Women In Wellness: Melina Baxter of Shaklee On the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Make sure to move. In the world of commuting from the bedroom to the dining room table home office, it’s easy to get sedentary. Make sure to schedule time in your day to get up and out: whether it’s a workout class, a run or just walking around the neighborhood, schedule it like you would an important meeting and make it a priority for yourself.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Melina Baxter, Chief Marketing Office at Shaklee.
Melina is a marketer, mom and multitasker. As a working mom, she’s more aware of the challenges and wanted to pitch in to help make it easier for the next generation of moms. She always has a passing for bringing great products to parents and their kids but helping make better and superior supplements was her dream job. She wanted to make this world a better place for her two sons, solving the problem for mom fits the bill.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
Absolutely! I’m a marketer by trade; I’m passionate about products and brands that resonate with me personally, so I’ve had a really fun career working across beauty, fashion, retail, tech and now, wellness. My real job is being the mother to two little boys, which has been my best adventure yet. Speaking of adventures, I have a severe case of wanderlust, so I take every chance I can to explore new places near and far. San Francisco is where I call home.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
My career path reflects my desire to constantly learn and grow. I’ve expanded on my experience with every job, adding new skills rather than just sharpening existing ones — it’s because of that that I can contribute to the business in different ways. I encourage people to push past their comfort zone to broaden their impact. In the middle of my career in marketing, I pivoted and spent 3 years focusing on Public Relations. That experience made me a better marketer. Go outside your comfort zone at least once in your career to learn how to do your job better.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I assumed that if I just worked really hard and did everything well, that my career progression would naturally come. That doesn’t just happen — you have to vocalize what you want (a raisea promotion), chart the path and make a plan. You have to advocate for yourself — this can be particularly hard for women. That includes sharing your goals and intentions with your manager, tracking your successes, and making sure you’re adding value to your team and company. Coming up against internal challenges or a wall? Find a way to move around it. As long as you’re learning, stay. Once you stop learning, it’s time to move.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I feel an immense sense of responsibility working in the health and wellness space. The products we develop have a direct impact on people’s well-being. Ensuring that we’re bringing to market safe, clean, scientifically proven, quality products is our priority, but we also need to balance that with our larger global and environmental commitment along the entire supply chain.
If I do my job well, I’m helping our customer’s health and the health of the planet — it’s an honor to be able to make that impact daily.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
- Time is your most precious resource: You cannot get it back, use it wisely and be efficient. There is a reason that the “this could have been an email” thing is a thing!
- Not everything is equally weighted. Know what things mission-critical and which things can survive a reschedule or really don’t need your involvement.
- Outsource what you can!! If you can afford to get help, get it. If someone offers to help out, say yes. Can’t deal with dinner tonight, order in. Don’t feel bad about any of it!
- Setting boundaries is Ok. I’m a better mother, friend, colleague when I’ve had time to rest and reset. That can be no-meeting blocks on your calendar or not checking emails at night (and being ok with it).
- Make sure to move. In the world of commuting from the bedroom to the dining room table home office, it’s easy to get sedentary. Make sure to schedule time in your day to get up and out: whether it’s a workout class, a run or just walking around the neighborhood, schedule it like you would an important meeting and make it a priority for yourself.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I love the idea of bringing people together via wellness experiences — the best way to bring our mission to the world is to get people actively experiencing what it feels like to be healthy. If we can connect children and parents, families and communities through healthy activities like yoga and meditation or healthy eating, we’ll teach healthy habits. That leads to healthy action. We started a free program called Wellness Wednesday to do just that — build connection and community around wellness activities available to all.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- Sometimes the best way forward in your career is to go sideways. Learn as many different skills as you can and be as broad and general as you can. The more you know about a range of things, the more dangerous you are.
- If no one else is taking charge or leading a project — STEP UP and own it! That’s your opportunity to break out.
- When experiencing issues at work, don’t only bring the problems to your boss, bring possible solutions as well. This shows resourcefulness and maturity.
- You are curating your resume with every new job — think about the long game.
- Be the colleague and partner you want to work with — you’ll be surprised how connected your work network is and you want to leave a legacy of being someone people admire and respect.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
They’re all important topics but the one that unites us all equally is the state of our environment. We are only as healthy as the planet that sustains us. If we can do better for the planet, we can positively impact more people now and in the future.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Let’s connect on LinkedIn or Instagram!
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Melina Baxter of Shaklee On the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.