Manifesting your happiness
Discover the secret to an abundantly happy life from manifesting expert Christine Rizzo. Her journey of self-discovery has led her to uncover the critical ingredients for achieving pure joy, and she's sharing them with the world.
Christine teaches us to train our brains to stop taking everything personally and accept each other without judgment. Learn about the power of manifesting and deliberate action in creating your desired life.
With her book Unleash Your Inner Goddess, podcast The Manifesting Formula, and co-founding of the Life Coach Academy, Christine is on a mission to spread love and service to others. Join her in becoming a watcher of your thoughts and attracting positivity into your life.
Learn more about Christine & order her book below!
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Monica: Hi girls. Welcome to the Kindling Project podcast. I'm so excited, Mel. We have Christine Rizzo with us today and she is so cool. She is what I consider a serial creator. She is into doing so many things, not just entrepreneur. She's really why I like to call her a creator because she's creating the life. She just was meant to live and live in the most authentic way, and it's blooming in so many different soils because of it. And you know, Mel, we always talk about that if women find their true alignment, there's nothing that they cannot do. So this is why desperately wanted Christine on the show so welcome to the show, Christine.
Christine: Thank you. Thank you so much. I am so honored to be a part of your podcast.
Melissa: Oh, we're so honored to have you. I feel like we have our guests here in the idea that we're creating inspiration for our listeners, but I feel like Monica and I are gonna get just as much out of it talking to you as they are.
Christine: Well, thank you. And also too, it's like I feel like I will get so much from the two of you as well. So it's like we're all just giving to each other. That's what's so amazing about it all.
Monica: Yes. So Christine, I mean, you are an author. You wrote a book, unleash Your Inner Goddess. You are the host of the Manifesting Formula podcast, and you are the co-founder of the Life Coach Academy.
And so all those things really work beautifully together and marry each other in a really beautiful way. As we introduce our audience to you, can you give us a glimpse of what drives you? Like who are you, like who is the essence of Christine?
Christine: Well, I would say it's really, I am love and I'm here to love and give as much love as possible. Spreading that to who you know, comes my way and whoever comes into my path. So it's really about, for me, loving and serving others. Giving back through, you know, coaching through my podcast, through my writing, through my Facebook group, through my teaching. You know, it's like, wherever I go, I always ask, how can I serve others? You know, when I meditate, it's all about when I'm coaching, you know, give me the words to be able to give my clients that they need to hear that day. So that's really truly what it's all about for me.
Monica: That's pretty incredible. Right. So let's just back up a little bit. I met you if I do the math, maybe eight or nine years ago on the tennis courts when I was living in Orlando, temporarily. Christine and I decided to, I think we picked up tennis around the same time. We were just learning beginners and the coaches pretty much said, oh, you two should play together, because basically we were the same level beginners. But at that time you were married to your first husband and living a completely different life than you are today. So can you give everyone a little bit of who you were when I first met you and who you are today.
Christine: Sure. Well, I was a mom of two. I still am a mom of two. I was in a relationship in a marriage that really wasn't healthy, though after going through coaching, becoming a coach and knowing what I know today, I could have handled things differently. Right. So it was a toxic relationship, but it was toxic because I was toxic as well, if that makes sense. Right. So it's like it wasn't just him. I used to just blame him, but it really wasn't, it was both of us, there was a lot of negativity. I tried to focus a lot of my positive energy on my girls and giving them as much as possible, but then when it came to the marriage, it really always needed to be busy doing something, so I wasn't able to concentrate on the relationship because I really didn't wanna be in it. So I was a different person. I didn't really like who I was though. You couldn't tell that. I put up a really good front.
Monica: A really good front by the way, because as an outsider looking in, you two look like you know, the perfect couple with the perfect marriage and your beautiful girls sending them off to camp for the summer. Playing at the private country club, all these things. So, it's interesting and I, it makes me wonder how many of us are wearing a mask in our lives and just not happy.
Melissa: I kind of, my experience too is even if you are happy or content, you still can be acting out a lot of roles. That were either assigned to you or you've assigned to yourself. And I find that sort of like role switching to be draining and stressful and I just sometimes wanna just be more my authentic self in all my different roles and not just, I have to be this way as a mom and this way as a neighbor and this way as a business owner.
Monica: So what was it that hit rock bottom where you decided I can't do this anymore?
Christine: It was just the constant fighting, you know, like we fought every day and I tried to leave a few times, but I wasn't able to because of really, I wasn't strong enough at that time. And then, you know, it was just like the last thing hit, like when he just didn't want me to sit next to my sister on New Year's Eve, and I was just like, I'm done. It was just, it wasn't a healthy relationship. We didn't get married for the right reasons of what, you know, most typical people like fall in love and get married. It didn't happen that way. I wound up getting pregnant and you know, it was just let's just try it. Let's get married because that's the right thing to do and let's see where it goes. Well, then we had another child and we still, we didn't respect one another really, to be honest. Like that's, it comes down to so much of that. I realized like going through a divorce, that's when I hired my first life coach. And that's when I was like, I wanna do this. I wanna be that person. I want to empower other women. And that's how it all started. And I went back to school and got certified. And like I said, if I was in the divorce or if I was in the relationship today, who's to say I would've gotten divorced? I would been able to work things out differently, but I didn't have those tools.
Monica: So you hired a life coach and how long do you feel before you actually started to change, like something you really, we used the word transform and sometimes loosely, right? Because it requires a lot of work. And it wasn't an overnight, I assume, for you?
Christine: No, it was a few months. It was really listening to my coach and you know, I first questioned and I was like, what do you mean? Like, I'm wrong? Or no not that she would say I was wrong, but she would show you that it's not really just that person. You know, they show you a different way. They show you like, okay, if you think differently, you know, this would happen, or you think it was more a few months and then I realized, oh my gosh, I don't like who I am. Like I don't like this person. And I needed to really do the work. I needed to really like get into the subconscious and let go of my beliefs and realize, you know, just because someone says something to me doesn't mean that it's about me. We always make it about us, but it really has nothing to do with us. It has to do with that person. So it's like really understanding. Who we are as humans and really understanding how the brain works.
Melissa: What kind of coach was it that you hired?
Christine: So it's a mindset coach. It's a transformative coach. It's a, you know, a life coach that actually works with the mindset. So it's like we teach our clients and our students, these tools so they can create the life they want through their own thinking and empower them right through their own thinking and show them that when you think certain thoughts you are going to have this outcome, it's really realizing and becoming accountable for your actions and not blaming.
Monica: And I think to your point, like you have to understand that the only person standing in the way is. Me, myself, and I. Right. We, to your point, that's a big one to swallow because we're so programmed to want to point the fingers and so forth. When you did the deep work for yourself, what did you find was your biggest limiting belief?
Christine: I don't know if I could even go to what my biggest limiting belief was, but it's more, I had a huge issue with control, which most people do, and so it's like we wanna control what other people are doing. We get upset when they're not doing what we want them to do. We get upset when they say something we don't want them to say. So it's, you know, we get upset, like, you know, how many people got upset when other people weren't wearing masks during covid? It's like realizing we have no control over, you know, circumstances, what people say, what people do. Our control truly comes from learning to control our own thinking so we don't get emotionally attached to what is happening. It's learning to that's really where your control is controlling your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions, and so for you to have a happy life.
Monica: And it's tough to do though. I mean, I think Mel, you and I can just, this past weeks we've had some blows, you know, like left and right and as much Christine as I tried, okay, I'm going to respond. I'm not going to react. You know, there are moments when you just want to react because you get so angry or so bruised and you're like, what is going on people?
Christine: Well, I think that's where you need to question. Why is this a problem for me? Like just that question right there. Why do I ca like, why is this a problem for me? What am I making this mean? And I can guarantee you making it about yourself.
Melissa: So it's so hard not to take things personally. I have that four agreements book in two different spots of the house. And I look at it all the time and I always read the don't take things personally agreement, and I'll be damned if I don't continue to take things personally. I don't know if it's just being sensitive or.
Christine: What's happening is that we want people to act a certain way because that's how we would act. So we want everybody to be who we are because that would make you happy. So when everybody's following the rules, that makes you happy. But everybody doesn't have the same rules. So it's realizing they're different and that's okay. And that doesn't make them right or wrong. It doesn't make them good or bad. It makes them who they are. It doesn't mean that our decisions are what we think are right either, but it's right for us. So when you're able to separate that and realize that is how life really is, you're gonna learn to not get emotionally attached. You're gonna learn to not, you know, care. It's okay. It takes a little bit, you know, like this is what I coach a lot of people on. It takes some time, but when you get it and you realize you're causing your own pain from the thoughts you're thinking, Then you decide to stop self-sabotaging.
Melissa: And don't you think that we're kind of programmed in some ways to be on this wrong course? Like, I think I joke with my husband about the golden rule of like, that was the first lie they told us in kindergarten is that treat people the way you wanna be treated and they treat you that way back. And it's just not the case. Know, it's a nice kind of, it's like a nice thought, but I think in general, you, whatever you put out into the world you can't have the expectation you're gonna get the exact same thing back.
Christine: Well, yeah. It's really whatever you put out in the world. Like if, okay, I'm a true believer of treat others how you wanna be treated. Cuz I'm showing up that way in the world. If someone's not gonna show up that way, that's on them. They're only gonna get that back. I'm not gonna not treat someone kindly because. I don't think other people are gonna treat me that way. A lot of times the reason why people are being mistreated is because they're mistreating themselves. It's all about how do you treat yourself? Cuz however you treat yourself, you're showing other people how to treat you. And if you talk down towards yourself, if you talk bad about yourself, if you criticize yourself, right, you're showing other people that it's okay to do that. And that's what you will attract back.
Monica: But I'm curious when you were making that leap of faith, when you actually went through deciding, okay, I'm gonna leave my own life so I can become who I'm really meant to be. Obviously you started playing by different rules of engagement and the people around you, your surrounding cast probably was not so excited about that and maybe did you have naysayers and sort of people thinking, well, who the heck are you? And all of a sudden you're all this,
Christine: I didn't really care. I was strong enough to be like, if you feel that way about me, that's okay, cuz I know my truth. And as long as I know my truth, that's all that matters. I'm not here to please you. I'm here to please myself and then I will wind up pleasing others. I will have my people that want to, you know, be there for me or that wanna be friends with me or that want to, but anybody that's like, you know, that disagreed, it's not their business. So I didn't really care.
Monica: That's lovely. I mean, I want that message to really resonate with the listeners because Mel and I are always encouraging women to listen to those whispers and to follow their gut and to do it. And even if it's scary, and of course, we're not here promoting people leave their marriages or leave their lives or ca stop being mothers. We're just saying, I, we're pretty certain we're betting on the fact that most women can absolutely elevate. Not, you know, abandon their lives, but elevate And even when it's scary and when other people are trying to hold you back,
Christine: It takes work with everything. It just doesn't happen overnight, right. So it's like, I mean, so many women come to me to, you know, feel differently, to be, feel differently in their marriages or to, you know, just feel happy. And it does take work because it's really, we're living off of the subconscious part of our brain because that's what we were born with and our conscious part of our brain was not fully developed until our early twenties. So when it's just the subconscious doesn't know yes from no, doesn't know right from wrong. So anything we were told became our truth. So like if you were in household where your parents fought all the time, screaming and yelling, and then, but then they told each other they loved each other, you thought that's what love was. And then you wind up attracting that kind of relationship, even though consciously today, you know that's not right. You don't wanna do that. But we don't live off of the conscious part of our brain. All the time where our, it's the subconscious that's looking for, that's why a lot of people that can't, you know, hold onto money or that can't create wealth, it's because they probably grew up with beliefs that money doesn't come easily. That money doesn't make you happy. I mean, with those kind of beliefs, of course you're not going to create money because everybody wants to be happy. So it's like really realizing, like getting into the beliefs of, you know, your beliefs that you have uncovering them and changing them out. So it's really retraining the brain. You know, it's retraining the brain so you can create the life you want.
Monica: So the first thing you did when you learned all these gifts and were enlightened, I mean, you decided, well, I guess I should write a book about this and share this with the world, right? I mean, is that how it went?
Christine: Well, it happened, I knew I wanted to write a book. I, I knew that I was going to, and guess what, you know, Monica, that you say that People laughed at me. They were like, oh, sure, you're going to, I'm like, you watch, I'm telling you it's happening. I didn't care. I was just like, it's happening. And C O V I D happened. And that's when I wrote it. I was like, this is my time. This is my time. And guess what? That's all I did. Day and night was write and write. It took me five weeks straight to write the book. The book was published after four months, and it all happened like I needed a publishing company and then all of a sudden, like I was thinking about it and a publishing company came to me. So it's like all of these things happen when you focus on what you want. And it just the universe, or God, whatever you believe starts bringing that into your life.
Monica: Tell us about the book. Tell us the name, where we can find it, and give us a little bit of a scoop. What's it about?
Christine: Okay, so the book is called Unleash Your Inner Goddess. Start Living The Life You love. Anywhere you want, you know, to buy a book, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever you can find a book, it's there. It's learning to really create your happy through yourself. But I give you like a bunch of tips and I give you exercises to do. And it really has to do with, you know, learning to self-love yourself and starting to listen to your intuition, which I call your inner goddess. And then it's learning to distinguish, you know, to set apart from your intuition and your ego, which is your inner mean girl, right? So it's like realizing when you say those negative things to yourself, you're not good enough, you're not thin enough, you're not dish, not that's all your ego telling you those things. So it's really, it's about being aware of your thinking and learning to create the life that you want. It's a book that you will definitely get a lot of use out of and a lot of, like, you can, you'll learn so much from it and be able to apply it to your life. So, like I said, there's exercises in there. It was a number one best seller on Amazon.
Monica: So it's a blueprint in essence, it just gives you the ins and outs on how to do this. So if you had to sort of summarize it without giving too much away, what could you give us a couple tips that are musts for a daily dosage, if you will, for manifesting?
Christine: Before I we go there can I just say, it's really funny too. There's a lot of humor in it. Okay. I would say it's really paying attention. Okay. To understanding that you are your own creator. If you don't believe that. You can't understand that, you will never be able to create the life you want. So if you believe that someone outside is creating for you, you're gonna be waiting forever to create that life. So understanding that you are one with your creator, that God is within us, connecting to your creator every day, like I meditate every day, but understanding that your thoughts are what creates your outcome and realizing what you put concentrated thought to you will attract in your life. That's like number one. And then understanding that you now know that if you, if your thoughts create your outcome, you can actually choose different thoughts to create the outcome you want, which is called deliberate creating, right? Deliberately thinking certain thoughts for you to create the life you want. So really, honestly, I would say start listening to my podcast from episode one, cuz I give you all the tips to learn how to manifest.
Monica: So you are on every week and your goal is with your podcast. Go ahead and share it,
Christine: please. My goal is to just get the message out that everyone needs to hear. And guess what? Not everybody's ready and that's okay. That's okay too. But those that are, they should know that they are so powerful and that they're able to have the life they want if they just take the time to do the work.
Monica: But it's also the idea though, Christine, would you agree that a lot of people think, well, I manifest all the time. I manifest a million dollars all the time. Nothing's happening. There is an inspired action that needs to take place in all of this practice.
Christine: Well, we are manifesting every day. People don't realize it's not always just what you want. It's the negative too. So you are constantly creating every day through your thoughts. So that's why it's, you have to take a deliberate action, but it's realizing that you are constantly attracting to you what you are thinking about. That's why if you start thinking, say, thoughts that aren't serving you, you want to become aware of them. So like during my coaching, you know, I have my clients understand to become the watcher of their thoughts, right? So you can see what you're thinking and so you can understand, oh, that's why this is happening in my life. That's why all the negative is happening, because I'm thinking a lot of negative things. So how it really works is you can only attract to you what is on, what's a vibrational match to you if you are on a high level. Right. Then you could, you'll attract say you're thinking a lot of high positive thoughts. You'll attract circumstances, people and events that are on that same frequency level. If you're thinking a lot of negative thoughts and a lot of negative things are happening to you, you could only attract to you negative things that are on that same frequency level. It's all, it's a process. It really is learning how to attract what you want instead of what you don't want.
Melissa: So I totally get that we can draw negativity into our lives through our thoughts. But what about the random negative things that happen? How do you protect yourself or move past, you know, something externally that negative, negatively bumps up against you or your family, or your loved ones? Do you have any advice for that?
Christine: I'm a big believer of not watching the news. I'm a big believer of really not, like if there are people that are around that are talking negative talk, I will walk away. I don't surround myself with the negative that goes on. So like when people start talking about it on the phone or whatever, I'm like, okay, I really don't wanna talk about this. I switch the subject, I switch. But if say someone comes into contact with me that is already like, just in a bad mood, I'll actually turn it around and change the subject and compliment them. You know, I'll do things like, oh my gosh, I love your hair. It looks so good. Or I just turn things around. So they're forgetting what they spoke about or what they were, you know, where they were. When it comes to outside circumstances of what's happening in the world, I have no control over that. What I do is I meditate and I send love to what's happening, but I don't put concentrated thought of the negative of what's happening because then I'm just adding to that of the collective. I don't know if y'all know what the collective consciousness is. That's what collective consciousness is. When we add more like thought to whatever's happening, we're adding to the collective, and then we're gonna be shown more of that. So instead, I send love, I just send peace and love toward whatever's happening cuz I can't stop it. I can't prevent it, but I can control myself from not thinking about it.
Monica: That is so true. It is a practice that I know that sometimes creeps up in my head. The chatter in my head usually creeps in around three in the morning, and I'm like, what am I doing? None of this matters. Like, I am not, I can't control this and it's probably all made up in my head anyway. So shut, shut her down. Shut her down. I know I'm a huge, like what you're saying, girl, this is my, this is my play, like Sandbox, this Abraham Hicks. I am like, she's my mentor. I adore her. I am like always like get on my high flying disc. Anyone who listens to Abraham knows exactly what I'm talking about. But it's just the idea of like, I'm just living my happily ever after, always. And how I do that and I really, I think I'm successful. I'm gonna tell you 90% of the time there is still 10% where man, I just wanna punch back, which is the side of me that I really don't like. So I, you know, keep working to be better and do better.
Christine: We're constantly working toward, you know, exactly who we're wanting to be. It's just, it's constant work. It's never g- it doesn't end if you fully let go of ego, you will be like Jesus if you fully let go of ego, but we can't. It's, we can, but we can't. You know what I'm saying? Like it's very difficult to do.
Monica: Very difficult. Christine. I always try to tell people because it is so difficult to do, I say, well, maybe you start looking at your ego as your friend. Your friend who's really trying to be super overprotective and trying to keep you from failing or doing something scary. So all these things will come up, but you just have to say, no, we're not doing that today. We're actually gonna do it anyway. So if you maybe start treating your ego, the not so nice ego as a friend and say, no, we're gonna go, we're gonna step over fear anyway and we're gonna do it.
Christine: Or like your child, like a child, like your younger self. Cuz that's really what it is. You would say, I'm sorry little Monica, not today. You know what? I love you but not today. I'm going, you're right. So it's like really talking to your ego and saying your little, cuz that's who it is. It's your inner child.
Melissa: The one thing from Eckhart Tole, I'm not sure which book it's from, that sticks with me, is that idea of floating outside of your mind and looking back. And I often have that realization, like when I'm all tied up in knots, wait. That's not even me. That's not that voice is not my voice, that I'm actually separate from that whole conversation, that whole monkey mind thing that's going on, torturing me. I can actually just float outside of it and look back at it and separate from it. And I think that concept of being separate from it helps it. It does help. It does help me.
Monica: I like that. So, Christine, okay, so you get sick of being you. You decide I can do better. I wanna be better. I know I'm meant to be better. And you leave your life. you hire a coach, you transform, you write a book, you start a podcast. You're serving your community, your people by just sharing this information. And then you say, well, gosh, I should just go ahead and take it another step further and start the Life Coach Academy. So tell us about that.
Christine: So the Life Coach Academy is a school where we certify students or those that want to be life coaches through our six month certification program.
They get a dual certification. They become life and spiritual coaches and we actually put our students through a transformation before they go through it first before. So it's all about going through the transformation themselves. It's a deep course and it's very personal. It's like personal. Only eight students per class. So we have certification in enrollment twice a year in April and in September. And it's a really amazing course, and I have to be honest, the tools that we teach and the transformation that our students go through, they really do wind up becoming the best life coaches out there.
Part of our course is also they get a business course after it. So after they finish becoming cert certifying as a coach. Yeah. So we teach them exactly everything that they need, how to have their own voice, how to do social media, everything. How to set up a website. It's all included. I believe you really should get certified. I know when I was thinking of becoming a life coach, there was no way I wasn't going to get certified. I was like, I do not wanna screw with anybody's head. I'm like, that's my responsibility. You know, I need to learn the tools, I need to learn the right way. And so I truly believe to, you know, when it comes to being a life coach, because this industry, it's not regulated. So it's like you don't have to be certified to coach.
Melissa: And it does seem like, there are so many shades of life coaches now. I mean, just a million different, I'm constantly being hit up in my social media or in my LinkedIn or in at conferences and it's business life coaching or personal life coaching or spiritual life coaching. And it is kind of hard to know what's legit or what works.
Christine: Yeah, I think I know, and this is what I tell others. If you're going to hire a life coach, find out where they went to school, where they got certified, interview them, you know, make sure that they know what they're talking about, like do some research and have questions for your life coach, you also want to be able to really like vibe with your life coach. You know, like you don't wanna hire someone that you don't feel good with. So it's really important to, I think, as a client to question, you know, how many people have you worked with? What you know, what kind of life coaching do you do? So I think that's so important to do, to make sure that you're working with someone you know that knows what they're doing.
Monica: For sure. It's like hiring a therapist. Really? You wanna do your homework? They do have an impact in your life and you wanna make sure it's in alignment. That's great. Now, what's your favorite thing at this point? Actually teaching others how to be a life coach or are you still enjoying the one-on-one where you are actively helping your clients?
Christine: I truly love the teaching and leading them. And of course I love one-on-one coaching, but I really love the teaching. I think more because I am still coaching them, but we coach them for a shorter amount of time, only for a half an hour. So it's like leading your client. And a lot of times when you start off as a big editor coach, you want to fix them. And that's not our job. We're not here to fix our clients. It's their job to fix that themselves.
Monica: Have you ever had to fire a client and you're like, you are not ready to work, babe. You call me back when you're ready.
Christine: Yes. I actually have. I've had to where they would just, you know, showing up for me and I'm like, this isn't about me. This is about you. You know, like I already did the work.
Melissa: Well, it really feels like you have found your purpose. And because what Monica and I are working on is sort of alignment and purpose and kind of inner voice, inner fire for other women, do you think that every woman has a purpose or that every individual has a purpose?
Christine: Well, I actually think our purpose as humans is to love and to serve. You know, when it comes to, I don't look at it like being a life coach is my purpose. I think my purpose is really to love others and to serve them. And however you may do that,
Melissa: there's a service aspect to our lives
Christine: everybody is already purposeful and a lot of people are searching for their purpose, but we're already whole, we're already full of like love and purpose and it's realizing it's what they're lacking most people is the self-love to give themselves to understand that once they love themselves fully, they will realize they are complete. And they don't need anything else. I mean, of course we want to have passion in things like, you know, you wanna do things that you feel passionate about, but that's just like looking within and saying, what do I love doing that feels really good? What is that? Right? And then going and doing that, not stopping yourself from saying, oh, but you know, I don't know how to do it and I don't ,you know what if I don't do it right? And you just go and do it. We're just here to really create those, the joy and the love of feeling. It's all about feeling that love. And when I'm saying the purpose is to love, what I mean by that is everything we do is for the feeling that we're going to receive. So when we love and give toward others and serve, we're feeling that love. Hopefully they are too. They may not, I don't know. But it's all about feeling that love. And when we feel that love, you wanna think they are right. So then you're feeling even better. But most of the time you're touching their lives. But when you're feeling that love, it's for you feel that emotion. So it's like you get to feel that love, that it's the best emotion to feel. I mean, why wouldn't we wanna feel that every day? Right? So when people say, sometimes they're like, I'm so angry. I don't like that person. I'm like, they're really only hurting themselves by the anger that they're feeling.
Monica: I think that the joy of living in joy, that's the point of it all. And we all miss that. Along the way cuz we're so focusing on the hurdles or the obstacles, but it's really not supposed to be that hard. I'm like, I tell that to my kids all the time. Seriously. Life is pretty darn amazing. It really is. And it's like there's so much joy and happiness. You just gotta learn to live in that and care more about that.
Christine: Focus on that, right? So it's like focusing on what brings joy or even the gratitude, right? When you focus on the gratitude, you're gonna see things that you are more grateful for. So it's really learning to turn things around by not focusing on what we don't wanna see and focusing on what we do wanna see.
Monica: Super inspiring. how has this changed you as a mother? You have two daughters. How old are they?
Christine: 21. She just turned 21 and the other one is 18. Just graduated from high school. Yeah, so it has changed my life with my girls dramatically because I'm not in their business like I allow them to be who they are, whether I agree with it or not. It's not really my choice to say what they should and shouldn't do. When you have children and they're not of age to be on their own, you know, of course there's like choices Instead of attaching our emotions to whether they do something or not, you give choices and then you also give them, you explain to them if they, what, whichever choice they choose, what kind of consequence may happen, and then you allow them to choose and you allow them to learn. So if they choose what maybe they shouldn't have done, there will be a consequence that might not, they might not think is right, but it's like allowing them to understand that not only are you giving them the power to choose themselves and to be independent, but also to learn through their mistakes.
Monica: And how are you finding that they're young women, do you find that they are paying attention and are also maybe actively taking on some of these same philosophies in life approach?
Christine: Yeah. Well, both of the girls are super independent. They, I actually, I feel like they have taken after me in a lot of ways and it just makes me so proud. You know, they're very smart when it comes to the choices they make. I taught them how to, you know, they are their own creators and that's huge and powerful for them.
Monica: I know you're here to love and serve, but by default you are building some businesses and as an entrepreneur, and by the way, I think the audience needs to know that you've always been an entrepreneur. Even when I met you, you owned a store, retail store so it's always been, you've always been a creator. Plus you have other hobbies. I see you online with your belt buckles, girl, shining it up, start, you started a different company for that. Correct. So, I mean, you are always constantly creating, this is what I mean, you're a serial creator. What tips would you have, do you have for women as far as. Entrepreneurship. What do you think are some really either the best piece of advice you ever received
Christine: I would just say follow your passion. If you start doing something that doesn't feel good for you, then look to do something else. You know, like it's really about creating your happy and your joy. And when you're doing and you're creating and you're in that flow of passion, it doesn't obviously seem like work. So you just learning and growing and that's why I've done so many things, because I would do, say I had a store before that I was creating b I mean, I created buckles 10 years before. 10 years ago, and I did that for so long and then I, it got so busy, I couldn't handle it. I wasn't paying as much attention to being with my family, so I needed to let go of that and move on to something else. But it's always like, for me, I always need to be creating for others. Like I, I just, it's, I can't stop. And so whether it be creating content, whether, but I would say advice wise, just go after what feels good. As long as it feels good, you know you're doing the right thing.
Melissa: I very much feel that way. About creativity anyway. I have a design agency, but I always tell people if if I wasn't designing things for other people, I would just be designing and creating things for myself. Like I would be doing this anyway. I just happen to be doing this for a living. But that's like the space where I wanna live is in creativity.
Christine: Yeah. Well, we're creative creatures, right? I mean, we're meant to create whether it be right. So like creating for others, creator, it's just. We're meant to create. So yeah, so when you put that into and you put that passion into whatever feels good, like if you wanna take dance classes, go take them. Like whatever you wanna travel, go do it. Whatever you wanna do, just do it.
Melissa: You're preaching to the choir. With Mick and I, these are the same kind of messages that we love and gravitate towards.
Monica: So what's next? What's on your dream catcher? Now, Christine, you are always, I mean, you're walking around with one and I love it too. I'm like, let's see, what else can I catch?
Christine: You know what's so funny? I just yesterday started creating a gratitude journal, like a five minute gratitude journal that I'm going to sell on Amazon. So I just started creating that because I'm like, Whether it be like what do you wanna set your intention for the month? You know, or setting your intention for the day and, you know, did have you given yourself self-love today? Have you? So it's like, I have all those little things plus a bunch of gratitudes. They're gonna have a new gratitude each day. And then I'm going to give a list of affirmations like that I started with.
Monica: That is great. I think anytime people do need a little help and a little direction, it sounds like you're giving them that. So talking about the journaling and gratitude, do you have a daily practice? What does a typical day look like for you?
Christine: Yeah, so I actually Every morning I wake up, I go get, grab a cup of coffee, and then I sit in our little, like we have this little cocktail room. I'm gonna be honest, I always go on my phone first. Gotta just check. But I do have a Facebook group, so it's really important for me to it's called the Manifesting Formula Tribe. It's really important for me to, you know, always stay in contact with them. Then after that, I write my three gratitudes every day in my journal, and I really sit there and feel the gratitude for each thing that I'm grateful for. And I, it's not the typical, I'm grateful for my family, I'm grateful for my health. I like to go even deeper than that because saying the same thing over and over, like, there's so many things for us to be grateful for and people don't realize, you know, like I'll even get into, I'm grateful that like there's hair color that we could spray in our hair seriously. Like if there wasn't hair color spraying your hair like I'd be going to the get my roots colored like every three weeks instead of five. Really? I'm grateful for the guys that pick up the trash. You know, like could you imagine if nobody picked up the trash, what it would be like. So it's like, really G I'm grateful. I'm grateful for the roads that were built for us to travel on like, or the bridges that were built, like all those people that did all that service. Like, so it's things like that to go really deeper. And that's something that I talk about on my podcast too. Like I'm always in every episode we go through, what are you grateful for? And then I go and meditate. And so that is my every morning. I meditate, I'll usually go and walk at like nine 30 for three days a week. So that's my morning, that's my morning routine.
Monica: That's a great daily practice and it's important. I think everyone if everyone had one, it would set their day, it would set the tone for their day and it would set 'em up for success. Truthfully, I think it's really important to get anchored first thing in the morning and really understand what it is that you're trying to accomplish and you know, what energy you wanna bring to the day.
Christine: Setting your intentions. Like when I meditate, I set my intentions of how I want my day to go, and it's really important to put that out there to, you know, let the universe know this is what I'm wanting, this is what I expect. Show it to me.
Monica: Well, you're living it, girl. I mean, if I, it sounds like you're actually, everything you preach, it's actually you're living proof of it because you're actually living this dream life, the one you created, because that's the one you want. So I think that's a great testament to your work. And so for, just to reiterate, people can go purchase your, we'll ha we'll have all this on the show notes. Go purchase your book, listen to your podcast. Join your Facebook private group. Sign up for the Life School Academy or work with you one-on-one coaching. Buy a belt buckle. We got all kinds of things going on here.
Christine: Oh my gosh, Monica, I do wanna point out, I do still have to do the work. There are times that, you know, my husband might say something and I'll get a, I start to get annoyed or I start to, and I have to remind myself, Christine, This isn't about you, you know, step back, you know, because I'm human, so it's like it's just that it doesn't happen as often because I've worked so much with it. But there are times that the universe will test me.
Monica: Yeah. I think one of you, the things that you say quite a bit in listening to your following your work is everything happens for you, not to you. Right? That's a big one, and I think that's what you're trying to communicate. Mel, do you have any other questions?
Melissa: No, I feel really inspired by you, Christine. Maybe I'll sign up for the coaching class in September.
Christine: Yeah. We would love to have you as a student.
Melissa: Yeah. No, yeah. It's great messages that you're putting out. And we really appreciate you sharing them with us and sharing 'em with our audience. And so one of the ways we'd like to wrap up here is we kind of take turns giving a shout out to somebody or something that you're grateful for this week. And it sounds like that's all a regular practice for you. But would you like to give someone a shout out?
Christine: A shout? Okay. I'm gonna give my partner Carbo a shout out. It is her birthday today. I'm truly grateful for the fact that we're partners. I couldn't do it without her. She's an inspiration to me and you know, we think so the same that it works, but also I do the jobs that she does not like and she does what I don't like. So it's just, it's perfect. We have a perfect partnership.
Melissa: Oh, that's great. How about you, Mick? Do you have a shout out for today?
Monica: Yeah, I do. You know, I was thinking a lot about the podcast we dropped today from Khalila on human trafficking and just thinking a lot, I've been listening to a lot of conversations about, and human trafficking and that it's not just sex, obviously, there's also labor, human trafficking, and just really thinking about these people who feel trapped in their worlds that I hope listen to Khalila's message and reach out to her because I think she really has a way out for people and can really help in ways that I can't even imagine. You know? That's just such a foreign world to me. But so I'm really grateful to her in her message this week.
Melissa: Oh, I agree with you. I listened to that again last night and it's incomprehensible. If you haven't walked that life, The fact that she was able to make something positive out of it. It's kind of a testament to what Christine is saying is that you just take what comes your way and then you decide how to react to it. You know, I'm gonna give a shout out to my brother. I don't know if I've ever mentioned him on the podcast. He lives on the other side of the country from me. But we're dealing with my dad is very sick right now and he's there and I'm not. And so he's able to, you know, we're both working on it together, but and digesting it and making decisions and supporting. But it's something else when you're there and when you have to, when you have to see everything firsthand. So, shout out to Matt. We're all gonna get through this, and I super appreciate you.
Monica: All right girls. Well thank you so much again, Christine, to our guests, you are awesome. Continue to shine bright, friend. I think the world needs you and you are definitely a gift. And if your goal is to love and serve congratulations. Mission accomplished.
Christine: Bye! Thank you!