Unapologetic Leadership
In a noisy, distracted world, authentic leadership matters more than ever. Hosted by Cory Dunham—entrepreneur, business leader, and follower of Jesus—this podcast is real talk for real leaders who want to live and lead with clarity, courage, and conviction.
From overcoming fear mindsets to leading with love, Cory shares personal stories, faith-driven values, and practical tools that help you grow as a leader in your workplace, family, and community. Each episode offers actionable takeaways, mindset shifts, and sometimes guest insights—so you can lead without burnout, build trust, create alignment, and anchor yourself in what truly matters.
Whether you’re a boss, teacher, parent, entrepreneur, career professional, or single mom, this show will help you lead yourself and others in a way that’s bold, authentic, and sustainable. Because leadership isn’t a title—it’s a way of living.
Subscribe and join a community of leaders who are done with surface-level living. The world doesn’t need louder leaders—it needs leaders who are clear, courageous, and grounded.
Unapologetic Leadership
What Ethical Leadership Looks Like When the World Gets Dirty, with Melih Arat
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What does it really mean to lead with integrity when dishonesty, distraction, and short-term thinking seem to dominate today's world?
In this thought-provoking episode of Unapologetic Leadership, Cory Dunham sits down with entrepreneur, professor, author, and business consultant Melih (Mel) Arat to explore why ethical leadership isn't just a moral choice, it's a competitive advantage. Drawing on decades of experience teaching entrepreneurship, strategy, innovation, and business leadership, Mel shares timeless principles for building a meaningful career, creating value through business, and remaining true to your principles when the world encourages compromise.
Together, they discuss the importance of lifelong learning, why reading books develops deeper thinking than endless scrolling, how today's algorithms compete for our attention, and why leaders must intentionally guard their focus instead of becoming "puppets of the algorithm." They also explore the vital role small businesses play in strengthening communities, mentoring future generations, creating economic resilience, and teaching responsibility through real-world experience.
Mel also shares powerful lessons on honesty, personal responsibility, and integrity, explaining why protecting your character is more valuable than protecting your income. He offers practical wisdom on making difficult decisions, staying grounded during uncertainty, balancing truth with wisdom, and leading ethically without sacrificing influence or effectiveness. His perspective reminds us that true leadership isn't measured by titles or wealth, but by the principles we refuse to compromise.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, executive, educator, or emerging leader, this conversation will challenge you to think differently about success, leadership, and the lasting impact of living according to your values.
About Melih Arat
Melih Arat is a Ph.D., professor, entrepreneur, and mentor who has been building businesses since 1996 across consulting, corporate training, online commerce, and digital/AI platforms. He holds a master's degree from Harvard University and teaches business and entrepreneurship at institutions including UC Berkeley Extension, while serving as full-time faculty at College of the Mainland.
His work centers on sustainable success built on three principles: necessity, service, and growth. He helps entrepreneurs and professionals move from scattered ambition to structured execution, emphasizing resilience, clarity, faith, and long-term thinking.
Connect with Mel
Website: https://www.melarat.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melih-arat-9163078/
Welcome to Unapologetic Leadership. If you felt stressed, overwhelmed, wrestling with the imposter syndrome, wondering if you're just not good enough, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Corey Dunham.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership. Well, I have Mel Arrat, who's a trainer, professor, and a consultant, and he grows businesses. Welcome, Mel.
SPEAKER_01Hi, Corey. Thank you for your invitation. Yes, you're very welcome. You're welcome. So tell me, what do you do? How do you impact the world? And who do you serve?
SPEAKER_04Corey, I'm an entrepreneur, and at the same time, I'm an academic and I'm a builder. But before all of them, I'm a learner. I'm first trying to learn something and share it with the world. And of course, information is becoming valuable as long as it serves a purpose. And so I'm trying to use the information to serve others. Right now, like how I define myself from the public perspective, I currently teach entrepreneurship strategy and analytics at institutions like University of California, Berkeley, and also College of the Mainland in Texas City. My academic background includes graduate work at Harvard University. I also have a PhD. I studied blockchain and smart contracts. And also I've been consulting for 30 years. I've been providing teaching and training again for almost 30 years right now.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's awesome. That's fantastic. How did you get started in all of this? I mean, because yeah, an academic and then business builder, entrepreneur, all of this stuff.
SPEAKER_04As I mentioned before, everything I started with my own curiosity. We are pretty much from the same generation. We believe that we can save the world. From my high school years, I was an avid reader. So I first thought that economics is the most important science in the world. Then I thought the business principles or business management is the most important because the world is technically run by the corporations, especially right now. And sometimes people are talking about America is the number one country in the world. And what makes America number one? The answer is not the army or armed forces, it is the companies. We have OpenAI or Boeing or Microsoft or IBM and or Facebook. That's why the United States is the number one country in the world. The question is how can we create these companies? So everything starts with the individuals. And it's not just the education, it is like exploration and discovery. Because if you just think about Wright brothers or any inventor, they were curious and they tried to discover something. They didn't go to business schools or we didn't have, like, say MIT or some other schools. They were curious and they invented something, and some of them were able to turn these ideas into businesses. So I thought that this is the most important thing in life. So we need to innovate, but innovation is not something happening at a laboratory, it is happening in our lives and usually accidentally. So we need to try different things, knock the doors, read books, talk to the people, be open-minded, like you and me, since we are both and technically we are open-minded in both meaning. So that was my learning adventure, and that learning adventure turned into a consulting content or book content I didn't mention, but I also wrote 17 books in the field of business, innovation, creativity. So that's how it started.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I was gonna mention that too. If you didn't mention that, because I'm like, that's pretty impressive. So when did you start writing? If you can remember that.
SPEAKER_04Oh, of course, I remember it. It was a vision for me. Since I was trying to save the world, I was reading a lot. So I envied the other authors. So I wanted to become an author. So first I started to write for magazines and journals, and when I was uh 25, I wrote my very first book, Management for the 21st Century. I tried to uh this describe seven tools of business management from my own point of view in 1996.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's awesome! That's fantastic. Yeah, I just speaking of reading books, reading a lot of books since you mentioned that, that's been something I've learned and have been trained on and mentored on is reading books and listening to audios. Because as Charlie Tremendous Jones once said, that who's passed away now, but he used to say that you will be five years from now, you will be that person based upon who you hang around, who's in your environment, and those five people that you mostly hang around with, and the audios and things you put into your ears and your input. And also this past weekend at a church where I live, also put on a workshop that just talked about parents interacting with their kids and how their kids interact with digital devices, is taking away, and a lot of us know this too, taking away our cognitive abilities and abilities to understand content. And what they're finding, at least one of the things is that, of course, too much screen time is not the best, but reading physical books has been shown to actually improve people's understanding, their longevity and how much they remember it, all different types of positive things. Reading a physical book rather than just a digital book, and of course controlling some of that input that's going through. So a targeted focus on a topic instead of just scroll, scroll, scroll, all different types of topics or whatever the algorithm has figured out that you like looking at, but it gives creativity, creates more, basically more brain cells. I'm gonna say it that way, and connects both sides of the brain better than just you know looking at social media, course of which much of our attention span, both adults and young kids, our attention span is being decreased to less than a goldfish. So I really respect that and appreciate the whole idea of just you, you being an avid reader and then also publishing books and articles and everything else.
SPEAKER_04Corey, I just want to um underline that why reading physical books, paper books is important. Sure. The reason is we can focus on them. I mean, there are no distractors, it is just the page in front of you and the letters, you read it, and the best place to read, you may be surprised, is a plane. Because usually on a plane there is no Wi-Fi, or even it is available, it's not like reliable. So, but if you have a book throughout the plane, throughout the travel, you can focus and you can read it without any distraction. So it's a good idea to have reading rooms at home without any device, just light, the book itself. I think most important thing for children, starting to read the best possible books available. What do I mean by that? If the book is providing a reading pleasure, the very first few books is very, very important because if you like the first three books, then you start to say, Hey, I like to read. But if they're just boring textbooks, you start to lose your uh interest in the books.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yes, no, that's a great point. Yeah, and I like the whole idea of as you're talking about just having a place either in your home or leaving out of your current environment to find a place that is has the least amount of distraction and then keeping your device, your phone, outside of that room or area, or turning it off, or leaving it in the car, or whatever you have to do, or in your backpack. Yeah, but the distractions. And because our brains are being trained over the last decade plus, that we are our attention span is getting so short and it's so difficult to stay focused and to not be distracted with it.
SPEAKER_04Shiny objects are talking about this screen time, etc. I also thought that I think screens, the phone, especially, or tablets and everything, we become a puppet of the algorithm. The algorithm is playing with us, and I don't like to be a puppet because I'm not making my decision what to see or what to watch or what to listen. And the the the algorithm decided now you are scrolling and you believe with your small finger you are in control, but actually you are not. One after another, I'm bringing something to distract you, to keep you, even sometimes, especially kids, even they can't go to the bathroom. Oh, right. Even if they go to the bathroom, they take the phone together with them. So they became the slave slave of the puppet master, and algorithm is the puppet master. But when you are reading a book, you are in control, you are in charge, and you are adding something to yourself.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, I love that. It's empowerment. Reading a book is empowerment in a simple way, a simple, effective way to do that. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's great. Now, with everything you've done in terms of getting into, like I believe you said you went from economics was the most important thing you believed and thought and heard, but then you went to businesses. And that to me is a powerful thing because small and medium-sized businesses are, if my statistics are correct, 80% of the world economy. And the one thing I was thinking, just the idea of that, is that's gonna help solve the world in terms of if we're doing business both locally and maybe internationally, that's gonna help us to think differently. That many people are motivated by their pocketbooks or their income or their revenue. And if we realize our clients are both locally around us and internationally, we're gonna think differently based upon our values, our focus and things. And if it hurts our pocketbook or our livelihood, then we're gonna think twice about that or maybe develop some ways that we can think about the positive ways we can collaborate instead of our differences. What are your what is your aspect or perspective on businesses being more important than economics?
SPEAKER_04Actually, small businesses are the heart of the life, and when there's no small business, actually there is no life. What and you may be surprised to hear that. Why people love the urban lifestyle? People are looking for cities that they can walk, but we can walk everywhere. People want to walk in a city, they want to see stores, an ice cream shop, a bookstore, uh, a tailor or a shoemaker. And if there's no small businesses, it is just only corporations like Target's or Macy's or Colts, so on. And uh so there's no variety. I'm not against Starbucks or any other chain, but at the same time, I'm I'm for all the small independent coffee shops because each coffee shop owner brings their own perspective to the world, so they're not only serving their existing customers, but even to the people passing by, or to be all the people living in the same city. In addition to that, if you have a small business, you are in control of your own destiny, you are making decisions, you are scanning the market, what is happening, and you are also orchestrating the your resources or all possible resources. You are making decisions and you are making a livelihood for your family and creating service for all the people, uh all the stakeholders around your business. Plus, we do something uh unexpected when we run a small business. The children, our children, our sons and daughters, they raise in an environment that they can see their fathers or mothers are making decisions and getting results and making money. So instead of sending children to a business school, it's better to open a small business. It is the school. If you know that you need to open the store like 5 a.m. in the morning, or if you know that you need to clean up the store, or if you need if you know that you need to smile all the customers no matter what, if you know that you need to trash uh the shelf life over food every single day, even you are losing money, then you are learning how to manage a business. And you become a uh respectful and value creating citizen at the same time for your country and for your community.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I love that. Just everything you how you brought that all together, our community, our country, creating value, serving others, which is the backbone of any service or any product that you have. It has to be a value, otherwise, it's not going to be purchased. So I love your focus on the outcomes and results that really we're creating. And through small business framework, opening it gives us both that mentoring aspect to that next generation. Also, it shows which one of the biggest things I've learned about leadership is leadership is example, example, example. And then how to create a livelihood serving other people, which is a win-win situation. And you're locally based, that which is really good. And like you said, if kids are immersed in something, like I've heard, the best way to learn a language, whether it's Spanish or this or that, is to be immersed in that environment or in that culture. And in a business, once again, like you said, you get to be so many things and learn so much, including smiling to customers, even when you're exhausted and you don't want to be there. Like there's times for everybody in their careers. But it shows that yeah, it shows that example of all of that and how that can be passed along to the next generation to create a strong economy, therefore, livelihood and lives.
SPEAKER_04And also responsibility for the children and for the adults at the same time. If you have a shop, you should be responsible because there are many things to do. And if you don't do it, you fail and you can't make money. And it also forces you to think about the future. Before the podcast, I was checking my notes and I saw one question what about leadership? What is the meaning of leadership? Leadership is about staying relevant. What does it mean? That's like a different way of looking at leadership, which is uh there is a change, a constant change, and if we just stay uh doing the same thing for a very long time, then we are losing because we cannot uh continue to stay relevant to the society, to the changing needs of the society. So we should innovate like every two, three years time. We need to innovate our products, our business model, our website, or the technology that we are using. And if you have a small business owner, you know that you need to do it because you will see that if you don't do it, the the sales are going down. If you want to increase the sales again, you need to make some change when you have a small business, you experience this you the small business itself becomes a teacher for you as a small business owner.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I totally agree in that. And where and to me, we're better to start, and that's kind of how I've my experience was my stepdad created our marketing business back in 1980, a decade before the internet, and we still run this business. So 46 years later, almost 50 years, which is so hard to believe. And I've been a part of it for 40 years, and that's even harder to believe for me, but I've learned a lot through our marketing business and interfacing with clients, executive leaders, business owners, whether that's local businesses or international businesses, and just cutting my teeth on all of this stuff. And I didn't realize the value I was actually getting from this education of being a business owner and serving other people in this capacity. So wow, you brought up some just some great points on how to keep our world moving in a great direction.
SPEAKER_04And I want to add something very important regarding again small businesses. Small businesses are like our limbs, our organs of our body. What do I mean by that? If we don't have them in a city, if we have only one corporation, let's say a supermarket, like Walmart or Target. So if Target or Walmart decides to close that store, the the town dies. But if you have hundreds small businesses in that town, and some of them will be very successful, some of them will be moderately successful, and some of them won't be successful. The ones that that is going to fail, they will they will be erased from the uh business. However, the others will continue to operate and it will keep the city uh alive. But today, if you check United States, states many different states and cities and towns, when there's only one single employer, and when it decides to shut down, we have a ghost town. People cannot continue to live there. So small businesses are the veins of the society in the United States, especially.
SPEAKER_02I think, yeah, no, those are all great points. And I was just thinking, too, of the idea. There's to me, there's not as much opportunity, like you said, if there's only one big employer in town, there's now there's not much opportunity around for people to do their own thing or provide their best skill sets to serve others or their zone of genius if there's only one opportunity in town. And so opening up your own business or starting your own journey as an entrepreneur can be a challenging endeavor, however, one of the most valuable. And then there's a lot of people around who are experts and how to help you to market and get visible, uh, have you develop systems? And those are some of the things I create coaching some executive leaders and doing talks that I do about how to create visibility for your business, how to have sustained leadership strategic values that'll keep your business sustained and growing the way you choose it to grow, not just growing crazy. Because I know some people, including myself, have been like, yeah, I want to grow my business, but I don't want it to grow like crazy and scale. That's just not my vision. My vision is here, not necessarily continue to scale, scale, scale. Some people don't want that. And they have the values where they say, Hey, I want to keep my business in this range so I can create great value here, and I want to be able to manage, you know, whatever X. But that's the cool part. When you own your own business, you get to decide how you move forward. So I think that's cool. And one of the a couple of things, actually, you had mentioned offline when we met before. You had talked about that number one, your parents raised you to be honest and have integrity. And if you can tell me a little bit about that, and then I have another question after that, just talking about how we position ourselves, something else you hadn't mentioned. But if you can talk a little bit about that with your parents raising you in a certain way and how that's affected you today.
SPEAKER_04So, Corey, what is the difference to about today and the past? I mean, the old generations. We have been raised with the values. I mean, you can't you can't lie. It's the sin. You cannot cheat. I mean, uh, today students are have no fear of cheating. I mean, like using AI or anything. I mean, everything is free. And if you want to become rich, you need or just like middle income person, you need to study, you need to study, you need to have a profession, you need to make your own life. And my parents taught me that if I want to succeed in my life, I should do it by myself. They're not going to inherit a large money or wealth. They said, you are responsible. We had our own careers, both of them were government employees. Our professions are not going to come to you directly like an inheritance. You either study, learn, and try to serve your community and also help your neighbors, etc. So, they, as you have mentioned before, they example fight. They were my examples. I tried to follow their footsteps. Steps and I knew I saw how they uh acted in different environments, and I understood what is uh good and what is bad. Today, the m the problem with the books and pretty much all the values, the new generation has no reference point. So they don't know what a book is. I mean, physically, of course, they know what it is, but they don't have a respect. So when I was a kid, I wanted to read all of the books. If I want to be successful or a good person, if I go to a library or a bookstore, I was amazed with what I saw at that point. But today, my students they go to the library, I ask them what do you do at the library? They say we study. What do you study? They open the notebook, computer, connect to Wi-Fi and do the work. Do you ever borrow a book from the library? No, they don't. Right. So we have lost our touch with the traditional values, and there's something very important. And uh I don't know if you have a if you ever had a feeling of fear of embarrassment in front of one of your teachers. The teacher is asking a question and you don't know the answer, and it's an embarrassing point. Today there is no embarrassment. My my parents taught me to be embarrassed.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so there's a value to being embarrassed.
SPEAKER_04That means this is this is really very important because it gives you a chance to be responsible. If you don't want to be embarrassed, you need to do your homework, you need to complete your reading, etc. That's what they taught me. And after a time, it becomes a habit. Yeah. For school academic success, for business success, you are a coach or consultant. Before you go to an executive coaching session, what do you do? You do your preparation. You take you examine, you revise your notes, and you plan what you are going to ask or questions and everything. So this is responsible. Otherwise, you are together with your client and no preparation. So, what are we going to talk about?
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Yeah, no, that's um, these are all great points about just the values of learning. And also the other thing I was thinking about, and you know, this is not necessarily proven, but when somebody writes a book, typically, well, at least before AI, and there's still people writing books without AI, but before AI, you had people who what I was told that, Corey, the reason why to read a book, even though I wasn't a great reader, I've had to continually develop and hone in those skills of reading. When somebody writes a book, and they're roughly on average 200 pages in a book, that you are saving so much time and you're getting so much knowledge from this person and the other generations of people that they have researched. So you are literally in one book, you could be reading 10 people's lifetimes of experience that they had to learn throughout their whole lives, and you're getting it down to a 200-page research document, basically, in a printed book. Whereas I was thinking too when you were talking about um the generations of today where typically go, oh, let me go to YouTube or a podcast and things. And a lot of these podcasts and YouTube's, and maybe I shouldn't say that because we're doing a podcast episode, but it's the truth that many of them don't have all that background and research or true knowledge and expertise of what is successful, or at least no perspective of what's successful in multiple people's lives, whether it's a sports athlete or a professor or a business owner, and getting those insights from those different people's lives all condensed down into that 200-page book. So I see it as a hugely valuable thing. And I couldn't always figure it out either. Well, I love reading physical books. I've never liked digital stuff, and maybe because I come from old school before the internet, and just the funny note, my kids are like, what did you walk around with the dinosaurs or something back before the internet? What did you guys even do? And I'm like, no, most of the dinosaurs were killed along. We had to walk past their carcasses, but not past live dinosaurs. But but just I've never gotten into digital reading, and I've mostly been into printed books, but I never knew why. But the things you described earlier on, just the you get focused, you're in this book. You also when you turn a page, you know, so it's physical.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, of course, there's an emotional aspect.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes, which I never thought about. And I'm like, I like that better, and I I know where I am when I, oh, look, I've gotten a tenth of the way or half the way in the book. And so there's other things going on and gratification and moving and making process while I'm learning and not just going through the book just to finish it, but to learn the concepts that are in there. But yeah, but really the main thing I was saying about the books is just that there's research behind it. And it took well more than one day in most people's cases to write a book before it.
SPEAKER_04I would love to point one thing as well, as you have mentioned, the importance of podcasts or YouTube videos. These are all good, these are bags of information. So if some people are listening to us, they're also learning. Yes, or they can read my books or they can listen to me. Are they the same thing or not? Let me put a question mark here, and the answer they are not the same. So when we are talking on a podcast or on a YouTube video, these are the words on the air. So we don't know if they are true, we don't know if they have references, and if you want to repeat them, it's not impossible, but it is a little uh harder. But if it is in a book, it look it is supposed to be well written, well researched, and it should have sources and citations. So I can trust this information, but I'm not going to trust all the information that I hear from a podcast or a YouTube video. Uh but again, I'm not against them. There are different versions of information, these are backs, but the books might be more serious and might more trustworthy.
SPEAKER_02Now, I had a couple of just a couple last questions for you. How do you stay aligned with your values when a lot of society or culture may be pushing against some of the things that you believe or how you grew up or how you were trained? But how do you stay aligned with your values and purpose?
SPEAKER_04From the very beginning, Corey, I made a decision in terms of staying with my integrity. I want to sleep easily every night. So any of my decisions should not make me sleepless. So if I say a lie, I cannot sleep. Or if I steal, I cannot sleep. If I do a job in a lousy way, not an efficient or responsible way, I cannot sleep. And I am ready to lose money. I am ready to lose everything. But I want to stay with my principles because that is the thing that makes me myself. If I don't have principles, I'm nothing. I may uh walk uh with naked, I mean um uh nakedly in the streets without like a homeless person, but I would still prefer to live with my principles. Because otherwise, I mean we are we we are not just a leaf flying in the sky with the push of a wind. I want to be grounded, and if you want to be grounded, you should uh stick to your principles, and uh so today when we look at the world, we see a lot of people selling their souls, yeah, sometimes for billions of dollars, sometimes a few hundred dollars, but my soul is not for sale.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yeah. Yeah, I love that, I love that.
SPEAKER_04I love that. Yeah, I want to stay grounded, but there are a couple of things that I want to mention for the young generation and for the people like us. There is one uh proverb, I like it very much. Honest people say always the truth, smart people say when necessary. Oh wow just so it's for their gain, the smart people. So, of course, we need to protect ourselves. I mean, like I mean, there are institutions, there's everything, you know. So, in time, I try to learn to be respectful, and I try to learn the importance of timing. If I'm going to say what is important or what is true, let's say to my client, I need to tell this truth in the most convenient time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, that's great.
SPEAKER_04Or if I am talking with my administration, maybe there are plenty of things not going well. As an honest person, I should report that, but in a certain way that is going to help with the change. That is not not in a way that is going to make all other people mad at me. They may fire me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So right now I'm working on a book titled Surviving Ethically in an Unethical World. So I'm trying to write what we are experiencing, how people playing unethically is pushing into difficult positions, and how can we protect ourselves and what can we do for our children?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Oh, I like that. Multi-generations and allowing for future growth, which I yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Also, tell me about have you ever made a challenging decision where you were uncertain? And what did you learn from that?
SPEAKER_04Corey, I'm an immigrant. I'm originally Turkish. I was raised in Istanbul, uh, and I came to the United States in. I mean, I've been coming back and forth to the United States since 1997. But in terms of immigration, I immigrated to this country technically in 2015. I was doing my second master's degree at Harvard University, and then I found a job, a teaching job in Boston. Then my wife said, let's go somewhere warmer. And we we ended up in Texas. And it was a very big decision because I had my classmates, my professors, and also my colleagues in the Boston area, and I had nobody in Texas in terms of network. And in our business, you know, network is everything. I mean, uh, to find a teaching job or to find clients for consulting, for training. So if you don't know anybody, I mean, of course, if you have some money and funds, you can go and rent a house or buy a house or whatever. But if you don't have anybody to build a business or to sustain your life, it's it was a big decision.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And even in our age, with our old principles and old masteries or all papers, like diplomas and etc., it was a very big decision. But I preferred to believe in God, and also I tried to believe in the possibilities, knocking the doors, asking modestly and humbly help of other people to open an e-way. So we came to first Houston, then Austin. We tried to network, we tried to help other people, neighbors, nonprofit organizations, universities, and also small business. I'm I work as a gay mentor at the same time voluntarily. So these type of attempts helped me to ground to get my feet grounded in Texas. It was a big decision, uh, but I tried to believe both God and myself, and finally, we are uh doing okay right now. And starting from scratch in a new city or in a new state or a new country is a big deal. Uh but this is the story of the United States, as you know. I mean, like every one of us and our great-grandfathers came to this uh to the United States in the last 500 years, they went through similar uh experiences.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah, awesome. Well, I want to thank you so much, Mel, for sharing your life, your perspective on life, and what unapologetic leadership looks to you. So thank you for being here. And if you could let everyone know, what's the best way they can get in contact with you or stay connected with you?
SPEAKER_04So they can check my name on LinkedIn, or I have also my own website. My name is Mel Arat, and my website name, my website is that mel last name aratar.com. My first name sometimes because of my accent it doesn't sound clearly. It's like Melgibson, mel arat arat.com, so they can reach out to me by checking my website.
SPEAKER_02Fantastic. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_04Thank you for your time and having me as your guest.
SPEAKER_02You're welcome. You're welcome. And I want to thank you for listening to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where Mel shared so many different great concepts and ideas and principles. Number one, don't be puppeted by the algorithm. Make sure you have integrity and that you're grounded and that you stay in a truthful space just telling the truth. It's very simplified. It helps everyone in the situation long term. And also to make sure that you realize that small businesses are the place where not only does it take care of society and then it buffets and shields against if we just have one big corporation that potentially now is downsizing or goes out of business. Now what do we have? Whereas having and being in your own entrepreneur, having your own business can mentor the next generation. It gives one of the greatest learning experiences that you can even imagine on having and learning sales, interfacing with clients, having that smile on, regardless of how you feel, because every impression you make can be a lasting impression. And it's really about focusing on creating value for other people, how you serve everyone. So thank you again for listening to this episode, and we'll see you on the next one.
SPEAKER_00So that's it for today's episode of Unapologetic Leadership. Head on over to wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Corey Dunham himself. So head on over to Upologetic Leadership Podcast dot com and pick up a free copy of Corey's gift. And join us on the next episode.