0451 | Katie Krimitsos

Katie.

I'm Katie Kremitzos with the Women's Meditation Network, and you're listening to EA EA.

Interviews, episode 451, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the Imperfect Action Round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's expert Authority effect interview. Is life stressing you out? Because I know at times for me, sometimes it's just like I want to knock someone in the head. Honestly, more often than not. And I don't always voice that. You might think I'm like, oh, he's so nice and he's polite and all this. I have read a whole lot of books. My natural state isn't like that. So especially with the way the world has been going, I have done a lot of stuff in the self help realm. I've done a lot. I've helped a lot of people with it too. And I've done some internal work and I've done meditation centering, all of this good stuff. And I believe you should too. And that's why I'm super excited to have Katie Kremitzos on today's episode, the host of the Women's Meditation Network. Because whether you have a business now, you're getting into business.

Or you probably have a successful one, I know you don't have a perfect life, because I don't. And you've told me what it's like behind closed doors. And I'm sorry to hear a lot of it. But I'm glad there's people like Katie who are here to help you. And we're going to talk a lot more about it right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's EA publishingmethodbook.com Here she is, ladies and gentlemen, the lovely Katie Kremitzos. Katie, how are you feeling today?

I'm feeling good. How are you, Mario?

Doing pretty good. All right, so now should I ask you that.

Why did you want to start the show?

Bring them, bring them over.

Bring them on.

Why did you want to start the show?

Why did I want to start the Women's Meditation Network?

Yes.

Well, I started a podcast in 2014 that was a business show very similar to this. And I was interviewing women entrepreneurs about their journeys and I did that for almost six years. And it was wonderful. I loved it. It sort of was my giant education of podcasting and running a business of my own. It was really wonderful. And in early 2018, I had come up with a plan on how to triple business, how to, like, grow the audience, like, do all of that thing. And. And by the end of Q1, I was on schedule, things were going great. And come April of 2018, we find out that we're pregnant with our second daughter. And for anyone out there who has been pregnant before, something, if not more than one thing, like, immediately changes. And one thing that immediately changed for me was that I just knew, like, I don't want that business anymore. Like, it was this very clear, distinct voice, like, nope, don't want it anymore. Which was very terrifying because that business was doing great and the podcast was doing great. Like, there was. There was no reason why I should have felt like I would want to stop.

Why? Why do you think it was? Because most people, you know, they. They start something, they want to grow it, obviously, especially a business. We talk about scaling and business and profits and all this all the time, and just as a course, but you had it at a very successful point. What just made you feel. It wasn't even a temporary pause. It was, I'm done.

It was whatever you want to call it, intuition, you know, God, the universe, whatever you want to call it was like, nope, you're done. Like, it was, it was that. It was my inner knowing. I don't know why. Like, I can't give you a reason. It was just like, nope, you're done. And. And so me, the human, was trying to figure it out. Like, but why? Like, is this really. Am I self sabotaging? Because I'm. Am I really scared of growth? Like, just all of those things that we end up learning as entrepreneurs that, that we can do of, like, why that voice exists or, you know, or is that a false voice? So. So I spent some downtime, really just kind of getting quiet, going on walks with my husband a lot. And for the next couple of weeks, I just sort of sat in this giant unknowing of, like, what if this is not it? What am I supposed to be doing? You know, one day it'd be like, I could totally still make this business work. It'll be great. I'll have, you know, an infant and a toddler. And then the next day I was like, screw it, I'm done. I'm done with business. I'm going to be a full time mom and everything. In between. So at some point, I started asking myself, like, if this isn't it, what am I doing? Like, why? What am I supposed to be doing? Why did I get this message? Right? And.

My husband just, you know, we're on this walk and I'm talking things out. I've just, you know, shared all of these diverging emotions about it. And there's this pause, and he's like, what about that meditation idea? And I'm like, what about it? What he was referring to was months prior, at sort of my annual planning, I'd come up with how to expand that company, how to expand that, you know, business and podcast. And one of the many ideas that I had was as creating a meditation podcast for women. I had come home and did enough research in the space to see that there was only one other podcast that existed. If you typed in meditation and women, one existed. And I was like, this. It's 2018.

That many, huh? Yeah.

I'm like, there's no way that this is an open niche. There's no way it was an open niche. So he got super excited. I continued to do nothing with it because it didn't really fit my business model at the time. So now, months later, he's asking me, what about that meditation idea? And I say, what about it? And he says, what about it? And that was the seed that planted that we now could sort of be, like, what could this thing be? And that was the seed that started growing of like, hey, this could be this. It could be this, and this could be the next evolution of what I'm here to do. And I knew a couple things right away. I knew it was a network. I knew it wasn't just one show.

Because there were so many sub niches within women and meditation that I could do. Sleep meditation, morning meditations, mindful meditations, anxiety. I mean, there's so much. Right. And for so many different types of women, you know, so many different habits. And so. So I knew that right away, which was incredibly overwhelming and terrifying, because up to that point, I had one podcast, and that was enough. That was, like, a lot of work. And so I couldn't get my mind past, like, how am I going to do this? But it was enough to get me, like, feeling like, this is it. I know I'm supposed to do this. It's terrifying. It's big, and that's scary.

That's a huge opportunity.

Yeah. And more than that, like, I. I felt really pulled to it. Like, you know, I have been a meditator. I'm 44 now, and I've been meditating ever since I was 19 years old, very imperfectly, always on a kind of a journey of how to meditate in my particular season of life in a way that is fulfilling and. And makes a difference. But I. I've never really formally given, like, guided meditations before. It's not like I was teaching this stuff. I'm not a teacher of meditation. I deliberately don't call myself that. I haven't graduated from a school of a certain type of meditation. I have educated myself a lot on meditations and different types of meditations over the years, but I am far from an encyclopedia about it.

And so while you were excited about it, what I'm hearing is you were excited about it, but you wanted to do it in a way that people didn't get confused or led to believe one thing or another thing.

I just wanted to do it that. Do meditation that was authentically me. And what was authentically me would translate to women really connecting with it and allowing it to be very approachable. So if you go on any of my 10 podcasts at this point and you look at titles.

You don't often find meditation speak. I mean, you might find like a chakra meditation or a new moon meditation every once in a while, but most of the titles, and therefore the meditations themselves really speak to this journey in life. Like, I just wrote one that's called like, when the tears are about to Come. You know, anxiety relief. You know, when. When you need a timeout. Like those types of very relatable, like, yes, I've been through that emotion, and I need something.

So it's real life experience scenarios, not something you need a degree for a year to figure out just to use it, right?

Not at all like they're. They're meant for. For anyone who has not meditated before and might have tiptoed around it. And also meant for people who are experienced meditators who wanted a new, fresh experience of meditating.

What would you say to someone who hasn't meditated before, why they should?

I think, I mean, I think that we all know at this point how powerful meditation can be. It's different from knowing that and experiencing that. So one thing that I would immediately make sure that somebody who has not meditated yet knows is, you know, benefits you. You know, you have access to more calm, you don't feel as stressed out, you sleep better, you're able to maneuver your day and create a life that actually feels good and that you're enjoying. But the the thing that I would do is just knock out some of those limiting beliefs about what meditation needs to be. Meditation can be a lot of things. It doesn need to be waking up at 5am and sitting in the lotus position for an hour with, you know, meditation music in the background and incense burning. Like that's never been what my meditation practice has looked like.

What if you want to sage the room?

You can totally do that. Like, basically, you know, one thing that I would say to anyone is like, number one, you probably already have some form of meditation in your life that you just are, isn't. You haven't labeled as meditation. And so once you can connect with that, like these, I call them little mini moments of mindfulness. Right, like you were doing it before, like right before you were preparing, you took a couple deep breaths. That that's a meditation. That's a little mini moment of mindfulness where you're like, I just need to prepare. I need to consciously be, connect with my breath. And in doing that, right, you naturally do that. And in doing that, you sort of come into presence and you allow yourself a pause from this normal, like quick, fast paced world that we're typically living in.

Let's go into that a little bit more because I've told clients for years, if you're leaving one meeting, if you have a busy day, if you're doing stuff back to back, I can apply it now to doing multiple interviews and all that. Just when you're driving around before you go into somewhere, just sit in the car for even 30 seconds or 60 seconds later longer and just, okay, why am I here? Why am I doing this? Because there was times in my career where it was like, oh yeah, you know, I'm Mr. Ambitious, whatever, crap. And it was just like, I did a whole lot today and it was very efficient and it was productive, but half of it I was like, why did I do. I didn't even want to. And it's like, okay, so you're doing it efficient. But was it even something you should have been? But what I always did just to make sure I wasn't. You ever meet those people that like roll into the room and they're like, oh my God.

Believe what happened to me? And I'm just like, tell me, sir, the same thing that happened to all of us traveling here.

Where are we going with this? And depending on if I'm in a playful mood or not, it might be generally like, I can sense they need the empathy and sympathy and all that. And other times it's like oh please, do tell. Let me get a drink and some food. I need some entertainment and to relax and I feel like you're going to entertain us for an hour. So why do you call the. For anyone who's doing stuff already that might not think it's meditation. Can you give me a couple other examples of what people might already be doing?

Yes. So these little mini moments of mindfulness. So a couple other very popular examples are going on walks, being around in nature. So that might be something like, hey, in between meetings I just go out and I take a walk around my block. Many of us do that already, right. That's considered a meditation in the, in the sense that you're pausing from everything and like choosing to mindfully kind of be out in the world. Right. Being in the shower and you know, instead of your mind running incessantly over all the tasks of the day, instead just getting into presence, which is focusing on the, the water hitting your body, you know, being quickly moving to a space of gratitude for, like, I have a warm shower every day and not everyone really gets that in this world. And you know, what a beautiful thing. So like, and then the, you know, breaths in the car is a really popular one. You know, just when you, after you drop off your kids, like take five deep breaths in your car before you go inside and sort of approach the day.

Another great one is exercising. Many of us athletes would describe our, you know, workouts as very meditative. Gardening, doing dishes, like things that are very like, mindless.

I'm making, I respectfully have to put the nicks on the dishes. That and wheat pulling.

Well, only in the sense because it allows us to sort of separate from this highway of thoughts that is usually rolling. Right. So we're so swimming, I mean, that's a workout, right? Absolutely. Swimming in particular. I'm a swimmer, so swimming in particular is really special in that it's actually forced, slow breathing. And I don't. If you're competitive swimming, obviously you're not breathing slow, but like it's a forced regulated breathing and that has an effect. Like if you've ever been scuba diving or snorkeling, like you naturally will calm down because you have to regulate your breath in a way because you can't breathe water. Right. So your naturally regulating your breath so that you're taking deeper breaths so that you're holding your breath longer so you're coming up and recharging, going back down. And so yes, all of these I think are pretty quote unquote normal activities that most of Us are doing in some way.

What if someone doesn't want to do it? We're talking about the benefits. I agree. We should. You obviously agree. I just hear someone chirping, going.

They don't want to do it, then don't do it.

I, I have zero, I have zero desire to force people into any activity that they don't want to do. That doesn't it. I'm not going to convince them that no, I could show statistics, I could give case studies. And if there's still somebody who's going to be like, no way, there's not for me. Fine, great. You do you. That's awesome. The only question that I would end with is, you know, how are you finding? How are you able to access calm in stressful moments? And the answer, they usually have an answer. And so to me, that's like, great, you've got a tool that works. That's awesome. Is it a good answer?

Are they just rebutting with something they've heard before?

I don't know. And it doesn't really matter to me. Like, I, I'm a big believer that everyone does what works for them. I have zero desire to convince people that's not what I'm doing. I'm here to just give options and give tools. And should somebody have an iota of an interest or an iota of a desire, they're going to come access what I have to offer. And if they absolutely do not, I'm not for them.

Perfect. I love it. So if someone's already doing it, but they're only doing it a little bit, like maybe they do the thing in the car, they go on a walk with their significant other, husband, wife.

How would you encourage them? Here's some other things you can do to expand on it. Is there a best time of the day?

Not universally, no. Like, I think every somebody asked me, I heard this a long time ago, like, when's the best time to work out? And you hear all the studies that tell you it's in the morning. That's not the best time to work out. The best time to work out is when you're going to work out regularly. That's the best time. The same holds true for meditation or any sort of mindful practice, which is when you're going to do it. That's the best time. So make it work for you. And there have been different seasons of my life that I've. Time has. And my schedule has looked differently, so my meditation practice has looked differently. And, and that's okay. Like, it doesn't need to be anything other than that there. So, you know, as an. As a next step for anyone who really wants to. To expand their meditation practice, I highly recommend guided meditations, which is why this is what I create. Because guided meditations, to me are much like having a personal trainer. Even if you're an athlete and you're used to working out, having a personal trainer takes the need for you to think about what exercise you're going to do, how you're going to do it all. It takes that whole thing off the table and out of your responsibilities. So guided meditations work the same. You don't. This is not being quiet and setting an alarm that, you know, you don't have to worry about what's going on in your head. And, like, am I doing okay? Crap. The thoughts keep coming. You literally just press play, and you let me guide you through it, and your experience is going to be your experience. So it's this amazing way to get the benefits of meditation without having to do having your mind have to do a lot of heavy lifting about thinking how you're going to do it or did you do it well, did it feel good? Like, all that sort of stuff, you just show up, press play, and you're done.

Like, especially if you're spun up with those thoughts because you might go. Might have trained yourself enough to go, okay, I need to do something. But you're still thinking about it over here. And like you said, the decision making, you know, kind of like movies. Oh, let's watch a movie to relax. Well, now there's 500,000 different.

I know, that's me. I get overwhelmed with the choices.

How are there 10 streaming, 10 dozen streaming services now, and there's nothing on.

I know, right? Oh, my gosh. I usually delegate that to my husband. I'm like, you choose. I just. I don't have the mental capacity to do it. You choose.

So do you advise? Not really advise. I was going to ask it. Should someone do the morning one and the night or it really. I'm sure you're going to say it depends.

Like, it honestly depends on what you need at any given moment. So I have 10 different podcasts, so. And they all specialize in something a little different. My original is called Meditation for Women, which has a little bit of everything. So if you like. If you like sort of having a buffet style of sleep, meditations, morning meditations, affirmations, sounds, all that sort of stuff, that's the podcast to listen to. But then obviously, sleep meditation for Women Morning meditation for women, Daily affirmations. I have a whole suite of sounds based podcasts. That's no guidance and so, you know, meditation for anxiety healing, meditation. So my goal is, is not to tell you this is the podcast you should listen to. My goal is to just give you all 10 of them and for you to say, oh, I'm feeling this today. This is what I need. They're really meant for, you know, the person. The morning meditation, for example, is a daily podcast. And so that typically attracts the person who. It loves the habit of it. Like they've gotten into the habit or they want to build that habit. And so they're using that as a tool in their morning to. To enrich their morning ritual. Sleep. Same thing. Like, that's somebody who really has the habit of using a meditation to wind down at night and to help themselves fall asleep and. But really, like all of them are this giant library of, you know, choose your own adventure. What do you need to hear today? You know, at this moment, later on tonight, early tomorrow morning, it doesn't really matter, like, what do you need? I got it.

What would you say is one of your biggest success stories of someone that found you and then started implementing it and then they actually told you down the road, hey, this has helped me so tremendously.

I am grateful that I have a lot of those stories.

Let's just keep it to your first two, 300.

Yeah, right.

You know, they all fall in. They all look something like. Not all of them, but this is. There's a giant chunk of people who are in this category. I was having intense anxiety during the pandemic, for example, and I couldn't sleep and therefore couldn't function and therefore, like, you know, almost lost my job. That kind of stuff. I found your sleep meditation podcast. I finally got some sleep. I could function throughout the day. I'm off whatever meds I was on and I'm. I can show up as a mom. I need to be now that. And that's pretty damn intense, you know, all the way to somebody who is like my kid, you know, the. Putting my kid to bed at night is painful. Her two year old. And now we go to bed, I sleep with her in her crib and we go to bed listening to your meditation every night. It's totally made a difference in how we are together and it's given us this little bonding moment at nighttime. So, you know, all the way to really what my deeper intentions are, which are, you know, women telling me I have a greater sense of myself. And a lot more confidence in who I am in this life that I am creating, because I'm. I use your podcasts to. To carve out this time for myself and to really allow these moments of mindfulness to. To allow me to create space so I know who I am, and I'm. I get her, and I'm listening to her a lot of those stories. So there's. It's amazing, and it's incredibly moving. I recently just had one woman reach out to me who told me that her father had passed away, like, a week prior, and it was really sudden. Do I have any meditations for grief? And I said, well, here's like, five of them that are related in somehow, but I've actually never written that. I'll write it for you, and I'll give it back to you, and you can listen. And so, you know, I give her a bunch. She says, thanks. I write and produce this beautiful, like, grief and healing sleep meditation. I give it to her, and I'm, you know, I kind of forget about it. And, like, two months pass by, and she says, I finally. I finally had the nerve to listen to your meditation. I wasn't ready until now. And I finally listened to it, and I was in tears, and it was incredibly cathartic. And it has helped me sort of move into another phase of this grieving journey. Thank you so much. Like, I'm like, you know, like, water works, like. Okay, so I've been really, really grateful with the feedback, the impact, which is exactly the burning fire of why I do what I do.

Yeah, I'm glad you were able to do that. For I remember what it was like after I lost my dad, and it was like, the next day, you're not exactly like, okay, what am I supposed to be doing today?

Yeah, it takes a minute and then some. Right.

And I'm glad you have this resource available, because I think some people don't even realize there's.

No.

No, I think there's a percentage. I was gonna say there's people who don't realize there's stuff out there like this, like, just help. But I think more of it is really what. You said she wasn't ready. A lot of people just have this.

You know, I feel the same way. I want to be available for someone if they need it. But at the same time, like you said, you can't force someone to help them with whatever it is if they're not ready for it. So.

How did you decide on just the women? Because I believe wholeheartedly men could benefit from this also. And men should be doing this. But why just the women was the focus.

Yeah. That's 100% my personality and my desires of the work that I want to do. So it's completely personal.

Anyone can listen. I mean, like, all of the podcast descriptions say, like, this is for women. And anyone who feels called to listen because most of them are actually not gender specific like it is, you know, minus the ones that are speaking to moms and, you know, talking about women's, you know, physical bodies and being in touch with them and.

Yeah. Might help.

What I'm talking about, you know. Anyway, so. So. But I would say 90% of my content is very universal. Could absolutely be used by anyone. And the reason I make it for women is two reasons. Number one, because I have always been passionate about wanting to make an impact with women in the. So it's just my personal desire. And that was married with the fact that there was a giant open niche that I was like, oh, I'm. Oh, I'm going to contribute to this in a big way. And I can't believe I'm really going to be this first one here, really. And so it was a business decision. I was like, this is a niche, and I can't believe it's not being filled. And I'm going to fill it.

Good for you on the first part and smart on the second.

Thank you. Yeah. I get a lot of pushback about that, by the way you think in the space of meditation and mindfulness, like, how in the world would I get hate? Right? Like, and all of us podcasters, I think, especially these days, are very aware of. Of kind of the yucky darkness of hate that can be spewed upon any one of us about, you know, not agreeing with what we're talking about. And I'm thinking, like, oh, there's no way. Like, mindfulness, like meditation, there's. It's all about love. Like, how could anyone come at me? No, I get a lot of people coming at me for being sexist. How dare I make this just for women. Don't. You know, spiritual and mindful arena is supposed to be all loving and all embracing, and you are completely eliminating people, and that's not okay. And I'm like, okay. And at first, my first couple, I tried to argue back, like, it's called the niche. Hi. And try to give my reasoning demographic. Yeah. And at some point, I was like, I'm never gonna win this argument. That's totally. It's not worth my time. So I. It's still there. Like, I still get that hate and that's okay. And I'm surprised by it still. Like, really? Really?

It doesn't make sense. I had no clue. It's not why I brought it up, but it's, it's. I feel tempted to make jokes because, yeah, it's like calm, you know, help people, love people. It's like, except you and you and you and you. You go in the corner, you sit down and you get the heck out of here.

It's like if I were creating meditations for kids, which, you know, I have done that before. And it's like, so what do you got against adults? Oh, exactly. I'm like, oh my God. Go to the library of podcasts out there that have plenty of stuff. I am not here to be everything for everyone. And by the way, none of us can survive if we choose to do that. So, like, no, I'm. Bye. Like, that's done.

Kind of stuff is like, definitely where it's like, let's get some food and sit back and let's see where these two just end up.

I call it entertained.

I call it bucket C. And I have a whole list of stuff and it's like ideas for a stand up routine or movie scripts. Like, it's the stuff in movies that you're like, that's hilarious. But when you do it in real life, it's like, you're a jerk. It's like, no, I'm just filming it to document it.

Yeah, so whatever. Yeah, it is what it is.

Well, you're doing the right thing by helping the people. And it's so refreshing to hear because I don't know if it's just in business and I pride myself on bringing people onto the show and just knowing them that are helping people, because I think we'll flip it into business. There's so many people that really aren't out with a heart centric spirituality. They're just, it's data, dollars, transactions. And it's like, you can still have a successful business and still care about people.

Yeah, yeah, very true. And. And you can have the opposite, actually. So in my arena, it is not the norm to have to be big in business in this arena. And I think that that's one of the things that's kind of set me apart is that I, I came to this with a very. No, I don't. I mean, maybe, I don't know, but it just is sort of like, hey, you're in the spiritual realm, you're a healer, you're not supposed to make money. There's a big limiting belief that is like, like palpable within that arena. How dare you charge for things like, how dare you make money for this? And that's a, you know, a bad personification of that. But, like, that exists within this arena. And so here I come with very much a business mindset to this. Like, I was simultaneously thinking about the work I want to do in the world and the business model behind it and wanting both to be incredibly abundant. And so, you know, the podcast has, the whole network has grown. It is a very successful business. It's far more successful than my other business ever was. And I have no apologies about that. That feels really good to be able to say, yeah, I'm in this mindfulness space, I'm in this meditation space and like, we're doing big things and we're going big and I'm not stopping. And there's more and more and more that I can do. And so I feel like that's worked to my benefit. But it's interesting those, you know, those mindsets really like sort of like pigeonholing folks in different spaces.

I'm so happy to hear that because not, not about the people being stupid and all that, but the, the part where your business is succeeding. Because one of my recent guests, Fabienne Fredrickson, we were just talking about how she helps people go from six figures and overwhelmed to seven figures, stress free. And her focus is helping the women. You know, hey, you can have the family, you can have the life, you can have the successful business. And I want to bring all of that back to why do you think people have that limiting belief? Especially in this. If you're a healer, you can't have a successful business.

I don't know, other than.

I feel like it has something to do with you're doing good in this world, you're helping people. And you should not profit from that because, and I'm speaking in the limiting belief, because profit is bad and evil. Somewhere along the way we've made profit bad and evil because. Yes. Have there, are there examples of companies who are profitable and pretty damn evil? Absolutely. Does that mean that profit itself is evil? No. It is all about the beating heart behind the company, the engine that's driving that company. If you are a good person and you want to do good things in this world, when you have more money, you do more good things in this world, your goodness gets accentuated. If you're jerk hole and you have more money, you're that. That jerk Wholeness is going to get accentuated. I like, I like to have made up words here. That's all going to get accentuated. So money itself, profit itself is not evil, bad or good. It is the person behind it and their intentions. Money is just this thing that then, you know, aligns with that energy. So there's a lot of good I want to do in this world and I am calling in the abundance so that I can do more and more of it with the profits that come in. So that's my intention, that's how I approach it. And, and that is, that's a very different belief system. I grew up with the belief system. I grew up. My parents didn't directly teach me this, but by kind of their example, what I was, what I was taught was that if you are rich, then that means that you obviously work too much and therefore you're not a good family person. This is, these are never words that my parents would ever directly tell me, but just by their example and sort of how they moved in the world and what they were proud of and what they were not proud of, that's, that's the, the message that I got. They are incredibly family centric, which is a beautiful thing.

Work.

You work to live. You don't live to work. Like, you know, vacations are celebrated and not that you ha your job, but like you just kind of work, do work that you love, but it's just to pay the bills and then to, to be together as a family. Right. So if there was too much money, it obviously meant that you were working too much and therefore not around for your family. So I had a lot of this gunk come up when I first became a mom because my business already existed and it was a lot and especially in the Women's Meditation Network over the past couple of years because my job as mom has accentuated my job for this network, to build it to what I want it to be has, has risen and grown. And so I had to really deal with those very directly. Like I can be a great mom who spends a lot of quality time with my kids and I can grow a mega business that has 10 plus podcasts, 20 podcasts, 30100 podcasts. As a part of this network.

That'S generating really good revenue, that's, that's hiring and you know, has 13 people that are a part of its, it's, it's business like that are making it work. Like I've got a legit media company and I refuse to believe that, that because of that I Am less of a mom now. I have had to do the work to make sure that I'm not making an either or thing here. Like, and I think that that's very conscious work. And I don't know if I think it takes being mindful of self and your self talk and being aware of these limiting beliefs in order to then sidestep those or transcend those.

Yeah. I like to say in business also, it's not either or. It's. And yeah.

Yeah.

Why is it we want to do this or that, you know, to your point? Well, I want to be successful and a mom.

Yeah. And that's a lot of how my network has grown, which has been like walking on the beach with my husband going, I want this to grow, but I'm not willing to be. To, you know, I want to grow to a second podcast. For example, back in 2020, I launched my second podcast and I was like, I want this. I want this network to grow. It's ready to grow. But. But I know how much work that one podcast takes. And so.

Right.

How I don't want to double that work. So, so much of our conversations, even now in, you know, the launch schedule that we have for the new shows is very much. How is this sustainable? How is this not killing the golden goose?

Because you can see the time extrapolated out over the next two, three years. If this grows 15 and this grows 20% times 5, 6, 7, 8.

Yeah, exactly. And. And these are years like business. I can always do over. I can't do over raising my kids. And so I'm. That is the beating heart of the value system in my life. So everything revolves around that. So. But I'm also not willing to. To let up on the gas pedal here either. So that takes a lot of. That takes a lot of head work, a lot of heart work, and a lot of implementation and trial and error. So.

Well, you're doing it. And it's exciting to see because I remember hearing about it early on and just watching you grow, and it's. It's inspiring, honestly, because regardless of what someone starts a podcast for, I don't know the stats, but I'd have to say it's probably less than 20%. Turn it into a network and let alone a thriving network, let alone continue it on and still continue to grow it.

Yeah, yeah, it's. There aren't that. There aren't that many of us. And. But I think that the key like this, this is what my version of success looks like, because this was my vision but all of us have our own different version of success, right? Like, sure, my numbers are sexy and, you know, the business model is awesome, but, like, that's for me, all of us have this own different version of what that might look like. And really what's behind it is like, am I fulfilled? This is a fun game that I get to play every day. And sometimes it's daunting, and sometimes it's really frustrating, but most of the times I'm really enjoying myself. And it's fun and it's different and it's creative. And I'm constantly being challenged on how to do this, how to actually grow a company, how to grow a team, how to grow operations, how to. How to, you know, get ready for all of these things, how to operationalize a lot of everything that we're doing, and how to still be the writer who's connecting on such an intimate level with. With the listener. Right? So. But I love it. I love it. And there are so many people like me who have. Don't have anything of what I have. Theirs looks very differently. And they're still saying that, I love it, I love it. And that to me.

And that's what's coming through. And I think when people realize it's more about what do you want? Versus, okay, I need to copy what so and so is doing. Like, obviously you're going to look at thought leaders and inspirational speakers and stuff and go, wow, I'd love to, you know, get a ballpark idea, because clearly they've done it and you can model it. But I think too many people just straight up go, I need to do everything to a tea. Especially in podcasting. Holy crap. If I see another show that says the such and such podcast, like, really, they're on Apple podcast, you have to tell them it's a podcast. Whole other thing, but you know what I mean? It's like, I love that you've made it yours, and.

It'S shining. It's showing through everyone. Everyone can feel it. So thank you. I have to ask you about this dude ad Wheel of whatever.

What do you got for me? Wheel Yellow.

Well, I mean, I can ask you. I should track that. I feel like yellow always gets picked on more.

It's sunshine.

Yeah.

I could ask you so many things because I designed that so I could basically ask whatever I want.

Beautiful. I'm open.

I want to know, with all this stuff you give to everyone else, where. What is a dream? I don't want to say Trip, but what would be a dream day? What Would be a dream week for Katie that you haven't done yet.

Yeah, I'm in planning mode for this actually. I want to bring for me that looks like reunion with family. So where, where do we want to go? Like I'm talking like my extended family, like my, you know, immediate family. Sorry. And my husband's immediate family that we all get along really well. And I have a large family. There's six kids in my family. So like you're talking like nieces and nephews and in laws but it's like all of us. And I think something as simple as like going to Wyoming and you know, being out in an open space having like multiple cabins and just all hanging out and being able to like be with each other and do fun things out in nature like that just sounds like a blast to me. Just, you know, just being together with my family, as crazy as we are, like we love each other and I would love to create more memories. That's part of why I do what I do. Because I want to create more memories with my family. I want to be able to finance that really and you know, give us all really like, like a no BS excuse to come together and see each other and have and make new memories.

That would be special. Thank you for sharing that. That does sound like fun. We're going to thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action room. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@eapublishingmethodbook.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having.

An idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published.

Or Catherine, thank you for making my.

Mom number one best selling author.

Or Mary Alice, what he got done.

For me in three days regarding my book launch.

Unmanageable.

John Cody. I've worked with Mario over the phone and online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rocio.

There's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele, if you're looking for an amazing business Coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficcini or Bill Benner.

I can't make a higher recommendation.

To work with Mario Ficcini. He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody.

Else except for Mario.

Hey, their words, not mine. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get your copy and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com and we are back with the imperfect action around Katie. Are you ready to take imperfect action?

Let's do it.

What's the fastest path to the cash?

Being intentional about it from the get go. Really like facing head on. How am I making money here? I read a book called the, I think it was called the Goal many, many years ago. And the whole point, he asks this question, what is the number one priority for any business? And you think it's like, oh, I want to do good in the world. Oh, I want to, you know, support my employees and build a great culture. I want to be able to give back to the community. He said, no, those are all secondary to the one number one goal, which is make a profit. Because you can't do any of those without making a profit. So I think being very honest about that because once you're honest about that and you've let go of any sort of negativity that that might be or any expectations of like, oh, I'm immediately going to make a million dollars in the first six months. Right. Which has happened before. But you know, I think if you can face that head on and be honest about that, then you will see a bunch of opportunities in front of you that perhaps you would not have been able to see.

I was thinking about that recently also because I'm very much that way, geared, heart centric. Do you think a lot of entre. And this isn't one of the questions, but do you think a lot of entrepreneurs start a business with some sort of passion and philanthropic component of it that may dissuade them if they don't have as high of a business acumen?

I mean, I, there's, I feel like you're, you're either an entrepreneur who starts knowing the market and like finding where there's going to be profit and then building a business around that. So that's one way of doing it. And then there's also, hey, I have a passion doing this. Let me start doing this and then let me figure out the business model along the way. That was my first business, I definitely did that. And I feel like, yeah, like, it's very easy to get burnt out if you ha. If you don't at some point face the business model and say, how. No, how does this thing make money? And, you know, how does it make good money? And how does it not only survive but really thrive? And so it can be. It can lead to really early burnout for that stuff.

Okay. Appreciate the insight on that. So many other questions. Number two, what's the biggest problem you see your prospects making in the fastest way for them to fix it?

My prospects, as in my listeners.

I mean, I would just say, like, not coming to meditation sooner.

Or fighting it.

Yeah. Or fighting it. Or just not making time for it. Not making it a priority. I think at some point, just like exercise, you really start to see, like, oh, this is really. This is really a lifestyle. Like, I really need to incorporate this somehow almost every day. And there needs to be some level of that. So I think that that's the thing is like, you know, the problem. The. The thing that they do is like, think. Think that it has to be perfect. They think that it has to, you know, look like something specific. And so they're not just showing up every day to press play. And so, you know, that's how I fix it is like, I just give them the library and all I can do is make sure that, you know, that it's there.

Excellent. And number three, what's the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Give phenomenal content. My mantra throughout this business has been high quality and high quantity. High quality and high quantity. We often think that those two things can't go together. But the vast majority, 80% of my podcasts are daily episodes. You want to talk about 10 podcasts, daily episodes? That's a crap ton of content. And so I.

Want to make sure that all that content is super high quality and high quantity so I can get the benefit of that. So that's one is just give phenomenal content and then secondly, to be able to build.

Relationship in a way that's appropriate for you. We all look at that right now and might say like, oh, that means that I have to interact with my community and build a community and have community events, and it could be something as simple. I used to do that in my old business. I absolutely did not want to do that in this business. I wanted to be a little bit more.

Separated in that because that was a lot of energy and attention. And it's not that it's bad, it just wasn't for me in this next phase of my life. But there are things that I could do. Like I could do little shout outs to listeners. I could, you know, I could thank them on social media. I can make sure they get some personal attention from me in some way. Not in a organized. Every day I do these things, but like just at random with, you know, intention, with my heart, but making sure that they feel special in some way and that, you know, the community at large can hear that.

All great suggestions. You've mentioned it a couple earlier and it's one of my favorite parts. With all the book publishing we do, what are some books that have helped your business and life the most?

The one that's popping to mind the most immediately is David Goggins.

Can't Hurt Me. I think that's what it's called. I don't know if you're familiar with David Goggins. It is not a business book at all. It is a. It is a book about his life. He's a.

It's not his newest one. It's the one from a few years back.

I just started reading that one, which is called Never Finished. Anyway, he is just this marvelous, incredibly intense and raw and real human being. And so what the reader ends up getting out of it is how to intensify their own lives and live as unabashedly and as fully as possible. And so you read that book, there's no such thing called you read it and then you're done. Like, that's a book, sort of like a bible I'm constantly coming back to and listening to again to sort of get a different perspective, to go deeper into me, to, to push myself harder, to. To make sure I'm. I'm living like I don't want to have any sense of regret by the time I die. I want to live as fully as possible. So, yeah, he's been one who's been very influential.

Excellent, great suggestion. Where would you like people to learn? I mean, I mean, seriously, if you guys are listening to this and you don't know by now, but.

Where would you like people to learn more?

So on the podcast player that you're listening to now, or wherever you're watching now, just go into your podcast player and type in Meditation for Women. That title is in just about every podcast that I have. Or you can even type in Women's Meditation Network. All of mine will come up as well. Or you can go to womensmeditationnetwork.com Excellent.

Well, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for everything you've shared and can't wait to talk to you again.

Thanks so much Mario. I really appreciate your time.

All right, Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day and God bless.

You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 24? 7? And if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, the Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get started. Now. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.Com thanks for listening to today's episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it. If you haven't done so already. I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly at eainterviews.com LinkedIn Once again, that's eainterviews.com LinkedIn lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.