069: The Mind, Body, Spirit of Success with Zhena Muzyka

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Zena Musica has a resume that could put so many to shame. She's an award winning, purpose driven social entrepreneur, teacher, author, executive coach, public speaker and former publisher. But what you don't know about her yet is her passion is serving others and being an activist for women's rights is what drives her. She is also the enrolling visionary behind Fair Trade Teas, being in the big box stores everywhere now. As an immigrant from a family of gypsies, she has been on a mission to serve others since she was a little girl. When at 25, she became a single mom to a son with a birth defect, she surrendered to prayer for what she was called to do next. Seeing a tea party in that moment shifted her entire future. Join in today and learn exactly how Xena Musica levels up continually and creates everything from nothing. Today I'm here with Xena Musica and she's a social entrepreneur and an activist for women's rights in developing countries. And even greater, she's a pioneer of fair trade. In fact, she is the one that got fair trade tease into a lot of the big names. Susina, thank you so much for being here with me today. I can't wait to dive in.

Yeah, I'm excited. Thanks for having me.

So there's so much on your resume right now. There's so many things that we could say that you do. In fact, I asked you before we even started if you met someone at a party and they said, what do you do? And you listed out like a lot of entrepreneurs do. Like it depends on the day.

Well, we're like, don't pin us down.

We're entrepreneurs. Don't put me in a box. So. But who were you before all this? Because you're so well known, you've done done so many amazing things. But who were you before all this?

Well, I started out. My family's immigrant from the Ukraine and I started out in a little town and my grandmother had escaped concentration camp. She was quite remarkable. And she taught me herbal medicine and she taught me how to heal anything with herbs and things that you could grow in your own yard. And she was my mentor. Her name was Maria Muzika. And what happened was, as I grew up, there weren't a lot of opportunities where I lived. I received a full scholarship from an all women's college in the Midwest. And I went out there and I found the power of sisterhood in a big way. And so the all women's college is owned by a secret sisterhood. They fund all the women going. And we had to take a vow to protect other women when we got there. And I thought, wow, this is intense. Amazing. I wonder how I'm going to use this. And so the theme of my life has really been about helping women. And when I asked them how I could repay them for my college education, they said, empower other women, support other women and protect other women. So I was like, okay, I'm in. What happened was when I left school, I went and studied herbal medicine in Peru. And I wanted to write a story. I wanted to write my grandmother's story of how she had escaped, you know, so many terrible situations during World War II. And after. And I got a creative writing grant. I moved into a really inexpensive little cabin. I was living off the grid. I wrote the book about my grandmother's history. Just as I was finishing it, I found out I was pregnant with my son. And I was single. I mean, I was, you know, I had a love interest, but I was pretty single. And my son was born and he had a really severe birth defect in his kidneys. And I had no resources. The dad didn't give us any resources. He kind of just, you know, he was present, but not financially present. And I was 25, had just turned 25. I had this child who had special needs, needed all these operations. I went to go try to get better health insurance to help cover this. And the health insurance company said, oh, birth defects are pre existing conditions. We can't help you. Whoa.

Just bam, bam, bam. Like one thing after the next.

Yeah. And it was life or death for real. And so what happened then was, you know, I basically got on my knees like we all do when we're at the bottom, and I said, okay, God, show me what you want me to do. I'll do anything, I swear. Just give me some instructions. And I saw a tea party and I. Not normal thing, right? But you know, my grandmother was gypsy and that was why her story was so fascinating. And she taught me herbal medicine and herbal concoctions and herbal teas. And so I thought, oh, I'll throw a Gypsy tea party to celebrate my grandmother's life and to create teas that she taught me how to make. And I threw one locally and I brought all the botanicals I had grown out of my yard. And 300 people showed up. I sold out of tea within an hour and I was in business. And within a couple years, I was doing two and a half, then 3.5 million, then 4.5 million, then five and a half million, then 6 million, then 7 million, the 8 million, and I got up to about 12 million. I was able to fund my son's surgeries. I was able to really become empowered myself in business. And what happened was when I discovered that the tea workers in the T fields weren't. They had no medical care, they had high infant mortality rates and all that, I decided to make that my mission. Women who put me through school, you know, their voices rang in my head and they said, protect other women. And I thought, okay, it's on.

Oh my gosh. Okay. I have so many questions right now. You just gave us so much information in like two seconds. Okay, I gotta, I gotta back up because I gotta. I'm like, okay, coming up for me, let's start with the grandmother and the concentration camp. Now, you said gypsy. So she, I'm assuming she wasn't Jewish. She was a gypsy and that's why she was there.

Well, a Jew married a gypsy.

Okay.

And that's my family. Okay.

So for those of you that don't know gypsy, like, there's already. There's a little bit of a. It's like a modern day woo woo today.

Right? You know, it's a. Basically they're a culture. They're not a particular race. They're from all over the world. They are a particular race, but they live. And so they originated in India about 900 years ago, and then they migrated and they have. They're called Romans is the traditional name. And people have called them gypsies because they thought they originated from Egypt. And then it became somewhat of a derogatory term and then it became a marketing term. So Gypsies are a culture that doesn't see any one country as their home. They see the whole world as their home. They are mostly. The religion is female centric, so believe in Saint Sera. Saint Sera. And they worship.

So it's actually a religion. It's actually a religion.

Well, you know, my grandmother was Greek Orthodox, so can be anything, but it's kind of like. It's kind of like if you are from a certain region and then you Live in other places, you always carry that. Those sort of beliefs with you. And so gypsies are kind of like Jewish, but their religion is basically adapted for wherever they live. But there are a certain race of people that originated out of India.

Okay, so she's in a concentration camp. She escapes. So I'm imagining you as a child were hearing stories about this.

Oh, my God. Well, and my great aunt Zina, who I'm named after, was still in the Ukraine, who stayed. She was the only one that stayed and survived. Turns out she became the queen of her village.

And your grandmother or your aunt?

My aunt. She was queen of the gypsies. And so because she had two cows and she was an entrepreneur, so I was like, all right, you named me. Well, grandma.

Okay, two cows and an entrepreneur.

But basically. So the gypsy culture, I was fascinated by it. I wanted to write about it. And then it ended up becoming a business. So I started Zenith Gypsy Tea. And it got big and it was really fun. I threw gypsy tea parties all over with belly dancing and tea leaf readers and women's empowerment. And I educated people on fair trade and basically how the workers in the tea fields didn't have a voice, and we charged a little extra, and we got them health care, maternity leave, we built schools, we got them equal rights. It's a really incredible program.

No, it sounds absolutely incredible. So I'm trying. I want to. I'm trying to, like, just unwind it a little bit or peel back the layers just so I can understand where this even, because it's so powerful. So many things that you said here that are really gold for people listening. So first and foremost, I love the connection. So you grew up hearing stories from your grandmother, so you felt a calling towards that and you felt a connection towards what they taught.

Well. And I wanted to tell the story of the gypsies, because gypsies are thought of as thieves, and, you know, they're not. You know, people love to call, you know, themselves gypsies if they're like, oh, yeah, I love to travel. I'm a gypsy. But the actual culture, you know, they're. They're marginalized and things aren't fair for them. Sure. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to take the stigma away from the name and make it beautiful.

So you. So I'm assuming as a child, you kind of had this vision somehow about this a little bit, but you didn't really know what it was going to turn into. Is that correct?

Well, I know that I could combine my culture and give it dignity again. And I could combine the tea potions and the herbal medicine migration. Grandmother was a healer and somehow do something with it, but I never knew what. So when I was writing the book about her, I basically realized that throughout history, gypsies have been both marginalized and the ones that people would go to for beauty and dance and music and healing. And so I thought, wow, why is this culture so, you know, tamped down and treated poorly when really they bring so many gifts to the world and it really was reliant on poverty. And so when I heard about the women in the tea fields going through the same thing, they were basically plucking tea 9,000 miles away from us in the US and making less than a dollar a day. And no advocate. I was like, wow, so the tea workers are kind of like gypsies?

No, totally.

We have to fight for them. And, you know, I'm a little street fighter. I think you're a fighter, too.

I'm going to dive back into. I want to know more about the T and that calling, but there's a little bit of a gap here that I want to fill because I want to get really clear on. So you, so you, you grow up with these stories, you feel a connection to it. You like what your grandmother, what your aunt stood for. You, you know this. But now you're. You're going through school, you're studying herbal medicine and your creative writing, and you find out you're pregnant, which is right at 25, which I can only imagine how scary, being a single mom at 25, and then you have a special needs son. So when this was happening, when this was, when you were going through that before you knew that what you were going to turn kind of that pain into and what that was happening, what was going through your mind? Like, did you feel empowered? Did you feel helpless? Like, what was, what was your state during that time?

I felt scared. I felt that no one. You know, I. I wasn't very close with my family at the time, and my grandmother had passed away, and I kind of had gone against, you know, what they thought I should do. And. And then getting pregnant without being married was a really big problem. And so I was alone, I was really isolated, and I was scared. And what ended up happening, I wrote a. It. It's called Life by the cup. And it talks about how I learned. The number one thing I learned to do was I learned to ask for help. And I had this neighbor who had. Who had these incredible gardens full of food, and she basically Would bring food over and we got close and I told her about my dream to start a tea party celebrating the gypsy culture that would help others in the tea fields. And it turned out she was the heiress to a big fortune, even though she looked like a hippie. And she, I want to you, let's invest.

Don't judge a book by its cover. You never know.

Absolutely. And we became really close and she helped me. I started with just a little tea cart and I basically would go around with it and serve tea at events. And I would throw these gypsy tea parties with belly dancers because I love the model of belly dancing that it was like if you had a belly. And it was a celebration of femininity. So I just kind of tied it all together.

And yeah, it sounds like you were kind of like living in your vision, but you didn't even really know what that was gonna create for you.

It was very courageous to throw a gypsy tea party in the little town where I live. People were like, what's that? I was like, I don't know, just show up. And I put flyers up everywhere and I was like, okay, I got all my belly dancing friends to come and perform, and I traded tea and I got all jewelry designers to bring their jewelry and I traded, you know, and I just charged him a percentage. And all of a sudden I made like a thousand dollars in an hour. And I was like, whoa, this is like the most money I've seen in a long time.

And you were. And imagine you're doing it to help fund and pay for your son. Right.

That was the whole point.

I mean, yeah, but you didn't know it was gonna turn into what it was turning into.

Oh, it was survival.

What do you think you attribute that part to? Like, before we even get into how it got into $12 million?

Absolutely. Serve. It was with a mission to serve. You cannot fail. I was doing other than myself. I was doing it for my child. I was doing it for. I was doing it to honor my grandmother. And so I think anytime that I've gotten in, you know, in recent years, as I've been successful and started all, you know, more businesses and other things, I've looked at the times when I have, you know, stubbed my toes, fallen down, not done a good job. It's really when I was self centered or super focused on ego. Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, I find that when I look back, I had no other option. So it was success or nothing. And I had, you know, I couldn't really move back in with My parents with a baby. It just wasn't going to work. It was not a healthy environment. And so I basically. It was like, make it or die, really.

What I'm also. What's interesting about this is, I'm assuming. And I don't know, but I'm assuming you didn't really care what anyone else.

Thought when you were doing this at that point. No. And that's really. That was really powerful because people were like, what? Your plan is to have a gypsy party? That's how you're gonna save your kid. You're like. But then when a thousand people, you know, or 300 people showed up to the first one, and everybody was like, wow, this is really cool. Like, you know, there's a celebration of women's bodies. People are laughing, people are having fun. Everyone's displaying their art. People are buying things from each other. They're drinking tea, there's music. Like, people were like, wow, this is actually really special. Like, we. We want to do more of these. And so I started doing gypsy tea parties all over. Like, even in grocery stores. Like, Whole Foods put them in all their stores at one point. And it was a celebration of women, and it was a celebration of the fierce feminine, but it was also to fund the feminine. It was also so beautiful.

So how does this go from a tea party to whole food, $1,000 to two and a half million to five million to, like, how does that even happen?

It was the products. Coconut chai was like my bestseller. Raspberry, Earl Grey, Gypsy Rose. Like, I have these incredible blends and potions that I would formulate in my kitchen, and people fell in love with them. I used essential oils instead of flavors, and I made them really spectacular, and people would taste them, and then they wanted more. And so what happened was I kept needing to raise more money because we were growing like a hockey stick. And then the grocery store chains discovered me. Whole Foods discovered me at a trade sh. And they asked if I would go into the stores, and I absolutely said yes. And so I had to go to banks. No one would give me a loan. So I raised private investment money, and I got it pretty. You know, I think we were valued at 24, 25 million. And then I got these big investors from New York to come in, and they brought some money in late. You know, not a lot, maybe a million or two. And then it was then the economic crash happened, and I was like, crap. I was doing a massive launch at the time into all the Whole Foods with an exclusive biodynamic product for them. And then I had to raise, like, four and a half million dollars in emergency money. So I lost the majority of my company. I stayed on for another six years and then left. They did a whole bunch of. They made a ton of mistakes, which is common, and they. A bunch of diet teas and. I know you're a wig.

I don't talk about diet teas.

Yeah, exactly. And I was so against them. I was like, oh, my God, you're gonna make people sick. Like, this is not into it. I left the company. I left the company over that. And what ended up happening was my publisher, Simon and Schuster, loved my marketing chops, loved my book, and they offered me my own imprint. So I became a publisher there for four and a half years, and then I just left that a few months ago. And now I combine tea and transformational media and my new company called Magic Hour.

Okay, before we even get into Magic Hour, talk to me about your son while you're.

Because he's amazing.

But how. And how did you also, like, as an entrepreneur, being busy doing this, manage that?

Okay. So his dad wasn't around financially, but he was around physically. So he would take care of him while I would do trade shows, which was great. So I had to earn the money to pay for everything, and he was physically present, so that was where I had a huge advantage.

You had a support system right there.

Absolutely. Yeah. And so Sage had three major operations, and I was able to pay everything. And then finally, I had enough employees to get health insurance where he could be part of it. And it really was a game changer. And now he is 19, and he's my photographer for my company. And he's beautiful and healthy. And, yeah, it's an ongoing thing. We have to maintain his health, but it's, you know, he's a spectacular, wise, beautiful young man.

Now, talk to me now about the fair trade thing, because first and foremost, a lot of listeners don't even know what that means. So can you share what fair trade.

Means and why this became important to you? Oh, no. Fair trade is everything. So basically, if you go to a grocery store and you see something that's fair trade certified, you basically know that the workers are receiving a fair wage. You basically know that if it's coffee, that there's a base amount that they're getting for their product. Because what happens is when it's a commodity, the global auctions, like a hedge fund manager in New York can actually dictate what happens to a commodity. And what happens is that the workers who are actually on the ground can basically lose everything where they feed their children. So fair trade guarantees them a living wage. It guarantees them a fair amount for their. For their products. And it also guarantees that there's no child labor. They aren't exposed to harsh chemicals. They're allowed to unionize and advocate for themselves. They're also given guaranteed maternity leave and health care.

I love that.

It is the answer to ending poverty in so many ways. And it's something everybody can do in the grocery store every day or online.

How does it end poverty? Explain that.

Well, basically, if you were so the women in the tea fields, when I discovered it, they were making about $1.25 a day, and they had to produce 8 kg in order to make that $25.

I can't even imagine.

Well, and 8 kg of tea come to find is when I would go to the tea fields and work with them. I realized it was 2,000 plucks per kilo.

Wow.

16,000 plucks. And they're wearing these baskets on their head on these steep mountain terrains. There's no basket bathrooms, there's no health care. There's no lunch breaks. There's nothing. They're producing this eight kilos. They're getting it to the factory, getting it weighed, and then they get their $1.25. They then where did they go to live? They were living in shanties. They were living five to a room. They were living in. You know, it was unbelievable. Treated like animals, really, very much with no dignity. No bathrooms, no health care, nothing. So fair trade basically goes in and says, okay, you as a t estate have to qualify, you have to give. You have to guarant maternity leave, education, no child labor, you have to guarantee housing, you have to guarantee this and that, and then you can be certified fair trade. And that is why it's so important for us to choose fair trade. Because if it's not certified fair trade, I mean, sometimes it can come from a small grower, and that's fine. Like the small growers are, you know, they can't afford to, you know, necessarily build new schools every year or they can't do this or that, but they're still. They're still working hard at it. But unless you know where your products are coming from, you don't really know what the way with fast, fast.

Nobody buy tea. That's not fair trade anymore. Absolutely. Yeah. It's incredible. And then good for you. You took a stance. You said you got the fair trade tea.

Yeah. Based on mega Retailers. Yeah. Once I figured out like, wow, this is a problem and this can be fixed and all I need is a lot of sales because it's sales driven. So. So I was like, wow, I'm a pretty small company. What if I went to Walmart and educated them on it? What if I went to Kroger and Super Value and Safeway? So I just started meeting with the executive teams and showing them videos I had made and pictures I had taken in the non Fair trade gardens and the Fair Trade gardens and the Fair Trade gardens. Once they saw the difference physically, they were like, oh my God, like we have to help, we're in. And they jumped in and they started helping. Walmart was awesome. Kroger was amazing. I mean, they built my business. Insane.

What I love about you and what I keep hearing this theme around is it's like you didn't have to really sell anything because you were enrolling people in your vision constantly. You saw a mission, a vision, and people followed it.

Absolutely. And I always say too, when I do keynotes or whatever, with the mission to serve you cannot fail. And I wasn't selling tea, I was selling hope. And the tea. Tea came with it.

Gosh, it's so good. I love this. This is so many light bulb moments here. And what a great example for your, for your son and also just for women in general.

And then, and my daughter now.

Oh my gosh, your daughter now. Amazing. And then your. And your grandmother would be so proud. Wow. Yeah, she's.

I can feel her around me when I'm doing things right.

Yeah, that's really incredible. So I love all of this. So, okay, so, so now, so you, so you, you've made a huge impact in the world as far as affairs, fair trade, for being an advocate for all of us. Now I understand why you gave me the list of things that you do. What do you want people to know about you right now? Like what if, what do you stand for? What do you want? What do you see? What's your vision?

Yeah, I mean, what I'm doing now is. So what happens with most female founders in business is when they receive professional money, about 95% of them will get kicked out of their company within a year.

Really? Why is that?

That? It's because. Well, it's changing now that we've had me too in the last year and a half. But basically what happens is investors tend to think that founders are not smart enough or that they're, oh, they're just passionate or, oh, this or that. And so what ends up happening is the founder often gets depleted and overworked, and then they ask the founder to leave. And what I noticed is there's a trend with women not being able to ask for the their worth, not being able to actually embody their worth and demand it. And so I really. Right now, my mission is not only, you know, I have Club Magic Hour, which I'll tell you about, but my mission is really to help women understand what they're worth and how to ask for it, how to embody it, and how to move through the world knowing their worth.

Yeah. You know what? This is really interesting right here, because I think what I'm hearing you say and what's coming up for me is, so women have been so many. I'm generalizing right now, but this is very common. Women are generally. We're taught that we're maybe not as good as men. Like, we're not as smart as men.

So then we're not worth as much.

We're not worth as much. And then. And then a female starts a business. I'm a female that started a business. So we start. We start a business, and then when we have any kind of struggle, we look for the rescuer. It's just like in our DNA a lot of times. So then you find an investor, they come in.

Well, it was either that or close my business down. So I did a deal with Whole Foods, and I had to buy futures on a specific tea that. And so I was about three and a half million into. I bought. I basically bought two years of a garden's yield. I had to prepay for it to guarantee I would have it. And then when Whole Foods never reordered, they basically, when the economy slipped, they were like, oops, sorry, you can't do premium tea.

We got scary.

I was stuck with three and a half million dollars worth of tea that I couldn't sell.

So here you thought you had this great opportunity and this great help, and then it's like it crumbles away.

Absolutely. And what I would have done better, now that I look back at that, is I would have gotten them basically legally bound in a way. But back then it was like, oh, my God, you're going into Whole Foods. Oh, my God. Whole Foods wants an exclusive with you. Oh, my God, do whatever. And what I noticed is I would always discount myself. So I didn't. Because I wanted the sale so bad.

You wanted the approval, too. Like, look at who's approving me.

Exactly. Because I wanted all of that so badly, I compromised My own worth. Yeah, that's what cost me at the end of the day. And that's what I'm. That's what I'm up to.

What a powerful lesson in that. I think there's a lot of women listening that do that.

Absolutely. We do it subtly as well. You know, I coach a lot of women. I have a program called Pop Power Platform. And what happens is I look at them and I go, okay, well how much are you charging? And they'll. They almost like their, their shoulders raised. Like, I'm charging like 175 an hour. And I'm like, oh my God, what. What can we do to get you to 375? Like, let's look at. Oh, I could never ask that. I'm like, no, you can't ask that. Like, we can ask that. We can create, you know, hyper value. And sure, we're. If we don't know it in our, in our system, in our body. I mean, you're such an embodiment of it. I was listening to your podcast and looking at your videos and I'm like, oh my God, this woman is in her body. Like what you are. You know, what you're worth. I'm sure it was hard won, but. But that is. If we could get all women to stand up and be in their power like that, we would not be beholden to the government in the ways we are. We would not be making less still in this day and age than men on average by 12 to 20 cents, or we would not be. There's so much that we could do if we all banded together and created. I remember I wrote my senior thesis on a play called Lysistrata, and basically it's a Greek play, and it was pretty edgy to write my thesis on it because it was basically that the Roman women and the Greek women were sick of war. And so they decided to. They got together. The men had been warring for years. They were sick of it. They got together and they basically said, okay, how are we going to stop the war? The only power we have is sex. So we're going to all stop. We're all. We're all going to withhold. And it's this hilarious.

Oh my God. It's like feminine power, though.

Absolutely. But we're all going to. To withhold until they end the war. And it's this play about that. And I thought, you know what? We need to go. Yeah, no, we need to go, Lysistrata. Like, there needs to be one day that none of Us show up for work or do anything. Kind of like you know, a moment where people would go, holy cow, look at everything they do. Why aren't we paying them 100% of what men make? Why aren't we giving them the rights to control their own bodies? Why aren't we like, it just feels like we have not really united in a way because we're half the planet if not more.

Yeah. And the planet wouldn't expand if it wasn't for us.

Absolutely. And so I feel like if we all had a sense that we were together on this and that we had the power to do it. You know, I'm in a writers group and this woman last night is from Iran and she was, I mean, I was crying when she was reading her memoir because of what she'd been through and, you know, how they were treated and how just how backwards it all is and we're so lucky in this country. But, you know, it's still happening everywhere and we, it needs to end with us. And now that I have a daughter and I'm watching her, I'm like, you know what? We have to do more. We have to band together in more powerful ways. So I'm going to figure out how to do it. You know, you can help.

All of us can help. I doubt that you will because you're just on fire with stuff. And we'll add it to your list of things that you do. Tell me about Club Magic Hour. What's that?

So basically what ended up happening was I became a publisher at Simon and Schuster. I wrote a spirituality kind of motivational self help book, Life by the Cup. And then I missed tea so much because the tea company kind of got taken away from me. And then the investors decided to close it down and I was like, oh my God. I'd been in corporate in New York in a high rise and I was watching everybody not really get any self care. There was no time for it. And I thought, God, if I could combine spiritual teachings and amazing masters with a 30 minute video with tea that would come or a ritual kit that would come to their offices every month or their homes and I could bring them a retreat and bring them self care and how tos and videos and actual teas, then it might be amazing. And I launched it a couple months ago with my partners are Gay and Katie Hendricks and Gay wrote the Big Leap, which is a very famous book. And they wrote Conscious Loving and it's really all about like, how can we create rituals not only for self care but for Connecting to those we love. Like, tea time with my husband is everything. Like, we have tea time at dawn. And it is how, you know, we just had our 13th anniversary. We're so excited about the next 13 years. We're so in love because we take the time to have tea and a ritual together. So club magic hour is basically a subscription box as well as tea. And it's teachers combined with tea so that people can imbibe it and have the health and wellness in their own home. And I'm in love with it.

Well, you are the first person I've interviewed that when I said, what do you do? And you said entrepreneur, like you really are.

People go, how do you do all this? I'm like, caffeine, tea.

The caffeine in my tea.

Absolutely. It's a very sustaining caffeine.

Yeah, yeah, I can tell. It's incredible.

I just feel like we're creative as women. We're so creative. And if we were to go for everything that we really, truly want, then we're going to. We're going to be the power players. That's how I think we're going to take over the world. Because the way we do business is different to how other people and men do business. We do it in a way that takes care of the planet, that takes care of each other, that takes care of. And so I feel like business is the one way we can empower women all over the world to become powerhouses and gain power. And that's what's going to get us a seat at the table. It's going to be so awesome. Money and success.

That's so awesome. Okay, here's something I ask every single guest that I have and I'm just. I can't wait to hear your answer on this one. So if somebody is listening right now and they're in their own personal rock bottom spot, I mean, maybe they've had, they just had the child as a single mom where they're battling with the struggle there with the birth defect. Or maybe, maybe, maybe it's. They had the setback in the business like you mentioned you had when you were. You spent all that money and it was gone. But whatever personal rock bottom they're in, and you've actually had many of them. I can hear. What would you tell them in hindsight, looking back right now? What, you know, what would you tell them? Three pieces of advice to start leveling up and creating everything.

Nothing. I would say to absolutely surrender to your higher power. Basically. If you believe in God, if you Believe in love. If you believe in, you know, I. Every time I've been the most successful with an idea, it was when I actually truly, deeply surrendered to the highest good. And so what does it mean?

Just deeply surrender in your life?

Basically. Basically. So every morning when I wake up, I have a mantra that's basically, you know, dear God, show me how I can serve today. And then I basically do the next best. Like the next. Right. I basically, like this morning I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I have a lot going on, haha. As you can tell. And I was like, okay, I'm super overwhelmed. All right, God, show me absolutely how to serve. And it was like, focus on Mother's Day. Focus on rituals that moms and kids can do together and help moms have time with their kids. And I'm like, okay. So I did a post on Facebook, I got moms emailing me their rituals. Amazing stuff. Like, I got excited about it. So what I'm going to turn into my Mother's Day promotion. And, and it's to serve, it's to help other moms have more time with their kids. And this one woman, you know, Anyway, so that is basically just I, you know, the whole, ask and you shall receive. It's true. If you ask a good question, you're going to get an amazing answer. So I ask God how I can serve and then I follow instructions.

I love that. So you said, just like, just like you did back before you informed your tea, you said you saw a tea party.

Absolutely. And you have to then do what you see. You're like, I'm gonna throw a belly dancing tea party.

People are gonna think I'm insane.

But then I love it. And then the next piece of advice I would say is when you yourself need something, like if you're worried about money or if you're worried about being overwhelmed or not having enough time or anything like that, when you actually help somebody have what you need, it's taught in the Diamond Sutra in Buddhism. But if you go, oh my God, I'm broke, I need money, I need this, I need that. If you go and help somebody else make a dollar, it will, your whole universe will start shifting. So it's kind of the law of attraction, but an action of service. So basically instead of just visualizing yourself having more money or feeling good about what you might buy with that money, help someone else get it. Help someone else.

For people. So I want them to hear this though, because it feels so hard in the moment, but you're so right.

Yeah, well, what it does is it breaks the energetic spell. It also breaks your subconscious hold on you that's telling you there's not enough money or there's not enough. So. So what it does is it basically says, oh, really? Is that. Is that so? Well, let me. Let me see. And then, boom. It proves, like, your subconscious and your psyche needs to know you're in charge of it. So it really shows that it's like, okay, I donated it adult, even if it's a dollar on a GoFundMe, or I went and I volunteered for an hour or I did something kind to somebody, you know, for somebody, all of a sudden, it gets us out of our. It gets us out of our own heads, and it shows our mind and our ego that, oh, doing good does actually make good things happen. And, you know, it sounds like it's doing for selfish ends, but it really isn't because service becomes natural after that. Yeah. So the third thing I would say is. Is really taking time for daily rituals. Like, my tea time is absolutely the time I commune with my soul. I commune with my husband, my kids. I mean, tea time, my husband just peeked in. Right. Tea time. Right. He's blowing me a kiss.

My husband would say, is there sex involved? That's what he would ask.

Yeah.

Well, that.

Yeah, yeah. Tea time can end up being all sorts of things, but my husband would.

Not be down for regular tea time. I'm an old think.

Well, you. You know, I'll send you a box of coconut chai.

Okay. It's.

Honestly, send me. Because there's something magical. There's something in tea called L theanine, and it basically makes you feel like you're a little bit drunk, but you're very, very clear.

Wow.

Amino acid. That's available only in tea and mushrooms. And it makes you so happy that all sorts of wonderful things happen.

Amazing.

I love it. Yeah. So I would say the third, you know that daily ritual.

Yeah.

Mine is I drink tea, I write my journal, and I meditate.

I love that.

That's my answer to everything.

That's so amazing. Oh, my gosh. I just love chatting with you. Where can people find you? Where do you want to send them? Because there's a lot happening.

Where are you on social?

Where do you want them to go?

Yeah. So my coaching is Zena Z H E N A tv.

Okay.

My magic hour is Club Magic hour, and they can find that on social as well. But Club Magic hour is my current favorite, yummy, favorite thing I've ever done. Yeah.

Right now, until you have a new idea tomorrow?

Well, it's all the things I love the most combined into one thing. So each month there's a magician that comes in and teaches. So we'll have to have you come teach one month.

Oh, I love it. I'm not a magician, but I can come in.

Oh, I think you are, maybe. Yeah. And so the magicians are transformational leaders. Leaders. So Natalie Ledwell is teaching prosperity next month. And yeah, it's pretty exciting. So Club Magic hour is really so cool.

So awesome. Xena, thank you so much.

You so much, so much. This was a pleasure.

Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future show shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.

Sam.