We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Donna Lindsay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Donna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Some would say that success is having your business recognized by Forbes Magazine as a Fortune 500 company. Others define success as having the opportunity to drive a Maserati or owning a company that brings in $20,000 a month. I believe success looks different to each of us. Some may base their success on their life experiences, levels of education, or a variety of accomplishments (i.e. opening a business, getting married, earning a degree, purchasing a home, or starting a family). I believe that success happens in stages. I call these combined stages the Success Cycle: Purpose, Process, and Productivity.

The first stage of success begins with Purpose. This is the stage that causes you to reflect on your life’s experiences, victories, challenges, and passion. Once this is done, you will do what I call “putting the puzzle pieces” together. You may ask yourself questions like, What are some of the similarities and differences in my life’s experiences? What did I learn from my challenges? What am I passionate about? How can the answers to all of these questions benefit someone else? I believe that when you have a complete understanding of who you are and what you were created to do, misuse is nonexistent. As a result, you are SUCCESSFUL!

The next stage in my Success Cycle manifests when you live in your truth and endure the Process. Through honest reflection, you are given the opportunity to identify your strengths and weaknesses and seek help for those areas of deficiency. For example, if you have poor organizational skills, it would be important for you to take a course or get help from someone that possesses that quality. This is a SUCCESS!

Lastly, the final stage of my Success Cycle is Productivity. Productivity allows you to see the fruits of your labor. This is not just in the area of product sales or an increased number of clients. The success that is demonstrated through Productivity has to do with the lives that you impact and how they are duplicating your knowledge, by sharing it with another individual or group of individuals.

I have walked myself through all three phases of the Success Cycle in all of my businesses and affiliations. The most important “mile marker” for me has always been Productivity. When I see clients, business associates, and competitors embrace the instruction, and coaching strategies I have shared with them and take it a step further to share it with others, I am SUCCESSFUL!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born in Mandeville, Jamaica to Alice and Kenneth Myers. Alice was a 21-year-old bank teller and Kenneth was a 23-year-old pipe-fitter. At the age of two, my parents and I went to Toronto, Canada on vacation. After a week of visiting friends, my father decided that this would be our new home. We returned to Jamaica and within a few months, all of our belongings were packed up, in preparation for the big move. My father often spoke about how important it was for us to take advantage of the opportunities the western world had to offer. When I was nine years old, my brother Darren Myers was born and my life changed for the better. No longer was I lonely and concerned with just my affairs, but now, I had to consider the needs of another. I was a big sister and I loved it! After several very harsh winters, my father decided that it was time to make a change. That change led us to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Life changed drastically. We left behind our entire support system. My mother and father provided for us in every way imaginable, but no one was happy. We had no friends, no outlets (i.e. family gatherings, dance lessons, or swimming classes), and no support. I thought this was the beginning of the end for us. Little did I know, this was where our story would begin. My mother realized that I was unraveling emotionally and sought the assistance of my school psychologist. With the psychologist’s help, I began journaling my thoughts, regardless of the severity. I found this to be very empowering. I didn’t realize until I was an adult that my challenges with low self-esteem, lack of confidence, brokenness, depression, and suicide were all a part of my process. Every situation, circumstance, relationship, and traumatic experience was preparing me for something greater.

In 2018, while conversing with a close friend, I began to express my desire to do something new. She began talking to me about becoming a life coach and we signed up for a course. Our instructor was so engaging, my classmates so supportive, and after two days my curiosity peaked. While in class, the instructor had us envision ourselves in our office working with our coaching clients. When the instructor asked me to describe my office and who I was meeting with. I shared that I was not in an office but on a stage in front of thousands of people. I had a book in my hand that I had obviously written. My classmates stared at me with amazement and my instructor paused momentarily and said, “Well, get to writing that book”. I remember saying to myself, “Donna, why did you say that? You don’t write books.” In April of that year, I became a Certified Professional Coach and established Donna Lindsay Coaching and Consulting, LLC.

One year after making this monumental decree, I was invited to write in two anthologies. . The first, 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏: 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑, 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 contains a chapter I wrote entitled “The Power of Influence”, which teaches leaders how to use their influence to positively impact the people they lead through the lens of love. The second, 𝒀𝒆𝒔! 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑪𝒂𝒏, 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 houses my contributing chapter “Take the Mask Off! Be the Authentic You”, which encourages readers to identify the purpose, explore misconceptions, remove the metaphoric mask they have worn, and take the steps needed to find their authentic self. In 2020, I was asked to be the Inspirational/Spiritual columnist for Be Magazine, an online magazine, that is distributed throughout North America. Throughout 2019, I was coaching individuals here and there, but I realized that I was still experiencing dissatisfaction. While I enjoyed helping individuals identify their barriers, set goals, and meet with success there was something missing. In 2020, my writing led me to create a curriculum for a quarterly masterclass I train called 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐌𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭. This four-week class helps participants identify barriers and challenges, release people, situations, and circumstances, and learn how to love themselves unconditionally. I am pleased to share that this class has been facilitated for individuals on a national level and international organizations desiring to help their employees improve their self-love journey. Presently, I am in the process of creating a self-paced online version of the class for individuals who prefer to work independently.

In April 2022, exactly four years after participating in the life coach course I published my first independent book 𝑺𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆: 𝑨 𝑱𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, which leads the reader to embark upon a transformative journey to learn how to love themselves unconditionally.

I believe that my faith, willing heart, and courage to embrace change are what set the stage for where I am today. As a result, I am thankful that I did not cave in or give up, but I turned my pain into my passion. Every organization I worked for, the people I interacted with, and the tasks and/or assignments I completed led me to where I am today. All of these combined endeavors have opened doors, created opportunities, and afforded me the opportunity to share my knowledge, help people recognize their potential, tap into their greatness, and meet people from all over the world.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My entire entrepreneurial journey has been an act of resilience. As a 28-year educator, I have worked and been paid to teach at private and public schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. As you know, there are individuals on campus paid to keep the building clean, write memos, answer the phone, cast vision, provide remedial instruction/psychological instruction, oversee inventory, and pupil transportation.

However, when you are an entrepreneur, you are responsible for EVERYTHING! You are the marketer, social media promoter, coach, secretary, custodian, speaker, visionary, counselor, and administrative assistant. This was a lot for me to process and embrace, but I later understood that it was necessary to start and maintain a flourishing business.
Rather than moving forward in all of these areas at once, I started slow. I put processes and procedures in place to assist with marketing, scheduling, and email workflows. As clients contacted me for a free 20-minute clarity call or to set up their next session, they didn’t have to wait to speak to me. Each client’s action prompted an immediate email response, providing them with next steps and scheduling links. This did not come naturally. After having to answer the phone, respond to numerous text messages, and service clients (sometimes at the same time) I had to find a way to become more effective and efficient. Each of these challenges was needed to help me adapt to the internal and external demands of owning my own business. This is RESILIENCE!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I believe that my ability to be vulnerable and transparent about my own self-love journey has really helped to build my reputation in the business. Oftentimes as professionals we do not necessarily seek to disclose all of the inner workings of our life’s journey. I have chosen to do so because I believe there may be someone in my group coaching sessions, or present at my speaking engagements that are facing similar challenges in real-time and need a “right now” solution.

I also believe that walking with integrity has been instrumental in propelling my coaching, speaking, and writing career forward. People know that when they hire me to do any of the above that I am a woman of my word. I always seek to execute what was discussed. The sole objective of Donna Lindsay Coaching & Consulting, LLC is to help people walk through some of the most tumultuous life experiences and come out VICTORIOUS!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.donnalindsay.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_donna_lindsay/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnalindsayspeaks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-lindsay999/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/DonnaLSpeaks
• Other: Facebook Group Love My Way Collective: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lovemywaycollective To purchase 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲: 𝗔 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 https://www.donnalindsay.com/store

Image Credits
Antonio Lindsay Patricia Glover Dr. Sheila Trapp Elaine Bailey Anderson