#43 "Navigating Single Parenthood: Tips and Inspiration from Cindy Wittemann"

#SingleParentSupport #Empowerment #teenrelationship #cindywitteman #mindshift #littlegive #parentingtips # parentingteens #teenmindredefined #communitykindness

In this inspiring episode of Teen Minds Redefined, host Cheryl Pankhurst welcomes Cindy Wittemann, a remarkable advocate for single parents. Cindy shares her transformative journey from struggling single mother to a beacon of hope for many. Discover how she shifted her focus from chasing success to pursuing fulfillment, and how this mindset change has empowered her to help other single parents thrive.

Transcript 

00:18 - 00:58

Cheryl-Host: Our guest today has turned the challenges of single parenthood into a mission of empowerment. How does Cindy Wittemann go from struggling single mom to a beacon of hope to so many? Stay tuned to hear her incredible journey. I am so excited. Welcome to another episode of Teen Minds Redefined. Listen, my mission is for 1 parent of a teenager to stop wishing away those teenage years and start embracing that relationship. If I can turn 1 parent into just loving and transforming the relationship with their teens, we're not raising kids, we're raising humans. And I just want to

00:58 - 01:17

Cheryl-Host: see, you know, the world change. I want to see our teenagers come out into this world being their own authentic selves because they've learned from parents who have learned how to live to be their true authentic selves. And here's an authentic human, Cindy Witteman.  Welcome to Teen Minds redefined. I'm so glad you're here.

01:17 - 01:21

Cindy-Guest: Ah, thank you so much for having me. I'm so grateful to be here. And I love your mission.

01:21 - 01:31

Cheryl-Host: Oh, thank you. Listen, tell us about you. Tell us all the things like, what are you doing that you that you got to right here? That's what I want to know.

01:31 - 01:57

Cindy-Guest: Well, you know, for many years, I used to try to chase success. I came from a super poor single parent home, and I would chase success my whole life. Like, once I do this, I'm going to be successful. Once I do that, I'm going to be successful. But here in the last several years, I realized that I don't need to be chasing success. I need to be chasing fulfillment. And now I found that once I found that fulfillment factor and the doing all of the things that make me feel fulfilled and serving others and being of

01:57 - 02:08

Cindy-Guest: service that now success chases me. And So that is what has gotten me here today is really a mind shift that's really reshaped the way that I see the world outside of me and inside.

02:09 - 02:47

Cheryl-Host: Okay, so when we met, the first words that you were talking about was this. Nonprofit, helping single parents, it was just, and it struck me because I've done a few episodes on divorce and co-parenting and 48% is the stat. So if you're not divorced or if you're not thinking about getting divorced, you certainly know people who are divorced. And so these, you know, these episodes, these messages, if we could get them to as many people as possible, because, you know, some mom or dad is sitting home alone, not knowing what to do next, or who to

02:47 - 03:03

Cheryl-Host: turn to, or who to talk to. And there is a community of people led by someone with the biggest heart like you. So let's talk about that journey. Let's talk about your your nonprofit. You talk about it. I'm so excited.

03:03 - 03:31

Cindy-Guest: OK, so I founded a nonprofit in 2017, and we focus on giving away cars to single parents in need. But if you don't mind, I'd love to give you a little rewind story of how that came to be. So the backstory is, is I actually came from a single parent home, super poor. I decided that the way to get out of this situation was to get married, start my happily ever after. Well, what happened was domestic violence. So I was in that marriage for almost 10 years and 1 day I was actually folding laundry, watching my

03:31 - 03:57

Cindy-Guest: daughters and watching Dr. Phil, you know, like the housewife would, right? And Dr. Phil says, it's better to come from a broken home than it is to grow up in 1. And literally when I heard those words, it was like, like permission to get the heck out of there. Because I had thought since my daughters were not being abused and it was only me that I could clean better, I could cook better, I could talk less, I could do all these things to make it my white picket fence be the reality that I was having. And

03:57 - 04:22

Cindy-Guest: so when he said that I was like, oh my goodness, he's so right. Like I am teaching them that it's okay to be treated this way. This is this. Yeah. So I had always promised myself I would never be a single parent, like the dreadful single parent never going to happen to me. I could do it. I can make it work. So anyways, as I'm strapping my 5 month old daughter into a car seat, leaving that situation. I had grabbed a basket of clothes, a bag of diapers, threw it in the car and we escaped and

04:22 - 04:48

Cindy-Guest: I rebuilt a life for us. It wasn't easy, you know, I worked 2 jobs, put myself through college, I did all of these things, worked really hard to try to get on the other side of success. Well, I always knew that once I had been through my own journey that I wanted to do something to help single parents. And I thought, I kept thinking, how could I do that? What could I do? And so I had thought so hard about various ways that I could help, you know, lots of ways we can help. There's so many

04:48 - 05:15

Cindy-Guest: beautiful nonprofits out there. But what I really came to realize was, you know, all these beautiful nonprofits that are doing amazing work, you know, like whether they're giving food or clothing or shelter, or maybe some, you know, pay your CPS bill, your electric bill, you know, provide groceries, whatever it is that they're providing, you're gonna need that gallon of milk again tomorrow. You know, so my thought was how can I help these single parents in a way that they can help themselves to get themselves to the next level? So I literally had been kind of in

05:15 - 05:38

Cindy-Guest: my mind a little bit about how I could provide a service that was not going to be a bandaid on a gaping wound. It was actually going to be a solution, a tool to help get them to the next level. I was actually at dinner 1 night and I was sitting there with my, he was my fiance then now he's my husband. And I was sitting there and I was thinking, and all of a sudden I just stood up at the table and said, that's it, I'm gonna give away cars to single parents. And my fiance

05:38 - 06:04

Cindy-Guest: is a lawyer. He was like, sit down, simply not giving away anything. Like, no, it's not gonna happen. Like, you know how much liability? And he gave me all these reasons why I shouldn't. I listened very intently. And then I called the waitress over and I said, hey, you know, this is what I'm thinking. And she said, you know, that's a great idea. I remember I came from a single parent home. I remember being at the bus stop, you know, in the rain, trying to get to school and not being able to get groceries and all

06:04 - 06:24

Cindy-Guest: of this. But she said, maybe Cindy, you're thinking too big. Maybe you should give away Uber and Lyft gift cards, maybe gas cards. Maybe you should do that. And I listened to get OK. I went home that night and I woke up super early in the morning by you know within 24 hours I built a website and had a business plan in place and we gave away a car less than a month later.

06:25 - 06:57

Cheryl-Host: Okay, goosebumps all over the place right now and oh my gosh first I'm sorry you went through that experience in the first place, however you've turned it into something miraculous, so great. But I just wanna backtrack for 1 second because you went from, you made that brave decision, But can I say, cause I have a funny feeling, I know this answer? Did you know when you threw the kids in the car, what you were actually going to do?

06:57 - 07:21

Cindy-Guest: No, I had 0 idea, like 0, like, okay, how am I gonna do this? Like I saw my mom fail time and time again. I mean, as a child coming from a single parent home, my dad paid child support. My mom was very loving. She passed away from COVID at age 61, but she was so I don't mean to bad talk her. She was so loving. She was just terrible with money. And so we went through a lot of struggles, like sometimes we didn't have electric and sometimes we didn't have running water. Sometimes our cars were

07:21 - 07:40

Cindy-Guest: getting repossessed left and right. We went without a lot of basic needs. And so that single parenthood to me meant that. And so strapping the kids in the car, like you're asking about that day, I was thinking, am I going to do that to my kids? Am I going to fail that hard? How am I not going to do that to my kids?

07:41 - 07:49

Cheryl-Host: So not knowing the next step was far better than knowing exactly what the next step would be if you sat in the same place.

07:49 - 08:15

Cindy-Guest: Yeah, and I know myself and I didn't want to give myself a chance to talk myself out of it. Same thing with the nonprofit when I started it. I knew that if I listened to all everybody else's opinions and I thought about it and maybe it could be a bad idea, maybe, you know how those sneaky little self-sabotaging feelings come in. And so same thing with that time when I got in that car and drove away that day, I knew that I had to act right then and there before I talked myself out of it. And

08:15 - 08:16

Cindy-Guest: the same thing with the nonprofit.

08:17 - 08:25

Cheryl-Host: Wow, I love it. I love it. So what exactly happens in this nonprofit? Like what are the steps? What is the process?

08:26 - 08:51

Cindy-Guest: So that's something I thought a lot about over that 24 hour period. And I thought to myself, Like I didn't want it to be a whole bunch of red tape, you know, like there's all these child care programs and nonprofits, but you have to meet this criteria and that criteria and all of these things. What I wanted it to do is be more like a feeling. You know, I really wanted the car to be a tool that was going to get that person to the next level, but then you need the person who is that focused

08:51 - 09:16

Cindy-Guest: and that driven. So how was I going to figure out who those people were? I obviously knew there was going to be a huge need. San Antonio, Texas, you know, it's hard to get around without a vehicle and public transportation, although available, can take hours to get you somewhere. So I really thought intently about how I could do it. So what I developed very quickly on and still 7 years today, we still use the system is we have a very short application on the website, which is basic, you know, like our like, I think it's like

09:16 - 09:47

Cindy-Guest: 4 questions. And once they meet that minimum criteria then we ask them for a video because although there's beautiful people who can communicate beautifully in writing and they can tell this amazing story some people can't and I didn't want to exclude either 1 rather it be somebody who could or couldn't communicate that way. So I wanted it to be more like I see your heart video. So we asked for a 3 to 5 minute video. And we can really tell a lot from those videos. And sometimes the person who you might get this little bitty synopsis

09:47 - 10:12

Cindy-Guest: from that says, how's a vehicle going to change your life? They might say, I can take my kids to school. But then you get them on this video where they're so passionate about getting to the next level, going to school, all of this. So we watch all of the videos, then we narrow it down, and then we do background checks and do our due diligence to make sure That that these recipients are going to be someone who's going to use it as a tool I mean our program is not meant for somebody who's going to need

10:12 - 10:43

Cindy-Guest: to live in the car Ours is meant to be you know that little step up you need just to get to the next level. So with that process, once we finish all that, then we do our car giveaways. We get the funding from, you know, community funding. Obviously, regular people just make donations. And then we also partner with various corporations, businesses. We partner with Caravana before, Service King, and Cira we're working with currently. So we have lots of different partnerships to help get the cars. But what I've seen over the last 7 years is these people

10:44 - 10:54

Cindy-Guest: who enroll in college, graduate with their master's degree, get married, invite me to their wedding, invite me to their graduation. I've seen so many wonderful things take place with the nonprofit and it's just, I guess that it's

10:54 - 11:04

Cheryl-Host: hard work. Oh, it is hard work. I'd love to hear, do you have an example of 1 story without releasing confidential information?

11:04 - 11:28

Cindy-Guest: There's nothing confidential. There's nothing confidential. All of our recipients not only have they received cars from us, but we have 4 of them who are actually actively on our board of directors. And so, yeah, So I want to, I would love to give 2 quick stories if that's okay. Because there's 2 that like really are standing out to me at this moment. So the first car we gave away, and I mentioned that that was within less than a month that we gave away the vehicle, went to a single dad. And that single dad had actually been

11:28 - 12:00

Cindy-Guest: involved in a motor vehicle accident where he was hit by a drunk driver. And in that accident, he actually not only lost his vehicle, but he lost his wife and his leg. So he became handicapped overnight, single dad with no transportation. So once he was able to get through his rehabilitation and everything and ready to you know get back in the driver's seat we were able to get him a vehicle which he still drives to this day and refuses to sell because it's that sentimental value to him so that's 1 0 god yeah and he's just

12:00 - 12:30

Cindy-Guest: he's flourishing he's just doing amazing things and I'm just so grateful for him, and he touches base with us all the time. So, and his name is John, he's just amazing. So then the second story I'd love to share is, back in 2020, we gave a vehicle to a woman by the name of Latika. And right away, Latika joined our board of directors. She got involved. She started helping us grow the nonprofit. And then in very short order later, she ended up graduating with her degree. She ended up getting married. And then 1 day she calls

12:30 - 13:04

Cindy-Guest: and she says, Cindy, hey, guess what? I'm in a place now I can buy myself a vehicle. So I want to donate this vehicle back to driving single parents. So in July of 2023, she did just that. She donated the vehicle back, and we blessed another single parent family with the exact same vehicle. And so that just tells me that full circle moment of, wow, now this is not only giving away cars, this is inspiring individuals to do better, to get their step up. You know, her children are flourishing now, she has 1 son, is flourishing

13:04 - 13:36

Cindy-Guest: now. And then now to see the next person receive the vehicle who is actually in dental school to become a dentist. Oh my gosh. Yeah, and so it's just like this ripple effect of love and kindness. And it's just really neat to see these people, you know, go from struggling trying to figure out how they're gonna get to anywhere to graduating with a master's degree, to getting that higher paying job across town, to enrolling in college, to going to seeing their kids. I, we just saw Candace, her daughter just graduated from college or from high school

13:36 - 13:44

Cindy-Guest: So, I mean you just see like all of this. So anyways, I know I get super pumped I talk fast and I get really excited when I talk about my nonprofit. So for that I apologize.

13:45 - 14:25

Cheryl-Host: No Please don't apologize. It's so it's so good and I it's it's so funny It's and I'm sure you've heard this 1000 times the metaphor of that. It's a vehicle. Like it's 4 wheels in an engine. No, it's a vehicle. It's and it starts with them being very vulnerable, like not everybody wants to share their story. That's true. And yeah, the energy of somebody I can understand the whole video application piece, because you know, it's like anything like podcasting, I get Google Forms in, I have this, I have this, this is what I have. But until

14:25 - 15:03

Cheryl-Host: I have a 5 second conversation, heart to heart, is the energy there is the vibe there, you know, and you feel it. Yeah. And so I can totally understand you doing that. I think that's very inclusive, first of all. And, and such a, like a complete stranger in you, having such faith in somebody saying you need your help. And being able to help them like that is just oh 0 my goodness I love that I love it there's so many questions I want to ask I want to go to and it triggered me when you said

15:03 - 15:37

Cheryl-Host: there was people on the board that were part of that were recipients. How does the community get involved in this? How like where what kind of involvement do they have? What kind of you know are the I know you're there on the board few past recipients but can single parents even just kind of, if they're 1 step ahead, can they help? Can they volunteer? Can they, because I feel like, once you're 1 step ahead, you can help that next person come up the ladder with you. You know, how does that help? How does that work in

15:37 - 15:39

Cheryl-Host: the community where you're in?

15:39 - 16:10

Cindy-Guest: Yeah, so we do. We ask for help, but in an untraditional kind of way. Obviously, we donations are wonderful. We appreciate donations. But what we ask everyday individuals to do is if you don't have the funds to donate, no problem. Find a local charity in your community and just share their content online. That's it. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything, but yet you might be connecting somebody who has the ability to help that nonprofit. So you don't realize how that little like or that little share on any nonprofit content really does help spread their mission

16:10 - 16:22

Cindy-Guest: and help them get the funding that they need. So if you don't have the funds, please do that in your community to any non-profit that you love or know. So is this just in San Antonio? Are the are you

16:22 - 16:24

Cheryl-Host: the only 1 doing this at the moment?

16:24 - 16:52

Cindy-Guest: Are there people saying hey how do I do that over here? Yeah so Right now we're just in Bexar County. I have every intention of expanding. So we are definitely planning on, we're working towards some things to kind of branch out quite a bit. Yes, it happens all the time that people call and say, hey, do you have this here? And I say, no. And then they say, How can we do that here? And so some people have told me, Cindy, you know, you got to be really careful. Someone's going to steal your idea. Good. Please.

16:53 - 17:24

Cindy-Guest: Steal my idea. I want everyone, anyone who can help in this way to do that. That's what it's all about. It's not all about look at me in the credit. No, it's about, hey, how can we help these people who are raising our future leaders? And single parents are not someone who woke up 1 day and said, guess what I'm gonna be today? No, single parenthood is very, very hard. And it's not, it's very challenging. And we have to remember that we need to wrap our arms around these single parents, wherever you are, whatever community you're

17:24 - 17:46

Cindy-Guest: in, and help them however you can, because they are raising our future leaders. As you said in the beginning of this, there's such a huge divorce rate, and there are single parents and single moms, single dads everywhere. And if we can really help them get to the next level and not struggle as much with their little ones, then those leaders are going to grow up twice as strong as they would otherwise.

17:47 - 18:29

Cheryl-Host: Yeah, and the courage, you know, I was the same, I'm divorced and the fact that I was making my kids a statistic just, oh, and I still, it's like a punch in the chest now, and this was 20 years ago. So there's there's there's just something about it. And yet when you listen to stories like yours, like it's courage, it's pure raw courage for your kids. Yes, you know, I hope the whole statistic thing, I'm just throwing it out the window right now for myself, because your kids are seeing you make a decision for them and

18:29 - 18:55

Cheryl-Host: for you, not just for them, but for you. And, and that's not selfish, because what are we teaching our kids that we are important, that we need to do what's right for us, and then that's what they learn. And so all of these steps that we take in, and it's easy to say, oh, I know what's going on. I know what I'm gonna do next. It's hard to say, you know what? I don't know.

18:55 - 18:56

Speaker 1: I'm gonna figure it out.

18:56 - 19:29

Cheryl-Host: But I'm gonna figure it out and you're gonna figure it out when you get to this part of your life where you don't know what the next step is. What is your advice for somebody who is like, didn't hear the Dr. Phil conversation, but like, can you say it in your words? Like, you know, you know when you can hear, you hear people talk about a certain topic all the time and it's like, and then somebody says it in a way where you go, oh, that's it, like goosebumps, that's what I needed to hear. So if

19:29 - 19:41

Cheryl-Host: we say these things over and over again in different words. So what would you say to somebody who's sitting at home in the position you are in, but they didn't turn on the TV, what would you say?

19:41 - 20:06

Cindy-Guest: I would say the power is within you. It's been there the whole time and you don't know it yet. And so if you're sitting there and you're in a situation you wanna get out of, but you don't know how, stop focusing so much on the how and start focusing on the why. And the power is within you and you do not know your own strength. I know we all hear this as little kids. You do not know your own strength until you need it. But it's there and it's within you so often. And I know for

20:06 - 20:34

Cindy-Guest: me personally, I thought, well, you know, this was happening and that was happening outside of me until I could fix this or that or the other. I couldn't do the next thing. And this is me as a young child, but realizing now that the entire time the power was within me. And if I had turned from looking at everything outside of me and looked inside of me, the power was there all along. And that's how I was able to get through it. And I'm not extraordinary. I'm just a regular person. And every single 1 of us

20:34 - 20:38

Cindy-Guest: have that power within us. I totally agree. I've been,

20:38 - 21:14

Cheryl-Host: you know, doing my podcast for about 6 or 7 months now. And it's really turned into for parents, it's really turned into it's, it's not them. It's you. But that's the good news. The good news is we have it here. We don't have to like you said, you know, I when I started the podcast, it was putting band-aids on strategies for parents who had kids who are neurodivergent. Try this strategy, talk to the teacher about this. And then it became, wait a minute, if we're able to tap into this, then we're able to like pick up

21:14 - 21:30

Cheryl-Host: on, I'm going to say intuitive hits, we're going to be able to pick up on listening to ourselves and and knowing how if we know how to move forward and how it feels right to us, then everything else just ripples out like so true.

21:30 - 21:31

Cindy-Guest: Like, so true.

21:31 - 21:38

Cheryl-Host: What better feeling than your kids looking you going, Oh my God, Mom, I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. Like, that's, that's 1 of

21:38 - 22:02

Cindy-Guest: the things that I did for them that I now look at at the time, it just seemed like, yeah, that's what I'm gonna do. But now looking back is like, wow, How did little young, you know, when I left that marriage, I was 21 years old. I had just turned 21. And so I'd been married for many years at that point, which is kind of crazy. But for me to have the thought that I had is insane. Cause 1 of the things that I did for my daughters intentionally was I kept my last name. So my

22:02 - 22:28

Cindy-Guest: last name is Whitman and I carry that name very proud and 1 of the things that when I had the opportunity to change my last name back to my maiden name I chose not to because I wanted to change for them what was going to happen next. So obviously a criminal record is what you would Google and see that last name. And I wanted to make sure that when my daughters had to write down their name, they wrote down their name with pride. So now when you Google that last name, you will see all of the

22:28 - 22:59

Cindy-Guest: things that I do, the nonprofit, that my TV show, all the books and everything I've written. So when my daughters have to consciously write down every single day on a job application and school or wherever their last name, they can carry it with pride and not think, hey, whenever somebody Googles my name, a mugshot pops up. And so I think about now as the age that I am today is my 43rd birthday. And I think, you know what, how is it that I decided that at that super young age, I think I was 23 when I

22:59 - 23:22

Cindy-Guest: made that decision. And how did I decide that? But you know, it worked out and it was so selfless. But that's 1 of the things that we do for our kids. You know, like, like you said, we, you know, do all of these things. We work super hard and we're trying to get through and we're trying to learn that the hacks and we just do it for our kids. And we try to show them that strength that the power is also within them. Okay. What a birthday! Oh, thank you!

23:22 - 23:55

Cheryl-Host: I'm so honored you are spending your birthday. I know when we release this it won't be your birthday, but you spending time with me is. I'm really honored. Thank you for that. It's so cool. All right. I... Oh my goodness. Okay. We should probably talk about a little bit more about what you do. And talk about your podcast, talk about your talk about your little give. Oh, that's so cool. I was listening to it was just so cool. I, I just keep getting goosebumps. And then I can't finish a sentence. So I'm going to let you

23:55 - 23:57

Cheryl-Host: talk about what else you have going on in your world.

23:58 - 24:28

Cindy-Guest: Okay, perfect. So when I started my nonprofit, I found out I have a fear of public speaking. Oh, this is not cool, right? Because as the founder and CEO of a nonprofit, you've got to give news interviews, job and podcast interviews. You've got to do all these things. You've got to be the face and the voice of the nonprofit to spread your mission. Well, I found out I have this problem. So thanks for several years later. And I ended up making this commitment to myself that I am just gonna start saying yes. Cause I would get

24:28 - 24:51

Cindy-Guest: offered opportunities to speak and I'm like, Can somebody else do it? I don't want to do it. So I finally said, you know what? I've got to get over these self-limiting beliefs. I've got to get over imposter syndrome. I've got to do it. So I'm just going to start saying yes. So within very short period of time, I ended up being asked. I mean, I'm talking like 3 weeks of making that commitment myself. I get asked to write a book. And it's called and I don't even like to read, to be honest with you. I mean,

24:51 - 25:18

Cindy-Guest: I absolutely love, love, love my audible podcast and my audible books. But sitting down, reading a book. No. So when I get offered this to write this book, I think absolutely not. First of all, I'm not an author. Second of all, I don't even like to read. Third of all, like just go find somebody else. But the title of the book is called Shattering the Stigma of Single Motherhood. So wouldn't you know it? I have made that commitment to say yes. And then of course, I do want to shatter that. So I end up writing that

25:18 - 25:46

Cindy-Guest: first book. And then another book comes right after, which is how to overcome self-sabotage. I mean, I could have wrote 10 books. The book could be like this big because lots of self-sabotage has happened to me in my life. And overcoming it has been 1 of the things that I've worked towards my whole life. So to this day, every single day, those thoughts come in and you have to work diligently to get rid of them. So anyways, they come to me and they say, Cindy, we want you to host a TV show. You've got to be

25:46 - 26:08

Cindy-Guest: kidding me. I don't even like to be on camera. I have a fear of public speaking. I don't know anything about TV. I mean, absolutely not. Can't do it. And so then I say, well, I made this commitment to myself that I am going to say yes, right? I am going to say yes, I'm going to do it. So then I say, No, no, no, no. And they say, Well, Cindy, what if we let you pick the name of your show? What if we let you pick what the show is about? What if we let you

26:08 - 26:24

Cindy-Guest: pick your own schedule? What if we let you pick your own guests? What if we let you just do everything you want? Would you do it then? I said, Well, I mean, everyone moved all the obstacles And I told myself I was going to say, yes, fine, I'll do it. So I was actually again at dinner. I don't know what it is about me eating that really helps

26:24 - 26:25

Cheryl-Host: people think of the best.

26:27 - 26:53

Cindy-Guest: But I say, what would make it worth it for me to do it? Afraid? What would make it worth it for me to sit in front of that camera, swallow my fear? What would make it worth it? And it hit me at dinner, of course, that, oh, my goodness, what if I could highlight ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help others? What if I could make the show all about a little give. You know, oftentimes we all think, well, I can't help a nonprofit. I don't have $10, 000 to buy a car. You know, I can't

26:53 - 27:20

Cindy-Guest: help a nonprofit. I don't have a week of my time. I work to volunteer, you know? So I thought, man, if I could spread kindness and love and good news, There's so much bad news out there and show people that there's something little you can do in your community today that can make a ripple effect of kindness and love and improve the world 1 little give at a time. So that's how Little Give was born over dinner. And I was like, that's what I'm going to do. Because through my nonprofit work, people would come to me

27:20 - 27:47

Cindy-Guest: and say oh my goodness Cindy what is it about you that made you be able to do this and I would tell them there's nothing special about me I'm just an ordinary person who saw a need and found a way to meet it. That's it, the powers within you, we can all do these things. And so that's how it was born. And so now I've been doing a little give TV show where I highlight ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help others and highlight good news and also spread that ripple effect of little gives all around

27:47 - 27:57

Cindy-Guest: the world. The show airs in 127 countries, has a potential viewership of over 30 million. And I've been doing this for over a year now, and it is so much fun.

27:57 - 28:30

Cheryl-Host: Well, and you know, I have the same fear of public speaking and yet I'm doing a podcast and the only you know I can get very critical about how I do my intros and how I do my outros and and you know don't finish my sentences but I think the when we love something when we have a mission the energy takes over it does you know it's yeah I used to do staff meetings as a supervisor and I hated it and I didn't know any of them and I hated it, but there was no energy in

28:30 - 28:39

Cheryl-Host: me scheduling and there was nothing there, So I didn't enjoy it. And then I get on this podcast like, oh my God, I could do this all freaking day long.

28:39 - 29:03

Cindy-Guest: All day long. Like, why hasn't this been in my life the whole time? This is so much better than what I was doing before. But once again, it's that fulfillment factor, you know, it's we're always trying to, you know, trying to chase the rabbit, trying to, you know, get that success level. But once you find that fulfillment, it's like nothing else matters. It's just you're right. You feel so right in where you are in your life. I love it.

29:04 - 29:33

Cheryl-Host: Well, you know, they always say, you'll find something you could do all day long without getting paid. That's what I do now. I'll figure out a way to get paid, but I don't care. I just enjoy. I get out of Meeting people like you and being able to share things that you do, I think is so important. And like you said, if it hits 1 ear, if it hits 1 person, if it's, you know, somebody sitting there going, I don't know. Oh, I just happened to meet Cindy on a podcast. And yes, my life is different.

29:33 - 29:36

Cheryl-Host: Like, how incredible is that?

29:37 - 30:05

Cindy-Guest: I'm big about I don't know if you've ever heard it before, but there's you know, everybody always focuses on ROI, right? Your return on investment. And I say to heck with that. Like I focus on my ROE, my return on energy. And the return on energy I get from having conversations with amazing people like you like this right here is worth the price of gold. Like dollars don't matter. Sins don't matter. It's just this amazing connection that puts you in a sense of joy. And I love it. So thank you for sharing.

30:05 - 30:16

Cheryl-Host: Oh, I'm so honored, honestly. Okay, let's talk about the podcast. Manifesting Bullshit. Oh, is Manifesting Bullshit.

30:17 - 30:42

Cindy-Guest: Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, And it's not. So the way that came to be is I had already written 3 books. Well, I've already written 2 books. And then I was having a phone conversation with my 2 oldest daughters, my oldest daughter is 26. And then the 24 year old. And so we're just chit chatting on the phone 1 day and my daughter Kimberly says, hey mom, wouldn't it be cool if we wrote a book together? And I was like, yeah, that'd be awesome. What would the book be about? And she says, well, maybe we could make

30:42 - 31:08

Cindy-Guest: it about positive progress or something. So we look, the book title is taken, But I said, yeah, let me talk to my publisher. Let's see if we can get it going. And sure enough, they say yes. So we start thinking, well, what would we name this book? What's it going to be about? And we went back and forth with different names. And all of a sudden, so then I say, What about is manifesting bullshit? Because that is my first question, right? Like I see it, I saw it on Oprah initially when the secret came out and

31:08 - 31:36

Cindy-Guest: I was like, I cannot believe somebody out there believes this crap. Like I felt sorry for them, you know? And so I tell my daughters, they're like, me too, me too. Like that was our first question. So I said, okay, cool, let's do that. So we ended up creating this book together. So the 3 of us write the book and again titled is manifesting bullshit positive progress. And as we go through this journey, people would ask like, well, is it like they like legit want to know? I don't know. You have to read the book to

31:36 - 32:05

Cindy-Guest: find out. You know, we just kind of laughed it off. And so the book ends up doing really well. We get international bestseller. We end up getting an international impact book award for the book. And we just, it just is so much fun. Mommy daughter collaboration. But after this is all going through and the book is doing well, I'm driving to work 1 day, I'm not eating this time, though. I'm driving to work. And I go, you know, what would be really cool? What if I started a podcast that was all about manifesting and like not

32:05 - 32:23

Cindy-Guest: to say like we only talk to people about you know that they believe in manifesting but what if we like interview like skeptics critics anybody who wants to talk about manifesting from around the world like how cool would it be to expand your own thoughts on manifesting? So I ended up doing the podcast and I've been doing it ever since. And it's so much fun.

32:23 - 32:47

Cheryl-Host: Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. I've watched a couple of episodes. I'm going to dive in a little bit more because it's just I get addicted. And then it's like I binge like I would on Netflix, but only on podcast. So funny, I don't listen to music anymore. Which is bizarre. It's, yeah, I've got a book, and I've got my podcasts, my audibles, and oh my gosh, I just don't listen to music. It's so weird.

32:47 - 32:49

Cindy-Guest: Yeah, I rarely do too.

32:50 - 33:05

Cheryl-Host: Well, Cindy, I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed this conversation. Please tell everybody where to find you, how to work with you, how to donate, how to be, you know, participate in in helping you in that community. Give us all the things.

33:05 - 33:33

Cindy-Guest: Well, you can find me anywhere on social media under my name, Cindy Witteman. And if you want to find my website, you can find that at CFviews.com. And within that, You can find all about my magazine. You can find about the other work I do. We can find about Little Give. You can find about Driving Single Parents, my books. But if you want to go directly to the nonprofit website, that's drivingsingleparents.org. We would love to answer any questions you might have, see how maybe we can start something like this in your neighborhood. And yeah, I just

33:33 - 33:54

Cindy-Guest: love to chat with anybody. I do let's connect calls all the time and just I have as genuine curiosity about other people and their lives. So if anybody out there might wanna be on either my TV show or my podcast, or you wanna maybe be featured in my magazine, whatever way that I can help highlight everyday people doing amazing things, I'm here for it. So please reach out.

33:54 - 34:28

Cheryl-Host: Oh, that's amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I have to say, halfway through our interview, you said, I'm not extraordinary. I beg to differ but the wonderful thing about how extraordinary you are is you allow people to know they are extraordinary as well. We just need to dig in there and find it and that's it. So thank you Cindy Have a wonderful birthday. Thank you. Yeah, I want to have you back on because I want to talk about more. I feel like there's never enough time. But go find everything will be in the show

34:28 - 34:46

Cheryl-Host: notes. I'm going to tap into that book for sure. I'll see you on your podcast. I'm going to see you on the TV. I'm going to just go everything Cindy Witteman. Thank you for listening to Teen Minds Redefined. Please share this. You never know who needs to hear Cindy's words. It's magic. Thank you, Cindy.