Do you consider yourself resilient and what does that mean to you? In this podcast, Resilient Entrepreneurs with Two Four One, we chat with business owners about what resilience means to them as they share their inspiring stories and life lessons.
What we've learned running our own business, is you're never alone even when it feels like it. So tune in anytime to this podcast. We're always here for you celebrating resilient entrepreneurs just like you. We're Laura and Vicki from Two Four One - a marketing company for early stage business owners who want to launch, grow and be resilient.
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Glance at Christina Flach’s LinkedIn profile and you'll quickly see what a successful go getter she is. She's the President and CEO of Pretty Girl Makeup, a company she founded. She’s a celebrity makeup artist, entrepreneur and philanthropist and an on-air beauty expert featured on NBC TV. Her Instagram account with close to 20,000 followers is @christinaflachmakeup. She's working on a new cosmetics line for men and women and what we love about Christina is that she believes in the importance of inner beauty, wellness, nutrition, and manifestation. It's not all about the gloss and glamour, although that's always a nice touch. She's also an outspoken advocate for sepsis awareness and education and you can see where her passion flows. Christina joins us on Resilient Entrepreneurs to share what makes her resilient and trust us, she's had some tough things to work through in life. Grab a cuppa, turn on the volume and settle in for a super inspiring episode. Christina, thank you so much for joining us today. We're thrilled to have you on the podcast.
Oh my gosh. Well, thank you for that lovely introduction. So nice to be here with you lovely ladies.
So first, tell us where you are in the world because we love talking to people all over the world and where are you from?
I am from Marin County, which is right outside of San Francisco on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Oh very cool, Love it. So a celebrity makeup artist. Now I'm a girl who does like makeup but nowhere near do I take the time that I'm sure you do, so tell us a little bit about your life as a makeup artist.
Well, I have been a celebrity makeup artist for about 20 years. I have three agents that represent me. I'm thrilled to be working as a makeup artist and still be a CEO, it's so fun. It's a different adventure every day being a makeup artist, you don't know where you're gonna go or who you're going to be with and I love that part, I love meeting new people, I love travelling and I love working and it's so fun to be able to do what makes, brings me so much joy. I love making people look and feel like the best versions of themselves and being a makeup artist is a perfect fit for me.
And I'd like to get in, right off the bat, let's get into the glam magazines, without breaking any client confidentiality, let's drop some names here Christina right up front! I can't say who’s been your most favourite client because that would just be wrong.
They’re all my favourite! But I have worked with every major network in the world. ABC, NBC CBS, Fox, Food Network. I've worked with Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Condoleezza Rice, Hilary Swank, Rita Moreno, Tyler Florence, Bobby Flay, Metallica, Journey.. I don't know, I'm forgetting a lot but on my www.christinaflach.com in the Client Area, they're all there and I would say that Tyler is my favourite because I've had him the longest I've had, we've been together 16 years as a stylist. And so we just finished a TV show last spring on the Food Network called the Great Food Truck Race. We did a Williams Sonoma ad that just came out in December. And let's see, what else do we have going on? Oh, he started a new podcast called Two Dudes in the Kitchen so we're doing that and then next February, I think we go back to Los Angeles and start working on Season 16 of the Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network.
I love that. Oh, wow. Two Dudes in the Kitchen, I'm definitely gonna be looking in on that, I'm a foodie and I love anything to do with cooking. That’ll be a lot of fun. Well, congratulations. And I mean, you've been at this a long time but our audience, a lot of our audience is at the beginning of their journey. Do you have any memories from the beginning of your journey? And any advice for people who might want to look forward 20 years and say, what's the best thing to do at the start of your journey?
Well, that's a great question. So I would say the best thing and most important thing is being an entrepreneur, you have to really love what you do because it is going to take so much more time, so much more effort, so much more money than you can even imagine so you really have to enjoy the process because if you don't love it, and want to wake up every day and can't wait to do it, it's going to fail because it's exhausting and sometimes very frustrating. Tyler has a great saying that you know it's really hard to be exceptional because if anyone knew how hard it is, no one would do anything. So it's actually better that you don't know, I know that there's a lot of people in the world that are in corporate jobs or in jobs that they just don't love and they want to make a change. And so what I urge people to do is, work after work, get a part time job, doing what it is that really brings you joy, and fills your heart and on the weekends, and not quit your job because I didn't do that, I am very grateful that I have Pretty Girl that is my company that I started. So days that I'm not on set, I'm doing interviews and I'm in and I work on my company so for me a perfect fit, both my careers actually help each other. It differentiates me as a makeup artist that I have my own line and it helps my line that I'm still a working makeup artist. So I'm very grateful for that but I love both aspects of my job. It's exhausting being a makeup artist because you wake up early and it's a long day so that's why on days that I don't have a shoot, I can be a normal person, I can go work out, go to yoga class, I can do stuff and be in my office or work in my home. So I have created the life that I want and I love how it is.
Would your eight-year-old self believe the life that you have now?
Wow, oh my gosh, I could never have imagined that my life had turned out so big. I have a great life and I'm so grateful. It's so interesting, I worked with a teenager a few months ago named Ivy and I was trying to inspire her to dream big and what is it that you love doing and she, after our consultation, she applied to a study abroad program for art in Prague and she got it. And so she told me how much it meant to her that I encouraged her to dream big but I could have never imagined that I would have this life. I have now learned to manifest the things that I want as I've gotten older, I've learned to set goals and focus on what I want to have happened and it's happened. For me, being able to be the new expert Beauty Consultant on NBC on California Live is a huge deal, it's quite an honour and I'm very grateful for that.
I would say I'm very open to new projects, new possibilities and so when my agents call or someone calls and offers me something new, I say yes, I have learned, this is another one I have learned to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. My friend Berlin Fisher, who I do the NBC segments with has pushed me to do things I've really thought I would not be comfortable doing such as during Halloween, us dressing up and having crazy makeup on, I normally would be like, No, I like being back here behind the camera and so, I'm kind of embracing now with the uncomfortableness of.. being comfortable with being uncomfortable because I think that's hard for anyone.
Yeah, absolutely. We talk to so many people and this comes up a lot, it's about that stretch and when you stretch, it feels so uncomfortable in the moment and then you kind of get through and you're like, oh, okay, I've gotten through that.
I think we make it to be a bigger deal than it actually is and so I feel that, I've been asked so many times, well, what if you fail? Well, to me failing is not trying and being stuck in something that's not fantastic. So if you know that there are.. there's no failures to me in life, so if I know that the only thing I have to do is try, it's not a failure. Of course there's going to be bumps, of course, there's going to be problems, but I look at those as learning lessons instead of a failure. Failure has got such a negative connotation, I think. So I think if you can just think there's gonna be bumps, handle them and just that means to go in another direction, that's all.
And when there's no failure in your mindset, then I guess there's less fear because we often fear the failure and if we know that we can't fail, then it's really nothing to be scared of.
Exactly. So I think there's so many amazing opportunities in the world. I would never have thought that I would be doing podcasts as often as I am or I've been on some magazine covers this year, which I never expected to happen but I'm really enjoying all of these amazing things that have happened this past year. It's been a pretty extraordinary year for me, professionally.
Just tell us a little bit about the manifestation. You're taking credit for this, you're owning your role in your.. I think it's important for us to own what our role is in our success. Some people just say, Oh, I got lucky, but no, we make our own luck and you talked about how you've learned how to manifest. So how.. talk us through that.
Well, I think I set a goal for myself and I just think, Okay, what would be so, I just think about how it is gonna feel when it's happened and that's what I focus on. I don't focus on the negativity, I don't focus on, Oh, what if it doesn't happen, I just focus on it's happening and this is how I feel and it's going to be great. I just think that the world is.. life is so much more interesting when you push yourself to achieve these goals and keep striving for more and more and then more possibilities open, more opportunities arise if you're open and willing to. I have done so many jobs for very little money or no money because I was passionate about it. Or for example, I did Rita Marino's hair and makeup for People Magazine which is a huge deal but the magazines pay like $400, $450 but I didn't care, I would have done that for free all day long right? So I will do work on documentaries if I'm passionate about it or different projects like if on Saturday, I'm doing a project with my daughter with my newly adopted daughter Jazz and I'm obviously not charging my child, but I get to do, she's a beautiful Asian girl, she's so amazing and we're going to just do some.. she's an actress and she also works for Apple because I have to brag about my daughter that works for Apple :) but she is so gorgeous and so we're going to do something, normal shots for her portfolio but also I'm going to do some high fashion shots where I'm going to kind of get to go crazy with the makeup and just be free as a makeup artist to do to be artistically free. Because oftentimes, if I'm with Gucci or Louis Vuitton or working on a project with Fox or Food Network, they're very specific on how they want the makeup done, it can't overshadow the fashion and it can't be sticking out so much on TV. So when I get to do a fun fashion shoot and I get to just go crazy with my paintbrush, I really enjoyed it, and those oftentimes turned into magazines getting published in magazines.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that so many creative people have exactly that struggle. It's like the balance between your own expression versus what someone else may want. That's a tricky balance to get right sometimes and you’ve got to have a little bit of both in your life, I think for fulfilment as an artist, right?
Definitely. I think it's so important for me to not always feel like I'm stifled. I mean, I love what I do and I get paid really well but sometimes it's really not about the money, it's really about me just being able to express myself as an artist that I still need as a human that's something that's in me, this drive in me that I want to create more things that are beautiful and express myself. I've learned through life's bumps, how to self soothe, I have learned that I have can't get too hungry, too tired, to not work out, not think of things I'm grateful for, because life gets challenging and so when things get challenging for me or there's difficulty I really have learned to self soothe. I have learned that I need to take self care and this is what I speak about a lot lately, self care is not selfish, it actually makes me be better at everything because I got rest and I ate well and I worked out and thought of things I'm grateful for. I am so much more a better mother, a better partner, a better everything, a better human because I've taken care of myself and it's not selfish. It would be selfish if I was just complaining constantly, I'm tired, I didn't work out. No one wants to hear that first of all and second of all, I can do more to help people so I have learned to say that me taking that, it doesn't, to me working out is not a.. it doesn't have to be an hour every day sometimes it's 20 minutes, sometimes it's 10 but I need to be consistent with it so I don't have that, I get this guilt in my head I'm sure you guys do as well like Oh God, I need to work out I need to work out. Well if all I had was 10 minutes at least I did it and then I'll have to be obsessing on that.
Thank you for saying that. Thank you because I think we do put it off if we can't do it right, if we set ourselves 20 minutes and we don't have 20 minutes and then we skip it and then it snowballs.
Right and so I think on days, it's funny, I am always curious as to why people say when they're travelling, Oh, well, I can't eat well or I can't workout. Okay, well to me, when I.. for example, when I was shooting the show with Tyler, I wasn't home, we were travelling but I had less to do because I didn't have a house to clean, I didn't have a child to drive around so all I had to do was take care of him on set and workout. So I would workout once or twice a day, I would find a yoga class in a different city or I'd workout in the gym at the hotel and I eat - consistency with my food is super important, I drink green juice every day, I drink a lot of water, I eat raw almonds because I feel best when I'm eating like that and there's no reason why, I'll go to a Press Juicery which is here in the States and I will get like a six pack of green juices and that will last me two days and I am just super strict. It is so easy to be on set and they've got like all this yummy, amazing food or Tyler's cooking and of course I'm gonna have a few bites but if I can at least be consistent with my water and my green juice and my working out, it's just my weight stays at a good place, I'm able to sleep better, everything just is.. I don't have to think about it and I don't need to worry about it and feel bad about it.
And Christina, you say you don't have to think about it, so do you find that after a while of doing this routine, that you don't necessarily want the cupcakes that are on site? And you don't necessarily want the stuff that looks good? Do you find that desire drops away?
Yeah it does. Sugar for me is a drug because if I start eating cookies, I want to eat 19,000 of them, I don't know how to eat one cookie. So it's best if I just don't and I just ..they don't exist. I'm not saying I don't eat cake and I don't eat cookies, but it's not like something I would do during the week or when I'm on set, I am very strict about that. I do not eat junk when I'm on set like that is a no no, just don't.
It is so easy and when you say you're strict, is that you're really trying, you're putting an effort in because strict sounds like such a hard word.
Oh, maybe that's a little too harsh. I'm very disciplined. It's just not something that I do, I've made that rule, I don't know what you want to call it - a rule or promise to myself. I'm not saying I won't eat a cookie. I mean, I'm not going to not, but I try 98% of the time to not eat a bunch of junk on set.
Do you find that level of discipline really translates into your business as well? Because you're a very busy business woman. Do you have to stay as disciplined there too in your life?
I think I'm just naturally that way and the more you do it, the more you do it. I think I am pretty disciplined. I wake up at the same time every day. I don't know how to sleep past seven. and I wake up and have water and green juice and tea and try to exercise first thing or I'll do it midday, depending on my schedule. That's what works best for me, I've learned to be the best version of me, those are the things that I need to do. So I guess.. do you guys do that? What is it..what is it that you need to do to be the best version of yourselves? Have you ever thought of that?
Yeah, it's coffee.
We're big believers in morning routines. For myself, I like to.. actually I oil pull with coconut oil. First thing in the morning and then I'll have a green drink, it's not juice, it's nutrition drink green powder which I love and I feel zingy afterwards and then just get on with the day. I know Laura has a pretty extreme routine involving a cold water shower which I’ve not been brave enough to try yet. But I really do want to.
I haven't done that either. That's fantastic. I hate to be cold.
Same here. I absolutely hate to be cold so this is what I do, because everybody's been asking me about it lately because I guess I've been talking about it. I don't start in a cold shower because that sounds absolutely dreadfully miserable so I start with a normal hot shower and I do a cold rinse at the end which is torture, I have to psych myself up to turn it off, turn off the hot and just the cold, I have to do all the breathing, the Wim Hof style breathing, I do all of that to get myself there
How long is this cold process?
From anywhere from like a minute or two. If I'm really feeling it, I'll go a little longer, it just depends how I’m feeling. Honestly, I get out and it's this weird thing because it's how the body works. Your blood, how your blood moves in your body, when you get cold the blood moves inside all your core right? It moves away from your extremities so that's what happens and you feel warmer when you get out of the shower, it's the weirdest thing and I love that part the most because I get out and feel warm. It's weird, but it does, it wakes me up, it gets me totally moving in the morning and I need it because I don't get enough sleep, because I've got little kids.
Have you guys dry brushed? Because that's actually the first thing I do first thing in the morning. I dry brush, it’s one of those brushes on a stick that you see and you never know what on earth to do with it. Well, you start at your feet and you brush all your legs up to your heart and it gets your lymphs going and it wakes you up. So actually try that before you do your shower thing. It's funny, I get asked all the time, and I just did a segment on NBC about this, what is the most important beauty product? Sleep. It is so important and there's no reason, it's free and it's really important to get to bed early. Some days I go to bed at 8:00, 7:30, 9:00, I go to bed early, I'll read but I really try to get a lot of sleep and it is the best thing that I do for myself.
I believe that's true. I believe that's true.
I'm guessing Jazz is old enough to put herself to bed, eh?
She is but I have five kids total. So my oldest is 29, Melania is 2, Rose is 27, Jazz is 25 and Nikolai is 22 and Ben is 16. They're all big, they're all grown up.
It's ridiculous that you have children that old, you do not look like it's at all possible that you have children that age.
It's true. Well I hired myself so..
Good answer.
You don't know what I look like when this isn't on and there's lights.
Smoke and mirrors, a little smoke and mirrors doesn’t hurt.
Not a little, a lot! A lot of smoke, a lot of mirrors. A lot of moisturiser.
Hey, exactly good stuff. So I'd like to just bring it back to business just a little bit and as a CEO of Pretty Girl Makeup, tell us a little bit about how that business started. Was that something you built from clients requesting or was this something always in your heart to build, tell us a little bit about the the makeup business,
I did not expect to be a CEO, I didn't know what one was when I was like eight and I didn't expect to have a makeup company but I've had so many clients that are CEOs and they all have said the same thing, there was a need for something. So for example, my need was, I was a mom driving around all these babies and having a battle between my water and my lip gloss and I tried every lip gloss I could find, every one I tried that was long lasting was really drying and it was and I thought - and again quoting Tyler, ignorance is bliss because I thought oh, I can invent my own. I'll be in the store in like five minutes, so wrong. It took over a year to formulate with a beauty person, a chemist, a beauty chemist, that's what she does to formulate the texture and then the colours because I was self funded. I didn't have a ton of money to just put into a million colours so I wanted them to look good on all of my friends and family. So then I tried it out on my friends and family with all different colours shades of the rainbow and then would send comments back so it took a lot longer than I had anticipated. But again, this was something that I enjoyed doing and I loved it so much, I didn't care how much time it took or how long it took or how much money because I really did enjoy the process. And it's fun having.. I've had different, right now we're just lips I've shrunk my line but I have had spa products, candles, I've had eyeshadows and we're creating a new line called “I'm too busy” and it will be a complete line with everythi ng and skincare and hopefully haircare and lifestyle with home products.
I love the name of that so much because it's like what's the number one reason people probably tell you they don't bother with skincare? I’m too busy! I'm too busy! So it answers the question right off the bat. I love it, that's hilarious.
Yes, I’m excited about it.
And Christina you're adding a men's line as well.
Yes, I am adding a men's line because men, I have a lot of male clients and there are really not a tonne of lines that are.. I don't want it to have 1000 products, I just want it to be like, three steps because I think men will be more inclined to doing it when it's simple and not a lot of choices that they have to think about, it's just going to be pretty straightforward and that they'll be willing to use. I know women, I know me with my guy. I want him to use the skin products but I just have to put them in front of him and then he'll use them but if he had to go out and get them, I don't think he would. Men think it's weird, oftentimes, oh, that's, I don't feel comfortable with getting skincare, it's for women, which is ludicrous. We all have skin and we have to take care of it. And sunscreen is super important, I say that all the time. It's not only when the sun's out, it is 365 days, whether it's snowing, raining, sunny, whatever, you need it. You need it on your face, your neck, your chest and your hands. Our hands, it's so funny, really show our age if we don't protect them and so I think just educating people in a straightforward, simple way and especially with the men, I think they'll be into it. The other name I'm going to call it for the men is going to be “It's about time”, It's about time men have a skincare line, right?
Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. I mean, I don't know a guy that doesn't like to look good. They do their hair, they shave their beard.
They all like to look good. They just don't want to have to do what we do. I mean, can you imagine if they had to do all our lotions and potions and scrubs?
I think some of them secretly do, they just don't admit it.
They just don't know, I know my guy, he loves this stuff. I've been using this Tatcha skincare line, I really love it and I know he uses a scrub and I'm like, babe, it's a drop, it's not a whole like, you know this, it's really expensive and he's, there's a big handful of... Okay, that was like $40 but that's okay.
That's hilarious, I love it. So what do you think is an important concept for success? What does success mean to you? It means different things for lots of different people.
That's an interesting question. I think success for me means that I'm respected in my field, that I am hardworking, that I give my best all the time and I have balance in my life, I have love in my life, I have good health, I think all of that matters and that I'm able to, in my world of beauty that I am given, that I have opportunities to try different new things and that I take those opportunities. That's to me is success, not saying Oh, no, I'm scared. I don't want to do that.
That's really living your best life like you said, isn't it? Just going out there and living every day fully. And can we just go to a more sombre note I suppose? And it really depends on how your perspective of all this is now but you really have had some, what people would consider major hurdles in your life. And how has your resilience got you through that? And if you're comfortable talking about that, could you share with our listeners what went on for you?
Well, my mother, I grew up with my mother who had terminal cancer when I was a young girl so that was difficult, she died when I was 20. My son Beau passed away, it'll be 16 years this Christmas and he was a twin of my son Ben and my husband Ken Flach passed away in 2018, he was a professional tennis player, he and his partner were number one in the world in doubles in tennis. So yes, I have had some and then my business partner passed away a year after Ken so I have had some tragedies in my life, definitely. I think I've handled some better than others. I think my son passing was definitely such a shock and so, so much that I was taking some sleeping pills for about a month just to function because I was in so much inner turmoil but I'm not a very good drug addict so that didn't last long.
So I knew that when Ken passed away from sepsis in 2018, that I really didn't have that luxury of taking pills and just curling up in a ball, I knew that I had to deal with the grief and, because it affects my kids, they have already had enough with their brother passing away, divorcing their father and then Ken passing away, they were, my kids were very close with him. And so I knew that I really had to keep myself together so I actually became even a little bit more disciplined. I started working out twice a day, nothing huge, but I’d go for a walk, go to Pilates, ride my horse, I would do something just to calm my brain down. I started doing meditation apps in the morning and the night just to try and be able to fall asleep and just doing more work. And so because my kids are very affected, as all children are with my state of mind, if my state of mind is not in a good place, it affects them.
And I did not want them to suffer more than they already have so I started doing these podcasts, speaking about raising awareness for sepsis which then led to speaking about grieving in a positive way which then led to me speaking about living your best life, being the best version of you and I didn't expect any of those things to happen either, but they have and it helped my grieving to help others not feel what I feel. And so I also have raised, I have two charities at the Northern Light School in Oakland, California. It's a private school for underprivileged children that are 90% there on scholarship. So we have the Baby Beau Fund and we have the Ken Flach Educational Fund. And this past October, Ben, Beau’s twin who's a golfer, all my kids have participated in donating their time and efforts to the school, whether it be a teddy bear tea, or the golf tournament. But Ben is a golfer, as his Nikolai, and as is Jazz and Rose, but they play in the celebrity golf tournament and Ben has raised this past October raised $60,000, for the charity in one day, playing golf. And so I feel so proud that my kids have such generosity in their hearts for giving back and that they feel honoured to do so. And I think it's something that they've just been doing all their lives and I hope that they continue. Because I do feel that you can't have someone like Ken in your life, that you're just getting free tickets to the US Open and Wimbledon and just not, we have a platform to do some dogoodery. And that's what I call our charity work, dogoodery. And I think I think it's really important to be a whole person, you are just to be generous with your time, it would be really morally wrong to me, after having had these things happen and that I've been given the opportunity to have a platform to speak about raising awareness for sepsis or raising money for underprivileged children to have an amazing education. Education and nutrition are very important to me and I think that if kids are given the opportunity from a young age to eat well, for we have the Bo Friedman outdoor classroom at the Edna Maguire school in Mill Valley, California and it is an outdoor classroom, but it's a garden. There's chickens, there's fruit trees and there's all these vegetable beds and so the kids are.. they plant the seeds, they harvest them, they do.. they sell things on once a week to farmers market and during their snack, they eat their apples and so I really feel that kids are going to be so much, they learned to cook, do science experiments. So for me, if they're given this opportunity from kindergarten to fifth grade, to try a different colour carrot or a tomato or lettuce, they're going to be more inclined to eat well as they get older. And I think, you know, it's unfortunate, I really have a problem with all the rubbish that is on television, the McDonald's and the big.. all these different foods that are just of no nutritional value, and I think it's really great that kids are.. they'll hopefully make a healthier choice because they've been exposed to this from a young age.
Thank you. Thank you, Christina. It's hard to imagine even a part of what you've been through and yet you are so bright and so resilient and so giving and generous and there's just so many lessons in there for each of us.
But I don't want you to think that I'm always, I mean, I'm pretty happy most of the time but trust me, I have days and moments where I'm sad or I'm bummed out or I'm depressed. I'm normal, I'm human, I have those too but when I get into those things are going back to again, am I hungry? Have I had water? Have I exercised? What am I grateful for? I really tried to self-soothe myself, sometimes I need to step out of my office for the afternoon and go do something else. And so I will, so maybe I need to go buy myself some flowers, so I do that sometimes. So it's important to figure out what your triggers are and then it's important to know what you can do to self-soothe. Maybe I need to rest for a minute and go watch Netflix for a minute and it doesn't happen that often but it does happen sometimes, and or go read my book. And I think it's okay, I just have learned to know that, yes, I am having a moment and the moment will pass. And these are the things I need to do to get through the moment.
I think it's really useful because one of our missions is to really help entrepreneurs in the early stage of their business to keep going, to get through those hard times to work with the challenges that life throws them and to not quit, that's our biggest thing is please don't quit. And I think some of these day-to-day practical tools that you're offering really helps towards that goal.
I also think that, my partner Jordan and I, we did this online course for executives and CEOs and what was so interesting was, if you think about a professional athlete there, the average lifespan, let's just say is seven years, but as a CEO or an executive, you could work for 30-40 years. So knowing that, it is definitely a marathon, not a sprint, and you shouldn't work 20 hours a day and get no sleep. You're not, it's not feasible for that to go on for a long amount of time so if you want to have a long career, it is important to get, have balance in your life, it's important to keep your relationships healthy and happy. I am in a healthy and happy relationship now, that makes me able to do all that I do because I'm not distracted. I put effort into our relationship and into him and it's nice at the end of the day to have someone to have dinner with and laugh with and snuggle up with and watch TV, it makes me a better version of me that I have balance in my life. My relationships with my kids are really important. I know I drive them crazy all five of them and I call them and text them every day and they think I'm annoying but my mommy button doesn't go off just because you graduated from college, I'm sorry.
I think it really is important to have balance in your life and to have a quality of life, you're going to have a much better career, whatever it is you're doing, if you are happy and able to have balance, you can't have.. it can't be off balance anything in your life, whether it be your exercise or your work or your relationships. If anything's too much or too little, it's just.. it's not gonna work.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Some people will say it's impossible to have all things.. you can have all the things just not all the time, so finding that balance is..
I disagree. It's a choice. Just happiness is a choice. I wake up every day and I decide I tell myself, I'm going to have a great day and I think of things I'm going to look forward to and I focus on that and it's definitely a choice, you can have it. It doesn't take much to send your partner a little note to say, hey, I love you I can't wait to see you tonight. Or take a little bit of time whether it be cooking dinner or making a special dinner or the thing with my kids I send them little packages or do little things, I don't know, it's a choice and you can make it. It’s annoying to me to hear someone say, ``Oh, I don't have time.” You have time, make time. It takes two minutes to send a text or to do something for someone else and it feels good to me to give to everyone in my life that I love, but I also know that they love that too. So it's, the circle is a positive cycle when you do, when you make that little bit of effort. If you want a healthy, the best thing I can do is to show my kids that I am in a healthy happy relationship because to me, I want them to be in a healthy happy relationship and if they see that I'm not in one, well, how are they going to know how to have one,
You're modelling all of that for them, with the self care, with the balance, with the gratitude, with the happy, the things that you want for them, I'm sure is exactly what you're trying to model for them and I do think that is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to parent and to lead. So whether you're leading a family, leading a business, leading your clients because we lead in lots of different ways with lots of different people in our circles, and yeah, doing it yourself, taking care of yourself is kind of the most important thing, it's like airlines, you know, you put the mask on first, the oxygen mask on first, it's 100% that isn’t it.
Just think about how many, before I stopped beating the crap out of myself, that was another thing I used to do all the time, I didn't get enough done, I'm not thin enough, I'm not pretty enough, I'm not… all these things, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. I was chatting with my friend Diana and she's an amazing entrepreneur as well and she told me one day, she said, you know you would never treat another human the way you treat yourself, you are just constantly beating the crap out of yourself about all you didn't do and how often, and I thought, gosh, I wouldn't treat anyone the way I treat me. So why am I treating me so bad, right? And to feel that I don't have guilt about my workout or my food or my relationships or whatever, it's so freeing to not have all that wasted guilt and worry, it is such a waste of time.
So true. So one final question for you, Christina, we ask all of our guests this. You've kind of explained it pretty well but just to sum it all up. What does resilience mean to you?
Just being relentless. I don't give up, I don't give up on people, situations, I just.. consistency, a goal, drive, ambition. It's all those, being resilient, it's all those things, it's just keep it going every day, everyday.
Yeah, I like that. I like that. I like that a lot. Relentlessness. That's a new one.
Relentless cow.
Got to be a little bit relentless. Yes. Thank you so much. This was an incredible conversation. I really, really appreciate you joining us today and wish you only the best, biggest amounts of luck and success in your future and can't wait to see you on more magazines and say I know her, I've met her. Yeah, I really appreciate your time.
Thank you so much, bye.
Thank you, Christina.
Thank you.
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Thanks for joining us on Resilient Entrepreneurs, we're Laura and Vicki from Two Four One. We love supporting entrepreneurs, especially with mindset, marketing and motivation which is why we’ve built an incredible community of business founders who meet weekly in the Level-Up League. If you'd like to know more about it, look u s up at www.twofouronebranding.com