A mother of four decides to change careers after being laid off without pay. Two years later, a new job allows her to buy out the company that made her redundant.
Melissa worked day and night to look after her four growing children. By day she worked as an assistant in a baby food company and at night she cleaned a local hotel.
Melissa’s job was so demanding that she was often exhausted, getting only two to four hours of sleep a night. She didn’t even have time for herself and only saw her children in the morning before she left for work.
Her job as a cleaner was not an easy one. She had to deal with unruly hotel guests who made a mess of their rooms during a night of partying.
When she returned home around 2 a.m., she would immediately fall asleep and wake up tired the next day. Because of this, she was often late for her work, and the management got tired of it.
“I don’t know what you do at night, Melissa, but we can’t have you being late every day. It’s not fair to our other employees. Besides, this isn’t the first time I’ve warned you about it, and now I have no choice but to fire you,” her supervisor told her.
Melissa was desperate. She begged for her job back, explaining that she had to work two jobs to take care of her four children.
Since she worked for a baby food company, she thought they would be more responsive. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t listen to her and asked her to leave immediately.
Melissa waited several weeks to receive her redundancy payment, but it never came. Of course, she tried writing to the company, but got no response.
Her husband, Dave, pushed her to find another job, as their monthly income was barely enough to support them. So she started looking for a remote job, spending her free time recording video blogs about motherhood with her four children.
Every day, Melissa shares on social media what life is like with four children and two working parents. Indeed, week after week, her subscribers began to grow exponentially, and she realized that she had an opportunity to use her blogs.
Dave, however, could not stand it. He didn’t understand how the vlog world worked and thought Melissa was lazy, refusing to get a real job.
“While I work all day, you sit here wasting your time on the Internet? How about getting a real job? Do you know how hard it is to work day and night and then come home and find you’re doing nothing? Don’t you think that’s unfair?” – he yelled at her.
Melissa was offended by her husband’s words. “Don’t you know how hard it is to raise four growing children at the same time? I hardly have time for myself,” she cried. “Plus, my vlog is slowly gaining traction online. In a few months, if I keep working on it, I could make an income from it!”
Dave just laughed at Melissa when she said that. Specifically, he warned her that if he saw her focusing on the vlog again, he would leave her.
Behind Dave’s back, Melissa continued to blog until he shouted at her one morning. “Why are you still at home! You’re really not going to get a job? Being a cleaner at night isn’t about paying the bills, you know?” – he told her.
“Dave, can you at least have a little faith in me?” pleaded Melissa. “I’m doing everything I can to make money. It’s going to happen!” – she assured him.
“Yes, it’s true! Maybe you’re so used to me paying all the bills that you now want to be a useless housewife. I’ve had enough! I’ve had enough!” – he shouted and swiftly left the house.
A week later Melissa received a thick envelope in the post. It was her husband’s divorce papers. She cried in bewilderment. She could not believe that her husband, with whom she had lived for ten years, could just up and leave without talking to her properly. She had lost the love of her life and now had to support her four children as a single mother.
Despite this, Melissa continued to blog and even detailed the sad story of how her husband left her alone with the children. This candid vlog went viral. Women sympathised with her and were inspired by her strength and courage.
Soon after, she started making money from her vlogs. Brands approached her for collaborations and advertisements between her videos were monetised.
When she realised that she was getting regular income from vlogging, Melissa quit her job as a cleaner and stayed home all day with her children.
Not only did she start earning much more, but she no longer needed to spend money on a nanny as she could work from home looking after her children.
After two years, Melissa’s vlog has become one of the most viewed vlogs about parenting. Her page became very lucrative and her tips and advice on childcare, recipes for children and vlogs about everyday life reached millions of views.
One day she saw that the company she used to work for was up for sale. The current management could no longer keep up with trends and her products no longer resonated with parents.
Melissa decided to invest some of her savings in the company. She called the number listed in the publication and waited for someone to answer.
“Hello, this is Melissa Evans,” she introduced herself.
“Melissa Evans?” the caller replied, as if the name was familiar to him.
“Yes, I was a former employee of your company. You fired me two years ago. Do you remember that? I never got my last salary from you,” Melissa said, trying to get the manager to remember her.
The man cleared his throat. “What can I do for you?” – he asked.
“I saw that the company is for sale. I’d like to buy it,” Melissa said.
The man could not believe that a former employee wanted to buy the business. To see if Melissa’s offer was serious, he decided to arrange a meeting with her.
During the meeting, the company management was surprised to learn that Melissa wanted to buy the whole company. After signing a contract with her, they quickly corrected the transfer documents so that they could be handed over to her properly.
Melissa became the CEO of the company. She couldn’t be more proud that a company that had rejected her had now become her own, and she set out to make it as inclusive and parent-friendly as possible.
After officially taking office, she rebranded the company to meet the demands of the young mum market. She began making product videos and recruiting mums, dads and mums-to-be as employees, offering them unprecedented benefits and support.
The business became profitable again and Melissa had two steady streams of income. Finally, her ex-husband heard about her success and tried to talk to her. He had been away for three years.
“I miss us,” he told her as soon as they met. “I miss our family and I really want to see our children. Can I see them, please?”
Melissa hummed mockingly, then replied in a cold tone:
“If you want to see children, subscribe to my vlog. If you do, you can see them every day”.
