The Emotional Journey of Closing a Business

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Well, welcome to this episode ofDid She Really Say That?
And you're going to love this conversation today, ladies,
because we're talking about shifting businesses.
And I'm not talking about, you know, evolving your business or
just changing, you know, maybe acouple tweaks to it.
I'm talking about a complete shift in a business.

(00:23):
And I love this conversation because Christine is joining us
and because this is something I found fascinating when I talked
to her. She's like, I've run three
businesses closed down to starting the third one.
But she also teaches. So I was like, oh, this is
interesting. Like I really want to know kind
of like the thought process of awoman entrepreneur that's going

(00:45):
through this process. So what you need to know about
Christine is that she is a creative at heart.
She's a natural connector of people and she's very calm in
chaos. Like have you guys ever
experienced that? Like, you're just like, things
are going on around me. I feel pretty good, right?
She generates ideas constantly, which usually means that she has
a side project, a side business,or even a side project brewing.

(01:08):
Like she can't stop. I love this type of woman,
right? And she finds true joy in
linking people who can help eachother and grow.
So if she's a connector, you want to get to know her OK.
By day, she serves as a child development specialist at the
Early Learning Center, building a building on a background and
private practices working with children facing severe

(01:29):
behavioral challenges. She has spent her career helping
children, families and communities thrive, often
bringing again that calm, that clarity and that compassion into
what can be seemingly very complex situations.
But here's the thing, Outside ofwork, you'll find her biking,
hiking, paddle boarding, basically doing anything

(01:50):
outdoors that she cans because she grounds herself.
She's a proud mom, a soon to be grandmother and a lifelong
learner who's always chasing thenext adventure.
This might resonate with some ofyou.
You're like, yeah, she sounds a little bit like me.
I'm most she's most proud of herproducing an award-winning local
cable TV show, completing your ICF life coaching certification

(02:16):
or rock climbing and even flyinga Oh my gosh, is that serious?
Serious. Oh my goodness.
So yeah, you can tell she's donea lot with her life.
Yes, right. So whether she's creating,
coaching, connecting or climbing, her whole life leads
with curiosity and courage and adeep belief in the human

(02:40):
potential. And I can only imagine,
Christine, in your line of business, working with kids,
that human potential really comes up over and over again.
So I'm excited that you're here on this show with us.
So thank you for being a yes. Oh my gosh, thank you for the
opportunity. I am so excited and as as said

(03:03):
in my bio, I'm a creative connector and I love encouraging
people and I just hope my story will resonate with some women,
will help maybe if they're questioning what they're doing
that they realize, OK, I am on the right path or some that may
be fearful be like, oh right, I'm going to make these leaps.

(03:26):
So I'm excited to start this discussion.
Yeah. So let's talk about your first
couple of businesses. So you talked about you've
opened one business, you've had a second business.
I know we'll get into your thirdbusiness, which is kind of like
an evolution and really a big shift from what you've done.
So let's talk about your first two businesses and getting those
started and what you kind of learned from those.

(03:46):
Yeah. So the the first business that I
had was in the adult beverage industry and that.
Yeah, that like it's a bad thing, like.
Well, it's kind of funny becausepeople, you know, because I've
always had my hand in the mix ofworking with kids that that's
always been a piece of my life. So the joke was for a while is

(04:07):
that I'd help kids by day and then I'd help the parents by
night. I can see that.
Yep, OK. It's like, hey, I've been with
your kid all day. I get it.
Like, you know, you need a bottle of wine.
And how that came about is, you know, I was working, we had we
had made a move and I had been astay at home mom most of my

(04:29):
child's young life. And we moved to an area where
that was no longer going to be feasible.
This is more expensive to live. And so I started working in the
beverage industry, started with Pepsi company and then moved
over into working for a liquor distributor.
And in that always having a sidehustle there's, and I'm sure I

(04:53):
don't depends on what state you're in, but in Wisconsin it's
legal to give out samples of alcohol in the grocery store.
We all know you've seen them outat bars where girls are working
like the bars and stuff. And I thought, man, that looks
like fun and a great way to makeextra money.
So the, the short version of it is I did that.
I worked for a company, moved upreally quick, you know, in that

(05:15):
company as a side hustle. And then the liquor distributor
that I was working for said, whydon't you start one because the
company that we are using isn't that great.
I was in a time of my life, I was going through my first
divorce and I kind of had like an FU attitude.
And I thought, OK, so I learned everything on the fly.

(05:38):
I learned how to set up an LCI just like all of it.
Just just learned it. So there were lots of puddles of
tears because be like, what am Idoing?
I don't get all this. But I did it and built that
business, had it for seven years.
Went from one employee being me to having 20 employees kind of
throughout the state. We had several areas and I I

(06:01):
just loved it. You know, this growing people
who were like nervous being in front of people and just
coaching them and helping them just become really great
salespeople, shifting the look of the industry because it was
very much young, blonde, skinny women doesn't mean they can sell

(06:23):
anything. And so I started looking at that
shift of like, I have really great friends that are all
shapes and sizes and ages that would be great at this.
And really what you want to happen is sales to happen.
Because if you sell in a ton of product to a store for an event
and then it's all sitting there the next day, that store isn't

(06:46):
real happy. So it, it was an uphill battle.
I mean, I had some accounts thatwere like, Nope, I'm not going
to use you. I want young girls and I'm like,
go ahead, but let me know how much product you sell.
And slowly those would come backaround and they're like, OK, I
get it. You know, I get it.
It's about selling. Also, you are alienating your

(07:07):
biggest shoppers by having diseased young girls.
Because if I'm with my husband, there's no way you're going over
there sampling and depending on what mood I'm in, I don't really
know if I want to go up to the skinny chick.
And so they started seeing that.So that was really exciting to
get people to understand and what our purpose was, was to

(07:27):
sell their product and educate. So I had that one for seven
years, but I was feeling this pull to like I, I was on the
teeter totter of either. I was going to have to take out
a substantial loan to get the software that I needed to expand
it or merge with another company, and I was feeling the

(07:50):
pull to get back in with kids. So I ended up merging with
another company. That was a lesson of very
powerful men and me being just me, and I ended up not
negotiating as well as I could have and ended up unknown to me.
I ended up tripling their business in the state of

(08:11):
Wisconsin. Yeah, I did not get compensated
for that. I'm.
Gonna hold you there 'cause I think this is an important
piece. Just pause right there for a
moment. Now I think that's just
interesting because over the last few weeks and even the last
month or so, you know, I think there are more women now that

(08:32):
are coming in to helping women exit strategies around business.
So I would say you were probablyin a time period where it just
didn't exist yet. But what I will say is that if
you're hearing this, don't thinkyou're gonna get played as much
because this was a time period back when things were shifting
and changing. But I will say the landscape

(08:52):
around creating exit strategies to help you better like, you
know, have that information is actually more available and more
accessible woman to woman now orprobably you did not have that
ability or even that access point for that.
But that's really interesting that you talked about that
because it is it's a learning curve like you're things you

(09:15):
learn and now you know. Yeah.
And, you know, and that was my own insecurity, too.
I mean, I had that little intuition of going, I'm showing
you my book of business, but you're not showing me yours.
And that always like that was kind of nagging because they
were really big in Illinois. So I'm just assuming that they

(09:40):
probably have a bigger book, book of business than me than me
in Wisconsin. And, you know, it was a learning
lesson. It was naive.
You know, me being naive, I did not get any counsel.
Like I just did this and decidedI didn't people after the fact,
they're like, what you merge? Why didn't you talk to me about
it? You know?
So it's a little like a lot of little things.

(10:02):
Insecurity. Probably stubbornness for not
wanting to get help. I can do it myself.
I'll figure this out. They're not going.
To yeah, yeah, I can figure it out, you know, So, I mean, you
know, it wasn't like anything like financially devastating,
but it was definitely a moment of, hmm, yeah, I, I did a lot of

(10:25):
why, Like why, why did I like after the fact, why did I feel
that way? Why didn't I feel like I could
have asked? And there was a lot of growth
that ended up coming out of that.
Hindsight though, a couple yearslater, like 2 1/2 years later,
COVID hit. I would have been dead in the
water. So I'd rather tell the story I

(10:49):
successfully merged a company and learned some lessons than
saying I lost my business due toCOVID.
So, you know, and I. Think, you know, there's a part
of you that's like saying, well,could I have questioned, Could I
have negotiated? Could I have made some
compensation? Not necessarily take it over,
but there's that, that whole piece.
And I think what I want women totake away is they're listening

(11:10):
to this, is that if there's questions to ask, ask them.
Yeah, I think that's. Really coming down to that, it's
like we feel like, and, and I have this too, you know, I was
like, oh, but I who am I to ask this question?
Well, who are you not to ask? The question is awesome.
You know, and that's, that's where we see the red flags,
right? Then if they come back to us
with like some sort of answer that's like shaming or

(11:33):
questioning or whatever, that's your red flag of what?
Well, something's not good here.And again, lessons learned,
yeah. Because I want to give like
signed up for a lot of women that creating that exit strategy
can seem a little scary or like letting go of something you've
created can seem a little scary.So I like that you bring this up

(11:53):
because it's something that I think a lot of us women are
going to be going through, especially as the finances start
to shift, as we start to inheritbusinesses and things happen.
Like I want them to know like, yes, this does happen and
there's there's definitely support around it and sometimes
it's for the best. Yeah, yeah.

(12:13):
Like you talked about, COVID happened and it was for the best
because it gave you a whole nother place to go play now.
Yeah. And you know, I'm so much better
now about seeking out help and wise counsel, you know, over the
years of surrounding your, you know, just talking it through
with somebody first before you did it.
But yeah, lessons learned on theon that one.

(12:34):
So OK, so then business #2 so like COVID hits, I go back into
private practice, working with families, with kids with severe
behavioral stuff going on. COVID hits.
I'm kind of kicking around this idea of like parent coaching
and, you know, I had a friend just kind of start the

(12:56):
conversation with me and he said, well, how do you do what
you do? How do you go into these
families? And four months later, it's a
completely different family. And I had this brilliant answer
of I don't know, I just do it. You know, I go in and do it and
he goes, well, it's important for you to figure out how you do

(13:18):
that and write it down. So that started this journey of
what am I saying? What am I doing?
What am I putting in place, you know, rhythms and routines.
And so then I had a kind of an idea of like I would always have
parents say, you know, I feel like I'm losing, I feel like I'm
losing and I'm like, I want to help parents feel like they're
winning. And then came the idea of

(13:38):
parenting game, because sometimes you do feel like
you're playing a game with your kids.
So started parenting game duringCOVID.
We were still in that time wherethe health and Wellness
departments was a big thing and they were expanding them and
offering resources. And so that was great.

(14:01):
I had several companies who werepaying me to do webinars for
their parents as they're navigating how to be home with
their kids. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I had parents throwing money at me.
Like, can you come and help me with my kid?
And I was, I was making six figures.
It was, it was great. And then I had the opportunity

(14:24):
to, you know, start a local TV show, which was a dream 'cause I
had worked in my resume is very unique.
So I'd worked in TV in the past and loved it.
And this was just like a dream to like produce and host, you
know, my own show. And so all, all of that was
going on. I was getting on tons of

(14:45):
podcasts because there was a hottopic of like dealing that with
that. Unfortunately, as we move
farther or farther away from COVID, we've fallen back in to
our old patterns. Parents are very busy.
Kids are in five different sports.

(15:05):
And it was just becoming where like I love it in the moment,
like when I'm coaching a parent.But all that went into it to get
a client and then I'm rescheduling.
I mean, right now I am finishingup with the client we started a
year ago, 10 sessions and we're just now able to come and finish

(15:26):
up. And it's, it's just, I could
have made that shift to doing like online platforms and
classes and that did not throw me at all something I could do
right with my TV background. I could have pumped out all
that. It did not feed my soul.
So, you know, I've just been kind of it's been hard to let go

(15:47):
'cause it's been such a wild an awesome ride.
Like I'm still connected to parents that I've helped, you
know, over five years ago. And it's like I'm slowly closing
things down. But I'm telling you, the day
that I do the permanently closedon Google, like even saying it

(16:07):
now, like I get a pit my stomach.
It makes me really sad that, youknow, I'll have to do that.
But in the midst of that, I've had this other business because
I'm always doing stuff, helping people out and I just.
I'm just stop you before you dive any further because this is
we're getting into the third one.
So let's talk about closing downa business because I think this

(16:29):
is an area that we don't actually talk about.
So what had you not sell the business but to choose to close
the business. So that's what question that
comes up for me. Yeah.
So the part of it is I could have looked into selling my
content. I've copyrighted all my content,

(16:49):
and I had conversations about that.
That is a long process, you know, to find somebody who
wants, you know, will take your content, but once you sell it,
it's no longer yours. And I just don't want to give
somebody that control over my content.
And also, this is something I can always revisit.

(17:13):
You know, it, it's, it, it doesn't go away.
My content is still there 10 years from now.
There might be an opportunity again to So I didn't look into
selling it because I want to keep my content and have control
over my. Content.
Totally respect that. That's what I'm asking.
Yeah, but it is like I really had to 'cause you know, I us

(17:38):
entrepreneurs, like we're pull yourself up by the bootstraps,
right? That's why you do what you do.
You let yourself cry for a hot minute, but then you dust
yourself off, you stand and you and you keep going.
But what I was realizing with with this one is because there
was so much more creativity. It's all my content.

(18:02):
Like I developed all the content.
I built the study guide, I organized it.
You know, it's the program that I have to grief.
I have to, I, I got to go through the grieving process
like this is a loss. And I still struggle with that
because I'm like, well, but I have this other thing that's

(18:24):
growing and great and I'm not doing myself any favors by
ignoring that. I mean, this was, I mean, I just
look back, it's like I was on podcast every.
I mean, it was amazing. And to see it slowly decline,

(18:46):
it's, it's been a little harder because the other one was
thriving. And I made that choice to, like,
merge it. And this one, I'm closing
because it's not thriving. And it's a really different
feel. Really different feel, yeah.
And I like that you said it's kind of a grieving process

(19:07):
because I, I think we look at often times closing a business
that that's just done and over with.
But I think when we pour our heart and our passion into what
we're building and the fact thatyou created all the content,
everything is really an originalcreation.
There's this sense of like, I'm putting this down almost like

(19:28):
I'm setting it down. So I, I can even see it over
here on your face for those who are watching, like you can feel
that with you, Christine. It's like there's, there's
something in there. And I thank you for being
emotional and and vulnerable andsharing that because it is
something that I don't think we as women discuss around having
our businesses, especially when we do shift or transition or

(19:50):
something else pulls our attention.
We feel like we're, you know, letting people down or something
in that respect. But you.
Know we, you know, we have a, a networking group at our chamber
and I've started like a little side group of when you're like,
when you own a business. You can't ever tell somebody it

(20:10):
sucks, right? It's so true, you can't.
You're always up here. It's great.
It's growing. I'm doing this, I'm doing that.
I've been doing this. And I realize especially for US
women, but now I we have quite afew men who are meeting too,
that you have to have a place togo.
This really sucks and I am really stressed out and I'm

(20:34):
working really hard and it's notdoing what I thought it would
doing in a safe, like in a safe place, right?
Because you have to be careful with that.
Because again, if people know you're struggling that hard,
they're automatically going to like think they can't trust you
like it, but it doesn't change your skill or what you're
capable of doing. But it's just that whole idea of

(20:58):
like, oh, you know what? Well, why is it struggling?
And they get more focused on that than what you're really
going to offer. So I think it's like it's I,
it's just so challenging to stayup here like all the time.
And we got to have those places go, OK, this was really hard and

(21:19):
it really sucked. And I'm not hitting my goals and
then brainstorm and figure some different things out and know
that other people are too. It's been really, really great.
And you know, too, mine has been, it's like I'm struggling
shutting this thing down. I, you know, I've just really,

(21:40):
you know, once I'm just doing like one thing a month, you
know, like shutting it down and oh, I just like, I don't know if
you're out there and you're, you're going into that process,
it also hits your identity too, you know, as an entrepreneur, I
mean, we try to remember that mybusiness isn't who I am, but God

(22:03):
Dang it, my business is who I am.
It is, it becomes our identity. It's like it's, and I think for
women, I find it interesting as we have these conversations, as
I talk with more women, you know, when we create a business,
we birth it just like we're birthing a child.
There's so much that we pour into it.
There's the growth of the business, there's the nurturing

(22:25):
of the business. And I think there is that
emotional attachment because we also, I find as women, we are
more connected to humanity. We are really connected to the
people that we're helping. Like we really do have that
connection. So when we're closing a
business, it does have that sense of grief, sense of loss in
there. And so, yeah, it is.

(22:47):
That's something I don't even think about until you brought
this up. I'm like, this is a really valid
point because I've had to close a business and I don't think I
actually grieved it. Like I felt like I just had to
move on to the next thing. Yeah.
And that, that's where I've beensitting.
You know, it's like I have this next thing, but I also got to
pay attention, you know, to this.

(23:09):
And you know, the other part that gets hard too is, you know,
when you get the why questions, you know, and you have to admit
it wasn't making money. And then you get the well, did
you try this? And did you try this and did you
try that? And you know, I'm still getting
the emails. You know, you can make 60,000 in

(23:31):
two weeks. You know I'm exaggerating, but
you love. Those AI emails that come out
that they promise they can do everything, but they've never.
Yes, yes, those are my. Things and, you know, it's
almost like, you know, I've had some, you know, people and not
like intentionally with malice, but you get that sense of like,

(23:52):
well, you just gave up. And yeah, and that's like hard
'cause it's like, well, you know, there's other things that
you could do and truthfully there is, but I didn't want to
do them. Yeah, I didn't want to do them.
Like I, as I said, with the content, like, I get that all
the time, but get on a platform,you're good at speaking.

(24:14):
You can pump all content you cansell that do all that.
It sounds exhausting. Yes, and I said I, I like that
human connection and like seeingthe parents and seeing the Aha's
on their face and I, I, it, that's all I can say.
It did not excite me one bit. So let's talk about the

(24:39):
evolution of this next. So First off, woman, I, if
you're listening to this and you're closing, actually, I'm
I've worked with a client who's recently closing down the brick
and mortar side of the business,but is able to do more of the
online version of her business. But that was a hard decision for
her because there was mom owned the business.
This building had been in her family for, you know, whatever,

(25:01):
and she gosh, I closed that down.
So I'm excited to have her here,this podcast, because I think
that she'll definitely resonate this.
So I know there are women out there that had to like re
evaluate, readjust shifting. So you're sharing a lot of
really good and like informationand just, you know, insight in
your journey. So that's now we're talking.

(25:23):
So we're bringing that one down.We're slowing that one down, but
we're also ramping up another business, which is interesting
because it doesn't do anything with children, it doesn't do
anything with parents, and yet it lights you up in a whole
different way. Yeah.
So, you know, with the background of being in the

(25:46):
beverage industry, I learned a lot about marketing.
This is also one thing that I I love to share with women is no
matter where you're at, even if you're working in a can I say
bad words of. Course you can.
This is OK. If you're working in a shitty
job, what can you learn? OK, working for Pepsi was a

(26:08):
shitty job. It was.
I was in great shape. But I'm hoofing soda all day.
I'm sweating like a pig. It's like I work my butt off.
But what I learned was marketing, strategy and
placement. Then I go to Frank.
I learned more about that. And then when I have my

(26:29):
promotional company, I know the importance of where we stand in
the store. All of that, all of that that I
picked up came into play when I started with my business.
So I, I just wanted to put that out there because you can always
learn no matter where, where you're at.
So I was looking for, well, first, I, I, I helped friends

(26:55):
with coordinate their weddings on and off for years.
This because I've always had that organizational skills.
And I had a friend's daughter who was getting married.
I was living with her at the time and I could tell they were
getting really overwhelmed. So I said, my wedding gift to
you is I'm going to coordinate your wedding.

(27:16):
So I went out to this venue, went out there and coordinated,
got to meet the owners of the venue.
They came to me later and say, Hey, can we get your business
card? And I said they didn't, they
didn't have any kids. So I'm thinking my parenting
business. And I'm like, you guys want
parent coaching. And they're like, no, like your

(27:37):
business coordinator card. And I said, oh, I just do this
for fun. They're like, really you should
think about it as a career. And I'm like, oh ha ha,
whatever, you know, do the wedding, whatever feed.
Planted. Yep.
And then I was looking to make some extra income and I thought,
well, I really like them. I love the venue was beautiful.

(28:00):
And I so I just reached out to them and I said, hey, are you
looking for any help? And they said, actually our
venue coordinator just gave us notice.
We need somebody. They're like, we would love to
have you. And I said like I'm in.
So by first season with them, wehad 18 weddings because now this

(28:20):
is post COVID and everybody's playing catch up.
We had 18 weddings. And again, this was I'm setting
up chairs, taking down chairs, pulling trash.
It is not glam job at all. But I'm watching, you know, I'm
paying attention to the ones to the weddings that don't have a

(28:40):
coordinator and kind of what a shit show it ends up being.
And everybody's stressed out because they don't want to
forget what they're, they're part of the wedding they're
supposed to do. Then I watched the ones that did
have a coordinator, like, what did they do?
What didn't they do? So I had like a full year of
that. And then they said, well, we're
just going to put your name and number on our preferred vendor

(29:02):
list to be a coordinator. And I said, OK, cool.
So then the next season I had one hire me directly and so
learned a, you know, a lot of how I wanted to differentiate
myself and what I was doing. And one of the biggest things
that the all the brides rememberis I always check on them and
make sure they have a drink. Every one of them is said that

(29:25):
and you made sure I had a drink all night so they didn't have to
wait in line. So you you pick up on those
things and then it just started the snowball.
Like people found out that I didit.
So I did one in Chicago. I did a friend's wedding for
free as a gift. Then her bridesmaid hired me.
So that connected me to another venue.

(29:46):
And it's this been kind of the snowball thing.
And I'm like, OK, this is kind of making some serious dough.
This other thing isn't. I think I need to start doing
the flip, but it all came down from this, like kind of paying
attention and learning, you know, and watching while I was
doing the crap part of the job and now I get to do the cool

(30:08):
part of the job. Yeah, and I think there's
something about that, cuz I'm, I'm very similar to you in that
respect. Like I'll sit there and just
observe. Like what's working, what's not
working? What's you know, what do I like
about this? What do I like about that?
So I think when you can sit backand just observe and watch.
And then also you're talking about pulling from your skill

(30:30):
set, right? Every job you've ever had from
like the time you got a job taught you some sort of skill
set that as an entrepreneur you're going to bring forward,
you're going to see what businesses and corporations do.
If you have a corporate job, you're like, if I had a
business, I wouldn't do this. I would do this.
Like if you actually sat and looked at it, you would have a,

(30:51):
you would be like, wow, I could really do something amazing with
this. So the other thing that really
stood out for me, and let's talkabout this a little bit.
You talked about, you know, making your services available
for free. Well, we did have the other
business in the space right now.You're, you're kind of cause the
women. I want you to listen to this.
This is your super secret power.And I think you all ignore this.

(31:14):
You talked to 1 friend, got yourfirst gig.
Well, another friend. You did it as a wedding gift to
them. They led you.
Like let's talk about the power of relationship and networking.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think for me it's
been, I think sometimes we want to like stay in our lane, right

(31:42):
when you, when you network and breaking out and, and just going
to like different unique experiences and then also not
being afraid of talking about what you do.
So I think sometimes we stay in our lane and I'm only going to

(32:02):
talk about my business when I'm at a networking event and not
talk about it outside of that when you meet people.
And I've gotten so much breaker because I think we pick us like,
Oh, we're bragging. I've, you know, oh, I think for
us, us women really learning thedifference between like from

(32:25):
what? What's the difference between
being arrogant and like promoting, promoting yourself?
And I think women tend to get looked at as arrogant when we
talk about things more than sometimes men, men would.
Yeah, yeah. And so for me, it's it has been

(32:50):
like I had an opportunity and I was what it was kind of funny.
So at this wedding. So I also do like a little
offshoot of MC services. So once in a while I'll get,
I'll get asked to MC an event. So I'm at the wedding and I'm in
my lane. And my lane right now is to be
the day of coordinator. They didn't hire ADJ.
So I knew that I would need to MC like the grand March.

(33:14):
I need to introduce the band anddo some things like that.
And so, you know, I did that andI had a gentleman come up to me.
So here, here's kind of the whole scenario.
The reason they didn't hire ADJ is because the groom works at an
AB company. So that's what they do is they
do sound systems and everything.So they brought all their own.

(33:37):
But I get it, you save money. But there's important pieces
where you need to have somebody talking.
So I told them that I would takethat piece on and then I
introduced the band and stuff like this.
And this gentleman comes up to me.
He goes, man, you're really goodat that.
You, you know, introduced the band very, very well.

(33:57):
And then the groom goes, said something about their corporate
event and goes, yeah, I think weneed somebody who's going to
talk at our corporate event. And I said, well, I do MC
services too, so give me a call.That is like where I think maybe

(34:17):
years passed, I would have felt that that was unprofessional
because I would have been like, I need to stay in my lane.
This bride hired me, I'm doing the wedding coordinator.
And now I'm just like, it was a casual conversation and they saw
it, so why not throw that in thehat?
It's like, yeah, I'll do an, youknow, I'll MC events.
And that's where like, I think it's helpful to never be shy to

(34:41):
talk about what you do no matterwhere you're at because you just
don't know. You just don't know what the
needs are or who's listening andjust be, you know, be braver
about talking about that or evenlike giving advice.
Sometimes, you know, I'll just like hear something, you know,

(35:02):
somebody talking about like an event.
And I'll just like, hey, I heardyou talking about an event.
You know, I don't mean to butt in.
I am a day of coordinator, so I do a lot of event planning.
I'm wondering could I give a suggestion?
You. Know and then that just gets
your name out there. So I would say as far as

(35:23):
networking, just be brave and kind of think outside of the
box. Don't feel like you have to just
stay in these lanes. Yeah, I would say that's very
true because even I always tell people networking happens
anywhere. You can go join a group and
learn how to bowl or ballroom dance or whatever.
And there's opportunities to talk about what you do.
And it's it's there because people want to know.
And so say something like silence doesn't grow a business.

(35:47):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know, and we're just like,
oh, I don't know if I should talk about that right now or
whatever. I mean, my son's wedding is
coming up. You bet I'm gonna be talking
about how, Yep, I help them pay for a day of coordinator 'cause
I know how important it is because I'm a day of
coordinator. I'm gonna be leaving at it.

(36:09):
You will be. Running his his wedding event
while you're the mother of the groom like that's not your.
Role. But all the other people and
friends and stuff who are there,I'm like, you can hire me, yeah.
Yeah, for sure. So let's talk a little bit
about, I guess the structure andfinancial.
So like when you opened your first business, you talked about

(36:31):
doing the LLC. What are some of the things that
you've learned that you continueto, you know, implement or grow
around, you know, building thesethree different businesses?
What are some of the lessons that you've learned from the
back end side of it? Yeah.
Well, for one, what I didn't do on my first business is I wasn't

(36:51):
really good about having like all the money was in a pot and I
would kind of guesstimate on things like how much I think I
would need for taxes. And the one thing that I've
gotten better about and it I, it's a no, it can be annoying,
but I do have separate accounts.Like I have separate accounts.

(37:15):
That's my operating expense account, my owner's income
account, my tax account. And then, you know, this is
where all the money goes into initially and, and breaking that
out for me, that has been so helpful and helps me make wiser

(37:35):
decisions when I'm when I'm spending, it's like what's
coming in and stuff. Can this wait?
The other big thing is I'll be real honest, like I'm fully in
menopause now, which is lovely, but at at the time one thing
that I did learn is I would not make decisions the week I was on

(37:56):
my period. Amen.
Thank you for saying that out loud.
Yep. I because everything for me was
more amped up. Like I could just steal it.
It was more crucial and I learned it's this like, Nope,
this is waiting till next week because I'm, I'm not going to
make a good decision. And even now like depending, I

(38:19):
kind of look at it like it's if it's like around $100, like for
advertising or something, I'm thinking about spending, I'll
wait 24 hours. I'll wait a day before, you
know, before I'll do that. Anything over $100, like I'll
wait a week, I'll wait a week. Do a little more research,

(38:40):
probably ask a couple people like, you know, have you had it?
I have really had to learn and it's it's hard to because you
get those emails coming in all the time about do this now, do
this now. And it's not, it's not that
urgent. If if you do have an opportunity

(39:01):
that passes, I 100% guarantee you'll have another one.
Wait three months, it'll come back again, I promise.
You. Yeah, I think it'll.
Come back in three months. Big maturity lesson is this
learning to this pause and wait before making a decision.
And the other part, which I would say even is more recent

(39:26):
because I'm so driven on meetingfinancial goals and things like
that, making a self-care account, putting money aside in
a self-care account. What I do is like really, really
physical during the day. It's very mental taxing and that

(39:47):
probably it's been more recent like over the last year where I
have been very diligent about putting money aside so I can get
a massage or here I wanted a newpurse so I got the new purse I
wanted. It was been very satisfying and
paying attention to that self-care piece and just just

(40:10):
making it another account where money just goes in there every
month. I love that.
Yeah. And then and the other is too is
getting a good financial advisor, getting just getting
wisdom on what to do. I had, I was really kind of
doing a tailspin and was really stressed out.
I think I shared that with you when we were first talking that

(40:32):
the first gentleman was not giving me wise counsel.
And now I have another gentlemanwho's like amazing.
And it's just been really great in that.
So paying, paying, sometimes youneed to pay for advice.
You do really do. Coaching is a key piece, I think

(40:53):
if for a lot of us and a lot of women shy away from it.
So we think we can do it or learn it on our own.
But I've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in coaching
and it's made the difference. It it just works on mindset.
It shortcuts a lot of the thingsI don't know, gives me access to
resources I didn't know existed.Like there's a benefit in having
a financial advisor paying for things like it makes a

(41:15):
difference. Yeah, And, you know, and your
friend group, too, can be so important.
Like today I was just spewing off Marco Polo a lot with my
friends. And I was just spewing off
about, you know, I was excited. I meet a financial goal.
And this is where I put it. And she got to chit chat.
And then she goes, what do you know about this money market?
I'm like, I do not know about that money market.
She and I forget she's like a financial geek.

(41:38):
Like I read stuff about like, trauma and how to help trauma
kids. And then she reads like
financial stuff. So today I shifted everything.
I opened up that account that's like one 1 1/2 percent higher,
way more flexible. I can get my money way out
easier just because I'm spewing off about it.

(42:01):
And yeah, it's just like, oh man, just be open and honest
with your friends and, and sharethat kind of stuff because you
don't, you know, you don't know what somebody knows until you
talk to them. Yeah, and I think as women, we
need to start having more own, honest and open conversations
around money. Men do it anyway, right?

(42:21):
So like when you talked about, you know, when you niche need
that time to vent, men have likethe good old boys club and the
things like that. They they get to have time where
they just get to spew it all out.
And yet for women, we feel like we've got to hide it.
And it's like we really need to be open about this.
Fun fact. For anybody that hasn't
listened, and I might have mentioned this before, women
only were able to open a bank account since 1978.

(42:45):
It's the first time that women could actually open up.
I mean, there was other incidences, but as a whole
collective, it was 1978 that women could actually open a a
bank account without their husband's signature.
That's less than 50 years ago back then, right?
So when you look at our exposureto money and how to manage it

(43:06):
and how it's going to impact ourlives, we are the least educated
around this. This is why I do agree with you,
Christine, that, you know, we aswomen, we AI found it incredible
group of women that are actuallyteaching wealth building because
they recognize that it's a missing.
So I went looking for women thatI could actually have this
conversation with because it became important to me.

(43:29):
Like I, I get it from the men, but sometimes I don't understand
what the men are saying. But for some reason a woman and
I think it's our teaching and our bringing information down to
another level, they we just kindof communicate on a whole
different plane when we talk about what that looks like.
Now I'm going to ask you and youcan answer yes or no, but the

(43:49):
banking system that you method you use because I did the whole
1 pot method too. So I that's a one thing.
Is it the profit first strategy or is it have you never heard of
that before? OK.
I've heard of the profits first strategy.
I don't know if that's what I'm doing though.

(44:11):
You literally are. So, yeah, I mean, this this
strategy that I learned was froma business coach, you know, of,
of dividing that all out and setting up your percent
percentages. Is.
Yeah. Yeah, they were definitely
influenced by it, whatever they called it.
That is absolutely, it's the profit first strategy.
So it's about having your incomeaccount and then it disperses

(44:33):
percentage wise into your operations account, your owner's
comp, your profit account, tithing account.
So like however you want to break that up.
But that was a big shift, even for me.
When I started doing that in business, I was like, why didn't
anybody tell me this? Yeah, yeah.
And it, it helps you make such better decisions.
And when you kept it all in one pot, I tended to not take money

(44:58):
for myself. And then when you do it, it's
like, oh, like I, I can pay me 'cause I think when you're,
especially when you're starting out with a business, you kind
of, I know I had that mindset and I don't know where it came
from, but that pretty much it's a grind.

(45:18):
And you don't get to pay yourself for like the first two
or three years is the mindset that I had.
And then when I, you know, got this business coach and we did
that, I'm like, huh, huh. And then I was like, man, I, you
know, and then it, it made me think I was like, OK, what was I
spending all that money on? I was spending it all on the

(45:40):
advertising. And then that slowed me down to
start thinking about, well, am Igetting a return on those
advertising dollars right? Because I was just like, oh, you
need to do this because you know, you're going to make
millions of dollars and you need, and when you had it broken
out, I don't know. For me, it just started clicking
to like paying attention, I think because there wasn't

(46:02):
always money in that operating expense account.
When you have one pod, it's all in there.
You think you got to spend it onadvertising and when it's not,
then you get much more strategic.
So it, it, it was this like gamechanger on how I ran my business
moving forward. Yeah, same for me and same for
you because we still, I teach that with our women also when
they come through and I work with them because I'm like, you

(46:24):
can, I can teach you how to makemoney.
But what I was failing at as a coach for the last 10 years was
teaching women how to keep the money.
And that's why I was like, I've no obligation to kind of figure
that part out for you so that, you know, I can bring you some
education around this 'cause this is not a good, you
shouldn't be on this six figure down, 6 figure down.
Really. Like that's a roller coaster

(46:45):
financially to be on. Yeah.
And no matter how much or littleand, and I think we just get so
stuck in the numbers, it's just like you, you should be paying
yourself no matter how much the business is coming in.
Agree. And.
Yourself at least a dollar or $10 or something, but you've got
to be paying yourself. It's the mindset piece.

(47:06):
Yeah, Yeah, it was. It's kind of funny.
I'm kind of chuckling now because I, I'm thinking back to
when I sat that down and I, you know, I'm like going this is
great, like this isn't going to work.
I just, I laugh now because I see how well it works.
But I can remember that moment when he's like telling me this
and I'm like, pay my, I can't pay myself.

(47:28):
I'm self-employed. What do you mean pay myself?
So it's kind of funny now the tolook at that hindsight and
remember how I felt in that moment.
I don't can't pay. I can pay everybody else but me.
And I can't tell you how many women I have coached over the
years that have that common. I've paid everybody else.
I pay all my employees, I pay myindependent contractors,
everybody, but I don't pay myself.

(47:50):
I'm like, what the hell are you in?
Business. But owning a business is great.
Yeah. And my business partner says,
are you a charity? Like, is that what you're
building or do you really want to get paid for this?
And I was like, yeah, my gosh, yeah.
So I know that we talked about it previously that you are

(48:11):
working on kind of like a like aworkbook or work page to kind of
give away or to share with womenas you've kind of gone through
this journey. So what does that look like at
this point? Yeah, so they, it's, it's a
great little, it's PDF format that I sent out something that I
do like in all aspects of my life, whether I'm coaching a
parent, talking with a friend, Ido it.

(48:35):
There's a, a Bible study group that I lead and, and part of it
we talk about money and we we dothis in there.
But the one thing that we often don't think about when we're
thinking about when we're stressed about something, like
something is causing a stress and we just feel stuck there.
We can put together goals, right?
Those goals to move us along. You know, you're in coaching,

(48:59):
I'm in coaching. Like that's the big thing is to
set those small goals and those big goals to move along.
And but sometimes it's like really hard.
There still seems to be something in the way.
And what I realized is there arefeelings attached and if we can

(49:19):
understand what those feelings are and how we would like to
feel, you can move along a lot quicker.
Like when you have goals and stuff like that, you'll still
get there. But I found this moves you real
quick. So I'm just going to give an
example. I can talk to anybody.
We're out and talking, but when I would have like a sales goal

(49:44):
and you had to have like so manyappointment sets and make so
many appointments that would dislike make me like sick to my
stomach. I wouldn't want to do it.
And when I was doing the coaching and stuff, it was a lot
of that cold calling and like reaching out and I hated it.
So I got out the emotional colorwheel and this was actually
really good for my business coach too, because I pulled it

(50:06):
out and I shared it with him because he was getting a little
frustrated. He's like, what is like, we have
this goal and you're not reaching what's going on?
So I worked through it and we got to that emotion of for me,
it felt like abandonment was theword that was attached when I
would get shut down during a cold call.

(50:28):
So of course I'm not going to want to make these.
But then we, we go, you go to the other side of the emotional
color wheel, the happy side and you pick out like, how do I want
to feel when I do this? And then there, there are these
buckets. They're little buckets that
you'll fill out and you'll, you'll start talking about like

(50:50):
how, how do I feel? How do I want to feel?
Are there people who are helpingme, helping me feel negative?
Are there people that are helping me feel positive?
And you'll work through these sheets and kind of write that
all down. And what that does is it unlocks
those feelings. And once you recognize them and
you can name them and then you know how you want to feel about

(51:13):
it, you can put things in place.My simple solution really was
when I was is to be comfortable.People preach.
Don't have your office in your bedroom, don't do work in bed
cuz then you can't sleep, blah blah blah.
Do you know when I did my best cold calling?
When I was sitting in my bed with a cup of coffee next to me?

(51:35):
They didn't know where I was, but that was like my solution.
I just felt comfortable. If I got rejected, I didn't care
so much cuz I was like kind of in my favorite spot in the
house. And once I figured that out,
then it became a lot easier. Now was what I recognized were
some days a little bit bigger than others, especially like if

(51:58):
I was on my period, were those amped up?
And I would just say, I know I'mprobably not going to meet the
goal this week and that's OK, just because I know all this
stuff is going on. But then I would find I kind of
make up for it the next week. You would initially, and it's
interesting when you talk about that because that's one of the
things we dive into with women from my side is how to follow

(52:21):
your cycle. And I have another friend of
mine that's actually tracking sales for women when they start
making their calls or they're bringing in business.
When they do it during their follicular and oblatory phase,
the first two weeks right after their period, they actually
close more sales because they'remore commutative, they're higher
cognitive thinking, and they canreally read their prospect in a

(52:43):
much different way than you can during your ludial and in your
menstrual face. You are dead on.
Even if you felt that intuitively, you're dead on,
because now science has proven that without a doubt that that's
actually what we deal with as women.
Well, you're crabby and you're uncomfortable.
Why would you want to like, makean offer you barely think at
that point too? Yeah, this is like, no.

(53:06):
So yeah, I so I created this thing.
It's it's you can rock yourself.Definitely reach out to me if
you would like to just partner and kind of talk through it.
Currently I'm, I'm building the new website and that part isn't
on there yet, but just, I know you're going to share my e-mail
and stuff. Just reach out and can walk you

(53:28):
through it. But it can really be a game
changer when you just verbalize the negative because we tend to
keep it simple. It's like, well, I feel bad or I
feel sad. But when you can get into those
deeper, like abandonment, like, you know, and I was like, OK, I
get that, right? It's like you don't you don't

(53:50):
want me. And because of my childhood
trauma that felt like abandoned,Are they no.
And then I could consciously kind of talk that out and and
then do that spin of like, they just don't need that service
right now and that's OK. You know, it could be they just
don't like me and that's OK too.So have those, you know, good

(54:12):
conversations that keep you going.
Yeah, there's so much juicy. We have to wrap this up because
this is such a juicy conversation.
And I know, Christine, we could probably talk hours on this.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
But I just want to like have youladies, if you were listening to
this, there were so many, did she really say those moments
that I invite you to listen to this again, right.

(54:36):
Like I think with Christine, First off, there is a marketing
aspect to her that when you workwith behavioral, with children's
behavioral and you're working with parents, there is an
intuitiveness and a knowledge that she really shared in here
that you might have missed that I invite you to come back
through and listen with new ears.
And then as we talk about business in that evolution, I

(54:57):
hope you're hearing Grace in what she shared with you and
just the grace to be, to move through, to grieve, to try
something new and really expand who you are.
Fill up the space that you have in this world, right?
Don't shrink into it, really expand into it.
And I think Christine was a you're just a beautiful light

(55:18):
and and presence for that. So thank you so much for saying
yes and being here with us. It's just been an incredible
conversation. Well, I appreciate it and I love
sharing and if somebody can movealong a little better, be a
little bit braver because you know my story.
I that's just what this is all about.
I know for you too It is. Yeah, we'll definitely reach out

(55:41):
to Christine. Her information will be down
below in the show notes whereveryou're listening to connect with
her, something she said resonatewith her, follow her because you
just never know what those connections are.
As we talked about you relationships and and
opportunities come out of the weirdest places, but it's it's
being there that really creates something unique.

(56:03):
So if you're enjoying this conversation, definitely comment
on our episode. Give it a rating.
I would love A5 because that would just tell me that
Christine's conversation rocked with you and like, you know,
just stick around in because you're going to love our next
episode of did she really see that?
We'll see you there. The.

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