Mahara Wayman [00:00:00]:
Welcome everyone to the show. My name is Mahara, and it's time for another episode of the art of badassery where we showcase extraordinary individuals who embody the spirit of fearlessness and inspire us all to embrace our own badassery. I'm your host, Maharra, and today I have a guest who personifies resilience and determination. Please join me in welcoming Faith Christiansen. Faith, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show. Your journey from a small rural town plagued by poverty to becoming a force in the marketing and tech world is nothing short of badass. Can you share with our listeners how your early experiences of preaching and teaching your words, not mine, shaped who you are to. Thank you.
Faith [00:00:49]:
So I think that's something that's really important is we all have this little inner voice. Right? So for me, from young, it it's been to help people to inspire people, I guess, what you call preaching. Right? Inspire people to believe in themselves and be the cheerleader for people. So it became, like, natural putting me in a job, telling me what to do, not allowing me to express myself fully, kinda doesn't work out. I tend to get fired or I quit. But being an entrepreneur, it just come naturally to me. Being able to help people and and speak our truth because I know before we were talking before the show, we were talking about women thinking they need to be superheroes and extra in order to be badass. When some days, when life hits you, it legit is just waking up, putting your clothes on, you know, forget the makeup some days. Right? It's just showing up. And I think we live in a world where Instagram highlights and stuff like that has taken over and so many women feel like they're not good enough. They're not smart enough. Like, they can't do something, and that's just not the way it is. There is someone out there that needs their help in whatever way someone that's praying for their solutions. So being a badass, some days, like you said before, legit just showing up and trusting god, the universe, whatever you believe in, that he's gonna magnify it and take us where we need to go.
Mahara Wayman [00:02:15]:
So have you ever felt, like, have you always felt this way or have you ever felt like those women where you're like, hey, what the what's going on in my work? Oh, god, mate.
Faith [00:02:26]:
Yeah. God, mate. I don't think that there's anyone that can say they feel like a badass all the time because they'd be Eliza Monelie. There have been moments in my life where I have settled. So one of the things I was talking about on social media this morning is that, you know, it's so easy to settle. Right? So I was running a 6 figure business. Everybody thought I was successful on social media, but behind the scenes, I was living a very different life. And I had to I stayed in that relationship for 5 years before I made the decision that I legit can't take this anymore, I shut a 6 figure business that had employees on you that when I was shutting that, I was ending their working thing as well. I left. I moved from Africa back to Australia again, And I started from scratch like legit in a homeless shelter at 2 o'clock in the morning evacuating because a drunk had set the hostel on fire. Right? So did am I bad ass all the time? Hell no. I think there are all moments in our lives right now where we don't feel like about us, and we have to choose to step into our personal power in those moments rather than just shrinking and settling. because sometimes, let's be honest, freaking scary. Some of the decisions we have to make. Some of them 2 marriage is down. Some of the decisions we have to make are hard. Right? But we all can be a badass just by making those small decisions to step forward despite the fear. Right?
Mahara Wayman [00:04:03]:
I I love it. You said that, you know, it's a recurring theme with my guests. It's this idea of I can do hard. And I think that's a -- many women. Many people in general is this understanding that when push comes to shove when the chips are down, whenever those all those, you know, the sains are that we can pull out of the air, but really we do have a choice in everything that we do. and we can choose to get through. We can choose to manage hard. Can you tell share with us because you said a couple things that I'm sure my listeners are going, wait, I wanna know more about that. What I heard you had a business in Africa and after 6 years or was that 6 years you shut it down even though it was very successful?
Faith [00:04:47]:
Yes. So I was running a humanitarian in project in Africa, where I had a foundation over there that ran a food bank, and it ran a employment for women, and it was funded by ecommerce. So I had a big ecommerce brand with affiliates and everything in it. And, you know, sometimes you get to that point where you have that inkling. I can't do this anymore. I don't want to. This is not in alignment, and you go, no. No. and and you make excuses or you settle. And I made and, like, I just made the decision. This is it. Like, when my life was put in danger, gun held in my face. I'd had that before, but this was the -- where I'm like, no. That's it. And it was making a $135,000 a year. Like, It wasn't a small business. It wasn't a small decision. I was scared out of my brain to shut that because you know, you you as business owners, we know how hard it is sometimes to build a 6 figure business. Right? Let alone one that's funding a whole set the project. So sometimes we have to go. This doesn't align with the person, Lisa. I think a lot of women don't put themselves first. Like, we've always been taught. You know? We we look after everyone. We sacrifice. We help. Right? And sometimes comes at the cost of our mental well-being. And I remember how many moments I thought, god, I just don't wanna be here anymore. Like, I just don't wanna be in the world anymore. It's all too hard. Right? But you kept pushing because, you know, you can't think like that. Like, you can't You can't you can't not help people. And it was a very scary decision to have to go, you know what? I'm putting myself first. I'm putting my daughter first. And, unfortunately, my husband and I just didn't align, and I had to end that relationship. And ending that relation also meant ending a business that we had built and so many other things. It was a truly scary moment, but one that now 3 years, 4 years past it. I am so thankful I did because I truly believe if I kept going the way I was going, I would've killed myself or I would've been killed. You know?
Mahara Wayman [00:07:00]:
Thank you for sharing that with us. I know there's so much more to that story, but I'm really curious On the heels of that when you're back in Australia, were you able to recognize just the strength that that took? Did you do you sit back and think wow, that was awesome that I just did that or did it take a long while for you to see your way out of that the trauma of it all. In all honesty, it took a long while. Like, I did not see the amazingness of that decision, all my badassery, as you call it, for a good couple of years. Right?
Faith [00:07:41]:
I thought I had made a mistake. I felt guilty. Sometimes we can feel guilt and shame around the decisions that we make that are better for us. Right? because we're taught to be selfless, especially as women. So, no, it wasn't something that I was proud of. It was not something that I felt good about. for a number of years afterwards. But I do believe that sometimes we make these scary decisions And we may not know in the moment what the outcome of that is, but it's worth it. But sometimes it takes time to see those things. You know? I agree, and that's why I asked the question because I think, you know, in my own business with clients,
Mahara Wayman [00:08:21]:
I meet a lot of women that once they've made the decision to work on themselves and I count myself one of these women. I wanted it now. Like I wanted to see the growth and understand and like you know, Lord, if you're gonna give me these trials and I survived them, can I not feel I wanna feel the feels that I'm looking for, but it does take time. And -- story is different. So I really wanted to highlight that and I thank you for saying that. what's the biggest thing you learned about that experience, though, other than you can do hard? Was there anything else that you
Faith [00:08:55]:
I heard recently someone say to me, we're always saying to ourselves, it's too hard. It's so hard. Right? but she gave me a reframe, which I think was really helpful, was she said it's not hard. It's just new. So I can do new things. Right? And I thought that was a really powerful refrain. For me, I learned that everything is always happening for us. and you said something before about, you know, not knowing in the moment. Guess what? Sometimes we're not energetically ready, for what we're asking for. Right? So we have to grow into that person that can handle it. And the other thing is we always have to be remembering that everything is happening for us, not to us. Because I see in my business, A lot of people say to me, I wanna earn 10 k a month, and, you know, I wanna have 10,000 followers. And I'm like, but are you energetically ready to handle what comes with that. So, for example, if you had 10,000 followers, do you not think you have a fair few naysayers and haters in there as well? And if you get taken out by 1 naysayer and 1 hater and you have a mental breakdown for a week, the universe god, whatever you believe in goes, I love you. I will not test you more than you can handle. You are not ready for the 10,000 followers. So I believe that we have to keep growing our badassery Right? Constantly and trust that whatever the reason is, sometimes we will never know it. Right? But trust that whatever happens
Mahara Wayman [00:10:25]:
happens for a reason, and it's growing us. That's what I really believe. I think trust is such a big word, and it's such a challenging one for many of us because A LOTS OF REASONS AND I'M NOT EVEN Gonna TOUCH ON SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS. BUT WE, MANY OF BE ALL OF US HAVE SUFFERED in some manner in the past where our trust was broken or our trust was tested. And what I learned through my work and through my own personal journey it can be the smallest thing in retrospect that nobody else would think anything of but it hit you like a ton of bricks. and your trust is for me. So yeah, trust is a big thing. Can you think back to a time when you really were tested on that but like maybe the first time that you really stepped into trusting, was it the Africa trip? do you think? So
Faith [00:11:21]:
I don't know if you've ever made what you call a stupid decision, but this is how I ended up in Africa. Okay? So My lease was up for renewal, and we had a three and a half bedroom house. We had everything we needed. Right? And all of a sudden, I'm like, that's I am we're moving to Africa, and I had a young daughter. She was just in her early teens. And I'm like, we're moving to Africa. We're gonna live in Africa with my husband because he lived over there at the time. So we packed we took a three and a half bedroom house and put it into a small storage shed, which was two meters by two meters. So I don't know if you've ever had to get that level of essentialism. Right? Like, what am I willing to pay for in the storage shed? But that truly was the start. Like, you talk about these small decisions. That's what it is. Me randomly going to a friend's farm in New South Wales where meet an African guy that I then start a foundation with, and my business skills grow astronomically. Like, I have no hard feelings against my How's it going? Because without him, that small little event that you talked about would never have learned how to grow a 6 figure business. I would never have the skills that I have. Right? So I know that a lot of women, they doubt themselves. Right? And they're like, oh, what if I make a bad decision? I truly believe we never make about our decision. We always make like, if we're trusting, right, like, we trust ourselves and trust that whatever decision we make. And, usually, I don't know about you, that first one is usually the right one. And then when we start to doubt that first one. That's when we have problems. But trust trust trust in ourselves, trust our intuition, trust our gut, and make the decision. Now did I make a mistake? I don't think I made a mistake. I made a a decision that put me homeless in the end, but I believe that the skills, the lessons like, I learned so much about living in minimalism. because in Africa, you don't have a electricity some days. You don't have water some days. So you learn how to enjoy the simple things because they're legit of what you have. So from that moment, trusting myself and trusting that this is not working, I have to make the decision to get out as well. Right? I think it was a huge it's little steps, like you said. It's not this sometimes it's not a huge decision. For me, it was I'm not living in this anymore, and I changed our airfare. We had nowhere to go home to like, it's those little tiny decisions that can change your whole life and just trust that we're making the right one because we either win or we learn. And sometimes we learn big time.
Mahara Wayman [00:13:59]:
Well, I know from experience too that the universe will keep giving me an opportunity to learn the lesson. If I don't if I if I ignore it or push it down or pretend, I was a big pretender. True story. Yeah, I mean really I, you know, I just put on a smile and I have nothing to complain about. But really the lessons keep coming back up and to your point, this idea of trusting, even if it's something very small, what I find is if I just take a moment and just breathe, okay, what is actually going on? Why do I feel this way? Why did they act -- Yeah. -- like holy hell people. What's going on in the world? Then I have the ability to sort of understand and and ask questions because to me curiosity being curious is everything. Right? If you're not curious, you can't get here. And I learned the hard way that there was a lot of things about me that I didn't know. I just didn't know. There are some things I know. Well, I have always known how much I love ice cream. that's a given. I haven't that's that's everybody in the world knows how much I love ice cream, but there are other things -- No. And taking time to slow down and trust. I think it's pretty important component of that. So tell us about what you are doing today. You've alluded to it. I know you're an entrepreneur. I know you're great on social media. But what exactly do you do?
Faith [00:15:20]:
So what I do now is the thing that I learned from Mastercard is simplicity. Right? So there are so many activities that women especially do in their business that are taught by big experts works with teens, right, that are just not the needle moving activities in the business. So when I decided with social sellers and had so many crash and burn moments, right, from burnout. But what I decided with social sellers is they are truly the highest income producing activities that we can do in our business which yield like a 30 to 50% return. That can only be done when you have simple tech, so I am massive on now stripping tech, making everything simple, and simple marketing strategies. I see so many women, and they're all over the place on social media And when they're all over the place, they're not getting the results that they want. And a lot of women struggle with tech. So my goal became for social sellers to help women to have financial independence. Because I truly believe from lessons of myself and people I've worked with, that when women have money, we make better decisions. We make better decisions for our families and we make better decisions for ourselves. So my goal for anyone who comes to me is to simplify tech, to simplify marketing, to get them launched, get them making money, and figure out and tweak on the way rather than having a 6 months course or program created and, like, none of that get launched. Make money. Because when you start to make money, you start to grow your confidence. When you grow your confidence, you can grow your price tag.
Mahara Wayman [00:16:54]:
So is this just for online businesses, or do you do brick and mortar as well?
Faith [00:16:59]:
No. I actually do bricks and mortar today. So today, I am going to an entrepreneurship which is a whole ton of local businesses here. I'm going to an expo, and I'm teaching them how to hack the social media algorithms. So, nope, I do. local business, and I'm obviously growing an ecommerce business, so I know ecommerce very well. But a lot of my clients days tend to be people who have digital products, coaches, podcasters, authors, those kinds of people.
Mahara Wayman [00:17:25]:
You realize that you just named me.
Faith [00:17:28]:
I did. I did.
Mahara Wayman [00:17:32]:
Right here folks. You heard it here first. So Thank you for sharing that. And everybody that's listening just so you know, of course, the show notes are gonna have all of faith is contact information because you really do wanna reach out and connect with this girl. Question for you. When did you realize that you had this skill of making a difference in entrepreneur's life? Like when was this a fairly new thing, or are we does this get heart back to the preaching and the teaching from childhood?
Faith [00:18:00]:
think it goes back to the preaching and the teaching. So I was always the child that talked to strangers and was in trouble for it. Right? I was always the child that was trying to teach people stuff. So I think it does go back to that. But, I guess, how I really learnt it, learnt it, and stepped into that bad ass, so hard myself is when I burn out. So I don't know about you, but if you're doing one on one calls, if you're doing free master classes, if you're doing free free free, a lot. It is only a matter of time, especially if you're hustling and doing free after free that you you burn out. Right? So my my ability to simplify came from my own need to get out of burnout and act actually live the happy life that we start our business for. because so many women sit trapped behind a computer screen, working more hours than they would at a job and making no money. So it came from not only my own need, but that preach and teach part of me from childhood that really wants to help other women, as well as myself, to be able to step out of that hardcore hustle and live a happy life now rather than someday.
Mahara Wayman [00:19:19]:
Such great advice and I know from experience that it's hard because we want so badly to be successful that we wanna speaking for myself. I wanna learn it all, do it all, and and figure it out. But there is no I don't believe that there it's not there is no overnight success. It's it's a 2 year. from 2, 3, 4. It just doesn't, you know, it's a bit of a dream, I think, when you step into this entrepreneurial world. that it's just gonna happen, you know, if I build it they will come. I know that fell into that. Thank you for sharing that for your opinion on that I that's really great advice. What would you say to the woman that's listening today that is like oh I am thinking about working for myself. What would you say would be one of the first 2 or 3 things for her to think about or do? in her mind. And she's thinking, okay. Should I step into this arena?
Faith [00:20:18]:
The first thing that I'll say is know your numbers. Okay? Because a lot of people come to me, and they're like, I wanna earn $10,000. It is possible to earn than $10,000, but it's a journey. Right? So sometimes people kill themselves by not knowing their numbers. So what is your number. So when I say essential number, if I was to cut off your job or income, right, or your husband was to leave you, worst case, What money would you need to pay the electricity, the phone, the food for the kids, and your rent or mortgage. Right? That's your first goal. You can have the aspirational goals like the 100,000 goals. That's not saying don't, but have the stepping stones to it. the next thing that I would say is begin with the end in mind. So if you need to earn $2000 a month, right, don't start with a $27 product. because if you have a $27 product, the number that you need to sell to hit $2000 a month is huge. Right? The number of traffic because this is what a lot of people don't think about. Nobody talks about the number of traffic that you need. So if you sell 1 in 10 people, right, so 1 in 10 people say yes, that's ten times whatever the number of sales that you need, and that's the number that most people miss. Okay? So knowing your numbers is massive. Making sure your pricing your product to hit your goal in 5 to 10 sales because that's less overwhelming. Right? So reverse engineering, is so important. The other thing that I'll say is business is a massive personal development journey. You are going to have to work on your energetics because guess what? People are gonna say no. You're gonna kick your toe and still have to show up on camera. Right? There are it is the biggest personal development journey. So if you are someone who hates personal development, then perhaps this may not be for you because a business is gonna make you develop whether you want to or not. Because the truth is if we could get where we wanted to go with who we are now, we would be there. Right? If everybody who started the business had resilience and emotional intelligence and energetics, right, everybody would be a millionaire. But that is the biggest obstacle because you can have the simplest sales pages. You can have the ugliest sales pages in some cases. Right? You can have the simplest sales strategies. But if you don't believe in you and you don't have the systems to flip it when the negative Nancy hits in your head, guess what? you will struggle to hit your goals. No matter what your goal is, whether it's 10 or $2000 a month.
Mahara Wayman [00:23:03]:
That is such a good advice. So just to just to recap at all, what I heard you say was, you know, ladies and gentlemen that are listening do not be afraid of the math. Knowing the mental event like don't be afraid of it. You've got to know it. So don't be afraid of the numbers. Learn what you need to learn. Be realistic. So be realistic and thirdly and I think personally this is the most important is understand that success is an inside job. I'm quoting Gabby Burton. Mhmm. That it's so true. Success is an inside job. It does to your point, it doesn't matter how great the page, how beautiful the website, how fantastic the product if you have some kind of story that you're telling yourself that limits you in any way it's gonna come up and it's gonna do it's gonna rear its ugly head. So I thank you for those points. I agree with him wholeheartedly and I laugh now 2 years later after jumping into this myself. I loved the first course that I took. She was amazing and I learned so much about setting up a business online. but in retrospect I wished I had spent the entire 4 months having her help me with my money story Yes. I could've Googled how to set up a website, you know, I could've Googled that, but I really -- help with some of these stories that I will set telling myself. Can you can you, like -- Absolutely.
Faith [00:24:31]:
Yes. Absolutely. And I'll I'll tell you the story because it goes exactly to your point. So I remember, when I was doing social sales initially, I was just building websites for people. Right? But the thing that I learned is I can give you a sales system that can make you money. But if this doesn't work, nothing works. And I remember this one lady, and I said to her, She came back to me a year later. She said, oh, this doesn't work. And I said, oh, let me go and check it, and I went in and checked it. She had. Guess how many people came to her website in that ear. Oh, I don't know.
Mahara Wayman [00:25:01]:
What?
Faith [00:25:02]:
One person. And when I said to her, honey, these are the stats. Right? you've had one person to your website. Oh, well, I don't have time to market, and I'm like, you don't have time to market. Right? So she had an energetic block against sales. Right? And if you have an energetic block around sales, around earning more money, which a lot of women think, have blocks around earning more money. Right? If you have doubts in people paying you the price tag that you set. Guess what? It can be felt in your social media content. It can be felt in your sales pages. and it can be felt in however you're selling, whether it's sales course, workshops, whatever. Right? When you doubt it, your tonality alone shows. Right? So I agree with you. And this is why I became someone who didn't just focus on, you know, the offer and focus on the website and the sales strategy. You have to have to have daily systems to fix that chatter. fix those money stories and work on them because if you don't, they will take you out of the game every single time.
Mahara Wayman [00:26:14]:
Okay. I'm thinking all of the things that I need to do that I do on a regular basis. Faith, thank you for that, and it's so so true. Bottom line is that we all want to be successful, right? We all deserve we're all incredibly worthy, but we don't And part of being badass in my world is that we are very open and accepting of who we are. That being it's okay to need help. It's okay to admit you have a story because guess what we all do, right? It's incredibly brave to look at that story, one of the advice I ever got with the training that I've taken was this understanding that the best way to deal with the pain and the drama and the trauma, the little tea trauma from our past that build these stories is to show it love. So pushing it down, ignoring it, pretending that it doesn't exist, That's not gonna do the work. But accepting that you feel this way, feeling the feels and throwing a bunch of love at it, it will eventually sort of It'll be it'll be you'll be further away from the pain and you will come -- Yep. -- people, yeah that's how I used to feel. Wow, I feel that way. But today I'm a different person, different girl. So thank you for sharing that with us. anything last minute that we don't know about you that you want the world to know about you.
Faith [00:27:42]:
So the one thing that I wish like, you were talking about 4 years ago with your program. The one thing that I wished I had known between, like, with raising my prices, right, The only difference that came is me saying the price, shutting up, and genuinely believing I deserved it. Right? Like, What you just said is so powerful because, honestly, that is what changed the game. Right? Self love and belief in ourselves, and we need to have the energetic systems that you know, like, I I don't know about you, but who's here have has so many things on affirmations. And sometimes I am a 1,000,000 of brain goes, may you not. May you not. So having affirmations or energetic systems that your brain believes as you grow and loving yourself where you are and accepting it and know that you're in the process of growing is absolutely massive. And that's what I'm all about. I'm all about just get launched, do the work, and grow. Because, honestly, what we do, I love it. I can pick up and go anywhere and do anything. We have true freedom, but running a business does take energetic work. It's not hard. The processes are not hard. the systems can can be really simple. But if you don't do the inner work, boy, are you gonna struggle?
Mahara Wayman [00:29:09]:
Yeah. So true. So true. Well, folks, as I've mentioned earlier, all of Faith's contact information will be in the show notes. But Faye, why don't you just say out loud for us how the best way for our listeners to connect with you and and hear more about all of the juicy goodness that you bring to your clients.
Faith [00:29:28]:
So I have a podcast. So if you go to www.socialselluslife.comforward/links, you'll be able to jump on and have a look at my book. you'll be able to look at my podcast. And, also, I have a workshop where we're stripping the fluff and getting back to the highest income producing activities that allow us and we'll work less and live dang more happy.
Mahara Wayman [00:29:49]:
It's what we all want. So thank you so much for sharing that. Thanks for chatting with me today, and I look forward to connect in with you again because I know there's more. I know you've got some room or to share with us. Thank you all for joining us today on another episode of The Art of Bad Azery. My guest today has been Faith Christianson, and I'm sure you'll all agree. She is stopping else. She's got some amazing energy and lots of beautiful wisdom for those of us that are starting new businesses. Thank you all very much. We'll see you next time.
