EP 14: CREATOR & AUTHOR OF THE 52-WEEK JOURNAL SERIES - MINDI MILLER

ep-14-Creator/Author of the 52 Week Journal series / Mindi Miller

Michelle: Hey there. I'm Michelle Sherrie and this is the Retail Whore Podcast, The Stories and Lessons from the life and retail. Hey, guys. Welcome back. I'm recording this on a Sunday. I just wrapped up my day for Bert's pharmacy. We went in and turned all the apparel and all the merchandise over to fall. I will tell you, I know it's no secret. It is extremely shocking to see what has not come in. I know everyone's been dealing with this and this is just part of COVID and the process of having hundreds of ships out on the water and the whole lag time of getting the ships off the water and your products into your store. But it was it definitely was eye opening because I'm not there at the store to receive it. So I really don't see what's come in until I'm actually there. And part of me is really happy. I did not order straight up holiday goods because something tells me they would not be here. So it's really going to be making it up as you go and creating that fall and holiday look with everyday items, which I'm kind of down for, because I'll be honest, a lot of times, at least for us at the pharmacy, it's on the floor, you know, Target and the big box people, everyone puts their stuff on sale and then all sudden your stuff, stuff stop selling. And next thing you know, you're either putting it on sale yourself or you're boxing it up to the next year. And neither of those are great options. So it'll be interesting. Reimagining everyday goods to make them look like fall and Christmas.

Michelle: So that was my first little peek at that this afternoon. But today's interview is with Mindy Miller. She created the 52 Week Journal. And I will tell you, I love this interview because it totally took me by surprise. You know, 90, 99% of the time I get we we get the information in the bio from the person. And I already know a good deal about most of them. Mindy is my friend Rob Henry's wife, and she created this journal and did it during a healing process for herself that they were in a horrific accident while they were traveling. Traveling, I believe they were in South America. And this was her way of healing and kind of spending some time taking her mind off of the doctor's appointments and dentist appointments that she was in. Pretty much constant, constant visits from the day after this accident. And the part that I loved this most about this interview is that I there is so much about Mindy I did not know that was not in her bio that is so amazing. And she spent a great degree of a great deal of time in Retell. And her philosophy of retell is phenomenal. So that that one kind of kind of surprised me because I was interviewing her for just thinking the 52 week Journal and I was not prepared for all the wealth of knowledge that she talks about from her history and retell. She spent some time at Playboy. We talk about that a little bit, which I can't wait. So without further ado, here's Mindy Miller and her interview with the Retail Park podcast. Hey, Mindy. How are you?

Mindy : I'm good. How are you?

Michelle: I'm good. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm sure you are very busy, so I'm super grateful that you've spent there spending some time with me here.

Mindy : Well, thank you for having me.

Michelle: Just so everyone knows the background, like I haven't met you before, I don't believe. But your lovely husband. Back in the day when the LA Mart was in its heyday and all 12 floors were going and we had video and camera like your husband was the photographer and the video person for the LA Mart. And I've had the chance to work with him several times and I adore him. How is he doing? He's doing.

Mindy : Great. I adore him too. Yeah, no, he was super excited when I said that I was doing a podcast with you. He, you know, he was real happy that that was happening.

Michelle: He's sweet. And I you know, because I've always I've seen you guys. I've kind of followed your relationship as you've gone along. And so when I saw your news project, I was like, I need to reach out. So here we are. And you have according to your bio, you have done a lot. And I the only one I know about is I believe you were producing with the Playboy Channel.

Mindy : Yeah. So not that's not my most recent, but one of our jobs. In fact, that's how I met my lovely husband was as a producer for the Playboy Channel, making some fun content for men and women who happen to watch the Playboy Channel and watch together.

Michelle: I love it. So tell me more about because according to this, you've done retail, you've done wholesale, you're also also working as a mentor with at risk teens. Kind of tell us, take us through your career and tell us more or less where not what you're doing now, because I want to lead into that next. But like what you've done your career, it's led up to you here. Well.

Mindy : Like most young people, I spent a lot of time hanging around the mall when I was a pre-teen and a teen. We had a mall in Chicago called the Water Tower Place. It was a relatively new mall when I was younger, and it was a unique mall in that it was built as it only had one anchor, which most malls. The math is you have to have two anchors and six shoe stores. And this one not only did not follow that math, but it also focused on having unique stores that weren't chains and it focused on having a lot of men's stores. So they had some of the premier men's clothing in there. It was cool. And I and I used to hang out there at a store called Fiorucci, which.

Michelle: Oh my God, I love Fiorucci. And that's kind of coming back because Beverly Hills is coming back. So I'm hoping Fiorucci's right on its tails.

Mindy : I loved Fiorucci. It was an amazing place to hang out. I mean, Andy Warhol did a thing there. I mean, it was so spectacular, unique and interesting. And they had a makeup bar and I would go there and the girls that work there like to play with my hair. I have long hair and and my makeup. They would make up all over me and I was like 12 or something, I don't know. And I'd come home with these crazy colors and my mother thought it was amazing. And and that was sort of what I did until, you know, eventually you have to get a job.

Michelle: How old were you when you first started working?

Mindy : 15 at the mall? Yeah, yeah, 15. And I got a store, a job at a store called Arcadia, and they had those two. Remember the Frankie Says Relax T-shirts that everyone was wearing? Yeah, yeah. We sold those. Among other things. It was super fun. And in a pretty short period of time, I ended up becoming a manager, an assistant manager there, and used to have to close the store. The owner of the store liked us to stay open until the movie theater, which is right next to us, closed their last movie. Well, that meant it was like midnight.

Michelle: Midnight. Oh, my God.

Mindy : Yeah. So I was always on the closing shift, and I had that bag of money that used to have to deposit at the bank. So, you know, I was like a 15, 16 year old.

Michelle: You're still in high school pullin' those hours?

Mindy : Yeah.

Michelle: Holy hell. How did you get your school work done?

Mindy : I might have been a pretty bad student. Me too. Yeah, let's say, but. Yeah and yeah. So, I mean, I would just. I would work real late hours and then, you know, 17 years old. I remember meeting people who are older. I dated a guy who was in his thirties because he was shopping at the store. Yeah, this was. That was my.

Michelle: Life. Wait. Okay, what year is this?

Mindy : That would be eighties and, you know, 86, 87, that area. And, you know, we had this he the manager of the store, the owner of the store, rather. He liked to answer the phone. It's a great day at Arcadia and Water Tower Place. This is Mindy. How can I help you? Every single call was supposed to be whether or.

Michelle: People still answer their phones like that. I'm like, Wow.

Mindy : That's a.

Michelle: That's a.

Mindy : Mouthful. It was a mouthful. And I and I used to just say, Arcadia Water Tower. Mindy, how can I help you? But I was a manager, so I once had to tell all the other people there you look, you have to answer the phone the right way. And they're looking at me like you don't. And I said, Watch. And the next phone call, I said, It's a great day at Arcadia in Water Tower Place. This is Mindy. How can I help you? And sure. Shit. That was the owner of the store.

Michelle: By the grace of God.

Mindy : God. But eventually I moved out from there and moved into some other stores and I worked at these hilarious niche stores. One was called Hats in the Belfry that sold hats, just hats. One was called Not Crazy Keynote, which was again catered to the men. It was just neckties and bow ties.

Michelle: Wow. It's actually sounds pretty like forward in its time.

Mindy : It was forward in its time that the store was owned by was Bigsby and Crothers of very well known men's clothing shop and they opened up this little secondary shop. It makes me incredulous. Only the men were allowed to. Only men were allowed to sell to the men. Women worked behind the register or something like that, but only men sold to men. In this case, they wanted women working in the stores. I didn't realize how sexist the store was until I got called in to get my own store. And I went to meet with the the vice president, Jim Power. I believe his name was Jim Powers. And he said he called me in to meet with him and I happened to be wearing what I always wore, which was sort of menswear. The eighties, you know, is men's wear. Right. And I used to put a tie on at work. I would choose one of the ties and I sold a lot of ties. So they wanted to give me my own store and I went to go meet him and my manager panicked because I was wearing pants and I couldn't understand why she was panicked. And I went to the main office and I walked in and I saw every single woman wearing skirts and high heels, and they took a look at me in my pants and my menswear looking shoes.

Michelle: And I just walked in.

Mindy : And they looked at me like I was an alien. Who is this? And I remember walking into the office and the guy took one look at me and the meeting was over before he even began. Shut up. I didn't get my own store. I, you know, I ended up having to leave there because it was never going to get a promotion because I didn't wear skirts and heels.

Michelle: I guess that really did.

Mindy : I mean.

Michelle: You think about I guess that really was the way it was then, which is just insane to me now.

Mindy : Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was, you know, I was a killer salesperson there, but he couldn't get past the skirts and heels on me, so. Yeah.

Michelle: Oh, my God. So how long were you? Were all these stores in the same mall?

Mindy : All the same mall and working it? After that, I left him and I went to so called Pavo Real, which sold, remember, Coogi sweaters?

Michelle: Oh, God, yes. God, you're just like pulling out all the eighties stuff.

Mindy : I love it. I sold so many thousand sweaters to all the football players and hockey players and baseball players, like everyone who came through their hotel was right next door and they would come and shop for me. I had special orders, these giant massive three XL Coogi sweaters for $1500 bucks.

Michelle: And back in that day, that is so much money.

Mindy : It was so much money.

Michelle: It was the Bill Cosby sweater.

Mindy : He wore those, but he wore he wore all the stupid sweaters that these guys everyone had to have a coogi. If you were a if you were a football player or a baseball player, whatever it was. And I love the football players. I love the hockey players. The baseball players and the basketball players were all dicks, but they still bought the sweaters, too.

Michelle: Most I have the most hilarious story. My best friend who Elisa, who you've been working with back and forth on on coordinating this. Her son, Tanner, has a sense of style that I've never seen in a kid. And like we're talking like this kid was like, I think six and wanted like a top hat to wear to school. Love it, love it. And he came home from school. I think he was like ten or something. And they were asking what he wants for Christmas and he's like, I want a Coogi sweater. And she's like, Excuse me?

Mindy : He's like.

Michelle: I want a sweater, you know, like the one that know like it was because Bill Cosby was kind of like that. And she's like, I don't even think they make those anymore. It's like, No, mom, they're like vintage now. I'm like, Where does this kid get the sense of style? It's crazy.

Mindy : How did he even know I'm a name?

Michelle: Six year old wants to wear a freaking top hat to school. I love it. T-bone is his nickname, and T-Bone has, like, the most I mean, he's always had this odd sense of style. It's hilarious.

Mindy : Though. Well, that's great. And you got a foster that because I think men aren't given enough. There's so many options for women, although all our stuff is cheaply made, but there are so many options for us. Men Square is usually made better, but they don't have as many options. And it's changing now. I think men are getting a lot more options. Well, it's.

Michelle: Funny, like because I when I was at Fred Segal, I worked at Fred Segal axis, which was all menswear and it was Axis, the men's line. And then Michael brought in like I think there was denim and and then he opened a second, the second space and it was higher end suiting. And, you know, it was so.

Mindy : It.

Michelle: Was I was so in a bubble. You don't realize, like, you know, like I just thought that's what menswear was like. And then you start going out and realizing there's really not that there wasn't that much menswear, menswear to choose. It's like surfwear, activewear, and then suiting in that in between, there's not a lot and it's still it's still feels like there's not. I mean, my husband only wears surfwear, so I mean, but I still feel like there are a lot of middle ground for guys to I mean, for like casual menswear.

Mindy : When I left Paul, I moved into structure, which was the men's line men's store Limited Right, which then became part of Olympic walking for the past. Yeah.

Michelle: I know though. It's like.

Mindy : What? You're the only one. What is a structure? People are like, you know. Yeah, but structure that was that middle ground where, like, dudes wanted to be stylish and have stylish pants and stylish shirts that fit or stylish sweaters. But there was, you know, there wasn't anything like that. Everything was either like suits like like the other store that I was talking about or, you know, cash, cash, clothes. And and I think structure and those other stores like that that that focused in on that middle ground where you get to look nice, where men actually have a chance to buy a decent looking sweater or not something trendy or something stupid.

Michelle: Yeah, I love I love selling to men. That was like, I can imagine you must have killed I honest to God. Like, that was still, like, the most fun of working with men. And, and, you know, we, we all had client books, so it was calling them when stuff came in. And it just they once you had them as a client, they literally never left your side. It's still.

Mindy : So true. I prefer I mean, I just prefer shopping or I was selling to men. Men, you know, it was an interesting thing I learned in the men's section. Usually when you walk into a men's section of a of an anchor store, a big store right up front, you will see a stack of of white t shirts and Navy t shirts, something like that. Or, you know, they make men's shopping super easy. They don't have to go very far. It's right up in front. They grab their shirts, they grab their socks, they grab whatever. But they really want help in those other areas. Like, how do I look? Good. And all you gotta do is pay attention to them, and that's it. And they're their customer for life.

Michelle: Yeah, I still it's funny, I still have a couple football players that I'm still friends with from when I was at Fred Segal. And it's funny to like every now and then like I'll run it like I am still friends with AC Cowlings and like I'll still run into them and it's like those guys like and that's how I met them and that's still how I'm friends with them. Is, is that relationship that you have from that both customer service and I think they end up being your friends.

Mindy : They do that. You know, they're just not crazy. They're they're they're just sweet and they just want stuff and they want it fast, you know, they don't want to, like, dilly dally. They don't want to look around. Yeah. And if you could, if you could walk in hand them stuff, they go, yeah, and they move on. They're thrilled.

Michelle: Take note for everybody that's listening to this. That's customer service and retail.

Mindy : So true. They do not want all the options. The ladies like looking at a lot of options and looking around, taking their time, touching everything. And dudes just usually want to walk in and have you say, Here, this is what's going to look good on you.

Michelle: My husband.

Michelle: We're about to call him out on this.

Michelle: My husband's favorite store is TJ Maxx, which I'm like, Blow my head off now. And I have never gone with them. And I often said, I'd love to be a fly on the wall and watch you shop. TJ Maxx and Marshalls and those giant rounders that make me insane, like. And he'll go through. He gets the stuff because it's like all the surf lines sell their stuff and then he'll go. But just the idea of him shopping one of those stores.

Mindy : I can't I can't even manage. So I can't handle those stores. I got so much stuff. There's no organization and you can't. Where are you finding anything? I can't handle those stores.

Michelle: I don't have.

Mindy : Patience. So my husband, your friend, he loves Costco. Like there's a he calls it Dad by Costco. That's literally what he calls his clothing line. And everything is like, you know, the white polo shirt, the tan cargo shorts, total brother. Have you ever seen the cargo shop? Right. That's it. He loves D&D because it's his favorite. Hilarious.

Michelle: So how did you make the jump from retail? I mean, what was in between retail and producer or do you just go straight?

Mindy : Well, no, wholesale. So I have so many friends who owned retail stores. I was hanging out at a girlfriend store and her rep came in to start showing her some stuff. I happened to be there and I was making comments and I was I was selling stuff while she was you know, she was I was selling her stuff as a rep. And the rep turns to me and said, like, what are you doing right now? And I said, All right. You know? And she said, I come work for me, please. So she ended up poaching me out of retail and putting me into wholesale. And I, I had 30 plus lines that I was manufacturer's rep for. So I went from peddling to peddler to or from selling stuff, being the peddler to peddling to the peddler.

Michelle: Were you back is this back in the day when you were schlepping all this shit in garment bags and you load it on to the role? I mean, they still do that now, but it's like it seems like there was less showrooms then and more like schlepping.

Mindy : Well, we had a showroom, but only for the shows in Merchandise Mart. But it was mostly it was Chicago. Yeah, at the Mart. And I was a gift market. So we had we had a lot of publishers, chronicle books, which is one of my favorite lines still to this day. You know, and then Manhattan toy.

Michelle: And so you are a gift manufacturer. So I was for some reason, thinking you were in fashion.

Mindy : I was I was in fashion up until I became a manufacturer's rep. You know, I went to the shows as a buyer and fashion love, the New York shows, love, Vegas, obviously magic. But then when I became a rep, I was in the gift market, thank goodness, because schlepping clothes all over the place.

Michelle: Yeah. Your catalogs in some sense, it's it's you had some great lines because I you know, there's still around. I mean, it's I still I mean, chronicles one of my lines that was Stephen Young that I don't display the book room. But I mean, like books are still one of my favorite categories to buy.

Mindy : So we crossed over a lot with a lot of what Stephen Young had. We had, you know, we're Midwest reps and so we had so many of the same lines, it's even. Yeah. And chronicles one of the best out there that you could possibly have. I wrote orders all day long. I wrote orders in my sleep because people would just email me saying, I need more of these books.

Michelle: They're still I mean, still to this day, still one of the biggest. And I one of my clients is a five store pharmacy and I do their buying and books is still always one of my top top departments.

Mindy : Think if books are amazing and you know I mean we had Abrams too and Hachette and oh my God.

Michelle: You have all the same lines.

Mindy : All the same lines. I mean, the rep group, Kelly and crew.

Michelle: Are they still.

Mindy : She's still around. Yeah. Wow. And still has and still carries chronicle.

Michelle: That's that's crazy. So when I said we were winging this, like, I had no idea any of this. So I'm like, Wow, this is perfect.

Mindy : Yeah. You know, all those things that I did, I knew you would know all of them.

Michelle: But how long did you how long did you manufacture rep for? And did you so did you. How long did you for? And then did you like selling? The customer at the retail level, or did you like the wholesale level better?

Mindy : So, you know, when you're when you're selling to the customer, as you know, in retail, it's never about the product. It's about the person, right, who you're selling to. It doesn't matter what you're selling. You change how you sell it based on the person you're selling it to. And when you're selling as a manufacturer's rep, you're selling to the retailer. Well, they're a little more savvy. So you can't pull those retail tricks. You know, you have to know their store. You have to know who their customer.

Michelle: Amen! Okay. Can you say that one more time again? Because that is...Kelly from Kingfisher Road always says like, what I don't understand is when reps will come to they come to the back door, they don't walk the store at all and they don't even realize what we sell and they're pulling things out. And that was even when I was buying for Sweet Echo. People would be like, This is the top seller. And it's like, That's great, but it has nothing to do with my store. But it's blowing out everywhere. It's like, but it has nothing to do with. Do you. Have you been to my store? Like, have you spent the time.

Mindy : You have to do you have to do your research? And the only time that I, I there was a store in Chicago that I brought. There's a book called What's Your Poo Telling You? And it's still out there. It's a great book. And I mean, I could sell this all the time, but I, I literally had to say to the owner of the store, just take six. And if they don't sell, I will buy them from you like it's and I mean, as as a customer, I will come in and buy them from you just take six. And she was so like pissed about it. She didn't want to do it. She knew her store. I knew her store. I never crossed any lines with her. I always made sure to get only one waste time with these retailers like they don't have time for this. I insisted she take this book and I don't know how long it was. Maybe two weeks later she sends me an email. I need a dozen more, and then a couple of weeks later I need two dozen more. Like she just kept blowing them out and I never said to her like, See, but you know, I just knew that this was going to be something that would do well in her store, because I had done the research. I know what her customer base is. I knew who was coming in there. And she just she just didn't want it because it just didn't look like something that she wanted. I knew it was going to be perfect for her. I sold so many of those books to her.

Michelle: I know there's books like that that there's one book f that meditation, I think it is and it's like they've start out the you. So it's not as in-your-face but I mean I was like, okay, I'll try six. And then it was like now I'm like, I'll take 48 and it's and it's at one point where it's like because I have a rule about reorders, it's like you can only reorder something so much, but then you have bread and butter lines that just will drive that all that's stupid book is like.

Mindy : It sells itself. Yeah, yeah. There are certain books that just sell themselves. You just put a stack. It's a great gift book. People want to give it to people. People want to own it themselves. And those there are certain books that are like that that are timeless too, you know, are just evergreen. Yeah, I love it.

Michelle: And how long were you manufacturers for?

Mindy : So I was a rep for years. And then I moved to I moved from Chicago to Los Angeles and I had to give notice to my owner. And she was so angry with me for leaving her that she didn't talk to me for months. She was so upset. She was so upset because I was I was her Chicago rep. I mean, like I was. I was selling all the Chicago stuff.

Michelle: Yeah, but people move on. I mean, like, good god, I know.

Mindy : I love her, though. She's such a sweet lady. She's the kindest person. But she was just so angry that I was leaving. She couldn't she couldn't talk to me. And then I came to Los Angeles and I ended up getting a job as the the sales manager of a furniture store called Bella Cottage. And what what my what the owner there did was buy up vintage furniture and then paint it white and put on those little appliqués and then sand on the application and presto, change all. You have a shabby chic furniture, right? And she was it. She was the one doing it and I was her sales manager and she she did not like talking to she like talking to customers, but she certainly didn't like talking to irate customers. And I love irate customers. I love. Wow. You know, the key to upset customers is the higher and hotter they get, the lower and cooler you get. So when they get people, when they start yelling, you just get calmer and calmer. There's nothing they can do. They can't fight with you. That's. Ever. It's so much fun. Just. Just watching. Just diffusing them. They can't.

Michelle: You can't pick a fight. You became the diffuser.

Mindy : I was the diffuser. I was their sales manager. I was in charge of all their sales and sold all that furniture until until I was offered an opportunity at Playboy. And then.

Michelle: That's it. That's quite a jump.

Michelle: But sales manager. And now I'm going to Playboy, like.

Mindy : Well, I missed the men. You know, I got to say, the men weren't coming into shabby chic furniture, so I bet I had none at all. So I had to find some dudes. And the great place to find them was. Was Playboy.

Michelle: So what did you start with Playboy doing or did you go right into production?

Mindy : No, in Playboy, I was first brought in as a researcher. And again, just like researching, you know, stuff to sell and who you sell it to. I was researching for them and I was researching for a show that they were doing called it Swing. I can't remember what show I was on when I first came in, but I was doing research and figuring out what should be in each episode of each show. Oh, for some walk of shame, I think it was Sony. We had this other show that I did research for that it was a show where we had to go on and go every day. I would come into the office and I would try to find really funny moments in porn, like actual porn or ridiculous moments in sex across the world. And so every morning the first thing I would do was look on the news in Florida and Germany because there was always somebody doing something stupid with their penis in Florida.

Michelle: Oh, my God. Kevin & Bean said the same thing.

Mindy : Oh.

Michelle: Some episode years ago, I still remember them saying it's always the idiots in Florida that do Florida stupid with their penis.

Mindy : It's always Florida. If someone was going to get their junk stuck in a hole in a bench in Florida, if someone was stealing, breaking in and stealing like, you know, blow up towels. Florida, always Florida.

Michelle: I don't know if I'm going to regret asking this, but what was the craziest story of Florida?

Mindy : Oh, man, there's so many. That's a that's an excellent question. There's just there's literally so many. I think some of my favorites might be stupid tattoos of people in Florida. One person had a tattoo on his leg that stuck out from his shorts that looked like dick and balls tattooed onto his thigh. Always Florida never fails.

Michelle: And Germany was German.

Mindy : Germany. So Germany.

Michelle: Was.

Mindy : Weird. They like their they're weird sex in Germany. Like, you know, if you're if it's like someone being vacuum sealed into a giant latex table with only a straw to breathe through, that's Germany.

Michelle: So not where I thought this is going.

Mindy : I love it. But every day I would come in and I would look at the German news and I would look at the Florida news and then I would watch porn the rest of the day looking for something funny.

Michelle: Oh, my God. My husband. I don't know what he worked on, but he, I guess, had done he was a grip. And I think he was.

Michelle: Electrical, I think. But he was always talking about like he was on a couple of porns and I guess there was one. Jenny. Jenny is a Jenny Macfarlane who's MTV blond.

Mindy : Oh, yeah, I know who you're talking about. Her name will come to me, but I know exactly.

Michelle: I guess they had some shoot with Jenny in her prime heyday, and he got to rub.

Michelle: Butter or mayonnaise or something on her like.

Michelle: So was this. And he's like, it's just after a while, it just. It just doesn't. It's not porn anymore.

Mindy : It's just especially when you're shooting it. When you're shooting it, it's really not porn. I mean, it's, you know, you're he's watching other things. He's, you know, he's trying to make sure that the lighting looks good or that things aren't going to fall on the performers. You sort of paying attention to other things. And when I was watching it, I was looking for the found funny, not the stuff when they're trying to be funny, but when, you know, when they're when they're trying to think terrible stuff that I shouldn't share on this, but, you know, just the things that you would go, are you kidding me? That was actually in a movie that actually happened. You know, just laugh out loud, funny stuff.

Michelle: And you get Rob during this.

Mindy : So Rob doing yeah. So we brought Rob in who by the way, hates porn and he was like, I'm not doing anything with porn. And I was like, This isn't porn. It's okay. It's just funny. And but we were having real. Problems with one of our shows. And Rob's a fixer. I mean, he's he's one of the most skilled editors you're going to come across and colorists. You're going to come across. And we brought him in to fix some problems that we were having. And he did such a great job. I thought, Well, I guess I could marry him.

Michelle: You knew. You knew then?

Mindy : No, I didn't know I was going to marry him then, but. But I knew I didn't want him to get away, that's for sure. Yeah. No, I mean, from editing. Oh, okay. But he was. He was our editor and our colorist on a lot of shows that needed some love. And and I made him work really, really hard to to get things right. And he he hates porn, but he loves a challenge, and I definitely give him some hard challenges there.

Michelle: You must be a bit of a perfectionist.

Mindy : I'm assuming, you know, I mean, if I can see it, other people can see it. Right. So I just I don't need things going out looking bad, even when it's a content like that. You just don't want if my name is on it, I don't want it to look bad. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah. And he was he was able to figure out how to fix all the things I pointed out, and he would. He loves a challenge. So he would find other things and say, I could do that, I could fix that, I can make that look better, even when I wasn't asking. So it was it was really nice to have that at my disposal. Maybe that's why the market looks so good then is that's great. He's really, you know, he's great. Even if I wasn't married to him, I'd still hire him a sideline.

Michelle: What does he do? What's he working on right now?

Mindy : So we just read Shark Week, another year of Shark Week and we have our own production company now. We do post and production for a lot of different commercial agencies and a lot of different things. And then we also are busy trying to sell our own content. So in fact, he's out there right now cutting a sizzle that we're going to bring to Amazon and Netflix and back to some of the networks to try and resell something that we sold earlier that we did a to Amazon, but then the pandemic hit and we had to shelve it. Yeah, we're redoing it.

Michelle: I. I. I wonder, because I'm going to go into like, what? What you're doing now or what brought me to you. You were very open about your accident that you had and so open that you pretty much documented it through Facebook all along the way. And you were very like graphic content, just.

Mindy : Warning, trigger warning.

Michelle: So you guys travel a lot. And I always watched where you guys and you guys have some amazing trips and this trip obviously did not end. So tell because I wanted to hear the story. I mean I've I've read it bits of it but tell if you if you don't mind tell tell us about this vacation that went wrong.

Mindy : Yeah, we are. We're big travelers. Our goal is to work, to travel. And we don't we don't buy stuff. We just love going places, meeting people and experiencing new things. And we had planned for a big birthday trip, ten countries, 50 days. And we were we had started off in Colombia and we were in Peru. And my son had flown out to join us in Peru so that we could go to much Picchu and things like that. He's an avid hiker and on our very first day in Peru, we went to see some ruins and we were on a tour bus, which we normally don't do. Normally we do these things ourselves, but, you know, these are ruins. We really wanted to get the background and whatnot and we're in an accident. The tour bus driver hit a car crossing the road and it was there were two fatalities in the car. The man driving the car and a 12 year old girl died in the car. And I was thrown forward in my seat and hit my face against the the seat rest in front of me, which was basically fabric over metal and my two by four front teeth, but my two front teeth got knocked out and shoved up into my skull. And I'm bleeding everywhere. And I turn and I look and my husband Rob is safe and my son is safe. And they turn and look at me and the look on my son's face. I've never seen a look like this before because I am I'm a mess. My mouth is distorted and blood is everywhere because. Well, nose bleed. Yeah. And. You know, he starts looking around for my teeth. We didn't realize they were shoved up in my skull at this point. Oh, my God. And my face is disfigured because of it. And we get off the bus, and I could feel them in there. And I don't know what's going on.

Michelle: And I'm assuming at this point you now have gone into shock, basically.

Mindy : Yeah. And these this lovely couple that we're driving by saw me and they put me in their car and drove me down into the city because we're in the middle of nowhere at this point, drove me down into the city to take me to a clinic where she had those woman in the car advocated for me speaking Spanish because, again, it's all Spanish. And she helped talk to the people at the front desk. And as we're there and I don't quite know how this happened, I'm not getting helped. There's a lot of people there and she's trying her best. And I'm sitting there thinking, I'm not even getting antibiotics. No one's really seeing me. I'm sitting on a dirty table somewhere. And the embassy calls, the US embassy calls and asks to speak with with us. And they call the hospital. And the hospital looks around and says, this is Robert there and they start advocating for us how they how they found us there. But all of a sudden, things started happening. And I started to get treatment. I was put into a room and it took quite a few days before I had the surgery and got out of the surgery and had my teeth pulled out of my face. I still have the teeth. You surprised? Right. Do you remember that? Do you remember some of those pictures were.

Michelle: I mean. Well, one I mean, there is so much what was going through my head that I wanted to just knowing you. So through social media I wanted to reach out and just like, how are you? Like what? I mean. It's unfathomable, but it's also could happen to anybody in in in. My first question is, did the bus have seatbelts? Because most of them don't.

Mindy : They did, but they had these old flimsy lap belts and I had mine on. But there's you know, there's nothing.

Michelle: To stop you in the lap. I mean, yeah, stop your forward trajectory.

Mindy : And they're all the seats are real close together. So my head just went right into the seat in front of me and you know, so people follow my Facebook because I post beautiful travel pictures of gorgeous places and then all of a sudden I'm posting these horrifying pictures of my mouth that no one wants to see that kind of truth trauma. That mouth trauma.

Michelle: How how did you I mean, was it just your decision? Like, fucking I'm just going to I'm going to post my journey like you literally. It was like like just that, like, you know, thinking no one wants to see it, but everybody was obviously like, you're horrified, but you're glued to it. Like, what now? Like, how is she like.

Mindy : You know, because it was also to me, it was it was awful to look at, but it was also really interesting. I love this stuff. If I were a person following it, I would want to see these pictures. I would I love seeing stuff like this. And I thought, there's got to be someone out there like a researcher. You know, if those images were shocking, they were so cool, so cool to look at. I look back at them now and I know it's my face, but wow, they're cool to look at.

Michelle: I cool is not probably the the widow or I mean I because you're beautiful and your face and everyone's mouth is so it's part of who you are. I mean, it's it's undeniable that that's your ego, that's your beauty, that's everything. And you're showing everything. And and and it was ugly. It was fucking snarly. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I showed my husband, I'm like, Holy shit. How so? How long were you? Because you were there in the hospital for a while. And how how long were you in Peru? Were you still in a clinic or do they move you to a hospital?

Mindy : I the surgery was done in this clinic by this doctor, who he was the only maxillofacial surgeon in the area, in the whole area. So I had to wait for him to finish painting his house before he could come and do my surgery. No shit. Not joking.

Michelle: I'll be right there. I've just got the left side of the house to finish.

Mindy : I was like, Are you fucking kidding me? And we had. We had considered. Using our insurance to Medi-vac me out. And then I called my dentist here in Los Angeles and he got back to me. He was at a party. It was like midnight. He was at a party and got back to us right away because he is a beloved dentist. I love going to the dentist and I love him. And he we showed him the pictures. We showed him everything. We got horrified. He called back at a party. He was like, What the hell happened to you? And he said, if, if the person knows how to, said, it's not a complicated surgery, yanking these teeth out of your face, but it is. If he knows how to do it, you'll be fine. Leaving meant that we would risk more bacteria getting in, and I was told that there's different bacteria down in Peru that I'm used to here in America. And I had to be on some heavy duty antibiotics to protect myself from from getting an infection in a big gaping hole in my face. So we decided to stay and we stayed for I was in the clinic for quite a while.

Mindy : The hotel sent me soup every day they would they sent me pillows and blankets to sort of take care of me. You know, they really wanted to I think they wanted me to not sue them and hotel the travel. Yeah. You know, but they were super kind. They really were. And I couldn't eat anything solid for a long time, so they would blend up anything I wanted. And when we finally went back to the hotel, they every day someone would several times a day these people would come by with smoothies. And I was like, Enough already, stop slow with the smoothies. They were so sweet about it. And everyone at the hotel knew who I was. I could barely walk, but I knew you have to walk when you when you're healing. So I would walk slowly around the hotel and everyone would come up to me and give me hugs and talk to me. And they were very kind. And I had a shaman come and visit me. Wow. Yeah, a real Peruvian shaman. It was.

Michelle: That's amazing.

Mindy : Spectacular. Yeah. So it was it was still an amazing experience. It was not the experience. You want to have somebody, not the brain.

Michelle: That was missing out of the brochure for sure.

Mindy : Yeah. And then we lost out on eight more countries, eight more and over two more continents. You know, we lost several continents as well.

Michelle: So I can't even imagine..Rob...the fear. And meanwhile, you're like, this is interesting. I can't imagine, you know, because I can only imagine Dave's reaction to something like that having like the fear he must have had of, you know, for you. I mean.

Mindy : A great he was you know, there's there's a point where I think men are used to this sort of rule of, you know, taking care of their their person. Right. And and he just there was nothing he could do for me. He just had to be a bystander in many times, like, you know, because he couldn't do anything about this physically. And so he was very upset all the time about how it was going. And because I am who I am, I was sort of chill about all of it. You know, I just I was relaxed and chill and accepted what I what the next thing was going to be. Someone had to be relaxed, right? Yeah. They never left, though. The entire time that I was in the clinic, both the boys, my husband and son stayed. They slept in the room with me. They gave me a big room so the boys could stay there with me. They wouldn't leave. They wouldn't go back to the hotel. They took turns going back to shower and that was it. Wow. They never left my side.

Michelle: I can understand that. I mean, I can't imagine being in.

Mindy : A foreign country and, like, I'm just going to go get a snack. I'll be right. Yeah, they were. They weren't leaving my side. And then we finally. Finally came home and I saw my dentist at first. First thing we landed and went to the dentist and he had to pull two more teeth out of my face that had been damaged and were definitely going to be dead. So those two had to be pulled out. And we're at a year and a half later and I still don't have these are not real teeth that you're looking at.

Michelle: I just you know, the I don't know how long I thought that something like this would take, you know, because.

Mindy : It's you wouldn't.

Michelle: Know. It's it's incredible, like the journey and all this time. And did you go back to work? So now you're back. Your mouth is packed. I'm assuming, like. Did you. Did you come home to work or did you start working on this project?

Mindy : So I, I had to focus on my own healing. But I'm not a person who really focuses on themselves all that much. I, I get most of my happiness when I'm helping others and that maybe that's from my retail background. Maybe that's why sales was something new so easy to me because you're literally helping other people find what they want. And I couldn't. I couldn't be seen by people. I almost say thank goodness for the pandemic because nobody was looking at anybody at that point.

Michelle: I'm assuming you're black eyes.

Mindy : I looked I was horrible looking. I was a mess and my mouth was a mess. And it took a long time to even get fitted for the the fake teeth, the flipper that I have. But if I take my flipper out, I look like a meth addict or a hockey player. Holly And, you know, it was it was pretty rough. My mouth and my face was swollen and I was black and blue. It was it wasn't attractive. So I sat down and I started focusing on. On journaling. And I realized I have a terrible journal where I, I can't focus for more than a couple of minutes and I just get, I get sidetracked and I don't know what to write about. And everyday seem to be the next. The next day was the same thing. How many times can you journal about the same thing and that there has to be a better way? I can't be the only person having a hard time figuring out how to express my emotions in a journal and focus on it. So I decided I was going to write my own journal, create my own journal for people to make it easier for them to start journaling.

Michelle: I love did that because you already sound like you're calm and you're pretty grateful for everything. It's great and rich your gratitude for life. I do gratitude lists every morning and sometimes it's the same thing. Sometimes it's like I'm grateful for my car that gets me to work and back every day safely. Did did that help your I mean, because they say gratitude helps healing it does or a broken heart or is that obviously that was part of your healing process?

Mindy : The fact that I felt as though I could help other people find ways to. One of my journals is called the 52 Week Stress Relief Journal. To find new ways to reduce stress in your life or to find new ways to add romance to your life or to find new ways. My latest one is the Sexual Empowerment Journal. And trust me, I got a lot of knowledge of sexual abuse.

Michelle: When when that came out, when I saw that, I was like, wow, she went because it's 52 weeks of gratitude. Also some of the titles.

Mindy : There, it's the 52 week and then insert whether it's the romance journal, 52 weeks stress relief journal or 52 weeks Sexual Empowerment Journal, each one of them. I have another one coming soon after the Sexual Empowerment about healthy tips. Healthy living is that healthy living journal? Healthy habits. I'm sorry. Healthy habits. You know, it's all about introducing people to new ways of of finding ways to deal with whatever it is they're working through. So people might know with stress, for instance, they might know making a gratitude list or they might have an idea of of meditation, but they need a little more laser focus if you have a hard time focusing on what it is you're supposed to be doing and each page each week, because I don't want people to have to work too hard every day is kind of hard for a lot of people. So it's once a week you look at your the idea that I've given you whatever it may be, and then I follow up questions. So if it says do this one activity, there are three follow up questions. How did this affect you? What did you do? What was new, what the experiences that you had so you don't even have to even really think about what you're going to write. I've given you the activity and I've given you the questions to answer. It makes it a lot easier for you to choose a journey, follow through with it, and remember how it worked for you or didn't work for you. In some cases, some people it doesn't work and they're going to write, this was stupid and it didn't work next week.

Michelle: See, you went from not knowing what to fill out in your own journal to creating.

Mindy : Journal.

Michelle: Giving. How like how long did it take you to kind of figure out the path that this book was going to take? I mean, it's because I I'm not sure how when you do a board for how you're going to put the books together, how long did it take to figure out which direction it was going in this direction activity?

Mindy : And that's a great question because the first one went through a couple of different iterations. I knew I wanted to help people figure out a way to journal better and feel better and to live better. But I wasn't quite sure how that was going to work, and I knew I wanted to give them suggestions of what to do. But the follow up questions came after that when I thought, You know this, sure, I'm giving you a suggestion, but you could flip through that and do a suggestion. But that still doesn't help you talk about how it affected your life. And it targeted questions with small spaces. You don't need a lot of space to answer this. I think a lot of the problems with journals is you have that blank page and you're looking at a blank page. You don't know what to write and there's too much space.

Michelle: You feel like you need to fill it up. Yeah, you feel guilty, you start shaming yourself, that stuff.

Mindy : And then eventually you either shamed yourself out of doing anything and that drawer ends up in the drawer or you you get annoyed with it and you get angry with it and you don't want to do it. And some people are great at journaling. These are not the people I'm looking for. I'm looking for the people who have a hard time focusing on it and don't know what to write. I'm giving them the opportunity to write something. Targeted in small spaces so they can get on with their day and do what they need to do, but still have that healing experience of going through an experience and writing about it.

Michelle: So tell me a couple of the suggestions for the the gratitude.

Mindy : Oh, that's that's a great question. Let's see. You know, so as far as the stress relief work, right, there's there's 52 suggestions in there. And some of them can be really, really simple, but some of them you might not have thought about, which I have print out a picture of you happy and relaxed and take it to your bathroom mirror. And in there I explained why studies have shown that positive self image can boost our physical or mental and emotional well-being. You might not think of something like that. It's super simple, doesn't require anything, but there's a picture that you have that you love. You look really good in, you're really proud of. If you take a look at yourself every day looking like that, as opposed to thinking every time you look in the mirror, the first thing and you've got this going on and.

Michelle: People are you beat yourself up. I look this, I look that and it's like I mean, it's I don't think women in particular are very kind to themselves.

Mindy : Oh, no, we're terrible. And we we look in the mirror, we spot all the flaws. We don't look in there. We don't say, Oh, man, I have the best hair. Oh, I've got I look great when I smile. But if you stick a picture of yourself on that mirror and you see that first thing, you know, that's what you look like. You know, you look like that. You can look like that. And that right there boosts your self esteem. It boosts your mental, your physical health. It's just an immediate dose of it. But then I follow up the the suggestion with what picture did you choose and how did you feel seeing yourself every day like that? Did it change how you felt? Because looking back, you might not remember how that made you feel. And the space is small. You don't have a lot of space to fill in. You just take your time. Write down how it made you feel or are there more pictures you plan on framing and posting? I think a lot of us don't put pictures of ourselves on the wall because we're so negative, but all of a sudden you realize, Oh yeah, you know what? I can look really great. I should put that picture of me up when I was in Insert wherever. Yeah.

Michelle: Is it meant to jump around and just choose an activity like or is it meant to go chronologically week to week you.

Mindy : So I tried to make this as easy as possible. I want everybody to want to use this book and then be happy that they were able to do it and put it aside. There is no dates. Everything has a date at the top so you can flip around, know, for instance, you have a week off of work and you actually have time to learn something new, take some lessons. That's the page you work on, but it's really busy and you don't have a lot of time to do anything. That's when you choose something simple, like posting up the picture or whatever it is, and there's just jump around and do whatever makes you happy as you're doing it.

Michelle: What's one of the suggestions for sexual empowerment?

Mindy : Sexual empowerment? I'm so excited.

Michelle: I love the PG rated one.

Mindy : Let's see what I've got here. So, sexual empowerment. Oh, boy. A PG rated one, huh?

Michelle: Let's pull one of these. I mean, I'd say, ah, but I mean I say the f bomb all day long. I don't know why l said I'm.

Mindy : Concerned about PG. You know, it's interesting because when you start talking sex with people, people get a little funny and they get a little uncomfortable. And I think that's where the empowerment comes in when you you want people to to say sex is important. My sexual health and my sexual pleasure is important. And I, I don't think I know women don't take their sexual pleasure serious enough. And I think men, they also need to take their sexual pleasure more seriously. You know, and it could be something just as simple as creating a sex position bucket list. Now, if you've a partner and you've always kind of wanted to try something a little bit different, maybe you've seen it, maybe you've heard of it, but you don't quite know how to bring it up when it's in the book. And it's not you saying it's not saying, Hey, honey.

Michelle: I'm supposed to do this. This is our homework tonight.

Mindy : The book say it's just oh, look, page 57 of the book says, Make a sex position bucket list. What would you put on your bucket list? And all of a sudden, it's a conversation and and you've put down, you know, I like this, this and this or, you know, whether or not and they say, well, I want to try 69. And you go, You know what? Actually 69 kind of sucks because I'm having a hard time concentrating and working at the same time. I would like to just either work or concentrate, you know, and I don't want to do both at the same time. That's the multitasking. That's not for me.

Michelle: It's women. It's true. Women do not. I mean, I'm one of them. My nickname is Pru. I mean, my mom's nickname is Pru for prude. I never realized until I get I've gotten older, I'm like, I mean that phrase, I am my fucking mother. I seriously my fucking mother. And I'm like, Oh, my God, when did this happen? Like, when did I go from this free girl at 21 years old? This that I could care less like you know you just free as a bird to this clammed up nonverbal when does this happen like that's the part that I don't but I'm obviously not the only one but it's just really interesting and I think that this journal, I mean, it's like that's what I love about this because it's like it forces you to really dive deep and really, you know, it does. And with questions like you're saying follow up.

Mindy : Yeah. And it opens up, you know, the sex journal, for instance, really opens up what you can with your partner, especially talk about that. You might maybe you didn't know that there was such a thing as a sex wing and maybe now you want to know about it. And you know, it's the journal talking for you. So it makes it makes it easier to bring it up. You know, it makes it easier to say, you know, Oh, hey, what do you think about using fruit as a sex toy as opposed to you walking into the kitchen and being like, Hey, honey, you know, I'm in our house. There isn't anything I can't turn into a sexual innuendo. I am very naughty around the house and I am married to a Puritan through and through. So I'm always making him uncomfortable. But it's a good balance, you know, I'm forcing him out of his shell and I'm finding out what he's comfortable with based on what I suggest. Not everyone can do that because a lot of people just don't know how to have that conversation and this book helps them have it. Yeah.

Michelle: The book that you're working on now, when's when do you expect it to come out?

Mindy : I'm hoping for the August for sometime in August to come on out.

Michelle: Which 52 week is this for.

Mindy : The sexual empowerment is due in August. Yeah.

Michelle: And then I thought it was that one that was out already. No.

Mindy : I shared the cover because I'm pretty happy with it, but it should be published in August and then the next one coming up is Healthy Habits, because the other thing that I'm a total weirdo about, other than making sure that sex is good, is making sure that we eat well in this house. Yeah. And live well.

Michelle: Do you cook every night?

Mindy : I do. I cook. I cook every night. And we're we're dangerously close to vegan, but I call ourselves Flexitarians because I. I like honey, I'm not giving that up. So we're not going to be vegan. We're going to we're going to eat well, whatever it may be. And we're going to live healthy lives and we're going to focus on being. You know, not punishing ourselves for whatever it is that we have a tendency to punish ourselves for. Mistakes happen. Things happen at the end of the day. It all has to be let go because trust me, you're the only one making your life harder on yourself than anyone else is.

Michelle: Dragging that bullshit around is.

Mindy : Not dragging around.

Michelle: Giving you any favors.

Mindy : It's not doing anyone any favors. And we need to realize that that our work doesn't define us and our looks don't define us, and where we live doesn't define us. It's how happy and healthy we are that that makes a difference.

Michelle: Yeah, it's funny. It's the this is my second marriage and it's, it's amazing the difference of what my happiness is. I mean, Robb Robb went through my divorce. I mean, Rob saw me in the beginning of my divorce and like I would out of nowhere just start sobbing. And it was you know, it was part sadness of obviously what has been gone. But a lot of it was I missed my dogs. I hate saying that. Oh, to oh, my God. But I, you know, I look back now and like the things that make me happy now, like my husband's super calm. And he's I mean, he's a surfer and he's just Mr.. It's okay. Like we I used to get in the car and we'd go somewhere and I'd give him because I'm notorious for having bad like no direction and.

Mindy : Yeah.

Michelle: It's I'm so directionally challenged, right? And I would literally be like, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And he's like, why? Why do you keep apologizing? He's like, We would have never seen this street

Michelle: ...if we didn't know where we're going. He's like, Just enjoy the ride. And it is literally taking me moving together 12 years now. But it took me probably seven years of of just enjoying learning to enjoy the ride and enjoying like really little things like getting lost and not having any. I mean, it's, it's I don't think people realize the, the value and the power of that.

Mindy : And people need to look at the big picture. You know, you tell me a year later, a year later, are you going to remember that you got lost on July 2nd? No, you're not. You're you're not going to remember it a week later. It just doesn't matter. But, you know, it's it's the more important things. How were you feeling? How was your health? How were your if you have children, how are your children? How is your relationship here? If you're in a relationship, it's all about those things. And I don't remember the last time I got lost. I have no idea. I don't I don't care, you know, because because it doesn't matter in the big picture. And we have to focus on on that and forgiving ourselves. And it helps to have someone if you're in a relationship. I'm on my second marriage as well and it helps to have someone in the relationship who's your yin to your yang. Yeah. And I'm yeah, I'm the calm one in this relationship. I'm the homeowner in all relationships. But, you know, my ex was German and he was very German, and he'll do it my way. Yeah. There's no highway. It's only my way. That's it. You know what? Highway. So, you know. And so I'm used to being that person who who was calm in the situation. But in this situation, I've learned now in my second marriage to use my voice a little bit better, where if if he starts to get upset, I say, no, stop it. Don't put it back, put it back, put it away. I'm not I'm the play in this game. You don't you don't get to be upset. This is be upset about something that matters, you know, someone dying. Well, then, no.

Michelle: I usually will say it's not a liver. It's like, you know, especially with what I do. It's like you're on deadlines and you're stressed out and you're something goes wrong and it's like.

Mindy : What's going to happen? It's like.

Michelle: It's not a liver. We'll figure it out. You know, it's I wish I could use that same thing a lot in my own personal life or go. It's not a liver. It's it's like it's okay. Michelle.

Mindy : But you can. You really can. If you miss a deadline. There is there's you know, what's my mother used to say? What's the worst that could happen? They kill your children. And this was before I had kids. And I looked at her like, I mean, I don't even have kids. She goes, Well, then that's the worst that could possibly happen. You missed a deadline. No one is coming to your house and killing your children like you. Just you move forward. You miss, right? And I and I hate looking stupid. I've gotten over that too, you know, moved on.

Michelle: Yeah, well, I kind of swallowed that when I started this because I was like, you know, it was my post this morning, Instagram. It's like, I think I would be more upset if I didn't risk doing it. And I'm like, Just jump, jump. Not I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. But it was like I, most of us don't. I started doing these lives and it was so much fun and I was like, You know what? I'm going to do this because if I don't, I'm going to be so pissed like so, you know, I just it's like. And lessons. Learning lessons. On the way. Bad feedback noises in the background my dogs like I've learned that Gary Vee way of like just do it just put it out there and just do it. So I'm like, so where are your do you have a publisher or are you self publishing this?

Mindy : So I'm self publishing. I have learned a lot about the publishing world. And let me tell you, having a publisher is so incredibly overrated that after everything I've learned through this process, I am I think my next step is, is going to be teaching young people and women how to self publish their own stuff.

Michelle: Because I want to write the book, I want to do the retail whore and my life journey of being the retail whore.

Mindy : I will tell you, don't bother. Don't even bother trying to sell it to a publisher. It will just make you feel bad and you will get less money and they won't help you. And women don't get picked up by publishers as often as men anyway. People of color don't get picked up by publishers. Young people don't get picked up by publishers. You know, you really have to be in this world. You start out as a white dude and then you work your way down from there as they pick and choose who they want self publish it doesn't get you any further to be a publisher to be published with a publisher. The the facts behind making a book are so dismal that I think it's it's something like in order to be considered successful or the book to have been considered successful, it sells between 250 and 300 copies in its first. Three years, something like that. It's so limited and dismal. Yeah. So you're going to make more money. You're not going to make any money as an author. Don't count on that. You use your book as a calling card. It basically gives you some authority. Now you're an author, but you don't need it to you're not going to be J.K. Rowling, is what I'm saying. Very few people are very, very few authors are.

Michelle: So you self publish. So how do people because I'll be honest I want I want one. How do people find your book and how do they order it? Because we're going to link this in the show notes. So people because I can tell you right now, I'm there's a shit ton of people that I think are going to want this.

Mindy : My books are available at all the online bookstores and Amazon. You can buy it anywhere, you know, I'll give you the links to it, but they're all available just like any other book, just like J.K. Rowling. You can buy my book very easily.

Michelle: So my final question is, where do you see ourself in 10 years?.

Mindy : Oh, boy. So I would love to be able to travel and live. Our goal is to live in other countries for extended period of time, whether it's three months or six months, and helping other people in other countries, whether we're working for an elephant sanctuary and cutting videos for them in exchange for living on the grounds whether I'm writing more journals from the south of France or from the middle of Thailand, you know, we want to do what we do in the order that we want to do it in other countries all over.

Michelle: What a beautiful future you are going to have.

Mindy : I hope so. I hope so.

Michelle: I can't thank you enough for your time doing this. It was so much fun to get to know you now on this level. And I'll be honest, like you completely blew my mind and it was like so great to talk about the eighties, but are you truly like, I had no. I mean, I knew you were also, but I had no concept. Like, you're like so your past is so still so relevant. It's it was great. It was so much fun.

Mindy : And it's funny seeing my past coming back. Fiorucci and Coogi are all coming back. It's so funny.

Michelle: Oh, my God. I was saying in my solo episode that, you know, when I was at Wet SEAL, it was all about wraparound pants and that's and the bra top and the blazer and guess what? Like, that's what everybody's boring. So I'm like, Oh my God.

Mindy : All back. It all comes back. And I'm sorry I gave it away because I give it to my kids now. Exactly.

Michelle: Thank you so much. I really appreciate. And that is a wrap. Thank you all so much for joining me on today's episode. I really appreciate it. And be sure to tune in every Wednesday for more stories and lessons from a life in retail. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Retail Whore Podcast, and you can find us online at the retailwhorepodcast.com