Hello and welcome to the Why Not Today podcast. My name is Leslie. I'm a host of this Why Not Today podcast.
And I started this podcast in honor of my father who often said, Why Not Today? And we talked to people
that have been courageous, had courageous stories, and found, you know, there's lots of courage out
there and lots of stories behind the stories. So I started this podcast two years ago, almost two
years ago. And I thought today, instead of having a guest, I would share kind of the history. There's
some new changes coming with the podcast. I figured what a perfect time to share just what's going
on with the podcast, a little history. So those of you who have not listened to the initial episode,
I figured I'd give you the kind of the history of the podcast. So years ago, I just had the thought
in my mind that I wouldn't do a podcast. No idea what I want to talk about. And no idea how to do
it. But I thought, maybe I'd do it someday. And I was talking to my friend Bianca, she's like, you
should. Well, fast forward, I didn't do anything with it. And then my dad was kind of a character.
I don't know if you can see it, I have a tattoo and that's his tattoo. And that's a logo. He had an
eye patch on handlebar mustache. And so one day I was on social media and some gentlemen posted a
post that he'd had some surgery. He was wearing an eye patch. And every day he looked in the mirror,
he thought of his old friend Pat Kane, which was my dad. And he talked about all the great things
my dad did. And he said, we both said, why not today? I don't remember my dad exactly saying
those words. I know he was definitely a positive man. And he always found a solution. And, you know,
he encouraged us to just do things. And so that just stuck with me. And I again had a conversation
with Bianca and I was telling her that story. And she goes, well, that's the name of your podcast
and just do it. So of course, you're not going to be do things immediately because we have that
fear going on, not enough courage. So I came up with a logo, I did some fun cups for my family for
Christmas, and then decided to just do it. And my dad passed away in Pat Kane style on his birthday,
which was February 5th. So my first episode was Saturday, February 5th, 2022. And I literally
recorded the first episode around three o'clock the day before. And because I was scared. And but
I did it anyway. And so this podcast has evolved in almost two years. I still have not edited one
episode. And one of the reasons I haven't is that part of the message of why not today is just do
it and it doesn't need to be perfect. And for this is not perfect. And it is just a place to have a
conversation with a friend and hear stories. And I hope you feel like when you come to this podcast
that you are having a conversation with a friend. And I've met so many amazing people and it's fun
that people were referring people to me. We started with this podcast every other week and started
with just people I knew people that started businesses started nonprofits. Left corporate
America started working for a nonprofit. Had a friend that was addicted to opioids or oxy, I guess.
I don't know if they're the same thing. And got clean and we shared her story. I had a musician
share his story how he's living in his van and an alcoholic and turn that around. So lots of
different stories. But it started evolving. And I started feeling a common theme about things
that really generally more women but in general people things we were subjects we needed a little
courage for. And things that you know more mature people though I've had people all ages on the
podcast and listening to the podcast. But you know what's next is kind of a message I've here
heard. I feel like yeah there's just a little unsettling. I'm going to talk about that in a
minute. So I've interviewed all kinds of cool people. As I said we started bi-weekly starting
January of 2024. We went to every week because I was just had so many people that I could interview
and I have a list a whiteboard with a list of future guests and people referring to me and I'm
meeting the most amazing people making amazing friends. And so as we started 2024 my goal is to
have themes every month. And whether you hear it out loud or not the themes are kind of the underlying
part of the podcast. So January of 2024 was why not today be intentional. And so we've got and
had some great guests and I thought what I'm going to do from here on out is have a theme and
have different guests and then have me at least one of the weeks during the month to share things
I've learned or some education or things I'm hearing and I feel like people need to hear more
about. So with the podcast and having lots of brainstorming conversations with friends and
people I've kind of felt this theme coming and kind of an unsettling with people and what's next.
And people are looking people my age are looking at retirement or they've been at a job a long time
or they're empty nesters or gone through some life and it's just what's next. So somebody I know
friend of mine Amy Kemp just wrote a book and she'll be the next episode. It's called I See You.
And in her book this just really spoke to me and I save the page and I'm not going to find it. Hold on.
All right. So what she said and I totally this resonated with me says I constantly found myself
having deep meaningful conversations with women who are leading businesses organizations in our
community. These conversations were full were full of similar themes isolation self-doubt
exhaustion frustration and overwhelm at the demands of work and home responsibilities. I knew
that if I could somehow gather these women together they would see that they were not alone and within
the context of a small safe community they could all grow together. And I have found the same thing.
There's unsettling out there as I mentioned people are ready to gather. We've had some tough years
and we've had some isolation and it's been easy to be comfortable in our homes and not get out and
not meet people and not see people. And it's time. I know for me I'm literally we had snow last week
at 70 degrees today but I drew a line in the snow and I'm walked over and I'm like okay it's time
to get out in the world again and it's time to share this message and to connect with women in
a different way. So we are missing connections in community. People are looking to make new
friends. People are lonely and you know what we want to be around like-minded people. Don't you love
the energy when you have coffee or lunch with somebody or even a phone call with somebody
that's your people and you just walk out of there just energized and ready to take on the world.
And so I really want to be able to build that and create some things. So we're going to do some
fun things but just to kind of recap January. So I'm going to go ahead and start with
January. So January had lots of fun guests. So it started with the first guest basically end of 2023
beginning of 2024 was Laura Carney and she's become a great friend. I hope she feels the same way.
But she had a book called My Father's List and she her dad passed away unexpectedly by
Distracted Driver at 24 and several years later she found his bucket list and she did the bucket
list and wrote a book about it. And so her story and what we talked about in the podcast was her
story of bravery to face that fear and face that story and to do her dad's bucket list which was
scary but then to share through doing the bucket list it took some healing and therapy and she
talked a lot about that in the podcast. And then I had Stacy and she's from Texas and it was kind
of a weird coincidence. I don't even know how I connected with her but her her and I always talk
about in the podcast the connection my dad and her sister-in-law lives here in the same town I do
and rest in and was actually my father's dentist and saw him ironically the day he passed away.
He went to the dentist kind of weird but Stacy talked about a book that she wrote and it was
about living your life with intention and she travels a lot and had a travel journal
when she was a young girl and wrote about that in the book and living your life with intention.
She left corporate America as working as a coach and so that theme of intention shifts keeps giving
coming forward. And then I had Andrea share about vision boards and that is a lot to do with intentions.
Do you have a vision board? I know mine's old I need to update it I know we talked about it but
I haven't had a chance yet but do you know what you want in your life? Are you living with attention
or just letting it happen? I think for so the last few years we've been a survival mode and just
trying to create some new what we call new normals but now let's dream again. What do you want to do?
What do you want your life to take you? Do you love to travel? Do you want to buy a new house?
Is redecorating your thing? You know what are the things that fill your heart and get you excited
and give you energy? So we talked a lot about vision boards and then we wrapped up the month
with my friend Mina and Mina, I'm sorry I thought my phone was off, Mina shared about an adventure
she went on and it was in fall of 2019. She just having dinner with her husband one day and said
I want to drive cross-country and she left by herself and drove cross-country for two months
and had an adventure. At first she thought I'm going to go and work and interview people she's
in in design and construction she was going to interview people but that didn't happen
very much. I think she interviewed one person but she made it be a healing journey and was able to
dig deep and be alone and really figure out what she wanted and isn't that something we all need
is that quiet time? I was talking to a friend of mine Julia today who's retired and busier than
anybody I know and talking about we need to give ourselves space to think and be quiet and fill our
cup and so those were kind of the themes for the month of January or the podcast episodes and the
stories and kind of the thing I keep feeling and keep hearing and have trained about this so many
times is we need to fill our cup and so as women and people and mothers and caregivers and all these
things we're doing we're giving ourselves a lot and what are we doing to fill our own cup? So whether
it's taking time to just escape I know for me one of the things I do and I have done in the past
and I'm doing again in 2024 is a Toes in the Sand tour and this is I love to travel but I really
travel and escape to stop working because I love to work I don't know about you guys if you're
workaholic like I am I can work all the time especially if I own your own business and so
my Toes in the Sand tour and as you can see in the background I am a beach girl through and through
but every month being deliberate and intentional to go somewhere near water and be able to escape
and just take some time for me and to think and to plan and to fill my cup and so what do you do
to fill your cup and take that time? You don't necessarily need to toes in the sand tour but
carving out time for you and it's the little things and it's treating ourselves and loving on
ourself and it's sometimes it's just drinking a cup of coffee out of a fancy coffee mug. My mother
is recently been cleaning out some of the things in her house and she found my grandmother's tea
cups which are beautiful and you know what I have a couple of those now that I can drink tea in
and just give myself a little treat. So fill your cup up what are you doing to do that and then
the other message my brain is just doesn't stop if you can't tell the other message in book that I
have taught on and quoted for years and actually gave it away which I really rarely let people
borrow my books because they don't come back and this one didn't and as a book that's been around
for years from Susan Jeffers it's called feel the fear and do it anyway. So I grabbed this book
ordered it the other day been listening to the audio and oh my gosh there's so many great nuggets
but everybody does things scared and we all need to be brave and just do the things and if you're
growing and maturing and bettering yourself you're going to have things you're going to be fearful
for fearful of and you just need to do it. So I started the new year with the word brave is my
word of the year and so I feel like with the why not today message and brand that I really want to
be brave in taking this to other people and sharing it. So my first brave thing I did is January 2nd
2024 I started an LLC and although I've run a Mary Kay business for 29 years Mary Kay set it all up
and so I've had I'm being brave and learning new things so I have my EIN number I signed up for a
business banking account so I'm figuring out all the things for having my own business and with the
why not today brand of course we're going to keep the podcast going weekly with different themes
have some ideas of working with some nonprofits really spreading the word my vision for why not
today is like life is good like people are saying and quoting I have a friend of mine John Gonzalez
that follows the podcast and is constantly commenting on my social media posts with hashtag why not
today and so I hope people like I have people sending me pictures of um license plates or a
name tag and a reminder of me and the brand so I want people to think why not today and be brave.
So we're going to have some different themes as I said so what's next February is of course
is Valentine's Day people love it or hate it but we need to love ourselves so my theme for
February would be why not to lay why not today love ourselves and so I have Amy Kemp talking
about I see you in her book I have another new friend of mine Melanie Brooks she's wrote two books
one is writing hard stories and then a book I don't know the exact title about but she wrote a book
about her dad that got AIDS when he had surgery in the 80s and they had to keep it a secret because
I didn't think it was going to live long but he lived for 10 years so she shares that story of
those two books I've got a couple other people lined up for February and then March so we will
celebrate our second anniversary of this podcast so I haven't I haven't talked to her about it yet
but I really think and I need to have my mom as my guests for the podcast in March it's also
monumental month because I hit one of those six or one of those I'm gonna say one of those
zero birthdays and I think I just slipped what it was but lots of exciting things happening so what
else what else am I doing as I said my brain just doesn't stop moving and so the other ideas is as
I said people want to gather connect build community and make new friends and be around like-minded
people so I started the why not today connects and that is a luncheon that I've started we did the
first one yesterday we had several ladies there now those open for men and women we hope hopefully
men will start joining us but it was a great opportunity for people just to meet some new friends
make some new connections I did have everybody introduce themselves and they could tell their
business but not what they did and I we talked about everybody's themes for the year we had
lots of people their themes and words were growth one person actually my sister Alicia her word was
fun she's raised kids and she's an empty nested she wants to have fun in her life and I saw she
went to a basketball game last night she's having fun and so the lots of cool words perseverance
remember all the words but you know do you have your word are you working intentionally so we're
going to do the why not connects lunch in northern Virginia if you're local the third the fourth
thursday of the month but if you're listening somewhere else you're like I want to luncheon
like that well you know what I would love to take this why not today connects lunch and do it all over
the country looking at maybe doing some co-working events those of us that work for ourselves it's
always good to get out of our house the last couple weeks have been really cold we had snow
and I find myself when it's cold and snowy I don't want to leave the house and I don't and
I'm not very motivated and inspired and the other day I just had to get out of the house and meet
with a friend just to get out of the house and so looking at maybe doing some co-working events
where we'll gather bring your own work but if you have an idea or you want to run something by somebody
you're just being the energy of like-minded people I also am looking at doing some retreats
I'm partnering with I'm not going to share divulge the secret yet but a really powerful person I know
in this area and we're looking at doing some retreats that we will schedule the whole thing
and you just show up maybe having some chefs some craft cocktails being made just some fun things
yoga just some fun getting to know you activities but just time to to fill our cup and then finally
looking at some courses I'm really thinking about doing an online course around the book feel the
fear and do it anyway so if that's something that interests you let me know maybe some group or
individual coaching I've been doing coaching for 29 years and would love to be able to help people
to find out what's next and be courageous to say why not today so a friend of mine
Selena yeah Selena Ashley I think is her company she does really cool writing and she did my word
brave and sent me the sticker but she sent me a cool postcard and I love this it says she was never
quite ready but she was brave and the universe listens to brave and how true is that and so what
can we do to be courageous and brave what can you do to say why not today sometimes guys it is getting
out of bed for some people luckily I don't suffer from that one very often but it's doing the things
when you're scared and just what is in your heart of hearts what gives you joy what do you talk about
with people and just like I want to do that I'm super excited about that so there's lots of exciting
things happening with why not today I am super excited as you can tell and where this is going
and I have no idea where God's taking me in this journey but I'm just putting one step in front of
the other I'm meeting amazing people people are connecting me if you're listening to this and you
know somebody that has a great story and you know what I'm finding people have a story behind the
story so if you know somebody you think would be a great guest if you know somebody that should be
listening to this podcast share it with them please review it like it share it subscribe to it also
the other thing I've started is a Facebook group called the why not today community where we're
going to share some stuff like I'm going to share your favorite podcast your favorite book I'm going
to do some giveaways I think we're at 75 members once we hit 100 I'm 100 I'm going to have a giveaway
and then of course I mentioned I have swag and I should have it out here to show it if you're
watching this but I have why not today t-shirts short sleeves women v-neck because you guys I
like a v-neck t-shirt I have long sleeve shirts I have cups I have coffee cups like start your day
with a coffee cup this says why not today to remind you to start your day in a positive way so lots
of exciting things happening I can't wait to continue this journey with you guys I appreciate
everybody that's listening to it everybody to share it it's kind of a heartfelt moment when you
run into somebody like oh I've been listening to your podcast I'm like you have and when new people
that I don't know are listening or connecting or joining the community that's fun so follow us on
Instagram Facebook go to the website which is www.whynotstaypodcast.com share this with a friend
and let's start a movement of being courageous and said and what are you doing today to say why
not today so thanks again for listening and letting me talk today and share in the comments
you know what was your why not today or what was your aha today so again it's Leslie with the why
not today podcast thank you for listening or watching and remember always say why not today
and until next time bye