Behind the Mic: Flipping the Script | Melissa Asks the Questions

For this special bonus episode, we’re doing things a little differently. HighlightHer listener (and superfan) Melissa stepped into the host chair and turned the mic around on me. She was the host and I answered listener questions submitted from across the U.S. — and even Australia!

Together, we talked about the journey behind HighlightHer, the life happenings that shaped me, what I’ve learned from entrepreneurship, and the heart behind this podcast community.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How long HighlightHer lived as an idea before becoming a real podcast
• What I’ve loved most about podcasting so far
• The life experiences that shaped my encouraging and people-focused approach
• How I choose guests for HighlightHer
• The common threads I see among women entrepreneurs
• Thoughts on networking, social media, and growing a business
• Tips for building stronger interpersonal skills and becoming a better connector
• And more!

Questions featured from:

• Donna in Indiana
• Melissa in Michigan
• Monica in Utah
• Jan in Michigan
• Christina in Australia

Thank you for listening, encouraging, sharing episodes, and helping make Season 1 so special. I’m excited for what’s ahead in Season 2.

Want more conversations like this? Join the HighlightHer community and I’ll send new episodes, encouragement, and behind-the-scenes updates your way.

Curious about my e-book The Power of One? Find it on Amazon.

Connect with HighlightHer:

Join the fun with HighlightHer Network on Facebook!

Be sure to follow the HighlightHer podcast so you can hear each episode. After all, you never know when her story will inspire your next step.

Know someone who should be a guest on the HighlightHer podcast? Nominate them here!

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Credits

Editing: Greg Herman

Music: “Corporate Inspiration” track - by Oleksandr Savochka at Pixabay

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I said, I've actually been kind of discouraged, and she said, Well, don't give up because I think it's a really good idea. Hi everyone, and welcome to Highlight Her. Before we get into the episode, I invite you to hit that follow button. It helps the show get delivered into your feed and it's a free way to support the podcast. Today we are flipping the script. I've invited Superfan Melissa to host a bonus QA episode to celebrate the end of season one. We've talked about full circle from time to time, and this is another full circle moment for me. Yes, Melissa has been consistently supporting and cheering on the podcast, but she was actually a couple years behind me in high school. So we have come full circle once again. Melissa is going to share some listener questions and I'll answer. Melissa, thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Thank you so much for the invite. It's an honor to be here. Thank you so much. I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

I knew when I wanted to do this episode that I I wanted to choose you because you've just been so encouraging to the podcast. And that's the whole spirit, right? So take it away and start with those questions.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Okay. Well, I actually submitted some questions of my own. So I will start with me, Melissa in Michigan. My first question for you is what events in your life led up to you being the encouraging and inspiring woman that you are today? That's very thoughtful of you.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Thank you so much. I think being an autism mom is actually what kind of started the whole thing. My now 20-year-old is on the autism spectrum. And I'd say it was about two and a half when we realized that there was something different. And then um took a couple years to get a diagnosis, but you're still dealing with all those sensory issues and just noticing that your child is not developing natural milestones that the other kids, in our case, it was particularly social development that stood out. And a friend um recommended that we look into Asperger's syndrome. At the time, Asperger's was its own thing. Now it's kind of under autism. So going through all of that and those challenges and just the honestly, sometimes isolation, depending on what stage of life we were in, the challenges that I saw my other son go through because of what his brother was dealing with. And those kinds of things just started helping me see what other women were going through. And then as I moved along into my business journey, I did a lot of direct sales. So as I did these different direct sales business, I learned various skills going along. And I was also able to learn from women that were incredible encouragers. One that comes to mind was Joni in my premier designs days. She was really good at making women feel welcome at her events. And it taught me how to step out of my comfort zone and reach out to women that I didn't know because I was doing these home parties and really kind of nervous because I didn't know anybody there. I had met the host before, but I didn't know anyone else a lot of times. And so I learned from Joni how to just come out of your shell and talk to other people. And then when I started with unique, I didn't have that in-person interaction anymore, but I had online connections in the unique family, so to speak, and women cheering each other on. And so from different circumstances along the way, I benefited from other women reaching out to me and encouraging me. And so I was able to learn those skills and then just kind of pass it along. But particularly the special needs parenting, because it's really rough. And that really opened my eyes to just kind of see other people where they are. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

So a few different things, uh, definitely. And it's it's so good when when we have different circumstances in our lives and we're able to use them in future endeavors, be it business endeavors. I know um, like you said, you had um I I remember you selling there was a there was a skincare line. Am I remembering right? Mascara. That's that I'm remembering that one in particular. But the the people, and I know what you're saying. Like when I've walked in a room is I can be outgoing and I love to talk, but walking in a room of people I don't know that can be intimidating. So definitely learning tips from others for sure. Thank you for sharing all that. Um, I have one more. Uh, what led you to being able to be a podcaster?

SPEAKER_01 5:08

That's a funny story because it was a story of sort of a story of failure, actually. I last year I was trying to think of what I could do with my love of encouraging women and particularly referring people to business businesses and cheering on business women. It's just something, if you look at my posts from the last, you know, five to ten years, you'll find it every so often sprinkled throughout. So I was brainstorming last year, and I thought, you know what? I'm gonna start a newsletter and I'm going to reach out to these local businesswomen and I'm gonna build this newsletter, and we'll end up with paid sponsorships and paid spots and that kind of thing. And it was a big flop. And it was a really good get your pride in check kind of thing, because I thought, I've done this before, I know what I'm doing, and it just didn't work for whatever reason. And so then I kind of got discouraged and I let it go. And then the end of the end of last year, I'd say that, okay, let's try a different twist. Let's do inside the Facebook group. We'll give priority posting and and help businesses connect directly with women in their area, women that are interested in shopping from them. Again, didn't work. So I showed up to this event on February 1st. It's called SOAR Capital S O A R. And Dr. Blair Stamper has launched this women's community downriver called SOAR, and she had the first ever annual SOAR conference on February 1st. And so I actually won two tickets and I invited a local businesswoman to be my guest, and we went. And while I was there, there was there were um tables from different vendors, and there was time to shop from these vendors and mingle with the other women there. And one of my guests, the guests from episode three, Chelsea Burnus from Go Talks Aesthetics, walks up to me. I'd never met her in person. I'd chatted with her a little bit online, and she says, How is highlight her going? And I said, It's really not. I I said, I've actually been kind of discouraged. And she said, Well, don't give up because I think it's a really good idea.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

I would agree.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

And it really stuck with me that for a couple of reasons. Number one, I really was discouraged and frustrated. And number two, just that she came up and told me, keep going with this idea. And shortly around that time, I I think it was after, but I can't remember for sure. Greg, my husband, who does the editing for me, he says, you should start a podcast. And I kind of like dismissed it. I dismissed him almost not disdainfully, but like whatever. And I thought, no, I don't want to do a podcast. And then later I thought about it and Kelsey kind of encouraged me to keep going with the highlight her idea. And I thought, you know what? I guess I could do a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

But so that's how I got into it. Okay, and shout out to your husband for absolutely our second listener question is from Donna in Indiana. And she has two questions. The first question is how long did you think of doing podcasts before it actually came to fruition? That's the question I was thinking of.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

So, Donna, I didn't think of it very long because I used Chat GPT actually to cut down a lot of research time. And so Greg talked to me about it. And then when I finally decided to do it, it was about three weeks from I'm gonna do this to first episode aired, which is really amazing. I went, yeah, I um attended a webinar online with Jenna Kutcher, and so she talked about thinking about your podcast area like a magazine. And if you were going to write a magazine, what would you write about? What would your magazine be about? And that would help you focus your podcast. So that's what I took to chat GPT. I asked it to help me kind of narrow my interests, so to speak. And then from there, I would just ask it a question like, well, what kind of like how do I know where to host it? How do I do this? How do I do that? And it would just guide me. And instead of taking hours, excuse me, and days to research our SS feeds, just told me these are the best options as a beginner and pick one, these are the pros, these are the cons. I went with Buzz Sprout and then it walked me right through. Push this button, push this button, do this, do this, do this, do this. Wow. So it drastically reduced the amount of time that it would have taken me.

unknown 10:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

The other thing, Donna, to help me was Greg was willing to do my audio editing, and that cut out another huge learning curve because I would have been on the floor in the fetal position, having to learn editing. That is how long it took me.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Okay, so it was uh so three weeks, though. You said that you began from the beginning of the idea. Donna has another question. She said, What is your favorite thing about it, besides being able to interview different people and getting to know them more?

SPEAKER_01 10:43

That's a tough question because that's actually what I love about it. Is learning tips and how to think from these women. It's just become something fun for me to do, honestly. And something to replace the direct sales business that I used to be doing. So I think that's probably my favorite. It's giving me something fun to do.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

The next listener question is from Monica in Utah. She actually has four questions. The first question is I remember your work as a writer. Are you still writing? I am not still writing. Unless you count writing show notes for the podcast. Okay. May I ask, I was not familiar with your work as a writer. What kind of work were you doing as a writer?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Back in about 15 to 16 years ago, I started a blog because I reached out to publishers to review books exchange for a copy of the book. Oh, okay. Okay. And that was the beginning of my special needs mom blog. Okay. I actually grew for quite a while. I also wrote a nonfiction book that's on Amazon called The Power of One, which is an ebook. And I wrote for a homeschool company. And so I've done a variety of types of writing, but I don't write anymore. When we went through, um, my oldest son came down with pandas, which is an autoimmune attack on the brain. And that time was just too difficult to be able to keep writing and hang on to everything else. And then we went into another situation that was really hard. So those two kind of drained me from writing, and I let my blog go. So I don't write anymore.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Okay. But I was very curious about your writing, and you're a very multi-talented person. You do many things, Jenny. So I'm just telling you, you don't probably give yourself enough credit. So all right. You have to look for the power of one. So is that do I find that on like if I went on Amazon? Could people purchase that ebook? Okay. Awesome. All right. The second question from Monica is how do you choose guests for your podcast?

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Oh, that's a good question, Monica. So in the beginning, for season one especially, I chose people that I already had relationships with. So that's why I chose that I wanted to have Christina, but that's specifically why I chose her for episode one. Then I chose Chelsea for episode two because she's the one that encouraged me to keep going. So I wanted to highlight her and learn more about her business. And then it's just been quite a few have been local businesswomen that I've gotten to know or made connections with. And then um Monica, episode 10, who asked this question actually. She's been a long term, long time online friend and amazing businesswoman. So I wanted to interview her. So I kind of choose people that either I'm curious about their business or I know them and I think they have something that they can contribute to my audience. And then there is the possibility sometimes people have been nominated. So there is a form, I'll put it in the show notes. If people know someone that they want to nominate for the podcast, they can do that as well. We have that coming in season two.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

All right. Monica's third question is how have entrepreneurship and small businesses affected your life? Ooh, that's a good question, too.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

They've actually made me braver. Okay, I think is one of the big ways that it's affected me. And then um, it helps me think differently. Like, ooh, she could turn that into a business. Or she should she should add this to her business. For example, I think Rosie from the La Gallery episode, I think she was episode six. I think she should start an email list to invite her audience and her followers to all of she has a crazy amount of events. And right now they find out about it through Facebook, which is awesome. Facebook ever goes down, she would have the email list to keep in touch with her people. And I haven't had a chance to tell her that.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

So, Rosie, there's my tip. And then Monica's last question is you have a knack for connecting with people and remembering things about them. Any tips for developing strong interpersonal skills? Another great question.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

And I have a cheat code for this. Ah, okay. I want to hear this. If you really want to remember something, write it down. So when I do an episode, when I'm interviewing an episode, I have a little note card next to me. And as things come up or they recommend tips, I'll write it down and I save those note cards. But also, I have, you know, I use my notes app to remind myself about people, particularly, for example, at church. I have a hard time remembering names. I recognize faces. Oh, my me too. Yes, yes. But I have a hard time with names. So if I meet someone that I want to remember who they are so I can talk to them again, I might type in my phone, so and so, you know, from this area, or they had three kids, or you talked about chocolate, you know, something to help me remember. And then if I'm at a networking event and we're we're sharing business cards, I know business cards are kind of in and out these days. There's other digital versions that people are using, but if they're handing out physical business cards, I write something on the back of their business card to help me remember what we talked about and remember we talked about they their children or their daughter going to college or their garden or something that will help me remember so that if I see them again, I can ask them about it. So that's my little tip.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Okay, that that's a great tip, actually, because I I get so flustered just in my own mind when, like you say, you know the face, but then the name escapes you. So writing it down.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Okay, great. I'm actually gonna add one more one more to that. All right. If you're at an event and you're sitting at a table and you want to remember everyone's name, take your little piece of paper, like your program or whatever, and write all the names down. So, for example, like if you're sitting in a circle at a circle table, write the names down according to where they're sitting to help you remember who they were. Because you might later, like again, I remember faces better than names. So I can think, okay, the person that was two to the left of me, that was Susan. And then she had her friend Julie with her, and then and then so instead of just writing a list, write it in the shape of the table where you're sitting, and that will help you remember.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Oh, yes. We're on to our next listener. So the next question is from Jan in Michigan, and she has one question. What a wide range of business types and topics you've covered in such a short time. Do you see any threads running through all of them?

SPEAKER_01 18:19

One of the biggest threads, Jan, that I've seen running through these interviews is the concept of community and a couple different ways. Community, as far as building a community with your business, a lot of these women, it's not just about selling their product, it's about the interaction with the women that come into their store and learning about their families, their ups and downs, and just building relationships with their customers beyond client and client or client and representative or store owner and customer. So there's that kind of community, and then also building an actual community around your business so that you have a group of people that are interacting with you. And that's kind of a little bit more online, that aspect. But so it's sort of the same thing, but there's the feeling of community of these relationships that you're building. That's one kind of community. And then the other is just you're building raving fans, right? People that want to know about you and are hanging out in your area because they love your business. So that aspect, that essence of community has really come up a bunch of times. And then also the idea of being brave and not being afraid of failure keeps coming up.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

For sure. Some of what you've just covered ties into our last set of questions. So this that was a really good segue that you gave us. Um, so last, but certainly not least, this is exciting for me when I read this question the first time. We have Christina drum roll in Australia. So that's so exciting just to have listeners all over the world. Uh, so Christina has three questions. Um, the first one says, What are some ideas that drive customers to you? Is it all social media driven?

SPEAKER_01 20:25

I think a lot of it is social media these days due to the nature of our lifestyles. I don't think it all has to be, but I have seen some local women who have events and they're bringing in new people through those events. I know GoTops Aesthetics does that, La Gallery does that. There's episodes um three and six. And then I think some people are also like uh going out into events that they can be part of. So for example, a farmer's market or um some in in our area, some people join with other businesses and just create an event, a reason for people to come out and shop.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

So I think there's some local that you can do. And I know I hope that we get some more ideas in season two and three from these women, so we can get even more ideas about how to get new customers. I think also if you have the ability to have a landing page and offer something to people, a reason for to sign up for your email newsletter. Right. Or email newsletter, you own that. No one can take that away from you. And Jan in episode seven had some really good thoughts on your newsletter.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Yes, she did.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Facebook can go down, TikTok can go down, Instagram. Instagram can go down, but you own your email newsletter. So if you can find ways to build that newsletter, that's another way to bring in customers.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Okay. This the next question from Christina, you've kind of answered it a bit, but I'm going to go ahead and read it. Is being a part of a network in person group truly helpful in this day and age? So if you want to add anything else to that section.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

So I just had an interview for my season two nonprofit Miranda, and she would definitely say that networking in person is a good help. I think it depends on what your business is, but it always helps to have more people that you've met in person know about your business and be able to tell someone when they run into someone looking for your type of business. If you have gone out and met people in person and said, hey, if you ever run into someone that needs a mattress cleaner, I have a really good mattress cleaner. And then they can keep that in their head, especially if you can make yourself memorable. Think of a way to make yourself stand out so that they remember you. Hi, we're taking a quick break during this fantastic interview to invite you to subscribe to the Highlight Her podcast newsletter. That's right. There's a newsletter that gets each episode delivered to your inbox. And soon there will be additional features as well. If you love supporting small businesses and hearing great success stories, you're going to want to subscribe. Link in show notes back to our interview.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

All right we have one final question from Christina in Australia. She says is it all hustle hustle hustle? I just see that some businesses thrive and the same and then the same types of businesses don't thrive. I can't put my finger on the differences. Do you have any answers for that?

SPEAKER_01 23:58

That is a really good question. And there is unfortunately a lot of hustle in business. And I totally understand where she's coming from because I see the same thing. I see some businesses get a lot of interaction on social media and others don't. So I think when you have the time to learn some tips from people in the niche industries like the Instagram experts Brock, I can't remember his last name. Brock. If you look Brock if you look at Brock Instagram expert on Google, I'm sure it will pull up. Um so learn from him for Instagram. Um I'm so out of constantly studying that I wouldn't be able to say necessarily who is the best Facebook person right now. But I bet if you googled best Facebook expert that something would come up. And you kind of have to either either do that or search for trends on each platform because they do change. And if you notice something popping up a lot while you're doing your own scrolling that might be a hint that right now this is really interesting to people for whatever reason. So you might notice a lot of reels in the same style or the same um song. So sometimes that can help you. But again if you can find ways to differentiate yourself from other businesses and be memorable that will help you even if you don't get huge social media numbers. And like I said unfortunately it is a lot of social media these days. Right. But I come back to that recommendation on your newsletter and just finding ways to help yourself stand out. Now another thing that you could do is follow the companies the women that you see that are being really successful, follow them and kind of pick apart what their posts look like. Why are they getting reactions from this? Is it a heartfelt post something that's talking personally that audiences are just drawn in and respond to that way? Is it a shorter hey give me your quick answer post kind of become a student a detective of these other people that you feel are really successful. And again sometimes it's just the algorithm finds something interesting that day and pushes it out and it didn't I don't get a lot on my social media. I don't get very much interaction um so I understand where this question is coming from. Sometimes unfortunately we just have to hang in there and find time to be a student which I need to do that more myself.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

But finding the time hang in there hang in there yes but and I yeah I know what you're saying and it it was interesting because you just said I don't always get a lot of interactions but I will tell you myself you're in my you know algorithm or whatever in my feed I love the fact that you show up so often with something really little like just asking a question um or it's something about the podcast. It's all different things. I I think I mean I I knew you from our growing up years long time ago but like other people I love the fact Jenny that you give people the opportunity to see your day to day at times you know oh look at you know I I took a walk to work today and I came across this or this is what I ate and or this is where I went to get the get said treat. They're gluten free. It's this bakery and highlighting someone that way I think being present often it doesn't always have to be a huge thing. I think just being out there um I I feel like that has helped you and I read I feel like I just read this from you the past day or so that you mentioned you were at 500 is it listeners or subscribers. I'm close to 500 followers on my followers not quite yet but if anyone wants to give a follow yes please do please do which is exciting very exciting it is and and even like I don't know I I was thrilled the day I found out that we had listeners like from different countries. That's that's it's exciting like look look who we're reaching this is amazing and I'm sure you'd like to hear from more of them you know so yes interact it it does help. It does help even the the littlest things um you know I I appreciate what you do for all the business ladies now through the highlight her and people like me I'm not a business person but I feel encouraged and inspired first of all by you and also I love hearing their stories and I feel like there's always something you can learn from someone else even if you're not exactly like that person. There's always a takeaway so but is there anything else you'd like to add at all about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 29:34

No I think that's great insight on your part and I'm really glad that it comes across that way because that is how I think about it as well you don't have to be a businesswoman to enjoy the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

Right, right there was someone else that said that that even though they're not a businesswoman they're still getting something each time and that's the goal I love it every Friday every Friday morning I'm like so excited to get the new episode so thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Thank you. Well Melissa I really appreciate your taking time to do this for me and thank you for your insightful add on questions. You did a great job. Well thank you and thank you for having me. Audience do you want more conversations like this? Come join the Highlight Heart community newsletter in the show notes. I'll send new episodes surprises and behind the scene updates your way. Thank you for listening today