Melanie Spring With Confidancia

Intro: Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor. Diaz Trade Law, Your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Melanie Spring with Confidancia here. Welcome, Melanie.

Melanie Spring: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Confidencia. How are you serving, folks?

Melanie Spring: Well, we work with brilliant rebels to help them start their rebellion.

Lee Kantor: So you’re talking like political. Are you talking about in just life in general, what type of rebels are you looking for?

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So we’re working with people who are kind of sick of the status quo. They’ve been working their whole lives towards something and they’re not really sure what that is. So we work with people who want to focus on their purpose and the reason they’re really here, not just to get through their 9 to 5 or get to retirement.

Lee Kantor: Are you finding that post-pandemic? There’s kind of a lot more soul searching and a lot more people coming to that realization that life is more than just this cubicle that I’m working in?

Melanie Spring: Absolutely. I mean, we all had to work from home, so it became that. And then they started realizing, Wait a second, what am I really doing with my life? Sitting in a car, commuting to work every day or sitting in an office for the sake of sitting in an office, or even now sitting on zoom in their extra bedroom or in the back corner of their own bedroom, wondering what are they really doing this for?

Lee Kantor: So when they have that kind of itch, what are some of the symptoms in their life that are kind of encouraging them to maybe explore a different path than the one they currently are in?

Melanie Spring: Well, typically it’s that they find that they’re lacking a an excitement about the day or even as they’re moving through their workday, they’re wondering, what am I really doing this for? Is there is there an actual purpose behind this or might just checking boxes in order to make someone else money? And so a lot of people are finding more and more that the money isn’t as important to them. Sure, they want to pay their bills. They want to make sure their mortgage is covered and that their kids go to school and there’s food on the table. But that’s kind of an ancillary effect. It’s not necessarily the main reason why they do what they do anymore. So they’re on the search for what will actually make me feel like I’m making a difference or creating an impact.

Lee Kantor: So say a person feels that way. They feel that rebellion brewing. How do they kind of define what it is that they should be doing instead? Like, how do they find that path they should be maybe pursuing?

Melanie Spring: Well, a lot of times we tend to look to other people for that. We ask other people like, What do you think I should do? Or What do you think I’m good at? And most of the time the answers are in inside of us. I actually said this to one of my recent brilliant rebels. She was laughing because she’s like, I was really hoping that coming to your retreat and working with you, that you would finally stop saying that the answers are inside of me. And now I just know the answers are actually inside of me. So thanks a lot.

Lee Kantor: But is it as simple as, you know, you’ve heard things like follow your bliss, You know, what are the things you like to do when you were a kid? Things like that, to help at least open your mind to what it could be. But like, what do you tell the person that’s like, my favorite thing to do or the thing that I wish I could be doing all the time is playing video games or watching Netflix?

Melanie Spring: Well, I would look at what what are they feeling at that point? So, yes, 100%. Sometimes we can look at what would what would it what did we do as kids that we really loved or what brought us joy when we were younger or what are we just innately good at? But I find that purpose, I can’t remember the name of it. I think it’s a good guy, but it’s the Japanese name for the four areas of your life. If you look at the things you love to do, the things you’re just good at doing, the things the world needs from you, and then the things that you can make money doing at the center of all of that is your purpose. But it sounds like, Oh, well, I just fill in these four categories and there it is. And that’s not necessarily true. Sometimes we have to look at the deeper reasoning behind the joy that we’re finding in certain things. Some people are really good at sitting and watching Netflix, so maybe their job in life is to be an auditor for them to see what is showing up and what can they be doing to help Netflix be a better company or if they’re better at video games. There are people who make a lot of money playing video games on YouTube and having other people watch them. So those are totally legitimate things to do, but not for everybody.

Lee Kantor: So when people kind of find their purposes that when they come to you or they coming to you to help find the purpose, like where do you fit into all this?

Melanie Spring: Sometimes some people come to me and they’re really happy in their job. They’re CEOs of companies and they’re like, You know, I really like my job. It’s it’s fine. But I feel like there’s something a little bit deeper. So can we get a little clearer on my purpose and other people come with I have the business, I know what it is that I need to be doing, but I feel like I’m missing something. And the missing of something is the what’s the what’s the real reason for doing this underneath? Or is it the how? Sometimes it’s I have the what and the why. I know I’m a great copywriter and I know that this feels really good for me, that this this why behind it is to support other people in having great copy in their company. But the how is the but now I’m just trading dollars for hours. So how do I do it in a way that doesn’t feel like I’m exhausted all the time? Maybe look at retreats or workshops or scalable programs, but they’re not just doing dollars for hours anymore. So sometimes it’s more about the how instead of just the the what or the why.

Lee Kantor: So wherever they are on their journey, by working with you can help them get to a new level.

Melanie Spring: I mean, if they’re the right person, I can’t help everybody with that. Not everyone’s ready for that. Next, next up, leveling. But yes, if someone comes to me, they typically if they’re not offended by me asking really deep questions, then they’re usually going to want to go deeper.

Lee Kantor: And then so what does that engagement look like? Can you share a story of maybe somebody you work with? You don’t have to name their name, but maybe how they came to you and how they left you?

Melanie Spring: Oh, absolutely. So I had a woman who she had been a drug addict when she was younger. She was in I mean, she was a fighter like a ring. She was in like the the metal street fighting kind of stuff. When she was 16, she had lived a really, really hard life. And later in life, she came to me because she had gone through all of this training to be a better person, but it had all been people who were yelling at her. And so she had thought that growth came from pain. And she had perfectly good reason to believe that, because her whole life had shown her that growth comes from pain. And so she came to me and we spent some time together. I did a thing I called an immersive experience for her, and she came to Florida and we sat at a house together for three days and we were working on a talk that she really wanted to give an inspirational talk. And I kept hearing her saying things like that. Other people had said the church had said or that other coaches had said to her. She kept just saying them as if they were almost hers. But you could tell that they weren’t, that it was kind of fumbling in her mouth, that she wanted to say something herself, but she felt like she had to say what other people were saying.

Melanie Spring: And by the first night, the end of the first night, she looked at me and she said, I keep waiting for you to start screaming in my face. And it just like, brought me to tears, thinking that that’s how she had always been taught that growth had to happen that way. And so by the end of the very first night of us spending time together, I mean, the whole weekend was incredible. But that one one shift for her to allow herself to have grace for herself just allowed her to open up in a new way. And so by the time she got on a real stage in front of people, she was blooming in ways I’ve never seen a person bloom. She showed up in a short dress and showing her body in a way that she would never do it. And she’s a bodybuilder. It’s not like she doesn’t have the body to do this, but she had been hiding for so long because she was always afraid that growth was hard.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your back story? How did you get into this line of work?

Melanie Spring: That’s a roller coaster story. I’m a what I used to call a recovering brand strategist. So I worked in brand strategy for 20 years and burned myself out on it. I had my own business for eight, and by the end of it, I. I basically ended up going to Bali to find myself, which feels like a very American thing to do. But I burned myself out working 90 hours a week for eight years and just was exhausted and broke up with my boyfriend, burned my business down basically, and said, I just want to do something different. So I became a full time keynote speaker, which I didn’t even know it was a job at the time. And then over time, I started helping other people with getting on stages and building their businesses and doing the things that I had done previously, but helping them in a way that didn’t help them burn it down at the same time. So by the time I built the Brilliant Rebels retreat and the rebel mastermind, it was because of the fact that I had been helping other people not have to burn down their whole lives and burn themselves out or hustle so hard to find the thing that really lit them up, basically saving people from what I did myself.

Lee Kantor: So you incorporate some of that branding background when you’re helping people position themselves and get ready to take this leap.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, that’s. I finally stopped calling myself a recovering brand strategist and just owned that. I’m actually just that. And I helped people build their celebrity and their industry or their community or their space, even just their industry in general, even if it’s in a small way. Being able to find who they really are, get out there in front of people and show up in a way that they they’ve always wanted to, but they’ve never been able to before.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is the sweet spot of the people you work with? Are they do they fit into a category? Or it could be anybody.

Melanie Spring: Typically they’re entrepreneurs or CEOs. So I like to say that they’re climbing their second mountain. I don’t know if you know the concept of Second Mountain.

Lee Kantor: The like your second act in life, basically.

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So you you used all of your tools learning how to climb up your first mountain. You you got through your career and, you know, like, okay, I did it. I got to the top. Finally, even though I was just pushing and pushing and pushing and it was probably blood, sweat and tears to get there. And now you’re walking down the mountain going, okay, but now what’s next? So a lot of entrepreneurs end up selling their companies, or they leave or they retire, they exit and they’re like, okay, but now what? I have all these tools, but I don’t know what to do now because I already climbed the mountain, so I’m the one to help them use the tools that they have to climb their second mountain and get there in a way that doesn’t feel so hard the next time.

Lee Kantor: So sometimes they’re coming to you with kind of a blank slate, right? They have their history, but they don’t have kind of that roadmap to the second mountain.

Melanie Spring: Exactly. So they have their expertise. They know who they are. They know their stuff. I don’t work with people who aren’t experts in what they do. Typically, they come to me with a whole bunch of stuff and we sit down and dump it all out, put it on the table and see what’s really there, and then pick it all apart, letting go of the things that don’t serve them anymore and then move forward with the things that really like them up.

Lee Kantor: Has there ever been an instance when you laid out all of the stuff on the table or a whiteboard and you’re writing down all the things and then the thing you ended up with kind of surprised your client?

Melanie Spring: Oh, that happens a lot, actually. Yeah. Yeah. When I work with people, I typically like to talk before I even let them sign up to work with me. I want to know that I can see the path forward for them, but I also want to know that they can see the path for themselves as well. But typically, almost every time, once we finally put together the final plan for what’s next, they’re like, Wow, I never thought that this was possible, or This is actually way fun, way more fun than I expected.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that because people kind of put themselves in a box and it takes kind of that outside eyes to see what could be.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, that’s that’s usually the problem. A lot of us are trained that we follow a certain path. Like you go to school, you get married, you buy a house, you have children, you work a job, you retire, and then you die. That’s kind of like you follow this path or you have to do things dollars for hours. In certain industries, like psychotherapy, you get paid for every hour you work. And so if you take a vacation, you don’t have any money coming in. So looking at things a little differently, what if you were to host a group retreat or group calls to be able to have something where you could talk to people every month, but you’re getting paid even if you’re on vacation, you’re not having to get paid dollars for hours. So sometimes we have to break apart. What’s the thing I thought I had to do in order to get to the heart of like, what could I do and what would feel really good for me and not having to do things the way I thought I had to do them. That’s where I come in.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s funny. A lot of people just their answer of why they do something is just because that’s how it was done before. Like they don’t even have the ability to open their mind to other ways. It’s just fascinating to me just seeing so many people that kind of put themselves in a box and keep themselves there when you know there’s a big world out there with lots of ways to do lots of things.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, well, and I think it’s taking the time to really sit down and think what could happen, what could be possible. And I stopped doing private client work as often because of the fact that I’m only one person and putting people in a group of other people who are like minded but in totally different industries, that gives us the ability to have what Napoleon Hill calls the mastermind like. More than two people are able to create even more than if just two people got together and talked about something. So being able to create this space and create this safety for people to think bigger and to think outside the box and to stop thinking about the fact that it has to be done a certain way. That’s why I call it the Brilliant rebellion.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s funny when you bring people together how much serendipity there is, and then you realize that if I just bring lots of people together, I can create serendipity. Like it’s it’s almost serendipity on demand.

Melanie Spring: Right? But I think it’s also the person who’s hosting it, because I’m sure you’ve probably been to a conference or an event or something where the person hosting is really there for themselves and not for the people who are in the group. They’re there to get not to give necessarily or they’re giving too much and they’re not there at all to give. So it can go both ways and that doesn’t feel very healthy. So making sure that as a leader I’m healthy enough to be able to lead the people that I’m there for, that I’m in that to get. And to give not just to be the one like, Oh, I’m amazing and I’m going to give you all of this amazing knowledge. Or to be like, Oh, you’re just giving me money. That’s what I really want is I’m just there to get the money for this. Being able to make sure that I’m grounded and healed and healthy and willing to keep growing. That’s the other part continual growth to be able to make sure that I can keep up leveling so that my clients can keep doing the same thing. Because if I’m not growing, they’re not growing.

Lee Kantor: Right. And that’s but part of what you’re doing as the leader of this group is you’re curating the group. I mean, that’s part of your role. So you’re choosing people with the right mindset. I would imagine that it’s going to to be facilitated in the way that is most beneficial to everybody.

Melanie Spring: Exactly. I, I see some people who are not necessarily as open as I would like, but I can see the potential, not necessarily in the way that like your mom sees potential in you, that kind of thing. But the idea that that person has the potential to be open and I can see that there are cracks in there. They’re already opening, but they’re not slowly letting down all the armor yet. But I know that what we’re creating for them allows them to do that. And I watched someone this last weekend unzip all of the armor she’s had on for 40 years and go, I’m done. I’m done carrying this, deflecting nature around with me or trying to make a joke about something to not have to feel it anymore. And she just walked out and just unzipped the whole armor and let us see who she really was. And it was spectacular. And it wasn’t because she was ready before she got there, I could see that she was ready to move to the next step.

Lee Kantor: So how do you how people, once they have that kind of aha moment to stay on track and and, you know, humans have a tendency to, you know, two steps forward, one step back. How do you keep them, you know, kind of how do you keep watching their back to make sure they don’t slip back to maybe the old way of thinking?

Melanie Spring: Well. So we have our brilliant Rebels retreat, which is a ten week program. So it’s like six weeks of calls, a retreat itself offline, totally tech free, and then three weeks after. And then I also have a thing called the Rebel Mastermind, which is a five month program after that to take them from where they were at the retreat into full implementation. So they have the group and they have other other people who’ve had a similar experience to them going through this alongside them. So it’s almost like a board of directors. And we have these things called Sprint goals, which are every two weeks we get together for 90 minutes and go through where are you at, what do you need, What questions do you have? Let’s do some brainstorming, which is hilarious because my last rebel mastermind thought I was saying sprinkles the whole time. So now I just call it sprinkles. We’re just going to have sprinkles every two weeks.

Lee Kantor: That sounds better.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, I know. That’s what I think, too.

Lee Kantor: So. So there’s something, you know, wherever they are on their path, there’s a way to plug in and get them and get something out of this. And then do they ever graduate or they become part of the alumni? And it’s it’s they’re always part of the family.

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So I, I actually have a book coming out in January 2024, and with that we’re going to have a conference. So what’s hilarious about the brilliant rebels is each of them speak in some way and I have a feeling there are one going to be some of them will be potentially trainers or coaches on our team or people that I can share with, like, Oh, this person is really good at copywriting or marketing or branding. I can share the other rebels with them if they’re an alumni or they’ll be able to see them speak at the conference as we do that or even be able to just have a connection with them through the group that we’ve been building. So they’re kind of like, Oh, you have the t shirt too. I’m totally in. I can totally help you. So they’ll always have ongoing support.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about the retreats, about the coaching, about the whole shebang, where do they go?

Melanie Spring: Well, for the brilliant rebels retreat, it’s brilliant. Rebels retreat. We keep it easy. And then confidant SI.com is where you can find out about me and the.

Lee Kantor: Team and that confidence. Cia.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, like confidence and abundance. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Abundance and confidence.

Melanie Spring: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff, Melanie. Well, congratulations on all the success. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Melanie Spring: Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: Lee All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on South Florida Business Radio. He.