From Roller Skating in Paris to Community Building Success with the Quiz Queen Linda Sidhu

In two words , I would have just called you the quiz queen because that's how I first learned about you , but I am happy to let the listener know Linda . Linda is the creator of the Mixer Mind .

So , like you've heard a number of guests so far on this podcast karen gillen , holly hillier , marisa corcoran and tracy patterson I think there was one more dallas travers .

These are phenomenal people who I met in the mixer mind and all I can say is it's such a cool environment where it's low key People joined to like they joined knowing that we're here to partnership with each other . And I think the quote that you said , linda , in order to increase visibility , you need to dang it . I forgot the right . What's the finish ?

It for me , please .

You know , and sure we're there to show up and deliver like strategies and tips and tricks , you know surrounding our expertise , but it's like I mean we're living , breathing people , with things we like and don't like and believes in and families , right , linda .

If you don't know me and you're like , where the heck did Rick go ? Head down to the show notes below , and there's two links down there . One is where Rick shares what he's doing in the AI space .

Same old Rick , same old great insights into online business , but now he's using AI to help you , the online entrepreneur , increase your impact and reduce your overwhelm and increase your profit in your business .

And then you can also hear an interview that he did with me , sharing about why he chose me to carry the torch or pass the baton to me , so to speak , as the new host of the Art of Online Business . And one thing I'm absolutely positive about is you're listening here .

You can follow , for more tips and tricks and strategies I almost said tragedies strategy , strategy , strategies and behind the scenes , business peaks and , of course , facebook ads goodness for online course creators , and with that I'm honored to have Linda Sadu here .

It's just , it's low pressure and the people that I've connected inside are so . They're just cool . So how did you do this ? Where did this idea come from ?

And after the first virtual mixer , everybody was like , oh my gosh , can we just do this again ? And I remember Brenna McGowan , a mutual friend of ours . She was like if I could just do virtual mixers every day , I think my life would be complete . Like she said something that just loved it so much .

Right , and I started to kind of follow the breadcrumbs , I guess . Like I was like , okay , well , if people want more of this , I should do more of it , because to me it was fun . You know , people may not know back when I was in corporate , I was in pharmaceutical sales .

But , yeah , I was in pharmaceutical sales and I worked in Ohio and I also worked in Kentucky . Part of my territory was in Kentucky and so back when I was not even owning my own business , I would bring people together in just random different ways .

One of my favorite ways when I lived in Ohio was doing a Kentucky Derby party and I would invite my friends over , dress up , we would wear hats , I would serve mint juleps and , you know , we would bid on the horses , and it was just so fun , and so I love a good themed party .

I always was this way back in college , as well as just bringing people together and having fun , and it was really just .

I guess in my design I don't know Like I had a human design reading with Danielle Laura , who's also in the mixer mind , and she's like yes , linda , you're , you're a two , I'm a two and a six , or maybe it's a four , I think it's a four and six . I'm a four and a six , I believe , and the four is a community builder .

So as I started to learn more about myself , I realized that I have so much fun to bring people together and I do think in this online space there's a different dynamic of making business right , like it's like usually a coach or a mastermind , and I guess at some point I was like , look , we're all experts .

Can't we just all come together and like talk about behind the scenes and try to figure out how to support each other ? I mean , the rising tide lifts all boats right . And so I started to follow the breadcrumbs and I was doing these virtual mixers and people just love them . And I realized it didn't matter who I asked , everybody would say yes .

So I remember I was so nervous to ask certain people I'm like you know , hey , dallas Travers , would you want to attend this ? She said yes , I invite Gemma Bonham Carter . She says yes , I'm like everybody wants this . And so eventually , it was a dear friend of mine , zafira Rajan , which I believe you know . She's in the Mixer Mind .

She was in your peer pod and she told me , linda , you need to monetize this . And I'm thinking , how can I monetize this ? This is just too fun . And sure enough , eventually I realized that this was all I wanted to do myself . Kind of going back to what Brenna was saying . I was like this is all I want to do .

And because it's fun to have , you know , connections , it's fun to support other entrepreneurs , it's fun to have strategic conversations , it's fun to mastermind with peers , and so I just kind of , you know , a mastermind with peers , and so I just kind of , you know , launched the Mixer Mind and that's what brought us together , actually ?

He was like you know if we could treat every cancer . I'm sorry what ?

So what he was trying to say was that they have a way to treat thyroid cancer that's gold standard , that they wish they could replicate for other cancers which they just don't have . So after I understood that I realized it was .

You know , you take the thyroid out , you do radioactive iodine and the rest of the organs gone , so there's no chance of usually for it to like regrow , for the cancer to regrow , because there's nothing there . But what I didn't realize was going to happen , which he didn't tell me about , was the complication that happened . It was actually this time last year .

I had a blood clot after my second surgery and it collapsed in my throat a week after the second surgery and that was actually a life threatening situation . Yeah , it wasn't good .

They didn't think it was cancer and then the pathology report was like oh , it is cancer , so now we have to go back in and take the rest of it out . So I had two surgeries and for the entire week after April 19 last year I kept telling my husband , I kept telling the doctor I actually went to the ER , I think two or three times .

I kept telling people I couldn't breathe and when I would Google it it would say hematoma , blood clot , and I'm like , oh my gosh , this could kill you you know , so then I would have a panic attack because nobody was listening to me , I was getting gaslighted . People were just like what are you talking about ? You're fine . And I'm like , no , I'm not fine .

I've been in this body , I can't breathe , yeah , I can't breathe , yeah . And then finally , on April 25 , the hematoma had collapsed in my throat and if you Google this , it can be problematic because if it obstructs your airways , that could be detrimental and lead to death . Luckily , it didn't do that . I was five minutes from the hospital .

I got to the hospital , they stabilized me and I was in an emergency surgery within a few hours after that and I was okay . I was finally okay and when I woke up from that emergency surgery , the doctor was like you were right . Way to be an advocate for yourself .

Was yours hypo or hyper or hyper ? Honestly , I don't know . Probably hypo , I think . I think hypo is an underproducing thyroid , I think , and hyper is an overactive thyroid , overreactive . I don't know , I don't even know , but hers was hypo , so she had hers . Well , she tells me this was before we were together , but she didn't slit her , so sorry .

So anybody watching the YouTube video can see me go like this , and what I meant is she had a big like swollen throat and they removed it and it was I don't know if it was like grapefruit size or something really , really large . She said her neck got a lot smaller once they took out the growth and the thyroid .

But actually when you do testing , the reason why I just had it surgically removed the second time once I realized it was bigger is because technically , when they do biopsies it might not get cancer cells . So I just wanted to know . I was like get this thing out because it's too big at this point .

I think it was causing a lot of symptoms when it was to that point because I was having a hard time . I was just really tired and I even think I remember I was having memory loss and I think it was because I wasn't getting enough oxygen to my brain . Yeah , it was kind of freaky and so I thought I had long COVID . I went to the doctor .

I'm like I think I have long COVID , I don't feel very good and , you know , come to find out it was cancer . But the reason why I'm bringing this story up is after the hematoma collapsed I had to clear my calendar . This time last year . I was like I have to have my health . If I don't have my health , there is no business .

And , matter of fact , I couldn't even talk . After I had essentially three surgeries in eight weeks on my throat . I could not even talk , and so I really needed to rest . And at that time I realized that my community , who was part of my first mixer mind they were sending me gift cards for grocery delivery .

They ended up getting together and helping me raise money to get dog walking services for my dog because they knew it . And I even had a couple people volunteer to host zoom calls for me . And you know , at that point I knew that this community wasn't just about propelling my business forward .

They became the lifeline of my business during that time sounds like good people yeah , it's just . And so at that point it was like I knew I needed to double down on this because I mean , that's what it's all about is community like we ? The rising tide lifts all boats , and so I fully experienced that embodied this last year .

And so , when going back to what you said about the Instagram , I there was only so much I could handle and so I eliminated Instagram and wasn't really doing Instagram much . And you had sent me a couple of DMs and you know how it goes into that folder where you don't know unless you go check it Like message .

requests Yep and finally , I checked that folder and my heart sank because I saw that you were interested in the picture and I was like , oh no , I feel like such a jerk , and so I wanted to make it right , and we let you know , we obviously let you in .

I was like , oh no , I feel like such a jerk , and so I wanted to make it right , and we let you know , we obviously let you in .

I was like , if you're still interested , even the the doors closed , like we would love to have you , and that's kind of like where , like , this whole story is to tell you , like that's how it all came about , and so I'm so happy yeah , you're in the well yeah , I mean , anybody listening to this podcast for a bit has heard me talk about it and even like

people will email me .

So , like I want to go back and talk about something that you probably haven't talked about before , but back in . So first of all , you said Ohio yes , Territory , when you were back in pharmaceutical sales . But then you said , if I understood that right , you went to university in Ohio .

Because so my wife is from Michigan , which I do know also shares another border with Ohio , because we drove to Ohio once . How did you get from Ohio all the way out to Seattle when ? Because I'm from Seattle , well near Seattle .

So I spent a lot of time in Michigan . But , to answer your question , I met my husband , who's originally from England , in Ohio and he and I started dating . And he was working at JP Morgan Chase at the time .

He had just taken that job out of college and he was trying to , you know , move up the ladder and so he interviewed for this big opportunity for a wholesaler and you know we had been together for about three years , we were dating and then we went on a big trip .

He always goes to England , he always likes to go to England and visit family , family and we attached a trip to paris , france . So it was like a week in england and a week in france , and I was hoping that he was going to propose to me because you know paris like he'd been together for three years .

It's fine , I don't need to get proposed to in .

And he proposes , finally , and then the Eiffel Tower starts like twingling and doing its thing and it was just magical right , and it was . It was just magical Right and I was so happy that it happened . But two weeks after the proposal he gets that job that he interviewed for and we moved to San Francisco within like a few weeks .

It was very fast and I realized at that moment , when you do get engaged or get married , it is sickness and health better or worse . You know all the things , including moving across country for a new job opportunity .

So , yeah , I had to quit my job and then I ended up working for a competitor pharmaceutical company because there was an opening with a competitor and so I took that job and by November so we got engaged in July and by November we were already living in California , yeah , and so we lived there for a year and then eventually JP Morgan relocated him up to

Seattle and we've been here for almost 11 years now .

In Paris , Because Paris has quite a few memorable sites . Good , question .

So he , when we were in England apparently his sister had given it to his dad and we went to England and so the dad , his dad , had it , and so his dad gave it to Justin right before we flew to Paris and he had it in his pocket and then he was scared to walk around with it so he just left it in the room .

I think he hid it in our room and that's why it stayed in the room out of his luggage and he finally did it at the top because he didn't want to . He didn't want to have it in his pocket . He was scared to have it and walk around pickpocketed or something it may yeah .

that . I love Paris . I've been there like a handful of times and every time I want to move back .

It's just so different than the United States when you can go to , like Portugal and Italy and France , and they're all so different .

I really loved running around the city with my friends . I know now that I am much more of a let's go someplace , not be a tourist , but run around and try it . Everybody says like try to have authentic local experiences . But that's really what I enjoyed . Like I was there , I lived there the first time .

It was like three months I was working there and I still have not been to a museum or inside of a Parisian museum . And yet that time when I was there , it was like I went swimming , I went roller skating . Oh my gosh , like all these things , they have this , they have these .

They call it like roller skating on mass , I think , like just in a big group . And when I was there it would happen on Friday nights and you would go , go .

If you didn't have your roller skates , like me , you would go and you would rent roller skates and then it was like easily 700 people , if not more , and they would have , you know , people on speed skates who were really good , go out ahead of the group and like block an intersection and then everybody would just kind of roll on through and you were rolling

around Paris like trying not to fall on your face because of all , like the cobblestone roads , and they would just like these chants like ole , ole , ole and all this crazy stuff , and so these kind of experiences just really impressed upon me . Luckily it was my first time abroad and so they were good , but they impressed upon me .

You leave the country , you meet people from other countries , you have all these fun I guess once in a lifetime you could say experiences , and I caught the travel bug or the live abroad bug and I've never looked . I never . I've never looked back since I'm still living abroad now .

When we went , we didn't do the typical go up the , you know , eiffel Tower , we didn't go in the Louvre either , but what we did do is we hired a local tour guide to show us the places or do the things that a local would do , and I think that's the better way , and I mean it's not a better way , but it's like such a fascinating way to experience it .

And one of the things we did was we did a bike ride around Notre Dame , which was really cool , and we also .

One thing I remember during that bike ride was the guy was showing us there was back in the day when they would like get mad at their neighbors , they would actually take a cannonball and like shoot cannonballs at their neighbor , and so there was like a cannonball lodged in a building and the story was that some one neighbor got mad at the other and like shot

the actual neighbor's building . But you get to find out random things that are different , that you wouldn't . You wouldn't know otherwise , right , and so you can see it from a different lens , which , by the way , we were just talking earlier about how experiences in order to like . It's .

It's just a way to experience life Right and in order to like if you can take this into like a business what I was saying at the beginning is like , in order to gain visibility , you have to create meaningful connections and you do this through people experiencing you , and it's the same thing on living life right , like you grow because you experience different

places . Anyway , I just wanted to share that piece because I , too , feel like that's the best way to visit is like to do something that the locals would do .

You mean I get to like kiss people on the cheek multiple times , every time like I say hi , it was great , Went to a party and it was hosted by well , cause we so anyway , the the mom of the girl whose party it was was there Totally , totally blew that one because I wasn't quite comfortable with the whole kissing thing yet , and so like I was supposed to

like give her a kiss on each cheek and so , like I just kind of shook her hand and smiled and the mom was quite upset at my lack of culture . But here's the story .

So I went to Paris and I was supposed to work there and God bless this counselor at college who , like looked at me and said , no , you wouldn't do well in a study abroad program , you need to go work in Paris . I was like cool , whatever .

So we get to Paris and this work abroad program they have like an orientation for like four hours pretty boring , but they made it a point to make us understand that there's like a couple of binders on the wall . We're independent , we have to go find our own jobs .

They gave us the paperwork as in like the legal ability to be able to work in France , but we had to go find our own jobs . And there's two binders specifically .

One is like contains previous employers and business owners that had employed like previous participants in this program , and the other was people who rented out apartments or had previously rented out apartments to participants before , and so I started looking for a job .

And then I met this group of really cool girls to go hang out with , and so we were like basically partying around Paris and I spent most of my money , and they had a lot deeper pockets than me , and so in less than two weeks I like blowed through all my cash because I didn't know any better .

I had a little bit , but I didn't have enough money to afford the , I guess , cheapest apartment that I had not been able to get approved for previously because I was looking during the daytime for a place to live . So then I ended up having to be homeless , and so when you said Notre Dame , I too was by the Notre Dame , but homeless .

There was this little cafe across the River Seine from the Notre Dame called Shakespeare and Company . It's still there . At least , it was there when I went back to Paris in like fall of 2022 . So it's still there . But starving artists scene .

You know where if you want to go , and Paris has a history with art right , so you could work there by day and sleep there at night , and so I spent several nights there before I found my place to live , which was in the north of Paris , and I had no idea at the time until I went there , but I fit in perfectly because the neighborhood was all like

northern Africans , and so that's where I lived for my whole like first stay in Paris , and it wasn't like the best neighborhood . It was pretty rough , but , like for me , I fit in perfect as long as I didn't open my mouth and people didn't hear like my American accent when I tried to speak French . Yeah , no problems whatsoever . And so that was .

That was just one of the many stories like of me being in Paris like that first time . It was a crazy , super fun trip , though .

She's not a girl anymore , she's a lady , but she lives here now with her husband down in Mexicoxico , where I live , and like we've all become friends because me and her were friends , like we were suffering through the same , like weed out intro physics and math courses together at the university of washington and then 20 something odd years later hasn't been that

long ? It's been longer , my gosh she ends up moving down to the city here in Mexico . Wait , yeah , cause 2000 . Yeah , it's been longer than 20 years . Wow . So anyway , I suffered in college , like suffered .

I would go to my classes and spent easily like three hours in the math tutoring center and then like another three hours in the physics tutoring center , like do the math . We were on a quarter system , so like I had a schedule where I finished at either like one o'clock or 12 o'clock PM , but it was horrible .

And so after that first year I just I made a complete left turn and decided what do I like ?

And I had taken a fringe class the whole time , like each quarter , and it was the class that I didn't have time to study for because I was slaving away , like in the tutoring centers , trying trying to make the curve and I hated curves , by the way , but trying to make the curve in physics and math and so I , oh , maybe I like this foreign language thing ,

so I picked linguistics and they let you study abroad and I went and went to France and it was great .

And it's not surprising that we're both in entrepreneurship and we both love to travel and we love to risk , try new things and just experience life right and we love to risk , try new things and just experience life , right ?

I think you'd agree , like when you need to pivot or you need to think of a solution like this , thinking outside the box , speaking of which , in the next episode , you're going to have to decide are you going to share with the audience a lot more about how quizzes can help grow your business , because that's how you were known as the quiz queen , but then now

you also have this mixer mind , which you run very , very well , and it's all about increasing visibility through partnerships . So , right here on the spot , which one is it going to be for the next episode , linda ?

Since I joined your Mixer Mind , quite a few opportunities have come up because of the relationships I built there , and though I am a Facebook ad manager , I do believe that you know , I saw this quote back in the day because I was watching a meme that said competition happens at the bottom and collaboration happens at the top , and I noticed that , like all

these people with like a million plus followers , they would just show up on each other's Instagram , they would collaborate in these skits , you know , and they're funny , they're pointless , they make you laugh , they're entertainment , right , but their audiences would just grow and I would see so many shares on each one and they would just do like a series of skits

with each other related or unrelated , and I'm like they are collaborating , and it took me joining your Mixer Mind to really get a sense for that behind the scenes .

Sure , there could be multiple copywriters or multiple people from whatever niche , but people are collaborating and exposing each other to their audiences and growing that way , and it's super effective and useful . So I can't wait to ask you more questions about that in the next episode .

notes ? You can see a link to it . It's already there . So if you click on that link and it is not yet July 31st , please have patience . That episode will drop on July 31st , but the link is in the show notes below . Thank you for being here , Linda .