021 – A Lesson in Courage and Impact by Rebecca Bloomfield as Abigail Adams

Gift biz on wrapped a very special episode.

Number 21,

You should remember the lady I wanted women to have the

vote. It was the most revolutionary Thought,

Hey, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrapped.

And now it's time to light it up.

Welcome to gift biz,

unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop

and grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Monheit I'm Sue and welcome to the biz unwrapped podcast.

Whether you own a brick and mortar store sell online or

are just getting started,

you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your

business. And today we have a very,

very special episode,

and I'm not even going to tell you what it is.

Just listen on.

It is my true honor to introduce to you today,

Rebecca Bloomfield,

Rebecca is a partner in Jerry S Pearlstein insurance limited.

The agency is unique in a few ways.

First of all,

Rebecca and Jerry are partners in more ways than one they're

married. Secondly,

the agency was formed almost 14 years ago to provide health

life long-term care and disability insurance,

to people who don't work for a company,

providing those benefits.

Their mission is to be the benefits help desk for people

who have none today,

their clients are entrepreneurs and independent contractors.

They're the people most impacted by the affordable care act.

Rebecca and Jerry have become experts in helping hundreds to get

the most out of the benefits that the current act now

offers. Finally,

Rebecca holds a national certification in long-term care.

It's clear to her that the number of boomers and the

health care available to them represents a revolutionary challenge in how

to finance a life that can last a hundred years or

more. It takes knowing who pays for what in long-term care

and planning on how to provide a cashflow from 35 to

105. That word revolutionary brings us to a unique version of

the program today.

Rebecca Bloomfield is also an actor and playwright who has created

works based on the lives of women in history.

Her play the revolutionary,

Mrs. Adams toured the United States and the United Kingdom as

Abigail Adams.

She performed at the white house and the Ford Johnson and

Hoover presidential libraries.

I've seen one of Rebecca's portrayals And it is powerful and

inspirational. I am so honored that she's willing to share with

us today too often.

The women who supported the founding of our country are overlooked.

Many of us today are entrepreneurs creating businesses and not for

profits. Imagine trying to create an entire country.

So today I proudly welcome to the program,

the first woman to live in the white house,

former first lady,

Abigail Adams,

welcome to the show Mrs.

Adams, Good day to you,

mistress Monheit.

I understand our conversation and will be from the perspective of

woman as entrepreneur Bravo.

It is rarely,

and I recognize that the founders of our country,

why not supported in that endeavor by noble book or wealth?

No. Were they all men of means like trader John Hancock

or the plantation owners of the south?

No, indeed.

They will working men.

And if they were meeting and not working,

it was the industry ingenuity and the courage of their wives

who ran the farms and shops that kept their families provided.

And that Texas paid.

Yeah. As our listeners know Mrs.

Adams, we align the conversation around the life of a motivational

candle. The light shines on you while you share your stories

and experiences.

So Mrs.

Adams, shall we light it up?

Tell us,

please, what color is your candle?

Oh, dear Carla.

You know,

I made my own candles.

The virtue of a candle was not in its color,

but whether it could cast its light for a long period

of time,

how cleanly and clearly it burned.

And without smoke,

I believe this perhaps being constant and being clear and not

giving smoke out is probably inspiration for what a person should

be. And,

you know,

it brings us back because we don't really think about candles

of yesteryear.

We think about candles of today.

So that's a wonderful description to let us understand the life.

And the times that you lived in,

what's the motivational quote on your candle.

Ah, the quote on my candle,

where you see the year I was born,

there was a poem written by a poet named James Thompson.

He wrote a poem called the seasons and my quote would

come from that poem.

And my father was a congregationalist minister,

William Smith,

first Harish,

Weymouth colony of Massachusetts.

And he spoke out of Ecclesiastes days often for everything there

is a season,

but when Mr.

Thompson wrote of the seasons,

he said,

one must expect seasons of earthly sadness.

And here is my quote in the depths of grief.

Other seeds of hope in the depths of grief are the

seeds of hope.

And that has been my inspiration since I was a child.

And what does that mean to you?

Oh, that was times in my life.

Well, one didn't know what was coming forward.

And I had to believe that by a constancy,

by believing that we were doing well and that I was

in the struggle,

well, that things would come round.

Right. And they did,

for the most part they did Because you listened to your

inspirational quote.

Yes. In the depths of grief are the seeds of hope.

This is Adams.

Let's go back to the beginning.

Tell us the story of how you got the inspiration that

led you to support the revolutionary call.

Oh, I don't know that it was inspiration,

more education.

And it was in the manner of being inspired by Mr.

Thompson's quote.

You see,

I was not sent to any school.

My sisters went four miles away to the nearest school school,

but I was considered too frail and I had to stay

home. And then my son was my reading and writing at

my mother's kitchen table.

I was in such grief about that.

But once I learned to read my fathers and grandfathers opened

their libraries to me,

it was a world.

Not usually present it to a young woman,

history, geography,

philosophy pamphlets from all manner of reformers.

I read with a gentlemen of the day we're reading.

And often when I would bring tea to the men in

the library,

I would find a small corner to sit and listen to

their debates.

I learned so much,

they were so bright,

including one John Adam.

So not only was I inspired to join the revolution,

but I was given a partner in that revolutionary pursuit,

my dearest friend,

John Adams.

So really you not being able to go to school with

your siblings really led to actually a much better education.

You're getting the value from the history books.

And then of course,

meeting your spouse.

Yes. Yes.

Most definitely.

So gift biz listeners,

if ever you're feeling like you're in a situation where you

are not being,

not proving your skills,

but you know that they're there or someone possibly has told

you something that was negative that you knew not to be

true. Don't necessarily listen to that.

Take advantage of what you have in front of you to

overcome Mrs.

Adams along the way.

I am sure there were struggles your road.

Wasn't always easy.

That is for sure.

Take us to a challenging time.

What happened and how did you overcome October,

1700 75.

John was at the second continental Congress.

I had wished to go to Philadelphia to be upon the

stage of action there myself.

But I was the one who had to stay behind and

make sure that the farm supported myself and the four children.

And we had enough crops to sell,

to pay the taxes.

And so I was at home when it dysentery epidemic spread

through our area,

my mother nursed me and the children until I could rise

from my bed.

And then she took to her.

She died October 1st and I began what I called my

more bit debate.

I was ill stew and weak in mind and heart.

And my mother had been such a strong presence.

The wife of a minister,

a perfect Christian.

You know,

when she died,

she was so praised that the words are buried in the

ground because they could not fit them on the tombstone.

But here I was a woman who did not want to

be loyal to a husband king,

and God did not wish to bend knee in that way.

Who wish to study politics,

read rebellion.

Now the preachers of the times that a woman's body gives

purpose to her life,

but surely God had given me my mind quick.

Where was I to be in this debate?

when Mr.

Adams returned home from a break in the proceedings at the

Congress, he said,

I shown as stateswoman as well as farmer S.

And he thought my maxims of state,

very apropos.

He called me the best of all wives.

And so I began to send him ideas for laws in

the new country that we would propose.

And I actually sent him a letter that said in the

new code of laws,

which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make

I desire.

You should remember the ladies.

I wanted women to have the vote.

You see,

it was the most revolutionary thought.

And he sounded receptive to that.

Oh No.

He said that it would bring men under the despotism of

the petty coat.

Can you imagine?

No, I can't imagine.

But it was True that two of the states did give

women the vote under the articles of Confederation.

came about,

But you were still sending him letters of things that you

felt were important of the day.

And for the most part he was listening.

Oh yes.

And then he sent George Washington to visit me.

I dined with Dr.

Benjamin Franklin.

My husband was not quiet in pride of his wife.

And it pleased me greatly.

Do you think you would have been able to accomplish everything

you did without having that support?

No. No,

not at all.

And not just John's you see,

I wrote letters,

letters love most important connection.

I had two wonderful sisters and I could write to them

about my loneliness when John was gone and,

and practical matters in the house about what to do about

a sick cow or a sick child.

And I had a friend mercy Otis Warren.

She was quite a learned lady corresponding often with women in

England who wish the vote for women there.

And we debated often about what our new country would look

like. She wrote a history of the colony of Massachusetts,

and I learned so many interesting things from the copies of

documents that she sent me.

She was a wonderful friend and let my mind be exercised.

Even after a long day of my body,

working hard share With us Mrs.

Adams, some of the events that made a difference in how

you supported the revolution and perhaps change the way you made

a difference.

When independence was declared July 4th,

1,776, I believe John would return home to brand tree,

Massachusetts to be lawyer farmer husband.

Again, instead just three weeks later,

three weeks after his return,

Congress decided they needed a minister at the court of France.

And John Adams Esquire was elected.

He left and took my eldest son only 11 with him.

And now let us was so hard to get through.

They were lost,

they were stolen.

They sank in ships.

I did not have that connection with my support and my

husband that I had.

And I became angry.

I chastised him for abusing me.

So by not writing back to me.

And he wrote to me that if I continue to write

in that manner,

he would see striking to me at all.

He said it killed him.

And so I had to find a way to speak my

mind, to make my connections,

to get my support.

I, myself,

I became unashamed to write to members of the Congress.

I was more outspoken.

I wrote that after letter,

when I had to,

I was more persistent in my ideas of the directions we

had to go.

And I was more support people that I heard had joined

us. I wrote,

thank you letters.

And I wrote chastising letters.

I became an entity in myself in a way I had

never thought possible years later when I was first lady,

the wife of the president,

it came to the attention of the press that I continued

this practice.

And they called me Madam president.

And not kindly neither.

Where did you get that?

Bravery and courage to speak out so strongly when your sole

supporter was no longer able to communicate with you?

It's an interesting question too.

I really don't know.

I had always been outspoken when I was 17 and Mr.

Adams and I would caught it and he was a young

lawyer riding the circuit.

And we wrote letters.

I wrote to him that I thought men and women were

cast of the same mold that they both had an equal

quantity of steel that the same cause would provoke the same

effect in books.

So even when I was 16,

I had these ideas.

And when I thought I had an ear was not ever

to expressing myself,

I have to be the devil in me.

Don't you think I venture to say,

not based on how it turned out,

but a question for you did other women of the time

also view the same way you did and just were too

fearful to voice it?

Well, I believe so women that I know and who came

to talk to me often,

did it quietly and often came for tea rather than even

putting their thoughts down on paper.

You know,

we were not so far away in Massachusetts of witch trials

and I would of,

of women were not treated very well.

And in,

besides being in danger,

you know,

that speaking against the king was treason and that men and

women could be hung for that reason.

And as for women expressing their opinion,

I believe it was dangerous to do so Truly it had

to be coming from the heart and the soul.

Then you were committed that this is what needed to be

done because you did put yourself highly at risk.

Yes, I did.

I even made bullets at my kitchen table and melted down

my pewter and poured molds.

And we did it because we believed that the country needed

to exist where all men and women were furry and not

under the thumb of born to royalty.

Well, I know that not every colonist supported the revolution and

those that did had to keep the faith for a very

long time.

How did you get people to stay loyal to the struggle?

As I said,

it was always through letters.

Thank you.

Letters, admonition letters.

I found a way,

even in an admonition to somebody to bolster them,

to keep them going.

And I believe that the fact that I was on farm

arrest in a saltbox cottage at the foot of the hill,

just as they were not a grand lady,

that my words and my actions meant something as an example,

to keep them in the struggle.

God bless them all.

Yes, God bless them all.

And in today's language,

we would use the term credibility that because you were very

much like them,

they could relate to you and you provided a lot of

credibility, which then allowed people to follow you because they believed

in you and they trusted you because you were very much

like them.

Yes, I believe that is so good.

Word, credibility Adams.

We are going to move on to the reflection section of

our chat today.

What is one natural trait that you have that has helped

you to succeed?

Hm. I love to learn and I believe in learning,

there is always inspiration to compare,

to have a new perspective brought forward.

And that is rejuvenating to me,

even in my older life to read,

to learn something new,

to meet someone new gives me new life.

And That all started way back.

When you were little reading from the library at your parents'

house. Yes,

There, I was hiding from my mother up in a tree,

12 years old,

Abigail Young women do not climb trees.

She would say,

and I would have to come in and do some hateful

Chihuahua, but yes,

it started back then,

What tool or type of activity do you do that keeps

you productive or create balance in your life?

I write,

I do not write a journal as such some women that

I knew mercy Otis Warren keeps a fine journal,

which she can access and share,

but I write letters,

letters my most constant link to the rest of the world.

One day when I was traveling not far within 40 miles

of branch tree,

I visited the house of a woman that I had corresponded

with. And she had a special room with a small desk,

a room of her own in which she could write.

I envied her all my days because I often had to

write at my kitchen table or huddled close to the fire,

but writing those letters gives me connection.

And that is what I love to do the best Writing.

And then of course,

reading, you've talked about how valuable books are to you.

I'm very curious.

Is there one particular book that you've read that you think

has impacted you the most After the declaration of independence was

signed? I followed John to Europe.

I had never been more than 40 miles from the society

of brand tree and that I was in the courts of

Kings and Queens.

And we were there until the new constitution was written in

the first election for the United States of America was held.

And we came back and I was thrilled.

Instill am thrilled to read the constitution of the United States

of America,

the preamble,

so wonderful to come from the people themselves to know that

our highest ideal,

although we may not always rise to it is for the

common defense and the common wealth,

health, happiness of the people themselves.

I say that all people on July four,

where John said there should be parades and fireworks and that

there are,

but you should pull out a copy of that constitution.

You should read it.

You should see what the founders had in mind to establish

and keep a wonderful country of the people by the people

and for the people.

Very Powerful.

And I will challenge all of our listeners today.

That just as you're listening to us,

I bet you that constitution is on an audio book right

now. I've teamed up with audible for you all,

to be able to read the constitution or any other book

you would choose for free.

All you need to do is go to gift biz,

book.com and make a selection Mrs.

Adams, we're winding down into our final minutes now,

and I want to give you a special gift.

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

This is your dream or goal of almost unreachable Heights that

you'd wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside?

Oh, inside is the boat for women inside is our ability

to our country and our lives without vote,

perhaps even to hold office ourselves and be in those rooms

where the decisions that affect the lives of the citizens made

that would be the greatest gift of all That would be.

And I'd like to give you the gift of being able

to foresee in the future and having that come true.

Mrs. Adams,

thank you so much.

Your conversation today has been so informative and so interesting for

the women entrepreneurs of today.

I'd like you to sit back for just a second and

I'm going to jump over to Rebecca.

Now, Rebecca,

I'd like to do the same thing with you.

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

This is your dream or goal of almost unreachable Heights that

you'd wished to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside your box?

Well first,

thank you very much for the gift of being able to

bring Mrs.

Adams to you.

It is such a joy to me,

always. She has been such an inspiration in my life and

the gift that I would look for in the box.

Although women have the vote and they can run for office.

I'm afraid that some attitudes still are in place where women

don't make decisions for themselves in a financial way that they

really have the power and should take the responsibility to do

so. I would have in that box,

the gift of a life insurance policy that includes payment for

longterm care for every woman,

so that when she is living her long and wonderful life,

she has her own independent means.

And at the end of her life,

when she's taken care of everyone else,

she has the means to take care of herself.

I've said before,

I think it's a revolution that we're seeing in this country

with people so long lived.

It's a situation,

a challenge for us to meet.

And I would wish that women would begin to take the

step to meet that challenge.

And you are working on that goal with your business every

day, Every day.

That's exactly what we're doing.

Rebecca, How could our listeners get in touch with you?

We do have a website,

J Perlstein,

ltd.com. You can reach me at our Bloomfield at J Pearlstein,

I'd love the conversation And gift biz listeners.

As you know,

you can jump over to gift biz on wrap.com

where you'll find the show notes page,

and I will be sharing with you point of all of

the specific information Mrs.

Adams has been talking with us about today.

Thank you so much Mrs.

Adams and Rebecca,

for all the valuable information,

your journey and the insights that you've shared.

And may your candles Learn how to work smarter while developing

and growing your business.

Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your business

and life.

It's our gift to you and available@giftbizonrap.com

slash tools.

Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the

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