Hello, my name is Leslie Cain.
I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast.
This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been
courageous and said, why not today?
I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Cain,
who often did say, why not today?
I am based in Reston, Virginia,
playing community right outside of Washington,
DC, and thanks for joining us.
So my guest today is,
and I love that you have seen a Gram as your name,
but Andrea Plunkett.
Is that right? Did I pronounce that right?
Yes.
And I always love to say where we met.
And Andrea and I met at a networking luncheon.
And it was in Lynchburg and it was very inconvenient for me
to go, but I went.
And it was one of those things,
I don't know about you and your life is those things
that just aren't easy,
have the best biggest blessings in it sometime.
And so I met her, we had a long conversation
when I was driving one day,
just fell in love with all of everything you do
and following you on Facebook.
And we met for lunch one day in between.
And I wish we lived closer,
because we actually would probably be dangerous
if we live closer.
Because we'd be in lots of trouble together.
So, but Andrea is here as our guest
and she's got lots of good courage stories.
But one of the things that attracted,
or wanted you to talk about today,
and we're gonna bring up,
is this month of,
or why not today month is,
why not today be intentional?
And we've been talking about the one word and bucket list.
And I know you are big into vision boards
and doing some vision board trainings,
which again, I wish I was closer,
because I would have come.
But we're gonna talk about courage
and then talk about that.
So why don't you introduce yourself,
quick facts, just who you be,
and then a fun fact about you.
And then we will talk about courage.
Okay, I am a mother of three.
So I have a 23 year old, 19 and 12 year old.
And that is chaos in itself.
Yeah.
When you've got adults, adult children.
So that's a whole new world.
I am a wife.
This is my second time around in marriage.
And it is beautiful and amazing and grateful.
And I just stepped out,
right before the first of the year,
in a new position as a visioneer coach.
So I'm helping people, thank you.
I'm helping people find their vision,
helping them to dream again, helping them,
and then what that looks like
and how I can help them to be seen and heard
in a very noisy, busy world.
You know, it's interesting.
God just the people He puts in my path and the connections.
And somebody interviewed yesterday
that's gonna be on the podcast in February,
she just wrote a book, says, I see you.
Oh, that's awesome.
And just that I am seen,
it keeps coming up over and over and over again.
So yeah, I love that.
So we're gonna have to talk a little bit more about
offline about what you're doing with the coaching.
Because I love to do that.
Yes, yes.
And you do a million other things, including sing and...
Yes, yes.
Kind of like being a million hats.
Yeah.
And you're very sparkly.
I do singing telegrams and yeah,
singing telegrams love to perform and sing.
And yeah, that's definitely my heart passion.
Yeah, if you're not watching on YouTube,
but just listening,
she's got fun sparkly glasses
and you're always sparking something going on.
Yes, bling is fun.
Yes.
So I met somebody yesterday,
her, she introduced herself.
She works for a financial company.
And in HR department,
but she introduced herself as she's the magic
and sparkle girl in the company.
Wow.
I love that job.
Yes.
I can't wait to connect.
Yes, yes.
So what does courage mean to you?
Courage means to me, dreaming.
Dreaming again, like stepping out
and really being intentional about your dreams
and things that you want to do.
I believe that's courageous.
Love that.
Yes, we definitely need to dream.
Yes.
All right.
So you've got a lot of courage in your life
and a lot of change.
And we want to tie that into a vision board.
So kind of give us a little bit of your courage journey
and how that tied into vision boards.
And then let's talk about how we can encourage
other people to do a vision board.
Yes.
So I missed my fun fact, which has to do with courage.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
It's all right.
And I just, I was like, I can tie this in.
So I was 26 before I got my driver's license.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, I was terrified of driving.
I was, had just no desire at all to do driving
when all the teenagers were.
And so my daughter was six months old.
My oldest was six months old before I actually got
behind a wheel and got my driver's license.
And it was fear.
I was so afraid.
And all the things that I thought could happen
or might happen if I didn't pass the test,
what would that look like?
And just all these things.
And so that was a really big step for me was to be courageous
and to do it.
And if I didn't pass, I'd go take it again.
I could do that.
So that was really exciting.
And it gave me courage.
It gave me the first step out of a very abusive marriage
and a place that I was in for 20 years.
And getting that freedom to be able to drive
and have my own vehicle changed my life.
And it started that journey of just being able to realize
I can do things on my own and what that looked like.
So, yes.
Wow.
I couldn't imagine.
The minute I turned 16, my mother took me
to get my driver's license because I was the oldest
of at that point, four and a half kids.
The fifth was on the way.
Wow.
Go.
But yeah, the freedom it gives you to be able to drive
and do those things.
Yeah, it did.
It gave me, it made me realize I can do these hard things.
And so as I went on and started to really just find
that courage and I was 20 years in a domestic abusive
marriage and I wasn't dreaming.
I wasn't, I had really given up on just really thinking
about myself anymore and three kids and decided,
finally decided that I had to figure out who I was
and find my value and my worth.
And that I was worth dreaming for.
I was worth fighting for.
And so that began my step out
and I actually started a vision board.
That was one of the first things I did when I left
and moved started on my new life.
I got a vision board and I started putting things on there
that I wanted to dream about.
And there's a verse in Proverbs and it says,
hope deferred makes the heart sick.
But a dream, I can't remember the rest of it,
but it says, how being a dream fulfilled is,
beyond measure or something like that.
But the hope deferred was where I was.
I was, my heart was sick.
I was really struggling with that.
And so to find hope again
and to be able to look forward
and to be able to dream about things.
And so one of my dreams, which hasn't come true yet,
one of my things on my vision board is going to Australia.
Oh wow.
Yes, and that's a big one.
But I wanted to take steps every year towards that.
And so here I am starting over.
I don't even have towels to my name anymore,
sheets, anything, I'm starting completely over.
And I had to do something.
So I went to the post office
and got a passport application.
It was free, I could do that.
That didn't cost me any money,
but it gave me another step towards that,
dream of doing Australia.
And so since then I've gotten travel books
and I even put a map of Australia on my wall for a while.
So just these different things,
I've tried different Australian foods,
ordered them off of Amazon,
you can get anything off Amazon.
Things like that that just give me,
again, just keeping that direction towards it.
So that's what I love about vision boards
and about teaching these workshops is that
you're really able to help people to think way outside
of their comfort zone.
Things that they may have forgotten about,
dreams that they had forgotten about,
and just having those things to be able to put them
on a board and look at them when things are hard,
when you've had really bad days
and you're able to just look at that board and say,
okay, that's where I'm going,
this is gonna be okay, that's what I wanna do.
That's where, and what that looks like
and helping people walk that out is really important.
Well, I wanna talk about the steps to that,
but a couple of things that you mentioned that,
writing it down, whether, and if you're visual,
being able to see it, but I had somebody on the podcast
a couple of weeks ago that she did her dad's bucket list.
Wow.
It was fun, and I have a journal as a bucket list,
which I need to pull out
because I haven't looked at it in a while,
but I know years ago, my biggest wanted to do was go to Hawaii.
Wow.
I put, and I wrote it down one year.
I'm like, I'm gonna do this.
Well, my job I had, I got to go to Alaska and Hawaii
the same summer.
Wow.
And actually, I can,
and I was talking to a friend the other day
about intentions and manifesting
and not just what you want, that you wanna go,
but you wanna go like all out,
or I've been able to go to Hawaii three times basically.
Oh my goodness.
Like, I had to get there and spending money,
but everything else was covered.
And so that manifestation of it.
And I think where we are right now in 2024,
I think the last few years,
and I know for me, we've been in survival mode.
Yes.
Just get me through the day, get me through the week.
I was with somebody yesterday,
and she was reliving that she ran events.
And every Monday, she was on listening to the governor here,
what the restrictions were, what you couldn't do.
And so we've been on survival mode and we stopped dreaming.
And to be able to dream again.
And I know I've done vision boards and I have one,
but it's just, I'm a words girl,
what it's meant to me.
So it's just really words, but it's not specific.
So I just made a note that I need to get serious
about a vision board and put the things I really want
because they do manifest when you do it.
Yes, yes.
And words are important.
They are so important.
My whole house is full of words,
because words were so detrimental to me for 20 years
that I was determined to make sure words were positive
and that they were things that I could look forward to
and be able to hold on to.
So we definitely put words on our vision boards,
but sometimes it's good to get specific.
It's good to be able to look at your personal,
your finance, your work, your family,
your health and wellness and be able to put those things.
Some of our people, we just did a workshop
and some of them actually split their boards up.
So they had each different category.
And then others, you know, yeah, and others did a collage,
and sometimes you may look at someone's board
and it may not make sense to you
because it's one of the ladies isn't married
and she wants, she's put on her vision board
that she wants a husband, but instead of putting,
I want a husband, she put a picture of a couple
looking at a sunset.
And that to her was, you know, what she wants her,
you know, her future to look like.
And so sometimes it can be very specific for yourself,
but not necessarily everybody has to know, you know,
the intimate details of exactly, you know,
what you're wanting.
And it's definitely for us.
And I always caution people, be careful what you put.
I had somebody one time, she put, she wanted a husband.
So she put a picture of, then, I mean, this was years ago,
the marble man.
Yes.
Well, she didn't want a man that smoked,
but that's what she got.
Right?
So be careful.
Right, be careful what you wish for.
So you are doing workshops in Lynchburg, Virginia.
So if anybody's still not too late,
I think you have a couple next week.
Yes.
People can attend.
I think you should do a virtual one too.
Yes, yes.
So if I want to do one at home,
what do I need to get together?
What are the steps I need to do?
How do I start dreaming?
Or how do I start creating my vision board?
So if you wanted, I definitely want to do one virtually.
I think that's exciting, would be great to do.
I think if you want to start one, it's just getting,
I suggest foam board instead of cardboard,
because cardboard's flimsy.
Sometimes it can, you know, won't hold up
to what you're putting on it.
So get a piece of foam board.
It doesn't have to be the gigantic 16 by 20s that we use.
I even had people in the class cut theirs in half
or cut theirs into a space that worked.
But I wanted to give everybody enough space
if they wanted to fill it.
So but get a piece of foam board.
You can get that at the Dollar Tree.
It's super easy.
Most of the stuff you could get, you know, super cheap,
scissors, some glue.
I like the glue that's purple that then goes to clear,
because that way I know where I put my glue.
And some magazines.
Get some magazines, some books, some things
that I'm really interested in.
And start cutting them out and start putting them on that board.
I know it sounds like, oh, we're doing elementary school,
you know, projects, but we all need some creativity.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
And we all loved art class.
We have to say we all loved art class.
And so it's fun to get into that and to be able to do it.
Rip it out of a page, out of a book if you want to.
If you see something online that you like, a quote or a picture,
print that out on your printer.
And go ahead and put that on there as well.
And it doesn't have to be something
that has to be completed in one day.
It can be something you work on even throughout the year,
you know, as you go on and realize, this is what I want.
But what it does is it starts this intention of dreaming.
It starts this intention of looking forward and thinking,
what do I want to do?
And it's not selfish.
I mean, I think sometimes we get to that place where we think,
oh, this is selfish to think about myself and what I want.
And especially people who are people-pleasers,
we want to make everybody else happy.
But sometimes we have to stop and go, wait, do I like chocolate brownies
because I like them or because everybody in my family does,
so that's what I make.
Well, isn't it?
What is that movie with Julia Roberts that, oh,
she was engaged so many times?
Oh, yes, the marriage, weddings, I think, or marriage.
What's it called?
Yeah.
But finally, Richard Grass, like, how do you like your eggs?
Right.
Every man she was with, she liked the eggs that they liked,
because she wasn't her own person.
Yes, yes.
Yeah, it's crazy how we can lose ourselves in life.
And like you said, because since COVID, we've all been surviving
and we've all been trying to figure how to just keep our head above water
and how to keep our jobs or how to make it every time we go to the grocery
store and things are three times as much as they were.
And so to stop and say, even if it's something as simple as,
I've never had caviar, and I want to try caviar,
to stop and put that on your vision board to others,
and maybe that's kind of crazy.
But to you, that matters.
That's important.
And those kind of things are life changing because they say, OK,
I matter, and I can do this.
And because I can do this, I can do something else.
It's just a step to the next step.
And I love your Australia example and the steps.
Like it's the little steps.
And sometimes we just you can't do all of it.
But what can you do to love on you?
And maybe it's drinking out of, we have those fancy things in our house
that we don't use only for guests.
And I had some glasses that I won from Mary Kay.
They were etched really pretty in there, way up high.
And I just kept them away for somebody came out.
I'm finally like, well, that's silly.
Like, yes.
And I had a collection of crappy plastic, messy, dirty, cracked.
And I'm like, get rid of those and put the good ones out.
Because we deserve those things.
Yes.
Yeah, there's a song that I sing and it's talking about how you live.
And it says, wear the red dress.
Use the good dishes.
Make a big mess and make lots of wishes.
And, you know, yes.
And that's that's part of we want to live because, you know, when you get to the
end of your life, people, the thing that people say the most is, I wish I had done this.
I held back too long.
I should have gone and done that.
I should have done this.
We're not saying, oh, we should have spent more time, you know, in front of the
computer and making money or working.
It's mostly, you know, those things that we wanted to do.
I know as a mom and with with kids sometimes trying to get that family photo is
chaotic, you know, and you think I want this perfect family photo.
Just take the photo, you know, just take the photo.
Just enjoy the time.
Your kids need that.
And they need to see that you dream to, I think sometimes as a parent, I think
sometimes even my parents, you know, they some I want them to dream.
I want them to have goals because for me, that inspires me to say, even in my 60s,
I can still, you know, dream I can still do and to see them do to do that makes
inspires me to keep going on.
Absolutely.
And, you know, one of the things you talked about regrets, which I often quote
Daniel Pink, who's written several books and is one day he will be on this podcast.
He lives local to me, but I haven't, I haven't connected with him.
But one day I'm going to keep saying I need to put a picture of him on my vision.
That's right.
There you go.
But in his book, it talks about regrets.
And I read the book like right when I started this podcast.
So I quote it often, but he talks about people rarely regret the things that they
did.
We were getting the things we didn't do.
Yeah.
And one of the biggest regrets of people in the United States is not
traveling abroad in school, but, you know, living our life.
And that's a whole theme of this podcast.
Why not today just do the things that it doesn't have to be big.
And sometimes it's just, you know, dreaming again, taking the time to drink
out of that fancy glass.
Yes.
Joy and be present with the people and talking about pictures and not the
perfect pictures.
You know, I'm so grateful for pictures I have of people that have not in my life
anymore that have passed away.
And we have a picture with my dad before he passed away.
And my nieces and nephews, this was after Christmas before he passed away.
My nieces and nephews were in town and we live in DC area and big Redskins fans
and Redskins were in a game or something, playoffs, which surprise,
surprise, that was a while ago.
That's a whole other topic.
But I remember trying to get everybody together and I was like, OK, after the
game's over, we'll go over to mom and dad's, we'll get a picture, let's get a group
picture.
And it was not pretty and nobody was dressed fancy.
We had great gear on.
And but we have that picture.
And that was the last time my nieces and nephews saw him in the last time we were
together.
And I look at that often like, OK, it's not perfect.
And that's kind of the premise of this podcast.
As I said when we started, I don't edit them because it's not perfect.
And it's like, why not today?
You just got to do the things and not expect everything to be exactly right.
And you don't need to know all the steps, you know, but put that dream and that
vision in front of you.
And, you know, you just never know where it's going to.
You have have it one way and it may manifest another way.
A friend of mine last year, I actually, she talked about vision boards and was
going through a rough time in her life.
Her husband, who unfortunately did pass away, was fighting cancer.
And she decided that she had to start living her life again.
She couldn't be crying with him.
And so she started running and she put a vision board together.
And one of the things was like a picture of a beautiful patio.
Well, it wasn't.
It was just something she liked.
Well, lo and behold, she ended up getting that exact furniture, like online,
somewhere or one of those free places.
Like it acts the whole thing manifests the way that she had it.
Well, it was on that vision board.
Wow.
That's incredible.
It is funny to be able to look back at those things or lists, like you're
saying, like your bucket list and things like that and be able to look back at
those vision boards and bucket lists and and look and say, wow, I did that.
I can't believe that happened or that that worked out.
You know, it, it shows us how important it is to put it out there and be able
to be able to to really see it and and and to believe it.
Because, you know, that is that is what faith is.
It is seeing without, you know, believing without seeing.
Yeah, believing without seeing.
And so, you know, that is it's it's it's some faith and and but it's good.
And it's good for you.
Yes.
And it's good for others.
Yeah.
And just for them to see it and they feel our energy.
Yes.
That was what I'm going to say about that.
Now, I totally lost that thought.
Well, I was going to say, you know, having two adult children, you know,
23 and 19, it's a different world than it was when I was, you know, in my 20s.
And watching them, you know, because of COVID and everything else, you know,
go through all these different kind of struggles, but helping them to just
dream and say, you know, if you could do anything, what would you do, you know,
or, you know, going, well, I haven't done this or, you know, my other friends
have done this and it's like, that's okay.
This is your 20s.
It's fun.
You know, let's what would you like to do?
This is the time where you can do anything.
You know, you have, you don't have any strings attached to you.
So I think sometimes we forget that when we get in our 40s and 50s and start
to look at things and go, oh, we can't, we were limiting ourselves.
And there's really no limits.
Like you said, those dishes, you know, let's pull them out.
Let's use them.
You know, let's, let's, let's just enjoy things.
What, let's stop holding back and realize that we don't, we do not
promise tomorrow or, or even next year.
So let's live that and, and start walking that out and vision boards are
a way to really get that connection and that direction, something to focus on.
Yeah.
I love that. And so I thought, I remember the thing I was going to
mention, reticular activating system.
Have you ever heard of that?
No.
Yes.
So that's kind of like your bodyguard in your brain.
We're looking for things.
So you want to buy a new car, you want to buy a red Chevy, all of a sudden,
everywhere you see a red Chevy.
Yes.
It totally happened to me before.
Yeah.
And so now a lot, you say things and it shows up in your phone and they tell
you you want it, but.
You know, I take attention to your word and one word, you see it
everywhere, just like when we mentioned being seen.
Yes.
That I saw that phrase everywhere.
I am seeing, I see you.
And so once you kind of put them out there and you have that visual and you
see it, even if you walk past a vision board and you don't really
pay attention to it, it's there and your, your RAS is looking for those
things and looking for ways to get it.
And I can tell you many instances in my life that like, like the Hawaii
trip, like no way.
You're right.
It happened, you know, and many times those things have happened.
So just, um, yeah, dream.
You got me motivated to want to dream again and to, I want to make my vision
board and actually have a Bolton board I got one year that says dream on it.
So I put everything.
Oh, sweet.
So I'm going to go to the next one.
Oh, sweet.
And then I also have taken and done a virtual version, a small one, and I do it
on, um, do it, create it in Canva and print it out and have it in the front of
notebooks and around my house.
So I see it in front of me.
Yes.
You can do it in Canva.
Pinterest is another great place to do something where you've kind of got a
board.
Um, uh, we were talking about that the other night at our workshop.
Those are all great.
Absolutely.
And then you print them out so that you can see them in front of you or a friend
of mine said, you know, she put hers as her screen for her, um, phone.
And so it was there every time she looked at her phone and opened up her phone.
So I, I said, that's smart too.
Things like that, that just put it on your refrigerator.
I actually went from my team.
I wrote affirmations for them and print just with markers or crayons and put on
piece of paper and mailed them to them and they put them inside their medicine cabinet.
Oh, please.
Pantry, you know, the places you're in front of.
Yes.
I had somebody I was talking to about doing this.
She's like, I'm not going to trash my house.
I'm like, okay, you don't have to, you know, and I've got some of my things like
what's behind me.
It's a nice board.
Um, you can frame it.
You, but then you can also hide it in places.
So you see it.
Yes.
Yeah.
There's all kinds of places.
Um, my first year when I was, you know, stepping out in a new and whole new direction,
I even put words and things on my, in my car because I was in my car for so long.
Um, I would put those things there.
I had one little quote on my rear view mirror and it said, you know, don't look back, you
know, or, you know, when it's don't look backwards, look forward.
And you just little reminders like that every day, uh, just changing my focus and, and remembering,
you know, what my goals are and what I want.
Um, yeah, it's important.
Uh, so many good nuggets.
Inspiration.
It inspires others for sure.
So yes.
So I always ask, you know, how would you encourage somebody else?
I know we've talked a lot about this subject in general, but anything specific as a parting
like, okay, this is how I'd encourage somebody.
Um, I would encourage someone to just go back and think about when they were a kid, you
know, what did you want to do?
What did you see?
What did you remember that you think, oh, I want, want that or, oh, I always wanted to
do this and, and write that down, you know, put it on your vision board.
Dream, dream again.
It's, it's important.
You're important.
You matter and you are worth the time to sit down and dream again.
Absolutely.
I would encourage someone like that.
So, so true.
Well, this has been fun and I've been trying to get you on the podcast forever and I'm
glad I'm on a subject that works.
It was perfect with the intention.
So I'm going to share all your contact information with people.
What's the best way for somebody to find you?
I would say Facebook's the best way to find me.
Um, okay.
Andrea CK Plunkett.
I'm on there and, um, I love conversation.
Anyway, anybody wants to reach out.
I've, I'm all for it.
Okay.
And she's, you're tons of fun and I'm grateful that you're in my life and I've got to figure
out a way to connect.
So not only are you far away, but then we figured out, but we did make it work last time because
when I did, now I have a dog and so we went to a cafe, except dogs, which I am going that
way in February.
So, so it's time to get together or, you know what, you're three hours away.
I just could get in the car or we can meet.
Yes.
Or I can make a trip too.
That's not a problem.
So trips are always fun.
That's right.
Well, thank you for being a guest.
And, you know, if you're watching, watching, listening to why not today podcast, we are
moving to a weekly podcast now.
So there's going to be more subjects, more authors, more people.
If you have somebody, you know, that's courageous and you want me to share some looking for
courage stories, but also things to encourage and help other people.
Please like, share, review the podcast.
If you're looking for podcasts swag to remind you to say why not today.
I've got T-shirts and cups and stickers.
So we are starting a movement to encourage people to be courageous and say why not today.
So thank you, Ms. Andrea.
And thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule.
Thank you.
Loved having you as a guest.
Bye.