Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melanie Lech. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Melanie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

When I was younger, our house was a zoo of chaos – we had eight rats, three dogs, lizards, turtles, frogs, fish, and a balance beam smack dab in the middle of the front room. There was too much ADD to function, and despite outbursts and occasional explosions, it was one of my favorite places to be.

No one gets everything right, but there are a few things for which my parents earned full-on “Exceeded Expectations” marks on their child-rearing report cards.

Growing up, my mom and dad believed in me deeply. The balance beam in the foreroom was accompanied by a standing gymnastics bar, both of which my mom had gotten off the web to help me practice gymnastics outside of class, just because my coach said I was doing well for my age. They were a big hit with my friends too. Ultimately, we had the fun house. The house where you could stampede up and down the stairs to fetch costumes for schemes, bounce on the trampoline five at a time, zipline in the backyard while the chihuahua rocketed up to bite your feet, scream your head off until my mom finally had enough and growled, “you’re scaring the neighbors!”

But trust me, if we weren’t scaring the neighbors, someone else from our camp would be. (My parents are nutters, so I come by my sense of humor honestly.)

I was hooked on comedy as early as second grade, and not long after endeavored to make my own sketches and shorts. It was commonplace to force my entire immediate family to partake in these shenanigans, and what started as reluctant compliance grew into, I daresay, fond compliance. When I needed help making a costume or prop, all I had to do was ask Mom. She had buckets and buckets of craft supplies and fabric and decorations and gadgets. She would go out of her way to help make things for my $0 budget projects with a YouTube audience of 23. Sometimes, I wouldn’t even ask! She would just show up with something great that she had been working on that worked perfectly for my film.

My dad had the most epic treasure trove of hardware and glorified junk you could ever imagine in his garage. Need a blowtorch? Got it. Need a giant cardboard cutout of NASCAR driver Sterling Marlin? Got it. Need a handmade PVC-pipe extend-o fishing net with a hole in it? For some reason, we’ve got it. You could whirl a Wheel-of-Fortune style spinner wheel and, whatever it landed on, have a pretty good chance of finding it in that workshop. And anything we didn’t have, we could make – and many times, we (he) did!

When it came to music, my parents really hit the nail on the head (probably thanks to the thousands of tools in the garage). My mom was so proud of my songs, she would show them to the employees at our credit union. That cracks me up. I was so embarrassed (especially because I never played in front of anyone except a camera at the time), but it sure meant a lot to me. And my dad would always say, “a girl and a guitar – that’s all you need.” He commented now and again about how I should write for or be on late night television as well. I keep those moments with me always. The only time I ever felt unsupported was when the family hollered at me to stop screeching Adele at the top of my lungs in the shower at night. Ha!

They also raised me Catholic, and God was my rock growing up. I don’t know where I would have ended up without that foundation.

Melanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Melanie Lech AKA Waffle Chick AKA Copperhead Curls AKA Melvinette P. Buttersnotch III (*snort*). I am chiefly an actress, writer, and musician. I make comedy videos with Mean Bean Comedy and ScrewUp TV and produce content for clients as Melanie Lech Multimedia. Every time I make a new social media handle, a piece of my soul splits off like when Voldemort makes a horcrux. But somehow, I am still here, standing (or more accurately, sitting), click-clacking away at the speed of light. A light-shelled snail. (Are you inspired yet?)

Check out Spandex-Girl by Mean Bean Comedy for a taste of the sort of comedy series I like to make. Peep Mean Bean’s short films like Tempting Feight for a taste of the production value we’re capable of. (The former was made on an app called Rizzle, the latter on a Blackmagic.) Find my original songs at melanielech.com/music. And catch me on Amazon Prime in Ogden the series (out now!) and Uranus Attacks the movie, coming soon.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

From 2020 to 2023, I built an audience of 300k and 450k followers on the Rizzle app as Waffle Chick and Mean Bean Comedy respectively. In February, I lost both accounts in a tragic boating accident (better known as the AI revolution), and started back at zero. Now, I blabber into the void at 39 and 85 followers. No ks. Just 39 and 85. 😂 I have never felt more like a fraud in my life. And not even a good one!

It was ironic because one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to “lose all of my followers” by taking more risks with my content. It was the fastest and easiest resolution I’ve ever achieved – I didn’t even lift a finger! If only I had made one of my resolutions to win a million dollars.

If you feel inclined, dear reader, scope out @wafflechick_ on YouTube and Instagram to see for yourself. You can make a difference; I just know it. I believe in you like my parents believe in me.

(Mean Bean and my original YouTube channel are doing a teeny bit better, but I want my pity party!)

How did you build your audience on social media?

The biggest thing that built my following on Rizzle was entering and placing in contests. Before those wins, neither account was racking up a ton of views. Each win led to a feature on the homepage, which was prime real estate. After 50k, both were growing pretty exponentially. I also got started on the app in the very beginning, even when there were pesky software glitches. It wasn’t so saturated like the biggest apps are now, so it was easier to get noticed. But it was a double-edged sword because a glitch took us out… Ha!

All things considered, my advice isn’t about the numbers as much as it is about pragmatics. Back up your files!! I had saved a copy of all of my videos before the crash, so I wasn’t nearly as crushed as I could have been. One more tip – if you edit directly in IG, save the video to your device in draft mode before posting to avoid the watermark.

Remember, reach for the stars; if you fall, you’ll land on the ground, because your arms are probably not long enough to go into outer space unless you’re over 6 ft tall. But that’s okay, because you might find a shiny nickel down there. And that counts as getting paid for your work. 😎

Contact Info:

• Website: https://melanielech.com
• Acting: https://flow.page/melanielech
• Mean Bean: https://flow.page/meanbean
• Waffle Chick: https://flow.page/wafflechick
• Music: https://www.melanielech.com/music

Image Credits
Alex Bradford Cobb Jeannie Clemmons (Boxed Memories by Jeannie)