Melinda Jackson: Finding Your Voice

Summary

In this episode, Christian Brim interviews Melinda Jackson, a public relations entrepreneur based in North Carolina. Melinda shares her journey from moving to Los Angeles with nothing to building a successful PR firm. She discusses the challenges of burnout in the PR industry, the impact of childhood trauma on her mental health, and her journey of reprogramming her self-perception. The conversation delves into the struggles of entrepreneurship, the importance of mental health, and the value of creative work. Melinda emphasizes the need for self-acceptance and the importance of advocating for oneself.

Takeaways

• Melinda moved to LA with just $500 and no job.
• She experienced severe burnout after a decade in PR.
• Childhood trauma from an abusive teacher shaped her anxiety.
• Melinda believes in reprogramming negative self-talk.
• She emphasizes the importance of mental health in entrepreneurship.
• Melinda's PR work allows her to help others tell their stories.
• She struggles with imposter syndrome despite her success.
• Working from bed is acceptable during tough mental health days.
• Melinda's upbringing influenced her self-perception and voice.
• She encourages self-acceptance and understanding one's worth.

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Transcript

Melinda (00:00.145)
My Christmas in the back.

Christian Brim (00:02.126)
I love it.

Welcome to another episode of The Chris Project. I am your host, Christian Brim. Joining me today is Melinda Jackson. Melinda, welcome.

Melinda (00:14.334)
Thanks so much for having me.

Christian Brim (00:16.652)
So for the audience's benefit, give us the bio of Melinda Jackson.

Melinda (00:23.988)
So I am a North Carolina based entrepreneur. I own my own PR firm. I started in PR right out of college. I was born and raised here in North Carolina and moved to Los Angeles the second I graduated with $500, no job.

just a dream kind of thing and everything that I could fit in my SUV. I slept on a floor for three months, didn't get a full-time job for a year, just really hustled and I just, I knew PR was what I needed to do. So 15 years later, six years, almost 16 years later and six years owning my own business, I am very lucky and blessed that I get to help other people grow their businesses.

Christian Brim (01:11.33)
We may want to re-record that after they move.

Melinda (01:13.298)
Yeah, they literally just walked right in front of my window of my office and just did this. So they're walking right by. So hold on. I'm sorry. It's like, of course, this is the one time that they do it. I know. Okay, we'll get up. They're walking by now. One second. Come on, guys.

Christian Brim (01:23.948)
No worries.

That's what the editors get paid for. So.

Melinda (01:36.89)
is the video all of this? I thought I could like blur the background, but I guess I couldn't. So maybe I need to move some boxes. great. Great. So I don't care about the back. Yeah, I don't care. It's Christmas. We have like Christmas presents and everything that we have to wrap before the kids get out of school and all that fun stuff. Okay. All right. They're walking by, so I think it'll be better. Okay. I can.

Christian Brim (01:42.09)
It's, it's an audio only podcast. so we, we use the video. Well, I use the video for promotion, but it looks fine. Yeah, that's fine.

Melinda (02:06.376)
Let's see. They're going. They're Dear Lord, I'm sorry.

Christian Brim (02:12.79)
No, we've got nothing but time.

Melinda (02:16.572)
Okay, this is always what happens, feel like. They're never out there, I never have issues, and the second that it needs to be recorded, they're out here. Okay, they're walking away now.

Christian Brim (02:28.886)
And it's kind of crazy how much, I mean, I understand why those guys wear headphones, because that shit's loud. mean, it's...

Melinda (02:35.412)
I know, I know. Okay, they're well, they're way away now, I think. Yeah, please go, please go. You can do it. Now they're blowing off the lady. We live in townhouses and they're blowing off the lady's porch next to me. Okay, we can start over. I know. Okay, I'll start all over. Okay, bio, take two.

Christian Brim (02:54.318)
Very thoughtful of them. Okay.

Melinda (03:04.212)
So I am Melinda Jackson. I am based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I'm the owner of Melinda Jackson Public Relations. I started in PR right out of college here in North Carolina, and I moved to Los Angeles to work in entertainment PR. I moved to LA with $500, no job, nothing, just new, sheer intuition and blind confidence in myself that I needed to work in entertainment and PR. And I did literally everything

you can think of all the red carpets all the award shows I have a Grammy I have an Emmy I have all these things and then had very severe severe burnout

10 years in and I was about to turn 30 and I was just like, can't seven years in, excuse me. I had severe burnout and I was like, I can't do this anymore. So I moved back to North Carolina and, worked in an advertising agency for a couple years and just realized 10 years into PR, I could do so much better for my clients one-on-one and I could have that time for myself. because a lot of things in that, in the advertising world or big agency world can be

very triggering if you do have mental health issues. So yeah, I've had my company for six years and I love helping people tell their stories. I love helping people grow their business just from getting them on podcasts or helping them get interviews or even just a calendar listing for an event can really help.

Christian Brim (04:35.214)
So going from North Carolina to LA had to have been a culture shock. only say that because I watched my middle daughter, who is a oil painter, a figurative painter, move to West Hollywood in her late 20s. And she came running back after two years.

And it was it was kind of funny. I mean, it was she was what I always would call my my my liberal daughter, very progressive daughter. And West Hollywood was too weird for her. And she came back and all of a sudden she's driving pickup trucks and listening to country music. And I'm like, what the hell happened? I mean, like

Melinda (05:14.862)
yeah.

Melinda (05:23.143)
think I'm your daughter because I moved back, have a bronco and now I listen to country. But I'm the liberal one, so yes.

Christian Brim (05:28.736)
Yes, yes. Right. So so what what about the LA scene caused this this I want to use your words mental it wasn't breakdown. What did you say? Burnout. Okay. What what caused that?

Melinda (05:44.512)
Burnout. Yeah, burnout. So I've always struggled with mental health, mainly anxiety and depression. And it's something that was triggered when I was in third grade. And then again, it resurfaced pretty severely my freshman year in college, as tends to do when you're going through these big life changes. But in LA, I...

was on my own and I wasn't making a lot of money, but I was being told by my parents, you're making great money. But North Carolina cost of living is completely different than LA and I lived in Hollywood. So similar to your daughter just down the road, it's very expensive and I wasn't making any money and I'm working 24 seven and you're going to all of these events and award shows outside of office hours. So you truly always have to be on, especially in PR and being on the West Coast.

Christian Brim (06:24.151)
Right.

Melinda (06:43.558)
I would have clients in London or New York and so that's such time zone changes so you've never slept and then compile that all with toxic relationships in your 20s and you know just Begging anyone to love you. I just could not

Handle it anymore and I had no boundaries at all in terms of work personal life anything and I was trying to do too much While I was getting grossly underpaid and grossly undervalued by your job So I'm not saying it's all the job But it was it's that lifestyle and I could not handle it anymore after seven years

Christian Brim (07:17.055)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (07:26.166)
Yeah, what I discerned and what my head of marketing for my company worked in Hollywood for several years as well. what I just those experience points with my daughter and what you're saying is that there's this, it's kind of a machine and they take in young people, a lot of young women.

with some type of creative talent. they, I use the word abuse because they know that there's someone right behind them. Like, and it's that whole experience bucks. Like I'm getting paid in experience bucks, not real bucks. I remember my daughter, she had been in Dallas before she moved to Hollywood. And so she had a little business savvy already.

Melinda (08:01.991)
Yes.

Melinda (08:10.845)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (08:21.874)
And this gallery owner had said, well, yeah, I'll take you on but you have to lower your prices. And my daughter was like, wait a second, you want me to lower my prices and then take 50 %? She's like, no, thanks. I, but I can see where people that were looking for their break looking for their opportunity would would take that deal, right. And so I just it just is is the

the culture, the business model, I don't know, of LA. So you mentioned something, and with your permission, I'll dig, because that's what I do. You said that this anxiety and depression showed up for you first when you were in elementary school, third grade. Was there some event that caused that?

Melinda (09:13.629)
Mm-hmm.

Melinda (09:19.398)
Yes, and I'm very happy for you to dig. I'm an open book. I had a third grade teacher who was extremely abusive, verbally abusive and never physically abusive, just very verbally abusive and like emotionally abusive. And she had our entire class in second grade and then she got special approval to move us all with her to third grade, which they would never do now. And I don't know why.

They did it and I think there was some gaslighting to our parents and it was like, but they'll all stay together and they'll learn more. I don't know, but we did. And for some reason I was the person that she targeted and now I know that this is just a pattern of hers, but I was the person she picked on the most. And...

I would get very nervous and I couldn't read out loud. And that's third grade is when you're learning to read out loud and you're you're you know the big words and I would struggle. And so she told my parents that I had a learning disability and they moved me to the reading lab class.

Christian Brim (10:09.55)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (10:13.047)
Right.

Melinda (10:25.448)
but I didn't need the help and I was like, I can do this and no one would listen. She made me, I just have distinct memories of standing in the class like Bart Simpson writing rules on the chalkboard while everyone else was at recess. I didn't go to recess the entire year just because she would find some reason to keep me in. I don't know why she targeted me. I don't know why she targeted anyone. I've done a lot of reprogramming on that with

Christian Brim (10:40.247)
Hmm.

Melinda (10:54.332)
my therapist to the point where I convinced myself that she was not alive anymore. And I found out last year she is very indeed alive. So that messed me up a little bit. But yeah, so it was that, you know, this authority figure who...

just took advantage of a situation. It was just like completely cruel to someone and I don't know why. And then couple that with going and telling my parents and they thought she's just being dramatic. You know, they trust the teacher, they trust the principals, they trust the people that are in place, not a third grader. Once other kids started coming home and telling my mom or telling their parents how mean the teacher was to me or that I wasn't allowed to go outside and play or whatever.

Christian Brim (11:25.986)
Right.

Right.

Melinda (11:39.476)
Other parents started telling my mom and my mom realized I wasn't lying. And so probably in April of the school year, which is way too late, my mom went to the school and stood outside of the classroom and heard her screaming at me. so pulled me out of the class, got me tested. I was academically gifted, which what they called it then, I don't know what they call it now, but I was on a fifth grade level in third grade. So I was probably just...

ahead of the curve, a little bored, and very, very anxious, but that got turned into lazy learning disability, et cetera.

Christian Brim (12:12.972)
Yeah. Yeah, I've always, you know, I have I have three grown adult children and watching that education. It's like they're their own little monarchy. Teachers are it's like they're they're kind of like a judge in their courtroom. Like, you know, they have complete control and they can do whatever they want. And, know, which is fine.

But then you get somebody that is abusive and it can go sideways in a hurry And and it's interesting I had another guest a good friend of mine Who talks talked about you know his grade school teacher Had essentially told them that he had a learning disability very similar situation told us and his parents were immigrants so

They didn't really even have a command of the English language. And so the teacher's telling them, you know, your kid can't read and he's stupid. You know, they agreed, but it was formative for him. And that's what I talk about on the show is that trauma is relative, right? You you don't have to be physically abused or sexually abused. Although I've had people on this show that have suffered those abuses.

It's all relative because our brains work the same. If it feels danger, it reacts the same way, no matter what that danger is. So how did that work as you moved into entrepreneurship?

Melinda (14:02.676)
I think, well, it's taken me a long time to kind of reprogram a lot of that stuff. And I was in Portugal last week, my client is based there and we were going over our 2025 strategy. I was, I like almost want to cry talking about this. I was reading off like the PR plan that had helped write and.

I'll have these short circuit things in my brain where I tell myself you're not reading it correctly. You're not reading it right. You can't read out loud because that was the whole thing in third grade. I was terrified to read out loud. I was terrified to mess up because she would freak out on me. So even as an adult and as someone who literally is in public relations, it's my job to advocate for people, to speak for people on behalf of people, to do public speaking, to do all these things, to communicate. Sometimes it's so hard for me.

Christian Brim (14:33.89)
Mm-hmm.

Melinda (14:55.59)
And I have to, you know, do those tricks where if I'm doing a presentation, I have to memorize it beforehand and know it forwards and backwards. So if I try to read it on the screen and I get jumbled, I can catch myself. So that still happens a lot, but I know because I've done reprogramming, because I've done so much therapy, I know I am not stupid. I know I can read. I know.

As an adult, my brain works so fast, it's just hard for me to get it out sometimes. That's the issue. It's not that I'm incapable. But in terms of jumping and being an entrepreneur, on the complete flip side, I have so much blind confidence in myself for a lot of this stuff. I just, I go by my intuition. And if I just know in my heart and in my gut, it's something I need to do, then I do it. And that's why I started my own company.

Christian Brim (15:28.088)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (15:52.014)
Do you I'm gonna ask this question and maybe you've thought about it maybe you haven't but do you think that your your choice of Vocation being public relations is is a reaction to that that trauma

Melinda (16:10.034)
It's funny that you say that. I've been doing a lot of meditating and journaling work lately, and that's something I actually processed about a month ago, that I think I chose something so vocal.

because I didn't have a voice then. No one listened to me then. And then I've overcompensated. I'm very outgoing. I am very energetic. I am the least introverted person on the planet. And I get to be a voice for other people now. So I get to speak up for myself and I get to speak up for other people.

And I definitely think that that's a huge reason. And then also, I was raised in a very conservative Christian Southern Republican environment where women don't have choices and women don't, you know, they're not loud, they're not crazy, they're not all these things that I am. And I know that that's not true for me, you know? It's okay, it's okay to be outspoken. It's okay to advocate for yourself.

Christian Brim (17:10.786)
Yes. I think that's normal for most people, that they overcompensate for their perceived weakness, like the something that they think is flawed about them. I know in my case, I was the only child of my parents and then my father remarried and I have four

half siblings and that's that was my family growing up but a lot of My life was different because I had shared custody and so I would visit my mom and It it was just that and I was the oldest so it I was different than the other kids, right and although I can't

say that I ever didn't feel loved by them or my stepmother, it was I was different. And they would make jokes as they got older that that I was just half I was I was I was just half right. And I didn't realize what an impact that had on me. But but what

what happened was, and I didn't, you know, kudos to you to figuring this out earlier, but I was in my 50. I was, you know, we're talking recent history here, because I'm 54. When when I started to realize that I had this deep feeling of inadequacy, like something, something was wrong with me.

I was I was not good enough. And I say that, and I share your experience on this show that, you know, I think we all owe it to ourselves to, to dig into those feelings to understand why we act the way we do. Because, you know, a lot of it happens at the subconscious level, you know, it never rises to what you're thinking.

Melinda (19:34.45)
Yeah, and I think for me, after doing all this reprogramming and working with therapists and journaling and meditating and everything, the one thing that keeps coming up that's the hardest thing for me to let go of is that it's that imposter syndrome, but a little bit deeper than that, that somebody is gonna find out that I'm inherently a bad person.

Christian Brim (19:54.328)
Hmm.

Melinda (19:54.77)
And that comes from some of the religious programming, you know, whatever and being a woman in the South, but that I am an inherently bad person and nothing I can do is gonna fix it. And then I'm continuously trying to prove that I'm not a bad person when I know I'm not a bad person. And...

Christian Brim (20:12.11)
Well, go ahead and finish your thought, but I want to dig into this.

Melinda (20:15.442)
Yeah, yeah, and I don't know, like, and I don't think it's anybody's ever straight up told me like, you're a bad person, but it's a lot of just that programming and how I was raised. And I think, you know, not to get super into religion of it all, but like,

in the conservative Christian evangelical environment that I was raised in and that I'm still a part of, but that I was raised in, it's, you you are a bad person. God is there to save you. You have to prove that you're a good person. Like you are bad just because this is how you were born and that you have to work on fixing it.

Christian Brim (20:52.462)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (20:58.35)
Well, I'm going to pause for the landscapers.

Melinda (21:02.408)
Yeah.

Melinda (21:07.005)
can mute myself. Will that help while you're talking? Okay.

Christian Brim (21:09.966)
Well, just wait a second.

Again, I want to make sure the editor is listening to the whole thing. He's not. Yeah. Nick, we're talking to you, Nick. I think that's fascinating, and I'm going to dig in where you might be too. Had been I'm going to dig in where you were were were trepid. I.

Melinda (21:16.987)
Yeah, yeah, for science. Make sure you're doing your job. Okay, I think we're all right.

Melinda (21:39.793)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (21:43.2)
I think that's interesting. I myself did not grow up in church. I came to Christ as a teenager and I spent 30 years with my family in one church. And I had a calling to leave my church and start a home church. And it's been a fascinating journey. But one of the things

that I agree with you that shows up for me is this question of goodness, right? And I think that the Christian doctrine is that none of us are worthy, none of us are good enough and in need of a savior. But what I see this

false gospel of you have to you have to prove that you are not a bad person. And it gets into this whole idea of sin management, right? It's like, and then it becomes a comparison of sins like, well, your sins, I mean, that person's homosexual, so his sin is worse than mine, right?

Melinda (23:12.544)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (23:13.422)
And clearly that goes against the teachings of Christ and Right and I I met a fellow home church pastor and he grew up in a Upper middle classes dad was a dentist You know, but he was kind of a hellion and he ended up on the streets in California as a heroin addict addict homeless

Melinda (23:17.297)
Because a sin is a sin. A sin is a sin.

Christian Brim (23:41.482)
And as he's talking to me, he's talking about how he he used to be a homosexual prostitute and he you know, all these things. And now he's married with, you know, four kids and he's he's a little younger than I am. But what was fascinating to me was the way he he described his behavior. It was just it was not like nonchalant. But but it was definitely not like

I mean, so he was just so open about it. Like this, this is what I was and this is what I am now. and, and so I say all that to say that I, I completely understand that, feeling of wanting to appear, to, other people's expectations. And I think that's a theme that entrepreneurs, know, you, you,

You mentioned imposter syndrome. I think that's one of the things that we all struggle with, but entrepreneurs are kind of out there on their own in the spotlight. That, you know, we're trying to live up to other people's expectations. What they think we should look like, what would they think we should be doing? And that's a dangerous place to be for your mental health.

Melinda (24:48.019)
Mm-hmm.

Melinda (25:05.425)
Yeah, yeah, especially in what I do. And I've had to really convince myself that just because a publication is saying no to my client doesn't mean they're saying no to me. That's been a big thing. And now I'm just like, okay, whatever, I'll get another one. It'll be fine. I'll get another one. Somebody else will wanna talk about it. Let's just keep moving. But it's really hard for me not to take that stuff personal and...

Christian Brim (25:18.414)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (25:28.334)
Mm-hmm.

Melinda (25:34.26)
And PR is just so finicky. Like, there's so many layoffs in the media. No one writes for who they used to write for and there's so many variables. And it's hard for me to not get caught up in it and take it personally or think, my gosh, my clients are gonna think I'm doing a bad job. If a story gets bumped, then that's not my fault.

that's breaking news, know, whatever. And the client knows that, but I have to really like ground myself sometimes and say, look, everyone doesn't hate you. It's okay. They're still paying you. And when you send them the invoice, they will pay it.

Christian Brim (26:01.858)
Right.

Christian Brim (26:18.062)
Yeah, I remember my artist daughter had a TikTok that went viral a couple of years ago. And at the time she was actually selling prints of her work. And it blew up such that she called me she's like, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, well, turn it off. you know, if you can't keep up with demand, like turn it off. And she was lamenting the

the feedback on tik tok, right, because it was a kind of a controversial piece. She does weird shit. And, you know, there were a lot of people that were praising and a lot of people that were like, you're you're disgusting, you know, whatever. And I told her I said, Look, you can't you can't you can't have either or you you either accept all of the feedback or you step away and you don't have any of it. Because you can't

cherry pick. That's not the way your brain works, right? But to your point is, if you're if if you're getting results, it doesn't really matter what everybody else is saying.

Melinda (27:35.668)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it's also hard for me to see my client wins as a direct result of something I did. I have a pharmaceutical client and we did a release last week and they called me the next day and they're like, the stock is up like 200%. They were so excited and I'm like, okay.

I don't know. And my boyfriend was like, you sent out the release that made it go up. Like you did this. And I'm like, well, they wrote the release. And he's like, they don't know how to send a press release. You know how to send a press release.

Christian Brim (28:05.591)
Right.

Christian Brim (28:11.606)
Right, right. Yeah. And I think that a lot of creatives like yourself struggle with accepting the value that people give you for your work. But I think that as one speaker I heard recently talking to creatives, he said, you know, just

Melinda (28:24.817)
Yes. Yeah.

Christian Brim (28:38.112)
understand like that the money coming to you is is more like appreciation notes there like think about it and like thank you notes as opposed to money because that because some people are like well i i didn't earn that i didn't you know what i did wasn't worth that

Melinda (28:57.223)
Yeah, I'm gonna steal that. I love that.

Christian Brim (29:00.236)
Yeah. Okay, good. What if you were going to go back and tell your your four year old or your fourth grade self? What what would you tell your fourth grade self now?

Melinda (29:02.003)
I

Melinda (29:18.322)
Yeah, I do this a lot. I have a meditation that I'll do where I go back and talk to myself and it's always that you are not what people are telling you that you are. And look at, like look at me now. This is you. Like you're gonna be fine. It just sucks right now and these people are stupid. But yeah, it's just a lot of like, these people suck, you know?

Christian Brim (29:46.466)
Yeah, I mean, the way my business coach described it to me was, you know, your your your subconscious, your emotions are back and fourth grade, right? But your cognitive brain is here in the present. And the the the best thing that you can do to short circuit those emotions is is to engage your cognitive brain, right?

Melinda (29:59.517)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (30:15.758)
And being able to disassociate with that feeling by like that that may have been true But it's not true now like that. That's how I'm feeling is not reality and that's that's that's a that was a difficult thing for me to Process but but it works to to to short-circuit those feelings

Melinda (30:40.294)
And even that just reminds me of what I tell people to do when they're having a panic attack. Like if I'm having a panic attack, I stop and I'm like, okay, let's look at the science right now. Did I drink water today? Probably not. I'm probably just a little dehydrated. Did I eat enough protein? My body's probably just like, blah, you know?

Christian Brim (31:00.504)
Mm-hmm.

Melinda (31:00.763)
like did I drink too much coffee? Like I'd just break it down like that and even just breaking it down helps me get out of the panic attack because it's like nothing's wrong. Your body is just physically in fight or flight because you didn't feed it today.

Christian Brim (31:06.776)
Yes.

Christian Brim (31:13.282)
Yes, yes. And you know, I don't know, when I was growing up, it was always to count to 10, slow down and count to 10. And I'm like, but that, that, that, that, is exactly what you're doing. You're engaging your cognitive brain and, it can be that simple. I never tried that, but, so any other ways that, you've had to deal with these feelings as an entrepreneur,

Melinda (31:18.865)
Yeah.

Melinda (31:24.327)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Christian Brim (31:42.057)
that was significant to you.

Melinda (31:44.372)
Yeah, I think one of the biggest things for me when I started my business was, you know, it not being an office job. I'm not tied to a desk from nine to five. I can kind of work when I want to work, especially with PR. There's so many variables. I can send out 15 emails at beginning of the day and have no other work to do because I'm waiting on people. So for me, there was like a lot of guilt around that. And then my dad told me

Your 50 % is most people's 100%. And so I tell myself that a lot so I don't hold that guilt of not sitting at my desk the whole day. But then also the fact that I am so lucky that when I actually am having a really bad depression episode or really, really bad anxiety for whatever reason, that I am allowed to work from bed.

So my therapist, she told me that, she was like, have all the permission to work from bed. And so sometimes my best.

Christian Brim (32:39.982)
Hmm.

Melinda (32:47.507)
The most I can do that day is send two emails and sleep all day because my anxiety and depression are so bad I'm crawling out of my skin. But that's still two emails I sent that day and it's okay. Because the next day I'll get up and I'll feel completely different and I'll get it all done and I'll catch up. So those have been really the biggest things for me that like it's okay that things don't look how they used to look.

Christian Brim (33:13.262)
Yeah, or what other people think they should look like. I mean, I think we've all been programmed with this kind of a Puritan work ethic of like, you have to work hard to be successful. And the reality is that in this environment, this business culture world we live in, that's not accurate. I mean, this isn't a factory where you've got to

Melinda (33:15.666)
Yep.

Christian Brim (33:42.638)
produce a certain number of widgets and that requires a certain amount of time. That's not reality anymore. But accepting that for yourself that that's okay. It would that definitely was a struggle for me. Like, I'd be sitting there at my desk just looking at shit that I knew I didn't need to do. But in order to break that habit, I physically moved my office into this office with no windows with no chair, just a stand up desk.

where it was no music, nothing, nothing on the walls. People said it looked like a prison. And it was unintentional because it was like, okay, if I don't have something to do, there's no way I'm gonna sit here because it's uncomfortable. And it worked. mean, like I got to move back into my other office because I learned that it's okay, that I have permission to leave when I'm done.

Melinda (34:26.599)
Mm-hmm.

Melinda (34:37.235)
I love that.

Christian Brim (34:41.378)
Melinda, how do people find you if they want to learn more about your public relations company?

Melinda (34:47.963)
Yeah, it's Melinda Jackson Public Relations. If you just Google it, it's easy. MelindaJacksonPR.com. Social, it's MelindaJacksonPR. And then my personal social media is at MelindaGale, G-A-L-E. I talk about mental health and I'm very real on there and you'll see the breakdown and if I'm having a panic attack, I'm gonna live stream it or put it on my stories. Don't do that as much on my public or my

professional social media. I have to keep those separate.

Christian Brim (35:21.56)
Well, I applaud you for that, that you can be that open and honest, because there is that fear that it's gonna tarnish your image. that, yeah, no, so I'm...

Melinda (35:32.616)
Yeah. Well, I have had clients in the past say things like, I think maybe your mental health is affecting your work. I'm like, it never has, it never will. You just saw that on my social media and you're using it as an excuse and I don't want to work with you anymore.

Christian Brim (35:50.806)
Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Melinda, thank you very much for your honesty and candor and experience share. I appreciate it very much. Listeners, if you like what you hear, please share the podcast, rate the podcast, subscribe to the podcast. Until next time, remember you are not alone.

Melinda (35:54.759)
Yeah.

Melinda (35:59.612)
Yeah.