Melinda Hardin

Melinda Hardin is a well-rounded plate spinner who seeks out opportunities to inspire audiences. Her most recent experience of writing and launching her bare-faced memoir, Uneclipsed has set her on an emerging path of impact with raw, genuine perspective that is both relatable and tangible for women striving to find their own comeback stories. 

Melinda is skilled at holding up a mirror for others to discover and delve into their own shadows, giving them the hope and confidence to step into their own authentic light.

In a given week, you can find Melinda welcoming out-of-town guests to her downtown loft Airbnb, pulling on her boots to tour farms and property with prospective real estate buyers, soulfully belting out an Eva Cassidy cover with her band, The Pretty Goods, leading women to stretch physically on a yoga mat and spiritually through an enrichment group or sitting sidelines on the volleyball court or the soccer field to cheer on her daughters. Additionally, she rides shot gun with her husband Ben on a country road dreaming of their next big adventure or project. 

She’s also a former booze enthusiast but now spends her days celebrating her sobriety, eyes wide open and all in on embracing every chapter of her life with purpose and vision. In Uneclipsed, she explores the “shadows” of her need for approval, the traditions of the fundamentalist religion of her girlhood, imposing relationships and expectations, and her addiction to alcohol. Although those are Melinda’s shadows, it’s easy for listeners and readers to find themselves within her story. She recounts with rawness, hilarity, and insight a life path paved with both the greatest joys and the greatest personal failures.

Being with Melinda is like sitting across from a best friend or a big sister. She draws listeners in with her warmth and humor. She reminds us that wisdom comes through failure, and she humbly doles out lessons she’s learned along her sometimes rocky way. A professional encourager, she inspires others to compassionately consider the parts of their story they’d like to rewrite, activates their imaginations to conceptualize the self they’d like to become, and inspirits them to get on their way toward living as their whole, true self. She’s both tender and tough-loving, making space for empathy while still directing your gaze toward a brighter vision for yourself. 

Melinda connects with a variety of audiences, from entrepreneurs to addicts, spiritual sojourners to creatives, mamas to writers. She spurs those in recovery to keep going, to redirect the capacity they had committed to maintaining their addiction and then early recovery toward creative endeavors, personal growth and deferred dreams. 

Long-practiced at reinventing herself professionally and taking entrepreneurial risks, she’ll infuse dreamers with inspiration to become doers. 

Creativity traces the path into the deepest parts of Melinda’s soul, and she invites listeners and readers to discover how creativity is a portal to ourselves and to our spirituality.

As a mom of two, she loves unpacking parenting practices with audiences. She’s insistent that she’s no expert in this field but she’d love to be a part of your “village,” offering pearls she’s gathered throughout the fourteen years raising her girls. 

Melinda is an author, a prolific journaler and keeper of a stack of notebooks spanning decades. She moves her pen across the page (or taps the keys) in a dance to discover personal revelation. She loves leading groups in writing workshops, whether they include seasoned writers or those with no writing experience.

Spirituality is at the core of who Melinda is and she is a well of conversation conduits around faith. The unraveling of her religion and rediscovery of God outside of constructs is a strong heartbeat in the repertoire of her discussion topics as she holds Mystery with open curiosity.

Book her now! Your audience will love her!