Mel: "Two things in my life that I could see straight down the line... selling online...and Bitcoin." - part 1

Tali: 00:00:00

Hi everyone.

Tali: 00:00:01

Welcome to Orange Hatter.

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Today you're listening to a conversation I had with Mel.

Tali: 00:00:06

Well, hi Mel.

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Welcome to Orange Hatter.

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I am so happy to have you here.

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Thank you for joining us and sharing your stories with us.

Mel: 00:00:14

Thanks for having me.

Tali: 00:00:15

Awesome.

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So we'll jump right in with our first question.

Tali: 00:00:18

When did you first hear about Bitcoin, and what was your journey

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like from discovery to conviction?

Mel: 00:00:25

So in 2015, I bought a hundred bucks worth of Bitcoin and then

Mel: 00:00:30

immediately forgot about it.

Mel: 00:00:31

I don't really know why.

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I have a feeling it was during that Cyprus losing their currency

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thing, and I read about it and they were talking about Bitcoin and I

Mel: 00:00:39

thought, oh, that's interesting.

Mel: 00:00:41

I've been an early adopter on the internet.

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I started selling online in 1998.

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So when I saw that, I thought, oh, interesting.

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So I bought it.

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Forgot all about it.

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2017, someone said to me, have you seen Bitcoin or have you heard of this thing?

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And like, have you seen what the price is doing?

Mel: 00:01:02

And I went, have some of that.

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And so I go find it and that a hundred dollars is worth $4,700.

Mel: 00:01:08

Ta-da.

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So I'm like, what is this?

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Why did this happen?

Mel: 00:01:13

Is it gonna keep happening?

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And uh, that set me down the rabbit hole and my family was telling me to sell.

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And my dad, you know, it's like, oh my gosh.

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It's all, that's all that.

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I'm like, no, I'm not going to.

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I'm gonna wait.

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It was a hundred bucks.

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It's a hundred bucks for me to find out what is this.

Mel: 00:01:30

And I went down the rabbit hole and I've never looked back.

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I continue to educate myself as much as I can.

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I mean, I have been like trying to debunk it for years and I can't, I can't.

Mel: 00:01:45

So that is where I began.

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And so once I started to learn, so I'm like, okay, now how do I learn more?

Mel: 00:01:51

How, what do I do?

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I get on Twitter and I start following some people.

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I followed this kid who's, you know, I don't know, like who's

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a good trader, who's this?

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Because of course, my first thing I thought was, okay, if I need more

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Bitcoin, I could just learn how to trade and then I could make more Bitcoin.

Mel: 00:02:08

Okay.

Mel: 00:02:08

That's crazy.

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Don't anyone think that immediately, unless you already are a trader.

Mel: 00:02:13

That was my first thought.

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And because I'm an antique dealer and I'm buying and selling all the time,

Mel: 00:02:19

I thought, well, it's the same thing.

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And it kind of is actually.

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I mean, when you look at antiques and vintage, you're looking at something

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that has scarcity and something that has demand and something people are

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collecting, and that's exactly what Bitcoin is now, why they're collecting it.

Mel: 00:02:35

I think people have different reasons.

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People understand what Bitcoin is going to be, where it's already going,

Mel: 00:02:42

and then some people just wanna make money and they see the potential.

Mel: 00:02:45

Okay, either way, I don't care.

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I know some people care.

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I don't care if that's what it takes for you to get in and and

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learn some more, then do it.

Mel: 00:02:53

So I got scammed on Twitter almost immediately.

Mel: 00:02:58

I have been on the internet...

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I had my own home computer at, in like 1995.

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This giant, compact computer I was so proud of, and I couldn't wait to get

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that disc in the mail, you know, like to get my 30 minutes of being online.

Mel: 00:03:12

So I have not, it's like if I cannot get scammed all that time

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until I reached Bitcoin Twitter?

Mel: 00:03:19

Oh, these are clever little monkeys.

Mel: 00:03:20

And it was, um, it was the pretending to be the guy I was following and

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messaging me and saying, oh, my class is open now for registration.

Mel: 00:03:29

I'm like, awesome.

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So I send this person 0.01 Bitcoin, and it wasn't him.

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be incredibly skeptical and pay attention

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to usernames because it's very easy, especially if you're busy or you're

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not, you know, totally focused, it's very easy to get scammed.

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So I recover from that, and then somehow I find Tone Vays.

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Okay.

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Tone has been in the space a long time.

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He is...

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and for some reason I started watching his show every day.

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He was the first person that explained s*** coins in a way that I understood.

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Because I kept thinking, what is the rest of this stuff?

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Like, I remember watching on Coinbase when they let Bitcoin

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cash, like when they let that loose.

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And it went from like nothing to 2,500 bucks in like five seconds.

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Like I watched that happen and I'm like, what is going on?

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What is this?

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So Tone was the first person who explained it.

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He explained it well, and I learned fairly quickly that Tone could not be bought.

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You know, he did not have sponsors.

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He wouldn't take sponsors that weren't like Bitcoin, absolutely, Bitcoin only.

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And even then he was hard, you know, he had a hard time taking that kind

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of thing, like doesn't wanna take people's money, wants to educate.

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And so I stuck around and I've been, you know, hanging

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on his every word ever since.

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In 2018, I went to a conference in Chicago, the first Bitcoin

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conference I ever went to because Tone was gonna be there and he

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was teaching a class on trading.

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Okay.

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Now I listen at that moment, at that class, like I think I even

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raised my hand and asked some dumb candlestick question, which is

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like, I shouldn't have been there.

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I met him and I met Mike, Mike Jarmuz, who's with Lightning Ventures, and they

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were the first people I met in person.

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And they were gracious and probably thinking, who is this woman?

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You know, who is she and why is she here?

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So I, I was there because I trusted him and I wanted to hear what he had to say.

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And I have honestly tell you, and now I worked for ... and I

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can honestly tell you I've never, that feeling has never faltered.

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You know, he's, he still doesn't lie.

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He still cannot be bought and because of that, his conference was the first

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conference I went to outside of the state.

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You know, I went to Vegas to the first Unconfiscatable, my first

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Unconfiscatable, in 2020 by myself.

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And I was, it was the best experience I've ever had.

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I mean, that's what, that was my huge orange, orange pill.

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Like I know I'm in, I'm in, I'm in deep.

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So I have, that's how it started and that's my.

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My journey and now I am the organizer of Unconfiscatable for 2023, and I'm excited.

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It's really going well.

Tali: 00:06:07

So it, it takes, it takes a, a lot of like tiny pivotal steps for you to

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get from discovery to that conviction.

Tali: 00:06:16

2015 to 2017, it was...

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and then 2017 to when you're fully in 2020.

Tali: 00:06:23

Right?

Tali: 00:06:24

So can you give us an idea of your personal background?

Tali: 00:06:29

You are obviously very interested in learning and you said you were an early

Tali: 00:06:34

adopter even in the internet movement.

Tali: 00:06:37

So give us an idea of who you are, you know, your personal background.

Mel: 00:06:42

Well, I'm from, so I'm from Metro Detroit originally.

Mel: 00:06:45

That's where I grew up and you know, very probably lower middle class neighborhood.

Mel: 00:06:51

You know, definitely when I was in high school I was bored to death.

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I mean, I school board me and they had the computer lab over at the career center.

Mel: 00:07:00

So I would just because.

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It got me outta school and like doing different things during the day.

Mel: 00:07:06

I took these computer classes and I'll never forget Mr...

Mel: 00:07:09

And so this is what, 1987?

Mel: 00:07:11

Okay.

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1986.

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1987.

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There were computers.

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There was Lotus 1, 2, 3, there was Word Star, and I remember Mr...

Mel: 00:07:20

The one thing I took with me was, you can always get out of everything.

Mel: 00:07:24

Like there's a way to get out of any computer situation, just look for it.

Mel: 00:07:29

And like to this day, I use that, you know, if I'm in a situation, but I started

Mel: 00:07:34

there and I was so good at it, you know, I just, and I'm not a programmer or anything

Mel: 00:07:40

else, but I can use a computer and I can find stuff and I know how to do things.

Mel: 00:07:44

And that was my early adoption.

Mel: 00:07:48

I long, you know, long story, I won't even do this, but like, let's cut to 1998.

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My husband is a comic booking card collector from childhood on and we

Mel: 00:07:59

were gonna buy our first house and I saw this eBay, I kept hearing about

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eBay and I said, why don't we try selling some of this stuff on eBay and

Mel: 00:08:06

maybe we can raise some house money.

Mel: 00:08:07

Well, that was it.

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I was hooked.

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And I, I couldn't even buy a digital camera.

Mel: 00:08:13

It was so expensive to buy one.

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I bought a scanner.

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I would lay things on it.

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I would put a blanket on top.

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I thinking back on it, how much time this took on dial-up, mind blowing.

Mel: 00:08:25

But when I started selling things on eBay, people said to me, you're crazy.

Mel: 00:08:29

No one's gonna buy anything from you online.

Mel: 00:08:31

Nobody's gonna send you a check and wait, and you know, wait till

Mel: 00:08:35

they get their money, you know, wait till they get their item.

Mel: 00:08:38

I go, you wanna bet?

Mel: 00:08:39

I could see it straight down the line.

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I knew everything was gonna be online.

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Everything we bought was gonna be online at some point.

Mel: 00:08:46

And I said in like 20 years, everything's gonna be online.

Mel: 00:08:49

But at that time, eBay was the only place really that you could buy online.

Mel: 00:08:54

And people were into it, you know, I had no problem waiting for that

Mel: 00:08:58

check and then waiting for it to clear and then shipping it.

Mel: 00:09:01

And it was empowering, you know, it was like having, all of a sudden I

Mel: 00:09:05

didn't wanna work for anybody else.

Mel: 00:09:07

You know, I had a really good job.

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I worked for an accounting firm as a recruiter for financial

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positions, and I was like on track to make 80 grand my first year, and

Mel: 00:09:19

that's a lot for that time period.

Mel: 00:09:21

And I quit.

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I had hives.

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I couldn't stand it.

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I couldn't stand the drive.

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I couldn't stand any of the structure.

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Like I wanted my own freedom.

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My daughter was, I mean, she was probably five or six and like I

Mel: 00:09:35

knew we wanted to have more kids.

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I wanted to be at home with them.

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So I created that eBay business.

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And then I was part of the Power Chicks, which were all

Mel: 00:09:43

women power sellers on eBay.

Mel: 00:09:45

And they're still friends of mine.

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So Bitcoin...

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In fact, you know what?

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Now that, now that I just said that out loud, those ladies would

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appreciate Bitcoin in a big way.

Mel: 00:09:54

I know it and they would trust me, and if I said it was good, they'd

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be like, let's find out more.

Mel: 00:09:58

Let's check on that.

Mel: 00:10:00

But anyway, so yeah, I mean that was my, that was my thing.

Mel: 00:10:03

And I buy estates.

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I would, and I started looking for vintage stuff because the

Mel: 00:10:08

markup is, Is so much better.

Mel: 00:10:10

I mean, it's really hard to buy retail and sell that online or like go to

Mel: 00:10:15

a show or what do you call those things like in Atlanta they have that

Mel: 00:10:18

marked and it's really hard to go and buy retail things at half the price.

Mel: 00:10:23

You know, you have to make like five times your money or

Mel: 00:10:26

you are not going to survive.

Mel: 00:10:29

Vintage and antiques will do that where retail won't.

Mel: 00:10:33

So I had friends that went into different things and thought it would be easier to

Mel: 00:10:36

do brand new stuff, but the volume that they had to do was so huge to make a

Mel: 00:10:41

profit wasn't, that wasn't worth it to me.

Mel: 00:10:43

So that was my, that was my deal.

Mel: 00:10:46

And then in, now keep in mind at this point, I'm a

Mel: 00:10:49

completely clueless financially.

Mel: 00:10:51

I have no nothing.

Mel: 00:10:52

Like, we grew up with nothing.

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We didn't, you know, know anything about the stock market, know

Mel: 00:10:58

anything about anything, you know, we're not taught that in school.

Mel: 00:11:01

The only thing my mom taught me, which really annoyed about, to this day,

Mel: 00:11:05

money's only good for the things that buy.

Mel: 00:11:07

So, you know, I had no savings, I had nothing, and in 2007, the market started

Mel: 00:11:12

to fall apart and Detroit fell apart.

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My husband was working for a big three supplier.

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I had my own shop.

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No one could buy anything because no one had any income.

Mel: 00:11:21

Every other house on our street was being foreclosed on.

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I started going to Chicago to sell because nobody was buying.

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Pretty soon I got myself a job at the biggest vintage and antique

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show in Chicago, and I loved it.

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Absolutely loved it.

Mel: 00:11:33

So that's me.

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It's like I get into every portion of this, like I started my career

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in antiques online and then moved into live shows where most

Mel: 00:11:41

people, it's the other way around.

Mel: 00:11:43

You know, you're starting live and then you learn how to sell online.

Mel: 00:11:46

I couldn't tell anyone that I sold online.

Mel: 00:11:48

I was, I couldn't tell anyone that that was how I got started.

Mel: 00:11:51

You're expected to learn this from your grandma and your mom, and you like went

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to the antique shows with them, and that's how you're supposed to learn.

Mel: 00:11:59

You don't learn from eBay.

Mel: 00:12:00

That was like unheard of now today.

Mel: 00:12:02

So I worked for that and we made the decision to move here full time

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and move, uproot everything and come and we live in the northern Chicago

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suburbs now and we have 14 years.

Mel: 00:12:14

So when I did that, I left that job because once again, I.

Mel: 00:12:19

She wanted to go in more of a craft direction and things, and I'm a

Mel: 00:12:22

vintage person, so I started my own market called Vintage Garage.

Mel: 00:12:27

We did it in a parking garage, an actual parking garage in Uptown Chicago.

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We were at that location for seven years and happened every

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month, a hundred vendors.

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Get 1,500 to 2,000 people on a Sunday coming uptown, and then our

Mel: 00:12:42

parking garage was getting torn down.

Mel: 00:12:45

This was right before the pandemic and I was resigned that we were done.

Mel: 00:12:49

That I was done.

Mel: 00:12:50

That was it.

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That was my live show.

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And then we were invited by the city of Evanston to come and be a part of.

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Evanston and the Vintage Garage is now located on the fifth floor

Mel: 00:13:02

of a giant parking garage in Evanston, so we're still at it.

Mel: 00:13:05

I also have a vintage clothing and jewelry show in Nashville.

Mel: 00:13:08

So these events, since selling online, doing all of this

Mel: 00:13:11

stuff, that's been my life.

Mel: 00:13:13

You know, when we came to Chicago, I also wanted my kids to learn something.

Mel: 00:13:17

Let's see, how do you put this without sounding terrible?

Mel: 00:13:19

It's like, I didn't want my kids stuck in Detroit.

Mel: 00:13:21

I wanted them to be able to.

Mel: 00:13:23

Be in an area where they met different people and saw different industries

Mel: 00:13:28

and you know, the culture and everything else here is a lot better.

Mel: 00:13:31

Detroit's a mess.

Mel: 00:13:32

It's a big, it's a big old mess and it always has been.

Mel: 00:13:35

My husband was born and raised in, in Detroit.

Mel: 00:13:38

You know, he actually lived in the city limits of Detroit,

Mel: 00:13:40

which no one does anymore.

Mel: 00:13:42

I mean, I think the amount of people that actually live in the

Mel: 00:13:45

city of Detroit is very small.

Mel: 00:13:47

So that is what I do.

Mel: 00:13:48

I still do that.

Mel: 00:13:50

Vintage Garage still happens four times a year in Evanston

Mel: 00:13:53

and now Nashville in February.

Mel: 00:13:55

And now in the midst of all of that, I started to get involved in

Mel: 00:13:59

the Bitcoin conferences and event.

Mel: 00:14:01

Volunteering my time.

Mel: 00:14:03

Learning, learning, learning, learning.

Mel: 00:14:05

You know, conferences are different than what I do.

Mel: 00:14:07

You know, I set up a show in a parking garage.

Mel: 00:14:10

That's not easy.

Mel: 00:14:11

You know, you have no amenities, you have no light, you have no electricity.

Mel: 00:14:14

It's interesting to say the least.

Mel: 00:14:17

So it's been an interesting journey.

Mel: 00:14:19

You know, learning about the conference side of things seems a

Mel: 00:14:22

little easier, but I'm, I love it.

Mel: 00:14:24

And I spent 26 years, you know, there's been two things in my life that I

Mel: 00:14:29

could see straight down the line.

Mel: 00:14:31

One was selling online.

Mel: 00:14:33

I could see it straight down the line.

Mel: 00:14:34

20, 25 years, everything was gonna be online, and Bitcoin is only is

Mel: 00:14:39

the second thing in my entire life that I've ever felt like that 20,

Mel: 00:14:43

25 years straight down the line.

Tali: 00:14:46

Thanks for joining us today and learning with us today.

Tali: 00:14:49

If the discussion with our guest resonated with you and you would

Tali: 00:14:52

like to dive deeper into the world of Bitcoin, don't miss out on joining the

Tali: 00:14:57

Orange Hatter Women's Reading Club.

Tali: 00:14:59

The meetup link is in the show notes.

Tali: 00:15:01

Also, if there are women in your life whom you think will both enjoy and

Tali: 00:15:05

benefit from learning more about Bitcoin, please share Orange Hatter with them.