Adam Torres and Christiane Constantineau discuss achieving balance.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
What does it take to achieve balance in your life? In this episode, Adam Torres and Christiane Constantineau, Author, Speaker and Business Coach, explore Christiane’s journey as a coach and what it takes to achieve balance.
Watch Full Interview:
About Christiane Constantineau
Christiane Constantineau, and her professional journey has been profoundly shaped by a personal experience that ignited a commitment to drive positive change. As a seasoned C-Level Executive with a specialization in finance, she provided vital financial insights to businesses as a sought-after CFO-on-demand.
This journey, however, is far more than numbers and spreadsheets; it’s rooted in empathy and a deep understanding of life’s challenges. In a world where trust and credibility are invaluable, she embarked on a path to establish myself as a subject matter expert through personal branding and content marketing. The content she create carries an undertone of promise and reliability, reflecting her unwavering dedication to making a meaningful difference.
In 2023, Christiane authored “Cancer Sucks…,” a meticulously crafted strategic guide that seamlessly merges the worlds of business management and healing. More than a personal narrative, this book serves as a heartfelt and informative companion, embodying my commitment to empowering entrepreneurs facing life-altering challenges, particularly those dealing with cancer diagnoses.
Beyond the book’s pages lies a mission to raise cancer awareness and prevention. She aspire to contribute to a world with reduced cancer rates, emphasizing early detection and support. This book encapsulates these values, offering subtle yet inspiring insights and practical tips for those managing businesses amidst personal challenges.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today my guest is Christiane Constantino. She’s an author, speaker, and a business coach.
Christiane, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Adam, for inviting me. All right. So we got a lot to talk about today. A lot of business owners, a lot of entrepreneurs that watch this show and talking about achieving financial balance and your entrepreneurial life and your personal life, I’m excited to get input from you on how to do this.
And also to share that with my audience. But before we do that, we’ll start this episode, the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute. So at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s what we do.
Christiane, what mission matters to you? Oh, what mission matters to me? I would say the economic development and the entrepreneurship has always been at the core of my mission. So that’s why I created 6DT Consulting. So I can help entrepreneurs master their own financial management and build a sustainable and thriving business.
You need money to start a business. So you need to manage it. So, yeah, well, well, great having you on today. And I guess just to get us going here, Christiane how did you get started as an entrepreneur? Like where’d all that begin for you? I would say began when I was about. 18 years old. I went to the university and then I started my bachelor’s degree in computer science and got pregnant.
So the second semester was too tired to, so I wanted something easy to learn, you know, so I decided to learn accounting. Hold on. You wanted something easy. So what do you do for fun? And I’m just, so I started with accounting. And then it was a bit difficult. So I went to admin, so I did my bachelor’s degree in administration.
And after that, I did my post university degree in the corporate finance. And finally, I did a master’s degree in management just to it’s called an executive MBA. So just for me to, to better understand my clients, because I work as a A portfolio manager at the big corporation in the province of Quebec.
So I want to better understand the process, their their operations, they’re not just the finance aspect, because it’s not just money, you know, there’s people behind the numbers, you know, so I want to understand the whole aspect of the business. So that’s why I did two years and two years full time study and working those both.
So just. Better understand the business owner. So I think I did pretty good. I think I like when you had those multiple roles you were doing, like, like what kept you strong during those times? Those don’t sound like very easy years, like trying to keep the, you know, managing the family, multiple positions, all these other things, like what kept you strong?
What kept me strong is it’s resilience, you know, because when I was very young, I had disease called it’s rheumatic fever. So damaged a part of my heart. So, and after that, overcoming that challenge in life, I decided that, you know, nothing matters. There’s no obstacle for me that would matter. So I always make sure.
I start my day like with an objective in mind, 10, 10 objectives, not more than that, because nobody can do more than that. So I’m happy to get through two or three. You said 10, go ahead. So I start with 10 and then after that, I break it down that I’ve read the book. What is it called? Eat that frog first from Brian Tracy.
Oh, so you break, you take the ugly one, the ugly frog first, and you start with it. That job you don’t want to do and then you just do it. So put that aside and then you can achieve anything. So that’s what I do is I, I just break it down into small pieces. So, you know, you can’t eat an elephant in one day.
So you’ve got to start somewhere. So you can start with the nose or the, the legs, you know, so it’s time. So, so for me doing a master’s degree was like a big elephant to eat, you know, years of preparation and everything, but you know, you’ve got to, And I’ve got tools to do it. Like I use my agenda to, to fix all these objectives.
So I write it down on a piece of paper and then I put it in my agenda to make sure it does balance with my day. and I understand. So at what point, like when you, so you’re working in corporate, you’re doing this. And at some point you decide that you’re going to kind of go that entrepreneurial route.
Like how, how did that happen? How did it happen? It, I think it did happen just by I, I had great bosses, but. When I was doing my MBA, one of my boss decided to retire. He left us with a new guy. So, but the new guys. It’s kind of young and everything. And I did my master’s degree to make sure, like, I wanted to do more into the economic development.
I wanted to take, take more decisions for my clients. So it was kind of, there was some hurdles there. I didn’t want to so I said, well, you know, so if I have brought, you know, it didn’t fit my, my own mission, so, which was like creating a, helping people or helping business to grow and everything. So it was kind of a setback for me.
So it’s still on. Being in a job I didn’t like because of the new way that they wanted to implement the the the, the financing program to entrepreneurs. So I decided to leave and I took a chance. I just left everything big job, big money, and then I decided to start my own business. Did people think you were crazy at this time?
They’re like, what are you doing? You’re going to go start a business. Don’t do it. Yeah, but you know, people thought my experience, what was your experience? Like, what did people think at that time when you said you were going to do that? Leave the big salary, leave the big job and go start on your own.
Yeah. Well, actually people talk. They talked about that, but didn’t tell me. My husband did tell me, because he told me, he said, Are you crazy? He told you, okay. Yeah, because he wanted to travel. He wanted to do a lot of stuff. So I’m just, I said, you know, it takes time to do a business. So, and I think he’s pretty, he’s very, very proud now.
Of course. You did help a lot. And I remember my first three months was chaotic because we had a problem with the house. And then that’s called Murphy’s law. Of course, you have to go bad. It has to like, that’s, that’s how you know, you’re on the right path. If it’s going right, you better be scared.
Exactly. So, so I said, why, why did you decided to start at that moment? Come on. I didn’t decided to I know like how did I, for everybody that started a business right before Covid, right? Or like, they’re like, I didn’t know Covid was gonna happen. I just started. Right? Like, you don’t know. That’s life, right?
It is life. Yeah. So, so you gotta take the problems one at a time and then Yeah. Try to figure solution and the best way to do it, I think. Mm-hmm . Is not to. To go into an urgent mode. So just, you know, just tackle down with the stressor of the problem and then think about it and sometimes just sleeping overnight.
So it’s gonna you’re gonna find solutions. So it’s not a matter of and there’s always way to do things in an economic way. Type of ways. So you can restructure your business. You can do anything. So, but people, sometimes they stress and they, they, they just, they just see the problem. But if you look at the big picture, sometimes they’re okay, I can do this this way.
And this way I can get a, like a advice from my accounting accountant, let’s invite him for lunch because it’s not going to invite you. It’s not, it’s going to charge you for the lunch. Because if you talk to him, he’s going to charge you. But if you invite him to lunch, it’s not going to charge you. But sometimes getting advice is like that.
The help. At what point did you decide you wanted to be an author? So I understand you have a book out there. So it’s called cancer sucks, the journey of an entrepreneur and her fight against cancer while running her business. First off, great title. Cancer sucks. I don’t think anybody would disagree about that one.
So great, great title. When did you decide you wanted to be an author? Author like what inspired this book when I was very young. We lived a very, I would call it an outpost. You know, it was like tree house, you know, and the, we were living. And then, and then once a month, there was a little bus that would come around and then give us some books, you know, so I became a, I really liked books.
So I had books everywhere in my house. So and then writing for me is is easy because I had to write all these convincing financing structure to the, to the board of directors so they could sign, sign off the loans and everything. So for me, writing was an easy way to do it. And then when I had cancer, I told my husband, I said, you know, my, I always, it’s a joke, but I always joke about it, but I tell my, I’ll tell everyone, my husband is a millionaire, you know, so, because, is a government paid employee.
So he’s a millionaire. I said, I have you, you know, so you can support me financially. And, but what happens to people that don’t have a, they’re not married to a millionaire like you said, well, you know, you’re smart. Just write a book. So this is, this is, this is, Mostly his idea. So I did write a book because I said, okay, people, because I had, I had a professional background to overcome that, that problem.
I had also, it was during COVID time, by the way, I had cancer treatments during COVID time. It was a very strange period. And so, but I, and I couldn’t close down my business because the government, because it’s a, it’s an accounting practice business. They, they would forbid me to, to close. And so so I took notes of every situation that I was encountering and, and I wrote a book about that.
Was it, was it difficult for you to share like your personal journey or did that come kind of naturally? Cause I know when some people are going through the book writing process or going through that, it’s maybe some of the first time in their lives that they’re sharing their personal stories in a very public way.
Like, did you have any issues with that or how was that for you? It was not that difficult, but I had to do it. So to, to give it some credibility. So you have to tell your story first. And so what I did is I called a friend of mine and I said, you know, you’re, she’s a smart girl with her very good handwriting.
I said, I said, I want you to help me write this book and I want to be alone to do it. So that’s not in a partnership, but she reviewed all my book and she removed stuff. She didn’t like sometimes I was too To direct, you know, the thing, you know, censor a little bit, maybe she did censor it. Because when you have cancer and you announced to your employees, for example, that you have cancer, so the reaction, you don’t see their reaction.
So, so what was that? Like the whole, like announcing to your employees and like other things that, you know, that’s a different dynamic. I haven’t really considered before. Like, what is that like? First of all, we work distant we all, we work all from home because I don’t have a physical address. I used to have a physical address, but then because of COVID, we didn’t have a physical address.
So we would meet once in a while in the office, but you know, with COVID we decided to, but we have to stay home. So I did it in a very awkward way. So instead to. Instead of calling my, my friend Joelle and say, okay, that’s a good lead. And how did you announce it? Very awkwardly. No, I mean, I don’t know how you do training that.
That’s why I’m asking you this too, by the way, because I feel like there’s some other people like that may have to communicate that message and maybe them hearing this. We’ll give them a little bit of strength in their what they have to do. Right. So that’s why I asked you that question. It’s very unique.
I never considered it, but please, yeah, you have to be prepared. And you have to test your pitch. You know, it’s like a pitch, you’re pitching to your employees. Don’t go away because I’m sick, but you know, don’t leave me. So, and you’ve got to validate the pitch with the communication company, because.
It’s a big thing. I say, you just can’t, not just true that. Like I did, you know, I had a meeting and I said, well, I’ve got news for you to not necessarily good for me, but you know, I’ll, I’ll go over it. And then the reaction to one of them is the next day she she decided to to take all my clients.
And then I said, Oh boy, I didn’t see that one coming. So I said, okay, no problem. So, but I mean, you can’t just. Leave with my clients, so you gotta pay for them. So I’m gonna make you an offer. Yeah. And then and just said, so I gave her a number, . She said, well, I don’t have that kind of money. Well, I’m sorry, but you’re an accountant, so you should know the value of an accounts receivable and should know the value of an account.
Mm-hmm. So I said, I said, well, I don’t think you’re good. You’re good bookkeeper. So, so I had to fire like right on the spot. So, so that was difficult because I was losing, I was losing one staff and then, but I didn’t want her to start. Doing like talking to everyone, the book that was like kind of changed by my friend, but you know, it’s, it’s not easy.
You can have weird reactions from your clients, but also from your suppliers. Oh, yeah. They, they reduce some of their because they knew I was going to downsize for a short, like a full year. It’s a full year. So they knew that. So they gave me a reductions on everything. Some of them that were like very good.
And some of them were bad suppliers. So, but at the end of the day, the biggest thing I did is I replanned my own business. I decided, okay, let’s, let’s think this as, as a challenging moment, but also a way to thrive, you know, and try and find this. What do I want to do after that? Managing a team of of a few bookkeepers is a lot for me.
I found it a very hard, hard to do. So I just went and said, well, what can I do after? So, and I have one of my sisters, she was there to help me. So communication, I left it to her because she’s better at me. So she had to communicate. It was her, so, and so, yeah, so it’s, it’s not an easy part. So, but. Get some, get some help to talk to your, to your clients.
Don’t, don’t do it right on the spot, you know, and then don’t impose your your sickness to your employees, by the way. So that’s very important. So don’t impose. That’s not the subject. They’re going to see you’re losing your air. So you have no choice to tell them. So, yeah. You’re going to see you’re green or you’re, you’re gray, you know, so you have no, and your skin is going to change.
So, so you have to tell them, so you have to tell them, but do it the proper way. So how does like, so have you been able to achieve a level of like work life balance now? Like, how were you at now? Like, talk to me about more about present day and like, for some of the individuals listening, that concept of work life balance, like, have you been able to, like, how do you feel about that?
So what I did is I did a strategic plan and, but I really took time to embed into the plan. Plan my own personal life. Okay. For example, I forgot that I was a Yogi before. So I started doing yoga again. I started to be more mindful just to give you an example. I used to call this service department, like the telephone company or whatever.
And I would say Oh well, I need some help with this. Now, when I go, Oh, how was your day? What’s your name? So I tried to be more personal because you have to understand there’s somebody at the end of the line. So I decided to change the few things like that in my life, be more present with the kids.
Do more stuff that I really like to do. You don’t see it, but I have a little dog on my lap. So I wanted to dive a dog. So you see, Oh, that’s great. And then so I wanted to have a dog. Hey, we’re dog, cat, kid friendly. It’s all good. Yeah. I have to keep her on my lap because somebody at the door is going to yap.
So she likes to protect me. So So I did add all these personal aspects into my strategic plan. That was not easy, which meant I had to reduce the number of hours I was going to be working. I wanted to be work, to work alone. I didn’t want staff anymore. So, so I had, so what I did is I, I changed, so I wanted to maintain the same level of not service, Because I want to work only four days a week instead of five.
And then so I increased my prices to, to manage to have the same pay back at the end of the same pay at the end of two weeks. So, so I did tackle a little changes like that. And now it’s perfect. So, so in my agenda now, I’ve got one week per month of vacation. So that’s one week a month. So it’s five days out of 20.
Yeah. So I only work 15 days. And after that, I take the Fridays off. So, and I was able to manage all of that. The bottom one is up. So, and now that you have a little bit more time on your hands, I understand when I say like, like, what’s next, I’m sure that you’re doing more things. So I already know new book, I’m guessing new, new writing, new, like talk to me about like, what’s next.
So what I did is I did the, this is. This is what entrepreneurs do, by the way. They get their time back and then they’re like, Oh, let me fill it back up. No, go ahead. You know, I try. So that’s a good point. Yeah. Because after, after my last treatment, I said, okay, I’m back full time. You know, blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, I didn’t know the side effects would last so long. So they last over a year after. Last three months. And so it was kind of difficult. So, so I wrote the first book. The second one, people told me, so you should have a book for non entrepreneurs. So I did the second book. So which one is, it’s not as successful as my, my first one.
My first one, I think it’s number 59 in Amazon. section for a cancer section. So it’s pretty good. I’m pretty proud. And then my third book is going to be the same thing. It’s about health, wellness, wellness, the business owner. So how can you manage everything, you know, and then keep it, you know, and focus on your, on your wellbeing first, you know, your health is going to improve for sure, and then your cash is going to improve for sure, because, you know, If your mind is not there, it’s more difficult.
So you, you gotta balance everything. So if you don’t balance When I started, it was like work, work, work, work, business, business, business. And now it’s more balanced. So it’s, it’s easier to manage everything. I know many, many authors and many of them that I’ve that I’ve interviewed on this show. And when I think about like someone that has a, a series really now, as you get to the third book, you already have a series really of this big body of work.
And so I’m interested to know if for yourself, as you’ve gone through this, This journey and documented it. And now you’re working on this third book. Has there been any maybe unexpected things that you, maybe you even learned about yourself when, when working through that process of bringing these, these books to light?
I didn’t think I could do it. That’s the one thing I didn’t know because being an author, it’s, it’s something very different than being a business owner because the marketing And the, the platforms are very different. It’s not like Shopify or Amazon. So you’ve got us, I learn a lot. So, and also I had a coach.
So what I did is I did work with a coach. It’s very expensive by the way, but I work with a coach and then and he told me he really helped me. Go fast forward on the publishing. So on the publishing on the editing and everything. So that’s important. So in all aspects where I’m not comfortable, I get it.
Okay, or I get somebody to help me. I’ll do it, but I want somebody to help me. If and I cannot do it, then I will just. Contracted so yeah, I will hire someone to do it, but it’s rare. So I usually do it and So there’s gonna be a series of three books for entrepreneurs and well be wellness the last two ones.
I’m not sure about the title, but probably like Something about like how to manage your busy schedule So and then the third one, I’m not sure yet. So I’ve got like 10, 000. Keep him busy. I love it. Well, well, final question, Christianne, if somebody’s listening to this or watching this, and if they want to follow up and they want to learn more, how do they do that?
How do they connect with you and the brand and your message? Actually, if you type my name, I think it’s unique in the world. So, so it’s not like Mr. Smith or John Smith, James Smith. So it’s very easy. I’m very easy to find. So 6DT consulting, you’ll find me also. I’ve got a Shopify I’ve got a Shopify store.
Well, I, I. pick about wellness and how to overcome problems in your, in your business. It’s I want to focus on business by the way. I don’t want to go outside the, I’m not a health professional. So, so I’ll just stay in the business side. And so it’s very easy to find me. It’s been, I’ve worked like for 30 years now.
So those 30 years I went abroad for a few contracts and stuff like that. So Find me easily. So if you type my name, actually, I asked Chad GPT the other day because I read something on the times magazine or they said times or Forbes magazine. And it says, just ask Chad GPT to see what’s in the world for you.
You should have seen the list. So the world is talking about me for sure. Amazing. So for everybody watching this, just So, you know, we’ll put some links in the show notes as well so that you can just click on the link and head right on over and grab a copy of one of Christiane’s books as well. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration. Inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Christiana, again, it’s been so much fun having you on the show. Thank you for coming on and thanks Adam.
Lovely to have met you. So