The Power Of A Well-Wrapped Comeback with Michelle Hensley

Laura, welcome to the limitless women podcast. Our mission is to help women business owners like you grow profitable businesses and actualize your opportunities to serve and give to yourself and others. Here's your host, the founder of limitless women. Laura Gisborne,

okay, Michelle, it's so exciting to have you with us. Thank you very, very much for making time today. I know it's there's a lot on your plate, and you know, really appreciate you making time to share your journey with me and with other women who are, you know, figuring it out, figure out their leadership, figure out their walk. So, you know, I tell a little bit of the story about how you and I met. I was recently a friend of my Molly, who did some training for myself and our team, and she just went above and beyond. And it wasn't anything that we expected. And I think it might have been January 2, January 3, something like, there was definitely very much during the holidays, and I Googled, like, gift baskets and trying to find something, because Molly travels all the time. I was like, Oh, I better not send her flowers. She may not get them. Found you. And then you, you popped up and answered the phone. And I think, I don't know exactly what time is, but if you close at six, it was like, 555 if you close at five, 455 and you picked up the phone, and it was one of those moments where I really felt like was having a divine date, I knew that I had been led to you and that it was going to be the beginning of a much bigger conversation. And then, of course, you completely blew me away, and blew Molly away with with your generosity and the beautiful gift you created for her. And you know, so here we are. Here we are. And so learning more about you learning more about your journey as a woman owned business, I wanted to share you in all your magnificence. So if I, if I can start a little bit with you, just with questions about what catalyzed this, and I think I would take this even maybe a little bit before the loss of your husband, you know, thinking about, when did you know that you had these kind of superpowers around gifts and experience and expression and all the good things that you know how to do. Tell me kind of where did you know kind of

before, before, and then tell lead us through the journey of what brought you to today.

That's that those are great, great questions. Laura, it's great being here with you and talking with you and just reading about your story as well. So thank you for having me on here. I think I don't even want to say that I had creativity in the background. It's something you just do and you're not really thinking about it. Today is more celebrated than it was back when I was young. I remember making every single ornament that went on my Christmas tree when my children was little. And I just love doing that. I like piddling around. I'm not a big crafter in terms of everyone see what I do. I just don't, I didn't do that. I just like making cards. I like sending thank yous. And my definitely, one of my love languages is gift giving. So this fell into that space in my heart that was there. Didn't even know was really there. And so prior to me losing my spouse, I was running a nonprofit feeding the working poor as well as counseling, and I worked on the nonprofit side, so I didn't even understand I was sharing with somebody earlier, when you read in the Bible, the word simple minded, that would have been me, you know, but I was simple minded, like I didn't understand nonprofit means no profit, and I just would give everything away. So prior to him passing, it was just that part of me that likes to give, and then I'll just work with my hands. I've made quilts for my grandchildren, and I have two more left to go, and I just, I just like doing that. I like giving.

I love that you're making quilts. My grandmother was really one of my great mentors, and before she passed, she made a quilt for myself and for each of my children. And it's just, it was one of my most precious treasures. Today. It's just really such a gift. So I'm so glad you're doing that. So glad. So tell us a little bit about what happened, if you don't mind about your husband, and if I remember correctly, well, it

was unexpected, more than sudden, I think, because he was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and just a little history, I was a pastor's wife for many years, homeschooling my children, you know, supportive of his dream and his vision. I didn't necessarily have one very value and mission oriented, but I was supporting him in his endeavor. And so, 2012 I was counseling a doctor and his wife, and he asked the doctor to look at a spot on his arm, and they, you know, he went into the doctor and found that he was stage three melanoma. I had no idea what that was, and I did the research and looked everything up, trying to figure out what was going on. And then, when he went into surgery to get. Got taken care of and started having some scans, and they found that he had four or five tumors on the inside of his chest area as well as under his arm. As soon as they did that surgery took that out, it spread to the rest the rest of his body over the next year or two, and went to stage four within 30 days. So you're kind of faced with, oh my gosh, what's happening? My life is turning upside down. Now I'm adding more stress to that, because now we're dealing with a terrible diagnosis and then health issues. And so fast forward to 2014 he he had a saddle pulmonary embolism in April of 2014 and passed away three weeks later. That was a little unexpected. For sure. I knew he wasn't doing well, but I actually thought he would get back up and move. I never thought I'd be a widow at 50. And so what do you do with the pastor's wife who hasn't worked for many, many years? And I was in corporate America when I was younger, but now my life and my vision and my values had changed 100% and I still had children at home. So continued on with the nonprofit, just for a year. So the next in May, closed down the nonprofit, and now I was a little depressed and a little discouraged because I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. And then I also handed money over to

a financial advisor and lost 1000s of dollars on that decision, because I just didn't know what any of this. I trusted everyone, and I didn't know anything. So I thought I'd taken care of children, I'd taken care of the poor, but I forgot about the widows. No, I would meet widows in the church, and to be quite honest, to my shame, I didn't know where they were coming from. And I just

Well, how could you, like, how could you we know what we know, right? I mean, really,

until you're walking in it. I mean, it's, you know, very difficult. So I thought my whole identity changed, like I was no longer wife, no longer pastor's wife, no longer running a nonprofit. I was becoming an empty nester very quick. All my kids were heading out, and Harry was faced with life and lack of knowledge 100% so that started my journey of self education. I had two master's degrees at this point, but still, when I say simple minded, that's exactly what was happening. I didn't know how to run a business. I didn't

know, yeah, well, they don't really teach you that part in school, right? I think about, you know, so many of the women in our community that are highly educated, really smart and really great at what they do, I tend to move very fast. So I always say we're not the Type A's, we're the triple A's. We're the ones that are doing all the things that other people say can't be done. Well, other people over there complaining about stuff where we were doing it, right? So very smart women, and where do you get the resources? And so much more exists today than it did back then, right? And we were talking about, you know, a decade ago, where do you get the resources, especially without any kind of structure, right focus? Yeah, well,

finance was a problem because I didn't understand it too well. And number two, I had no idea how to do anything. The world had changed in the past 15 years. Everything had changed. Marketing was no longer, you know, outbound, it's inbound. There's all kinds of things that, like you said, that have changed. So because I lost money in the decision that I made, I didn't want to be a victim, so I'm going to learn how to manage what I have and grow. And one of my sons came over, taught me how to pay bills online. I just went, why? Why are there investors? Why does somebody buy gold? Why? Why would you go in this direction or that that direction, and I hired a finance coach, and I said, I need help. I don't know what to do during that same time, these were two roads that I wasn't sure which one I was heading down, because I really had no clue I was telling you earlier. I had just enough light for the step i was on, so I had no thought about, what am I going to do in the future? But I'm very I'm very much a B type personality. Very easy going. I had to start learning to live in details and things that as a creative so a little can be easily distracted at times during that time, then also widows, brain fog, and there was a lot going on. So I thought, Gosh, how

many children. Remind me again, how many children you have? Well, I have

three biological sons. I had seven at the time because my husband's first wife passed away from the same cancer, so I was killing all seven. Yeah, wow, yeah. And then they were growing up and moving out and moving on. So the group started to shrink, but I still, you know, schooling them as well. So I wanted to get them launched. That was a real important thing for me. So when I hired this finance coach, he said, you know, why don't you go back into counseling now? And I thought, I don't want to go back into counseling because you're dealing with pathology and other issues, and I don't want to do that. And so I'm. At that same time, two people, or, yeah, there was a couple that was in the nonprofit volunteering, and they said, Michelle, why don't you come interview with us? We have a really good job for you. And it was to be a CEO of another, of a of a larger business. And I that's not, that was not my dream. But I went because I needed to create income. It might have been, it might have been the except, right? Yeah, yes. So I'm sitting there, and the gentleman is telling me, you know, you're going to, this is a seven day a work, seven day a week work schedule. You're going to work 60 hours. Plus we're a five star company, so you have to keep that up. You had to. You basically have to be up 20, you know, you have to be on call 24 hours a day, and I just got tunnel vision. And I thought, How am I going to fulfill this person's mission, which rightfully I should when I had a mission struggling at home, I've got children and grandchildren, and my heart was really there. So on the way home from that interview, I thought, Is there any way I could start a business where women could work for themselves by when they wanted and could versus had to. So I didn't have the idea yet for my business.

Like, we do our best and then, like, something will happen. We're kind of on a need to know basis, right? We take this job I love this would be one of my favorite quotes from this podcast. You know, I had just enough light for the next step, you know, or the stuff I'm on, the stuff that you're on, right? So you're like, Okay, I could see this, and I'm going to take that step, because action changes everything, and then I'm going to get the light for the next step.

Yeah. So that's basically how it was. I'm driving home, and then I thought, Uber's doing well, I wonder if I could do an Uber type business. And, you know, it really wasn't popular back then. That's, this was eight years Nine, eight and a half years ago. And so when I got back home, I told my kids about it, and one of my sons said, Hey, Mom, you had a gift basket business when you were younger. Why don't you start that again? And I said, you know, I wonder if I could do that and work remote and train others to work remote. And so the women around me, especially my one of my daughter in laws, just jumped right on. It was amazing support, especially in the beginning, she's still a support, but back then, huge and a couple of other women, and they love the idea. So I started my gift business, and I made every single mistake possible I love about their, you know, road to success and mine was definitely not the straight and narrow path. It was very crooked. But I learned from a lot, a lot at that point. So I started growing that and at the same time that second path on finance. So I began to educate myself on finance. Created a practical class for widows and horses, but widows specifically, how do you create a new vision for yourself? How do you have a new mission statement? How do you manage your finances? So it's a practical bridge on the personal side of money. On how to now go to an advisor. What are the questions I should ask? How? What's a good fit for me? Because everyone's financial language is a little different. How is it going to work? So I created that class. I was hired by an advisor at the time, but nifty, my business kept growing, but in order for it to grow, I needed to be self sustaining. So I did work for an advisor and became a finance coach myself, became a grief coach, and then became a certified financial transitionist, which is exactly what I was just describing. It's a bridge

for, oh, I don't even know this is like an education for me, because often we talk, you know, we are. The underlying mission that I'm aware of with our work is around healing the poverty consciousness of women business leaders, so that they can join us in actually healing physical poverty, right? Moving resources, right? And because that's my, you know, underlying understanding of the mission of limitless women, it tends to attract a lot of money healers, right? It's, I always say, I don't want to talk about money. It's not about the money, but because we equate money and poverty, you know, there's a, there's a link there. So I have not heard what you just said, which was a Certified Financial transitionist.

It's an actual designation that most advisors should get, because it really specifically deals with sudden money when you don't know how to handle it. So we tend to think we're invincible and make a lot of mistakes. But I became certified in that because of my education and my background, and that is a great designation to have, but when I watched the advisor, I thought, I don't want that for my future. That's not me. And nifty is growing so well, and I love the creative side,

but it was nifty. Was nifty, kind of like a nights and weekends. How are you fitting that

every it was every day, but I had a team working on it, so I didn't have to physically be there. They could be they could be doing the work, because a lot of them were remote while I was working in the financial services side. And the gentleman I worked for was hoping I'd take over his business, but it just wasn't a good fit for me. And. During that time, I want to say 2018 every morning, I'm up seeking the Lord. Faith is my is my main foundation, 100% so I'm praying, and I'm looking outside my window. This is when the gift wrapping side started. So I'm looking out my window, and I think my van is sitting there. It's taking up space. I don't use it all the time. I use it for deliveries and things and for picking up supplies, but I could use that more, and every day I'd be praying, Lord, what is your will? Where do you want me to go? What's what would be a good fit for you? And it was really difficult, because I came out of ministry, and now I'm in a for profit, and I have no idea how to ask for money, and I had to learn a lot of skills in order to not be so afraid, because I was terrified. So just terrified to get out in public drive my car. It was really dumb, but it's something that a lot of widows do experience. So I thought, Gosh, I already make gifts. I wonder if I could wrap gifts, and there's mobile side, I could drive around and wrap gifts. So I put up a page of mobile gift wrapping, and within a week, one of my clients, current clients, said, can you come and wrap all my gifts? I made several mistakes. Learned another business skill from that, right, right then in 2829 to moving into 2019 that went on my Instagram. We had a baby Instagram. So I always tell everybody, don't be afraid to start small. It's all good start somewhere. Yeah, yep. And so I got a call in, I want to say, maybe February, to do a big product launch for two faced cosmetics and a gift wrap design. So we did that. That went over incredibly well, very fun. First large

scale project we did, and then we're in 2019 then in August of 2019 I got a call from the Kardashian estate manager asking if I would create some design. So my team went out there. First of all, I didn't know who they were. I did a little bit of the flash. And then my children, my son said, Mom, they are number two influencers under Trump. You've got to go out there. So the team and I went out there, and Kim didn't like anything I had done. So I walk outside and I thought this. So this is where my mindset changed a little bit. I heard you use the word. I heard you use the word in one of your podcasts, sexy business. I made a move because I thought, you know, you can't, you almost can't be afraid anymore, because you've already faced so many other problems. This is like a piece of cake. I walk outside, I'm like, Lord, if You brought me here. You're going to give me an answer. I'm going all the way back home. Everyone's watching me. The team is watching me. The Kardashians, Kanye West, all these people watching what we're doing. I walked back in there and I just said, does anyone have any fabric? And one of the gals said, I have some fabric. So I did a Japanese wrap. And Kim said, I love that. So all their holiday gifts and, wow, yeah. And then that was the beginning of a lot of celebrity work, and then the pandemic. I just,

I want to pause here because I, because I do. I do follow the Kardashians, not devoutly, if you will, but I so appreciate their journey, right? So, from a business perspective, and also feeling like, a little bit like I've watched those children grow up as my children have grown up. They're very similar in ages, and I, and I think about, you know, Chris being such an incredible

brand manager, right? So many things, She's incredible.

A lot of things, but, but I'll say this piece. This has been my understanding with Kim that one of her superpowers has been her. She has a beautiful talent around esthetics. So when you could make her happy, because it seems like she has a very high standard for herself and everybody around her, I just think that that's really, you know, she's she's probably not the easiest person to satisfy when it comes to esthetics. She has a really high standard for design. So that's awesome. Kudos to you. Yeah, that was a very cool story. Really tells something about the caliber of what you're bringing in experience. And we have at our own company, you keep talking about mission and values and other reasons. I love you. I loved you. The minute I talked to you, I was like, this was gonna even be better than I thought it would be. I did a training in the fall when I was just coming back to work, right after being off for a while for my medical sabbatical. And one of the things I said is, ladies, your your messaging is not landing because you're not leading with your mission, right? And the whole idea that someday, when I get big enough, I'm going to create culture and core values and mission and vision is backwards, right? It's kind of the same thing we face all the time in philanthropy, you know, because we work as a philanthropy first company. That's a private sector company, but what we know is that giving causes growing so our first dollars go then the rest will take care of itself, right? It's, it's a principle that is familiar to those of us that are followers, right, for those of us that are believers. But it's not, it's not the only. You would know about that, right? As you learn that giving, causes, growing is the first what's first, right? So first for us is the dollars that come in go then what we know is that if we stay on track, and this is what I'm hearing from you again and again, Michelle, if we stay on track with our

values, we stay on track with our mission, if we really allow ourselves to be led to the next step and walk in faith, everything we need is being provided, right? And often, I don't know if you ever thought you're going to work with the Kardashians, but often, in my experience, so much bigger than I could have imagined, not on anything I could have imagined, right? No, God always takes me to a plan that's bigger than my own.

Yep. And I think I You're 100% and I think you're the whole thought on the mission and living by your mission is huge. And I don't think people realize or your values and your mission, how important those are in your decisions that you make every day, and the decisions that you make every day actually support your true value system. So me as a person, I have very strong values, and then us as a business as well. So every year, we go back through our core values and we ask, Are we living by those excellent I don't really have this conversation today. I don't want to be a company, and this is so this. If young people complain, this is what they complain about, the company might state their core values as this, that they don't live by that core value.

And the evidence the action, like the actions that the company takes, the actions that we take as individual is the is the validation of what we're saying that we believe, but our actions are the proof, right? Like, that's the piece, right?

That's, that's it. And so anyway, that then, that was when we walked into the pandemic. We were continuing to grow already. We were in different states, so we were, we're the number one mobile gift wrapping business in the US. And there are my goal was to give other women an opportunity to work and fulfill exactly what I said in the very beginning. They work when they can and want to versus have to. So I currently have an absolutely incredible team. We are licensing so other people can actually grow a mobile gift wrapping business that's successful. And I was, I said to you earlier, we're we were going to franchise, but I don't believe that's going to be the case. Licensing is really going to be our best fit and coaching, and I either I train other women. So that's kind of how we got to where we are. And the goal is to continue to grow, because we're in a space that's not, you know, there are our competitors are more like country wine gift baskets. We're a luxury gift basket. And, you know, we're more high end. And if we're going to do a smaller gift. We just want to do it really well, and we teach people how to gift like how we want to know who you're gifting to, what's the purpose behind it, making sure the wrap is branded with the company or clients, you know, information. But that's how nifty got started, actually. So yeah, well, I

think you know, some of the things that I heard that I think are important for listeners to take away from, that you need to remember in their own businesses, is this, this idea that often what you think is not really a business could be a business, right? The whole idea that you enjoy, that you enjoyed wrapping gifts, we often say in our house, you know, like at the holidays, it's the wrapping is more important than the present. So I'll give my kids underwear and socks. I'm gonna introduce on the phone, but I'll spend hours like, you know, like my officers, like, there's paper, and they all bring me their gifts to wrap. They're like, okay, you know, they come over early and drop them all off. So I can do that. It is my pleasure, you know, just so such a joy to think that that could be a business for something that you enjoy doing already is important, you know, I think there's some wisdom in that, versus when you were invited to say, Okay, well, I could take over this financial business or this, you know, the person that we were working with wasn't anything wrong with that, but it wasn't really the joy. And I love that it's so aligned with, you know, it's kind of this idea that success leaves clues. If we look at your story, Michelle, and we look at the history of being a giver and working in nonprofit and then working as a minister's wife, and then working doing the things that you were doing to contribute to others, it's not a new concept for you. Limitless women grew out of you. Had asked me this earlier, it grew out of answering the invitations. The invitations kept showing up. And while I was building all of our private sector businesses over the years, right? Married into a family business to me in a restaurant, then we had another restaurant, another restaurant. You know, one thing gave birth to the next. It was just kind of like that. One thing led to nine businesses. Now number 10, because I'm in the process of opening a yoga studio. One

gave birth to the next one. What's important in that kind of through line is you take yourself wherever you go. So your ability to be a faithful woman and to really bring your attention to detail, your care, your mission, your value the way you value people is what I hear. You know, when I called you and you said, Tell me about. Molly, what does she love? What's her thing? And I was like, you know, I think she loves purple. Like, I just, you know, trying to think of, like, what would make it great for her. So when you put together this beautiful gift, just especially made for her, and then the piece of, you know, like handwritten cards, like, there's all these things that you do in our company, in limitless women, one of our core values, the first one at the top is love. Is in the details. We really believe that people feel honored when they are when they're attended to, you know, and that that matters. The people matter, all people. So I agree, 100% people have resonance. So resonant, so you're discovering. And this is kind of, if we do a little business conversation here for a second, because you're discovering. And I love discovering, and I love this, because this has also been a part of my own journey of having sold six of our companies over the years where to take it. You know, so certain things you take you decide to continue to scale. What you're looking at is, does it make more sense to franchise, licensing, certification? I mean, there's so many different community building there. You know, probably because my background is legal, I think about protecting your intellectual property, your signature systems, the way you do things, your trademarks. I mean, all of those things are a journey for all of us. It's not like anybody just comes out of the hopper knowing how to do this right? It's like you're in that and that. I'm going to say it again. Let's see if I get it right. This get it right. This time, the light is shown on the step you're on. Did I

get it

right this just enough light for the step that you're on? Yes.

And so how do we continue to be with that? Pray to be shown what would be in the highest and best. And then one of my girlfriends, my OShea, said to me once, she was like, I was talking about my daily prayer to be shown, and she said, I encourage you. She said, I invite you to pray, to be obedient. And I was like, oh, wait a second. I don't think I won that one. I like the gratitude. I'm all good with all that.

So that's so good, because I was on my walk this morning, and I was thinking about us talking today, and I you know, I mean, there's quite a few things that are would be important for women to know, especially because I started this business after 50 So, and I'm a boomer. I'm a tail end of a boomer, and right now, that is the big thing I am just so for women over 50, starting a business and not being and just do it, even if you are afraid, and there might be this silver tsunami, but let's ride the tsunami and not get buried underneath of it, you know. But the words I was thinking of today were TRUST and OBEY, you know, when I was younger, I was very foolish, and as I grew older, the Proverbs 14, one says the wise woman. So I did a study on that, and it's the wise woman builds. And we just can build small every day, but keep building, and so can trust and obey, just like the simple song says there's no other way. Yeah, to it's just so trust and obey is correct well,

and I think it's that there's also this place. You know, we have evidence. When someone meets me, I've yet. I always joke about this. I've yet to have somebody call me up say, Hey, would you help me with my poverty consciousness? It just doesn't come right. What they say is, I'm not as far along as it like to be. Again, the evidence is not showing up. I've got a business, it's generating revenue, but we're not highly profitable. I'm a little embarrassed by that. It looks good, but it's not actually. We're not seeing the profit. That's one one of the evidences. It's almost like a symptom that something's not working underneath. The other symptom is there's not enough time. And here's the deal. I mean, all of us that have had any kind of, you know, the blessedness to be here at this age of life. We've all had our Wake Up Calls along the way. What we do with our time is everything, and so making time for the Lord, making time for yourself, making time for your family, that I always encourage my girlfriends to do that first, build your business around your life. Don't build your life around your business, because it's a slippery slope, especially in your passion. So I love when you said this earlier about kind of the idea with mobile gift wrap as a business opportunity for a woman who's like you and I, who just loves and loves to do this, to work when she wants, how she wants, and not to feel like she has to do it, right? I mean, there's a way to be highly profitable and successful and find sufficiency for yourself so that you can give to others, right? That's just, I'm sure. Again, anybody who's listening to my world is in that, that paradigm, but we have to take care of ourselves first, right? And so I love that, walking in the morning, even if it's Misty, right? Having your conversations with God, understanding the power of trust and obey just really beautiful, really, yeah.

And I think, you know, I was listening to one of your other podcasts, and you know, everyone is talking about creating a high dollar business, and I agree 100% I used to not think that way, and I have had to learn that it's okay to want to be sick. Successful, you know, but I definitely want to inspire those who have an interest, even if it's just making an extra $500 a month, yes, to start. And if you once, you can skill behind that, then you can continue to grow. And there was a time like 2022 was a very rough year for me financially because I didn't incorporate the cost of goods sold, there was an increase at 35% and then there was an increase on shipping 30% all of us in the product space probably experienced a little bit of that. And I thought, What is wrong with me? But it was also back to that step, and the light on the step that this was my time to grow up and mature as a business owner, go and find any of the flaws. I was very transparent with my team, and we all began to really make sure we had a profit mindset, and they were constantly helping me as well. So we worked as a team to regain that, and then doubled the business this last year. So I think don't give up, even if it's a struggle, don't, you know, educate yourself. There is so much like you and I were talking about earlier, so much free information. You can start there and then invest when you need to invest.

Yeah, well, I would say, you know, from my experience, we created, I had a mentor who told me that, you know, because we built this business for many years, we do free stuff. We love free we love to give, right? We are community of givers. It's at the heart of everything we do is, I think, is in lots of our videos. And so we are, I think eight years of giving away free gifts on Friday, should we just get gift? Gift? Gift must be our love language too, right? So, and then having business partnerships, and I love like there's a lot of people in our industry and consulting and mentorship programs and coaching programs that don't want to work one on one. They just want the value of groups and scale. And I say, you know, there's nothing like intimacy,

oh my gosh, just the time with you, like this one on one

conversation to really get to the heart of what's on somebody's vision, you know, like what's going on and why are they being called this way? And I think that that's where the real work happens. So everything we do is, again, very intimate and safe for women. What I'm curious about for you is, how, how transparent were you before you saw that you're, you know, wait a second, we're out of whack here at numbers wise, how transparent were you before? Because what I heard you say is you got transparent and invited the team to engage in creating a solution that feels like a fabulous leadership tenant. I want to know more

about, yeah, well, before the issue was we were constantly growing and doing well and profitable. So there's a book by Michael Gerber, who he does the, you know, E Myth, but he had one for the CFO. And so I read that book maybe three times. I'm very big on re, listening, rereading all of that, and in one of his statements. And prior to this, I didn't understand this until 2022 but I was managing my money. The Bible also tells us to know the state of your flock. So I did that. I have my bookkeepers. I have my account and all of that. But he said, If you don't know how you got where you are profitably and how where you if and if you failed, if you don't know how you got there, you're being impertinent. And when I heard that, I that was a wake up call. I don't know how they did. Well, that was the thing. So it wasn't an issue of been not being transparent. It was an issue of just not realizing how I was growing and why there was success.

So the personal responsibility about pausing to evaluate that. I mean, I feel like when I had this car accident, and if anybody was listening, who's new to me, I was in a head on collision. I fell asleep at the wheel. They they didn't hurt anyone, and I my body was hurting. I just wasn't aware of what a lot of stuff that was going on behind the scenes. But I feel like I knew when I came out of the car. Michelle, it's interesting because the sheriff pulled me out, and he said, I don't know why you're alive right now, in this set of circumstances and this left turn into traffic, 60 miles an hour, he said, normally I'm doing CPR, and I just it came out of my mouth like at that moment. I just said, God's not done with me yet. And I know that. I know that if I'm alive and breathing, God's not done with me yet. And I went home, and I was pretty shook up and a little bit of concussion. But I knew there was something more, not because I was looking for meaning necessarily, but there was something that I needed to pay attention to. And it really did. It took me down this and the fact that I was able to have the surgeries that I've had in there, I told you, I had four surgeries over the course of seven months in the last year and a half. So was March of 2023 then to have the luxury, to have to be tuned up, to be living in the United States, and have access to amazing medical care, and to be able to request these things. And it took years. It took years for me to get the doctors. It took years to get the on the journey. Took a year to heal after the journey. I'm not saying it was an overnight sensation, but. But I'm aware of the blessing and the luxury of being in a position to ask for help, to get the help that I needed to be tuned up and say, Okay, Lord, now what would you have me do? You may be pretty bionic. I've got a computer in my chest or titanium in my back. Where would you have me go with this new strength? You know that

perspective is everything. I love your perspective on how things are happening for you instead of what you said before, like your identity changing and you choosing right off the bat. I'm not a victim in here. What is this next step? That's because

if you, if you, if you, if you do that, then you take all that control away from yourself to where, okay, maybe things happen to you, and I have quite a childhood story, but maybe things happen to you, but they don't happen to you against you. They happen for you, and you just keep you, use that as part of your story, and without the pieces to my story, I wouldn't be who I am today. It doesn't mean we don't like them, or we have to like them. It just means, okay, how am I going to resolve this and move forward? And then, how can I help others? And my main purpose in life? I mean, just going back to nifty on the gift side, the goal of the company, every person, the 50 gals that work outside of the state of California. Our goal is to bring joy to our client and then their recipient. So we get to bring joy, and it's that is the goal of nifty so so we might we have our core values. We know what we're doing, but what is the outcome we want? And that outcome is joy. But can we be profitable by bringing joy, you know? And that's the business side of it, but, you know, and just going back to what you said, being a generous giver first, and all of us at nifty, especially the team, you know, we always go over and above what's called, and that's, that's our inside, you know, that's one of our major core values, is generosity, and that not only means time, but it means, you know, what we put in the gift? Is it more than what they're asking for? Is it better than what they think like all those things? Yes, but yes. Can we bring joy? And, you know, talking to the team, all of us when we're out, getting ready, prepping for holiday, when it's October, I you know, we've had a really rough several years with in the United States of America. So I said, How nice is it for you to have a big smile on your face and, you know, music in the background, because we work in corporates like they hire us to do client, you know, their staff, guests, or whatever, they'll

bring us in. So we bring we have everything is set up, really cool and beautiful, and we have some music playing, and some of the girls sing. So they sing. I mean, it's just a lot of fun.

I get to be in a business that generosity, you get to know that generosity soup.

And I can't imagine being in another job, because this is so rewarding. You know, it's just a blessing. So I, I last year, I gave myself the the I made the decision that, if I can't make it work this year, then do I need to close nifty, because it's expensive to have a business like what we do

much, much more usually. Again, margins are much tighter. For people that are not familiar with that products, product based business has a much tight, you know, we used in a winery a product based business, tighter than a service based business, usually,

yes, so we were able to turn it around and and double the business this year and become profitable. So it's like, you know, it was really a blessing, so, and it just taught me to be better as a leader and business owner. And, yeah, I think, you know, when we before we started this, I asked you, I have two questions left for you. One and I'm trying to figure out what the right order of this is. You might, you might just answer. I might just ask both of them and let you go with them, as you would. One was, I asked you, before this, you know, kind of what's your plan? As I came back to work and said, Okay, I'm going to renew my vows and really reengage with my business and my mission, and look at what does it look at what does it look like for the next 10 years? For me, I'd love to know a little bit about where you see that is one piece. And then I think we'll wrap up with some leadership tenets, because I feel like you have so many things that you are really talented as a leader. You have so many Tennessee bring. And I'd like for some women to know what are the easy steps they can start, you know, wherever they are right now. But let's talk first about kind of where, where nifty is going, you know, over the next 10 years, what do you see happening now? Yes, I would say, you know, doubling our business again, and actually even bigger than that, for tenure, if you're talking 10 years, moving into a different facility. We have several shops right now, but we want a very large one, so we can house everything, because we have a couple of different locations, because it's very costly in Southern California. So we're being very creative, very resourceful. Number two, I'd love to have you know at least two to 300 licensees out there. Those are people who are able to gift wrap and mobile gift wrap, and then as of that. Grows, they can start to do baskets and other things, but under the nifty brand, so that they have a system in place so it's

not not a franchise. Franchises can be very costly for the franchisee, and it can be very costly for the franchisor. So I have taken three and a half years to study this, and I feel like the risk might be too high for the season we're in in the nation and the state of California. So yeah, licensing and then growing the gift side. So it's really two separate businesses, and the coaching my personal brand is my desire. I want to really grow my personal brand, and that is to really work with other women who are very similar to what you're doing, you know, coaching them on they don't have to have a super large business, but just start and launch, just to do something to create a person's side, you know,

yeah, well, I like, I feel like, you know, I'm kind of listening and watching you from the outside, and what I see is, it's not two different things. There's an integration that's going to come for you right now in this conversation. Hopefully it's supporting this for you. But you know, again, your vision is your vision. Let me not put my spin on this. But value? Well, there's some value in all that you already learned around Finance, Financial Freedom, financial independence, all the training that you've had there your own journey, being a widow, having young children at home, like everything is lined up to put you in the perfect place. What I see with nifty is this opportunity for women to have, there's a phrase that gets thrown around too much, the business in a box idea, but the idea for them to actually have a formula, a proven concept that something that they can adopt easily at home, and they don't have to change. You know, the big imposter syndrome that comes in for us as women as you know, am I really ready? Am I? Who am I to do this? You know, the voices in our head right when we don't allow ourselves to be supported and loved, when we have that, it can feel overwhelming. What I'm hearing from you is that this is a way for women to get started with a low investment, versus buying $100,000 franchise and wherever they are in the country, and probably eventually multiple countries, if you're not already there, this is a great opportunity for them to get started. And it's not I'm going to sell lotions and potions for somebody else. It's like, I'm going to bring my own creative expression to my particular I often when I speak for organizations that have multiple chapters, I'll use this as an example, right? Like I'm going to speak at a chapter in New Jersey, I often will have the values of the organization that I'm there to the association to represent, but the culture in New Jersey feels a little different than the culture in

Orange County, right, or in Dallas, Texas. It might be a little different than it is when I'm up in Red Deer, Alberta, right in a little small might, you know, town up there. So it's just, it's interesting how what I see with nifty is this opportunity for women to find financial sufficiency, do it when they want, how they want, and not have to figure out how to invent the wheel, because you've done all the hard work. So they will be connecting with you, which we're going to make sure they know how to do that in this podcast, to have a conversation, to say, Hey, let me raise my hand and have a conversation. That's the place Michelle is, like, that's where we change as women. And when we actually take the action step we look at, okay, let me just ask and see what happens here. Let me get my ascot. See what happens. You'll know, because your core values are so strong, whether a person is in alignment with your company's business model, can they make it work? Because you won't let them come in if they want

to be like, right, let's replace them. Yeah, right. I had to learn that. And that's such a great point. It's like, they have to interview you're interviewing them just as much as they're interviewing you. Do you want them to center culture? And we actually had to say no to someone. So that's such a great point to not be afraid of that. Gosh, I would just be so afraid of everything. And it's like, man, you learn through your difficulties to just keep moving forward learn. How could I be better at that? What could I change there? Because, yeah, you know, and afraid to make mistakes, and we just, we just don't want to do that. But, well, there's

another thing too. When you're saying, I love what you said about women over the age of 50, because I was literally just speaking about this to somebody yesterday, we are a mature audience, and I think it's it's predominant, I'm a mature person, but it has a lot to do with the fact that the conversation around purpose and impact and philanthropy is not always present for a young woman when she's in her 20s and 30s and popping up babies and trying to figure out, you know how to manage that lifestyle, right? There's a lot going on there when we've been blessed to have the you know, our experiences of our families are now in a season of life with a little more freedom, a little more luxury in our time, and get to choose this. I think this is a perfect business model for a woman who is mature and maybe an empty nester. I mean, just seems like such a no brainer. It just seems like it would be so.

Natural, right? I have a gal that's working with me right now. She's 65 and she's been in corporate America for a long time, and her husband's a little older than her. She's like, Jill, I don't want to do this anymore. I just am so excited about the mobile gift wrapping because it grows into other things. You're not just rapping during holidays, you're rapping all year long. And you know, it's just, it's a fun thing to do, and you can use your hands and you can learn it. You These are skill sets that you learn through our coaching program as well. So you'll learn how to market, you learn how to sell, you learn how to do it scared, you know, and your

capacity will increase. And that's kind of where, the place where I was going to go and maybe wrap up with us here about this idea of who we be. I love that you brought up identity in the beginning of this, because it's really one of the things that we see happen in limitless women again and again when we really know we're on track, is that we take a woman who is self employed, great at what she does, what she's doing, to do right, and we help her step into an identity shift to become a business owner. Being a business owner is very different than being self employed. There's nothing right or wrong about any of it, but it's a very different identity. So I love that, and I think I'd love to know from your own experience, Michelle, how what things have happened for you on your journey that have allowed you to see your identity in a new way. Because I heard something recently that identity takes something like two to three years to catch up with reality off it. You know what I mean? Like, you might, you might start doing, you might start being that new version of yourself, but you're not really aware of it, right? So, how did you start to see yourself or know yourself in the capacity of 50 women are doing this, you know, underneath your umbrella. Like, how did that happen? From, I was a widow and I was trying to figure out what I'm doing to now, 50 women a year, and, you know, for your mouth to glass

here soon, 300 with it. Yeah, I think just taking one step at a time for me, and I think learning to listen. I think at first, when you first start, you know, you're trying to figure things out. At least I was and I wasn't exactly sure which direction I was going to go. So I think being open minded, learning, being clear about who who you are, something that I was thinking about too is for those who, you know, want to do some kind of business and they're not sure where to start, just do a brain mind map, or a Mind Storm, where they just write a lot of things down that they're good at. So I didn't really know I was going to be good at it. I didn't know I was going to be good at gift wrapping it. In the beginning, I wasn't the best. And then I started watching videos. How can I be better? How do I do a Japanese rap? How do I do this? How do I do that? How do I listen to leadership constantly? You know, people over profit, if I always kept that in mind, which I do. And then some of these guys who are more very a type business leaders like Michael Gerber or Grant Cardone, or some of these men, you know, listening to what they're saying and taking an honest evaluation of myself, I need to be a little tougher here. I need to be a little stronger here, but it has evolved, and so I want to hear what the people that are with me are saying. I want to know who they are. I want to know what their thoughts and feelings are. I want to know I want them to know that even though I might be thinking of the vision for nifty at this point, they might be a few years behind me. How do I get them up to that speed? How do I how can I be a servant leader? Number one, so if I can be a servant leader, and then I have around me servant leaders, there's no stopping us, and that's exactly who we are as a business. And they keep giving me permission to go out and do more of what we're doing here today, and and I trust them with everything else. They've also created trust with

me, and I've created trust on the reverse. So I think, you know, creating trust being open. Don't compete be unique, like just you don't have to compete with a 25 year old. You just need to compete with yourself. You know, am I better this year than I was? Yeah, last do small things. Do small things, well, well.

And I think there's another piece that I just want to bring that I would like to reflect back to you, having we're new friends, and just getting to know each other. Your your power of listening and your power presence is very, very strong. And I just want to reflect back that. I feel like that's unique in the world. It's one of those things you're you're not only obviously your life is built on giving, right? You're a generous soul. You're a generous listener. And I think that that's one of those things where there's a consciousness on your part to really take in what's going on around you. And they say that best teachers are often the best students, right? So as you're learning and growing, I'm excited to see what insights you will have, and hopefully this is the the beginning of many dates that you and I have, but I think I'm excited to to support you in getting the word out and learning the insights as you learn. You know, from the community members, from the women who are doing their own businesses and. Iowa, you know, wherever they are in the country, but what? What are they bringing back to you so you can continually improve and grow gracefully, which is a very feminine way to grow your business, and not have to feel like, you know, it's got to be a push. It can really happen organically and gracefully. So I'm excited to see that happen

for you. Laura, thank you for the time. This has been great, really, really good. All right,

thank you again for being with us, and I'll make sure everybody knows how to get in touch with you, and we'll keep spreading the word.