Ep. 97: Aging Well at 93: Simple Habits That Actually Work (Lessons from the Mother Behind Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day)

What does it really take to age well?

In this episode, I talk with Monica Nassif, founder of Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day, but the real spotlight is on her 93-year-old mother, Thelma.

Thelma still lives independently, gets outside every day to walk or garden, stays active, and says yes to life. Her habits are simple but powerful, and offer a real-world blueprint for aging with strength, energy, and purpose.

We also cover Monica’s entrepreneurial journey, lessons from growing up on a farm, and what it takes to build a successful, values-driven brand.

If you want to age better, start here.

What You'll Learn: 

• Simple daily habits to support healthy aging
• Why saying “yes” keeps you engaged and energized
• The importance of movement and time outdoors
• Mindset shifts that change how you age
• Insights on entrepreneurship and building a purpose-driven brand

https://www.monicanassif.com/

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This episode is sponsored by Grand Teton Ancient Grains

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Websites, Cookbook, Classes, and Merch

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Transcript

0:00

Hi friend. My guest this week is Monica Nassif, who built an iconic brand, but her 93 year old mother, Thelma is who you'll be thinking about. She says yes to life, embraces failure, and never stops seeking adventure. And Monica shares how that same mindset can help you find and follow your passion. You're going to love her Midwest. No nonsense advice. This episode is presented by Grand Teton Ancient Grains. Their small, organic family farm never uses pesticides, herbicides or glyphosate. Their soil is healthy and alive, and so are their crops that are grown, harvested and milled on site. Every product goes from their farm to your house. Today I want to highlight their grains. If you are sick and tired like me of brown rice and quinoa, try something different. They have einkorn berries, Khorasan berries, emmer millet, spelt, and many other grains that I've never tried, but I have now. I use them all the time in my bowls and they're a total game changer. They're hearty, delicious, and packed with nutrients. Upgrade your grains, pastas and flour and ancient grains. Dot com free shipping when you fill a box. You can find that information in the show notes. And now let's get to the show. I'm Lauren Bernick, helping you make the rest of your life the best of your life. Welcome to age like a badass mother. Monica Nassif is the founder of the beloved Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Products, which completely revolutionized household cleaning products. You know and love these cult like cleaning products because they are aroma, therapeutic, earth friendly, and just plain make you feel happy when you use them. She sold her company to S.C. Johnson in 2008, and the Mrs. Meyer's brand continues to thrive in the marketplace. Monica's latest project is a book called I Bottle to My Mother The Mrs. Meyer's Story grit, grime, and Growing a Business. Please welcome Monica Nassif. Hi, Monica. I'm delighted to be here. Lauren. I'm delighted for you to be here. As I was just saying to you, I just read your book. I loved it so much. It's like to me, it. You know, it was a love letter, like to two people, one to entrepreneurs, particularly female entrepreneurs, but also to your mother. I could really feel that. Oh, yeah. Because it was a big. And she's still alive. She's a huge inspiration to me. And I really just wanted to honor her. What? Everything I learned from her about being a leader. I mean, what, a childhood you had. And, you know. I. I'm going to talk about it in a second, but you're what? You're the oldest daughter. You have twin boys above you, but. So there's nine children, right? Yeah, there's nine children. My mother, at 1031 had nine children. Under. Yeah. Into under ten. Oh my God. So she started with twin boys, then me, three girls. And then we called the three little boys, the three little boys there. So I made the three little. Boys so that the rhythm. Boys. You know, it's funny, you reminded me of my husband's family. They're Catholic also, obviously. And, everybody's named after a saint like your Pharisee. There's a Jane. His mother was Jane. And my daughter's name is Jane for his mother. And she. Jane was a nurse. Kind of like you, your mother. And, you know, so I don't think it was quite as good. I don't think they were quite as good as having that good controlled chaos at their house. Like it seemed like your mother had everything in line. But can you tell us a little bit about that? Sure. You know, my mother approached everything as she was in charge. She was the drill sergeant, but she's also very playful. She just had a very joyful attitude about life and work. And it was always work before play. That was her motto. You know, she grew up on a dirt poor, dirt poor farm in Kansas during the depression, and her parents both took an attitude towards work as this is the way our life is. She said, I don't remember thinking I was poor or I didn't have anything. It's just the way it was on the farm. And so they brought a lot of joy, if you will, just it's kind of everyday, you know, chores around the house from milking the cows, bringing in the, you know, the chickens, milking the cows, all these things you have to do to on a farm to make it survive. So she brought that joyful attitude toward work to our house, and she was always bossing us around, telling us what to do. She had a lot of rules. Dress me. She. But you know, it seemed like your day was built around chores, like you said. Well, with 11 people in the house, it kind of has to be right just to get things done. Yeah. Yeah. And it seemed like, You know, I feel like after I read this book, I was like, okay, this is where I screwed up with my kids. I think I waited till they were too old to introduce chores. I bet, like, I think toddlers had chores just to get them acclimated. Right. Or just. But yeah, they really do chores. Well, they were the assistants, right? So if the older kid was mopping up the floor, the younger kid was. You know, my mom tells a story of she had these gorgeous wooden floors, and she used to put the heavy socks on the little kids feet. And when the Johnson wax went on the floor, they would slide across the floor, you know, but they could they could pick up their toys. They could hand her clothespins, you know, when she's outside hanging up laundry, which she loved, all her laundry goes outside to hang up. Even in the winter, she'll find a few warm hours. So you start out as an assistant, if. You will, and you work your way up to cleaning a. Floor room. That's the way she kind of operated at our house. I think that's so smart because also, you know, the little kids want to do what the big kids are doing anyway. So there was no never any pushback about like, I don't want to do any chores, you know? And so I was like, oh, I screwed that up. You know, it's too late for that. But and then, you know, also she, how did you guys get jobs when you were fairly young as well? And really, I think, prepped you so nicely for that. Yeah. She both my father and my mother believed that hard work and getting your own job, earning your own money was the way to become an adult. And she had a constant saying as a child, I'm raising adults, not children. And she had she said, you came fast and you left fast. So I had to ensure you had survival skills. And one of those was work. You had to get a job if you were in a sport, you know, in high school or grade school, that was something different. But if you didn't have a sport, you had to get a job. And honestly, I wanted a job I wanted. The house was so crazy. I wanted to earn my own money. I was desperate to do anything outside of the house. You know, I was kind of pre title nine when there wasn't a lot of sports for girls in high school. So I was eager to find work outside the house. And I love that she told you. I think it was. Is there anything else I can do before you leave your job? Right. Oh, yeah. She she said you want to make sure that your boss will never fire you. And what you do is, before you leave, you say to your boss, is there anything else I can do? Oh she was. No one says that, right? No one says. I mean, she really prepped you guys. Okay, so now tell me a little bit. Tell me a little bit more about your mom because I'm fascinated with her. She's 93, right? She still. Is 93. Oh, gosh. Childhood home. Yeah. She's still in our family home. You know, she's just a very happy person. And I think it's a couple things. She says yes to everything. You know, she has that attitude of saying yes. She's super adventuresome. For example, my brother Tim said to her last fall, mom, I'll take in a dream vacation anywhere in the world. Where do you want to go? She goes, I want to go on a safari in Africa. He's like, all right. So what he. Does is. And they can only have these duffel bags because they're flying. And all these little planes around Africa do these various safari places. And he makes a tag that says, ask me about Mrs. Meyer's card. And I told my brother, Tim, you don't need that silly tag she's going to tell everybody. About in Africa that she is. The real Mrs. Meyers, but she loves adventure. She. You know, if I called her today and said, hey, mom, you want to go to Mumbai? She probably go, yeah, let's, let's. That sounds interesting. You know, my father and my mother clipped on downhill skis for the first time in their 50s. They hiked the Grand Canyon in the middle of the snowstorm. They taught us not to be afraid of adventure. And that is a gift. It really is. Yeah, it really is. And you weren't. And so, you know, I kind of guess that's a good segue into the entrepreneurial part of this, because I guess, you know, you had a love of cleaning, and I particularly cracked up at your love of ironing, like you'd like to watch sex and the city and iron. I love, I do. I hate ironing. Oh, I love ironing. Exactly. Now I'm doing. Ironing in Bridgerton. I was a project. Silly shows that required no thought. Oh yeah, that's. Other than pure enjoyment. And now I can iron I love it, I know it's crazy. I'm not. Believe me, none of my friends iron. No, I mean, well, you know, but I do like, I do like cleaning. And I also do find it meditative and kind of therapeutic and, and so forth. Okay. So tell me about, so you started your first brand, which was, you know, the higher level or what how would how do you. I would call it the the more higher end. It was named. Higher. Yeah. I was named after my two daughters, Carla and Andrea. And I saw this opening at the premium end of cleaning because a lot of things was happening, were happening in the marketplace. The consumer at the time started eating organic foods. Then she started using this is. 2000. Skin. So to me it was just a market. Yeah. What year was that? 2000. Okay. Yeah. So to me it was just a matter of time before the consumer woke up and said, gosh, I have all these chemicals in my house, I have kids, I have pets, this is dangerous. I don't want to, you know, bring those odors and those toxic chemicals into my home. So it just made sense from a trend standpoint. Two of what the consumer was doing and also I saw here's Neiman Marcus, right. The fashion retail at the time was selling French irony and water infused with lavender for $38 in a glass jug. And I thought, okay, something is changing. The consumer is embracing all these upscale ways to care for her home. And I thought, wouldn't it be awesome if this was like personal care for your home? Wear hand soap and hand lotion would sit on your kitchen counter, much like your beautiful KitchenAid mixture, your Nespresso or Nespresso, your beautiful French white ceramics, your gorgeous linens. I just thought of the Williams-Sonoma consumer. What should we have? What would she have in her home? And how could we fit into that? That's how I thought about the brand and that was caldera. And honestly, I didn't know how to go to the mass level. I didn't really know how to go into the major grocery stores and the target and the Walmarts of the world. So I had I grew up in the retail industry. I got my start with target as a, my first job as I was an executive speechwriter, and I learned a lot about consumer trends, how you really put the consumer first fashion. And I just loved that industry. And I thought I could create a whole category of cleaning unlike anybody had seen before. And I thought, I have to start high end because you can't defy gravity in retail. You can't go into Walmart first and then say, oh, now I want to jump to Neiman Marcus. It just doesn't work that way. So I thought if I start high, then I could bring the product down as we scale. That was kind of my thinking. Oh, that's so smart. And so I, And so you knocked off your own product because you were like, okay, pretty soon somebody is going to catch on and make like a lower end, even though even though Mrs. Meyers is still kind of high end, but a lower end, a version of California. So. And then your mother was the inspiration for that. So. Yeah, I was really I thought the concept was catching on. The caldera brand was in about 3 to 4000 stores. All these specialty stores around the US, and some high end grocery stores, really high end grocery stores in San Francisco, in New York. And I thought, gosh, 80% of cleaning products are sold at the mass level. It's only a matter of time before someone looks at our category and goes, well, I'm going to knock her off. And I thought, no, we're going to knock ourselves off. I always I had a boss who always told me, Monica, reach for the branch above you. Why you soft the one you're sitting on? And I never forgot that. And I thought about this with the Mrs. Meyer's brand. Let's just knock off ourselves. In fact, I said to the team. Okay? If we want to obliterate, if we want to just completely take out caldera, what would we do? And that's how we approach that. We brought in a different design team. We had the same people at our headquarters because we were such a small company at the time, but that's how we thought about it. To get the brand started, the Mrs. Meyer's brand. And then I guess your mother was the ultimate inspiration for it. And she kind of became the, outward facing brand ambassador as well. She did, you know. So I called, we were brainstorming about, okay, culture is kind of European. It's fancy. It's for fancy people. It's at the high end. What what are we about? You know, I'm Midwestern. I grew up in Iowa. Let's just take our personal values that are important to us and see if we can create a brand around that. And we were brainstorming and I'm like, you know, this is just like my mom. She's an avid gardener. She reuses recycles, cycles, everything. She's passionate about Mother Earth. She grew up in the depression. She knows the value of saving, of reusing. So I called her. I said, hey, mom, would you like to be a brand? She goes, of course she's in the garden. And her first comment is, hey, you two would be nice if you got down here and help me with the garden. You know that you, no matter how old you are, Lauren, you still have to do chores. If you go see my mom and she goes, what's a brand? And I said, don't, don't worry about it now. Just say yes so I can kind of get moving. Because we were racing to the marketplace to get this brand started. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, you were there. That reminds me more about, you know, your mother and the gardening and, I feel like. So she's 93, right? Yeah. She still has a garden. In fact, we built her, my sisters and I. Well, I didn't do it. I watch, my sister's built this waist level wooden garden rectangle so she can garden without bending down. Oh, that's so awesome. I know, so she loves that. Oh, my gosh. But you know, I just feel like she was so ahead of her time because she exercised. She watched Jacqueline. She ate out of her garden. She was the original farm to table. I mean, and. That's the way she was raised. Yeah, I mean that that's what that's what happens when you're on a farm. You're not running to Kroger for, you know, cottage cheese. You're you've got your own cow, you've got your own garden, you know, you've got your own barn and you're slaughtering your own animals. I mean, that's the way she was raised. And she just brought that to this big family of ours. And you know that she said, you have to get outside every day, play outside, have rosy cheeks, go on a hike, you know, and I mean, I really don't you think that's why she's still able to live by herself and get on the ladder and garden? Oh, yes. She's super healthy. She has always been about physical exercise. And I asked her was I said, where did that come from? And she said, you know, when you grow up on a farm and you have to run out to the fields in your bare feet over hard clods of dirt, and you have to do all this physical work, right? She said. It makes you strong. And she said we were outside all day long. Then her dad got her a pony. She rode that thing bareback all over the farm, so she was used to being outside and she loved it, you know? So she again brought that we were city kids. It was a small town, but we were still city kids. She asked my father to, build a chain link fence. So, she can't. Contain the children. Exactly, exactly. Oh, my gosh, that's so funny. And so you were outside all day. Even if it was cold. It doesn't matter. You were. Outside. Rain. Snow? Yeah, it was rain. You won't melt. Sleet. It'll stop. Hot. Go, go play under the shade. But her. My fear. What she always said was if you told her you were bored, she had, She either gave you an assignment or she said, go dig a hole to China. Yeah, that's. Your brother said that? Well, I don't know where that comes from. Did your mom say that? Yeah, my mother said that. Or she said, go bang your head against the wall. You know, I never did that, but. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't tell my mother you're bored. Oh, she would definitely give you a chore or, say, one of those two things. I mean, so what is your mom now that she's 93? What does she do, like, during the day? Like, what is what's her routine? Routine? So she wakes I. She she's. Very religious. She's very Catholic. And she wakes up probably with a prayer book in her hand. She has coffee in the morning, she has breakfast, and she makes her own oatmeal muffins and granola. She's super healthy, and she probably has 20,000 packs of frozen stuff in her freezer that she's, you know, when you live alone, you don't have enough people to eat everything. So she probably microwaves, some muffins that she's made, and then she. This is all frozen stuff. That she stuff that she's made. Yeah, she has a whole. Like, if I opened up her freezer today, it would be full of oatmeal muffins, bread that she made. She'd find something homemade. And then she'd have a piece of fruit, and then she'd go to 8:00 mass, and then she'd find her friend Janice. Janice would read the local paper and Janice would drive it over. She also plays bread. She's she she's a card shark. She loves cards. And she's not a very good loser. Believe me, I think that's where we. Where dark competitive. Streak is with my mother. And then she, you know. Putter around the house, do laundry. Or as she says, she'll drive to town to get groceries or, you know. She's still she's still moving, man. Moving and grooving. That's incredible. And she's still sharp. Sharp. Oh, yeah. She's very sharp, you know, she start to slow down and she's very hard of hearing, but she's got hearing aids. And if you speak, you know, directly, face to face, she understands everything you're saying. Yeah. She's I still I still play bridge with her. We've finally figured out how to play three handed bridge, because sometimes we're having a hard time finding a fourth, and she always wins. Oh, my gosh, did she teach you how to play bridge? You know, my husband was a big bridge player. My mom grew up. So I learned between my mom and my husband's family. Oh, but we grew up with canasta pitch hearts, spades, Hollywood rummy view. You name the card game. We played it. When you have that many kids, you always got a game. There's always a game. Always a game going on. Oh, I mean, God. I can't even, And so then back to, I guess, you know, the first time you lived alone, how old were you? Oh, gosh, I was probably 22 or 23. The first time I ever lived alone. I didn't have. Yeah. Didn't have, three other people in your bedroom or. You know, it was one glorious year. I was solo living. I'd never done it before in my life. It was. And remarkable. Loved it. I loved. It. And did you feel like, you know, everything could be kind of clean and organized, and it didn't have to be in a big bucket with, you know, 75 other coats and scarves and mittens. And, I mean, is that one. Of the things. Yeah. No, it was an incredible sense of freedom that I could control. Okay. If there's a coat rack, I get to put. My two coats on there. Versus I got fight for a peg, you know? Yeah. And, I know where my shoes are. My sister hasn't stolen my shirt. I can eat what I want, when I want. It was just immense freedom in a way I can't even. So, you know, back to, Mrs. Meyers. So when you were starting this, were you just, like, looking for a business to start? Were you thinking, what business could I start, or did this just come to you? How did that how did you get the idea? You know, it was kind of both. I had been, a consultant, a marketing communications consultant. I had an agency with another partner. She was a creative director, and we did a ton of work for target and consumer products. We were building brands. And, you know, I was growing tired of being a consultant because I thought, gosh, all your assets go down the elevator every night and it's a feast or famine business. I mean, you are constantly hustling your next job while you're doing the current work. It's quite an exhausting business. I personally, for me, I found it to be. And so I was kind of getting the itch for like, you know, I don't want to be 65 and to be doing this, I want to do something else. I kept dreaming, I thought, oh gosh, I would love a product that would be made while I sleep at night. And so I was in a store, a big box store, and I think it was linens and things, which is long gone, but it was that big. But yeah, I remember that it got and bed Bath and Beyond. Bath and Beyond. Yeah, they're still around by the way, which is good. So I saw this pallet, a wooden pallet of cleaning products, and I remember looking going, oh my gosh, that whole category is hideous. It has gold. You know, big yellow starbursts that, oh, it has a 70% off and more suds, bigger trigger. And the the liquids were garish and they were all tipped over and I thought, nobody wants that in their house. I'm forced to use this because I don't have any other alternative. And I thought, now, wouldn't that be awesome if this was like Aveda? You know, Aveda is based in Minneapolis. I knew a lot about the company. It was an incredible brand, beautiful product. I've used the product for years, and I thought, what if you could create personal care for the home? Much like your body? Care much like your skin care. Everything you love about your lotion, your face lotion, your body lotion, your shower gel, all that stuff, wouldn't it be awesome if you could have that for your home? And then wouldn't it be great if you could have a singular fragrance, a closet across all cleaning lines? So if you love lavender, for example, you could have it in dish soap, hand soap, laundry, multipurpose spray, toilet cleaner, all this stuff. And the customer loved it. She really embraced that concept. Oh yeah. That's that's kind of how it got started. That's, you know, and then, you know, your packaging was so beautiful in the sense, what where did you get the inspiration for those scents? My, my favorite one. I used to get the basil all the time. I love oh, baby. So yeah, yeah, I love this great dude. Dewdrop and lavender and lemon verbena. What else did you have? Well, Mrs. Meyers, boy, she has a lot now. Oh, radish, basil, lavender, all kinds of things. And then. Then the other thing that we did is I'll go back to your question about it. Yeah, we do holiday fragrances and cleaning. No one was doing that. So we created this whole giftable business that was also revolutionary. And people love that because in the holidays they were like, oh gosh, I want to get my pine fragrance or chestnut or pumpkin or whatever. But the inspiration for fragrance was I found a freelance chemist, and she came out of the personal care industry, and she was amazing with fragrance and amazing with formulation, formulating high performance cleaning products. And so we thought we probably should have an herbal fragrance, we probably should have floral and we should have citrus. And let's just start with those big buckets, you know, a fragrances and see how the consumer responds. That was kind of our thinking. That was very smart because, I mean, it was really unlike anything. I remember finding them in the early 2000 at my friend Amy's house. She's my next door neighbor, and her house always smelled so good. And you know, she had a lot of nice scents in her house. But I remember, washing my hands at her sink and I was like, what is this? And I was, like, smelling my hands. And I was like, oh my gosh, I love this. And so that is what introduced me to it, to Mrs. Meyers. I don't think I ever bought caldera, but, to Mrs. Meyers. And then I used it for quite a long time. It's, you know, but that was it was truly unlike anything else. You're absolutely right. From being an entrepreneur, though, like, I know that you've had to. I mean, you you you had a big startup. I feel like a lot of my listeners are more like cottage industry kind of women who, you know, they do have businesses. Can you kind of give them some some good advice? I know in your book you talk a lot about, you know, raising funds and so forth like that, but just if you have a very small business, what would be some good advice for that? I think if you have a really small business is to be realistic about your ambitions. You know, a lot of people come to me with a really small business and they think they're going to be Nike well. So I would always make sure that you really understand your goals, your personal mission. It's so important if you're going to have a small cottage business, you know what your niche and your niche is and you want to be really good at that. Be really good at that. Don't think you're something else. So my advice is be true to yourself. You know, I knew what I was going after. I was entering a huge $19 billion consumer market that was highly consumable. I knew if we got it going that it could be a big business because it's used so often, right? It's not like you're buying windows for your home. You do once in your lifetime, you're buying dish soap. Let's be honest, maybe 6 to 10 times a year. So I kind of had a different aim in my mind. But I always tell every business owner, be true to your vision and your mission. Otherwise you're going to be disappointed. Or you think, I should be Nike or I should be Mrs. Myers. And you're not you're you're doing something else. And so that's one be true to yourself, to passion in your darkest days. Passion, I always say, is your night goggles. When you're lost at sea, you know, if you don't have a absolute passion for this, don't do it. Because when it gets ugly, when it gets dark, when things don't work out, when you're out of money, you're feeling like you're doing some sad sack and you're going to look for the exit door. And you need to make sure you have a crystal clear vision of what you're going after. A third piece of advice. Know your numbers. You know, a lot of people who have these cottage industries just think, oh, I'll make a little money here and a little money there. And then if I, you know, if I say, well, what are you doing? You know what? What are your annual revenues? They don't really know. Well, you know what? I'm a big believer in math. I love math, I love budgets, I even though I'm English major, I think you should have a financial grasp of your business. That's huge. Even if you're doing, make it up 100,000 a year, 50,000 a year, because you're going to get smarter about what it's costing you for that product or service. Also, be attuned to your competitors. You know, if you're I'm making this up, if you're doing a pet grooming service, are you the only one on the block doing it? Do you have six competitors? How can you be differentiated? So I think the more you know about your industry, the better. Yeah, I see people in cottage industries who do well are really savvy about their world. They're very knowledgeable and they never, ever stop learning. Never. So that'd be my other piece of advice. That's good advice. Where would you tell them to spend money? What's important? Well, it depends on what they're doing. You know, if they're in a consumer market that requires a lot of, let's just say, social media engagement, I probably have my investment there only if I had return on investment, if I'm just doing it to be, you know, make friends on Instagram and I'm not selling anything. Well, then don't do that. You know, be really clear about your objectives and then spend money to test. I mean, that's the other thing, the beautiful thing about when you're a little, you can test all these things that are really low risk. And then when you find something that your consumers are kind of find you, boy, put more money in that bucket. So it kind of depends on what you're doing. You know, some people say, well, I'm going to put all my money in my product fund. Great. But if people can't find you, then that's a problem. So I think you have to find the right balance of again, go back to what is my mission, what is my vision. And I, I really I'm working with an entrepreneur right now and I want to hold her accountable for what she really wants to accomplish. It's not what I want, as is I. It's for you. This is your deal, not mine. I believe me if I fair share of mistakes. And, I think the more you can be true to yourself, the better and realistic. That's the other thing. Oh. Be romantic. Yeah, yeah. No kidding. That's that's a good. It's like you said, if if you're not going to be, like, huge like Mrs. Myers, be realistic about who you are going to be. And be happy with it or don't do it. You know. And I think that, you know, going back to your mom, the way she raised you, I think there was a lot of like, no, no shame in making a mistake. Like, just let's figure this out, okay? What went wrong? Let's figure right. Is that. Oh, you know, if she she once said to me, there's a whole chapter in my book called Fear and Failure. And she said failure was never in my vocabulary. I just figured that was learning. You know, everything was learning. You know, she could cook. She taught us to cook. She could. So she could guard. If you made a mistake, I tell a story that I the first time I frosted the cake, I use granulated sugar instead of powered sugar. And she goes, well, now you know. The boys will eat it. Don't worry about it. Frost the cake. Let's go. You know, she was always. Just on to the next project. She didn't have time to worry. You shouldn't have time. To worry about your mistake. She just view it's a mistake. It's like, well, well, that's okay. And so I guess, I mean, you have some pretty big balls. Sorry. Mrs. Thelma Meyer, if you're listening, that I said that your daughter has big balls, but she does because you do. And you, you took a lot of risks. And we talked about facing your fears a little bit and taking risks like that. Yeah. You know, the first time I became an entrepreneur, I was forced into it because I had, my youngest daughter, who's fine now, she had cancer as a baby. And I was doing some part time freelance work when she was about six months old. And I didn't really plan on going back to work full time. I wanted to kind of take 3 to 4 months off, and then all of a sudden we had a sick baby. I take her to the hospital. Long story long. She has a Wilms tumor. She ends up on chemotherapy. I'm doing freelance work. She can't be in daycare. My husband comes home and says, I quit today. You can make more money than me. You go this business, I'll stay home and take care of the girls so they don't have to be in daycare. So, you know, I'd say jokingly in the book, fear can be fun. Well, not not right now. Fear was not a failure was not an option. Back then, you know, we had a mortgage payment. We didn't have a lot of savings and a baby with cancer. And so I was highly motivated to be a I at the time I was doing writing, I was doing speech writing, marketing, writing. I was doing a lot of work for target, and I just had more work than I knew what to do with. And so finally I teamed up with a creative director, but I was kind of pushed off the ledge the first time. But honestly, I wasn't a big fan. I didn't fit into corporate America, I worked there, I loved it, I learned a ton, but I always felt like a misfit. So I kind of, in the back of my mind, knew that I would do something on my own. I wasn't sure what, but, I just didn't fit in, you know, a lot of rules, a lot of silos. And so I was looking for something I could do on my own and claim as my own. And the other thing I was looking for was, if I work this hard, I want to earn my own money. I don't want to earn it for somebody else. So that was kind of, you know, back to my childhood. You know, if you had a job, you got your own money. It was. Yeah, quite simple, you know. And I wanted to I wanted to reclaim that feeling, actually. But what's your advice for facing fear, though? I mean, people are. Well. I think one thing. Acknowledge your fear. Say, okay, what am I really afraid of? Am I afraid of going broke? You know, what you should do is if you're going to do something monumental and you're terribly afraid, which I was write down was the worst thing that can happen. Just write it all down. And then this is what I did. I would go through the list and add a percentage of what I think would happen if that happened, like, we'll go broke. Okay. That's actually 5050. Can I live with that? Yes, I can, because I can always get a job. You know, I was young enough at the time. I thought, I can get a job. Will I lose my house? Can I live with that? I might lose my house, you know, because we had this second mortgage on the house to start the business. But again, I thought, I can get another house, I can get a job, I can pay that back. So you have to start asking yourself, can I live with these things? And if you can go forward? I think the other thing about fear is tell yourself, are you ever ready? You know, once by the time you have something, I'll figure it out. The opportunity is past. Yeah. And then what's the fun in that? I found taking risks kind of exhilarating. Perhaps it's my personality, and I. It's really life affirming to kind of live on the edge, if you will. So that's, again, that's my personality. But I think the more you can write down what you're really afraid of and ask yourself, can I live with this? What's the worst that can happen? You can move forward or not. You may be say, no, I'm not doing that. That's actually a no. I can't live with that. Yeah, it's very personal. I feel like like I said, you got some big balls. A lot of people would be like, I can't lose my house. I can't go broke. I mean, that those that really, those were some big risks that you took. Big risks, big rewards. But you know, I think that's. Yeah. And you know, I'm also a believer of all eggs in one basket and watch that basket. You know, a lot of people say, oh, don't put all your eggs in one basket. I think just the opposite, really. If I'm going to take a big swing, a big risk, I'm going to put everything on the line and then I'm going to make sure it happens, you know? And so what does that cause a high degree of focus. Right. You know, and you got your hands in six things. That's hard to focus when you're living on the edge. But one thing. Yeah. You know, I could put my head down every day and get to work. Yeah. You had something to do. You. I feel like at this, stage of life, a lot of women are examining, like, okay, what haven't I done? Like, if not now, when? And, you know, with maybe what's some advice for just figuring out where your passions lie and kind of getting started with that. You know, I, how it works for me is I'm a really curious person, and I'm a visual learner. And I've done this throughout my entire career. And I think it's because I learned from some great merchants when I was early at target was write down or take a picture of everything you find super interesting, like if you're into art museums and you see this one type of art, I'm making this up abstract art. Take a picture. And I have this huge Excel document that I keep trends on and it's music, websites, designers, movies, shapes, silhouette. And if I see something interesting, I put it on there. I don't even know if it makes any sense. Yeah, but what I try to do then is if I'm kind of something, it's percolating an idea. I go back to that and say, is there a red thread here? And I call this collecting the dots because people always ask, where do you get your ideas? How should I know? Just like your question and I say you have to connect the dots, but you can't connect the dots if you don't have any dots. So how do I get dots? By walking around by doing interesting things. I'm not saying this even costs any money, you know, just go in a store. You've never been to try a foreign movie. You've never seen before. Just expose yourself to for different things you've never thought about, and you're going to find that something starts to bubble up, that you're going to find yourself attracted to certain things. That's. Yeah, I just going to use the words attracted to. Magnetic, you know, something. And, there's a great book. Rick Rubin wrote it and it's called, Some Creativity the Art of Being Creative or something on. Oh, Rick Rubin. Rubin. Yeah. Yes. He wrote a creative book. And I highly recommend recommend everyone read that book because. What's it called. Again? Oh, gosh, I should have. Well it's okay. We can I mean people can look it up. It's on. Creativity. Like I'm being creative and it's, it's a quick read. I've reread it so many times, but he gives you great advice for how to use what you have. Start where, you know, start where you are. What's that saying? By Arthur Ashe? Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. You know, you're not you're not trying to be somebody you're not, especially at this age. Gosh, we've worked. Hard to get to. To survive here, right? Lord? Actually, I mean, no, this is the the time in life where you're supposed to enjoy what you have and figure out, okay, what haven't I done yet that I still want to do? And so, yeah, I think that's, good advice about connecting the dots, because you can't connect them until you collect them. I think that's. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. That's good. I like that because we all are absolutely drawn to certain things. So let's talk about you and your aging well now because, oh, boy, you are fabulous. I mean, I mean, how can you share how old you are? I'm 69. You're 69. All right. So what, I mean, you're just still going strong. What do you think? Why do you think you've been able to age so fiercely? You know, I've always thanks to my mother, I've always worked out. I used to be a runner, you know, all during my career. Because that's all I could afford. I couldn't afford to go to some fancy club to work out. And frankly, I didn't have time. And I traveled so much, and I could always fit a pair of running shoes in my bag. And so. But then when I got into my 40s, my body was falling apart, probably from stress and running and traveling, and I discovered hot yoga on a fluke, and it really changed my life. I'm going to be really honest. I still practice to this day. I practice three, 3 to 4 times a week for 21 years, and I'm a big believer in hot yoga. It has kept me sane and flexible and I don't know, I just love the heat and love working out. I think that's one thing working out. Do you. Do? Do you know how yoga? I mean, I love the heat and working out. Yeah. Oh yeah, I work out in, I go to this place where the workout is in a sauna. My husband thinks I'm an absolute nut, but it's like 125 degrees in there. I know it's my happy place. Oh, no, I love, I love that boy. That sounds awesome. And then again, I'm taking care for my mother. We never had processed food in our house. Right. You know, she's. My motto is five colors a day, meaning five vegetables or fruit a day. So I really count lots of water. I don't drink that much anymore, you know, you just. I've just decided I feel better. And when I feel good, good things happen. That's kind of my personal motto. Do you do you meditate or breathwork or anything like that? You know what I used to. I haven't done that for a while, but I had several years. I was meditating every day for about 20 to 30 minutes. I need to get back to that. Yeah. And you're still just get out. But. Well, you just wrote a book, so congratulations on that. That's a huge accomplishment. Yeah. Do you. What kind of, business things are you doing these days? I sit on a consumer products board, and, I often them call for advice on certain things. When I first left, Mrs. Myers. Excuse me. I invested in several startups, and I lost a whole bunch of money, and I decided, you know, I'm not doing that anymore. And, it was interesting. So I was on the Guy raz podcast how I built this. Yeah. And he asked me, Lauren, the same question, what do you do? And I said, I invest in all these consumer startups. And I lost a bunch of money. And he goes, Monica, every entrepreneur tells me that. Yeah. And it's because I'm a better entrepreneur than an investor. And so I decided I'm not doing that anymore. I'm not good at it. I don't know how to look at deals. I don't know how to structure the valuation. I'm just not doing it. So when people call me for advice, I say, hey, if you can send me an executive summary, a one page, one page only about what you're trying to accomplish, you know how big the market is. And it makes sense with my skill set, I help you. But no, I'm not going to get involved in things I don't understand, like crypto or AI or, you know, I'm a I'm a product geek. That's what I do. I that's what I know a lot about. Yeah. So I do a little bit of that too. But I just think that you're keeping your, your mind, you're working on projects, you're still, you know, involved in things. I mean, I don't see you retired and sitting around in your garden all day, but I could be wrong. I mean. No, no, I'm not, I'm not. I, I, I, I'm just a naturally curious person. I like I love creative projects, I just do, I always have, and so, that's what I kind of get involved. I've, I've write that. I've written this book. I've written three screenplays. Oh, wow. I've got another book idea. So writing has become a passion for me lately. Yeah. And you started out as a writer, so. And you're a great writer. I mean, the book was really funny. It was very funny. I loved, like, you had all the curse words crossed out because you're like, my mom's going to read this. Well, she saw that. So I worked with a fabulous design team. They're the ones who created all the packaging for Mrs. Myers. And I had the word bitch in there, and I. I was like, oh, I don't know if I should have this in there. So I just crossed it out. I showed the designers what I brought over the books that I read because I mark them all up. I underline I, you know, because I want to keep notes of, again, I'm collecting the dots. I want to keep track of what I think is interesting. And, she goes, oh, let's just keep that in there. So all the curse words have been, all the curse blackened out. It's really funny, but I mean, it's just you're you're writing is very it's very light, is very direct. It's very easy to understand because you're breaking down some hard concepts, you know, business concepts, but it's real, but just also really funny and just hilarious stories of your childhood. I really enjoyed it. Extremely good. I survived, you know, that's the half the battle, right? That's when I think about your mother and these nine children. Like, I, I mean, I have I have three children and I was barely holding it together. You know, I just I have nothing but great admiration. And that she did such a good job. You know, that's really the, the thing it's not not just that she raised nine children, but she did it. So, Just really with thoughtfulness and really raised these great humans. So hats off to Thelma. Yeah, I hats off to Thelma. You know, she has a lot of common sense. If I was says my a say my mother has a PhD in common sense. You know, she, took her work serious, but not herself. She has a great sense of humor, and, I, she just has a lot of joy in the little things, you know? She. Yeah, she seems like she has a great sense of humor. Like when somebody asked her, I think it was at one of your pitch meetings, and she was along and said, how in the world did you have nine children? Would she say. Oh, my gosh, so we're in New York. Have we've written this book when at the height of Mrs. Meyer's success, and it's a cleaning book. It's essentially a marketing tool. So we're in New York trying to find a publisher. We've our agent is taking us around all these big fancy meetings in New York. My mom is writing around a big old black limo. She's all excited. So we go into this meeting in New York. I think it was a huge publisher, and this large, buxom woman from Texas just grabs my mom and goes, oh my God, I love Mrs. Meyers, I love you. I'm so glad you're here. So my mom is agog, right? She's all excited. She's like a Hollywood starlet. So we sit down at the conference table and this woman turns to my mama, goes, how in the world, Thelma, did you have nine children in ten years? And my mother says, well, I had a box of 48 Kotex and I never got through it. I. I, I literally was mortified. I first of all, I'd never, ever heard that come out of her mouth, not even as a child. I didn't would, you know? And who knows what a Kotex is anymore? No. Yeah. That's what my mom used to call them, too. That just call them Kotex. I mean, I guess that was like a Band-Aid, you know? Yeah. The brand, the brand name. That's hilarious. Yeah. Oh my God. Well, so what is your best piece of advice for aging? Well, if you had to just distill it down to one thing. Keep moving. You know, my mother would say, if you stop moving, you stop. I think eat well, say yes. Say yes. That's so good. She says yes to most everything. That's incredible. Yeah. Wait. Unless it's against her religion. Unless it's. It's a sin. Now she's missing out on some fun things. I don't tell me about it. Yes. What would I write? This is probably just like to too crazy of a question with your upbringing, but what do you think that you learned about aging well from your mother? You know, watching her in action, she, She just was. She just was adventuresome, you know, she. When we were kids, my father built a motor home. He was an engineer. And they drove us out west to all the national parks. They loved the national parks. My parents love to travel. My dad would drive from the east coast to the West Coast and be the happiest person on Earth. He'd drive all night if he could. He love drive with a Stanley thermos of coffee, and I think it's because when he. Was driving, he. Was by himself. Everybody else was in the back of the motor motorhome. And if you could ride shotgun, well, this is the other skill that that was very important. Our family. How to read a map? We learned very quickly, you know, when you grew up with your parents who are farmers, you learn very quickly. You go outside and they you know which way is north. You know, south, etc.. So and where you are navigate is huge in our family. So, you know, what did I learn about aging? I guess, you know, go on hikes. You know, she was and this stuff is an expensive. Right? You're just going on a hike and you're walking and you're finding the peach farm where you can buy loads of peaches. And, you know, she was always about lots of product, lots of fruits and vegetables for in a log or free. That was the other thing my mom loved because she was a big canner. So wow. Yeah, I. Just learned a lot. I don't know, she just goes through every day saying yes and eating healthy and taking walks. And it sounds like being grateful and observing the beauty of nature and just so many things, you know, that she does. Oh yeah. Happy and grateful for everything. Yeah. She walks every, you know, when she takes a walk, she walks around with a trash bag so she can pick up the trash. She'll never walk by a tossed out cup out of a car shaped. Always picking up, always commenting on other people's lawn or flowers or, you know, she loves roses, she loves her lilacs. And she has bird feeders, and she watches the birds come in and she knows more about Iowa birds. There's a a great park out by her house. And just this last summer, she took my. I have, four grandkids, and she took them out there, and she wanted to show them how to see the birds. And she just loves nature. You know, I think when you're a farm child, you're a student of the great outdoors because you had to be. Yeah. That's great. And right. Do you have a favorite health or beauty product? Oh gosh, I was so glad you. Asked me this. So all right. Well I so I have to tell you a funny story. So my sister Jean's. Partner asked me for my list of what. I do it right. Oh, you know, I'm not going to tell you. No, no, because it's embarrassing. But anyway, I like her saying, well, because there's too many. Things I lined up about eight products. And I took. A picture and she goes. Oh, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. But, I really like Woody Allen, honey, there we DLR. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Am I saying it right? I maybe I'm not saying I don't know. I've seen it like I know they have that skin food and. Oh that's the best. Yeah I put that all over. I've used their products. They have a great they have great products. Yeah. They also make just a lot of great hand cream, but I use their products a lot. I also like, I love that style, so I would pronounce it correctly. Fighter of the Rose cleansing toner. How do you spell that? P y t. Oh, ma. Ma. Ma. Ma. Petite ma. And it's the rose cleansing toner. I love that, and then I love the Charlotte Tilbury. I think she calls it magic cream. And then she does an amazing face oil. Oh. And then I have gray fuzzy hair, so I use a lot of. I use the orb, a hair oil. Oh. So I think somebody how do you spell that? I think it's 0RIBE0 they make beautiful hair oil. Your hair is gorgeous. I love the cut and the color. It's just very it's really beautiful. Okay. Well, that's those are some good shares. Thank you. And then my last question. What's your favorite? What's your favorite concert you've ever been to? Oh, I saw Lenny Kravitz out here last Labor Day. Okay. He brings it. He leaves it all on the field. It was an outdoor concert. He is sexy. Oh, my. God. And he is not only fun to watch, but he at the end walks through this huge crowd singing honey. And he had the world in the palm of his hand. His hand to he was. It is. Yeah. He is a true rock star. If you look in the dictionary rock star, it says Lenny Kravitz. Oh, God, that's a good one. I have never seen him. I don't know how that is, because I love him so much. He's. Like, oh, he's he's amazing. It's inspiring how great he is. That's a good one. You brought me. Okay, well, Monica, thank you for sharing everything. And everybody, please check out Monica's book. What's it called again? Can I show it to you? Yes, please. Okay. Of course. I bottled my mother. It's just like the packaging. Yeah. And you can find it on Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble. Target.com. And it'll be out at the end of March. Yes. By the time this airs, it'll already be out. So everybody get a copy. It's really a good book. And I mean especially if you're I mean if you're if you have a business or if you have kids, it's a good one. I mean, I love it. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Lauren, this was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. You're a great guest. Thank you for. Everything. Okay. Take care. Bye bye. Bye. Thanks for listening, friend. From my heart to yours. Be well until we meet again.