TRANSCRIPT
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The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: From Broke Single Mum to 7‑Figure CEO: The Linh Podetti Journey
Date: 05/01/2026 Length: 52:39
Daniel Lapin 0:01
Welcome to the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show where I your rabbi, reveal how the world really works, and one of the ways in which it really works is that to succeed in business, you don't need an advanced degree from a university. You don't need to have been imparted genius genes by your parents. You don't need to have reached a certain age, or all you need to do is you got to know how the world really works. And somebody who clearly knows how the world really works is my guest, Linh Podetti. We're talking to her. She's in Australia. She was born in Vietnam. She immigrated to Australia with her parents when she was about nine years old, and today she owns and operates an eight figure business. She is the mom of, I think, three small kids,
Linh Podetti 1:22
one older, two younger ones,
Daniel Lapin 1:25
little older, two younger ones, and her husband is has his own business, right? Those are the key things. And there were, there were things that were imparted to you by your childhoods that have never left you, and among those are an understanding of how the world really works. And so one of your first breakthroughs in building your business was when you hired somebody and you said to yourself, I don't have to do everything. And that is one of the, well, it's one of the lessons in my book, business secrets from the Bible. And it's also lesson in thou shalt prosper. And it's, it's fundamental. The good lord built a world in which specialization pays off. It works well for everybody. Linh, we've known each other for a number of years now, electronically, and it was so great. I'm thinking, was it about a year ago that we met, or is it less?
Linh Podetti 2:27
Yes, it was 2025, April. Yeah, a year ago, a
Daniel Lapin 2:34
little over a year ago, we actually met, but we'd known each other quite a while before that, and loved each other's work and respected what each other was doing, and very much enjoyed every time I was on your show. I really enjoyed it and got very, very good feedback. Please tell me what, what crucial aspects that make lintech that I omit from that very brief introduction
Linh Podetti 3:02
that's an amazing introduction, by the way. And just to correct as well, I run a seven figure soon to be eight figure one day in the future. But yeah, my kids are probably not young anymore. They're like 1012, and 22 and so I think one of the key highlight of my life is the fact that I was a broke, single mom at the age of 20 and being disowned by my family going, Oh, my God, you embarrassed our family. You know, get out. You chose that path, or that guy, don't come back. And I guess that was such a pivotal time in my life to rebuild my life from scratch as a young girl, as a mum, and then and then trying to figure out how the world works, so that I could actually build a life, build a business, so that I could, you know, be there for my son and be everything for My son as well.
Daniel Lapin 4:01
Linh, just going back to those dark days. Were there people who tried to encourage you to not keep the child
Linh Podetti 4:09
100% my own mum was like, Linh, this is the biggest decision of your life, and you're going to regret it, because they obviously can see that the choice that I made with the man that I was with was not good. This is prior to the day I ever found God and ever found spirituality, I was living a life of I know everything. I know how the world works at the age of 20, and so my mum was crying and begging. And you know, now I look back, I'm like, obviously at the time, I just felt like my parents were always against me, but really they there were things that they knew, and that was, you know, they can just see their child making the biggest mistake of their life. And yeah, she convinced me. But because I had such a gullible mindset and very ignorant, very like, I'll deal with it like, you know, if you. Tell me something's hot, I'll touch it and go, all right, I get it. But when you told me I'm going to have a child, I just thought it was like, I don't know, just going to the shop buying something. And then now I look back at like, oh yes, you keep this child forever, and it shapes the whole future and but then again, you know, if it wasn't for my child, then I wouldn't have discovered the need to have work life balance, and I need to start a business I could support my son.
Daniel Lapin 5:27
So as much as you gave birth to your son in a way, you could say he gave birth to you too. He turned you into a new person.
Linh Podetti 5:36
Yeah.
Daniel Lapin 5:37
Would
Daniel Lapin 5:37
that be true?
Linh Podetti 5:38
Yeah. That is very true. And I just look back at the pattern of life, and I feel like, you know, God cares more about your character than your comfort. And early on my life, I was the one that just threw myself in the fire. And my mum used to say, Why do you use yourself like a test dummy? You know, why would you hurt yourself and try everything and but because I did a lot of those things, I learned a lot of lessons in life early on, but I found that a lot of my friends who avoided trouble, avoided challenges and just did everything right, they will discover life in a different way, whether it's later on, a divorce, you know, struggling to have babies, or some sort of challenges that still help them to grow as human beings. And then we all kind of at the end of life go, Ah, now we understand what life is all about. And now we've, you know, become more resilient because of life.
Daniel Lapin 6:32
And so how old were you when your son was born 19?
Linh Podetti 6:38
I was 19, and I just turned 20, and he was born. So he's born like a week after my 20th birthday.
Daniel Lapin 6:47
And how long after that, did you become religious? You become a Christian?
Linh Podetti 6:54
Oh, I only became a Christian in 2020, which is about five years ago, and that was when I discovered you, because I, first of all, I discovered Christianity on YouTube. It was passed Allard from Hungry generation. He just spoke something that resonated with me and referenced the Bible. I went to Hillsong to try it out. Just found my home said, Oh, my God, I want to know more about Christianity. It was covid. Went on Business Connect, and then had a guest speaker, Jeff Letts, our friend, Jeff lets he was just a guest speaker there. And then, you know, whenever I get to meet someone, an expert or a guest speaker somewhere, and they're like, you know, here I am. You know, contact me if you need anything. I'm the first one to contact them. Hi. I really enjoyed that conversation. And he ended up going, you need to meet my friend, Rabbi Daniel Lapin. And that's pretty much, you know, you were the beginning of my journey in Christianity.
Daniel Lapin 7:56
It's really funny, because the first half of my career I spent as a synagogue rabbi in California, and the overwhelming majority of the couple of 1000 people that passed through the synagogue had no religious or Jewish background and and so I had the privilege of ushering them into a relationship with the Torah and with Judaism and with God. And the second part of my career, I can't tell you how many Christian friends have told me that I was responsible for their journey back to the church. So that's one. It's really it's been fascinating.
Linh Podetti 8:39
Yeah, and your book, the business secrets from the Bible. Like I read I read it through. I watch a lot of your interviews, and I keep telling my friends, even if they're not a Christian, I just said you need to read this because you understand the fundamental of why you need to care about people. You need to outsource them because, you know, God created us to be siblings, and we all need to care about each other. It's such a transformational shift in my thinking.
Daniel Lapin 9:04
It's it's big. There's no question about it. And your book, this is your first book that's just coming out now.
Linh Podetti 9:12
Yes,
Daniel Lapin 9:13
there it is, 360 degrees success. See it, 360 degrees success. The no regret playbook for entrepreneurs now that really caught my attention, because my coaching practice is based on the 5f system, the idea that not only are our lives dependent on five primary zones, family, finance, friendship, fitness and faith, but that they all interconnect with one another. Yes and I was just this morning reviewing a particular client who an interesting situation. He his interest was finance. That's what brought him. He was he had some concerns about the administration of his business and the relationship of his business's revenue to his own income. And because I am always on the lookout for spiritual links between financial performance and issues with fitness and faith and family and friendship and so on, I asked him at one point, please tell me your relationship with your parents. Said his mother's no longer alive, but he's been estranged from his father for about 15 years. He they barely talk, and I had to walk him through a lengthy process of reapproachment to rebuild that relationship. And I explained to him, Your dad doesn't need you to respect and love him. You need to respect and love him. It's the fifth commandment is not for parents, it's for children. It's something we need to have in our lives. And I was very, very happy when I turned out to be correct that the blockage on the financial end vanished once his relationship with his father opened. So these connections are hugely important. And I always place the 5f on the circumference of a circle equidistant 72 degrees apart, and then I link them up with lines, because there are 10 cross links between them all. And so when I saw your book 360 degrees, this is it. It's exactly right. She's, she's hit the nail on the head. And then I, I went into it more deeply. But please tell us what the three, 360. Degrees means a circle. Means a full circle. If you're facing north and you turn the quarter turn to the right, you're now facing east. You've passed 90 degrees. Now face reverse from where you were. You're now at 180 degrees. Keep turning another quarter turn till you're facing west, and you're now at 270 and then all the way back again, you've turned 360 degrees. Now, what do you mean by 360 degree success?
Linh Podetti 12:33
Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing all that. And I definitely also want to touch on how I was able to, I guess, be unstuck through forgiving my parents and letting go, because that really was blocking me as well. But 360 degree success, it really was based on me realizing that, as much as I thought that if I keep succeeding in my business, make more money, that somehow my life would get better and that I would be happy and fulfilled one day, it's just hit me that I was just feeling that sense of unfulfillment. But the thing is, you know, over I would say, 15 years ago, was the first time I was exposed to the will of life. You know, when I studied life coaching, got a life coach. And you know, we will, we will taught these many areas of life that we need to assess, whether it's money, health, friends, etc., that. And there's, there's many versions of this will of life, but over time, I would forget about it, you know, like I knew that all these things matter. But I would, I guess, be stubborn and think that it let me just make the money first. Let me just hit my first $1 million and then a 1.5 and then 2 million and it was just this ongoing goal that keeps moving. And then it was about eight years ago when, you know, my two younger kids were a bit smaller, you know, and I'm now wearing a hat as a as a mum, the second, third time wife, working from home and also having to carry the load of being a housewife as well as a working mom, while my husband has his own business. And I just remember feeling overwhelmed, and it even got to the point where I had anxiety attack. I was, you know, just feeling anxious when I was driving. And I thought it was just because I was having some fear from driving, but that was just a symptom of undealt trauma and overwhelmed and not living a balanced life you think you are, but because you're spending time with kids, you're working, yes, you fit in workouts, but it's none of that was intentional, as I worked with a life coach at the time. Her name was Uma, and she started asking me questions around, you know, assessing your will of life, and then, what does success mean for you as a mom, as a wife, as a daughter, and I started to dial in just making little goals. Instead of setting KPIs for business only, I started setting KPIs for home, for example. What makes you happy
Daniel Lapin 14:55
for those of you who may be beginner on. Entrepreneurs, KPI are key performance indicators.
Linh Podetti 15:04
There you go. So success metrics like, how do you measure success, whether it's number of sales, the number of calls you make to a kite? And so for me, it started to become, how many date nights would I go with my husband? How often would I exercise? And then if I had a cleaner that came once a month, and we were so stress free and we were happy in those moments, how can we increase it? Find money and afford those things? That increases my life. And over time, I started to live a better life, more traveling, more freedom. And it also forces me when you're setting better goals in your life, you start to have to run your business differently, letting go of control. Even if I had virtual assistants and stuff, there were still parts of it where I was holding on to, not trusting people as much as I should, and Systemizing and automation, etc. And so as I was living through all these areas, I was just doing what I'm doing, enjoying my life. And two years ago, these entrepreneurs who are more successful financially than me, running bigger business than me, started asking me, Hey, can you share what you've done? You've created freedom for yourself. And I'm like, hang on. Do you need to hire virtual assistants from me to free up your life? No, no. We have plenty of staff. We have plenty of vas, but somehow we keep filling that space with more work, because there's more to do, more opportunities to grab. And then I was like, You know what? This is something I should be teaching and sharing, you know? Because I just felt like I only just figured out, not that long ago, I'm still living with a husband who still believes that wait until he hired this stuff, when he moves this factory, when this happened, then he'll be there to help me. And I'm still waiting for that day for him to kind of feel like he's hit a milestone, for him to help and so I leaned in and started sharing, and when I shared, I was like, I need to share it in a way that makes sense. Very fast for these entrepreneurs. They're very time poor. They don't have years to work with a life coach to understand what I've understood now. And so then, when I took that on, within two weeks, I created a framework, and I call it 360, degree success. And it was based on the five pillars, which is a little bit slightly different to yours, but it was something that I felt that I was living the way I live my life. And this the first one is self mastery. So it's mastering yourself, your body, which includes your body, mind and spirit, your soul. And then the second one is empowered connection. So this is where I learned a lot from you, around the need for connections and but I also bundle contribution in that. Because in order to build a lot of connection, you need to contribute as well. So who is in your circle of influence? And the third one is life experiences. I just figure every time I travel and did the things that I love, going to Coachella, dancing with my single friends or, you know, or traveling even alone or with family, it's amazing. So that's the third pillar, business freedom. So business freedom is all about time and financial freedom. So obviously, I'm talking to entrepreneurs who really care not just about making more money. It's about freedom in business and time. And then the third one, the fifth one, is family balance. So how do you actually feel like you are there for your kids and your loved ones. So those are the five pillars that if you continuously dial and improve in all those areas all at once, you do feel that sense of fulfillment or progress.
Daniel Lapin 18:34
So Linh, by the way, as you know, I when I went through your book, you quote me, not once, not twice, three times I'm quoted in your book. So that makes my day.
Linh Podetti 18:53
I love, I love what you taught me, especially, you know, when we when I used to think about business and networking, it used to be more of a selfish reason, you know, like even starting a business was so I can make a lot of money, so I can be there for my son. And then, you know, eventually I realized that business is more than that. It's about giving back and value. And you learn a lot of that, but still that in when I read your book around, you know, we are all siblings and children of God, and we need each other to grow. It really allowed me to give more abundantly without needing to be transactional or like, I'm giving you that so that I could get back. You know, I I could give because God will give me back. It's no longer that feeling that I'm doing this for the purpose of anything. It's really just we're all family. Because when you what do you do for family, you just give and help and as a byproduct. And I've interviewed you multiple times, and it's always a reminder that focus on serving and the money will come as a byproduct of that.
Daniel Lapin 19:52
So now, yeah, I mean, that's obviously I agree with all of that. Now what I want to do is. Is, I want to bring in front of you two people, and I want you to advise them using the wisdom you have garnered and that you describe in 360 degree success. And if you have any questions for these people, feel free to ask them anything you like so you can get a clearer picture of them.
Linh Podetti 20:20
All
Daniel Lapin 20:20
right, I'm going to be them both. Okay, all right. So, first of all, I am a 38 year old married man with three little kids. The oldest is 13, and I am doing pretty well. My wife and I own our home. I'm I've risen to mid level in a mid sized company. I have an accounting background and I but I'm in management, and I don't feel I've had I have a balanced existence. I work pretty hard and I don't, you know, people often say to me, as, as you mentioned in your book, that you know nobody at the end of their lives, says, I wish I could have spent more time in the office, but in in this character I'm playing now, he says, To tell you the truth, I actually do wish I have more time to spend in the office. I don't go to my kids ball games because I think I'm being more helpful in teaching them that work comes before play, and that I, you know, I pay for their private school because I don't want to send them to a government school. And they, they have lovely sports activities, and they play games, and they, they play baseball and football, and it's all wonderful, but that happens because I am at work every day, and they've got to understand that. So you won't see me sitting in the stands, and my wife tries to make some of the games, but I don't. Okay. You got me?
Linh Podetti 22:14
Yep, got it.
Daniel Lapin 22:15
That's one guy call me Tom,
Linh Podetti 22:18
Tom. Okay. So you want me to advice yet, or wait for the second character.
Daniel Lapin 22:22
Let me introduce Jennifer.
Linh Podetti 22:24
Okay,
Daniel Lapin 22:25
she's 24 she's single, and she is doing very well as a pharmaceutical sales representative. She's She doesn't have a boyfriend at the moment, but she's, she's had quite a few, although she's, she's not altogether sure at what point a hookup turns into a boyfriend. So that's one of the things Jennifer would tell you. But she does have some friends who got married, and she's been to a few weddings and they make her feel funny, because she sort of thinks, am I, you know, am I the only person? But then she goes out with a single girlfriends and, and she's fine. She says, you know, I'm having a really good life at the moment, and so I wouldn't want you to please speak to Tom and Jennifer. You can ask him anything you like, and you can also try and help them use your outlook, use 365 360 degree success in order to balance their lives.
Linh Podetti 23:37
Yeah. Thank you so much. This is so unique. I've never been asked in a podcast to do a case scenario, but this makes a lot of sense, because we can put I can personally put myself in both of these shoes as well. Let's start with Tom so or Tom and Jennifer. Let me explain the other part of my book. So apart from understanding that there's 360 degree areas of life, the s 3c model that I've realized that it's a framework or methodology that takes you through any success, because when I look back and reverse engineer how I succeeded in my love life, my financial life, in any other area, it always came down to S, which stood for my self worth. The first C is clarity. Second is consistency, and the last one is calm. So in any of these cases, we always have to start with the self worth, because often we are driven by stories of our upbringing, the need to prove to someone else so that we're validated. And so when it came to the Tom situation, I was hustling, working so hard, pushing myself and needing to succeed in this angry attitude was because I was angry at my parents. My dad was the one that said, You're never going to be rich. You know that? And he was convincing me, because this is belief, he said, that we are born with a destiny. We're not you're not rich, so you can't get there. So stop trying. As if, like, he was so frustrated. He felt as if, like, I was making the worst decision of my life, and I'm gonna fail, right? And then whatever I did, he was always just more negative, more the devil's advocate, and it really hurts my feeling. And so for years, I was like, I'm gonna prove to you, you know, I'm gonna show you that I'm going to succeed. But imagine driving your business, driving anything in life, with that anger. And I remember seeing success quotes like, success is the best revenge, and I used to love it because it used to fire me up. But when you're feeling that way, you're no longer doing it in from the place of grace and heart and doing it because you'll enjoy it. You're just doing it to get at someone. And so I had to let that go by writing a letter to my parents, really trusting that, you know what? I really trusted that they loved me. I just they just didn't know how. And I released that letter without having even to give it to them. And I felt so good after that, and then from that moment onward, it was my healing, where I just felt like, Okay, I'm full now. I just feel like I'm not validating, and I want to enjoy the business journey for myself and for personal development. But then the next thing is clarity, like, what do I actually want? What does success look like? It's not just the number, it's how I use the money to live a better life, the amount of time I travel, what I actually buy, whether it's a cleaner or how many times I can eat out. So it's actually how to utilize the money for freedom, which gave me the clarity, because often people just throw numbers without knowing what does that mean, and then consistency. It's really about, well, how often will you do the certain things that you want to do? Because people just go, Yeah, I want to have more freedom. I want to be more present with my kids. But they never know what that meant, you know? And so I My goal was to consistently travel X amount of time, and then I continue to increase that goal over time. So as a byproduct of that goal. Then there are certain consistency habits that you would need to do, wake up early, you know, hire people, work on your business, and then calm is very key in any areas of life. It means, how do you have the right attitude in life to help you to always have a good perspective? And I remember your teaching around life isn't a photo, a snapshot, it's a video, right? And so whatever's going on, exactly, whatever's going on, it's just part of, you know, it's part of the journey. You don't know what's going to happen next, and often it's, there's always a blessing in disguise through any challenges that we go through. So, so when I hit challenges, I'm not panicking, I'm calm. You know, having a relationship God with God meant that I can become, focusing on what I can control allowed me a bit to become as well as certain routines around waking up early and meditating, which allowed him be calm. Because when you have clarity and routine or the habits that you want to do, but if you don't know how to be calm, then that all goes out the window. And so that is kind of the method that Tom can go through of fixing his self worth, knowing what he wants, creating systems and routine and knowing how much, how often he wants something and calm allows him to get out. Same as Jennifer. I just forgotten her name already.
Daniel Lapin 28:17
Yeah. Jennifer,
Linh Podetti 28:21
back then, my meaning of a good relationship was just infatuation, like I just need to feel love. And what does a guy look like? Oh, he just have to have a six pack and look like a guy from Prison Break. That was my long, long, long time ago, ideal men. But what happened for me to you know, finally healed and stopped jumping from different relationships back over 14 years ago, was I finally realized that I did love myself. I had self worth issue in that area too. My parents didn't love me, so I was out there dating to show that I can make any guy love me. And what happened is, I continued to date around for the wrong reasons and sabotage my own relationship. And I also saw that my parents would, they love each other, but they always argue. So I just felt like every relationship goes up and it goes down. So with all that belief and self worth issues, I didn't have any good relationship. And so I started to go on to the journey of loving myself more, taking myself out on a date, buying myself flowers, you know, doing things for myself that I no longer need someone else to fulfill me. And you send a completely different message to God, to the universe, that that you know you're ready for love because you no longer need it. It's that you deserve and want it. And then clarity, I now wrote a list of what I truly want, and it wasn't just the six pack. It's like, that's nice to have him in there, but it's not really important. It's ambition, it's family oriented, it's kindness, it's all those other qualities that I truly realized that would make me happy and as well as some deal breakers. Is the deal breakers, such as, he can't be jealous, he can't be controlling. All the things that I've now learned from my past relationship that knowing what you want and then knowing what you want in the relationship as well. It's like, how often do you want to go on a date? How often do you want to travel? When people
Daniel Lapin 30:16
would say, not often at all, because she travels for business. She's out of town every second week. She's out of town from Monday to Friday, and she's she really doesn't have much time for, you know, even when, when she realized that she was in a relationship that could become a boyfriend, serious relationship, she just she was not available, and he got tired and left, because she is determined to achieve financial security by the time she's 30. That's what she's really aiming at.
Linh Podetti 30:51
Yeah, and this is where the self worth piece is such a big piece to work on, because where are you in your life, or what was your past that has taught you to believe that you need to make all the money because it's more important than anything else in life. You know, where are you pushing your relationship away? Because that's just what you've learned. There's a lot of things that are so subconscious. So we're driven by it. We don't even know that we're driven by it. We're making all these excuses and these conscious reasoning. But it's actually not the truth. And I've worked with my coach in the past, and it's really about revisiting your childhood, trying to remember vaccines that you might have remembered from your upbringing, that it still shaped you to who you are today. And until we work on your self worth, which is the most important area, everything else is way too hard to work on. And then, you know, you say that you want a partner, and yet you don't make time for it, then what's really your priority, you know? And it's just that shift of changing that priority and having that clarity, that okay, well, if this is the relationship I want, then what does it take to get there?
Daniel Lapin 31:59
So, so you would be saying to her now something like this. You'd be saying Jennifer in as you're entering your mid 20s. Now may be the time to be rethinking that your financial world is something you ideally will build together with a husband. You will build a home, which will include financial security. Right now you are, I'm going to use Rabbi Daniel Lapin language here. This may well not be Linh Podetti language, but you are squandering years where your primary asset, which is your youth are going on something that maybe isn't really your priority at this point?
Linh Podetti 32:48
Yeah, that's right. You raise a good point, because I think all my life as well, I was taught to be independent, and I had this arrogant attitude of like, I don't need a man. I can do everything myself. So everyone who I was selecting was just good look look good on the outside, but had no financial support. I didn't need it because I was projecting that. But then I realized later, hang on. You know, you can have everything you want. You can have a man that loves you and is successful and can build a life. And then together, two of you come together, you build even big, more wealth together,
Daniel Lapin 33:23
yes and and going back to Tom for a second, Tom is Tom is feeling neglectful towards his family. His wife is supportive, but, but he feels that other dads, he knows, you know, on Sunday, they do home chores, and they're helping. And he says, you know, he's, he's got, he's catching up with work on Sunday they do, they do outings, and the family does things, but, but compared to other dads, he's feeling a little bit a little bit guilty that he's not spending enough time with his family,
Linh Podetti 34:14
yeah, and that's the thing, if we have any sense of Guilt misalignment, something's not right. There's something to lean in and do something about. And one of the chapter that I mentioned that I think would shift your mindset, is the topic of mortality. You know, I've seen so many deaths, whether it's a 14 year old who died through to a 39 who just collapsed out of nowhere. This is all situations that I've witnessed in the last two to three weeks. I wrote this book over, you know, almost over a year, two years ago, and but and I've always had this realization of how fragile life is and that is that has allowed me to live with more urgency to do. The things I've always wanted to do, because I just never know how much time I have left. And often, as adults, we just think, though our kids are still little, they've, you know, if they're 10, that means they've got 80 more years left. But nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes we're here just for a season, for a reason. And you know, God has other plans for us in another life, but realizing that allows me to just hug my kids deeper, be there for them as much as possible. And that is why the title of my book is about the no regret playbook, because the worst thing I would say is that feeling of regret that you could have done something, that you could have been there, and yet you just let your other priorities take over. And can you imagine living a life of knowing that that could have been your the last time that you saw them at the concert, but you said, No, you know, I remember my dad did the same thing to me when I was a child. It was like I was seven or something in Vietnam, and I came to him and, you know, asked him to help me with my homework, and he was watching something, he got so frustrated, and he's like, leave me alone. And I got hit after that, he's he whacked me, you know, and it was just he didn't know how to handle his anger. And Vietnamese culture is a little bit different back there in the days. But those are the moments that has shaped me in who I am, where I no longer want, I want to build a family where I'm not like my dad, where I'm more present with my family. Because just imagine that was the last moment that you spent with your kid, and then something happened that kind of regret will never leave you.
Daniel Lapin 36:33
What is the relationship like between your younger children, actually, all your children, and their grandparents?
Linh Podetti 36:40
Oh, it's amazing at the moment, because I've already done a lot of my healing with my parents, and then my parents are also just gone older and wiser. My mom started doing a lot of personal development for herself, which allowed her to just understood me more, and then just being able to see the successes that I have, even though they didn't believe it, because they're the type that needs to see it so they could believe it. And when I found the guy of my dreams who was never married, never had kids, who was just almost single, waiting for me, they were like, what miracles do happen. And then just being able to achieve the financial success and everything that I have in my life, obviously it built their trust, and they really look up to me. Now, they would call me for advice or ask me for, you know, ideas on things. And then, you know what? You know, as I mentioned, family balance was really important. I would set goals like taking my parents away on a holiday every single year, instead of just waiting for a milestone and just giving back as much as I can with them, and so there's nothing they can do but love me and also my kids. I think it's also I feel like as grandparents, I found them to love their grandkids even more than the way they love their kids. Because who would
Daniel Lapin 37:57
have believed that?
Linh Podetti 37:59
Yeah, I think that when they had their own kids, they were too busy working and hustling away that they missed out on life. So now it's their chance to love their grandkids more, but also it's just a different stage in life. They realize that there's only so many years left in their life, and they just my parents have changed a lot. My dad never used to say, I love you. They've he's never said sorry and but those are the words that he say. Now we're like, whoa, whoa. It's beautiful.
Daniel Lapin 38:28
That's really something. Linh, how do your you and your husband handle finances? You know, who pays? How do you decide household expenses, vacations. How does all that work?
Linh Podetti 38:45
So interestingly, even though my me and my husband, we have a we have different attitudes towards money. I'm more driven by pleasure and positivity and abundance, like we can always make more, we can always find another way. He's a bit more reserved and more worrying about if we spend the money, we won't have any. And he's also on a different spiritual level than journey, than me. So hence he's a little bit more of being scared about what could go wrong. However, he knows that from for the person that I was and how I've become and I'm able to change my life. There's some sort of trust that he has with me. So I am the financial controller. He you know, we both have our own businesses. So our business, we have separate bank accounts for our business, but we have a joint personal account that both of our salaries go in there, and I would be the one helping to pay the bills, etc. Just because I'm more organized, I don't mind the administrative side of things. But to ease my husband's anxiety over finance, I would do a report, you know, once a month, or every three months, there will be a report showing, you know, out the growth in the properties, the amount of loans that we've paid down, or. The credit cards we pay down, and so being able to do that allows us to just be on the same page, because even though I have I'm checking the bank and I know what's going on, and even though we're spending all this money on the holidays and enjoying life without knowing the numbers, he would feel like we can't be going anywhere this way, because all I see is we're spending so to ease his pain, I would just show a report. And I think this is the same as in business. Why we always teach our virtual assistants who's working with clients? It doesn't matter if you're busy working, but if your clients don't know that you're working, or you showing a snapshot of your report or or your end of the day report, they will just feel overwhelmed because of their busy day, you know, schedule, that they might just feel like you're not doing the work. So how can you just, you know, be there to communicate a little bit more.
Daniel Lapin 40:52
And I don't want to end without letting people know that if they are looking to hire a virtual assistant. You are the person they should speak to.
Linh Podetti 41:04
Yes, 100% outsourcingangel.com is my business?
Daniel Lapin 41:09
OutsourcingAngel.com
Linh Podetti 41:11
Yes,
Daniel Lapin 41:12
outsourcing. Angel.com pretty straightforward. You can find angels to whom you can outsource a lot of your administrative work. So yeah, we do want people to know about that, as well as your book 360 degrees success. And apropos of what you were just describing with your husband, how much of it do you think is a difference in nature and a difference in financial faith, and how much is it due to the difference between male and female? In other words, if a man and a woman are walking down a street at night and you know, and some dark figures from under a street light are approaching from the other end, there's a difference how most men and how most women would react. Most men would say, yikes, we got a potential problem coming at us, and I've got to protect her. And most women will say, you know, I my husband's going to have to handle this, or my boyfriend's going to have to handle this. I think something similar may be happening in a marriage and in a household. And so I was curious to know what you thought, how much of it is due to his nature and his cautiousness, and how much of it is due to the sense that, in the final analysis, it's on him. The support of the family and the ability of the family to be protected and provided for, ultimately, rests on him. Is that possible, or has evolved past that to the point where he just accepts that both of you are equal partners in the enterprise in terms of responsibility.
Linh Podetti 43:02
Yeah, I think traditionally and deep down, he does feel that it's on him to help the family, and that's why he feels that heaviness and worry for the family. But at the same time, he knows that I have built my skill set and experience and attitude towards money that I carry the other load as well. And so now he does feel more at peace. If anything is now relying on me too. He's like, you know, we bought a new house, you know, I think you can make more money, right? Like, I'm at a different stage in my business now, and, you know, you can. And I think it's, I think this modern world is a little bit different too. You know, I women and men are starting to become a little bit more balanced and a little bit more and it comes down to our upbringing. Like, if I wasn't brought up in my own family, I could have been different, but my mum always worked. My mum always was very independent. And so that's all I know. And then remember, I used to push away love, and I used to choose the wrong guy, so I didn't need a guy to help me make money. And so I ended up wearing and being a single mom at a very young age, I then wore the hat of a man and a woman. And so then I can make the money. I don't really need it, but I had to learn something. I had to learn to also lean in and become and say, Hey, you're my man. I can ask for help or we are partners. And so it's both people need it to kind of learn about each other. And I think that's why it helps to have been married for a long time. We're now married for 14 years, together for 15 years, and
Daniel Lapin 44:46
beautiful renewal of vows ceremony after 10 years,
Linh Podetti 44:51
yes, at 10 years, it was like, how do we celebrate love? Because it's actually amazing. If you can still say, I still do right? Not many people can still. Say I still do. And so I think it really just takes two people to really understand each other's upbringing and attitude towards life and work as a team. And marriage isn't easy. It's always just trying to figure each other out and try to communicate better. And so we've already put all that effort in. So yeah, we're not going anywhere.
Daniel Lapin 45:22
The phrase you like using live with intention.
Linh Podetti 45:29
You want me to explain that?
Daniel Lapin 45:31
Yeah, be somebody. Give an example of somebody not living with intention. How, what? What would it mean if somebody is failing to live with intention?
Linh Podetti 45:40
Yeah, when we're not living with intention. And this is even myself years ago, but prior to working on my life, or knowing that I can actually change my life, I actually just woke up and hope I'm going to have a good day, you know, hope that we don't. I didn't face any bad luck, and that somehow I might just meet the right person. It was this hopeful feeling, and I didn't realize that you can wake up earlier and actually set the intention like for example, if today I knew that I was going to have a podcast, I would already approach it and say, today I'm going to be confident, I'm going to be patient, I'm going to be calm. Whatever that intention is, I already looked at my to do list and go, Well, how am I going to approach it? What are the my challenges in my mind that is worrying me? How do I what solution am I focusing on today and even writing down what am I grateful for? Allows me to already shift our mindset to be positive so I don't have to wait for something good to happen. I really chose to live with intention. And then, as I mentioned about the s 3c model, once you understand your self worth issue, having clarity, having that consistency of the routine in anything in life, allows you to set your intention. And then, if anything, the most important thing is also take time to reflect and see your progress. So I think that happiness and fulfillment comes from seeing progress. But a lot of us don't sit there and think about what we want, nor do we go and think back at what if we got there, and what can we do to improve it. Hence, we just feel like we're just going with the flow. And people think, Oh, I just like going with the flow, but that actually sabotages our happiness, discipline, structure and knowing what we want and going for it actually creates more happiness
Daniel Lapin 47:26
you've obviously, you obviously live with great intention, very successfully. Linh,
Linh Podetti 47:32
thank you so much.
Daniel Lapin 47:34
What? What time is it for you in Sydney, Australia, right now?
Linh Podetti 47:37
So it's 10 to seven. I
Daniel Lapin 47:40
am okay. Folks, be honest. Listeners, how many of you happy warriors look like Linh at 10 to seven in the morning? Cheerful, fantastic, last of many questions looking back to when you were seven and eight and nine and 10 and 11 and 12 and you were a lot of that time, you were at loggerheads with your parents. In hindsight, now, what are some of the things that as you look back, you say to yourself, you know they weren't wrong about these things. I didn't see it at the time, but they weren't wrong.
Linh Podetti 48:30
Interestingly, I just watched the Michael Jackson movie, and when his dad made him work really hard, like practice music after the gig at night, before we went to sleep. It reminded me of how my parents brought me up, where I had to start sewing for them at the age of 10, and this the way that they taught me hard work and just this consistency, like turning up thinking that you're done, but you're not done yet, and tomorrow is another day of work. I actually thanked them, like in my head, I was like, it brought tears to my eyes, but at the same time, there is no better way that they have taught me how to work hard without actually making me work hard at a very young age. And also, you mentioned that I wake up early. I also got trained to wake up early very young. I remember even weekends, it was like, seven or 8am my mom's like, Lynn, get up. And I'm like, This is not a normal child. I know my friends get to slip into what time, whatever time they want, till 12. It's almost like allow your body to go with the flow. Wake up whenever you want. That never happened in my home. It was routine structure, and I hated
Daniel Lapin 49:35
was that immigrant culture or Vietnamese culture?
Linh Podetti 49:39
It's just my parents culture, it's my family, and that's why it really it was so hard for me because I had other friends that I met in Australia, like I just so even Vietnam or in Australia as well, you know, I got to see other family, and they weren't the same. My parents were just more strict, more hard, and you know, now. Got to thank them. I hated it. It was brutal. But hey, look at Michael Jackson. He was the most successful pop star in the world, and it takes a lot of hard work.
Daniel Lapin 50:08
So how are you navigating the walkway between permissiveness and your parents, strictness when it comes to your own children,
Linh Podetti 50:20
persistentness. Can you explain that term? I haven't heard that
Daniel Lapin 50:22
before, meaning, like many Australians, raise their children basically all privileges, no responsibilities.
Linh Podetti 50:31
Oh, yes, definitely a mixture of both. I feel like because my parents were strict, which is good, but they were controlling that I didn't get to experience live and make my own mistake in my own way. I ended up just rebelling to go against them. Just didn't never listen to them again. But I was so sheltered that I didn't know that there were bad people in the world. I just thought there were murderers and killers, and then there's good people. And then in life, there were just so many people in between liars and all sorts of people and so I now I when I raise my kids, I try to give them more autonomy, to make them as they to start catching the train to school and coming home, because I want them to practice the real world. But at the same time, I try to be more strict, like my parents. It's like firm voice, No means no. And so I started to make sure that at 530 This is a recent rule, is 530 or 6pm no more devices. And they're like, you're so strict, you know, especially compared to this modern age. You know, my friend
Daniel Lapin 51:31
guys, you don't have a clue what strict really means
Linh Podetti 51:34
exactly that. So, and it's and I'm doing it not because I want to control anything, but I know what's good for them, so it's a bit of a balancing act, and I want them to respect and still love me, not the way that I I was scared of my parents, and I, you know, I remember, right? I hate my mom, I hate him, and that's not a good way to approach your parenting.
Daniel Lapin 52:00
Linh, this is wonderful. I want to wish you great ongoing success. You'd call it 360 degrees success. I'll call it success with your five F's, your family and your finances, your friendships, your faith and your fitness. And I just I hope it continues and that you get better and better and better at everything, and that we have many more opportunities to talk and to share ideas. And I look forward to being able to keep up and see what, see what you're doing.
Linh Podetti 52:39
Thank you so much for this opportunity. It's such a dream come true to be on the other side being interviewed by my favorite rabbi, your favorite American rabbi. So thank you again for this opportunity.
