Hi, my name is Melissa and I’m the founder of Sustainable Trades. This company was born from a dream. A dream of waking up every day full of excitement, passion, and purpose. A dream of being able to right some of the obvious wrongs plaguing our world and offer a service that paves a new path, a path that leads to healing on the micro and macro levels.
After graduating college with a Major in Anthropology and a Minor in Business I found myself looking for employment in the environmental realm of things. I wanted to make a positive impact. I ended up going into Solar, because the rational part of my brain saw a logical career path, a way for me to make money.
In the beginning, my solar career was a lot of fun and I met my husband because of it. However, it wasn’t something that made my heart sing. I did it because it was practical. I enjoyed being an installer because I got to move my body all day, spend my time outside in the fresh air, and have opportunities to watch the clouds drift by. I truly loved the rooftop views. But I was a woman in a man’s industry (this was back in 2008) and I put pressure on myself to be the best. I had to master the trade, and it didn’t come naturally. I studied hard and passed the NABCEP Installers Test, but I was so worked up about taking the exam that I experienced my first sleepless night.
After installing solar for four years in Austin, TX my husband and I decided to move to Taos, NM, and live off-grid. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I was young and romanticized the freedom an off-grid life would provide. Things didn’t work out as planned. We weren’t making the money we were used to, and the off-grid lifestyle had plenty of challenges—especially in the community we decided to set up shop in
We bought a house on the Mesa. The entire neighborhood lived off-grid. Some folks were out there doing cool things, like building Earthships or adobe homes, but the majority were there because they couldn’t fit into society. Outlaws and drug addicts. The police didn’t even want to have anything to do with that place. Hearing about a murder out there was not uncommon. I even had a murderer over to my house for dinner! (That story is for another time.)
We would have to travel for work and while we were gone, our firewood would ‘walk off’ and eventually, our solar equipment was stolen. I chose that lifestyle because I wanted the low overhead. I didn’t want to have my life revolve around making money, I wanted to do the things I loved. It wasn’t until I became pregnant with my son that I knew we had to get out of there. After living there for 3 years, we had depleted our savings and were in financial straits. So, I decided to apply for a PV Design Engineering job out of Denver. I got the job and was going to be making a decent salary. We made the move, but a month or so before I had to report for duty, I started having trouble sleeping.
I am sad to say that I have struggled with insomnia for the last 8 years. I was like a freight train of resistance speeding through at 200 mph. The logical part of my brain said there was no other choice, you must do this, but I didn’t want to leave my baby. I forced myself to soldier on. I saw regular doctors which led me to start taking an antidepressant (me, the most easygoing, fun, life-loving girl was no longer sleeping and on antidepressants). I saw a sleep doctor who provided me with some tips to make things a little better, but I was not cured. I even got hooked on Benadryl. It did make me sleepy and became my crutch. I started that job on no sleep and continue working that job without sleep. The only saving grace was that I knew my shit so well, I still functioned and produced good work.
I felt like I was going crazy. I couldn’t think straight. I was depressed, anxious, and lonely. We were isolated in Denver without friends or family to help support. It was the darkest time of my life. I was so sick that the times I did have with my son were overcast by this deep, dark shadow.
I thought moving out of the city would help cure me, so I petitioned to work remotely (pre-covid times) and I was granted permission. Turns out that sitting behind a computer all day, multitasking, and doing something that didn’t excite me was not the cure for my health crisis. It took getting shingles three times in a single year until I decided that there had to be a better way. There had to be a way for me to make money doing something I loved—something I was excited about, something that supported my well-being.
I understand that the Covid shutdown was a difficult experience for many, but for me, it was a blessing. I was furloughed from my job. I had three months with a paycheck, my family, and the time and space to explore what going into business for myself might look like. I took a permaculture design course and Creek Stewart’s Survival CEO course, which is all about creating a business around something you love. (I highly recommend his course!) I also built a greenhouse and started a garden. I was happy and sleeping much better, although I was still taking the antidepressant.
It was not much longer after that, that I got what I call the ‘divine download’. One Sunday afternoon, as I was sitting on my living room couch looking out at the snow, I started to daydream about how I would love to have an apple orchard. I love apples! Apple pie, apple sauce, dried apples, and apple crisp. Then the thought hit me—wouldn’t it be cool if I could use the extra apples from my orchard to barter and trade for other quality goods and services? It sure would help out a girl who was starting a business from scratch. The next thought was—man, there’s nothing like that out there (at least not that I’m aware of). I started searching for barter & trade websites. I found there is a lot out there for used items, but there wasn’t a platform for new goods and services. I also find this cool house-swapping platform! Minutes later the name popped into my head, Sustainable Trades, and I knew this was what I wanted to create. This was March of 2022.
I had something to be excited about, but at the same time, I was still working my 9-5, still struggling with sleep, and was doing my best to show up for my son. I had a lot of healing work to do and didn’t know anything about spirituality.
My spiritual journey began after an embarrassing evening. My husband’s friends came for a visit, and he didn’t tell me they planned to spend the night. I was sleep-deprived, had worked all day at a job I was resistant to, and then had to play host to this family. After putting our son down for bed, I went downstairs and started yelling in anger at my husband. How could you do this to me? How could you invite people here without telling me? I never get a break. Why don’t you ever offer to put our son to sleep? Well, it turns out, the window to the room we were in was open and the family sleeping in our camper right outside could hear the whole thing. I was so embarrassed, but it turns out this was the greatest blessing of all. This was the moment that sent me on my healing journey.
The stress, the overwhelm, the screaming and yelling in anger—that was my generational trauma. I learned that from my mother, and she from her mother, and my grandma from her mother. Who knows how far that trauma goes back and why it was even there in the first place?
Soon after a dear friend of mine came to visit. She had been on a spiritual path for a while, and I asked her about my shadow side and how do I deal with it. She told me that it was serving me, protecting me in some way, and that I had to learn how to love it. To say f**king thank you to it, and then choose to show up differently.
So, I put that into practice and that was the very beginning of my healing journey. Little did I know how tall the mountain I had yet to climb was, but as I now know, all journeys happen one step at a time.
I quit my corporate job in April of 2023—at the time of this writing, it hasn’t even been a year. In October of 2022, I invited a neighbor over for dinner. She was new in the area, and I wanted to get to know her. I decided to tell her about my business idea even though I wasn’t telling anyone about my idea for fear of it being stolen. I think the reason I told her is because we related to each other. We were both working unfulfilling jobs. A job for the sake of a job. A job to make money. After I told her about my idea, she sent me a podcast that I needed to hear. It was a Mark Groves podcast, and his guest was Cathy Heller. The title was ‘Don’t Keep Your Day Job’ with Cathy Heller. I was intrigued! That podcast spoke directly to my heart, it was the first time that I thought I could bring this business to the world. I was hooked.
Cathy Heller is a spiritual coach and business mentor—and if I do say so myself, wisdom incarnate! I decided to take her Abundant Ever After course, which is a combination of spirituality, mindset work, and business strategy. I am so grateful for that course. It helped change my relationship with money, identify and put a stop to the MANY limiting beliefs I held about myself. I think the most important thing it gave me was awareness that our thoughts create our feelings, and our feelings create our reality. It was the first time I was introduced to the concept of being in alignment, which is when our thoughts, being, and actions are in alignment with each other and coming from our higher self, our spirit.
This opened the doors, but I was just dipping my toes into the vast ocean of the soul.
At this point, I was still working the 9-5, still on the antidepressants, and Benadryl—but I was feeling better. Once I decided to quit my day job, I knew I had to get off the drugs. I winged myself off the antidepressant but was still leaning on Benadryl. I knew I had to quit that too and started to ween, brought my insomnia back in full force.
There has been a lot of suffering over the last eight years. If you’ve ever experienced sleep deprivation you know what I’m talking about. But it was this suffering that drove me to go inward. To learn about the soul and the ego. To learn the difference between the heart and the mind and that, my friends, is where true healing occurs.
I am happy to report that I am drug-free. I do use some natural supplements and things aren’t perfect, but I am growing and healing. I’m currently learning how to heal trauma, and I know how to ask for help—what a gift. As it turns out, it was all a gift. When I have a day where I am rested, inspired, and aligned, not only do I feel inner peace and joy, but I feel unstoppable.
This business is like when you use titration in chemistry (thank you to Amanda for this term). I’ve added a little bit of this passion, a little bit of that passion, and a little bit more from over here to create something truly unique and special. Not only do I get to benefit from the joy of creating this business, but this business has the potential to help so many and that idea makes everything worth it.
They say to do what brings you joy and ask yourself the question if money was not an object what would you do? I would have the most amazing permaculture garden and food forest, lots of little creative spaces on my land, a cordwood sauna, guest home, meditation tipi, and wood-burning hot tub. I’d get more land to build in sustainable ways and surround myself with friends and family to create a community. I would hike, soak in the hot springs, float the rivers, create things, play in the mud, practice survival skills, and enjoy good food. Why not share this dream with more people? Or at least offer a path for those who would like this life.
We can make money doing what we love. Repeat it with me. We can make money doing what we love. We are worthy of feeling good.
This journey is about a soul’s evolution. About living life through self-referral where you view your life through the eyes of the spirit. Instead of object referral, viewing yourself through the eyes of others. When we let our soul evolve, we get out of the head and into the heart. We make choices consciously. And in reward, we get to live free—completely free—we get to be happy; we get to rest. LOL 😊
Let’s do this together. Let us all bring our magic to the world. Let’s have a Sustainable Trades Farm pop up near you!
In Gratitude,
Melissa