336 MINISODE Krisstina Wise: Trust Your Intuition

Women Innovating Networking Growing Scaling – that’s WINGS … I’m Melinda Wittstock, my mission is to help women take flight to soar to the success of our dreams in business and in life– and create and grow businesses in alignment with our passion and purpose.

On this special Mentoring Minisode of Wings of Inspired Business … we talk about self-love, and why the entrepreneurial journey at its most inspiring and successful is ultimately a spiritual journey. We talk about adversity and challenging times and events that victimize us – and how to alchemize our wounds into supershero strengths. And why our intuition is vital to ensuring we can avoid problems and pitfalls in the first place.

Here with us today to provide her insights and inspiration is …

Krisstina Wise.

Krisstina is a real estate mogul, Millionaire Coach and creator of several multi-million dollar businesses including Goodlife Luxury, The Paperless Agent, and most recently, WealthyWellthy. She is also an international speaker and the award-winning author of the Amazon Bestseller Falling for Money, a romance novel for your bank account t. Named one of the 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders in the country, she has been featured in USA TODAY, as well as by Apple, Contactually and Evernote for her creative leadership with emerging technologies.

After nearly losing her life in 2013 and spending almost half a million dollars to get it back, she is changing the world again by inspiring others to build extraordinary wealth and optimal health. By sharing her extreme successes and abysmal failures, Krisstina reveals the elusive secrets of the uber wealthy (and why health is where to invest first). Through cutting-edge, research-based education, access to the world’s top wealth strategists and doctors, Krisstina is helping millions each year discover the true path to wealth, health, and happiness.

And I’m so excited to share that Krisstina will be sharing all her wealth building secrets at our November 13-17 Retreat – and you can connect with her in our yearlong Wings Mastermind. So apply now –wingsexperiences.com/apply.

And now to the inspiring Krisstina Wise, investor, real estate mogul and CEO of Wealthy Wellthy – helping entrepreneurs avoid entrepreneurial poverty and create real and lasting wealth in a way that also supports their health and wellbeing.

Melinda Wittstock:         Hey, Krisstina, welcome to WINGS.

Krisstina Wise:                 I’m just so excited to be here, thank you.

Melinda Wittstock:         Me too. I can’t wait to hear what’s inspiring you right now.

Krisstina Wise:                 Wow. What’s inspiring me is a spiritual journey actually. I’ve been at my work, as all of us had for a long time. I’ve recently gone through a very difficult situation. What it’s made me realize is how important the spiritual aspect of our work is and our core center. Really, getting back to love of self and get back to who we are and what we care about, our importance to the world, our power, we as women, how we love, how much we put into others. Then, sometimes, we forget about ourselves.

That’s a big part of what’s inspiring me, even though I love my work and I’m inspired and passionate about what I do, my biggest work right now is to, like in the word inspire, is the spirit within. To go down even deeper through this more difficult time to dig deeper, to go deeper, to see what is underneath this that can be inspire others by virtue of what’s happening in my personal life right now. I’m just inspired to get closer to the spirit of who I am, what I love about myself, my purpose in this world and my special work that hopefully can continue to inspire others even in a deeper level.

Melinda Wittstock:         I love that. When we’re challenged by something, it’s really an opportunity and often we look back on it and think, “God, that wasn’t done to me, it was done for me.”

Krisstina Wise:                 Yeah. When you’re going through hard times, even though … it’s interesting because I think all of us that are business owners entrepreneurs, we’re women, we’re powerful, we live in the power, we do great work, obviously, we’re successful. We’re always building, we’re always growing. We’re always improving this iterative experience. There’s two things I thought of is that sometimes, things do happen to us. That’s sometimes difficult to reconcile, because we’re not victims, we wouldn’t be where we are if we were victims of circumstance.

We’ve all been through shit storms. You don’t get to be a successful woman to where we are and where your listeners are without going through at least one hell, if not several hells, and back. We wouldn’t have made it through those challenges if we were victims. Meaning, we stayed as a victim. There’s still this word victim that I thought that sometimes we are victims. Sometimes things do happen to us and it’s okay.

We are a victim in some cases that we didn’t do anything to deserve that. Sometimes, I think, at least where I am right now, it’s understanding that something was done to me and I was a victim. Now, I need to heal that but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to remain a victim and take on that mindset or mentality. We as these types of women, we do use these things that sometimes do happen to us to get to a place later on and believing while going through it that this is for us and through us because that’s what we do.

We take these experiences that happen to us to be able to heal, to grow, to build, and then that becomes our next layer of work, that next level of self. A deeper, more spiritual or more enriched part of what we do in the world once we understand, okay, this happened to me. I’m learning from it. Then, I understand it happened for me because it did have a very special purpose. Getting on to the side of that, you have to go through it before you can get to the for it.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. There’s so much in entrepreneurship and in life for that matter that’s just beyond our control. How can we leverage those things? On this mentoring Minisode, I always like to de-stigmatize failure or challenge or whatever, because we all have that. For anybody listening who thinks, “God, I must not be enough.” Or, “I must not be good enough because I’m going through something right now.” We all are and we always do. It’s kind of like what you do with that that really, really matters.

Is there a challenge in your business or your life right now that you want to share about?

Krisstina Wise:                 I think probably one of my biggest lessons right now that we, again, when we reach a certain level of success or we’re entrepreneurs, we’ve had a level of success. Obviously, it comes with a lot of work. It comes with a lot of failure. It comes with the need to, holy cow, how am I going to get through this? We always do, we get to the other side.

I think my biggest learning lesson was what I’m going through right now, especially as woman, is the reason why I’m this situation I’m in is because I didn’t pay attention to my intuition. In business, and especially, let’s say business has traditionally been more or less a man’s world. This very logical linear, results-driven, success-driven, numbers-driven, which is all good. We have to have the metrics in business.

What I’ve learned about myself and what I believe to be true for, especially as women, for everyone, especially as women, our intuition tells us so much that we’re not paying attention to. We’re not noticing the flags. We’re not expressing ourselves when there’s evidence that linearly or logically, it makes sense on the outside but our insides are saying, not that. Not that. Not that. Not that.

That’s the biggest place, I think, for so many of us is how do we get to this place of trusting ourselves? We put so much trust in others and that’s good, we do have to trust others. The first place of trust is I didn’t trust myself. My intuition flags, my insides were telling me, Krisstina, no, no, no. Everything on the outside or the feedback I was getting was telling me different. I didn’t trust myself. I put my trust in this external world, if you will. I think that’s a big lesson for me and it’s maybe something for all of us to really think about is this place of, of course we have to love ourselves, but part of that love is trusting ourselves.

We know, we have a knowing and to just get closer and closer to, nope, it doesn’t make sense on maybe the paper out there. Inside, I know what is true and I’m going to follow my own truth from the inside and trust myself more. That’s just, I think, again, kind of the inside out versus this external validation and the external feedback sometimes. It’s like, what’s our own feedback.

Like I said, I’m where I am because I wasn’t trusting myself, I wasn’t listening to my intuition. I was betraying my own sense of values and my own wisdom because I was giving more trust to someone else than myself, if that makes sense.

Melinda Wittstock:         It totally makes sense. I look back on my life and all four previous businesses, relationships, everything and every time I have ever made a mistake, it has honestly been because I didn’t trust my intuition. I totally understand what you’re saying. I know that’s true. Literally, I could draw a roadmap to each and every time. Learning how to trust ourselves as women is so important but also creating that white space, don’t you think, in our lives where we actually are quiet enough to actually hear our intuition because we get so busy.

Krisstina Wise:                 It’s both. Actually, the business is crazy making. Again, that’s that external need to just stay really busy and hit certain numbers or do different things or put our trust in what other people are telling us we should do or where we should be. Again, committing these things, which in business it’s important, we do have to hit certain numbers and do different things. If the busyness, if we’re not taking the space like you said absolutely, that … or we can’t listen to our judgment, it’s there.

Even if we do have some space, there’s still the tendency, I think, to say, well, I think others are smarter than I am. They know more than I do. Or, their narrative makes more sense than mine does. Or, they’ve done this before and I haven’t so I’m just going to along with what this other person is saying. That’s really giving our power away.

When we give our intuition away, it’s giving our power away when we actually know. That’s, again, it’s much harder said than done or done than said, I guess. Yeah, just to sit with it. This doesn’t feel right. Or, this doesn’t quite make sense. Or, I don’t know. Just sit with that for a while. Be in that space when that pops up. Even if it’s busyness, when those little bitty tentacles or something, that’s almost a place of, I need to sit with this. Or, maybe I should talk to someone outside of my normal environment. Or, maybe I should journal. Or, maybe I just spend time with myself to figure out why is what I’m feeling or my intuition is telling me on my inside world is not matching what is happening on the outside world.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes. Just beautiful advice. What a great segue into the advice section of the Minisode because, Krisstina, you’ve done and achieved so many things in your business career. If you were to go back to your younger self, in addition to this great advice about follow your intuition, what would be the top three things that you would tell women in business and young entrepreneurs or women who are seeking re-invention by taking a leap into entrepreneurship a little bit later in life?

Krisstina Wise:                 I think my biggest piece of advice there is there’s no ‘there’ out there, because there’s such this tendency of thinking, when I get there, it’ll be easier. If I hit this milestone or if I make this amount of money or if I get my business to this certain level, or some there out there that then it will all make sense or it will become easier or nirvana will happen.

I just learned throughout my life and career now that the “there’s” that were ever there, there was not there out there. It’s really just being in our journey, understanding, get very connected to what is our purpose? What is the impact that I want to make? This is me and mine and my creation and my impact or what I’m putting out in the world. It’s my clarity, it’s my vision, again, with lots of help from other people of course, to stay very grounded to that is our very unique and special purpose. Just keep living in that and keep growing it and move towards it.

Just understand that there’s no there where everything works itself out. It really is a day to day journey. It really is an expansion and growth. Everything is iterative. What we think is the there is going to be probably radically different. That’s my advice. I kept saying from my younger self, when I get there, do this or have this accomplishment or such and such. Then, I’ll be confident enough, then I’ll be valuable enough, then I’ll be worth enough versus just owning it at every level and knowing that this is a life long journey.

Melinda Wittstock:         It really, really is. Oh my goodness. Krisstina, you do so much work in helping women really, not only know their numbers, but avoid the trap of entrepreneurial poverty, is one of the ways I like to say it. Because, often, even when we add more, more, more, more zeros to our businesses, we can still end up in the trap where we have no real financial independence. What are some very specific steps that women can take right now in their business and their life to make sure that that does not happen to them?

Krisstina Wise:                 Yeah. It is an entrepreneurial trap. What I found in working throughout my career with my own self, being a business owner and entrepreneur, I cannot tell you how many startups I’ve had. I’ve had at least 10. I’ve had a couple of exits. I’m a creator. I invent businesses from scratch. Some of them failed, some of them succeeded at a high level. Some has just lived their lifespan.

In all of that, we put so much into our business, again, in that bare mentality, if I get my business to a certain level, then the grind will stop. It’s the entrepreneurial trap that we put all of our resources including our money into our business. Then, with this idea that someday, if I get it to a certain level, then I’ll get my freedom back, then I’ll get my space back, then I’ll get my life back. That will happen forever if we don’t understand that that is the trap.

If we’re putting 100% into our business and we have no space or anything left over, we’ll be there forever. I have clients that I work with and they have $5 million revenue businesses. They come to me in secret and say, “Krisstina, I’m still trapped. I still have to make this $100,000 month burn rate and I’ can’t get out of my business. I’m burned out. I really can’t take a vacation. When I do, I’m taking calls.” That’s the same trap even though we’re making a lot of money.

What’s not taught is since we’re such in this earning and entrepreneurial …built our business game, the advices out there, scale, scale, scale, grow, grow, grow, bigger, bigger, bigger. When we talk about numbers, what I like to talk about, the numbers isn’t how big our business is, the number is the net worth numbers and passive income that lives on our personal balance sheet. The only way to get out of the entrepreneurial trap is how we understand how money operates that we use our business simply, really, as cash flow tool or some strategy to build assets where we move in the business and money strategy and game, where we use our businesses as a way to make money to buy assets, or our businesses or asset, that ultimately the asset pays for our bills and we don’t have to live in a grind and use our bodies to do it.

That really is a money game that’s missing. It’s not about how much bigger do I grow my business. Scale is not the answer. It’s only one strategy. Ultimately, we have to understand there’s the only way for financial independence and freedom is we have to have assets outside of our business that produce cash flow, i.e. passive income, that gives us the freedom and independence to step away from our business altogether. Or, at least where we have the space and time where we can choose to not be stuck in that trap of just, it’s eating me alive.

Melinda Wittstock:         Gosh. Just so beautifully said. I should say it, I’m so excited, Krisstina, that you are taking all of us through your program and educating all of us high performing entrepreneurs at the WINGS of The Empowered Woman retreat coming up in Scottsdale. I’m so excited to have you there speaking because there’s so much wisdom in what you say and so much practical advice we all need to learn from.

Everybody, make sure you sign up for that at wingsexperiences.com/apply. We have a few spaces left. Check that out, that’s wingsexperiences.com/apply. Krisstina, how can people find you and work with you right now because you offer so much value?

Krisstina Wise:                 There’s two places, one is my podcast, which is WealthyWellthy. I share a lot of this thinking. It’s like how to get out of the entrepreneurial trap and how to build financial independence and full … like real financial freedom that ultimately, that’s what we’re doing. We’re making impact in the world that the reciprocity, what we get back from that is how we understand and use our money to build our freedom and space so that we can even have more space and time for later contribution.

I talk a lot about the “how to’s” on my WealthyWellthy podcast. Obviously, search that up. Then, on my website, it’s just krisstina.com, K-R-I-S-S-T-I-N-A.com, as a means to listen to my podcast, to read blogs, get my book. I do 30-minute consultations if anybody wants some financial therapy or just some good old money coaching, I open my calendar up for your audience to do just a little coaching or consultation. They can get that from my website as well.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s fantastic and we’ll have all those links in the show notes to the episode. Krisstina, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us.

Krisstina Wise:                 My pleasure, thank you.