The Power of A Support System: A Journey with Founder of Her View from Home, Leslie Means

Jackie - 00:00:10:

You're listening to the Diversity Beyond the Checkbox podcast, brought to you by the the Diversity Movement. I'm your host, Jackie Ferguson, author, speaker, and human rights advocate. On this show, I'm talking to trailblazers... game changers, and glass ceiling breakers who share their inspiring stories and insights on business inclusion and personal development. Thank you for downloading this episode. I am truly grateful for you. Enjoy the show. My guest today is Leslie Means, founder of Her View From Home, author and mom. Leslie, thank you so much for being with us today. 

Leslie - 00:00:54:

I love being here. It's an honor. Thank you for having me.

Jackie - 00:00:57:

Thank you. Tell us, Leslie, a little about your family being central to your life and work. Will you tell us a little about them? 

Leslie - 00:01:07:

Yes. I have been married for almost 19 years to this cute guy named Kyle and I'm to that point now where I have to be like, crap, wait, what year is it?

Jackie - 00:01:16:

How many years? That's right.

Leslie - 00:01:17:

We're married on New Year's Eve right when it was almost 2005. So it's always confusing. I'm like, wait, yes. So it's going to be 19 years. I have three kids, my oldest is 15 and then her sister is 13 and then their baby brother is six. And so we have high school, middle school, grade school this year. So I like to say we are in it. We are in it. Yeah. So and it is. All of my family, actually, all of my – I have three older sisters and my parents. They're all within an hour of me and then all of my husband's family is within an hour, too. So it really is – That's great. It is our day-to-day life. We have a very close relationship with our family.

Jackie - 00:02:04:

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. Now, you didn't start out with Her View from Home. You started out with a career in broadcast journalism. Tell us a little bit about that. What did you love? What did you learn? And what made you pivot to doing your own thing?

Leslie - 00:02:23:

Okay, so this can get super long-winded. So at any point, you need to be like, Leslie, let's wrap it up. So I want to start... I love this. Thank you for this question. I want to start first by saying the family comment that you made that all through my life that I just turned 42. I didn't have a lot growing up. We didn't have a lot of money, but we always had support. I always had family who loved me through all of this. And what I have learned in my 42 years is that that's what you need. And I know what a privilege that is because money comes and goes. But when you have the love and support of someone, and for me, it's so many people, that can just move mountains, which is really – so I love mentioning that of how it looks with Herbie from Home and So God Made a Mother. It looks so amazing, but it's because I've had so much support along the way. So I actually – I was this farm kid. I grew up in central Nebraska, and our family farm has been in the family since the early 1900s. And it's not like you think some farming, it's like, oh, wealthy farming. No. No, it's been just this small farm for a lot of years. And I always thought I was going to be this kid who would – like I always appreciated it, but I always felt bigger than central Nebraska. I always thought I was going to be in New York. I really thought that's where I was going to go with my broadcasting career. And so I went to college and got a broadcast journalism degree. And then I met that cute guy named Kyle. And he actually took me, we got married right after we graduated college. And he was also in like the marketing TV world and we moved to Houston for a couple of years. He worked for the Houston Rockets for his dream gig doing some marketing. And I was driving an hour and a half each way in Houston to Beaumont, Texas for my first TV job. Amazing people. But oh my gosh, I'm this like 22-year-old kid who thought she wanted to be in a big city, but was like, could only drive to Target in Houston. Because you know, that was back when there was no, I think there was MapQuest, but there was nothing on your phone. You know, you couldn't like whatever. We had to look at maps to get places.

Jackie - 00:04:39:

That's insane.

Leslie - 00:04:40:

And I was so homesick. My husband, being the good guy he is, he's like, let's go back home and get your first another TV job there and so we moved back from Houston to Nebraska, and he did not have a job. So he was roguing cornfields for me as I got my first TV job. Once again, so much support I think it's so important to say that because he left his dream gig. For me. Those things, I'm like, man, you don't realize that until you get older. It's like, what a gift. What a gift that is. And I thought I was going to be in Nebraska for a couple more years. That's what you do when you start out in TV and then you work your way up. And I actually had an opportunity to start a local talk show, which meant I was going to stay longer. And then we had a couple of babies and I just stayed longer in TV and we ended up staying here.

Jackie - 00:05:38:

And

Leslie - 00:05:39:

I really, on paper, had this dream gig. I mean, it was 2010, 2009, something like that and for TV, my hours were really good. I got to go in at 6 a.m. and leave at 2 p.m. and before I'd been, when I was the morning anchor, I was going in at 1 a.m., those kind of things. So it was so much better. On paper, it was great I had a flexible job. I got to talk to people on our one-hour talk show. Like 10 people would come in. It was a dream gig. But I felt like I was missing something. And my faith is very important to me and I can look back now and say, I really think it was a God whisperer is what I say a lot, is that there was a purpose for me to leave TV and I actually got a call on my work phone back again before your cell phone from a woman who said, Leslie, I have something to talk to you about. Give me a call when you're done with the show. And that day... Before I made that phone call back, it was a woman who worked at our local Chamber of Commerce and I knew her through TV, but not well. You know, we were just acquaintances. And before I called her back, I said, wouldn't that be cool if she had a job for me? And I called her and she had a flipping job for me at the Chamber of Commerce. So I was like, okay. And I don't know why I am the way I am, but I left TV for this business job. And this broadcast journalism girl had no idea like I didn't know anything about business. Like what? But I left. I left to work in this Chamber of Commerce and the first day I remember coming home for lunch and just sobbing because I didn't even know how to do a Google spreadsheet. I was like, what am I doing? But what I learned through that is I learned the business world. And I met actually so many people in the business community, and I understood that side and that part of it. But then I also still missed that creative TV side and that's when we officially started Herbie from Home, and that was in 2012. So it's interesting how those two things combined. But I like to look back and be like, I couldn't have, well, I know for sure, I couldn't have done what I've done with the business had I not taken that path. Because I wouldn't have even known what to do. But it's interesting too, because I still get to help people share stories, which is really the core of what I love and really what our mission is.

Jackie - 00:08:07:

That's amazing.

Leslie - 00:08:08:

It was long-winded, wasn't it?

Jackie - 00:08:09:

No, absolutely not. You know, what's interesting, Leslie, is what gave you the courage to just jump up and do something new, different from what you thought was your dream path, right? Yeah.

Leslie - 00:08:23:

Once again, because I knew if I would fail, which I failed a lot, I knew I had a support system who loved me, you know? I don't think I realized that as much as I have until this last year with the book. Because I knew, and we did, it took years before… Her View From Home started making enough money to pay myself. So I was still working full time and doing Her View in the evenings and over lunch breaks and stuff. But I remember when my husband, we went out to eat, we were having a glass of wine and he did, he encouraged me. He was like, Les, I think you need to go all in on Her View From Home. I think that's where your focus needs to be. And we both knew, okay, if it doesn't work, we are a two-income family. I'm going to have to find a job. But I have a degree and I've met enough people and I knew I could find a job somewhere. So the risk, although I love telling people, go, take risks. It's amazing. But also, if you have to put food on the table, you've got to have a backup plan in case it fails because there's a good chance it will. But if you have that support system, I tell people a lot too, I'm like, if you have even one person who believes in you, I mean, that can make all the difference. So that's why. I really think that's why I was able to take all these risks is because I knew. Even if I fail, my support system and the people who love me will still love me no matter who I am.

Jackie - 00:09:47:

That's amazing. And it's a good reminder for those of us who do have those people in our lives that support us to really thank them for that because they give us courage and the ability to do things beyond. What we think makes sense sometimes and I think that's so fantastic. So how did you get started with your website, Her View From Home, and to what do you attribute the success of your site?

Leslie - 00:10:16:

Yeah. Okay. This is also long-winded, so it's hard to know where to start.

Jackie - 00:10:22:

Podcasts are great for stories.

Leslie - 00:10:24:

Right? So when I started in 2012, I actually had two business partners with me. And we started with just friends. We would ask people we knew and we were like, do you want to share your story? I'm like, sure so once again, friends, support. And that's, After a while, and also I will say before we even launched it, we won a business plan competition through the local university that I found out through the Chamber of Commerce so it's just interesting to me, all these connections. And I was going door to door, business to business, to ask people if they wanted to advertise on this website before it even launched and because they knew me through TV, they were like, oh yeah, I'll give her 50 bucks. She's not crazy. I think she'll be good with the money. And so that took that was how we first started it. But it really, like I said, wasn't making money for several years. Those two business partners left, and I didn't blame them for a second because they weren't making any money. And it was June of 2016. I had already left my full-time job, and I was all in on Her View From Home and that was the month we found out that we were expecting our third baby, this little dude who's now six and that was also the month that we realized there was not much money left in the business. I had about a month and then I would have to make a decision if I was going to keep the website running or shut it down. And I remember having – so much peace in that moment, which is weird because I should have been panicking, but I had a lot of peace. And we refinanced our house that month. And so that gave us a full month. We didn't have to pay a mortgage and it was not long after that that an email came in. And Herbie from Home was pretty small then. We were about 20,000-ish Facebook followers. And, you know, we're like 1.5 million now in 2020. And she said, Leslie, I found your website and I've been praying about it and I, that your website is a place that I want to share this story. And, um, it was a story about her friend who had died four months after she gave birth to her baby from, um, died by suicide. And she really wanted to share her friend's story and, um, thought, gosh, yeah. We've always said it's bigger than us. It's bigger than us. And we shared it. We saw the site just take off and not long after we shared that story, a woman emailed me and said, Leslie, thank you for publishing this piece. It saved my life. And this is the moment, I feel like I just have so many moments with her view that happen over and over and over again of I'm always like, okay, God, if this is what you want me to do, I'm going to keep doing it and the site was just never the same after that. So many people found us. And then that happened again in January there was a really big piece. And then, and it was so good because I didn't know, honestly, you know, I'm pregnant and I didn't know how I was going to keep the site running and, and it just, it happened. Um, and, and we're just so grateful. And, and the writers, the people who, the women who share their stories from across the globe, I tell them this all the time. I'm like, you guys, you have no idea the impact that you're making just by sharing, just by sharing your story. Sometimes people reach out and tell you, but most of the time they're not going to say anything, but you can be saving lives just by sharing your own personal journey, which is, kind of incredible.

Jackie - 00:14:22:

That's so amazing. And you're so right. You can inspire people. You can help people. You can encourage people. You can provide support to people just by sharing your story and being the success and having overcome a thing, right?

Leslie - 00:14:38:

And exactly what you're doing. This is just such a big deal. I think we tell people, too, even if you never write your own story, tell someone. Go find a neighbor and tell someone your story. I mean, I just think that you can make a huge impact in your own backyard when you do that.

Jackie - 00:14:53:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Can you share how you started your business as a busy wife and a mom and working full time what were some of the breaks that you got? We talked about the support system. What were some of the lessons learned? For those of us who may be thinking about entrepreneurship, but we've got so many different things going on in our lives. How did you get started, Leslie? and what advice do you give to people that are looking to start something on their own?

Leslie - 00:15:27:

I think. See, this is such a tricky question for me because I don't think the way I did it at first was very healthy at all. In fact, I know it wasn't. But I think... for me personally, I've always had this weird drive. I think a lot of entrepreneurs do. You know, it's like, okay and I also was never doing this just for fun. Like I always knew, okay, if I'm going to do this, it has to be an income for my family and then as I got a staff, I'm like, it has to be an income for staff and we pay a lot of people. And that drives me a lot because I know what it is to not have much and to want to work for that. But the first four or five years, it was... I was working full time, my husband's working full time, and the girls were really little, two and six months and I can say this stuff now without getting emotional, but I missed a lot. I missed a lot when they were really little. I would go to bed. I would put them to bed and then I'd go back to work. And I, you know, moms do that. We just, we give so much of ourselves, but I missed out on a lot of friendships. I really didn't allow any room for that  I never tried to meet new friends. I remember getting invited to things and I was like, nah, I can't, you know, I need to work on this and thankfully it worked out, but I don't know. I don't know if that's the healthiest way to do it. I know now when my last baby was born and that whole experience was so different because in the website was successful. But it was, it was so grueling those first years and had I not believed in it and had people who believed in me, I would have quit a long, a long time ago. So I, I, I don't know if it's healthy to work as hard, I think, as a lot of women do. But if you believe in it, if you believe it's bigger than you, that's always my thing. I felt like it was a bigger mission for me. There was a purpose to keep going, and again, I had that support to do so.

Jackie - 00:17:32:

That's amazing. Leslie, your site reaches millions of followers monthly. Is there a story or two that really resonates with you of all of the submissions on your site?

Leslie - 00:17:44:

Yes. I mean, there's so many, but there's one called Don't Be a Butthole Wife. Can we say that on your podcast? Yes. And so it was so interesting because that was January 9th, I remember exactly, 2017, and I'm so pregnant. I'm so pregnant and I'm painting my kid's bedroom. And I didn't have any staff yet for the site. We hired people that fall of 2017 is when we finally brought on staff. But it was just me. I sat down that night before and this author, she sent in that title, Stop Being a Butthole Wife, I think is what it is and how many times can we say butthole on your podcast?

Jackie - 00:18:28:

As many as necessary.

Leslie - 00:18:29:

So in my journalism, you don't cuss. You just don't. You don't cuss, whatever that's what you learn in TV and at this point, I'm so pregnant. I think I was like seven months pregnant. I'm like, I don't care. I like this title. I like this story. I'm leaving it. And I set it to publish and it published the next day and it went bananas. And the story is her husband... She has four boys young, her husband went hunting and he fell out of a tree and died. And left – I know, I'm like, man, we share some tough stories. Left her, you know, with these four young boys. And her story was she remembers the last time she washed – her husband's laundry. Like the very last time that she would, you know, because that was the last load of laundry that he had and, her story was really, Let go of those little things. Don't be walked on. But if there's shoes in the floor, pick them up. Like don't worry so much and then let him do the same. and that story stuck with me so much. And I think about it, I mean, probably a couple times a month, all the time of just her words of, you know, when my husband's annoying the crap out of me, I'm like, okay, you know, is this really that big of a deal? Like in the big picture, is this that big of a deal? And that's one of just, I mean, truly hundreds that have stuck with me, but I'll never forget that one. That one went crazy. It had like 9 million views in a month. I mean, it was just... Unreal how that took off.

Jackie - 00:20:06:

That is incredible. Let's talk about your book, So God Made a Mother, Tender, Proud, Strong, Faithful, Known, Beautiful, Worthy, and Unforgettable, just like you. I love that. Tell us what inspired you to write the book and what are we going to learn from it?

Leslie - 00:20:24:

Yes. Okay. Um, I always knew that we wanted to write a book and it's so easy for me to promote this because it's written by like 86 of us. There's so many stories in there, right? We always knew we wanted to write a book, but I needed that... Whispery goose bumps something to know the title. We always know that titles are important. And it was spring of 2020, April of 2020, and I'm sitting in the bathtub. You know, like where all the best ideas come, right? Because you're like quiet and I thought, duh, So God Made a Mother. That's such a good title because we have articles on the website. So God made a boy mom, so God made a grandpa, all these things that just go nuts that people love because they're real and people relate to them. And I like had that that like goosebumps feeling of, oh, this is gonna be good. And then I got out of the tub and I told our team and they're all like, Right, it is. I mean, we're so exhausted by this point because it's, you know, second month of COVID. We're like, what? Now what are we doing? But we... We did. We found some agents and again, this sounds like, oh, it was so easy for Leslie, but Herbie from Home will be 12 in April. And this book has been out this year. So really, it's taken a lot of years and a lot of time to get this. But we'd built up this community and were known. And so we found agents and then we pitched it to several publishers and we got a deal pretty quickly and we opened it up to our writing community. So we didn't want to, eventually I think this series, because I want lots more books, I think we'll open it up to people outside of the Herbie community. But right now it's just the writers. And we asked them specifically just to tell us their stories and we wanted it to be able to relate to anyone. We say it's for any mother who has a mother or knows a mother or is a mother, because we really want it to be just relatable to everybody. And we didn't want just one stage. So it's broken up into those characteristics so that you can read it and at any stage understand what the writer is saying. And so it's for women who don't have children, it's for grandmothers, it's for women with teens or toddlers. I mean, it really is all of it. And it's... It's, I think, what did I say, 86 stories, maybe 86 writers and I lead the reader through each section. And there's some really hard, really hard pieces in here and some beautiful stuff. And it's emotional. I mean, lots of people are like, okay, I got to cry through each one. But sometimes it's a happy cry and sometimes it's a sad cry because it's not always beautiful, right? The journey can be really hard. And it's all new content. We opened it up and we had over 500 submissions come in and we had to dwindle it down to about less than 100. So it's just some of these writers are already bestsellers. Some of them you've never heard of and that's what I love so much too, because I just want everybody to know that their story is so important. It doesn't matter who you are your story is worth sharing. Mm-hmm, that's right.

Jackie - 00:23:38:

Leslie... Why do you think your site and the stories of the people that are sharing your resonate so well with so many people.

Leslie - 00:23:50:

 I think it's because we're real. I think in all of the crap that's out there, at the end of the day, all of us want to be the best mom, wife, sister, friend, spouse, partner, whatever we can be. And that's what the site does that's what the book does. I don't want drama. I'm just not a fan. There's so much drama on the internet and we've pushed really hard to be that middle space I think that's because of the reporter in me, one of my very close friends and the editor of the site also used to be a reporter. And so we just – we want to tell the story no matter who you are. We don't want division and so for me, like, it's important that faith was in there, but I don't ever want it to be a – a faith site that says you're doing this right or wrong. I just want to be a place where people are comfortable sharing their story about faith if they want to and if not, no big deal. I mean, that's a big thing for us too, for the book. We wanted it to be, and it is in all places, whether you know God or you're not sure he's for you. We just want it to be a book for everyone. And that's a really hard space to be in, in 2023, almost 2024, really hard. But we fought for that and I think it's showing that that's what the world wants. We just want community. We just want to share our stories, reach out to someone else and help somebody along the way. I think that's the good stuff in life. And it got lost a little bit the last few years and I hope the world realizes that that needs to come back a little bit more.

Jackie - 00:25:26:

Definitely. And, you know, it's so interesting and refreshing because so much on the Internet is this fabricated idea of a life. And when you said because they're real, right, that's not what you get so often on the internet. You get these pretend pretty pictures and not the real emotion, the real experiences. And I think from my perspective, that's one of the things that really draws people to your site is because we're looking for that because as a society, we're becoming devoid of those real connections and those real experiences. And I think that's so amazing.

Leslie - 00:26:11:

Thank you.

Jackie - 00:26:13:

Leslie, if you could go back and do one thing different in your business, what would that be?

Leslie - 00:26:19:

Oh, gosh. Oh. What would I do differently? How many, how many things can I pick that I would do? I, um, I think this is both a beautiful trait of mine and also a downfall. I am too trusting. I share too much information and I think that's how it became a success at first, but There was a time in the business where I shared too much and I just thought I had to be everyone's friend. And I have realized you can't do that. You can't. You have to set up boundaries for yourself and you have to be okay for people not to like you. And you have to be okay for people not to always know so much information. I'm a talker. If you can't tell and so I would go back to myself and say that. Maybe put up some boundaries a little bit sooner and not think those boundaries are bad. They're healthy. But I think we've all had to kind of learn that in the last few years of putting up boundaries. So yeah, that's of all the things and all the mistakes. I fail a lot. I fail a lot. But we just keep going. We just keep going.

Jackie - 00:27:39:

That is great advice. Great advice. Leslie, what's next for you? So the site's doing great. You've got a book out. What's next?

Leslie - 00:27:49:

Yeah. So we actually have, we haven't announced it anywhere. We have a journal coming out in April. It is So God Made a Mother Story and it's for women to be able to share their whole story. There's prompts throughout. And that's exciting so that's in April. So you're the first one. You're the first one I've been.

Jackie - 00:28:08:

I'm so excited. I know.

Leslie - 00:28:10:

So we're working on that. And we've got some other plans in the works. So I really, I see So God Made a Mother as being the next chicken soup for the soul series. I really, and I think I keep telling people that so I don't sound nuts. But it's doing well. So it works because I see it as something. Getting even more specific for different niches. Of, um, grandmother and aunt, uncle, cats. I don't know. I just think there's so many stories that can be told. And I say that a lot. I'm like, you know, a good story never goes out of style. So no matter what the social media landscape, no matter how much it changes, and it will, people still want to share their stories and I think that's important to do and we want to be there to help them do that.

Jackie - 00:29:04:

Wonderful. Leslie, what is the story that you should share on her view from home?

Leslie - 00:29:12:

Oh, me personally?

Jackie - 00:29:13:

Mm-hmm.

Leslie - 00:29:17:

I don't know. I probably already do. I share. You know what? Right now I would talk about raising teens. Okay. I tell this a lot. I used to be, and used to just in like a couple years ago, I was like, oh, I don't like it when all the parents say it's hard raising teens that makes me feel sad because the teens, what are they? No, it's real hard. Like I, I eat food, like I'll eat pizza in the shower and cry and sob from these teens. I'm like, what is this? And it's really just been this year with the 15 and 13 year old. I'm like, holy cow. I don't recognize these women at all. These young women at all. And that's probably my story right now is, is raising teens and being like, oh, I totally understand what you're saying. And so much now too. My mom, she'll be 75 in a couple months. And I'm always like, mom, I'm sorry. I get it now. Right, right, right. You just don't – and that's the gift of getting older. You don't understand it until you're there and then your perspective changes and then you can appreciate those who came before you a little bit. A little bit better.

Jackie - 00:30:21:

Absolutely. That's so true. When my daughter was young, she'll be 22 next week. I said, that's not going to be me. Yeah. We have the best relationship. It's just not going to be us. We're best friends and then those teen years hit and the doors started to slam and the. Gosh.

Leslie - 00:30:41:

The. Right.

Jackie - 00:30:46:

And what I will say, Leslie, is it gets better.

Leslie - 00:30:49:

That's what I've heard, that they come back. That's right. But they come back around. It takes a bit. And see, it took a little longer because for my oldest, she was really – middle school was really pretty great for her. But now this year, she has turned into a dinosaur monster. I love you, Ella. But also different.

Jackie - 00:31:07:

Yeah, I get it. I get it. I love that. Leslie, what is the message that you would want to leave with our listeners today?

Leslie - 00:31:18:

The world needs your story. That's our big mission is. you know, even if you never write it, find someone and share your story with them and then be willing to listen to theirs too. That's how actually we can make some big change in our homes, our communities, is just being willing to listen to someone else's story and then being brave enough to share your own. Mm-hmm.

Jackie - 00:31:44:

Fantastic and then how can listeners learn more about Her View from Home and get in touch?

Leslie - 00:31:52:

Yeah. Okay. So her view is on all the social medias. I mean- We're kind of on TikTok, but really I'm old. So it's Facebook and Instagram are two big things. And we have a newsletter. I have my own social media, Leslie Means. and then So God Made a Mother is sold wherever books are sold.

Jackie - 00:32:12:

Leslie, thank you so much for your time today. This has been a great conversation. 

Leslie - 00:32:17:

Thank you. This was fun.

Jackie - 00:32:18:

As we approach the holiday season, we want to express our deepest gratitude for your continued support. In the spirit of celebrating and spending quality time with loved ones, Diversity Beyond the Checkbox is taking a short two-week break. We'll be back with more insightful episodes on January 9th to kick off the new year together. We wish you a holiday season filled with warmth, laughter, and meaningful connection. Thank you for being part of our diverse and vibrant community. See you in 2024.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Diversity Beyond the Checkbox. If you enjoy the podcast, please take a moment to share it with a friend, leave a rating and review, and subscribe so you'll be reminded when new episodes are released. Become a part of our community on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. This show is proudly part of the Living Corporate Network and was edited and produced by Earfluence. I'm Jackie Ferguson. Take care of yourself and each other.