Latest / The Weekly Run / Finding Yourself Again: Lindsay DiPonzio | Bagels with a Bestie Ep. 1
Transcript
- Jeff Perera: Welcome to Bagels of the Bestie. This is a new segment that is gonna come out probably like once a week or so where we sit down with one of my besties, share a bagel and a coffee, and just Chit-chat. casual conversation about why they love the bagel run so much, what they do in the community, and just get to know them. And maybe share a little bit of insights into me. I hope you really like it. Let me know what you think. Well, Lindsay, thank you so much for joining me. Yeah, bagels of the bestie. This is too fun. I'm so excited. Tell me just a little bit about you so people know who you are. Okay. I am Lindsay. I'm a mom of two, full-time working mom, ma married to my high school sweetheart, grew up in Rochester, New York. moved down here to work for the big magical company that exists down here in Orlando, Florida. and we've been here ever since. We've been here almost like a decade and a half, I think, which is insane. And I'm yeah, I'm a full-time corporate working mom, make content on the side, love bagels, I'm a typical Virgo and love Beyonce, and that's my life. That's literally the things that my life revolves around. I think I saw something online because I'm chronically online and I saw you and follow you. did you start teaching a dance class? Yes. my god, thanks for adding that detail. I forget because I started two weeks ago. I teach dance class to four to six year olds now. So I teach a tap and ballet class and I teach a hip hop class. So it's fully chaotic. But it's a great workout for me actually as well. I was gonna say that sounds like as you're getting back into it. But you danced for a long time. Yeah, I was a dancer. I have a degree in musical theater. I was a professional performer for like most of my life and then like that part of my life literally just stopped kinda out of nowhere to like Pursue the corporate side of life and like, you know, job security is like sort of important. And no starving artist action here. Yeah. No, no. And I like I fell in love with what I was doing in the corporate world and just kept chasing it. And all of a sudden it was like in the rearview mirror. And I was like, wait a minute, that was so a part of who I am and it's gone. And so I'm like getting a part of that back. And my girls dance, and so I'm a dance mom and dance teacher now. it's it's great. The vibes are so good. Yeah. That is so fun. my fun fact that I will often drop on people, which maybe this ruins it if this clip goes viral, but I used to be a theater kid. Tell me more about that. So I was well, what are you eating? You got something sorry, let's start there. What are you doing? I'm eating the bagel today. It's the first day of pumpkin. I know. So I went full pumpkin everything. I love it. I have pumpkin pie with what is pumpkin cream cheese. Pumpkin spice cream cheese. Pumpkin pumpkin. Triple pumpkin. Yeah, it's the triple crown of pumpkin. I love it. What are you having? I already know what you're having. I yeah. It's devastating. You can see it and it hurts you. I I will tell you that I'm having a salt bagel with veggie cream cheese. It's devastating to me. I picked veggie because you I hate it. I know you hate it. I need to know why the disdain for veggie cream cheese. Because why are we flavoring things to taste like vegetables? There are so many great flavors in the world and we chose like cream cheese is objectively unhealthy. So why are we flavoring it to help? You know what I mean? What are we doing? I don't I don't no complain, though. I don't care. It's not for me. So it's so funny that you say it's flavored like veggie. Because when I eat, well, first of all, I guess did you even know that vegetables aren't even a thing? Like the term vegetable was created to help us sell the flowers and leaves and grass in grocery stores. I subscribe to that because in my mind they're not real. Because broccoli is not a vegetable, broccoli is a flower. Sure, sure, sure. it's all A word they made up for marketing. But it's marketing. So veggie cream cheese does taste like veggie. It is flavored like veggie. And like this is a this was a cream cheese that took us a very long time to figure out how to make right. Okay, I'm proud of you. We got it there. I'm still not gonna have it. That's fine. And you know what? That's the beauty. We have so many flavors. That's right, that's right. So and you can lean into pumpkin spice or chive and onion or whatever you want to do. Yeah, that's great. But I'm I'm thrilled for you. But I know you got it just to make me upset. I did, I did. I don't even know what I'm gonna eat it, to be honest. It's fine. It's not my favorite either. Nothing nothing like little rage bait in the morning. okay, so let's go back. Yeah, I guess tell me. My little known fact that I often tell people is that I was a theater kid. I started doing children's theater when I was like ten or eleven years old. My sisters did it, I thought it looked like fun, and then suddenly I found myself in productions, we did a play every Saturday morning at the Little Palm Theater in Boca Raton, Florida. Every Saturday morning we had a production and it happened, it was crazy, it was a dinner theater, so we did in the round. it was so much fun. And then I did theater all through high school. And I got to college and I was like, you know what? I'm not like a theater major. I don't have I'm not going for a fine arts degree. It's I don't think it's in the cards, but The school's putting on a show, let me go audition. And I show up. You're kidding. I went and I showed up and I'm like, not a later major. I'm like five seven, hundred and fifteen pounds, like freshman in college. I don't even think I was eighteen yet, because I turned at a late birthday. Yeah, same. Mm-hmm. Like the guys that were there are like men. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, classically handsome, chiseled chest, like all over six four, sure, can sing, dance, act. I'm like, I just turned around and walked out. So you didn't even audition? Did you audition? I don't remember. I just know that I showed up and I turned around and walked out. I was like better, not. I like, not not I'm I know it's not me. my god. It's not me. That's wild. I know. But then I started making bagels and creating content while doing it. And so I found that's a little create it's a creative outlet. Yeah. It's so good. It's so funny. That's like for me, creating content as well. It's like a little bit of that performance element in a way. When did you start creating content? Seriously, I started in like twenty twenty, like pandemic shut down. And it's like this DIY content of our house. Because we had just moved into our home and like everybody was home and had time. And so we started DIYing our home. And like we did a gazillion, a gazillion home projects from like January twenty twenty to realistically twenty twenty one. But then we started trying to have kids and that didn't work out for us. We ended up doing IVF in twenty twenty one and like the content sort of shifted because I wasn't exactly using power tools when I was like newly pregnant. Yeah. Not safe. And like it just became like our IVF journey like throughout, like kind of mixed in. Yeah, so like my content's really gone through seasons, it's evolved over time. And now it's corporate working mom life. Yeah. And just whatever I decide to post. Cause like it's not really a full-time job for me. I just post my life and miraculously people care. You know? There's something to that. Like I'm trying to f I don't know why people do it. I'm fascinated by it. I mean by you. I mean I think I followed you early on. You were an early bagel customer. I think we should qualify that. Like early. People say they're early and I'm like, how early? When was your first order? Yeah. Do you remember when you had to fill out the form and hope for the best? Like I remember this. When was your first order? Do you I think it was February of twenty twenty. It was right before pandemic. Because I also remember picking up from your garage. Yeah. I also tell people I remember the day that you upgraded your mixer for the first time. Like you went to a commercial size mixer. Yes. I remember that. Like that is a core memory of my Jeff's Bagel Run lore. Yeah. That's so funny. The pandemic was wild. It was wild. I also made this in the pandemic. I don't know if you noticed. This is the first Jeff's bagel run merchandise on on a unaffiliate. Yes. I was bored. I'd fall in love with your bagels. I had also gotten a cricket machine in a lot happened during COVID. A lot happened during COVID. And I made myself this shirt that says feed me bagels and tell me I'm pretty. And you know, if you want to steal that idea and make actual merch, I think it'll sell. I think it still works. I think that I mean I could see that today in like the Jeff's Bagel run aesthetic would be probably like an oversized crew neck. Yep. Just like on the back. Yes. Just feed me bagels and tell me I'm pretty. I think that could work. Tech don't sleep in. The girlies would buy it. The girlies are gonna be all over that. Yeah. They be on. I think we're onto something. We got we gotta do this. Merch is the hardest thing to sell at Jeff's Bagel Run. I have so many ideas. I think there's something there. I don't I don't have the idea crafted yet, but for Mother's Day specifically. Launch it near Mother's Day. There's something about don't sleep in, but I'm not sleeping in because I'm the mother of toppers, anyways. 100%. There's something there. I don't know. I'm just saying. How old are the girls now? My youngest has turned three and my oldest will be five in October. So we're in the three and four stage where it's like consecutive that time of year where it's back to back. Yeah, they're a blast. They're a headache, but they're the best. They're the best. They're so much fun. So you're in a wild stage in life. Super wild. Three and five. Yeah. I mean it's a Mine are so much older now. Emily is in sixth grade. Lucas is starting third grade. And I have the two older kids, like post grad and in school. So it gets better. Every single season. Like I promise. Like it's so much fun. Like I yearn for the days though when they didn't move. Like I remember like when they were like this big and you like put them somewhere. Yep. And then you walk away and you come back and they're still there. Yep. Now they're just everyone. And we actually are in this season too, where like we're feeling it getting sweeter as we go. You know? Like of course it's like bittersweet at every stage. And like every stage has its isms. But like we're at a playground six months ago and like didn't have to helicopter our kids and like found ourselves sitting next to each other on a And we were like, do you feel this? We're able to sit down. That's huge, you know? So it's like we were finally out of like the actual toddling stage and it was like, my gosh, sad, kiss it goodbye, but like we get our freedom back. There's pros and cons. Yeah, you you have the nostalgia for it and you remember. But it's also wow, this is a fun new thing. Yes. And you end up having this incredible journey with these kids as they grow up and become I call like they become more human. Because they go from like a blob to you know. Yeah. And you mentioned it earlier, but your journey to being a mom was not always easy. It was not easy. No. I think part of the early content that I resonated with when you were creating in the pandemic days was the IVF story. Because Emily and Lucas are also IVF babies. Yeah. So Yeah, and I remember connecting with you and Danielle and being like, no way. But it's so funny. I bring that up that I speak obviously very openly about it. I created content about it. So when I say it even in an office environment, I said it in the office a few months ago. And we're sitting in this new team dynamic right now, and somebody behind me was My kid is IVF, and the woman over there like I'm pregnant with my IVF baby. And you don't know until you say it, and there's this huge community out there of people that resonate and like have gone through it and understand the journey that it is and the trauma that it is, and that like I still carry some of that to an extent. You know, we're working on that with a therapist, but but it's just like it really shapes. It's like super super formative for your marriage, for your life, for your body. it's just it's a really remarkable thing to have to experience. I say it's the greatest community I never wanted to be a part of. Yeah, that's a gr that is a perfect description because it's one of those things where you I think if you're a I think if you're a person who has kids and it happens easily, you don't understand the pain pain feels like such a dramatic word, but the pain of not being able to have kids. Mm-hmm. And when someone we say this all the time, like Danielle and I are in a stage where our kids are older, and we have some younger people around us and they're starting their lives and they're like, we want to have kids. I was like, but do you do you really, really want to have kids? Like, are you sure? I'm in this point in my life where it's like, do you want to do it? Right. And then once you think you really want to do it, because once you're a parent, you're always a parent. That's right. It doesn't go away. No. This is a forever. Your life totally shifts. It's a forever thing. Like I've got a twenty-three and twenty year old and so they're still here. Yep. They're s I'm still dad. Yep. And I you know, when you're in your late twenties, early thirties, or maybe even younger if you're People think they want it and it's like do you? Yeah, it flips your whole life upside down. And then you end up in the situation where you finally make this decision you want to do it and it's not easy. Correct. Yeah. And then you have a whole other hurdle that you have to jump over, which you were not prepared for. I mean I always say with marriages as well, I have seen infertility ruin crumble a marriage. And I'm feel honestly grateful and fortunate that we came out stronger on the other side of that, right? So grateful to have the partner that I have. And the husband that I have, and like we've been together since high school, so like we know each other in and out, right? But it's not the case for everybody, and I always say, I cannot fault anybody that goes through that and has a different experience than we did, because you just don't know how you're going to react to that hand being dealt to you until you're in it. And it's really hard to navigate. Really, really hard to navigate. I I've had no, so I was previously married, where the first two kids came from. Yeah, and when Danielle and I were Like getting serious in our relationship. We sat down and like we were older in our 30s, and it was like hey, if we continue this, you're an instant stepmom. if we continue this, like these are the things that we expect out of our life trajectory from here. when you're in your 20s, or in your case, like you meet someone in high school. Yeah. I have a whole line of questions for someone who's married to their high school sweetheart, too. But You just don't like you don't know what questions to ask. That's right. And then like one of those questions that you wouldn't ask someone would be like, hey, when we decide, if we decide, because I don't want to push the issue. I don't want to say, like, do you want to have kids? Like, because we're just starting this thing. But like if we ever get to the point where we want to have kids, like, what if we can have kids? What do we do? Yep. Let's not get too far into this before we have that conversation. Like, I mean But how do I not come off as a total stage five clinger if I have that conversation on a third date? Like, yeah. I'm I'm grateful I never had to do like the crazy dating scene. Okay. In a way. dating today feels awful. Yeah. Is it awful? He's in the mix. Yeah, cut to cameraman. It's awful. I couldn't imagine it. And then you layer in all these types of conversations and all these things and like I mean IVF was definitely never a conversation I that Danielle and I how can you know to expect that? Ever thought to have. And but you know? Right. You take the I mean, I guess that's kind of like a small microcosm of the rest of your life, right? Like you take what is given to you and take what's in front of you, and you have to deal with it as a couple no matter what. I mean, that is a very niche thing because it really gets very personal, but like you know, y you go through deaths of parents and family members and like so many things in your marriage that like you just You figure it out or you don't, you know? And sometimes we learn hard lessons the hard way and like that's life. But you know, I I wouldn't wish it on anybody, that's for sure. No, absolutely. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. No. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you come through it on the other end. It's you know, it's it's definitely a journey, but it's a hundred percent worth it. It's hard and all the things. Yeah. I would do I always say I would do it ten times over again if it meant having my kids here. Hundred percent. Times over again. Yes. You know, and now it's a blip in time. It's a memory. it's trauma and it's there. And I remember so many vivid things, but I am on the other side of it. And there is a world of being on the other side of it. And I'm grateful for it in a way. That sounds so bizarre to say, but I am grateful for what it taught me. and the person that it made me become and the empathy that it helped me to learn with other experiences. Like I even say as a mother, I didn't know how to empathize with mothers until I became one. I definitely did not know how to empathize or the right things to say to somebody that went through infertility until I went through it myself. So I think that there were things that I can take away from that. but also still there's gonna be the part of me that wishes I never had to go through it. Perfectly said. I think that that same thing can translate to so many other things in your life. Yeah. That struggle, that challenge, and that how do you apply what you learned and those that grateful moment of having been through the thing that was hard. Yep. like I I every year I text my old boss thanks for firing me. It's 'cause like I would have never quit. I would have never quit. Yes. I would have just been plugging along, doing the thing. Yeah. And none of this would have ever And when you got fired, you were probably like, This is the worst thing. ever happens to me. yeah. I even that day I called Danielle on the way to the meeting. I was like, hey, Alex changed the location of the meeting. We're not meeting at the community. He wants to just grab a Starbucks over in Windermere. she's like, that's nice. You don't have to drive all the way to Stanford. And I'm like, that's weird. I'm like, I'm like, it's weird. I don't know what's gonna happen. And she's like, huh. And then I like got in the car and I was like, guess what just happened? Lost my job. And so yeah, it's like I would but I would have never quit. I would have never quit. And she would have never said you should learn to make me a bagel. Yep. You know? So I think things happen and That's right. That's right. And they become part of your story. That's it. It becomes part of your story. A hundred percent. Yeah. I haven't I've kept you from eating. So you should let's enjoy our bagel. Great. I'm so grateful for you to come and sit and chat with me. I'm so grateful to be here. Thank you for inviting me. This is the best. I I love it because I always like anytime somebody brings up Jeff's bagel. I you're in Charlotte, North Carolina now, like that's where my whole family is. Like my 16-year-old cousin is obsessed with Jeff's bagel. And I'm like, will you tell all of your teenage friends that like your cousin is friends with the actual Jeff? And she's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, sure, grandma, go back to bed, I'm sure. but I'm like, Like now that I have this, everybody can see like we're we're we're bagel besties. We're besties. We're bagel besties. I'm not lying. My son is a my older son is a junior at the University of Florida and he came to Orlando. last spring with some friends to go to a concert at the House of Blues. And his friends were like, we should go get bagels tomorrow after the show. And they're like, there's this place here, it's called Jeff's Bagel Run. And he's like You're lying. That's my dad. They didn't know. He didn't say he doesn't really talk about it. So he's like, yeah, we should go, it's my dad. And they're like, What? No it's not. And he's casually like I'm the bagel aire So I'm like getting text messages from him at like ten PM. They're like, yo dad, I need a picture of us together or Send me a t like something. He's like, I'm like s I'm literally like sending him like he has to prove it. He's like proving it to his friends. It was hilarious. Yeah. Speaking of bagel errors, I have to ask you this question. Okay. One of your most popular bagels of the day is the Abby Bagel. Yeah. So which one of your kids is your favorite? So I don't have a favorite. Good answer. I don't have a favorite. I guess it depends on the season we're in, right? fair, fair. you know that. Sometimes the hour, the minute, sometimes the the second. Yep. Mm-hmm. So the Abby was never really her bagel in the sense that the team was the one who created the nickname. So like the best nicknames are not the ones you give yourself. Right. Like the one you give yourself never sticks. Okay, so you're also like you're wheeling and dealing in the kitchen and figuring out all these different bagel flavors. And you've gone through many iterations of many different bagel flavors. Yeah. What's the worst one you've ever made? Okay. So there is Some consensus around a bagel that I made probably in twenty twenty two. I think it was fall season twenty twenty two. Mm-hmm. I made a corn bagel. And it really was I called it corn. I should have called it cornbread or I should have called it maybe I should have put jalapenos in it. It had the bones, but I don't think it had the marketing. boy. It was a cornbread based bagel. Okay. It wasn't crumbly. It chewed like a bagel. It had like the same qualities of a bagel, but it tasted like cornbread. It was pretty good. It was actually pretty good. I think it had bad marketing. Didn't sell any of None of them. I mean a few, but like so that like I th Bad marketing. Bad marketing. I think that one overall was probably the the actual best bagel that didn't sell. and then Justice for the cornbread bagel. Justice for cornbread bagels. Mm-hmm. I might have to bring that one back. the one that actually was the worst was the key lime pie bagel. Really? Yeah, that one just total flop. I wanted it to be good key lime pie is a layered experience. Yeah. You've got the sweet, kinda crunchy graham cracker crust, it's buttery, it's rich. You have the tart key lime layer. And then if you've done it right, you have a nice like sweet meringue or whipped cream or something on top. Getting those three layers into a bagel. Yeah. It just That's a big beat. It didn't work. So we had a little bit of the sweetness, but the citrus didn't pull through and it wasn't tangy and I think it would be a good combination if it was paired with like a Like a tangy citrus cream cheese. Yeah. With like a bagel that had notes of like the graham cracker kind of crust. I'm gonna say like if you could get like a meringue type of thing going in the cream cheese, like maybe that could like a marshmallowy type of situation. We're doing something you're gonna love. yeah. If you say s'mores, my husband's gonna like run through the wall. He loves s'mores. Okay, so it's not gonna be s'mores, but s'mores is on the Like R and D table for summer of twenty seven. Great. I think s'mores is a summer thing. hundred percent. Right. Like so I know there's a couple of brands that are launching s'mores as like a fall thing. Mm-hmm. It's and I'm I disagree. I'm gonna run there and try it. Sure. But sure. Yeah. A bonfire happens in summer for me. Yeah. Yes. And so I think summer is coming and Twenty seven will probably be when we do s'mores, but we're testing it's not even testing, it's launching. Am I allowed to even tell you? I'll tell you. I can always reject. This is my first breaking. We can always roll back. Okay. we're doing a for the holidays. For November, yeah. So it'll be holiday. Hot cocoa. It's the right timeline. Yeah, I love that. I think if we crumble graham crackers into that, it'll be s'mores for the summer. Brilliant. It's really close. It's like right there. Yep. It's right there. So there's potential there. I love that. I know. But real marshmallow fluff. Yeah. You know what? You know what I I love marshmallow fluff. As a northern, as a fluffy it's constantly my New Yorker. Yeah. Like fluff is like a staple, right? Well, a fluffer nutter is eaten in my household like every other day. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And if for those of us who don't, for people who don't know, fluffer nutter is peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. That's right. It's delicious. That's right. It is the stickiest. Fabulous. It is the stickiest thing you'll ever eat. Sometimes if I like ate dinner Too early, or if I had like a linen, if you will, like maybe like a two, three o'clock like really stuffed myself and was like, I don't want dinner. I'll sitting on the couch at nine o'clock and be like, now I'm hungry and I make a fluffer nutter. 100%. It's so good. It's like dessert in a way. It's a mixed but yeah. Yeah. It's so good. it might be a better combination than chocolate and peanut butter. That's a hot take. Yeah. That's a hot take. But I think I might agree. I like chocolate in certain Certain ways. I'm very picky about the floor. The sweetness of the fluff just cuts right through the peanut butter so nice. Yep, yep. Now have you done a fluff with Nutella? That's pretty much a s'mores on a sandwich. Okay. Make it like a grilled cheese. Well boy. yeah. I have some research to do. Yeah, yeah. I have some research to do. Check that out. Amazing. Cheers to Fluffer Nutters. Cheers to Fluffer Nutters. Thanks for coming out. Sitting with me and having a bagel. It was so much fun. It was so great. So good.