The Real You
1:1 Long-Form Interviews with Interesting People Doing Amazing Things
In-depth discussion of people's journeys to tap into their full potential and find ways to be the truest version of themselves.
The Real You
EP 14: Thriving in Motion: Lyndsee Nielson on Adapting, Traveling, and Building Authentic Connections
How do you stay grounded while living a life constantly in motion? Lyndsee Nielson, a writer and soon-to-be-published author, joins us to share her unique perspective on adapting to ever-changing environments.
Growing up with frequent relocations, Lyndsee developed an extraordinary skill set for making fast friends and thriving in new places. She opens up about how these experiences fostered her zest for travel and adventure while nurturing a deep-seated desire for stability.
During our conversation, Lyndsee recounts her college years in Austin, where she navigated personal upheavals, including her parents' divorce. Finding community through Texas Spirits and serendipitous job opportunities, she shifted her academic focus from fine arts to sociology and philosophy.
This journey underscores the transformative power of inspiring professors and the enriching, unpredictable nature of life's path. We also explore the nuances of her professional life, from her initial foray into tech to becoming a sought-after LinkedIn content creator and freelancer.
Finally, we delve into the essence of human connection in our digital age. Lyndsee shares her approach to building an authentic personal brand and network, emphasizing the importance of proactive career management. She discusses the joy of ghostwriting, capturing a client's voice, and integrating artistic elements into her work.
We conclude with a heartfelt discussion on empathy, symbolized by her unique world map tattoo, and reflect on how adopting diverse perspectives can profoundly impact our lives.
lyndseeloves.com
Welcome to the Real you Podcast. I'm your host, david Young, and this is episode number 14. This podcast discusses tapping into your full potential and finding ways to be the truest version of yourself. Today, I'm joined by Lindsay Nielsen. She's a writer, a soon-to-be-published author and a world traveler. We'll discuss her journey, how she uses LinkedIn and the power of connection and building relationships. Lindsay, thanks so much for taking time out of your schedule to join me today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited to be here. This is my first podcast, actually, so I'm pleased to be doing this with you.
Speaker 1:Oh well, thank you, I appreciate that, glad to have you and it won't be painful, I promise. So we got speaking of LinkedIn and relationships. That's why we're here. We got connected not too long ago on the platform. We've had several calls and, I think, a lot of you. I think you're really talented, I love your worldview and your energy and it's been a real pleasure to get to know you and I think you have a really bright future. So I'm very happy that you took the time out of your schedule to come on and share your story with me. I think it'll be really beneficial.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I appreciate that to come on and share your story with me.
Speaker 1:I think it'll be really beneficial. Thank you, I appreciate that, no problem. So I know in your growing up you moved around a lot. So I'd like to start there Just kind of how that kind of shaped kind of who you are today and like never being in the same place for too long, learning how to build relationships, talking to strangers, like kind of what was that experience like?
Speaker 2:talking to strangers, like kind of, what was that experience? Like, yeah for sure. So growing up, as you mentioned, I moved probably every two years, sometimes one, sometimes three. The longest I was anywhere was the all four years I got to be in high school, which I was fortunate because my sister ended up moving like right in the middle of high school, which was hard. So but you know it's never easy and never got easier to like pick up everything and move to a new city or eventually new States.
Speaker 2:Um, I was born and raised in Kansas, moved all around there and then progressively moved South into Oklahoma and Texas.
Speaker 2:So you know it was kind of always pitched as like a new adventure, right, and my parents would be like, hey, here we go again. And again it just was like, but I have to leave all my friends and I just got my room to look the way I want it to. You know, all of this like kind of uprooting of things and I think you know it taught me a lot actually and unknowingly at the time as a child. You're not aware of that necessarily, but now that I look back on it it, out of necessity, made me really good at making friends and being the new kid and just kind of getting in there, mixing it up and trying to find people that you know I could, I could get along with and that I could be friends with, and so I wouldn't have to just like sit in the lunchroom alone and and that's something that I think I've also found, you know, in my life today, it it definitely made me the person I am today. There's a quote I love.
Speaker 2:That's like there aren't strangers, just friends I haven't made yet you know, so you always get this chance to to talk to new people and learn about new people and share your stories with with different people and hear theirs. And so I think, yeah, while growing up, moving a lot was hard. I'm really thankful for it, like I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I think that it's definitely inspired, like my desire to travel and my desire to try new things, and but it also, definitely, on this other side of that coin, inspired me to like have a home base. I've always wanted a place where my stuff would be, where I could always come home to like, yeah, I'll travel all over the world, but it's always nice to have a place to come home. And so, thankfully, my partner and I, you know, have that here in Texas and like, have you know that both both sides to to that Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is interesting Um, wanting to travel but then not wanting to continue to travel. At some point you want it to stop because you want to come home to what feels like yours and everything's in the right spot, it's all comfortable and where the glasses are, and all that kind of stuff. I would have had a really hard time with that. I was a really shy, introverted kid. It was really hard for me to talk, really uncomfortable for me to talk to strangers. For quite a while I didn't raise my hand in school. I would sit in the back. If I could go the whole school year and never talk, it would have been perfect for me. Was it comfortable for you to reach out or did you do it because you were forced, or was it a little bit of both? How did you navigate that constant? You were forced or was a little bit of both?
Speaker 2:Like, how did?
Speaker 1:you kind of navigate that constant having to. You know, build relationships.
Speaker 2:Like, put yourself out there all the time. Yeah, no that's a great question. I think it is a quality that maybe I have innately, just like like I'd like to talk to people. I would consider myself pretty extroverted. My mom used to say I could make friends with the wall, like I would just sit there and entertain myself, you know. So I think maybe it's something I have as a quality or a character trait. But yeah, once you have to do it so many times it does sort of become like a learned quality maybe or like something you have to do out of necessity.
Speaker 2:Again, if you don't want to be alone at the lunch table, then you got to find people that or ask if you can sit down there right and start getting to know people. So I think it was a bit of both. I will also take this moment to just think, like the teachers that I had, the teachers that looked out for me and like it kind of gets me emotional.
Speaker 2:It was really incredible to have people like see that in you and make sure you didn't feel left out for too long, or like that you didn't get kind of just swept to the side because you were the new kid, like I remember distinctly, I was moving and we all knew that and I was still in school because we were wrapping up and it was near the end of the semester and we got to go do like a field trip of the high school.
Speaker 2:Or maybe it was near the end of the semester and we got to go do like a field trip of the high school, or maybe it was even just like the middle school, or I don't remember the year of my life, but I wasn't going to get to go to this school, this field trip that we were walking through and trying to envision ourselves in the next year. And so I was like at the back and just kind of feeling sorry for myself and and like this doesn't apply to me, like why am I here? I'm about to move again. And my teacher we walked by the newspaper room and or maybe it was the yearbook, one of those and she was like hey, lindsay, I want you to see this. Like, yes, this, may you won't be in this room, but there'll be rooms like this in the school where you're going and I see you doing this and I think you will love this, you know.
Speaker 2:And she still made sure that I saw myself in those spaces in my future, even if it wasn't in that particular school. So again, I had. I was so fortunate to have such incredible teachers who drew that out of me and kept trying to encourage me in those ways, right right. So, yeah, that was a big part of it too.
Speaker 1:I love to hear that. It's really nice that you had people, because that's not always common, right, it would be easy for them to just not look the other way so much. But if you're going to be leaving, right, didn't really matter. We try to tell our kids. They'll say, like hey, we got a new student, somebody transferred in.
Speaker 1:Um, we always try to encourage them to make sure they go out of their way to like welcome them to class and introduce themselves and like try to keep an eye on them because, like, if it was, if they were in that situation, right, like they would want people to come up and be like hey, like school here, and like we're here to help um, because it can be very intimidating. Especially kids come in from other countries and maybe they don't speak English as their first language and so they're struggling with the language barrier and the cultural barrier and it's a huge adjustment. So we try to really stress to them that try to do your part to make them welcome and it sounds like you had some of that but especially from the teachers really understanding the challenge, because kids can be pretty mean and not super welcoming in those. You know force to kind of well, probably even through high school age, right? Like it's just, everybody's trying to figure things out and it's not always the friendliest release, right?
Speaker 2:It's hard for sure that no new friends. You know when you have your group. Yeah, you need more friends like we're full of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, yeah, for sure, um so as you. So you got to the high school. You got all four years at the same school, which I'm sure probably felt good you were like happy about that. Uh, did you know what you wanted to do? Like was you were thinking about going to college. Like what was like what were your ideas or plans? Or like what like what were your, what was your goal?
Speaker 2:Kind of aspirations, yeah. So I knew I didn't want to stay in Texas which is funny because I ended up staying in Texas, but I was like I got to get out of here now. Like I've been here so long, I need to go where people don't know me. I need to like start over. I wanted to, like I wanted to go to art school. Um, I applied to a few even and, you know, went and visited schools kind of all over the country.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, when it, when push came to shove, like going to the University of Texas just felt like the path of least resistance. It was in-state tuition. Austin was so cool and it was creative in its own way and I could see myself there. And you know, my parents were in the process of getting a divorce at the time too. So, like, not only are you trying to, yeah, decide who you are and what path you're going to take, but what you know, home base I did have was changing and shifting. So I was like, well, where can I go? It still feels a little bit safe. And that was like Austin, staying close, where I went to middle school in Georgetown, which is just north of Austin.
Speaker 2:I went to high school in Houston, which is just south, and so both of those parts of my life were converging on Austin for college and so I had, like people from all areas of my life that were available to me again all of a sudden right, and we were living in the city and doing it our own way and I was getting to figure out, yeah, what my life was going to look and feel like and who I was going to be and who I was going to spend time with and yeah, you know, it's not at all what I wanted. In fact, after like fall semester, I was like, okay, I'm going to go to Boston College. I was just like trying to fight in anywhere anywhere?
Speaker 1:How far away can I get?
Speaker 2:Like where can I go somewhere far away? And then, you know, I ended up getting into this group called Texas Spirits, which is an all-female group that did sporting events and volunteer events, and it was really again finding that community that I was lacking in that first semester and feeling really untethered, like not being able to necessarily go to my home, where my bedroom was, because everything was getting divided up.
Speaker 2:And so then I had to like pick my own home and Austin was that and so I ended up just staying and like kind of digging in deeper, putting down some roots, you know, and making friends and, yeah, getting involved and just pursuing really amazing courses, and I just, yeah, I loved, I loved college. That's why I stayed five years.
Speaker 1:I didn't want to leave what did you end up getting? What'd you end up getting your undergrad degree in?
Speaker 2:so I ended up getting. I applied to be in the fine arts. I wanted to do like studio art, I wanted to be a painter or photographer, and didn't get in at UT. I got in elsewhere but not at UT. So by default they put me in liberal arts school, college of liberal arts, and I was like, yeah, okay, that's fine. You know, I don't I don't really know what that means, but I'm sure there's a lot of options and sure enough there was.
Speaker 2:I did like a feminism course, a sociology and a philosophy course that first semester and I was like hooked, I love this. This is cool. We're like challenging the norms, questioning things, like really digging into some stuff and like having amazing conversations about things I didn't even think to think about, you know, and it was just like cool. I ended up taking every course one of my sociology professors offered and he like wrote me a letter from my grad application. Like I just really got invested in in my coursework and I loved, I loved learning and I just, yeah, chased it hard and so I ended up graduating with a degree in sociology, with a minor in philosophy and took some photography and art classes as well.
Speaker 1:Nice. It is interesting when you take those courses that really kind of turn you on right. They light you up and you didn't even know Like you were saying, like you were thinking about things that you didn't even know to think about right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I think it's really eye-opening. In some ways, it's kind of been my LinkedInin experience where it was like, oh, there was like this whole world, there's all this stuff going on. I didn't even know. I didn't even know it existed um and then it really it like energizes you and you're like, oh, like I want more of this, like sign me up for more.
Speaker 1:And then you signed up for, like you know, more classes and have a professor that you really kind of bond with, and so I think that's really cool. What so did you end up? Did you go straight to grad school? Did you work in between? Like what was your journey like after?
Speaker 2:you graduated.
Speaker 2:I ended up getting a job my super senior year of school, my fifth year, waiting in line for a cab at the airport. I struck up a conversation with a woman while we were waiting for a cab and she was like oh yeah, you know, are you a UT student? I was like, yeah, I'm just coming back, you know, from summer I think it was a summer vacation to visit my mom, I think, and my sister. And she was like, oh cool, well, I'm actually going back towards campus too. I live over there. Do you want to split a cab? And I was like, yeah, again, felt safe.
Speaker 2:We're always like what? Why would you?
Speaker 1:get in the cab with a stranger Again.
Speaker 2:No strangers, just friends I haven't met yet. And so got in this cab broad daylight. You know we go towards UT campus, she drops me off and all along the way we're having this great conversation about our dogs and our plans for the summer and all this, and she's like, yeah, well, you know, I actually might need a dog sitter over the summer if you'll be around. So she gave me her card and I emailed her later and we ended up ended up house sitting, dog sitting for her for like a week and a half and then when she came back she was like yeah, so what are you gonna do, you know, in I was like, well, I'm looking for a job closer to campus.
Speaker 2:I was working at a dry cleaners that summer, which was very hot work to do it's just heat. But I was like, yeah, I want something, you know, closer to campus. She was like well, actually, you know, I work in the engineering school for the dean. I'm sure we could, you know, find you a job doing something there. She was like send me your resume. And I was like okay, so I did.
Speaker 1:Valuable cab ride.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for real. And it turned into my foot in the door at UT and I ended up working for the Dean at the time, writing acknowledgement letters and worked in the development office, and so I was working there and finishing my school that last year and when I came up on graduation I was like, yeah, I got to figure out what I'm going to do and a contact that I had made there ended up being like hey, come work over in the school of education and then I ended up back at the engineering school and ended up at the museum and just my career from then on, like got in at UT. So I didn't immediately sorry to go back to your original question I didn't immediately think I wanted to get a master's degree. Um, and with the timing of things and getting a job, you know, right out of school at UT again was so cool and I was like this is great, Um, but my heart was really set on working at the Harry Ransom Center, which is there on UT campus. It's a museum and archive and research library and it was always my source of inspiration, Like when I was feeling like, you know, I needed to be filled up.
Speaker 2:That's where I went, and so I I knew that to get in there I was probably going to need a master's. I was probably going to need like more, more specified experience or more, I don't know a more tailored approach to whatever my career was going to be. And so I was going to pursue museum studies as a master's degree and but then I was like I can't do that part-time or work full-time and try to do a master's part-time or even full-time. It just was. It ended up being like a lot. So I actually have only taken one class towards my master's. I got accepted, took one class and then, yeah, and then I got a job at the Ransom Center and was like, okay, You're like I don't need it, I'm good.
Speaker 1:I skipped the two and a half years. I'm good.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was like well, the whole point of trying to get a master's was to get in at the Ransom Center. I got in here, I probably don't need this anyways, so I just didn't.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to get a life master's master's?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's more, more valuable. Anyway, yeah, because I did. I quit the master's degree and I quit my job at the engineering school, and that's when I went to europe for three months by myself and ended up getting the job at the ransom center while I was in austria. I, like, like, was emailing and applying all from abroad but, yeah so that's a perfect segue into your travel.
Speaker 1:so I think, if I remember correctly, you've been to 16 countries, is that right?
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah.
Speaker 1:Did that start? Did you travel as a kid? Have you done all that, like since you graduated from high school or college? Like how that's a lot of countries. You're not that old, so how have you mixed all that in?
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah Well, once I experienced it for the first time, it was with family, my parents, my grandmother and my sister and I all went to Italy and everything there just like was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. It was just, everything was photo worthy. Everything was like, luxurious, just in the way that they approach life and slow everything down and appreciate arts and humanities and food and wine. It just changed my life and I was like, oh my gosh, I got to do this as much as I possibly can. And then my next opportunity was actually my freshman year in college. A friend of mine from middle school, who ended up back at school where we were together, was like, hey, I'm going to France, I'm going alone. My parents would feel better if you could come with me or if I could have a friend go with me.
Speaker 2:Do you want to go? And I was like, yeah, hell, yeah, I want to go. So we did, and that was like that was really the eye opener though, like going not alone but without parents, kind of. And we went and stayed with a friend of hers that was studying there in France and and stayed with a friend of hers that was studying there in France, and so we felt like students in France and really got to feel like that local experience or that like traveling to experience it and not just be a tourist of it. Right, like a different kind of side to traveling, which was really getting to know the people that lived in that town and being like a frequent local at one of the pubs or whatever. Like you got to really feel like you were a part of that city or that country for a little while no, that's cool I think that's right out of the plot of taken also everybody.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm so concerned about, like that's like the exact, the exact plot.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so her friend I think it's her friend or her cousin, I think it's a friend and she's going. I don't remember which country it is, uh, but it's the same kind of thing. Like I want, I don't want to go by myself, my parents don't go by myself. She recruits her friend, which is leon neeson's daughter, to go um, but then it's a lie, like they're really by themselves, like the people they're staying with are gone um. And then it's a lie, like they're really by themselves, like the people they're staying with are gone um. And then they you know the movie takes place from there um, but it says you're saying that.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, it's the plot taken um, that's what everybody says and I'm like that's why I don't want to watch it. I don't want to like put that in my head. Yeah, no, I just feel like this is how I travel, yeah yeah, yeah, no, it's for the best.
Speaker 1:Um so, but were you like, were you scared? Like I know you've been to italy but like having parents and grandparents and stuff, right, you're not bearing the responsibility for like the itinerary and the plans and stuff, so like, going with you were what like 19 give or take probably yeah, like were you nervous, were you scared um what was that?
Speaker 2:like probably not. When you're a college kid, you kind of feel like you can do anything.
Speaker 1:Bulletproof yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like this is going to be amazing, like let's go do it, and I think yeah, I mean I was really jet lagged and that's a weird thing too, when you feel sort of like you can't get your head straight. Then I didn't like, because it took me a while because of the time difference. That was my first real experience of jet lag being so debilitating like a day and a half worth of just being exhausted. Yeah, because when I get there, I just want to like take it all in and if my brain's not operating kind of like what we were talking about before getting on today, when I'm recovering a little bit from travel, brain's not operating, kind of like what we were talking about before getting on today, when I'm recovering a little bit from travel and my brain's just not quite working as fast and as clearly as I want it to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just so. No, I wasn't scared, I just was kind of floating through it for a little while, and I do get a little anxious sometimes now, um, the older I get, and I think that's just because my hyperactive brain is just trying to think of all the things and make sure. I'm accounted for everything. But then when I get where I'm going, I'm like okay, cool, I'm fine, like we're here now so much better, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Well now I'm assuming, since you've been to so many, you probably kind of feel pretty confident like navigating the culture and the language and how to get around and the transportation which is so vastly different than what we do here in the States. So I'm assuming now you're probably pretty confident to go probably almost anywhere.
Speaker 2:Like I know how I travel now, like I am a planner, I do have like itineraries so I can at least make sure I get a few of those key things I want to do or see or experience, like accomplish when I'm there and I memorize maps, you know, before I arrive, so I can kind of walk around without like looking at my phone the entire time, you know. So yeah, I have some, some ways of preparing for travel that I didn't have back in Right.
Speaker 1:What was your? What's your? What was your most recent out of the country trip?
Speaker 2:My partner and I went to London last year and it was really cool. Yeah, it honestly wasn't exactly on my list. I actually ended up going to visit some of my former colleagues so that I could finally like meet some of my global team in person, and so we were there, for I was there for two weeks. My partner, steve, and I went up for a week first and just did our own vacation and then I worked that second week, but man, it was cool. It was so, but man, it was cool. It was so, so unique, because there's so many neat neighborhoods and pockets and it's so so much more creative than I think I thought it was going to be. You know, I think when I think of London, I just think of the big tourist spots that are just kind of neat things to see but not necessarily things to do. And so when I got there and I was like whoa like look at all this different stuff.
Speaker 2:There's all these cool people doing cool things. It just yeah, it surprised me.
Speaker 1:Nice, no, that's cool. What um are you? Do you currently have any um other country trips planned, or like what's on the radar in terms of your next adventure?
Speaker 2:You know, I don't know. I have a really long list of places I want to go. My partner, steve, and I were also talking about like how fun it would be if we went to his favorite place, my favorite place, and then a place neither of us have been. So we're thinking he loves San Sebastian, spain, which I've also never been there. I was thinking the south of France, or I really love Mallorca, um, which I'd love to go back to, and then we've never been to portugal so that was kind of would be like the three spots on that side of the world.
Speaker 2:That sounds amazing, um my wife's aunt.
Speaker 1:They were big world travelers and portugal was. It wasn't her favorite country. It was like right close to the top of the list, like she just loved all the time that they spent over there. Um, and I've any anybody that I know that's ever been there just talks about how beautiful it is and, yeah, how much they love it a lot.
Speaker 1:ha, I've been out of the country one time, to jamaica, oh cool, um, I did, it was not. Uh, I don't know if I don't know if I should tell the story. I don't know if I should tell this on the podcast. I'll tell an abbreviated version, but I was a let me see the best way to put this I was the third wheel in a trip that I should not have been on, so it was a little awkward.
Speaker 1:The weather was amazing, okay, and lots of sun. We were stayed in a resort. It was on the beach, um, so I mean it was fine, but um, we couldn't really well, we couldn't really leave, like it wasn't super safe.
Speaker 1:So they were like, you know, kind of stay here, like don't, you know, don't wander. So it felt a little, you know, confining, um, and we were there for a while so it got a little boring and I was 19 so I like I didn't want to go, I wanted to stay home because I had all these things I wanted to do at home that were going to be so fun, um, and anyway I ended up going.
Speaker 1:But so that's so, sadly, that's the only time, and then that was 30 years ago, um so I did something else on the books yeah, so my wife studied abroad in italy, uh, when she was in college in cortona, which she just loved and and saw, I think she went to paris, um, london, um maybe a couple other of the european countries while she was there, because she was there for a bit. Yeah, so she loves Italy kind of like yourself, like really enamored just with the beauty, and she was all. She's also really into art and painting and just loves just all of it. So it was perfect for her.
Speaker 1:So that's a big, you know kind of bucket list trip for us, um, either the two of us or with the kids I'm not sure how old they need to be to like fully appreciate it um, but yeah, no, I just I don't know, it just never just wasn't a thing like we like we took trips but they were to florida or to the east coast, um like it just wasn't like leaving the country just was not something that almost any of my family did to my knowledge, maybe my aunt, but um, no, sadly, just a lot, of, a lot of state, a lot of state time yeah, well, that's good too, because I haven't actually traveled that much stateside like this I told you I just got back from california and that was my first experience of california, except for flying through lax, which was a nightmare.
Speaker 1:So I've never been to New York. I think I'm 27. Oh, okay. So yeah, I've been to like 27 or 28 states.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:But I grew up in the Midwest. So I grew up in Northern Kentucky, but I lived in Ohio. I lived in Chicago. I've been in Indy for a long time. My first job sent me to New York for training. So I've kind of I have really almost all of the East Coast, most of the South, some of the Midwest. I have almost all those states covered. I've been to California, I've been to Nevada. If you looked at geography, the heat map for me would be super hot Midwest and East Coast and then California, but then the whole plains where you spent a lot of time, like Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, all of that, Like it would just be ice cold, Like I've just never been to any, never been to Iowa or Idaho or Montana or like any of that. So I just have this like gap, like in the middle.
Speaker 1:So I just need to do like a, like a big West West you like a like a big west, west, north, north and southwest is where I need to go. Yeah, I love it to knock them out. Yeah, I've always wanted to go to. I've always wanted to go to dallas and then to austin. I did. I flew through dallas when I was coming back from anaheim. But, like you said, just connecting in an airport is not yeah, I didn't see anything, um, but yeah, dallas and austin are probably the two. If I go to texas I think those would be the two kind of major cities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, houston's pretty incredible too though.
Speaker 1:Houston is.
Speaker 2:Houston's such a beautiful like culturally diverse, the arts and humanities there are incredible.
Speaker 1:So if you get and Houston has a great airport so you can get through there pretty easily as well- Nice, good to uh, good to know You'll be my Texas expertas expert if I, if I make it, if I make it down there, I have a, I have a guide. Um, so did the um got into the museum. You were, you were traveling, got the job at the museum. Now, were you, were you writing like all this time? Were you a journaler? Did you have ideas to write, because I know you do a ton of writing now? Was that always something you did, or did you start doing that later, like when the writing really become kind of a big part of what you're doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've always written. I've always been a writer, I've always wanted to be an author. I remember again another kind of moving story when I was a child. We moved I think it was second grade or fourth grade but I remember arriving at that school, being toured through the school and we got into the lunchroom area and there was all of these like boxes sitting out on the tables, like all the students were getting to write their own books and illustrate them, and they were going to be like hard bound books, and I was like, oh my, I like cried for weeks because I came too late.
Speaker 2:So I mean, they had spent however long writing the story right and then refining it and getting it approved, and now they were getting to like assemble it and I was just like, so I don't get to do that, like, and I was crushed. Yeah, I was just like, so I don't get to do that. And I was crushed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:Crushed. And so, yeah, ever since I can remember, really I wanted to write and I wanted to have a book and journaling, yes, on and off, kind of forever. I have a million books of my writings that I've just used on and off, occasionally, whenever or when the moment strikes. In college I had these great little pocket books that I would just take around with me and write down my observations or what I overheard or what.
Speaker 2:I thought about, or a song lyric or just everything. They're amazing, I love them. I'm using them actually to kind of get me back in the headspace for the books that I'm writing, Because I just think they're so cool to see what my brain was thinking and being inspired by at that point in my life and still finding inspiration in those things and those thoughts. And so I was more disjointed a little, though, kind of, as the inspiration was striking me. But I think, you know, I never really stopped doing it. It just maybe changed the style a little bit or like where I was documenting it. You know, maybe it was on Instagram. I kind of always thought of that as like a personal visual diary, you know, and so I would write stuff there, especially during my travels, or I would write blogs. You know just kind of took different versions or variations of like documenting it.
Speaker 2:but always kind of writing it down in some way.
Speaker 1:Nice. Well, it's good too, because even when you have a good memory right, it's stuff starts to blend together, and especially the kind of the more you do it, and then it becomes a little bit harder to grasp on to the whole trip, or you might just get like pieces of it. Um but if you capture it, write it down, you can go back to it and then you can relive it. So I think it's a good I think it's a good practice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a bunch of little again. Those little like purse size or pocket size journals are kind of my favorite and every time I travel I'll have one of those so that I can just keep track of the details or even the dates. You know, sometimes I kind of lose track of how long ago those trips were or what it felt like when I was there in the moment. You know, it's just, it's fun.
Speaker 1:It's fun to be able to go back and revisit those that way as well yeah, for sure, um, so taught, you mentioned it briefly there with your kind of book series that you're uh working on.
Speaker 2:So talk a little bit about that and then kind of the genesis of it, and then you know kind of your, your process and you know how that's going yeah, okay, well, I've been wanting to write it for like eight years or more probably, but I've been writing it for like two years maybe, but again, like not continually and uh, kind of over time and as inspiration strikes. But I recently have really committed to it even more and it's inspired by. It's inspired by kind of the books that I read that changed my life, right. Jack Kerouac's On the Road is one that always really just made me rethink how you can tell a story and how you can document your travels or your experiences or the ways that people influence your life. And, to me, traveling definitely gave me that.
Speaker 2:You know, like traveling intentionally, not moving necessarily right, like when I got to choose where I was going and what I was doing when I was there and who I spoke to, and kind of the places I put myself and the people I would engage with and the ways that I would like find magic in every day. You know, and and I want to tailor it to kind of that, excuse me me that high school, early college audience, that's kind of in this space, that's like what even am I doing? You know, what am I doing? Who am I? What matters Like, what's important and how do I? How do I figure that out? Where do I start? How do I figure that out? Where do I start?
Speaker 2:Because my answer to that was like you travel or you put yourself in other new spaces and be open and willing to see what it can give you like to see what you can take away from those experiences and kind of just, yeah, finding answers that maybe you didn't even realize you were looking for, simply by going in search of somewhere else and somewhere new and like, and, as you mentioned earlier, I know that that's definitely a privilege of being able to travel and being able to afford to do that. But it can be done like right in your own town too, like right in the city where you go to school, or in the classes you choose that are off the beaten path or you know, just like in different spaces than what maybe you're expected to do or follow, and so that's that's well, it's, it's the expansion.
Speaker 1:Right, it's the expansion of the experience, the expansion of your mind, of your thinking, um, and I think there's not probably enough of that that's done so. I certainly didn't do it until much later in life. So, you know, hopefully more younger people are embracing that. Um, do you think there's going to be a shift? Do you think there is a shift or will be a shift with that kind of a change in the way we work?
Speaker 1:Um, you know, I'm quite a bit older, so there wasn't the gig economy or you couldn't start a business on LinkedIn when I got out of college. So you were forced to get a degree, or if you got a degree, you were forced to get a job. That was really your only option. And then, you know, I was told that then I'd do that forever until I retired, that then I'd do that forever until I retired. Do you think there's going to be? You know, it's kind of shifting to where, especially kids now that have kind of grown up kind of with the internet and with mobile phones for most of their life and that's kind of all that they know, and there's all of these, you know, social media platforms, there's all these ways to kind of make money in a different way than even 20 or 30 years ago.
Speaker 2:You think there's a shift, then, and like not being tied to, like having to work for a corporation you know for four decades, and like creating more of like your own path in your own life absolutely, I think 100 I think, I think yes, and the fact so much of it has moved digitally or on social platforms or what have you, or even internationally, I think traveling has become a more accessible kind of thing, but on the same, you know, on the other side of that coin, human to human interaction is always going to be something that we need to know how to do, is always going to be something that we need to know how to do, and so I think, you know, through traveling or through our work, whatever that ends up looking like engaging, like with people, true, truly authentically, even if it's digitally or it's in person, you gotta like still be able to know how to interact with people, I think, or like listen, you know and understand where people are coming from.
Speaker 2:So so, yeah, like you said, maybe you wouldn't have thought that or been willing to know that when you were younger and you were like oh, I kind of know, I know how to do it, like I'm fine. I think we get to do and learn so much more the more we let other people in and the more we are willing to accept that other people can offer a lot of insight or a lot of advice or a lot of, you know, inspiration. Even so, yeah, yeah, I wonder.
Speaker 1:I mean that's a great point because everybody has these different lived experiences and we there's so much to take away right From other people with what they've gone through or been through, I wonder, with a lack of practice, with everything being, you know, text and social media posts.
Speaker 1:Um, like, we try to force our kids my kids are 14 and 10 we try to force them at any, anytime we can to. You know, they order their own food at restaurants or if we go to some place where they're adults, like look them in the eye, shake their hand, like answer their questions more than just yes or no or fine, like offer some insight. Um, so I just wonder, with this current I don't know what, I don't know what letter we're on, are we?
Speaker 1:on z like z a or z z or double x. I don't know what we are I know that I'm gen x. That's about all I know for sure. Um anyway, whatever generation we're currently on, like how much people skills will they have?
Speaker 1:Will they be 25 out of school, but they don't really know how to talk to someone, what you're saying in a way that is not just like hello, how are you? Fine, good, great, and you're done. More in-depth, more asking questions, probing questions, back and forth dialogue, trying to get some understanding about what's going on. I do worry I don't have a lot of experience in this so I don't know but I just wonder how much skill people will have. Yeah, and going forward as it continues to go and go, we'll become more AI, more digital. We're so reliant on technology and talking to people becomes very secondary.
Speaker 2:I think, yeah, that's a really interesting impertinent question. I mean, also, I'm trying to write a book for people that may not want to read books anymore.
Speaker 2:I think, there's so much change happening and you have to be cognizant of that and maybe even try to embrace it to a certain extent. But I think people that love what they love are always going to seek that out. Like I hope to never see the day where you can't hold a paperback book, you know, or send a letter in the mail or something, still that tangibility that people crave, even if they're really more accustomed to doing everything digitally, or, yeah, just texting or swiping or whatever. But yeah, sitting in person with someone and, you know, being able to hug them physically, you know, like be in person with a person is something you can't replicate online I hope, I hope that you're right.
Speaker 1:Um, I hope I hope that that's true. Uh, I don't know it's it's.
Speaker 1:It's sometimes gets pretty wild with like uh especially with the ai in the last just like couple years, I feel like it's really exploded and, um, I don't know it's, it's, it's wild. But, like you, hopefully that's still the need for human connection Cause, really, if you take that away, then it's like what's the point, right, right, like it doesn't like if we're just all going to, we're just going to teleport or we're just going to a digital version of us just going to show up, then like we've kind of, we've kind of ended humanity, like anyway, so I don't know what, how long? So moving on. Then you're, you're moving on, you're at the museum. When did you, did you always have LinkedIn? When did you start using LinkedIn more like as networking, like kind of how did that evolve and like what did that look like for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've had linkedin for a while. I actually don't really know when I first started. I can't really recall when I, you know, made my profile, um, but I definitely wasn't using it the way that I am that we are today um, it was just like a holding zone for my resume and my contact information. So when I was in the museum, I was planning events and doing like big scale community activities and membership events, and so I was meeting tons and tons of people and it was kind of once I got out of that world again, where it was more in person, to the tech world where it was. I was on a global team. My nearest colleague was like in Seattle, so, you know, it wasn't physically seeing people or being in an office that I was like, oh shoot, I wish I would have like done a little bit better of like connecting with those people I knew so well in person when I'm, you know, don't have people in this other role that I can just like see or meet up with, you know, and so it.
Speaker 2:I started writing on LinkedIn, like posting, when I started the job in tech, like almost right at the very beginning of it, and I remember having this conversation with Steve, my partner, and was, like is it so weird? Like is this such a weird idea? I don't know why. I've seen a few people posting like that and I think I want to do this, but you know, can I get in trouble for it? Like, would people not want me to do that from my new job? You know this is all brand new and me to do that from my new my new job?
Speaker 2:you know this is all brand new and or is anybody gonna care, like what I have to say? Yeah, steve was like you know.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but you don't know, yeah like I mean, you might as well.
Speaker 2:If there's any potential for it to be something good, then maybe you should do it. Because in my mind I also, again, I still hadn't written my book yet and I'm not even like halfway done with it, but I was like, well, maybe someday I'll have something to like tell people about, and if I'm generating a community there already, then when that time comes I'll have people that actually care about what I have to say or might be interested in my book. So it sort of started with that and then it definitely became like my water cooler, you know, because again I was on a global team. There was people in london, africa, australia is born out of what it was born out of australia.
Speaker 2:So it was hard to kind of sync up with people and it was all like messaging, you know, mostly, and if you got on a call, like a zoom call, it was to do work stuff and you were kind kind of like here, let's handle that, and then we get back to work. It just wasn't really much opportunity to converse and just like talk to people about life and and so I turned to LinkedIn for that and I started making real friends and having real conversations and having yeah, people send me letters and you know, like just text. We ended up being like texting friends even, and I was like man, this is awesome. This is such an untapped space.
Speaker 1:Well, because, you can find your people right, like it's sometimes with work. It's you're forced, like coworkers are forced. Now you can still find good people and people that you're connected with, but it's a little bit of luck in terms of just who's working there, whereas LinkedIn over time right, you can kind of filter and then you can figure out the people that you like and want to spend time with. So it's a really unique way to cultivate relationships, but where you have a little bit more control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, because I was on LinkedIn, not as a customer success manager, which is what my role was, but as a reader and a writer and a content creator eventually, and so I was not marketing myself as what my current role was. I wasn't trying to claim that I was a thought leader in that space, because I wasn't. That was the first time I'd ever held that job, that kind of job. So, yeah, I was focusing on what I knew and what I loved and what I could talk all day about, which is what a lot of people say. Like, when you decide what your personal brand is, what's something you could just talk endlessly about, because that's what you kind of end up doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's something you could just talk endlessly about, because that's what you kind of end up doing. Yeah, no, I love it. And how long ago was that? How long have you been doing like kind of the not full-time creation but like consistently posting?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like almost three years now, I think it's been like two years nine months or something. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Nice and then so then recently, I think just this year, if I remember correctly is when you kind of, really kind of went all in on the platform and decided to start trying to make it work, you know as a freelancer and a ghostwriter and like kind of as your business Talk about like how that's gone and kind of what you've learned and kind of experienced in these last you know five, six months.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, because from the beginning I didn't have anything to sell, right, like I wasn't offering services, I wasn't looking for another job, I wasn't. You know, I wasn't really trying to do much else with LinkedIn except for, like carve out a little corner of the internet where I could like practice my own writing and talk about stuff I was interested in or I liked or I wanted to converse with people about. And so, yeah, at the start of this year, I like really leaned into having something to offer, like that people could pay for my services and work with me on, or I could work with them on cool things. So, yeah, I started Lindsay Loves LLC in January and I was like, ok, I got to start telling people what.
Speaker 1:I do.
Speaker 2:Like it can be more than just like I don't know interesting little anecdotes. It's like let me help you do something cool, you know, let me help you put into words what it is you're trying to accomplish or who you can help, or you know what amazing things you're doing with your work, and so it has blown my mind. Honestly, it's been what is it? Five months and I've gotten retainer clients out of it, people that came as a referral and then one that just saw what I was posting and was like I really love the way you write. One that just saw what I was posting and was like I really love the way you write, can you help me? And then I've gotten, you know, several one-off projects and yeah, I don't know, I just like you said earlier about building a business online and building a business doing something that I already really love doing and that I'm good at and that I can help people with yeah, you were going to do it anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just was like this is possible, like how incredible. So I'll, you know, preface that by saying like it's still definitely a little slow going at this point, right, and I'm not making anywhere near what I was making in the tech industry, but I have so much flexibility, I have my time back, I can control what my days look like, I control like who I work with and what you know, like what we do, and it's just been so incredibly rewarding and exciting. And, yeah, I feel, I feel so grateful. But you know, I think I am so grateful for the power of LinkedIn, uh, because I've gotten all of my work through that channel. So if I hadn't started two years, nine months ago and I'd been like now I want to do freelance but I don't even have people that know who I am or what I do, damn, like I got to do all that first kind of you know, otherwise you're just pitching cold and so at least like having built that community.
Speaker 2:you know I have people, even if they don't need my services, they're advocating for me and passing me along. Yeah, because they know what I can do. And it's amazing, it's amazing.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying yeah, I wrote a post not too long ago where I said something very similar, which is well, I mean, we live in a very reactive society. We don't do a good job of doing things you know proactively, and there are many examples of that. But it's kind of like you don't get your resume together after you've been let go, either fired or laid off. That's not the time right. You don't start creating content when you now have to right. Do it way beforehand, because there's no pressure. You can be completely happily employed, that's totally fine. But that job could go away. You never know.
Speaker 1:Your boss could get promoted, you get a new boss, you don't like them, you want to leave. All these things can happen that are out of your control. Don't start posting then, because then you're going to feel the pressure and like I have to do it and stuff. Do it from a place of want and desire. And so you kind of did that where you were doing it because you wanted to and you're putting yourself out there. Then your circumstances change and now you're like, okay, I want to kind of pivot. Well, you'd already laid the groundwork, so it was much easier to do. It's a perfect example of like doing it from a position of want, not need, that just works better in life, but specifically for building your network and your relationships and contacts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. It blows my mind. I kind of can't believe it ago that this would be where I'd be and all, not all, thanks, but a lot and thanks to the work I've done on linkedin yeah I'd be like, okay, cool, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Probably not, yeah uh, no, I totally, totally figure there. What so like? What's the future like? What would you design it, create it? If you had total control? Would it be continuing to write? Would it be writing more books, teaching? What would it look like?
Speaker 2:this business new business mindset that I haven't really thought that far ahead. But yeah, in my mind, you know I'm I'm gonna commit to being a writer, writing, ghostwriting, copywriting for others, but also doing my own writing, because I think it was hard for me to make time to write when I was in a nine to five. And it can be done, it has been done. I get that, but, like my, my brain was so tapped by the end of the day that I just it was hard for me to be creative and to like get into that space to focus on my own stuff, the way I wanted to think about the world in the way that I wanted to write that down. And so now that I have this like space and freedom to do that, I wanna make it work. You know like I wanna make it last, and just the experience I've had in six months of my business, it like is incredible.
Speaker 2:I've been able to travel with a client I've been able to work with like women specifically currently all women and really incredible and varied industries that are actually like making an impact in the world. And when I write something and they're like oh my god, that's so good, you did, that's it like, you hit it like that's so gratifying to be able to help them get where they're going and like keep you know, pushing that mission as far and wide as possible. So I love it. I love getting to do that as my job. I was in California for another you know work with one of my clients and I was sitting there and I was just thinking, like this is my job, I don't have Sunday scaries, I don't have to rush back on Monday and like get online again for someone else's mission. Like this is my job.
Speaker 2:How freaking cool is that? Yeah, and I just it like hit me last week and so, yeah, coming home, even though I'm a little bit sluggish and trying to get my ducks back in a row, I'm like dude. I love it though. Like I love being able to work this way and to move fluidly like through my days and through states and countries, like I can work from anywhere doing this.
Speaker 1:Well it's hard to put a price on it, Like you're talking about not making the money you were making in tech, Um cause that takes time to build up, but it's also hard to put a price on that control of your time and loving what you do. So it does. There is a little bit of a balance there. It doesn't pay the bills, obviously, but it does, I think, help when you're in such a good mindset, Do you? Is it challenging for you to write for others, like the ghostwriting? Do you have a process in terms of like learning their writing style? Do you like read what they've previously written Like? What is your process in terms of trying to capture their voice?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely a bit of all of that. I like to do interviews, I like to read pretty much anything I can get my hands on of theirs and then, yeah, I mean it's, it's a refining process to like I'll propose a couple of different options and we just hone it in on what feels most true to them, and with practice, that gets so much easier, even, and and getting to spend time with them and and I do like to physically again meet up with someone, if I can, and talk to them and really get a sense of who they are and and learn those different layers of them as a person which really informs the way I write for them. But I take it so seriously, you know, cause they're trusting me with their voice, with their brand, with their, their mission, their business, like it's. It's really important that I get it right.
Speaker 2:You know, and so yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you send them drafts, like when you're writing something, do you say, hey, this is kind of what it looks like and do they proof it? Or are you to the point where you're like, I know, this is good and it's good to go?
Speaker 2:It's both. I was one of my clients. She's like yep, I trust you, like you've been doing it so great for so long, that's good With another. I'm still learning her voice and so I send drafts to her and she'll send back minor edits which I take note of, so that I can kind of keep that in mind for the next time I'm writing things.
Speaker 1:Do you have something that you prefer to write, like blogs or newsletters or content? Do you have any particular medium that you enjoy writing more? Is it kind of all the same?
Speaker 2:Short form stuff. I think that's fun, like social posts and newsletters, because I think as a culture kind of maybe that's an overarching generalization, sorry, but I think people don't have as long of an attention span, and so I think the longer something gets, the less likely it's going to get read all the way through. Um, so I like the shorter, punchy stuff that really gets points and voices across quick, yeah. And then I also like to create. I'm an artist at heart, so creating graphics and things to go along with those has been fun too. And, yeah, building kind of a whole little package.
Speaker 1:Um, maybe you can help me design my podcast art. I want to. I want to redo it, so maybe we'll talk about that offline. Um, it was a quick Canva pool and I don't love it. Uh, so this has been great. We could, we could easily go like another hour.
Speaker 1:Um, as we wrap up, we've not talked about your tattoos, um, and so you have one on your back. That is of the world, right? So I'm very fascinated by just how that came to be and, like I won't say what you told me about, like what it means, I'll let you explain that. I think it's just, I think it's really fascinating. So I'm curious to hear the background and how that happened. I think it's really well.
Speaker 2:I was inspired to get it when I was in college. Again, I was doing a lot of coming into my own in my college years and really figuring out what mattered to me and who I was and how I would represent that like how I would show the world that physically and was traveling and like loved the idea of just seeing the world, and so I decided to get the world on my shoulders, which is a bit of a nod to Atlas, but also like cause. As an oldest daughter of Virgo, a type a like highly sensitive person, I do feel like I carry a lot of people's everything. I'm very, very emotionally like in tune with everything around me and emotionally invested in things. So I do feel like I kind of carry the world on my shoulders.
Speaker 2:But, what I love most about it and was my idea, was like I wanted it to be switched. You know, the continents switched kind of.
Speaker 2:From the way you see it on a map in america, it might be different in europe or wherever you are in the world yeah kind of based on where you are related, and so I swapped those and to me that means like I might look at the world differently, but that doesn't mean it's wrong, like it's all about your view and the way you see the world. And yeah, cause I thought about doing it a mirror inversion, but then I was like it's going to look like a skin disease or something, because no one will recognize what it is. So I was like I'll just kind of swap it this way and and it's just really beautiful black line work. I bought it for myself for my 21st birthday. I went by myself to the little tattoo parlor where I would go on campus. I loved it and an apprentice actually did it.
Speaker 2:And I was like are you nervous? And I was like, no, just don't fuck it up.
Speaker 1:And you did a really great job.
Speaker 2:It's beautiful, it's really nice line work and I've had people ask, are you going to put dots where you've been? And I was like no, because I've had people ask like, are you going to put, you know, dots where you've been? And I was like no, cause I don't want to take away from how clean and beautiful the lines are. And yeah, I'll have people come up and like touch my back and be like that's where I'm from and I'm like I don't know, I don't know where it is.
Speaker 1:I haven't memorized that. Don't do that, don't touch me.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Are you nervous? No, don't fuck it up. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's awesome. That's. I would totally say that. No, I think, I think that's amazing. That's such a great story, it's perfect to end on. But I what you said there about you know, flipping, like inverting it or flipping it and like that different point of view, you know like.
Speaker 1:I think, think about how much better off we would be like as a society, right, if we adopted that idea and mindset. Like we don't have to agree, but like we can choose to just look at it differently, right, like you can tell me what you think, I can tell you what I think. It can be completely different, we don't have to like argue about it, we don't have. You're're not right, I'm not wrong. Um, we can embrace the differences, right, like so much of what the problem is now is that it's just everything wants to be black and white. Like you know, this way is right, this way is wrong.
Speaker 1:And I think if there was more of that kind of empathic mindset of just trying to understand, like more of an understanding, seeing things differently or seeing things, um, that you might not agree with, but like trying to get someone's perspective on why they think that, I think it would go such a long way, you know, in bridging a lot of these differences that we, you know, are kind of forced to deal with these days. And I think your tattoo story is a real microcosm for world change if people would like adopt it. So I think it's really, I think it's great.
Speaker 2:Yay, thank you. No, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no. So thanks so much for your time. This was a wonderful hour. I appreciate you coming on and, before we stop, if anybody's out there listening, they want to find you, get in touch with you, like what your website and your LinkedIn, like where do they find you? And all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you can get my website at lindsaylovescom, but Lindsay's spelled different it's L-Y-N-D-S-E-E. When I was in college, I made a mnemonic device, lend with a Y C with your I, so, lindsaylovescom. You can find me on LinkedIn as well.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, thanks so much for your insight and stories, Great conversation and I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2:Of course. Thanks, David.