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Meet The 26-Year-Old Who Used These Unexpected Mindset Hacks To Become A Millionaire... in 3 Years

This article is more than 4 years old.

Zack Kravits

While most of us want more out of our lives, few get to achieve the level of success they always dreamed of. The primary reason? We don’t believe in ourselves enough, and as a result, don’t take the necessary action to maximize our potential.

It doesn’t have to be that way -- you can choose to create the life of your wildest dreams. But first, you must master your mindset.

Meet Kathrin Zenkina, master mindset coach and CEO of the multi-million dollar brand, Manifestation Babe. Zenkina is also a #1 Amazon best-selling author, host of a top 100 podcast in the Health & Self-Help category, and a leader to an online community of over 200,000 millennial women.

Perhaps what’s most impressive about Zenkina is that at the age of 26, she’s already a self-made multi-millionaire -- a radical transformation from being a Ukranian immigrant barely earning minimum wage just three years prior.

In this exclusive interview, Zenkina shares her inspirational story, her journey to financial and emotional success, as well as actionable insights on how to achieve fast, aligned, and sustainable growth in your business.

Celinne Da Costa: Tell us about your background.

Kathrin Zenkina: Shortly after I was born, the mafia chased my family out of our home in Ukraine. My parents, grandparents, and I abandoned our cushy, upscale, high-income life and secretly fled to Los Angeles, California in the middle of the night with just $900 USD to our name.

The lack of financial security, stability, and language barrier pressured my parents to work extremely hard to provide a future for our family. This work ethic was passed down to me: I was expected to get good grades, go to a great college, and enroll in medical school. I wanted to make my parents’ tough move worth it, so I followed their dreams of having a doctor as a daughter. 

My parents’ relationship crumbled and led to an ugly divorce when I was seven years old. I turned to food for comfort, gained over 30 pounds, and was severely bullied from elementary school to high school for being overweight and painfully shy.

As a result, I spent a lot of time daydreaming instead of paying attention in class or (unsuccessfully) making friends at school. My mind was my favorite place to go when life felt unfair. Little did I know that this was the superpower that makes me successful today.

Zack Kravits

Da Costa: What inspired you to pursue your own version of the American Dream?

Zenkina: Shortly after graduating from college in the summer of 2015, one of my friends insisted that I attend a live event that completely changed her life called “Unleash The Power Within” by Tony Robbins. I had a strong gut feeling that I needed to be there, so I went that following October.

The experience completely knocked me out of my comfort zone, had me questioning every single decision I’ve ever made in my life, and cranked up a fire inside of me that I was meant for more-- way more. The most powerful question that I came out of my time there was, “who are you living for, Kathrin?!

I recognized that every decision I’d made in my life up until that point was for everyone else. It was for comfort. It was for approval. It was for pleasing others. For the first time in my life, I understood that this was my one and only life and I had to live it for MYSELF.

So, I took a massive risk: I set out to discover what it meant to create my own version of success.

That same weekend of the event, I broke up with my then-boyfriend of seven years, flew back to Seattle to tell my parents I was not applying to medical school, and decided to move back to Los Angeles because that’s where I wanted to live. I also invested $15,000 and maxed out multiple credit cards to hire a private coach and buy tickets to more inspirational events. I was ALL IN.

Da Costa: What struggles did you face in starting your million-dollar business?

Zenkina: I’d like to say that life was perfect after I made these changes, but truthfully, it got far worse before it got better. First, I quickly lost passion for the online fitness business that I started in college and watched my only income dwindle to just $150 a week. I couldn’t afford rent, so I slept on my grandmother’s couch and reluctantly picked up a 9-5 job working for $15/hour as a receptionist. 

At the time, I felt like I was moving backward. I had no idea what the future held and felt absolutely discouraged about making all these courageous life changes just to end up living on my grandma’s couch with $15k of debt that I didn’t know how to repay.

I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram one night after a long day of work when my thumb froze on a post with a Tony Robbins quote that said: “live as though your prayers have already been answered.” I felt instant clarity run through my veins as I thought to myself, what would I do if my success was already inevitable and I lived each day as if all of my prayers were answered?

That night, I made a commitment to turn the “I lived on my grandma’s couch” experience into one of my best comeback stories. Remembering the breakthroughs I had just six months prior, I immediately dove even deeper into my personal development journey, reminding myself to keep my head up and stay on the path.

That night’s commitment led to the creation of the multi-million dollar company I run today. Manifestation Babe became a brand that empowers women to know their worth, create their own version of success, and have all the tools they need to achieve their wildest dreams. 

Zack Kravits

Da Costa: How did you go from $9K to $600k in less than a year?

Zenkina: People always ask me what catapulted massive income growth in such a short amount of time. The secret?

I committed to working harder on my mindset than I did on anything else. The action you take on a daily basis is driven by the beliefs and attitudes you hold about your business. Simply put, If you don’t believe something is possible for you, taking the action required to reach your goals will feel like an uphill battle. 

From my grandmother’s couch and beyond, I committed to only consuming positive, empowering, and productive content in the form of motivational books, podcasts, audiobooks, and YouTube videos. For the next 12 months, I spent at least two hours a day soaking up everything I could from thought leaders such as Dr. Wayne Dyer, Oprah, Bob Proctor, and Napoleon Hill. These online mentors taught me how important it was to rewire my brain in order to experience success in my business.

I created a website, Instagram account, and private Facebook group called Manifestation Babe, where I committed to sharing free, high-value content that people could genuinely learn from to adopt a more productive mindset and a better quality of life.  By mid-2017, I’d surpassed 25,000 followers and was growing rapidly. Within three years, my community was over 200,000 people.

I made a conscious effort to understand my growing audience’s needs, desires, and struggles on an intimate level. I created products and services to serve them, such as private coaching packages, group coaching programs, digital courses, and workbooks that I self-published on Amazon. In 2016, my only offers were a $33 masterclass and private coaching. By 2017, my product suite grew to 10 different services leading to a $600,000 income year. 

Diana Sofia Tabatabai

Da Costa: What are the key mindset hacks for entrepreneurs looking to go big on their business?

Zenkina: My top go-to hacks to tap into the power of your mindset and create your million-dollar business are:

1. Make it a priority to only consume positive and inspirational content: Rather than starting your morning with turning on the news or checking your Instagram, do something that will start the day on a positive note. Feed your mind by listening to positive, uplifting, and empowering content like podcasts, audiobooks, or anything else that’s inspiring and gets you excited to make a difference in people’s lives.

Your mindset is at the very core of every decision you make in your life and business. No single action ever came without a thought or belief behind it. 

2. Speak to yourself like you’re already successful: By tapping into affirmations, which are repeated positive statements designed to combat negative thoughts and self-doubt, I skyrocketed my confidence, self-esteem, and belief in my ability to create a successful business.

What if you told yourself exactly what you need to hear on a daily basis instead of relying on external validation from others? Working with positive affirmations like “I am a massive success” or “I am capable of accomplishing anything I set my mind to” has been a game-changer for me and my students.

3. Visualize your ideal business every day as if it were already yours: Did you know that your subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between what’s real or imagined? Dr. Richard Suinn proved this when working with Olympic athletes: the same parts of the brain would light up whether the studied athletes were actually skiing or just visualizing themselves skiing.

I take 10 minutes every night to create a mental movie in my mind of me hitting a specific financial goal (like a $500,000 revenue month) or impact goal (like speaking to an audience of 1,000 people). I see the end result in mind as if it were already achieved and I am already celebrating its accomplishment. By doing this, I’m forming new neural connections in my brain and mapping a blueprint to my success on an unconscious level.

Going “all in” in your business is certainly not for the faint of hearts. It takes courage, sharp focus, persistence, belief in the unattainable, and will most definitely go against the grain of everything you and your family have known to be true.

But you and I both know that you’re worth it. Remember that anything is achievable for you when you recognize that yes, you can really create your dream business. Work harder on your mindset than you work on anything else, and soon you’ll find that your mindset starts working for you.

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