Podcast

How to Become Your Own Social Media BFF with Kayla Kleinman

Listen now:

Kayla Kleinman’s whole career happened thanks to social media. She loves it so much she even got her masters in it. Our guest today is Kayla Kleinman, Social Media Coach, Blogger and Yoga instructor who shares with us why social media for business is still so important. 

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • Kayla talks about being an early adopter to twitter and instagram and how it’s been a part of her business and career  journey. 
  • Talking about the newness and intimidation of features on social media and adapting to them. 
  • How Social media changed her life from Twitter to getting a degree in social media to starting her blog and how she never had to look for a job thanks to social media. 
  • How to interact with people on social media authentically and leverage the platforms to network and grow and build relationships along with your audience. 
  • Talking about leveraging content and repurposing content that you have vs. recreating new content. 

To learn more about Kayla Kleinman, visit her website Kayla In The City and Your Social Media BFF.

Emily Merrell  

Welcome to the sixth degree podcast the podcast where we grill our guests about the things that make them tick and find out how human connection plays a role in their life. I’m your host, Emily Merrell Hello and welcome back to the sixth degree with Emily Merrell. The podcast where we grow our guests about the things that make them tick and find out how human connection plays a role in their life. I’m your host Emily and today I’m so excited to have my friend Kayla Kleinman, social media coach and blogger for Kayla in the city as our guest Kayla Welcome to the show.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Oh my gosh Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here to be chatting with you.

 

Emily Merrell  

Well I loved before we started you’re like oh yeah, I listen to your show all the time

 

Kayla Kleinman 

I was gonna say like my funny line would have been like a first time caller longtime listener Yeah, like the actual real answer two steps ago so I am I’m very excited to be here in the hot seat myself now.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love it you know I have to be completely honest with you I think I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a podcast where I’ve  been recorded on before

 

Kayla Kleinman  

really? Oh wow. Isn’t that weird? I’m weird and I usually like two years I actually do listen to but usually even I’m going to be on one I like to listen to it before just so I kind of I don’t know get a preview of what it’s going to be like and just like how buttoned up I need to be or not and I like to get a vibe for Oh, and it’d be like

 

Emily Merrell  

I think that’s good. I’m just saying even like podcasts I’ve been guests on. I think I’ve listened to one of them where I’ve listened to my voice and I’m like, is that what I sound like? But it’s funny some people you know have listened to their podcast tonight like Wow, I can’t believe I said that or I sound like that and like you listen to it. Wow. Great. Is that bad?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

That’s bad. I get it. I hate the sound of my voice but I do find it helpful to listen back. I don’t know and then I get to realize maybe like said something that was better than I thought it came out or also realizing where I tripped up over my words. So I’m weird. I do listen back sometimes to like see what I said. And if I sounded coherent, and like formed complete sentences while I was on those podcasts so far,

 

Emily Merrell  

the sentences are very complete. Good good. I cannot say the same for for my Instagram meals. I just posted my first Instagram real today, Kayla, and I thought of you and I pushed it. I realized like part of the words were cut off, we kind of hit it in the real section of Instagram. But you are the queen of Instagram reels. I look at your Instagram reels. And I love I love everything from the filters that you use to the typeface to the music, and you make it seem like it’s the most effortless, easy thing. So you know, before we dive in, I want to hear like has social media always been something that was so neat and easy for you to understand.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

I feel like I’ve been on social media for a long time and using social media as part of my business for a long time. So in many ways, I feel like I’ve been able to roll the punches on Instagram. Like when Instagram introduced stories, I wanted to be an early adopter, like I wanted to dive in headfirst and be one of those people that even if I didn’t know how to use Instagram Stories way back when I was determined to be like I’m going to use this new feature that Instagram is pushing out and I think just getting over that awkward hurdle early really helped me out that now to me Instagram Stories is just so second nature. And I think real is is the same thing as well, when we’re recording this, it was just the one year anniversary of real is maybe a week or so ago. So it’s still pretty new way to share content and I feel like it’s starting to evolve and continuing to evolve in the past year and I’m sure it’s gonna like see different iterations of what it looks like. But to me I feel like even if I don’t necessarily know how to use the thing right away, I kind of forced myself to, to stumble through and figure it out because I do want to be an early adopter when it comes to Instagram features and even if there are features that maybe I do or don’t like or ones that I am or am not more excited about I always try to learn it and figure it out even if it like takes some time and some like awkward real is being pushed out first before I feel confident with it. Oh that’s amazing.

 

Emily Merrell  

And it is you bring up a good point like we were so anxious about stories and then that felt so stressful I feel like and so novel and now stories is so second nature igtv feels so second nature, but reels at one point, I’m sure will be like of course everyone’s doing reels. It’s not not a big deal

 

Unknown Speaker  

at all. Exactly. It’s almost having your brain think about it and starting to tap into what works on reels, what doesn’t work on reels and just like starting to think about it in that way, which, when you’ve never done that before, of course, it’s going to be weird and confusing, and you’re not going to know what to post or whatnot, I suppose. So it’s kind of giving yourself that permission to probably feel really awkward with it at first.

 

Emily Merrell  

Exactly. And the funnier the better. I feel like everyone in a way has become an entertainer of some sort and been able to, to share their own perspective for their own take on on something and it’s interesting because kicktraq came first but even before tik tok it was musically, right. Do you remember

 

Kayla Kleinman  

maybe I don’t even know. I actually don’t know I’m not going on my like obscure social media.

 

Emily Merrell  

It was musically and I had a girlfriend who would always make music for us. And then tik tok became very mainstream. And yeah, and I don’t

 

Kayla Kleinman  

mind where the big thing was out what it was, I was, I feel like I’m a little too old for the vine hype. But I feel like people like just a smidge younger than me were like very into vine.

 

Emily Merrell  

So big into my I never got into vines, but vines in a way we’re kind of like reels which are kind of boomerangs which I don’t know everything is kind of evolved in from from one another. But it is funny. I once went to a conference and I saw all these, like pop star, not pop stars, but like CW stars, and I texted my niece who was 717 at the time and I was like, Oh my gosh, this Nina dobrev is here and this person and this person. She’s like, I have no idea who those are. But I see on the panel is that girl, she’s a vine star. Who How do you know these people? I’ve never heard of them. So anywho It is interesting how even growing up in social media like we can feel behind schedule on social media from people. But speaking of, of social media, your life has truly revolved around social media. And in one way, in that you were able to land your job to secure in partnerships with bloggers, you know, so in your words, how has social media played a role in your life?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Yeah, great question. Social media, I always joke has like, definitely changed my life. And I am always so so grateful. And really don’t know where I’d be right now if it wasn’t for it. For me, I got my start in social media professionally, all thanks to my own blog and Twitter. I started my blog, Kayla in the city almost 10 years ago. Now, while I was a senior in college, studying theater at NYU, I was just getting into fitness and working out and no one even knew was talking about that. So I was like, cool, I’m going to start a blog and talk about it myself. And I stuck with it. And from there, social media started to become a part of the blog promotion. So I was really active on Twitter, in those like, early 2010s, an early adopter on Instagram and using that to build my blog and connecting with other people that were bloggers as well. So one day, I got an email from what was then class tivity. And now is classpass saying, Hey, we noticed your blog in your Twitter, we have an opening for a part time position, would you have any interest and coming in and interviewing. So I essentially got my first job that was my first like real nine to five job, thanks to Twitter and my blog and classpass just like somehow found me. So I was there. I was one of our really early team members one of seven in like a small, little co working space. It was very small, very intimate, very scrappy, through a number of things. I ended up becoming the social media manager there for a short bit and was just kind of thrown headfirst into figuring out marketing. I had no background in it. I was a theater major undergrad. And everything I figured out at that point was just kind of bootstrapping with my own blog and my own brand on Instagram and this was still before like the heyday I would say of influencers. So no job led to me being the marketing lead at a small fitness fashion company nice pipes, which ended up being featured on Shark Tank. So that was a really interesting time to be in another small business. Around this time as well. I met who is now my best friend Leslie, who you know, as well, I believe you call her sound bad Leslie. And she reached out to me because of a photo I posted that happened to be the rooftop of my parents building, which is where she grew up. And long story short, she was like let’s go get coffee and we did and hit it off. And then that ended up launching company that we ran together doing yoga and fitness events. And I sometimes forget that I met her on social media because she’s like truly one of my closest friends and in my head. I feel like she’s like a childhood friend or someone I met through work and I’m like, Oh no, like we met through social media. I forget about that. And then just kind of following my own journey around this time I decided to go to grad school to get my masters in social media mobile marketing, which yes is a real master’s degree. I’d like I always have to preface that. No, it was not posting on Dress It sounds so much sexier and fun than it actually is. It was really business school, but with social media focus, so a lot of doing projections and math, which was very interesting for this former theater major. Anyway, I got my grad school internship based on one of the first bloggers I followed, who is now one of my really good friends, and my former boss, who I’ve kept in touch with and like, has always been a big cheerleader for me. So I truly mean it. When I say almost every job opportunity I’ve had so many of my friends and really the career that I built for myself has all been thanks to social media and just putting myself out there for the world to see.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love that story. And I think it makes sense that your whole brand, your whole brand, and identity in a way ties back to social media in one way, shape, or form. And I love the examples that you used, especially with sound bathla Leslie as we, as we kindly refer to her, because she does these awesome sound baths. But the fact that these relationships with people that you met on social media felt like childhood relationships. And you know, diving into that a little bit further, I do think that social media has made people who’ve felt very big and very unapproachable, that much more approachable. So do you have any advice for people who want to know, I’m going to use this quote unquote, networking network with people on social media? And how do I make that first step?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Yeah, I think it’s all about being really authentic. That obviously, I think there’s like the joke going around on social media right now. Like you’re not sliding into their dance being like, Hey, girl, Mmmmm, or like, No, just interact with their content in a really authentic way, whether that’s commenting on their post and responding to any questions or asking, if you see them post something on stories that resonates with you, or that you have a response to interact, that, for me, it’s kind of ridiculous how many people that I’ve never ever met, but I feel so close with because I am constantly interacting with them on social media, in a really authentic, genuine way that I do feel connection with them, even if I’ve never met them before. Even if potentially, we’re on different coasts, or whatever it is, even you and me that we keep forgetting, we’ve never actually. But I feel like we have and there’s so many other people that I would put in that same category that we just have really genuine, authentic conversations on social media, oftentimes, if we’re in the same industry, or have similar interests, this or that, that you just kind of enjoy that back and forth patter. And then when there is the opportunity, I know for me I traveled to LA LA is my like, home away from home. I’ve like met up with these people that are in LA that maybe I wouldn’t get to see otherwise or New York people as well. So I think kind of in the same thing that I’ve learned about networking in the last year from attending your events is really focused on that genuine connection. And it might not instantly lead to them becoming your client or your student in a yoga class, or whatever it is, but you start to build that relationship. And then that relationship can continue to bloom and grow and then maybe when they aren’t in the market for whatever it is that you do, they’ll be like, Oh, I like no, this really great graphic designer. I’d like social media, I should reach out to her because I have graphic design needs now. So just like focusing on being genuine.

 

Emily Merrell  

I think that’s such a great piece of advice and I feel like you know, we could probably read some of the amazing DMS that we get slipped in our DMS I feel like I don’t know if you’re like me kill and I’m sure you get even worse ones but it’s like let’s see what were the ones recently there they all hang out and like the request folder essentially, like firing entrepreneurs love the vibe of your account, you know, blah blah blah, and pasted clearly up zero followers zero posts definitely like a bot and type in person or Hey, hey, you’re doing a lot of those ones. Alright, I’ve gotten some recently where it’s like I love your vibe and like what you’re doing what kind of coach Are you are, you know, and you’re like, what do you what do you want? What do you want from him? Straight up spit out what you want from me? Don’t even Yeah, 13 is very bad.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

I mean, my favorite and my favorite I mean the one that I always want to like sass them back is cute or like oh my God, you’re so cute on like a photo that I just like bared my soul about my breakup or something. And I’m like, I’m like one either that’s an auto comment or thing that they have some mechanism on the back end auto commenting or they’re just like, blindly commenting on people’s posts and I’m always to me, that is like one of my like, biggest pet on social media, don’t be that person. Instead engage authentically, yes, there’s a time and a place to call someone cute. Like, I’m not saying, never do that. Obviously, if they’re just like posting an outfit, and it is cute, you can call them cute. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if it’s a media post that they’re like baring their soul or asking for recommendations or asking if you relate, respond and chat with them. And like, think of it as a two way street of building a relationship. And kind of like I said, You’ll be surprised of the people that you connect with, and you meet. And I genuinely do feel this way. There’s so many people I’ve never met before, but yet I feel so connected to them, thanks to social media. And I sure as hell I’m going to be there like number one cheerleader in any way I can be.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love that. I think it’s a great, great, great lesson. Yeah. And I loved what you said also about the stories, I think engaging in the stories. No, you know that the person on the other hand, on the other side is like a real person, or hopefully a real person versus the DNS, where you know, what kind of country you are like your page, and I like your vibe. So stories are the way to go peeps. You know, it’s funny social media, as a coach myself, just seeing what my clients have blocks, and probably social media is the number one thing people have blocks on. They’re like, Oh, my God, I hate it. It feels like a chore. I hate promoting myself. I think that’s the number one problem that businesses like, I hate being self promotional, and social media feels very self promotional. And truthfully, everything that we’ve been taught as women in our lives is to be a good girl, and to be modest, and to be humble. And this platform is is asking you to do the exact opposite. It’s asking you to be braggadocious. It’s asking you to sell it’s asking you to create FOMO and create, like this allure of your life that may or may not be true. So what are some of the biggest blocks that you see people having for social media?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Yeah, I think that’s a big one, for sure. Overall, I think consistency can be a real struggle for people have, suddenly it’s 9pm. And they’re like, oh, like I didn’t post anything today, I need to remember to post and then they’re just staring at their phone for another hour. And next thing, you know, they wasted an hour and didn’t post anything. I think that’s self promotion is a really big one. And kind of figuring out how do I promote myself, when things like posting just like a flyer for the event you’re hosting probably isn’t going to get a lot of traction, just because of I don’t know how Instagram likes to push images or not pushing images. And that’s a really common thing that I hear. It’s like my trying to get people to come to this event. But when I post the flyer crickets and nothing. And I think just general resistance to wanting to show themselves on video is a big one that comes up as well of people being like, well, I don’t want to do real because X, Y and Z and having either hang ups about not wanting to be on video or being like, but I’m not funny, but like, not wanting to dance or whatever it is. And I’m here to say you don’t have to do any of those things on rails necessarily, if that’s not you and your vibe. But I think a lot of people have that block around, like showing themselves on social media and kind of being the star of their platform, essentially.

 

Emily Merrell  

Mm hmm. Yeah, I think I’ve seen so many more like behind the behind the scenes, pictures or videos, you know, more like taking pictures of the food that you’re eating, then you eat the food. So it is interesting to see when people do make that evolution or talking to the camera. I also think with social media recently one thing at least that has been less of a blog for me and cause less of a headache is the fact that you can put the auto captions on.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Mm hmm Yes, I will say my like small caveat with the auto camions is they’re really slow and depending on if you’re a fast talker, if you have a lot of thumbs or likes which no judgement we all do it. I talk like a frickin valley girl who am I to judge? I will say I’ve heard from a lot of people and myself included, that when they see the auto captions, they sometimes tap past because they move too slow for the person’s patience and attention span. And I will say it’s better than nothing and I’m all about inclusivity on the platform and including those captions, but I do recommend if you have the time and energy to quickly type it out and jot it up I think you’ll get a lot more traction and responses. Because I know for me personally I read a lot faster than I watch that I can absorb information a lot quicker by skim reading someone what they’re saying. Whereas watching the captions like slowly start to generate sometimes feel like slow trickles, I think on a igtv or something like that there is more benefit. But I will recommend on stories, if you can still type out the gist of what you’re saying, even if you have the auto captions, in my experience, people will see a lot more interactions interactions, as opposed to someone just like seeing that auto thing and being like, Man, I’m just gonna tab on through because it’s moving too slow for my

 

Emily Merrell  

that makes perfect sense. And I think Yeah, the gist of it rather than writing out exactly, yeah, you’re right, but what you’re saying, but the gist of encompassing your thoughts or whatnot. It is funny, it is funny to think of how quickly we do move past things. And how quickly we’re like, yes, no, yes, no, yes. No, yes, no. So what advice do you have for people who are brand spanking new to social media, or, you know, getting the courage to to post or start posting for the first time? Where should they start?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

I would say just start period, it’s probably really lame advice. But it’s honestly always my advice. When people are like, I want to start a blog, I want to create more of a presence on social media, you have to start somewhere. And I think so often, we spend so much time trying to craft the perfect social media persona and vibe and have all the perfect content, ready to go for three months at a time that we let that stop us from just doing the thing. So my first step would be just post and show up and show yourself and don’t be afraid to be unpolished to be goofy to be your authentic self. People want to fall in love with you. At the end of the day. For me, I know there’s a million social media coaches out there. But people are hopefully going to fall in love with me because they like my vibe because they like how I approach things because they get a general idea of who I am and how I probably would work with them as a client as well. And maybe I’m not for everyone, but they’re going to get that idea from all the other people that they follow as well. So I would say I think there’s a lot of pressure to be like perfect and polished, and all filtered and everything, but take that pressure off yourself and just start showing up and kind of get used to just putting yourself out there essentially.

 

Emily Merrell  

Oh, I think that’s fantastic advice it the rough and behind the scenes sometimes are more enjoyable to watch than like the perfect. Oh my gosh, you look like a Kardashian airbrushed perfection. So how do you help your clients with social media.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

So I work with them in a number of ways, my bread and butter is definitely one on one coaching. And really helping people refine who they are on social media, and how they can tool their bio to attract their dream clients, whatever it is that they do, and then helping them craft their perfect content pillars so they can feel more effortless and their way to create content. And then kind of building out from there, their strategy of how to best use all of the various things on social media, be it stories, be reels be static posts, lives or ID TVs, how to really use all the different things that Instagram offers us to tap into our audience and create exciting, engaging content that not just is fun and this and that, but also attracts the ideal clients and starts to build your community as well. Because kind of like I said earlier of it’s I mean, that, to me is like the core of social is it’s social. It’s like building community. And hopefully that community does become your clients as well.

 

Emily Merrell  

I think that’s a great point to bring up the word social, that social media is supposed to be social, it’s not just to be set and forget, for one set and forget type of thing and then walk away from it. And you do a really good job of making your social media go a really long way, you know, when I’m sure this is going to be something that you’re teaching and that you do teach your clients but you know, you do an incredible job of posting a blog post and then I kind of I know you and I read your content and seeing that blog post turned into multiple different things. Can you talk more about like that strategy and that hack of repurpose.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Totally, I’m a big believer in you don’t need to recreate the wheel, the wheel and if you have a good nugget of wisdom and content that there are so many different ways that you can re spin it and retell it. So for example, I wrote a blog post however, long ago about like three yoga myths you should stop believing so it started its life as a blog post. And then a little bit later I retooled it and maybe added some things or kind of made it more social media friendly and turn it into a static post, maybe changing the language of it so it just feels more social and a little bit shorter and kobir because compared to a blog post Then that can see a new life as well as a real and which maybe I have gentlemen as yoga behind me as I’m like, doing the whole point things are like doing yoga things, I’d like myths, you should stop believing. And really I’m like sharing the same thesis. And every single one of them, I’m probably not adding too much more information. But the truth is, people like to consume content in various different ways. There are some people that are never going to care about a real AI post. And that’s just the truth of it, they’re going to be really hyped to read the blog post version of that or read in a static pose. And maybe you shouldn’t like do them all three in the same week, necessarily, unless it’s like something super timely, like I do my monthly reading round up. So like, those are going to be the same content of like, what I read in July blog post, and what I read in July real are probably going to be the same. But people like to see and absorb information in very different ways. So I like to try to give it to them in different ways. I love going through all my old content and finding like little nuggets of wisdom for myself, which sounds like very self absorbed to be like, I like something so smart. But if you’ve been creating content for your business in any way, for a long time, you’ve probably said so much stuff that you forget. And so much like brilliant stuff that you forget that go back back back into the archives and like mine that stuff or good nuggets that you could really spend, maybe for me, I oftentimes go back to this idea, I’m a yoga teacher and fitness instructor as well as my body is not my business card. And one retelling of that, I might like tell a specific story of like something that happened to me in the studio that like, I still think about and happen almost a decade ago, the next might be telling people different things to do when they get in their head about their body as a fitness instructor kind of taking it in an educational route one way and an entertaining way the other way, in a promotional way. The other way, just kind of like rethinking the same thesis statements over and over again. So you’re not just constantly trying to be like, Oh my god, nothing fun to stay today. I’m like, suck drive was dumb. You’re genius.

 

Emily Merrell  

I you’re making my brain like twirl, basically and whirl and be like, okay, all those newsletters I’ve written I need to do something with them.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Yeah, you gotta just like blind your own content. It’s we forget how much content as creators we produce newsletters is a great place to just like, go back into the archives and like find something brilliant use that in 2016. And then like, repurpose it into a real and love it. No one’s gonna know. And if they do, no, they don’t care. Yeah, I

 

Emily Merrell  

don’t. I don’t think they’re gonna be like, wow, in 2016 that that really, I remember that email that you wrote are exactly, yeah, that sounds familiar. Maybe. Okay, my last question for you, Kyla is what is something you wish you could have told your younger self about social media,

 

Kayla Kleinman  

who I would tell my younger self to dive in and don’t be afraid to be your authentic self? I think for so so long as a blogger, content creator and now as a coach, I was trying to emulate other people that I liked and be like them and not necessarily copy their voice but like, oh, what they’re doing is working How can I make that work? And what ended up working the best for me is when I’m just like my shameless authentic self and I show up as that person which to me is like, I definitely curse from time to time I talk like a valley girl it is what it is. I am like, a little bit sassy at times. But I try to do it with like a lot of love but I’m also really excited and energized and peppy and like want to hype people up. So when I started bringing that version of me to social media, to my blog to coaching I feel like that’s allows people to fall in love with me and like that’s what they’re gonna get as well. So I might as well be yes as an elevated version of who I am in real life but also try to be a version of that on social media as well.

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, and I have to say you do an incredible job of being authentic and you know, coming across as approachable and also but I love this you’ve created these traditions that people look forward to on social media who do kill it does this like Thursday night sushi night,

 

Kayla Kleinman  

with Thursday. Thursday, I get sushi from the same place. They think I’m ridiculous. Like they’re so sick of me at this point, I think but I got a lot of people tagged me in their sushi Thursday posts. Or when I like go visit a friend. They’re like, Oh, I’ve been waiting all week to get sushi cuz I know you’re gonna be here on Thursday with me. And people get hyped, like celebrate sushi Thursday with me, and they’re like with me for dinner on a Thursday. Just as a dumb tradition, maybe like six years ago that I was ordering from my favorite place way too much, and they’re like way stupid expensive. So I made a rule for myself of like, you can only order from them once a week and let’s do it Thursday as like a signifier that the week is just about over and we’ve made it. So like, I look forward to it every week, and then I just started posting it and people got very into it, which I love. I’m really happy about it.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love it. Because again, back to the shared community. It’s something that people are able to form a conversation for and be like, I’m having sushi on Thursday to or Wow, you inspired me. I’m going to start this tradition. So I think that’s awesome. For me. It’s Taco Tuesday, but you know,

 

Kayla Kleinman  

maybe that’s what I want for dinner.

 

Emily Merrell  

I know that’s, that’s what we’re planning for tonight. Guys. It’s Tuesday here so well, how can people learn more about you and what you’re offering, Kayla?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Yes, you can come follow me at Kayla. Kayla climate that’s my handle my name KYLAKLEIN ma n. You can also follow my specific marketing stuff, which is your social media dot BFF. There’s that little dot before BFF as well. And then from there, you can find all the links to come chat with me to check out my blog that has a bajillion years of content that you can go back and read. And just lots of information about social media and sushi Thursdays as well.

 

Emily Merrell  

I love actually look at your blog quite a quite a lot. We didn’t even dive into your blog that much. But for inspiration for what to read. It’s an incredible era of places actually just finished reading the seven husbands of

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Evelyn. Yes, yes, yes. It’s a goodie. I like that one a lot. I liked it.

 

Emily Merrell  

I was really surprising. I really had no, I had no idea what to expect with it. And there’s a lot of good twists and turns. And then I read another book and I thought of you two friends you meet on vacation.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Yes, yes, yes. Yes. That just came out like this summer. Yes. Yeah.

 

Emily Merrell  

So I went to summer but what would kill a day what would kill us? So before we wrap up, I love asking six best questions. So my first question of you Kayla is can you tell us an unknown Fun fact of you?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

I don’t know it’s unknown, but I love Love, love Flying Trapeze. I started flying. I mean the first time I flew I was three years old at Club Med and there’s videos of me like crying hysterically. Then I flew again in high school and then in college I took classes once a week sometimes twice a week I like dreamed of B except this la so I still dream of running away and joining the circus probably not going to happen but I love trapeze

 

Emily Merrell  

it’s so funny I went to circus camp or pick one of the camps I went to offered track Trapeze and circus as a as an elective so that’s so cool. I’ve been on it once and I was not caught so have you been caught before?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Yes yes yes.

 

Emily Merrell  

Like yes this about amateur hour

 

Kayla Kleinman  

the whole thing

 

Emily Merrell  

you don’t just fall down out of fear like I did. Okay, moving on. Um, who would be a dream person you’d want to be connected with and please don’t say a clown.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Oh no, no, no. It would be author Elizabeth Gilbert for me. I love and Big Magic I think she’s such a wealth of knowledge on creativity and being creative person and if you’ve never read Big Magic even if you don’t think you’re a creative person by nature that book will probably like have you been convinced that like we’re all these creative magical humans so I would just like love to chat shop with her

 

Emily Merrell  

I have to I still I’ve downloaded it so many times then it expires at the library so I need to read that I really like city of girls that she wrote

 

Kayla Kleinman  

I need to read it I have it on my shelf it’s on my on my pile

 

Emily Merrell  

it’s weird to read a fiction book from her yes

 

Kayla Kleinman  

you know right cuz I like Eat Pray Love was like

 

Emily Merrell  

her story yeah for sure. What TV show Are you currently watching

 

Kayla Kleinman  

so I’d like you and I always talk to me and I’m I’m pretty much only watch for the most part RuPaul drag race like I’m the biggest drag race fan I mean not really it’s a bunch of like drag queens and all my friends from college maybe watch it right now I’m also watching Dave which is FX it is it’s the second season like took a little while to ramp up but like now it got very good finally and highly recommend it it’s like a little bit weird at times but it’s like a very funny show about the rapper a little Dicky and like, kind of autobiographical about like him trying to come into fame.

 

Emily Merrell  

My friend went to college with him.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

I don’t know why that’s funny. That like doesn’t surprise Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  

he went to University of Richmond but you’re like, What? What were you like in college, I need to actually dig deeper and be Like, what was he like in college? He is it is one of those shows that you’re you’re kind of like holding your breath because it’s yeah paintingvalley very

 

Kayla Kleinman  

crunchy at times. Yeah. Yeah, there’s a lot of times today What are you gonna do he’s but he’s really good. I’m like very into it. That was like a good It came out in the early pandemic days, and I feel like it was exactly what I needed. And I feel like the second season which is recently came out is like, still pretty good.

 

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, agreed. We’re the Kpop episode Who?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

Yes. It’s exactly ridiculous.

 

Emily Merrell  

Okay, so you were the queen of reading? What book are you? What book would you recommend as the summer read?

 

Kayla Kleinman  

I mean, I feel like my obvious answer if you follow me on social media, you know that I yell at everyone to read the idea of you. It doesn’t sound good the way I describe it, but trust me it is. I have to laugh because it sounds really bad on paper. But it is like thinly veiled Harry Styles fanfiction, about a 40 year old mom who has this like intense whirlwind romance with a 20 year old pop star, that like seems to be Harry Styles, in essence, and like the band he is and seems to be like one direction in essence, it’s not like actually based on that, but it is that and it sounds like it’s gonna be like a trash romance and like, it’s definitely steamy. But it’s also just like one of the best written romances I’ve ever read. It is a lot of talk about like being a female aging in industries. And like what that means, even just like how females really put themselves down for their taste like, we don’t make fun of men for reading, like, kind of cheesy books, whatever the equivalent is, but yet, like females really put themselves down and like make fun of the art that they love. And it was I read it like early pandemic days, and it really turned me into like a one direction and Harry Styles fan. Like, I’m way too old, I’ve been into them in their heyday. But I was so obsessed with this book, and like, so emotionally attached that I like needed something to like, fulfill that need. So I was like, I’m gonna listen to this band that I’m pretending is the band from the book. And there’s like fan groups for it on Facebook that I’m like, a part of for like, the support after you finish it, and you feel like you’ve never read another book. So that is always my number one recommendation is the idea of you by Robin Lee. It is fantastic. I will make everyone read it is my goal.

 

Emily Merrell  

I’m gonna read it. I’m gonna take it on my vacation next week. I will report back. You can tell me we can discuss we can join the fan groups together. Okay, so what is your favorite emoji and or most used emoji, um,

 

Kayla Kleinman  

my two most use are the laugh cry, because I’m a millennial. And that’s what I use. And then the pink hearts that are like, all like, encased in each other.

 

Emily Merrell  

Oh, like this. And then my last question for you is Who gave you permission or inspired you to do the thing you wanted to do in your life.

 

Kayla Kleinman  

So I would say both my parents, but in really different ways. My dad has always been super, super entrepreneurial, that he kind of was always doing these like weird side businesses when he was in his 20s of like, he had like wacky ideas and he would like turn them into small businesses. He also had like, a really interesting career that he actually did run away and join the circus did marketing for circuses, rodeos and like, and just like, had a very non traditional career path before he came back home and settle down and like met my mom. And then my mom is a children’s librarian. And is nothing like you think when you think of a children’s librarian, like she is allowed, she’s ridiculous. She’ll, like, tell like, kind of she says like inappropriate jokes that like go over the kids heads like the parents appreciate. And she’s like, very just like gets the kids riled up and hyped and I feel like her being like, a non traditional librarian has always inspired me to just like, be the authentic version of myself, whether it’s as a yoga teacher, as a fitness instructor, and now as a coach of just like, owning who I am and being like, I don’t have to be like this quiet, reserved person just because that’s what other people tell me as I’d like. I’ve always been inspired by the fact that like, my mom is not your typical librarian. And that’s why people love her for it. Oh, I

 

Emily Merrell  

love that I painted a beautiful picture of her and I love the fact that she’s seen inappropriate jokes that go over children’s heads that Yeah, show me that and I’m like, of course you can. Chrissy said that mom. Yes. Well, Kyla, thank you so much for joining us today on the sixth degree. It was such a pleasure hearing more of your story and tips and tricks and books that I am going to now read the idea of you it is it is committed this on paper. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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