Canada. British Columbia, that's right. I haven't been. I want to go. It looks beautiful.
Is it beautiful? It is absolutely beautiful. I came 33 years ago for one season, decided it was
paradise and never left. And where from? Australia originally. Oh wow, you disguise that accent so
well. You speak Australian and our English. I do and I disguise it because I came, I was raised
in Japan in the international school system from the age of six to 16. Look at the cultural
diversity we have in front of us. Everybody, Melissa Dealy, the real deal. That's fun.
You play with that a lot with your name. I hear that a lot. I don't play with it a lot,
but it's kind of fun when I hear it. Yep. Yeah. The action Jackson gets old a little bit. Um,
but some, you know, I try to entertain it for the, especially though it's really funny when people
like they think I've never heard that before, you know, cool. I go to you, you know, let me not,
not make you feel bad here for, for thinking you're the first. Um, but anyway, let's dive
into those resources. So again, you gotta, you got such a depth of wisdom to all the things that
you're doing with girls matter. Um, super impressed with what you're up to for that initiative.
You're an integrative healing coach practitioner. Again, I'm not going to get all the accolades
right on that, but what three resources for other people out there who are building their visions,
which ones do you recommend they turn to? Well, I just finished reading a book this past weekend
that was recommended to me and it's called half the sky. And I absolutely loved it. It's a difficult
read. However, it further affirmed to me that everything we are doing with girls matter is
so needed in our world today. And half the sky, the title came about because it's talking about
women hold up half the sky. And it's talking about oppression of women and girls in many developing
countries around the world. It was written back in 2008. And as I said, it's a difficult read
because to read what some of these women, the trauma that they have to go through being held in
cages, literally in brothels and, you know, broken until they acquiesce to giving up their body for
someone else's pleasure is horrific to read. And yet we need to know this is happening because if
we don't know it's happening, we don't take action. And throughout the book, they kept saying,
education is what's critical. When we educate a girl, we're empowering them to stand up and
speak for themselves and to feel confident in themselves to speak back. And there was examples
of that in the book as well in one village where one girl had a university level education. And she
was able to fight back against the bullies because she knew how to speak back to them.
And to give them a taste of their own medicine. And in the end, they ended up in jail and she
ended up running the village. And there's just so many stories like that. And when women are
empowered with education and given the family finances, they invested in their children,
in their health, in their education. When men run the family purse in these countries, they're very
often spending it on drink and their own pleasure. And so that is a very powerful book for anybody
that is open to making the world a better place. Because one of the best places to start is by
educating the other half of the population. I love that. That is power. So this book,
is designed as a read for men, correct? As well, absolutely. Oh, as well. Okay. And of course,
we got it. Yeah. Okay. Educating. I'm when I heard that I got lost a little bit, but you're right.
When you said educating the other half of the population, I took that to heart in my own
personal responsibility. It's like we've got to step up as men. You're right. It is about
educating women too. And I'm so glad you were saying that. Educating women in the first world.
That again? It's about letting women in the first world know what is happening in other countries
around the world. Because as an example, when I named girls matter, girls matter, I've had
many people say to me, of course they matter. Why would you call it that? Or I've said,
or I've heard why girls matter, boys matter too. And my answers to that are,
yes, girls matter in first world countries. They don't matter in developing countries.
Right. And boys do. And that's why it's called girls matter. This book, tribal leadership,
not read commonly because it's a hard book, validates exactly what's happening with the name
of your business. They say when your vision or mission is on point, people will argue with it.
That's how you know you've got the right vision and mission is when I say that.
That's how you know you've got the right vision and mission is when it creates debate.
And I was like, wow, I never thought about that before. That's really profound.
I haven't either. So thank you.
Yeah, of course. I love that you highlight too, the cause and a book associated with the cause.
It reminds me of one of my favorite books was three cups of tea by Greg Morton,
and the Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, another amazing book. And I used to have on my footer,
before the water project became the primary cause that we talk about, it was our Operation
Underground Railroad. And I had an employee a long time ago who said, this is back in like 2015 or
so, they said they weren't comfortable with me promoting that cause because it was too dark.
I was like, that's why. That's why I'm talking about. That's why it matters.
And it's interesting, you know, these companies, again, I don't get into the theatrics or the
difference between like what did or didn't happen in either case, but, you know, Greg Morton's book,
Three Cups of Tea was eventually met by a disgruntled board member who wrote another book called
Three Cups of Deceit. And now our is also facing their own challenges and problems and legal
circumstances. And, you know, it's interesting, like I hope nothing bad has gone on in either of
those scenarios, but it's so interesting how fast the world is to tear down. You know, we are fast,
we are to attack somebody for doing something different or maybe not being perfect at what they
do. And I just hope that those who do listen to this, they're not going to be the same as
we are. And I just hope that those who do listen to this can take a second to think about, you
know, do we, why do we need to be quick to judgment in those circumstances? Or can we focus on
building with the light that we have the way you are with Girls Matter and doing something about it
rather than just complaining and saying somebody else isn't doing enough. You've stepped up and
done something about it. Do you have two other resources you'd like to share real fast?
Add on what you've said, because we raise funds to provide menstrual supplies for our girls so
that they can go to school every week of the month because they don't have anything. And we have got
feedback that we shouldn't be talking about such a topic. And yet every woman in the world...
There are certain words that get shut down by the algorithm, right? There's certain words we should
know to talk around when we're talking about such matters. But when you talk about it from a
scientific standpoint and from the standpoint of like truth, and you learn how to discuss such
topics of women's needs, then yes, we do. We don't want to get shut down though, of course.
But in the process, we can solve the conversations where people know what we're talking about and
we're not hurting children's ears, you know, or offending somebody who doesn't want us to be
grotesque. And again, I wouldn't call it grotesque, but in a certain environment, if the movies are
rated, and I know that, I can go into that already movie and watch 12 Years a Slave.
There's so many different opportunities to learn and not be scared off by profanity or graphic
or what we really need to understand. There's so many people in this world face.
Exactly. Exactly. So my other two resources that I love to share are more in line with my business
and holistic health. And one of them is called Our Daily Meds. And it's written by Melody Peterson,
who used to work for the, write for the New York Times about the big pharma industry.
And when she started to see what was really going on, she quit her job, moved home to,
I believe it was Iowa or Idaho, and started researching this book. And this book too was
written in about 2008. And it also is a very hard read, because it really highlights the corruption
within that industry. And I, in my work, want people to know that there's more than one way to heal.
And masking a symptom with a band-aid is never the solution.
And I wish that our health industry was not a for-profit industry. It is a broken industry
today because it's all about profit and it has nothing to do with human health. Now, acute care
is excellent. However, when supporting people on their chronic health journey, it is failing us.
And so that book is an insight for people to start to understand if they're just
starting to figure out that maybe it's not working for them the way that they thought it should.
I agree to disagree on the one point, which was the turning it from profit to nonprofit.
I honestly don't believe at all that that's the solution, because that's cutting out a virtue,
excuse me, a virtue of a resource. And what we choose to do with a resource is, in my opinion,
the water can drown people, the water can provide light to people as well. And so what we choose to
do with it as leaders, there's perhaps there's adjustments for sure that need to be done.
But I wouldn't box that in personally. I have to stand against that. But the resource sounds
amazing. And I love that Ty Bollinger, for instance, of The Truth About Cancer,
he speaks against the cancer industry. I don't know how much of what he says is true. I'm not a
doctor. I don't profess to be. But I do look for people who have a more holistic approach to,
you know, it's there's not a one size fits all bandaid. There are different opportunities. And
I wish I had known that, or thought through that more holistically myself before having a back
surgery that I probably could have avoided. So what's your third resource?
The third resource is a book called The Growth Mindset, or maybe it's The Mindset.
By Carol Dweck. I'll take it like why you talk.
And love that book, it talks about the fact that we all have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset,
and we can have different mindsets in different aspects of our life. And when we read that book,
we start to understand what that growth mindset looks like, and hopefully aspire into stepping
into it. And I really love the concept of there's unlimited knowledge in the world. And so I think
that's the concept of there's unlimited knowledge in the world. No one person can know everything.
So you know what you know, you can, you know, continue learning throughout your entire life.
However, you also draw on the knowledge of other experts, experts, and together, you can lift
everyone up, as opposed to the fixed mindset, which is, I know everything that there is to know.
And all of you are wrong, really, in a nutshell.
That limited knowledge is lending, product buy-in is lending.
It actually sort of translates into it takes, uh, supported at some point.
a lack of kids, a low selling parent, I don't know what happened on the back end,
because we're finally talking about a hair plan, a mention of THREADS,
one ID is being
And she has another thing called
the growth mindset workbook.
So you're right, they're both.
They're both your assets.
Sounds like you've benefited from both.
So that's good.
Yes, definitely, definitely.
And what I love about the book is it talks about
the mindsets in relation to business,
in relation to sports, in relation to education,
many different aspects of life.
And it's a really easy read.
And for me, I read it at a time where I really needed
that information and it helped me profoundly
to navigate what I was going through,
which I know we'll talk about shortly
with additional questions that you have for me.
I will for sure.
Those of you who are listening and vision pros,
I hope that the people who leave this don't.
Right, I hope the people that are like,
man, what am I gonna get out of this?
This is about breaking the poverty cycle
where people don't relate to me.
And I don't think you probably think that harshly about it,
but you probably have other things you want in life for you.
These types of conversations are often the ones
that lead you to the most profound answers
for what you need to do as a visionary.
There are parallels that will exist in this conversation.
There are ways to apply this
and there are ways to take a look at this
and see that people like Melissa Dealy
are the types of people you can reach out to
about your own visions that are probably budding
or you're cultivating, you're in the process of building it.
And she's spent years and years
working on these processes too.
It's amazing what you can learn from people
who've been building principles for a long time.
So we're gonna dive right back in for her vision
in just a moment.
And I can't wait to explore your vision, Melissa.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Calame, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
Hey, what's up everybody?
Welcome into another episode of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your host, Jason Calame.
And I'm your host, Melissa Dealy.
And I'm your host, Jason Calame.
Welcome into another episode of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, Jackson Calame,
founder and CEO of First Class Business.
I'm so excited to dive back into Melissa Dealy's vision.
I'm skipping the beginning of a very cool event
here in San Antonio to be here because she's amazing.
And I can't wait to teach you guys
about what I've learned as well about Girls Matter,
the foundation that she has.
And we're gonna be talking about breaking the poverty cycle.
One girl, one family, one village at a time.
And there's so much I could say
about how much I believe in that,
partly due to some effective brainwashing
by my mom and five older sisters.
And I say that, of course, with love and appreciation.
The women in our lives are incredibly valuable and important.
And when I need wisdom, it's usually who I go to
is some woman who has experience in whatever it is
that I need guidance in.
So let's definitely honor that as much as we can.
I'm gonna get out of the way in just a minute,
but first I wanna make sure to provide a few resources
that I've come across.
Some of them, one of them being another
fantastic woman leader, let's dive in with thelossbot.com.
Melissa Gray came on this show as well.
And I was apprehensive to bring her on the show
because she's a lawyer and lawyers tend to be
kind of pretentious and condescending.
And I never really feel like they value
what I have to think or say.
And it's just kind of one of those uncomfortable subjects
that we wanna ignore in business.
But she came on with this nurturing mindset and attitude,
the ability to still have the poise
and the experience of a lawyer and understands
that law doesn't have to be complicated.
And she helps businesses simplify legal matters
while also protecting them from threats
that exist in the world.
And having been through a $20,000 trademark lawsuit myself
for a name we already owned and seeing Apple patent
one of my softwares, I can tell you
it would have been a far more prudent position.
I would have been in a far more prudent position
if I had been a wise steward and found somebody
that I really aligned with the legal counsel.
So if you do have somebody sick with them,
if you do not have somebody,
then absolutely consider including Melissa Gray
in your interview process.
And what's cool is when you work with a lawyer
who's also looking at not just how to protect you,
but how to help you grow,
well, it might turn into a positive ROI scenario as well.
In addition to the law spot, we've got recovery unplugged.
We were just talking about not only addictions,
we weren't really talking,
we were talking about drinking problems that exist.
Well, there's all sorts of habits that exist
that are vices, it can be drugs, alcohol, Netflix,
it can be apps.
There's a lot of distractions that are out there
that keep us from living our best life.
I am super impressed with what Andrew Sosin
and his team have built with recovery unplugged.
And I'm grateful that they designed this
as an online platform post-COVID.
So now anybody can get help with this music treatment
and therapy.
Now, you may not need this for yourself.
You may have a loved one that might need
to get more out of life.
Somebody who's just kind of in a funk or feels like,
man, they're not really that plugged into life.
Well, recovery unplugged gives you the opportunity
to reach out and find out what can you do
to help them and assist them.
And then of course, they can turn to this program as well
and see what type of resource it can be for them.
And I don't know, maybe it'll be the miracle cure,
maybe it won't be, but if there's at least one of you
that this helps, then I'll be super grateful for that.
I gotta move over to the water project as well.
Shame on me for not having that one pulled up.
Water project.
And look at that, Google's helping me.
There it is.
Oh, let's not click the add one though.
Let's save the water project a little bit of budget.
Let's go right to the organic listing.
These kids and how they celebrate water
reminds me of my four kiddos on Christmas day
and how excited they are about the gifts that they receive.
Well, there's millions of people who do not have access
to clean drinking water.
And we have the opportunity to support them
by giving to the water project.
And maybe you get $5, maybe you get $500,000.
Whatever you do end up donating,
the cool thing is you get to see the outcome
of these rural communities that receive it.
They treat it like a crowdfunding process
and you get to see the effects, the generational impact
that you're ultimately able to grant
just by giving simply.
Now, if you're in a position where COVID economics
has really hurt you financially,
you just don't have the ability to give.
My request is that you share this message
with somebody who might be able to.
You don't know if you'll be the catalyst
for somebody who can fund 20 of these projects
or who just contributes to one.
No contribution is too small when it comes to people
who need access to something as basic as water.
So without further ado,
we're gonna talk about Girls Matter
and this program that's been created by Melissa
to help girls receive their education
and to empower them to know how to provide a better life
for themselves, for their communities
and ultimately uplift our entire world in the process.
So without further ado, Melissa Dealey,
thank you so much for being here to share your vision.
It's absolutely my pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely.
Diving in a little bit more clearly
into this cause I attempted to talk about.
I'd love to know in your words,
what is your vision for those that you serve?
My vision is to create a healthy planet.
And what I mean by that is eliminate chronic illness
by showing people how they can heal themselves
and how lifestyle is a huge factor
in the disease of the body.
However, they have so much control over that.
And all of that starts with education.
And when we take that education a step further,
we can also educate people in the developing world
that currently don't have access to education.
Because in educating them,
we're empowering them to be able to live their best life,
break free of poverty.
With just educating the girls,
we can literally bring countries' GDPs up significantly.
I saw a stat years ago,
which was one of the impetuses to me starting Girls Matter.
And it was that if India could just educate
1% more girls, it would grow its GDP by $55 billion.
I believe that.
And so there's the answer.
I'm not one to believe stats,
but that's the stat I believe.
And there's the answer.
It's simple, it's not easy.
It's not easy because all of these countries
charge for education.
Where families are already struggling to earn a dollar
or $2 a day, put food on the table, et cetera, et cetera.
Because of lack of education,
families still have six, eight children.
Because of lack of good healthcare,
children are dying far too young.
And that's part of why they're having more children
because they know that not all of them
are gonna make it to adulthood.
And then it comes down to the costs
of how do I pay for their education?
Or how do I put food on the table?
And as the girls get older and into their teenage years,
sometimes now they get married off in many cases actually.
And the stat is that every 30 seconds,
a girl under 18 is being married off.
Because they can't afford her education,
they can't afford to feed her, they marry her off.
And then she's someone else's problem.
And to me that's so wrong because they get married so young,
then they get pregnant.
And the greatest cause of death in girls age 15 to 19
is childbirth.
Because their bodies aren't ready.
And it's often happening in countries
where they're not giving birth in hospitals
and don't have additional care, et cetera, et cetera.
And so if we can educate the girls
that keeps them in school,
so they're not getting married as teenagers,
they're not becoming mothers as teenagers
and repeating the poverty cycle of their mothers.
That's powerful information.
And to be educated on this and then to be able to go
to your website and see what actions that somebody can take,
that's super valuable too.
So I'm grateful that you have that.
We'll include that show notes so that everybody
can see what actions they can take.
Your vision is, it's so clear to me that
your vision of service is also very tied
to your personal vision as well.
I'm gonna skip that for now.
We'll come back to it if we have time at the end.
We're gonna go into the next segment for the sake of time.
And we're gonna talk about
what is your worst leadership experience
that you've ever had?
This comes back to when I was in the corporate world.
And it also ties back to the book, The Growth Mindset,
because in early 2013,
a boss that I enjoyed working with was let go
and a new boss came in and filled his shoes.
And this new boss that came in and filled his shoes
was a female boss who seemed,
from my perspective, to have a chip on both shoulders.
And she was very much the fixed mindset person.
In her viewpoint, if somebody knew more than her,
that made her look bad.
Therefore, she had to know more than everybody.
And if it appeared that you knew more than she did,
then she would have to put you down publicly.
I am great and you are not.
Classic tribal leadership, stage three.
And I will take your work and take it to my superiors
and call it my own.
Yeah.
And that was a very difficult time.
And fortunately, I wasn't in the same office physically
because I would have never lasted.
And I'm a fairly determined person.
And I decided I've been with this company for 22 years.
You've been here for seven.
I'm gonna outlast you.
Or at the very least, I'm gonna get a payout.
I'm not going to quit.
And in the end, I got a payout
because Big Fish bought Little Fish
and she let me go with great relish.
However, I got the payout.
Yeah.
Having read the book,
the growth mindset during that time period
was extremely helpful to me
because then I understood the behavior
and I could be more tolerant of it.
And in some ways, I kind of felt sorry for her
that she felt she needed to behave that way.
As opposed to stepping into her own power.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a nice way to put it, empathy.
Well, I get to commentate.
You get to say the big stories
and I just get to make these cool little golden nugget
statements based on what you shared.
And the world faces so much of that.
The greater majority of the world
has to deal with people like that all around them.
And there's this constant fierce competition of dog eat dog.
And usually, I love this book, Tribal Leadership,
and it talks about the person who says,
I am great does not realize that their habits,
their communication patterns are almost all built around
also claiming and you are not.
And it's a very interesting reality
that once you've been exposed to the languages
within the language, it's like, whoa,
you can start recognizing how to shift.
So thank you for that.
Cause that is very powerful for those listening in.
What would you say is your best leadership experience
that you've ever had?
I was thinking about this and I have a couple, fortunately.
And I think really the one that I want to land on
is one of my current mentors
who has built a very successful business
in health and wellness.
And I did some of my training through his company.
And as I went through that training,
his mission was literally to have a health coach
in every house to-
Is this one to be revealed?
Pardon?
Are you going to reveal who this mentor is?
I'm on the edge.
Oh, absolutely.
Dr. Stephen Cabral of-
Sorry, I got excited.
Dr. Stephen Cabral.
Yeah, Dr. Stephen Cabral
of Integrative Health Practitioner Organization
and also Equalife and Cabral Wellness.
And his vision is to help everybody
that goes through his training programs
to become a health coach in every household
and get more information out there
about the myriad of ways that we can heal.
And he also recognized that
there is a client for everyone.
We don't have to fight in competition.
I will attract people to me based on the energy
that I put out into the world.
And that is different to who he will attract,
et cetera, et cetera.
And so he openly and willingly shared all of his resources
at no cost and said,
I've been successful doing it this way.
Take everything I have and copy it
and go out there and do this.
I just want more people out there doing this.
And that was so refreshing and enlightening to me
as I went through that program that I did exactly that.
And I copied literally the text off his website
when I first started until I figured out my niche
and started to make it my own.
And that was so helpful.
And he's so right that we don't have to fight
and squabble over clients
because there are enough clients for everyone.
And we will attract who we will attract.
Thousand, thousand percent right.
If there is such a thing, that was it in my opinion.
I love that and every sense of imagination.
If you were to compare those, you're listening,
if you were to compare Vision Pros Live
with Entrepreneur on Fire's website, the podcast,
almost the exact same.
We very much modeled what Johnny Dumas has done
at Entrepreneur on Fire based on his own advice.
And the advice of leaders like that.
And in addition to that,
we give our own assets out for free too.
The Power Launch, our program,
that's our infrastructure for our high ticket clients.
For those who are educated on it and know what we do,
we give anybody free access if you want to
and can build it on your own, go for it, go do it.
And this empowering people,
it allows those who are in a centered position of,
hey, wait a second, like I could go do it,
but I wanna work with you, Melissa.
They can come forward.
The rest can go be an ambassador and go talk about,
or they can go steal it and take it, whatever.
I'm not gonna lose anything by them using that information
for their, there's 8 billion people in this world to help.
I can't get to them all.
It's not gonna happen.
So well done, I love that.
I'm grateful for you sharing boldly about that too,
because some people also may feel like,
you know what, I like this Dr. Steven guy,
but I really wanna work with a female.
They're not wrong for saying, you know what,
I wanna work with Melissa because I relate to her.
I wanna work with somebody who also has blonde hair.
Maybe I wanna work with a guy who has curly brown hair.
I've never heard that, but it's possible.
There's just too much abundance to worry
and spend a life stressed out about competition
that's all in your head.
So thank you for that.
And that leads us to the big question,
which is, if this was your last opportunity
to share advice with the world,
or visionaries in particular,
what powerful lesson can other visionaries learn
from your experience?
Don't ever let anybody tell you that you can't do something.
We've all heard it.
And what I know to be true is when someone says that to you,
it is a reflection of their belief about themselves
based on their passion, their education, their mission.
They don't have your passion, your education,
and your desire.
And so they can't do what you can do.
However, sometimes they just blurt it out of their mouth,
as well-meaning as they are.
And it has absolutely nothing to do with you
and everything to do with them and their inability
to see that dream or vision for themselves.
And that's okay.
It's not their dream or vision.
So don't let them stop you.
I once again love that.
I have allowed that to stop me many times in my life.
And I don't know how many people can relate to that,
but there was a friend,
before I learned the definition of friend,
many years ago, who said,
when are you gonna stop with all this washed up,
rebate Tony Robbins stuff?
I was hurt.
I felt that.
I didn't stop right away,
but I kind of slowly shifted in that.
And Passion Pro existed for a long time behind the scenes,
but it wasn't until actually about three, four weeks ago,
before I was finally realizing,
man, I really haven't stepped into that fully.
And that is who I am and what I do.
And so these things can,
people's negativity, people's opinions of what we do,
they can very much affect us.
But the reinforcement of a leader like yourself, Melissa,
helping us realize like, no, we shouldn't let anybody
tell us that we can't do something.
And we have an opportunity, even if they have,
to step back into it at any time.
Did you ever let that defeat you?
Just curious, did you ever let that hold you back?
I'm going to say that I didn't,
because as you know,
I didn't because as you were talking here,
it took me back to a moment when I was about six years old.
We'd just moved to Japan.
I can see myself with my mother
on the outside back deck of our house,
looking out over the garden and the trees.
And she was telling me that I was living
in the most incredible era,
because I could do anything I wanted to do.
Wow.
And so I'm grateful for that.
That's how I was raised.
Absolutely.
And so if someone said no to me,
I would just find a way around that obstacle
and figure it out.
Which is another great book by Marie Forleo,
Everything is Figureoutable.
It's a good one.
I didn't know she wrote that,
but she is a great leader.
So I can see that.
Well, that's great.
And again, those of you who don't have family and friends,
who've uplifted you and have helped you overcome
the negativity or the challenges of others
and look for creating the family and friends in life,
find people who are going to support you in the process.
It is an amazing,
is an amazing reality.
There's a lot of people out there
who do want to see you succeed with your visions
in the same way that Melissa Dealey is succeeding in hers.
So let's take a few minutes to talk about
breaking the poverty cycle.
One girl, one family, one village at a time.
What does that mean to you, Melissa Dealey?
How can people get involved?
What dynamics of that are,
do you want to go down?
And you've got probably three to five minutes
to just guide us down the right path.
So what that means to me is literally
coming back to educating the girls.
And that's because an educated girl
is more than twice as likely to ensure
her own children have an education.
So when we educate a girl today,
it has a generational ripple effect into the future,
which is incredibly powerful.
And as I said earlier, school costs money
in much of the world and they can't afford it.
And so when we can lend a helping hand
and it's so much less expensive
than what university is in North America, for instance,
when we can lend that helping hand
to give these girls the opportunity
to graduate from high school,
to go on to a vocational school,
to go on to university,
they are not only creating a better life for themselves,
but also for all of their family,
all of the villagers and future generations.
And that's what I truly love about this work.
So we fund girls to go to boarding school
so that they're getting a good quality education,
they're getting their meals,
they're getting their accommodation,
they're getting their medical care,
they're getting their school uniforms,
so clothing, et cetera.
And they are well looked after
when they're in the boarding school system.
And that allows them to then go on to a vocational school.
So we've just had one girl graduate as a seamstress,
and she makes beautiful clothing.
She also made about 100 caps and gowns
for the preschoolers to wear
at their graduation from preschool.
Oh, that's cool.
And I have these amazing photos of that.
In fact, if you click to our solutions
and you scroll to the bottom, I believe that there,
that picture right there is our first university graduate.
Her name is Jane,
and she graduated a couple of years ago
from university, and now she is an administrator
and a teacher in a school helping multiple preschoolers.
And so it's not just about educating the girl,
it's their give back to their community.
So Jane, for instance, goes back to her community,
which is a very rural village
on the side of Mount Elgon in Uganda.
And she helps the villagers with any kind of government forms
that they need to go to.
And so she'll sit with them
and help them complete their forms, et cetera.
And yeah, here are all our little preschool graduates
in their caps and gowns
that one of our Girls Matter girls made for them.
We're now also going into a little bit of microfinancing
because now that she's graduated
from her vocational school,
she doesn't have to go to college anymore.
She's graduated from her vocational school,
she doesn't have access to a sewing machine.
And so we're loaning her the money
in order for her to buy a sewing machine
so that she can start earning an income
and then pay us back.
And then what she's paying us back will then be used
to go towards another girl's education.
And they value their education so much
that they love to give back in many, many ways.
We had another girl graduate last December
and she's in logistics.
She actually started out in nursing,
but during the pandemic,
she couldn't do any of her practical labs, et cetera.
So she switched to logistics on the basis
that there's a lot of corruption.
And her village community just getting supplies to them
is very expensive because people have to be paid off
every step of the way.
And so she's decided to go into logistics
so that she can find a way to be able to get supplies
to her village without all of the payoffs
all along the way.
And here you can see the profiles of all of the girls
that we work with.
We work with a group in Kenya called the Jolly Sisters, J-A-L-I,
and we're funding 18 girls through them
that are from one of the slums in Kenya.
Unfortunately, many of them have been raped.
They're living in the slums.
They've had really hard times, a lot of trauma in their life.
And school is a place where they, again,
are safe and it helps them on their healing journey.
And meanwhile, the women of the slums are the ones that,
through Jolly Sisters, are being paid
to make the menstrual supplies.
So we send the money over to buy the raw materials,
and then the women get the jobs of making them
so that the girls can stay in school.
And the women are also learning vocational skills as well,
such as beautiful arts and crafts
that can be sold on the internet to international markets,
as well as how to run a market stall, et cetera.
So there's a lot of education,
even beyond just keeping our girls in school
that we're involved in.
And we're moving into more projects
because there's such a need.
And so I'd love to talk to you more about the water project
because I know in our areas
that getting clean water is really hard.
There's a lot of typhoid, et cetera.
And another project that I'm looking at
is something called Hope Sacks,
which they put around their cooking pots.
So it's kind of like a tea cozy.
They put them around their cooking pots
so their food stays warmer for longer
so the fires don't have to burn for as long.
They're not inhaling all of that smoke.
And also because it's the girls who don't go to school
that are sent off into the woods to find the sticks.
And unfortunately, because men know the girls are off
on their own looking for sticks,
it's when they're also getting molested.
And it's tragic.
So if we can reduce the need for the sticks
by using the equivalent of a tea cozy
around a big cooking pot
so that they don't have to have as many fires every day
as well as they're not breathing in all that smoke,
it's a win-win for everyone.
Huge.
Wow.
The little things in life
that we take for granted and overlook
and the opportunity to be aware
of how much of a difference we can make.
You've made a phenomenal amount of difference in my life.
I get to be a very small contributor right now
and to a very meaningful thing.
My international politics teacher,
I had a 0.33 GPA in college, by the way.
For those who don't know, that is the F below the F.
Like I could not have done worse.
And I only got that high of a grade
because he chose to give me a C.
And I hadn't done any of his papers.
I attended his class.
Like I loved his class.
And at the very end, I didn't go to the final exam,
but he told me, Jackson, if you want to educate a nation,
if you want to change the nation, educate a mom.
And that hit me so deep.
And I again, I have no idea how he knew
why that mattered to me.
His intuition, his ability to understand the value of that,
having my mom and my five older sisters
are just a whole nine yards.
Like, and him knowing that even though
I wasn't good in school at all,
he knew that there was something that mattered to me.
Like that I would take it and run with it.
And so just being able to hear about your vision
and understand it, being able to put the links to it,
everything we can do to support your cause
and what you're up to, just make the ask, let us know.
And of course, those of you who are listening in,
we'll have on the landing page,
we'll have the action steps.
So if you want to get involved
with what Melissa DeLeah is doing,
as far as health and wellness goes,
you'll be able to access those links.
If you want to get involved in Girls Matter
and help with the process of changing lives
in ways that are incredibly meaningful on very,
I would say significantly low budgets of contributions,
empowering women to build, like to create like those hats,
those graduation caps.
Imagine the amount of people out there.
As Melissa continues to tell her story
and showcase that picture,
some people think the arts and crafts aren't that,
don't matter that much.
When you see a picture like that
and you're able to inspire an entire audience
of potential investors to throw down responsibly
and to really fund something like that,
that the impact, the ripple effect is massive.
And so we just have so much opportunity
to do so many great things.
And if you also have a vision of your own,
something that you want to share that's important
and your vision is going to help and serve others,
and there's another call to action on there
that says be our guest.
We invite you to come on this show,
share your vision with us,
allow us to help you spread the word
about what you're up to and be involved
in these projects at the end of the day.
Like when my kids ask,
hey dad, what'd you do for work?
You know, or what are you up to?
These are the things they get to talk to me about.
Like there's nothing better
than being able to be involved in this.
It doesn't matter if the person is Patrick Mahomes,
you know, and playing football for the best team ever,
or if the person is Melinda Gates,
to help build a Melinda Gates Foundation,
you know, or Melissa Dealey.
You know, what's important is
that if you're building something holistic,
come and share it, allow us to contribute.
And it gets me ultra excited.
But Melinda Gates and Patrick Mahomes,
if you heard this, we'd love to have you
on the show as well.
So without further ado,
thank you again everybody for tuning in,
to Vision Pros Live.
Melissa Dealey, thank you for your time
and for sharing your visions.
This was incredible.
It's absolutely my pleasure.
Thank you for having me and allowing me to share this.
Because as I said at the very beginning,
people need to be aware of the greater problems
around the world so that they can choose
to make a difference.
I know that everybody would like to help in some way,
and they just don't necessarily know how.
And this gives them an avenue.
And one thing, the reason I started Girls Matter
versus contributing to another foundation for girls
is at the time, I couldn't find one
that gave all the money to the girls.
And that was really important to me.
There's so many foundations where the CEOs are earning
multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Or you donate and then you get beautiful cards
and address mailing labels and things back in the mail.
I don't want any of that.
My board of directors were all volunteers,
and we don't give you anything in return monetarily.
We will send you girls' report cards.
We will send you newsletters as to what we're working on.
And we don't overdo it.
You're not getting spammed.
You'll get videos and letters from the girls
if you sponsor a girl.
And to me, as a donor, I would much rather have that
than receive something back in the mail
that I didn't need in the first place.
And that's not what I wanted my money spent on.
Sure.
Teach their own on the process.
With Oprevianes de Trabajo para Latinos,
we don't just spend all the money on the program.
We don't even have, we're not a 501c3.
I don't, the legal stuff will be handled over time
with the right stuff.
But, you know, it's, whether that's your approach
to business and how you grow it or not,
at the end of the day, all of us have to survive
in this world, all of us have to have funds
that help us in some capacity or another.
But as far as what you're building with Girls Matter,
I think it's awesome.
And I respect the way that you go about it,
but I also respect the way that the Water Project
or our others go about their good too.
And-
Absolutely.
And our vision may change over time.
To do it.
You know, I hope that you all pursue it holistically.
And as Melissa shared, that book
on the mindset growth opportunity, you know,
be ready to mastermind and willing to look and learn.
You know what, I'll circle back one more time
to travel leadership.
One of the things that I learned in this
that I hadn't quite grasped was the ability,
not the ability to align with people
and the difference between alignment and agreement.
And agreement meaning we're on the same page,
we believe the same thing versus alignment
kind of meaning we don't necessarily see this the same way,
but we still can appreciate and build together.
That is an aspect of leadership
that I'm striving to learn to dive more into.
And I hope that, again, those of you who are listening,
that you take these principles to heart,
you learn from them and you contribute to us
in the comments.
Let us know how we can continue to improve as leaders
and we will see you in the next episode.
Take care everybody.
Bye bye.
Thanks for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show
and thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out.