287 Gigi and Makena Sage: ‘Go’ Mode or ‘Flow’ Mode

Gigi and Makena Sage are founders of Lumina Life, a global coaching and seminar company helping go-getter women reach their full potential for financial success AND fulfillment. They share how to build a business on your own terms, why giving back unlocks an abundance of wealth and freedom, and how to balance our masculine “go mode” with a feminine “flow mode” to avoid burnout. Learn too how Gigi as a single mom with 5 homeschooled kids traveled the world to build her empire on her own terms – and how Makena started helping her mom at age 7.

Melinda Wittstock:         Gigi and Makena, welcome to Wings.

Makena Sage:                   Thank you so much for having us.

Gigi Sage:                            Hello [crosstalk 00:11:31].

Melinda Wittstock:         I am so excited to have you both on. I’m so intrigued by what a mother and daughter entrepreneurial team looks like, and how it functions in practice. We’re going to get into the story of how you got together in business in a moment. But first, tell us a little bit about how you work together and what makes this team a special team.

Makena Sage:                   How we work together. Well we have always done projects together, so we’ll share more about our story in just a moment. This is Makena, by the way, the daughter of the mother daughter team. And I started participating in Gigi’s seminars starting at the age of seven. She’s been doing this work for many years, she’ll share in a moment.

But we always had this connection around, I was always fascinated by her work, and we just always loved doing projects together. And so we did many different projects over the years and master minds and things like that. But about a year and a half ago, we decided that it was really time to go fully into business together. And this has always been my dream, is to work with my family. And so we came in together to Gigi’s spin running retreats, and working with people for 33 years. And I wanted to come in and really step into what I feel is my soul’s work, working with Gigi, supporting women and men in some of our programs, but primarily women to create lives and businesses that really bring them alive and her fulfilling both for them and financially successful.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s wonderful. I love that, that there’s so much to pick up on there Makena, that you were 7 and you’re hanging around as your mom’s helper.

Makena Sage:                   Yeah, actually participating. Sometimes I helped, I also assisted in some of the seminars. But I was actually sitting in the classes with all adults. Gigi really encouraged us, there’s five of us in the family, five kids. And she really encouraged us to follow our passion from a young age and what we were curious about. We were homeschooled, and so I was curious about the seminars. And so I was allowed to sit in there with all the adults and take part, which I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But now looking back I’m like, wow that’s kind of interesting.

And I guess I knew from a young age, it’s funny how those early curiosities really end up sparking something that you do later on. My sister Mariah was always in the kids camps we’d do. She would have kids camps for the kids of the parents that were at the seminars. Mariah was always in the kids camps playing with the babies, and hanging out with the kids. And now she does family systems coaching. So those early curiosities really turned into something.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s fantastic. So Gigi, did you have this in mind for Makena, that she was going to be this entrepreneur? Was this very clear to you when she was a little baby, was it kind of obvious?

Gigi Sage:                            No, I think it’s important I share a little bit of my journey. I started in 1985, I was a single mom, I had two children I had just moved back to Houston, Texas and was working in the telecommunications field. And I had started this new job, and there was a woman where I worked and she was just different than everyone else. When I would talk with her, she would talk about living her passion and following her dreams, and I’m sure you know, in 1985 there weren’t many people talking around that.

So I was fascinated by her, and she told me about a seminar and told me I should definitely go and attend it. And at first I was like, I don’t even know what a seminar is. You barely heard of them back then. But finally she talked me into it, and when I went, I always say it sounds very cliché, because I went to this seminar, I was interviewed and when I set up in front and people asked me what I wanted, it was just profound to be able to sit there and really look into myself and actually feel like, I can really say what I want. So in that moment, I saw, I just loved the process that I was going through. It lit a fire in me.

And I left there, really changed and passionate about … I thought, I have to do this work, this work that I saw happening there. So that’s where I began. And in that process and what happened is I was still working in the company, in the telecommunications company. And I ended up assisting at these workshops and then selling them and then eventually there was a mentor-student relationship. And then what happened is we really grew this, this was the beginning of the coaching industry. So we started training coaches back in 1988 I think it was.

Makena Sage:                   The year I was born.

Gigi Sage:                            What’d you say?

Makena Sage:                   The year I was born.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah. And then what happened is, with my children, I have five children total, we traveled, we built a life. I grew my business and my life on my terms. We really built an international business. So with the children, what I did is I really saw the same thing, what is it that they wanted to do? How did they want to evolve? And that’s where we would always put the attention and focus.

Makena loved the workshops and so we allowed her to be in there. Mariah loved the kids camps, so we allowed her to be in there. And through that, we fostered their genius, whatever they lit up about and wanted to do.

So fast forward many years. I’ve always had this dream, I thought, I would love for my kids to be involved with the work that I do. And so like Makena said, she and I have worked on many projects, and there just came a point where she was in her career, doing very well, but I saw she was in a lot of pain. That again, it wasn’t aligned with who she is and what she wished she was doing. And I really pushed her and prodded her to make a shift, which she has done. And I just see a big change in her, and she’s much more in alignment with who she is now.

And I did the same thing with Mariah, and I’ve done that with all my children, to really assist them to move towards what they want to do and what they’re the best at.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh my goodness, that’s so beautiful to hear, because I think so many people live these lives that aren’t their own. They’re somebody else’s. I just noticed in my own life or with my kids, whenever I hear or just colleagues in business, whenever I hear people saying things like, “I should do this” or “I should do that”, it’s sort of a sign, why should you? Do you want to?

Makena Sage:                   And this is Makena, I think it’s important for people to know too that even being raised in that work, I had to go away from it in a way. And I think that’s a natural thing that happens sometimes with kids, is that we rebel a little bit against whatever our upbringing was. So for those who are raising kids, you said we always know, I think at some level maybe I knew I wanted to do this, but I really took a different path in my teams and decided, I just wanted to be normal, I just wanted to fit in.

Again, at this time years ago, this was I guess 13 years ago, I was starting to look at colleges and things like that. Coaching was still fairly new. Gigi had already been doing it for 20 years, but it was really fairly new and a lot of people didn’t even know what it was. I was living this alternative lifestyle, traveling the world and being homeschooled. So as a kid, I just was, I just want to go be normal, I don’t want anymore of this. So I decided to go to business school, study international business. I thought I was going to go get a corporate job and live a completely different kind of life.

And it’s funny to me now, but I felt that way at the time. So I did that, I went to business school and that was a little bit of me also trying to prove something, that I could do it. And in that process, I did really well externally, if you looked at my grades. I was top of my class and I was super involved on campus and doing all of these things. But I was really withering inside and just getting further away from who I really was and what was right for me.

And so going out of that, I started to make some shifts out of college. I went to California, started my first business in online marketing. And in many ways, it was aligned, but there were still these pieces that it just wasn’t my full expression of what I’m here to do in the world, and Gigi said my genius. And I really went, like I said before, into the go mode or the masculine.

I think it’s important to share that, that even though I had that upbringing, I still had to go away from it and come back to it and go on my own journey around that. And yeah, I think that’s important to know.

Melinda Wittstock:         So I’m fascinated by this concept of getting into alignment with ourselves. Because this is so much a part of anyone’s journey. A “sheroes” journey, but anyone’s journey, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. I don’t know about you two but I think it’s almost impossible to succeed or at least be happy succeeding unless you do find that alignment. Is that true for you?

Makena Sage:                   Absolutely, yeah, that’s so much of … this is Makena, I’m sure Gigi can speak more to this but that’s been so much of my journey that I just shared, was in that time where I really went for the business and built my first business and was more in that go mode energy, what you need to be successful in business, we always share that you need both go mode and flow mode as a woman to do business in a sustainable way.

But that was really that first business, I grew that to six figures my first 18 months out of college, and just really went for it in that business. And I had a lot of financial success and I had a lot of freedom and fulfillment as well, but it wasn’t really fully what brought me alive. And that’s why we’re so passionate about helping women with financial success and fulfillment, alignment is another way of putting that, is the fulfillment piece is really what does bring you alive. When do you feel the most like yourself? When you’re really in your function.

Gigi, did you want to speak a little bit more to that?

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah, I think that you can have success. It depends on how we define success. But the important piece is like Makena said, the fulfillment and financial success, that’s where you get to live the life you were supposed to live, the life you’re meant to live, I believe. And that’s what we really support women to do.

Melinda Wittstock:         So this is so interesting what you say though about, when you are alignment and then things just start to happen. Things are a little bit easier and I know as a serial entrepreneur that some of my businesses have felt like pushing a boulder up a mountain. At every step, you just feel like it’s just really hard, and it’s frustrating. And other businesses that I’ve done have been in flow. Things have manifested easily.

And when I look back, with the beauty of 2020 hindsight of course, I can see the difference in myself, and it really came down to, was I in alignment with my true passion, my purpose, why I’m here in an Earth suit? And was it aligned with actually my true talents? My unique abilities?

And so all so often, do you find this when you’re working with women and entrepreneurs, men and women, where they’re having a hard time in their business, how often is that just simply because they’re out of alignment?

Gigi Sage:                            I think it’s a lot of the time. I don’t know what the percentage would be, but I think that tweaking, if you go back to something as simple as your aliveness, and that sounds not so important but it’s extremely important, because we have certain gifts and a very unique genius, each of us. And more you get in alignment with that, things do begin to flow.

Now, you still have to, like you said, no matter what, no matter what business you’re in, you still have to push that car up the hill. But like Makena was talking about earlier, when you’re pushing that car up the hill and you’re in alignment, what happens is at the end of the day, you’re tired but it’s the right kind of tired. You still have energy. So when I work in a classroom and I work with people, I’m exhausted sometimes. But there’s this aliveness to me and this great sense of, I’m doing the right thing.

And I think everybody knows that we’ve had those moments in our lives. Some people have it through sports, other people have it through activities they’ve done. But you can have it through your business as well, and I think it’s so important to look at that, because it doesn’t mean you have to throw away a business sometimes. It just means that maybe you need to add or takeaway or tweak or like I said earlier, find the right people for the right jobs that you should not be doing. So for example, you are absolutely in your function in what you’re doing. This is Gigi talking, I’m sorry I didn’t say that earlier.

Makena Sage:                   Yeah, I think the other piece around this is that we share tools and skills for the people we work with to start to tap into their aliveness for themselves. So that is one piece absolutely. The other side is that sometimes it’s hard to see these things for ourselves, and that’s where it’s really powerful to get support and that’s a lot of what we help people with, is when you have a sounding board or a coach or someone that’s there to really look deeply into you and reflect back your unique genius, that can be so powerful, because sometimes it’s a blind sport for us.

We can’t see that for ourselves, or we can’t see, what do I want? I have all of these different ideas and things in front of me, and so that’s a lot of what we work with people around, and also what’s holding you back, because there’s often patterns or things that are getting in the way that you can, when you see them clearly, you see a path to move through them, then you can really create what you want to create in the world and have that alignment. And like Gigi said, that alignment for me has always been that feeling, definitely the right kind of tired but also tuning in at the end of day and asking that question sometimes. Maybe it’s through meditation or whatever. Am I on path? Am I doing what I’m meant to be doing or am I really fulfilled?

And it’s an evolution, it’s a journey. It’s not all going to be perfect all the time, but knowing you’re on path, even when challenges come up, then you know, okay, I’m still where I’m meant to be.

Melinda Wittstock:         We can feel it in our bodies, can’t we?

Makena Sage:                   Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:         Gosh, I know so many women in their 50s, myself included, who just charged, go, go, go, type A personality, really competitive. Used to being the only woman in the room, being really in my masculine, all that kind of stuff. And you get to a certain point where that stops working. And there was a certain point where, I don’t know what it is. To begin with, what is it, why is this not working?

And then you realize that it’s actually taking an impact on your health. And so I realized that actually for me it was so bad, I had no hormones left. It was like, okay I’ve created a little bit of cortisol there over a long period of time. It doesn’t really work for women. How can we get into better balance between our masculine and feminine energies? I do believe that that is the answer, that we need a little bit of both. That we need to be able to just be the relationship, empathetic archetypal feminine as well because we have so many unique abilities there. How do we find balance in that? What’s the ideal?

Makena Sage:                   Yeah, this is Makena, and we called this ‘go mode’ and ‘flow mode’. And the reason why we call it go mode and flow mode is because masculine feminine, when you’re a woman and you hear, masculine energy, I used to go, I don’t want that. And I have a lot of go mode in me, that’s a natural space that I operate in. And so we re-coined them or re-branded them as go mode and flow mode for that reason. And also because you do need both energies, and I think Gigi can share in a moment some tips around that.

But it’s important to know that as a woman, to be successful in business in a sustainable way, you do need both. Because what we see are women on both sides of the spectrum. I resonate more, Melinda I was more where you were, of going toward burning myself out because I was so in the go mode energy in my first business.

We also see women on the other side where they’re so in flow mode. Which is so beautiful and wonderful and it’s a natural space for women a lot of the time to be in the intuition and the flow and all of these different things. However, not much gets done in that space.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right, it’s true. [crosstalk 00:31:03].

Makena Sage:                   You do need both energies, and so I just think that’s important to state. First is, think of it more of a dance between these two energies as opposed to, how do I have them perfectly in balance all of the time? Sometimes you need more of one and more of the other. And Gigi, did you want to share something around how they can find that dance?

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah. One thing is, making the distinction first of all. Melinda, you noticed that, and you had a physical situation where it was obvious.

Melinda Wittstock:         It became obvious because I ignored it for such a long time.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         I sort of intellectually got it, but it took a while for it to really truly integrate into actually how I lived.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah. And I think often women don’t even realize that they’re doing it, that’s part of it. But if you know that you’re always in this intense mode, and then you’ve got to look at how to shift that in terms with the little steps, because if you’ve been doing that for a long time … because it’s so important how to learn how to be in go mode because that’s really what’s important to get a business going.

And you have to then learn, how do you balance that? Well one way is simple rituals. It’s as simple as finding things that nurture you. And I like to make that distinction, what nurtures you. And it might be very different than what nurtures another woman. So one woman might like massage, another woman might like to climb in bed and read a book. But find out what it is for you, and then start adding those things to your life.

And then another thing is, when you go home at night, turn it off.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh yeah, oh gosh, and that’s hard for entrepreneurs to do [crosstalk 00:32:52] there’s this constant macro running in our brains. You’re always thinking, you got a team that you’re looking after, you’ve created jobs for people, you’ve got their livelihoods, you’ve got all the metrics, you’ve got your numbers that you’re watching. You got all this stuff [crosstalk 00:33:09].

Gigi Sage:                            Get more playful. That’s the other thing. Deep down, women love to have fun, we love to enjoy life. We love pleasure, and that’s what you have to find, is what are the areas in your life where you can have more pleasure? Really retreat and take women to far away places to get them for a week so they can step back into that relaxation [inaudible 00:33:33].

I always say, when women relax, they become wise. And what happens is when we relax, we see our lives. We see what we want. We get clear vision. When we’re always in the go, go, go, we can’t see it. It’s impossible.

Makena Sage:                   I think it’s an important distinction, this is Makena, around what nurtures you and what relaxes you, is different for every woman. Gigi touched on that a moment ago, and that was such a huge distinction for me. Because I’m the kind of person, again, a bit type A, go, go, go, and I would get my massages and I would get my pedicures and whatever, but it was just another thing in my schedule. It was lovely but I didn’t truly relax there.

So for me I had to see what really relaxes me. For me, reading a fiction book actually turns my brain off for a time and allows me to fully lose myself in what I’m doing and that helps me to unwind. I had a profound experience last year in 2018, when Gigi and I were in Costa Rica leading a retreat for one of our programs. And we were walking on the beach, we came a couple of days early. We’re walking on the beach, we’re talking, and we’re talking about life and business but we’re doing it in this way, and this is one of Gigi’s geniuses and why we support women with this at some of our retreats, is we’re doing it in this way that we weren’t trying to get anywhere. We were just relaxing, talking, connecting.

And in that, Gigi just shared, when women relax we become wise, I literally saw the vision for the next ten years of my life. Who knows if that’s how it’ll end up, but it really, all these things I had been in the questioning around for so long, suddenly became crystal clear. It was a profound experience.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh wow, that resonates so clearly with me. I had such a similar experience with my partner a couple of years ago. We were sitting, we do this forest bathing, we’ll walk in the roods and then just sit down by this babbling brook. And same thing, it was the fourth of July a year and a half ago or so, and everything, the whole Wings, the podcast, media company, all of it. Not every detail was clear but the purpose and the mission and what I really wanted to do just came to me.

I wasn’t working, I was trying to completely not work. Like I was in total decompression, but it’s those moments, it’s kind of like, you let go or you clear away all the background noise you can actually hear. Because if you don’t have those quiet moments or some sort of emptiness in some way, there’s no way you can hear or even see the inspiration or even see the opportunity. I love that, that women, when we slow down or relax, we become wise. I think that’s so astute.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah.

Makena Sage:                   Absolutely. Yeah and then there’s piece of how do you then take that and make that a reality? How do you bring that into, so that’s more the flow mode which is so important at times, and then a lot of our work too is around, now you have that clear vision that’s really come from you. It’s not anybody else saying, this is what you should do or you even saying this is what I should do. But it’s really coming again from that unique genius, from what brings you alive, from that clarity. And then it’s a matter of, okay, tangibly in the world, how do you take that and run with it? How do you make it a reality?

And in most cases, if it’s a business or a project, how do you make money with it? We say monetize first so that you can really go out and have the confidence to really keep going for it, and the financial sustainability to create the life that you want to live.

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative), I love that. It’s kind of like “flow so you can go”.

Makena Sage:                   Absolutely. And one of the reasons we’re so passionate about that too, is of course, it’s to empower women and to have them living the lifestyle that they want to live. But one of the things we’ve also seen, we work with men and women in some of our programs, primarily women and many of them. And one of the things that’s so great about that I think, is that women naturally have this desire, men too sometimes, but particularly I feel that when we become successful, when we have financial success, we have this natural desire to give back. And that might be to our families, to our communities, to the world in some way.

But when we have that over flow, we really want to share and get back to others. And so we love that ripple effect as well and really supporting women to do that.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s really beautiful. So I want to get into the numbers for a little bit and what you said about that kind of financial freedom that allows us to go and flow and get into alignment, and really provide the support that we need. I’m astonished the work that I do with women of how resistant so many business owners are to knowing their numbers, watching their numbers, or even understanding the concept of profit and why you should be thinking intentionally about the kind of profits that you want to make in a business, not just your top line revenue or not just some vague thing about, yeah let’s make more money.

But knowing, money is a tool. Knowing what you want the money for … what’s your experience when you’re working with women around money, women business owners with that? Is that your experience too and how do you help them around that, to really know their numbers?

Makena Sage:                   Yeah I think our piece, a lot of the women we’re working with, it is around of course knowing their numbers, all of those pieces as well. A lot of times we get stuck in perfectionism or wanting to get things right before we go to really earn with something.

And of course, we all want to have it be beautiful and all of these different things, but I always share that in my first business, I grew that business to my first six figures without a fancy website, without any social media presence, without any of that. And so that’s a lot of a piece that with help women with, is it doesn’t have to be perfect to go out and really create and generate with that. And the confidence that it gives you and the way that it makes it real, and that once you’re in action and you’re earning with something, then you can really see the next steps. So I think those are some of the pieces that we relate with women around. Gigi, is there anything else-

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah, and I do agree Melinda, no I have clients that are very successful, and it’s true. Sometimes, I’m always around, what are the numbers. And some, it’s really difficult for them to look at it. There’s always a cloudiness about it, and a hesitation. And I often find too that women are embarrassed sometimes about-

Melinda Wittstock:         We don’t want to talk about money.

Gigi Sage:                            Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:         Whereas guys have no problem.

Gigi Sage:                            Exactly, yeah. And it’s like it’s bad if they want money.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right.

Gigi Sage:                            If they are financially successful. So yes I definitely find that, and for me, the way I work with that is I just keep on asking. And we keep on looking, and like you said, and then you have to look at, what do you want to use it for? How do you want to grow? What are you trying to do? Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, when we can tie money to purpose, we can let go of a lot of those limiting beliefs, all those money stories I think we all have in our subconscious, and kind of let go of some of that. I find that women do better in business when there is a real social mission or purpose and they can kind of see that purpose. And then the money isn’t an end in and of itself, it’s just a tool.

It’s what you need to be able to fulfill your purpose, it’s what you need to be able to help all the people you’re going to go help.

Makena Sage:                   And we also encourage women to make it fun. If money is something, I personally love money and love talking about money and working with money, so it’s a little bit different for me and some people are more naturally like that. But if you’re not someone that’s like that, let’s say you don’t want to look at the numbers, you’re just like, I’d rather not touch that, well first of all [inaudible 00:42:13] you can’t [crosstalk 00:42:16]. So I hire somebody to do that.

But beyond that, also to make it fun and set your money date if that has to be once a week or once a month or whatever that is to really dive into the numbers, whatever you need to be looking at there. Put on music, go to a coffee shop, whatever it is that makes that fun for you. That’s kind of around the re-framing the way that we approach things. I think that that’s another way that women can do it.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. Absolutely. What do you think are the biggest things that hold women back in business? There’s an incredible statistic that only three percent of female business owners get to a million dollars in revenue. Only three percent.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah, I think self doubt is a huge one. Yeah, I see that so much.

Makena Sage:                   Questioning yourself.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah, questioning themselves and then some, the not being consistent, not wanting to get in there and just absolutely go for it. Because business can be tough sometimes, and those are a couple I see.

Makena Sage:                   Yeah, I think that with the women we work with, those are huge. Questioning yourself, self doubt, sitting there, especially entrepreneurs that are maybe solopreneurs or they’re leading a small team that they’re newer in business maybe, is that we sit there and we’re like, am I doing the right thing? Who am I to do this? A lot of those kinds of questions can come up, and that’s where having a sounding board or a coach or something like that can be really powerful.

There was another piece I wanted to share around what’s holding you back, but I’ve lost it.

Melinda Wittstock:         Honestly I don’t think you can do this without a coach, coaches actually, mentors, masterminds, being able to be with your peers. Because truth be told, we all need our, I call it our business family. And in your case, it is actually our family. But most people don’t have a family that even understands them in business.

The actual fact is, when people become entrepreneurs, their families are like, are you sure you should do that? Really? Isn’t that risky? They get a lot of self doubt reinforced by families and friends who mean well but they’re kind of in fear, they’re trying to protect you I guess, I don’t know. But if we don’t get the support and the love and the understanding and the accountability from a business family, which is your coaches, mentors, peers, masterminds or whatever, it’s so much harder to succeed.

I find that women can really get isolated very easily, and that’s where all the self doubt kicks in.

Makena Sage:                   Yeah, and the other piece that I was going to share before, this is Makena, is Gigi always shares that entrepreneurship is an emotional experience. There’s ups and downs and it is almost a roller coaster at times, and to stick with it over time, and to really ride those waves, is something that I think women can struggle with at times. And I’m sure men too, but I think women in a different way because we are maybe more emotional in certain ways. That is something that can be a real challenge for women, is sticking through it when things get challenging and not taking that as a sign that they’re off track.

Because if you have those moments of clarity, you know you’re aligned, you know you’re on track, but then challenges come up. It can be our impulse to go, maybe I’m not doing the right thing, and go shift gears. And that’s where we lose so much power and so much momentum towards something, is when we make those shifts all the time.

Melinda Wittstock:         Do you think Gigi too that we can sometimes be afraid of conflict? ‘Cause conflicts come out in business. Sometimes we just don’t find alignment with a client or a potential client, or we have to fire people. We have to do things like that sometimes, it just does happen. There is conflict in business and you have to be able to stand up to that and deal with it, and of course you can deal with it in a really nice way, but it will happen.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah, this is Gigi, yes. I think shying away from that, and there’s another thing that I always say, is women often are, they take things more personally in business. I love to make that shift and distinction is, instead of taking things personally, really get professional. Approach it from a step up, take the high road is basically it. I was coaching a client just the other day on this because someone was attacking her. It was a client and I said, you’ve just got to go in there and you cannot take this personally.

You have to step up, and you just be a pro. And just say, thank you so much, and handle it this way, and she did it and she was amazed. Because before, she had so much emotion around that, this client was dissatisfied in the way that he was treating her. And so she got caught up in that instead of just going to, hey, I’m a pro here and I’m not going to let this get on me and I’m just going to be very professional, very nice and get this thing handled. And she did.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s great. And sorry Makena, you were going to jump in.

Makena Sage:                   I was just going to say that’s a lot of how we’re able to do business together as a family as well, is that distinction. And of course there’s moments where we slip into, and of course we have times where we’re in our personal relationship with each other when we’re outside of the business context where we make sure we have our mother-daughter connection or sister-sister connection, but when it comes to times where we’re doing business, really making that distinction that this is business and this is professional, and sometimes we have to remind ourselves of that in moments where we might want to take something personally or something like that to go, no, this is business. This is a different container, a different context.

So that’s important for anybody who is working with their family or people that are close to or wants to be doing that, is to make those clear distinctions.

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative). This is so true. And so what’s next for both of you, as you grow this amazing mother and daughter business through 2019? Where are you taking it, what’s the big vision?

Makena Sage:                   Books.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah, books, we have so many books.

Makena Sage:                   We have 25.

Gigi Sage:                            Yeah, books and programs and other events. But putting a lot of the information, because again we go in several different areas. Mariah is in the parenting and the conscious family development, we’re in business. I work a lot with couples and their relationship along with the business, so we really have an integration of all of the different aspects. And so we want to get our information out there worldwide.

I’ve worked in Europe for 25 years. I’ve been very blessed to have books published there and have a great community of women there, but we want to get it out so it touches more lives and is helpful.

Makena Sage:                   It’s definitely a legacy piece around the family work, this work that Gigi has developed over the past three decades and really being able to share that in a bigger way and harness the internet and online marketing and a lot of these things to be able to reach women and men all over the world. And we started a Facebook group recently called Global Business Women with Heart, and that’s one of the ways too we really want to build this community of women globally, because such a big piece for us and Gigi has been this international piece. We’ve been traveling to Europe since I was a young child and doing retreats all over the world. And we love the connections that get formed with women around the world through these workshops and things like that.

And so we thought, how fun would it be to create an online community where women can connect with each other and also local events in your local communities. So that’s another local project as well that we’re really excited about, that goes along with everything else we’re doing.

Gigi Sage:                            And this is Gigi, and also to do business together. And I just want to say one more thing, is women helping women like you said, is so important. And I have been so blessed in my career that my whole growth in Europe came out of connections with women that brought me into a country, opened a country for me, that I was introduced to and then all of a sudden I have book deals.

And that came not by strategy, I hate to say it. I wish it was. But that came out of these relationships that I had had over the years. So that’s why it’s so important to build those kind of relationships with women that really are looking out for you and really want you to get what you want and support you. They’re out there doing things to help you get it.

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative). This is so true. I love that, it’s really much a message of abundance. ‘Cause when we show up to really help others and really invest in our relationships as women, miraculous things happen. We’re good at that, so we shouldn’t be isolated. We should really be focusing on those connections and those relationships, ’cause you never know what happens. Miracles happen, I find.

Makena Sage:                   Yeah, and our first tenet in our manifesto for that group is, I come to give. And that is really about the spirit of showing up in service to the other women in the group and to people in your life. And when we do that and we really show up to empower each other, like Gigi said, to get what the other person wants, and take it really a step further than just, I’m cheering you on, it’s really, how do I [inaudible 00:52:26] what it is you want and help you go out and get that in any way I can, then just magical things happen for everyone involved.

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative). This is so true. So how can people find you and work with you?

Makena Sage:                   Absolutely. So we have a website, yourluminalife.com, which is Y-O-U-R-L-U-M-I-N-A-L-I-F-E.com, and then for your listeners, we also have a free audio and worksheet that is really designed, we talked a little bit about the monetization piece, it’s really designed to help you take a financial game or a goal and see how to go out and create that from a place that’s really aligned for you. Because it’s not about putting a specific strategy on top of you, it’s really seeing, for you in your unique genius and your network and the opportunities you have in front of you, how do you go … we call it your winning blueprint for financial success. How do you go and create that?

So that is at yourluminalife.com/blueprint.

Melinda Wittstock:         Wonderful. Well thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us.

Makena Sage:                   Thank you.

Gigi Sage:                            Thank you for having us.

Makena Sage:                   Pleasure to be here.

 

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