In this insightful episode, Patrice Poltzer, a renowned storytelling strategist, shares her expertise on crafting compelling founder stories that resonate with audiences. Patrice delves into the importance of authenticity, vulnerability, and strategic storytelling for entrepreneurs looking to connect with their audience. She explores the process of identifying key moments in one’s life, understanding audience psychographics, and leveraging AI for enhanced emotional connection. Join the conversation and explore the nuances of founder storytelling and its transformative impact on businesses.
In this enriching episode, I had the pleasure of welcoming Treva Graves, a dear friend and an expert in personal branding. With a decade of experience, Treva, the brilliant mind behind Bloom Personal Branding, shared her captivating journey—from childhood insecurities to navigating through the challenges of school bullying.
As Treva recounted her personal transformation, it became evident that the turning point in her life was marked by a decision to take control. Seeking mentorship and venturing into pageants, she discovered a path to boosting her confidence and overcoming the insecurities that had plagued her.
In this episode of The Kerry Barrett Show, Kerry tackles the question of whether it’s too late to get into the video game. She reassures listeners that there is still room for them, even if they’re just starting out. While it may seem like everyone is creating video content, Kerry explains that the majority of business owners and professionals are actually just digital lurkers, consuming content without creating their own. She encourages listeners to focus on their target audience and provide valuable content, as there is plenty of room for new ideas and personal brand growth. Kerry emphasizes that now is the time to get started and not give up.
In this episode, Kerry Barrett discusses the importance of on-camera delivery and media training for both marketing and sales purposes. She emphasizes the significance of camera presence on social media platforms, as well as the use of long-form live videos in webinars, podcasts, and masterclasses. Kerry highlights the alarming statistic that 63% of people leave webinars, even if they’ve paid for them, due to the host being boring. She stresses the need for effective presentation skills on camera and mentions that logistical aspects such as lighting, audio, and setting up the shot can be easily fixed once you know how.
Kris spent the first half of her life working in Silicon Valley for large and small companies, building marketing programs to grow them to billion-dollar enterprises. And then she realized she had dreams of her own. Now, she enables women over forty to identify and pursue their passions and interests to create the second half of their life that brings fulfillment and joy.
In this episode of The Kerry Barrett Show, host Kerry Barrett interviews Kris Kendall, the founder of Fulfilled After Forty. Kris helps women over 40 find their purpose and passion in life, guiding them toward their goals for the next chapter. Kris shares her journey of transitioning from a successful career in Silicon Valley to pursuing her new dreams and how she helps others do the same. Tune in to learn more about finding fulfillment after 40.
Uncover the strategies, techniques, and authentic approaches to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Sheryl shares her experiences and expert insights, providing a roadmap for creating episodes that resonate and foster lasting relationships. Whether you’re a seasoned podcaster or just starting, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to elevate their trust-building game through the power of podcasting.
Rachael is a former burnt-out corporate and small business executive turned professional speaker, best-selling author, leadership coach, and founder of the movement, Take Care of Yourself™. Rachael lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her husband and four young boys. When she’s not speaking and coaching her teams, you can find her experimenting in the kitchen and playing baseball in the backyard.
Rachael learned years ago that we cannot bubble bath our way to our goals – long before self-care culture took the mainstage. Instead, through her own trial and error and 15-years’ experience training high achievers, she figured out how we must take care of ourselves to achieve sustainable success in every area of our lives. We know the world is unhealthy and underachieving because people are unclear about how to do work and life and WIN at the balance. Now more than ever the areas of our lives are intertwined. When we take care of our health, our business wins. When we take care of our minds, our families win. Let’s take care of you, your business, your family, together.
In this episode of The Kerry Barrett Show, host Kerry Barrett welcomes guest Rachel Amarante, a wellness coach and keynote speaker. They discuss the importance of taking care of oneself and how it can be challenging in today’s all-or-nothing mindset. Rachel shares her expertise in training high performers on self-care and offers insights on sustainable wellness practices. Tune in to this engaging conversation about prioritizing self-care and finding balance in life.
Transcript
Kerry: Welcome to The Kerry Show. I’m your host, obviously, Kerry. Thank you for being here. Whether you are listening or watching, we appreciate it. I’m excited to introduce you to our guest today. This is Rachel Amarante. She’s a, did I say that right?
Rachael: Yeah.
Kerry: Should literally just asked you right before the show started, and then I had a brain fart.
Rachael: That’s all fine. I think it’s fine. Let’s keep going.
Kerry: Rachael’s a keynote speaker. She is a wellness coach. Rachel, it’s great to have you with us.
Rachael: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. I’m actually shocked we actually pressed record.
Kerry: Are you?
Rachael: Since we just went chatting away. Right?
Kerry: Mostly about how much our kids swear.
Rachael: Right. Yes, we were. Yep.
Kerry: And let’s be honest, the conversation started with how much we swear too.
Rachael: Right. Right. And we just translated everything we do down to our children, which is actually, you know, good. Cause that’s what we do. So…
Kerry: I mean, at least they’re learning something from us.
So, take a quick second if you don’t mind, and, give the audience a few more details about yourself.
Rachael: Yes, I’m Rachel. Well, I have four young boys at home. I’m a Midwest mom, keynote speaker, and wellness coach. I train high performers on how to take care of themselves because I think from my own experience and in our world, we’ve lost sight of what it means to work really hard for something that we want. And what it means to actually be able to perhaps have some balance in our work and our lives and win in those places.
So I really go in and I do not do self-care. I do not believe that we can bubblebath our way to our goals. I believe that taking care of yourself is work, but it is work that is worth it. And it is work that you can do as a mother, a father, a business owner, a CEO, a janitor, a teacher, I don’t care.
So I try to teach tiny habits to people that can be really sustainable. And it’s been really fun and a crazy journey. So, yeah.
Kerry: That’s awesome. And I wanted, I do want to jump into what self-care is, what it’s not, and some of the action steps that you teach. But before we get to that, I would love to know sort of how you got to, where you are now. Sort of what that transition was, because I know as for any entrepreneur or business owner, there are ups and downs very often they are professional and personal combined.
So, like, sort of walk us through how you got from where you are to where you are now, which is a big question I realize.
Rachael: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I’m happy to tell that story. And it’s actually, I love hearing that story from other people too because I think when I started speaking and really started this work, I remember saying to myself, I will never stand on top of a mountain and look down on everyone else and pretend I have it all together.
I will never do that again. And I think that’s what sort of that mentality kind of got me to be able to be successful in what I’m doing now is I’ve completely released the idea of a mountaintop. And that it looks perfect up there.
Kerry: If you look close, I think at any of us, this is sort of my expression, like if you look close, it’s all held together with chewing gum and silly string.
Rachael: Yeah. And you can either laugh about it or cry about it. And yeah, as long as you’ve been an entrepreneur or you know, even working in corporate, like there are going to be crazy ups and crazy downs. And so taking care of yourself is the way to balance that and sort of stay grounded.
So my story, I built a business with an incredible interior designer friend of mine. It was massively successful. We cranked, we did all the things. We, within a year and a half, we went from a half-million dollar deficit to 2 million net sales. And it was amazing. And it was an amazing time of my life. And throughout that, I remember as I was sort of getting that feeling of like, whoa, this is a lot.
Whoa, I’m starting to force all my kids to wear matching designer clothing because I want it to look perfect. Whoa, I’m getting asked whether it was a media outlet or friends or women that, young women that worked for us, how do you do it all? And I got really good at answering that question like we’re all taught to answer it.
And I said, it’s, fine. I don’t know. I just figured it out. Everything’s fine. It just works itself out. But I really wanted to scream, this is not real. There is a massive shit show that was happening behind me, in my household that I didn’t want anyone else to see.
My kids are great. My marriage was fine, whatever. But my children were starting to implement that perfection, implement that anxiety. That straight, steep, ladder-climbing belief that there is one road and one only to success. And I loved the work that we did. But I knew in my gut that if I wanted to be the person that I needed to be in this world, and most importantly at the time for my kids, I needed to leave.
It was the hardest thing I ever had to do because it gave me so much fulfillment in my career. It gave me, I have four boys, like there’s five men in my house. Like I needed women. It was an office full of women doing really awesome things. Like that sounds like on paper, that sounds amazing and perfect.
And it was for a long time. And it checked a lot of those boxes, but I kept getting this pull of this is not right anymore. That coupled with the devastating loss of a friend the loss of a relationship and a diagnosis of my husband. And I remember it was right after the holidays. So let’s just, you know, play that a little bit…
Kerry: How long ago is this?
Rachael: This was four years ago. Right after the holidays. And you know, like when moms all like meltdown, right? So I was like, oh, this is just my mom after a Christmas meltdown. It’s totally fine. I don’t know.
But I remember laying on my bathroom floor, unable to move. I had torn a tendon in my leg. I had shooting pains in my teeth, my IBS, my migraines.
So all of this mental stress was taking, like had finally said, okay, you’re not going to do anything about that. Well, I’m going to show you lady. And I physically was lost.
Kerry: Manifested in all these physical ways.
Rachael: Yes. And that’s what happens to us. And it’s really, we wait until the physical happens for us to do something about it.
And now I teach not to do that. But back then, I remember standing and looking in my mirror and saying, there has to be a better way to do this. Because there is no way in hell, I’m going to teach my boys that this is what a woman looks like. This is what a mother looks like. This is what success looks like. I didn’t know where that was going to go, but I told myself I couldn’t do anything.
I couldn’t start a new business. I couldn’t join something new for three months.
Kerry: So you gave yourself like, I’m going to sort of detox if you will?
Rachael: Yep, I wintered. I call it like it was my wintertime. And I like coiled inward. And I remembered how to write something that I have loved since I was a little girl. I remembered how to be still. I remembered how to look outside.
I did the things that I had to do as a mother and a wife, right? So like ran my household, but I was grateful for that little bit of time to be for a minute. And from that came this extraordinary business where now I train people how to take care of themselves. I have 10 habits. That we go through and I do that when I keynote and speak to leadership teams. And I do that on a one-on-one basis so that women can learn to take care of themselves, even when they’re really busy, even when their plates are full and everything in life.
Kerry: Has this always been something that’s interested you or was it through the process of that sort of wintering, as you call it, where this emerged? Or did you, you know, was it after that you’re like, I don’t really still know what’s coming next, but this scene is like, how did that all transpire?
Rachael: I remember sitting like in mid-wintering, which also happened to be winter. So it made quite sense to me. But I remember thinking, am I ever going to get out of this, or maybe I’m just going to be here forever? But then things started to click and I started to be able to listen. One of my habits is learning how to listen to my instincts.
The tiny ones. And then when you learn to listen to the tiny instincts every day that grows. So you can listen without fear worry anxiety. And I’ve always loved writing I’ve always loved leading. I’ve always loved speaking. I was the first one to raise my hand in school. I am a communications major. It’s just what feels really natural to me and the wellness space has always been something that’s been really close to my heart.
We have a lot of food allergies in our family. I’ve worked out in my home for the last years and that’s how I’ve sustained that part of my health. The food sort of, you know, that part came, naturally because I already had to figure it out for, you know, all the humans in my household and I was sick of getting sick.
And so I figured it out and those are two large pieces in my habits too. What are you feeding yourself every day? Because that has to do with your mood and your focus and your energy. How are you moving your body every day? Every day? I don’t want you to go into a hot yoga class where you burn 600 calories on Saturdays. I don’t give a shit about that. I want to know what you’re doing on the rest of the days of the week, right? So those things really really matter and I started being the proof that you can do that and do all the other things. And then now there are hundreds of women that are seeing that proof that these habits really work. So…
Kerry: Are you comfortable diving into the 10 of them?
Rachael: Yes, let’s do it. Okay. Well, the first one is fill-up, which is your food. And so I walk through, depend, I mean, obviously depending on the conversation, if I’m a, you know, a 60-minute keynote speech is a lot different than a four week, a four week one on one, but your food matters.
And it doesn’t have to be perfect. Overarching what I truly believe is that the reason that people quit taking care of themselves is because it’s an all-or-nothing…
Kerry: It’s binary. It’s black or white. I mean, they’re all in or I had a candy bar. So screw it. I’m also going to have two dozen doughnuts or whatever.
Rachael: Yes. And that’s why it doesn’t work. It’s not sustainable. And then what we do, like, think about that, in your brain, what that does for your brain and your mood and what you start to tell yourself. And then what you start to say in the mirror and that affects your gut health and your hormones.
And then your young daughter or your young son is standing next to you in their mirror saying the same things that you are. I mean, I have shivers. I didn’t make this shit up. Like, this is just the way it works.
So when my kids see me choosing to have, I have like ground turkey, rosemary, and kale for breakfast almost every morning.
And they’re like, mom, that’s so weird. Like, why are you not having granola and yogurt like we are? And I’m like, it just doesn’t suit my body. It just doesn’t suit me. That’s all. Because I need to have fucking energy all day long to haul ass after you guys. And that just doesn’t do it!
Kerry: Yeah. 100%. Yes. By the way, that sounds delicious. Do you offer recipes?
Rachael: I do have recipes. Yes, I do. All of them. You can have them. I will send you them. Yes. And that’s important. And like, it doesn’t have to be, oh my God, if it’s not organic, I can’t eat it. And if it’s not from my garden, I can’t eat it. And like, those things are great. Do them if you can, but also if you can have a banana instead of a donut for breakfast, like you’re winning.
Kerry: Yep. 100%.
Rachael: Okay. Fill up. The next one is move, move your body. Like I said, I work out in my home, and that started probably out of necessity, out of survival. We had our first three boys born in two and a half years of all three of them.
And so that’s when I stayed home for a few years to like figure out… and that was amazing. And like, they are, I would never take back that time in a million trillion years. We are like literally the best adventure travel team ever. And I think it’s because we had to survive those years.
Right. But that’s when I started working out at home because I didn’t have time or money to go anywhere. And I remember that I enlisted my mother because I would strap into a stroller. A double stroller. And then I would make my mom run behind me in a single stroller. And that was the only way I could do it because I gotta strap them down. I can’t have them running in the house. Like they need to be tied down.
And so I think moving our body, like I said, not just once or twice a week. That’s great. Go to a yoga class. I freaking love going with my girlfriends who can go every day and I meet them once in a while.
But it’s what you’re doing every day. It’s the 2 minutes that you lift weights when you are watching your Netflix documentary, whatever. Like, I don’t care.
Kerry: Oh, that’s such a good idea. I know these things, but these are such good reminders.
Rachael: They are and they’re small. They’re small. So like last night my three big boys we were watching a Halloween show and I’m like, you know what?
I haven’t moved my body yet today and I’m really crabby. It’s 7:30. The last thing I want to do is work out right now, but I’m gonna feel really good. It’s exactly what I did I had two out of my three boys join me well, we watched our show mom-son time ever.
Kerry: I love it. What show did you watch?
Rachael: Those they’re watching this National Treasure. Which is now a series. Yep, and then we also are waiting for Wednesday to come back…
Kerry: 100%. Yeah, we’re in the Halloween kick right now too.
Coraline, um, yeah, Monster House, etc. Anyway, sorry. Diversion.
Rachael: Hotel Transylvania on repeat. The third habit is to listen. So that’s where we really start listening to our gut instinct and learning how to do that because I remember learning like, listen to your gut, you know, like, I don’t know, 10 years ago.
And I’m like, I don’t know how so someone needs to tell me how to do that because I don’t have time to learn all the steps and the history and why. So I really dig into that and allow people to learn as much as they want or just like, Rachel, just tell me what to do, please. And so that is learning to listen to our gut.
The next one is energized. We need to energize our freaking lives again. I think that for the last few years when we’ve all had really full plates, we’ve given each other a pass. And we’ve given ourselves a pass and that’s great to have empathy and I have a lot of empathy. However, what we’ve taken off of our plates are our goals.
We didn’t take off the fact we had to bring our kids to school or that we had to, you know, fill out our taxes or go to the grocery store. That stuff stayed. What is left is our goals, our big dreams. And they haven’t gotten back on the plate yet.
The only way that we can succeed in our lives is if we keep working for those goals while we are going to the grocery store, essentially.
That’s what brings us life and energy. I also have a rule, this is the next habit, is to live right now. And like, I don’t have a bucket list. Like, I don’t do things because I have four kids. I figured out a way to either go without them or bring them with me.
And it doesn’t have to be like huge trips or things like that. But if you want to write a book, why are you waiting until you’re 60? Right? If you want to become a yoga instructor, what are you waiting for? We’ve gotten better as a society, probably from COVID just because we’re, it’s sort of like, Oh my God, what if, this is it?
We’ve all started maybe taking those leaps a little bit more, but I try to teach people how to do them every day in their lives. So have that be your first instinct. Instead of, wait what if oh my god, what’s gonna happen? Your first instinct is to let go! Let’s see what happens. Let’s keep going. Let’s do the thing, right?
Work better. That’s the next one. We need as a society and as general human beings to work better. I want outside meetings. I want walking conversations. I want support for when you need to take a couple of extra days off because your grandmother died, but you know, and you have trust in yourself and in your people that the job is going to get done. And we can’t do that by ourselves.
So this is sort of where the community comes in. Cause the next habit is called sharing what’s good. I’m a firm believer, if you see something good happening in the world say something about it. Yeah. We are so good at talking about when people are stupid or when the world is shitty.
Kerry: Yeah. 100%. We have that, we have a great negativity bias. It is well-tuned.
Rachael: Yes. And so I’m like, like every time I see a woman, man, old, young running. And I’m like, you know, driving, ’cause I essentially live in my car. I don’t know about you…
Kerry: Yeah. 100%. It’s like, It’s sort of a glorified pack mule.
Rachael: It is. Yeah.
Uh-huh. And I have like a good podcast going. I like, you know, a lot of voice texts happening, whatever. Anyways. Anytime I see a runner, my first instinct and what I say to my kids, which is super important, what you are going to say out loud, make sure your kids hear you. If you’re doing this work, do it with them. Is good for them. Damn, look at them out there hauling ass, right? And why not roll down the window and yell good for you?
Kerry: Yeah, I love it.
Rachael: We need more of that.
Kerry: And I have no doubt that they smile and wave and you like, gave them a little extra boost to finish the recipe.
Rachael: Exactly. Because you never ever know what’s going on in someone else’s day and someone’s life. And if you can make it just a tiny bit better, why wouldn’t you?
Kerry: 100%. We’re more than happy to call other people. I love that. And that makes so much sense. And it sort of goes along. If I could piggyback for one quick step with that community, because it’s funny, I was watching the show last night that was set in like COVID times, quote unquote.
And they were talking about your pod. Remember having a pod, like a group of people. And we, but we did sort of sequester ourselves for a while. And we shut down a lot of that other. Stuff definitely in person. And now we’re sort of reemerging. You know, we’ve come out of the chrysalis or the cocoon and we’re this new person for better or worse, and it’s like reestablishing all of that stuff, but reestablishing it in a new, more sort of intentional and better way.
Rachael: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. Like, I think that, you know, was what it was. And it was amazing and it was horrible and scary and… It’s life-changing, right? I like to look at every situation, good or bad as, okay, where is the opportunity in that situation?
And I think that there are a lot of companies, the companies that I work with, the ones that are even willing to say, yes, let’s take two days and go through how we can help our teams take care of themselves.
That step is huge. I also think that there are a good amount of media outlets that have done a good job of bringing back what’s good and, you know, having that reminder for us to see. We just have to decide which ones we’re gonna, which ones we’re gonna follow and which ones we’re not…
Kerry: Ones we’re gonna give our energy to.
Rachael: Yeah, exactly. Yep. Okay. The number eight habit is to give it your all. So this is, personal for me because this is who I am. I give everything 110%. It’s just who I am. And I know, and I’ve learned through a lot of failure and a lot of change in relationships that my all is different than someone else’s all. And that’s okay.
Like, guess what, Rachel? That’s okay. And that was something that I had to learn and then in turn be able to teach other people how to appreciate that in their lives. And if they’re the one that is, giving it their all and it still looks different than somebody else, that’s okay. But the point is that habits work in order for a reason. Because by the time you get to these last three, you know who you are, you know what you want, you know how to do it.
Now you have to actually go do the thing. And that is huge. I’m all about taking action. I will never walk into a room or a situation talk about a bunch of fluff and walk away. And because that’s where we all get lost. And then we go back to eating donuts for breakfast.
Kerry: We don’t know how to implement any of it. Yeah.
Rachael: Forgot how to do it. And I do it too. I’m like, oh my God, I learned that amazing thing, but I don’t know how to make it work in my life
Kerry: Well, I was gonna say it’s funny. I was having this conversation with my husband this morning because I used to work out all the time and I found that I have slowly but surely been sort of shuddering that. Like, oh, I have, you know, email, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Asked my husband this morning, I’m like, okay, this is not what I have set up is not working.
I know I need to do it. I hear that everywhere, but I can’t figure out how to implement it. Like, so we sat down and we like looking at the schedule and we carved out like, okay, mornings aren’t going to work for you because of this, this, and this.
Even though everybody says that’s what you should do. So what works for you, what works for you is between. 1 and 2:30. Now you just have to go block that time off. And that is that barring an emergency, that’s a nonnegotiable. And I just needed somebody to like to bounce that off of and figure out how to, implement this advice into my life. Anyway, that’s all I was going to say.
Rachael: Oh, okay. Two things that I love about what you just said, one, that you’re having that conversation with your partner. Because that is so huge. You might not always be on the same page. Your workouts are going to look different. Your schedules are going to look different, but I like to be able to have that person that is like, this is important to you and us because I want you around until you’re 99ish…
Kerry: Yep. He says the same thing. You got to take care of yourself, Kerry. You’re not doing it.
Rachael: The second thing that you said is that I want to encourage you and myself because I have to remind myself of this all the time too. And anyone else is forget about the should. Who the hell is they? Who are they?
Kerry: You know, the people. Them.
Rachael: I don’t care. I don’t care when you’re working out. Just do it. It’s to commit, make it a non-negotiable to yourself in a day to do it. And giving yourself an hour and a half, that’s a good long time. I give myself 40 minutes max.
Kerry: So that’s smart. So yeah, I probably should do that. Yeah.
Rachael: Cut it down. I work up for 30 minutes and then I pull myself together so I can get on my next call, go to pick up, go to soccer, go to the board meeting, whatever, right?
So give yourself that tiny buffer of 10 minutes or 30 minutes. That’s all you need. Just make it consistent. Number nine is deciding to go. So this is to remember we’re in those, that action taking time. And the hardest thing is the decision to do it. Deciding whatever it is, whether it’s your workout, whether it’s the food you choose to get out of your fridge, whether it’s to make a career move, whether it’s to talk to your boss about an idea that you have. The hardest part is deciding.
Kerry: When, when you talk about deciding, is motivation part of that, how do you feel about motivation? Because I have mixed feelings about it, but go ahead.
Rachael: I have mixed feelings about motivation too. Here’s what I’m motivated to do every day. I am motivated to be a better person the day than I was the day before. That’s what I’m motivated to do. So am I motivated to work out? No. Am I motivated to eat salads every day? No.
Am I motivated to, you know, put a mask on? Because it’ll make my skin happier and drink a million gallons of water? No! But I know that if I don’t take care of myself on Tuesday, on Thursday, I am not going to be a better person than I was on Tuesday.
Kerry: Yeah. So, so you’re not waiting for the motivation. You’re just deciding to do the thing. Yeah.
Rachael: Yeah, and I would love to piggyback off that because that’s what I was, going to go for next is that, when we decide to do something, all those little thoughts that happen after like, ooh, but I’m not ready. Oh, but I don’t have the workout clothes.
Oh, but I’m too old. I’m too tired. Oh, but I just broke my arm. I don’t care. Those are just excuses. You already decided. So that is again going back to using your gut instinct to help you take that and just go forward.
The last habit is called next up. And that really means let’s write it down. What are we doing? Because it’s my job to hold you as a team, as an individual, and as a company accountable for what you just decided to do. So what’s going to happen next? What’s the year? What’s the six months? What’s the 10 years? Like I want to know. And so it’s really taking people through that, through writing conversation and whatever the case might be. To get them to keep going.
Kerry: Right. And just sort of like maybe even it sounds a little bit like, almost maybe reverse engineering, like here’s where you want to be in 10 years or five and then a year and six months and maybe there’s even a three-month goal. And then you’re like, sort of, okay, here are the steps that you need to take to get to that spot.
Rachael: That’s right. And in every, step, there’s sort of these two pillars or like two columns, right? One is really focused on if I’m working with businesses and not individuals, but focused on the business, right? Here are the steps you’re going to take. The second column is those 10 habits because those 10 habits are going to lead to the success of the first column.
Kerry: I want to ask you a question. Those 10 tips were phenomenal. And I’m going to ask at the end of this and we’ll put it in the show notes where people should go to get more information. But I want to ask you before we wrap because we’re coming up on time. You mentioned at the beginning of this that you know, you can’t, I think you said bubble bath, your way to fixing your problems or doing your goals or whatever it is. You are a wellness coach, but you have you know, you’re not really a big fan of the self-care culture. Tell us about what is.
Rachael: All right. Yeah. I would love to. Yeah, I think self-care is kind of bullshit in the way that our society has been using it. We have been using self-care as companies as individuals and within our family units as a way to mask what’s really going on. We use it to bring us back to neutral.
So for me, my belief is that care is a basic need. You need a bubble bath once in a while. You need a pedicure. You need a happy hour with your friends. You need a vacation alone. You need to walk through Target without kids at your ankles. Basic needs, right? You need to get your hair done. You need to get your whatever basic need.
Kerry: Whatever your, sort of, this is what keeps me just functioning.
Rachael: Like think about your self-care and I want you to flip that instead of thinking of it as this is gonna solve my problems, get me to my goals, make me a better human being, whatever. Like self-care, this is my basic need for me to sustain my current life. Taking care of yourself is work. It’s the work we do every day on ourselves to reach our goals. Wellness, business, marital, whatever. So that could be going to get your blood drawn, going to the dermatologist…
Kerry: Getting rid of toxic people in your life.
Rachael: Yes. Oh my God. That’s huge. And really hard one. Yes. That is taking care of yourself.
Yeah. I mean, sitting down and having a conversation with your husband, I don’t know the last time I did that, right? It’s on my list.
You know, that is taking care of yourself. Not self-care sometimes, you know, that’s not fun sometimes. My rule is that self-care gets us back from drowning and taking care of ourselves helps us to fly. That’s the difference.
Kerry: Self-care is, I’m gonna bring me back to baseline, and then I’m gonna do some work to get to this next, to fly. I don’t know why I’m trying to put other words to it, you said it perfectly.
Rachael: Like we have to like, sort of like repeat it back to ourselves a million times in a different way that works for you. Just really quickly, I think that companies have really tried to implement self-care on Friday or, mental health day.
And like, those are great do it. But if you are then having your teams come back to an 80-hour work week, of poor culture and no purpose and lack of support, you’re not doing anything for them on those days.
Kerry: You’re just making the doggy paddle maybe a tad slower.
Rachael: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like, on Monday they’ll be fine, but by Thursday they will really need that self-care Friday again. And it’s like, why are we living in that cycle?
Kerry: We’re not taking the right steps in between those days. It’s like when you coach somebody and then if you don’t ask them to implement or execute the lessons, the skills or the knowledge begins to, fade, it fades quite quickly as a matter of fact.
Rachael: Yeah. And like think about that was what that does to our psyche when we have learned that or been told so many times that get a pedicure, it’ll be okay. Just go have a glass of wine with your girlfriend. It’ll all be okay. And we wonder, and it’s okay for a minute. And then we wonder why the next day it’s still not okay. Again, like, think about that, what that does to our mind.
Kerry: It’s not okay. My toes look great. I have a hangover, but the other problems are still there.
Rachael: My business is still not growing. I still haven’t written my book. Yeah. I don’t know why
Kerry: I could talk to you literally forever. This has been an amazing conversation you rock!
Rachael: I mean I feel the same. This is so fun.
Kerry: I mean, I knew you were going to be great cause you’re a speaker and we’ve spoken before and we’re very much simpatico when it comes to our mindsets and our goals and the way we sort of move in the world, there’s a lot of problems. But this is really, truly, it’s such a fantastic conversation and I learned so much, from just these couple of minutes.
So if there is somebody in the audience who’s like, my company could use this, or I could use this, where should they go to get more information about you working with you, et cetera,
Rachael: Yeah, so my website has almost everything. It has press kits and who I work with and things like that. And we can put that in the show notes. It’s rachel-amarante.com. If you want to work with me one-on-one, I do that a lot through social media or LinkedIn. So you can find me in either of those places.
We can put those social links and even just DM me and say hi. And you like heard, and like, we can just connect. I just, love that anyway. It doesn’t always have to lead to something. If it does, you need some help. I am here for you to do that.
Kerry: She’s awesome by the way. We met not all that long ago. And you’re like, let’s make up a list of like places we want to speak and we can trade with great ideas.
Rachael: Let’s do all the work together. Like where are we going to be in five years? Okay, let’s go.
Kerry: Yeah, I love it. So yeah, so listener, viewer, all of that information will be in the show notes, the links, et cetera. Rachel, it was amazing talking to you. We must have you back.
Rachael: Yes, it was so fun, I would love it. And I would like to know when you are working out. Let’s hold you accountable.
Kerry: I will. It’s not going to happen today. Cause I have to go, I have to go do a last minute shoot in the city with a client today.
Rachael: How about tomorrow?
Kerry: Tomorrow, I’m in.
Rachael: Tomorrow you’re in. I love it.
Kerry: I’ll shoot you a DM or a text and let you know that can happen. Along with a selfie.
Matt Bailey teaches Digital Marketing to the world’s biggest brands and at the most recognized universities. He’s taught:
Google employees how to use Google Analytics
Experian how to present data
Custom-developed digital marketing workshops and training curriculum for Microsoft, Disney, Nationwide, Orange, Hewlett Packard, Proctor & Gamble, and IBM.
Matt’s training curriculum is also used at Duke University, Rutgers University, Purdue University, University of South Florida, George Washington University, and in over 300 schools. According to Microsoft, “Matt has an uncanny ability to simplify the complexity of digital marketing into concepts that are understandable, relatable, and ultimately do-able.”
From developing real-estate websites in the mid 90’s to starting his own digital marketing agency in 2006, creating more than $1 billion in revenue for clients. Matt has been at the forefront of entrepreneurship and digital marketing. In 2015, he pivoted from his agency business to focus full-time on training and has trained over 1 million marketers. In 2020, he earned his Master of Education in Instructional Design and Technology, and now offers coached digital marketing courses at Learn.Sitelogic.com.
Matt is the digital communications instructor and educational consultant for New Media Academy in Dubai, UAE. He is also the digital marketing instructor for the ANA (Association of National Advertisers), an instructor for LinkedIn Learning, and standards contributor for the OMCP (Online Marketing Certified Professional), the international standards certification and licensing program for digital marketing education.
He’s the author of:
Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day (2011)
Wired to be Wowed (2015)
Teach New Dogs Old Tricks! (2017)
Digital Marketing Fundamentals (2023)
When he isn’t immersed in the universe of marketing and technology, Matt spends most of his time being a husband and a dad (to four girls) and beekeeping. Whatever time is left is spent reading history, culture, or philosophy books. As a self-proclaimed coffee snob, he absolutely loves a good cup of joe—especially while reading.
In this episode, digital marketing expert Matt Bailey joins host Kerry Barrett to discuss the ins and outs of social media advertising. Matt explains how social networks add posts and ads to users’ feeds, even if they don’t actually appear on the screen, and how these impressions are counted. He shares his journey from working in agencies to starting his own successful agency and eventually transitioning to training. Matt emphasizes the importance of education in marketing departments and offers valuable insights into the world of digital marketing. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of social media advertising and its impact on businesses.
Glenn Lundy is a highly accomplished individual with a diverse range of skills and experiences. He is a devoted husband and a proud father of eight children. He has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to the automotive industry and has built a reputation as a respected professional in the field. As an author, Glenn has written several books sharing his knowledge and expertise and helping people unlock their full potential. He is a sought-after motivational speaker, using his experiences to inspire and encourage others to achieve their goals. In addition to his successful career, Glenn is also the founder of the 800% Elite Automotive Club, a membership-based organization for people in the automotive space. He also hosts a daily morning show called “The 800% Club”, where he shares his insights and knowledge to help people all around the world “Unlock Their Full Potential”.
On this episode of the Kerry Barret Show, Glenn Lundy shares his incredible journey from growing a car dealership 800% to becoming a motivational speaker and working with dealership owners and general managers across North America. Lundy explains how using social media to tell a compelling story played a crucial role in attracting talented employees and customers from out of town. He also discusses how he identified the need for leadership training in the automotive industry and became the only person offering this type of program. Lundy’s unique approach and expertise have made a significant impact on dealership growth and success.
Melissa Minchala is a Certified Digital Strategist and has been a business owner for 25 years. Her mission is to equip service-based entrepreneurs with the foundational marketing elements that transcend platforms and tactics. From mastering key strategies to implementing high-converting techniques, she imparts the tools needed to establish a robust marketing foundation. She is also the host of the podcast, Divergent Women, a podcast that celebrates the stories and experiences of first-generation women entrepreneurs who dared to break the mold and start their own businesses, despite the odds stacked against them.
In this episode of The Kerry Barrett Show, host Kerry Barrett is joined by certified digital strategist Melissa Minchala. They discuss the challenges that women face in the male-focused entrepreneurial world and how they are overcoming them. They explore the position of women in the entrepreneurial world and the courage it takes to bet on oneself and take risks. Tune in to gain insights into the experiences and journeys of women entrepreneurs.
Transcript
Kerry: And thank you for watching and joining us here on the Kerry Barrett show. I’m Kerry Barrett your host, and we are joined today by Melissa Minchala. She is a certified digital strategist and somebody who I’ve grown to know and love over the course of my entrepreneurial years, Melissa, it’s so good to see you!
Melissa: Ah, it’s so good to be here. Thanks.
Kerry: You and I have talked quite a bit over, I guess, the last couple of years about the challenges that women have in this sort of male-focused entrepreneurial world. And it is a system that, as you say, is not really designed for us. We’re sort of, we eked our way in and now we’re kind of tolerated.
And often on the show, we talk about specific tactics and strategies as it pertains to visibility and awareness and digital marketing. We’ll have some time to talk about that, but I really wanted to take this opportunity to explore our position as women in this entrepreneurial world.
Melissa: I’ve spoken to many women about this. Cause I have, my own podcast, Divergent Women. And I’ve spoken to some amazing entrepreneurs who’ve come from all different walks of life, right? Some have started, their entrepreneurial journey, right out of college.
And many who have thought that they were going to do one thing. Studied, went to school, and then over time decided that they needed to do something else. And you know, the one thing that all of these women have is this indomitable courage, right? Because it takes a certain amount of courage to say, I’m going to bet on myself.
I’m going to take this risk because it is a risk. Every business owner is taking a risk. But as a businesswoman, we are taking a significantly bigger risk. Because, you know, and I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again, the business world that we come into is one that was not designed for us. It did not have us in mind and it barely tolerates us.
My entrepreneurial journey started in 1998. My background is in IT, right? So when I worked for somebody, I was, you know, refreshing servers. We were doing rollouts of new operating systems, I was putting in switches, that kind of stuff.
And when I decided I wanted to work for myself, I was, at the time, early two thousand, the only IT woman, right?
Kerry: Really? Like in your, wow!
Melissa: Yeah in my industry like there’s, an IT woman owner was, it was very rare and in New York City, you would think, you know, such a large city.
Yeah. I mean, I would find them in conferences that I would go to, but it was usually, that they were co-owners of their husband’s business. And they were like doing the books and there was husband the IT guy.
Kerry: sort working behind the scenes and husband was that… Yeah
Melissa: Right. So when I was trying to grow my business I would go and I would, you know, do you know, networking and I knew who my competitors were.
I would be approached with, oh, but you’re too pretty to be a geek. I can guarantee that my male competitors heard, well, you’re too handsome a geek.
You know, you’re too buff to be a geek, like none of that. And. You know, I was a mom I gave birth, raised four kids and I wanted to raise them the way I wanted to raise them.
I was an attachment parenting, you know, breastfed, I was with them all the time, but I also wanted to work. That is not the business culture, the culture that we have now, right? It is still either you’re a mom or you have a business. It’s almost impossible to do both, although I will say that talking to these women, is becoming more and more possible because these women are starting to see that they have to create these spaces for themselves.
Kerry: They almost have to create their own ecosystem.
Melissa: Absolutely.Absolutely.
Kerry: It is interesting. So to give a little bit of context, you and I have known each other via LinkedIn for quite a while and a couple of years ago, as of this recording, I had a breakdown on LinkedIn.
Where I was so frustrated and I was so scared and tired and exhausted. And we reconnected that way or connected and maybe in a deeper way is the way to phrase it.
And I think that most of the people who connected after that sort of public breakdown were women and they connected in a way that was supportive and there was not a lot of pitching of services or anything like that. I want to paint with a broad brush. We have a different understanding of some of the challenges that, women specifically face, you know, for example, you mentioned that you’re too pretty to do this or whatever.
One of your big initiatives has been to start your podcast and to create this community for women who are entrepreneurs and do have this desire to not just be pigeonholed as a mom or a wife or sort of a behind-the-scenes person, but somebody who was at the forefront of the business and driving development and revenue and innovation, even beyond that. When you hear people talk about those elements, what are some of the themes that you hear underlined?
And what are some of the ways that they’re challenging that and overcoming it?
Melissa: What I hear a lot is they start to wake up to the fact that what has worked, has never worked got them. And so they go, okay, like got to, I’ve got to quit this and that’s why I called it divergent women.
Because they’re on this path is sort of normal societal path, which has been very male-dominated, very male-oriented.
I was born in the seventies and raised by boomers. Right. And I was raised with that. You know, oh, don’t cry. I’ll give you something to cry about. Emotional suppression. Right. And, you know, growing up, getting into the workforce, there was a way of how to be professional.
And it was very much stripped all your emotions out of it. And just, talk business. When LinkedIn first came out, the LinkedIn of when it started versus the LinkedIn of today are two very different LinkedIn as well. Because people are starting to be more vulnerable.
So I think a lot of the theme and the women that I talked to, they tell me that they just realized that all of that, whatever those challenges that they were kind of working against just was not working for them. And they had to be more true to themselves. The landscape now is still this kind of male energy-driven.
What we’ve termed bro marketing right? It’s this sell sell sell, how do you hard sell, manipulate this and that. And some of the women I’ve spoken to have tried that have paid thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars to coaches and have just walked away from it.
Because it felt so inauthentic to them. The really overarching theme is true authenticity. Because even when, and this is another thing that, we’ve talked about. Even when we see women who do thrive, whether in a professional or in an entrepreneurial sense, going in that sort of like male energy sell, or climb the ladder and, you know, step on whoever you need to get there.
There are women who thrive in it, but if you watch them, you can see that they are playing by somebody else’s rules. And that they’re only playing because they’re being allowed to. And the difference is that when you as a woman say this is not the way I want to play this game. This is not what I want to do.
I want to be freely more empathetic. I want to be more vulnerable. I want to be more authentic to who I am. It’s the embracing of that authenticity that really is sort of driving this forward.
Kerry: I love what you mentioned. So I’m going to backpedal for a second or backtrack is the right word. You mentioned you were raised by boomers with this, you know, sort of certain messaging, and that went around it. And I remember my dad also, I was born in the seventies, and raised by boomers as well.
And my father used to have a saying, my father was in a corporate environment. My mother was staying home. He used to always say the success for women in the workforce these days is to look like a woman, act like a man, and work like a dog. And the sort of underlying message there was you need to be feminine but don’t act that way.
Don’t act like a quote-unquote woman, because that’s unappealing. We need you to act like a man. You need to be, you know, in whatever sort of context you paint that with. And then you also need to work your tail off in order to make whatever is happening around you.
Now the misogyny is not, quite as overt. It’s a little more covert. Which I think can make it even more challenging to get around because it’s not obvious in our faces anymore. So what are some of the tactics and strategies that in this community you advocate for and that you hear other people deploying so that they can achieve the same sort of success while being authentic to their own selves as well?
Melissa: I think one of my saving graces is my age, right? So I am going to 49 in a couple of weeks and I’ve hit that age where I have far fewer Fs to give. Right?
I’m almost at none. And it can be difficult, but I also see that this, the newer generations, the younger generations are really embracing more of this of, I don’t care.
And our generation, because it was so male-dominated, there weren’t as many women in the workforce as we have now, as a matter of fact, there are more women coming out with college degrees than men. So we have made these strides that we didn’t have before. So when we were coming up.
We didn’t have that then that we have now. Social media also tends to level the playing field. We have so much more exposure now. So much more representation now. Many of the social influencers the successful ones are female. And that is through when you’re thinking about well, how do I sort of you know, navigate all this.
Because now it’s been, you have to work like you don’t have kids and raise your kids like you don’t have a job.
How do you do those two? What you have to do is you have to find the balance that works for you and screw everyone else. So if that means that, you know, oh, well, what are people going to think if my kids are watching too much, you know, screen time, what works for you?
In the end, if you are raising your kids in a way that is comfortable for you and that you are going to meet your goals for them, it’s fine. You know raise good productive citizens, do the job the way you want to do it. And do it well.
We talk about parents my father has told his kids and this is a boomer. An immigrant boomer. He said life is not about being happy.
And when he said that to me, I immediately felt devastated for him. Because I knew that, he didn’t like his job, but he was doing it because he had to. That’s not the way want to live my life. And don’t think anybody should live like that.
Kerry: Do you think he was buying into the idea that… You always hear if you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life. I don’t necessarily believe that, because there’s always going to be components or days that are crappy. But do you think he bought into that idea that this, I’m living to work, rather than working to live?
Melissa: I know he did. He told me that shortly, right before telling me about how he had wanted to be an astrophysicist, but he didn’t know that astrophysicists could support a family. He didn’t think, how was I going to be an astrophysicist and support my family? My mother was a teacher, so she was pulling an income.
It was a two-income household, but he said, your mother would leave me if I wasn’t, you know, bringing in food to the house. Which I know was false, but that was what he had in his head. Like I’m not working to make me happy. I’m working to put food on the table
Kerry: It’s a different mindset entirely.
Melissa: Very different mindset
Kerry: You mentioned that the challenge may be specifically to immigrants. People who are first generation or even second generation, or maybe either the first to go to college or the first to start a business. Can you dive into that a little bit for us? Like, what are the specific challenges, especially for women who are in that position?
Melissa: Well, you know and it varies around the world, but it’s also the same around the world. So I’ve spoken to you know women who are from other countries who are very specifically told, you’re a girl you’re gonna be either a teacher or a mum. And that’s it. To go against those kinds of expectations, and societal expectations is very difficult.
You know, one woman that I spoke to, said that a friend of her mother came and she said, oh, what are you going to school for? She was when she was in college. She says, oh, I’m studying to be a teacher. And the lady said, oh, that’s fantastic. You know, my daughter wants to be an engineer and she’s giving me such a big headache over this.
So women all over the world are having to fight all these barriers put around them. And, you know, to the women that I’ve spoken to here in the United States who were raised in, you know, Middle America, they were also sort of raised with stability. That was the big one. You know, especially when you’re coming from a family, nobody in my family was an entrepreneur.
As a matter of fact, my father, I used to hear him several times. Oh, I would never own my own business. And I know that his parents had lost a lot of money, you know, through businesses. And so to him, that was traumatic. So I can understand where it came from. So when I was, you know, sort of opening my business and what I found that I didn’t have a lot to talk about with, I couldn’t talk about my colleague.
I couldn’t talk about, you know, the promotion. Because those were not, there was nothing for them to contribute with. Other women that I’ve spoken to, their parents would kind of like white knuckle it for them. Or would tell them, maybe you should just get a job, which is the last thing an entrepreneur is going to want to hear.
And the truth is as an entrepreneur, going to have ups, you’re going to have downs. You’re never going to have a flat steady the way a paycheck does. But in all even these days, even a flat paycheck doesn’t stay away because you can be laid off at anybody’s whim.
So that’s really some of the biggest obstacles. And so what do these women do when they hear, you know, oh, maybe you should just get a job or, you know, the mom that says, I don’t know why you’re doing. Are you sure this is the right thing for you? They have to buck up and keep on going and remember why they’re doing it. It takes a lot of fortitude. It really takes a lot of fortitude.
Kerry: Has there been anything that’s been surprising to you within the community? And obviously, you have a lot of experience. You worked for someone, you have your own business. So my point is you have a lot of experience in these different areas or perspectives. Has there been anything that’s been surprising to you that women have said to you in either your podcast, Divergent Women, or within your community that you see as a new challenge for younger entrepreneurs or something that was unexpected that we need to, you know, put more to?
Melissa: You know, I have to give a lot of credit to the younger entrepreneurs and they think that they have a lot of advantages given by the internet. Because they have a very distinct ability to identify where their own problems are, their inner problems. So there’s this a lot of, there’s this movement of, you know, healing trauma or ending generational trauma.
And that’s an amazing quality because, you know, the first step to really fixing anything is to acknowledge its existence. And they just fly right through. Meanwhile, our generation, certainly the generation before us, may be a little bit, our generation. I think we were, the Oprah generation, right?
Because we had Oprah Winfrey who was talking about everything and anything. And we were right there with the conversation. She opened up a lot of conversations for us. And now the internet just broke that seal. And now everybody’s talking about everything. But when the past generations, like the boomer generations, no one talked about anything, and just cycles repeated and things got worse. This newer generation, the younger generations, they’re all about, let’s find where the problems are, resolve them, and move on forward. So I cannot really think of any obstacles that they because they’re so good at just preemptively facing them.
Kerry: I think one of the interesting things is, you know, you sort of mentioned generational trauma or child trauma and how that sort of infuses every part of our lives. And we’re much more open to discussing it and moving past part of it because of Oprah. Part of just because of the, you know, the way that we evolve in advance. You know, generations ago, two or three generations ago, women certainly experience the same kind of head trash that I know I experience on a daily basis or imposter syndrome that I experience on a daily basis. We were more likely to attribute that, I think, at least, you know, internally as to our own perceived lack.
You know, wherever we lacked, we have this, you know, I have imposter syndrome because I really am bad at this particular thing, or I have this head trash going on because I really don’t have what it takes to do this or that.
Now we recognize that those aren’t necessarily, truths with stories that we’ve made up inside of ourselves because of conditioning or messaging or past experiences or whatever it is.
And I think that’s one of the greatest things about community. This sort of community-building idea is something that I have not, I’ve only been in business for four years. But I’ve seen it grow and grow even over the course of the last couple of years. And it is very predominantly female-driven. Which I think is super cool because we are sort of continuing the work that the generations before us have as well. So tell me a little bit about your community, like what inspired it? And how are you using it to help female entrepreneurs take the next steps or move to the next step? To move to the next level?
Melissa: One of the biggest reasons that I started the podcast and wanted to grow that community is because I am a first-generation entrepreneur. And It can be difficult. And just owning a business is isolating. You know, work for someone for good and bad days, you can talk to your colleague about how much you hate or how much you hate your boss or how much you hate…
But you it’s just you, then the conversation is about how much you hate you. And I knew this was going on and I know, and I was watching so many new entrepreneurs get in. And I that no one tells you this. Like there’s no welcome packet super lonely hey, welcome to the club. By the way, you’re going to be super lonely and you’re going to hate it. You’re going to hate a lot of it, but okay. Keep on going.
You’re awesome. It’s going to be great. And I wanted that honesty, and I wanted other people to see themselves in these stories. I wanted other people to be able to hear these women talk about the obstacles that they had to go through. And like I said before, I’ve spoken to women who are from around the world.
Many of the stories are different, but they are all the same. In that, they started out with this great idea. They had some doubts, but they really wanted to do it. And they had the fortitude to keep going and they’ve had their failures.
And even though they may not be where they want to be, they’re working towards getting there. And they wouldn’t do it any other way. And they keep on going. And that’s the thing. That’s the experience that we all have. But we cannot have it alone or we should not have it alone. We should have it as a community. You know, sort of like pulling people with us, because like we said before this business community that we came into was not meant for us. It’s time for us to start to create our own. And we can absolutely do that.
Kerry: Do you think there’s a crossover or overlap between female entrepreneurs and women who are also working in corporate or in perhaps even male-dominated industries? Are there similar challenges?
Melissa: I think it depends on the woman. Every woman has their own ambition. Right. And I gotta say everybody is different. So my home is not very well decorated cause that’s just have thing. So I don’t have a great art piece. I have knickknacks and paddywhacks. I don’t have art pieces, right? My best friend, she makes a beautiful home. And there are women who are ambitious in the workforce, right? Instead of in the home.
So it depends. So if a woman who’s in the workforce, but really her ambitions are somewhere else, they not going to have the same sort of challenges as someone who is ambitious in, you know, in entrepreneurial. Because if you’re ambitious in the workforce, you’re going to come up against a lot more obstacles, and if you’re ambitious in the home. Because you just have fewer people that you’re coming against. So it depends on the person. It depends on the position that they’re in.
Kerry: I also think that is very smart because often men and women were painted with a very broad brush. You’re either this or you’re that. It’s sort of that if I’m being very down to basics, it’s almost like Madonna’s horror complex. You know, you’re either one thing or you’re the other. It’s very binary.
And as women, we know that doesn’t apply. And I think we’re beginning to realize as men or for men, that doesn’t really apply either. And there’s an opportunity for us to bring our full selves to both places, which has only been amplified since the pandemic. And now everybody’s seeing our, you know, sunrooms and our kitchens and everything.
Melissa: You see nothing because I’ve got nothing to show.
Kerry: If you look just slightly off-screen, you’ll see there’s a full-fledged disaster brewing. If you’re listening to this, go check it out on YouTube. Melissa, I could talk to you forever. And I do have to say you have been one of the constants in my entrepreneurial journey. And I had zero business experience when I you know, sort of launched into this world without a lot of thought.
And you have been such a support and so amazing. And I know that the community that you’re creating will be a huge source of support and inspiration for other women who are going through the same thing. So tell us a little bit about, you know, where people can learn more about the community, we haven’t talked a lot about your digital marketing agency, but if they are interested in working with you, where should they go to get more information? What would you like that to be?
Melissa: So I’ve got a Facebook group. It’s driven by female entrepreneurs. It’s very simple if you’re a driven female entrepreneur. And the other thing also, I just want to sneak in there because it came to mind, but we also have to remember that every woman doesn’t have one season of life, right?
You can be many things throughout your life. So even if you’ve decided after 30 years of being in the workforce, you want to be an entrepreneur, you can do it. I encourage you to do it. So driven female entrepreneurs is my Facebook group. Come and join us there. My podcasts, which I highly recommend because of the women there, the stories are just phenomenal divergent women.
You could find it. And just every podcast platform. You can find out how to work with me on melissaminchala.com. And Kerry, you have been a delightful addition to my life.
Kerry: Oh, he’s so sweet. Go on. It was great talking to you, Melissa. Thank you so much for being part of this. Thank you.
