Episode 012 – Strong Coffee Strong Women™ with Melody DiCroce

[00:00:00] Chris: All right. Time to unset. How you doing today? How you feeling? That’s enough, small talk. Let’s get after it.

[00:00:12] Welcome to The Mind Unset and our once a month segment called strong coffee, strong women, where I get to share a cup of fantastic Java with some bad ass women. Uh, what can I say about today’s show? I was more nervous about this episode than any of the previous 11. My guest today created her company from the ground up and is one of the most fascinating multi-talented people I’ve ever met.

[00:00:34] She’s a content creator, online business strategist, and a complete tech nerd who can pretty much master every piece of software. She needs to get a job done. She’s helped so many women launch their online businesses and tends to shy away from the spotlight. So I’m thrilled. She agreed to do this. Welcome to strong coffee, strong women.

[00:00:51] My wife, Melody DiCroce.

[00:00:54] Melody DiCroce: That’s what you get for inviting me on the show.

[00:00:59] Chris: All right. Good morning.

[00:01:01] Melody DiCroce: Good morning.

[00:01:02] Chris: How you doing?

[00:01:03] Melody DiCroce: I’m good.

[00:01:03] Chris: I’m I’m really nervous.

[00:01:04] Melody DiCroce: I’m nervous too. Why? We’re so weird. so start all over. this is

[00:01:15] Chris: we, we, we tried this

[00:01:18] Melody DiCroce: 1, 2, 3, you go. .

[00:01:20] Chris: Yeah, we tried that too.

[00:01:22] Yeah.

[00:01:24] Melody DiCroce: Okay. How are you?

[00:01:29] Chris: she’s got the giggles.

[00:01:31] Melody DiCroce: Don’t get me started. you know where this is going?

[00:01:35] Chris: I do. I know exactly where it’ll go.

[00:01:37] Melody DiCroce: Oh, I’m gonna start crying.

[00:01:38] Chris: 40 minutes of melody laughing. You ready?

[00:01:40] Melody DiCroce: Yes. I think so. I’m good. I’m nervous. And now I can’t stop laughing. Okay. Oh, 1, 2, 3, 4 5 1 2, 3.

[00:01:56] Chris: All right. Hi. Thanks. Welcome to strong coffee, strong women.

[00:01:59] Melody DiCroce: Hi, good morning.

[00:02:00] Chris: Thanks for doing this.

[00:02:01] Melody DiCroce: thank you. I don’t know why I’m I’m nerve-cited.

[00:02:06] Chris: Nerve-cited,

[00:02:06] Melody DiCroce: nerve sighted. That’s what my eight year old nephew says – that he’s nervous but he’s excited.

[00:02:11] Chris: ah, interesting.

[00:02:13] Melody DiCroce: that’s actually really, it’s like a good kind. It’s like a good kind of nervous.

[00:02:16] Chris: Yeah, this is, this is kind of weird. We don’t really have, um, Discussions like this with headphones and not

[00:02:23] with headphones and microphones and yeah. What a great way to, um, close the season with, uh, the last episode of strong coffee, strong women. How’s your coffee?

[00:02:34] Melody DiCroce: It’s good.

[00:02:35] Chris: I committed a grave error this morning. I must confess, uh, you know, sometimes life gets in the way when you’re doing this stuff. And I had, I’ve forgotten that I had to take the car over for some maintenance. So we are drinking. Drip coffee.

[00:02:50] Melody DiCroce: the horror.

[00:02:51] Chris: It is, it’s pretty horrible. Um, but it it’s actually a nice Oaxacan blend.

[00:02:57] It’s bla zone is the company.

[00:02:58] I think it’s the Puma blend or something. Puma blend

[00:03:00] from Oaxaca. It is, uh,

[00:03:02] it’s not bad. It’s coffee. It’s

[00:03:04] caffeine. It’s coffee. And it’s, um, it’s got my almond milk in it, so we’re, we’re ready to rock and roll. Woohoo. Yeah. So, um, I just gotta ask, before we get started, Nick you’re in the .

[00:03:20] Melody DiCroce: This is why I’m nerve sided. I don’t know what you’re gonna ask me.

[00:03:23] Chris: You’re in the online business, you know, space now. But when we met, you were working a gig, but this whole entrepreneur thing was not a new thing for you because you, your first business was selling worms in a cul-de-sac uh, I gotta know that story.

[00:03:40] Melody DiCroce: I can’t believe I’ve never told you that story. And how did you even hear about that story?

[00:03:43] Chris: How old were you?

[00:03:44] Melody DiCroce: I, I think I was. Seven. Um, cuz I remember where we lived and I think I was in like first or second grade. Um, yeah, so we lived, uh, I grew up in Arkansas and I, you know, like all the kids were having lemonade stands, how boring, you know? And so I was like, I’m gonna do something different and there was a bait shop down the road and there, you know, it’s Arkansas, there’s a lot of hunters, fishermen, you know, things like that.

[00:04:12] And so I said, I am gonna compete with the bait shop cause I see a lot of business goes there and I’m gonna make some serious money. I’m gonna sell worms. Cool. So I built a little stand, had my little table. I got up that morning, went and dug worms like that morning. And then I put a sign up and I literally think that the sign said worms cheap 25 cents.

[00:04:33] Chris: Nice. That’s a bargain.

[00:04:34] Melody DiCroce: Yeah. Well, I didn’t sell any . That was. That was my first business failure. They say, if you’re gonna fail, fail fast, right, fail fast. I was just gonna say it fail fast. So that lasted one day. Um, but you know, you learn, you, you adapt, you change. And so I took the lessons and I was like, okay, so maybe this whole lemonade stand Kool-Aid stand thing. Maybe that’s a thing for a reason because it actually works. Um, but what I did was they were building a, um, Like a townhouse on our street. And so I was like, you know what, it’s August it’s hot. I bet these construction workers could use some Kool-Aid. So I made some tropical punch kool-Aid went down there with my cute little seven year old self and I banked.

[00:05:18] Chris: Nice.

[00:05:19] Melody DiCroce: Yeah, Cam’s right outside the construction site. That was a brilliant move on my part. Excellent.

[00:05:25] Chris: excellent. So that’s not a surprise. so for those who, um, may not know, uh, a little bit about our story, you know, go ahead, drink your coffee. It’s part of the show. It’s like,

[00:05:35] Melody DiCroce: I’m gonna take a sip. So you might hear my little, all the mouth sounds.

[00:05:38] Chris: We that’s why we edited out. um, for those that don’t know, you want to give a little backstory on what we’ve done for the last 10 years, just to quick, oh my God. Quick catch up like readers.

[00:05:50] Melody DiCroce: I feel like we’ve lived a lifetime in the last 10 years. Um, so yeah, the reader’s digest version. Well, first we gotta go back a little bit further than that.

[00:05:58] So in 2006 is when we met and, you know, here’s this handsome Italian guy. And on our first date, I remember you telling me that you were restoring an old sailboat and you wanted to sail around the world. And I was like, that’s hot, you know, That’s different. Never heard that before growing up in Arkansas.

[00:06:17] And at the time we were living in Nashville, by the way. So I was like, okay, digging it. And obviously we started dating, you introduced me to sailing. And so we kind of carried that dream together and we never did sail around the world, but we did sell everything that we owned in 2012, sold our house in Nashville, moved on to a boat, sailed for what?

[00:06:38] Eight years? Yeah,

[00:06:39] Chris: it was supposed to be a one year. We were, we were, the initial plan was we were gonna think we were just gonna do it for a year. Cuz we were, we didn’t know where we wanted to move. We wanted to leave Nashville.

[00:06:49] Melody DiCroce: Well, it wasn’t. We talked about this before though. And I was like, I don’t wanna just like live on a boat and a dock. You know what I mean? Like we were gonna go sailing. So it was not, but we also knew that. Taking this big leap, you know, which was what we were doing. Like sometimes things don’t work out, you know what I mean? We didn’t know for sure that we would like it. You know, we didn’t know. I, I was still reticent because I had a job.

[00:07:12] I was like, what are we gonna do for money? Things like that. And so, we said, well, give it a year experiment. And mostly that was because of me, cuz I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to do it. And we tried it for a year at the actually we didn’t even like a year went by very, very quickly. And then I think it was like the two year mark you were like, so we never really did like reassess or reevaluate, you know?

[00:07:37] And I was like, you’re never getting me off this boat. Right. yeah. That’s I fell in love with the whole living on a sailboat. Um, it was. An amazing life. We did so much traveling. So yeah, we sailed for eight years. We, um, you know, like sailed down cruises, the whole Western Caribbean and with our dog, which was pretty crazy.

[00:08:00] That was

[00:08:00] Chris: crazy. That was a little, um, a little nuts because, well, I mean, I’m, I’m super proud of what we did and, and I, I should have clarified. Yeah. The, the one year thing was we would reassess at the end of the year to see how we both felt about it. Um, because it’s a grand, it’s a grand scheme to do. And our first year was a disaster.

[00:08:20] So we didn’t really. Assess until the end of year two. And then it ended up turning into almost a decade. We just sold the boat in, um, post COVID in 2000. What

[00:08:31] Melody DiCroce: was last year, last year to 2021

[00:08:33] Chris: September. Was it hard for you to get off the boat? Did you feel like you were losing your identity? Like, cause we’ve talked about that all we have, you know, and that was the thing.

[00:08:40] Melody DiCroce: It was like, um, I, we knew it was the right decision. We’d done it for eight years. We needed to kind of plug in. We missed family, you know, there was a lot, people think, oh, you’re just living the life of Riley and all this travel. It was wonderful. I would not take a single single moment back. However, um, we also.

[00:09:02] Missed out on a lot of things. And sometimes that came at the, you know, um, opportunities, you know, it was like, you know, I mean, we were down in Guatemala and it’s like, we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do to replace like the, you know, to put some money back into savings and stuff. Because when you’re traveling like that, you know, you can’t always work full time.

[00:09:21] You’re freelancing. And so, and people don’t wanna hire you cuz they just have this vision that you’re like. Working not working on the beach or on the boat and how we’re gonna reach you, you know? So it was like, okay, like we need kind of. Think about like the future, the next 20 years, what that’s gonna look like.

[00:09:37] And we decided that it meant we needed to kind of integrate go back to some normalcy, um, not travel quite so much. And that felt right, but it was so heartbreaking. Like I remember sitting on the steps at your mom’s when we told her that we were gonna do it. And I don’t even know if you remember this, but I was like, just crying, not because.

[00:10:02] Um, you know, I, I felt good about the decision. I knew 100%. It was the right decision. but at the same time, it was like, yeah, there’s an identity tied to what you’re doing. And I was like the sailing girl, you know, it was always a, whenever we’d meet new people, it was like a great topic of conversation. It was fun.

[00:10:22] It was adventurous. It was, um, so many things and yeah, I felt like I lost a huge part of myself when we stepped off the boat.

[00:10:32] Chris: Yeah. Uh, there’s an edge. There’s an edge to live in on a boat. It’s not easy, but that that’s what made it attractive because everything is so easy today. It was, I really felt like I was.

[00:10:48] Alive. Like it went even when it was hard and it was hot and it was raining and we had the dog and, you know, you had to get off the boat twice a day, at least to take jet ashore and go, everything was high impact, but it definitely, we were outside all the time, the doors and the windows were open, we weren’t insulated like,

[00:11:08] Melody DiCroce: well, there were, there were very few opportunities, I think in like normal Western culture life where you’re so immersed. In nature in the elements. And not only that, because I think that was a huge gift. Um, I also think like that, you know, 10 years that we were on the boat gave me so much confidence in myself because you realize what you’re actually capable of, because it’s not so easy. And so even though, yeah, I mean, in the moment it’s like, oh my God, like, I would just wish that things could be easy sometimes.

[00:11:42] But in hindsight, I’m glad they weren’t because we learned so much, you know, mm-hmm, um, about not only ourselves, but how we work together as a team, you know, it’s like when you’re out on the ocean, a hundred miles offshore and something breaks, you can’t just go to the. Boat part store. Yeah. You can’t pull over no, you can’t pull over and flag somebody down for help and, and use your cell phone and call a toe.

[00:12:08] You know, you just can’t do that. And so you have to be self-sufficient, you have to rely on yourself, each other. And so from a personal growth standpoint, that was the most amazing thing that we ever could have done. And I will always miss that time of our lives. But at the same time, transitioning into, you know, like this new way of life, we’re still traveling.

[00:12:32] Like we’re in Baja, Mexico right now, which. Freaking amazing. , you know, we’re in a little apartment. We didn’t like go completely. We didn’t do a complete 180 and get some, you know, big place or, um, we’re still kind of like living very simply, but it is a lot more convenient. It’s so funny because a lot of people are like, oh, you know, we’re in the desert, we’re in a tiny little town where you don’t have access to a lot of things.

[00:12:59] Like, there’s not a Costco here. There’s not a Walmart here. And so. Um, some people think that’s a drag. I think it’s awesome because me too, it’s still, I feel like we’re still kind of living the simple life, even though it’s still a life that a lot of people would dream about.

[00:13:16] Chris: Yeah. And I think the one thing that carries over to, um, I’ll just interject my opinion here, but the one thing that carries over from the boat to our current little one bedroom apartment here in Baja is we’re still immersed in the community.

[00:13:32] Like when we were in the Rio DOE um, in Guatemala, the jungle of Guatemala, we had to go. Local markets every day, chickens, eggs, fruits, vegetables. There was no like it was. And so that is what we still do. Mm-hmm um, we

[00:13:46] Melody DiCroce: still you’re talking to the farm. Like we’re going to the farm and getting our exactly produce and we know his name, you know what I mean?

[00:13:55] It’s like, and we don’t do that all the time. And we do have grocery stores and stuff that we go to, but it’s so nice to like, connect and see. Where things are coming from and see the hard work that goes into it and the love that goes into it, you know? So

[00:14:08] Chris: you practice Spanish and talk and integrate with the culture and it’s not right.

[00:14:12] Melody DiCroce: Get yourself outta your comfort zone, cuz it’s still, you know, like our Spanish isn’t isn’t great. Yours is way better than mine, but it’s still a chance to, um, challenge yourself personally. On a daily basis so that you can grow as a person and, you know, get better and, um, learn about a different culture or a different way of life, or, you know, it’s it. Pretty amazing.

[00:14:35] Chris: Mm-hmm . And so, um, on that thread, just to continue on that with the amount of transients we’ve had over the last 10 years and the traveling and the moving, I mean, because we went from boat to car, to apartment, to boat, like we’ve been basically living out of the Honda, the venture pod. For, um, and the boat was always as solace for us because it was there.

[00:14:58] It was always there. It was our house. It was, we don’t have a, we don’t have a, a regular house. So the boat was always home. So

[00:15:05] Melody DiCroce: no matter where the boat was, we always said, what was the, uh, it was like, um, there’s no place like home, wherever it happens to be at the moment, you know?

[00:15:14] Chris: Yeah. And it’s like, for me, the, the big thing about the way we lived for 10 years was the big.

[00:15:22] Epiphany for me was that home became a state of mind. Mm. I say that when I do my talks with the, you gotta go to no thing, uh, home switched from a place to a state of mind and wherever you were and wherever jet was, was where we were home. Yeah. That’s what it, yeah. So, but after the 10 years of living like this, do you feel like you’ve gotten better with handling change or is it still. Um, cuz I remember when we left the dock, before we left, before we’d ever leave the dock on a big passage or something, you would be so anxious as would, I we’d both be really anxious, but I always reached the point we called it the Gogos yeah. I always reached that point long before you did. Um, but I remember once we got off the dock, you were always the first person to say, oh my God, I am so glad. That we’re moving. So after 10 years of transient living and all that stuff, and now that we’ve had the same apartment for two years and the same, we’ve been in the same little town for almost three years, going on three years, we got here in 2019. But do you feel like you’re better with change? That’s a really long question and I’ll probably end that, edit that out a lot, but I was trying to give a little background.

[00:16:38] I may not. So, um, do you feel like you’re better handling change or do you, is it still hard for you. To make the

[00:16:44] Melody DiCroce: no, I think, I mean, I absolutely think I’ve gotten better with change. I think just as humans, we’re hardwired, like our nervous systems, you know, it’s like, it’s easy to get in a, a comfort zone.

[00:16:57] You know, it’s like if you know where your food’s coming from and you know, where your money is coming from, you know, whatever it’s it’s, that feels good. Um, It’s a little hard feeling unstable at times, you know? So I think from a nervous system standpoint, we’re hardwired to resist change a little bit, but just like with anything else, I think it’s, you know, practice. Um, and because we were moving around so much, then. Yes, it’s easier. I, I think from the two of us, it was easier for me to kind of grow roots somewhere, um, and feel comfortable. So that’s, that’s a tough question because yes, change is easier for me now. Yes. I also get more comfortable, quickly. I think change is necessary for growth. That’s a long answer to your long question.

[00:17:56] Chris: I was, you know, I mean, it’s not an easy answer. I mean, there’s, there are a lot of, um, facets to that. That’s, that’s kind of, I, well, just wanted to hear your thought process through it. I wanted to hear you kind of work it out because like we don’t, we we’ve talked about it.

[00:18:09] We, we, we talk about it in a roundabout way when we’re having coffee and we talk about it, but I, well, like we

[00:18:14] Melody DiCroce: would leave the dock, you know, that chain that wasn’t a fear of change. That was a fear of the unknown from a safety standpoint, like, you know, me, I was always, that was the one thing I never got over the fear completely of docking or UN docking.

[00:18:30] I had a nightmare last night about pulling off a dock in, you know, five knots. Current , you know, like, um, I still, well it’s Harrow still. It is harrowing still. And because, because we had to be self-reliant like, you also had to make sure that you were, you know, safe. And sometimes the situations we were in weren’t always safe or they were a little scary or, you know, whatever.

[00:18:50] And so, um, I think. that was more the resistance to pulling off the dock than it was just changing because I always loved going to a new place, but once we did it and I’m like, okay, we got off and we’re safe and we’re okay. You know, my nervous system could relax and then it’s like, oh, why was I so nervous about that?

[00:19:08] But I think that comes with anything. I mean, it’s like, we always, you know, you start. Um, a new business, you move to a new town, you, you know, go to a party where you don’t know anybody. Like the unknown is always a little bit, um, a little bit scary sometimes,

[00:19:23] Chris: but yeah, but I think if you’re not scaring the hell outta you, sometimes it’s scaring the hell outta you. Sometimes your, your ideas aren’t big enough. Right. I think I fully agree with that.

[00:19:32] How did you end up working? Um, in the online business space?

[00:19:38] Melody DiCroce: So, yeah, well, , it was kind of. Forced because we were like, we had moved onto the boat. I was working remotely for the company that I had been working for in Nashville for a very long time.

[00:19:50] Um, but I was kind of, you know, learning about blogging. We had a travel blog. I was learning about things online. And so naturally I was following, um, You know, other online business owners, things like that, bloggers whatnot. And through a podcast, actually, pat Flynn’s podcast, I heard this guy REIT safety, um, who was talking about financial advice for like millennials or younger people.

[00:20:17] He was like the new Dave Ramsey, but in a more approachable, relatable way for somebody like, you know, our age, um, we’re not millennials anymore, but at the time, you know, it was, it was relatable. And I was like, wow, I really like that. What this guy says. Started following his blog, got on his email list and he, uh, put out a thing one day he was hiring.

[00:20:38] And I mean, this is, you know, New York times best selling author and none of the positions I was even remotely qualified for, but there was one for a QA specialist, which was like, um, copy editing. But also like tech, QA, things like that. And I was like, huh, I might be able to do that. You know, like I don’t have any experience, but I’m a really good speller.

[00:21:03] I dunno. I’m good. Like good grammar, um, written, you know, I’m from Arkansas, so my grammar’s never gonna be perfect. But, um, so I. Was like, you know what, and I remember you told me, you were like, you know, you don’t like, you gotta just shoot for the fences. Right. And so I was like, okay, well, I know if I send a resume in.

[00:21:24] Uh, from the hundreds, perhaps thousands of entries, you know, that he was gonna get for this job, then I’m not gonna get the job. I have zero experience, you know, so I gotta do something different. I have to like stand out, be different. And so I did, and I, uh, just basically recreated. His website, but I made it about me, but it was like using his colors and his branding.

[00:21:45] And I put little testimonials from like, you know, former, uh, managers and bosses and things. And I also, as the tagline on the website, I put, I live on a sailboat here. I was thinking people are not gonna hire me because I live on a boat. Like that’s gonna be the one thing that like keeps me from getting a job.

[00:22:05] And it turns out I got the job. And the reason that they hired me. Was because they said that that stood out so much, not only my approach to doing something like the anti resumes, but the, I live on a sailboat, caught everybody. They were like, who is this chick? You know, that lives on the sailboat. And so they were like, we gotta know more.

[00:22:24] And of course, you know, I still had to qualify. I had did four interviews to get that job. And, um, yeah,

[00:22:29] Chris: but the, the bigger point was what you thought would be getting, keeping you from the

[00:22:32] Melody DiCroce: job. Exactly. And so sometimes, yeah, I think that, uh, as. You know, one, one thing I’ve learned is sometimes we’re so afraid because we think we don’t have, uh, the right skillset or the right look for something or the right, you know, personality for it.

[00:22:52] Um, I’m an introvert. So I can’t, you know, be in this online business space because I see all these, you know, people on Instagram and everything’s perfect. And I don’t like. You know, being on video or whatever. And so you can use those things to say you can’t do something, but in actuality, sometimes there are, you know, the funny thing is, is we like to think that we’re unique, but we’re kind of not like if I’m an introvert and I’m struggling with X, Y, Z, I know there’s a hundred thousand other women who are introverts, who are also struggling with the same thing.

[00:23:27] So instead of trying to. Speak to everybody or put on errors or be something that you’re not, why not lean into the very thing that you think is gonna be your hindrance. And just go with it. You know what I mean? Like you say, so promote, like I live on a sailboat, right. And you know what? I can do this job.

[00:23:46] I can still do this job. Right. You

[00:23:48] Chris: know? And you said, take your, I love the way you said it. You, you said, and I wrote it down. You said you make what you think is your weakness and it ends up becoming your superpower. Mm-hmm so, uh, I, I love that. And I think that’s a great time to talk about, I know you’re an introvert, the misnomer of introverts, like you said before, a lot of people misunderstand.

[00:24:07] That introverts. Aren’t just people that are like, don’t like people they’re, they’re just people that recharge by being by themselves. Yeah. So as an introvert in the online space, where you, where you, where there is a lot of pressure on the Instagram perfection and all of this perfectionism, and look I’m, I never have a bad day.

[00:24:25] How do you manage your energy and, and, um, recharge while, while being in that space? Is it a problem for you or is.

[00:24:33] Melody DiCroce: I’ve definitely created ways. And I think there’s, uh, a duality there because I think there’s. Being an introvert and also being a, I like to say recovering perfectionist, because I’m not there yet, but the perfectionism thing, a whole different conversation sometimes than the introvert thing.

[00:24:51] But when you mesh the two of them together, um, it can really be a, you know, a big mind fuck actually, um,

[00:25:00] Chris: and burnout, it comes down to burnout.

[00:25:02] Melody DiCroce: Well, yeah, because it’s like. Because you’re trying to, uh, like, you know, for me, it was like when I first got started in this space and so, you know, it was like, I was working for me, like I said.

[00:25:14] And so now I am a launch strategist for online business owners. and how I made that transition was, you know, Ramit. He was like launching online courses, things like that. I ended up being on his launch team in addition to the editorial team. And I learned how to do these like million dollar online course launches.

[00:25:32] Right. Then I took that. Of course, um, You know, wasn’t working with him anymore, because that was when we took off and sailed down to Cuba, Cuba, and Guatemala. And I was not gonna have the connection. I couldn’t do that. And so it was like, but, uh, that was like a, a dream job. And I learned so, so much from that.

[00:25:51] And I just honed those skills and I used them with other clients, like on a freelance basis. And so now I am helping women course creators launch their online courses and I’ve kind of leaned into helping. Most of my audience tends to be on the introverted side and maybe it’s because I am an introvert and so they can relate to me, um, all that to say.

[00:26:13] So when you have the introvert and the perfectionist, when I first started out, I saw all these people that were doing it so well. And of course you always would admire people and learn skills and learn from other people that are kind of already doing, or, you know, where you wanna go. , but there’s a lot of pressure, especially in the online business space to play a part, I guess you could say.

[00:26:39] And for a long time I was struggling to play that part. Like I was trying to be the, the expert and always look perfect or, you know, whatever, and that wasn’t always possible. And I think that that was actually why it took me so long to really. Get where I am today in business, where, okay. Now I know what I’m talking about now.

[00:27:04] I know what I’m confident about and it’s okay. That I’m weird and quirky. And I don’t like being on video and people say, you gotta be on video. If you wanna sell LA LA. No, you don’t like, it’s just like with, when you go to the gym, you know, if you’re knee, if you have a bad knee or something, then your, uh, your coach is gonna say, okay, Do this instead, you know, there’s always a workaround, so you don’t have to do things like people tell you, you have to do ’em and you know, on top of the.

[00:27:34] Introvert perfectionism. I was always a people pleaser too. And so, but now I’m kinda learning. I’m a little bit of a rebel in some ways, not always, you know, but I’m like, okay, like this feels good. And I think that comes with confidence with doing something. Sometimes you gotta just make the mistakes. And do it wrong to figure out, oh, that’s not, it’s not working because I wasn’t being me.

[00:27:58] I wasn’t being weird. I wasn’t, uh, you know, so I kinda leaned into the whole boat girl thing, you know, that was part of my identity because people were always like, oh my God, you live on a boat. What, you know, and I would meet people at conferences or events or new clients, you know? And so. Always a fun way to kind of get the conversation going.

[00:28:18] And then I was like, yeah, I should totally like lean into that. That’s why it was a little bit hard too talking, going back to the identity thing is because that was a huge part of my identity for years. You know, now I’m just, I’m no longer the boat girl, but, um, you know, I don’t have to be that anymore either.

[00:28:38] Chris: I think along with all of the stuff you gained by working on seven figure launches, which are not, not high pressure. I mean that anything, seven figure is gonna be high pressure. Um, but what you’ve learned and then coupling that to your, uh, identity where you, you really don’t give a shit about playing the game anymore.

[00:29:00] It’s kind of like you. You’re your, your authentic self, even though that word is that’s so over Tous so over you. I hate it. I hate the authenticity. I hate it, but it’s true. It is true. It really is true. It’s just the fact that people have beaten the tar out of it doesn’t mean that it’s any less true, but in finding that.

[00:29:18] And now you are able to say, give permission to other people to say, look, you don’t have to do it this way. Mm-hmm, that kind of honesty, breeds trust. And that’s why your clients are coming to you. But how hard do you find it these days to, because working for yourself and constantly, you know, being a one man band as I am with this show, um, How does that affect your life work life balance and how

[00:29:45] Melody DiCroce: work life balance? What’s that? What’s that exactly? she says it’s like, there’s the thing, like I’ll work 80 hours a week as an entrepreneur to avoid working 40 hours a week for somebody else. Exactly. Um, it’s kind of that. Yeah. I think the key is, and this goes back to the question that I failed to really answer thoroughly earlier about burnout.

[00:30:05] It’s easy when you love what you do. It’s easy to want to. all the time, especially when you have big, you know, like these big, hairy goals that you wanna achieve. I think there’s a danger in, there’s a danger in letting yourself get to the point where you’re working that much. And I know like, I mean, and there’s so many people that struggle with this.

[00:30:32] I love what I do. I think it’s very interesting. I have big goals. I know that I have to work really hard to achieve those. What I’m learning now is that in order to have more balance, because one of the only regrets, and I don’t really usually like to talk about regrets. Cause I don’t really believe in regrets because usually the things that we do regret are really just lessons that we’ve learned.

[00:30:58] And in hindsight, you’re like, oh, okay. I would’ve done that differently. Um, but one of the things that I regret when we were traveling so much, is that because I was working so much, I missed out on seeing a lot of what was around me. It put a heavier load on you. Um, in some ways, you know, cause I couldn’t help with like some of the sailing or the whatever cause I was working.

[00:31:20] So. Now I’m trying to be more conscious. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m getting better, cuz it’s all, we’re always a work in progress. But what I’m learning now is that anytime you want to do something in life, like we really only have two currencies in life, time and money. And no matter what you wanna do, whether it’s building a business, learning a new skill, solving a problem, then you’re gonna pay with one of those things.

[00:31:50] When you pay with time, you can save money. So you’re going on YouTube. You’re learning how to DIY your garbage disposals. Mm-hmm , you know, fixing whatever, or you can spend money, which is gonna save you time. So you can invest in the right tools. You know, you can, uh, invest in the right education, something that’s gonna help you get where you wanna go faster or solve your problem faster.

[00:32:16] Neither one of those is wrong, but the key to remember is only one of those you can get back. And so I can’t get back time. I can make more money. I can’t make more time. So what I’m trying to do now is say, okay, is there something that I can. Invest in whether it’s a tool, a piece of software, um, something I can outsource to somebody else.

[00:32:37] That’s gonna give me more time so that I can have more work life balance so I can get to my goals faster so I can spend more time with you and enjoying this beautiful place that we’re in. So I think that’s really important. Um, just spending. Your currency wisely. Um, something to be said, and I’m not saying like, oh, just go out and like spend a bunch of money on whatever.

[00:33:01] I mean, that’s when, when you’re struggling with like, yeah, that work life balance. I think that’s an important thing to keep in mind is like, where is my time best spent? And how can I save the time? Even if there’s a little bit of investment, which is why. Like my signature product now is called the launch library.

[00:33:22] It’s a set of templates for entrepreneurs who are launching online products. And that was the thing because people hated launching. Like I was working with clients one on one managing their launches and every single one of ’em was like, oh my God, I hate this. This is so exhausting. I’m burning out. I don’t wanna launch.

[00:33:41] And so. Keeping themselves from selling the very products that were making them money because they hated launching. And so I started digging into that. Why do you hate launching it’s exhausting? How is it exhausting? Because it takes too much time. Bingo. Right. And so I created. Templates from all this time, I’d been working with like clients one on one and created templates for like copy ads, project management, templates, things like that.

[00:34:12] And these are things that, okay, you’re not working from a blank slate anymore. When you go down to write your sales emails, there’s templates there, and you kind of fill in the blanks, it gives you a structure. So you’re not having to start from zero and. So people an now are like, oh my gosh, this saved me 60 hours of time on my launch that I could actually focus on like taking care of myself and doing what they do best and doing what you do best say in your zone of genius.

[00:34:37] Chris: Yeah. That’s brilliant. That’s brilliant because you spent all of this time. Working with the biggest names in the business. I mean, doing their launches with them. And then you found the pain points. Mm-hmm . So now, and it was a pain point for yourself. I’ve watched you do it and you’ve created again, you took your. What you thought was a hindrance and turned it into a superpower. So you took what was a roadblock and now turned it into a building block. Mm-hmm um, before we, before I let you go, I kind of have to, uh, just like veer off here a bit and. It’s hard to go into this question without setting it up a little bit because your dog sitting, and you’re not here at the house, we are at another friend’s house.

[00:35:20] And I know before this, uh, episode, there was probably some pregame for you. Did that include any hip hop? Did that include any

[00:35:31] Melody DiCroce: whatever do you mean? of course it did. Yeah, that’s my,

[00:35:37] Chris: uh, can we talk about the little fascination you have the Arkansas girl with the, who can quote some of Tupac.

[00:35:43] Melody DiCroce: It’s just my hidden talent, you know, it’s one of those things maybe, maybe I’ll,

[00:35:47] Chris: you know, is that something of superpower you don’t wanna reveal to people?

[00:35:49] Is that like you might be as like you don’t come outta the booth? No. It’s just like your, your Cape that you don’t want to tell anyone. Is it, am I revealing something behind the curtain?

[00:35:58] Melody DiCroce: No, I have this kn for, well, first of all, I love. Hip hop and rap and always have, I mean, you know, have ever since I was in the, I don’t know, seventh grade or something, but, um, I can remember every lyric to some of these like iconic rap songs. From like long time ago. And yeah, so that’s how I hiked was, was the flavor this morning? Was it still posses on Broadway or was it, it

[00:36:29] was a little, was it a little cer lot? Oh my God. Posses on Broadway, maybe a little ludicrous and then some Beyonce thrown in mm-hmm you know, cuz you gotta do some vague.

[00:36:41] Chris: Okay. So we touched on your. Launch library thing. Is there anything you’re currently working on or launching or setting out there that you’re really excited about? You wanna talk about

[00:36:49] Melody DiCroce: before we, well, I’m really excited because in just a little over a week, um, from the time of this release, then we are gonna be going on a big road trip back to the states.

[00:36:59] Chris: Yeah. For a little bit trip mm-hmm um,

[00:37:01] Melody DiCroce: I’m gonna be doing, I live a little side project, um, where I make these nautical bracelets. It’s super fun. I’m gonna be at the Annapolis boat show. So if anybody’s listening from the sailing world, any of our sailing friends come see me at the boat show right behind the Puffer’s rum tent.

[00:37:17] Chris: It’s a really great excuse to drink a $17 Puffer’s rum in the sun

[00:37:21] Melody DiCroce: and hanging out with my, my friend, Cheryl, we, we share a booth together. She does fine jewelry design. So that’s always. Fun. That’s like a, that’s kind of like that work life balance. Like this is a release for me. It’s a way to just kind of unplug and have fun.

[00:37:33] Chris: And, uh, then Mike keeps us tethered to that sailing world. We see all of our friends from that world.

[00:37:37] Melody DiCroce: Oh yeah. Yeah. Time. Everybody comes to that boat show. And then, uh, so also next month I’m going to be doing a, a bigger launch of the launch library. And so if anybody is interested in, if you’re an online business owner or entrepreneur, Or thinking about starting an online business, go headed over to the launch library.com.

[00:37:58] That’s my website. And you can see all about it. Drop me in line, say hi, you can also follow me on Instagram. I do goofy reels videos there. That was like my foray into like getting out of my video. Fear was like, okay, like these little reels on Instagram, they’re short, they’re fun. You can lip sync. So it kind of gives you a lead in it’s like having a template kind.

[00:38:20] Started, you know, so, um, I kind of show my quirky, weird self over there. Maybe I’ll maybe I’ll do a little wrapping sometime

[00:38:28] Chris: yeah, no. And that’s at the, at, at the launch library, Instagram at the launch at the launch library. Yeah. Right on, um, yeah, I think now look, the gauntlet’s been thrown. There has to be a hip hop reel. Um, I’m gonna throw it. So, um, this is the last strong coffee of the strong women for the season one, uh, 13 weeks. We started this. That was amazing. 13. What did weeks ago?

[00:38:52] Melody DiCroce: Oh my gosh. So, so fun. Yeah. And I’ve really like, oh my gosh. I’ve just loved, like seeing the behind the scenes. I’m really good cheerleader too.

[00:39:01] So I’ve loved like cheering you on and like seeing how your mind works because, um, we work so well together. It’s been really like hard for me to kind of step back and not give my input, but. When I do a good job of that. It’s I love seeing the way your, your brain works and your creativeness. I love this whole strong coffee, strong women’s segment.

[00:39:23] You know, I’m all about like supporting and uplifting women. Absolutely. So me too. Thank you for doing that.

[00:39:30] Chris: No, it’s been, it’s been really fun to get to. Get into a different space with people. And I think it’s needed these days with a dialogue dialogue, you know, back and forth. But

[00:39:40] Melody DiCroce: the more we understand about each other and struggles and, you know, whatever.

[00:39:44] Anyway, It it’s, you’re, you’re putting joy out into the world though. I think’s,

[00:39:48] Chris: I’m trying, but we’ll see what we’ll that the jury’s out on that, but I’ve said it numerous times, but the, uh, mind onset would not be here without, uh, you and, um, your feedback and your, my sounding board. And, uh, you did the beautiful website that everyone loves and.

[00:40:08] Being my buddy for 16 years. I mean, my goodness, what a, what a ride, what a ride. And I love that, you know, we did cram several lifetimes into that 10 years on the boat. So, um, I appreciate you doing the strong coffee, strong women’s segment. It was really fun. And. Thanks, babe. Thank you, babe. Love you. Love you too.

[00:40:34] Hey, thanks for listening. We’re closing in on the end of season one. If you’ve been here the whole time, I appreciate you taking the ride as I’ve figured it all out. I want to thank all of you guys who rated us five stars on apple podcasts. That’s huge and a special thanks to those who took the time to leave a review, shout out to S S mag pie.

[00:40:52] Cheryl. The due to Bidens, that’s a killer handle by the way, fix and jets spoke Turner JJ paintings. You guys rock. Thank you so much reviews. Totally help. A small show like this one next week. I am flying solo for episode 13, and then the last episode will also be a solo wrap up of season one. Season two begins November 2nd, but don’t worry.

[00:41:14] I’ll be posting some tidbits in between. And if you haven’t already hop over to the mind, unset.com and get on the email list for updates and episode drop news. Follow us on Instagram at the mind unset podcast, and as always until next week, be nice. Do good stuff.