The Real You
1:1 Long-Form Interviews with Interesting People Doing Amazing Things
In-depth discussion of people's journeys to tap into their full potential and find ways to be the truest version of themselves.
The Real You
EP 37: The Art of Integration: Kristin Miller on Balancing Career, Life, and Personal Growth
🎙️ Podcast Episode Highlights with Kristin Miller
- Navigating Mid-Career Crossroads: Kristin shares how her journey through theater, sales, and sports management led to burnout, and ultimately, a career pivot into coaching.
- From Burnout to Breakthrough: After a decade with the Milwaukee Brewers and experiencing anxiety attacks, Kristin realized she had never paused to ask: "Is this what I really want?" That moment sparked a transformation.
- Coaching Through Language & Reflection: Kristin explains how writing exercises and examining thought patterns help clients uncover limiting beliefs and find clarity, without needing someone to hand them the answers.
- Beyond Work-Life Balance: The conversation redefines “balance” as integration, with Kristin offering a more realistic and compassionate framework for managing energy during different seasons of life and career.
Kristin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinmiller79/
Kristin's Website: https://www.snhacademy.com/
David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-young-mba-indy/
David's Website: https://davidjyoung.me/
Welcome to the Real you Podcast. This is episode 37. I'm David Young, your host. I'm a LinkedIn content and business coach. I help coaches with less than 3000 followers sign more clients using content and LinkedIn strategically. I launched this podcast in March of 2024 to spotlight interesting people doing amazing things. Today I'm joined by Kristen Miller, a career and life coach for mid-career professional women. A diehard Dave Matthews Band fan and fellow Midwesterner with a uniquely diverse background, kristen helps high-achieving women who feel stuck, overwhelmed or uncertain about their next career move find clarity, confidence and a path forward. In this episode, we'll dive into her journey how she leverages LinkedIn to grow her business, the highs and lows of solopreneurship, and how she uses story work to help professional women navigate the pivotal moments in their careers and lives. Kristen, thanks so much for making time for me today.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you for making time for me.
Speaker 1:I jokingly sent you an email back when you sent me your bio that this probably is just going to be an hour of tattoos, dave Matthews and baseball, and then at the very end, we'll just be like Kristen coaches, career women reach out and if that happens if you're listening and that happens, you'll know. You'll know why. Um, yeah, so no, it's great, great to have you on. We've recently connected on LinkedIn. I love your energy and I love your content. It always just feels very positive and motivational or inspiring.
Speaker 2:Well, I appreciate that feedback because that's a very conscientious intention I made is that I know that when I look back to who I would have wanted to be coached by right and who I ended up being coached by years ago, I would have wanted to feel inspired and like it was possible, and so that really is where I try to approach my content from. Is this place of like not me speaking down of like here's how you should be doing something, but like, yeah, I get it and here's what's possible?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's. I mean it definitely shows. I mean I look at, I look at a lot of content. I read a lot of posts pretty much every day, monday through Friday, and like you can tell what you're talking about, like the ones that are just a little bit kind of talking down or a little dry or boring.
Speaker 1:Um, not there's anything wrong with that, but it's's just. It's a different way to do it, but yours never. I never feel that way with yours, like they always just have. It's interesting, right like an energy through the screen. It's a little bit hard to describe, but I don't know. There's a certain energy I get, whether I'm on my phone or my computer with with your post, that always I feel like it's like radiating through my screen. So good for you thank you.
Speaker 2:I don't know that you would say that about my content about a year ago. It's a practice. I've put a ton of work into it and next to the compliment I more recently received that's probably one of the best compliments I could get was that my energy is coming through my posts. But I think the best and you would agree, I think the best compliment you can get is when someone's like, oh, you were in my head. Oh, that was the best. I got that recently. Someone's like, oh, your post. I felt like you were in my head. I was like, okay, All right, Ding ding, Winner, winner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's when you know you're doing it correctly, Especially if that person is a you know I hate the word ideal client, but someone that you could potentially work with, Like if you're really speaking their language, then that's when you know that you're really dialed in and tapped into their frustrations, their struggles, kind of what they want Cause as a coach. Right, that's your, that's your goal is you're? You're giving them hope and optimism that they're in a place right now that they don't necessarily want to be, in, which typically isn't by choice.
Speaker 1:They just end up there, they're not really sure how to get out or what to do. And so as a coach, right you're, you're not giving them all the answers, you're not telling them what to do, but you're, you're radiating back to them, you're asking questions, you're trying to figure out some things for them, you're helping them kind of see it. And then they now have, they now have hope and optimism to go forward. I think it's, it's like the main. I mean, there's lots of different ways to do it. There's lots of coaching.
Speaker 1:But I think all coaching kind of boils down to that general premise is that you're helping them move forward in whatever way that looks like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love that you specifically said like you're not trying to give them the answers, because that's the first thing I say. In fact, I just came off of a discovery call. I have another one after this and I clearly, when someone asks like well, what would it be like to work with you, the first thing I say is like I have zero answers for you. I am not the coach that's going to come in and be like here's what I recommend you do. That's a consultant, Okay, A coach, like. My job as a coach is to ask the right questions. Right, and the work that I do in terms of the framework that I work within, my methodology is looking at their words. So it makes sense how now, after blogging all of these hours coaching and having discovery calls, that I am getting that feedback because I literally am using their words. So I take what I hear in discovery calls through coaching sessions and I look at that through line of like okay, this one specific phrase keeps coming up over and over again. Clearly there's something here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's great and I think more people should do that. I think too many coaches try to think about what they should be saying. But when you're having again sales calls, discovery calls, even connection calls, if they're loosely adjacent to what you do, then yeah, taking those words like verbatim and putting that back into your content because other people if one person's saying or thinking it, there are many that are saying and thinking it 100%. I hired three career coaches when I was struggling with my career.
Speaker 1:The first two I won't say they were a waste of money, but they certainly didn't go like I thought, and part of that was my fault, because I thought that they would give me the answers Like I. I, the first guy had me take a bunch of tests, so I took like the wonder lick which I used to give the NFL quarterbacks, and I took a career personality test and then, I think, like a personal interest test, and then we just talked about like those results and at the end I kind of thought he'd be like do this and he didn't. He told me to quit sales. That's the only thing he told me, cause I was working in sales at the time.
Speaker 1:I had a 2% match to the sales profile. So he was like we have to quit sales as soon as you leave my office. And I was like, no, seriously, go to your car when we're done, call your boss and be like I quit my career coach just told me to quit. I was like, ah, that seems a little abrupt. Anyway, that was his advice.
Speaker 2:That doesn't sound like advice. That sounds like a straightforward answer there. My God, how did that feel when he told you to do that?
Speaker 1:I mean, I didn't think he was wrong, it's just you. You know, I didn't have anything lined up so I was like I don't, I can keep writing this out, I can make a few dollars. I wasn't that bad at it, um, I just wasn't the best um. But I was like I can sell a couple more units. I think the second, the second person, it was five calls. She was a big disc. I've taken all the career not all, but most most of the major career tests.
Speaker 1:I've taken something yeah she was a big disc person. That was the one that I wasn't familiar with, but I knew I was a high c because I'm, you know, highly organized, detail oriented, numbers data.
Speaker 1:Like I knew I was a c, I didn't need to take the test yeah I took it and it was, I was like a really high c, like almost like the highest you could be. So I was like, all right, no new information. And then at the end, um it was, she gave me like eight possible careers. She gave me like a list, it was like a recap of what we talked about, and then it was like these, these eight you know potential careers would be yours. And I was like awesome, we've narrowed it down to eight. Let's hope I can guess correctly anyway. The third one was I. Then I spent like 5x the money. It was 12 weeks and it was like a whole program.
Speaker 1:That was kind of the beginning of the journey I'm on now, but anyway. So I'm very familiar with career work and I think it is a misconception that people are hiring career coaches because they just want the answers.
Speaker 2:You know what's interesting, what I'm finding through conversations with the women that I work with. Right, so I work with women who are mid-career-ish. They're not right out of the gates, out of college and they're not at the tail end trying to figure out retirement plans, but they're somewhere in the middle. And what I've heard more and more often that was I don't say it shouldn't be surprising to me, because when I found my coach she is deemed a life coach and I knew what I was walking into because, well, my life felt pretty freaking rough at the moment, but most women, especially mid-career, they don't, like they haven't heard of a career coach and or don't identify with it as something that could be beneficial to them.
Speaker 2:And I very much resonate with that when, when I look back, I remember getting to that point where my life was such a mess because I had let my career completely take over and I was on the wrong path. I had looked at my boss, who was a female, a female CRO, and she had an executive coach, and I was like, well, I'm not an executive, so I guess I don't get a coach, and so that's honestly what I'm finding more and more often is women saying I didn't even know there was a such thing. I didn't know there was a coach for me, and so I very much leaned into that language of like. Here's who I help maybe career professional women, and what I specifically help them with is figuring out their what's next, whether that's professionally or personally. Usually it's both. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1:We're all tied together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't only talk about work at work and only talk about our personal lives at home. We don't unzip our human skin and become someone completely different. So it is very interesting that you had that experience, and it does sound like without that clarity of like, here's what you actually get, because people women do ask me that, well, what do I get? But I always go back to what is your challenge? Like in your words, what is your biggest challenge right now? And that's what we tackle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's a good. It's a good approach. And again, asking the probing questions, trying to figure out, like you said, kind of where they've been, what their journey is that led them to that point similar to you, and then and then where you want to go from there, and some people don't have any idea where they want to go, so then that's actually ends up being a big part of the coaching is like literally trying to figure that out. Right, Because you can't go to D if you're like I don't even know where A is Right. You have to, it has to be somewhat, you know, thoughtful, what. So what happened in your? You don't have to walk through your whole career, but you obviously worked for a while before. You kind of have done full-time coaching these last couple of years, um, kind of yeah, just briefly kind of touch on like career recap and kind of how you went through that and like what that felt like as you were quote unquote working, you know, traditional type jobs?
Speaker 2:Um, well, I have had. I guess I've been at the what's next crossroads several times over. So I, out of college. I was a theater major in college. So out of college, I actually went to go visit a friend out in New York and decided I had to live there. This was right after nine, 11. So it was not the time everyone was flocking to go live in New York city, except for well, I decided that that was the thing I had to do, except for me. So I got accepted to a training program out there, hit it hard and realized about a year and a half and I was like this is not, I'm not getting enjoyment out of this anymore, like what I once felt doing acting I now dread it. So let's figure something out.
Speaker 2:And while I was figuring out what that, what net, what's next, I just did what I had naturally found myself into, and at that time it was catering. I had done a lot of catering and I started working with Citigroup Executive Conference Center and helping with their high end, their executive clients, all the way up to the president of Citigroup, walking him to his dining room every day. So I started dabbling in like this premium space, and had a relationship that didn't work out and decided I was going to pit stop back home in Milwaukee until I figured out my next, what's next? And I ended up going back into sales. Sales was something. I took the test and they're like you should be in sales. It was the opposite they're like you should be selling. And so, out of college, while I was still figuring out the acting thing I had dabbled in, I started selling cell phones.
Speaker 2:I think a friend of mine was like oh, we're hiring at the local mall and so, yeah, I went and did that for a while so I knew I could sell. I went and did that for a while so I knew I could sell. So I went on to then sell everything from cars to payroll in HR systems, to hospitality packages, to the Masters Super Bowl and MLB All-Star game. So I had combined this sales experience with this premium clientele experience, brought that all together and it was then through. There I had a connection and applied for and subsequently got my job with the Milwaukee Brewers, where it was, ironically, my only non-sales job I've had in the last 23 years. I was actually the director of services and I think was so successful in that role because I understood the sales side of the business. I spent 10 years there and well, as COVID became a thing and the world was shutting down, I was literally in Arizona with clients for spring training. We were getting them on the bus ready to go to spring training when MLB made the announcement that no more spring training and opening day was postponed. So that was a very interesting weekend in Arizona with over a hundred clients, no access to any baseball, much less baseball players or anything. And, yeah, little did we know it was our last vacation we were going to have for quite some time, came back home, never knew I was going to never walk back into what was then Miller Park, never see my office ever again. As many companies had to make the tough decision to do, they furloughed a bunch of people. I said, all right, well, what's next? So I then was actually asked by a vendor at the time go back into sales. And I went into luxury gifting and I sold two pro sports teams.
Speaker 2:Long story short, I kept finding myself throughout all these cycles that I would throw myself into my work and never once checked in with like, okay, this thing that I do really really well, that clearly I don't know how to. I mean, they're a hundred percent or zero. I don't know how to do something, just a little bit of the ways. Is this what I really want? And after I think it was so it was fall of 23. That's when I said my life kind of felt really, really messy. I was having panic attacks and anxiety attacks.
Speaker 2:I had been on the road for three months. I totaled it all up. I had been traveling. I have a at the time. She would have been what six, five five-year-old daughter. My husband also owns his own business. He's also a baseball coach, so our lives are busy and I was like, oh, I wonder why I'm feeling a tremendous amount of stress and pressure as the top producer at the organization, taking on more. And I got to a point where I was like something needs to change here. And what is it that I want? I never stopped to ask myself that I always just done the thing I did really well, because the test told me yeah, you do this really well, you should go do this.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I think it's an interesting shift and I see this a lot. I saw it in my own path. I see it a lot on LinkedIn. I think it comes with age, maturity, life experience, where you and I are fairly close in age I have you by a few years but we were taught to go to school and get a job and then work forever. And most of us did that and we didn't really question it and even if we were super unhappy, it didn't matter because that's all all we knew to do.
Speaker 1:And so I think there comes a point and technology certainly has helped but you get to a certain point in life where you're like all right, is this it? Like, do I just have to keep doing this? There's got to be something like I feel this calling or itch to do something else, like I don't, I don't know. And so I think it's interesting how we hit those. Like you said, sometimes it happens multiple times, but you hit those patches where you just start questioning, like everything that you that you haven't spent a lot of time questioning before because you were just so busy just doing and going, and like this is what I'm supposed to do and whatever. And then you're like hmm, I don't know, this doesn't feel aligned or whatever.
Speaker 1:so I think it's interesting how that kind of happens. You don't see a lot this, I don't think this happens a lot with like 24 year olds.
Speaker 2:No, and here's the thing I will say. I think that, like you said, I think there might be something a little bit generally generationally different, if you will, in terms of and I'm all for it, I'm all for this generation who is approaching things differently, but but you're right, there's, there comes this a lot of the language that we use is like something feels off. We might not be able to pinpoint what it is, but like something isn't right. And this thing of like is this it? I actually posted about it today on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:You commented it not only happens when we get to the point of like man, I am like not feeling, like I'm feeling, like I'm grinding, I'm not getting anywhere, and it also happens at the very opposite end, where, at the very peak, you would finally achieve the thing that you like had set out all these years to do, and you're like wait, is this it? Is this really it? And it doesn't feel the way you wanted it to feel. And at the end of the day, we spend one third of our lives working, like you think about it your whole life, and like retirement happens and you're a kid, literally a third of your life is working. So how and why did we get to this point of like just it sucks, but you got to do it anyway. It's like, and it doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is. Honestly, it's probably even more than a third, because that probably does that take into account, like when you're a kid, because the first 18 years don't count. So if it's, if you're working 40, but you don't start that clock until you're 22, it's really, it's actually more, I think. Um, cause, right, cause it's your adult life.
Speaker 2:And let's also now account for how much time we spend thinking about our work.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, so not only yeah. When you were a kid, I mean, I started working. I was 16. The second, I could get a job. I wanted to get a job because I I don't know why it was so quick I was the opposite, I put it off as long as possible. Oh no, I had the. I had the job right out the gate. I was working for Milwaukee County Parks. I was taking tickets to get to the pool.
Speaker 1:I was like lifeguarding the kiddie pool. I was also cutting the grass.
Speaker 2:You were hustling early. I have been hustling since I can remember and yeah, I mean not only that. So, like you said, to account for, like when you're a kid. But how much time do we spend thinking about our work and you know, telling our come home and talk to our partner, you won't believe what happened. And this and thinking about am I in the right spot? There's so much mental real estate that our work being like the legacy we're going to live, as part of our legacy, that we think about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's why the whole work-life balance, it's such a misnomer because it doesn't exist right, it's a false term because, like you said, you can't, there is no stop start, you don't separate. Um, I mean, yeah, obviously you have to figure out a way to make it work, and especially family, but it's all blended and that's why you mentioned, like, whether you're a career coach, life coach is going to be mixed in, and if you're a life coach, career is going to be mixed in, and if you're a life coach, career is going to be mixed in, because there is no separation. You have to figure out a way to make them coexist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I call it integration. I think I've been using that word for quite some time because balance, it's the insinuation that there needs to be equal parts at some point. And, to your point, any given day is going to look different. At any given season is going to look different. I mean, when I first started my coaching business, yeah, I mean those levels were very different. And you know, now, as my daughter gets older and gets more involved in gymnastics and the things that she's doing, it's, yeah, there are days I am done at four o'clock like I am done because I gotta her and I got to get out the door and all the things. So it's integration. And then I think, because of that integration and that blend, there is no defined.
Speaker 2:I remember my dad. He would come home from the office and his work was at the office. There was no cell phones, there was no laptop computers. If he wasn't at the office he wasn't working. Well, we've got these little computers that are on us at all times. It's all the more important to set boundaries, to have these defined boundaries of this is and have it be very clear, because it's very easy to get pulled in so many directions, particularly women who, like I said, raising kids and running households and the expectations there that if you don't have that understanding of what that integration specifically looks like for you, it can be absolutely exhausting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So how do you balance that? Because I'm approaching a year of doing full-time online business and I find it hard to shut off because I'm always thinking about it.
Speaker 1:I'm always coming up with ideas, whether it's sales or marketing or content, or whatever the podcast, there's always something for me to be thinking about or working on. So it's hard to just stop, because then I feel like I'm wasting time or I'm not being efficient enough, right, but which is false, because, a you just need breaks and b like it doesn't grow 24, 7. That's, that doesn't exist, right? So, yeah, how do you manage, like being a mom and a wife and running a business and like all the other, just facets and aspects of life, what, what do you? How do you set those boundaries? Like, how do you make it, you know, make it go, without feeling, you know, burnt out?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a great question. I think it has a lot to do with my thought patterns and really examining those thought patterns, and I do that. Obviously I have a coach, I work with a coach and I do that through. You know writing, so the framework with which I use in lifted method technology, it has everything to do with writing down your words, so I can only examine my thinking when I see it. It's really hard to examine your thinking when it's just swirling in your head. So when I get my thoughts on paper and I can look at the words that I'm using and am I using pressure language, am I using negations? Am I using soft talk that to me will indicate and it absolutely does indicate how you feel, because our words, they create energy and they have the power to make us feel certain things. So not only getting my thoughts down on paper and my stories down on paper and then really looking at them for accuracy, right, like I need to be working all the time. I thought that, oh geez, well, when I say that and I think that it makes me feel pressure, is pressure what I want to feel? No, I can work all the time. Okay, that feels like less pressure. I can work all the time. Does it make sense to work all the time? No, I can replace work all the time with relax. Sometimes I can relax, sometimes, oh, that feels better. Okay, what does relaxing look like to me and what happens as a result of me relaxing? Right, so it's really diving into the language.
Speaker 2:And, as one of my clients told me this morning, she's like I had no idea what I actually needed was to rewire my brain.
Speaker 2:And in rewiring my brain and my thought patterns that I had ingrained for years and years and years, only then am I able to start to change the things that I do based on my thinking now. So then, if my thought pattern starts as I need to be working all the time and we get into a place of I can rest sometimes, now I can carve out time in my schedule. Okay, where is the rest going to live? Okay, the rest is going to live on Saturday afternoons and Saturday evenings, as well as most of the day on Sunday. I'm going to get up, I'm going to do a little work on Sunday morning because, like you, I get those thoughts like the creativity, and I'm like like I'm just going to come in here and I'm going to dump them all out and I'll pick them up again later. So the I have found that and really examining my thought patterns around my work, like you said, you brain dump it.
Speaker 1:Do you have a specific writing process, like when you say, you write it down? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:It honestly depends on the day. So I love there are some days where I'm like I just need to type it into Google Doc real quick, or I might even put it in my phone in my notes app and come back to it. Then there are, depending on what's coming up. There are some mornings where I will sit down. If homework didn't take an exceptionally long, frustrating time with my second grader, I will come in my office and I will write in an actual journal and I will look at my writing and I'll cross things out and I'll play with it. And there are some days when it's just getting some gratitude out because I'm feeling a frustration where I'm like I don't like. I am not the person who's like.
Speaker 2:Every day, from eight to eight, seventeen, I write in this one particular, I can't like. I there's, there's, I got to ebb and flow. So I know that there are some times where it's going to be like I'm going to write down 10 questions. What are the 10 most pressing questions in my brain right now? I'm going to write down 10 questions. What are the 10 most pressing questions in my brain right now? And then I'll write them out, because Kinlan's law says that anything written down.
Speaker 2:Any question written down that's sufficiently worded is already half answered. So it's like how do I practice examining my thinking? And then how do I take that and have it then work for me? What does it tell me about myself? How does it make me feel? How do I want to feel? What do I need to adjust? So, depending on the day, it could look very different. It could be typing in Google Doc, typing in my phone, or if I'm walking my dog and I have a thought, I will voice note it to myself and then I will find time, generally on a Saturday or at the end of the week, where I will kind of pull all that stuff together and take a look at it. But sometimes it's just a matter of again getting the questions out, dumping them out of my brain rather than let them ruminate and swirl up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting. You mentioned walking the dog. I think I have some of my most creative thoughts when I walk him, but I don't take my phone on walks, so I have to force myself to remember them.
Speaker 2:Oh, why is it that you don't take your phone with you?
Speaker 1:It's just, I feel like my phone's with me all the time. It's just, I don't know, I just need a break and so I usually walk.
Speaker 1:it depends on the weather, but typically a couple like 25 or 30 minute walks and I don't know there's something about not age is not having the phone it forces me to be more present and then I just I hear you know sounds in the neighborhood or I pay more attention to what he's doing, and then inevitably, like just stuff will pop into my head, be like, oh, this is idea for a post, or oh, I could do this. Like it's amazing, like once we disconnect and your brain just has a chance to just settle, just even doesn't even take that long where it's just not plugged in.
Speaker 1:And then it just has this yeah, this ability to be like what about this idea, what about this? So, um, but yeah, I don't, I don't take my phone. There's a lot of people in my neighborhood that, um, they have very loud conversations on their phone while they're walking their dogs.
Speaker 2:You have one of those too, I want to tackle them.
Speaker 1:I want to just take the dog and just go cross body, block them and be like can you not have this conversation right now? How long is this walk going to be? Can't this conversation wait? It's not going to be a four hour walk, so you have those too, okay.
Speaker 2:So, first and foremost, yes, I also walk without my phone, and I found I was getting that same thing where I already had a creative idea, and then I would lose it by the time I got home because I thought about so many other things.
Speaker 2:Like a little, like a little old school, like a journalist, like a little you know the little I could, I could, and what I found is I'm going to have my phone with me Also. I'll be honest, like, as a woman, I've just gotten used to always having my phone with me when I walk. We don't have to go there, but yes, and also I'll voice record it, but I do. I love technology-free walks, so it'll be with me, but I won't be using it. And then, yes, I also have a woman. There's a woman same thing, but she does no dog speaker. A woman there's a woman same thing, but she does no dog speakerphone. She doesn't even have earbuds in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they do you can't nobody can see this, but I'm yeah, they hold. It's where you hold the phone out and you talk into the bottom of the phone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's that. And sometimes it's like 7.30 in the morning and it's like, first of all, who are you talking to at seven 30 in the morning, like who's up, that's in your network, that you're having this like serious conversation. If I'm talking to anybody at seven 30, it's like logistical, like it's going to take one second. We're gonna be like okay, we're meeting here. Okay, fine, we're done Like we're not like recapping our week or talking about, like our lives at seven 30 in the morning. I don't have anyone that's even available at that time. But there she's having these like oh, my God, let's solve this problem. Are they in a different time zone? Are they in Europe? What is going?
Speaker 2:on Maybe.
Speaker 1:Maybe I hope they are, because that makes more sense at 1.30 in the afternoon.
Speaker 2:I imagine this woman is talking to her close friend who's walking in a different part of the country and that they wish they could be together. Um, but they live in different parts of the country. Now I create whole stories for people.
Speaker 1:I just want to say we put it off for like 30 minutes or at least when she's like walking around my house. If she could just be like, hold on pause, this guy hates this anyway. Um, got sidetracked, but yes, uh, it is interesting. There was just a post the other day about where you get creative ideas and like mine are like the shower no device. Walking the dog no device running which I run, device free, and then driving with no, with nothing on.
Speaker 1:Uh, no audio or anything. Those are probably my main, like four and it's they're all. The common denominator is I don't.
Speaker 2:I'm not on my phone or my computer I have those moments too, and then I have found, when I have, when I'm reading a book or um, usually podcasts inspire me. Okay, like, not in the way of like it sparks something else I was thinking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, like amplifies it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, because I think there's been a couple of your episodes that I've actually been like wait a second pause, take out the voice recorder, do the thing. Yeah, no, that's happened.
Speaker 1:Nice. I like to hear that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you have it, and then you hear someone else say it and then it almost like reinforces it, like oh yeah, I was on the right, I was onto something there or I could do it this way, or it's like a slightly different, so that's a good idea, but it is and we need that, especially as, like creatives and running a business and needing that kind of energy, like you need times to have that breathing space, like you can't just be on all the time, you can't be working all the time, you can't be messaging all the time, you can't be writing all the time, like at some it becomes exhaustive and you just end up burning out and then it's just hard to come up with ideas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then, what are you really writing about? Because, truly, so much of what I write about is my life. So if I'm not, like today, I wrote about a documentary I saw your buddy, aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2:My buddy, aaron Rodgers. Yeah, enigma, and it was. Had I not sat down on the couch for a solid I mean, that is work. I sat down on that couch for three solid hours to watch that documentary. I put in that work, no, but I needed that. I needed that time, and it was a time that I wanted to immerse myself in something that wasn't, you know, my coaching or my work in any way, and it sparked so much curiosity about other things that when I then stepped back from it, I was like, oh, actually, this does relate to what I do because, well, it's my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you were holding out on that picture that you had taken with him. So you know, you went with like the screenshot of the documentary. And then I ask one question. You're like oh, here's my Rolodex of my 50. He and I are buddies. I've been hanging out with him for four years and I was just going to keep that low, but since you mentioned it, we're like best friends. So, yeah, you held back just a little bit.
Speaker 2:I did not mean to bury the lead and first of all, it wasn't even the lead, but I legit I'm not kidding you I thought, oh, I could use that picture. Completely forgot about it, completely forgot about it. And then I was like, oh crap, I do have a picture of him and I from back in the day. We both look so young and spry. So I was like, well, when am I ever going to post about Aaron Rodgers again? I'm not. That's not the coach I am. That's not even my demographic. So I had to throw it in there because I knew you, of all people, would appreciate it. I would, I do.
Speaker 2:What was he like in person? He was exactly like how you honestly see in the documentary and again, plug for the documentary this he is guarded and kind. You can tell he's someone who's grappling with things. I mean, this is like 2011. He's always thinking. He's up here and he's thinking about things, and so I think he's someone who thinks deeply and I think he, based on what I observed, very much struggled with this balance of celebrity that came with the thing that he did really well, and not that he didn't enjoy part of it, but he definitely struggled with a lot that came with it as a result, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 1:I mean he comes across as a very smart guy. I mean he went to Cal and obviously is kind of known for being a little different than like your standard athlete, right, Just from a cerebral standpoint and some of the some of the things he's talked about, which is whatever, but that's kind of especially. I feel like these last several years has kind of been like his thing. I think that he should sign with the Vikings and then completely follow the Brett Favre path, because they've literally had the exact same career almost identical, including going to the Jets for two years, which is hilarious, Like of all the teams that you'd end up in New York, and then they both were terrible. And then Favre had that one great year with the Vikings where they almost went to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:So I think that he should call up Minnesota and be like listen, you're not going to pay Sam Darnold McCarthy's four years away from being any good. Your team's ready to win. Now I've got one more year, let's just go all in. It worked with Favre. It's 16 years later. Let's just do it. One-year contract, Like, let's just make it work. That's what I'm rooting for.
Speaker 2:But did it work with Favre? Let's be honest, it didn't work with Favre.
Speaker 1:They almost went to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but almost does not. They went to the trophy.
Speaker 1:They went to overtime in New Orleans.
Speaker 2:I know and you want want to know how I know this. It was on my birthday. He threw that interception and I have replayed that radio call from k fan radio in minneapolis, minnesota. Gosh, if there's any vikings fans listening, they're gonna absolutely hate me. They're gonna be like never working with this woman. Yeah no, I remember that call. It happened on my birthday and I was like that was the most brett farvey's thing that could possibly happen. So, yeah, that would be, that would come. That would make a full circle moment, if, if rogers um anyway.
Speaker 1:So now were you always a sports fan. Did you grow up a sports fan?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, no, I grew up uh, my dad is a massive baseball, baseball fan, baseball historian, baseball aficionado. Um, I grew up I was the only girl on my little league team. Um, I loved it. When they're like you're not gonna let a girl strike you out, I was like hell, yeah, I'm gonna strike you out. Um, always very competitive. Grew up going to county stadium. We had a season ticket package.
Speaker 2:So, like my youth, like so many times, I snow pants at the at the ball game, because it was, you know, the old stadium didn't have a a roof.
Speaker 2:And so, uh, my and one of my first early memories of like sitting down and like watching sports I mean the super bowl would fall on my birthday back in the day when there was like that break. So we'd have huge super bowl parties and I always thought like, look how many people that came over for for me when I was really young, for me, because we would sing. They would sing um happy birthday. I think it was halftime, um, and then, but the first real memory I have of like sitting down and watching sports with my dad was the 86 world series when the Mets won, and that's when I was like in my heyday of like little league and so, like every player on that team, I was, like you know, mookie Wilson and Daryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden and Lenny Dykstra and all those guys like that was the ultimate, that, like I had followed this team and they won the world series and I was hooked for life.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I love that Mets team. They were one of my favorites.
Speaker 2:They weren't each other's favorite, but I used to try to.
Speaker 1:I was playing Little League at the time and I would try to I'd pattern my windup after Dwight Gooden. I was left-handed so I couldn't quite do it the right way, but yeah, I loved that team. Um, yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 1:I grew up, so I grew up just south of cincinnati, and so we grew up going to reds games and games. Um, I was actually in riverfront stadium the night pete rose, uh, broke ty cobb's record. My mom somehow took me. I don't know how she got tickets. We were on the very top row. We could. There were no seats above us. Um, everyone looked like little mini pigs down on the field and um, yeah, and he broke the record.
Speaker 2:So what did it mean to you to be in the stadium for that?
Speaker 1:I don't think I was old enough. I was nine, uh, I just turned nine, so I don't think I. I mean I knew it was a big deal because it did. You know, they've been talking about it for so long and they were trying to figure out, you know, when he was going to do it, but I don't think I was old enough to really truly appreciate, like, just what it means to get almost 4,200 hits and how long you have to play and how good you have to be to do it. It was just like I don't know. But yeah, that's one of my kind of core memories, um, that she took me to that.
Speaker 1:So they were always just my whole family were huge sports fans. They're big Kentucky Wildcats, like basketball fans and like the Reds. Andengals were, like, always a big deal and so, no, the cults were a non-factor. No one, no one, even I don't. No one rooted for the colts. It was always the bengals, even though they were terrible. Well, they were good in the early 80s, so they were good for a brief stretch there, but then they're not, are you basketball?
Speaker 1:no, all kentucky basketball, because lexington was about an hour from us, okay, um, and so I never had an accent, so I was, I mean, I was 15 minutes from cincinnati, so like really literally right across the bridge oh, sure, okay so in fact, when I used to travel, I would say like northern kentucky, and no one would do what I would talk about when I say kentucky.
Speaker 1:They were like, where's your accent? I was like I don't have one, I'm too far north. And then they would start arguing with me and I was like, how about cincinnati? And they're like, oh yeah, okay. So then I just started saying cincinnati. Then nobody. I didn't get any more grief. Everybody has an accent, right, like we don't all talk the same. Come on, um anyway. So yeah, so we just up. What's funny is, as a kid, I just like to be difficult. So I just started rooting against all the teams my family loved. So I rooted against Kentucky basketball and the Bengals and the Reds as a kid, just simply because it made my family mad. So I was that kid, so I would root for the other teams. I get so mad. I finally came back around on the Bengals and Reds. I never came back around on Kentucky, man, I finally came back around on the Bengals and Reds. I never came back around on Kentucky. I don't root for Kentucky basketball, but anyway, yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you have a college team you cheer for?
Speaker 1:Nah, mostly against. I'm an anti. I like to root against certain college teams Duke basketball, ohio State football, kentucky basketball I just find it fun to root against them. It doesn't. When I was younger I cared more. Like as you get older, and especially once you have kids, you're like okay, it's not, it doesn't really matter, just entertainment. Um like, at the end of the day, like ohio state wins the national championship, it literally doesn't affect my life at all. So I didn't want to happen, but like they did, so okay, who cares?
Speaker 2:you know it's funny, you mentioned that that's. That was the, I think, the the most interesting part of working in professional sports. My husband is a die hard notre dame football, iu basketball guy because he is from muncie, indiana, okay, um, so ball state, right, also a cincinnati reds guy, and he would. You would think that there was a lot on the line every I basketball game and I was like I didn't understand it. Plus, having come from professional sports, where literally the team, whether they do well or not well, directly impacts my bottom line, directly impacts my ability to earn more money, I was like that you want to talk about getting upset about games, like I could have gone there and I still didn't because I'm like I can't control it. Right, I can't control it, so putting my energy there doesn't make sense no, I was the same way.
Speaker 1:I was like your husband for a while, like I would get really, like it would matter to me. And then at some point I think it was really once I had kids where you're like, okay, it doesn't, it's just a game, it's yes, you want your team to win, you want them to play well. Like Notre Dame, you wanted them to play well. They had a great season. They fell a little short, but it's like well, it gets into the results. We live in a results-oriented society, right, grades and sales and winning and losing in sports, and we forget sometimes that, like you said, sometimes the other team's just better, like it doesn't really matter. Like ohio state was just better than another day. Like if they play that game 10 times, ohio state's probably gonna win eight, like they just were better and that's.
Speaker 1:There's nothing like wrong with that you just tip your cap, so um and that and that. So it's like there's no fault, it's just. That's just the thing. Next year it could be different, um, and that's why I tell my kids when they're playing, because they're always like winning and losing and I'm like, yeah, I mean obviously there's a scoreboard and like it feels better to win. But especially as a kid like you're, you're learning lessons. You're learning how to be social, you're learning teamwork, you're learning how to accept coaching. Some coaches are you like. Some coaches don't no different than a manager at a job, right, like there's personalities and there's fitting together. There's all these lessons. So I try to get them to focus on like enjoying the process and the journey. And yes, of course you want to try to win, you want to give your best effort, but at the end of the day, you could play great and lose. It's like all right, I'd rather see you do that than play terrible and win.
Speaker 2:Because if you play terrible Like, that's not a good, it's just not a good recipe for like advancing in life. Greatest all time teaching question you can ask is you know, what did you learn about yourself? So it doesn't matter, win, lose, like, what did you walk away with? What did you learn? You can lean into that, those lessons, like you said, focusing on the things that they can control, which is themselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yeah, your attitude. That's what I tell. Like your attitude, your effort, how you treat people, that's all. That's always all within your control. What? Your coach does what the other team does, what the the referees like drives me crazy, especially these days like the parents complaining about the officials. It's like you know that referee did not get up today and be like you know what'm going to fleece this fifth grade rec basketball team. This team's going down today.
Speaker 2:I'm going to ruin these kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this 10-year-old team. I don't like the color of their jersey, so I'm going to call everything. They're getting paid $25 an hour. They don't care, so move on. It's supposed to be fun and they're every call. Call. I traveled, of course he traveled. He's 10. They all travel. If they called every travel, there'd be no game, it'd just be 75 traveling violations and the score would be two to nothing. You know what you complain about? That too. You'd be like oh, you called too much, can't win, so just leave.
Speaker 2:So yeah, sports so I'll tell you my Dave Matthews story. Wait, you have a Dave Matthews story. I do I.
Speaker 1:I my first. So my first ever concert was Huey Lewis and the News in 1986. And then I don't think I went to one for like 12 years. And so I saw Pearl Jam in the summer of 98, just outside of Cleveland, and I liked. I just naturally gravitated towards more like rock, like music. I love Metallica, the Black Album in high school and Van Halen and ACDC and like all the classic rock stuff. That's just what I liked. And then Pearl Jam, like Grunge and all that. So I went to Pearl Jam but that was really like the first true concert I'd seen. They played for two hours. It's pretty fast paced, it's not super heavy, but whatever. So the next summer, which had been summer of 99, I went. I guess it was a date, I don't know. It was in columbus, ohio. Uh, just david issue. Now I didn't know much about dave matthews. I mean, I knew some of the radio songs but, like I, I wasn't familiar with him or his concerts or anything.
Speaker 1:Right so I went expecting it to be just like pearl jam. So we get there and we're in the lawn, and then they played, and then they took, like I felt like a 20 minute break in between songs.
Speaker 1:It looked like they were on stage like trying to figure out the next song. It was like they had no plan. They were like, okay, that song was 15 minutes, what do you want to play next? And so there was like these really long pauses and I was like what are they doing? And so then they'd play another song and then that whole thing repeated. So so I felt like in two hours they played like eight songs and half the time they were just like up there talking, whereas like Pearl Jam was like one song, like just play a song, another song, like it was just this, like rapid fire music.
Speaker 1:And then you talk sometimes, and so I think that's the reason why I just never I couldn't get in. So I don't know if that's a jam band thing, I don't know if that was just the night that I saw them or what, but I think that was like the beginning of like all right, I'm just not. This doesn't work for me. So I think that was what happened.
Speaker 2:That's wild and you know, I, I I can say this from my experience. That sounds like it was a that night thing. I don't know what was going on that night. Um, they do they. They love to take people on a journey, and that's the one thing that the diehard Dave Matthews band fans will tell you is that there are no two concerts that are identical. The breaks between songs.
Speaker 1:I've never experienced that and I've experienced 109 shows maybe I'm making it up, maybe they didn't do it, but I was like telling myself that I was doing it.
Speaker 1:I don't know maybe it felt that way because the songs okay my wife's a big jam band band so she loves fish in the dead. Not that Dave Matthews is like them, but it's similar. Where the songs can just you know they can play that longer and whatnot. I've slowly come around on both those bands, not like I haven't come all the way around, like I like some of it, but I just like heavier, I just like heavier music and they just none of those bands play what I consider to be like heavy music. It's just friendlier, it's lighter, so it's just not my thing. But a hundred and nine pairs is a lot.
Speaker 2:So the thing is the real, like jam band fans, they will not own Dave Matthews band as part of that category. So, like, if you're a fish fan or, like you said, dead, like you don't put dave matthews man in the jam band category. Um, it's, I think it's really difficult to like to put like them in a category and when I look, I don't care, I actually I've been to a fish show, not my jam. I've been to a dead show, not my jam. Um, I love the foo fighters, I love the foo Fighters, I love the Foo Fighters. I love, like 90s hip hop. I mean, I love a lot of genres. I can't touch country. No offense to anyone who loves it. I just I can't, I can't. I've tried, I can't.
Speaker 2:But the thing about the Dave Matthews band is that over the course of the 30 plus years is that he writes lyrics like nobody writes lyrics. And if there's one thing I've learned about myself and that clearly you'll probably tell from my content, is that words to me, like I pay attention to the words in such a way and they strike me and they create the energy right, they create this energy and the way that Dave Matthews puts words together and the lyrics that he creates are so powerful. They literally are the soundtrack of my life. From the first concert I went to see him in summer of was it 1996, was my first show through, saw him last summer and just I'm coming your way this summer.
Speaker 2:That's what you said, I'm coming, I'm coming, maybe I should go, that's what you said.
Speaker 1:I'm coming, I'm coming. Maybe I should go again and see. All these years later It'll be a completely different experience. So the problem, though, is I don't know enough of his music. And I feel like, if you don't know a band's music, then it just doesn't work.
Speaker 2:We'll get you there. I'll get you set with a little mix.
Speaker 1:We'll get you schooled'll get you. I'll look, I'll get you set with a little mix. We'll get you. We'll get you schooled up, ready to go. I think I jokingly said to you in the dms that I only like his songs to talk about. Uh two either has to have to say or what in the title.
Speaker 2:I think I like those songs okay, well, I can hit quite a few. I can hit quite a few with that can you?
Speaker 1:so you've been to 109. Can you, without looking them up, can you name all of them off the top of your head with enough time?
Speaker 2:No, absolutely not. I can tell you all the different states and places. I've seen them. I can tell you some iconic shows, but I couldn't name all of them.
Speaker 1:I've only seen 15 Pearl Jam, so you're making me realize I'm a small timer.
Speaker 2:No, that's a solid number. I'm a freak, I'm not. This is not normal and I understand this and what's?
Speaker 1:interesting is I took my oldest to see Pearl Jam this past summer here locally and I think their last good album was yield, which is 98. So all of their albums since are just not very good and there's like to me there's like two or three good songs and the rest of it's like don't ever play it again. But Eddie is so tied to the new music that this last show they played seven new songs, so I played 24 and so I'm like that's a bad ratio. And what's interesting is I'd seen creed two months before and I was never really a creed fan because I felt like they were pearl jam knockoffs. But I've come around on them because I was like, well, why should I knock them? Because they just copied a sound that worked. So really they were working smarter, not harder, and they played 15 songs and all 15 were the hits.
Speaker 1:It was a significantly better show. It was way more entertaining because everyone knew every song, everyone knew all the words, so it was much more communal, whereas Eddie's up there banging out you know the ninth track on the new album that literally 1% of the crowd is even listened to, and it's dead. The whole place is dead. Then they play Evenflow and it's like, oh, it's great. Right back to another new song, nobody knows.
Speaker 1:And so we just like did this roller coaster and I was like I get it, Like as an artist, like you don't want to just keep playing the same stuff and I'm not saying like never play something new but the ratio needs to be like much better.
Speaker 2:And so I was like I don't know if I'm gonna pay to see these guys I might I might be retired it's a choice and that's why I said I'll get you schooled up, because I would say a vast majority of the fans at the dave shows and maybe I'm a little wrong on the majority, because I'm one of them is we want to hear the deep tracks, we don't want to hear the radio heads, we don't want to hear this, we don't want to hear satellite for the 407 millionth time and they do a good job of incorporating. But if you get schooled up and especially if you come to like two nights like they do they do like usually two nights in a location because they sell through it's a completely unique experience every night and usually one night tends to be more like radio friendly and one night is a little bit more for the diehards.
Speaker 1:I mean it's weird, right. Music is people want to hear the hits Comedians. You never want to hear an old joke, so you always want new stuff from your comedians and you want the old stuff from your bands. It's really interesting.
Speaker 2:Huh, I never thought of it that way and you want the old stuff from your bands. It's really interesting Huh.
Speaker 1:I never thought of it that way. I got into Foo Fighters during COVID. I was not a huge Foo Fighters fan and I think the reason is I hated the song Big Me. So when they released Big Me in 95, I was like this song sucks, so the Foo Fighters suck, so I put them on hiatus for 25 years.
Speaker 2:You put them in timeout. Man, that's a penalty box trip and a half. Yeah, I uh two and a half decades. I was a huge nirvana fan, so right, so like in the 90s, you were either pearl jam or nirvana. I was nirvana, and so obviously, dave girl coming out of nirvana like foo fighters is a natural fit for me, and I've been a huge fan um ever since, and I recently went and saw the music of nirvana played by a string quartet.
Speaker 2:I recently went and saw the music of Nirvana played by a string quartet candlelight in like this old historic church on Marquette's campus. It was beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, super cool. No, that's really cool. I mean what I didn't realize about Foo Fighters, because obviously I stopped after. I don't know what that album is called.
Speaker 2:Big B, that was it, you were done, that was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was, but then they've got some pretty heavy stuff so I was like oh, like, I, like dave really.
Speaker 1:He switched gears on me and he just didn't tell me, um, but they got some pretty, pretty heavy stuff. So I've tried to see him a couple times. My oldest son likes them too. Basically, they listen to rock in my car and they hit listen to new music in my wife's car, so they get a good mix, um, but it's, we've never been able to line up like our schedules just hasn't quite worked out. And now that he's, I don't know if they've broken up, but I think they've got a lot of stuff going on, with the drummer dying and he's had a new kid with not his wife, and so they've got, they got stuff going on um so recently I just learned that you're a tattoo aficionado and you have seven and counting, which means there's gonna be at least eight, yeah, yeah, there's going to be more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when did you get your first one? And what's that process like?
Speaker 2:Well, first one I got was, I don't know, barely 18. So maybe it was a significant 18. But all my tattoos mean something. So my first tattoo was for my really close friend, alexandra, who died of a brain tumor right after we graduated high school. So I have a black son with the lowercase letter A on my lower back for her. And that was how it all started, started with the one and got some words, but they're mostly like on my back and arms, and now I got stuff for my daughter, but a lot of it is. They all have deep meaning to me.
Speaker 2:So if I'm going to have anything inked on my body, it's gonna. It's gonna have to mean something. So that's why I'm like seven and counting I don't know what eight is going to be because I haven't found that thing that I feel so compelled I need to permanently attach it to my body. But I love that it's become more, I would say, mainstream, like acceptable, like the fact that people have like my husband has a full sleeve and all kinds like he's a business owner, so he never had to worry about corporate America and what that would look like.
Speaker 1:It's actually, I think, almost swung the other way, where I feel like 20 or 30 years ago you somewhat stood out if you had them, excuse me. Now I feel like it's the opposite, like if you don't have any. I feel like that's now more odd because they have become so popular.
Speaker 2:Here's a hot take Smoking and tattoos. Switched Back in the day. Growing up, you were cool if you smoked. Everybody smoked. Now it's like nobody. I can count on one hand how many people I know smoke cigarettes. Yeah, and it doesn't even fill the hand yeah, yeah, but everybody has ink but everyone has ink except me and, honestly, the the. If you don't have a tattoo, what do they say? By the time you're I think, I think it's 40 the likelihood of you ever getting a tattoo is like minuscule You'll likely never.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the odds of me doing it then are basically zero, I guess. Yeah, I don't know I've looked at it a couple of times but I've never been able to, really just haven't fully committed.
Speaker 2:It's a it's a full on commitment.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this about the back tattoo. So you what, if you want to see it?
Speaker 2:do you get like a mirror? Um, it's not really so much for me to see is that I know it's there okay, so you, it's like, it's like it's presence yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Plus I mean when I first, I'll be honest, when I first started getting them like I was young, running around I was like tank tops and bathing suits, everyone was seeing them Right. Plus, I also was very conscientious. This is like the you know, late nineties, early two thousands I wasn't like, well, I don't know, like you get a tattoo here, it'll ruin your career forever.
Speaker 1:Can't go to a job interview and have that, you know, sneaking out of the sleeve.
Speaker 2:I mean I literally so my nose ring. I took out my nose ring in college and like it was like. I remember having bosses tell me like, oh yeah, no, it's good that you don't have that. You know, now I actually had a woman tell me when I hopped on a discovery call with her because she was a referral, she felt so comfortable because she's like oh, I also, I see, I didn't know what a career coach would be if it'd be really like this stuffy situation. She's like I have a nose ring too.
Speaker 1:I feel I feel better yeah I mean yeah well yeah, it's definitely changed now with just personal expression and you know it's just. Yeah, it's, it's just, it's all switched. So I don't think it's, I don't think people, even honestly.
Speaker 2:As grunge kids. We grew up right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we did Um so.
Speaker 2:I still rock my Doc Martin. So there's that.
Speaker 1:I haven't worn Docs in a while. I have a great story but I can't tell. I cannot tell on the podcast. But uh, next time you're in Muncie and we get together, remind me to tell you. And the only reason I remember is because I was wearing Doc Martens on the night it happened. But it's a good story, I'll tell you Doc Martens story noted well, this hour went by super quickly, which I knew it would sorry, am I allowed to say that?
Speaker 1:you can say whatever you want. I think my mom listened to the first two episodes and then she's out, so we mom, I don't want to offend mom, no not that she doesn't know that I might say fuck um or a lot, depending on the situation, but anyway, so, yeah, so this is great. I mean I, I love, like I said, I love your story story, I love your energy. Thanks so much for coming on um I'll let you finish it up.
Speaker 1:You can any final thoughts or what you want to leave the audience with. We could talk for a lot longer, but we'll we'll stop here. Um, and then how people reach you, I'll put it in the show notes uh, your linkedin profile, if you have a website, which I should probably know if you do or not, but I don't, but if you do'll put that in there. But just how people can reach you and, yeah, just kind of anything you want to leave them with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say this I've shared on LinkedIn. If you follow me on LinkedIn and thanks for like posting the show notes, that's the best way to find me. I put out content five days a week there. I don't. Currently I'm revamping what a website would look like based on what I'm doing and what I'm building out, and right now I've doubled down and I'm focused solely on one-on-one coaching, why it delivers the best results and it's the thing I love the most.
Speaker 2:So I am someone I have run online communities, I've had online courses, I've done group coaching. I've done all the things and I am doubling, tripling, quadrupling down on the thing that I know moves the needle the most. As a result, I book up pretty quick, I am booked out. I'm only I'm starting to take folks for starting in March. I only accept so many new clients every month and so finding me there, or Kristen, at InicioCoachcom is my email K-R-I-S-T-I-N at I-N-I-C-I-Ocom or coachcom and Inicio Coachicio, coaching I don't really talk about like my company name because it's it's me. I am the brand, but inicio means to begin or to start, iniciar, and in latin it also means to inspire, and so for a lot of women, if you're listening out there and things feel overwhelming and you feel stuck and you're not sure what's next. Like taking that first step, taking that first step of action, if it is to reach out to me and book a hands-free discover or, you know, no strings attached discovery call, that's where it can start.
Speaker 1:Nice. Just quickly follow up on that. What is the one-to-one Do you have? Do you tailor the package Do you have like? Is it like a set three months or like what do you? How do you set up the engagement for like how long you?
Speaker 2:initially work with them. Initially, I would work with someone for, I say, roughly three months. And does that mean weekly? Does it mean bi-weekly? It's a certain number of sessions. You get a built-in one for free, based on how the weeks play out.
Speaker 2:Because at one point, I'll be honest, I was meeting women where they were at and saying, like, well, what have you set aside for this investment? Most people like a little budget set aside for for coaching that they didn't know that they needed, right, and so trying to meet someone um, in terms of their expectations of we're talking about rewiring thought patterns and changing behaviors and things that you've done a certain way for decades of your life to think that that's going to change in three or four sessions I'm not going to lie, I would never promise something like that. So, yeah, three months is very, very typical. I have a woman who was working with me last year, worked with me for three months, and now she booked out an entire calendar year because she wants to work biweekly and that's what worked for her, based on her goals and what we determined would be a best fit for her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on. Truly appreciate you looking forward to. We're recording this on February 3rd and this will be released on March 19th. So, Kristen, thanks so much for coming on, and we'll hopefully do it again down the road.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.