Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 3 - Episode 8 with Leslie Kuster, Back From Bali, Author "7 Keys to 7 Figures"
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to the Why Not Today podcast where we celebrate determination, courage, and the
- 0:06power of saying why not today.
- 0:08I am your host Lesley Cain and in each episode we dive into inspiring stories of individuals
- 0:14who have taken bold steps, faced their fears, and embraced the possibility of today.
- 0:20From entrepreneurs to artists, dreamers and doers, we explore the moments when they said
- 0:25enough waiting and why not today.
- 0:28Join me as we uncover the heartwarming, the audacious, the transformative, whether it's
- 0:32pursuing a lifelong passion, overcoming obstacles, or simply choosing joy.
- 0:37Our guests share their journey and inspire us all.
- 0:40I started this podcast and honor my father, Patrick Cain, who often did say why not today.
- 0:45And I always remember you're just one decision away from changing your life.
- 0:48So I'm excited for my guest tonight today and it's funny, her name is Lesley Custer.
- 0:53So when the person introduced us, she's like, I can't even say Lesley K because we're both
- 0:58Lesley Ks.
- 0:59So there's just like a few dishes, letters in our name that separate us.
- 1:05So I always talk about where we connected and where we met.
- 1:08So I had on the podcast Laura Carney who wrote a book and then she did something with Stacy
- 1:18Lorne who will be on the podcast.
- 1:20We haven't had her yet who has a Facebook group and it's called do the thing.
- 1:27Which is very much an alignment of why not today.
- 1:30So I talked to her one day and she's like, oh my gosh, I need to meet my friend and talk
- 1:34to my friend Lesley Custer.
- 1:36So Lesley had me on her podcast and now she's here and she's written a book and got all
- 1:41kinds of courage stuff that we're going to talk about.
- 1:43And so, and of course her name is Belle Deexxing.
- 1:47The first name is Dexxing is mine.
- 1:49So isn't that even double fun?
- 1:50So Lesley, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit about seeing a fun fact and then
- 1:54we'll get into the courage.
- 1:55Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
- 1:58I'm so happy to be here.
- 2:00So my name is Lesley Custer.
- 2:02I am the founder and CEO of a women's clothing line called Back from Bali and it's women's
- 2:09like bohemian style clothing and you could find it on Amazon and on my website.
- 2:15And because of the success of the business, which honestly took me a really long time
- 2:19to be successful, but when I became successful, I decided to really focus in on how in the
- 2:26world I did it.
- 2:27And so I wrote a book called Seven Keys to Seven Figures, the Women Entrepreneurs Guide
- 2:33to Money and Freedom.
- 2:34Love it.
- 2:35And I can't wait to hear all your stories.
- 2:37And some people are listening and some people are watching because we do both.
- 2:41Is that one of your shirts?
- 2:42Yeah, matter of fact, it is.
- 2:44There you go.
- 2:45So you have a little bit of like, you know, this kind of looking here and you have a lot
- 2:50of like hand-done embroidery.
- 2:52I do a lot of like loose, comfortable, colorful, a lot of, you know, stuff for resort or going
- 3:00traveling or that type of thing too.
- 3:02So I need to, I know, although I started reading your book and know about it, I haven't
- 3:06Google to look at or look at Amazon shopping.
- 3:10Back from Bali on Amazon or my website or Instagram, you know, all those places.
- 3:15All right.
- 3:16So what's a fun fact about Lesley?
- 3:17Oh, right.
- 3:18Okay.
- 3:19Fun fact is that in the last year, I have become a pickable addict.
- 3:23I mean, literally an addict.
- 3:25So my husband and I, we play definitely six days a week anywhere from, you know, an hour
- 3:32and a half to two hours to sometimes three hours a day.
- 3:35And it's just, I just have fallen in love with it.
- 3:38So anyone who doesn't know pickable, go play it.
- 3:42It's so much fun.
- 3:43And that's funny that I know people, other people that have played it and pretty much
- 3:48everybody that says they started finished just like you did that they're addicted.
- 3:51Yeah.
- 3:52It's so interesting.
- 3:53This part of it.
- 3:54Yeah.
- 3:55I'm not tried.
- 3:56Maybe one day I will.
- 3:57I was going to want to finish grad school.
- 3:58I was going to start tennis and somebody gave me a tennis racket and then I was traveling
- 4:02all the time for work and got quote unquote tennis or tendonitis and I had to have surgery.
- 4:08So that was the end of that career.
- 4:09But that was the one time.
- 4:10I hopefully have recovered.
- 4:11So Leslie, what does courage mean to you?
- 4:16You know, I love the topic of your show because this is the question that we all have to ask
- 4:24ourselves like, are we going to make changes in our lives or are we not going to make changes
- 4:30in our lives?
- 4:31And so this is what I think courage means to me.
- 4:34Courage means to me, you get in a place in your life where you feel disappointed in yourself
- 4:40or you're unhappy with your life.
- 4:42You're happy with your business, your money, your relationship where you live, how you
- 4:46feel as a person, whatever it is.
- 4:49And you have the courage to go and change it.
- 4:53And that is what courage means to me too.
- 4:57There's too many people sitting on the sidelines and just waiting for life to happen to them.
- 5:03And my experience has been you have to make life happen to you.
- 5:07I mean, life happens and all kinds of challenges happen, but it's really our attitude towards
- 5:14those challenges that really define our lives and make the beautiful life we have or don't
- 5:20have.
- 5:21Yeah, so true.
- 5:22And I think, yes, your definition is so in alignment with what I'm doing with this podcast
- 5:27and the courage coaching that I'm working on that so many people are just stuck.
- 5:33I found a lot of unsettling in the world right now and people are like, what's next?
- 5:39Or I'm not happy.
- 5:40I was on a leadership call the other day and because I'm right outside of DC, there's
- 5:44a lot of government employees.
- 5:46And I've never heard this, but people literally have clocks on their death, their countdown
- 5:52clocks waiting to retire.
- 5:54Wow.
- 5:55Like thinking work is a terrible thing.
- 5:58And it's like, you know, I love what I do.
- 6:00And I'm excited to work because I'm doing things I enjoy and living my life and so many
- 6:05people are not, which is so sad.
- 6:07Yeah, no, that's so sad to hear something like that.
- 6:12But at the same time, I understand it.
- 6:15And I also lived that kind of life at some point many years ago when I was working in
- 6:21corporate, I was working in New York City in public relations and had all these corporate
- 6:27clients.
- 6:28And you know, Monday morning was the worst day, you know, sat Sunday night and Monday
- 6:33mornings were my worst days.
- 6:36And I live that for, you know, I don't know, maybe around about six years or seven years,
- 6:42something like that.
- 6:43And then in my early thirties, I went traveling because actually something happened in New
- 6:49York City.
- 6:50I got robbed and I also had money because of being robbed from the insurance.
- 6:55And I said, you know what, I'm quitting and I'm going to go traveling.
- 6:59And I traveled.
- 7:00I knew you traveled.
- 7:01I wasn't sure how you got.
- 7:02That was when I started my business back from Bali was because of that.
- 7:06Let's talk about that story.
- 7:07And it's not probably that that pivotal moment happens that completely changes our life.
- 7:12And like, that was a bad thing that happened that turned out to be an amazing thing.
- 7:16So let's talk about, you know, you're working corporate America, working the rat race.
- 7:21And then you got robbed and what happened.
- 7:23And then I got robbed and I, you know, got a whole, a whole check here and I had always
- 7:29wanted to go traveling.
- 7:31I had just kind of separated from my first husband.
- 7:34So I was sort of single at the time.
- 7:38And I always wanted to travel to Indonesia.
- 7:41I just, why I have no idea, Leslie.
- 7:43I saw like this group of islands on the map and I was like, I want to go there.
- 7:48But let me tell you, it took some courage to do that.
- 7:51I was single, I was alone.
- 7:53You went by yourself?
- 7:54I went all by myself.
- 7:55Wow, good for you.
- 7:56Yeah.
- 7:57And it was scary and it definitely took courage.
- 8:02And I remember being on the airplane going over and I think all the fear just left me.
- 8:08It was all the beginning before getting on the plane.
- 8:11That was the scary part.
- 8:12But once I was on the plane and once I landed and all of that, I was like, this is fun.
- 8:18And that took courage to do that.
- 8:22I could have just stayed in New York City and gotten another job or did something, I don't
- 8:27know, waitressing to get out of the corporate world.
- 8:30But I jumped on the airplane by myself.
- 8:32So all of these courageous things that we're talking about, this is what leads you to the
- 8:38next step.
- 8:39And I had no idea that out of this trip that I took, that it would actually turn into my
- 8:46career.
- 8:47And that's what happened.
- 8:48What a pivotal moment.
- 8:49And the courage to travel and to get on that plane.
- 8:52And it's like, once you do, you're okay.
- 8:54I was with my nephew this weekend and when COVID happened, he worked virtually and asked
- 9:00his boss if he could move to San Diego, which he did.
- 9:04And actually, even before he did that, he traveled all by himself to Europe.
- 9:09And he does that all the time.
- 9:10He just like, where's Sam?
- 9:12I don't know.
- 9:13He jumped on a plane.
- 9:14He's in South America.
- 9:15He's a Y surfing.
- 9:16He's been to Australia once to be.
- 9:20And he's like, I traveled by myself and I go to a barn.
- 9:22I meet a new friend and then hang out with them.
- 9:25And there's a whole world, but we're all afraid.
- 9:29We're all waiting for that person to go with us.
- 9:31And if we keep waiting, you'll never do it.
- 9:33You have to not wait.
- 9:35I had an experience very early in life where my boyfriend died in a car accident.
- 9:45And it was that experience of when I was 17, it really got drilled into me at that time
- 9:52that you never know what's going to happen.
- 9:54You really don't even know if you're going to have your life any longer.
- 9:58And that experience has stayed with me my entire life.
- 10:02And I always ask myself that question, like, what, you know, I want to do something.
- 10:08And if I don't do this thing, and then who knows what's going to happen in life.
- 10:14I may never even have this opportunity any longer.
- 10:18So I always pushed myself to do courageous things.
- 10:22And I've done many, many, many courageous things actually moving to another country,
- 10:28you know, building a huge business takes a lot of courage.
- 10:32Moving back back to America.
- 10:34Recently, we just relocated back to the United States after 20 years living in Switzerland.
- 10:40Oh, wow.
- 10:41That took a lot of courage actually because we lived a really comfortable life.
- 10:47Heinz, he was working full time.
- 10:49So I had a husband with a full time job.
- 10:52We had a boarder's apartment.
- 10:54We had lots of friends.
- 10:55You know, we lived in Switzerland, which is a very comfortable lifestyle.
- 11:01Right.
- 11:02Nothing was wrong with our lives.
- 11:04And we, I just, it mostly came from me.
- 11:07I wanted to change and I wanted to like come back to the United States.
- 11:11And it wasn't easy at all to do this.
- 11:14It was really, really hard to tell you the truth.
- 11:17But we did it and now we're here and I'm so glad I did.
- 11:21And I can see the smile on your face.
- 11:22You light up being glad to be back.
- 11:25Yeah.
- 11:25Yeah.
- 11:27So yeah, let's talk about, so you went to Indonesia and then I know from reading your
- 11:34book, you came back and decided this is not the world you wanted.
- 11:37So you started business.
- 11:38So let's talk about that.
- 11:39And how long ago was that?
- 11:41It was like a really long time ago.
- 11:43It was about like in the early 90s.
- 11:45So, you know, what is it?
- 11:46It's like 30 years ago, something like that.
- 11:49And yeah, I came back to New York.
- 11:51I had traveled for seven months and I needed just to go to job again.
- 11:55And so I was looking through the New York Times, which is the way you looked for jobs
- 11:59back then on a physical newspaper.
- 12:03And I was like, I just don't want to do this.
- 12:07And I had this light bulb moment that went, hmm, I wonder if I could bring back clothing
- 12:15from Indonesia that I saw when I was traveling, and particularly in Bali, I saw like really
- 12:20cute kids clothes.
- 12:22That was that teak with like moons and stars and all kinds of oranges and colors and things.
- 12:28And I just thought, why don't I give it a try?
- 12:30Like, why not?
- 12:31Why not today?
- 12:32Exactly.
- 12:33I think it was either this or it was getting a job.
- 12:36And getting a job again was just, I so much didn't want to because I had just experienced
- 12:43freedom, you know, seven months of traveling and freedom and all of this.
- 12:48And I wanted that experience to be my life.
- 12:51So I literally jumped back on an airplane with an empty duffel bag.
- 12:58And I went back to Bali.
- 12:59I hit the streets.
- 13:01I went store to store and just started buying and stuffing it into a duffel bag and bringing
- 13:08it back to the US.
- 13:10Back then, you didn't have 50 pounds, you know.
- 13:13Right.
- 13:14You can have 200 pounds.
- 13:18And I signed up for street fairs in New York City because I was still living.
- 13:23They had all these fairs every Saturday, every Sunday.
- 13:26They had Christmas markets, whatever.
- 13:29And I just started doing a street fair.
- 13:32And I'd never done sales before, never sold a thing in my life.
- 13:36I don't know anything really about clothing in particular, except I like wearing clothing.
- 13:42And my booth was stormed by mothers buying the clothes like crazy.
- 13:49It was almost like a frenzy of purchasing and buying.
- 13:54And at the end of the day, I had, I remember $800 in cash in my hand.
- 13:59And I was like, wow, this is really fun.
- 14:04And I realized I better get back on another airplane because I'm going to be sold out
- 14:07soon.
- 14:09And that's how I started my business.
- 14:11Wow.
- 14:12Well, all the courage and all those decisions to try all these new things, but just taking,
- 14:19and I think what I hear is you just took one step at a time.
- 14:23And I think that's the thing people, like you didn't probably have a big business plan.
- 14:27You probably didn't even have a business, an LLC or anything at that point.
- 14:32You didn't have a business account.
- 14:34You just did.
- 14:35And that's kind of how I started the podcast.
- 14:37I just started.
- 14:39And I think we have to have courage just to start.
- 14:42And when you started to where you are now, you could never probably in a million years
- 14:46imagine.
- 14:47Oh, not in a million years.
- 14:48Where you've come.
- 14:49Not in a million years.
- 14:51Like your wildest, craziest dreams couldn't have got there.
- 14:55I don't even think I had the capacity at that time to dream this big.
- 14:59I don't think it was even in my possibility.
- 15:02You know, all I wanted was to not get a job in New York City in a big corporate high rise
- 15:07and to have like enough money that, you know, I could pay my rent, which was really cheap
- 15:12at the time and, you know, go to spiritual retreats, which is what I like to do in the
- 15:17summer time.
- 15:18And that was really my goals was just to like pay those expenses.
- 15:23I even remember like saying to my dad, by the way, you and I also have a share our dad's
- 15:29story too.
- 15:30And my dad passed like four and a half years ago and he would always say, just do it.
- 15:36So it was really what, you know, what your podcast and what your whole work is about
- 15:42of just, you know, just do the thing and, you know, get things done, right?
- 15:46Did your dad work for himself or did he have a, have his own business?
- 15:50He worked for himself.
- 15:51So I come from a family of entrepreneurs, which makes it really much easier for me to
- 15:56be an entrepreneur.
- 15:59But I remember like early on in the business saying, or not early on, I think it was about
- 16:04a, it actually was not early on.
- 16:06It was when I started to starting to do well in the business.
- 16:10In fact, it was about 20 years later, matter of fact.
- 16:14This is my story.
- 16:15My story is that I had a bit, I had a business for 20 years.
- 16:21This clothing business going to Bali, importing it in, selling it at markets, at holiday markets.
- 16:29But I never ever did more than $60,000, $70,000 a year in revenue.
- 16:36I'm not talking about in my pocket, just writing.
- 16:41And after about 20 years or so of that, I made a very conscious decision that I wanted
- 16:50more money and I wanted to be more successful.
- 16:53And so this started to happen.
- 16:56And I remember saying to my dad, maybe when I hit over a hundred thousand, I remember
- 17:01saying, you know, 250,000, it would be my absolute top.
- 17:07You know, if I ever could reach doing 250,000 in sales, that would be amazing.
- 17:12And you know, now I'm in multiple seven figures.
- 17:16So you know, it has just grown my capacity to believe what is possible is what has completely
- 17:23changed.
- 17:24Yeah, I love that.
- 17:27And yeah, we have to, we start here and we grow and I was listening to something yesterday
- 17:32and he talked about vision boards and in a vision board, you should leave space.
- 17:40Don't fill it up because you never know because you don't have enough capacity is basically
- 17:44what they said to be the biggest picture.
- 17:49And leaving space in there for other things to happen.
- 17:53You just don't know.
- 17:54So what happened at the 20 years that you're like, all right, I want to make more money.
- 17:59Was there a pivotal moment?
- 18:00Was there something you read, heard somebody?
- 18:03What was that moment that you're like, okay, enough is enough.
- 18:05Why not that?
- 18:06I was in my early fifties business.
- 18:10I actually had two businesses at the time and yeah, they both did.
- 18:14They both did under a hundred thousand a year.
- 18:17I did okay.
- 18:18You know, I paid for some great vacations, you know, bought some clothes contributed
- 18:22to my, you know, my husband and my living expenses.
- 18:26But I had for the last few years in my early fifties starting to this building up inside
- 18:32of me that I could be doing so much more and also frankly envious of other people who had
- 18:41more money than I had.
- 18:42And we're able to do other things that we were not able to do like buy our dream home
- 18:48or you know, different things like that.
- 18:51And it really didn't come from the outside like it like an event happening in my life.
- 18:56It really came deep inside myself where I felt that I could be doing so much better than
- 19:04I had been doing.
- 19:05I could be pushing me myself more.
- 19:07I could be learning more.
- 19:09I knew I was smart and I knew I could be successful, but I didn't really allow myself wanted all
- 19:19these things until that moment.
- 19:21And I was sitting in our apartment in a little village in Switzerland, which is where we
- 19:26were living at the time.
- 19:29And I said to myself, there is no way I am not waking up on my next birthday, not doing
- 19:37over a hundred thousand a year in sales.
- 19:40No way.
- 19:41It was over for me.
- 19:42And I committed to that.
- 19:44And I then had the honesty inside of me to say to myself, I want money.
- 19:52I want wealth.
- 19:53I want more money.
- 19:55Where before that I was embarrassed to say anything like that on the outside or on the
- 20:02inside.
- 20:03You know, that's why we were raised and you didn't talk about money.
- 20:06You didn't talk about how much you made and you didn't ask for more and you know, not
- 20:11to throw us in the world of women, but women don't ask for it as much as men do.
- 20:16I hate to say it.
- 20:17That's right.
- 20:18That's true.
- 20:19Exactly.
- 20:20And you know, I had all these money stories as we all have and my money story basically
- 20:27went a value of a woman is to marry a man with money.
- 20:30All right.
- 20:32And this is really how I was raised.
- 20:35So I never thought it was actually my responsibility to do this.
- 20:38It wasn't my job to make the money.
- 20:39It wasn't my job to do all this.
- 20:41This is not what I'm supposed to do.
- 20:44I started Leslie really questioning these beliefs that I had.
- 20:47That was my first step.
- 20:49I started to go, why do you think that if you had more money, you would lose your freedom?
- 20:56Because this is the stuff I was thinking.
- 20:58Right.
- 20:59Why do you think if you, you know, became really successful, you would no longer be
- 21:04a spiritual person?
- 21:05I started to go, wow, maybe these things actually aren't true.
- 21:10And I literally got out my computer or I think at the time I was writing in my journal and
- 21:15I would write these statements down.
- 21:18Like, you know, if I'm successful, I won't be a nice spiritual person anymore.
- 21:24And I changed that to end.
- 21:28I am very successful and I'm very spiritual.
- 21:31Right.
- 21:32I make a lot of money and I have tons of freedom.
- 21:36And I started to just change the ideas inside my head that these things could be possible
- 21:42and they don't work against each other.
- 21:44And that was one of the first absolute steps, which is why mindset, what we say to ourselves,
- 21:51the stories we repeat over and over is one of the most critical things that we need to
- 21:58learn how to manage and control.
- 22:01So, so true.
- 22:03And as I asked you, was there a pivotal moment in you as absolutely you're sitting in your
- 22:07living room in your apartment and you just had that like a new thought you'd never thought
- 22:11before?
- 22:12Yep.
- 22:13That's right.
- 22:14Oh, this can be different.
- 22:16And look what you were able to do.
- 22:17So last, so fast forward, you hit your goal.
- 22:22Did you make it by your birthday?
- 22:24Oh yeah, absolutely.
- 22:25I made it by my birthday.
- 22:27And then it, you know, thinks once you'd make this decision, you know, once you've
- 22:31had the guts and to say what you want.
- 22:35And this is what I have found is that women don't say what they really, really, really
- 22:39want.
- 22:40They, they keep it to themselves.
- 22:42They, or they don't even hear it within themselves because they're not connected to what they
- 22:46really, really want.
- 22:48Once I began to be super clear about what I really wanted, then it was almost like the
- 22:55universe.
- 22:56I know it sounds cliche, but the universe started rolling out certain opportunities such as
- 23:02all of a sudden I heard about, and I get, I just got chills down my back, meaning that
- 23:08there's this connection to the universe, right?
- 23:11That when we start to move ourselves from these things, but so for example, I all of
- 23:16a sudden heard about this conference in Seattle, Washington that Amazon was putting on.
- 23:23And I was in New York City at the time.
- 23:25So you know, it was a big flight to go over there, but I jumped on a plane and I booked
- 23:30that conference.
- 23:31So things just started to unroll for me.
- 23:34And at that conference, there was a wonderful speaker and her name was Lisa Satorra.
- 23:43And as it turned out, she was a consultant for people who are building businesses online.
- 23:48And I got her card.
- 23:50And these are the things that started to unfold for me and over the course of, you know, this
- 23:56is now, we're talking about maybe 13 years ago, this is how I began to really build the
- 24:01kind of business, big business that I now manage.
- 24:04Yeah, that's awesome.
- 24:06And I was in freedom.
- 24:09Exactly.
- 24:10And I love, you know, the coincidences, Godwink, somebody told me, I know what it was, I interviewed
- 24:16somebody that I don't even know how I found her, but it was one of those, not even near
- 24:21me in Texas.
- 24:22And it's like crazy coincidence, like her sister in law lives in the same time I do.
- 24:29And when we were talking, she told me the name and I'm like, she's like, yeah, I'm like,
- 24:33you know, that was my dad and my mom, my sister's dad.
- 24:37And so my dad, the day he passed away, which is crazy.
- 24:42And when I told her that, I'm like, just, that's just crazy, the coincidences of Godwink.
- 24:47And she's like, when you're doing what you love, she said, and your alignment with your
- 24:52values and those things start happening.
- 24:55Yeah, I agree.
- 24:57And I had another mentor say one time, something happened to me and there were like, people
- 25:01were like, oh, that just fell in your lap.
- 25:03And she's like, no, things don't fall in your lap unless your lap is out there.
- 25:09I love that.
- 25:10You know, it's just worrying what you want.
- 25:11Yeah, I heard a quote from Oprah who could she said, there's no such thing as luck that
- 25:19luck is when opportunity and action come together.
- 25:23Yeah, so true.
- 25:24Well, I loved your book and so many tidbits and information and I want to go back and
- 25:30read it again and take some notes and so much encouragement and hope and I love that you
- 25:37took what you learned and passing it on.
- 25:41That's really with the hope of this podcast is that we're taking people's current stories
- 25:45and passing it on and giving people hope that like, if Leslie and Leslie can do it, a podcast,
- 25:51a book company, seven figures, travel, all the things that somebody else can and giving
- 25:57people permission to say me to and give people the hope that life isn't as bad as it seems.
- 26:03And you know, you just got to take that first step and say why not today and then take the
- 26:09next step.
- 26:10And as we talked about, you never know ever where that could take you.
- 26:15And we're not capable of knowing how big and how expansive somebody else can do it.
- 26:24We can do it.
- 26:25And if nobody's done it before, we can be the first to do it.
- 26:29Yeah, and I think it's important for anybody listening to notice whenever you start going,
- 26:37I wonder if because this is really the key to life.
- 26:42It's kind of like the seed.
- 26:43I wonder if I wonder if I started that business.
- 26:47I wonder if I quit the job.
- 26:49I wonder if I moved.
- 26:51I wonder if I left this relationship.
- 26:54When you start asking yourself, I wonder if that is how you start this process of taking
- 27:00the courage and changing things.
- 27:02And not everybody has the same.
- 27:04I wonder.
- 27:05And this is what's important.
- 27:06Right?
- 27:08So when you have an I wonder if this is for you, this is a universe, this is your feminine
- 27:15power, this is your spirit talking to you about what your next steps may be and should
- 27:23be.
- 27:24Yeah.
- 27:25And I think that's what I'm seeing a lot of that people are unsettled and like wondering
- 27:30like what's next.
- 27:32But then there's other people that doesn't even cross their mind to do anything other
- 27:36than go to a job, hate their job.
- 27:39They call it the Sunday scaries and Monday they said, most people have heart attacks
- 27:44on Monday morning.
- 27:45I don't know anything different.
- 27:47And I'm grateful that my father was an entrepreneur and your father and we watched that and we
- 27:55were witness to it and we could then emulate it and create our own life similar.
- 28:00It is.
- 28:01You know, we are 100% responsible for our lives, whether our life is good where we have
- 28:07something to do with it.
- 28:08If our lives are not good, well, guess what?
- 28:11You got something to do with it and we have to take responsibility and make the changes
- 28:17that we need to make that are scary, that go outside our comfort zones because this
- 28:24is our, as they say, our one precious life.
- 28:28Right?
- 28:29And if not now, when are you going to do it?
- 28:32And that was, you know, back to when we left Switzerland.
- 28:35That was the question I asked myself, do I want to die in Switzerland?
- 28:39It was, that was it.
- 28:41So I'm in my sixties now.
- 28:43I'm like, all right, is that what I want?
- 28:45And the answer was clearly no.
- 28:47And so the next question was, well, then when are you leaving?
- 28:50You know, why not now?
- 28:52Why not today?
- 28:53Why not today?
- 28:55And that's how change happens.
- 28:57Yeah, absolutely.
- 28:58Well, I think we could talk forever and ever.
- 29:00We're going to have more conversations, stay connected.
- 29:03But how would you encourage somebody else?
- 29:06I know we've kind of talked around it a lot, but how would you encourage somebody else
- 29:10that sucks or like, what's next?
- 29:12Yeah.
- 29:13Why not?
- 29:14Yeah, take time to get empty inside yourself for in any way that you know how to do that
- 29:22meditation, going for walks in nature, journaling, writing, writing things down in journals,
- 29:31you know, going, hugging a tree, whatever it is, you need to be alone and do this on
- 29:36a regular basis and start to feel inside yourself what you wonder about.
- 29:43What is it that you're wondering about?
- 29:45What is it that you're dissatisfied about?
- 29:47What are those things?
- 29:48So you start to get clear about what it is that you want and what are these things are
- 29:53that you want to change.
- 29:56And then based on that, take some kind of action.
- 30:00So Marri, we need to do what I like to call interaction and outer action.
- 30:05The interaction starts with being quiet and getting clear about what we want.
- 30:10But unless we actually do something about it, okay, I mean, all the vision boards in
- 30:15the world is actually not going to do anything unless you actually make the phone call or
- 30:21send the email or join the mastermind or hire the coach or whatever it is.
- 30:27So it's finding out what you want, having the quiet space to do it and then making sure
- 30:33you take some action towards it.
- 30:36So true and completely agree with that.
- 30:41So I always try to track back when I do things to connect to my dad.
- 30:46And most people are like, well, I never met your dad.
- 30:47How can I we track back?
- 30:48So I always threw our conversation, try to connect back.
- 30:51So one, when you mentioned you love pickleball, my dad never played pickleball.
- 30:55And when he passed away, I actually the first thought I had is I wanted to do a nonprofit
- 30:59to honor him.
- 31:00And we looked into, and this was 11 years ago, looked into doing pickleball tournament
- 31:05and actually talked to a lawyer about an LLC instead of like a 5K, we're going to do pickleball.
- 31:11But that was a lot of work to do the LLC, not the LLC, the 501-3C.
- 31:16And so fast forward, if I'd done that, I might not have done the past, the podcast.
- 31:20So talking about being an entrepreneur, both of our dads were having that freedom to create
- 31:31the life you want.
- 31:32And that's the life I grew up in with my dad.
- 31:35And he owned his own business.
- 31:36There were six of us kids.
- 31:37And it wasn't always perfect.
- 31:39And it wasn't always amazing, but he always made it work.
- 31:43And I think I hear a lot of that in your story.
- 31:46You know, he didn't, it wasn't always perfect at the beginning.
- 31:50Well, and by the way, it's still not perfect.
- 31:53Business is tough.
- 31:54And I still have tons of challenges because like I like to say being an entrepreneur is
- 32:00like getting a PhD in self development.
- 32:03Oh my goodness.
- 32:04So true.
- 32:05You're just, you're in a constant state of learning.
- 32:08And if you want your business to survive, and there's a lot of reasons that it won't,
- 32:12okay, but if you want your business to survive, you need to do the work and change and, you
- 32:18know, bring in pivot and all those things that you hear people talk about.
- 32:23Because it never gets to a point where it's just, I mean, it actually does get to different
- 32:29times of points where it's easy, but then it changes again.
- 32:32And then it gets hard and then it goes easy and then it gets hard.
- 32:35That's just how it is.
- 32:36And I know when I've had a bad day, and my dad did have a part of his life that business
- 32:44wasn't great and he did get a job and he hated every second of it.
- 32:48And being told what to do and in that box and every, every once in a while, if I have
- 32:54a bad day, I'm like, you know what, it's, I do not want to go work for somebody else.
- 32:59I'm gonna figure it out or I'm gonna work a little harder or I'm gonna get a little
- 33:02more creative and, you know, figure it out because I do not want to go work for somebody
- 33:07else and have that lack of freedom.
- 33:10Yeah, exactly.
- 33:11Exactly.
- 33:12Well, thank you.
- 33:13Lots of insight, lots of information.
- 33:15I was taking notes as I was listening and I'm gonna probably have to go back and listen
- 33:19to it again.
- 33:20So thanks for joining us on this inspiring journey.
- 33:25Remember every day is an opportunity to take action, chase your dreams and make a difference.
- 33:29So why not today?
- 33:30So make sure you subscribe, share, tip the podcast, keep pushing forward and until next
- 33:36time stay motivated and keep making things happen.
- 33:39So Leslie, thanks for being our guest and you can find the podcast at whynottodaypodcast.com
- 33:45and I will share all Leslie's contact information in the show notes.
- 33:49So thank you Leslie and remember say why not today and just do it.