Leah Gervais: Hi visionaries. Welcome back to the Your Biggest Vision show. Today’s guest is Izabella Levey. She is here to share with us an open book version of her entrepreneurship journey and everything she has been to before we started recording this, her and I sort of reminisced about how we initially connected on Instagram over two years ago at this point, and just what a different place I was in. 

I’m sure you were in a very different place then. Um, I quit my nine to five job that year. Uh, and so it’s really fun, kind of coming full circle. And I think a true Testament to how much is possible in a relatively short amount of time. I always say that with business, you know how with babies, they say the days feel long, but the years, the years fly by businesses. 

The same goes with business, sometimes the days are like, Oh my God, how am I going to get this all done? And then you’re like, I can’t believe I did all of that in a year. So I think we’re really going to hear a true Testament to that today when we hear everything you’ve been through. So, um, thank you so much for being here. 

Izabella Levey: First of all, you are so welcome. Thank you for who you are and how you show up in the welds with everything as well. I also love the authenticity behind you in your brands. I think that it really does shine through everything. So I’m excited to bring that from me to your audience today. I love it. I love it. 

Leah Gervais: Well, why don’t we start by you just telling us maybe two or three sentences about what you do now, and then I’d love to go back a little bit. Yeah.

Izabella Levey: So hello everyone. My name is Izabella and my mission is to really elevate the wealth of women worldwide. So specifically I work with service-based entrepreneurs to double that income by a results driven strategy. I really do this by showing them how to not just make money, but manage their money and multiply it as well. So that’s the simplest way that I can sum it up for you. 

Leah Gervais: Oh, I’m so excited to dig in. I feel like the management of money isn’t talked about enough in the online space or with entrepreneurship, you know, it’s very, very common to hear about how to make money and things like that, which is important. Obviously you can’t, you can’t prove all your way rich, but there is an element to what to do with it when you get it. So why before we get into that, why don’t you take us back a little bit? Where did you grow up and what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? 

Izabella Levey: Wow, such a good question. So honestly, when I was growing up, I was always told that I was going to be below average. I have dyslexia and it always just took me like three times the amount of work then, whatever anyone else was doing in order to gain the same results. And it really put this resilience mentality in me. I knew that I did have to work harder, but I knew that I was going to equally get there and I’d always be in, you know, told that I wasn’t going to pass my exams and I wasn’t going to go to university. And it was always like you won’t, you con on the me from a very young age, like for the love of God, I was just really not believing what anyone else said. Um, I knew the, I was going to be able to make and create something for myself from one side I was told by the whole academic side. 

But, and then on the other side, like I was always told, you know, Oh my gosh, you’re such a good talker. From a young age, I was always performing. I was always doing like really theatrical things. And I enjoy just kind of, you know, living out life and always having a smile on my face. 

And as I grew up, uh, I really faced a lot of dangerous and difficult situations. And again, that allowed me to build stronger and it allowed me to say how I want to live and how I don’t want to live. But it also allowed me to say how many people were struggling in life and how much I really wanted to support people to get out of the struggle. So I knew that I wanted to do something to do with psychology. Um, I went to do psychology in university and honestly, I thought I was going to be a counselor.

I knew that I was going to help people in some way. Uh, it was either a counselor or presenter and I feel like I’m now I’m working on both. You know, it’s just, it’s just all there. One is just a win, win situation. Um, so that’s where it really all started for me. 

Leah Gervais: So I’m so in awe right away of your strong mindset, because the first thing you shared was about something that could be very easily and probably by default to most people interpreted as a, um, disadvantage, you were told from a young age that you weren’t as capable as others or that you weren’t going to be below average. But the first thing you shared with us was that that taught you resilience. So I’m curious, has that taken conscious mindset work to get to, or have you just always seen it that way? And it just was, it’s just integrated into who you are.

Izabella Levey: Wow. I love this cause this is going to go deep. So when I eventually first started my business, I knew that I’d been told this. I didn’t realize how much of an effect it would have on me until I got into the business and to mess up and to not see things go the way that I desired when other people were being really successful at something. And I wasn’t being successful to what my standard was, it brought all of those emotions, but it brought all the emotions back off. 

You know what, like you’re not good enough and you know how hard this is going to be for you. And it was ingrained in me and I’ve really had to shift it. I was like, you know what, if I’ve learned from such a young age to be able to continue to learn and do things differently, I’m going to continue to learn and do things differently as well. And you know, at every level and layer of entrepreneurship, there’s a deeper level to kind of like go into. And I know that there’s definitely still beliefs that hold me back and set and things I’m willing to always smash through them, but in terms of I’m being more conscious of it, because it has been raised to my awareness a lot more. Um, but I just didn’t realize how much impacted me and affected me until the entrepreneurship journey really began. 

Leah Gervais: Sure. Oh my gosh, I completely relate to that. Would you say that, um, that piece around I’m not good enough has been like your biggest core wound through this all because I know that that’s something so many of my clients can relate to 

Izabella Levey: Yeah. 100%. And I think it ties really nicely also into the work that we do associated even with women and wealth. You know, the one thing to start off from a wanting to start these businesses. But if we don’t feel worthy of you know, of the success or we don’t feel where they off having a successful business without other people telling those left brain sense that, Oh, my day, she’ll do an amazing, or dad’s telling us you have smashed this. Like it literally like, whereas in to us and when we don’t feel worthy of something, of course we’re not going to be able to achieve it as well.

So in terms of ingraining into, um, you know, stopping us and stopping us, move into our highest level of what we can achieve, uh, it definitely has chipped away numerous times. 

Leah Gervais: Yeah. I, the worthiness piece has probably been the one I had to work through the most. It’s been interesting. I’ve realized that I feel good enough to do things. And I’m putting that in quotes for people listening. Like I’ll go for things and be like, yeah, I can do it. I can achieve it. And then I’ll achieve it. And I’ll be like, Ooh, I don’t think I, like, I don’t think I actually deserve this. It’s very, very interesting. And I think, you know, everyone has their own patterns and it’s, it’s so admirable that you’ve really spearheaded it and addressed it and, and not, you know, blamed. And I’m sure you’ve done a lot of work around this, but like not blamed a strategy or other people or whatever the case may be for why things haven’t worked.

Because I think that that’s a lot of the default, which is why we’re so successful, but what I wanna, I want to rewind because I have, so you could get down this hole forever, um, back to your story a little bit. So you graduate and, you know, you want to go into psychology, you know, you want to help people. How do you start your own business? 

Izabella Levey: So I had just gotten back with my fiance now. Um, and he played professional football and I always promise myself that I was going to be this financially independent woman. And there I was driving in a white on Fred fee with all of my belongings and stuff, into one car moving in with him, thinking, why are you doing like what I’ll do? And you just, you committed to being financially independent and emotionally independent, such early on in your life.

Like what has changed? I remember being in the call and it was like, I was having a discussion with myself, but obviously I was having a discussion with God. And I recommitted in that moment on, I knew that if I was going to move in with him at that time, I needed to create and do something for myself. Cause I knew that I would regret it. So I moved in with him through summer of 2017 and I did my coaching, um, do some coaching courses. And then in September I was like, I’m going to start my business. 

And the first month I started my business, I gained 17 clients with no less, no ads and no paid markets in. And within the same game, I scaled a quarter of a million and we can of course get into it all. But the truth is, everyone says, well, where did those 17 clients come from? This is where I know that God has favor on all of our lives because I had experienced things that I knew that I could support people with. Well, when I actually started out my business, I didn’t have the foggiest idea what I was doing at all. Like I just didn’t, you know, and, and we all start that way. And I think that it’s fine to stall that way on. Sometimes I’m even like, you know, Oh my gosh, what am I doing right now? Now? Um, that’s how I decided I was going to stop my business. Uh, and I moved into it very quickly. And I think that that’s how my success picked up so much momentum mast, because I did just dive straight in. 

Leah Gervais: And is this something, I mean, I love that. What a, what a statement and like a memory to know that you started this from a promise to yourself. And I think that that is something that you have to stick with in business over and over again, because things do go wrong. You don’t know what you’re doing, and if you have that commitment to yourself, then those things don’t matter. Is that something that you see kind of come up with your clients a lot is that they, what does it take for a woman to make this promise to herself?

Izabella Levey: You know, I think it goes one step further than even what your, why is I think that you really have to lean in to why you are really here and when you disconnect it from such personal things in your life and know that, you know, God is working through you for the highest of good and you take it one step further of, Oh, I want to be financially free or I want to retire my mom or, you know, I want to retire my pa. 

All the things that people say, I believe you have to take a step back and you have to say everything I’ve been through in my life until this point has been for a reason, what is that reason and how can I use this in order to serve? And if you come from a place of service and if you give more and you do more and you be more than anyone else, you are going to be successful.

And I think that if you can commit to that, if you can commit to being of service, then the success is gonna follow on and you will stay committed to it because that’s the reason why you’re literally hit 

Leah Gervais: Right. So beautifully put and why you can self abandon. You can’t, you know, you can’t dishonor the things you’ve been through in life by pretending, or, or almost even denying the purpose that they have in your life or denying like the good you could do with them. I think that’s such a beautiful way to put it. 

Izabella Levey: Um, and so, okay. So in that first year, you scale, you, you know, it’s amazing first year, congratulations on that. What were some of the fears you dealt with during that time? I know that this is probably where a lot of our listeners are at yet. So when I moved into the first year of my business, I’ll be super honest with you.

It was quote unquote easy for me. Now, the reason why it was easy for me is that I looked the fairs in the face every day and I didn’t let them like bottle me. It was like, I saw you were going to fight and I’m going to move past you. Like you are no longer available in my space. So I didn’t see so many of those fears throughout the first year. Cause I feel like I was like winging through them. I was like going all in. And the first year in business was honestly amazing. It was the second year when fear really starts to come up the second year of, you know, me, my numbers and hosting the live event. I’m being unfair, but no one would show up or being in fear that, you know, I’ve not spoken from stage before or done live coaching.

Like all of these different things really did come in. Um, and it definitely held me back as well. I saw the fairs come from a different way of fare of making bigger financial investments and maybe actually not working fair of making investments into, you know, live events for treats, et cetera, and not being able to, you know, sell them out like different things came up. Um, one of the biggest fears that I think I faced is the fact that in the first year I’d completed like this five year plan and I was in and I felt I could do the five year plan all over again within a year. So I set myself up for failure in that way because I didn’t and I couldn’t, and that made me look at myself and like, maybe, you know, maybe I’m not so good at this then maybe that was just a one year lucky hit.

And that was the biggest fear I was thinking, Oh my days, how could I achieve so much within a year? And now I’m not moving at the same rate. I had to do some work on that because all of the perfectionist and not where they end look, be here and having to work 10 times harder, all came up and it was stressful. It was stressful. 

Leah Gervais: Sure. I think that’s so relatable. And it’s so refreshing to just, you know, look at not only the fears that come up with starting, I feel like that is one relatively expected at this point. Like anyone that you talk to, even if they’ve never even started a business or have any idea what it goes into it, they can say. And like, you know, a common conversation, it’s scary, it’s risky. You have to spend money. It’s not for everyone that stuff’s all real. But the fears that come with success, I feel like are even sometimes scarier because they can really go into like your, your depths of, of a soul of your soul and lonelier, because you don’t always know who to open up to you. 

When on the surface you have, you know, all these achievements, you have so much going for you and inside you’re like, well, what if I actually can’t handle this? Or what if I can’t do it again? Or what has been a one hit wonder? Or what if like, this was all a fluke, you know, and that is something I really appreciate you bringing to topic because it’s, it’s, it’s just as valid yet. It’s so much, it’s so much less accepted. I know one of the fears I’ve had to move through is like, can I handle having a team? 

You know, you get to the point where you’re like, I can’t do this by myself anymore. And you’re hiring people and it’s exciting until all the sudden you’re like, Oh my God, I don’t know if I can do this. And then you work through that too. I hear people say that they’re afraid to make money because they’re afraid to pay taxes. You know, like there’s all sorts of different levels. And so how I’m going to let you take this, however you want to take it, but like, how did you either work through that? Or what I’d really love to start hearing is how did you find this specialty with money and women building wealth and like really moving into that as your zone of genius?

Izabella Levey: Yeah. I want to split that question up Institute, because to answer your question, I had to learn to love myself because I realized that all the success that I was creating was to get approval from my family, my friends, my fiance, and it came with so much pressure that I was just riddled in anxiety. Like if I didn’t achieve a goal or even when I did achieve it, like it was just never enough. Like it never made me feel like I thought I was going to feel so hot to learn like, you know, why are you doing this? And what really makes you happy? And how can you really bring this into your life every day? How can you remind yourself, you know, the service that you are doing to the world and really take this pressure off you. So that’s how I started to retrain my thinking around that.

Um, and like I said, every single level, there is a deeper level that you’ve got to go internally as well. Uh, and it was the fact that, you know,  I thought that this is the way that I would receive love, because that’s how I’d been conditioned, you know, from my family of, okay, well, you know, if I achieve the good grades, they know that I would work so hard for it, but, you know, an A, an A wasn’t good enough. I get always had to be the A star. And for me to know that in business, if I didn’t overachieve, I linked that to not being lovable, not being good enough, not being able to, um, you know, give the feelings of what are those ones wanted form. And especially, you know, through so much of what my family have been through. It was kind of like, I was the light for them.

They were able to look at me and just be proud of something that they had created. And that came with so much pressure, so much pressure that is still on me, you know, like the precious still there it’s in a different way. And the codependency is not back with it, but of course I want to make them proud. Of course, I want them to feel that they’ve got, um, you know, they’ve got, had something amazing that they also created and added too. And it’s also about me moving away from this redemption of my story. Like, I always felt like I had to redeem the family story and, um, everything was just gonna turn out amazing and the responsibility that people take on themselves. Uh it’s so, so much. So I had to drop that first of all, and also to come in to my most authentic self or what was my definition of success?

What are my personal values? What’s my personal philosophy. And then start moving forward from that. Now, in terms of-

Leah Gervais: Can I pause you there really quick? Cause I have a followup question to this. This is incredible. Do you have any, um, practical things that you did during that time to really, or that you do still do to kind of, you know, retrain your brain and, and, and, and look at things differently? Are you a journaler or meditation? Like what works for you? I feel like people always are creating some, some, some ideas. I don’t, I’m not a fan of like, here’s how to do mindset. 

Izabella Levey: Let’s do everything and anything anyone says, so honestly, action. There’s one gentleman, there’s one thing meditating, but what you’re going to do to choose to change the situation. Yeah. Or you’re going to speak up when someone says something that you know is out of line or that’s put you down, are you going to, um, Oh, you gonna recreate how you show up in your fine in your family dynamic in order to not feel so much pressure, all you gonna remove or distance yourself from certain and people because meditation, journaling will get you to a place and it just the internal work, but then you’ve got to work on doing the external work as well.

And that can even be more difficult than, you know, seeing what was going on internally inside. So to answer your question, do what Leah said, meditate, journal, see what comes up for you, but then just ask yourself. And if I were to move past this, what would my role in this be if I were to move past this, what would my role in this be? And just get what the answer is, and then take action on it. Don’t wait to take action on it, get it, and then do it. 

Leah Gervais: Beautiful. Awesome. 

Izabella Levey: Thank you. 

Leah Gervais: Welcome. 

Izabella Levey: So, in terms of the relationship of women and wealth, honestly, for as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with the gender gap, women being suppressed. I was literally obsessed with this all, and I’d seen my family go from having everything to having nothing. My dad’s got sentenced to 10 years in prison and it left us with literally nothing.

And I saw how my mom was able to take care and do the things that she wants her to do. And that’s where my promise originally came from. I committed, you know, being financially and emotionally independent. Um, and at that point it was about, you know, redeeming my family story. So, you know, anytime that I would hear women be spoken less than, or not have something fair going on, I’d always be the one to speak up. And then moving in to the adult version of me, I was always so conscious of it. And here’s the thing. I started to not speak up about it as much, because I thought there was going to turn me away from what I was actually doing, because if I believe this was going on, then maybe I would, you know, go into, um, the, the reality of that. So I kind of edged away a little bit about how passionate I was about the core issue.

And I then realized I graduated from just speaking about financial independence and providing for yourself and being able to, you know, hold your own. For me. It was so much more than that, everywhere that you look, there’s this controlled patriarchal view around the conversation of women and wealth. And it’s an uncomfortable idea for society to handle. And I really wanted to shake society. I wanted to make them feel uncomfortable because we’re the ones that have been feeling, the discomfort me, you, us, like we are the ones that really have to step up and change that. And unless I graduated from, you know, the financial independence and making it about I and supporting entrepreneurs in the eye and what you need to do, it’s more about we now. It’s about what do we need to do as a collective and also to raise this consciousness and have conversations like this in order to broaden the mind of others and be able to change the way that things are.

You know, those were stats by American express that said something along the lines of 80% of you as business women, business owners that had their businesses as their sole income. We’re never going to achieve a hundred K. Why is it okay for a company as amazing as American express? Because I absolutely love them. Um, they need to change that stuff. How can someone say that you are never going to make that, but we’re okay with reading these statistics. I love American express. I love the company. I love what it provides for me. I love the premium service. I love the high touch. I love it.

But stats like that, you just brought my love down from 100% to 50% and no, one’s perfect. And I get that, but that statement is such a strong statement for someone to read and just to sit back and be like, Oh yeah, like that’s okay. The more that we sit back and say, it’s okay, the more it’s going to carry on being so much harder, um, for us to, you know, create not even just equality, but create what way are so deserving, desiring and worthy. 

Leah Gervais: Oh my God, I love everything you just said the whole time. I was like, yes, yes, yes. I think it’s so valuable to remember that, you know, we might feel uncomfortable talking about money right now. I know I have, um, had to navigate like sharing my, my business income and stuff like that. And it, you know, is that the right thing to do, et cetera, et cetera, yet we are numb to how uncomfortable women all over the world are and have been for generations because they don’t have financial independence or they don’t have enough, or they don’t have the right decision making. So that’s like, which discomfort do you choose?

Because it’s not that like, you know, sharing, talking about money, making a lot of money, you might feel this comfort in that yet you forget that it’s sacrificing or eliminating a discomfort that we’ve all just like universally accepted and why, why have we done it?

Izabella Levey: Yeah, of course. And I understand that it’s not, you know, people’s number one thing that they want to share of the income they are making and creative for so many reasons, but that’s okay, but here’s, what’s not okay. It’s not okay to be dictated of how much a woman should or is going to earn. It’s not okay to be out and by men for doing the same things. It’s not okay to read these types of statistics. I’m not doing anything about it. So it’s more about what can we all do as I shared as, as a collective to start speaking up more.

Making the money conversation so much more normal, I want to say, but also call them, calling companies out, calling people out that, you know, may not even be conscious of what they are saying. I don’t know if they’re conscious or not. I pray and hope that that not conscious of it. Um, and as I call them out, I hope that they will create something different. 

Leah Gervais: Yeah. Beautiful. So what are, what is, um, a step that a service based entrepreneur could take today to take more control of her own wealth?

Izabella Levey: Yeah. Well, I think that it all starts with habits. It doesn’t matter how much money you are creating. If you can’t control the habits around money, you’re not going to be able to ever create the financial freedom. It doesn’t matter if you are an in 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K seven figures, whatever you are earning, if you don’t have the habits to go with it, um, you are not going to be able to sustain your wealth.

You’re just going to be rich and you’re going to continue to work. You’re going to spend it. You’re going to continue to work. You’re going to spend it. Being rich is different than being wealthy. Being rich is having money that you can think about, like, you know, 50 cent, he had all this money, but then, uh, you know, so much things happen that he had to go bankrupt. Well, wealth is being able to build something sustainably that you can actually step back from working. And your wealth is actually able to fund your life at whatever level that would be. So I would, first of all, say, start to actually take a percentage of your income and put it into a savings account. Now you can do whatever you with that, but there’s ways to start multiplying your money. Then once you put 10% of your income into a savings account, you can invest in stock.

You can invest in real estate. You can invest in different businesses. You can start even investing more in yourself, take 10% of it. Um, and put that into your, pour that into a separate bank account. And you don’t need to see, you can set that up automatically.The second thing that I would share that someone would do is for them to master money, rather than money, mastering them. Discover what is your money blueprint? What are your beliefs around money? Because that really puts a lid on how much we are actually earning. You know, some people say that money isn’t spiritual. Well, if you’re spiritual, you’ve come from that background. You’re going to think that you can’t have a lot of money if you, you know, if you want to be spiritual, which is so far from the case, our God is expansive.

And so is money. You are here to grow. Uh, and so God wants you to, as, as well. And there’s so much more we could go in on that- conscious of time. Um, so these will be the actual two main things. 

One is starts to manage your money. The first tip to that is to choose a percentage of your income that you want to put away. 10% could be a good place to start. And the second thing is to really discover what your money blueprint is, go into what your beliefs are, where they came from, and actually start to rewrite what your money beliefs are. So they support where you want to go. 

Leah Gervais: Beautiful. Great. Okay. I have one last question for you. And then I have three kind of fun lightening ones, but if you’re willing to share, is there a specific money belief that was really helpful for you to move through just to have kind of an example for people out there?

Izabella Levey: Yes. So a belief that I held onto for so long as any money that came in, I needed to keep hold of it because I was in so much fear that someone was going to take it away from me. So I had that belief because I have been involved in an armed robbery and I saw first hand, um, of, you know, everything being taken away from me and the impact that that had when I first started my business, I was bringing money in, but I wasn’t allowing it to energetically flow. And when you don’t allow things to flow, you know, even if you just take a breath right now, that’s how, that’s how money works. It’s literally just like a breath, money comes in and money goes out. And the more that comes in, the more that, the more that can go out and you want to, you want to continue to do that in order to get you to a certain place.

So I said to myself, okay, I understand where this belief has come from. I know what the belief is that is not going to support me because if money comes in, I need money going out to pay my team. So investments, I need money going out in many different areas and that is safe for me. So I had to start retraining my mind to believe that, you know, money is abundant and it flows to me easily and effortlessly, and I’m able to, you know, spend, save best. And I had to retrain my mind, um, to do that. So that is an example of a belief that I have been through, but I have gone through, um, and I still have to actively work on because these are still the beliefs I’m conscious of that. I do need to continue to ingrain in me. Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing.

Leah Gervais: Very powerful. Oh, okay. Well you are just a wealth of information. I have three lightning round questions for you. Are you ready? 

Izabella Levey:  Yes, I’m ready. I know that it may be something around like TV programs, et cetera, to give you a heads up. I’m like, I’m like your mom’s Nana. I’m not that I’m not that exciting, but please fire away. 

Leah Gervais: No, it’s perfect. So, okay. What is your go to when you’re having a day? That is just not going your way. When you have a bad day?

Izabella Levey: My fiance. Oh, that’s perfect. What is a business building book or podcast that you have recommended and loved the science of Getting rich. 

Leah Gervais: That’s my favorite one too. Like always my go to, what is, um, do you have a very proud moment you’d like to share in from your business so far? 

Izabella Levey: Hm. I think my proudest moment was when I was able to put on my live event. Like when I stood on stage, I realized like, Whoa, you’ve really created something for yourself. And the fact that I was serving as well as presenting, which was something that was a dream of mine since I was a little girl, just made me really feel like you’ve really got this going on. Like, you’re going to be able to remember this for the rest of your life. And I definitely will as well. 

Leah Gervais: Beautiful. Okay. My last question is where can people find out more about you? 

Izabella Levey: You can come on, follow me on Instagram @IzabellaLevey on just send me a direct message share with me what your biggest takeaway was from this episode. Um, and yeah, just continue to really, um, encourage this podcast as well. You know, the amount of energy and effort and time that goes into creating, um, creating podcasts is so much in just, you know, a rate and review go such, uh, such a long way.

So if you have enjoyed listening to this episode, please do coma follow me. But before you do that, please go ahead and give it a rate and review because Leah’s amazing. She puts just so much time and energy into everything that she does. 

Leah Gervais: Oh, so sweet. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us, your energy, your presence. I think that this was going to be, I think everyone could pull something helpful for this. So congratulations on all of your success. Here’s to what’s next and thank you very much for being here. 

Izabella Levey: You are welcome. Thank you for having me. 

Leah Gervais: All right, visionaries. We’ll talk to you later. DMS, if you love this episode and here is to your biggest vision.

Your Biggest Vision’s Daily Checklist for Visionaries;

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