Show notes

Katerina: Hi Kristin

Kristin: Hey, good morning, good afternoon. I’m not sure. Good any time for us.

Katerina: Afternoon for us. No, great to have you on the show, um, yeah I guess the first question I’d like to know is that you are… how did it all start for you? How did you become an entrepreneur?

Kristin: Well, you know, my, my family were entrepreneurs. I grew up around small and medium-sized businesses. And they, I always knew from the time I was a little girl I wanted to have my own business. That was just always something I knew, and they would also say which may or may not be true. They say you can’t really ever make that much money unless you work for yourself, you know, so that was like a message that came in.

I also felt though because I saw them working, sometimes a lot that in the days when I was you know a child, I didn’t necessarily want to do that. But I always had a side hustle, when I worked for other people I always had a side hustle, or something else. I think because I wanted more creative freedom and more control over, you know how much money I was making so I was always doing some little freelance… something. And then, really, what happened for me, that really pushed me into, you know, focusing on using these different skills was. I could see that even when I was in more structured environments my last professional job working for others I was the director of a continuing ed department at a Tunis Sullivan college Up-state New York and people were projecting their psychological issues onto me and into the relationship.

And I thought, Okay, that’s it. This is the last job I take as an administrator because people seem to need me to do this other role. These other healing, helping you know kind of role and I was like okay that’s it. I’m either gonna either come externally as a consultant to help systems that are broken and need shifting and helping, or I will work with people that way but this is… Because it had happened multiple times. So it was really it just felt like it was, it was a day that had come that I couldn’t ignore. And then every time I’ve tried to go back, the doors didn’t open. So it’s a clear message for me that yes, I am indeed supposed to be especially at this point, amalgamating and integrating everything I did and learned in the first two-thirds of my career, to really be effective and strategic both with individuals and organisations here in the last third.

Katerina: So, you, you run your business for how many years now?

Kristin: You know, that’s a good question. I, I started doing intuitive work. When did I start getting paid for intuitive work… about four years ago, I started you know doing that, and I have done as I said, other little things, you know along the way and I’ve done some consulting for other organisational development consultants… little subcontracts and stuff.

But really, I started shifting my, my personal identity about four years ago. That I would tell people I do, you know, and it was hard for me at first because I came on to the left brain world, you know, and education was you know really emphasised in my family and I worked in education so you know I was really identified with that. So then you know when I had to start telling people I’m intuitive, at first that just felt really odd. Like, it felt like coming out, you know.

Katerina: When you say intuitive, what do you mean by this phrase? What does it mean? You are a coach, right?

Kristin: I do, I do coach people but I largely… I largely do this… well sort of the sum total of my education and experience but the intuitive part is an important part. Traditionally people with the ability to read energy would be called psychics. I don’t like to call myself a psychic because I’m not into predicting the future. You know it’s not that’s not really what I’m doing. What I’m doing is I get information that is not from the left brain side, I get things from the collective unconscious or from the matrix. Sometimes I see things that come from a person’s past, or even from the other side, and but those things are meaningful or important to the particular situation.

So, like, this was… something these little, there was like a breadcrumb trail that my intuition was really driving the train throughout my whole career. I just wasn’t ready to completely embrace that, you know, because it would mean I would have to present myself and see myself very differently than I actually did, but for instance, one time when I was working in a non-profit organisation and they were about to do a huge downsize that I didn’t know anything about. I was compelled, I was just compelled that all of the people that I was working with (I was a career services administrator)… I wanted everybody in the organisation, all a hundred people to know what their skills were and it was like something was just compelling me because a lot of the people had worked their way through the organisation, they didn’t really know what they had to offer. And so I started, you know, an incentive for the people who ran the different departments would be helping their people to understand… well that was because it was about the fallen 50% of those people were about to be laid off.

I did not know that but there was something inside of me, that was hearing, we would call that now clear cognizance… sort of the need to do something to help these people, you know, like six months before they actually fell and a lot of people got laid off. So, you know, that’s happened just time and time again throughout my regular career. So just you know information just comes to me in ways, you know, they generally speak about players so there’s claircognizant, clairsentient clairaudient and clairvoyant. And, to a large extent, I’m claircognizant which is where I just know stuff, and you know I’m sure you know people are admitting people who know just know things. And, you know, they don’t know how they know. And if you, if you are aware that is how things work for them — it’s great… if you’re not and they just tell you well, I just know this, and you don’t know if that’s just they’re crazy or where that’s coming from, it’s difficult.

So when I coach new intuitive, I basically tell them “Look, if the people around you understand that you have this ability, they’re going to be far more likely to embrace those kinds of information bits, when you bring them to the table. And, you know, now people just expect that from me because most of the people who know me understand that that part of what I… you know… abilities that I have that I bring to the table that could help either, if they’re making personal decisions, or they’re making professional decisions, or if I’m working with, you know, an organisation that’s trying to figure something out. So sometimes like now you know nobody would have predicted six months ago, you know, except for the senior type people or the intuitive, or the first nations who are more in touch with the collective unconscious would not have known that this was going to happen.

Katerina: Right… what’s happened in 2009… something happened in your life and you mentioned you had to do a clean sweep?

Kristin: Oh yeah, that was the Clean Sweep from it was interesting because you know that was a big crash in the economy. But for me, there was so much change in like a year and a half, it was crazy. My house, my house burned… I don’t know… Can you hear my dog? Is my dog bothering you in the background…

Katerina: No, I can’t hear.

Kristin: Okay, so he’s whining… Sorry about that. So, um, so my dad… the first thing was my house burned and then my grandmother passed away. Oh I was fired from my job at the same time that my house burned… and because the guy I knew was looking for another job that place was going to close down, it was a school. Then what was the next thing that happened my grandmother passed away… Oh, I got a new job but they were making me work too much so I decided no I can’t stay here I can’t work 65 hours a week and take care of my teenage child, so I left that position.

I moved, of course, because I couldn’t stay in my burnt house. Then I moved in with my… then ex temporarily so I’d have somewhere to stay in the short run. I got a new job in another state, my child and I then moved to New York, then that summer my father passed away. And I was, I think I worked for like nine months maybe at that job and they told me they were going to get rid of the position, so I had now moved my whole life they got rid of it, because it was continuing in and all the continuing … was going online. I mean it was done leaving out… then, my adult child, you know my teenage son dropped out of high school. Then he dropped out of college. And then I moved back to what I thought might be helpful, you know like repairs the old relationship, and that was blown up… my ex was drinking and unhealthy. It was just, you know, I don’t know those you know that stress feels but it was, it was just blowing up on the stress scale, it was just completely crazy off the chain.

And actually, that was the beginning of the change. When all of that stuff happened I suppose you know a lot of the defence mechanisms and coping strategies that I had been using for years and years just sort of melted, and I was left with something that was more central really to who I am, which was this way of, you know, interacting with energy in a more direct way, which has been with me since I was a teenager.

Katerina: Do you want to go to your dog? [laughs]

Kristin: He has to go out… So, yeah, so really it was… it was crazy. It was a crazy little section of time, and it took… there were several couples of years like two or three years where I just really didn’t know what I was going to do. Because what I wasn’t… what I had done in the past, wasn’t really working and what I was going to do wasn’t here yet. There was… there was sort of a little bit of a breadcrumb trail to follow. And so I really had to rely on my mindfulness practice and just being in the moment and just doing the next right thing and really resiliencies that I had built in for decades, being a, you know, being a meditator. I really had to rely on that because my basic, you know, in the world identity has just been, you know, destroyed, which wasn’t fun, it was no picnic.

You know I’ve relied on that in a lot of ways because I’m a creative person I got a lot of gratification from the work that I had done from helping people from being involved in the collaboration. And so all of that had just been wiped out. And I really wasn’t sure you know what I was going to do with myself going forward.

Katerina: Yeah, do you believe that things are happening for a reason?

Kristin: Yeah, that’s a really good question that you ask that. I don’t like to define it quite that narrowly that thing happens for a reason. I like to say it’s smart and wise to find the reason for what happened… that you know things happen and then it’s so much… it’s so much better to say, Okay, this looks really messy on the plate. But, oh I like this part over here. And oh maybe I could use this. And oh this thing I never liked anyway let’s just throw that out I don’t ever want to do it again, you know I just did that because it was part of the other things I have to do.

So, I don’t, I think it’s important to try not to fall into that fatalistic thinking or nihilistic thinking or, you know, big creator in the sky, you know to organise, you know, everything in your life thinking… but absolutely it’s way better to think what to think about… there is something good that can always come out of something bad and that’s just not something that we… we can do right away sometimes at the moment because we’re too stressed out or we’re too upset. But if we can gradually get there and. And not only that, you know, really, with discipline, over time, you know you realise that everything has two sides. Even in good times, there are things that you need to be aware of, like, you told me you have this other work that you were doing that was making a lot of money, and so you had a good time, but there were parts of it that weren’t working at all. So, you know, really you know life is about finding you know the balance, and wholeness in the time that you’re in, and that changes, you know.

Hopefully, if you’re alive if you’re thriving and growing and developing through your life. You know what that looks like, what that looks like is morphing, you know at all times we should be self-correcting and evaluating and seeing what gives us the most joy, and what serves others the best, you know, all you know as we….

Katerina: How did you know it was a good idea to focus on this and of your professional life, meditation and so on.

Kristin: Well

Katerina: Sometimes, entrepreneurs try different things to make money, they try affiliate marketing… try different side hustle here and there… How do you know you’ve hit the right sport, how do you know it’s the right idea for you.

Kristin: Right. The way that I work with people is very… It’s sort of… what I’m doing now is sort of like… I looked back over the best of what I had done in the prior years and I sort of leaned in and pulled things out that I felt the best about. And I think in some ways I’m lucky because I did a lot… I started working when I was like 13 or 14 in my grandmother’s interior design store. And I had the first professional job I had a degree, four-year degree when I was 20 and I was working. So, just because I’ve done a lot of different things, I was able to say, you know, of those things that I did, what brought me the most joy, when did I feel most alive, you know what was the most fun. You know, it was easy for me to sort of assess.

You know sometimes if you don’t have a lot of career history, I think it’s harder to know, like what to do in that particular area of your life. And then you have to go Okay, you know as a mom, you know, what did I do that I enjoyed or I was good at that, or, you know, in college you might have to go back and revisit you know some different areas of your life. For me, it was just, it was just very plain to see, you know where things are going, and now I have to let the dog in sorry… to see where I was going because it was easy, you know, it was like the path just just just brought me there and things started showing up. Like one of the techniques that I use is Theta Healing and when I first started being trained in that the person offered me free opportunities like come and take this class.

So it just fell into my lab I wasn’t looking for it, it just showed up and so then I’m like okay let me try this, and I was really very casual about it, in the beginning, I was just sort of like, oh sure that’s fine let’s try it blah blah blah that’s nice. And then as time started to go by, I noticed you know what a big change it was you know… how much it was helping me personally, and I, the more I did it and worked with other people doing it, the more I liked it. So I wasn’t seeking that you know I didn’t even know that modality existed… I’m just sitting in a metaphysical store one day and a lady comes in and we start talking and she’s like hey I’m teaching this class, do you want to come. Okay, fine. So it just that was that felt like it was meant to be kind of thing, it just when you say you know is it.. is it.

Yeah, felt that felt like, there’s a lot of positive energy around this for me, I’m going to do this. Seven classes later, you know I’m very good at it and I, you know… I’m… I’ve used them and some other things that I’ve been trained in as a jumping-off point for creating my own thing and I and I use the Theta Healing with what I’m doing.

You know that’s a modality that’s, you know, global and very popular and… but I have my own thing. And so now you know I want to be developing the system that I’ve created to share with others. That I think is a good interface between the real world and the more traditional therapeutic world. And I… you know I kind of have one foot in each camp I never got the masters or the PhD in the therapeutic modalities, you know, in terms of clinical social work or psychology, because I never really loved Western psychology. I always, at least in the United States, it’s based primarily based on a disease model. And, you know, the structured around getting payments to, you know, deciding, you know who gets to that service based on do they fit in the DSM.

And that just never appealed to me, I just thought that is backwards. So, my master’s is in Human Resource Development which is more about how to help people discover what their gifts and talents are, and how to apply those in work environments because you know I got so much out of working and I think people inherently can… can feel like there’s meaning in their life if they make a contribution in some way and are rewarded for it. So my whole model for what… what I thought was a good way to help people it’s just not jiving with Western psychology. And there was like one school I would have gone to was in California — The Transpersonal California Institute and I just couldn’t, I couldn’t afford it, it was in California, it was expensive. So I ended up with a Master’s in Human Resource Development from a small university in Miami Shores, Florida, and that’s sat well enough, you know, it gave me the next credential, and I don’t really know that I completely made the, you know get the full benefit of having that credential.

But I will tell you that while I sat in those classes, it was one of the first times that I could feel the energy in my crown chakra. So it was really bad also felt like, okay, yes, this is where I meant to be, there’s something happening here that is important for me for my future for what I’ll offer to others, and almost not all the time but a lot of the time I sat in those classes, that was back in the day when you actually went to a physical classroom. Yeah, so that felt like “Yes, you’re alive, this is where you’re supposed to be.”

Katerina: Are there any mistakes that you’d wished you avoided when you just started as an entrepreneur.

Kristin: Oh yeah. Um, I don’t think I was shooting high enough. I, I wish I would have more quickly, identified the superstars in my area, and started emulating them. I think I am just now getting there. But I couldn’t have been furthermore quickly had I done that sooner. You know, in terms of scaling my business, I’ve been really bad with the back office stuff. It’s been really hard for me. I do… I will say I’m very proud of the I’ve done everything on a wing and a prayer, basically…

I have a really beautiful business card that local artists did for me for free. I do a lot of bartering negotiation. I don’t have a husband supporting me, I don’t have another income, you know I’m pretty much a totally bootstrapped operation. And I’m able to do a lot, I joke that I can do more with less until I can do everything with nothing. Because of all those years working in nonprofit organisations but that’s not quite true you know that’s not quite the truth.

But I, I am willing to try to make things happen like I have a very close relationship with my mentor James Wanless who created this Voyager tarot deck that I use, and on, it’s he really, he, he loves mindfulness, and this is actually the way the DNA works. And he created this deck like 30 years ago and it’s still extremely popular. So when I became certified as a voyager tarot reader… part of what helped me… when I would say for people is to align… I did align myself with this guy… with James Wallace, and I organised events for him here and locally.

And that gave me more visibility, it connected me with the international community. So in some ways, and in some ways, I learned what not to do from him because he’s extremely creative, but he was a terrible businessman. So I learned some things about how to do my business, but also some things about what not to do. So I guess I did, I did align myself with James which I think was good, actually having a community… someone who has an international platform.

And, you know, I brought him here in the organised event for him a couple of times locally, which gives me greater visibility, and he’s just a really fun, creative person, and he’s sort of like… he’s in my… I call him… He’s like in like psychosocial diaspora of helpers, you know so okay what would James do, how would he deal with this, you know, where did he, where did he. Where did the things he did that I really admire and what are the things that I don’t want to… I don’t want to do it the way he did because now there’s a problem. He has been focused on the business side of things, enough because he’s very creative and you really focused on that so I’m like, okay, watch out, you have to pay attention to the business side, not just the creative side, though, you know.

That was a good lesson actually that I did learn from… building a relationship and when I started to read the Voyager Tarot… I’m like, Okay, I’m gonna read this deck and support this I got to meet the guy who created it because I want to make sure it’s all on the up and up. And so I tracked him down to another state, and I asked if I could have dinner with him and the person who was organising and in that area, because I was not going to be able to stay after the event… he was like yeah sure have dinner.

So, you know right away we became friends, and we’re still friends, and he’s friends with a lot of people but I do feel, you know, anytime I want to do something that’s Voyager related and say hey I’ve got people you know he’ll be on to it and probably the next thing we’ll do will be online. So, I would say, find the superstars, and chase the superstars.

Katerina: No, that’s great what you’re saying because yeah it’s good to have a mentor and look at the experts in your field because you know a lot of people when they start up, even if they have some expertise… I mean it’s quite a wild journey isn’t it? So, so yeah find finding a mentor and someone who you can look at and see how they do things. But so I want to ask you… um, do you have bad bad days, and if you have bad days, what do you do during your bad days as an entrepreneur?

Kristin: Yeah. You know I tried to just keep a thread of some things going like, I’m always throwing my fishing line. If I can’t really fit something in today that’s okay. And, um, yeah, I don’t have great energy… my, my, natal chi… when I was born, I was very weak, I was a wimpy baby. And so I have to like drink my protein shakes and get sleep, and I actually… the way I work is I follow my own personal biorhythm, I know that between 3 and 5 pm, I don’t have a lot of energy. So I usually rest them, because I can work from morning until three reps, and then eat some dinner and work again if I want to. And because I’m doing stuff I love I don’t care if I’m working at night, I just I’m just as happy working and doing stuff I enjoy doing as I wouldn’t be doing something leisurely, you know.

My child is now an adult so I don’t have to do child-related things at night anymore. But I get the following you know where my energy flows are. So, when I, when I’m not having a good workday, or when something is disappointing I would say for me… what do I do if I feel real, just like bummed out about it — I tried to kind of shift, like I don’t try to grind through that. I usually will try to renew myself some other way, like, you know, go outside and play with my plants or, you know, do something that makes my energy you know feel vital again.

And one thing I have observed with myself is that I feel like sometimes when something creative is about to happen I can go down a little bit first. It’s almost like the energy is going into the creative burst. And I don’t even know what that is yet. So, instead of getting reactive and stressed and frustrated oh my god my energy is … I’m not doing anything I’m not being productive… if I can just be patient. If I can just say, okay, you know there’s probably something that’s trying to germinate, that’s trying to grow, that’s going to be popping out soon.

And I just sort of observed this you know with my mindfulness practice. I’m like, Oh, isn’t that weird it’s like you always, you go like that and then poof something comes out, you know that you know, a new idea or a different approach or Oh, now I can do this or whatever. So, I feel like just kind of making space, to find, you know, how do you get the best out of myself, you know, and, um, it’s the age… now I’m 56, where I have to be more careful with what I eat. You know, so if I want to really be my best for my job like now I have a juicer, I’m going to start learning how to juice so I can make juices that make me feel good.

And we have a lot of plants in Florida that you can eat that like growing your grass you know like outside and they’re very nutrient-packed. And I’m like, I am going to be getting into that because I need that kind of energy to put out, you know what I want to put out. And when I do the healing work with people — it’s intense. It uses a lot of energy. And so I don’t schedule, you know I like doing very customised work so I don’t schedule like a crazy number of those types of appointments. You know there that’s a premium service, and I just can’t, I don’t have the physical energy to just be like doing zillions of them. So as I’m scaling, I’m looking at that, I’m like okay, you know, I’m going to scale this how many of these kinds of clients, can I serve how much should I really be charging this type of client.

These are all things that I’m starting to realise now like. It took me, I would say, these first four years to really feel confident in my craft to really get my craft where I wanted it, and to personally embrace a new identity. And now, and of course, I was doing business development many things all the way along, but not… not the way I feel like I’m ready to now.

And I don’t know that you can create something that’s brand new without a certain amount of birthing process. You know when we have babies there’s a process involved. So, and it takes time and it’s hard to get that baby out sometimes a lot of trouble to get that baby out. And then, in the beginning, you know you have this little thing it’s so delicate and you’re like, on it 24/7 trying to make sure it’s gonna thrive.

And, you know, when we make, you know when we create something out of nothing, it’s, it’s a powerful process, and I think we have to have a lot of patience with ourselves, just like you know if you have low energy and you’re just not feeling sparky, and then don’t do some… do whatever you can do for your business, you know in a low energy state.

You know, for me, that might be okay let’s get on Facebook and put up whatever I know is on my calendar already that I haven’t put up, you know, that’s an easy thing to do something that I don’t have to think about, you know. Go to the easier things when I have lower energy and… and use my when I’m really feeling sparky, you know, that’s when I should be working on my, you know the proprietary system that I’ve created or you know… What is the next level, you know, where am I going to get some backers you know, who I want to approach about helping me with my ideas and projects? You know that’s you know when you’re you’re sparky.

And then another energy trick that I’m, I’ve been, I’ve seen this in two or three different places recently is, you know, if you need to do a presentation, or if you’re in a place where you know you’re trying to do you know to get help, you know, where you want to be really energetically vibrant, you know to take 20 or 30 minutes prior to that, and get yourself energetically vibrant, you know, exercise, listen to music, you know, do something that gets your energy sparking, you know it’s like don’t expect yourself to have sparky energy 24/7, you know, just make it sparky when you need it sparky, and then go back to a little more chill, you know…

Katerina: Yeah I guess for me, I’m planning to do Facebook… starting to do Facebook Lives and the only time I get free of you to know screaming and the little one running around like a headless chicken is like late at night, but late at night you’re slowing down and you just think oh I’m just so tired. But yeah, definitely listen to some music and then just put yourself in the right state of mind. Yeah, that’s great advice. Yeah, I guess another question I want to ask is, today is, is today a good time to start your business?

Kristin: Um, you know I’m really like, I’m a, I’m a Virgo… I have four planets in Virgo. I like to make sure the bills are paid and the food is there and you know I like to make sure those basics are covered. Practical Earth now. I think anytime is a good time to start a business, if you are personally feeling inspired to do it. If you are getting that inner nudge that, oh, you know, no matter what it is, how big how small, if you, if there’s something sparking inside of you and to me that’s the lifeforce, you know that’s what ties us all together that little. I’m just getting… I’m really like, Huh, you know when we follow that energy flow thing, good things come up. And, and we learn because it’s going to take us out to find out what we have known before and, you know, to me, you know. I guess well just as Campbell says, The Great, you know, an anthropologist who’s no longer with us but all of the mythopoetic systems.

Basically, imply or saying that people want to feel alive. So, if you’re doing something that helps you feel alive. Then, then there’s value in it, you know, no matter what happens with it financially, I mean of course you wanted to be financially successful but if you learn something… I worked for one metaphysical store where the lady had never failed at anything in her life and, and she ended up needing to close the store because of the health issue.

And it felt like a failure to her, but it was the beginning, all of the connections that she made in that metaphysical store was the beginning of the new community for the coming phase of her life and she … from the health issues that they thought might kill her, and she’s a completely… she has a new a whole new life, she has a whole different life now that she might not have had. She, she was financially fine it wasn’t about that it was just a dream that she had.

So she was sad but it didn’t last long because she… it was like a playground, you know, and she was. It was fun, but it also turned into a nightmare for her, she was chewing her up. And so, but the … what she learned from it was, was worth the experience.

Katerina: So, what… what advice would you give to people who want to transition from the corporate world, and we know today, a lot of people also lost their jobs, and some may go back to work, or might not. Where would they, where would be the right place to start for them?

Kristin: You know, I think it really has to do with, you know, reviewing yourself. You really need to know what it is, that sparks you that sparks your joy like Marie Kondo says you know… what sparks your joy… and because you want to feel. Ah, this is one of the things that I always felt my whole entire life was, whatever you have to spend the majority of your time doing like most people are spending a third of their life working a big chunk of it, you know, please let that be something that you feel good about, and you enjoy.

And it doesn’t mean you enjoy every element of it all the time, but something that you feel has the honour that you can do with a dignity that relates to your skills, your competencies your attitudes, you know your talents, you know, something that the Japanese have something called ikigai, which I don’t know what all the letter stands for, but it basically it’s, you know, overlapping circles of, you know, what I love what sustains me and earns money, what helps others, you know, so the more overlapping circles you can get like that, then you know you’re really zeroing in on something that has value or will have value to you and value to others.

And you know that just runs the gamut. You know what that could potentially be. You know, I have one relative that’s like a crazy crocheter… I mean she can crochet Star Wars animals and all kinds of stuff. Now she doesn’t do that as a job. But, if she wanted to, she can totally make that into a cottage industry because she can make the patterns, you know, so she could sell the patterns for these things she makes the things out of her mind, you know like, it’s amazing. And so there are all kinds of… there was one. I heard of one entrepreneur that made some kind of frilly socks, and I think she got backing from Shark Tank. And it was just basically a Cha, a little baby sock that she puts… on the top, which I guess nobody was doing that. I mean, who knew. And so it was huge, you know, successful business with just putting … on babies socks.

So, because she wanted that because that made you know her happy she wanted to have that. You just never know, and it can be something that seems frivolous like that, you know like, Oh baby, you know, … baby socks or, you know, it could be something deeply, you know, meaningful, you know that has to do with, you know, people personal transformation, you know, which is my thing. I always take the hard thing — I like to challenge, you know…

I’m really finding it so exciting though because I’m working with people who are influencing other people. That’s really a big part of what… I basically have two types of clients, people who are either emergent intuitive, who are trying to figure out… Oh my gosh. Am I losing my mind, you know I’m seeing things on the other side of what’s going on. So I work with those people. And then I work with people who are in… sometimes these are the same people but sometimes they’re different people who are working with… either they’re in HR in bigger companies, or they are business owners and like I have one client that owns the dance studio and so she has, like, you know, 25 different, you know, dancers that come in and teach classes and now she kind of moves the whole platform online. And she has a whole community of people who she influences.

I’ve worked with another person who has… who’s responsible for an area that’s like a Native American preserve where a lot of people congregate, so I love working with these sort of key people, these people who are central figures in other communities, because when I can help them, you know, with their deep identity alignment, where they’re really feeling on purpose, you know, with different you know levels of who they are, then they upgrade and have a level and serve and support their entire community.

So, you know, I’m pumped that, for me, that just fits with my values. So, you know, when people are making choices about what they … would like to do. It needs to line up with your passions and your values, and, and, and also go for where the money is. You know I kind of didn’t do that at the beginning of this, and I’m just starting to do that, I’m just starting to realise. Yeah, you can help a lot of different people but go for the people that can pay you and then you can help the other people however you want. You know, it’s just, it’s very easy like if you’re my type… a helper type two, you know it’s like the business. It’s like the work comes first and then the business.

So it’s good to try to remember that whatever you’re doing, is a business, and your goal is to make money… you know a massage you know a tricky balance between, you know, my goal is to make money, and I’m going to do that in a way that lines up with my values and my passion. So, yeah.

Katerina: Yeah, so how do you personally overcome fears, all sorts of fears… fears of not succeeding, fears of judgement, and social acceptance, how do you deal with this, personally?

Kristin: Um, a couple of years ago when I realised this was the direction I was going to go and I started, you know, I do have, I do have like a prayer life and I don’t really pray to G.O.D God but I do ask the universe, more of a kind of inclusive idea Infinite Intelligence for courage. I pray for courage, I actually asked, please give me courage. It was clear to me that I needed more courage. And because I could see that I was holding back or not taking risks, or I was nervous or whatever.

So, I felt I feel that, as I did that process itself, like, it came as it needed to. It’s not like it comes in this huge, you know, here’s a tonne of courage, it’s like, you get the courage to do this thing and then you do that and then you get the courage to do this thing and this thing is this thing. So it’s not like you know I don’t have fears. Overall, of course, and I check you know I’m intuitively okay I’m like is this gonna work is this gonna be successful you know because that’s my system. Like, you know I’m nervous I’m checking out how am I going to go. I do that. And, and yet I just keep trying to take the next step or the next risk. And, you know, explore further get more information you know make that connection… reach out. Just, just do a small risk. And I’m doing another show on Friday, and that show is mostly reaching out, you know, with a podcast or blog show that mostly goes to LA.

So, you know, just reaching out a little bit. I was able to make a connection with you, I made a connection with this other person in front like, you know, with a crazy amount of reaching out okay it was like a medium-sized amount of reaching out. It’s not like I was going crazy. It’s just, oh, you know our mutual connection, I saw her online, you know business coach I’m like, she’s interesting you know I could see I could support that what she’s talking about, you know, and then we were in a network… somehow she connected us. So, and that’s another thing is I think you do have to say on open. I think you have to let people know hey, I’m looking to connect and I’m a collaborator, and here are my values and this is what I’m interested in. And, you know, of course, I primarily work with women my entire career. I have worked with men but I’d say probably 85% women and 15% men. So, you know, when I had the opportunity to connect with you that’s like a no brainer.

Katerina: Yeah how do I get some men talking about fear and anxiety on this show but’s yes it’s for women but yeah… I guess guys like faking it till they’re making it right. They also have anxiety and problems but yeah they maybe not so much open to talk about it maybe they just feel it’s a sign of weakness or something. Although, I haven’t asked, because, you know, I’m just focusing this on female entrepreneurs at the moment. But maybe in the future, some guys will want to be on this program

Kristin: Right, I recently watched a programme about Hillary Rodham Clinton life. And one of the themes that came up in that and some other things I’ve been watching is that for some reason, society feels comfortable telling women, oh they’re too fat or too thin, they’re too smart they weren’t smart enough. You know there’s been a bad habit, a bad cultural habit of evaluating women as if it was just okay to just be throwing evaluation around like that like well I didn’t sign up to be evaluated by you, so I’m really not interested in your, your evaluation of me [laughs].

But it’s a bad habit is, you know, Western culture is probably worse in other places so we’re still, we’re still not really in the same place. And I also feel that women are not necessarily encouraged as little girls to go into business to make their way in the world, and… and the other thing that I would say to younger people who are getting into business is to think about passive income. Figure out how to create passive income, because, you know, when you are constantly only working for the time that you’re you know basically in the money for time exchange, you’re never… it’s very hard to make a good living. And you don’t you’re not building a future for yourself, and that’s the biggest regret that I have in my, in my own career journey is that I did not figure out how to build passive income into my life ever so much sooner, and I knew I was interested in doing it but somehow I felt like I had to run a gauntlet before I could start trying.

And I don’t know whether I don’t know where that came from that idea. You know that I had to prove myself more in the man’s world or the structured world or whatever before I started to, you know, apply my own creativity to solve problems and make things better for people in a way that might benefit me. But, you know, all the younger women that I talked to unlike passive income, this is what it looks like, you know, write a book, created this, you know, create a course, do something so that you don’t have to be there, you know, earning your money every time.

So, and that’s my biggest advice to myself right now that’s, that’s really my next thing is to get this system in place so that I can start really building that passive income, with it by the time I want to retire and in 10 years or seven years, I have an income straight.

Katerina: Right. Okay. And the final advice to female entrepreneurs?

Kristin: Oh… final advice to female entrepreneurs, um, let me think about. Oh, Okay I will, you know, don’t be afraid… this is a double-edged sword that is tricky. My mother really laid it heavy on me like do not use your looks and your femininity to get ahead in the world, like you know make your way, and your skills and your education and all that. But, you know we are a world of appearance and you know how we look and how we present and all that matters. So I think it’s okay to use your attractiveness to find places where you can get a little bit of an edge.

And the other thing I would say is that I’ve noticed that a lot of the training as a lot of female peers that I’ve had were trained or college education trained to do things that make less money than a lot of traditionally male jobs at the beginning. So then we don’t have the money we don’t have the extra money to invest in entrepreneurial activities, money to support ourselves and our families.

So if you are thinking you want, want an entrepreneurial life — study something where you can get work at the beginning…. that’s going to pay you very well, it may not be the dream thing that you absolutely want to do with the rest of your life, but it will give you more choices down the line to do other things because all of your money won’t be going into supporting yourself.

Katerina: Yeah, right… no, thank you so much, Kristin… it’s been a pleasure talking to you today.

Kristin: Thank you so much, so I appreciate the opportunity Katerina and I’m really excited that you’re doing the show, and I’m really excited to be following you know the mental wealth story.

Katerina: Yeah, they’ll be more coming from me in the future weeks, months… Thank you so much and good luck with everything.

Kristin: Thank you very much, peace and happiness.