The Say Less Podcast

017 - Mother's Day Episode: Grace & Mama Mel

• Grace Cacho & Alex Taylor • Episode 17

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An Entrepreneur for Life: Lessons from Mama Mel

In this heartfelt episode, Grace sits down with her incredible mom, Melanie Medina, affectionately known as Mama Mel, to discuss her expansive entrepreneurial journey, the importance of staying humble and flexible, and the wisdom behind doing "what's gogical" — not just what makes sense logically. Whether you're a seasoned business owner or just starting out, Melanie's insights are full of love, resilience, and Gospel-driven purpose.

In this episode:

  • Melanie shares her early entrepreneurial ventures beginning at age 13 and how they've shaped her multi-faceted career.
  • The importance of having multiple streams of influence—mentors, peers, and mentees—and avoiding pride in learning from younger or less experienced individuals.
  • The value of doing "what's gogical" — prioritizing God's purpose over societal norms or what's deemed "logical."
  • How generosity and sowing into others create a ripple effect in both personal and business relationships.
  • The significance of re-evaluating seasons and recognizing that detours can be part of God's plan.
  • Practical advice for women feeling burnt out or hesitant to start, emphasizing purpose-driven passion over perfection.

Resources & Links:

  • Connect with Melanie HERE

This episode is a love letter to women balancing faith, family, and entrepreneurship, proving that doing it all is possible when grounded in purpose. Get ready to be inspired to walk your unique path with confidence, humility, and joy!

Send us burning questions, topic ideas, and things you’re loving about the podcast!

Connect with Alex & Grace:

Education:

Must-Have Systems

Arisa Haus Creative Marketing Agency

Grace & Andrew Cacho provide clarity to businesses and personal brands by means of Brand Message Clarity, Audits, Brand Strategy, Content Creation, Photo & Video, Web Design, and Social Media Management.

SPEAKER_00

Don't let pride get in the way of letting you um learn something from someone who's younger than you. You gotta have those three streams coming in because if you're pouring out, you gotta make sure you're refilling too. Or, you know, what do you what do you know? You can't pour from an empty vessel.

SPEAKER_01

I wanted to start a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. So I asked Alex to join me and I said, say less. I'm in. Welcome to the Say Less podcast, where we actually say a lot more about motherhood, creativity, photography, business ownership, and everything in between. We're your hosts, Alex and Greats, and this is a space for creative women building something meaningful. Whether you're raising babies, raising your rates, or just trying to figure out your next move. We talk about all the real stuff. What's working, what's not. What we're learning when nobody tells you about building a business that has to fit inside in real life. Independence, the pressure, the sustainability, and all of the city ends. If you've ever felt like you're creating in the margins of your time, your energy, or your confidence, you're not alone here. Let's get into it. Hello, friends, and happy Friday, and happy early Mother's Day. If you're a mama, today's episode is really special. We actually have two episodes. Alex and I are both separately talking to our moms. And so I'm super happy to have my mom, Melanie, aka Mama Mel, for years and years and years, on the podcast today. She's kind of done it all. We talk about a lot on this podcast how I just kind of can't help but do it all. And I'm very multi-passionate, and I tried very hard not to be. And this is the woman that inflicted that upon me. But if you want to introduce yourself, mom, say hi to the people.

SPEAKER_00

Hi to the people. Yes, it's all my fault. It's all my fault. That whole that whole thing, you know, I got it from my mama. Fortunately, unfortunately, I think that rings true here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um, like I said, my mom's kind of done it all. She's been an entrepreneur by default for many, many, many, many years. Pre-kids and married and solo parenting and empty nester, married and with grandkids. And I think she would attest to the fact that it served her well in many different seasons. And so I'm gonna kind of like let her talk about that today and just uh kind of her story. Um, because it is obviously her story, but I was there for a lot of it and impacted by all of it. So I'll let you kind of introduce yourself, what life looks like now, and if I'm your favorite.

SPEAKER_00

Can neither confirm nor deny. In fear of your older sister and who we've also talked about early on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, exactly. She's your favorite, she's your favorite. Yes, Madison is my favorite.

SPEAKER_00

Um, we could share a favorite, but then that wouldn't be very good either. So thank you first of all for having me on your show. I appreciate this interview greatly. I I did host a podcast for a number of years and have produced several. And so this is like um a really fun thing for me to get to return to. So thank you for inviting me. And especially for you know, Mother's Day is coming up. I hope everyone remembers mom and her favorite coffee drink or drink today.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you still have a couple days to get all of your stuff together if you forgot.

SPEAKER_00

Don't forget, mom. These are the blooms that she really wants. She wants coffee blooms and pretty little energy drink. Pretty Ilani. Cheers to mom. Mine is actually not in this cup. Mine is in Oh, do you prefer to drink it out of a Stanley? Striped Stanley. Okay. So there's that. I am Melanie. I'm Grace's mom. I've been known as Grace's mom for the bulk of her life. And regardless of any position or job or vocation or business venture I ever embarked on, my favorite thing to do was be a mom. And parenting is certainly one of those huge passions. I mean, you gotta love your kids and you gotta keep loving them even after they're adults, by the way. It doesn't when they become grown-ups or think they become grown-ups. Um, I actually started uh Grace, I don't think even knew this until we started chatting about what we might visit with you guys about on today's podcast. But I started my first business when I was like 13 years old. And I saw this in in our local newspaper. Uh it was called the Denison Herald at the time. The local newspaper had classified ads and I wanted to make some money. I needed, I wanted a job. I wanted to be able to go to the stop and go and play Pac-Man anytime I wanted. So I I got help from my Nana who helped me obtain my first social security card at age 13. We won't talk about how many many years ago that was. Um but uh Herbal Life was the first multi-level marketing uh company that I stepped into. And I didn't know it was MLM, and I don't even think they called them that. Yeah, probably not. Yeah. It was just like a tiered business. Yeah. And I started selling multivitamins to all my aging neighbors on my street. I literally went door to door with my little business cards, and um, and you know, and I kind of caught the bug then. I knew that my whole family is has kind of we're all kind of serial entrepreneurs. And um we've all kind of figured out there's one time to get in, and one time, you know, you need to also when you start a business, you need to also have an exit strategy. So you need to know when it's time to stop as well, like when I reached a certain point. But um, and then growing up, there were several things. You know, you take these little tests in high school and they tell you what you're naturally built for and what you should do. And one of them was fashion merchandising and marketing. Those were my big things when I was in school. So after I became a solo mom, guess what I did? I opened my own boutique and I marketed it. Mm-hmm. And it was I found the void in the market. There was no I got sick of driving honestly all the way down to Dallas for dance shoes for my kids. And so I and I had already started teaching dance, which was a passion of mine. And so I had this built-in audience that I also knew like at least a hundred parents who were also driving to Dallas for shoes. Sometimes I would pick them up for them. But I opened this little girl's dance and clothing store. And uh and I also knew when it was time to to close that. There was just an exit opportunity, and I took it. But I think that going through all of these different ages and stages, you know, through the generations and uh stations that I've been in, yeah, you know, I've been married, I've been a solo mom, now an empty nester, grandparent. And the flexibility that it provides is fantastic. For sure. And I think that doing all the different things and having the backgrounds that I have has only helped me in other arenas as well, like in our community.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I think even you've taught me this and I learned this kind of growing up, even when you feel like you're in an in-between season and maybe you're you're like, I'm not doing what I was meant to do, or whatever thoughts might be in your head, or this isn't forever, it's still not wasted. So I think hindsight's 2020, and you can you can relate to this way more than I can because you're, you know, older than me. You have to be because you're my mom. That's I'm not making a jab. But even now at almost 30, I look back and I'm like, wow, everything that I've done that has kind of felt like a detour has actually helped me with where I'm at now and even the trajectory that I'm headed. And same to you. You don't lack vision, you don't lack purpose or anything that you want to do. You're still extremely visionary and you have a lot of you have a lot of really good things ahead of you. Before you did any of your entrepreneurial ventures as a mom, you originally had like big goals, big dreams for yourself in other ways. Can you talk about that a little bit? I did.

SPEAKER_00

I did. Um, I I had this huge theater bug. Um, I loved working in um the local community theater. I loved, loved, loved acting and being um a part of the community of local thespians and um had an opportunity even before uh kiddos to to go and do something really big in New York. And I opted to not do that so that I could parent. I could step into some really amazing parenting shoes. It was an opportunity that I didn't see coming for sure, but it's not one that I would have traded either. Um, and I became a parent without actually having to carry a child for nine months and give birth and go through all those pains. But I did, I began parenting my younger brother, who's nearly 20 years younger than me, who's just six years, six and a half years older than you. Yep. And so I started nailing down jobs at that point, even. And in working in marketing and television, radio, and film. I did a lot of voiceovers and yeah, even here locally had the opportunity to continue to work in that. Um, I was writing commercials for the local cable company, just anything I could to kind of stay in that, you know, specific vein of work. And I think we all have, you know, we're looking for a plow, right? We want to do things. Even if we don't know exactly where we're going yet, we need to have our hand to a plow.

SPEAKER_01

And so that's what I did. You don't know this, but I actually kept a list of all the things that you said that you did. Well, probably not even all of them. So there's if there's any lacking, tell me. But I'm going to read through all of the things that you have done. And this is not including just being a mom and also like being a grandparent because those are kind of full time, have been full-time and are full-time. I know you were you uh helped me part-time, sometimes full-time whenever I need it. So you have successfully, I've watched you successfully grow in the multi-level marketing space. My mom could sell a wet paper bag to basically anybody. I didn't inherit that gene, but she could do that. Um, she's also worked in real estate and like house flipping and reselling, retail, like owning her own space, like with the dance studio she was talking about, dance teaching in multiple different areas, not even just in one studio, which my sister and I both danced. She's been a landlord. She coached cheer for 10 years or something like that, maybe longer. Officially, I think 10 years. She was a very early Facebook user. I feel like that needs to be on there because she was like there when Facebook started and probably knows more than all of us, just saying. She's been and still is a social media manager. She educates me still in the Instagram space specifically. She's just really on top of everything and ministry. She's worked in ministry, even like volunteering. Uh, when my sister and I were in kids' class and church, and she's volunteered in other ways, consulting. She also does Poshmark basically full-time, right? That's like kind of your full-time entrepreneurial job. So if you're if you're seeing this video, she actually has like her Poshmark closet behind us. She has done that so successfully the past few years and has created this beautiful community. Um, I'm gonna put her Poshmark stuff in the show notes as well. If you're into that, if you're looking into reselling on Poshmark, I know she'd be a great person to reach out to to possibly mentor you. She's also been a waitress. She was an aquarium gift shop manager very, very, very early in the day. And I'm pretty sure she got that job before she was technically allowed to because they liked her so much. I was persistent. You were persistent. And she also had two performing and very active children. Well, my older brother, too, but the daughters. I feel like the daughters were most high maintenance. So she was a momager, still is kind of, keeps us in line, and a blogger and a writer and author, and she's just kind of done it all. So tell me if I missed anything on top of being a mom. And then that's just me bragging on you because I feel like the whole world, the whole world, me and my little body, the whole world just needs to know how incredible you are. She also tried out for Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders back in the day and actually made it pretty far, correct? Twice. Twice.

SPEAKER_00

The first time I tried out, um, I made it through the second cut, which is not easy to do. And this was in the 1980s, okay. And um things looked a little different then, back way back in the 1900s. And then the second time I wore my hair. Um, I woke up late to get there and I was riding with a friend, and she picked me up, and I was like, What am I gonna do with my hair? I didn't put my hot rollers in, like, because we were all backcombing and making really big before Victoria's Secret Hair was a thing. Yeah, really making giant hair happen. Yeah. And she's like, girl, just throw it up on top of your head and like a top side ponytail, which was really very popular at the time. And I just teased it yesterday's curls, and they said, Okay, come back and uh for the second round, but we want you to wear that. You have to wear your top side ponytail.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I didn't, and they cut me. I didn't like they had that note, they were just like great addition. Didn't we tell you to wear your hair in a top side ponytail? You have to follow the rules. You have to nervous, laughing, going, yeah, were you serious?

SPEAKER_01

And they were like, Yeah, we are serious, you're dismissed. Oh, yeah, that's crazy. That's wild. So yeah, my mom's done it all. Um, and she's superwoman and she's the best mom. So I have a question that I've I've asked in the past, but would love to you to kind of love for you to kind of hit on maybe a little more in-depth or however deep you want to go. Was there ever a point where you were like, I just kind of want to pick one thing and be done? Or did you just kind of have this understanding that your whole life was just gonna be, I don't know, just it wasn't ever gonna be linear.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I think that um if if I had had a point in my life where somebody asked me, what's the one if you could do one thing, what would it be? I probably would have looked at them like they had four heads. Like you you can just do one thing. You can just do tell me, you're like, tell me the secret. How do I just do one? Who does that? Like, what kind of person is just gonna do one thing? No, I I never had that that place in my life where, first of all, I didn't, I feel like that's kind of a luxury. And you have to have that luxurious, you know, thought of yourself that I can do this one thing forever and it's just gonna serve me well my whole life. Yeah. Like you have to feel really good about that. Yeah. And I think that, you know, if you're really confident in what you're doing, then go for that thing and you know, go into that. And maybe, but I betcha, I betcha you're gonna change tracks at some point. And maybe still use the education or the experience that you have, but it might flow into just a different stream of something like that. No, I never it never dawned on me that there would be a time when I would just do one thing. I I really thought that staying at home and being a stay-at-home mom was gonna be the thing. That's then you've arrived, right? Way back in the nine hours. And but I have to tell you, I wasn't I wasn't made for that. I wasn't built for that. I I mean, now there's just um, you know, the two of us here at home. And I'm still not doing that one thing. I'm still doing several things on a director of marketing for a local coffee shop. CJ's coffee, yeah. And then I also, you know, I have other clients. I've done things like bartered for I love different bartering.

SPEAKER_01

I love bartering. That strategic placement. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00

Where maybe your client, maybe your client, your marketing client, specifically speaking to marketers, maybe your marketing client either A does not understand the value of pouring money into a marketing budget, or B doesn't have a marketing budget. Maybe they're not charging enough for their services, maybe they don't know their own worth.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But when you can become their client and they become your client, that's a very strategic partnership that costs no one anything. And at the end of the day, in your um, in your business, it's also a write-off.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. And you're building relationships too. I think I've seen you barter for tons of different things, probably more things than I'm even aware of. And I find myself looking for opportunities to do that, like for my kids and different things like that. Um yeah, you're building relationships at the end of the day. And if you do it right, this isn't really what we're talking about, but here we are. Two entrepreneurs. I'm talking about entrepreneuring. If you do it right, then you have referrals and you keep those relationships even if the transactional part of it stops. And I think that's something that I've seen you do really well in the entrepreneurial space. And I think that's why you have the what's the word I'm looking for? You have had the longevity that you've had being an entrepreneur because you just do treat people really well. And I yeah, I don't remember who said it recently. I heard it. Um, if you're in it for the money, get out because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if you're just hustling to hustle, you're gonna get burnt out. Um you that I feel like that's a really true sign of the entrepreneur is are you doing it to serve people? And even if that's, you know, your family forefront of your mind or um whatever your reason is, it just can't end with you. And I think that's something that I've seen you walk out really beautifully is you just care for the people that are in front of you. I've I mean, today's Sunday that we're recording this, but even being reminded of our, you know, great commission and making disciples, I cannot possibly disciple dozens and dozens and dozens of people at once, like at one time. And, you know, a a program or marketing class or course is only several weeks, potentially, you know, it's it's not for a super long time. So it's just it goes back to how can I serve the people that are right in front of me? Because that's what you can do. So, anyways, that was a that was a tangent. I'm gonna try to like reel myself back in. But I say all that to say that's just something that I've seen you do really, really well. And something else I've seen you do really well, which I'll have you kind of take off with this. Um you always talk about, you've said this for years and I love it, not always doing what's logical. And as a creative entrepreneur, as any I mean, even if you're not necessarily creative, whatever creative means, maybe you're just an entrepreneur and what you're doing, you're like, this doesn't quite make sense, but you feel like you're supposed to be doing that. I feel like you have done that for your, well, my whole life. And I've never, I've not really seen you fail downwards, if that makes sense. Like you just you keep going and you do, you don't do what's logical, you do what's logical. And so if you've listened to this podcast, I love Jesus, I say it all the time. Um, I was raised by a God-fearing woman, and I am now a God-fearing woman. And so my mom has like lived a life of not always doing what's logical. So can you speak to that kind of a little bit? How that has shown up in in life and in the past and kind of the the results that you've seen from that and where you are now.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. You know, when you try to apply logic to the illogical, it's not gonna work anyway. But taking what you might see as the next logical step as the world may see it, whether it's in a friendship or relationship, education, your business, switching lanes and doing a different career altogether, um, that, you know, if you take the next logical step, you're just gonna be a cookie cutter like everybody else. And doing that, you're gonna get the exact same result that somebody else got. And eventually there's nothing unique about what you're doing, what you've said, how you're living, how you're loving.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And so a very long time ago, gosh, I want to say almost 30 years ago now, I felt like there was just something that spoke into my spirit um about don't do logical, do godical. Do the next godical thing. Well, not what would Jesus do? Don't stamp it with a bracelet, but what's the godical thing? Because he uh he he there was nothing logical about what he what the Lord has done, even in creation or anything else. And we have to remember that if we believe that we were created by the creator, then we are creative creation. And so to use your creativity instead of logic goes way against the grain of what most of society. Is gonna, you know, tell you to do. Giving away, there was there was one time, and I'll just speak to this on a personal level, not a business level, but sort of business, because I was working three jobs, had three kids in the house, one job for each kid. I I say that jokingly, but it's way true. And I can remember the uh we had friends who were working in local media at the TV station, and they were doing a toy drive, a toys for tots thing. And so I had already shopped all year long to make sure you guys had your Christmas as a solo mom because otherwise there was no way on, you know, Black Friday I was gonna get to go spend thousands of dollars. Right. So anyway, I laid out all of the Christmas presents that I had picked up for you guys and said, okay, I'm gonna put uh the laundry basket here and you guys pick out what you want to donate. Um I'll probably cry for a number of reasons. But I walked back into the room several minutes later, and the laundry basket was full in amount. It was overflowing. You guys were giving away your entire Christmas, but you didn't know that. And I couldn't say, no, no, no. And it was Toys for Tots time. So it was it was close to December. And I was like counting the days to my paychecks and you know, like what could I have a yard sale in December? Is that a thing? You know, like in my head, I'm like, but you know, I just trusted that, you know, the Lord would provide the godle thing to do. So we loaded it all up and we went to the the dealership, this car dealership where this was all taking place. You guys, I used to, and I'm sure that I still have this video clip somewhere on a BHS. On BHS, yeah. Of you guys, they they did a whole news story about you guys. I remember putting all your toys in there. I mean, you guys brought like, you know, 30 things or 40 things, and it just kept going in and in and in. Um that very next week, I got uh there was I thought it was a bill, and I didn't open it immediately from uh the insurance company. And I was like, what do you want me to do? And so a few days later, I went ahead and opened it and it was a refund check. Like I had overpaid all year long for our insurance on our home on the car that I drove you guys around in. And it was more than enough to cover what we had given in the Lottie Moon giving and what we had given in toys. And I was just like, there's the logical. So, you know, even those of us who are like entrepreneurial and we're living from project to project, sometimes you're you know, from client to client. Yeah. And in photography and in other creative spaces, it may be from, you know, one art commissioning to the other or one wedding booking to the next. And if it's your form of income, you know, there can be a little worry that creeps in there like, yeah, the light bill's gonna be a couple of days late. Who knows, right? Yeah. But just remember that doing that, the next god, doesn't look like logic at all. Yeah, that's so good. It can't it can be a little scary to be an entrepreneur, but wouldn't it be more frightening to know that you lived your life without even tapping into what you're really sure?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's so good. Here we are crying on the podcast. Sorry, good. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00

I'm not crying, you're crying.

SPEAKER_01

No, that's so good. And I think whether you have kids or not, there's probably some part of that story that can resonate with you. Maybe you were overly generous. And when you could have been charging and all you see is lack, um, you will be surprised. And I'm kind of walking through a season like this right now, like, oh, Lordy, I'm giving a lot away. Um, this is not me tooting my own horn. This is just me as testament saying God is so good, and we we don't always see what he's doing behind the scenes. But it's, and I've talked to my mom about this that we're we're taking on a church on, well, it's not Sunday when y'all are listening to this, but it's Sunday for us. But, you know, in as God-fearing women, we know the law of sowing and reaping. And it's easy for somebody to fall into, well, I'll give this so I can get this back. And it becomes very transactional. But I it that's not like that. It's just this constant loop to where you're giving so much away and you just are constantly being met with what you need. There's no keeping track anymore. It's just like none of it is mine, anyways. So I'm gonna just continue to give it away and do not what's logical, but what's godical. I'm gonna take this job that doesn't make sense so I can be with my kids more. I'm gonna learn how to teach this thing so I can figure this thing out over here, and you're sacrificing in all of these different ways. But at the end of the day, if your goal is to just lay it all out before the Lord and just give him, give him everything, then it's just it is a constant cycle of just I think that's what I'm even referencing with watching you in your life, especially like as a mom in your solo mom years, watching you sacrifice so much. And I'm not saying I was a perfect child, I was a young teenage girl with an attitude, but that doesn't mean I was not witnessing all of the things that my mom was sacrificing. Um, to I always saw her needs being met and our needs being met. And it's just it's so cool. So whether you have kids or not, I think that there is you can apply this probably to your life or your business in some capacity. Um, I think this is just like truth bombs from Mama Mel today. I hope this is You were a good kid. You're so sweet. I think the Lord gave you amnesia. I was probably the easiest because I was the baby, hopefully. Um yeah, I I hope I sowed some good seed because I have a daughter now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you do. You got you you have a daughter who can sometimes have your sister's matitude.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, but she hates it when we call it that. So we can't say that because Madison might listen to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00

No, man. And I had only heard tales about it. And um, you know, she's your your daughter is two years old now. Almost like two. She she will be by the time people are hearing this. Uh-huh. And um, and I I witnessed it one time and it was very brief, and it was like a snap of the finger, and a snap of the finger, she was just her sweet little selfie. It was just I was like, she's my little sour patch kid.

SPEAKER_01

She's my sour patch baby.

SPEAKER_00

Sour patch baby. She's so sweet. She is just so so sweet. You're doing a great job being a mom. And I'm watching you sacrificing things to, I mean, you have two kiddos and a husband, and you know, I I watch you and how much, you know, you're not doing the hustle to do the hustle. You know, you're not hustling. You are sharing so much information. And when you talk about sowing seeds, whether it's good ground or not, you still are throwing those seeds out there. I'm so I'm so impressed with what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01

Well, we we do what we learn usually. I didn't really have to unlearn a lot when it comes to sacrificial love and sewing into people, whether they deserve it or not. And so I I think I just watched you do that really again, really beautifully. Welcome to the Say Less Podcast. Uh, it's just a love fest today. You're just where my mom and I are doing on each other. Maybe we should, you know, compliment each other more. No, I'm just kidding. You tell me good things all the time. Maybe I need to be better at that. Okay. You're so you're you're a grandparent now. You're a honey, um, which I know brings you so much fulfillment and joy. And this is what you've dreamt of your whole life since you've had kids. Probably you're probably like, I can't wait to have grandkids. So you're in this season, um, and you've mentioned being able to with Poshmark and having more flexibility. Um how like what's next? I guess I'm like, what's next? Because I'm not having any more kids. My sister Madison is, but that's besides the point. So, like, what's next, other than more grandbabies? Or maybe that's that's what it is. Maybe that's the thing where you're like, okay, I've arrived. Let's just party with the grandkids.

SPEAKER_00

No, I'm gonna, I so Ira, the oldest, is about to be nine. He shares her birthday with your oldest. And I've already taken him through the entrepreneurial steps of of a Poshmark business. He has already, I don't know if you remember this, but he fell in love with squishmallows. I've got one here.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yeah. Oh, that was a thing.

SPEAKER_00

If you're if you're watching this, this is the popcorn one. And he it's a thing a popcorn, he won't let me sell this one. It's really funny. That's so funny. But um, he really got into these squishmallows, and so teaching him, you know, about selling, and he he was he lost his family's remote control for the Roku. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. And he was gonna have to pay for what like it was a whole conversation that he had with me. He said, I'm gonna have to, I have to pay to replace it. And so in my mind, I'm like immediately like, we're gonna, okay, we're gonna this is here's a learning thing for us. Yeah. So I'm looking up how much does a Roku cost? And like the top of the top of the top of the line with multiple remotes and everything is like $70. So we set a $70 goal. Yeah. And he pulled out his 10 least favorite squishmallas. And we popped on. I sent a message out to my 20,000 at the time, only like 20,000 followers on Poshmark, and um, and just said, My grandson's gonna be on with me. You hear me talk about him a lot. He's coming on, coming live with me. He has a goal. Come buy squishmallows, and we're really hot at the time. And so he was starting them at $3. And these women on Poshmark, after they heard him tell his story about, you know, here's the why, right? I need to meet this goal, and here's the dollar amount. He was selling the squishmallows for $70 a piece to these women who were coming on and buying the squishmallows because they wanted him to know only one of them went for $70. But um, the rest of them were going for $20. And I mean, yeah, he got all this money. And he had then then he had not just enough money for me to cash up his mom um for the Roku, but he had enough money then to like buy an engine for this go-kart he was building. And then he he reinvested and he tithed and you know, just he did all the things. And so I think it would be kind of cool to continue pouring into all these grandchildren. Yeah. You know, how to, you know, not just the law of sowing and reaping, but the law of multiplication. Yeah. And that discipleship and the evangelical part of business, those are two very real parts of being an entrepreneur. You can't just be a builder and you can't just be a seller of things. You also need to disciple and multiply and be evangelical. Talk about your business so people know what you do. Yeah, yeah. That's good. That's good. But I do love Poshmark. Reselling has has was kind of snuck up on me. I had a client who was on Poshmark and she was like, I need to figure out this live thing. And so I got I had had a Poshmark account for since you guys were pretty young. And I got on and they immediately gave me live access. And I'm like, want me to go live. One of the things Grace didn't mention was that I hosted a shopping show at one point. Yeah, yeah. And so I was like, I haven't been in front of the camera and I've gained some weight, but who cares? I've got bags I don't carry anymore. Let's sell them. And so I went on, and before you know it, I was making um a you know, fairly good amount of money, and now have been able to fund many trips and many Christmases and yeah, helping you with kids.

SPEAKER_01

Hello. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. If one of them needs something, I can say yes. I don't care if it's, you know, if it's a pair of shoes or a flight to National or, you know, a ball cap or, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You do Poshmark so well. I joke that you could sell a wet paper bag to anybody, but like also a designer bag, and you probably get more money than you would a wet paper bag. I don't know. You could you could sell a wet paper bag for the same amount, but you just do such a good job. And um I think you kind of got in on it, just like everything else you've done with social media. You kind of got in on it like in the early days, and so you've just kind of grown with the platform and you just do such a good job at staying up to date on things, and you're such a learner. I just, I know I get that from you, but you just are always learning whatever and everything. You're just like a sponge, but you don't just heap it up and for your you squeeze out all the time, and you just are so generous. So I'm gonna I'm gonna try to land the plane here. We say that almost every episode, and usually I'm the one that has to do it. Gotta land the plane because I know we could talk about this for three hours, but I guess a big question that I have for people listening, we have a lot of people that are not just, I mean, wedding photographers. We have a lot of different, um, a lot of different types of people in different types of industries and moms and not moms, and maybe some grandmas, and maybe some, you know, young adults that don't have kids, or a boyfriend, or husband, or anything like that? We're just all over the board here. But the female individual, whatever her season, wanting to be an, you know, I guess you you don't want to be an entrepreneur. You kind of are. And then you just, you're either, you know, confident enough to run with it or not, and you do it or you don't. But what would you say to that woman who maybe she's been in it and she's burnt out, or maybe she's just wanting to start something, put her hands to something. What kind of advice would you give her? Like bare bones, what do you even start with? What is truly like the most important thing that has carried you through all of these seasons into like where you are now?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I would say know why you're doing it. Definitely um do it for the right reason. If you want to be an entrepreneur because you keep seeing all these things about take a course or, you know, or whatever, and but it's never crossed your mind. You just feel like you're getting talked into it. Yeah, then probably don't do that. But if you feel like you have this natural ability to kind of bend and I don't want to say go with the flow because you have to create your own flow too. But I want to, I just want to say know why you're doing it and stay firm in that. Stay stationary for longer than three seconds.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And if you start something and you're like, this isn't the one for me, that's okay. Yeah. You know, let the curtain fall on that particular act of that particular play, and let's move on to the next thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

There is absolutely no crime or shame or punishment in starting something and stopping something. You can, you know, you want to see something through all the way to the end, but if you know pretty soon, like this is not the thing for me, like it's it's it's not like my heart's not in it. I would say that let your why be something that you you can feel it bubbling up in you. Like we can't, we almost can't stop talking about this. We've been talking for nearly an hour. Of course, the cut won't be an hour, but we've been talking about this. And because it's something that I think we're both passionate about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. That's something that we are all able, you know, thankfully in this country to pursue it. But know your why. Yeah. And um, enlist, listen, you need to have, in my opinion, my humble opinion, the thing that I always had to have, and I believe that you, Grace, I think I know what you're about to say. Is yeah, you need to have a soul, you need to have a silence, you need to have a Timothy, you need to have a father here and a younger person, at least three streams of people from different, not they don't have to be that much older than you or younger than you, right? Maybe older than you in what you're doing. They're more experienced. And someone who's on the same level, and then someone who's younger than you, and never let pride get in the way from you learning something. I learned something from you, Grace, every time we talk. I'm like, that's genius. Oh my gosh, it's so good. Or you know, I mean, I love to hear these younger people on not just podcasts, but in different areas talking about life or love or the pursuit of happiness or whatever they're pursuing for work or that plow. Don't let pride get in the way of letting you um learn something from someone who's younger than you. You gotta have those three streams coming in because if you're pouring out, you gotta make sure you're refilling too. Or you know, what do you what do you know? You can't pour from an empty vessel.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I've gone through many a season two and years where I was keeping my head down and working a lot. And Alex and I talk a little bit about this on like a community first podcast. But we uh there's just been seasons where I've just kept my head down a little too much because I can get hyper focused, hyper fixated on whatever I am learning and achieving the goals that I want to that I've set for myself. But then you look up and you're like, wait, where are my people? Who are my people? How did I get so disconnected? And it's a really humbling experience to come back from that because then you have to be the one to go seek those out. And that's not my strong suit either. But um being humble enough to approach somebody to say, here's all my cards. I want you, I'm opening the door for you to correct me, to teach me, to critique me, tell me when I'm in the wrong, would also love some encouragement. You know, you don't want somebody that's just gonna tell you how to change all the time. Yeah. And then, you know, people to do life with that are just you can link arm in arm with. And then yeah, like you said, finding somebody to to pour into. And that's the other thing. I think in the especially the industry that I'm in, you hear all the time like your time is worth something. And but that doesn't mean that you have to put a dollar amount on it. So go get coffee with someone just because. Go, you know, pour into somebody just because, knowing that you will get nothing zero in return. Um, because it may feel like that, but uh it's not true. You'll you'll get something out of it. You'll get something out of it. Um, so don't be like stingy with your time either. And that's coming from a true introvert, uh, someone who loves to recluse and hide away. And I'm like, I'm fine without you guys. I'm doing great. But yeah, just like just like Mama Mel said, you gotta have somebody pouring into you. You have to have like those peer-to-peer relationships and then pouring into other people as well, even if they're older than you, even if they're, you know, whatever. Just try to keep the door open. Um, wow, that was a lot. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. This is so good for having me.

SPEAKER_00

I hope it wasn't like trying to drink from a fire hydrant.

SPEAKER_01

No, it's good. I love it. I love it. Okay, so before we wrap up, tell everybody how they can find you, where they can find you. We'll put it in the show notes too. But where are you? Where do we hang out with you these days?

SPEAKER_00

I have some very intentional branding. When Grace was just in middle school, you can find me at behold her life, B-E-H-O-L-D, H E R L I F E. Everywhere. Everywhere. You are behold her life. Behold her life. And that is just, I mean, not that you need to behold my life, but so that whoever the her is in your life, whoever her is, behold her life. You never know what she might be going through. Yeah. You can find me on Instagram, Poshmark, just you know, just just come find me and tell me you heard it on the podcast. Yeah, I get a designer bag out of the deal. You never know.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, friends. I hope you have a happy Mother's Day. And mom, I hope you have a happy Mother's Day, and we will talk to you guys next time. Well, my mom won't, but Alex and I will. Thanks for having me. Yes. Okay, bye.