It's Time for a Yearly Life Reflection: Special Birthday Episode!

This is the AI-produced transcription of episode 262 of the Purpose and Pixie Dust podcast (available wherever you listen to podcasts).

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Hey girl, welcome to the Purpose & Pixie Dust podcast, the podcast where we dive deep into our passions, our purpose and really unlock our potential with some Pixie dust thrown in. What is Pixie dust? You might ask, it's the fun and joy that gets unlocked when you're creating and owning your magic. I'm Lindsay Dollinger dog, Mama Disney lover, and high school Spanish teacher who has used my magic to grow my businesses while also working full time. I'm on a mission to help other women create and own your magic by building not only the business of your dreams, but also the life of your dreams while still juggling life, your full time job and all the things. So if you want more than this provincial life, let's use our glass slippers to break those glass ceilings and Sprinkle lots of Pixie dust into our lives and businesses. Let's do this.

Hey, hey friend, I am popping in here to make sure that you know about the best kept secret membership that exists for women entrepreneurs and shocking. The name is the magical membership for women entrepreneurs. So what is this magical membership you might ask? Well, it is a super fun place that I have curated. There's a Facebook group component to it as well as a website. So if you're not on Facebook, no worries, you can still be a part of the membership. But there is amazing community accountability challenges, training templates done for you, social media calendar content, all the things, literally, all the things and I don't talk about it nearly as much as I should. So here is your open invitation to join the magical membership for women entrepreneurs. The information is in the links or you can definitely send me a DM and I can get you all of the DEETs. I hope I just realized that. Oh my gosh. Well, I hope you go out there creating your magic and I will see you inside the magical membership for women entrepreneurs.

Hi friend. Welcome back to the Purpose and Pixie Dust podcast. I'm Lindsey Dollinger. I'm your host and this is a very special birthday week episode. My birthday is actually on Thursday, but on Thursdays, I have been doing the five lessons that we can learn from different Disney movies as Entrepreneurs series. And I didn't want to break that up with a weird birthday podcast. So I'm coming at you today. And to be honest, I don't have a plan for this podcast, which is a little different for me, but I just wanted to share some things that have been on my heart. So I turned 183 this week. So I'm going over the mid thirties. I guess it's still mid thirties but Creeping closer to 40 than 30. But that's okay. So I turned 36 on Thursday and I don't know about you, but I love birthdays. I have always loved birthdays growing up. Um, you know, I have never really had one that I felt like I dreaded. Maybe maybe turning 218 maybe. But I remember I had a coworker at the time who was like my coworker bestie. So, you know how we talk about biz besties? Well, she was my coworker bestie and I just remember she's about 29 years older than me. And she always said to me 25 your thirty's are your best. Like your thirties are your best decades, so much better than your twenties. You actually have your life together. And I definitely feel that I understand what she means by that. But also I still feel like internally like I am 29. Do you feel that way too? Am I the only one who feels like I'm not actually aging? Um, so anyway, I've always really loved birthdays and I really like to look back well, every day. I like to be grateful and, you know, count my blessings. I started out at a very young age with my prayers at night. No. You know, I don't talk a lot about my faith in religion here just because I think there are so, well, I know, there are so many different ways to go about that that I don't really like. That's never really been part of my brand, but it is very much part of my life. So I started that at a very young age, just saying things that I was grateful for and thankful for and thanking God for blood different blessings in my life. And so as I learned more about personal development, and I learned more about just this, this crazy theory of saying and acknowledging the things that you're grateful for every day and adding that kind of into a morning practice and really a practice throughout my day that, you know, I used to always make sure to do that on my birthday. But now it's kind of such a part of my life. Now that on my birthday this year, I have really just been kind of reflecting on this crazy journey of life. And you know how 25 year old Lindsay is so different than what 2100 year old Lindsay thought 183 year old Lindsay would look like, you know, I graduated high school valedictorian of my class, went on to college where I graduated magna cum Lade Lade, whichever one was the highest one. I forget, I forget which one's eyes one. I think it's zoom, But it could be cool. Anyway, um academics was always super important to me. Academia was always very important to me. I actually had a plan mentally that when I got out of college and started my first teaching job. I'm a high school Spanish teacher and I've actually been working in the same place for the 218 years. This is my 210th year teaching for the 256 years since I graduated college. But I had this idea in my mind. I immediately started my master's program in Spanish. So I do have my masters degree in Spanish language and culture. And then I finished that three years out of undergrad, three years into teaching. And then my next step was I was going to get a phd and that was just what's going to happen. So I very much tried to actually get a phd. But uh the university that's close to me, which is the Ohio State University. And really every college in Ohio that had a phd program in Spanish you had to do in person. And, you know, I talked to my school about it and they had to let one other teacher get their phd, but they had to really work around their schedule. And basically this teacher worked like half day or a quarter day. Um And I have always, and there's no shame about not living this way, but I have always been debt free. Essentially, the only debt that I have ever had was a monthly car payment and I have paid on principle so that I didn't even have that for longer than a couple of years. And So I knew that not working, especially not working. My dream teaching job was not an option for me. So I never pursued the phd. So what I'm getting at is when I was younger, I really thought that I was going to be going into academia. I thought it would be a professor someday. I applied. I got accepted to teach Spanish abroad or not Spanish abroad to live in Spain and teach English abroad. Um But my mom, you guys have heard my story about my mom on here several times, but my mom's breast cancer came back and actually came back the toward the end of my undergrad and it never went away after that. It spread to her brain, her liver bones, it's just different places. So I decided not to move to Spain. And then I applied again the following year, got accepted again. This was the year after my mom passed away. And then I felt like I couldn't leave my dad. I felt like I couldn't leave my dad. I couldn't leave my family here. There was too much here. And So that was kind of the trajectory of the trajectory and the plan and this vision I had for my life until I was what my mom, I was 27 when my mom passed away um which has been over eight years, which is insane if you have lost a loved one close to you. And you know, the years go up. That's, it gets really crazy. So like business was never even on my radar really. Now that I look back on it when I was younger, I definitely have the entrepreneur gene in my body. I was always starting clubs. I was always trying to sell things for money, make a profit. The babysitter's club was like my favorite thing ever. When I read about that, I started, I started my own babysitters club and I always worked because I always liked having that financial freedom. So I had my first job when I was 15 and then I actually at 15.5 got two jobs. So during the summer, I worked sometimes more than 40 hours a week and continued that through high school in addition to being in clubs and for age and all the things. So I think that's probably where my knack for productivity and systems really started was when I was in high school. And when I knew like, hey, I wanted to have this financial freedom, but I also knew I loved the leadership positions and I have always been very multi, passionate. So I wanted to be involved in four H and show animals at the fair. I wanted to write, I wrote for the local newspaper. They had like a team program which was so cool looking back on it. I wish they still do stuff like that. Um Anyway, you know, this is not to talk about like all my accomplishments. That's definitely not what I was going for with this. But I just like to look back on that journey and how again 18 year old me had a high school boyfriend. We started dating when I was 15, we dated, um, pretty steadily until I was 103. So four years ish and then we were like on and off until I was about 20 probably. Um, and I actually got voted and this is laughable now, but I got voted most likely to get married. And it was me and my high school boyfriend, like we were the couple at school and everyone wanted to be like us, which is again laughable now. Um, and now here I am 36, I've never been married. I don't have kids. Um, and I'm okay with that, and you know, I think for a lot of people that can be a very big something like taboo or people don't understand that, which is totally fine for me. But again, I also feel like I'm still 20 even though I know I'm not. And I started to have those conversations with my doctor's like, okay, what does freezing my eggs look like? What, what does this going to look like if I do one day, find a partner, husband, boyfriend, whatever and do decide to have kids. And what could this look like if I don't and I want to have kids? And so that's been something else in the back of my mind. So if you have any experience with that or have ever considered any of that, um please reach out to me because it's a fascinating tapping. It's when I'm still diving into because in my mind I have all this time, but then biologically you're like, maybe not so much. Right. Um and so my life looks very different. Like I just thought when I went to college that I would graduate college, I would marry my high school boyfriend. And at that time when I was 18, like, thought of being a professor, my master's program was never the thing. And then after the boyfriend and I broke up and I studied abroad for the first time and my eyes were open to how freaking amazing Spain is. And I fell in love with Spain and the Spanish people. I fell in love with traveling. I fell in love even more with the Spanish language and culture. And then that's when I shifted and my focus was on that for a really long time. And then when my mom passed away, um and I went in a really, really deep depression that I have thankfully never been in, in my life again. And I hope never to get to that place. But I have gone through that and it was a really awful, horrible year after that. And then that's when I found Beachbody, I started as a Beachbody coach. I'm not sure if you knew that. But I started in network marketing as a Beachbody coach and literally the trajectory of my life has changed, changed. After that, I've had many pivots been apart of different companies since then. And that's how I naturally pivoted into being a podcaster and a business coach for women who are working a full time job like I am who most likely have lots of passions like I do. And you want that financial freedom, you want that time freedom. You want something that is your own and you want to travel and do the things without having to check the checkbook and see if the money is in there for you to be able to do the trips and to do anything that you want. If the thing that you want is to have a massage on a Friday afternoon. Um, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, so I took a half day off work. I left early and I thought last night I was like, this was the best day ever because I had my four hours of teaching in the morning, I left and went home. I had lunch at home. I let my dog out. I had about a half an hour or I walked her outside. Then I went to my appointment, then I came back and I had a client call in the afternoon. Um, and then I had like three hours of my own and it was, it really felt like the best day ever. So, if that's your best day ever, and it's a mixture of a traditional 9 to 5 job in your own thing or your best day ever is your traditional 9 to 5 job or your best day ever is 100% your own business. Like I am here for it and I really hope that you have that desire and that burning passion to fight for your dreams, to do the things that you want to do and to really take those baby steps, those incremental steps up the ladder. Like let's not skip wrongs, let's not try to jump to the top. You know, let's do this safely and in a well thought out way, but like do the things for you that are going to fill you up and they are going to make you so happy and it's okay to change. Like that's I think the whole point of me sharing how my life has changed the past 18 years, like half my life, my adult life is that it's okay. If your life looks different, then society tells you it should look or your 18 year old version tells you it should look or your aunt Janet tells you it should look right. Like if you want kids great. If you, if you want five, great. If you want one, great. If you don't want any great, if you want to be married, if you don't, if you, you know your next step is getting a divorce and that's what's right for you. Like figuring those things out and really allowing yourself that permission to do that, I think has been one of the biggest things that I have learned and been so grateful for, especially the past few years is like, it's okay to do you however you are meant to do you. And it's okay if the people who were your biggest support, you know, 10 years ago that you've outgrown that or you have gone your separate ways, it doesn't mean that there's any ill will or anything like that. It's just we grow and we evolve and we're not the same person anymore. And, you know, there's a part of me that gets really sad about that because, you know, the Lindsay Dollinger that my mom knew eight years ago when she passed away is a very different Lindsay than is here now. But I also know that my mom would also be a different person now, right? Because we would have had different experiences in the last eight years and she would have understood and loved me, you know, no matter what and your people will be like that for you. So don't be afraid to break out of your box to really shine. My tagline is create and own your magic for real. Let's make this our year where we are creating and owning the magic like you are stepping into full blown your first and last name. Like I am stepping into full blown Lindsay Dellinger. And I don't care who has a problem with it. I don't care who agrees with it. I don't care who likes it. Um, if they don't like it, they're not my people because my people are here for it. My people want to see me grow and shine and do amazing things and make the big impact that I have on the world. Um In one of my big goals, I've never shared this publicly and I'm going to share it publicly with you. And that's how I know if you listen to this podcast because literally the only what would it be 56 people in the world who know this, my sister, my coach Lou Man Jello and the four women that are in my mastermind. So literally six people. But I have this huge goal and it will happen, it will not happen in the next year. I know that, but it will happen that I want to create a nonprofit for kids and their families who have lost a parent, most likely a mom, but not necessarily to breast cancer. And I want to fund trips, almost like a healing trip, a rehabilitation trip, but more like a healing journey to Disney World. I want to provide this family that is missing a key component, a key component due to breast cancer and allow them to go on a trip where they can just be kids again and they can have fun and they can start making memories and their newly formed family while also remembering the past loved one. So I don't know what that's going to look like. Let me know if you want to be one of the first people to contribute. But I'm going to do that and I have had that on my heart and it's big and I have no idea where to get started with that. And, you know, it might not happen for several more years, but like that looks very different than Lindsay Dollinger Spanish teacher, right? It looks very different than Lindsay Dollinger girl who grew up on a farm, who was a showman and showman who showed chicken chickens and horses at the county fair, right? But that's okay because all of these pieces of me are what make up me and they're what makes me special and unique. Just like all of the pieces of your story and your journey are special to make you unique as well. So again, I had no idea where that was going to go when I started talking. I hope this resonated with you in some sort of way. I have really shared a lot of my heart with you today. Um It's a little bit different than our normal podcast episode. So if this is your first one, I don't know if this is what you normally are in floor sometimes. Yes. Sometimes. No, but I hope you loved this. Screenshot. It. Tag me your stories if you did. And I hope you know that I'm always here. I'm cheering for you. Like I'm your biggest cheerleader for real. And I would be honored if you let me be your biggest cheerleader. So let me be your biggest cheerleader. You got this, my dear friend, go out there and create and own your magic. And that's a wrap on today's episode. I hope you're leaving today. Inspired Princess to create own and spread your magic to the world. If you found by you in this episode or no, a girlfriend who needs to hear it, would you screenshot it and send it to her? And if you're feeling really generous, pop it up on your I G stories and tag me at Lindsay Dellinger so I can see you loved it and tell you. Thank you. I appreciate you. Now, let's go do some amazing things by, by.