Mindset Artistry
Navigating the Spiritual Path of Entrepreneurial Enlightenment & Storytelling
Embarking on a bold journey from the familiar corridors of corporate America to the vibrant tapestry of entrepreneurship, Christina Lidkey introduces us to the art of transformation. Our latest episode captures her riveting tale, revealing how a childhood love for fashion became the undercurrent for a successful clothing brand and a flourishing consulting business. Christina's narrative isn't just about change; it's about the courage to embrace your true calling and the strategic patience required to cultivate a creative passion into a sustainable livelihood.
Data and creativity might seem like strange bedfellows, but as Christina illustrates, they dance quite gracefully together. She shines a light on the synergy between understanding your audience through analytics and adapting designs that appeal to their tastes. Her insights into the crucial role of positive energy in business are a breath of fresh air, challenging the notion that facts and figures stifle the creative spirit. Instead, they're presented as keys to unlock new avenues for growth and customer satisfaction.
The soul of our conversation, however, resides in the confluence of authenticity, personal growth, and spirituality in the entrepreneurial landscape. Christina and I traverse the inner pathways that lead to more genuine brand messaging, exploring how meditative and reflective practices can not only refine your business focus but also align your professional pursuits with your deepest values. This episode is a heartfelt guide for those yearning to infuse their work with meaning and leave a lasting impact in the business realm, all while honoring the spiritual essence of their journey.
Embarking on a bold journey from the familiar corridors of corporate America to the vibrant tapestry of entrepreneurship, Christina Lidkey introduces us to the art of transformation. Our latest episode captures her riveting tale, revealing how a childhood love for fashion became the undercurrent for a successful clothing brand and a flourishing consulting business. Christina's narrative isn't just about change; it's about the courage to embrace your true calling and the strategic patience required to cultivate a creative passion into a sustainable livelihood.
Data and creativity might seem like strange bedfellows, but as Christina illustrates, they dance quite gracefully together. She shines a light on the synergy between understanding your audience through analytics and adapting designs that appeal to their tastes. Her insights into the crucial role of positive energy in business are a breath of fresh air, challenging the notion that facts and figures stifle the creative spirit. Instead, they're presented as keys to unlock new avenues for growth and customer satisfaction.
The soul of our conversation, however, resides in the confluence of authenticity, personal growth, and spirituality in the entrepreneurial landscape. Christina and I traverse the inner pathways that lead to more genuine brand messaging, exploring how meditative and reflective practices can not only refine your business focus but also align your professional pursuits with your deepest values. This episode is a heartfelt guide for those yearning to infuse their work with meaning and leave a lasting impact in the business realm, all while honoring the spiritual essence of their journey.
Welcome to the Mindset Artistry podcast.
Speaker 2:This is Amanda DeWoe, a self-authenticity prosperity life coach, and actor or actress per your reference, and I'm Janelle Kaloski, a career and mindset coach and an actor as well. We are your hosts and we're here to flip your mindset, to teach you the artistry of what we learned, to keep your mind in check Over the course of our lives.
Speaker 1:We've taken on the journey of healing, living and being authentically ourselves as we successfully build our individual careers.
Speaker 2:This podcast is designed for you so you can discover your goals and courageously reach them at your highest potential, while being 100,000% yourself what you'll get from us is real dirty and a little well more like a lot of quirky Along with empathy edge and a safe space that holds hashtag no judgment.
Speaker 1:If you're ready to build a mindset that is unapologetically you and excel beyond the stars, you're in the right place.
Speaker 2:We're so excited to have you here Now let's dive in Hashtag, just say Hello everybody, welcome back to Mindset Artistry.
Speaker 4:I'm so excited because today we have Christina Lidkey. She has spent 20 years working in the consumer product goods industry, specifically beauty care and sales marketing, business intelligence, among other roles for transitioning into her own clothing brand and consulting company. Additionally, Christina lives, breathes and cross references her spiritual journey as a reference to entrepreneurship and design, which really goes with Mindset Artistry. We're just talking before we jumped on about how it all aligns. So many questions to ask. But you know, Amanda works a lot with corporate creatives transitioning into more creative jobs. And, just to kick it off, we would love to know how you transitioned from the corporate world into owning your own clothing brand and consulting company full time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here. Like you said, I spent, you know, probably 20 plus years in corporate America working for massive consumer product goods companies. While that was happening, I was side hustling, which I'm sure we're all very familiar with the wonderful world of side hustling. My dream as a child was always going into fashion, design. It was, you know. I think I'm going to start off there and then kind of move into how I made this transition.
Speaker 3:I think fashion you know, people think about fashion as just like something we buy and something we like and these rewards and what have you. But fashion has so much more to say about us and there's so much energy behind fashion. And I think when I was a child, I was actually really shy. So I use and this was all the way, probably leading up into my early 20s I use fashion as my voice. It was the thing that I showed up the most. You know, I was always well dressed. I was always, you know, dressed up. I don't think I wore a pair of jeans until I was probably in my like 20s, like late 20s and 30s, while everybody was wearing jeans and I just wanted to always. I wanted to always be present. I wanted everyone to see me and hear me, but I didn't have a voice because I was shy. So I use fashion as my voice, which led me into designing a lot.
Speaker 3:So I think I've been drawing since I was a kid and then kind of started in probably probably my 20s, going into my 30s, I really started owning my skillset and I I'm all self taught.
Speaker 3:I've maybe have taken a couple classes here and there living how to sew, you know, but it really has been a self taught experience of you know, going into design and experimenting in different ways of design. You know again like with this the question around corporate, that was my main gig for a long time and I grew my corporate career. I was in sales, I was in marketing, I was in all these different roles and then at night I would design, I would work with clients and I started this. It was probably in my 20s where I started doing custom couture and then I went into doing luxury and then I went into a couple other different color categories of fashion design until I landed into something that I knew was going to be sustainable and was going to grow over time, and so that's kind of how I made that transition, and when I thought it was in a place that I could actually grow a company off of it, that's when that transition happened.
Speaker 1:I love that, Speaking from a person who's been in the corporate world and has transitioned from that to a more creative outlet, I love that you really took your time and space to find out what that looks like for you in transitioning out into your own ventures and really embracing your true calling and I think we all have multiple callings and I think it all serves its purpose. I'm curious on so we're both familiar with, like sales and marketing and you know that corporate aspect and everything of what you've mentioned and we talked previously about business intelligence and that's a new term for me as a new term for us and you elaborate on what business intelligence is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, business intelligence. So it's really interesting, like in all of my corporate roles there has been, you know, again, like I think something that everybody knows about is, you know, sales strategy, you know marketing. Business intelligence is actually a sector of business that is growing rapidly today, because what it is is it's data and I, when I started my corporate career, I actually was in category management. I would manage huge amounts of. You know, if you look at huge amounts of data anything from sales data, conversion data, any type of data so that we could really build selling stories for our customers Business intelligence is no different other than it is the hierarchy of how data comes together and the form that it comes in.
Speaker 3:So if you don't like, it's like AI today, right, you have, there's so much data that's out there and what AI is doing is compiling it all in one part and then leveraging it and storytelling in another part.
Speaker 3:So it's you know, those are the things that business intelligence is, and for big corporations, data the amount of data that we get in or corporations get in from a daily business is so insane and it really is about you know how are you, how are you performing, what are your sales look like, but it's compiling in a way that's easy to be able to tell a story so you can go out and sell effectively. So that's kind of business intelligence in a nutshell, and it really operates everything from the backend all the way to the front end. So when I was in a role of business intelligence, I was working with North America on how do you compile? What are the tools we're using to compile this data so that they can, so they what? What the employees are doing is not spending all day, you know, compiling the data. There's already stories that are being built automatically for you. Now you can go sell all of it.
Speaker 4:Well, I made me think of a couple things and I'm so excited for us to talk about storytelling because you know, amanda and I are actors and we work with actors and other creatives and they are so afraid of the business side because they're like I'm a storyteller, I can't put it together. And even the point you're making about data you know a lot of the creatives I work with, sometimes like I think I've tried everything and I want to give up. I really want to do this with my life but it doesn't seem like it's working and I'm like no, no, no, let's go back. Where is it not working? Do you want to do something in your heart? It means you can make it happen.
Speaker 4:What are you not doing? What isn't working? Stop doing that and let's pivot. So I love this conversation because I really want to get across to people not only like Amanda and you, christina, talking about how we can cross over from corporate for people out there that are creatives, that are afraid of the business Before we get into the selling stories and our personal stories and how it connects all of us in business and in life. I'd love to know what advice you have for creatives that are so afraid of sales, who are so afraid of business and they think it has nothing to do with them. But they won't be able to get very far in their career without it.
Speaker 3:Well it's. I mean it's so interesting because, at the end of the day, like as creatives, as business owners, it is so hard to remove ourselves from what we're doing. I mean it's just so hard. We're in it, we're breathing in it. We get upset when the littlest thing happens and then we get excited about the biggest thing happening. And yet if you want to remove yourself from it and just logically look at what's working and what's not working, you're able to pivot. That is facts. You know, and I use this example, it's the same thing in design.
Speaker 3:My customer for my business is above the age of 40, right. So she is a modern woman. I do not call her an older woman. I think we need to get rid of the term older general. I call her the modern woman. She has had a size two, she has a size six or above, and even a size six that can look like a size two.
Speaker 3:There are things that are happening in our bodies at this age that we cannot. You know, yeah, you could wear three layers of space and you still may not be the fully hide, that little pooch that you cannot get rid of, and yet, at the same point in time, that is a reward we get for living such a beautiful life. That's data. So my skirts cannot be designed the way a skirt fits a size two because I want to make sure she looks, feels, really good. So that little element of a little pooch or a little bit more within the hips we have to design a right. That's data. That's a point of. I'm not going to be able to drive enough sales out of this one item because I know my customer and she's not going to want to, she doesn't fit or she's not going to look great in this item. So therefore, let's design differently.
Speaker 3:And these are the. This is all data. But it's when we talk about like the energy of this is I can't. If I know I'm going to lack sales because I know it's not going to suit my customer, I can either get frustrated by it and give up, or I can think we've got to design a little bit differently so that that customer is completely, 100% happy with our company and the messaging and storytelling around that. So that's why I think data should be the magic of your company, no matter which way you look at it. Creativity, yes, is great. All of these beautiful gifts that we are giving to our company because of who we are and what we represent and what we're bringing to the world. Absolutely, that is like the crème de la crème, but data sits in there as well, because this is the magic of being able to connect with people where they're at.
Speaker 1:I love that. I think we talk about that by often as actors, because we can get, you say, get so caught up in the everyday aspect of being a creative or whatever that looks like for an actor or a writer or a designer, whatever that may look like a creative outlet. But we tend to forget the other aspect of it and, like Nal said, you get scared of it. You get scared of like, what if you fail? What if you don't know that information? Or how do you get the information? It's overwhelming. It takes away from my creativity, my art as an actor or whatever that may be. And you spoke to energy, and so can you elaborate the importance of focusing on energy and allowing space to attract what's meant for you, versus chasing out of fear, because you're either afraid to jump into the data and recognize that maybe there are some gaps that I need to address, or you're just like I don't even want to spend time and energy on that, because I just rather focus on the creativity or the creation of whatever it is that you're putting out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean energy. At the end of the day, I think we all know this and I'm sure, like you, dive into this all you both dive into this all the time about what are we bringing to the world. That is energy, you know. I mean, it is this part of I'm an energetic being, and what people are buying from me is not design, they're not buying creativity, they're buying my energy, and so that is so. When you, when, when one part of your business is failing or not doing as well, that's an energy suck. You're just, and if you want to live in that little energy suck, you can live there, or you can look at it constructively and be like, okay, you know again, data allows you to pivot, or data allows you to know like, hey, I need to take a step back right now and figure this out, because I want to have the best, most beautiful energetic company there is, and so I think those are. You know, to me, energy is this it's all consuming and that, the attraction of getting the right customer that's energy. If you're doing specifically and I just say this, and I'm going through this as I continue to learn about my clientele and I continue to learn how to run a company and I continue to learn all of these things.
Speaker 3:I think the most interesting aspect is when we talk going back to storytelling. Well, if I'm putting my energy into a message that is not about my clients, they will walk away from me. If I put my energy into just me, I'm at a different place than a lot of. We're all in different places in our life. It's not just about me, it's about the universe I'm trying to create. These are the and.
Speaker 3:So when we talk about storytelling or we talk about key messages that we're trying to deliver, we're talking about data we're learning from. It all has to be very connected and beautiful and uplifting messaging and storytelling, because that's the energy people are looking for. We get bombarded I mean, you guys know it Bombarded by messages Every five, and it's worse now than it's ever been. Every five seconds is a new message. Every five seconds, you're getting taught to be somebody different. So it really is about how do you bring not just effective messaging, how do you bring effective energy that gets someone to believe in you, click on your website, take a double look at you versus being like, skip all of those things. That's where you have to actually look at this combination of storytelling messaging and what energy it's bringing to people.
Speaker 1:That just makes me think a bit about authenticity, because we talk a lot about authenticity with actors and your expression, storytelling, and now that you're talking about the data, I didn't think about how important data is to authenticity and how there is a correlation there, and then the energy of that as well. Can you speak a little bit about how you've found your voice and your authenticity within your brand for your clients? You talk about a lot of energy and talked about your personal journey and how that may not align with your clients. So where is that authenticity and how does that align with your brand? And then your clients and bringing it in and going hey, this is a brand that's for you, this is where you belong, this is for you to shine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think we all go through our own personal journeys in these chapters of our lives and they're all very different. I was talking to a friend on Saturday night at dinner and I'm finishing up 40 days of chanting, which is I don't know if you guys have ever done an extensive amount of chanting, but the things that have completely come up have been crazy. And it's this part of where your shadow lives. My shadow started coming, showing up more and more and where I feel like I'm most disconnected, not just from my client side. That's one aspect and that's something that I think I will always continue to work on, because you're constantly wanting to attract not only your clients coming back to you because you have a great product and you know them and you're giving them a great experience, but obviously new clients as well and new customers. But it's this journey of stepping into your highest self. When you are operating at your highest self, which a lot of people do not know who that person is, they don't see it, they don't experience it. But when you're stepping into your highest self, you are delivering that abundance. You're attracting the right person and the right clients and the right loves, love all and the right friendships, all of that. You're attracting all of this, but to get to that highest self requires actually a lot of purging and a lot of stuff that, like, we all have.
Speaker 3:You know, one of the things I learned in this like 40 days of chanting is I have my inner child and my inner child I was connecting with old, toxic version, traumatic versions, right, like the stuff that, like, I was just hanging on to and I thought that was connected to my inner child. That is not connected to my inner child. My inner child is loving and playful and that's what makes me a very creative and she should come wherever I go and, like, bring her along and love her. And yet I wanted to get rid of her because she was connected to, like, all of the trauma around her. And as soon as I realized that I could let those versions go much more easily and bring what I need to bring out, how, when you think about creativity, I mean most people don't know their inner child and then they don't know the highest version of themselves, and so if all of that is gone, you're actually not stepping. What are you stepping into? What's your next version? And then how does that? What's the attraction you're trying to bring?
Speaker 1:Does that make sense? It definitely does. You're dropping some gems here. I think Janelle and I have talked about a lot about like the shyness Really diving deep into the healing and it's a very dark and vulnerable place to live in. A lot of awareness and admittance and taking responsibility and not blaming others, like that is such a. It's like peeling the layers of an onion or a tree. We've got the rings in. Every year we did a little bit of the ring of the life and the dream that we live in.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you sharing that because I think I talk a lot about purging and I think we tend to not do it because we tend to hold things in so often as, like, just suck it up and go on. So I appreciate you sharing another version of how to purge and I've talked about journaling and all these things. But I love the chanting because it's like that's our inner voice, that's our predominant voice, that's really urging to come out, and so anyone out there, chant, chant a nice chant to the shower, chant and do it Like, do it in the woods and chant like Betty White in the movie where she's like, you know like, chant it out, baby. Well, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4:Oh no, I love it and it's so true, and you do get a point to a point, and I know how hard it is. I feel like I really started to dig into my shadows right around 20. And it was kind of funny because the people that were kind of helping me that maybe can see certain things, you know, within there. They could kind of see what was going on. You know, you go to a breathwork teacher, you go to someone you're doing a time massage and they pick up certain things about your energy and like I'm glad, because they would just kind of be like, oh, like you know, like I'm glad they didn't tell me how much I had to work through, because I don't think I would have done the work, because sometimes it can take a long time and it doesn't mean it's impossible. But I even had a breakthrough, like a month ago, where, instead of being reactive to something that was really scary for me, I was able to take myself aside with my inner child and be like I got you, I love you, you're enough, everything you want is going to happen, because I'm here for you and you're not going to be abandoned, and all this stuff.
Speaker 4:But it took me a while to get there because you have to have a healing process. So for anybody listening like look, it's a journey, it's okay. But then I do have the most amazing people coming back into my life and the clients find you and the work does come, even though it's scary, and with the energy or like okay, like the thoughts can come, don't feel bad if the thoughts come, like I'm never going to make any money, you know, it's just and Amanda and I were talking about this you just have to be like making space for the good to come in. Sometimes it's not going to happen the way you want and you want to control it. So I would love any advice you have, christina, about that. Like you're trying to keep your energy right and you're like I'm here, but then things aren't moving as fast as you want. What do you do for yourself during those moments, for your business and your personal life and all of that?
Speaker 3:I think it's so interesting. So one of the affirmations I say to me, say to myself, like I have like a whole list of affirmations that I've read on a daily basis, first thing I do in the morning is meditate, and then I read these affirmations, and one of my affirmations, which I just learned so back to these, back to what you just said, and I'm going to bring it up is we cannot control our narratives. Like I'm, you know, it's I just I deserve, I'm like my worth, all of these things. It's not for me. The affirmation is I'm going to allow health, wealth, love and abundance to come into my life without controlling the narrative. And so, and it's, I think we control, you know, and this is so, there's like two things I think we want to control. We want to control how much money we make, not knowing that actually the money that we are worth is so much more, but we don't believe that it's out there. So we just, you know, try to get it like I'm going to make this set of dollars, right, and yet there's it's we're not connecting with actually what's bigger than that, and and so we're trying to control the narrative. Or I want to have this type of love, but not the expanse of love. Don't let me get the expanse, I just want this little piece of love that comes in. And so, all of these things, we control every narrative of our lives, lives, and yet what the universe is always reminding us is this is a huge world and there's so much, not only that you can give, but there's so much for you to receive. And so I think it's really interesting about this controlling of the narrative.
Speaker 3:But to get to this, amanda, to your, to your point, purging so this ability to purge, and like for me to get to who the core of my inner child is, which is a little girl who is loving and loved and beautiful, and all of this stuff that she never believed herself to be until I actually reconnected with her, I had to get rid of all of the layers that was sitting on top of her, and so you have to purge that.
Speaker 3:But to purge that, you have to get rid of limiting beliefs, you have to get rid of messages that you're telling yourself every day. I mean, I can't tell you the amount of times that I look in the mirror and I'm like I wish I could do this to my skin, or I wish this or whatever. You know, we were constantly feeding ourselves negative responses instead of actually like looking in the mirror and being like I look amazing today. But you know, and so all of these things have to change for us to actually amplify our inner child, our voice, our best self, you know. And then we also, while that's happening, we stop controlling narratives as much, because we feel safe.
Speaker 1:I am loving everything you're saying, because I talk about living beliefs all the time. I talk about you know every aspect that you're talking about the higher self and what does looks like, because a lot of us are distracted, really are consumed, by the outer world and we think that that's what we want. We think our higher self is someone else. We think and we look for external validation. We look to like so, like you said, social media. There's so much going on this, so much as being sent our way, that we literally Block ourselves from looking within because we're afraid to and we also don't know how to, because we're being told what to think, how to move and where to go. And I love that you are talking about this, because we talk about this so often. I think, if the like, sometimes it goes through one ear and out the other for some people, but it's also a scary journey. It's a scary journey to go through this process and and connect with the inner child.
Speaker 1:I remember the first time I connected with my inner child and I felt so sorry for her. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry you. All you've been wanting to do is feel loved and have fun and Be free, and I've limited you because of other external experiences that I've put upon you or that you've experienced that I've defined that For you. I made my child be defined by my experiences rather than what her true birthright is, and that's exactly right. You talked about the bigger picture than the universe, that unknown that is so accessible to us. Be aware of it and know that it's accessible, but through that it's the layers. So I'm curious have you always thought about just a little journey, and or is this something that came up for you as you were approaching your career and what you wanted for your life's purpose?
Speaker 3:Hey, you know it's. It's interesting. I've been a yogi for like 20 plus years and I've been another yoga teacher. I've just been going to yoga. I want to clarify that because I think people think yogi is like you actually teach. I don't teach, although I always think about it, but maybe that's the next chapter.
Speaker 3:I've been a meditator for Seven, like seven or eight years at this point, and when we talk about this journey, it is a journey people have to understand and you are getting rid of or purging, and it takes and it's not. That's not just meditation. I mean a lot of people ask like what is meditation? I'm like actually it's just sitting down and breathing. That's what it is. It's nothing more than sitting down and breathing. But most people do not like meditation because it makes you become quiet inside and they can't tolerate the silence and Because, again, we go into story mode. We, you know as much as we are story tellers and putting our stories out there in the world. It is all the stories and this is what I loved about chanting. It is all the stories that I always say it's active listening. Chanting is active listening because you're not just like listening to your own Voice and what voice you're putting out there. It is. You are listening to your internal voice, you get to hear it, and chanting is my methodology, but it could be different for somebody else.
Speaker 3:But going into this question of spirituality, about eight years ago I started meditating and At first it was just like Sarah Blondin. I don't know if you know who Sarah Blondin is, but she is one of the most beautiful meditators you could ever listen to and I I tapped into the app insight timer and so, and then it kind of led me to All of these, all these different chapters, and before meditation I was a marathon runner, so running was a way of meditating, it was. It was still. You were still like kind of silencing everything because you're just trying to please get me to my all 26.
Speaker 3:But you know, it's funny how, year after year after year, the meditation evolves. You become much more spiritually connected. Your intuition is so sharp that you actually are like that is not for me. Before meditation and before spirituality, I would chase literally almost anything, or just even if I knew it was wrong for me, I would still do it. And now intuition has been sharpened. The entrepreneurial part of being an entrepreneur and also spiritual is such an effective combination because you are no longer working for a paycheck I mean, you are it's just a whole different type way of getting a paycheck but you are. You are Tapping into this part and I say this like I didn't always say this, but I'm saying this today I am a gift and I'm putting myself as a gift out in the world. What is it that I'm giving? And when you are connected to the divine, when you are connected into spirituality, you know how to own that message, and that, to me, is where that crossover happens.
Speaker 1:I think you were joined by meditation this morning, because that was all I do, more so like I've gotten back into Brough work and that is like connecting oh my gosh, the breath work of that is insane. But you know, I love everything you're seeing is just so wonderful. I think there's sometimes a scarcery graph, fear of talking about spirituality and entrepreneurship, because it's like you can't have both. It doesn't make sense because business is very logical, it's very by the numbers, it's very, you know. You talk about the data, but there is a synchronicity, there is something of beyond us, the vine, like you talked about, in that energy and what you put up is what you get.
Speaker 1:And If you're in that mindset of the lack of or the desperation of things, you will always be in that lack of that last desperation, that Living in the past rather than appreciating and being present and embracing what's to come and living in the moment. I definitely want to circle back and talk about, you know, the limiting beliefs. For anyone out there who's maybe struggling with the many beliefs or blind spots or just overwhelmed by negative thoughts, what advice you have for them? When are you are in the creative field or just in general?
Speaker 3:I mean, I think there's this. So it's interesting because, wait, when going back to your question about spirituality, there is this part on when I was working for corporate I I think it doesn't matter whether you're an entrepreneur or not. I mean, that's one part and I'll get into that. I think, though, even as working for a company, this connectivity behind what I have to offer and this point of alignment if you work for a company and you're like I'm not happy here, then go find the company that you are happy with, or go find the company that you are aligned, that your values and their values are the same, or where you want to grow, when they want you to grow and where they want the company to grow is the same, because the moment that a company tells you, this is where we want you to grow and you are I don't want to grow this way. I want to grow this way. Instead, you're not going to be able to get anywhere. It's not energetically aligned, it's not aligned in your value set, it's not aligned in making the most of the life that you have here. You're just going to waste your time and you're actually going to waste the company's time. You are much better off saying, hey, listen, I want to do this, this is what I want to learn, this is where I want to be. Is there something that you can provide for me and I will give you my? If those things aren't aligned, you are not giving 150 percent and they're not going to give you 150 percent. I think that's where, again, spirituality really plays into all of work, because work becomes a huge attraction and a huge point when it's aligned. That's one piece of advice, but I feel like when, for entrepreneurs and moving into the creative world, I mean there is the logic behind all of this.
Speaker 3:One of the things that I'm facing as an entrepreneur is and I think we all face this is what we're doing doesn't have longevity. Is it a project that is short-term and I just want to go and have this one experience and then move off of it and say that I did it, check that box and whatever. Or doesn't have longevity? Can you carry this forward from the next I mean so many of us entrepreneurs, especially in the products, goods industry, but it could be the services industry is I want to get acquired. Your company has to sustain the growth that the two to three acts every year in growth from a sales perspective, from a profit perspective, and consistently build to even be acquired. That acquisition has to make sense for a company that may magically be there or is already there. At the end of the day, that has to be your mindset, I think, and it's not acquisition as much as can you make it sustainable over time. That's logic. I think the other thing is that when you look at what longevity is and I look at it from a product standpoint is I always have to bring in new and there has to be a lot of capital injections for new? I mean, it's just there. There's the self-financing of it and then there's all of these other things. I think creatives have to look at it again from the longevity standpoint. I think they have to look at it from a creativity again. Is are you all in? Because you can't half-ass creativity? You start half-assing creativity, you're not going to get anywhere.
Speaker 3:These are self-aware questions, I think. If you're selling products, I think if you're selling anything, what are your points of distribution? Define your points of distribution before you even start thinking about running your own company, because for me it's where sales coming from, is it? Are we doing wholesale? Are we doing D to C, direct to consumer. Are we doing business to business? What does that network look like? What does that pricing scenario look like? Am I bringing in profit, like all of this stuff? Then, what does the timelines look like? That, to me, is distribution For, I'm sure, actresses, such beautiful actresses like yourself.
Speaker 3:Is it Broadway? Is it radio? What are those points of distribution? Is it getting 100 clients a month to do spiritual services with? Can you sustain 100 clients a month? Or you can wear yourself out completely by running after everything. That's like. I think there's logical and also very self-aware questions that you have to ask yourself before you make the transition. I say that in hard business this is not easy and I know you guys know I think it's easier to go work for someone else and to bring as much as you've got to that company and to that business, bring as much value. I don't say it's easier because I think all things are hard sometimes, but I think as an entrepreneur, you're carrying everything on your shoulders, or as an actress, you're carrying everything on your shoulders. As a service provider, you're carrying everything on your shoulders and then you're like, okay, do I have any balance in my life? Do I even have a life at this point.
Speaker 4:It's not that so good A life and a business. Yeah, we're always talking about that balance, but I appreciate you sharing all of that because it's like, whatever you're working in you're working in fashion and, yes, as actors it's just really taking the time to look at how can I make this a nice long career. It's even me. When I started coaching, people are like well, I haven't seen you in anything yet, you're not famous. I'm like, yeah, I figured out where I could put myself to make money in as many ways as possible in an industry that I want to work in so I could be as marketable. I don't care if I'm famous. I want to work doing jobs that I love, and it happens to be in the creative careers, although it can be creative anywhere.
Speaker 4:I love that. You share that. Well, we have about five minutes left because I just been told I'm going to get kicked out a little early here. So love as we wrap up here if there's any last things that you have to share with our listeners. It's been such a beautiful conversation, so anything else you want them to know before we jump off.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, I think my only advice is like for so many people and, believe me, I still have a lot of friends who work for Corporate America that I talk to and whatever I think there is this point of sit down and be silent every day. If you can do one thing for yourself, sit down and be silent every day. I meditate twice a day, but I also feel like, as an entrepreneur, I've got to take the morning and the night to, really, because I have so much going on throughout the day that I have to have silence so I can enter my day and I have to have silence so I can exit my day. And whatever meditation, whether it's just breathing, whether it's listening to somebody else, but it is a huge starting point to something that is not only a fantastic journey but it will de-layer you and then you get to these jump off points, these big leaps of faith.
Speaker 3:And would we go back to your initial question of how I made that transition? It was a leap of faith, but it was a leap of faith that I felt safe and I felt safe making. Yes, it was a risk, yes, I could feel the risk, but I felt safe from making it after years of meditation, than just being like Forget, you know, whatever, just I'm just gonna jump. No, you know, let's. Let's feel good inside your body, inside yourself. It's self-esteem and I think meditation and starting there gets you, starts getting you to different places where you're at.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. We talk about that a lot and you know, because we have so much going on, our brain is constantly working in. Our brain will support anything we tell it to or we think and and sometimes we have to shut it down. And naturally I discovered this in our brain Resets. Every night it flushes itself with a chemical to refresh itself while you're sleeping. So if the brain does that, you should also be aligning with your brain to do that with your body, because you have to. So I love that. You said you, the way you into your day and the way you exit it so brilliant. I love that and I hope everyone takes into consideration and just think about what works for you. The meditation doesn't work, sitting still doesn't work. What working out does, or journaling or reading a book, but that silence of that moment of you and you only, and then, with that setting the intention of that day, entering your day, exit your day. That's why I love that. And one last thing is how can people find you and, yeah, and keep connected?
Speaker 3:well, yes, so my you can always connect with me through my website, which is a story. It's spelled AST. Oh, you are, I calm, there is a little section. If you ever want to send a note or Ask questions or whatever, there's a little section that you can like fill out a little form and it always comes. That comes to me. Am I team? You can find me on Instagram. So my Instagram for the brand is a story, again AST. Oh, you are. I underscore style. Or you can find me under my name, which is Christina under store lidkey, on Instagram. I'm on tic-tac but Moonly. Those are the sites that I connect with the most and, yeah, we've got a lot coming up, so I would love for people to check us out and stay connected.
Speaker 1:Of course, always just the last bit of it. Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. I think I hope that every person who gets an opportunity to watch the episode understands that creativity and spirituality, entrepreneurship is all connected. That self-worth, that Awareness, that's everything is connected. And just Recognize that you are more than what you think you are. You just got to give yourself time throughout the journey, and that's what Christina is talking about. So myself and Jen I've been talking about and embrace it, be authentically. You Is no one in the world, like Christina said, it has an if that you have to share. So please share your gift. Don't you're doing the world of disservice by not share your gift. Yeah, I love that. That's beautiful. Yes, thank you so much. And yes, keeping content with every one of us. So we'll see you next time. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:Bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for listening to this episode of mindset artistry.
Speaker 3:We hope you found our stories and tips motivating and helpful.
Speaker 2:Be sure to follow us here on Spotify for more episodes to help you master the art of your mindset.