328 Melissa Ramos is Unveiling the SECRETS to Online Business Success!
Melissa Ramos
Founder of Sexy Food Therapy and Sexy Lady Balls.
Melissa Ramos is the powerhouse behind SexyFoodTherapy and the best-selling online program, Sexy Lady Balls.
She helps women struggling with autoimmune and hormonal issues feel sexy from the inside out through Nutrition and Chinese Medicine.
With appearances on CTV, The Social and gracing the stage at TedX, Melissa is a force and is especially savvy with Social Media and building an Online Business (she's an O.G. in the online space!
In this episode, we chat about...
Melissa's journey from a career in advertising to becoming a nutritionist and entrepreneur.
The initial struggles and financial challenges in building her brand, Sexy Food Therapy.
The significance of energy in marketing and being authentic on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
Melissa shares how staying true to her creativity and humor has shaped her brand's identity.
Use of automation tools like Manychat for efficient lead generation.
Melissa discusses the success of maintaining a membership platform and high-priced offerings.
Importance of understanding financial metrics and optimizing business operations for efficiency.
Discussion on separating personal worth from business success.
Melissa's transition from a high-flying advertising career to nutrition.
Discussion on the need for individualized business strategies and experimenting with custom approaches. & MORE!
Episode Timestamps
[00:00] Melissa shares journey from advertising to Online Health Programs + CEO of SexyFoodTherapy.
[09:44] The health challenges she encountered that forced her to make a change
[15:27 ] Transitioning away from bartending
[16:35] Choosing a new life and chasing dreams, despite a lot of unknowns
[23:34] The importance of authenticity in business.
[30:33] Networking & Building Authentic connections
[33:07] Cultivate creativity, and tips for building on-camera presence that converts
[43:46] Dropping things that don't light you up
To connect with Melissa:
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You're listening to the Visionary Life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Reidl.
Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures, and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship. This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode, it's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us. You know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you.It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in, visionaries. You are in for such a treat today because I am sitting down with Melissa Ramos. You might know her from the incredibly popular business and Instagram sexy food therapy. Not only is Melissa a rock star nutritionist, she has a background in chinese medicine. She's been a health expert on many tv shows, a TEDx speaker, a writer for the Huffington Post, but above all of that, she is also a very smart, strategic entrepreneur who has been in the game for many, many, many years. Talk about a powerhouse.
Melissa has been building her online business, launching online courses and creating awe inspiring content for a decade. And you absolutely need to go check out her creative genius, Instagram. She rocks it. She's over at sexy food therapy. And by the way, I love the business name, and you're going to enjoy hearing how she came up with it and what the business actually started as. So the best part about this show, in my opinion, is that Melissa keeps it real. She doesn't sugarcoat the challenges. She doesn't sugarcoat the obstacles she's faced on her path to success.
And instead, she opens up about the raw and authentic story behind how she decided to quit her career in advertising, a job that she wanted since she was twelve years old, and what she had to do in order to become a full time creator and nutritionist and diving into the online world when nobody else was really doing it. Today, she's a CEO of her company. She employs nearly eleven people, and she describes them as her dream team team, which is so freaking cool. And I really think you're gonna like this episode. So we dive into it all. But I think what most excites me about this episode is that we talk about the state of online marketing and advertising and people who are building brands and all the shitty advice that's out there. So I think you're gonna enjoy Melissa's really fresh and refreshing perspective, and her and I could not be more aligned on what it takes to run a business and the fact that you're going to face highs and lows and everything in between. And it is a long game.
So if you're having one of those days or you're having one of those weeks where you're like, what the actual heck? Nobody's reading my blog. Nobody's listening to my podcast. My website isn't perfect. Just know that, that, that's not the point. The point is to share value, get out and help one person today. And just know that if you do this day after day after day, you may wake up in ten years and be where Melissa is and have a thriving online business and an incredible team behind her. So without further ado, let's get into this episode with Melissa Ramos, founder of sexy food Therapy Visionaries. I actually have the most exciting invite for you.
If you're listening to this before Wednesday, May 15, I want to invite you to attend a virtual lakeside chat with Melissa Ramos, today's guest. So she's going to be sharing the secrets of online success, how to stay creative, lessons learned from ten years of running her online wellness business. How to master Instagram marketing. Melissa is actually a genius when it comes to creating reels that resonate with her dream clients. Then you want to be at this session so you can just dm me on Instagram. I'm Elsie Rydell. Or send me an email hello.com. Do it right away because this session is free.
It's on Wednesday, May 15, and Melissa Ramos is coming to hang out with us for. For an hour. It's virtual. I'll send you the zoom link when you sign up. And this is such a wonderful chance to go a little bit deeper on this episode and to pick Melissa's brain. She doesn't do this very often, so this is super special. So if you're interested, send me a DM on Instagram elsieridel. Just send me the word Melissa and I'll know exactly what you're looking to attend or email me hello.com and I can't wait to see you for this lakeside chat with Melissa Ramos.
Melissa, welcome to the Visionary Life podcast. I know you have been not only in the nutrition and wellness space, which my listeners are so obsessed with, but also in the entrepreneurship space and especially in the digital creation industry for many, many years, in fact, probably you are one of the early adopters of online courses and having an online business. So we are so excited to sit down, chat with you and to learn all about this journey. So first off, welcome and thank you for being here.
Thanks for having me. I feel like the, the archaic little granny that's in the business. That's why when you're like, yeah, we got like 30 to 40 minutes, I'm like, oh God, I can talk about this for a good hour.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
And when you think about how much business has changed, but also with social media and with all these platforms we can now use to do online courses and the lessons you've probably learned along the way, I mean, yeah, maybe we'll have to book part two and part three. But to start off, could you take us back? So you actually used to work in advertising and you decided to leave that job. So what actually prompted you to quit the more corporate nine to five, working hard, long hours? What was that initial ping that was like, hey, I think I'm going to leave and start my own business?
Yeah, I think it was a slow build up to that for a bit and it was a very hard decision for me to make because I had wanted to be in advertising and this is going to sound almost unbelievable. I actually wanted to be in advertising since I was twelve years old. I visited the agency for a school project that I ended up working at, J. Walter Thompson in Toronto. GWT I visited because it was an assignment to go visit the place you want to work at when you grow up. And I didn't know what the person was that wrote for advertising. I just knew I liked to write a lot and I liked to draw. I was very artistic and creative and so I found that it was called a copywriter.
And, you know, twelve years old, I called up JWT and said, hi, I have a school project, I was wondering if I can come. And I got a tour. So, you know, fast forward in my twenties, when I was getting the job interview, then they asked me like, why do you want this role? And I pulled out the actual business card that I received when I was twelve years old. I kept it. So nonetheless I got the job. So it was really hard to make peace with ending that, but it was a collection of things. Number one, I felt that advertising, it's a hard gig, you got to really love it. To be in it, because it can come across as a very thankless job in a lot of ways.
You are. There's a lot of moving parts and pieces, just like the online world as well. And it just became very stressful. And I worked on the packaged foods industry, which is really funny given what I do now. And I would sit in meetings, and I remember sitting in a meeting for Cornflakes. That's one of the accounts that I had worked on. And we were talking about Cornelius, who's actually the rooster on the box, and we were talking about his, this mascot costume for a commercial we were doing. It was a two hour meeting, and the majority of the meeting was focused on his foot.
And I finished the meeting, and I had said, there's people dying in the world, and we just spent 2 hours talking about a rooster's foot that doesn't even exist. Like, this is a mascot. Like, it just, there were certain things that it felt very empty with what I was doing. And so I knew I wasn't happy with it, but I was really good at what I did. I was winning awards. I was excelling. In fact, I had five bosses. And I got promoted.
And as soon as I got promoted, I met up with my friend who worked at the competing agency across the street, Leo Burnett. And I said, I just got promoted. And he knew that I wanted to quit. And I was contemplating it. He goes, you got to say something before the email goes out to this whole company. I'm like, shit, I'm going to have to actually come to terms with this. It's really scary. And at that time, I had already been studying nutrition part time.
And I think because I was starting nutrition part time, seeing the ugliness of the packaged food industry and how deceptive it was was also a huge catalyst. So there was a lot that was kind of, like, building up to that. And so I went back and, you know, I said, like, I'm really grateful for the opportunity for the promotion, but I quit. Interestingly enough, I ended up developing this rash, which is called pederses rosea, that spreads pretty much to your entire body except for your face. And I started taking a constitutional homeopathic remedy about three months prior to giving my notice. So I don't know if that also played a role in, like, emotionally coming to terms with it, because when I did, I felt so exhausted that this rash came about. When I ran into my homeopathic practitioner, she said, oh, it's a healing crisis. And I was told, like, it would take at least three weeks to resolve and it was gone within like three days.
It looked like somebody was like erasing it off my body. It was really wild. So it was a hard thing to come to terms with, but it was kind of a series of events. It just was, it felt very shallow in a lot of ways. Very empty, very cutthroat, very backstabbing, very thankless. And I think with the combination of the homeopathic remedy and then also studying nutrition, it was like this perfect storm that just led me to give my notice.
Yeah. And I think there's so much to extract from what you just shared because you mentioned you had wanted to go into this career in advertising since you were twelve years old. However, there came a point where you realized, maybe this isn't the next twelve years that I want.
Right.
And it's so important to honor that evolution. And I think so often we have this like sunk cost fallacy. It's like, I've always wanted to be a police officer. I've always wanted to be a veterinarian. And then you invest the time and energy to get into that career and you might be winning the awards but feeling empty inside, but you think, well, it's too late. This is just the way it's always going to be and I don't have options.
Right.
And I think there's a lot of people who, when they hear your story, they're going to go, oh, like, I guess I could also make a change. And sometimes our body speaks to us, gives us the rash, gives us the, you know, something bursts inside and it's like, is this the wake up call that I need to stop spending 50 hours a week at a career that is completely out of alignment with who I am? And sometimes we have a wake up moment that's really drastic. Other times it's almost like that slow burn and you wake up in your thirties or forties and go, I just feel empty inside.
Yeah, it felt empty. And it was so hard because in one aspect I did like, what I did like back then online was very new. Right? We're talking like, God, it sounds so old, but we're talking like over 20 years ago, right? And I worked on tv. Like, I worked primarily on commercials. I was responsible for the strategies and the productions and of all these major packaged brands. And, you know, by the time that I was, I don't know, 27. 20, yeah, 27. I had produced probably 30 commercials.
A lot of them were done like really rapid, but I liked some aspects of it. I liked being creative and that. So it was a very hard part to part with that because I'm like, how do I incorporate that into a field of health and wellness of which I had no idea what that was going to look like at the time. I just knew that I'm really interested in this and I'm going to figure it out.
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And everyone thought I was crazy, including my folks.
Yeah, and I mean, people could probably look at the business you have today and just say, oh, wow, she must have just figured it out the moment she quit her job in advertising. But I believe you actually spent a few years working in bartending, making that side hustle and building sexy food therapy, but also trying to mitigate the risk of going completely broke and working other jobs in order to fuel it. Can you take us back to those initial couple of years of building your brand? What was that time like? Do you remember? Was it challenging what were some of the first, the things that you were doing to build sexy food therapy out? Take us back to that chapter.
Oh, yeah. There was a lot of lessons, you know. Yeah, I was, when I left the agency life, I went back into bartending, and I was in bartending for a bit. I ended up leaving my ex fiance at the time, who I will always say was the best ex fiance a woman can have. He was truly an amazing individual. Just we weren't right for each other. As I outgrew one life, I also outgrew that life. So, you know, we had a house in the suburbs, and I sold.
We sold the house, and I had enough money to pay for chinese medical school, which I went back to go study because I felt like I needed something in addition to nutrition. And I ended up moving into a house with three other women, which I had called the estrogen done, because there were three women, I didn't know them at all. One woman I went to school with, but I didn't really know her. And I started writing this silly little blog called sexy food therapy. And it was originally how I emotionally ate through a series of really crappy dates. That's what sexy food therapy originally was. And not many people know that the thing was. So I'm taking photos of food, and I love food.
Love it, love cooking it, love eating it. Favorite pastime. And so I built the brand originally around that, but not with a business intent. The thing that happened was that I had created a Facebook page of which my mother and my father followed, and my father, being latin american, extremely confused over what the heck I was doing with sexy food therapy. The name, and it grew. People started to read these blogs. They got really invested in these stories. So it felt like the brand kind of was like this race car that was just driving down the road at a really fast speed, and I had to jump in and grab the wheel.
And so that brand started from something to what it is now. And I've kept the brand name because so many people had resonated with it. And so I was doing a lot of side hug hustles. It was like bartending. I was cocktail waitressing, I was serving. And it was really hard, especially when you have people from the agency world who you run into are like, oh, you know, do you regret it? And I'm like, I would rather pick up hope than go back to agency life. Like, I will figure this out. So, yeah, it was really, really challenging building a brand from nothing.
And the thing about building a brand is, I think the biggest thing about entrepreneurship that I had learned was that it requires so much grip because you're literally creating content when no, pretty much no one's listening or watching. And you got to still be okay with producing and putting in that effort and that work. I didn't even have a Mac. I had a. I was so broke. So broke. I didn't have a couch for eight months. I could barely afford rent.
I was eating at my friend's place. Like, I literally had started sexy food therapy from a $20,000 deficit like that. This company was built from next to nothing. Well, less than nothing. And I was eventually started to create these videos called the red Couch confessions because I got. I met a girl at a gig, a bartending gig I was working at, and she was leaving to Vancouver, and she was getting rid of her red couch. And I'm like, I'll take it. And it was pretty much brand new.
So I took it, and I thought, oh, it fits with these brand colors that I have. And I thought, well, why don't I do these things called red Couch confessions? And that's where the video portion started. And I self taught myself on Windows movie maker, which if you've ever used, you will know it's horrible. So, you know, I started with that and with YouTube, which I eventually kind of went into, and from that to imovie. And, like, all the editing software, I taught myself that. Like, I self taught. And it wasn't because I'm gifted or it comes easy for me. It's.
No, I actually put in the time. And I think that it's. I think it's really easy for people to see from the outside. Like, oh, her videos, like, especially early days of YouTube, how formulaic those videos, especially the edits, were. People. And I had people editing it to afterwards. But I think people just thought, oh, you know, you're just so creative, and this comes so naturally. And I'm like, creativity also has to be cultivated, right? Like, someone doesn't pick up a guitar and, you know, they magically, they're like, you know, strumming and making this beautiful thing.
They have the lines on their fingers. You know, their strumming needs work. Like, there's so much stuff that goes into it. Like, creativity has to be cultivated and so does skill in the online world. So creating a brand wasn't without a lot of effort and a lot of hours and a lot of hustle in the beginning. Mm hmm.
There's so many good reminders because so often when I'm chatting with people, who are in that early phase of starting a business. They'll start the blog, they'll create the podcast, they'll be doing the YouTube videos. And then they are so demotivated when in three months or four months, they're not getting a ton of views. It's like. But nobody knows who you are. You haven't established your voice. There's like, we don't understand yet where you're going with this. So it's like you have to keep showing up.
And I think it's important for us to hear from you that, yeah, you were writing a blog and it was out of joy and interest, but barely anyone was reading it in those first few months. What was it that kept you motivated? Because when you start to put yourself out there, when you start to create content, obviously it's getting more visible than some people have ever been in their life. And then when they're not getting the praise or they're not seeing the dollar signs come on the other side of that content, they can get really deflated. So what kept you motivated? Why did you continue to show up? Do those red couch sessions, write those blogs about your bad dates? What was that inner fire that was burning in you?
It is the same fire that burns to this day. It is no different from today. As someone who is, is established to somebody who was trying to be, to be established in the beginning, it comes down to value. If you are in this business, and I have to remind myself this even now, if you are in this business to solely focus on numbers and validation, you will quit really darn quick. You will get very burnt out. You will get very resentful. You have to always go back to, why are you doing this? For me, my value is I want to help as many women as humanly possible with their hormone and autoimmune journeys. And I went into that.
With that value. I also go into it because, yeah, I am creative. I enjoy the creative part of it. And creativity is something that, as I mentioned, has to be cultivated so that you develop your own voice. And that takes like, it's like webinars, right? Like, you have to do like hundreds of them before you start feeling a bit of a role with them, that you're not like, freaking out with them. Like you feel, okay, I got this. I know the structure. I know how this is going to go.
The same thing with your business, right? Like, you keep going in the beginning because you have to go back to, you got to go back to your value and stay focused on that and also try to have some fun with it. Try to pick up the thing in your business. Like, maybe it's not like, oh, I love to be on camera. Maybe it's, I like to create recipes. You know, maybe it's I like to write like some people kind of like more the behind the camera stuff, which is fine, but really pick out the aspects of what you're doing, what actually gave you joy, that made you want to get into it, because you have to lean on that and your values. Otherwise, no matter if you're starting or if you're very well established, you're going to get really resentful. You're going to get resentful and people are going to feel it. That's the craziest part about business, is if you don't feel it, you can put on your plastic smile as much as you want.
People are going to feel it through your Instagram Stories. They're just going to know. Somehow they're going to know. And I used to think, oh, that's B's. I can, like, I've had enough acting and stage coaching that I can totally just bib my way through this. No way.
No way.
It comes down to values and really go back to what you find joyful about why you got into this, because it's there.
I know I always say that marketing is energy. Like, you could have the perfect strategy for creating an SEO friendly blog, but, like, if the energy behind it is like, oh, this is so stupid, and I don't even know why I'm doing this. It's just felt. And that becomes especially important when you're using platforms like Instagram or TikTok. If you're showing up and reading a script and you don't want to be there, you hate being on camera. I swear there's like a palpable energy. And then people wonder why nobody's paying attention, nobody's dming them, nobody's getting into conversation. It's like, maybe we have to choose another avenue.
And I think it's so important to ask that question that you just shared, like, what excites you, what brings you joy and do that, don't do the other things that are completely sucking the life out of you.
And it's so important, especially now in the economic state that the world is in, if you are going, okay, well, people aren't spending money. The world is in this economic crisis. Call for every entrepreneur to get as heart led as humanly possible. People want to feel cared for at any stage of whatever, wherever the economy is, whether it's booming or it's not, but especially now. So, you know, how we market is going to change based on the world. Like, you know, you, you hear a lot of coaches, b, two B coaches, business to business. Coaches will be like, you know, have that like big program and forget about, like, you know, don't charge small amounts. And I'm like, but that's not necessarily the case for everybody.
Right?
Like, it's. I don't think that there are these hard and fast rules that are often shared with coaches, but I do think that caring about people is really important to double down on that if you are going to, if people are going to feel it on the other end of the camera.
Absolutely. So before we get into kind of the business that you have today, I am curious. When you were bartending, you were building the brand, showing up, creating content. Do you remember what some of those early successes or early milestones were that made you solidify your belief that, like, I can actually do this and I can actually build this into a full time business for myself?
Yeah, I think, you know, I think a part of the, the things that were kind of coming. It sounds funny because I look at it and go, okay, well, I created a program and I remember it was a tiny little program and I think that I had just slightly broke even and I counted that as a win. It's like these little, small little wins that you get. You have to celebrate it like it's the biggest thing ever because it kind of keeps you going. And that was a big thing for me was I not only broke even, but I made a little bit of money on top of it. So I felt like, okay, well, there's something here. Like, I covered my costs, I made a bit of money, but more importantly, I built my list and now a bunch of people on my list. Like, at that time, I think I had like 700 new people on my list.
And I was just thrilled at the idea that now I can really nurture that because often with marketing, people are like, how many people can we get to? And I'm like, well, how deep can you go versus how wide can you go? I think is sometimes really important. So that was a really big one. I would be guest blogging a lot for various publications that felt really, really good as well. So those were some of the wins that definitely were happening in the early stages of it, or even something as small as when I did develop a video. And as I was doing more of it, I would celebrate the fact that I learned a new technique on an editing software that I didn't know before. I'm like, oh, wow, look at how cool that looks, right? Or look at how different this video looks to the next. I would always try to celebrate those little wins, and that's honestly in the early days, what kept me going, because I felt like those little wins meant that there was progress. Maybe not necessarily from the biggest financial progress, but it was still progress.
If I hadn't leaned on that and just, I think that if I just depended on money as being my marker of success, I would have given up a long time ago. So that was, it was all those little successes along the way. And sure, as you go through a program, you start, especially online courses, and I've done, I don't even know how many of them I've done at this point because I've done a lot and I've retired a lot of programs. But you learn a lot about how to create a program, and a lot of that comes down to understanding your people and getting really in touch with those people. I still do that to this day. So those were the things that I kind of counted as wins versus just the financial aspects of it. And the finances, they came. It's just, it takes time.
And you're right. If you put all of your eggs in the financial basket, you're going to be disappointed because that doesn't always come rolling in right away. Sometimes we need to celebrate ourselves for showing up five days in a row to create content or forgetting someone who said, oh, you said this one thing, and it really helped me to change course in my life. And it's those things that we're not getting praise from other people. Right. So in those early days, you really have to stop and give gratitude to yourself and appreciate what you've done. Otherwise, you kind of risk quitting because nobody's showing up at your desk, at the office and like dropping a cake on your keyboard. So it's important to self celebrate.
It really is. Like, you know, when you're in the early days, you have to kind of get to other people's networks. And that's why I did so much guest blogging, because I was getting on like mindbody Green or Elephant Journal and all these other publications to try to gain exposure on top of the creative work that I was doing, even for myself, say, on YouTube at that time. And that was really, really important. I see a lot of business coaches talk about one of the ways to grow on Instagram is comment on a colleague or a competitor or whatever their feed. I hate that piece of advice, because anytime that people do that, I know that you're not doing it authentically because it comes across like I can read it right. And I'm like, you're doing this as a self advantageous effort and it's really poor business advice in my opinion. If you're going to do that and you're going to establish connections and you're going to comment on my feed, then really walk in with the value of I want to establish a connection with this individual rather than being like, I want to comment on your feed because you have a network and I want to increase mine, I think is really poor business advice.
So that's something I never actually did. And I always deter people from doing that because it's something that I see often is either people are doing that or they're flexing these egoic muscles of like correcting another practitioner online to show how smart they are. And I'm like, don't do that because it looks really unprofessional. And this is not how you're going to grow your brand, by trying to, you know, pitch yourself on someone else's feed also. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. And honestly, I think you've shared some really valuable marketing tips that are very time honored because you were saying for the last ten years, not only were you building your own audience, so creating content on YouTube, blogging, but you also did the other very strategic thing that so many people ignore, which is how can you get your content onto other people's platforms, right? Where are those audiences that are already built up, like Mindbody Green, that you can simply drop your amazing value into? Because it's really hard to like bring people to Instagram and to have them find you or to have them find your website. But if you can get featured by an existing platform, that's such a strategic way to share value with an existing community. And I think that so often we're just like keyboard warriors. It's like I just have to keep creating more. More. But in reality, we also need to be developing relationships and partnerships and looking for those opportunities to leverage our own time, but also to share our gifts with communities that would love to hear from you or hear from me or hear from somebody else a thousand percent.
And it's, you know, as I was saying before, when you're cultivating creativity, even like you're developing something where you see someone's video, like someone would say, oh, yeah, your videos, when I was doing YouTube quite a bit, they're like, even the editing and all these quick cuts and stuff, they're just really great. That took a long time for me to build that. That was like, again, like playing a guitar. It takes time to cultivate that. But a big win for me back then was I started getting tv stations contacting me for casting calls at that time because they saw my on camera presence. So if you do want to do on camera and you're like, I want to be on tv. Although tv is very different than what it used to be when I was doing tv, like ages ago, then if that's what you want, then you have to also build your own platform to be on tv, which is which we have all these opportunities now, right, with YouTube, Instagram, all of that. So really work on your on camera presence within your own brand, and you will, as you cultivate that, will have a higher chance of getting noticed from stations, if that's what you're looking for.
Absolutely. So I want to fast forward a little bit because we're currently at the end of 2023, and marketing has changed and evolved so much, especially, I'm sure you've seen it since you started your business to where it is now. I am curious, before we dive into more of the business you have today and what you offer, what do you see is working in marketing right now as it relates to your business? So I know you know one of the platforms, you're very good on Instagram. But now that I hear your backstory, it's like you have that creative muscle. You want to be funny and witty and present the content in a way that women can be like, oh, my gosh, like, I do have a hormone issue, or, this is easy to digest, and it's fun to listen to Melissa. And it's cool that you've really been able to kind of merge your life skills and your passion and your career in advertising kind of bring it all together. But I am curious, what do you see is working in your business as it relates to exposure and marketing in 2023?
I think a big part of that was analyzing the business that I had. We did a big analysis of the company. I like being creative in the company. I like putting out a lot of content for some people that might feel very exhausting to them. For me, it actually fuels and fires me up.
Yes, okay.
But it was one of those things where I'm like, where am I getting the most conversions here? Because it's like I want to work smarter, not harder. Right? And that's why I actually walked away from YouTube and went into Instagram a bit more. Both Instagram and YouTube are about watch time, but with YouTube, you know that watch time might look like a ten minute video. That's a lot to produce, right? So Instagram became kind of an easy sell for me because I was like, well, I can do something with a 15 2nd video versus a ten minute video. I'm in. So I kind of worked into that. So that has worked for me quite a bit. You know, other things like there are definitely some automation stuff that has worked.
I mean, Manychat has been a really great application, you know, where you're just like, right, I don't know, thyroid guide in the comments and I will send you the link for my thyroid guide. And you know, that's been really quite a bit of a lifesaver that has been very, very helpful in the economic state that we are in. Like, I have some high priced items in my portfolio, without a doubt. Like I have an online school, which is in the thousands because it includes testing. But I have something at virtually every price point for people. You know, it's interesting because not long time ago there was this whole thing that I was seeing from b two b coaches, which was who were folding their memberships. Don't bother with memberships, memberships are dead. Charge more, blah, blah, blah.
And for me, my membership was a no brainer. We weren't losing money, we were gaining. I kind of looked at my membership like a bit of a tripwire. And for reference, for people who are listening in, a tripwire is like, you know, could be this really small priced offering that you can give somebody. That's like a no brainer cost, right? And yes, I look at this from a business perspective because I have to, because I want an entrepreneur. But on the other part, it's really great for people, especially in the health and wellness industry, where it's about trust. People need to be able to trust you, especially with the sheer amount of people that are out there that they're like, this person actually does give a shit about me and this person. I really do trust them.
It's like they're coming into my membership at a low cost. I'm in there like maybe twice a week. Yep, I have a couple of moderators. Like, it really is not a lot of work for me. So I've never folded it. Cause it didn't make sense for it. But those have become my hot leads.
Yeah.
Now it's like a lot of those women ended up going into the sexy autoimmune academy, which is my high ticket item. You know, you can see how much people have spent in the back portal of, like, you know, your platforms and it's amazing at how that evolution became, but some people need a little bit more time to be able to pull the trigger with various high priced offerings. And I felt like just driving people to a masterclass to then sell a high pitched offering can work for something some people, but not for all. So that has worked quite a bit for us, is having that membership platform there has been actually really helpful at all stages of the business. And I know that that's completely against what a lot of b, two B coaches will say because they'll be like, you need to have one, just one offering in charge, three grand for it, and that's what you do. Otherwise you're under selling your stuff. I don't necessarily believe that. Yeah, I just don't, you know, and I think with entrepreneurialism, you're going to have financial tentacles that are out there in different avenues.
Like, we have affiliates and we have our high priced offering and our lower priced offering. But tracking numbers is absolutely crucial. If you want to be an entrepreneur or you're in the beginning stages or in the middle or even later, there's no way you can grow unless you know your numbers.
Yep.
And you track them. When you track them, you can understand where. Where's the bleed coming from? Am I spending too much? Where can I cut some things? Like, we always audit the company at the end of the year to go, like, you know, we've spoken about before the things started rolling here was that we migrated platforms because, you know, especially in entrepreneurialism, it's like online, there's so many platforms and you need this one to connect with this one and this one to connect with this one, and then one thing fails and then the rest of them start to fail. And it's really frustrating. So we'd save thousands of dollars a month just by looking at systems that made sense or even thinking of, like, your currency is also your time and your energy. I am never, I will never go with a platform. I hate to say it, I'm never going to go with clickfunnels. I am never going to go with webinar jam.
Why?
If something fails, I have to submit a ticket that doesn't fly if I'm in a launch and I need someone to speak to now. Yep. So we moved away from various platforms also, and we're like, where can we get support? Because your currency, really valuing your currency in your company, understanding your numbers is huge, but valuing your currency is also not just looking at your numbers, but looking at where are you spending your time and energy. And that's really going to help to avoid a lot of the burnout as well so that you could focus on the things that you love to do. Right. People will say to me, how do you keep showing up online and, like, producing with all this content? I'm so tired watching you. And my answer is always like, well, then don't fucking watch me.
Yeah, like, if you're tired watching me.
Then don't watch me. I'm not tired of doing it. I'm having a blast doing what I do. But it's because I look at my currency, all aspects of it, and go, where can I trim stuff down so I can actually run my business as efficiently as possible? And I also have that personal space for my family. Yeah, entrepreneurs. Sometimes that stuff starts to fall by the wayside. You don't want that to happen.
You're hitting on something that I want to shout from the rooftop every single day, which is that there is no one size fits all, blanket piece of advice that everyone should be following. Like, you're going to see an ad on Facebook that says clickfunnels is the answer to all your problems. You're going to see or listen to a podcast that says you have to have one high ticket offer. And I think what's so valuable and what you just shared is that it comes down to experimentation. It comes down to, you said you've had tons of online programs, a lot of them retired, so you just kept listening and learning and launching something new that would meet the demands of the people right in front of you. And whether that was high ticket coaching, whether that's like, hey, they all just want a membership where they can have casual access. And then you're seeing, oh, when I give them casual access, some of them upgrade and actually end up buying my hundred dollar or thousand dollar programs. Like these are all learnings that are so custom to each business owner.
And yes, there's good marketing advice out there, but you really have to take it with a grain of salt. And I'm assuming you see this with health coaching, too. It's like there is not necessarily one diet or one supplement routine or one blood panel that everybody needs to take. It's like, guys, we have to realize that life and business are nuanced and to just take something as gospel and apply it to your business and then not look for ways to optimize or evolve is ludicrous.
And it's also, like, you are going to change. You're going to, like, imagine where you were five years ago. You know who Kelsey is now.
Yeah.
Well, a different person. Right. Like, I can't imagine. Like, when I retired, some of my programs, a part of it was, you know, this isn't really resonating with my people anymore. A part of it, a big part of some of these programs were, I don't want to do that anymore.
Yeah.
And if I'm not feeling lit up by an offering that I have, it's gone. I'm burning that shit down. It's gone because I want to focus on stuff that I love. And it's interesting because in the health and wellness industry, and there's no judgment with this at all, a lot of people who get in this industry will have their wellness to help the consumer, and then they'll get into the business side of things to coach on business, and that's totally fine. That's never been something I've wanted to do. I've been. People have asked me, oh, do you want to do this? Or maybe you can teach about creativity or what have you. I have no desire to do that.
It's like, you need to do things in your business that are going to light you up because there's going to be things in your business that are going to suck and they're unsexy. Because sometimes building a business is not sexy. I don't like doing giving stuff to my bookkeeper.
Yeah.
Hate writing emails for email funnels. It's my least favorite thing to do in business. So to be able to counter that out, I've got to make damn sure that I'm super fired up about other parts of my business. Otherwise, for me, it's not worth it because I'm the one who has to show up, and I want to make sure that I show up for people with, like, all of me. Otherwise, what's the point?
And so obviously, your role in the company has evolved so much. Can you tell us a little bit about where sexy food therapy is at today? The team you work with, and what do you spend your time doing? Because we know you want to focus on the things that do allow you to have fun and to play and to be creative. So be curious what that is.
And should you mean, like, things I like to do for fun personally?
So let's talk about where the business is at and, like, what your role in the business is today or what kind of fills your work week and what tasks do you leave on your calendar and on your plate versus delegate.
Okay. So I. I'm at a place as we at this time of our. This recording of this podcast, I have literally the best team possible. My team is an incredible, amazing group of women. I love them. That is such a blessing. And when you're an entrepreneur and you try to find people, you're going to go through so many people.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, keep going. If anyone is struggling with people, keep going. You will find the right people eventually. But I know it. I feel it. I've been there, but I have an amazing crew of women. We had about 15 people before on staff. I think now we're probably a little bit less than that.
And for no reason. We weren't like, oh, we got to downsize because of finances. It's just before we started rolling. Like, you can tell I was in film before, but, like, before we started recording this, I was saying how I was trying to pare down certain things, like optimize certain functions. And so that's what we did internally. It's like, do I need to be paying 15 people? I think that there's a honor with people in business, and this is not just online. I think it's just in general. It's like, I make.
So I. I make so much money, or I pay myself so much. I'm like, congrats, man. You pay a lot of in taxes. Like, who gives a shit? Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, it's so weird.
So weird. I have a seven figure company. Who cares? Like, what is your net? Gross. Seven figures. What's your net? To me, that's the most important. Like, I have. We went from 15. I think we're just maybe, like, maybe eleven people, I think now.
And it was just because I'm like, let's lean this stuff down and really optimize to be super efficient. Meant the world to me, and I'm super grateful for that. So my role in the company is I love to create, but it fires me up. I just want to create, and I want to study my two most favorite things. I love to read and I love to create. Cool. And so I have my right hand in the company. Jules, she is really funny.
She started off as a va. Yeah, as a va. Then became my OBM, my online business manager, and then she was doing a gazillion things and then almost left because she was doing a gazillion things. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Write down everything you do and let's actually figure out how we can get you to stay. And then she became. I made her my strategist. Cool for eight years.
That's unheard of. Okay. And so I come up with the creative, and then she. She comes up with a lot of the strategy in the company. I come up with the creative to back the strategy. I have a woman who is South African who lives in Mauritius. I call her my overnight elf because that's always done by the time I wake up. And so she creates all the systems in the process to back and to complement that.
So that's a really key part. We have two vas on my team. We have a couple of moderators for my group, and I love them. They're so darn smart and amazing. And even then, they started to put systems and processes, which is really important, is having that SoP that is so crucial. Start doing that in the beginning. Start creating a standard of. What is it? Standard of procedures.
System.
Standard operating procedures.
Yeah, create that stuff so you have a step by step plan, like someone's leaving, you know, on good terms. Cool. Get them to create something. So the next person walks in and you start to build off of that. Right?
Hey, visionary, do you remember why you got into business? Why you said yes to entrepreneurship in the first place? For so many of us, it's because of that freedom that it can bring and the joy of helping our clients and our customers transform their lives. But then we get bogged down with things like too much responsibility, decision paralysis, feeling so alone, and like we're doing this by ourselves.
And what's worse is that we can.
See everything we desire, and we just don't know how to get to that next level. So what if there was a space where you could actually come on a weekly basis to enrich your business, to hang around other impact driven and health and lifestyle anchored entrepreneurs and people who have shared values and really big visions like you do. My co host, Emily Elliott, and I run an exclusive mastermind for high performing female entrepreneurs. We are almost full, but we are accepting a few new members. So you can head over to kelsey rydell.com mastermind. If you've been looking for a community and a group of women just like you, this is a space that focuses on individual and shared success. We celebrate each other. We hold space for each other.
We coach each other. And Emily and I lead you through trainings. And we bring forward guest experts on the topic of luck, on money mindset, on things you can do to improve your sales, conversions, and so much more. Our group meets at the same time each week, every single Wednesday, and each month, we set our focus around key areas so that you can become the most resilient, motivated, and healthy entrepreneur possible. So we have strategy time, implementation time, but we also talk about relationships, mental agility, adventurous marketing, boosting conversions, etcetera. Again, this is an exclusive space for high performing female entrepreneurs, so head over to Kelsey Rydell.com mastermind to apply. You can see pricing, what it looks like to join who's in the room with us. And we definitely only have a few spots, so if you want to slide in, we would love to see your application come through.
In a given week. I always set aside a day for creative thing else. No one other than Jules and maybe the VA, one of my vas, my top VA, are allowed to contact me on that day.
And so are you, like, in a meditative state, journaling ideas, or are you, like, in front of the camera that day?
Sometimes it's a little bit of both. Sometimes it's none of it. Sometimes I am literally outside on a hike. Yep, sometimes when I was living in the city, because now I live in a tiny town in the mountains, but when I was in the city, I would go to the art gallery. Anything to be able to get me out of my head, because I think people in business will focus really on what their competitors are doing. I don't care what competitors are doing. Oh, my God. When I developed sexy food therapy, I was looking at, like.
Cause back then, the logo looked different. I was inspired by the simplicity of Mac cosmetics. The logo, I was inspired by Apple. How clean it was. Like, there was aspects. I was looking at home and interior design, like, design choices. Like, if you look at your colleagues or peers, which I have to touch on that, because that would be a huge one, because that was a big one. But if you look at other people who are in the same industry as, you never grow to the creative capacity that you will want to, because that nothing.
And it's no offense, I'm not throwing shade to anybody, but nothing. What everyone's doing in the wellness industry inspires me, and it doesn't because I get inspired about stuff outside my industry. I'm inspired by movies that I watch, where I'm looking at edits, or how something is filmed and framed. Like, yes, very, very different. Like, it's. That's where I get my creative source of inspiration. So Fridays are my creative days. Whatever that's going to look like.
Like. And once I get on camera, I know exactly how I'm going to shoot this because I don't go in going, what is the creative thing I'm going to do first I go into what's the value I'm going to give to people? What are the topics I'm going to focus on? Value first. Value first, value first. Then go to creative. You do it the opposite. You're going to drive yourself insane. So that's what I do on Fridays, I have only two days out of my week, which are call days. That's when I schedule all podcast interviews, calls for my weekly q and a calls.
And then I have other days that are when I'm really in it, like when I'm writing the emails that I hate writing, when I got to get stuff to my bookkeeper, like all those other things. But I kind of like those themed days. And everyone on my team also knows what to expect and it sets up that boundary and that expectation. And I also have a very hard stop most days for when I work. Like, I'm usually done by about 02:00 my time. Because after that, especially if you were the corporate world before, like, you feel like that's a bad thing. Like, I should be working till five or six, but my brain's right after too.
Yeah, there's nothing productive and there's always.
Going to be something to do. So like, just slap the computer shut. You're done. Yeah, we'll be there waiting for you tomorrow. Trust me. So that's kind of how my week is generally structured. But I do want to touch upon the difference between colleague and peer. This is so fucking crucial.
I hope I can swear.
Of course you can.
This is so crucial to anyone listening there. I honestly believe there are so many entrepreneurs out there who are worried about what their colleagues, quote unquote bunny ears think of them. Especially if you're in the wellness industry and you're not a doctor. There's this imposter syndrome. Like, I don't have enough value to offer because I don't have their credentials. Or maybe this person who's in the same industry as me is judging me because we're meaning story making machines, meaning making machines in our heads, right? We create all kinds of scenarios. My therapist had said this to me. She goes, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Your colleague or your peer? And I'm like, Elizabeth, that's semantics. She's like, it's not semantics. She goes, colleagues are people that you've established a rapport with, the people that you speak with, the people that you know, not even people you speak with, but like, people who, like, you've had banter with back and forth, right? Yep. I think that if you're in the online industry as long as I have. So, for example, I get trolls all the time. Honestly, it's like a ducks off a water off a duck's back.
At this point in my career, it.
Wasn'T always like that because they've commented on my hair, they've commented on my makeup. Like, you name it, it's always something, right? Practitioners who are trolling my account or, you know, user 13468 trolling my account, who knows, right?
Yep.
And I said to her, go, I don't care about those people because they're strangers. And she goes, here's what you have to understand. Your colleagues are the people you've established rapport with. Your peers are people you know of, but they're strangers. So all these people that you're talking about, about, oh, what do they think about me? And, you know, they don't take me seriously and I'm an imposter. Do you really know them? Are they really your colleague or are they your peer? Yeah. Oh, okay, well, I guess they're my peer. And she goes, so if you don't give a shit about what strangers think about you that are trolling your page, why do you care about what these peers do? Because they're nothing but strangers.
And that was a really big, like, weight off my shoulders because I had spent so much time worried because my brand is very sarcastic, humorous, that I used to always get very insecure about. Am I going to be perceived as smart enough, professional enough that, oh, she's just a lot of slapstick on camera. Like she's. She doesn't know what the hell she's talking about. Like, I've had practitioners correct me and I'm like. Like, you know, and I'm like, I have to create oversimplified terms sometimes because look who I'm talking to. Like, the average person hasn't studied what I study. I have to make simplified, and I want to make it funny.
So that was a really helpful thing for me to understand and differentiate between colleague and peer.
I love that. And you're right. Like, sometimes you just need to stay in your own lane because everybody's going to have an opinion, right? And if you ask for people to share, like, they will. And sometimes we don't even need to ask and they're just going to let you know what's on their brain. And I think those who can kind of keep their blinders on stay true.
To the vision that you have.
Like, I think you mentioned earlier, your vision is to help women with their hormones and their health. Like, keep that as the number one priority. Show up and build value there. And don't worry about what everybody else is doing, because they're all just copycatting each other. And is that working for them? Probably not. So I love that you've shared, um, just, like, the realness behind how you've kind of followed your intuition and built your brand. So if somebody's listening, they love your vibe. They want to know more about the programs that you offer or how they can connect with you.
What do you offer today, and where can we find you?
On the Internet, so you can find me@sexyfoodtherapy.com. Social media wise, I'm most active on Instagram. So you can just look up sexy food therapy, and you'll find me there. And, yeah, I mean, I work with women who are struggling with their hormones and autoimmune conditions. So if you're also struggling with that and you're trying to build a business, I get it, because I've been in those same shoes.
Yeah.
It might be some help for you and maybe even to inspire you that, like, never try to copy someone. Imitation is not a form of flattery. Innovation is so innovate. That's a really important thing. And then last but not least is just try to do your best to remember that you are not your business. Your business is separate from you. If you always are taking everything to heart. Like, I, this didn't go well.
So it's a reflection of. Right, of my worth. You're gonna. I did that for years. It's just, you've got. You got to make sure that you create that separation. But, I mean, maybe one day we'll put that as a part two.
Yeah. And just to close that off, would you say then that when things don't go well in business, sometimes it's just data that we need to make an informed decision to relaunch the product? Or, you know, like, it's not about you as the creator. It's like, oh, this just didn't meet the needs of my client, but I can just shift that. And that's okay.
Yeah, you can shift it, and it is. It's just data. And also to look at it and go, you know, because I used to go in from, like, overwhelm and because, like, especially if you're in business for a long time, like, people always show the. All the things that went right. Every successful entrepreneur has gone through multiple crappy launches where something has failed or maybe work out the way that they had anticipated. But I've noticed that the times when I have really sunk into those depths of despair where I'm like, oh, my God, I'm a failure. I'm a failure. And I'm like, failure isn't a feeling, it's a belief.
And the problem with this is that when we're focused so heavily on those depths of despair moments, it's not actually our true selves at the core. That that's your ego speaking, right? Like, if you actually are going back to the value of helping people, you're going to go and look at this, your company, as a separate entity, and go, as you said, this is just data, and that's it. And I can look at this and go, how can I make this better? Because not all hope is lost. You can always change things around. You can relaunch it as something different. That's how you have to look at it. But if you're sinking into the depths of despair, just understand this is not something to knock people, but it is the ego talking. And hopefully that can help people to get out of it and go, there's so much more for you on the other side.
You can find joy back in your business because we all go through those moments of ruts and highs and lows. So.
Yeah, well, thank you for sharing the whole backstory. And yes, I'm sure we could have spoken forever, but you are a wealth of knowledge as it relates not only to health, but also in just navigating the journey of building a business, navigating the online world. So we really appreciate your time today, Melissa, and we wish you all of the best, and we'll link all of.
Your programs and your Instagram in the show notes. So thank you so much, visionaries. I actually have the most exciting invite for you. If you're listening to this before Wednesday, May 15, I want to invite you to attend a virtual lakeside chat with Melissa Ramos, today's guest. So she's going to be sharing the secrets of online success. How to stay creative, lessons learned from ten years of running her online wellness business. How to master Instagram marketing. Melissa is actually a genius when it comes to creating reels that resonate with her dream clients.
Then you want to be at this session, so you can just dm me on Instagram. I'm Elsie Rydell. Or send me an email, hello.com. Do it right away because this session is free. It's on Wednesday, May 15, and Melissa Ramos is coming to hang out with us for an hour.
It's virtual.
I'll send you the zoom link when you sign up and this is such a wonderful chance to go a little bit deeper on this episode and to pick Melissa's brain. She doesn't do this very often, so this is super special. So if you're interested, send me a DM on Instagram elsiereidle. Just send me the word Melissa and I'll know exactly what you're looking to attend or email me. Hello at kelsey kelseyridel.com and I can't wait to see you for this lakeside chat with Melissa Ramos. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life.
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