E12 Authenticity and Money Mindset in Creative Entrepreneurship with Lissette Calveiro 💵💰💫

Starting your creative entrepreneurship journey will require a lot of you and your leadership. The work, time and money (that you may not have in the bank just yet!!). Money is a big topic, even for those who have it in excess! However, the right money mindset will pull you out of debt to the career and life you dream of and deserve.

In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, Lissette Calveiro shares her creative entrepreneurship journey from being a struggling Instagram influencer with debt to a thriving influencer marketing consultant. She talks about building a positive money mindset as an employee and an entrepreneur, including practical tips for asking for a raise (because you deserve it!).  

Listen to this episode to learn how a positive money mindset can help your creative entrepreneurship journey!

Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here. 

🔥Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

1. Learn how rejection from your "dream job" might be a redirection to something better.
2. Get practical tips on how to request the raise you deserve.
3. Learn the money mindset that got Lissette out of debt — what she had to do, how she had to think, and how she leveraged her assets.

📘Resources

• Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Sign up for Diana’s Camp Clarity Course now!
• Take a week off and join the first Diana Davis Creative Retreat in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, from August 29 to September 1!
• Attract your dream clients with my free masterclass!  
• The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery by Brianna West
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle
• Access other courses from the Diana Davis Creative
• Learn more about Lissette’s work at Influence with Impact. 
• Read New York Post’s article on Lissette: My quest for Instagram stardom left me in financial ruin.
• Lissette’s Influence with Impact: The Mastermind masterclass. 
• Try out the Financial Gym, just like Lissette!
• Connect with me: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram
• Connect with Lissette: Email | Website | Instagram 

🎧Episode Highlights

[05:06] Get to Know Lissette

• Lissette describes herself as a lifelong learner full of energy and sunshine. 
• She loves human connection and communicating with people.  
• Lissette started her career in public relations out of her love for telling stories. 
• She has always worked in communications because she genuinely loves communicating with people.

[06:47] Lissette’s Instagram Journey

[06:50] Lissette: ‘People see [your] Day 10,005 and don’t realize where you started.’

• Lissette’s Instagram journey was unintentional. She made content for her personal use. 
• She enjoyed the process of creating content. 
• In 2013, she started a blog called ‘Don’t Cry Over Spilled Green Tea.’ It didn’t have consistent themes, but she told stories about her life in New York. 
• Over time, Lissette wondered why no one wanted to pay her anything. She realized she did not have a personal brand. She didn’t even know who she was. 

[09:41] Building Lissette’s Personal Brand

• Lissette then decided to change her approach and create more personalized content. She spoke from her heart.
• In 2018, she wrote an article about her struggle with spending more than she earns to keep up with an influencer’s life. The story got picked up by The New York Post and went viral.
• Afterward, Lissette's following began to grow from 10,000 to 30,000. As of this recording, she has 80,000 followers. 
• She believes this growth resulted from aligning herself and being clear on who she was. 

[12:24] Authenticity is Everything 

• Be comfortable with taking control of your story.
• Lissette recommends keeping a deep journal to write about who you think you are. 
• You will stand out by showing up as yourself. People will do business with you because they are attracted to your story. 

[15:52] Rejection and Redirection

• It is essential to recognize that events from your childhood come into who you are now. 
• Throughout the years, Lissette’s plans have been rejected and redirected.
• Rejection is redirection. You have to have a little bit of openness.

[23:10] Lissette: ‘A lot of the things that we were doing, or that I was doing along the way of my career was just me constantly innovating with myself, but I definitely thought I had a plan.’

[25:17] The Science of Astrology

• Lissette is obsessed with the atmospheric sciences and believes that it explains so much about how we live.
• She believes that we are all energy balls of molecules. 

[28:41] Moving Back to New York 

• Lissette first moved to New York in 2013 but moved again because she had difficulty juggling her savings and emergency fund. 
• Eventually, her agency asked her to set up their office in New York, so Lissette asked for a raise to offset costs. When she didn’t get it, she looked for another job. 
• She moved to a job that offered $65,000. 
• This moment changed Lissette’s money mindset. She pushed for the salary she knew she deserved, and asked for raises and bonuses. 

[33:11] Asking for Raise

• First of all, talk about it. If no one’s talking about it, ask other people. 
• Remember that it is never about other people. It’s about the management that does not equitably pay everyone. 
• Advocate for yourself. Know the value you bring to your companies and clients. 
• Do not fall trap to the idea of having to overdeliver. Be comfortable understanding that you deserve this amount of money. 

[35:59] Starting as an Entrepreneur 

• Lissette never thought of becoming an entrepreneur. She thought it was too much work and liked being part of a system. Eventually, she decided to shift from side hustle to full-time.
• She saved up three months of emergency savings just in case she had $0 coming in.
• As a freelancer, she made sure she worked on her money mindset. She joined manifestation groups and constantly worked to keep a healthy perspective on money. 
• Lissette describes her first full year of entrepreneurship as a question mark. Then, the following years are about refining everything. 

[41:14] Lissette: "But try things that feel good. And then you'll find the things that you actually want to spend your time doing."

[42:21] Getting Out of Debt 

• Lissette’s initial money mindset was, ‘make more money, spend less money.’ However, she learned that there’s more to it than that.
• There are systemic things preventing people from getting out of debt.
• Look at your finances. Build a spreadsheet stating all your monthly payments, your earnings, and where it's coming from. 
• You will not know the problems you’re in with money if you do not have a system.
• In 2018, Lissette finally hired a financial coach, The Financial Gym. She shares that it helped her become accountable for her budgeting and milestones. 

[45:55] Building Your Money Mindset

• Despite paying off her loans, Lissette still felt guilt around money. She started doing money manifestations, joining masterminds, and taking courses.
• Money is energy, and people are energy. 
• As our energy evolves, so does our relationship with money. That relationship develops and never fully heals. It won't be perfect.
• How you spend money changes once you think about your relationship with it. 

[55:31] Lissette’s Final Words 

• For Lissette, creativity is problem-solving. It is seeing things differently from a different perspective. 
• She is currently reading two books: The Mountain Is You and Untamed.&