How to Slow Down and Live

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Melissa Brumm – Slow Life Revolution

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Response to overwhelming connectivity, advocating for relaxation.
03:58 Modern overwhelm: online, emails, constant mental clutter.
08:34 Questioning the need for social media validation.
10:51 Balanced perspective on technology and self-worth.
14:31 Encourage interaction instead of phone distractions.
17:56 Questioning the need for constant entertainment.
21:06 Unexpected journey from joke to professional singing.
22:50 Humorous performances featuring Sunny and Cher impersonations.
26:29 Livestreaming singing and dancing from bedroom setup.
29:55 Feeling safe in Halloween costume, gaining confidence.
35:05 Preference for various music acts and impersonations.
35:48 Admiration and amusement for impressive skills.
41:44 Connecting with nature through hands-on activities.
43:28 Certified yoga instructor planning meditation retreats.
47:22 Introduced to playing cello out of obligation.
51:30 Mechanic has expensive equipment but no profit.
52:18 Business program showcasing owner’s struggles and successes.

Podcast Transcription:

Melissa Brumm [00:00:00]:
There is something to, like, horticulture therapy of, like, getting your hands dirty, working with your hands to, like, get you out of that mental, like, yeah. Just being, like, oh, I need to get that thing done. And you respond to that person. It’s just, like, no. Just to put your hands in some dirt.

James Kademan [00:00:16]:
You have found Authentic Business Adventures, a business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We’re locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. And today, we’re welcoming slash preparing to learn from Melissa Brum, the founder of Slow Life Revolution. So Melissa, how is it going today?

Melissa Brumm [00:00:42]:
It’s great.

James Kademan [00:00:43]:
It’s good. Just fine.

Melissa Brumm [00:00:46]:
It’s good. Yeah. Alright. It’s really stressful, you know, it’s a little stress stressful time right now, but

James Kademan [00:00:50]:
Because of being on the show? Yeah. I’m sorry. No. So other just stuff going on.

Melissa Brumm [00:00:56]:
Just life, you know. Yeah. Alright. All the different things I got going on in my head, which you’ll Yeah. Right. We’re about

James Kademan [00:01:02]:
to crack that can right open here. Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:01:04]:
How are you?

James Kademan [00:01:05]:
I’m doing tip top. Good. I got a super awesome guest in the studio here today, so I can’t go wrong.

Melissa Brumm [00:01:10]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:11]:
Yeah. I have, I believe that the world’s a little bit on fire with because it’s beginning of the month and all that kind of stuff. So in our world, that’s a big deal. Right. So but I got employees taking care of it.

Melissa Brumm [00:01:21]:
So Okay. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:22]:
It’s all I guess we’ll find out in an hour. Right? Is everything cool? Yeah. Anyway, so we got this time now. We just shut off the phone and chat.

Melissa Brumm [00:01:31]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:01:31]:
It’s all good. So tell us, what is slow life revolution?

Melissa Brumm [00:01:35]:
Well, you just brought up shutting off the phone. That’s essentially what it’s about. So, my yes. Slow life revolution kinda started as this way of like as a reaction to how connected everyone is and how overwhelming that can be. And, like, we’re all in each other’s business at all the times and everyone is expected to respond to text and respond to messages and post things and like and comments and can just be like way too much. And Mhmm. So slow life revolution was my way of trying to turn the notifications off on your phone and just relax. And remember what life was like before we had cell phones because some people don’t remember that, but a lot of people can remember that time, you know.

Melissa Brumm [00:02:22]:
Oh, yeah.

James Kademan [00:02:23]:
When we

Melissa Brumm [00:02:23]:
just had like the phone on the wall and you could only answer it when you were home and otherwise you and like you could only meet people at a certain time. And how kind of freeing that was in a way. So It

James Kademan [00:02:35]:
was liberating. Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:02:36]:
Right. I remember.

James Kademan [00:02:37]:
Like you

Melissa Brumm [00:02:37]:
were like, I’m meeting this person at this time and if they don’t show up in 10 minutes, I guess they forgot and I’m gonna leave or whatever. Anyway, so that’s what Slow Life Revolution kind of is. It’s my life coaching business where I teach people how to get out of the rat race and the overwhelm that happens in their head because of being over connected on the Internet all the time.

James Kademan [00:02:59]:
Alright. So the people that come to you, are they coming to you saying I’m frazzled or, pissed at the social media thing or my spouse or my partner or whatever is telling me that I don’t ever look up from the phone or when are they coming to you?

Melissa Brumm [00:03:15]:
That’s funny. They sometimes they’ll say, like, my spouse or my kids are on their phone too much. Like, they’ll

James Kademan [00:03:21]:
Oh, I’d say it’s not it’s not them.

Melissa Brumm [00:03:23]:
It’s not my problem. It’s the how do I help them get off their phones? And I’m like, well, you have to show them how to do it.

James Kademan [00:03:30]:
I love it by watching you.

Melissa Brumm [00:03:31]:
Yes. Yeah. So it’s that or it can be people who are just like, I don’t know how to, like, they’re overwhelmed with their kitchen or their closet strangely. It it would just be, like, the clutter that happens digitally expands into your real life, you know. So it’d be like, how do I not feel so overwhelmed about all the clothes that are on the floor? You know, like, strangely, that’s kind of what comes up even though

James Kademan [00:03:57]:
Oh, wow.

Melissa Brumm [00:03:58]:
But it can tie back to that, like, oh, I’m also overwhelmed because of all this stuff around me, but also the mental stuff that happens online and all the emails I have to, you know, all these stuff that we didn’t really have 20, 30 years ago. Mhmm. I guess it was more like papers. So the emails are like letters and stuff, but so there still was stuff to overwhelm you, but that’s kind of yeah. It’ll be people overwhelmed in some capacity of their life.

James Kademan [00:04:27]:
Got it. Yeah. I think of all the different channels for communication. Yeah. And whatever, 30 years ago ish, whatever, you had phone or you just maybe a letter. Yeah. Or you would actually go to someone’s front door. A little fax.

James Kademan [00:04:40]:
Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:04:40]:
Maybe a pager.

James Kademan [00:04:42]:
Sure. Yeah. Go on.

Melissa Brumm [00:04:43]:
And don’t remember how those were though? Mhmm. It just be like beat someone’s pager would go off in like a quiet orchestra concert or something.

James Kademan [00:04:50]:
Mhmm. Like,

Melissa Brumm [00:04:52]:
Yeah. And now it’s like everyone’s like

James Kademan [00:04:54]:
Right. It’s all phones.

Melissa Brumm [00:04:55]:
Taking pictures of stuff all the time.

James Kademan [00:04:57]:
I do not live for the moment. Yeah. I live for this I get to watch this again on the 4 inch screen.

Melissa Brumm [00:05:01]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:05:02]:
Sometime maybe never later.

Melissa Brumm [00:05:03]:
Yeah. I think people don’t really realize it either that they’re doing it. Like, I do it too. Like, I’m gonna show them, like, oh, I wanna remember this, but then you’re not quite living in the moment. So

James Kademan [00:05:13]:
Yeah. You know what’s interesting? I’ve caught myself where when I go to a concert now, I take a picture, maybe 2 just to remember just to trigger my memory.

Melissa Brumm [00:05:22]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:05:23]:
But I have never I don’t believe I’ve ever recorded a concert, Maybe my kids concert or something like that. But no no concert where you see people trying to hold the phone the entire time. Right. Like, that seems crazy annoying Yeah. For you, for everyone around you, and just I mean, you paid money for this ticket to experience the live music. If you want a recording, there’s probably an album or a website you can get it from.

Melissa Brumm [00:05:47]:
Exactly. Go watch Taylor Swift’s whole show.

James Kademan [00:05:50]:
Right? Someone else recorded it, and their camera’s way better than yours.

Melissa Brumm [00:05:54]:
Exactly. Yeah. I’ll, like, catch myself, especially, like, at a show where I’m, like, this is my favorite song. And I’ll be, like, okay. I’ll, like, record a different and, like, I’ll try to be in this moment.

James Kademan [00:06:05]:
Oh, nice.

Melissa Brumm [00:06:06]:
But I wasn’t I was not always like

James Kademan [00:06:08]:
that. Record the whole thing.

Melissa Brumm [00:06:10]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:06:10]:
You know, I wonder. I like listening to live music. Mhmm. And sometimes you’ll catch something on YouTube or something like that. It’s interesting because it’ll be somebody else’s recording, and you hear more of the crowd. Yeah. The drunk stoned crowd around the musician rather than the musician. Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:06:27]:
I’m like, oh, that’s lame. Right. So no. Yeah. That is cool.

Melissa Brumm [00:06:31]:
But what you said about just taking a picture to remember the concert. Mhmm. That’s kinda nice if you like go back in your pictures, you’re like, oh yeah, I did that that day, but and then you put your phone away for the rest of the concert. You’re like, okay, I remember this. Mhmm. And now I’m gonna like just enjoy it.

James Kademan [00:06:45]:
I need a hand to hold my beer and tell me to jump around the screen a little bit.

Melissa Brumm [00:06:49]:
Yeah. Right.

James Kademan [00:06:50]:
I don’t feel like I need all hands occupied Mhmm.

Melissa Brumm [00:06:53]:
During

James Kademan [00:06:53]:
the concert. You’re trying to enjoy stuff like that, but Yeah. I know that I’m in the minority because you look around and apparently everyone’s trying to record it forever. Yeah. So and I don’t I always kinda I don’t know. Maybe I’m just old. I always wonder what is the goal? Because I think of the people that back in the day had the video camcorder.

Melissa Brumm [00:07:12]:
Yeah. Those huge things.

James Kademan [00:07:13]:
Yeah. When are you gonna watch this again?

Melissa Brumm [00:07:16]:
Yeah. I know. And who really looks at that stuff?

James Kademan [00:07:18]:
I don’t I don’t anyone. Right?

Melissa Brumm [00:07:20]:
Like, yeah. I have, like, a lot of home movies from the past and it’s like, we never go back and look at that. But then you look back at like, something a month ago, 20 times and

James Kademan [00:07:29]:
it’s Right.

Melissa Brumm [00:07:29]:
Not as good as it’s not a good snapshot of the whole your whole life. I don’t know. Yeah. It’s

James Kademan [00:07:36]:
So, have you ever gone back and actually watched start to finish a concert that you recorded?

Melissa Brumm [00:07:41]:
No. I’ll take, like, a clip of, like, a minute or 2 of a song. And if it gets to 2 minutes, it’s like, I it’s like my attention span is so short. I’m like, if it’s over 60 seconds, I’m not gonna watch it again. Alright. But just like give me a little chunk of it and I’m like, oh, yeah. That, like, takes me back to that moment. But Sure.

James Kademan [00:08:00]:
Present podcast accepted here. Right?

Melissa Brumm [00:08:01]:
Yes. I know.

James Kademan [00:08:03]:
Little bit longer. It’s all good.

Melissa Brumm [00:08:04]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:08:04]:
So you was this a problem that you felt inside, figured it out, and then you realized that other people have that same issue?

Melissa Brumm [00:08:11]:
Yeah. Kind yeah. It kinda did stem from from that. It kinda stemmed from covid essentially. Oh. When we all had to stop for a while and I was like, oh my gosh. I was so overwhelmed with work and things I wasn’t even thinking about and I was like, go ahead. Like, it felt like a moment where we all like, looked up from what we were doing.

Melissa Brumm [00:08:34]:
And we’re like, what? And that’s what it felt like to me where it was like, why am I spending why am I like worried about all this stuff I’m spending time worrying about? Or why am I, you know like killing myself over, like, making different posts on social media for different jobs or for myself to show what I’m doing. And I was like, I don’t really wanna I don’t wanna do that and, like, I don’t wanna remember when I didn’t have to, like, show what I was doing to everyone and we would get together for coffee and then I would tell you what I have been doing.

James Kademan [00:09:05]:
Right.

Melissa Brumm [00:09:06]:
Instead of, like, now it’s, like, you can post something and then someone is, like, oh I saw you post that thing. How was the thing? And that’s where your conversation starts or, you know, they don’t even have to talk to you because they’re like, oh I know what you’re doing. I see it on Facebook. I don’t need

James Kademan [00:09:21]:
like Like to

Melissa Brumm [00:09:22]:
meet up with you?

James Kademan [00:09:23]:
I don’t

Melissa Brumm [00:09:23]:
need a meet up with you. Sure. Yeah. So it’s kind of yeah. It kind of started during COVID when I was feeling kind of overwhelmed about, about the amount of work I was doing. And I I do work in social media management. So for a couple different, Facebook and Instagram accounts. So that was always when I first started doing that.

Melissa Brumm [00:09:44]:
I had no separation from it where I was like Uh-huh. My work is this what I’m portraying on social media. And if it doesn’t get likes, that means I’m doing a bad job. That means my worth as a worker and, like, to get paid or whatever. It was, like, low, like, bad. Interesting. So I couldn’t it was working in that field. I took, like, likes personally kind of.

James Kademan [00:10:10]:
Personally, like, the heart.

Melissa Brumm [00:10:11]:
Yeah. Yeah. And I know I think other people do this too. But, that’s what I was noticing with myself. And then I would take it yeah. I just took it way too personally. And I was like, I need to step back from this.

James Kademan [00:10:24]:
Like, this

Melissa Brumm [00:10:25]:
is not reality, you know. And so and I’ve noticed other people need help in different ways. Not always that way, but in different ways where they’re too connected or they’re like, I wish I didn’t have to respond to texts, like, right when they come in. And I’m like, did you know you don’t have to? There’s so No one is like forcing you to do that. No.

James Kademan [00:10:44]:
No one ever texts an ambulance. Right? Yeah. But you shouldn’t.

Melissa Brumm [00:10:48]:
No. Right.

James Kademan [00:10:49]:
Thumbs up comes by.

Melissa Brumm [00:10:51]:
So so yeah. That’s kinda how how it started. And I just wanted this kinda it’s not like I wanna reject technology. Like, there’s definitely good things to social media and all kinds of technology. I love email. It gets things done so much faster than Mhmm. James or letters or anything else. So, it’s just like not taking it so personally and not being like all my worth is related to how quick I can respond to someone or how much work I get done or how many likes I get.

Melissa Brumm [00:11:21]:
Like, that’s like, no, it’s not and let’s reframe that.

James Kademan [00:11:24]:
Yeah. You know what’s interesting? I don’t post a ton on social media, say for this podcast Mhmm. And then some crazy employee stories.

Melissa Brumm [00:11:33]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:11:33]:
Just to me, they’re entertaining.

Melissa Brumm [00:11:34]:
I wanna hear some of those.

James Kademan [00:11:36]:
They’re entertaining, and I don’t know what else to do with that story Mhmm. Other than just throw it out to my crew. Because I know a lot of them are business owners as well, and they’re going through the same stuff.

Melissa Brumm [00:11:45]:
Yeah. Right.

James Kademan [00:11:46]:
So it’s interesting because I don’t pay attention to who likes it or whatever. I guess if they comment on it, I’ll comment back. But Mhmm. Most of the time, I’m just, like, throw it up there. Yeah. And it’s just out in the ether. Mhmm. And it’s interesting because I’ll meet up with someone, and they’re like, oh my god, James.

James Kademan [00:12:00]:
Those employee posts. And I’m like, oh, yeah. I forgot about that one. Yeah. It’s interesting. So that’s cool. But I suppose if you’re throwing stuff up there where you’re you’re feeling your identity with it

Melissa Brumm [00:12:14]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:12:14]:
Then there may be a problem Right. On your end.

Melissa Brumm [00:12:17]:
Yes. Exactly. And now I’m more like that where I’m just like, oh, I want someone to like, maybe someone would get something out of this. Yeah. Whatever. Maybe someone wants to see this picture. And I’m not like, going back to check the likes a day later, like, before I go to sleep, you know. Mhmm.

Melissa Brumm [00:12:31]:
Because yeah. It can, like, take over your life if you get really too attached

James Kademan [00:12:35]:
to it. Second. So you would check how many likes before you go to bed?

Melissa Brumm [00:12:38]:
I would check social media. I’d be like, oh, I didn’t post enough or I didn’t post enough on the my stories or whatever and yeah. I would I would just be like, oh, I have to like add some extra stuff. Wow. I would post extra things to feel better about myself. Alright. Isn’t that interesting?

James Kademan [00:12:55]:
That’s bizarre. Yeah. I mean, to me, I’m just I’m just clearly older than social media, I guess, because I’m just like, that’s weird.

Melissa Brumm [00:13:04]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:13:04]:
But then there’s a lot of other people that I see

Melissa Brumm [00:13:07]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:13:07]:
But that’s their game. So their game.

Melissa Brumm [00:13:09]:
I know. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:13:10]:
I was, so I had to drop something off at this, junior high, middle school, whatever. It’s much as 7th and 8th graders. Early in the morning, and, apparently, they don’t let them into school right away. So they have to hang out in the cafeteria until the bell rings.

Melissa Brumm [00:13:24]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:13:24]:
So I’m walking what I learned was the wrong direction. I’m trying to get out of the building. Yeah. The bell rings, and there’s this mass herd of, like, Simba and all the yaks or whatever in the ranking. But it was quiet. Hundreds of kids, and they’re all looking at their phone.

Melissa Brumm [00:13:42]:
Oh.

James Kademan [00:13:43]:
And so I stood by this pillar. Right? It was my little tree, my little symbol tree. And I’m looking around, and I’m like, this is weird. Who are you talking to or about on your phone that is not just next to your shoulder? Right. Right? You’re in 7th, 8th grade. Like, your circle is pretty small.

Melissa Brumm [00:14:01]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:14:01]:
And then I see this kid literally run into the pillar. Boom. Right? He’s on his phone, and apparently, he wasn’t looking, runs into the pillar. Nobody says a thing, and he just curves around, doesn’t look up, and keeps moving. It was just like he was water. Yeah. It was just one of those

Melissa Brumm [00:14:21]:
painting a rock.

James Kademan [00:14:22]:
Yeah. Okay. It’s one of the it was like an unintentional social experiment. I’m like, well, this is weird. So weird.

Melissa Brumm [00:14:30]:
Yeah. Sound like you’re a

James Kademan [00:14:31]:
guy, there’s girls around you. Wouldn’t you want to chat them up up or vice versa? Mhmm. Or even just your circle of friends, wouldn’t you wanna say, like, hey, how’s it going? Right. Instead of, I don’t maybe they’re texting each other, maybe they’re on social media, maybe they’re not even talking or watching whatever Mhmm. That’s anywhere around them. I have no idea what they’re looking at on their phone.

Melissa Brumm [00:14:52]:
That’s so bizarre. That it’s totally quiet. And I think of a It was bizarre. Whole hallway. It’s like loud. So loud.

James Kademan [00:14:59]:
Like Chained paper or a plane?

Melissa Brumm [00:15:01]:
Throwing stuff. Yeah. Like it reminded me the first

James Kademan [00:15:04]:
time I did a I don’t remember if it was a 5 k or a 10 k, and it was quiet. Because I guess people run with their headphones in

Melissa Brumm [00:15:12]:
Oh.

James Kademan [00:15:12]:
And I I don’t. Yeah. So there’s this guy that I knew that I saw, and I was like, hey, Joe. And he’s like, hey, James. I’m listening to a podcast. It’s like, okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:15:23]:
Don’t talk to me.

James Kademan [00:15:24]:
So there’s hundreds of people, and all you hear is footsteps like it’s some army or something like that. So luckily, they weren’t on their phone. They’re hustling or whatever. Sure. But it reminded me of the same thing where you’re, like, you’re surrounded by people. Yeah. We’re social creatures. Shouldn’t we be yapping?

Melissa Brumm [00:15:38]:
Yeah. But I know. They don’t even know yapping. Yeah. Definitely. So Yeah. I don’t know. Do you remember that movie, Her, that came out like 10 I

James Kademan [00:15:45]:
never watched it. Okay. But I heard of it.

Melissa Brumm [00:15:47]:
There’s like scenes like that, but but everyone is talking to someone in their ear. That was the thing. It was like earbuds before earbuds were a thing. Yeah. And they’re all, like, chatting to someone. I don’t like, who knows? Like, they’re friends. So they’re talking, but they’re not talking to each other. It’s, like, so bizarre.

Melissa Brumm [00:16:03]:
Like, they’re all everyone is talking in this crowd, but no one is engaged. No one is looking at each other.

James Kademan [00:16:09]:
Funny.

Melissa Brumm [00:16:10]:
But it it’s in the same way now. It’s just like texting or Yeah. Whatever. Listening to someone talk to you on a podcast or Mhmm. Whatever. And, yeah, that movie was nuts. Alright.

James Kademan [00:16:20]:
I’ll have to check that out. You a little freaked out?

Melissa Brumm [00:16:23]:
It’s a little like Yeah. At the time, it like I was like, oh my god. Would this really be reality someday? And it’s kind

James Kademan [00:16:30]:
of It’s slowly learned.

Melissa Brumm [00:16:32]:
I know.

James Kademan [00:16:33]:
Oh, that’s funny. I’m watching the matrix. I’m curious about that as well.

Melissa Brumm [00:16:36]:
Yeah. It’s all good. I wonder what kids experiences are though with phones. I don’t know like and with like being over connected because they don’t know a different way

James Kademan [00:16:46]:
Mhmm.

Melissa Brumm [00:16:46]:
Of living, you know. So like, what is what’s going on in their heads and what what are they thinking?

James Kademan [00:16:52]:
Well, you used to just go to the park and play. Whoever showed up showed up.

Melissa Brumm [00:16:56]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:16:56]:
And that was just

Melissa Brumm [00:16:57]:
Or like go knock on yeah. Go knock on your neighbor’s door and be like, do I come out and Yeah. And now it’s like, you go On

James Kademan [00:17:04]:
the schedule?

Melissa Brumm [00:17:04]:
You play video games by yourself. You talk to someone, which is still social. I don’t

James Kademan [00:17:09]:
know. Bizarre.

Melissa Brumm [00:17:11]:
Yeah. You should you should do more social experience

James Kademan [00:17:14]:
experiments like that. I’m afraid to go to schools now. Yeah. So afraid. Yeah. It was just it was a weird thing. It was a bizarre thing.

Melissa Brumm [00:17:22]:
That’s totally it’s different than than how it used to be.

James Kademan [00:17:26]:
Yeah. Because I like, I like to think or at least pretend that I’m an adult now.

Melissa Brumm [00:17:31]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:17:32]:
And I feel like when you’re in 7th, 8th grade, you kinda got the world figured out. Right? Yeah. Or at least to a certain extent. Your your problems are nil. Yeah. Right? You got food and shelter. For the most part, you’re covered there.

Melissa Brumm [00:17:44]:
Uh-huh.

James Kademan [00:17:45]:
You don’t have to pay for anything.

Melissa Brumm [00:17:48]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:17:48]:
I mean, all your friends are around you. It’s kinda playtime all the time. Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:17:54]:
I yeah. I loved 7th grade.

James Kademan [00:17:56]:
So it’s one of those it just seemed weird, like, now we have to entertain you with a phone? Like, how much more? What else do you need? How much sweeter of a life could you possibly have? Yeah. Right. But on the flip side, when I was in 7th or 8th grade, I was probably completely completely oblivious to how sweet of a life

Melissa Brumm [00:18:13]:
I am. You are. Yeah. You’re like,

James Kademan [00:18:15]:
this sucks. An adult. I was like, oh, I don’t need that again. How do I get that?

Melissa Brumm [00:18:21]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:18:22]:
So but

Melissa Brumm [00:18:22]:
Yeah. It’s like new found appreciation for Yeah. Being young. That’s the

James Kademan [00:18:27]:
way it goes.

Melissa Brumm [00:18:28]:
Yeah. Right.

James Kademan [00:18:29]:
So you you do a lot of other stuff. Yeah. You mentioned Elvis impersonating, so I wanna chat about that.

Melissa Brumm [00:18:34]:
I do do that. Yes.

James Kademan [00:18:36]:
So how do you get into it? How do you do it? How do you schedule it? Like, tell me, I wanna know it all.

Melissa Brumm [00:18:42]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, for that, so I guess some background is well, I’ve always worked in events for, like, ever since I graduate graduated college in horticulture and I Really? Yes. What?

James Kademan [00:18:56]:
So my name

Melissa Brumm [00:18:56]:
is I never really went into it. I did work at Olberk Gardens for a stint. And then I went right into like music, working at the Orpheum. And I don’t know where I was going with this. But I did okay. So yeah. So for this Elvis act, I was always into the Beatles as we were talking before. Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:19:15]:
And all, like, old classic rock music. So like, I was like obsessed with it. We’re talking about 7th grade. My 7th grade year was, like, all Beatles. Alright. I was just obsessed with the band. And Elvis to, like, a lesser extent. And like all that other sixties music, but

James Kademan [00:19:31]:
Rolling Stones. All the Beatles.

Melissa Brumm [00:19:32]:
Stuff like that. No. Not Rolling Stones.

James Kademan [00:19:34]:
No. No.

Melissa Brumm [00:19:35]:
No. I don’t. It’s like, you know, people are either like Beatles or Rolling Stones and it’s like, one or the other strangely. Like, Rolling Interesting. Yeah. That’s what I’ve noticed. Like, Rolling Stones fans are like, no, I don’t like the Beatles. And Beatles are like, yeah, Rolling Stones.

Melissa Brumm [00:19:48]:
Interesting.

James Kademan [00:19:49]:
These British and Belgian me that way.

Melissa Brumm [00:19:51]:
Yeah. I know. And I I like them both, I guess. But Alright.

James Kademan [00:19:55]:
Then you chose the party camp.

Melissa Brumm [00:19:57]:
Afraid. Yeah. So yeah. So I’ve always been into like old music and strangely like I I used to like learn all these George parts on, like, guitar. Like, I wanted to be, like, a George in a Beatles tribute band. Like, I was like Alright. An an idea in my head. And I was like, how could I do that? Could I really like put a wig on and do it? And then it just was like a 7th grade pipe Brumm.

Melissa Brumm [00:20:22]:
Like a little thing that went away soon. And, but then later, I guess, like, because Elvis came up later in my life, where I could just do the voice and I would just do jokes with people like, hey, they’re pretty mama. What’s going on? You know, like, I could just do it for some reason. Good. Yeah. I don’t know. Like, there’s but but you asked me to do a British accent. I can’t do it.

Melissa Brumm [00:20:46]:
Like Alright. There’s only certain accents I can do. And then my cousin was like, you should do this. Like this be a thing and she had a, she had an Elvis themed party. And I was like, I’m gonna show up. I’m gonna buy the suit. I’m gonna show up as Elvis and surprise everyone. And I did it, and it was, like, a crazy crazy day.

Melissa Brumm [00:21:06]:
It was, like, super funny and super fun. And I just did it as a joke. Yeah. And then it kinda just turned into, like, you should really, like, sing, and you should really do this. I don’t even know what happened after that. I just started getting, like, little one off, like, come up and sing a a song with this band, you know, or and so I did a couple shows like that. And then then I started doing my, like oh, and then then COVID happened too. Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:21:31]:
So this this also stemmed out of COVID. This is so strange to see because there’s nothing to do.

James Kademan [00:21:36]:
Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:21:36]:
So it’s like, I’m gonna entertain people by doing live streams on social media.

James Kademan [00:21:41]:
You’re kidding.

Melissa Brumm [00:21:42]:
Yes. So this makes no sense. How I’m like This gets so bad. Social media. I was like, using social media to do Elvis and kinda like entertain people and make them laugh. And at the same time, I was like, well, too over connected. I’m like, moving into you know, but it is that, like, balance of, using it for good, like entertainment and Sure.

James Kademan [00:22:04]:
Well, it’s a tool.

Melissa Brumm [00:22:05]:
As a tool. Yeah. Yeah. And, and like overusing it or, you know, getting too attached to it. So so I would do live streams during COVID, and I would do, like, goofy songs, and it would be, like, Elvis singing somewhere over the rainbow or whatever, you know. And so that’s how the whole act started. And now I have this act like established act. Wow.

Melissa Brumm [00:22:27]:
Strangely. Yeah. So I do a Groundhog Day show. I do like goofy shows that.

James Kademan [00:22:32]:
Groundhog Day Elvis?

Melissa Brumm [00:22:33]:
I do a Groundhog Day Elvis show. Wow. And I do, I also do other impersonations. So I I put on this is the weirdest thing. Sorry. This is, like, not related to your podcast at all, but

James Kademan [00:22:45]:
I kinda this is the authentic part.

Melissa Brumm [00:22:47]:
Right. Right? Yes.

James Kademan [00:22:48]:
First word. Authentic. It’s all good.

Melissa Brumm [00:22:50]:
Authentic. So, we do Sunny and Cher, where we put like this different wig on and a fur coat on one side and like a mustache on this side. And like switch back and forth and I was like, okay, I gotta do I got you babe was the song from Groundhog Day. And so I was like, wouldn’t it be funny to do Groundhog Day show? And I started doing that at the Mason Lounge down Park Kademan Oh,

James Kademan [00:23:13]:
that’s awesome.

Melissa Brumm [00:23:14]:
Like because I was like, let’s try it on a small audio. Sure. It’s a small bar.

James Kademan [00:23:18]:
The Mason Lounge? Or something like 10 old guys there?

Melissa Brumm [00:23:20]:
Or Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yes. That’s awesome. That is true. They were yeah. It was like a Thursday, and these guys were like, oh, we could have some entertainment.

Melissa Brumm [00:23:30]:
Oh, you play guitar. I was like, nah, you don’t

James Kademan [00:23:34]:
you don’t know. Just me.

Melissa Brumm [00:23:36]:
Yeah. And then yeah. So

James Kademan [00:23:39]:
Hold on to your popcorn and peanuts. You’re about

Melissa Brumm [00:23:41]:
to be entertained here. Yeah. Exactly. So that’s that’s what that act is. It’s like goofy, Elvis, like, authentic Elvis as well. And then like, what if Elvis sang whatever tequila and like other other random songs. And so that’s what the whole act is about. Wow.

Melissa Brumm [00:24:01]:
I actually did this is weird too that I did I signed up for an Elvis impersonator or like Elvis tribute artists that’s different, I learned. Oh. So I went to an Elvis tribute artist competition, where I competed to try to be the best Elvis tribute artist.

James Kademan [00:24:18]:
Wow. That’s awesome.

Melissa Brumm [00:24:20]:
But they you can’t say you’re an Elvis impersonator. That’s a different thing.

James Kademan [00:24:23]:
Tell me what the difference is.

Melissa Brumm [00:24:24]:
I don’t know. I think it’s like that’s a little hokier. They’re they don’t take themselves seriously.

James Kademan [00:24:29]:
The impersonators don’t.

Melissa Brumm [00:24:30]:
The impersonators. Yeah. So Alright. I was in like the I had to like study and like practice and like really do the thing. So, yeah. That was study? Well like study the songs. Like you have to sing it exactly like he did it. So you do it personally.

Melissa Brumm [00:24:47]:
The way exactly. Yeah. That’s that was my point. I was like

James Kademan [00:24:50]:
No big plates are here. Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:24:51]:
I know. Alright. Whatever. They take themselves very seriously.

James Kademan [00:24:53]:
I guess. Well, how’d you do?

Melissa Brumm [00:24:55]:
Which is okay. I didn’t I didn’t place.

James Kademan [00:24:59]:
Well, it was it had to be interesting enough just to what was that movie? It’s, leaving Las Vegas or something like that? Were they all Elvis impersonators or Elvis people coming out of the plane?

Melissa Brumm [00:25:10]:
What? I need to see that.

James Kademan [00:25:12]:
I’ve been seeing that one. With James Conn and Nicholas Cage.

Melissa Brumm [00:25:18]:
I’ve definitely heard of this, and I need to watch it.

James Kademan [00:25:20]:
Yeah. Yeah. And, Sarah Jessica Parker.

Melissa Brumm [00:25:24]:
Okay.

James Kademan [00:25:24]:
I think Nicolas Cage dresses up as Elvis with this crew to jump out and save Sarah Jessica Parker from James Conn or something like that. I

Melissa Brumm [00:25:31]:
don’t remember

James Kademan [00:25:32]:
the story exactly. I do remember a lot of Elvises in Las Vegas.

Melissa Brumm [00:25:36]:
Okay.

James Kademan [00:25:37]:
So I don’t know if they were impersonators or what was the other one?

Melissa Brumm [00:25:41]:
Tribute artists.

James Kademan [00:25:42]:
Tribute artists. Okay. I don’t I don’t know about that. Which one was which? But

Melissa Brumm [00:25:46]:
yeah. What else? So I will I will be I do call myself an impersonator Alright. Because I impersonate other things, not just Elvis. Alright. But so that’s yes. That’s my that’s another great entrepreneurial journey that I’ve had.

James Kademan [00:26:00]:
You gotta tell me how you market this. Do you have a website or do you just I do. Do people just know or how do you

Melissa Brumm [00:26:06]:
a lot of it’s word-of-mouth. Okay. And then I do have a website and, like I said, I started on doing live streams on Instagram. So that’s my main, social media outlet is my Instagram page. That’s where I normally put push people to because I post more regularly on there than my website.

James Kademan [00:26:25]:
So did you set up a studio at your house? Or where would you do these things? No.

Melissa Brumm [00:26:29]:
I don’t know. I was just like Yeah. Just in my bedroom. It would just be like singing and dance because I had a lot of space and so I would just like put my laptop next to my phone and I would live stream from my phone and play the music on my laptop and sing. And that’s that was, like, my original setup. And then I late later got, like, a actual microphone and like the whole cord system and Alright. Yeah. All of that.

Melissa Brumm [00:26:56]:
But but since like things I’ve opened, I haven’t done the live streams as much.

James Kademan [00:27:00]:
Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:27:01]:
Because, you know, just like burnout on screen burnout.

James Kademan [00:27:04]:
Because you talked to this coach who told you to settle the screens down.

Melissa Brumm [00:27:08]:
Right? Yeah. That’s awesome.

James Kademan [00:27:10]:
Yeah. So who what kind of company or what kind of, who hires you for Elvis stuff?

Melissa Brumm [00:27:19]:
So I

James Kademan [00:27:19]:
Or Sonya share stuff.

Melissa Brumm [00:27:21]:
Yeah. I’ll put on my own shows most of the time where I’ll just like.

James Kademan [00:27:25]:
You’ll set up a show Yeah. At a bar?

Melissa Brumm [00:27:28]:
Like I’ll talk to a bar and I’ll be like, can I bring in this free show or whatever? I’ll charge $5 or something. Alright. Most of them have been free and just for tips because that’s an easy way to like Sure. It like a certain bars are, like, yeah. Like, if it brings people in, like, well, you know, people drink. Whatever. Put some music on the stage, you know. So

James Kademan [00:27:48]:
That’s incredible.

Melissa Brumm [00:27:49]:
Yeah. And that’s like one of my, you know, I’ve worked in music for years, so I kinda know how to promote myself that way. Where I’m like, hey, can I bring the show in and then I just set the I have so much material that I’m like, I can just play my backing tracks and set up a set Melissa, and then I market it on Instagram and Facebook, and tell all my friends? And so it’s it’s mostly my friends that come.

James Kademan [00:28:12]:
But Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:28:12]:
Then some people see me like I did this I did make music Melissa last summer.

James Kademan [00:28:19]:
Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:28:19]:
And MSCR has a pontoon boat that you can perform on. And I was like, I have to get that gig as Elvis doing a show on a boat. Like, that would be funny. And so I just That’s amazing. Did that. And then someone, like, saw me on that and hired me for, to work at to do a show at the children’s museum. I got that because it’s goofy like kitty kind of thing. So, yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:28:41]:
I don’t know. This is some things like that happens. It’s just mostly word-of-mouth. I’m not really trying that hard to get a lot of shows, but Sure.

James Kademan [00:28:50]:
So when you I’m thinking about this, and just, outsider looking in. One, let’s just take a top level here. Right? You have to have the stones to go on stage and do the whole thing. Right?

Melissa Brumm [00:29:01]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:29:02]:
2, you gotta have the stones to go to the bar and say, hey, I’m gonna do this thing on stage.

Melissa Brumm [00:29:06]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:29:06]:
You gotta do all this stuff to it takes a lot of courage to do all that.

Melissa Brumm [00:29:10]:
I guess so. It’s, like, strange. I don’t even think of it like that.

James Kademan [00:29:13]:
So I guess that’s my point because you hear one of the biggest fears that people have is public speaking.

Melissa Brumm [00:29:18]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:29:19]:
And you’d be like, well, are you more afraid of public speaking, or would you be more afraid of trying to impersonate Elvis in front of people?

Melissa Brumm [00:29:26]:
Stand on the stairs. I feel

James Kademan [00:29:27]:
like they’d be like, well, that’s worse. So and let’s take a step further, and you have to sell yourself as being the person so you have the opportunity to go on the stage. Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:29:38]:
It was scary. It was scary at first because I I started as a joke, you know. It was like and, like, that’s that could be fun, you know. Like, people like to go dress up for Halloween. Like, you can go put on a costume and be, like, hey, whatever. Because everyone else is dressed up.

James Kademan [00:29:53]:
Safe place. Yeah. We’re all good.

Melissa Brumm [00:29:55]:
That’s safe. It’s Halloween. Like, I it’s okay to wear a costume. But, like, yeah, to, like, walk out of my bedroom where I was doing these live streams and be, like, hey, I’m an Elvis impersonator to, like, people who weren’t, like, like, the 5 people who watched me on this thing. I guess just like seeing people’s responses to it and they were like, oh, that’s funny. Or like, that’s clever or whatever. That like helped me, I guess, step out a little more. Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:30:26]:
If people were like, oh, what are you doing? I don’t know about that. That’s kinda weird. I don’t think I would have, like, gone and do done shows, like, live. Okay. I probably would have just still been doing them.

James Kademan [00:30:39]:
Test the waters a little bit.

Melissa Brumm [00:30:41]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:30:41]:
On social media. Where before you just have to go to the bar and

Melissa Brumm [00:30:44]:
I know.

James Kademan [00:30:44]:
Bar just so I don’t

Melissa Brumm [00:30:45]:
know if it’s going

James Kademan [00:30:45]:
to be thrown at you or something.

Melissa Brumm [00:30:46]:
And so in a way, like, my brain is like, oh, it’s Halloween and I’m just dressed up in a costume. Alright. And so it’s I think it’s easier to wear a costume on stage than to, like, be yourself on stage. Oh, interesting. Like or be yourself, like, speaking. Because you’re, like, totally authentic. Yeah. You know? Not that this I mean, my act is, like it’s not really staged.

Melissa Brumm [00:31:09]:
It is just me like kind of throwing stuff together and kind of improving stuff.

James Kademan [00:31:13]:
Mhmm.

Melissa Brumm [00:31:14]:
But

James Kademan [00:31:14]:
But it’s just you. Right?

Melissa Brumm [00:31:15]:
But it’s just me too. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:31:17]:
You don’t have a drummer in the background or something like that or someone that

Melissa Brumm [00:31:20]:
you’re gonna be like backing tracks together and I’m doing all the tech stuff up there and

James Kademan [00:31:23]:
Wow.

Melissa Brumm [00:31:24]:
Yeah. So I don’t I think the costume helps and that, like, I can laugh at myself

James Kademan [00:31:29]:
Mhmm.

Melissa Brumm [00:31:29]:
While I’m doing it. And, like, if I mess up, it doesn’t matter because I’m wearing a costume. Like, because other people are laughing. Yeah. Because it’s supposed to be an entertaining thing.

James Kademan [00:31:40]:
How do you how do you walk the line between being an Elvis impersonator or being good at the songs and the music and then going into the comedy portion of it without insulting Elvis or insulting people like Elvis. Because I’m thinking, like, could I impersonate Elvis? No. Not well. No? Not well. People would laugh, but they’d laugh out of pity to me. You know what I mean? Because that’s a that’s a either a thin line or a small gray area.

Melissa Brumm [00:32:08]:
It is a fine line. And sometimes, I will wonder like, is this just really bad? Right. And people are just laughing at me. Yeah. And that can be really scary. I don’t feel that on state, like, when I get off stage, I’m like, oh my gosh. Was that really just like terrible? And all the laughter was just people laughing at me Right. And how bad I am.

James Kademan [00:32:27]:
Sure. And I

Melissa Brumm [00:32:28]:
will, like, I will wonder that sometimes and kind of fall into the I’ll go into this, like, spiral, you know. Oh. No. Just like the ups and downs of, like, is it that good? Are people laughing at me? Are they laughing with me? You know. Right.

James Kademan [00:32:44]:
They’re laughing at the performance or they’re just laughing at you?

Melissa Brumm [00:32:47]:
Yeah. Kind of thing. They’re laughing because I just kinda suck.

James Kademan [00:32:50]:
But Yeah. Because I I guess there’s so many people that I’ve seen when I’ve seen Elvis impersonators, usually, it’s just accidental. I’ll be at a car show or something like that. Hey. There’s a guy. Yeah. Usually, it’s a crowd. I remember my mom is just like, oh my gosh.

James Kademan [00:33:06]:
He really pulls that off. Right? Or this person is doing a really good job making it feel like Elvis is there kind of thing. Yeah. But I also feel like because some people are psycho about Elvis or even the Beatles. Oh my gosh. There’s some people that probably have shrines in their house that

Melissa Brumm [00:33:22]:
They do.

James Kademan [00:33:23]:
I don’t want I know some of that. Then I imagine that you’re just like, hey, man. We’re having fun. We’re entertaining. They’re like, woah. Woah. Woah. Woah.

James Kademan [00:33:30]:
Woah. You are insulting. Yeah. Oh, whatever. A Nashville treasure here or something.

Melissa Brumm [00:33:37]:
Yeah. That is the there are people who are would like hardcore judge you like Okay. On. Like, you have to and that’s what the like, doing this competition really showed me like, You have to, like, hold yourself in a certain way. And if you don’t, like and they actually this is funny. I got called because I do, like, a comedy act. I think they thought I was gonna go up there and kind of be, like, like

James Kademan [00:34:03]:
Start juggling?

Melissa Brumm [00:34:04]:
Yeah. Like like, kinda defaced Elvis. And they were, like, are you sure you wanna do this competition? Because are you gonna like

James Kademan [00:34:11]:
Oh.

Melissa Brumm [00:34:12]:
And I was like, yeah. Like, I I’m gonna do it right. You know, I’m gonna sing, burn in love, or whatever as that. But I think they thought I was gonna do a comedy show be because there are people who are like super into it. But Interesting. Or they’re like judged like you have to do Elvis the right way.

James Kademan [00:34:30]:
You either do him exactly or you don’t do him.

Melissa Brumm [00:34:32]:
Yeah. Right. So I guess my audience is not that like

James Kademan [00:34:37]:
Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:34:37]:
That hardcore. Super. I think I could do that, like I have done Aloha from Hawaii, the whole, like, Elvis album, like, as

James Kademan [00:34:46]:
The whole thing?

Melissa Brumm [00:34:46]:
Well, like, well, like an hour of it.

James Kademan [00:34:49]:
That’s a lot.

Melissa Brumm [00:34:49]:
Because it is long, and there’s some songs that people don’t know. So I’m like, Right. We’ll cut that.

James Kademan [00:34:53]:
People that aren’t 80.

Melissa Brumm [00:34:55]:
Yeah. Right. But, yeah. I will do, like, authentic Elvis. And but my crowds are more like the the ones who are like casual fans.

James Kademan [00:35:05]:
Sure. Who are

Melissa Brumm [00:35:05]:
like I like that, but I also like hearing Sonny and Cher. I like hearing a different thing. And I’ve seen other Elvis impersonators do that. Like, I saw someone in Florida do, like, because Elvis saying, you were always on my mind Mhmm. Which is also a Willie Nelson song. And so he kept putting this Willie Nelson wig on and taking it off and doing these different voices. And I was like and that was like a real Elvis

James Kademan [00:35:32]:
Wow.

Melissa Brumm [00:35:32]:
Crowd. And I was like, okay. If he can do that’s what I do. Right. I do the goofy stuff like that, but and people thought it was funny. So

James Kademan [00:35:40]:
it’s But it’s goofy and you have some crazy skills to do that. Bumps between Willie Nelson and Elvis? I don’t

Melissa Brumm [00:35:45]:
know if I could do that, but, yeah. This guy is yeah.

James Kademan [00:35:48]:
I mean, you’re talking about the Sonny and Cher thing too. Yeah. There’s skills there where on the one hand, you’re just like, that’s pretty funny. But on the other hand, you think, holy cow, man. That person’s got some skills to be able to pull that off. Yeah. But just like when you see somebody juggling 10 chainsaws or something, you’re just like, oh, that’s kinda funny. We’re gonna watch this guy lose an arm.

James Kademan [00:36:07]:
Then you think, that’s 10 chainsaws.

Melissa Brumm [00:36:09]:
Right? Right.

James Kademan [00:36:10]:
Sometimes I throw a dish rag toward towards the sink and doesn’t hit the sink. This guy is throwing chainsaws around.

Melissa Brumm [00:36:16]:
Right. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:36:18]:
Is there a certain vintage of Elvis that you aim for? Younger versus older jumpsuits?

Melissa Brumm [00:36:23]:
I do the older. Yeah. The older jumpsuit

James Kademan [00:36:26]:
Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:36:26]:
Era. I have a black jumpsuit and a white jumpsuit.

James Kademan [00:36:29]:
So Nice.

Melissa Brumm [00:36:30]:
Yeah. I haven’t done the I haven’t done the early stuff. I don’t have the voice for it.

James Kademan [00:36:33]:
Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:36:34]:
It’s more like raspy. You know, I think I need to take some more

James Kademan [00:36:38]:
vocal lessons. Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:36:40]:
Yeah. Like, I don’t know how to do that with my voice. Alright.

James Kademan [00:36:43]:
Are you playing guitar at the same time?

Melissa Brumm [00:36:45]:
I have done guitar and ukulele during certain songs. It’s hard to do though.

James Kademan [00:36:50]:
Yeah. You

Melissa Brumm [00:36:51]:
know, to sing and do that. So I only pull it out for like 1 song a show maybe.

James Kademan [00:36:57]:
Alright. I get it. Yeah. I get it. Anyway. Yeah. No. I totally understand because this, I’ll tell you a really quick story that has nothing to do with what we’re talking about.

James Kademan [00:37:06]:
Do it. Semi related. Yeah. So when I first started this channel, it was called draw in customers. And the idea was that I was gonna do business coaching on this whiteboard and draw cartoons at the same time

Melissa Brumm [00:37:16]:
Oh, okay.

James Kademan [00:37:16]:
To explain what I was doing. Right? But I had this the hardest time trying to draw and talk.

Melissa Brumm [00:37:22]:
Oh, yeah.

James Kademan [00:37:23]:
Because you’re concentrating on drawing, and then you’re trying to talk about something pretty important. Mhmm. And then I realized when my back is to the audience, so I’m like, oh, I get why those whiteboard videos, you just see the hand. Because it’s just way Yeah. Like, okay. We gotta go a different direction with this. Yeah. So I get it.

James Kademan [00:37:40]:
Singing, playing guitar at the same time while trying to entertain and all that jazz.

Melissa Brumm [00:37:43]:
Yeah. Right. So, like, keep the pace of a show too and, like, take the guitar, put it on tune. Oh, okay. I’m wasting a lot of time here.

James Kademan [00:37:50]:
Oh, and it’s just you.

Melissa Brumm [00:37:51]:
It’s just me.

James Kademan [00:37:52]:
So you it’s not like you have your

Melissa Brumm [00:37:53]:
headset in the back of the show. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. I might need some of your cartoons though. You should tell me how to get more shows or

James Kademan [00:38:01]:
Oh, maybe.

Melissa Brumm [00:38:03]:
Yeah. Just kidding.

James Kademan [00:38:04]:
I could try yeah. The the whole, event thing, I haven’t figured that out. So kudos to those that do. I’ve tried to put on events or even tried to help people market events.

Melissa Brumm [00:38:14]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:38:14]:
That is not my jam.

Melissa Brumm [00:38:15]:
It’s definitely can definitely be hit or miss. It can depend on the weather. You do an indoor show and people are like, oh, it’s raining. I’m not gonna go. Mhmm. You know, even if they bought In

James Kademan [00:38:23]:
a ticket.

Melissa Brumm [00:38:24]:
Even if they bought tickets. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:38:25]:
It’s one of the tenants.

Melissa Brumm [00:38:26]:
Or snow or whatever. Yeah. Okay. That’s what it seems to come down to.

James Kademan [00:38:30]:
It’s funny.

Melissa Brumm [00:38:31]:
If it’s nice out, I’ll go to that outdoors thing. If it’s nice out, I’m not gonna go to the, you know, I’m not gonna go work out inside. It’s like it, you know, I don’t know. I think people are very it seems they’ve, like, move with the weather.

James Kademan [00:38:45]:
That’s fair. That’s fair. Yeah. The joke is that in the wintertime, they hibernate. Yeah. So whatever’s going on,

Melissa Brumm [00:38:50]:
I don’t see anything in the winter. Right. I know. That’s a hard that’s a hard time.

James Kademan [00:38:55]:
So you got other stuff going on? Event planning? Tell me I mean, let’s explain to that. Right?

Melissa Brumm [00:39:00]:
Oh, well, yeah. Yeah. As we’re talking about events, I do work I do organize a Beatle Music Festival as one of my other.

James Kademan [00:39:10]:
There’s Beatle Band, not Beatle the band.

Melissa Brumm [00:39:11]:
Beatles the band.

James Kademan [00:39:12]:
Insects. Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:39:13]:
Yeah. Not the insect.

James Kademan [00:39:14]:
So Beatle Festival, this is in Yeah. Kentucky?

Melissa Brumm [00:39:18]:
Yep. Right outside Louisville

James Kademan [00:39:19]:
Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:39:20]:
Kentucky. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:39:21]:
And is it Beatle impersonators or is

Melissa Brumm [00:39:23]:
it Yeah. There? Yes. Is it really?

James Kademan [00:39:26]:
Yeah. Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:39:27]:
Yeah. It’s it’s mostly Beatle impersonators. This year, we have the Fab 4 who was like the biggest Beatle impersonator group in the world. Big Beatle tribute group in the world. Alright. The Beatle tributes.

James Kademan [00:39:38]:
Tribute. Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:39:39]:
I don’t hear people say impersonator about Beatles.

James Kademan [00:39:43]:
Oh, it’s true. Yeah. It’s true. Is it to the point where you got the hair and the suits and all that kind of stuff and the

Melissa Brumm [00:39:48]:
The boots and suits fans.

James Kademan [00:39:49]:
Oh, the boots

Melissa Brumm [00:39:50]:
and suits. Boots and suits. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:39:52]:
That’s awesome.

Melissa Brumm [00:39:53]:
That’s what they’re called. So yeah, we got a couple of those that do the whole shtick. Alright. The the suits or the, Sergeant Pepper suits or the Shea Stadium outfits. Yeah. They do all the eras.

James Kademan [00:40:06]:
Wow. Yeah. And is that tell me what kind of audience you get there. Is it older?

Melissa Brumm [00:40:12]:
It’s a little older. Yep. Yep. It’s like whoever grew up with the Beatles, but we do get young people. I mean, like me, I like love started to love the Beatles when I was 12. So, we do get younger people and we get Yeah. People bringing their grandkids too.

James Kademan [00:40:27]:
Oh, wow. Okay. You know,

Melissa Brumm [00:40:28]:
so it’s like they grew up with the Beatles and they wanna bring their families and it’s, you know, it’s a different it’s a music festival that’s like, good clean fun. You know, you’re not gonna hear swear words. There’s no like, you know, raunchy music.

James Kademan [00:40:41]:
Sure.

Melissa Brumm [00:40:42]:
It’s all Beatles. It’s all sixties. Just all alpha family friendly. Sure. You know?

James Kademan [00:40:47]:
So I’m also, but it’s all good.

Melissa Brumm [00:40:49]:
So yeah. So yeah. I have a lot of a lot of different things going on. Alright. In my entrepreneurial world.

James Kademan [00:40:56]:
Tell me, I’m probably missing something. So tell me another one.

Melissa Brumm [00:41:01]:
What else is there?

James Kademan [00:41:02]:
Or tell us another one. Right?

Melissa Brumm [00:41:03]:
I know. Yeah. I haven’t even looked at the camera. Well, in the past, I used to have this business called Horticraft. This is how I like went from Horticulture to into the business world. Alright. Because I was kinda jumping on that. You know, when everyone was making those, like, board things that were like, welcome to our home.

Melissa Brumm [00:41:22]:
And they’re painting them Okay. Like wine nights. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I’ll do like plant wine nights like that. And so I had this stint of this business where we would go to bariks and different like wine or coffee shops. And you’d make a terrarium or you’d make a thing with the air plant, you know, in different plant

James Kademan [00:41:44]:
things. That’s

Melissa Brumm [00:41:44]:
awesome. Because in the same realm, it’s like being overwhelmed on social media. It I guess my life is all kind of connected even though it sounds like everything is strange. There is something to like horticulture therapy of like getting your hands dirty, working with your hands to like get you out of that mental like, you know, mentality of just Yeah. Just being like, oh, I need to get that thing done, and you respond to that person. It’s just like, no. Just to put your hands in some dirt Yeah. Or some rocks or something.

James Kademan [00:42:16]:
What happened to that?

Melissa Brumm [00:42:17]:
Create something. You know what? I it just kind of fizzled out. I was not like I think I did it for about 2 years and I it’s like I stopped while I was ahead in a way, where like I just had broke even or I just had made some money Okay. Off of it.

James Kademan [00:42:36]:
Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:42:37]:
And then I stopped, and I don’t know why. It’s like

James Kademan [00:42:39]:
You don’t know why? Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:42:40]:
It was like I think I, like, had different priorities where I was like, I wanted to work more in events

James Kademan [00:42:45]:
Mhmm.

Melissa Brumm [00:42:45]:
And, like, really go full into that and not do so much of all these different stuff. So I kinda just dropped that on the wayside. But Alright. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:42:55]:
I don’t know. Is that menu ended up with all these glass bottles to make sure you’re

Melissa Brumm [00:42:58]:
I was just thinking about that. I need I have, like, I have, like, 2 or 3 bins of glass jars. Bins of, like, equipment. So I could go back and forth.

James Kademan [00:43:09]:
Up a bin at least one time. I could. Yeah. I’m just picturing this, like, right?

Melissa Brumm [00:43:12]:
And we’ll have Melissa perform. Right? And yeah.

James Kademan [00:43:16]:
That sounds amazing.

Melissa Brumm [00:43:17]:
It’s strange. Yeah. It’s like a lot of events. My world, like, revolves around doing events in some way. It’s Yeah. Horticulture. It’s music. It’s performing.

Melissa Brumm [00:43:28]:
It’s, and then I also am a yoga instructor. I don’t I don’t teach anywhere right now, but I have my certificate and I want to put on retreats and this is my next my next venture, which goes along with slow life. Alright. Revolution more that meditative, like, let’s physically get you away from your phone and bring you into a different

James Kademan [00:43:47]:
Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:43:47]:
Mental state and kind of talk through things, journal and do yoga meditation. Thanks. So yeah. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:43:56]:
So out of all the stuff that you’ve done so far Yeah. Do you have a favorite?

Melissa Brumm [00:44:01]:
I think Elvis. Alright.

James Kademan [00:44:03]:
Well, there’s nothing wrong

Melissa Brumm [00:44:03]:
with that. Because it’s so fun. Alright. And there’s no like it’s just like I like keeping it fun too. Mhmm. It’s there’s no pressure. And I guess, maybe that’s not the best example because I don’t I make money on it, but it’s not like my I’m not gonna quit my job. You’re not

James Kademan [00:44:21]:
buying new yacht or anything?

Melissa Brumm [00:44:23]:
Like but so if I really like strived toward it

James Kademan [00:44:27]:
Mhmm.

Melissa Brumm [00:44:28]:
Maybe it would be less fun but

James Kademan [00:44:30]:
Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:44:30]:
You know I do like a couple shows a month. Alright. That seems like a lot. Here there. Oh. So yeah. But I’m not like gonna tour with it, you know. Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:44:37]:
There’s there’s people who, like, perform 5 days a week.

James Kademan [00:44:40]:
Go on the cruise circuit or something like that.

Melissa Brumm [00:44:42]:
That could be a fun idea. Alright. I like that idea.

James Kademan [00:44:47]:
Do you have one that’s you’re just like, I don’t know what I was thinking. Didn’t work out. Whatever.

Melissa Brumm [00:44:54]:
I had this business. I will I kinda have this business called pop up yoga, where I would just do like

James Kademan [00:44:58]:
You say I kinda had this business? Yeah. And I had this.

Melissa Brumm [00:45:02]:
I kinda did this thing

James Kademan [00:45:03]:
Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:45:04]:
Where it like did pop up yoga classes outside.

James Kademan [00:45:07]:
Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:45:07]:
And as we know, let’s talking about the weather. That was very hit or miss with like, it’s raining. It’s windy. It’s and then I would have to cancel all these events and reschedule them and Yeah. So that didn’t that didn’t I was in a long stint of doing that.

James Kademan [00:45:21]:
Parks and stuff like that? Or where would you go?

Melissa Brumm [00:45:23]:
Yeah. Just like, I’m thinking like birdies beach. Yeah. Like parks Okay. Along the waterfront essentially.

James Kademan [00:45:31]:
Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:45:31]:
So anyway. But also, what was I thinking kind of the Elvis one too? Like what is that? What was I thinking with that? And now it turned into something. I know it’s like crazy how it was like just a goofy thing that

James Kademan [00:45:46]:
like Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:45:46]:
Actually turned into something I really like doing, you know.

James Kademan [00:45:49]:
That’s cool.

Melissa Brumm [00:45:50]:
So and that’s what that’s I don’t know. I like that about

James Kademan [00:45:53]:
Well, if you’re having fun with it Yeah. It’s kinda one of those whatever. Yeah. So are your parents entertainers or in the entertaining field? Or how did you land in this?

Melissa Brumm [00:46:02]:
No. No. They’re not I mean, my mom dabbled in different I mean, she, like, is a musician and played piano, and she was actually Melissa Marinette up in Marinette, Wisconsin. So she Oh, that’s cool. Yeah. She’s also miss Wisconsin. Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa Brumm [00:46:18]:
So she in that way, she kind of performed.

James Kademan [00:46:21]:
I would say so.

Melissa Brumm [00:46:22]:
And she was, yeah. She was a newscaster for a short period.

James Kademan [00:46:27]:
Come on. That’s totally entertainment.

Melissa Brumm [00:46:28]:
And a teacher. So yeah. Alright.

James Kademan [00:46:29]:
So I

Melissa Brumm [00:46:29]:
guess that’s Totally entertainment? Getting in front of people.

James Kademan [00:46:31]:
Alright. How about your dad?

Melissa Brumm [00:46:33]:
Yeah. No. He worked in a in an office.

James Kademan [00:46:36]:
Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:46:37]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:46:37]:
Not entertainment.

Melissa Brumm [00:46:38]:
In like a finance yeah. Not as yeah.

James Kademan [00:46:40]:
Alright. Well, sounds like your mom was.

Melissa Brumm [00:46:42]:
Yeah. And maybe

James Kademan [00:46:43]:
I get it more from her. That’s not an entertainer. I mean, that’s

Melissa Brumm [00:46:46]:
Yeah. Exactly. You have to have that, like, that face or that way of speaking and holding yourself. So

James Kademan [00:46:52]:
They’re not it’s not exactly cloned, those kind of stuff, but that’s totally entertainment.

Melissa Brumm [00:46:56]:
Yeah. It is. Yeah. News is entertainment now.

James Kademan [00:46:59]:
I mean, it’s it’s the world we’re in. It’s all good.

Melissa Brumm [00:47:01]:
Yeah. Yeah. So I don’t know where I, like, really developed that from.

James Kademan [00:47:05]:
Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:47:05]:
And, I mean, but I also played, like, instruments through middle school, high school

James Kademan [00:47:11]:
Okay.

Melissa Brumm [00:47:11]:
Cello, guitar. Nice. From that, I guess, you get up on stage with an orchestra and perform. So

James Kademan [00:47:17]:
And is that the instruments like that, was that your idea or is your parents’

Melissa Brumm [00:47:22]:
idea? To get into playing instruments? Yeah. I think the I think, like, I was kinda pushed into doing strings. I think everyone had to do strings at at a certain point and I just picked cello and I Okay. Kept going with it. So no one yeah. No one they didn’t like force it

James Kademan [00:47:35]:
to They didn’t force you?

Melissa Brumm [00:47:36]:
Yeah. Alright. It was my idea.

James Kademan [00:47:37]:
My mom tried to force me to baritone and Oh. Nothing in baritone. That is almost a way to guarantee that your butt’s gonna get kicked.

Melissa Brumm [00:47:45]:
Really? Oh, no.

James Kademan [00:47:46]:
You’re just like, hey, on, scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being crazy dorky, you got baritone. Yeah. There’s nothing else that you can do. You’re just straight

Melissa Brumm [00:47:54]:
up work. Yeah. Oh, no. Well, not now because no one would see you in the hallways of middle school. They would know. They would know.

James Kademan [00:48:01]:
Know. I could be on Instagram playing baritone. Just oh, I can’t even imagine that. That’s terrible.

Melissa Brumm [00:48:08]:
I know.

James Kademan [00:48:08]:
That’s terrible. Melissa, we are running out of time here. So I feel like you have a laundry list of websites to tell us, because I wanna start with the Elvis one.

Melissa Brumm [00:48:17]:
Okay.

James Kademan [00:48:18]:
So if someone wants to see the Elvis stuff or hire you Mhmm.

Melissa Brumm [00:48:22]:
Where

James Kademan [00:48:22]:
do they go?

Melissa Brumm [00:48:23]:
You can go to melvis.rocks. That’s elvis with an m dot rocks. R o

James Kademan [00:48:30]:
c k s?

Melissa Brumm [00:48:30]:
R o c k s. Yes. And from there, you can find my Instagram and my, YouTube and all my videos from there. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:48:40]:
That is incredible.

Melissa Brumm [00:48:41]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:48:41]:
What about the Slow Life Revolution stuff?

Melissa Brumm [00:48:43]:
So Slow Life Revolution is just slowliferevolution.com. You can find all my information, my blog posts, and, yeah. All my information there about how to slow down your life.

James Kademan [00:48:54]:
Alright.

Melissa Brumm [00:48:54]:
And get away from social Melissa. Unless you’re watching Melissa videos.

James Kademan [00:48:58]:
Or podcasts. It’s all good.

Melissa Brumm [00:48:59]:
Or podcasts. Yeah. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:49:02]:
I feel tell me about event planning?

Melissa Brumm [00:49:05]:
Well, I don’t I don’t really have a website for that, but Okay. Oh, my festival, if anyone wants to know is Yeah. The festival I organized, ar0tr.com. It’s Abby Road on the river. And so that’s my main job, you know, for as contractor.

James Kademan [00:49:22]:
Sure.

Melissa Brumm [00:49:23]:
But yeah.

James Kademan [00:49:24]:
Abby Road on the River. That’s pretty clever.

Melissa Brumm [00:49:27]:
Yep. Yeah. Very Beatles Beatles themed. Yeah. That is awesome. So that’s it. Thanks for talking about all my different ventures.

James Kademan [00:49:35]:
You know, it’s so funny. I heard you speak about the slow life revolution thing.

Melissa Brumm [00:49:39]:
Mhmm.

James Kademan [00:49:40]:
And I thought, that’s cool. I got to have Melissa on the show. Yeah. I had no idea. Oh, did you know? Like, not even the tip of the iceberg idea that you did Elvis stuff, Beatles stuff Yeah. Event planning website.

Melissa Brumm [00:49:54]:
Should’ve warned you.

James Kademan [00:49:55]:
Should’ve warned you about the hell

Melissa Brumm [00:49:55]:
of this thing. And the yoga. Yeah. That’s kinda

James Kademan [00:49:58]:
No idea. Yep. No idea.

Melissa Brumm [00:49:59]:
All things.

James Kademan [00:50:00]:
I gotta say it’s pretty cool. It’s very safe to say that you are one of the most diverse, coolest guests I’ve ever had.

Melissa Brumm [00:50:07]:
It is very diverse. Well, I’m glad I was so welcome on your podcast, because I know it’s about the business. It is business.

James Kademan [00:50:13]:
It’s authentic. It’s all good.

Melissa Brumm [00:50:14]:
But it’s not one. Yes. I’m like No.

James Kademan [00:50:16]:
It’s very interesting talking to you or just a lot of people that have a lot of stuff going on. Mhmm. Myself included.

Melissa Brumm [00:50:22]:
Because I have people

James Kademan [00:50:22]:
that are just like, what do you have, James? Not like 20 businesses?

Melissa Brumm [00:50:25]:
Right.

James Kademan [00:50:26]:
And I always think, how many entrepreneurs do you know that only have 1? Exactly. Truly only have 1.

Melissa Brumm [00:50:33]:
The entrepreneur, that Brumm is just, like, always thinking of different ideas.

James Kademan [00:50:36]:
No. There’s always I mean, every day, you’re coming up with 20 different businesses.

Melissa Brumm [00:50:40]:
Yep.

James Kademan [00:50:40]:
And you gotta just pull the reins back to not work on at least one of them. Yes. Every single day. Yeah. So when you mean entrepreneur or something like let’s take Elon Musk. Right? He’s got the cars, got the rocket ships, we’re pouring holes, trains, taxis, stuff like this. Yeah. I’m like, name an entrepreneur.

James Kademan [00:50:59]:
What about the Bezos guy. Right? He’s got Amazon. He’s got rocket ships. He’s doing all this stuff. I mean, everyone. Everyone that’s an entrepreneur that I know, they are at least dabbling into something else, because it’s kind of the game.

Melissa Brumm [00:51:12]:
Yeah. You’re like an ideas person if you’re an entrepreneur.

James Kademan [00:51:15]:
Yeah. Yeah. We implement at least 57% of of the way, and then we might just walk away. But

Melissa Brumm [00:51:20]:
I know that’s the hard part to, like, not walk away.

James Kademan [00:51:23]:
That’s the tough Later. It’s very tough.

Melissa Brumm [00:51:25]:
You know, to stay with it and not be like, oh, but this new shiny idea is, like, way better. Yeah. Let’s do that. That sounds fun.

James Kademan [00:51:30]:
I was getting an engine rebuilt by a guy. Yeah. And I was, like, looking at the machine shop, and he’s got all this equipment. Right? 100 of 1,000, if not 1,000,000 of dollars worth of equipment. I’m like, do you make any money at this? And he’s like, no. No. I make money with my lawn care business, and that pays for this business. Oh, yeah.

James Kademan [00:51:51]:
He’s like, this business is fun. Right? We could build race engines and stuff like that, you know, just hang out with people that are grease monkeys. It’s all good.

Melissa Brumm [00:51:59]:
Yeah.

James Kademan [00:51:59]:
But the lawn care business that I hate, that’s the one that pays for this.

Melissa Brumm [00:52:03]:
Sounds about right. Yep.

James Kademan [00:52:05]:
Alright. So, yeah. Every entrepreneur, or I guess every, I’ll dare say, cool entrepreneur has more cool things going on. So, all good. Melissa, thank you so much for being on the show.

Melissa Brumm [00:52:14]:
Thanks so much for having me. This has been amazing. Right.

James Kademan [00:52:18]:
This has been Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. Authentic Business Adventures is brought to you by Callsoncall.com, offering call answering and reception services for service businesses across the country on the web at callsoncall.com dot com, as well as the Bold Business Book, a book for the entrepreneur in all of us, available wherever fine books are sold. If you’re listening or watching this on the web, if you could do us a huge favor, keep the algorithm happy. Give us a big old thumbs up, subscribe, and of course, share it with all of your entrepreneurial friends, especially those that love The Beatles, love Elvis, are into yoga, need to pull away from social media a little bit. Mhmm. I’m missing something here, but,

Melissa Brumm [00:53:05]:
I think you hit it all. Alright. Yeah.

James Kademan [00:53:06]:
Good enough. Good enough. Hey, we’d love to thank you, our wonderful listeners, as well as our guest Melissa Brumm, slow life revolution. Melissa, tell us, the Elvis website again.

Melissa Brumm [00:53:17]:
Melvis. Rocks.

James Kademan [00:53:19]:
Melvis. Rocks. Yep. I love it. And then slow life revolution? Where’s that?

Melissa Brumm [00:53:23]:
Dot com. Slow life revolution dot com.

James Kademan [00:53:25]:
Easy to know. Cool. Cool. Here we go. Past episodes can be found morning, noon, and night. The podcast link found at drawandcustomers.com. Thank you for listening. We will see you next week.

James Kademan [00:53:33]:
I want you to stay awesome. And if you do nothing else, enjoy your business.