33 More Podcasts You Should Be Listening To

Looking for podcast suggestions? Keep on reading, friend. 

To me, summer is all about road trips.

And road trip are all about beef jerky, Twizzlers, fun playlists and podcasts. 

The biggest hurdle with podcasts is finding one to listen to in the first place. There's a gazillion out there, so how do you narrow it down?

I posed this question to a bunch of smartypants friends and got so many suggestions that I decided to split up the recs into two separate posts (here's the last podcast suggestion post). Here's a bunch more to add to your podcast repertoire. 

*And a note on podcast etiquette*
Take the time to rate and review the podcasts that you really enjoy. That's what boosts them in the rankings and helps interested people discover new shows.

* * * 

Love, Life, Relationships, Emotions

Dear Sugar
Writers Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond answer listener's questions about love, heartbreak, and how to handle complicated interpersonal relationship questions. I've been meaning to listen to this one for awhile, and then I did, and now I've basically listened to every single episode. It's like Dear Abby for 2016. But better.

Monocycle
Familiar with Man Repeller? If not, that's cool, you can click on this link and learn all about it. If you know and like it, founder Leandra now has a 10-minutes podcast full of thoughts on style, fashion and life thoughts. My friend Rebecca is a huge fan, calling this show "raw and honest and everything."

Crybabies
Who doesn't love a good, public cry sesh? These guys talk about the viral videos, commercials, movies and more than make us tear up. But in a fun way.
 

Mainstream Greatness

Invisibilia
.... is back! Or almost back (June 17, 2016). If you're not familiar with this stellar podcast, here's the gist: Invisibilia explores the invisible forces that shape human behavior – thoughts, emotions, assumptions, expectations. Season One offered six episodes, each one better than the next. Excited to see what these ladies unravel in season two. 

Love + Radio
This one is a little polarizing for people, even from episode to episode. Things my friends have said about this show: "Probably my favorite podcast," "Raw," "Spooky," "Uncomfortable," "mesmerizing," and "I like Love and Radio, sometimes." Regardless, everyone (myself included) can agree that the Choir Boy episode will blown your damn mind.

Freakonomics
One of my all-time faves. Stephen Dubner examines the hidden side of everything as viewed through an economist's lens. 
 

If You Liked the Serial Podcast...

Life of the Law
How do you even begin to talk about law if you don’t know the legalease or the court processes? In 2012, Life of the Law is a bi-weekly investigative report on law in America that everyone can understand. After all, doesn’t law belong to everyone?

Criminal
Criminal is a podcast about crime. Stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.

Detective
Detective is a hit podcast from Investigation Discovery. Check out their new season, featuring Detective Garry McFadden, a 27-year veteran of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Breakdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, aka the largest newsroom in the southeast, delivers investigations and true crime cases that you cannot find anywhere else.

Missing Maura Murray
At 7:35pm, on February 9th, 2004, New Hampshire State Police are called to scene of a single car accident. A U-Mass Amherst student named Maura Murray vanished after she apparently lost control of her vehicle. When authorities arrived not ten minutes later, Maura was gone. There has been no credible sighting of her since, and now there's a podcast all about it.
 

Dinner Party Fodder

Lore
Lore is an award-winning, critically-acclaimed podcast about true life scary stories. Each episode examines a new dark tale from history, and presents it in a style that's been compared to a campfire experience. 

Note to Self
Is your phone watching you? Can wexting make you smarter? Are your kids real? These and other essential quandaries for anyone trying to preserve their humanity in the digital age. Join host Manoush Zomorodi for your weekly reminder to question everything.
 

Niche Sports!

Enormocast
Interviews about outdoors, rock climbing, and mountaineering. My friend Blaine says, "Even if you have zero interest in rock climbing, the host Chris Kalous is a Terry Gross-level interviewer and many of the shows end up being extremely fascinating or funny."  His favorite episodes are Frank Sanders and James Lucas.

Other favorite outdoorsy podcasts include The Dirtbag Diaries (similar content to the Enormocast, but in a more This American Life style), and Out There (a well-produced show about various topics related to the outdoors).

The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana
Cabana is an independently booked professional wrestler who travels the world. My cousin Josh says, "I like this podcast for non-wrestling fans because it talks about the sacrifices that these men and women make to follow their dreams. Independent wrestling is a combination of the life of a comedian, indy rock star and truck driver. It's all about the stories and miles."

GymCastic
The definitive gymnastics podcast. My friend Diana says, "These people have a wonderful way of getting the juicy dirt, but still understanding that they have kids listening. They cover everything from abuse in kids' sports and how to deal with it to the Italian MTV reality following the Italian national team. If you want to know what's going on during the Olympics this year, listen to a few of these this summer."

Let's Talk About Race, Baby 

Our National Conversation About Conversations About Race
A lively multiracial, interracial conversation about the ways we can’t talk, don’t talk, would rather not talk, but intermittently, fitfully, embarrassingly do talk about culture, identity, politics, power, and privilege in our pre-post-yet-still-very-racial America. This show is "About Race."

My cousin Josh says, "I got into this podcast because I needed to learn about all this racial turmoil from a safe place without judgement. It's an interesting podcast that I would advise against bingeing because the topics are heavy at times."

Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period
If that last one sounds too heavy, maybe check out this really funny but also full of insights on race in America. Or do both! 
 

Business, Business, Business. Money, Money, Money.

The Dave Ramsey Show
Dave Ramsey teaches you to manage and budget your money, get out of debt, build wealth, and live in financial peace. My friend Ulf is a fan, and says, "Yes it's personal finance show and not everyone views things this way, but every time you hear someone scream "I'm debt free!" it makes you keep going toward any goal you're pursing in life." He also recommends the Ramsey-produced Entreleadership, featuring good advice for leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs and more. 
 

Politics! Religion!

Uncommon Knowledge
Oh hey conservatives (or the conservative-curious)! Peter Robinson was a speech writer for Reagan (Tear down this wall!) and he pretty much interviews intellectual conservatives. This one comes from my friend Ulf again: "The Peter Thiel episode was a good one. Maybe I just like this because I like smart conservatives? Call that an oxymoron if you'd like."

The RobCast
Rob Bell talks about spirituality. My friend Katie says, "This podcast feels like going to Church, if church is me running outside while listening to really compelling versions of the bible. It’s not as religious as you might think. It’s thought provoking and comforting at the same time."

Intelligence Squared
Today's top political & ethical topics tackled in an Oxford-style debate. The show encourages audiences to “think twice,” fostering intelligent discussion grounded in facts. One of my personal faves.

Health n Wellness n Stuff

Nom Nom Paleo Podcast
Each week, the Tam family gathers around the dining room table to dive into delicious recipes, food trends, and our culinary (and non-culinary) adventures. Great for paleo enthusiasts or the paleo-curious. 

Bulletproof Radio
Bulletproof Executive Radio was born out of a fifteen-year single-minded crusade to upgrade the human being using every available technology. It distills the knowledge of world-class MDs, biochemists, Olympic nutritionists, meditation experts, and more than $250,000 spent on personal self-experiments. Think of it as the Cliffs notes for self-help and wellness.

Get Smarter

Lightspeed Spanish
It's Spanish English teachers chatting in Español! My friend Diana says, "It's great for brushing up in reasonable doses. They even have a handy episode on Spanish swear words. I studied in Spain, so I particularly love that they have those lispy castillian accents. It makes me happy."

The Memory Palace
Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, always super-great. For history buffs, fans of public radio shows like This American Life & Radio Lab.

Hardcore History
The perfect companion for looooong drives. Dan Carlin's hours-long shows delve way deep into all sorts of world history. Like, waaaaay deep. It's fantastic. 

 

Real Life Stories, Featuring Funny People

Now What Did We Learn
Thought-provoking but fun interviews and topics from comedian and YouTube guy Ross Everett. Now What Did We Learn explores the stories that made the people you love who they are today.

WILOSOPHY with Wil Anderson
Perhaps Australia's biggest comedian at the moment, Wil Anderson get really deep with other comics about personal life philosophies and what it means to balance ego with art.

Movie, Books, Pop Culture 

Netfreaks
In depth talk about whatever is trending on Netflix. The perfect antidote for for when you reach the end of a series and you're devastated that it's over.

The Thread
Kerri Miller's new podcast features all different types of folks talking about a book that influenced them.

The Read
Pop culture podcast from NYC transplants Kid Fury & Crissle who hold nothing back in their love or hate of anything music, movie, television, and the internet at large. 

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What are you listening to and loving? Share in the comments!

If you're into other recommendations, I have this one and this one alll about books. 
 

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33 awesome podcast suggestions to help you get through your next road trip, long run or whatever else you're up to.

Hey Eleanor! I'm a Midwife! Rebecca Egbert's No-BS Approach to Postpartum Care

Rebecca Egbert knows women's health. She also makes standing in a field look glamorous. 

This week, I'm talking to midwife and women's health expert, Rebecca Egbert.  

I know what you’re thinking: What exactly does a midwife do? Don’t worry-- I ask her all about it. Rebecca also talks about the huge gap in healthcare for moms during the often crazy postpartum period. New moms aren’t exactly sure what’s happening with their bodies, their relationship with their partner (and friends!), and why their boobs are acting so weird. Partners, friends and family want to help, but aren’t always sure how. Rebecca gives some incredibly helpful insight for everyone who’s ever given birth or knowns someone who has—which is to say, all of us.

PLUS, she dishes on her awesome Kickstarter campaign that launched earlier this week. 

Here's an excerpt of our conversation. 

* * * 
 

So... are you a little stressed out about this upcoming Kickstarter campaign?

Rebecca: I’m not! I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have some acne on my chin. But, uh, no this morning I checked in with my body and my brain and my mind. I just feel good and really excited. Stress is something that’s relative to me.

Perfect, well we're gonna get into what this fabulous Kickstarter thing is you got going on in a minute. But first, I want you to tell everyone a little bit about yourself, because, well, you are a midwife.

Rebecca: I am.

And one of my favorite words ever in the history of the world is midwifery because it sounds like a wiffle ball. It’s such a good word. How did you get into midwifery?

Rebecca: Midwifery. I love when people call it midwiffing versus midwifing. I've been doing women's healthcare for about 20 years. [I initially learned about midwifery] on a trip to New Zealand and where I met this kind of funky man, a teacher person.

There are a lot of funky people in New Zealand.

Rebecca: I know, right? And we were just talking about my love for medicine, my love for healthcare. I was thinking about going to medical school and this is in my early 20s. And he is just like "Why not midwifery?" And so I looked into midwifery and... I still was leaning towards going to medical school.

But every time I got close to like MCATS or whatever, people would just be like, "Stop, don’t do it, you're gonna get so frustrated with the system, blah, blah, blah, continue to go with midwifery." And in time, I made my way towards it. It turned into more of a advocacy thing.
 

Rebecca Egbert of The Mother Love.

Pardon the naive question, but what is the difference between a doula, a midwife and like a nurse?

Rebecca: Well, a lot. For a midwife, she’ll often have an advance practicing degree. So it would be someone who went to nursing school or someone who maybe was a doula and then did a three-year education process to get licensed, to either practice in a hospital or a birth center or a home birth environment. 

A midwife can manage shoulder dystocia, hemorrhage, any complication that is medium risk to a mom during labor. A doula is going to be really there to help ahead of time and help a mom and partner prepare and get ready for labor.

Doulas are awesome during labor. They really do help you, whether nutritionally or emotionally or spiritually, whatever the word is for you. But the midwife comes in to check on the mom’s vitals, check on baby’s vitals, then deliver the baby, and then manage the immediate postpartum period. The most common place a woman will die in childbirth is related to hemorrhage or something like that in the postpartum period.
 

Oh, talk about scary!

Rebecca: Yeah, scary.

Yeah. It's perfect for my podcast.

Rebecca: So that’s what we’re trained to do. Resuscitate babies and whatnot. When babies come out and they're struggling to breath, they need extra oxygen.

Holy shit.

Rebecca: I know, it’s full adrenaline.

Wow. I bet you have so many crazy stories.

Rebecca: I have some crazy ones.

Oh my gosh. Well, we’re not gonna talk about those today because what I really want to talk to you about is your passion for postpartum health. So can you explain a little bit what that means?
 

Rebecca: Yeah. And I call it both postpartum and postnatal, because it’s really anything after your pregnancy and childbirth. After a long time in the field, I saw just a massive gap where women have their baby and then there’s not a ton of information. I mean, we're the information age, but just being able to have a quick on-call, go-to resource, there just wasn’t anything yet.

So, I started working with moms that were six weeks postpartum out into that first year. It’s that time period after that last appointment that you’ll have with your doctor and your midwife, and then you go off to navigate waters that are new to you if you're a first time mom. Or even if you have a second or third baby, it gets more intense with each child. It’s just that place where you want information that’s going to help you feel better and feel good and take care of your body and make it easy to do so.

I started doing one-on-one coaching for the first year and a half, and then I started getting more into educational tools and health tools.
 

A card pulled from the Little Mother's Helper deck. 

What are some of the really common things that many women experience after they have that last appointment with their doctor?

Rebecca: You know, one of the biggest stressors that shows up is the emphasis on getting our bodies back. That’s a big one. And no one is talking about how relationships can be affected, specifically one with your partner, but also with your friends and how hard that might be in the first.

And then body issues, and just not self-esteem. There’s definitely some self-esteem in there, but I’m talking about like breasts or feeding your baby or what your bum feels like after having a baby or recovering from c-section.

There's some really great resources that have been out there for a long time. But as I say often, they just sit there and gather dust. They're all about your baby and not all about you. What I specifically am doing is making it all about the moms so that she can help her family thrive.


You know, I think when men see this podcast, they'll think like, "Oh, we’re talking about giving birth and having babies and shit. Well, that’s not really for me." Yes it is about you! What do you wish men knew? How can they help a woman whose just had a baby?

Rebecca: Yeah. One thing that’s really great that I wish more men knew about is this concept of delegation. How do we delegate tasks together so that one person isn’t just doing all the grocery shopping? Or one person isn’t just getting the kids? You need to manage both of your lives and schedules and put it into a calendar. That’s one of the biggest things that is confusing to new parents: the overwhelm being who you were before and turning into this new family.

There’s a really great book called Overwhelmed and then I forgot the subtitle but it’s kind of hilarious. It's a great book that I think every parent should read prenatally.

Delegate!

What’s really hard for men  to understand what a woman is going through emotionally. There’s a big alienation factor that comes up for women postpartum. Find time to check in with her, especially if she doesn’t go back to work. Remember to come home and have a check in with just the adults brains versus just making it all about baby. Because for that momma, most of the time she’s wanting some other engagement other than having someone attached to her.

Yeah, right!

Rebecca: And of course, the one thing that’s popping up in my brain is sex.  Just give her a hall pass. You might want to get it on with your partner, but for a woman who's just had a baby, it's really the last thing on her mind. Understand that and give that hall pass for the first year. It seems like a long time, but it’s the truth.

How can boobs be so great and so weird? Rebecca explains via Little Mother's Helper.

I'm at the age where a lot of my friends are having kids. How can I be helping my friends that are new moms?

Rebecca: Yeah. Oh gosh I love this one. So I’m the 40-year-old woman who thought she was going to have babies at 27. I still don’t have children and so all my friends have, you know, almost teenagers at this point. The one thing I learned early was to just become two extra arms. It’s the whole Amy Poehler concept: every mom needs a wife.

We really do. Women need to be out there giving two extra arms. Specially if you don’t have little people at home and it’s easy for you to go to a friend, go over. Offer to for cook them, don’t go over to go sit with them and like see the baby. Go over and cook them a meal. Bring them a meal. Go wash the freaking toilet. Sweep their floors, do their laundry like help them out and let them talk to you. Let them feel like they're humans and adults and all that kind of stuff.

I love the concept of knowing your friends so well that you can either bring her like a latte, a smoothie or a bottle of wine and just pop in and be like, I know you need a lift!

I understand how that kind of help would be really fabulous if you're a new mom, but how do you ask for that? 

Rebecca: I think that’s a struggle. That’s where again we all have to be intuitive enough that we can just call up or text her friends and say, "Hey babe I’m coming over. I’m going to pop by." And literally making it a pop by.That’s the best thing that can happen because then they will invite you in to stay longer or not. Scheduling for a mom with three kids or two kids and a new baby is just a lot.

The thing is to remove any guilt, because the mom is going to really struggle to ask. I don’t know if there’s a really great answer for that, because that’s going to be individual to each woman in her own stage of growth… When she’ll be able to call you up and be like, "Hey I’m lonely or I’m scared or I’m sad and I’m just having a hard day. Can you come over and hang out and have a glass of wine?"

So I want you to talk a little bit about your Kickstarter campaign that launched August 5th.

Rebecca: I'm launching a Kickstarter campaign for a project that I’ve been working on for about nine months. One of my tag lines for my umbrella business is helping moms help themselves. I wanted to put together actions, tools, motivation and encouragement on how to take care of your mental body, your physical body, your spiritual body and your heart after having a baby.

Little Mother's Helper. Anyone wanna play 52 pick-up?

That's why I created Little Mother's Helper, a cool deck of cards and app guiding modern mothers in the days, weeks and months following childbirth.

They blend what’s going on with your physical and physiological body-- all the normal things that go on after having a baby. I wanted something that could go into the hands of every woman that would make them giggle a little, but also provide guidance.

The cards are cool because they're, again, chockfull of activities, but then there’s also a section of the deck is all mental health. It goes over baby blues, postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety or psychosis. A partner can go look at that deck of the cards and say, does my partner have this?How I can support her?

It's a great gift. It can also go to grandmas, it can go to partners. We made it for everybody.

* * *

For more info on Rebecca, check out RebeccaEgbert.com, follow her on Instagram (@TheMotherLove) and sign up for her delightful newsletter. A highlight of my week! 

PS Support Little Mother's Helper on Kickstarter!

PPS Here's Still Kickin, my friend Nora's new venture dedicated to helping fellow humans.

It's a BIG little victory. 

As I mentioned in the podcast, this is my last Hey Eleanor Podcast-- at least for now. Thanks so much for listening. You can always keep up with me and my adventures on this blog and via social media. 
 

FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Twitter: @mollymogren
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Email: heyeleanorproject [at] gmail.com

BTW, last week, I started the #HeyEleanorChallenge. You can read all about it here, & if you want in (I think you do!), sign up below. 

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Hey Eleanor! I'm 64 & Love Getting Older! Model & Makeup Artist Cindy Joseph on the Pro-Age Movement

I think we can all agree: Cindy Joseph is hot for any age. 

This week, I’m talking to makeup artist, model and entrepreneur, Cindy Joseph. 

At 49, Cindy decided to stop dyeing her silver hair because she wanted to show women that aging wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The day after the last of her dyed hair was chopped off, she was approached on the streets of NYC to do an international modeling campaign for Dolce & Gabanna. No biggie. She’s been modeling ever since, and even launched her own what she’s dubbed a pro-age makeup line called Boom by Cindy Joseph. I talk to her about why she actually loves getting older, why women need to stop combatting their fear with makeup, plus how to be beautiful at any age. 

You can listen to our conversation on above media player or iTunes, or read a transcription below. Options!

* * * 

Thanks for joining me on the podcast, Cindy! I wanted to talk to you today about a lot of things, but mostly about this dirty little word called aging. I think it's a thing a lot of people, especially women, fear. 

Cindy: Oh, no you said the word! You said the word!

I know. I'm sorry. I said the word. Tell me a little bit about how you became like a pro-aging guru. 

Cindy: I started enjoying my age and telling people about it.

I’m allowed to ask you how old you are, correct?

Cindy: Absolutely. I am 64 and a half years old.

Happy half-birthday!

Cindy: Thank you, thank you. And I say that obviously a little tongue in cheeck, you know, just to make people aware the fact that -- or remember how we used to celebrate our age. I’m 7 and three quarters. I’m gonna be 13. We were so excited and we counted the days until we became 21. And then we just started rockin’ and rollin’ and having a blast, and somewhere around 29 we stop telling our age.

Oh, yeah. I sobbed on my 30th birthday. It was just sort of like, “Wow. I am a real adult.”

Cindy: Yeah. Being a grown up means responsibility. And we all like to shirk our responsibilities from time to time.

Oh, definitely.You have kind of interesting story of how you came to age acceptance. You’ve been in the beauty industry for a very long time, and you’ve even done a lot of modeling. I feel like those are two industries that seem very anti-age.

Cindy: Right. Well, it's our entire society. And, you know, there is history to it. For women, it really goes all the way back about a hundred years when we were valued only for child bearing. We were sold to our husbands by our fathers. We couldn’t vote. We couldn’t work. We were around to have children that could serve the family.

Well, that all changed. A hundred years ago can seem like a short time away and it can seem like a long time away. And we are now valued for many, many things far beyond childbirth. Yet, we still have this piece that tells us if we look like we’re in our child bearing years, that’s when we are the most valuable. Women’s currency is base on their looks.

That’s all make believe. It's something that society created and we’re moving out of, slowly but surely... You don’t need to go marching the streets and yelling and screaming and saying, “We are valuable our whole lives.” It's a matter of realizing and valuing ourselves for our entire life.

When women that start valuing themselves at every age and wearing their age proudly and showing how passionate and fun sexy and exciting life continues to be, people notice. They start seeing that gray hair as silver. They start seeing those crow's feet as beautiful age lines that reveal the vulnerability and the beauty of a woman. 

I decided to enjoy my life for the rest of my life. And so, I was seeking and looking for more positive view points about [aging].  And having gone through different personal growth workshops and schools etcetera, I collected a lot of information about living life.

At one point, I bumped into a group who were not only celebrating their age, but the women were being celebrated. It's like, okay what that about?

Was this in the United States?

Cindy: Yeah. This is -- this is in the US and I am now living with all of those people.

That’s amazing.

Cindy: Yeah. So, they just did a bunch of research. They’re a bunch of young hippies back in the 60s and decided to live in a commune [and still do!]. They met the changes that came with group living after growing up in a society that was all about two in a box, the nuclear family of the 50s. They had to confront a lot of things that you don’t have to confront when you’re living alone. And through that, they learned a lot about themselves and each other and what being human is all about. And one of the things that they discovered is that women are pleasure-oriented creatures living in a success and production-oriented society.

Interesting. So, what is that mean exactly?

Cindy: Well, a production, success and goal oriented is more on the trajectory of the way a man functions. Men are more linear and women are more random. We have hormonal cycles and men have stable hormones. They described all these differences [between men & women] and said we’re more alike than we are different. But those differences do make a difference and the way we’re socialized is hugely different. So when I heard pleasure-oriented I just -- I started thinking about what it felt like to grow up as a female in a male-oriented society. I always felt like I was a square pig trying to be push into a round hole.

I didn’t feel good about myself because I didn’t think I was disciplined enough. I wasn’t focused enough. I could never decide what I wanted to be when I grow up. I just wanted to play and have fun... Now, that can sound a little frivolous and kind of superficial on one level. But it pleasures me to care for people. It pleasures me to live in a happy society and, you know, things that are more important bring pleasure as well as things that are, you know, more mindless and frivolous and…

Right. You’re not living like a Jay Gatsby party goer everyday for the rest of your life.

Cindy: Yeah. And, you know, whenever anybody chooses is the right thing. I really think that people are perfect just the way they are, and that how different as part of what's so entertaining about relating with others.

The more I approved of myself, and the more righteous I felt about who I was as an individual, as Cindy Joseph as well as a woman. I started playing and thought, “You know what, this makeup and fashion stuff is actually fun.”

That’s what I think -- I was looking on your website and you had something on there about the thinking of makeup is fun and instead of thinking of makeup is a way to deal with your fear and insecurity.

Cindy Joseph: Exactly. So, you see the girl walking down the street. She’s dress to the nines, perfect makeup, perfect hair and she looks miserable. She looks uncomfortable. She's having a hard time walking in those five inches heels, and you know she’s doing everything she can to be attractive and it's not working.
 

And then the next one walks by. Her hair was greasy, you know, maybe she got a couple of pimples on her face and she's certainly not dress to go to a party, but she is just attract along and smiling. Maybe listen to an ipod and singing along and you can't take your eyes off of her. Because the joy she's experiencing makes her attractive... if you are enjoying yourself and being true to yourself, you emanate the pleasure you’re experiencing. And that’s what's attractive.

Absolutely. And I think that does lend itself really well to a different way of thinking about beauty as we age, because, you know -- what do you think it is joy like the best form of makeup there is?

Cindy: I found this quote and it was like it popped out of the universe and said exactly what I was realizing and that is, “Taking joy in living is a woman’s best cosmetic.” And, you know, having been a makeup artist--  I just wanted to give a little bit more history that-- I got back into makeup and all that because it was fun, and that’s what was motivating me rather than the fear that was motivating me previously. I decided to get in the game, the very game that I had rebuild against. It's kind of like working underground.

So here I am this -- you know, legitimate experienced makeup artist. I had the credibility. So people listen to me more readily. So when I told them the truth about beauty and attractiveness, etcetera, they listen to me because I had the credentials.

When I was ready to leave the business I had to have this, you know, discovery about my pleasure oriented essence and was enjoying that. And just really rockin’ and rollin’ and enjoying my life and I was approached my a casting agent and asked model at age 49 with silver hair, cross feet and a whole ball of wax, and to me that was absolute proof that what I was discovering was really true.

And I’ve been modeling ever since and that was 15 years ago.

Later, I decided to launch the cosmetic line. That was all sparked by a question from a young man who said, “Why don’t you create a makeup line? I mean you’re this makeup artist for so long, 25 years and now you’ve been modeling doesn’t make sense?” And my first response is, “We do not another tube of lipstick. Not in this world!” But then I started thinking about it and it was days later I popped out with this idea of a pro age cosmetic line. Because every other cosmetic line since the beginning of time has always been anti age.

What's different about what you're creating than most things on the market?

Cindy: Most cosmetics are design to fix things that are wrong. We are convinced that we have flaws. If your face is square it must be shaded and highlighted and contoured to be oval. If your face is -- any other shape as is in oval, you got to get it to oval because oval is the perfect shape face... We are just bombarded with products to alter the way we came out.

When I started my blog, I did a challenge where I went a week without makeup and...

Cindy: Okay. Okay, wait a minute. Before you go on we have to talk about that. That is brilliant. What inspired you to do that?

I mean, it just sounded scary to me quite honestly. And I’m not even a big makeup person, you know, but I would wear definitely mascara and like some sort of bronzer or blush or something. So I decided to see what happen if I went a week without makeup and I think -- and nobody notice. Nobody cared.

Cindy: Because everybody has their attention on themselves. They’re so worried about their own eyelashes and makeup.

Exactly. It's so funny. And then, what's funny is by the end of the week I started seeing my face differently. I started becoming more used to what I looked like without makeup.. It's funny, ever since I pretty much only curl my eyelashes now. And sometimes I put on some blush or fill in my eyebrows a little bit, but my skin looks so much nicer. I mean noticeably nicer.

Cindy: Yeah. Isn’t something -- you know, skin is alive. Powder is deadening. It -- there's no life there. There's no circulation there and foundation, people always want to make their skin evenly toned. Well, when you put it on you make your skin an even color, but you kind of kill the life that’s in your skin.

I think so often people think, “Oh, if I don’t put on my face I'm letting themselves go.” It's not like you also have to not shower or look your best. You don’t need to also wear sweatpants.

Cindy: Yes. Well, being healthy and -- is -- being well groomed is a part of being healthy. Getting your nails, you know, buffed and polish and, you know, taking that little extra effort primping is really celebrating yourself and what you look like. Taking care of your hair, taking care of your skin, it's a different category that actually adding on and making up etcetera and that can be really fun too. I mean if I’m going to a party to a really fun, celebratory party, I’m gonna throw on a little more color and a little more posses just because it's fun.

Cindy I have one last question for you. A lot of the messaging in our world is about all the things that get worst as you get older. But what gets better?

Cindy: Everything! Okay. So, let’s just look at the signs of it and the logic of it.

And, you know, this graph of life we’re given looks like a mountain and we’re told that we have a prime of life. Well, if we have a prime and we have a peak that means everything goes down hill from there. And I and all of my peers have proven that it's not true that the largest percentage of your life after you peak at 30 or 35 is downhill from there.

We have proven that it gets better and more. So take that mountain and turn it upside down into a V. We’re born at the base of V and life expands. We become more. You cannot take away educations, skills, wisdom, experience, soft knowledge, you can only add to that. So you become better as you age rather than worst.

I am healthier now than I was when I was 18. I am now 64. I can climb 14,000 foot mountains. I can run. I can play tennis. I can do all of those things. And we’ve just got this idea in our heads. It's been drilled into us so heavily that we go out to pasture after we’ve hit our prime. And it's all make believe we can just toss it in the garbage.

We are living longer and we want to know that our future that there’s hope, and that we’re going towards something positive rather than something negative. And we knew that when we were 13. We knew that life was gonna get more positive by the time we got to be 21. Well, ask people that look happy, that look like they’re living passionate, healthy, happy lives who are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond. And you will discover that there is so much to look forward to.

And in terms of women and beauty, at every age comes another kind of beautiful. We don’t have the beauty that we have when were new born. We don’t have the beauty that we had when we were toddlers or adolescents. That goes away, that disappears. You let it go and you grab on to the new beauty that comes with every age. And I guarantee you that attitude going forth with enthusiasm and passion, and knowing that you are right and life is right.

* * *

For more info on Cindy and her makeup line, check out Boom by Cindy Joseph, follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and PS she has some delightful & informative videos on Youtube! 

Follow me on social media:

Twitter: @mollymogren
Hey Eleanor Facebook Page
Email: heyeleanorproject [at] gmail.com
Hey Eleanor Hotline @ 651-964-2469

If you like the show, please rate it on iTunes. Want to leave a review? Excellent! Both help people find the show. 

Any specific feedback about what you're loving (or NOT loving) about the Hey Eleanor podcast? Please leave your comments! I want to make the show better and your honest thoughts really help. 

Hey Eleanor! I Pitched My Product to Target & Won! Amy Regan of Skinfix Talks Entrepreneurship

Amy Regan knows business & the beauty world. Also, she has really great skin!

This week, I’m talking to Amy Regan.

Amy worked for L'Oreal right out of college, then eventually moved to Jo Malone in London (which is basically the only perfume I wear and costs a million dollars AND IT'S WORTH IT).

Eventually, she moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, believing her days in the cosmetics business were over. While there, she discovered a healing salve, made locally by the same family for over 130 years. She loved the product so much, that she eventually bought the company. We talk about the responsibility of taking over an heirloom brand, her decision to do things the hard way, plus the big, scary thing she did: pitching her products to one of the world's biggest retailers and succeeding. PS the elevator pitch happened in an actual elevator. 

Here's an excerpt from our conversation. You can listen to the whole dang thing on iTunes.

* * *
 

Thanks so much for being on the podcast. Where are you calling in from?

Thanks, Molly. I’m calling in from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

OK, please tell me where that is and what it’s like to live there.

It's the most northeastern tip of land in Canada. Lots of planes fly over Nova Scotia on the way to Europe from New York or Boston. It's a beautiful place to visit, particularly in the summer or the fall.

How long have you lived there? Are you from there?

I'm from the states originally, but have been here now 12 ½ years, so now this is home.

Tell me how you got involved in the skincare and cosmetics world.

I started my career in the cosmetics industry right out of university. I was really lucky that right out of university, I got  a job at L’Oreal, arguably one of the best training grounds in the industry.

Yeah, I’ve heard of them.

I still sort of don't know how I ended up getting the job there, but I learned a ton from the folks at L’Oreal. I’m still in touch with my first boss at the company. I really got hooked on the industry, and eventually ended up working for... Estée Lauder in London, England. I was in the industry for a long time before moving to Halifax.

When I spoke to you earlier, you said something about having gone to school for religion? How did you end up in the cosmetics industry?

I was a comparative religion major at university, which my father was very displeased with because he lent me a lot of money and thought I should be an engineer or a scientist. But I was just really drawn to the comparative religion department. And funnily enough, I think there’s actually a parallel between religion and marketing, because fundamentally you need a good understanding of human nature. How people respond to things, what drives and motivates them. Really, I think the comparative religion helps me out quite a bit. But I feel very lucky to have been able to take that leap from comparative religion into business. I had a lot to learn when I started at L'Oreal. I ended up spending a year at business school on their behalf to really build more of a foundation of financial skills in business, which I did not have. It's still my weakness, but it was a great segue.

Was it during that process that you had the thought of wanting to go into business for yourself? Had you always wanted to be entrepreneur?

It was really when I worked for Jo Malone in England. She is the owner and founder of Jo Malone Fragrances, which are now owned by Estée Lauder. I started working with her shortly after Estee Lauder acquired them and I was sort of the liaison between the head office in London and the offices in New York.

Jo is one of those exceptional entrepreneurs who is incredibly creative, visionary and tenacious. I learned a ton working for her. I worked with her for about four years, and I was lucky enough to literally work side-by-side with she and her husband.

Oh my gosh. I have candle envy right now.

Oh yeah, I mean it's such a brilliant concept and it changed the whole fragrance industry. They were the first to introduce stuff like basil as a fragrance. She really pushed the envelope, she’s a brilliant marketer and brilliant businesswoman. She really encourage me. She’d always say to me , You’re not corporate. You’re an entrepreneur and I know someday I’m going to be reading about you having your own business. I never believed her, but it stuck with me.

After moving to Halifax, I thought well that isn’t going to happen. What am I going to do from here?

You could've started a salmon business.

Exactly. Right! So I thought my days in the beauty industry were probably done. But then I discovered this woman who had this amazing formula in Nova Scotia. Her great-grandfather who was from the UK had developed this amazing balm. This family had immigrated to Nova Scotia and had been making this balm in their kitchen for years. It’s very Kiehl’s-esque. When I met her, it was evident that she had something really, really special.

So this formula, it was a balm? Like something topical you'd use on your skin?

The original formulator, Thomas Dixon, created it in the 1870s. He was effectively what we would consider today to be a compound chemist. He had a mercantile and he made concoctions to treat skin irritations. It was intended to cure everything from diaper rash to bug bites to any sort of redness or inflammation on the skin. People formulated things very differently in the 1870s than we do today. He put absolutely everything in it that he knew would treat irritated skin. There's zero percent water in it and just loaded with emollient oils and minerals that are healing and soothing. So it’s an incredibly effective formula. It’s like nothing else on the market. When I met the founder, she had a bank of hundreds of testimonials from people who had used this product for years to treat all kinds of conditions with tremendous effects… it’s so infrequently in the beauty industry you find something with a real healing capacity that's also a great product.

If you skin is a mess, you should probably try this out. 

So these guys have literally been making this balm for hundred years at home and selling it word of mouth? Or how did that go?

They would make it in their kitchen. Most of them were pharmacists, so they would sell it out of the back of their pharmacy. People in Halifax knew that these people had this formula and they would just go to the back of the pharmacy to buy it.

I think we've all stumbled upon somebody doing something really cool, or find a businesses we see so much potential in and think, if only they would do X, Y and Z, this could be huge! So how did you approach this company about helping them grow, then ultimately about buying the company?

It’s funny you say that. I initially reached out to the woman who owned it to offer my consulting services. I sent her a note saying I love your products, love your brand-name, love the story, this is in my wheelhouse and I'd love to help you out in anyway that I can. They were actually looking for funding at the time and creating a packages to take to potential investors. So she said, great I’ll take any of the help you gave me.

We basically started working together. She showed me how to make a balm and we spent a lot of time just kind of hanging out. At the time, she was having lots of people making offers to buy the business because they knew the formula was incredibly effective. In the end, she told me she knew I would do what she would do with the business. She said, I want you to have it. Would you consider buying it?

Skinfix's Daily Lotion.

At that point, I had not remotely considered it! But I started to talk to friends and family and started getting the resources together. I got really, really excited about the opportunity to buy the business and really take it forward.

Once you did end up buying it, what was it like to have someone else’s families hundred-plus-year-old heritage brand in your hands?

It was very terrifying. There was a lot of expectation in terms of what I would do with the business. Working for Jo Malone was a really good foundation for that because at the time I worked for her, she was being acquired by a big company and trying to maintain everything the brand had been about. I felt a sense of responsibility to the Dixon family to really carry on the brand heritage of Skinfix.

Interestingly, the product is an OTC or an over-the-counter, which means it’s a medicinal drug. There are active levels of ingredients and it actually heals conditions on the skin that are considered diseases. It's a really serious product. And I had never worked with OTCs before, so I started to investigate.

People would say to me,  you know Amy, you got a great story that a great brand. Just take the levels of active ingredients down and make it a cosmetic. It’ll be so much easier and less expensive. I absolutely was not going to do that. This product worked because of Is formula and worked for people for so many years. The testimonials were so incredibly heartfelt, so I felt it was completely unethical to change the formula... It’s not easy formula to make, and it’s an expensive formula to make, but it works incredibly well.

It’s really impressive that you took the extra time and effort to keep the brand what it's always been about.

Thanks. The team here is all women, and a lot of us are moms . And I think there’s something in that that really drives us to create the best product that we can. Women are nurturers and women are caretakers. One of the first lines we launched was a baby line… and we wanted a product that was absolutely going to heal a baby's eczema. That’s our mission. To heal the skin. The skin lifts the spirit, healthy skin reduces stress for mom. When a baby is up crying and scratching at their skin all night, it’s incredibly stressful. So it is our mission to truly heal the skin and help and do it with in the most natural way possible.

To find out how Amy successfully pitched Skinfix to Target, check out the full episode here. 

* * *

For more information on Amy & her amazing Skinfix products (you can read testimonials!), check out SkinfixInc.com. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

PS Want to win some Skinfix Products?

Clearly!

Stop itching, start Skinfixing!

Amy will send one lucky listener their daily lotion, hand repair balm and body repair balm-- a $50 value. All you have to do is share a link to this post with your friends on Facebook & tag the Hey Eleanor Facebook page. I'll pick & announce a winner on next week's show. And by the way, are you following me on FB? You should be.
 

Follow me on social media:

Twitter: @mollymogren
Hey Eleanor Facebook Page
Email: heyeleanorproject [at] gmail.com
Hey Eleanor Hotline @ 651-964-2469

If you like the show, please rate it on iTunes. Want to leave a review? Excellent! Both help people find the show. 

Any specific feedback about what you're loving (or NOT loving) about the Hey Eleanor podcast? Please leave your comments! I want to make the show better and your honest thoughts really help. 

Hey Eleanor! I'm a Solo Lady Traveler, Ft Sarah Von Bargen of Yes & Yes!

Sarah Von Bargen loves traveling alone AND baby goats.

Welcome to Episode 11 of the Hey Eleanor podcast. This week we're talking about the joys (and panic-attack inducing moments) of being a solo lady traveler with Sarah Von Bargen—the babe behind YesandYes.org.

Sarah writes about pretty much everything— how to stop wasting your likeability on the wrong people, great vegetarian recipes and interviews with all sorts of people-- for example, a 99-year-old woman living on her own, or a woman who’s dated on AshleyMadison.com. The Internet loves Sarah, especially people who travel (or want to travel) a lot. She spends three months of the year traveling—easy to do when you can take your business on the road. Since her job is way more flexible than most, Sarah often finds herself hitting the road solo. I talk to her about the biggest advantages to traveling alone, how to take most of the fear out of solo travel (hint: use your brain and plan ahead), plus her favorite travel gear.

Here's an excerpt of our conversation.

* * *

Sarah, I already know all about you, but for those who don’t, tell me what you do?

My name is Sarah Von Bargen. I’m a full-time blogger, ghostwriter and Internet consultant.

I thought you’re going to Internet sensation.

Yes, correct. I’ve been writing at Yes & Yes for about eight years, and self-employed for almost five. I travel a lot, I lived abroad a couple times… I usually travel about three months out of the year. A lot of that is by myself.
 

Does this lady look sad & lonely? I don't think so.

Your business is structured so that means you can pretty much work from wherever. That’s intentional I’m assuming?

Yes, that’s very much intentional. Although one of the "problems" of being self-employed is that you can work from anywhere, but you can work from anywhere. You can get the Grand Canyon still be fielding client calls. Something to be aware of it you’re interested in a location-independent career. This is just a fair warning that it comes with its downfalls. It’s super awesome, but certainly has its drawbacks as well.

You write about a lot of stuff, but frequently about solo travel, especially solo lady travel. What was the first trip you ever took by yourself?

I don’t know if this really counts as going by myself, but when I was 18, I did a foreign exchange student program. I didn’t know anyone and I went to Germany by myself and stayed with a host family. When I was 22, I taught in Brazil and again was at the home host family. But I went by myself. And from there, I took a trip to Amazonia completely by myself… And I should also clarify when I say by myself, that often means that I do the actual transportation travel by myself. About half the time, I meet a friend or I’m doing a volunteer or work program. Often times, I’m under the umbrella of an organization. So there are some people looking out for me and people to hang out with. I’m not wondering around Kuala Lumpur by myself.

It’s not like an Into the Wild kind of experience?

No, it’s not like that.
 

Cutest picture of a person eating pizza in the history of the world. 

When I was younger, I remember talking to my dad about traveling by myself. While he had no problem letting my younger brother go places alone, it was a really different situation. A lot of my family and friends expressed worry. Have you dealt with that?

Good question. I’m very fortunate in that my parents have always been travelers. They’re both schoolteachers, so every summer, we’d travel as a family. My mom traveled by herself and when was young, and my dad lived in Europe for several years. My mom was sort of intrepid, and so if there any concerns about my safety, they know better than to say anything about it, honestly. They didn’t raise me to be afraid of things.

I feel like a lot of people would say things like, aren’t you afraid? Aren’t you scared? Sarah: how many times have you been murdered?

That’s an excellent question! Next time, I’m going to say, well I have been murdered yet. Knock on wood!
 

To me when you travel by yourself, there are a lot more precautions you have to take. What’s the planning process like?

I try to walk the path between paranoia and preparedness. At the risk of sounding like a total hippie, I don’t want to spend my time thinking about all the bad things that could happen to me.
 

I don’t think that’s too hippie-dippy. Who wants to do that?

Yes, exactly. And I look back on certain precautions I could’ve taken but didn’t when I was 20. And now I just want to go back and shake myself for not traveling with a cell phone and travel insurance.

Oh sure, stranger, I’d love to take a ride with you.

Yeah, sure stranger, I don’t need a helmet and will ride with you on your motorcycle down that dirt road… Cool. Awesome.

I just got back from a six-week road trip. Before I left, I made a Google calendar that I shared my parents, my best friend and my partner. The Google calendar estimated where I would be each day, if I was staying with friends or had already made a reservation somewhere, and included the name and phone number of those places. I installed a tracker on my cell phone, which is just a free app, so my partner could see where I was. That may sound weird, but there was a five-day time period where I was completely by myself in between North Dakota and Portland.

That's pretty desolate part of the country.

The Bakken oil fields are no joke, in terms of female safety.

Yeah it’s a bunch of horny dudes living up there in dorms.

I went up there specifically to look at it because I was curious. But that’s another story. So I put the tracker on my phone. I have a self defense keychain. Encourage all you ladies to Google cat self-defense keychain. It looks like a cat, but it's actually basically brass knuckles... [Also], I actually decided to rent a car instead of taking my car, because my car has 130,000 miles on it a rental car doesn’t. Plus you're not putting the wear and tear on your own car. I had AAA and an roadside emergency kit.

Do you have a paper map?

Yeah, I had a paper map. I also wrote down all of the important phone numbers onto a piece of paper in my glove compartment. Then, when I dropped my phone in the water and it broke, I had all the numbers because I’m a stupid person from 2015 who doesn’t know anyone’s number.

I only know my grandma’s phone number. And she’s dead!

Yeah exactly! I don’t know my partner’s phone number! So I had it all written down on the piece of paper for when my phone crapped out.

Honestly, the most important thing to do is just trust your intuition. We’ve all got it. When you get the fear stomach, just leave, even if it’s awkward. Who cares if you make the scary killer feel awkward?

You know, the sad thing about being a woman traveling by yourself is that you know you shouldn’t probably go to a bar by yourself. It’s just not a great idea to Say, “Oh, I’m in downtown Detroit on a Saturday night and I want to go to a show.“ You can do that, but I personally didn’t. I don't feel like it was worth the risk. The amount of fun I could potentially have versus the amount of anxiety I would have made it not worth it for.
 

No, I totally agree. Sort of frustrating. Guys will have to think about that.

No, guys never have to think about that. There was a situation when I was checking in into a La Quinta Inn. It's a decent hotel. It’s not like a stabber hotel. In the south, instead of having hallways and the hotel they have these sort of balcony walkways. As I was opening my car door, I could feel that I was being stared at. I looked up and there are these two drunk dudes leaning over the balcony, staring at me. And they were like two doors down from the hotel room I was checking-in to. As I was bringing my stuff to the room, they were staring at me the whole time. I was going to put on cute tight running gear and go for a run, and now I don’t want to. Because there are two drunk dudes staring at me, literally in the room next to me. So I locked myself in my hotel room, which is so stupid that this is reality. And that totally sucks, but I would not not travel because of that situation.

Right. That’s one day of a million good ones. On this most recent trip, you road tripped for six weeks by yourself. What experiences did you have that you don’t think you would’ve if you'd been traveling with your partner or friend?

It’s really a good question. A drove through the Rockies and definitely had some moments where I stopped and sat by a stream and ate lunch, which is obviously great to do with your partner, but it’s also a special experience to do that on your own... I had a lot of really lovely and pleasant interactions with people that I think happened because I was by myself. Not like men hitting on me or anything, but I'd meet other women we talk for a half an hour. I would sit next to somebody on the subway and strike up a conversation. When you’re by yourself, you’re more interested in the people around you. With a friend friend, partner or family member, you're looking at them, talking to them about what we should do now, or what do you think about this? Are you hungry?

Certainly... I think it's interesting to see the types of activities and stuff I want to do when I’m by myself. When I'm with someone else, I fall into my people-pleasing tendencies. I’ll say things to myself like, I'm not sure what I want to, but you seem like you want to do that, so let's do what you want to do. What were some activities you did that surprised you?

Having traveled enough, I know there are certain things I am patently not interested in. Generaly speaking, I’m not interested in art museums, anything historical. This makes me sound so unintelligent! I don't care about history or art, you guys! But I love factory tours, I love creepy weird things… A specific socioeconomic cultural experiences. For example, I drove to northern  North Dakota because I wanted to see what's up with the Bakken oilfields. They are 100 percent not a tourist destination. They are actively dangerous and kind of unpleasant, but I've been reading about them for the past five years. They've dramatically affected the socioeconomic climate in the town I’m from. So I drove four hours in the rain to look at oil derricks and fire coming out of the ground. Which is a very much something most people would not be interested in.

Yeah, but now you know!

Yeah, it was fascinating.

For the rest of our conversation, listen to the entire Hey Eleanor podcast episode here. 

* * *
 

Sarah Von Bargen is awesome on the Internet! Check out Yes & Yes, follower her on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. And for all you travel geeks: here's her Wanderlust workbook & Adventures in Lady Travel ebook. 

Other stuff I talked about on this week's show:

Here's FREDDIE!!!

Our foster dog, Freddie the Bassador.

See... he's HUGE!

He's a sweet bassador & available for adoption. Check out his profile on PetProjectRescue.com. 

Also, Margie's shelf project for Urban Bean:

Marge, using some tool I didn't even know existed.

A serious work in progress.

Almost done, 60 hours later...

Installation. 

DONE!

That shelf is a SERIOUS Hey Eleanor! Nice work, Marge! Want her DIFY services (that means Do It For You)? Email her at mgstack [at] gmail [dot] com.

Follow me on social media:

Twitter: @mollymogren
Hey Eleanor Facebook Page
Email: heyeleanorproject [at] gmail.com
Hey Eleanor Hotline @ 651-964-2469

If you like the show, please rate it on iTunes. Want to leave a review? Excellent! Both help people find the show. 

Any specific feedback about what you're loving (or NOT loving) about the Hey Eleanor podcast? Please leave your comments! I want to make the show better and your honest thoughts really help. 
 

Hey Eleanor! I Started My Own Business!: A Chat with Paleo Author Melissa Joulwan

Melissa Joulwan talks business, in a non-scammy way. 

Welcome to episode 10 of the Hey Eleanor podcast. This week, I'm featuring a woman who quit her full-time corporate gig to start her own business. And she's kicking major ass.

Paleo blogger and cookbook author Melissa Joulwan influences the way hundreds of thousands of people think about nutrition. But guys, we’re not going to do another podcast on the paleo diet. Instead, I’m talking to Mel J about what it's like to work for yourself. She and her husband David said buh-bye to The Man years ago, and learned tons about running a successful small business. We chat about how her super-successful cookbook series Well Fed changed their life, the importance of not comparing yourself to others, plus her favorite summer reads.

Here's an excerpt of our conversation.

 

* * *

I know you usually talk to people about the paleo diet, but today I wanted to talk to you about.. leaving corporate America and starting your own business. What did you do pre- The Clothes Make the Girl?

My last full-time job was as a content strategist at a large web development agency in Austin, Texas... I was responsible for the word part of the website content… sort of like advertising, copywriting and marketing writing merged together. But it’s worth mentioning that my first job was as a content strategist. I was about 23 or 24, but [working in the corporate world] didn’t sit with me well, even then. I wanted to be a personal trainer, so I quit my job and got certified. My husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, was also freelancing. And we tried to be freelancers and it was super stressful.

After a couple of years, we decided to take jobs working for other people. We worked for another agency in San Francisco for a couple years, got out of debt, and both were promoted to pretty powerful positions. We were really enjoying it, until one day we weren't anymore. So we did it again. We quit. And it was stressful. But I think at the time... we were more running away from we were doing rather than going after something specific.

I think that is a really great distinction you’re making. I felt a little like [I was running away] when I left my job. I still struggle with setting goals. Like, What am I really trying to do here? How were you finally able to start your own thing without all those anxieties?

I think there are three things that we're doing differently this time.

One is that I stopped thinking of myself as a freelancer and started thinking of myself as a small business owner. It’s a small mental distinction, but it made me take things a little more seriously. Which is not to say I wasn’t taking it seriously before, but thinking about it as a business makes me feel more comfortable. A freelancer sounds like I’m just going paycheck to paycheck. I'm really doing the same thing, but the mental frame made it easier.

The second things we did that we'd never done before was actually make a budget. We really dug into the ugly underbelly of our finances to look at what it would take for us to subsist. Then we looked at a step up from that: what would it take for us to live comfortably? And then a step up from that: what would it take for us to live the life we really wanted? 
 

Previously, the budget we stuck to is the subsistence budget, which was really stressful for us because we were living freelance check to freelance check. So now that were living the life we want to have, we have money in savings... One of the things that always scared me when I was younger and freelancing was that I was doing okay, but I wanted to go on vacation sometimes. So how do we do that? How are we going to have the breathing room to spend money on something that's kind of discretionary?

The third thins is that I make a conscious effort to not compare myself to the other people... We're not hippie weirdos or anything, but our lifestyle is very different from the average American lifestyle of people our age. I'm 47, my husband is 50, we don’t have kids, we don’t have a 9-to-5 jobs, we rent our house.

We used to own our house and we realized homeownership is not something we enjoy. I never plan on owning a house again. We have one car and it’s pretty old. We don’t care because neither of us like to drive and we don’t identify with our car... I don’t really like to buy a lot of stuff... Once I realized [what I actually wanted], it made it easier to make business decisions. We made a conscious decision not to grow our business too much because if it grows more, I have to work more.

And I guess the fourth thing we decided is that we didn’t want to work for ourselves just to work 14 hours a day. We wanted to work two or four or zero hours a day.

 

See, I think that’s awesome. Because so many people thank you have to be really busy and working-working-working all the time in order to be successful. But you can set up a business that isn’t like that. PS I would like to know how to do that…

Well, here’s what we did. We made something called the scam list, which is a little bit of a misnomer because it makes it sound scammy, and it’s not. It's a matrix of things that we genuinely would enjoy doing that could be moneymakers.

Five years ago, we started talking about what we wanted our lives to look like, because I was working corporate job, and David was, too. We didn’t want to continue to do that, but we also wanted to be able to go on vacation, have more time for creative endeavors. Exercise is really important to me and I wanted to be able to workout without keeping my eye on the clock. So we made a big list of all the things we wanted, and then we made another list of projects we thought would be really fulfilling to us AND also make some money. We continue to add stuff to that list as we think of it.

The first thing on the list was make a cookbook from the recipes is on my website. We did that, and it was really successful.

Yeah, so successful. And it continues to be successful!

I’m not going to lie, we got really lucky with our first project out of the gate. But what's interesting is that other things on that list are also happening... This sounds ooey-gooey, but we learned so much in the last five years about how powerful it is to figure out what you want to do, and physically document it in a photograph, or a poster board on your wall or whatever. Because having it right in front of you does help you get there.

For the rest of our conversation, listen to the entire Hey Eleanor Podcast episode here. 

* * *

Huge thanks to Melissa for joining me on this week's episode. Read all about her culinary adventures on The Clothes Make the Girl. You can find her amazing cookbook here. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter, too. And just for fun, here's why she quit CrossFit, kicking and screaming. 

PS Here are the books she recommended. 
 

Erik Larson's books = better than fiction.  |  image: amazon.com

Gabriel Allon = page turning excitement!  |  image: amazon.com

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