Ready to take the leap? In this inspiring episode, Melanie O’Reilly-Rogers shares her journey of embracing risk, overcoming fear, and stepping into success. Tune in for motivation and practical tips to take your next big leap!
IE 435:Take the Leap of Faith with Melanie O’Reilly-Rogers
Melanie O’Reilly Rogers is the owner of the blog Mostly Under Control and a podcast by the same name.
She is a married mom of 4 kids, a dog and a cat. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago and my husband works full time outside of the house. She started Mostly Under Control when she lost her job and was pregnant with her daughter, who is now almost 9.5.
At first, it was a catch all blog; recipes, home design, and all the things. She thought she needed to reach all different types of people.
She then transitioned her blog to focus on early childhood when she had a sensory activities post blow up on Pinterest. Her degree is in early childhood. She focused on early childhood activities at home.
When her daughter was 2 and older son was 5, she got pregnant with twins and knew that continuing activities on my blog was not realistic with her lifestyle anymore. She felt like she was faking it.
This was the time of Instagram but before TikTok when the motherhood realm of ideas seemingly portrayed that you weren’t supposed to like your husband and he is supposed to feel like an extra child.
Your only break is to go to the bathroom and your coffee is supposed to be cold. Melanie wasn’t okay with that. It did not feel sustainable to her. She shifted from early childhood activities to a more realistic motherhood life.
Can you share a defining moment when you decided to take a leap of faith?
Once Melanie started to get into the motherhood realm of things, she always wanted to do a big motherhood event like Mom 2.0 or MommyCon. She wanted to bring moms together to give them a sense of community, build resources for them and let them learn mostly about themselves.
She was tired of hearing about places to come together to learn about potty training and which bottles and car seats you should use. Melanie wanted deeper. She wanted people to cry and really find themselves.
But it always seemed like such a huge undertaking and Melanie is not a risk taker at all. But, what I didn’t realize is that the women who started these conventions had to take a leap of faith.
No one started a thousand person event and sold out the first year they did it. Nobody knew who they were. Nobody knew their names. They had to put themselves out there and take risks to make it happen.
It isn’t like “if you build it they will come.” They will but it takes a really long time. They aren’t going to come the first year.
Once Melanie was okay with that, she started looking around at venues and speakers in April of 2024 for an event in January of 2025. she hit the ground running and reached out to Jenny for help since she was already her business coach.
Signing up for business coaching was a leap of faith because Melanie was putting money into a business, having no idea where it was going.
She also reached out to local businesses who wanted to sponsor, add stuff to swag bags, etc. It was risk, after risk, after risk.
She asked many of the businesses to help build it together. For example, a local printing company printed her banner for me for free if she agreed to add their company logo.
Melanie risked people telling her no. She risked people laughing in her face but that didn’t happen.
Everybody was so excited to be a part of it because they could tell in Melanie’s energy how passionate she was about it. Melanie was clear on her vision. She knew what she wanted to get out of it for the attendees and it came from that energy and excitement of being able to make an impact on the women who would attend.
She also wanted it to make an impact on the speakers also. She had some speakers with nothing to sell. They just desperately wanted to tell their story to a group of women.
There were a handful who had never spoken about their topics before. Some spoke about generational trauma, finding your one thing that helps you keep your cool as a mom, and other passionate topics like that. They just wanted to impact others.
What fears or doubts did you face before making that decision?
Melanie was afraid of losing money, but after having that discussion with her husband, and she let him know this was a dream of hers and she had wanted to do this forever, he encouraged her to do it. He encouraged her that if it didn’t go well, they could always make money back.
Her next fear was that the speakers would feel like it was a waste of time. They were all volunteers and she wasn’t paying anyone. She didn’t know how many tickets she would sell and wasn’t going to be able to afford to pay them.
Melanie was genuinely scared that the speaker would walk in, there would only be 10 people there, and they weren’t going to do it. Maybe they wouldn’t talk to this crazy lady again because she didn’t know what she was doing.
Fun fact: no one knows what they are doing. We are all learning this as we go, in life and in business.
She was scared that no one would show up. She was scared she wouldn’t sell any tickets. She was scared that people would have a miserable time.
She was listing all the bad things that could happen. She didn’t want people to think that this was just another failed business thing. The reality of it is, people don’t pay attention to her enough for them to really notice.
Melanie is still hearing feedback from the attendees about steps they are taking to make changes to their lives from things they learned at the summit.
Was there a specific turning point or realization that pushed you forward?
There were a lot of mindset shifts. Melanie hates mindset stuff, finds it annoying, and feels like you are trying to convince yourself of stuff that is not true.
She doesn’t think there was a specific turning point. It was a lot of little things.
When Melanie decided to do it, she was participating in one of Jenny’s mastermind groups. Hearing from Jenny and the other women in the group that she could do this. If you think you can’t, that is what will make you crazy.
Everyone was so good about letting me know that YES, these “negative outcomes” could happen, but no one has a 100% success rate in their first event and success doesn’t necessarily mean “sell out.” I had to get to that mindset, too.
You could sell out of the event and it could be terrible. That is not successful. The fifteen or so people that were there learned so much. They are still reaching out to Melanie about things they discovered about themselves.
What steps do you recommend for someone who wants to take a leap but feels stuck?
You just have to do it. You have to get unstuck. There isn’t a secret formula but it is the annoying mindset crap. Everyone has felt this way.
Something Melanie kept saying during the process was “even Amazon started in someone’s garage.” Anytime someone asked about how ticket sales were going, Melanie immediately froze up and would say “I have only sold four but even Amazon started in someone’s garage.”
People would say “Oh my gosh! You sold four tickets. That’s awesome.” You have to surround yourself with people who are going to have the same positive outlook on the event.
If you have people who are particularly negative or are giving you all the reasons why it could fail, those are not people you want to be around, especially while planning something as big as this.
If you don’t take risks, you’re going to be stuck in your comfort zone forever. And while that may lead to a comfortable life, you will never grow there.
The most growth we do is outside of that comfort zone. That is when you take the risks and leaps of faith.
Get into the mindset that it’s going to probably bruise your ego, people are probably going to tell you no, but it won’t be like that every year.
Before the event was even over, Melanie knew she would do another one the next year. All the speakers kept asking if she would do it again.
Heck yes! Why wouldn’t she? It may not be a sell out either. She doesn’t expect it to.
It is the uncomfortable feeling you get normally when you are making that growth. She had to push through it and find a direction she felt comfortable with in her mind and by surrounding herself with the right people.
How important is having a plan versus jumping in and figuring it out along the way?
Melanie had no idea what I was doing and quickly learned that no one has any idea what they’re doing. She tried to plan as much as I could, but had to figure out as she went along.
She used her resources, people that she met, and asked Jenny for advice. These were not things she could quickly Google. She had things about her state, capacity, and many other details.
She asked other people, who were willing to help her. She did most of the planning by herself, which she doesn’t recommend. At the very end, she had friends run errands for her and set up.
When you can take what you see and like from others, from a networking event, big conference, or a girls night, and apply it to your own, it is going to be key.
If you want to host some sort of in-person event, retreat, conference, summit, etc., Jenny recommends getting to events, networking, seeing how things are set up, how interactions are happening, speaker topics, and organization of the events.
You don’t have to go to other conferences to get your inspiration. You can get it from anywhere, even if it isn’t related. It could be a kid’s sporting event, banquet, or a trip away with your family.
You can take bits and pieces of how things are working and apply it to how you want to do things. Events in person are structured differently than events online.
Did you have mentors or supporters who encouraged you? How did they help?
Melanie feels that Jenny was hands down, her best mentor and encourager. She would have never planned this if she hadn’t started business coaching with Jenny.
A lot of what she needed was accountability, advice, support, and mindset issues. There weren’t tangible things Jenny was able to answer most of Melanie’s questions regarding planning for the summit.
There were people in the mastermind that also had answers to Melanie’s questions. Being in both the mastermind and membership with monthly group coaching calls, making connections, and networking, has been invaluable.
The Insider’s group not only gives you the strategies and tips, but it gives you collaborations and partnerships and also accountability.
Melanie has a partner in life that has always been her biggest cheerleader. Her husband is the first to download her podcast episodes when they go live. He is the first to answer her polls on Instagram, even when the subject has nothing to do with him.
Melanie had a conversation with him in the beginning because she would be using their money and she needed to make sure he was on board with it. He has been Melanie’s number one support through all of it.
She can come home with the craziest idea for a new money maker or product and he tells her to go for it. He has been a huge support for her. Melanie communicated with her husband from the beginning with her expectations, how it would impact their family, and what she needed help with.
If your partner isn’t as supportive, find the person that will be. Perhaps it is a best friend (or people in Insider Entrepreneur!) that you can go to with crazy ideas and they can see how it will be successful and give you the cheerleading that you need.
Melanie has a group of friends that are always absorbing her crazy ideas and they will give her advice and reasons for why things may not work. Melanie does the research and realizes they are right and tosses that idea in the trash.
Having the group of friends to bounce ideas off of, in business and in life, with a different perspective is important.
You need one person that always tells you you are right and the best.
You need one person that is always going to challenge you.
You need one person that will have fun.
You need one person that will buy a ticket to the basket weaving event you will host.
How can someone build a support system when taking a big leap?
Get out into the community. Host networking events. You don’t need anything special to host a networking event. You need a space. Get people’s email addresses. Find out what everyone’s goal is.
People want to see people succeed. Women want to see women succeed. Those are the women you want in your lives and standing behind you.
To get that, you send out an SOS on a flyer, a facebook group, or something to find those people.
When Melanie was looking for speakers, she created a Google doc asking for people’s information. She put it in neighborhood groups around her, explained her summit and vision, and asked people whose vision aligned with hers to fill out a form so she could get back to them.
She had 26 people fill out the form and ended up with 16 speakers.
Also, find a business coach like Jenny! The connections over the past six years have been invaluable.
Jenny doesn’t just work on brand deals with people. It is not the only thing she does.
Jenny is a cheerleader, a realist who will knock you down or push you up a peg if you need it. This is not something you can do on your own, meaning the physical planning, the encouragement, and mindset boost you’re inevitably going to need.
Both Jenny and Melanie have had to pivot over the years as they have seen the crack in the foundation of online businesses. You have to have certain things set up correctly or it is going to be difficult to make money.
You don’t have to make money from one thing; ads, sponsorships, affiliates, your own products and services. There are so many ways you can monetize your business and your message.
That was Jenny’s big pivot years ago. She wanted people to hear their own voices and how they were impacting others.
It didn’t need to be done the traditional way we think as online businesses making money on ads. Diversify.
Get in front of people who need impacted the way you excel and your expertise comes through. Be creative with how you are getting the information out. It doesn’t have to be the same way as everyone else.
One of the biggest things Jenny has taught Melanie is to find out where her people are. Melanie’s people are not on Facebook or Pinterest. They are on Instagram and listening to podcasts while they are sweeping the floor and changing diapers.
So she started a podcast. You have to cater to your people if you want them to hear you and you don’t have to do it the same way as everyone else. Melanie’s audience consumes things through their ears because they have a million other things to do so that is how she has to deliver the information
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