Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 2 - Episode 14 with Lynda Sunshine West, CEO & Founder, Action Takers Publishing

Transcript

The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 2 - Episode 14 with Lynda Sunshine West, CEO & Founder, Action Takers Publishing · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

• 0:00
  Hello, my name is Leslie.
• 0:02
  I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a podcast to celebrate people who have said or been courageous and said, why
• 0:10
  not today?
• 0:11
  I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Cain, who often did say, why not today?
• 0:16
  I'm based in Reston, Virginia, playing community right outside of Washington, DC.
• 0:20
  And thanks for joining us today.
• 0:21
  And I'm excited about my guests.
• 0:22
  I don't know her well and just connected with her this week.
• 0:26
  Her name is Linda Sunshine West.
• 0:29
  And she does lots of different things.
• 0:31
  And I always talk about where we met and how we connected.
• 0:34
  And it was one of those random scrolls through Facebook.
• 0:37
  I joined an entrepreneurs women group, another random, like mindless thought thing.
• 0:42
  And then she posted a post about who knows who has a podcast.
• 0:45
  And I shared mine and she's like, I need to talk to you.
• 0:48
  And she's done some cool things about overcoming fear.
• 0:50
  So we had a quick call the other day and fell in love with everything she's doing and how
• 0:57
  she's overcoming fears.
• 0:58
  And I'm like, she's a perfect guest for this podcast.
• 1:00
  So Linda, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself a little bit about you and a fun
• 1:04
  fact and then we'll get to know you and all your courage.
• 1:07
  Awesome.
• 1:08
  Thanks so much, Leslie, for having me excited.
• 1:10
  I love those kinds of connections because, you know, that's the thing is if we reach
• 1:14
  out to people and they accept our reach out, then you never know where it's going to go.
• 1:18
  And that's kind of the idea of how I live my life now, which I wasn't always that way.
• 1:23
  My name, Linda Sunshine West and Sunshine is not my given name.
• 1:27
  It's the name that was given to me about six years ago after I started my personal development
• 1:31
  journey as well as after I broke through one fear a day for an entire year, 365 days in
• 1:38
  a row.
• 1:39
  And that's when my life really, really started changing.
• 1:41
  I have morphed and changed so many different directions that it took me six years as an
• 1:47
  entrepreneur after being in the corporate world for 36 years and having 49 jobs in that
• 1:54
  company, that's the other day that blew my mind.
• 1:57
  I was shooting for 50.
• 1:58
  No, I couldn't go for that 50, you know, but after breaking through those fears, you
• 2:04
  know, my whole life started changing and shifting and and it's incredible what has happened
• 2:09
  since then because I kept trying to figure out like, who am I, what do I do, and how
• 2:13
  can I make money doing that as an entrepreneur and it took me six years to get there.
• 2:18
  We almost became homeless in the process because I didn't have that one piece figured out the
• 2:23
  important piece like how am I going to make money doing it.
• 2:26
  But I finally figured it out and it was only two years ago, I mean, almost, almost two
• 2:31
  years ago, it was 23 months ago that I decided that book publishing is what I was going to
• 2:35
  do full time.
• 2:37
  And so I've been doing that ever since it's been an amazing journey and you know, things
• 2:42
  just started really falling into place once I had that decision that this is what I'm
• 2:47
  going to do.
• 2:48
  And so, you know, there's so many things I've done in these last several years.
• 2:52
  Well, let's get into all the courage stuff.
• 2:54
  But what's a fun fact about you?
• 2:56
  A fun fact is that there's a lot of them.
• 2:59
  One is that I started playing bass guitar at age 47.
• 3:03
  Oh, well, I started a rock band called useless rhetoric and we raised over $200,000 for charity.
• 3:10
  That's like my funnest fact.
• 3:11
  That is fun.
• 3:12
  You know, and it's funny how you just kind of and I don't definitely believe they're
• 3:16
  Godwinks like God puts these people in your path and one of the hats I wear and my crazy
• 3:21
  all the things I do in my life is I book music for a friend's restaurant and bar.
• 3:26
  And it's kind of funny.
• 3:27
  It's all of a sudden people around me grab it like, oh, I'm in a band or I know somebody
• 3:32
  in a band.
• 3:33
  I'm like, of course you do.
• 3:34
  But I think you're a little too far away.
• 3:36
  You're in San Diego.
• 3:37
  So it's probably hard to book you to play in Virginia.
• 3:40
  But that's definitely a fun fact.
• 3:42
  So I always start with these podcasts episodes asking my guests, what does courage mean to
• 3:49
  you?
• 3:50
  Courage to me is acknowledging, first of all, acknowledging that I'm experiencing a fearful
• 3:57
  moment and then saying, oh, this is fear.
• 4:01
  I'm going to do this because I'm scared.
• 4:03
  To me, that's what courage is.
• 4:06
  I love that.
• 4:08
  And it's funny, we've talked about this often, but people say, you know, they think fear
• 4:14
  is more, or courage is more, you know, people are courageous and they just do it without
• 4:20
  fear.
• 4:21
  I'm like, oh no, definitely not.
• 4:24
  No, not really.
• 4:27
  So you wrote a book and before you did that, you start, tell us, I guess, you did, faced
• 4:34
  365 fears in a year, which is crazy.
• 4:37
  One a day and I was telling somebody that story the other day and I'm like, wow, that's
• 4:41
  a lot of fear.
• 4:43
  But and it's amazing, you know, all the little teeny tiny things we overcome and I always
• 4:47
  talk about with why not today.
• 4:49
  It's not always the big things, which we talk about on the podcast, but it's a little things.
• 4:53
  It's the same yes to, you know, doing the thing with a friend or calling the friend
• 4:57
  or just those little things.
• 5:00
  And so I know it started kind of your journey started at five.
• 5:04
  So share your story from there and then how you got to the facing your fears and everything
• 5:10
  else.
• 5:11
  Okay.
• 5:12
  Okay.
• 5:13
  So yeah, well, I ran away at five years old and I was gone for a week.
• 5:18
  Now I was safe.
• 5:19
  I just went to the neighbor's house.
• 5:20
  That's the first question people always ask me where you go, where'd you go?
• 5:23
  I just went to the neighbor's house and I was safe.
• 5:26
  But what happened during that week was something that would shape my life for the next 46 years.
• 5:31
  Nobody came to get me.
• 5:33
  So as a five year old, my belief was that they didn't come to get me because they don't
• 5:37
  want me around and they don't like me.
• 5:39
  That was my belief.
• 5:41
  And so no matter what they believed, it was not my truth.
• 5:45
  My truth was that and that's how I lived.
• 5:48
  And so after a week, my mom to call the neighbor and said, okay, it's time to set her home
• 5:51
  now.
• 5:52
  She's been gone long enough.
• 5:53
  Now I truly believe and I cannot confirm this with my mom because she's passed away,
• 5:57
  but I truly believe that my mom was like, okay, she's safe.
• 6:00
  I know she's good.
• 6:01
  I'm number four or five kids.
• 6:03
  She's got plenty of things on her on her hit list, but she knew where I was.
• 6:07
  She knew how to say and my mom, the way she was, she was probably, she was probably, she
• 6:10
  was probably allowing me to exercise in my independence as a five year old.
• 6:15
  Yeah.
• 6:16
  Cause that's kind of how she was.
• 6:17
  And so anyway, fast forward to age 51.
• 6:20
  Again, 36 years in the corporate world, 49 jobs.
• 6:25
  My last job was working for a judge in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as a secretary.
• 6:30
  I had made my way up that ladder, that proverbial ladder and I thought that this is it.
• 6:35
  Oh my gosh, I made it.
• 6:36
  This is it.
• 6:37
  I'm so excited.
• 6:38
  And then after 14 months, I was bored as bored could be.
• 6:43
  And you know, I was driving to work one day and I was just so angry at my life, so angry
• 6:49
  with myself.
• 6:50
  This is how I had lived for all those years because my, my dad was a very volatile, abusive
• 6:54
  alcoholic.
• 6:56
  And when I came home after being gone a week, I became riddled with fears.
• 7:00
  That's where my fears started.
• 7:01
  That's where they started age five.
• 7:04
  So here I am, 51 years old, I'm driving to work and I just started saying, why am I here?
• 7:10
  This is a waste.
• 7:11
  I'm worthless.
• 7:13
  There's no reason for me to be here.
• 7:14
  I have no purpose.
• 7:16
  And like, as a matter of fact, why is this whole planet here?
• 7:18
  It just doesn't make any sense.
• 7:19
  I was so, and I was angry yelling at myself as I'm driving pounding my hands on the steering
• 7:25
  wheel, just filled with this anger.
• 7:28
  Wow.
• 7:29
  And then when I, when I got to work that day, there was a Facebook post from someone and
• 7:34
  it said, I'm a life coach.
• 7:36
  I took some time off.
• 7:37
  I'm getting back into it and I'm looking for five women who want to change their lives.
• 7:43
  I didn't know her.
• 7:44
  I didn't know what a life coach was, but I was like, I wanted to change my life.
• 7:47
  Another one of those Godwinks, you know, look at Facebook that moment in that time, kind
• 7:52
  of like how we connected.
• 7:54
  Yes, exactly.
• 7:55
  And then I reached out, right?
• 7:57
  So that's the thing is like, I reached out because I was like, I don't know what this
• 8:00
  is, but I want to learn and I do want to change my life.
• 8:03
  That decision right in that moment was the start of my life.
• 8:08
  And I was 51.
• 8:09
  That was when my life really started.
• 8:10
  And it was August nine years ago.
• 8:13
  So it's exciting that I'm embarking on, you know, that the close to 10 years ago that
• 8:17
  I started my life, you know, but it's the fears are leading up to breaking out through
• 8:24
  those fears every single day for a year.
• 8:26
  What led me to even do that?
• 8:28
  What led me to even think that I had 365 fears?
• 8:32
  I didn't know.
• 8:33
  All I knew is that I had allowed fear to stop me from doing things in my life for 46 years.
• 8:41
  Me running away at five was like the last extreme courageous act I had done.
• 8:46
  Wow.
• 8:47
  For my whole life.
• 8:48
  Yeah.
• 8:49
  I let fear control me now.
• 8:51
  Fear can control us to do things and it can control us to not do things.
• 8:55
  But fear was my, my factor, my fear factor, you know, is it controlled just the way I
• 9:00
  lived my life?
• 9:01
  If I was scared, I didn't do it.
• 9:03
  I just did not do it.
• 9:06
  Period.
• 9:07
  That's crazy.
• 9:08
  So you saw the life coach or started meeting with a life coach overcoming your fear.
• 9:12
  So let's, with those fears.
• 9:13
  And I know you mentioned when we talked the other day that you didn't journal, you didn't
• 9:17
  record all your fears, which what a great book that would be.
• 9:20
  So what's the biggest, I would say, let's the biggest, scariest one you overcame.
• 9:25
  And then what's one of the littlest ones that seemed silly, but was a fear?
• 9:30
  Well, what I love about this question is fear doesn't know size.
• 9:37
  True.
• 9:38
  So, so fear doesn't say big fear, small fear.
• 9:43
  We humans say that, right?
• 9:45
  And so the reality, the reality is every single fear I had was astronomical to me.
• 9:53
  Now other people might look at it and say, that's ridiculous.
• 9:55
  Why are you scared to do that?
• 9:57
  But I've learned to not say that because what they're doing is they're, they're, they're
• 10:00
  they're diminishing what's going on inside of me, right?
• 10:04
  They're minimizing it.
• 10:05
  And so, so every single fear, there's a saying that false evidence appearing real, you know,
• 10:11
  that's an acronym for fear.
• 10:13
  And I'm like, that's a bunch of BS because there's no false evidence, first of all, and
• 10:17
  it doesn't appear real because it is as real as real can be to me, to me.
• 10:22
  That is so true.
• 10:23
  Yeah, we're talking, I was talking with people yesterday and we were talking about somebody
• 10:30
  recommended book, I think it's called, Why is this happening to me?
• 10:33
  And to ask that question, you know, and so just like you said, and it's so, such a hard
• 10:41
  thing that we do is we minimize people's fears.
• 10:44
  And as you said, it's so real for you.
• 10:46
  I've got a friend that's terrified of dogs.
• 10:49
  And to the point like physically, like I saw her jump on her husband, she's 60 years old,
• 10:57
  when her husband's lap when the dog walked in, because she was taunted as a kid and take
• 11:01
  and really terrified of them because of that.
• 11:05
  And so it's real for her and other people like, it's just a dog, it's a nice dog, but
• 11:08
  for her, she doesn't see that.
• 11:10
  And so, and that's a good thing to remember when we talk to people about their fears to
• 11:16
  not minimize them.
• 11:18
  Yeah, I was talking to one, one day, and she said, I have, I think it's called a goryphobia
• 11:24
  where you're afraid to go outside.
• 11:26
  Yeah, it's a real thing.
• 11:28
  Yeah.
• 11:29
  And she said she had been in her house for like, well, the whole time of COVID, she was
• 11:33
  glad because she didn't, couldn't go out.
• 11:36
  And she just went ahead and stayed inside.
• 11:38
  So I was talking to her, I said, do you want to break through that fear?
• 11:41
  You know, do you want to do something about it?
• 11:43
  Because if she doesn't want to do anything about it, there's no reason to even try to
• 11:46
  get her to right.
• 11:47
  And I wasn't trying to get her through.
• 11:48
  I was just asking her a question.
• 11:49
  And she goes, yeah, I do.
• 11:51
  I don't like living my life this way.
• 11:53
  It's just, I'm so, I have terror, I'm terrified to go out.
• 11:56
  And I said, what if you did this?
• 11:57
  What if you just opened the door and put one foot out and then you came back inside?
• 12:05
  Because now you've broken through that fear.
• 12:07
  Right.
• 12:08
  So it doesn't matter how much we do, it matters that we do it, that we take the action.
• 12:13
  So she messaged me.
• 12:14
  And I was just telling her, yeah, I got to share this because this was, wow, she messaged
• 12:20
  me a week later.
• 12:21
  Now I wasn't coaching her anything.
• 12:22
  You know, I do fear coaching, but I wasn't coaching her.
• 12:25
  I was just on a call with her one day, like having a conversation.
• 12:28
  She messaged me a week later and she said, guess what I did?
• 12:32
  I went for a walk around the block today.
• 12:35
  Wow.
• 12:37
  She just needed somebody to say, you know, this is all just, why don't you try one small
• 12:41
  thing, you know, one small thing, which is huge to her, which is huge to her.
• 12:46
  So yeah, so the big fear of small fear, I will share that most of my fears that now
• 12:51
  I look at them and they were all ridiculous.
• 12:53
  Okay, so let's ask it this way.
• 12:57
  What was the most fun you had overcoming a fear?
• 12:59
  Like one of the things that you're like, I was so afraid of them like, oh, and, you
• 13:04
  know, and I talk about this all the time with this podcast is, you know, you do those scary
• 13:08
  things and you're like, wow, that wasn't bad.
• 13:11
  And oh my gosh, how much fun and why did I like let this hold me back for so many years?
• 13:17
  Yeah.
• 13:18
  Well, I don't know that I could term it as fun, you know, because every fear was very
• 13:23
  fearful for me.
• 13:24
  However, I will share that there were some things that happened during that year that
• 13:29
  were totally unexpected.
• 13:31
  I ended up meeting somebody who became my mentor.
• 13:35
  His name is Gray Greed.
• 13:36
  He was writing a book, a collaboration book called footsteps of the fearless.
• 13:40
  And I actually have it right here with me today.
• 13:42
  You know, footsteps of the fearless and he was putting this book together and he's like,
• 13:46
  you're breaking through a fear every day.
• 13:48
  This is a perfect book for you to join.
• 13:51
  And I was like, like, why would I do that?
• 13:55
  And I was scared because of just putting my words out there.
• 13:59
  Who wants to hear from me?
• 14:00
  Who wants to hear my message?
• 14:01
  And he just really talked to me about it and talked about, you know, being in a collaboration
• 14:06
  book and how it brings people together and stuff.
• 14:08
  So he approached it from that perspective.
• 14:10
  And I love that because I wanted to connect with new people because I was breaking through
• 14:14
  all these fears.
• 14:15
  And so I joined him in that book.
• 14:17
  And that was one of the things that what I got from that one fear of being part of a
• 14:24
  collaboration book has shifted my entire life.
• 14:27
  Like my entire from that moment is the moment that everything shifted.
• 14:33
  I became a book publisher because I said yes to that book.
• 14:38
  I have published 433 number one international bestselling authors because I said yes to that
• 14:44
  one book.
• 14:45
  I've interviewed stars on the red carpet.
• 14:47
  One of my books is endorsed by Les Brown.
• 14:50
  And I interviewed.
• 14:52
  You say that, but last yesterday when I was on a call and I was talking to somebody that
• 14:56
  I'd met you and she looked you up immediately.
• 14:58
  She's like, she's with Les Brown.
• 14:59
  I was like, yeah, I didn't notice that.
• 15:03
  Well that and I interviewed the president of Mexico, the country, and his presidential
• 15:08
  suite when he was in San Diego.
• 15:11
  And all of these things happen literally because I said yes to that book.
• 15:15
  And the reason I say that is because the connections that I made from that book led to all of these
• 15:20
  different things.
• 15:21
  And we never know who we're going to step outside of that comfort zone.
• 15:26
  And I so believe that it's Godwinks and God inspired.
• 15:29
  And like I tell people like if when I meet somebody, I'm like, if I remember where I
• 15:33
  was when I met you, like all the details, I know you're going to be in my life forever.
• 15:38
  And you just never know who that person's going to be and who they're going to lead
• 15:42
  you to.
• 15:43
  I was walking with a friend one day.
• 15:44
  We were talking about connections and how we knew somebody.
• 15:46
  And I was walking with her that day and met her because of a connection I made with somebody
• 15:51
  when I was in college.
• 15:54
  But it was so many different iterations of connections to connections.
• 15:58
  And that's why I talk a lot about connections in this podcast because I think that's so
• 16:03
  powerful and just in saying yes, I was talking coaching one of my team members yesterday.
• 16:08
  And I said, listen to the first voice when somebody nudges you to talk to somebody to
• 16:12
  do something, do it.
• 16:15
  Because then we talk herself out of it.
• 16:17
  But over and just do it.
• 16:20
  I don't know if you do follow Mel Robbins at all.
• 16:23
  I do not.
• 16:24
  I don't follow her, but people keep telling me that I have the same philosophies as her.
• 16:28
  Well, she wrote a book and has a great TED talk on the five second rule.
• 16:34
  And I think it's five seconds something, but she talks about when there's something that
• 16:39
  you don't want to do and your mind's talking out of it, count, go five, four, three, two,
• 16:42
  one, and then just do it.
• 16:44
  You can't go one, two, three, four, five, because then you'll keep going.
• 16:46
  But even like getting out of bed, you know, or making that phone call or do the fears,
• 16:53
  it's just five, four, three, two, one, and just do it.
• 16:55
  Yeah.
• 16:56
  The outside talk too.
• 16:58
  It's like how many takes 10 seconds of courage to do those, to do the thing.
• 17:04
  Yeah.
• 17:05
  And there's so many things that have happened for me, you know, like you mentioned the God
• 17:09
  weeks, like these different things that have happened that had I thought about them, I
• 17:13
  wouldn't have done that for sure.
• 17:14
  Right.
• 17:15
  Like I had lunch with Jack Canfield and it was, it was through this situation that happened
• 17:19
  that I, I like to say see the opportunity, then sees the opportunity.
• 17:25
  There was an opportunity presented itself to me in a split second, literally a split
• 17:29
  second, and I took advantage of that, you know.
• 17:32
  And so it's really like what, what are we allowing to slip by because we're not, first
• 17:37
  of all, we're not seeing the opportunity because our mind is closed.
• 17:40
  Maybe we don't see that as a possibility for us.
• 17:43
  But if we just like would more, more look for these different opportunities, what are
• 17:47
  we going to come across?
• 17:48
  Right.
• 17:49
  There's, there's, I wrote, I recently wrote a book called do it because you're scared,
• 17:53
  because you're scared.
• 17:54
  I like, here's why.
• 17:56
  What I discovered 365 days in a row breaking through fears.
• 18:00
  What I discovered is 99.9% of the time, every fear I broke through, I was either proud of
• 18:07
  myself or I connected with somebody that I didn't know that opened a door that I didn't
• 18:12
  even know was closed.
• 18:14
  And my life has shifted for the better because I broke through those fears.
• 18:19
  So what I say is like, we disempower ourselves when we say things like, oh, feel the fear
• 18:24
  and do it anyway.
• 18:25
  See that, that term anyway is disempowering.
• 18:27
  Right.
• 18:28
  But when I say I'm experiencing fear, oh, this is awesome.
• 18:31
  I'm so glad I'm experiencing fear.
• 18:34
  I'm going to do this because I'm scared because I'm excited for what's on the other side.
• 18:39
  So it's shifted my whole, whole life.
• 18:43
  Yeah.
• 18:44
  Oh, wow.
• 18:45
  I love that.
• 18:46
  So do it because you never know what's on the other side and that's so true.
• 18:48
  Yeah.
• 18:49
  And that's why we don't do it so often is because we don't know what's on the other side.
• 18:52
  But if we can shift that thinking to realizing that the vast majority of the time, the results
• 18:57
  are going to be greater, greater than you ever imagined.
• 19:01
  Why are you depriving yourself of those results?
• 19:04
  I love that.
• 19:05
  And I do share a lot in teaching team members with Mary Kay is like, you just never know
• 19:12
  who that person's going to be.
• 19:14
  And first of all, how you can change their life and bless them, but also how like they
• 19:23
  may be looking for you and you never know who that person's going to be that's going
• 19:26
  to lead you to that person or, you know, you just never know where that person's going
• 19:31
  to lead you to.
• 19:33
  A great example of that is I hosted a, I host summits.
• 19:37
  We host six summits a year and I hosted one recently and one of our speakers, I guess
• 19:44
  she really liked us.
• 19:45
  I didn't know her, is she, but she came in as a speaker and I haven't even connected
• 19:49
  with her.
• 19:50
  But just this last two days, she sent me eight different connections for books.
• 19:55
  And so if I hadn't brought in these strangers to speak at my event, because I didn't know
• 20:01
  her and I, I haven't even had a chance to talk to her yet.
• 20:04
  If I hadn't brought these strangers into my event because I was too worried about what
• 20:08
  they might say or think or what have you, then I wouldn't have met her and she wouldn't
• 20:12
  have connected me with those, like you mentioned the Godwings, right?
• 20:15
  Like she's connecting me with these people and who knows where those relationships are
• 20:19
  going to go.
• 20:20
  I have no idea.
• 20:21
  I have no idea, but I'm open to it.
• 20:24
  Open to every single person.
• 20:25
  And that's, I think that's what, the way I live my life.
• 20:28
  And it sounds like that's where I connected with you so quickly.
• 20:31
  It's just the, oh great.
• 20:32
  You have no idea where it's leading.
• 20:34
  And I think that's this whole why not today message I feel like is bigger than me and
• 20:38
  really reaching out.
• 20:39
  And I think I mentioned we talked the other day about her, but I can say, and I should
• 20:42
  write a book and I'm like, I am not a writer.
• 20:44
  I'm a finance girl.
• 20:45
  That's my background.
• 20:46
  But just in meeting you, I'm like, and just listening to you today, I'm like, huh, like
• 20:51
  the Jack Canfield chicken soup for the soul kind of book, it could be a why not day book
• 20:56
  with store everybody's story.
• 20:58
  They're courageous stories.
• 20:59
  Yeah.
• 21:00
  And what I love about the collaboration, because not only are you connecting with those other
• 21:04
  people, but you know, there's power in numbers, right?
• 21:07
  Especially, especially everybody, you know, why not today, everybody has the same sort
• 21:12
  of theme.
• 21:13
  You know, and so when we're going, when we're coming together with the same sort of theme,
• 21:16
  this helps us to have an immediate connection.
• 21:19
  It's an immediate connection right there.
• 21:20
  So that's one of the things I absolutely love about those collaborative style books, you
• 21:24
  know, they're, they have been life altering for me.
• 21:28
  Yeah.
• 21:29
  Life altering.
• 21:30
  Ah, just overcoming one fear a day and just those little things and I just love that and
• 21:35
  I'm so glad that we got connected.
• 21:37
  So how would you encourage somebody else to say why not today?
• 21:46
  You know, I would, I would encourage them to say why not today is imagine what your life
• 21:54
  like, what life do you want to live?
• 21:56
  What life do you want to live?
• 21:58
  Are you living that life today?
• 22:01
  And if you are, maybe why not today is not a thing for you.
• 22:04
  But if there are things that you want, places that you want to be people you want to be
• 22:07
  surrounded by, why not you?
• 22:10
  Why not you?
• 22:11
  It's time to draw that line in the sand and cross across it and say, it's my turn.
• 22:15
  I'm ready.
• 22:16
  I'm ready to do this, whatever it is, but you got to take those steps to do it.
• 22:20
  You have to take the action.
• 22:22
  Nothing happens without action.
• 22:24
  Action takers publishing was actually created because I was not an action taker.
• 22:29
  I was a person who would sit back and hope things would happen for me.
• 22:33
  And because I realized that if I name, like I name my company action takers publishing,
• 22:39
  that I will probably attract action takers.
• 22:43
  And if I attract action takers, I will become an action taker.
• 22:48
  We need to hang out with who we want to become.
• 22:50
  So who do you want to become?
• 22:52
  Yeah, there's a saying, I can't remember who said Jim Rohn, I think says, we're a reflection
• 22:56
  of the five people we hang out with the most.
• 22:59
  In high school, if you were a smoker, you probably hung out with the smokers.
• 23:03
  If you were a band nerd like I was, you probably hung out with the bandos, right?
• 23:07
  But who are you hanging out with today?
• 23:09
  Are they helping you to get the results that you want in the future?
• 23:12
  So like by having Leslie, you know, being a director with Mary Kaye, and if you're somebody
• 23:16
  who's under Leslie, then you're following in her footsteps, you know, but you got to
• 23:20
  follow those footsteps in order to get the results that you want to get.
• 23:23
  So why not today?
• 23:24
  Yeah, and I do pay very close attention to the people I spend time with.
• 23:30
  And I was reading a book last night from a guest I had on a couple of weeks ago on the
• 23:34
  podcast and she wrote a book.
• 23:36
  It says, dare to choose happy.
• 23:39
  So one of the things she talked about is connections.
• 23:42
  Who are your powerful connections in your life to make a list?
• 23:46
  And you know, most people, they say you only have a couple super close, powerful connections,
• 23:50
  and I am so blessed that I've got lots.
• 23:52
  And so she said to make a list of the people that you have the connections with them before
• 23:58
  I went to bed last night.
• 23:59
  It's on one of these notes here.
• 24:01
  I made a list and I came up with 20 people that I knew that I had that great connection.
• 24:06
  And then the other thing she had you do is make a list of things that make you happy
• 24:12
  and keep them in your phone.
• 24:13
  And I'm like, you know, simple things like lighting a candle or going for a walk or,
• 24:19
  you know, eating ice cream, whatever those things might be.
• 24:22
  But yeah, all those things are such a difference.
• 24:25
  And I love the connections and the people we hang out with and, you know, surround yourself
• 24:30
  with people that are going to make you better.
• 24:32
  Yeah.
• 24:33
  I like I'd love to share because I know we got to go.
• 24:35
  I would love to share like one exercise that I did during that year of fears, if I may.
• 24:40
  Right.
• 24:41
  Oh my gosh.
• 24:42
  There, there were so many things.
• 24:44
  First of all, there are so many things that I learned during that year.
• 24:46
  I actually came up with over 750 quotes during the year.
• 24:50
  One of those that I shared was, you know, see the opportunity then seize the opportunity.
• 24:55
  But there was this exercise that my life coach had me do that I implemented during my year
• 25:00
  of fears.
• 25:01
  And that is to make a list.
• 25:02
  Just like you mentioned, make a list of everything that really brings you joy, things that make
• 25:06
  you happy.
• 25:07
  They make you, they make you smile.
• 25:09
  They make you laugh, you know, just make that list and take a week to make your list.
• 25:14
  So when you're thinking of it or you're doing it, you're like, oh, I love that thing.
• 25:18
  Write it down.
• 25:19
  So you make that list.
• 25:20
  And then what I did is I took that list and I took it into my year of fears and I said,
• 25:26
  what I'm going to do is every day I'm going to do for five minutes, one of those things
• 25:33
  on my list.
• 25:34
  Like, I'm going to make sure that part of my process is to do one of those things on
• 25:37
  my list.
• 25:39
  And so the next week, I did it for 10 minutes a day.
• 25:43
  So it might have been two things for five minutes each or it might have been one thing
• 25:46
  for 10 minutes.
• 25:47
  Then the following week, and I just kept adding five minutes a day to it as I went on.
• 25:53
  And what I found was that my mindset started shifting to realize that I do deserve love.
• 26:00
  I do deserve happiness.
• 26:02
  I do deserve joy in my life.
• 26:05
  And so now the way my life is now, I'd say probably a good 80% of my life is spent in
• 26:11
  that positive mindset.
• 26:13
  I wasn't a positive person.
• 26:14
  I was very negative.
• 26:16
  I used to be a very judgmental person.
• 26:19
  I would judge people all the time.
• 26:21
  That's what I grew up in.
• 26:22
  Yeah.
• 26:23
  I was a judgment.
• 26:24
  I emulated it.
• 26:25
  I carried it forward into my life.
• 26:27
  And that was how I lived my life.
• 26:28
  So I have totally shifted everything.
• 26:30
  A lot of it came from that one exercise.
• 26:33
  There were other exercises too, of course, but that one exercise increase your amount
• 26:37
  of joy every day, just five minutes.
• 26:40
  And look at your name now.
• 26:42
  You've been called Sunshine because of that.
• 26:43
  Oh, exactly.
• 26:45
  That happened like three years after I broke through those fears because people just started
• 26:50
  randomly calling me Sunshine.
• 26:52
  I remember the first time somebody called me.
• 26:53
  I looked around and I was like, are you talking to me?
• 26:56
  Like, nobody ever called me Sunshine before.
• 26:59
  And so I went ahead and adopted it as my name.
• 27:01
  And then now I believe I am Sunshine because I adopted it.
• 27:06
  Thank you so much.
• 27:07
  I met somebody one time that I saw walking around my lake all the time.
• 27:12
  And then I met her somewhere else.
• 27:13
  I'm like, I see you all the time.
• 27:14
  She goes, oh, I know who you are.
• 27:16
  You're the person who always smiles and says hello.
• 27:18
  I'm like, what a simple thing to be known.
• 27:21
  I mean, grateful to be known for, but that you're known for that because most people
• 27:26
  don't.
• 27:27
  And it's so simple.
• 27:29
  Just yeah, and those positive things and looking for looking for the good.
• 27:33
  I'm talking about judgment in this book I was reading last night.
• 27:36
  She had, she said, don't judge.
• 27:39
  Don't be judgmental.
• 27:40
  Be curious.
• 27:42
  And what a different way to look at things when you're curious about it instead of judgmental.
• 27:48
  Like, you know, somebody cuts you off in traffic and like, you know, instead of being judgmental
• 27:53
  and mad and what a jerk they are.
• 27:55
  And like, you know, I hope everything's okay and they don't have an emergency and, you
• 28:00
  know, curious what's making them in such a hurry today.
• 28:03
  Yeah, I make up stories.
• 28:05
  I'll say something like, oh, they must be on their way to the hospital because they're
• 28:09
  having a baby.
• 28:10
  Exactly.
• 28:11
  I'll just make up fun, like nice fun stories.
• 28:13
  You know, we make up stories where so our brain tells us to make up the bad stories.
• 28:20
  But I really tried to make up the good stories and something recently I read and talking
• 28:25
  about the judgmental, totally going off a squirrel moment, but there was a man on a train with
• 28:31
  four kids that were wreaking havoc, just brats screaming and yelling and this woman
• 28:35
  was trying to work and she finally couldn't take it anymore.
• 28:39
  And she finally looked at the man.
• 28:40
  He's like, do you not know how to handle your children?
• 28:43
  And he goes, no man, as a matter of fact, I have no idea how to handle my children after
• 28:48
  two hours after their mother passed away.
• 28:51
  And I often think about that.
• 28:53
  It's like, okay, we judge, but we don't know what's going on behind the scenes for somebody.
• 28:58
  And just be kind and never know where you can bless them.
• 29:03
  Well, what a blessing you are.
• 29:04
  And I'm so grateful to have met you and I can't wait to do other things with you and
• 29:08
  learn other things and you've already taught me a ton.
• 29:10
  So I always try to do with the podcast also to back into like your connection with my
• 29:16
  dad because he's who I'm honoring this podcast and people are like, I never knew your dad.
• 29:20
  Well, of course you didn't.
• 29:21
  But so the first connection I would say is California.
• 29:24
  You lived in California, you grew up in California, my dad did too.
• 29:28
  He grew up in San Fernando Valley talking about being on the red carpet and doing those things.
• 29:33
  He always has stories and he was kids.
• 29:35
  He would deliver newspapers to all the stars and had all those connections.
• 29:39
  But I think just your positive attitude and your connections and just not now, now not
• 29:46
  being afraid to ask and connect and just it seems like there's never been a person that's
• 29:54
  everybody's a friend of strangers, just a friend to you.
• 29:56
  And I love that.
• 29:57
  And I feel like in just two conversations with you connected forever.
• 30:00
  So when I come out to San Diego to see my nephew, we'll definitely have to get it together
• 30:05
  in person or if you come to the East Coast or somewhere else.
• 30:08
  So well, thank you so much for coming to New York.
• 30:12
  Are you near New York?
• 30:14
  Not really.
• 30:15
  I'm in DC.
• 30:16
  Okay.
• 30:17
  That's about four or five hours from New York.
• 30:20
  Well, what's New York City or Brooklyn?
• 30:24
  I'm coming to New York because I was just sure of this because this is one of those wow moments
• 30:30
  that I'm experiencing right now is I was invited to participate in the rock and roll Hall of
• 30:38
  Fame inductee ceremony as a person in the gifting suite.
• 30:44
  So I will be giving gifts to the inductees plus other A-list celebrities.
• 30:49
  And this is something that is happening again.
• 30:53
  This because I said yes to that one book because the connections that I've made through that
• 30:57
  whole situation.
• 30:58
  So I am so excited.
• 31:01
  This is really happening.
• 31:02
  That's great.
• 31:03
  I love that.
• 31:04
  Yeah.
• 31:05
  Just say yes to those little things and you never know what they're doing.
• 31:08
  Why not now?
• 31:09
  Why not today?
• 31:10
  Exactly.
• 31:11
  Yes.
• 31:12
  So well, thank you again for sharing and I think we could talk forever and ever and
• 31:16
  ever.
• 31:18
  And if anybody wants to follow the podcast, we are on all the podcast places.
• 31:23
  There's a website, whynottodaypodcast.com.
• 31:25
  I will share Linda's link in the show notes how to access and find you and connect with
• 31:32
  you and you're a great asset.
• 31:34
  Somebody should connect with you.
• 31:35
  And we also have why not today swag, t-shirts, cups, finals to remind yourself.
• 31:41
  Just say why not today.
• 31:43
  So I'm always looking for courageous stories to share if anybody knows of anything, anybody
• 31:47
  listening.
• 31:48
  So again, Linda, thank you for sharing and it's been a pleasure to get to know you and
• 31:52
  you know what?
• 31:53
  Just say why not today.
• 31:56
  Why not today?
• 31:57
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 31:59
  Oh, you're welcome.
• 32:00
  Thank you.