"From Language Barriers to Fierce Knockouts: A Journey of Perseverance and Entrepreneurship"

Discover the power of perseverance and reinvention with Karin Christoff, as she shares her extraordinary transition from adapting to a new life in the United States to serving in the US Army. Karin's story is a beacon of hope, illustrating how embracing a new language and culture can lead to unexpected opportunities and personal growth. From the initial trials of working alongside her mother to mastering English and the unique challenges she faced while beginning her military service later in life, Karin's experiences underscore the essence of resilience.

Embarking on a bold career transformation, Karen takes us through her development from one profession to the next, eventually finding her calling in the realm of fitness apparel with her brand, Fierce Knockouts. This chapter of her life was sparked by her own battles with depression and the frustration of searching for workout clothes that cater to diverse body shapes. Her insight into the creation of a brand that empowers and includes everyone speaks volumes about understanding customer needs and the transformative power of finding your niche.

As we wrap up, Karin's tale serves as a rallying cry for those yearning to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Her candid recount of the highs and lows faced on this path, from the initial concept to the reality of product development, resonates with anyone who's stood at the precipice of starting something new. The conversation is not just about the achievements but also about the community and connections that sustain us through the journey. Join us as we celebrate Karin's indomitable spirit and be inspired to take action on your dreams with the support of the MAMI on a Mission community.

Fierce Knockout website:
 https://fierceknockouts.com/
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Transcript

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Journey of Empowerment

Mariana 0:00

Hello , hello , and welcome to episode of MAMI on a Mission podcast , the podcast that empowers women to achieve and reach their impossible goals , one dream at a time . I'm your host , mariana , and I'm glad to be spending this morning with you . I do have a special guest coming on , and so I'm going to ask that you grab your cup of cafecito or your pan dulce whatever it is that you like and join me today with this candid conversation with Ms Karen Kristoff . Hello , hello and welcome to the MAMI on a Mission podcast , where empowerment meets inspiration . I'm your host , mariana , a life coach and author , on a mission to help Latina women and all women , to reach their impossible goals , one dream at a time . Join me on this incredible adventure as we dive into compelling subjects that will uplift , motivate and ignite your passion . Get ready to be inspired , empowered and never give up on your dreams .

Mariana 1:04

This is the podcast where we turn dreams into unstoppable missions . Get ready to be inspired , empowered and never give up on your dreams . This is the podcast where we turn dreams into unstoppable missions . Are you ready ? Let's go . Good morning , karen . How are you ? I'm doing great . How are you ? I'm doing good . I'm glad you are joining me today on the podcast . But first , before we get started , karen , tell us a little bit about who you are , where you're from , what you're up to .

Karin 1:38

Yes , my name is Karen Christoff . I am a mom , I'm a wife .

Mariana 2:11

I am a mom , I'm a wife , I have been a US Army veteran and right now I work full time , but I'm also working on my dreams , my , my um fitness apparel brand and uh , that has been my , my latest project . Um , so far , so I hear a little bit of an accent . Tell me , where are you from ? I am from peru , okay , so were you born in peru or did you come ? Did you come like as a kid , or how did you make your way here ?

Karin 2:30

So I was born in Peru , born and raised . I didn't move here until I was 19 . And yeah , so my mother , you know she brought me over here . I moved to California . And yeah , that's mother , you know she brought me over here , I moved to .

Mariana 2:46

California .

Karin 2:47

And yeah , that's how I ended up here . No one warned English , wow .

Mariana 2:53

So how did you manage that ? Because you came here to this country not knowing the language , learning the language and then joining the army . That's crazy , so talk to me a little bit about that . So how did that happen ?

Karin 3:12

That's crazy . So whenever I got here , I noticed that , you know , I came in and I was helping out my mom cleaning up houses . That was her job , cleaning houses . So we used to clean two or three houses a day , and it was Monday through Friday , sometimes Saturdays , and that was during the summer , whenever school was out . And so I took my last year here so I could graduate .

Karin 3:41

I took my last year here so I could graduate , and so , anyway , during that , the first few years , I went to night school to take English classes and I made myself a promise to speak to people that didn't speak Spanish , because it would make me have to speak English , and so it made me practice .

Karin 4:13

I mean , it was hard , it worked , and I tried to watch , like you know , cartoons in English and stuff like that , so you know , like easy English . And then a few years later I thought that I was just running around in circles , that I couldn't , it didn't seem like I was moving anywhere , that I was not doing anything , like I was just like you know , and I was like stuck in the rut , and so I thought I heard from somebody that was doing very good in the in the army , and so I thought you know what a great thing to , like you know to to do and be a part of . Like you know , give thanks to this country for everything that I have right now and serve in the military . And so I joined the military with my all messed up English .

Mariana 5:10

Now , how old were you when you joined ?

Karin 5:12

I was 26 years old , I was around with all these babies .

Mariana 5:16

I was just going to say you started a little later than most people , right ?

Karin 5:20

Yes , yes , yes , everybody was like 18 , 19 years old and , yeah , not very much in common there . Yeah but it worked out for me because I was able to see things in a different perspective than they did , and so I took advantage of that and I was able to . I related more with the sergeants than I related with the soldiers , because I understood where they were coming from , and so , yeah , it helped me out to be older around all these little kids .

Mariana 5:59

Wow , and so for how long did you serve ?

Karin 6:02

I was part of the army for four years , so I joined in 2000 and then I got deployed , came back and my four year tour was over . I was in active duty .

Mariana 6:19

So , wow . So so you served four years , and then how was that ? Coming out of the military and now living a civilian life again ?

Karin 6:29

That was a great adjustment for me because I thought I'm coming out , I'm coming back and I'm going to be taking over the world . Well , I was wrong . That was , um , a rude awakening of like not having anything . Um , I didn't really build anything . I mean , I learned , you know leadership and skills that you know I have , you know for life now . But I didn't have a paper saying you're a professional or you have something and you can go , like to jobs and get something that's going to help you go up . And so I got out of there . I decided to go back to school .

Karin 7:18

I was pregnant then whenever I decided to go to school , so I went to get my bachelor's in IT and then in getting a job was really , really hard . Actually , somebody helped me out with my first job after , after getting out of the military . They were looking for somebody that spoke Spanish and English and they needed somebody for the insurance company that I'd never done anything like that . I don't know anything about insurance , but I said , sure , let's do that because I'll learn it , and I did . And then you know , um , yeah , so , um . Then , whenever I got pregnant with my second one , I decided that I wanted to be um , you wanted to get my next degree , so I became . I got my mba while I was pregnant with my second one oh wow .

Mariana 8:10

So not only did you get so , you got a bachelor's degree in it , and then you ended up getting your mba with the second baby yeah , I was , I was , I was pregnant , pregnant now we're . You were married by this point .

Karin 8:27

Now , right , oh yeah yeah , yeah , I got married while we were in the military . My husband is also a better okay , okay .

Mariana 8:34

So you met your spouse in the military . You both came out of that . Now did he ? Did he leave as well , or was it just you ?

Karin 8:42

the military is like the mafia and like once you're in , you can't get out . So we were supposed to leave together , okay . But then all this craziness happened , right 9-11 and all this stuff , and the wars and deployments galore . I mean , there's so many deployments it was crazy . And so we were going to go and leave together . And so whenever I came back from Afghanistan , the plan was for us to just leave and go back to , you know , to normal civilian life . The army has different plans for us , so they put a stop loss . Stop loss in the military means that that unit does not go anywhere because they're going to be on deployment . I don't care if you were supposed to leave tomorrow or you were supposed to be retiring , I don't care , you're staying and you're staying for the entire deployment .

Karin 9:46

So they took him for Iraq and then he came back a year , a year or so later . I already had , I already was pregnant , I had the baby . Well , he was gone . I mean , he came to visit and then he left again . Then we thought , okay , good , we're going to start all over and we're going to , you know , be good . And he got called back .

Mariana 10:12

Oh my gosh .

Karin 10:13

He got reactivated and so my son , Damien he was like , he was like a year or so , this is baby number two . That was my first baby . Oh , that was my first baby . Oh , that was his first baby Still the first baby , yeah . And so he got deployed . They couldn't , they put him in another and it was in reserve , I can't remember , but he got joined into another unit that he's never been with and they went to Afghanistan and so I was . That took about 15 months and so finally he was able to get out of there and they weren't able to call him back . But yeah , it was a . It was a long four years .

Mariana 10:58

It wasn't supposed to be four , so he did a total of eight years .

Mariana 11:03

Yeah pretty much oh my gosh , oh my gosh .

Mariana 11:06

And so during these eight years now , you're going to school almost like a single parent , right , going to school , taking care of baby , doing all of the things that you have to do , and then around this time now , you're pregnant with second baby and doing it all over again , this time with your master's degree .

Mariana 11:27

Dang talk about mommy on a mission , and the crazy thing is you're in , but you're in a country where the the language is . Your is actually your second language , and you contributed to the United States by fighting for the United States and decided that I'm going to go to school , I'm going to make something of myself because this is the place for opportunity for me to do that , and so I'm going to say this that it's a challenge even for someone who's born here to have to go through all of that . So I'm pretty sure you went through all of emotions . I'm pretty sure you had to , like . There were adversities that you had to face . They were the struggles , and where did you ever face like depression or anything like that ? I'm pretty sure that those first 10 years of your life were crazy .

Karin 12:32

Yeah . So yeah , I was depressed , very depressed , and you know there were a lot of contributing factors , right , like it wasn't just my family life but that was completely being pulled apart , you know , into different places , but also my own thoughts of like I need to get better , I need to be better , I need to work harder , I have to provide for my sons now .

Karin 13:07

I put so much pressure on myself Sometimes it was just really hard . Now , looking back , I'm glad I did that , but while I was going through it there was nobody to talk to about my issues , because my mother doesn't live here , she lives in California . I moved to Pennsylvania because my husband is from here . His family is not very close to us and most of them are gone . They're not in Pennsylvania . So my family is a very little family . It's like them are gone . They're not in Pennsylvania , so it's a very so . My family is a very little family . It's like we are four . We are the four people . We just have some friends and you know , but it is not the same , you know , right , and so not having the support of family members that could help you go through some of that stuff until you know it's okay , you're still doing okay , you're fine , you know , um , it's hard , uh , but you know it . Thankfully I was able to , you know , go through it and so was like going to school and doing that .

Mariana 14:20

Was that a lot that pretty much helped you through that process , like with the depression and in the things that you were facing like was that a helpful move for you because it kept you going like you were aiming for something right yeah .

Karin 14:36

So it was a goal that I had and it was . You know , once I have that goal right here , I I'm like I got to work through , I've got to go work through everything that I need to work through and I'm going to get it . And once I'm focused , that's where I'm at , like , I'm trying not to get distracted by anything . You know like , yes , sometimes you do , and then you look back and you're like , oh my gosh , what the hell am I doing here ? Um , but then you look back too and you're like , oh my gosh , look at everything I've done . Like it's only now I have only this much to go through to get my degree or whatever you know .

Mariana 15:21

But yeah , it's working now , like you have a job right now that you're doing .

Karin 15:25

Yes , yes , so I work for the federal government . I've been working for them for about 20 years now .

Mariana 15:36

Oh , okay .

Career Changes and Entrepreneurship Lessons

Karin 15:37

So I've been working from agency to agency , moving , jumping around , and a lot of people told me , no , you can't do that , you shouldn't be jumping from agency to agency . I'm like , why not ? I'm like , if I find a job right there , I'm going to go get that .

Mariana 15:54

I don't . I wonder if it's just because there's this , this fear of going for something more , you know , like there's that fear factor of no , you shouldn't , you know , go somewhere else , or you shouldn't say anything , you should just be where you're at and that's it . And a lot of times a lot of people feel just it's like more comfort , because it's scary , and so they have this thing about yeah , I don't want to jump ship , because what if it doesn't work out ? And so they'll already fill their minds with this negativity , whereas I'm on the opposite thing , like I've been in my career for over 13 years , 14 years now . But I figure I'm going to go to a different agency because I think I've learned everything that I need to learn from this one . So now it's time for me to go to another agency because there's other things that I want to also learn and pick up .

Mariana 16:50

And it's almost like when you stay stuck in a place , you almost feel like you've outgrown what you needed to learn from that place and a lot of people feel like , no , you should just stay there and then , hopefully , for a raise when there's another opportunity where you can get that raise Right , like you can get a , you can get a new position and make five thousand dollars more . Well , there's your raise right there , where you could probably be getting that five thousand dollars in over a 20 year period at the same job . And so I always tell people , you know it's okay to go , but it's that fear factor . It's that fear of you're staying in a place where , because it's comfortable and you're settled , and you , just like you , paralyze yourself and so you don't want to move into a different direction . Direction , but for you , you have done this . But there's something else you're doing now . Out of all of this , you've actually started your own personal company .

Mariana 18:02

Right , talk to us a little bit about Fierce Knockouts Fitness Apparel . What is all of that about and what did you ? What made you decide to go into the fitness apparel ?

Karin 18:11

okay . So , um , I used to be , um , a fitness junkie . I would just go put on a pair of you know leggings and shirt and go running for 12 miles for no reason at all . I mean , there was no race , nothing . It was just me running out there , coming back , loved it , loved it , loved it , um , and uh , uh , you know , uh , cardio bunny , working out , working out all the time , all the time , and I was really , really thin , really thin clothes was never , ever , an issue .

Karin 18:54

Well , so , some things happen in my life that made me feel like that , made me feel really depressed , like I really was really depressed , and my doctors recognized it . I didn't want to go see anybody , but she thought I needed to go see someone , so she sent me to seek help and they gave me some pills and I'm telling you , I never felt so numb and just like it was not me . I felt like it wasn't me . I felt tired , I felt like I didn't want to do anything at all . All of the workout went away . I started gaining weight , I started using food as a comfort and so , trying to go back to working out , I decided that I was gonna go to the gym . I went back to the gym and I I'm like you know I started seeing all these little outfits . Those are cute , I want to look like that . So I went to Target and all these places where I thought I could find things for myself that were , you know , fairly good prices , you know , and that would look good .

Karin 20:14

My first impression was why they didn't make sports bras for people with boobs . Second , why are the leggings made so like ? Whenever I gain weight , I don't gain weight like a pear shape , I'm like an apple shape . So whenever they make those leggings , they make the elastic so small that it gives you this the illusion of having another , you know , role . I don't need that help , I already have those .

Karin 20:54

So , um , and I started looking and looking and I'm trying , like I bought , I bought some stuff , but then I'm like I started working out with them and I'm working on trying to fix my clothes , look in the mirror and looks like all messed up and and I thought you know what ? Why don't I start that ? Why don't I start making my own clothes and making it for people like me ? You know that , because I'm almost sure there's a whole bunch of people looking for clothes that do not and they just did not fit that mold that you know the entire industry is making for . They're like oh yeah , we're going to be inclusive , but they just make those little itty-bitty clothes that they made . They just make it bigger . They don't take into consideration that people's shapes change whenever you start gaining weight . Yes , and they don't change in the perfect way . That was the reason behind why I started that , because I wanted to have a better fit . I didn't want to worry about my clothes whenever I was working out .

Karin 22:01

I just wanted to worry about working out and I didn't want to be , all you know , showing more than I needed to show because they didn't put enough padding where the girls are supposed to be at , or the padding came off , or whatever you know .

Mariana 22:19

So , yes , that was the reason why an idea always comes out of a personal experience . I had put on weight , and you're right . You know like when we start to gain weight , an idea always comes out of a personal experience . I had put on weight , and you're right . You know like when we start to gain weight , we , our body shape , is completely different because , just like you , I used to run also and then when I started putting on workout clothes , the extra long cut was created , you know , and it's like it was digging all up in my side . So this big old blob was just falling all over the place , and so you're trying to work out and it's just rolling under and it's like , you know , it was a complete battle . So maybe I need to invest in your stockhouse fitness apparel so that I can go ahead and have some comfortable clothes , because not just for that , but we also want to feel good .

Mariana 23:14

We want to feel sexy and we don't want to be fighting these clothes while we're working out . And I think a lot of times , a lot of times , people don't realize this , but clothes keep us from moving forward because we don't feel comfortable , and when we don't feel comfortable in what we're wearing , then we don't feel comfortable going out there before people and then our confidence level starts to dimmer down because of that . And so I think that having this kind of fitness apparel is unique in its way , but it's also something that women because I think I've seen like there's other name brand clothes that , like you said , that you see , and they're like oh yeah , we're going to you know we . No , those are not the real women . You know , that's not every , that's not every woman that you see . You know , because it's like they do , they make , they even make like the mannequins look like the perfect heavyset woman , like they have this , no lumps or .

Mariana 24:23

And I'm like that's not how I look , no lumps , or . And I'm like that's not how I look . You know , that's not even close to it . You know not to say that there aren't women that look like that , but I'm just saying , for the everyday woman , that's not , that's not true . So , as the founder and owner of Fierce Knockouts Fitness Apparel . What are some of the lessons that you've been learning about entrepreneurship and what are some things that you wish you would have known before ?

Karin 24:53

Misconceptions on what you think will happen . You think all of your family and friends are going to be with you and they're going to help you and they're going to just be like , oh my goodness , I'm never going to buy anything from anybody else because I know this girl . She sells all this stuff is wonderful , and we're going to go help her . No , they don't . They don't . I mean , some of them did , some of them did and they're very happy customers , but , uh , the majority , they , they don't .

Karin 25:28

And so , just if you think you're going to go into a business thinking that people are going to be helping you people , friends and all these family you're wrong . Just take it out of your mind . You're going to be happier after you . Get that one out of your mind , because it will not happen . I mean , yes , you might have a very supportive family , but whenever you expect things to happen , it's just , unfortunately , like 5% of everybody that you know will probably be supportive . Then the other one is learn to fail and be okay with it , because the things that you'd never thought would happen will happen 10 times worse . Yeah , and just learn the lesson . What happened , fix it , try to , you know , minimize the pain and then work , and then the other one . I can't remember right now . My mind just went blank .

Mariana 26:34

Mommy thing . Well , with that being said , how has the support been ? I know that you said with extended family , because I can completely understand and relate to a lot of that . Right , because I've had like with with my , my brand and my business . You know , I'm trying to create like workshops or what have you , and then I do put a price to it . Right , because I I have to invest in hosting these workshops and the products and stuff like that that I have for them . And then when you put a price tag to that workshop like I think I had one and it was like 20 bucks for that workshop and it's like , oh wait , I gotta pay .

Karin 27:15

No , I just work for free .

Mariana 27:22

I gotta pay myself you know , Right , that idea that they feel like why should I have to pay ? Mentality , you know I have to pay myself , you know , Right , and it's crazy that idea that they feel like why should I have to pay ? Mentality , you know . I have to think about like , okay , well , if you can't , then it's okay , you don't have to go , you know , if you can't , if that's too much for you .

Mariana 27:41

But and that's the thing that people don't understand is that that's an investment that we're having to make and that we're having to put into . So , no , we can't always give things out for free all the time . Yes , there's going to be times that you know as a promotional thing , yeah , maybe we'll give some services out for free , but for the most part , we have to earn back our investment . And that's one of the things that I think sometimes family members or close friends don't realize , especially if they're not entrepreneurs themselves . How has your family , like your children and your husband , how have they been of support for you during your adventure of starting your own business ?

Karin 28:25

They are supportive , especially my youngest one . He goes everywhere with me , I mean he helps me so much he goes .

Karin 28:35

I mean , if I'm going to Virginia , he'll go with me and he'll help me selling and he gives me ideas and I mean , it's just like such a bright kid and you , you know , my husband always gives me the space for me to be able to think and rethink and do my things and even though he's staying away from me but also helping me with the things , like I need to go . Today I have to be there at six o'clock in the morning . I'm sorry . Can you make sure the kids are awake ? He will do that , you know . He will help me out like that , you know . And uh , cooking and whatever , if I , if it needs to happen , right , um , which is great support because you know I would have to pay for it .

Mariana 29:25

Yeah , I can relate to that . So in the business , are you so you design the clothes yourself ? Do you also make the product or do you outsource that ?

Karin 29:37

Well , so at the beginning working , so I did my designs and I was working with a manufacturer from China . That was the first manufacturer I worked with . Well , actually , two manufacturers I worked with were was difficult because first I didn't know things . You learn with money what you don't know , and there is no better teacher than going through it . Um , and so I came back and I said you know what ? I'm gonna start doing it here in the states . So I bought my machines and I bought my fabrics and I found a manufacturer that could help me out . You know if I needed to get large quantities . But then , um , I also found out that people are very , they're very , fond of the idea of making it in America , but they don't want to pay for making it in America , because you cannot find a manufacturer that will put together your , your leggings or whatever , for what they pay in Walmart .

Karin 30:51

And that is not even the entire price . I mean you have to think about the . I mean it's so much involved . Like you know , you're not just the thought , but the thought has to go into paper , right ? And then that paper , which is the pattern , and then the pattern it's what . It tells you how to cut the fabrics and how to put it together , and then that might not go well . So you have to redo everything all over again , trying to make it so it fits right . It looks right , it looks right , it does it . So that's what it's supposed to do .

Journey to Entrepreneurship

Karin 31:30

After that , you get the fabrics the fabrics you love , and you buy those . And then you find a manufacturer that's going to grab your fabrics and put it together the way the patterns look like . All of that cost me , all of it , every single little thing . And so by the time you're done , it's like how am I gonna make money ? Because nobody's gonna pay .

Karin 31:59

And then but maybe it might be my own mentality , right , my , my mindset that I'm only going to be able to sell this much for this much right , like I'm just , I just have some , some block , um , and I might have to work on that um , but for now I went back to China with different manufacturers and these ones are way easier to work with and , um , and they have my patterns and they're working with me and trying to get the stuff that I want . But , yes , it's been a rocky situation but you know , you learn , you fall in your face , you get back up , you kick the wood so , looking ahead now , what are your goals and aspirations for your business , and how do you plan to achieve it ?

Karin 32:52

Well , so I'm already preparing , Like I know it's not here yet , I know it's . I mean , it's a goal that I have , that if you look at my life , you're like , what the hell are you thinking ? But I want to open up my own store , my own boutique , and I don't want it to just stay at one , but I want it to be more than one . I want to be able to hire help , but at the beginning it's just not going to happen . I'm going to have to do everything at you know first couple months or whatever , hopefully . But I'm already bringing , trying to bring things into you know existence by going to get clothes displays and clothes racks and things that will help me fill out my , my store . So it even though the store is not here yet , I know , because I'm doing all of the steps to help it get there it's going to get here , it might not get here real fast , but it'll get here .

Mariana 34:06

You're pretty much taking the steps of you're visualizing what you want , then you're putting a plan together , right , to make this a possibility , to make this happen , and then your next step will be to take action in order to accomplish that goal Right .

Mariana 34:25

And I think , a lot of us sometimes don't realize that that's what we need to do . You know , sometimes you know , like right now for me , I've got a lot of things on my mind that I want . My pocket is not matching up with my dreams yet , but I'm telling God okay , lord , okay , you have put this dream in me . You have told me that this is what you want me to do . I need you to provide , like I need my pockets to match my dream so that I can take action . Right , but we do start small , and that's the thing I think a lot of people fail to to realize is that we have to start small . Small , which means that you do have to go out and connect , network , promote , partner up , collaborate , which is what a lot of people don't want to do because they feel like there's a competition of some sort . Right , but we do . We need that collaboration , we need that partnership . I think I believe he said that when we first got started that you were out and about today at different gyms trying to partner up with them in order to put your clothes out there . You're out there going to like marketplaces and holding like vendor booths and all these kind of things , but we have to start somewhere in order for it to be out there and get it bigger and stuff , and so , and that's the thing that a lot of people who have that , that dream of becoming an entrepreneur , think that oh yeah , I'm going to start this thing out , I'm going to do it and it's going to be wonderful . And what they don't realize is we're going to start something and it's like , oh crap , there's all this other stuff , right . Like there's that marketing , there's going out , there's social promoting , there's networking , there's I mean , there's all these parts that go , that are part of it . And it's that hard part , right . And I think it's significant even for life that none of us like hard . Everyone wants easy . And when we're facing adversities , when we're facing challenges , when we're facing obstacles , it's so easy to want to just quit and give up , even on ourselves , even within ourselves , like because we feel like I can't do this , I can't do it at all . And , and I think a lot of times sometimes that mentality of , yeah , you know , we'll fall into depression , we'll fall into isolation , and then that negative thinking , that mentality comes , and for some it's even they feel like taking their life is the only solution that they have , because it becomes too much .

Mariana 37:11

But , like I said , you know , on the entrepreneur side , I mean it's a lot , it's there's no difference . There's a lot of the things , because it goes by in different phases , like there's going to be those moments that it's bien exitoso , right . You know , it all comes out wonderfully and there's a lot of great results for it . And then there's those occasions where you only get like one sale and that's it , you know , and we feel like , oh , what's happening here ? You know , but it goes in phases . You're going to have a great event that you're going to the next time it's not . You're going to the next time it's not going to be so great , and it's just one of those things .

Karin 37:50

It's a roller coaster like I . What I want to say it's um , when I compare it to it's like a marathon . It's not going to happen in a year , it's not . I mean good luck . If you thought I said I mean great , you know , congratulations , but just be prepared to spend the time . It's not going to happen overnight . It's always going to be . Something that came up that you just did not think about . It's just long . It's a long process with a whole bunch of stuff on it , with a bumpy ride .

Mariana 38:24

But it's doable . It is doable . It's doable if you have the right mind frame and the mindset . But you have to . It's not just .

Mariana 38:32

I was listening to something the other day . It said something about you don't need motivation . It's not about motivation because motivation only lasts so long , but you need inspiration , to continuously feel inspired to do the thing that you want to do . Because , yes , you can be motivated Like we can get off . Someone can hear this and they're like , oh yeah , I'm ready to go , I'm motivated . I heard them and they were talking and they were like , yeah , you can do this , everything is possible . And then there's that motivation .

Mariana 39:00

But when they get to that spot , where it becomes bumpy , where it becomes hard , where's motivation ? Motivation is not there . But we have to consistently seek for that inspiration . What is inspiring us to do this ? What is inspiring us to continue to move forward and go on ? And I think that's one of the biggest things that we have to learn and recognize and identify whenever we're trying to do something , because it doesn't matter what it is , whether it be starting your own business , whether it's going to school , whether it's coming from a different country and going into the military , whatever that is , there's got to be something that inspired you to want more . Karen , I want to just say thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast and just sharing your life with us and sharing your journey . So if somebody wanted to purchase some apparel from you , how can they connect with you and reach out to you ?

Karin 39:59

So I have a website . It's fearsknockoutcom . I have my shop right there . If you feel more comfortable just messaging me and trying to talk to me before you make your purchases , I'm on Instagram Fierce knockouts , that's the handle I'm always . You know , I have my phone all the time with me , so if you are messaging me , you can you know you'll reach me so well .

Inspirational Podcast Episode

Mariana 40:32

I just want to thank you so much again for joining me and for being part of this conversation with me today , and , I hope , for you who are listening .

Mariana 40:42

If this inspires you to , you know , overcome obstacles , or inspires you to start working on your dreams , then I ask that you , you know , reach out to Karen , ask her how she got started , what motivated her , what inspired her , you know , to continue to go forward this episode with your friends , with your amigas , with your tias , whomever that you feel will find value in this episode , and make sure that you subscribe , leave a rating on Spotify or a review on Apple podcasts , and I look forward to seeing y'all next week on another episode of Mommy on a Mission podcast .

Mariana 41:28

If you are hearing this message , you've listened to the entire episode and for that I want to say mi gracias from the bottom of my heart . If you would like to dive deeper into today's message and would like to connect with me , send a DM on Instagram at HolaMommyOnAMission , or Facebook at MommyOnAMission . You can also find me at MommyOnAMissioncom . I hope you've enjoyed this new episode and if you did , it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe , share this podcast and leave me a review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcast . Tune in next week for some more words of motivation , inspiration and encouragement on Mommy on a Mission .