750 Rebecca Whitman:

Entrepreneurship empowers us to choose our own paths and create the lives and businesses we wish to lead. We have choices every minute of every day to make, and we also have the power to decide whether we want to inspire from a place of love and gratitude or rule from a place fear, worry, stress or anxiety. What do you choose? My guest today Rebecca Whitman is an entrepreneurial coach who inspires CEOs to lead by aligning with the 7 Pillars of Abundance – spiritual, physical, emotional, romantic, mental, social, and financial.

MELINDA

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m a 5-time serial entrepreneur who has lived and breathed the ups and downs of starting and growing businesses, currently the game changing social podcast app Podopolo. Wherever you are listening to this, take a moment and download Podopolo. Follow Wings of Inspired Business there and join the Wings community so we can take the conversation further with your questions, perspectives, experiences, and advice for other female founders at whatever stage of the journey you’re at! Because together we’re stronger, and we soar higher when we fly together.

Today we meet an inspiring success mentor and author of several international bestsellers who helps business leaders achieve balance and find more fun and freedom by practicing abundance in 7 areas – spiritual, physical, emotional, romantic, mental, social and financial.

Rebecca Whitman, honored as Life Coach of the Year by the International Association of Top Professionals, is the author of several ground-breaking bestsellers, among them “Phenomenal Feminine Entrepreneurs,” “Business, Life, Universe” and “How to Make a Six Figure Income Working Part Time.” She also hosts the “Balanced, Beautiful, Abundant” podcast, and has shared stages with Grant Cardone, Jack Canfield, and Les Brown.

Today we dig deep into Rebecca’s pillars of abundance

How are you feeling as you grow your business or side hustle and balance all of that with everything else in your life?

Entrepreneurship comes with uncertainty, endless challenges, and constant change. How we deal with all of that is a choice. We can let it make us feel anxious, stressed, doubtful, worried or fearful – or we can make a proactive choice to come at it from a place of gratitude, joy and from a heart bursting with love.

The choice we make in any given week, day or hour can change the course of our lives and our chances of business success and happiness.

Ask any successful entrepreneur – as we do with each episode of this podcast – what they had to overcome to grow multimillion dollar businesses and every time it comes down to mindset. To grow a business is to grow as a person, and shed all the subconscious blocks and limiting beliefs that can keep us playing small or running faster and faster without going anywhere.

Rebecca Whitman is a life coach with a philosophy of abundance. She has seven pillars to her practice for a life of happiness and financial freedom, and I know first-hand that if you start putting these pillars to work for you, life will look a lot better. Because we get what we’re thinking about and feeling.

So let’s dive into the 7 Pillars and Rebecca’s practical and transformational advice.

Melinda Wittstock:

Rebecca, welcome to Wings.

Rebecca Whitman:

Thank you, Melinda. I’m so excited to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, I’m excited to talk about abundance because our society, our mindsets, everything needs to change in that direction, I believe. You have seven pillars of abundance, and I want to go through what those are and how they relate to any woman growing her business.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah, I can’t wait. I think that people are realizing that abundance isn’t just money. It’s having an abundant life, and I’m so excited to talk about this today.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic. What’s pillar number one?

Rebecca Whitman:

Sure, let’s get right into it. The seven pillars are in order of importance. The first pillar is spirituality because that is the foundation to build your life on. If you are going to be an entrepreneur, there are going to be highs and lows, peaks and valleys, exciting times and setbacks. Unless you have some kind of a spiritual life, whatever that looks like, whether it’s God, the universe, Shiloh, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, another force greater than yourself to kind of hold your hand and walk you through the highs and the lows, it’s going to be a really hard journey.

I really like starting my day off with a morning practice. I know you said we’ll talk about that later, but that really helps me tap into my spirituality and set me up for a really great day.

Melinda Wittstock:

This is so important, what you say about spirituality. I think a lot of entrepreneurs coming to entrepreneurship, not necessarily with that spiritual growth muscle in place, but the setbacks, and the swings, and roundabouts, and all the uncertainty invariably get them to that place if they want to succeed. I know that’s been my trajectory along all the businesses that I’ve built. Increasingly, it’s come from a place of spirituality at this point. It wasn’t always that way, but the difference is really palpable.

Talk to me a little, let’s break that down a little bit more in terms of what that means. The morning practice that you do sets you up to be really in the right mindset. Sorry. I’m just going to say that again. The morning practice that you do sets you up, in effect, to be in the right mindset to be able to handle all those setbacks, or pivots, or unexpected things out of left field a little bit better than you otherwise would.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah. It takes a lot of courage to be an entrepreneur, and it’s literally walking into the unknown. That’s the excitement about being an entrepreneur, and that’s where you can also get a huge reward. If you’re walking into the unknown all by yourself, it can be really scary and even debilitating, but if you are connected to a force greater than yourself, you know that even if you invest in something that you’re not sure that is going to pay off, or make that call that might lead to rejection, that you’re going to be okay no matter what. I think that’s really important.

My morning practice consists of I wake up. I drink lemon water, which is so important for detoxification. I drink this amazing collagen that is liquid and goes right into my cells and helps me feel good. It just helps me look younger and I like being strong. It helps feed my muscles and my joints. Then I’ll make some coffee or tea. I have a little corner of my couch that’s like my happy nook, my spiritual place. I have all my books, my journal right next to me. I’m sipping my tea or coffee, and depending on how many minutes I have, I could do five minutes or I could do 30.

I like to write. I have this abundance journal, which I’m happy to give your guests. It’s a journal format that I’ve been using for three decades that helps turn my mind from negative to positive, and it’s an incredible way to set the tone for my day. Then I’ll read something from a spiritual book or a self-help book. Then I’ll meditate with however many minutes I have left. Sometimes, it’s only one minute. Sometimes, it’s 10. Rarely is it more than 15, but I have the Insight Timer app, but there’s many meditation apps where you can have just a guided meditation.

I just sit back and I listen for a few minutes, and then I go work out. That sets my morning up and my day up for a lot of success, and a lot of spiritual sustenance, and also physical energy that I get from the different beverages, the lemon water, the collagen, and the caffeine, and I’m just ready and raring when I get back from the gym to have an amazing day.

Melinda Wittstock:

That seems a lot like the Miracle Morning.

Rebecca Whitman:

I’m a huge fan of Hal Elrod. I love The Miracle Morning. He talks about the SAVERS, scribing, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and I forget what the final S is. Silence. Oh, silence. I heard yesterday, I was on a podcast, they’re like, “You always forget the thing that you need to work on the most.” I’m like, “That is so true.” The other S is for silence, yes. I love the Miracle Morning.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it’s hard to create silence in your life as an entrepreneur because just even in your own head, it’s like there’s this constant macro going around all the time. It’s very, very difficult to not be thinking about your business. I’ve found that I actually have to schedule that in my schedule, or be doing something completely different where I have to focus on the matter at hand, like lifting weights. I’m going to drop the weight if I’m thinking about, “When’s our investment money coming in?” or whatever. It can force me to get that kind of emptiness in my brain that is so hard, most of the time.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah, I agree. When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re juggling so many different balls. I have four different income streams, so it’s a lot, but I really love the morning practice because it gives me a break from my monkey mind and all the different things that I’m juggling.

Melinda Wittstock:

100%. Okay, so you’re set up for the day with your spiritual practice in place, with your morning setup. What is the second pillar of abundance?

Rebecca Whitman:

The second pillar is also part of my morning routine. It’s exercise, so the second pillar is fitness, and then after … I really believe in building your day around your workout. Body before business. Health is wealth. If you have your health, you have everything. You can achieve anything you want. If you don’t have your health, then your whole life becomes about getting your health back, so I think that is so important.

I was listening to an interview the other day, and this woman had made millions of dollars, but she burned out and she literally lost her health, where she could barely get out of bed for months. It’s like she’ll never work herself to the ground again because she realizes even if you make seven figures, if you don’t have your health, what is it really worth?

Melinda Wittstock:

This is why when you hear all these entrepreneurs talking about, “Just hustle. Hustle hard,” or, “Work harder,” sure, you do have to be in massive action at times, but not all the time, so how to find that balance where …. I mean, there are almost moments when you have a big deadline, so there’s a huge amount of stuff to do. It’s just that you cannot run a long-distance race in a sprint.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah. I like to think of my schedule as HIT training, high intensity interval training. When you work out, you do a set of cardio or weights, and then you take a short break, and then you do another set. I set up my day in terms of intervals. I like to call them power hours. I’ll do a couple power hours, and then I’ll take a break, and I like to go … I can’t just do eight or 10 hours in a row because then I’ll burn out.

That’s a great thing about being an entrepreneur, is you get to set up your own schedule. I feel like most people do a lot better in a short focus of time where they’re not checking their social media. They’re 110% pedal to the metal, and then they can take a break.

Melinda Wittstock:

Mm-hmm, very true. Okay, so you’ve got, say the spirituality and the fitness, the body before business happening.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yep.

Melinda Wittstock:

What’s number three?

Rebecca Whitman:

The next one is emotions. All emotions come from two base emotions, fear or love. This is from A Course in Miracles. All the fear-based emotions are negativity, stress, anxiety, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, cynicism. Then the love-based emotions are happiness, appreciation, satisfaction, contentment, bliss, joy, ecstasy. The goal is to switch your mind from the fear channel to the love channel. I have found the fastest way to switch is through gratitude. If I feel myself stuck in fear, doubt, and worry, I’m like, “What can I be grateful for? I have my breath. I have my health,” and I just start looking immediately for things to be grateful for.

Another way to switch from the fear channel to the love channel is through affirmations. I’m a huge believer in affirmations, and I actually wrote a book called How to Make a Six-Figure Income Working Part-Time, and there’s 21 affirmations in the book that go with each of these seven areas.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, fantastic. Everybody, get that book. It’ll be in the show notes, so don’t drive off the road if you’re listening to this podcast while you’re driving. What’s number four?

Rebecca Whitman:

Number four is romance. Romance and finance are very connected. They’re both the same chakra, the sacral chakra. A lot of what works in a successful romantic relationships works in a successful business relationship. Communication, trust, shared values, the same view of where you’re going. The romance, I believe, comes before the finance. A lot of people think, “I’ll make a ton of money. Then I’ll hire a personal trainer and I’ll look really fit, and then I’ll attract the right romantic partner.”

I really believe that romance affects finance because I think, Melinda, you might have had a healthy, awesome relationship and felt really secure and done well, at least for me, financially. Then when I’ve had unhealthy relationships, it’s definitely hurt my self-confidence, which has hurt me in my financial life. It’s so important to pick a partner that has the same vision of you, and is loving and supporting toward your goals and dreams. Especially as an entrepreneur, because I know you have very big goals and dreams.

Melinda Wittstock:

Ooh, so true. I’ve seen so many women be in limiting relationships where if their partner is coming at it, at entrepreneurship from a place of fear, which is more common than not, because entrepreneurship isn’t for everybody, like to be able to wear … Be able to deal with the uncertainty, and all the swings, and roundabouts, and whatnot. If that partner is in that fear place, subconsciously, more likely than not, and even if they have the best intentions in the world for the entrepreneur, for the woman entrepreneur, it can really, really impact the confidence.

Also, I think women have this fear too that gets triggered at that point because there’s a dynamic where women are afraid to outshine their partner. You have all these kinds of dynamics, so if you’re in that kind of dynamic, it’s very difficult to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Rebecca Whitman:

It’s true. Being an entrepreneur, as you said, it’s not for everybody. The book, Think and Grow Rich, which is the first self-help book written in 1935, only 3% of the population think like entrepreneurs, so 97% are going to be more employee-minded and be risk-averse and not want to invest time, and money, and energy in building their own business.

If you’re with someone who is not an entrepreneur, that’s totally cool, but at least be with someone that is not, as they say, peeing in your ear, telling you, “Oh my god. What if it doesn’t work? What if you invest all this money and nothing happens?” You want to at least be with someone who is supportive because it’s challenging enough being an entrepreneur, let alone with a partner that is not believing in you or seeing the same vision that you see of where you can go with your life.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve actually seen that in some of my companies with some team members who are fully committed in a startup scenario, say, in a tech startup where you’re pre-revenue and you’re proving product-market fit, all these sorts of things, and it’s you’re pivoting all the time, and the money’s kind of uncertain to begin with because you’re dependent on investment money and whatnot.

I’ve seen it take a toll on some team members who were married to the wrong partners, who were constantly like, “When are you going to get that pay raise? When are you going to …” and these sorts of things. It makes it almost impossible to survive, certainly in that early stage environment in that context.

With entrepreneurship, it’s interesting because it’s funny you say only 3% of the population is wired that way. Probably, it makes sense to me, but then that means that an early stage of the company where you got to hire a lot of team members who are, I don’t know, have to come along for that early stage kind of risk for much bigger reward, and need to be at least semi-entrepreneurial.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yes. Yeah, I think more people now than when Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich are entrepreneurial. I think post-COVID has really changed because people realize that, “Oh my god. My company could lay me off or shut down.”

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it’s risky anyway.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah. That was so risky for everyone. They’re like, “Wow. I like staying at home and setting my own schedule,” and so I think there’s been a huge boom in entrepreneurship post-COVID, and a major shift, so maybe the 3% isn’t exactly true anymore.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, you’re right. I look back at my own life. I’m divorced. I’m with a great partner right now, but the business I was running as the marriage was falling apart, and there was no way it was going to succeed, so I totally understand what you’re saying.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah, so-

Melinda Wittstock:

I had no idea, at the time, that it was even affecting me. I was like, “Ah, no, I’m fine. I’m good. I’m great,” but it does. It seeps in, at least certainly in your subconscious, which drives 80% of our actions. Yeah, that’s really, really vital. Having the right partner, which brings us to number five in your pillars. What’s five?

Rebecca Whitman:

Five is mental or mindset. Mindset is doing what you’re doing now, listeners. Listening to Melinda’s incredible podcast, learning about entrepreneurship. There’s just so much to learn from. We’re in the golden age of information, between podcasts, and Audible, and YouTube videos, and even Instagram Live, as I’m also recording this on Instagram IGTV, even TikTok now. There’s so many ways to enhance your mindset and to learn from people.

For someone like Melinda, who’s an established entrepreneur, she’s having this podcast and you guys are learning from her for not that much. It’s free, so you can learn the best of the best anytime from your phone. This is the time to work on your mindset. I’m listening to stuff all the time, as I’m waking up, and as I’m getting ready for bed. In fact, I teach my clients the two most important times to do the mindset work are right when you wake up and right before you go to bed. That is when you’re tired, so your walls to your subconscious mind are lowered and stuff really seeps in.

Unfortunately, most people listen to the news, or they’ll watch some police or serial murder thing right before they go to bed, and that’s going to go to work in their subconscious. I encourage my students to listen to positive mindset-driven podcasts and content right when you wake up and right before you go to bed.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s such good advice. I think if our agenda gets set in the morning … Like if you listen to the news, say, today, variously on the day that we’re recording this podcast, there’s either a nuclear Armageddon coming, or more, rising gas prices, or the end of democracy. Take your pick of topics.

Rebecca Whitman:

Oh my god. Right? Talk about doom and gloom. There’s a saying in the news, “If it bleeds, it leads,” and there’s never been more negativity with all the … We won’t have a political discussion here, but we can all agree there’s divisiveness, and the news is just throwing gasoline on the fire and making people hate each other, and so fearful and angry. If you’re wanting to create a business and experience abundance, you don’t want to listen to fear-based, negative, scarcity thinking.

There’s two types of thinking. It’s similar to fear and love. There’s scarcity where, “Oh my god. Our democracy’s going to end. We’re going to die in a nuclear explosion. It’s all going to go away, our economy, our this or that.” That is totally scarcity thinking, and that is not the way to attract clients, investors, customers to your business. There’s abundance thinking, which is I’m not saying to stick your head in the sand. You can watch, listen to your news. I prefer just glancing at the headlines on my phone and not having it sensationalized.

There’s abundance thinking of, “You know what? There’s plenty of good to go around. There’s plenty of money. There’s plenty of customers. There’s plenty of investors. There’s plenty of people who want my product, good, or service.” If you want an abundance mindset, it’s really important to guard your mind, especially in the hours of waking up and right before you go to bed.

Melinda Wittstock:

We attract what we’re thinking about, subconsciously or not, so that is such good advice. Okay. Number six. We’re working down the list. We’re almost-

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah, we’re almost done. Number six is social. They have done studies … I forget who said it, but you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, financially. If you want to up-level your finances and play a bigger game, you can hire a coach and hire a mentor, or just hang out with people, and whatever room you can get around them. I don’t care if it’s a Zoom, a Mastermind, an in-person training, even just following them on Twitter or Instagram.

You want to be around people who are achieving what you want to achieve so you can up-level, because if they did it, you can do it too. There’s absolutely no difference between them and you, other than they figured out something that they’ve been doing over, and over, and over again and now they have a system in place. Everything, to me, is just following systems. If they have figured it out, you can figure it out by watching them, and you want to have a social circle of people that have what you want.

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur like the people listening to this podcast, you don’t want to hang out with people who are in the ain’t it awful club at the bar, “Ain’t it awful that my boss is this, my boss is that,” layoffs, watercooler politics, talking about the recession, talking about all these terrible things because that’s just going to totally make it harder for you to achieve your financial goals.

You want to be around people who are like, “Yeah, more millionaires are made during recessions than any other time, and this is how I’m going to up-level my business, and this is how I’m going to pivot during this financial period.” You want to be around people that are going to up-level you and also that believe in your goals and dreams, which go back to the romance. You don’t want to have friends that are looking down on your goals and dreams saying, “Oh, that’s never going to happen. That’s a pipe dream. You shouldn’t have invested money in that.” That is not going to work if you want to achieve success as an entrepreneur.

You want to have other people that are like, “Yeah, you got this. I believe this. I see your vision. You got to keep working. Don’t give up. I’m going to cheer you on.” I’ve actually told my husband, because there are some down days, I’m like, “When I’m down and I want to quit, don’t let me quit. Just don’t let me quit.” He’s like, “Okay,” and he’s been doing that because there’s been ups and downs, like I said. Hang out with people who have what you want, and if you do what they did, you can get what they got.

Melinda Wittstock:

Ooh, this is such good advice, who you’re around. Absolutely. I always thought, just sometimes, women have a hard time asking for advice.  Just go on LinkedIn. Figure out who’s maybe a couple phases beyond where you want to be, and connect with them, and ask for their advice. Usually, I found in my life that the people who are really at the top of their game, you’d be surprised, are often the most generous because they want to give back and they’re flattered that you ask. You have to be careful how you ask, but generally, I’ve found that, ask the person who’s really good at it and they’ll tell you.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yes. If they don’t want to help you, then that’s not your person. If you don’t do the ask, if you don’t ask for support or help, you’ll never get it. I agree, Melinda. A lot of women feel like, “Well, I can’t ask. That’s an imposition. I got to figure everything out on my own.”

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, the perfectionist thing. The thing that makes us clean the house before the housekeeper comes, yeah.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah, so exactly. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know, so ask someone for help. Anybody who’s listening to this on Instagram, if you send me a DM and ask me a question about any of the seven pillars of life, I’m always happy to shoot you back a quick answer and help whenever I can.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. So, so important. We’re rounding out now at magical seven.

Rebecca Whitman:

Uh-huh, yeah. Seven is magical. Seven is financial, and I do not believe we should live to work. We should work to live. I’m not someone that believes that we should work 80 hours a week till we’re 65 and then retire with a big pile of money because at age 65 … Not that 65 is old nowadays because people are so healthy, but you can’t really enjoy your life as much as you can when you’re a little bit younger than that.

I believe in time blocking, having work-life balance within all these seven pillars of abundance so you can live life now and you can have the maximum enjoyment now. Don’t wait till you’re retired to travel, to have fun, to socialize, to do amazing things. You can have all that now with the right budgeting and the right time management.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, you can even shape your business in such a way that you have cash flow. A good friend of mine talks a lot about cash flow living and what you want to capture in terms of saving, but what you want to capture. He has this whole idea of a wealth capture account for all the things that … Making sure that you’re having experiences, you’re going on vacation, you’re taking time for yourself, you’re investing in yourself, your fun, socially, or your self-care. Or experiences, because those are where memories really come from, rather than socking it all … being constantly putting everything away to use for some magical day when you retire.

You can really think about your business and plan your business in such a way to support that if you know … Now, here’s the thing. If you know what you want from your business. Is it going to be a cash flow business that supports that, like a lifestyle business? Or is it going to be a swing for the fences business? Types that I tend to do, where there’s a huge amount of effort and investment money that’s required to do a technology company, and then there’s big exit.

At what point are you going to be willing to sell a company and how much money are you going to make? Figuring that out, I think, is a very important part of the financial. What’s your number, I guess, personally? What’s your number for your business? How do you advise and how do you coach around that whole topic of how to coordinate your personal finances and your personal financial goals with your business financial goals?

Rebecca Whitman:

Well, believe it or not, I’m someone who is about the side hustle. I tell people, unless you have a business that is making the same or more than your job, to not quit your job. Keep your job so you have security and your bills are paid, and then whatever extra time and money you have, invest it in a side hustle.

It doesn’t even have to match your job, as long as you feel comfortable leaving. Because the women that I work with, when they’re super uncomfortable and they’re in survival mode, then they’re not in balance. I actually teach people, keep your job. Get a side hustle. Find something that is going to eventually make as much or way more money than your job, and then when the timing is right, to leave.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. That makes perfect sense, and that’s usually where a lot of people start out. Then sometimes, depending on the business, you can get out a little over your skis.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yes, yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

It doesn’t always work out that way. Like, “Oh my god. Our investment is late. How are we going to be able to make payroll?” There always are those kind of heart-stopping moments. I know I’ve lived-

Rebecca Whitman:

Oh, yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve lived that.

Rebecca Whitman:

Oh my god. Melinda, I have pawned half my mother’s jewelry. I used to live … I would go to the Chinese restaurant and get a big pint of hot and sour soup and eat that all day, and rice crackers and peanut butter. No, I have been there at times. If you’re in that position, I would tell you that it will pass, and you will get that next client or next investment.

Just hang on tight because the one constant in life, the constant variable that we can all count on is change, and if you just believe in your goals and dreams and you don’t give up, that it’s going to eventually happen. Or if, god forbid, it doesn’t happen, you can always go back and get a job and, again, do it as a side hustle, so it really … That’s the fun thing about being an entrepreneur is you have the spirit of adventure behind your life, and you never know.

One turn might become this huge watershed of money or it might not, but either way, if you’re doing these seven pillars, and you’re connected to spirit, and you’re physically healthy, and you have friends that hold you up, and you have a great love life, no matter what happens in your financial life, you’re going to be okay and have a great time.

Melinda Wittstock:

Ooh, god, 100%. How did you come to learn these seven pillars? Is this all lived experience in the mix of what you read, and what comes to you in your morning meditation, what podcast you’re listening to? Just tell me about your origin story in the sense of how you came to actually learn these things practically and implement them in your life.

Rebecca Whitman:

Sure. When I was 22, I graduated from Princeton and I thought that because I had an Ivy League degree I should start in the C-suite of the entertainment industry. I was so shocked and appalled that they would only want me to work for free, so I answered an ad in the newspaper back in ancient history when there was newspaper, and the ad said, “If you do this business for five years, you can retire.” I was like, “What have I got to lose? I’m 22.”

I didn’t retire, obviously, but I did get to study with self-made millionaires in the direct sales network marketing industry. In one of the trainings, they taught us to look at life in these areas. I added romance as a goal because that’s always been a goal of mine, is to have a relationship with my soul mate, so I added romance.

Yeah, they taught me to look at life in these areas as building blocks. Then I just expanded on that in my coaching. How I ended up coaching on it is I was talking to my dad in one of our last conversations, and he said, “Rebecca, I want you to write something. I don’t care if it’s a book, an essay, or a magazine article. I think you should write something because you live life really differently than most people.” I was like, “Okay.” Of course, I wanted to fulfill his dying wishes.

I had no idea what I was going to write. My dad ended up dying the same week my divorce was finalized, and this was a very trying year in 2016. I was sitting in my financial planner’s office and he was looking at my financial portfolio. It was healthy and growing, and he’s like, “I know you’ve had a really hard year. You lost your marriage and you lost your dad. I don’t know, and you come in here with a smile on your face and you seem like you’re okay. Why don’t you write a book and teach women what you’re doing? Like, how are you able to be so resilient, both emotionally and financially, and physically?” Because I was working out and everything, in good shape.

I said, “You know what? That is going to be the title of my book,” and it’s called How to Make a Six-Figure Income Working Part-Time. It’s not a business plan or a get rich quick thing. It’s more like, this is how I have been able to live my life making six figures working part-time for almost 15 years now, and I live it by aligning these seven pillars of abundance. I wrote the book in 2018. I started lecturing on the book. My now husband came to my book launch party. He asked me out. He bought the book, and we’ve been together ever since.

Melinda Wittstock:

Aw.

Rebecca Whitman:

I know. It’s so amazing. We just got married last year on 12/21/21.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, congratulations. That’s an auspicious date.

Rebecca Whitman:

I picked that on purpose. I’m all about alignment. That area of my life is going great. I’ve launched my coaching business now, where I teach women to go from burned out to balanced, beautiful, and abundant. I’ve hosted an international retreat in Medellín, Colombia, and I have a course called Elegant Warrior Training, where I take women, in seven weeks, through each of these pillars of abundance and give them tips, tools, and strategies to get that area of life to a level 10. It’s just taken off, so I’m really grateful that my dad asked me to write something, because it’s led to a whole reinvention of myself.

Melinda Wittstock:

Ooh, I love that. It’s such an authentic story, and it’s just clear, Rebecca, that you’re walking your talk. You’re doing the things that you’re also coaching, which isn’t always the case.

Rebecca Whitman:

It’s not. There’s a lot of people on Instagram standing next to private jets and Ferraris that can’t even pay their bills, so yeah, or they’ve just rented it for the day. I live in LA. I see a lot-

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. You see all the influencer houses and all that. It’s just so funny once you look behind the veil of that internet marketing, “You too can be like me.” It’s like, “Hmm.”

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah, they rent them for the day. They’re saying, “Oh, take my course and you too can have this house,” and it’s not even their house.

Melinda Wittstock:

I hate all that scammy stuff. This is why I like podcasting so much. The human voice says it all, at the end of the day.

Rebecca Whitman:

I agree.

Melinda Wittstock:

You also have a podcast. Tell me about your podcast.

Rebecca Whitman:

I do. It’s called The Balanced, Beautiful, and Abundant show. Right now, it’s on a live platform called the Bold Brave TV Network. It’s every Thursday at 12:00 Pacific, 3:00 Eastern. I record it live, and then I repurpose it as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, where all the podcasts are.

It’s all about what we’re discussing today, Melinda. Taking women from overwhelmed and burned out to balanced, beautiful, and abundant. Because I really believe that women can create financial independence and wealth and not burn themselves out, and not get sick, and exhausted, and just lose their joie de vivre, as they say. I’m really passionate about teaching women how to be abundant without burnout.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, I’m just going to add another place that your podcast is on, which is my app, Podopolo. Podopolo has all known podcasts in every language, every genre, including yours.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yay.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s socially interactive so you can engage directly with all your fans and everything there, so invite you to go there and authenticate the ownership of it. Then we’ll put you into our cross-promotion, basically-

Rebecca Whitman:

Are you the owner of that?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes, I am. It’s my current business.

Rebecca Whitman:

Congratulations. I didn’t know that you own that app, and I didn’t know my podcast was on it, so this is a great revelation today.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it’s really cool. We help podcasters really get discovered because I think a lot of podcasters get lost in the algorithms the way they are on all the other podcast networks. We have an AI-powered recommendation engine that works like a matchmaker that connects listeners to the right podcasts for them around their interests, and what interests their friends as well, and vice-versa for podcasters.

We’re sending prequalified audiences to the podcaster for them to grow their reach and also engage directly with their fans, get really valuable audience insights from that AI. We’re the only platform to share that with podcasters. Then there are revenue-generating options for podcasters as well, so yeah, this has been my pandemic business. Heads down-

Rebecca Whitman:

I love it.

Melinda Wittstock:

… building these seven proprietary technologies, it’s a big one.

Rebecca Whitman:

I’m so excited because my podcast has truly been a labor of love, and I have not monetized it yet.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s hard. You know that 85% of podcasters don’t make any money from podcasting?

Rebecca Whitman:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s crazy. It’s completely wrong, so we’re trying to make that easy, really eliminating a lot of the structural barriers that prevent podcasters from doing that because so many, you have to have a lot of listeners, like 10,000 downloads an episode, really, to qualify for advertising. On Podopolo, that’s different. You don’t need that many, and it’s really because we know who’s listening, so we can connect the right advertiser that’s relevant to your audience, and then we have subscriptions. We have all kinds of other ways too, but yeah, so invite you to join the conversation with me when this episode goes live on Wings in a couple of weeks. If you’re on the app, I’ll add you as my guest, and we can keep the conversation going long after this episode ends.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yes, I’m totally going to do that. Tell me, when this recording ends, how to get started on Podopolo. I’m all about it.

Melinda Wittstock:

I want to make sure that everybody knows where to find you, and work with you, how you work with people, type of clients you’re looking for, all of those good things. What’s the best way?

Rebecca Whitman:

Sure. Well, I am looking for women who want to do one of two things. Obviously, work-life balance, but I have two specialty courses. One of them is to Create Your Six-Figure Side Hustle. If you’re stuck in a job, or if you have an idea, I’m going to teach you how to go from passion to profit in eight weeks. I have an eight-week course, Create Your Six-Figure Side Hustle. If you want a sneak peek, I do a free, 45-minute masterclass called The Five Simple Shifts to Creating Your Six-Figure Side Hustle, and that is in my Linktree.

Then I also have a course for women who are looking for their soul mate at any age. I got married at age 50, so anybody can find love at any age. It is How to Magnetize Your Soul Mate. That is an eight-week class where we start from, “Okay. Here you are, newly divorced, just broken up. Maybe you haven’t dated in 10 years, to actually being with your soul mate,” so that’s a really awesome class. That is another eight-week class.

Then I mentioned the seven-week class, the Elegant Warrior Training, which is all about finding alignment in these seven pillars of abundance. I’m also doing a really fun challenge. It’s called the 777 Challenge, Seven Pillars of Abundance in Seven Days for $7. That’s an LA smoothie. It’s in my Linktree, and it’s really great. It’s a course where you can get each pillar of abundance for seven consecutive days. I’m going to give you a homework assignment and a challenge to get that area to a level 10 and give you some coaching around that area. Come on, a dollar a day to change your life. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s amazing. Well, Rebecca, gosh, I’ve really enjoyed this conversation so much. Thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Rebecca Whitman:

Yes, it’s been wonderful to fly with you, Melinda. Flying the friendly skies, and of Podopolo, which I’m flying to next after this. Thanks so much for having me on your show. It’s been a pleasure to get to know you. You’re my neighbor, so hopefully, we’ll meet and coffee very soon, for coffee and talk more. Thanks so much for everyone who is listening on all the different apps. We really appreciate your time.