First Class Women in Business

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 You're listening to the Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast.
 If it's Radical, we cover it.
 Here's your host, Ryan Alford.
 Here they're kicking ass and taking names.
 And you need to take their names. We got Christina Ferrari.
 We got Tracy Doos. We got a TV star Heidi Montag.
 We've got the number two USC fighter in the world of the women's division,
 Raquel Pinnington. And of course, the lovely Heidi Cortez.
 I'm going to let him introduce themselves so much good knowledge,
 so much good insight for any entrepreneur at any level or any business person,
 anyone just wanting to know good habits for how to get ahead so much great content all brought
 together in the one of the best of Radcast additions. I know you're going to love it.
 I loved it. You know where to find us, the radcast.com. Enjoy.
 We're talking water today. We're talking H-2-O. We're talking the queen of elixirs.
 We're talking Tracy Doos. What's up, Tracy?
 What's up, Ryan? We're talking black and blue in the face.
 Raquel Pinnington, welcome to the show.
 Yeah, thanks for having me.
 A charming woman that I was excited to talk to and she might have no why,
 but we're going to get into that. But Christina Ferrari, great to have you on the show.
 Thank you. I'm so excited to be on the show.
 I don't want to call this part two with Miss Heidi Montag.
 Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
 I'm excited for an interesting journey today with Heidi Cortez. What's up, Heidi?
 Hey, what's up? Thanks for having me, Ryan.
 Hey, my pleasure. Let's start from the beginning. I know our 40-minute podcast.
 We could only just talk about your accolades and everything you've done.
 But let's at least set the stage for everybody.
 I guess your condensed life story. I don't want to shortchange it,
 but I do want to build towards today and talk more about your recent books,
 which is where I saw some connection points.
 But let's at least tell everybody more about you if they haven't already heard.
 There's probably a lot of our listeners that have heard of you.
 A lot of executives that we work with.
 But I'd love to talk a little bit about your story.
 Well, I've always been entrepreneur since I was a child.
 I started doing businesses at 12.
 By 13, I was lying about my age to get jobs because when you're 13,
 you can't really, you can't get a work license or a business license.
 And when I was 13, I used my sister's birth certificate and social security card
 to get a job and pretend that I was her.
 And I got a job at Ross, Ross dressed for less.
 Her name's Courtney.
 So I had a name tight that said Courtney.
 I was working the registers during the holiday season for like $4.75 an hour.
 And I was so happy to have that job because we were really poor growing up.
 I was very underprivileged, grew up with a single mom,
 older sister, younger brother.
 And we were loved a lot, but we didn't.
 We didn't have any money.
 We grew up eating beans all the time and lentils.
 And if we wanted to have nicer things in life or close or things like that,
 my mom really encouraged us to get a job.
 So my mom knew what I was doing about using my sister's birth certificate
 and social security card and getting a job at Ross.
 And I held down the job for several months and tell my sister got mad at me and called them
 and told them that I was her little sister who stole her wallet.
 But she was such a business person, an entrepreneur too,
 that she was charging me every week to use her name.
 I would say if I had to say hi, I got the most successful to probably be through a ignorance
 is bliss, you know.
 It's not really taking no for an answer.
 When I was a little girl, my dad would tell me just dream anything's possible.
 So as I was growing up, I just thought, you know, if you just like work really hard,
 you can have whatever you want.
 So I just kept driving and pushing and it worked.
 Definitely worked.
 It became, I got all the things I wanted.
 It became what I wanted to be, but it's interesting
 because I don't think like what one person's definition of success is isn't someone else's.
 So my definition of success has changed since the beginning of my life.
 When I was younger, I thought success would be if I had the money, the house, the cars,
 the lifestyle, the trips.
 But now my idea of success is how connected are my relationships,
 how connected am I to myself, to divine, to God, how healthy am I?
 Am I enjoying life?
 Am I waking up in the morning with peace, with joy, with excitement?
 That's my higher definition of success now.
 Yeah, you know, I mean, I've always been an athlete.
 I've been doing sports since I was five and kind of just,
 I never thought in a million years I'd grow up to be a professional fighter,
 but guess that's what I'm destined to do.
 And, you know, I started in the sport in 2010.
 And then in 2012, I believe it was, I made my pro debut.
 And, you know, the sport has been a journey.
 It's been a ride.
 It's fun.
 You get your highs, the highs, and your lowest lows.
 But overall, I mean, for me, I've had the opportunities
 where life is just like, really set me up to where,
 I mean, I just straight focus on fighting.
 And, you know, my life consists of waking up and going to the gym
 and having some lunch and focusing on nutrition
 and going back to the gym, getting some maps in
 and repeating five days a week.
 And then on the weekends, I just try to enjoy myself.
 So it's a, it's definitely a journey.
 Cleveland, Ohio, I was born there.
 I'm a good Western girl.
 Had, I was brought up there.
 So I had all the, you know, values of home and family
 and my parents were immigrants from Italy.
 Actually, my father was stationed in the war in Italy.
 And we moved to Cleveland.
 And by the time I was 14, my parents moved to Los Angeles.
 And then, long story short, I came home from school one day.
 My mother was having lunch with a new friend she made.
 And she said, your daughter is pretty.
 Do you ever thought of maybe perhaps modeling?
 So I ended up at the Nina Blanchard Agency in Los Angeles,
 which is the equivalent to the Ford Agency in New York.
 And I was 14 years old.
 And by the time I was 15, Max Factor put me under contract.
 And to them, and I, I was there's spokesperson
 for over 20 years, which is a very long lifespan
 in a model's life.
 But it ain't forever, isn't it?
 Well, I was actually living abroad in Italy
 in my junior year of high school.
 And I didn't want to go back to high school.
 So instead of having a senior year of high school,
 I ended up having a freshman year of college.
 And I ended up being Lauren Conrad there.
 And she was like, oh, I'm on the show called The Gun of Beach.
 And I was like, that is so cool.
 Great.
 Because there was a rumor that this girl was on MTV.
 That was there, but it had an air.
 So none of us knew.
 And her and I had become best friends.
 And then she told me about that.
 And then I lived with her over the summer.
 And then she said, hey, I'm going to have my own,
 I feel like a month in the summer.
 And she said, I'm going to have my own show.
 I really want you to be on it.
 I want to move to LA with you.
 The producers actually didn't want me on.
 They're like, no, we want Lauren moving to LA by herself.
 And we need this whole struggle with her in the city.
 And she's like, no, I'm not living alone.
 And I'm not going to live with a stranger
 and I want my best friend there.
 So her and I filmed season one.
 I met Spencer in between season one and season two.
 And I fell in love with him.
 He fell in love with me too, but he was a little scared.
 So whatever.
 What's been like a struggle?
 I mean, you know, entrepreneur to entrepreneur.
 Like what's been your biggest struggle running businesses?
 And, you know, like, where have you
 felt like you've grown the most?
 I mean, kind of kind of a two part, two part message there.
 Okay.
 So first of all, my biggest struggle in life ever was being a teenage mom.
 My son is now a 22 army veteran.
 And everybody thought I wasn't going to make it.
 They're like, how are you going to do this?
 But I was a 20 or I was a 18 year old single mom.
 And I pulled it off.
 I can't believe it.
 I moved down to LA with my son just he and I.
 And we didn't know anybody.
 And I I pulled it off.
 I can't believe I made it happen.
 But that was by far the biggest struggle.
 I've never been married.
 So I've never been divorced.
 And I've just done everything on my own.
 And I think when people find that out and they're like,
 well, maybe she had help or financial backing.
 And that wasn't my case.
 And so when they find out that I was also a young single mom,
 it makes it more relatable and people can understand
 that that is a huge struggle to go through by yourself.
 So that to answer your question is my biggest struggle was my biggest struggle.
 Well, the thing is a lot of people are paralyzed when bad things happen to them.
 And they don't know what to do.
 I was never that kind of a person.
 Because I realized that I needed to move forward.
 And I also realized too, for me, I needed to be independent.
 I needed to make my own money.
 I needed to have my own freedom.
 And that gave me freedom.
 But the joy that I received from that I had having children
 and having my husband and the support of my family.
 That just kept me going forward.
 I look at myself now at 71 years old.
 And it's hard.
 I look at myself in the mirror.
 And I've got makeup on.
 You take all the services and so perfect.
 But it's OK.
 I'm OK with who I am as a person.
 And I believe that even though I am aging
 and I don't have that power anymore,
 my daughters have it now.
 And it gives me great delight to sit back and watch them do that.
 But they're like I am.
 They don't think of themselves that way.
 They're very much into the same things
 I was about family and cooking and home.
 Oh, that's true, Beatty.
 For me personally, obviously my job
 isn't only just being in the gym and getting
 into the best shape possible and working on my technique and skill.
 For me, I mean, I have genetics.
 And I come from a Hispanic family
 to where my job starts in the kitchen, too.
 So I'm constantly working there.
 And then there's just some days that honestly,
 training gets so tough that my body, I mean,
 being 33, being an athlete since I was five,
 I've had crazy injuries.
 And then the injury issues used to stain throughout fighting
 and throughout this career.
 I mean, living Colorado, Colorado,
 I feel that aches and pains when that winter hits.
 And so there's some days that I don't even want to move.
 And it comes down to the, you know,
 sometimes maybe twice a week,
 I have to go to physical therapy
 and I'm getting dry needily, I'm getting massages.
 I have a massage every week.
 I live in the chiropractors office three days a week.
 And I'm constantly doing something like that.
 Some days it consists of, you know,
 just go sitting in a steam room or a sauna
 and it's not to cut weight or lose weight.
 But just to like relax the body and other times
 they'll be at home and taking a hot bath.
 And then some days it's just, it's non-stop grinds.
 Like you have to listen to your body.
 So I take Saturday and Sunday off,
 but even with that, I'm super active.
 So I'm constantly doing something.
 And this sport, like I said,
 it gives you the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
 And it's tough when you're on a platform.
 It's tough when you're in the spotlight.
 And when you're in the media
 and you have all these expectations to live up to.
 So not only do you have to work on your body physically,
 but you have to work on yourself mentally.
 And so I do sports psychology in there.
 And it's just, it's non-stop.
 Yeah, absolutely.
 It was definitely us versus the world.
 And at a point, you know, we weren't talking to my family
 because we felt like they were going against us
 and not being supportive in his family.
 And so there have been so many times
 where it literally was just Spencer and I.
 And it drove us closer together.
 And for a lot of people would have completely tore them apart.
 But being against all these producers and conglomerates.
 And it just made us such a tight, you know, unit.
 And so I think the hardest challenge for us
 was has actually been running praktady.
 I think that's been the hardest thing for us
 because it's such a constant.
 So when it's TV and when it's your own personalities,
 there's just not as much that you have to deal with
 with all these details and like continually
 be hit over the head with payroll
 and how much do we spend on this
 and how much do we spend on that.
 And it's hard because at first it was Spencer's company
 basically that he was doing and I had a newborn
 and I'm like, great, whatever, I'll just promo it.
 And now it's become both of us.
 And I always have to be the bad cop with finances.
 And this is like, I don't want to be that.
 I don't want to have to get into that.
 So I think our hardest challenge has been this company.
 What makes, where does this entrepreneurial drive come from?
 Like, you know, I know you talked about the early age
 and doing it, but like, you feel like it's like innate.
 I mean, it sounds like you're born that way on some level,
 but maybe the, I don't know.
 What does that, what, what generates that?
 I think a lot of it has to do with, you know,
 my mom's support of like allowing me to get jobs early
 and no matter what I told my mom I wanted to do
 when I was a kid, she was like, Heidi, that's a great idea.
 Heidi, you should do that.
 And she never said no, she never said you can't do this.
 And we, like I said, we were so, like, we were so broke
 and I was so underprivileged that I would dream about
 how I can be successful or how could I provide
 for my family someday.
 So I think that for me is where my drive comes from,
 but I couldn't think of it any other way.
 This is definitely my passion and to be relatable
 to other people that maybe have upbringings like me.
 I grew up in a very conservative family
 and, you know, I chose a different route.
 I was not, I was not a traditional, you know,
 by the book's person and I didn't want to go to college
 and my family was very supportive the whole way through.
 So I just wanted to be like that.
 So I thought the way that I could be like that,
 I'm talking about when I was really little like five,
 like I thought I had to be in Hollywood
 to have that kind of lifestyle.
 So I always thought one day I want to go to Hollywood
 and do that, but also I want to help people.
 So how do I do both?
 So I thought, well, I'm going to be actors
 but I'm also going to be a doctor too.
 So when I was, I was blessed with the opportunity
 of getting through high school in one year
 and started college at 15 and a half.
 And I wouldn't say that I was the most,
 like, genius kid or anything like that,
 I was just very driven.
 And my first semester of college,
 I think I started with 21 science units.
 I had to go, I remember walking into the Dean's office at 15
 and saying, I want to do this,
 I want to become a doctor someday,
 I want to help people and I don't want to waste any time.
 Will you sign this so that I can take all these units
 and he's like, sure.
 And I did well, I got on the Dean's list that year
 and I just pushed through.
 And that next summer, since my dad was a missionary,
 I got to go to an indigenous village in Guatemala
 and shadow a surgeon,
 just witnessed so many things, surgery, vaccinations,
 you name it.
 And it was really fun and it was the most eye-opening experience.
 One of the things that I took home with me
 that I never forgot was how precious water is.
 Exactly.
 What is, where do you gain, who are your influences now?
 Where do you go for inspiration and, I don't know,
 what keeps Heidi happy?
 You know, I don't know, this might sound so cheesy,
 but my mom, she is the sweetest angel that ever lived.
 My mother is my inspiration and I just think about how
 she was so loving and so supporting.
 And I thought everybody's parents were like that.
 And when I got older and I realized that everybody else wasn't.
 So my mom, you know, she's my inspiration,
 I live for my mother, I live for my son.
 And, you know, those are people that I love
 and I aspire to be like.
 I used to think about the opportunity.
 One thing that my father instilled in me was like,
 anything you want to do or become, you can.
 And your greatest struggle is going to be figuring out
 what you want that to be.
 Because once you decide it, it'll be,
 but you just need to figure it out.
 I want to help people, but I don't want to cut people open
 and give them shots that didn't resonate with my personal journey.
 So I thought, hmm, okay, I want to help people,
 but how else can I help them?
 And the second thing was how precious water was
 and to be grateful for it and that someday I want to go back
 and help these people.
 You know, I was in school for, before my fight career
 really kicked off, I was going to school to be a doctor.
 And so like I have a lot of schooling underneath me
 and I love learning.
 So I mean, I don't care what age I am.
 Like I'll go back to school and do different things
 and I have a lot of like credentials under me
 when it comes to like physical training
 and all this other stuff.
 I love coaching.
 I love just being around the athletic world.
 I'm really into like physical therapy and recovery
 and all different things.
 And you know, I want to open a gym.
 I was getting right open a gym and then COVID hit.
 So there's different things there.
 I have a lot of investments and stuff for myself
 and whatnot.
 I'm always thinking about with like the future
 and everything I love living in the present,
 but at the same time like I do things after every fight
 or just in my daily life to set up my future.
 And so, you know, I mean, I want a family, I want kids,
 I want to be around around my lower rug rats
 and hang out, travel the world.
 So there's a lot there.
 Like, you know, people wake up and they honestly,
 like they have two struggles in life
 and like it really sucks and we all go through things
 and everything, but like my issue is I wake up
 and I'm like overwhelmed because I have like too many goals
 and too much ambition.
 And it's like frustrating to like sort through
 and calm myself down with.
 So those are things that I'm like working on.
 There's a lot in the works.
 And I feel like whatever I put my mind to,
 it'll definitely happen.
 What advice do you give to people
 that want to get into the sport?
 Like, you know, it's probably universal
 with a hundred of the matter if it's a woman or a man,
 but on some level, I mean, I know there's some nuances,
 I'm sure, but I mean, how do you counsel me?
 I'm sure you get a lot of questions about that.
 Yeah, everybody always asks and you know,
 like you're not gonna have an answer for yourself
 until you try it.
 That's all you can do.
 You can go out there and try and put your best foot forward
 and have fun and, you know, I tell them
 it's gonna be highs to highs and lows to lows
 even in training.
 You're gonna have people of all different skill levels.
 And, you know, at the end of the day remain humble
 and have fun, have fun with whatever you're doing.
 But I mean, you're gonna get in shape
 and remember why you're there.
 Like don't set these like outrageous goals
 and expectations for yourself.
 Like just embrace the journey
 and have fun with it every single day
 and let yourself grow.
 What's been your biggest learning lesson to date
 from running Pratt Daddy?
 Oh my gosh.
 Is it just that overall complexity?
 Yeah, it's so hard and it's just a balance
 of spending as well.
 So we just deal with that every month
 because the more crystals you buy,
 the more money that you make,
 but then you can't be spending all of your money
 into inventory payroll being more efficient.
 I'm the one who always has to have fire and hire basically.
 So that has never been a fun job.
 I get all the really fun jobs, you know?
 Like the, I'm the bad guy.
 So good cop, bad cop.
 But I think also knowing your roles
 and some, I think that's been the biggest learning curve
 with Spencer and I am like sometimes
 and just gonna let him be like great
 and let him figure something else out
 and, you know, pick my battles with certain things.
 So I think just between us and kind of getting
 that going has been hard.
 Also, we've just done so much trial and error
 with a photographer and product placement.
 So trying to eliminate that.
 And gosh, it's just been so much.
 Tracy, how'd you get so damn successful?
 I think really being successful
 is being able to just connect with people
 and have fun with people and create community
 and show up and have a vision.
 And those kind of things,
 if you just keep showing up every day
 and you're faithful and you're fun and you're kind
 and you're honest, you're gonna go somewhere.
 So, and just do the things that light you up.
 They get you excited.
 We've all been given gifts that are unique to us
 and it's not an accident.
 So the things that make you smile or light you up,
 chances are you're really good at that.
 You know, as you go through life and I look at my life
 as a book and chapters in a book
 and each part is a learning part
 and there are good things that happen to you along the way.
 I'm pretty, can I say, should he think?
 Oh, yes, please.
 This is the red cast.
 Okay.
 All right.
 I'm like, please, I'm always trying to edit myself.
 Oh, please don't.
 No editing on the red cast.
 Yes.
 And then, you know, you have to pick yourself up
 and move on because life is a series of events
 and, you know, good stuff, bad stuff.
 And, you know, that's how I conducted my life.
 I know.
 It's been obvious.
 Like, I see that from what I've read and from afar
 and it's what I admired about you
 is it seemed like you're a damn fighter.
 Like, where does that come from?
 I've heard that you've told three or four different stories
 but out of every single one of them,
 it's a theme coming through.
 And I always ask people like, you know,
 because not everyone is that way.
 You know, especially in today's society,
 it's like everyone kind of goes the other way.
 Where did that come from?
 I'm Italian, number one.
 Okay.
 All right.
 All right.
 Well, you know what?
 I don't know where that really comes from.
 It just, I know that it's always served me well
 but my, my girls call this side of me,
 Ristina Panare, that's their like evil twin.
 It's like, whatever somebody, you know,
 backs me up or if I have to do something,
 like a mom, you know,
 Ristina Panare came out today
 and I had to assert myself in order to get what it was
 that I needed.
 And they said, you know, it works.
 They used to get frightened every time they saw Ristina
 come out and they would leave.
 But I think it's just a survival mode
 that I've always had because I enjoy everything I do.
 And like if you'd ask me like now,
 if you could go back and change one thing, would you change it?
 And I would say not absolutely.
 I don't sense that in you.
 That's why I wasn't even going to ask that.
 I don't sense that.
 You're self-safe.
 I know, but I don't, I don't, I don't know.
 I don't sense that you'd change anything
 because I feel like you've learned and you've rebounded.
 Like if you were someone that dwelled
 which I don't sense in you, like I might ask that
 but I could tell you don't dwelled your problems over,
 your fixer or fight or whatever it is.
 I don't even know you but that's what I sense in you.
 Well, I think it's, but I've learned in life very young
 and I believe that failure or what you perceive
 as failure to be is opportunity disguised
 as deep disappointment.
 You know, so it's, you know, I made that up by the way.
 Did you really?
 All right, that we're going to circle that one.
 That's going to make, we do highlight clips from these.
 That's making the highlight clips and going to be a quote.
 And if you see that on my personal page,
 I will obviously give you credit, but I love that.
 I believe that and every single time
 and I'm not exaggerating or lying about this,
 every single time one of those bumps in the road happened
 always turned out to be the best thing that happened for me
 because it turned me around in another direction
 and brought new opportunity.
 If that hadn't have happened, I wouldn't have met my husband
 or if I hadn't gotten sick, I wouldn't have written a book.
 Or if I hadn't written a book,
 I wouldn't have come up with the idea
 of just a food company that we just started.
 So everything turns out for a reason.
 And when you look back on it, did it hurt?
 Did you cry?
 Did you do, yeah, I did all of that.
 Did I get mad?
 Did I, yeah, I also believe in letting your feeling,
 to show your true feelings.
 And you don't have to hold anything back.
 It's okay to be sad, it's okay to be mad.
 It's okay to act not cruelly, but it's okay,
 not cruelly, but badly.
 As long as you're not physically hurting anybody
 or are your words, you have to be careful with your words,
 too, because those are hurtful.
 Hey guys, you don't have to find us
 worth theradcast.com.
 You'll find all the highlights from today.
 I'm at Ryan Alfred on all the platforms,
 including TikTok, where I'm blowing up.
 Go find me there.
 We'll see you next time on The Radcast.
 To listen or watch full episodes, visit us on the web
 at TheRadcast.com or follow us on social media
 at our Instagram account, v.rad.cast
 or at Ryan Alfred.
 Stay radical.