Kristen (00:01.228)
Okay, welcome back to the Soul Expansion Podcast. Guess what? I'm still doing laundry. I'm just gonna keep saying that for every single episode because I want you to understand how much laundry I have. Anyway, so today I wanna talk about some of the things that I'm doing differently in my publishing company compared to my old coaching business, which...
You know, it's still Monday at the time I'm recording this. So I only decided like two or three days ago, not even three full days ago that I was going to close it and I'm not going to resurrect it. I'm not going to take what I've learned and apply it to this business. This business for me is dead. So I'm going to cut away the dead branches and recycle it all and compost it and just apply it to my new publishing company because that's where I'm lit up and that's
That's my true passion right now. And so I'm going with that, right? So these are things I'm doing differently that have deeply, deeply, deeply served me up until this point. And you could say that I've been building my publishing company, although I didn't open it until October 2024. You could say that I've been building up to it for about two years. So, you know, around when I put my coaching business on the back burner,
I got really serious with myself and I was like, okay, well, what do I need to learn from what's not working, from all of this stuff and how can I make my business better? And I thought I might apply it to my coaching business at the time, but I didn't, I applied it to a new business and that's okay, we get to do what we want. So a lot of this stuff that I'm sharing with you has built up over years. It's not like this instant saying that I just decided one day is a good lesson. It's a lesson.
that I learned, I integrated, I embodied, and now I am seeing the fruits of my labor. And my labor was not just the action taking, it was the mindset work. So the biggest thing that I'm doing differently from my previous business is I'm taking the mindset work as seriously as the action taking. And not in the sense of
Kristen (02:17.129)
I need to heal something about myself or fix something about myself. But in the sense of I am filling my brain with the beliefs I will have when I have the success I desire in my publishing company. So I literally believe, like I believe this to my core that there will be bidding wars for the film rights for my book. Like that does not feel weird in my body at all. Like that feels like, yep, 100 % true that is happening. And...
I've done that with so many beliefs. I've done that with the belief that my book is unputdownable. I consistently hear from people that my book is unputdownable. Like it's one of the main things people say actually. So I know the stuff works. I've seen the results and I do the mindset work just with affirmations. I used to crap on affirmations all the live long day. I crap on them no longer. In fact, I live and breathe them. So I like to do subliminal audios.
That's one thing I like to do. So I'll just take the affirmations that are the exact beliefs I will have when I have the exact type of success that I desire. Again, things like Hollywood is courting me and there's bidding wars for the film rights for my book. I have the most savage entertainment lawyer advocating for me as I sign away my film rights, that sort of thing. Because also, okay, this is just a side note, but if you're looking for that like multi-millionaire high level success,
Like think of what you're gonna need at that level. You're gonna need lawyers. Of course you're gonna need like savage entertainment lawyers if you're in the entertainment business. you know, that's something to just keep in mind when you're manifesting in your own life and business is like think big. Like think how the millionaire version of you would think and start forming those beliefs. I'm gonna be conservative here. Start forming those beliefs a year before you want them to come true.
Will it happen faster? Probably yes. But I want you to be in it for the long term. Okay, I want you to be in it for the long term. I want you to form these beliefs and just be there for the whole journey and know that some of it may take time to manifest in the physical because this, you know, the physical takes a while to catch up to the spiritual. But just be in it for the long haul because again, some of these beliefs, like the belief that my book is unputdownable, I've had that belief.
Kristen (04:41.65)
programmed in my mind since a year ago. And it only became true when people started reading it, right? So it only became true three months ago-ish. I can't remember exactly when I sent out ARC reader, advanced reader copies, but.
I've had that belief for a year, essentially. Form the beliefs of where you want to go and trust that they're going to be true in approximately a year, maybe later, maybe sooner, but just give yourself that full year timeline so you're not stressed about, this true yet? Is this true yet? Do I really believe this yet? No, just put the beliefs in your brain over and over over again until they feel true and then trust, even if you don't see them, that they are true.
and then just watch them show up in your reality. That's literally how it's been working for me with this book. So that's one thing I've done differently and it's made all the difference. Like I already have the results to prove, yeah, this method works. Another way I use affirmations is I put them on sticky notes and I put the sticky notes on the wall behind my laptop. And then when I'm sitting at my laptop typing my next book, I'm just absorbing it subconsciously, right? I don't even have to read them. I don't have to look at them or think about them. They're just there in my field of vision.
and so my subconscious mind picks them up, which is fantastic. So, those are a couple of tips for you. The other thing I'm doing very differently is I'm only marketing one thing. I'm only marketing one thing for my entire life, not just for my entire life, but...
Definitely for this year, I'm only marketing one thing. And of course, toward the end of the year, I'll start marketing the sequel. But really, when you market the sequel, you're marketing the first book, because if they don't read the first book, they're not gonna read the second book. So really, I'm just selling this one book for the rest of my life, right? Like that's the thing I'm marketing. you know, when you have lots of different things that you're selling,
Kristen (06:46.936)
and you don't have that signature core product that you can just sell over and over and over again and gain brand recognition for, right? Like I'm gonna become recognized for my book, The Queen Rises. I already am starting to get recognized for my book, The Queen Rises. And then of course people are gonna find out about the sequels and the third one and the fourth one and the prequel and the companion novel from Evander's point of view for The Queen Rises. I'm gonna write that someday as well.
when I'm marketing and selling my books, I'm selling one thing, which is The Queen Rises. And then they enter into this world of all the other things. And eventually there'll be movies and merchandise and all that stuff. But there's a lot of power and simplicity and ease when you're just selling one thing and you're selling that one thing over and over and over again until the end of time. Because if you do that, you don't have to change your messaging. You don't have to change...
what you talk about, it's just the same thing. And yes, it gets a little boring. I'm a manifesting generator in human design. So I get it, I get bored just like anyone else gets bored. Trust me, I get bored. But you need to find other ways to help your monkey mind stay interested in it. And for me, it's like, what's a creative way I can sell the same thing, right? Like that's how I lean more into variety.
and how I satisfy my manage and self is I get creative with the same thing. Like how can I sell the same thing in a new and unique way? How can I take what's working and make it better? So that's a huge thing I'm doing differently with my publishing company that is for sure making all the difference. I mean, it's so easy. It's so easy. Anyway, what else am I doing differently?
Kristen (08:44.534)
Well, another big difference is I have much healthier beliefs about money now. And so when you have healthier beliefs about money, everything you create from that state is going to be better for your money. You know what I mean? I have an episode called Create From a State to Make Bank. And I really believe like if you're coming from the foundation of like money is scarce, then everything you create from that state is going to show you that money is scarce.
But if you're creating from a foundation of money is abundant, this thing I'm creating is going to bring me abundance. I am abundant. If you're creating from that state, well, then everything you create from that state is going to be abundant. And I still have work to do on my abundance mindset. It's a thing I've been working on for several years now. I feel like I'm in a really good place with it. I am proud to say that Ralph and I bought my dream car, which is a Chevy Tahoe, cash up front.
in December, about six months after we decided we were going to do it. So that's pretty dang cool. That's something I can honestly say I wouldn't have been able to do in the past and we did it. So that's amazing. And I love that. Another like financial win is I am debt free. So that's pretty freaking awesome. Now my husband has student loans. But other than that, we're debt free and that's amazing. And we're keeping that up.
We're building wealth and saving for a dream home and everything. So, you know, I've really come a long, long, long, long, long way with my abundance mindset. But I'm to be honest with you. One area I've had to work on more with my abundance mindset is visibility. Yeah. OK, so if you operate, if you're an author or if you're an entrepreneur or if you're a coach or whatever you are and you operate some sort of business.
where you need to be visible, which is every business. Like if you want to have high levels of success, you need visibility. It's just how things work. Then, you you might have this problem with visibility that is really a scarcity issue, right? And I've had to work harder on that than money, I believe, actually. I think reprogramming my money beliefs was a little bit easier.
Kristen (11:04.563)
than it was to reprogram my visibility beliefs. And I think a big part of that, sorry if you hear the dog barking in the background, but I think a big part of the fact that reprogramming my visibility beliefs was harder is because I had a lot of popularity-related traumas growing up. And so essentially I realized very recently, not even a week ago, well, maybe a month ago, a couple of weeks ago, I don't know.
I'd have to look back at the sub stack where I talked about this, but I realized that I had a negative correlation with popularity as a concept or like as an energetic resource, right? Because I had had so many negative experiences with, for example, the popular crowd in high school, which is like so silly to talk about it because like those people are irrelevant to me. I never talked to any of them and
Like I don't really care about what happened. I mean, I was in the wrong in some situations. They were in the wrong in some situations. It is what it is. Like I don't, it doesn't affect me anymore. But, but, but, but I still had that negative association with this resource, this energetic resource called popularity. Another way to talk about this is fame. So if you have all these like weird energetic.
associations or beliefs about fame, like, famous people are evil. Well, then you will never be famous. Right. And fame is kind of a weird thing to say out loud because there are a lot of in pop culture, like negative associations with fame and like the collective consciousness. But like if you want to be highly successful as a business owner, then you're going to have some level of fame unless you're just like really like a CEO that nobody sees. OK. But most of us are building businesses online.
And most of us have like face forward businesses or you know what I mean? Like the CEO is front and center kind of thing. Like, I don't know. So I think if you want to be successful in business, then you have to be comfortable and open to and ready for fame. Because, you know, if you want to sell millions of books, in my case, that comes with a certain level of fame. Now, am I going to be as famous as a Taylor Swift?
Kristen (13:26.425)
I mean, probably one day. Listen to me, I'm hilarious. Probably one day, but it really is like, okay, what do you want? If you want to sell millions of books, you got to be okay with being famous. That's the end story. And I think that's what holds actually, this is a side note, I think that's what holds a lot of authors back from experiencing more success is they don't want to be known, they don't want to be seen, they don't want...
don't want too much attention. A lot of authors are very introverted. They want to hide, right? I have never been one who feels the need to hide. So for me, I knew if I want to sell millions of books, then I got to be comfortable with being famous. And I am very comfortable with being famous now. And I've worked through a lot. And I'm sure there's going to be more edges as I grow and as my fame really expands. But yeah.
So visibility is really important. And if you don't have a good relationship with visibility, then you're not going to scale. That's probably the best way to say that. You're not going to scale. And if you want to be a millionaire or multimillionaire or billionaire with a B, like I always say, then you got to be open to scaling. You got to be open to being famous. What else am I doing differently in my new publishing company? here's one thing.
I am actually not outsourcing a whole lot at the moment. I'm focusing heavily, heavily, heavily on profitability. So I'll tell you what I am outsourcing. I'm outsourcing my editing and my proofreading, although I'm probably going to have to hire a different proofreader because there were still mistakes. And I'll probably have to hire multiple proofreaders. And I outsource my cover design. The wonderful Carrie Ireland made my gorgeous book cover and she'll make my
subsequent book covers. So I've outsourced things that I truly cannot do. And there is more I could outsource. I could hire a social media manager, could pay for ads. mean, there is more I could pour money into. But I have chosen very intentionally to grow lean, to grow my publishing company in a way that is very lean. So I'm focused on profitability.
Kristen (15:53.336)
And we're not, mean, I think we've poured 12 to $13,000 total in the startup cost with the book. So we're not quite at profitability, but I think we're gonna be there pretty soon to be quite honest, especially as book sales continue to grow. So that's really exciting. I have, I'm very intentional about where and how I am going to incur extra costs.
and outsourcing is your biggest cost. Now, is it important to outsource things? Absolutely freaking lutely. Like, for example, we as a family have outsourced the picking up of our dog's doo-doo. We have someone who comes to our house and goes in our backyard and picks up Leo and Kingsley's poop. And I don't remember how much we pay for that, but it is definitely a luxury service.
So there are things that we outsource like in our day to day life that are unrelated to the business that I think are absolutely giving me more time, space and energy to focus on the business. So I think that's really important. And that's almost like, I almost see that as more important than outsourcing things in your business before you're truly at like a major surplus. I almost think it's more important to get some of those like rote things in your household taken care of like cleaning your house.
One thing I want to outsource very soon, if I can, is laundry, because I'm actually doing laundry right now. It takes up so much time. Right now I'm multitasking. I'm recording this podcast, but I could definitely be using my time better when it comes to laundry. That's something I definitely want to hire someone for soon. I'll keep you updated with that. Another thing I want to hire someone for soon is I want to hire a private chef, or a personal chef. I forget which one is which.
but the one where they come over and they meal prep and then they leave, not the one that like lives at your house and you pay like, I don't know, 200K per year. So those are some things I wanna outsource. And I actually wanna outsource those things before I necessarily wanna outsource anything in my new publishing company other than like editing, cover design, proofreading. And the reason why is because...
Kristen (18:13.149)
I guess it's because I want to a business lean, right? Like I want to be at such a surplus that it's like, my gosh, I have all this money. Okay, how do I invest this money back into the business? That's where I want to be. That's the mindset I'm in. Instead of my previous mindset, and I might've even said it on this podcast, was to like outsource before you're ready. I believe that with household things very strongly, I think...
You can always talk yourself out of hiring the maid because you're like, I can do it myself. But I think you get so much energy back when you outsource the daily and weekly household things that I think it's so worth it to outsource that maybe a little bit before you're ready, assuming you have the money for it, right? But for my business, I also have to work on my beliefs about team members. So that's something I need to work on later down the line.
But I mean, the benefit of building a publishing company is I really can do so much of it on my own, especially with my online business marketing know-how that I've developed through my coaching business. So I don't necessarily need to hire someone as like an actual employee or someone I pay every month. I can just hire my contractors for editing, cover design, et cetera. I've also hired a character artist. I've commissioned an artist for that, for the first book.
So I can do those like little projects, but it's nice at this junction of my publishing company, since it's really in the startup stages, it's really nice to not have like a monthly expenditure other than my website, which I don't think you can ever not have a website, as well as what's the other thing? Well, I guess I'm paying for Riverside, which is how I edit my podcast.
But it's, I mean, it's very inexpensive. It's 30 bucks a month. So we definitely have enough money coming in for those two things. And is there anything else I pay for? I mean, there was the startup costs. Like I had the startup costs of like the formatting platform and some other stuff related to the book startup costs, but that's pretty much it. I can't honestly, I honestly cannot think of.
Kristen (20:39.017)
monthly expenditure other than the website and the podcast editing platform. So I mean, that's pretty brilliant. I mean, that's a really lean monthly cost. So I'm very excited by that and I love that. And I think it's a really smart way to build a startup business. And I think there is something here to be said for having a startup mentality. And I don't think I had a startup mentality in my other business. I think in my other business,
I was so confident in myself and in where I was going and I saw so many examples of people making millions online that I just thought that that would happen for me too but I, you know, of course didn't see my own brilliance so I couldn't allow that type of success for myself. So anyway, I saw myself as a millionaire long before I was anywhere close to thinking like one and...
So I hired people with that expectation like, this will bring me more abundance and money. And I think if I had a different mindset, it probably would have. But I'm at this stage now where I'm like, well, I know I'm going to hire people when I'm ready. But I also really love the vibe and the energy of I don't need to have these huge monthly costs or expenses associated with my publishing company yet. And it is a startup. And I think, you know,
that startup mentality of I'm going to build it lean and mean and green and I'm to get all the green and then I'm going to expand. I think that's a really sustainable way to build a business. And I think that was kind of discouraged in the coaching industry. I think in the coaching industry, you were encouraged to invest in yourself. And I have no regrets. I don't think I made a bad investment. I just can't afford to think that way.
So I think everything was worth it in the end and I learned something from it, even if what I learned from it was that was a bad move. So nothing was wasted, right? No money was wasted. However, I am much wiser now and I think the startup mentality is a really powerful mentality when the business is not even a year old. I mean, the cool thing about my publishing company is because I have worked so much on my abundance mindset.
Kristen (22:58.9)
It already is bringing in revenue only. So October is when I opened the business, like I think late October. So January, I already had money coming in and it didn't hit my bank account because, you know, the publishing platforms, they take a hot minute to pay you. I think it's like a 60 day. So I'll get my first payout in March, which we're in March right now. But the business was already collecting revenue.
in January and I opened it late October. So within two months of opening the business, boom, things were flowing and we're going to have exponential growth. So it's going to be pretty awesome to see it all grow, grow, grow, grow, grow and then to expand into hiring a personal assistant or a virtual assistant. That's one thing I think for sure I will have at some point, but I don't need it right now. And so I'm not going to invest in it right now. And I think
that startup mentality is going to serve me so well in the second company. Okay, what else am I doing differently?
Kristen (24:14.686)
Another huge thing I'm doing differently is I have completely rewired my belief around hard work. And I've talked a little bit about this in other recent episodes, but it bears repeating and it bears expansion. Okay, like let's expand on this. This is called the Soul Expansion Podcast. Let's expand on what is going to expand your soul. Okay. So I believe in working hard, but it's not to make money.
I've said this before, but I work hard because I want to present myself in a really powerful way. Like I want to be the best, so I'm going to work hard to be the best. I want to be the most prolific indie author of all time, so I'm going to do that. So I'm going to work hard for that, right? So I work hard because it's about how I want to present myself. And it also feels good to work hard.
I think there's a concept in the Bible, I don't read the Bible a whole lot, but I think there's a concept in the Bible where it's like hard work is good. And it is good, it feels good to contribute. That's really what it's about for me. It's like this is how I contribute to the world is by working hard on the things that excite me. But I don't believe my money comes from my hard work. They are completely unrelated, okay? I believe my money comes from God.
I believe my money comes from my energetic state of abundance. So, because I believe that, there are some days where I don't work hard at all. There are some days where I don't post on social media about my book. There are some days where there's a whole week where I don't do anything for my book.
Kristen (26:03.815)
We recently went to Arizona and just chilled the F out. And I think I posted about my book a little bit, but it was definitely not a priority. And what was really cool about that trip is I set the intention, like on this trip, my readers are gonna sell my book for me. And guess what happened? I had all these book influencers posting about my book. It was great. So like you get to set those intentions and let things be done for you.
And work hard because it feels good to work hard, right? Like work hard because you feel like you're contributing to something, because you're passionate about something, because it feels good to create a book or to create a company. Like work hard for those reasons. But then no, like your money is not associated with how hard you work. So if you need to take a month or a week or a couple days off, it's not gonna touch your money. this is such a good tip. Okay, hold on, let me take a sip of water.
Kristen (27:09.734)
Okay, this is like life changing information. Okay, so I was feeling insecure about my book when we're on our trip actually, when we're in Arizona. And I think this was when I officially rewired the hard work thing. So it was pretty recent, beginning of March. And, you know, I was feeling insecure about my book. And I'm not going to go into the reasons why, but I was. And
I realized I had, before this moment, I had this belief that I had to be confident in my work in order to make money from it. And wow, that is such a limiter because guess what? We're humans and sometimes we're not gonna be confident in our work. So I completely rewired that belief and I changed it to like, I get to make money even when I feel like shit about my book. Like.
Even when I feel like my book is the worst ever, which I never ever, ever, ever, ever believe that. But even if I felt that way, then I would still believe I get to make money from it. And this is how I got to that conclusion. Twilight, I love Twilight, don't come for me. But Twilight objectively is like a poorly written book. I mean, it's definitely not a literary masterpiece. But Stephanie Meyer sold like over 100 million.
copies of that book. And I was one of them. I was one of the people that bought that. So objectively, we can see that you don't have to create the best book ever to make a fuck ton of money from the book. And so when I realized I was feeling insecure and I was worried about my sales because I was feeling insecure, I just completely reprogrammed that belief and I said to myself, you know what? I get to feel like shit about my book and still sell millions of books.
Right? Like I get to feel like I'm the worst writer ever sometimes and still sell millions of books. Right? Like if Twilight can be sold a hundred million times, The Queen Rises can be sold a hundred million times. Okay? So that is like life changing right there. You need to like rewind and re-listen to that because there's there's energetic codes in that I'm certain.
Kristen (29:31.685)
because that changed my whole perspective when I realized, oh, I don't have to be like unflinchingly confident in my book all the live long day. Like I get to be human and to feel insecure sometimes and still make money. Okay, yay. Yay, money really does have my back. God really is my provider, right? And those are beliefs I also have is that money has my back, God is my provider.
So I don't believe my money comes from any one human. I don't believe my money comes from any one source. believe my money comes from God, the one source, right? So like, and I've done a lot of work to repair my relationship with God. I was not always in a good relationship with God, but because I'm in a great relationship with God, I pray every night and I feel lots of love and protection and guidance from God every single day.
Because I'm in that space, then when I think to myself, God is my provider, it's like, yeah, God would never let me starve. Just because I'm feeling insecure about my writing. God would never let that happen to me ever. God would never slow down my book sales just because I'm on my period and I'm emotional. God would never, ever, ever, ever, ever do something like that to me because God wants to provide for me unconditionally.
And those are just beliefs. Do you get that? I just believe that God wants to provide for me unconditionally. You can choose to believe that too. Nothing is stopping you from leaning into that belief and cultivating that belief for yourself. So yeah, and I highly recommend it because it's pretty great to not have to worry about anything, including my up and down emotional swings as a woman.
And no, I'm going to be provided for no matter what because God would never let me starve or here this is this will be next level because of course you can get your energy behind God would never let me starve if I'm feeling insecure about my work. But how about this? God would never let me live in a house less than my multi-million dollar dream home just because I'm feeling insecure about my book that day. Like God would never allow me to live somewhere less than where I truly want to live.
Kristen (31:46.51)
Or another example, God would never allow me to not buy the Louis Vuitton purse. You know? And actually, it's kind of funny, my husband bought me a Louis Vuitton purse, my first ever real one for my 31st birthday. So that's kind of like top of mind and fun. And I'm not even joking you, that alone was like an up leveling because all of a sudden people started noticing me. Everywhere I go, they're like,
I love your bag. And I'm like, I'm the same person, but there's something about that energy, right? That wealth energy where you get noticed more. Anyway, back to beliefs and affirmations about God. So I would also believe something like, God would never deprive me of my millions of book sales this year just because I'm having a bad day.
Right? Like God would never ever, ever, ever, ever do something so horrible, like deprive me of my millions of book sales just because I am closing a business that didn't work. Right? Didn't work for me. I mean, it worked, but it didn't work for me. Right? God would never, ever, ever, ever punish me. Like I don't believe in punishment. I know that's a thing. When I was Catholic, I believed in punishment. I don't believe God punishes me. I believe God loves me so much that God...
literally spoils me and actually that's a belief in my subliminal audios right now and it's kind of cool that I'm saying it out loud because it's true I believe God spoils me and when you believe this is the key when you believe God spoils you God will spoil you when you believe God loves you unconditionally and will give you the world that's going to occur when you believe that you can have a bad day and still make a fuck ton of book sales
it's going to occur. When you believe it's true, it's going to occur. So if you believe God loves to spoil you with so much money and abundance, no matter how you're feeling about yourself or your book or your work, then that's going to be true for you. All right, that feels like a really good place to end this. Definitely give me a shout out on Instagram if you listen to this episode or
Kristen (33:58.43)
tag me in your stories or send me a message and let me know how you like this episode. Also get my book, thequeenrises.com. It doesn't matter where you buy your book from, just buy the book and read it. It's super entertaining, it's fun, it's spicy. There's also the deeper, darker themes, but you'll notice that even when we're in the deep dark stuff, there's like a good vibe in it, right? It's an overall good vibes book and actually readers have told me that. So I think you'll love it.
Check the trigger warnings though if you're sensitive to those things. They are at the beginning of the book and you can actually read the trigger warnings before you buy the book if you download the sample from Amazon, Barnes & Google Play, wherever you're looking to buy the book. So if you're like nervous about that, just download the sample, read the trigger warnings. right at the beginning. Okay. Anyway, thequeenrises.com. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Leave me a five star review if you feel so inclined. Obviously this is free. There's no commercials other than for my book.
and I'm sharing a lot of wisdom, so your five-star reviews help to grow the show. And if you think, if you benefited from what I shared, then a five-star review is like good energy out into the universe to like grow the show so someone else can benefit from it. So just think of it as like, this is a way to help others. And of course you helped me with a five-star review. So anyway, I love you. Have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you soon.