Deborah, with her thirty years of being an entrepreneur and creating over seven companies, knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that decision, when you accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited possibilities, but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that only someone who's
taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener wants to know, the stories, the whys, and the hows to navigate the journey to success. Get ready to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation Z to boomers. So sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown away. Now here is your host, Deborah Drummond.
Welcome back, Absolutely I am true today. Welcome audience, Thank you, thank you. You know I think you are the best podcast audience ever because you are, and today you're going to be blown away. I am so excited. We've got Melissa Heather's in the house. I know you know her. I know that you know her book just went international. I know that you know her and have heard her name around our circles because this woman is going to be hitting our stage and a very few in just
a couple of months. Also from the Ireland event that we did Rise Rise Her, she participated in that as well, and everyone got a copy of her incredible book, which we're going to talk a bit about today. And you know what we want to talk about today, we want to talk about that. Look, you know the theme around here is stand up, speak up, and show up. That's exactly what this woman does. But look at there is
the world of authorship has just reached everybody. And if you are an entrepreneur, or you're in this world, or you're a speaker, or you're a coach, or you're a trainer, or you're out there networking and connecting, like a lot of you are. You are here people saying I'm an author, I'm going to write my book, I'm going to finally
get to it. I'm going to take some time, I'm going to do all these wonderful things and you know, finally get to the thing I always thought I was going to do, or you here, never thought I was going to write the world of anthologies. We all know the two sixty two anthology and all the things that are happening in regards to that. So there's this incredible world that's going out there where people are really sharing in and they're becoming super vulnerable. You know, they're sharing
from the heart. I'm going to let less tell you the topic of her or the title of her book, but they're really getting to it and they're really sharing. And if you think about that, compared to maybe even ten years ago, like you, you just did not hear about so many people authoring. The tools weren't as available, the knowledge wasn't as accessible, and so now it is. And not only are authors writing, they're talking right, they're telling,
and they're getting on stages sharing about their passion. And I find that a lot of the books that are hitting the market are exactly that. It's about someone's passion, it's helping its personal development, it's business development. Even when someone tells their story, it's meant to inspire and move people forward. So that is what Melissa Heather's done and all things ULSSA, I'm gonna invite you to the show. Welcome to Mission accepted Today.
Hid thank you so much for having me on your show today. I'm super excited to be here with the scoovy lead leader, Dad Drummond, and the founder of two sixty two.
Absolutely well, look at We called each other today and said make sure you wear your black glasses, and make sure you wear your black dress, and make sure that you had your hair blonde. I was like, I came on the show today, I'm like, oh, I'm living in the mirror. But that's what happens when you, you know, when you start hanging out with groovy people. Okay, let's
get to it. Let's talk a little bit about this book, and then let's talk about what it's like not only to write a book, but then decide to take parts of those books and take it, you know, even louder and stand on a stage. So please share with us the name of your book and what inspired you to put pen to paper.
So my book is Dear Ego, Dear Heart. My inspiration was actually my healing journey. It was just for myself, and it took me a while, and I pivoted eighteen times. I was going to write a book just about being the average Josephine and you know, living life and having a parent with cancer passes and all my traumas in life. And then I realized, like a memoir is not really my style. Poetry is my style, but it's really about aligning the head and the heart, and through my healing journey,
that's what I did. I aligned my head and my heart. It was so disconnected. I lived in a place of ego for many, many years, and you know, my inspiration was to inspire people with love and self love and aligning themselves. Once again.
Wow, it's interesting that you say that you pivoted so many times, right, because when I think that, if you've been on the planet for a little while, there's many stories that you can tell, right, There's many stories, there's many journeys, there's many overcomes, there's many forms of inspiration. And even for myself, right, I have a business world that many times I teach things about business and then I'm like, yeah, but there's this emotional side too, and
they play a part. Like everything is relatable to things that you talk about love and you talk about self love and your book around der Ego Dear Heart. Some people think that those are two completely different things, but I don't think so. I think that they have a relationship. Tell us how the title came to be.
It's funny that you say that you're super intuitive. They they are people. The world thinks they are separate entities, but they're not. They're all a part of you. Your mind, your thoughts, how you perceive yourself, how you observe yourself is part of your whole being. And if you're way over left field and you're only in your thoughts and
you're not with your emotions, you're not aligned. So it was super important to me, and I write about it in my book, that your mind and your thoughts and your ego is a part of you, and each part of yourself has to learn how to embrace yourself. So it's a super important venture for me that people learn how to really accept themselves, both sides of themselves, your ego and your heart and your emotions.
Now I can you know sometimes you know you can hear the next question, right, So somebody out there wants to know. So what's the benefit of that, Like, what is it about getting in touch with your ego and get in touch with your heart and reading about that? Is it more about life's poetic? And I want to share this journey. Is it more about what happens for someone when they start to recognize those parts of themselves.
Wouldn't you take the moment to really look within yourself and say, hey, I have these thoughts and I also have these emotions, and you take the time to heal that. What comes is self love and self acceptance and awareness, awareness of who you are. And once you're kind of aware of who you are, you can really learn to accept things about you. And at the end of the day, it comes to becoming your true authentic self. Yeah.
Yeah, we hear that word a lot about being authentic, and I think there's a new lease on life around being able to be more of yourself, have a sense of freedom, you know, self acceptance, self love part of the journey allowing life to be interesting, you know, life to be interesting. This morning, I woke up and I had this kind of flash of an experience that I had when I was much younger, and I'm like, well,
that's interesting, you know. And it wasn't like I didn't attach a whole lot of things, so that I was like, well, that's an interesting thought to have. How many years later, right, Okay, so you put how long did it take you to put this book together. You said that you danced with this for quite a time, and so when you decided to put this together, I how long did it take you to complete? Two years? Wow?
Yeah, two years.
I never asked that question, And I'm like, why am I asking that question? I think that's so important that you know, because we live in a very fast ay, you too can have da da da da da in ninety days, and I mean it's just everywhere, right, but that there can be something very profound about moving it at the pace that you know, dancing to that, dancing to.
That, Yeah, I love that dub like it really was a dance. Like, I'm not a writer or an author by trade, so it really had to be when I had the downloads or when I was living life in my authentic self and experiencing beauty. Like I really had to feel things with the world, and when I did, I would get a download and then I would write. So that's why it took a little longer for me.
No, I don't tend to ask that question and think it was a time that is perfect to ask, because you know, taking the time to author, write journal, what have you? Harry Go should not be full of shoulds, you know, like, oh, it took so long, well really long compared to what like long compared to what do you know what I mean? So, look, we're going to talk a little bit about speaking, because I know that you do both. Some authors, you know, they do the
book and standing in front of a stage. They'd rather go write ten more books, you know. And then there's people that speak and they're like, I keep speaking my story, don't. I don't want to, nor desire to, nor feel like I can put it down on paper. So you're doing both. When you speak, do you share about things in your book or are you sharing about something else that you offer the world.
It really depends on what the interviewee wants to talk about. So I have spoke about very heavy emotional darkness that I've endured in my life, and I'm okay with that because I am an open book and I want to share, you know, those experiences. And then there's other times where it's like just about the book and the inspiration of the books.
So right, let's talk a little bit about speaking, because they've talked about authoring, and I find it really interesting. Every speaker has their own way. You know from how do you prepare? Like, how do you prepare you talk about emotional content? So there's sometimes there can be different
preparation for people that are talking different topics. Right. I think about some of the speakers that I know to talk emotional contents with some of the things that they need to do in more in terms of self care or their preparations, very different if someone's talking about AI, for example, what about for yourself? Right? Put about for yourself? Is there anything that you would say that you do to help prepare yourself to be to speak in the way you want to be heard?
Well, this is really all very new to me, especially the speaking component. I was in my heart I was a writer and I would be a writer one day. So you know, after I launched my book, there was some immediate podcasts and lines that I had to do and I had never done anything like that before. I'm very introverted and shy by nature, and I also had a brain about twelve years ago, so sometimes I really struggle verbalizing things and I really had to like heal
that for many many years. So for me, the key is it's preparation and also like I kind of try and observe my thoughts and if they're going crazy or my egos taking over, I just slowly redirect it, meditate, and right before any sort of live or speaking event, I do what's called Cunelini punches and breathing techniques. And then most importantly, I've always promised myself that I would speak from my heart, and that's what I do. I just speak my truth and that's all it's got to be for my heart.
So no, that's it's really valuable for people to share that piece because with people that are that speak and then kind of don't know how to put themselves back together right, leave themselves kind of you know, unsun and people that want to speak or want to share that whole. Preparation before and or preparation after is very important, including which is something that I think overall we probably don't do a lot is you know, even like a little
celebration dance or something. We just kind of speak and we go into it and then we forget that the majority of the world would never want to get up on stage, the majority of the world would never want to share, and just the nerves alone. So the preparation beforehand I think helps people understand I do the same thing. I do some grounding. I have spoke the same subject many many many years on some of the things that
I teach. I still just rewrite it. Now. I'm a big neuro person right and did a lot of brain health for a lot of years. So I love to write. I just know that it imprints so much better. And I'll take a look at my notes, and sometimes I look at my notes and I go, you've written those notes twenty times because you spoke all that twenty times last year. But that's part of my process, and I think it just helps me write it out and there's
a knowingness. I'm like, oh, I have notes. Even though I don't need notes, I have notes, or I do the same thing. I get really quiet right before I tend to go out in the balcony because I'm on eleventh floor, so it's not like an go outside and put my feet on the ground immediately, and I just go and go, Okay, whoever needs to hear what I need to say today, you know, let it be one, let it be two, let it be twenty thousand, it
doesn't really matter. Just let's make sure that I say what needed to be said, someone showed up today for something special, that extra person that needed that something. So yeah, very very very good. Well how long have you been doing what you're doing authoring? Yeah? Like when did the book launch?
Yeah, it's been about four year journey. And like I said, I started different books at different times and it just didn't take. And this one spoke to my heart. Speaking live, I'm a newbie. I'm a baby girl. Yeah, I like Bards and learning from you. And I know it's December, I guess like six months. Yeah, yeah, it's okay now to be open to that.
So yeah, I think it shows that one one opportunity, when you brave up in one area, that it leads to other opportunities. And I think it's something really important to be seen. I do a lot of shows myself and my son do a lot of shows with you know, this incredible new generation of entrepreneurs that are starting it right from the get go, you know, and so Ocean
being twenty one, and we talked. The last question that I that I ask, and hey, let's throw it out there, is you know, what's the big what's the big picture? You know, if it could come true, what is it that you want to come true. And there's so much power in being in in sharing what it is that we want and where we're going and what we're looking for. And it doesn't matter if it's now or ten years
from now or five years from now. There's something. And I think you under you understand that and probably are long that you know philosophy that when you say it, there's a cool vibe that goes out right. And so you know, these young creatives are doing their thing and I'm like, you know, what's the big goal? You know, what do you got that you want to go on?
And they tend to have it, they know it right, and they may be, you know, not close to it yet, but there's this It goes out there and it lays track. And I think the same thing is when you actually start to put one foot in front of another and conquer something, then all of a sudden, all these doors open and it can be interesting. It can be interesting. It can be that, you know, it can be people retreat a little bit, it's too much success too soon, or it's like whooh, I didn't not do that, or
it's thrilling, and it just continues to go. At some point, I think you're like, you know, people get too wow, this is this is getting pretty cool in groovy that's you're assume when that you're of a coaching whoa, this is getting pretty big. But what about for you, like, how does it? Did you expect that when you wrote that book and put it to market that these opportunities would come.
I'm my philosophy is to have no expectations. But I'm Claire Audio and I have downloads and hear things. And I'm not super religious, and if you are, that's great, But I really, in my heart felt the faith that I was supposed to write this book and it will be a trilogy, So I'm supposed to write this trilogy. So and I'm a really powerful manifestor. But I wasn't used to, you know, the success that comes with it, and I didn't know how to network. And it's been
a really great learning opportunity. And I love how you talk about our kids generation. My son's also twenty and they just have it like I wish that I had that.
When I was little.
We just didn't, you know, we were seen and not heard in our generation.
And yeah, yeah, it was very different I say that from the generation before us. Till now. I feel like there's been ten generations, right, I mean, yeah, the consciousness that's come, the evolution, the conversations, the the allowance, the you know, the growth, like you know, everyone grown up, I call it. It's been good. It's been good. So look, let's tell We've talked a lot about different things that
you've taken that have felt risky. But is there one you know, we're mission accepted, you know, double seven Da da da da da. Taking risks and running on the adventure, you know, sure, and then jumping in, but the was there something that was like, okay, what was one of the biggest risks that you felt that you took?
Oh my gosh, there's been so many risks in my life. I actually recently left my eighteen year, eighteen year corporate career. I'm still in the industry a bit more family run. But the biggest breaths I actually took I was keeping faith that it was okay to lean into myself and take a real hard look at what was in there. And then the rest of looking deep allowed me to let go of my ego and take that leap of faith from my heart to heal myself. And you know,
love myself again. You know, risking being vulnerable with myself was scary, but through it, I really learned to trust myself and believe in myself and really align my head into my heart. And you know how the old saying goes, deb no risk, no reward, and my reward through all of it has been courage and self love. So you know, now I have the courage to be vulnerable with the world and share my vulnerability from a true place of love with my writing and now podcasts.
So yeah, very cool. Look, we're going to wrap up soon. And I can't ask that question and not ask this because it's the light. Life is full of surprises, right, life is full of surprises, and some of the coolest things that have happened in my world of entrepreneurship and my life write things that you just would never expect. For one, having our project at the Emmets and Oscars, I can tell you was not on my treasure map. Like I've got four treasure maps, double sided and not
on any of them. Now, there was words that said go big. You know, good things are happening, like all those kind of things, but sometimes you just can't see that or you know, standing in church one day and Pierce Bronce's and there I'm like, I like your work. He's like, thanks, how mean? Let goh that's nice. Those kind of surprise things. What for you has been one of the coolest. Oh my gosh. I never thought this would happen, or I never thought i'd meet this person.
What's a cool surprise that's happened for you? Oh?
Oh my god. So, as we know, I'm a self published author and it was all new to me. And you know, once upon a time I was an analyst. So after I launched my book, from time to time, I would just go on Google. I didn't have any SEO searches, and I would just search my book titles or my website to see kind of what pulled up. And to my amazement, about a month ago, Dear Ego, Dear Heart was the first thing that the SEO searches engines did. I had like nothing to do with that.
I don't know anything about that. So yeah, I pulled up everywhere, and it was on some pretty big catalogs and big hitters, Barnes and Noble, Indigo Makers and Quinn Better World Books. And so when I did that, I was like really tired. I don't know what was going on. It was late at night, and I thought I was delusional, Like I was like, I'm dreaming, Like I'm dreaming, this is not happening. So I called my partner at work.
I'm like, can you just like search my book or my website or my name and you know, see what happens. And so he did and it was true, like the book had made those catalogs. And yeah, that was my biggest surprise.
So that's a great surprise. That's a great surprise. Okay, we're going to I'm gonna ask you a question. I'm going to talk to the audience a little, but then I'm going to come back and ask you something. But you know, if anyone is scared out there to do what you've done, gone into business, you know, east your way out of a corporate career, getting on stages, writing a book, anything of that, what advice would you have?
It's scary. I get that, And you know, we always live in either a place of love or fear. So my advice to you is, like, believe in yourself, and you know, find the tools that you need to find the confidence to believe in yourself and stand up, speak up, and show up for yourself and then you can do that for others.
So right on, right on, Okay, So audience, you know what we got going on. You've been hanging out with us for a long time. We are so grateful for everything that you do. This is really easy. If you want to be sitting where Melissa is and you want to share your purpose or your nonprofit or your mission, look at we're called mission Accepted. So if you have a mission and you want people to hear it, then
we're the show to go to. So you can go to dep drone dot com and you can hit the contact button and you're going to hit myself and the team and we're going to work it out for you to get here. And if you want to author, give us a call. We can help you put all that together. If you want to do a book launch, you know you love women in print as much as we love women in print, we love authors in print, but we
do something really special for women in print. At the end of our summit, every single one we have this incredible party, and that party is someone having a book launch. And it is fun because if you've never been to a book launch, if you've never heard the behind the scenes. It's kind of like when you go and you listen to the behind the scenes of your favorite movie. There's always a story behind the story, and it is awesome and it is kind of like I love that backstage stuff.
You know.
It's like and you get pictures from the photo shoot, but it's actually from someone taking pictures of the photographer of the photo shoot. I find it always much more creative and so much, so much juice here. So look at we want to see you at these book launches, at the summits that we're doing. We have one coming up, well, we have one every quarter, so March whenever you're listening to this, right, So we have March, we have August,
we have November. You're going to hear Melissa in August, and then if you've missed that for some reason, you are going to pop over to the Women's Channel and you're going to be able to hear her share there, which is very exciting. So if you'd like to have your book on our summit, we'd love to support that as one of your lunches, because I believe in multiple lunches for a very long time. You know, a book is new, A book is new for a very long time. Now, Melissa,
I'm going to ask you this great question. It's completely different energy. So you're on your way to a desert island. You've got a suitcase, and you've got room for one nole piece of vinyl that you're going to take with you. What album could you not imagine not listening to for the rest of your days? A song an artist or an.
Elton John tiny dancer.
It's a I love that song. I love that song. Oh my goodness, I've seen him. Choice in concert is so great, man, good choice, all right. While all of the information about Melissa is going to be in this show notes you know where to go. Thank you Melissa so much for sharing your time and you're words with us today. Our mission accepted and for you audience, as always, you be well, you stay groovy, and we'll see you next week.