You Just Have to Leap
BY MELANIE BARR
I launched She Built It™ in 2015 after years of experience selling millions in products and services for Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs, including Marriott Hotels, AT&T, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. I also gained experience leading boards and assisting organizations with female-focused missions, such as Step Up and Women’s Initiative Network (WIN), a Los Angeles Dodgers organization.
After years building a career that I loved, I met my husband, and got married. We were eager to start a family. IVF became part of my vocabulary and the roller coaster ride ensued. The process left me feeling great one day and awful the next, all while trying to maintain a career, marriage, and personal life. I know I’m not alone in this and that many of you — women and men — have been through incredibly challenging experiences to have children. I hear you and I am with you.
After years of IVF, we were happy to learn we’d be the parents of twins. “Mom” is one of my favorite titles! When our twins reached the age of one, I realized my drive for my career was stronger than ever. I craved connection, collaboration, intellectual conversation, and technology innovation. It was then — with hours to think and plan in the nursery, and realizing that others must crave community as much as I did — I created and launched She Built It™.
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Influenced by my parents, you might say that my entrepreneurial spirit developed at a very young age. My mother taught school for 29 years and earned her masters in education. My father, a successful business development VP, inspired me to play the role of CEO/business owner in our home. My favorite thing to own and operate was an art gallery. I displayed my art all over the house and tried to sell it to my parents.
If there was a lemonade stand in our neighborhood, I was all over that too. It’s rooted in my genes and I’ve embraced this career-driven spirit since before my first summer job at 15 years old, at a retail clothing store.
Meanwhile, I was taking endless dance classes. I loved to perform. In my senior year of high school, I wanted to audition for the Missouri State Dance Team. I would be attending my first year of college in the fall. The night before auditions, I was terrified but during tryouts I persevered through multiple rounds of cuts from several hundred girls to the final 25. Then at the final cut, much to my disappointment, I wasn’t chosen. My 17-year-old self was devastated.
A week later, I was invited to audition to sing, dance, and act in a theme park show for a summer job before my first year of college. I was not in great spirits to audition again, but my mother asked, “if you don’t try, will you regret it?” My 17-year-old self let out a resounding “yes.”
I auditioned and was chosen to perform in six daily shows all summer, and I loved it. When college started, I learned that one of the dancers had broken her leg and the Missouri State Dance Team was hosting auditions again to add one more dancer for the season. I heard my mother’s voice inside my head and went back to try out a second time. This audition led me to a spot on the dance team, in addition to receiving an athletic scholarship for dance. I ended up with two incredible experiences and opportunities, instead of just one. I learned at a young age that, sometimes, when you fail, you end up in a better place.
Make the Leap
After two years of college in Missouri, I was ready for more. I came home at 19 and told my parents, “I am moving to Los Angeles.”
They said, “you don’t know anyone there,” but I told them, “I’ll meet people.”
When I moved to LA, I didn’t know a single person. I remember someone telling me before I left that, “everyone who moves to LA doesn’t make it there a year before they move back home.” I remember thinking - that’s not going to be me. Even though I was petrified, I found my confidence and made the move. I’m so happy I did.
If You Could Have Any Client Who Would They Be?
Shortly after landing in Los Angeles, I worked full time for Marriott Hotels and then AT&T, while attending college full time at Loyola Marymount University. I found having full time college class and work schedules to be wildly challenging. It forced me to become extremely organized and disciplined.
After college graduation, I went to work for ServiceMaster. It was here that I learned how to gain clients by reaching out to people I didn’t know, cultivating and building relationships, and converting possible clients into lasting clients. My career drive went into high gear. I invited a potential client, Westfield Shopping Centers, to a Dodgers game (I had no idea I would go to work for the Los Angeles Dodgers a few years later).
In conversation with my prospect, I inquired about current service and learned how I could help and improve his outcomes, resolve issues, and explore new ways that our product could help him do his job with less challenges. I created a proposal and met again with the client to work out details. We negotiated until we reached a mutual agreement.
I learned not to be fearful of negotiation, it’s an essential part of business. I also developed an immunity to rejection. Rejection is never fun but it is life — we win some and we lose some. The important part is to keep going. Even though I was used to hearing the word no over and over, eventually the no’s turned into yes’s. I gained confidence and clients by putting in the work — driving around Los Angeles, looking up at the towering buildings, envisioning opportunity, and asking myself, “if I could have any client who would it be?”
At ServiceMaster, I earned business and managed client relationships for companies including Staples Center Stadium, Home Depot Center Stadium, Westfield Shopping Centers, National Restaurant Chains, and Hilton Nationwide. I was promoted to a Regional Sales Manager of a Fortune 500 company before my 25th birthday. My company believed in me and elevated me to help the business development teams due to my knowledge of strategy, negotiation, and the ability to convert a potential client into a yes.
Idea, Creation, It’s All Happening!
I eventually left ServiceMaster for a role with the Los Angeles Dodgers. I assisted the Dodgers in their quest to connect with female fans through the Women's Initiative Network (WIN) and through a high-performing promotion with Smashbox Cosmetics.
When Jamie and Frank McCourt bought the legendary franchise, Jamie, being a female owner and president, recognized the importance and value of female fans in attendance at games each season. In addition to launching a women's organization, she wanted to execute the first-ever “beauty giveaway” to further connect with this valued audience. Smashbox Cosmetics was my client at the stadium, and seemed like a perfect fit for this innovative concept.
After pitching the giveaway initiative to Smashbox owners over lunch, I took it to Jamie for approval. A winning promotion was born and we gave away 45,000 pieces of lip gloss named Shortstop, Homerun, and Outfielder at a Dodgers home game to all women in attendance! This is why I love business development, coming up with an idea, seeing it through to execution — essentially, finding a way to make it happen so that it benefits everyone. A few of my clients, while at Dodgers Stadium, were Smashbox Cosmetics, Hospitals, Film Studios, Staffing Companies, and FedEx to name a few. Even though the seasons were long and the hours were sometimes grueling, I loved my time there.
Construction Means Growth
I joke that if you want to learn how to negotiate, manage a remodel or construction project.
In the last seven years, my husband and I have built and designed a new home. I’ve also managed a complete kitchen remodel in a rental property and managed a full remodel of a house built in 1927, alongside my husband.
I chose and managed all of the construction design elements and managed the sub-contractors leading up to the installation phase. This represents countless hours of meetings, technical decisions, and financial negotiations. I learned an entirely new business and industry, and improved my ability to be decisive, while managing a team of people.
I believe continuous learning, and staying a bit out of your comfort zone, contributes tremendously when stretching for success.
Never stop striving to experience the life that you crave.
With gratitude,
Melanie