Emily Merrell  00:04

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. I’m your host, Emily Merrell. And today I’m so thrilled to have my friend Kristin Ray band who is a business coach as our guest, Kristen, welcome to the show.

Kristin Brabant  00:30

Hello, my love. It’s so good to be with you today.

00:34

I we had too much fun catching up. I think one of the best parts about this podcast is it’s a chance for me to connect and reconnect with old friends. But Kristen, you’re calling us from Mexico. You are in a she’s in a beautiful tank top right now. And her hair’s flowy. And you have planned spined you tell us about Mexico, like how long have you lived there for?

00:58

Gosh. So you interestingly enough, were one of the first people that I told about my dream to move to Mexico to it was while we were sweaty after an in San Francisco, as you’ll remember, on my doorstep where people usually took a shit, you know, San Francisco. Yeah. That’ll make a girl dream, you know,

01:22

the city of chips can’t wait to live in that beautiful city.

01:27

I have. So I live in what about Jada, and I, I don’t know, girl. Growing up in Southern California, there’s a lot of like, Mexican Cultural influence there. Right. And every time. I mean, the more that I learned Spanish, the more that I started dancing salsa, the more that I started, like, learning about, you know, I mean, Latino culture, but like Mexican culture, specifically, I just kind of had this growing feeling like one day, I’m gonna live in Mexico. But I felt like it was years off, right. And then the pandemic hit. And I will cut the story short, but I asked the universe for a sign. And I was like, if this thing happens, I am going to sell everything. I’m going to leave this apartment that I keep digging my claws into in San Francisco. And I’m just going for it. And the thing happened. So I know the universe was talking to me. And I did that within a month and a half. I sold all my shit. I have the most intricate spreadsheet if anybody needs it, you know, if the coaching if you just need a good Craigslist spreadsheet, holler at your girl, because I mean, that’s,

02:43

that’s a good freebie right there. It’s a downloadable, did blow up your life and move to a different country.

02:52

Most of us do. So I sold everything with a month and a half. And I moved down here. And I’ve been here for two and a half years now. And I love it. And I felt a really great group of friends here and an entrepreneur community here in Mexico. And I won’t be here forever, I don’t think who knows. I meet the Mexican love of my life, perhaps Yeah. But then here for two and a half years, and I really love it.

03:23

And I love that you seize the opportunity to act on your dream. And there’s so many moments in life that it’s going to, it feels like you want to do something, but it’s not the right time. And I think it’s a lot like coaching, there’s never the right time to invest in yourself, there’s never the right time to start your coaching business, there’s never the right time to create that product line that you want. So timing is a big obstacle that as individuals, we all have to overcome, or we have to handle or we have to manage. And I think the fact that you took this leap, especially when you I’ve been to that apartment, that apartment was just like a rotating door of trying to find a roommate to keep the rent going, because it’s a good location and a good place. But when we were all given that permission slip felt like we could do our job anywhere. Yeah, why am I in this place that I don’t want to be because I don’t have to be here anymore. So kudos to you. And I think like to that. And timing is it’s never gonna be convenient, right?

04:31

I think about when I was still in my job. And just feeling miserable in it. Right? Like, it wasn’t right. I have to getting promised promotions, not getting promotions, dealing with people’s bullshit and red tape. You know, like, I have these ideas about how can I can improve the organization and it’s just always

04:52

Whoo. You know, like, we don’t really have the funding for that right now

04:57

or like so and so was working on this. So you can’t work on that. And it was so frustrating. And I knew I had to shift something. And it was not convenient, nor easy to take the steps that would have, you know, it would take me about a year to year, year and a half, maybe, to get all the things in order in order for me to start the coaching business. There was a time period where I was working full time. And then on nights, it was doing my coaching certification coursework, and also starting the business at the same time. And, yeah, it’s not convenient, it’s never the right time. But I think there is a difference between a push to make a dream happen and like trying to force something that isn’t right. And I feel like the only way you know that, is by that sometimes really hard to understand intuition, you know that, that’s those subtle differences in your own gut that tell you, this is right. And it’s just an you know, an initial push to get the ball rolling and create momentum, or this is no longer right for me. And I’m just trying to force something.

06:20

And I and you actually are one of the very first coaches I met. Um, I remember, we met in San Francisco at a place called specious, which sadly, is no longer around. But we I remember learning about you and that you were a coach, and that word coach was still so novel in in the world, I think, you know, we all know that everyone in their mom, including my mom is a coach at this moment in time. So there’s a lot of coaches out there. But everyone has their aha moment when you need to make that shift. And you had mentioned there was that frustration at your job and you were miserable. But walk us through your steps for realizing, like I need to take action on this. And this is the course I’m gonna take and this is what kind of coach I want to be and then navigating those waters.

07:15

Yeah, yeah, that’s a good one. How the hell does somebody do that?

07:20

How did you do that? No,

07:22

I did that. And the way I did it is like how I, how I have my clients go through it, too, was by a call these universal breadcrumbs, like pay attention to the moments throughout my life. When I lit up the most, when I naturally created like, the most excellent results with the most amount of ease, or where I like, I got into a flow state. Right. And the first time I had to kind of think about that was when I I was a teacher. So I used to be a teacher. I taught high school. And I went out about that. Yeah, right. Another a whole nother lifetime. This cat’s got got a few more lives ahead of her. So I was a teacher and I went to graduate school in Boston, and I went to get my Master’s in teaching. And seven months into the program. I was wholly miserable. But I didn’t have a plan B my entire life. I thought this is why I was put on this earth was to be an educator. My grandma was a teacher, my mom was teacher and was a teacher cousin was a teacher, like all the women in my life that I admired most were public educators, and I did have a gift for teaching, I still use that gift, but at the time, right the first time you do a big pivot. It’s scary as shit. And so I was graduate school. And I just knew that I was miserable. I was creating all these diseases in my body. I was like a regular at urgent care. No. And I eventually decided to quit graduate school against like, every loved ones advice and they were all terrified for me going out into a crap economy with without the extra degree, you know, that was everybody else in my family has. And I had to figure out what was next because I really thought teaching was it. And what I did was I looked back and I said, I’m not going to throw out this whole experience and say Teaching isn’t for me. Instead I’m going to look at it and think about what from the teaching experience and my whole life as lit me up and given me life? And what are the things for my teaching experience in my whole life in general, that has sucked the life out of me and felt like a force. And I made a list like I made a T chart like that. And what I noticed was, I lived for as a teacher, the moments when a student would come in at 4pm. And especially with high schoolers, man, there’s such a cool point in their lives, where they’re forming their own identity. They’re, you know, trying to, like, think critically about who am I who do I want to become apart from the parent, that identity their parents gave them. So they’d come and sit on my edge of my desk at four o’clock, and we’d have these deep life conversations about who are they and where did they want to go with their life. And I knew that that was where I made the biggest difference. And I knew that I gave zero fucks about English literature, like, I couldn’t care less. And so lesson plans for that felt really, it felt like a total energy drain and really disingenuous. And I, you know, nobody wins in that scenario, me just forcing it. And I also knew that facilitating though made me come alive. So when I would be in the classroom and not doing the prep work, but in the classroom facilitating, that made me come alive. And I thought about I had already done coaching work, I had a mentor. And I had already done life coaching for her organization that worked with incarcerated youth. So I went to juvenile hall and her County and did some life coaching seminars there with her. And I knew that that was the first time in my life, when the self criticizing voice inside my head always asking like, are you good enough? Are you good enough? Are you good enough? Are you doing enough? Do you even know what the hell you’re doing? Stopped. And I started to have conversations with people. This is now fast forwarding to the Graduate School conundrum of what do I do now? And I started to just have conversations with people who are passionate about their work, who like loved their work. And I, one, you know, every time I had a conversation, I would ask them, like, is there somebody else that comes to mind that you think I should talk to next? And then I’d go to that next person. And I asked them, like, what do you love most about your work, and what’s the stuff that like, sucks the life out of you. And here’s the stuff I love most about my work. And here’s the stuff that sucks the life out of me, like any ideas of where I could have a career where I could do that. And sure enough, like these little clues kept leading me to my next job where I was this really cool mix of both corporate coach and facilitator for young adults store starting their corporate career. So I got to do both. And that was the right move at the right time. But it ran its course too, you know, which is frustrating because I think all of us want to have the thing, the thing and like get to rest our bones in that. And I didn’t get to rest my bones because I was in my 20s and no one rests in their 20s. So I did that for about four years. And then stuff started to not feel right again, right. And I did all the things I could do to make my current situation better. And when it still felt like it suck the life out of me was when I knew I’ve got to look for the next thing. And I went through that same exercise again of like, what are the aspects of my current job that fill me with life? Where do I shine the most? Where do people say that I create the biggest contribution and it feels like I don’t even notice it or it’s so easy for me and then what’s the stuff that’s opposite sucks the life out of me is like pushing a boulder up the hill. Other people might love it. Have a lot of ease with it. Like Katie over here is on the struggle bus. Yeah. Income combination to with my past jobs and and even as a kid, you know, and when I did that exercise, Emily like, I also realized that I was building businesses since I was seven. And that was play for me like starting businesses was play for me when I was young, and I had another friend in the neighborhood who was also really entrepreneurial. When she and I made businesses together, and then I was, you know, my mom’s assistant and her Candle Company. And my mom’s a big inspiration for my work. I was her assistant for seven years. So like, you know, that kind of life review of like, Where was my natural curiosity? When no one was forcing me to do anything? Like, what piqued my curiosity? Where would I go to play, when left to my own device? Is instead of somebody else forcing it down my throat? Or me doing what I think I should in order to be successful? What lit me up? Where did I naturally shine? Where could I get into a flow state? Those kinds of questions, you know, paying attention to the themes of them all added up to being a coach for entrepreneurs. And

15:53

what I was gonna say, for those listening, and if you’re feeling that itchiness in your life, and you’re like, yeah, no, guys, I don’t want to be a coach. I think that exercise that you just walked us through Kristin, is really helpful even for creating a business or solving a problem, that you you identified the things where you really excelled. But you, you also took away the things that you disliked, like the manager hovering or the limitations of the glass ceiling that said, like the promotions near but we need to wait two years and fire one person to get you that promotion. And, and I think that’s a really, really important thing that all of us should be doing as frequently as, as probably like, what quarterly just to take inventory of what we like to do and what we excel at doing and also what we never want to do ever again.

16:45

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It’s, it’s totally applicable to so many different things. And certainly not just for starting a business, you know, but like, how many people, especially in our early 30s, late 20s, early 30s, get to this point where we have climbed every rung of the ladder that we thought would get us to success. And then we get there and we’re like, oh, shit, I am not happy. And this is not all that I thought it would be doing this exercise is so helpful for clarifying what could be next for me, you know, even if it requires a big pivot, and that’s okay. Like, oh, my God, you know, I mean, there’s so many people who start the work that they really feel like they were put on this earth to do in their 60s, right, their 50s 60s 70s, it’s like, we have time.

17:41

And also one thing can lead to the other. So you can start your career in life coaching, and then realize a lot of the coaching I’m doing involves business, or, Oh, I thought I was gonna focus more on women, but I really love working with men, just because you change doesn’t mean that you’ve failed, it means that you’ve evolved. Absolutely. I

18:01

mean, like, how is your coaching change, you know, from the beginning to now.

18:05

So significantly, I mean, when I started, I was the behind the scenes person, I was the facilitator of getting the speakers for events for six degrees. And then my coaching started for people who wanted to host events, build partnerships, build community, and then I it evolved, I felt like I did so I have done so much more with individuals that while yes, those pieces still come into play. I’m supporting and helping them in deeper ways in terms of like systematizing their business or optimizing or boundary setting. And you and I both were huge on the boundaries. Yeah, that was evolved. For me. That was something that changed. But, Kristen, I think one of the things that I don’t know if he felt this in San Francisco, but I really had a lot of impostor syndrome, especially being around these entrepreneurs that were so focused on fundraising, unicorn status, exiting, and then you know, here you are, this little coach, you’re like, I’m a coach, like, what, what does that mean? Who are you fundraising with? Like, no one, you You’re, you’re my investor hopefully hire me. So how did you navigate finding your clients and like, you know, showing up at an apple or an Amazon, when also been met with these people that are casually raising millions and millions of dollars are getting this global notoriety?

19:41

Man, that was rough. I’ll be honest, like that was not you know, that. I wanted to throw up before every one of those conversations. It was scary, right. And I the thing that I leaned on there were two different strategies that I leaned on one. And both actually came as advice from my first business coach. One was to build a referral network, which feels slow, because it is and painstaking at the beginning of a business, right? When we’re first starting a business, we want to make money and we want it to happen fast. And really like relationships, our business, you know, and he bless him. Julian had some wisdom in him and he just kept pumping my Aries brakes because I was like, No, it was slow for me, like I’m gonna spin out of control over here. He kept pumping the brakes and was like, create conversations, build relationships. And so if I wanted to facilitate a workshop at Salesforce, build relationships with people at Salesforce, like mutually beneficial reciprocal relationships, their add value to their lives, and then broach the subject of leading a workshop for their team, right. So I feel like I was

21:15

gonna say some of the some of the objections for someone who is an introvert listening who’s like, yeah, right. I know, no one that sales would force I want to talk to Salesforce. How do we even find that person at Salesforce?

21:27

Oh, yeah. I mean, so I went to networking events, right? Hello, six degrees.

21:34

It by six degrees to say

21:37

it’s real society bush.

21:39

I went to networking events. And it was just it was a real yes phase of my life. And truthfully, I think and the pendulum swings in business, right. So you do all this stuff to generate momentum, like going to the networking events. And then I got all the clients this is a wild skip over all the dog shit. You know, like, the Koreans, right? There was a lot of tears before that happen.

22:07

As you Google, how much are my eggs worth on the market place? Could I be a surrogate for your baby? The things I have Googled? Well, myself and all my friends. Yes. I mean, honestly, like my only fans account if I just show my feet like they won’t even No.

22:26

Thinking. Yeah, yeah.

22:29

We’ll sidebar on that afterwards. Okay, that’s the next episode.

22:32

Um, anywho. So I don’t even know where I was. I went to networking events. And I was in a big yes phase. And I was also talking about how, after I got clients, I really got out of a networking phase. Because I thought, I’ve got the clients I did the work to build, you know, the business and generate the momentum. I’m good. And now I am seven years into my business and I am wide awake to the fact that you never stop. You can you can stop building relationships, stop networking, stop going to the events, and it will be to your detriment. Kristen brave and this is a note to self, I will listen to this podcast, because it was and man, somebody could listen to this. I don’t think it’s gonna make a difference. I think we got to like live you got to live it right you got to live in to know it. And I had to live it of like my business being halted and really hitting a standstill, to recognize what am I not doing? I am not being that entrepreneur at the beginning, who was saying yes to the events who was going out and doing the embarrassing thing of standing outside the women’s restroom. And asking mine now business like one of my best friends in business Maryam if she’d go to coffee with me after I saw her speak on a panel at an international women’s day conference. Like I wasn’t doing that anymore. And it was showing and the results of my business and you and I and privately Emily have had conversations about this about like holding back up that habit of networking and going to events and it’s something I’m really focused on this year, because it’s so important and it’s it feels for me anyways. Like uncertain that my F my my investment in it is going to yield anything right and that’s what holds me back from doing it. Like, I don’t know if this chick that’s in that Facebook group is really going to do anything for me. Totally. I know that to be not true. I know what I know to be true. Is that like my Business got built through relationships, and you never know how somebody is going to add value to your life or the miracles, you’re going to work in their life. God only knows right.

25:10

And I think that’s summarized also what you’re just saying, a networking is a muscle that you have to continue building or it’s going to atrophy. Yeah, your relationships come from networking. But see, also when you don’t network or you get to that point of aloofness of networking, it can cause your business but then I don’t know what I met dee, dee, channel, your inner Hungry Girl, Channel your inner like beginning of networking person, because Kristen, that’s so accurate. I think that that’s all of us. That’s me, like I was, you know, I’ve been the Yes, girl, you’ve been the Yes girl. And then we’re like, No, we’re coasting for a little bit. And now I’m in like, 12 different communities. And I’m a community builder. And so it’s just so important to maintain it. And I love what you said, going back, I interrupted you earlier, going back to creating a referral network, and the power of getting clients to get them get you in front of Salesforce. Yeah, leveraging that versus pitching Salesforce point blank without knowing anyone.

26:14

Absolutely. Absolutely. And yeah, in to your point, like, how did I get those initial relationships of the person who works at Salesforce girl, my ass was on Eventbrite, looking at who is hosting some little workshop or whatever. And I go to the event, and I just feel out who seems cool, and I talk to them. And then it’s like, want to go for a walk after work, you know, on a Wednesday, and we talk and get to know each other, I tried to do things that were like, non alcoholic. And, you know, anyways, I could talk to you about, like, how to build relationships with people till the cows come home, but we built some relationships. In fact, my first client, get this shit, my first client, who started everything, because from her, I got my next three clients, because she invited me to speak at one of her events. So my first client that started at all, I met her at a clothing swap.

27:19

See, every opportunity can be as a starting point.

27:23

Yes. And I only got invited to this clothing swap. Because somebody else that I had met, connected me, a friend of hers, I went to one hang out with that friend of hers. And that friend was like, Hey, I’m gonna go to a clothing swap want to come with me? Sure, girl, let me grab some of my least raggedy ass T shirts out of this closet. And let’s go and I went to the clothing swap. That’s where I met my first client. And but like, you just see how it’s it’s not the first connect. It’s not the second connect, not even the third one. The fourth one is the client. You know,

28:06

there’s so many lessons and everything that you’ve talked about. So from the journey, just to recap this whole episode, because we can talk for about three hours on all of this. First and foremost, one, it sounds like get yourself a mentor. Get yourself a mentor in some capacity, that can be a sounding board, be it a coach, be it someone that is helping you navigate these, these waters, to take a life audit of what you’re really good at. And what it is that that lights you up and can be applied in a different avenue.

28:39

Three, build that network, build that network and then acquire and be reciprocal. Yes. And then the fourth thing that I was kind of putting in tandem with okay, what were the two things that really work to get get the initial momentum rolling. The fourth thing here is make your marketing and your sales play to your strengths. Don’t go and try and replicate whatever what you know, Cindy Lou, who on Instagrams brains is doing and then she’s like, Oh my god, here’s my receipts, and I sold $900,000. And you can’t do if you join my like, $300,000 program like don’t do that. He attention to where you come alive the most and what you do best, you know, like call it your zone of genius, right? That’s what I call it. And for me, again, that was facilitating. So how I built my business was by workshops, because that’s where I’m the most magnetic. I shine the most when I’m teaching, and it’s not actually keynote speaking. So no, I’m not going to make that where I start. Yes, I can build those skills over time. But when I’m getting started, at least let me play to where I naturally shine the most. And flex there and so that was my client generator was a girl. This shit was scrappy at the beginning like talk about channeling your inner Hungry Girl. I mean, I, I didn’t have money sure is shit to be renting out spaces. So my first workshops were in cafes. Hmm. And girl I use my current company’s printers to print out the worksheets. I was a past teacher so I knew how to create worksheets. You know, I knew how to structure adult learning, and I would meet people at a cafe and I’d lead them through a bomb workshop, even though it was like in Berkeley, where I used to study when I was a college student during late nights and like, my poor guests had to buy a frickin TV in order to hang out there. Like, obviously, my ego got put in check. But God, there’s such an aliveness doing that stuff that scares the shit out of you and is really humbling and where you look really stupid. But you also feel really frickin alive again, instead of like you and I talked about just now that middle coasting phase, we’re like, I got this. You know, I think that that can kind of come with disillusionment, too. So I so

31:23

hear you and I wish we had known each other right in that hunger phase, we could have bunked up and shared and shared a room to save money. But so you’re so right, Kristin, there’s so much glitz and glam and you know, I delegate this and I heard that. But, but before all of that there’s the hustle. And it’s not just a dance, there is literally this fire that fuels the hustle that makes you know that whatever happens, you want this to happen. And I know you had your journeys, I had my journeys. Heck, I rented out my room, and let’s see it on friends couches, because I was like, I need to I want this business to survive so badly and I will do whatever it takes you can get a side job to support your dream, but start and do the thing. And and don’t give up when it doesn’t work on the first attempt or your cafe workshop has one attendant it’s starting and then being consistent with it.

32:20

Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s really it. And the consistency is it I think I did one out girl when I first started to like now they teach this stuff of like don’t reinvent the wheel. They weren’t doing that shit. When we got started and

32:38

dented the we reinvented the wheel, there was a square wheel, there was a triangle wheel like all different shots.

32:44

Every workshop was a new frickin workshop, which was maddening, right, but like, I now have 30 frickin workshops in my Google Drive that I can pull from anytime I need content, you know. So it’s not, it’s not for naught. But I did a workshop a month, if not more, and had a whole spreadsheet of like, all the different organizations, all my different connections and like, I pitched to them, you know, I’ll come do this workshop for you for free. I will give your members this percentage discount, right? Like, can you give me a space? Yeah,

33:27

yeah. And if you are someone that’s like, I really want to be I want to workshop speaker, I think that’s the hack, especially being a facilitator. And my end is being able to speak for free and recognize that the clients are essentially being hand delivered to you. And so is the organizational details of the space, the food, all of those things, the people I won’t work with, or the people that want to fee, because I’m essentially making you look like a rock star. And you’re getting access to these people you want to have had access to who most likely will sign up and then hire you. I had one gal make $15,000 By presenting for an hour for us. That’s it, right? That’s it. She’s like, she’s like, Yeah, I can charge you, you know, $7,000 for my speaking, whatever her speaking fee is something crazy. Or I can make a shit ton of money by speaking to the exact audience and what the exact problem that I’m solving for them.

34:23

Right? Exactly. And you think about the value that you bring with six degrees society and the years the years of investment, cultivating this community and building trust with these people and building a system for your events, a process that works for like, truly somebody is really primed to see that speaker as an expert. Which girl if you’ve been speaking, you know is not guaranteed there will be people who will throw you out on a stage and it’s like being thrown to the fucking wolves and they don’t introduce you and nobody knows who you are and you are just like If you’re like, Well, I guess we’re just gonna be Atlas. I’m gonna carry this whole goddamn audience on my back through this right? You all the investment, you know that you have put into priming this audience for this speaker like that is gold.

35:15

Now saying that yeah, it’s nice to hear, Well Miss Kristin How can our listeners find out more about your genius and help them figure out the next steps of either their business or where they want to go in their lives.

35:31

So Instagram is best. My Instagram handle is my full name Kristen gray band plus coaching. So Kristen Bray band coaching, which I’m sure will get linked to the link somewhere. But like easy ways to get familiar with easy and free ways to get familiar with me and how I can help you are downloading, I’ve got a discover your genius workbook. So it’s the questions that I ask a client to help them get really clear on what is the work that they do best, what to be focusing their business, their offer suite, and their calendar on, which will also help to like, who will be your first hire, because it’s gonna be that person who is going to allow you 30% More of the time be positioned in your zone of genius, instead of doing all the other stuff that we’re like, I gotta do this, you know, I gotta control it. At any rate, that workbook is free. It’s linked in my Instagram bio, and attending any of my workshops, so signing up for my newsletter, and that’s where I post the workshops that I’ve got coming up that signup link is also in my Instagram bio. It’s all air. I’m on IG here.

36:49

Well, Kristen, we’ve got Thank You first and foremost for all of the wonderful nuggets, but I’ve got six best questions that we’ve got three minutes to throw in. Are You Ready? Ready? For one word? Tell us an unknown fun fact. Doesn’t have to be one word but shit one

37:07

word. Okay.

37:10

Have fun fact. I won on a game show. I won an all expenses paid trip for two to Costa Rica on a game show with my best girlfriend Beth when I was 23 I’m not gonna tell you what game show because it’s so embarrassing and you’ll find it and I don’t want you to find it. But we want and then we go on this all expenses paid trip. What they didn’t tell you is that it’s with a geriatric or company so we are 23 years old and like the youngest other person on that trip was 65 and we made the trip picked Costa Rica together. It was the best. That’s a great I

37:47

am going to find it no matter what. Who would be a dream person to be connected with Oprah obviously. Obviously. What show are you currently watching?

37:59

Circle season five. What book are

38:01

you reading?

38:05

Oh, God.

38:06

So what do you recommend? What do you recommend?

38:08

No, I’m going to tell you

38:08

the truth because I want to be honest. Christmas bow by Mary. All calm or Bala or baulas some some crap really Walmart

38:20

high level

38:22

absolutely not trash be treating with like some bridgerton Ask romance. And it’s like a twofer. It’s two novels in one and they’re both Christmas titles. Like I am mortified whenever somebody walks by on the beach and sees these tiles in my hand. It is so embarrassing, but I love romance novels.

38:39

So that’s amazing. That is the best answer. What is your favorite emoji?

38:42

Um

38:52

Oh, this is good. The hard it’s usually the skull. So like, like that one, right? Like, because I usually do things that are pretty embarrassing and outrageous. And so usually my SOS messages to people are like, no, what have I done schools?

39:16

That’s incredible, very Gen Z. And my final question for you is Who gave you permission or inspired you to do the thing you wanted to do with your life?

39:30

That’s a really meaningful question. Um, you know, I think about my dad a lot. And both my mom and my dad and my parents did a really good job of well, my mom kind of fought back on me ditching grad school. They both did a really good job of giving me space to figure things out. And I think that was a gift of like having older parents. My parents had mute 40 and 42. So I had some life on your by then, you know, and they had two other kids that they were like, wow, this third one, she’ll be fine. You know? Yeah. And my dad would go for these walks with me when I was young and I was getting bullied in middle school and he just like, really, he didn’t fight my battles for me. He let me fight my battles. And he was kind of the first person who like taught me how coaching works by doing it for me. And he’s just always been somebody who’s been so supportive and saying, like, I trust you. I know you’ve got it. And I needed that. I love that shout out

40:37

to daddy Bray band. Inspiration. Yeah, I love Steve. Like Steve. Kristen, thank you so much for all of your wisdom and sharing your vulnerable journey and, and just being you and being a part of today’s episode of the sixth degree.

40:54

I love you. Thank you for having me, my friend.

40:57

And listeners. If you liked today’s episode, go give Kristin a follow. Give us five stars on wherever you’re listening. And we’ll see you the next time on the sixth degree with Emily Merrell. Until next time, everyone