We were lucky to catch up with Kristina Hellmann recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kristina, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I always had a feeling I was supposed to do something big. Maybe not big to the world, but big-feeling to me.
I grew up in a divorced household. My mom worked and took care of my two sisters and me. We saw my dad (who lived 1,000 miles away), every other holiday and for 42 days during the summer.
I had my first job at 14, took 19 hours of classes in college and worked 20 hours a week. I was an “achiever” in every sense. It wasn’t that I had to be the best. I think I had to prove something to myself – that I was capable. I was a badass. That I could handle anything.
I majored in political science and communication in college and was in the honor program. I LOVED college – I loved learning and studying stories. I loved trying to understand why people did what they did and how their action affected other people – societies, and culture.
I graduated in 2007 and it took me a few months to find a job, and it wasn’t even in my field. (I waited tables the whole time and even continued helping with events after I had my “big girl” job.). I was a junior program manager for a saleforce.com partner. The company was small; run by a husband and a wife and about three other employees plus me. It was my first experience with small business. I moved on from there and had various corporate jobs, worked my way up at a D1 university, and had all the kind of linear success one would expect. Except, that I was burnt out. I had two kids under 3, and while I loved the university environment, it was SLOW. Decisions were by committee, you had very little agency in affecting change. I didn’t like that and it wore on me. My husband and I decided that I would stay home for awhile. I become pregnant with my third child and by the time he was five months old, I decided to go back to work.
5 months post partum, I started doing marketing for a local, biodynamic farm. I was severely underpaid, but I believed in its mission and loved being at the farm. About a year after that, the university I had been working for asked me to work for them part-time. I decided to quit the farm and go back.
As a hobby, my husband and I started trying to grow our own food. We purchase a course and the husband-wife team who owned the business needed help with SEO. I offered to help so they became my client. I had NO clue what I was doing.
I told them meetings were free. I didn’t bill for half the things I did. But I LOVED it. I loved helping them be successful.
A contact from the farm hooked me up with another local business owner who owned a cafe and catering business that used mostly local foods. I started doing her social media.
Then, the pandemic came. Everything shut down. In addition to handling my three clients (who were freaking out), I suddenly was homeschooling my second grader and kindergartner. It was a mess. I was exhausted. I loved having clients, but I was working all hours trying to help EVERYONE.
Time went on, the pandemic eased, and I started getting more clients – just from referrals. I broke up with the university (they were my lowest paying client) and secured some large contracts. I couldn’t believe my luck. I still didn’t know what I was doing. I had no systems, no strategy. I was just making money.
Before long one of my clients asked me to become their full-time marketing director. I decided to trade my chaos for what I thought would be balance – I was so wrong.
Again, I was thrust into a space where I had very little agency. I was frustrated and felt like I wasn’t making an impact. When I made the jump, I made the excruciating decision to let go of my three clients. I was sick over it. I introduced them to a friend who had started her own business. I had given away my clients, but within 9 months, I knew I needed to go back to doing my own thing. But, I knew I needed to do it differently.
I grew up thinking life was linear; you go to school, get a good job, get married, keep achieving things, raise some kids, and ride off into the sunset of retirement. I didn’t understand that life is not like that. People get sick. Kids need you. You need rest and blank space in order to be effective. In that last full-time job, I was in the coaching space. I learned many amazing things that have helped shape how I operate today.
We can be mothers, wives, and leaders. We maybe can’t do all the things, but we have different seasons of life that have different purposes. And, if you have a desire, or a dream – you have a calling. Our Creator puts these things on our heart and it’s up to us to achieve them. He gives us what we need to be effective and successful.
I knew I needed to make business work for me. Not the other way around.
I gracefully quit, and started my new journey with no clients. I formed Reditus Marketing to offer marketing strategy and coaching services to small business owners and entrepreneurs.
In Latin, “reditus” means to “turn back” or “return.” I want to help people turn back to what truly matters: their vision and their voice. I want business owners to know that they don’t have to do all the marketing things – just the right things. I help them focus on what matters most. As I gained new clients (again from referrals) I started a LLC at the behest of my accountant husband. I decided to create a logo, choose brand colors. I set up a calendly! I only had a certain number of hours a week so I designed my time to only take the number of clients I could serve (I didn’t do that before). I started learning about business.
I decided I wasn’t just a freelancer. I was a BUSINESS OWNER. I was an ENTREPRENEUR.
I wanted to be able to be in charge of my schedule (so I could be the mother and wife I wanted to be). I wanted to be able to advise clients in the way I knew to be true. I wanted to be their advocate and I wanted to do business my way.
I used to think entrepreneurship was terribly boring and that it was not for me. I was so wrong. It took me about a year, but I made the mindset shift from “being an employee” to “being an entrepreneur.” It has changed the way I operate entirely.
I have been in business this way since April 2021 and I could not be happier.
As I have grown, I have implemented a CRM, finally launched my own website, and hired a coach. I encouraged one of my friends to leave a corporate job she hated and to start her own business. She did, and she in turn, encouraged a friend who was struggling in the same way to quit her job and do her own thing. That friend encouraged another friend. We started meeting monthly to support one another. We still meet and our group has grown to about 10 women locally. This has been one of the greatest joys for me in this season of life – having women to pour into and having them pour back into me.
Once I hired a business coach, Tanya MFK in January 2022 – things changed for me again. She saw ME. She saw herself in me and offered to mentor me. I leapt at the chance. By the end of the year, we felt we were so aligned on what business should be like that we decided to become partners.
In January of 2024, we launched Modern Business Mastery. Our dream, our calling, is to help entrepreneurs grow personally so they can grow their businesses. We’re anti-hustle, pro-joy. Through our community, group mentorship program, and courses, we help entrepreneurs build their lives around their businesses (not the other way around).
We are so passionate about helping people achieve their dreams, their purpose.
I found my purpose after a long and twisty road. After lots of starts and stops. It took lots of inner work, prayer, silence, quiet, and just going for it. My biggest lesson is this: If you don’t feel peace about something, it’s not for you. Things can still be hard, REALLY hard, but if you have an inner peace – you are on the right path. And that peace can only be cultivated by spending time in silence. Journaling, praying, finding black space. And for me, by spending time in nature, feeling the sunshine on your face, breath in your lungs, grass on your feet is healing and grounding – like balm for our often frenzied states. In our crazy, fast, loud world, quiet and solitude are hard to come by – but they are SO necessary. Clarity comes by turning inward.
A friend calls me the ultimate hype girl. And you know what, I am. If I can help build you up and hold you accountable (that’s a HUGE piece) to achieve your purpose, then I am doing what I was called to do.
I am here to help people see that they are capable, that they are good, and that they ALREADY have everything inside of them to accomplish the things that are put in their hearts.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My newest adventure launched in January 2024 with my business partner, Tanya MKF. Together, we started Modern Business Mastery.
Modern Business Mastery is all about flipping the script on traditional business norms—no more grind, hustle, or chasing the latest marketing gimmicks.
Here, we believe the real strategy starts with you, the entrepreneur or the business owner.
It’s about recognizing that creating your dream life doesn’t start with your business; it starts with you right now, and your business is built around that life, not the other way around.
Rooted in the belief that mastering yourself is the key to mastering your business, we’re here to guide you in building a meaningful business that supports your dream life without leading to burnout.
We offer Mastery 360, a year-long mentorship program featuring that combines 1:1 coaching with weekly group skill-building sessions, and specialized courses such as Time Design and Ready for Profit as well as our free Modern Business Mastery Community.
We’re super excited about the free community – it’s for everyone.
We wanted to ensure that every entrepreneur has access to the tools and support needed for both personal well-being and business growth.
The truth is, not every entrepreneur can afford high-ticket coaching or exclusive support, so we created a space where actionable, evidence-based business strategies and insights are freely available to all.
While our paying mentorship members receive high-touch support, we don’t hide “all the good stuff” behind a paywall.
The community offers:
Sessions & Mini Trainings
Monthly Virtual Work Sprints
Monthly Mastery Elements for Personal & Business Growth
Bi-Monthly Copy Clinics to support your messaging
Fitness & Nutrition Support for Entrepreneurs
Access to Resources: Worksheets, Templates, Workshops
Networking with Global Entrepreneurs
Quarterly Book Club
+ more
This community is our commitment to shifting the narrative from success defined by financial metrics to one measured by impact, satisfaction, and joy. That is the ultimate mission of Modern Business Mastery!
You can find the community here: https://modernbusinessmastery.mn.co/
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In 2021, I founded Reditus Marketing as a way to support business owners and entrepreneurs with marketing strategy and coaching support.
There are SO much information out there – 10-step funnels, the idea that you have to make $10k per month to make it, tiktok advice, Youtube hacks, etc. – none of that matters if you don’t want to play in those spaces.
Many times in business we feel like we have to do things because that’s what our competitors do, or gurus tell us to. That can’t be farther from the truth.
As business owners we have to be authentic to ourselves – our vision. We have to operate authentically.
I help business owners and entrepreneurs create foundations for sustainable, long-term growth by focusing on their why, their messaging and their data.
In order grow, business owners have to play the long-game.
We don’t do sporadic or reactive marketing.
We create and implement a strategy that gets them where they want to go.
A strategy that not only feels manageable, but also delivers results.
A clear strategy and plan can propel growth like nothing else.
While most online marketing approaches are transactional and short-term focused, we focus on long-term strategies that build relationships.
We don’t just help people collect clients – we help them grow your relationships (and their revenue right along with it.)
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The most impactful qualities, skills, and areas of knowledge for me were:
1.) Accountability & Community- From my bible study to local, monthly meet-ups with women entrepreneurs, to my business coach, to the Mastery 360 community I help run, I cannot understate the importance of community on my journey. When I wanted to quit working for myself and find steady income, my coach reminded me, “what kind of shit sandwich do you want?” A rising tide raises all ships – when you are around people that want the same things or are going through the same things as you – you are encouraged; you see a path forward when there isn’t one. We are not meant to do life alone. We absolutely need one another. It took me about 7 months to create my personal website; I never would have done it if my peers weren’t checking in on me, encouraging me to “just do it.” Find a community – one with people who are going after the same thing as you. Entrepreneurship can be incredibly lonely and humbling. You will need people to tell you you’re doing a good job, or encourage you to try something new.
2.) Designing my Time & Planning; My coach and business partner, Tanya MFK, has this incredible course – “Time Design” that helps you design your time (ALLLLL of your time) so that you can live the life you want. I was already organized, but after going through her system and really accounting for all of my time, I was able to create a schedule that truly works for me – and that doesn’t burn me out. I feel like I have a handle on my life. If you are just starting out as an entrepreneur, and especially if you are a parent, the best thing you can do is to get a handle on your time. Understand how your spend it, decide how you can use it to achieve what you want, and use a digital and/or paper calendar to plan your days, months, and year. Detail schedule your time in two week blocks. This has changed my life!
3.) Developing Habits to help me thrive in my busy life – In January of 2023, I started doing YOUTUBE HIT workouts 3 times a week for 10 minutes a day. I used to have a great exercise routine, but working for myself threw me off. I made a commitment to start off small (even though I don’t like that – I tend to be a “go all in” person). But this really worked for me! After a few months I felt stronger and wanted to go longer. I discovered strength training and I haven’t looked back. I now work out 4-5 days a week for 15-25 minutes each day, mixing cardio and weights and I LOVE it. I feel strong – mentally and physically. It gives me energy and makes me feel better knowing that I am caring for my body. I also eat a clean and mostly vegetarian diet with emphasis on protein and veggies. I try to limit caffeine (hard for me), drink plenty of water, and prioritize sleep. I get outside as much as I can. I have greatly reduced my alcohol intake (it messes with my sleep!) And, I have really focused on creating space and silence in my life for prayer and reflection. I am Catholic so I practice weekly Adoration and have a morning and evening prayer routine. All of this keeps me sane. I am not into hacks – these things just feel natural – my body craves them and I find mental clarity amidst the chaos of being a business owner and a mom of three active kids. Find what works for you – iterate and develop habits that make you happy. I love the philosophy of leisure – make time in your day to do the things that fill your cup FIRST before things you have to do.
How would you describe your ideal client?
My ideal client is someone who is a heart-led entrepreneur or business owner.
You have started your business as a way to impact the world.
You are interested in personal growth and business growth.
You understand that successful marketing does not involve doing all of the things or pivoting every time something doesn’t work out immediately.
You are full of integrity, you don’t like slimey business practices, and you want to be true to yourself.
You want to build a business that supports their desired lifestyle rather than sacrificing your personal life for business success.
You are a hyper-achievers, a natural overachiever, Type A, motivated, ambitious.
You are a business Owner, Coach, Consultant, Creator, Course Creator, or a Community Owner,
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.reditus-marketing.com/ and www.modernbusinessmastery.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinahellmann/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrhnkuPWeJKaChpU5IbXQZw
- Other: Youtube: @ModernBusinessMastery
Official LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/modernbusinessmastery
Image Credits
Kendra Farris Photography
