Entrepreneur And Author Chrissy Grigoropoulos Reveals How To Be Unstoppable (#416)

416 Chrissy Grigoropoulos
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Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Chrissy Grigoropoulos is the founding and managing attorney at the Grigoropoulos Law Group, LLC. She's also the corporate real estate broker of Property Sharks Realty, as well as the CEO of IME Sharks. Chrissy has vast experience in criminal defense, primarily handling high profile criminal cases and large exposure, personal injury, and third party workers compensation matters.

She also appears as trial counsel to other law firms litigating their personal injury lawsuits in New York courts at arbitrations and mediations.

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Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, you heard it in the official introduction. We have a thought leader, an author, an entrepreneur, chrissy, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us. There is always a story behind the story. What's your story, Chrissy? What brought you from where you were to where you are today? 

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: Thank you so much for having me, I would love to tell you my story. That's a great question. It's a long winded one, so I'll try to make it short and sweet. I come from immigrant family from Greece. My father came here when he was about 18 years old and tried to pursue the American dream, which he was pretty [00:03:00] successful at.

I'm the first person in my family to graduate undergraduate, as well as doctorate degree in law. I became an attorney and I like to think of my law firm as my first baby business and I've raised it up to be a three firm law office and three location law office in New York. I also have other businesses.

I'm a corporate real estate broker. I'm also the owner of. IME sharks, which is a independent medical examination. It's someone that accompanies a injured person that's going to attend doctor's appointments with the person that they're suing or for the insurance carrier. So we also have that business, to discuss as well.

So, all in all, it's really a matter of figuring out what you like to do and, pursuing it further. I did write a book. The book was released this past June. It's called Lady Shark. How to become a millionaire in your thirties. It's a bestseller on Amazon. I'm happy to say and here we are today.

I

Jeffrey Feldberg: we get going, please go to the show notes in. [00:04:00] There is a link to Chrissy's book. You heard her say it lady shark, and we have the lady shark with us in the person cook on the link, get the book. But Chrissy, my goodness, there's so much there that you've shared with us. Let's go back though, to some of the earlier days, like so many of us, your family, an immigrant family, most of us started that way.

What was that like for you in particular being with immigrant parents now to the country? It's a new country for them. They want to give you a better life. What was it like growing up? How did that shape you in terms of where you are today?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: Think it definitely played a very predominant role in who I am today. I think that with parents that aren't really from America, I feel like they've push you harder. You know, The kids of first generation or being first generation myself I think that they just push you. They're really a no nonsense type of upbringing that you know, I, even from something as simple as not wanting to go to school because you don't feel good.

My father was always the type, well, I don't feel good and I still have to go to work. So you have to do the same. Obviously if you're deathly ill, that's an exception to the [00:05:00] rule. I think that my, family always pushed me to be independent and try to push me to use my brain instead of my hands.

My dad came here and he was his own construction day laborer and then turned into having his own construction companies and obviously turned into investing. And he's a property owner, of different businesses different buildings as the landlord type business. But he basically was all in real estate throughout the Assignment contract finding before he was able to invest and purchase his own properties.

So he was definitely very much so involved with real estate. I think that I was exposed a lot to real estate. But you know, as a young kid, I did a lot of translating even, you know, for my dad writing up invoices along with, my mother for his. Contracting Corp and things of that nature. So I think that most 10 year olds, nine year olds are not doing that when they're, not first generation, you know, kids.

So I think that it definitely molded me. And my dad was always the pushing force with a lot of the boosters [00:06:00] for, okay, you can do this by yourself, just try, you know, anything you want to be, you can be just put your head to it and it'll happen. So it was definitely helpful to have that type of support.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, I can certainly relate like you being first generation and having that immigrant mentality on the parent side and actually the entire family side with that it certainly makes an impression that's for sure and before we get to Lady Shark and some of the wonderful things that you're doing My goodness on the legal side on the law side of what you're doing in addition to property and real estate.

You're also on the litigation side. And I would imagine you're seeing the human condition, the good, the bad, the not so good. I'm just curious, looking back at that, and I'm sure there are so many stories that you could share and what comes to mind. How did that make an impression on you? Positive or not?

When you see these kinds of cases that are coming across your desk.

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: For sure. I think that on a day to day basis, I feel like after being in the business for [00:07:00] about 10 years now, I've seen it all. But you wouldn't be so mind boggled to know that sometimes on a day to day, you still experience new things from the Other lawyers dropping cases that are, easily able to be converted to a winner case that I'm able to convert and get it, done for more than six figures where another attorney threw it away.

I mean, there's surprising things that happen all the time. There's. Some attorneys that aren't the best attorneys and doing things that aren't straight and narrow, but I think that all in all that the majority of my clients, they're really injured. They're looking for someone to guide them. I feel like their lack of knowledge is really the key to our job security here, because a lot of people, they've never been in accidents before.

Obviously, we have, some that are having, prior accidents, prior injuries and things like that, or they may know more than the standard client. But I think that the majority in my field specifically the clients really want to be educated and guided and they're going through the worst time of their life.

And it's my job to [00:08:00] make sure that they're being guided and giving the advice and knowledge that they need in order to have a successful outcome for their case.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And certainly as you're walking us through that, it goes back to always, whether in business or in life, you always want to surround yourself with the right kind of people at the time when you need to have that. You don't know what you don't know, and you don't want to mess around with that. So from that side, In your book, Lady Shark, you're talking about really what we all want, the American dream how to get out there, how to start becoming financially successful and later on being financially independent and having the financial freedom that goes along with that.

And I love how you broke the book down into eight different steps. Very clear, very actionable for what we should be doing. It's almost an unfair question of what I'm going to ask. And if you said it was, I would completely agree. I'm going to ask it anyways. It's almost like asking you perhaps pick a favorite child.

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: I knew this was where you were going with it. I already knew.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You're a pro at this. But of the eight steps, is there one that's a personal favorite [00:09:00] for you that you want to share with us?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: I believe all the chapters are amazing, of course, like the, you know, who's your favorite child answer. You have to puffer it with that. But I really think that step number eight for me, because it really gives you the ideas.

Okay. I'm motivated now. I get it. I think for me with the book, I really talk to people because a lot of people that are reading my book, they are stuck in the nine to five, or they're stuck somewhere where Maybe their income doesn't cover all their bills and they just really want to grow or maybe they're doing great and they still want to grow.

So I think that the book before the eighth chapter is really pushing you to just get in the mindset that you need to be, why not you, instead of thinking, you know, oh, why me? Why am I going through this? Well, why not you? Why can't you be who you look up to or who you're? That person that you fantasize of being, why can't that be you?

And it's really just a sense of mentality, but the step eight, it really teaches you some ideas on, well, okay, I'm ready. I want to do it, but what do I do? So I feel like step eight, part of step eight is time to budget, you know, awareness for [00:10:00] me. I always talk about the first step of, making a change in your life.

You have to be aware of where you're at. status quo. So if you know that you're making a thousand a month, let's say just to talk around numbers and your bills are 900 a month, you already know that with everything else, you're never going to be able to cover your bills. Some people, they don't even open their mail.

They shove it in the corner and they don't even know how much the totality of their current finances and bills on a monthly basis. are. So part one of step eight is time to budget. It talks about what tie both sides of saving, you know, it talks about from saving to investing. It's great to save money, but if you're just having, let's say you're a little bit more advanced than some of my readers and you do have investment, let's say you have 100, 000 or 50, 000 to give round numbers in the bank, but you're paying interest on a mortgage that, you're exceeding, whatever the interest rate that the bank is going to give you, which is close to nothing now, just for having money sit in a bank, there's CDs on a, very amateur level of investing that you can start at.

So I kind of go through different motions of [00:11:00] that. I do talk about what possible side hustles people can pursue. So I think that again, back to the people that are in the nine to five that may have a passion, maybe their organizers, maybe their. Charcuterie board makers. Maybe they're event planners.

Maybe there's something of that nature that they love to do, and they may have some people that they do it for on the side, but they're not promoting themselves. They're not doing, you know, things that it takes in order to be an entrepreneur, really committing to the growth of that business. So this chapter is my favorite because it talks about what businesses you can buy, what businesses you can run, how to kind of get into making this life changing distinction from before you, who you were before the book and who you are after you read the book and the last after the step eight is really a workbook to kind of give you space to really put down where you're going in your life, what your status quo is, what and where you want to be.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Christia, as you're saying that you actually bring me back throughout the book, one of the themes that I really enjoyed, it's mindset and mindset. It's more on the art [00:12:00] side of life, the art side of business. It's not going to show up in a profit and loss statement or in a balance sheet. And I'm wondering from your perspective, because you have such an interesting background with what you've been doing, business, law, investor, business owner, the list goes on and on.

But when it does come to mindset, for me anyways, mindset is huge when it comes to success. For yourself on your journey and what you can share with us, what would be some of the biggest mindset shifts that help you go from, okay, I'm just doing okay. Or maybe I'm just getting by to, Hey, I'm actually thriving.

I'm actually where I want to be and I'm successful.

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: It's a great question. I think that the phrase financial freedom for me, even just taking that, in and putting it together with my answer. I feel like financial freedom is really just free time, as 1 prong of it. So when you're noticing that you're doing what you love, you're able to generate obviously income in order for you to feel comfortable in that aspect.

But really the free time that you can have if you need to have it, when you are an entrepreneur, I feel [00:13:00] like that really helps you see the thriving, obviously the money going up in the bank account, but really trying to be self sufficient without an employee. I think is really rewarding. I think that it's the best feeling and the worst feeling both at the same time.

And I think all the entrepreneurs that are on with us now, I think they, they're probably like in total agreement because I think that the day to day and being able to organize your schedule and being able to be a self starter and figure out what it is to do without. Someone, supervising you without someone paying a paycheck and trying to put together how you're generating your own income.

I think that once you figure it out, once you get over that hump as an entrepreneur, it's the most rewarding thing.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And as you're speaking about the mindset, Chrissy, it actually brings me back to, I want to say chapter two or step two, if memory serves and what stood out for me from the mindset side. You're talking about the competition and you're saying, well, there really is no competition, which I absolutely loved.

And, by the way, I shouldn't even have to say this in, given where we are this [00:14:00] day and time, but the fact that you're a woman who's in business should really not make a difference, but for better, for worse, it did make a difference. And, Lady Shark and some of the trials and tribulations that went along with that, and I appreciate what You've done and what you've went through so you can share that with us.

So when it comes to again the mindset or how we're looking at ourselves and step two swim with the other lady sharks The competition there is none. What do you want us to know about that?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: I think that it's so important. I know that it, maybe it's a cliche statement, but you know, people that keep their eyes on their own paper, it just makes sense. And you can't compare yourself to other people because it doesn't really matter what they're doing, what they have today that they won't have tomorrow or will have more of.

But if you pay attention to yourself, your goal should always be to be better than the day before, better than the year before, better than the month before. And I think that when you're networking, when you're working with other, when I say lady sharks, it's obviously not only women. I'm in, all of my businesses are predominantly male dominated businesses.

It's actually interesting in that respect, the male versus [00:15:00] female. I never even thought of it as a thing, to be able to respond to a question. How do you feel about gender roles? How do you feel about do men and women get paid differently? What do you think women entrepreneurs? I never, I just always thought of myself, I'm a good lawyer just to be a lawyer.

I never even, put that idea out there. I think that a lot of people may create obstacles for themselves. You hear it as, some. I interview, obviously, people to keep my staff and the best talent in my business. I think that's, you know, a goal, but a lot of people, they feel bad for themselves and they're like, Oh, I would make more, but you know, I'm only a woman or I would make more, but you know, I have my family or I would, if that, and you have to take charge and just think positively.

And I think that. When you're giving good, you get good. So when it comes to networking, I always talk about how you should be the one to offer stuff and try to find how you can help the person that you're looking to make a new relationship with, instead of trying to ask for things, you're not going to leave a memory when all you do is ask for things instead of trying to offer something that you can set forth [00:16:00] and begin the relationship.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely advice from the ages look to help people and here's the key though Expect nothing in return help because you want to help not because okay i'm going to do this It's going to be a quid pro quo if I do this and I expect to get that just help expect nothing and Usually when you help enough people eventually get what they want, you'll get what you want.

At least that's been my experience. But let me ask you this. As you look to the eight steps in lady shark and again, people nation, please go to the show notes, click on the link, get the book, you'll read it. You'll come out a whole lot better. Is there one step that as entrepreneurs were tending to overlook or we're just simply not doing that can be a game changer for us of the eight steps.

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: think step two is a big one. I think that does talk about networking and kind of changing with the times. I think between step two and step three just talks about resilience. I know that no business when you first started is easy. I mean, I'm sure there's exceptions to every rule, but I would like to think that no business is just, here we go.

Everything's amazing always. So I think that the goal is you're never a [00:17:00] failure unless you give up. So being resilient really is key. And I think that's really part of like step three. You want to keep swimming, keep going. Don't let, a bad run, a bad month, a bad week, a bad. Stop you. Don't let it discourage you.

There will be better days and you have to push through. I think that as an entrepreneur, if you're not resilient, it's never going to work for you. If if you're not used to hearing the word no, which To this day, I hate that word. So I'm one of those people, but you cannot expect to have a seamless entrepreneur life, especially in the beginning.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Hey Chrissy, let me ask you something. I know, personally, I'll put myself under the microscope, and I'm sure it's very similar for me as it was for you, particularly in the immigrant family mentality. Jeffrey, you never give up. You keep on going, and you keep on going until you accomplish that. No matter what it takes, you just go and do it.

And yes, there is a truth to that. As I look back on my own journey, though, there were times where I should have quote unquote quit, I'm using air quotes because it was just as another saying, it was just good money after bad or [00:18:00] bad money after good, whatever that expression is, I just should have quit.

And I've always struggled as an entrepreneur and as a type A personality of knowing, hey, it's not quite working out. Maybe I should put a stop to it and just do a 180 or do something else and go in a different direction. How about yourself? How do you deal with that?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: I think that's a really good question. I think that I've had other businesses that I have stopped pouring into or have poured in less to based on ROI. You always have to know your numbers, but that's part of the awareness. I think that. As you said it's never going to be the, okay, I think now is the day I have to pull the plug, or I think now is the day that I need to change direction.

But I think that based on, when you have multiple businesses, the example that I'm going to give is I have a business that does a workout holding, it's called Lady Shark Fitness. And it's great, you know, however, when you're talking about ROI of, let's say percentages that are nominal verse, let's say you're pouring into a business that it's as if you're winning the lottery, depending on the types [00:19:00] of cases that you work with, it's almost a no brainer because we're only, for me, I look at it as if you're an entrepreneur and you know that you have all this time that you need to dedicate to your business.

As you just described, you want to pull the plug. You're not sure if you should. And as you had the air quotes, I should have stopped and I didn't. Sometimes those hardest moments that you don't give up, let's say, even if you were supposed to, and you broke through that makes you even stronger.

It makes you even more hungry. It makes you be more resilient. I think that it's easy for it to give up. I think it's very easy to give up and sometimes it may be smarter, but from my experience, when it's. When you're pushing through a moment that you think is probably one of the last, and you're able to overcome obstacles that put you in that place, I think that, sometimes you want to just keep going and be resilient and push through.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And keeping along that theme, as we're pushing through, as we're being resilient, and I'm right there with you, Chrissy. One thing I couldn't help but wonder, and I really admired how you're saying, Hey, when you want to become [00:20:00] wealthy, do it on your own terms. And you talk about that a lot, of doing it on your own terms.

And I was wondering, given your background again, not only just an entrepreneur, but you're dealing with the human condition on the legal side. So doing it on your own terms, what does that mean to you? And at the same time, sharing it to us here at the DeepAuthNation, becoming wealthy on our own terms.

What would you want us to know about that?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: I think that there's, for every profession, there's the cliche thought about the profession. I think that most people, when they think of a lawyer, they usually think of an older man that's respected and, you know, wears glasses, has white hair. And maybe those types of cliche come with the types of advertising that they would do either on the radio or something, maybe, by a newspaper.

I think that when it's on your own terms, sometimes you really want to be authentic to yourself. And, for me, I put myself out there. I have my social media, gets me clients. Is it the norm as an attorney? That's a cliche type of attorney would be doing marketing [00:21:00] wise. No, but it's on my own terms.

It helps me in my business. It pays the bills. It brings in cases. It pays not only my bills, but I have. Five other attorneys that work for me, it pays for their bills too. So I feel like when you're able to be authentic with yourself and, do things on your own terms, you don't have to follow the quote unquote rules or be the black and white, what's defined by your title or the type of business that, that you run.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And as you're saying that, I'd love for you to share, Jeffrey, you're on base, you're off base, because in going along that path, and again, I'll just put myself under the microscope either in my dealings or with myself. I know there've been situations where it's almost as a saying goes, doing a deal with the devil.

You're going in for it because you have these goals, you have these aspirations, but perhaps you're going about it in a way, or you're in a group of people in a way that just, wow, you're giving up a lot. You're really giving up yourself to get something. And when you look back, wow, why did I do that? It wasn't worth it.

Uh, back to your point. I should have done [00:22:00] it on my own terms.

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: Exactly. I think that hindsight's always 2020. I think that we can all agree with that. But I think when you're doing things on your own terms, you're able to kind of test, check and revise, try something the way you think it's it should go. If it goes your way. Amazing. If not, then you got to scrape, you know, brush off your knees and try something new.

Think of the next thing.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so from that perspective, I mean, no one's ever perfect. My goodness. Chrissy offline, I was sharing a little bit about my journey and on the business side, I'll share with you. If I had a dollar for every mistake that I made, I would not have needed my exit. I would have been well ahead of my exit for all the mistakes that I made.

And looking back, some of the mistakes were just plain stupid. Okay. Got that. Other mistakes were terrific learning points for me on your own journey. Anything that stands out for you, perhaps, again, air quotes, a mistake, that looking back, okay, yeah, wow, that was really a learning opportunity for me, that really changed my trajectory, anything that comes to mind for you?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: There's so many. really is so many. I think that the types of advertising, [00:23:00] there's always going to be someone calling you cold calling, warm calling, any type of calling to try to get your money to help bring you business. And I think that for me, I like to think outside the box, try things that other people aren't trying.

And sometimes I've invested money that's gone, you know, unwarranted, but sometimes the risk is worth maybe a little bit of a loss. Maybe it's that key to something, the floodgates are going to open of, new wealth for your business. So I think that definitely that type of person, however, with every mistake that you make, you learn, you're like, okay, well, you have to learn from this mistake.

But advice that I always had from my father is. Try to pay attention to people around you, other business owners, other people in general, whether it's on a personal level or on a business level that have made mistakes. Try to learn from their mistakes so you're not following and doing the same mistake that you already know how the story will go.

So I think that I try my hardest to do that, but sometimes things, amazing things can come of it. You can stumble upon, things and they happen to work out when you least expect it in the reverse way.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I know, hindsight is [00:24:00] always 20 20, as I look back, at the time, what seemed, wow, this is a really dark moment, I don't know how I'm going to get through this, or why I'm even going through this, and you look back, it was the biggest gift. If not for this, I wouldn't have done that, or I wouldn't have learned this.

That reminds me, one of the things, well, a lot of things stood out in the book, but one of the sayings that you have that I don't really hear a lot of, you said it, working hard means thinking hard. So we've all heard to work hard, got that. What do you want us to know though? Working hard means thinking hard.

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: I think that a lot of people take the work hard so you can be successful as the be all end all, but I think if you think hard and you're able to clear your brain and hone in on what you're really trying to accomplish, when you think hard, you're able to brainstorm, you're able to kind of research what you're looking to do, see other things.

I think with AI nowadays, it makes Things so much easier than it was before. I'm in a generation that AI is super new. And I think that it's super helpful. So I think that little by little, [00:25:00] you know, it's, really thinking hard, meaning you really want to thoroughly run your ideas and check them and see what the results could be one way or the other.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And AI, certainly on my list of questions in preparing for today to ask you about, I mean, You're in different areas and AI is really having an impact in each of those areas. We could probably do an episode and all the different areas of business that you're in. Generally speaking, though, let's zoom back out for just a moment, Chrissy, where we are today.

And I know AI is changing. And even when this episode, it actually airs, AI will have changed from where we are today. I get that. But that said, AI as an entrepreneur? As a thought leader, just as a person, what does it mean to you as you look to the future knowing that AI is here and it's only getting more advanced, perhaps even better over time?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: I think it's amazing. I think that obviously it's not a hundred percent, so we can't really use it. For things that, that you need a law license for. It's not going to give you cases and things like that, that you need. [00:26:00] However, I think that even with simple tasks drafting a more formal email, draft what you think you would put, copy and paste it into an AI device, and poof, here you go, you have a beautiful, well written, proper grammar, proper spelling to just shoot over.

I think it's just going to be a time saver. I think that for me personally, I've done a lot of research into it. You can upload medical records to, and then they'll basically not only read through them, but summarize them, put them in order they'll red flag, bad things, green flag, good things.

It's just, I think that the automation of a lot of. hard labor, not hard labor, but you know, mental labor, such as reading thousands of pages of medical records can really change the world and change really the salaries that you're going to have to pay other people in order to do that.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And as you're talking about that, I want to flip something that you're doing and just look at it from a different perspective. So I know in your law practice, you're helping people who have been in some kind of an incident, it's negatively impacted their lives [00:27:00] and you're looking to make things right on their behalf, but that said, let's flip it now. So you're speaking with entrepreneurs, you're an entrepreneur yourself. What can we do in structuring our company and structuring our agreements? Hey, life is going to happen. Unintentional things may happen to either people in our employee or people that are using our products or services.

What can we be doing? Chrissy to protect ourselves as much as we can from that unknown. What would that look like? Any thoughts?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: Well, three letters CYA, right? And usually the CYA is mean, the one that's just bold as a response is really insurance. Whether it's just workers comp insurance for your employees, whether it's disability insurance for yourself, God forbid, something happens to you as an entrepreneur, you have nothing to fall back on.

So disability insurance is definitely a plus with that regard. But aside from, premise liability workers comp disability, all that. stuff in order to protect yourself from real bad things happening. I think that job security [00:28:00] as far as making sure that you have good talent working for you.

I think that that's definitely the key to at least trying to make your life easier once you have the right people. Sometimes you have to pay more for the right people and, that's hard when you're a new entrepreneur, but I've been through it all the right people, the wrong people and everything in between.

So I think that the best advice is really making sure that you have people that understand what you do and are part of wanting to make it better and that are not just looking for a nine to five paycheck to paycheck because you're not going to be protected by someone that's just looking to get money and leave.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Couldn't agree more, and going back to what you said on the CYA, couldn't agree more on that side. And I would suspect that, and again, would love your insights, that really as entrepreneurs, we get it backwards. We're not seeing someone like yourself until after something has happened instead of before something has happened.

Hey, Chrissy, I heard you on the Deep Wealth podcast and I want to protect my company. Can you take a look at our agreements or can you tell me what we're missing or from a business continuity kinds of protection or insurance, what we should be doing? [00:29:00] What should we be looking for in terms of working with someone like yourself?

What would be the okay, I'm gonna check that box. Yes, Chrissy does that or hey, you know what? There's a red flag here Chrissy told me about that. I'm gonna walk in the other direction find someone else who can help me What should be looking for?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: For sure. I think that um, you definitely want to structure your business to know exactly what type of players, I call them players, but they're really what type of help that you need for what type of specialists specialty. So do you need an accountant? Do you need a bookkeeper? Do you need in house counsel?

Do you have a partner? Do you have a partnership agreement? Do you have a corporation? Do you have an LLC? You know, It really depends on the corporate structure as well. You want to be protected. Obviously assets are amazing, but you have to protect them. So do you have a trust? what vehicle are you using, in order to protect yourself, protect your family?

God forbid something happens to you. I remember the first time maybe five years ago, someone's okay, well, if something happens to you, what's going to happen to your business? And I'm like 30. What are you talking about? And honestly, at that point, I never even considered [00:30:00] something could happen.

And then I start thinking like, you know what, I don't have a backup plan as far as what can happen. What do I even want to happen? So I think that, you know, it's definitely a lot of the housekeeping, but what you don't want to do is. have open ended questions that can't be answered. You don't want to not know your numbers.

Definitely knowing your numbers is the first step. When you have a business, how much you've invested, how much are you getting dividends? You have it as a corporation. Are you just taking money out of the draw quote unquote, what are you doing? Are you accounting for the money? Are you holding receipts?

Do you use one credit card for your expenses? I think most accountants will thank me for this. Because mine is always having struggles, but you need to be able to account for every dollar out. We can account for every dollar in, depending on your business. My business is not a cash business. So unfortunately, everything is, obviously black and white on paper.

And then we have to figure out how to make that not. Look the way that it is because we have obviously a lot of [00:31:00] expenses with no evidence to show for your expenses. You're paying taxes on money as an entrepreneur. So number one thing would be to make sure you have your expenses and your documents in order to have the taxes done properly.

When the time comes.

Jeffrey Feldberg: makes sense that actually in the default mindset roadmap, we talk about that in terms of step six, the advisory team surrounding yourself with the right people who are going to help you as you go through the various stages. Well, let me ask you this. Christy, I've gone through some different areas.

There's some questions I know that I haven't asked or even some topics that we haven't yet covered before we go into wrap up mode. Is there a question that you want to address that I didn't get a chance to ask yet? Or even a message or a theme that we haven't covered just yet that you want to get out to DeepAuthNation?

And

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: That's difficult. I think that when you are one person and, a lot of people think that, okay, you need six sources of income in order to be a millionaire or things like that. I think that it's wrongfully interpreted because I think that when you're starting a business, I think it's impossible [00:32:00] to start six businesses at the same time.

At least for me, I'm sure it's been done before, but I think that, when you're Everyone probably looks to what the millionaires are saying, what are they doing? How can they just get to that point? And I think that a lot of times we have to give ourselves some grace that there's baby steps.

Things happen little by little and it's not zero to six businesses that are all multi million dollar businesses. That's not realistic. But when you do take it one step at a time, you'd be surprised how great your strides could be when you're focused. I

Jeffrey Feldberg: Christy, can you talk to that a little bit more? Because again, this is my own bias, a data pointer one. It would seem that social media It's curated and what most people don't see, we see the one picture. It looks amazing. Wow. Look at Chrissy, so incredibly successful, the time of her life, everything is just going perfectly, yet behind the scenes, there's things that we're just not gonna show, and it can really distort reality.

So it goes really back to mindset, something that you and I were speaking about earlier. How do [00:33:00] we set our mindset when we're looking around us and everyone just seems to be having the perfect go of things. And look at this, they're going in that direction. Oh, I've always wanted to do that. And they're doing that.

Oh, here I am. I'm just getting things going or I haven't yet gotten to my goals or I can't just do that yet. It can be frustrating. So how do we deal with that?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: It goes back to what we were talking about earlier. You really want to keep your eyes on your own paper. Of course, no one on social media is going to show them in sweats working, 10, 15 hours a day. I know a lot of people may look at me and be like, Oh, she's so lucky.

Everything's amazing. Obviously, the day to day is you're not posting every second of every day. I'm sure every entrepreneur can, join in this, that not every day is easy, not every hour is easy. And the buildup before that quote unquote successful year, is it one year? Is it two years? Is it five years?

I've been in business since late 2016 and it takes. five good years, at least in my world before you're really making money. So I think that five years is a long time to be fighting and fighting without having that [00:34:00] short term or, short term gratification of being quote unquote successful.

So I think that social media is a hoax all in all, but I think that it's our norm now. So for me, obviously there's beautiful things on social media. We post our beautiful things, our wins, we don't post our losses. So when you're an entrepreneur or you're trying to be an entrepreneur, you can't pay attention to what other people are doing.

You don't know what money's backing them. You don't know how many people they have partnerships with. You don't, you really don't know anything. And it really doesn't concern you either, unless it's the same exact thing that you're trying to do, in which case. If they're very successful at it, what I always say is ask them for me.

Whenever I get messages or people asking me, how did you do what you did? I'm always forthcoming and, giving them knowledge or help or direction because. The best people, you know, I've gotten to where I am by great mentors and learning a lot and I've been through a lot and have been exposed to a lot to get the knowledge that I have.

And it's nice to be able to offer that to somebody else. That's hungry to learn

Jeffrey Feldberg: Great advice. And what I'm hearing [00:35:00] you say, and you can show Jeffrey, you're on base, off base, stay in your own lane, focus on you. The competition is with you. No one else. Just do your best and see where you can take it. And don't compare yourself to other people. How am I doing that?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: I think that's exactly it. I think that. It doesn't matter what others are doing. I think at the end of the day you're yourself. You know what you need to do, what you don't need to do. And if you don't, getting some guidance is always helpful.

There's so many different, if you're not good at organizing, figure it out. if you need someone to structure. Who does what with within your organization, get someone that can teach you, the roles, going down as far as direction, if you're the business owner, maybe you shouldn't be doing some day to day things, maybe you should allocate that duty.

I think that as an entrepreneur in the beginning, the hardest thing to do is allocate duties because you think you can do everything yourself the best, which you can probably do it the best, but you can't do everything. So you have to pick and choose what you can do and the value of what you do and the time that it takes you to do it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Fair enough, and before we go into wrap up mode, let me ask [00:36:00] you one last question on that. You didn't get to where you got to because you did everything on your own. In fact, it's the opposite of that. When did you know, Chrissy, in your own journey, Okay, it's time for me to fire myself from doing this. Let me bring somebody else in.

Maybe they'll be 150 percent better than I am. Maybe they'll only be 80 percent as effective as I am. But that's okay, because it's gonna free me up so I can focus on my superpowers to do these other things. What was that like for you, and when did you know to do that?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: At the point of my business is hiring another attorney. When you have a baby business and an attorney, the salaries are over six figures. It's difficult to have to do that in the beginning.

When you have cases that need more than one attorney and different counties, different, exposure sizes of, cases, you just have to do it. I think that it's something that you may not want to do because you know that if you handle it, it's going to be done the right way. Or maybe in the reverse, maybe you don't know how to do one part of your business.

I happen to do every part in my law firm, I've done anything from reception to file clerk to everything in [00:37:00] between there and being an attorney. So I know how to do every portion of the work product that needs to be had, but I think other businesses, maybe some you don't know.

So you want to get an expert in order to try to one, you can either train, learn about it, which is obviously the best method. But if you have capital and you want to hire an expert, that and help your business grow. Then that's, also an option.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Some terrific advice there. Deep Wealth Nation. And so that said, Chrissy, it's time for us to go into wrap up mode. It's a tradition here on the Deepalp podcast. It's really a privilege and an honor for me to ask every guest the same question. So let me set this up for you. It's a fun question. When you think of the movie back to the future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time.

So Chrissy, imagine now it's tomorrow morning. This is the fun part. You look outside your window. Not only is. The DeLorean car curbside, the door is opened. It's waiting for you to hop on in, which you will. And you're now going to go back to any point in your life. Chrissy, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in [00:38:00] time it would be, what would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom?

Or, Hey, Chrissy, do this, but don't do that. What would it sound like?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: That's such a good question. I think I can go back to my early entrepreneur days somewhere after 2016, maybe in 2017, I think that we are the hardest on ourselves and just giving ourselves some grace and just telling our younger selves that everything will be okay, one way or another. I think that's the hardest because, you know, on a day to day as an entrepreneur, you really don't know what.

Will happen, as you said, maybe you should have wrapped it up and you didn't. you really don't know, but I think that all in all, as long as your heart's in the good place, you give good will come. And if you work hard, I feel like smart, hard, you know, thoughtful, and obviously.

Just trying to keep learning more about your business and trying to adapt with the times, it's just really, if I can go back, I would just tell myself that things are going to change, there will be good and bad and indifferent, but it will be okay. I think that's would be reassuring to me because you never feel like that is the case, but it [00:39:00] is.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Such great advice, particularly today, things are changing so quickly. Societal fronts, political fronts, economic fronts, technology fronts, all there. And the advice, hey, know that everything's going to be okay, is certainly reassuring. And Chrissy, before we wrap it up, if a listener, they have a question, they want to speak with you, where would be the best place online to reach you?

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: Awesome. So, the website that you can definitely go on is the lady shark. com. I am also available on Instagram Chrissy G official or Chrissy Grigor at gmail. com is definitely another way as well, but I'm definitely ready, willing, and able to be just helpful to anyone that has any questions.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. Reach out to Chrissy. Check it all out. It's all in the show notes. It's a point and click. It doesn't get any easier. Chrissy, it's official. Congratulations. It's a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

Thank you so much.

Chrissy Grigoropoulos: Amazing. Thank you, Jeff. Have a great day. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? [00:40:00] 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I want you to know that we meticulously craft Every one of our episodes to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

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Thank you so much. 

God bless.