[00:00:00] Kris McPeak: If you have not had your morning caffeinated beverage or whatever you use to get your energy up, you can just put that down or forget about it because we have two amazing. Energy bomb women, ladies, on the show today, I'm joined today by Christina Massey and Gail Scott of midlife Moxie.
[00:00:29] Kris McPeak: I reckon I am way over my head in terms of energy and excitement level. So I'm really excited to have you girls here met these ladies again? Well, no, I can't. It's not all Adam Shively. It's a clubhouse too. It's not just Adam. So. It is the club. So let's, first of all, why don't you all tell me who you are?
[00:00:50] Kris McPeak: We'll have Christine and go for risk alphabetic order. And tell me what you do, where you live, what your gig is
[00:00:56] Christina Massey: I'm Christina Massey and. I live in the great state of California. I have been here my whole entire life.
[00:01:03] Christina Massey: I'm in Northern California. And what do I do? I'm an entrepreneur. I've been building a beauty business for 13 years and just made my way into the mid-life space. Cause that's what's happening in my body right now. And I got my business partner. She is with me, she's my ride or die in business. And she's with me today.
[00:01:23] Christina Massey: And I'm one half of Midlife Moxie
[00:01:26] Kris McPeak: Excellent Gail, what's your story?
[00:01:28] Gail Scott: I live in the great state of South Carolina here in the sunny Southeast,. So it's business in the beauty and skincare industry for 27 years homeschooled. My last child, I moved out of state four times and the other half of midlife Moxie.
[00:01:48] Kris McPeak: We mentioned the beauty industry and the makeup business, and I would kind of like to dig in a little bit on that world as a side hustle. So why don't you tell me how you dipped into that? What was it that was appealing to get started? How easy was it to get started?
[00:02:09] Christina Massey: Well, I'll just go ahead and start. So my friend was selling a product and she invited me to a get-together and I was like, okay, this is cool. I like it. I was having fun. And she said, well, could you kind of. Like helped me with my training.
[00:02:25] Christina Massey: And I was like, no girl, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to do all that. Like I'm I was in school. I was working to become a nurse. I only had a year before I went into the nursing program and I was a single mom. So I was a single mom for 16 years. And at the time my son was 16. And so I didn't receive child support.
[00:02:46] Christina Massey: I didn't have, you know, the extra income coming in. Like when you live in California, if anybody knows back in California, you know that we are an expensive state. Yes ma'am. So my friend. You know, shared, this amazing company with me. And I was like, no, no, no I'm kicking and screaming. And then it was like, Ooh, I could, I could really do this.
[00:03:09] Christina Massey: Like I can make money through that. Yeah. So that, that was, that was the turning point.
[00:03:15] Kris McPeak: And you just started right from there. So a friend had you come to a class and then you bought a kid and just hit the ground running.
[00:03:23] Christina Massey: Yes, I did…and I didn't even have the money for my business. So my friend actually loaned me the money because she saw something in me that I couldn't see in myself.
[00:03:33] Christina Massey: And so, you know, you just need friends like that. And I can really attest my success to her for even breathing belief into me.
[00:03:42] Kris McPeak: That was huge. I think that's so important too, especially in a business that relies on your ability to have confidence in yourself that you can sell products, right?
[00:03:50] Gail Scott: I was invited to be a met govern model and just try some products not did. And I went and I sat, I had no money to spend, but I was one of those parties and get my skincare free. That was my grand plan, but a watched these other women there and they were buying this stuff. Like you wouldn't be able to get it tomorrow, right?
[00:04:10] Gail Scott: Around after. And I said to the lady, what do you have to do? And how much do you make? Cause I may not be the smartest cookie in the bunch, but I can do the math. And when she told me what I had to do and how much I could make, I'm like sign me up because I was living paycheck to paycheck. I’d been in the medical field for about eight years, I had a decent job. I was well-respected. Cause I had some skills that were more marketable than the average Bayer, but it was still a go-nowhere job for me. So while I had that and this was going to be a side hustle I didn't know what I didn't know, but the grand plan was to make 50 extra dollars a month.
[00:04:50] Gail Scott: That's where it all started.
[00:04:52] Kris McPeak: Okay. And you're working full-time Christina, you were a student, a full-time student at the time.
[00:04:57] Christina Massey: No, I wasn't working, but I was a full-time student and I was going to win the best mom of the year award that, you know, well, I mean, in my own, right. In my own right.
[00:05:13] Christina Massey: Well, and, and truth be told. I was, I was coming out of a really hard situation, you know, I, I was newly sober. I was only four months clean and sober when I jumped into a business. So when they say as things change rapidly, things change rapidly. So that's, that's kind of my story, you know?
[00:05:31] Kris McPeak: It didn't in order, obviously, to sell a beauty product, do you have to get people to try that beauty product and use it? So kind of, how does that roll out? You don't just like put up a website and say, okay, friends, come to buy my makeup. Like, how does that all, how do you get your clients? What's the best way to get people into your world so that they say, Gail, Christina, I want that.
[00:05:50] Gail Scott: Well, Chris, the thing is some of us have been influencing before anybody ever thought that was a term, right? Part of the reason I said yes to the side house sold was because I knew that I had a handful of girlfriends that if I loved something and told them about it, it didn't matter. It was a bar of soap from Target. they would all be at target tomorrow, getting that bar of soap. So, you know, if just some of my friends buy some of these products that I'm liking, then I can get my 50 extra dollars a month. They'll get good products. Everybody's happy. And that was the start. And from there, you know, we're growing. Plus you become more intentional and you show people what you have.
[00:06:32] Gail Scott: But now you've got to remember too. We were, I was doing this 27 years ago. There were no cell phones. There were no videos. We were just word of mouth talking to women where we were. And so I like to say we're in the good days for the gig economy for side hustles, for women having careers or employment in general, there have never been the plethora of opportunities that there are now.
[00:07:02] Kris McPeak: I could not, I could not agree more.
[00:07:03] Kris McPeak: I think of, of every, I mean, even people that were able to find things to do when, when COVID happened and it's like, okay, well, I can't work in my restaurant job. So I got to find something else to do.
[00:07:14] Kris McPeak: And I think, you know, being aware of what the online entrepreneurial world is able to provide people aren't going back to the restaurant jobs now. So yeah, we definitely have a lot of advantages that we didn't have 27 years ago. So what, what was it like. At that point without the internet, without cell phones and video.
[00:07:37] Christina Massey: Well, I had, I had cell phones and, and, and video. However, I will say this, I did not like to use video. Okay. I was, I was the girl who social media was not my thing. I came into the business in 2008. So Facebook was on the rise, but it wasn't like the main thing. It was just kind of. Starting to become this, like, okay, this is where everybody's migrating to.
[00:08:03] Christina Massey: This is where you could go build. My story was definitely. I didn't have five friends on, my hand that I could count on because I had left a life behind. And so I was coming into this new life and I had to learn how to speak to people and ask for what I wanted. And so I was the girl who was like at Starbucks.
[00:08:25] Christina Massey: And if you looked cute and I wanted to be your friend, I'd be like, you are super cute. I love that. Could you by any chance be a part of my portfolio that I'm building, I'm looking to do a muddle make-over portfolio, and I just would love for you to try my products. Are you open? And they were like, Is this legit I'm like, yeah.
[00:08:43] Christina Massey: And then they were like, cool. I was like, cool, can I have your number? And let's just get together. So that's how I started to build my business. And, and so it was definitely different, but video. Oh my gosh. Can I just say that I've just gotten into the video part over the last, maybe five years?
[00:09:03] Christina Massey: Cause I just was like, you know, And then when I come into things, kicking and screaming, my, my business partner will tell you I'm that girl
[00:09:14] Gail Scott: often? No. Or why would I do that? But that's okay. But you know, it's funny how fast things change. Cause we started our businesses, you know, roughly a decade apart and back in the day, like what happened is it made you more intensive?
[00:09:30] Gail Scott: You could really only contact people by phone that was in your home and maybe they had an answering machine. A lot of people didn't even have that at the time. I remember, you know, they would talk and train about, you can call people between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM, but be careful about the dinner hour.
[00:09:50] Gail Scott: And you're not well when the heck is that this other job. And I remember coming home, no joke. I would take my little information cards and my phone and my notebook and daybook and go get in my bathtub. Cause I had a small child at the time too. And I would that I thought no one will bother me here. And I did.
[00:10:12] Gail Scott: In my bathtub and take a bubble bath and make client calls and prospect calls. But you know, that's one thing I learned early on is that it doesn't have to look like you think like I never bought into that. I have to get dressed and sit at my dose to make calls. Some people teach that in my business.
[00:10:28] Gail Scott: Okay. But it took, I wouldn't be here. I can make it work girl from it. Might've been calm people on my lunch hour. I visited the offices of clients during my lunch hour and showed them baskets of my weighers and I just figured it out. And I think that is one of the attributes that has made me successful in all my businesses has been the, figure it out to bowl and serve you.
[00:10:57] Kris McPeak: So when you were working full time, how w what was your big, like go-to strategies for carving that time to work your, your side hustle, which was a side hustle at the time?
[00:11:10] Gail Scott: Well for me now, let me be clear. I wasn't doing the 45 hours a week. I was more somewhere usually between 24 and 32 hours and the child and non-supportive have been who didn't do anything around the house.
[00:11:23] Gail Scott: I like it. The lawn got mowed. I did it. And I have a new husband. I see us on the street. Don't give him the side-eye. That's not him to work in snippets of time. And I learned 15 minutes was enough to knock some things out. Three, four customer calls. Some organization, you know, I did not look for the three hours of work time because that wasn't going to come.
[00:11:45] Gail Scott: It was 30 minutes here. I can even remember preparing dinner. And doing that same thing. My datebook, my content, you know, information cards, and my phone while I cook dinner for my family. Because at that time I couldn't afford to eat out as I do now. And I'll just, you know, somebody bring it over here.
[00:12:04] Gail Scott: But at the time I was paycheck to paycheck. I was in it for that, you know, just a few dollars and then a large part of those already. W I quickly became a single mom and I should note that. So when I actually became what we call a sales director in my company, so I became more of a career-level position.
[00:12:22] Gail Scott: I was a single mom. And so you talk about figuring it out and finding this snippet of time. But one thing I would do, and this is my weekly thing, I just want to share this. Cause I just remember it was clearly Friday night. I would come in for my job and I was tired of course, but that would be the, I would clean up my house.
[00:12:41] Gail Scott: And so what that did, I would claim at home. I would do a little gathering for women at my home on Saturday morning. I remember clearly the TV tray that I would put my child's cereal on and turn on his cartoon was back in the day. That's the only time you got cartoons, I would sell products to these three or four ladies at my home.
[00:13:00] Gail Scott: And when he, by the time we finished, he was done in cartoons and. Was at the middle of the day on Saturday night with a clean house, I have a child and money in my pocket and that just really filled my soul. How about you? Yeah, that's,
[00:13:19] Christina Massey: that's something that I did as well. Being a single mom. My son was six and a half and his little butt just liked to he liked to sleep in and he like to be in his jammies until about noon.
[00:13:31] Christina Massey: So what I would do is I would do a party between like nine and noon or 10 and noon, just kind of whatever. And I would go out of that. So he couldn't interrupt and then I would come home with money and we would go to the zoo or we would go to the park or we would just do something, you know?
[00:13:47] Christina Massey: So again, money and. You know, a happy little camper at home and, you know, I made it a, I made it a point even being a single mom that I would have a date night every, every day or not every day, but like one day a week during the week. And we would go for a steak dinner and people were always like, you're taking your six-year-old for a steak dinner.
[00:14:09] Christina Massey: I'm like, yes, I am. Because you know what? I want him to know that we can have anything. And I want him to know that if he works hard, he can have. On a daily basis if he wanted to. So I was always looking for the life lesson in, in the process of the business.
[00:14:27] Kris McPeak: So, I, I love what you guys are sharing because, and I'm not a parent, so I can't relate in that, in that in that way. But there's a lot of I guess, wisdom coming from the choices that you had to make as single parents, as people getting ready to transition from a day job or a student life, to a full-time entrepreneur thing. And so what, what I'm curious is what are your kids say now about.
[00:14:52] Kris McPeak: You know, your, your time is as an early budding entrepreneur and. And, and now with the businesses that you have and the things that you're doing and the amazing wisdom you're sharing with women, like what are they, what do they think of their moms?
[00:15:05] Christina Massey: Well, I 'll tell you what my son thinks he thinks he thinks I'm bat shit crazy, but here's the deal. He will tell you, he will be the first to tell you, my mom taught me everything that I know my mom, not my dad, my mom, and he, she, he, she taught me how to work hard, how to stay committed, how to be consistent and how to elevate and how to talk to people.
[00:15:28] Christina Massey: My son serves in our us military today. And he's always striving to be the next leader. People come to him because he's a leader because I emulated that in my household. He knows how to do that now. And so he, he is so well-equipped and one little short story that I will tell you is that more is caught than taught in, in any household.
[00:15:49] Christina Massey: So even Chris, even though you don't have children, there are people that are watching. they're watching you, they're watching what you're doing and they're, they're like, wow if Chris can do it, I can do it. And so my son, he was a dancer. He would do hip hop, freestyle, breaking all of that stuff. Like he can dance my second dance.
[00:16:06] Christina Massey: And when he was nine, he went to his first battle and I will tell you, he sucks. And my poor baby he's sucked so bad. He's sex so bad. I was like, blow him out. He's so bad. He said, Mom, I’ll never do it again. And I told him, I said, wait a minute, let's talk about this. Are you never going to do that again? Hold on. Who's your mom. He's like, you're my mom. I said, how many times have you seen me set a goal and miss a goal? He was like, I've seen it, mom. I've seen it a lot. I said, and you're a part of me.
[00:16:45] Christina Massey: Do I get back up? He said, yes. I said you will get back up. He's all. Yep. Mom, I'm going to get back up. I'll go do it again. And you know what? He's a fabulous dancer today. Dancer. Just some, just some things.
[00:16:58] Gail Scott: That's a great story. Yes. They watch you and they learn too to not buy into what people tell you to have to do or how your career has to look.
[00:17:11] Gail Scott: If my oldest that affirms may now, he's like, mom, you taught me to think outside the box, mom, you taught me to this. And even my husband has said to me, it's the things maybe being set, sets vulnerable, successful in my career, gave him the freedom to explore options in his career and not just settle for what seem like stable and good.
[00:17:35] Gail Scott: And. But when he saw me grow, but number two, that gave stability in the home financially four times that he could take a little risk instead of feeling like he had to be that just cement block provider, you know, when the woman can come along and do some. So that really helps the entire family. And I can tell you, I stayed in my first marriage longer than I should have.
[00:18:02] Gail Scott: And part of that was financial and I'm telling ya, this girl will never be without her own money. Again, I just won't.
[00:18:10] Kris McPeak: I love that. And I, yeah, you guys are so inspirational. Let's talk a little bit about if somebody wants to get into the makeup industry as a side hustle what does. W what do they need to keep in mind getting started?
[00:18:24] Kris McPeak: What's the best way to make a decision on a company. There are so many companies out there. Where would you all advise people to start?
[00:18:31] Gail Scott: Y the say about this? I think it's more about what if you're going to decide to do anything. First of all, you need to be your own good. And if you are not, self-motivated being in a direct sales model is not for you.
[00:18:48] Gail Scott: And if you cannot discipline yourself to do the work that you need to do when you need to do it. And, and let me preface that by saying the work is easy and it's flexible, but I'm working with women all the time who still can't make it part of their weekly schedule because their mind just does not work that way.
[00:19:05] Gail Scott: They don't have a hustle mentality. It gets a bad name from a lot of people. I'm not talking about hustling yourself into the ground. I'm talking about getting after it, girl, just, if you, if you ain't got no get after it, you ain't going to get nothing. That's the way it works in life and Christina, and I think that's why we connected.
[00:19:25] Gail Scott: So freaking hard. We are get it. Girls were just like, get it, get it, go get it. And you've got to have that to start any type of business. I don't care if it's direct sales. I don't care if you're starting a puppy shop. If you want, you can be average, you can get by, but you're not gonna, you're not going to kill it.
[00:19:43] Gail Scott: If you're not a hustler. And some people aren't, some people aren't. And if you just know in your heart, you're never going to hustle. Then, you know, go get yourself a comfortable job that meets your needs, where your skills are appreciated. And you can count on that income. But if you want a side hustle, know that you already have a career.
[00:20:01] Gail Scott: You know, that's extra time. That's extra efforts. Show you something you love. Check out the company, better business bureau talked to some people who've experienced. Make sure that the value of what you get out is equal to what you're looking for and equals what you're going to have to put into it.
[00:20:20] Gail Scott: Because for me, there was a lot of value in that I was going to get a discount on products that smeared on my face every day. And if you're looking at this zone, there's a lot of products smeared on this face. So if I didn't make it to anybody else, I have achieved something by saving my family some money.
[00:20:37] Gail Scott: But for me also the personal growth, like I would not be talking to you. We would, neither of us would have this podcast. We would not be coaching. We would not make teaching courses. We would not be on zoom. Had we not have had that experience of growing a business in that direct sales model and the beauty of the direct sales model was that your.
[00:20:59] Gail Scott: For yourself, but not by yourself. And I think that's very comfortable to a lot of people, especially women who don't come into this with any background business acumen. And I'll let Chris finish the rest of that.
[00:21:11] Christina Massey: Well, I will say that. So the pros about going into a direct selling company is this, is that the foundation has already laid for you, right?
[00:21:20] Christina Massey: Our, our, my, my husband and I, we own several businesses and. My business with. Is the, the minimal cost one. Okay. Because there are a lot of costs to doing business and a lot of people don't realize that. So this is peanuts compared to, you know brick and mortar or even. Launching something.
[00:21:43] Christina Massey: And the time spent the foundation that you need to come up with on your own. Even though you can collab in different spaces, you still have to come up with a business plan that is lucrative enough for you to sustain the lifestyle that you want. Right. And so, so with. I just feel like direct sales is a really good place to get your feet wet, to figure out like, Ooh, like, is this something that I like to do? Or is this just some extra cash? And, and for me, when I first came in, it was just some extra cash. It was not like, Hey, I'm going to go full force and I'm going to become, you know, the top 1% of my company, which I am today. And that's all good. That wasn't the desired level. The desired level was how can I make some cash fast because I'm a single mom in an expensive state.
[00:22:31] Christina Massey: So, so I think that you just need to kind of look at that and ask yourself what, what makes sense and then make a decision. I think so many times women, especially, don't make a decision and I am notorious for this, but when you make a decision, you, you decide. Then you don't have any confusion. You don't have any anxiousness because you've made a decision.
[00:22:57] Christina Massey: And now, you know, that's the decision that you made, whether it's good, bad, ugly, or indifferent, it doesn't matter. You made it now you're moving on. So how are you pressing into that decision now? So I think that that's, that's what I can say about those things is, is make a decision and know that it's really an extent.
[00:23:15] Kris McPeak: I love it. So let's talk a little bit about the podcast and the whole midlife Moxie world because it does seem like it's a little world that you guys are building. I think at the point that I found you both on clubhouse, you were already, I think you're only doing your own rooms.
[00:23:37] Christina Massey: Well, we'll just backstory a yeller. I met in March, we met in March. Okay. So we're in the same industry, we're in the same company, but we never knew each other cause we're on different sides of the, of the states. Right. And so, so we met in March. I told her I wanted to be her friend and her, and she, and I, we just became fast friends and then it was like, let's find the commonality.
[00:24:00] Christina Massey: So we found this commonality of like a true story, Chris. I was meant to be famous. She was like, shut up. I was meant to be famous too. And then we were talking about midlife and we were talking about like, Hey, we want our own show. And it just kind of birthed from there. And so I love the organic story that we have because it wasn't like we were looking for it.
[00:24:23] Christina Massey: It just fell on us. And we were like, What are we going to do with this idea? And then it started to just morph and Gil is a, is a type eight in the Enneagram. And so she will get shit done. Like you got an idea. Okay. Like let's go. So that, that birth midlife Moxy, and, you know, we just, we found a place of commonality and the commonality was, we were both in the depths of our midlife space. We found this commonality. There's also mutual respect. It's there. And we just had so much freaking. Fun should we're fun. And we think we're funny. I mean, that's one thing we'll just down that, what's that girl funny, if you don't think we're funny, we don't think you're our kind of purse.
[00:26:01] Gail Scott: Even that way the doctor's office. I get back, I could joke and he's in that wide coat off stiff and he doesn't laugh. I'm thinking, well, he obviously knows nothing if he doesn't think I'm funny. I mean, you can just imagine how this came together, but I do think it is blessed. Christina and I are both believers and I do think God aligns things and people in your life and weighs in a very serendipitous way on over a project in our other business.
[00:26:27] Gail Scott: And there was just an instant connection, but I have to tell you this about Christina because it's something we really preach. She reached out to me after that zoom and basically said, I really dig you. I want to get to know you, not in the creepy honey Bible.
[00:26:42] Christina Massey: Yeah, it looks like preface that girl preface that we're going to be like, oh, is she going to reach out to me next?
[00:26:50] Gail Scott: But I, you know, and I didn't take any funny way. What I have been preaching for years is to use your words. Women ask for what they want, learn to articulate what they want, learn to ask it, and you don't have to be in a female March kind of way. I do it. I don't have time for that, but like, I have a lot of friends who will say, I don't have any friends.
[00:27:12] Gail Scott: You're not. Well, have you asked for any, have you tried to make any, have you told anybody you would like some new ones, and the fact that she would reach out and say, Hey, you're my kind of girl. I got to get to know you got to be friends. That I know she was my kind of girl that is, I mean, that's one of the first things we ever said off that zoom and it cemented this relationship because I'm like, this is everything I've been saying and doing, and she did it and we've never had ever had contact before you talk about stars, aligning all that day and we've been.
[00:27:44] Gail Scott: Kevin, Kevin is so tired of me calling her. I mean, he wishes she had never rung my bell. I think. So you've never met in person. Wow.
[00:27:59] Kris McPeak: I love that. I think that is so amazing.
[00:28:02] Christina Massey: You know, I think, I think what else is cool, Chris, is that you know, for your audience, like. If you want to collab with people, just go out and collab with people, you don't need to meet them face-to-face anymore.
[00:28:14] Christina Massey: You know? And, and yes. Is it going to be a beautiful thing? When we finally get to meet face to face, we'll probably be hugging for hours.
[00:28:30] Christina Massey: but I think, I think that that's, that's a, a real driving point home for a lot of people. Because they, they think that they have to. Meet somebody in person or they think that, you know, and that's just not the world we live in anymore. We live, in a digital society.
[00:28:53] Gail Scott: So if there's any woman out there listening to this and she's a lonely girl, get on clubhouse. Find yourself, some new friends find yourself a new posse. And it's incredible that I have, I have found friends around the country. I've grown all my businesses. So if you want to grow your side hustle, come on over to clubhouse and we'll even show you how you know, it's just a new day for business.
[00:29:14] Gail Scott: It's a new day for friendships and relationships. And it's exciting to me. So when people are trashed in social media, kind of get defensive, I'm like. State special media was my lifeline. A lot of my friends come from social media shit.
[00:29:30] Kris McPeak: That's right. I love what you guys are doing on clubhouse. I it's fun to hang out in the rooms.
[00:29:36] Kris McPeak: Why don't we talk about where people can find you and the kind of rooms that you're leading over there with MIDLIFE MOXIE.
[00:29:42] Gail Scott: . First of all, we do have a club there. So if you're not familiar with how this space works, a club is basically a community it's usually nodded around a common interest, a cause just some type of association, and we are associated with others in midlife, midlife women.
[00:30:03] Gail Scott: So we have the midlife Moxie club and that. Planned and intentional as a lead up to launching the podcast. So once the podcast launched, we already have a community and audience that bought into this idea with us and been along from the very inception, but on clubhouse, we also appear in other rooms that we talk about other topics and what are our now side hustles like teaching courses and doing the podcast.
[00:30:30] Gail Scott: So we talk with other people about appearing on camera. How to get a good pod bio shot, how to you know, we talk about fashion because that goes on with our industry and. Then you learn a little bit of that, that two-way teach about growing on clubhouse. We talk about today, we did a Ramo making reels.
[00:30:50] Gail Scott: We have taken what we've learned in our regular careers and our side hustles and said, what wisdom do we have? Well, so we learned that other people could benefit from it, and we go out and share that, and that creates community. It draws people to us for all our businesses and it all just ties together in this beautiful package over there on the club.
[00:31:15] Christina Massey: And you know, clubhouse has just an amazing little app. You don't have to show your face. You can just talk. And I think that that really kind of alleviates any kind of tension too, from people. Cause sometimes when people see your pictures or things like that, that they start to do that comparison game and you don't need to do that.
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