January 24, 2022 • 36 mins
Cristina Ferrare knows the secret to creating a booming career out of wearing many hats – from supermodel to The New York Timesbestselling author to TV host to entrepreneur. Her advice: if you have belief in something, you’ll flourish. She’s even named her new business venture accordingly. We chat with Cristina about FLOURISH Body, Mind, Soul, a company focused on the impact food has on the body and diseases that stem from unhealthy eating habits, which she founded inspired by both a lifetime love of cooking and a new perspective on food-as-medicine after overcoming cancer.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Company is a production of I Heart Radio. You
have to have number one through life. No matter what
it is you do, you have to have a passion
for it. You have to have a belief, you have
to uh focus on the things that you want to accomplish. Hi,
(00:22):
I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company, where I'll explore
how marketing, media, entertainment and tech are intersecting, transforming our
lives and the way we do business at a breakneck speed.
I'll be joined by some of the greatest business minds
and strongest leaders who will share how they build companies
from the ground up or transform them from the inside out.
My bed is you'll pick up a lesson or two
(00:43):
along the way. It's all good. It's wonderful today to
welcome to Good Company somebody that I have considered a
friend for more years than we're allowed to count, but
truly for a lifetime. I would like to welcome Christina
Ferrari to Good Company. Christina, it's such a pleasure to
(01:08):
see you and to be able to listen to you
and to be able to share some stories. So thank
you for joining, thank you for having me, and it's
lovely that you both that Ronnie have been. We've been
in good company all these many, many years. So thank
you for the friendship. Thank you. Well, there you go.
So how do I introduce you, Christina? I think I'm
going to start with just kind of listing some of
(01:30):
the things that come to mind, Like if I play
word association with your name, I'll start with supermodel, I'll
start with New York Times bestselling author, I'll start with
TV host, I'll start with entrepreneur, I'll start with a
mother and a friend, and so much more. Really, your
(01:51):
CV is quite extraordinary. In the areas in which you've
enjoyed success, you can't even count them. So again, officially,
welcome to somebody with that bio, Christina. I'd look to
start by giving our listeners a little background on your
journey to where you are today. Can you kind of
(02:12):
riff and make my job easier and give us a
little bit of the Christina story from Christina. Well, I'm
a Midwestern girl from Cleveland, Ohio. Moved to Los Angeles
when I was fourteen, and by the time um I
was sixteen, I was My mother was having lunch with
a friend of ours, and I came home from school
(02:33):
and said you know your daughter is quite lovely if
she should be modeling next thing. I know. I'm at
the Nina Blanchet agency. I don't know if you ever
had the opportunity to meet Nina. Do you remember her
at all? I do? I do. She never quite called
me to be a male model, but nonetheless I certainly
remember she was one of the icons of the industry. Yes,
(02:55):
she was the counterpart part too. I leaned Forward in
New York. She was the l a about agency to
be with. Nina was and then of course I lean
which I ended up with later in New York, but
I met her, and by the time I was sixteen,
I was put under contract to Max Factor. It was
one of the first contracts given out at that time
to represent a company, and I stayed with them for
(03:18):
over twenty years, being a Mable Lane girl. And moved
to New York when I was eighteen and happened to
walk into Francesco Scavulo studio, who did all the covers
for the Cosmopolitan UH covers and so I'd like to
do a test with you, And in the meantime he
did a test also for Vogue magazine, and before the
magazine for Vogue and Cosmopolitan came out in the same month,
(03:42):
and there was no looking back after that. So I
became what they knew, what they called then and still
do now. We were one of the first supermodels, you know,
Sherl Tigs and I. We were young, We were you know,
in New York. We thought, oh my god, this is great.
We had. I've had the opportunity to travel the world
as spokesperson, a commercial spokesperson, did all the runway model
(04:05):
well not the runway because runaway wasn't as important as
it is today, but ended up doing a I'm getting
a little ahead of myself. I got married very young, uh,
then divorced, and then my second marriage was to John
de Lorian, which is a whole other podcast. I have
to add well said, by the way, yes we divorced,
(04:27):
but I had two wonderful children with him, my Catherine
and Zach Garran. And then my career, you know, took
off because I came back to l A. And I
did a talk television talk show called A m Los Angeles,
which was the local market for anybody who is doing anything,
you know, books, movies, TV. So I had the opportunity
this little girl from Cleveland to meet everybody. I remember
(04:51):
every single major movie star and every single TV star,
and Jimmy Stewart came on one day in my mouth
destruct and a couple of months later, we were at
the Beverly Hills Hotel for one of those Grammy or
Academy Award things and I hear in this beautiful, familiar voice, Hey, Christina,
I can't do his voice. How are you? And I
(05:11):
turned around and it was it was him. I thought,
Oh my god, this man knows who I am. And
it was just such a humbling experience. You have Jimmy
Stewart do that. He was with R. J. Wagner at
the time. They were promoting something that they were doing.
But um, you know, I've I've had this wonderful opportunity
to meet everybody. And the show was number one in
(05:32):
its time slot. Then I did the home show, I
co hosted Good Morning America. Not too many people had
have had that wonderful opportunity to do that. It was
I was filling in for John London, I filled in
for Kathy Lee Gifford with Regis I did men are
from Mars, Women are from Venus? Uh in my own
my very own talk show and then the last couple
(05:52):
of years, I've been doing a two hour live TV
show for the Hallmark Channel and and uh, then I
got sick. I got sick. At the time, I was
diagnosed with multiple miloma, which is the cancer of the
plasma of the blood. And uh that took me in
another direction at the time. But while I was in
(06:15):
the hospital for a month, I was supposed to be
in there for a month, I wrote my third book.
As you mentioned I was. I am in New York
best selling author, which I'm very proud of. I've ever
written six books, and my seventh book was Food for Thought,
and that had to do with how foods affect your
brain and your health. And Maria Shriver, who is a
(06:36):
very good friend of mine, called me and said, I'd
love to collaborate with you on this book. I said, no,
you can't. You don't even like to cook so new
and she said, wow, this is really up my alley
with you know, the brain health, and it's so good
for Alzheimer's and she's working so diligently to try to
find a cure for Alzheimers. She said, I will give
you m a testimonial on the book, and uh, I
(07:01):
researched it. It took me three years to finish it.
She gave me a wonderful testimonial, and she and I
decided we were going to donate part of the profits
to the Women's Alzheimer's Movement. So what that did for me,
It turned a page for me because I realized how
important giving back was at that time almost you know,
facing a uh, the cancer like it it's not curable.
(07:24):
I have stem cell. I'm in my sixty I'm in
remission six years and I plan to stay that way.
But it all has to do with we take a
moment to just say thank God for that every day,
several times a day, trust me. So um yeah, now
I'm and during that time, while I was in the
hospital thinking about what I was going to do in
(07:45):
this next chapter of my life, because I always look
at my life as a book at chapters in it,
and when one door closes, one always opens up, you know,
because there's a whole other aspect to you know, going
through life and facing disappointment, being fired from jobs, how
that affects you, How disease affects your family, how it
(08:06):
u of your immediate family. And my husband who became
the caregiver. That was an eye opener for me as well,
because there's something very interesting. We all know how wonderful
Tony is. I mean, we all know what a wonderful, caring,
loving I need. I need to do my plug here.
In addition to having known Christina for a lifetime, I've
(08:28):
been fortunate as well to be friends and business associates
over the years and almost like family with Tony Thermopolis,
who has been Christina's partner for many, many years thirty
seven and counting. And I've known Tony for most of
those years, and you know, he would be a great
subject for a podcast on his own to talk about
(08:50):
his his journey and his career which has been so
extraordinary as well. So I want to do my plug
for for for T T for Tony Themopolis. Well, it's
interesting that you would say that, because when I mentioned
about Tony becoming the caregiver, he wrote a piece that
he sent to Maria a Striver for her Sunday paper,
and it was about what being a caregiver, what it
(09:14):
felt like for him and he he wrote it and
I read it, and I was shocked by what I
found what I read about um first of all, the
fact that he might lose, you know, someone that he like,
his wife, how it affected him, how it affected his
daily life, and the fact that he went through some
stages to where he actually didn't like me, he resented
(09:37):
me because I was really say, I always knew Tony
was a little off. See how could he not like you?
But I never knew that because he never showed me.
The stress and the strain that he was going under
all underlined by the fact that I might die, you know,
and and he he didn't. He stopped praying, he stopped
doing it because he was so upset about my life
(10:00):
and how it affected him. So when it came out
in the paper, she said, the results that she received
from men that have been through this with their wives
was eye opening, because you know, you guys don't talk
about your feelings. What is wrong with you? You never
say what you really feel. It's not like us where
you know, we put it right up to the table
and he was the same way. But you know what
(10:21):
it did, It helped me change my attitude towards them too,
because I was under some very powerful medication and it
altered my personality. You know, my kids called her Ristina Pannar.
They named her She's the evil twin and uh, but
they understood too that it was a medication making me
act that way. It wasn't It wasn't a good time, Christina.
(10:42):
I want to bring it full circle to this past year,
so or you know, year and a half. Now. If
there's anything that we've learned as people who live on
this planet over this past year, it's the importance of
staying healthy. And you know, both mentally and physically. What
this year has done is obviously put so many millions
(11:03):
and millions of people in physical jeopardy and physical danger,
disease and other things. But what it's also done has
put people under extraordinary mental strain. We see it in
the in the family, in the workplace, in our daily lives,
the interaction. We think people are just taking it all in.
(11:23):
And you know, from a business perspective, everybody has been
you know, all zoom all the time, all video all
the time, and those of us who are fortunate enough
to be able to do that. But the strain, and
the mental strain really is the right word that we've
all been under. Some of us wear it on our sleeves,
some of us internalize it. But what we've learned is
(11:46):
the importance of the mind and the body coming together.
And what I'd love to change gears to is in
twenty nineteen you launched Flourish the Mind Body Spirit Company
and if you will, and bringing together those areas of
importance your mind and your body, I guess, and your soul,
(12:09):
God knows important. But you really focused on the impact
that food can have on all of this. I think
it's all something we kind of know, but you took
it to another level. And I'd love to talk about
a your inspiration. I'm guessing we could, you know, surmise
what it was, but can you give kind of flourish
(12:32):
one oh one to our listeners and talk about those
particular foods, give us a little bit of the impetus
and then a little bit of the actual recipe if
you will. And I don't mean rest, I don't mean
recipe per se, but I do because I also know
a secret for our listeners. You are an extraordinary cook.
That much. I know that much. I know, yes, well,
(12:55):
you know my nanna and my mom or from Italy
and basically they were I was where we were raised
on the Mediterranean diet. Where everything was always fresh grains,
fresh vegetables, fish, uh no, no fat, no sodas, and
we were a healthy We were a healthy family, and um,
I wanted to My first love has always been cooking
(13:16):
and food and the lure of the kitchen, the science
of the kitchen and food and how it affects your body.
Ever since I was old enough to stand on a
few books on the counter where my non and mom
would cook, because I would be in there all the
time with them, and I became a passion of mine
and I knew somewhere down the line that I would
be involved in some kind of thing that had to
(13:36):
do with food, because I also realized, um, you know
that that sugar, the way it had affected my body.
Even as a young kid, I was very aware of
the effects that food had on your mind, your health,
or you know, when I went to school. My grandmother,
though she did one thing. She would take an egg
yolk in the morning, and instinctively I knew it was bad,
(13:57):
but it was an Italian thing, a raw egg yolk,
and put two tablespoons of processed sugar in it, and
she would whip it up and like a zabaion. You know,
we would whip it up and whip it up, and
I would eat it. By the time I got to school,
I was like this. I was reading heard and I
was going, there's something going on. And I quickly put
together that it was what I was eating. So I
(14:19):
put that aside because so many other things that happened
to me in the meantime. But with every show I've
ever done, I always did cooking, and I always presented
cooking um healthy and and but not necessarily um, you know,
sugary things. And I tried to figure out how I
can incorporate this message to people how important it is
(14:40):
to keep to eat a diet that is clean. And
by that I mean is that there are just two
things too. You can eat anything you want, it's how
you cook it, how you prepare it, and what you
used to make it with. And two things that you
definitely have to avoid is processed sugar because it is
a poison for your body. A raise your glycemic index,
(15:01):
which raises your blood sugar. And what that does is
it doesn't sound, it doesn't saturate your appetite immediately, and
you eat more and you and then obesity happens. So Christina,
I'm gonna jump in there for a second. One of
the things that Ronnie for our listeners, my wife, but
Ronnie and I have experienced over the years when we've
(15:21):
been fortunate enough to travel, particularly in Southern Europe in Italy,
we tend to eat more and it doesn't translate to
my waist. And part of that is what I've always
been led to believe is because at least in Southern Europe,
food is not processed the same as it is here.
I've always found that in Italy, I can eat more pasta,
(15:44):
I can eat more of this, I can eat more
of that. But it has to do with the process
that we put food through in this country. That again,
I don't know if this is true throughout Western Europe,
but I know in Southern Europe in Italy, for sure,
I know that's always been the case because I have
the results from having spent enough time there. Well. Again,
it's interesting you would say that because the other thing
(16:04):
you have to avoid our trans fats, and those are
fats that solidify in room temperature, you know, like butter
and coconut oil and things that just room temperature will solidify.
What that does, those are called trans fatty acids. And
what it does is they it raises your good cholesterol
and your bad cholesterol, and and the in order to
(16:26):
preserve shelf lives. Everybody who who you see, everything that's
on the shelf has been have trans fatty acids. Not everything,
but you know the packages that come in those those
things that rattle, you know that you're supposed to avoid
those because those have a lot of them. Doesn't mean
you can't not have them, but just in minimal amounts.
But I avoid them all together. And what that does
(16:49):
is obesity happens uh your diabetes. It affects your heart,
it affects your brain, everything. So you have to try
to avoid that at all costs. So in my book
Food for Thought, I have a chapter in there on desserts.
So I made a chocolate moose and I gave it
to my family. I didn't say to them how I
(17:10):
made it. They say, oh my god, this is really delicious.
How fattening is the first thing they say, there's no fat,
no sugar, no dairy in it. Could you send it
my way please? Yeah? So I'm gonna make it for
you and I'm gonna bring it to your house when
we come over to see your new house, and all
the recipes in there do not have trans fatty acids
in it, and it does not have process sugar in it.
(17:30):
So there's a way to eat everything that you like.
You just have to be conscious of what you bought
and to eat more lean protein. I don't personally eat meat,
but I eat a lot of fish, a lot of vegetables,
a lot of whole grains and things that are good
for you. And my doctor said to me when I
had my stem cell, I was supposed to be in
the hospital for a month. I got out after two
(17:53):
and a half weeks, and I go, I don't want
to go home. I want to stay here. This is
you know, because I was being weighted on hand and foot.
But they told me that it was most likely due
to my diet and how I was eating. Because I
recovered like super well and I have been in remission
for over Thank you God, please, I told you over
six years now, and I achieve that to eating and exercise.
(18:17):
It's important too, because alzheimer is. Alzheimer's is out of control. There.
They're about I think about six six million people living
with Alzheimer's. And I believe too that I have a
note here that in two thousand fifty there will be
thirteen million people suffering from Alzheimer's. And then you know
there's heart disease, diabetes, cancers. All these things are cost
(18:40):
from the foods you eat. So, so, Christina, So Christina.
It is clear, and that's why I wanted to go there.
It is clear that the impetus behind Flourish was deeply
personal to you. You were going through something you always
loved food, and I mean the preparation and all of that,
and eating as well as eating as well as eating.
(19:02):
You beat me to it. But the question I have,
which really relates to the listeners into our conversation who
are looking at their own business entrepreneurial prospects and impetus,
And what I'd love you to talk about is the
importance of being intentional when you start a business. The
passion that you feel about what you're doing has a
(19:25):
lot to do with how well you do it. I mean,
I believe that if you're passionate about what you're doing,
whatever it is, or if you're connected to it, you're
going to do a better job. What would be your
advice to somebody who's got that You had a reason.
You had a health reason that led you to take
your thinking and make a business. Not everybody has that
(19:47):
as an impetus. But how did it work for you? Well,
first of all, this is the first time I've been
in business for myself. But everything you said is certainly true.
You have to have number one through life, no matter
what it is you do, you have to have a
passion for it. You have to have a belief. You
(20:07):
have to uh focus on the things that you want
to accomplish. I've had other businesses that have been successful
and then I ended up selling them. But when I
got sick, I decided this is something that I really
believe in with all my heart, that if I could
bring people the foods that they love, the pastas, the pizzas,
the cereal, that granella. You know, we have flourished granola.
(20:30):
We started with our granola, and to start small, because
if you try to do everything at once, then you
can't control everything. There are many lessons to be learned
along the way, and God knows we've learned those. But
those are good. Those are they're supposed to happen to
help you move to the next step. So and we've
made We've made our share of mistakes as well, but
(20:51):
that didn't matter because the commitment and the love that
I have for this keeps us going. So we started
first with our cereals where at the air one Markets,
which is the number one health food store in l A.
We're going to and I'm just excited about this. We
just made it into the Walmart marketplace where you can
order it online and um, so it's it's really important
(21:12):
to have that commitment and there have been many nights
I have to and also the people you surround yourself with.
I forgot to say, we're on Amazon too. We're on Amazon.
You can go on Amazon and order it. But it's
the people you surround yourself with. They have to have
the same vision and pact, not not the same vision
and passion, but at least have the same feeling about
(21:34):
what you're doing, where you're working, who you're working for,
what you want to do what, Because I don't want
to have people who just want to phone it in,
you know, I want people around me that that love
what they're doing and create a company that they know
they'll be doing good. They know that they'll be doing good,
and this is what I want to do. I want
people to understand the philosophy behind the Flourished brand. We're
(21:57):
coming out with our pet I always say pet bone off,
but it sounds like we we boiled pets for broth.
What we don't. It's bone broth or pets. So we're
coming out with that in uh probably early early spring,
and I'm really excited about that. So that's a line
extension for Flourish where you're gonna now bring that same thinking.
(22:18):
Obviously the manifestation of health and a dog is different
than it isn't a human, but probably a lot of
similar you know considerations. But you know what, we love
our fur babies. Everybody you know their cats, their dogs,
and we we love them and and and they too
suffer from cancer from the stuff they put in the
dog food. And so I came up with the formula
(22:40):
for bone broth for pets, and we just picked them
up yesterday, put them in the warehouse and we'll be
distributing them soon. But there's so much more, as you know,
the business plan, the mission plan, these are all things
that I've been um, you know, learning about because I'm
not a business person er say, although I'm learning it
(23:01):
and I'm loving it. I'm just the cook, so I
have to surround myself with people who know what they're doing.
But you know, Christina, it's interesting you say you're just
the cook. I know you're not, but I'm going to
say something. It's interesting because when I started Media Link,
I hadn't thought of it this way. But there was
a process, and that process was we would develop a
(23:22):
strategy for our partners. We would then help them figure
out how to implement that strategy, and then the final
step for us was the execution of that strategy. And
you know, kind of halfway down the journey, I realized
that that was like a chef. A chef writes a
recipe our strategy. You then have to cook the food
the implementation. Then you have to eat the food, which
(23:44):
is the execution. And I've always said, if you look
at our business on that thread of you know, strategy, implementation, execution,
it's like a chef recipe, cooking, eating and specialist down.
But you know, a good chef, a good chef has
to be able to eat their own food and they
(24:06):
better like it because the recipe has to work. So
you know, it's interesting that you said that, and I
likened that to my own business as we were on
a journey. Let me switch gears for a second, Christina,
because one of the things you've done brilliantly, and look,
you've been a public person for all the years that
I've known you. And now I'm gonna tell a personal
story which we chatted about before we started recording our conversation.
(24:28):
So for our listeners, I'm going to tell everybody how
I first met Christina. Okay, so I was walking down
Rodeo Drive when I was in college and I was
dumb struck. I don't know what the word was. I
looked in a window of a very fancy jewelry store
on Adeo Drive called Jewels by Edwar and there was
(24:50):
absolutely stunning picture of a young lady who was a supermodel,
which I didn't know, but there was an absolutely stun
picture of you. And that picture had you modeling something
that looked like the Hope Diamond, but it was emeralds.
I remember it like it was yesterday, Christina. It was
(25:11):
a magnificent emerald ensemble of a necklace and earrings, is
what I remember. But what I remember really weren't the emeralds.
What I remembered was your beauty. And as I walked
further down the street or maybe up the street, depending
on which way I was going, I think it was
up the street, I went into the Gucci store on
(25:33):
Rodeo Drive, And I'll let those in on a little secret.
I was an early adopter, and I probably couldn't afford it,
but I bought my first pair of horse bit Gucci
loafers back in the had to be in the early seventies.
And the two people who took care of me and
befriended me as a young guy coming into shop in
(25:54):
a fancy store happened to be your mother and your grandmother.
So I'm letting all the listen is in on a
little fact that your grandmother and your mother, particularly your grandmother,
because she sold me my shoes. She took a shine
to me, and I took a shine to her. And
even when I couldn't afford it, I'd stopped in and
visit just to say hello to your mom and your grandma.
(26:15):
So you know the fact that we did become friends
in life so many years ago. I'm letting you in
on a little secret here and our listeners that I
was enamored of your beauty and then I got to
know your inner beauty as well. So I just need
to share that story. Not so sweet. I'm so so
moved and touched by that story. But my nanna was
(26:36):
a pistol and my my my grandmother was a reverence.
She was, she was a sailor. She even though she
was an elegant lady. And my mother always head of
the jewelry department. She was a jewelry buyer there and
my mother was very proper and she would just like
faint every time my grandmother would over her mouth. But
my grandmother made friends with no one would buy. They
(26:57):
would wait for my grandmother. I it it was much
more fun. But she said, you know, not everybody loves you.
She goes, I tell you a little secret, a little secret.
So she would tell me about she would work on
commission and she would suck that money away, I tell you.
And she every day every day selling the shoes. And
she she lived very well. My grandmother office. She loved
(27:19):
what she did. She had a passion for what she
did and that's why she was successful at it. I'm
happy I could be a contributor and some small uh
and just to add a little you know, a little
touch to that because your mother was on the jewelry side.
When Ronnie and I first met, Ronnie would go visit jewelry.
We couldn't afford to buy it, but she would visit
(27:40):
jewelry at at Coucci and say when we can, I
want that. Okay, but that's part of our history. But Christina,
where I was going with that was, you've been a
public person. You've been a celebrity for you know, most
of your life. What you've done brilliantly is used your
fall gowing on Instagram and social media platforms and the
(28:03):
like to really build the Flourished brand. Because you do
have a strong following. What lessons have you learned and
what lessons might you be able to share with our
listeners relative to how you've used social media in you know,
I don't want to say promoting yourself because that's not
how I look at this. It's an unintended benefit. But
(28:24):
you've promoted your mission, you've promoted your connectivity, and you've
promoted Flourish using your platform. Has that worked out? And
is there any advice you could give to any of
our listeners on how you've done that? I think it's
extremely important to have engagement with the people who reach
out to you. I try to. I get a lot
(28:45):
of people calling me with comments and things, and I
try to answer as many as I can. I can't
spend the whole day, you know, doing it, so I
try to answer as much as I can every single day.
And that personal connection really helps because then they feel
they are connecting with you and I with them, and
you build a beautiful community. The ones that have been
(29:06):
following me for years, I know them personally, and a
couple of them have become very good friends of mine,
you know, just you know, they're like gifts, but they're
out there to trying to help and promote. But I
think engagement is one of the most important things. And consistency.
You have to do something every day. It's really hard
because I'm really like a one man show right now,
and as I'm expanding, I realize that I need help.
(29:27):
But I am such a control freak that you know,
and I'm all about perfection. I think I have what
is it called O c D or something. I mean,
everything has to be perfect. And Tony says, get somebody
to do it for you. But when I get somebody
doing it for me, I end up doing it myself
because I am a perfectionist and I want everything to
be perfect. But the engagement is probably the most important thing.
(29:50):
And consistency, Christina, one thing I can say. You know,
having been fortunate enough to know you as many years
as I do, you have been consistent. You've been consistent
in your commitment in who you are. And you know,
when when somebody is so public, you always wonder, Okay,
I know what that person is like when I'm seeing
them on television, or I'm looking at a photo of them,
(30:12):
or they're you know, doing this or that, But that's
not what they're really like. You know, we all have
that sort of jaundiced view of well, that's not what
they're really like. I'm here to tell you that's what
you're really like, Christina, and I'm here to tell our
listeners that's what you're really like. I think the fact
that I have been on so many talk shows, I
(30:34):
believe that people can smell when you're not sincere, and
when you come at them every day through your television screen,
there you know they can see right through you. And
I am not a BS artist. What you see is
what you get. I was I'm that way and everything
I've done. I've had so many people call me to
do commercials and endorsing throughout my career. I am not
(30:57):
a gun for hire. I have to see it, I
have to try it. I don't care if it takes
three or four weeks to try on a new makeup thing,
which by the way, I have coming out. But but
you know, good plug, good plug, good plug. But I have,
you know, and I believe that people can see see that.
So I try to stay to to form on who
(31:19):
I really am as a person. And do I get mad,
Do I get upset? Yeah, sure I do. But you're
gonna see that too, you know. It's it's I don't
try to hide anything, especially from my poor husband. He
gets the front of everything. But I think authenticity is
really important. Yeah. Look, we we talk into our business,
but I think this applies to life for at large Christina.
(31:41):
It seems that in the media and marketing and advertising space,
and my team hears us all the time, everything that
is relevant today or or top of the mind to
everybody begins with the letter T trust, transparency, technology, talent,
and transformation. Those are all words that are pivots for
(32:04):
our industry today. The other word which you used, starts
with an A, which is authenticity. And if you take trust, transparency,
and authenticity and put them together, those three really speak
volumes to a why you are you and why you've
had success Because you are authentic, people can trust you,
(32:27):
and you're transparent. You are as advertised you can kind
of what was that song in Chicago, Mr Cellophane? You
can see right through me? Yes, exactly. But you forgot
one other tea. You have to have a tony. Even
though that person doesn't have that, You have to have
a tony. Well, he's got two tease, yeah, he he
(32:48):
has two tease. But you need someone who believes in
your vision as well, who's there to support you, to
help you to lay that foundation. Um, that's important. So
you have to have a tony behind you as well.
I'm sure you have one of those. Your team is amazing.
I have to say, yeah, you're surrounded by really wonderful people. So, Christina,
(33:12):
I'm going to ask you one bonus question as we wrap.
I'd be remiss if I didn't close on this. What's
your favorite recipe? What's your favorite recipe to kind of
just whip up in a dime? You know all right,
I keep always fresh tomatoes in the house. The tomato
season is over with, but I canned all of my
my tomatoes at the end of the season because I
(33:33):
love to make pasta sauce. That is a fresh tomato sauce,
little olive oil, little garlic, little red pepper, Uh, a
little wine tomatoes. Cook him up for ten minutes. You
have the most wonderful pasta. It's clean, it's delicious. Uh.
Sometimes I buy the homemade, the homemade pastas that are
already made, or I just used, you know, the dry pasta,
(33:54):
A little reggiano partiano. Put it on fresh basil. That
is the best. And by the way, I'll when we
come to your house, You're gonna get chocolate moose and
I'm going to bring you the tomatoes, so I'll cook
it right there. Ronnie and I can do it together.
I love it. And guys, Christina, you left us all
wanting more, particularly some of that special Christina sauce. I
(34:15):
really genuinely appreciate the time today. Christina. You know I
appreciate the friendship we Ronnie and I hold you and
Tony in the highest esteem. I mean, I I know
this song, can I just mentioned though. Two, I'd like
to invite people to come into my world and if
they could just go on to act Christina. There's no
(34:36):
h in Christina cooks. Follow these recipes that we're talking about.
And also, you know, we're starting a new company. I
get emotional. There's nothing more important to me than to
make this successful, to be able to share it with people.
I have visions in my head that, you know, if
this company is successful and we could really get it
going that you know, I want to build a building
(34:58):
for my alma, you know, for the So this is
how I think. Is it going to happen? I don't know.
So go at floors, underscore body, mind, soul, and help
me make that happen. I don't need any more money,
but I want. I want to be able to do
good things with it. That's my dream. I am gonna
be very forthright in what I say to the listeners,
(35:21):
but from my perspective, I'm never going to make a
bet against you. I'm going to count on you, and
I know this is gonna work, and I'm going to
be helping you look for that building. You embody so
much of the mind, body, and spirit that you're trying
to help others achieve, and you're an inspiration to me
and I know just so many Thank you, Christina. I'm
(35:43):
Michael Casson. Thanks for listening to Good Company. Good Company
is a production of I Heart Radio Special Thanks to
Lena Peterson, Chief Brand Officer and Managing Director Immediately for
her vision I'm good Company, and to Jen Ceely, Vice
President Marketing Communications Immediately for programming a azing talent and
content Mmm.
Good Company is a production of I Heart Radio. You
have to have number one through life. No matter what
it is you do, you have to have a passion
for it. You have to have a belief, you have
to uh focus on the things that you want to accomplish. Hi,
(00:22):
I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company, where I'll explore
how marketing, media, entertainment and tech are intersecting, transforming our
lives and the way we do business at a breakneck speed.
I'll be joined by some of the greatest business minds
and strongest leaders who will share how they build companies
from the ground up or transform them from the inside out.
My bed is you'll pick up a lesson or two
(00:43):
along the way. It's all good. It's wonderful today to
welcome to Good Company somebody that I have considered a
friend for more years than we're allowed to count, but
truly for a lifetime. I would like to welcome Christina
Ferrari to Good Company. Christina, it's such a pleasure to
(01:08):
see you and to be able to listen to you
and to be able to share some stories. So thank
you for joining, thank you for having me, and it's
lovely that you both that Ronnie have been. We've been
in good company all these many, many years. So thank
you for the friendship. Thank you. Well, there you go.
So how do I introduce you, Christina? I think I'm
going to start with just kind of listing some of
(01:30):
the things that come to mind, Like if I play
word association with your name, I'll start with supermodel, I'll
start with New York Times bestselling author, I'll start with
TV host, I'll start with entrepreneur, I'll start with a
mother and a friend, and so much more. Really, your
(01:51):
CV is quite extraordinary. In the areas in which you've
enjoyed success, you can't even count them. So again, officially,
welcome to somebody with that bio, Christina. I'd look to
start by giving our listeners a little background on your
journey to where you are today. Can you kind of
(02:12):
riff and make my job easier and give us a
little bit of the Christina story from Christina. Well, I'm
a Midwestern girl from Cleveland, Ohio. Moved to Los Angeles
when I was fourteen, and by the time um I
was sixteen, I was My mother was having lunch with
a friend of ours, and I came home from school
(02:33):
and said you know your daughter is quite lovely if
she should be modeling next thing. I know. I'm at
the Nina Blanchet agency. I don't know if you ever
had the opportunity to meet Nina. Do you remember her
at all? I do? I do. She never quite called
me to be a male model, but nonetheless I certainly
remember she was one of the icons of the industry. Yes,
(02:55):
she was the counterpart part too. I leaned Forward in
New York. She was the l a about agency to
be with. Nina was and then of course I lean
which I ended up with later in New York, but
I met her, and by the time I was sixteen,
I was put under contract to Max Factor. It was
one of the first contracts given out at that time
to represent a company, and I stayed with them for
(03:18):
over twenty years, being a Mable Lane girl. And moved
to New York when I was eighteen and happened to
walk into Francesco Scavulo studio, who did all the covers
for the Cosmopolitan UH covers and so I'd like to
do a test with you, And in the meantime he
did a test also for Vogue magazine, and before the
magazine for Vogue and Cosmopolitan came out in the same month,
(03:42):
and there was no looking back after that. So I
became what they knew, what they called then and still
do now. We were one of the first supermodels, you know,
Sherl Tigs and I. We were young, We were you know,
in New York. We thought, oh my god, this is great.
We had. I've had the opportunity to travel the world
as spokesperson, a commercial spokesperson, did all the runway model
(04:05):
well not the runway because runaway wasn't as important as
it is today, but ended up doing a I'm getting
a little ahead of myself. I got married very young, uh,
then divorced, and then my second marriage was to John
de Lorian, which is a whole other podcast. I have
to add well said, by the way, yes we divorced,
(04:27):
but I had two wonderful children with him, my Catherine
and Zach Garran. And then my career, you know, took
off because I came back to l A. And I
did a talk television talk show called A m Los Angeles,
which was the local market for anybody who is doing anything,
you know, books, movies, TV. So I had the opportunity
this little girl from Cleveland to meet everybody. I remember
(04:51):
every single major movie star and every single TV star,
and Jimmy Stewart came on one day in my mouth
destruct and a couple of months later, we were at
the Beverly Hills Hotel for one of those Grammy or
Academy Award things and I hear in this beautiful, familiar voice, Hey, Christina,
I can't do his voice. How are you? And I
(05:11):
turned around and it was it was him. I thought,
Oh my god, this man knows who I am. And
it was just such a humbling experience. You have Jimmy
Stewart do that. He was with R. J. Wagner at
the time. They were promoting something that they were doing.
But um, you know, I've I've had this wonderful opportunity
to meet everybody. And the show was number one in
(05:32):
its time slot. Then I did the home show, I
co hosted Good Morning America. Not too many people had
have had that wonderful opportunity to do that. It was
I was filling in for John London, I filled in
for Kathy Lee Gifford with Regis I did men are
from Mars, Women are from Venus? Uh in my own
my very own talk show and then the last couple
(05:52):
of years, I've been doing a two hour live TV
show for the Hallmark Channel and and uh, then I
got sick. I got sick. At the time, I was
diagnosed with multiple miloma, which is the cancer of the
plasma of the blood. And uh that took me in
another direction at the time. But while I was in
(06:15):
the hospital for a month, I was supposed to be
in there for a month, I wrote my third book.
As you mentioned I was. I am in New York
best selling author, which I'm very proud of. I've ever
written six books, and my seventh book was Food for Thought,
and that had to do with how foods affect your
brain and your health. And Maria Shriver, who is a
(06:36):
very good friend of mine, called me and said, I'd
love to collaborate with you on this book. I said, no,
you can't. You don't even like to cook so new
and she said, wow, this is really up my alley
with you know, the brain health, and it's so good
for Alzheimer's and she's working so diligently to try to
find a cure for Alzheimers. She said, I will give
you m a testimonial on the book, and uh, I
(07:01):
researched it. It took me three years to finish it.
She gave me a wonderful testimonial, and she and I
decided we were going to donate part of the profits
to the Women's Alzheimer's Movement. So what that did for me,
It turned a page for me because I realized how
important giving back was at that time almost you know,
facing a uh, the cancer like it it's not curable.
(07:24):
I have stem cell. I'm in my sixty I'm in
remission six years and I plan to stay that way.
But it all has to do with we take a
moment to just say thank God for that every day,
several times a day, trust me. So um yeah, now
I'm and during that time, while I was in the
hospital thinking about what I was going to do in
(07:45):
this next chapter of my life, because I always look
at my life as a book at chapters in it,
and when one door closes, one always opens up, you know,
because there's a whole other aspect to you know, going
through life and facing disappointment, being fired from jobs, how
that affects you, How disease affects your family, how it
(08:06):
u of your immediate family. And my husband who became
the caregiver. That was an eye opener for me as well,
because there's something very interesting. We all know how wonderful
Tony is. I mean, we all know what a wonderful, caring,
loving I need. I need to do my plug here.
In addition to having known Christina for a lifetime, I've
(08:28):
been fortunate as well to be friends and business associates
over the years and almost like family with Tony Thermopolis,
who has been Christina's partner for many, many years thirty
seven and counting. And I've known Tony for most of
those years, and you know, he would be a great
subject for a podcast on his own to talk about
(08:50):
his his journey and his career which has been so
extraordinary as well. So I want to do my plug
for for for T T for Tony Themopolis. Well, it's
interesting that you would say that, because when I mentioned
about Tony becoming the caregiver, he wrote a piece that
he sent to Maria a Striver for her Sunday paper,
and it was about what being a caregiver, what it
(09:14):
felt like for him and he he wrote it and
I read it, and I was shocked by what I
found what I read about um first of all, the
fact that he might lose, you know, someone that he like,
his wife, how it affected him, how it affected his
daily life, and the fact that he went through some
stages to where he actually didn't like me, he resented
(09:37):
me because I was really say, I always knew Tony
was a little off. See how could he not like you?
But I never knew that because he never showed me.
The stress and the strain that he was going under
all underlined by the fact that I might die, you know,
and and he he didn't. He stopped praying, he stopped
doing it because he was so upset about my life
(10:00):
and how it affected him. So when it came out
in the paper, she said, the results that she received
from men that have been through this with their wives
was eye opening, because you know, you guys don't talk
about your feelings. What is wrong with you? You never
say what you really feel. It's not like us where
you know, we put it right up to the table
and he was the same way. But you know what
(10:21):
it did, It helped me change my attitude towards them too,
because I was under some very powerful medication and it
altered my personality. You know, my kids called her Ristina Pannar.
They named her She's the evil twin and uh, but
they understood too that it was a medication making me
act that way. It wasn't It wasn't a good time, Christina.
(10:42):
I want to bring it full circle to this past year,
so or you know, year and a half. Now. If
there's anything that we've learned as people who live on
this planet over this past year, it's the importance of
staying healthy. And you know, both mentally and physically. What
this year has done is obviously put so many millions
(11:03):
and millions of people in physical jeopardy and physical danger,
disease and other things. But what it's also done has
put people under extraordinary mental strain. We see it in
the in the family, in the workplace, in our daily lives,
the interaction. We think people are just taking it all in.
(11:23):
And you know, from a business perspective, everybody has been
you know, all zoom all the time, all video all
the time, and those of us who are fortunate enough
to be able to do that. But the strain, and
the mental strain really is the right word that we've
all been under. Some of us wear it on our sleeves,
some of us internalize it. But what we've learned is
(11:46):
the importance of the mind and the body coming together.
And what I'd love to change gears to is in
twenty nineteen you launched Flourish the Mind Body Spirit Company
and if you will, and bringing together those areas of
importance your mind and your body, I guess, and your soul,
(12:09):
God knows important. But you really focused on the impact
that food can have on all of this. I think
it's all something we kind of know, but you took
it to another level. And I'd love to talk about
a your inspiration. I'm guessing we could, you know, surmise
what it was, but can you give kind of flourish
(12:32):
one oh one to our listeners and talk about those
particular foods, give us a little bit of the impetus
and then a little bit of the actual recipe if
you will. And I don't mean rest, I don't mean
recipe per se, but I do because I also know
a secret for our listeners. You are an extraordinary cook.
That much. I know that much. I know, yes, well,
(12:55):
you know my nanna and my mom or from Italy
and basically they were I was where we were raised
on the Mediterranean diet. Where everything was always fresh grains,
fresh vegetables, fish, uh no, no fat, no sodas, and
we were a healthy We were a healthy family, and um,
I wanted to My first love has always been cooking
(13:16):
and food and the lure of the kitchen, the science
of the kitchen and food and how it affects your body.
Ever since I was old enough to stand on a
few books on the counter where my non and mom
would cook, because I would be in there all the
time with them, and I became a passion of mine
and I knew somewhere down the line that I would
be involved in some kind of thing that had to
(13:36):
do with food, because I also realized, um, you know
that that sugar, the way it had affected my body.
Even as a young kid, I was very aware of
the effects that food had on your mind, your health,
or you know, when I went to school. My grandmother,
though she did one thing. She would take an egg
yolk in the morning, and instinctively I knew it was bad,
(13:57):
but it was an Italian thing, a raw egg yolk,
and put two tablespoons of processed sugar in it, and
she would whip it up and like a zabaion. You know,
we would whip it up and whip it up, and
I would eat it. By the time I got to school,
I was like this. I was reading heard and I
was going, there's something going on. And I quickly put
together that it was what I was eating. So I
(14:19):
put that aside because so many other things that happened
to me in the meantime. But with every show I've
ever done, I always did cooking, and I always presented
cooking um healthy and and but not necessarily um, you know,
sugary things. And I tried to figure out how I
can incorporate this message to people how important it is
(14:40):
to keep to eat a diet that is clean. And
by that I mean is that there are just two
things too. You can eat anything you want, it's how
you cook it, how you prepare it, and what you
used to make it with. And two things that you
definitely have to avoid is processed sugar because it is
a poison for your body. A raise your glycemic index,
(15:01):
which raises your blood sugar. And what that does is
it doesn't sound, it doesn't saturate your appetite immediately, and
you eat more and you and then obesity happens. So Christina,
I'm gonna jump in there for a second. One of
the things that Ronnie for our listeners, my wife, but
Ronnie and I have experienced over the years when we've
(15:21):
been fortunate enough to travel, particularly in Southern Europe in Italy,
we tend to eat more and it doesn't translate to
my waist. And part of that is what I've always
been led to believe is because at least in Southern Europe,
food is not processed the same as it is here.
I've always found that in Italy, I can eat more pasta,
(15:44):
I can eat more of this, I can eat more
of that. But it has to do with the process
that we put food through in this country. That again,
I don't know if this is true throughout Western Europe,
but I know in Southern Europe in Italy, for sure,
I know that's always been the case because I have
the results from having spent enough time there. Well. Again,
it's interesting you would say that because the other thing
(16:04):
you have to avoid our trans fats, and those are
fats that solidify in room temperature, you know, like butter
and coconut oil and things that just room temperature will solidify.
What that does, those are called trans fatty acids. And
what it does is they it raises your good cholesterol
and your bad cholesterol, and and the in order to
(16:26):
preserve shelf lives. Everybody who who you see, everything that's
on the shelf has been have trans fatty acids. Not everything,
but you know the packages that come in those those
things that rattle, you know that you're supposed to avoid
those because those have a lot of them. Doesn't mean
you can't not have them, but just in minimal amounts.
But I avoid them all together. And what that does
(16:49):
is obesity happens uh your diabetes. It affects your heart,
it affects your brain, everything. So you have to try
to avoid that at all costs. So in my book
Food for Thought, I have a chapter in there on desserts.
So I made a chocolate moose and I gave it
to my family. I didn't say to them how I
(17:10):
made it. They say, oh my god, this is really delicious.
How fattening is the first thing they say, there's no fat,
no sugar, no dairy in it. Could you send it
my way please? Yeah? So I'm gonna make it for
you and I'm gonna bring it to your house when
we come over to see your new house, and all
the recipes in there do not have trans fatty acids
in it, and it does not have process sugar in it.
(17:30):
So there's a way to eat everything that you like.
You just have to be conscious of what you bought
and to eat more lean protein. I don't personally eat meat,
but I eat a lot of fish, a lot of vegetables,
a lot of whole grains and things that are good
for you. And my doctor said to me when I
had my stem cell, I was supposed to be in
the hospital for a month. I got out after two
(17:53):
and a half weeks, and I go, I don't want
to go home. I want to stay here. This is
you know, because I was being weighted on hand and foot.
But they told me that it was most likely due
to my diet and how I was eating. Because I
recovered like super well and I have been in remission
for over Thank you God, please, I told you over
six years now, and I achieve that to eating and exercise.
(18:17):
It's important too, because alzheimer is. Alzheimer's is out of control. There.
They're about I think about six six million people living
with Alzheimer's. And I believe too that I have a
note here that in two thousand fifty there will be
thirteen million people suffering from Alzheimer's. And then you know
there's heart disease, diabetes, cancers. All these things are cost
(18:40):
from the foods you eat. So, so, Christina, So Christina.
It is clear, and that's why I wanted to go there.
It is clear that the impetus behind Flourish was deeply
personal to you. You were going through something you always
loved food, and I mean the preparation and all of that,
and eating as well as eating as well as eating.
(19:02):
You beat me to it. But the question I have,
which really relates to the listeners into our conversation who
are looking at their own business entrepreneurial prospects and impetus,
And what I'd love you to talk about is the
importance of being intentional when you start a business. The
passion that you feel about what you're doing has a
(19:25):
lot to do with how well you do it. I mean,
I believe that if you're passionate about what you're doing,
whatever it is, or if you're connected to it, you're
going to do a better job. What would be your
advice to somebody who's got that You had a reason.
You had a health reason that led you to take
your thinking and make a business. Not everybody has that
(19:47):
as an impetus. But how did it work for you? Well,
first of all, this is the first time I've been
in business for myself. But everything you said is certainly true.
You have to have number one through life, no matter
what it is you do, you have to have a
passion for it. You have to have a belief. You
(20:07):
have to uh focus on the things that you want
to accomplish. I've had other businesses that have been successful
and then I ended up selling them. But when I
got sick, I decided this is something that I really
believe in with all my heart, that if I could
bring people the foods that they love, the pastas, the pizzas,
the cereal, that granella. You know, we have flourished granola.
(20:30):
We started with our granola, and to start small, because
if you try to do everything at once, then you
can't control everything. There are many lessons to be learned
along the way, and God knows we've learned those. But
those are good. Those are they're supposed to happen to
help you move to the next step. So and we've
made We've made our share of mistakes as well, but
(20:51):
that didn't matter because the commitment and the love that
I have for this keeps us going. So we started
first with our cereals where at the air one Markets,
which is the number one health food store in l A.
We're going to and I'm just excited about this. We
just made it into the Walmart marketplace where you can
order it online and um, so it's it's really important
(21:12):
to have that commitment and there have been many nights
I have to and also the people you surround yourself with.
I forgot to say, we're on Amazon too. We're on Amazon.
You can go on Amazon and order it. But it's
the people you surround yourself with. They have to have
the same vision and pact, not not the same vision
and passion, but at least have the same feeling about
(21:34):
what you're doing, where you're working, who you're working for,
what you want to do what, Because I don't want
to have people who just want to phone it in,
you know, I want people around me that that love
what they're doing and create a company that they know
they'll be doing good. They know that they'll be doing good,
and this is what I want to do. I want
people to understand the philosophy behind the Flourished brand. We're
(21:57):
coming out with our pet I always say pet bone off,
but it sounds like we we boiled pets for broth.
What we don't. It's bone broth or pets. So we're
coming out with that in uh probably early early spring,
and I'm really excited about that. So that's a line
extension for Flourish where you're gonna now bring that same thinking.
(22:18):
Obviously the manifestation of health and a dog is different
than it isn't a human, but probably a lot of
similar you know considerations. But you know what, we love
our fur babies. Everybody you know their cats, their dogs,
and we we love them and and and they too
suffer from cancer from the stuff they put in the
dog food. And so I came up with the formula
(22:40):
for bone broth for pets, and we just picked them
up yesterday, put them in the warehouse and we'll be
distributing them soon. But there's so much more, as you know,
the business plan, the mission plan, these are all things
that I've been um, you know, learning about because I'm
not a business person er say, although I'm learning it
(23:01):
and I'm loving it. I'm just the cook, so I
have to surround myself with people who know what they're doing.
But you know, Christina, it's interesting you say you're just
the cook. I know you're not, but I'm going to
say something. It's interesting because when I started Media Link,
I hadn't thought of it this way. But there was
a process, and that process was we would develop a
(23:22):
strategy for our partners. We would then help them figure
out how to implement that strategy, and then the final
step for us was the execution of that strategy. And
you know, kind of halfway down the journey, I realized
that that was like a chef. A chef writes a
recipe our strategy. You then have to cook the food
the implementation. Then you have to eat the food, which
(23:44):
is the execution. And I've always said, if you look
at our business on that thread of you know, strategy, implementation, execution,
it's like a chef recipe, cooking, eating and specialist down.
But you know, a good chef, a good chef has
to be able to eat their own food and they
(24:06):
better like it because the recipe has to work. So
you know, it's interesting that you said that, and I
likened that to my own business as we were on
a journey. Let me switch gears for a second, Christina,
because one of the things you've done brilliantly, and look,
you've been a public person for all the years that
I've known you. And now I'm gonna tell a personal
story which we chatted about before we started recording our conversation.
(24:28):
So for our listeners, I'm going to tell everybody how
I first met Christina. Okay, so I was walking down
Rodeo Drive when I was in college and I was
dumb struck. I don't know what the word was. I
looked in a window of a very fancy jewelry store
on Adeo Drive called Jewels by Edwar and there was
(24:50):
absolutely stunning picture of a young lady who was a supermodel,
which I didn't know, but there was an absolutely stun
picture of you. And that picture had you modeling something
that looked like the Hope Diamond, but it was emeralds.
I remember it like it was yesterday, Christina. It was
(25:11):
a magnificent emerald ensemble of a necklace and earrings, is
what I remember. But what I remember really weren't the emeralds.
What I remembered was your beauty. And as I walked
further down the street or maybe up the street, depending
on which way I was going, I think it was
up the street, I went into the Gucci store on
(25:33):
Rodeo Drive, And I'll let those in on a little secret.
I was an early adopter, and I probably couldn't afford it,
but I bought my first pair of horse bit Gucci
loafers back in the had to be in the early seventies.
And the two people who took care of me and
befriended me as a young guy coming into shop in
(25:54):
a fancy store happened to be your mother and your grandmother.
So I'm letting all the listen is in on a
little fact that your grandmother and your mother, particularly your grandmother,
because she sold me my shoes. She took a shine
to me, and I took a shine to her. And
even when I couldn't afford it, I'd stopped in and
visit just to say hello to your mom and your grandma.
(26:15):
So you know the fact that we did become friends
in life so many years ago. I'm letting you in
on a little secret here and our listeners that I
was enamored of your beauty and then I got to
know your inner beauty as well. So I just need
to share that story. Not so sweet. I'm so so
moved and touched by that story. But my nanna was
(26:36):
a pistol and my my my grandmother was a reverence.
She was, she was a sailor. She even though she
was an elegant lady. And my mother always head of
the jewelry department. She was a jewelry buyer there and
my mother was very proper and she would just like
faint every time my grandmother would over her mouth. But
my grandmother made friends with no one would buy. They
(26:57):
would wait for my grandmother. I it it was much
more fun. But she said, you know, not everybody loves you.
She goes, I tell you a little secret, a little secret.
So she would tell me about she would work on
commission and she would suck that money away, I tell you.
And she every day every day selling the shoes. And
she she lived very well. My grandmother office. She loved
(27:19):
what she did. She had a passion for what she
did and that's why she was successful at it. I'm
happy I could be a contributor and some small uh
and just to add a little you know, a little
touch to that because your mother was on the jewelry side.
When Ronnie and I first met, Ronnie would go visit jewelry.
We couldn't afford to buy it, but she would visit
(27:40):
jewelry at at Coucci and say when we can, I
want that. Okay, but that's part of our history. But Christina,
where I was going with that was, you've been a
public person. You've been a celebrity for you know, most
of your life. What you've done brilliantly is used your
fall gowing on Instagram and social media platforms and the
(28:03):
like to really build the Flourished brand. Because you do
have a strong following. What lessons have you learned and
what lessons might you be able to share with our
listeners relative to how you've used social media in you know,
I don't want to say promoting yourself because that's not
how I look at this. It's an unintended benefit. But
(28:24):
you've promoted your mission, you've promoted your connectivity, and you've
promoted Flourish using your platform. Has that worked out? And
is there any advice you could give to any of
our listeners on how you've done that? I think it's
extremely important to have engagement with the people who reach
out to you. I try to. I get a lot
(28:45):
of people calling me with comments and things, and I
try to answer as many as I can. I can't
spend the whole day, you know, doing it, so I
try to answer as much as I can every single day.
And that personal connection really helps because then they feel
they are connecting with you and I with them, and
you build a beautiful community. The ones that have been
(29:06):
following me for years, I know them personally, and a
couple of them have become very good friends of mine,
you know, just you know, they're like gifts, but they're
out there to trying to help and promote. But I
think engagement is one of the most important things. And consistency.
You have to do something every day. It's really hard
because I'm really like a one man show right now,
and as I'm expanding, I realize that I need help.
(29:27):
But I am such a control freak that you know,
and I'm all about perfection. I think I have what
is it called O c D or something. I mean,
everything has to be perfect. And Tony says, get somebody
to do it for you. But when I get somebody
doing it for me, I end up doing it myself
because I am a perfectionist and I want everything to
be perfect. But the engagement is probably the most important thing.
(29:50):
And consistency, Christina, one thing I can say. You know,
having been fortunate enough to know you as many years
as I do, you have been consistent. You've been consistent
in your commitment in who you are. And you know,
when when somebody is so public, you always wonder, Okay,
I know what that person is like when I'm seeing
them on television, or I'm looking at a photo of them,
(30:12):
or they're you know, doing this or that, But that's
not what they're really like. You know, we all have
that sort of jaundiced view of well, that's not what
they're really like. I'm here to tell you that's what
you're really like, Christina, and I'm here to tell our
listeners that's what you're really like. I think the fact
that I have been on so many talk shows, I
(30:34):
believe that people can smell when you're not sincere, and
when you come at them every day through your television screen,
there you know they can see right through you. And
I am not a BS artist. What you see is
what you get. I was I'm that way and everything
I've done. I've had so many people call me to
do commercials and endorsing throughout my career. I am not
(30:57):
a gun for hire. I have to see it, I
have to try it. I don't care if it takes
three or four weeks to try on a new makeup thing,
which by the way, I have coming out. But but
you know, good plug, good plug, good plug. But I have,
you know, and I believe that people can see see that.
So I try to stay to to form on who
(31:19):
I really am as a person. And do I get mad,
Do I get upset? Yeah, sure I do. But you're
gonna see that too, you know. It's it's I don't
try to hide anything, especially from my poor husband. He
gets the front of everything. But I think authenticity is
really important. Yeah. Look, we we talk into our business,
but I think this applies to life for at large Christina.
(31:41):
It seems that in the media and marketing and advertising space,
and my team hears us all the time, everything that
is relevant today or or top of the mind to
everybody begins with the letter T trust, transparency, technology, talent,
and transformation. Those are all words that are pivots for
(32:04):
our industry today. The other word which you used, starts
with an A, which is authenticity. And if you take trust, transparency,
and authenticity and put them together, those three really speak
volumes to a why you are you and why you've
had success Because you are authentic, people can trust you,
(32:27):
and you're transparent. You are as advertised you can kind
of what was that song in Chicago, Mr Cellophane? You
can see right through me? Yes, exactly. But you forgot
one other tea. You have to have a tony. Even
though that person doesn't have that, You have to have
a tony. Well, he's got two tease, yeah, he he
(32:48):
has two tease. But you need someone who believes in
your vision as well, who's there to support you, to
help you to lay that foundation. Um, that's important. So
you have to have a tony behind you as well.
I'm sure you have one of those. Your team is amazing.
I have to say, yeah, you're surrounded by really wonderful people. So, Christina,
(33:12):
I'm going to ask you one bonus question as we wrap.
I'd be remiss if I didn't close on this. What's
your favorite recipe? What's your favorite recipe to kind of
just whip up in a dime? You know all right,
I keep always fresh tomatoes in the house. The tomato
season is over with, but I canned all of my
my tomatoes at the end of the season because I
(33:33):
love to make pasta sauce. That is a fresh tomato sauce,
little olive oil, little garlic, little red pepper, Uh, a
little wine tomatoes. Cook him up for ten minutes. You
have the most wonderful pasta. It's clean, it's delicious. Uh.
Sometimes I buy the homemade, the homemade pastas that are
already made, or I just used, you know, the dry pasta,
(33:54):
A little reggiano partiano. Put it on fresh basil. That
is the best. And by the way, I'll when we
come to your house, You're gonna get chocolate moose and
I'm going to bring you the tomatoes, so I'll cook
it right there. Ronnie and I can do it together.
I love it. And guys, Christina, you left us all
wanting more, particularly some of that special Christina sauce. I
(34:15):
really genuinely appreciate the time today. Christina. You know I
appreciate the friendship we Ronnie and I hold you and
Tony in the highest esteem. I mean, I I know
this song, can I just mentioned though. Two, I'd like
to invite people to come into my world and if
they could just go on to act Christina. There's no
(34:36):
h in Christina cooks. Follow these recipes that we're talking about.
And also, you know, we're starting a new company. I
get emotional. There's nothing more important to me than to
make this successful, to be able to share it with people.
I have visions in my head that, you know, if
this company is successful and we could really get it
going that you know, I want to build a building
(34:58):
for my alma, you know, for the So this is
how I think. Is it going to happen? I don't know.
So go at floors, underscore body, mind, soul, and help
me make that happen. I don't need any more money,
but I want. I want to be able to do
good things with it. That's my dream. I am gonna
be very forthright in what I say to the listeners,
(35:21):
but from my perspective, I'm never going to make a
bet against you. I'm going to count on you, and
I know this is gonna work, and I'm going to
be helping you look for that building. You embody so
much of the mind, body, and spirit that you're trying
to help others achieve, and you're an inspiration to me
and I know just so many Thank you, Christina. I'm
(35:43):
Michael Casson. Thanks for listening to Good Company. Good Company
is a production of I Heart Radio Special Thanks to
Lena Peterson, Chief Brand Officer and Managing Director Immediately for
her vision I'm good Company, and to Jen Ceely, Vice
President Marketing Communications Immediately for programming a azing talent and
content Mmm.
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