Turning Trials into Triumph: Justine Mader's Journey from Postpartum Depression to Lemonade Mogul

When life handed Justine Mader lemons, she didn't just make lemonade—she started a global lemonade empire. This episode is a riveting tale of resilience, as Justine, a former dentist turned virtual entrepreneur from Minnesota, shares her moving story. She opens up about battling postpartum depression, facing a terrifying medical scare during her second pregnancy, and how these experiences propelled her to redefine her life's purpose. Her narrative isn't just about survival; it's about finding meaning and the importance of service to others, all while juggling the roles of motherhood and entrepreneurship. Justine's philosophy of taking charge of what we can control and savoring the seasons of life will leave you inspired to embrace your own journey with a renewed sense of purpose.

Buckle up as we traverse the landscape of personal growth and overcoming setbacks, with Justine as our guide. She introduces us to the concept of nurturing the soul through simplicity and resilience, inspired by none other than Mother Teresa. We'll discuss how tools like the Headway app can be a lifeline for personal development in the chaos of everyday life, and the potent wisdom of tackling one task at a time. Justine's approach to collaboration and delegation as a means to 'figure-outable' solutions is a masterclass in empowerment. As our conversation winds down, Justine leaves us with an openhearted invitation to connect and a tease of the exciting opportunities 2024 holds, reinforcing her commitment to being part of our own stories of triumph and transformation.

Transcript

Baz Porter: 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, people of the world, welcome to another episode of Rise in the Ashes. My next guest is a phenomenal human being. Her name is Justin and she has a huge experience and story behind her, and I asked her to come on today to really share her knowledge, wisdom and her love and light with you all. So, without further ado, please introduce yourself to the world, justin.

Justine Mader: 0:29

Oh, baz, thank you so much for having me. Hello everybody at Rise from the Ashes podcast family, so grateful to be here. As Baz shared, my name is Justine. You can probably hear in my voice I'm from Minnesota. I've got a strong accent but I try to live up to the whole Minnesota nice. I love being able to impact people across the globe through the ability of virtual work. So I've been serving entrepreneurs for over five years and that has led me through many great experiences, opportunities including Dean Graziosi, tony Robbins, sharon Lecter and other names that you probably know and love, and so it's brought me into rooms. Baz and I love being able to share my journey of motherhood, business and just real life as an incredible human or striving to be an incredible human right. It's a day in progress, but now so grateful to be here. Thank you for having me.

Baz Porter: 1:21

And thank you for sharing. I really appreciate people like you who have served at some of the highest levels in the world but still remain in their hearts. It's sometimes a rare commodity to come across. That's just true. Some of our little lot of our listeners are inspired by tales of overcoming adversity in their lives, but that adversity and that significant challenge can be changed into growth, strength and turnaround into an opportunity. Is there anything in your life that you've allowed to be a challenge but ultimately turned it around and served you to do what you do today?

Justine Mader: 2:01

I've been blessed with many adversities, a lot of them stemming from things that were outside of my control, and so that's one of the greatest lessons I think this life has taught me is to embrace what you can control and let go of what is not yours, and to give you guys some examples of what that looks like. I gave birth to my first son in 2019 and dislocated a tailbone. For the next three months, I was in chronic pain, had terrible postpartum depression again, things that weren't necessarily things I could control and I had to go back to what brought me joy. I had left the dentistry field, which is where my experience and my love for serving patients, bringing people back to smiling, was filled. That cup of just joy was truly filled through that experience, and so here I am with a newborn child that only has me, hasn't done anything wrong in the world. Is it innocent, priceless? And motherhood was the greatest gift I could have ever asked for in this life. But I was just distraught. I was so, so down, so lost, and so I asked myself what brought me the light in my previous years, and it was serving at a volunteer dental opportunity called Mission of Mercy.

Justine Mader: 3:11

I started as a student, and it was one of those things that I was brought on the line to take care of people that were far less fortunate than myself, and we sent them on their way from not only frown but pain to just a smile that couldn't be tamed, and so I was like how do I get back to that level of serving again? It's not going to look the same, I'm not in the same position, but what can I do to do that? And that sent me on the journey of searching, and I found remote work. I started as a VA and was not too proud to be like I need to learn. These aren't skills that I have. This is what I can start with.

Justine Mader: 3:44

And the crazy thing is, in 2020, I got knocked down again due to not having doctors listening to me. I had an appendicitis and they told me it was pregnancy pain with my second child, and I ended up going from a appendicitis again something not in my control that burst 10 minutes before I was put on the surgery table in the heart of COVID in 2020. And so I had to transfer some of my clients to someone else. I said I don't know the longevity of this. I'm going to get you to someone that can care for you. So I had to again. What can I control? The experience and the transition for my clients is absolutely important. My health and my family come first, and being able to realize that wasn't a failure, that wasn't me. This was happening for a reason. I didn't love it. I was terribly painful in more ways than one, but that cycle didn't stop. I ended up having a kid Thanksgiving day at 31 and 6. General pregnancy goes between 36 and 40 weeks, so we were in NICU for 40 days.

Justine Mader: 4:43

So as a Catholic, it felt very much like a lent or an advent in preparation for some of the joys, and so it really just drew me back to what is this life all about? For me, it's legacy. For me, it's family. For me, it's about making impact in the lives of people that you touch, and because of virtual opportunities, I've been able to touch so many more. But people would see me come and go, and come and go. They're like what keeps you going when we see you disappear, and I'm like I'm not disappearing. I'm honoring my season, and for me this is how it looks.

Justine Mader: 5:16

I don't feel the necessity to have a persona online 24 seven. I don't need that validation. Yes, there are benefits for business strategy. Yes, I teach a lot of those marketing things and you can have automations and systems to do that. That's great. I could do that To me. I actually appreciate the fact that people can tell it's me and not a robot. They know when I show up on, whether it's a TikTok video or something else. They see my face, they hear my emotions and, yes, some general FAQs and different things can be automated through AI and all sorts of great stuff.

Justine Mader: 5:47

But people never doubt when they see me or when they hear from me in a message, that it's me and that's because, regardless of what adversity that I've ever faced, I've always come back stronger.

Justine Mader: 6:00

I've never changed the goal, I've changed the approach, and so I can say very confidently over five years later three kids, incredible life that I wouldn't change a thing. But the adversities changed me and they changed me to be the person that I was striving for. It never was anything you could anticipate, but I think if anybody's listening and they feel like the world's against them, the mountain is just growing ever taller. It's not the end goal really. It's about the person you become along the way, and I know that leaders have been preaching that forever, but when you have those crosses to carry, it's never more present in your life than that. So I just want to give you the encouragement and Baz has always been about that to be like, hey, there's the next level of you that's waiting. You just have to show the heck up and that's who I am. That's what I do, and if I can do it, heck, yeah, you can, and I expect you to, especially after listening to this podcast. Oh God.

Baz Porter: 6:59

One of the things I love. You said the love. What you said there is. You were blessed to have the challenge. That isn't just a belief, that's a complete new identity for somebody. Most people go into oh, this has happened to me, not for me. So what you just said was very key. So it's about people's language and how they present a subject, and the key is listening. The key is identifying where somebody's at, not what they say, but the emotions and how they say it. It uncovers so much and the micro distinctions between I was blessed to have, or this is happening to me our night and day. So thank you for sharing that and, by the way, congratulations on your children. They are a blessing, Thank you.

Justine Mader: 7:50

They truly are.

Baz Porter: 7:51

They are.

Justine Mader: 7:52

And a handful, but that's okay, I'm here for it. I'm here for it.

Baz Porter: 7:55

It's growth, that's all it is. When we look at growth and in that, sometimes habits form in that growth, is there any habits that really you've even stumbled across or that have become a ritual in your day? Some people go to meditation, some people go to the gym religiously, so I would say a huge Please, yeah, absolutely.

Justine Mader: 8:16

I would say that a huge part of my habit have just been structure, and what I mean by that when I teach women to really be intentional with their life. There's a huge trend right now out there talking about balance. I don't believe in it. I believe in intentionality. So the way that I teach and the way that I try to approve that in my life, you're living proof of what you do, and it's the proof is in the pudding, it's just who you are and what you have accomplished. But is integration, and by integration, the priorities that you need to honor in your life, the responsibilities that you have in your life and the goals that you'd like to see yourself achieve. And so for me, as a wife and mother, there are some pretty great alarm clocks that I've created personally. So the 4 am morning is not a foreign thing to me at all. Children, however, it's not the ideal. I don't get to do necessarily a cold plunge every day before the kids wake up. I don't necessarily get to have a single time by myself for an expectation every single day. So what I have encouraged people to do is set a list of habits that you need to have throughout your day in order to keep you growing and keep you going. So that means, yes, physical exercise. If it's in the gym, great, if it's not, no problem, no excuses. Stay physical for your mental and your physical wellbeing. I definitely am striving to improve my faith, so meditation for me as a Catholic is the rosary, so the daily rosary, not only as myself. It's a lot easier to say by yourself, but I say it with my children and really get them involved because, again, the way that we live our life is something that we are able to pass on to our children. So them seeing me make good eating habits, cooking things from scratch and encouraging the family dinner, the ecosystem of the family is really important. So I would say those would be habits, strategically, that I implement in the personal side of my life. But when it comes to business, I would say the real intentional part of my life is focusing on relationships and being able to structure. My business has been purely off of relationships, referrals, conversations like this, which I'm so grateful for, and it's allowed me to serve and speak with some of the greats. So I was on the team for World Summits, I've had shows with Steve Sims and Sharon Lecter and I couldn't be more grateful because a lot of those humans that I found myself able to connect with, they realized that they're humans just like me, and so when I think about the habits, it's drinking water, just like Baz, just like Tony, just like anybody else, and doing the things that we know we're supposed to do consistently. It doesn't have to be at 4 am, it doesn't have to be at a specific time, it has to be done consistently.

Justine Mader: 10:53

And so I think people such as myself, perfectionism is a real thing. Don't focus on perfectionism, don't focus on balance. Instead, find a healthy relationship with the integration of your priorities, goals and responsibilities, and yours in mind may look different, because I'm a solo parent right now with kids. My husband works out of the home and he's gone for weeks. That's just our way right now, but that may make my scenario different than Sarah's, and so on and so forth. So the comparison game online is retarded. It does not serve you. Please shut off social. We were just talking before camera too. Limit social media as much as possible so that you can focus on truly what you want and not be clouded and integrated by what other people are trying to preach on you. So that's a habit too. Maybe I didn't realize. Maybe that's one that we should encourage listeners to.

Baz Porter: 11:44

Yeah, I love that. I was told I like his. Consistency is the key and repetition is the mother of all skill. You mentioned compared me there to Tony. We always like I'm not six foot seven, I don't have hands.

Justine Mader: 11:58

Like Sharan, I'm all of five feet, okay? No, he would literally rest his elbow yeah.

Baz Porter: 12:04

I love Tony, steve Simza, I know personally Sharon. I know personally these people are inspirations and leaders. I aspire to these people. There's always another level to speak.

Justine Mader: 12:18

Absolutely.

Baz Porter: 12:20

When I'm looking at leaders, and this actually leads very well into this next question is there any? Leaders that you've aspired to be like. I know you mentioned a couple, but has anyone really resonated with you that kickstarted you who you are today, from a very core foundation?

Justine Mader: 12:36

It's a great question and I'd love to share. I'm going to start with Teresa, and Mother Teresa for me is and for those of you that maybe haven't heard of Mother Teresa right. She was one of the great leaders in third world countries that just really led with a spirit of love and for sentiments, we're not things that were great. She said you can even do the little things with great love and you can make a huge difference with great love, even in a small Zoom meeting and a large world summit in a you know personal email sequence.

Justine Mader: 13:10

For me, I don't need the validation of some great big thing, because I know everything I touch and every person I talk to is not only a human, but it's someone deserving of love and understanding. And I think this world is so fast, immediate gratification, that we have forgotten how to love and how to bless each other. And so when you ask who drives me from the foundation of who I am, so much of my inspiration comes from someone that had nothing. She had so little. They basically were splitting one rice bowl between 80 orphans.

Justine Mader: 13:46

It's not even something I can comprehend truly, but when you think about something as simple as nourishing your body, I want to get back to nourishing people's souls, and it starts with even part of my lesson. As a wife and mother has been making sure that my cup on video, guys, you can see I have my hand. There's not an amount of water that will fill a cup that has cracks the size of my fingers. Right, there's not enough water in the oceans. But if I heal and make sure to preserve who I am and what my goals and my mission and my vocation is in this life, then I have the ability to overflow into the lives of other people, and I think Mother Teresa did that, so she is absolutely an inspiration to me.

Baz Porter: 14:30

But there are other types of things that I love that shows and exudes your authenticity within this, and this is why this podcast exists because of people like you. In this fast paced world and the learning is never ending Is there anything that stood out for you where you can recommend a go to book, a podcast, a platform that you've really absorbed information that's grown your not just education, but your personal growth as well?

Justine Mader: 15:04

That's a great question. I think so much of what I have come to appreciate is, honestly, probably cliff notes as a wife and mom. I'll be honest, I'm lucky if I get 10 minutes a day to read something, to grow beyond what I'm doing. So I'll be looking up blogs, I'll be looking up different marketing and things to improve my offer and the way that I serve my clients Absolutely. But in addition to that, I want to read the extensive libraries of books, and so one of I believe it's called Headway is actually the app that I utilize Probably should have an affiliate link. Didn't get that. So you can see I'm not totally driven for money guys. I don't have it all together, but is a great way for me to do 10, 15 minutes a day and I will get through.

Justine Mader: 15:49

I think one of the ones I just read recently was the power of one, or the power of now, and it's just one of those things where, for me, I am living my motherhood life in a fast pace too. My children are growing, I am growing. So what do I do to keep going in that right direction? Because, right, if you don't do something and you're stagnant, you're actually not stagnant, you're going backwards. So we're not about that. So, in order to stay up to date with some of that self development that I've invested so many years into already, that is one of the ways that I allocate my time and intention to, and I would say, the biggest key not platform, not anything else is to not multitask, monotask and monotask. Well, and one of the seasons that I'm stepping into is really delegating and allowing other people into my space. For those that don't know, I've been in and out of the game, burned several times, had some unfortunate scenarios. I definitely don't wish them on any of you, but I want to relate to you in case you're like oh, this isn't for me. All I'd ever do is get screwed over. Everybody's just trying to use me. There is unfortunate evil in this world and I'm so sorry that has been your experience. But when it comes to how you can heal through that fail faster, move through it and something as simple as headway to keep your brain and your mindset in the right place has definitely been something that I've implemented in 2023. And I think I truly believe it has made a difference for me.

Justine Mader: 17:19

But then, when we come to like platforms and things like that, I'm still searching and I'm on the maybe trajectory to create my own mastermind of the right people, and so I guess I think if it's not a platform, it's not who, it's not what it's who. So I would come to some of my SEO experts and all that kind of stuff. That's not my top notch. I know enough to be dangerous. I know who the top dogs are, so I go to them.

Justine Mader: 17:46

So, for me, if someone were to be like oh, what's your favorite platform? What's your this or that? It depends. What's your goal? What are you striving? What's your motivation platform? Are you a coaching platform? Are you a product platform? And you need to go more down. E-commerce, right, I don't think it's a matter of what, because all the tools work. Somehow. Tech genius people make that happen. I'm not one of those and that's okay. I'm totally okay to say that. However, I will bring up the leaders next to me and be like talk to them, let's get those people in the room.

Justine Mader: 18:16

So I think, instead of focusing on knowing all the things, don't know all the things.

Justine Mader: 18:22

Know your task, know yourself, know your offer, know the value you bring to the table and focus on keeping yourself in the right headspace through something like a tool like headway or a good podcast like this. You guys, it doesn't have to be complicated. Maybe it's once a week when again, that goes back to your question on habits it doesn't have to be huge, it has to be consistent. Maybe it's something that you catch yourself slipping on the mindset I need to turn on a podcast. Okay, great, I'm sorry, today was a rough day, didn't make the progress that I was looking for. Okay, let's put on a good book. Let's talk about how to get unstuck. Whatever the case is right. Okay, I think, as many of you have probably heard Marie Forleo's just even her book title everything is figure outable. So if it's not a matter of what, in my experience it's been a matter of who, and that allows for incredible collaboration over competition and a real transformation of the people that you work with.

Baz Porter: 19:18

Yeah, all of that definition and the distinction. If you'll listen to this now and you're thinking, oh my God, what the hell is this? Go back to the very beginning.

Justine Mader: 19:26

Yeah, we're having too much fun Failure.

Baz Porter: 19:29

I don't want to go really in depth with this because this is a very comprehensive question. Failure has really played a part in everybody's life. Can you give some advice on the perceived overcoming of failure and how one major incident turned into not just an opportunity for you, but it changed your entire life. It encompassed where you were pivoted your business, your life mindset, your lifestyle, everything.

Justine Mader: 20:00

That is such a great question. So two things. I came from a strict upbringing, grateful for my parents, grateful for my family, but no one is perfect, and in my season of college and education, I was pretty much told, if I didn't have a 4.0 or else and so it was one of those things that the level of perfection that I put on myself was not healthy. However, it was something that taught me the discipline of working hard. I not only had a 4.0 straight through college, but I also got to sing the national anthem at the graduation ceremony, which, side note, I love to sing, and the national anthem is the world's best song. And so, again, shout out to veterans I would sing it for any and all of you if ever I could. But when it comes to what that lesson taught me, it was the thought of failure if, if I didn't do my best. So instead, some of these collaborations came my way through good intending people that went south. When I looked at the overall picture, it was a stark, obvious failure. However, I was able to sleep well at night, knowing I did my best. I didn't screw anybody over, I made recommendations to people that were scammed, and actually one this would be one. So one of these guys purchased from one of my business partners in a digital marketing company and, unbeknownst to me, he never was delivered the product. We had a split. I was under the impression that he was taken care of and I actually only had this conversation three months ago and this was over two and a half years ago that this happened and I was catching up with him and somehow it came out that he never actually got that product that we committed to him and I was like why wouldn't you have told me that? Now I felt like a true failure, he said because you didn't fail. It wasn't you. And so the whole picture showed me a failure. But behind the scenes, was there anything I could have changed? Nope. Did I show up to ever and commit to everything that I was responsible for? Yes, did it still go south? 1000%, and it sucked.

Justine Mader: 22:07

When it comes to somebody going through that phase in life, as I would say, do some real, honest soul searching. Did you show up? Did you give it what you committed to? Did you follow through with what you said you were going to do? And if you didn't, that's the lesson. But if you did, the lesson is that things can still go a different direction that you anticipate, but there's always a reason, and so one of the reasons that I believe happened was I got to know one of my so he's my CTO at my business now. I wouldn't have got to know him if I didn't have the failed collaboration, because he was a part of that and we realized that we were both showing up and another partner was not. So that relationship only happened through hardship and it's been one of the biggest blessings because, again, guys, full transparency tech is not my thing, so it's one of those things for me that when you look at the clouds, the storm is rolling in. There's always a silver lining, there's always a reason, and what is life without a couple of thunderstorms? I love a good boom, I love a good clap, but that's what makes the flowers grow. So it's just.

Justine Mader: 23:14

Again, I think that comes back to mindset, it comes back to perspective, and you can either use it to serve you or really sell yourself to something lesser than you were called to be and you were born to be. And it's not easy. I'd love to just tell you, guys, it was easy, but I'd be lying to you. What's easy is when you commit to it and you're like, hey, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing, and gosh darn it, if it doesn't happen, we're gonna have problems, that's, it's easy when you've reached that point and I'm great at these challenges and these experiences have brought me to that place where, yes, I've been able to show up because this is who I am.

Justine Mader: 23:47

That part of me is never gonna change, and I think that to have that at the young age that I am is truly a grace. And I don't take it for granted, because there's so many people, like you said before too, we're unhappy, searching for something, and money's not the issue, and I'm so grateful they have you because of your gifts and your ability and your talent to serve them to their next level. But, guys, this life is so freaking short. There's no good reason I should be here for so many different health reasons. Regardless, I'm obviously here for a reason. I'm still on the journey to figure out why, but you may be in that same scenario. And so, when it comes to the failure, god didn't ask you to be perfect. He asked you to be faith.

Baz Porter: 24:25

Yeah, that's the difference. I love that. Do you have any parting words for the audience? Do you either send them somewhere or would you like to give a free gift and an opportunity for people inside of you? Oh my gosh.

Justine Mader: 24:36

I would love to connect with anyone that said you're in your sphere of the world. I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn, because that's where Baz hangs out. So you can find me on LinkedIn at Justine Mater, and if you let me know that this was a podcast, I will absolutely make sure to bless you in a way that I won't share publicly. But, yes, there's a lot of opportunities for consulting and I have a network that is blessed with some of the best. So if it's not something I can give you directly, when I hear what you're working on or what you're working towards, I will get you to who I can and help bless you along the way, because 2024 guys oh, it's gonna be awesome, it's gonna be great, and I'd be so blessed to have you in my network. If you have anything to do with Baz, please come and I would love to support you and be a part of your world.

Baz Porter: 25:18

Justine, thank you very much for your time, your love and your patience.

Justine Mader: 25:23

Thank you.

Baz Porter: 25:24

This will be shared and I will boot put, but in it out, as I said before, to various platforms and thank you and get your message out there.

Justine Mader: 25:32

I can't wait to get to know your community, baz. Thank you so much.

Baz Porter: 25:36

From myself. Thank you very much for joining me today. It's always a blessing to have you here. Please share this message and inspire somebody else's life today From me. Live with purpose and inspire with legacy. My friends have a blessed.