INTRO: This is part two of my interview with Lolly Spindler. If you have not yet listened to part one, I highly recommend you go back and do that first because it provides some really important context for this episode. If you have already heard part one, then please enjoy the conclusion of my interview with Lolly Spindler.

Matt Bowles: One of the things that you had mentioned in the very beginning of our conversation, Lolly, when you were talking about how great Mexico City has been for you, is the personal growth and healing journey that you have been able to go on. And I want to ask you if you can share a little bit about that and maybe start with the role that writing has played as a part of that journey.

Lolly Spindler: Early on, writing had always been in my toolbox as a way of processing emotions. And I think getting things out of your head and onto a page helps you externalize it and helps you see it as now it’s not just bouncing around in my head. It’s on the page. I can see it. It’s material. I can touch it, right? And now I can start to process it and heal that thing. So, I’ve always had it in my toolbox, and it has served me so well.

So, when I got to Mexico City, I really had the time to not just root into my business and create a more solid foundation and find more clients and really devote my time and effort there. But I also had time and the space to invest in myself and to really see, okay, I finally found my home. What does that look like to me? What steps do I want to take now to grow myself? So, I was really lucky to find a beautiful yoga studio and yoga community here called Atma. And I’m part of this thing called FIT Pass, which is a gym pass.

And so basically, I just went to work out, right? And I ended up finding this beautiful community of yogis who are very practical in their approach to the whole philosophy of yoga and meditation, which really resonated with me. I’m woo woo. But I’m not going to connect with, oh, let’s ecstatic dance our way to happiness. That doesn’t really resonate with me. I need you to give me a foundation of this is why you should meditate. These are the neurological benefits. This is history and how it’s worked over centuries.

And I’m like, okay, I can understand that. Let’s do that thing. Through them, I started meditating. I took a 50-hour meditation course. That’s actually where I met my partner and some of my best friends today. And then I did their New Year’s Eve retreat, which was fantastic. Everything they’ve done has been so well thought out and executed that when they said they were doing their first 200-hour yoga certification, I was like, sign me up. So, I ended up doing that in 2023. And during that certification, they also said, in 2025, we will be traveling to India to attend the Maha Kumbh Mela. And I was like, what the hell is that? And basically, it’s the biggest religious pilgrimage. And this past February is when it happened in the history of humanity. There were 60 million people there in the month of February.

And basically, when they said they were going to India, they were doing this three-week trip around India, Nepal, ending at the Maha Kumbh Mela. I was like, yes, I will follow you guys to the end of the world. Everything you do has been fantastic. You guys are really good leaders. And I know it’ll be a mix of tourism and spirituality, which is like what I wanted for my experience in India. And so, I just did that in February. So that was also another part of my healing and spiritual journey that kept going. Now we’re just growing.

Matt Bowles: We have got to talk about that. Before you describe the festival, can you talk about the trip through South Asia in the lead up to the festival and what that experience was like.

Lolly Spindler: We were moving a lot. We only spent two to three nights in every place. So, we started in Mumbai. We went to Aurangabad to do the Ellora Caves. We saw the Kailasa Temple, which is this beautiful temple literally carved out of a mountainside. You can see where they carved it in. It’s insane. It was beautiful. We went to Rishikesh for a few nights, we stayed in an Ashram there. We went to Varanasi, we went to Nepal, we went to Delhi. So, we did so many things in such a short amount of time. But every place we went, it was really beautiful because we did do a little bit of tourist sightseeing. We went to temples; we went to the crematorium. So, it was like this really cool mix of experiences. And also, the people that I went with were just fantastic and they are my family now.

Matt Bowles: And this was your very first time on the subcontinent. So, what was your impression and experience like there, overall? What are your reflections on that? Because it’s a very unique place.

Lolly Spindler: So honestly, India was so welcoming to us. I mean, my teachers had basically prepared us for the worst-case scenario. They were like, it’s going to be crazy. Don’t expect to be comfortable. There’s going to be a lot of chaos around you. And so, okay, we’re preparing ourselves for that. But when we got there, I felt so welcome and had the most beautiful experiences with the people there. I kind of use this story as a metaphor. When we got to the Maha Kumbh Mela the first night, we were just really excited to go walk around. So, we started walking and we thought we were going to go to Sangam, which is the sacred part of the festival site, but we realized it was too far away. And so, we’re like, okay, we’ll just go back to our camp.

So, we were a little disappointed because we wanted to see something, but we’re like, ah, whatever, it is what it is. So, we turned around to head back and our guide was like, you know what, let’s just stop by this ashram right here on the river and just see if they’ll let you come see their temple. And we’re like, okay, cool. Zero expectations. We don’t even know if we’re going to go into this place. But there’s about 10, 12 of us. We get up there and we’re waiting outside and all of a sudden, this man comes out and he blows the conch shell, which signifies an important arrival. And then people from Ashra start coming out with the carnation wreaths and they start putting them on us to honor us as honored people coming into the temple. And we’re like, what is happening?

And they show us into the temple and they have us go pay respect to their teachers, which are basically a little shrine with the photos and other, like, devotees are there and they’re coming up and they’re kissing our feet and we’re like, what, right? We didn’t even think we were going into this place. And now we’re being so beautifully received. They take us into their cafeteria, they give us chai, they offer us ghee. We were just blown away. And that’s how India really received us. We were blown away at every moment of how welcoming and open the people were to us. Being there as devotees alongside them, even though we weren’t from their country and their culture. It was a really, really beautiful experience.

Matt Bowles: And then how did the rest of the festival unfold? What was it like? And maybe just give folks some additional context in terms of how often this festival happens and what it’s all about, and then just the scope and scale of this thing.

Lolly Spindler: The Kumbh Mela happens every 12 years based on planetary alignments. The Maha, which means bigger, is most important. Kumbh Mela happens every 144 years. So, this was literally a once in a lifetime experience. And what this pilgrimage started as was the sadhus, who are basically in Western terminology that would be like a monk in Hinduism. They’re kind of dispersed around the country and they had no way of communicating with one another. Some of them were more remote in the mountains, others were in ashrams, others were in temples and isolated areas. So, they would all come together once every 12 years along the banks of the Ganges River. Basically, it’s where the Ganges and the Yamuna meet, the two biggest rivers in India. And then Saraswati is the third river.

But it’s spiritual, it’s not an actual physical river. And they would meet on this very sacred site to exchange ideas, to do religious devotion rituals. And it’s basically said that if you bathe in this sacred space, in the sacred site, in the rivers, that you are washed of your karma and you escape the cycles of reincarnation so that you can achieve moksha or enlightenment. And that’s kind of where the Maha Kumbh Mela started. And then obviously overtime, it wasn’t just the sadhus that were going to do this, it were all of the devotees. So now it’s literally since this was the Maha Kumbh Mela, the 144 years, it was the biggest they’ve had recorded in history. And it was 60 million people in the month of February. And it’s in this small town called Prayagraj that literally they have to build a city for all of these people for a month.

So, it’s tons of infrastructure. If you think about music festivals in the us, how they put those big metal sheets down as roads, that’s what they had everywhere. They built pontoon bridges, there were 30 pontoon bridges. It’s a complete infrastructure overhaul to be able to hold this religious event. I mean, it was magnificent. Not just on the infrastructure sense, but wow, so many people are coming with the same purpose to show their devotion to their beliefs and to be washed of their karma so that they can reach enlightenment. It was just, honestly, you could feel it, you could feel everyone’s devotion. And it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced. Just seeing so many people with a common purposes in one place, you don’t really get to see that much in this day and age. And being able to witness that was beautiful.

Matt Bowles: That’s so amazing. And you are now back in Mexico City, and you are doing a trauma informed yoga certification course. Can you talk about that and what you’re planning to do with that certification?

Lolly Spindler: So, I started it a year or so ago and it’s basically like a self-paced course that I like to jump in and out of because after getting my yoga certification, you know, I like to refresh my skills. So, this is a great way to do that because it’s all self-paced and online. It’s basically yoga for prisoners. It started in the U.S., but they have a chapter in Mexico. And it’s basically learning how to teach trauma informed yoga to people who may not feel that they have their own bodily autonomy. So, it’s really interesting because I mean, obviously trauma informed yoga can be used for lots of different communities. And it’s been really interesting to take the knowledge I have around yoga and practice. I mean, the asanas, the posture, the physical practice of yoga are just one of many branches of yoga.

But it’s interesting to use that and have that knowledge as a foundation to then put another layer over it off, okay, now how can I take what I know and make it accessible to this population? They may not know anything about what yoga is, where it comes from. They may not feel like they have any type of autonomy over their own bodies. They may have some trauma associated with that. How do I make it accessible to this community? And it’s been really, really beautiful learning that process.

Matt Bowles: That is really amazing and wonderful. One of the things that you and I also, I feel like, connected with and that I have appreciated you so much over the years is your activism and your social and political consciousness and your attention and commitment to really important things like that. I’m wondering, actually, if you can share a little bit, maybe thinking back, on how your social and political consciousness was raised. I know feminism is something you connected with very early on. Can you share a little bit about that journey and the development of your worldview?

Lolly Spindler: I was raised in a household where my mother is very liberal, and my father is very conservative. And I remember the only time they would have arguments where they would yell at each other was about abortion. Like, I remember this very clearly growing up. And I was always like, what are they fighting about? And I remember feminism not even being a word that was used in my house. I remember even when I got to college, I went to a pro-choice rally and still being afraid of that word. That word is scary. There’s a lot of power and meaning in that that I don’t fully understand.

So, I don’t know if I can identify with that. But once I got over that and I realized what feminism actually was, and I identify as an egalitarian feminist, I realized, oh, I have always been a feminist, right? Like, I was just afraid of this word. Even in elementary school, we had the pageant of the arts, which was basically like a show where we would have famous paintings with people in them. For example, like a Ciroc in the park with all these people sitting in the park. And then the paintings come to life. The kids are, like, dancing and walking around like the painting is alive. And I remember one of the paintings opened. It was, like, of two or three women, but it opened with a taekwondo or karate sequence. And I started doing taekwondo when I was five years old. And I remember, I want to try out for that. I want to do taekwondo to open this piece. And I remember because it was all the moms that were running this performance. They were like, no, that’s a boy’s part. And I was like, says who? Just because no little girl has tried it out before. Well, I’m trying out, so it’s no longer a boy’s part.

So, like, looking back, all the signs were there. I just didn’t know what to call it. But I have been fighting for equal rights since I was very young. And I mean, the end of the story is they did let me do it with the little boy. So, we both did it. And then years later, my friend’s little kids were in this show because they still do it at my elementary school. And she called me, and she’s like, Lolly. It was a little girl, and she was alone, and she was doing it. And I was like, yeah, like, I’ve always been very loud and very in your face about, nope, that’s unjust. Nope, that’s not okay. We need to talk about that. I also remember in high school, for a photography assignment, it was like, pick a product, any product. A water bottle, a candle, whatever. You’re going to shoot it like it’s a product, like a campaign. I picked a box of tampons to make all the boys uncomfortable and start a conversation about menstruation.

So, you know, I have always been very, even just in my personal life, very much like, let’s start the conversation. Let’s have a conversation. And as I was able to build some structure around that in college, I was one of the founders of the BU Women’s Center, now the center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism on campus that had basically been shut down during the Vietnam War. And so, we found out there was this whole history of having a women’s center that basically, the president got pissed off that there were protests about the Vietnam War, knew the Women’s center was part of organizing those, and shut it down in the 70s. So, we’re like, fuck that. We’re reopening it. So, I was part of that in college.

And so ever since having that community, I’ve definitely looked for that community everywhere else I’ve lived. And also, now that we have an online space to basically community organize, that’s been amazing because I’m still in touch with a lot of those activists from college. We still work on things together. I’m part of Gringo Tax and Aida Mudra here. So, there’s still, like, lots of different ways I’m able to find those communities and still be active in my activism.

Matt Bowles: Yeah. So how did that evolve, right, from the feminism and then learning about gender and sexuality and queer liberation and then racial justice and international human rights? Can you share a little bit about the evolution of your current politics of collective liberation and how you understand all of these things in your activist work?

Lolly Spindler: Yeah. Especially having traveled around the world, I know you agree with this. Travel is the number one way to open yourself up and to grow. And once you see inequality, once you see, wow, we’re all just humans, why do some people have so much more privilege or have so much more than others. I know I feel called to do whatever I can in my local community. A lot of people get scared. They’re like, there’s no way I can make a difference. So, they do nothing. And I think even if you’re doing something small, so to speak, air quotes in your local community, like every action you take counts, and every action contributes to a greater collective in which we can make broader changes.

So, I really think that getting involved in your local community is number one. So, you know, when I moved here, I immediately was, all right, I need to find my feminists, I need to find my other community organizers so that we can organize around different areas that we feel called to and create networks. So that’s what I’ve definitely done since I’ve been on the ground making my home. That was definitely one of my priorities once I set down some roots.

Matt Bowles: So, you talked about traveling the world and the things that you saw as you travel the world. And I feel like it’s possible for different people to travel to the same places and see or pay attention to or look for very different things. And I’m wondering if you can share a little bit about your lens through which you now see the world and as you travel, what types of things you pay attention to and why.

Lolly Spindler: I think the number one thing is just connecting. Being there in the present and recognizing someone else’s humanity. That can make more of a difference than you may ever realize. Because so many people travel, they’re just checking things off a list. They’re not there to actually be present and to experience the culture and to get to know the people. And I think really sitting down and having those one-on-one connections with someone are the most enriching for me. And even if you don’t share the same language, I mean, we’re still all sharing energy. And if you just sit with them and you look at them and it’s like, I see you, I recognize your humanity. Thank you for sharing this connection with me. I think honesty is one of the most powerful experiences you can have. And one of the biggest differences you can make is the sense that you show not all tourists or people visiting your country are just here to see this temple or do this thing. There are people who are really traveling to connect. And I think it’s really kind of our responsibility to show that in practice and to really try to have those little moments with people.

Matt Bowles: Totally agree. I think that’s great advice and perspective. I now want to talk to you a little bit just about your tips and pull out some of your expertise for freelance writing, entrepreneurship, business building. For people that are interested in considering the journey that you have taken to become a fully location, independent freelance writer and do their own things with the skills that they already have. I want to ask you a few different things about that process. The first one though, I feel like we should start with is just who should consider starting a freelance writing business. Who is this for?

Lolly Spindler: It’s basically for all of my creatives and writers out there. There is this thing where people can write, but they don’t know how to identify as writers. And that’s something I am addressing now in another program I just launched. Because a lot of times, like we were talking about earlier with speaking a different language, it’s the confidence that keeps us from doing what we want to do. So, once you’re imbued with that confidence, you can start to identify as a writer. And once you can identify as a writer, then you’re in your power and you can be like, oh, hell yes, I got this, I can do this. And then you can start creating content. I always tell people, if they’re just starting out, to pick either a type of content or an industry that they want to start out in.

So, for example, if you’re picking a type of content, let’s say you love social media, stick to social media content at first, get really good at that, and then start branching out to other types of content like email newsletters or blog posts. But start honing your skills with something you really enjoy first. On the industry side, let’s say you really love the beauty industry. Writing about the beauty industry, you do that all day, you could do it for free. Obviously, you’re going to find paid customers. But when you’re just starting out, write about the beauty industry, hone your skills with that, and then you can start in other industries, right? So, you can either be very specific in one type of content or one industry, or you can be more of a generalist, offering different types of content in various industries.

But I always say start little by little, hone your skills as you go until you feel confident, then reach out to different industries or to different types of content. So that’s what I always say people start out with. And then once you’ve written a couple pieces, you’re ready to like, take on clients. Then you go out and you find those clients. A lot of times there’s someone on your network that already needs content. Everybody needs content. I always tell people Start by reaching out to your personal network and being like, hey, this is a new thing I’m offering. I would love to write to you or anybody else that you know. Please send them to me. Here’s some sample posts if you would like to see them. That’s already the content that you’ve written and honed your skills with.

And then from there, normally that’s how I got my first clients were personal connections. Also, coworking spaces are great for in person networking. And then from there, through my course, the six Fig freelance writer, I basically teach how to like set up your systems and everything so that you can scale that once you have your few core clients and you’re, all right, I’m ready to actually invest more time into this, Then it’s like, all right, here we go. We’re going to go full engines ahead. We’re doing the thing.

Matt Bowles: Can you give us a little bit of a glimpse into that? So, let’s say that someone is a writer and they have some of those skills and they get some of their first clients maybe through their personal networks. Hey, I just wanted everybody to know I’m offering these services. Oh, I know somebody that needs that. And they get their first pieces. If they then say, I want to do this as a full-time thing, I do not want to do it as a side hustle. I want it to generate enough income to finance my lifestyle and be able to travel the world. What are some of the tips that you would give for people to start building that business and scaling it to that level?

Lolly Spindler: So, I always say start backwards first. Figure out first of all, like how much money you’re going to need to live the lifestyle that you want to. And then from there, what does that mean in terms of how many content pieces you produce? Whether it’s social media posts or blog posts, I help a lot of people write their books. If you’re helping people do that, how many of those projects do you need on a monthly basis in order to hit that number for how much you need to live the life that you want to live? And then from there you can decide, all right, do I have enough clients to do that? If not, okay, I need one more client, two more clients to hit that. So that’s my goal. Within six months, I’m going to get the four clients I need to then be able to take this full time.

So that’s why I like to put that financial aspect in there early on because then it becomes more realistic and it’s like, all right, let’s make Sure, I can feed myself. Unlike me where I just dove in without a plan. In hindsight, this is the way to go. And this is what I do now when I’m taking on new clients, like how much do I want to work, how many hours do I want to work, what projects do I want to work on? And then from there I reach out to X amount of clients to then get the workload that I need or that I want now that I have that luxury, to then be able to live the lifestyle that I want to live. So that’s definitely the next step, I would say, for people who are getting ready to do it their full-time business.

Matt Bowles: Well, I also want to ask you about that lifestyle optimization that you have done because I know sometimes you’re only working like two to four hours a day. And I want to ask about some of your productivity techniques, how you have refined that and developed this lifestyle where you can travel the world or just do really cool stuff in Mexico City with your community, balance that work life dynamic and get the work hours down to that level.

Lolly Spindler: So, the number one thing I recommend is setting strict boundaries with yourself so that you learn how to do that and can set boundaries with your clients. Because a lot of the time we don’t respect our own boundaries, which gives permission for other people not to respect our boundaries. So, for example, I have like a policy where I do not let clients connect with me on my phone. They do not have my phone number; they must email me. So even if it’s a friend who’s recommending their partner or their friend, and so they just send them my phone number, the first thing I say is, oh my God, thank you so much, I would love to work with you. Here’s my email address. This is where I do business, and it sets that boundary really early on in the client relationship.

And then also sometimes I need to remind them, please email me. But I’m like it, very nice, but I’m firm, right? Because if I don’t set those boundaries with myself, then I’m letting them violate those boundaries. So, I’m very, very clear about that. And then that also protects a lot of your time because a lot of people, if they’re allowing their clients to contact them on their phone any hour of the night, when the client decides to write to them, they get that notification and all of a sudden, they’re taken out of whatever they’re doing and they’re back into work mode. So that’s one thing.

Another thing is not getting any notifications for my emails. So, If I do open my phone, I have to go into my email and be ready to look and see if there’s any client communication. Because if you’re a solopreneur, you need to be really good at separating that personal and professional. And that also protects your time and your energetic limits, which are also really important. So those are two things.

The third thing I would say is I have a browser for work, and I have a browser for personal, because obviously I just have one laptop. Some people have two. I have one. I’m a minimalist. I’m not trying to travel with a checked bag ever. So definitely that also helps with that separation mentally and energetically is like keeping those things, even those browsers separate helps a lot. I give myself a lot of grace. It’s been a lot of work. But divorcing, my productivity from my value as a human being, we’re taught that so young. I know that’s going to be a lifelong battle for me. I just have to remind myself I don’t have to be productive to be worthy as a human being. So, in saying that and repeating that to myself, I give myself a lot of grace. If I don’t get everything I want to get done, it doesn’t make me any less valuable. It’s okay. It’s going to get done. It’s just giving yourself a little bit of that flexibility that you would give someone else, possibly if they didn’t do exactly what you expected of them. You’d be like, okay, I understand. You’re human.

We need to do that for ourselves too. So as long as you like what I like to do, I’m not trying to work all the hours of the day, like you said, two to four hours tops. If I’m working on a book and I’m under deadline or something, maybe it’s a little bit more. But I know that’s coming. I’m mentally prepared for that. But I also am like, okay, as long as I get these two to three, four things done today, I’m good. We’re good. We could move on with our day in our life, because we’re not living to work, we’re working to live. So, let’s make sure our priorities are very clear.

Matt Bowles: Can you talk about the different services that you currently offer and ways that people could potentially work with you? Maybe if they’re interested in working with you because they’re looking for editing help or writing or things like that for their company, but also if people are interested in following your footsteps and your blueprint and building their own writing Freelance business. What are some of the ways that people can work with you.

Lolly Spindler: If you need any type of digital content? My bread and butter are definitely like blog posts. I’m more of long form content. I also help a lot of people write their books. So, it’s a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge in one industry who want to share their journey, but they either don’t have the time or the skills or honestly the desire to write a book, but they want a book. I basically help them to give birth to their books. Which is why as you’ll see on my Instagram it says Book Doula. Because I really think of books as like children. That’s one of my services that’s through CREA Content Marketing. That’s creacontentmarketing.com so if you’re interested in me helping you create content or you just want me to do it for you, that’s that. And then if you’re interested in learning how to run a 6-Fig Freelance Writing business or getting over the hurdle of I want to identify as a writer, I know I can do this. That would be The Write to Heal program. And those are both on lollyspindler.com you can find those two programs as well as if you’re interested in group or one on one coaching with me.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. And I know you have a signature course on six figure freelance writing. Can you talk a little bit about that? What is it in that course and what will it be like?

Lolly Spindler: Basically, that’s a self-paced digital course. So, you can have access to that whenever you want. It goes through all of the building blocks starting from scratch. I know I want to do this. Maybe I want to start off at full time immediately. Maybe I want to grow it as a side gig until I feel comfortable or meet those financial goals to then scale it to full time. And now that it’s full time, I want to scale it to six figures. How do you go from each of those steps to the next? That’s what’s covered in the course. It’s five quarter modules and five bonus modules that include the hardcore action steps. This is what you need to do, but also those mental little hurdles you might come up against. Like I don’t have the confidence to reach out to clients, or I don’t feel comfortable ghost writing.

You know, these little things start talking to us when we start a business. Because it’s not just you’re learning how to hone your skill for this for a specific industry or a specific type of content. It’s also like, I’m starting a business and there’s all this other stuff that’s coming up because some of the most growth in addition to travel is becoming an entrepreneur. Starting your business, you will fast track that growth real fast. So, it kind of talks to both of these different things that are happening at the same time. Also, you can find that on lollyspindler.com it’s linked to the 6-Fig Freelance Writer Course. And also, if you’re part of the queer community, there is the 6-Figure Pride scholarship for four people that’s also linked on my website. If you would like to apply for that, you can do that there. And that’s just first come, first serve. After those four spots are filled, no more for this year. But happy Pride. Please apply.

Matt Bowles: Can you talk a little bit about your connection with the LGBTQIA community and why you are so passionate about supporting and uplifting and why you’re offering these scholarships?

Lolly Spindler: I identify as bisexual – pansexual. When I finally realized feminism was not a dirty word, I also realized, oh, being bisexual is not a dirty word either. Oh, my God. So basically, I’ve identified it that way since I would say, like, college, maybe a little bit after college. And ever since, I’ve definitely been a huge proponent and have been really active in the queer community and making sure to uplift my queer brothers and sisters, sisters and trans folks out there. And so, this was a way, it was actually really beautiful. My mom, actually, this was her idea. She reached out to me and was like, you know, I really want to help people who want to take your course but might not have the money for it. I had to roll quarters to pay my rent. I know what it feels like. And since it’s Pride month, I’d love to do it for the LGBTQ community. And I was like, what? I was like, oh, my God, this is so beautiful. I’m being seen in so many different ways right now. So, it’s really beautiful. It comes from a really loving space. So that is from me and my mom for you.

Matt Bowles: That is amazing. We are going to link that up in the show notes along with everything else. And you also have some completely free things on your website that folks can just go and grab right now. Can you talk about what you are offering?

Lolly Spindler: So, under the freebie section of my site, you will find a content brief, which is what I use with all my clients. That basically helps me get really crystal clear on what they’re asking for at the very beginning. Because if you don’t have all the info, you can go through all of these rounds of revisions and you’re like, oh my God. Something that was supposed to take two hours has now taken eight hours of my life, right. So, it’s like cut down on the time it takes you to actually produce a piece of content that your client can publish. So, so that’s linked in there that’s for free. It also has a 10-minute mini training for me on exactly how I use it line by line.

And then there’s also my contract that I use with all my clients, which is really great because writers can use it, basically any freelancer can use it. But that’s the contract I have that makes sure that I’m getting paid what I’m asking for in the timeline I’m asking for. And then I also have the right to share what I’m creating on my portfolio, even if it is ghost written for someone else. So, it’s really great for any creatives to like to showcase your work, even if you’re ghost writing. That’s on there. Another webinar I did with my dear friend Ashley is on there, which is about if you’re on this journey and you want to start your own business, but you are hitting those mental hurdles that are really making you feel like, am I worthy of doing this? I have a lot of self-doubts coming up. That webinar is for those people. And it takes you through this worksheet of really assessing the areas of your life where you’re at right now and where you would ideally like to be, and how do we get you from where you’re at, to where you want to go. That’s also linked in there. And then also my newsletter, which comes out once a week and shares lots of these programs and freebies and guest appearances like this one on Matt’s podcast. That’s all featured in the newsletter too. So those are some freebies for y’ all.

Matt Bowles: All right, we are going to link all of that up in the show notes. So, to grab any of that free stuff, we’re also going to link up the Pride Scholarship application and all the ways to connect with Lolly. Just go to themaverickshow.com go to the show notes for this episode and there you will find all of this in one place.

Lolly, let me ask you one more question and then we’ll wrap this up and move into The Lightning Round. When you think back about all of the travel that you’ve done and the places you’ve lived up to this point in your life, what impact do you think all of that travel has had on you, and why are you so passionate about continuing to travel? What does travel mean to you today?

Lolly Spindler: I would say the impact is it’s made me a much more open and empathetic person. We all grow up in our bubbles, and I think it’s really important to get out there and travel and get those bubbles popped. It just opens you up to a lot of growth. And I’m such a big proponent of getting out of your comfort zone and into your growth zone. So, I would say that’s my number one reason to travel to the state, to continue to force myself into situations where I might be like, oh, my God, never been in this situation before. What do I do? So, I really like coding. Those skills are. Might be a little crazy but is really fun for me. So that’s definitely why I will continue to travel for the rest of my life, because it opens me up in ways and helps me connect with people in ways that I will never experience sitting in my home, doing the things that I do in my routine, right. Like, it completely throws me out of that and forces me into situations and meeting people that I never would have encountered otherwise. So, it’s all about the growth, baby.

Matt Bowles: Well, I think that is a perfect place to end the main portion of this interview. And at this point, Lolly, are you ready to move in to The Lightning Round?

Lolly Spindler: Let’s do it.

Matt Bowles: Let’s do it. All right. What is one book that you would recommend that people should read?

Lolly Spindler: I really love A Renaissance of Our Own by Rachel E. Cargle. She’s one of my favorite activists. She really blew up during the pandemic. I actually found out about her because my friend painted her, and that’s on the COVID of the book. So that’s actually how I found her. And she’s amazing. She’s incredible. Even if you don’t read the book, follow her on Instagram @rachel.cargle. She’s just this incredible black woman who is all about empowering the black community and women and has created incredible nonprofits. And in her book, A Renaissance of Our Own, she takes you through the steps of how to create your own manifesto. And it’s really beautiful. So, it’s her memoir and also how to create a manifesto. So highly recommend it.

Matt Bowles: All right, if you could have dinner with any one person who is currently alive today that you’ve never met, just you and that person for an evening of dinner and conversation, who would you choose?

Lolly Spindler: The first person that comes to mind is Rupi Kaur. She’s my favorite living poet and I love her so much and I think she’s wonderful. And I also just think we would be like really good friends. My friend actually met her at a coffee shop in Rio in Brazil and I was so jealous. I was like, what? Yeah, I feel like we would just get along really well. And I love her poetry. It’s very heartfelt. If you’ve never read Ruby Kaur, highly recommend it. She’s just a lovely human and I would love to chat with her.

Matt Bowles: All right, Lolly, what is one travel hack that you use that you can recommend to people?

Lolly Spindler: Never check a bag. It’s not just the money, but it’s the time. The time. If you add up all the time you spend waiting for bags, that’s the time you could be spending seeing a beautiful gallery or eating a beautiful meal. So, I am a carry-on queen. For the rest of my life. I will only check a bag if I’m coming home from Christmas and somebody gave me like a beautiful bottle of wine or like I have liquids or like a lot of shit that I was like, okay, once in a while I will do it. But otherwise, if I’m traveling long term, no.

Matt Bowles: So, as you know, I’m 100% team carry-on as well. For people though, that might not yet be at that place. Do you have any minimalist packing tips or hacks where they could downsize into carry-on luggage? What helped you to get to that place?

Lolly Spindler: Definitely the packing squares, like the packing cubes and rolling your clothes and shoving as much. My ritual is I shove as much shit into my packing cube as I can and then I hit it against my chest like I’m King Kong. Because then it like packs down all the clothes and then it helps you get out of any anger or frustration that you may be feeling at that moment. You know, it serves two purposes.

Matt Bowles: That is a great travel hack. All right, Lolly, knowing everything that you know now, if you could go back in time and give one piece of advice to your 18-year-old self, what would you say to 18-year-old Lolly?

Lolly Spindler: I would tell her you’re on the right path. I feel like so much of my time was spent questioning if I had made the right decision. Did I choose the right school? Did I choose the right major? If I had dated this person instead of this person, what would have my life looked like? Constantly questioning myself. I wasted so much mental energy on that instead of just enjoying the moment I was in. That when you’re younger, obviously you don’t realize how fleeting it is Looking back, I ended up exactly where I needed to be. So just telling her, you’re on the right path. Trust in your decisions. You couldn’t have made them any other way. It’s going to lead you exactly to where you need to go.

Matt Bowles: All right. Of all the places that you’ve now traveled, what are three of your favorite destinations you would most recommend? Other people should definitely check out the country of Portugal.

Lolly Spindler: It’s relatively small, so you can literally rent a car and see a lot of it in a few days. Obviously. Lisbon, Porto. Shout out to Pombal. It’s like a tiny little town. One of my best friends is from. It’s just such a beautiful country. I’m a huge fan and have like, honestly, Lisbon, I love. It’s one of the best cities in the world. I mean, Mexico City is obviously number one, but it’s still a really great city. So, I definitely would say Portugal. I obviously have to say Mexico because this is my home, and I love it. And honestly, I have never felt more welcome in any other place in the world. The people here are so warm and open and welcoming. If you haven’t been to Mexico or even to Mexico City, I highly, highly recommend you spend significant time here. If all you have is like a weekend or a week, okay. But if you can, like spending a month, like really getting to know this beautiful country and the culture and the people, I highly recommend it. And then third, I’m going to have to say Croatia was great. I also love the small countries where you can see a lot in a little amount of time and just rent a car and try to experience as much as you can. It is incredible. And Croatia is a great road tripping country for that reason.

Matt Bowles: All right, Lolly, what are your top three bucket list destinations? Places you have not yet been highest on your list you’d most love to see.

Lolly Spindler: Number one is Japan. I still have never been and I’m like such a foodie that I’m like, how have I not been there? And also, my friend is a mezcal sommelier and she loves to go find all the cocktails. She actually wrote like a zine of the best cocktail bars throughout Japan. And I’m dying to go and do her little route and also just eat my way through the country, so that’s definitely up there. And then Cape Town. Well, just generally South Africa also haven’t been. Also have lots of friends that I met through the remote year community that live there. I’m dying to go and just learn more about the country and just in nature. It looks unbelievable. I want to experience that. And then third are, like, things that I just really need to see, like the pyramids in Egypt and then Petra and Jordan. I know that’s two, but I need to see those things before I die, for sure.

Matt Bowles: Well, I have been to all four of those places, Lolly, so when you are ready to plan those trips, you know, you can hit me up. And I got you. All right, we have now come to the most important question of this interview. Lolly, I am about to ask you to Name your Top 5 Hip-Hop Emcees of all time. But before you name your five, can you just share a little bit about what hip-hop means to you and why you love hip-hop?

Lolly Spindler: I have been a poet since I was a little kid, right? And so, when I finally listened to hip-hop, not just passively in the car or whatever, when I actually sat down and listened, I was like, oh, my God, this is poetry. What? And so, I was just blown away by the fact that it was poetry, but also the artistry of the beat making process and production and sampling. And one of my favorite things to do is listening to a song and trying to name that sample. One of my favorite games. So, it was like two of these beautiful things colliding, and I was like, oh, my God, why have I not been paying attention? So that happened in high school. I would say that I really started. I had a boyfriend who was studying basically how to be a producer in LA. And he opened this world to me and really introduced me to know some of my favorite artists and would really force me to sit down and listen. I was like, oh my God. Because, you know, he was dedicating his life to this thing. And then I really understood why he had made that decision instead of going on, you know, the traditional four-year college route that we were told to do. And I really had a lot of respect for him for choosing this alternate path and really following his passion for this music. And he ended up being Wiz Khalifa’s audio engineer on many of his albums. So, he was successful. He does have a Grammy. I’m very proud of him and excited for him. I had a very, very good introduction to the world of hip-hop, given where this man ended up.

And so, yeah, I would have to say my favorite five. I’m still like a little underground hip-hop head. So, Slug of Atmosphere is still my number one. And then Murs of Living Legends. And Murs and Slug together are Felt, which is some of my favorite albums ever. So, they’re my first two, then I have to do Common because what a sexy voice and what a sexy man. And Mos Def, especially I know now he goes by Yassin Bey. But I love how much he’s changed over the course of his career. Has been really, really fun to watch, especially with the religious and the Muslim influences coming in over time. Really fascinating trajectory. And then I have to say André 3000 because he’s just one of the best to ever do it. And honestly, his last album, which is literally just him playing a flute, is one of my favorite things ever. I actually play that album front to back whenever I teach my yoga classes because I like to say at the end, you guys just listened to an hour of André 3000 and had no idea. So, I would have to say those are my top five.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. I love that list. All right, Lolly, I want you to let folks know how they can find you, how they can follow you on social media and once again give out your websites and how people can come into your world. Get some of your free stuff and all of that.

Lolly Spindler: So lollyspindler.com is where you will find the 6-Fig Freelance Writer Course, where you will find The Write to Heal program. And the coaching offerings I have are all there. That’s also where you will find all the freebies as well as the 6-Fig Pride Scholarship. Those are all on lollyspindler.com and then if you’re interested in working with me on the book or having me create digital content for you, whether that’s email newsletters or long form blog posts, that is creacontentmarketing.com and then on socials, I am most active on Instagram at lollyspin and then on LinkedIn which is also lollyspindler. So those are the best, best places to find me online.

Matt Bowles: All right, we are going to link all of that up in the show notes. So, you can just go to one place at themaverickshow.com and go to the show notes for this episode. You will find all of it there as well as direct links to everything else we have discussed on this episode. Lolly, this interview was such a long time coming and it was so amazing and special. Thank you for coming to the show.

Lolly Spindler: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so honored.

Matt Bowles: All right, good night, everybody.