
01 Sep Anne Mandler Talks Purpose, Happiness, and How to Stay True to Your Art
Deborah Lindsay interviews Anne Mandler in the Premiere Fall 2015 No. 1 of ANNE.
Hello, This is Deborah Lindsay with ANNE Magazine, and I have the very great pleasure of interviewing Anne Mandler, who is the Editor-In-Chief of ANNE Magazine. Good morning, Anne.
ANNE MANDLER: Good morning, Deborah.v
DEBORAH: It’s very nice to have this opportunity to talk with you.
ANNE: Thank you, it is my pleasure.v
DEBORAH: We are going to get started with asking some questions of you to find out about your inspiration for starting ANNE Magazine. And first, a little bit of information I want to give our listeners. Anne leads the organization, Anne Mandler, Inc. teaching how to design your life and business with passion and purpose. As a socialpreneur, she’s founded and led successful business organizations including the Conscious Living Collective, supporting philanthropic and cause organizations through social media. She’s promoted and served the world’s fastest growing movements in education and is the upcoming author of a new book inspiring you to live your life knowing happiness. She’s inspiring thousands of people with her life-changing talk entitled “Breathe With Me,” Anne is also the Editor-In-Chief of ANNE Magazine as we mentioned earlier.
Anne, what a list of accomplishments you have!
ANNE: [Laughter]
DEBORAH: Amazing.
ANNE: Thank you!
DEBORAH: Where do you want to start. I want to hear about it all. Tell me about ANNE Magazine. Let’s go with where you are right now.
ANNE: Sure. Well, Deborah, this magazine is like another child for me. It’s really a new baby, but it’s the baby that’s been in the making for a couple of years now. For me it’s really important throughout my work, these different phases of my career, and the cause work that I’m doing to give back, and I don’t think that there’s a better way to give back than to share some of the most important tools and insights of what I’ve been collecting over the last years, and what I’m currently collecting in interviews in this one with you. There is a wealth of information that I think has not had the opportunity to get absorbed by this audience so I’m really excited about the fact that this is the first issue of many to come. It’s a quarterly magazine right now with the intention of really providing the most upcoming, most relevant, modern tools for women, and occasionally I work with a guy here and there, who really resonate with the message. I’m all about including everyone. But there is something to be said for a tribe of sisters coming together, and women really supporting each other.
Like you said earlier in an interview that you and I did, [it’s about] giving back. It’s our moment to give back . I’m super excited about one resource and the magazine is put in place where there is one place where you can relisten to an interview or you can reread an interview or a set of steps or go and get inspiration. That’s really where this comes from.
As a little girl I intended to have a magazine, a publication. So I’m putting into place something that was a dream from when I was a child.
DEBORAH: That’s a beautiful thing. I love to hear that. Now, when I introduced you, you said that you are working on a book. Can you tell us all about that?
I can, yes. The book is also a dream that I’ve had since I was small and the moment is now for this book, because as much as I’ve wanted to get it off the ground for years and years I wouldn’t be able to provide the amount of value I have for this piece until this very moment in time. Some people and you know, Deborah, about my story in the down turn of the economic crash. I had my own personal downturn, and I had a point in my life where I watched my body and felt my body really crying out that I was not taking care of it in the way that I needed to. This was in the midst of a high profile corporate job. It was in the midst of moonlighting and starting another business. It was in the midst of a toddler and a six-month old baby and with all of those things happening, my body just said, that’s it.
You cannot keep going this way and not only can you not keep going this way. You just need to let everything go until you can figure it out. And so, part of my system is not so much focusing on that crash anymore because there is a distance between me and that time, but really taking what I learned and in terms of learning from those years, and putting it into my own story that is digestible for people. I so never want that to happen to anyone else. I think we all need to live out our own lives and lots of things. I’m not the only person who has overcome a health issue, but this one was so significant for me that it taught me some of the major things that I will be sharing in this book, Breathe With Me. What it really talks about, Deborah, are a couple of big things. One is, never giving up on your passion. That word is used so much now that sometimes the word “passion” can turn people off. It can be “ Oh it’s another person talking about going out and living your life dream.” What does that really mean?
For me, there was a nagging or a calling. Again, from the time that I was pretty small, that was guiding me to go into a certain direction. That direction was helping people in a certain way, helping people make sure that they listen to that inner voice. I thinking sometimes life takes over and we don’t get to allow ourselves to listen to that voice. That voice is really guiding us, you know, through this life.
Another for me is a creative side. Since I was a child it was important to have painting and art, drawing, and music in my life. So much so, that each time that I would get something creative taken away, or I would put the creative aside to do something else that I should do or that was required of me to get another degree. Or to do something in school in that I would be asked to do, but my heart didn’t want to do, I would get sick. I would get physically sick and I think that is something that happened in regard to my adrenal crash.
So my other message is do not let anything get in the way of your art. When I say art, that can be anything that speaks to you personally. For me it is the painting and the drawing and the fusion of art and music and life.
That’s what the book really calls to. It’s a call to action and it’s also a means of support. It’s a means do something that you and I have talked about in the past. It’s a means for support. It’s about holding out your hand to that person, who you can really tell needs to be either picked up or just really needs your guidance or your example, and bring them with you.
So, it’s an example to women and men who have always desired to try something else with their career or life. For whatever reason, they’ve always shoved it aside, they’ve always put it on the back burner. My message is that there is no better time than the present. In order to accomplish a dream, it really can be done in baby steps. All it is, is day after day, taking that baby step, one bit further. Then, it’s amazing what can happen in a number of months or a year or two. It doesn’t have to be the giant, overwhelming leap that you may have thought was required to do. For example, start a business. I believe that no matter where you are in life, I believe that if there is a will, there is a way to do it. So the time is really to look at that now, and to clear your path so that you are able to reach what it is that you truly desire in this life.
DEBORAH: Sounding like keeping the balance that you need to be healthy, too?
ANNE: Absolutely. I mean that’s always been one of my messages. There is not a better time for that message than now because our culture pulls us in so many directions. It pulls us in a way that often is not the best for our bodies, and we are in a culture, especially western culture, of go, go, go. One of the things I infuse into every class I teach, any talk that I give, certainly a publication that I write, is that breathing is something that we do automatically. It is also something that we can do with purpose. And when we do it with purpose, we’re changing individual cells within our body. We’re changing our own intelligence in a way that is giving us a boost that we don’t realize. It can be so significant how the breath can affect our day-to-day.
DEBORAH: As soon as you said that, I started breathing more deeply.
ANNE: [Laughter]
DEBORAH: So where do you see this going? What’s your end game?
ANNE: It’s a big end game, and thanks for asking that. It’s a big end game. This publication has the potential to grow, and we’ve already planned the growth of ANNE Magazine so that not only does it reach a larger audience, but what we’re offering is evolving as our audience evolves. So, for instance you know you are in a particular spot now. You may have some desires and dreams to grow a business, you may have some desires and dreams to grow your life in a certain way, and I don’t think they are two different things.
My message is that you really need to look at your life first, then build the business around that. So many people will do the opposite, where they will look at what they to do in their career, their work and then, they will do that with such gusto and such force, but what happens is that your life is what slides down the hill, because you are holding on to this one thing so tightly to make it work.
If you flip [the dynamic] and you actually look at your life and say, ok, what do I need right now?
I think if you do it that way and what are the different buckets that need to be tended to at one time that are absolutely not adjustable, that have to happen? Once you look at what is important, then you can start letting go of the things that are not important. I think you need to build the life first, and have some specific goals. Then you can look at ok, so how is my life’s work going to be shaped by what is most important to me right now.
I think if you do it that way we have such a better model for success because we’re working in a way that is set-up for success. It’s set up to feed us, it’s set up to give back to those that we love, and it’s set up in a way that is more sustainable than going, for instance, one career path full throttle. Then you kind of forgot about your child’s play [performance], and you forgot that you have to be at the library for this, and somewhere for something else, and you forget all of the little things that you have do in life everyday that you have to adjust for.
There are so many things, and everyone is in a different situation, but if you set up your life in a way that is thought out, you have room for a back up plan. We don’t often think in this way, and we can’t always plan that way. We can’t always, so I like having a little nest or net, rather, where people can fall back on when life gets in the way, because it will. That’s the nature of what we’re doing here.
You know, also, if we are planning a new career or business, a lot of times we will get stuck; that’s just how business works. It’s not a bad thing, it’s the nature of humanity. We’re going to get stuck in certain places, but if you can know that ahead of time, and if can plan just a little bit, give yourself a little room for those times where you know it’s not going to go the way you want it to go. Just know it can be in the tiniest example, you know, the technology quirks of you and I setting up a [Google] Hangout. It can be in a much bigger form where something goes wrong with the business, and you have to take a breath, and you have to take a step back and say, ok, it’s all going to be fine, but we need to reconfigure. We need to re- strategize what we are doing here because that’s not working. But that’s ok, because we’re on the path.
DEBORAH: I’m just looking at some of the things I’ve heard you say, both in this interview, and also to me other times, and you’ve said “building a career that matters and a life that matters.” I have such wonderful times in our lives that we can even think about these things and I was mentioning this in my interview, that as women, that is in some cases a new concept. In all of women’s history and human history somewhat. I just want you to speak about lives that matter. Can you?
ANNE: Yeah, absolutely. I think that, that can mean something different for each of us. So it doesn’t have to be the same definition for everyone. This is one of the reasons that I built the company the Conscious Living Collective, which is a philanthropic organization that gives back socially to giving organizations and cause organizations. The way we do that is through social media but it’s also through a network, and that network is really the holding of hands of several of these organizations together. I think you know if I take a step back, there are so many things that I want to do in my life. So many dreams that I have. I want to build a business that helps other people. I have children, and I want my children to have every opportunity to do what they want to in their lives. I want my personal relationships to really flourish.
I really want at the end of the day, I love things that are beautiful, and that is part of the art in my life but at the end of the day, the stuff [material things] are really nice to have, but the stuff doesn’t matter. I think it’s different for each person, you have to ask yourself what matters to you. What is it that at your core, is important, when you look back at this ride on this life that we have, what is your personal mantra, what is your personal look-back? What do you want to say wow, I did what I really wanted to do and that was, loving my family and that was creating the business of my dreams. That was having flexibility and freedom in my schedule so that I can be where I need to be at my child’s play. Or, if I want to be traveling in Peru, do I have the means, and do I have the freedom to pick up and go?
Do I have the ability to care for an aging parent? It can be a bunch of different things? For me, of course it’s about the priorities of my family and my values fitting with my business because they are one. But, my driver is really having flexibility in my life and it always has been. It’s the ability to have a certain freedom, and it’s the ability to also teach other people about having those freedoms. So, those are my personal “what matters most” but I think as long as you are asking yourself that, and you are really checking in with yourself, you are making strides toward achieving what you most want. I don’t think you can do that unless you remember to check-in.
DEBORAH: Yeah, It’s a lot about being authentic is what I hear with yourself, honestly, and being able to discover that because it’s really not encouraged in our world to do that much introspection, and have that much control into our life where you can really figure out what matters to you, and be able to build from that.Now, how do people engage and get involved in the things that you are doing.
ANNE: Thanks for asking that. Through a number of ways. One way to do that is through my website www.annemandler.com. There you can find ways that you can be involved in programs that I’m teaching. We have a number of programs that are launching for 2016. Another way to reach me is through the Conscious Living Collective on Facebook. That’s a great way to reach me.
I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+; all of the regular social spots.
Another great place to reach out is through the magazine. I love hearing feedback from people and nothing gives me more joy than getting comments from people, so if you want to reach out through the magazine, and if you have a comment especially through this first Premiere issue of ANNE Magazine. Here is a link to the magazine, which is ANNEMagazine.com. You can go to my website at www.annemandler.com and leave me a comment or like our page.
Those are all ways to reach me, of course the upcoming book I’m really excited to share with people.
Please do reach out, I love hearing back from people, and I’m offering more courses in 2016, as well.
DEBORAH: Do you have a gift that you are offering to the people who are listening today?
ANNE: Absolutely. So my first gift for being here and joining us, I’d like to give the magazine, which is a free resource to you. So please enjoy this Premiere issue. It’s probably about eight hours of content and features and tools—this new baby. Through the magazine there is a way to have a complimentary fifteen-minute session with me on your own personal breakthroughs. Where we can get to the nitty gritty on what is going on for you, and where you want to take your business, if that is a goal of yours. Set up a 15 minute breakthrough session with me by December 15th, 2015 by emailing info@annemandler.com.
DEBORAH: Which I have done with you. And it was very helpful by the way! Those breakthrough sessions, I highly recommend people taking you up on that offer.
ANNE: Thank you
DEBORAH: It’s been beyond pleasures to talk with you this morning. I can’t wait to talk with you and get my first issue and see where you are going. I wish you the absolute best of luck.
ANNE: Thank you so much Deborah, I really do value you.
Anne leads the organization, Anne Mandler, Inc. teaching how to design your life and business with passion and purpose. As a socialpreneur, she’s founded and led successful business organizations including the Conscious Living Collective, supporting philanthropic and cause organizations through social media. She’s promoted and served the world’s fastest growing movements in education and is the upcoming author of a new book inspiring you to live your life knowing happiness. She’s inspiring thousands of people with her life-changing talk entitled “Breathe With Me,” Anne is also the Editor-In-Chief of ANNE Magazine.
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