Starter Girlz Podcast

How She Finally Wrote a Book After 20 Years of Waiting

Jennifer Loehding Season 7 Episode 80

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Have you ever felt like it’s too late to chase your dream? In this episode, corporate accounting manager and first-time author Anastasia Robinson shares how she finally wrote her book after 20 years of waiting. Her powerful story will inspire anyone who's been holding onto a dream for far too long and show you that it’s never too late to start.

Anastasia reveals how she overcame excuses, leaned on accountability partners, and built daily writing habits to finally finish her book. Her story offers a roadmap for mid-career authors, aspiring creatives, and anyone seeking personal growth or a spark of motivation. If you’ve been stuck, this is your wake-up call.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How to overcome excuses and stop self-sabotage
  • The importance of accountability and consistency in achieving your goals
  • How to build sustainable habits that lead to long-term success
  • The power of starting small and building momentum toward your dreams

If you’ve been stuck or waiting for the right time to start, this episode is your wake-up call.

Don’t forget to subscribe for more inspiring success stories, entrepreneur motivation, and advice to help you on your startup journey.

👉 Want to learn more about Anastasia’s book?
Visit whostolemydream.com or find her book on Amazon.

Anastasia Robinson:

A lot of times, when you think about it, you think that your dream is buried and your dream may actually just be planted. And when you talk about the difference between being buried and being planted, when you're planted, it may take a while for it to grow, and really that's what happened with me. I mean, when you think about a pecan tree a pecan tree a lot of times, once it starts growing, it takes a while for the becomes to actually come out, and that was really I felt like that was the situation with me is that I was growing but I wasn't flourishing yet.

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz Podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girlz podcast, wherever you are tuning in today. We are so glad to have you, and we've got another fabulous guest on the show today. I'm so excited. So let's start this episode off real quick with this. When life gets busy, dreams often take a back seat, but what if those dreams are just waiting for you to come back to them? Today's guest is here to remind us that it's never too late to reignite that fire and take the leap. So, before we welcome her on the show, we do want to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

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Jennifer Loehding:

All right, and with that I want to make one more mention, as I always do to head on over to startergirlz. com. Remember that is a z, not an s. And why do you want to do that? For three reasons. One, because you can catch up on any episode that you might have missed. You can also sign up for our community newsletter and then you will be in the know and hopefully keep in when all the episodes go out. And of course, we do have a one other fun thing on that website you can sign up for or, excuse me, you can take our success quiz, not sign up. Take the quiz. It's a two-minute quiz to help you identify your number one success block that may be hindering your success. So, again, that is startergirlz. com, with a Z.

Jennifer Loehding:

All right, we are ready to bring our guest on the show. So Anastasia Robinson is a corporate accounting manager who has spent years simplifying financial systems and training professionals while quietly holding space for a dream of her own. She's now the author of who Stole my Dream, a candid guide that helps women make meaningful changes and reconnect with their purpose. With humor, heart and a mission to empower mid-career women, anastasia is turning her own transformation into a platform for others to rise. So, anastasia, welcome to the show. We are so glad to have you here today.

Anastasia Robinson:

Thank you so much and thank you for that introduction. I appreciate it and I'm very excited for being here.

Jennifer Loehding:

Thank you, yeah, we have Well, and for our guests. They don't know this, but you know, there's always so many things that go on when we're trying to put podcasts together and, unfortunately, today we were just having camera issues and all kinds of things, and so we had to switch platforms. And Anastasia was so gracious. I know she had to wait a few minutes for us to work these kinks out, but we are here and we're excited that she's here so we can talk about her story, what she's doing, and so, anastasia, yes, this is going to be great, and thank you again for your patience. Let's open this thing up. I want to talk about your journey, because you've got this book now. What led to this creation, this birth of this project for you?

Anastasia Robinson:

Yes, so thank you, and you are right in regards to the birth because, truthfully, this book who Stole my Dream, it actually took over 20 years to basically come to fruition, because the dream for me was to write a book and over this 20-year period I had been talking about the book, I had been taking classes in regards to the book, I had been attending workshops. So I always had a dream to write a book. But at the same time, like most people, you have a dream and life gets in the way. So in my situation, I was telling people about writing the book, but at the same time, I was always finding an excuse. One of the main excuses I had was I never had enough time to do it. But at the same time I mean, when you think about it, there are a lot of dreams that we have and even just thinking about the book in particular, one of the things is the reason I call the book who Stole my Dream is that I looked at my life and I started looking at other people's lives. I mean, a lot of times we find ourselves comparing our life to other people and when I looked at the life I was living, sometimes I would see people, especially with my background being in accounting, I would see people in higher leadership, executive roles and I felt like that's the role I should be in. That person stole the dream that I should have had. When I looked at people who were married and with children, I would say, okay, again, that's the spouse I should have, those are the children I should have. And so I found myself really just almost being jealous of people in the lives that they were having, and I felt like they were still in the dreams that I should have been having. I mean, even to the extent where I felt that people I would see, I would read books, and I said that's the book I should have written, you know.

Anastasia Robinson:

And it came to a point. Really, what happened is, in fact, I mean, this is the very first chapter where someone was saying they asked me, they said, well, anastasia, is there something I could pray for you about? And I said I feel like I'm not getting anything finished. And basically, after 20 years of working on this book, I wanted to get it finished. And that particular day, that Sunday, we had a special speaker that Sunday and basically she was talking about finishing the assignment and I knew that the assignment for me was to finish writing the book and basically, since I have finished writing this book, I've just seen things just moving forward, because a lot of times, even when we have certain dreams, there may be one assignment that you need to finish in order for everything else to happen. I mean, a lot of times when you think about it, you think that your dream is buried and your dream may actually just be planted. And when you talk about the difference between being buried and being planted, when you're planted, it may take a while for it to grow. And really that's what happened with me. I mean, when you think about a pecan tree, a bacond tree, a lot of times, once it starts growing, it takes a while for the baconds to actually come out, and that was really I felt like that was the situation with me is that I was growing but I wasn't flourishing yet. And now, now that I finished the book, it's like now, ok, it's time to move, and that's what I'm feeling like. Things are starting to happen, things are starting to change.

Anastasia Robinson:

When you talk about especially when you talk about people in their dreams, people always have excuses for not reaching their dreams not reaching their dreams and, at the same time. One of the things I was thinking about is in regards to we have dreams as we get older. Especially as we get older, there are some dreams we've had from the past that we think I'm too old to do it now. There may be some dreams that you really need to do and again, this may be part of the assignment that you have. I mean, I use plenty of excuses. When I was writing this book, one of the main excuses was I don't have enough time because I was working all the time. I was involved in a lot of volunteer organizations, so I spent a lot of time with that. So that was always. My biggest excuse is I don't have enough time. Everybody has the same 24 hours. It's true. There's no changing at 24 hours, it just becomes. How are you utilizing the 24 hours that you have? And there I mean even working with this book.

Anastasia Robinson:

There were times where I had to stay up two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning just going through finishing up concepts, going through edits, because basically, once I got to the mindset where I said, ok, this is going to happen and here is when it's going to happen, then that's when things really started to move. Now, one of the things I ended up having to do, I mean, I did get a mentor, I did have a book coach and I had some accountability partners. And those accountability partners it was so funny about them because they just came in and they said, okay, anastasia, you said you're going to get this done, we're going to have a meeting with you. And it was five of them yeah, they, they scheduled meetings with me to hold me accountable. And, and what's interesting is that I had friends and I mean I still have these friends who have known me for over 20 years. They could not be those accountability partners for me, because they actually got to the point where they were like, okay, at some point you'll get it done, but I needed this new group of accountability partners.

Anastasia Robinson:

So then, also, I mean, when it comes to dreams, we always think about, okay, what is it that we need to do? What is it that we need to change? And, yes, reality when it comes to dreams, you do have to make changes, and one of the things you have to do is you have to change your habits. You also need to change the way you speak. So and when I talk about speaking, I'm talking about. You need to make positive speaks. You know speak, speak positive over your life, speak positivity. Don't always say, oh, I can't do this, stop saying that.

Jennifer Loehding:

Do you talk about this in the? Is this in your book? Is this you're talking about? Is in the book? Okay, yeah, yeah, no, I agree with you and all of these. I'm going to try whatever to conviction, I'm going to make it happen. That's when stuff happened and I don't know if I shared this with you when I wrote my first book. I've only well, I've done one. I'm not I have no intentions of doing anymore right now.

Jennifer Loehding:

But when I did my first book, I had gone into somebody's office to talk to him about some other business. And I remember at this time this was before I had even gotten on a podcast and I was trying to get on one. This was where I started my show, trying to get on one. But I remember I was kind of, I was talking to people, I should write a book, I should write a book, I should write a book, right, the words we say. And I remember going into this office and this guy was like you need to write the book and you need to get on this podcast. And it was that day. Like I can still see this, I walked outside of that office building, I got in my car, I pulled up my phone.

Jennifer Loehding:

I pulled up, actually Facebook and I wrote on a post and said I'm going to write a book. And I did that. Because that then became like you're talking accountability partners. That became accountability for me because I knew that if I put that out into the universe, I was making accountability to myself. But not only that, other people were going to witness the accountability, right. And so now people will be like, hey, how's the book coming along, what are you doing with the book? And I think I even maybe said ask me when you see me, because I wanted people to put me on the spot and be like Jennifer, what are you doing with that book? And we, and we did, we went to, I did finish it. Five months later. I did and it was, it was work, you know, I mean I, but I'm kind of crazy like that. Anastasia, I don't people listening to this, you don't need to do that. Everything I've done in my life I do like that. It's either like I'm on it full and I just have to make those decisions, and that clarity.

Anastasia Robinson:

But I think that the point here is that clarity, right, that's what it is, however long it takes you to do it, even with everything else moving you know, moving in my career, doing everything else that I did, I always had that dream of writing a book, and that's part of the reality is that there are other people who have dreams that, over the years, they just may have forgotten about or even think do I really want to do that? Chances are you probably do, if you're still thinking about it, but at the same time, that's what I'm doing in the book is that I want you to really sit there and think about some of those things, some of those hidden dreams that you've had from the past that you may have forgotten about, and at the same time, you may say you know what I really do want to do, that I mean, I've known people who said they want to do public speaking. Okay, so do you still want to do it? Have you forgotten about it? What are you doing in regards to moving towards it? Yeah, so, so that's really what I.

Anastasia Robinson:

The way I wrote the book is. I have sections of self-reflection, because as I, as I talk about myself and my journey, I'm actually saying, okay, here's some things that I did. I'm also giving examples of other people as well, and then I'm saying, okay, what are you doing? What do you need to do? What are some of those dreams, what are some of those thoughts, what are some of those hindrances? Because I think probably the biggest thing I mean, besides time and habits there's a lot of things that are hindering us and sometimes some of it's self-sabotage.

Jennifer Loehding:

I would say most of it is actually, I would think, most of us. It's our belief systems that are. This is the work I do, so I know that it's like the belief systems are actually contributing to the patterns of behavior and those are where the self-sabotage comes from. So I would say yes most of the time.

Anastasia Robinson:

Right, right. I mean, let's just talk about weight. A lot of people talk about okay, I want to lose weight, All right, what are you doing? And for me, one of my issues was I love potato chips.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's the salty thing. Huh the salt.

Anastasia Robinson:

But when I was self-sabotaging myself in regards to weight loss by keeping potato chips in the house Right right, having it so convenient for me and people talk about, okay, you can start a habit. It takes 21 days. Well, 21 days is a good start. Yeah, it's a good start. It's a start, but, yes, it does take more than 21 days. Exactly, and one of the things that I did do is I did a 21 day fast from potato chips. Ok, good for you. Yeah, now, the first time, I did it again, the very first time, I did it. Well, you're going to find something to substitute, right, right, well, my substitution was chips. Not, not very good. It's not a good substitute.

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, you're honest, I love, I love the honesty, anastasia, and that's what's important here is the authenticity Right.

Anastasia Robinson:

so the second time I did a 21 day, yeah, I took off potato chips and tortilla chips. Okay, there you go.

Jennifer Loehding:

I like tortilla chips too, but I don't eat very. I don't. I don't do carbs, so I don't eat a whole lot of that stuff anymore. But I'm with you, I could see those. I can totally see how tortilla chips can be a yeah exactly.

Anastasia Robinson:

Oh right, so then after that, I did 21 days and now I'm doing an additional 40 days. Oh so it's like this is a habit. Yeah, again, it's like, okay, you have to start somewhere. You do, you do. And really, in regards to making change, in regards to meeting, you know doing having set goals in regards to meeting, you know doing, having set goals in regards to meeting your dreams, whatever your dreams may be, you have to start somewhere, and part of the reality is, you know when do you start? Well, someone said you start five months, five years ago. That's when you really should have started.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I think you start when you make that decision years ago. That's when you really should have started.

Anastasia Robinson:

Yeah, I think you start when you make that decision Exactly, but the next time is now. Start now and even if you have to start now every day, yeah.

Anastasia Robinson:

Because you need to make a decision, that this is the dream, this is what I want to do, this is how I need to do it, even if you start making small steps, and some of those small steps, and some of those small steps may be turning off the TV, turning off the internet, sometimes using that time, using quiet time. I think people tend to forget the importance of having just quiet time, because that quiet time really gives you time to really think about some things that you want to do, some processes that you want to start, some changes that you need to make in your life. How is it in regards to time? Where is it that there's some time that you can make? What changes that you need to make in order to reach some of those goals?

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, I'm with you on that. I would love to know. You said a lot of good things and I agree with you. I wouldn't disagree with any of this stuff because this is the work I do. So I deal with this all the time and I specifically I work with female entrepreneurs on self-sabotaging, limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging behaviors, but I'm also funny enough I'm also a keto trained, certified coach and a supplement coach, and so I can do all the health stuff too. But I want to know from you, like because there are things you've learned in this. You've talked a lot about them. You've shared different things here. Obviously, you've documented this in your book, but I would love to know if you could sum this up in a couple of words, like what you've learned about yourself as a human being during this process.

Anastasia Robinson:

Well, what I learned about myself is that I actually can reach goals and it is possible, and really, I think probably the biggest thing was just staying focused. I think that's also important and really, for me, that was something that I was having struggles with as well. It's just staying focused on specific things that I wanted to do and specific goals that I wanted to reach, and I think, again, that's something important in regards to just moving forward with some of the goals that you want. That's one of the main things I learned is that I can't stay focused.

Jennifer Loehding:

You can't stay focused. That's what I was just going to say, that you actually can see Exactly, Exactly.

Anastasia Robinson:

Pat your seat on the back, can see exactly, exactly, and I have the capability of reaching specific goals and I have the capability of writing a book and finishing what I started.

Jennifer Loehding:

yeah, yeah, that's the thing. You know what. You know what I always say we, we do self-fulfilling prophecies, right, like when we're. When we so often, anastasia, like when I work with people people will set like these we were talking about weight right, like you're talking about weight they will set these really audacious goals and they're great and they look amazing and they do the affirmations, but they're not in their league, and what I mean by that is they're not going to commit. They're not going to commit to that goal and a lot of times there's a couple of things going on One, probably the pain is not bad enough that they want to make the change. Right, there's that. Or the dream is in alignment with something else that they want, like you were talking early on, somebody else's thing, right, they want what somebody else has. So they want that dream, right, and it's not really who they are or necessarily in alignment with who they are. So I think you know the big message here is to set goals that stretch you but are measurable and you can actually commit and do them and then go with that consistency, right. And so you've said so many things here, like we were talking about habits and like I always talk about like unconscious competent things, like driving your car and brushing your teeth. Those are unconscious competent things. Okay, you know how to do them because you've been doing them for years. Just like you learned how to speak English, if you were in another country, you would learn how to speak a language and that would become an unconscious competent thing for you.

Jennifer Loehding:

We try to take habits and you mentioned that 21 days and I hate it when people say it's like 30 days to a habit that is not going to stick for the long. It might stick temporarily, but you're going to fall off the wagon because in order to make change that to make like unconscious competent change, like I go to the gym, I work out almost every single day. I don't even negotiate the conversation, I just do it. I've been doing it for so long. It's not a conversation for me, right? It wasn't always that way. So go back to that.

Jennifer Loehding:

How do we make that change? It's doing those small little things that we can do repeatedly that stretch us, but we can do them and what happens is because we set goals so big. Where I was going with this originally is that we set these so big goals and then we fail, and then guess what happens. We go oh well, yep, I now proved to myself I can't do this. So you broke that pattern by finishing the book and saying, yes, I actually can stay focused, yes, I can actually write a book and yes, I can actually reach my dream. So that's what we want, and you've shown people that, yes, that can happen.

Jennifer Loehding:

And that's the beautiful thing I love about this show is everybody that comes on here. We all have these. We have something that we some magical thing we wanted to create or manifest, and the beauty of this is that we get to show the world every day that, yes, you can have a dream, yes, you can finish it and you can win at life, right Like you can. So thank you for thank you for all of that. It was awesome.

Anastasia Robinson:

Thank you and really, in regards to what you just said, commitment you need to be committed, and that's actually one of the first pages in my book is commit to finish reading the book.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, commit to finish reading. Well, I love it. You're telling your people finish this book. And here's a copy of the book. Awesome, it's a little blurry. Hold it back, maybe it's, I don't know why. It's like letting us see it.

Anastasia Robinson:

Oh, that's because of the it's the lighting, yeah well, and and the fact I have the blur on that.

Jennifer Loehding:

Oh, maybe that's it. Well, we've got we in the show notes, we'll probably have it in there anyways, and we'll make sure we tag you all the good things. So where do they go to find it? Anastasia, where is it at? Is it on? You have a website, or is it on it amazon?

Anastasia Robinson:

yes, it's on amazon and you can go to the website whostolemydreamcom.

Jennifer Loehding:

Okay, awesome, perfect. I want to ask you kind of a fun question. This is something like totally not about the book, but it goes in line with us talking about habits and all of that thing, all of those things, because you are obviously you're an accountant, which means you're detailed, and I told you I studied accounting, so I get it, I get the total accounting thing, and my mother was an accountant, had a bookkeeping service for years when I was a kid. That's why I said I wanted to be an accountant and then I shared with you. I got to the tax law and I was like you know what? I don't want to memorize this stuff, I just wanted to do math. That's all we got to have to do too much. Now, no more, no more. So, anyways, but I would love to know, like, what is the one thing that you do every day for yourself? That is like the most important morning thing, like when you get up, and this is like my thing, that sets my day.

Anastasia Robinson:

All right. So the most important thing I get up, I have prayer and devotion time and I actually listen to an inspiration, inspirational message. It's really about three, three, four minutes. I listen to that every day. Good for you. I love it. And that's three, three, four minutes. I listen to that every day, good for you. I love it and that's what that's my day.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's what people should do, that honestly. Right, because I do that too. You know, I I don't know if I shared I used to like when I'd write off. I did a workshop last, I guess Friday before, and I was telling the group how like I used to take my notes I would. I'm a big to-do list person. I love I just like to be able to check things off and say I did stuff. And I love highlighters and Sharpies. Right now I'm using Sharpies all over my paper. I love it, but I would write on the top of my paper something amazing is going to happen today and I would.

Jennifer Loehding:

And it's kind of like that same thing, like you're filling your head with that positive, you know stuff. Now I do different things. I have a mantra that I say and I use it a lot, like when I'm in a um, if I'm finding myself kind of chasing bad thinking, I call it bad brain thinking where I'm going down a rabbit hole of thinking negative thoughts or thinking bad things are happening. I interrupt it with the mantra and it's I used to say it on my show and I love I did it.

Jennifer Loehding:

I was doing it yesterday because I was having anxiety we're going to be leaving town and I'm like having all this crazy anxiety, and so I'm like where's that mantra Today is a great day to be brave. You might as well start now. You have the power to change your circumstances any day you decide. Like that is what I do, you know. And so I think all these little routines and hacks that we do are so important to keep us grounded and help set the mood for us for the day. Upset the mood for us for the day.

Anastasia Robinson:

I think, so that really does help, it does, it does.

Jennifer Loehding:

Awesome. Well, this is awesome. I want to ask you one last thing, and we're going to wrap this up because I know this is going to be a fun question for you. So if you were to have oh, I don't want to say this, I'm not going to say this part, but what I do want to ask you is this what would you tell your younger self if you could say something now? I would tell my younger self.

Anastasia Robinson:

If you could say something now, I would tell my younger self just keep going, just keep going, write the book Exactly. You will get there. You will get there, keep going, it's going to work out. I think that's probably the biggest thing I would say is it is going to work out.

Jennifer Loehding:

Isn't that funny?

Jennifer Loehding:

Isn't it funny how, like you, you know, because I feel like I'm in my 50s now and it's so weird because I think about things differently now, obviously, than I did when I was younger, and I'm like some of the things that I used to just get so bent out of shape about, I'm like like no, like even like arguing with somebody, like I'm just not going to argue with you, I don't have the energy to do this, I'm not going to do it, like this is not worth my peace and sanity, like I'm peacing out on you, you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

So I think wisdom, wisdom is good, right, but I love this that you said keep going, because I think that's an important message for anybody right now that whether they're younger or whether they're, you know, mature and they're looking to start a dream. I don't think you're really ever too old to start something, unless you decide at 85 to go bungee jump. Maybe that's not a good idea, I don't know, check with your doctor. But you know, within reason, I think most things we can do and it doesn't matter, you know, as long as it doesn't harm us in any way that we should set our sights on and if we got our eye on it. Do it it right.

Anastasia Robinson:

So don't bungee jump in, though, if you're not meant to do that but I mean, I think about when you say that, think about Colonel Sanders, oh yeah, right, right, and the fact that he started his business at the age I mean he was pretty older, I'll just say older and but when he started, so yeah, there's.

Jennifer Loehding:

I don't think you're ever. I think it's really. You know, if you are physically equipped to do it and you have the heart and the passion for it, then you know, go for it as long as it's not harming you or anybody else, right?

Jennifer Loehding:

And that's what the big thing is you make good choices. We want to say this on this show make good choices, right, I got to put the disclaimer out there. I don't want anybody to go tell me they're going and doing something crazy because they listen to this show. They're like Jennifer said go do something. But no, I didn't say that it's a do anything crazy. I said you got to be a little crazy, you know bold to get things done. But you know, again, safety is important, right?

Anastasia Robinson:

Right, right. But you're right in regards to the boldness you do At some point, you have to be bold about making a decision in order to move forward.

Jennifer Loehding:

Well, anastasia, I want to say congratulations to you on wrapping up your book. I know that's a huge thing. I know because I've done one. I know all the stuff. I know the. I don't ever like to say I know how you feel, but I know all the things you got to go through to make that stuff happen. You know, and so yay for you for doing it. However long it took you to do it, you did it, you got it done, and that's all that matters. That's everything, everything there, and so we appreciate you and thank you for sharing all of your knowledge and telling us a little bit about it. It was fun.

Anastasia Robinson:

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much and thank you for having me on the show. I appreciate it so much.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah. And so, of course, to our audience we have to always say the plug-ins. Here we want to say we appreciate you and we hope you found this episode both inspiring and informative and again, make good choices right and do all the things like share, comment, give us some feedback so that we can keep sharing all of these stories and all of the fabulous content. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another and we will see you next time.

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