EP 33: Single Mom to CEO: Jena Mehlberg on Faith and Raising Boys

So What Now? with Carla and Dex

Idea to Launch Productions

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.8 • 592 Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hey friends—Carla here! This week on So What Now?, Dex and I sat down with the fierce and inspiring Jena Mehlberg—entrepreneur, mama, survivor, and all-around powerhouse in the beauty world.

Jena took us on a real ride through some of the toughest chapters of her life—becoming a single mom in her teens, losing a parent, navigating an emotionally abusive relationship, and the ups and downs of running her own business. And y'all, the way she speaks about resilience and faith? You feel it in your bones. She talks about the importance of existing outside yourself and not letting isolation pull you under, especially in the hardest seasons.

One thing that really stuck with me—Jena opened up about her mom, a woman who moved through the world like rules just didn't apply to her. That "ask forgiveness later" attitude? It gave Jena permission to live boldly and never wait for someone else to give her the green light.

Then we shifted gears and got real about raising boys. As two single moms of sons, Jena and I got into it: How do we raise emotionally healthy men in a world that often doesn't teach them how to feel? What message are we sending if we keep choosing partners who don't show up emotionally? Dex jumped in too, and we unpacked the tension between wanting to protect our kids from life's mistakes… and knowing we can't.

Y'all, if you've ever wondered whether you're doing enough—or how to keep going when life knocks you down—this one's for you.

💬 Come join the conversation and lets figuring it out together.

We wanna see y'all IRL. We're planning some in-person events, just for the ladies. Click the link and let's get out the group chat.

Outside the Group Chat: Women's Meetups

— Carla 💛

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I don't know what's going to happen next, but yeah, So What Now.
0:10.6	Welcome back to another episode of the So What Now podcast. We are here. We're prepared. We are ready.
0:16.2	First of all, I want to tell everyone, not nice. Yeah, they thought you were funny when you were talking at 2X Speed. What, first of all, I'm always funny. You had like you're surprised about that. Everyone was like she was so on point. Yeah. But I also received DM saying that they love that you talking 2XB because they want to listen in 2XB so then you're talking to XB they can listen in ForexpeedxB. We don't have time to waste.
0:38.6	They can listen in 4x-beet.
0:53.6	Yeah, we don't have time to waste. What are we saying? I know we give y'all an hour, but we can cut it to 45-1. You guys important things to do with your kids at work. I just want to have you laugh a little and move on. You've got to think with me. But we can relax and breathe while we talk.
0:55.6	See, doesn't I feel good?
0:54.3	I think I talk at like 0.5. think with me. But we can relax and breathe while we talk. See, doesn't I feel good?
0:56.3	I think I talk at like 0.5 speed.
0:58.8	You do talk quite slow.
1:01.0	Yeah.
1:01.7	So if you're wondering who that voice is, it is the lovely, the intelligent, the beautiful, the talented, the entrepreneur. The boss, babe. Jenna Melberg. Yay! We actually had you as Woman of the Week one time. Yeah, we did. So I can't remember what episode that was. It was very early on. Yeah, but we're going to find it out and tag it for y'all down here. You can see why. Well, you'll hear here why we made a woman of the week.
1:28.5	And you're our third guest.
1:29.5	Being a guest on our show is an exclusive honor.
1:31.9	It's actually really funny because Carla was like, do you want to do something? And I was like, yeah. I don't know. I thought I was like taking videos. I said, can you come to the podcast on Wednesday?
1:42.9	Yeah, I said, yeah.
1:43.7	Yeah, and I'm like, you're not even going to ask me what it's like.
1:45.5	I was like, oh, I'm in it.
1:47.4	It's an honor.
1:48.1	Like, I said, do you want, can you come to the podcast on Wednesday? Yeah, I said, yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, you're not even going to ask me what it's like.
1:45.6	Oh, I'm in it?
1:47.4	It's an honor.
1:48.2	Like when Oprah finally comes on, you can be like, oh, did that Oprah? Oh, no, I'm so honored. I didn't even think I was in it. Oprah's been asking, Oprah, I just needed you to hold on. And we're not ready yet.
	...

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