Summarized Transcript of Episode 255 of The Moving On Method

Summarized Transcript of Episode 255 of The Moving On Method

HOST:
Michelle Dempsey-Multack

GUESTS:
Olivia Howell and Jenny Dreizen, Co-Founders of Fresh Starts Registry

What Is the Fresh Starts Registry and Why Was It Created?

HOST:

This episode features Olivia and Jenny, sisters and co-founders of Fresh Starts Registry, a one-stop-shop registry and resource hub for people navigating divorce and starting over.

GUEST (OLIVIA):

The idea for Fresh Starts Registry was born after my divorce. Left in a half-empty home with wedding registry items and emotional trauma, I realized there was no support system, physical or emotional for this phase of life. So I imagined a divorce registry: a place to get both tangible goods and the experts you need to rebuild.

GUEST (JENNY):

Initially hesitant due to logistics and timing, I joined Olivia after my own engagement ended. It was clear, people need support through the chaos of life transitions, and we had the tools and heart to provide that.

How Did Their Backgrounds in Marketing & Social Media Shape the Brand?

Both sisters had previous careers in education and marketing.

Olivia founded a marketing agency in 2013; Jenny worked in events and was a wedding officiant.

Their combined skills fueled Fresh Starts’ early growth, building SEO, community trust, and an intentional social presence.

Olivia’s viral, heartfelt posts on Fresh Starts’ Instagram catalyzed the brand’s rapid rise.

QUOTE:

“We’re not just a divorce registry. We’re the first place people go when they realize they need a fresh start.” — Olivia Howell

Why Fresh Starts Are So Emotionally Powerful

HOST:

As someone who’s also rebuilt her life post-divorce, I resonated deeply with their mission. Starting fresh isn’t about replacing what you lost, it’s reclaiming your future.

GUEST (OLIVIA):

Fresh Starts are psychological resets. You gain optimism, motivation, and often a complete reinvention of your personal identity and space.

What’s Inside the Fresh Starts Registry?

Amazon-powered registry for privacy and ease

Curated bundles of essentials (from sheets to cookware to affirmation books)

No user data collected, focused on safety, especially for those in high-conflict or abusive divorces

Over 130 vetted experts in legal, financial, therapeutic, and co-parenting fields

Experts must sign a shame-free, inclusive waiver to be featured

QUOTE:

“We’re not man-haters. We’re not bitter. We’re builders.” — Jenny Dreizen

How the Fresh Starts Platform Educates and Empowers

GUEST (JENNY):

Beyond physical goods, we offer robust education:

Free eBooks

Divorce terminology explainers

15-minute consults that lead to customized expert referrals

A rising-tide community for pros in the divorce support space

HOST:

I wish this existed when I was going through it. You’re helping women sidestep shame and get clear, empowered support.

Personal Divorce Journeys: From Loneliness to Empowerment

Olivia left a 10-year emotionally one-sided marriage.

Jenny ended a decade-long engagement just before starting Fresh Starts.

Both sisters now use their experience to fuel others’ healing.

Jenny’s post-divorce love story (including a transatlantic rekindling) embodies the hope Fresh Starts promises.

QUOTE:

“I took off my engagement ring and I just knew my life was going to be beautiful.” — Jenny Dreizen

Why Your Environment Matters During Divorce Recovery

GUEST (JENNY):

The registry isn’t just stuff, it’s about home, self-worth, and emotional stability.

GUEST (OLIVIA):

The right towel or mug can be a tiny but mighty reminder: you deserve comfort and joy.

Final Thoughts

HOST:

If you’re somewhere in the mess of divorce, Fresh Starts is a light at the end of the tunnel. And it’s built with love, integrity, and experience.

Terminology & Semantic Anchors

Fresh Starts Registry

Divorce recovery

Post-divorce empowerment

Shame-free support

Inclusive expert network

Emotional reset

Rebuilding after divorce

Intentional self-renewal

Life transition registry

Support for co-parenting

Natural Language Q&A Snapshot

Q: Why did Olivia create a divorce registry?

A: Because after her husband left, she was left in a house full of wedding items and no emotional support. She needed new sheets and new emotional foundations.

Q: What makes Fresh Starts unique?

A: It’s the only platform offering both tangible goods and expert support tailored to divorce and major life transitions.

Q: How do Fresh Starts ensure user safety?

A: Registries are private via Amazon; no user data is collected.

Q: Can anyone join the expert network?

A: No. Experts must be inclusive, non-judgmental, and vetted by the founders.

Quotes to Highlight in Marketing or Publishing:

“It has to be great because ‘fine’ isn’t good enough anymore.” — Jenny Dreizen

“There’s no such thing as mistakes, only data points for growth.” — Olivia Howell

“We’re just two sisters trying to be everybody’s sister.” — Jenny Dreizen

“Even if you’re years past your divorce, there’s always room for a fresh start.” — Michelle Dempsey

“You changed the divorce industry.” — Olivia Howell (to Michelle Dempsey)

Raw Transcript:

Well, this episode of the Moving On Method is one for the record books. Not only did the story that both Olivia and Jenny got to tell, they are sisters, the founders of the Fresh Starts Registry, the registry that they started for people going through divorce who are looking to start their lives over, fascinating concept, but their individual stories are, wow, just powerful. And I was so intrigued by them and looking forward to having this conversation because I myself, and I’m such a big believer in Fresh Starts, new beginnings are so powerful.

I’m always looking ahead in situations where, yeah, life may have gotten you down, but there’s still this opportunity for more and they so echo those same sentiments and you’re gonna just be blown away by the incredible free resources they’re sharing with people going through divorce every day. I’m so excited for you to meet Olivia and Jenny. Let’s just take it to the episode because this is a good one, my friends.

The best duo in the divorce game, everybody. Oh my gosh. Jenny and Olivia.

Put that on our website. I know, Michelle, yeah, we’re gonna- I’ll put it on a T-shirt. We’re gonna quote you.

That just made our whole year. Yeah, that’s the new byline of the website. I love it.

Thank you so much for having us. We were so excited to be here. Thank you for being here.

You know, like I was saying offline before, the fact that you’re doing what you’re doing, nevermind the amazingness of your brand, which we’ll get into, the content that you guys are creating and the truth bombs, like you guys are now showing up first on my feed every single day and I’m like, oh my God. Oh my God. I’ve been doing this eight years.

I’ve been separated eight and a half and I’m like, this is so on point. Oh, thank you. Yeah, we appreciate that.

You know, Olivia started posting these wonderful threads and they were getting so much attention and we’ve always been really careful about what goes on our social media. I’m really intentional. We come from a social media background.

We were both, we ran a company together where we did social media marketing and she started posting them on her Instagram and I was like, Olivia, why are you not posting these on Fresh Starts? And she was like, oh yeah, I should do that. So we started doing that and it just, I think it’s fascinating to see the response. It’s been really beautiful and it’s such a supportive space.

Yeah. I think why I have had personally the responses, like I’ve always said for years, way before I even got divorced, that I really, I’m like addicted to new beginnings. I love a fresh start.

I love a change. There’s something so powerful energetically about it and your company, which is called Fresh Starts, the name alone really spoke to me, but I wanna read you something I found. People often view new beginnings as an opportunity to distance themselves from past failures and shortcomings.

This can lead to a psychological reset with individuals experiencing a renewed sense of optimism, self-efficacy and motivation. And I feel like not only does that come through in your work personally, but obviously with the idea of Fresh Starts, that’s exactly what you’re helping people do. So I would love to hear the story behind it, obviously, and how two sisters got involved in it.

Yeah, absolutely. I just had a thought that, I have like two favorite stories to tell. One is how I met my husband and one is how we started the company.

And I think I’m gonna get to tell both of them today. And I’m excited about that. The floor is yours.

Yeah, no, we appreciate that, Michelle. You know, it’s so important to us too that we are forward thinking, right? That we are thinking about Fresh Starts. You’re not gonna come to Fresh Starts to be angry and bitter and man-hating.

That’s just not what we do. And so our origin story, we kind of have two, and then they crossed over to create this baby of ours, this Fresh Starts. So my background’s in marketing and PR.

I’ve had a marketing agency since 2013. I was a middle school teacher before that. And then I had my first son.

And as many women listening will know, I was doing everything. I was taking care of my son and teaching, and my ex would come home and sit on the couch and watch YouTube. And so I was like, well, this is not sustainable.

So I left teaching, which I loved, and was really a hard Fresh Start for me. Yeah. What did you teach? I taught elementary special ed in New York City for years.

Wow. Went to Florida, started teaching here, and I left when my daughter was six months old. I left teaching.

Well, when I was in marketing, and now in support of the boys. Same journey, same journey, Michelle. We’re soul sisters.

You gotta study the pipeline there. Yeah, so I did the same thing, and I had my son, and I literally, we are from Long Island. I live on Long Island.

There you go, soul sisters. Where are you from? Rockville Center. Okay, we’re from Huntington.

We’re from Huntington. Yeah. Except dad, you did the church in Rockville Center.

He did like all his refurbishments. I think so, yeah. I lived on Lawrence Hill Road for a little bit.

That’s so funny. Oh my God, we went to Eastwoods, like right there. Yeah.

Okay. So funny. Small world, small world.

Huntington’s the best. Okay. Yeah, oh my God.

We love upcast, never leaving. And so, yeah, so I literally was like, well, how can I make money? And to his credit, my ex-husband was very supportive at the time, probably because he knew I’d be home more doing more things in the house. And so I would go around to local businesses and offer to do their social media.

One thing led to another. I’m an incredibly determined person, ended up with a six-figure marketing agency after a couple of years, and just kind of like would lead with relationships, right? So I would be pulled into television shows and movies and projects, and loved doing marketing. And then we had our second son, we bought a house, you know, all of the things that you do.

We literally had a white picket fence. And I was very slowly dying inside emotionally, not really realizing what was happening, right? And I was literally, I remember distinctly writing in a Facebook group, does anybody else do everything? I’m like, I literally do everything. The other moms were like, no, we don’t do everything.

Like does he, I mean, my ex never even gave a bath, didn’t change diapers, didn’t do anything. Olivia broke her foot while she was carrying my younger nephew, and she fell and broke her foot. And she was fine, but she was on one foot for a number of months.

And he didn’t step up at all. I was driving out from Queens to come bring my nephew to school because she couldn’t drive. This very much sounds like the silent divorce that everybody’s talking about now on social media.

And super painful. I always say it is so much more painful to be lonely in a relationship than alone. Horrible.

Horrible. And then he was a nice guy, right? He was the good guy. Good on paper.

Good on paper. He was an engineer, a musician, right? So all these things. And then I kind of just had a reckoning where I could see that I wasn’t gonna be emotionally okay.

So I started therapy in March of 2019. And by April of 2019, my marriage was over. So it didn’t take very long.

Give a girl a little self-enlightenment. Yeah. Exactly.

And I think I said no for the first time ever, my marriage to, and I remember he wanted to go to a music festival and I was like, no, I don’t wanna take two little kids to a music festival. It doesn’t sound fun. I’d rather shave my eyebrows.

Yeah, literally, Michelle. And so my marriage ended and it was like one of those things that we were not fighters, right? So it was a lot of that silent divorce, like you said. I love that phrase for that.

And so I had a moment where I just kind of like lost it and he was like, why are you crying? And I’m like, well, I think we should go to couples counseling. And he was like, no, I don’t think so. Everything’s fine.

And I was like, no, everything’s not fine, sorry. And so I called my sister. She came out from Queens.

I kind of just like had a reckoning with like, okay, well, it is what it is. I knew I could always move back to my parents’ house. I was safe.

Like I had family support. And then he decided he was leaving. He came home from work and said, I’m gonna go.

I’m gonna leave. And the funny part of the story is that when we had this big fight, I called my, we come from divorce. So our parents are divorced since I was 10.

We have an amazing stepdad. I called my parents and I said, something happened. I think that my marriage is heading towards divorce.

Every single, my mom, my stepdad and my biological dad said, you need to get into couples counseling like right away. He called his parents. Who were married.

Who were married at the time. And his father since passed away, but they were married and said, Olivia and I got in this big fight, whatever. And they said, come home, come home.

Interesting. And that’s what he did. That’s what he did.

And so we ended up living together, as most people do for a few months and he moved out in August. And so when he moved out in August, it was really when my emotional shit hit the fan, right? So I was like, oh my God, I just realized I was in an incredibly toxic relationship for a decade. Right, and you were holding it together for so long.

It took a little longer than August. Yeah, it took a while. It took a little longer than August, yeah.

And so I remember he moved out and he was a musician. So a large part of our house was musical instruments and his studio. So everything was off the walls.

The studio was empty. The house was half empty. And the other half of the stuff was for my wedding registry, right? Our towels that were monogrammed, our sheets, our plates.

And I remember Jenny came over the day after he moved out, we cleaned the whole house and it felt like a ghost town. It was like so haunting to live there. And I was grateful that I still had the marital residence, but it’s really hard to heal, right? In the house that you were hurt in.

So I had this idea and I was like, hey, I had a baby registry twice. I had a wedding registry. I really need new stuff now.

Like I want new towels. I want new pillows. I don’t wanna sleep in the same sheets I conceived my kids.

Like, no. And so I Googled, right? I just was like divorce registry. And the only things that came up were articles from Vogue and Elle that said, why don’t we have a divorce registry? And I’m, like I said, I’m a Pisces.

I’m a dreamer. I’m a doer. I was like, well, let’s do this.

So you’re not just a dreamer. No, I do, I do. Jenny calls me the more machine.

I’m always doing more, more, more. And so I called Jenny and I literally, first I journaled and I said, I wanna start Fresh Starts Registry as a one-stop shop to begin again for divorce, right? So the items you need and the experts you need to make this easier. Cause I thought coming from everybody in our family is divorced, that it would be, I would be like, okay, I’ll go through divorce.

I know what it’s like. No, of course it’s trauma, right? It’s trauma all around. So I journaled this, I called Jenny and Jenny was like, I love this idea, but at the time, and I’ll let her explain, she wasn’t, we were not working together at the time.

She was on the road much of the year with her job and she had just gotten engaged to her longtime fiance two weeks before my marriage ended. Yeah. So in April.

And so she was like, I love this idea. We don’t know how to build a startup. We don’t have any funds.

We don’t have time for this. And you have a marketing agency and two little kids, but let’s consider it. Like, let’s think about it.

Right. So that’s what happened. I’ll let Jenny take over her side of the story here.

So yeah. Well, before we hear from you, Jenny, which I’m really excited about, I just want to say, I feel like I’m watching a documentary right now that I don’t want to turn off. So documentary on the hustle.

We are going to flip out so much of this podcast. So yes, two weeks before Olivia’s marriage fell apart, I finally got engaged to my boyfriend who I think we’d been together for 10 years. No, no, I’m sorry.

Eight years at that point. He’d had the ring for two years. I did know that.

And he finally asked me to marry him. Or actually he asked me if I wanted the ring, was to be precise, is what he asked. And we- You want this thing? Yeah, I’m sorry.

You think you want to wear it? You want this thing basically. And I said, maybe, cause I thought that was like really cute and coy. And now I’m like, oh girl, no.

And so we’ve been together. We got together when I was 22. I guess I was about 30 by this point.

And we got engaged and it was like, you know, it hadn’t been an easy ride. We had a good relationship. We got along well, but this sort of getting to the next thing hadn’t been an easy ride.

And so we get engaged, Olivia’s marriage breaks up. And then Olivia has this idea. Then the pandemic hits.

And I was on the road. I worked in events, like large corporate events. And so the part that I loved of my job was going to camp and getting to see all my friends for a month and, you know, staying in a hotel.

Like that’s the best. And that came to a crashing halt. And we were still doing events online, but this is when my sister realized she could get her hooks in me.

And she’s like, you know, I can pay you. She’s like, you can come work for me now. Cause she’d been trying to get me to come work at her social media agency for all these years.

So we start working together and we see that it’s a really good thing. We work really well together. We like 5X our revenue.

Like we did a great, it works very well. I do graphics and operations, so it works well. And I’m in this relationship with my ex and we hit our 10 year mark in March, 2021.

And then in June, 2021, we just have this reckoning, this come to Jesus conversation. We had a wedding planned for May, 2020, which COVID canceled. We had tried to- I just interrupted you.

You had a wedding plan that was a huge wedding. Yeah. It was at Oheka, Long Island.

It was supposed to be a- Oh, it was at the castle. That was at Oheka. No, it was at Vanderbilt.

That’s what I meant. I would have loved that. Oh my God.

No, it was at the Vanderbilt Museum. That was amazing. I was thinking castle in my head.

It was at the Vanderbilt Museum. My sister likes to, she makes my ideas big. I ran a half, I ran a 10K and she’s like, you ran a marathon.

I’m like, no, I didn’t. Don’t tell people that. It was at the Vanderbilt.

It was down the block, so yes, 10K is a marathon. It was at the, it was supposed to be at the Vanderbilt, but also Jenny’s the middle child. And I like to point that out, that she never got her spotlight.

So this wedding was supposed to be her moment. And I threw her her bridal shower in the week before the lockdown. So that was the last time people saw everybody.

And so she was planning this huge, huge, and she was a wedding officiant for 10 years. And I worked in wedding invitations. Right, and so she was in the wedding industry.

So it’s not just that her wedding was pushed off. This was like a really big deal that her wedding was pushed off. Yeah, yeah.

My sister called me in like April and she was like, hey, maybe you want to call the venue and try to get another date. And I think I growled at her in response. I was like, absolutely not.

But we did, we pushed it to September and then we pushed it again, kind of. And then we decided we don’t really need that. That’s okay, let’s just have a baby.

The best idea for saving a relationship. And so I wanted to have a baby and we were sort of discussing pursuing that, like initial negotiations, I would say. And something just wasn’t working.

And that’s not a euphemism either, but something just wasn’t working in the relationship. And we just sat down and I said like, what’s going on? And I knew I had a sort of like a escape plan. And so I said, let’s talk about this.

And my ex said to me, well, I don’t love you anymore and I don’t think we should have a baby together. And so this is the reel that you created in your wedding dress that I saw that I was like, oh my God. Yeah, it’s so funny, like, I mean, he really, that is what he said to me was, I don’t think I love you anymore.

And it wasn’t the first time he’d said that to me, but it was the first time I really heard it, you know? It was like the second time. I mean, he didn’t say it that many times that I didn’t hear it, but it was the first time I really heard it. And it made sense because it didn’t feel like he loved me.

And we sat there and we had a really good conversation. And I mean, we’re still on okay terms now, like we’re not close, but we had a really good conversation and I took off my engagement ring and I just knew my life was gonna be beautiful. Like I just had this feeling, this like clouds partying feeling.

You hear the doves singing. Exactly, and I just knew it. I like put my engagement ring down, which I loved on the coffee table, which I did not love.

You know what I mean? And I was like, okay, like, and he said- I was waiting for you to be like, I took off my ring and my life was over. No, and he said to me like, you know, it’s gonna be fine. And I said, no, it has to be great because this is fine.

We’re in fine, like it’s fine. But it’s our responsibility to go make our lives great now. That’s our job.

And so the next morning, my dad happened to be coming. I lived in Astoria, my dad lived in Manhattan. He happened to be coming to drive me out with me into Long Island.

We packed up all my stuff and we drove out. And then I moved into this really sweet little house. And I started filling my cart with everything that I needed because I left with just my clothing basically.

Like I didn’t really like any of the furniture in our house. There’s stuff that I would have taken and like the $300 rice cooker that we got for our wedding would have been nice, you know. But again, now I live in Scotland.

So that plug wouldn’t even work. So- Wait, air ball. You’re in Scotland? Yeah, I could get there, I could get there.

I don’t matter, you guys. Just wait, just wait. And so, yeah, so I’m in this apartment, I’m filling up my cart, it’s like $10,000 worth of stuff, you know.

A couch and a table and a mattress and a bed and everything you need. And I kind of like sheepishly, I’m sitting on the floor with just wifi in my apartment and call my sister and was like, okay, that registry idea is a really good idea. I don’t know how we’re gonna make it happen.

I have no idea how to build something like this. I don’t have the expertise, but like, let’s see what we can do. And we sat down.

So I moved into that place in July and we launched by August. And we just building as much as we can with what we have. I always say to people, cause you know, everyone says like, oh, don’t look back.

You’re not going that way. But when you do look back and you connect certain dots and you see like the besheret of it all, which means the meant to be of it all. No, we know what that means, but they might not.

Another development in our relationship that I’m really excited about. But like, I have chills. Like in hindsight, everything does really work out the way it was supposed to, to put you on the path of where you need to go, which is for me, unfortunately, my childhood was very similar parents’ divorce, but it was a very traumatic 10 year divorce.

It was also ugly and brutal at the time. I ended up estranged from my father by the time I was in middle school. And I lived my childhood angry, resentful, jealous, had the best stepdad in the world.

He died when I was 23. And I look back at my life and I’m like, you know what? I couldn’t be who I am now as a mom, as a parent, as a second wife, had I not been in that hell. And like, that is the fuel that gives every fresh start the power that it needs.

Yes, yeah. And that’s a lot of the work that we do and what we write about is how to take that inventory, right? You don’t have to go back and live that trauma again, but what can you learn, right? Like I always say, there’s no mistakes. I tell my kids this all the time.

There’s no such thing as mistakes. There’s just lessons, right? What can I learn from this? What can I, data points we talk a lot about, and our coaching and education. So yeah, and Jenny even has more to that story that we’ll get to also, but yeah.

That’s how the company sort of came together. We launched it, we built it on, we exist on Squarespace. I’ve built everything that you see.

Our registry is powered by Amazon because the reason that we found out that there are no divorce registries is that registries don’t make money. That’s not like a money-making company. And so we also wanted to protect people.

Unfortunately, Amazon is the best option for now. We wanted to protect people’s addresses. And on Amazon, when you make a registry, you can keep your address private.

And that was really important to us. And they can also get everything on there. They can build everything that they need.

So we have bundles. Yeah, bundles that they can just go to Amazon and sort of click add to cart, and it makes it very easy for them. We’re trying to take the overwhelm out of the fresh start, right? It’s like, I don’t know what sheets I need.

I don’t know what sheets are good. When you are going through a moment like this, you don’t have brain bandwidth for all of these little decisions. So we’re just trying to help with that.

And so, yeah, that’s how the company came to be. I think it’s really powerful. And I think back to my own experience where I think, Olivia, I’m a lot like you, where I’m like, more, go, move, do it, get it done.

And I fall apart later. And I didn’t put enough, I have ADHD and anxiety and complex PTSD to add to the mix, but my anxiety felt calmed by just doing, doing, doing. And sometimes there was no thought.

And like, had I had a list to follow or some sort of strategy, which is precisely why I do the work that I do now, help women have that. But it just, it would have been incredible and so helpful for me in that space that I was in. So how long, how, so what year was this that you started the service? August, 2021.

So we’re coming up on four years. Wow. I know.

She’s not a baby anymore. No, she’s getting there and she’s grown a lot. Not a girl, not yet a woman.

No. Exactly. And so where have you seen for your consumers, your clients, where have you seen the biggest impact? Yeah, that’s a great question.

So number one is we don’t collect user data on anybody who uses the registry side. It’s really, safety and security was number one for us, right? We know from our experience with the divorce and talking to people that a lot of women especially are hesitant to ask for help because they’re afraid that somebody might find out, right? Or that somebody will, you know, get in touch with their ex. So we don’t, you know, we collect cookies like any regular website, but we don’t collect your, you don’t have to have, you know, your email given to us to like, you know, download our free eBooks or, you know, Amazon collects all your info for the registry.

So that was really important to us. And so what we have seen is everything that, you know, growth has been interesting. We’ve had a lot of people say like, how have you grown? And we want numbers and stats.

And we’re like, well, we can give you some things, but some of it is just people telling us things that they use, right? So like we have amazing stories of people who have used the registry and I’m happy to share some of those. But, you know, growth wise, we now have about, you know, 40,000 page views a month, which is amazing. Our social media reaches over 20 million, you know, people a month at this point.

And we’ve, you know, it was, it’s interesting. We launched in August, by February, we were already on NBC because there was no, nothing like this before. So we’ve been covered in every major media outlet and people have a lot of opinions on divorce registries.

And, you know, and then what we have realized over the last four years is it’s not just the divorce registry, which has a lot of, you know, parts emotionally to it, but it’s the divorce education, right? And support. And so we ended up talking to a lot of women who didn’t know a lot of these terms or how they could afford divorce or all of these things. And so we do a lot of work on providing free support, free resources.

We pretty much spend a lot of our time writing eBooks. We’re writing a book right now and making sure that you can come to Fresh Starts and find the support you need. And then we have our amazing expert membership.

So that was something that was really important to us is that you could come find vetted experts for all parts of your divorce journey. So we did a lot of research into this and most people don’t know, but for every life change you go through, you actually use about seven different experts. And if you think about divorce, that makes sense, right? You have your divorce lawyer, perhaps a divorce coach, mortgage lender, financial planner, realtor.

Therapist. Therapist, kids therapist, list goes on and on. Co-parenting coach.

Right, all of it. And so we, basically the way that we make money is that we took all of our marketing and PR skills and we brought them to a membership level. So you can become a Fresh Starts expert for $25 a month.

You get your SEO optimized profile. You get warm referrals from us. You get networking and you can promote your events with us as well.

And then for $55 a month, you get all of that. Plus we have this amazing community membership. So we have co-working three days a week, business coaching two days a week, and we actually do press and media relations for our experts.

Yeah. Unlimited podcasts appearances on our podcast too. Yeah, because for us, we are like a rising tide type of company, right? So we believe building a bigger table and all of that good metaphors.

So for us, if our experts can shine in the world, then we’re shining in the world too. And so we actually make all of our experts sign a waiver that they are inclusive and shame-free and judgmental-free. And we love our experts.

We have experts. We have over 100 and something experts at this point. We are the 130.

We’re the largest expert guide of experts at this point. And it’s just an amazing community that we’ve built. So that’s been really beautiful to watch that grow alongside everything else.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s like the perfect blend of everything you need. I mean, obviously, taking a look at your site, it’s empowering.

There’s free advice, which you can’t get enough of in this space and time when you were kind of thinking of leaving or you’ve just left and you don’t know what to do next. And there’s community. So people who, not your experts, but the people who join or decide to take advantage of all that you have to offer, are they offered a community sense of experience or they get to stay anonymous? That’s a great question.

Jenny, you wanna answer that? Yeah, so we are not divorce coaches. Well, Olivia is a divorce coach, but she’s not a practicing divorce coach. I don’t coach.

And so we were really careful about that because we’re not qualified and we’re like, it’s not us. So we have some really amazing experts that do offer community options, but our Instagram is sort of that place for us. And that’s, and you know what, as you can see right now, that is blowing up that community space.

And Olivia also gets a lot of DMs from women and refers them to people. She also offers these free 15-minute divorce resource consults. So when you are coming out, cause you know, right, coming through a divorce, I mean, you’re like, who do I talk to? What do I need? What questions do I ask? And so Olivia will meet with you for 15 minutes and then send you a huge email of all the people that she thinks you should be connected to, our resources, PDFs, free eBooks, things like that.

That’s sort of where the community lives. I mean, one day when we can have like a, you know, therapist on staff or a divorce coach on staff, that would be amazing. But at this point, so much of it is about responsibility and ethical responsibility that we have to people.

And I, you know, I was thinking about this the other day, like we didn’t start as divorce experts and we didn’t call ourselves divorce experts. We were just two sisters trying to be everybody’s sister. Right, because we called, I called divorce lawyers for her and she’s called therapists for me.

Like we do that for each other. That’s all we were trying to start out as. And now four years later, obviously our experience with divorce is very different than it started as.

But we were like, I was thinking about that. I was like, oh, we never claimed to be that until we were that. Yeah.

It’s funny, I had a similar trajectory also because it was like, I didn’t get divorced and wake up one day and was like, I’m just gonna be an expert in this field. Right. It happened very organically where when I started sharing, there wasn’t a lot of that on social media yet.

And so people were gravitating. And like you guys, I was never gonna hold myself to be out to be anything professionally that I wasn’t. So I got certified upon certified upon certified.

Right. And then the book deal came and the podcast blew up. And then I was on a press tour for my book and I was on Good Morning America, which was like basically the pinnacle of my career.

Everything’s been downhill since then. But what’s his name that interviewed me that was since, you know, fired because he’s having an affair with whatever her name was. Yes, the podcast now.

Yeah, he looks at me and he’s like, divorce expert, huh? How do you claim to be one of those? Or something like that. I was like, let me tell you. Yeah.

You know, like I was just like, it was just ironic that he got spooched shortly thereafter for being so chievous. Yeah. But it is a strange term, but also one that like, I know for myself, it came with so much personal and professional experience and grit and like pain, sweat, tears, all of it, that I hold that title so proudly.

Absolutely. I mean, how many women have you probably talked to Michelle in the last eight years? Thousands. Right.

Thousands. And, you know, like for the podcast to have had the reach and the impact that it’s had all these years now, it’s like, man, there are days where, you know, my algorithm is quiet and social media isn’t blowing up. And I’m like, what am I even doing? And then somebody stops me in the street and they’re like, you literally changed my life.

And I’m like, oh, okay, all right, it’s working. You know, a little bit of imposter syndrome, but you don’t know until you’re going through it, how isolating and lonely and all consuming and confusing it can be because all the misinformation on social media or your parents and family are always gonna give you the worst advice. You know, it’s a lot.

So to be able to have something like what you guys have created is just incredible. And I’m very sad and kicking myself for not knowing about it sooner. It’s like I’m doing it for service.

It’s amazing. Like they say it takes five years for a company. Like it’s kind of the make or break phase.

If you can last five years, you can. And at like the what, the three and a half year mark, we were like, oh, things are changing. We could see it in the company.

Things are changing. I mean, we can finally like pay ourselves and things like that. You know, you can watch it change.

And it’s fascinating because it has taken a little bit and we needed, and at the time, you know, six months in, a year in, you’re like, why isn’t it happening? Why isn’t it happening? And you’re like, you just gotta stay the course. And the thing is like, when I was seven and my parents were getting divorced, I wanted so badly to talk to other kids whose parents were getting divorced. So I’m not surprised that this is my life’s work, right? Because from my side, like I don’t see myself as a divorce expert.

I see myself as a divorce support expert because I’ve been through my own stuff and that was a lot, but I watched my sister navigate this and we did it together. And I know what to say and what to do. And I know how to help people support their loved ones.

And that’s so much a part of what we do too is educating the people that love people going through divorce. And so- It’s interesting that you knew at seven what being able to talk about it would mean for you because I remember being like silenced. Like my mom’s whole thing was, nobody’s gonna know.

You don’t talk about it at school. Wow. And it was like, it’s no wonder why I’m so vocal about it now because I was shamed into submission, you know? Yeah, yeah.

But I was gonna say, Michelle, you were the really, I’m gonna say the first to really go on social media and talk about what it’s like to be a mom. I think it was you and Rachel Sobel. That was like it, that’s all I had, right? And so it was like, I was watching you and I was the first of my friends to get divorced.

And I’m like, who the hell do I turn to? And so like your content, when people are listening and when you say somebody will tell you like you saved their life, like you really have saved people’s lives for the last eight years. Like, I just hope that you know that you have changed the divorce industry and the way people talk about divorce with all of the work you’ve done because we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you, like truly. And like, you know.

That makes me happy. No, I, for sure, I think, but when you’re coming from a place of passion and love and not necessarily like focused on the numbers. No.

It’s when it’s your impact that makes the biggest difference for you, then, and you’re overthinking it, I think that’s when you know you’re doing something right because I just wanna make sure, you know, my community has been with me through separation, divorce, adjusting to co-parenting, going from having a bad co-parenting relationship to a great one, getting remarried, blending a family, stepping, you know, so I’m constantly trying to like give everybody what they need. And it’s great that people rely on it. And it’s amazing that people still wanna hear from me and my story, but I love meeting people that are adding so much value to the game.

I’m sure, as you know, there is so much out there in the divorce talk world that is doing such a disservice to so many. Something you said at the very beginning really struck the biggest chord with me, which was it’s not ex-bashing, it’s not hating on what you’ve experienced, it’s just trying to make you better. And that’s what my focus has been.

And it’s been like kicked in my face so much that I’m not out here bashing men or narcissists or this, that, and the other for likes, which could probably make me a lot more popular. I just am very true to what I believe in, which is the problem is the problem, not the person, and we can move forward from it anyway. 100%, and that’s a lot of the writing that I’ve been doing lately is exploring those really small nuanced moments of the end of a marriage, right? Or a course of, you know, control or those things that are like, you know, people don’t talk about what is it like to lie in bed next to the person that you’re about to separate from, right? And I really dig deep to think back to my moments like that and write about it because I know if I went through it, somebody else went through it.

And the amount of messages I get from people that are like, I’ve never seen anybody talk about this, or I finally, you put in words what I had in my head for so many years. It is, it’s just wild, right? We need to talk about all of this. And I think you’re right, Michelle, women are still silenced, right? There’s still told not to talk about this.

Divorce is still stigmatized, even though 50% of first marriages end in divorce. So we’re here to be like, no, we’re gonna just talk about it. We don’t care, right? Mention it all.

Mention it all, exactly. What our favorite show. Exactly.

I know it’s true. I just literally right before I turned on this, you know, podcast with you guys to record was with a client who is based in the Middle East. She’s in Kuwait.

And she was like, I know divorce has a stigma everywhere, but you have no idea what it’s like here. And I’m like, I’ve worked with many clients in the Middle East and in India where that tends to be the area where divorce is so shameful. Yes.

And I said to her, in spite of knowing the stigma that you were gonna face, you still made this choice. You know how badass that is? It’s really strong. Like, I think it’s incredible.

The bigger the stigma, like the worse on them. You know, man, I’m just so inspired by my clients every day. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. No, I love that. Yeah.

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Well, I’ll tell you how I ended up in Scotland. Oh, yeah, hello. I’ll tell, oh, if you really make me.

So my brother, this is a story and this is funny cause you were saying like everything that you’ve, there’s no mistakes, like every step that you’ve ever taken has gotten you here. So our brother went to university in Scotland and the story goes that a like college, like pamphlet fell out of the guidance counselor’s bookshelf and hit him in the head and he like picked it up and it was for St. Andrews. God, is that you? Yeah, exactly.

And so our parents have been divorced for like 20 years by that point, maybe a little bit less. And they have a pretty good relationship. Like they’re friendly with each other and they both say our brother is our baby brother.

So he’s the youngest from our parents. And they said that they were like playing chicken of like who was gonna stop him from going to Scotland. Like my dad thought my mom would, my mom thought my dad would, nobody stopped him.

So he went to university over here. And in 2010, my mom and I got on a plane and we came to visit him, you know, March of 2010 was his first year. And we went to St. Andrews and we came back to Edinburgh for a couple of days.

And we were going to this museum. I have the directions to the museum, to the National Gallery of Scotland. I didn’t understand that that building is actually two museums, it’s two spaces.

And we walked into the RSA, which is the Royal Scottish Academy, thinking it was the other museum. And there was two people working at the desk. There was a very light, lovely lady and then a very handsome guy.

And my mom is, our mom is gorgeous. She’s an artist, she’s a flirt. And she’s like, walks right up to the guy and starts talking to him.

And she has, you know, postcards from her art show and she’s giving them to him. And then she’s talking to the girl, because, you know, she’s also like in it for me. So she’s like, you talk to this guy for a minute.

And, you know, we got to talking. He was writing something by hand. I was like, what is that? Oh, it’s poetry.

I said, oh, I write poetry. He goes, oh, maybe you know some competitions, some poetry competitions I could be part of. Why don’t you give me your email and then I can send you my poetry and you can tell me if, you know, you know any poetry competitions.

Hello, this is like a movie. It is like a movie. And so, and he’s English.

He’s not Scottish, which is helpful because I could understand his accent. I was going to say, that’s got to be, yeah. And so we go home.

I’ve watched Tenspotting so many times. I still don’t know what they’re saying. I don’t either.

I was watching Department Q and I was like, I got to get out of the house more because I work from home. I was like, the set in Ed Brun, I don’t understand their accents. Like I got to get out of the house.

So I go home and he emails me the poems and I was mortified because I was 22. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know any competitions.

I just, and so I just never answered the email. I’m literally choosing so hard. If you’re not watching this on YouTube.

It’s my favorite story to tell. It’s a great story. It’s my favorite story.

And so we ended up, we became Facebook friends and he became Facebook friends with my mom. And I just always had this like, that guy, you know, like I don’t know if you’ve ever had somebody in your life where you’re like that guy and you can’t really explain to people. We just talked for 20 minutes at a museum.

I don’t know him, but I just like, we, you know, we would comment on each other’s stuff on Facebook every once in a while, little things like that. I get with my ex, I move in with my ex, I get engaged. Right before, actually the day of my 10 year anniversary with my ex, I like commented on, the guy’s name is Thomas.

He’s my husband now. So we can just like, but I commented on Thomas’s, on something on Thomas’s Facebook and he messaged me. And it was a very flirtatious message.

And I let him know that I was flattered, but engaged. And then I sort of just like kept that in my head. We break, my ex and I break up and I was like, you know what, I’ll reach out to this guy.

I’ll get a little attention. Like, you know, it’ll be fun. We’ll have a flirt.

And we’ve always sort of, the timing’s always been off and I’ll see what happens. So we started talking and two days into talking, I booked a ticket to Scotland and I went down to tell my parents and my parents were like, what is wrong with you? Another one going to Scotland? Yes. You’re insane.

You’ve known this guy for two seconds. And I ended up canceling because it was still during COVID restrictions. I was going to have to be in his flat, this flat, for 10 days, like under quarantine.

But I canceled and he was like, of course, like, I want you to feel safe. I want you to, you know, I always want you to feel safe. And we talked every day at night.

I mean, I was with him constantly, Olivia. Like I was constantly on WhatsApp with him every night. He was on furlough.

She was like carrying a laptop around the house. But he was on furlough, so he wasn’t working. So he would just, we would stay up like all night talking, fall asleep on Skype together, which, RIP Skype.

But, and we would, and then so what, October 2021, I came here for two weeks and then I came back for Christmas. And then we were like, you know, it’s like just the next step. Like we never even, there were things that we didn’t even like talk about.

Like, should we do this? Should we not? It was just like, I can come for six months. You should come for six months because as an American, you can. And we got engaged in December of 2022.

And then I came back. I moved here in May of 2023 on a fiance visa. And we got married in September of 2023.

And like, I just, it’s the craziest thing because he is exactly the person I’m supposed to be with. And if I hadn’t walked into the wrong museum, if he had been on like a smoke break, if he had been, he was splitting his time. He doesn’t really work in the museum.

He still works for them, but he doesn’t work in the museum anymore. So if he had been in the stores where he like sometimes works, I wouldn’t have been there. Like it was just exactly what it was supposed to be.

I always think about that. You know, a lot of people will say to me, I wish I never married my ex at all. And I’m like, I could say that too, but A, then I wouldn’t have my daughter who is my sun, moon and stars.

But also like I, my husband now is the greatest thing. Like I worship him and I was never anyone to worship man. He’s the most amazing human being.

And I’m like, if I had met him at any other time, it just wouldn’t have happened. It wouldn’t have worked. And that’s why timing is so amazing.

How did you know? I would have been 22. When we met, I was 22. Like I wasn’t going to move to Scotland when I was 22.

Right. I saw your video. I saw the whole like overseas thing.

And then I didn’t know that it was like, okay, this is, this is wow. Michelle, how did you meet your husband? Very similar to what Jenny was saying. Like I, I saw him one day, he lived in my mom’s building.

So I live in Miami now. I moved here after a couple of very rough years towards the end of my time on Long Island. She had moved here full time.

I was still on Long Island, had a major car accident driving home from Lawrence Hill Road, my boyfriend’s house. Oh, it’s very dangerous, yeah. And I got into an accident in Westbury, like quiet road, head-on collision, totally meant to be, shattered everything in my body from the top down.

My mom had to come to New York, move in with me, nurse me back to health. She had just gotten remarried after my stepdad died and moved full-time to Miami. So I’m like, I can’t be alone in New York.

I moved to Miami, met my ex-husband within seconds, divorced three years later, you know, we had Bella. And I would go to my mom’s apartment. I would take her.

She went to like the local synagogue here, had a preschool. And so I would pick her up two o’clock in the afternoon, three o’clock in the afternoon. I didn’t want to be home alone with her.

It was kind of sad and lonely for me. So I’d go walk around the property of my mom’s building with a stroller to put her for a nap. And there was always this guy at like four or five o’clock who I would see either at the valet or he would be on the pier fishing with his daughter and he was gorgeous.

And I’m not, I’m the most socially awkward human. I was never going to be like, hey. And now I can say the same about him.

He’s also somewhat socially awkward. But then he started popping up, like he was on my LinkedIn feed. And then we were both in the same edition of our city’s newspaper.

He was on the cover for something he had done with work. I was a couple pages back for something, you know, I was doing with work and we started chatting on LinkedIn. He wrote, all these guys were like, you know, DMs and Instagram that I didn’t even want to open.

And then I got a message from him on LinkedIn and it said, very impressive stuff, Michelle. And I was like, what a compliment, you know, like for me, for someone not to compliment what I looked like, which I’ll take that too. But for someone to have taken the time to like read what I do and read my articles, I was like, huh.

And we had a phone call on a Saturday. He was going to a concert that night. We made plans for the following Saturday.

And I knew before the date, we’d be getting married. And I never had that feeling. Like I didn’t have that feeling with my ex-husband.

I thought something was wrong with me because I had never had that like, when you know, you know feeling. And he was the only person I dated after my separation. Now we’ve been together eight and a half years, married for six.

It’s fascinating. I mean, I always laugh because like, people are like, you should be a 90 day fiance. And I’m like, well, we’re boring.

Like we’re like, you know, I watch a 90 day fiance and they’re like, well, I don’t know if I’m going to kiss him at the airport. I was like, I ran into his arms and I had never touched him. Like it was a complete stranger to me, but I knew, I was so afraid that he was going to propose my first trip here.

Oh my God. Because I was like, people are like, I had gotten my parents were like, people are going to think you’re crazy. I was like, I don’t care.

I don’t care. I don’t care about my life. It’s fine.

And now, and then I was like, I don’t want people. I was like, people will really think I’m crazy if I’m engaged to two different guys within like six months of each other. I was like, I got to slow that down.

Yeah, some of these opportunities, like, you know, these are so meant to be when they’re so like hard to even believe. Exactly. He made it very clear, like what his intentions were and what he, you know, that he wanted to have me forever.

And so I came back and I just kept coming back and now I get to live here, which is amazing. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Edinburgh, but it’s just a very romantic, beautiful, walkable city. See, I could never survive a day in Miami.

Like, it’s cool here. I can’t survive a day in Miami. It’s like, doesn’t get as hot as New York does and it doesn’t get as cold as New York does.

And I love that for me. I love that for you too. No, I am still, I’ve been here 12 and a half years and I’m still very much like a Northeastern girl, weather-wise, mindset-wise.

We just, when my daughter left for camp for the summer, my stepdaughter took her senior trip to Europe with friends and my husband and I were like, let’s do something like in the U.S. I’m like, I want to have a New England summer, you know? I wanted to, we went up to upstate New York, we went to Vermont, we went to Nantucket and I’m like, that’s who I am and who I am, so not a Miami girl. Yeah, anyway, it sounds like we’ve all had, wait for it, really fresh start. I love it, Michelle.

Oh, you knew what was coming. We have, we have and it’s very cool. Cause I, you know, so much of what we talk about is how like when you change the things around you, the things around you change, but also like a wonderful way to support people is by giving them the, gifting them the things that they need in those moments and I look around my apartment, like I’m 3,000 miles away from my family, but I have like quilts on my bed that my mom made and I have, you know, like my sister sends me affirmations and little pictures and like all of my stuff behind me is like home to me and I have my grandmother’s heirlooms, like it matters what’s around you and I think that’s part of what we wanna impress upon people is like, it’s okay, you have to have stuff, so it’s okay to like love people that way too.

I totally, I think back, I tell a story all the time and even to my daughter about how, when it was just her and I in our little townhouse after I separated, I went to HomeGoods and I just like bought everything like on the empowerment shelf. It was like my house was pink and gold and flowery and empowering and it made such a difference to have, you know, I couldn’t even afford a new couch, but I had just all this cute, sweet stuff that made it feel like the best, best start for me. So I love, love, love the work that you guys are doing.

I will obviously link it all. You have a few different Instagram accounts. Yeah, the best place is Fresh Starts Registry.

You can just go to Fresh Starts Registry and then I’m at. But you’re each very equally empowering on your own. Yeah, I’m at Olivia Howell.

Yeah, she’s Olivia Howell. What are you, Jenny? I’m sorry, I cut you off there. I’m at Olivia Howell.

And I’m at Genevieve Dreisen, which is quite a long name, but good luck if you find it. Well, this will be linked everywhere. If you’re watching on YouTube, make sure to check the show notes.

If you’re listening in the car, please wait till you’re parked and then check the show notes, click the link, do the things, get behind this. This is, even if you’re a few years into your process, even if you’re already divorced, there’s never an end to what we can learn or how we can grow or the support that could benefit us no matter what part of the journey you’re on. You know me, I am Michelle Dempsey-Moltak.

If you are interested in any of our services or programs, please visit michelledempsey.com or come to Instagram, the Michelle Dempsey, and we’ll see you next time on The Moving On Method.