For 20 years, Melissa Frei’s world revolved around raising her children. “[I was] pretty much a stay-at-home mom for the past 20 years, doing little odds-and-end jobs here and there,” she said. When her oldest daughter, Parker, left for college, Melissa faced a new reality and found that living on a single income was becoming harder to manage. “I really needed to figure life out and grow up a little bit.”
Without a college degree and with two young children still at home—including a toddler—reentering the workforce wasn’t easy. “The last time I filled out an application was pen and paper… I was applying everywhere… and just getting denied left and right. My last denial was the Nordstrom Rack call center telling me I wasn’t qualified enough.”
Three days later, an unexpected email from The N2 Company appeared. She almost deleted it, thinking it was spam, but she took the chance, and it changed everything. Melissa may not have taken the traditional path, but her grit, perseverance, and resourcefulness made her more than qualified for the opportunity. Her first year as a publisher wasn’t without doubts. “I questioned a lot of things… I realized I’d only been giving about 10%. So I thought, what’s the harm in actually giving it my all and seeing what happens? And clearly, I ramped up.”
Ramp up she did. In her eighth month, Melissa crossed the $20K monthly revenue mark, an achievement that’s brought both financial freedom and emotional relief. “October [2023], we couldn’t even go to Spirit Halloween to buy our kids costumes. [Last] year, we let them pick out whatever they wanted! That was huge.”
Today, Melissa’s publication Stroll Tanoan has grown from 28 pages in early 2024 to 90 pages today. She also took on her second publication, Stroll North Albuquerque Acres, in September of this year. Yet, she still works from home, attends her kids’ events, and invests in her community. “I make more money than most people do with a college degree, and I don’t have any debt for it either… the financial freedom has been beyond life-changing.”
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