We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Melinda Walsh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Melinda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
What do you think it takes to be successful?
When I was in my twenties, I worked at my then-dream job as an audio engineer and voice talent for a recording studio, located in what was then the city’s highest-rated FM radio station. I loved it, learning how to write copy, and absorbing lessons daily on how to coach talent to a better performance.
After two years, the General Manager came to me and let me know that he was going to have to close the studio, due to a changing market, but wanted to keep me on. What else would I like to do for the station?
I had just started reading about the power of intention, of taking time to get clear about what you wanted to experience, without getting too caught up in the specifics of it. My attitude was that I’d let the Universe work out the details of how that would come about. I took a couple of days to write down my description of what position I’d like to do next, letting my imagination roam. The paper is now lost to time but I recall it included items like: challenged my creative abilities; to have fun; interacted as part of a creative team; a new title as ‘Manager’; and a lot more money.
A week later, the GM came to me and said, “I’ve created a position just for you to do Public Relations and Promotions for the station. I think you’d be great at it and I’m increasing your salary by 50%.” I was blown away when I re-read my paper—it described my new position exactly. This approach then became my strategy for success.
It boils down to a few concepts.
• Get clear about what you to experience. Muddy thinking brings muddy results.
• Actively look for opportunities that come your way. Sometimes these can look like a recurring thought or daydream, so don’t dismiss those. They can be signposts to your next success.
• Be willing to take action on your ideas to bring them forth, no matter how small or scary. Success is built on consistent steps, and is often a meandering path before the way becomes clear.
• Be a lifelong learner, and reflect on the things that can get in your way and keep you from realizing your potential.
• Be kind to yourself, and recognize that you are worthy of good things in life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
When I was in high school, trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, I asked my dad how he decided on his career as a chemical engineer. He said, “The guidance counselor said this was a good career to go into, and I knew I wanted to be able to support a family. But, I’d really rather have been a big band leader.” He paused a moment and looked at me and said, “It doesn’t matter to me what you do for a living, just find something you enjoy and have fun doing it.”
I retired during the pandemic after a long, fulfilling career in the advertising and marketing world. Mindful of the advice I got from my dad, I followed my ‘fun’ into various roles over time as a copywriter, on-camera and voiceover talent, producer and director for audio and video projects, and as a brand strategist for my clients. After a while I realized that the connecting concept for all of these roles involved being able to tell a story that is designed to produce intentional results. Have you ever had something to say but didn’t know how to say it? Knowing how to ‘say it’ opened up a way for me to help my clients. For one client, I wrote, produced and performed in a radio/TV campaign that grew their business from $0 in the first year to over $80 million dollars five years later. The ad strategy work I did for another doubled their revenue from $19 million dollars annually to $38 million four years later. One memorable campaign for them increased recycling participation by 20% in only 60 days. A presentation I designed for a local non-profit increased revenues from one major contributor by 219% over three years. A well-told story is powerful.
And nowhere is it more powerful than in our personal lives. Our personal narratives about ourselves and our world influence every thought and action we take, and some of those narratives serve us well, and others can keep us from the success and relationships we desire.
A divorce in my late 30’s led me to question my own stories, and I began to take personal development workshops that helped me identify and reframe the stories that weren’t working for me. The change in my perspective was so dramatic that I wanted to learn how to help others and I received my certification as an Ontological Coach as a result. Everyone has a way of being in the world, and ontology works with the way we habitually respond to life’s situations to make positive transformations. That training, along with my marketing expertise in presenting stories, has allowed me to blend the two disciplines into a unique form of coaching.
Like many other new retirees, I am in a transition space between What I Used To Do, and Who I Want to Be now. I am a long-time runner who has had to adapt to the changes that the passing years brings to my body, and for my 60th birthday, I set myself a challenge to train for and run/walk a half marathon, a distance of 13.1 miles. The longest I had done up to that point had been 4 miles, so this was going to be a stretch. In the year after I completed the race, I wrote a book about the experience, Outrunning Age: Meeting Midlife with Courage, Compassion, and a Few Blisters. It is due for publication in February 2023 and has already lead to workshops and walking groups based on the concepts in the book of self-kindness and the knowledge that we can often do more than we think we can. Plans for online offerings based on the book are in the works and I’m excited about the possibilities ahead.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My role model for How to Be Resilient, was my mother. In 2016, a natural disaster flooded 1/3 of Louisiana, my home state. The water rose rapidly and suddenly after a week of heavy rain, and I had to rescue my then 85-year-old mother in a borrowed boat. She left with only what she could carry—photos, important papers, clothing and medications from the house where she and my late father had lived for 45 years. We weren’t even to dry land when she said, “Well, I did everything I could, there was nothing else to do, so let’s get on with cleaning it up.” Her approach to life’s unexpected events helped me recover more effectively through the events of a divorce, lost marketing clients, and recovering from injuries.
Here’s the approach I absorbed from my wise mom.
• Don’t resist what is. “WHY did this have to happen?” and “HOW could this have happened?” are energy wasters that can keep you from taking effective action to address the new situation. That doesn’t mean trying to stuff the very natural emotions that can arise as the result of a setback, but instead, realizing that you can still take action while also grieving a loss.
• Ask for help and support, and accept it when it’s offered.
• Cultivate an internal narrative for yourself that tells you that you’re someone who can handle adversities, and that no matter what happens, you can figure it out. Self-trust is a powerful component of resilience.
• Be kind to yourself. We often beat up on ourselves when something negative happens, so remind yourself that you’re just doing the best you can with what you have.
Resilience is an attitude that can be learned. Now you’ve learned a little bit about it from my mom, too!
Have you ever had to pivot?
I was having a very good year. I had three anchor marketing clients that provided a steady stream of income and fulfilling work, along with smaller clients whose projects filled out the calendar. I was having so good of a year, in fact, that I was completely overwhelmed trying to do it all myself.
My consulting work ebbed and flowed throughout my career, and I had experimented with hiring college interns, but nothing had ever worked out long-term. I knew, however, that if I were going to grow my business and take good care of my clients, I’d need help transitioning from a solopreneur into an employer. It was time to get serious.
Two years prior, I was a guest speaker for an upper level marketing class at Louisiana State University. After my talk, a young woman made a beeline down the aisle to introduce herself. “I’m Shruti Chowdhary, and I loved your talk today! I want to BE you!” I was charmed by her enthusiasm and offered to help her in any way I could. What I didn’t know when I had my realization that I needed to hire someone, Shruti had just graduated with a marketing degree and needed a job. The timing couldn’t have been better.
As with any pivot, there are things you don’t realize until you’re in the middle of it. I could relate to the “It’s too much trouble to explain something, so I’ll just do it myself” mindset. Part of my pivot to being a boss involved learning how to be a manager. This meant I had to plan and communicate that plan effectively; to make sure that Shruti had what she needed to be successful at a task; and to encourage her through (and accept!) her learning curve. Mistakes were inevitable, and we both learned our way through them to eventually become a solid team, as well as solid friends.
Coaching Shruti at the start of her career, awakened a new awareness in me, that of how much I valued being a mentor. My personal mission is to share my life experience to inspire others to their own self-confidence and empowerment, and working with Shruti inspired me to become a certified ontological coach. My experience with the pivot of becoming an employer showed me that a pivot, whether planned or unplanned, comes with possibilities not imagined at the start of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.melindawalsh.com
- Instagram: @melindawalsh
Image Credits
225 Magazine Eye Wander Photo Woman’s Hospital Melinda Walsh Alyson Coyle Mardi Gras Mambo