Reid Is Sharing His Insights On Business From Larry Garland | Facebook Walk With Reid
Reid: Hello Facebook! It’s Reid from https://reidaboutsex.com/ also the creator of http://www.sexgeeksummercamp.com/. As you sign in today let me know where you’re signing in from and I don’t know just kind of sharing a little bit of a somber mood. One of one of our sex educator peers specifically in the Tantra world, we lost her this past weekend and the….and I was also coming back from having been in…in Denver Colorado in Boulder specifically to do a celebration of the life of…of Larry Garland who’s the co-founder of Eldorado which was a big distribution company for sex toys and adult toys and stuff and just a lot of hundreds of people gathered and flew in to celebrate Larry and then to get some sad news about our peer, Psalm Isadora if any of you knew her or know of her.
So you know I’ve been on the phone today and talking to people a lot of people just wrestling with sadness and grief and the surprise of losing people that we didn’t think we were going to lose. Not that any of us have weird ideas about immortality or whatnot but it’s just the surprise of it and the big thing that came out of Larry’s celebration and thank you, everybody, at Eldorado and for Larry’s family and I put it all together. I realized how much I needed to sit with a bunch of people and just kind of celebrate and talk about Larry and he was somebody that I didn’t know very well but I knew really quickly and he impacted me deeply and very….very greatly just as a businessman and as a person who really gave a flying flock about people in general and the…. and in the few conversations I had with him really touched me deeply and impacted me and how I look at the world and how I looked at being a successful businessperson in designing you know business that really tries to honor and train and empower people and you know so just hear the stories and celebrate Larry’s impact and that he you know left us very quickly and suddenly and no one expected it and then to have this kind of thing happened with Psalm you know somebody again whom I didn’t spend a lot of time with but had some really great deep moments with and felt a lot of kinship to. So the thing that came out of Larry’s celebration was another peer you know which is really kind of resonated this this message of like call each other like if you knew if you shared somebody in common who…..who has left us you know whether it was sudden or expected or whatever if you share those common bonds like let’s use that as an excuse to reach out to each other more frequently and then for those of you who are like super networkers and know tons of people don’t beat yourself up that you can’t call everybody just pick one person a week.
For those of you who really love having favorites then call your favorite person once a week or eve….you know once a month or something I think that’s kind of how I am wrapping my head around and wrestling with you know the grief and also the privilege of knowing people because we’re not all going to be around forever and some of us you know we might not even be in the industry for a long time like we may come and go, do our work you shine you know bright shining stars and then move on to whatever other industry and as somebody you know for me right now I think I’m going to stick to sex and relationships and intimacy for a long time you know I you know I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for people like Larry and all the other friends and mentors and peers who’ve influenced my life and then all of the…..the peers that I’m standing on my shoulders up you know that I even get to do what I do and pay my bills is extraordinary and you know that wasn’t always like this in our industry as sex educators and workshop facilitators as people who empower people around intimacy and to prove if we get to do what we do and be who we be for people and the more that we can encourage each other to stay connected and stay healthy and feel like we’re not alone. I mean it’s not going to guarantee or prevent every bad situation or accident or surprising thing from happening but I do think for when we’re feeling down it’s going to be important to know that we’re not alone. And so you know one more I can say is…..is what Kim told me at Larry’s event which is pick up the phone, call each other every once in a while which is also I think a loose quote of something Larry used to say.
So for all of you who are wrestling with grief or sadness or surprise even if it’s somebody who you know who left us a long time ago I think it’s okay to call each other and check in and see how we’re doing. We’re going to need more of that in our community, in our industry as we continue to grow and have new people come in and have other people retire or shift careers and I just want to say even you know for me right now just knowing that I have you all digitally to share with and you know get on Facebook and you know it took me a couple of minutes to figure out what I want to talk about today and you know it’s a live and….and real for me right now is back and I hope that you know I could share that in a way that was appropriate you know I’m sharing something that was useful and again like I don’t know that we always have to share you know these pearls of wisdom or gems all the time. I think sometimes just getting on the phone or on Skype or you know Facebook live or Snapchat or whatever you’re doing to stay connected to each other and not feel alone and I think that’s worthwhile and it’s okay for you know not every video has to be a winner, not everything you say has to turn into a pity bumper sticker bullet point but I do appreciate everybody that I get a chance to meet and the…..and those of you that I follow on Twitter or Instagram or you know that I meet because somebody retweeted you and I’d never knew that you existed, I really appreciate you all being out there and I appreciate the struggle of trying to help people to feel more empowered around sex and intimacy ‘coz it’s not easy and I certainly have a lot of privilege being a cisgendered white guy and who’s also an extrovert but you know in our industry we need to figure out how we can help each other and keep each other up and you know just check in every once in a while and just we don’t feel alone. So not putting any weird pressure on you to always stay in touch with everybody and as Jimmy Buffett wrote famously in one song if the phone doesn’t ring it’s me because we can’t stay in touch with everybody but do what you can to find the people that you want to surround yourself with so that we don’t feel alone and I certainly appreciate that.
So share this video. Share with a sex geek, with workshop facilitator or somebody and think about who you want to call this week. Okay? Even if it’s just a text or a silly mym or….or a gift. I think it…it helps. So that’s it, everybody. Hit some emoticons on your way out and I hope as we get to the weekend we all get some rest and take care of yourselves, please? Take care yourselves, get some get some self-care in this weekend as well. Alright, everybody. I’m feeling….I’m emotional now. Thanks, everyone. Bye. Mwah.