Trust Your Gut, Take Your Power with Melanie White

What does it take to become CEO of a four-generation family business when no one hands you the roadmap? Melanie White, President and CEO of Hellwig Products and current Chairperson of SEMA, joins Winning Season to share how she went from cold-calling in outside sales to the C-suite by doing the job first and asking for the title later. Melanie gets honest about the moments that shaped her: crying in her car after a brutal cold call and finding her grit on the drive home, negotiating for the president title by proving she was already doing the work, and showing up at 5 a.m. on the operations floor during COVID because that's what the business needed.We also go deep on something rarely discussed: business travel safety for women. Melanie and I trade real stories and practical rules, from hotel floors and elevator instincts to why The Gift of Fear should be required reading for every woman on the road. In this episode: - Why Melanie did the job first, then negotiated the title and pay - The follow-up habit that can carry an entire sales career - Travel safety rules every woman in business should know - What leading a 4th-generation, 80-year-old company actually requires - Why your inner world shows up in your outer resultsConnect with Melanie: Hellwig Products (hellwigproducts.com) | LinkedIn linked in show notes CHAPTERS 00:00 – Welcome: Meet Melanie White, CEO of Hellwig Products & SEMA Chairperson 01:00 – Life on the road as a busy executive and mom 03:10 – Hotel safety: first floors, motels, and the "upgraded room" she turned down 05:30 – The Gift of Fear and trusting your gut as a woman traveler 06:50 – The elevator story: exiting gracefully when your intuition speaks 09:00 – Jacqueline's 3 travel rules: hotels over Airbnbs, the door stop, ride-share location sharing 10:30 – Melanie's 3 rules: higher floors, fully charged phone, carry-on only, never land after 9pm 13:10 – From French bakery to cold calling: how the journey started 14:30 – Crying in the car after a brutal cold call — and the grit that followed 16:45 – Cold calling lessons that still apply: preparation and knowing your product 17:15 – The most underrated sales skill: follow-up (and the 7-touch rule) 21:10 – What Hellwig Products makes: sway bars, helper springs & the "no saggy bottoms" policy 22:30 – The path to CEO: do the job first, ask for the title later 24:00 – Negotiating for president: "Go ahead, tell me no" 26:20 – Why the path wasn't calculated — and why that made her more invested 28:20 – 5 a.m. on the operations floor during COVID: learning through challenge 30:20 – Lifelong learning: Traction, Who Moved My Cheese, and the Audible library 33:10 – The Susie Batiz connection: Alive OS and inner work for business leaders 36:35 – "Your inner world is reflected in your outer world" 39:20 – AI, the future of work, and why human connection can't be replaced 41:40 – Melanie's parting wisdom: sometimes we are our own biggest hurdle 43:50 – Closing: emulate excellence, eliminate excuses Connect with Melanie LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/melaniehellwigwhite Instagram: @melaniehellwigwhite Hellwig Products (company) Website: hellwigproducts.com Instagram: @hellwig_products Facebook: facebook.com/HellwigProducts YouTube: youtube.com/@HellwigProducts X/Twitter: @HellwigProducts SEMA (her chair role) Instagram: @semashow / @sema.org