We were lucky to catch up with Melissa Marshall recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Melissa with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
My work ethic comes from my mother and her family for sure. Even as young children my brothers, cousins and I learned that we needed to put in the work from helping canning tomato sauce as well as making sausage in our grandparents basement to watching our grandmother as a seamstress, to my mother working hard as an LPN and eventually going back to school for her RN in nursing while working full time and raising 3 children. She always should us that you have to work for what you want, that there are no hand outs. I am so grateful that I learned these and many more lessons so early in life.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Accentuate the Positive is a dream I have started. I wanted to not only create my own business, I wanted to do something to make a difference. I am excited about what we are creating because I truly feel we could make a positive impact on girls and women all over the world. Our mission is to empower and inspire girls of all ages, to help them build self confidence and spread positivity. How do we do that you ask? Right now it is simple we create, what we hope our impactful messages that we share with fun designs on comfortable T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Tank tops and more. Currently we are an online shop as well as doing local DMV vendor events but the sky is the limit for us and our goal is to be in our own retail space.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The most importand quality would be to learn to fail forward, don’t take the disappointments as signs to quit but as signs to improve upon. You must be resilient. I am not sure what specific skills are better then others, but the willingness to learn new skills to try out ones you were not sure may work knowing they may not and you are back to square one is okay. I cannot tell you how many things I have tried, failed, failed again, but eventually learned to make better in this journey. Self and business development is a must as well. I try to listen to an audio book on other business owners, or pod casts, as well as read a self development book at the same time.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I would love to collaborate with other businesses for sure. I would really love to spotlight small, local business owners, especially small women owned businesses that would work well with our mission to empower and inspire. I think collaborations are a great way to show that we can work together to build strong businesses. If another business would like to collaborate please reach out to me either through social media or by email at [email protected].
Contact Info:
- Website: https://accentuatethepositive.shop/
- Instagram: @accentthepositive
- Facebook: @accentpositive123
- Twitter: @melissamarshall
- Yelp: Accentuate the Positive
