LINDA ZELNIK - The Limitless Thinking Coach

Hi, I'm Tammy Gross, the Scriptprenuer. Welcome to Reel Life Stories where difference makers come to share their Hollywood worthy transformation stories. I love interviewing people who faced a mountain, overcome it the hard way, and figured out a solution to help the rest of us conquer that same mountain. Because when we share our stories, we change lives.

Okay, so today I have a really special guest on the show. Her name is Linda Zelnick, and she is the limitless thinking coach. She is a leadership coach and author, speaker, she sees herself as a judgment free thinking partner, which I love. And so using her proven four part framework, she helps high achievers gain more focus, energy and freedom to ignite their goals. Linda has over 20 years of experience in cross cultural business and higher education, having launched programs and taught and trained on five continents, five continents. That's pretty cool. So I just want to say welcome to the podcast, Linda.

Thank you so much, Tammy. It's great to be here. Well, good.

And you're coming in. You're hailing from my old past town, from Nashville, Tennessee, which I love. Yes, yeah. Yes, yes. I love that. And so okay, I want to kind of get into your story, you know, you're showing up in the world. You're, it's all about limitless thinking. And so, you know, thinking big and thinking outside of boxes and things like that. But we don't all start there doing we usually have to kind of go through something. And so I'm kind of wondering, you know, I see a lot of people who, who I like to interview as being mountain movers. So I'm kind of curious to know, what happened in your life? Or where were you at? Or what was the problem that you saw, you can answer it any way you want. But I just kind of want to get you to the beginning of the story of, of why you even felt like there was a mountain to be moved, and how you got to where you are now where you're helping others to move their mountains. So where were you at? And what was going on that kind of started you on this journey? Oh,

great question. So one very meaningful moment comes to mind. And as you said, in my intro, I have had the pleasure of of living in teaching and training on five continents. And one of those experiences was in central China for several years. And I taught for a university and the university took a break every Chinese New Year, and some friends and I took the opportunity when one break to travel to Tibet. And we were able to fly into Lhasa, and then we went bye, bye, car from Lhasa to Everest base camp. And there's a process that you take to do this where you need to acclimate because you are at such a so much higher elevation, you need to acclimate and you'll drive for really, it's just like four hours a day. And then you'll stay a little bit lower than the highest point you drove at the acclimation process goes like that for about four days. And at one point, we crested this hill, and Everest was in view for the first time. And I literally lost my breath. And I heard this voice, I'm a person of faith, I heard this voice or this verse come to mind of, if you have faith, you can move a mountain. And then almost immediately, that limiting belief came in really. And you know, it just hit me how frequently in life, we see something we dream big, we hear, you know, hear a vision, see a vision, have a vision. And all of a sudden we limit ourselves with that, but then I was able to just shut it down for a minute and just enjoy and take in this the top of the world. And what that might look like to have a mountain that you could move with your faith with your action.

Wow, that is so cool. I've never expected it to go kind of literal. Yeah, there was a literal mountain that is so amazing. Well, okay, so now you're doing these extraordinary things. But before you ever even thought that you could climb such a mountain, I'm sure you had some self doubts and that there were things that it's like you were trying to figure out in life. And so what were some of the things that got you to the point where you were ready to climb a mountain like that? Well yeah,

I would say for from from the positive side, just an interest in knowing other people. People have been open to new things to new events to a culture. I have a deep, deep interest in love of culture in different cultures. And then first of all, we actually just as the base camp, we didn't we weren't trying to climb Everest, but

still your mind was there, right? You're? Yeah. Oh, that's good to know. That's good, too.

You know, once you're there, and I learned, I learned through experience, most of us do, but I really, you know, I, things really stick in my memory once I see it in person. And so once I was there, I started reading all the books about people who have summited Everest, and this amazing thing about the fact that, you know, Sir Edmund, you know, he wasn't there by himself, he actually had a Sherpa help him get up that mountain who had already been up the mountain, multiple times. And yet, Edmond was the one that got the fame. And so it's fascinating to me that here we are, in these mountaintop experiences. And there are always other people involved. Sherpas, people helping you guides that are literally the ones who are making it possible, helping you get past something that can, you know, get past that wall, if, if there are any marathoners listening, you know, there is a wall that you hit when you're running a marathon. And you might hit it more than once. But there's the big wall where you think I just cannot do this. But you, you envision the finish line, you remember your training, there's something that helps you get past that. And Sherpas do that, you know, for mountain climbers and coaches can do that with people. So there's just this evolution of things that would happen where except being there being at Everest base camp, walking a few kilometers in and realizing limits, you know, limits of capacity with lungs and things. And then knowing that you can just keep going. And it is possible it is often we are our own limit. And so it just felt applicable to so many things. The first that moment where I thought, oh, faith and action can move mountains. But then also the Sherpa involved in, in the stories of the people who do Summit, this amazing mountain, and the own travel near the travelers that were with me, too. So that was a little abstract, I think, but that's, that's where that's,

that's, that's really cool. Because, you know, sometimes, sometimes we we are motivating ourselves into things, you know, we don't have to have something really bad happen for us to want to make a change in our own world. And so it sounds like you kind of were we're experiencing like a motivation going on in your own in your own brain and in your own mind and everything. And being inspired by others. And, and the fact that you have this huge drive to want to be a part of, you know, it can be a team or just being with other people and seeing that you don't have to be the one who has all the strength to that mountain, or being the one who has all the answers to a problem. And seeing the power in how other people can show up in your life and being open to allowing other people you know, one of the things that that you talk about with with how you help people is that your judgment free, and that takes that takes, you know, a kind of character that we aren't all born with. But some people kind of are just simply because they're nurtured to it to such a degree. And and it sounds like maybe you were already kind of nurtured to that a little bit. I'm curious to know, if you yourself, were experiencing any burnout or anything, you felt like you really needed to start reaching out to other people at some point.

Yeah. So I grew up in a household with a father who was an alcoholic. And I grew up in the South, and we, you know, didn't really talk about it with other people, but it was something that really, definitely affected our family all the time. And so one thing that that just helped me as as I moved into adulthood, and I realized how many other people were dealing with things, you know, we if we weren't had this in our lives, other people had other things in their lives, and I would just, I just didn't feel like there was a reason to Judge, and of course, I am normal, I have judgment pop in and I try to catch and release it, you know, I'm harder usually on the judgment is harder on myself than than any other person. But I really was found that the vulnerability that can be offered from just admitting you know what we're going through, and then that often being aware of your own, you know, your own limitations, where it helps you offer judgment free to other people, and then the value that judgment free, it really is just a release, you know, it, it opens, it opens people up to sharing and to exploring. And so, as a coach, I'm trained in it now. But it was something that I did strive for. Well, before I knew that that was part of coaching.

Right? All right. Well, I find that fascinating, I can relate, I had a, I had a father who was also an alcoholic. And yes, it, it changes, how you look at the world, how you look at other people, and how you, how you what your self esteem is, and how you present yourself in the world. I know, for me, I had lots of different issues that I had no idea had anything to do with that, you know, because I actually ended my childhood and it was a wonderful childhood. At the end, I was affected by by this that was going on in the in the house. So that is that is something that is so key to all of us, when we're trying to move forward. We need other people's perspective to help us see ourselves but also so that we can rely on their strength. And to understand that we all come from something that is that is that is problematic. That is troublesome. That is yeah, that is limiting. And, and and we have a limit that we put on ourselves. So the fact that you are now helping others, to find a way to just shatter those limits and to, to move their own mountains. I just love that so much I hate to I hate to harp on that mountain thing. So I didn't mean to do that. But it's always so prevalent on my own mind. And then you gave me that visual at the beginning. So I'm really stuck on the whole route thing, because it really is, that's what limits are about, right, we want to hit the limit. But then we also we want to feel like there is no limit, like we can fly off the top of that mountain, and we can keep going. And so that's a really cool thing. I know that there's so much more to your story, because I've heard some of it. And some of it is really, really fascinating to me, as a person who has, you know, never had children. But I know that you have a whole story about that. We're not going to get into that right now. Mainly for time sake. And who knows, maybe we'll have another conversation here for the listeners to hear about. But I do know that you have a book. And so that's really cool that they have a way that they can get to the book, and I assume that they can get that through your website. Correct. Is that? Is that available there?

I can't remember. Yes. Okay. Okay, so. Okay, so that's on Amazon as well.

And it's on Amazon. Good. Okay, so they can get to that through that. And we're putting all to coaching.com we're putting that in the show notes, for sure. But you also have something you know, like you said, it's like, it's like you're kind of a Sherpa to people. And and so, you know, one thing that a guy does is they usually give people a roadmap. And apparently you have a roadmap for our listeners, if they want to get to know a little bit about what it is that you do and how they can help themselves by by seeing that there is a path for them. Tell us a little bit about what's in your roadmap. It's a success roadmap. Tell us about it? Yes.

So just over time, I've noticed working with other people, and also on my own projects and initiatives over the years that there are there's a power in reflection, John Maxwell says that experience is not the best teacher evaluated experience is. And so this is a one sheet that I use for something like planning an entire year. But you can also use it per project, you know, you can use it on a narrow focus as well. And so it's just, it's four steps to reflect. And then take what you gain from that reflection, and use it to move forward either with the same project and a new addition, or iteration or something else that you're wanting to move into.

It's cool, because it's something that we can use more than once I like that, yes, we can kind of go back to it and go back to it. So we're putting the link into that. That's a little bit more of a complicated link, but well, we'll put that link into the show notes for sure. So everybody can get that success roadmap. I love that that's something you do and you know I my gosh with with being kind of a limitless kind of thought leader. I can just imagine So many different answers to this question, but I have a final question that I like to ask everybody. But I'm really curious to know what yours is. if money were not an issue, how would you live out your legacy that you want to leave as a legacy for others? Oh.

So even as a limitless person, I have to work at lists, you know, breaking through big limits to ask, yeah, answer this question. Yeah. And while it's your imagination, yeah, so I've got a dream, and just from being able to live abroad, I've got a dream of my family doing that. And so with money being no object, we would spend, you know, spend a significant amount of time in several different parts of the world and just share and teach and learn, you know, I just feel like everybody can learn from each other. And so right, that would be that would be a way to do that is to just get to know more cultures and share with them, learn from them, and do that in blocks of time. At one point, in my my life, I've had the opportunity to spend at least a week in every country I've visited in, so that I really would love for that to be at least a month or a year, even if so move abroad for a year, you know, enjoy that place, go somewhere else, but just share it learn lots of languages in order to share in the language of the person's heart. I've got a couple under my belt, but I would love to do more. And

love that. Yeah. Okay. So with that in mind, and thinking big like that, I want to find out what your last impression is that you'd like to listeners to have like, what is the final word, or a mantra or a quote, anything you want to say, but you get the final word for our listeners today.

Thank you. Yeah, my final word is that your dream matters, you are created with limitless potential. And sometimes environment or experiences tell us otherwise. But my book that Tammy mentioned earlier is called burnout to boom so that we can right, challenge the status quo and get sustainable relief and start living the life that you were created to live in that only you can live.

That is perfect. Thank you so much. I am so happy that we were able to have this and maybe we do it again sometime. But for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Tammy.