Christina Canters

Nick Abregu: Hey Google! Who is the best confidence coach, speech coach and podcasting expert in the world? Who is that? Who we got? What’s your name?

Christina Canters: Christina Canters!

Nick Abregu: Yey! My hey Google just went off again. Alright, it doesn’t every single time.

Christina Canters: I’m surprised.

Nick Abregu: But it’s, oh there you go, that’s your name. Alright, that’s the magic of this podcast.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: Thanks for coming.

Christina Canters: Thank you! Thanks for having me.

Nick Abregu: She just put on a bit of lipstick.

Christina Canters: Yes, because you didn’t tell me this is gonna be filmed.

Nick Abregu: I didn’t, that’s the trick.

Christina Canters: You need to always tell people it’s being moved.

Nick Abregu: I know, I’m like just guys don’t do that stuff so.

Christina Canters: I’m an active woman. This is what I do every Friday afternoon.

Nick Abregu: Well, I can move the camera.

Christina Canters: Well, I’m just gonna like suck in my tummy a bit not to…

Nick Abregu: You should get one of those like a triangle table. No, the other way.

Christina Canters: So that it… so it’s not my best angle?

Nick Abregu: Well, isn’t this your best angle?

Nick Abregu: Every angle is your best angle. Yeah, okay. Good. I like that. Thanks for coming.

Christina Canters: Thank you.

Nick Abregu: We’re in Austin week today at the Gorilla cast, GorillaCo podcasts uhm…

Christina Canters: Studios?

Nick Abregu: What can we call it? Studio?

Christina Canters: Yeah, studios.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, it sounds more.

Christina Canters: Yeah, I’m about to move around the corner from here.

Nick Abregu: I know. Congratulations

Christina Canters: Thank you. Purchased our first home.

Nick Abregu: Lovely.

Christina Canters: Which is a big deal.

Nick Abregu: As a business owner that’s a big deal.

Christina Canters: Huge deal because the banks hate you when you’re a business owner. They don’t care how much money you’re making. All they care about is if you’re income consistent. And as a business owner as you’ve known Nick

Nick Abregu: So tough.

Christina Canters: Like in incomes.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, exactly.

Christina Canters: So, you can have some awesome months where you’re making a heap of money and then like other months where you like not making much at all. And the banks just really don’t like that. So, to get the home loan was a huge achievement in itself it was like, yey! Then it was like oh, now we got to find a property. Damn it! Like, next challenge.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, and for anyone out there thinking of starting a side house and this is a recurring thing with business owners that come onto this podcast. That we always tell people that starting out like don’t shy away from starting a business but definitely you want to understand that it is a stressful thing. Like your stress levels gonna go through the roof. It’s gonna be a lot of fun sometimes, gonna be really hard sometimes. You’re gonna cry, laugh, scream, get angry and sometimes, you’re gonna be at your highest level of happiness ever but it’s a roller coaster.

Christina Canters: The way I like to think about it is you need to make a decision as to what pain you were willing to suffer through, because you can stay in your job, right? Let’s say you’re working, let’s say take a corporate, high-flyer, doing really well making lots of money. You can… you need to if you want to do well or be successful in that type of position. There’s certain amount of pain that you’ve got to be willing to suffer through. You’ve got to do massive long hours, right? You’ve got to deal with politics. You’ve got to deal with backstabbing people. You’ve got to deal with you know I don’t know commuting every day for an hour on the train.

So, you’re going to deal with that pain in order to reap that reward. And then I know a lot of people leave that lifestyle, that type of career because they’re like I want to work myself so I can have more time to myself. I have to answer to anyone, which is totally fine, but the pain is different. So, the pain is… you’ve got to deal with inconsistent income, having to motivate yourself, having to deal with your own employees and all of that. So I think that, you know, it doesn’t matter which path you choose. To be successful there’s always going to be like pain or suffering that you have to endure. And it’s about deciding which pain and suffering are you willing to endure.

Nick Abregu: For sure.

Christina Canters: And for me, working for someone else and doing the same thing every single day and not necessarily being rewarded for my efforts and having to work my way up and…

Nick Abregu: Sucks.

Christina Canters: That was not paying what I was willing to suffer through.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, yeah. I even like sometimes I feel as the business owner, you don’t get rewarded. You didn’t get appreciated for the work that you do and the sacrifices that you make.

Like I always try and tell my staff like every Monday morning meeting I tell them like what a great job they’ve done, right? We go through… so, when we do the meeting all the staff get a go at saying their wins and losses for last week. And we always try to see that the losses sometimes are the win, right? Because you’ve learned something so tremendously amazing that it’s not going to happen again or you’re gonna use those lessons and implement them in your next steps.

Christina Canters: Absolutely.

Nick Abregu: And it’s nice but as the business owner, no one asks. And you were just… no one…

Christina Canters: Nick do you need some appreciation?

Nick Abregu: I do. I need it.

Christina Canters: Do you need a bit of love Nick?

Nick Abregu: I do, I do.

Christina Canters: Nick, I appreciate you.

Nick Abregu: Thank you. Thank you.

Christina Canters: I appreciate all the help and we’ve worked together before. You’ve been doing you know some video work for a program that we were both involved in. You’ve done an excellent job! So…

Nick Abregu: Thank you.

Christina Canters: Thank you Nick. And you’re very easy to get along with which is really important.

Nick Abregu: That’s nice.

Christina Canters: It’s important for me. You know for some people not so much but for me, I’m very relationships focused and I want to know that I can get along with people with that I’m partnering with.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: And you’re one of those people.

Nick Abregu: Aw, that’s nice and I feel the same towards you guys as well. You guys are super easy to get along with.

Christina Canters: Aw, thanks.

Nick Abregu: And it comes out in your work as well. Like people just gels to you guys because it’s so easy to understand and to relate. Like if someone has a question and I’ve noticed you guys don’t make them feel stupid. You guys make them feel like it’s okay to ask those questions.

Christina Canters: Yeah, for sure. Well this is where… I mean, I’ve been a facilitator for a number of years. So that, having that background and having a coaching background as well.

So I’m all about building people up, and I know the power of language. And you know, being able to reframe something like for example, when someone asks a question if the answer is no

you can say no without saying no. You can say yes and another way could be this.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: Or that’s great another idea you might want to consider is this. So, without saying no, that’s not right or no, I don’t think so. Because that’s gonna put someone down so there’s definitely skill in doing that.

[Both] Yeah.

Nick Abregu: For sure. I’m gonna open this. So, I don’t want to interrupt you…

Christina Canters: So, will drinking this Switchel blood orange flavor by Remedy… maybe Remedy could sponsor this podcast.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, well we are being… I’ve been pushing that every podcast.

Christina Canters: Oh, yeah?

Nick Abregu: If you are listening, come on. You know, we’re doing a good job.

Christina Canters: Do you drink this Switchel in every podcast?

Nick Abregu: Well, I… the last one I didn’t because I was saving this one for you.

Christina Canters: Aw, how did you know that I like this stuff?

Nick Abregu: I think everyone likes this.

Christina Canters: But what is Switchel? I don’t actually know.

Nick Abregu: I have no idea.

Christina Canters: Is it like kombucha? Is it some sort of fermented drink?

Nick Abregu: Switchel. Oh, this is not kombucha.

Christina Canters: No, it’s called Switchel.

Nick Abregu: Ah.

Christina Canters: They tricked you.

Nick Abregu: They did.

Christina Canters: Look they’re expanding there…

Nick Abregu: Hey guys! You know, I’ll let you off this one. Let’s have a taste. Hmm, so good though.I could drink that all day.

Christina Canters: It is really nice.

Nick Abregu: Mm- hmm. (Affirmative)

Christina Canters: Well, you told me that.

Nick Abregu: So, you’re buying a house as an entrepreneur is tough. So, well done to you guys.

Christina Canters:  Thank you.

Nick Abregu: Yeah and you guys are just down the road so, that’s awesome.

Christina Canters: Yes.

Nick Abregu: We have to do this more frequently.

Christina Canters: Yes, absolutely.

Nick Abregu: So, for those that don’t know what you do, can you tell everyone a little bit about your business?

Christina Canters: I run two businesses. The first business that I started it’s called the C method where I help professionals to develop strong communication and public speaking skills in the workplace. The C stands for communication, connection and confidence.

That’s what I help people to achieve. And I’m Christina. So, I know the genius. I’ve been doing that since 2015 you know, I do a lot of work with business leaders, professionals, people in corporate, a lot of them. What I found is that a lot of people in that corporate environment, they’re very good at what they do. So, they’re very technically skilled that worked really hard but their lack of their inability to communicate themselves effectively or you know, their mindset is holding them back from getting to that next level. So, I help them to build more confidence in themselves. To overcome the limiting beliefs that hold them back such, as you know, I’m not good enough or my ideas are no good. You know, a lot of people don’t speak up. And as a result they see other people getting promoted and getting to this next level. And they think why am I not? Why am I not progressing? So, I help them to close that gap. I do that through coaching and I have a podcast as well it’s called…

Nick Abregu: What is it? Give it a shout out.

Christina Canters: It’s called Stand Out Get Noticed.

Nick Abregu: It’s so cool, it’s so cool. I love the logo, the picture above, you. It’s you like, it’s you standing in…

Christina Canters: With my headphones on?

Nick Abregu: Yeah yeah yeah.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: Is that the one? Is that the main image?

Christina Canters: Stand Out Get Noticed. Under the podcast artwork?

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: Yeah!

Nick Abregu: I like it!

Christina Canters: That’s definitely me on it. My face is on all my marketing materials.

Nick Abregu: You’re up to number 244?

Christina Canters: Yup. So, I’ve been running it since March 2015. And when I started, so, when I started my business I had no networks. I used to be an architect. And so, I had no network or background in this area of coaching and speaking and facilitation. And I was like, crap! I need a way to boost my credibility really quickly. So, starting a podcast was a great way to do that. And I did that every, and I’m still… I’ve been doing that every week since March 2015. Yep. And…

Nick Abregu:  And you do it from a… for that long since 2015, you’ve done it from a studio? I mean from like the office space that you have?

Christina Canters: So, here’s what one reason why I love podcasts. You can record from anywhere. Really. So, when I first started I was recording from my wardrobe, from my bedroom. I’ll still record from my kitchen table. You know, if I’m interviewing someone I’ll meet them at my coworking space. So, it’s… I’ve recorded a podcast, I recorded in the back. I recorded a podcast in the back of an RV driving back from Burning Man.

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: From Nevada dance. L.A. I sat the the back of the RV and I was like, “Okay everyone I’m gonna do listening from Burning Man.” And I was like, “Oop! We just let our partner all serve, how about that?” And that was like, all in one take, you know. I’ve recorded from Airbnbs. I recorded… I recorded in a car in the Philippines when we were stuck in traffic for two hours and I was like well amidst all, records something here.

Nick Abregu: Well, what do you love most about it? Well, why has it… what’s drawn you to getting your voice at it?

Christina Canters: That’s a great question.

Nick Abregu: Thanks.

Christina Canters: Podcasting specifically or putting the message out?

Nick Abregu: Well, I mean why do you keep doing it? Why 244 episodes since 2015?

Christina Canters: It holds me accountable. That’s one thing. Consistency is really important you know, I hope… I mean might get into this a bit later but as a result of the success of my podcast, I created a new business, Podcast Services Australia with my husband, helping other people to set up their own podcast. Yeah, we run this podcast development and training company.

Nick Abregu: And just on that I’ve seen your client list.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: It is admirable.

Christina Canters: Thank you!

Nick Abregu: You guys have a really high profile client, clientele.

Christina Canters: Yeah we do, we do. We do a lot of work with government and universities and as well as small businesses. And podcasts are definitely picking up which is in terms

of their popularity. When I first started, a lot of people haven’t even heard of podcasts. Even though they’re huge in America but Australia is at least five years behind in terms of the uptake. Yeah.

Nick Abregu: So, if you’re looking for a podcasting crew to set you up. Like you only go for the best.

Christina Canters: Absolutely! And we run training courses online and also I’m in person in Melbourne. And you know, I’ve been podcasting since 2013 and I’ve run two podcasts. So the first one I started ran out for nine months and then stopped. So, that was my “failure podcast”.

Nick Abregu: What was it?

Christina Canters: It was called presentation skills for design students.

Nick Abregu: Lovely! That’s very niche.

Christina Canters: Very niche! So, my original… I took my business ideas coming from architecture. My original idea was I’m gonna help architecture students and graduates to build strong presentation and public speaking skills so that they are better equipped to enter the workforce. Because what I saw as an architect was how bad architects are at communicating their ideas and speaking even the very senior ones. And I’ve gone through my own experience of… I used to be terrified of public speaking when I was at Uni. I would get such bad anxiety that I would break down…

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: …after each presentation. And I remember there was one point where I was like crying in the bathroom and I remember thinking to myself, I’m never letting this happen again. Like, I refuse to ever be like this ever again. So, I went and I enrolled in a communication skills elective subject at Uni. And was there, that I learned. That communication is a skill that you can learn like any other skill. And I was like, this is amazing and I applied what I learned to my presentations. And slowly my nerves started to dissipate and I felt much better about myself and had much better results at UNI. And then when I got into the workforce, I would put up my hands to go for opportunities to speak. I would get involved and I would do presentations when no one else wanted to. And it was there where I realized, I was like no one else is doing this. Why am I the only person doing this? And I could see how much of an advantage it gave me in a large company where I became more visible, people knew who I was, I got to work on great projects or the directors knew my name, you know. And that was simply a result of speaking up and putting my hand up for things.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: So, my idea was, okay I want to help students and graduates at that level. So, once they enter the workforce they were all ready to go, you know. So, I started my podcast presentation skills for design students and I did that for nine months while I, meanwhile I quit my job, took my life savings and moved to New York City and I traveled for a whole year. All that while doing this podcast. Not really sure of what I was gonna do with my life. I was like, am I gonna coach people? Am I gonna speak? I wasn’t quite sure. I was originally planning on writing an e-book and selling it making millions of dollars and then going and lying on a beach somewhere in Thailand. You know, and then figuring out what I wanted to do in my life.

Nick Abregu: It’s not too late.

Christina Canters: But here’s the thing, I realized and learned, I was like I don’t want to lie in a beach in Thailand. That’s bloody boring! And I learned that I actually love working with people and I love helping them to fulfill their potential and, you know, overcome what is holding them back.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: But it took me nine months of doing that podcast to realize that students don’t give a sh– about presentation skills. They don’t care. They weren’t gonna listen. They weren’t gonna buy anything from me. They certainly weren’t gonna pay me to coach them.

And so, that was one of the very first rules that I learned in business is that your target market must: A. have the money to pay you, and B. be willing to pay you. And students were neither of those. So, I had to take a step back and reassess and make do something different.

Nick Abregu: Yep. Well, I remember it… so, I come… I mean I used to be an electrical engineer. And during Uni, you learn all the technical stuff that you need but as soon as you go into the workforce you’re like, hey that matters 20% of the time. The other 80% is like closing deals, going into meetings dealing with bureaucracy and all that crap.

Christina Canters: Yep.

Nick Abregu: And you don’t learn that!

Christina Canters: Engaging with your stakeholders, building relationships? Absolutely! It’s the same with architecture like you learn all these amazing design skills but in the real world it’s very, very little…

Nick Abregu: So different.

Christina Canters: And so I learned that it’s not just in architecture and, you know, and even in technical professions. It’s across a lot of professions where this is an issue. Because if you think about the fact that you’re graduating with hundreds of other people who have the exact same qualification as you. You know you’ve got and grades don’t really matter once you’re out in the workforce. I don’t care! You’ve got the same degree. But the way you stand out is how you interact with people and how you present and how you show up your attitude and that’s what makes you unique, you know. So, sitting back and just working hard isn’t… it’s not enough anymore.

Nick Abregu: Yeah yeah, absolutely. So maybe the target market you’re going for was a little bit too young. If you had gone for say, someone in first or second year in the workforce they would listen.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: And they’d have money.

Christina Canters: Well, it’s interesting because at the time I chose my target market based on who I felt comfortable helping. Now because I was only a few years into my career, I didn’t feel comfortable approaching people who had, say, 10 years experience and saying, “hey I can help you.” It was way out of my comfort zone. But helping students and graduates I was like, yeah, I can, you know, I can deal with this. But it took me like another year, a year and a half of building up my own confidence in my ability to coach people, work with people. That then led me to then going okay, I’m gonna start the C method. And it’s gonna be for professionals who have at least 10 years experience in their career.

Nick Abregu: That’s interesting! Like most people, their ego gets in the way but your ego didn’t get in the way. You needed to be more eager making that, like you should have targeted those 10-years.

Christina Canters: Probably, yes. That would have, I mean, you know, the smart approach would have been yes, target those people. But I did what I knew at that time. And that first year for me I was like a sponge. I was just absorbing everything and hung out with as many business people and marketing people as I could and learned a lot about you know all of that juicy stuff.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, you do learn a lot more when you zero down on your target market because you understand what they need. So, you understand what you need to get to make that happen.

Christina Canters: And I mean, I was struggling a bit with, do I go from business owners because there I can also help business owners. Do I go for business owners or do I go for corporate professionals? And I found that it made the language on my website and on my podcast it is really difficult because I had to say things like, do you want to, you know, get more clients and impress your boss, you know? Do you want to you know move that window in the workplace or expand your businesses reach? You know, I had to talk about completely different benefits and outcomes. So, I decided to hone in on one market being the corporate professionals.

Nick Abregu: So, how did you like, when you left, what was the decision to leave that podcast alone? Like how did you shut it down? You did so many and you loved it. So, it’s not like you didn’t get lazy or anything because you can see why the one you’re doing now the C Method that’s 244.

Christina Canters: Well, yeah. Here’s the thing, I did lose… I was losing motivation to do it because I could see I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted. I wasn’t getting the response back from my audience. I was in New York and I was giving a talk to a group of architecture students at the New York Institute of Technology. So, that was a cool gig to land. And I remember speaking to this group of students and saying to them, “So, tell me, like how do you feel about your presentations?” You know, because I was giving them a talk about how to improve your presentation skills. And one of the students said, “Well, I’ve done enough to pass anyway. So the present and presentations don’t really matter.”

Nick Abregu: Oh, no.

Christina Canters: And to me, that was like this light bulb moment where I went, ah! They don’t give a sh– about what I’m teaching. Maybe I’m not… maybe this isn’t the right thing to do! And that’s what got me thinking. So, you know, but the C Method that came out of, you know, it was an evolution. You know, it was an evolution because before I came up with what the C method is now, I had other ideas. And I was spitballing other ideas. So, maybe I could help these people. Maybe I could help doing this thing and this thing and eventually it, it came back to what the C method is now. And even that has been evolving. So it’s evolved from being public speaking coaching that’s what it started us. And it’s now evolved to helping people in their overall professional development. So, it’s not just public speaking. It’s also how do you be assertive? How do you talk to senior people that you feel intimidated by? How do you manage the anxiety around feeling like an impostor? You know, maybe you’ve just been promoted and you feel like you’re not… you don’t deserve to be in that role.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: You know, so, there are so many elements to building success and building your visibility and impact in the workplace. There are so many other aspects than just public speaking.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: Yeah, so that’s what it’s evolved to.

Nick Abregu: I’m intrigued to hear a little bit about what New York is like. I’ve never been to New York. Did you eat those hot dogs? Like the vendor, the side cart hot dogs?

Christina Canters: You know what the locals call that?

Nick Abregu: No. Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.

Christina Canters: They call it suspicious but delicious.

Nick Abregu: Suspicious but delicious. And was it? Was it delicious?

Christina Canters: I can’t actually say. I don’t know if I’ve ever had those hotdogs.

You know what American food in general is disgusting.

Nick Abregu: Okay.

Christina Canters: Like if you, you know what…

Nick Abregu: Stop that. Stop that!

Christina Canters: No, no, no, okay. I’ll back track a bit. So, New York is kind of… New York has every single type of food that you could have. And you’ll be able to find delicious food everywhere you go. Like it’s everything. Think about Melbourne times a thousand in terms of the food offerings. But in terms of, let’s take it like a burger. Like, uh, American burgers. We do better burgers.

Nick Abregu: We crushed it?

Christina Canters: We, in Melbourne, we crush the American style burger.

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Nick Abregu: That’s good to hear.

Christina Canters: Aren’t greens are just better.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, I found that as well with Vietnamese food. So, Vietnamese food here, I feel is a lot better than the Vietnamese food in Vietnam, right? Because I feel like our cows are a lot tastier than their cows.

Christina Canters: I’d say that the quality the produce is much higher here. We’re very lucky.

Nick Abregu: And I felt the same when I was in, when I was in Texas I felt that our barbecues were just a little bit better than their barbecue.

Christina Canters: So, you see I had a different experience because I haven’t had much Texas barbecue in Melbourne but the best Texas barbecue I’ve had was in New York.

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: Yeah, yeah. I guess the thing with American food is that it’s like tasty and it’s worth having and with plenty of diners and ate like terrible, like Bobby, I mean as in excellent but bad for you. And it’s okay like small amounts but when you’re on a holiday you tend to be eating it every day. And that completely like, messes with you and it is so bad. You come back and you like, dude I’m not eating for like three weeks. I’m fasting. For three weeks!

Nick Abregu: What’s your favorite at the BBQ? Out of all the barbecue like pieces that you can get. The cuts.

Christina Canters: The brisket.

Nick Abregu: Oh, yes!

Christina Canters: Yeah. The juicy. The brisket.

Nick Abregu: Yeah how good is that?

Christina Canters: It doesn’t need anything.

Nick Abregu: It’s just a little bit of salt and you’re done.

Christina Canters: Yeah. One of my favorite places in New York is called Hill Country Barbecue Market. So, if you ever go, I’ll send you the link to that. So, they do delicious, delicious meat and they do, you know, here we have an apple crumble dessert? They, in America they have what they call an apple crisp which I think is similar to an apple crumble. So, it’s got the apple layer at the bottom but then the crumble bit is actually like two inches thick. And then they put ice cream on top and then the crumble bit has got it’s like a caramel and crunchy.

Nick Abregu: Oh my God!

Christina Canters: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my mouth is watering thinking about it. So, the first time I had that there, that was amazing. Yep.

Nick Abregu: Do they smoke it? Is that…

Christina Canters: Oh, no. It’s baked. Just a dessert. It’s like, yeah.

Nick Abregu: That’s what I’m saying like American food is so good but it’s a guilty thing. You can’t just have it every single day.

Christina Canters: Yeah. It’s okay for… yeah, I mean like we went and we stuffed ourselves with burgers and hot dogs. And we went to the South… we went to North Carolina and had a barbecue there. And…

Nick Abregu: At Franklin’s? Is that the one? Franklin’s barbecue?

Christina Canters: Oh we went to a… is it Franklin’s in Brooklyn? Oh no, we went to this place it started with F. It was the…no, Junior’s, sorry.

Nick Abregu: Oh, Junior’s? Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard.

Christina Canters: Junior’s Diner and we went and had the giant cheesecake there. Anyway, I could talk about American food all day. So, let’s not…

Nick Abregu: How long did you spend there?

Christina Canters: When I quit my job and left, I lived in New York for three months. I was very fortunate that my uncle lives in New York. He’s been there for decades but he spends the colder months in Malaysia which is where he’s from. Originally, my mom’s family is Malaysian. And I wrote to him and I was like, “so uncle can I kind of like stay in your apartment? I’ll pay you rent.”

He’s like, “Yeah. Give me like four hundred bucks a month.” I was like, sweet! You don’t get that… you won’t get an apartment very nice for that much. So I was very fortunate. So I got to live there and hang out and then after that I traveled. I went to Europe and did some like volunteering and then came back to the US. And traveled around. Went to conferences and basically stayed away until my money ran out. And then came back home completely broke.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, I feel you. So, in 2009 or yeah, I think late 2009 were my redundant. I was made redundant from engineering because of the financial crisis was happening and they couldn’t keep us. So, they gave us a payout and I did the same thing. I just took all my stuff and just went traveling. And it went for, like for years. Yep. Until my money started running out.

Christina Canters: So, sometimes it’s… sometimes life hands that to you, right? Where we… something happens we get made redundant and it can be taken as a negative like, “Oh no, I’ve lost my job.” But then you could take it as a, “Hey…

Nick Abregu: Thank you.

Christina Canters: …this is an opportunity for me to do something different.” Like with me I was… my company didn’t want me to leave they were like, “Oh! You mean you’d rather do more business development communication stuff? Sure we’ll give you that role.”

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: You’re in a good position.

Christina Canters: And I was like oh, and it was actually like there’s a safety net handed to me. But it actually made the decision more difficult. Because I was like, wow, listen to them. Like, what if I stay? I could actually do all these and I’ve got the security. And I had to pull it together and say thanks but no thanks, but I’m leaving and I’m gonna take this risk.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: It was the best thing you did?

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. If they offered you more money and all that stuff, would you have stayed? If they didn’t own that job?

Christina Canters: No.

Nick Abregu: Just wasn’t about the money?

Christina Canters: No. Because I knew I had this gut feeling, you know, I tend to trust my gut with these big decisions. And I knew that I was like, what’s the worst that could happen? I ran out of money. I came home. I live with mom and dad for a bit. I get another architecture job. And in my fear voice kept saying to me, offer Christina the architecture industry like it’s all… it’s up and down like who knows if you better get an architecture job. And I remember thinking, okay, I have faith in myself that I’m good enough. That I can get a job. Like whom… you know, well who likes to think of Christina you’re shi–. You can’t get a job anywhere.

Nick Abregu: How many years into architects were you? How long were you an architect for?

Christina Canters: Three. Okay, so architect, like saying, you’re an architect is that you have to be a qualified architect who’s gone through the exam and studies. So, I’d spent three years working but I’d spent the last year doing my exams and registration. And ironically it was going through that process of learning what it’s actually like to be an architect. And sitting those exams, that’s what made me want to leave. Well partly that was one of the triggers. I’m like, this is sh–. I don’t want to do this. It’s not to like random.

Nick Abregu: I’ve got some good stuff in here. So, three, so you were doing those exams and like it’s those exams that you have to fill out to…I can’t tell. What’s… what do they call those exams? The chartered… to become a chartered architect. Is that what it is?

Christina Canters: Oh, like a chartered account that… It’s all for the chartered architect. It’s crucial architect registration.

Nick Abregu: So, it’s a similar kind of thing?

Christina Canters: Yes. So, you have to do work experience. You have to get

it ticked off you know in each different area. Then you have to study, do like a multiple-choice exam. And you’ve got to read a lot of documents. And then you got to go in for an interview. So, where they’ll ask you questions like, this is the scenario, what do you do? And then you have to, you know, get it.

Nick Abregu: And those were enough to say that, “I’m done.”

Christina Canters: Yeah. But I decided that I was gonna leave out architecture even before I’d finished all my exams. But I was like, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna… so, I went through. Got my qualification and then six months later I was like, bye. I’m like wait. Yeah.

Nick Abregu: You know that the same thing that was going through your mind. That you might be not relevant when… if you leave for a year whatever in the architect industry. It’s exactly what my friends would say to me. Like, “Oh! No, you can’t go back now. You’ve been out for a year.” It’s impossible because there are all these graduates coming in and all this stuff. And that was enough to say like, “Yeah cool! I don’t want to go back.” Like I’d rather not go back.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: Because after traveling for a few years, like the option was the same as yours. Like I could always just come back and be an engineer again but I’m glad I didn’t.

Christina Canters: What made you get into video?

Nick Abregu: What? The video is something fairly new. Like I’ve always loved video but it’s only been incorporated for the last few years. But I started my marketing company while I was overseas when I had a thousand dollars left in my account. And I was like, oh!

Christina Canters: There was nothing like growing broke to motivate you and start making money.

Nick Abregu: Yes, I know!

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: People underestimate that power. Like it’s enough to really… like most of the great stories come from there. Like most of the great successful people in business come from having absolutely nothing.

Christina Canters: I just finished reading shoe dog which is the book written by Phil Knight which is the founder of Nike. And I was shocked to read that the first ten years of Nike, they were an inch away from going bankrupt.

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: The 10 years straight because every time… even though they were making millions of like tens of millions of dollars in sales. He kept doubling, tripling their sales every year. Like the growth was huge. He kept all the money he made. He kept putting it back into buying, into ordering more shoes. Right? He never liked to pay himself very much and he didn’t use it as equity in the bank. He was constantly kept borrowing more and more and more money. And reading about it’s like he says that at any point during the time, something could have happened where they could have just lost everything.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: And I personally can’t imagine living with that stress, you know, but that’s what he wanted, you know, and look what he did. He built an empire.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: And you can’t… sometimes you can’t, like you can’t have that level of success without taking huge amounts of risk. But with what I’m doing now, it’s a very different

type of business like I’m not growing an empire. Like I’m growing a business that is successful enough to sustain my needs. And I don’t actually want to hire like ten people to work for me because I know that employing people adds a lot of stress. And it’s a lot… it’s a big expense.

And there’s all legal requirements and it and it can get very messy and I don’t want that. But something that I’ve learned is that, there are so many different ways to run a business. And there are so many different ways you can successfully grow a business. My parents ran a manufacturing business for like 30 years. They’ve made beautiful Australian turned billiard table legs and veranda posts. And also in that, the furniture manufacturing industry and I saw like, growing up how hard that business was. It’s a very… was a very difficult competitive environment especially when a lot of cheap imports came in from overseas. And a lot of their competitors were closing up. And to me that was what business was like. I thought to myself, oh, that’s what running a business is like. It’s stressful and you have fights with your spouse. Because my parents ran it together and they would fight, you know. Because it was a very stressful thing to do. And actually made me not want to start my own business. And I wasn’t too much later when I met other business people and I learned about, you know, a business like a coaching business. Like a service business not a product business. And I’m like oh! Business doesn’t have to be that way. You can run it in such a way where you do pay yourself and you don’t have to be broke all the time. And you know, yeah, I’ve learned a lot about just about business in general and how you can run it.

Nick Abregu: So, like that book you’re reading. I think people with that level of drive, they will never fail. I mean in the grand scheme of things because they have so much passion.So much drive for what they’re doing like this car was making a… whatever millions. And still not taking any. Putting it all back in. Like he believed so much in his product that even if something did go wrong where it would have bankrupted him. He would have picked up.

Christina Canters: He will just start again.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: Yeah, and he wrote that in the book. He was like…

Nick Abregu: Oh did he?

Christina Canters: Yeah. He was like even if we failed, he said he was almost planning on failing at some point. And he’s like, I’ll just start again. I’ll just do something else.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. And I feel like if the… its people that don’t succeed are only the ones that stopped trying. Like failure, it’s an ongoing thing. Everyone fails. We all fail. The moment you stop trying is the moment you’ve failed for real.

Christina Canters: I think for me, failure is like knowing that you want to do something. Well, that you’re passionate about something but not taking action. Even though you know deep down inside that something’s not right. Which I think is… what made me make that decision really quickly like as soon as I realized deep down in my gut that I can’t do architecture anymore. I didn’t sit on it for like a year or two years or five years thinking, ah, no, no, maybe. I went not.

Nick Abregu: Done.

Christina Canters: Done. I can’t live with myself knowing that I’m living a life that I’m deeply unhappy with.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. That’s nice. I wish more people took life by the balls like that. For me, I’m one of those people that just like, I have to think about it. And then I convinced myself on both sides. Like I’m not a strong action taker like you are. I wish I was but…

Christina Canters: Look, it’s not that I don’t over think a bunch of other stuff but we as humans we tend to, you know, our primal brain wants to protect us. And so anytime we have a thought or something that adds outside the comfort zone, it’s something different. Our brain just goes no, no, come back. Pull up. Put on the handbrake. Here are all of the rational reasons why you shouldn’t do that, you know. But I believe that if we can tune into… I don’t know. Some people call it intuition. Some people call it a gut feel. Some people, you know, its better comes from… it comes from more like it for me anyway, it’s more in my tummy like literally in my gut. Some people with a feeling in their heart as opposed to the rational brain that’s coming. It’s over thinking and telling you all these things. It’s like…

Nick Abregu: That bastard doesn’t let you sleep at night.

Christina Canters: Yeah

Nick Abregu: The brain is like that guy.

Christina Canters: Yeah. And it was, I had the most… I had this experience when I was in my mid-20s where I ended a long term relationship that I was in like been with this one person since I was 18. So, you know, through some very major sort of stages of life. And I was wanting to break up with him but then my head started to tell me all the reasons why I shouldn’t. But then in my gut, I have this like a tiny little whisper in my gut that saying, “But you know what’s right. You know that. It’s the right thing to do.” And I was literally pacing up and down. It was like my brain was talking to me as I walked this way and my gut was talking to me as I went this way. And I couldn’t stand still because I had so much conflict and energy in my body about with my brain going to do this and my gut saying, “Don’t do that”. And that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do purely because of that inner… the inner conflict was so gross. Like it was so huge. But when I finally made the decision I was like, no. I’m like, this has to end. I felt this huge wash of relief over me. And it was at that moment… well after that experience when I learned that, oh! I can trust myself with these big decisions. I don’t need to worry about, when do I make the decision or what do I need to do? I just need to trust that I will know when the time is right. And I’m confident that experience has then, have then helped me, you know, in my other experiences such as when it came time to quit my job.

Nick Abregu: Mm-hmm.

Christina Canters: You know when I had that same feeling of, this isn’t right. I knew, uh-huh, I need to trust that because I trusted it last time and look how much better… better off I am now.

Nick Abregu: That’s so powerful.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: And I know relationships it’s just so hard because you get stuck.

Christina Canters: Mm-hmm.

Nick Abregu: You get stuck thinking, this is the best it’s ever gonna be. Like no one’s ever gonna love me or maybe I’m not good enough for all these. Stupid doubts come back to you. And then that whole thing about not trusting yourself, like that’s so… when you stop trusting your

gut instinct, you’re in a bad place.

Christina Canters: Absolutely. And so many people like, will ask for advice from other people. And I run a group coaching program so I’ll have, you know, five or six professionals and we all get together once a week. And I’ll coach each person individually. And I had one client who would come to me every week and say, “Christina! This happened and this happened. What do I do?” Like she would just come to me with a question, what do I do? And I would ask her and instead of telling her what to do, I would say, “Well, what does your intuition telling you?” She’ll be like, “Oh, I don’t know.” I’d say, “Well, let’s say someone else came to you with that same challenge. What feedback would you give them? What advice would you give them?” She said, “I’ll probably tell them to do this and to do that.” And I remember, on the last session when we came, around for ten weeks in this program. And she came to the call and she looked so serene. So calm because normally she’s quite agitated and you could just tell like quite high energy. And I ask her, “You look different. What happened?” And she said, “You know, I’ve learned to trust myself and my own decisions and I don’t need to ask anyone else. I don’t need to ask you. I can and I just know.”

Nick Abregu: That’s nice.

Christina Canters: It was amazing and to see her, to see… it was a visual like, to see the visual difference in her and her energy. She just calmed right down. It was amazing. So, like anyone can learn to do it. It’s just… you’ve just gotta make that.

Nick Abregu: Isn’t that, aren’t you… I’m sure you’re a 100% glad that you did make that decision with that partner because you have a very beautiful husband.

Christina Canters: I do have an amazing husband now. Yeah and I’m very grateful for him.

Nick Abregu: And he’s such a lovely guy, easy to get along with just like you. And you guys work together.

Christina Canters: We do, yeah.

Nick Abregu: And I’ve seen you guys work together and it’s nice, it’s nice of you guys…

Christina Canters: You haven’t seen us a lot though…

Nick Abregu: I’ve seen you twice.

Christina Canters: That’s when we’re running workshops and things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s not like that all the time of course.

Nick Abregu: But definitely tough. It’s tough to work with your partner.

Christina Canters:  Well, look, I wouldn’t have gone into business with him if I didn’t think it was gonna work. Again, it’s just like the gut decision thing. Like, if I knew this was a bad idea then I probably wouldn’t have because we live…  I mean we are moving house but we’ve been living for the last four years in a very small one-bedroom apartment. And that in itself is enough to create tension between two people but we’ve managed to do it. And thought to myself if we can live there for four years and surely we can run a business together. We could live anywhere. We can do anything together. So, yeah, I think it’s a, you’ve got to… you’ve got to really respect each other and each other’s strengths. And know what each… we get really clear on who… what each brings in the table.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. I feel like your relationship needs to be extremely strong before you can go into…

Christina Canters: Hundred percent.

Nick Abregu: Yeah.

Christina Canters: Your communication has to be top-notch. Like, you’ve got to be able to communicate. I mean this is even if you’re in a… like you don’t have to be in business. Like communication is really important. And not taking things personally. So, if you see us working together normally like let’s say in the office day to day. We will have heated arguments but… and we will agree to disagree on stuff but it’s never personal. It’s never, you’re an idiot… or you know, your ideas are stupid… or I can’t believe you would say that. Like it’s just… people around are gonna stare at us and, “Oh my God, they’re about to get a divorce.” But we walk away and then we come back and it’s like, oh hey babe! What do you want for lunch? So, we don’t take it personally or hold grudges or get pissed off. It’s just not a thing that we do.

Nick Abregu: That’s nice. It’s… I think as much as one can communicate to the other. It’s also understanding where the other person’s coming and that’s hard to do as well. Like, to really understand. When you’re so set on your way with one thing to understand what this person’s coming from that side is extremely hard to do. They just sometimes… you think like, goddamn what am I doing?

Christina Canters: Like, something a great example of that is, you know, Aaron’s done a lot of work with sort of government agencies and another. And he still do like, selling to marketing agencies as well I think. And so, he had that perspective of marketing agencies where… and he’d been burned a few times by marketing agencies. So, he came to the conversation with his filter of, you know, all marketing agencies are sharks or they’re all trying to, you know, he had his opinion. Where some like, oh! I love marketing agencies. Like they’re fun and they’re friendly and, you know. So, when we would then talk about, I don’t know whatever marketing agency. I’d be like, “Yeah, great! Let’s do this and that.” And he’s like, “Oh, I don’t know.” I’m like, “Why not?” You know, and that would create some, you know, a bit of a discussion. A bit of a heated discussion. And then I would have to remember that, oh okay, he’s had a bad experience before with people like this. So, I need to respect that and understand that, that’s how he’s seeing the situation. So, you’re absolutely right.

Nick Abregu: You guys do a little mindfulness stuff together?

Christina Canters: No.

Nick Abregu: No?

Christina Canters: His meditation is… I don’t know. Playing video games?

Nick Abregu: Whatever works, right?

Christina Canters: Yeah, yeah. He does that type of thing in his own way. He doesn’t… no, he used to do Qigong which is like movement meditation.

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: Yeah, but like once a week they used to do it at our cowork space but doesn’t do that anymore. But I’m very…

Nick Abregu: You are very into that stuff.

Christina Canters: Yeah. I’ve been doing it every day. I try to do about 20 minutes every day of meditation.

Nick Abregu: And you did the retreat?

Christina Canters: Went on a 10-day Vipassana Silent Meditation course.

Nick Abregu: So, I’m stupid with this stuff and tell me what that is.

Christina Canters: Oh, it’s okay. Not many people know what it is. Vipassana is a style of meditation. It’s non-religious but originated in India, Tibet. Perhaps origins back, back, back. And they run these courses all around the world and for beginners you have to do a 10-day course. You can’t do anything less than 10 days and you spend 10 days at the Meditation Center which is kind of like a… it’s in a beautiful, surround with some trees kind of like a monastery. Yeah. You know, you have to hand wash everything. And you get set meals time and everything. But you meditate for 10 hours a day. So, you are up. You’re completely silent. You’re up at 4:00. You’re meditating from 4:30 to 6:30 then breakfast. And then another, you know, three hours of meditation and then lunch. And then another four hours of meditation and then a short break and then another two. So, it’s hectic. So, at start I was calling it a retreat, you know, when I was telling people about it. And now I’m like it’s not a retreat. A retreats kind of like relaxing and fun.

Nick Abregu: It’s like a military grade operation.

Christina Canters: This was like a military grade boot camp where they break you down physically and mentally so that you are in pieces. And then, so they can build you back up and reprogram you.

Nick Abregu: Wow.

Christina Canters: That’s what it’s like.

Nick Abregu: So, is it… do you… during the meal times you get to speak?

Christina Canters: No! You have noble silence. So, you are not allowed to talk to any other participants for nine days and then on the tenth day they break silence.

Nick Abregu: Wow. What’s the first thing you said? Like fu–! Like fu–!

Christina Canters: I think it was, “Are we allowed to talk now?” And then, I think my next words were, “Hey roomies!” Because I was sharing a dorm with five other women. And you don’t make any contact with them. So, you’re not allowed to touch anyone. You’re not allowed to make, make gestures or write notes or anything. So, the no talking was actually the easiest a bit, you know, people would say to me, “Christina, you love talking. How, are you gonna not talk?” It’s all like I spent the whole ten days going, “Uh, I wanna talk, I must talk, must talk.” It wasn’t, I’m like, bursting to talk. You just don’t. Like it’s easy to not talk. The hard bit is dealing with the mental, like torments inside.

Nick Abregu: Like your own voices?

Christina Canters: Your own, yes! So, I spent the first seven days in complete misery like hating life. And I must just say that everyone’s experience is different. So, everything that I’m sharing about Vipassana, I don’t want you to think, oh my God, it’s gonna be like that for me, because it’s not. It’s different for everyone. For some people they’re in pain the entire time, you know, mental pain and physical pain. For other people it’s like the first two days and then a lift. For me, I spent the first week feeling utterly miserable and then on day seven I had this realization that I was making myself miserable. And then I could choose to not be miserable.

Nick Abregu: Wow!

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: Wow! That’s cool.

Christina Canters: Yeah. That was like my enlightening moment and I was like, ah, I learned a lot in the past and I learned a lot.

Nick Abregu: How do you feel now?  How long has it been?

Christina Canters: So, I got back on the 22nd. So, it hasn’t even been a month since I’ve been back

Nick Abregu: Wow!

Christina Canters: Yeah. When I came back for the first week I was very to everything. And like even when I look at my phone I was like, ooh, look at sensitive those buttons and I was typing really slowly. And the sounds were extra…

Nick Abregu: Vibrant?

Christina Canters: Vibrant.

Nick Abregu: Wow.

Christina Canters: I was very, like very present when I was talking to people. I was like, much slower in my pace to speak. And my goal is to maintain that. You know, because they teach you a lot about being present in the moment. And you know this is where, you know, what you learn is that when you’re constantly thinking about the future and wanting what’s in the future, that creates misery. And when you’re thinking about stuff that has happened to you that you didn’t like, that also creates misery. But when you’re present in the moment and just fully focused on what’s happening here. You know, that’s when you experience that inner peace.

Nick Abregu: Mm-hmm, you’re the second person that has brought that up. That in a room like this where it’s just two people that you have to… you’re forced to be in the present moment. And that in that, we don’t get to experience that in our day to day life because there are so many distractions. You go outside; there are people whose cars were…. But at the moment like this is where you have a deep connection with someone because you can just really… there’s nothing else to other than you hearing me and me hearing you. And that’s… I think that’s so nice. And that’s the magic.

Christina Canters: Can I say though as well? That when I interviewed people from my podcast, some people gets very anxious about the fact that they’re being recorded. So, for some people, yes, there’s no distraction but there’s the distraction of their mind going, do I sound okay? Do I look okay? Did I say the right thing? So, there’s… and I think the skill of the interviewer and you do this really well is making the guests feel really comfortable. And this can be also taken into, you know, the outside world as well. You know, when you are communicating with someone, if you are present and focused on them  and genuinely engaged. They’re gonna relax more and feel more comfortable and then as a result being more present as well.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. It’s a magic that happens. I think when two people would like genuinely listen to each other, it’s so nice.

Christina Canters: Yeah and it’s sad that it’s rare these days because that should be the norm. It should be normal that when you go to the supermarket, you look the checkout person in the eye and you smile. And you say, “Hi! How are you?” And you genuinely have a fun conversation. But it just doesn’t happen like we forget that they’re human sometimes. And we go through our day not even acknowledging people as humans. We lose that connection.

Nick Abregu: Yeah, my partner told me, she said I don’t- when we eat dinner, when we’re together, talking to each other or whatever, that I never look at my phone. It’s always, if it’s on the table, it was like flat down. It’s on that face down because it’s… I think it’s so important to connect with people like while we’re on this Earth. We’re not on this Earth to see what’s on our phone. We’re on this earth to make meaningful connections with people. And I think that’s the most, I think that’s… like to me that’s the meaning of being a human. Like, make as many beautiful connections as you can in this lifetime that we’re here.

Christina Canters: This is what… this is why, you know, social media and phones and devices are so toxic for a lot of people because you know, it’s removing that connection. And then people are spending all their time, you know, typing, you know, messaging and taking videos. But they’re not… they’re losing the ability to connect face to face. And as a result, they’re getting depression, they’re getting ADHD. We’re getting all these diseases that didn’t even exist. You know 50 years ago people, you know, getting more and more disconnected. And then they are, you know, suiciding and doing horrible things because they don’t have that. So, you know, doing what I do in terms of helping people to communicate and not just with others but also to connect better within themselves, you know. That you know, it feels good to be able to make that contribution and to either help. You know, maybe don’t… hopefully turns this epidemic around not being able to communicate well.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. Do you think that’s gonna stop soon? Do you think that’s gonna decrease in the amount of people always on their phone? Do you think it was just a phase?

Christina Canters: And I think it’s gonna go away. I think you have to start with the kids and parents. Say to set that example for kids and them not being on their phones all the time. And then I think the schools also need to be really strict with it and say, you know, no phones or whatever.

Nick Abregu: I think we’ll get to a point where people start realizing like how much more fun it is to live your life than to live your life through the phone.

Christina Canters: Yeah.

Nick Abregu: Like for me, I know that happened to me. Like, hold on, why am I wasting my time on the phone, like there are so many things. Like now we go paddleboarding or go to the park or go diving or whatever. It’s just so much more fun. I could spend hours doing that stuff.

Christina Canters: Yeah, for sure.

Nick Abregu: But is it my age? Is it that I’ve got to a certain age where I’m like, I have to start. I have to start… like, hold on I don’t have much time left to live. Do I have to start taking life by the balls?

Christina Canters: You got plenty of time left to live.

Nick Abregu: I’m thirty four now. I’m done, like I’m halfway through.

Christina Canters: Halfway through, please! How long are you planning on living?

Nick Abregu: What’s the expectancy? What’s the… to 68? Please.

Christina Canters: My parents are in their 70s and they are still… they are traveling.

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: My dad goes on motorbike troops.

Nick Abregu: Really?

Christina Canters: Yeah!

Nick Abregu: What a gangster!

Christina Canters: Don’t give up on me Nick! You can make it, positivity! Come on Nick!

Nick Abregu: If I make it to 70. I’ll be happy.

Christina Canters: You can make it if you take care of yourself now. Right here, Dr. Christina told me if you take care of yourself now then you will be able to live, you know, longer. Like, keep drinking the Switchel, man, this blood orange Switchel.

Nick Abregu: I’ve been making my own kombucha.

Christina Canters: Have you?

Nick Abregu: Yeah. Next time you can… I’ll bring you some.

Christina Canters: I want to. Actually my sister gave us a starter for Christmas because we buy so much of this stuff and I hate, like…

Nick Abregu: So expensive!

Christina Canters: Yeah and I don’t like wasting all the, you know, tin and whatever it is, aluminum and the plastic. So, I was like, yeah, it’d be cool to make our own. I’ve been making my own yogurt.

Nick Abregu: No.

Christina Canters: Yeah!

Nick Abregu: No!

Christina Canters: You know how… you know what the ingredient of making yogurt is?

Nick Abregu: What?

Christina Canters: Milk and yogurt.

Nick Abregu: No!

Christina Canters: Yes.

Nick Abregu: What?

Christina Canters: Yes, I swear. I swear to you. To make yogurt, you just need yogurt…

Nick Abregu: The cultures in the yogurt?

Christina Canters: No, you just need yogurt. So, look, we’ve got one of those pressure cookers. Pressure cooker/slow cooker/everything cooker for Christmas. This is who I am now. I ask my mom for appliances for Christmas. This is what I do now, but we got it and it’s got a yogurt button.

Nick Abregu: No!

Christina Canters: Yogurt button! And what you do… the recipe is you have like a tub of yogurt and you take like half that tub of yogurt, right? Like two big scoops of yogurt. Chuck it in the pot and then buy a big 2-liter thing of milk. Pour it in. Put the lid on. Heat the yogurt and go.

Nick Abregu: So, what’s happening in that machine?

Christina Canters: It’s heating it very, very…

Nick Abregu: To a nice temperature?

Christina Canters: Yeah. It’s heating it, heating it, and then the cultures permeate and do the cultural thing, the yogurt thing. And then eventually after 10 hours it’s like slow, slow cooking. It turns into yogurt but it’s very runny. So, you’re gonna put it in the fridge and let it set for a bit. And then you’ve got to strain. If you want, like a thicker yogurt you strain it through one of those cheesecloth strainers. And you end up with this super thick, glorious…

Nick Abregu: Is it nice?

Christina Canters: Delicious yogurt, yeah.

Nick Abregu: Do you put flavor?

Christina Canters: I tend… well I’ll put like protein powder and stuff in it but I don’t put, I haven’t tested it out with flavor while it’s cooking.

Nick Abregu: I’m gonna test this out.

Christina Canters: Yogurt setting, man! So, I’m saving plastic on like all the tins of other containers of yogurt as well. So, kombutcha’s next!

Nick Abregu: I’ve got a…  I made a standard operating procedure on how to make a kombucha. So, I’ll get that- I’ll send you the link.

Christina Canters: What’s your flavor? Do you do a flavor?

Nick Abregu: I like ginger. I like pineapple and I like it on its own actually.

Christina Canters: Cool!

Nick Abregu: But you can also mix it with cranberries.

Christina Canters: Okay. You’re gonna try making Switchel?

Nick Abregu: I don’t know. What the hell is this? I thought I was drinking kombucha. What is this?

Christina Canters:

Well, I’ll definitely come to you for kombucha making tips when my scoby is ready.

Nick Abregu: Let’s do it. So, I’ve got the link so I’ll link you.

Christina Canters: Cool! Thank you.

Nick Abregu: Thank you so much for coming on. You’ve been an amazing guest.

Christina Canters: It’s been fun.

Nick Abregu: Yeah. I’m gonna put up some links for where people can find you.

Christina Canters: Yes, sure.

Nick Abregu: So, they can check out your podcast as well.

Christina Canters: Yeah, absolutely.

Nick Abregu: It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.

Christina Canters: Thanks Nick. It’s been super fun.

Nick Abregu: All right! And we’re out.