Martine Nash Williams: The Journey to Successfully Enjoying Life

Born and raised in Myrtle Beach, Martine made her way down the Grand Strand to Murrells Inlet eight years ago. After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a degree in exercise science, she spent seven years working in the cardiac rehab at Grand Strand until her first son was born. Some important facts to know about Martine upfront is that she married an amazing, outgoing man named Shaw, and although she has always loved her family, she was once in a phase of being incredibly lost with herself.

Both Martine and her husband are from the area, but most of Martine’s friends did not come back to the Grand Strand after college as Shaw’s did. Shaw had lots of friends and hobbies, but Martine spent all of her weekdays (and weekends) at home simply being a mom and wife. She explained, “I was lost, lonely, and truly turned into that bitter wife for not having the connections and social life like my husband had. I expected him to be everything for me so that I wasn’t lonely, and I was tired of feeling that way and putting that pressure on him. As much as I loved being a wife and mom, I felt like I didn’t have an identity or purpose outside of those roles.” Martine decided to call a good friend and mentor to ask her for advice and the wise woman replied, “He’s not wrong for enjoying his life, Martine, you need to figure out how to enjoy life too.”

Shortly after, Martine’s sister-in-law introduced her to a company, Thirty-One. Martine’s mom sold Mary Kay and she had been to a few direct selling parties before, but never connected with any of the products, until she learned about Thirty-One. This was fifteen years ago when the company was only three years old. Martine was not looking for some huge business opportunity, but she did want an opportunity to get out of the house and to connect with other women. Thirty-One turned out to be a great business opportunity and Martine became very successful. Before Thirty-One, Martine feared public speaking and had zero experience in starting a business but along her journey, her confidence grew, and she made her way to the top as one of the first to reach National Executive Director.

At Martine’s highest success, there came a pivot point for her, which occurred during a time when she was getting ready for a training session with her team. She was doing an assignment by herself before she had her team complete it, which involved a book by Jack Canfield, “The Success Principals.” The idea behind the assignment was to write down your top goals for the ten most important areas of your life such as family, finances, business, personal health, etc. A majority of the answers came easily but there was one section Martine kept skipping because she could not think of one single answer, “hobbies and recreation.” She remembered so vividly how she was sitting on the couch and immediately started crying because she realized that after all of this time, she still didn’t even know what she liked to do for fun. She shook her head and said, “how is it that I did so much during my journey to success that I lost myself in the process? I was so focused on growing my business, taking care of my family, and taking care of everybody else, but myself. I was not on my plate; I was not even on the back burner. I still love what I do, but the hobby that I originally started it to be, turned into a full-time job. I couldn’t believe I still didn’t know who I was as just Martine.”

Because of this career choice, Martine was in the homes of other women every week, and she had a team of women she would train and support for their businesses. She began to notice similar patterns as she was surrounded by women who had lost their identity, who seemed to be on the hamster wheel of life, who were burnt out on being everything to everyone else and nothing to themselves. So, since Martine had this new self-discovery, she wanted to help these women with these obstacles too. Martine declared, “I believe our past struggles become our present purposes to help others. I was ‘her,’ and now I want to help ‘her.’” Martine did not want to be a traveling speaker and be away from her family, so she invested in a course that taught her about building and reaching an audience from her home. She decided to do group coaching, and this is how her business “Choose You” was created, four years ago.

A lot of the women Martine helps are wives and moms, (but a few men too). Mompreneurs are who she relates to the most, but some of the women are just ones who have experienced the same issues along the road to success of sacrificing themselves and their relationships with others. She would ask them, “What’s the point of being successful if you have no one to enjoy it with?” The big answer was always “one day” but then she would explain, “Why wait when you can be a great wife, mom, and business owner right now without burning yourself out? Society declares that self-care is ‘selfish,’ but it’s really not. You shouldn’t have to choose. There is a way, but it’s against our culture which is ‘hustle hustle hustle’ and women have bought into this lifestyle. We wear the mask and suffer in silence. I was so willing to share my ‘mess’ before my ‘success’ because the ‘mess’ is what people relate to. The more women who learn to take off the mask and admit they are not okay, the better off we will all be because it gives other women the permission and the comfort to do the same. Being vulnerable is a superpower. When my mentor said what she said to me, I had a choice to make. I could’ve continued to be the person I was, but I chose to be better instead of bitter.”

Along the journey of successfully enjoying life, Martine has learned many things about herself which help her to continue to love and prioritize herself. She loves to spend time at the gym where it’s just Martine and her music, along with her supportive gym family. She loves to laugh as she now understands laughter is so good for her soul (and living in a house full of boys, well, she gets tickled pretty often). She loves comedies and her absolute favorite movie is “Liar Liar.” She actually made Shaw watch the movie so many times that he had her sign a hand-written contract stating that she would never make him watch again. She adores having date night every Friday with her husband so that they can continue to keep their marriage and love for one another a priority, which they have been doing for a decade now. She treasures quality time with her sons who are thirteen and sixteen and having real conversations with them as they mature. She loves spending time out on the water and the boat with family and friends. She loves girl’s nights and how they have transformed from going out and dancing to cozy, peaceful getaways where they stay in, share wine and charcuterie boards, play games, and openly talk about life – as we all should be able to do with one another.

Martine thoroughly enjoys and feels blessed to have the flexibility to be her own boss, to be available for her kids when they need her, and to travel with her family as they make long-lasting memories. She loves and knows without a doubt that encouraging others is her superpower – It fires her up! She recently started a podcast called “The Mompreneur Life Remixed” which can be found on Apple and Spotify. She is excited to feature other women on her “turquoise talks” where her listeners will learn about other women’s personal journeys as well. Martine’s office is full of books (and turquoise) because she loves to feed her positive mindset with literature and use her knowledge to help others. Martine now understands and believes whole-heartedly that: “being stuck is a mindset, not a position” and “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.” The raw and real woman Martine has become is highly commendable and her mission is so valuable. Martine hopes that every woman reading this learns to take off their mask, ask for help, and make positive life-altering changes. Every woman (and man) deserves the chance to truly enjoy their life.