Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christine Patruno. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Christine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?
The best investment I have made as a business owner was hiring a business mentor. Originally, CPHonesTea was my passion project/side gig that was “something from me” while working full time in Finance. However, about a year and a half in, the business exceeded my expectations and I had a client a waitlist. I took a step back and asked myself, “I’m only giving about 50% of my efforts to CPHonesTea, and I already have a waitlist?! What if I were able to give 100%?”. The wheels then started turning for me about the strong possibility of walking away from my Finance career of almost 10 years, to take CPHonesTea full time. However, I had not a clue where to start in terms of my execution to get CPHonestea to a place that it was a well-oiled machine that could function as a full time business.
“How do I formally register my business?”, “How do I set up a payment processer and create better marketing materials?”, “How do I create a financial roadmap and know how to handle taxes?” … Questions like these and many others completely flooded my brain. Instead of feeling excited about the possibility to become a full time entrepreneur and take my thriving passion project full time, I felt absolutely overwhelmed, exhausted, and honestly, full of doubt that I could actually do this.
Fast forward a bit, I setup a consultation with someone in the wellness community who was offering business mentorship, and her story aligned with what I was trying to achieve, AKA, a true no-brainer to work with her. During our consultation when I absolutely flooded her with all of my questions, fears, and concerns, I remember feeling immediately comforted knowing by working with her that I would have her support and expertise to help me execute taking CPHonesTea full time, but also feel confident in its ongoing success.
However, knowing nothing about the business mentorship field, I was a little taken aback when I heard the price tag. I spent some time to do my research and realized this was in fact the norm, and she was also offering me a pretty competitive rate. As weary as I was, I knew that I had to reframe my perspective to view this as an investment, not an expense. As soon as I did this, I leaned into the fact that I knew that by making this investment, it would save me money in the long run by helping me avoid costly mistakes and would help me scale my business and be able to leave my 9-5 at a much more rapid pace. Clearly, the return of investment here was something that I could not even put a price value on. I grit my teeth and threw her mentorship program on my credit card with my fingers crossed and hoped for the best. Fast forward a year later, I made my return of investment back (and then some) within the first year of our work together, and I could not be more grateful, as well as relieved, Without our work together, it would have never been possible to take CPHonesTea to the place it needed to be in order for me to leave my 9-5 full time. Her knowledge and expertise was a massive timesaver and roadmap for not only scaling the business. but also increasing my confidence as an entrepreneur.
Ironically, when I made the announcement on social media in January 2022 that I would be leaving my full time Finance career to pursue CPHonesTea full time, the questions came pouring in about how I was able to make it happen, what systems did I use, so on and so forth. This eventually lead me to create my own business mentorship offering, and help guide and support other hopeful entrepreneurs, coaches, and creators scale their businesses, or even create one from the ground up. Currently, business mentorship makes up 50% of CPHonesTea.
Christine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
In college, I was captain of the NCAA Division II Tennis team & a thriving Psychology major. Having the combination of both on my shoulders taught me how to properly nourish both my body and mind, so that I could show up strong; physically and mentally, on the court and in the classroom. (Oh, and with living the typical college life too!) I had my plan – I was going to graduate with honors and hit the ground running immediately at my prestigious NYU graduate program to begin building my career as one of New York City’s best therapists. What could go wrong? I had it all mapped out and under control…until I didn’t.
Maybe practicing therapy isn’t for me after all…
On my first day at NYU (in my very first class), the professor said to us, “about 50% of you in this room are going to withdraw from the program due to burnout. You’ll learn that therapy isn’t for you, but you can still figure out another way to work with others and serve, I promise.”
To make a long story short, I ended up in this category.
The strong, thriving college athlete who prided herself on being able to always have a plan, purpose and balance her health and wellness so she could show up to all things energized and “ready to go” become a faded memory. I was burnt out, overweight, sleep-deprived, and frustrated that what I thought therapy would be was not aligning with what it actually was. Withdrawing from the program my second year, I felt like a complete and utter failure, who had zero sense of purpose or direction…just a large amount of student loans to pay back. I had no choice but to hit the ground running for a job, and maybe eventually reflect on just exactly what “went wrong” with my experience in grad school.
Let’s fast forward…landing a job & hitting the reset button.
After 12 weeks, I did finally secure that job, and it eventually led to a successful career in corporate finance. Convinced I had to let go and release my true purpose of helping others in order to pay back loans and other bills, I “shut off” that part of me…or so I thought.
The only reason I was able to secure a job after withdrawing from grad school with ZERO plan, was because I took those 12-weeks during my interview process to reset my nutrition and mindfulness practices. I took my control back, and became an even better version than the “thriving college athlete who balanced it all”. Each week, little by little, I started reincorporating the movement and mindfulness practices (along with newer ones) back into my routine, and focusing on consuming the foods I knew made me feel good, and help me to show up as my personal best. Before I knew it, the extra pounds were gone, my sleep improved, and I just felt more balanced, at ease, and ready for this next phase of my life.
I share this with you for an important reason.
I started to take notice of how I could help those around me recover and come back stronger from severe burnout…
I started suggesting and offering my own practices and tips, and slowly became known as the “go to” for nutrition and mindfulness questions. Others around me started to become intrigued with my concepts, and the core belief I stood by: nutrition and mindfulness go hand-in-hand…you CANNOT successfully thrive in one area without the balance of the other. I wanted to show others that living a healthy lifestyle DOESN’T have to be “so hard” and you can bounce back from even the most severe burnout, weight gain, weight loss, whatever, as long as its tailored to YOUR preferences and lifestyle.
CPHonesTea is born…
Continuing to help others around me, I started to feel more comfortable reflecting on my experience at NYU. One day, during a walking meditation (yes, you can walk and meditate…I’ll teach you), those professor’s words played in my mind loud and clear: “about 50% of you in this room are going to withdraw from the program due to burnout. You’ll learn that therapy isn’t for you, but you can still figure out another way to work with others and serve, I promise.”
It was the, “but you can still figure out another way…” that caused me to stop in my tracks. I realized: I HAVE been living my purpose, this entire time. It just wasn’t what my original, “cookie cutter plan” was… and that’s okay. I was never a failure to walk away from putting myself into a box that I just didn’t fit into.
Refusing to put myself into another box, I decided that I wanted to reach even more people when it came to simplifying living a healthy lifestyle, while maintaining my finance career.
After sharpening my time management skills even more, I became a certified nutrition coach as of June 2020 and the rest is history.
Fast forward to 2022, now I’m pursuing my passion Full time!
2022 was the year that I said a fully committed YES to my passion – helping people. I quit my full-time corporate finance career and made CPHonesTea my full-time job. Just, Wow.
People keep asking me how I did it and by popular demand, I am now offering business mentorship for other hopeful entrepreneurs. I want to help others build their passion into full-time, successful businesses.
The journey continues…
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I made sure to niche down in one specific area first before expanding into others. For example, I have always been a personal finance nerd, loving to share my favorite tips, tricks, and hacks to get the most bang for your buck on all areas. Currently, this is a huge part of my brand and presence on social media – but did I start out sharing these things? Absolutely not.
I knew the most important thing was to niche down and make sure I was the “go-to” in one specific area. For me, that was the nutrition coach who was known for breaking up with diet culture, empowering and educating my clients and community to achieve a healthy, balanced lifestyle through the practices and methodologies of a mindful eating lifestyle. No restriction, no counting calories, just an 80/20 balance.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Focusing on service, not sales. Always lead from a place of, “how I can help?”.
Clients can feel when you’re being the cringy, pushy salesman/woman and it is the worst energy to give off. Not just for them, but yourself. Focus on remaining confident in your abilities and knowing that if a potential client doesn’t want to work with you, its OKAY!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cphonestea.com
- Instagram:@tea_with_cp