Episode 23 - Growing Your Business Through Vulnerability

Welcome to another episode of the Self Doubt Solution, the show that helps entrepreneurs overcome the self doubt that holds them back from achieving the next level of success, income and personal freedom. The Self Doubt Solution is hosted by the Freedom Architect, Mario Lanzarote. Listen as Mario and his inspiring guests share practical insights and tools that help you find the shortcuts for exponential growth and success in all areas of your life. Learn how to build the mindset you need to create a life of true abundance, freedom and fulfillment. And now, here is your host, Mario Lanzarote.

Welcome. Welcome my friends to the Self Doubt Solution. This is your host, Mario Lanzaroti, the Freedom Architect. Today I have a wonderful new guest on my show. Her name is Kato and she is known to be an astrologer and, and a spiritual guide traveling the world to share the deep medicine through women's circles and retreats. Now if you're thinking, hey, astrology, this is a business podcast, what the hell, be patient my friend, because she's going to tell you how you can use astrology to help you unlock the gifts that are connected through your soul. So you can remove energetic blocks which are holding you back from really truly embodying and enjoying the most abundant life possible. She makes the intangible things that we talk about that are difficult to grasp tangible. And she helps you transform the mystical into the physical. And through the lens of evolutionary astrology, she connects you to your most authentic self, the one where you don't have to hide, the one where you have to waste energy into being someone that you're not really are. That's how you're going to access unlimited abundance. And she's really helping you get a hold onto that soul's evolution. And we also going to talk about karmic lessons which I'm really interested about to hear more so you can live a most fulfilled life and attract opportunities that are in alignment with your higher self. Kato, welcome to the show. I'm really excited to have you here.

Thank you so much my friend. I'm so stoked to be here today.

Wonderful, wonderful. Kato, tell me, if someone is listening to the show today and is wondering, I wonder how, what can Kato do for me? How can I work with her? How would you answer that question?

I love that question. Because I'm such a multi dimensional woman. I mainly work with astrology, but I have so many different passions such as tantra and sacred sexuality, but also conscious relating and non violent communication. So what my zone of genius is that is that I kind of like I found the common threads between all of these, these different modalities. And this is like what I love to share with the world, but it was really because of astrology. This is when abundance will come to me. This is when abundance will start to flow. And what I noticed with astrology is that it's such a beautiful tool for self empowerment, like how to bring you back in alignment and connect you to your innate gifts and talents and so on. And what I've noticed as well with a lot of my clients is that a lot of people don't know themselves and therefore they also don't completely accept and love themselves because there's just like a lack of self awareness, I guess. So in that way, astrology can be that tool that brings more awareness because awareness is always the first step. That's like 80% of the work, right? From there on, we can start making choices that are actually in alignment with our highest self and that are actually serving us. So when I work with my clients in my mentorship program, the first step will always be to look at their astrological blueprint, which is also called their natal chart, because that's where we all will see the potentialities of, you know, whatever is there, but also like the energetic blockages. So we first need to have awareness. And then like, in these eight weeks or 12 weeks that I'm guiding someone, I'll also use mushrooms, microdosing, also known as truffles, to even, like, unlock even, like, you know, deeper layers of limiting beliefs and self doubt and all of that. And then that in alignment with the natal chart, I'll help them, I'll coach them on, okay, like, what is in there? And like, how do we get there? Like, how do we create your best authentic self and a lifestyle that like, turns you on 24, 7. And then alongside that, I love to bring awareness around the next coming transits for someone. So transits are basically how the planets are standing in correlation to your natal chart. So in that way you can get an idea of like, okay, what will be the challenges and opportunities coming my way in the next coming months and how can I make the most out of this? You know, when there is a challenge coming that you're like, okay, what is a lesson behind this for me to integrate? What can I learn from this? How can I move forward? Right? So I'm really here to empower people. I love that. Like, I'm a Leo Leo woman. So, like, I love motivating and empowering people and showing them, like, hey, I created a lifestyle that turns me on and I'M so wildly obsessed about. I'm here to show you that you can also do that. It's not because I have something that you can't have it. It's like, let's rise together. As I rise, you rise, and we rise together as a community and as a collective.

That's beautiful. And this. Thank you for sharing that. And there's so many things that I want to dive into. And, you know, I'm particularly interested in how you said in the beginning that what you're really helping people with is getting to know who they are. And it's interesting because that correlates with my title of the freedom Architect. Because when I started the entrepreneurial journey, I thought that doing this will give me a lot of freedom. Financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally. And, you know, then two years later, I was in. I was working seven days a week in New York City. I was constantly anxious around money. I was never taking a break. And when I was taking a short break, I was thinking about how to optimize the business, and I was like, this is. This is. This is a scam. You know, I thought that I'm going.

Where'S the freedom in that?

Exactly. Right. So. So for me, then I shifted towards really focusing on creating freedom. And so I'm curious, where did Kato have the pivotal point in her life when she was like, this is not who I am. I want to do something different in my life. Did you have an experience like that?

Hmm. This is an interesting question. So there's a lot of things in life that I suck at that I still don't understand that I'm just not great at. You know, I still don't understand how taxes work and. Or how to do my laundry or how to cook. But my zone of genius is definitely astrology, and I grew up with it. So in that sense, I kind of discovered my purpose at, like, quite a young age. Like, I was 21, 22. I came back from South Africa. I was modeling at the time, was still studying at university, and I was feeling like, okay, something needs to change. Like, I want to do something more meaningful and, like, fulfilling. So I definitely had that. And I was, like, feeling confused, but because I grew up at astrology, and, like, my mom always knew my highest potential, and she kind of guided me on that journey of, like, okay, maybe you should go for a master's degree in communication sciences, because I really think it would fit so well with your unique blueprints. Right. And it will open up doors for you in this and that way. So, like, you know, we were having these conversations when I was like, 15, 16, 17 years old. So I kind of, like, praise myself lucky for that because I feel like a lot of people don't have that. That has helped me to make alliance choices from a young age and start creating a lifestyle that I'm so excited about. So I think what I'm trying to say here is that my message that I'm wanting to spread out into the world is like, start young with doing the work and doing some soul searching and finding these tools, whether it is astrology, because astrology is not the only truth out there. It's a language that I speak. Speak. It's a language of my soul. But there's also human design and like, the enneagram, like, all these different tools. Whatever works for you. Like, I would love it if they implemented that in high school, for example. And that's like another big vision of mine that I want to change, like the traditional educational system. But anyway, like, my message is basically that I want to spread is like, start young with doing the work. You don't need to hit rock bottom in order for you to realize, like, oh, like, maybe I should change something about my life or maybe I should start seeing a therapist or a coach. So, you know, like, I also want to be an example that you can be young. I'm 25 right now. You can be young and you can be successful and you can have it all in life. It's not like either this or that. It's like, no, like, let's have. Let's look at the ways of, like, how can we create an end and story and have it all because it is our birthrights. I do wholeheartedly believe that.

I like that and I like, you know, you, you. You spoke about your mom as well and how she was a mentor. I'm paraphrasing. In your life and she guided you. And, you know, you said that you don't have to wait to hit rock bottom, to, you know, uncover who you are and what your life's purpose is. And I'm curious. Why do you think people wait? Why do you think people wait for rock bottom to hit, for them to wake up and say, okay, this life is no longer working the way that I thought it would?

Yeah. I don't think it's necessarily like they're waiting. I think it's just conditioning and something that they're unaware of. It's usually like, in our biggest storms that we are facing, that. That is like, when we realize, okay, Shit's like I'm suffering and from that suffering, that is actually such a strong force to move forward and to wanting to implement change and into our lives. Whereas I'm like, what if I told you that you don't have to go through these shitty times which are like such big ego deaths. I mean they're inevitable, like they will happen anyways. But like we can make the most out of these faces in our lives. We're not supposed to be a victim. Like we get to stand in our power, in our authenticity. And you know, I really believe that the power is always in our hands. Like we cannot control what happens to us, but we get to control how we respond to it. So how are you going to take radical self responsibility for your own life? That's when it becomes interesting to me.

Can you elaborate? What does it mean to you to take radical responsibility?

Yeah, so when I up, yeah, let's say in a relationship, I fuck up, I'm cheating or I'm lying or whatever, there's very like unconscious behavior there because I'm trying to fulfill a need that is living inside me. Then taking responsibility is standing in my truth, communicating for my truth, and also reaching out for support. Like saying, like acknowledging like hey, I up like this. And that is going on like I like you know, going to see a coach or a mentor. I've seen that. That has been like the most pivotal moments in my life where I've grown so fast. Like those are like one of the key ingredients of my rapid growth, I would say alongside my courage and my like non stop drive. But like I really feel like the most successful people in life, they always seek out for support, you know, and looking at like, okay, how can I take responsibility in this situation? How can I make this right? How can I find forgiveness but also for myself? And how can I learn from my mistakes? How can I make sure that I'm not repeating this cycle? Right. So it bring, it's all about expanding consciousness. And I'm, I'm big on this. This is why I love my mushrooms and plant medicine. Yeah.

Tell me, so in, in what way does astrology come into play with taking responsibility? I mean, from what I'm hearing, you've had a lot of experience in that field. And I'm wondering, so if I find myself in a situation where I'm not taking responsibility, I'm sort of reactive, I'm sort of blaming other people, blaming myself, you know, going into the victim mindset, how can astrology help me come back to responsibility?

Yeah, I Love that question. So when I purely look at archetypes, each archetype of the zodiac has its own shadow side and its own scarcity mindset versus its gift and its abundance mindset. So it's not really about like one archetype is better than the other. We all have our own shit, right? So it's about acknowledging our shadows, right?

I certainly don't have any of that. I don't know what you're talking about.

No, you're right.

Is that the shadow side of the Leo?

Yeah, yeah, I was just gonna say that. Let me have a look at your charts. So for example, Leo. Because I'm also a Leo. Right? Leo. The most like abundance state of being is like when Leo are standing in their creativity, in their self, self expression and in their leadership. When they are in their poison or in their scarcity mindset, they're like, like very dominant, very self centered. It's all about them. You know, they, they want to be on stage and they will do whatever it takes, you know, but like really like stabbing back some people. So yeah, that kind of stuff. So do you, do you see the difference? Like it's really up to you what your level of consciousness of like what do you decide? Like what's side do you choose? Like how do you choose to operate? Right? So now that there's awareness of like, okay, hey, I, I do have this side where I'm like self centered and dominant and where I want it all about me, me, me, me. There's a big like me mentality. Well now you can be like, well okay, I'm aware of that and sometimes it shows up in situations and then you can just be like, okay, I know it's there, I acknowledge it, but I'm going to choose otherwise I'm going to stand in my power. And maybe because like our emotions, when we do feel strong emotions day lead us to unfulfilled needs. So you can ask yourself like, what need right now is not fulfilled and how can I take responsibility for it and find a strategy to fulfill that need? Does that make sense?

It does. I, I certainly understand what you mean. Like I always try to translate for, for my listeners who might not yet have engaged as deeply into the world of consciousness and spirituality. And you know, I'm wondering if you find yourself in a situation where you get really triggered. Well, let's say you, you know, let's say you get anxious, right? You're thinking about, you're looking at your, your current month and you're like, I'm not Hitting my targets. I'm not achieving the goals that I set out for myself. And now I'm feeling really anxious, right? And I'm feeling like super stressed. And I'm like, oh, what would it look like in a situation like that in a practical way for someone to come back into being in their power as you have. You have described that.

So when I look at astrology, I will look at the transits to see like, okay, what is happening this month? What is the focus? Because you have some months that are really great to put yourself out there, to record podcasts, to make videos, to make a lot of sales, right? It's like high income months, hitting your targets. And then you have also months that you're like, okay, this is actually a month for me to rest and to integrate and to slow down. And I kind of see it as a beautiful combination of the masculine and the feminine energy coming together in your business, right? So strategy can give you awareness of like, okay, I know that march is going to be a bit more difficult for me because of this and that transit and this is like what I'm here to learn. I'm going to fully surrender to that and accept. Because you cannot accept if you don't understand. So you first need to start with understanding. And like when I do know that there's a month coming up, then I'm like, okay, this is actually pushed from the universe or like I'm feeling supported and helped by the universe to like you know, quantum leap or like have like a really important month then I'll make sure that I'll plan ahead my offerings and my retreats and like my circles and whatever it is that I'm offering at that time and I will be very strategical about it. So I will align my astrological transits with my strategy and this allows me to consciously co create with the universe now. So this is one strategy that I use for myself and this is how I kind of could predict this year when my high income months would be and when I would hit like 10k euro months and when I would know like okay, this is more a man to chill and actually be more in my feminine essence and like you know, focus on my self care practices. Because it's so important in business as you know, like you can't be constantly in that hustle, hustle mode and like go, go go getter because I also have it right. I share that with you as well. So I like, I need to remind myself of like okay, abundance actually starts to flow more when I'm Operating more for my feet, feminine essence, spending time in nature when I'm you know, focusing on my self pleasuring, on making nourishing meals, I'm being like really like soft and gentle with myself. So trying to find a balance between those two or like kind of like integrating those two, just having more awareness about it. Basically that has helped me a lot. And then a last tool that I want to share which I started doing this year is EFT tapping.

Yes.

Yeah. Is this something you're also already doing or is it.

I'm not actively practicing but I've done it a couple times and I'm very aware of it.

Yeah, yeah. So that has been huge for me. So what I would do, because obviously I, I mean I do, I'm like someone who's quite confident, especially like with that Leo energy. But obviously I'm full of like self doubt just like anyone else. Like what I would do kind of practice is like write down all my limiting beliefs, disempowering stories of like I'm not worthy to receive this amount of money or like I'm not good enough, I'm not knowledgeable enough. Whatever the story is, I'll write it down and then I'll start tapping on it because these points on our body, these are meridian points. And I notice myself calming down afterwards I do it and it just feels so good. I'm like, oh God, okay, I'm back connected to myself. I'm back like in my center. And from there it's so much easier to put myself out there because like I have a rule with myself that I won't put myself out there on social media if I'm not feeling like it. Because people feel that energy, they can pick up on that energy. So like I'll make sure that like I'm aligned and that I feel calm and, and centered and grounded. And then the results are just so much different that I see being reflected in my external reality.

I love that. And, and you know, you brought up a couple things I want to go a little bit back. First of all, you said you were talking about how you are doing this for yourself and I'm assuming also for other people, how you're combining astrology and business strategy, how you're actually looking at, you know, you sort of. And I'm not very. They'll works with this. So please bear with me. Like if I'm hearing you write your navel chart right, you're laying that out and you're looking at sort of like, okay, the month of what do we have November? Right. So November might be a golden month for you. So go out there, you know, approach clients, invite them into your offer, focus on, you know, being out there, because it will be a very prosperous month. And then you might be finding out that in December, it's not a month for you to do that in December, it's a month for you to come home to yourself. It's, it's about nurturing yourself, it's about spending time in nature, maybe you know, making a priority more to spend time with friends, you know, and when you do that, from what I'm understanding, that sort of helps you to actually create more success in the business.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. There's a reason, like, I mean, I have my business for two and a half years and it's going really well. Like that's quite rare. But it's because I've got all these different tools in my toolbox which help me to strengthen my. Yeah, just myself and like how I'm showing up in my business. Like the business is kind of like a vehicle for spiritual growth, just as our relationships are.

Yeah.

So I'm really making sure that I'm showing up in the arena. Even though I'm full of self doubt and I'm myself. I'm like, oh my God, this feels so uncomfortable. Or like imposter syndrome comes up. Like even in those moments I remind myself of like, you're growing right now, just keep going. Like this is what is my strength, is that I just keep on going. That's what I was talking about, like my drive in school. I was never the most talented, I was never the most intelligent or the most beautiful, whatever. But I always had drive. And I was like, I want this. I'm claiming this because I want to, not because I have to. Because I want to live a life that's so fulfilled and meaningful and delicious and juicy and sexy. I want that for myself and I also now want to create that for other people, showing that it is possible. So yeah, astrology is one of the ways. But I also work with manifestation principles and, and eft tapping and breath work and like, that's what I meant. Like I'm such a multi dimensional woman. It's not just a one thing show.

Yeah. So I find this really, really interesting. And as you were speaking, you know, and I want to be authentic as much as I can. Here is as you were speaking, I was imagining that what would that like be for me? And immediately there was a resistance to what's coming up. I was like, Nah, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna give my, sort of my control to what the stars and planets tell me, you know, what I should be doing, sort of like. So I'm curious if we take out the spirituality just for a moment and just look at the factors that make a business more successful. Sort of your ability to make decisions, your ability to be present when you're connecting with people so that they feel they can trust you, they can open up their network to you, they maybe want to work with you. And also in sort of one of. Another metric that I look at is how, how's your performance? So you know, you put out three tasks per day, five tasks per day, you're getting them done. I'm curious, what have you noticed as you have been integrating this, how have these things shifted in your life?

So just to summarize your question in one sentence, so just to focus on like, how did it change my life or like help my life, do you mean like with astrology or without astrology?

Yeah, you're. This is the strategy that you're implementing, right? Combine business and spirituality. You're creating sort of an aligned path. And I'm wondering if we look at sort of the, the impact that it creates on your ability to make decisions, on your ability to be present with people, on your ability to show up and be focused on the task. How, how does that impact this?

No, definitely it just helps me to surrender and to let go of control because just like you, I like to be in control because it brings me safety. Right. So I hear you also saying like, I wouldn't want to like give away control to something, you know, that it's outside of me, to the stars, to the cosmos. But what if I told you that it can actually empower you and reassure you and give you acceptance and understanding and you know, helps you to get to a state of surrender. Because from there like we cannot manifest from a state of contraction. We can manifest abundance from a state of surrender and trust. Right. So obviously this is the first step is like, you know, having trust in the, the universe, but then also every day taking aligned action. Right. So like what am I going to do on a daily basis that gets me closer to my goals? Right. It's not just by self pleasuring through my orgasms and I'm going to manifest its one of the tools for sure. No, but it's like really about like, okay, getting clarity about what it is that I want, what is it that turns me on, that I desire. And then each and every Single day I'll make sure that I'm doing something from my to do list that will bring me closer to that and like how I usually work with it is like three MVPs. So the most important things that I need to do for that day because otherwise my to do list is never ending. It's like 200 things on there and it actually overwhelms me and brings me into a state, state of freeze. And then I procrastinate like a lot of people do. So that doesn't help me, that doesn't support me. So I, I came up with a system and was like, okay, what are the three main things that really need to get done today that will make me help, like move the needle for my future? Right. So it's also about like inspired action. Also like when I, when I don't feel like it, like I'll take a day off, like I won't force myself to record a podcast or to show up or whatever. And before a big launch, for example, I'll make sure like the two days before that I will really nourish myself with like food. I will like isolate myself just because I want to be in my own energy. I'm not going to parties or I'm not going to be engaging with other people or not consuming on the Internet or like on social media because that takes me in a state sometimes of comparison and that's very disempowering. So like I'll make sure that I'm like showing up as, or like just being in my best self and like feeling, feeling really good about myself by doing these self care practices. And then from there I'll launch. Yeah. Does that answer your question?

Yes. And I think that's, you know, that's quite, quite intriguing what you just shared about, you know, and I'm going to bring back sort of what you mentioned earlier in terms of aligning the masculine and the feminine energies. And for me that's like, you know, the one is go, go, go. The other one is nurture, rest is, is recover, is heal, is being with something. And I really, I really appreciate what you just said about when you are really not feeling something, you have no problem canceling it and then, you know, taking time to nurture yourself. And I have never heard that, that people actually go up and cancel things and say, okay, what? You know, I'm not going to force myself to be on social media if I'm not truly aligned with it because people can tell, people can really tell that I'm not in it, they're not feeling it. And I think that's a. And you also brought into perspective how that's actually helping your business grow. So I think it's a, it's a great lesson for, for all of us to take away. Because that's one thing that I'm doing with the clients that I work with. Even though on the outside they come to me because they want more of the hustle, more of the money, more focus, you know, less time. What they really need comes through the feminine and that is to the nurturing and being with parts. So I really appreciate that. And I'm also curious to hear because you authentically stated that, you know, you are, you still deal with self doubt. So I'm curious, when the doubt arises in any given moment, how do you approach that to get back into feeling confident?

Yeah, I love that question. So it was even like this past week, I just launched a new offering which is a challenge. It's a tantra challenge, which is called 21 Days of Ecstatic Bliss. And I've been sitting on this offering for the past three months. Like it's been ready for the past three months. And I was like, why am I not putting it out there? Like, why do I feel so much relaxed resistance, right? And because there's, there's a side of me that's like very fearful because I'm like, oh, this is a new offering. And I don't know how like people are going to respond is this going to work? And like, is this aligned with like what I'm, what I'm doing? Because I'm like a main astrologer and like, you know, all of these self doubts came up and yeah, I was limiting myself. I was actually also self sabotaging, right? So I just became aware of it and I was just trying to be gentle with myself, to be honest and have compassion of like, okay, there's a reason why I feel this resistance. Like, just lean into that. Like, what unfulfilled needs are there? And then if I go a little bit deeper and that there's an unfulfilled need for recognition, there's an unfulfilled need for self acceptance, for self love, for self recognition, right? So then I'm like, okay, how can I fulfill these needs? What can I do that it lies within my control and in my power to do something about it, right? So yeah, then I'll just give them a voice, listen to them. Not like sweep them under the rug and pretend that they're not there, but just loving them Be kind to them. You know, speaking to it like it's a friend or like, I would talk to your friends. But then eventually, when I have passed that and like, when I've done my EFT tapping, which I mentioned, that really helped Brett work as well. And then I'm just like, okay, I've moved through all of this. Now let's go. Let's show up. Like, I have literally no excuse right now to not do this. Like, this is literally the thing that makes me so stoked and happy. I acknowledge that the resistance is there, and it's okay, but I'm still going to step in the arena and do it anyways.

Yeah.

So that takes a lot of courage. Even though I'm like, oh, my God, I feel so not capable to do this, or, like, you know, but every time imposter syndrome comes up, I'm just like, oh, this is beautiful. It's a sign that I'm growing, and I love growth. Growth is, like, one of my biggest values in life.

Yeah.

So let's go. Yeah. So, yeah, now I'm doing it. I'm just showing up. I'm sharing valuable content. I'm promoting about it to everyone I know. I'm like, hey, you should do my challenge. I think it will be a lot of fun. Here is the link. And then people are like, oh, my God, so cool. Yeah, let's do it. So, yeah, this is something that I've recently struggled with. Is this helpful?

Yeah, very much. And it speaks also into the kind of mentality that I bring forward. And, you know, if I distill, what you're saying is, first of all, it's about becoming aware of the doubt. It's about even recognizing that there is doubt happening in the back of your mind. And then second, you know, I really like that you're saying giving a. Giving that a voice to that, letting it be heard. You know, sort of like checking in with yourself. What need is not being fulfilled right now? Because oftentimes the. The doubt that arises is a reflection of, hey, you've not been really taking care of something within yourself. And I like that you are bringing forward also the idea that you are the one who's responsible for fulfilling those needs. Because I see a lot of times people, and I've done that myself, is where we externalize the. The needs, where we're like, oh, you know, I'm not feeling validated. So let me go to my partner, Let me go to my friend. Let me go to my business partner and say, hey, come on, give Me some price, give me some price. And if they don't do it, then I will secretly resent them for it. So I like that you're taking responsibility in that. And then lastly, when you're through with all of that, you're like, hey, I'm aware of it all. And now I know this is something that's important to me to go through because growth is such an important value to me, and I'm going to push through and I'm going to go make it happen. So I really appreciate that. And because I find that it's a perfect balance of the masculine and feminine energies. Because you're not, you're not just saying, okay, I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to nurture, nurture, nurture, nurture, nurture, nurture, nurture. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's like you're combining them and you're then moving forward to another level of growth. So I think that's a very practical way, I find, on how also somebody can understand, on how the spiritual world can really translate into practical steps that can help you show up more powerfully each and every day. And I want to ask you this, Kato. Where do you see the world of business in spirituality merging? Right. What do you see happening in the, in the future? Where are we going? And how are we combining both of these worlds?

Yeah, I love that question. I hope it will evolve further into the, this understanding of the, the both the dynamics of the masculine and feminine energy that, you know, is, like, inherently connected in business. Like, when people understand this more, then they can avoid burnouts, for example. Because if you're operating too much from your masculine, like, you and I, like, it's about awareness of, like, okay, how can I integrate the feminine more into my daily practices? And, like, how I show up in my business? Right. How can I trust and surrender and soften in my heart even more? So I hope, like, this is my aspiration for the future for business, is that there's more an emphasis on that. But then also, like, there's this old paradigm where they say, like, I have to see it to believe it. Whereas I'm like, no, let's shift that into a new paradigm. It's like, I have to believe it to see it.

Yeah, right. Yeah. That last one that you just shared, I want to zoom in on that one. To me, I. My nature is. I'm a skeptical person, I would say. And so I, I try to look at one. One thing from different angles. Right. So what you just said about, you know, the world operates on the, on the paradigm and the mindset of I will believe it when I see it. Otherwise, it's not there. It's non existence. Go, go away. Go away from it. And for me, I like to also bring it into this perspective of how does the brain even operate? How does the mind operate? And there is, you know, what I've learned is called the reticular activating system, the ros, which essentially, if you don't believe something, it's impossible for you to see it, even if it's actually there. Like, if you. If you are convinced that you are a stupid, incapable person, then your mind will literally block out the parts of you that prove the opposite to be true. Or even, you know, maybe you've experienced this, but I certainly have done this many times with my, with my partner, where I asked her, it's like, hey, babe, you know, where is this thing, like, usually something to eat in the fridge. It's like, where is this? It's in the fridge. I'm like, no, it's not in the fridge. It's in the fridge. And no, it's not there. So I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. And then she comes around, she's like, there, there it is, right in front of your nose. And I'm like, oh, okay. So it's like the story that I was telling myself was like, no, it's not there. So it's. And I know it to be rightly so, that it's not there would literally make me blind to see it. Right? It would literally make me blind to see the opportunities. Would literally make me blind to see the beauty, the magnificence, the. The amazing parts of who I am. And so I really love what you bring forward. That is that we're shifting towards believing it. And then you will see it.

Yeah, no, 100%. And, like, one of my favorite people is Joe Dispenza.

Yes.

He's my homie. He doesn't know I. That I exist, but he's my homie, you know, Like, I love his work so much because he's the bridge between science and spirituality. And I've got a background in science. You know, I studied it at university. And then I figured out, like, okay, this is actually not my truth. I'm not saying that I'm denying it, obviously not. But I'm like, okay, there has got to be more. And that's when I moved more towards, like, spirituality. And I don't even like to use the word Spirituality. Because it sounds so woo woo. I like to use the word personal growth. Just like, I want to become a better version of myself. Right. So, yeah, I feel like the truth lies in between those two worlds. There's not one big truth out there. It's like, just find what works for you. And if that is to use science. And I will, like, wholeheartedly respect you for that. We can still be homies, you know, regardless of, like, what your opinion is or your belief system. So, yeah, if people haven't heard of him before, there's a really great documentary and also his book on Gaia.com, it's called Becoming Supernatural. It's just so good. And he explains it, how it all works, and it really ties in so beautifully into, like, what you just shared.

Yeah, yeah. And to that point, he. He got really well known for the approach to looking at the placebo and the nocebo effect. And the book that you brought up, I highly recommend it to anyone. It's a great book. And I have a personal story that confirms that. Right. I went to. I once had a slip disc when I was 21, and I was in excruciating pain for one and a half years and I couldn't do any more workouts. My whole identity crumbled because I was very tied to being this, like this, this athletic kind of Persona. And I went to four or five different doctors. They all did something else. They all prescribed me something else, until the last one of them put me into an MRI scan and said, well, we will have to perform surgery on your back. And I'm like, are you crazy? I'm 21, bro. I'm not gonna let you cut off my back. So that was, for me, the shift. And then I started diving into the world of, you know, how emotions actually can make you sick or healthy. Right? Both of both ways. And for me, I worked a lot on releasing shame and guilt, specifically shame and guilt. And yeah, within a couple weeks, what I have been struggling with for years almost vanished. And it was incredible. I was like, how is this. How is this possible? Right? It's like there is someone that is struggling so much with pain and has looked for all the standardized solutions that you get out there, but all of a sudden you tap into this and you start healing. And my health ever since then has been very, very, very good with like, you know, small experiences that, that were not so pleasurable, but overall it's astronomically better since that day.

Yeah, that's so powerful. I love that.

Tell me when you think of this work that someone like Dr. Joe does. And you also. And you know, how do you see this being being brought into society? Because you mentioned earlier at the beginning of the podcast that you, you know, you want to take a stand for changing education. And I agree, and I'm very curious, you know, if you could. If you could change something in the school system, what would it be?

This is great. So, because I'm someone who has walked so this road of traditional education, after I left school, I was like, what on earth did I just learn? What do I remember from all of this, right? Like, what they teach you in school is that there's only one right answer. There's only one truth. As, like, when you leave school and when you're in society, like, you figure out, like, no, there's not just one route. There's, like, multiple roots that you can take. There's multiple answers, right? And also, like, what they teach you in school is like, you cannot collaborate. You have to do everything by yourself, right? You cannot cheat and, like, look on someone else's piece of paper. You have to do everything yourself. Whereas, like, in live, it's all about collaboration, right? It's all about, like, you and I co creating and looking for solutions together, right? Teamwork is so essential. And then, you know, like, these are a few things. But what I'm also thinking of is, like, I would love it if we learned conscious communication at a, like, an early age in school. But also, you know, like, how to regulate our nervous system, breath work, yoga, meditation. It doesn't have to be a lot. Like, I'm not saying that I'm against the whole educational system. I'm just saying, like, there's a few things missing here that are actually very essential to being a human being and to be an adults. So why can't we add that on onto, like, the curriculum and make it even better? So this is also, like, what I wholeheartedly believe is, like, if we get a better education that is not only focused on the rational side of my brain, but also on the emotional side of my brain, that, you know, that I live in a society that celebrates that part of my brain. Brain even more, that I'm able to speak with compassion and empathy towards other people, but mostly towards myself. And I'm not constantly beating myself up because these are the clients that are coming to you and I, right? Like, what if we can avoid all of this? I mean, it wouldn't be great for our business model. Let's scrap that joking.

Take it out. She didn't say this.

No, I'm joking. But like, like, I really believe that there would be less war in the world. There would be less suffering, less pain. There would be more compassion, more love, more collaboration, more celebration. So, yeah, these are a few things, but I'm also thinking of like Tantra, for example. And tantra isn't like, woo, woo. What I'm basically trying to say is like, how can we learn the art of lovemaking? Whereas, like, where do we learn about sex now? True porn. Right?

Yeah.

Yeah. So it's like, it's such a distorted view of what sexuality really is. Like, I want it to be something sacred, more beautiful, more, you know, that is like fun and pleasurable and that we're wholeheartedly claiming that because that's also part of our bird rights. So, yeah, having like all of these different lectures, like, I dream of a world of that. I would love to live in a world in a society that has an educational system like that. I would love to send my own children one day to that type of school. It's conscious parenting, conscious education. Oh, there's so much I want to change about this world.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. And you know, especially I really appreciate what you said about teaching children a way for them to first of all have a greater awareness of their emotional partnership. And also celebrating that, not just the awareness of it, but celebrating it because I find that still today, and this is something that I still am challenged with my deeper emotions. The, the sadness, the anger, the grief, the, the depression, all of those things. That's not something that I easily tap into and openly demonstrate and vulnerably share. And I find that there's still remnants of this idea that, you know, oh, that makes you weak. Don't show that. And so I think bringing that to children and showing them, hey, great. No, it's amazing that you just expressed yourself and shared how you really feel about the situation or this person or about yourself. So I think it's really, really important and with an awareness of time. I want to ask you two more questions because I'm really curious how you're going to answer them. First question would be, since especially growth is such an important value to you, is if Kato could take a pill that would allow her to 10x any given area of her life, what would it be and why?

Any area of my life?

Yes.

Oh, that's such a good question. I mean, first thing that comes to mind is like my relationships. Yeah, yeah. So that's why I'm so obsessed with conscious Relating and communication and tantra, because it comes from our own suffering and from my own pain and trauma as well. So it's started with, like, wanting to heal myself, right?

Yeah.

And I'm still on that journey of healing myself. I don't think anyone is, like, a relationship expert. Like, we're all just, like, trying to figure it out. Right. So I hope that, like, in my pursuit of, you know, understanding how conscious relating works and how I can relate more consciously towards myself on this journey, I'm hoping, Hoping to inspire other people of showing them, like, hey, this is also a way of relating that might be, you know, suitable for you or, like, might help you find deeper connection and depth and intimacy with your loved ones. So it's like, I'm not, like, putting myself on a pedestal and be like, hey, I got it figured out. I know what to do. It's more like, hey, this is what I've learned. And maybe this can inspire you in your relationship as well. So right now, I could be upset because I don't have my king in my life, but when I look at my astrology and my transits again, it makes complete sense that my king hasn't shown up yet because it's just not the right timing. So this year has been all about growth my income and maximizing that and growing my business. And there's a lot of, like, themes around that that were showing up this year, but the next year will be completely different theme and energy. So I just have patience. And I'm like, I can. I'm gonna take responsibility to show up as my best self because that will attract a vibrational match to my frequency. And then my king will show up instead of, like, being the victim and be like, oh, poor me, look at me. Like, this is not working out. Like, why, why? Why is it not working out for me? It's like, well, it's just not the right timing. Make the most of, like, what is happening right now? What is in front of you? And, yeah, have trust and surrender.

I love that. And you sort of bring forward the mindset of a lot of people, say, hey, I want, you know, I want to be in a relationship with my ideal man, woman, or whatever, you know, you're looking for. And then you're like, oh, it's not happening. You know, why is this not happening? And then you're saying, you know, I asked God or God for my perfect partner, and God gave me patience. And you're like, okay, let me take in patience. Because patience is a really important virtue to cultivate in a relationship patience with the other person, saying, hey, yeah, the person isn't maybe at that conclusion where you're at maybe isn't on the level of consciousness where you're at, you know, but you love the person, so you can have patience with the person, or you're communicating something that you wish you know is more important, and then the other person isn't maybe instantly going, oh, yeah, of course. So it requires patience. So I think that's a beautiful answer. And I have one more question which ties into your strong foundation for growth, and that is, if you could spend an hour of your time with any person in this world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Well, depends on, like, what level sexually. I would love to be with Jason Mamao.

Okay. I want to hit him up. I know him, actually. Yo, yo, bro.

Yeah, like, if. If we're talking about the physical aspect of, like, my dream, and, like, he's exactly. What I'm calling it is, like, so, like, primal and, like, masculine and muscular and raw, and I'm like, oh, my God, yes, please ravish me all day, every day. So that's actually intellectually just with my mom. My mom is the best mom I've. Yeah. It's just. She's incredible. I'm like a mini version of her. So, like, we're very similar. And, like, she's the woman that I aspire to be, to become. Like, her level of authenticity, of integrity, of. Yeah. Just, like, how she shows up and, like, the level of wisdom and depth that she has, it's amazing. Like, she's truly. She's been my mentor my whole life. Yeah. So I can never, like, get bored of my mom. We. Like, when I'm spending time in Belgium, which isn't a lot, but I'm literally 247 with her. Like, I would even want to sleep with her in the same bedroom, just that I could be with her. She snores, so we can't do that. But, yeah. No, my mom is definitely one of the persons.

Yeah, That's a beautiful answer. I really appreciate the answer because most of the answers I get are from, like, people like Jesus, Gandhi, Tony Robbins, you know, many of those very, very powerful leaders in. In world history. And I really appreciate.

My mom is sad. My mom is God to me. She's my goddess. Yeah. She's got my back no matter, like, when I up or, like, when something goes wrong. Like, obviously she won't say, like, oh, like, it's fine, or, like, she won't sugarcoat it. But she will be real with me, but she'll be there for me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's an amazing connection that you have and I celebrate that. And, and you know Kato, it's been wonderful having you on the show and I want to ask you because you mentioned earlier something to me that you have a gift for people on the listening to, to this point. So I'm curious, what is that gift and how can people find it?

Oh yes. So I have a few little cute gifts which you can find also. So my Instagram is at K Cat Caitlyn. So come hang out with me on the gram. Come say hi. And in my link and by you can find like all of my different gifts. But yeah, I shared a link with you as well. Like you can find an astrological cheat sheet or there's a, a mini self love or like you know, how you find your purpose and yeah, that's basically it, I think. Was there anything else?

Amazing. That's, I think that's more than, more than enough. It's very, very, very beautiful of you to share this with the audience. And you know, I will be sure to post how people could connect with you on Instagram and also where to find your gift in the show notes. And yeah, any last words for somebody that is still listening to this point of the interview?

Any last words? Yeah. So when it comes to business, just maybe one more thing that I want to share is that I remind myself on a daily basis. Is that like the more fun I have in my business, the more money I will make.

Yes.

Yeah. And that has been so powerful. I'm like, oh yeah, I get to do this. I don't have to do this. I don't need to do this. I get to do this because it's fun. You know, like my Leo energy, which is all about creativity and self expression. I'm at leadership. Like I get to live that.

Yeah, I love that.

So it takes away the pressure.

It does. I think that's a beautiful note to end. Kato. Thank you so much for being on the show and thank you for listening to the Self Doubt Solution with yours truly, Mario Anzerotti, the Freedom Architect. And I look forward to having you back on the next show. Thank you so much. Bye. Welcome, welcome my friends. This is your host, Mario Lanzaroti, the Freedom Architect. And you are listening to the Self Doubt Solution. Today I have the honor of interviewing a dear brother, a client, an inspiration. His name is Andre Heik Jr. He's 23 years old, a serial entrepreneur who has already scaled his businesses into the seven figure space. He's the co founder of Knowledge X which is a marketing agency for B2B businesses. And he's also the co founder of Client Ascension, which is an absolutely amazing coaching program specifically tailored to the needs and the wants of agency owners. And today I have the pleasure of interviewing in here because I have seen him grown from the basement of his parents home to now living in Florida, in Tampa, and running two business at the same time. Andre, I'm excited. Welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me. Yeah, this is going to be fun. Just because you really got to see the entire journey from the very beginning to where we're at now. And you've had a profound impact on helping me to get here. So this will be cool.

Beautiful, beautiful. Andre, just for our listeners so they can sort of know where, how to set the frame when they listen to this conversation. How can you help someone who's tuning into this conversation today?

So the way I think about myself as a business owner is as an operator. And so one thing that I'm very good at is building businesses and then growing them. So building a business that then has the potential to grow. So I'll keep it at that. And we could unpack that later in the episode. And another thing that I find myself very good at is networking and finding people like yourself and leveraging your knowledge, your expertise, your experiences to help me get further ahead of my career faster. So I have a really powerful network of guys like yourself that have helped me get to where I'm at.

Yeah.

And I gotta say that you are someone who really mastered the art of that. And I definitely want to talk to you about that in this conversation. And I want to start off with asking you, why did you decide to become an entrepreneur at your, you know, or, or let's start where. When did you decide? At what age? And also why did you decide?

Yeah, great question. So it had to be around 16 years old is when I officially became an entrepreneur. Like that's when I actually filed my first llc, which is like the documentation to start a business here in the US when I was 16 years old. But entrepreneurship was instilled in me like even way before that because the two biggest influences in my life, my dad and my grandfather, were both very successful entrepreneurs. So I grew up in a household and in a family that was very entrepreneurial minded. And so as like, opposed to like the typical, like you grow up in a household where like the standards of your family is to go out, get a good Job, go through college, get a degree. Mine was very different. It was more so, like, entrepreneurship is the path. And so I always aspired to be like those two figures in my life, my dad and my grandfather, because they had so much success and because I got to be a part of the lifestyle that they created, which was going on a lot of vacations, not having to be tied down to work every single day, and really just experiencing life to the. To the full capacity that it has to offer and providing for your family. And so that just motivated me, like, I wanted to be the next, like, what my dad and what my grandfather were for my family. And so I went out and started a business when I was 16. But it's always been in me.

I love that. I love that. And, you know, when you're starting a business at such a young age, you are obviously completely new to the game, and you're tapping into a couple of, you know, let's call them landmines, where, you know, you think you got everything you need, you're going out into the world, and all of a sudden, boom. And you're like, oh, damn. And, you know, then there's a learning lesson. And I'm curious to hear from you, because I remember there was a pivotal moment in your life when you were about to graduate from high school, and you had already a business that was producing revenue, that was producing income, and you were doing fairly okay with that. And then I remember a conversation that you and I had where you're like, I'm not quite sure. Should I go on to study something at the university or just go all in with my business? What was that like for you?

Yeah, I think so. Again, I got an early start in entrepreneurship, and like you said, there are line landmines, really, at every single step along the way. Like, I failed my way to success, which you hear a lot of successful entrepreneurs talk about. And I never really understood it until, I guess now looking back, but it just got to the point where nothing was clicking. I mean, at least from my perspective. Right, like, from your perspective to the outside world, it's like, okay, you're a high school entrepreneur. You have a business that's producing revenue. But for me, that wasn't good enough. But at the same time, I think it was also nature of the environment that I was in. Just, again, being surrounded by the types of people that thought this specific way of, I'm gonna go and get a degree, I'm gonna go get a safe and secure job. It has all these different benefits. This is the way to do it, as opposed to going back to how I was raised. I think Covet actually did a lot for me because it took me kind of out of the classroom and brought me closer to my roots, if that makes sense. Like being around my dad every day, being around my grandpa every day. Because during COVID like all you could really see was family. And that did a lot for me. And it also motivated me because I was just inside all day and there was nothing else to do. And I get a lot of joy and I have a lot of fun with entrepreneurship in business and I think that's the realization I had. And with our conversation, you kind of just brought me back to like the beginning of like, why did you get started in the first place? And helped me to realize like, it's not so much about the success or the failures, it's more about the game of entrepreneurship. And that's the way I look at it now is like I've had so many failures in entrepreneurship and I think back now, like I had so many opportunities where I could have exited this path. Like so many excuses I could have made to quit and go a different way. But I guess it just shows like I truly love entrepreneurship and, and that's kind of what kept me going and having people around me like yourself and my dad and my grand grandpa to remind me of that.

Yeah, yeah, I love that. And, and you know, you, you mention the word environment a lot and I very much agree with how that's such a crucial thing to really cultivate your environment for greater levels of success. And I'm curious, what do you feel now that you've also seen so many agency owners in your own, in your own coaching container? What do you feel a lot of entrepreneurs are missing out when it comes to the, the selection of your environment?

I really think it's the, it's finding your community like your niche community. And not only that, but connecting with them past the online world, if that makes sense. So I'll kind of unpack this. So I was always an introvert in high school, so I kind of kept to myself and, and my network. My community was Gary Vee's YouTube channel or Russell Brunson's YouTube channel or Tony Robbins audio tapes. Like to me that was my community, but it was a one way street, right, because they didn't know who I was, I knew who they were. So it wasn't really a community. But that was my start. And then I opened up more and started a podcast which was virtual just like this is, and I had great experiences doing that. And these were stepping stones into building more of a real life community, which is what we're kind of doing now with Client Ascension, which is still a virtual coaching program. It's all online. But being in a program like that or in a community like that opens up opportunities to connect in real life. And one of the biggest decisions I made in the past year or so was moving out of my childhood home in my hometown in upstate New York down to Tampa, Florida to kind of seek out a community in person. And there's been so many occurrences and experiences, like even us, we shared a weekend down in Tampa, which we've had conversations like this through Zoom and online for three years. And that was probably the most powerful, that one weekend in Tampa. And I could say the same for all of the people I've connected with in person. So I think, I guess my word of advice to people that are seeking a community is to start it's, it's easy to start building it online, but push yourself to seek it out in the real life. It's not always feasible because there's people all over the world, but if you actually make the effort to make it happen, really cool things, you'll experience really cool things.

Yeah, yeah, that, that was amazing. And, and I totally agree. And I, and I love the point that you just made about how when you're consuming a lot of the material, which is great because you're building an environment and that, you know, cultivates a powerful mindset and gives you the ideas to grow your business now. And you said that that's a one sort of one sided stream of the relationship.

Right.

They have no clue who you are, but you know who they are. And you brought up this, the importance of having, you know, paraphrasing a tribe of your own that you can actually physically engage with and meet up with. And I think you, you know, you had client ascension. You also put together a really powerful event where you brought in agency owners from all over the world and now you have this amazing community that I myself am a part of. And when you look at environment, one of the things that is so important, and I want to also ask you how you dealt with that, is your environment conditions you to who you are, especially in the early ages. And from what I understand, you had these strong role model figure in figures in your life, namely your dad and your grandfather. And a lot of entrepreneurs often lack these people. And I'm wondering what is your way of dealing with people in your environment that Sort of disagree with your ideas that might even talk you down. Or one of the best ones that I've experienced is you're so full of excitement and you just want to share all of that excitement and you get like a. Okay, cool. Next. And what. So I'm curious, how do you. How have you dealt with that in your life?

Yeah, that's a. That's a deep question to. To think about. I think for me, it always goes back to, like, my roots. Like, I know I can always count on my dad and my grandpa to have my best interest in mind. And I think a lot of this has to do with conversations that we've had in the past, which is to vulnerably share and also not expect or make decisions off of how other people react to what your plan is. And I guess, like, more generalized, it's having strong roots within your own personal value. So I think this is actually one of the biggest things you helped me with is when we first started working together, I was very. And this is why I got found myself in the place where I almost considered quitting entrepreneurship is because I, I guess, had a lot of work to do on myself at that point. Like, I still haven't worked on myself and I didn't have my own personal values. So I feel like if you can compromise your personal values, then definitely you're going to run into these traps or these people that sway you in one direction or the other without your best interest in mind. But as soon as you start to build, I guess, like, we could call them pillars, like, pillars of, like, your own personal values, it's really hard to get pushed off of that platform by outside people. At the same time, it's kind of a dichotomy because you want to hear other people's opinions and learn new perspectives because you don't always want to be feeding yourself, like, what you want to hear. Otherwise, I feel like you'll miss a lot of the different life experiences that are out there. But still, like, even if you. You hear a contradictory opinion or someone talks you down, like, my pillars are strong enough to the point where it's not going to affect my actions that take place after. Whereas before, when we first started working together, that would have maybe shut me down for a week or maybe would have had me considering, okay, I shouldn't do this podcast anymore. And a lot of it's like, with the podcast and with business, I guess business, I have so much respect for entrepreneurs because it's. It's a very vulnerable way of putting yourself out there. And most of the time when you do it, you fail in the. In public. And I dealt with a lot of that, and especially my internal family, because I'm one of eight and I'm one. Like, maybe two of my other brothers are in entrepreneurship. The others are into, like, maybe the medical field. And so, like, I'll go and do entrepreneurship and it won't work out, and they'll make fun of me or they'll say, this is probably not the right thing to do and what are you thinking? And it's hard, but at the same time, I feel like you have to establish those pillars for yourself and really believe in what you're doing. Otherwise it's going to be really easy to push you off.

I love that. So what I hear in that is finding the balance between having strong values and knowing who you are and being rooted in that, and at the same time being open enough to listen to other people and just entertain the ideas and ask, you know, is this actually making sense what this person is telling me? Or is this not really working out for me? And I'm wondering what has helped you to find the balance? Because like you said, sometimes it can be extremely difficult. Like, you sway between one or the other and you're, like, sort of caught there, but you can't find the middle ground. What would you say are some of the things that have helped you find that middle ground?

That's a great question. So I feel like I can only do so much. I only know so much because I don't have all the life experiences and I've only been around for a few years or doing this for a few years. And so what I always turn to personally, this is just what's worked for me personally is prayer and speaking to God, because I feel like I have, like, a pretty good connection with God or whatever you want to refer to that as. And just asking God, like, how to handle certain scenarios, because I know, like, I don't have the answers. I don't have all the answers. And so it's also, like, because it is a dichotomy, it's really. It's really difficult because a lot of times it could be an ego thing where someone's telling you something and, you know, you kind of know in the back of your head it's probably the right thing to do, but your ego is kind of telling you, like, no, like, do it your way, because for whatever reason. And so I. I just try to do it through prayer. And I also try to think before I Speak more so than before rather than making rash decisions. And. And, yeah, I guess just slow it down and think it through and either speak to God or speak to people in your life that you know you can trust. Would be my answer to that.

Yeah. That's amazing.

Even you, I guess even you. I've turned to you in. In many of these situations. Now that I think about, I've turned to you. And in many of these situations, like, what do I do here? Help me out.

Yeah.

And so again, people you trust.

Yeah. And I think it takes a lot of humility to even go there and say, hey, I need help. Can somebody help me with this? And I see so many entrepreneurs, and I myself did this for a long time, miss out on that part. And they, like, they sporadically use, okay, let me ask for help, because now I'm absolutely desperate. But there's this mentality of like, I gotta find the answer so I can prove myself and show to the world that I'm the man or the woman. And I find that what you shared is so beautiful because it translates. It translates this humility that is at the basis of it. One where you're saying, I don't have all the answers. God has them. And my way of connecting to God is through prayer and ask and allow yourself to be guided and then receive the answers. And. Or. And we could span. You can say, you. I personally believe this, that many of the people in my life are sent to me from God. In fact, I believe all of them are sent to me from God because God wants me to learn the lessons that I have not yet learned, so I can go to the places, so I can essentially come back home. And that is back to God. And so I love that you're bringing spirituality into your business and really having a strong commitment there in what you believe is right. And so let me ask you this. What would you say was sort of the belief or maybe a few of them that were holding you back from the sense of humility, from reaching out for help? Because I see this in so many entrepreneurs. And I'm curious if you have an idea as to what the belief was.

Oh, 100%. I. And this was the. I realized this on our very first call, I'm pretty sure, like coaching call or formal session, I guess we'll call it, which is. I thought I was unique. I thought there was nobody else on this planet that could share the experiences or the feelings that I was having. And so who would I talk to? No one would understand what I'm going Through it was funny because that made it really hard to, to open up and share because I thought it was pointless. It was a waste of time. Like, they're never gonna understand. And the first time I feel like I open up to you, like, I remember our first coaching session and I was sitting there like in my, again, childhood bedroom and I'm like sharing quietly because I don't know if one of my siblings is in the other room and can hear me. And I'm like, like literally sweating on our call, explaining these things to you, to this person that I've just met, just expecting to hear, like, whoa, like, you're get off this call, like you have problems, but you're like, no, like, I can relate. I've gone through the exact same things. And that was just like a huge, like, moment of relief, I. I guess for me, which is, yeah, just realizing that all humans kind of share the same life experiences and problems. And yeah, I'll just leave it at that because that was the biggest breakthrough.

Yeah. And I think you touched on something really, really important because you said, nobody will understand me. And boy, can I relate to that. I mean, for me, the longest time, that's how I felt. I felt, I felt in internally. I felt so different from everybody else. Growing up in Germany, where entrepreneurship is rather rare compared to the U.S. in the U.S. it seems like every other high school kid has got something on the side, some sort of idea that they're working with. And I absolutely love that. And in Germany, it's more like, you know, you got to follow the path that is safe. So entrepreneurship, way too risky. Go to school, go to university, get the degree, then maybe get more degrees and then eventually get a job and then, you know, switch your job here and there, but don't start your own thing. So this feeling for me was that I never felt that I belonged in these circles. I never felt that this path was my path, even though I chose it because I. I felt like I don't know what else to do, so let me just do the thing that everybody does. And I then ended up crashing and burning and, you know, almost killing myself. And later on, I recognized that my drive for creating success in the world was a cover up for feeling like once I get to that level of success, then I can share with people how I really feel. Because then they can no longer tell me that I was wrong. Because now I got the money, I got the recognition, I've changed the lives. Now if they can say, oh, you, it's like, what do you Want it worked out. And so I'm curious, have you noticed any of that as well in yourself that often you using success as sort of like a cover up tool to keep people at bay and not let them in and see how you're really feeling?

100%. It's like the, the way I look at it is it's like a scoreboard. And like you said, you could have all these underlying issues, but on the outside, if it looks like you're winning and it looks like you're having success and doing life the right way and in success is so subjective. And so in this scenario it's usually like money and material things that if we actually sit with ourselves and ask like, is this even success to us? Probably not. Maybe not. And so yeah, 100%. I find myself doing this to this day. Like, and we talk about this all the time. Like if I'm going through some issue in my personal life or just life in general, I usually turn to work. And it's almost like a way to avoid, push the problem to the side or drown it in some other menial task so that I don't have to face it face to face. And it's just such a hard thing to do is facing these things face to face. And again, you helped me to do that. I still, it's still, it's just like, like taking a cold shower. You could do a cold shower all your life, but every single time you go in there, you know it's going to be painful, right? It's not ever going to be easy. And it's just the same thing with, with these different experiences we're talking about.

Yeah, yeah. And thank you for sharing that and for being vulnerable and authentic in, in that space. And I can agree because same as me, even though I breathe this work every single day, there's still patterns in me where sometimes I notice myself sort of tuning myself down, you know, when I'm with other people and I recognize that their lives might not be as exciting as mine on the outside, travel the world, you know, coach thousands of people, TEDx, talk almost billion, and they might not have that. And then in my mind I'm like, so I'm not gonna go like all out. I'm sort of go like 50%. So I don't, you know, upset anyone or hurt other people. And just like you said, when certain situations arise and I don't really don't want to deal with that, then it's an easy way for me to say, oh, I got a lot more work to do today. So, you know, I'm, I can't make it. And I see that in a lot of entrepreneurs. And I want to ask you, what did you experience the first time when you actually built the confidence to openly communicate how you feel?

It gave me more confidence, I guess more permanent confidence. Because it was almost like building up like the confidence in, in that split scenario was, was almost man. Like it wasn't real. It was very short lived and it was something that I had to muster up for a long time. Okay, I said it. I'm done. I'm going back in my shell. And then the response to that and the experience there was like, actually no. Like the response was different than I had expected and the experience was different than I had expected, which was I guess a way for me to say okay, like I could confidently open up because it's not what I thought it was. It's like going on a roller coaster. Like you're not really confident, but you're like, okay, I'll do it. And then you go through it and you're like, oh, I want to do.

This again and again, again.

Now you have the confidence. You're like, yes, you know, like. And I guess it's kind of like that because that confidence to, to open up. In the beginning, yeah, it was there, but was it permanent? Not until you truly experience like the other side. And I think once you see the other side that gives. That gave me at least the confidence to continue opening up more consistently. And it's, it's, it's always going to be the same. Like I go through all these different life situations as does everyone else. And with each of them I'm always still like kind of holding back a little bit. Like, is this over the line? Is this one actually weird this time? Because I know the ones in the past haven't been, but this one might be pushing it, but it's just understanding that like we're all unique and it's almost like embracing your uniqueness in a way. Yeah, but yeah, you just gave me the confidence to open up on a more consistent basis, which I think is so important because if we just ended it at that first session, nothing, there wouldn't have been any impact or changes with the pillar. It goes back to the pillars. The way I've established my personal values and pillars was through each of these sessions and breakthroughs.

Now I find this is a super interesting topic because for me personally, and I see this with pretty much every person that I work with, at least in the beginning, they Weigh the cost of being vulnerable and real and having those real, sometimes confronting conversations where they're like, ah, it's not worth it. I'm not going to do it because it's going to be super stressful. A lot of fear in that. You know, it's probably going to be a waste time of, of time. Maybe they will attack me. So I'll just focus on work. And I'm curious, what have you noticed? How has really speaking your truth and really expressing how you really feel in your life actually positively affected your business?

So there's definitely a bunch of positives we can go into, but I guess when it really started to click for me, it was when I started to see the negatives seep into the business. And, and you know this about me and we've talked about it a bunch, but like, the business was always the one thing that I was really good at. Like, that was my thing. Nobody could touch it. Right. Like, I might not be the best with relationships or the best athlete or whatever else everyone is, is good at that I'm not business. That's the one thing that, that I had that nobody else could, could argue with. And so as soon as I started to see like some of these issues or just some of these things that I was dealing with in my personal life were affecting the way I showed up in my business. And to be more specific, like conversations with my business partners, conversations with my employees, conversations with my clients, it got real and it got real fast. And that's when I was, that was my kick in the ass to say, okay, you need to go do something about this. Because the one thing that you thought was safe and secure in your life, it's actually being affected by these issues that you won't face face to face. And I, I think it was, I'm more driven by like negatives and positives, I think, personally.

Yeah.

But then the positives obviously were amazing. And that kind of gets you addicted to wanting to continue and unlocking the next level and the next level and the next level.

Right. So I love that you're sharing that. And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, if I remember, you know, because I see this with other clients, that oftentimes the biggest negative impact that not speaking your truth and being vulnerable has is you tend to take on more stuff than you should, meaning you end up doing the kind of work that you're not supposed to be doing because you're supposed to be working over here in your zone of genius, which is the revenue producing task that, that you are really, really good at and that you really love doing and then delegate the rest to everybody else. But how is the delegation ever going to happen? If you would ever actually speak and say, guys, I don't want to do this. I'm overwhelmed. I feel alone in this. I feel frustrated. Because you're afraid that if you just said that they might, you know, give you some sort of negative feedback or they might say, I'm out of here. So do you recall the time where that actually affected your ability to operate in your zone of genius?

Yeah, I mean, it was, it wasn't just a time. It was like a phase of my life. It was like for five years from when I first started in 2016 to 2021, it was just a one man show is really just me. And I took on all these responsibilities because I couldn't let go. I, I wanted as much control over the outcome as possible. And I didn't have people in my life that I trusted as much as myself. And that was hard for me. But sitting here today, like two years later or whatever, like at Knowledge X, I have nine people that work with us. At Client, essentially we have like 23, including yourself. You're one of the coaches in our community. And that's a great example is like I could sit there and, and pretend to know what I'm talking about when it comes to mindset, or I could bring someone in to really serve the community. And I think that was actually the biggest thing for me was putting the clients and the customers and the students first and really seeing like, okay, me doing all this, sure, I can, I can do it. Or at the end of the day I can't. But like, maybe I can for a small period of time. But are the students getting the most value that they could potentially be getting? The answer is no. And so it's almost like it was selfish of me to, you know, like hog the control of everything that was happening because it was, it was worsening the product and the experience and the service. And again, I, I'm more driven by negatives. Like the experience was bad, so what are you gonna do about it? And then the positives are always what keeps you going once you, once you really see them unfold.

Yeah, yeah, but, but I mean, you laid it out, you know, and you also brought in the, the word of control, which I think is actually what holds back so many entrepreneurs. Their attachment to having to control everything and anything. And it starts within yourself where you are controlling how you feel. Because you're like, oh, I'm, I'm feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, anxious. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to feel that way. So push it to the side so those things never get expressed. Which means you are stuck in patterns, which means you are the bottleneck of the business. You hit the 10k mark and now you're like, I could really use another person on board, so I could scale it to 20, 30, 50, 40, 50K. But, oh, I'm afraid of even going there, so I'll just do it myself. So I love that you're bringing that forward. And I want to ask you, you know, you work in operations. What would you say are sort of like two to three things that a lot of entrepreneurs are missing out when it comes to operations that could really take their business to a whole new.

That's a great question. I think the first thing is understanding. And this is not contradictory to what we've been talking about, but I feel like there's this misconception out there with a lot of coaching programs especially that you can start a business and outsource everything so that it's passive and you don't have to do anything. And I feel like to be a good business owner and more specifically an operator, you have to understand how your business works. And so I actually don't regret the way I acted in the past, at least to a certain extent, because it gave me the know how and the understanding of all the parts of my business so that I could go out and intelligently and I had the information I needed to make a good hire because I knew what was required, required, and I understood the scope of the job that I was hiring for. Whereas I think a lot of business owners, they start a marketing agency and they know that they need someone to handle the sales process. They have no idea what that looks like. And so they go out and hire someone to do sales. And because they don't have any know how about sales and how that process is supposed to work, they don't know if that person is doing a good job. They have no measurement of success.

Of.

That specific job role. So I think as an operator, it's really important not necessarily for you to go and do these things on your own, but just to understand certain benchmarks and best processes. I guess another thing would be communication. And again, this is something that we worked on a bunch, but like to operate smoothly there has to be, especially with like a bigger team, there has to be clear, consistent communication because things don't always go to Plan things aren't always going by the book, because you could outline the entire business and say, this is how it's supposed to work, and all the steps, but it rarely ever happens that way. So people now have to make certain decisions, and those decisions have consequences that other people need to know about. So just having communication. And one way we do this, like in an online world, is having team huddles. So either at the beginning of the day or the middle of the day or depend. It really depends on the time zones that all your team members are in. But schedule out five minutes at some point during the workday to check in with your team and do a quick roundtable to see what people are working on, what issues they're dealing with that they might need help with, and what things they accomplish that the team can celebrate together. And when we implemented this in our business, it just really gave clarity for everyone on the team to know where we're at as a company and what needs to get done.

Yeah. So we have understanding your business, which means that from what I hear you say, you don't have to be the best at any everything that you do. Like, you don't have to be the master at all, but you have to have a basic understanding, because that basic understanding will allow you to really hone in on who could be the best person that I can hire you. Right. So that's number one. And then number two, there's communication, and there is making space and time to clearly communicate to team members, to partners, to clients as well. And one of the biggest ones that I find where often a lot of. And this is how now we're bringing it sort of together. A lot of agency owners, I find, are over promising to their clients and end up under delivering because they cannot maintain their promise because they did not clearly communicate expectations. Like, I remember there was one someone in Client Ascension who I worked with, and he did an amazing video for me, and he said, infinite Revisions. And I'm thinking, bam. Okay, so every month I'm gonna come to you. And, you know, I'm slightly changing my messaging. So give me another revision. Give me another revision. Give me another revision. And we had this conversation, and he actually was like, yeah, you're right. There's too many. It's like, what are you gonna do when you have 50 clients and they all want Infinite Revisions? Right. You're gonna be overwhelmed. So clearly communicating, I think, is. Is a big one. And I'm wondering when it comes to the marketing part, because you, you know, full transparency, you were the one that got me onto Twitter. And now I'm steadily growing my base there and I'm really honing in on my new niche, which is the, the agency owner market. And I find that on, on Twitter, it's such a well catered audience, at least from my experience. And I'm wondering, can you speak into the power of Twitter and maybe share also how you use Twitter to grow your own business?

Definitely, yeah. Twitter was like one of the biggest breakthroughs for me on like, the marketing, business development side of things. So I always knew like, social media was gonna be like, had to be a big piece of what we were trying to build, but I've never really been a fan of it. And so I like, quit Instagram and Snapchat and all the other apps because what I realized was a lot of the things that I was doing in my life were for the approval of others and not for my own enjoyment. And that was like a realization I had that I knew I had to cut off social media. So that didn't continue. And so I found myself on Twitter a lot because there's politics and sports and it was just, you know, fun app to scroll through. And I guess what, what got me into Twitter, obviously I had people in my life that kept telling me about it, and I never really understood it until I got on there and started building. But what really worked for me on Twitter was the in the moment, sporadic form of content. Like, it wasn't like Instagram where you had to put up a picture, you had to clearly write like your caption. You had to think through all the hashtags. Like, it was just, you have this thought, which could have been maybe from this podcast I could go back and probably come up with 20 tweet ideas that I could just send out at any time. And, and I love that because it was, it just fit, I guess, the way I would communicate. And Gary Vee, I think, recently explained this on a podcast, but you have to find like your. The one social media platform that is your audience. It's like when a comedian in the way they were explaining it was like when a comedian goes to Germany, like, that's a different room than if you were to go to South Florida, right? Like, the jokes have to be delivered slight differently because in Germany, the people are subject to different things that they think are funny than people in Florida. And that's the same way as social media. And so I think in the beginning there's always this question of like, should you post on all the platforms or should you just start on one. I'm just going on what worked for me. I think you should just start on one. And it doesn't have to be Twitter, but Twitter is where I've had all of my success. And I think it's for all those reasons I talk to about and I think the reason Twitter works so well, and I actually experienced a lot of success on Twitter, like back in 2016 when I was running a sneaker business. And the way to get Twitter to work for you is you have to create a brand new account, even if you already have an account. And then with that account, you have to find who you want to be like. So, like what? Like, what do you want to build your audience to look like? For me, I had like a few, you know, big time marketers that I looked up to that I said, okay, I want to build my Twitter account like theirs. And I went through and I followed everyone that they were following, which was a couple hundred people. And when you do this, you just start to see tweets specifically from these types of people. And it trains the algorithm to place you into this third world called Money Twitter, which is. You'll hear that reference a lot as people refer to Money Twitter, which is really just like this corner of Twitter, this corner pocket that you get exposed to as you start to follow and interact with all the different people that talk about money and business and marketing. And that's what I did. I just followed all those people and I just started posting content. And I guess to answer your question, this is very long winded. But to go into strategy, what worked for me when I first got started on Twitter as a nobody was vulnerably sharing my journey. I knew other people on this side of Twitter were building online businesses or wanted to get started in an online business. So I thought, okay, I'm gonna get started with a new online business and I'm gonna document every single week what I'm doing and what the results are. And I started like a thread, it's still on my profile from like two years ago, where every single week I documented, like, where we were at with the business, like, revenue wise. And then notes on what happened that week. Oh, this week we had a bad week. One of our clients fired us. We didn't close any new deals. Oh, this week we closed three deals. We broke all the records, and we went to the casino to celebrate. And it's like we documented everything. And people love that. And through that, I also shared what I was learning and what I had already known from before and things that I would learn from our conversations and things that I would learn through reading books and religious texts. And that's the way I look at Twitter is it's just a way to kind of organize your thoughts and see who resonates with it and connect with them further.

I love that. Can you quantify what Twitter helped you in actual financial growth in your business there?

So it's not like a Facebook ads manager where you can do conversion tracking and whatnot, but like, it's very obvious. The only place people find me on the Internet is through Twitter, I guess. Just recently I started a YouTube channel and I've gone on podcasts like this on a really limited basis. But up to this point, I have over, I think, 25,000 followers on Twitter, which isn't a whole lot. But like, everyone has found me or my companies through Twitter and we've grown Knowledge X and Client Ascension. Those are both individually seven figure businesses that were started within the past two years. Everyone that we've worked with has found us through Twitter, which is just insane to think about.

Damn, that's amazing. So. So if I hear you correctly, you're saying that just through Twitter, you have grown both businesses to the seven figure level. And the way that you did it initially building your audience was simply by authentically and vulnerably sharing your journey of growing these businesses. And I think that's phenomenal. And I think also the advice that you give on, find the social media platform that works for you and then hone in on that and deliver quality content on that, that is real. So again, we have another element on how vulnerability and authenticity really help you grow your business in a, in a such a powerful way. So I absolutely love that.

Yeah, yeah, Twitter's. Twitter is amazing. And now, like I said, I'm getting started on YouTube and I think you get to a certain point where, okay, Twitter has gone really well for us. I've built up all this content. I have a pretty good idea on how I can repurpose that or reuse it or double down on it to maximize visibility and reach. And that's kind of the thinking behind YouTube. And it's, it's uncomfortable for me because I'm not always on camera and I don't love being on camera, but it's a way for me to grow as well, is to force myself to do it. And I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of it now. And it's only been like two weeks, but yeah, Twitter's the place to be Especially now with Elon, I think there's a lot of growth opportunity on Twitter that is not yet being seen.

Yeah, amazing. Now, what would you recommend to someone who is an entrepreneur and is maybe in sort of the very low six figure space, you know, maybe just sort of like breaking through the 10k mark? And what would you recommend them as sort of like the top three priorities for their life in order to take their business from where it's at to like a 10x level?

Yeah, I think priority number one is the theme of this entire conversation is to work on yourself and ask yourself. Because a lot of people get into entrepreneurship for the wrong reasons. And it's not necessarily the wrong reasons, but for other people's reasons, if that makes sense. Like they do it because what someone else told them to do or because someone else thought it was a good idea. And I think that's a recipe for disaster because it's very hard. Again, like entrepreneurship is a very vulnerable job, I guess, because you're putting yourself out there and a lot of the times you're going to fail and you're going to look like the idiot, but later on you'll get your redemption. But in those moments of time, it's really difficult. So I think you have to invest in yourself. And the ways that I've done that is investing in your coaching and surrounding myself with people that were either further ahead or could help me to learn more about myself. I think that's number one, especially for lower level entrepreneurs. Not lower level, but earlier in the journey entrepreneurs. I just think that's so important. Number two, I would say start sharing and documenting your journey on a social media platform. Again, that might be Twitter, that might be YouTube, that might be through podcasting. Even before Twitter, I started a podcast. And the whole point of that podcast, which was very successful, that's actually how we got connected, I think. Or that was one of our earliest points of connection. We started a podcast just because I was curious to learn from other people that were having success online and that spun into a whole bunch of different opportunities and life experiences. So share and document your journey online. So invest in yourself, document your journey and share it online. And then I think the third thing would be to just show up every day and do the work. And it sounds so simple. But like that's, that's truly why I'm here talking today is because, yeah, I invested in myself. You told me certain things to do. Yeah, I'm sharing my journey online, but there's action items at the tail end of all those conversations, right? We could sit there and have a conversation about, oh, yeah, like, I could do better with this, I should be communicating this. And then I could not do it, which would just defeat the whole purpose of having the conversation in the first place. So the third thing would be to show up and put in the work. Work every single day consistently.

Yeah, I love that. And especially the last point that I think is the whole point of you actually investing in a coach and investing in being in some sort of a mastermind or a group container. It's. It's not about, I find, taking these spectacularly large actions. Like, if you look at. And I think a lot of that also comes from sort of the Hollywood movie thematic scene that we get that we're being shown. There's this, like this sort of like this end level fight where, you know, Aragon faces off against Sauron's armies. But what they don't show is like every single day, you know, he had to train with the swords, he had to get up, you know, he had to learn how to ride the horse, you know, in order to be able to have this incredible battle scene there, he had to just consistently show up every single day. And what gets in the way of these very simple, logical steps is, like you said, it's the idea that, hey, you're going to fail a lot of many, many times and people are going to question you and they're going to say, when are you going to get a real job? You know, when you didn't you say last year that you're going to be a millionaire this year and you still sort of barely make breaking even, you know, what about next year? And so how do you deal with all of that? And I think you answered that question beautifully, so thank you for that. And I have one more question, and that is I love asking people this question. So I'm curious what you're going to say. If you could spend one hour of your time with any person in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

I would just say Jesus. I don't know if that counts, but.

Like, of course it does.

I feel like I. It's almost like the way we initially met is like all online, right? Like, we're talking online, we're, we're meeting online where you're like changing my life. You're having a big impact through text and I reach out to you when I need your help. And that's. I feel like the same relationship I have with Jesus now. And it's almost like when Am I going to get the chance to meet this guy, actually sit down and, you know, like, not talk about all these issues and bring them all these issues, but almost like celebrate and, and thank them for all they've done for me? And, and that's what I look forward to, is if I could sit down with Jesus. I guess I can, but I have to die first. So I could, I could wait on that part. But. But yeah, I think it would be, it would literally be Jesus. I think that'd be so beautiful.

Beautiful answer. It's interesting because I gave the same answer. I also said Jesus when I was asked this question.

Right.

Because I wanted to see what is it like to be with someone who completely embodies love and forgiveness just a hundred percent. Because I've never seen any real human example in this world. I've seen people that come very close, but never 100%. And that to me, is something that I genuinely want to experience. So thank you for that answer and thank you for this powerful conversation. And Andre, if people want to learn more about you, your business, how that you can support them, how they can work together with you, what's the best way to connect?

Yeah, Twitter is probably most ideal. It's just my name, Andre Huckel Jr. On Twitter, and like I mentioned, I'm just starting to post more video content on YouTube under that same profile name and my DMs are always open as I talked about on this podcast. I love having conversations and, and building work and tribe and so please reach out and I'd love to connect with all of your audience.

Yeah. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I will be sure to add all of the links to your Twitter and YouTube in the show notes. So people connect with you. Make sure you really do connect with Andre. I can vouch for him. He is a very genuine, wonderful human being who's always very willing to share his resources and his insights. So, Andre, thank you so much for being here and thank you for tuning in to the Self Doubt Solution. This is your host, Mario Lanceroti, the freedom architect, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the Self Doubt Solution. Peace out, everyone.