Welcome to the Why Not Today podcast where we celebrate courage, determination, and the
power of saying, Why Not Today.
I'm your host, Leslie Cain.
In each episode, we dive into inspiring stories of individuals who have taken bold steps,
faced their fears, and embraced the possibility of today.
From entrepreneurs, artists, to artists, dreamers, to doers, we explore the moments when they
said enough waiting, Why Not Today.
Show me as we uncover the heartwarming, the audacious, and the transformative, whether
it's pursuing a lifelong passion, overcoming obstacles, or simply choosing joy.
Our guests share their journeys and inspire us all.
I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Cain, who often said, Why Not Today.
And remember, you're just one decision away from changing your life.
And today's episode is just me.
And we are celebrating three years of a podcast in about two weeks.
And so this is the last episode of season three, and we will start season four next
week.
And I thought, you know what, it's a good time to kind of get to know me, the podcast's
story, and what's next.
And so I'm super excited just to welcome all of you.
And thank you to everybody that's listened to follow my guests, my repeat guests for
all the great support over these last three years.
And I'm just going to share a little bit about my journey, the growth of the podcast, the
Why Not Today movement, new initiatives, and exciting new things coming up.
So the birth of the Why Not Today podcast, it's a movement, not just a podcast.
The inspiration was from my father, and my dad passed away March 5, 2019, March 5, 2013.
And ironically, that was the day he was born.
So that was when the podcast was birthed, and we started on March 5, 2022.
And it started by a social media post somebody shared about my dad and things he had done.
And my dad always had, my whole life, he had lost sight of an eye, one of his eyes.
So we always had an eye passed on Hannah Brown in a stash.
So he signed everything with that.
And that is where the Why Not Today logo came from.
So when my dad passed away, I'm like, I want to do something to honor him, his legacy,
thought of a nonprofit, and doing a pickleball tournament.
But then that was a lot of work.
And then I just kind of had the idea in 2020, maybe I want to do a podcast.
And so came up with the idea of Why Not Today after somebody shared on social media something
about my dad, and they said, we both always said Why Not Today.
So that started it.
And it has grown into what I'm calling my Why Not Today movement.
And it goes beyond the podcast episodes.
It's a mission to inspire courage, build community, and power people to take bold actions.
The Why Not Today movement is to inspire us all to live our dreams, to live our life,
and do it bravely.
And so it is my passion to help people to work smarter, not harder, provide focus by
providing focus and systems and strategies to make a real impact.
So how am I doing that?
So just a little background on who Leslie Cain is, is I am local to rest in Virginia.
Those of you in Northern Virginia or know the area.
My parents moved here when I was two, and so I am definitely a part of the community.
My dad was a big part of this community being one of six kids.
He wanted to have a community to support all of us.
And so other than college and just traveling, I haven't lived anywhere else in my life.
And so I started my entrepreneurial journey 30 years ago in 1994 when I finished my MBA
and decided to start a Mary Kay cosmetics career.
I had no idea where it would take me.
I really just thought it'd be fun and get my products to discount.
I would say I put my toe in the water, fell in love.
Five years later, I followed my entrepreneurial dream and quit my full-time job and never
look back.
And you know, it was perfect timing, not really, I mean, nothing perfect about it.
But six months after I quit my job, my dad had his first stroke and I was able to be
there and be able to support my family.
So in my 30 year Mary Kay career, 25 years full-time supporting myself, I have earned
the privilege of driving.
I can't remember 16 or 17 cars.
I've had a team of probably thousands of women at this point.
And so what I've learned is one, how to grow a business, how to run a business and help
other people create their own businesses and then able to help.
I had a single mom one time on my team that was able to help her grow her business and
team to be able to stay home with her son and not have to go to that J-O-B.
I've had people starting a Mary Kay business and wasn't going to be able to pay rent with
what they were doing and this helped pay the rent.
So my 30 year career with Mary Kay has taught me so much and that's given me the inspiration
and a lot of my skills and strengths that I bring to the table with Why Not Today is
from what I learned with Mary Kay.
One thing I have learned in starting the Why Not Today business, which I started in 2024,
is Mary Kay as a direct selling company did a lot for us.
So it takes a lot to start a business.
I've learned lots of things that I want to pass on to other people and help them have
courage to start their businesses.
So the podcast, as I said, started three years ago and we've had over 6,000 downloads and
that doesn't even include YouTube because we're on YouTube, we're on all the channels.
A growing community of listeners, I think I counted where in 26 states at one point.
We have over 100 episodes and it's just been so much fun for me to get to know people and
to interview different people.
I've had a couple people that have been on more than once.
I don't think anybody's three times, but I did talk to one of my guests.
I'm going to have her, I think, on a third time.
So what I found in all my episodes and talking to people and literally it started in the
beginning with anybody that had any bit of courage and really if they walked past me
and said they didn't sound courageous, I put them on the podcast.
It was every other week for almost the first two years and then December of 2023, we moved
to every week because I just had such a need or such an outpouring of guests and people
were referring, which has been really fun.
I've learned so much and have access to so many things, I said it's a masterclass for
me personally, all the things I've learned about running a business, about having courage
and everybody has a story.
It's often the story behind the story.
And so with the podcast episodes, I really hope that when people listen, that it gives
them hope and permission and be able to say me too or give them some tools and some skills
to help them navigate their business, their life.
Sometimes the Why Not Today message is really just getting out of bed.
I did have one guest, my friend Julia, and she talked about a Why Not Today decision
not to do something.
She was going to write a book and decided, you know what, it wasn't for her.
So sometimes Why Not Today decisions are just not doing something.
So it started with my first episode with my friend Meg Donnelly, who has been instrumental
in helping support this podcast journey.
Some of the memorable episodes is a friend of mine, Teresa, who lives in New York.
I had a guest that canceled last minute and I was with her and she's like, put me on.
I'm like, what have you done courageous?
She's like, well, I became, got off addiction of drugs.
So she was addicted to opioids based on surgery she had.
And it was a major detox that she had to do, which I had no idea.
I interviewed somebody, Emma G, which I'm going to get her back on here now.
Emma Stevens, a musician that played on the streets of New York City and is now coaching
kids and helping people through music to make a difference.
My friend Sarah White, I've had her on a couple of times and the last episode we did
a couple of years ago that she talked about the community that she built and people are
able to support her.
And that's one of my value strengths is building community and making that connection.
My second year anniversary, the episode for that, I interviewed my brother and we talked
about growing up together.
Our father, we talked about he'd accomplished, I think three iron.
And that's pretty amazing.
Because my youngest sister has DownCenter, I've connected people with the special needs
world.
I interviewed Elizabeth, who has a really cool blog and then Instagram account.
It's called Confessions of the Chromosomal Enhanced.
Probably misunderstood or didn't do that.
And she calls it catfish and cat chip.
And she has a younger or older sister as DownCenter and her husband adopted some of
them.
And unfortunately her mom passed away so she's raising both of them together.
And just some of the stories made me laugh out loud of things that I can relate with
my life with Amanda.
I interviewed somebody that started a local newspaper in the rest area.
Somebody referred me to a woman, her name is Chris Howard, that hiked the Appalachian
trail.
She left her corporate job, had never hiked, camped into her life until the first night
on the trail.
And somebody referred her to me, she heard her on the news and she lives a mile from
my house.
Laura Carney is another guest I've had twice.
And her dad, and so many similarities between my dad and we're talking and just kind of
those Godwinks.
But her dad was killed by a distracted driver.
And when he was 54 and Laura and her brother found his bucket list.
And Laura did the whole bucket list and wrote a book called My Father's List.
Laura referred me to her friend Melanie and Melanie wrote a book called The Heart Science,
Silence, I can talk.
First she wrote a book, How to Write Heart Stories.
She's got an amazing story, I'd check that out.
Season three, the kickoff episode was with my mom, although she said she had nothing
courageous to share.
She had so much, you know, being a mother of six children and the youngest with Downsend
her and just all the stories and navigation with that.
One of my passions is helping people find their joy and find their passion.
You know, if you have that thing that people say, oh my goodness, like you should do that
as a business because it's so easy or when somebody, you do something, somebody's like,
how did you do that?
You're like, that was so easy.
And that was an episode we talked to with my friend Amber.
And Amber and I literally went to get ice cream on Saturday.
It was, I know it was a Saturday before Easter, went with my sister to get ice cream and she
is so creative and decorating and literally we had a meeting at my house one time and
she's sitting at my dining room table.
She's like, can I redecorate?
I'm like, sure.
So we had this discussion.
I'm like, you really should start a business.
I don't think she heard the business part, but she started thinking she should do something
with this.
She called me on Monday after Easter, couldn't sleep and had put the business plan together
for her decorating business.
Madeline McMahon.
Oh my goodness.
We had so much fun on this episode, she's a fractional marketing specialist and we thought,
you know what, what is more courageous than to crisscross both my worlds with Mary Kay
and why not today.
And we literally did a spa session with charcoal mask and all the things on zoom and it's on
YouTube.
So you can watch us doing a pampering session and how vulnerable that is and courageous to
get on screen with masks on our face.
And then I was watching the news again.
Laura Carney I found from watching CBS.
Brady Murray I found he was on NBC news and he has a nonprofit Rod's Heroes where he helps
people adopt children with Down syndrome from other countries and his son Cooper that they
adopted from China.
His goal is to throw the pitch out of every major league baseball game.
And so they live in Utah and they were here in DC right after we did the interview and
we got to meet him and go to a nationals game and watch Cooper throw the ball out.
So what a great experience that was.
Sam Horn was another amazing guest.
She spoke at an event.
I didn't really know who she was.
Ironically though she lived right where I live and walk her in the lake with where I
walk and had a dog that looks like my dog and so many similarities and what an amazing
guest she was and she's written so many just unbelievable books.
So that's just some of the hundred episodes.
So lots of cool people.
Lots of great stories.
I'm excited about the future and the future episodes and who we're going to share.
So the launch of the why not say movement website just launched last month.
Thanks to my friend Meg Donnelly who was my first guest.
She referred me to Fairfax County and I got a grant and they were able to revamp my website.
It just launched in beginning of February of 2024.
And why is this a big deal?
The web it is a big deal because the website is a hub for everything.
Why not today?
You can find your podcast episodes events, sports, coaching, merchandise and ways to
get involved.
So as I said, it has our podcast episodes events and I'm going to talk about all the
different things in a second.
Also we have a Facebook community group called why not today community and that's a place
for us to build connection community.
So as I said, I am passionate about helping and teaching people and so I got some courses
on my website.
I will do one on one coaching mastermind.
I'm looking at some other courses and things because with my 30 year career in Mary Kay,
I learned how to run a business.
I know all the little things that somebody said one time and our friend of mine and I
always just say if you do something twice, it should be a system.
And somebody referred to me that I'm a natural systematizer.
I'm not quite sure what that means, but I can put systems together and I am good at
helping people with figuring out the details of the business, keeping the one thing, the
one thing and focusing.
So with that, I am doing leadership coaching to help people either if you have a business
and you're starting or you need kind of stuck in your business or you have an idea and you
need some help getting the courage to start the idea.
We have started a course last fall that is still available, how to navigate the overwhelm
and chaos in your life and we all have it, whether you own a business or not.
I have a course on how to do a podcast because everybody wants to know how to do a podcast.
And then I'm looking at a course called where are your people and networking and getting
to know your people and having your tribe.
So there's so many things I've learned because of this podcast and this journey that I want
to be able to pass on.
And then when I do the podcast, I talk to people about their why not today moments.
And those are moments in time where you remember exactly where you were, what you were doing
and you did something pivotal change in your life.
January of 2024, woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep, got pen and paper
and I came up with the why not today connects events.
And I found we're missing community and connection.
We want to be with people.
We don't need another networking event where everybody just spits out their elevator speech.
So we created the why not today connects luncheon and we have had a year's worth of luncheon.
We started January of 2024 and we will have, we didn't do December, but we did other events.
And so each month I have a speaker and we have sponsors and people introduce themselves
with a question we ask.
It's not your elevator speech, but really getting to know people and building those connections,
the communities is fun to watch, not only the business being conducted with the connections,
but also just new friends.
I remember one luncheon, everybody left and went and got chocolate together and went,
saw an art exhibit with one of the guests.
So that has been powerful.
I also started, I love collaborating with other people.
You haven't figured that out yet, started a connect and sip with my friend Rachel as
a tea shop.
And that's really just come together with other mostly business owners or people looking
to business or people just need a little support.
We had somebody come who's retired and thinking about starting a business.
And we just, it's an intimate conversation, helping each other support each other.
And so those are once a month as well.
I have done some fun of other events.
We did a why not today summer camp.
We did a one word painting event, a holiday connect and sip, and I've got a couple fun
events coming up because I found we want to have fun.
We want to build community.
You can't work all the time.
So that's coming up as well.
And then why not today merchandise?
We have why not today cups and shirts and mugs and sweatshirts and I can create anything
why not today.
Cause, and I even have behind me, if you're watching a why not today sign that my friend
made, cause I really want to encourage people to say why not today.
I feel like why not today is so much more than a podcast.
It's a movement as I said, my biggest, big vision for why not today is it is a brand
somewhat like life is good that people are saying it.
I mean, people are constantly quoting it back to me.
I had one friend of mine whose daughter's in college and having some emotional anxiety,
issues, depression.
And so she got her daughter a why not today cup and a t-shirt to remind her every day,
say why not today.
Another one of my dad's best friends from high school, his son and I connected on social
media and he got a why not today t-shirt and he's always sending me pictures of places
with this why not today shirt on.
And so it's all this is available on the website.
You know, if there's something you want to say why not today, you know, we don't have
it.
Let me know.
I can create it.
We can get it done.
So we want to spread the word of why not today and get the message to more people.
And so what's next with the future?
Well, we have an exciting season.
I already have, I think five or six people lined up.
The next episode kicking off season four is going to be somebody interviewing me about
she does a podcast, Belinda, and she's going to interview me about this podcast.
You get a little bit more about me.
I have other guests that are working in nonprofits that I have a guest that got in a severe car
accident and should not have walked away and she did.
And so I'm excited just the future guests.
So if you know you're listening to this and think I would be a great guest or you know
somebody, there's a form on my website, be a guest, fill it out.
I'd love to talk to you about being on the podcast.
So the future is more courses, more support, the why not today community Facebook group,
which is a private group, but anybody can join it.
I'm looking to add some more value there and have some why not.
I'm going to call them why not today weekly wisdom and just some training, some extra
support for you.
I think the first one we're going to kick off on March 5th, which is going to be a Wednesday,
and it's the anniversary of the podcast.
I thought what a more perfect time and it's going to be me sharing about where are your
people and kind of give you a little teaser on what we can do with the course.
I have another friend of mine that's an expert in LinkedIn.
I'm going to have her pop in somebody else about a CRM.
So again, if you have an expertise and you want to share on my weekly wisdom, they're
going to be a zoom call that people can come on with questions and answers and then they'll
be live streamed just to the Facebook community.
So nobody else will have access to those.
So lots going on, as you can tell, my head bounces all over the place.
So who knows what's next?
I thought about retreats.
I thought about a book.
You never know.
So again, I want to just thank you, everybody that's listened to any episode.
If this is your first, go back and listen to some previous ones.
If somebody shared this with you, thank them.
Please share it with your friends.
Review it, review it and like it and share it with other people.
And that's the only way this is going to grow.
It is growing steadily and I'm excited about where the future is going to go.
My mission statement, as I said, why not today is about helping people to be courageous,
great systems at work and take action without complicating their success.
And so you don't have to have it all figured out.
You just need to start.
This is about courage, focus and simple, repeatable systems and why not today take the next step.
So thank you for everybody that's been a part of this journey.
Remember visit the Why Not Today movement website, join the Why Not Today community Facebook
group, tune into the weekly trainings we're going to have in the group, follow, subscribe
to the podcast and check out the coaching, the courses and the merchandise.
I'll start a movement.
So why not today and thank you again.
I am so grateful for this journey being on it with you guys.
Bye.
Oh, I have to stop the recording.
All right.
I'll see you guys next time.