Leave Nothing To Chance

 

You could be having the worst day of your life, and you feel like giving up, but all it takes is one person to wake you up and get you back into your feet. That person could be selling you coffee or whatnot. That’s how it happened for Lindsey Buboltz. Lindsey is a network marketing professional and author of the book Coffee Saved My Life. Discover Lindsey’s inspiring story, from growing up in foster care to quitting her job. Find out how she lived through all the pain and hardships life offered her. Learn how she transformed that pain into purpose. And learn how coffee really did save her life today.

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Watch the episode here

 

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Coffee Saved My Life With Lindsey Buboltz

You come across a lot of interesting people when you do interviews for shows. One of the most interesting stories I believe in network marketing is the lady that you’re going to hear. She’s a new friend of mine. She’s an inspiration. She’s somebody whose story I’ve been following for a while. I eavesdrop on her a little bit because her life and network marketing story are certainly compelling, what she’s done with it as a microcosm of her life. She’s an amazing person. I want to introduce my new friend from beautiful Omaha, Nebraska. She is Lindsey Buboltz. Lindsey, you are the author of Coffee Saved My Life, which is such a great title. Why that title? How did it save your life?

It really was coffee that saved my life. When I started out writing that book, I had plenty of other titles in mind. When the book came to an end and we had to decide on that title, it all came back to one day that I was driving down the Interstate in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a day in my life that I had decided that I couldn’t go on. I was at 60th Street. I remember everything about it. I had a semi on both sides of me. I was fully committed to taking my own life. At that moment, I prayed quite frankly. I had said, “Lord, I need you to show me what my purpose is. What is the point? Why am I here? Who am I supposed to help? There’s got to be more to this life than just the anxiety and depression that I was living.”

 

The year before, my oldest daughter at sixteen was murdered in an arson house fire. At that moment, it seemed like I didn’t have anything to live for. I had forgotten what my purpose was and I wasn’t sure what I was here to do. That day on the Interstate, when I prayed and I asked for that, there was a moment that I looked in the rearview mirror and I saw a van behind me with an entire family inside of it. It stopped me in my tracks.

I don’t remember how I got home that day. I remember pulling in the driveway, walking in, seeing my children and my husband, but I also remember that day someone reaching out to me and offering me a sample of this coffee. The very next day, I ended up going and getting a sample of that coffee that ended up allowing me to free myself from six days of Nexium and four Valiums a day. That helps me get off the couch, get out of bed and get back in public. It was that coffee that saved my life. Were there other things that go into it? Yes, but it was a pivotal moment.

In my book Coffee Saved My Life, I tell my entire life story growing up with a father who was incarcerated in prison to surviving childhood sexual assault, to being placed in an orphanage, to winning the lottery, to moving and watching my entire family dissolve behind it. It became the perfect title in the end because it was that moment. There’s so much more that goes into it but that coffee started me on my journey.

When we were talking, there was that defining moment in your employment with the people that you worked for. You had a local government-related job. There was a moment where the arraignment was happening of the person who unfortunately had set the fire that took your daughter’s life at such a young age. I’m so sorry. I know our readers as well and couldn’t even imagine. They wouldn’t let you go. What happened there? That’s an amazing thing.

I had a government job that a lot of people my age would love. The benefits and everything were great about it but I was still tied to all the policies and procedures that said I had to have a certain amount of PTO and I couldn’t be off. After my daughter’s death, I went through some mental health struggles and things that I had to get through.

Never leave your ability to be present for your family in the hands of somebody else. Click To Tweet

I had gotten to the point where I was making mistakes at work. I wasn’t focusing. I didn’t want to get up and go to work every day. I was struggling to get along with coworkers as I was going through this process of healing. Undoubtedly so, I was taking some time off work for that. That October was the trial for the man who murdered my daughter. I had gone to my boss and said, “I am going to need this time off. The trial could last anywhere from 1 day to 15 days. We don’t know but I’m going to need this time off.” She told me no and that I didn’t have the PTO to be able to take the time off of work.

At that moment, I had coworkers that were stepping forward. They were offering their sick leave, their vacation, everything to donate to me so that I would be able to go. They were told no. They weren’t allowed to do that. It was that moment that I thought, “Never again will I leave my ability to be there and be present for my family or my financial future in the hands of somebody else.” I made the decision that day that I was leaving the corporate world and I was going full force into network marketing.

To bring everybody up to speed, you earned your million dollars in network marketing.

I’m very close. I will earn it in 2021. I won’t say the exact number but I’m very close. It will be there. I started on March 26th, 2018 full-time in the industry.

That drove you to that. It’s ironic sometimes how negative situations lead to positive situations. You took a very sad situation and turned it into a good situation at least business-wise and financially, which is something that a lot of people may not have done. A lot of people may have chosen not to do that but you did. It’s an amazing part of your story and your DNA, and what makes you so unbelievable at what you do.

 

Thank you for that, John. I had been involved in network marketing since I was eighteen years old. I had always had that side gig mentality. I always knew that I wanted more. I never had seen success. I could sell anything. I could have great shows and parties but I never built a team. I had never put my mind to making it a full-time business or income. By the time all of these things had transpired in my life, I had grown over all of those years.

I had learned from being around people, being in the industry for so long, and around the profession that it had the ability to do exactly what I wanted to do, which was making sure that I never again had to tell my husband, my children, my friends or family no because work wouldn’t allow me to have time off. That propelled the entire future and me going full-time.

I’m going to imagine that you are a pretty good student of self-development. Is that safe to say?

Yes.

Let’s talk about that. You don’t come from where you at earlier in your life with some of the experiences that you shared. You don’t come from there to where you are now. You’re super successful, a major leader in your company, leader in the industry, well-recognized in the network marketing game, one of the big female leaders that everybody knows about or is finding out about. You don’t just do that. Something had to happen. Was there a light bulb moment? Was there a specific book, maybe a tape or a podcast? What was it that got you to say, “Not only can I do this but let me read this or let me let this influence me?” If so, what was it?

There were a few. The first one I shared was about the time of my life that my stepfather won the lottery. That lottery winning for my family destroyed the family. Before long, my parents were divorced and have gone their separate ways. That man who I had grown up, loved, adored, and always saw as my father was no longer a part of my life. I formed a mindset right there at that moment that money was evil, that it was the root of all evil, that it destroyed my family and that money couldn’t make anyone happy.

The first training for self-development that I went to was with Noah St. John. It was Get Rid of Your Head Trash About Money. That was the first time in my life that I realized I had such a negative tie to money. I thought it was so evil. If I thought money was that evil, would it ever come to me? That was the first thing that started me down to a self-development journey.

Not even a year later, I was sitting at an eWomenNetwork meeting with a bunch of great friends and a speaker came on. At that time, the company that I was with was launching into Canada. I had put it out into the universe that I needed connections in Canada, and here comes this speaker who happens to be from none other than Canada. When she first got up there to speak, I was like, “I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of this girl.” We didn’t connect. Those first few sentences did not draw me in but when she was done, she drew a giveaway.

She was giving away a ticket to her event in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Lo and behold, my name was drawn. I thought, “If I won this $2,500 value and all of these things, I’m going to use it. I’m going to go to Canada and learn from her.” What I learned from Michele Gunderson over those next eighteen months, 100% changed everything in my life and my business. It all went back to the ties of my story.

When I look back on my entire life, there were plenty of times that things were going well and then the bottom fell out. There was a time in my life that I was married. I had an incredible husband and family. Things were going well, and then that marriage would dissolve. I would have a good job, things would be going well, then something would happen and that would dissolve.

What I learned from studying with Michele over that year was all that ties in the stories that were going back to the very beginning and most probably this one important thing. I realized when people looked at someone like me who had grown up in and out of the foster care system, living in an orphanage at one point, living in an abandoned home with no running water, no place to shower, that people like me don’t come out of that situation.

I knew that that wasn’t true. I knew that I was out of that situation, that I was coming out of that situation, and I had the opportunity to be able to teach others how to do that. The first thing I had to do was dig into those deep roots of that story and reprogram it so that I didn’t keep going back to that thought process. Through working with Michele, I was able to completely turn that entire story around. I realized that where my success has come from is taking that pain, turning it into a purpose, and making it a huge part of my passion.

Take your pain and turn it into purpose. Make it a part of your passion. Click To Tweet

What’s amazing, listening to your story and knowing a little bit more about it with the time we spent visiting, is I think of CS Lewis who has a very famous quote. “Pain is God’s megaphone to raise a sleeping world.” I may not have that exactly but it certainly means the same. That’s what you did. You took all that pain that so many people would have wound up an alcoholic, maybe a drug addict, maybe dead. Who knows? You said, “I’m going to spit in your face and show you. I’m going to get to work on me, make me the best version of me.” You use these tools to do so.

Here’s a follow-up question on self-development. Let’s say that somebody pulls up to your front door and says, “Lindsey, you, your husband and the kids, we’re going to take you and put you on a deserted, beautiful island. We’re going to give you plenty of food, plenty of water, but you can only take three self-development books with you.” I always count the Holy Bible as separate because I assume most people should be taking that but some may not. Let’s assume that you have your Bible. You get three other books that you can take with you. What would they be?

I would have to say The 5 Love Languages, The Four Color Personalities For MLM, and probably my third one would be Afformations by Noah St. John. Many self-development things over the years have been, “Stand up. Get in the mirror. Tell yourself you’re amazing, you’re strong and you can go on.” Does our brain believe that? Not always. That’s part of the problem. Afformations has been something that has transpired and changed that for me. I would say those would be my three.

Let me ask you this. You started in your prior network marketing experience and the last few years, where you’ve been so successful full-time. What’s your best methodology for getting somebody started? Somebody knocks on your door and say, “Lindsey, I’m ready. Let’s go.” How do you get them started? How do you get them making money? How do you get them to see what old guys like me used to call ink striking paper? Now, it’s a credit card transaction. Something happened in that action where “I recruited someone, I sold a product, I made income and I get that check.” Whether it’s today, next week or next month, they start to see the results from their actions that you guided them in. What’s your best way of getting people started?

For me, it all boils down to relationship and rapport. It is so true that I’ve never met a stranger. We sat down, John, and we talked. When I got off the phone with you, I felt like I had known you my whole life. I don’t know that it’s something you can teach as much as it’s something that you can encourage. The biggest thing that I had found was I had signed up with other companies. My upline had always left me. They weren’t checking in on me or giving me the real tools to show me how to do it.

My favorite thing to do is to reach down, help pull them up to my level, to be with me and show them every step, whether that’s what conversations to have, how to post on Facebook, how to reach out and have those conversations to help them see what’s inside of them. To get into that mindset where they realize that if something is telling you to have this conversation, if something is saying to you that you should tell them about this product or this opportunity, just do it. Quit getting in our own ways and slowing ourselves down, quit holding ourselves back.

That is the one thing I’ve found, especially in growing my team. It’s always the people that come in that are going to do so amazingly and great that maybe don’t. The ones that come in that you’re like, “I don’t know. This one’s going to need a little bit of work.” Those turned out to be the biggest rock stars. It’s giving them your belief in them until they find it for themselves.

Sometimes we see in other people what they don’t see in themselves that they can do. Would you agree with that?

Yes. That takes me back to a moment that I was speaking down in Missouri and Les Brown was there doing a lot of the training. I remember walking in that morning. Les was at the front door greeting everyone said, “Good morning, Lindsey. You smell like fresh money.” I was like, “Les Brown not only knows my name but what does it mean that I smell like fresh money?”

I went back to the table and I sat there. We laughed and joked about it. Later on, we realized I had on a name tag, of course, Les Brown knew my name. When I got up there before lunch that day to speak and to share my story, which was the culmination of how I ended up in network marketing, where I found my passion for it, how I grew, what the products had done for me, I’d come off that stage and Les Brown stopped me. He said, “Lindsey, you belong on that stage. We need to talk.”

My whole life, I felt like I had been on that stage but it wasn’t ever a stage of positivity. It was a stage of the little girl that CPS was ripping from her home. It was a stage of the little girl in the counselor’s office at school because her dad had beaten her so bad that she couldn’t sit down in third grade. That’s a tough one. I didn’t think that was going to get me like that. It was the stage of the cops at my door taking my statement after I had been beaten by my significant other. That’s the stage I had always been on.

It was the first time in my life that I realized that Les Brown was right. I belonged on that stage to be able to show other people like me that there was light on the other side of it. No matter how dark the days got, if we could work through these things and if I could do it of all people, they could do it too. Sometimes there are people that maybe are foster children and they think, “I’m a foster kid. I’ll never find success.” Maybe it’s one woman or man who’s been a victim of domestic violence and they think, “I’m not worthy of that success.”

What I realized is that I had been through ten of those things, things that most people will never experience in their life, and every time, I came out on top. That was a choice to not let it tear me down and not let it ruin me, but it took all of those people along my life to help me realize that. I could have never done it alone. It took Les Brown saying that one word. It took Michele Gunderson giving me that year of her time to teach me what was holding me back. It took those personal development lessons and meetings like this with people like you.

My entire life people had said, “Lindsey, you need to write a book.” I didn’t for so many years. I would start those first few chapters and I would shelve it. Why? I needed to figure out why I couldn’t get this down on paper. Why couldn’t I get this book to come to life? What I realized was it was that teacher in seventh grade and my classmates that made fun of me because I had struggled with writing a complete sentence, that adjective, adverb, noun or all of those things that I hadn’t perfected.

I thought I can’t write a book because I don’t know all of that stuff. I’ll be right back there in seventh grade to those people making fun of me. It’s the time that I had a TikTok video go viral with nearly a million views. You’d think that most of that would be positive but it wasn’t. Thousands of those comments were about my voice. The one thing that has been able to save lives, change lives and build my business is all because of my story and my willingness to share to help others.

After that TikTok went viral, I got thousands of those comments talking about how disgusting my voice sounded and how I sounded like a man. “You mean that’s a girl? I thought for sure that was a dude.” It got into my head. There were times that I even found myself changing or altering my voice to try to not sound like me.

It wasn’t that long ago that I walked into an appointment. I was talking with the front desk girl like I always do, having that conversation, being the reason that someone else smile that day. Someone else was sitting there waiting for their appointment, stopped in her tracks, closed her laptop, looked up at me with these big eyes and her jaw dropped. She’s like, “My gosh.” I was like, “What did I do?” She said, “Your voice is the most beautiful, commanding, sexy, raspy thing I have ever heard.” At that moment, it was one person. That was all that it took to wipe out the pain that thousands had caused with their words. It reminded me that I’m just one person. My smile, my story, and my words can change it for someone else.

 

You have and you are. It’s remarkable what you’ve done. It’s inspiring to say the least. I interview great people. Everybody’s great that we’ve interviewed so nobody’s better or worse. Sometimes you get off a pre-interview and you’re like, “How am I going to get that person’s story out of them?” Their story is okay. It’s all multilevel success. They started and had been successful. They did this and that. It’s all great in our industry like I do but sometimes you get off those calls. You go in the other room and you tell your spouse.

I said, “I talked to this woman.” I shared your story and we relate to it. This is about you. Not about me. I shared a little bit of our story, what we’ve been through as a family and as individuals for that matter. It’s so inspiring to hear somebody. By the way, it’s your willingness to share. Some people are successful in our industry and other things.

With our industry, I’ve been doing it forever since I’m a kid. Sometimes I meet successful people and you know nothing about them. Sometimes you know them for years and you still know nothing. You know them on the surface. They were that company, that rank, a million-dollar earner, this or that but you don’t know how they got there.

They can tell you the fundamentals of the business but they don’t put that facade down of, “Let me tell you how I got here, how I got beat up in seventh grade, how my dad was a drunk, how my mom was whatever. Let me tell you how I was abandoned, and how these things happen that later on helped me to become the best version of me taking that pain and turning it into progress.”

That’s what you’ve done and it’s inspiring. Let me not lose the business side though because you’re building a great distributorship for your current and prior company. I don’t want to lose the teaching parts of this either, Lindsey, because you’re a great teacher. Let me ask you this question. I asked this as a standard question with everybody in our industry. I’d love your response. Let me set this up for you.

I don’t need to tell you or our readers that we’re living in some interesting times with COVID, the economy’s closed and things being canceled, etc. Let’s say that there are some folks down the street from you there in Omaha. Let’s say it’s a mother and daughter, and the daughter is about 25 years of age. She’s gone to college and got her degree. She’s smart. She worked hard and was a good kid. All of a sudden, she started her business career doing whatever. COVID came along and maybe wiped out whatever it was that she was doing.

She’s now home living on mom and dad’s couch, or a spare bedroom, or maybe the room she grew up in. She got all the skills. She can take an iPhone and can launch the space shuttle with it. Now, she’s not making any money with all those skills. Mom is 60 and maybe in the past has dabbled in network marketing. She’s heard about it. She had a neighbor like yourself that she knows is successful in it. Mom had a career. Maybe mom was senior-level management at a company and made a good income. The money came in. Mom was starting to say, “Kids had grown.” She’s starting to look towards retirement and then all of a sudden, we know what happened. Everything changed.

Maybe mom is back at work. Maybe she never left work but she used to make $100,000 a year, then now she’s making $40 because whatever she’s selling less of it or served companies that are doing not as well. For years, mom and the daughter had been like, “Network marketing is out there but it’s not for us. It’s not our thing.”

All of a sudden they say, “There’s Lindsey. She’s home during the day. Lindsey seems to have a nice lifestyle. If Lindsey wants to go for a walk with her husband at 9:00 in the morning on a Tuesday, she can do it. We can’t do that because we’re tied to whatever. Let’s go down and knock on Lindsey’s door. Let’s ask Lindsey for her counsel.” Why should mom at 60, daughter at 25 looks at network marketing as an industry and seriously considering taking all those life skills, business skills, internet skills and apply them to network marketing now as opposed to maybe before the pandemic?

The key to success is to build relationships and rapport. Make it so that you never have to meet a stranger. Click To Tweet

My business has grown through this time. A lot of people were looking at it as a plan B. We look at that, it was always a plan B for someone but now it can be your plan A. It is mind-blowing to me what people can do in this industry. The first thing is that when they knock on your door, they’re there and want that conversation or whether you’re the one knocking on their door, just listening to that story, you shared that with me. You told me their background. If I didn’t know that, I would have asked the questions to be able to find that out because the first thing I would have to do to be able to work and build with them so that they can achieve that success is to know how I can relate to them, and to know what is their pain point that I can help them to overcome.

That’s been the greatest thing now. With the times, the internet, the podcasts and all of these things, we’re in a much better position to grow in this industry than maybe we weren’t years ago. At eighteen years old when I signed up for my very first company, no one taught me the way, no one showed me. Someone said, “Here’s a catalog. Here are your requirements. Go do it.” It was all those skills that I had to learn along the way. We’re in a much better time that you don’t have to do those knocks on the door.

Some of my biggest customers and best affiliates that have come, I met at a garage sale or the amazing woman that I met Friday night at the Kane Brown concert. There was the sweetest little lady that I met in the aisle at the Goodwill store. I will never forget my roots. I’ll take you to another story. I know I’m going off track but you’ve got to hear this because it’s something that also catapulted my business, which was a life experience.

Growing up, I didn’t have the opportunities like I have now. The garage sales and the Goodwill was the place where I had to get my things. Years ago, someone who I once looked up to and highly respected said to me, “I cannot believe as a top earner in the industry that you are still going to garage sales and the Goodwill.” I lost all respect to that day for that person and here’s why. If I forget where I came from, I’ll go right back there. I can’t help the next person to get out of that, grow through it or find their light if I forget.

That little lady that I met in the Goodwill store was looking at a coffee cup and that was a simple conversation about coffee. I got to hear her story about how she missed her husband. She sits alone and has coffee every day. Can you guess what I did at that moment? I offered to have a cup of coffee so that she didn’t have to sit alone. She became my customer and has been a constant customer for years. It’s those connections to people that can change your life, their life and this business.

Just be human. It is funny because sometimes you get around top earners and people who aren’t top earners. The people who aren’t top earners think that somehow the top earners are different. What they find is most of the top earners in our industry are the most real people. They’re so normal and so well adjusted. Some of them are but most of them are down-to-earth and very human. What you shared there, that’s our business.

I had been involved a number of years ago with a major and big acquisition in the industry. I can’t mention it due to NDAs and all that wonderful stuff but it’s a huge one. What was interesting was when the fellow bought a company that we were helping to do it. We went through everything. It was an older company with good products, I said, “Why did you buy the company? What was your number one reason?” He said, “The people. I realized the people are what I was buying.”

He was a traditional business guy. He looked at the buildings, the manufacturing, and all the other things that you do have to look at. He said, “At the end of the day, I got the people.” I said, “You did a smart thing because, at the end of the day, that’s what we’re in. We’re in the people business.” That well-deserved senior citizenhood that she’s in became a friend. Even if she never builds a business with you, she’s probably going to tell some people about your product and you, and lead you to business indirectly. She did it because you’re a good person, you saw somebody hurting and you spent that time with them. That’s what it’s all about.

That’s why I say one of my top books is The 5 Love Languages and The Four Color Personalities. It’s the best reason right here. If we cannot connect and truly understand people, we will almost oftentimes always perceive it wrong or believe their intent was different. It takes me back to a moment. I had an upline at one time who’s my personal sponsor. I am not afraid to say that the greatest thing I work for and run towards in this business is a rank announcement banner.

When you first hear that without knowing me, some people go, “It’s all ego,” which we know will destroy a business here in this industry. I had a sponsor who I looked up to and respected who I learned a lot of great things from go to the owner of a company and say, “This is Lindsey. She’s going to run for that rank banner. It’s all about ego. She thinks she’s better than everybody else. This is where we’re at with it.”

What I loved about that person and the owner of the company is they came to me and introduce themselves. I’m like, “I’m Lindsey.” We started talking and having this conversation. It was baited. They wanted to know the one thing I would work the hardest for in this industry or in this business. I sat with them and I told them my story. I said, “The one thing I’ll work the hardest for isn’t the top of the compensation plan or the highest rank or the rank bonus but it is that rank banner.”

It is that moment that my sponsor or my upline shares, edifies me, and says a few words about what I’ve done for them, for my team or this business. That first banner I ever got was accompanied by that amazing little note that they wrote, which is what they thought about me and who I was to my team, it was the first time in my life someone had told me they were proud of me.” There are not millions of dollars that can buy that feeling. That feeling of knowing that you’ve worked hard and you’ve made someone proud, that’s what I work for.

I’ll tell you a quick story here. You and I love to tell stories. I think most networkers do. Hopefully, people will indulge us to listen to some of them. Years ago, I was out in Vancouver doing a meeting. I grew up in British Columbia. Somebody brought to the meeting a gentleman who had been the number one recruiter for a female cosmetic company. This was a guy. I’ll never forget this. I had to meet him. Not only because he was my downline, which was a good reason. I sat with him and I went to lunch with him. I said, “How did you do what you did?” He said, “I realized that I was dealing with women and they needed recognition. Maybe their whole life, their husband, kids, parents and school didn’t recognize them. They took them for granted.”

This is back in the ‘80s, by the way. Things have changed somewhat for the better, I hope, in terms of relationships between men and women. Having said that, he said, “I realized that if I bought them a nice piece of jewelry when they hit rank. It didn’t have to be expensive. It just had to say, ‘I appreciate you,’ I would get amazing production out of them.” This leads me to my next question.

You are one of the female leaders in your company and the industry. The numbers are staggering statistically in the last few years of how many women have gotten into our industry. Some of them are new, by the way. Some of them are like, “This is our first ticket to cut.” I had to figure it out. It took me almost seven years to figure out the business and they figure it out in about seven weeks, which shows you why women are better than men in this business for the most part.

With all that said, why network marketing has become such a home for women? It almost was certainly but we also had a lot of women-dominated companies like cosmetic and skincare companies. They predominantly sold products in the female market. With network marketing, statistically, it’s up to about 70% of the leadership of most companies, the senior-level ranks are females. They are sometimes married but for the most part, if they are married, the woman in the relationship is the one building the business and the guy is maybe keeping the books or in the back office so to speak. Why is that? Why should women look at our industry now perhaps for the first time? We have a lot of professional women that read this. They’re looking at the industry and playing with it maybe. What do you see in women? Why did these opportunities become so amazing for them? Many are taking advantage of it but so many frankly need to. I love your perspective on women in the marketplace.

The biggest thing, especially being in the industry for some time is that the top leaders in the industry are starting to learn that empowered women empower others. They’re doing a much better job of connecting with them. Building that tribe of like-minded women and supporting them, instead of having that mindset where, “I’ve got to be the top leader. It can only be me. I can’t show others the way.” People are starting to realize that when they build that tribe and when we all are working together, we can do so much more.

I have some of the greatest friends that are top leaders in other companies. It’s always my favorite thing to say, “If I’m only worried about my company, if I’m only concerned with thinking about my company, I’m not going to grow but I can learn so much from other women and other companies that can teach me all of those same things.”

It’s interesting that you talked about that because it is a lot of women here but I will tell you, that my team is quickly growing on the male side of it. The men are starting to step back into the marketplace and into the industry as wanting to grow a team and are working side by side with all of us that are here. I have some incredible guys on my team that rock it out.

They said, “There was a time in my life that a strong, independent woman would make me step back.” Maybe I wouldn’t want to. It is the independence, the strength and the women that are stepping forward to empower everyone around them that makes them want to be a part of the industry too. What’s been huge for me is that movement to become a tribe and a community overall and support others.

Let me ask you another question here. As we grow in network marketing, we see a lot of things happening in the general economy. With the people in your business, male or female, it doesn’t matter on this question. If you had to categorize them as far as their background, what three professions would you say lead to the most success in network marketing quickly?

For me, it’s not even a profession. It’s their story and life lessons. It’s the things they’ve gone through, whether it’s good or bad. I don’t know that I could categorize that one specifically as a profession. Outside of that, profession-wise, on my team, I’m thinking of my three top leaders, one’s in the medical field, one’s a real estate agent, and the other worked at the post office. Is there a perfect profession or is it great for everyone? I’d have to surmise that everyone can do well here.

I asked that question and sometimes I get different answers. Coaches are good because they’re used to mentoring young people. Teachers are good because they’re used to teaching. Medical professionals are good because they’re used to explain, “What is it that you’re taking?” I find the same thing for the most part. Sometimes you find people say, “This and that professional has come into being.”

Let me ask you this. Jim Rohn used to have a great expression. He wrote the book The Seasons of Life way back in 1981 when that book was written. One of the things that stand out to me was the phrase, “Since the beginning of time, there’s only been a seed, soil, sunshine, rain, the miracle of life for everybody going back thousands of years since mankind started.”

How have you been able to take everything that has happened to you, turn it around, and become the amazing person that we’re seeing in front of us who are successful in business and family? You’ve got a successful family and a good marriage. With all that stuff that we talked about and all the pain, what was it that made the difference in who you are? If there was one thing and one thing only, what was it?

It was a conversation with my ninth-grade Health teacher. I had two older siblings who had gone through school before me. They weren’t great students but I remember that day sitting down in Health class and him coming up, laying a test face down on the desk. He looked at me and said, “I didn’t expect this from you.” It was that day. I turned over the paper. I had a 99.9%. “What do you mean you didn’t expect this from me?”

My brother and sister had already set a reputation for me based on their behaviors. I thought at that moment like, “This can’t be my life. My life can’t be determined by everyone else’s interpretation or what reputation they set for me is. No matter what it is I’ve gone through, I’m going to always find a way to push through.”

I remember when I started writing Coffee Saved My Life, my publisher asked me, “Lindsey, what is your goal for this book?” I said, “Just one person.” She said, “Nobody writes a book and hopes that they can just sell one book.” I said, “No. I want to save one person.” There was a time when my best friend and I were on the phone. I knew she was struggling and had gone through some issues in the recent weeks to that with suicide. As a matter of fact, she had failed an attempt.

As I’m on the phone with her that night, she said, “I’m glad I’m alive, that I didn’t fall through with it and it didn’t work. I promise that if I ever get in that headspace again, you’ll be the one that I call.” She hung up that phone and within five minutes committed suicide. I couldn’t save her but I couldn’t let that hold me back because there are plenty of other people who have reached out and said, “Lindsey, you saved my life. You changed my life.”

If I could go back and look at that conversation with my publisher and have her ask me what my goal is for that book, I would say the goal is to change even more lives. One isn’t enough because it took one person to change my life and it turned it all around. I know I can be that one person for someone else. As a matter of fact, Coffee Saved My Life took the number one bestseller spot. There’s a reason for that because it is changing lives. It’s helping people get through the same situations that I’ve been through.

My whole life, I thought I was alone and was the only one that was going through any of that stuff but what I found in sharing my story is that I wasn’t alone. By learning that and having those conversations, I got to see that someone else made it through and someone else survived. I could do that. Now that I’ve done it, what I’ve been put on this Earth to do is to show others that they can do it too no matter what it is.

To be able to step out of that darkness into the light is one of the greatest things I’ve ever come through in my life. Through that growth and development, there have been plenty of days that I don’t have to worry about ever going back to that spot but there were also plenty of days that I thought I could never get out of it.

The name of our show is Leaving Nothing to Chance. We’re up every Tuesday on Spotify and a number of other different podcast stations. We’re on Amazon, iTunes and a number of other blogs also. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is John Solleder. I’ve authored a couple of books too like Leave Nothing to Chance. I couldn’t get Leave Nothing to Chance for the show because a bank owns it. That’s why it’s Leaving Nothing to Chance. That confuses people sometimes. Also, Moving Up: 2020 and all those books are available on Amazon.

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Let’s come back and talk about your book a little more. It’s number one on Amazon. Congratulations on that certainly. You’re touching lives with the book. You’re inspiring people. They get the book on Amazon but where do they get the book? Tease them a little bit. Give them a couple of snippets of what they’re going to get out of the book.

If they’ve got a few snippets already. I share a lot of those moments that come through but the best place to get your hands on the book is LindseyBuboltz.com. It’s the best place for you to go get your hands on Coffee Saved My Life. You’re going to get to see, hear and feel everything from my first memory, driving to the penitentiary to see my father, to living through domestic violence, to living through the murder of my daughter, and sharing how all of that’s changed who I am as a person but for the better, how none of it was allowed to destroy me, break me or ruin me but instead to allow me to propel into who I am.

You’re going to get lots of laughs. It seems crazy to think about how you could cry and laugh but if you read some of the reviews on Amazon, that’s what they all say, “I laughed. I cried. I was angry but most of all, I was inspired.” That’s all I could have hoped to do. It was to inspire them, to make changes in their own lives and to realize that they can always come through anything.

Here’s my last question. What’s next for you?

The book is doing amazing. Network marketing is my life. It’s my passion. It’s where I found my home. We’re going to continue to grow, build here and help others. I am branching out on a book tour and sharing that story. There’s only so much I can do here in the network marketing industry but there are people out there who may never come to this industry that still need my help, that still needs to hear my story, that hope and that healing. We’re going to take the book to the next level and make sure that it’s getting into the hands of those who need to read it.

You mentioned two words there that are so vital. They probably all would have been vital when I think of these last months in the history of the world. Our kids, grandkids and great-grandkids are going to read and hear about this. Some of them are growing up during it. My kids and your kids are certainly in high school. Hope and healing. When I think of you, that’s what I think of. You give people hope and help people heal with your story and what you’ve done with your life. Once again, congratulations. I’m going to give you the last word but do me a favor. Say your website one more time so they can get the book and get in touch with you if they want.

It’s LindseyBuboltz.com. My final word would be, thank you. Thank you for leaving nothing to chance and for allowing me to share my story of hope and healing with your readers because together, we can make a bigger impact. It’s been a blessing to meet you.

Thank you so much. Likewise. Continue your great success. Not only building your organization but with the book and being who you are. You’re an inspiration and a joy to be around. Your family is lucky to have you. I know they know that and never forget that. The world is lucky to have people like you that inspire hope, opportunity, change, and that glorification of what life is supposed to be. You’ve taken so much that could have been gone the wrong way and turn it the right way. My congratulations and thanks.

Thank you so much, John.

Important Links:

• Coffee Saved My Life
• Get Rid of Your Head Trash About Money
• eWomenNetwork
• The Four Color Personalities For MLM
• Afformations
• TikTok – Lindsey Buboltz
• The Seasons of Life
• Spotify – Leaving Nothing to Chance
• iTunes – Leaving Nothing to Chance
• Leave Nothing to Chance
• Moving Up: 2020
• LindseyBuboltz.com

About Lindsey Buboltz

Have you ever hit rock bottom? You’re not alone. Lindsey Buboltz, mother, wife, successful entrepreneur, speaker, and coach, finally shares the story behind her success… and it’s not what you’d think. Far from growing up with a silver spoon, Lindsey tells the tale of abandonment by her parents, abuse, and even a murder that almost caused her to end her own life for good. And then one day Lindsey woke up with a *jolt*.

It was the day after a near suicide attempt; Lindsey didn’t know if she could make it out of bed. But somebody handed her a very special elixir that changed her life for good. Lindsey has lifted herself out of enough pain and tragedy to fill 100 lifetimes. And today, she’s going to tell you how she went from brokenhearted and destitute to building a million dollar business almost overnight. You won’t believe your eyes. (And, yeah… grab a tissue… make it the whole box!) You won’t be able to put this remarkable book down.