Mylee Star is a Business owner and Life Coach.
If your business could have a mascot, what would it be and why?
Dragon Fly because it’s a symbol of rebirth.
What strategies do you employ to maintain a healthy work-life balance while running your own business?
I take self-care days, self care is not selfish and I do a lot of art. I find art feeds my soul and brings peace to a busy mind.
When faced with unexpected detours on your business path, how do you pivot with grace and resilience, showing fellow women entrepreneurs the way forward?
As women we need to understand we already come from generational trauma, that we need to be aware of our reactions to what is going on around us and if we are being triggered, we need the ability to stop the chain reaction. I am a firm believer that any change we want to see in the world comes from each and everyone of us. Life is going to have obstacles that we all have to overcome although it is how we react that makes the difference. I have six rules I go by in my business:
- Customer service, we are here to serve with grace and a smile, no matter how bad our day may be going, remember one bad review can destroy all our hard work
- Compassion, we do not know what our guest/client is going through so treat them with kindness,
- Caring, as a business owner I care about my clients their comfort is important
- Creativity, as a life coach or educator it is important to provide a safe space to create their own healing path
- Consciously Aware we need to be fully aware of the people and environment around us and how we interact with them,
- Community, it may take a village to raise a child, it takes a community to support the people.
How do you measure the success of your business beyond financial metrics, such as customer satisfaction or community engagement?
I look at money as a tool to help build a better community and help those who live in our community. When I went back to get my degrees, I had already lived a life time as a professional chef, event specialist, along with stage and theater, it was time for something different. I attended a very unique college that allowed me to explore alternative ways to help my educational community so my professors told me I could explore an on campus program that helped those students who lived on campus who had children one day a week (Sunday) to bring their children to us. I put together a small group from my class who wanted to explore this way of teaching and working with children. We developed an art and nature based program to teach puppetry, theater, herbal studies, edible forest foods and how to become involved in a bigger community. I think it is important to lead by example and it’s even more important now than ever before.
Can you share a memorable moment where you witnessed significant growth or transformation in your business, illustrating the impact of your services/products?
I have in the past had people stay with me that needed help making the important changes in their life. Sometimes you are blessed with finding that rare diamond in the rough that needs just a little polishing to shine bright. I was blessed with such a young lady in my life that lived with me for over a year. When she first came to me, she was not in a good place in her life and I had her start drinking Mama Star’s Wellness tea (all herbs) . It helped bring her mind, body, and spirit back into balance and I did a lot of listening holding space for her to heal. She now calls me mama, I married her and her husband, plus her daughter calls me grandma, to me that means more than anything else in the world.
What role do you believe mentorship plays in the success of small businesses, and how have mentors influenced your own entrepreneurial journey?
I believe mentors play an important role throughout our lives both personal and professional, they are our guides through the unknown. In my life I have had a few mentors that were there during the changes in my life. I am a survivor of 40 years of domestic violence starting in my childhood at the age two, just another cog in the generational trauma. My grandmothers were my early mentors in life, they gave me the will power and strength to move forward through the troubled times and I learned my love of food through them from the age of three and half I was baking with my great grandma. Mentors come into your life when you need them the most and sometimes they are not whom you expect. I moved to a Native American Reservation when I was thirteen, I learned so much about energy and using what Mother Earth provides for us, it changed how I viewed healing the mind body and spirit. I was in the hospitality industry for over 35 years, when I started working with at risk youth. When I asked the older teenagers what their goals were one said a lawyer and when the other one said to live to tomorrow that broke my heart because I had been there. It was because of them I decided to go back to school to get my degrees. I had a few mentors in college that made a huge difference in how I viewed the education and psychology aspect of healing. I actually had a professor who was awesome from India who had this deep rich educational program called Multicultural Counseling with psychology, art, meditation practices, oh it was awesome! She only allowed 25 senior college students in, I was blessed that I was chosen. At the end of the year we had our meeting and she said, “You do know you will never be a clinical psychologist, right?” To which I replied, “I don’t want to be one, I am a healer of the mind, body, and spirit, you can’t heal one without healing them all.” To which she replied, “We need more people like you in the world today.” As a healer even I continue to learn and heal myself, being trauma informed is vital to what I do. I had a difficult time breaking the deeper trauma until I met a very special mentor who was a licensed psychiatrist and one of the kindest people in the world, the world a dimmer place when he passed, I still tear up when I think of him. He showed me what true unconditional love was, no judgement when I broke down in tears healing from a traumatic memory, it was because of him I learned more about patience with myself and learned to love myself without judgement and learned forgiveness. It is important to have mentors in our lives and while most of mine were more personal, they directly impacted my choices moving forward with my businesses.
What’s your work all about, and how does it make a difference in the world?
My work is all about creating a global co-op much like this only in physical places around the world where we can create sustainable environments that is on an organic educational business platforms, reflecting that in organic farms places for women to live, learn to heal and create generational wealth for themselves and children through a variety of small businesses that support each other in each different community and perhaps once or twice a year have large gatherings for people to share what they do or sale their art and wares. I do believe in food to table concepts, creating an ecosystem that not only helps us but the plant as well. I believe in recycling furniture, making it into something new and beautiful, rehabbing old houses and getting people off the streets. My work is all about creating co-op housing using old buildings no one wants anymore and creating something new and unique. I believe we need to work together to heal the generational trauma that not only humans but the plant as well. I wrote a holistic guide to help healing from generational complex post traumatic stress through art nature and spiritual philosophies. The book is based on walking the wheel of the seasons with different projects to do to help with the healing process, there are no chapters, this is not your normal book. I am a guide, an educator, healer, and spiritual counselor. In the famous words of the donkey from the movie Shrek, ” I am like an onion with many layers,” only I tell people I am much sweeter, ha! Also one important thing to remember in our journey in our businesses is to always keep a sense of humor and learn to laugh at yourself. Life is too short to be grumpy and down all the time, granted we all have our moments when we are going to have our melt downs, even I do now, just be kind to yourself and keep that sense of humor!
Get in touch with her:
www.linkedin.com/in/mstarhawk
