Meet the incredible Kristina Portella, founder of Business Plans Made Easy! We explore her inspiring journey of transformation as she shares how life's unexpected twists can ignite a profound reassessment of our paths. Formerly a counselor in clinical mental health, Kristina found herself craving more flexibility and fulfillment, leading her to entrepreneurship. Now, she specializes in guiding professional women through the intricacies of developing actionable business plans that truly propel dreams to success.

But Kristina's story doesn't stop at business! We delve into her newfound role as a grandmother and the unique challenges of supporting a child with type one diabetes. Her resilience shines through as she discusses navigating fear and uncertainty while finding unexpected rewards in her entrepreneurial journey. From the boardroom to the kitchen table, Kristina's insights offer tangible takeaways for anyone seeking to chart their own course to fulfillment!

What you'll hear in this episode:

[0:00] Entrepreneurship, career change, and family support.

[3:00] Career changes, burnout, and family health issues.

[7:30] Managing diabetes and work life balance.

[12:10] Entrepreneurship, self-doubt, and support systems.

[18:15] Self-confidence, networking, and business strategy.

[23:20] Creating a business plan for a career transition.

[27:50] Business planning for moms with side hustles or small businesses.

[32:15] Balancing business and new grandma role.

[38:00] Entrepreneurship, business planning, and personal growth.

CONNECT WITH KRISTINA

Follow Kristina on https://www.linkedin.com/company/business-plans-made-easy/

Follow Kristina's Facebook Group Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/corporatetoentrepreneurinnercircle/

To learn more about Kristina's services, check out her website: https://businessplansmadeeasy.com./

CONNECT WITH KELSEY

Follow Kelsey: @thisiskelseysmith

Follow Momma Has Goals: @mommahasgoals

Download the app for Apple or Android

Learn more at https://mommahasgoals.com/

Join our text list. Text "Goals" to (707) 347-0319

Speaker 1 0:00

Of course, I had the doubts, but people just telling me that you're capable of this, you can do this, you know, you can do that you're so creative. And it's important to keep hearing all things. And if you don't have the support, that some people don't have that some people don't have that support system. So that's the one thing that was so important is being able to have someone to turn to because there's going to be so many ballots.

Kelsey Smith 0:24

Speaker 1 3:04

me, I think you bring up such a good point there, Christina because we do pour all this time and energy and they say outside of our family and sometimes even more, the people we work with are getting a huge portion of our life and our time. And we have to do that, right, we have to pay the bills, we have to be able to have a way that we're providing for ourselves and others. But there's definitely this line. And when you're not able to, you know, take time off for fun, but let alone an emergency and you're having panic attacks and you're having these other situations happen in your life. And no one is even honoring that for you. There are good places to work, right. But so often we find ourselves in these situations where we're pouring our life into a place where you are just an employee. And so you said you had no plan of stepping into entrepreneurship, you didn't know how you're gonna do that there wasn't like an idea. Sometimes people have these moments where they've been thinking about an idea or they have a side hustle for a long time. And then they take the leap and yours was more like I'm taking the leap and I'm gonna figure it out. So what came next for you saying, Okay, here's now what I'm gonna do. Okay,

so yes, so like I said, with my whole gut feeling, and I said to my husband in December of that year, and I said, You know what, for Christmas, I'm gonna see people that do stock with it. Let me see, because I have always been a creative person. Like, I've always been someone that can think outside the box, like it worked very well and careers I was doing working for others, but I never thought it will apply to myself. So I sat there, I got the cricket. And I learned that one thing, one really good thing about me is that if I don't understand something, I will sit there, watch videos, binge, whatever I need to until I get it. So I learned how to use the Cricut. And then I started I was like looking love. I love stickers. I still love stickers. I don't do it anymore. But I started creating stickers, planners, and I went the route of the Etsy route. So back then my business was watching open science by Christina. So I started making stickers of things. And then I started researching. I knew I was like starting your own business. I said to my husband, I said, I'm not going to go to school for a year, because I want to decide if that's what I want to do is go back to school. So I said I'm not going to go back to school until I decided that's exactly what I want to do. Just hit me time. And then come January, February, I just started working I just started literally setting up things look and I learned everything on my own because I didn't look at reclamation, and it was impossible to find. For me at that time. It wasn't possible to find stuff that was just very clear. It was just like everything was either gate. Or it was just so confusing. And it was just like speaking in different circles and I was like no I need to know Oh, ABC the like how to get there step by step. Yes, a step by step plan. And that's all I wanted nothing fancy, nothing like the views and just something step by step. So I just learned and I started my business March of 2022 is when I started the business, but like I said, it was continued to tighten. So I may merge, I mean shirts, and it was a self love. And I always knew, at the end of the day, whether whatever career I was in, it was all about women empowerment. Like I have always wanted to help other women and like I grew up in a family. Well, Yvonne, it was just so important, because I saw how hard they worked. So I was very worried. But I will say in between the Quit of my job, of course, I had those fears. What the heck did I just do? Am I crazy? Should I apply them in bed for my job? What am I doing, this is not me, this is not me to just get up and leave a job. And I turned to my support system, my father is Jamaican, very strict. But I remember when he said to me, because I told him, I said mom, who in turn told my dad for me. And by the time he called me, he was like, if you had to quit Christina, it's because of a reason. Like you're the hardest working person out there. So my support system was so supportive of me leaving a job and starting my own business. That helped

me I think that's such an important point, though, because often we have these personal fears or concerns that we haven't even given the people in our circle, the opportunity to give us feedback. And sometimes those people really aren't going to be supportive, and they're not going to understand. But also sometimes we decide that before we even know before we even find out. So I think that's a really good takeaway, too, is sometimes we have to give people a shot to be supportive, before we just decide they're not going to be or they're not going to understand. And I think that that is just a perfect example of how that can show up.

Absolutely. And I'm glad you said like, sometimes we build an a soldier, because I thought he was gonna, I was like, He's gonna scream at me, he's gonna do all this and it was all so different conversation. At the end of the day, I always say I'm not a people pleaser. I don't love to make other people happy. But then it's like, at that point, I realized that some of me want to make my parents proud. So between that time, of course, I had the doubts, but people just telling me that you're capable of this, you can do this, you know, you can do that you're so creative. And it's important to keep hearing all things. And if you don't have the support a champion, you don't have that some people don't have that support system. So that's the one thing that was so important is being able to have someone to turn to because there's going to be so many doubts, especially if you were even thinking about entrepreneurship, almost like what am I even baby. And I knew if I went into any other career, yeah, I could have switched careers, I could have went back to school and public health like I wanted to, but at the end of the day, I will still have to answer to someone else, I will still have to ask for days off. And my son had a lot of appointments, he has one appointment that's every three months, and he had other appointments. So I knew this was going to become an issue down the line. So I didn't want to put myself in a same situation to have the same disappointment. If the job is like, oh, no, like you took off too many days. Yeah, that also led somebody wanting to do entrepreneurship.

And I think you're touching on like three of the biggest points that I've learned in my entrepreneurship journey, too. And one is like self confidence, you have to have that self confidence in yourself, to be able to take the leap and sustain the leap. And two is having a network in association to help you get through it. And that might be your online entrepreneurship friends, like you said, the online communities and groups is been a huge part of my journey as well. Not even just as a business owner, but as a mom. And that's really where it all started. And I'm sure you're now a part of some groups for like parents of type one diabetics and things like that. There's so many good groups out there and ways to connect and support. And then the third part of that is the systems and strategy, right. So the confidence and mindset, the networking community, and the systems and strategy, I feel like, are the three pillars of starting a business and like how you move forward. So you've now pivoted to really help people with that third pillar, especially to be able to make sure they're set up in a right format to be successful in their business. Talk a little bit about that pivot in that aha moment where you're like, wait a second, I am meant to be an entrepreneur, but I'm actually meant to do it in this way. And here's now how I'm going to help people. The pivot came

during the time where I had to learn everything on my own. And I'm just like, there is literally nobody out here. And they thought he is but they weren't, in my view at that time. That is literally going step by step. So I had to learn everything myself. And I was like there's other moms, right that's out there in the world that's probably facing the same missions that I am. Whether it's like put their hands or even their own help, right. So that's what made me want to pivot to like, be able to help them understand it, it's possible, you don't have to work for someone else. If that's not what you really want to do. That's it's a lot of fear that goes into going into your own. And it's rightfully so like I said, but it's just that I've always and it's not this, you have Daniel sperrys imposter syndrome. But I knew, I was like, I have the ability to do this. Like, if I was able to get through school with two kids, you know, and be able to do, I worked three jobs in one school because I do an internship a regular job and had another part time job, and I was doing my Masters, we'll talk with my husband shop, chill, I was like, if I was able to do that, it's just like, sometimes you have to really just be able to go into like VR. So whatever it is, that's going to push you to be able to get through it. So that's how I got into, you know, going now where a lot of people think that when they go into it, that they have to be super nice. Now, of course, it's going to be extremely helpful over time. But when I started, I just had to go back to my core values, which is I always wanted to empower other women. So that has always been the core of my business is to uplift other women. Like I love how much you can do I love especially Mama's like the I booked myself, you think I was able to do sit down and be like, let me relax nine oh, I had to work and walk around and do everything else as a mother as an employee, and all the other good stuff. So that's

why moms are so set up for business ownership and in the workplace. Right, mom? Yeah. So make great employees and great executives, but also entrepreneurs, because we just get it done, you figure out how you're gonna get it done. And when you don't, you still make it work, right? Like even if you did get the perfect thing done in the perfect way, it still comes back to how is this going to be a win because that's literally our jobs as moms right? If we make a mistake with insulin, or if we make a mistake with a birthday, or we make a mistake with breakfast, or we peel our toddlers banana when he didn't want appealed or we talk to our team and the wrong tone, and they start screaming at you, you still come back and you make it a win. And I think that's so important. It comes back to that same kind of theme you're talking about where you figure it out, you figure out how to make it work, you find the solution, you find the answers. And that where you were saying you didn't experience full impostor syndrome. But we all have doubts, right? We all have mom guilt or personal guilt or business guilt or how did I do that the right way? Should I've done it that way. But then what you're talking about is this like intuition of knowing, okay, I was made for this, and I'm gonna figure it out. And I think that we all may have moments of motherhood that we question, Did I do the right thing? Did I make the right choice. But then there's this thing that pulls you back up where you're like, Okay, I'm going to make it through. I don't need sleep tonight. I can do it one more night, I'm done and make it through this challenging conversation with my teenager, I'm going to be able to do it, I can do this. And I have to write. Yeah, and I think, to that point, it's just exactly what you're saying. If you have that feeling inside of you, for whatever it is, it's not to be ignored. It's meant to be pursued. And then you find the resources and the people and the systems in the network in the competence to then execute on it, but you don't ignore it push down not feeling. So I think that is so important. So for someone that has that feeling, and they want to take action on it. I want to hear about now what you do with these women that are like, Okay, I think I'm going to do this I'm scared. You know, they're kind of that tiptoeing around it, and you say, here's how we're going to make it happen. Here's what we're going to do.

Yes. So now, like I said, it started off with wanting to help other woman to get out of situations, moms, like maybe if they wanted to leave their job, I will say a lot of the mistakes that I've made in the beginning was paying for so many resources, I will say in the very very beginning, read blogs, watch videos, learn whatever you can, there are so many communities, especially I have many as well but you're able to go into these communities right? And they have that free option where you're able to learn so much and then I feel like that's where you're also able to build and that's where it is it's a community you cannot do this alone you cannot

that's exactly why we built the filing cabinet for Mama house goals because same thing I went out I had to find all these resources and I was like why are they so messy? Why are they so unorganized we want to make this clean organized in free. So that is definitely I agree with you exactly the same way but once someone is ready to get that more specific action, you help them bottle it all up into a way that's like here is your plan. So if someone were to come to you tell me what does that process look like? A when they're like okay, I'm ready to take action on that. Yes, I

actually said they're in a planet phase where and for the planning phase let me asleep that could mean that you literally was like, I think I I could do this, like, maybe it's not like you have to actively have a plan. So the name of my business is business plans meetings. And the reason why is because when I was trying to work on my business plan, it's so important to have one. But since Timothy, it can be extremely, it's somebody that you think you need to have charts. I'm not good at financial. That's what people were saying, or like, I'm not good at the financial aspects. I don't know how to do this. It's so boring. Let me tell you, mine has Pekin it is beautiful. It'd be looking at my site. I love bright color. You make your business plan, what you want it to be the way it works, the process and set. So if someone comes in here, like vacancy, and I have an option where if they have some in depth questions, they just want to hop on a call. And they want to know I have where I have a strategic brainstorming where it's low cost this because I want to be able to hop on a call and answer any question you may have any thoughts, any fears. So the way it works is that it's not just a business plan. It's a business transition plan. So you're in this career, you eventually want to be able to transition out. So now my goal is to hopefully catch people before they just get to the point where they have the upper limit can't take the job anymore. I want to be able to help them go through the process to have a plan business transition plan. It's I have, yes, your business plan, understanding who you want to work with how you want to help them, what's the strategy to get there, but also the financial, how much would you need to have saved? Or if what those goals are pretty hard? Are you going to pay your bills if you were to quit, and then go into a timeline of when do you want to make this happen? Sometimes, you know, you have a good year left in your job, like I could probably do this for a year, nothing else happens. Like you can just deal with it. But it's to help you have a solid plan. So that when you go out there and you're ready, you're profitable, you're able to sustain and be able to do what you want. So for me my motivation, and my Y has always been I wanted to spend that quality time with my kids, I spent so much time in the workforce, the summers I haven't been able to enjoy with them, right? I don't think ever because I worked the whole time, even when they were babies, I have my son take care of five months. So I have always worked. So that has been like my biggest motivator. It's the enable to travel with them. Because I love traveling, this story is so important to understand, like where my motivation comes from. I was out to lunch with my daughter, and her just hanging out and he texts me he goes, Can you come pick me up from school, and I'm thinking something's wrong. He goes Archie, a mental health day, to be able to go sign my kid out of school, to have a mental health day was so important. And guess what? He felt so much better the next day. So back then I wasn't allowed to Yeah, I wouldn't have to say, Hey, son, you just got to stick it out. And so may as my kids like probably a school, just so much anxiety. So that's my biggest why?

Wow. And I think that's such a relatable and powerful moment for so many parents. Because even now my kids go to school part time. And, you know, they have mornings they don't want to go to school today was actually one of those days, AI ends up being able to have the choice to be able to say, okay, is this a day where I'm going to just say, Alright, stay home, or not just pushing them? Because you have to I think that is so important. And I want to also just like, Yes, send love to anyone that's in a season that you don't have that choice, because we've both been there. I know, from both of our stories I've been there, Christina has been there where you don't have a choice, you do have to send your kid to school, they do have to tough it out. And that doesn't make you a bad mom. It's okay, that all that happens. But what we want everyone to hear out of this conversation is, when you've decided you don't want that anymore, there are options. And you can pursue options, and you can have someone help you along the way. And so for anyone that's not familiar with like what a business plan is what I really love about what you do, Christina, is it's not just here, I'm going to help you create your PDF document that you're going to just have printed, because it reminds me of your corporate like work handbook that no one ever reads. And you're just like, well, I have my business plan. I have my work handbook. It's like no, this is also functional plan. This is a functional document for you to come back to and say, here's how I'm going to make this dream a reality. Here's how I'm going to transition. Here's when I can for my family. So it financially makes sense. Here's when we can make this work. So it's not just like a, hey, let's make pretty graphics. And it's no let's create something official so that if you do want to go get funding or you do want to explain your business to someone or you do want to do that, then you have that, but this is for you. So you have an actual framework into how to actually make this a reality for your life. And I think that is so important. I have a couple final questions for you. And one of those being just like for the person that wants to understand, like, how official does your business have to be for this? I think that's a common question in the sense of Like, you were saying, it could be someone that just has an idea. But whether it's like a side hustle, it's your cricket, like sticker building business. It's even like network marketing, or it's, you know, this big giant business dream that you maybe have and would need to really have a very formal plan going into. This applies to like, every range of business and idea, right? Talk about like the smallest business, and maybe a client that you've worked with that would not really realize that they would need this for like their life coaching business, or their, like self development startup, or any of those things that you're like, No, this helps for any.

Yes, I actually recently worked with someone where they still work their full time job, they actually wanted to do a relaunch. So they already had the business, their side hustle. But it was to a point where it was in making profit, and they didn't have a business plan or anything, they just were working in the business when not like really working. And when we hear that it's working in a business, it's like you're literally doing day to day stuff versus working on is where you're able to come up with the strategies right so that you can become profitable. And this person who was in like coaching gal, she was into life coaching, but she wanted to be able to hone in to work with mamas, right? So really working with moms, but it was not clear in her messaging at all. Like who she helps how she helps them. Because I will say is that myself, I was able to work with a coach to help me to really refine who I'm helping with, because I don't that's the one thing that was really difficult for myself,

one of my mentors, she has a saying that says you can't read the prescription from the inside of the bottle AI and I think that is so relatable to business and motherhood and life is sometimes when you're in it, you aren't going to see it the same way. So you have to get like an outside perspective. So you were able to do this for this woman and be able to help her get clear on who she was helping and what she was doing and how she was going to come out of this rebrand? Absolutely.

That's just one typical client. So three brains, you have some people that may have already been in assigned muscle but has not gone anywhere. Because they need to really, like you said be able to immunity Why isn't this working? And how helping? Yes, it's frustrating, especially when you're working that job, your mama, like where do you find the time. So a lot of times, and I'm probably gonna get a little off track. It's like, the thing that makes I think my business where it's different is because with my back room in counseling, I understand a lot of the thoughts that you may have. And it's so important to also include with your planning process, right and your time management. Time management is a que se we know as mamas I get distracted, especially as a new grandma, like I just want to

say now you have a new whole new little dynamic in your world. She's living with you. But you bring up an important point, you know, my backgrounds in marketing. And I often say you know, mental health and psychology, they have so much to do with marketing. And so our messaging and how we deliver our business is really seeing like, where's our customer at? Where is the person that we're helping and supporting? Where are we at as a business owner? How are we coming across? So I think there's so much relation there. And I think having that plan is so helpful. I want to talk a little bit about this new transition in your life of being a grandma, before we come to our final question. And that is I'm curious how you've come back to your own business plan or your own foundations as this new blessing. This new addition variable has been thrown into your life where you're like, Okay, I'm now at grandma Iain's, my grandbaby and my daughter is living with me. And we have this other dynamic and this is going well, but it's a new dynamic. So how are you coming back to the core principles that you set up in your business plan and your strategy to stay clear on what it is that you're doing? How are you like making this a routine and a habit of this is who I am. This is my business. This is what we're focusing on. I'm

gonna throw in another group, it was a curveball, because my daughter had a cryptic pregnancy. She was pregnant until she was 33 weeks last set to leave to go back to Dorman for her second year at college a week later than what we found out. So that's a huge curveball. And this was an emotional time, especially as some and people will look this up, you've probably heard like how to, they didn't know they were pregnant. And it's so funny because now we're seeing these shows where someone could have found out when he had the baby, and that would have been traumatizing. We have at least six weeks. One

of my family members is a labor and delivery nurse and her sister who is one of her best friends, they're together multiple times a week, she had this happen to her and she said my cousin came out and she's like, look, I have heard people come in and tell me this story. Like how did you not know you're pregnant? And I have one As a labor and delivery nurse, like how would you not know these things? She's like, this has now happened to my sister and I was alongside of her for the entire journey, the entire pregnancy, and none of us had any idea. And so I think for anyone else that is listening, this is a real thing. This is a real thing.

And it's so funny because my family were like, No way. She knew the whole time. I was like, listen, I was a young mom, I had my daughter when I was 18. I was 17. I was pregnant. 18 is when I had her. And the stuff I went through was a lot I know. And a relationship I built with my daughter was far we're so open, we talked about everything. And on top of it, I love it. And my cousin works also in labor delivery as a nurse, and she was here because what she would work overnight, she'd stay at our place, because she was traveling her so she was here and she literally was like, What in the world do you mean, she's pregnant? When I tell you that baby is a miracle. She's super smart. She's three months now time goes by fast. She's so smart. She's doing things like six months olds are doing like holding her bottle, like doing a bunch of things kind of rollover. So it's like a blessing. I love that you said a blessing because of course during that time, I was like, Oh my gosh, like I'm so panicked. I'm so scared. What is this going to do? Like you said, I don't think I realized how big of a ship it was going to be in the dynamics until after she was here. And I was like, oh my god, I miss my daughter. I miss having a one on one time. You know, she's 90 herself. So it's like during that time, and I also felt the Gil, like you said the mambo. I was like, Oh my gosh, Jen, our teacher like how to use Batoche. And how to do business how not to because I didn't want her to go through what I went through. And then I was a single mom with her at that time. So I had the fear of like all of that. And somehow I still pushed her over because I had to because I was more worried about her going postpartum depression because this is not what she prepared for my daughter has never wanted kids, it's just not her. She doesn't do well when newborns heal, not to take it. So I had to go in and be that person and support her. But I also realize I get to enjoy it because I don't got to raise the baby, I don't have to raise her, I can help out. I can guide her, but I don't have to reach her. So yes, that dynamic worked me back to I had to come back to my roots of the business, right. So that's where it comes down to and you don't have one thing I do want to say is so important is that your business plan does not need to be 50 pages that might need to be 20 pages, it could be the Linus business plan, it could be bullet points, because at the end of the day, and then of course, as time goes on, you add to it, this isn't a document that you sit there, but like you said, what the company, may you you put it together and never look at it again, no, this is a document you've got printout and refer back to because at the end of the day, it's gonna have your mission, it's going to have your Y, it's going to have the reason why you're doing this. And it's a reminder, so I pulled out my document. And I had to remember that my goal has always been so leave a legacy. She motivates me so much, and love her to death. So it's like I wanted to leave a legacy. You

know what a blessing that you've been able to have this business have this foundation and be able to come back to that a before our final question, I want to know now that you do have this other variable and your business is up and going, what is a goal or something that you're currently really excited about

is so many things I'm excited about, like I, I wake up and I'm just so happy and I did not need this? Well, I thought I would just work until I retire, you know work for someone else and target target. So what makes me so excited, what gets me up is literally being able to communicate with different women like I'm on LinkedIn, and I'm talking to women in my inbox, we're just like getting to know each other. So my, my big thing to share is connection, relationships building, I have friends in Ohio, I have friends, like all over play, I was running into buying out and it excites me to be able to, of course work with people from all over the world, but also to build friendships and build relationships. And I'm super excited because I have revamped all my offers to be really aligned with my people. So it's just really being able to be out there to have the means to have the opportunity to just serve people.

And it's such an amazing journey. Like I know, in my own business, I look back at the people I've met and of the connections I've made. And I cannot imagine if I hadn't taken that leap if I hadn't moved forward. So I think that is you know, just such a pivotal point of what you're saying is going back to that intuition and that confidence and not knowing like, if you have this feeling or this call on you AI and you're like, I don't know, what would it look like if I did this, you're always gonna wonder. So you have to go pursue that. And I do want to be clear, you know, that's not entrepreneurship for everyone. It might be going back to school, like you said, or moving into a new career, but it could be business too. It could be even just like for your daughter, you know, she didn't want to be a mom and here she is, you know, exploring something different. And I think they it's just so important to be curious about all the different versions of us, Christina, where can everyone connect with you, you know we are going to have you in the mama highschools platform, they can connect with you there. But where do you want to send people to connect with you

I actually have is two places because like I said, I'm on LinkedIn under business plans made easy. So business plans made easy. Just that's where you can find me, as well as I have a Facebook community that I just put together because like I say, it's so important to have community and I love connection. I love the power of us when we come together like us moms, like kick butt. Yeah, all you can find me on Facebook under groups is called from corporate, to entrepreneur, inner circle.

Amazing. And we'll link that below too. And everyone can join that AI and I know your son got diagnosed with type one diabetes at 11. And we're not gonna be able to dive into that too much today for timing. But people can reach out to you and hear a little more about your journey. And they can come to you for support on their business plan. And we have your support within the mamas business blueprint program as well. So many ways for them to tap in Christina, it was such a pleasure talking to you hearing more about your journey and story. I'm so excited for this next chapter of continuing as grandma and how this has just allowed this beautiful life to flow together for you and your grandbaby and your son and everyone together. So thank you for your time today. Sometimes the smallest acts of love is all a mom needs to feel reinvigorated. If you can relate to that I'd feel so supported by your five star rating and written review. Take a moment and let me know what you thought about this episode.