As a loyal user of Mielle products, I was drawn to this book because I wanted to know more about the brand creator. I gained so much knowledge about Monique and how her faith led her to create products enjoyed by a legion of followers. Her journey marries faith with determination and grit. I would highly recommend this book to anyone afraid to step out on faith and pursue their passion(s).

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read this galley.

Embrace the risk-taking nature to win in life and business, build resilience to hardships and critics, and step into your God-given purpose. Monique Rodriguez, founder of Mielle Organics, shows how leaps of faith toward your God-given vision and mission will help find success with your heart and mind intact. Lean on the power of perseverance and get back on track after setbacks by tackling what comes next with poise and power.

ARC/ALC Review
📚 Book Title: The Glory in Your Story
✍🏽Author: Monique Rodriquez

Format: eBook = 📱& 🎧

⭐️ Rating: 4/5


🕑Quick Take:
As a fellow Chicago girl who was born and raised on the south side. I was locked in! I’d followed Monique’s work as a hair care and beauty brand mogul, but this sneak peek into her life has been amazing.

💕What I Loved:
I appreciate her openness, honesty, and transparency. I was intrigued by her account of her father’s battle with addiction, and appreciated sharing a similar stance that God has called us to honor our parents. I’ve shared as a small group leader and counselor that the command to honor is not just “good parents” but all parents.

Additionally, I enjoyed the guidepost and scriptural references.

Themes:
Leadership
Faith
Family
Black Woman CEO 👩🏽‍💼
Business Development
Entrepreneurship

⚠️ Heads Up:

Birth Trauma
Infant Loss

Final Thoughts:
If you’re looking for an inspirational and encouraging read? Check out The Glory in Your Story by Monique Rodriquez. There were some components that seemed repetitive. However, overall a great read.

In The Glory in Your Story, Monique Rodriguez has written a memoir about her life story and how she become a CEO of a multimillionaire hair consumer products in the multicultural category. The book touched on 16 different lessons such as, surviving the breakdown, one step forward, selling up, not out, keeping the main thing the main thing, and much more. She begins the book by sharing how when she was growing up, she had a dream to compete in beauty pageants. Her mother tried to support her but eventually made her give it up and go to school. She knew she was called to do something with beauty deep down inside her. Her mother wanted her to become a nurse. She worked as a unit secretary at a local hospital. She knew that if she could help her daughter to become a nurse that they would always be in demand. So, Monique got her degree at 22 years old and found her a nursing job. She stayed there for 8 full years before realizing that she wasn’t fulfilled. This taught her how to work well with others and theses lesson helped her to transition into her entrepreneurship. She went on to found, Mielle Organics. This company sells hair products and is still growing. One of the first lessons in the book was on not letting anyone to dictate your own dreams. She discussed her childhood and how her father was an addict. She explained how she had to have empathy for him. In the book, she also touched on losing her son and having to deal with grief. As we all have experienced, grief doesn’t just disappear it can hit us in waves at random times. She also shared how her company wouldn’t have existed without her son.


I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is ready to learn new lessons that you can apply to your life, business, and relationships. You can use this lesson to also change the world and help make it better for others. I really enjoyed the topics and you can feel the passion and the love she has for others and the faith she maintained to get to where she is today. I liked how she encouraged readers on discernment and to realize that you don’t need to team up with just anybody. You have to learn who to trust and watch out for the red flags. And sometimes people will also come into your life and only be there for a season and then they must move on or we must move on without them. I liked how she included helpful questions at the end of each chapter. This is an excellent impactful book to read!

Synopsis
The Glory in Your Story looks at the power of fearless faith in achieving success in both personal and business life. Monique Rodriguez, the founder and CEO of Mielle Organics, a multi-million-dollar hair and consumer products company, shares her story: the trials and successes in her business. She gives an overview of her journey, so readers can also find success and fulfillment in pursuing their dreams in a God led way. She emphasizes the importance of perseverance and the strength of unyielding faith and persistence.

My Thoughts
This book was so good. Get those highlighter and page tabs ready, you’re going to need them! I love reading other’s business journeys. It amazes me what people can accomplish when starting out so small, and Monique’s story is very inspirational in that aspect. What I learned from this book:
- Faith is the cornerstone of every victory and we should nurture the seeds God gives us.
- No matter how you grew up, you can still be successful.
- We can and need to see beyond your circumstances.

I love that she shares Bible verses that align with her stories this encouraging passage spoke to me: “God causes all things to work together as a plan for good for those who love god, to those that are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28). It doesn’t say all good things, it doesn’t say all bad things either. It’s simple, continue to love God to seek his purpose and anything and everything past or present will work together for your good.” When you have a business and you have so much going on, it’s easy to lose sight of what matters most, so this passage really spoke to me as it’s important to remember God and his plan for you in your business ventures. Not everything will work out, maybe he’s got something better planned for you, which she does talk about in the book. God led her where she needed to go when she thought another path may workout in her favor. All in all, this is a great resource for Christians who have dreams of starting a business!

Themes
Faith
Business

Ratings
Pace: 4 ⭐️
Enjoyability: 4 ⭐️

Thank you W Publishing Audiobooks | W Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Founder & CEO of Mielle Organics, Monique Rodriguez, shares how her trials led to triumphs and a testimony in a new book titled The Glory in Your Story: Activating a Fearless Faith to Change Your Life, Your Career and the World. Mielle Organics is a Black-owned multi-million dollar hair company. But it wasn't an immediate success story. There were challenges and pivots along the way. Monique built resilience, recognized she needed positive partnerships with same values and leaned on her faith in God. Then the blessings flowed.

Through guiding principles, Monique helps readers step into their God-given purpose and live in their glory. There are questions for reflection that I took the time to journal (also my favorite way to pray) and really think about next steps in my own path. She is transparent and ever more inspiring within these 240 pages. The Glory in Your Story is an easy read that can be finished in days but the exercises/lessons will stay with readers for far longer.

The Glory in Your Story is now available.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~LiteraryMarie

The Glory in your Story is about Mielle (pronounced My-Elle) a hair company founded by Monique Rodriguez (a registered nurse turned CEO) alongside her husband Melvin.
She was the first African American woman in the beauty space to partner with a private equity firm (Berkshire) while maintaining majority ownership. Mielle was acquired by Proctor and Gamble (P&G) in 2023 for a reported $640 million with Monique staying on as CEO and Melvin COO of the company. I absolutely loved this bookIn this book, we are taken through Monique’s journey of growing up on the South side of Chicago, meeting her husband, starting her nursing career and building her brand Mielle. She shares her amazing story of turning her pain into power and how starting Mielle helped her through grief and healing. Many things she wrote prompted me to be introspective in my values, character and journey in life. So many wise words to reflect on and grow from. I resonated with the themes of aligning with your true passion and goals, listening to the spirit of God as he guides your through life and navigating life as an entrepreneur.

Monique dropped so many gems on business, faith and finding your purpose. I would describe this book as mix between bio/self-help/business blueprint/faith based. I liked that each chapter opens up with guiding principles and closes with questions for reflection. Monique beautifully discusses her faith and relationship with God throughout the book with supporting scripture quotes. I enjoyed that she does this without her tone coming off as preachy. Instead, it just flowed into the prose and helped strengthen her message. It felt like an authentic read. She is open about her success and failures, experiences in business, and her journey. I appreciated how she discusses and sheds light on black business in the community; how we are seen and valued by these big corporations and our own people. She was transparent with the journey that she took her company, wanting to stay true to Mielle’s mission and inspiring other black business to dream bigger. The Glory in your Story is a powerful, encouraging and inspirational read! Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for sending this book (eARC) in exchange for an honest review.