Welcome to invest in yourself the digital entrepreneur podcast. Join the podcast mogul Phil Better as he interviews successful entrepreneurs that make their living in the digital world. Now let's join your host Phil Better and his special guest today on invest in yourself the digital entrepreneur podcast. Episode of Invest in Yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast. Today, we are thrilled to host a visionary who turned a seemingly random idea into a pioneering invention that reshaped the kitchen appliance industry. Imagine dropping out of corporate world, diving into uncharted waters with no engineering background, and emerging as the creator of a product that launched a whole new category in the market. They generated a category. They created their own niche, which most entrepreneurs dream of doing.

In 2016, our guest did just that, founding the world's first oil infuser that allows users to infuse oil with herbs, spices, fruits, and just losing a new concept that is a groundbreaking as the air fryer was in its time. Despite facing skepticism and overcoming numerous challenges, her unwavering determination and clear vision turned her idea into an 8 figure business that continues to innovate and lead. Her journey is not all not just about transforming kitchen technology, also about her personal quest across continents. With over 30 trips to China to ensure her vision came to fruition, her story is a powerful testament to the fact that creativity and persistence can turn even the most unconventional idea into a revolutionary success story. So without further ado, please let me introduce the indomitable force behind Leveau, Kristen, Christina Bellman. I'm I'm sorry. I messed up your name, Chrissy. I I was going better.

I was like, I'm going to say Chrissy and then I'm like, Christian. See, I can explain it later. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

It's crazy that you had this wild idea and decided to change, a whole industry and create an industry as well. What led to that spark? Like, what made you decide, hey. I wanna be an entrepreneur and change the world?

That's a good question. I like to describe Livo as, like, the first spontaneous thing I had ever done in my life up to that point. You know, being a successful kid. Thank you. I I you know, when you're an adult, I definitely, like, from high school on, had a plan for everything and an answer. It was kind of a more, like, classic overachiever. But once I was graduating college and I was really it was really settling in, like, the careers that I was embarking on, which were, like, investment banking, front office of Best Banking in New York City, very particular career. I started to feel some kind of itch that I didn't really know what to do with, but I sort of talked myself out of it.

I had a few friends that jumped directly into startups, but I just needed to establish myself financially and feel independent and autonomous as an adult first. So I just couldn't imagine taking that risk at that time, but I thought those people were awesome for doing it. I just wasn't quite ready. So yeah. Then I ended up putting in about five years in corporate America, like, very nine to five, worked for one of the largest tech companies in the world, and started moonlighting lingo. So I know a lot of people are going through that process themselves where they have an idea and they're kinda doing it in moonlight hours or, in their free time. So I did that for a couple of years before finally working up the nerve, and it was like, I ultimately had to create a deadline for myself, because it was a very, very hard, transition. But the idea was sort of random.

Like, in all honesty, it was sort of the first idea I had. And I just had so much, like, energy towards wanting to change my career and, like, thinking it was a cool idea and just wanting to act on my own idea instead of working for somebody else. Like, I just had a lot of that energy that I just threw a ton of adrenaline at it and made it happen. So, it was not well researched or investigated or thought planned out well or anything like that. It was kinda like blunt force to get it done. So And you just

put your head down and you're just like a bull ran through a China shop trying to get it done.