’re exploring who you are to begin with. Yes. You know, you go through all that teenage angst and you know, all of that. And, it was it’s hard to remember. But I do recall just like it kind of rocked my world so that we weren’t the majority and that, you know, because I’ve really just always thought that.
00:30:51:38 – 00:31:09:46
Tina Hamilton
And so, yeah. And then, you know, it never stopped. Amazing. Me, I remember when I moved to the Lehigh Valley, I was like a minute. It was 1996, a long time ago. And that the year the Gulf War, 1991. Yeah.
00:31:09:51 – 00:31:13:14
Agent Palmer
Nine, give or take it was yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
00:31:13:16 – 00:31:33:13
Tina Hamilton
I just remember I was in my apartment, I moved into my apartment, with my son at the time, just just him and I, and, I remember finally getting cable to two weeks to get cable in those days, and I remember, like, thank God, because I had no friends. I didn’t know anybody. It was winter. It was like January.
00:31:33:17 – 00:31:55:18
Tina Hamilton
And finally we got cable. And like the Gulf War, like that night, you know, the Gulf War started and we were like terrified. And anyway, so I’m living here and I’m now single and I go on a date with somebody. I was really super interested, but I figured, well, let me start getting out, you know, whatever. And I remember going skiing.
00:31:55:23 – 00:32:11:14
Tina Hamilton
We went out a few times and he came over to pick me up and he was waiting for me, and he saw my menorah, still left over from the holidays. And he looked at me when I came out and he said, what’s that? And I said, well, that’s a menorah. You know, it’s what Jewish people use. He said, yeah, yeah, I know.
00:32:11:14 – 00:32:37:44
Tina Hamilton
He goes, but you’re Jewish. And I said, yeah. And he said, well, are you really Jewish? Like, what the hell kind of question is that? I mean, I know I faked being Jewish because I don’t know why I would do that because there’s really no benefits of faking it. So. But I would just I will never forget that because he was completely authentic about that.
00:32:37:49 – 00:32:40:54
Tina Hamilton
So I don’t know what to say. That that is very strange.
00:32:41:01 – 00:32:56:40
Agent Palmer
So I want to let’s move along for a moment. You you are a successful entrepreneur, and I would guess some of the strength of everything we’ve already talked about that’s been passed down has helped you in some regard.
00:32:56:45 – 00:32:57:25
Tina Hamilton
Question.
00:32:57:30 – 00:33:07:12
Agent Palmer
But it’s more than strength. Like, did you did you know I like to ask this question. Did you know what you wanted to be like when you grew up?
00:33:07:16 – 00:33:31:59
Tina Hamilton
Well, I had a different kind of upbringing. So, you know, I mentioned you earlier that my mother became schizophrenic when I was ten years old. And so, you know, all of a sudden we were pulled out of everything and everything was hush hush. My father had a little corner store, in Albany section of Philadelphia. So he wasn’t home till 8:00 every night, six nights a week.
00:33:32:04 – 00:33:52:43
Tina Hamilton
So we were kind of left with this mother that was like, really completely off her record. He didn’t put her anywhere. He just kept her at home and, we went crazy, you know? So by the time right before I turned 16, when I was 15 years old, I said, done with this. And I moved out like, it’s a long story, but I moved out of my house.
00:33:52:43 – 00:34:12:51
Tina Hamilton
So for me, living on my own that early in life, it changed like the normal perspectives of what people do in their teenage years. Thinking about what you want to do or what college you would go to or etc. it was more of where am I going to get food? How am I going to survive, you know, that kind of thing.
00:34:12:51 – 00:34:24:18
Tina Hamilton
So now, no, I mean, when I was a young girl, I had all the normal, you know, I want to be a teacher or whatever, but now I didn’t have that. Did you?
00:34:24:23 – 00:34:25:36
Agent Palmer
00:34:26:40 – 00:34:27:40
Tina Hamilton
Yeah.
00:34:27:45 – 00:34:49:28
Agent Palmer
Yes and no. I, I knew I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to work, although I did have I had no concept of what that actually meant, and I at some point I wanted to be like an aerospace engineer, but I wasn’t good enough at math, so that wasn’t going to happen. And then I was going to be a rock star.
00:34:49:28 – 00:35:17:58
Agent Palmer
And now, you know, I’m all right with an instrument, but I’m not that good. And I kind of just floated on a path. It’s not. It’s not necessarily the, survival of, like, moving out that young that you had. But at a certain point, it’s just like, all right, where’s my next paycheck coming from? And then I ended up in retail and just was like, well, I guess I’ll start my own business on the side.
00:35:18:11 – 00:35:47:19
Agent Palmer
And that’s kind of where I started programing websites. And a lot of my digital marketing stuff is kind of come across from there. But it’s all been like happenstance, right? Like you don’t I didn’t plan to be where I am. I just ended up here, right at level. So, you know, I, I’ve, I think my path is now I want to help people, but I don’t know what that means.
00:35:47:24 – 00:35:53:30
Agent Palmer
And I don’t know how to put food on my table while doing it, which is a whole different thing.
00:35:53:35 – 00:36:09:24
Tina Hamilton
I mean, it seems to me like you’d be great at doing podcasts. You seem to like it. You’re good at it. Your voice sounds good. You like to ask questions, you know that. Or, you know, maybe it could be a backup for Ellen DeGeneres when she’s, you know, got days off. Yeah, I think.
00:36:09:29 – 00:36:41:02
Agent Palmer
I, I, I don’t I don’t know about television. I will tell you. Yeah. Right. So if there was money in podcasting, I think I maybe I would have found it by now. But I don’t know, I think that’s just as much of a crapshoot as anything else. But I, I want to ask, not not to really deflect, but like, you are, like, a founding partner for, a company.
00:36:41:07 – 00:36:50:46
Agent Palmer
Where in your path do you go from, like, survival to. Well, I’m going to start a thing. I mean, obviously it’s not the next day I, you know.
00:36:50:46 – 00:37:15:51
Tina Hamilton
Yeah, yeah. And I’m not a partner. It’s just my business. But, Well, I’ll tell you, I do believe I do give credit to my father for my upbringing because, well, obviously, obviously the man is a survivor, so I’m going to deflect a little too. So not only was he in the Holocaust for five years, survived, but in refugee camps for two years after that.
00:37:15:56 – 00:37:41:40
Tina Hamilton
Hey, no. America was drafted to the frontlines of the war. Survived. That’s where he was shooting, killing, you know, whatever. And helping other Americans deal with death when it is common for him. And then he had several little businesses. He and the laundromat. He owns a corner deli. And in all of those, he’s been robbed, shot at, I mean, just the guy never could catch a break.
00:37:41:44 – 00:38:11:10
Tina Hamilton
And then, of course, my mom getting sick and him having to deal with that while running his business. So somehow his survival skills became ingrained in me. My my sister, my brother are different. They look different lives to me. But he he was an entrepreneur. I mean, that’s all there is to it. And for what? And I we all worked at my dad’s store here and there, like in the summers, but I work there much more regularly than my sister did.
00:38:11:12 – 00:38:38:22
Tina Hamilton
And, I think that somewhere deep down inside, I know and eventually it’s a long story, but the short story is eventually. I’ve worked for somebody and an owner of a business here in the Lehigh Valley, and he was in Chicago, and he had all kinds of businesses. But so he put me in charge. His business opened a bank account in my name, in the company name, excuse me, but but with my name and said, here, run this.
00:38:38:23 – 00:39:03:16
Tina Hamilton
And left. And he would check in with me every once in a while. And his absence really, took a toll on the business. So I asked him if I could buy him out, and he let me even help fund me to do it. And that was my first company. So but it was a franchise. So after I ran that for four years, it was going very well.
00:39:03:17 – 00:39:30:29
Tina Hamilton
I mean, it was successful. Then there was a merger, that corporation had a merger, and I had an option to either sell back or buy out my competitor. That was a local and long story short, the competitor, it was local, wasn’t somebody that I wanted to buy out. So his ethics and different things weren’t same as mine. So I sold and I was very early 30s and I already sold my first company.
00:39:30:34 – 00:39:57:47
Tina Hamilton
So I later came up with the idea for this business that I have now. That was 19 years ago. And I think, I think ultimately I think, and I’ve read this before, that entrepreneurship is almost in some ways hereditary. It’s, it’s and I found that my, my mother’s father had all kinds of little businesses while she was growing up.
00:39:57:52 – 00:40:21:22
Tina Hamilton
I found some pictures and that’s how I found out. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known. So I come from, you know, what generations of entrepreneurs. But I think when you’re independent, control is very important. It becomes important because it’s survival. It’s not necessarily like controlling other people or that kind of thing. It’s more of a story. But for me anyway, it’s more survival.
00:40:21:27 – 00:40:45:13
Tina Hamilton
So it never dawned on me to be nervous about starting a business, considering I had a lack of education, a lack of most of the things that people would have, and starting a business, I didn’t have, but it just was. I’m starting this business and it’s going to do well like that. It wasn’t like I ever thought it will do well.
00:40:45:13 – 00:41:08:27
Tina Hamilton
I wanted to, well, question myself because I didn’t have the luxury of even considering that because I was on my own. So, yeah. And now here we are, 19 years later, we’re in 34 states. I have 31 employees, and growing this year where you expect significant growth. So it’s part of I feel like my DNA.
00:41:08:32 – 00:41:25:15
Agent Palmer
It is, is so I don’t know if the question to ask you is, is it fearlessness or confidence because so, I mean, survival is part of it. Right. But but there’s you know, I, I started a business and.
00:41:25:28 – 00:41:25:48
Tina Hamilton
Oh yeah.
00:41:25:50 – 00:41:46:17
Agent Palmer
I had no idea what I was doing. And I still run it as a side gig. That’s where, you know. Hey, can you help me out? Yes, I can just build my business. It’s fine. And, yeah, it’s not unsuccessful, but I can’t make a living with it. But, I didn’t know what I was getting into.
00:41:46:21 – 00:42:11:53
Agent Palmer
I still think I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing, but I never had a confidence level that was like, oh, this is what I’m going to do. Or, or the fear kept me is like, well, I need something else. I don’t know what kept me back, but something did. But for you, was it confidence or was it fearlessness?
00:42:11:53 – 00:42:20:10
Agent Palmer
I guess I know those are the two things. As you’re going through the progression that come to mind, you know.
00:42:20:15 – 00:42:49:47
Tina Hamilton
That is an excellent question. I don’t know if I ever defined it or named it, but I think once in a blue moon, I think about it and think, oh, like, why wasn’t I scared to death? Why wasn’t I like, I hope I can eat tomorrow kind of, think, but I think I got kind of lucky, you know, I, I came to the Lehigh Valley to run a business or somebody and eventually realized he wasn’t.
00:42:49:52 – 00:43:13:10
Tina Hamilton
And being an absentee owner wasn’t really serving the company. And so I offered to buy him out. And it was great because I bought a franchise. And I sometimes say to people, it was like, like being married a couple of times, this is like my first marriage, but my first business. And because you have a franchise, you’re buying into an idea.
00:43:13:14 – 00:43:32:23
Tina Hamilton
You’re buying that’s already been decided. You’re buying into they they look ahead for what needs to be done, what needs to be next, what’s the cheapest way to get business cards? You know, all of it. They you got the legal department to everything. You still have to have your own finances, deal with your own numbers and things like that.
00:43:32:23 – 00:44:05:59
Tina Hamilton
For sales for sure. But you have all these things to lean on, and I believe that because I didn’t have the education and things behind me and I’m still like this, I soaked up every thing I could. I couldn’t get enough information. I’m still like that today. I cannot get enough training, enough anything. You know, when it comes to being a business owner, I’m going to Miami next week for a week to get some training and something that’s important to me and my business.
00:44:05:59 – 00:44:28:28
Tina Hamilton
And so I watched other business owners and I had to, you know, to, to learn. I didn’t I mean, I failed in some things, you know, I wasn’t very good with finances at first, etc.. So I guess it was in my head it was no option. So maybe you could call it fearlessness. That feels a little to I don’t know.
00:44:28:31 – 00:44:50:17
Tina Hamilton
I don’t I don’t know that I connect completely to that work, but I think that you probably on the outside looking in, that would be but it would be cool because for me it was there was no option. It would be like you crossing the street and a semi truck coming at you. You would do whatever you had to do to avoid getting hit by that semi truck.
00:44:50:17 – 00:45:18:13
Tina Hamilton
Right? Yeah. Well that’s that is except for the fear part of it. That was exactly how I felt. It wasn’t like an option. I was just going to figure it out. Even in 2007, 2008 with this business. And now my partner, we oh, we got hit really hard during that downturn in the economy and all that. And even then, I had a lot of debt and I didn’t know what was coming.
00:45:18:13 – 00:45:41:26
Tina Hamilton
We got hit first. We were like, first in line and anyway, it still never dawned on me to fail that I would possibly fail. And I think that having that, I think a lot of entrepreneurs probably have that to a certain extent. Maybe it’s stupidity. Well, any I feel more like like almost like a naive. But I’m not naive.
00:45:41:34 – 00:46:11:07
Tina Hamilton
I just, I don’t know. And so and here I am. Now, listen, I’m a ninth grade dropout. I moved out of my house when I was 15, and I have a multimillionaire business that is supporting me and will support me, and probably well into the future for my family forever. And so well on forever. But for a long time and I did that because I never focused on money, ever.
00:46:11:21 – 00:46:15:10
Tina Hamilton
I only focused on success.
00:46:15:15 – 00:46:37:48
Agent Palmer
Okay? I mean, I like that I, I want to go back to something you said, okay. Do you read like is the education? Look, I understand that there’s an education in watching other people, but are you are you also reading? Are you, you know, did you, like, take courses like where’s the educate the on where’s the ongoing education.
00:46:37:52 – 00:47:03:12
Tina Hamilton
Well now, right now and for the last 3 or 4 years, I think, I’m in a group called EAA which is Entrepreneur organization. Now this was I was already doing pretty well to join that group, but, that is it’s an international organization with about 14,000 members, and it’s truly international. And they and part of the and that there’s a lot of benefits to it.
00:47:03:12 – 00:47:25:44
Tina Hamilton
But one of the things is that constant education and they have all kinds of classes. I, I’m in a three year program once a year for week over, at I’m blanking out. What is the name of that school? It’s one of the Ivy League schools, but they have partnerships with like, Harvard University and and Yale and all these.
00:47:25:46 – 00:47:45:24
Tina Hamilton
You know, I do like schools. And they give these classes, particular subjects. So it’s not about a degree because once you’re an entrepreneur, I mean, yeah, it’s always good to have a degree, but that’s at the point. Yeah. When you’re an entrepreneur, you just need information. So, so yeah, for me, I’ve always been more of a visual learner and like, going into a classroom interactive.
00:47:45:24 – 00:48:08:40
Tina Hamilton
And I have reading, but earlier on I used to read every book imaginable. As I’ve gotten older, my attention span is as good, so I’m better off going to life classes. And of course, now this year it’s nothing but webinars, you know, with Covid. So yeah, I just soak it up. And if I need somebody that’s, you know, more successful than me, I really try.
00:48:08:43 – 00:48:16:20
Tina Hamilton
When I’m in a room full of successful people, I try to get next to the people that I think I can learn something from.
00:48:16:25 – 00:48:25:38
Agent Palmer
Do you do you have any spare time like I do? This. This sounds like a very busy existence. Like, do you get downtime?
00:48:25:42 – 00:48:50:11
Tina Hamilton
You know, I for many years I really didn’t. My whole life was about my business and my kids and, but, I mean, I have a lot of friends. I have a very big social circle. Part of that was because of my networking. I was very good at networking. That’s one thing I can say about myself. I don’t compliment myself too much, but when it came to networking, I built a very nice network for myself.
00:48:50:11 – 00:49:12:04
Tina Hamilton
And now I really didn’t have a lot. Now I have much more spare time, although it doesn’t feel like it as much. But here I am. I’m. And you know, I live alone and, with my cats, and I’m a cat lady, and I was going crazy during Covid like everybody else. I mean, I wasn’t alone, but I lived alone.
00:49:12:04 – 00:49:32:02
Tina Hamilton
I was working from home, were all remote, and I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore. And so I came to West Palm Beach for four months. I’m here living in this little condo where there isn’t much I have to do. I have a lot more time on my hands than I ever have in my life, and I decided that at 56 years old, that this is the way I want to live.
00:49:32:02 – 00:49:51:20
Tina Hamilton
So I decided to rent out my house and really focus on myself for a while, you know, and try and give myself more time because I built this company. It’s successful. It’s on its way to becoming much more successful. And so I can start to relax a little. So that’s new.
00:49:51:25 – 00:50:14:27
Agent Palmer
I like that because I feel like it’s so, I it comes up quite a bit when I talk to professionals and entrepreneurs alike. The work life balance, which oh, everybody, everybody picks on millennials for, you know, what they what their wants and needs were going into the workforce, etc., etc..
00:50:14:32 – 00:50:15:53
Tina Hamilton
But yeah.
00:50:15:58 – 00:50:41:14
Agent Palmer
I look I and I’m a older generation, so I’m technically a millennial, but I’ve got Gen X values and I look at my parents and I look at the friends I have that are older and that were in the workforce ahead of me, and there was no such thing as a balance. You worked and that’s what you did, and you were defined by your work.
00:50:41:19 – 00:51:16:47
Agent Palmer
And, maybe as either an elder millennial or a young Gen Xer, whichever you choose to put me in, choosing a hobby like this, like podcasting and before it, blogging, where it was, I’m going to do this for me despite whatever my professional career ends up or was at the time. It’s like, this is with me, and I’m starting to see other people ahead of me, in career, not just necessarily in age.
00:51:16:52 – 00:51:48:17
Agent Palmer
Take a step back and go, well, this isn’t all bad. Like I don’t have to work 120 hours a week. I can just enjoy. I can have a balance. I can find a balance. And and what I think the biggest myth going is that if you stop working at five automatically, your life is balanced. No, no, no, like I, I’m, I’m a huge proponent of you need constructive hobbies.
00:51:48:22 – 00:52:11:32
Agent Palmer
You should do something. If you come home at five and just watch TV and go right back to work, that’s not a balanced life. And I like that people are taking time for themselves now. It makes me feel like we’re going to end up as a better community of people, because all work and no play, right?
00:52:11:32 – 00:52:23:04
Agent Palmer
Like that’s it’s it’s the butt of jokes for a reason. But I, I, I’m excited for you. This is like a new chapter.
00:52:23:04 – 00:52:41:48
Tina Hamilton
I’m. It really is. Thank you. That’s very sweet. It really feels that way for me. It feels like I. I pinch myself because I can’t. It’s. And I wonder if this is common with entrepreneurs, this imposter syndrome. I imagine it is. Or there won’t be a name for it.
00:52:41:50 – 00:52:44:29
Agent Palmer
No imposter syndrome exists everywhere.
00:52:44:33 – 00:53:26:24
Tina Hamilton
Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. Well, I definitely, suffer from that emotionally in a big way. But for the first time ever, I’m starting to feel it a little. I’m allowing myself to feel like, look what you’ve done, like. But it still doesn’t feel real. Because most of my life, I was. I mean, especially when I first moved out, I mean, I remember being 17, 18, 19, I had no idea, you know, I had like a pregnant now and then and I had my son and, and I, I remember waiting for him to finish his chicken legs that I could afford the meat for the week, and hoping that he wouldn’t eat them all
00:53:26:24 – 00:53:39:12
Tina Hamilton
so I could have something and, I mean, I was very, very, very poor for a very long time. And now here I am. It’s it doesn’t even make sense to me.
00:53:39:15 – 00:53:50:30
Agent Palmer
Do you wish the for the for the balance aspect, for the taking time for yourself? Do you, do you go I could have done. I should have done this sooner.
00:53:50:35 – 00:53:52:05
Tina Hamilton
It doesn’t matter. My mind’s.
00:53:52:10 – 00:53:53:44
Agent Palmer
Okay. That’s. I mean.
00:53:53:44 – 00:54:12:26
Tina Hamilton
Because I had to do what I had to do. Yeah. It was like. Like a journey that had to be given. I never thought I’d be here. Like, the fact that I’m even here is a miracle. And when I say here, I don’t mean West Palm Beach. I mean, yeah, just, you know, at a point where I live my life completely debt free.
00:54:12:26 – 00:54:29:36
Tina Hamilton
I have since 2000. Oh. Well, after 2008, when I ran up a lot of debt because of the, you know, downfall, the economy. After that, after I survived, it made up for it took a long time. I just, I promised myself I would never have that. My house has paid off. My cars are everything I have.
00:54:29:49 – 00:54:45:48
Tina Hamilton
You’re right. That and so I live. I put away plenty of money. And this is. These are great lessons for people. You know, living debt free is such an important way to live, if you possibly can. I mean, when you’re young, it’s hard. If you buy a house and things, of course you’re going to have a mortgage.
00:54:45:53 – 00:55:12:38
Tina Hamilton
But other than that, it’s really important, if you can, to try to live your life that way because it frees you up. You’re never you. You can’t move forward when you have debt because if you want to do something or start going on vacations or, you know, enjoy your life or even progress, like go to school or do things to help you get further in life, it all takes money.
00:55:12:38 – 00:55:31:59
Tina Hamilton
Sadly, everything takes money. So when you have debt and a debt payment, that’s the problem with debt. If you have a payment that’s too do, it could keep you from being able to afford other things that you want, and so I learned that early in life. I learned that later in life through, you know, the issues that I went through.
00:55:32:04 – 00:55:38:55
Tina Hamilton
And now it’s just very freeing. So I don’t know if I answered your question once again, I forgot what you asked.
00:55:38:55 – 00:55:40:09
Agent Palmer
Oh, you did absolutely.
00:55:40:20 – 00:55:41:03
Tina Hamilton
No. Okay.
00:55:41:03 – 00:55:49:56
Agent Palmer
It no, it makes sense. And I’m, you know, I, I this has come up a few times like I’m, I’ve been unemployed for over a year.
00:55:50:01 – 00:55:50:53
Tina Hamilton
Yeah. It’s a long.
00:55:50:58 – 00:56:30:39
Agent Palmer
I’m, it’s a long time. But at the same time my nest egg is still safe. I still have a savings to live off of. This is the whole reason that you save for a rainy day. But I do feel like that’s a bit of a Jewish thing because, like, and I, I would say part of it’s being frugal, but the other part is, no, you save for the rainy day, I have plenty of friends that just, you know, if they could make, you know, if the putting $10 away or spending the $10 because they paid everything else, you know, they needed to for the month, they’re going to go out and spend the
00:56:30:39 – 00:57:03:23
Agent Palmer
$10. And I stayed in and put the $10 away. And good for you now. Well, now I’m spending all that money because I’m not making any. But still, like, I have this nest egg for that reason. Right. And, I, I, I’m, I’m with you. Like, my goal is debt free. Because I am I don’t want to have to think about like, there’s a, there’s a level of stress people don’t associate with purchases that it’s just there that but it’s so common to them.
00:57:03:28 – 00:57:23:31
Agent Palmer
And I would love to be able to be like, yes, my TV broke. I don’t have to. Like, I’ll just buy a new one. Not, do well, I don’t have the money or what am I going to not do in order to replace this TV, or whatever? I, you know, the TV’s an example. Computer or a car, whatever.
00:57:23:31 – 00:57:37:22
Agent Palmer
Like, I would just like to be able to be free of that. And that’s huge. Like the stress probably melts away the moment you don’t like. That’s not a thought process anymore.
00:57:37:27 – 00:57:59:58
Tina Hamilton
So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know I don’t know I guess I still am always going to worry. I’ve never feel like there’s enough, enough money, enough you know, what is it mean enough. What is enough. I don’t need to live like a king or queen, I guess in my case. But I don’t know, I.
00:58:00:00 – 00:58:12:21
Tina Hamilton
I feel like that’s always going to be part of me. I think it is ingrained in me. My dad was always pretty tight, like you said. Maybe a Jewish thing. Or certainly he had reason to be that way. But he was always very tight with cash.
00:58:12:26 – 00:58:18:51
Agent Palmer
I don’t know, I, I think there’s a part of that, which is why you were successful in business as well.
00:58:18:56 – 00:58:34:03
Tina Hamilton
Yeah, certainly. I mean, he really influenced me in so many ways. And so many good ways, and I’m grateful for that. Yeah.
00:58:34:08 – 00:58:38:51
Agent Palmer
You.
00:58:38:55 – 00:59:04:12
Agent Palmer
There’s a lot to unpack from this conversation, but I’ll start with sobering information from the American Jewish Committee. More than 76 years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is again on the rise, according to the latest FBI hate crime statistics report, American Jews, comprising less than 2% of the American population, were the victims of 60.2% of anti-religious hate crimes in 2019.
00:59:04:17 – 00:59:31:32
Agent Palmer
Part of the problem is a willful ignorance around just what anti-Semitism means. By definition, anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews. That’s the direct definition from the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Anti-Semitism doesn’t mean living through the same level of hatred that teen is. Father survive, and a lack of genocide doesn’t make it any less relevant.
00:59:31:37 – 00:59:54:17
Agent Palmer
There is a real living history that connects us to each other, both as survivors and their descendants. Which brings us back to the podcast and the question of faith. And it’s a question that sticks with me. I am a cultural Jew, but I’m not very religious. In a world filled with echo chambers, maybe faith is what we need to seek out.
00:59:54:21 – 01:00:19:22
Agent Palmer
Tina and I both have a shared a lapsed religious faith, but I believe that we both have faith in ourselves and our own abilities, and that’s also unique these days, depending on who you ask. Perhaps because Tina has reached the top and I’m not sure what or where the top is, that our differences and our faith in ourselves are most glaring, but it’s part of our ongoing journey.
01:00:19:27 – 01:00:45:21
Agent Palmer
You’ve heard the cliche that the journey is more important than the destination, but in order to have faith in the journey, you probably need a destination. Tina is not at the end, but she has arrived where she wants to be. I’m still wandering through a personal desert wondering where to go despite my faith in myself, I still have to pick a destination to begin the journey.
01:00:45:26 – 01:01:13:33
Agent Palmer
Second, it can’t be understated that in the end we are our parents children. Whether it’s blood relation or nature versus nurture. The gifts we receive from those who help us along the way, no matter our age, are often indistinguishable from what we cultivate of our own volition. That doesn’t make either any less important. So take what you can from those who are willing to help and pick a direction.
01:01:13:38 – 01:01:35:52
Agent Palmer
If you already have a direction, let those around you in to help, even if it’s just to take your mind off things for a while. Nothing is perfect, but with a little faith, we can all get to where we belong. Isn’t that the goal anyway? Thanks for listening to The Palmer Files episode 41. As a reminder, all links are available in the show notes.
01:01:35:52 – 01:02:02:01
Agent Palmer
And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays. If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can tweet me at Agent Palmer. This show at the Palmer Files, and you can find Tina’s business on the web at my HR partner, Inc.com. For more information on what she has created and what they do, that’s my HR partner, Inc.com.
01:02:02:05 – 01:02:14:21
Agent Palmer
Don’t forget, you can see all of my writing to rantings on Agent palmer.com. And of course, email can be sent to the Palmer files at gmail.com.
01:02:14:26 – 01:02:28:07
Unknown
You.
01:02:28:12 – 01:02:50:25
Unknown
See me.
01:02:50:30 – 01:02:56:32
Unknown
See.
01:02:56:36 – 01:02:59:18
Agent Palmer
All right. Tina, do you have one final question for me?
01:02:59:28 – 01:03:29:30
Tina Hamilton
I think my question to you is we’ve talked a lot about what it is to be Jewish. What’s your thought on what you feel makes being Jewish part of your identity? Like, what is it? How would you describe if somebody asks, like, what’s it like to be Jewish? What does it feel like to be Jewish, especially since you’re not as prep, you know, practicing like you once were.
01:03:29:34 – 01:04:03:55
Agent Palmer
So, part of it is cultural, 100%. And I don’t know how you define that. And that the cultural part I feel like is easy for people to understand. You know, because everybody’s got their own culture, right? And that’s regardless of how mixed it may be, depending on the family or how, you know, ingrained it is or, or just off to the side.
01:04:03:55 – 01:04:20:08
Agent Palmer
Everybody knows culture. Especially when, when from their family, the religious part is a mix. So part of it’s faith and it wavers on me.
01:04:20:13 – 01:04:22:07
Tina Hamilton
01:04:22:12 – 01:04:56:44
Agent Palmer
But the other part is, you know, maybe it’s from Hebrew school, maybe it’s from my time in Israel, maybe it’s from my bar mitzvah. I don’t know, but there are inherently Jewish values that got passed down that seem to be more in more than culture, more just more than just cultural values. So the value of knowledge, the value of education, the value of asking questions, don’t be afraid to ask why.
01:04:56:49 – 01:05:24:27
Agent Palmer
These are things that aren’t just culturally Jewish. They’re at the foundation of Jewishness. We are encouraged from the very beginnings. And it’s the one thing through all of my, the different, you know, Sunday school teachers, I’ve had, the different rabbis, I’ve had the different teachers, especially, in Israel that I’ve had. Everybody says ask why?
01:05:24:32 – 01:05:55:06
Agent Palmer
And I don’t know. I don’t know how much of it is religious. And in terms of, you know, throughout the entire Old Testament, we are constantly being tested and asking why we are not afraid to question God. That’s part of it. But the other part is the historical, cultural aspect of the Holocaust happened. Why us? The bondage in Egypt?
01:05:55:06 – 01:06:27:13
Agent Palmer
Why us? It’s it’s in the Old Testament, but it’s also in common. You know, anti-Semitism is up. Why us? Right. It can even be like, you know, we’re good at telling jokes. Why us? Right. Like, it doesn’t matter what it is. But that question of why seems fundamentally Jewish and I, I, I it’s I feel like I wield it like I’m supposed to, which is whenever, whenever you have the question, whenever y pops into your head, ask it.
01:06:27:14 – 01:07:04:37
Agent Palmer
I feel like that’s inherently Jewish on a level that I see my friends that will ask, like, we would be in class together and I would ask why? And they wouldn’t. Why didn’t you just ask? Like, you know, I’m asking it now. Like what? Why? Why not? And I feel like that is to me, Judaism. Although, you know, I’m, I, I had a shot, I, I entertained for a moment becoming a rabbi, but I couldn’t get here freely.
01:07:04:42 – 01:07:14:38
Agent Palmer
I couldn’t get Hebrew down. So that was never going to happen. Well, the idea of writing speeches appealed to me. The the the concept of the sermon. I was all.
01:07:14:39 – 01:07:15:03
Tina Hamilton
On.
01:07:15:08 – 01:07:31:54
Agent Palmer
All on board with. But that’s all I wanted to do. Like, I’m already counseling people and I’m all right with the sermon part, but it’s the Hebrew part that I had a problem. Also, I’m not that good of a singer, and at least in the reform movement, that’s a big thing. So I.
01:07:31:59 – 01:07:33:59
Tina Hamilton
Right. So it can’t be a cancer either.
01:07:34:02 – 01:07:45:36
Agent Palmer
No no no no, I mean I could I could get up there and play guitar for the cantor. Okay. But not right now. Nobody nobody’s going to be asking me to sing. At New Years anytime soon.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).