Podcast Interview with Zina Wilde Audio Final
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Zina: [00:00:00] They're all about these ideas of connecting a productivity of like how to do things, how to accomplish your goals, but also to have an amazing time doing it. Connection is also really important because the more we move into this world of everything digital, then it becomes harder and harder to find people that are.
Together and they're going through things and they're working through difficulties together.
Speaker: I am Christina Koki, your host of the Christina Koki Show, born and raised in Silicon Valley. Now, bringing the wisdom, wit, and well-oiled business strategies from my hometown of Brentwood, just outside of Asheville, where the pace is slower, but the revenue, it still runs high with over two decades of building businesses, some wildly successful others, gloriously messy.
Every step has been fueled by my love of real strategy, real results, and of course. Building an empire that feels effortless. This isn't about side gigs and is definitely not about hustle culture. This is about optimization, about [00:01:00] building an empire selectively curated to make your life and your business feel effortless and truly enjoyable with almost a hundred million dollars in sales in just nine years while raising four little ones.
I've curated systems that scale and businesses that fund my lifestyle and not the other way around. From summers in Europe to road trips across the United States, being present with my family is the greatest win. I focus on health and community. From efficiency to effortless income jumps, I'm pulling back the curtain to everything I'm doing in my life and business.
That has moved me into the top 3% of wealth in the United States. This show is for women who already have consistent sales. But are struggling to make more money with the same or less work who want to find happiness, healthy, and true enjoyment of life while their empires build in the background. Every episode brings sharp strategy, honest insights, and real world tools to help you grow your business and enjoy life in the process.
Join me as I navigate better health, growing my business while linking them all [00:02:00] together to build an empire and learning to live the ultimate life of true enjoyment. Nothing is off limits. This is the Christina co show.
Christina: I wanna start with a really big question to start everyone off. What is one of the biggest failures that you've had that actually gave you the greatest result?
Zina: I generally am one of those people that I'm learning a lot about how to approach failure and how to use it.
And also what that means in general. Failure to me is more the thing of what I'm doing when I'm not enjoying myself. Okay. When I'm not having fun. I think real failure comes from not learning, not growing. Not gaining any insight of how to continue with the rest of your life. So whether it's in relationships or in business, I think that is truly what matters in life.
Because we've all had this thing of, when I get this, I will be happy, and [00:03:00] then you work on it. You achieve the goal. And actually it's a failure because you don't feel the thing that you wanna get to. We wanna get to things because we wanna feel a certain way, like we wanna get the house because we want security.
We wanna get the money because we feel that will. Make us do the things that we feel like we wanna do. We wanna have the partner because we wanna feel loved. But if you do it just for the goal without actually thinking of what it truly means to me, then there is no result. The feeling is still the same.
You still feel the same way as if when you didn't have it. So I think for me, the biggest failure. In the past was to not learn and to put on goals as like, when I get this, my problems will be solved, my life will be figured out. And to really understand this and learn this was very hard because you have this moment.
It's almost like what they say about lottery winners afterwards. About [00:04:00] two or three months later, they're broke again. Mm-hmm. Or they're miserable. Or they're depressed. I think it took me a long time to learn that, and for me as a person, as an actor, also, failure is such a big part of your life. Yes.
Because you are, you're used to hearing No. If you hear a yes, it's like a big plus. I think that for me, one of the things that I learned was that I would put so much value on that result that it was overshadowing my. Whole life. My personality, my existence, and I think especially for artists, we connected so much with.
When I get this, I'll be valuable. When I do this, then people will see me and it's like, it doesn't work like that. At all. It's like totally reversed and it's a life that's very miserable. So I think that was one of my biggest failures, like not learning what a true failure is and to be so focused on a result oriented thing.
I learned that the hard way for all of my twenties and thirties. [00:05:00] Actually,
Christina: I've been an entrepreneur for 20 plus years. And they'll just be like, well, you're amazing. Like, how'd you figure this out? I'm like, I failed a lot. Like a lot. And they don't know what it takes. And you see these big celebrities and, and especially in the online world, like Jenna Kutcher.
Mm-hmm. Amy Porterfield. Mm-hmm. You see all these big names and everyone's like. Oh, they got it all figured out. I'm like, but do you know it took 'em 14 years to get there, 15 years to get there. Like there was failure after failure. What you brought to light, which I love and a lot of people forget. Failure is only failure if you don't learn from it.
Zina: Absolutely.
Christina: And so I have failed so many times, but it's where I'm at. Mm-hmm. I tell people it's not about the goal. It's about the journey. Absolutely. Right? If you're not enjoying every single step, why are we doing this? Then what are some things you do to help you enjoy as you go?
Zina: It's funny, my mottoes in life is if you're not gonna do it for free, don't do it for money.
You gotta love what you do so much that you would do it even for free. The creation of my company was very [00:06:00] much that. It was something that I loved. Deeply. I host retreats all over the world and other super funds, so if anyone has questions, they should totally ask me about it. They're all about these ideas of connecting a productivity of like how to do things, how to accomplish your goals, but also to have an amazing time doing it.
Connection is also really important because the more we move into this world of everything digital, then it becomes harder and harder to find people that are. Together and they're going through things and they're working through difficulties together. And they're growing. Yes.
Christina: The like that you talk about, the retreats, because I'm telling you it's shifting in the online space, especially for women because I don't know about you, but I am so tired of going to these huge events with 5,000 people talking heads on stage and then they have breakout room and all you do is sit and listen and take up a whole bunch of notes and never do anything.
Are you seeing that with people who are coming to your retreat?
Zina: A thousand percent. I am touched by what is going on in these [00:07:00] trips because they are smaller group, they're about 20 people. Maximum people that have come are so connected with each other and with me, we're learning so much together. We're seeing new things.
We're experiencing life together, and they've become like. Best friends, business partners, roommates, it's real life and they keep coming back. People are really looking for experiences that are also bespoke. They're not just like a cookie cutter that you will listen to an audio recording and this is the course that you're doing because when you are in a different country and when you're doing these things.
Total strangers, things will happen that are out of everybody's control, that you're gonna see how you react. We're all learning from that. Like for example, in the last trip that I did, we were in Paris. One of the women's suitcase didn't arrive until the day that we were leaving it. Fascinating because something so simple, but you plan a trip, you go to [00:08:00] Paris, you wanna have your stuff, you wanna look nice, and it was such a beautiful example of how not allowing something to take you under.
Of course there were moments that she was like obviously frustrated and rightfully so. It's been like. Many things from personal relationships to literally silly logistical, things like that. So I really do see that there is a real need for people to connect with each other. And these trips are a great example of it.
Christina: It is resilient. It's about these moments and times. So. You know about this? I just went through the Nashville Free. Mm-hmm. We literally had ice everywhere it looked like, like a bomb went off. Wow. Trees everywhere. Lines down everywhere. So we had to suffer for six days without any power, and it was like single digits.
And so what ended up happening? Is that the first night we were freezing, it was like 55 degrees. We couldn't keep the house warm. So we realized that what was happening [00:09:00] at night, it was getting so cold, all this air was just pushing in and we were losing the heat, so we fixed those. Wow. So by day five I was keeping the house at eight, so that's
Zina: incredible.
Christina: Right. So what we have to do is we have to look at that it in life and in business. It's like these little things keep blocking us and we don't see that. And when you fix the most obvious little things, then you realize the bigger things. Totally. And then, and the next thing, you gotta fix them. We don't realize sometimes like, oh, I'm always struggling, but sometimes we have to go make a connection to hear and see or learn.
It's this one little thing. Wow. That I fixed that. Totally. But now I see this one. That's a bigger one. Okay. And that's what I kind of learned from this whole experience was how resilient we can be, how my kids can learn to be resilient, how it was frustrating. We were tired. It was a hard situation, but we got through it and we solved a lot of problems.
I've died almost four times two years ago. Wow. It was like 10 minutes from death. So you have to be able to overcome different things. You have to be able to get up and for. Probably six to eight [00:10:00] months after that situation, I had severe anxiety. Every time something would happen, I would get triggered.
Mm-hmm. And then my heart would start racing. I'm like, am I dying? Am I dying? Because I knew what it felt like literally to almost die, and that was a really hard thing for me. But I'm not gonna let this stop me. I'm not gonna let this define me. I'm gonna figure out why I'm gonna work on it. And I'm just gonna be better with it.
And I did and it went away. But I have four kids and we squished in here. Wow. But this is what I love. And this is what you do with these events, right?
Zina: Totally. And I always say that the problem is the solution. It's actually like overcoming, especially with other people, problems makes your bond stronger.
It makes you learn new things. And then that's the thing that you use the next. Time and it's become way more exciting, way more interesting. It's almost like, yes, most of the times if you stay with something, it takes you to the next level. Community is very important for me. My idea came to me during COVID actually, so I was working on a TV show for a long [00:11:00] time, for like nine years.
And during COVID we obviously. We had to stop, so I had a lot of time to myself. The first thing I wanted to do was go and be in the water in Greeks, where I'm from. It was off season. I went by myself and it almost was like I could hear the sizzling sound of something like burning off. The first thought that I had was, I can't be the only person that is feeling like this.
And so I wanted to share something that could possibly help other people, and that's how it started. These two things were very different than the acting world, because the acting world, I don't have the say whether or not it's gonna be here or there or when you are. Said, and you're working on something consistently, you gotta let go of the rest of your life.
Once you're done with the filming, then you have all the time in the world. So it's completely, IM ballast. It's a wonderful, amazing privilege. But there comes a point, as I was getting older, I, I knew that there were [00:12:00] certain things that I wanted to do in my life. Like I really love traveling. I really love seeing the world.
I really love community. I really love orchestrating things. So. That's why I still do both. I'm combining the two and I love doing both. I planned the trips so far ahead that usually if I get an audition for something that is a conflict, I will not do the audition. So I've now planned all the way to 2027.
Wow. There is no audition that's gonna be like you're needed in 2027. So it kind of works well to our great counterparts of each
Christina: other. Yeah. Let me ask. When you first started the retreats, I know a lot of people will ask me, they'll start something new and they're like, it's crickets. Yeah. I just don't have anybody coming.
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that journey of starting it to actually growing it and getting people to come. Especially if you're asking people to travel the world. I have my House of Cortes, but one of the cool things for the top tier is we're actually gonna do a Ritz-Carlton cruise and it's included as a top tier.
So tell us about.
Zina: Sure. [00:13:00] How
Christina: did you do this?
Zina: So when I started I had no clue how to get people there, but I had the faith. I truly knew from the start. I'll just try and see what happens, but I knew. I think that the most important part was the energy behind it. So I approached a bunch of people that I knew they were influencers, that I feel that this person is probably gonna be able to bring in people.
So I created these thematic retreats. It was like a yoga person or a writer, and they all had a big decent following. So that's how it started. So the first two years or so. I was co-hosting them with people that I knew that, that they could bring in people. And then the trips became a big success. So a lot of them were repeating the trips.
Then I started doing it by myself. Then it was like the same people that were coming were like asking me to do trips in different places. It was kind of like a snowball [00:14:00] effect with a very creative solution to different things, different people, different ideas. So every retreat has a different theme.
Some of them have a theme like writing or yoga or Pilates or meditation. And some are like, we just wanna go for fun. They're all very different. Some of them are more luxury based. Some of them are better for people that might be a little bit younger, so it truly is anything that interests me. I wanna learn about meditation.
For example, we did a meditation in September and that was also very successful. So I had a person that came in that was very well known in the meditation world, and he brought in people and then. From that group, four or five of them became regular. It's like slowly it starts to build and my following started becoming bigger because of that.
So one thing leads to another exposure or connection or reaching out to people or like when. People find that this concept has been proven. People come [00:15:00] back and I don't have to plan anything and someone else is picking me up from the airport and everything else is figured out, and I can feel safe and I can feel that.
I don't even have to convince a friend of mine to come with me because there's a bunch of people that are coming little by little. That's how it happens. And of course there are moments where it's like. Okay, well that one didn't work, but that's okay. I remember there was one trip that was for this spring.
It was an expensive trip.
Christina: Yeah,
Zina: it just didn't make sense, so I was like, okay, great. That's fine. We try things out like the failure, teaching us how to do things, and it's. Teaching me how to be, okay, this is what my people are wanting, this is what I can provide. Tell me why does that work for you, and why doesn't that work for you?
And it's all great information
Christina: and I love it. You just try. I have my first live event going on. I've done live events in the past, but some succeed it some not. Mm-hmm. This one's completely different. It's a small group, max 60 people, but we're actually [00:16:00] doing case studies and learning. And figuring it out so that when you leave, you actually worked on your business.
And so I'm teaching you how to do income jumps that are effortless. How to find the leaks in your business that we can plug right now and make it so you're more efficient and you get to connect with people of, so I'm gonna introduce people who can help you, who could be an affiliate for you, who could be a mentor.
Like all that connection in a small group setting is huge. Getting it out there and getting people to fill it, like it's been a struggle because I'm newer, even though I've been an entrepreneur, people know me. This whole thing I switched to about 18 months ago is brand new. Sure. And people are kind of like, I don't know.
So I'm in the process of building it. My friend, she holds these really big events all the time, and I was talking to her, I'm like, well, how did you do it? She's like, oh my God. Christina, I think the first seven that I did. Like nobody came. Yeah. She's like, I just kept going and going and talking and talking and then she's like, finally I got five and then I got 10.
And she's like, now I get like 50 or 60 people every time I do them. And so that's what [00:17:00] I want people to hear is these things are not easy and.
Zina: You don't start, you can't start with a million people behind you. It's better to, for me, what I learned for these retreats, it was like better to have quality than more quantity.
Just having more people doesn't necessarily mean that it's great. It's like you gotta find the right people and you gotta. Have a good time doing it. When I struggle, it's like, how can I make this more fun? Yeah. Because people look down upon fun, but it's like that is the most productive thing you can do because when you have fun, you will keep going.
Even when you haven't slept for a minute, because you wanna do it, keep doing it. You'll find the people always, and that's what I feel about these trips. More and more people are joining. That's how it started and that's how it keeps going.
Christina: And then let's talk a little bit about pivoting on income.
Zina: Yeah,
Christina: you probably started at one price and you've slowly increased it.
Or is it based on where you [00:18:00] go and what you do dictates the price? Maybe you can talk about that.
Zina: The first one that I did less money than the ones that I'm offering right now. It also made sense because I was newer. I didn't have the experience. Better to do smaller groups, more expensive. The connection with people is very strong.
Even though that first group was magical, it took a huge toll on me. I make it more expensive and it's a more exclusive group. I stayed with that model. I am completely understanding of different people, different faces in life, different situations, what they need, and again, because this is truly about a win-win situation for everybody.
So I wanna make money. I want the community to feel happy about who is coming for the community to win. And I also want the participants to win. So I want them to have an amazing time and to feel like they're completely taking care of, they're gaining something out of it. They're getting the recharge that they need, whatever it is that they're looking for.
Somebody might be making half a million dollars, [00:19:00] somebody's making $80,000. I couldn't possibly put them in the same group. So I do trips that are lower priced and a very high end.
Christina: You
Zina: can put,
Christina: you make all this money. This is the time when you should be enjoying life.
Zina: Totally. I agree. Quality over quantity.
I am in the work mode when I am on the trips, so because in the workshops that I lead have to are a little bit a combination of somatics and coaching, like overcoming your op. Obstacles. Sometimes they have different themes, and so for example, the one that we're doing in September is very fun because it's like combining it with my partner who does Psychodramas.
Okay. So he's doing Psychodramas, I'm doing somatics. And we also have a group of people that are doing long board dancing, which. Incredible. So that takes place in Greece. So that's one of them. But then I'm doing another trip that is actually based on this new deck of cards. They're Oracle cards, but they're based on personal growth.
So every [00:20:00] trip is very different. We're doing a trip to Japan in October, and that's to. Explore Japan. Japan is a place that it requires so much organization and because it's so compact, it's a small country, but it has so many things to do. And so two months of my life to to study about Japan and where to go and how to do it and book everything and oh gosh, so this is what I'm doing and I love doing it.
And that is also a more high end trip.
Christina: Okay, so then on the trips you have to be business mode?
Zina: Yes. Sure. Are you
Christina: able to go and have time where. It's non-business mode. You let it all go. Do you take other trips by yourself?
Zina: Oh yeah. I live in LA now even though I travel so much. But I used to live in New York and I think that one of the things that made me move out here was this idea of being on the hamster wheel all the time.
I love New York to death. I still own my apartment there. I'm never gonna sell it. There was something about LA that forced me to slow down, right. Became very good [00:21:00] for me. So, for example, I take two Pilates classes almost every day so that it's my happy place. I love playing the cello. I go to class still for it because I'm still quite new.
I go to tango lessons. I do a lot of things that fuel my batteries, and also it's the thing that will give me the inspiration for the next thing that I wanna. Prepare. Also as a writer, this is important for me because like experiences fuel me a lot. So between that and also my desire for growth and to just slow down has been very helpful for me.
So this is where I shut it down and it's like I know when I get into that mode of. I gotta do this and I gotta do that. The task master. Yes, and I know this and because the job is very much that and because it's all under me and I'm the person that makes the decisions and the bookings and everything, and the communication with the people.
I also leave large windows in between [00:22:00] trips where. I have the luxury to, to do that, to shut down for a couple days and be like, okay, now you're just focusing on the recuperation of this,
Christina: and that's so necessary. I love Pilates. I came from Northern California and then now I live in Tennessee, but I was in Silicon Valley, like the heart of Silicon Valley, and I was just hating it the last like maybe 10, 15 years.
The stress level out there and how everyone's just ramped up about everything all the time. Sure. And now I'm out here in Nashville and it's like. People are so chill.
Zina: I'm
Christina: sure they won't even pass each other. That's great. I think it's so funny, you have two lanes and one merges and nobody uses the merging lane.
Wow. And I'm like, why is nobody using it? And my friends are like, oh, because it's rude to cut someone off so we don't use. Wow. Wow. And I'm like, yeah, not in California.
Zina: Very different in California. That's so,
Christina: it's so very different. It's more a relaxing, and I think that's something else that people need to hear is if your environment.
Is not relaxing. Mm-hmm. If you are set up in a way that you cannot settle down, if you're watching shows that are [00:23:00] stressful and the cortisol is raging and all this other stuff, when do you actually enjoy yourself? When do you calm down? When do you relax? Like totally. We need this. Totally. And I love your trips and I love all the stuff that you're building because they just sound super fun.
I think COVID messed up a lot of people in the sense of. We lost that community. Mm-hmm. We lost so much. We all kind of got used to being in our home and alone. Mm-hmm. And then we don't know what to do now and people are so depressed. Yeah. I was listening to a gentleman who actually talks about relationships and community.
And he was talking about how women actually need to be in community. Mm-hmm. When they're with other women who understand them and get them.
Zina: It's beautiful and I cherish it every time and I feel very lucky and I have so much gratitude for everyone that has come and everyone that's interested. I'm very excited about it and I.
Seeing the world if someone needs like a quick recharge, I think it's always very good
Christina: as we're approaching the end of mm-hmm. Our podcast today. I do wanna ask if [00:24:00] there was one thing that you learned over your time through acting through entrepreneurship that is one thing you wish you would've known when you were younger.
Zina: Mm-hmm.
Christina: What would it.
Zina: Be nicer to myself.
Christina: I like that one.
Zina: Yeah,
Christina: it's a big one.
Zina: It's a huge one. Be nicer. Like just the self-talk, like just monitor it. Just what is that voice? Yeah.
Christina: And it, it's really easy. I do it to myself and I'll just have to correct myself, but I'll be like, you're not working hard enough to get people, you're not working hard enough to do this.
Why aren't you on top of it? I tell myself, calm down. Yeah. I only have so many hours in a day. I have four children. I wanna be present with my children. I run multiple businesses and I've grown my net worth to multimillionaire, and I have a lot of things that I manage.
Zina: It's a big one. And differentiating that voice isn't you.
It's a voice that someone else put in us that change the conversation in your head with that voice, change the conversation. I imagine if you had like a manager in a job, how good of a job would you do in the end?
Christina: I had a manager like that would literally clap at me and make your [00:25:00] phone calls. So I had a hundred phone calls that day.
I think I was there for like a year and a half and I was just like, why did I not leave sooner? Because at that time I didn't see myself as successful enough to leave and do something different. But I mean, it's a horrible conversation. Yeah. It doesn't help you succeed. It doesn't help you do anything.
Someone is interested in connecting with you or wants to learn about one of your events. Where can they find you?
Zina: I would love that. Instagram at Zena Wild. My email is Zena Wild with an E in the end, like Oscar [email protected].
Christina: I'm gonna put all the links in the show notes if you're listening, and then if you're watching on YouTube, it'll be below the video.
So you guys check her out. Zena, thank you so much for coming on. What a wonderful conversation and I look forward to many more with you.
Zina: Me too. Thank you so much. This was so much fun.
