Plate 73 - MAELEA Featuring Maelea from TN on Trista's PL8STORY Podcast

Plate 73 - MAELEA featuring Maelea from TN

Episode Transcript:

MAELEA

[00:00:00] Trista, Host: hey there Trista Polo here with this week's plate story. In today's episode, we meet Maelea from Tennessee. Her license plate is as unique as her name. It's Maelea. While the plate itself is retired. Maylee is not. And we'll hear all about how she is making a difference for business owners around the country. Maelea is an expert at masterminds and brings her 25 years in public education to support local business. Maelea is a grandmother, a singer, and an expert collaborator. We'll hear her story, but first, some plate story news. 

In October of 2021. The LA times did a vanity plate story of their own. They featured 18 different vanity plate owners in and around Los Angeles. Most of the stories featured were chosen from hundreds of applicants that replied to a tweet from the publication . Others were spotted on the roads of LA and contacted directly. I've been in touch with some of the plate owners featured and we'll be featuring them in a future episode of my podcast, going into much more depth about their story and the story behind their vanity plates. We have some very cool interviews coming up in the coming months. 

Now let's go meet the very cool Maelea. 

Welcome to this week's episode of Trista's plate story podcast. I'm excited to have Maelea Galyon from Tennessee with us. She's sharing the story behind her plate. MAELEA Maelea. Thank you. 

[00:01:30] Maelea, Guest: I'm excited to be here. 

[00:01:32] Trista, Host: I'm so happy to have you. Now. This is a license plate you had in the past. You don't have it anymore, but I just think you are fantastic.

And so any excuse to have you on my podcast, I was like, let's do it all. Yes. So tell me the story behind your plate and you have it with you, right? Do you want to show the people watching on 

[00:01:52] Maelea, Guest: video?

As you were talking, I was thinking about when did I actually have it, last on my car and here you go 

[00:02:05] Trista, Host: a little longer than I'd like to think that is from now. Yeah. And that I was, 

[00:02:12] Maelea, Guest: I had just gotten my driver's license. Don't you? 

[00:02:15] Trista, Host: Oh, my gosh. Okay, good. Right. So tell me you chose your plate to be your first name.

Why did you choose that? Well, 

[00:02:26] Maelea, Guest: I grew up in a small town in east Tennessee, outside of Knoxville, and I was the only Maelea and still. I probably am the only Maelea that I've ever met. I've had people tell me that they knew somebody with a name similar to that, but but growing up, you know, like other little girls would get shirts with their names on them or key chains or bracelets or something like that.

And that doesn't happen when your name is Maelea. So It was a way, it was a way to have something with my name on it. But also I realized by the time I got this plate, that a lot of people in my town remembered me. And one of the reasons that many people did remember me even years later was because I had such an unusual.

[00:03:18] Trista, Host: You know, I have a similar issue. Trista is not the sort of name that you find even today when it's a more common name than it was growing up. I still look for the shot glasses and the key chains and the cups and the plates and all the things they make like in beach towns in those gift shops, never, never, the closest I have found is Tristan or Tricia, neither of which is my name. Is there anything like that for you where your name is similar enough to something else where you're like almost, but 

[00:03:50] Maelea, Guest: yeah. So I'll see may, you know, just Mae, I will see that at times, and even like, if I go to Starbucks and they ask, you know, like, what's the name you want on it?

I'll just say, Mae they typically will spell it MAY, but you know, so that's about as close as I come is the. 

[00:04:08] Trista, Host: All right. Well, that's pretty close, but no cigar. Yes, exactly. How did your parents come up with this name? It's so unusual. Yeah. And 

[00:04:17] Maelea, Guest: I love telling my name story, so I appreciate the opportunity to do that.

My grandmothers were Doris Maye and Mary Lee. So I am Maelea was named for both of them. 

[00:04:31] Trista, Host: I love that. Oh my goodness. That's lovely. My sister's name is Dava and she was named after her father David. And so she has an unusual name as well. Although again, more popular as the years have gone by my name.

Story's not as interesting as yours, but I'll share it since I've never shared it on the podcast before. Yay. So my mother had. I can't remember what their relationship was, if it was her grandmother or great-grandmother named Anna Kay. And she loved this name and that's what she wanted to name me and my father hated it.

Thank goodness, because I don't really like it either. So they kept the Kay as my middle name. And then they went through a name book and found my name and they both agreed on it and liked it. And they were pretty young at the time. So good on them for being able to agree. Not being too obstinate about the choice.

And what's funny is that I don't have the name Kay anymore. When I got married, I dropped it because when I was a kid, I have this one aunt that would combine them just, and I just did not like, and Kay just never really resonated with me. So I dropped it when I got married and now I have no middle. But that's my name, story such as it is.

[00:05:55] Maelea, Guest: And everybody's got one. I love hearing. I 

[00:05:58] Trista, Host: love hearing people's names. Stories. Yeah. Well, you probably would because like me, your name is significant to who you are and you've never met another Maelea now. Okay. I want to tell you Leah. 

[00:06:14] Maelea, Guest: Or a Mary Lee, but not a, Maelea 

[00:06:19] Trista, Host: I have met a couple of Trista's in my life.

And I'll tell you, the first one was, I was in college and it was jarring. I didn't know how to be with somebody who had my name, because up until then that name was only mine. I didn't have to share it. And so the only identity I put to that name was my own. So to see somebody who didn't look like me talk like me act like me.

It was very upsetting. I was surprised at how much of a An identity crisis. It gave me like, who am I? It's 

[00:06:53] Maelea, Guest: interesting to me because now that you say that I can't remember what I was doing, that it's been in the last, like two weeks. I what was I looking at? Maybe it was a social media platform or something.

And typed to my name in, and I saw another person with the name spelled exactly like mine. Now I have no way of knowing if they pronounce it the same way as me or whatever. And it was uncomfortable. So, yeah, I can see where that would be 

[00:07:22] Trista, Host: uncomfortable. Yeah. Now Mark's John's and Russell's are not going to understand how we feel.

They'll just never get it. It's only something you can understand if you have a name as unique as we do. Yeah. So it's nice to have somebody who gets that, who like feels that with me. It's funny 

[00:07:42] Maelea, Guest: too. Like my son's name is Troy. And for, for people over 30 or 40, that's kind of a common boy's name, but Troy is 26 and he's never met another Troy.

So even though he has what you and I might think of as a common name, he's in that same boat where he doesn't know anybody 

[00:08:04] Trista, Host: with the same name, either. Well, warn him, don't let him get caught off guard 

[00:08:11] Maelea, Guest: that I'll do that. 

[00:08:14] Trista, Host: That's awesome. Well, you are more than your name as we all are. So tell me a little about yourself.

What do you do for a living? What's your passion and your profession? Gotcha. Well my 

[00:08:24] Maelea, Guest: passion right now is my family because I have a brand new granddaughter who was born in October of 2021. But What I do with most of my time, I have a company called Turn It Up Consulting and I run mastermind groups for entrepreneurs and business leaders.

, I had the opportunity in the last few months to put some groups together and watch them collaborate and be enable to facilitate that kind of powerful collaborative work really does feed my soul and it energizes me.

I'm learning the more that I do this work. With business folks that it really is powerful. Even for me, not just for the participants, but for me, 

[00:09:08] Trista, Host: Now I've seen masterminds. I've been involved with them before. I've read about the start of the word. I don't know if that's, when it was created, but from think and grow rich book.

What's your take on a mastermind since it is sometimes overused. Tell me a little about what you mean by that. Gotcha. 

[00:09:26] Maelea, Guest: So I'm glad that you brought Napoleon Hill's definition that because it is a definition that I use because it works for me. And I will tell you that I have two things. That I talk about that are maybe different than other mastermind groups.

One is what I call the golden role of collaboration. And that is safety. Collaboration is only as effective as the safety of the space because in order for that collaboration to be really, really powerful, people need to be willing to be vulnerable with one another. You have to feel safe to do that.

So safety is what I call the golden rule. And I would tell you that my special sauce is structure. So I use protocols and structure conversations to help the folks in my mastermind groups get to solutions quickly. We don't waste time where we're on it. 

[00:10:22] Trista, Host: I love that. And the structure comes from your background.

You have quite an extensive background, not in the business world, that helped you set yourself up and your clients up powerfully share a little bit about what you did before you started your business. 

[00:10:36] Maelea, Guest: Sure. So I spent 25 years in public education and started out as a classroom teacher, like most folks in public ed, but didn't stay there for a really long time.

I was fortunate enough to get tapped as a change agent early on in my career. So I had the opportunity to really lead new implementations and big transitions and big changes in my school district. And I got some really super powerful training in leading collaborative work in early two thousands.

And so I have literally been doing this kind of work just in a different space. But leading that and facilitating that kind of really powerful collaboration in the public ed space for a long time before I brought it out into the 

[00:11:24] Trista, Host: entrepreneurial. Wow. So you moved from education to business. I don't know a lot of people that have made that transition.

What made you decide to do that? 

[00:11:35] Maelea, Guest: Well, I was at a place where I had done most of the things in a school district that I wanted to do, and I knew that collaborative work. That was so powerful in the education space, working with teachers and school administrators and district leaders and communities, quite frankly if brought into the business space could be every bit as powerful.

So when I came out of public ed and into this space, I've joined a couple of mastermind groups, myself. and I haven't found one yet. Is this powerful is that I think mine are. It's okay. You can own it. I'm good with that. I'm still looking for that mastermind facilitator for me. 

[00:12:25] Trista, Host: So, yeah, it's true. Like every psychiatrist needs a psychiatrist.

Every coach needs a coach and every mastermind facilitator needs a mastermind facilitator. Right. We all need to have somebody level us up so we can continue to level up the people that we work with, you know of that. Yeah, absolutely. What kinds of focuses do you have for your mastermind?

Like who's your typical client when you're setting up these mastermind? 

[00:12:55] Maelea, Guest: So I have worked mostly with small business owners or leaders. So I might have someone in a mastermind group who is an event DJ, or I might have someone who is the owner of a contracting firm or someone who owns a donut shop.

So. All over the place. Like I've got solo preneurs, small business leaders, people who are owners or just leaders. Maybe they're a manager in a bigger enterprise, but most of the folks that I'm working with have businesses with fewer than a hundred employees. So I'm really looking at those folks and business leadership who are in the small businesses.

[00:13:43] Trista, Host: Yeah, I get that. And so would you put just DJs together or would you put the DJ, the donut shop and the plumber together in one 

[00:13:52] Maelea, Guest: with the DJ and the donut shop owner and the plumber together? All in one, because in Maelea's world diversity wins diversity rules where the real power. In this kind of collaborative work comes is in those ideas that spring out of nowhere like that creativity that arises when people with different backgrounds, experiences, expertise, knowledge are talking about the same thing, then connections get made that wouldn't get made outside of that space.

[00:14:27] Trista, Host: Yeah. And that's counterintuitive to what I would think. Like what does a donut shop owner know that's going to help out a DJ, but I can see what you're saying. That being able to have a perspective that is not knee deep or eyeball deep in your same industry, will be able to see something that you might not have seen because of your industry experience.

I think that's what. 

[00:14:50] Maelea, Guest: The other thing that happens is that in the, in the work of my mastermind groups, I teach some skills around effective collaboration and one of those skills is listen. Another one of those skills is be curious. And so as I'm teaching people to listen and be curious, they are also practicing that in their collaborative work.

And so they are sometimes able to hear that donut shop owners perspective in a way that they would not have heard it without the lessons about listening and being curious. 

[00:15:29] Trista, Host: That's beautiful because you're bringing a lot of your education change agents structures to your business owners. And I could see that being hugely valuable because where else would you get that kind of training in the business world unless you're in education.

Yeah. 

[00:15:46] Maelea, Guest: And, and a lot of, a lot of those skills that I'm teaching in those mastermind groups. I learned out of doing that work with all those public educators. And so. And in the education space, everybody's a learner, you know, so I know that when you're in the business space, especially business people who are interested in growing, they think of themselves as learners.

But when you work in the education sphere, everybody's a learner and it's, it's just the way of doing business. And so, yes, there are things that I've brought into the business space out of that education space that I don't, I don't know that other folks are focusing on. 

[00:16:29] Trista, Host: Yeah, well, you have a unique perspective, which allows you to have a unique offering, which I love.

So do you have any programs coming up that people might be interested in? You know, if they're looking for a mastermind or if they're intrigued by the kinds of things that you offer? Yeah, 

[00:16:48] Maelea, Guest: absolutely. First of all, I'll do. Almost always had open seats available in new mastermind groups. So I'd love to talk with anybody who would be interested there, but I'm also partnering with a really good friend of mine, Yolanda Robertson of Savored Moments Travel, and we are doing a destination strategic planning retreat for women business leaders.

So we're going to be doing three nights at the Sanderlin resort. On the outer banks of North Carolina on January 13th through 16th. And during those three days, all the ladies will develop their action plans for 2022 based on their vision of an optimal year. And they're going to walk away with a calendared action plan for their business for 2022

[00:17:40] Trista, Host: woo. That's amazing. Now what if somebody is in business they're entrepreneurial, but they don't really have a vision. Do you help them with that piece or do they really need to be visionaries to be part of this? No, 

[00:17:52] Maelea, Guest: absolutely. It's a part of what we will be doing is creating that vision. What December, 2022 would look like if the year went really, really well.

[00:18:01] Trista, Host: That sounds really great. Now this is a destination retreat type of a program. So you're staying on the outer banks. How much fun is there? I mean, is there some fun built in, well, duh, 

[00:18:17] Maelea, Guest: Trista, if you're going somewhere with Maelea we are going to play every bit as hard as we're going to work. And we work really hard, so 

[00:18:27] Trista, Host: awesome.

Work hard, play hard. So you're not sitting in a room watching the beach go by, focused on work the whole time. There'll be plenty of time for fun too. I love it. What a perfect partnership, a travel expert and a business expert together. I mean, who could do better than that? That's amazing. We're excited about.

That's awesome. I love it. So now you said that you have a new grand baby I'm sure. Knowing you and being friends with you on Facebook. I'm sure you're gonna want to talk about that. Cause I see lots of pictures. So tell us all about it. 

[00:19:01] Maelea, Guest: Yes. So my son and his wife had a baby girl in October of 2021. Her name is Edie and she is adorable.

She was born in October and she's got a head full of hair that sticks straight up, off her head. And as we record this she's moving a lot and she's like, got her eyes open a good bit. She's expressive. So it's, it's a lot of fun playing with the new grandbaby.

[00:19:30] Trista, Host: That's awesome. Well, congratulations. Now that what's her name story? 

[00:19:36] Maelea, Guest: So she, my father's name and my daughter-in-law's father's named, they are both named ed. And so her name is ed. Which is the tip of the hat to both her grandfather and her great-grandfather. 

[00:19:54] Trista, Host: I love that Edie that's cool. It's almost an old timey name too, right?

I feel like that's a name you would have heard many, many years ago. Do you know the, the name what it means? Do you know the name? I don't. 

[00:20:09] Maelea, Guest: Yeah, to look that up though. Now that you say. 

[00:20:11] Trista, Host: Yeah. Yes. That's very, very cool. Well, congratulations to them and to you. And are they nearby? You get to see them a lot.

I do. I do. Yup. 

[00:20:21] Maelea, Guest: I so funny story. We were visiting with my little brother and his family last night and I'm holding the baby. And so I've got it this morning and I was going to put the same shirt on and I saw this stuff on that shoulder of my shirt and I'm like, what? Oh, that's Edie. 

[00:20:36] Trista, Host: Oh, that's so great. And it sounds like you spent a lot of time with family. Like that's definitely something that you're passionate about. What gifts do you receive from your family that you're really grateful for? Oh, wow. 

[00:20:50] Maelea, Guest: I don't, I don't have enough time to tell you all of them, but here's what I will say is that my family is expressive. So we actually tell each other that we love each other. We hug one another, we kiss one another. And those are very special gifts cause I know there are families out there that are not expressive in that way... and time.

We enjoy being together. We are storytellers. We share stories. I like to say to illustrate how much we storytell in my family. I have a great uncle who died during world war II. And I feel like I know him, he died before I was born. And I feel like I know him because I come from the family it's storytellers.

So to me, those are the gifts, time, affection and 

[00:21:43] Trista, Host: stories. I love what you're saying here because my husband lost his father several years ago. I still hear him share the stories his father shared about members of his family, about his grandfather, et cetera. And every time he tells the story, it's like, he's with his dad.

It's like his dad is there with us. And so it's his way of keeping him close, you know, keeping him alive in his heart. So the storytelling thing is a beautiful thing to bring. What's your love language. Do you know your love language, acts of service? Acts of service. Okay. See, now that would not be what I would have guessed, because you said you love to be with your family and you love to hear stories.

Those are words of affirmation and quality time, not acts of service.

[00:22:35] Maelea, Guest: So in that, like that's my role in our family is so the things that I've gotten from my family are the, the time and the stories, but what I. Like, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a doer. Action is, is what I give. And so that's the thing that I look for as well. I love the, I love, you know, do 

[00:22:58] Trista, Host: some stuff. Oh yeah, that's great.

Mine is quality time. So I'm the one that says I'll be right over. Is there something wrong? I'll be right there. Or when I visit some family, they'll say let's put a movie on them. Like a movie. I could watch a movie at home. We're here, what's together.

[00:23:19] Maelea, Guest: And say like, if something happens, I don't say I'll be right there. I say, what can I do? 

[00:23:24] Trista, Host: Hmm. I find the love languages to be so fascinating. And of course, I think we all have combinations. Like we like personality traits. We have primary and secondary and tertiary and a combination, but I find it fascinating to see how we express love, because it can get a little dicey if I express love differently than my spouse, for example, my husband, his is also acts of service. So when I do things for him, like a simple thing, like making breakfast, it is like, I've showered him with Valentines. Right. It takes very little you're right. But for me, all I want him to do is look up from the computer and look me in the eye when I'm talking to him.

And then I feel like he is my Knight in shining armor. So it's funny how we interact with people and we have different. Love languages, for sure. So I always, we're talking about love languages, but I always like to talk a little bit about self-worth because that's such a big part of my own journey.

I'd love to hear. If you could share, how has self-worth played a role in your journey? 

[00:24:33] Maelea, Guest: Oh, wow. Yeah, it's always one of those things in the back of my head. I'm that person that has always been striving to do more and be more. And I think a part of that is a way of feeling more worthy, you know, that's that perfectionism and all of those things.

And that just, you know, we've all had things in our background that shake that sense of self-worth. And I guess when that gets shaken, we all respond in different ways. And for me, that is about striving and getting better and performance and growth. That's how that's how that gets expressed for me.

[00:25:19] Trista, Host: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I I'm always about what can I do more? How can I be better? And so I resonate very much with that. Now you express yourself and you do so musically. That's got to take a little self-worth. Tell me about your musical background and how you express that these days. So. 

[00:25:43] Maelea, Guest: I've done music since I was a tiny child.

I remember some of my cousins got together when I was little and gave me a little electric keyboard. And so I started playing when I was very young, took piano lessons all through school, and I actually was a voice major. I have a bachelor's degree in vocal performance. And then I turned around and went right back to school and got certified to teach math. So 

[00:26:08] Trista, Host: those don't sound the same, but they really are because the notes and music and all that, it's very mathematical. Yes. It's very 

[00:26:16] Maelea, Guest: mathematical. And so what I, what I did for a long time was I just got my musical love out in different ways. You know, I sang in a church choir or something like that, but for about 30 years now, I've been singing with a cover band here in my hometown.

I've have just moved back to my hometown after being away for about seven years. And so we are finally again, practicing like on the regular, like weekly. And so it's very, it is my place of joy. I say when I think about the word joy, I think about singing with my best friend and having her in my ear and that sound of us making harmony together.

[00:27:02] Trista, Host: So. Very cool. What kind of music do you play in the band? Oh gosh. 

[00:27:07] Maelea, Guest: It's really, it's really all over the place. Most of us are in our middle years, so we'd play some old pop and some country and folk and Americana. Yeah, it's just kind of all over the place, but mostly acoustic. So vocals is our thing.

That's what I would say we are known for is the vocals that we have some great acoustic guitarists and awesome. 

[00:27:37] Trista, Host: Yeah. I love it. What are some of your personal favorites to perform? 

[00:27:41] Maelea, Guest: We have been singing an old John Prine song called Angel from Montgomery for years. It is like. Our signature song when we play anywhere here in town.

And we just recently picked up an old John Denver team called Some Days are Diamonds. That is quite 

[00:28:03] Trista, Host: lovely. Yeah, right. That's great. What else about yourself? Do you want to share? 

[00:28:09] Maelea, Guest: I would just say that my most joyful role in life is that of being a mom. I'm learning that being a grandmother might be even more rewarding than being a mom, but motherhood is like best thing ever.

[00:28:28] Trista, Host: Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. Well, I've so enjoyed having you on. You're always such a pleasure to chat with. I like to turn the tables to see if you have a question you'd like to ask me. So do you have one in the holster ready to go? I do. 

[00:28:43] Maelea, Guest: All right, let's do it. So Trista, tell me about the most powerful collaborative project you've ever done.

[00:28:53] Trista, Host: This is a very hard one for me, Maelea because up until pretty recently, I had limiting belief that if you want something done, right, you got to do it yourself. I work with a team of people and I am the coach/leader / trainer for this group. And recently, I had this epiphany because of a training program I went through that I'm actually by, by having that belief and working with a team, I am constricting their ability to grow because I'm not allowing them to learn, to be leaders. And so out of that, I created an accountable team where each of us is responsible for a different piece. We work collaboratively together.

I'm the team lead still, but I rely on their knowledge and ideas and their contributions. And the most amazing thing happened. First of all, I learned that I am not the smartest person in the room and that there are other ideas that are actually better than mine. And when I collaborate with others, we're a lot smarter together than I am on my own.

I learned of course, that you can get more done when you have more people working on it, but I'm a better leader now because I'm allowing other people to grow into leadership. And we use leadership as a training opportunity. So I would have to say that's the most powerful collaboration that I've participated in. 

 Well, Maelea I wish you all the best and I definitely want to recommend people reach out to you for mastermind as well as the retreat.

I think both are amazing. And I thank you so, so much for sharing your story and your plate story here on Trista's plate story podcast. 

[00:30:48] Maelea, Guest: Thank you very much. I had a great time. I appreciate it. All 

[00:30:51] Trista, Host: right. Thanks.

Thanks for listening. Please subscribe to Trista's plate story podcast, share it, or leave a review. If you would like to nominate a license plate to be featured in a future episode or you have an interesting plate story news item to share with me, leave us a comment or visit plate story.com. That's P L number 8. story.com and give me all the details. 

This is Trista polo wishing you well on the road to your next adventure.