Family, Fortunes & Fuelling Your Ambition with Krista Hilton

By Stephanie Powell

Founder of Fumme, Consultant and Master Stylist – Krista has a lot on her plate. However, when I got a chance to chat with her, she was totally taking it all in her stride.

If you're looking for straight-talking, no BS money mindset advice… you'll be glad you found this interview. Krista comes from a line of bad-ass women, carving their way in business and creating incredible family connections along the way.

She's an enigma – and one we could all learn from.

Hey Krista, so to kick us off – what are you working on right now?

Right now, I’m working on a project that I’ve been cultivating for a long time. It’s gone through a testing phase first because I’m really committed to knowing that it really works.

It’s a budgeting system and course for independents (hair stylists, lash artists or anyone who rents a space in order to run their business) in the beauty industry!

It teaches stylists how to manage the incremental amounts of money they have coming in every day, shows you a live projection of how much you have to spend (not how much is in your bank account), as well as what to pay themselves. (Eventually, I’d love the app we create to do more with bank integrations)

It’s a 3 month course and one on one coaching, like a boot-camp in finance that includes everything from inventory management to avoiding areas where stylists typically lose money.

 

You work with your sister, what’s it like working with family? Do you think it can work for everyone?

I come from a long line of family businesses.

The thing to remember is that transparency and honesty is always the best way to go.

With family, it can get complicated when you don’t want to offend people – but, at the end of the day, you have to just be aware of each other’s personalities.

I’m more abrasive than my sister.  She’ll just take it from me, so I have to make sure I hold myself back sometimes (y’know, from being too much of a bitch) and she has to make sure she tells me exactly how she feels. You can’t just think about yourself. She has a lot of strengths that I don’t and vice versa, so we’re lucky that we can play off that.

 

What brought you to BossBabe?

I’d been following BossBabe on Instagram for a while and I really connected with the quotes, then I saw an ‘Apply Now’ button –  so I clicked it!

I learned more about how BossBabe support female entrepreneurs and straight away called my sister and said “Holy sh*t! This is exactly what we need to get this off the ground”.

I can help other people manage their stuff and I can help others with building their business, but when it comes to your own… it’s different. It’s been hard for me to find anything that really speaks to me and kicks my ass into high-gear – but the BossBabe Mastermind has done that so far.

Where do you see your brand in 10 year’s time?

I would really like to be global and have my app launched.

Being motivational and inspirational to others in the industry is really important to me.

I’d love to be a thought leader and mentor for other industries too – teaching people how to get their ideas and businesses off the ground and use your life circumstances to as an advantage- regardless of what they are.

What/who are your biggest inspirations?

Gary V – he’s hysterically amazing. The first time I saw him, he was doing a talk to an entrepreneur class at USC and he started it with:

“This is awkward, but I truly believe in my heart that you can’t f*cking teach how to be an entrepreneur.”

Telling it like it is, I love that guy.

The women in my family are a huge inspiration to me. They are awesome and they all own their own stuff – never viewing the fact that they’re women as a disadvantage.

I wholeheartedly believe that being a woman is an advantage and we don’t need to throw a fit to be on top.

That’s how I was raised – in an environment where my grandmother owned a very successful company and my grandfather didn’t have to work! She did her thing, rose to the top, supported her family and absolutely killed it.

My other grandparents worked together and they’ve only just closed the business, at 80! It was so inspirational to watch them build that together.

If you could sum yourself up in a metaphor or quote, what would it be?

My sister and I love to word map. She just moved to a new apartment with a glass wall and we covered the entire thing in post-its. From that, we’ve ended up calling our new program… Fumme.

We’re burning bills, we’re lighting up your old way of doing things and we’re changing your habits.

Those words also work for things in your past – just burn it! It doesn’t matter what happened to you back then, you are in charge of shaping your own reality!

The past is the past – it shaped who you are today, but it’s your job to decide what it’s going to do to you. Are you going to let it break you? Or is it going to make you stronger?

Are you going to help someone who went through the same experience as you?

I went through some rough patches growing up, and what helped me to cope was remembering that one day I would be able to help someone else on this journey.

So, it’s FUMME – F*ck you money management education!

What are you reading/listening to right now?

The Shortcut Start Up by Courtney & Carter Reum

The 1% Podcast– Ryan Daniel Moran

I just love how real this is. He makes you realise, it’s not bad to make money and it’s not bad to want to make money either.

I am really damn excited about the recent launch of our Fumme Academy. We’ve had an amazing start with some exciting new additions planned each month.

I can’t wait to continue diving deep and doing what I can to help create a financially savvy movement in the beauty biz.

Want to learn more? Check out Fummemoney.com