Meet Reesy Neff

 

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Reesy Neff. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Reesy, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

As I ponder this question, I wonder a little if I was just born with it. And then I think no, not born with it. While I believe we are born with certain personality characteristics, I do not believe optimism to be one of those. At least not for me. For me, I believe my answer could be a bit surprising for some as I don’t believe it’s what most would expect. I would say my optimism has come from a mixture of things. Going through challenging events in my life, enduring things that were hard, sometimes it was a choice or necessity and quite often it was being a survivor. I am quite sure most people would not associate my answer to the word optimism.

To those that would say that doesn’t make sense. I would say going through some of the hardest parts of your life and surviving them with lessons learned, a stronger resolution, an overall better understanding of yourself and with more hope in your heart is quite optimistic. Perhaps I put hope and optimism together. There were times in my life, if I would have allowed myself to believe there was no hope, I am not sure I would be here today.

I grew up in a dysfunctional family, parents abusing alcohol and prescription drugs. My father could not keep a job. The pattern was always the same. He would get a job. Then he would start to complain, usually about something he felt he was smarter at than his supervisor. Then would come the calling in sick. And eventually, he would either walk off the job or be fired. Meanwhile, my mother was working as a cook in restaurant and borrowing money from friends and family. I started working as soon as the state of North Carolina would allow, 15 ½ . I got a job at McDonalds. The money I made was not for me. I worked to help keep the lights on at home. My senior year in high school, I would open at McDonalds at 5:00 in the morning, go to school, then cheerleading practice and then back to work at McDonalds. Do not feel sorry for me though. I developed a strong work ethic and began developing leadership skills.

I have been married three times. I often say the first one didn’t count because it was less than a year and I was only 19. The second one we have to count since it lasted for almost ten years. That being said, I stayed longer because I was already ashamed of one divorce and now there would be two. Both of these relationships were toxic and I endured both physical and mental abuse with them both. My third marriage is to a man I have waited for my whole life, my soulmate. He was and still is amazing. He also had and still has four children that I love dearly. I really couldn’t imagine loving them more had I been the one to birth them. Together, we endured a lot of life”s challenges. We had two children go through rehab. There has been three totaled cars. I had 7 surgeries in less than 10 years with one of them almost killing me. And last but not least I have had what I would call a nervous breakdown and yet, here I am today, a business owner, author, public speaker, living a great life. Through these things I had to be optimistic. I learned how to turn a frown upside down. I learned that I can do hard things and be better for it. I learned some of the best things are worth the wait and the weight you sometimes have to carry. I am and will always be an optimistic cheerleader cheering for myself, my family, my friends and hope of a beautiful future.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I always say my dream job is to be a famous motivational speaker. In the meantime, I am helping to save the planet by recycling e-waste. I am blessed to say that three years after publishing my first book, Stripping Off the Labels, I “finally” started to speak in front of larger audiences and my company is doing great recycling end-of-life IT equipment. The famous part hasn’t happened yet although my granddaughter tells people I am. If she thinks I am famous, well then I think I am.

I own a company, Omega Ecycles, that as mentioned above recycles end-of-life IT equipment for businesses. My team will come to your location pickup your end-of-life IT equipment, bring it back to our warehouse, remove any asset identification tags as well as all the memory aka hard drives, solid-state drives. We bar code scan the serial numbers off of the drives to create a Certificate of Destruction. We then shred the drives. We recycle the rest and issue you a Certificate of recycling. We do all of this at zero cost to our clients. We are HIPAA compliant. We are 100% woman owned. And most importantly, we have a zero landfill policy. We are able to provide these services because we partner with larger Certified recyclers that purchase these items from us in very large quantities. I absolutely love what we do. Statistically speaking, only 17% of all e-waste is recycled and yet it fills 70% of our landfills. In addition, IBM commissions a study every year on the average cost of one data breach. That number in 2023 was 4.45 million dollars. We not only help to make our planet a greener place, we protect one of our client’s most precious assets, their confidential information.

Also, as mentioned above I am a published author. I wrote my first book in 2021 called Stripping Off the Labels. It is a memoir, however, it is really about not allowing others, your past and sometimes yourself tell you what you can or cannot do in this life. We cannot let other define who we are.

One would perhaps not necessarily think recycling, a book called Stripping Off the Label and speaking about these subjects would go together. However, they actually fit perfectly as I have had to recycle many labels in my lifetime.

I never thought I would be doing all of these things after the age of 50. Yet, here I am. I love my business. And I especially love making a difference in someone’s life by inspiring them to know they are not alone and that many things are possible if you do not let the world tell they are not.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

There are many., what some would call, “usual” answers to this question. Things such as grit, determination, perserverance, etc. And yes, these are all very important to work on…I say work on as I don’t believe we master them. At least I haven’t. As I look back on my life, I think of two different things. First, I do believe there are some personality traits that we are born with. As an example, I have always been determined. At the ripe old age of 7, I planned and almost achieve a great breakout of daycare as I was determined to show my parents how much I disliked it, believing, if they knew this, I would no longer have to go. I even convinced a friend to go along with my plan. We met at the water fountain in the hall at a certain time and we were going to walk to her mother’s office which was in my mind very close to the daycare. We made it all the way to the doors and started to open them…remember this was the 70’s so they would have not been locked. At the last minute, we lost our nerve. I do believe I was absolutely born with determination. That being said, if you do not have such quality and want and/or need it, work on. However, I believe it’s important to be self-aware of what you are good at and really go after those areas. Many studies have proven you will find more success and happiness if you spend the majority of your time doing the things you are naturally good at.

Then there is the advice shared with me by my mentors. Remember though, advice is only as good if you utilize it. One of the best pieces of advice I was given was to feel the fear and do it anyway. I have done this many times in my life. Most of the time, it turns out great. And certainly, I would not be where I am today had I not done that. However, be prepared, there can be some bumps in the road. If you have a dream and have some fear about that dream, feel the fear and do it anyway. I promise you won’t regret it. At least most of the time. Afterall, no advice is perfect right?

The very best advice I have to give is to do whatever you can to stay focused on positives when things are not necessarily going as you hope. The battle is always in the mind. We get what we focus on. So do your best to turn those frowns upside down and find the positive in all things. I have found even in failure, there are positive things that can occur.

If you are looking to improve in some areas of your life, I highly recommend finding a mentor. And by mentor, I mean someone you know, like and trust as well as someone that has been through similar things as you. And ask for help. Most people are willing to give because undoubtedly, they have been given that same mentorship in their lifetime.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I know the question is book, singular, however, i have learned something very valuable from every book I have read from Malcom Gladwell. I really enjoy how he explains a concept with statistics, data, etc. in such a way that it is easy to understand and visualize. It is also easy to apply to your day-to-day life. My first Malcom Gladwell book was the Tipping Point. This book really helped me to understand the importance of not giving up. As he says, we are ofen just one prayer, attempt, belief, etc. away from something magical happening. So don’t give up when it’s about to happen.

My second favorite Malcolm Gladwell books is his David and Goliath wherein he describes how a strength can be a weakness and a weakness can be a strength. This can be hugely valuable to anyone that believes hardships can’t be turned into positives. Take it from someone who has had many hardships. And most of those hardships taught me great lessons and made me better at many things.

I highly recommend his books to everyone.

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Laura Boyd Photography

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