From victim to victorious Business with Mikki Meisner

Yvonne: Hey, hey everybody and welcome back to another episode of Boss Your Business. And today is going to be interesting because Mikki has a similar story herself that I went through with my husband. So if you don’t know my story, still hang around. It will be interesting today. And to introduce you, Mikki, you are a two-time naturopathic cancer survivor.

Now my audience knows why we get along so well, and the mother of three young men. You went from powerless to powerhouse by stepping into your personal power and taking radical responsibility for your health and wealth. Mikki’s passionate about helping women grow through life by example and by example, growth through life and by example.

Um, and you teach how to build up one another through community and coawesomating. I managed that without breaking my tongue. I love the word, but I was afraid of getting that straight. Yeah. Um, so we all can be our own personal badass self. And you know, when I saw the badass in that speaker bio, I had to have her on.

Hi Mikki. So great to have you.

Mikki: Thank you for having me. Appreciate you.

Yvonne: I am really excited to have you here because, you went through it yourself. I went through it with my late husband and we have a similar drive and reaction that we pulled out of our diversity. So my audience already has a little bit of an idea now where, where you came from, what your stories is, but I wanna dive a little bit deeper.

Mikki’s story

Okay. What, what, what, what’s Mikki’s story? How did you get here?

Mikki: Well, I’m, I’m not gonna start at the very beginning. I’ll start when I was 28 and I got my first cancer diagnosis. So I had fourth stage cervical and uterine cancer, and I didn’t know this at the time. I found out later that 90% of women die within the first year when they’re diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Yvonne: So for anybody that that is, that is not used to cancer numbers, there is no stage 5. I don’t think that has changed since then, or at least by at, at head and neck cancer. They told me there is no stage five.

Mikki: I didn’t think there was either. One of my customers now just got diagnosed with stage five prostate cancer.

Yvonne: And so I guess that might have changed since.

Mikki: I don’t know. But I don’t mince words when I’m, when I’m talking with a cancer client, I’m, yeah, no, there’s certain things you need to do and certain things you need to not do, and I’m not messing around. Anyway, so I was, I’ll never forget sitting across the table from the, what I call the almighty white coat, telling me that I’m gonna die and I’m not gonna have any anymore kids.

And they have to, you know, take my girl parts and all of this stuff. Is it okay if I swear on this?

Yvonne: Oh yeah, we, we are on an explicit podcast. You go for it, girl.

Mikki: Because I, you know, I, this, so I was raised in a very tumultuous family and I was, I was very, you know, quiet. I wasn’t quite a meek. There were two sides of me. One side was like repressing and one side was, you know, um, so the, the rebel rose up in me and I looked at that doctor and I just thought, I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but I’m not gonna die and you are not gonna tell me whether or not I can have kids anymore.

So step off. Um, gimme a minute. I got this. Triple dare. Yeah. Um, but I didn’t know what I was doing, so I went in and talked to my naturopath, who she was my midwife, also a naturopath, who just happened to be the spokeswoman in America for cervical dysplasia. That was, that was a God thing.

It was such a God thing. And so she gives me this whole long list of things I could not eat, and this little tiny list of things that were on the menu and I’m, I was on my knees. I’m like, I can’t eat anything. This is ridiculous. So she put me on this, um, incurables protocol, which basically boiled down to three things? Get good things into the cells, get bad things out of the cells, and then stop doing the bad things. And you know, I remember her giving me this big long list of herbs that I was supposed to be taking and tinctures and things like that. And like, to be clear, I was 28 and I had been a welfare mom before.

I had no money. I had no experience. I had no self-esteem. And I now had my second child and cancer. So I had a six week old baby at my breast when I got this diagnosis. And um, so I, you know, I’m looking at the list and I’m like, Dr. Molly, I got half this crap grown in my backyard, can’t I just, you know, pull up some dandelion and like, you know, where’s the, where’s the DIY?

And I became an herbalist and I literally went out into the forest and I dug home forest products and I learned how to make my own medicine. I became an herbalist, um, created urban wildflowers, which was a, you know, grassroots tea and tincture. I had about, you know, a hundred different products, was selling them at farmer’s markets and things like that.

And remember, this was in 1996. So there was not a health food section. You could not buy a tincture unless you knew, you know, the little Chinese herbal shop. So I had to make my own. And so I, you know, it took me about a year of juicing and fasting and wheat grass, and coffee enemas and all kinds of fun stuff that nobody ever wants to hear about.

Um, I was raw vegan for a year and I was like very strict, but I, I did it. I beat cancer and I was pretty proud of myself. So 10 years later, life got stressful and I’d had another baby and put on bed to prove them wrong, right? I wasn’t supposed to have anymore.

So I’m like, don’t tell me what not to do, and uh, life got stressful. My mother passed away. We sold the farm and bought a fixerupper and, you know, tumultuous marriage, all the things. And then I had my second diagnosis with cancer and I wanna tell you that the second diagnosis was way harder than the first one.

I think mostly because I knew what needed to be done. It wasn’t like, oh, I have to grow all my own food. Oh, I have to coffee enema every day. Okay. You know, because the first time I was clueless and 10 years younger, and so I just, I just did the thing and this time I’d saved my notes, thank God, but I was like, oh my God, really?

The lesson was that it’s a lifestyle. Yep. You don’t heal yourself and go back to McDonald’s. It’s a lifestyle. So I was, you know, very strict vegan. Every bite that went into my mouth, I was like, is this alkaline? Is this acidic? Is this gonna heal me? Is this gonna hurt me? Um, really, I didn’t realize it at the time, but really walking of fine line of fear, really a fine line of fear. Yeah, and so now it’s 2008 and I was cancer-free second trip through for about a year and a half, and a friend of mine introduced me to this alkaline water machine, Kangen Water. And legit, I rolled my eyes at her and called her a liar at her kitchen sink.

Yvonne: I’m like, so, and it’s like, I don’t, I don’t know how, how your experience was and at that point you are back again, a year and a half cancer free, but one of the things that, that happened to me through these two years of taking care of my husband was this finding the appreciation for people wanting to help you, but needing to step back and making your own decision.

Mikki: Everybody’s got the magic pill. You know, everybody has advice and I’m, I’m always really careful when, cuz you know, obviously cancer’s sort of my wheelhouse and people will come to me with things of that nature and want me to help them and you know, back in the day I was like, mocking up this whole herbal protocol and this is what you need to eat and this is what you need not, and oh my God, it’s a lot of work and nobody wants to live that way.

It’s hard. I mean, this is not for sissies. Anyway, so my girlfriend had had fourth stage breast and uterine cancer and cured it naturopathically. Same route that I had taken. So she got my attention. Her cancer came back eight years later. Similar to my story, but she had heard about this Kangen Water and not making any medical claims here.

So don’t you know? I’m telling her story. We’re literally, we’re not supposed to do this, but it’s just you and me, right?

Yvonne: Nobody’s listening.

Mikki: She had reversed her cancer in six weeks, drinking this water. And I did not believe it.

Yvonne: And it’s to, to take this out for a second of a specific solution. And just in general, we know that our body is freaking amazing.

We know that our body rebuilt itself in, in a certain amount of time. This is, this is how bad my brain is today. So we, we know that what we put in our body, feeds our body. We know that if we are gonna go to McDonald’s three times a day, then we are gonna look like McDonald’s at some point. So no matter if it’s Kangen Water or something else, we know that the better the stuff we put into our body, the better it is.

Would I make a claim for Kangen Water necessarily? No. But again, it, it, there there is a sense behind figuring out what your body needs to heal itself. How you can feed your body. Again, how you mentioned in the beginning how to feed your body, how to take out the bad stuff out of your body and stick with the good stuff.

Mikki: It’s no easy feat in today’s world. No. Cuz we’re just inundated. Every angle, every screen, every commercial, every, it’s, I mean it’s a war.

Yvonne: Especially in the States. Yeah. Especially in the States. Yeah. I’m like, I’m German coming into the States. And I think the, the best example about how bad food is in the States is the example of a lot of my friends that have, um, lactose intolerance or gluten intolerance. Right. They are fine in Europe. They are fine in Europe. They can shove bread in their face and cheese in their face, and their body is not reacting too much.

Mikki: Right. There’s no RoundUp in that flour.

Yvonne: So now that I’m off of my tangent…

Mikki: We talk about that all day long.

Yeah.

Yvonne: My audience and my friends know I have quite, quite a strong opinion.

Mikki: Yeah, me too. A little bit. My mother used to say, everyone’s entitled to Mikki’s opinion, and I’m like, at least I have one. Yeah. You know, um, anyway, so back to Diane’s kitchen sink. Um, so she’ll, she’s standing there, you know, telling me her story and I’m calling her a liar.

I’m like, girl. I know what it takes to get through cancer and you didn’t do it in six weeks with water. And she was like, watch me, just try the water. And I was like, watch me. What am I gonna say? Right? So I started drinking this, you know, magic water and I can’t get enough of it. I mean, I didn’t believe it, but I could not get enough of it.

My body was like, oh God, you know, I just, just drank it up. And to be clear, I had a 400 foot well at my house, so I had good water. It tasted great, but I hated it. You know how you drink water and you get bloated and it just like, you literally feel it slosh around in your stomach. Just force myself to drink it.

I would sooner drink warm wood tea back then. Mm-hmm. . Um, which tastes nasty in case you don’t know what that tastes like. Normal people don’t drink that, but it’s a great cleanse. Um, so I, you know, I take this water home and it’s a 45 minute each way drive to get this water, and she’s telling me I have to get it.

So three times a week I’m driving to Amboy Washington, also known as Nowheresville and getting this water. And so I work part-time at Macy’s because it was 2008. Yeah. And my now ex-husband was a contractor. And, um, you know, we didn’t have any money and I, you know, so I’m working, I’m just supplement the income.

I lived in Longview, which is also Nowheresville USA, like mm-hmm. , you know, population nothing. And, uh, so the, you know, closest job was Macy’s. It made 9.50 an hour. So I was, you know, part-time and, uh, so I’m, I’m going to work and the girls at work are going, what’s different about you? Something. Your skin looks different.

Like, so here’s what happened for me. I had what I affectionately called China on Africa on my face. I had eczema on the side. I had allergies. I had um, I lost 15 pounds when I started drinking this water. And, you know, weird, I guess I was just dehydrated cause I didn’t like water. Um, so anyway, I start drinking this water and the girls start noticing and they’re like, wait, we wanna try this water. And I’m like, I know it sounds crazy, but come with me. Well, I’m no dummy, right? So I’ve got ’em paying for the gas. And now I’m using my friends as Guinea pigs. Cuz I don’t know, is this in my head? Maybe I was just dehydrated. I, you know, who knows? It’s just, it’s water.

Is this 2008. You know, Facebook didn’t barely exist and YouTube wasn’t even a thing yet, so there wasn’t, you know, you couldn’t like research it like you can now. There’s a lot of bad stuff out there, but I’ll, I’ll tell you how to actually research it. Um, so now I have five friends on the water.

One has arthritis, one has bursitis. One’s husband had gout, one had morning sickness of all things, and all of them experienced a significant benefit from drinking this water like mind blowing and we’re like scratching our heads, like, what is this stuff? How can that be real?

And then I’m standing in Diane’s kitchen, you know, and she and I, we’d been drinking the water for like six weeks and I never bothered to ask how much it was because I knew I couldn’t afford it. And I’m thinking 400.

Yvonne: Right. And, and it’s like, it’s like my, my NLP coach pops up. When did you decide that? You don’t even have a number yet and you decided you can’t, you can’t do it?

Mikki: Well, I’ve done a lot of work on me since then.

Yvonne: Right. It’s just, it’s just interesting when, when, when my coach comes, because I was the same way. It again, I was exactly the same way, which is why it pops up to me. So, and I wanted to bring it up for the audience so that, that you out there watching and listening can start realizing when you are making decisions without even having the information.

Because what, what happened there is you didn’t have the information, you didn’t even know what the machine is gonna cost. And you decided already, you can’t afford it.

Mikki: The, the not enoughness was kicking in before I even asked the question.

Yvonne: And I think we’ve all done that.

Mikki: So my knees gave out when she did give me the actual price, like literally gave out.

I’m like, who buys these things? And she’s like, everybody. I’m like, everybody but me. I don’t have 40 bucks to my name, let alone 4,000. Mm-hmm. . And in 2008, $4,000 was a lot more money back then than it is now.

Yvonne: Um, 4,000 can be a lot of money.

Mikki: It is compared to what I like to say because you know, yep.

Obviously I sell a lot of these machines, but you know, it’s really what I know about these now and what I know about human nature is if, if you’re investing in yourself and that’s too much money for you, we have a self-worth issue. So anyway, I just, I, at that time, I was like, that’s not on my menu.

I’m, I’m out. I guess I was just, you know, fooling myself. And so I went off the water and my energy level went, you know? Mm-hmm. My allergies, came to everything, came back and, you know, my friends and I were all like, well, maybe we were just dehydrated. So made the commitment to drink that much of my good water, you know, la la la.

It didn’t work, it didn’t help. It’s just, it has, it’s just different. It’s just different, different water. Structured different, energetically different. I didn’t know any of this at the time. I just knew that I was tired and I didn’t realize how tired I was before. Um, which is scary for me as a two-time cancer survivor.

You know, my first diagnosis, I was 28, and I remember thinking, I’m a fucking black belt. Who does this guy think he is? Yeah. You know, because I’m like, I, I know my own strength in certain areas, but I thought I was healthy and it was kind of a kick in the solar plexus that, you know, it wasn’t what I thought it was.

Yvonne: Yeah. Especially at that age, right? We still have this whole invincible thing.

Mikki: Invincible, yeah. Yeah. It was a wake up call, so I, I just went off the water after, you know, Diane and I had that talk and I was just, you know, I’m just gonna have to go back to wheatgrass. I’m just gonna have to make peace, you know, start juicing again and, and get my energy back.

And about six weeks later she phoned me up and she says, hey, you guys wanna come out for dinner? And I was like, can I bring my jugs?

We got to her house. And she…

Yvonne: So hilarious. Because I do, I do, I do similar things. It’s like, you wanna pick my brain? You better feed me.

Mikki: Yeah, so I’m sitting at her, at her bar in her kitchen and um, and she gives me this big glass of water and I start like drinking it. I couldn’t stop, like I literally finished the whole thing and without breathing and something happened in my brain.

It, like my brain literally came back online and I said to myself, I’m getting one of these. I don’t know how I’m gonna do it, but I’m getting one. My body just lit up. I knew physiological and mentally and spiritually, I knew I had to have this. And so, uh, funny how the universe works. About three days later, I got a random check in the mail for a back child support from dude I hadn’t talked to in 18 years. And, uh, and I, you know, so I called my, it’s now my ex-husband, but I was like, guess what I’m doing? And he’s like, what? I said, I’m buying a Kangen Water machine.

Yvonne: You’re insane. How the hell are

Mikki: You gonna pay for it? What are you gonna do?

You know? And I was like, I have no idea, but I know I have to have one of these and I was the perfect Stepford wife before this. You know, I’d never stood up to him. Right? You’ll Google it if you don’t know what that is. For you, youngsters, and so this was a big deal for me to just, to oh, make that stand and decide.

I didn’t know how I was gonna pay for it. I just had enough for the down payment where the 225 a month was gonna come from. I didn’t have a clue, but I knew that one, it came with a business because Diane told me how much she was making with it, and I kind of rolled my eyes. I was like, girl, if you can do this, anyone can do this.

Cute as she is. She’s like doing demos and spilling things and so funny and you know, and I’m like, seriously? But I knew the water was like, it was perfect. The whole thing was perfect. And so, you know, I bought the machine and I started sharing water with people and would you believe it? They didn’t wanna hear it.

Nobody believed me. You know, they were like, okay, Mikki. You know, they loved it when I was bringing in for free, but as soon as I asked for the sale, they were like, hmm. So I called a friend of mine, um, one of my karate instructors and he said, so what’s going on? And I’m like, God, I’m so frustrated, blah, blah, blah.

I said, I feel like I need to go to school. Now, mind you, it’s 2008. And my husband at the time was a contractor, right? We are circling the drain. I didn’t even know how broke we were, which is a good thing. Um, so he did, cuz him and my ex were best friends. So he goes, Mikki you don’t have time to go to school.

Building the confidence to run a victorious business

You need to stop procrastinating. What you need is not initials behind your last name. What you need is confidence, and there’s only one way to get it. So go do the thing that you’re procrastinating. And I was like, uh. So, you know, I just, I just started sharing water. I started teaching myself. I went to the library and I got, gosh, what some of the books, um, The Greatest Salesman in the World.

Yeah. Think and Grow Rich, You Were Born a Millionaire. Things like that. The Secret had just come out, so now I’m making vision boards and, you know, I just, I got to work on me and I started, you know, just sharing the water. My husband got hurt on the job and went into the hospital for 30 days.

Yvonne: Oh God.

Mikki: Yeah. And so suddenly, you know, the, the bankers are calling me and my house is in foreclosure.

I’m like, okay, so how long we’ve been making car payments on credit cards? What the f what am I gonna do? So I’m like, I got so mad.

Yvonne: For my European listeners, if you were out in the states for 30 days, you are not getting unemployment. You are not getting sick time leave.

Mikki: Yeah. Well, he was self-employed, so none of that.

Yvonne: Even, even even, yeah. Yeah. So the, the, the safety net you might have in Europe or that I used to have in Germany, you don’t have that. Yeah, it doesn’t. Out of work means out of work. Out of work means out of money.

Not living a lie

Mikki: Yeah. So, um, I did what, um, I would never in a million years would’ve thought I would’ve done. I was angry. I was like, I am not living a lie.

I can’t believe he did that to me. Um, he didn’t do it to me then. A little work since then. But, you know, he didn’t know what to do either. But yeah, his response to it was to hit the bottle and numb the pain and hence the word “ex”. Anyway, um, this was the beginning of the end because I put the house up for short sale.

I drove my cars to the bank and put the keys in the deposit box. Yes. And drove home in a borrowed piece of crap rattle trap. Yes. And I was like, I am not living a lie. I had a big garage sale. I sold everything and I’m, now, I’m hunting. Like I don’t know where I’m gonna live. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.

We got a buyer for the short sale. Um, and then the sale fell through three days before. So, you know, we just stayed there like, okay, we’re just gonna stay here until they kick us out. But that day that I drove my car back to the bank and put my keys in the deposit box, I came around the corner to drive up the hill and I saw this woman standing on the corner, three kids.

I have three kids, and she has a sign and it says, homeless, anything helps. And I thought, I just started crying. I was like, you know what? That’s not gonna be. That is not gonna be me. I’m gonna figure this out. And at that time, I still didn’t know what I was gonna do, but I got home and I randomly opened up this little book called Simple Solitude, I think it was? Back before we had cell phones, we took books into the bathroom. I used to call it a bathroom book, right?

Because it’s like right.

Yvonne: At some, at some bathrooms, you even have a stack, like three or four books ready to go in the bathroom. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Mikki: Mm-hmm. . So this was that. Um, and the, so I open up to this random page.

Acres of Diamonds

It’s a thick book. It’s, you know, open it up random. And, uh, the, the little, you know, summarized story is Acres of Diamonds. Are you familiar with the story?

Yvonne: No.

Mikki: Okay. I’m gonna give you a super short version of it. So this African woman is given a dowry and it’s a farm. So she gets married and her husband is really resentful.

He does not wanna be a farmer. He, he’s dreamt of diamonds his whole life. So he leaves her and the kids and he goes out into the diamond mine and he dies. Great story, right? She remarries and this man is ever so grateful for what he has been gifted. And so he goes out into the field and he tills the field.

And guess what he finds? Acres of diamonds. So the moral of the story is, I still get goosebumps every time I tell the story. The moral of the story is, is that you already have everything you need. You just need to till the field. And when I read that, I looked up and there was my machine and I thought, that’s what I’m gonna do.

I’m gonna be the water lady. I know the water works. I’ve seen it help multiple people already. I know if Diane can do this, I can do this and that’s what I’m gonna do. So I just started, I just made the commitment and I started reading the Greatest Salesman in the World, and I said to myself, every single day, I will persist until I succeed.

I will persist until I succeed. I’m going to figure this out. And that was in 2008. Um, we did in fact lose that house. By that time, I had made enough money to buy a car and rent a a home. And then I made enough money to actually rent a table at a home show. And I came home with like a hundred names, maybe two.

I don’t know. I’m like, oh my God, what am I gonna do with all this? And I gotta call all these people and I’m delivering water and I’m having ’em over to the house and I’m explain, you know, and I gotta educate myself on this thing the whole way through, cuz this is a Japanese medical device. There’s a lot to know and the backstory to that being a miracle is I’m gonna, I’m gonna use a really not PC word right now. So if we don’t, like, we’re not PC. When I was in first grade, I wanna say teacher looked at me and she goes, she’s not like everybody else. We’re really worried about her. We think she might be retarded, so we’re gonna have her tested.

Well, they never told me the rest of the story until I, you know, it was much later. Oh, no, I wasn’t like everybody else, but it wasn’t that I was retarded. I’m gifted. I have an emotional intelligence and an intuition that’s off the chart, but don’t give me a math problem because it’s just, it’s not gonna function.

Let me tell you the day I hired an accountant. Huh? .

Yvonne: Oh, I feel you on that one. Right? Bookkeeping an accountant was the first thing thing. I outsourced and I learned the stuff in school. I’m actually fairly good with numbers one.

Mikki: No, no. Yeah, I was gonna hire somebody to do that stuff. It’s fine. So for me to learn all that stuff, I had a lot of like blocks, you know?

Yeah. I, I had to lose the stupid label. I had to use the R word label. I had to, I had to really step outside my limiting beliefs that, oh, $4,000 is so much money I had to let go of that. Or I was never gonna sell any machines.

Being a better person

And like something clicked in me that, wait a minute, the more I work on me, the better person I become, the more people I can help.

And the more people I can help, the more money I make. Wait a minute, is this real? Somebody pinch me. No wait, don’t. So I just, I just kept going. I just kept going and I opened up a little tiny hole in the wall water store, um, so that I could have some place besides my kitchen sink to share my product, cuz it was bananas.

My neighbors are like, is she selling drugs over there?

Yvonne: What are you doing in your house?

Mikki: Leaving with all these drugs and my, my kid, my youngest, who’s total introvert, he is like, oh my god, you know? And my ex who was like, I just wanna make a pumpkin salad, um, and you know, there’s people in my kitchen all the time and I never charged for it.

I was like, all I ask is that you tell your friends. We had a lot of people in the kitchen and so I opened up this little tiny water store in downtown Vancouver, Washington. There’s no parking, you know, people were getting parking tickets every day, because this girl likes to talk. And um, and I just started sharing water and selling machines and I just kept going.

Um, , but my marriage was failing. And so the harder I worked, the more successful I became. The less control he came, the more stronger and, um, you know, better person I felt like I was, the more confident I had, the angrier he got. And so we were just doing this and so I, you know, had a coach and she said, you need to have a private account.

You need to save some money. So I did that, and one day he found it and it got ugly. And, um, so here’s divorce coming down the pike. And I pulled the plug on the store. I pulled, you know, I was like, I need to lay low because I didn’t want him to take half my business, which he actually, he did at first.

Um, but you know, we, we actually were homeless for a minute because he, we decided we, we sat down and we had this conversation. Should we buy a house or should we get a divorce?

Yvonne: It’s like the complete opposites. Buy a house or get divorced.

Mikki: Well, we had a six-year-old, we had a six-year-old at the time.

So, you know, we’re like, well we, you know, we, we got a lot of work to do, so we need to do this. But I have one caveat. You have to quit drinking. This isn’t gonna work. I’m not living like this. And so that was the agreement. And, um, we put a downpayment on a house, and this is apparently a pattern three days before it was supposed to close, fell apart. The whole thing fell apart.

Yvonne: I have the gut feeling that that was a good thing.

Mikki: Yeah, it was a really good thing. So thank God my girlfriend said, hey, we’re going to Italy. You can house it for six weeks. And so we, you know, caravaned off to, we were staying in Lake Oswego and my kid was going to school in Battleground.

It’s a 45-minute drive each way. Right? I gotta get this kid to school, you know, and from school twice a day. It was madness. And I was like, so riddle me this, ex-husband. I made six figures last year. Where did the money go? And he couldn’t answer me and I don’t even wanna know now. Um, but I made a decision that I’m not, this is not, this is not sustainable.

I’m not, I’m done. I’m done with this. So we finally, you know, I’m selling machines, whatever, get into this house and 10 days later, he tells me to get the fuck out and not to come back. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait. It sounds like you said get the fuck out and don’t come back. Is that what you meant?

And he said it again and I looked over and my, my little guy was listening and he started crying and he is like, why is he always so mean to you? And just something went off in my brain. Yeah. I was like, you know what? He sees it, he sees it. I realized that I was staying because I wanted to give my kids a foundation and to teach them what a marriage looks like. And what I was really teaching them was how to treat your wife like crap. And so I just, I, the next day I said, you know what? You’re free to go. You’re free to go. And long story short, he left. We didn’t even really fight about it, but he wound up with half my business and so I’m like, okay.

Yvonne: Done it once. Do it again.

Mikki: Right? And so, but I just, I just stopped working like I did just enough to pay rent and that’s it. Like I, you know, I was making really good money before and all of a sudden it’s like, you know. And so then we go through the divorce court. That’s mine. This is yours and la la la and, um, we meet up in the parking lot afterwards and he’s got half my business.

And I’m like, I built it. And he’s like, well, you know, my name is on it, and all those people are on my downline. I’m like, they don’t even know you. And I said, what do you want? What? What do you, what do you want?

Yvonne: What do, what do you really want? You don’t want the business. What do you really want?

Mikki: He goes, you know what I really want? I want the stereo.

The Carver? The one you gave me for Mother’s Day 15 years ago? That stereo. He’s like, yeah. I’m like, you want speakers? So, so I met him at eight o’clock in the morning the next morning and we, you know, paperwork and did the trade and I had my business back and I’m like, now it’s go time. Now it’s mine. It’s go time.

Speakers, speakers, stereo. Whatever. Okay. It’s a million dollar business. So I just, I got busy and I, you know, I, I would take my machine and I would, you know, park it inside a chiropractor’s office, or I would, I parked it inside a bead store one time, and I would go network and drive traffic to her bead store, and she loved it.

She’s like, I have all these new customers and I get this magic water, and I, you know, and I’m a little salesperson. I’m like, you know what would look good with that outfit? You know, and I’m selling stuff. I’m like working for her when I wasn’t doing my thing. I’m like, I’m gonna provide value for her, right?

I’m going to gift her with whatever I can while I’m there. And um, and I just started building my business and, uh, and then so one day I was at this little health food store and I’m, you know, doing a water demonstration presentation. And mind you, I have gone so far above and beyond for this business.

Like I would go do a demo and I’d take a fricking TV so that I could do a PowerPoint. You know, I’m like, my whole car’s loaded. I would do, you know, health fairs 50 miles away and like just, I just wouldn’t stop. And so now I’m at the local health food store and I’m given a little presentation. I’m about halfway through and this guy walks in and I look at him and I go, oh my God, I can’t believe you just walked into my life.

It was the first boy I had ever kissed. Aw. That same cute guy you saw earlier? I knew I was gonna marry him the minute he walked in. So he turns out he was really good with video and he started making me videos and um, and it launched, right? It just, it, it was such a great synergy, you know?

So I would help him with his business and he would help me with my business, and I’ve learned that I’m, I’m really good at helping people with their businesses. I like, I get these ideas and I’m like, okay, okay, so here’s, here’s, here’s a good idea. And then it, you know, I was like, he just started making me some, and, and I was like, all my friends are asking me if he would make them videos.

I’m like, no, they take forever. You know, we had really primitive equipment. And I was like, well, what if we just, what if we just bought some better equipment and made some business cards? We’ll just throw it out there, right? He was driving a school bus at the time, and I’m like, you know, so in between rows he would be doing this and, and so we did that and I, I learned really quickly that, you know, here’s Steve with his business and he really wants to buy a water machine, but he can’t afford it.

I’m like, okay. . I got you. Let’s make you a video, boost your business and then you’ll be able to afford a machine, right? Yeah. And so I just like, I really get off on just helping people, whether it’s with the water or video or you know, the health, whatever. And uh, and it just started taking off. So now we’ve got all these video clients, we’ve got, you know, water people in the house.

Like we have two businesses that were running out of the house and it’s nuts. It’s just bananas. And so we decide that we’re gonna open a wellness center and um, but it had to be big enough to have the studio in it, which is where I’m at now. So, in my wellness center, um, you know, I have six Kangen Water machines and we have a membership and they get to try it for a couple of weeks free, and then we have a membership.

Um, and uh, and you know, Marty has his video business and so his people will come in to meet him for video and they walk in. I wish I had some pictures to show you. It’s the floor looks like the ocean. It’s, it’s gorgeous. It is absolutely amazing. And they walk in and they’re like, what is this place? It’s really, it’s really magical and, uh, and so, you know, we’re able to, now I’m able to have like this professional platform where my distributors can come and bring their people and they don’t have to share out of their kitchen sink or their garage or, you know, the park or deliver water or whatever. Um, and I, I, you know, I really wanted to create a platform where other businesses could come and speak. Yeah. And we could make videos for them and also where we could just help the community enrich their lives and, and empower people.

Cuz really like at the end of the day, you know, the water totally helped my health. It got my husband off five medications.

Coawesomate 

It’s, I’ve helped thousands and thousands of people with the water, and at some point just, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough just to help them with their health. I really wanted to, I wanted to empower them because for me, the real magic was when I learned how to support myself, and I learned how to support myself by becoming a better person.

Right? By empowerment, really. And so that’s, it’s kind of been my mission. It’s like, okay, what do you need? And how, how do I take, how do I bring my awesome and marry it with your awesome. That’s where I get the word coawesomate.

Yvonne: Yep. I feel you so much on that way. It’s like the connections, the help, the ideas, the energy, whatever it is, what it’s like.

Mikki: Yeah. Yeah. Just, yeah. It’s really how do we serve? Yeah. How can I serve you? And that’s really, that’s been the backbone of my business. I thought it was gonna be about health. It’s so much more.

Yvonne: It usually is till we realize it. So you have a whole bunch of stuff going on, between you and Harvey, there is lots going on. Yeah.

Processes, workflows, and tools

What are some of the processes and workflows that you are running behind the scenes? To make all of this happen?

Mikki: Really, it’s, for me, it’s people. I, I wanna say, you know, processes or, you know, the, the social media and the, the pieces that we’ve put in place to kind of make things evergreen.

The videos and the content marketing and all of those kinds of things. It kind of goes without saying, but for me it’s been, it’s, it’s over the years, finding that network and those, those key people that, that show up when you’re like, I don’t, yeah. I don’t know. Does, does anybody know a plumber? You know, does anybody know a POS guy?

And you know, the, all of the people that I served, all of the years have come into play in their own businesses, and really it’s, I feel like it’s not about system and processes, it’s about who we’ve served and how, how we coawesomate, how it, it just, it, it flows and go and comes back.

Yvonne: Which is closely followed by the question of, what are some tools that you use on a regular basis?

Mikki: Some tools that I use on a regular basis are, video, video, video, video. I really wanna say that. Um, and there’s, in my opinion, there’s two different kinds of video. There’s, there’s the videos that we make ourself and they’re mandatory. If you wanna build your business, you absolutely have to get comfortable on camera, and you have to get over yourself and put yourself out there.

You just have to. It’s awkward. It’s uncomfortable, and it’s therapy.

Yvonne: And we all been awkward in the beginning. If you scroll back on my YouTube channel to the beginning, the video, look, I…

Mikki: You know what though? That’s, it’s, that’s the authentic piece. That is, that’s the real, you know, the real, real. Right.

The other kind of video that I feel everybody needs one professional video. One, we call it a VBC, a video business card. So it’s um, you can see mine on my Kangen Water store website and my husband made it for me and it’s designed to, you watch that video and you feel like you just kind of got a snapshot into my life and you feel like you know me and you like me, and hopefully, I’m okay if you don’t, and you, you trust me by the time we have a conversation. Like, you know, my why and with all of the noise out there in the world. Yeah. And all of the not professional video. I feel like just having one really good, well-done professional tool like that has, it’s catapulted my business. It’s changed everything.

Yvonne: I love it. And I love the whole story where it’s like, and this is, this is why I start the podcast always with this question of how did you get here?

Yeah, because, and guys, all of you watching and listening, yes. I get from my guests a little short rundown of how they got here. So I have an idea where I wanna take the show, but I only have a glimpse of an idea of what my guests have gone through and how they got here, but the, the impact you especially have on my audience of you get smacked over the head more than once or twice or three times.

Yeah, and I agree. It comes down to there, there is so many offers out there. There is so many plug and play solutions. But what it all comes down to is our own personal growth. Figuring out our self, figuring out our mindset, figuring out where our limiting beliefs are and what the hell is going on in our mind in general.

Positive as well as negative, right? And growing and adjusting to go where we wanna be.

Mikki: And really reaching out for help. You know, like I’ve had some phenomenal coaches that have, you know, smacked me upside and said, you know, said, well, it is whatever you think it is, isn’t it Mikki? And, you know, I’ve paid thousands of dollars in coaches and some were great and some were a complete waste. Um, I’ve learned a lot about that and it seems like everybody’s a coach these days and it’s a little bit nauseating. Like, you know, I had this friend reach out and she’s a coach, and oh, I just so wanna work with you.

And I’m like, you’re not where I wanna be.

Yvonne: So yeah, there is, there is a reason why I do not like to add coach on my title, even though I do coach my clients because it’s like, everybody, everybody is a coach nowadays, and I’ve, I think we’ve all been through that learning period of, okay, that coach just didn’t work out.

I literally just fired a coach of mine after three months because I’m like, now what you said this is going to be, and I know it’s not getting me anywhere. Um, but I also see it in a way specifically with this one where I’m like, cool. I did learn what I need to ask my coaches, what I need to look for. I learned a lot about me also, what I need to get support, where if you are handling your coaching program that way, I already know this is not for me. I need these and these pieces in how I work with a coach to be able to get a result. So, yeah, it’s always a learning, no matter if it’s a good or a bad learning, you always learn something out of it.

Mikki: School’s expensive either way.

Yvonne: But so worth it because we all just wanna grow. So, Mikki, where can people find you?

Mikki: They can find [email protected] or kwaterstore.com. It all goes at the same place on, I got in trouble with corporate, so it’s all K Water Store. Anyway. And copyrighting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm. . So, uh, YouTube, it’s K Water Store, um, Facebook, Insta, K Water Store, um, kwaterstore.com. I’m all over the place, so look for it’s crazy face. We’re constantly putting new videos up and, and, uh, just trying to save the world one glass at a time.

Yvonne: One glass at a time. And as you all know, the links are going to be in the description, so you easily can just click on it and find Mikki.

Thanks so much for joining me, and thanks for everybody watching and listening. I’ll see you in the next episode.

Mikki: It was a joy. Thank you.

Yvonne: Thank you. Bye bye.