Ep. 12: When You Believe
In this season 1 finale, Mandi candidly reviews the Find Your Beautiful journey, beyond this podcast. She goes on to share her vision for how she will carry out her calling of achieving social justice for the disability community through advocacy, education, storytelling, and most importantly by building authentic relationships.
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Transcript
Mandi: Mandi Frantz here welcoming you to my podcast - Find Your Beautiful: Life Through the Eyes of a Christian Disabled Woman.
Mandi: Mandi Frantz here welcoming you to my podcast - Find Your Beautiful: Life Through the Eyes of a Christian Disabled Woman.
[Upbeat Background Music]
Mandi: The best way to take you on a quick journey through my eyes of how I got to this point of podcasting is to start at the beginning of my entrepreneurial story. It begins in 2014 when my oldest son was just 6 months old. For the 2 years prior, I thought I was living out my dream. I was working full-time with a Christian camp ministry, but God had other plans. In September of 2014, I knew my time with that ministry was coming to an end, but I had no idea what I was going to do next. I had withdrawn from college in 2010 after I had gotten sick. I didn't finish my degree and I knew I'd have to convince potential employers to see past my limitations. I'll be honest, the ability to forego that second part is one of the biggest reasons I decided to pursue direct sales. I found a unique jewelry company that had a real vision for empowering women through their business opportunity. I signed up, invested my last $200, and, well, I failed for 4 months. That's right. I didn't become this awesome mogul overnight. I'm just kidding about being a mogul, kind of. It is true that the business wasn't working out for me.
Mandi: Be sure to go to my podcast website! Go to th3mandibox.wixsite.com/fybpodcast to listen to episodes, read full transcripts, and contact me. Be sure you sign up for my Very Important Beauty (V.I.B.) club while you're there, so you can get reminders and other insider scoop. The first email you'll get from me includes the very first letter my husband, Curtis, ever wrote to me!
This podcast is also available on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and any other place you like to listen! Visit my website linked in the description to get access to all the platforms.
[Mandi voiceover to 'Compton' music]: There is still so much to talk about and I have countless stories to share! For all of you who will miss listening in to my weekly episodes, mark your calendars for May 12th, Mother's Day. This is when season 2 will launch with a very special episode on parenting children with disabilities. ‘Til next time Beauties!
Mandi: On January 10, 2019, I decided to start the Find Your Beautiful podcast. Here we are exactly 2 months later. I'm astounded that I have over 600 plays, a special feature episode, and a blog feature! January 10th was the day I committed to recording episodes on a weekly basis, but the overarching message of this podcast started percolating in my mind a couple of years ago. I just didn't have the concept fleshed out enough to start. I did take some failed attempts at getting my message out in the past, so thank you for encouraging me, supporting me, and making sure I can keep my Beautiful!
As I developed my skills and knowledge as an entrepreneur, the question that kept coming up was, "What is my competitive advantage?" In other words, what do I have that is unique, makes me stand out, and would make people choose my business, choose me, over others? For a long time, I thought the answer to this was my disability and I hated that. I have never wanted to be the poster child for disability. I have never wanted my life's work to be based on a circumstance that I played no part in. In fact, I have shared with many that I spent years trying to stay away from the disability community. I did not want to be lumped in with everyone else. I wanted to disassociate myself from the population to avoid being stigmatized, underestimated, pushed aside. As I matured in my sense of self, and more importantly in my faith, I learned to love and embrace most things about me. I learned that my disability is not a weakness to be exploited by social media, or typically functioning people looking for a way to feel good about themselves. Instead, I accepted my disability as a tool for me to use however I see fit. It is mine and can only affect me in the ways I let it. My disability became part of my toolbox to create a better world for everyone I come into contact with. So while my disability does give me some competitive advantage, it is only because of how I choose to use, or not use, it.
If my disability is not my competitive advantage, then what is? Today I'll take you on a quick journey through the evolution of my brand, MandiBox, the development of my Find Your Beautiful campaign/mantra, and help you fall in love with my vision of the future. I'll be an example to you of what can happen when you believe.
As I developed my skills and knowledge as an entrepreneur, the question that kept coming up was, "What is my competitive advantage?" In other words, what do I have that is unique, makes me stand out, and would make people choose my business, choose me, over others? For a long time, I thought the answer to this was my disability and I hated that. I have never wanted to be the poster child for disability. I have never wanted my life's work to be based on a circumstance that I played no part in. In fact, I have shared with many that I spent years trying to stay away from the disability community. I did not want to be lumped in with everyone else. I wanted to disassociate myself from the population to avoid being stigmatized, underestimated, pushed aside. As I matured in my sense of self, and more importantly in my faith, I learned to love and embrace most things about me. I learned that my disability is not a weakness to be exploited by social media, or typically functioning people looking for a way to feel good about themselves. Instead, I accepted my disability as a tool for me to use however I see fit. It is mine and can only affect me in the ways I let it. My disability became part of my toolbox to create a better world for everyone I come into contact with. So while my disability does give me some competitive advantage, it is only because of how I choose to use, or not use, it.
If my disability is not my competitive advantage, then what is? Today I'll take you on a quick journey through the evolution of my brand, MandiBox, the development of my Find Your Beautiful campaign/mantra, and help you fall in love with my vision of the future. I'll be an example to you of what can happen when you believe.
[Mandi voices Ad (ads change and will vary)]
[Doorbell Sound Effect]
Mandi: The best way to take you on a quick journey through my eyes of how I got to this point of podcasting is to start at the beginning of my entrepreneurial story. It begins in 2014 when my oldest son was just 6 months old. For the 2 years prior, I thought I was living out my dream. I was working full-time with a Christian camp ministry, but God had other plans. In September of 2014, I knew my time with that ministry was coming to an end, but I had no idea what I was going to do next. I had withdrawn from college in 2010 after I had gotten sick. I didn't finish my degree and I knew I'd have to convince potential employers to see past my limitations. I'll be honest, the ability to forego that second part is one of the biggest reasons I decided to pursue direct sales. I found a unique jewelry company that had a real vision for empowering women through their business opportunity. I signed up, invested my last $200, and, well, I failed for 4 months. That's right. I didn't become this awesome mogul overnight. I'm just kidding about being a mogul, kind of. It is true that the business wasn't working out for me.
In 2015, my then business mentor told me I needed to share my story. She said I needed to tell people why I got involved in the business. At the time, I didn't think people would care that I was just trying to feed my family and pay bills. After all, wasn't everyone? I also didn't want to give my sob story about how no employers were giving me a chance. This too, was a tune I thought got played too often. What then? What story should I share? That's when it hit me. In it's earliest form, my business was just about empowering other women with disabilities to believe in their Beauty and express it with a little bling. To do this, I created my first blog, my first attempt at getting my message out, called the DiversAble Model Project. This blog was all about featuring the normal stories of everyday women with disabilities. The first thing I learned through this process is that people with disabilities want to be heard, but not for the reasons we often think. We don't want to be heard to inspire you through our disability stories. We want to be heard so that the barriers that exist, the ones that make us disabled, can be removed. This way, we can inspire through our actual work and intentional efforts. Through my blog, I gave women a platform to voice just how normal they are. Eventually, I realized how challenging it is to blog. The consistency and constant outreach for content was strenuous. I had started working a "regular" part-time job, still ran my jewelry business on the side, and had my family responsibilities to tend. I let the blog die out.
By 2016, I realized I wanted to do more than only empowering women with disabilities. I wanted to find a way to empower all women, bringing those who identified as disabled, and those who didn't together. I started the actual MandiBox. This was another attempt at getting my message out, with a focus on relationship building. MandiBox was a subscription box I put together with the help of my fellow direct sales friends. I'd purchase goods from them and create personally curated boxes based on a style profile for each of my subscribers. At it's peak, I had 20 subscribers, which was a big deal for me. While I enjoyed connecting everyone through this unique business, it was totally unsustainable, both financially and practically. After about 6 months, the actual MandiBox closed.
However, the concepts I built into MandiBox lived on. I decided to use this name as my brand. The idea behind it was that everything I would take on from that point forward had to fit in my box. My box represented my values, my mission. Everything I took on had to somehow support my calling to achieve social justice for the disability community through empowerment, advocacy, education, storytelling, and most importantly by building authentic relationships. Originally, I created a tagline for MandiBox that said, "Upgrade Your Lifestyle." I realized this implied that you needed to change something, or exchange something in your life. It wasn't consistent with what I believe. My second attempt at a tagline was, "Unveiling True Beauty." This was much closer to my personal message, but put too much of the onus on me and my brand to take the action of showing people their Beauty. Finally, I came to, "Find Your Beautiful." This encapsulates everything I stand for. This was my focus in 2017 and the reason I jumped through a few businesses in search of the opportunity that would help me achieve this.
By 2018, I felt like I had finally found my groove. I had been promoted at my day job, came out of my bout with Post-Partum Depression, had my oldest boy in preschool and just felt ready. I was ready for the step that would push my mission forward. Towards the end of the year, three things happened that felt like a true alignment for my success. The first was an opportunity to recreate a disability sensitivity training I had given to numerous young adults. I recreated this for the NYPD. Stay tuned for more info on this in the future. This opportunity really excites me and will allow me to make a big impact on the community. The second thing that happened is that a woman I truly admire launched the direct sales model of her clothing company, which some of you know is AsherKate. I pretty much dropped everything else to be part of this business because the company mission of Passion, Purpose, Pretty things so closely resembled mine. Lastly, a number of people told me I needed to either blog, become a Youtuber, or somehow share my gift of speaking with the world.
I decided that 2019 would be my year to share my story. This would be my year to give people a real look at my life and allow them to choose me, to choose to support my businesses over others because I believe in my cause. Throughout the entire evolution of my journey, I was constantly looking for people to believe in me. "Give me a chance," I thought. Let me prove myself. This was all wrong. When I started believing in the big picture, or as a good friend says, my God-sized dreams, and when I believed in my ability through Christ to achieve them, there was no stopping me. I started this podcast because I wanted to show you that life can be really ugly. It is uglier for some than others, but we all experience the ugliness. I started off this season sharing my 3 societal strikes with you: I'm a Christian, I'm disabled, I'm a woman. Throw in the fact that I'm Latina in a political climate where race and ethnicity are hot buttons, and I should be hiding. Yet, I believe. I believe in God's calling over my life. The Find Your Beautiful podcast exists because I took a chance on myself. What can you achieve if you believe in you?
[Sudden Transition Sound]
Mandi: There are a number of activities I'll be participating in over the next few weeks that will keep me super busy. This made me realize it would be best to run this show in seasons to ensure I can give you the very best content on a consistent basis. The purpose of the episodes I've shared so far is to give you a big picture understanding of life through my eyes. My hope is that you either relate and know you are not alone, and/or that you have a new sense of respect and compassion for struggles you may not fully understand.
Although this podcast is going on a brief hiatus, you can still share your thoughts by downloading the Anchor Mobile App, and leaving me a voice message through the app. Your message might even get featured in an episode! If writing is more your thing, you can email me at th3mandibox@gmail.com, or find me on social media at MandiboxBeauty.
Although this podcast is going on a brief hiatus, you can still share your thoughts by downloading the Anchor Mobile App, and leaving me a voice message through the app. Your message might even get featured in an episode! If writing is more your thing, you can email me at th3mandibox@gmail.com, or find me on social media at MandiboxBeauty.
[Bling]
Mandi: Be sure to go to my podcast website! Go to th3mandibox.wixsite.com/fybpodcast to listen to episodes, read full transcripts, and contact me. Be sure you sign up for my Very Important Beauty (V.I.B.) club while you're there, so you can get reminders and other insider scoop. The first email you'll get from me includes the very first letter my husband, Curtis, ever wrote to me!
This podcast is also available on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and any other place you like to listen! Visit my website linked in the description to get access to all the platforms.
[Mandi voiceover to 'Compton' music]: There is still so much to talk about and I have countless stories to share! For all of you who will miss listening in to my weekly episodes, mark your calendars for May 12th, Mother's Day. This is when season 2 will launch with a very special episode on parenting children with disabilities. ‘Til next time Beauties!
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