Christiane [00:00:10]: Welcome to the Happy, Healthy Hustle podcast where we explore the intersection of health, happiness and productivity. I'm your host Christiane, and I'm excited to be here with you today. Today actually have a special guest. So let me introduce the guest first and then we get jumping right into it. Today I'm going to be talking with Melissa Brown, and it's actually Dr. Melissa Brown. Her career journey has always had an element of teaching. Initially teaching parents and children how to live a healthy life through her work as a pediatrician. After retirement from clinical practice, Dr. Brown has taught and mentored as a healthy lifestyle coach, author and speaker. She has hosted and facilitated multiple in person and virtual groups. And she is the host of the annual She's Got Content Virtual Summit. Founded in November 2020, Dr. Brown helps train and teach women solopreneurs and coaches to stop being the world's best-kept secret. Her mission is to help you create great content, impact people and change the world. So welcome Melissa Brown. I'm really excited you are here. What an honor to hear from you and I guess happy Hustling along. Let's do this. Melissa [00:01:26]: All right. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here too. Christiane [00:01:30]: Maybe you can tell us where are you located at? Are you on the other side of the United States from me? Melissa [00:01:35]: Yes, I'm on the East Coast. I'm in New Jersey. I grew up in Ohio. I grew up on a farm in Ohio and now I live in the suburbs of New Jersey. Oh. Christiane [00:01:45]: How has that transition been? Melissa [00:01:47]: Well, I've been here far longer in New Jersey than I was in Ohio. But it was a challenge. It was a challenge because everything's so close together, so many people. Quite a difference from growing up on a farm. But I'm used to it now. I call it home. I love that. Christiane [00:02:07]: And it sounds like you have become a happy, Healthy Hustler and we want to learn a little bit more about your wellness secrets. So maybe us a little bit if we would call it a superpower. What is your superpower? Melissa [00:02:23]: That's a good question. I used to say my superpower was being able to listen to people and hear more than what they said. But I think over the years I have sort of honed a much different superpower. I'm a connector. I have such a wide network of people that I know who to connect, who to. So I think this actually started when I was in pediatric practice because you needed to know who was somebody you could refer a child to who had a special condition or needed surgery or needed an expert, somebody who didn't specialist, somebody who didn't do what you did. And I just collected this network of people in that world. And once I made my transition to become a health coach online and then to do this, what I'm doing now with content creation, you learn who the people are that you want to know who are doing good things in the world. And then you can connect people to them. When you hear somebody, either it's in a networking or on a group that maybe even in a Facebook group, you find somebody who's asking a question. You're like, I know the perfect person to pair that person up with. So I think that's my superpower now is being able to connect people, make those connections. Christiane [00:03:52]: You are a walking Rolodex for those listeners online that don't know in this podcast what a Rolodex is. It's because nowadays we have our phones that hold all of our content. But a Rolodex is essentially the paper version of your contact list in your phone. It's little note cards on paper that you can flip through and you can check about their phone numbers or contact information and then contact depending on who you feel you need to connect with. So how do you keep track of these people? Do you have a good system that you could recommend us? Melissa [00:04:30]: I really don't have a great system. I have a head that just remembers trivia. And sometimes I'll have them because I've connected with them. I'll have them in groups on Facebook or I'll remember I don't know how I do it, but I remember where I connected with that person and some of them I've connected with and we've exchanged phone numbers or emails and that's actually in my iPhone. But yeah, there's just no system. It's just okay, the person has a need. I'm like, oh, I know the perfect person for you to connect with. And boom, there it goes. Christiane [00:05:12]: So I read an amazing book previously that actually has us calculate out what's called Our Social Fitness. It's called the good life. And you get a score at the end by going through a little quiz of how socially connected you are. And now of course, when I say socially connected, we immediately think about social media. But it's socially connecting by building relationships in person. Because if you think about it, at the end of the day, when somebody's close to dying, they never wish that they would have worked more. They always wish that they would have connected more. So it sounds like you have that ability in building those connections and really enriching everybody's life because you're building and enhancing their social fitness. So that's an amazing empowerment tool if you think about that in a certain way. I love how you describe yourself. I like to connect people and you're kind of the glue that brings people together. Melissa [00:06:15]: Never thought of it that way, but yeah, you're right. Christiane [00:06:19]: Yeah. For us, especially when we work in a ways where we are helping people with our knowledge, it's great to not only share our own knowledge, but also refer them to another specialist because you are sharing that knowledge of your network and it only is like sharing really means that it comes all back. I always say there's comma with there. If you help people, it all comes back double to you, and it feels like it's just lifting you up and helping others. So I love what you do. Well, if you think a little bit now, you basically had a wonderful bio, and I read through it, and I'm still wondering how you managed to do all of this. So I'm sure it wasn't always a straight path going. Looking at your career, is there a particular challenge and how did you overcome it? Melissa [00:07:17]: Well, I guess that's a good segue into how I ended up leaving pediatrics, because I guess you could say that that was a big challenge. When I started to realize that I was really killing myself in my practice, I was working. Oh, man, I can't even begin to tell you how many hours, because you would get up early, you would go to the hospital, you would make rounds, you'd be in the office, you would go back to the hospital after you finished up in the office. Then frequently it was phone call after phone call in the night for whatever problem a parent might have. And my health was suffering. It was a big challenge. And when you work so hard to become a know, I went through a three year medical school. Normally they're four, and that's after undergrad, and you work straight through in order to be able to graduate. And it was at a time when the United States didn't have as many physicians, and they wanted to churn out more physicians. So some of the schools went to this three year program. You didn't have summers off, you basically had like a few days here and a few days there, but you basically worked through three years in order to get your degree. So I did that, and I had a daughter, a ten month old, when I started medical school, that was back in the day when women were not being admitted to medical school that easily. I had another child during medical school, then I had a divorce at the end of my third year. So there were all those challenges to overcome in order to be able to get my degree and start my residency and then therefore go into practice. And I think a lot of people were like, well, now you've made it, right? You've made it. You're in your practice, things are going well, you're making a good living. But I was killing myself. I was working so hard. And I remember starting the process of looking for someone to take over my practice, not knowing exactly what I was going to do on the other end of that. Because when you work that hard for a career, you think that's the only thing that you can do. But I just knew that if I continued, the stress was going to kill me. So there was a conference. I remember hadn't thought about this in a long, long time. There was a conference called the Chrysalis Conference. Chrysalis because of the butterfly from the caterpillar to the butterfly. It was all about what physicians can do and not be in practice. So there are so many transferable skills that a physician can have, write a book, go into consulting. There were just so many different things. And I remember going to that conference and sitting through all these lectures and coming out of it being even more depressed because it was like there was nothing there that they talked about that really interested me. So I went home and depressed and I ended up leaving the group that I was in and started another practice on my own, which was probably not a smart idea, but I thought I could control it because I was in a group. And the way that we had structured how everybody worked was just crazy. So I decided I'm going to have a small boutique type practice. I wasn't going to take insurance, I would set my own hours. And yeah, that didn't work either. So I started looking around for someone to take over my practice. And in effect, what I ended up finding was someone who would take my practice and I just kind of handed it over to her and I walked away and I just thought I would be retired. This was in 2009. And then I discovered the world of coaching. And I got a degree or certification rather in coaching. And I just thought, I'm doing this for myself because it was just such great personal growth and development, this coaching, learning about coaching. And then I thought, oh, transferable skills, I have all this knowledge and now I can coach. Put those two together. So I went online and I did healthy lifestyle coaching for a time. And interestingly, I discovered that the content part of having my practice, my health coaching practice, was really what I loved. I love that content, like writing the blog post and emailing and learning about all the tech online. I love that. So I made another transition and boom, that's just what I do now. So I help the coaches with their content and creating a strategy and learning about what are the best ways to reach the people that you want to reach. And last year, 2022, I started a podcast. Now I am just so in love with podcasting and all that it can do for you. So that's my new love podcasting. Christiane [00:12:50]: So it sounds like there was a hill going through medical school. You worked for a while as a pediatrician, which I'm sure was very fulfilling, but it sounds exceptionally draining. You kind of looked for that pivot in your life and then the health coaching came along and you're still coaching, but now you're more really helping health coaches get better. So it's really that instead of doing it one on one with a customer, you're more helping the person that interacts with the customer. So it's more like B to B right now, is that correct? Melissa [00:13:28]: That's correct. Yeah. And I feel like I can really amplify myself because I can work with all of these coaches and help them reach more people. So it's a beautiful thing. Christiane [00:13:42]: How do you currently meet with coaches? Do they have one on one? Do you have a program or how do you right now share your wonderful skills? Melissa [00:13:50]: Both. I have a small group coaching that meets once a week, and I teach them in the group as well as we do a lot of accountability and answering questions. So that's the group and then I work with people one on one as well. Christiane [00:14:11]: Good. So that's something that it's still a little bit of that element there for medical school, seeing clients. Back then it was patients, but now you have clients that have transitioned to you and they still need your help, and you still get that fulfillment and the joy when you send them off with new skills. Melissa [00:14:30]: What an absolute. Christiane [00:14:32]: I have to say that Chrisales did happen. It just happened that you didn't expect it. Melissa [00:14:39]: It's so funny, I hadn't thought about that convention that I had gone to for the longest time. It just popped into my head. See, you're good. You brought that out. Good. Christiane [00:14:50]: See, this is the magic of podcasting, too, and building the connection, right. That we talk to each other and all of a sudden we remember these moments in our life. I mean, when do you ever think about challenges in your life? We don't. Right? It's not really like something that comes straight to our minds right here. And I mean, of course, one other thing that I thought about when you brought up that you were a pediatrician, that you had your two daughters, you got your divorce, you still made it all through just means the grit and the diligence that you really showed when you did all that. So that's pretty amazing because sometimes we look at people that have children and we say, oh yeah, I know you must be a busy mom. And there is that label, busy mom. But in reality, we don't know what people have on their plate. It's very difficult to really experience the life in somebody else's shoes because we don't know what luggage they are carrying. So they might have seen that you are a mom and maybe you're going through a divorce, but they didn't know you were in medical school at the same time or that you were working in a three year program instead of a four year program. So that's the background and the context that's so important. Really? Melissa [00:16:06]: Yeah. And actually happy ending. And another aspect is in medical school, the last year of medical school, I actually met my husband, my present husband, and we've been married over 40 years. Christiane [00:16:23]: 40 years is amazing. Melissa [00:16:24]: I love that. Yeah. And we had another daughter, so I have three daughters and actually have helped raise a granddaughter who is now going off to college this fall. Christiane [00:16:36]: She's not going to do medical school, is she? Melissa [00:16:39]: She is going to art school. Christiane [00:16:41]: Okay. I was like, maybe there is, like, a little trend going on. Love that very female inspired society over there in your family. Yes, I like that a lot. I have also two daughters, so I'm fully connected and experienced that they are wonderful and different and multifaceted, and it's definitely always a surprise every day. Melissa [00:17:04]: Yeah. With girls, it always is, right? Christiane [00:17:07]: Yeah. So what I kind of feel is that you have a passion and drive and this energy, and you mentioned you're connecting. How does it really work out? Are you just a self driven individual, or is there somebody that helps you with this? Like, if you could pinpoint who are your biggest influencer, who would that be? Melissa [00:17:31]: Hmm. Oh, there's so many influencer. You know, I often have thought, where do I get this drive? And I could say my mom my my mom went back to school when she when I have a brother that's about 1816 months older than me and a sister that's about 18 months younger than me, and my mother went back to college. She started college when we were all in middle school. And so she made it happen. She just decided this was her time. She wanted to go to college. And she became a teacher. She became a teacher, a fourth grade teacher, and had a wonderful career, and she inspired me a lot. And that's one also, you know, when somebody would ask, who is someone that you've always admired? It's always been Helen Keller. Helen Keller. When I first learned about Helen Keller, I was fascinated. Here's this person who can't hear. She can't see. It's like she's in this prison of her own body. And how she was able to communicate and the work that she did in the world and the good that she did, it just fascinated me. And I still, to this day, I just am in such awe and inspired by her. You know, that's probably one of the early inspirations. And then my mom, of course, and there's just so many. I mean, I could just name it's almost all women, although I will say Barack Obama. He really totally inspired me when he won the presidency and the work that he did in there's. There's three right there. Good. Christiane [00:19:47]: And I like how your list of influencer is very diverse. You have a family member, you have more of an influencer that you look up to, because I assume you haven't met Helen Keller. It's a celebrity of some sort. And then you have a former president right there. Sometimes there's these fun party questions that say, if you could choose a dinner, who would be your guests? Interesting dinner right there. Melissa [00:20:11]: If you think there? Christiane [00:20:13]: Absolutely. So with Helen Keller, I was smiling because for a while, I bought my children these children books that are called Who Is? Melissa [00:20:22]: Oh, yeah. Christiane [00:20:24]: And we had the Helen Keller book. And then my children went to a bilingual school. They also learned Spanish, I think the Helen Keller book, we also had in Spanish. Yes. And then Helen Keller right there. And to all of the moms or nieces, aunts, grandmothers, anybody who's ever looking for great gifts listening to this podcast, this series is truly amazing. If you ever go to a bookstore, they have I wouldn't say hundreds of these books, they have a lot carried away. And it's actually not even a children's book, because if you read it yourself, you're like, oh, I didn't know. Melissa [00:21:05]: Really? Right. It's very educational. It's very informative. Yeah. Christiane [00:21:09]: Don't read Wikipedia. I always tell my students in the classroom because I sometimes read it, and I'm like, what is this all about? So rather go and get an actual book. And these are fabulous quality, and they are super educational, entertaining, and very informative in a very short sense. They're small books, and they are really cute gifts. And it kind of says something about a person when you look at what they read or when you give them a certain gift. So you would probably purchase the Helen Geller. Melissa [00:21:41]: Oh, yeah, that would be definitely, yes. Christiane [00:21:44]: Barack Obama one. They have that one, too. Yes. Wonderful. Well, I certainly feel very inspired about everything that you shared with us here today. And I learned a lot about where you are now, the challenges that you overcame, and the wonderful inspiration that you share with us. But we certainly might have more questions for you. How can we get in touch with you? Maybe you have a best way of networking with you. Please share that with us. Melissa. Melissa [00:22:13]: Well, I am on Instagram at Dr. Melissa Brown. D r melissa Brown. It's Melissa. And brown, like the color. You can always connect with me over there. And I have a website. It's called She's Gotcontentent.com. And then the podcast is the same name. She's got content podcast. And I publish that every week now. And if we have any entrepreneurs or health coaches or coaches of any kind out there and you want to get my free resource, I have a never run out of content ideas, little workbook, and you can get that at she's content. Content. So there's all these ways to connect with me, and I look forward to anybody who's interested in content or any of the things that we talked about. Any Helen Keller fans out there who want to talk. Absolutely. I love to connect right now. Christiane [00:23:20]: Of course. I'm personally, of course. That's my last fun question here. New Jersey, can you tell us a little sentence and, like, a New Jersey accent, or do you have any fun tidbits about New Jersey that we need to learn here. Melissa [00:23:36]: Yeah. New Jersey. I didn't understand this when I moved here. People say when you tell them that you're from New Jersey, they go, what exit? What exit? It's because of the New Jersey Turnpike. The New Jersey Turnpike runs through and it's like, well, what exit? And I never quite understood that. And now I get it. I get it. The New Jersey Turnpike. It's a much better road if you go down the Garden State Parkway. It's a lot prettier, although compared to the Ohio roads, it's still very congested. There's a lot of people in New Jersey. Christiane [00:24:20]: Well, it sounds like more opportunities for you to. Melissa [00:24:27]: Of our lots of our roads run right into Manhattan, so we're really close to Manhattan and haven't been into Manhattan much since COVID But I have a big opportunity coming up next month, I believe, where I'm going to be meeting a lot of influencers, if you will, a lot of people in the content marketing and copywriting space. So I'm really excited about that because I feel like I'm a kid who's been locked in her room for such a long time. Now I'll be able to get out and meet some new friends. Christiane [00:24:58]: Oh, that's amazing. And it's good to kind of look at your life and new opportunities and have little things to look forward to. Melissa [00:25:06]: Absolutely. Christiane [00:25:06]: As we're moving into the summer now, things that are coming up. Well, Melissa, it was such a pleasure to have you. Melissa [00:25:14]: The pleasure is mine. Thank you so much. Christiane [00:25:16]: That concludes our little episode of the Happy, Healthy Hustle. My name is Christiane. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We certainly always look forward to any wishes for content ideas, let us know. But otherwise, keep hustling along and stay happy and healthy. Melissa [00:25:33]: Thank you. Christiane [00:25:35]: All right, that's it for today's episode of the Happy, Healthy Hustle podcast. If you have any suggestions for future content or any feedback, please let me know. I would also love to share with you that I'm about to launch my Journey to Wellness program. And I'm sure that you, as a Happy, Healthy Hustler, would love to be part of this wonderful 21 day transformational program. It gives you some quick and easy tools that you can use at home to get your health journey started. Stay tuned, and until then, we'll catch you next time. Sam.