Your Next Chapter is Bigger Than You Know with Leslie Means

*This transcript was auto-generated*

Kim Gravel: These are my junk food for today, it's a Hershey with almonds and Cheetos. This is what we're talking about, Leslie. This is junk food.

Hey y'all, and welcome to LOL with Kim Gravel. This is a comedy podcast for women where we laugh about the messiness of life and we turn that. Into a message of confidence and hope so we are here to lift you up. Yep, that's right. Let's all do this together because look, to be our real authentic selves in this world takes a little bit of encouragement.

Again, a little bit of lifting up. So today, that's exactly what we're gonna do. We're gonna do it together, live out loud, laugh out loud, and lift each other up out loud together.

Here we go.

Okay, my guest today is Leslie Means she is an author and y'all, she left her career, her dream job as a TV news anchor to launch her successful blog and her online community called Her View from Home, which has millions and millions of monthly readers. I'm telling y'all what an amazing powerhouse woman.

She has a new book coming out in a few months called, so God Made a Mother. That means. Let's welcome Leslie means to lol. Hey Leslie.

Leslie Means: Hello Kim. Thank you for that. That I felt teary already. Just hearing you see it. , honey. Well, that's something about me. I ball a lot.

Kim Gravel: I cry a lot. Oh my gosh. I think it, I do too.

Ever since I started menopause, I mean I, my emotion. I feel like a 12 year old girl. Again, I'm, I don't know what it is. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, when you're 13 or 14 year old girl, you cry all the time. And then when you're like over 50, you're crying all the time.

Leslie Means: So I have a 12, I have a 12 and 14 year old girl, so yes, I'm, I'm there. I'm crying with them.

Kim Gravel: You're with them. You're all doing it together. .

God's bless. That's awesome. Okay, Leslie, listen, we gotta dive right into it because you, you know, we're kindred spirit. You and I I love this. You know, we're both women of faith and we, we both are mothers and we're both, you know, had dreams and, and big career opportunities.

What made you want to start a blog and this community and leave TV girl? Cuz you, you said like TV was your dream, right? Like no one leaves TV .

How long?

Leslie Means: Okay. And how long do I have? Cause I could just take you down A take you down a path. All right. Take us. I am. I am this. Farm girl from Central Nebraska. I grew up in a house that has been in our family since 1901.

My great grandpa, my grandpa, my dad, and then I lived there. Now my sister lives there with her family and my parents built a house down the cornfield. Like that's, you know, this is, this is right roots in Nebraska. Yes. But I never felt, I mean, you know, I had 30 people in my high school class, but I never felt.

Small. I always, always knew there was something,

Kim Gravel: hold on, hold on, hold on. You can't just go over that and not, that's a big one. But I never felt small. Yes. Wow.

Leslie Means: And I don't know, was that mom and dad was. I always talk about God whispers. I mean, was it even, even then that early on, you know, we didn't have a lot of money.

We didn't have cable. My, I would watch like Tom Broka at night. You know, that's what I at like six years old. But I just was like fascinated with people and their stories, and we didn't really have neighbors. So sometimes I'd go out to my barn and I talk to my cats.

Kim Gravel: No, I'm serious. No, I think there's something to, no, I do.

I think there's something to this. It's like you didn't have any distrac. Yes, so you could really hear from God.

Leslie Means: I think, and I, you know, only now at 40, I'm like, was I already, was I already getting whispers that I say that I knew you were. And so I knew then that I didn't want, I knew that I wanted to be TV something.

I wanted to talk to people and I knew I didn't wanna take anything math cuz math, I'm just, that's not my thing. So I was like, what is the belief?

Kim Gravel: I don't, I don't trust people with math, gifting, except

Leslie Means: I don't trust math except now. Now I run a business. I'm like, oh, maybe I do need math. Oh, but there's good accountants for that.

There's good accountants for that. But I knew, I was like, okay, in college, You know, you could take journalism, broadcast journalism. It's great, right? It's very little math and it's a lot of talking. And that's where I got started. And I met my husband in college and, and I was in TV when we got to Houston.

I was like, I miss, I miss, I miss my family, I miss my roots, I miss my connections. So I'm like, let's, let's go back home and just see what. So my husband, bless him, he went from his dream gig to back to Nebraska to rogue Cornfield because there was no jobs here for him. But I, started then working at our local television station in Kearney, where I am now, and I was the morning and weekend anchor.

And then we started this show called NTVs Good Life. It's 2007 and I didn't have any kids yet, but it was a talk show and I was. This is, this is fabulous. I mean, yeah. You know, it's not really small town TV is not as cush as, you know, the biggest markets, but it was for what it was, it was kind of cush because it was a 9:00 AM show and I got to go in from 6:00 AM to 1:00 PM I used to go in at like two in the morning, so this was way better.

Right.

Kim Gravel: News is a little bit harder Grind. Yeah,

Leslie Means: it is. It's a, it's a thing. But this was. amazing, right? I should love this. I would talk to like 10 different people every morning. They'd come on the show, they'd, it was great, but I felt something was missing. And I just knew my girls then were, two in like six months, and I was like, something is, aw, I don't know what it is.

And I still couldn't pinpoint it then, you know, now hindsight, you can look back, right? And you're like, okay, right. That was all the leading, but I'm like, I, there's something more. There's something more. And I actually got a call. From a woman I knew in the community and she left a voicemail on my work phone.

You know, when people still had like, you know, the work phones that you'd, that you'd pick up and use, and she said, Leslie, I wanna talk to you about something, gimme a call when you're done with the show. And I, no joke said, wouldn't that be cool if she was offering me a job? Like, I truly, like, I still, I get goosebumps thinking about that.

I called her, she was offering me a job, had no idea at our local Chamber of Commerce. And I'm like, these God whispers to me. I'm like, okay, this is like, I'm gonna take

Kim Gravel: open doors. Open doors, yes. Yeah.

Leslie Means: But I am this broadcast journalism girl. What do I know about business? I don't know. I don't know anything about this.

The first day I got there, I cried because I didn't know how to do a Google spreadsheet. I

Kim Gravel: mean, I still don't, no, no.

Google spreadsheets still make me cry.

Google spreadsheets are possessed by the devil. I'm convinced. Anything Google. I can't, y'all, I'm serious. So I totally like when you said Google spread, I was like, oh, I'm out.

Leslie Means: I don't know. I couldn't do that. I call, I call my husband. He, he was, then he had a, he had a better job than, you know, rugging corn, although that was a good thing. But I called him, I'm like, how do I do this? I don't. I don't even know what to do. And I, and I went home that first day over my lunch break and I remember looking in the mirror and I was like, did I make a mistake?

What have I done? What have I done? And then, you know, the whispering, how good God is I, that's good. That really led me to where I am because I loved the business side, but I missed the creative side. And that's when I started her view from, Through the chamber is where I met my connections for the business plan competition where we won $10,000.

Kim Gravel: Okay. , we, let's talk about the business side. I mean, because first of all, I have four businesses and have never had a plan. So I mean, , I gotta tell you,

Leslie Means: this is why Kim when you say business plan, this is my business plan.

Kim Gravel: Hey y'all, this is what we going do. Let's do it.

Leslie Means: I mean, let me, let me tell you, I had two other business partners. And they wrote the plan and I got to get up in front of these three men at our local university and convince them that the world needed this women's website.

I mean, truly, I love it. That's how I love it. And you know, I'm ba I'm like, how did I even, I just had, I had so much confidence in it. And again, I think it's a whisper. I don't know if I could hear it. I don't know, but I was like up there,

Kim Gravel: wait a minute. Do, do you think, Leslie, it was a nudge. It was a, you know, like a Yes.

Describe that feeling to people.

Leslie Means: I can't and I hate it.

Kim Gravel: You're gonna have to, you're gonna have, let's, we're gonna have to figure it out because pe because a lot of people ask me the same thing, like, how did you know it? It's this little, what is that? I love how you say it's a God whisper, but it's, it's, oh, come on.

Put some words to it. Girl. You write a,

Leslie Means: you just, I don't, do you? I think everybody hears it. I think maybe we just ignore it a lot. Ignore. We don't recognize it. Maybe. Yes. And maybe I've just been, I've just kind of always been out there. Right. And so maybe I just, it's not as scary for me to listen to. I mean, it's terrifying.

It's terrifying. But I think I've always, I could always fall back to that. You were free. You were free. Yes. And I've always had a support system, which I will tell people too, him, like there is a, it's, yes, it looks like there's been a lot of success, but there's been a lot of people along the way and a lot of reasons.

That it was successful cuz I had so much support. Not, I didn't have money, but I had support. And I think that's even greater than Right. Financial, you know, support. Right. yeah. So, I don't know. I don't know what that is. It's like, yeah. You know, when you get the tingles on your, on your arms and you, you feel like that, I feel like I don't mess around with those moments.

Kim Gravel: Mm, that's a good word. Y'all don't mess around when you feel it and you, when you know it, you. Yes, do it. Afraid. That's what you're saying, Leslie. That's exactly what you're saying. Okay. Yep, yep.

Leslie Means: Absolutely. That was hard though because it wasn't making much money and so that's when our two business partners, they left, they were like, Leslie, like, this is your dream.

We wanna make take, this is, yeah, . Like this is, you know, go with it. So I'm four years in and yeah, 2016, and my husband's like, Les. It's like, You need to go all in on her view from home.

Kim Gravel: Let me ask you something. Let me ask you something. So when you started it to win this 2016, how many people were reading the blog?

How many, what kind of success level did you have?

Leslie Means: Thank you for that cuz that is coming up. we were pretty small. It was about 20,000 people from 2012 to 2016. It was really, it just started with, people that I knew in the community and it was supposed to actually supposed to only be like a Nebraska website.

I was really gonna kind of do what I was doing on our local talk show, but online. So I was going to interview, like, have people tell stories of people in places of Nebraska, but then it really. I won't say quickly cuz it wasn't quickly, but it changed, it morphed into something more because you know, it's the internet and everyone has stories to tell, but those first four years were hard.

They're still, it's constantly hard. But I wasn't putting all of my energy into her view from home. I was working two other jobs and that's when Kyle and I, well not to eat, I remember this so clearly. He's like, you. You need to quit everything else and just do her view. And I'm like, what? I'm like glass of wine.

I'm like, what am I'm gonna it fail.

Kim Gravel: You're like, gimme the bottle.

Leslie Means: I'm like, what am I doing? Like what if it fails? Well, if it fails, I had enough connections in town, I could go get a job, right? It might not be my dream job. What if you got to lose? Right? I could get a job, like I can work.

I know how to work, and so, I think fall of, of, actually fall of 2015, early 2016 is when I went full in for her view from home and then June, 2016 happened. Okay. And I found out, we found out we were expecting our third. We have a five year old boy and I , so normally you would think. Less like really the business isn't making much.

What are you doing? You're like, normal people would say, this is tIt's time Leslie. Right? Like it's time to to hang it up, hang it out, and go, go get a real job. Right? But I had that. Goosebump whispery feeling. I was like this. I had so much peace, so much peace. And I get whispers, like I get like goosebumps thinking about it now because I'm like, this is gonna be, this is gonna be fine.

Like, I'm gonna keep going. Then not long after that, I received an email from a woman who said, Leslie, I've been praying about it and I really wanna share my story on your website. And this is, we're still small, you know, 20, 25,000 people on Facebook. I was like, yeah, absolutely. I'd be honored to share it.

It was actually her, friend had died, by suicide four months after her baby was born. Oh God. And she wanted to share it and show the signs and tell women what to do. And, and so we shared that piece and the website just completely took off. Wow. Was never the same. So many people found us and not long after.

We received an email from a woman who said, thank you so much for publishing that piece. It saved my life. And I thought, okay, God. Like I hear you. I don't know what you want me to do with this, but I know you want me to keep going and I'm gonna keep going. And it has not been the same since.

Kim Gravel: Just let me just say something.

You know, Leslie, I'm sitting here listening to this and so many people that are listening to your story right now. Are at that place where they are wanna hang it up, you know, I mean, I think so many times for us, especially when we are following God and his plan for our life, that, you know, he plants the seed, you know, and that fertile soil and then that seed grows and it gets to about right there, which is about that what, four, fifth, six year bank, right?

Leslie Means: And that's so hard.

Kim Gravel: And then we wanna. And you could see the seed going right back down, but it's just, if you could just hang on wherever you are in your journey. Don't you think so, Leslie? Cuz it's just about to pop through. You know what I'm saying? It's about come on up through. And that's what happened with you, that one story where you changed the entire trajectory.

Leslie Means: Right. And it was such a, we've always said in all the writers and all of our staff now, it's so, it's so much bigger than us. It, there's such a purpose and mission. It's a message. Yes. Right. And it's like how many women. Across the globe are now reading stories from these women. We'll never know, right?

Cause there's millions of women and strangers, they don't reach out. These women are changing lives every day. And what if I would've quit?

Kim Gravel: Like I know.

Leslie Means: Like that makes me just, it's, I don't know. I get all kinds of thoughts and emotions with that because I think, I don't know, I, the only way I know that I was to keep going is because I really think God told me to keep going and it just sounds nuts.

No, it

Kim Gravel: doesn't. It doesn't sound, you know what, cuz I've experienced the same thing, Leslie. That's why I'm saying we're kindred spirits because I think you have got the right idea when you said it's so much bigger than you or your team. I think for so many women, we live in such a hustle culture, wouldn't you say?

That everything's like, oh yeah, we're scrapping and we're just trying, and, you know, but honestly, I think when you, you're walking out God's will for your life, when you're listening to those whispers, it's not easy. But it's effortless. Yes. Does that make sense? Do you agree with that?

Like it's just, and it, I think it has to be something bigger than you for it to be worth it to keep going. Am I right?

Leslie Means: I gotta write that down.

Kim Gravel: I was gonna say write it down. I, that's what I've experienced.

Leslie Means: It's like, It's not easy. No. My gosh, it's so hard.

Kim Gravel: But it's like, it's so hard.

Leslie Means: You can't imagine, not you. Yes.

Kim Gravel: It's just, it's just an ease to it. Yes. Like there's an effortlessness to it.

Leslie Means: It's supposed supposed to happen.

Kim Gravel: That's it. Yeah. Can you give us a couple of stories, just just a, just some nuggets of some stories that have really impacted your readers, your millions of readers monthly.

Leslie Means: Let's go to January, 2017. We have a piece. It's just me on the website still. I still don't have any staff . I was very pregnant and so tired and I, this, the story came in and her title was, don't Be a Butthole Wife, and it's important.

Zac Miller: Kim, are we going to have to bleep this on QVC?

Kim Gravel: Leslie? You can say that. And can I just say, I am a butthole wife, so I relate to this so much.

Zac Miller: I think maybe you wanna find out what that means first. Kim .

Leslie Means: So, and we, I was, I,

Kim Gravel: You have to say it. That's a fantastic time. Don't be but whole wife.

Leslie Means: The, they made that, that was a click bait.

I'm like, dude, the author wrote that title, published it. God bless. God bless. It went bananas because the message inside her husband died unexpectedly. left her with four young boys and. She remarried it. She's great. She's, she's a great writer and, and, you know, powerful story, but she talked about how we should not let those little things in our day to day life bother us as much as we do.

So she talked about the last load of laundry that she would ever do for her husband after he'd passed away. Ah, and it was sitting on her washing machine and she knew this was it. And she's like, how many times did I not wanna pick up his. And I was so frustrated with him, and now I would give anything to pick up his socks and keep doing his laundry.

And I think of her story all the time when my dang husband's huge shoes are in the middle of the floor.

Kim Gravel: Or they don't flush the toilet.

Leslie Means: Yes. And it's, and it was not a layover and you know, let people walk all over you. It was just let go of the little things.

Kim Gravel: Come on. Really? Come on, listen.

Leslie Means: Yes. Important, right?

And that story I think will forever stay with me. Also, that story received like 9 million views in one month, and then I was once again able to pay for the site for like six months, which was good because I had no idea how I was gonna go out and get sponsorships. That's something I forgot to mention too.

I was going like business to business, getting sponsorships. . I'm like, I'm gonna have this baby with me. We're gonna be walking into a business and get, no, I didn't have to because once again, this article just exploded the website and I just, once again, I'm like, that's another God whisper to me that just keep going.

You know? Cuz it was just fate really. Right. That that kind of landed in our lap. So yeah, that's one of the most powerful.

Kim Gravel: Is that, I mean, now I, you know, I'm, go find that and read that.

Tell me about the book inspiration, because that's why I was so excited to have you on. You've got your book coming out, I think it's in April, and you're talking. Being a mom. So the title is, so God Made a Mother. So tell me about this book. Like how did this happen?

Leslie Means: I'm sitting in the tub April of 2020, .

Kim Gravel: Wait, wait, wait.

Do you write in the tub?

Leslie Means: Yes. All of our, so many of our authors write everywhere. Toilet tub, like tub. They'll talk.

Kim Gravel: Wherever it hits you. Right?

Zac Miller: Because I think it was like Truman Capote or someone who wrote everything in this tub,

Kim Gravel: listen, takes all types,

Leslie Means: and I love this too because I feel like Covid made everybody just stop and I'm in the tub and I'm just thinking.

And we, we've had articles on her view from home, like, our first one was called, so God Gave Me Sons and it went. Bananas, right? So many people. Then we have like God made a grandma and mom and all these articles, and I'm in the tub and I'm like, Duh, that's the book. So God Made a Mother, that's the book. And I had the hairs on my arm stand up and then I told the team and they were like, oh, that's absolutely it.

And so the book, oh the book. So it's broken into chapters of like, so God made a mother strong, so God made a mother beautiful. And they are nearly 100 pieces from her view, from home contributors. And I lead the reader through, and it is for. We say anyone who has a mom or knows a mom, because truly you are going to feel the words of these writers, whether you are a young mom and you've never had teens or you've never lost a child, or whatever the story is.

I still think it's that thing, Kim, right? That we just know as, as mothers that you just, that you can't explain. You will read these stories in this book and it is not. A how to. It is not a preaching teaching. It's just like solidarity with beautiful stories from writing.

Kim Gravel: It's a community. It's a community

Leslie Means: and it's hard.

Like there's some really beautiful things, but there's some hard pieces in there too, cuz not everyone has great relationships with their mother or their kids. It's just, I don't know. It's that you said it, it's community.

Kim Gravel: You know what, Leslie, I think, I think more than anything, women want community when, I mean, we love our kids, we love our husbands.

What a blessing. Okay, put a hashtag in front of that. No. So let me do that again. I need to write an article for you. My family's a blessing. That's it. You know, and I'm from the south, so you could put bless their hearts behind it. And everybody know that means, but it honestly is. I think women long for community with one another.

I really think that's why, you know, obviously it's ordained. You have favor of God on this, on, on your, website, on your blog and all these stories. But I think even more importantly, it's a community where all of us women can come together Yep. And connect and relate to one another. It's so funny how we're all the same, just in different ways.

I mean, we really, truly are.

Leslie Means: And that's what I love about her view from home and about this book. It's, it's like if you. Faith, awesome. If you don't have faith, that's okay too. It doesn't matter where you are, I think everyone is Connect is gonna connect to that. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what, that was super important to me too with this book, cuz I, you know, God's in the title, but I'm like, man, I just want people to know that you are loved and seen wherever you are, whatever you believe or think and, and that's across the board.

That's really important to me. And that's the. So that is my biggest, I'm like, I need everybody to be able to come together and this middle ground and share stories because we are so much more alike than we are different. Absolutely. And I tell these guys this all the time. I'm like, you guys have no idea how good you are.

And some of these authors are very well known and they're already best selling authors in this book, and some of them. . They, they don't even have their own social media page, but it doesn't matter cuz their story is still so important. And that's what I love and that's what I want women to know too about themselves.

Kim Gravel: Well, listen, we're not gonna whisper this, we're gonna shout it from the rooftops. We need to get this book. Y'all need to go on the blog, but first, before we let you go, okay. I've gotta do something I do with every guest that I have on the show. We call, we call it rapid fire questions. So Leslie, I'm going to say this to you and you are like, oh, I can do.

Everybody does it. And I ask you the questions and they take 'em 10 minutes to answer. I want some. The first thing,

Leslie Means: Kim, you know I am not. I am longwinded.

Kim Gravel: You know this about me. Now. You can be longwinded. You can be longwinded. I love your longwindedness. Okay? But just the first thing that comes to your mind, just go with it.

Okay? All right. You ready?

Leslie Means: I mean, I gotta censor myself. Yes. Okay. I'm ready.

Kim Gravel: Do, if you censor yourself, I'm hanging up. Don't censor yourself. You're in a safe space. Safe. Here we go.

All right. Your favorite farm animal?

Leslie Means: Oh, a sheep.

Kim Gravel: Oh, nice. Yeah. But don't they ba, are they nasty? , but is it goats or sheep that are nasty?

You know that they're not that clean. Which one is animals clean? I don't know.

Leslie Means: We had all of 'em, but they're like so sweet and like they would like they would. It's the thing I used to show animals too, at the fair. So you know, were like sweet.

Kim Gravel: You were a four H girl. You were a four H girl. Okay, we go.

Leslie Means: I was four H Girl.

Kim Gravel: I know honey. I love them. Four H girls. Okay, we go. what is your favorite junk?

Leslie Means: A cheese. Is that junk food?

Kim Gravel: No, that is one of the food groups. You can't, that's not a junk food. Leslie. I honestly had somebody say I love like broccoli. I'm like, look.

Zac Miller: Oh yeah, that was unacceptable.

Kim Gravel: You're out.

Zac Miller: Cheese is at least like not great for you.

Leslie Means: Like cheese, I like, I eat inappropriately.

Kim Gravel: It's not junk food. Yeah, I was gonna say how much cheese that just, I mean, constipated, that's not a junk. What is your favorite junk food? Junk food is like Twinkies, hohos, ding, dongs, all of those.

Leslie Means: Chocolate. Like chocolate of any kind.

Kim Gravel: All right. Favorite candy bar?

Favorite candy bar?

Leslie Means: Okay. Oh God.

Kim Gravel: Leslie if you tell me you don't eat candy bars, I don't know if we can be friends.

Leslie Means: I do. Here's the problem, Kim. Now you're gonna feel bad for me. . My son has a peanut allergy, so it used to be Snickers, and now I'm like, what is that?

Kim Gravel: So let me just tell you. These are my junk food for.

It's a Hershey with almonds and Cheeto. This is what we're talking about, Leslie. This is junk food.

Leslie Means: So, from the Dollar General. I mean, homegirl is Southern. Okay. . Oh, there's lots of Dollar Generals all around Nebraska. Do everywhere.

Kim Gravel: Okay. Okay. I've got one better for you. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?

Go.

Leslie Means: Raisin Canes.

Kim Gravel: Ooh, I've never heard of that one. Tell was that somewhere new?

Zac Miller: Ah, it's not. There's, I've heard you've never heard of Raisin Canes.

Kim Gravel: It's not down here. Hold on. What is that?

Leslie Means: Right on Zac? You're like never heard of it. Is Raisin Canes not a, I mean, it's in Nebraska. It's gotta be everywhere.

It's in, if it's in Nebraska.

Kim Gravel: No, what it kind of food is, it's a burger joint. Is it a burger joint?

Leslie Means: It's chicken. It's just, oh, well, you know what I mean, Zac.

Zac Miller: If it's in Nebraska that it's gotta be everywhere.

Leslie Means: It's a small town like where I live, carney's like 30,000 people. So like, so you know what's great about.

Chicken, but it's simple. So it's not complicated. All it is is chicken and like a, like a piece of bread and some fries.

Kim Gravel: Is it fried? Is it fried?

Leslie Means: Yes. Yes, so you go up, you're like, I want five chickens, strip baskets. I don't wanna think about anything else. Cuz when you try to order food with kids in the car, I mean.

Okay. I can't even get their orders. They're like, tea, Dr. Pepper, Coke. I'm like, stop. No. So that makes it super simple.

Kim Gravel: You'll get water. Thank you. Yes. Okay, here we go.

Zac Miller: Okay. Wait, I'm finding the closest Raisin Canes to you, Kim. Is it, where is it? How far is Athens, Georgia?

Kim Gravel: It's not that far. It's not that far.

Zac Miller: So there you go.

Leslie Means: Send me a picture when with selfie I'll send you a your Raisin Cane.

Kim Gravel: And I'm, I'm gonna write a, I'm gonna write a story for, do it, the, the, the for you. Okay, here we go. . Uh, who was your celebrity crush?

Leslie Means: Oh, 1994. Brad Pitt.

Kim Gravel: Oh yes. And I love how you do it in like years because he has, he has some good years and some bad years.

I agree with you. So 90 was, 19 was 1994. Meet Joe Black.

Leslie Means: It was Legends of the fall.

Kim Gravel: Oh God, help me. Jesus. There is a lot. Jesus is real. Oh my God. Leslie Legends of the.

Leslie Means: When he's like riding on the horse and like his hair. Swapping hair. Yes. Yeah. Thank you Kim. You get it? Oh my. A lot of times people are like, oh.

And I'm like, no. How do you not see that? Like that's,

Kim Gravel: we are best friends. We are best friends. Okay. The last one, tell me what you hope and dream for this book and this blog and for the future of it.

Leslie Means: So, you know, the whispers that I keep talking. The God whispers sometimes. I think the purpose of this was to do so.

God made a mother. And I see it as a huge brand. I don't see it stopping at, so God made a mother. I see it as, so God made a grandma, boy, mom, girl mom, we have shirt, we have products, we have a shop. I just see it being this whole huge brand that is bigger than me. that is what I see. I see her view continuing for a really long time and women sharing their stories.

But I see this book as like, Maybe this is why God kept pushing me, because this is it. And I sound crazy for saying that I don't mean that. I

Kim Gravel: Stop. Stop.

Leslie Means: I know. Kim. This is what I'm working on, is I have to stop apologizing for saying these dreams out loud. I know

Kim Gravel: you're gonna have to let me speak in, cause you're gonna have to let you speak into you.

You're gonna have to stop right there and allow me to speak into you a word, a edification, let me tell you. So. , you've said it a couple of times in just talking to you. You saw it and it was a little girl with them sheep on that little farm , and you said, I knew there was something bigger. Mm-hmm. baby, there's something bigger.

God is going to use you in a mighty way, and you are gonna fulfill not only your purpose, but you're going to help millions of women fulfill theirs. And let me tell you so. And I'm not gonna say purpose calling. Let's, let's, let's call it what it is. You are going to help women listen to that still small voice and those god whispers and move in their calling.

So baby buckle up because it's coming. You hear me? Girl?

Leslie Means: Oh, these goosebumps. Yes. Thank you.

Kim Gravel: All right, y'all listen. So God Made A Mother is available to Pre-Order. Now go and check out the website. Go Leslie. Where can everybody get ahold of you right now to to get your book, to read the , everything. Yep.

Leslie Means: Go to herviewfromhome.com.

If you type in, so God Made a Mother, Leslie Means it's on all the places, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, target, all those good. All those good places. And it officially comes out in April. But Kim, you know, presales are like, He and people have show up. So thank you for that. Like thank you everyone who loves these women and these stories.

It's just, it's bigger than us. It's bigger than us.

Kim Gravel: I love you and I'm just, count me as a sister, honey. Come back and be with us. Love. All right. I love you, girl.

Oh my gosh, I've learned so much from Leslie. One. I learned about raising canes, .

I can't believe I've never heard of raising canes.

Listen, there's nothing better than a group of women and you, Zac, coming together. Thank you. Cause we can cover everything like in a 20 like food. Fashion we can get emotional. Start crying and like talk. Junk food. Snack food and celebrity crushes. All with meaning . I'm serious. No, I just love Leslie. I'm gonna go definitely get her book.

I think. I think it's what, what LOL is all about is about bringing us all together. Zac and I loved what she said about when she was little and how she thought about it being so. There's something big for her. And I think what happens is we do that, and I wrote this in my book coming out, that I think we do it when we're little.

We can dream without limitation, without hesitation. Yeah. And I think as we grow up, like life just beats it out of you. You know, it just takes it out of you. But I love how she remembered. Being on that farm in Nebraska, how big her life can be, and now seeing the fruits of that dream, that seed that was planted come to life.

And that's what can happen for you. In fact, that's what's happening for you. Go back to think about that dream that you had when you were young, that, that when you were, you know, unaffected by the, even if you've had you, like Leslie had a beautiful childhood, even if your childhood had hard times, go back and think about.

And what did you dream of when you were little?

What did that look like? A lot of our callings, y'all can be lived out in a lot of different ways. Your call is not a vocation, it's not a location. It is a living out of who you are and what you bring to the world. So,

I want you to go back in time to when you were that little girl, whether you were in the city, on a farm, a single, a single, parent household. Whether, whatever you, you, your story is, and wherever you started, and start believing in something big again for yourself. Repeat after me, y'all. I got a big life and I'm ready to.

Till next time y'all. This is LOL with Kim Gravel. Zac, tell the people Bye.

Zac Miller: Bye .

Kim Gravel: Bye y'all. We love you.

LOL is produced and edited by Zac Miller at Uncommon Audio. Our associate producer is Kathleen Grant, at Brunette Exec, production help from Emily Bredin. Our cover art is designed by Sara Noto. A special thanks to all the team members at QVC plus, and thank you for listening. I love ya.

Okay. You go on and get onto the blog. Okay. Cuz we are not telling you all the t today,

Zac Miller: we're gonna hit stop on the recording. Okay. So you can, I just like, I was like, that's,

Kim Gravel: that's recorded prayer. Thank you.

Zac Miller: I'm not gonna interrupt a prayer here, right? Right. All right.