The Power of Human Connection with Amy Weinland Daughters

As the world we live in relies increasingly on our devices, the power of human connection WITHOUT a screen becomes that much more important. On today's episode, Emily welcomes Amy Weinland Daughters to discuss her experience of writing each of her 580 Facebook friends a handwritten letter. They talk about what sparked Amy's desire to do this and the profound meaning that came out of it. Ultimately, today's show shines light on how incredibly meaningful our human connections with each other are, and how they impact our overall wellbeing! It's a feel good episode of hope & joy to kick off the holiday season!

Time Stamps:

0:34 - Intro
2:57 - Introducing Amy to the podcast
6:18 - How and why Amy's journey with handwritten letters started
14:07 - Writing all 580 of her Facebook friends an individual handwritten letter
18:40 - Surrendering and releasing the idea of instant gratification
26:08 - How this journey continued on after the first initial 580 letters
28:40 - Use this idea as the catalyst for something special this holiday season
31:24 - Listen and follow your ideas in your hearts all the way through to fruition
33:32 - Recap
35:15 - Disclaimer

To find out more about Amy, checkout her website here! 

You can also follow her on IG @smokinhotamys

Connect with Emily:

On The Gram - @thejoyfulflamingo https://www.instagram.com/thejoyfulflamingo/

For Collaborations - thejoyfulflamingo@gmail.com

The Joyful Flamingo Podcast is produced by jpvoiceovers.
You can find them here : jpvoiceovers

*DISCLAIMER*
Just a reminder, that I am not a medical or psychological professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and journey through life and is brought to you through my own opinions and my own lens. Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental wellbeing.

Transcript

(upbeat music) Letter writing, a lost art. When was the last time that you wrote a
handwritten letter and sent it with a stamp via snail mail to someone in your life?
Today's episode welcomes a guest that has an incredible story when it comes to
handwritten letters and I can't wait to share it all with you. If today's a day
that you're needing a dose of positivity, of hope or maybe just a reminder of the
pure strength of human connection, you've got to listen in. This one's for you.
Well, hey there, friend, and welcome to the Joyful Flamingo podcast. I'm your host,
Emily Schreiber, and I am obsessed with empowering women to tune into themselves,
to zoom in on their own well -being, so in turn, they can lead their most vibrant,
aligned and joyful lives. I wanna create a tsunami of self -discovered,
self -loved, and self -understood women to show up in this world unapologetically and
joyfully and to pass the torch on for generations to come. If any of that feels
aligned with your vibe, stick around. I'm so glad you're here. Now, let's go find
our joy. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Hey,
hey, hey, joyful flamingo flock and welcome to the pod today. How the heck are ya?
We are full on into December and the holiday season is among us. Y 'all know it's
my favorite time of year. And we've got a few really great episodes this month
before we take a little bit of a longer pause over Christmas and New Year's to
spend with our families. Have no fear, we're coming back early January with more
episodes for you. And today's show is so much fun. And you know,
here at the Joyful Flamingo, we talk about women's well -being. That's what we're all
about. Right? Empowering women to tune into themselves so that they can show up as
their most vibrant, aligned, and joyful selves. And so often, we're talking about
things that are affecting our physical well -being or our mental well -being. Today's
a little bit different because we're really focusing in on the power of human
connection and how that can be so influential when it comes to living our best
lives and showing up as our best selves. We live in a day and an age where So
much of our connection with other humans is done by way of a screen. Even if we're
someone who's super mindful about that, it's bound to happen. You know, it's how our
society functions at large in many ways, with our phones always being at our
fingertips, with social media always there with remote work, our connection to others
outside of a screen is getting more and more limited. And This is where our guest,
Amy Wineland Daughters, enters. Last January, Amy's publicist actually reached out to
the podcast to discuss a potential collaboration. We had already planned the rest of
our season at that point, so unfortunately we couldn't have her on, but we revisited
the conversation recently to discuss a potential collaboration and after some
discussion back and forth about Amy's story, I knew that our listeners would love
the feel -good energy that comes from what she has to share with us all.
And it's all based around handwritten letters. Let me tell you a little bit about
her. Amy Wineland Daughters is a keynote speaker, a letter writer, a satirist,
sports journalist, and the award -winning author of two different books. The first is
called Dear Dana. That time I went crazy and wrote all 580 of my Facebook friends
a handwritten letter. And the second is called You Cannot Mess This Up. A true
story that never happened. She's absolutely convinced that when human beings connect
individually in a meaningful way that nothing can separate them. And I am of that
mindset too. So I'm so excited to welcome Amy to the show. Welcome. Welcome. Thank
you, Emily. I'm thrilled to be on. Yeah. Tell us where you're all tuning in from
today, Amy, because you're not in Canada and we do have listeners in 87 countries,
I think at this point now, but I'm based in Canada. Where are you today? I am
northwest of Houston, Texas. So I, yeah, I'm down southwest.
Wonderful. And by the time that this episode airs, you is you will have just had
your Thanksgiving in the States. So happy Thanksgiving to you. And one of the things
that I really like doing right off the hop for all episodes at the Joyful Flamingo
that have guests on is trying to get to know the guests a little bit better before
we start right into the content of things today. So would you mind telling our
flock? And what I mean by flock is the listenership. that's what we call our little
community here. Can you tell them just a little bit about yourself? Tell us what
lights you up, what makes you joyful, and what are the most important parts of you?
- Well, I'm a mom of two kids. I'm a wife, you know, a trophy wife, obviously,
you know. (laughing) So, you know, that's a burden to carry right there by itself.
So my whole heart and soul is this little four -person unit. My kids are both out
of the house. So my older one lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He's an artist and
a museum administrator. And my younger just went off to university literally three
months ago. So I'm experiencing the, you know, empty nest. Right. And I work from
home. And so they've always come home and been here. But I've been a writer for a
long time, a freelance writer. I kind of fell into it, we moved to the UK for
three years and I desperately look for something to do and I got a business degree,
but I've always written on the side. I'm always the girl who thought my emails were
funny at work or I reread them and be like, oh my God, you're a total genius. You
know, and then that led to me dipping my toes into freelance writing. It led to
the books, but really what I'm all about now, Emily, is I went through this
extraordinary experience that's chronicled in and dear Dana that we're gonna talk
about today. And I'm such a proponent of handwritten letters, personal one -on -one,
non -electronic communication. Nothing lights me up more than hearing from somebody,
not just who read the book. I mean, obviously as an author, I want to sell books,
but this has gone way beyond that. But somebody who's had an experience of
connecting with someone in a deliberate way and how it's changed them in some way.
And then I still practice that every day of my own life. And it's launched a whole
new version of myself that I never could have imagined that I never planned for.
It's the most organic thing that's ever happened to me. And I really feel like I'm
going to spend the rest of my life trying to talk about this anywhere I can. It's
such a lost art, isn't it? Handwritten letters. I mean, truthfully, I'm going to out
myself right now. I don't remember the last time I write handwritten letters in my
business quite often as thank yous and things like that but like truly connecting
with a dear friend through a handwritten letter. I don't remember the last time I
did that so I'm really thrilled to have you on today to talk about it. Why don't
we start at the very beginning? How did it start? What triggered you to start
writing letters and then continue on with your entire Facebook friend's list, which
is like a crazy feat. Yeah, where did it start? It all started. I was literally
mining my own business. This is what I like to tell people. And, uh, is that rare?
I guess I don't know, but I really was. This was not on my radar at all. And
that's important to point out because it was so meaningful, but it's not like I sat
back and was like, what can I do that's meaningful? I was not like that. I wasn't
trying have launched some endeavor that was going to change anything. So I'm looking
through Facebook one day. I had worked at a summer camp in the 80s in Texas and I
had met this girl and her name was Dana and she like I had this huge personality
and we literally maybe spent seven weeks together and I don't even remember what we
said to each other. But she had resonated with me to where I had thought about her
for 30 years. She was loud and we we thought we were funny and hilarious and,
you know, hot and all those things. But anyway, I had always kind of said, Oh, and
I'm sure we all have people like this. What happened to Dana? I wonder what
happened to Dana. So I get on Facebook and I'm like, I'm gonna type her in and
I've done it before probably. It's like Dana, blah, blah, blah. And then boom, she
pops up. I'm like, Oh, this is great. Since it meant nothing to anyone, I friend
it. You know, you don't have to do anything if you friend somebody on Facebook.
Right. And I was a little little bit shocked when she accepted my request only
because we had not spoken to each other literally in 30 something years crazy. So
she accepts my friendship request. And so I do the first thing that you do when
someone accepts your friendship request and you go look at their page. Yeah. And so
I looked her hair was different. Blah blah blah a little stalking. I knew this was
going to be the end of the whole thing. I was going to do that and then watch
her on the on the news feed. Right away. I But right away, I figured kids, she
has overachieve good for her. And then r out that her youngest kid had cancer and
he was batt a lot of the posts had to and it was serious enough know if you're
aware of t Memphis, Tennessee, called
and they don't charge anybody. It's all gone off of fundraising, but it's a center
of excellence. Anyway, so if he's there, though, you know it's bad because you can't
get in if it's not a certain level of horribleness. So anyway, I start following
along with this story as a mom, as a human being, I get connected. I kind of felt
myself over feeling it, but I was like, so I just started watching. I didn't like
her post. She did ask for people to pray, and I, you know, I prayed about it. But
it was serious. So why wouldn't I follow along? So I follow along and she's really
open and honest in her posts and she's funny like she was in the 80s. And Parker
eventually goes into remission. I'm like, oh my gosh, that's great. So they kind of
go on the back burner in my consciousness. But I still watch her because she's
funny and entertaining. But we have no contact. I don't like anything. I don't
comment on anything. We don't Facebook message each other. Nothing. And so then the
next year, her post start to change I was like oh something's up this is like the
end of 2014 the cancer comes back basically they go back to St.
Jude so I sit down on my desk on a Sunday after I've read her post it's like a
bolt of lightning literally hit me out of nowhere I'm gonna do something because I
felt like I should do something I'm gonna start writing them letters and mail them
to the Ronald McDonald house in Memphis And again, I have not talked to her in 30
years. This kid has no idea who I am. I have not written a handwritten letter in
25 years at this point. It's not like I was like, I really believe-- - This is my
job, yeah. - Yeah, this is my mission in life. I was like, this is what I'm gonna
do. And I was so committed to it, like I had no stamps. Like who has stamps? I
had no letter writing supplies. And so I had cards that I had bought and I felt
like that was a little less stalker ish because I could write inside the card.
Right. What are you going to say. And so I was just like thinking of y 'all and
praying for y 'all, you know, you have our support. I want to say I hope you
remember who I am. I didn't say that, you know, and just signed it. I was writing
about American College football at the time. So I had this writing schedule every
week. So I made them my Sunday for Monday. I'd write the card on Sunday and I
mailed on Monday, I just put it on the schedule. And so I write them for about
eight weeks, 10 weeks, and the whole time I'm telling myself I'm crazy. And this
story has different levels of me being met so. So I write them, her and Parker,
for probably 10 weeks. And then it's funny 'cause I'm doing this old school writing
and watching her story on Facebook. Then you can see her posts shift again and then
she stops posting completely. And it's her friends posting. And you know, it's bad.
So we pass into January the next year. And tragically and unthinkably, and there's
no good words for this, Parker passes away at 15. And so I'm devastated because I
feel this connection, which I don't really even have with these people. And I'm not
a cry. I cried about it. And then I sit down, I'm like, what am I supposed to
do? So I send a Catolyn's card. And I'm like, well, I'm not going to write her in
Memphis anymore. And then I had a mini lightning bolt. And I was like, you know
what I'm going to do? I'm just going to keep writing her. And I write until
probably April. And the whole time, if I didn't say every week, you need to stop
doing this. She lost her son. What are you doing? And the letters, though, got
longer and longer. I don't know. I just couldn't stop myself, even though I knew I
was acting irrationally. And so it's April. It's like my 47th birthday. And I go
outside to my mailbox. We lived in Dayton, Ohio at the time. And I open the mail
hoping there'll be a birthday card. But who sends any birthday card in 2015? Pull
the mail out, and there's a letter from Dana. Like a 10 -page handwritten letter
detailing her grief, talking about her life, and talking about what the letters have
meant to her, how they were waiting for them every week to come. So This kicks off
two years of me and this woman. We don't text. We don't email. We just write each
other. So these letters are passing through the U .S. mail. As she talks about her
grief, then she starts talking about her family. I talk about everything, so I'm
looking at my life from the outside in. It's like Dear Diary. Since you don't know
when the other person is reading this letter, it creates this vacuum of where you
can say anything you want to say and You're not looking for some immediate response
from the other person because you don't even know if they're reading it. And so it
opens up this intimacy and we start to trust each other. We would say stuff like,
"Oh, I've never told anybody this. I know I can trust you." I mean, we literally
have not spoken a word in 30 -something years, so we really don't know each other.
And we created this relationship and this trust that was just absolutely profound.
So about six months, eight months to the two -way communication. I sat back and I
was like, oh my God, this has changed the way I look at my entire life. And I
was like, so if this one girl from Louisiana, this one random girl who I wasn't
even sure which town she lived in, can change my life in this way with these
letters, what else is out there with the 600 people that I'm friends with,
supposedly? - Yeah, and Amy's got her quotes up, friends with, right, on Facebook,
'cause-- - Right. - Yeah, 'cause a lot of those people, maybe acquaintances that
you've met maybe once or twice, or people who you've known like years or decades
past. - And we've moved around a lot. So who you did life with or you worked with
or shared things that were important at the time but now have passed by. So I was
like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna write every single one of these people
a handwritten letter and see what happens crazily. like, did you have a timeline
that you were thinking 580 letters? How long will I think that will take me?
Well, I'm a numbers girl. I can write two letters a day during the week. This is
how long it'll take me. And so I had a timeline. So I had a journal that I
bought, a fancy journal and I'd like written, you know, feelings in it and never
really finished it. So I ripped everything out of that. I'm going to journal the
whole thing. I put everyone in Excel sheet. I printed it out and I cut little
slips of paper. I shoved them in a little box. I bought stationery, and the
stationery was hilarious. It said, "Amy Wyland Daughters, your Facebook friend."
And then I set these rules up at the beginning of this journal. And at the
beginning I put the Facebook letter project, quite possibly the stupidest thing I've
ever done. And then I wrote my name, Amy Wyland Daughters, like it was official.
And then I had rules, though. This is what you have to do. You have to write two
pages. You have to write the letter before you know if you have the dress stuff
like that. And so that started my journey of 18 months. I never thought I was
going to finish and I didn't realize how hard it was going to be until I wrote
the first probably 10 letters. But I gained momentum and once the tipping point was
like 150 letters and it was so life changing. I was like, oh my God, this is the
most important thing I've ever done in my life. And I could not not finished
because really at the end it was all about everybody knew there was the letters for
coming. Every Facebook friend is waiting at the mail for your love. That's not their
fault I pulled their name last you know that's because these letters were so
meaningful to people I had no idea any of the things that happened were gonna
happen but it turned out to be probably the most profoundly meaningful 18 months of
my life to the point now that I wrote a book about it that I didn't plan on
writing, that I speak about it. And that literally, Emily, I can't shut up about
it.
So when you were starting to write those letters, like we know the situation with
Dana and that eventually she did end up writing back once she felt like she was
capable of doing that. But for the average 580 other friends that you were writing,
were you receiving letters from most of them back or were there lots of ones that
went out that you know you never heard a single thing back from how how did that
look like. Well as numbers girl of course I have a number she has a graphic on
the whole thing. The response rate overall was seventy four percent. Wow. Mm hmm.
And people really wanted to respond in writing because that was the thing that was
most touching. And I could speak on that a lot. So 74 percent across the board,
which I think is really good. But that also includes, say, you and I worked
together, if you came up to me and said, I got your letter. I think everything was
a response. Facebook message, phone call of the 74 percent,
you know, about probably 50 percent of that was handwritten letters, 50 to 60
percent of that. So let's move on to the handwritten piece because we mentioned at
the very beginning of the episode that it's definitely a lost art. You know, what's
so funny is this weekend, my daughter who's six has just become obsessed with
cursive writing. And they actually don't teach that anymore in our Ontario curriculum
here in Canada. I don't know what it's like in the States, but she's become
obsessed with, I think because my writing is a mixture of printing and cursive as
she wants to be able to read my writing. And so she's kind of become obsessed with
learning how to do it. And I think the whole concept of handwritten letters
definitely is a lost art. But I think that that's what makes this message and this
story so powerful. So you know, in a world where we live, where we're constantly
within instant gratification modes, right? Email, texting, social media. It's overtaken
our love and our desire to do handwritten letters because we need that instant
gratification, I think as human beings nowadays. So why do you feel so passionate,
especially now after you've experienced what you've experienced? Why do you feel so
passionate about the paper and the pen to paper? How does that make it more
meaningful and powerful for you. - Well, you know, I just to say again, I didn't
understand the power of a handwritten letter before I did this. It's not like I
said, this is really gonna mean something to people. I knew what it meant to Dana,
but here's the thing, when people go to the mailbox, let's say you write me a
handwritten letter, Emily, especially if it's a surprise, but either, no matter how
you did it, and this can be done in a three -sentence card to FYI, it doesn't have
I it doesn't have to be a two page letter. You know, but if I go to the mailbox
in 2020 for and I open the mailbox. First of all,
you're going to create this moment where I'm like, you know, because you go to the
mail like I do and what's in there, nothing nothing for you bills, you know, yeah,
advertisement. Yeah, and so you look through it and there's nothing out there and so
first thing is I'm like, oh my God, this is a letter or something from Emily and
it's handwritten. Let's say we went to high school together 'cause that's a good
scenario. So first of all, you've got me just right there. This is for me, you
know? And then click, click, click, click, click. I open it and it's handwritten.
I'm going to immediately understand what it took you to do that. One, you had to
sit down and find something to write on. And then you had to hand write this to
me. You had to take the time to write your words down on the page. Then you had
to get it in the envelope and seal it. You had to find my address from my mother,
from your mother, like where did you get it? Then you had to get a stamp and that
cost you something, you know. And then you had to go and find somewhere in Toronto,
the post office for this. And then that's all the steps it took for you to get it
to me. And then all of a sudden, oh my God, Emily, I matter to Emily that much.
As an individual, you've treated me like an individual. And regardless of what you
said to me, now, if you said something meaningful to me, and I came up with not a
formula, but writing all those letters, there had to be some blueprint for what I
was going to say. But you have made me feel like in this world of isolation, you
have made me feel like I matter that much to another human being. And I'll tell
you what, it was life changing to the people who I sent letters to, who sent
letters back to me. I do feel like with handwritten letters, there's something, I
feel like there's almost more depth that maybe has to go into a handwritten letter
just for the sake of, or maybe thought. I'm not really sure what it is exactly.
And so I'm going to get your expertise, but there's no delete button. There's no
backspace button. How does that affect the emotion and the depth and the content
that you're putting into a handwritten letter versus just sending off a quick text
or an email or a social media message? You know, you spoke to, you can't hit the
backspace or delete. It's almost like, I mean, photography, old school photography.
You can't filter it. You can't change it unless you want to go back and start
over. It's intimate and it's super authentic because it shows all your imperfections.
You know, and I think for the writer even that's great because you're not living
under Instagram's, you know, rules where you can spell check it, where you can
filter the photo, where you could. And I don't think there's anything wrong with
social media either. I mean, I understand the drawbacks of it, but it really is the
jump off point for all these real relationships. But as the writer, what it does
for the writer, you have freedom. And I found that out with Dana's Reathers, but
you find it out with the Facebook letters too. And there's a couple levels of the
thing. First of all, it's uninterrupted, unresponded to dialogue. - Right.
- You know, you're writing this and no one is, you're not overthinking it because
the other person's not in front of you. But you know, you say things you wouldn't
say otherwise. And then you're gonna drop it in this box and you're never even
gonna know if the person reads it. It takes you off the hook in so many ways.
- Did you find that that was a difficult part of the process for you kind of
releasing? I think because we live in such instant gratification, did you find that
difficult sending off those letters and not knowing when or if a response would ever
come? - I think at the beginning, my case, and I think people would experience this
if they wanna get involved in any level like one letter or five letters or I mean
five hundred eight letters is dumb. I mean it's ridiculous and I'm saying you got a
book out of it. That's good. Yeah the person who did I don't think it's dumb. I
think the universe or God or whoever you want to put that gave me this story as a
launch pad to have discussions about human connections but it's an overwhelming story
and that attracts people to listen. You're gonna wonder if the person got it But at
some point you're going to stop wondering, in my case, the volume overtook me. But
I think what it does, if you do it multiple times, it kind of releases you from
the expectation of a response. It kind of tames that because that's in us,
you know? Yeah, I was just going to say, I feel like it's a really great lesson
in surrender and release of not being so concerned about getting that little red
notification or the feeling that we get when someone answers or doesn't answer.
Like I think it's just, I kind of love it. Like I think it would be such a great
dose of positivity, I think, for a lot of people to try and experience that in a
time where we feel like, now this is not the case, but we do feel like we need
to answer people right away. Like if they're calling us, we answer if they've texted
us. You know, I'm a culprit of it. I just did it yesterday when I responded to a
friend for the first time after four days. And that's not even that long. But I
said, you know, I'm so sorry, it took me so long to get back to you. Like, why
do we do that? And that's a new thing. That's something that in the past 15 years
has developed for people. So I think it's a lovely blessing to be able to
communicate in that way. Right. And then I think the other thing it did for me,
because when I started to realize that the letters were making a difference, which I
didn't anticipate again in my organic flow of this thing, you know, with the
response rate, which was always about the same through the whole project, I realized
that the people who didn't respond to me, the letters were likely still making a
difference. And so the takeaway was I didn't have to receive a response to know
that I had made a difference. We don't have to receive a response to know we've
made a difference. - Impact, yes. Say a louder for the flakies in the back because
I do think that that is something we all need to get better at is that you know
deep down in your gut instinct when you have something impactful to offer people.
And regardless of whether you get that instant gratification or even just
gratification in general that's not instant regardless whether you receive it or not
you yourself know the impact that you're having on others and I think that's a
beautiful message so
are you still in touch with some of those people you were writing letters with are
you still writing letters daily like Is this your main form of communication with a
lot of people still? What does that look like for you now? One of the takeaways
from the project that I didn't expect was when you write 580 human individuals,
you cannot keep up with the doors that you are opening. And so I felt guilt
because I would try to respond to the first response. But that was almost impossible
because I was still writing the letters. It was so overwhelming because people would
write back and share really intimate things. And I tried to respond back once,
but there's no way you can keep up with 580 people. So that tests the bounds of
what friendship is in quotation marks, what relationship is in quotation marks.
But the flip side of that is, I always said, like a lot of people say, I'm going
to get off social media. When you do what you and I do, we stay on at least some
social media because that's a platform for what for the messages were trying to
spread. But I but personal Facebook I was like I'm going to get off of it. No
Emily after I did the 580 letters I still feel a connection with all 580 of those
people. And when I see them and then when they comment or I comment or a Facebook
message I feel this really strong connection. I mean this was several years ago now
because of the exchange, the exchange lasted, the impact lasted beyond like a series
of letters afterwards. Now there are people I'm more in touch with, there's people
who'll come in town and contact me now. So I think that, and I will never probably
get off of Facebook because those connections are real that turned these people from
electronic people into real flesh and blood human beings. - Yeah, and so Even if
your relationship with them is more electronic than it was when you first started
writing those letters, there's at least that seed that you planted of individual deep
connection and relationship with every one of them that then feels meaningful to and
impactful to to continue on with. Right. So as to your question, do you still write
letters? I can't stop myself because it's the best part to me. I hand write a card
or letter. It's a reminder of the best version of me. It's a tribute to Parker,
you know, and to what I learned from them. And then it is a reminder that every
day I can do something to make a difference. Now we're recording in the lead up to
the U .S. Thanksgiving. And by the time that you guys hear this, we'll be into
December and well on our way to the holiday season. And I think that as a person
who's 36, who has two young children, it's a very busy time of year. Sometimes I
think we can get caught up and lost in what the actual meaning of the holiday
season is all about, which is your relationships with people, the people that are
around you and the connections that you have with others. And I think that when we
look at what we have to be grateful for in our lives, a lot of what comes up for
people that's most deeply rooted is their connection with others. What I would ask
you is, do you think over the course of the holiday season, this is an opportunity
for people to who are already maybe connecting with others that they maybe don't on
a regular basis because it's the holiday season. Is this an opportunity for people
to go even deeper and to maybe pick even just three people that they want to write
a handwritten letter to? And do you think that that connection could help you feel
more gratitude for the people that are in your life? Absolutely. And I think the
goal of two or three is great because this is such a busy season for everyone.
Gratitude is the perfect word for it. Because that's another major takeaway from this
project. Because you think when I wrote all these letters and the cards, I still
write that the person on the receiving end of the transaction is the person who
comes away, kind of the winner. Because really the person who comes away the most
changed from letter sending is the writer of the letters. So if you do that three
times, 10 times, 15 times, 100 times, 580 times, your gratitude is going to explode.
Yeah. You're gonna look back and around, and no matter how you do the letters, like
you said, you do them at work, but you're gonna have more gratitude for your
customers. Just the simple fact of writing that letter is going to change the way
you look at the person, you know? And so your gratitude is going to load into the
stratosphere. I looked at this random list of Facebook friends that we all have
started out as this random list of people and it slowly became this incredible
treasure trove of actual real relationships. - Oh, I love that. - And that is the
secret sauce of the whole thing right there. - For sure, for sure. And I love when
you're focusing on things that you're grateful for, that's what emanates all around
you, regardless of whether you're going to get a response or not. I want to just
finish here, Amy, by saying the joyful Flamingo is really all about empowering women
to tune into themselves, feel as aligned as they can within the best versions of
themselves, their most vibrant selves, their most joyful selves, even through the
really hard times. And I feel like this journey has obviously allowed you to step
into that best version of yourself. As you said, can you share just a little bit
more about how you feel like now? What you're doing and what you've done has
allowed you to step into that most joyful flamingo self of yours?
I think, I mean, maybe the key for me, Emily, is I had this crazy idea for sure.
But what I would encourage women to do, and I would encourage women to encourage
other women to do, is those ideas we have. You know, if you think about it,
when I had the lightning bolt moment, if I, which I've done several times in my
life, hadn't followed through on that, I'm not giving myself any credit, because I
think I had a lot of push from the universe or God or whatever it was, like I
was going to do this. But if we all encourage each other to follow through on
those ideas ideas that we have. We think, oh my God, I could do this and we're
doing it because we feel like it would fulfill other people ourselves in some way,
but it's a little bit irrational and people are going to think I'm nuts and this
is crazy and it's outside the lines. If we would just do those things and not just
trust that instinct, but listen to it and follow through on it, that's where the
the world becomes a better place. You know, that's what I would say. I love that.
And I'm just so grateful that you were able to connect and we were able to share
and collaborate with each other. And I really hope that this isn't the end of our
connection too, because I do just get such a great energy and great vibe from you.
And I know that the rest of the flock is too as they listen to this episode. So
thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your
heart and thank you for sharing your journey with us. - Hey, Emily, thank you. Thank
you very much for having me on. (upbeat music)
- Oh, what a fun chat today. Do you not just love her energy and her vibe?
Sometimes I feel like we really just need some positive, hopeful,
amazing energy to remind us that the world is filled with amazing people doing
incredible things and impacting others in such a wonderful way.
Talking with Amy today reminded me that the art of handwriting a letter to someone
you love or to someone who means something to you needs to make a comeback. It
doesn't take that much time or effort to really make someone feel seen,
heard, and special. And that really is the true lesson here. Whether it's a
handwritten letter or not, making meaningful connections with others is the root of
all joy. And the more we have of them, the better. So, Flockies,
it's the start of the holiday season. Write a gosh darn letter. Grab a stamp.
Although while I'm recording this, Canada Post is actually on strike. So hopefully
that's resolved by the time that you listen to this. But if not, write the
handwritten letter and then hand deliver it even better. Or simply just remind
yourself that over the holiday season, your relationships with the humans in your
life are the most important things to focus on. If we all always just start there,
gosh, what a difference it would make. I'm so flocking grateful for each and every
one of you. I'll see you in two weeks for our last episode before Christmas, but
thank you for being part of the joyful Flamingo flock. Until next time.
Just a reminder, Flamingo flock, that I am not a medical or psychological
professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and
journey through life and has brought to you through my own opinions and lens. Any
suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your
own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental well -being.