We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Missy Carroll a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Missy, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Confidence and self-esteem is a journey, isn’t it? Some days are better than others but I do believe my baseline confidence and self-esteem is likely higher than most. I credit this to my participation and success in youth sports. From a very early age, I was super competitive. Maybe because I have an older brother who never let me have anything easily! But I was always competing, with him, with teammates, and ultimately with myself, always striving to be the best or at the very least, a better version of myself every day.
My entrance into organized sports came when I was 5 years old, playing catch with some other kids while my older brother was at his baseball game. I wasn’t old enough to play softball yet (the starting age was 8), but the softball coaches saw me throw and said I could play on their team as a 5 year old. At the age of 13, I started playing ice hockey only because my older brother played and I wanted to do everything he did. There were no girl’s team at that time in the early 90s, so I played on the boy’s team. My parents told me “you can play, but you better skate fast with your head up so you don’t get killed” because they said that using the excuse “but I’m a girl” was not an option. Challenge accepted. Playing with teenage boys translated well as I tried out for the Boston College Division I women’s hockey team. I’ll never forget the coach saying in his thick Boston accent, “who the hell is this kid from Carolina?”
A very successful sports career ended on a sweet note with me being voted Captain by my teammates my senior year of the very team that I “walked on” to as a freshman. It’s a cinderella story actually, but nothing was EVER given to me. I worked and scrapped and devoted myself to always being a better version of myself each and every day and the confidence that a successful sports career continues to fuel my fearlessness, my leadership, and my dreams as a small business owner.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
As a pediatric nurse for 20 years, I knew that bedside nursing had a shelf life. After starting an online store to teach myself the ins and outs of owning a business, during Covid, I decided that a brick and mortar clothing boutique was really what I wanted in my heart. Everything fell into place logistically and it all felt really natural and easy – the timing, the location, the excitement – so I knew it was within my reach.
The idea of Half Past Three started in my heart before I even could put words to it. When my daughter was a newborn, and never ever ever slept through the night (now she’s a teenager and could sleep til noon every day, ironically), I found myself awake and exhausted with her every, single, night. My husband would try to help, but she really only wanted me, as long as I was holding her, she was completely content.
I found myself wishing those long nights away, wanting her to just be old enough to sleep through the night, longing for those sleepless nights to end. I had an epiphany one night as I walked the halls and held her at 3:30am – I call it a God moment for sure. A feeling washed all over me helping me to realize that as I was wishing away these middle of the night hours, I was also missing out on some very precious, very sweet bonding time with my daughter. I’ll never forget thinking, “soon enough she’ll be in Kindergarten, then high school, then college and I’m sure I would give ANYTHING to have this time back with her – just the two of us, snuggled and cozy, alone while the rest of the world sleeps” Thank God for that perspective because it completely shifted my feelings toward those middle of the night wake ups, as I was really exhausted and having some really lonely, dark thoughts. It completely shifted my view on motherhood, it probably saved my marriage, and more importantly, it gave me a constant insight to live in the moment. From that moment I decided that we weren’t going to think of those middle of the night wake ups (ALWAYS awake at 3:30am) as dark and lonely, I was shifting my perspective and thinking positively, It wasn’t 3;30 anymore, I had to move on from that lonely hour so I began calling it half past three and it was all love and light and power of the sisterhood!
When I was thinking of a name for my boutique, I wanted to make sure the name was special and thoughtful. The most meaningful moment of my life, came at 3:30am when I was dark and lonely and that moment lives within me always. I knew it had to be Half Past Three.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The one quality that continues to amaze me is AUDACITY! I had the audacity of being barely 5 years old and playing on a softball team of 8 year olds. I had the audacity of thinking I could be the only girl on the boy’s hockey team. I had the audacity to try out and attempt to walk on a Division I hockey team. I had the audacity to switch careers at 40 years old, and I continue to have the audacity of not having. a business background or a fashion background and opening a very successful boutique that’s a place where women come for cute clothes, but stay for the total vibe and sisterhood of it all,
I would encourage any new business owner or anyone wanting to try something new to have the total AUDACITY to believe that it will work out, that you can do it, that you’ll succeed.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents are actual walking angels on this earth! They have supported me in every single thing I’ve ever done. They’ve given me advice, perspective, room to grow, the fearlessness needed to know that I could always come back home, the ideas that if not me, then who?
They are absolutely, without a doubt, no questions about it, my biggest cheerleaders. Their constant support has been and continues to be a literal springboard that launches me forward on those days when I feel like I may not have what it takes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.halfpastthreeclothing.com
- Instagram: @halfpastthreeclothing
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