Melody Biringer is a serial entrepreneur. She has started 20 businesses in 30 years. She’s had ups, she’s had downs. She has seen it all, lived to tell the tale, and even wrote a book about it. Just like Madonna, Melody has successfully reinvented herself many times. Currently, she identifies as a Connection Engineer helping women in the Tech Industry strengthen their networks and learn they are not alone. Hear her powerful story.
Originally published Aug 8, 2018
Melody Biringer is a serial entrepreneur. She has started 20 businesses in 30 years. She’s had ups, she’s had downs. She has seen it all, lived to tell the tale, and even wrote a book about it. Just like Madonna, Melody has successfully reinvented herself many times. Currently, she identifies as a Connection Engineer helping women in the Tech Industry strengthen their networks and learn they are not alone. Hear her powerful story.
Craving Success - A startup junkie’s path from passion to profits
Link to more of her books
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Janice Lichtenwaldt: [00:00:08] Welcome back to the I Am Virago podcast, where we get real about the struggle, drop the occasional F-bomb, and hear how amazing Virago women imperfectly navigate the world around them.
[00:00:19] Today's guest, Melody Biringer, is the definition of entrepreneur, having started 20 businesses over 30 years. Melody is intimately familiar with the highs and the lows of founding and running a company. Learn what it means to Flip It Good. Melody's mantra of Launch it Broken Fix It Live and how she has reinvented herself into a connection engineer. And her most recent success, The Women in Tech Regatta, a multi city week long conference focused on helping women make connections. So grab that cup of ambition and let's get started.
Melody Biringer: [00:00:56] I'm Melody Biringer and to pay the bills, I am a connection engineer for women. Mostly in the past for entrepreneurs and recently for women in tech. Plus my side hustle is strawberry shortcake. What my passion is mashing things together and creating new businesses.
JL: [00:01:18] Okay. I love the smashing things together and we will get to that. But I really need to understand this side hustle of strawberry shortcake.
Melody Biringer: [00:01:26] Well, I grew up on a strawberry farm, so I've had 20 businesses in 30 years. I'm a total startup junkie and I started when I was eight. Because, you know, I know when you grow up on a strawberry farm, you get opportunities as the farmer's daughter. And I got to go out and pick strawberries. You know, earlier, all the kids had to be 12. But I started as 8.
[00:01:47] But I don't know why I was clamoring because it's the worst job in the world you can have. So I looked around the strawberry fields and saw the hot, hot pickers and said, I have an idea. I'm going to sell lemonade to them and I borrowed money from my dad. Big mistake learning at eight years old how to borrow money. And so I trundled down to the store and bought myself- it's actually Kool-Aid- and I set up a Kool-Aid stand the next day and started selling Kool-Aid to the strawberry pickers because I had a built in audience. But not only that, I did not work it myself. I hired my cousin and my next door neighbor to run it.
JL: [00:02:22] This is at eight years old?
Melody Biringer: [00:02:23] Ya, at eight years old.
JL: [00:02:24] That's fantastic.
Melody Biringer: [00:02:25] That's that was my first business.
JL: [00:02:27] OK. All right. And you've had 20 since then.
Melody Biringer: [00:02:30] Yeah, but I still sell lemonade. I took that business all the way when I was 18. Started a- one of those roadside stands where you buy the fruit on the side of the road. [Oh Yeah.]
[00:02:40] When I watched all the people come out to the farm year after year as a young girl, I thought, oh, there's an opportunity. I could bring the berries to the city cause we're like an hour out of the city.
[00:02:51] So I opened when I was eighteen, I opened up what's called Berry Barns, and I brought I think it was like 8 locations. That's how I started. You know, that that was my real, real thing. And then when I met my husband, he said we should sell strawberry shortcake at, like, the Bite of Seattle and some of the fairs. But in order to do that back then to get in the Bite of Seattle, you had to have a restaurant.
[00:03:11] So why do? I get a restaurant. And I, I signed a lease 365 and I get a restaurant so I can be in the Bite of Seattle. That was like really- we were in the Pike Place Market was a restaurant for 15 years.
JL: [00:03:24] Wow.
Melody Biringer: [00:03:25] And so I had 70 employees and we started making jam, syrup, sauces, selling the short cake in the summers at all the festivals. So I'm like big background of being in the food business.
JL: [00:03:34] So you wanted to be in the Bite of Seattle to sell shortcake and in order to do that, you had to start a restaurant? And it ended up employing 70 people.
Melody Biringer: [00:03:40] And I just wanted a little hole in the wall. I was like looking for a little hole in the wall. But back then-and I think it's as this way now, the Pike Place Market, which is our biggest, you know, tourist landmark here in Seattle. Like Starbucks started there. But though they would never be able to get in now. It's all mom and pop businesses. You have to go to the historical commission to get in. You almost had to wait till somebody died off to get a space in the Pike Market.
[00:04:04] So I got this space and it ended up being an old French bakery and it was 50- 50 seats sit down restaurant. It was like it was like the only space available. So I took it. I really wanted the hole in the wall. After 15 years, I ended up with a hole in the wall. We moved three times while we were there and then I got my hole in the wall at the very end and then ended up selling that business. But I kept the strawberry shortcake business always. And now that's what we do. We have a little shack we called the Short Cake Shack. We're there everyday from like May till October.
JL: [00:04:33] So. So if that sounds like a great deal of work. So if that's your side hustle, I'm a little afraid to ask you this but what's your full hustle?
Melody Biringer: [00:04:41] Well, many years ago, I woke up one day and said, I don't have any girlfriends and I don't hang around with any like minded people. I was doing the food thing, 70 employees and I really do not like managing people is like the worst job in the world for me. Other people are way better at it. And I'm more like the visionary. I like to think of the idea but to like actually run the day to day and to manage people is not my favorite. So I woke up one day and just said, I don't have anybody to talk to. I'm just kind of a workaholic and I need girlfriends. And so I dreamed up a business called the CRAVE Company. Like, what do you crave?
[00:05:15] And I had a party and I rented this swanky venue but I made it a pajama party instead of like a normal party. So had all these women come. I called the CRAVE party. What do you crave? And of course, I had chocolate involved, but I had spa services and I went around and invited a lot of women owned businesses to come in to sell their products. You know, handbags, shoes, all the stuff we like. I had some fashion shows and pink drinks and goodie bags, and I just put together like a Girl's Night Out. And I had everybody wear pajamas. [Amazing.] Yeah. So that we'd like let our hair down and, like, be real. I sold three nights in a row, which I was crazy to do it back at the time. I didn't know that. But at the beginning of that business, which was 2001, I ended up getting in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal within four months. And so people called me from around the country wanting to bring CRAVE to their city. And I just started doing these CRAVE parties here in Seattle, like every quarter I'd have one in just different venues and I'd sell them out.
[00:06:14] And women, I just found out that we all felt the same way, like a lot of women would come that had small children and are like, I haven't been out with the husband, the kids for so long. And all these women, they would turn into like college and high school, like a party night. Yeah. And I would watch this happen going, oh, I'm not the only one that needs this. And so because the uniqueness of the pajamas and just like this is the mash up, that I was saying at the beginning that I like to do is just mash things up. It just worked. And when I realized what I was doing was bringing women together from the community also just there were women that worked at Microsoft or entrepreneurs or just moms. Everybody was coming, but they were coming to support all of the women entrepreneurs that I brought together. They were shopping and getting sponsors. This is just like a nice, you know, win win for everybody.
JL: [00:06:58] Yeah. Yeah.
Melody Biringer: [00:06:59] And just like everybody just really needed this kind of concept. So people then wanted to bring it to their cities. And so I didn't know how to grow it very fast. So I ended up licensing it. And I would like to do that again sometime in my life. But it failed because- a lot of these people that wanted to bring it to their city? They were great event planners, but they were not maybe great at marketing. So it is like putting on a wedding and giving everybody a manicure and a pedicure. Plus, you had to sell a ticket to it. So it's different than putting on the wedding. [Yeah.] Where people are invited. [Yes.].
[00:07:31] And so I had 15 cities going. They all failed. They were really excited because it seemed like this fun, sexy business from the outside. And they were all they saw, like the end result. But when it came to them doing it in their city, they weren't as connected as they thought they were to get the people to show up. And I could just go on and on and on.
[00:07:47] But like I said earlier, I've tried over 20 businesses and I failed at 18 of them. So I could just go on and on. I wrote a book called Craving Success. About all my failures and successes, kind of lessons learned.
JL: [00:08:02] That's an amazing statement that you've just made. So part of this podcast is talking to women who are doing really great things out in the world and also the struggles they have. And you've had, you know, you just said 18 failures out of 20. What keeps you going? What about this makes you want to keep trying?
Melody Biringer: [00:08:19] I shouldn't call them failures. They are all lessons. And they brought me to something else. You kind of like you start down one road and then maybe that doesn't work. You keep pivoting, pivoting.
[00:08:30] I call it Flip It- Flip It Good. If something's not working, kind of look at it and turn it upside down and look at it a different way. And maybe that's what you're supposed to be doing instead. So, you know, it's to me it's a game and I just thrive on the game of it. And so that's what keeps me going. You know, certainly we don't like to fail. And it's kind of a bummer to spend some time. I would rather fail faster than slower. And so after many years of, you know, taking eight years to fail, I'd rather fail on a weekend. Yeah. And kind of get it on my system and try it.
[00:09:00] So my new kind of thing is I can notice when I put something out into the world that it's going to work right away. You're just gonna feel it. You get it. People have to gravitate towards it right away and you get like just a little bit of positive energy coming your way. Then like I know it's going to work, but if you have to keep trying and try and just because you're so stubborn and...
JL: [00:09:19] Yes. Well, and there's some deep wisdom in what you're saying. Struggle for the sake of struggle isn't what it's about. Right. I know having worked with you for the past year on the WIT Regatta, which I'm sure we'll be talking about in a minute. You have a philosophy and the philosophy that at first drove me crazy. Yes. And I have 100 percent adopted myself now. And what is that philosophy?
Melody Biringer: [00:09:44] It is Launch it Broken. Fix it live.
[00:09:47] I know, it drives most perfectionists crazy. Like launch it broken? No way. It's got to be perfect. You know, I got to spend the next eight months like perfecting that before I launch it. I hear this a lot like with Web sites. You know, just different things that just take a while to launch. You know what? Guess what? It's going to be broken anyway. And you think it's going to be perfect. So I have a theory like just get out there and jump, you know, put the parachute on while you're going down. But because no matter how long you try and all the research you do and whatever, whatever, to get things perfect, it's never going to be perfect. And so get out there and, like, figure it out now. That's the whole thing. Like fail fast now. Yeah. Instead of failing in six months or a year, two years, sometimes eight years later, people are still hanging on to things. And it's like getting out of your system. Find out if it's going to work and then start flipping it until it works.
JL: [00:10:40] Well, the other- the other interesting thing about that Launch It Broken is it may take you months and months and months to find all of the things that are wrong or the errors or things like that. You launch it broken. You have- you've invited an army to look at your stuff and help you find all the broken things so much faster than you might otherwise. [Totally] So the structure of this podcast and the way we've been doing is talking about a recent success and then a recent struggle that you've had. And we've talked a lot about your background and how you've got gotten to where you are. But the latest thing is the regatta that you put together. And I know, you know, having worked with you, you put it on in Seattle a year ago. It was a one day event and then you expanded it to a week long event here in Seattle. And from my vantage point, it seemed like a success. [Yeah.] What do you think?
Melody Biringer: [00:11:36] About six years ago, I had a personal breakdown in Amsterdam. This is right after I wrote my book called Craving Success. And I thought I was on top of the world. I was on a high. I was out speaking about it, about my lessons learned. You know, launch it broken, fix it live, all these things. And then I got a phone call from the guy that was printing my books over. And I was in these 30 cities and I'm a scrappy entrepreneur. So I was financing the whole thing myself. And he starts telling me, you owe me 60 grand. You're 90 days behind. And then I got another call. Somebody had literally taken my whole entire website and put their own PayPal account, and it was taking all the money from that city. It was kind of a bad day for me.
[00:12:17] And I went down with a kind of like fetal position, nervous breakdown. And I ended up going home after spending a couple of months there and just crawling into bed in Seattle. And I just kind of had the nervous breakdown for about a year. I mean, I was still working, but I got myself into some huge financial trouble. And I think the thing that depressed me the most is that it's going to take me five years to dig out. So every brilliant thing I came up with the future for the next five years was going to go to pay for something in the past. And that's why I was in bed for the year. Like, oh, ya, I turned fucking 50 that year.
[00:12:53] That did not help anything. You know, my friends got me aside and said, What do you love? And I said, Marshmallows and Flashdance. And I just said that very flippantly. But that's what got me out of bed. I designed a dinner party called Urban Campfire, and then I saw the light again and I was able to like, maybe this will work. And I started working on it so it took me about six months. Ended up having 50 women come to that first Urban Campfire I had like a round stage and Thought Leaders stand on stage telling their real stories of how it really was going rather than what they were known for. And I had a dance party and a s'more fest. And I was like, I have to reinvent again. Here we go. But leading up to the WIT Regatta. During that time, I was on the board of a non-profit here in Seattle called WIT, you know, Women in Tech. I just started watching the ecosystem, what happened in Seattle. And in just a five year period, I watched like about 5 organizations that support women and girls in tech go to 66 organizations. And the Connection Engineer than I am, I said we should have like a resource fair and bring all these organizations together under one roof. And I can do that. So the WIT Regatta Women In Tech Regatta started out as- Since we live in Seattle and we've got the Microsoft and Amazons here- let's do like a big mothership Women in Tech event.
[00:14:11] And it was just- That's what all it was at the beginning. Let's have a resource fair. Let's bring all these organizations together and show Seattle like all the resources. And then I realized it was gonna sell out so fast and we didn't have a big enough venue and so many people wanted to be on the team.
JL: [00:14:25] That's a fantastic problem to have.
Melody Biringer: [00:14:28] And you know me, I don't want to as I said earlier, I did three nights in a row in the CRAVE party. So I'm like, well, I can't have a sold out event. Let's just make the venue bigger. Let's do some breakout sessions. And then pretty much after that one night of success, I stopped everything and decided to work on it for a whole year for the next year, which we just finished this last April. And we had a Women in Tech Week Regatta and we had over a thousand people come. It was amazing. We had 37 events. You know, we had Facebook involved and Google and Amazon and Microsoft.
JL: [00:14:59] It was an amazing thing,
Melody Biringer: [00:15:00] Just everybody was involved and-
JL: [00:15:02] I was honored to be a part of that event. Yeah, it was amazing. And what's coming up next?
Melody Biringer: [00:15:07] Yes.So, of course, we're going to be doing a bigger one in Seattle next year. And everything I do in Seattle, I'd like to bring to Vancouver, B.C. next because they can drive there in three hours. So actually, I whipped up to Vancouver and did this first before the Seattle one. We ended up having 500 people come there. It was amazing. So we'll do that again.
[00:15:26] And then because I just like to bring everything to Amsterdam, this October we're gonna be doing this in Amsterdam. I'm very excited. And I'm excited that you're coming in, too.
JL: [00:15:36] I am. I am-I'm stoked. I'm stoked about it. So there's some things that I'm hearing as potential advice for others. One is just do it. Just go out and do it and try it and see if you can, you know, see if it's going to work or not. And if you actually like it or not.
[00:15:53] The other thing I'm hearing is make it personal and do what works for you. You like Vancouver, so you go to Vancouver. You live in Seattle, so you do Seattle and you love Amsterdam. So you're doing it in Amsterdam. You are organizing it to run the things that you're passionate about. And that's making a huge difference.
Melody Biringer: [00:16:09] It sounds like what I tell my 20 year old self is do what you love and spend all your time doing that immediately and figure out what you do best. I had this thing I taught people for years called Hundred Things You Crave. I did this for myself first and like I have a business called CRAVE, I should write down what I crave, ended up breaking up into categories and coming up with all the things they crave and then start teaching other people. And I wish that would have come earlier in life because I thought I had to wear all the hats. [Yeah.] That's why I didn't like the managing people and all of that. So I love to think first. Like, what is the lifestyle I want to live and how do I design my businesses or my work around the lifestyle I want to live. Let's start there. [Yeah.]
[00:16:48] And I think I uh, born and raised in Seattle. It's in my blood. I'm never leaving here. And then I love Vancouver is just something that I've always felt from living here that I can kind of get out of the country in a couple hours. There I am. So I pretty much- everything I've done in Seattle, I bring to Vancouver next just to play there. I'd rather go there and literally do business there than just play. I know it sounds crazy, but it's just who I am. Like, I could go up there and just have fun for a couple of weeks, but I would rather get into the business culture, meet the people.
JL: [00:17:20] And have real interactions.
Melody Biringer: [00:17:22] Yes, exactly. That's fun for me. And so I'm doing that in Amsterdam now. I mean, same thing. I could go to Amsterdam, just have fun like most tourists do. But like now I'm really deep into the Dutch culture. I'm like out of the little cute city into the high rise part of Amsterdam. And I'm really meeting with the people that are living there and doing business there. And it's so fascinating to me. And that's where I get all my new ideas. I mean mean, when you're travelling like that and you're meeting new people and-
JL: [00:17:46] It keeps it fresh and exciting.
Melody Biringer: [00:17:47] Yeah. So I looked at my life this year. I went, OK, I want to spend time in those three cities. I could design my business around it. I might as well do an event in those cities because of what I love to do. And then I need to stay in Seattle for the strawberry shortcake in the summer.
JL: [00:18:00] Well, here's the thing that I want to be clear with the folks listening is that you're not like a billionaire heiress. It's not like you have a huge, vast fund of money that you're just playing with. I mean, you're bootstrapping all of this.
Melody Biringer: [00:18:15] There's some reason I'm able to live 24 hours at a time and be OK with it. I'm not always OK. It's not always with the funnest way to live, but I would rather kind of design my own life. [Yeah.] And be a little worried how I'm going to eat tomorrow, then maybe work for the man. That's just me.
JL: [00:18:30] But it, it just goes to show that you can do all of this and have these successes and have these struggles and you can do all that. It's not doesn't require that you have a huge bankroll behind you to do it. It just takes a lot of elbow grease.
Melody Biringer: [00:18:45] Yeah. A lot of creativity. Yes.
JL: [00:18:46] Yeah. And the other thing that I have noticed in working with you is you are- you are the first one to ask for help. And I think that's very hard for women sometimes is to raise your hand and ask for help. And you are really good at it and people step up and help you. Do you find, I mean, how is your relationship with asking for help?
Melody Biringer: [00:19:05] I mean, I, I haven't always been that way. I've always in the past, kind of just like I didn't know I could ask for help. In fact, this WIT Regatta has been an amazing experience for me and it seems to be happening everywhere I go. Everybody wants to help. So I'm like, wow. I mean, to me it's new. It's fairly new.
JL: [00:19:22] Well, you are handling it like a pro.
Melody Biringer: [00:19:26] It's just kind of I think the people both in Vancouver and Seattle that have been working with us and experiencing what the regatta is really like all the connections that are made. And by the way, I don't know if I brought this up yet, but the hashtag for the event is Relationships Are The True Currency. [Yes.] Now, we've got that on t-shirts. It's everywhere because I really want people to create relationships because, yes, we're putting on a tech event. And yes, there's incredible speakers and there's just amaz- you'll learn so much.
[00:19:56] But my real secret goal is when people come to this event is if they meet one new friend in their life- what's that worth? That is like everything. Or if it's not like one hundred percent your best friend, you're going to meet people that are going to advance your career.
JL: [00:20:10] Business colleagues and just support.
Melody Biringer: [00:20:12] Absolutely.
JL: [00:20:13] So, Melanie, you have done- You've done some amazing things in your life and you are a force to be reckoned with.
Melody Biringer: [00:20:19] What? Thank you.
JL: [00:20:20] What makes you a virago?
Melody Biringer: [00:20:22] I have failed so many times that I just know what it's like. So I'm not afraid to try new things. Launch it broken, fix it live. That is just how I live life and relationships. The relationships are the true currency. And just knowing that- how to create relationships, I get people championing me as much as I'm championing them. And that's an amazing way to live.
JL: [00:20:43] Very nice. So we are at the end. And I'm curious, is there anything you wish I would have asked you that I didn't?
Melody Biringer: [00:20:50] You can-you could ask me why I like marshmallows. Did we talk about marshmallows?
JL: [00:20:54] I think you mentioned something about the urban campfire. But Melody, why do you like marshmallows so much?
Melody Biringer: [00:21:00] Well, I grew up on a diet most of my life cause my mom was always on Weight Watchers,. So I was always steal the marshmallows in the bottom drawer. That's where they were stashed and they were fat free. So you can have a little sugar, fat free. That's why I actually told myself that I was, you know, I love them because they're fat free and they're sweet and they're white and white is my favorite color. But in the last several years, what I've realized is they're all about connection. So I actually honor the marshmallow. I make a marshmallow wreath every year and then I burn it on January 1st.
[00:21:31] And I wear a lot of white in my wardrobe because of the marshmallow. Because to me, it's about letting your hair down. You know, cause when you're having these kinds of vulnerable conversations with each other, you're to me, that's like the campfire conversation, which is all about the marshmallow. Yes. So next time you see a marshmallow, I just know you're going to send me a Facebook message because everybody knows that I'm about marshmallows. And so my my wall is full of people sending me marshmallow things. But that is the true reason why I love white and the marshmallow is it all comes back to relationships.
JL: [00:22:02] I found out something new about. This is very exciting.
Melody Biringer: [00:22:06] I'm wearing a white shirt.
JL: [00:22:07] You look at and you look stunning. And I thank you for sitting down with me on this very warm Seattle day. And I look forward to being with you in Amsterdam in October.
Melody Biringer: [00:22:19] Likewise. Thank you so much.
Janice Lichtenwaldt: [00:22:23] Thank you, my Viragos, for listening to the I Am Virago podcast. Check out new episodes every Tuesday. If you have ideas or suggestions of whom you'd like to hear from on this podcast, go to IAmVirago.com and leave a message. And remember, you are Virago.