Gina Knox On How To Successfully Ride The Emotional Highs & Lows Of Being An Entrepreneur

An Interview With Jake Frankel

You need to have a way that you celebrate the wins. You want to anchor yourself and have these to lean into when there are those low moments.

Being a founder, entrepreneur, or a business owner can have many exciting and thrilling moments. But it is also punctuated with periods of doubt, slump, and anxiety. So how does one successfully and healthily ride the highs and lows of Entrepreneurship? In this series, called “How To Successfully Ride The Emotional Highs & Lows Of Being An Entrepreneur” we are talking to successful entrepreneurs who can share stories from their experiences. I had the pleasure of interviewing Gina Knox.

Gina Knox is a financial coach for entrepreneurs with variable income. She teaches entrepreneurs how to save $100k with her program 6 Figure Saver, then she helps her clients create a 7 figure wealth portfolio with her mastermind 7 Figure Wealth. Over her career as a coach Gina has helped her clients save $4,749,071.90! Gina is a Mexican Mom, an art school grad, a designer, a hobby potter, a world traveler, and a money nerd.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

When I got started, I was interested in sharing the wealth of knowledge that my dad shared with me as a kid around finances and wealth. I realized that I was not as lucky as others, so I really wanted to bring this to other women so that they could have the opportunity at wealth that I was receiving. I began my business around the COVID times and I was so worried that diving in during this time would be a mistake, but it ended up being a time people really needed a financial coach.

What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?

I really was wanting to help women bridge the gap in financial literacy. A lot of women do not know that wealth can be attainable to them, they just need the education around this. This became my mission when I realized this. I grew up in a family where my dad taught me a lot about money and wealth and I wanted this knowledge and lack of taboo of talking about money to exist for everyone, especially entrepreneurial women. I want people to see that there truly is a passive income and learn the wealth secrets that feel like are only for those that are already wealthy.

In your opinion, were you a natural born entrepreneur or did you develop that aptitude later on? Can you explain what you mean?

I think I was a natural entrepreneur. I was always creative, hard working and wanted to do things differently. I went to art school even, and really just had that natural talent for creativity and business.

Was there somebody in your life who inspired or helped you to start your journey with your business? Can you share a story with us?

I have mentioned my father so many times, but I really would not be able to build this business without his knowledge and help. He really drove home in my mind that finances were something you just needed to learn as a skill and that was accessible in many ways to a lot of us. We just had a lack of access to knowledge.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

I think that my company stands out because I am teaching a sense of unbothered energy around money. A lot of financial coaches are teaching budgeting skills which is great for them, but I want to go beyond that. I want to heal your money traumas with you. I want to help you feel that unbothered energy around money and see it as a tool in your life instead of a source of shame. My clients always joke that I need merch with my phrases like, “Unbothered”, “Debt is morally neutral”. I want my clients to take these ideas on.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

The character traits that have brought me to success are my honesty, my empathy, and my creativity.

Honesty: With my honesty, my clients know that I will be honest with them and share my expertise with them. They also know that I will be honest and encourage them to trust themselves.

Empathy: My clients bring so much to our coaching calls and I am not phased. I am compassionate and I will listen and we will support each other and come together in this.

Creativity: My creativity keeps my design eye sharp and keeps me trying new things that allow me to stand out in my industry.

Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?

I think advice received would be hearing about budgeting. I really am not into the idea of budgeting and I am glad that this is something that I do not stress about much now, even though this is advice that you always hear.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them create a work culture in which employees thrive and do not “burn out” or get overwhelmed?

I would recommend of course that you have an investment portfolio building. This just helps so much in relieving pressure and burnout because your investments are like your additional team member that helps you make money. Relieving that pressure is so key to helping you to thrive within your business.

I would also recommend having a support system whether this is a hire or a network of friends and business owners. THis helps you to relay that pressure or stress onto others for support.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

I have seen founders that are too stressed about money to ever make any investment moves. They want to build their savings but are afraid to ever spend or invest it. Remember that your portfolio is what helps you to be able to invest back into your business, to lighten the pressure on your business and so much more. I want all CEO’s to learn how to build wealth.

Ok fantastic. Thank you for those excellent insights. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview about How to Successfully Ride The Emotional Highs & Lows Of Being An Entrepreneur. The journey of an entrepreneur is never easy, and is filled with challenges, failures, setbacks, as well as joys, thrills and celebrations. This might be intuitive, but I think it will be very useful to specifically articulate it. Can you describe to our readers why no matter how successful you are as an entrepreneur, you will always have fairly dramatic highs and lows? Particularly, can you help explain why this is different from someone with a “regular job”?

There are always going to be highs and lows in this work you do because you are constantly growing and changing as a person, a business, and the market is always changing. This means things will keep adapting and what works now will not always work for everyone or even yourself so you need to have support and other tips setup to make sure you can ride the waves.

This is different from a regular job because it all depends on you! The decisions, the finances, the vision and so much more. That is different than your regular job. You will also have variable income, so you will need to master the skill of managing that.

Do you feel comfortable sharing a story from your own experience about how you felt unusually high and excited as a result of your business? We would love to hear it.

I felt so high in my business after I saw so much success in my launch of my program 7 Figure Wealth. I saw so much interest, my highest sales in a launch, and the people that were coming in were so ready for the impact that I knew that I could bring them. I felt so incredibly proud!

Do you feel comfortable sharing a story from your own experience about how you felt unusually low, and vulnerable as a result of your business? We would love to hear it.

I have felt low when I was getting low sales and felt burnt out. Then I was able to reflect, study my business and build my brand into the vision that I had.

Based on your experience can you tell us what you did to bounce back?

I studied my business and looked for the changes that I could make. I really worked hard to understand my clients and what was not aligning with the vision I had. Then I had this amazing rebrand that you see now and I feel like it finally all clicked.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Things You Need To Successfully Ride The Emotional Highs & Lows Of Being An Entrepreneur”?

1. Support

When things go high or low, you want to make sure you have people or a coach in your corner that really helps you along the way. You need someone to bounce ideas, thoughts, emotions off of and doing this with a spouse or partner may not always be the best option. I really recommend that you make sure to have a setup support system to ride the waves.

2. Clear Vision

I think you need a clear vision so that no matter if it is a high or a low you know exactly what you are doing. You want to know what your true north or your mission is to make the next decision from there.

3. Celebration of wins

You need to have a way that you celebrate the wins. You want to anchor yourself and have these to lean into when there are those low moments.

4. Self Coaching

This is a key skill. I am daily inside my journal writing out thoughts to clear my mind, writing new thoughts to bring to my clients and writing down each client to learn more about them. This helps you to really have clean thoughts going into when the highs and lows come.

5. Resiliency

You need the resiliency to be able to pivot, think, and stay fresh to ride these waves.

We are living during challenging times and resilience is critical during times like these. How would you define resilience? What do you believe are the characteristics or traits of resilient people?

Resilience is the ability to pivot and respond without the fear that things will be changing. This is when you are able to have a tough situation happen and you can process and adapt with something new to try to see if it solves the issue at hand. I think of people who are really able to pivot.

Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Would you mind sharing a story?

I think growing up going to art school builds resilience in being graded on your art. This all helped me to learn how to have less emotion or take it personally. This builds up their unbothered resilience.

In your opinion, do you tend to keep a positive attitude during difficult situations? What helps you to do so?

I typically do. Of course there are times you do not but that’s where that support system really comes into effect and is a powerful tool.

Can you help articulate why a leader’s positive attitude can have a positive impact both on their clients and their team? Please share a story or example if you can.

The leadership is so important to showcase how to respond to the highs and lows. You are modeling how to feel and showing how dire of a situation it may be. The highs you showcase how to celebrate and lows showcase how to have the resilience to adapt.

Ok. Super. We are nearly done. What is your favorite inspirational quote that motivates you to pursue greatness? Can you share a story about how it was relevant to you in your own life?

Unbothered. This is kind of my own quote but it inspires me in finances and in circumstances to really bring out that resiliency.

How can our readers further follow you online?

You can follow me on instagram @ginaknox. You can also find me on my website ginaknox.co and get my free training on top money philosophies.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!