the bossbabe podcast - 260. BBS: Creating Extra Income Through Social Media with Melissa Ruiz (Student Edition!)

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

Melissa Ruiz is a bossbabe student making seven figures in her social media-based business. She joins Danielle for this extra special episode of BBS to dig into just how she got there with a highly engaged following of 12,900+ (bigger is not always better!). She’s profound in her mindset, around business building – and even more so, around prioritizing quality of life. Reporting live from a van, she’s a perfect example that we can design our dream life with enough focus, hard work and dedication. Highlights: Get the secret to how Melissa broke the 7-figure income barrier in just 3 years! Danielle shares the 3 E’s of Community and why they are so important in building your audience. How to shift your mindset from people-pleasing employee to millionaire entrepreneur. Links: Melissa’s Cosmic Genius Collective — iammelissaruiz.com The Influencer Masterclass — Join bossbabe CEO, Natalie Ellis on a free, 90-minute training to gain full clarity on your personal brand, learn how to create easy, consistent content, build an audience of raving followers + generate revenue, without the stress. Follow: Instagram: @iammelissaruiz TikTok: @_iammelissaruiz bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Danielle Canty: @daniellecanty

Okay. So today is a very special Boss Bay Business School podcast because it's the first one where I'm actually inviting you on to a call with one of our previous students. So Melissa Ruiz, I'm so excited to invite you on to the Boss Bay Business School where we are going to be talking all about the path to creating a business that you love and how you got here. So I'm really excited for you to get down into the details with me on how you built a seven-figure business in just three years, which is literally insane. I know. I hit the ground running. First of all, thank you so much for having me on this podcast. I'm super excited to just share and be an open channel and really be

inspiration to a lot of people who are like, how the hell do I do this? This seems difficult. And I always, I want to start off by saying business I have found is pretty easy. It's us humans that make it kind of difficult. And it's because of our emotions and the things that come along with that. And so, yeah, I just first wanted to send you my gratitude for being here. Oh my God. I love that actually, that kind of rework of the mind. And I think one of the biggest things that makes you successful or not successful in business is actually your mindset. And it really is about the mind. So let's start. I want to, I have some like really, I don't always prep my questions as much as I have for you, but there's so many things that you've done tangibly that have moved the needle. I wanted to make sure we

had the time and space to get into those. So you are actually going on the road right now and you're on In Van Life. We're literally recording this podcast from your van, you're traveling around America, which is the dream for so many others and traveling the world, which others want to do. So my first question is, how is creating a social media following? How do you create your dream life? You know what? I first think about what kind of life do I actually want to live? And then I create my social media content around that. I think the thing that a lot of people kind of mess up is that they spend so much time creating the social media content that then they become a slave to it and then they stop doing it. And so one of the things that I quickly knew right from the beginning when I

started my business was actually this van life was supposed to be Bali. One of the main, like my dangling carrot, when I first started my business, I was like, okay, I'm going to quit being a TV producer. Like I'm super tired of that life. I was working 12 hours a day. Like I was just like, so over it. I was at this place where I just came back from Morocco. I became a yoga teacher and I just literally did a 180 in my life. I quit smoking cigarettes, drinking, I've been vegan for five years, now six years, alcohol free. I just like made all of these radical changes. And I just literally vowed to myself that the next step that I was going to take was going to revolve around my wealth. It was going to revolve around my health and being healthy.

And so whether it was me starting a business or anything else that I was going to do, fall in love again, because I had just like got a divorce, that I was literally going to prioritize me. And that's really the message that I want to share with people is if you want to become a content creator, you want to start building your business. First question is ask yourself, how do you want to live your life? And for me, it was, I'm going to start a business and I'm going to go to Bali. I'm going to travel. I wanted to, you know, I used to always see these beautiful beings working behind their laptop and like a cute little cafe. And I'm like, I want that. Like something about that is appealing. I want to be barefoot. I want to be in my bikini. Like I want to get out of these clothes and out of this like costume. Like I want to go back to just being me, being centered and grounded and

just waking up every day, loving life without anxiety, which I actually realized I never experienced that. Being in corporate, working on Wall Street as a TV producer, I was selling million dollar shows. My whole mindset was like, how do I sell more shows? How do I create more? How do I make my boss happy? How do I climb up the ladder? How do I make more money? I didn't realize I was actually in like a really trauma state. And so ask yourself, how do you want to live your life? And for me, when I started my business, COVID happened. COVID happened right away. COVID happened, you know, months later, almost a year later. And so when Bali was off of the table,

I really had a long conversation with myself like, okay, so what do you do now? What's your why? Why are you doing this? And I realized it was never about Bali. And it's not even about van life. It was really about the quality of my life and my boundaries. And I always say my business has taught me literally how to have the best boundaries ever. My business has taught me how to say no. And so that's how I go about creating content. Think about the quality of your life, how you want to show up and shape your business around that. One thing that I want to say that's really important. I build my business to six figures, multiple six figures, only posting three times

a week. Now things have changed. I post a lot more than that. But I think again, it's what we were talking about offline. It's your mindset. If you believe something is going to work for you, it will. There is none of this like having to chase the algorithm to do it a certain way. It's like focus on you being your best product, focusing on your energy and making sure that you're just delivering content that is from your heart where you're not trying to be anybody else. So let's talk about that content creation process then that you have, because I totally hear you when you're saying create from the heart. And I actually do think you can still grow posting three times a week as long as those posts are really good and they're valuable. And so what was your process on creating and how do you create, what is the place that you go into your head to create and

just talk us through that? Yeah, I'm going to talk to you about two folds because right now, I think what's trending on TikTok is everybody doing these videos in their car. But back three years ago when I started, I lived in a tiny home where I actually had to record in my car because I lived in a 450 square foot home with myself, my dog, my partner, and her daughter. I'm a stepmom. And it was a really small space. And the lesson that I learned was I'm not going to shrink what I want to do. I'm not going to throw away my desire because the environment isn't perfect.

I'm going to figure out a way. And so the only way in New York on a hot summer day, I would literally like sit in my car. I would close the windows. It was so freaking hot. I would have to like turn off the engine because like you would hear the engine in the video and I would record my videos. And I always bring up this example because again, it's just like, are you going to make excuses or are you going to work with yourself? I found the second thing that was super helpful was to recognize

where am I in my power? And I know when I speak, I feel powerful. I feel like I can just flow. I'm able to just connect with the quantum version of who I am and things start to stream in. And so I just made sure that no matter what anybody else was doing, I was going to do the thing that felt good for me, which was recording videos in my car, taking a walk and recording videos. I just didn't buy into anything else. Again, being a more seasoned entrepreneur, now I do everything. I'm like, let's go, let's dance. Let's do the trending videos. But I think in the beginning, that's not going to work for you because you're going to feel out of body. You're going to feel fake. You're going to feel like you're not being authentic. And we all know that that is not going

to lead to anything amazing. Magic happens when you feel connected to your inner landscape and your inner world. And so everything that I did in the beginning was just video, video, video, video content, mini trainings on stories. I would show up on when IGTV was a thing before Reels. I would do trainings before anybody was doing that. I was just showing up with these 10 minute trainings. And again, I paved my own path. And I think that's really the lesson here is you don't have to do things the way other people are doing it.

Find your own way. And I really mean that that's so important right now, because when we identify as a content creator, remember, you're creating your content your way. Like, that's the whole point. It's not for you to regurgitate old news. It's for you to put your own spin on it. And so that's always something that I really, when I create content, I always look at like, yes, what's trending? Yes, what's hot? Where is my energy center? And also, how do I want to do this? How do I want to put my signature on this piece of content? Because for me, it's not content. This is my work. This gets to be the library of my work where I get to look back and say, holy crap, like I created that. I created that training. I was on

that podcast. I wrote that very vulnerable post. It's almost like documenting at this point. So, so true. And I want to come back to some of your fears of posting on social media. But before we do, I just want to ground some of this conversation because I started by saying that, you know, you built a seven-figure business within three years. But also what I didn't say is that you only, I'm going to say only, have 12,900 followers, which I know for a lot of people is like still a lot. But also I want to break this myth that is like, oh, you have to have a million followers before you have a million dollars, because it's just not true. So when you first started making money on social media,

how big was your following? Can you remember? Oh my God. First of all, when I first started social media, I had 200 private friends, which I'm Hispanic, I'm Ecuadorian and Cuban were like literally my 55 cousins, like half of the people that we're following were like legit my family, my friends, my sister. And so I had no real customers. And so two things happen. One, yes, you can create a very profitable business with a small following. And I see that with all of our students. And I saw that with my account. One of the things that I did do that was a little different was that I focused on community and we still have a big emphasis on community. And so I didn't really look at social media in a way of like, where are my clients? How can I create the content that's going to bring them in? But this is a different spin to this question. I went and

I found my clients. I went and I connected with them. And I think right now there's so many people who are afraid of doing that. They're afraid to be in community. They're afraid to start conversations. They're afraid to like, when somebody answers the poll, answer them back. Like these are such small things, but at the end of the day, if you can build a community on social media, your business will freaking take off. And it does not matter if you have 300 followers or 3 million, because at the end of the day, we are serving human beings. And when you can see another being and another person can feel that you really, really see them, they're going to be bought into whatever it is that you're selling because the them, they're going to be bought into whatever it is

that you're selling because the purchase is not in the stuff. This is another stuff that I teach our students. It's not just like the product, get into my product because I'm going to resolve your problem. It's like, do you want to be in relationship with me? Like, do you want to hang out with me? Do you want to be a part of this community? Because we're building something amazing. And let me tell you a little bit about the people in this community. See what I'm saying? So it's a different spin. And so that's really the number one thing that I would suggest.

If somebody's listening to this and they're like, I only have 200 followers, connect with your audience. Like, really, I really mean it. Connect with them. Talk to them. Have conversations with them. Create free webinars. Create as much engagement as possible so that you can connect to

this person. And eventually they're going to continue to follow you. And that's how I was able to grow my account. It was very, very organic and I was over delivering. I was just showing up and I was giving people information. And I think that's another thing that a lot of people get mixed up. They're like, I'm going to go to social media and I am going to offer my offer and everybody's going to get in. And if you've ever done that, you'll quickly start to see that that doesn't really actually work. Even if you have a following, people want to buy from somebody that they know and that they trust and that they like and that they feel like they're in community with you. And so if you can do that first, everything else will follow.

Yes, so, so true. Community first, always. And people are really craving community now. I would say when I teach community, think about the three E's. Who are you bringing together? Are they coming to educate and learn something? Are they coming to feel something?

There's an emotion attached to it. Or are they coming to unite over a common enemy? And I'm not saying enemy as in person. I'm saying enemy as something you stand for or against. And I think when you build that way, it's so, so important and empowering. So you're building on social media. How did you sell on social media? Because what is so incredibly powerful and I think is underestimated by so many is when you have a following, no one can take that away from you. Like that is almost real estate in its own right because you have people like you say

who are no liking trusting you, therefore ready to buy something from you. And so I'm curious how you first realized like, oh, actually you didn't realize because you were building ultimately to sell to them. But how long it took you to actually sell to your audience? You know what? Actually, before you said I was building to actually sell to them. No, you were actually right the first time. I wasn't actually building to sell to them. When I the reason why I came onto social media was because I was a yoga teacher.

I quit being a TV producer. I was making $50. This is a really hero's journey. I was making $50 a class teaching yoga here in New York. I was teaching about three to four times a week, yoga and meditation. And so basically you do the math, 50 times four. There was not a lot of revenue coming in. And the reason why I started to share on social media was because I saw all of these students after class, and they were having these epiphanies coming to these realizations, crying, you know, yoga can really move a lot of energy in the body. And I just had the idea of how can I help more people. And again, I think this really comes back to

connecting to our Dharma and connecting to the real reason of why are you called to entrepreneurship to begin with? And so that was my whole heart. It's like, oh, wait, I want to help these people. I can't go and spend three more hours hanging out with you on the mat. I have another class to go to, but maybe if I shared something on social media and I created more content for you, that would be helpful. And so again, it always comes back to your why and the reasons why you're doing what you're doing. Then after that, I realized that, oh crap, a lot of people are coming to me. Yes. Let me create this program and let me sell to my audience. And it became really clear when I first started my business that as a spiritual entrepreneur, what I call myself a mystical offbeat entrepreneur, the rebels of entrepreneurship, meaning I didn't really want to follow the rules.

And I don't know if that has anything to do with my sign. I'm a Sagittarius, stellium Sagittarius. So I have lots of fire. And I find that I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like that where they don't want to follow the rules they don't want to do what everybody else is doing which makes sense because we want our individuality we strive and we're here on planet earth to fully express the expansion of our soul so why the hell would i want to create a social media page that looks like everybody else like Like, no, I want to throw up. And so I very quickly found that if I was going to survive in this industry, one, I

needed to find my individuality. I needed to stick out like a sore thumb by being myself. And I needed to learn how to soulfully sell in a way that didn't make me feel weird and sticky and a sellout. And then I have all this yoga philosophy that I'm coming with as well. And so it was really important for me to figure out a way where I can feel an integrity to also my, not only my mission and my Dharma, but what I really want to say is the practices. These are ancient practices that I really wanted to do them justice. And that's also a big part of our mission is that

we believe that you don't have to be broke spiritual beings, that, you know, really the energy of abundance and that spirit doesn't want us to be poor in any sense of the way, broke in spirit, broke in finances, broke in any kind of way. And so I had to quickly figure out a way to sell in a way that fell in alignment with me. And so just know that if that is something that you desire, and I know that is a big pain point for so many people, there is a way. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all in one platform Kajabi. You know, I've been singing their praises lately, because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity,

which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners

a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. There is always a way. And also selling is service. Like when you're selling something, you're actually, if you are delivering a product

that you believe in, that you know is going to change lives, the better that you actually know is going to bring more joy to the world, then it's actually in service to sell that to somebody and tell somebody about it. And I think that's also, you know, we've done podcasts about that previously. And that is also something really crucial. It's definitely something I had to overcome for sure of feeling like guilty of selling. I had this whole sleazy kind of pre-estigma to it. And I had to let go a lot of that. And what I'm hearing too in this journey is about how you've let go of old beliefs and really like clung to new ones and moved in a direction when you were living in that tiny apartment feeling like

actually you know what this isn't going to be where I am forever and I have a choice still to create content and find what works I think is so so admirable what are some other fears that you had to come and things that you had to really work through on this journey because you know what we see the highlight reel of people's social media, but we know, and that's what this podcast is about. We know the real behind the scenes. It can be really tough. So what are some of the fears that you first had to walk through with posting on social media and how did you overcome them? Oof. Oof. I'm like, wait, do we have two hours? I have a laundry list of them. One, obviously fear of judgment. There was so much

judgment that I realized that it was nobody that was actually judging me. Nobody was pointing the finger and saying, Oh my God, look at you weirdo. You're posting online. And that's cringy. I actually realized that as a TV producer and somebody who went to school for film and broadcasting, and I'd worked at Viacom for many years, I'd sold million dollar shows, I worked in big productions, I actually was judging myself, and I felt like I was taking a step down. And so when I started to realize that I was doing that, I had to really come to this place where it was an ego death. It was like, you're no longer this person. And there is no hierarchy of up and down that is just a past version of who you are. But this is a really good point because as I'm saying

this, I'm realizing that that is the programming that so many people have. I know there's somebody listening into this and it's like, yeah, I want to start my business too. But like, is that a step down from what I'm doing? And it's like, no, it's a step up. You're stepping into who you are. So I think this is a big programming that we've been taught to be good employees. And so notice how I always talk about this. Notice how when you work for other people, you freaking slave away. You're there at nine o'clock, you clock in, you're doing all of the things you go above and beyond. But the minute we're called to work on our own business, it's like our brain broke. We forgot how to do that. And it's not that our brain broke. It's just, it's so much easier for us to work and do things for other people than it is for ourself. And so that's one thing that

I had to overcome. I had to commit to my own business. And I remember this moment where I said to myself, you know, Melissa, if I worked half as hard in this business as I did for other people, like there's no way I won't be a millionaire. Like my brain just like could not comprehend that I would have to be a millionaire if the way that I showed up and worked for my boss and all of these people. And that's what I did. And so that's how I showed up. And I had to let go of the fear of showing up and what my friends were going to think and what my other TV colleagues were going to think. And I kept putting this pressure that what they thought was more important than what I thought.

And when I started to switch that belief and I was like, no, no, no, honey, what you think about yourself is more important than what other people think about you. That is super toxic. And if you keep going this route, then you'll constantly be at the beck and mercy of your audience or other people. And I just literally saw that from the beginning. And I, as best as I could try to alchemize that. One thing that's really important for me to share is that I didn't come from money. I am the daughter of two immigrants that came to this country looking for a better life. Like legit, my dad ran away from Cuba during the Fidel Castro revolution.

And he came here as a kid. He was 18 and joined the military. And so my parents worked hard. My mom was the oldest of nine. And so like, I didn't get anything handed to me. You know, there was nothing that was passed along, including, you know, positive beliefs around money. And so that was a big thing that I had to overcome these beliefs that other people deserved money, and not me, or that other people were going to be able to be more successful as content creators, and not me, that everything belonged to other people, but that it didn't belong to me, because I was queer, because I was brown, because I grew up not having, because my parents are immigrants, and I really had to take a stand to myself. It was like I was battling myself,

and I'm like, okay, honey, just because your parents and your ancestors came from here, doesn't mean that you have to continue to pull on this thread. You get to be the one, you get to be the one that changes it. You get to be the one that makes a difference because of you, everybody else after you is going to have a different legacy and a different reality. And that really motivated me to entrench myself in my business and so when things get hard because you know how it is it does get hard it does get hard there are easeful moments but I would be lying to you if I said to you every day is sunshine no because I'm growing alongside my business so as I have to do different things in my business to grow, I get uncomfortable. The part of me that is attached to my ego is like,

girl, don't do it. Don't do that. That's scary. Stay there. The highest part of me is like, no, we're here for expansion. This is going to hurt a little bit and you're going to be uncomfortable a little bit, but you're going to grow and your capacity to hold more is going to continue to expand. And so when I tell you I have so many things that I had to conquer in terms of belief, in terms of family, in terms of my age. People always think I'm younger than I am, but I am 38 years old. And so there was this part of me that was like, I'm too old. I'm too old to create content. I can't be a content creator. Who does that? I missed the boat. And I think a lot of people feel like that too. And that is another thing that I had to alchemize. I had to just get over it. Like it doesn't matter.

Vera Wang started her line when she was 40. And there's a lot of boss spiritual cosmic baddies that started their business later on in life. And the truth is, I was not ready in my 20s. I was a hot mess express. And I was ready now. I was ready now. And so there was no other time besides right now. I'm so glad you shared that because I do think I completely switched my career. But one thing that I do hear come up a lot is like, oh, am I too old to try something new? Am I too young? hear come up a lot is like, oh, am I too old to try something new? Am I too young? Sometimes the young ones also have like, oh, I'm too young to do something. And I think when we recognize and own that, there's always never the right time and every time is the perfect time. I think it's just really important to recognize this, the stories that we

tell ourselves and knowing, oh, that is a story I'm telling myself. Because when you own it, you're empowered to change it and you're empowered to do something about it. One of the things that I truly believe has been the biggest game changer in helping more people jump social and economic classes and ladders is social media. It gets a lot of bad press because we're all aware the toll it can take on mental health. But some of the good press that I don't necessarily think it gets but it deserves is how... When I first started in business, I was trying to do brick and mortar. It was so hard to expand because I didn't come from wealth. No one was wanting to give me a check. I had no business

experience because I was young and couldn't show that I'd done and sold several businesses. So banks were kind of like looking at me. And social media comes along and goes, you know what? Anyone with a smartphone can build a following and then turn that following into six, seven, eight figure incomes. I just think it's absolutely amazing. And I would love for you just to kind of ground and just share like from your heart, how social media has completely changed your life for the better. And what that's given you for your life now, but even future generations that you think you're going to pass down. I would just love to know more about that. Yeah, there's so many juicy things that you're saying. I'm like, wait, I'm still stuck on the quote that you just dropped. But yeah, and expanding

on that, right? Like the stories that you continue to keep telling yourself become your reality. One thing and I'm going to jump on this thread of social media doesn't get enough credit. And I am going to really share my thoughts that social media is an amazing, amazing tool that people are sleeping on. Because yes, although we know that there are things that have come up where people compare themselves and people are scrolling energetically, because I look into energy, that is only telling us what humans are already doing. The device is not making you do anything more than what you already do in your regular life. And so if you're a people pleaser and you start a business, you're going to continue to be a people pleaser. It may get exaggerated,

but that's what actually is happening with social media. Social media is mirroring and mimicking human behavior. And the ways that we are comparing ourselves in social media is because that's the way we compare ourselves in real life. Like these are the things, these are table conversations that have never sought the light of day. And so I am really an advocate for social media because there has never been a technology that has connected so many people. And on top of that, there has never been a time where people always complain that they're left out of the conversation. They're not in the right rooms. Can you go to YouTube and please Google whatever question you have. And I promise you there's a free training.

I promise you there's information, but you know what? And this is the thing that this is the way I talk to my audience. Like I kind of give them a little smack in the butt because it's like, hello, use the tools. Stop complaining. You have to be able to help yourself. Things are not just going to fall out of the sky. And I talk like that because I used to be one of those people. I used to be one of those people that's like, oh my God, technology is so terrible. It's keeping us stuck.

It's keeping us mindlessly scrolling. It's like, like no you were doing that with something else in your life regardless whether you were smoking pot drinking whatever other thing that you were doing that you were engaging in that wasn't the healthiest and so one of the things that social media has brought to my life is the freedom to work anywhere literally I'm in a van like I am in a freaking van. One of the things that I was just talking about with my partner today, and I said to her, babe, I can make money anywhere. I know this for a fact now. I have never lived and knew another day, especially working in corporate,

where I can wake up in the middle of Wyoming, in the middle of Utah, I can make love to my partner, I can wake up, climb a mountain, do yoga, I build a rooftop on my van, which is my second little office, and I can make money. And that to me is priceless. Human beings, if you can create and have your business be your livelihood, that's the whole point. I think people get so stuck on the money and yes, I'll talk about the money piece because that did actually physically change my reality as well and has got me into so many new opportunities and I have met so many amazing people. It's just so gnarly and cool. But the thing is that if I can wake up tomorrow and know I have food, I have, you know, an opportunity to put food on the table and to live my life in the ways that I want, that

to me is the freedom that I want. That's that. Sign me up. Sign me up. And I get to do it in a way that feels good for me, where I don't have to morph into something that I'm not. You know, when I quit being a TV producer, I made a promise to myself and I said to myself two things.

One, my boss fired me because I went to Morocco for about 20 something days to do my yoga teacher training. And they didn't really like that because you're only allowed like 14 days or something like this. But yeah, I was pushing it. And I remember when I got on the plane, my heart sank when I got that email where I was letting them know that I was going to be a day late. And they said, you know, no, thank you. Like, don't come back. And I was so angry and I was so hurt. And I remember there was a part of me that's like, nobody is going to ever fire me. Like nobody, like, how dare you? Like I was pissed. I was like, I've done this and this and this, you know? And then I realized in that moment, why did you do this and this and this and

this for somebody else? You could have done this and this and this and this for yourself. And so that was a really good lesson. And so my business has taught me how to believe in myself. It has taught me that when I get a vision and when I get a message, my job is not to bring doubt. My job is to put it out there and to release the expectation of what I want it to do. That's not part of it. I am here as the ultimate creator of my life and that's it. And if I get to do that through my business, amazing. The second thing, yes, my financial situation has changed. I remember the first time I had $10,000 in my bank account. I was like, oh my God, 10K cash. I still remember the first time I had 50K cash. I was like, no way. 100K cash, 200K cash. I'm like you got him shitting me like is this fucking real like is this real life

and I was like yeah this is real life you're putting all of you into something that you're so passionate about you cannot fail social media has taught me a lot I feel like it's a mic drop moment but I still I feel like I want to ask you one more thing because you are so, there were so many epic things you just said. I know I asked you a question. Do you think you're special? Yes. I believe we're all special, but it's about us recognizing it. And I believe that in life, a lot of people have this lack mentality, which I call a poverty mentality, no matter how much money you have in the bank account, because you're waiting for somebody else to show you your gems. When really, I believe I have this vision of me sitting in a dark room where all of the

gems are there. Everything that I've ever wanted, all of the money, all of the love, all of the forgiveness, everything that I've ever wanted. The reason why my soul journey to this planet, it's all there, but it's about turning on the light. It's like, can you turn on the light and see that it was always with you? And you know, I learned this lesson every single time I hit a new height in my business. I think I'm addicted to my business, Danielle. You know, the reason why in a healthy way, there has not been, and I practice many different things, yoga, meditation, mindfulness, kundalini, sound bath, so many different things, shamanic journeys, all of the things. There hasn't been something that has brought me this close to

the edge of fear time and time again, where I have to invoke this trust, this faith. This is what religions call that faith, that blind faith where you're like, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm just going to jump. And I'm just going to trust in the universe because I am the universe and I trust myself. And that's the thing that this business has really taught me. It's like, it has given me the ability to trust myself. I know I'm always being provided for. And the question that you had asked was, I believe that so often and very unfortunately, people build their businesses because they want that validation from other people. They want other people to shine the light on them when really they need to close their eyes and turn the gaze inwards so that they can see themselves clearer. Once you do that, and once you connect to the wisdom of your intuition, the wisdom that is being filtered in through a higher perspective. I always tell people we're two beings. We're a human being with the density of just our emotions and fear and all of the things that people try to

avoid that we can't because we're human beings and we have to feel it. We cannot skip it, but we're also a galactical being. We're also a spiritual being. We're also an infinite being. We are this part that is connected to the totality of the universe. And I think so many entrepreneurs, when you keep going, you connect to that totality. You connect to that cosmic side of you. You don't really lean into the human part because you know, the human part is going to be like, I'm afraid don't do it. And so it's about balancing the two. Thank you for answering that. The reason I asked is I think so many people listen to others in a different position to them and think it's okay for them or they did this because they're like this or fill in the blank of whatever reason that they're putting in front. But my biggest

thing and takeaway from doing all of these interviews over the years is that we're either all special or none of us are special and it's, we're all the same. And I think how you just described it as the first time I've heard it about shining that light within, we all have the power to do that. It's just whether we choose to do that or not. So my hope is that anyone listening to this, they get inspired to shine their light within because it's already there. You're not hunting for anything. You're just like looking for it and allowing it to come through. And so many people, and I've been there,

we block it ourselves if we're not careful. And so like just really allowing it to come through. So Melissa, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. I know that so many people are going to be just enthusiastic to start, to do the thing, to grow their businesses, empowered. Where can they find out more about you? I'd love to share your social handle links. I will drop them in the description box as well,

but just share them verbally also. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me. This has been such a beautiful, just like a flowy conversation that took us beyond where I thought we were going to go. My handle on social media,

I'm mainly on Instagram. That's where I hang out. You can always DM me. I'm at I am Melissa Ruiz. And let's see my website. I am melissaruiz.com. So weird. It's like I have to practice see my website iammelissaruez.com so weird it's like i have to practice saying my website um yeah and i'm also on tiktok same thing it's just underscore at iammelissaruez those are

my handles thank you we're gonna put them in the description as well so thank you so so much for coming in and sharing your story i know i want my life. I know. I want to share this last nugget with somebody. I know this message is for somebody. When we're called to entrepreneurship, remind yourself that it's not about proving anything to anybody else. It's about you connecting to your vision, your dharma, and what you get to do in this lifetime. It's so special. You know, you asked, do I feel special? Am I a special being? We're all the same. Yes. But we all have these infinite abilities to co-create with the universe for those who are listening, for those who are opening up their heart and opening up their energetic body to

the message. And our entrepreneurship journey can be such a beautiful, beautiful, impactful, life-changing way to do this. And so thank you so much. I really wanted to pour into somebody who needed that message. I love that. Thanks, Melissa. You're so welcome. Okay, so if you were feeling inspired by that interview I just did with our student, Melissa Ruiz, you are not going to want to miss the free training that Nathalie did, teaching you exactly how to grow a business from social media that can give you the lifestyle freedom that you desire, the financial freedom that you desire, and for you to go on and create your own dreams, just like Melissa did, just like I have, just like so many of our students have as well. Because trust me, if we can do it, so can you. So make sure you click

the link below to register for Natalie's 90-minute free training. You are going to learn so much. Bring a paper and pen along with you because we give no fluff. It's no BS. It's all details and things that we know are going to help you grow your business. So enjoy it. And I will see you very soon on the next episode.

Thank you so much for listening. And if you enjoyed this episode on the Boss Babe podcast, then I'd absolutely love it if you leave us a review. As a thank you, we'll send you our side hustle success kit. Your simple, no BS guide to keeping track of everything that you need to do to start and grow your business. To access this freebie, all you need to do is leave us a review, then share a screenshot of your review with contact at bossbabe.com and we'll send this must-have kit straight to your inbox. Bye.