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SNM243: You Can Have it All with Lindsay Sutherland

• Jonathan Green : Bestselling Author, Tropical Island Entrepreneur, 7-Figure Blogger

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Welcome to the Serve No Master Podcast! This podcast is aimed at helping you find ways to create new revenue streams or make money online without dealing with an underpaid or underappreciated job. Our host is best-selling author, Jonathan Green.

Today's guest is Lindsay Sutherland a Business Coach, Podcaster, Speaker and Freedom Seeker. She helps people experience freedom in their personal and professional life.

In this episode, Lindsay Sutherland explains how she started her journey and how she helps entrepreneurs to become personally and professionally independent.

Notable Quotes

-       “I was giving my power away by assuming things were gonna happen for me and just magically happened.” [Lindsay Sutherland]

-       “The best way I have found is to lean into that doubt and almost like reverse psychology yourself.” [Lindsay Sutherland]

-       “I believe in the possibility that this can happen. And that's all you.” [Lindsay Sutherland]

-       “Even if you're only working an A Monday through Friday job, now your weekends are packed with house chores and laundry and all those things you have to get done so you still don't have time to spend with your kids.” [Lindsay Sutherland]

-       “Once you have it, you can identify it and it can help you make those decisions and know when to say yes or no to a situation.” [Lindsay Sutherland]

-       “I know that some people have different disadvantaged advantages, but we have the ability to turn things around.” [Jonathan Green]

-       “What I've noticed is that there are two ways people respond to a big challenge.” [Jonathan Green]

 

Connect with Lindsay Sutherland

●       Website: Passive Income Examiner

Connect with Jonathan Green

Jonathan Green: It's possible to do it all. Leave the job behind, work from home, and spend more time with your kids. And we're gonna talk about it today with special guest Lindsay Sutherland. 

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Announcer: Are you tired of dealing with your boss? Do you feel underpaid and underappreciated? If you want to make it online, fire your boss and start living your retirement dreams now. Then you've come to the right place. Welcome to Serve No Master Podcast, where you'll learn how to open new revenue streams and make money while you sleep.

Presented live from a Tropical island in the South Pacific by best selling author Jonathan Green. Now, here's your host. 

Jonathan Green: So I'm really excited about this topic. A lot of our audience, and a lot of people have this fear that of if they leave the security of their job, it will mess up their family. Whereas you and I know, golly, being home with the kids, the more we can do it, the better.

Like, I love being home. Even when my kids interrupt my recordings, it's a little bit annoying. But I'd rather have that to kind of have that life balance. One of my great regrets as a child was that my dad just worked so many hours. He was there for a lot of the life events, but he wasn't there very often, day to day.

I can't remember a time him coming home when the son was still out. So you tell me a little bit about that moment when you go, something's gotta change. 

Lindsay Sutherland: Definitely, well, for me, that's been a driving force in my life. And PS thanks for having me here. I'm excited to, to dive into this. Um, both of my parents passed away before they hit retirement. 

My mother died when I was 12. My dad died later in 2013. Right? Worked up right to the day he died just like you. You know, he was taking care of us, running his own business, um, after mom died. And so we didn't see a lot of him. There wasn't a lot of family interaction. Um, and once he passed, My youngest son was, had just been born, so I had three kids at that point and I just knew like something has to be different now.

I will say I got sucked right into working. I was still working full-time. I was the primary income earner in my family. I have been for the last 20 years. And when that moment happened, I started really asking myself, there's gotta be a better way. And I don't know if you've ever asked yourself that, but like it seems like that question is the driving force that gets so many people to actually move on and change their life.

So I know if you're listening to this and you're asking yourself, that's a good place to be because that is gonna be the catalyst for your change. But for me, that's what it was. There's gotta be a better way. And it didn't happen right away. It didn't, definitely didn't happen right away, cuz that was 2013 when dad passed away, and it wasn't until 2018 that we finally made our big shift where I left, left my corporate job and did the whole thing.

So that's what, five years of planning and dreaming and wishing and figuring it all out. Looking back that five years, even though in the moment it felt like forever, it felt like eternity, like it was never gonna happen. Now I look back at it and I'm like, five years was not that much time. When you look at the big picture and it, and it happened, and look what I was able to create and like that's the cool part.

Jonathan Green: Yeah. A lot of people when they're thinking about this, especially when they're the main income earner and you already have kids, you already have a partner, They're a big part of the decision making process. When you came home and said, I'm thinking about moving away from this job security. Was there support at home or is there like, wait, like the common thing I hear is like, well, what about our insurance?

What about these other, it's not so much the income. It's usually the other things that people really worry about. The other things that are part of the job security feel. What was that conversation like? 

Lindsay Sutherland: Okay, so for my family, we didn't have insurance. I have had heard a lot of people have a nervousness about this.

We were very fortunate that we didn't have any major medical issues where insurance was really critical for us. Um, at the company I was working at for our family to get full coverage insurance, it was still gonna be like $1,500 a month, plus a $12,000 deductible. It was insane. I, I thought, what is, why would anybody invest in this?

I was making about 13,000 a month at the time, and so I said, I'm just gonna like, pull money off and put it in a savings account and fund myself. You know? And then also there's, there's, there's HSA programs you can meet with, like a financial planner. They have resources to help you. And there's these co-ops.

So we started discovering alternative healthcare options that were so much more affordable, and they were more like critical care components, so that if we ever did get into a major accident or heart attack situation that we were covered. But at the time, I was already going to a naturopath. I was taking my children to more holistic practitioners, so any of those doctor's visits wouldn't have been applied to my deductible anyway.

I was self-funding my, my healthcare at the time. So for us, that wasn't a big, a big thing for us. The big thing was we were looking at relocating to a state we'd never been to. We had no friends or family. We had no job lined up. We were getting ourself into a mortgage, right? And so we were gonna have debt.

It's a $3,000 house, so there was. You know, you have bills, you're walking into debt essentially, and trying to have faith about how is that gonna work out? Where are we gonna get the funds to, to make it by? We really had no idea. That was a very big unknown for us and for us, that was the big scary thing, so to speak.

Jonathan Green: Yeah. What's really interesting is that some people think, oh, I have to wait till I have the security to jump in. And other people find out, oh, when there's a fire behind me, It actually motivates me and I find the money. Like one of the things, and this is something my wife has never understood, cuz it's so strange for us, whenever we have like a big bill coming or something happening, I find a way.

To open up a new project or some opportunity comes our way and it kind of always works out. And I wonder if it's about the energy we put into the world or just that we, once we plant the seed telling everyone what we do and kind of opening up those business opportunities, then, then they can start to come our way.

Whereas if we're constantly hesitant, then people are hesitant to work with us. Like those things can kind of happen. That's something I've noticed over the 12 years I've been doing this, is that when you only have one foot in, Then people can sense that they go, I'd rather hire someone or work someone to do a project with someone who I know is a hundred percent.

And then more opportunities come your way. 

Lindsay Sutherland: Mm-hmm. . Well, what I learned through this lesson, like through this transition, is how much we are our own creator. So in the beginning, I was one of those people who used to say, Oh, if it, this didn't work out, so it must not be meant to be. Right. Have you, have you ever said that like it's, it's just not meant to be.

And what I learned, because we would put offer, we put an offer in, my husband was is Canadian, so we'd put an offer in, in Canada, we were looking at moving to Canada. We'd put an offer in on a house in Priest River, Idaho. And I was very much trying to force it. I was really desperate to get outta my situation, but, Every time it fell through, I said, it must not be meant to be.

And then I would go back into the pit, right of working. And you get sucked right back into that lifestyle because it's like you throw your hands up, you're like, oh, it didn't work out for me, so I'm just gonna give up on the idea. Uh, it's not God wants it to be. It'll work out right. People, people assume life is happening to them and that's the false.

Pretense right there. It wasn't happening to me. I was giving my power away by assuming things were gonna happen for me and just magically happened. What shifted? Really was, uh, when, it was a year after my daughter was born. So my fourth child, I again went through where she's being raised by a nanny. I missed out on all the first, and I was sick of it.

I'm like, every child I've had, I've wanted to be home with them. I've wanted to experience these things, and here it is. I'm, I'm so many years into this. I just looked at my husband and I said, when are we gonna start? Taking action and stop just talking about it. And I said in that moment I said, we have to like get clear about what we want and move forward no matter what happens.

And let me tell you, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. Like it was one of those things. Looking back, I think to myself, I had so many opportunities to say, oh, this is a sign. This isn't meant to be. I shouldn't be doing this. We could choose to take adverse things that happen to us and believe that they are, uh, a roadblock for a reason, so to speak.

Or we could say, okay. This is a roadblock. I know I'm on the right path. I know I'm moving forward in this direction. What is my next step? How am I gonna work through this? And rather than assuming it means to turn around and run, no, we just have to ask ourself what's the next step forward? And just take those baby steps through each situation until we're through it.

And I'm telling you what, you get to a certain point where you get, you push past the chaos and the crazy, and all of a sudden that's when things like, it's like the floodgates open and finally, The universe is like, or God or whatever it is, . It's like, okay, you showed me, you're on the, you're, you're committed, and here, and then just whoosh.

I mean, my loan closed in less than 30 days. We found the perfect house, like everything started to work out perfectly. Once I got past all this chaos and decided and showed and prove to myself that I'm a hundred percent committed, that's when my mindset changed. That's when I was like, I am the creator. I decided this for myself, and I just kept pushing at it until it was done.

I didn't take no for an answer. I didn't accept that because I couldn't sell my house in Arizona. Fast enough that it wasn't gonna work out. And that was scary too. Like we ended up moving before we sold our house in Arizona, which was our cushion money that we were gonna live on. So we had this period of time where we had very little money and we were on blind faith.

But in the end it all worked out. I mean, like it, it worked out magically, but there was a lot of stress in the process. So it was a really interesting lesson that it's actually ironic because it's a really interesting lesson. I listen, I love listening to my own story, as ironic as that sounds too, but because it's, it's something that I forget again, like I even went through it and then I get into new situations and I'm like, oh yeah, that's right.

That is what I do. I could do this . So we all need those reminders all throughout our life. . 

Jonathan Green: That's really good. You brought up two things that I think are so important. The first is how quick we are to give up our power. and every time I hear someone saying like, oh, you know, it's someone else, whether they say luck or the universe or they blame God or politics, they always blame some third party.

That's like the first mistake. A lot of us may go, oh, like I didn't have the opportunity as a child, or I didn't have those things, and those things stink. I know that some people have different disadvantaged advantages, but we have the ability to turn things around. People from the worst like upbringings have built themselves to massive success.

And a big part of it is making that decision that I'm the responsible for my wins and my losses. Cause that feels bad. Like the first time something goes wrong and you go, it's my fault. I didn't work hard enough or I messed up. But it means you have the power to fix it. And that's really an empowering moment.

So when you took that moment of control, I think that's really amazing, that realization that I'm in control. And the second thing you talk about is adversity. What I've noticed is that there are two ways people respond to a big challenge. One is it's an excuse to give up. So the people that aren't serious go, oh, you know what it's too hard. It doesn't work. Whatever the model is, they go building a course online, you're building a website. It doesn't really work. And now I've proven it. So they're kind of the people that were just dabbling. That's why I don't really love the word side hustle, cuz it's like, oh, I'm not really trying it It's on the side and a lot of people are looking for an excuse to quit. 

And this happened a big, and there was a big moment in books. Um, a few years ago, Amazon changed a bunch of rules about how you could launch a book and generate reviews. And a lot of people, 90% of the authors quit, said, oh, it doesn't work anymore.

And I remember that moment I was doing okay with books at the time, and I said, oh my gosh, 90% of these readers need someone new. So I saw it as a huge opportunity and a lot of the people I was working with went back to drudgery jobs. They were doing great stuff and they just went to Drudge Jobs because they said, oh, this is impossible to overcome.

And I said, no, I bet we can figure something out. And I did and, and suddenly I had this huge market share. So sometimes when things are really adverse, they're the people go, oh my gosh, everyone's quitting. That means there's more for me if I can figure this out. They see it as the opportunity mindset, and it sounds like that's what you did, which is amazing.

I really love that. Because a lot of people would be so scared. I know that's one of the biggest fears is moving when you haven't sold your house. When my fan moved cross country, I remember that experience where like we, we wanted to move during the summer between the two school years cause there were four kids and my parents had four kids as well and just like I do.

And they were like, oh, we don't wanna. We have to move because of a business thing. My dad's business was moving, but at the same time, you don't wanna leave that house behind cuz that's scary, right? When a house is on the market more than 90 days, I know it starts to get really scary. So you really step out there really like double down on yourself, which I think is amazing.

Lindsay Sutherland: Yeah. Well, and there's something I heard along the way. This guy, I don't remember where I heard it, but he was talking about the sponsoring thought. Okay. I've always been a very like, observe, self observed person where I watch my thinking for, for the most part, and he said whatever your sponsoring thought is I think it might have been Wayne Dyer actually, now that I'm saying it. 

But anyway, it's the thing that is the catalyst for whatever you're programming your brain, and I don't know, we've talked about the reticulate activating system. It's like that thing that makes things show up. Like if you're all of a sudden shopping for a certain car and then you suddenly see it everywhere, cuz you program your brain to start looking for it right.

So we have to be aware of that sponsoring thought. If our sponsoring thought is doubtful, that's telling the universe or God or whatever. I, I, I mean, I, I'm very fluid with that, but in my mind there is a higher power and, and that is telling that energy. Yeah. That we have doubt. So the universe says, okay, fine, if you doubt, then this is what you get. You get failure because that's what you're expecting, cuz that's your sponsoring thought. So I say pay attention to that. If you have doubt, ask yourself, what is it that's making you doubt? What's your fear? What can give you that security blanket to help you walk through that next step?

And. And overcome that doubt. And here's the best way I found. So this is my tip of the day, okay? The best way I have found is to lean into that doubt and almost like reverse psychology yourself. So look, I understand that I have doubt about starting this new program. I question it every day. I'm going back and forth about it, however, It's okay, that's normal.

That means that I'm really giving it some good thought and I'm thinking through it clearly, and I'm giving it my best, uh, energy. And I wanna put the put behind it. And guess what else? I know it's possible to be successful. I know it's possible because other people are doing it. See how I'm like spinning myself up?

So I leaned into the negative and then I reverse it and I turn it into a positive. I believe in the possibility that this can happen. And that's all you. Today, all you need today is to believe in the possibility and shift that sponsoring thought so that your articulated activating system can start focusing on the, the, the outcome being the positive that you want.

But you have to constantly be mindful and like weed your garden, right? Your mind is your garden. You gotta pull those weeds and turn those thoughts around a hundred percent of the time that you hear them. And the more you do that, the less they come up. Just like when you weed your garden, the less weeds come up and the faster everything starts to come to for you.

So essentially that's kind of what ended up happening.

Jonathan Green: I think that's really great because so often people wanna learn the mechanics of building a business, the process, and skip over the mindset of the mentality. And then when something tough happens, , they're not ready for it. And I see this all the time. There's a lot of times people say teach mindset before they teach the mechanics and everyone skips those videos, right?

We skip those chapters of the book like, no, no, I have confidence. I don't need to write down my goals. I'm good on that. And we skip that part, not realizing there's a reason people put it at the beginning of the book all the time. And that is that our thought is where most of the game is fought. 90% of it's in here.

Cuz if we're expect to fail, then we'll find confirmations. If we're looking for proof that a program or system or process doesn't work, we'll find what we're looking for and so we can actually self-sabotage without realizing it because we keep going, I know this probably won't work, or I doubt this will work.

It's kind of like when people have these really negative thoughts about money, like all rich people are evil or money changes you. When you have those beliefs, it really holds you back and I've met people that have really strong beliefs. And if you make any money, you must be a bad person that the only way to get rich is by crushing the poor.

You can't make money and do good things and they never make any revenue. There's, if you have this strong belief, cuz nobody wants to become a monster, right? If you're convinced, it will make you bad. Then you, a part of you is always self-sabotaging. So this is really great. I think this is really wonderful.

Now your main focus is specifically helping mothers who wanna spend more time with their kids. So I'd love to hear about some of the things that they struggle with specifically, like some of the thoughts. And I know that like, yeah, I had those same things. I didn't wanna miss my kids first steps or first words or the potty training moments.

But what are some of those other parts that are unique to mothers that can sometimes be a mental thought that holds them back or a limitation when they're thinking about transitioning to building their own business and kind of being the boss of the operation so they can spend more time at home. 

Lindsay Sutherland: So the big thing is you're giving up more time to get more time.

If you think about it, so initially, if you're starting a business while working, which is what I did, cuz I was the primary income earner, so I couldn't just quit my job. I had to, I had to finagle that, you know, I've always been working on the side to build, to get things up to a certain point. Now, I will admit, you're right about that side hustle.

That is a mindset, and like until you're all in, it's just not gonna pay out the way you need it to. Because it wasn't for me until I made it my full time, like I just went on a limb again. I quit my second job that I had up here in Idaho and went after my business fulltime. That's the only time that I ever made it really successful.

But during that time, During that time, I found that, um, the hardest part was saying no to my kids. And I mean, I think this is the part that every parent who belongs to be with them, can feel from the depths of their soul is when your child says, mommy, will you cuddle with me or Mommy, can we go to the park today?

And you can't because you're either working right or you are not working. Even if you're only working an A Monday through Friday job, now your weekends are packed with house chores and laundry and all those things you have to get done so you still don't have time to spend with your kids. It's constantly juggling your life, feeling like you're never enough for your children.

That pain is so real. I think that's the part that gets worse before it gets better, and that's the part that people have to face and really steal themselves to walk through that, that part of it. 

Jonathan Green: I think that you're onto something really brilliant there because we want it to be the quick success and we see that there's so much marketing, right, that says, oh, you can build a business 30 days unit revenue in 30 days.

And for some people they do hit the jackpot right at the gate. But for me, I went through a massive desert. I moved back into my mom's basement for a year. Then I lived on my friend's couch in a studio apartment for a year. So the first two years of building my business, my life took a major dip as far as quality of life, and then things turned around.

But there's that period of sacrifice, that desert, the period of challenge that it can be really hard to get through if we're not really focused on that goal. That I think that's the period when people go, oh, this is too hard. I'm out of here without realizing. No, once you get through that period, like I was fortunate enough that it happened before my children, so I got to be there for all those moments.

But yeah, those times when I sometimes have to be working, you know, especially if I'm working on a big project, sometimes I like I'm unavailable for three or four days. I'm like, guys, I love you, but I just have to really get this thing done so we can do something amazing on the other side. Cuz daddy's gotta pay for the school. Daddy's gotta pay for the food, daddy's gotta pay the bills. 

And yeah, you do miss some moments, but the trade off is so amazing when you can be there for so many, like I kind of have a policy if my kids, anytime I'm working, if I'm not on a call and my kids go, can we go swimming? I always go swimming. I was like, that's one of the things I decided to do because it's like a 20 minute thing.

We're not leaving the house. We're lucky enough that we have a pool right now, but sometimes they wanna do something big or they go out without me and I'm like, oh, I wish I was at the fair with them today. So sometimes we still have to sacrifice from home, but knowing that there's a light at the end of the tunnel I think is so good.

And realizing that, you know, it's like that old saying, like, you quit a 40 hour week job to have a hundred hour week job just so you could be the boss. That is a period we all have to go through. Then be at least having the ability to make those decisions can be so good and learning to say no. That's a big one because a lot of us, like, you know, as parents or even in business, we say yes to every opportunity.

When we start to say no, we start to say yes to the right opportunities. 

Lindsay Sutherland: Mm-hmm. . That's very true. That's very true. Well, and you can only do that if you have the clarity about what you want, and it's like a burning desire. I mean, it's what Napoleon Hill talks about and think and Grow Rich. I never really understood that.

I read that book years ago, and it really wasn't until I wanted to move to Idaho, until I wanted to start my business and really do it like it's a burning desire. Once you feel that, once you have a knowledge of what that feeling is, that can really be the, the guideline for you, almost like your blinders can be put on because you now know where you're going and why, what you're gonna do to get there.

You know? So if you don't have that, then you're not quite there yet. Like if you don't have that burning desire, it's still coming, like it's gonna happen. But you will get to a point where you're, your desire becomes so intense that nothing can stop you. I mean, literally nothing. Like I will never go back to another job.

I just can't. The idea of it just, I don't know, it makes me like stick to my stomach, but when I think about my business, I have this like burning desire to take to the next level to do this. Like I know that's the direction that's right for me. And now I've had that feeling enough. Once you have it, you can identify it and it can help you make those decisions and know when to say yes or no to a situation.

Jonathan Green: I think that's really good. A lot of us, at least for me, I would take on projects that were not the right fit early days. And what I discovered is when you're working on a project that's not the right fit, it's stressful, the money's never worth it, it doesn't feel right, and then a big opportunity is the right opportunity comes your way and you don't have the time to do it or the bandwidth.

So I've even seen that where, at least in my own experience, so that knowing the right thing for you, once you start to feel that you can drive in that direction, you bring in the right opportunities. And a lot of it again, it's so amazing how much of it comes back to mindset because you draw the right people to you.

Um, I recently, you know, I got a message, I was doing a live event about eight months ago, and someone says, why don't you have any women speakers? I had like two, And I said, I don't know that many women entrepreneurs. And since then I kind of made it. I said, I gotta meet more amazing women. I love, I buy a lot of women products.

I love to buy products by women because the perspective is different. And when I bring those into my marketing, the people I'm competing with don't know about it. So it's like a secret weapon. I love beautiful waves that women market it so much friendlier, there's so much interestingness and since then I've had tons of amazing female entrepreneurs on my podcast.

I have a bunch coming up. It's almost becoming, the majority of my interviews are shifting to women and it all became, because I, I kind of manifested it thinking, I really wish I did know more amazing women entrepreneurs cuz I love the way women market. I love the way all these really cool things that are happening that aren't happening in my part of the industry.

Mail marketing is very aggressive and it's very, it's a, you can, I can tell by looking at a website immediately if it's a man's website or a lady's website, cuz Lays are so welcoming, so friendly, it's like a happier place to be. It's like, welcome. We're gonna have a great time today. We're gonna hang out.

And every man's website is like, look, you got a problem, I'm gonna solve it, but it's gonna be expensive, right? It's always a picture of a, the man always has a picture of him on stage 

Lindsay Sutherland: I love your observation.

Jonathan Green: And the, the lady website is always like socks, coffee cup in front of a window and it's like at home and happy and I'm like, I wanna hang out there.

Like that's how I wanna feel. So I love that. And you're exactly right. When I started thinking about that, someone sent me that email and I was like, I've tried. I invited every woman I know. I only had, I knew it to at the time great markers. And now I know like 40 or 50. And it came from that conscious decision.

It's kinda like you said, once you're looking for Toyotas, all you see is Toyota. But it does come, A lot of it happens inside your head when you go, I'm all in. And I feel the same way. Like I could never go back to work. The thought of like someone telling me what time to get up or what time to go to bed or what to where to work.

I couldn't do any of those things. I've kind of become like a wild horse. That's untamable again. It's like, no, I've, I can't. I've reverted. I've lost that ability to have someone tell me what to do. I mean, with my last. Oh my gosh. I had one of those jobs where inefficiency was built into it. They were like, Jonathan, you're finishing tasks too fast.

And people were getting mad at me. I didn't know how to deal with that. Like I wasn't ready for that, you know, like government work this was in the education sector. It's the same thing like I was working at a large university. I remember they were like, this job should take you six months. And it took me 45 minutes and I was like, oh no.

I don't know how to smoke. I don't know how to spend 45 minutes in six months. I just didn't know what to do. And so I would take like two hour walks. I would do just try to, I just had to fill the eight hours cuz they would give me the task for the day. I'd be done in 30 minutes or so. And everyone else who worked in the apartment was really, let's just say my coworkers were not friendly.

I was like, I don't how to do it. I wasn't born with that slow roll ability that you need when you do government work. You know, if you don't spend the whole budget next year, the budget's smaller. If you don't fill your days, we'll give you more work. So I think that is part of that entrepreneurial spirit where we go, no, I wanna do, I wanna do the things that matter to me.

And I have this. Once you find that passion, it's so exciting to manifest and to generate the business that you want. And a lot of it is just going all in. Cuz once you go, once you really believe it and go, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to take, those are the people that succeed every time I see someone starting out.

It's the mindset that makes a difference on the success rather than the technique or skill level they start with. 

Lindsay Sutherland: Well, that's, that's a great, I mean, truth and I, I'm grateful that we're having this conversation because I think that's something that even I've overlooked. I mean, I've spent most of my life in my head doing, you know, self-help. I'm a self-help junkie. I've always been, you know, I've started, I started working with a thought coach when I was 19, so it's something that I've literally lived for. I'm 40 now, so it's 20 years that I've been, you know, a hundred percent in on that. And so when I hear that from other people, like I get into their programs and it's all about mindset.

I skip over it too. But, but then I go back and I go, Lindsay, what if you only get one new thing, or what if you hear that one thing that you forgot, like do it anyway. And everybody needs that lesson. Like it's just such an important part of anything we're trying to do, whether it's business, whether it's life, it doesn't matter.

The mindset is the catalyst that makes joy happen. 

Jonathan Green: Yeah. And sometimes it's the smallest nugget that you get from that section. One of the best things I ever learned, Was about focus. Um, one of my problems is that I get excited by too many projects. He said, you know, if you're trying to learn to do Facebook ads, that's the only thing you're doing.

It gets a hundred percent of your focus. You'll learn in a certain amount of time. If you decide to start a blog at the same time, now each gets 50% of your focus. Now everything takes twice as long. If you're adding in a podcast, everything takes three times as long. And I was like, that lesson, that one lesson blew my mind.

I was like, I wish I'd figured this out 10 years ago. For you, the people who just do one thing excellently. That's when you can go the furthest, when you start to move the distraction. And so that was one of the biggest lessons I learned is that this one mindset lesson of how focus is your most viable resource.

And I notice it in my life. On days where I'm doing podcast interviews, I can't really do anything else cuz it takes all my mental energy. Even if I'm, whether I'm doing eight episodes or two episodes, I can't really do anything else on that day because it takes up most of my bandwidth. The preparation, the thoughts, preparing what I'm gonna interview at and thinking about it.

I can't really sit down and write a blog post in between two interviews. My mind just doesn't work that way. So knowing the value of focus, I think help will hit dial in cuz so many people try a bunch of things at once. I think that's the other big mistake is I'm gonna try 20 ideas and see which one hits and it's like better to try one idea all the way.

So I love what you're sharing. I think this has been a really amazing episode. I think it's gonna really inspire people in a lot of ways. If there's one other like last thought you'd love to share with our audience, what do you think is one other thing that can help people to stay in the course and stay encouraged when they're going through those moments of doubt.

Lindsay Sutherland: Well, I think to, to par it down to th a three step process, I've kind of looked back at my life, looked back at the choices I made, and I can condense it into three steps. And so if you can just remember this as you're walking through whatever journey you're on, this may be helpful. Number one, get super clear about whatever it is you want.

Like you can taste it, you can feel it. I used to do visualizations about Idaho. I'd never been there. And then when we drove through the state we drove past places where I'm like, oh my stars. I visualize that spot. I literally imagined my feet in that river, like it was so crystal clear to me. That is number one.

Number two is to be specific about now after you have your vision, the vision's always the high level. Then you get very specific about the strategy. We made a document, I wrote this document up. It was my husband's name's Lee. So it was Lindsay and Lee's, uh, plan to live in our log cabin in the woods by December, 2018 at the top.

And I wrote out the plan and I forgot that I wrote this. And it was actually just last year that I found this document and I got chills because we moved in in December, 2018. And then the third thing is to put on your blinders and stay a hundred percent focused and committed to your decision no matter what happens.

Just if the date that you scheduled doesn't happen, which it did for us. But if it doesn't, you just readjust the date, but you just keep moving forward. So those three tips is the best way that you can attack anything that you have going on in your life. 

Jonathan Green: It's been amazing, Lindsay. I think that people are gonna love this episode.

It's probably become one of my most popular episodes of the year, so thank you so much for spending time with me. I really appreciate it. I'm excited about a lot of the things that you're working on and see what the future brings for your business. Where can people spend more time with you, see what you're working on, and really get to know you online?

Lindsay Sutherland: Yeah, well my website's the passive income examiner.com. That's my podcast also. So if you're interested, um, I have a freebie everybody. If you're interested in looking for ways to make passive income, it's text the word pie, p i e to 33 777, and you can get five ways to earn five K a month with passive income.

Jonathan Green: That's amazing. I think people are gonna do that. Expect a lot of texts coming away. Thank you so much for being here. This was amazing. 

Thanks for listening to today's episode. Making that first dollar online doesn't have to be daunting. I've got you covered. Get my free guide on how to make your first thousand dollars online right now at servemaster.com/1k.

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