My guest today is Mary Lawless Lee. She is a mother, writer, entrepreneur, and digital media personality dedicated to living creatively, chasing curiosity, and exploring the world through the lens of fashion, family, travel, and design. Happily Grey, her now-iconic fashion and lifestyle blog, serves as a loving space for readers to connect with Mary's life experiences, and their own, journeying together through life's highs, lows, and in betweens.
But she’s not just an influencer OG. Adding a retail space and – now, a book – to her resume, she’s a perfect example of someone who seems to juggle everything at once with ease. Her new book, and this conversation, tell a different story.
Her radical honesty and grounded mindset root her in reality, and helped her escape struggles with an eating disorder, perfectionism, people pleasing, and a toxic marriage. Thank you, Mary, for spending some time with our community today.
We also cover…
00:01:40 — Turning a Passion Into a Lifestyle
- Growing up in east Texas and going to nursing school
- Working for 7 transformative years in the cardiovascular ICU
- Journaling as a meditation practice
- Paying $50 for her first blogging website
- Early days of HappilyGrey.com
- Building a community and lifestyle brand
- Expanding into skincare – nemah.com
- Side hustle status for 3.5 years
- Day-to-day of life as a blogger
- Building a team from scratch and forging her own path
- The importance of brand culture and collaboration
- Making a good (and bad) brand deal
00:18:14 — Nēmah Skincare & Happily Grey
- Marrying her clinical background with digital marketing and motherhood
- Developing products that are authentic to you
- Investing in safe, clean formulas
- Happily Grey by Mary Lawless Lee
- Life is not all black and white
- Finding freedom in the in-between
00:24:49 — Mary’s Personal Growth & Evolution
- Struggling with perfectionism and people pleasing
- Unpacking Mary’s experience with an eating disorder
- Recovery is a never-ending journey
- Accountability, honesty, and giving up control
- Having gratitude for your physical self
- Working amid the perceptions and expectations of social media
- Gathering tools and building a support system
- Vulnerability seeds connection
- Happily Grey by Mary Lawless Lee
- Career and life advice for following your passions
Resources:
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Be Well By Kelly is produced by Crate Media.
Mentioned in this episode:
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