Audio Transcript

Hey everyone. And welcome back to this week’s episode of The Wanderlover Podcast. This is our last episode of 2020. Oh my God. Where did this year ago.

(47s):
I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas with loved ones. If you celebrate, I for one am super grateful that the internet exists and we are able to gather virtually. Every year, my high school friends and I, and we were known as the crazians in our high school. We’ve been hosting this annual white elephant party every single year. It’s kind of like Secret Santa, but everyone brings the present and you put it in the middle and it’s this game where you’re picking and choosing and stealing gifts from one another. And it’s really fun. We usually have that in-person every year, but we hosted it virtually this year. And it’s just really nice to be able to still gather social leads, distance, or not even being in contact with anyone else.

(1m 35s):
And that is something I am really grateful for. So if you weren’t able to celebrate in person, I hope this holiday season, you’re still able to gather with people you love and just show them how much you appreciate them. And so this week’s podcast episode is all about 2020, a recap of what has happened, what I have learned and how I will move forward in 2021. And before we get started, I do want to just express my gratitude for one of my amazing clients. This year, her name is Kira and on Instagram, she is whole soul Welco.

(2m 19s):
She is the founder of whole soul wellness company. And she’s sent over this testimonial that I just want to read to you guys. It honestly like moved me to tears. It’s just something so heartwarming. I want to make this episode as uplifting inspirational as I possibly can. And what better way to start off with her sweet message. It goes initially coming to Danielle, I had no concrete business plan or solid direction that I wanted to take my business. I had an unpublished self care blog and a near empty Instagram account due to the I was going through before working with the wander lover.

(3m 3s):
What initially made me decide to jump in and say yes to her private coaching program was her guarantee that by the end of our three months together, I’d have a solid business plan that would allow me to produce income. Danielle delivered just that with her constant confidence and support and my brand, I had a major breakthrough and come to the light moment. When I decided that only seeing myself as a self care blogger was playing myself short. I knew that in order to reach my actual dreams, I’d have to step outside my comfort zone and create a program that aligned with how I envisioned myself. That’s when the whole soul private Academy was birthed telling Danielle my epiphany was the best thing that I could have done for myself.

(3m 50s):
It was as if she already knew that this moment was coming and her business ideas and support for me, literally flowed directly with my plans. She has this way of turning your thoughts into the most business savvy ideas. If you’re on the fence about working one-on-one with Danielle, but you know that you’re ready to level up in your entrepreneurial endeavors. I’d say your, the only thing that’s keeping you in the space you’re in. Now, she has done the work and has clients and a lifestyle to prove herself because Danielle literally walks you through and shows you step-by-step how to build your brand from the ground up. You have no choice, but to Excel in her program, Danielle, I’m thankful for you.

(4m 34s):
And the love that you put into my business ideas and mental growth. The fact that I actually have income coming in and clients in my programs still amazes me every time. I think about it. Cheers to seeing you at the top love Kira Mitchell at wholesale Welco. So this message literally made my here. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my clients Excel in business and life. And just watching here is transformation within three months to not having a brand or business at all, to creating this program, landing clients and customers, and having this cohesive business that transforms lives.

(5m 18s):
It is just amazing. And if you are on the fence about working with me, hiring a business coach, please, DME, I would love, love, love to be a part of your journey. We can set up a free discovery call and just see if we are the right fit. There is nothing to lose, and I am really excited to be working with more of you this upcoming year. So let’s get started with this week’s episode. My intention is for it to be super uplifting making you realize how far we have come and getting used to the mindset where you are ready to tackle on anything 2021 can possibly throw at you.

(6m 2s):
And I want to start off by first celebrating, getting through this year, right? Nothing, nothing could have prepared us for what we have experienced for basically like throwing all plans out the door. I want to touch on my original 20, 21 plans in terms of travel and content creation, and basically like share with you that nothing like nothing was accomplished. I had wanted to go to Chile and Bolivia and explore more of South America. I actually wrote in my passion planner from last year, I’m looking at it now that I wanted to host a retreat, which obviously didn’t happen and couldn’t happen and be fluent in Spanish.

(6m 53s):
Well, I guess not fluent. I wrote down fluent in a year, but anyway, we spent most of this year in Brazil, so I couldn’t even, you know, like practice Spanish. And so all of these goals that I had set for myself in the beginning of the year, looking back, none of it was accomplished. However, let’s take a moment to reflect on everything that we have accomplished in this year that may or may not have aligned with our original plans. So had it not been for coronavirus with all these travel restrictions I personally wouldn’t have started this podcast. You know, like starting a podcast was in no way shape or form part of my original 2021 plan.

(7m 39s):
I wouldn’t have taken on as many private clients as I did. I wouldn’t have worked with, you know, Kira and all of these amazing souls that came my way because I had pivoted into business coaching and away from full-time travel and content creation. I also wouldn’t have spent two amazing months in Porto, Escondido, Mexico, because had I not been suck in Brazil essentially for so long, I wouldn’t have met one of my really amazing friends, Krista who had lived in Puerto Escondido and told me about it because when she first mentioned that location, I honestly had no idea where it was.

(8m 25s):
And the more I looked into it, the more I talked to rags about it, the more it grew on us. And we ended up exploring this amazing town on the Pacific coast of Mexico. So I want you to take a moment and really reflect on everything that you have accomplished and are celebrating from 2020. And it might not be what it looks like in your, you know, your new year’s resolutions, but I want you to celebrate, you know, new self care habits that you may have adopted new friends online, that you may have made every single little thing, write down in a list and realize that this is a step forward in your life.

(9m 7s):
This is a chapter that will define you, and it should not be neglected. It should not be glanced over. And any challenge will only make you stronger. This also reminds me of a quote from last week’s episode, there can’t be a rainbow without any rain. So if this year was really hard on you, I know it’s cliche, but I promise you, there is a huge, huge rainbow waiting for you on the Other side. And so lesson One from just reflecting on what you had originally planned, what I had originally planned and what 2020 actually came out to be God or the universe or life or whatever higher power that you may or may not believe in.

(9m 55s):
Let’s just use God, because that is the original quote. God laughs at you when you make plans or the universe, you know, lasts at you when you make plans. And the takeaway from this is you can not make judgments and decisions based on your current situation or your current reality. When I had originally May, 2020 plans, it was from my previous 20, like end of 2019 frame of reference, which was pre Corona virus, pre knowledge of Porto. I was going to New Mexico, pre knowledge of all the friends I would be making abroad, you know, and as we are going into 2021, the main thing I want all of us to be aware of is just anything can happen.

(10m 44s):
And as you’re making all of these health and fitness or business plans, just be aware that so many opportunities are going to come to you. So many people are going to enter your lives, that you can’t even buy them right now. And I’ve said this in multiple episodes in the past, there are things, you know, things, you know, you don’t know and things you don’t know, you don’t know. And just give room to all of the things you don’t know, you don’t know to enter your life. Okay. So next I’m going to break up my 20, 20 into three different stages. So as I reflect, it really played out in like three different stages or chapters for me.

(11m 26s):
And I’m going to share the lesson from each of these stages and how we can all apply these lessons. Moving forward, 2020 started off pretty go like pretty according to plan. My original goal was to, you know, by the end of the year, somehow speak Spanish fluently. And to me that included taking Spanish lessons and also immersing myself in a Spanish speaking country. So it started off in Argentina. I was with Christina and rags and we were traveling around Argentina. So once a month, Doza once a year ago, I, for new year’s.

(12m 6s):
And at the end of, I think January, we had planned to go to Martell plot though, which was like the surf town on the coast of Argentina. But instead we decided to go to Brazil for carnival, with the intention of returning to a Spanish speaking country in South America or central America afterwards. And so we arrived in Florianopolis for carnival, lots of social gatherings, lots of parties on streets. And it was so much fun. So packed thinking about the parties and just being with so many other people. It’s like another world to me right now. And I kind of miss it, but anyway, a few weeks after, or maybe it was days, but not long after carnival Corona virus and the lockdown started in Florianopolis and we couldn’t leave the house.

(12m 59s):
We were reading news about this new virus and, you know, it had just entered New York and I was like freaking out. And I felt so anxious being away from my family, being away from the world as I had known. And so this is where stage one of lockdown kind of came into play, and I’m going to call it stubbornness and denial denial in the sense that I refuse to believe that it was going to take over our lives. It was my first time experiencing a pandemic. And so I didn’t really understand how much it would impact the whole world.

(13m 43s):
So the things I did during this time was to keep myself entertained at home. We couldn’t surf. And so I picked up cooking. If you remember on Instagram, I was just making all of these recipes. I’m not a good cook whatsoever, but I was determined to learn a few recipes and just spend all this time productively and learning dishes that I’ve always wanted to cook. So obviously like lots of delicious dishes came out. I would highly recommend looking into making beyond, beyond noodles. That was really fun. Some other dishes I really enjoyed making was Turkish Monta, M a N T. And it’s like the eye without the dot on the top, really fun.

(14m 27s):
I wanted something to distract myself also from all the news that it was spreading so rapidly. And me being away from family, I was always like, Oh my God, I hope everyone’s okay. New York is the hotspot. I remember it just being a really crazy time where I didn’t really know what was going on and just trying to keep myself entertained and mentally healthy. I also picked up on Tech-Talk. That was another platform I had wanted to expand to. And so I challenged myself to create a new video every single day. And that was really fun. And it taught me a lot about video creation on this new platform.

(15m 10s):
So lesson number two from the stage of stubbornness and denial is that you cannot pour from an empty cup. You always need to take care of yourself first, whether that is physically, mentally in terms of goals, in terms of life, had I been consuming the news 24 seven and feeding into my fears and anxiety, then I wouldn’t have shown up online. I wouldn’t have made Tik TOK videos or felt energized enough to even cook the new recipes because I would just be curled up in fetal position in bed being like so scared of the outside world.

(15m 52s):
Right. But when I’ve found things that made me happy, even in this new reality where I couldn’t go outside to surf where I couldn’t go to the supermarket, it really got me to a place where I was finding meaning and finding small wins in day to day. And that’s what kept building the momentum of productivity and of happiness. So next is stage two of coronavirus lockdown, and I’m going to call stage two the most important stage. And this was a stage where I started pivoting. This happened a few months into lockdown when we were kind of stuck in Brazil because cases in America were rising so high.

(16m 38s):
They had gotten rid of any visas in Brazil. So we actually had the freedom to stay for quote, unquote, as long as we wanted, or until the pandemic was over, whatever that meant. It was really confusing, but we didn’t have to leave after 90 days. And so at that point we decided it was the safest for us to just stay, put, follow all rules and regulations, not like have any social interactions. We were at our Airbnb and it was really nice with a pool and with an outdoor barbecue, with everything we needed around us. And they had opened up the beaches a few weeks later.

(17m 18s):
So our lives looked a lot like just home and then surfing and then home and surfing. So during the stage, I think a few months in it sank in that travel would not be resuming any time soon. And so all of our collaboration’s, all of our travel plans, brags and I had started wander lover by Fern CoLab, which was our new idea for a professional video and media production company. As I was trying to push this along, you know, I realized that we can’t travel, we couldn’t visit all the hotels we wanted to, we couldn’t visit the countries, borders were closed.

(18m 2s):
And so all of these ideas and my business that revolved around travel, it was at jeopardy. And this is when it sink in that I needed to pivot and do something different or I could potentially lose my brand and business as a whole because I couldn’t do what I’ve been doing for the past two or three years. And so the path that I chose to take the new path was a way from travel because I, in no way, shape or form wanted to be promoting travel in the middle of a pandemic, I thought that would be irresponsible and kind of toned up for me to be doing so.

(18m 47s):
And instead I pivoted towards business coaching, which I guess happened naturally. It wasn’t a completely new path because I had already started working one-on-one with clients, but this was a great time for me to be helping even more people at greater numbers. And so it was in this pivoting siege where, you know, I launched my first e-course the wander lover business Academy. And I had thoughts about starting a podcast and I really wanted to write a new book. And so when I really chose to focus on this new direction, all of these new opportunities opened up to me and in ways that I never even thought of in the beginning of the year, right in the beginning, it was all about travel, about new experiences and what I had known, but it wasn’t until I really chose to focus on pivoting and serving my audience in new ways.

(19m 47s):
That’s outside of inspiration and travel. All of these new opportunities came to me and I want to make it clear that, you know, I love travel and travel will always be fundamental to the wander lover, but it’s so important to not let go of the old, but in times where it’s just necessary to look at new things that you can be focusing on, especially in the middle of a pandemic, right? Pivoting is never a bad thing. And so the lesson from stage two is when one door closes another one opens and it’s so important to always just keep an eye out for this new door, instead of focusing so much on the door that is closing and the more, the faster that you can focus on the future and less about the past or what is, and how helpless and defeated you feel, the more opportunities will come your way.

(20m 54s):
And I’m going to share another quote that this just reminded me of, as you can probably tell. I love quotes. I think I get it from my dad every time I’m like going through a difficult time. He’ll always just like enlighten me with a quote. And it, it makes sense. I feel like these are valuable like golden nuggets in life that has just been proven time and time again. Right? So this quote is finding opportunity is a matter of believing in it. So they’re not going to come to you if you’re not looking for them. And if you don’t believe that they’re there, right? Because if you’re constantly looking at life and looking at the situation with a pessimistic glass, half full kind of view, you’re not going to see the opportunity that arises.

(21m 42s):
If I tell you that there’s so much that can be done with your current situation. And you’re just constantly like convincing yourself that there isn’t the no matter who tells you, no matter how many times you’re told, you’re just not going to believe in it. So yes, opportunity is a matter of believing it is there. Okay. So stage three and the last stage where the wander lover is now and where I’m at now, I’m going to call it harvesting. So harvesting all the things that I’ve learned this year, applying it to my life and moving headfirst into this new direction.

(22m 24s):
So this took shape in the form of launching a podcast, starting a 90 day LinkedIn challenge, starting a Facebook group, and just being able to reach so many more people than I previously was having the vehicles in place where I could serve more of my audience, have the one-on-one products and services available, where I could help everyone individually or offer my knowledge in the forms of digital eBooks and courses. So all of this came together after the whole stubbornness and denial phase and also the pivoting phase.

(23m 5s):
And it like aligned with what I wanted to do with my brand and business. I didn’t want to be promoting travel and I wanted to be helping more people around the world. So I also want to kind of have this disclaimer where this harvest stage wasn’t the easiest to come to because when I was trying to decide if I really wanted to go, you know, leave, travel behind. When I wanted to enter into business coaching, I was confused. I wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to do. I didn’t really know how exactly to do it, but the universe works in magical ways.

(23m 47s):
And I found the perfect mentor for where I was at in my business and where I wanted to be. And so all of these things that happened this year, I had not planned for any of it, but in stage three, I am harvesting everything that I went through, all these chapters, you know, going from being stubborn and in denial of anything wanting and not wanting to change, but then deciding that I needed to, and I chose to pivot. And now it’s just harvesting everything that I had put so much work into stage three was also more or less when I was in Porto Escondido in Mexico.

(24m 27s):
So this was also quote unquote, harvesting. What I had learned from the new friends that came into my life and learning about Porto Escondido, and finally being there in person, which again, like was not in my passion planner for this year at all. I didn’t even know it existed. So the lesson from stage three or chapter three, this season of harvest is everything happens for a reason. And it’s hard to see when you’re, you know, you’re going through really shitty situations. But when you get to a point after you have endured all the discomfort of change, you will realize that every single thing happens exactly the way it’s meant to be.

(25m 19s):
And you just need to have faith that there is a lesson in it all. So a recap of the four lessons from this year, one God or the universe laughs when you make plans to you cannot pour from an empty cup three when one door closes another one opens and you have to believe that the opportunity is there and last but not least everything happens for a reason as we are ending this year. And as I’m planning for 2021 planning with my clients for the new year, keep in the back of your mind that anything could happen.

(26m 2s):
If things go exactly according to plan, that is great, but it’s also equally as great to be so open to new opportunities and just letting, letting life happen, letting all the people enter in your world that You can’t even, you don’t, that you don’t Know that you can’t even fathom, but letting all the goodness happen to you and being super receptive to it. That is the main takeaway that I have gotten for 2020. And you know, this new year, I personally believe it’s going to be a job Rainbow. You can quote me on it.

(26m 43s):
After all that we’ve been through in 2020, all this uncertainty, 20, 21 giant rainbow, who is with me. So as we are planning for 2021, I’d love to hear what is on the top of your goals list as of right now. Bye guys!

~~~

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