Career with Confidence: Build Your Community & Level Up Your Success with Melissa Campanelli

*This transcript was auto-generated*

Kim Gravel: Coming up on The Kim Gravel Show.

Melissa Campanelli: We had these women and they were like crying, hugging. It was like there was something special, right? So we were like, we need to like do something about this.

Opening Introduction: Let's just go on and spill the tea. This is The Kim Gravel Show. This is one of the realest persons I've ever met in my darn life. You gotta watch this. My mission is to encourage every single woman, we're here to lift y'all up. There's no one more effective than moms. You mess with the bull. You going to get the horns. I need coffee. I need Jesus and I need therapy. If you can bring a smile to people's faces, why would you not? We love our kids. We love our husbands. What a blessing. We're gonna dedicate this to you in finding your superpower. Okay girl. True confidence is knowing who you are and why you're here.

Kim Gravel: Hey y'all, this is The Kim Gravel Show. And I'm Kim Gravel. And this season we are leveling up our lives. We're gonna step into our purpose, our calling, and we're gonna do it together. So, excited. I said that every time, Zac. I'm excited. But you know what,

Zac Miller: we're always excited. It's just Thursdays are exciting days, Kim.

Kim Gravel: Not really, that's what I'm trying to say. Like, II, I say that I'm excited. Because when I sit down to do this show, I get to just block out everything that's not exciting in my life, which is Zoom calls, you know, deadlines. I probably stay on call my jaw. I've got TMJ because I stay on calls all the time.

Okay. And I don't know if everybody listening when you, when people say, let's meet, let's have a meeting, let's meet about it. I break out in anxiety and hives cuz I'm just like, what? Why? Why do we have to meet? Do you like meetings? Do you like all these meetings that we, everybody's

Zac Miller: doing? I have to say, like, I've gone full circle with all this.

Be honest. No, no. I've totally gone full circle with it. Like, I loved, I loved Zoom meetings for a long time. I was like, oh, it's great. We could talk to Zoom. So talk about, and now I'm just like, can we just talk on the phone? Like can we just, if, if we have to talk, like

Kim Gravel: can we just not talk. I'll just text you.

Yeah, just text. No, but I'm serious. Like, and I, I'm saying all that to saying

Zac Miller: we're starting out with like an antisocial message today.

Kim Gravel: Anti, well, not social, social. I don't think meetings are something now give me something where I can sit and talk with you or we can go to dinner and we can have fun or we can, you know, create something.

I'm down, but all the meetings that I have to do, but that's just part of business, right? I mean, that's just, gathering a team of people. I mean, we have. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 standing weekly meetings. Oh God. When I said it, I just, I had it, my heart went boom, boom, boom, boom. I have stopped five weekly meetings with 10 to 20 people on each meeting.

So it's like zoom around the world and or teams around the world, whatever you use. And honestly, today I hit decline on one of them to be here with you, and I was so excited. I'm like, ES gwn. Nope. Can't do that one. Decline.

Zac Miller: Let me speak for the entire audience when I say thank you. Thank you for being here.

Kim Gravel: Well, II'm not trying to start off negative Nelly, y'all. But I hope y'all, if, if you feel the same way about meetings, you'll give us a shout out. Hit us up on our, on our call line and let us know how you feel about meetings. But, I say all that because it's a necessary. Evil, so to speak. I mean, cuz when you're in business and you're, you have a team of people that you are leading, it's so tough.

And can I just say Zac? Leadership and being a mom of two children and a wife and in my community and doing my social activities, you know, friend time that I have, it's a lot. Women in business, people in business periods a lot, but women in business. It truly is tough. It's no easy, it's, no, it's no joke.

Oh, I'm excited today about this show because it's a little bit different than what we've normally done. We're, we're really gonna dive into the business of being a woman in business. We're gonna get a little bit deeper about. Women in these leadership roles in our business lives. Cuz I believe women have like these separated, like we're a mom here, we're a wife, then we're, you know, we, we do our careers in our business and we do cuz a lot of women are in the workforce and killing it.

But it's not easy. It's not easy.

Zac Miller: You know, I try really hard to be like a, a sort of, you know, take on the responsibilities of the house as much as I can, evenly partnership. And still, I think there is like a, just a mental load that's on women, especially like around the house that just still isn't on men in the same way.

Right.

Kim Gravel: There's something excited though, exciting Zac with women in business because, we bring a different perspective too. So, I mean, as hard as it is, It's very rewarding for the companies that, you know, we work for, that we run because we bring a different viewpoint and perspective in business that I think is so valuable.

Zac Miller: The numbers bear that out too. So when I was actually researching this episode, Melissa, who's our guest today, and she is like a huge proponent of this, and she talks about how it's like companies that are doing better and are more profitable and are bigger, are more diverse and have more women on their boards and have more women and more, you know, people of color and everything, like all throughout the, highest ranks and it's good business.

Kim Gravel: It's great business and women bring this different, like we said, different perspective, from, from a man, not that it's, it's better or you know, Far superior. Well, that just came out really fast, didn't it? Far superior. That just said, far saying, I'm saying that not far superior, far superior. That was a little, what is that called?

A double entendre? Is that what that's called?

Zac Miller: I dunno if that, was that a double entendre or

Kim Gravel: no

Zac Miller: Let me explain to you what a double entendre means. Okay. A double entendre, sorry. Wait, hold on. Let me mansplain to you what a double entendre means.

A double entendre is when you say something dirty, but Oh, you don't mean it to be dirty.

Kim Gravel: Oh, okay. That's where my head's at. So I got a double entendre, hold on, hold on, hold on. So I have a double entendre. Let me say, my grandmother used to always say, okay, okay.

She used to say to me, she would say to me, my mother, my grandmother spoke in double entendre. She was the strongest, you know, God fearing woman, you know. But she was always like a little, she said to me, she said, I'm gonna tell you something. All these women out here chasing all these men, and they're chasing all these old men.

They were chasing a piece of meat. What they're liable to do is just get a piece of skin.

Zac Miller: There you go. There she is. She did it. Ding. We need like a, we need that. There. She did it.

Kim Gravel: That's it. That is that Mary Blanton could do a double entendre. Okay, so what I was saying was a Freudian slip. Right?

That's what I was saying. Okay.

Zac Miller: Can we just say for a second that like it's very you, that you're like, I'm looking for a double entendre. I'm gonna go to grandma. Like that's, that's where you're going. It's always family.

Kim Gravel: It's cause, cause babe, I come from a long line of risque people. Okay. Okay. And I'm slightly proud of it.

I'm slightly proud of it. Oh my gosh. All right. Oh, Kim, you know our guest today, she is truly going to change how you see women in leadership. In business and you don't wanna miss a minute of it, we'll be right back with our guests. Melissa Campanelli.

Hey y'all. Kim Gravel here, and I'm excited about my book that's releasing very, very soon called Collecting Confidence, and I wrote it because I want everyone to feel confident. And be the confident person that you already are and walk in it. I'm hoping that when you read it, you're gonna be encouraged.

You're gonna be inspired, you're gonna laugh a little, and also you're going to take. My stories of my life, the experiences, the ups, the downs, the ins and outs, the highs, the lows, and it's been that thread in my life that has given me the confidence to be who I was meant to be. And I wanted to do the same for you because you already have it inside of you from the day you were born.

To right now, it's time to start where you are to become everything you were meant to be. And in collecting confidence, it will encourage you to do just that. Collecting confidence comes out April 25th and you can pre-order it now. Wherever books are sold. Let's all do this thing together and walk boldly y'all in your collected confidence.

All right, Zac, everybody buckle up. Buttercups. We have got a guest that is gonna be talking to us about leadership and particularly women in leadership, Melissa Campanelli. Listen, she's a small business owner. She's an e-commerce and marketing expert. In 2014, she co-founded the Women in Retail Leadership Circle.

It's just this amazing powerhouse of women that come together, support each other, encourage each other. She's a brand and content director of retail and the travel group in a, NACO Media. She's an editor-in-Chief of Total Retail. She's one of the hosts of Women in Retail Talks podcast, and I'm telling you, don't.

To miss that, go ahead and click like, and subscribe to that one. She just, she does so much. She, she's an author of books, entrepreneurs magazines, open an online business in 10 days. And I am going to speak at her. Sold out Women in Retail Leadership Summit later this month. Everybody. Welcome Melissa Campanelli,

Melissa, how did you like that intro, baby?

Melissa Campanelli: I'm speechless.

Kim Gravel: Melissa, I'm so excited that you decided to be on this podcast. We've been asking, we've been trying to connect this because you are truly, you're busier. A one-armed paper hanger. First of all, you're always into something, you're doing something, but can you talk to me about why you decided to do this whole Women in Retail Leadership Conference?

What was it about that? I'm so grateful that you did, cuz we're a part of it, but what made you do that?

Melissa Campanelli: First of all, I just wanted to say thank you so much, Kim, for having me on.

Kim Gravel: I love you, girl.

Melissa Campanelli: We're so excited. You're, I'm a huge fan, so I'm thrilled to be here and I'm so excited that you're coming to our event.

Like that's the biggest issue for me. So let me tell you about Women in Retails, please. We came up with the idea, my co-founder, Jen de Pasqua, and I, it was almost like an idea of writing something on the back of a napkin. Cuz we used to go to a lot of events since we are in the media business and we went to a lot of events.

That were retail oriented and we would hear these people speaking on stage and they were mostly men and they were talking about the um, you know, the customer that they're serving. And they kept referring to her as she or her sometimes they had a name for the customer. You know, Sally purchases these items and we kind of looked at each other, scratched her head.

We were coming at it a little bit differently cuz we really weren't in the retail industry. We were from the media sort of perspective. And we were like, why are these men talking about women? Women should be up on the stage talking about what women want, what women wanna buy. It's kind of, it was just silly.

So we did some research and it turned out that there really were not a lot of, organizations that targeted senior level women in retail. And we felt like there was a white space. So we got the blessing of our. Corporate, you know, or the president of our company. And we went ahead and did it. And we had a small event.

I remember it was in Miami and it was at one of those mm-hmm. Art deco, hotels that were, you know, the toilets did at work and all that stuff. But they, but we had these women and they were like, like crying, hugging. It was like there was something special, right. So we were like, we need to like do something about this.

So that's kind of how it got started. And then, so we kind of started it as a, an event for these ladies, but we've moved on now where it's a full on association. We have 600 yes plus members. But the whole focus of it is networking opportunities for senior level women. As well as training and development opportunities.

So we have, we have virtual events, we have the summit, which we're speaking at, but it's all about helping women, either network and get to their next spot or becoming better leaders through training and development.

Kim Gravel: There's so many people I've already met through the organization and I love how you say we're all awesome.

Come and now how we all coming together, you know, for this summit. But what is it about women? Cuz you said at the first one that, you know, women were just crying. And what is it about women that sets us apart when it comes to business?

Melissa Campanelli: A lot of the female that in quote traits, that you hear about, a lot are, you know, empathy, authenticity, having a real understanding of people being sort of intuitive.

All of those traits I feel like. Became sort of hot during covid and it's sort of like now, a lot of traditional, maybe male focused, techniques or strategies are kind of being looked down upon, not looked down upon, but they're being thought of secondly and shifting the authentic Yeah, it's shifting the authenticity and the empathy is what's really required, and I think that's what makes women successful in business.

I mean, they. They care. They take extra time. They're more, they're, they're very organized. But they're also strong and fierce. So, you know, I just think it's, it's, they, they're sort of a mix of everything that's, that's needed to be good in business.

Kim Gravel: I totally a thousand percent agree with you. And don't you think that we get sometimes a bad rap, because I hear this all the time, that women, don't support each other and they, and they tear each other down.

I have not experienced that. At. All at all in my life, honestly, I I, when people say that, I'm thinking, does somebody just make that up? Is that a myth? I'm not, I'm not saying that there's not competition out there, and I'm not saying that, that, you know, that doesn't happen maybe in your youth and when you're young and, and I can understand some women are, but, but the majority of of women out there in business, We, like you said, when we all get together, we're like, oh God.

You go through that too. It's almost like a sisterhood.

Melissa Campanelli: Sisterhood. It exactly is it. Exactly is, and we have not found that at all. I mean, the, I think the, the, one of the best things about our group is how everyone loves to share. I mean, we're constantly getting, you know, Job opportunities that might be avail, you know, folks might be interested in, to please share in our Slack channel or, ugh, you know, if anyone hears about a, a, a senior level position, we're sharing it immediately with our, with our network.

Kim Gravel: Tell me what you have found. To be the biggest blessing from having this organization, cuz I know you have stories after stories. Can you share with me just one or two stories that it's really impacted, people's lives from, from this, these events?

Melissa Campanelli: There was a woman who was, feeling down about her, her career.

She wasn't happy where she was, she wasn't happy with her leadership. And, she attended our event, one of our events, this was years ago, probably like the second or third event we had. And, While she was at our event, she got a a or a phone call from, from someone who was, interested in seeing if she would be interested in being the c e I'm gonna say the name of the organization in being the c e o of the, Susan G. Coleman, group.

Kim Gravel: Oh, wow.

Melissa Campanelli: And, she was a breast cancer survivor. And oh, she, she said at, at the event, because she, it was so powerful that she went for the job interview right after coming to her event and she got the job and now she's thriving. And she told me, I mean, I've had long talks with her, and she told me that a main reason was because of the support and the feeling that she was having being at our event.

And she just knew that she could do it. She knew she could do what she wanted. She didn't have to stand for what she was. You know, dealing with is that particular situation that she was in.

Kim Gravel: Don't you think that's what happens when we all get together as women? And we, I mean, it, it, it doesn't even take, I mean, forget the networking, which is fantastic.

Like all these senior level women networking together. I mean, come on, right? Look, get, get a bunch of pt I a moms together and you know, we can take over the world, get a bunch of senior leadership people, women together, come on. We can really, we can really take over something, but. It's, it's, it's the, even the unspoken support that you get, being and connecting at these events,

Melissa Campanelli: that is so true.

And I even said to her, I was like, could you sort of give me some tangible understanding of why, what was it about it? I mean, you got the phone call, you were upset. You know, couldn't you have just, you know, called them back a week later or something? And she was like, no, I was, it was, it was in the moment.

That's what she told me it was in the moment. And, and if she wasn't there, she probably wouldn't have done it. That's what she told me. So I just love that story. Like I think about it all the time, really. You know, we really made a huge, we helped this woman's career. And not only that, she's a fantastic leader of the Susan J. Coleman organization, which is amazing.

Kim Gravel: I wanna pick your brain for a second because you, you've had, you're an entrepreneur yourself, so you're, you're a woman in business as well, as well as providing this outlet for, for all of us. What is it about women in leadership that is so special in your opinion?

Melissa Campanelli: It's about the ability to connect.

Kim Gravel: Yes. Oh, that's a good word.

Melissa Campanelli: The ability to empathize with one another. You know, just the feeling of com camaraderie. You know, it's not all about just winning. It's about connecting.

Kim Gravel: Oh my gosh. Lean into that, talk about that. Because we don't live in a society that says, I, we are desperate for connection, Melissa. Desperate for it.

Melissa Campanelli: And, and you can connect. And I'm not saying, I don't wanna make it sound like I don't wanna win and that I don't believe in making money and all that good stuff, but Sure. It's all about, but it's about how you get there. Do you know what I mean? It's about making connections with people and.

Having solid relationships and then that formulating the wind,

Kim Gravel: I think more than ever we are at this place right now where, You know, you see social media and you see this image of perfection everywhere. And look, God knows Melissa. I love a good corrective concealer, and a, and a, and a filter for my pictures.

I'm not gonna lie to you right now. I'm gonna have Zac do five filters on both of us before we put this out. So I'm not, I'm not saying

Zac Miller: Melissa, only four filters for you. Kim gets five.

Kim Gravel: You, I get five. You only need four. Well, you don't read any, but you know what I mean. So what I'm saying is, is that. I mean, I, I like you.

We need to put out our very best, we need to always be striving in, in reaching for bigger and better, and the wins are great. And we wouldn't be in business girl if we didn't want that, if we didn't enjoy that kind of success. Right? Right. But, but I think when the connection happens, the success follows.

 That's, that's where I think, especially in the, in the retail business, any kind of business that you're in, My daddy used to always tell me this. He used to say, baby, you ain't in selling clothes business. You in the people

Melissa Campanelli: business. Oh It's so true.

Kim Gravel: How do you network? How do you talk? How do you make things happen?

Cuz networking is so important. I'm Terri. I know you think Kim, you're probably such a great networker. I'm not really. I know that I'm. Melissa, it's so hard for me to network and I don't, cuz it's hard for me. I'm gonna be honest. I'm, I'm gonna be honest and transparent. It's hard for me to ask anyone for anything.

And I feel like, like I can, I can develop true great relationships and friendships with women. And I'm a girls girl just like you, but it's hard for me to. Network in a way. What's where it's like a, an exchange. Does that make sense? And I ca I'm not alone out there. A lot of women feel this way.

They don't wanna be a bother, they don't wanna upset. You know what I'm saying? That's how I feel a lot of times. How do you network and do it so well,

Melissa Campanelli: that is a great question. I mean, I struggle with it as well. I just think I, a lot of us do. But I mean, one thing, and we know a lot of people think like that, so, we are actually doing something at our event this year in, in those squads.

That I've done before. It's very specific technique and, it's called the ask give exercise because I, and I think it's, it, it works because I think people are feeling the way that you do. So what we're doing is we're having everyone in these squads sort of ask for something, but then also say that they can give something in return so that they don't feel so bad about asking.

Kim Gravel: Girl. That's brilliant. I, I hope I get to be in a squad. Go. I think you heard the squad.

Melissa Campanelli: I think we put, you put in a squad.

Kim Gravel: I wanna be in a squad. No, it's true. I mean, it, it's, it's hard for us as women, I think anybody but especially women, to network and ask for things. But you know, you have not, cuz you asked, not.

Melissa Campanelli: Right, but this helps because it's like, you don't feel, unfortunately, we do feel bad, you know, I don't, has nothing to do with being a woman, I don't know. But we do feel bad. But this, I feel like, is a great exercise because it's like I have a, you know, I, I need help. Like, I need help with my, with branding.

I need like a brand, you know, I don't know what I'm doing. I need him to help with my marketing and my branding. But at, but you know, if you don't, but I have a great coach for you. So let's, let's exchange that way, which I think is really smart. I saw it at another event, and I, we, we stole, we stole it.

Kim Gravel: Steal it, steal it.

Melissa Campanelli: But I thought it steal a good idea and I think it does an talk to what you're talking about.

Kim Gravel: How do you gear up and find your confidence before these big events or before you're meeting people to really, for lack of a better word, promote and tell people about what you've got going.

How do you do that? Give us, give us a few tips.

Melissa Campanelli: One thing that we do is we have, we, I do, you can tell, who's coming to the event because there's like a, an event, website, so you can see like who's coming to the event. So I connected with them on LinkedIn and I'm excited to meet with 'em. And, and what's great about is that.

They're, they know that they're gonna meet me and they want to, it's not like I'm making them do something they don't wanna do.

Kim Gravel: I like that advice. So what you're saying is be prepared when you're going out and you're doing things and you never know who you're gonna meet, where you're gonna meet. Right.

So you gotta be prepared. And then I love the LinkedIn and I'm not, I, full disclosure, I am not, exercising my Lincoln LinkedIn enough. I'm not working that platform, but it's a huge platform for people who want to be in business and want to do things and grow their business. Would you agree with that?

Melissa Campanelli: I do. I love LinkedIn.

Zac Miller: Do you remember, Kim, that I reached out to you on LinkedIn before we started this pod? Really? Because I was like, Hey, Kim. Yeah, I didn't remember that. When we were starting the pod, we reconnected on LinkedIn.

Kim Gravel: Yeah, on LinkedIn. Oh, okay. Yep.

Melissa Campanelli: To be honest with you, a lot of women in retail was started on LinkedIn because, The algorithms have changed a lot since then, but there was a thing where they had, it was called like LinkedIn groups and they had like a something called retail group or something.

 So I just started, I just started connecting with people and then they connected back and then I was like, we're launching this group, and then that's kind of how it started. So I love LinkedIn. I know it's like the old person social media, but I don't care.

Kim Gravel: So I love it. Is it, is it the old person social media or the smart person social media?

Which one? Yeah, right. I'm telling you, everybody go check out Women in Retail. You can find them anywhere on social media. But I wanna say before we let you go, Melissa, we do something with every guest we have. We do this thing called rapid fire questions. Rapid fire questions. There you go. Rapid fire questions.

So don't even think about it. You're just going to answer the question first thing that pops into your mind. So this could be, this could be interesting. Here we go. All right. Melissa, what was your first job?

Melissa Campanelli: I worked at my dad's supermarket. I was, in charge of recyclables.

Kim Gravel: That was a whole department.

Melissa, like you were in charge of that department?

Melissa Campanelli: Well, I was in charge of like the, the area of recycling bottles.

Kim Gravel: Oh my God. Does he make any money on those bottles? Cause didn't you turn 'em in and make some money? Didn't make any money. You're just doing your part for the environment. Ex, what is your morning routine?

Melissa Campanelli: Well, I still have a son in high school. He's gonna be a senior, so I mean, he's gonna be a freshman in college, so I still, you know, get up, make sure he's up. Then I have my coffee, ice coffee. And then I just get him ready and drive to school. I, I cannot wait until he goes because I'm gonna have a whole.

That's gonna involve exercise yoga. That's gonna involve,

Kim Gravel: Melissa. Melissa, that's the best answer of any frigging question we've ever asked. Let me tell you why. You gotta, let me, indulge me for two seconds, Zac, because I think every mom feels that way. Like cuz you see on and my baby's graduating my little precious angel bug and I'm sitting here going.

Lord, we got two more years, honey. Got two more years and with one, that's awful. But I'm so glad to hear somebody else.

Melissa Campanelli: I'm, I'm already looking forward to having like a yoga class and like a smoothie.

Kim Gravel: Right now I'm just making lunch. That's the best answer of a rapid fire I've ever heard. What is the best e-commerce business that anyone can start today? Because I know you wrote a book on this, so I wanted, I wanted to hear your thoughts.

Melissa Campanelli: I did. I think something that's really, really interesting right now is anything in health and wellness.

A lot of people are interested in health and wellness. It seems like it's relatively, you know, inexpensive if you get into it.

Kim Gravel: Alright. What is your favorite song?

Melissa Campanelli: I love that song. Brick house.

Kim Gravel: I'm a brick. She's a brick. Sing it house. Oh gosh. Let's play that. She mighty, mighty. She letting it.

I'll hang out. So Melissa, that's, that's, that's my opening tune when I go to speak at the

people.

Melissa Campanelli: We're asking people for their songs. We will play it.

Kim Gravel: That's my song. That's my song. Play Brick Houses. I'm walking up, I'm gonna dedicated to you. That's it.

Zac Miller: Don't even let Kim have a chance to take it back. That's it?

Kim Gravel: That's it. Would you rather have more money or more confidence?

Melissa Campanelli: 100% more confidence.

Yeah, I'm, I'm someone that doesn't need a lot of money. I'm happy, you know, I'm very involved in my kid's school. You know, I'm not really, really that interested in status and stuff like that, but I think it's so important to have confidence and it just, I agree. It makes your day so much better.

Kim Gravel: It does.

It makes your life better. All right, here we go. One of my favorite questions. What's your favorite junk food? Junk food.

Melissa Campanelli: Ooh. They ha I'm, it's gotta be the, the in Doritos.

Kim Gravel: Doritos. Okay. What flavor? Because there's variety.

Melissa Campanelli: Cool. Ranch. Cool. Ranch.

Kim Gravel: Ooh, I was nacho cheese. I was going nacho cheese with you.

But Doritos with an M&M. Come on now.

Melissa Campanelli: Well, yeah, that sounds pretty good.

Zac Miller: See Kim. Kim, just for the record. I'm a salty girl. Double tundra.

Kim Gravel: That's it. Okay, good. That's it. Couple more questions, Melissa. Celebrity Crush.

Melissa Campanelli: Ooh, celebrity crush. It's the guy that was on Sex in the City who died.

Kim Gravel: Oh, what was his name?

Melissa Campanelli: Yes, he was Mr. Big. He was so handsome, Mr. Big. He's so handsome.

Kim Gravel: I would have to ditto that. Yeah, I, I know.

Zac Miller: Oh, you didn't mean like the short, bald guy? No, that's how much I thought you met.

Kim Gravel: No, Mr. Big.

Melissa Campanelli: Oh, Chris. Chris Noth. That's his name.

Kim Gravel: Okay. Last question. What do you hope that women take away from being a part of women in retail?

Melissa Campanelli: I hope that they gain a sense of community, that they make fantastic connections. That they grow as leaders and people, and that they just become happier and better people.

Kim Gravel: Well, there you go, everybody. This is, Melissa Campanelli. She is one of the co-founders of Women in Retail Leadership Summit. I'm gonna be speaking there in a few weeks.

She also has so many on the road events, many summits. They're coming up in July, in Dallas, October, and New York City and in LA in November. Go check out what these women have got going on if you need. A boost in the con in networking, and you are in retail and you want to connect with the sisterhood.

You've gotta check it out. Melissa, thank you so much for coming on. I love you so much. I cannot wait to see you in a few weeks, girl. And hug your neck.

Melissa Campanelli: I can't wait to see you either. Thank you so much. This has been so fun.

Kim Gravel: And as we're going out, I'm gonna be singing She's a Brick....

all right, Zac. I absolutely loved. Melissa and I've really been wanting to connect and net with network with her for many, many years. And then Covid happened, and so we couldn't connect. But the thing that comes to mind, like she's so successful in what she's doing and how she's, I love how she's, she has a passion of heart for women and women in retail coming together and networking and having this community.

But she does it with such, she's so earnest, that's the word. Like as I was talking to Melissa, I was like, she's so sincere and authentic, and I think that's why she's successful.

Zac Miller: Do too. And I feel like, you know, being part of this conversation with you and her and listening to you both like these two, just like powerhouse women talking about being like on the top of your game.

And it's just like, not only is it inspiring, but it's like, yeah, you can hear how much you both just want to. Lift each other up, lift women up just like it was, like what you said on the show a few weeks ago, like confident people want you to be confident. Right? They want you to succeed.

Kim Gravel: And I love how she said that's the one thing she wants more of.

And I thought, well that's why I wrote the book cuz I do too. Like we all want to be confident and, and the thing about women in retail is that that's an opportunity. I loved her story that she was talking about the, the woman that was so empowered at the conference to step into, you know, her new position, with Susan B. Coleman. And that's what I'm talking about is like confident people, even people who are wanting more confidence. The fact that you can admit that tells me you are confident. Right? Yep. If you've got the, the courage to say, I wanna be better, I wanna do better, I wanna be more confident. That's what I'm talking about with Melissa.

We can all take a tip from Melissa. She was talking to us about networking, about, community, about connection and about confidence. And I'm telling you, none of us have it all together, y'all. None of us have it all together, but together we can have it all. All right. Till next time right here. I'm Kim Gravel.

Zac Miller: And this is Zac. See y'all.

Kim Gravel: Bye.

I see my red light. You have to turn on your red light. Melissa. I have two boys, so I never sit on a clean toilet seat. There's one drink though that I got. It's a little like shot. It's called Free and Wild or something like that. That's not free, but you drink it.

You feel wild.

Zac Miller: Is it Alcohol?

Kim Gravel: The Kim Gravel Show is produced and edited by Zac Miller at Uncommon Audio. Our associate producer is Kathleen Grant, the Brunette Exec. Production help from Emily Bredin and Sara Noto.

Our cover art is designed by Sanaz Huber at Memarian Creative and Mike Kligerman Edits the show and a special thanks to the team at QVC. Head over to kimgravelshow.com and sign up for our mailing list. Again, we can't do this without you, so thank you for listening, and we love you.