# 010. From Garbage to Beauty: How I Found My Calling

An episode of [Becoming Her with Melissa Thompson](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1887828685), 12 Aug 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2605054/episodes/19552050-010-from-garbage-to-beauty-how-i-found-my-calling.mp3

Send me a text 💌 I started my career doing accounting for the biggest garbage company in North America. Then I had my daughter — and everything changed overnight. What followed was resume writing for broke college students, a multimedia advertising business I built from scratch in a man's world I never fit into, and a newspaper ad for Avon I answered for my sister-in-law that ended up changing the entire direction of my life. This is the story nobody knows. Garbage to beauty — and everything in between. In this episode: • Why having my daughter made me walk away from corporate without a plan • The resume hustle, the advertising company, and why success doesn't always equal passion • How a $25 Avon ad I answered for someone else became the pivot that started a 31-year career • The moment in the back of a Country Waffles diner where I felt seen for the first time — and knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be • Why entrepreneurship doesn't choose everyone — and how to know if it's chosen you • What COVID did to a brand that had just sold out of product in its first six months • Why staying hungry for your mission is the only thing that carries you through every obstacle • Garbage to beauty: why my daughter named my entire journey — and why it's the perfect metaphor for entrepreneurship Timestamps: 0:00 – Life Changed Overnight 1:17 – Garbage Company Beginnings 1:36 – New Mom, New Priorities 2:34 – Resume Hustle to Advertising 3:42 – Building a Sales Business 4:51 – The Avon Ad Turning Point 5:30 – Finding a True Calling 6:29 – The Country Waffles Breakthrough 8:14 – Garbage to Beauty: The Identity 9:06 – Why Entrepreneurship Picks You 10:21 – Launching the Brand 12:32 – Resilience Through COVID 13:42 – Obstacles Make You Stronger 14:51 – Transforming Garbage Into Beauty 15:32 – The Becoming Question The Becoming Question: Has there been a journey in your life that started out as garbage — and you were able to transform it into something beautiful? And if you're not there yet, are you in the middle of it right now? Connect: @melissathompson.19 Watch/Listen: bellame.com/becomingher You are not late. You are not behind. You are not finished. You are in the making. Stay in the making.

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: My entire life changed.
[0:01] SPEAKER_00: No longer did I want to be a corporate person.
[0:05] SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to be with her.
[0:07] SPEAKER_00: I just didn't want to go back to that environment.
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: I had no clue what I was gonna do.
[0:13] SPEAKER_00: Advertising.
[0:14] SPEAKER_00: Garbage.
[0:15] SPEAKER_00: Advertising.
[0:16] SPEAKER_00: No, they didn't relate where there is a will, there's a way, but nothing moves you faster than fear.
[0:24] SPEAKER_00: And for me, that fear was not wanting to, or basically to be without her.
[0:29] SPEAKER_00: I built up that company for two years.
[0:32] SPEAKER_00: And it was it was successful.
[0:34] SPEAKER_00: To say it easiest, it was garbage to beauty.
[0:37] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Becoming Her.
[0:39] SPEAKER_00: I'm Melissa Thompson.
[0:40] SPEAKER_00: This is a podcast about lifelong evolution.
[0:44] SPEAKER_00: For the woman who knows she's not finished, not behind, not late, just in the making.
[0:51] SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly where you're supposed to be.
[0:56] SPEAKER_00: Hi, and welcome back to Becoming Her.
[1:00] SPEAKER_00: It was brought to my attention that I haven't really shared the story of who I was before I became the founder of a beauty brand.
[1:11] SPEAKER_00: And to say it easiest, it was garbage to beauty.
[1:16] SPEAKER_00: Let me explain.
[1:18] SPEAKER_00: So years ago, when I was, I believe, 2021, I started working at a garbage company.
[1:28] SPEAKER_00: It was the biggest garbage company in North America, but I did accounting for them, office manager work and all things.
[1:36] SPEAKER_00: At the time, I was very excited in where my career was headed with this business until I had my baby girl and I was first pregnant, didn't know what was about to happen.
[1:50] SPEAKER_00: My entire life changed, obviously.
[1:52] SPEAKER_00: Priorities, perspectives.
[1:54] SPEAKER_00: No longer did I want to be a corporate person hustling, um, driving in every day, commuting all things.
[2:03] SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to be with her.
[2:05] SPEAKER_00: So after I gave birth to my daughter, I decided that I would figure it out, which meant I had no clue what I was gonna do.
[2:15] SPEAKER_00: I just didn't want to go back to that environment.
[2:19] SPEAKER_00: And it, you know, I've always said, where there is a will, there's a way, but nothing moves you faster than fear.
[2:28] SPEAKER_00: And for me, that fear was not wanting to, or basically to be without her.
[2:35] SPEAKER_00: So I got to work on doing, for lack of better words, resumes.
[2:42] SPEAKER_00: I lived by a college in California and decided that it would be a very smart idea to do resumes for college students.
[2:50] SPEAKER_00: Well, number one, uh, that doesn't pay a lot.
[2:54] SPEAKER_00: They can't pay you a lot.
[2:55] SPEAKER_00: Number two, it was a lot of work.
[2:57] SPEAKER_00: And number three, I couldn't stand it.
[3:00] SPEAKER_00: But you do what you gotta do.
[3:02] SPEAKER_00: And at one point, I came across a company who was doing advertising.
[3:10] SPEAKER_00: It was back in the day multimedia advertising, which was cable television, radio, um, newspaper, and coupon booklets that went out to 70,000 homes across the county in California.
[3:25] SPEAKER_00: And I started doing her bookkeeping because accounting I could do.
[3:29] SPEAKER_00: And she was an amazing person, just not the strongest businesswoman.
[3:35] SPEAKER_00: And when her business went under, I decided I would figure it out and I would do it.
[3:42] SPEAKER_00: Advertising, garbage, advertising.
[3:46] SPEAKER_00: No, they didn't relate, but I figured I would learn.
[3:50] SPEAKER_00: And I did just went to work, cold calls, doing all things.
[3:56] SPEAKER_00: I built up that company for two years and it was, it was successful.
[4:00] SPEAKER_00: So much so that I had to put an ad in to hire somebody to help me as an independent sales representative.
[4:09] SPEAKER_00: Although the business was doing great, I wasn't loving it because you can have things that you think you want to come have come true, and it ends up being something completely different.
[4:20] SPEAKER_00: You see, back in the day, we're talking in the 90s, this was, or as people like to say now, back in the 1900s, this was a whole different world.
[4:33] SPEAKER_00: Advertising was very much a man's world.
[4:37] SPEAKER_00: I had to dress like a man and act like a man, and it was a complete different animal.
[4:44] SPEAKER_00: And I just was not passionate about what I was doing, but successful enough that I had to hire.
[4:51] SPEAKER_00: So I opened the newspaper one day to check out my ad that I was running.
[4:57] SPEAKER_00: And next to it, it said, Become an Avon representative for$25.
[5:03] SPEAKER_00: Now, mind you, at the time I wasn't looking for anything like that.
[5:08] SPEAKER_00: But my sister-in-law, who had just moved from Texas, asked if I knew of any Avon ladies.
[5:14] SPEAKER_00: I answered that ad for her and to put an ad out for myself.
[5:20] SPEAKER_00: It used to be like a co-op advertising just to see how it would work.
[5:25] SPEAKER_00: And the rest literally is history.
[5:29] SPEAKER_00: Let me explain.
[5:30] SPEAKER_00: I ended up finding something that I was passionate about.
[5:34] SPEAKER_00: Makeup, sure, but helping other entrepreneurs succeed.
[5:40] SPEAKER_00: I found my calling.
[5:42] SPEAKER_00: I knew it was something that would be part of my life forever.
[5:48] SPEAKER_00: The company as a whole hired me to work directly for the corporation to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
[5:56] SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of meat in between that story, but that truly is the essence of how I found social entrepreneurship.
[6:07] SPEAKER_00: The thing is, I found something much, much more.
[6:11] SPEAKER_00: I was still running my advertising company before giving up and moving into that corporate role for them.
[6:20] SPEAKER_00: But I can remember the exact moment of knowing I was where I was supposed to be, like it was yesterday.
[6:29] SPEAKER_00: Because it was a party at a country waffles.
[6:34] SPEAKER_00: For those of you who don't you understand what that is, it's like a local diner, and that's where they would do recognition.
[6:42] SPEAKER_00: I was an independent representative for them first, and that is why they offered this job.
[6:48] SPEAKER_00: But I was in that diner, walked in.
[6:51] SPEAKER_00: It was an event.
[6:54] SPEAKER_00: I got dressed up, I put makeup on, I did my hair, I had the perfect shade of red lipstick.
[7:02] SPEAKER_00: I remember it like it was yesterday.
[7:05] SPEAKER_00: But I walked into that room and I was recognized.
[7:10] SPEAKER_00: I've been building my own business for two years without any support, without any help, not feeling passionate, not feeling beautiful.
[7:20] SPEAKER_00: But in that moment, in the back of a country waffles, I felt beautiful.
[7:26] SPEAKER_00: I felt seen, I felt appreciated.
[7:30] SPEAKER_00: And that moment changed everything for me.
[7:33] SPEAKER_00: When that job was offered, I took it.
[7:36] SPEAKER_00: And I started my 31-year career in an industry that I am equally as obsessed about as I am beauty and wellness.
[7:49] SPEAKER_00: And I was able to combine them all together.
[7:52] SPEAKER_00: I've been fortunate enough to work with the top brands in the entire industry, some of the most amazing historical brands, legacy brands.
[8:03] SPEAKER_00: And I've worked with younger startup brands, but it truly was something that was just in my heart.
[8:14] SPEAKER_00: And back at one of the times uh prior to starting my own, my daughter was sitting with us at dinner, and my husband, Scott, said, One day we're going to do a business of our own.
[8:29] SPEAKER_00: We're going to start something that's going to help other people.
[8:32] SPEAKER_00: And my daughter was talking and everything put together.
[8:37] SPEAKER_00: And she said, Well, you've been at a garbage company, you've been at beauty, you've been at wellness.
[8:42] SPEAKER_00: She said, Garbage to beauty, mom.
[8:45] SPEAKER_00: That's that's what you've done.
[8:47] SPEAKER_00: And we've coined it.
[8:48] SPEAKER_00: It's been the perfect story to how we've evolved.
[8:52] SPEAKER_00: But as we went on and I continued in this beautiful industry, there came a point where it was like you're Goldilocks.
[9:01] SPEAKER_00: You're sitting at every seat, and nothing feels quite right.
[9:06] SPEAKER_00: Someone asked me recently, how did you become an entrepreneur?
[9:10] SPEAKER_00: The truth is, I think entrepreneurship picks you.
[9:13] SPEAKER_00: It singles you out because you realize that something can be bigger, better, and that you're meant for more.
[9:22] SPEAKER_00: There are so many beautiful industries in the world and so many fulfilling roles that people can do and serve others.
[9:32] SPEAKER_00: But there's something spectacular about being an entrepreneur.
[9:37] SPEAKER_00: It's not just about calling your own hours because let's face it, true entrepreneurs know your hours are about triple the hours you'd be working in a corporate role.
[9:48] SPEAKER_00: It isn't just about flexibility because true entrepreneurs know that even when you're on vacation, you're so flexible that you can work.
[9:58] SPEAKER_00: And it's not about the money because true entrepreneurs know that you have to do a whole lot of hustling before you see the rewards.
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: It's just something in you that proves that you can build something bigger, brighter, better, not just for you, but for those that you serve.
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: So we started our own brand.
[10:24] SPEAKER_00: And I already loved formulations and all things, but being able to get behind the scenes and truly build and formulate products that bring women and men confidence in the skin that they're in, well, that's priceless.
[10:44] SPEAKER_00: Putting milk on the table for the partners that share our products, that's everything.
[10:51] SPEAKER_00: But my entrepreneur journey, it's been a beautiful winding road, which I also realize now along the way, it's lessons you learn.
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: There was not AI when I started, but there was a lot of Google.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: And I once said, if I was ever interviewed and somebody asked how I did it, I would simply say I Googled it all.
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, you do.
[11:17] SPEAKER_00: You find out.
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: If anything, I believe schools should really teach young children entrepreneurship just as much as they teach other things, especially in the world we live in today.
[11:30] SPEAKER_00: When we launched, it was prior to COVID, and so many different obstacles and things that happen.
[11:38] SPEAKER_00: I kind of feel like when you find your passion and you run with it, sometimes that's the easiest part.
[11:45] SPEAKER_00: But it's almost like playing a game of mercy because things are gonna come your way.
[11:50] SPEAKER_00: Things are gonna happen.
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: You have to be resilient.
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: You have to be so passionate about your mission and about what you're doing that you can jump all obstacles because there will be obstacles.
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: Some of the most resilient entrepreneurs I've ever met are the ones who stay hungry.
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter how big their businesses get, how big their homes are, how much is in their bank account, they stay hungry about why they started.
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: Once you lose that passion, everything will change.
[12:32] SPEAKER_00: And for me, COVID was what almost made that happen.
[12:37] SPEAKER_00: It was one of those moments in time that our young business had just come back from selling out of product within our first six months of launch.
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: We were back on track, things were amazing, everything was just incredible.
[12:56] SPEAKER_00: And then the entire world shut down.
[12:59] SPEAKER_00: That is where you are forced to get passionate beyond measure.
[13:04] SPEAKER_00: There were so many things that we had to deal with, especially being a small beauty brand, an indie brand, compared to the big billion-dollar brands out there.
[13:16] SPEAKER_00: We only had passion, passion and amazing products.
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: And that is what we ran with.
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: But it was one obstacle after another after another, and the list just continues to go on.
[13:30] SPEAKER_00: It will go on.
[13:32] SPEAKER_00: And as long as we can stay hungry about the mission, everything else is the means to it.
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: That's it.
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: That's all it becomes.
[13:42] SPEAKER_00: So if there's an obstacle, you take it up like Pac-Man and you eat it, you digest it, and let it make you stronger.
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite quotes is that of that whole premise of, you know, when something happens to you, it's not about allowing it to change you.
[14:05] SPEAKER_00: Instead, you allow it to make you more passionate, more hungry, more everything.
[14:14] SPEAKER_00: That is that's what it's all about, whether it is life in entrepreneurship, just doing life, or anything.
[14:22] SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite quotes references, never allowing a difficult situation to reduce you.
[14:31] SPEAKER_00: And that says it all.
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: Because in entrepreneurship, every single moment you wake up, there is something happening.
[14:40] SPEAKER_00: But how beautiful to have an opportunity to make a difference, not only in something that you're passionate about, but bringing it to life and serving others through it.
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: So it's actually quite fitting that my daughter so long ago called my journey garbage to beauty.
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: Because that really is entrepreneurship as a whole.
[15:04] SPEAKER_00: It is taking something and molding it to make it beautiful, like a piece of clay.
[15:12] SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: We work with things, we bring it to life.
[15:15] SPEAKER_00: So garbage to beauty might be a little bit of recycling to beauty, but it is something that I would never change for anything because it's allowed us to make such a difference and an impact in the world in a beautiful way.
[15:32] SPEAKER_00: And for your becoming question Has there been a journey in your life that started out with garbage and you have been able to transform into beauty?
[15:47] SPEAKER_00: And if you're not there yet, are you in the middle of it now?
[15:51] SPEAKER_00: Remember, you're not late, you're not behind, you're not finished.
[15:57] SPEAKER_00: You are still in the making.
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: Keep becoming.
[16:01] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here.
[16:02] SPEAKER_00: If you know someone who needs to hear this, send it to them.
[16:06] SPEAKER_00: And if this resonated with you, comment down below.
[16:09] SPEAKER_00: I'd love to keep this conversation going.
[16:12] SPEAKER_00: Make sure to follow along on YouTube and Instagram for daily updates.
[16:16] SPEAKER_00: You can find everything in the description.
[16:18] SPEAKER_00: See you next time.

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