From Hustle to High Class: How Melissa Simpson Redefined Success on Her Own Terms (#177) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 177
What would success look like if your business left more room for the life you wanted? Melissa Simpson joins Dustin Serviss to discuss entrepreneurship, sales, family, travel and moving beyond a constant cycle of hustle.
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This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:00] Changing the situation rather than yourself
[00:03:15] Traveling with young children
[00:06:16] Moving beyond feast-or-famine income
[00:09:33] Turning sales and marketing skills into a service
[00:12:45] Flexibility and retaining good people
[00:15:51] Scheduling family priorities and important work
[00:19:26] Working backward from a sales goal
[00:26:30] Fitting health and learning around business and children
Guest & resources
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Melissa Simpson: Not necessarily us that needs to change. It might be the situation that needs to change. And I think there's, like, that photo about... Might not be the flowers. Just is the flower in the right pot and the right sun? Like, it's just... Let's try to move that around because it might... If you have a flower in, like, the basement, it's probably not gonna grow as well as at the front window or outside or whatever. So, yeah, that's definitely something I've kept in mind. But...
[00:00:19] Dustin Serviss: What happens when a woman who's always hustled finally hears that quiet inner voice saying, there's got to be a better way? This week, I sat down with Melissa. Now I've known her and her rock star husband for years. Always respected her fire, her perspective, and how she works hard without losing sight of what really matters. She's the creator of something called the high class hustle. And trust me, this isn't some fluff. It's about building a business and life that feels good, like actually good. Sales that don't steal your soul. A vision that includes kids, travel, dinner dates, and imagination.
[00:00:56] Dustin Serviss: We talk about motherhood, the hard years, the moments when your dreams feel too far away to even think about, and what it feels like when the light starts to come back on. This was a powerful conversation. It's honest. It's optimistic. And it might just give you permission to ask, what does your version of high class look like? I really enjoyed this one. Let's dive in. So my my first question is a little more casual because I know you so well that you work your ass off, but you say that you've traveled to forty nine countries. How did you fit in all the traveling, or how do you balance this out?
[00:01:32] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. It's been... I think it's actually probably more than that now. I haven't calculated in a long time. It's something that I started when I was quite young. So I went on a trip with, like, my first trip backpacking when I was twenty, and we went to Europe. So Europe, it's easy to hang out a few countries, and we traveled over three months. So that was one, and then that kinda got me hooked. And then I was like, okay. I need to make money again to be able to do this more and more. So that's what I did. I went to work. And then whenever I had a job or was working with a company and they were like, okay.
[00:02:05] Melissa Simpson: We we only give you, like, one week vacation. I would quit and take, like, a three month vacation and then go find another job. So that's how I weaved it into my youth, I'll call it. But I did a whole kind of round the world trip over... Just over three months by myself, and I just started working my way over. So I did start in Europe and ended up in Southeast Asia. I went to Australia and New Zealand and came back around the Earth the other way. So... Yeah. And then it's just been a priority. Like, I really enjoy it. So we're even... I've never been to Central America, so we're looking at maybe Nicaragua here in January.
[00:02:38] Melissa Simpson: So, yeah, I'm always looking for something to do. But then now that I have kids, it's finding that balance of, okay, what's safe enough for the kids? Are the flights gonna be complete hell? What what does everything look like? And, you're considerably older than mine now, but the car seats and all of that, you have to incorporate.
[00:02:54] Dustin Serviss: I just had heart, like, like a flux of anxiety just when you're talking about the thought of... Yeah. But when you're with kids and you're traveling, it just starts with a commitment though of we're going for it. And then next thing you know, you're in the airport and you got the cart with the car seats and the playpen because it's a special playpen because Timmy doesn't sleep only in his own playpen with the
[00:03:15] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. We're lucky. Like, we actually co slept with our kids, which made it... Makes that easier, and now they've moved on from our bed. But... Yeah. So that, we don't need, but we do need the car seats. And we... Even our last trip, we did completely carry on because we were too... Being too frugal, and we didn't wanna pay, like, a hundred US for each bag. So we're like, alright. Pack it all. We got four carry ons. Let's go. So...
[00:03:38] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Well, it only gets better, and it gets kinda better. Our kids are seven and nine, and we did Portugal and France in May and having no car seats for the rent a car and, like, they can... Yeah. You can tell them we're going this direction, and they do. And so that's... Little more agreeable. Yeah. Little more agreeable. So is there a mechanism that you use in your practice of deciding to do something that is a go to for you to help make a decision? Other than I'm just... I gotta get all these projects. I gotta just work. Like, I I want to do this thing, but then if it never gets planned... So at some point, there's a...
[00:04:17] Dustin Serviss: We're going somewhere. Like, maybe it's a trip. Maybe it's buying something. Maybe it's whatever. Like, what's your go to for making that decision of just pulling the trigger?
[00:04:27] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. I guess I would say... Well, Mike and I were both, like, dreamers. I would say I'm a little bit more, like, processed in my decision making. Like, yeah, of course, we'd love to have an avocado farm in California, but let's break that down. Is that really aligned with what we want? Yeah. So you kinda bring it down. And for us to go back to the traveling example, like, that's something that's important to us. Seeing new countries is very cool, but also we're willing to recognize where we are in our our life as a family. Like, we do have young kids. So how far do we wanna go? What's the right flight? And what's gonna make sense?
[00:04:59] Melissa Simpson: So Nicaragua, we've been looking into. It seems approachable. We wanted to. We've adjusted our lifestyle. So, I guess, let me back up there because we wanted to be able to travel with our kids. That was a priority. So we've changed kind of what we've been doing to make sure we're both working remotely so that we can do that and take longer trips. Because you're not gonna go to Nicaragua for a week. That doesn't make sense. Yeah. Because it is a bit of a halt to get there. So we we wanna go for at least probably three weeks or longer so that way we can alternate working there, maybe get some support while we're there,
[00:05:30] Melissa Simpson: and just try to find a way to to make that happen. And that's been our goal previously. And so then we're like, okay. Let's look at this year. We wanna go somewhere in January because winters in Alberta are harsh. And we just recently moved back here a couple years ago as I used to live in in beautiful Kelowna. So, yeah, it's just a matter of making those compromises, and that's another reason why we moved here so we have more spending money so we can travel. So all these kind of micro decisions lead up to what's our plan. We wanna be able to show our kids the world, travel more, and, of
[00:06:02] Melissa Simpson: course, grow with our careers and financially at the same time. I don't know if I even answered the question, but I think it really all breaks down to that. Right? Like, you've... You think of the ideal goal, and then you make these micro decisions to get you to that goal.
[00:06:16] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Can you comment on the feast or famine you mentioned of, like, income? And, again, you came from the sort of... What I knew from the real estate background. And then maybe help us understand what setting that structure up looks like.
[00:06:32] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. For sure. So I worked in real estate, like, for a long time, and that is the feeds and family. Like, you're gonna get a bunch of deals. You're not gonna get a bunch of deals. People don't wanna move in the winter. People... It's just... It is always, okay. You got a big paycheck. Okay. But this is gonna have to last me three months because it might be... The market might go down or up or whatever. So you'd have to manage your money and make sure you're almost... I guess that's why I'm still frugal because you're like, okay. When's... When am I gonna eat again? But at the same time, I've tried to build out systems to...
[00:07:00] Melissa Simpson: So that you're maybe doing a lot more outreach during that time or... So that it starts to balance itself out. And when I was in Spain working with a lot of entrepreneurs, because I find entrepreneurs are really good at whatever it is, a baker, a hairdresser, whatever. They're good at the actual thing, building robots, whatever, but they're... They've never really been able to or wanted to do sales and marketing or probably even be an accountant for their business. They're like, I know how to bake the best cupcake. It's great. But who's gonna eat it if nobody knows about you? Right? Nobody knows the best cupcake exists.
[00:07:34] Melissa Simpson: So, yeah, a lot of that was... Like, I worked with a lot of companies like that trying to figure out, okay. You don't just wanna sell cupcakes for birthday parties because then you're only... You might only sell cupcakes on the weekends because that's when people have birthday parties. You have to, again, break it back to how are we gonna build your calendar so people are buying cupcakes every night. Is there a way to market that? Is there a way to sell that so there is less of that feast and famine or up and down cycle, and it starts to level out because people wanna go take their kids out for cupcakes instead of ice cream on
[00:08:04] Melissa Simpson: a hot day or whatever the case may be.
[00:08:07] Dustin Serviss: If... So in setting that up to where you were there, you went from real estate and started to introduce these other sort of business ideas, call it gigs, call it whatever, you're doing insanely well. But maybe shed shed a little light on what you're actually... What that transition from that and what you went to and why you've landed on the career... Like, not careers, but, like, the income sources. Whatever the heck
[00:08:32] Melissa Simpson: I'm at. Yeah.
[00:08:32] Dustin Serviss: Because there's multiple, but,
[00:08:34] Melissa Simpson: paint that picture. Yeah. So, yeah, I worked in real estate, and then, again, I wanted to move and live in Europe, and that was the goal. So what the heck am I gonna do? I can't sell real estate in Europe most likely. Although I looked at it into that, and I was like, okay. I talked to a real estate company. Your Spanish is not good enough to read a real estate contract, so good luck. It's great that you could build rapport with people and talk a little bit of... In Spanish, but you can't do it in the old Spanish. I can't work with you. So I was like, okay. Need a plan b. Like, I need to be able to work and make money if I'm gonna
[00:09:04] Melissa Simpson: live in Europe for a year. So I was like, what do I know how to do? I know how to sell. I know how to market. Like, those are things that kind of translate across industry. And then I tried to find, like, a niche. So I was really targeting female entrepreneurs because, again, I found lots of people were, like, great at what that thing is, the bakery, whatever, but they didn't know how to market themselves. So I was able to get in with these kind of smaller companies or entrepreneurs that are like, we've got this great idea. We know it's a great idea, but how do we tell people?
[00:09:33] Melissa Simpson: So I would work with them on that strategy, and that's where that kinda came in too. And then I'm like, this is working. When we moved back to Canada, I approached it with the same thing. Okay. Let's find some different companies where I can offer that kind of sales and marketing approach and and see if I can get them more revenue, and that's really been my focus. So that's how I translate it.
[00:09:55] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Well, that's that's translated into to lots of things. And maybe explain what you're doing with High Class Hustle.
[00:10:03] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. So that was really... I built out for... When we moved in... When we moved to Spain, I was like, okay. This is it. Like, this is the business that's focused on women. Like, I wanna empower women. I feel like even now, before when I built it out, I wasn't a mom. But it's... Being a parent as... Especially a mom is a game changer because you wanna be with your kids. You wanna be near them. You've gotta find ways. And for me, like, we're lucky we have a nanny so I can, between calls, run and see my kids, play with them, whatever. Like, I just feel like they're only this small once, and then they're gonna
[00:10:35] Melissa Simpson: be school age, and then they're part of the system. But... Yeah. So that was where I focused was by talking to female entrepreneurs and trying to help them. So that's where High Class Hustle was created, and it's grown from there. Like, I've been approached to to help other companies who aren't founded by females, and it's been great. So
[00:10:55] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. I think... Was there a moment when you're in real estate where you were having a good week? Like, you had a few deals go through, and you're like, okay. If I just do this week in and week out for the next twenty years, then I'll just retire. Did that ever cross your mind, or was it always I'm just gonna figure it out?
[00:11:16] Melissa Simpson: I... So I started in real estate when I was young. I was, like, nineteen. In fact, when I was, like, six... Fifteen or sixteen, I was... Everyone's trying to figure out what they wanna be because everyone's asking you, what do you wanna be when you grow up? And my parents are both accountants, and I knew for what... Like, I did not wanna be that. So I was like, okay. And one of our family friends, he was building houses. I thought, well, that's pretty cool. You've got a piece of land. It's nothing, and then it turns into someone's house, which is really cool because everyone loves their houses.
[00:11:44] Melissa Simpson: That's like your sanctuary where you spend time with your family. You have Christmas if you celebrate or whatever. Right? So I got into that, and I started working out of a show home when I was eighteen, nineteen and going to school. And I would work out of the show home, and it was always evenings and weekends. And I built my way up to having a career in real estate that way. And... But I saw... Like, I was young, and forgive these people who I worked with, but they were older, like, probably fifty, sixty. And I just remember them still grinding out evenings and weekends
[00:12:13] Melissa Simpson: and missing things because the client wanted to meet them and missing things for their kids. And they're like, yeah. It's good money, but you gotta find that compromise. And I think I've always been one to go against the grain kind of thing. Like, I feel like there's rules, but it's okay. How important are these rules? Do these rules align with my values? Like, for example, to go back to my parents who worked as accountants for their entire life, have one job, keep that one job. Don't you dare quit that one job because you gotta pay the bills. Whereas, like, I told you, I would work a job.
[00:12:45] Melissa Simpson: If this doesn't work for me, you won't give me vacation. Okay. Bye. And I felt like I was the one adding value to these companies or to these people. So it's... You should wanna work with me. You should wanna give me time off to do these things. And, eventually, like, some of the companies would let me go and come back because they were like, yeah. We see the value. But I think when there's too much rigidity, you can lose good people and for not good reason.
[00:13:11] Dustin Serviss: Is there... Do you notice a feeling of courage when you are making that decision or when you are setting boundaries for people or setting boundaries to meet your... Like, I'm trying to ask you a question but not give it away. But, like, the... Yeah. To design the life that you want
[00:13:33] Melissa Simpson: Yep.
[00:13:33] Dustin Serviss: Is there ways that you, like, set up guardrails? And do you notice that it... You do have to feel a bit courageous when it comes out your mouth and you say it that you're like, fuck. I might lose this client. And then I'll just Yep. I'll deal with that.
[00:13:48] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. Certainly. At the beginning, I think it's harder. But if you've been, like, I mean, I've had to say no to some clients or say no to things that just don't quite align. And, yeah, sometimes that's a big paycheck that you're like, oof. But, like, again, you go back to those values, and I feel like those were instilled in me young, and I've really focused on those as I've grown and grown my own family is, okay, if this isn't working for us, it's not necessarily us that needs to change. It might be the situation that needs to change. And I think there's, like, that quote about might not be the flowers.
[00:14:19] Melissa Simpson: Just is the flower in the right pot and the right sun? Like, it's just... Let's try to move that around because it might... If you have a flower in, like, the basement, it's probably not gonna grow as well as at the front window or outside or whatever. So, yeah, that's definitely something I've kept in mind. But to your point, yeah, there's some courage that happens at the beginning, and you're like, you have to say, hey. No. This doesn't work for me. And... But I think as you do it more, know that in the end, it's probably the best. Or you've said yes, and it's been complete hell.
[00:14:46] Melissa Simpson: Or, like, it's gone really not good or pushed your boundaries. And you've got clients calling you at all times of the night or whatever, and you're like, wait. What am I doing? This is not right. So, it's not like I've always had these... Say no or say yes. I think you grow with that. Certain things you say absolutely not. Certain things you're like, okay. This seems okay, and maybe it wasn't. You know what I mean?
[00:15:07] Dustin Serviss: What would be top three tools or ideas or guidelines that you set that make the biggest impact in you living the life that you want?
[00:15:22] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. So I guess one thing is I schedule everything. So that's a big kind of, like, tool for me. If it's not in my calendar, it's probably not gonna happen. So even from... And it doesn't even have to be in your calendar. Go to gym or go exercise. You just know, like, from whatever time in the morning or if you're a nighttime worker outer, you just know that's the time where you're gonna exercise, and you can't book a meeting during that time because then you won't exercise because that was the exercise window. Same thing with, like, other things or if your kids have soccer.
[00:15:51] Melissa Simpson: Like, you can't book a meeting during that time because that's the soccer time. So for me, I schedule everything and then even things that are on my to do list that you're, like... They're weighing on your mind. I find if I just put it in my calendar and schedule it, I'm like, okay. I know that's gonna be taken care of when the time comes. So that's a big one. It keeps me... Like, I I would say people say that I get a lot done and not a lot of time, and I think that's because I schedule everything and I, like, just do it. Because if you procrastinate it, you can definitely reschedule things. Stuff happens.
[00:16:21] Melissa Simpson: Like, you can reschedule things for sure. But I find if you just keep working through it, the end goal is either more money or you have more freedom or whatever. Like, it... It's all going towards that. So I would say, yeah, scheduling would be my biggest thing. And, again, like, I'm a dreamer, so I like to talk things out with my family, with Mike, just saying, hey. What do we wanna do? What's the next place we wanna go to? Do we... Like, we're talking about, do we wanna see new countries? Do we wanna live in Europe for a year again? We wanna go there just for a summer. We start to see what's happening in the future.
[00:16:50] Melissa Simpson: And, again, then you take those micro steps now in the present to to get there.
[00:16:55] Dustin Serviss: It takes an insane amount of intention to do that because you sit down at the table for dinner, kids are nicely sitting there, and you're like, okay. I'm gonna bring up this topic, and then boom. And then the kids are Yeah. Fighting, and then you're like, okay. Hey. So I wanna talk to you about whatever, and it's just not right now. And you're like, we got the kids to bed. Okay. We'll talk about it before bed. I'm too tired.
[00:17:17] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. Totally. Totally. That happens all the time. And, honestly, it still happens, but we do try to set that intention. Like, Mike and I, even for our dates, like, we had a date, last week or the weekend before. We're like, okay. Where should we go? And he's like, why don't we just go to a coffee shop or something, and we'll just bring our laptops, and we'll start to trip plan and look at places and talk about that. So, yeah, maybe not the romance, but you can always go to a bar and get a glass of champagne to go with that. But for us, that... That's it. Like, we like to plan these, and then it's something to look forward to, and you're...
[00:17:50] Melissa Simpson: You can get more aligned with each each other. So, yeah, some nights we're like, there's no talking. We're exhausted by the end of the day, but some nights we're like, okay. Let's take an hour and figure something out or talk something through, or Mike likes to scroll. And I usually get lots done during the day. So I'll be like, instead of scrolling, can you just look at those things they sent you today? And then we'll talk about it, and he'll say, yeah, and send... He'll get back to me that way. So, yeah, a little asynchronous communication works too.
[00:18:13] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. So some teamwork. I... Jody and I set a date. Well, just a... More of a meeting to go over our own finances before school is out. Kids were at school still, and it... You'd... We did have to say, okay. Today at lunch and have the binder Yep. An open mind and just talk about stuff. It's it's important. What are you finding when you were coaching entrepreneurs as a sort of the twenty twenty five breakthrough that you see... Not the masses, but, like, multiple people that are having, like, breakthroughs that are of material. What... Do you have any stories in that regard?
[00:18:47] Melissa Simpson: So, again, like, it's so industry specific. I feel like, for me, when I was... And when I am and working with kind of, like, these smaller businesses, it really is explosive because they haven't done anything before. So when you start a business, you get your friends and family bought in. That's usually your first go to, But then you have to expand beyond that. So, again, I think a little bit of investing in marketing and sales goes a long way. I I feel marketing and sales really go hand in hand because if nobody knows about you, there's no one to sell to. So just finding that balance there.
[00:19:26] Melissa Simpson: But, yeah, I would say just one story I could think of, and she's... One of my clients, she set a goal for the first month. She's, I wanna double my sales. That's my goal. And I was like, okay. So we work back what that would take, what she'd have to do every day to achieve that. And so she's, okay. I can do this. We're gonna invest a little bit in marketing. We're gonna do these, all these things. And then she actually, like, four times her sales in her first month, and she was like, what? Pardon me, but this shit works. Yeah. Yeah. It really does. So... And then as you get into these larger companies, it does get harder, but
[00:19:59] Melissa Simpson: I think a lot of it is relationship building. Like, using your network, that's something that I do a lot and I'm sure you do as well. It's just I genuinely wanna help people, and that's where the place that I come from with anything is I'm not saying, oh, what's in it for me? What can I get out of talking to this person? I'm like, what can this person... What value can I offer to them? So all... I often reach out to people on LinkedIn. I'm like, hey. I'm really interested in your business. If I can help you in any way, let me know. I was talking to someone who's... Has this plant, and they're making lithium ion batteries and all this.
[00:20:31] Melissa Simpson: And I'm just like, okay. Cool. Like, how can I help you? And he's, actually, there's someone in your network I wanna connect with. So I'm like, okay. But then in return, it goes back to the reciprocation rule of sales. If you've ever read anything about sales, that's one thing that you could do is he kinda owes me one. Not that I want one, but, genuinely, he's, hey. You helped me. Yeah. I like Melissa. She helped me. What can I do for her? And, like, with sales, it's about the first step. I always say build rapport. If the person doesn't like you, it's probably not gonna work out, and then build credibility so you're like, okay. Who am I?
[00:21:03] Melissa Simpson: Like, why why should I talk to you, Dustin, or you, Melissa? Like, what's your background? Why do you know about this? And then educate those people. Like, this is why you might need this product or this is why you need financial services or whatever. And then you ask for the sale. Okay. Let's go import and see if, you know, this is really gonna work. So that's the process. So I think the first step is using your network, build rapport with your network so that if they hear someone who needs something that you do, they're gonna say, hey. Have you talked to Melissa? She can help you with sales and marketing, or she can help you with this.
[00:21:33] Melissa Simpson: And then just goes that way.
[00:21:36] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. What... Do you deal with people in British Columbia or all over the place? Alberta, British Columbia?
[00:21:41] Melissa Simpson: All over Canada. Some clients are, like, across, like, the US and nationally, so it just depends on the company and what their needs are. But, yeah, across Canada for sure.
[00:21:51] Dustin Serviss: Would you see a correlation between Albertans and the Americans for, like, their, like, bullishness or go for it attitude?
[00:22:00] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. That's interesting. I was talking to someone yesterday, and she had... She's from the prairies like Saskatchewan. She moved to BC. She also lived in Calgary previously, and she's... The work culture is so different. Calgary is very, like, just at lunch, you would have a beer. You might go to the flames game. That's the culture. Whereas she's, like, in... She lives in Vancouver. She's... I would go for, like, a Pilates at lunch. You would never order alcohol at any, like, work lunch. Like, after work, it might be, like, a cycling club. It's just much more, like, health and fitness versus work hard, play hard of the Albertans.
[00:22:32] Melissa Simpson: But, yeah, I guess there's different places where you see some correlations. Like, I feel... Yeah. But I I can't... I just think there's still quite a difference between Canadians and Americans just generally or culturally. Like, I've worked in American companies and Canadian companies, and there's some things that you're like, okay. This is just different. Like, good or bad, it's just there's some different things that happen culturally. I would say Canadian companies are much more kinder and care a lot more about, like, you as the whole person as opposed to you as sales or whatever your role is.
[00:23:04] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. I am part of this this entrepreneur group, and there was a lot... There is a lot of American business entrepreneurs in there and a lot of guys who sell things to companies. And it is where in my world, it's... We have a small group of clients, and we really try and do a lot of work together. And so it's very foreign to me to, like, just POs come in or orders come in, and it's just... These guys are churning outside. Well, this is what my commission is. That's like, well, who is that person? I don't know. It's just a comp... It's just a company, and I'm just one p o.
[00:23:34] Dustin Serviss: Like, they're taking fifteen grand orders for a day or whatever, and it's Yeah. Or these consultants that do one morning of training, and they're making twenty grand or something. And it's... Well, that's that's... This is a four hundred million dollar a year company or whatever. So it's just different. Yeah. It's different.
[00:23:51] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. Totally. Totally.
[00:23:53] Dustin Serviss: What what are you most excited about right now?
[00:23:58] Melissa Simpson: That's a good question. I... So, personally, I've, like, shifted this year. I stopped breastfeeding my youngest, which has been, like... Now I feel like it is time for me. You know what I mean? So I am just excited about that. And then, again, because the kids are getting older, we can do these longer trips or try them on new things. Because when your kids are, like, under eighteen months ish, like, two, I feel like on planes, they're terrible. They don't really care, and we don't do screens with our kids, like, throughout the week. But on... When we travel, we will for sure because it's, like, our only crutch to get them to sit on a plane.
[00:24:34] Melissa Simpson: But when they're young, like, eighteen months, they don't care about a screen. They wanna play. They wanna rock. It's just so much. So I think I'm excited for the opportunities now that my kids are a little bit older that allows us to go on longer trips and survive them. And then, yeah, just for me, I'm really focusing on kind of my, like, health and fitness. I always am focused on that, but I think I can, like, level up my training a little bit more with just more capacity and less giving half of my calories to my kids.
[00:25:02] Dustin Serviss: You find it harder as you get older to see meaningful results, like, as fast as the old days? Like
[00:25:10] Melissa Simpson: I would say, yeah. It's funny because, like, when you're breastfeeding, you could literally eat whatever you want. So, again, I stopped breastfeeding, but I continue to eat whatever I want. And I was like, oh, like, this is adding up quicker than I thought. I better go back to focusing on things like the order you eat your food and eating healthy and getting your fitness in and things like that. And, yeah, it's definitely harder as you get older. I won't disagree with you there.
[00:25:34] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. I did the whole thirty program, which turned into, like, whole two seventy, like, day... Or, like, way longer. And I Yeah. Two, three months of just, like, after Europe, it was just gonna... Oh, well, I'm just gonna eat whatever because they eat whatever there, and that was, like, the finale. And I do I do notice your body composition does change if you're no sugar, no dairy, no wheat, no natural flavors. Like, when no... I was still drinking the odd time, but you do get, like, materially... Your body changes. And so...
[00:26:04] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. Certainly.
[00:26:06] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Getting older is... You're like, man, I worked till four times this week. But...
[00:26:10] Melissa Simpson: Isn't that enough?
[00:26:12] Dustin Serviss: Well, I don't think the workouts are the same as they used to be, though, where it's like... I think back in the day, it'd be like a chest and biceps day. You do four exercises of chest and four exercises of biceps. Now I go and I'm like, two exercises of chest, maybe some curls, and I'm out of there. Yeah.
[00:26:30] Melissa Simpson: I gotta go. I know. I feel like my workout time has also got condensed as you. Yours probably has too with kids and businesses trying to get everything done. And you're like, okay. I need to make this twenty or thirty minutes really, like, work for me. And... But at the same time, you're probably listening to a podcast to try to grow your brain. Like, it's just so much multitasking to get done in that short amount of time. But, yeah, I agree with you.
[00:26:52] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. No. I was laying on the leg press machine today. I had, like, my stocks that I was trading on my phone. Yeah. I had my music playing, but then I also had the market watch on it too. And I was literally, like, pressing on the leg. I'm like, this is not... And I was fat... I didn't eat breakfast. So I was like... And I was, like, fasting. So it's like, how many... Oh, the camera's changing. How many optimized things are really necessary that's actually Yeah. Exactly. Making a difference. Like
[00:27:21] Melissa Simpson: I know. Sometimes multitasking pick can be good. Sometimes you're like, I don't know if anything's getting done. Is anything getting done? You're barely lifting. You're barely, like, trading. Yeah. It's just one of those things that... Finding the balance for sure.
[00:27:34] Dustin Serviss: Have you done any, like, blood test stuff or, like... This is a deep health tangent, but blood or any scans, like, private scans or, like, none... Any of that stuff?
[00:27:43] Melissa Simpson: I haven't. I'm interested to do, like, a private scan. I am vegan, actually, so I'm pretty strict with what I eat, like, generally and try not to eat too much sugar and not drink so much alcohol as well. Yeah. But... Yeah. So, definitely, like, I'll... I went through pregnancy, so you got your blood test, like, all the time. But just generally, I haven't done anything of that yet. But I think as I shift into this... Like, I told you this gear where I wanna really focus on my fitness is definitely something that's on my mind. And, yeah, have you done any of the MRIs or the scans where they do your whole body?
[00:28:16] Dustin Serviss: Yep. Yeah. I did. Yeah. I've done it for a few years, but the blood... And then the last one I did was, like, a gut biome, like, kit
[00:28:25] Melissa Simpson: Oh, cool. Where you
[00:28:26] Dustin Serviss: send a sample away and they analyze and they tell you, like, what all your guts look like, basically, and
[00:28:32] Melissa Simpson: That's true.
[00:28:32] Dustin Serviss: For the food. So it was... That was a game changer for me, and I've done multiple, actually, podcasts on it because just the simple act of... You see something, you're like, I gotta optimize that. You're like, see someone on Instagram. You're like, oh, I need more vitamin e or I need Yeah. Kefir or I need kimchi or... It just never ends. Right? Because it just constantly comes at you. So then you're, like, doing this thing, and you're like, I wonder if it's even helping. And then so, again, I don't wanna go wait on a tangent, but at the same time, like, to know that when it came back and it says, hey.
[00:29:03] Dustin Serviss: Like, you are on a really high protein diet, which I... Which is fine. Yeah. K? Yeah. But you're only, based on your gut biome, utilizing twenty five percent of the protein that you're consuming because your biome is out of whack.
[00:29:17] Melissa Simpson: It was
[00:29:17] Dustin Serviss: like Wow. Man, we buy organic grass fed, grass finished cows. We like... And then You're not getting money. Not getting that. Yeah. Exactly. I like a good deal.
[00:29:26] Melissa Simpson: I'm like Yeah. Exactly. Gotta optimize optimize that blood microbiome. So that means
[00:29:31] Dustin Serviss: making it work. Is working. So that That's it. And then Yeah.
[00:29:35] Melissa Simpson: I'll have to look into that further.
[00:29:36] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. So that was... Again, they're not a they're not a sponsor or anything, but it was called gut check. And
[00:29:41] Melissa Simpson: Okay.
[00:29:42] Dustin Serviss: I actually went and I paid the owner to spend a half hour with me on... They don't do this, but it's all AI generated reports that they send you. But I went back to them and I said, I wanna go through this with you. And so the finale of that is I went to the health food store because people say, oh, you need probiotic. Well Yeah. Probiotics, if you ever research them, there's so many different strains and so many different things. Right? So Yeah. My report came back with twelve different things that I need to balance things out. But when you go to the health food store, you look at each one, it would have two. It...
[00:30:17] Dustin Serviss: But then it would have a whole bunch of other ones.
[00:30:19] Melissa Simpson: Checked out for probiotics, and you're like, okay. So I need all of these.
[00:30:22] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. So the... But the... And then you're gonna be getting the other ones, which are gonna jack those levels when they're already Yep. So Yeah. But when I did find one that was all... Like, almost all of them, I'm missing maybe two out of twelve, and I've got a couple extras. Like, within a couple days, game changer. Mood change.
[00:30:41] Melissa Simpson: Interesting. Like... Wow.
[00:30:42] Dustin Serviss: And I just...
[00:30:43] Melissa Simpson: I believe it. Like, you are what you eat truly. And so if you're not absorbing half the stuff you're eating... Yeah. Something... That makes sense. I will definitely look into that because that interests me. And I did see you had a podcast. I didn't listen to it yet, but about, like, biohacking. Is that something that you do as well?
[00:30:57] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. So... Well, I can't remember which one, like, cold plunges and, like, all that kind of stuff, which Yeah. Like, right now, I will be super honest. It's like I'm on a, like, a trough. I'm doing them, and I get, like, in the fall last year, I was cold punched. No. Like, Whole thirty diet. Hot. It's just like all this stuff. And is it really that much different? Maybe.
[00:31:19] Melissa Simpson: Maybe. I know that there's different... Like, with that, all... Lots of the testing is, like, male oriented. So as, like, a female, you have to take that what it is and weed through it. And I've... There's actually some podcasts that are more, like, women focused for biohacking or even, like, the cold plunging, which is a part of that. Like, it should be a different temperature and, like, a woman shouldn't do a fasted workout versus a man. Like, it would be beneficial for you to do, but it wouldn't be. Like, I should at least eat something before I work out. So just different things because we're made up a little bit differently.
[00:31:49] Melissa Simpson: But, yeah, I think sometimes women just follow whatever has been recommended because if it's good for the masses, it's good. But a lot of the testing is male specific, so something to keep in mind for those women listeners.
[00:32:01] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Well, I hope that comes to fruition of real time testing where Yeah. Because everybody's different. And so even if someone does a study and then post it online, it's, like, hey. Well, this is what worked for me. That might not work for you. Like, your body might be different. So it needs to be, like, blood test, what
[00:32:18] Melissa Simpson: am I
[00:32:18] Dustin Serviss: dealing with, and then it needs to be gut of what am I dealing with. And the next gut of
[00:32:23] Melissa Simpson: Someone might tell you to eat more protein. You're like, I only get twenty five percent of this.
[00:32:27] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. So I gotta pound it in there. Yeah. Yeah. Where can people find more information about what you're up to and how they could maybe utilize your company?
[00:32:37] Melissa Simpson: So definitely my website, which is high class hustle dot c o, or my LinkedIn is available. So you can find me at Melissa Simpson.
[00:32:45] Dustin Serviss: Awesome. Melissa, thanks a lot for coming on to picture wealth.
[00:32:48] Melissa Simpson: Yeah. My pleasure. Thanks, Tessa.