In support of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015, we are featuring conversations with authors, founders, leaders, and visionaries. We hope their insights and experience inspire you to propel your own ideas into action.
Today, we share advice from Austin entrepreneur Krisstina Wise. She’s founder and CEO of a nationally-recognized real estate brokerage. Krisstina incorporated paperless tactics and technology to enable her team to spend more time engaging with clients in the field and less time buried in paperwork.
We recently chatted with Krisstina about how staying inspired and believing in yourself are paramount for entrepreneurs looking to turn their dreams into reality.
How did you create one of the most innovative real estate firms when most struggle to embrace innovation and technology to close more sales?
I am just driven to find the best way and to be able to produce the best service or outcome. Right before the recession, technology was popping up with tools like Evernote and social tools (Twitter, Facebook) and the iPad. I thought the world was changing, if I am going to stay relevant, I need to adopt tools to stay relevant and produce competitive advantages.
What is the best information an entrepreneur needs when they first start out?
The biggest piece of advice I give entrepreneurs is to believe in your dream. Believe it more than anything and that it will make the world a better place at the end of the day. That gives you resilience and tenacity to overcome obstacles when everything is falling apart. You just know I am going to keep going because this is my dream and what I am supposed to do by virtue of this product or innovation being in the world.
1. Believe in your dream. If you don’t, nobody else will.
2. Get really good at articulating your dream and vision. You cannot do it alone. The passion runs through you because you are so hell-bent on producing this dream. Speak it so others want to follow.
3. Believe in yourself.
What’s your process for taking an early idea and evolving it into something more?
The biggest thing, for me, is staying inspired through reading and talking to other people. It’s necessary to have mentors or advisors not only to test your thinking, but to hold you accountable to next steps and the questions you need to put the idea into reality.
Each day, here’s what I am going to accomplish or produce. This one thing. Every day it’s baby steps.
Without mentorship and accountability, it’s difficult to do that on our own.
If you were starting a new venture today, what would be the first item on your to-do list?
I am in my next start-up. It’s called Wealthy Wealthy — now I am teaching money wealth and house wealth. And, it starts again. Inspiration to teach people how to live financially wealthier and sharing and teaching and talking.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
If you are not jumping out of bed for this new idea, then it’s never going to turn into reality. I suggest trying to be alone at a co-work space or coffee shops. Call friends and do brainstorms and idea sharing or inspirational storytelling together to keep the fire going.
What is the best advice/lesson you got from a mentor or leader?
The way you make the biggest impact in the world is who you are, not what you do. Then, focus on what you do as a reflection of you and keep it in that order.
Our first goal needs to be who are we, what do we care about, and how do we make the world a better place? How can my unique talent inspire others? We’re so success or product focused, we have our exit plans, and that’s great, but it starts with ‘self.’
Who we are matters most to do what we do second. How we produce that in the world is an evolution of trial and error. We are constantly growing.
What drives you? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Just to make the world a better place and to live my life’s work. Who I am and what I do impacts the lives of others better and that allows me to live my best life possible. Squeeze the juice out of life and stay present. I got up close with matters. It was always there, there, there — some faraway place wherever ‘there is,’ but whenever I go ‘there’ it was not good enough. It became a way of living that was unsustainable. It didn’t produce a happy person, albeit successful. Now, it’s about being present and self-aware. Who I am and what I do makes a footprint and a ripple to the rest of the world. That inspires me to get out of bed and live in the present moment. Try to have fun doing it.
Who are you following right now that is inspiring to you — authors, advisors, businesses or brands?
I was very inspired by Evernote. I am inspired by great leaders, thinkers, and doers.
Now, I am really following Dave Asprey who is focused on the body and mind health piece and high-performance and the latest science and knowledge about what it truly means to be healthy and live in a state of high performance.
What’s in your toolkit? What are the resources you can’t do without?
Right now, my main toolkit is:
- Evernote
- Slack — been great to manage my team and people all over the place and get out of email hell.
- Email — but only check it a couple times a day and is less and less of a necessary tool.
- iTunes — I love podcasts and acquire so much knowledge listening and always looking for new ones.
- iPhone
What was the last book you read?
I just finished Essentialism by Dave McKeown is a really great book, especially for the entrepreneur. The way he articulated the essentialism concept totally made sense and was very applicable.
