How to Build Your Legacy: Lessons from a Bold Journey

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to a New Era
• 2:39 Embracing Change and Uncertainty
• 3:44 Navigating Seasons of Winter in Life and Business
• 5:14 The Journey of Forgiveness and Growth
• 6:29 Defining Your Legacy and Impact
• 7:59 Authenticity in Entrepreneurship and Community Building

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:31

Hey friends, welcome back to the Laundrom Diaries. I'm Angela McKay, your host, and today this is marking kind of a new era for the podcast. I know it's been such a journey so far. I think this is year four of the Laundrom Diaries and, like I've shared in past episodes, it's been a passion project that I just can't put on the shelf yet, and so, after so much kind of prayer and conversation and just thinking about what I want with this podcast, I really felt like I got the answer so clearly.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Over the last few weeks For those of you who know my journey, my story and where I'm at I've been in what we call kind of a transition mode, and this is kind of the nine month marker where I sat back after making some pretty big, bold, scary decisions in my career and decided to, you know, embrace change, not knowing exactly what that looked and felt like and I don't know if you've ever done that personally, but that was not something characteristically that I would do I would normally have my next steps planned out so that there'd be a simple transition, and I didn't do that this time, and so what I found in kind of stepping out in bold faith, was that there's a lot of uncomfortableness that comes with that. It can be scary, it can be intimidating and all the emotions kind of fell into place in this nine month journey to where I'm at today and for most of you you've also known if you followed me on social media we've experienced some you know unfortunate things in our life with the loss of my mother-in-law, things happening in our life personally, and so I believe there's seasons for everything, and I was talking to my husband the other night and I said we've been in a season of winter and I don't know if you've ever been in a season of winter in your life or in your business, but what winter feels like and where I literally sit in the Midwest right now is in early March and it's still winter and things have not yet bloomed. But I know I've planted things and I know some things will bloom again and winter is a hard season. It's not the warm season that I love. If you know me, I'm a saltwater in my soul type of gal, so it's a little dreary, it's colder, it's not as comfortable and in fact it can be a very hard season. And I would say that describes what this last nine months were in my business. It was a season of winter. It was a season that felt a little cold.

Speaker 1: 4:16

I had came out of a 10-year career with a company and I've had some trust issues that stemmed from me leaving and some ethical things that were no longer aligning, and so I felt a little cold or even cold-hearted. And when I sat in church yesterday and I heard the sermon about cold-heartedness it really kind of pulled us together and I always say I'm amazed at that, but yet I don't know why I am, because God is so great in how he orchestrates that perfect timing and that perfect message. And so today I felt compelled to jump on the mic and to kind of start this new era, this new chapter of talking transparently about the industry that I've sat in for over a decade and a half. I started as a mom. You know, you heard my story in the laundry room. I was an entrepreneur, struggling transaction to transaction. I found network marketing. It became the bridge that kind of helped that gap of wanting to have a business and a mom life, which was great.

Speaker 1: 5:26

But most importantly, fred, I've done it all. I've done it all. Excuse me, I have a little cold and I'm not editing today, I'm just off the cuff and speaking from my heart, but what I know is that in the journey of learning and becoming and even succeeding, there were so many silver linings and so many lessons learned and before this day arrived where I thought I'm going to hit record again, I'm going to come on and I'm going to take this next chapter. I don't know if this is my final season or if this is the beginning of something more. I still am kind of giving it all to God and letting him decide where this goes, but I felt like I've had so many experiences, so many blessings, so many lessons in my industry and I wanted to share that transparently.

Speaker 1: 6:23

I know there's a lot of hype out there, there's a lot of fluff out there, there's a lot of people, you know, just telling you to just go and do and it will come, and you know that's all great friend, but let's be real. Business is tough and, in fact, business takes a lot of learning and that's what I went through. I went through seasons, I went through peaks and valleys and, like I shared recently with some people that I really trusted, I said the last nine months, I realized that I've experienced a lot. I've experienced the highest of the highs hitting the top 1% in the industry to some of the lowest of the lows losing my business, seeing my business handed to someone else that you know wasn't something that I wanted to have happen. To having people you know that you thought were with you, not with you. To seeing unethical things happen in the industry and then also seeing you know transformations happen in the industry. I wish I could just say it happens just in network marketing, but you know what? It happens everywhere. If you're looking for a place to be exempt from the frustrations of business, good luck, you're going to find it everywhere.

Speaker 1: 7:42

But what I have learned in this kind of journey is what is your mindset, what are your kind of value system and principles and how do you keep those aligned? And that's really the goal in life is to really find an alignment place that not just creates commas on a check or gives you a fancy title that really doesn't matter. And I've learned that so, so emotionally in the past few weeks when we've lost someone that was very dear and dear to our heart that you know we take so much for granted. But at the end of the day, what is your legacy? What is your legacy? And that's where I want to plant this episode on, because it really got me thinking as I looked at my mother-in-law, who was an amazing woman who had such a legacy. Mother-in-law, who was an amazing woman who had such a legacy. I mean, I saw the thousands of people that she touched and and how she touched our family and I just thought, wow, like her life was well spent, right. And and I it got me thinking, because I'd always I would get this asked a lot in my career when they'd ask certain questions.

Speaker 1: 8:51

And you know, one of the things was always like what is your favorite quote? And and it aligns with this in the sense that I would always say, and it still is to this day, my favorite quote, because it is about time, right, and how a time is spent. And it says, like we each have 24 hours in our day. We all have 24 hours. If we're blessed to wake up this morning, you've got 24 hours, friend, to go do something, but it's what you do within those 24 hours that creates your legacy. Now, it doesn't mean you have to be on every day. We're human. We're going to have off days Lord only knows I've had some off days but, friend, if you wake up with the intention to live your life fully and impactfully and not just chase the hype of the business, not chase the money, right, the cars, the trips, the status titles, all the social media curation that we see kind of all over media curation that we see kind of all over. If you step away from the noise and you ask for what is the purpose, what is the impact? Which one do you want to be the definition of your legacy? And so, as I sat here and I started talking to my husband, my business partner, and kind of saying like what's next? What's next, what's my legacy?

Speaker 1: 10:17

I turned 50 this year. We just went through nine months of amazing life changes with our career. We just lost a parent, things uproot you, things shift you, and I've been in a season of shifting. And then I heard the sermon yesterday, the sermon where my pastor said you cannot be with God ultimately If you have a hardened heart. And it really hit me because the night prior to church I had told my husband. I get into moments where I say why is this happening? Why is this happening? Why me? I'm trying to do it right. Why now? Why us? There was a big season of why. For me and honestly, friend, that's, I feel like, very common when you're going through things.

Speaker 1: 11:15

But as I started to really step in and lean on my faith foundation, I realized I could not be the victim any longer. I could not sit there with a hardened heart and have bitterness or unforgiveness. I had to be what God wanted me to be, and I wanted to be that in my business and I know that's a controversial thing A lot of people tell you to take religion out of business. Well, I'm not religious, I'm faith-filled and faith is the foundation in everything. And so part of my struggle, even with my podcast, was how do I incorporate my faith in my business? How do I incorporate my faith when I work around people that maybe don't have a faith? How do I incorporate faith but not be a light but be respectful? And so it's been challenging, as a Christian woman and businesswoman, to to find this foundational space in my life where faith is everything. And and I had to work on the hard stuff because when you're working with Christ daily in that thin place and you're going through life challenges like losing your business and income or losing a loved one, you're seeking his face.

Speaker 1: 12:43

Often. I've been in more conversation with Christ than I have with my own husband. I've been praying, sometimes hourly. Sometimes I feel like I live my whole day in prayer, just trying to get through. And so I want to take you on this journey where it's unscripted, it's not curated, it's not butterflies and cool acronyms of how to have systems and all of this. I have the experience and knowledge of business and how to get there, but I really felt called in this season to share my experience, putting my faith into my business, letting my faith guide me through the challenges of my business and, more importantly, letting my faith soften my heart and allow me to forgive so that I could advance myself to where God has me planted Right.

Speaker 1: 13:39

I feel like that was one of the biggest aha moments here in just this last week was, you know, it's not my timing, it's God's timing, and I remember saying that. I remember saying that receiving a really an amazing um recognition with my former company and praying before I went up and took that microphone and I spoke really from the heart and I I battled for years my timing, my timing, me right and and I had to get out of that way. I had to get away from myself and understand that his timing is perfect. His timing is preparation and everything that's happening is happening for me and not to me, and that has gotten me through some of my hardest seasons, and so I'm hoping that will be some encouragement as we go along this journey of entrepreneurship and motherhood and finding your faith and putting that faith in the foundation of everything and just sharing kind of the peaks and the valleys of this journey that I've had as an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 14:49

For you know, I mean I could go back 20, some years, right 30 years, but just specifically in network marketing, a decade and a half, and I feel like network marketing gets a bad rap. I feel like the network marketing industry has had a lot of shifting, like all industries are. That is not uncommon, that is business. But when there is a shift and a shake, it sometimes rattles those that don't have the faith, where there's fear instead of faith, that this is happening for a reason. And so if you're sitting in your business right now, maybe a little afraid maybe you're wanting to start a business and you're a little afraid I'm going to encourage you to step in on a little bit more faith and let God lead that and lead your journey. I know personally it's when I let go and let him be my ultimate leader in business and in life that even my hard shaken times really did become my best seasons, because I became stronger at who I am. I became stronger at what I knew and I was able to be that light to those around me and, ultimately, my legacy.

Speaker 1: 16:02

I want to be an impactor. I don't want someone to say she made X, y, z or oh, this was the fancy title that she had. Or look at the house or car, what she did on social media, look at her curated events and they're so perfect. I want to show the imperfect perfection of business. I want to show the mess in the middle. I want to take you in the journey of you know, like being I always talk to women, especially in the beauty industry being a female in my forties, I'm a plus size woman, mom of seven, you know, in my forties, now almost 50 in the beauty industry. That's very intimidating and I'm going to speak on that because I feel like women, we need to empower each other, we need to lift each other up and I'm going to talk to you about what it really means to be the CEO of your life.

Speaker 1: 17:02

I used to hashtag that. It sounded super cool, it was on some great graphics, you know, you know you get something like, oh yes, this hits. And now I look back and I said you know, it was an idea, but it was, it was. So it meant something so different to me. When I first heard that be the CEO of your life, I mean that's profound right.

Speaker 1: 17:26

But I remember there was a time in my business where I felt like I worked for my company that said be the CEO of your life, but follow all these rules. And if you don't fear, fear, fear. Or I had cross-line leaders that were just not kind and loving yet they spoke that from the stage and it always was a struggle for me to see the hypocrisy when someone had a microphone and I thought, wow, this is challenging for me. Like, is this even real? Like is this why everyone gets turned off? But I knew that there were so many genuine people out there and so I struggled with that and my heart got hardened for a long time. I got a little jaded that and my heart got hardened for a long time. I got a little jaded and in fact I felt so much pressure to show up a certain way that I literally was wearing a mask on social media that felt curated and miserable and it wasn't who I wanted to be.

Speaker 1: 18:24

And when the companies and you don't align, that's when you have to make decisions, bold moves. That's when you have to make bold moves. I had to make a leap of faith and boldness, not because I wanted to put my family into hard times and we did, friend when I gave up my seven-figure business and I say that not to impress you but to impress upon you. To impress you but to impress upon you we sacrifice something because we didn't align with something anymore. That was so hard because I didn't have it mapped out as to how it was going to go.

Speaker 1: 19:05

And then, when I started to get into another company, I wasn't ready mentally, emotionally, spiritually, as a leader I wasn't there yet. I had a time. I knew I had to heal and I had to really pull myself out of a company, even though I sat there and I was enrolled and I loved the products I didn't want to build and in fact I stopped working because my heart wasn't in it. I was still having a hardening of a heart again and I had to heal that with forgiveness. And I will speak on that in my journey too, because I feel like, ultimately, you have to live in that space with a softened heart if you want to truly get to the place where you find joy in your journey.

Speaker 1: 19:56

And that's where I ultimately wanted to go. I wasn't chasing checks, I wasn't chasing titles, I wasn't trying to be the fastest, the biggest. I didn't want ego-driven goals. I wanted to be a servant leader. I wanted to have faith in my foundation. I wanted to hopefully bring someone to Christ because we've locked arms and maybe they didn't have that relationship, but they saw it via being around a community of that faith filled women. I wanted to feel excited again. I wanted to feel the happiness of getting together with like-minded women and lift each other up. I didn't want to have to give the funny strategies of you know the same thing but a different acronym, like another training that just someone's regurgitating. I wanted to be authentic to who I was. I wanted to be an original. I didn't want to be like everyone else, and that's what I had to sit back and try and find out.

Speaker 1: 21:03

And so I hope if you stick with me on this journey, it's not only going to help you become your own version of you and pull out your original gifts and talents, but it's going to encourage you. It's going to encourage you to either start, start again or maybe just find the joy in whatever journey you're on. You don't have to be a network marketer to enjoy this podcast. You don't have to be, you know, in it right now to go and listen to this and apply it. This applies to life, this applies to anybody. Wherever you're at today, whatever you're working on, you can take this podcast and you can apply it too.

Speaker 1: 21:48

And that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to open it up. Although I came from a space with network marketing and I'm a busy mom with seven kids and I have experiences I'm going to take each of these topics and experiences and stories and just transparent talk and conversation, and I am going to give you, hopefully, content that's going to help you where you're at today. That's my hope, that's my prayer for this podcast, and so it's a new era. It's a new era. It's a little unfiltered, which is okay with me. I hope it's okay with you. I have a little raspy conversation voice today.

Speaker 1: 22:30

We had the flu this last week and survived that with a big family. And so I'm kind of on the thing and I just felt like today, it was like, even though I'm not still feeling 100% with my health, I felt like I wanted to give 100% to this message. I felt like it was the right time and that winter is coming to an end. It's March, I know. Soon things will start to bloom, colors will start to pop, the sun will come out and it will feel a little bit more warm, a little bit more cozy and comfortable, the fresh air and seeing all the things kind of blossom around. And so, if you've been in the season of winter, just know that, as we take this journey right now in this next chapter, it's a season coming out of winter. It's a season of understanding why you're always either going in or in or coming out of winter, no matter what you do. But we're going to talk about each part of that season and what it feels like as an entrepreneur, what it feels like as a mom, what it feels like as an individual and what you can do to navigate that journey through life and through the seasons of winter.

Speaker 1: 23:53

So, guys, thank you so much for just letting me take up a few minutes of your day. I hope that you'll join me each and every day. I'm going to come on here regularly which is a huge commitment in my house to find a quiet moment where I can record and edit. But I'm going to come in here regularly every single week and I'm going to take you on a hundred episode journey of this entire entrepreneurial experience I've had over the last decade and a half in the network marketing industry. We're going to talk about some amazing topics and I know we're going to help you.

Speaker 1: 24:29

I've been mentored by some of the best in the industry, including John Maxwell, for three years. I have learned a lot by experience. I have made a lot of mistakes and, more importantly, I have gotten a lot of people I've worked with over the years to success because of what I've done and I've learned through frameworks and strategies how to get results. So if you're ready to take that next step in your own journey, mark this on your calendar. Let this be your personal development time and join me each and every day for about a 20 minute conversation over a cup of coffee in the laundry room. Diaries Take care, gang.