Special Guest Expert - Melanie Griffin: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Melanie Griffin: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Announcer:
Welcome to The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show the three keys to your success is just moments away. Here's your host, Brian Kelly.

Brian Kelly:
Hello, everyone, and welcome, welcome, welcome to The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show! I am so excited tonight. I have a very, very special guest expert. I cannot wait to introduce you to her. She is an amazing, extremely bright, intelligent, beautiful woman. And she is on fire. She is going to change lives. She's already changing lives, but she is going to take this to the moon. And I'm very, very excited to bring her on. She's just an amazing person. I've just met her recently. And there's those kind of people you just know when you've met them that, you know, this person's all right. And this one's not just all right. She is amazing. So we're going to get to bringing her on in just a minute before we do The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show. What is that all about for those of you that are not aware yet? If you're a new watcher, a new listener on our podcast afterward, The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show, In my fifty five years of life on this planet, most recently the last decade or so, I began focusing on very successful people and learning about them and from them. And over that course of a decade or so, I started noticing and realizing and recognizing certain patterns that seemed to be common between them all. And again, remember, we're talking about successful people. And they came and you might guessed it, guessed it in three primary areas, mind, being mindset. They all have a rock solid, powerful, flexible mindset. And our special guest expert tonight is no different. This woman has nailed it. She's got it figured out and she can help you in this area. That's why I am so excited right now. And body, body, what is that all about? That is literally about taking care of your physical body by eating well and drinking well nutrition. And by that four letter word called exercise. Yeah, I know some of you got that exercise. And that doesn't mean that you have to work out every single day of the week like some would suggest. What it really means is just move, move on a regular basis, get into a scheduled regiment workout four to six days a week. And it doesn't mean you have to work out an hour a day. It doesn't mean, guys, that you need to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You don't have to have six pack abs and look like a bodybuilder and for ladies, it doesn't mean you need to look like a supermodel. All it means is the whole purpose of it is really more how you feel and how you look. And when you feel good, you look at it's a that's an amazing thing. And then business that is a multifaceted area and that covers so many things. That's marketing, sales, team building, systematizing, scaling. The list goes on and on. And what I found was those that were very successful had mastered all three of these areas. Now, some of you might be saying right now, well, business, Brian, how am I going to master all of that? Because there's so much more than what I just mentioned. Well, the good news is one of those items that I mentioned called scaling and building, which are one and the same. That is where you help and get those other skill sets taken care of that you may not personally have. And so it's it doesn't all have to be done by you. That's the good news. And so that is what The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show is all about. We cover topics ranging from those three, what I call pillars of success from mind, body and business. And tonight, we have a incredible guest who I'm sure covers every aspect. All three pillars. And one other phenomenal trait that I also learned from very successful people is to a person, they were all very voracious readers. And to that end, I'm going to Segway into a little segment, a very quick one that I affectionately call bookmarks.

Announcer:
Bookmarks for and to read bookmarks. Ready steady read bookmarks brought to you by ReachYourPeakLibrary.com.

Brian Kelly:
And there you see her next to me and real quick before we go on. For those of you that are watching or listening, take notes, pull out a piece, a literal piece of paper, you know, old school and a pen and take notes. And when we we being myself and Melanie Griffin, who's coming on here very, very shortly, when we give you resources such as reach your peak library. Write down the information instead of, you know, resist has. And don't go off and actually try to multitask and go look up these resources on your computer or phone. Stay with us. The magic happens, as they say in the room. I would really hate for you to go off, wander off and not be paying attention by looking at something and then have Melanie drop a nugget that could have changed your financial life forever. So just stay in the room. Take notes. Take veracious notes. Hi. I'm running the show and I'm hosting the show. I take notes. Every single show as we're going along. So I just implore that you do the same. And so this Web site reachyourpeaklibrary.com is a website I put together with literally I kid you, not with you in mind, the viewer, the audience. And what I did was I did not read for most of my life. I did not read. I was thick headed, thick skulled. I just resisted the, you know, all the great advice I was given and just wouldn't read. And finally, about a decade ago, I finally, finally got through this thick skull and I began reading voraciously. And this is a list of books that I personally have read. And these are not every book I've read. They are the ones that have given me the most impact personally and professionally, mostly on the business realm, but also in all three phases, mind, body and business. And the reason I put this together is so that for those of you that have not either not started reading or aren't reading as much as you probably should be, or for those of you that are reading voraciously, there might be other books in here that you have not yet read that will come to your attention once you go to this site. This is not for the purpose of making money. This website is simply here for you to get a book and start reading it. It doesn't matter which one. In my opinion on this list, find one that really jumps out at you and click on one of the buttons that for the different formats that it gives you and it goes straight to Amazon and you can just grab the book. There I listen on Audible and it has literally been a life changer for me. And that's why I just wanted to share that with you. If you're not reading, it's a nearly free resource. In fact, you'd go to the library and it could be free to read these phenomenal books and books like them. ReachYourPeakLibrary.com. And speaking of successful people, I am not going to wait any longer. It is time to bring on our special guest expert. So let's bring her on.

Announcer:
It's time for the guest expert spotlight, savvy, skillful, professional, adept, trained, big-league qualified.

Brian Kelly:
And there she is, ladies and gentlemen. The one, the only Melanie Griffin.

Melanie Griffin:
Hi, how are you, Brian?

Brian Kelly:
Doing fantastic. So much better now that we brought you out of the green room and onto the stage. This is going to be a phenomenal evening. We've already got people commenting. And it's amazing. Hugs and kisses from Argentina. We've got Argentina in the house. Thank you, Ed, for coming on. Oh, and I have to mention this one, the lovely, the wonderful Erica Queenie Castner. She is amazing. She's been on the show. In fact, she is the one who recommended Miss Melanie Griffin to come on the show. And thank you so much for that, because the bar is always raised higher and higher with each guest that comes on. I appreciate that. Before I introduce you, Melanie, officially, formally, I want to quickly let everyone know who's watching live. You have to be live that at the end of the show. So stick around to the end. It's approximately one hour in length, so it won't be too long from now to go by quick. I will announce and give away for you, a way for you to win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort in Mexico. And this is bona fide. It's not they're not going to sneak you off into a room and pitch a timeshare to you. It's not that kind of thing. And the reason I know is because our sponsors that you see on the upper right of the screen as you're looking at it, powertexting.com, the owner, the CEO, has used this very resource no less than three times and each time reported it was phenomenal. You go to a resort and they treat you as a normal guest. There's nothing different. And we are giving away a five nights day to night and every show stick around to the end. And I'll give you the information on how to enter. Now to the most important part of the show is not me, it's this young lady right here, Melanie Griffin. She is a triple graduate, triple graduate of the Florida State University. Upon graduation from the MBA and law program, Melanie's entrepreneurial skills were honed for 12 years as a business litigation attorney. Right off the bat, attorney. So this this woman is intelligent. She is bright. Just talking to her right before the show started. It was so evident. She is. She is on fire. She's going to go big, big places very, very quickly, despite a successful legal career like many women, Melanie struggled with the fear of failure, inability to believe in herself, perfectionism and additional issues related to what is often referred to as imposter syndrome. That's interesting. Thankfully, as a result of significant mentorship and the desire to learn to be her best self, Melanie proactively changed her negative behavior and became determined to help others to do the same. I love the proactively part. Hang on that one. Write that down. Right down proactive as you taking notes. That's a huge that's a huge nugget in itself. We haven't even started talking with Melanie. In 2017,she created 'Spread Your Sunshine'. It's her passion project committed to empowering others with the confidence to break the glass ceiling and achieve their dreams. After two years of experience and the excitement over in need for the 'Shine It Forward' movement. And that's a hashtag shine it forward movement. In 2019, Melanie fully dedicated herself to intentionally focusing on the inspiration of joy in and encouragement of others. Another word to write down is focusing. I'm loving this. I'm loving this. Melanie is happiest when she's building up all those around her, including her husband Mike, her son Maverick and their golden lad Molly. With that finally at last, formally and officially. Everyone, please meet, Melanie Griffin. Oh hi, my goodness. This is going to be so much fun. And I love. You know, I absolutely love going through each of my guests' bios and getting to know them more, especially their accolades, their experience, their successes and what they're up to now. And then what I like to do is you know, as we open up the show, is actually peel back the onion and dig deeper because of that first word of the show. Mind it is the cornerstone. It is the foundation for where we are today. You know, your success or lack thereof is 100 percent a result of your thoughts of what's going up in here. And once you realize that and know how to manipulate and change those for the better. And Melanie can help you with that, then you will start seeing huge, huge difference in your life. And so to that end, Melanie, you know, if you're anything like me, when you wake up in the morning, you know, you get up, you swing around your feet, hit the floor, I'm groggy. It takes me a little while to kind of shake off the cobwebs and then I start to come to. And for you, when you're when you're going through a process of waking up and you're starting to come to what is it that once you realize, OK. The days ahead of me, the drive kicks in. And now it's it's go time. And to do that, you are always in a state of maintaining a positive, productive and successful mindset. And for you, what do you do to sustain this on a regular basis? Because it needs to happen from the get go. The second we wake up to the time we go to bed, we're all human. We'll have those bad times. But without this successful mindset, it's very difficult. What do you do personally? What what drives you? What gets you going in the morning?

Melanie Griffin:
One of the things that gets me going is certainly knowing what my passion is that I've lasered in on wanting to help others with overcoming their fear of failure and building up confidence within themselves. And so that in of itself, if you're happy with what you're doing, it gives you energy. If you're in a job where you don't feel like you're providing value to the world, then it makes you really tired. Whereas if you really know that you're living your passion. Super helpful. But even with that, even though I know I'm living my passion and that I'm joyful and not, there's still days that I worry. Is anybody going to want to work with me? Is the next customer going to come along? And so with that, you have to have a strategy you mentioned to make sure that you know how to keep going. So for me, two of the biggest things I do. Number one, just like you, Brian. I am an avid learner, an avid reader. So I never going to talk about that today. And certainly I have those examples and go to podcasts and things I like to read to keep me motivated. And then second, I think about college athletes a lot. I really feel for those 18 to 22 year olds that have the gumption to go out there on the soccer field or the gymnastics or whatever it may be. And they oftentimes have hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions of people who are watching in that time. And some days go really, really well for them. And some days don't. But regardless, they're willing to get in that batter cage regardless of the result and take that swing and see what happens. And so I think to myself, if they can do it. Wow. Certainly I can do it every day, too.

Brian Kelly:
Absolutely. Yeah. That's phenomenal advice for everyone is to, you know, look at other people, what they've achieved. And why can't I. I mean, what makes them really if you look at anybody on the planet, there's there's not a whole lot of difference between someone who's super successful and if you're not there yet. And you. Right. There's no difference. The only difference is what they've what they've put themselves, they task themselves to do on a day-to-Day basis. All the skills they've acquired. I have learned, Melanie, of some amazing common traits of successful people. I've already talked about kind of from a high level, but having guest after guest after guest come on the show and give the details of how they got there. It's amazing. All it takes is what I call is a recipe for success. And so a lot of people think it's this incredible lucky thing that happens. You know, all you. They must have won the lottery. They see a sports car buzzing by or their parents must have willed it to them or, you know, it doesn't take that much work. You know, within less than a year, I could be as rich as I am. I just don't want to apply myself, whatever. But really, there's so many traits. And so it goes so deep down the rabbit hole in a good way. There are so many ways to get there. But really, all you need is one recipe. Like I always talk about baking a cake. Right. I never baked a cake in my life. If I had a red. I'm not kidding. And if I had a recipe book in front of me and let's say I have five of them and all five of them have pretty successful cakes. I mean, they all have great ratings. People love them. I'll have to do is pick one of those. And I'm pretty sure if I got the ingredients in the proper amounts, put them in the oven, mixed it right. Put in the oven for the proper time that I would too. Also have a successful cake. And when it comes to business and success in business, there's truly not much difference. The only real differences are the lower level of effort you're willing to put into it on a sustained basis. It takes a lot. It's not for the light hearted, but if you have a recipe, if you find somebody that you know a successful model, then ask them, can I follow you? Can I model you and offer help? And in return, something I've done. I've had several mentors in my life and there's nothing that can compare to that kind of education. It's on the job training. So I want to throw it out there. It's not as far away and unreachable as mentors think, because I used to think that I used to think it was really impossible to figure out how to become successful. And it couldn't be easier. It's just you know, it's it's simple. It's just not like super easy because of the effort involved. We talked about mind, body and business. And I love the first two because the mind and body are like a team, you know. And more importantly, they're your team. So if you have one team member that's not operating at full capacity, what happens to team overall that suffers? To some extent. And so when it comes to the mind and the body, on the body part, body part, I just said that is no physical fitness for you. A successful woman is, is physical fitness important to you and is it important to your business or your personal life or both?

Melanie Griffin:
So what I would say is yes, but on and off throughout life, I think it's so important to recognize that there are seasons in life. And so for me, I have loved being active my entire life. I started playing tennis when I was a child and most recently for the past five, six years have been someone who's gone often on to orange theory. I like to admit that it's often on, although I wish it was on all the time because I have a two year old, I have a law practice, I have a successful company that I am building and scaling and several passions I'm working on. And so more recently, being truthful. It has not been easy to get to the workout classes and also spend the time that I want to on my business and personal life endeavors. And so with that, what I've found is twofold is number one and has it important to give yourself grace and to not beat yourself up that we all get 24 hours in a day and sometimes getting in a longer workout just isn't going to be possible. And so what I think is important is finding some way to rejuvenate yourself to keep moving. So for me, in those seasons, like right now or weeks where it's really busy and I can't get to the gym as much as I'd like to make it a point to run around the yard with my son or make sure that I'm the person who walks the dog a certain number of days per week. And that doesn't mean that it's the same level of intensity, but it's still moving your body and doing what you can and not giving yourself a bad time just because you can't fully perform in the way you want to. One hundred percent of the time it's just not possible. Something has to give sometimes.

Brian Kelly:
I love everything you just said about that. Yeah. I mean, look, life gets in the way, doesn't it? You know, we don't have so much time in each and every day to get everything we have to get done and sometimes things come up that are unexpected. Other times when we'll be traveling and it's not so easy to find a place to work out. And I love what you said because you figure out ways to continue to move and that means you've made it a priority in your life. And that's why you are a little off that you are. It's not about like like I said earlier, it's not about having an Adonis body or a supermodel. It's just about moving. Staying in shape. Keep those endorphins going. Get the blood pumping. It's the most healthy thing you can do on the planet is working up combined with eating right and no drug or or pill or anything. And going to the point that the beautiful thing is working out, unless you're in a gym, it's free. Maybe you could do it in your home. You were gone by a few resistance bands is what I did for a span of about seven years exclusively. I worked that from home to the resistance bands and my body weight when I was in the best shape of my life. It was amazing. You don't have to make it complex. And Melanie, just told you totally exactly how you can do that. You can just adjust your life accordingly and make the best of the moment. You walk that walk. Get up. If you're sitting at a desk for a long time, you know, get up and sit down multiple times, work your quads and your legs. There's so many easy ways to do this. Just keep moving. So great advice. Appreciate that. Now, we were talking right before the show. It's like we had a few things in common. And one of those being that neither of us were big readers. Back in the day or so, I would go. Would you now consider yourself to be an avid reader? And if so, or even if not, are you reading a book right now and if you are watching what you're reading? currently.

Melanie Griffin:
Yeah. So, Brian, you and I share this. I used to joke that my favorite book was People magazine. It made me so sad. The last book that I read was when I was eight years old. Not literally. Of course, we had to read some write in grade school or high school to get the book reports, but on time as ever as an adult. The only time I read was for work. And then much like you, I had several people that recommended different forms of audio to me and it just didn't stick. You know, they say that sometimes you hear something. Ten, twelve, one hundred times before you actually act upon it. And so for me, for whatever reason, there was a law partner of mine in January of twenty eighteen when she said, you have to listen to this TED talk on overcoming failure. It was by the first Indian woman to run for Congress in her state. And I did it for whatever reason, that was time that it resonated. And the TED talk was incredible. And then I just had this thirst to learn and read more. And so when I say read, I mean, is that in air quotes for me a hundred percent of what I'm reading is through audio, whether it be through podcasts, whether it be through reading books. It truly has been transformative. And one of the things that I have been able to do the last two. Years I thoroughly enjoyed is to take on more and more keynote speaking engagements, not only throughout the Tampa Bay region, right located here in Florida, but throughout the state of Florida, and then drop the U.S. and Canada and ways allow me to do that. What I read it is this now passion for continuing to learn and the books that I've read. So one that I'm currently reading that I highly recommend is from a girlfriend, Crail Funds, if you're listening, this one is for you but is 'Big Magic' by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm almost through with it and can't wait to see the end. It's been a really great read.

Brian Kelly:
Well, you caught me taking notes there. I'm coming back. I'm ready for you, Brian. Yes. Did you say think magic. Big magic. Big Magic, gotcha.

Brian Kelly:
Elizabeth? yeah, thank you for the book recommendation, and that's another wonderful, beautiful blessing I have and I get is being the host of the show. It is. I get so many of the book recommendations and I literally I kid you not as soon as the show's over, I'm on audible and I'm ordering the next book, that's came as a recommendation. Because the people like you that I have on my show, Melanie, have the most the greatest insight into what works and what doesn't. And so I don't even question for a moment when I hear a recommendation. I don't know what it's about. I mean, think magic, I'm sure. I'm guessing it's about the mind and thinking positively at some degree. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. It's about you. You know, if you have the results that I'm looking forward, then I'm going to model you and I'm going to do exactly what you do, without question. As long as it's within my value system. And I'm saying that to hopefully impart upon people watching me right now to do the same. When you find somebody, it's got the success of someone like Melanie. I mean, you know, Melanie, you you've taken a successful career in law and you're kind of now transitioning. It sounds like I may have this wrong with a little bit of transition and spending more time on your passion. What ignited the spark in you to do something like that, to start a new business venture and to start kind of in a way stepping away from the very thing you went to school for?

Melanie Griffin:
So part of it was actually in some ways getting closer to the law. And what I mean by that is there are so many parts of the profession that are wonderful, but there are also so many parts that are archaic and need to be transformed. And so a lot of what I sort of realizing I was really good at was what I would say the soft side of the law. And so there are wonderful people who are, you know, great theories. They're they're really great arguers. Certainly, my husband would tell you that I'm a great trained arguer as well. But what I found that I am uniquely talented at is an ability to work on other things like resilience, inclusion, diversity, things that were really lacking in the profession. And yet that people want to include not only the legal profession, but really it's an agnostic approach that whether it's finance, accounting, whatever it is and business, these are all things that we need to have to have successful businesses. And so when I realized that I was uniquely qualified to provide these skills in a way that while I was a great lawyer, I'm a great lawyer. There are a lot of great lawyers, but there aren't what I would consider to be a lot of great people at what I am uniquely talented at doing and providing in terms of building competence others and working on these other issues. And so once I realized that and really saw the need for it in others, it was something that I just I was so curious about and so enamored with that I had to start pursuing it.

Brian Kelly:
We have so much in common. It's almost scary. You know, that you're using your your vocation, your main vocation to build on that, to build an entrepreneurial business. And, you know, we were talking just before and I've done something similar. I was a software engineer for many years, and I'm using that to create automation. So I love automating things. And that's what I'm doing now for businesses is automating whatever they need to be automated like this show interaction with guests leading up to the show prior to after the show is over and everything in between. And it's interesting that it's cool that we built on our respective vacations. You know, we've used what we've learned there to improve something. Yeah, that's what I love about it. It's always about improving, taking it to the next step. Hello Mike Parviz, how are you doing, my friend? And there is a young lady by the name of Nicole Carver saying hello to all her Nicole. Thank you so much for coming on and anyone. If you have a question, shout out anything you want. If you have a question for primarily for Melanie, then just type it in the comments and we will address it. Time permitting. Appreciate you hanging on. And don't forget, stay to the end for that wonderful 5 nights of vacation stay in Mexico. I want you to win that, all of you or want to you want to give away one, but I want you all to win. Oh, my goodness. You know, so many people have regrets. Like they'll go through college. Well, then they'll go through an entire career path and then when they get through it, you know, they find themselves in a rut. And then now suddenly they're questioning their choice. All this time they spent on it and looking back, thinking, my gosh, what I could have done if you, Melanie, had the chance to start your career all over again. Is there anything you would do differently?

Melanie Griffin:
No, I don't have. Well, I think yes and no. And I have two answers this question. But one is that I do wish that for me, the advice I'm giving now is a hard lesson I've had to learn in terms of believing in myself, being willing to take risks, not being perfect. Not always having the answers. So certainly I would have changed that along the. But in terms of trajectory of my career and a short story for you, Brian, is that when I did decide earlier this year that I need to reshape my law practice and the way that it looked and the way that I practiced and what I brought to the table for my clients and the people that I was serving. I had a conversation with one of my professors. And Dr. Woodyard, if you're listening to this, just know what an impact you've made on my life as a mentor. But I said to him, I said, I just feel frustrated because I didn't know that my career would take this change, that at some point I would want to do things in addition to being a lawyer. And he said, when you left school, I always knew that your life would encompass more than the full time practice of law, that you would find some way to supplement that or that you would use that as a springboard. And I said to him, I said, but no one told me that. But I've really thought about a statement that I made to him in response that no one told me that in reflection. And as I thought about that since earlier this year, I don't actually think that's true. I think that I wasn't listening. That along the way, people were pointing out to me what they thought to be my unique skill set and instead of actually listening to them and taking that to heart, a lot of times I would laugh off their suggestions. And once I actually started taking those suggestions seriously and doing more introspective learning and listening to myself as well as to others in their comments, I realized what he was saying was true is that, you know, maybe all along I was on a path I was destined to be on. And one of the other comments that he made to me that was so true is that everything that I am doing now is a is just a foundation that I continually build upon. So it's my law practice that not only allows me to continue serving the legal community well, but then serving many other communities beyond the legal profession as well as well to.

Brian Kelly:
It's amazing how what we're doing today can have such a great and spreading impact tomorrow and go beyond. And then how are businesses themselves can make massive changes. And we, you know, as a result of the ebb and flow of things are resulting in what's working and what's not. And are we making a difference? Are we serving others as everyone? Is it a win win situation? Is an ecological everything that goes together? It's it's such a cool ride. It's such a wonderful journey to go through this. You know, I often I talk to some people and they're just they just love that that certainty aspect of their life when they work for someone else, that they know they're getting a paycheck every two weeks or months or how often they get paid. And they know what we're gonna get Saturday and Sunday off and all that. And I'm like, I don't like that. I don't like certainty. I want I want things to change. Because when they do, I feel alive because I have to react to them, I get to react to them and, you know, change people's lives and serve people and help people. It's so much more fun to me to go through all that flexibility and continually changing things up. Oh, we have Kathleen Gilbert Griffin. Hi there, love it. We're related, hi mom. Hi, Mom. Excellent. Thanks for coming on supporting. We appreciate if you have questions. Go ahead and drop those in the comment box as well. Thank you, Mike, for the feedback. I'm seeing your comments as well. One thing is that when when you become an entrepreneur, when you when you broke out on your own and decided, I'm going to do this, everything just was super easy, wasn't it?

Melanie Griffin:
Oh, no. We wish.

Brian Kelly:
And the thing is, is, you know, there's a thing called ego that can easily get in the way and say, you know what, if I don't do everything with absolute perfection from point A to point Z in this, then I'm not going to go because it's got to be perfect or it won't happen. And I know that that's been true of me and in the past. And the thing is, is, we need to get to the point for those that want to become successful is to embrace when things don't go right. Right? So and does that ever happen, Melanie?

Melanie Griffin:
Oh, 100 percent. But I also have been trying to be wrong at least a certain percentage of the time since 2016. I heard this great story by a woman who had a successful business. And what happened was for a while she stagnated it because she insisted upon everything being perfect. And upon having review of everything before it went out the door. And that's great if you have somehow figured out how to have more than 24 hours a day. And I'm making that as a joke because all we all get is 24 hours in a day. And so at some point, you if you're going to actually build your business and grow in scale, you cannot A be perfect at everything and B, you cannot be the sole person in charge of everything. And so what that, practitioner did to actually grow her business is that she decided she would actually be wrong at least 10 percent of every day. And that's an arbitrary figure, obviously. And you've got to be careful about what you're wrong about. I mean, if you're instance in the legal profession, the analogy that I would give is if it's you know, if I'm conducting a murder trial, that is not the time to decide to be imperfect. But the example that I would give is right after I did embrace this, there was a shower invitation that came across my desk and it was for a party that I was co-hosting with some friends. And as a lawyer, you know, we were kind of nuts about our grammar. I could have easily taken a red pen to that, you know, invitation. I could have marked it up and told my friends what I wanted to add. But I looked at it and I thought, you know what? You know where to be. You know when to be there. Do you what gift to give? And the answers to all those questions were, Yes. And I thought, okay, number one, that me working on this doesn't deserve any more of my time. It is good enough to get the door. And number two, frankly, my friends probably like me better because I don't think they need a grammar Nazi that is joining them and telling them, you know, what I think of their colons or commas or periods or or lack thereof or whatever. And so I felt it was a better friend, a better businesswoman by just going ahead and saying, you know what, guys? Awesome job drafting that lets move on lets get out the door. So I think that really like you said, Bryant, embracing the chaos and knowing what is deserving of your time and really getting laser focused on your top issues that you should be working on every day, every month, every week and knowing what is not deserving of your attention. And honestly, my biggest challenge has not been working on that in me, but sometimes working on it and my team that I love the fact that they are perfectionists and they want the best for. Spread your sunshine of our community. But again, to actually do the best for our community, it means that we have to produce, which means we have to figure out how can we move on efficiently sometimes.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah perfectionism can literally stagnate your business and progress going forward and I so resonant with us and smiling because just the other night I was talking to my group of apprentices and reiterating that perfection is not the goal. I pretend just like you said it. I appreciate so much that they want to be perfect and that they put that kind of passion and effort into it. But it's not going to serve the company and the end result is going to be stagnation. We're just not going to get there. So I'm teaching them to be OK with not being perfect. And every single person on the planet cares any bit about what they're doing wants it to be absolutely perfect don't we?. Yeah. It's a normal human trait. And now to learn to become more successful quicker to ease off of that. Take the foot off the gas pedal of the ego. Will help a lot in that area. And that's so it's incredibly sound advice, Melanie. You know that the thing I learned is very similar was to fail and fail fast and fail often. All that means is to keep going, to keep taking actions. We can sit there and analyze it. You know, it's analysis by paralysis. We're paralyzing ourselves and our business by not making a decision and not moving forward. If we just said yes more often when we know it felt good. We don't know the outcome of a crystal ball and nobody does. But if you feel it's the right move, then go for it. And if it doesn't work out, learn from it and then move on and do it again and again and again. The faster you fail, the faster you will succeed. Would you agree with that?

Melanie Griffin:
100 percent. 100 percent. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Brian Kelly:
I think in that sense by by itself would not make sense to anybody without all of previous babbling. But yeah, I mean, you can't succeed without failing. And it's just not it doesn't happen. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Melanie Griffin:
No, I was just going to say that recently I had experience in business where we have recently introduced a product line with Spread Your Sunshine. And it was the first time after years of being in the service industry that now we were adding a product stream. And so the first time that we displayed it at a market, it was not honestly a great selling day for us. And so one of my best girlfriends was right next to me and she has is an established brand. She was kicking my tail at one point, actually went over and bagged for her because she needed the help and I didn't. But after that, I went over to her and said, I know we have a great product. There's got to be some way that we can better explain it or we could better display it. Can you give me some advice about what I could do to rearrange my booth or to have better signage or to better communicate my message to my customers? And because she has been in the product line so much longer than I have. She had awesome ideas about what we could do. And so I compare that to myself 5, 10 years ago. I would not have had that same fortitude to ask her. Instead, I would have just probably gone home. You know, eat a bowl of ice cream, maybe shed some tears and not taken the opportunity, A, to realize that quote-unquote, it wasn't a failure. It was a learning experience. They had to move on from. But that B until you've exhausted all options. If you're passionate about something and you haven't asked the question, how can I get better, then you have not given it your all. And so for me, in that moment I learned so much from her. And we did take her advice. We rearranged our booth. And our subsequent days of the market for that weekend were so much better as a result of that. And man, I think about if I had made the mistakes that I made several years ago and just given up, that I wouldn't have seen that dream a reality that began. But because I did have the appetite for learning from her. It just made for such a great experience and great product.

Brian Kelly:
It's interesting you bring all that up because learning from someone else often means that that results in us, realizing that we know we're not getting there or we're not. You know, if we're not learning or we are learning because we're not getting that, we're out looking for advice. And that inherently means we're wrong about something because it's not working. And it's difficult sometimes to take advice when you think you know everything and that you go and I'm saying this for I've been there for everyone watching, listening. We all have egos. And, you know, the last thing anyone on this planet wants to do is be wrong. And it's it's an amazing thing. I love that exercise that you went through, that you modeled that and said, I'm going to be only 10 percent of the day every day this year. That's that's a great exercise, I think. And I learned quickly from my mentor who would give me feedback every time I spoke from stage and another incredible gentleman on the team. And it didn't feel good at first, you know, because there were things. It was nonstop. You need to improve all of these things, even though they were doing it with love. And I got it it turned out that I ended up wanting that feedback so badly that I missed it. I missed having them around if they weren't in the audience. I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm not going get the feedback because what happened was the end result where I got so much better so much faster than I would have on my own. And knowing that they were coming from a space of love and became something I wanted, I wanted them to tell me what I needed to improve on. And it's an amazing transition's amazing process to go through. And once you've hit that spot now you're your ego is going to naturally lay down and say, you tell me what I need to do. You're the expert. I will follow what you say because I know the result. Important part to remember is the result. You talked about in your bio focus. You know, you got to be focused on the result. And there was another word in there I told her about. You write down to figure out what it was like. You had some really good nuggets just in your bio. Proactive is the other word. I wanted to get up. Yes, thank you, Mike. He's talking about my mentor, Mel. Mike also known to beat you for sharing that out experience is the best teacher in life. So true full truth. Mike Chavez has a huge following. He's been doing Facebook Live for I don't know. Tell me how many how many years? I think it's been more than a year solid every single day. And then there is Ms. Anna Dutko. I know if I'm saying that right.

Melanie Griffin:
She helped me get ready for today. Hi, Anna.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. Thank you so much for helping. As you can see, Melanie is amazing. I know you know that already. And we're having a good, good time. I'm going to move into an area of the business realm and talk about one of my favorite topics of of all in. You know, it's it's the actual lifeblood of every individual's business, and that is marketing. You know, marketing is getting people's eyeballs, their awareness to your brand, to your business, to your products, your service to you. And then once that happens, then there's another skill set that kicks in and that's sales closing the sale. Marketing is the lifeblood without people seeing your business, without getting leads. That's another way of stating it, your business goes nowhere. So I'm always deeply curious about what each guest that comes on the show, what their go to at the moment or their best form of marketing. They're both best performing from the marketing and I get it. There are so many different avenues and ways to market one's business. But if there if you could pinpoint one of your most successful approaches to marketing, what would you say that is.

Melanie Griffin:
Hands down handwritten note cards. So for me, I actually when I started, I mentioned earlier that I started making products recently and when I started making specifically was inspirational products. And in particular, one of the main products that we make you spend your sunshine is inspirational stationery. And the reason that I did that was because when I would go speak to different audiences, I was so passionate that I had built a successful law practice on handwritten note cards. And I'll put a caveat on that. The reason the handwritten note cards were so successful is because I was genuinely connecting with people as I was taking time. If you had a death in your family, if you had a special milestone that you achieved at work, if you had a birthday, etc., it was, I wanted to help celebrate you or help bring you solace. And so I was generally connecting with people one on what is a three part. I was generally connecting. I was celebrating them and remembering them. And then I'm doing something that's unique in terms of sending this handwritten note card. And so I was so passionate that those things in terms of generally connecting with people is what helped me build my successful law practice that I would actually go to Target Dollar section. I would buy everybody in my audience. That's what I can afford, right? At Target dollars section, I buy them a note card and I buy them a pen. And I would literally bring it to my presentation and I would give them zero excuses. They had to pay it forward and write out their note cards that I brought for them just then in their presentation. And so after a while, I thought to myself, you know, how hard could it actually be to make my own stationery? Why am I pimping out Target when I could actually build my own brand? And I like to joke that I've learned now, Brian, the last twenty three months I've worked every day since then exactly how hard it is to make these products. But in all seriousness, it's been one of the best forms of marketing is just to be caring about people and your audience. And if you do that, it is not a fast process. But I promise you that it will build upon itself and be one of the best things that you can do to bring joy to others and authentically build your community.

Brian Kelly:
I love it because it has that personal touch, you know. And that's one of the you know, it's it's very similar to the things I preach and that's to show up. And you're doing it through cards. And that's an amazing avenue as well. I've heard others do that as well what was really through birthday announcements and thank you's and just add that personal touch to it. And another is to show up like networking events, seminars, business then on your niche, of course. I like to go to entrepreneurial base of finance money, fitness. I haven't gone to a lot of late, I happened to meet many, many in the past decade, and it's a great way to connect with people on a personal note. And the reason I'm bringing this up, because I love what you're talking about. It's it's physical. It's not just an email, not just a Facebook message. It's a physical piece of paper. That's somebody that is Melanie has spent time to write down something on whether it just be a signature even though there's a note already there, that you spent it waiting to lick a stamp and write their address on the envelope and send it. And that goes a bit above and beyond. And that sure. The user or a person who gets it that, you know, you care. And just like Erika is saying right now, you truly care.

Melanie Griffin:
Yeah, absolutely. Erica honestly achieved so much as you know that I would have to send her one every single day. So she's she's pretty incredible.

Brian Kelly:
Yes, she is. And Mike asked answered earlier. He's been on live every single day for 1030 days in a row I did the math. That's almost three years. Mike that's incredible. His things called life masters, check that out. He's got something every day. Awesome. Thanks, Mike. Nice. Nice. So I was going to ask you also, you talked about keynote speaking. Yes. And one of those those are I get a lot of questions about that. I have spoken from stage. I used to be the lead trainer, for Mel, my mentor for a couple of years. And then I branched out on my own and did three of my own life events. And I'm just curious if you don't mind sharing. What is it you do to go about securing keynotes, you know, to get on other people's stages? Is there. Do you have a media kit? Do you reach out to people? Do you call them? What is your form of getting on other people's stages or creating your own?

Melanie Griffin:
I would honestly say be energetic, which may not be the answer you anticipated, but for me and also be an avid reader. Bring bring content, bring purpose to your message, because one of the things I did not take for granted is the fact that I told you that I started reading in January of 2018. My first big keynote address that I was invited to was also in January 2018. That was the first time that I had done keynote speaking with in my industry, certainly at law schools or at different legal organizations. For the first time that I was asked to keynote for a large kick off in central Florida was in January 2018. And so that's not lost on me that it's when I started reading, it's when I really dedicated myself to continuing to add value and to bringing more to my audience in what was already in my head. And one of the things I would tell you is that one of my Achilles heels, actually, in terms of building out the speaking side of Spread Your Sunshine, my passion project, is that because I bring the energy and the value, I am now asked to speak anywhere from one to three times per week. I have zero media kit, I have zero online videos. I have zero speaking materials uploaded anywhere you could see. Certainly I've had to submit them sometimes organization so that they can get certified for continuing education credit. But it's because someone will be in an audience. I guarantee you that someone is watching reach your peak right now. You love the energy that Brian and I are bringing and the value that we're bringing you. And you're going to reach out to us and want us to be on your stage and bring that to your community and your audience. And so for me, I've been so busy with that, that one of my first priorities for 2020 was actually building out the speaker kit materials on my website so that people looking for more information about me who aren't familiar with me and haven't had the opportunity to see me speak online or in person can get that can get that experience and know and feel comfortable with bringing to their organization. But one more tip, Brian, before we move on, is that I know that keynote speaking can be overwhelming. I have actually heard that it can be a larger fear than death. I think the number one reason for me that it's not is that I was almost a music major in college. And so the tip that I would give you from what I learned from performance piano and playing for a long time is that unless necessary, do not acknowledge your mistakes.

Melanie Griffin:
And so what I mean by that is if I were to say something that was factually incorrect on this podcast, I would make it a point to correct it. I'm not going to in any way intentionally lie to you or mislead you. However, there are few times in this podcast that I guarantee you if you went back and listened closely, I have made missteps. And yet you didn't even notice it because I did not point it out. And so it's going to gloss over the listener and Brian and I don't remember what it was because it was insignificant. And you did a beautiful job of just glossing over it. But in our prenup prep, I noticed at one point you did the same thing and you just kept going. Right? You acknowledge a mistake as it's another way of saying thing I'd say to people who want to get into this is that you can look polished and oftentimes you sound worse in your head than deliver the you're actually giving. And so just keep moving on. Just keep going with the flow and you'll give a beautiful experience to those who are listening.

Brian Kelly:
Phenomenal, phenomenal tip. Everyone is taking notes on this yet is just relax and be yourself and just go. I've made the mistake of hiring mistakes, you know, changing transitioning seasons. You see the graphics moving and things. There were times when things got really out of whack and I would, you know, bring it up like, no, I should've done that. Just keep going. It's not a big deal. Shake it off. Yeah. And so these are things you just learned by doing. And don't worry about it. Just go forward and have fun. Make fun. That's one of the things I notice people get too much into their heads because they haven't decided to make it something that's enjoyable. They are freaking out because they're all intense and they just need to enjoy it. Have fun. You'll be fine. Thank you. Yeah. Nicole Carver says great advice. He's talking to you. Melanie, thanks Nicole from earlier said. Thank you. And she also said so true just recently. So it's so true. We just need to be authentic. That's the bottom line. Transparency is the key these days. And it's I think it's always been the key is just be yourself, be transparent, show your faults. I mean, you've already you've made a couple of statements yourself. You said, oh, you said that was my Achilles heel or something. And you know what? What happened when you said that? I leaned in. I wanted to hear more, and that's what happens. And this is a lesson for everyone is that we want to know you're human. You know, if you are perfect in every way, shape or form, and you're you're out there with a business teaching people how to be successful, they're looking at you going, I can't achieve that. You're perfect. I'm not perfect. They need somebody that's like them. And we are. We just have to just, you know, get put that polish away. Let's go a little rough and just be authentic and show a little bit of the side that's human, that the side that isn't perfect. And people will relate to that and really connect. So perfect. Gosh. Love. Love. I knew you be in love. No, thank you, Erica, for referring Melanie to this show. She's been phenomenal already. My goodness, I look at the clock, We're seven minutes out.

Brian Kelly:
That was so much fun. What? Let's make it a real positive thing. Now, you've just you've started this business. You're successful. Obviously, you're transitioning somewhat already in. There are a lot of times where it can be rough. There are also some wonderful and things go great. That's what keeps us coming back and going. What would you say to date has been your most satisfying moment in your business?

Melanie Griffin:
For me, so one of the things that's unique about Spread Your Sunshine is that one of our inspirational products is not only traditional stationery, which you might think of in terms of getting a set that has the same number of cards and envelopes. But we also have a shine it forward concept, which is the hashtag Brian, you know in the introduction where the person who's using our stationery will fill out the larger card to the recipient. So maybe you, Brian, write your card this week and say you're awesome. Thanks for being such a great host. And then I'm going to include a smaller card that I'm going to leave blank and then I'm going to attach another card to it that explains the concept of how you will shine it forward. And so it's I was just so interested. I know my mom asked me, she said, do you actually think people will do this or you think they'll throw the second card away? And I said, I don't know, but I'm willing to find out. And so in terms of a huge success for me was that every once in a while I will get that blank in the enclosure card that was initially blank that was meant to be paid forward every once in a while, I am the person who gets it back. And by the way, this is not a cry for you to all send them back to me. That's not what I want. I want you to out into the world every once in a while and you get them back. And so for me this year, I got one back in the proper envelope, in the company's envelope. But when I open up the envelope, it was not my card inside that I expected to see. Instead, it was what I was. I will say it was kind of just a random generic thank you card. And I thought, well, this is odd. Why would someone send me someone else's stationery in my envelope? Well, the reason was because the person to whom I had sent the original large card, he said in the smaller card, he's returning to me again on generic stationery. He said I chose to pay it forward to my mom. And so my mom is the one that has the smaller enclosure card. And she's been in the hospital. And I want to let you know about it. And thank you for lifting us after this difficult time. And so obviously, I knew that his mom was in the hospital and that this had been a great service to them. Well, I went on Facebook about 10 days later, and this gives me goose as I say this. But Brian, his mom had passed away. That's what he had given her. I'm sure a terminal illness on her graveside bed. And what I realized was that, wow, our company had the power to uplift others in their true time of need and to really show up, as you talked about, in a time when no one else was there or they really needed to have that joy and uplifting and know that other people are with them. And to not only be able to provide that for my friend, whom I had sent the original card, but then to also be able to be there for his mom in her time of need. Someone I don't even know. It really shows the power of spread your sunshine and what we're trying to accomplish and what we're able to accomplish together as a community.

Brian Kelly:
And that's beautiful. And that's that's so fulfilling, isn't it? When you have that kind of impact, even some small part of an impact, if it's you know, it can have other people in your business, just think of, you know, how you're impacting people positively. And that could be a driving force to keep you going, get you up. And it's day to, you know, go and get five more no's when you are looking for clients just to keep pushing because of that one big victory. You know, that makes you feel fulfilled, that you help somebody. I love that. I love that. Oh, my goodness. Well, we are getting to the end here, Melanie. And what I wanted to do is ask you one final question. It's a question that I ask every single guest that comes on this show. It's the same question every time. It's very compelling. It's very thought provoking. It can be. And it's it's an amazing question, I love asking it because I get to hear all the answers. But before we jump into that, all of you, I promise that are on here watching and listening live. I want to now show you how you can win a five nights stay at a five star or in Mexico, complements of powertexting.com. So at this moment, you now have our permission to pull up your phone and do the following punching the phone number 6 6 1 5 3 5 1 6 2 4. And then in the message area, just punch in and type in the word PEAK and hit send. Just text that in 2 6 6 1 5 3 5 1 6 2 4. Go ahead and do that right now and then send the word peek and you will be automatically entered to win. We have one winner every single show. I love what I get to do. This is an amazing thing. Thank you. Jason Nast and Rhonda over at powertexting.com for providing this wonderful, wonderful gift. I so hope every one of you wins. And now back to the woman of the hour, Melanie Griffin. And this question, just to kind of put it in perspective, Melanie, that the interesting thing is no two people yet have answered it the same exact way. Isn't that amazing? And the cool thing, again, on on the other side is just to make there's no pressure here whatsoever, Melanie. And the reason I say is because there is no such thing as a wrong answer. You cannot answer it incorrectly. It's impossible. In fact, it just helps. True. The only correct answer is yours, because it is unique to you. So now, you know, I'm excited to hear it. This is his office. Yes. OK, cool. So you can relax and give the most authentic answer that comes apart. You're such an authentic individual. You probably have it instantly. But if you don't, that's fine. If you need to think a little bit, that's OK, too. So there's no wrong answer and there's a wrong way of coming up with it. All right. So, Melanie Griffin, are you ready for the question? I think so. All right. Here we go. Melanie Griffin, how do you define success,.

Melanie Griffin:
Happiness! I think that you have to find your joy, find what makes you happy. And for me, I've learned that there are four drivers time, money, opportunity and power. And for me, it's about, am I happy? Am I instilling happiness in myself and happiness in others, happiness particularly in my family and those who are close to me. And if you can find your joy, then I think you'll live just an amazing, purposeful life.

Brian Kelly:
And true to form, unique as every individual is. That was a unique answer as well. And I love where you said. You know, when you said happiness, a lot of people go straight to oh as long as Melanie is happy, she's successful. But that wasn't what you were saying. You were seeing yourself and others and your family. And that's the true work of a successful entrepreneur that I've noticed doing all these shows. I'm literally going to compile all of these athletes into a book and make it just a book out of it and have a phenomenal time doing it because I've got a lot of them now and they're all different. And the cool thing is not one of them is focused on money. It's about serving others. You've said it there. It was like it's about, you know, if you're not. So here's the thing. If you, Melanie, aren't happy, then how are you going to be able to serve more people? The happier Melanie is, the more people she can serve. And if that's true, then the more other people will be happy because Melanie is serving women and giving them results. So it's a beautiful cycle. So appreciate that. That is amazing. I appreciate you. You've been amazing. I appreciate everyone who come on and commented and ask questions and shout it out. We got family. We got people from overseas. We got all happening here. And that's in large part due to your reach. You have a great tribe and it's obvious that they love you. And that's a great, great thing to take with your great legacy. So thank you once again for coming on. This has been a blast.

Melanie Griffin:
Thank you for having me. It's been incredible, Brian, and thank you for all that you teach me and your whole entire community. So have a great night. I really enjoyed being on the show.

Brian Kelly:
Thank you so much. Until next time, everyone, we will see you again on The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show for now. Have a great night and be blessed.

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