Up Close & Personal
A Dose of Positivity for the New Year
Garry Melville motivates people to be positive. He accomplishes this via his personal writing, selected quotes and blogging found on his Facebook page and occasionally speaking to small crowds.
The Scranton local finds the time to assist others in their fights against negativity, while working at two job locations — DPS Nutrition and the Backyard Ale House. In 2015, he plans to further promote his brand of positivity through the course of some extensive travel and speaking arenas, along with introducing a YouTube channel where he will generate weekly videos. Melville anticipates the future development of his own business to further aid people in discovering a positive outlook on life that will hopefully allow people to live their lives fully and without a controlling cloud of negativity. He welcomes anyone interested in his work to join his Facebook page — Garry Melville. People can then connect with him through one-on-one messaging and wall posts.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m originally from New York, but I moved here to Scranton when I was three years old. I attended Scranton High School and then Misericordia University, where I studied marketing and played basketball. I currently work at DPS Nutrition and the Backyard Ale House, while also focusing my energy on writing as an inspiring writer.
How do you feel about living in Scranton?
I love the Scranton area. I grew up here, all of my best friends are located here and I even stayed close to the area when I went to college. Of course, New York was my home as well, but it has become more of a place I visit now. Most of my memories are from this area, so it feels more like home. It’s just a wonderful quiet area. There’s great nightlife and lots of personality to be found here.
What’s it like working at DPS Nutrition?
It’s awesome! I wanted to directly improve my overall body fitness and working with DPS Nutrition has aided me with this. I’m one of those guys who can immerse himself well with others who are interested in fitness. I also get to find out a lot about different supplements, better forms of exercise and how to get stronger. I love the fact that I can better myself and learn from my work.
You also mentioned you work at the Backyard Ale House.
I’m a bar-back. Everyone there is also like another family of mine. The staff is phenomenal. They always make me laugh! The owners are probably some of the best people that I’ve had the opportunity to work for in my whole life. The atmosphere is great. The people are wonderful. Therefore, it’s nice being able to run into old friends there and having a drink with them.
Is there anything else you do?
Those are the two jobs that I juggle. What I’m also doing right now is writing. Between my time at DPS Nutrition and the Backyard Ale House, I have the freedom to actually sit down and put my thoughts to paper. I’ve always loved reading, which is something I find myself doing a lot more these days. This year alone, I tackled 99 new books — a new personal best for me. In all, writing is definitely a challenge when you’re trying to get your thoughts on paper in a way that will draw in your readers and keep them reading.
What kind of writing do you do?
It depends on the time of day. Right now, I’m working on small stories about self-help and stuff that I’ve done to make a positive out of a bad situation. I also write stories on how people can actually watch other people and be inspired by them to make changes in their own lives. That’s pretty much the bulk of my writing — anything regarding self-improvement and fiction. It’s lots of fun, especially since you get to make up your own characters. You get to mix personalities up and create a whole new person.
What led you to writing?
I found that I was good at writing things down that I wanted to say. Instead of being selfish and only writing for myself, I started writing for others. I took little baby steps with what I do on my Facebook page in adding daily quotes. I keep doing this, because I feel I’m good at it.
You also have a Facebook operation going on that provides a positive outlook on life for friends. Please discuss this.
Yes. On my Facebook page every morning, around 8 and 10:30 a.m., I’ll post a positive quote from a book I read that week or weekend. I post them daily and then around 5 p.m., I do a midday blog where I revisit the morning quote I posted and will talk a little bit about how that quote resonated with me that day. Every night I’ll write a brief reflection about what I did and I’ll try to use something that made my smile bigger that particular day. Depending on the day, I’ll give my post a specific title. For instance, today would be a “Happy Saturday” quote. And then in a couple hours, I’ll hit my blog and write about one thing — something that really stood out — that I’m grateful for that day.
Are there any specific people that you reference often?
People that I probably reference the most are Zig Ziglar, Robin Sharma and my mom. But as far as what I take from book content I read, I definitely quote Zig Ziglar and Robin Sharma the most.
New Years is coming up. Do you have anything special planned for this in the New Year?
As of right now, I’m only in the beginning stages of developing my own speaking business. Basically, this page has been me gaining experience and practicing for two years. In 2015, there will be a YouTube channel where I’ll be creating weekly videos. Hopefully along with this, I’ll also be traveling more and speaking in the New Year. I’d really like to start pushing my self even more in 2015 in order to reach more people.
How did you come up with the idea for advocating positivity?
It’s a personal thing that I’m doing. So, it initially came about because of personal experience. I did a lot of complaining like most people do and then a couple years ago I decided it was time to get something positive out there instead of all the negativity. I started this and fell in love with it. I just keep at it now to the point that I can’t stop. I guess you could also say that I began this because there was a time in my life when I wished someone would have sent me a positive quote or said something nice to me. I think most people feel this way sometime in their lives. I waited for a while and then realized I wanted to become the person that said something positive and nice to others, along with telling people what they needed to hear, rather than what they hoped to hear. I picked up my The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone — read it cover-to-cove and have been hooked ever since. I’m getting closer to my speaking business goals slowly, but surely.
Can people interact with you on your Facebook page?
Yes. I really like it when people comment and tell me what they liked or even disliked. I enjoy the interaction. I receive messages from people asking me how to be more positive and it’s great having that one on one interaction and getting to see the positive and good in other people and their life situations. People will even post messages on the page’s wall, allowing me to communicate with multiple people at once. Also, outside of my Facebook posts, I’ll send out inspirational texts every Monday and Friday to people in my phone book. I’m always interacting with somebody. Learning more about other people helps me discover more about myself. Little things I’m not accustomed to hearing about I can always relate to. And in the end, being able to become more knowledgeable myself, while relating to others is something I find truly wonderful.
Do you hope to accomplish any particular goals with your page?
I’d like to help as many people as I can. I’ve been blessed with a big personality, have met many people in my lifetime and I just want to continue reaching out to more people. I’ve always tried to do my best. I hope I’ve inspired others to do the same. It seems as if I have reached a large number of people in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, so I’d love to keep going further. So far, I’ve gone as far as Texas and Boston, meeting a lot of great friends from these two states. I want to continue traveling and helping people as I go.
Do you have any certain experiences you would like to share with us?
Helping others out is most important. I have spoken to small groups at a couple churches, parishes, etc., helping people to see the positive opportunities, as opposed to problems, in certain situations where they can make changes in their lives. But I don’t consider this a great feat. The posts are building up. But even with them, I’m still working at getting to where I want to be with my goals in aiding others to find positivity.
How can people connect with you and what you do?
People can add me as a friend on Facebook. They just have to search for me under Garry Melville. I never deny people. I’m always happy to have people see my content and read what I’m about. Hopefully, it inspires them to search for the positive themselves.
What’s next for you in promoting positivity?
I want to promote people setting aside some time for self-reflection daily. You’ve got to ask yourself the hard questions. Hopefully, in the future with the YouTube channel coming up and my goals set to have a company, I will eventually have an outlet to get the content and tools required to promote that. It’s something I’d love to see, because I’d love to help people get past negativity and regain control over their lives.
Do you have any personal goals you would like to tell us about?
I’ve set a lot of goals for this year. I need to sit down, see where I got with them and recalculate them. Hopefully, I can make them bigger. It’s a fresh start next year and I can’t wait. I’d like to continue reaching goals, concerning personal fitness and reading. My goal for reading was to read 200 books this year. Perhaps, I can read even more next year. Further, I’d like to possibly get to some small schools and speak to children about what they can do to become more positive. Those are just a few things I’ll mention. I still need to figure out where I’m currently at with my 2014 goals, how big I can aim for next year and where I can find the motivation to complete the new ones I’ll set.
— katelyn english