Episode 219 (Transcript): Embracing Your Journey | A Conversation with Linda Hamilton

Episode Transcript

Many thanks to listener, Kayla Howell, for her work in transcribing this episode!

This episode can be found on any podcast app, or can be listened to here on our website as well. All the notes and resources we cited in the episode are found at this link as well:

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LH: I think a really other big part of it was realizing that I didn't need the church to be true anymore, nor did I need it to be untrue. It just sort of exists. 

SH: Right. 

LH: That has been a huge shift for me because my testimony is that Jesus Christ loves us and we should love one another. 

CW: Hi, I am Cynthia Winward.

SH: And I'm Susan Hinkley. 

CW: And this is At Last She Said It. We are women of faith discussing complicated things, and the title of today's episode is Embracing Your Journey: A Conversation with Linda Hamilton. Welcome Linda. 

SH: Hi, Linda. 

LH: Hi. 

CW: We're so grateful to have you here today to talk about how you have embraced your journey.

And can you just give us a quick little bio? We'll get into the meat and potatoes in a little bit, but tell us who you are, where you live, what you want our audience to know to kind of preface this conversation. 

LH: Alright. Well, I am a California girl through and through. I was born and raised in Southern California.

I was a pretty good Mormon girl. Got married young, but I got really lucky. I married an amazing man who is very supportive, willing to grow and change with me. And we've been through all sorts of things on this journey together. 

We have four kids, ages 13 to 6, and they're actually all named after Beatles songs. That is our family fun fact. 

CW: Can we hear those names? I love that. 

SH: Yeah. I wanna know. 

LH: Yeah. We have Jude, Eleanor, Lucy, and Julia. 

SH: That is fabulous. 

CW: I love it!

LH: Even our cats are in on it. We have two cats named Ringo and Rocky. 

CW: Get out! Okay, Linda’s the coolest. She's way cooler than you and I are Susan, right off the bat.

SH: Obviously Cynthia, obviously.

CW: Oh my gosh, I love it. Go on. 

LH: So, I was a stay-at-home mom for a long time. I really struggled with that role, especially like, I think subconsciously. I had pretty much a complete meltdown after the birth of my third kid. And I realized I had to get out, do something for myself, like not self-care, like something big.

And so I just realized I was not utilizing my mind and my skills and my abilities the way I really felt I needed to. So I decided to start selling clothes from my garage. 

SH: Wait, what does that mean? Did you, I mean, you designed the clothes, you what? Say a little bit more about that. 

LH: Yeah, so I originally started with the MLM known as LuLaRoe.

SH: Oh, okay. Okay. 

LH: And I was a super seller for them. Like I sold over a million dollars worth of clothes out of my garage through LuLaRoe. 

CW: Are you in the documentary? 

LH: I am not in the documentary, although, we like, tried to find ourselves, we're like, “we're somewhere in this picture on the cruise!”

CW:Oh, wow. 

LH: But yeah, that is a whole ‘nother story about basically joining and leaving a cult. So I did, I ran with LuLaRoe for several years. I was very successful. And then I switched to owning my own clothing boutique where I sourced my own clothes from the LA Fashion district.