← The Spiritual Hustler
The Spiritual Hustler
How to Turn Cash Flow Into Freedom and Design a Life That Pays You Back with Investor & Advisor, KK Hart
01:04:08
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- [00:02]
Jessica Zweig
Welcome to the Spiritual Hustler podcast.
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I'm your host, Jessica Zweig, multi seven figure serial entrepreneur, best selling author and branding and business coach. And this is a show where we are redefining the word hustle. Reclaiming our true feminine nature of magnetism and putting down the self judgments and shame around loving to work and making a lot of money at it. On this show you're gonna learn how
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to stop hustling and start spiritually hustling.
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By pressing clay, you now part of a new movement of women who don't hustle for money. We hustle for meaning. We don't hustle from lack. We hustle for love. We don't hustle from survival. We hustle for humanity's thriving. We hustle toward healing the ancestral programming of fear and step into a new understanding of safety in the body to
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receive this shift isn't going to only heal your life. It's going to make you a whole lot richer too. This is the Spiritual Hustler podcast.
- [01:05]
Well, hello my beautiful spiritual Hustlers and welcome back to the podcast. I am your host, Jess. Oh, and I'm so happy to be here with you guys. Believe it or not, I just got back from a two week writing sabbatical to finish my next book, my third book. I've been working on this book since September and you know, this is not my first Rodeo. I wrote two other books, one in 2021 B and the light work that came out in 20. This next book is coming out in 2027 and I've always taken a sabbatical to finish the book because it's the only way I can. And typically I've gone to Costa Rica and like, you know, stayed at a cute boutique hotel and rented a four wheeler and bopped around to the beach and the juice bars and the ecstatic dance parties, like just got down with Costa Rica. While I finished my book this time I went to an ayurvedic healing retreat center in North Carolina in the mountains of Asheville. This place was a portal. This place was a true healing sanctuary where honestly, for the first time in my life, I've never so consistently done nothing, actually practiced the muscle of receiving. You know, I got there on night one and the woman at the front desk shout out to you, Misha said to me, you know, we see in women more than men that women just don't know how to receive. They come in as the givers and the doers and the controllers and they get here and they're like, what do we do now because they don't know how to be taken care of. They're the ones taking care of everything. And so for the full on two weeks I received and you're finding me in this really tender place because I literally got back yesterday and you know, there's so much beautiful synergy in what this whole show is about. The spiritual hustler, the feminine and the masculine. The action and the surrendering, the creation and the creativity, the power and the pleasure. And I just really want to remind us all that that is how our lives, our careers, our businesses, our realities need to work. This show is definitely a show devoted to the feminine, but the feminine is dynamic and she is able to hold two things in balance. Her ambition and her rest. Her output and her input. And I just want to demystify the world in which women take all the space that they want and do a couple hours of work a week. If they're building something big, that it doesn't work like that. We have to calibrate our dreams, our ambition, our tenacity, our desires to build our work ethic with seasons and practices of rest and restoration and self care. And you know, I planned this sabbatical in December. My whole team and I got really, really aligned that I was gonna be completely offline for two weeks. I did not check email, I did not check slack, I did not check texts. I was offline finishing this book for all of you. And that took work to create the structure, to allow the feminine to flow. And I just want to encourage you to embrace your seasons. There are going to be moments in your year where you are tired and you are overwhelmed. And that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong as long as you calibrate it with moments, with seasons, with mornings, with a couple hours a week, a couple weeks a year to really put yourself at the center of nothingness. Because to me, there is no way that we can create our next best thing or get all the downloads or get the clarity on what we're really here to do unless we empty so that we can receive. And you know, our guest today is somebody that is really going to motivate you to get off your ass. This is why I wanted her on my podcast. It's the dichotomy, right? My welcoming of this show is right on the heels of a massive restorative, two week sabbatical and we're back to business. And I really, truly cannot express to you enough how lucky you are that you found this podcast today, that you're going to Take in the brilliance of K.K. hart. I met K.K. hart at a conference last year. I was speaking, or maybe it was two years ago when I was on my book tour, she was in the audience, I was on stage and she came up to me afterwards and we locked eyes and I was like, oh, I know you. We speak the same language. We have the same perspective on feminine leadership and feminine entrepreneurship. And if you are really looking to scale your business to seven figures and beyond to become a true millionaire, there is really no one better to listen to than KK Hart. She breaks it all down today. The truth is if you want to build something good and meaningful and profitable and cash forward, you've got to work for it. You don't have to kill yourself, but you've got to work for it. And KK Hart really breaks it down. Okay. She is a multimillionaire, self made, ten time seasoned entrepreneur. She's built, invested and helped scale companies like Liquid Death, create and cultivate Mind, Body, Class Pass, Pure Bar. Lily, you are listening to a true expert on scale. She's a clearly high sought after strategic investor now advisor. And she has a mission to foster generational growth by addressing the root causes of burnout. This is why she and I are so aligned. She calls it the human energy crisis which really affects women so much as new founders and creators and business owners and their teams. She offers a comprehensive suite of products and services including her cash flow flow 2.0 growth operating system. We're going to leave a link to that in the show notes. The coaching, the consulting, the strategic investment, the mentorship, the hands on data driven sales, marketing and product development support. She is a pro. This conversation, I feel like we blasted off into the universe. It's got so much passion and specific strategies for you to take wherever you are and fuel it so you don't just create wealth, wealth, but generational wealth. And I think you're going to be amazed not only by her brilliance, but her authenticity. And today's conversation could not come at a more perfect intersection of the sacred union of the feminine and the masculine. The receiving, the resting and honestly, the hustling. We need both. And today you're going to get a dose, a big dose, an hour long dose of a woman who has mastered the spiritual hustler and has devoted her life to helping women just like you become millionaires. Enjoy.
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Welcome to the show.
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KK Hart
We're.
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Jessica Zweig
We're in.
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KK Hart
Yeah, we're here.
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Jessica Zweig
We're in. This is amazing girl. The story that you told because we were on A panel together for Lindsay at Powerhouse. People are gonna know who you are. The intro. But you shared where you came from.
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KK Hart
Yeah.
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Jessica Zweig
And what you're doing now, which is insane. But we're going to get there. Can you take us back? Like your origin story.
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KK Hart
It's funny, I used to feel a lot of shame about sharing it, so I shied away from it. And now I'm like, so bold and open. So the way the story goes is we grew up in a tiny country in the Caribbean called Trinidad. By the time I was three, my mom's marriage was basically falling apart. To my dad, I'm the youngest of three. Kind of like the shotgun to hope to make things work, baby. And by the time we were at that kind of pivotal point in her life where she was trying to decide, is it safe to stay? Should she go? He threatened to kill her. So here we are. We landed in America, we immigrated and then naturalized as citizens. And I kind of started my life in a different place, but I didn't know anywhere else. I had two older sisters that were significantly older, 10 and seven years. And so by the time I was in third grade, the first one was off to college. I got a front row seat at my mom's glow up in a world where, like, for her, she's had to start all over again. She had a professional degree back in Trinidad. She couldn't use it here. She went back to school. She went and did more schooling. She ended up having a six figure job at the end of her career. Retired early. Like, I watched my mom in every way believe in herself even when no one else did, and double down on that belief with her assets, with her growth, with her money. And I feel so grateful that I had that front row seat because every step of the way, it's kind of funny being a mom through adoption now and kind of seeing how I get to give that to my kids. But I watched myself and I watched myself grow in my skill sets and I watched myself be believed in through her. And then I started believing in myself. And then everything started growing bigger and badder than I could ever have imagined.
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Jessica Zweig
I would say bigger and better. You are so in my, like, experience, the anti investor vibe, it's meant as a compliment. Like, you think of venture capitalists and angel investing and it's like. And I was in the world of startups for a long time. I've raised money before. I've been in those rooms. I've typically been the only woman in those rooms. And it's like white suits and white men and like whiteboards and PowerPoints.
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KK Hart
Boring.
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Jessica Zweig
Boring. And so much like, like dick energy.
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KK Hart
Yeah.
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Jessica Zweig
Pun intended.
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KK Hart
Totally.
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Jessica Zweig
And you have such a beautiful approach to creating wealth. And you're also fierce when it comes to business. And I want to just double click into the women that are listening to my podcast. They're female entrepreneurs, they're aspiring female entrepreneurs. Many of them are maybe in corporate America dreaming of leaving to start their own thing. And when I was in my early stage, like, I just looked at the idea of like building my own business as like a ticket to freedom, but it ended up becoming my jail.
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KK Hart
Wow.
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Jessica Zweig
Right. Because it was a vehicle to make money and like, live my lifestyle. But I was never building an asset, like, consciously until like later on. But the path to get there was really painful. And I wish I knew then what I do know now. This is your world. So can you break down the psychology and the distinction and guide the woman listening how she needs to think about her business as an asset today?
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KK Hart
Yeah.
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Jessica Zweig
What that looks like in practice.
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KK Hart
Oh, I couldn't agree with that more. It's truly the philosophy I live off of, which is an asset management approach to growth. Let me tell tell you why this matters. For most women in business, the business is the asset that they're looking to drive all the wealth. And so if you think about the general ways of growing wealth, that's a complete flip scenario than the average American who is using retirement strategies, you know, long term stocks and bonds, real estate, in order to grow. When you own a business or several businesses like me, you are actually focused on that business growth trajectory more than anything else. So the first thing I did actually I sit at the intersection of business acquisition, business growth. I still mentor and advise and really love growing with founders that way. And then I also invest. The thought process around this was actually, I wish I could tell you, it was like the strategic idea that I had. It was this natural building of my skill sets. As a behavioral scientist, I understood the brain. And so with military grade precision, I could tell you how the brain works, how to make changes to that, and how to make changes to the decision making that the brain makes. Here's why this matters. As I started growing my wealth, I started really early and I started realizing that there was a mission between how I could grow the business and how I could grow my wealth, which are intricately intertwined. So I call it Cashflow 2.0 now. But the whole concept of looking at your business as an asset instead of a job is actually how I got here.
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Jessica Zweig
Yeah.
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KK Hart
And so I think a lot of women, and I'll say this because it's a lot of female founders that I interact with. I know that you interact with. They've got the wrong mindset as to what really is my favorite F word. Freedom. And freedom comes from diversification, optionality, the ability to maybe have an exit, but also maybe just grow and enjoy that cash flow. And then also to really have that, I think, intricate mix of what I call financial fitness, which is to know, when do you spend? When do you not. Right. When do you hold, when do you grow? And I think that's really missing from the vernacular of business today, especially for women. Totally.
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Jessica Zweig
It's not in the ether when it comes to how we have our education, our experience, our access. And so let's go back into your story and talk to us about the. You said this happened early. What was that first sort of early win where you really connected those dots and made that return for yourself? What was the business and what did that success story look like?
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KK Hart
Yeah, you know, before the business, I would have to tell you the most unsexy part, which is I earned a lot of money early in my career.
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Jessica Zweig
Okay.
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KK Hart
So as a behavioral scientist, if you remember the early 2000s, this was just an up and coming career. It was a mix of statistician and like data and analytics alongside behavioral psychology and sociology. So that was used for a number of very like high earning careers. And I knew that's what I wanted to do because I googled it. I was not like some amazing story. I literally was like, I need to make something of myself. I went to every career fair at school for my undergraduate degree and I was very intentional that I needed to grow and become this person that I am today. So it feels really amazing to see that I've become her in a way that feels really embodied. But however, I made a lot of money early on.
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Jessica Zweig
Okay.
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KK Hart
I chose a skill set that would earn high. Here's what I did. That's unpopular. I live drastically underneath my means.
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Jessica Zweig
But it's such a important unpopular opinion.
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KK Hart
It's the essential.
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Jessica Zweig
It is the essential.
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KK Hart
And so with that, I was able to put so much money in the bank. And then if you do that and you know this Uncle Sam becomes your number one business partner that you don't want to have.
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Jessica Zweig
That's very fudgeing. True.
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KK Hart
So I'm always like, legally, ethically, what can I do?
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Jessica Zweig
Right.
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KK Hart
To not have the tax man be my biggest business partner. This is when I started acquiring businesses because it was Tax advantaged. It had, you know, a plethora of benefits. And before I even had this phrase, a modern family office, which is what we have now, that first under a million, I was stacking cash. I was investing in the stock market, bonds, real estate. That was my early start. And then I hit a million really early at about 25. And so a million liquid at 25, you feel like you're just high.
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Jessica Zweig
Right.
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KK Hart
But I actually felt very low. I had just gotten divorced and I felt very alone. And I knew success was on the table now, but acquiring businesses allowed me to use other aspects of my skill sets so that I could actually become, you know, the me that I am now, which is a balanced person, both personally and professionally successful. And so that was the real unlock for me. It was the cash velocity. Cash is queen.
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Jessica Zweig
Yes, it is.
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KK Hart
No one will tell you otherwise if they don't have it.
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Jessica Zweig
Cash is Queen, not king.
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KK Hart
Queen 100. And then there's that liquidity, liquidity ability. So being able to have access to your assets, there's a whole philosophy in and of itself which means you can't go into debt, you can't owe more than you can comfortably pay off. And then with that, now you start the investment layer and that's where it gets exciting and that's where people get really excited about the startup investing. And yes, I'm also a general partner in a private equity firm.
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Jessica Zweig
Yes.
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KK Hart
And a limited partner in venture capital. So all that stuff looks amazing, but it's higher out the risk curve. And for a very long time, I was just making money investing in stocks, bonds, real estate and then acquiring businesses, which means you bring the cash flow back every month.
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Jessica Zweig
Yes.
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KK Hart
So that was a start.
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Jessica Zweig
Quite the start. Millionaire by 25. Okay, you guys, here's the truth that most female entrepreneurs never hear. Your nervous system is running your entire business, your entire life, not your mindset. So you can have all the vision and all the strategy, but if your body is carrying chronic stress, inflammation or pain, everything is always going to feel harder than it needs to be. And this is where Microflow comes in. Now, this brand, I swear by Microflow, it has changed my entire life. It's founded by root cause health expert Christy Nalt, and Microflow creates the cleanest micro dosing supplement on the market. Okay, it's 100 organic, third party lab tested, reiki infused and intentionally formulated for women. Now, each blend is designed to support brain, heart coherence, your nervous system, regulation and neuroplasticity, which helps you at the end of the Day shift out of survival and into sustainable growth. And here is what's actually happening. Microflow helps quiet the default mode network in your brain. It's the autopilot in your mind, while activating neurogenesis so that you can build new pathways wired for creativity, clarity and resilience. This is why thousands and thousands of people who've used Microflow has said that it is the one thing that has drastically, clearly, evidently changed their life. And now Microflow has introduced a brand new blend that I am also obsessed with called Rapid relief. Which is the next evolution of holistic pain support. Now, Rapid relief works with your body, not against it. It supports your innate healing intelligence so that discomfort can finally resolve at the root without harsh downstream effects. Think of this as like your new one stop shop. Midol, Advil, Tylenol. But better because it's formulated with Microflow magic micro doses, regeneratively farmed CBD and ancient botanicals. I've used it every single week since I've got it. It helps calm inflammation, soften tension and restore the flow back into your body. Now, for female entrepreneurs navigating long days, nervous system overload or burnout recovery. You guys cannot not have rapid relief in your medicine cabinet. Start with the exude and surrender bundle and add rapid relief when your body needs extra support. And explore theta for deeper, somatic and ceremonial work. If you are ready to increase your capacity by upgrading the technology of your nervous system, then you've got to get down with Microflow. Get the whole bundle, get the whole stack. It will be the most life changing tool you could possibly ever, ever work with. Visit microflow healing.com and use code jessica10 for $10 off of your order. That's microflowhealing.com and use code jessicA10 for $10 off of your order. So you have become pretty surgical in what you invest in and what you don't invest in now. Because back in the day it was like where was the opportun?
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Talk to us about what types of
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businesses you do invest in.
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KK Hart
Yeah.
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Jessica Zweig
And why.
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KK Hart
You know, it's interesting. I always thought there'd be a single philosophy to this. One of the greatest accidental assets that I have is being proudly multidisciplinary. So that means I can look at different industries and find the intersection of the two. Maybe that's the behaviorist in me.
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Jessica Zweig
Right?
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KK Hart
So I found that really the driving force, especially for our family office is actually centered around an ideal client.
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Jessica Zweig
Okay.
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KK Hart
I'm that ideal client. So I've grown up with her. She is now, you know, over 30, usually in her 40s, she is extremely invested in herself, whether it's financial, personal, professional, and she has a plethora of needs. And so what I did that I think is now considered really unique is I stacked all of my assets around this woman's needs. Businesses that were product, businesses that were service, B2B, B2C, even business to business to consumer. So I really thought about how can I meet this woman wherever she is. And so that of course equated to 10 businesses, but it also equated to strategic investments in companies that are pretty well known now. They've done really well. And then also constant looking at what's up and coming in the market. So I'll tell you where we're focused now. In addition to what that woman is, is some of the things I know she cares about. Fitness, beauty, health, wellness, the future of work and the future of money. So I've had some really notable exits and opportunities there. But you can see it in yourself, right? I am she, you are she. We are awesome. And I keep thinking about how can we provide more impact, especially having a generation alpha daughter who's now at the decision making table and you know, really helping us execute on some of our assets. And so what I about is where are things going and how can we continue to meet this ideal client's needs, even with my marketing agency, which is how we are able to kind of leverage all the assets in one holdco girlfriend.
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Jessica Zweig
I mean I have so many questions for you. So let's talk about the women because you know, I'm a bootstrapper. I raised money in the past, which is so insane. You're fucking such a successful badass. Like you have reached such an incredible level as a self made woman.
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KK Hart
Thank you.
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Jessica Zweig
I just really want to celebrate that. Like that is so expansive for everyone listening and you're so of service, you know, like the heart that, you know, pun intended. No pun intended. That you carry throughout all of your success. When we were on that panel together, like you dropped your net worth and you just owned it. And I was like, this is what I'm talking about. Women standing in their wealth and leading from the heart.
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KK Hart
Yeah.
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Jessica Zweig
And you've made this possible for yourself and now you're making it possible for so many. And I, I really would love so many questions. But let's go back to the raising money component because bootstrapping is fun until it's not like you have all the control like it those early years can be a hockey stick and then it gets hard. This has at least been in my experience. I did raise money on my very first business. It's great. And it's also makes it complicated.
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KK Hart
That's very complicated.
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Jessica Zweig
And what would you say to a woman who is maybe reached a point of like growth and she knows that in order to scale, she does have to take in outside capital? What should she be looking for? How should she really know if she's ready? How can she be clear? She's not ready. Yeah, let's break all of that down.
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KK Hart
Boy, I'm glad you asked me that question, because I think I'm hearing that question a lot from a lot of women. And they may be very surprised because being an investor is probably the most illustrious thing about what I do. But it's certainly not where my focus is and tell you why. There are other ways to grow, and I think a lot of women get themselves excited about this idea of this strategic exit. But there are three other ways that most women probably find meets their lifestyle goals more in order to grow. I call it cashflow 2.0. I've been on either side of about 300 million in exits. And I'll tell you that most people at the end of those exits, you know this. It's not like the money makes them feel better or enjoy life more.
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Jessica Zweig
No.
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KK Hart
So what I often find for women is that they've got this one track mind, this one vision. And just think about this. In our relationships, right? Is there one person we can go to for everything? As much as I love my forever husband, and he really is, I can't go to him for everything. Right. So the idea of this with business, I think we've got lost with women. And instead we need to kind of really illustrate these other three. First is an internal version of growth. What are the other aspects that your ideal client has that you can bring to the table? Maybe it's a new service, a new product, so you're getting more share of wallets. The second is unpopular because it's actually deeper work is to understand the conversion optimization that's needed so that client that's not converting. If we can get more of those to the conversion table, you're instantly making more money. And I call that cash flow and grow.
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Jessica Zweig
Right, Right.
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KK Hart
Then there's growth through acquisition, which is my favorite thing to do. Actually. I've acquired, of the 10 businesses, eight of them. And so I acquired my children. I love acquisition. And it's another way for you to have power and freedom. And so when we give all that up at the exit more times than not. I see there's another way that we could have done it if we were open, if we were strategic, intentional and proactive. And that's what I want women to think about.
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Jessica Zweig
That's incredible. It's a part of your work. Mentorship.
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KK Hart
My favorite thing that I do.
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Jessica Zweig
And do women come to you and like, book time with you? How does that work?
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KK Hart
Yeah, we work monthly on a no contract retainer. I've been doing that for 20 years, Jess. I love it. And for me, I've been work optional for about 10 or 15 years, depending on how you look at it. So I wake up every day with an excitement for this. I'm leaned all the way the fuck in.
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Jessica Zweig
Yeah.
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KK Hart
And so I get excited to hear about those successes. I get excited to find more. And I would say most clients think of me as like their chief revenue officer. So I'm constantly looking at ways to pull those other three levers and prepare them for an exit. I call that optionality. I think most women aren't quite sure what's going to come up. I say shift happens a lot in life. Shift always happens. We've been through some shift together.
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Jessica Zweig
Yeah, we have.
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KK Hart
And so what I often find is that we need to think about what can I achieve in the next five years and maybe the next 10, and then maybe another five after that. And the reason for that is with women, our goals and needs shift faster. That's an unpopular belief, but oftentimes we have care, needs, interpersonal relationship, things that come up. And so we're in this life that we've built and then it becomes that golden handcuffs.
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Jessica Zweig
Yes.
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KK Hart
Whereas optionality allows us a chance to, yeah, maybe plan for an exit, but have the cash flow and grow internally and then maybe grab a couple businesses and have that tax advantage, diversification.
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Jessica Zweig
So not everybody who's interested in an exit would be someone you'd mentor or is it. Yeah, just a woman that's looking to grow her net worth, scale her business, potentially acquire a couple companies underneath her.
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KK Hart
I call it from great to better. So I'll give you an idea of what it often looks like. She's hit a wall at a level of success and so she's not sure which of those four levers she can pull. That's very common. Then I meet women who've actually made a level of success and they just did an acquisition or they're considering an acquisition. And then I meet women who are. They've kind of maxed out on top line revenue, but we need to go deep on bottom line. And girl, top line revenue is probably my favorite thing to rag on right now.
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Jessica Zweig
Totally.
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KK Hart
I'm saying though, total vanity metric, absolute fucking.
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Jessica Zweig
Can we actually talk about this? Because I was one of those, to be honest. Like, I mean I was running my agency at the time and we were doing multi seven figures in revenue and that, that model, the agency life, brutal hashtag, don't recommend.
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KK Hart
Yeah.
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Jessica Zweig
Like, it is so painful. It's one of the most brutal business models out there. And this is like back between like 2017 and 24. So pre AI right. So like we were like, you're doing everything. Everything. Like more clients I got, the more people I had to hire. And by the time like, like I doubled my business and I had to double my team and my payroll costs. Like all of it say that that's
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KK Hart
what no one thinks about.
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Jessica Zweig
Nobody thinks about like multi six figures a month just on people as like a small business. And that agency world, that economy is so mercurial and like budgets and it's a very like sensitive, sensitive space. And you are constantly having to prove your ROI and your value to your, to your clients as their partner. Anyway, profit margins were so thin and like I, I didn't pay myself for some of those months. Very common. It was, I know it. And I say that so openly, like, because I've had my clients now in the work that I do come to me and they're like so much shame around not paying for themselves. I'm like, sister, like this. If it was easy, everybody would do it, you know, and it's. I want to normalize that. But the profitability was like not there, you know, and we had enough to get acquired and I built the asset. I sold my life. Very smart. You know, the asset had so much equity in the brand and the client book and the team and the IP and the methodology. But now I'm at a stage in my third business. We're like, I don't give a flying fuck about Topper.
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KK Hart
Right.
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Jessica Zweig
It's, it's great to say, like I scaled a multi million dollar business in
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a few years, which I have.
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But like, how am I sleeping at night?
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KK Hart
Exactly. That's the freedom. That's the F word that everyone should care about.
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Jessica Zweig
Exactly.
- [29:17]
KK Hart
Yeah.
- [29:18]
Jessica Zweig
So what are certain things that women can do to tighten up on their net? Like, is there, are there like things you look at first?
- [29:25]
KK Hart
Lots. You already hit one, which is payroll, any fixed overhead. You know, I should caveat this. My background is actually in operational efficiency. So as A behaviorist. One of the things that I did for tech companies and big pharma and biotech was this thing called Six Sigma. Basically, it's the idea of 1% change for the better. It's very like Japanese kaizen way of thinking, but alongside that comes operational efficiency. That gets a very bad reputation with regards to private equity and how they operationalize businesses. But ultimately, the first thing we have to think about is every line item in the business should have a purpose.
- [30:01]
Jessica Zweig
Yes.
- [30:02]
KK Hart
And that's what most miss. It's so simple. It's like, not sexy. It's not getting clicks on the Internet. But it truly is the thing that I see that breaks most businesses.
- [30:11]
Jessica Zweig
It's.
- [30:12]
And it's hard sometimes to identify. Yeah, I had to go through that with my eight because we were a billable business. Right. And it's like, well, If I'm spending $75 an hour on my creative designer and we're getting a $10,000 a month retainer that I'm charging her, I'm inflating her hourly rate to. For the profitability. And it was like. And then I had this massive staff. I ended up doing a huge reorgan lego of half of my leadership team because I was like. Like, this is costing me money and then costing me more money.
- [30:41]
KK Hart
It was not sustainable.
- [30:41]
Jessica Zweig
It was not sustainable. So you look at people. What else do you look at?
- [30:44]
KK Hart
Yeah, I look at process. And so this is where kind of every business is different. But I think about this asset management approach to growth because a lot of times in a service business, you have one major service that's driving revenue, but actually we probably need several. Right. We need the low ticket and the high ticket or the upsell and the cross sell. And that's what most are missing. That's that second layer of internal growth where it's like, not only can we convert more, but like, what can we convert to too?
- [31:10]
Jessica Zweig
Yes, yes.
- [31:11]
KK Hart
So that's often a miss as well. The second, I would say, is this idea that the business they have today is the business they're going to have tomorrow. And like, wow, we have been through, like, so much in the last couple decades. This is my 24th year in business. I can't believe I've been doing it this long. And like I said, shift always happens. But the best we plan for that, we're proactive, we're strategic, we're intentional about those shifts in the business and those shifts in the personal life of the owner and founder, that's what's needed. So that we can kind of hit the market at the right time, grow at the right scale, and then do what we want at the end. That optionality is really the goal.
- [31:46]
Jessica Zweig
What do you think of AI right now and how it's creating more operational efficiency?
- [31:50]
KK Hart
Well, I was early adopter to AI.
- [31:52]
Jessica Zweig
Okay.
- [31:53]
KK Hart
As a behaviorist, that's actually a lot of what I did on the tech side. So a lot of B2B SaaS companies would bring me in. I would prompt. This is 15 years ago. Like, Google Translate was pretty much the only thing we had. It was if this, then that, if you remember that.
- [32:05]
Jessica Zweig
Yeah.
- [32:06]
KK Hart
And so we would use that. That skill kind of. I would say it now for evil, but now I see it used for good and for some darker stuff.
- [32:14]
Jessica Zweig
Right.
- [32:15]
KK Hart
And so I'm excited about it because it's a skill I've nurtured for years. Where I think it gets a bad reputation, is that humans aren't thoughtful about being humans anymore. We've kind of lost that. We've lost the importance on who am I? You know, what do I bring to the table that's unique and excellent? Because, you know, we're in this box that we have to be shoved into. And how do I grow my skill sets in my life? Instead of, I want passive income, I want to put my feet up. Bring me that money, honey. And so we've kind of lost our way.
- [32:42]
Jessica Zweig
I agree.
- [32:43]
KK Hart
So you enter the robots and it doesn't look good, right?
- [32:46]
Jessica Zweig
Absolutely. It's just like adding gas to the fire.
- [32:49]
KK Hart
Yeah. Where I see AI going really well is when we're operationalizing a business. So every time we acquire a business, this is what we do. Our last one was a skincare company, Ghost Democracy, and we were able to turn a profit in three months. That was wild. Under a million assets. We paid cash for it, made all our girl. No one is more shocked than me. I wish I could tell you that it was because I was so amazing. There were things I saw that I thought, okay, this is our 10th business. Nothing's gonna break us anymore. I've been work optional forever. Husbands work optional. We're good. Let's give this a go. And what I found was most people are running their business. The prior owners are running their business in a way that they would have never gotten there because they weren't willing to do the difficult things. They weren't willing to cut the staff. Kudos to you. They weren't willing to go, what is a must to have and what is a nice to have. And so we looked at those skus. And we're like, there's too many. Many. There are too many options. We need to drill it down. We need to make each bottle better. Making bottles better. And then that's where we found all of our success. I didn't expect it to happen that quickly, but now we have a greater impact with what we do with that business. We can give away a lot of money to people that we believe are really kind of a need. And we were having so much fun, Jess.
- [34:00]
Jessica Zweig
Yeah. That's the whole fucking point. That's my word for the year.
- [34:04]
KK Hart
That's the joy.
- [34:05]
Jessica Zweig
It's truly, it's. And the more fun. I mean, it's kind of like chicken egg. But like, like, if you can tap into fun as a. As a frequency, as a practice, for sure it raises your vibration, it makes you more magnetic, it makes things feel more effortless. And obviously it's a lot easier to feel fun when you're like, rolling in cash.
- [34:20]
KK Hart
I mean, everyone says that. But you know what's funny? I felt the same way before. I was a hot mess in my personal life. But business, you couldn't tell me nothing, honey. Business and money was a skill set. And I found joy in my work always. I almost feel like there's something that's missing in the world today about that. Where hard work is considered something to frown upon. Because everything needs to be passive and easy. Right? Right. It's so wild to me because it's not how I got here. I'm never going to forget how I got here. I will get off this soapbox in a minute. Don't get off this.
- [34:46]
Jessica Zweig
I'm going to jump on that soapbox
- [34:47]
KK Hart
with you in a minute. I'm pulling you up. And I think what most women especially miss is not the money that I earned, it's the skill that I grew.
- [34:55]
Jessica Zweig
Thank you.
- [34:56]
KK Hart
Do you.
- [34:56]
Jessica Zweig
I do. I. This is like a chills. I do too. I mean, I named my show the Spiritual Hustler. The word hustler is still in the title, of course. Like, I. I feel we have over indexed on demonizing this for women.
- [35:10]
KK Hart
Yeah. All of a sudden it's not good. You have to go all the way to the other side.
- [35:12]
Jessica Zweig
The pendulum has swung too far. We want our slow mornings, our mashas, like just vibes, feminine flow, passive income, have it all.
- [35:20]
Be easy.
- [35:20]
I'm here for those things.
- [35:21]
KK Hart
Why?
- [35:21]
Jessica Zweig
That's a core part of my message. But at some point or another, you have to like, get up off of your ass and do the work.
- [35:28]
KK Hart
Hell, yes.
- [35:29]
Jessica Zweig
And it feels amazing to do the work, not because of the reward and the cash and the bank, but because of the woman that you find yourself to be in that process. And there is no better experience in life than fully knowing your own power and who you are and what you're capable of and how resilient and magnificent and what a creator you are. I mean, that is the gift of.
- [35:48]
KK Hart
That is your full potential. Right. Living your full potential is the goal for most people. They don't have the words, they don't have the thought process or the skill to get there yet. Or yet. But I believe there's something I've learned even just becoming a mom recently, which is to hold two truths. And it's like, you can do both.
- [36:05]
Jessica Zweig
You can do both.
- [36:06]
KK Hart
You can grow your skill sets and your bottom line. Right. You can love the bag and you can still enjoy those slow mornings. And I think we need to lean into that more. In a world that's making us more polarized, more separated, we are actually forgetting what really matters.
- [36:21]
Jessica Zweig
I could not agree more. And I mean, I'm part of, like, you know, my generation. I'm 44. We're the same.
- [36:26]
KK Hart
Yeah. It was lineage. Yep.
- [36:27]
Jessica Zweig
You know, there was this season, and I remember it was the season that I. I was starting my agency and, like, Sophia Amoruso launched Girlboss. And like, I've talked about this on Social. Like, Beyonce was slay all day. I'm like, hustle culture, go crush it. Gary Vee came out like. And I remember feeling so inspired by those messages because it awakened something in me that showed me my own potential and that it could be realized. And then, you know, due to a lot of the programming, of course, and the fact that we are not designed to work like machines, not even men. This isn't about men. Or it's the system. We all fucking burnt out and we're like four hour work weeks. I don't ever want to work that hard. I'm allergic to Hustle. And now there's this whole new conversation that's being celebrated.
- [37:12]
KK Hart
It's still the wrong conversation.
- [37:14]
Jessica Zweig
It's still the wrong conversation. And marketed as possible.
- [37:16]
KK Hart
That's right.
- [37:17]
Jessica Zweig
Which it's not.
- [37:18]
KK Hart
It's not like it's possible to love your life and love how you got there. I think that's the goal most women want.
- [37:25]
Jessica Zweig
Totally.
- [37:25]
KK Hart
Right? Yes. Where we miss it is that it has to look a certain way. It has to have a certain number of zeros and commas and that we have to look so glamorous. Doing it. Let me tell you what I did not look in the first 10 years of my career, my head was down.
- [37:38]
Jessica Zweig
Right.
- [37:38]
KK Hart
I was working. I was thinking about my future in a way that was unglamorous and unsexy. I was putting in the dividends that I now get. Right. I have 15 to 20 different assets and income streams that come to me, most of which are uncorrelated. I learned how to manage those because that's what I did in my free time, not just getting my hair and nails done.
- [37:57]
Jessica Zweig
And your response? No, it's. It's so good. KK I'm so glad this conversation went there. I do, I do want to ask you because I have some women in my community who are like on the younger side and they're like willing to do the work and they're willing to hustle love, which I love. There's women in my community, like I have that spectrum. I think it's like a pendulum. Right. So I've been talking about and I actually got a question the other day from my community and it just feels like relevant here. And she was like, like she's a CEO of her own company.
- [38:26]
KK Hart
Okay.
- [38:26]
Jessica Zweig
She is third an owner. She's got a board, you know, a handful of investors. They're all men and Hushi's and she's this bright, beautiful, young, fiercely intelligent, hard working badass. But she has this story against herself that she's young, she's often the only woman in the room. Yeah. Her, her associates, compadres are telling her you have to earn it. She is responsible for the P L because she's the CEO. She won't hire herself an assistant. She feels like she has to wear every single hat to like prove herself because her gender and her age. And I gave her a lot of feedback on that. But I'm interested to hear what you would say to her, what you would say to that woman that regardless of age is just feeling like, well, I do have to work that hard and I do have to kill myself in
- [39:20]
order for it to.
- [39:21]
That work matters. I love what you just said. It's so invaluable to do that work. But is there an inflection point or is there a choice point that you would guide someone who's facing that sort of self talk?
- [39:35]
KK Hart
Yeah. Certainly have been there.
- [39:37]
Jessica Zweig
Yeah.
- [39:37]
KK Hart
You know, it's interesting, something that you and I vibed on the moment we met was this idea of having a more masculine break brain. And I totally get that. And what you've shared with me, I Felt like was the first 10 years of my career. What I think I learned, and I give all credit to my mom on this, is that I leaned into that as a blessing and not a burden. There's a season and a reason for everything. Maybe that's just the season for striving.
- [39:59]
Jessica Zweig
Yes.
- [40:00]
KK Hart
Right. There's a season for that. You don't get here without working your way. Right. Then there's a season for, you know, chill vibes in and kick in it. There's a season for that. There's a season for growing your family. There's a season for changing your lifestyle. And I think what we've missed, again, is that there's multiple truths here, and they can be true at different times, different reasons and seasons. So that's one I would say. The second thing that I often think about, boy, I mean, this is. This is hard to say, but what a great time to get your assets together. Okay. Because that board makes me nervous. I meet a lot of women like this, Jess, and I try to either partner with them, I try to acquire, I try to. To invest. And these ladies are not being advised. Well, they're stuck in a golden handcuff.
- [40:45]
Jessica Zweig
Yes.
- [40:46]
KK Hart
And then they're unable to do what they need. You know, there's three other ways to grow, okay. Once you take on investors, number four is the only one that fucking matters.
- [40:53]
Jessica Zweig
Amen.
- [40:53]
KK Hart
And so I've been constantly at the bargaining table, and these keep falling through. And the hardest part is that the founder really needed to get their assets together in other ways. Maybe outside of the business. Personal, really kind of getting their financial, you know, house in order and then also thinking about alternate ways to restructure and change the way they do life in and out of the business.
- [41:18]
Jessica Zweig
So good.
- [41:19]
KK Hart
It's so hard to say.
- [41:20]
Jessica Zweig
It's hard to say, but it's so true.
- [41:22]
KK Hart
I see this more than anything right now. Maybe because I'm just. I'm very specifically trying to do something here. I was stealth for most of the last couple of years. I never shared, never did anything. And while that felt good at the time and it gave me a chance to really enjoy this change of life that I had. The only reason I came back out to share share was one, I think when I heard other people share their numbers men, I realized I'd done more than them. I deployed 5 million. $5 million in a year. Most venture capitalists have done that. The big firm. So I realized, okay, hold on. First of all, there's not a lot of people who look like me. Who act like me, right? Who have that underrepresented background. And if you can see her, you can be her. So I had to come out and share. I had to come out and share because it didn't look glamorous. I don't kind of make it look better than it is. So I tell you all the mess, right? And I felt like women KE whispering to me. I needed to know this. I needed to hear it from you. I needed it to be an average everyday girl. You didn't have to be a glamazon. And so I think that's the thing I often see as the goal now is to come out and be really bullish about who can I bring up with me on this ride? And sadly, this is what I'm running into the most. Women who've been invested on Shark Tank. Hate to say it, but it's true. Many times they were having predatory relationships with their investors. Women who took on capital and it's not going well. They're that zombie style of company where they can't exit, but they also can't kind of wind down the business. So they're in this weird gray area. And I'm stepping in, you know, helping in any way that I can, but not able to get that true transition that they need and that I'm willing to give. And it's driving me crazy.
- [42:59]
Jessica Zweig
Thank you for being here, standing in the light, sharing your voice, being on the microphone, going on stages. Can I just share something with you that I, I just remembered I was young, young, late twenties, running my first business and I was raising money. We had done a friends and family round. We had scaled it, gotten off the ground. This was my very first business. Kk. I knew nothing about nothing. My school of hard knocks. Scaled it, failed it. Then I started a new one, Scaled it, sold it. Now I'm scaling and sustaining. That's my, my trajectory. But my scale fail. We tried to raise money towards the end and we did what every naive young founder does. We had, we had a business partner. There were two of us, 50, 50 from the get. We were kids and we were different people. And it, that's a whole other story. But we didn't know well enough to sort of divide and conquer. Right. We both went out on the road show to raise money. Wow. And the business suffered. There was nobody operating it. We were raising money as a full time job.
- [43:55]
KK Hart
Absolutely.
- [43:56]
Jessica Zweig
And we were in Chicago. We were one. We were the first and only at the time, female owned business inside of this, this tech startup, incubator called 1871. We were like the found with founding business inside of their like permanent office space. It was a big moment for Chicago like this. This startup ecosystem was starting to really burgeon. We're the only female owned business in the space. And we started networking within because we were going to go after a series A. And pretty much everyone that we pitched to, well, everyone we pitched to was male. Of course no one got us. And there were some predatorial people. Majority of them were. And it like hurts my heart to like think about that as a microcosm of the macrocosm of what's just real and still happening. Which is why women like you can't go anywhere. Like your voice has to be louder.
- [45:00]
KK Hart
Thank you. I'm trying, you know, I'm serious. You're talking about this. There's some two statistics I think women focus way too much on and they're missing the plot. Okay. The first is that less than 2% of women raise venture capital. While I celebrate that, and it's always great when you do if you can make it work, it's not always on the best terms. There are alternative funding measures that most women aren't even thinking about. When I come to someone with the idea of a convertible note or giving a partnership buyout where we do a joint venture, they look at me like a deer in headlights. I've never heard of that before. I don't need to take equity in your company all the time. In fact, most times it doesn't make sense. So that's one thing. The second thing that I think is really unique is this idea of the 2% of women who make a million dollars in a year. And we're reaching for that fucking goal too. But most women aren't thinking about what they're keeping after what they make. Those two statistics keep me up at night, right? Because I keep thinking women have to know there is better. If you're making a million dollars a year and you're spending 1.3 million to make that million, it doesn't make any sense. You have a very expensive hobby, right?
- [46:06]
Jessica Zweig
Correct.
- [46:06]
KK Hart
So this is where I think we have to think very differently about how we grow the thoughtfulness around cash flow. 2.0 came from these 300 million in exits where I was on either side. And I kept looking at what was going on, financial and not financial. And I realized that there is an intricate, intricate balance between your personal and professional development. All of which leads to a greater, you know, asset bottom line or less. So those are those two statistics I Think about a lot. It's like women are driving for this 2% inventure, and the number keeps dropping every year, and they're beating their drum. And I'm like, hey, girl, go fund yourself. Find a way to do it.
- [46:39]
Jessica Zweig
Fund yourself.
- [46:40]
KK Hart
Go fund yourself.
- [46:41]
Jessica Zweig
Right?
- [46:42]
KK Hart
And then the second piece of that is the goal can always be a million. My first year in business, it was like 700,000, but I kept all, almost all of it.
- [46:50]
Jessica Zweig
So you're richer than the woman that's making 4 million and has zero profit?
- [46:56]
KK Hart
That we don't celebrate. That we don't celebrate. We're all about the headline and the top line number. And it's a vanity metric that we're holding ourselves to that we don't fully understand. And so part of getting your assets together is also just being more literate financially. I think many women think because I own a skincare company, I spend a lot of time, like, researching skincare. That was 15 years ago. I spent all my time researching the economy. Me, stocks, I trade options, we buy precious metals. We do many things to grow our wealth. I run this modern family office. We've got about 30 million in assets now.
- [47:26]
Jessica Zweig
Amazing.
- [47:26]
KK Hart
But I piece all that together with my skill, with fractional support, my husband, the two adopted kids, of course, and caramel. But it's very important that they understand that the only way you can do that is you've got to earn the fucking money first. Right? There's gotta be money to manage. And so I want them to know that. I want women to know that there are other ways to value and view your success besides what, you know, the Internet is telling you and what legacy
- [47:51]
Jessica Zweig
media is telling you, Dude, I'm like, so mind blown. This is so good. So when I say this all the time on this podcast, this is the mantra of the show. This is on the website for the Spiritual Hustler podcast page on Jessica's wag.com I say when women have money, women have power, and when women have both, this world is a better place. Yeah. This world just is. Not because men are bad, but because we have oppressed and deleted the powers of the feminine heart.
- [48:18]
Yeah.
- [48:19]
And if you are a woman in your heart, if you have status, money, power, you're going to wield that money and influence in a way that does good.
- [48:27]
So true for the world.
- [48:29]
So when you close your eyes, KK, and you see, like in 10 years from now, and this, like, I think, very achievable because of women like you, and I would like to believe because of Women like me, we have empowered this new generation or the current generation to rise. Rise up as feminine leaders who are in their true wealth. Not just wealth on Instagram, but true wealth. What kind of world do you see that being?
- [48:53]
KK Hart
Oh, gosh. Well, I'm raising one with my generation Alpha daughter. And when I close my eyes, the first thing I think is that she's not focused on Sephora versus Ulta. She's thinking, buy a business or build it.
- [49:04]
Jessica Zweig
Let's go.
- [49:05]
KK Hart
I mean, that's the goal. What makes me feel very encouraged about that. I've only had them for about three years. That was a conversation I overheard the other. It was a day off of school. We were going for a walk in nature, and I hear my kids squabbling. She's 11, he's 10. They lived in abject poverty before me. I don't know if I told you this. Thirteen homes.
- [49:23]
Jessica Zweig
No, I did not know that.
- [49:24]
KK Hart
Thirteen homes by the age of six and eight. That fucks with a person. Okay? Talk about trauma. No doubt about nervous system regulation issues. They have it, however. We're on this walk and I hear them squabbling. So I'm in mom mode, and I turn around and I realize I'm hearing something that seems a little different than a sibling squabble wobble. They're having a full conversation about their generational wealth, and she's yelling at her brother, we need to consider buying a business because I need to get my assets together. And I realized, Jess, I am not just seeing that world. I'm creating it. I'm planting seeds for it now. It's exciting.
- [49:59]
Jessica Zweig
I mean, exciting is an understatement. It's a fucking gift to humanity.
- [50:03]
KK Hart
It really is.
- [50:04]
Jessica Zweig
It is. I love. And. And you've had your children for how many years?
- [50:07]
KK Hart
Three years.
- [50:07]
Jessica Zweig
About three years. And look at the influence. I mean, obviously, you're mothering them. And what a beautiful thing these were. I'm assuming 13 foster homes.
- [50:14]
KK Hart
Thirteen foster homes, most of which were family. That's where the most torture and abuse happened. So, like, imagine what that does to your psyche. Of course.
- [50:22]
Jessica Zweig
It's such a young, formative age.
- [50:24]
KK Hart
All the brain development. I'm a behavioral scientist. All the brain development was at a time that was just super tragic. Plus, their parents were drug addicted. So it was just like a constant battle between biological issues and then interpersonal issues. And then I think about what three years has done. I was a volunteer when I met them, and we pulled them out of foster care. Nine months, no pun intended. After the day I met them only on accident because this brave little girl looked me in the face on my second visit with her as a CASA volunteer, which is like, you take them out into the community. And she looked me in my face and she was bold as hell and said, you should be my mom. And I could not look away at that issue anymore. Jess. From that moment on, I went from like, pinky promise, we'll never have kids with my husband to could we consider this and consider it part of, like, our long term strategy?
- [51:10]
Jessica Zweig
Wow.
- [51:10]
KK Hart
So that's how we got here. So when I think about what three years can do to a developing brain, I know also as a behavioral scientist, that's true for all of us. Our brains are developing until the day we die. So if these children could go from abject poverty, my daughter would tell you, she's like, I basically come from nothing to now being business owners. Every night we talk about our highlights and hard spots of the day. And so oftentimes it's business related for me. And they're hearing my struggles. They're also hearing all of the good things happening. Two nights ago, we evaluated a business together as a family. We didn't just go through P. Ls, we tried the business. We talked about competitors. Kids are at the table for this. Like, they are. My son went and got the competitor out of our pantry. Looked at the two bottle differences with CPG company and he's like, mommy, I think there's something here. And all I kept thinking looking at my husband was like, can you believe this is the life we get to live? You know, people hear family office and they think, who's your daddy? You know, they're like, okay, so who's, who's making the money? And I'm proud to say, like, I'm the matriarch. I made the first 10 million of that on my own. How we've tripled it is leaning into this idea of real impact. And that for me is what I call generational growth. And watching these kids grow alongside me, I sometimes think, who adopted who?
- [52:21]
Jessica Zweig
You know, that I'm so.
- [52:24]
I am so happy I asked that question. Yeah. You are a light work, your sister. I really do the goddess's work. And that is such a beautiful. I mean, the, the statement you made about how our brains are never stop, always in a formative phase. It's never too late.
- [52:41]
KK Hart
Yeah.
- [52:42]
Jessica Zweig
If your children, and yes, they're young, but have. Could come from that, that level of trauma and circumstance to be taking a walk couple years later, talking about building their Own businesses.
- [52:53]
KK Hart
Yeah.
- [52:54]
Jessica Zweig
My friends, my sisters listening right now. Now it's your time. It's your time.
- [52:58]
KK Hart
Yeah. It's limits.
- [53:01]
Jessica Zweig
You can do anything you put your mind to. Okay, I have a few more questions for you. Yeah. One is just out of my own curiosity. You, I mean, girlfriend, you are a mom. You are traveling the country doing like the speaking world. You have 10 businesses. You venture, strategic advisers, mentoring. I think I heard you on the panel that we were on together that you, you like have one person who works for you.
- [53:25]
KK Hart
Yeah. One per business.
- [53:27]
Jessica Zweig
One per business.
- [53:28]
KK Hart
Yeah. So what we do is we create. Operational efficiency is just the thing that is nearest and dearest to my heart. My kids would tell you productivity and utility are the things that I feel are my love languages. So what I found is, you know, oftentimes the bottom line benefit of more people is not there. And because I know how to use people, places, process things better than most. What I've found is we need an owner for each business. Now we own the asset, but if I can have one Dr. Manager for each business and they report up to me that I can actually put my prowess into every single business that I own. I know that's an alternate view, but I like rolling up my sleeves. I'm proudly hands on. I would tell you most clients that work with me in an advisory or mentorship capacity, they love that I'm still like driving the ship every day. I know what's relevant, I know what's real. I can sniff bullshit a mile away because I'm still in it. And that's actually what gets me excited about life. I have a need to move money for years.
- [54:22]
Jessica Zweig
Yeah.
- [54:23]
KK Hart
But I love having that viewpoint. It's not just lean and efficient. Obviously it's great for the bottom line. But we're also growing a new category of entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur of sorts.
- [54:33]
Jessica Zweig
Yes.
- [54:33]
KK Hart
So we're taking people with underrepresented backgrounds and we're teaching them how to be entrepreneurs, but giving them stability and the safety net to do so.
- [54:40]
Jessica Zweig
It's incredible. Do you have an assistant? Do you have someone who supports just you?
- [54:44]
KK Hart
Each business does it on its own. I don't need an assistant. I mean, I use AI Jesse. Yeah, that's what I was saying. You can schedule emails and all that stuff. I'm never too Hollywood to do certain things and I think it keeps me grounded. I'm not against it. I've had it. I actually had an amazing assistant. Was 15 years older than me.
- [55:01]
Jessica Zweig
Wow.
- [55:01]
KK Hart
And I did amazing, right?
- [55:04]
Jessica Zweig
Yes.
- [55:04]
KK Hart
There was something there. She Rooted me every day. She actually got me a. I still have it. A piggy bank. I gave it to my daughter that says there's no way I'm born to just pay bills and die. Because she would like, really like amp up my skills. Right. She would be like, no, girl, you're meant to do this. This is how it goes. Like, she, she was more like a cheerleader than an assistant.
- [55:23]
Jessica Zweig
As they should be. They're your strategic partners.
- [55:25]
KK Hart
Truly.
- [55:26]
Jessica Zweig
I actually, this is a sidebar, but for years my assistants were always like 22, 23, 24. Like I went through that first stage job resume builder. That didn't work out because it's hard. And that role is, is a big role.
- [55:43]
KK Hart
It is.
- [55:43]
Jessica Zweig
And a few years ago I hired a woman that was 20 years my senior, dedicated her entire life to executive administration and was proud of it.
- [55:54]
See?
- [55:54]
And she taught me what it really is to be supported. Not just like, I'll get your coffee.
- [56:01]
KK Hart
Tasks.
- [56:02]
Jessica Zweig
Not just tasks. Someone who believes in your vision.
- [56:05]
That's right.
- [56:06]
And is going to protect that vision just as much as anyone will. Who is your strategic partner.
- [56:12]
KK Hart
That's right.
- [56:12]
Jessica Zweig
And it like changed my entire life. It didn't change my entire, entire view of myself as a CEO. It was like deep, deep identity stuff.
- [56:21]
KK Hart
That came out intrapreneur.
- [56:22]
Jessica Zweig
Yes, it is beautiful. And so I just love that you have this spirit of an entrepreneur at the stage that you're at. And I feel like we are kindred, spiritual on so many levels and that's definitely one of them. It's like, I love to work. I love getting my hands dirty and the exquisite nature of like blood, sweat and tears. And obviously, I mean, I've been through my burnout. I'm sure you've had your bottoms too. You. We talked about that and never at the cost of myself the same way. But it's like I ran the half marathon when I was in my 20s. I'm not a runner, so I was like, I'm good after that.
- [57:02]
KK Hart
I'm not going to be the full.
- [57:03]
Jessica Zweig
But I trained all summer for that. And I'll the best. I mean, months of training, hour long race, cross that finish line and that like 2 point point 2 second moment where you like hit the line. It was transcendent. I bet it's transcendent. I bet that feeling is like the gold of this. This work called entrepreneurship.
- [57:27]
KK Hart
That's right. It's discipline.
- [57:28]
Jessica Zweig
It's discipline.
- [57:29]
KK Hart
I think that's what's been lacking this last. I mean, I hate to rag on The Female Founder era. But this whole era, I'm with you. It's the opposite of that. But I was grown up into a discipline environment. I actually started as a competitive gymnast. So I did that for 15 years. And so what I learned was the use of my skills over a very disciplined amount of time meant that I could grow to a very large degree. And that's what I did. Fifteen years of that is actually quite brutal. And what I loved about it is that it prepared me for business.
- [58:03]
Jessica Zweig
Yes, girl. I was an actress. I not an athlete. Quit the running. I went down the actress game. Audition rejection, rejection rejected 99 point percent of the time than you get. And that, that level of discipline, like I actually just talked about that a couple weeks ago on Social. Like I'm writing my third book right now and I have to write it on the weekends, Saturday, Sundays. Cause I don't have the time. I'm taking a writer. All radical. I know. And it's like, it's like it's a sunny day. Yeah. I'm inside on a weekend and I'm writing. And I, I closed my laptop at the end of one of those days and I did go for a walk at the end of the day. It was like four o'. Clock. And there was this part of me that felt so proud. See, like I could cry later.
- [58:49]
KK Hart
I knew you weren't gonna say tired, sure. No, but proud. You did something.
- [58:53]
Jessica Zweig
I did something. Yeah. I am devoted to my craft. And that devotion requires discipline.
- [58:58]
KK Hart
That's beautiful.
- [58:59]
Jessica Zweig
And in a couple months, year, that book is going to be in the market and it's going to feel like that finish line at the end of that marathon or when you won your gymnastic competitions. It's like you don't get the goal unless you're willing to do the work. Yeah. And when these women hold that book in their hand, I'm going to remember those afternoons because I did it for them as much as I did it for me. And there's nothing more beautiful than giving up a little bit of like instant gratification for the Long Jurassic.
- [59:28]
KK Hart
Oh, I see that so clearly.
- [59:30]
Jessica Zweig
Yeah.
- [59:30]
KK Hart
And I couldn't agree more. And I think that's the story I want to hear more of.
- [59:35]
Jessica Zweig
Me too.
- [59:36]
KK Hart
You know, that's the world I want to live in where we realize that for a season or a reason, it's okay to focus on something that gives us a longer term gain than a quick dopamine hit.
- [59:47]
Jessica Zweig
We're counterculture, creating a new narrative.
- [59:49]
That is the real narrative that I Think got us all here in the first place. And I'm so. I'm so honored to know you.
- [59:55]
KK Hart
Me too.
- [59:56]
Jessica Zweig
Like, girl, it's like a soul recognition.
- [59:59]
KK Hart
Do you remember what I said to you when you first walked up and I said, this is gonna sound weird, but I feel like I'm looking at me.
- [60:05]
Jessica Zweig
I do remember you said that.
- [60:07]
KK Hart
It was so clear to me.
- [60:09]
Jessica Zweig
I totally do.
- [60:10]
KK Hart
I speak all the time, so it was a day I didn't have to speak. And I just remember standing there going. It's like she's me in the most empowering way.
- [60:19]
Jessica Zweig
Yes. That's how I felt when I. When you saw me.
- [60:21]
KK Hart
Yeah.
- [60:22]
Jessica Zweig
And I saw my reflection in you. You. And I felt the truth in that. Thank you for saying that. For you to see you and me is, like, such a compliment.
- [60:30]
KK Hart
Yeah. We rock.
- [60:31]
Jessica Zweig
We definitely rock. KK Heart. I have a few final, quick, final questions for you.
- [60:39]
KK Hart
Okay.
- [60:39]
Jessica Zweig
Do you have a favorite? We have, like a spiritual Hustler bookshelf. I always like to. I'm a big reader. Do you have a favorite business book and a favorite spiritual book?
- [60:48]
KK Hart
Favorite business book is probably great by choice. A guy named Jim Collins, he really kind of psychoanalyze before it was popular, the idea of who are the winners in the business game? Southwest Airlines is one of them. And I remembered studying that very early in my behavioral science career and really love it.
- [61:04]
Jessica Zweig
That's an amazing book. Did he write good to great?
- [61:06]
KK Hart
Yes.
- [61:06]
Jessica Zweig
Yeah.
- [61:06]
KK Hart
I think Great White Choice was right after that.
- [61:08]
Jessica Zweig
Was right after that. I haven't read that one.
- [61:10]
KK Hart
So good.
- [61:10]
Jessica Zweig
Okay.
- [61:11]
KK Hart
Greatness is created. We all know that.
- [61:13]
Jessica Zweig
Absolutely.
- [61:14]
KK Hart
Yeah. Choice and then spiritual. The body keeps. The score keeps coming back.
- [61:19]
Jessica Zweig
We were just talking about that.
- [61:20]
KK Hart
Right. I not only read it as a behavioral scientist many years years ago, I reread it as a mom through adoption. And let me tell you, it is not just stimulating. It has proven every single thing in that book to be true through my lived experience. Even in seasons, this is hard to share. So 30 days before my kids went into foster care, it was yesterday. When I tell you, Jess, you could feel it in their bodies and the way they cling to me before I leave, in the way they talk. And for the first time, this is year three, four of being their CASA volunteer. But three as being mom, it hit differently. And what had occurred to me was some of the things that may be considered kind of like cheeky little annoyances I needed to treat differently based on their body issues. And so they now express love in, like, the deepest way during the season. And I have to realize that that is countercultural to what's going on in their body. Their body is remembering when cops came, left, came back, grabbed them, put them in stranger home. And what I'm learning to lean into is that not only is the body keeping the score, but there's truly a timeline to this. So I can be better prepared every year.
- [62:30]
Jessica Zweig
Wow.
- [62:31]
KK Hart
That's a long answer. Wow.
- [62:32]
Jessica Zweig
It's a beautiful answer. Thank you for sharing that. I feel like you need to write a book.
- [62:37]
KK Hart
Oh, gosh, Ito. I've been told that a lot.
- [62:39]
Jessica Zweig
You really do. I would read that book front to cover.
- [62:43]
KK Hart
I wrote the Cashbow 2.0 manuals. 500 pages, but it's like very, very dry. It's a textbook. So it's a reference guide for these different versions of growth. I don't know. I've never thought of myself as an
- [62:55]
Jessica Zweig
offer is your own story. You could hire a ghostwriter. Seriously, I would. I think a lot of people would want to read that. Okay, I'm woo. So we're gonna have some woo questions now. Do you have a relationship with a higher being?
- [63:11]
Higher power?
- [63:12]
KK Hart
Yeah.
- [63:12]
Jessica Zweig
Deity, goddess, Angel.
- [63:13]
KK Hart
Yeah. Firm advocate for God in Jesus Christ. They have basically created the life that I have. And I believe every step of the way God was with me. And so even when it didn't feel good, I can look back and say, wow, there was purpose to my pain because I can see where God was with me. And I can tell you there are dreams where I feel like I manifested my husband. There are moments when I feel like my children were born inside of me, even though they're adopted. And all of that comes from my faith.
- [63:39]
Jessica Zweig
Beautiful. Wow. Thank you for sharing that.
- [63:42]
Yeah.
- [63:42]
Okay. I talk a lot about extraterrestrials in my books and my platform. Do believe in them.
- [63:48]
KK Hart
My husband and I totally do.
- [63:50]
Jessica Zweig
You do? I was so excited to ask you this.
- [63:52]
KK Hart
Yeah. In fact, just last night. This is so random. His birthday's coming up and he's like, babe, I think aliens are coming for my birthday. It's awesome. You know, he's like, let's have a party. I love your such a quirk.
- [64:03]
Jessica Zweig
I love him. You're obsessed with your husband. That's amazing. Amazing answer. I mean, it's not like spiritual woo. It's science.
- [64:11]
KK Hart
No, it's science. I was just going to say it may shock people. He's actually an engineer. He's a very science driven man. And what he's done is all the research around. Around, like what's going on in our bodies. This concept around the body, electric and the, you know, energy fields, all that good stuff. And then also extraterrestrials. And both are true. I truly believe that.
- [64:30]
Jessica Zweig
I know. I mean, I know it to be true.
- [64:31]
Yeah.
- [64:31]
To hear that. It's a whole podcast.
- [64:33]
KK Hart
Yeah.
- [64:34]
Jessica Zweig
Okay. Are you familiar with the term the new Earth? The new Earth as a concept. So the new Earth is in how I define it. And I wrote about this in my book. To is a reality. It's not a dream, it's not a place out there, but a reality that is created through the heart.
- [64:55]
KK Hart
Ooh.
- [64:56]
Jessica Zweig
And when we do this as a collective society of humanity, we create a world that is rooted in love. Abundance for all.
- [65:08]
KK Hart
Yeah.
- [65:08]
Jessica Zweig
Safety for all. Peace on planet Earth, harmony with the natural world, joy as a baseline. Like, that's the new Earth. That is a total possibility.
- [65:24]
KK Hart
I believe in that. Fully didn't know there was a name for it. I believe that.
- [65:28]
Jessica Zweig
Me too.
- [65:29]
KK Hart
Yeah.
- [65:30]
Jessica Zweig
I believe we live in it. Yeah. So the last question I ask every guest is, what does it mean to you to be a co.
- [65:36]
Creator.
- [65:37]
Creator of the new Earth right now?
- [65:39]
KK Hart
I think it means responsibility.
- [65:41]
Jessica Zweig
Yes.
- [65:42]
KK Hart
I think it means that. I think what most people would think at this stage of my life and stage of my growth, I could just sit back and put my feet up and actually, I give so much credit to my husband because in that moment where we had the decision to make about becoming parents and growing in this way and growing our wealth alongside our family, he leaned all the way in and said, this is what we are meant to do. We are meant to be the change that we wish to see in life, the world. So I proudly roll up my sleeves for all of it. And I. I truly believe that if every single one of us did that, we'd be sitting in such a different world.
- [66:17]
Jessica Zweig
And we're here to create that, to co create that together. And I love that I'm on the planet at the same time as you too, and that we get to do this work together. I love you. You're such a gift. Thank you for coming on my show today.
- [66:27]
KK Hart
Anytime, girl. When Rebecca says come, I come.
- [66:30]
Jessica Zweig
Honey, this first of many, we're going to weave in many, many ways in life. I can feel it. Thank you so much for blessing my audience with your brilliance.
- [66:38]
KK Hart
It's my pleasure.
- [66:39]
Jessica Zweig
Seriously, girl, I just bow down to you, and this was just the most amazing way to wrap this whole day up for me. And I just want to thank you
- [66:46]
KK Hart
again for I'm an open book. I think a lot of women, sometimes when they hear my story, they wonder if they could ask more questions. Please do. I'm here on this earth to represent something. But I'm also here on this earth to open my mouth and answer the questions.
- [66:58]
Jessica Zweig
Let's go. We'll leave link in the show notes for all the things. Go check out KK Heart. I know that they're going to follow you on this journey that is just so incredibly important.
- [67:07]
KK Hart
So much love for you.
- [67:08]
Jessica Zweig
Ah, love you more.