Are you fed up with the corporate bullshit holding you back? Welcome to Invest in Yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast. The ultimate launchpad for entrepreneurs ready to seize control and unleash their creative genius. Hosted by Phil Better, the podcast mogul. Each week he's breaking the chains of conventional work with bold strategies, raw insights, and inspiring success stories from the digital entrepreneurs who took the risk and invested in themselves. This is your call to arms. Invest in yourself. Break free from someone else's rules and build the empire you deserve. Now let's dive head first into today's explosive episode.

Welcome back to another extraordinary episode of Invest in Yourself, a digital entrepreneur podcast hosted by, of course, the podcast mogul, feel better. And if you're looking to launch, monetize, or grow your podcast in less time than it takes to order a coffee, make sure you stay till the end of the podcast. But now, enough of all that promotion. Today's guest is a true trailblazer with a career and story that will leave you absolutely inspired. Her entrepreneurial journey with began with grit and determination, selling newspapers and babysittings at just nine years old to save for a car and college, like most nine year olds are thinking. But that drive eventually propelled her into a remarkable career, including coaching and health, wellness and media, and later into entrepreneurship, where she and her husband revived a bankrupt business and turned them into profitable success stories. We're gonna talk about that, but that's just the beginning. She's a renowned emotional intelligence expert who has dedicated her life to helping others.

Through her consulting business, she's coached individuals in relationships, business, and leadership, and she's inspired audiences as an international speaker, author, and my favorite, podcaster. Her flagship podcast, The Hero Within, ranks in the top 2.5% globally, showcasing unsung heroes who have used emotional intelligence to overcome adversity and return to love. But she's also an executive producer at the LA the Los Angeles Tribune, editor in chief of the Women's Journal and the Spanish Journal. And, of course, she hosts two other podcasts with a third one on the way, The Unstoppable AF and Funny, and, of course, The Empath Advantage. She's reshaping how we think about leadership, empathy, and resiliency. And, oh, did we mention that she's also a best selling author? Well, I just thought we'd throw that in. So get ready to be inspired and welcome an amazing guest and someone I'm excited to talk to, Karen Hall, the Queen of Empathy. Karen, thank you so much for being here.

Oh, thank you so much. We have been trying to connect for months and months. And I when I heard you speak, I immediately was connected to you because of your emotional intelligence. And, and I was just so impressed with how much you cared and I couldn't wait until we could get to speak. So thank you so much for having me on the digital entrepreneur and just to get to talk to you. I'm so grateful.

I'm excited for you to be here, when we connected because, as the audience knows, we're now this podcast is now part of the LA Tribune podcast in Ecuador, which I'm very happy, and so is Karen. She's a part of that, of course, being a executive producer at the, Tribune. We got into a chat in our chat, and we started, and we were just connected and, you know, trying. And, you know, December and November, always trying. But now we've finally got you on the podcast. I'm excited. So I'm gonna hit you with the first question that I ask all my guests. Why did you leave the corporate nine to five grind, the golden handcuffs, if you will, to try and be an entrepreneur in the crazy world and be successful at it.

Well, I thought that was interesting when you were talking about, you know, how I started. I I did start as an entrepreneur because I yeah. At nine years old, who's gonna hire you?

Exactly.

You know, McDonald's, which I did eventually do that as well, but but I started selling newspapers, and the newspaper that I sold was called Grit. So it was a positive, you know, newspaper. And and I but it also taught me grit because I was always scared to death to be an entrepreneur. I was so afraid to knock on doors, and and and in those days, you just went door to door. You know, selling. And so my mom would role play with me, and and then I was selling chocolates to try to earn money for things. And and and my family had, you know, they my dad was a came from an immigrant family, and so he had put himself through college. So it just made sense that his kids would do that too.