PP 290: Becoming a “Goal” Digger with Melonie DeRose

A Texas-born lady boss who’s not afraid to dance her heart out (Britney Spears-style), Melonie DeRose is Empact’s resident Chief Goal Digger. ‘Hustle’ and ‘Be Kind’ are her personal mottos, and she’s convinced amazing things happen when you combine the two. A once-upon-a-time corporate and securities attorney at an international law firm, she puts the many lessons she learned about shattering glass ceilings and excelling in traditionally male-driven arenas to use on the daily. Whatever you’re planning, she’s in (bonus points for anything involving Vegas, dance parties, lattes, or heels). She can now be found living out her dream of building a company that empowers the girl boss in women everywhere, slinging insanely tasty, polka-dot-wrapped protein bars, and loving life with her husband and three beautiful girls.

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Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. This is your host Kim Sutton, and I am so happy that you are here to join us today. I am also thrilled to introduce our guest, Melonie DeRose. Melonie is the Founder and Chief GOAL Digger and Empact Bars. She is a recovering lawyer turned entrepreneur, which I love how you put that, Melanie because I totally understand. I’m not a recovering attorney, but I feel like I’m recovering corporate. I would love it if you would jump in, Melonie, and tell the listeners more about what you do. Because I haven’t even started to explain, but I know you’re gonna be able to tell it so much better than I, so would you mind taking them along the ride of your journey?

Melonie DeRose: Absolutely. And thank you so much for having me on today. Kim. I’m truly humbled to be here. And let me clarify, it’s GOAL Digger, G-O-A-L. I feel like I always need to make that clarification if you’re not seeing the name on our business card rather than G-O-L-D. But anyhow, yes, I like to describe myself as a recovering attorney. I practiced law doing corporate and securities at a big international law firm for several years, and focused on things like taking companies public, and mergers and acquisitions, and got a lot of great experience. However, there were a few things really missing from that job. The first thing for me is I wasn’t truly passionate about it. I very much underestimated that. The importance of that at the time, I just thought, I sort of had groomed myself to be a lawyer forever. I grew up in a family with lawyers, and I thought that’s what I was destined to do. And when I finally got there after law school and everything else, I thought, okay, this is where I’m supposed to be. But there was definitely something that was missing. I looked at a job as just something they give me the means to do the things I love to do, which was travel and spending time with my family and whatnot. But I never really understood what it was like to be passionate about a job because I hadn’t found my calling, so to speak. 

By the way, interrupts me whenever you have any questions. But by the way, I was at that job, liking it, loving the kind of intellectual challenge of it, but missing as sort of the passion. And also, I had this calling to kind of want to give back, and I didn’t really know exactly what that looks like. But when you’re working in a big law firm, it’s very difficult to find time and schedule to do pro bono work, or to work with nonprofits. There’s just not a lot of time because it’s all gauged around how you bill. So everything that is outside of that is on top of what may be an 80 or 100 hour week already. And so I had those two things going for me. And then a third element that kind of tipped me over the edge to jump into becoming an entrepreneur was, I had my first daughter at the time, she’s now eight. 

And after having her, I remember thinking like, God, I still looked pregnant. When I left the hospital, I was really depressed about that and I had just thought I’d bounce right back and it took several months. I was trying to find a fitness solution for women and I could not find anything. I ended up doing P90X or whatever videos I could find that seemed to be really male oriented. And at that point, I discovered this sort of void in the marketplace for women like me, like new moms who were trying to find something. I did not feel comfortable with the gym so we decided to launch a health and fitness company for moms at that moment. We were like, we’re gonna do videos that are targeted for moms. I was not in the videos, we knew a trainer. And at the time, we were in Austin, Texas. We knew a trainer who was great. She trained moms and approached her. So we developed a company that was based on a home fitness DVD program for moms. It was called FeFit, F-E in the periodic symbol for iron. Iron is the core of the Earth, and moms were the core of the family.

Kim Sutton: I just had to ask, that just like a divine idea, how did it hit you to name it that?

Melonie DeRose: I’m trying to remember, we were working on a name and we wanted to really emphasize that this is going to be for women, specifically for moms. And at the time, I was feeling like, God, nothing was working. I was feeling all the time, I’m sort of like a bad lawyer, I was feeling like a bad mom, I was feeling like a bad spouse. Because there I was, not giving any time to myself, and really realized at that time of my life the importance of taking this concept of the time and not feeling guilty about it. And for me, that meant physical activity. After I had my child, I went back to work, and it was stressful, it was difficult to maintain any sort of work life balance. So you’re already working many hours a week, and then you throw a kid into the next, and you’re trying to also be a good spouse and everything else. And I realized I was not taking a lot of time for myself. And so I think that concept of making sure you’re encouraging women to take that time is super important. And also, it’s not about being skinny, or wasn’t about losing ton of ton of weight, it was about being sort of the best version of myself that I could be. And to me, whatever that looks like for you, for me, it looks like I needed to work out approximately 30 minutes a day, because that’s about what I could fit in to keep my head on straight and not go crazy. That’s sort of my stress release. We thought that if you have this concept of moms being the core of the family, and when mom’s happy, a lot of times, the rest of the family is happy. So it just seemed like a natural name for the company.

Kim Sutton: I have to agree with that. When mom’s happy, the rest of the family’s happy. I mean, I’m not saying that my husband never gets upset, because he does. But the kids can look at my face and know, should I be quiet before mom says anything?

Melonie DeRose: Maybe the opposite is what’s true, when mom’s unhappy, the family falls apart.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. Yeah. But maybe it’s just because I’m home a lot more, as a mompreneur, I’m the one who is here. I get to experience and I say that, genuinely, I get to experience. It’s not that I have to experience, but I get to experience more misbehavior than my husband does. But I love that we are the core of our families. Even if we can’t cook, which is my case, I’m still the core.

Melonie DeRose: I’m not a great cook either.

Kim Sutton: Can you burn mac and cheese in a box too?

Melonie DeRose: Well, I don’t know that I have done that one. But I’m sure I’ve done something comparable, like burn french fries in the oven.

Kim Sutton: Yeah.

Melonie DeRose: Definitely happens. Especially in the beginning.

Kim Sutton: I mean, I’m 15 years into being a mom. And thankfully, my 15 year old has even learned to cook now. So there are days when he knows that I’m the one that’s at home at dinnertime, Mom, what are we having for dinner? How do I cook it? Yeah, that’s because that’s how he knows that he’s gonna get fed. I do want to go back though, I think it’s really funny how you said, I mean, funny and sad all at the same time that you left the hospital and you were disappointed that your belly was still there. I don’t know what I thought was gonna happen. I mean, I had my oldest when I was pretty young, but I thought that my belly would just be gone. I mean, poof, the baby’s out. It’s gonna be an elastic band right back to where it was. Well, it didn’t happen on that one. And it sure as heck didn’t happen on any of the subsequent ones, especially the twins, so I feel that.

Melonie DeRose: Nobody prepared me for that. I felt like those words of wisdom would have been really helpful. You’re just at the end of your pregnancy, and my first child was almost 10 pounds. I mean, I was feeling very large. And then whenever I left the hospital, I had packed up all my clothes. I remember opening the box and being in tears because I was just like, oh, my God, I still look pregnant. If I went out, I think someone would be like, when are you due? So that would have been some advice that would have been helpful, but then you accept it. Obviously, different people take weight off at varying times. And for me, nursing actually did help quite a bit. I was recovering from a C-section so I couldn’t dive right back into working out, which was a struggle for me. I had to wait quite a few weeks to do that. But you kind of finally get to the point where you’re like, okay, this is just what it’s like to be a mom, and this is what I’m going to look like, and I’m going to be comfortable with that until I can get to a place where I can take the time to focus on myself.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. And I just want to say to any of the lady listeners who are listening and pregnant with their first, there is a hidden book that should really be part of what to expect when you’re expecting all the stuff that you really should know. But they just didn’t put in there. Would you have to agree, Melonie? I mean, there’s just–

Melonie DeRose: Did you read The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy? That’s the closest I could find.

Kim Sutton: I did not because I learned all the super embarrassing stuff on my own with number one. I remember calling, my mom wouldn’t have told me any of it anyway, but my ex mother in law because I was married to my first at that time. I remember calling her on lunch break one day and I was like, why didn’t you tell me that, dot, dot, dot? Just imagine one of the most embarrassing things that could happen during pregnancy. You should like, well, that never happened to me. But well, where’s the other people that it did happen to, and they just didn’t put it in this book? Because I’ve been reading it cover to cover and nothing was ever, okay, listeners. I’m so sorry. This is TMI. I was at work pregnant at lunch and learn and my boobs started leaking. What the heck, this isn’t anywhere in this book.

Melonie DeRose: That isn’t in there. They do get some preparation for leaking after, but not really.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, no, I don’t know. For me, it was like during pregnancy, every single pregnancy. And then one of my sisters got pregnant, I won’t name her, she’s like, didn’t this happen to you? I was like, yep, you gotta use protection.

Melonie DeRose: I think sometimes, people don’t tell you that because they think maybe you won’t have a baby. I don’t know. I cornered my mom a couple times and she was like, if I told you that, you would have never gotten pregnant. I’m like, that’s really not an answer. There’s a lot.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. Anyway, listeners, if you’re questioning anything that’s going on, just head over to thekimsutton.com and hit the contact tab. Because I don’t want you to be like, no, I am not a doctor, but don’t hesitate to reach out because it means that you’re listening. Okay, sorry, I interrupted your journey.

Melonie DeRose: No, no, no, no problem. I was trying to just explain that was sort of what led me into becoming an entrepreneur. So we started this company, I was still practicing law, we were kind of doing this on the side and it was really fun. I mean, what I found was I, number one, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed marketing, I even enjoyed sitting in the editing bay and working on the videos which I spent countless hours doing. But what I really enjoyed is having women come up and say, hey, I felt like I’ve identified the same problem. I’m so glad you’re developing something that will work for me. And when we finally launched, we had a great, it still is actually available, it’s primarily an online Amazon company. But we had all these customers calling saying, this has really changed my life, and this has been an amazing thing for me. Thanks for making something that was just for me. And so that cast the gratitude you get when you get a call like that, it was unlike anything I had ever experienced just the energy I felt talking to those customers. Even the ones who may have called and said, hey, I have a question about X, Y and Z. 

So at that moment, I realized, okay, this is what I need to be doing. I’m no longer wanting to do law. It suited me when I had it, but it’s time to move on. So I left my legal career. My husband was still practicing law. He’s also a recovering attorney. And we worked on that company for a while and ended up relocating to Denver, Colorado thinking that Denver is a very fit market like Austin. So we would continue this sort of fitness journey, which we did. And what we found was we had amazing customers who were really loyal. They kept saying, when’s the next videos that coming out? And it takes a very long time to make videos. It’s a long process, it’s like filming a movie. We were trying to find some sort of continuity product, and our customers were very much interested in nutrition. So we launched a nutrition plan with a company based in Austin, Texas, and it was sort of a low carb paleo esque plan. And then the follow up to that was our customer saying, I’d really like to have a snack that I can eat on this plan. I have a hard time finding snacks. I’ve got kids and I’ve ended up buying goldfish and whatever, they’ve gotten the pantry, and I was in that same boat as well. I promise that I’m getting somewhere, this is sort of how our company was launched. 

And one day, I was walking down the grocery store in the protein bar aisle and I was like, God, there’s just really nothing here for women. I have the same feeling that I had way back when I was in my living room doing workouts that were geared towards men, and all of the protein bars seem to be either unisex or if I was a bodybuilder and doing CrossFit, I think I could have figured out what I wanted. But if I was a woman who is just wanting a better for you snack that’s high in protein, that had quality ingredients, I wasn’t really able to find anything on the shelf. So in that moment, we said, okay, we’re going to develop a protein and energy bar for women. I mean, why not? Like natural transfer from law to fitness companies. Why not incorporate food because that’s an easy thing to do? We ended up launching this version one, so to speak of our bar, and we did it really just to kind of keep our customers engaged as we were thinking about doing new videos and developing new videos. We put them up in some Pilates Studios on the West Coast and also put them on Amazon, and they started doing really well. And one day, we got a call from a major retailer that was very interested and said: “There’s not really anybody else in the marketplace doing this, especially targeting women. We’d like to roll you out like 2,000 stores.” And so in that moment–

Kim Sutton: I just got goosebumps.

Melonie DeRose: Well, it was an awesome call. I also forgot to mention that my husband has subsequently left his law job, and he’s full time working with me through all of these endeavors as well. So we’re sitting in Denver, we were like high fiving in the office like, oh, my God, this is amazing. And at that moment, we realized, okay, we should pivot and really start looking at what the food industry is like. We should talk to somebody who’s worked in the food industry because we didn’t have any background in that. And we should start looking at, if it makes sense to focus more on these bars. So we did, we got hooked up with the kind of what I like to describe as a guru in the food industry who has lots of experience working with small and very large natural food brands. Anytime you’re in the grocery store and you go to the natural food aisle, he’s probably touched most of the brands there. So we talked to him. And long story short, hit it off with him, but decided at that moment that we really needed to kind of start over with a company that was just focused on the food side rather than combining with the fitness, it just didn’t make sense to have them together. 

So we launched our company Empact, and it’s E-M-P-A-C-T, and the E-M stands for Empowering women and girls. And the PACT is helping them have an impact on their families and communities. I can get into the mission side of this as well, because it’s a huge component that I have left out. But I kind of wanted to give you the history of how this company developed. So that’s how we started. The protein and energy bar company really is the way I describe it. It’s a company about empowering women, and it’s also a natural snack food company for women. We happen to make amazing protein and energy bars that are made for women. But really, the passion on my side is this concept of empowering women and the mission based work that we do.

Kim Sutton: I definitely want to hear about your mission based work, but I have a question before we go there. I know you’re a mom of two, about to be three, and I’m a mom of five. How do you keep your kids from eating the bars?

Melonie DeRose: I don’t. And in fact, our two kids, we have an eight year old and a five year old are our chief taste testers. Because if you want honest feedback about a flavor or the way something tastes, you just ask a five year old because they are not going to lie. So when we were developing the bars, which are totally appropriate for kids, they were always the last sign off. We’d give them something and my five year old to be like, Mom, this is disgusting. And then we work on it for a while because it takes a while to kind of get your recipe where you want it. And we tried different flavors. It wasn’t until both kids were like, we love all three flavors, because we launched with three, that we decided to roll them out. So they eat them all the time. I am so happy about that because they’re healthy and they’re good for you. So the fact that I’ve got my kids asking, number one, for the product that we made, which is cool. But also, they would rather have this healthy snack that has good protein in it. Then some other kind of candy bar, I feel like that’s a huge win.

Kim Sutton: That is definitely a huge win. I guess I’m sort of joking because there has never been any food in my house that was bought for me, that was actually mine. I mean, I’ve bought food for myself that when I went to eat it, it had already disappeared. Like, where is it? I mean, one Thanksgiving, no joke, I bought myself a dessert because the rest of the family wanted something else, and somebody ate it while I was taking a nap.

Melonie DeRose: That’s awful. I feel like that’s every mom’s experience though. I mean, it just happens to us. It’s so unfair.

Kim Sutton: I will not deny though that my, this is not a healthy indulgence at all. But when I’m really stressed and it’s not, again, not at all healthy. Jose Cuervo, pre mixed Margarita mix, that is my go to. I’m not an alcoholic, people. But that is my go to. That is the one thing that nobody touches besides me, including my husband.

Melonie DeRose: Well, that’s awesome. That’s a good mom moment for you.

Kim Sutton: I just want to find, this is a healthy snack that the kids could be eating too, so maybe I shouldn’t be worried about it. Maybe I just need more healthy snacks because, yeah, the things that they’ve been eating for disclosure haven’t been the healthy stuff.

Melonie DeRose: Well, a lot of kids don’t eat healthy. Even with our kids, it’s a struggle. They’d sit around and eat candy all day if I’d let them. I mean, that’s just what they want to eat. But they’re not going to win that battle so they often will say: “Hey, can we have an Empact bar?” And I always get excited. I’m like, yes, you want an Empact? Well, that’s great. You’re not asking me for something like goldfish. So it’s kind of a big win in that regard, but that it also talks to the, or speaks to the quality of our products. I mean, I wanted something we could give our girls, I wanted something I could recommend to my girlfriends. You didn’t look at the ingredient label, and it was a science project. So it’s very important for us to have high quality ingredients, and I’m proud of everything that’s in our bars, there’s nothing artificial. So that makes it easier. It certainly makes it more challenging. I know why now that I’m into this industry, so many people do put that stuff in their products because it’s cheaper, and it will make it last longer. But for me, I wanted to create something really healthy and high quality.

Kim Sutton: What did the process look like? Timewise? Because I know there’s got to be listeners who are thinking about doing something similar, not the same but similar. But from first initial thought to when your first batch went out, how long did that take?

Melonie DeRose: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think it took us about a little under a year. We were working on formulas, we were working on marketing, packaging, all of that stuff needed to be developed and really reined in. And for us, because we were essentially eliminating part of the customer base, we felt it was a bit of a risk. So we actually went out and approached some retailers and said: “Hey, we’re thinking about developing this bar.” We luckily got some great meetings and said: Would you take it because we’re going to market exclusively for women so we don’t want to go through all this time and effort. If you’re going to say, no, we’re not going to take you because you’re eliminating men.” But as it turns out, we had such a great reception that, I think if we had tried to create a bar that would have been from everybody, well, in fact, I know this because some grocery stores have told us, they would have just told us to leave. They were like, it’s too saturated of a category, you’re actually trying to find a way to bring a specific consumer to this category or this aisle. And what was a great benefit for us is that I think the stats are something like 86% of grocery shoppers are women anyway, and we’re trying to find a way to get them to an aisle that doesn’t necessarily speak to them. They’re just not a lot of products that are, from our perspective, any products that have exclusively said we’re only going after women. So it took some time, back to your question, to get everything nailed down. We wanted to be sure we were using great ingredients, we wanted to be sure we put the right team in place. 

So for us, the team was huge. We have a great graphic designer who sort of nailed it out of the park with our marketing, our signature, sort of these gold polka dots. And my goal is for our audience and our customers to know that if you see gold polka dots, and you know the Empact brand, that you’re getting a really high quality ingredient. I want it to be obvious that our customers will still read labels, but I want them to know they don’t have to question. So it took some time to find a manufacturer. Well, that’s a tough spot for a new food company to be in. Most manufacturers require ridiculously high volumes. The typical trajectory for a new food company is you’re making products, like in a commissary kitchen kind of situation, or with a very small manufacturer. And then at some point, when you scale up, you have to find another one and switch over. And it can be a very difficult process and cause some delay or some lag time. We had the great fortune of finding a very large manufacturer who would typically require huge volumes and a lot of revenue before they’d even talk to you. But we sat down with them and said that this is what we’re doing, and let us tell you about the mission side of our company. We’re unique and that we’re mission based, we’re all about empowering women, and we want to work with women based organizations and nonprofits that do great work. We hit it off with them and they said: “You know what? We’d like to launch you.” So typically, we wait a few years until you get established, but we’re gonna launch you. And they worked with us on the minimums, and worked with us on the requirements. So it took about a year to a little under a year to get that all kind of set in stone and ready to launch. And then we launched on shelves last October, sorry, October 2016, in a large grocery store chain in Texas. And that’s sort of how we rolled it out. I’m sorry, I’m babbling now so I’ll stop.

Kim Sutton: There’s no such thing happening in Productivity. If there is, I do it all the time so don’t even worry about it. I love that. I was very curious about how you had it produced, packaging and all that so thank you so much for diving so deep into that. I know that my aunt had created her own special recipe of herbs, pretzels. That’s the best way that I can really describe it, but they are so delicious. She started selling them to some smaller grocery chains in western New York. And one of the restrictions was that she had to be using a commercial kitchen. So which I totally understand, I mean, you have to be really careful if you’re cooking out of your own home and intending to sell.

Melonie DeRose: That’s right. You probably don’t want that liability anyway. You’d rather work with somebody who follows the standards, knows all the rules and regulations because a lot of things can happen. When you’re sourcing ingredients from other folks, some things are out of your control. If you source an ingredient that should have passed all these standards and it’s problematic, then suddenly, you’re stuck in this hard place of, oh, my God, what am I gonna do? So we’ve been really fortunate that our manufacturer has very, very high safety ratings. They’re what’s called an SQF level 2, which just as a fancy way of saying it’s really, I think one of the highest safety ratings. So all of our ingredients, suppliers have to go through a very rigorous QA process, which is very time consuming, but worth it in the end. I mean, we’d rather be sure that we’re sourcing really clean ingredients that are high quality, but you’ve got to think through all that stuff. And I think that when you’re a small business owner, especially in food, and you’ve just been making something that starts getting traction, people want to start buying it, then you’re selling it to local shops, it’s hard to think big picture on some of those items. And sometimes, you have to back up and go, okay, wait a minute, this is bigger than me, and what I’m able to make. Because I’ve made plenty of protein bars in my kitchen at this point, not the ones that were for sale. We were trying to develop flavors. My husband and I were kind of messing around with ingredients and formulations, and it’s an interesting job when you get to that level.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, I can imagine. So where are you being stocked? Is it more than Texas?

Melonie DeRose: Yes. So we have two branches to our company, the retail, so to speak side, which focuses on large grocery store chains, and also independence and all sorts of retail establishments. And then we have online. So for retail, we are primarily sold in Texas and Colorado, though our strategic plan for this year was to move west. We’re picking up all sorts of chains, and I’m in Oregon. Now, in California. We’ve been moving west and expanding that way. And then we just launched actually two new flavors this month that were launched on the East Coast a little bit earlier than we were thinking, but we got some traction on the East Coast. So we’ve started launching some independence there as well. It’s still sporadic. I mean, we’re still a really new company. So for your listeners, for example, the best place to find us is online, we’re at empactbars.com, and you can find us on Amazon, because we’re not obviously in every national store. One day, we’ll get there one day. But right now, just for you, because I know you’ve got listeners all over the place, we may or may not be in that area. But the goal is to kind of make a big splash in Texas, and Colorado West, and then start saturating the East Coast.

Kim Sutton: I love how you’re not trying to go too big, too fast. And you’re being strategic about that. Because I think that is a common challenge and struggle that so many entrepreneurs face is that self imposed to go too big, too fast goal. And then they get discouraged when it doesn’t work, but they really didn’t have everything set up. We look at entrepreneurs who have been on Oprah, but they were still producing in the rush. It doesn’t wind up very good.

Melonie DeRose: Right. Because the other thing that happens is if you grow too big, too fast, you often can’t either keep up with that. It’s an expensive industry. Manufacturing food is expensive so you have to give away a lot of free products you have wasted. And we’ve got a shelf life on our product so you have to do it strategically. I think where you can get underwater really fast. So it’s important to kind have owned the areas where you launched, and our goal is from a local to a statewide perspective. 

For example, in Colorado, it’s where we’re trying to sort of own this area and expand here and really get a name for ourselves, and then we can move it out. And it’s also to prove out your method,. You want to test the waters and make sure that you’re leading with the right marketing message, or that your packaging is right. I mean, we’ve not been in business that long, we just did a total packaging redo because what we found was when we were in grocery stores demoing or sampling out product, which I do quite a bit, our customers would come up and say, why don’t you guys not lead with this, the fact that you’re doing all this stuff to help women, I would buy you just based on that. And we thought, yeah, we probably should do a better job of telling people what we’re doing because we’re doing some cool stuff with nonprofits. You don’t really know that unless you talk to one of us, or you go to our website, do some kind of extra searching to find out what we’re doing to give back. So we revamped packaging, and made it clear on our packaging what we’re doing. And I think we’re leading with those messages. And if you just roll out nationally or internationally, and you kind of throw out a marketing message and hope it works. I mean, if it doesn’t, you can kind of find yourself in a lot of trouble. So if you test it and you test it on smaller or more micro levels, then you can refine before you really scale. That’s what we’ve been trying to do.

Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah, it would be like throwing spaghetti at the wall. I’m trying to see if it sticks. Actually done before. I don’t know, I was just feeling goofy one night, and it does stick by the way. If you’ve never done it before, it is sort of fun. It’s just messy to clean up. Don’t use sauce.

Melonie DeRose: Yeah, yeah.

Kim Sutton: I like to ask often, if you could go back and do it again, like don’t pursue your law degree, would you? Or do you believe that where you are now as a result of becoming a lawyer?

Melonie DeRose: It’s interesting, this year, I have been focusing a lot on personal development. I have never really focused on myself, and growing myself, and working through things like emotional intelligence, and trying to meditate and stuff like this. So if you had asked me that question last year, I probably would have said, I think I would have not done law. I would have jumped into some kind of entrepreneurial business earlier on. Now that I’ve been sort of working through what I just lumping together as personal development and learning experiences, and how you deal with challenges, and what shapes who you are, I actually think that my trajectory has been perfect. So the law part of my life has been great. And frankly, if I ever had to fall back on that, it’s always there. It also gave me the ability, both financially. I think with some degree of confidence to launch a business at the stage I was at, and I’m somebody who is by nature really risk averse which doesn’t go hand in hand really well.

As an entrepreneur, you have to take a lot of risks. As a lawyer, I had this safe. I don’t want to call it cushy, but it was a nice, lucrative job. And I was never worried about, I don’t wanna say never worried, you’re never guaranteed that your job is always going to be there. But I had money in the bank and a steady paycheck. I didn’t really worry about that. And now, it’s completely opposite. I mean, as a business owner, I don’t want to, it’s not a crapshoot. There’s some forecasting, that’s done. But some months are not going to go the way that you think that they are. Some months are going to go amazing. And then some months are going to not. And it’s hard for somebody who’s risk adverse to sort of stomach that. And so that was part of the reason why I’ve decided that I need to do some personal development work. And as I’ve been working through that, I realized that my trajectory was just perfect. 

I mean, I just think the way being a lawyer set me up for this career the time that I jumped off, the lessons I learned, and the financial stability I had to be able to launch a company, it would have been something that would be difficult had I tried right out of college. So I’m also someone who, I don’t like to look back at this point in my life, I feel like everything has sort of happened for a reason. I don’t really question things the way that they’ve happened in my life. I’m grateful every day when I wake up for all that I have even on the days that have been really tough. And as a business owner, I know you know this, you have a lot of those days, you wake up and you’re like, why am I doing, I just need to go back and get a job, but then I don’t ever question it. I’m super fortunate just to be where I am in my life. So I think it’s all been perfect, kind of the short answer to your question.

Kim Sutton: I love it. I mean, my degree in my pre entrepreneurial experience was, I was an interior architect. And let me try that again, an interior architect for 10 years. I can’t say that any of that work experience was directly applicable to what I do now. But my ability to relate with clients and to accept criticism, and also to communicate effectively and not abrasively has definitely paid off. But I can imagine that the experience that you learned, and especially just being able to read through the legal mumbo jumbo, oh, my gosh, I could use those skills so often.

Melonie DeRose: It is nice to be able to do our contracts. I’m not gonna lie that lawyers are expensive. So now that I’m on this side, the business side, we have to actually engage lawyers. Because of course, we have a trademark attorney. That’s not the kind of law that I practice and I’m just looking back and I’m like, man, this is a good thing that I have some of these skills. But you’re right. I mean, you grow and you learn from any experience you have, even if you can on the surface that it looks unrelated. I do think there’s some sort of growing experience, you can get out of anything.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. I keep on saying this, I definitely want to talk about your mission. But I do have one more quick question because you just keep on sparking that before we go there. What is the personal development work that you have been doing? Who are your mentors that you’ve been learning from? And would you mind sharing more about that journey?

Melonie DeRose: Absolutely, because it’s new for me. I mean, you know how it is as a mom to you taking time for yourself. It’s like you feel guilty about it, number one, and there’s just not enough hours in the day to do that. And it’s really been something I’ve had to put a lot of effort in, and I have not mastered that.

Kim Sutton: Melonie, I just had to share really fast. Last night, I got into bed thinking I was gonna journal and then read because I do personal development right before bed. And I’m laying there, my husband asked me, how are you doing? And I meant to say, I’m pooped. And I said, I’m poop. That’s just how drained I was. So I totally get it. He looks at me like, your poop? I just rolled my eyes. I was like, no, I’m pooped. I don’t think I can read to me and he just started like, you can’t have to do a podcast about that.

Melonie DeRose: I’m always like, I think all women can relate to that feeling. I mean, that feeling when you’re in bed and you can’t even keep your eyes open. But before this year, I had never read what would be maybe called a self help book. I don’t know however you want to call them. Anything that is focused on personal development, and I hadn’t really read a ton of business books. And now, I try to alternate. So I’ve been really big on books. The first book that really kind of spurred my interest in all of this is called Mindset by Carol Dweck. Have you read that book Kim?

Kim Sutton: I haven’t. And listeners, you don’t need to worry about writing all these books down, they will be in the show notes at thekimsutton.com/pp290. Mindset by Carol Dweck.

Melonie DeRose: It’s a great book, and I won’t bore you with the details. But what started in me was this reality that I had been limiting myself a lot,like a lot of women, I had confidence issues. I think since I’ve learned some of those stems from as a kid, I went through a time where there were some girls that were bullying me, and I don’t think I’ve ever really recovered from that until I started working on myself this year and developing, you’re trying to develop certain characteristics and also trying to look inward and go, why am I the way that I am? Why am I risk adverse? You know why? Why do I struggle with confidence sometimes and doubt? What that book really showed me was like, gosh, doubt is such a terrible thing. It can just kill so much in your life. So I started reading all these books, one came after another and I would sort of alternate. I’d read a mindset type book, and then I’d read a book about running a business like traction or something like that, then I’ve been trying to do that. And what I was finding is, I was so intrigued by these personal development books because I have never in my life put any effort basically into doing this. I have great friends who are very spiritual, who meditate, who have been trying to encourage me to do stuff like this. And my answer was always, I don’t have time, I don’t have time. I have time to put some fitness into my life. But I don’t really have time to meditate. I don’t understand it, I can’t do it. I tried a handful of times. And yoga. 

I’m the person in the yoga room who at the end of the yoga session, when you’re on the floor and you’re like working through those calming moments, I’m sitting there and my mind’s going 1000 miles an hour. I’m like, I can’t do this like that. This is not worth my time. And it turns out that I couldn’t be more wrong, by the way, from that opinion. So part of it was books, and then part of it was journaling. I started a journal called the Five Minute Journal because time is an issue, especially as a mom. So in the morning, every morning, I wake up and it literally takes less than five minutes. And there’s a journal that kind of with some prompts like, what are you grateful for? What would be a win for today? Write an affirmation about yourself. I am confident I am successful, whatever it is. So being able to start each day with your thought process in the right place did make a difference for me, and then the way that journal works is you also end each day that way. What were your biggest wins from the day? And what could have been better? And that is just that small little step in changing my perception. 

Because what I was before I was doing that journal was, I’d be going to bed at night thinking, there were 75,000 things I did not get done today. Oh, my God, this didn’t go right. And it would take me an hour to go to sleep. I’d be waking up in the middle of the night freaking out about forgetting to send an email to someone or whatever, or maybe forgetting to make sure my kid’s dentist appointment was scheduled. You name it. And I think that process was just really getting to me and causing me to have a lot of anxiety. So the gratitude journal, the reading. And then I recently went through an emotional intelligence leadership course. I had never done anything about that, it was like I didn’t even know what emotional intelligence was, and had never put any emphasis on even understanding my life. And that course was huge. For me, it basically was like a six month course that was designed to basically tell you what your limiting beliefs are? What gets in your way, gets in the way of you living life to your fullest, and also identifies what’s great about you, and how you can maximize those things. So it was a lot of self realization about different aspects of my personality. I like to analyze things, I overanalyze things. So how do I get to work on that? I have a very fear based personality. Like fear motivates me, which is not a good thing, then it also gets in my way all the time. 

So once I sort of started identifying these things, the next step is how do you crush those things and get them out of your way? How do you shift out of, if you’re in a moment, for me, it’s always financial security, that’s the issue. So if I’m in a moment of, oh, my god, there’s not enough money in the bank. How do I shift out of that and go, okay, I’m gonna have more of an abundant mindset, we’re gonna get the money in the bank. And it resulted in huge changes. I mean, both with me and my business. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of doing work like this. I’m now meditating. If I would have told myself last year that I’d be meditating this year, I would have laughed at myself. I now actually spend time at night meditating. I see the value in that. I sleep much more soundly. I don’t wake up and freak out in the middle of the night. And I think that has a large part to do with what all these things 

I’ve been working on in myself this year, and not to be too vulnerable about all this stuff. But I think it is important. I think people don’t talk about it enough. Sometimes you’re surrounded by all these friends and family, or whoever mentors that you think are just like super women. I’m using women as an example because those are my mentors who have gone through nothing, and who don’t have the struggles that you have, and who have tons of confidence and don’t have any fears. And what I think is, it’s much more important for women to talk about these things, because we all have them, and we all have vulnerabilities. And we all have moments where we’re feeling like the world’s kind of crushing down on us. And it’s how we deal with those moments. It’s important to reach out for help, and find mentors, and talk to people. Before this year, I was terrible at that. I was kind of the lone wolf. I’ll do it all by myself. I don’t want to burden other people. Then now what I realized is, gosh, there’s other people out there who have gone through maybe this situation I’m having today, and I can really learn from them. And so why am I trying to bear this all by myself?

Kim Sutton: Yeah, absolutely. And I have been there myself. I went through that in mid 2016. I don’t mean to call her out right here, but sorry, I went through this. I went through the realization that I was following income rather than impact, and a whole bunch of things all happened. At the same time, I realized I wanted to start the podcast. And the week that I launched the podcast, one of the people that I had been following online for quite some time was actually really frustrated because she did appear to be one of those people who just everything always went great for us. She never had any hiccups, all the above. That week, she actually posted a very transparent post about how she had been suffering from major anxiety for months. And here’s what I had done to her, and coincidentally I had covered that in quite a few of my first five podcasts that launched the same day that this post went out. And I didn’t even know that was coming out. I was like, oh, my gosh, it’s not just me. It’s not just a couple of people that I’ve talked to on the podcast, it’s even hitting these big people who are making seven to eight figures a year. Holy moly. It was just like a huge eye opener. If you haven’t read it yet, Melonie, or them yet, I have two books to recommend to you.

Melonie DeRose: Oh, great. I love this. I love getting book recognition.

Kim Sutton: Sorry, The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. Have you read that one?

Melonie DeRose: I have not.

Kim Sutton: I just finished it last week. Amazing. Worthy by Nancy Levin, increasing your self worth to increase your net worth. So it’s totally talking about those financial barriers. I haven’t finished that one, but I’m absolutely loving it. I have a problem with trying to read too many books all at the same time.

Melonie DeRose:  I totally get that problem.

Kim Sutton: And then the third one is High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. Actually, anything by Brendon Burchard, but specifically that one. I’m also not done with that one yet. I have three active books right now. And then for listeners, and not just you, Melonie, but for listeners. If you’re not a Christian, I’m not sure that you’re gonna appreciate this one as much, Think Better, Live Better by Joel Osteen. And some people don’t like them too much because they think he’s preaching the prosperity Bible, which I disagree with because I am both a Christian and I follow the law of attraction. So mindset is really important to me, whether it’s my faith mindset, or a little bit more woowoo. I don’t really like the word woowoo, but he sort of combines both. And I love that.

Melonie DeRose: That’s awesome. I thank you so much for giving me these recommendations.

Kim Sutton: You’re so welcome. And listeners, again, you can find all these books, and then eventually when we get there, Melonie’s links in the show notes at thekimsutton.com/290. Alright, so I kept on saying that I want to get there eventually, but I had one more question. I don’t have one more question anymore, so would you mind sharing your mission with us?

Melonie DeRose: Yes. Sad that I’ve taken so long to get there. Usually, it’s what I start with because I’m so passionate about it. But I just jumped into this kind of trajectory.

Kim Sutton: Just like if we were already talking about. Like everything for a reason. Every part of this conversation so far has led us here so I’m just so excited.

Melonie DeRose: Okay, okay. I love that. Look at you, positivity all the time. It’s amazing. As I mentioned, one of the things that was lacking when I was working in the legal career was doing any sort of mission or social work. There was not a big opportunity for pro bono just because there wasn’t time for it. So when we started moving into the entrepreneurial space, I really wanted to have a mission based company and we looked at trying to partner with these really big organizations that were doing great things for women. But they’d say stuff like, well, if you write me a $25,000 check, I will call you a partner and put you on our website. And I was like, guys, that just doesn’t seem like that’s very smart as a startup owner. First of all, we don’t have $25,000 to just be named as a partner. But also, I’d rather put that money to you to work and actually help people. And so what we decided to do is when we launched Empact, we were going to be very hands on with what we can do right now to help women. There are some companies that will donate a portion of proceeds, which is amazing. But the reality is, we were a startup and we hadn’t even launched. We wanted to start making a difference before we would even have those profits to donate. So we started looking at non profit organizations that we could work with. 

So for example, there’s one in the Denver area, an amazing organization. And what they do is they help chronically impoverished and underemployed women transition to full time work. So if you can imagine victims of domestic violence, some women, they’ve been incarcerated, whatever, they’ve had bad backgrounds, they’ve had tough lives, and this organization provides a six month job training program for them. And they get job skills, communication skills and life skills. It’s an amazing organization. It’s actually called the Women’s Bean Project, and it’s in Denver. We approached them and said, can we engage these women to help us? Now, they are helping us by, they take the bars that we make and they put them in the boxes, or they shrink wrap them, they get them prepared for Amazon, because Amazon has some labeling, stickering kind of requirements. And so we’re literally working with them every month and employing these women through this program to help Empact. It’s a service we need anyway. We’ve got to have the bars put in boxes and we need them prepped. So it was such a win-win. 

But even on my darkest days, if I walk into this organization and I see 17 to 20 women on the floor that are packaging our bars, they are the most incredibly grateful women that will come up to me and say, thank you so much for being here, thank you for giving me a job today. That is why I’m doing what I’m doing. And it gives me chills to just even talk about it. I could talk about it all day because I think that is so important. And what’s been really great for me personally is I have this personal mission of motivating, inspiring and empowering women. And it’s just been awesome that I’ve been able to carry that over to my business and do it on a larger scale. So as we grow, we get to work with, well, first of all, we get to expand our partnership with this particular nonprofit organization, but we also have identified others. So we’ve got another one we’re working with in Texas that helps girls who have been bounced in and out of foster care. They’re essentially thrown out to the wolves, as I like to say, when they’re 18 or so because of state licensing requirements. And a lot of these girls have had a really tough life. 

So we’re working on developing a confidence boosting program for these girls, and also finding a way to get them involved with Empact in certain ways like going to grocery stores, making sure the product is stocked on the shelf and looks nice, possibly doing a demo or a sampling, stuff like that where they can have some basic skills they can put on their resume behind and part of a great company. And also, in the meantime, teach these girls some confidence boosting skills and some nutrition tips. I mean, that’s sort of like the secret sauce that I love is that they also get some nutrition help that they may or may not have been exposed to before. So I think the programs that we’re putting in place are really what I’m so passionate about. And for me, it’s how we can empower women right now. And so what does that look like? How can we continue and grow that, and also having to make really amazing protein energy bars? Because obviously, that side of the business is very important also. 

But how can we find a way to promote our mission through what we do? That’s my passion and my life’s passion. And as I’ve done this personal development work this year, and as we’ve developed this business, I mean, I’ve just realized that you were asking before about, did I do this in the right order? I mean, the stars have really aligned for me because now I know what it is like to be passionate about what you do. And as I mentioned before, being a lawyer was a great job. I just wasn’t passionate about it, and it is a totally different ballgame. I mean, this company is like a child to me. I don’t wake up every morning and dread going to work. I don’t dread any part of it, and it doesn’t even seem like work. So the other day, a girlfriend of mine was like, well, what is your maternity leave policy? Really? There’s not really a policy for the owner when you start up. 

But I mean, of course, I’m going to take some time and obviously bond with my child, but it doesn’t feel like I’m not in the position where I’m like, oh, man, I have this job, and I’ve got to deal with being on maternity leave. I’ve got to talk to the superiors and worry about telling them I’m pregnant, which is an unfortunate thing that I think a lot of women go through. It is more like, oh, wait, no. I don’t look at it that way. This is such a big part of my life. And what we’re doing is so important that we’re bringing another baby into the world. There’s definitely some chaos associated with that, but it’s not like I’m gonna step away and just back off for months. I mean, some women may criticize me for that. But I think that what that shows is a reflection on the passion that I feel for what I do. And it’s just a different ballgame.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, I think maternity leave policy for mompreneurs is more like, how much room do we leave between our keyboard or our laptop in the baby’s head while they’re feeding?

Melonie DeRose: Right. Right, right. I’ll be there soon.

Kim Sutton: Just as long as the keyboard isn’t bouncing off their head while we’re typing. That’s leaving enough room and there’s maternity leave. When I was pregnant with twins, I knew I had to stop. Well, no. That would be a lie. I couldn’t pull up to my desk anymore because my belly was just so big. So I had a wireless keyboard, and I would balance it on my belly.

Melonie DeRose: That’s amazing. We need to get some pictures.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. Yeah. I even have a video of when I would be getting kicked to the keyboard. My husband actually pulled the, he brought one of our recliners out from the living room. We don’t have it anymore, but he brought it out to my office so I could actually have my legs up with the keyboard on my belly and just be working from the recliner and sit. It was actually very amazing because, yeah, I had been there. My first was born, actually, I was pregnant with my first two while I was working corporate, and it was so hard to actually have to tell them. First time pregnant. And then what’s the policy for when I have to take an hour off to go to an appointment.

Melonie DeRose: Right. Yeah.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. I was actually struck by chronic idea disorder listeners, I’m not gonna say anything more than that right now. But I definitely want to talk to you again soon later about an idea I just had based on personal development and the girls that you’re helping, so let’s try to schedule something.

Melonie DeRose: Love that.

Kim Sutton: Where can listeners connect with you, purchase the bars, get to know more, all the above.

Melonie DeRose: Yes, awesome. So the the easiest place is our website, it’s empactbars.com. And then also, you can find us on Amazon, we’re easily accessible there. We’re trying to boost up some more information on our website just about the efforts we’re doing. And definitely, my goal this year is to transition more into someone who’s providing content on social media. So we’re on Instagram, Facebook and all that. If you just look up Empact Bars, you’ll find us. But me personally, I have been buried in the operation side of our business because there’s just a lot of operations when it comes to coordinating, manufacturing, food productions. And now, I’m trying to move over to as we’re growing to more, I also have my hand dipped in focusing on educating everybody about what we’re doing for our mission and other women. Speaking out about these things, I mean the things that I’ve just talked about on the podcast. I think there are a lot of women who can relate whether or not you’re an entrepreneur. If you’re in a law firm, you still may be having some of these concerns, or you may really want to be an entrepreneur, but have the limiting beliefs that I feel like I’ve had all my life, which were, it’s too risky to do that. And the reality is that you could do it. 

Sometimes, you just need someone to talk to and relate to who’s been through it. And that’s why I think having mentors is really important as well. But my role hopefully will migrate a little bit into being able to just talk to and relate to women more about what I’ve been going through, and I’m an open book about it. I mean, as you’ve seen on this podcast, pretty vulnerable about, or open and honest about things that have held me back in the past, having some confidence issues and stuff like that. So I think we need to talk about it. It’s important for women to hear that from other women, especially if they’re doing something that they may want to do. Some of my mentors when I was practicing law, again, I just assumed they were super women. And it’s nice sometimes when you have a mentor who will really open up to you and you realize, we’re actually more life than you think. I’ve had way more struggles than you think, and I’m going through this and that. And yeah, I have confidence issues. This is how I get through them. And it just makes it seem like the things that you want to do in your life are more achievable, or at least it did for me. And so I think some of those things really helped propel me into thinking, I can do this. 

Yes, I have no background in food, but I’m going to launch a commercial food company. That’s bizarre even today for me to let those words roll off my tongue that I’m in this business. But I think the old version of me would have had a lot of reservations, oh, I can’t do it, and at all this doubt that it would have killed my progression. But the new and improved me, I guess, the way I’ll describe it knows that I can do it. You just gotta put your mind to it, work hard and believe in what you’re doing.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, I agree. I love all of the above. And chronic idea disorder just hit me again, listeners. You know I have chronic idea disorder, and it doesn’t just come up with ideas for me, but it comes up with ideas for other people as well. Melonie, we really need to talk soon. Melonie, thank you again so much for being here. This has been an absolute blast.

Melonie DeRose: Thank you so much for having me. By the way, you were so easy to talk to. It’s incredible. Sometimes, I’m part of this conversation that I’m forgetting I’m on a podcast, and I just think we’re having a conversation on the phone.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh. And that’s what makes it so much fun for me. I love the conversations, and I have to say that you’re just the same way. Listeners, Melonie and I covered so much just in our pre chat. It just reminds me that sometimes, I really wish I could record the pre chat as well. I mean, we talked about mom dum, mom dum. I think I’m making up words. Motherhood? Well, you get what I mean. But we were laughing our butts off even before we started recording. So yeah, I had a blast. You are welcome, and thank you. Do you have a last piece of parting advice or a golden nugget that you can offer to listeners?

Melonie DeRose: I do. I do. And that is something that has really been an amazing tool to help me set my day in the morning and end at night. It doesn’t have to be a gratitude journal, it’s just taking the first few minutes of your day and the last few minutes of your day, and thinking about things that you are grateful for. I mean, despite all whatever you’ve been through in your life, and whatever I’ve been through, there’s always room to think about the things in your life that are amazing. And I find that if I spend even just a few minutes thinking in a very positive way about the things that I am blessed to have in my life, and that’s how I start and finish each day, it has really made things easier. It has made things easier from an anti freakout perspective, that’s what I’ll call it. That if you’re a high anxiety person, you might have an inclination to sort of freak out more. It’s very calming, it helps me with my sleep, and it has helped me get really motivated each day to do what I do. I mean, I’m just an incredibly grateful person for all that I have in life. I feel very, very fortunate. I think that feeling comes from thinking in this way on a daily basis and not thinking about all the things you don’t have, or that are going wrong, or that might go wrong. But waking up each morning and ending each day, thinking about all the things that are amazing in your life.