Showing Up Messy & Authentically Human Online with Lyndsay Lee

Today we're talking with fellow House of NABA Community Member and personal branding expert, Lyndsay Lee aka Your Rich Auntie! We talk about the significance of remaining authentically human while delivering genuine value to your online audience. We cover navigating a career pivot, what happens when you run your business on social media and you go through a breakup. We also discuss what we share and how we decide what we share on social media. All the raw stuff and more!


Timestamps to help you navigate this episode:
(0:00) Intro
(0:20) FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
(3:31) Discovering the NABA Community
(9:42) Balancing Personal Branding
(13:57) Sponsor: Snap Supplements 25% OFF using code LUNDEN25
(19:36) Navigating A Career Pivot
(24:14) Defining Authenticity and Value in Branding
(37:59) Sponsor: Evolve Telemed 25% OFF Using code: LUNDEN25
(52:35) Embracing Life and Resilience

Connect with Lyndsay Lee:
@lyndsaylee
www.lyndsaylee.com

Lyndsay's 5-Day Challenge: https://lyndsaylee.com/courses-and-offers

Free Entrepreneur Archetype quiz here

Voice of Impact 2024 Aug 23-26 in Salt Lake City

Transcript

Lunden Souza: 1:49

Welcome to Self Love and Sweat: The Podcast, the place where you'll get inspired to live your life unapologetically, embrace your perfect imperfections, break down barriers and do what sets your soul on fire. I'm your host, Lunden Souza. Hey, have you grabbed your free Self Love and Sweat monthly calendar yet? This calendar is so amazing. It comes right in your inbox every single month to help you have a little nugget of wisdom, a sweaty workout, a mindset activity, just a little something, something to help keep you focused and motivated and keep that momentum towards your goals. So every day, when you get this calendar, you'll see a link that you can click that will lead to a podcast episode or a workout or something that will be very powerful and quick to read. And then you'll also see, on the top left corner of every single day, there's a little checkbox in the calendar, and what that is is that's for your one thing. You can choose one thing every month, or it can be the same, something that you want to implement and make this something that you can easily implement, like daily meditation or getting a certain amount of steps or water, for example, and staying hydrated and even taking your supplements. This can be something if you want to get more regular doing a particular habit and routine. You can choose what that checkbox means. So if you want your Self Love and Sweat free monthly calendar delivered right to your inbox every month on the first of the month, go to lifelikelunden. com/ calendar, fill out the form really quickly and you will have your calendar in your inbox within a few short minutes. That's lifelikelunden L-I-F-E-L-I-K-E-L-U-N-D-E-N dot com forward slash calendar. Go, get yours for free and enjoy this episode. Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we have Lyndsay Lee as our guest your rich auntie, as you'll see on Instagram.

Lunden Souza: 4:04

I met Lyndsay through a community that we're both a part of called the House of NABA, and I've shared a lot about my new course that's come out with them, and it was really cool because I remember being at the first event the first event that we had the one and only so far as our community continues to grow and you came up to me at the end and you were just like thank you for what you shared. I had spoken on stage and shared a little bit about my experience with my course and kind of my journey, and we didn't talk for that long. It was maybe like two minutes, probably less if you had a timer of just like, and you came up and you just kind of acknowledged me and appreciated what I shared. And I remember looking at you and being like number one thank you, number two, you're so beautiful, I loved your style and I just loved your vibe. And it was just kind of one of those moments where I was like there was like a little magnetic connection and I was like I know that there's more. Like I know that there's more for our friendship, for us to learn and grow together, and so I was like hey, you want to hop on a zoom call and just like talk and be friends? And we did.

Lunden Souza: 5:11

And here we are on the podcast. So, Lyndsay, I'm so happy to have you here. Welcome to the show. How you doing?

Lyndsay Lee: 5:19

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I am, yeah, that event was really cool. So the NABA Community obviously is expanding even as we talk and it's such an incredible community and what I often say about it is I, for a lot of my entrepreneurial journey, I really wanted to be in rooms like that. Quick backstory on me I've worked for myself in some form or fashion for gosh, I don't know, like 12 years now or something, and fully for myself for the last seven, and I always kind of thought that that journey was going slow but it was kind of like putting along, because oftentimes I felt really lonely. And then, through a different connection, I got connected to the NABA Community and I kind of like bought a ticket to get to Denver for the live event really, really last minute. And I'm so glad that I did, because I walked into that room and I thought to myself this is the type of room I've wanted to be in for a decade. But it's not that I haven't been in those types of rooms before, but it's like when you go to an event where everyone is committed to growing and healing and being the best version of themselves and serving on really deep and high levels, it just feels different, it just hits different. And so I walked into that room and I thought, fuck man, like there is a part of me that has like finally made it right.

Lyndsay Lee: 6:53

And I remember Lunden, you being on stage and just having the most like beautiful demeanor, just kind, you just radiate kindness, and I love people who radiate kindness and feel really authentic. And normally this older, like past, younger version of myself maybe wouldn't have even come up to you like I wouldn't even have said anything, because I would have thought maybe, oh, she's like too, too, this or too that she's like she's so much further along in her journey than me. Look at her, she's on stage, she's successful, whatever, like there's this older version of me that might have talked myself out of saying hi. And over the last few years I've really cultivated the boldness and the confidence to just show the fuck up for my vision, and one of the things that is in my vision is to be that bold, courageous leader that really does whatever she wants, because of the intuitive pings and pulls that I have.

Lyndsay Lee: 8:01

And so, yeah, it was like two minutes and I walked up to you and I think I like waved really funny and was like, oh, you're so like great, and there was a bit of a fan girl moment, but also there was a part of me that knew that there would be a deeper connection. I'm so glad that we have rolled with that connection because it's just getting started. But here we are and I think one of the biggest takeaways for me in that is that when you put yourself out there and you take a chance, even if it's just to say hi to someone who you want to thank or acknowledge, it can actually lead to really beautiful and powerful things. Now, I didn't do that in order to have Lunden have me on her show, and there were no ulterior motives, so I do want to say that as well is like when it's authentic and when it's from your heart, you can't go wrong, and I feel like doors and opportunities open as long as we're moving with our intuitive pings. So now here we are because of it.

Lunden Souza: 9:12

And I'm so grateful that you did, because I remember afterwards then like finding you on Instagram and like scrolling through and seeing your adventures in Bali, and then you were like running, and then you're doing so well in your business, just like it was really cool. I really had this like admiration, right. It was just like whoa, like I really am inspired by you. I'm really admiring you versus, like you mentioned, like a previous version of yourself. You, too, might have been like more intimidated or like you know comparison, where it was really much, really not like that. And for those that don't know, NABA stands for the Natural Art of Being Alive, and one of the things that Lyndsay and I wanted you know, like the theme of what we wanted to talk about today is, you know, showing up through the mess, showing up through life. We both are very yeah, we share a lot on social media, we run, you know, our businesses online and we're human and shit happens and things get hard, things get really wonderful and things can also be really messy, and I don't know how you feel, Lyndsay, but I just made like sometimes people ask me they're like how you know? Because I've been really consistent, sharing my story and my journey, and first it was fitness and then, of course, it's transition. But since I was 17 and I'm 34 now, so for 17 years I've been showing up pretty consistently online, sharing, you know, bringing the joy, just getting people to move. First, their bodies and now their minds and their hearts, and things like that.

Lunden Souza: 10:47

And sometimes people will ask me they'll be like you know, how do you do? Like run out of ideas, like how do you keep, you know, showing up and doing that, and I'm like I can't not like no matter what, like I can't not. Like it would make me physically ill to think like, oh, I'm just not going to share inspiration daily on social media, and not even on social media, but out in the real world too. Like I can't not bring the joy, even when it's challenging. Of course you know it's not like, oh, everything's perfect, but it's like I cannot not bring that authentic joy, I cannot not share the journey and the struggles and the triumphs. I just can't not Like my body just won't let me. Do you feel that way too?

Lyndsay Lee: 11:30

Yeah. So that's resonating really deeply. And a lot of people ask me about this because I am kind of I don't know. In some circles I've been dubbed like the personal brand queen, and I like to say that I actually started a personal brand before I even really knew what that was or what I was doing, and then so basically I started a brand on accident and then I kind of monetized a brand on accident, which was, you know, like a really interesting part of my journey, because I thought, oh, I'm, I'm doing something that I could maybe keep doing and like maybe I'm good at it right. And now I've basically molded my entire life and my career around teaching women how to monetize personal brands. And so this is actually very relevant to what I get asked as a mentor all the time, because I think a lot of people really maybe don't understand the concept of showing up online in a way that is also really authentic to staying human first, and so one of the things that I always say is to stay human first. That is so massively important. So I think and I don't want to speak for Lunden, but I think she probably resonates with this when I say that like I don't force showing up online. I don't force sharing something before I'm ready to share it. Now.

Lyndsay Lee: 12:57

That also comes along with deciding that I show up every single day, that I actually am so compelled by my vision and my why to show up. Like part of my why. Part of why I'm here on this planet is to show up for others in service in a way that lights me up, and there really is a difference between those two things. So, for example, over the last month I've been going through a separation from my incredible, amazing now ex-partner of six and a half years and that journey has been like really, really wild for me. For the last month and for the last 29 days I haven't been ready to share that journey publicly, but within that, I have shown up every single day with little bits and pieces where I don't actually have to like put my heart on blast, but I can give the value, right? I can show up and say, ooh, this happened to me today, or this is what I'm learning, or sharing something that I think somebody else might take a piece of wisdom from, but that doesn't mean that for the last 29 days I had to put my broken heart on blast until it became relevant for me to share that because it felt authentic and it felt time. So I do.

Lyndsay Lee: 14:20

I get asked a lot by women like, oh man, if I build this business online or have a brand or show up as a podcast host or a coach or whatever, do I really have to put my whole life online and I'm like no people know probably 2% of my life? Right? But what I have learned is the skill of being able to bring what I've learned to the table in a way that feels authentic, wearing my heart on my sleeve and sharing who I am, while also understanding that I can keep certain parts of myself private and there are certain parts of my life that will literally never go on the internet. And to add to that, here's something else that I believe nobody wants to see it all like that's

Lyndsay Lee: 15:09

No one wants to see my whole life like we think in the personal branding space that it means that you just show up all the time and it's like. No one wants to see that boring shit. 90% of my life is like me just doing the same routine or me nobody wants to see me run every single day. I don't post about running every day because nobody wants to see that right, and so I think like we don't have to put our whole lives on blast because A that's boring as fuck and B stay human first, while also really pulling out the nuggets that other people can glean their own wisdom from. Right?

Lunden Souza: 15:47

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Lunden Souza: 17:42

Now let's get back to the show. Yeah, yeah, I remember just in my just be from being on social media a lot. I think that I at least can, and maybe you can and listeners too. Like there are some people that just share like the whole enchilada, and I always told myself, like you don't got to share the whole enchilada, like once I feel like I'm in a state and in a heart posture that can provide value from the hurt, from the frustration, from the humanness, all of that. That's what I like to share. I think that, of course, I reserve that for the people close to me or when I'm alone, or my best friends, like they get to see the ugly cry and the messy and the deep depth of what I'm going through and I think there's value in keeping that private too. And then when I'm ready to be like, ok, now I'm ready to share, here's a little bit of wisdom. Yeah, it's still raw, it's still fresh. I'm not robotic now I'm over. It's like it's still part of it, but I feel like I can actually provide value and I can actually give something that people can digest and take, because I don't want to emotionally unpack on the internet because that just doesn't feel good for me either. It's like I want to keep a piece of me too and I have close friends and people to me that I know I can go to for that.

Lunden Souza: 19:11

And also one of the biggest compliments I feel like I get from people that I know from, let's say, internet land that I get a chance to meet in person. And especially when I was living in Europe and doing a lot of fitness stuff and whatever, I would have opportunities to meet a lot of people from online or followers or whatever, and they would often say oh, I feel like I already know you. I feel like I hang out with you because I watch your stories and I follow your travels and I know what you're interested in. I know it's funny because a lot of my followers know I don't iron. I just don't iron. If it needs to be ironed or steamed, it doesn't end up in my closet. I don't wear it Like just little things where when I have these dialogues and conversation and I feel like, oh, that feels so good because I know what it feels like to meet somebody that I maybe follow online.

Lunden Souza: 20:04

And this happened to me once. I remember in my early 20s I was in Australia for a work event in the fitness space and there were a couple fitness, let's say, models or popular people in the fitness industry that I was super stoked to see and meet in person and just get to know a little bit more. And I remember going up to one of them and saying, hi, my name's Lunden, I love your work, congratulations on your latest win of whatever and nothing, just like mm, thanks, know anything. And I remember feeling so like but that's not the person that you portray or whatever, and so not that anybody has to do it my way at all, but I just always felt like that was the ultimate compliment for people to be like oh, I feel like I already know you a little bit at least, or I have a.

Lunden Souza: 20:53

I feel like we're friends, I feel like you've let me in a little bit to where I can trust you and do you feel that way too? Do people share that with you? Like I just I want that feeling, but I also don't. I just quite frankly don't want to just pull the whole curtain back and be like rah, rah, rah. This is today. Or, like you said, if I'm a bit boring, like I'm just usually sitting by myself doing the rinse and repeat thing, like that's not something I want to share either, but I like the compliment or I feel at least like it's a compliment when someone says like hey, I feel like we're buds already.

Lyndsay Lee: 21:24

So this is. I just had a conversation with a friend about this a couple of days ago and she was laughing because she was saying everybody thinks they're your best friend. And I'm like, yeah, that's the mark of a good personal brand and it's not that I'm being inauthentic, I'm actually being my most authentic self and a lot of times when people meet me in person versus like if they have been in my online community my following, listening to the podcast, whatever it is for quite some time, if you meet me in person, I'm pretty much the same person and what I've learned how to do, what to do, is your brand is you, but it's not about you. It's about the other person and the life that they want through you. So I always say, when people say, oh man, Lindsay, cause my little tag is like I'm, you know, everybody's favorite auntie. You never know where in the world I'm gonna be right and there is a part of that that is like deeply mine I really actually am that I do not want children. I've never wanted children. I believe in rich as fuck women, like women being very wealthy, because for a long time we haven't been financially empowered. Like I really am the embodiment of like the rich auntie persona, right. But one of the things that I've learned about a brand is that when somebody says to me oh my gosh, your life is so cool, I want your life. My response to that would always be you don't want my life, you want your version of my life. You want a version of your life where you're so lit up and you just happen to see that through my brand. And that is the mark of a really good brand when it's authentic, when it makes people feel like, oh, like wait a minute, like I want more in my life. Right, you might not want to travel, you might wanna homestead and raise kids I don't know what it is. That might be your dream, but there might be something that my brand or me is mirroring to you that you want, right.

Lyndsay Lee: 23:38

And the other thing with putting everything online is I run and work out every day and I'm actually training for something really massive right now that I can't talk about yet, but I do that every day. I also understand that posting about that on the internet every day does not give someone value, right? And so if you are listening and you are running a business online or on social media or you want to. My biggest piece of advice would be to stop and ask yourself what value am I providing my community before you post something? Because if I just like posted trail running videos and me on the treadmill and in the gym like every day, that's boring right, but when I do it I think, ah, this has some form of value and I think people get really tripped up in the idea of giving value online. So, because I can hear people's like thoughts and questions around this right now as you're listening, and all I wanna say about giving value is the biggest thing about giving value is being yourself.

Lyndsay Lee: 24:52

It doesn't mean that you have to teach somebody something every single day. It means that you get to show up as who you are. Me, the funny side of me. I'm actually like a decently funny human and I like to put that on the internet and I think that that's valuable. Right, laughing, humor, connection, just being able to be in community that is also value.

Lyndsay Lee: 25:14

It does not always have to follow a formula of like one, two, three. These are the steps that I took, or whatever it is. It's like sometimes your life is just valuable and I feel really strongly about that because I just think we could all just be a little more real, right? I'm not gonna fucking teach you something every day. Oh God, that's like too much responsibility on my shoulders. I just wanna sometimes be silly and I want you to know the silly version of me, right? So we really have to, like, look at this in a holistic point of view, I think, when we're talking about being online in a business sense or a consumer sense, right, the internet's not going away, so we might as well get really clear on what we're posting, why we're posting it and who we're actually talking to.

Lunden Souza: 26:03

Yeah, yeah, I love that and really takes the pressure off of thinking oh my gosh, I have to teach a profound lesson to the world every single day. It's like Me just being alive and breathing and moving through some of the messiness. Is the lesson today? Right? Yeah, I really love what you shared there. I know a little bit about your story and I know that we have some similarities in terms of like our pivot or like transition, and on the topic of being authentic and Feeling like we're providing value.

Lunden Souza: 26:39

I remember, before I switched from fitness, like completely cut the cord and decided no, I want to go full. You know, life coaching, nlp, communication, whatever there was a part of me until I overcame that that was like no, like this is what you're supposed to do, this is what you're supposed to share. Like your fitness Lunden, your fitness coach Lunden, like and it was. It felt like, I felt the react, like my whole body was like no, but I didn't. I and in that journey you know it was a process of kind of like that, that cut, that break up, that transition into something that was more authentic, and even though I was a little bit nervous because I was like okay, I've been doing this for, like you know, 15 years and people know this about me but it just doesn't. It doesn't. I'm done. Like it doesn't sit right anymore. There's plenty of Fitness coaches in the sea that love to teach people how to do a proper squat. I remember being on a zoom call and teaching someone how to do a squat and after it was over, I was like I never want to fucking do that shit again. Like there's enough people out in the world that want to tell you how to prop you know, put your body in and whatever. Like I just didn't want to do that anymore.

Lunden Souza: 27:45

And so to make that pivot and that transition, while it was scary, it was also one of those moments where it's like I can't not because I need to be Authentic to myself in order to show up authentic in this internet space, or even just authentic when I'm freaking walking down the street, like I didn't want to do something I didn't want to do anymore, and I know that sometimes people feel like, yeah, maybe they're stuck and they have to be doing what they're doing. I'm not telling everybody to quit their job and go, do you know, whatever, but what I know is that I couldn't not make that transition and I know you had a similar one too from being, I think, more of like the detox Yoga, that kind of space, but really, like you know, and even for a while, it was like people would reach out to me and be like, hey, but I and I'm like, no, I don't do that anymore, and here's some really great resources for you. No, I don't do that anymore and here's some really great resources for you. Like that continuous Redirect so that I could really like embody who I knew I wanted to be.

Lunden Souza: 28:45

What was that transition like for you? Or, you know, how do you still like, root down and commit to that, that commit to that transition, despite you know, knowing, hey, this is what I've always done, this is what brings in the money, this is what, like, people know me as there was a yeah, just a very interesting transition that now, looking back, I'm like, oh, I'm so glad I did that. Like it would have been so inauthentic to just stay in that space, even though you know, money was great, people knew who I was and all facets of fitness. But I'm just like, so like, even if two people are listening now and two million were before, I don't even care. What was that transition like for you? And I know you shared a little bit with me about how you kind of had to redirect and continue to redirect.

Lyndsay Lee: 29:32

Yeah, whoo. Okay, first off, I just want to acknowledge the fact that a pivot can be very challenging while also being exciting, and I have pretty much heard that from every professional woman in her career who has made a pivot has said yeah, that shit was challenging because you have essentially trained your community to know you one way and Then when you make a pivot, you have to train them to know you in a different way. And I'm using that term actually really deliberately, and I know that that can be Activating to some people's nervous systems is like I don't want to be trained, right, I'm a rebel, I get it. I'm like nobody tells me what to do. But really, if you think about it, like in our community, in our lives, whether it's online or offline, we are actually really informing other people of how to Know us, how to see us. Right now, people are obviously going to think their own thoughts and make their own, draw their own conclusions and and feel the way that they feel about you, no matter what you do, but at the same time All right, I should say and at the same time, you're informing the world on who you are right. So, hmm, really the pivot for me, the, the most important part of the pivot for me was to ask myself what I am here for, right like, what is my life about? What is the point of all of this?

Lyndsay Lee: 31:16

So I was in the cleansing detox world for a almost a decade and For seven out of those ten years I was actively teaching cleanse detox. I was a colon hydro therapist. Like I'll reverse the story a little bit, but essentially I got asked in 2015. I got asked to move out to Bali, Indonesia, and be a colon hydro therapist and some other forms of cleanse and detox stuff, if you will. Now this is a really like interesting part of my journey and part of the story, because I am actually not traditionally somebody who Plans all that much and I don't really do a lot of research, and this can actually Really really annoy some people, even like some of the closest people in my life or like the fuck, Lyndsay, like you have no plan and I'm like no plan.

Lyndsay Lee: 32:16

So back in 2015, I got asked to move out to Bali and I Did on a whim. I just kind of said what do I need to do in order to move out there? What, what, what needs to happen? And I was at the tail end of graduate school at the time and my Graduate degree is in social justice, and so a lot of people often will say, like, well, how does that connect? Like what, what do you mean? Like, then you pivoted it into into cleanse. I don't really get it. This was also when I was building a brand without knowing it, so essentially, I started building this brand as all of this was happening and I Thought well, my idea of social justice is that everyone gets to heal themselves so that we can heal the world. That's the answer, right. So I.

Lyndsay Lee: 33:01

So I kind of moved into this cleanse world, if you will, and then on accident, my Brand, or me, became synonymous with cleanse and detox. So I kind of became Cleanse Lyndsay and that for me, was really cool. It was very exciting. I was living in Bali. I literally showed up to Bali, to the retreat center that I worked at, not knowing that it is one of the most well-known and well-renowned retreat centers in the world, and I just show up like oops, didn't do any research on. Now I'm here and so I'm at this retreat center and it's absolutely stunning. It's, it's placed in like the middle of the jungle in Ubud. It's. There's people coming in and out, doing yoga, cleanses, anything that you could imagine all day long, and I kind of fell into something that felt like a dream.

Lyndsay Lee: 33:54

And Then I, about a year later, they wanted me to take over the entire detox department. So I would have been in charge of all of the programs, plus being a colon hydro therapist, plus doing health Consult. I was doing a lot, and so I actually really realized that I had just kind of created this same cycle of Overworking and under earning and Along with it. Right, I'm in this career that basically gave me my life back and it healed my own body so much that I felt very compelled to teach it. But, if I'm honest, there was a part of me the whole time then knew that it wasn't my answer forever. It wasn't going to be my forever career, so fast forward I. I did not actually end up taking the job with running the detox department, which everybody thought I was really crazy for.

Lyndsay Lee: 34:48

So in mid to late 2016, I moved back to the States and I said to myself I'm going to do what I've been doing, but I'm going to do it online, and at that point everybody thought I was nuts. They were like what? Like nobody knew what zoom was like. This was like well, pre-pandemic right. So I'm like seeing clients online and obviously not doing colon hydro therapy, but I was coaching and doing a lot of things and so, back to the fact that me and my brand had been building alongside of this identity of Cleanse Lyndsay, for now this is, you know, fast forward into the pandemic starting.

Lyndsay Lee: 35:28

I'm like steeped in the detox world, like people are wanting to hire me left, right and center, wanting to be in my coaching programs and, to be honest, 2020 was actually when I started feeling the squeeze of not wanting to do what I was doing and I I didn't really ignore it personally. Well, kind of, I guess I sort of ignored it for like two more years because I didn't know how to break up without identity, and I know that there's a lot of people who probably feel this way. You don't have to be in the cleanse world to understand that your, whatever you're known for, whatever you might be doing or whatever career you might have built, you might hate it, and I really want to be the permission slip to say you can hate it and that's okay. And if you're feeling trapped or stuck right, there are questions that you can ask yourself to get down to the heart of it. So it actually took me Probably a solid 24 months for me to really make the pivot.

Lyndsay Lee: 36:38

But in that pivot I was still coaching, but I was feeling really stuck. I was making more money than I ever had before, but I was also not feeling very happy because I felt like I was so boxed in right. And so the questions that I started asking myself were what am I here for? Like, if there was no box right, no box required, if there was no box, what would I do and what do I stand for? And those types of questions will get you so far in life because they'll get your brain into the idea of curiosity.

Lyndsay Lee: 37:20

I think curiosity is the way that we are going to like make the world a better place. I think it's how we heal. I think it's how we connect. Like, curiosity is so important and, honestly, I felt like my curiosity in the cleanse world was dead because that world to me, felt so black and white and exhausting and just not what I want. I never want to hear myself teach somebody how to poop well, ever again in my life, like ever, and people still, to this day, try to hire me for this, but it doesn't align with the answers to those questions. What am I here for? If there was no box required? What would I be a stand for? How would I be acting? What would I be giving? What would I be doing? What does my dream life look like? I think we get it wrong often. A lot of people, including myself, will think what do I want to do? What is the doing? Like, what is the career or the job? When really I think that's actually the completely wrong question. The question should be what does my dream life look like? And then what can I build around that dream life? So essentially, the pivot for me was overstepping my own boundaries when somebody came to me and wanted to hire me and it was good money, so I said yes, and then taking less clients and not knowing how to pivot and bringing the audience along and then having nobody understand why I was talking about something different than cleansing, and it was a really difficult transition period for me, but I remained steadfast. I saw my bigger vision, A. K. A, I saw my dream life, and all I did was run as fast as I could towards that and it had nothing to do with cleanse Nothing at all, ever. It won't ever, like I like to say like if people are waiting around for me to be cleanse Lindsey again, they should just go away now, because, like, I'm never going back to that. But really it was because I remained very, very focused on what I wanted my life to look like and then I ran headfirst at it as fast as I could, with literally no idea of how I was gonna figure it out, but I just kept running and I kept taking the steps, and I think that is so vital for people to understand.

Lunden Souza: 39:47

Have you heard of Evolve Telemed before? It's the super cool opportunity to be able to meet with your doctors without going to the doctor's office, right from the comfort of your own home. I recently got my full blood panel done CBC with differentials, thyroid panel, hormone panel, all the things and I was able to meet up with one of their doctors directly on a video call, go over all of my results, have just a really comfortable, great conversation, really understand the process of doing my labs and what it means and giving me more feedback than just like, hey, your labs are normal, you know all good, just going through everything step by step and really giving me clear insights as to what I see in my lab. So it was cool, like all I did was get the paper off of the online portal. You'll have your own patient portal and you get the order and then I went to the lab where you get your blood drawn. I did that. It took like 20 minutes. They sent the results directly to Evolve Telemed and then they uploaded my results directly to my client portal. Again, I got to go over it on a video call with one of their doctors. It was perfect. I had everything right in front of me. I had somebody who had an immense amount of knowledge and expertise, who was able to give me great feedback, and so it was such a wonderful experience and I just feel like it was so simple and so easy to just look under the hood and double check that everything was all good internally, because I've had a history of PCOS, I've had a history of cystic acne, I've had a history of anxiety and also just like yeah, in general want to make my future not just my history bright and healthy and just like do things in a holistic way, and they're very supportive of that as well. So if you wanna do your labs with Evolve Telemed, you can use code LUNDEN25. L-U-N-D-E-N two five for $25 off your labs and you can get started with that process super simply. Just go to evolvetelemed. com and that's E-V-O-L-V-E-T-E-L-E-M-E-D dot com Evolve Telemed and then, when you decide what labs you wanna get done, what information you're interested in whether it's balanced hormones or balanced health you'll be able to get that personalized, expert concierge level service and you can get it for $25 off. So don't forget to use the code LUNDEN25. L-U-N-D-E-N two five and, yeah, just doing your checkups, staying up to date with your health and wellbeing ahead of time and do it with Evolve Telemed.

Lunden Souza: 42:38

Now let's get back to the show. Hmm, yeah, and I love how you said you were like breaking up with Cleanse Lyndsay. We talked a little bit about like your breakup with your partner, which I think mostly everyone listening can resonate with, of being in a relationship and then not. But, oh, that hits so deep of having to break up with parts of ourselves. Right, I was on a call with one of my one-on-one clients and she's like, yeah, I just feel like I'm mourning the loss of a former version of myself that I know needs to go, and I remember breaking up with that run-tastic fitness coach Lunden persona and having that moment of like. But if I'm not that, what am I? And coming back from Austria to America in 2020, I got to spend speaking of being an auntie. I love being an auntie and I have a niece who, at the time when I moved back, she was two and I just spent like the first nine months of moving back like just immersing myself in her world, just loving her. But it was really painful for me to think about, like who am I if I'm not? That, you know, are people gonna still see me? As you know value, just like all these thoughts that just like to come in and just getting that clarity was so helpful of like not what do I wanna do, right, like just like what you said. But how do I wanna feel every day when I'm doing what I'm doing or what is that? What is like getting all my senses involved and kind of that experience.

Lunden Souza: 44:07

And what I kind of landed on is like part of what I landed on was bringing a part of what I'd always had, even through that fitness space, and then like something new too. But the old part, or the part I brought and integrated in, was like I still wanna be able to see my family whenever I want, work from anywhere in the world and make maximum impact. But then it had nothing to do with fitness or getting people to move their bodies or anything. It was like I wanna inspire people to get out of their comfort zones and bring joy to life, and so that was, you know, part of that movement process, whatever. But then it, now it embodies itself in a new way that just feels even more authentic and better and stuff too.

Lunden Souza: 44:48

And it's interesting because I in that transition process I was like there's so much stuff on the internet from the former company I worked with that's fitness related. Like I wonder if anybody's gonna ever be able to see me in this new light. And it's funny because things have changed and transitioned within that company, where I had made a lot of YouTube videos for that company, millions and millions of views, and now they're taking those videos off. I didn't tell them. They're just transitioning out of this phase and so I'm getting these emails from people who are like hey, I used to do this video. It was like a 30 minute fat burning video. I've been doing it every day for the last I don't know.

Lunden Souza: 45:25

I started in 2012 doing those videos, so some of them are really old. Can you please get that video back for me? And honestly, with such great pleasure, I respond like sorry, I don't own those videos. I have no say in if they bring them back or not, but secretly not secretly, but just like deep inside I'm like that's what the alignment is. I cut that cord because it felt an alignment for me. Yeah, there was some worry that no one would ever be able to search and find something other than fitness, but slowly but surely, those videos are going away and I'm getting these emails and messages from people looking from a video from 2015 or whatever. And it's kind of like a little chuckle moment where I'm like yep, when you stay the path and you focus on your dream life and who you wanna be, and no holes barred, the arrest kind of takes care of itself.

Lunden Souza: 46:18

And one thing you said too that made me think of a wedding I was at. You were talking about like not having a plan. Right, and I think I mean there's, of course, benefits of having structure and a plan, but I also just love that relaxed, kind of no-plan plan version of myself. And I remember when I moved back to America from Austria, I was at a wedding like I kind of tacked on to be a plus one with a friend of mine to a mutual friends wedding, and I was talking with somebody who's not really like a friend, just kind of an acquaintance, and she was like oh so you just moved back, what are you gonna do? And I was like I don't know, like I'm not really sure, maybe I'll do this.

Lunden Souza: 46:56

At that point I wasn't sure if I was gonna stay in America. I just was like possibility here or a possibility here? And her face she was like what do you mean you don't know what you're going to do? Like you don't know. And I was like no, and it was like two completely different models of the world facing each other at the same time and it just kind of made me laugh because it's just like yeah, in some cases we might think that like not having the plan is like scary, or we're not in control or we're afraid to step in that unknown.

Lunden Souza: 47:28

But for me, even though, like I said, I was like breaking up with the former version of myself, I was coming back, you know kind of that reverse culture shock of living abroad for seven and a half years and coming back, and it was just I think about that so much because I'm like, oh, I don't know. Like I know what that feeling is, I know what my dream life looks like, I know I'll know it when I'm there, I know it's going to resonate, I know I'm going to find that congruence, but like right now, in this moment, at this wedding, I don't fucking know, like I don't know what's really next. And it was just like our faces. It was just so interesting because I like that part of me that doesn't feel like I need to have a full plan all the time in order to still have my eye on the prize.

Lyndsay Lee: 48:15

Yes. So something that I have really built my life around is the fact that our nervous systems actually can't tell the difference between fear and excitement. And this is like rights to science science proving the fact that there are certain emotions that we experience, that we actually register in our bodies, in our nervous systems, in our brains, as the same thing. We can't differentiate between them. So something that when I learned that I learned that ages ago I was really in my maybe I don't know even young 20s, and in my early 20s I was really doing a lot of bold things that at the time were looked at as really kind of like wild and crazy. I know now it's not as wild and crazy to move abroad, but I did that when I was in my early 20s and I just I bought a plane ticket and moved to Australia and I had studied abroad in Australia and I often got the question how did you do it? And I got that question so often that my answer started to be I literally just bought a plane ticket, Like I don't know what. To tell you, what do you mean? How did I do it? I was fucking scared. I was 23 years old and I put myself on a plane and I showed up and I didn't know anybody and it was wild. But it was also my dream and this is why I'm such a stand for doing things that scare you, because one, your nervous system can't tell the difference. So if you're scared, just tell yourself you're excited. And I'm making that out to be easier said than done, but also not really. We can actually train our nervous systems to think a certain way or feel a certain way.

Lyndsay Lee: 50:06

And I remember getting to Australia as this, like baby, 23 year old, not knowing anybody, and I was like I was really lucky, I it's kind of a wild story but I had gotten a job and they and I flew out for the job. So at least I you know I was I already had a job when I got there and it was still really scary. Like I remember sitting in a park in the middle of Brisbane and the park so beautiful, and the city, the city line, like it's so beautiful. It's my dream. Like I studied abroad in Australia, I always wanted to move back. I never have really wanted to live in America. Like I'm talking, let's check all the boxes in Lyndsay's early stage dream. And I did it and I was sitting in that park I'll never forget, with huge sunglasses on, bawling my eyes out in public because I was so terrified.

Lyndsay Lee: 51:01

And I look at that version of me and I look at the version of me seven-ish years later that was going through a hard breakup and reinventing my life and also healing my body. And I look at the version of myself now, who is now reinventing herself at almost 39 after a six and a half year relationship. And all of those versions are the same. All of those versions of me are the version who is terrified and doing it anyway. Those versions of me might be, you know, I might be 39 versus 23 now, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm still in a phase of my life where it doesn't look how I thought it was going to look, and this is why I'm like sometimes maybe we just shouldn't plan because we might disappoint ourselves, right?

Lyndsay Lee: 51:55

So one of my favorite sayings that I am actually about to get tattooed on my body is stay ready, and it comes from one of my best friends. He's one of my best friends is this Australian kid who's much younger than me and he's amazing, and he always says stay. He's always ready. Like he's ready for an adventure. Like he's just like you say, hey, Johnno, you wanna like go down the street or on a moped adventure? And he's like, yeah. He's like, do you have to like get anything? And he's like, no, I'm ready.

Lyndsay Lee: 52:23

And so this idea of stay ready is really kind of this idea of living our lives with a certain amount of structure, right. Especially if you're an entrepreneur, like you have to put structure into your work or else nothing is going to get done, right. I really had to learn that the key to freedom is discipline. But I don't have to discipline my whole life, I don't have to structure it out, I don't have to plan, I don't have to have a content calendar of the next 30 to 90 days. That feels miserable to me, because there's a part of me who just wants to stay ready and who wants to be scared, Because I think that if we're not scared a little bit, then we're not really living lives that we should be living right.

Lyndsay Lee: 53:16

We're here one time and I know London, you and I have talked about this a little bit before off recording but we're both really big on the idea of death and not to sound like too morbid, but one of my life's motto is have fun, do good, don't die boring Because we could die. I could die today. I could die today and that might activate some people's nervous systems, but I just, I really want to be a stand for the fact that you could fucking die. So if you're not doing what you want to be doing, what are you doing with your life? And if joy is the point, which I wholly believe that it is, I believe that joy is everything, though I believe joy is heartache, I believe it's pain, I believe it's connection, I believe that it's getting better and learning how to do things better, and I also think that it's being scared and doing it anyway. So if we're not living like that, my question would be how are we actually living?

Lunden Souza: 54:23

Yeah, I have it written right over here on my fridge. It says nobody cares, you're gonna die, it's time. And I know from working with people on their deepest fears a lot of people's biggest fear is death. And I'll take my clients deep into meditation and get them what's your biggest fear? Dying? And I think mine is not living. And when you said stay ready, it reminded me my dad's a coach and so a baseball coach, and I would hear him a lot say look alive, look alive. And that was like when you bend your knees, you activate your core, you have your mitt, you're like just getting into it. If anybody is into baseball, pretty much my whole life we were at baseball fields, playing baseball, learning baseball. But it's like, yeah, that look alive, like I'm ready, like the ball's coming to me. I'm not sure that ball might be hit straight to you and sucker punch you in the gut, right, like that might happen. And it also might be a ground ball that you get to swoop up and, like you know, make a play. And so I think my I was talking.

Lunden Souza: 55:19

I had a guest on my podcast, jen Drummond. She's like frigging amazing seven kids. She's done like seven mountain summits. She's like anyways, I asked her I'm like, are you? She had a near death experience and I'm like, are you afraid to die? And she's like I'm afraid to die, like prematurely, like I just feel like I have so much to you know, and so that really reminds me of just like there's so much to give, so much joy to bring, and I don't want to get to the end of my life thinking like, oh, I wish I would have. Or, if only you know, I want to get to end of my life and be like whoa we talked before we started this that we feel like we're on this like roller coaster, like I want to get to the end with my hands up and like, oh my gosh, that was the funnest ride of my life. I did not expect this or this or whatever.

Lunden Souza: 56:04

And yeah, I think sometimes people feel uncomfortable. I like talking about the uncomfortable things or like saying the words that make people squirm or uncomfortable, like I'm going to die. We're all going to die. That is the certainty and I think you know, look alive, and just showing up in the way that sets our soul on fire and inspires others to do the same is really what I, what I think about and what I focus on, because it's like we're at the same time like super powerful, purposeful, and like completely insignificant at the same time. It's like there's both. It's like we're going to, you know, it's like I'm the shit and I'm not the shit. You know, it's like that, that both at the same time. And so, yeah, I just feel really inspired to, like you said, stay ready, look alive. You just kind of you know whatever might be coming, just kind of stay ready. What are like some things that you do to stay ready, or what does like stay ready mean to you?

Lyndsay Lee: 57:00

That is such a good question. I really, you know, I have an interesting outlook on death because I don't actually believe, right, and this is just me but I don't actually believe that we're scared of dying. I believe that we're scared of dying before we really live our lives right. To die with an unlived life is, I think, humanity's greatest fear, and also in that we're the ones who hold ourselves back from actually living a lot. Like I'll do this in myself, I'll kind of snap out of it or come to or whatever if you want to call it, and I'll just be like, oh, wait a minute, like I've been so in my head about that or I've been so serious about that, oh my god. And then I'll just say I can decide to choose something else. Like I can literally decide to think anything right now and this is part of how I have trained myself to stay ready is I understand that I can actually just choose something at any moment. And this is not meaning that I'm bypassing my feelings or I'm not processing, right, because I'm also a very deep feeler and I cry probably every day, whether they're happy tears or sad tears, I definitely cry every day, and there's a part of me who is really willing to feel and I believe that is also how we stay ready is like if you're willing to feel, you actually can't really go wrong. And we're human who really like patterns and comfort zones and ruts and I'll be the first to say that I'll get into patterns and ruts quite often that then I have to kind of catch myself and bring myself out of. And so one of the things that I have just decided is a truth for me is that I can just choose something different. And sometimes people are like wait, but like how do you do that? And my answer to that would be you simply choose, remembering that you control your thoughts, while also remembering that your thoughts happen in your brain and your brain is in your body. So when you get your body on board, your brain can come along with a new thought a lot easier.

Lyndsay Lee: 59:25

So movement is massive for me. Oftentimes, before I will teach, I do public speaking and coach, sometimes consulting and coaching. Now, now I mostly have my business in more of an automated fashion, but when I show up in spaces, the first thing that I'll do is have people move their bodies, because physiology really is everything right, it's holistic and we have to be thinking about our being as a holistic sense and not just these parts like, oh, my brain is thinking this one thing, or I have to move my body. You don't have to move your body, you get to move your entire being right, and so that is really, really important for me. In my own life, I recognize that you know, I can't really go wrong if I'm moving. I also have my best thoughts when I'm moving. I am a writer and I always say I do my best writing when I'm moving, which is kind of funny because you can't write and move at the same time. So I have like a million voice notes on my phone of things that I want to remember. But really staying ready in your being holistically and then understanding, for me it's really, really important to come back to the idea of how I want my life to feel and what I'm doing in order to make that my reality right. Like, if I'm doing something that doesn't align with my ultimate dream vision, why the fuck am I doing it? I don't know. Like I do, it doesn't maybe need to be on the table. And another thing, too, is I hesitate to use this word, but I'll use it anyway Emotional resilience, and I think a lot of people talk about resilience as in.

Lyndsay Lee: 1:01:19

Like you know, maybe it's bad or you had to go through a lot of hard things to become resilient. So you know, there's a lot of schools of thought around the idea of resilience. I actually really love it and I believe that, as humans, we are asked to become more resilient every day, because every day being human is really joyful and amazing and it's also can be really challenging at the same time, and so we have to build resilience, and one of the ways that I've really helped myself become strong and confident and magnetic and been able to pull my dream life in is really understanding that my resilience is a superpower, that I know that when I process my emotions, when I feel and when I take care of myself, like I can do anything dude, like I look back on some of the stuff that has happened to me and I have a very privileged life and I will say that like I've been so blessed in a lot of ways. And that doesn't take away the fact that I have also gone through some really hard shit, and that really hard shit has made me look at my life and say, damn, like I can do anything, because I've proven to myself that I can show up time and time again, even when times are hard. I can still serve when I'm heartbroken. This last month has been a great example of that. I have showed up even even when I'm heartbroken.

Lyndsay Lee: 1:02:51

I've decided that one of my beliefs is that I'm worthy even when I'm crying. I'm deserving even when I'm heartbroken. I can show up even when I'm sad and people will resonate and they'll get something from it. Even when it has been such a powerful statement in my life because it has allowed me to still show up and serve and make the impact I want to make and receive, while also processing and taking care of myself and, as a result, my business has grown even in times of heartbreak. I have just had one of the highest revenue months I've had in years, while also taking a lot of time offline to fucking cry and run with my friends and, you know, sit in saunas and do what I needed to do and process right. So it can be both, and I think the statement even when can really pull us along into our dream life even further, because you're worthy even when you don't feel like you are. You are creating your reality, even when you don't feel like it's coming to life right Like I feel like that statement is so powerful.

Lunden Souza: 1:04:19

Yes, I love words and I love your word choice and I love the even when that's so feel so good, so good. Thank you so much. Thank you for being you, thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing your story, your wisdom, your journey. I appreciate you so much. I've learned, yeah, so much about you. That's why I love podcasting, because I'm like I meet the most incredible people and I get to learn so much about humans and their resilience and just like how awesome it is to be in this human experience. I get so inspired by conversations like ours. I feel like I could talk to you for hours. Let everybody know how they can connect with you on social or website or whatever. Maybe they want to catch you for a run somewhere. How can we connect with you even further?

Lyndsay Lee: 1:05:13

Yeah, I love that. So you can find me on both Instagram and TikTok. Just a word of warning, if you want to come over to my TikTok space, it's pretty new and it's like the silly version of me. It's the version of me that just is kind of like I record videos in my car of my thoughts and I just put them up really unedited. So my TikTok is fun. My Instagram is where I am most active and you can find my podcast, you can find my offers, you can find more about what I do and also I will I'm sure London will put in the show notes my website.

Lyndsay Lee: 1:05:53

But I do have a five day challenge that I think is really, really relevant to this conversation and kind of creating your dream life, creating your dream feeling in your body. It's got some exercises in it that are really incredible and it's really low ticket it's like 27 bucks or something like that. So I really want to offer that Lunden to your community. So we will make sure that they have that, because it will walk you step by step through kind of this mind body connection, while also building your perfect day and your perfect dream life. And then, yeah, the last thing I want to say is just thank you so much for having me on and thank you to the listeners out there who are tuning in and resonating with this and Lunden, and I really want to honor you for showing up in your community. You have, from what I've seen, you have built an incredibly powerful and strong community and that is really a reflection of you as a leader. So I'm honored to share the space with you and thanks for having me.

Lunden Souza: 1:07:01

Love, love. I'll link everything that you mentioned in the description for those of you listening. Just go ahead and check out the show notes wherever you're listening and you can get connected further with Lyndsay. I appreciate you. Thank you, guys for listening and we'll see you at the next episode. Bye, thank you so much for listening to this episode of self love and sweat the podcast. Hey, do me a favor Wherever you're listening to this podcast, give us a review this really helps a lot and share this with a friend. I'm only one person and with your help, we can really spread the message of self love and sweat and change more lives all around the world. I'm Lunden Souza, reminding you that you deserve a life full of passion, presence and purpose, fueled by self love and sweat. This podcast is a hit spot. Austria production.