The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 194: Fun Facts & 200th Episode Giveaway

Today, I am diving into ten fun facts that you may not know about me yet. I will also be giving you all of the details you need to enter our biggest giveaway yet. This giveaway has over $1,500 in prizes you won’t want to miss out on. Winners will be announced in the 200th episode, so listen to this episode to figure out how to enter now!

Fun Facts & 200th Episode Giveaway

By: Melissa Lin

Welcome back to another episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast! I hope that you are having such an amazing start to your quarter two, as we are now in April, and everything’s going well. I know for so many that spring break wrapped up last month. I know a lot of us are ready to rock and roll and dive right into quarter two and even starting to look forward to summer. I know I personally am. I absolutely love the summers here in the Pacific Northwest, they are my absolute favorite. I was chatting with somebody about this yesterday or the day before, I think it was with some of my clients. If you are ever to visit the Pacific Northwest, Washington in particular, I would say August is definitely the best time to do so. It’s amazing weather and it’s what most of us Washingtonians most look forward to. It is amazing in the summertime. It's coming and I’m so excited.

Our Biggest Giveaway Yet

I am really excited for today’s episode because it’s going to be all about some fun facts that you may not know about me. I'm going to get into that, but before I do we have a huge announcement to make. Today we are recording episode 194 for The Fierce Business Babe Podcast and we are getting so close to our 200th episode, especially with all of our double episodes every single week that we've been doing for the past few weeks. To celebrate our soon-to-be 200th episode here on the podcast I am going to be hosting my biggest giveaway yet. There will be $1,500 worth of prizes that we're going to be giving away to our audience! So here's how it's going to work. We have a few quick rules. To enter the giveaway, which is going to be going on for the next few episodes, all you need to do are these next few things. I would do it sooner rather than later because episode 200 will be here before you know it.

The first thing to do is to leave us a fierce and raving review here on iTunes. If you're not sure how to do that don't worry, I’ve got the steps for you. Go ahead and head to your iTunes podcast library. This is usually on your phone, your computer probably has it as well, it’s the purple iTunes app. Click our podcast, The Fierce Business Babe Podcast, and a scroll to the bottom of my podcast and you can leave your review there. Before you press submit to iTunes, take a screenshot of your review after you type it out and send it to me over on Instagram. At the moment we're still using the new account, so my Instagram handle is the_melissalin. If you've already given me a review, amazing, thank you so much. Go find the review and take a screenshot and send it to me over on Instagram in a message so we can count that as part of your entry. So the first part, again, is to leave us a fierce and raving review on iTunes and send me a screenshot to show that it was you. Apple names and iTunes names don't always align and have our first names or our Instagram handles in there, so send me a screenshot and show proof that it was yours.

The second thing to do is to simply share any of our recent podcasts, a screenshot or you listening to the episode, in your Instagram stories and tag me at the_melissalin. Once you tag me I will be notified and that will be the second part of your entry. So again, to enter all you've got to do is give us a review and let us know you’ve done it with a screenshot and then share us over on your Instagram. Make sure to tag me so I know it’s been shared, if you don’t tag me I don’t know it’s been shared. On the day of our 200th episode we will announce three winners. Each winner is going to receive a $100 gift card and choice of any of my $500 courses. For example, Sell Like A Sales Queen, Hot Leads Machine, any of my bundles, mini courses, or you can utilize that $500 towards any of my other programs. So each winner will receive a $100 gift card and choice of any of my $500 courses that I have, or you can use it towards something. To recap, to enter our biggest giveaway ever of over $1,500 in prizes, leave us a review on iTunes, send me a screenshot of it, and share the podcast on your Instagram Stories and make sure to tag me! If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message on Instagram and I can definitely help you make sure you've got those two things. It should be pretty simple, but if you have questions, let me know. If you just want to chat, send me a message too. The winners will be announced on the 200th episode for you.

Ten Fun Facts About Me

Today's episode is going to be all about me. It's not something I talk about usually, my podcast episodes are mostly educational and I don't get into myself so much, so I wanted to share ten fun facts you may not have known about me. One reason is the podcast has been growing very quickly over the past few months and I know that we have so many new listeners, so I wanted to share some fun facts that maybe you have not known about me. Stuff about my personal life, my business, and so on. I'll try to keep them pretty random and we'll definitely do more and more of these and add in more of that to the other episodes. I've got ten fun facts, I may even surprise you with a few bonus facts about me too, so let’s get into it.

The first fun fact about me is that I'm a huge math nerd. My high school friends are going to giggle when they hear me say this, but there's a photo in our yearbook, I can't remember if it was junior or senior year, there’s a photo of me and I’m literally labeled math girl. I was such a math person. I actually started going to the nearby community college when I was 11 years old to start to move further along in math because the schools I was going to didn’t have the math classes at my level. I was always above and beyond moving further along. By age 12 I was actually in calculus already. I also started tutoring at the community college in other math classes at 12. I've always had a love for numbers, it just comes so easy to me. It was also very helpful for my college career, it really served me in college. In case you're brand-new to my community, first I just want to say a huge welcome. Hello and thank you so much for spending your time with me today and diving into this podcast. If you haven't listened to any other episodes, all of the other episodes are very educational. We dive deep into topics and give you action steps in every episode.

Back to this episode, I went to college for chemical engineering. What that meant is all of my math was completed before I even went to college my freshman year, which was so amazing. It made it very easy to graduate in four years with that chemical engineering degree that I’m using so much right now, and I’m rolling my eyes, now that I’m a full time business coach. It’s funny because typically when I’m getting interviewed they’ll ask if it was a waste of time to get my chemical engineering degree. I definitely never want to regret anything because I wouldn't be where I am right now, sitting here recording this podcast episode for you, if I hadn’t gone through that. I will say that no, I'm not using a lot of the educational side that I learned, and to be honest, even when I was in my chemical engineering career I didn't use a lot of what I actually learned. However, it's the skill sets that I learned in college. I think a lot of other folks would agree with me that the skills that you learn in college are sometimes more important than some of the topics that you learned. I'm not using organic chemistry and physical chemistry. Since we’re building a home, maybe some thermodynamics and other things for day-to-day life. In my business definitely not, but the skillset 100% yes. I’m using my organizational skills, my problem solving skills, the ability to work with other people, tutoring and learning to really teach other people and falling in love with that as well. That’s a big reason why I’m a coach now, I love helping others and I love creating that impact. So definitely the skillset, yes, but not necessarily the other things. I would typically go grab a calculator first if I’m figuring out payment options and different things like that for a new program versus trying to do it in my head, even though I've got the skills to do so. You get what I’m getting at, and that's the first fun fact.

Fun fact number two, now that my old Instagram account has disappeared you may not know this, but if you scroll back, you would actually see in some of my older content that I actually was a bikini competitor. I did some bodybuilding competitions back in the day and I did quite a few bikini competitions. It was right towards the end of my college career that I started to really get into health and fitness and really wanted to focus on my health. I eventually did a few competitions and then I also started my online fitness coaching business back in the day quite a few years ago. It was actually 2014 when I started that business and started to grow that. I really fell in love with it. Health and fitness has always been such a big staple for me and just so important. I've learned so much over the years when it comes to my health, my body, and all of those things. I did quite a few different bikini competitions and I believe all of them were in the Pacific Northwest, so I never left and went out of state for any of them. They were all up here in my area.

Fun fact number three, this one surprises so many. I was sharing this with a client earlier this week and her jaw dropped, she had no idea. I am curious if your jaw is about to get dropped as well. If you see me over on social, or if you even take a look at this podcast and see my name that I go by on social media, that's not my full name. Lin is actually my middle name, it's not my last name. My last name is actually Schaefer, so Melissa Lin Schaefer. I remember when I first started to create my Instagram account, I actually had my fitness account first because I was an online health and fitness coach for quite a few years and then switched to business and transitioned over. I utilized the same Instagram account, but I just changed my Instagram handle, my first one, to melissalin. I just liked the sound and ring of Melissa Lin more than Melissa Schaefer. So I started when I was a fitness coach and kept it going when I transitioned. I just love that name and that ring so much more. Then if I get married down the road, if Ryan and I decide to get married and if I decide to change my last name, then Melissa Lin still works, so I'm thinking ahead too, wink, wink. Just kidding.

Number four, this is another one that may surprise you just because I don't show too much of my family on my social media. So fun fact number four is I actually have two younger sisters and they are fairly close to me in age. If you are curious, I am currently 31, I'll be 32 in July. I've got two younger sisters and we're all about a year-and-a-half to two years apart. So one is 30 and then one is 28, it makes it really easy to remember all of our ages.For most of our lives we all lived in Oregon. I grew up in Portland, Oregon. Now one lives in Portland and the other one lives over in Hawaii, which is why I was actually over there this past November visiting her and her fiance. So I have two younger sisters, and then a bonus fun fact, they're both also engineers who went to college for engineering and graduated. Both of them are still in their engineering fields. It's kind of funny because when we were in college, there were us three girls and each of us were in a different engineering field. I was a chemical engineer, one of my sisters was a civil engineer, and then the other was an environmental engineer, so it's kind of fun. Then my grandpa was a physicist and my dad does computer science. We have so many different areas kind of taken from a family member for all of the sciences. Kind of a fun fact, kind of a nerdy fact if that's something that you knew or didn't know.

So fun fact number five, and this is one that I get to talk more and more about. I am so excited to make a trip soon. I am a huge Disney fan. I absolutely love Disneyland. I love anything Disney, movies, all of those things. I grew up spending a lot of time going down to California and going to Disneyland. It was a fun thing to do for spring break and I absolutely love Disney, the happiest place on Earth. I love amusement rides and that sort of thing, I love going to Six Flags, I know that’s not Disney, but you get the picture. I’m so excited to be going down. We don’t have plans yet because we're pretty focused on our house building right now and don't really have too many travel plans since we are getting so close to the finish date, it’s coming up pretty soon. I am so excited to go down there soon because I have yet to go to Star Wars Land. I know, what kind of a Disney fan am I if I haven’t been to see Star Wars Land? I’m hoping I can get down there soon, probably after the summer, maybe early fall because I also want to try and get down there for all of the decorations for the holidays. Again, what kind of a Disney fan am I if I haven’t been down there for Christmas for all of the lights and all of the things. I'm just more of a Disney in the spring and summer. I went to Disney one year, I can't remember if it was Memorial day or another day, but it was the day where the park was open for 24 hours. I don't think I would do that again. It was pretty chaotic. I don’t think I would do that again, but it was pretty cool to experience being in Disney at like 3 or 4 in the morning. If you're not a Disney fan, it probably doesn't excite you as much as it excites me. For all of you other Disney fans, I’m sure you totally get it.

Onto the next fun fact, so fun fact number six. This is something, and I know I keep saying this on every fun fact, but something that may surprise you. I love, love, love reading romance novels, like the raunchy romance novels with the cheesy covers and all of the things. They’re my go-to. It's funny because I actually rarely read any business books anymore. If I do it’s like one that I'll pick up once in a while. I now read mostly for fun. My current favorite author is Lauren Blakely and she hasn't dozens and dozens of various series to start with. If you also love romance novels, feel free to send me any recommendations. I’m always looking for a new series to start or one to put on my list for my next book or series to get into. I prefer series, I like to really get into the characters and all of that stuff. That is fun fact number six. Quick review, fun fact one is that I’m a huge math nerd. Number two, I was a bikini competitor. Number three, Lin is actually my middle name, not my last name. Number four, I have two younger sisters. Five, I’m a huge Disney fan. Then six, I love, love, love romance novels.

Fact number seven, I love to binge Netflix. You're probably asking yourself, Melissa, how are you building a business? You binge netflix, you read romance novels all the time, what are you doing? Something I believe to be true is that you can start, grow, and scale a successful business even if you want to binge Netflix or watch some episodes throughout the week. You get to do more than work on your business all day long. You are so much more than your business. The next fun fact is going to relate to that a little bit as well. If you've been in my audience for a while, you know I'm a big Bachelor or Bachelorette ABC fan, so we'll see how the next season goes with the two bachelorettes. I’m looking forward to seeing how ABC gets creative with this because I wasn't too impressed the last time they did this. We will see. I definitely will give some feedback I’m sure on my Instagram Stories, so make sure you're following me there. I just finished watching Euphoria with Ryan, which was so great. That’s HBO Max, not technically Netflix, but we definitely have quite a few different shows and we like to watch. We are wrapping up Snowpiercer, again that’s not Netflix, I think we watch that on Hulu. There are so many different streaming services. I definitely like to have something to watch from time to time. If you need a day to unwind and binge spme show, totally do so. You’re allowed to. This is your permission slip to do so. You do not need to be working on your business 20 hours a day. You get to have days off and you get to rest and relax and fill your cup, however that looks. For some of us that looks like a bubble bath or a massage, or taking two entire days off your phone, which I definitely do on the weekends. I like to stay off social media. I like to keep my phone on do not disturb. My friends don't always like it, however, it's very nice for me. It's kind of my way to create space for myself. So I love, love, love binging some Netflix shows.

Fun fact number eight, I have picked up some newer hobbies over the last few years and I'm going to share a little bit about why I feel this is so, so, so important. It also relates to fun facts number six and seven, so reading books that aren’t business books and binging Netflix. I have been skiing recently. I actually started indoors right before COVID. If you've been wanting to learn to ski and want to learn indoors, I don't know how many other states have something similar, I'm sure there are more that exist out there, however up here in Washington right outside of Seattle there is a really fun spot where you can actually learn how to ski indoors. It's not with fake snow, it's on carpet conveyors. I’ve shown it on my Instagram Stories a few times back in October or November. I like to practice there a few times before I get up to the slopes and hit my green runs that I do. I actually hit a blue run this season as well. We'll see if we're able to get anything else in the spring season. It's not looking so great up here in Washington, but we'll see, you never know. Never say never. So, I started indoors and went out to the snow. What was really cool was learning on the carpet conveyors, it was a little different, however, when I hit the snow for the first time I only fell coming off the chairlift. It really, really helped me and supported me in learning some of those foundational pieces. If you ever want to learn indoors, you definitely can. I'll definitely go back next season to just kind of prep for 2023. The summer before COVID I went and got my sailing certification. Ryan's been sailing most of his life and we wanted to go and do something together, so we both got certified. I think his may have expired or something, but we did it together here at Lake Washington. It was so, so, so fun and we’ll be getting back into that this summer too. It's definitely more of a spring/summer hobby here because if you do fall in the water is very chilly.

This relates to the last few fun facts because for the first few years of my business I didn't always feel like there was more to life than my business. My business was my life for my first year or two. I was so attached to the outcome and I'd let that really determine how my days would go and how I’d feel. I didn't even give myself that time outside of my business to have hobbies and things to do for fun. I was so consumed by my business and I really want to share with you that that's not how it needs to be. You definitely get to grow your business while doing things that you enjoy. At the end of the day, if you are loving life outside of business, you're doing things that make you happy, you're able to have fun and add play into your weeks and your weekends, your business is going to grow so much quicker. You’re also going to enjoy the process so much more. It's one of those things where for so many of us we were taught growing up that in order to have a successful and fulfilling life you get to work until you're sixty and then retire and go travel and enjoy your life. If you want to build your business, spend years building it, and then go enjoy your life, amazing, but that's not what I would recommend. You will burn out and you will miss out on so many things outside of your business too. Life is so short. I’ve been really learning over the past few years how short it can be, so go enjoy it. Go have some fun. Any time any of my clients are feeling like things are being forced in their business, or feeling that things aren't necessarily working, or maybe they're just working too hard and they're starting to burn out, I tell them to take a day off. I tell them to go and create space for themselves and go and do something that they love and enjoy. I tell them to take a few days off social media and to actually get outside and do something. Whether that’s going to the spa, getting a massage, spending time at the pool, whatever that is. You are so much more than just your business. I know that kind of veered off a little bit, but we’re going to get back into the fun facts.

So fun fact number nine. My favorite non-alcoholic drink is Sprite. Not 7Up, not Sierra Mist, not anything else that's like a replica. My favorite alcoholic drink is definitely some type of prosecco or a riesling, so definitely white wine. I’m definitely not much of a red wine girl, which surprises me because I actually worked at a winery for quite some time. So my favorite non-alcoholic drink is Sprite and then I love some prosecco or riesling, some type of white wine to sip on the deck while enjoying the Seattle sunshine.

Fun fact number ten, we’re wrapping up, however, I do have a few bonus ones, so definitely stick around. When I was an engineer I actually worked at some really cool places and I'll share a few of them with you. I did mention I worked at a winery. I actually worked as an engineer at E&J Gallo Winery, the largest winery in the world, and that was such a cool experience. I saw one of the coolest startups ever. I was part of their startup down in California of one of their huge expansion plans. The startup itself was the tenth largest winery in the world. Again, like how cool is that? Never say never, however, since I'm not in that field anymore, I most likely won’t experience anything like that again. It was just so, so, so cool. I do have some photos. I had more photos on my old Instagram that, unfortunately, has disappeared. We're still working on trying to get it back. If you go over to my Instagram story highlights, I believe it's in “start here,” but I have some photos of when I was an engineer if you are curious. I think in my free class that I have going on right now I share a few photos of younger Melissa with her hard hat and all of the things. I've also worked at some window companies and glass companies. Those were actually my more recent places before I did leave my full-time job. I worked at Milgard Windows, which is kind of cool because we’ve got Milgard windows now in our house, our new home that is almost finished. We’re getting closer and closer every day. I also worked at a paper mill, technically a pulp mill. We didn't create anything outside of pulp, but it's a lot easier for people to get paper mill. Again, I've got some of that on my old account I believe. I don't know if there's anything on my new account about the pulp mill that I worked at, however, I can definitely get some added in, so go check those out.

Bonus Fun Facts About Me

I want to give you another few bonus fun facts. These are actually some of the ones that I like to share anytime I’m in a new group. I remember we would always do this like the first day of school in a brand new class or something like that. The whole stand up and share two truths and one lie and everyone has to guess which is the truth and which is a lie. These are usually the facts I would pick. Of courseI would pick something else completely random that was a lie, and I can't really remember what I would choose for that. Here are some of the ones that were the truths that would always trick people. The first was when I was on my 8th grade field trip where we went to the east coast I got stuck in the Empire State Building elevator. It's so funny because any time I share that people are like, “oh my goodness! How long were you stuck for?” It really wasn't that. We got stuck, I think, on the fifth floor. It's not like we were up on the highest floor stuck there worried we were about to fall and drop. We were up on the fifth floor and it was just a few minutes. I think we were up and going pretty quick after that, so it wasn't too bad. Such a great one for two truths and a lie. Then here are some other fun facts. I've actually never been stung by a bee ever, which still blows my mind. I've never broken a bone to this day. Knocking on wood that stays true. If we’re ever together in the spring or the summer and you see me randomly start moving in a different direction, it's because there’s a bee in sight. So I’ve never been stung by a bee and I’ve never broken a bone, those are some fun facts about me. I hope you were able to get to know me a little bit more.

I’d love to learn a fun fact about you. Feel free to send me a message on Instagram. Send me a DM letting me know a fun fact about you. Or if there are any of these fun facts that relate to you that you feel like you connect with as well I would love to hear all about that. As I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, we have our biggest giveaway yet, so make sure to take care of those two items. Leave us a fierce and raving review on iTunes, take a screenshot and send it to me on Instagram to be part of your entry. The second thing is to share us on your Instagram Stories and make sure to tag my Instagram handle. So, we've touched on some fun facts today. We are already getting ready for the next episode and the next week’s set of episodes. There will be another second episode this week, so you will get another episode Thursday morning first thing. Then we will have our usual longer episode next Monday bright and early on the Fierce Business Babe Podcast.

Topics we cover include:

How to enter our BIGGEST giveaway ever
What led me to create my first business
Building a successful business while doing the things you love

And so much more!

Times to check out:

(06:22) Our 200th episode giveaway

(11:10) What I was doing at 12 years old

(19:00) My family dynamics

(22:58) What I do in my spare time

(35:06) Bonus fun facts about me

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate our *soon to be* 200th Episode here on the Fierce Business Babe Podcast, I’m hosting my biggest giveaway yet, with $1,500 worth of prizes for you!

To learn how to enter this giveaway, take a listen to today’s podcast episode and follow the directions I give!

Questions? Send me a message over on Instagram (@the_melissalin) ! The winners will be announced on the 200th episode for you!

FREEBIES:

4 Step Training to Start & Scale Your Online Coaching Business:

https://melissalincoaching.lpages.co/4-steps-to-starting-a-successful-coaching-business

Quiz: Your Next Business Strategy:

https://www.themelissalin.com/quiz

WORK WITH MELISSA:

Are you ready to take your online coaching business to the NEXT level? Have you been wanting to start coaching, finally start making a full time income doing what you love? The Fierce Business Academy might be the right fit for you! Head to the link below for more details and to hop on the waitlist!

The Fierce Business Academy:

https://www.themelissalin.com/academy

The 6 Figure Fierce Business Mastermind:

https://www.themelissalin.com/mastermind

Melissa Lin Shop

https://www.themelissalin.com/shop

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https://www.themelissalin.com/captioncapsule

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