Starting Over at 50: Building Freedom with Belinda Sandor

Starting over at 50 can feel overwhelming. Or, it can become the beginning of something extraordinary.

In this episode, Belinda Sandor shares how she rebuilt her life during a major transition: divorce, financial stress, and becoming a single mom... and turned it into a thriving virtual assistant business that now gives her freedom and flexibility at 65.

Her story is a beautiful example of what’s possible when women stop waiting for permission and start creating lives that actually fit.

In this episode, we talk about:

•  What it really looks like to start over in midlife 
•  How Belinda built a business from home before it was “a thing” 
•  The role mindset plays in moving forward 
•  Why you don’t have to share everything to be visible 
•  Creating income and freedom on your own terms 

Key Topics:

•  Midlife reinvention 
•  Virtual assistant businesses 
•  Women entrepreneurs mindset 
•  Overcoming limiting beliefs 
•  Building a flexible lifestyle 

Connect with Belinda:
https://thevaconnection.com

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Transcript

Starting Over at 50: Building Freedom with Belinda Sandor

Penny Fitzgerald: Today's episode is a powerful reminder that it's never too late to start over, pivot, or create something new. Belinda Sandor shares how she built a business at 50 that now at 65, gives her freedom.

Flexibility and a lifestyle she loves and so much of what she shares aligns with what I coach on every day. this is the kind of conversation that happens when women get in the right room together, whether it's [00:01:00] coaching community or something like wine camp.

Everything shifts. Here is Belinda Sandor.

Penny Fitzgerald: Thank you so much for your patience. 

Belinda Sandor: That's okay. It happens. It happens and I was able to do some things with my chickens that I wasn't gonna do to. And so it's all good. It's all good. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Good, good, good chickens. Tell me about that. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. I have, um, I have 25 chickens. I have one chicken Abigail that was hatched in 2019. And then I have four chickens that were hatched in 2020. Uh, and then I have 20 chickens that were hatched, uh, last July and they're starting to lay eggs. And um, yesterday, uh, I didn't get the eggs for two days, but we had, uh, 60 eggs in the coop.

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. It's awesome. 

it's good to have hobbies. Right. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It's wonderful. A good hobby. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. Yeah. 

it's nice because it's not like having a dog where. They're like, you have to constantly wonder what [00:02:00] they're, what's in their mouth. You know what I mean? 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Belinda Sandor: But it's enough that like, I go out there for an hour at night and they crawl on my lap and they, 

Penny Fitzgerald: oh 

Belinda Sandor: me. And they get excited when I go out and I give them treats.

And so it's, it's nice. It's, and it gets me away from my desk. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. That's fantastic. Where, where do you live, Belinda? 

Belinda Sandor: I live in Virginia. I live in a rural part of Virginia all the way over on the East coast. Um, just about like a mile from the Chesapeake. Okay. My husband and I bought a farm here, um, in 2024.

We bought 21 and a half acres, and we're gonna try our hand at gardening this year. We've done it in the past, but on a smaller scale we're gonna 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, 

Belinda Sandor: a little bit bigger garden. And, um, and right now we're thinking about getting a couple of barn cats, so we're expanding. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Aw. I love all of that. 

Belinda Sandor: Where are you?

Penny Fitzgerald: I'm in Sarasota, Florida currently. Nice. And we live in Iowa, um, really small farm town, [00:03:00] um, during the summer months, during the warm months, so. 

Belinda Sandor: Oh, that's great. That's great. And do you have garden love 

Penny Fitzgerald: to garden 

Belinda Sandor: animals and things 

Penny Fitzgerald: We do in Iowa. We have a garden, um, pretty robust one, but um, yeah, nothing like 21 acres.

Belinda Sandor: Yeah, well, half of it, half of it is in woods and then half of it uhhuh are fields. So do you have raised beds or do you, um, go right into the ground? 

Penny Fitzgerald: We have both, yes. Mm-hmm. Our raised beds, we have stuff like, um, carrots and beets and herbs mostly. And then in the, um, in the ground we have tomatoes, peppers, um, garlic, onions, and of course asparagus and rhubarb.

Belinda Sandor: Oh, wow. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Or radish. Yeah. 

Belinda Sandor: Nice. Yeah. I gotta figure it all out. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. But it's good. It's a good thing. 

Belinda Sandor: We're going to, it's gonna be a, 'cause I work full time, so it's gonna be a, you know, a layered approach. A layered, 

Penny Fitzgerald: yes. 

Belinda Sandor: But yeah. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I love it. 

Belinda Sandor: Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: I love it. Okay. Okay. 

Belinda, please tell me and tell our audience, give us your [00:04:00] name and tell us what you do. 

Belinda Sandor: Okay, so my name is Belinda Sandor. Uh, I live, like I was just saying, in, uh, rural Virginia with my husband and, uh, 25 chickens. Um, and I, I started my own VA business as I virtual assistant business in 2010.

I was in a big life transformation, uh, transition and transformation. Um, where I was getting divorced, becoming a single mom. I lived in downtown Boston at the time. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. 

Belinda Sandor: Um, and, uh, I, I was struggling to get a job. I was struggling to get a job at 50. Um, and that had never happened before. So someone was sort of whispering in my ear, you know what, if you go out on your own, what if you offer admin support?

There really wasn't such a thing as a VA back then, or there was, but no one knew what it was called. Yeah. And so I started doing that. And I built the business up over, I've been doing it for 15 years now, but in 2019 I decided to start teaching people how to, [00:05:00] um, how to start their own business and earn a good living, working from home.

And so that's how I spend my days now. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, that's great. That that really wasn't a thing or people didn't think about it as a being a thing that you could really do back then. 

Belinda Sandor: No, well, some of it, it was sort of hybrid. Some was in person, some was virtual. Mm-hmm. And then I met my husband and he lived, uh, uh, 264 miles away.

So I was really motivated to figure out how to get it in the cloud because he worked in New York City and he had zero flexibility. So, um, so I transitioned all my clients to all their work and all of my work onto the internet, um, as the tools were being developed and just. Did it from there. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Wow.

Okay. So back in the day, what, what were some of the tools that you were using back then? 

Belinda Sandor: Uh, constant Contact. I was doing email newsletters back then. Mm-hmm. Still using Constant Contact. Um, I was, um, I had my second [00:06:00] client. I was helping him, um, with webinars, but Zoom wasn't invented, so you couldn't actually see people's faces.

Um, so we would do webinars and I would create slides for each one of the participants. So we would introduce everyone with a PowerPoint slide and where they were located and their picture and what they did. Um, and we could hear their voices, but we couldn't go on live Uhhuh video.

So very much like how people do webinars now with, um, on Zoom or, you know, streaming software. We did that in the dark ages using something called Ready Talk that doesn't even exist anymore. So I did a lot of that. Uh, WordPress was strong back then. I did WordPress updates. Um, but a lot of, a lot of email newsletters, uh, some online, QuickBooks was online back then, so I did some bookkeeping, things like that.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Wow. I, I remember doing some of those conference calls back in the day too, 

All just audio. You couldn't really see people like, 

Belinda Sandor: no, not at all. Yeah. That was really [00:07:00] popularized by the pandemic. I've been using Zoom for.

I don't know, probably eight years before that for screen sharing. So I would, because some of my clients, many of them are not very technical, so I would, um, I would remote control their computer and do work on it. Yeah. So that's how I use Zoom. I was not on camera at all until 2020. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Yeah. Well, yeah, we all kind of did things, learned how to use Zoom during that phase.

Belinda Sandor: We did. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That was one good thing that came out of it. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. There were lots of good things that came out of it it was pretty scary in the actual time. Yeah. But my life didn't change that much. My husband did the grocery shopping. Um, and, uh, I was kind of business as usual as a va.

My business really took off. And then my community. Had only started six months before, so our, our Facebook community started growing a thousand a month. It was like I built 

Penny Fitzgerald: holy cow fire 

Belinda Sandor: and it was like the pandemic threw gasoline on it. Mm-hmm. 'cause people wanted to work from home, but they weren't wanted to work from home for [00:08:00] themselves.

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh wow. That's fantastic. So tell us about your community. You, you started it before the pandemic and 

Belinda Sandor: I did 

Penny Fitzgerald: grew through that. 

Belinda Sandor: I did. I want, had wanted to start a community for a while. I, you know, I didn't know what to call it. I didn't know if it was gonna be an association. I didn't really understand about Facebook communities back then.

You know, when I started my VA business, people were writing on Facebook. They were posting. You know, going to the airport, it wasn't this machine that Yeah. Right. And there was like really no pictures. And, um, and so, um, so I started the community in 2019. I hired a business coach who knew how to do that.

And, uh, I started with small group coaching programs. So I would have six or eight mostly women. Uh, we, I had a 12 week program and every week we would meet and I was available in between, and I taught them how to launch their businesses. Mm-hmm. Um, and when the pandemic hit and the community started to grow, I started a membership.

So it was a, a membership [00:09:00] for, um, it was back then it was called the VIP club, and it was for people who wanted to be part of a, you know, a community, uh, online, a paid community with training. Uh, so I started that in April of 2020. And then, um. Continued to run all of these programs and then in 2021 launched my program, VA school, which is the program that I run now.

It's a six month program for people how, on how to be a virtual assistant. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Great. Okay. So, um, for those who may not know, can you tell us, how would you describe. Excuse me. How would you describe a va? What, what do they do? 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah, absolutely. So a va, there's really three legs to the stool. Creative, technical or administrative.

Mm-hmm. And you can do any combination of those. And it's really supporting entrepreneurs. Consultants, business owners, um, and, and very much in the same way you would in person. But the thing that's so appealing is that it's, um, it's fractional, right? So people are not, [00:10:00] they're not employing you, so they're not having to promise you 10 hours a week or 10 hours a month.

It's really as, as needed. Mm-hmm. Um, and so you can, people, it's, this is hard for most people to wrap their brain around, but it's true. You can. Do anything you want and you don't have to do things you don't want. So for example, I did PowerPoint presentations for a lot of my clients who were consultants and they went into big corporations and taught, um, but I can't do graphics.

But I had a friend who did graphics and so my client would pay him and he would email me the graphics and I put it in the PowerPoint. So there are ways to collaborate, um. If, if, if there are things that you can't slash don't, don't wanna do, but it's really, you know, it kind of hearkens back to the, I used to be a secretary.

Mm-hmm. And so it is very much the idea of being in service to an entrepreneur and working with them and, um. And it can be in, in, in so many different ways [00:11:00] now, with all the technology. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do you work exclusively with entrepreneurs or are you working with corporations, companies too?

Belinda Sandor: When I, when I was full-time as a virtual assistant, I worked with solo professionals, so, so mostly service-based people who were working on their own. So marketing consultants, nutritionists, financial planners, uh, trainers. Um. Uh, I had a couple of gym owners that I worked with over time. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Belinda Sandor: Um, so really people who are working in the spare bedroom, um, but, but are up to something big.

Like maybe they're training in a company like Fidelity or Liberty Mutual or big companies like that. Um, and I would be the, I would be the support behind them. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Okay. And then, um, describe those, the three legs again for, for 

Belinda Sandor: us? Yeah. It's administrative. Mm-hmm. So administrative can be calendar management, it can be email, uh, inbox management.

It can be, um, data entry. It can be [00:12:00] setting up, um, uh, well, I guess that'd probably be more technical. So it's really more, it's. Ad admin, right? Mm-hmm. Um, making PowerPoint presentations. Um, and then the creative is more in lines with, um, graphical support, um, thing, things like that. Website design, uh, and then the technical, the technical.

It, it is kind of a mix of all of it. So the technical can be actually building websites. It could be updating websites, it could be running the more technical pieces of a, a webinar series, you know, like back mm-hmm. Back, um, when we were first started doing it. Um. But I don't think that most VAs would classify themselves as one or the other.

It's really more of a hybrid that we all have little pieces of it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Well, and social media is a big part of it too, right? Like doing the, the posting and the creative for social media posts and Yes. Scheduling and all of that. 

Belinda Sandor: Absolutely. Yeah. And even though a lot of people would consider that technical, it's really more [00:13:00] administrative.

You know, the, the thing is, is that there's not much code that we touch anymore. Mm-hmm. Know it's really all about, you know, dropping it here and clicking this button and, you know, choosing the calendar. And so something like social media, um, while it sounds intimidating, if you don't know what you're doing, it's really straightforward once you boil it down.

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Yeah. I know a lot of entrepreneurs who are, um. A bit intimidated and also just the sheer volume and the changes, the algorithmic changes, all of that. Not having control of that piece for social media has, has really, I think, overwhelmed some entrepreneurs. So having somebody that can navigate it that knows who's on top of things on a day-to-day basis and might hear about the algorithms changing before the, the general public, that I think that would be very valuable.

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. Well, I, I think when it comes to things like algorithms, I mean, me as a, a coach and a mentor, that's a part of my [00:14:00] world. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Belinda Sandor: Um, I think putting out content that speaks to your audience on a consistent basis is more important than the algorithm. I think sometimes people get frozen by mm-hmm. All of this stuff, and if you just mm-hmm.

And if you just mm-hmm. Consistently are authentic and put out. A good message and don't worry about that.

Penny Fitzgerald: I, I feel too that most of the time our hangups about social media are because of a, a limiting belief that we might have. Totally. We don't wanna be present. We don't wanna be seen, oh my gosh, what if my high school buddy sees this? Or my sister, what are my cousins gonna say? You know, all of that. It just keeps us small.

Belinda Sandor: That's real. That is absolutely real. Yeah. So my advice about that would be, you know, don't share things that are vulnerable for you. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm. 

Belinda Sandor: so, so when I talk to my students, I, I encourage them to write a newsletter at least once a month. And you don't need to expose, things that happened in your life.

It's really about. Talking [00:15:00] about services that you could offer. So, I mean, e even with me as a VA trainer, I'm on social media all the time, but I'm not, I'm not necessarily sharing, um, a conversation I'm having with my daughter or a tragedy in my family. It's you, you don't have to do that. It's really just about sharing.

the goodness that you can offer and the tr you know, the help that you can bring other people. And I know a lot of us have had. Experiences where we've, all of us have, where we've shared something and we've been vulnerable and somebody's slapped us, you know? Mm-hmm. And we're kinda like that puppy, you know, with the paper, you know?

Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. 

Belinda Sandor: Going like that. And I think, um, if we can realize that that's, that was a moment in time and that you don't have to let your life be defined by it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Belinda Sandor: I know. It's hard. Well, 

Penny Fitzgerald: it is. It is hard. I think so many times too that the people that are. Slapping you with the, the newspaper 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Are trolls that are living in their mother's [00:16:00] basement.

You know, it's not someone that knows that's doing the thing. you can't really take it seriously. 

Belinda Sandor: Right, right, right, right there. You know, there was something that I read a long time ago in a book, and the, the book just had a, um, it was just re republished recently and updated. It's called The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson, and it's a very powerful book, and he talks about how the number of people who attend your funeral largely has to do with the weather.

And so when you think about, and it's, I'm sure it's true. I'm sure it's true. And so when you think about like. Who are you trying to please and what are you trying to do? for people who aren't even going to come to your funeral. And, and I get that whole thing about, you know, what's my family gonna think and, what's she up to now And 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.

Belinda Sandor: I, I get that and, and being maybe embarrassed because of a level that you reached in corporate and now you're doing something different that people don't really understand. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm 

Belinda Sandor: mm-hmm. Um, it, it, it can be a lot. Um, but I would say go find some new friends. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Good [00:17:00] advice. Yes. Yes. If the people, um, that are closest to you are not supporting you, then there's a sign.

Yeah. 

Belinda Sandor: Ab absolutely. I think who you let in your close proximity mm-hmm. Or, you know, is so important. It's so, it's so important and, um, yeah. We, we don't understand always that we have complete control over that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Exactly. Well, and really over what we say to ourselves is maybe the most important. We would never talk to a girlfriend, like we talk to ourselves.

We beat ourselves up so much. 

Belinda Sandor: No, no. And I do, we spend a lot of time on mindset in my school and, and talking about that. Mm-hmm. And learning to retrain the voice and, it's never gonna go away. Mm-hmm. It's just not, and I, I spent a lot of time trying to force it to go away, but what I realized is what we really need to do is we need to make friends with it.

And when we make friends with it, then we can train it to be kinder. So where the voice maybe would [00:18:00] start with me when I'm trying something new, and it would go off on this big rampage about, what you're doing and this is ridiculous and you shouldn't even be trying this. Now what I say is, oh.

That feels uncomfortable. Oh, that's what that is. Oh, there 

Penny Fitzgerald: you are. 

Belinda Sandor: I'm not gonna listen to that. Okay, I see 

Penny Fitzgerald: you. 

Belinda Sandor: That's right. That's right. Right. And then you might have moments of a pop up, but if you practice listening to your thoughts and the what, I love this, this phrase, choose a better feeling thought.

Just keep choosing a better feeling thought. Yeah. Then you'll move your yourself right out of it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. Yeah. Ask a better question, 

Belinda Sandor: right? Like, 

Penny Fitzgerald: what's really happening here? Oh, it's just something new. It's gonna take me a while to figure it out. 

Belinda Sandor: That's right. And one of my co, one of my business coaches said recently, and I love this, he said, it's only a problem if there's no solution.

Almost every, 

Penny Fitzgerald: and there is no problem without a solution. 

Belinda Sandor: Right, right. it's, it's very rare. It's like, you know, terminal illness or tragic death. Other, you know, we can lean into a [00:19:00] solution. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. There's a perspective, so yeah. Is this gonna matter in 10 years from now?

Or even 10 minutes from now? 

Belinda Sandor: No. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Okay. So you're now, um, training other VAs, um, to do their own thing and to be their own boss and make their own hours and that sort of thing. That's gotta be really rewarding. 

Belinda Sandor: It is very rewarding. It, it really is. one of my favorite examples is.

Um, a woman, um, her name is Carrie. Uh, she started a couple of years ago. She was a stay, stay at home mom. She was homeschooling her kids, never worked outside of the home. Uh, and, um, she was taking care of her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law went into a, um, nursing home situation. Mm-hmm. So she had more free time, so she started building her business and she works consistently, uh, 15 to 20 hours a week.

And she makes between five and $8,000 every single month. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

And 

Belinda Sandor: part-time hours, and it's because she worked the system, everyone she knows knows what she [00:20:00] does. She publishes a newsletter. Um, she's on social media. She networks. And, and that's what's possible. That's what's possible.

Penny Fitzgerald: That is so exciting. Yeah. And doing, doing it from home, doing it on your own hours, doing what you, what lights you up and brings you joy. 

Belinda Sandor: Right, exactly. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Belinda Sandor: Exactly. Yeah. Working with people you enjoy. Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. It's, uh, well, part of the, the reason you can work with people you enjoy is. You know when, when you get into a workplace and you're working with your boss for 40 hours a week mm-hmm.

If there's any kind of personality rub, there's no room for that. Where if you're working virtually and someone emails you and asks you to do something, you're, you're not in the room with them. You know, all of that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Belinda Sandor: Water cooler, political stuff. there's not many people that most of us can't take in small doses.

That makes it easier. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Even my brother. [00:21:00] 

Belinda Sandor: Exactly. Exactly. 

Penny Fitzgerald: But I digress. 

Belinda Sandor: We all have that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Um. Yeah, I work with a lot of entrepreneurs too, but in a very different way, a different capacity. But it, it is very rewarding when you see someone light up and change their own lives through their own business and what they are, what they're doing.

Just to see that is rewarding, fulfilling, um, it brings a lot of joy. 

Belinda Sandor: It's so satisfying. Yeah. And I've been doing it now long enough that there's just story after story after story. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, I love it. 

Belinda Sandor: And, uh, I love showcasing them and, and showing them off. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It's fun. Well, and really, okay, we, getting back to the social media thing, what mm-hmm.

What you show. I mean, showing those kinds of things is so powerful, like, and everybody has success stories in whatever business they're in. Absolutely. So sharing those on social media and kind of focusing on someone else, I feel like when you take this, the focus off yourself and you focus on who you're supporting, who [00:22:00] you're helping, and remember who you serve.

It becomes a lot easier to be visible because then it's about them. It's about what, how you're helping someone else. 

Belinda Sandor: Y yes, and I, and what's helped me in the past, because there are times where I get stuck and I think I have nothing to say. I have nothing to say. You know, just like, um, is, is I've come up with phrases like, one ti one time, the first time I tried this, it was Operation Fall in love.

So everything that I talked about was operation, fall in love, op, fall in love with virtual assistants, fall in love with the lifestyle, fall in love with oh, 

Penny Fitzgerald: a theme. 

Belinda Sandor: Right. A theme. So when you don't know what to talk about, you're like, okay, operation fall in love. What am I in love with today? Mm-hmm. and it could be going to the grocery store in the middle of the day, or it could be, you know, going out to the chickens and, and, taking care of them.

Mm-hmm. And not having to leave my job, um, or ask permission or recently, um, we had a couple of deaths in the family and I needed to go take care of people. It it, the conversation was. When can I leave that? That was the whole [00:23:00] conversation. When's the next plane? Which is different from Oh, nice. I do my work and who, who do I have to talk to?

And, you know, all of that stuff. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. The flexibility of, of owning your own business, of doing your own thing is just unmatched. Yeah. That, that, in my opinion, that's worth way more than a salary increase. 

Belinda Sandor: Yes. Yes, I agree. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Quality of life. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. And, and you know, I think we get so bogged down by, I mean, I had a job for 17 years and 

Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm.

Belinda Sandor: Went every day corporate and um, we get so conditioned by it that we don't even realize that something else is possible. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. Exactly. It's the way it's always been. And so that's all you can see, 

Belinda Sandor: right? 

Penny Fitzgerald: Dreaming bigger, um, is another thing that I've coached a lot of my clients on in the past. And like how, just thinking bigger, thinking outside of what you've already seen and thinking, you know, if you've come this far, if you've done X, Y, and Z, what is [00:24:00] beyond that?

how do you visualize that and cast that vision? One of the things that, That I talk to my clients about is what would your older, wiser self want for you? She wants the best for you, first of all, and how can you support her future life? Like what do you want that future life to look like and what do you do in this moment to support that?

Belinda Sandor: Right. And people struggle with that a lot. Mm-hmm. You know, bridging, bridging that gap. It's, it's true. It's, it's, sometimes it's hard to see that connection. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. There was another exercise I do with people too that where you look back at your six or 7-year-old self and what do you wanna tell her?

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: What have you been through and what have you survived and what are you proud of? And look at the things that you've done and you've accomplished in your life. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah, 

Penny Fitzgerald: very powerful. You know, you want the best for her, right? So your older, wiser self, of course, wants the best for you too. It's the same thing in just a different generation.

Belinda Sandor: Right. I've [00:25:00] been doing an exercise like that recently, uh, where I call it, um, a future memory. So I'll sit, sit down with, uh, a challenge that I'm having today and, and it, and I mean, the challenge could be, um. Well, here, here, here's, here's an example. So let's say it's, it's Sunday and I am at my desk, but I really wanna be outside.

Mm-hmm. And I'm struggling with that because I'm a little mad that I'm inside, but I am committed to the inside thing, but I really wanna be outside. So the future memory that night might be me, me writing, I am so. Uh, grateful that I decided in January to stop working on the weekends. It transformed my entire, you know, my entire business.

It helped me be more clear, more present. My marriage is in, like, is in amazing shape because of all the, uh, adventures Greg and I have had on the weekend. Because my time is not divided, my brain is not divided. So I'll take a challenge, look for the solution, and write about it as if it's happened, and then [00:26:00] put things in place to move towards that as quickly as I can.

Penny Fitzgerald: That's beautiful and powerful. 

Belinda Sandor: It is. It is. Because when you're writing it, if you feel it mm-hmm. You put the energy in it, you know, it's, it's kind of inevitable. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. Writing about it and then even reading it out loud, saying it out loud. Yes. 

Belinda Sandor: Yes. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, it's very, um, impactful. I've done, um, letters to myself like that too.

What am I proud of in the last whatever. Mm-hmm. And just, I am in a puddle, I'm a mess after doing it, but in a good way, in the very best way, you know? That's 

Belinda Sandor: awesome. Yeah, 

Penny Fitzgerald: absolutely. Yeah. Very cool. Okay, so what else, what, what else would you like to tell my audience? What, what have you, what do you do? What about.

working with people and that sort of thing. 

Belinda Sandor: I think the biggest message that I, I am, um, standing on a hill about is that it's, it's never too late. to have the life that you want. Mm-hmm. You know, it's never [00:27:00] too late. Preach. It's funny. Yeah, because when I would turn 50, I had six figures of debt.

I had the divorce, I had all these back taxes, I have this 9-year-old daughter, you know, all the things and, and I honestly, what I thought in that moment was. Buckle up buttercup, like, need to get through this. Like, that's how I was approaching my life. 

Penny Fitzgerald: White knuckling it through the thing. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm.

Belinda Sandor: And, and then gradually over time, because I had tried so many things and I was holding on so tight andI, I just couldn't get any traction and. Um, and it was through the process of being a virtual assistant that a little at a time, I could see the freedoms that I had and I could see the money that I could make and, and, and now sliding, I'm going to be 65 on Thursday and sliding into 65.

You know, just seeing that. The, the only end to my entrepreneurial creativity is the one I decide on. and it's interesting because so many of my friends are retiring, uh, and, or they're like, I should retire, and I'm thinking. [00:28:00] Why would I do that? You know, like what? Because right now I, I, you know, I work most days, uh, most weekdays all day long doing work that I love.

Um, I'm with my students. I go out for an hour at night with my chickens. Now Daylight savings times is 

Penny Fitzgerald: here. Mm-hmm. 

Belinda Sandor: Mm-hmm. So my husband and I will go on a 15 minute, a 15 mile bike ride after work. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Nice. 

Belinda Sandor: And it's just like, you know, it's, it's glorious. And so to have that. Balance of, brain stimulation and learning and outside and relationship and all of that all at once.

I mean, that's a lifestyle and that's what I teach my students, that you're building a lifestyle. It's, it's not about, um, it's not just about the money and it's not just about, the, the work, it, it all goes together. So what I would say is it's, it's never too late to do that. It's just never too late to do it.

Penny Fitzgerald: That's right. I tell, tell my people that all the time. 

Belinda Sandor: Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: It's never too late. Um, that is fantastic. Well, first of all, happy birthday a little early. Thank you. 

Belinda Sandor: Yep. 

Penny Fitzgerald: And [00:29:00] congratulations because Yeah. Who, who was it? Mark Twain. I forget who said it, but find something you love to do and then find a way to get paid to do it.

Belinda Sandor: And I've been very blessed to do that. Yeah. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That's fantastic. Okay, so at the end of my episodes I love to bring it around to, um, we've been talking about fun things all along, but something fun. Um, do you have a favorite cocktail or glass of wine that you enjoy? 

Belinda Sandor: I do. So my favorite cocktail is A glass.

About this tall? 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. 

Belinda Sandor: Filled with ice to the top. With, uh, Veka, vodka Uhhuh. And then, um, I take the, uh, fresh lime juice. I just got this new thing, it's like a mm-hmm. Que citrus squeezer thing. You push the lime down and it goes around and it just like pulls all the pulp and everything out. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, that's fantastic.

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. So I put that on and I, I use, um, large organic limes and I usually use four of them. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh. 

Belinda Sandor: All the juice into the vodka, 

Penny Fitzgerald: uh, 

Belinda Sandor: and a [00:30:00] happy camper. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my goodness. Do you add any sweetener at all to it? 

Belinda Sandor: No. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

Belinda Sandor: No, I don't like to drink my calories. Yeah. It's been like kind of a lifelong role for me, so. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay.

Belinda Sandor: No, I, I like the edge of the vodka and 

Penny Fitzgerald: uhhuh 

Belinda Sandor: and the lime. Just, it's, you know, my husband's always sneaking a sip of my drink. I'm like, stop that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. It's mine. Get your own. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. Really, really. So, yeah, that's what I, I love to drink. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay, so what, you described it like a tall

Belinda Sandor: a uhhuh.

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay, so, and no, like club soda. It, I just imagine the lime being very tart and citrusy. 

Belinda Sandor: Uh, it is, but what happens is the, the, um, ice starts to melt. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, yeah. 

Belinda Sandor: And it comes like this, this, the, the glass becomes very cloudy with the citrus all mixed in. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

Belinda Sandor: So, let's see, what would it be like, it would be kind of like lemon ice.

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Like you 

Belinda Sandor: can imagine that [00:31:00] kind of tart taste, but it doesn't make you go. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, oh God. Yeah. 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah. It doesn't make you do that. It's just more, it's very refreshing. Um, and I haven't had anyone sip my drink and not love it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh, I am going to try that. 

Belinda Sandor: 

Penny Fitzgerald: I love a squeeze of lime in my vodka and club soda 

Belinda Sandor: Uhhuh.

Penny Fitzgerald: Uh, but I am gonna try just the lime juice and see 

Belinda Sandor: how I, yeah. But club soda, I'm not a fan. There's something sort of like dry about it. Mm-hmm. It's sort of like takes, and I, I don't enjoy that. But, um, yeah, it's really good. So healthy amount, like, you know, this much vodka in the tall glass. Mm-hmm. And then.

Fill lime juice and uh, I usually let it sit for five or six minutes before Uhhuh, I get. Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Oh my gosh. I'm gonna experiment with that. And for my listeners, I have a thing called Sipper Club. Once a month we get together and sip together on Zoom and I think that's gonna be a future recipe. 'cause that sounds delicious.

Belinda Sandor: Oh yeah, it is. It is delicious. It used to be, um, [00:32:00] lemonade. But, uh, recently my husband and I have cleaned up our diets and we're not, um, we're not, uh, taking or eating, drinking any natural flavors, artificial flavors, coloring. Yep. Anything like that. And it's sweet sweeteners and that thing. Yeah. No artificial sweeteners.

That stuff is formaldehyde, so none of that. And, uh, so we stopped that and so we had to figure out what the cocktail was gonna be. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

Belinda Sandor: No longer drinking lemonade. Yeah. So that's what we 

Penny Fitzgerald: did. Oh, I love it. 

Belinda Sandor: Mm-hmm. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Good. Good and healthy. Very cool. Okay, so what's a, uh, fun memory shared with friends while you're, um, sipping or not sipping?

What, just fun memories. 

Belinda Sandor: Oh, oh my gosh. Um, well, the thing that, the thing that I really love about where I live is that. So I've always lived in these controlled areas where there's an HOA and all this. Mm-hmm. And we, my husband and I can do anything we want. So last year we planted an [00:33:00] orchard so we can just get these ideas and just, we spend days and days and days, researching them and planting.

And so I, I guess my fun memories would be things that I do with him. Mm-hmm. Uh, outside in, in the farm, we have something called, we don't just have chickens, we have Chicken Village and Chickens Bridge. Is three coops with these beautiful runs that we built Uhhuh. And this year, um, the, the memory at the end of the summer is gonna be all the flowers and all the wild flowers that I plant out there around the chickens.

Beautiful. And probably a fire pit. We're talking about where we're 

Penny Fitzgerald: gonna put 

Belinda Sandor: that. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Nice. 

Belinda Sandor: But yeah, those are the things I like to do. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Do you have a, um, like some kind of fence around the coop to keep them safe from predators and that sort of thing? 

Belinda Sandor: Yeah, so we have three coops and then each one has a run.

So the runs are typically. Uh, 10 feet wide, 20 feet long, and, six feet tall and they're, they're beautiful. They're red. We painted them all. Mm. Um, we have something called hardware cloth. 

it's a very dense [00:34:00] wire that's a screen, and so we wrap the entire run, including underneath, because things can 

Borough under, um, and they're all wrapped up. So it's filled with sand and they live out there, um, during the day and they have water and food and they have logs to jump on to and a roost that they can, you know, look out And then about an hour before sunset.

I go out and I let all 25 out and they run around and they eat grass and, and it's uh, like a, a, I don't know what I wanna call it, rain. It's 

Penny Fitzgerald: happy hour. 

Belinda Sandor: It's happy hour. So they find all these worms and it's hysterical 'cause they chase each other around and we'll find a worm and they'll see it hanging from their mouth.

Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh 

Belinda Sandor: the chicken. It's, they look like this when they're running like. Nope, nope. You can't have it. Like, you don't, don't see me, don't look at me. And, uh, they try to run off into a corner and eat their worm without anyone else getting it. 

Penny Fitzgerald: That's gotta be fun and kind of comical. I'm sure 

Belinda Sandor: they are clowns.

They are clowns. And they jump up on my lap and sit [00:35:00] down and they love to snuggle. They're very, they're very sweet. It's surprising. It's surprising, but 

Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. Yeah, 

Belinda Sandor: yeah, 

Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. I bet most people would not, would not think that about a chicken. 

Belinda Sandor: No, no. They'll like, I'll, I'll be sitting in a chair out there and they'll come down, they'll come right to my feet and I'll pick them up and I'll put them in between my, in between my legs with their little feet and out, and they looked at back rubbed and scratched.

They, they're just like, oh, this is so good. 

Penny Fitzgerald: They're, they have a spa day. 

Belinda Sandor: They do. And yes. And sometimes they get dirty and we have to, we bring them in the kitchen, we bathe them. Mm-hmm. And blow they, we blow them dry. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. They are spoiled chickens. 

Belinda Sandor: They are, they all have names. Yeah. They're very spoiled.

Penny Fitzgerald: Aw. You, you mentioned an orchard too. What kind of, uh, trees do you have? 

Belinda Sandor: Yes. So we have, um, a cherry tree, uh, a prune plum tree. We have a Granny Smith apple tree, and uh, a. Envy, I think it is apple tree. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. Mm-hmm. 

Belinda Sandor: Um, we also, we have [00:36:00] two pear trees. I'm trying to think what, uh oh. And uh, we just got two pecan trees.

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh 

Belinda Sandor: wow. Uh, so we have this big giant field next to, um, so our, our house there, there are just these separate fields and our house is on one field and then the orchard is next to it and dividing it. When we bought the house, there were these three really big scraggly bushes. I had no idea what they were, but I went out there one day and I said to my husband, we've gotta take these down.

These things are like, they're filled with vines and people are like, there's all kinds of stuff growing. And I dug into it a little bit. We started cleaning it out, and I realized with the help of a friend. It was a blueberry bushes. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. 

Belinda Sandor: And last year we decided, I decided that we were gonna weigh all the blueberries just to see how many blueberries we got off these.

Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Belinda Sandor: 313 pounds. Gosh, we had to buy freezer. We bought a blueberry. Yeah. So, um, blueberry cobbler, blueberry pie, nerves. Um, so July is the month. [00:37:00] So I am out there two or three hours a day. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, 

Belinda Sandor: blueberries in the sun listening to country music. Yep. And. 

Penny Fitzgerald: With purple fingers and, 

Belinda Sandor: and they don't actually turn purple.

I have this, um, really, I have a, an apron that I put on. It's about this deep and it sits on my waist and I just, they're highbush blueberries, so the, they're big, tall. In fact, I get in on a ladder to get the ones at the top, 

Penny Fitzgerald: oh gosh, Uhhuh. 

Belinda Sandor: And, um, I just pull them and put them into my. Apron until it's like it's too heavy and then I pull them into a, um, a big giant bowl and, uh, yeah, we filled two freezers last year.

Dang. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. Well, I wish we lived closer because I could use some of those. Yeah, 

Belinda Sandor: yeah, absolutely. Mm-hmm. Oh gosh. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. So is there anything else you wanna share with my audience? How could people find you? 

Belinda Sandor: Oh, yeah. So probably the best way is to go to https://www.thevaconnection.com/, thevaconnection.com. Scroll down to the bottom and subscribe to my news, uh, my [00:38:00] newsletter.

I send out a newsletter every Monday. Uh, and I try to really, um, help people see the possibilities. Um, I, I wouldn't really call them, they're, they're not all about selling things, so you'll see opportunities there, but it really is about the mindset work we need to do to have the life that we wanna create.

Mm-hmm. Um, I would love for people to subscribe to my newsletter, and then when we do have free trainings, which we have one coming up in April, you'll hear about those too. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Belinda. This has been delightful. 

Belinda Sandor: My pleasure. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

All right. Bye-bye. 

Penny Fitzgerald: Bye. 

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