Living The Red Life - From Tragedy to a Multi-Business Empire

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

Born in Brooklyn and raised by a resilient single mother, Melodee Rhodes refuses to let tragedy define her future. In this powerful episode of Living The Red Life, she shares the mindset, discipline, and relentless determination that helped her rise from devastating personal losses to becoming an attorney, entrepreneur, franchise owner, and founder of multiple businesses. Melodee reveals how she built successful ventures through grit, leadership, and an unwavering commitment to growth. From launching a law practice and scaling an Amazon delivery operation to growing Smoothie King locations and developing the MOMMYe brand, she explains the real strategies behind overcoming setbacks and creating opportunities. This conversation explores resilience, entrepreneurship, leadership, personal development, and what it truly means to build success while helping others rise alongside you.Key TakeawaysWhy resilience is built through adversity, not comfort.How to turn setbacks into stepping stones for future success.The leadership principles that helped scale teams and businesses.Why entrepreneurs must build before everything feels perfect.How purpose and service create long-term fulfillment beyond money.Notable Quotes"Your pain doesn't disqualify you. It prepares you for what's next.""Everybody underestimates you until you show them what you're capable of.""Appreciate where you are, but never lose sight of where you're going.""It's not about whether I succeeded. It's about whether I created pathways for others to succeed too.""The biggest failure in life is not utilizing your gift."Connect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

I had fallen pretty low. Those setbacks, they kind of took me off the path, but not really off the path of success. And when I decided to pick myself up, I thought about what I really wanted to do. I realized that I wanted to help people. My desire and my passion to help people is what led me to law,

because it gives me the opportunity to help people who in places or spaces that they're not able to help themselves most of the time, because it's just, it's not about whether or not I succeeded, right? It's about whether I created pathways for others to succeed Melody Rhodes is a resilient, purpose-driven entrepreneur, attorney, and the founder of the Rhodes Law practice, and multiple mission-led ventures. Drawing from her journey of reinvention across law, business and leadership, she empowers others to pursue growth with courage, create opportunities, and build a legacy rooted in impact and service. I've always been the underdog talking to my mentor just yesterday, and he says, you know what, Melody, everybody underestimates you.

Everybody, that's what he says. When I finally realized I was like standing in my purpose, I was doing the things I was supposed to be doing. There was no applaud. There was not a single sound. It was just me feeling aligned and feeling positioned and feeling unstoppable. My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the Red Life, ditch the Blue Pill,

take the Red Pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Welcome back to another amazing episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Red Life Edition. moments before she films her woman in power episode is an amazing serial entrepreneur slash serial lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia, Melody Rhodes. Thank you. How are you?

I feel like I just made a WWI announcement. Right. And you're going to walk out, ding, ding, ding. So what would you say is your finishing move? What would you call it, Melody Rhodes? It would probably be a finishing move in WWW. I would probably have to jump off the top of the ropes. Right?

Right? And land on on my opponent. Done. Objection. Come. Make sure they do not get back up. Right on. So what brings you down to Miami? Welcome to Miami.

Oh, so it's really a welcome back for me. So I went to law school here, actually. Yes, I did. So I lived here for three years. What a place to practice law. Yes. Or learn law. Yeah, I didn't really get to practice, but I definitely lived here for three years.

So I feel like a part of me will always be in Miami. Right on. What are years were those? So that was in 2000. Yeah, 2008 is when I started to 2011. Yeah. Cool. Okay, great.

Yeah. So what inspired you to be on the path that you're on now? Were you completely a different person? Or were, you know, who were you before you became who we are today? I really wanted to be a neurosurgeon. Nice. I did. Straight for the brain.

I wanted to operate on people's brains. I really did. And I experienced some setbacks early in life. And those setbacks, they kind of took me off the path. of, you know, neurosurgery, but not really off the path of success, right? For sure. So when I decided to pick myself back up

because I had fallen pretty low. And when I decided to pick myself up, I thought about what I really wanted to do, right? And it was bigger than what I used to tell my mom growing up. Mom, I'm going to be rich. That's why I was tell her all the time. She's like, oh, Meli, okay. You know, because become a very humble beginnings.

And I said that, but it really wasn't that I was going to be rich. I just knew I was going to be successful. Right on. Right. So I decided to that when I started looking at what I wanted to do, I realized that I wanted to help people. I've always been, just in my personal life, right? Wait, what? You want to help people?

But people that dress this way don't help people. What are you talking about? I definitely help people. And my friends will tell you that, you know, we could be on the phone. And one of them could just immediately tell me they have a problem. And I'm already, as they're talking, they don't ask me to search it for them, but I'm searching it for them. Or you're on the way they are. Right.

I'm already on the way. So my desire and my passion to help people is what led me to. law, right? Because it gives me the opportunity to help people who in places or spaces that they're not able to help themselves most of the time. So once I became a lawyer, that kind of gave me the platform to kind of move into other areas that I've been wanting to move into because I had the income now, right, to be able to support myself where I didn't before. The runway? Yeah. So I had the income, you know, to be able to support myself. So I started to think of like, how did I want to make a difference in this world. And there were things that I love. Like I always say that

I wish I had about three or four more lives to live, maybe like a cat, like maybe nine. Because I can think of nine different things that I would do if I got to come back. But I always love logistics. And so I got into that and that kind of pushed me into the next area of my life, which was like franchising. And I own two smoothie kings down or up, I guess as you could say, in the metro Atlanta area in Georgia. And so and then speaking, you. You know, I always say that what's the last thing I want to do when I'm on this earth, like, as far as career-wise, and that's to share my story. So that's what brings me here. It's like life full circle.

I really want to share my story because I think that it's one of a lot of failures, a lot of setbacks and a lot of losses. But I've arrived, you know, I've made it to this stage of my life. And I'm only going to grow and get better every day. But I think that once people hear my story and realize, I mean, even one of my best friends asked me the other day, Mellie, after all you've been through, how do you get up? Yeah. She's every day, how do you get up?

I don't know. I think it's just my fear of failure, really. I just do not want to fail. My children, the people depend on me, my employees, myself. And so, you know, I truly believe all of that has brought me here. Well, where does that, do you think, that's psychological higher power? Where does that drive come from you think? Is it something that happened to you early on or something you feel like it's happened to you

generationally? I'm a Latino from Miami. Yes. We're designed to fail. So when one of us succeeds, it's like, hey, wait, don't, no, no, no, no, no, no, and then people will blacklist you in it and just not, like, you know, elevate you. So how do you compound that energy, that negative energy, and to turn into a positive?

Ah, let's see. I've always been the underdog, right? I was talking to my mentor just yesterday, literally. And he says, you know what, Meli, everybody underestimates you. Everybody, that's what he says. You know, they just do not see you coming. Because in my life, you know, I'm. very nice, right? I don't seem like

the shark and tiger that I am when it comes to my legal background. You know, I'm very, like, I'm very close with all my employees, so a lot of people don't expect that I'm going to be the most type A overachieve a person that there is. And, you know, I come from

a background where I had a mother who was tenacious, right? She was very nice. Oh, she's the sweetest person. Everybody who meets my mom says she's the sweetest person they ever met, but she did not play about my gift. She always said that the big I guess the biggest failure in anyone's life or the worst thing you could do is to not utilize your gift.

And she told me, mine was that I was smart. And so I've kept that in the back and the front of everything I do, knowing that, you know, that I am smart. So maybe no one else around me knows it, but they will know it, right? When I'm done, they're going to know it. For folks that are watching this and listening to this that are the underdogs. And when we hear underdogs, we always think about the folks that are watching these movies

but being an underdog is being in rooms where you have the right voice but not the loudest and you hear someone else say what you just said, your lesson is to understand what just happened and go, oh good, I'm not going to make a fuss about that. I just know that I'm right and that energy that I proposed is being barfed somewhere else. I'm like, that was my opening meal

onto like the main course. How does one go from appetizer? to main course in success at 111. I think that you have to realize that everything that you're going through is a stepping stone to something greater, right? And so maybe you're just eating a few breadcrumbs on the table. Facing a lot of frogs, as David likes to say. But those breadcrumbs are building blocks, right? And so you cannot really take for granted the spaces that you're in.

So if right now all you're eating is crumbs, it might just mean because you're putting together your, you know, your big piece of bread for later, right? So I think a person can go from being an appetizer to like, you know, from appetizers to main course by really appreciating where they're at, but never losing sight of where they're going. Yep. Right.

And know that even on the days where it feels like that you're working, because I've been there on days where I felt like I've poured so much into my life and why am I only here, right? But that was just because there was something working in the background preparing me for the next steps. And I truly believe that those moments prepared me for who I am right now. And so I just think you have to really just appreciate, truly appreciate where you are and never really get down on yourself too much. And just keep going. Oh, yeah.

What do you tell folks that are yet to learn that they're in a certain saga, if you will, for all the T. Swifties out there. Like sometimes you're designed to fail. Like you're in your, you're going to hurt for the next couple of five years, but it's not going to hurt you plenty where God is going to let go of you, where everything is in front of you, you're able to handle because it's part of God's plan. A lot of folks don't call them God, don't call it the source, but when you start walking a divine path, like when does one know that they have the glass slippers on or that they're walking and they're just like Michael Jackson, things are just lighting up? When do folks start understanding, well, the yellow brick road is the path, huh? And we get to the end and gosh, the Wizard of Oz happens to be a phony because it's always been in us. Wicked's been right. So when you finally kind of understand what your man is fasting, because you're fighting for the disingenuine, the disenfranchise, I would say.

I'm sorry. Instead of marching through and holding this sign, you're holding this sign and weaponizing yourself with escaliber. How does it feel holding an excalibur now and just waw, wow, wow. noise, wow, like, how does it feel knowing that you were able to go, God, Tron's hammer, Troy's hammer, and like, now you wield this strength. Well, your pain, it doesn't disqualify you, right? It prepares you for what's next. And so, you know, I believe that when I finally realized I was like standing in my purpose, right? And I was doing the things I was supposed to be doing. There was no applaud.

And there was not a single sound. It was just me feeling aligned and feeling. positioned and feeling unstoppable, right? And the next thing I know, people are following in my footsteps, right? People are wanting to ask me, oh, Melody, how did you do that? How did you accomplish that? Oh, can you mentor me? Can you consult with me? You know, the things that had been through in life and the path that I had taken,

people were really interested in it, right? And they wanted to know how did I get there? and when did I get there? Because again, they counted me out, right? Or underestimated me. So it feels like I'm truly just living in my purpose now that I get to truly do the things that I love because I remember moments in my life when I had to do what I had to do,

what was necessary, right? And I didn't get to do the things that I love. And now being able to kind of, you know, like wield that sword and just, you know, move things. I mean, it's just, there's, I'm just amazed all the time because I remember times I would wake up in the middle of night crying and I'm amazed all of the time. And I, and I sometimes I don't really appreciate, right, the hard work I've put in and I have a lot of self-doubt set in. And I'm like, I don't deserve this.

But then when I really think about it, I'm like, wow, you, you, you look at all the, you know, the fight, the struggles, everything you've been through to get to this point. So, will that sword. Yeah, you know, strike me down. and I'll become more powerful than you ever imagine? Yeah, I've heard that one before. So what are we going to learn about you and your Women Empower episode? We're literally moments away from you

having an amazing session with Lauren. I'm looking forward to it. I really am. And I think what you're going to learn about me is that like you all so graciously, since I walked in here and said, oh, male, you look amazing. You've given me so many compliments

and I'm truly very, very grateful and humble by that. But what you'll see is that I'm really this just little girl from Brooklyn, New York. Right on. Came from nothing. And I had nothing given to me. And I mean nothing, I had nothing given to me, but love for my mom.

And that grit and determination is what brought me here. I've been through more traumatic experiences. I'm not going to say than the next person, but then people who are looking at me would ever believe, right? I've accomplished a lot even though I was counted out multiple times

I've had some really horrible things happen in my life but I still to this day I will not give any light to saying that I had a bad day I feel like any days above the ground I'm already doing better than someone who didn't make it

to today so I have bad moments in my day because I'm human but I try really hard not to say that I have a bad day because I'm just grateful that I'm here after everything that I've been through. So I think you'll see that I am truly, right? I'm living my purpose as a woman in power and I'm inspiring people along the way. And I'm opening doors for others because it's just, it's not about whether or not I succeeded, right? It's about whether I created pathways for others to succeed to. What could you go?

How can folks learn more about you while they await your episode? Right. Please visit my Instagram page, right? That's ATL underscore lawyer underscore Bay. My firm is the Rhodes Law Practice out of Atlanta, Georgia. So my website is roselawpractice.com. So you can find me there. I also share my phone number from my Rose Law Practice is 404-854-4-Hurt.

I'm really proud of that number. Oh, gosh. Are you on billboards in ATL? No, because they're saturated, but I'm working. You need to be on a billboard. I need to be on a billboard. Am I causing accidents? Oops, call me.

You just gave me a billboard. You're welcome. Sorry. I'm going to have to give them some credits. But for sure, yes, I'm working on that so they can find me there. And I think that's probably the best ways for you to contact me. I also own two smoothie kings. Love it.

One on Tar Boulevard, for those people in Atlanta's 81-1-1-Tar Boulevard. And the other one is in Lawrenceville. And that is 900 Duluth. highway. Nice. So you can find me there and then I'm going to you know continuing to you'll see me soon on some more cameras because I'm definitely scaling my speaking platform. And this is your first podcast?

This is my first podcast. Well you know what? I did a radio podcast. She just ruined the magic. You were supposed to say yes. This is my first podcast. Okay. This is my first podcast. There you go. Nice. Welcome to your first podcast. Yes. This is my first podcast. It's been an amazing experience. Do let's wrap it up. It's going to be such

a joy to just be the opening act with you. You're in such a treat with, to hang out with Lauren. And cameras are going to be rolling. It so happens. So this is Melody Rhodes. I am Ray Gutierrez. My pleasure. And we are inside success.