 Melody
and Kathy come from a close-knit family of 9 children.
Kathy is the oldest girl, complete with all of the leadership
traits that being the oldest typically entails, and Melody one
of the middle children, complete with the maverick qualities
that middle children often possess.
In 2006, artist Melody Ross
hired her older sister, Kathy Wilkins for strategic consulting
for Chatterbox, the worldwide company she had built and desired to get ready for sale. Over the course of the next few
years, they found that they were not only great together as
sisters, but that they were extremely compatible and
complementary in business.
Melody is a wild-minded, free
spirited visionary artist, product designer, and writer; while
Kathy is a skilled strategist, planner, and executor. After working
together for 3 years, with Kathy helping Melody wrap up her
Chatterbox years, they decided it was time to branch off and
make their much-discussed new dreams a reality.
Their combined experience in life, business, and creative
pursuits is the perfect combination needed to pull off the
worldwide adventure they are embarking on.
What are those dreams? Let
Melody and Kathy answer that question...
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Melody Ross
Bio
 Melody Ross knows a thing or two about starting, building,
finishing, and then starting over again. As a madly-in-love wife
of nearly 20 wild rollercoaster years, a super-fun mama of 5
creative children and a world renowned artist and entrepreneur,
Melody has navigated the difficult and very rewarding journey of
building her dreams and her dream life, of losing it all and
recovering beautifully, and of coming out on the other side of
it ready to share what she has learned.
After 12 years of running and being the lead visionary of her
international company, Chatterbox, designing thousands of
products that are worldwide collectors items, and writing more
than 10 books, Melody bravely stepped away to live a new chapter
of artful, joyful, meaningful work that she has always felt
compelled to do, focused on helping others to bravely live their
dream life and find meaning in their stories, joy in their life
purpose, and fun in every moment.
If you asked Melody what being brave means to her:
"When my husband had his traumatic brain injury in 2004, my whole
life was turned upside down. Being brave to me just means doing
what you have to do to hold together what is most important to
you. For me, that meant holding my marriage together against all
odds, holding myself together for my children and letting my
business go when I couldn’t hold that together anymore. I guess
the bravest thing I have ever done is a combination of holding
tight to some things that I loved enough to hold together, and
letting go of other things that I also loved. Being brave to me
has meant making difficult choices that came straight from the
voice of my heart, and listening only to that voice when other
voices had objections. Being brave has meant getting up every
day, whether I want to or not, and making at least one thing in
my life better than it was yesterday. My journey into bravery was a surprise and lasted much longer
than I would have chosen. After a 5 or 6 year stream of tragedy
upon tragedy in our life, I learned so many skills from other
brave women and told myself all along the way that I would pass
those lessons along whenever I could, and also continue to learn
new ones every day. Brave Girls Club is a culmination of all of
my dreams into one. I love to see the meaning in every moment,
experience and encounter with others. I love parties and
gatherings…I love people, I love fun and I love digging deep and
making today better than yesterday….I love the whole colorful,
wild process of life and learning. I love to express myself in a
creative and artistic way, and I love to do this while
surrounded by other people who have similar goals. I love to use
my experiences and skills in life to help others along their own
paths, and I love to learn from others to help me along my own.
We decided to create a community of women that is safe
for sharing dreams, trials, experiences, beautiful
things and ideas. Not only will this be an online
community, but an in-person community, through our
retreats and classes. This is very simply a dream come
true for me. Everything that has happened in my life has
led me to this very place, and I couldn’t be more
thrilled."
Check out Melody's website at
http://www.melodyross.com |
Kathy Wilkins Bio
 Don’t let Kathy’s quiet, smiling demeanor fool you: she can
change in an instant into her superwoman clothes and save the
whole world without anyone ever knowing she did it, which is how
she likes it.
Kathy Wilkins has been happily married for 28 years, and
she and her husband, Kurt, are the parents of 8
incredible children and 4 cherished grandchildren. Kathy is an accomplished musician, having been in
several musical groups, including a rock band from the time she
was a teenager until she needed to retire because of motherhood
. While she
has “retired” from the professional music business, she still
performs often and especially loves instructing and
participating in choirs.
Kathy has successfully started and operated a variety of
businesses and started a consulting business in 2002 to help
other entrepreneurs with her calm, cool, and oh-so-wise demeanor. Through her experiences in running and operating her
own businesses, Kathy acquired a skill and a love for internet
marketing and web development. She designs and writes copy for
many successful websites and internet campaigns, sometimes even
while wearing her superwoman cape.
Kathy is also an accomplished seamstress, gourmet cook, and loves
to plan parties and adventures.
Her first love is a love for family and friends and people in
general. Her strong desire to make a positive difference in the
world is a driving force in all that she does. Brave Girls Club
is an extension of all that she loves and values, making it easy
to put her whole heart into it.
If you asked Kathy what
being brave means to her:
"I remember
being a kid on the high dive and standing on the end of
the diving board with my toes wrapped around the board,
scared out of my wits. After standing there debating
whether I should climb back down the ladder, I would
just close my eyes and JUMP…and soon I’d be plunging
into the coolness, feeling the bubbling water rush
around my body, hearing the roar in my ears. It’s one of
the best feelings, isn’t it? That’s what being brave
feels like to me…it’s jumping.
Being brave might be just getting out of bed and putting
one foot in front of the other. Brave might be learning
a new skill or starting a new business or starting over
later in life when you thought the struggling would be
over. Brave is caring for elderly parents with love and
patience and self-sacrifice. Brave is doing HARD things
with grace and dignity and growth and joy and yes, even
with humor. Brave is figuring out what is most important
to you, and then being fiercely protective of that in
your life. Brave is turning your back on what the world
tells you is most important and turning your heart
toward what you know is really important. Brave is doing
the right thing. Brave is having the courage to be your
100% authentic self.
Why is Brave Girls Club my dream come true? I love good
people, and I’m so inspired by other peoples’ lives and
their stories and their experiences. It’s a dream come
true to work with my sister – we have so much fun
together! She has such amazing creativity and talent,
and this incredible joy and passion for life! I’ve
watched her be tremendously brave these past few years,
and I know that she has a very unique and special
understanding of suffering and adversity and a yearning
to help other women know how strong they really are, and
that they are not alone in their struggles. It feels
great to be part of something that our family can create
together and that I believe in so
strongly." |
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