Episode 249: What Happens When You Bet on Yourself | Melissa Cho | Creator of hAAPI Hour Podcast
Melissa Cho is a storyteller, video editor, and creator of the HAAPI Hour podcast, where she amplifies AAPI voices and builds community through real, joyful, and unfiltered conversations. In this episode of the Powerful Ladies Podcast, Melissa shares how growing up across Asia shaped her worldview, why she’s committed to building a life of creative freedom, and how she’s navigating freelance life after stints at Jubilee Media and Wired. She and Kara talk about the power of podcasting, choosing uncertainty over safety, and how "just throwing things at the wall" can be a radical act of self-trust. They also explore what it means to be a “zero” on the powerful scale, and why that might be exactly what makes you powerful.
“I’d rank myself a zero, but I’m throwing things at the wall and figuring it out and that’s inspiring people. That’s powerful. ”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
(00:00:00) Meet Melissa Cho: Creator of HAAPI Hour Podcast
(00:03:00) From Taipei to LA: How International Upbringing Shapes Identity
(00:07:15) Starting a Podcast Without a Plan (and Finding Unexpected Impact)
(00:11:20) Behind the Scenes of Freelancing and Content Creation
(00:15:45) Working at Jubilee Media and Wired: The Good, The Bad, The Layoffs
(00:21:10) Redefining Success: Choosing Joy Over Stability
(00:26:30) Why Everyone Should Visit Asia
(00:29:45) Creative Burnout and Reclaiming Your Time
(00:33:00) What Makes Someone a Powerful Lady?
(00:37:30) Manifesting Partnerships, Sponsors, and a Media Future
I think being powerful is just having the resources to make an impact and I think that's what I really wanna do with everything that I do in my life. I think when I try to podcast or create content for other people, I do wanna make an impact to the community.
That's Melissa Cho. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.
Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Thank you, the Honor is all mine. Kara,
let's tell everyone your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
My name is Melissa. I'm currently based in Los Angeles. I've been here for a little over two years. What I'm up to that is a question that we can definitely unpack more during our conversation, but currently I am a freelance editor for content creators for either YouTube videos or their vertical shorts.
And I also run a podcast called Happy Hour. It's spelled H-A-A-P-I because I like to talk to Cool A API Friends, and it's a great show to spotlight new talent, have those deeper discussions, not just about career and work ethic, but about mental health failure. Unhinged stories. It's been my pride and joy and so I'm really glad that you found me actually through the podcast, Kara.
Yeah, exactly. And I am curious if this, how is for you doing this podcast? Is this most selfish thing I do because I'm just like, Ooh, I'm wanna be friends with them. Ooh, I wanna talk to them. Is that how you feel about the podcast as well? Is it giving you more than you could ever give to it?
Yeah, I think I, it's funny that you brought that up because I recently changed my podcast, Instagram's bio from a more professional bio to a more casual one where I say I just wanna hang out with new people, with new friends. And that really has been what I didn't initially seek out to do, but it's just enriched my life in so many ways.
I'm sure when you do your podcast too, it's like you've been able to meet these. Brilliant minds, these thought leaders from all different walks of life. And I can proudly say that the people I've had on the podcast. Whether it be a potter, a florist, a tattoo artist from Denver, Colorado, who happened to be in Los Angeles.
A photographer, a, a holistic psychiatrist even just like some best friends I bring onto to the podcast, like I can now proudly say that I'm friends with them. And it's just been a really smart way of fostering community, not just for me, but for the people who tune in as well, which has been super.
Gratifying. I just didn't. When I started this podcast, actually two years ago, I had no idea where it was gonna go, and I took a break from it for a long time, for two years, and I came back with it in May, and you just never know who's gonna listen to the podcast. And that has been a really fun feeling.
Yeah.
How was it when you first started the podcast? Like reaching out to people? Was that natural for you? Was it scary? Like how has your extroverts been tapped into or expanded in this process?
Yeah, it's definitely been an expansion, even though I am like a through and through an extrovert, but when it comes to sending a DM on social media, you always do get a little scared before, send that message and.
So for me, I started this podcast in May of 2021. It was like right when I was about to graduate college and I dabbled in the podcast space in college. I did a podcast for my thesis and it went really well. And that's how I started Happy Hour, just to a brief kind of explanation of how I started Happy Hour, and then I.
In terms of DMing people, I think because I have a news background, I studied broadcast journalism, reaching out to guests, sourcing out guests has always been. Pretty comfortable for me. I think pitching them, doing them, doing an elevator pitch, not being too wordy, but making sure that you grab their attention and that you convince them to be on the show or to be interviewed like that.
I've always been used to that. Yeah, I think it's always been to answer your question, like it's always, although sometimes it could be a little, nerve wracking it, it pretty comes pretty natural to me. And I think the people that have, that I've reached out to and those who have said yes to come on the pod, I am, I hope.
And I think that they are just generally, they can see my passion and enthusiasm for the show. And they've seen my work, they've seen the stuff that I edit and hopefully that encourages them to come on the show. And many great people have.
You mentioned that you've been in LA for a couple of years.
Where were you before and where did you grow up?
Ooh, so I grew up in Asia most of my life before I came to college. I'm one of those international kids who who I've gone to international schools my entire life and our entire life mission is to go to the states for college. So I grew up in Taipei, in Shanghai.
Yeah. Yeah, I was here, but I was my last year of college actually, because I was one of those COVID year students. It was my la my senior year was from 2020 to 2021 and for the summer before my final year of college. Begun. I still went back home to Taipei because at the time Taiwan had zero COVID cases and like everyone was reporting like how Taiwan does it.
And like meanwhile in the states, like there's so many like thousands and thousands of cases every day. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna go back for the summer. I'm gonna stay there for. Two to three weeks and then I'll go back to orange. Whereas orange County, where I was where I went to college, I'll just finish my schooling there.
I'll be in my dorm room doing the whole online thing, whatever. Still paying $70,000. That's okay. But then as I went back home, my parents were like. Do you really wanna go back to Orange County? Do you really wanna go to the States? Like why? Why can't you just stay here where there's no COVID and you can be with us?
And I have an older sister as well, and I thought about it and I was like, you know what, like I'm pretty much almost done with all of my credits. I. Was taking a ton of credits in my previous semester so that I could just go part-time and pay less tuition. And so I was like, I have a few classes left.
It's just only my thesis classes, so Sure. But then it turned out to be really difficult because like I was in a different time zone, so I was like taking classes from and interning from one to 8:00 AM which was honestly looking back, probably. Definitely took a big. Toll on my physical health and my mental health as well.
My first semester I was like in the family study room, logging into my two 4:00 AM to my 2:00 AM or 4:00 AM classes and my. And I didn't wanna make a sound because my family was asleep, and so I would like whisper as I participate in the classes and my classmates could literally see the sun come up from behind me, which is so funny thinking about it.
But I somehow did that for a whole year, graduated with my two majors, passed the flying colors, did my two theses, so that was exactly. Where I was before I came to LA and I came to LA in 2021 and I moved up here to LA with two of my college day ones, and they're still my best friends. And we live together here and we have been here for over two years.
Yeah. Love it. I've spent so much time in Asia, mostly because of work and. I want everyone to go and see it and taste it and all the things like, there's every city is so different. Even just Taipei versus Tai Chi and
It, I just, I don't know, like I, people are like, oh, but it's a 15 hour flight, and you're like, just
do it.
Yeah.
Where in Asia did you go to and
visit?
I had been to. China, Japan, Mongolia. Cambodia, Vietnam. Taiwan. Hong Kong Minor. I haven't been to Korea yet. I've been to Thailand.
Yeah. I'm trying to be like who, where I haven't been because I was lucky to get to go a lot for work and then I just get adding on fun things for myself.
Yeah. A globe trotter. I also agree that everyone needs to at least. Not, at least once in their life go to Asia. I think when, yeah, in college, a lot of people when they study abroad, they wanna go to Europe and Italy and France and London, but what about Asia? That's like where the action is happening and that's like where a lot of people go to work, to live there and it's just such a, and there's just. I'm obviously biased too because I've grown there. My, I spent my entire childhood and adolescent years there. But it truly shaped me. I think living in Asia when I always, compare this like when people, and a lot of people take pride in growing up in New York City, but what about growing up in Asia?
That's like such a big place. Yeah. It's literally the biggest continent in the world. My formative years were spent there and it was just, Shanghai is a really big city and it's really shaped the way that I act and the way that I yeah, the way that I function too. And actually what's so exciting is that four of my really close friends, they're my best friends.
They are actually going to Taiwan in January, and so I go back every year in the winter. So I'll be there all of January. And they were like, we should just go. And so they're gonna be there for two weeks and I can't wait. So fun. I can't wait for them to go.
Yeah, no, it'll be the, it'll be great.
I've had a lot of friends who have lived in Hong Kong or lived in Shanghai, so I never, I always thought oh, like I go for a little while and it's fine for work and being a Taurus and then seeing what it was like for them to live there. I was like, oh, like I could totally live in these cities. And the dramatic difference from going to Shanghai in 2006 and then going back in maybe 2016, like those 10 years.
It had changed so much. It had gotten so hip and trendy and fashionable, and I was like, yes. Wow. To watch a city transform in 10 years is pretty amazing.
Oh my gosh. I'm so glad you brought that up because I, my family moved to Shanghai in 2006, that actually that year. Oh yeah. And it was because of my dad's job.
So he was already working in Shanghai for I believe, almost a year. And my sister, my mom and I, we were still in Taipei, still living in our grandparents' house and my mom made, and my parents, they made the decision that. They didn't want to separate, they didn't want a disjointed family. And so we ended up like it was, yeah, I remember at that point, like I wasn't seeing my dad a lot, but thank goodness we moved to sh Shanghai because we just have a closer family dynamic and I got to live in this really spectacular, see, that has.
Grown exponentially in the past 10 years, like you said. So I moved there in 2006, and I remember the house that we were living at across our house, it was just this white, not white, green. Oh my gosh. Am I color blind? There's this literally this huge, vast grassy plane, no development on it.
There's literally nothing there. And then fast forward 10 years later, there's like high rise apartments, like right across the street. There's like new freeways being built. And the thing with China, it's like when they want to develop, they do it so quickly. Something that America I just don't see it happening.
Yeah. Don't see it happening. But also it's just different governmental systems where China says if they're gonna do something, they are going to do something really quickly. And yeah. Yeah, it's grown. It's changed so much and I'm so glad looking back, I just feel like the older I get and I haven't.
I've gone back to China ever since 2019. But I would love to go back. It's a fantastic place to be. Yeah.
Yeah. Did you enjoy going to the international schools or was it just like what you didn't know any different, that was just what life was.
That was what life was. I think my parents were, they were just smart. Like they're just they really are, just like they pour all of their resources into me. And my older sister, I have an older sister of two years two year senior. I don't, yeah. And they have always wanted us to receive a global education because if you grow up in Taiwan, as I'm putting myself in the shoes of someone who's just grown up in Taiwan and has just gone to the local school, the public schools, there.
That's a way of life, but the island is also really small and I feel like my parents really wanted me and my sister to just see the world and to expand our horizons. And also my grandparents and my dad too. They also have a history of living in the Bay Area. And so they like are very much they know, you know what's out there and they've worked abroad and overseas.
And they've traveled a lot and so they wanted to pass that. Skill down to us as well. So it was really the kind of education I knew. I I yeah, I've only been to international schools and I, the thing about international school is that a lot of kids like me if people can't, if people like, don't know, like I'm Asian, so if they're not, if only they're only listening to this.
So th this is the thing with the Asian diaspora where a lot of international kids. They go through a traditional American education system, and sometimes they lose a bit of that asianness, even if they're living in Asia because they're they're immersed in like a western academic institution.
But what I'm so thankful about, especially my schooling in Shanghai, is that from all the way from elementary to the end of middle school. Yeah, my school, although it was like not well funded, but they, it, they made it mandatory for us to learn Mandarin all the way till the end of middle school. And I think that so much because I know a lot of my peers, a lot of friends, or even those who like grow up in the states, go to a, an American school here or like international school kids who have been in a similar situation as me, they.
Give up their Mandarin. And I will argue that Mandarin is the most powerful language in the world. Like it's literally spoken by a third of the population in the world. And so I'm really glad that actually my international st my international schooling in China still allowed me to retain my Mandarin skills.
I, I will say that I'm not like, I will say I'm not. My, my fluency is not gonna be the same as someone who's gone to a local school for 20 years of their life, but it is phenomenally, much more advanced than I would say, like an average international schooler. I remember like crying when I had to.
Memorize a lot of these Chinese traditional poems, and it's like they make no sense at all. It's like if you take Shakespeare, I took Shakespeare for two years and it's you'd have to translate it and you have to memorize it, and you're like, and I would just like spark notes everything, but like with these traditional Mandarin poems, there's like such an elegant beauty to it.
But as a kid I was like, I have no idea what this means. And like I remember I would just saw, because not only do I have to memorize it, I also have to like. Write it down because we would get tested at in class, and my parents, like every time when I had to memorize something, I would go down to their study room and I would have, and they would stand next to me encouraging me.
And like my dad would try to he'd just take time out of his work and he would try to he would try to. Explain what the heck I was reading. And by using these like imagery, he would try to help me. And it's like they really were invested in me wanting to make sure that my Mandarin was like well kept.
And so I think them for putting up with me and also it's also made my memorization skills better too, because if you can memorize exchange. Like ancient Chinese poems, like I think you're set for life. But yeah, just yeah. Carrie, you like bring up a lot of these core memories in my life that.
I'm so grateful that like I endeared a lot of that torture because it's made me a much more well-rounded global person and so I, i'm so privileged to be an international school student and I think because of that I've been able to meet other international school kids and the school that I graduated from in Taipei, I ended up finishing my I, my family ended up moving back to Taipei, so we finished, I finished school there.
So many of my classmates are in Los Angeles and I have that, I have the community here and we're just everywhere. Like the, I was interviewing someone from my podcast recently who was also an international student, and she was like, yeah, the international students. They are just this own individual flavor.
Yeah. And I'm like, I totally get that. Yeah. So anyway, super privileged. Super lucky that I was able to get that experience.
I remember being in Hong Kong and seeing a monocle, I believe article, the Monocle magazine that was talking about how there's a new generation or a new population they were calling it of.
It was children who have either parents from two different countries and they live in a third country. It was like how all these kids are growing up with speaking different languages, living in multiple countries, and they were calling it something, I'm gonna totally mess it up, but it was something along the lines of the global community.
Or global generation, because there are so many. Majority of my friends, one is Swedish, one's English, they lived in Portland, Oregon, and now they're back in Sweden. And their kids are speaking all these languages. They also speak French. There's just this view of whatever you want in the world you can have access to.
And that works to a point. And then like for me, I get mad, but I'm like, Ugh, I used to live in Germany and now I'm like. Why can't I just have a visa to work there and live there again? Because I did it once, like I was being sponsored by a company. But it's can I just come back? Do I have to leave after six months?
Like why? And there's this weird perspective on the world of belonging everywhere, but then people are changing visa statuses or who like who has access and you're like, aren't we getting over this? Like at what point can we be wherever we feel like we fit?
For sure. I think a lot of my peers, my friends feel that way too.
Where it's just because of remote work as well, Yeah. Traveling is much. More, I wanna say it's accessible, but it's much more of a possibility. And believe me, I have those thoughts where I was like, I just wanna leave Los Angeles and go somewhere else, because sometimes I am sick of driving around.
I did not grow up driving. I drew up, I grew up taking the bus in the subway. So I have those thoughts as well. But maybe I'm not like at Germany, sometimes I'm. Maybe if I go to the Bay Area, it's I think my, my, my field of thinking is also very narrow at times. It's myopic, but I get to those memories of traveling, I'm sure for you have been so memorable.
Yeah. You just realized that I think there's a, when I was there working, there were people from all around the world and we were, it was when the 1% marches were happening, so like I moved there, I moved to Europe in 2008. And we were talking about how we were like, we're not, we weren't with the 1% in regards to money by any means, but we were the 0.001%.
I think like you and maybe the other international students who don't think twice about. Working somewhere else or moving somewhere else, or like exploring every place you live. 'cause you're always a little bit like, yes, I belong here and yes, I'm also a tourist and Like there's this weird dynamic I think when, you can just book a plane ticket and show up somewhere and figure it out.
And especially in the US the numbers of people who don't have passports. I find shocking on a regular basis. Yeah. 'cause I guard mine with my life, exactly. But so to make a pivot in our conversation, how did you fall in love with content creation and media and journalism?
Yeah, I first fell in love with journalism.
I don't think I fell in love. I think I just realized that maybe I was above average at doing it. But it really started for my love for the theater. I'm a very dramatic person. Like not as a diva, but as just being a, as in terms of personality and effusiveness. But yeah, big shout out to.
The P, my powerful lady in eighth grade, Ms. Sway, she was an my English teacher and everyone like always talks about how strict she was, but I'm, she was like one of my favorite teachers back then. And she was, even though she was an English teacher, she. Encouraged us to put up plays in the classroom.
And this was back in Shanghai at my international school in Shanghai. And like our performing arts department was not well funded. More of there was no performing arts department. And like I, for me, have always had a love of performing, had a love of. Being a creative person, not being in like math and science, but she would print out these scripts and then have us play these roles.
And I found them so fun and we would perform them in class. Or one time we like put up this event where both the English track and the Chinese track sat in the audience and saw our performance. And like I remember I did a performance of. A Amid summers night and and it was so funny how we like conceptualized it and like people were like cackling in their seats and it was like super scrappy production.
We did not have proper lighting. We used flashlights that we did not have a proper curtain. We strung together our curtains and yeah, then once I transferred to that school in Taipei, they had such a well-funded performing arts department. I really immersed myself in drama and plays and musicals. I even got vocal coaching because I was just so passionate about wanting to get this one part in the Adams family, and I got it because I worked hard for it.
But it was just so fun. My, my performing arts experience and my final year of. My senior year of high school, it was when I enrolled in our journalism class because I was like, I don't even know why I did it. It was an elective that sounded cool. I guess I did it. And it I guess propelled me to realize that, oh, if I merge my love of the theater, my love of journalism together, that kind of is like the broadcast journalism.
You get a baby, a hybrid baby. Also, because my parents. Did not want me to become an actor. They were very clear on that. And so I was like, oh, gotta pivot. I was very sad that they said that, close, closed door opens doors. So I ended up enrolling as a broadcast journalism and documentary major at Chapman d Univers in Orange County.
And I loved it. I, before going in, I honestly thought that I was just gonna. And then report in front of a camera. I, that was literally my field of thinking. But then I went into the film school, like I don't even know how I got in. I went in and. I, you have to do everything. You can't be a one trick pony.
It's like you have to be a, you have to film, you have to edit. You have to produce. And like my first day, my first project, my friend, my, my group mate told me to set up a tripod and I didn't know how to do it. I was like panicking. Like she turned her head around and I was like, what the fuck? Like, how do I do this?
And then I think I did it. I forgot. Many years now, I can confidently say that I can do all of these skills, which is so important, content creation, because sometimes it can be a lonely job too. Yeah. But at that time, I still was thinking that I would be an OnAir talent. I would. Be an anchor.
I don't know, because I, my professors at school said that I had a shining career in journalism. I had a very strong camera presence. I enunciate very well and I was able to report stories that were very interesting and timely and and I was like okay, cool. But I realized that I just.
It was not fun. It was not creative for me. And as I told you, I always grew up a very creative person. I think a lot of people in my major, a lot of them were flocking to digital content because it is a more creative industry. But I think I was like, in junior year, I was like, oh, I don't know if I wanna be a if I wanna be covering hard news.
And in junior year I ended up taking an elective about creating for web video. That class does not exist anymore, which I'm so sad for the students, but I'm so glad that it was offered when I took, when I was there. But essentially that class, we had to just produce our own web series, a pilot. It's a a three episode web series.
And I ended up doing this series about a thrifting challenge because like we live in, I lived in Orange County. Antiques, thrifting, vintage, like that's the capital because oh, there's a big retirement community there. So you find a lot of like really nice gems there. And so the thrift stores were always like great places to hang out at.
And I ended up doing this three episode series and the people in class loved it so much and my editing got better. Pacing and just, it was one of my favorite classes that just allowed you to do whatever you wanted, like literally no strings attached, like just do whatever. And that really solidified my.
My passion that I wanted to, do something in content creation and, which is so interesting. I recently went back to college a few weeks ago to attend an alumni panel, and I was invited as alumni. I was like, I don't even know what I'm doing in life, but like I put on a, I put on a blazer just to trick everyone but then.
It's so fascinating that the people who came up to me after the panel, all these students, they all wanna work in digital content, which is so crazy. When I went to school, which I'm not a dinosaur, I'm literally 24 years old but when I was still at school, apple TV wasn't even a thing.
A lot of these streamers hadn't even come out yet. And that was pre COVID too. Before there was just an explosion of content and. TikTok wasn't even a big thing at that time too. So everyone was still very much in cinema. Yeah, And I was never like a cinema person. YouTube has always been my go-to cinema.
But yeah, flash forward to now, like everyone really wants to work in content production because that is like where the game is at, which is. There's a lot of competition, I will say, but it's really inspiring to see the switch that, this younger generation is making. That was a long answer.
I don't even know what you asked.
No, it was great. So my questions now are like, are you doing content for yourself? Are you doing content for other people? If yes, who do you work with or wanna work with?
Yes. I have been doing, it's a mix. It's a bit a mi a mix. And I I think this is a great question to talk about too, because I feel like I'm going through a shift in life as well.
I've been doing con mainly I was doing content for other people. So when I graduated I for some reason ended up becoming a director at Jubilee Media, which for a lot of the millennial Gen Z audiences. Like they love Jubilee Media. It's like the millennial, gen Z like content production company that people are like watching their videos, middle ground or like their ranking series as well, or the odd out.
So if an old person
like me, I'm not a boomer, but I'm like a geriatric millennial, like what what is, what type of content is it? Is it all YouTube shows? Is it random influencers that get shows? What is it?
Yeah, so it's a, they produce. There's stuff on YouTube, so youTube content, and their mission is to provoke conversation with the shows that they create.
And I was hired to produce a pilot for them. An original pilot. And so I did a food show. And that pilot ended up not getting aired. It just ended up not working out. And pe there's like a whole dramatic story behind it, but just summarize my content experience. I was there, so at that job I was producing content for other people, and after that I ended up going to Wired Magazine, which is under Conde Nast Entertainment.
And I was an associate producer. That one I know. For their science. Yeah, for science and tech, and mainly for their YouTube videos. So once again, another example of me producing content for. Another organization. Kristen, you were out wired.
Did you ever run into Lauren? Good. She sounds so familiar.
She's one of my college roommates and Really, and she's yeah, she's this badass tech journalist up in the Bay Area.
Oh, okay. Yeah, so like the editorial journalists, they're separated from the the the video team. I know that so many of them are in the Bay Area, but
She's done podcasts and she's done some of their vlogs too.
But yeah.
Oh, perfect. I've definitely, I've probably seen like her name in an email chain or somewhere. But yeah, I was on the video team and then after that in February I got let go by Wired because they like to exploit their contractors, which I was a full-time contractor and they're still unionizing after almost almost a, maybe even over a year.
I don't know. But I was like, you know what? The chopping block came and I was like, I expected this. And it's time to move on. And since then I, and like during those experiences, I have been on the side editing videos for content creators. And that has always been something pretty steady.
But it was when I was let go in February that I was like, oh God, like I have to make this a more full-time capacity. I'm still in the works of trying to like, get. Stable long-term clients. And I've mainly worked with people who do like lifestyle, beauty, wellness. I just si recently signed on like my first ever guide client, which is actually really interesting.
But he's also in the lifestyle wellness space. Yeah. But yeah, a lot of these have been through like word of mouth, which is crazy, but yeah, looking back, I think. Also, one of the reasons why I decided to bring back Happy Hour is because I think I grew a bit too comfortable doing things for other people.
Like I, yeah, I will always, and this is what I always say, like my biggest motto in life is to always serve others and to always be of service to others. And that is essentially at every job, you're always doing a service for other people. But I was like, Melissa, you literally were trained to host.
You could literally produce, edit, direct research. You're a creative person. And I think like I was having that lack of creative fulfillment and my yearning finally caught up to me where when I was let go in February, I think that gave me the time and space to just ask myself, Melissa what do you wanna do?
And yeah, I'm good at editing videos for other people, but. It's what I do. But I think with happy hour, it's honestly brought me so much joy because like I'm on my terms, I'm on my schedule. It's entirely self-funded guys. Like I haven't, the show is not like freaking Alex Cooper call her daddy like exclusive do Spotify where she got like a $60 million exclusive deal.
But I don't know if there's $60 million. I'm just throwing a number. But
it's a ginormous amount of money.
Yeah, exactly. A lot of money and more money than I could ever fathom at this point. But I think I really would love to get more into personal content creation because I literally am trained.
I was, I literally went to school for this, and that should not make me behind, because I think sometimes I'm like, oh I came in too late into the content creation space where oh, it's like there's so much competition and saturation of content out there. But I was like, Melissa, you really have those skills.
Yeah. Yeah. But I know it's been a mix, but hopefully I would love to transition more into personal stuff, which is oh my gosh. Like a whole conversation. Yeah.
I, so you're of course in the Powerful Ladies podcast. So what does Powerful, and ladies, what do those words mean to you? And do their definitions change when they're next to each other?
Ooh, powerful ladies,
what do they mean? Together? And do they does powerful mean something separate when it's like on its own versus next to ladies? Does ladies mean something different? Yeah. What is your take on those words separately and together?
That's a good question. How would I even define what being a powerful lady is like?
I think, I think in being powerful is just having the resources to make an impact. And I think that's what I really wanna do with everything that I do in my life. I think when I try to podcast or, create content for other people, I do wanna make an impact to the community and I think that's a way.
Being powerful also. It's like my take is that having the resources is to also serve others. And I think that's always been a big tenant in my life. So if you have the resources and you are powerful, you better pass it on to the next person. Being a lady. I'm literally like wearing my boxers right now.
Like you are seeing a powerful lady right now. But I feel like being a lady, it comes, there's so many, you can interpret it in so many different ways. Like you can, it there, I don't know. It feels like it connotes a bit of elegance, but I feel like also being a lady is someone who, articulates her thoughts really well, and I think that's something that I always strive to do. I think a lot of people tell me that I articulate, I literally stumbled. Like, how am I articulate thoughts? They're like, they, a lot of people say that I articulate my thoughts well, I'm like, really?
I don't know. So I think, yeah, being a powerful lady is someone who speaks her mind in a very methodical, graceful, compassionate way and is someone who is able to. Serve others in need. Yeah.
Yeah.
How I define
it. Okay. We also ask everybody where you put yourself on the powerful lady scale. So if zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself on that scale today and on an average day?
I'm gonna be honest. I feel like every day, and even when I'm powerful, I'm a zero. I think I am. A regular Jill, just like anyone else. And I think I under, and I get it when people wanna scale themselves up to a nine or a 10 or a 12, but I think how I interpret this is I'm just the same as you and as everyone else.
And we are all so uniquely, and wonderfully made that we're all able to make an impact. And I don't think anyone is better than. The next person to you, the person next to you. I feel like with someone like me, I'm just like a regular Joe. I'm a faith-based person.
It's like I feel like my life has God has opened so many doors for me that I could have never imagined, I could never have used with my own skills. And so I feel like I just, in life, like I'm just. Honestly a zero, but like with the help of a lot of people, and I'm just like, grateful to have gone to the places that I've stayed at.
And even when I was like, let go twice, actually. I think it's just a, it's been a really powerful journey to where I got here because if it weren't for both Jubilee and actually Wired letting me go I wouldn't have, had that yearning to do something that I love and that's how Happy Hour came about and when I'm doing happy hour, I have no idea what I'm doing. That's why I keep saying I'm a zero on the scale. Like I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm really trying my best. But like even with someone like me who's like trying to figure life out, struggling, got into a car accident a month ago because I overworked myself, I worked a part-time job.
I was doing my freelance business, I was. Doing podcasting, which is like a full-time job essentially because there's a video component now, and I run the social media and do everything else. Like this stuff happens to both powerful and regular people. And yeah I really like from that moment just really thought to myself, it's like Melissa, like really it's just been a really transformative experience of the last a couple months. I just really would like to share to people and just to encourage people that like these doors will close, stuff will happen, things in your life will get dried up, but for a reason, and I truly believe that and like I have that hope that anyone can be a powerful person. Yeah, if you give yourself that permission to and to just like really take that first step in the direction that you want to.
And I think amazing things are gonna happen when. You say no to something. Like for me, I quit my part-time job because I was like, I don't know what's gonna happen after I quit, but I know that I have to do that. And I think because of that I can start to see like the seeds that I've been sowing start to get harvested.
And I think sometimes being a powerful lady is you also share that you're like. Just messing around, throwing stuff at the wall and see what sticks. And that's what I'm doing. But that makes me powerful because a lot of people have reached out to me and said that you're really inspiring.
Which I would never thought I was that kind of person. So I'm a zero and I'm very proud to be a zero.
I feel like I need to make shirts that say team Zero. Team Zero and Proud. And I, I think to your point of throwing things at the wall, there I have a list of I, one of my phrases that I've trademarked is a ridiculous and extraordinary life, and it's because I think that we have to push ourselves as regular people to do the extraordinary things that pop into our head and also the ridiculous things that pop into our head.
'cause
yeah, the
ridiculous component adds some fun and some. Like relaxed approach to it sometimes. And one of the things that has been on my to manifest list forever is like I want to have lunch with Richard Branson or work for him, or work on a project or host a workshop on his island. And I never knew how that was gonna happen.
And then today, one of the four podcasts I've done today. I met someone who personally knows him and just like Danny has been on my list, I'm like, Danny and I are gonna be friends. I don't know how, but I know we are. And then I'm like, Danny. So in one day I have met two people who are one degree away from people who have been on my list for various degrees of time.
And I didn't know that, like you don't know what's gonna happen sometimes when you invite somebody to do something. Or to reach out. So I think there is so much power in being like. This would be awesome. This would be fun. We'll figure this out later. Yeah. And you keep doing what you can control now and the things that you're meant to have will show up along the way if you keep doing what you know you're supposed to do and listening to your heart, if nothing else, like we, I think we try to logic our way through things too much and Oh
yeah.
I'm so logical person for sure.
Yeah. And and that gets us really far, but it doesn't always get us to a place that. Unlocks us or unleashes us to be the biggest, brightest, most badass version of ourselves. Yeah. Yeah, I think good. I'm proud of you for thank, just doing the thing, to do.
Yeah. Isn't that just so silly? I feel like, so people in Gen Z they, there's this whole trend about se of being in a season of being delusional or they like to use the word de Lulu, which I hate I hear that word in my ear and I'm like, oh my gosh. Like my whole like, body just like spasms it I don't like the word.
Is it used? Oh yeah. Like she's D Lulu yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I feel need you to be my translator at this point.
Okay. Oh, please. I for sure. But everyone's oh, it's like I have to be de Lulu and and I'm a very logical, realistic person, and I have friends who are like delusional, i'm in a season where I'm like, Dick, like you're a visionary. Like I think you're onto something. And I'm like, I think I need to dream bigger as well, because I've always been super methodical in life. I've always been like, I want like a salaried, comfortable position with benefits and that has not happened to me in my life.
And lots of challenges have been thrown my way like I said. Working, so just being up 20 hours, doing my three different jobs and getting to my car accident and like also being diagnosed with PCOS and like struggling with that chronic illness. I'm like, I feel like a lot of these limita, like these limitations, they seemingly could, I could have them define me.
But also. Just being delusional and knowing that these limitations are going to be a springboard for creativity and new possibilities and I'm just so excited for that era to happen. And so yeah, when I got into my car accident and I was like, I shared a post about, what's been going on and people have been just like really resonating with that and like people were sending me really kind messages and I.
Realized that I just had to take a break. Like I had to take my chill time seriously. And when I did that one day I was going out for a sad girl walk. I receive an email from CBS studios and they were like, we heard about your podcast, we wanna put this person on your radar to interview. And I was like, lvo.
Oh my God. It hasn't happened yet, guys. I don't like to review my plans, but that's just an example that I really wanna share. Like sometimes when challenges happen, it's those advers, the adversity is going to turn into opportunity. I strongly believe in that.
It but I think it's all those combination of things, right?
Like our when I get myself in trouble, it's because I stop having faith in myself. The planetary set in motion, the seeds I've planted, the universe having my back. Everything else spiritually that is on my team. There's like, when I stop having faith that everything's gonna be. Work out and part of my French just be fucking awesome if I remember that.
It changes things because otherwise it's me thinking I'm actually in charge of all this stuff and it's like I'm in charge of maybe 10%. That's it. Like everything else, I'm like, come on, we can do it. And I'm working so hard as you are to like, make these the other doors open, make these things happen.
You're making new connections, you're taking the emails, but. You're doing the work, but you're not you're not removing yourself from what you know is the authentic thing that you should be doing, and trying to tap into that. It's a really weird combination of a personal, like a trust fall with yourself.
Are you brave enough to make the leap and know that you can, whatever you're gonna land on, you'll be fine.
Yeah, we will be fine. Yeah. I am always telling myself that as well. Yeah. Advice I tell people and advice that I've been telling people who are listening. It's advice that I need to tell myself as well.
Yeah. We have two more questions to wrap up today's episode. Okay. One is for everybody who wants to follow you, support you be in your podcast, listen to it, send you all sorts of fun work. Where can they find and follow you?
Yeah, so if you want to, I'm gonna put happy hour first because it's my pride and joy, but you can follow Happy Hour on the Instagram.
I am. Doing all sorts of reels and fun posts on there. So you get the exclusive. If you fall Happy Hour, it's Happy Hour pod. So it's spelled H-A-A-P-I-H-O-U-R-P-O-D. That's on Instagram. Please do not spell the name wrong. I have been screenshotting every single person who spells it as H-A-P-P-I and I'm making it into a reel one day.
So you have been warned. And so that's the Instagram if you wanna follow my personal account. My Instagram is, it's Chocho train because my last name is Cho, so it's very punny, but it's I-T-S-C-H-O-C-H-O, and then train, T-R-A-I-N. It's Chocho Train and to support happy hour. If you have any guests, you can always send the podcast a dm.
Any cool a API talent that you think are making moves in their industries in the arts, stem mental health wellness please send them my way and that, and to support the podcast. Listen to it. It's funny and I spend so much time on it too you'll love it. You'll love it. I guarantee it, or else you get your money back.
And then the last question for today is, what are, what's on your to-do list to wishlist, to manifest? Like, how can we help you? This is a weird, crazy community that has the randomest solutions to whatever you might want for fun or for business. So what do you wanna ask the powerful ladies?
Oh, ooh. I'm in a season where I'm like telling myself it is okay to accept help.
So this. The timing of this question could not have been better. I also feel like my bangs, as I get hotter and hotter about the interview, it's just been farting further and further throughout the interview. So I don't have bangs anymore, even though I did them like before the interview, but. Yeah, there's also something where I don't I've always been like, oh, I don't wanna reveal my goals, but sometimes if I need help, I also need to tell what I need help on.
Yes. So like I've been saying, happy hour has been something I've been really working on. I really wanna make it into a full-time thing. I'm trying at this point to get like brand sponsorships within within the wellness community. Like wellness brands that I really wanna work with. Other brands I'm open to as well.
But one day I just really want to. Hopefully have a really good media company house, happy hour, so that I have all those in-house resources of producers, researchers, editors a studio space to film in. And I film in my bedroom. And, but like the growth has been tremendous for me. Just going to my guest places, filming there, filming here.
But yeah, I just think I really would love a collective of people helping happy hour and all good ideas come from a collective of people. And I do everything myself and sometimes I find it hard to delegate work, but. Hopefully one day a media company will look at the pod. They're gonna look at a trailer that I edit, and they're gonna be convinced that, wow, we would be foolish if we did not pick the show up.
So anyone out there who hears this, listen to the pod. And let me know what you think and lets get, let's make magic happen. Let's make magic happen. Exactly. Exactly.
Thank you so much for being a Yes to me and to the powerful ladies and being a yes to yourself honestly. I know you're busy and so thank you so much for your time today and sharing.
Yeah, your knowledge and your story and your wisdom. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Carol.
All the links to connect with Melissa and the Happy Hour pod on our show notes@thepowerpalate.com. Subscribe to this podcast. We have your listening and leave us a rating and review. Join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode and new amazing guest. Until then, I hope we're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: itschochotrain
Podcast Instagram: haapihourpod
Website: www.chomelissa.com
LinkedIn: chomelissa
TikTok: @itschochotrain
Email: cho.melissa99@gmail.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
