[00:00:00]
Kristin: When you do pursue those things you really want, it's not going to be easy, but it is worth it.
Welcome to the Get Clear with Crystal Ware podcast, the place where we get clear on our goals, own our worth, and learn to be the CEOs of our own lives. I'm your host, Crystal Ware, lawyer and former Fortune 500 corporate leader. Who found the confidence to say goodbye to a lucrative career and start my own business.
Now I'm opening up the playbook and sharing everything I've learned to get you there faster. It may not be easy, but it will always be worth it because you are made for more. So put on your big girl pants, jump on board and let's reach for the stars. Are you ready to get clear?
Crystal: Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Wherever you are. Thank you for joining us here at get clear with crystal where, where we endeavor to bring the best and the brightest guests on board to share with you guys the different kind of [00:01:00] careers and life. And working mom perspectives to help everybody see what dreams are out there and what you can do with your own life, no matter what your goals or dreams are.
And today we are joined by Kristen. Thank you for joining us, Kristen.
Kristin: Thank you for having me. Crystal. It's good to be here.
Crystal: Yeah. So Kristen spent years working in senior leadership for a large company when 2021, That her and her family were going to move abroad and travel for full time. They spent time in North America and Europe before recently rejoining us here in America and settling down in Charleston, South Carolina.
So we have some really interesting, different kind of conversations on the horizon for you guys today. All about that. Kristen started her virtual COO. business to have more flexibility while she was on the road. And that has since grown. She is passionate about helping small businesses grow [00:02:00] by outsourcing their operations and strategies.
So we'll definitely dive into that too. So Kristen, before we kind of get into the Q and a section of the show, I always like to get a little bit of background, you know, about what your, degree was in, how did you get into corporate, what was your initial job and roles, and your background?
Kristin: Sure. Yeah. this is funny. I haven't had somebody asked me about my degree in a long time. And I feel like when I was in college, I was so stressed about what I was going to do with it. And then you grow up and realize, you Nobody uses it directly, but I studied business. and then I went on to get my MBA in international business.
I always knew I wanted to do something in business, which is. Great that I got to, but you know, that's very broad. So figuring out what that meant for me was a little tricky. but early on I started a role at a company in Tennessee that I really loved and I worked in events actually. I've always loved events, planning.
And so I planned events for my first couple years there and then I was promoted and [00:03:00] started kind of moving up the ranks. I ended up basically overseeing a PNL for our small business event area, which was about 8 million when I took it over and had PNL responsibilities. So I oversaw the event itself, but also, you know, all the things that go into that event, financial responsibilities, pitches on the backend, that kind of thing.
A few years after that, actually, while I was very pregnant, I was promoted to, Include operations in my role. So I was already at director level. I was promoted to operations over our 60 person team. And so I say all that to say that's obviously what I'm doing now is operations at my company, virtual COO, but that's really where it started.
I had always had an interest in operations. And so I took over the budgeting, HR, all of these areas for our team. We, as a big company, we had all those things internally, but each team kind of also ran as their own. So I did that for several years. And then, like you mentioned, after COVID, like so many of us, we just started kind of saying what's next and, made that big leap, but that's,[00:04:00]
Crystal: Yeah. Well,
Kristin: corporate career ended
Crystal: find it fascinating. I, I actually have worked most of my career with my degree, I have an international business degree for my undergrad and then I went to law school and I only practiced law for a few years, but I worked in international business for basically the whole time I was in corporate.
Great. so I always thought that was fun. I mean, I remember one time specifically, I was walking in the subway in France, going to my corporate office and I just it was like a TV moment. I did a little circle to myself in the subway,this is exactly what I dreamed of doing. But yeah, I really, for the most part, don't think that, you know, and I mentor many people and it doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matter what your undergraduate degree is. Once you're in a company, and the best companies, I think, give you opportunities to kind of move around and figure out where you want to be.but when it comes to your actual
of the interesting background you have, I'm sure you learned about some financial, acumen in the [00:05:00] MBA program, but what was it actually like not being a finance major and moving into, oversight for P and L budgetary and those kinds of things.
Cause I think that can trick up a lot of people in ordinary business. Like how. How hard is it for people to learn the basics? Of financial acumen the different kind of financials that you look at a pnl statement And how can women be more comfortable kind of diving into those areas when they don't have the technical background on paper
Kristin: Yeah, that's really good. I do think that that can be really tricky getting that like actual real life experience. I feel really lucky because I feel like I got to phase into it. So when I started with events, I would run the budget for each individual event. And when I first started, it was smaller events, you know, these budgets of 30 or 50, 000, which is still a lot of money, but it wasn't, you know, at a large company, it wasn't make or break.
By the time I left our events, budget was 5 million, I think a year, for one event. And [00:06:00] so I worked my way there and I learned what it meant to keep up with the budget. And then how that flowed into our larger budget. And for me, I just kept asking questions like, I think that when I was younger, starting there, maybe I just didn't feel as stupid as.
Maybe you do when you get older or something, but I just remember being like, hey, why is our budget set up this way? Oh, how does it tie into the system? Can you tell me about this? And just asking for that bigger picture knowledge really helped me in the future of my career where I would end up taking over that whole area.
And I already understood how it worked. I already understood how it tied into our Company at large's financial system and why we needed numbers by certain dates. So I would just say start small, but ask those questions along the way and you'll continue finding yourself taking on more. I
don't know if
that
was your experience, but that's how it went for me.
Crystal: Yeah, and what I love about that is, everybody curiosity did not kill the cat Curiosity created [00:07:00] confidence in the cat and I agree. It's like When you're younger, you don't have maybe the self awareness to know what don't know. And so there just isn't the same level of concern or like, am I going to look stupid?
Are they going to think I'm not ready for the next role? If I ask these kinds of questions and at the end of the day, it's just always better to seek out the information and the growth. Most of the time, people are going to be so excited to help you and answer any of your And bring you along on the journey when you ask questions.
So I think that's golden advice, ask all the questions
Kristin: Yeah, totally. I try to keep that now. there are a lot of things I feel much more confident in now, but then there still are things with a new company, a new organization that come up where I'm like, I don't know how this works. Somebody needs to tell me and I'll take the initiative to learn myself, but I do think there's so much value in that.
And for me, I'll, I'll just say this while we're talking about this topic. I am a big advocate for doing the work before you lead the work. I think a lot of people really want to jump into where they just get to oversee it. And I was forced to [00:08:00] like, Run in this example, the day to day of that event budget, literally Hey, we spent this amount on AV and I am keeping up with it because it is my responsibility.
And then later when I was responsible at a much larger level, having had that experience was invaluable. So just
doing the work first, I think is very key. Yeah.
Crystal: And I love that. And I always think about that. the new project that I am working on now would require me to gain a little bit more technical insight into the day to day operations. And that's what my business partner and I have talked about is like, we're going to get licensed to do this.
We're going to learn how it's done from point A to Z. So that when we're working with other people or a team, we can really understand what that means and what, should be the true processes and procedures around it. Um, and I don't think I'm, you know, too good for that or too old for that or too experienced for that.
and I, I just like to know how, yeah, totally [00:09:00] agree. You got to know how it works to like strategically run the ship. I mean, there's some things that maybe it's less meaningful, but a lot of times I do, I do think it's, you know, Extremely helpful. so I have to ask then totally not really on topic at all, but how did you not end up going into the, the event space?
Because I mean, like with your personality and your background, I mean, I could see you putting on like Tony Robbins style events, you know, about AV and all the things you need to put on really nice events, um, how did you not go into that? Just like starting your own business versus doing virtual COO.
Kristin: That is a great question. I love events still and the events I was overseeing when I left, we're not quite Tony Robbins level but close like the 5 million budgets and we were renting out the USS midway in San Diego for parties and like it was a blast. I still love it. I am still very drawn to events and actually, as a virtual CIO, even though most of of what I do is in operations for my businesses.
I do find a lot of my [00:10:00] clients, either they have events or when they start hearing about some of my experience, I suddenly take over internal events. And I love it. I feel like I get to dabble in it. events as an industry can be a little tough. I have found as you grow a family, there's a lot of travel and I don't mind some work travel, but I can't do it every week, you know, like I used to be able to.
So balancing that has been tough for me. But frankly, I. I would never mind having more events, involved when we left for the road, virtual COO, my, you know, working as a fractional COO has been perfect for our travels. And so now that we've settled down, I actually have thought if I had a client that
worked in events, I would love it.
Crystal: Yeah,
I'll put some brain power to that because I think there could be, interesting things. that's just a specific skillset. And I've had to put on a few small events, um, in the corporate sphere that like we didn't have, it was within our own department to put together.
So we didn't have like events people. And then I went to [00:11:00] industry events where they had full time event events. Like director level positions for events.
Kristin: Yeah.
Crystal: I was like, wow, these are like high level client events that they're putting on. Um, and I thought, wow, how much fun, how exciting, how interesting to pull together and the gift bags and all the other things, but then they also have to show up, like, Four days in advance, make sure everything is right, they're the person answering the calls or getting yelled at when somebody is unhappy.
So that's all that to say folks, is like you see a glamorous side of a job, but you always have to remember there is ugly, yucky stuff that you have to do in every,
Kristin: yeah, it's
Crystal: Take the good with the bad.
Kristin: It is true. Yes. It is a stressful industry. It is very fun, but there are long days, lots of travel, lots of time on your feet, and to your point, I think you just have to decide what's
worth it enough to you to put up with the bad part.
Crystal: Yeah, exactly.And that changes like once [00:12:00] you have kids, once you get older, maybe like, you know, Just your needs and thoughts about your life change. And that's what I have found for myself, for sure. You know, at 24, I really thought I knew the world, thought I knew myself. four or five, six years, it kind of evolves.
Um, and sometimes my husband, who's like a real steady, Eddie has been working in the same, basically the same job that got acquired and things moved around. But he and his platform have been the same. Since he basically started working, he sometimes will be like, what are you, what are you doing? Like, what do you, I'm like, yeah, I mean, I'm shifting gears.
I'm going to stay in alignment. I'm glad that you found at 24, what like your lifelong dream was going to be. But some people, you have kids and that, for me shifted from wanting to climb the corporate ladder COVID came along and I had to think. you know, is this really, is this really what works for my life?
[00:13:00] Um, so don't be afraid to change and, move around and figure out there's like no hard and fast rules. It's your life. And the number one thing is to be happy.
Kristin: Yeah, I agree and we should we can talk about that more But I have a lot of feelings around creating creating a life that works for you like creating your own life And that does change for a lot of people Honestly, I used to be kind of jealous of people who were like I'm going to school to be a nurse I'm gonna do the training then I will have the job because I never really had that But I do feel like you win some, you lose some, you know, because in that path, I do think you become such an expert and that's great.
And we need those people. It was never for me. And so that gives me the chance to change. and not to say somebody who went to school to be a nurse can't change and do something completely different. Of course they can,
but I think there's just pros and cons and we need both. Hmm.
Crystal: that you say that, Kristen, because I was just talking to my neighbor um, little kids soccer the other day. And talking about, we have, second graders in common, they're on the same soccer team, but we also have fifth graders [00:14:00] that have been going to school together. We're talking about our little fifth graders and how smart they were and how good they are at math.
And she said, she was the same, but when she was going to school, she would get, all A's in math and science, but she didn't know what she wanted to do with it. And one day somebody came in and spoke to them that was a pharmacist. And she was like, pharmacists, I can go to school. I have a job.
Boom, boom, boom. She was like, I just couldn't think about what some of these degrees meant, like international business. What is my job? What am I doing? She was like unclear and not so concrete, like role and title of what I would be doing at the end of this degree plan. I couldn't wrap my mind around that.
A pharmacist made perfect sense. I knew what a pharmacist was. I knew where they worked. I knew what they did. Everything was very crystal clear. And she's like, yeah. So like for me to be an entrepreneur, that was, that was. Never, never in a million years, she was like, I just needed this very concrete path.
And to your point, I thought that's [00:15:00] so interesting. And then, you know, you're not spending brain power or time, like thinking about what I'm doing and where am I going And, You know, there are kind of costs to that. um, but that was never going to be me either. You know, I um, I just kind of like want to lean into what I'm feeling.
Kristin: Yeah. Yeah. I get that. I think we need both.
Crystal: so kind
of leading into that.
So 2021, you have an amazing job. I'm sure you have amazing salary to go with it. An amazing title. How did you get the courage to leave that salary and that title behind? Because like that can be hard for, mid career women. and did you have any feelings about like, being married to your title or that kind of defining who you were, how did you separate that?
Like, tell us all about those. Yeah. Yeah.
Kristin: we haven't known each other very long, but it's probably obvious I am not, pack a bag and live in hostel free spirit kind of person. I'm a planner. I plan [00:16:00] events. I know budgets. And so my husband and I, 2020, we started really talking about things as so many people did we actually years before that.
So six years before we left for this whole road journey, we had had a date night before we had our, our kid, before we bought a house, we said, what if we just put all our stuff in the car? you know, this sounds very, maybe millennial, but we're going to put all our stuff in the car and go live in Airbnb and we're going to see San Diego and Chicago.
And we kind of joked about it and it stuck. Like we would talk about it every few months and be like, do you think we could do that? And then. You know, we bought a house, we had a baby and I think for a while we thought, no, we can't. And then 2020 hit, we're reevaluating things. My husband is a music producer, which is also an in person job, but he had this podcast business that had taken off during COVID.
And he's like, I can now work from the road with this podcast thing. all that needs to happen is I quit my big job and we're going to go do it. We're going to go live on the road. So it sort of evolved. We decided to sell our house first. We knew we wanted to sell that house. And then we said, you know what?
It's now or never. Our kid was two at the [00:17:00] time. We just had this realization like if we don't do it now from, you know, when he, before he starts school, it gets a lot trickier unless you're interested in homeschooling, which I was not, until they're out of the house. And so it was, I remember it feeling really scary to quit my job.
I, I tried to find something before I left, but I was so busy with my current job. It was hard. We were selling the house and we essentially one day sat down and just made a kind of if the worst case happens and I don't get another job, can we still do this road trip? And we figured out like with my husband's work and savings and selling the house, technically we could, it's not what we wanted to do, but we could do it.
So like we went for it. I quit, quit my job without a plan. I did not have anything lined up. We just knew we wanted to take this adventure. So,within a week I started virtual COO and it feels like as soon as I was out of my role, I had the brain space I had been needing to say what's next for me. And I also had a very kind friend to introduce me to my first client and said, [00:18:00] Hey, I don't know if you want interim work, but this person needs 15 hours a week.
And I came home from that meeting and I was like, this is it. I'm doing it. I'm going to work for myself. I love this fractional work. I love small businesses. And I thought the idea of working with several of them at a time would not only work for our road life, but would be a blast for me. So once we started making those decisions, it all happened really quickly.
But I do think the emotional process of taking a huge financial leap, Disconnecting from a job. I had worked very hard to get to. I mean, I'd been there for nine years to get to the level I was at. We were in talks about the next level for me. Like I really found a lot of fulfillment in my job, but I also think that I just felt like I knew, and we were getting advice from people we cared about who were like, you need to do this.
if you can afford to do it, this is a dream of yours. Go do it. And I'm so glad we did. It was definitely scary, but it just kept feeling like we're taking the next right step. And. We're gonna just
figure it out, you know?[00:19:00]
Crystal: And I, I think the world will tell you what you need and there's so many thoughts about like the normal life and what are you giving up and what's, but I think if you don't lean into that at some point and just go for it and don't worry about what other people are going to think. You could end up with regrets.
And for me, that always feels like the worst case scenario. If I regret, like somebody actually threw it in my face the other day about a business I started, and they were like, you know, it did not end up where I wanted it. In the end, the ultimate outcome was was fine. I did not lose money. It was fine, but it didn't end up where I wanted.
And so I was trying to explain to somebody how it is and you know, I guess they got a little defensive and said, well, how did that work out for you? And I was like, are you trying to, is that like a dig at me? Like it didn't work out, but what would have been worse? If I didn't try it [00:20:00] and I'm sitting here 10 years later and I'm like, shoulda woulda coulda, you know, so I know it's not easy sometimes when you take that title and when you take a big title.
Potentially a pay cut, right? I know that is very, very hard. Not everybody feels comfortable. Not everybody feel, maybe you don't have a spouse or somebody to support, the other end or to bounce things off of. but I think this is a shining example of where people really need to focus and listen in that once you took that step, the clarity of what would come next and how Another door would open materialized.
And I think that happens a lot because we're just so busy and doing our life. That it's very hard to have the energy, the brain capacity, or even to kind of like identify all of the potential activities and, you know, options that are out there for you until you've said goodbye. Um, and I know that's really hard because sometimes people, you know, it's a, it's a [00:21:00] huge risk.
You don't, you want something concrete before you leave the old thing. That's just not always going to work out. And so that's kind of my monologue to kind of encourage people to take a risk. Sometimes, um,
Kristin: Yeah.
Crystal: you know, if you want something different than other people have, you need to do something different than other people are doing.
Kristin: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's where I say, I just am a big believer. I talk about this a lot. You can create your life. You can't create it. Maybe today, like it took us six years to leave for the road. We would go on to pay off our debt, which was really key for us to give us the freedom to go. We had money in savings, obviously we had a baby and he needed to be big enough.
I was not taking a baby in diapers on the road. Some people will, I am not that person. There were a lot of things that had to happen, but for me, I think. Sitting down on a regular basis and saying, but what do I want that I can be building towards? And if you can't have it today, maybe today is not the day to quit the job you want out of.
Maybe you do need [00:22:00] to work it for another few years cause financially it doesn't make sense or whatever the case is. But there's so much like hope and excitement and like building towards that, even if it's something crazy, literally just this last weekend, my husband and I went on a trip, just the two of us for the weekend and we were talking about our time on the road.
the two and a half years and how we do look back. And I know for certain we would have made more money had we not gone on the road. I was turning down clients at the beginning, to make it work. We both had to work less hours. So we made less than we had previously made. And I told my husband, I said, if you told me I was, I had missed out on, you couldn't tell me a number high enough.
That would make me regret what we did. Because it was so incredible. and what we, the time we got with our son and the experiences we got, I'm like, so you tell me, I missed out on a hundred thousand dollars. I'd say that sucks. But so what, that's how big we feel about it. Now in hindsight, now it was scary going into it.
I didn't feel that way going into it, but I just feel very grateful to say. Sometimes [00:23:00] doing things different, you do lose out on things,
but it like was so worth it.
Crystal: I literally got the chills
because it's so magical. It's so special. And what I would say is like, let's reframe that. There wasn't any kind of loss and I know you feel this, but when we're thinking about these things. I. Everybody else listening in. We have to think about what, not what we're losing, but where we're investing our time and energy.
So Kristen gave up money to have time and energy and space to do this magical thing with her family. That's an investment to the future. That's an investment with your spouse to make like a shared dream come true. A reality for the life of your marriage. There is nothing more meaningful to that. And you cannot put a financial price on that.
And so I think. When you're thinking about your life and your dreams, you need to say, I'm investing in that and not worry about what [00:24:00] money am I losing out on? it took me a really long time to understand that, you hear these like financial gurus people. I mean, even Tony Robbins to some degree is like money will always be there and money will always come to you.
Kristin: Silence.
Crystal: It's hard to feel that way. If you're from a lower income, like I was barely middle class growing up and not that I had any, I mean, I love my childhood, but like we just didn't have a lot of extra stuff. Um, so I always wanted to break out and break into the next level. but since I've broken out of that mentality, it's true.
It's just really true. It's like you focus on what you love. You focus on what you're passionate, invest in where you're being called to invest your time and energy. And I just always feel like a client or an opportunity comes at the right time. I don't know if that is that like how it's worked out for you a little bit.
Kristin: Yeah. there's definitely been seasons where it's scary or where I'm tempted to feel that scarcity mentality again, cause same with [00:25:00] you. Like we were fine growing up, but we didn't have a lot of extra. And, and then even early in our marriage, like we were real broke. We had.
Debt and we were like, not living a big life. We were, having to constantly save. And, and so you do kind of look back and say, oh, I could get back there fast. But I think resetting that, like you're saying to that more abundant mindset of There are always going to be more opportunities. There are always other places I can go.
If I keep showing up, I do believe it ends up working out, but.
There's definitely scary
moments where you have to remind yourself of
Crystal: So tell us how did you guys, work out your schedule when you're on the road to fit in sightseeing and doing fun stuff? Obviously, you had to care for your child full time and then do your work. Like what did your actual schedule kind of look like for the most part?
Kristin: Yeah. So we were really different than a lot of other travelers I've met along the way. And that both my husband and I were working for ourselves. Often you'll find one spouse works and maybe the other doesn't, or they don't have [00:26:00] kids or they're in an RV. We were not in an RV. We lived in Airbnbs. So our goal was to spend a month or two per city and really get to know the area and feel like we've lived there.
So we would kind of settle in. My husband and I would split the days. So when we left, our kid was two. That is not an age where you're like. Getting work done while you have the kid, you always think it is, but it's not. And so we would like, one of us would get up and get to work at seven, for example, till 12 or one, and then we would trade and the other would go to work.
Well, you know, the other person took care of our son and that worked out. And early on we had nap time. And then I also started finding some care. com or local camps like the little gym and some other things where they're like nationwide. And I knew they had drop ins or things like that just to get us a few extra hours in the week, cause that really only added up till 20 or 25 hours each. Honestly, it was really fun, but just financially. And then with our businesses, we both would end up needing a little more time. So most of our cities, we would get a little bit above her. but during the weeks, [00:27:00] honestly, our lives would be a lot of work and whoever had our son would do a little bit of exploring.
And our main goal was just to save our weekends for family exploring, because we realized pretty quickly, You cannot go explore every day with a kid. You cannot see everything in the city. And so we would just say on the weekends, we're going to do as much exploring as we can and then get back into our weeks.
And that really worked for us. And honestly, because we were there for so long, I feel like we really got to see all the cities we
lived in.
Crystal: That is amazing. So how did you design, like, how did you design and where you were going to go? So
Kristin: We started with a dream list early on that was mostly coastal and big cities. And then we had to pair that with our budget. And that's when it got a little trickier sometimes. But we really, when we first left, we traveled with our car. And so we started in North America. We spent a lot of time actually in Canada, which was gorgeous.
And we did a little bit in Mexico as well. And we would just map out based on seasons, our ideal locations, and then spend a [00:28:00] lot of time on Airbnb, looking for places to stay, I will say it was a lot of planning, like my planning background really came into play. And if that's not something you enjoy, this may not be something you want to do.
But really, we pretty much constantly had a dream list of where we wanted to go. And when we left, we had about a year mapped out, and we had said, we're gonna do a year. If we're hating it, we're going to stop. We'll settle down somewhere. We'll stay with family till we find a house and we'll be done.
And a year came up and I feel like all of us were like, absolutely not. We are not done. We still have this list and we really wanted to get to Europe. And so we ended up doing two and a half years before we looked up and said, our son is starting kindergarten, but she just started a couple months ago.
It's time to settle down. And frankly, we were getting a little tired. Like the moves were starting to wear on us. And we said, let's. Let's stop before we really hate this.
so we did,
Crystal: how much luggage and things did you carry?
Kristin: well, that was a journey in minimalism for me. When we first left, [00:29:00] we had our SUV and we would pack it. And then every city we'd be like, what is all this crap? We are so tired of moving it. So I feel like over time, we really narrowed it down to where we each had a couple. By the time we went to Europe, we went with five suitcases for the three of us.
And in high, and then we ended up shipping to home after the winter, because even then moving from city to city with five suitcases in Europe is not advisable. and so we just, I feel like that was a process of what am I actually wearing? What are we actually using? And if we're not using it every day, I'm leaving it, and it was very freeing.
It has really impacted how we've done our house as well, of If we don't love it, and if we don't actually use it, I'm not keeping it. And
I have loved that as a side outcome of the whole thing.
Crystal: I love that.
And then, the other interesting part of that is realizing how much your children don't need that there is imaginative Minimalization does a lot for you. what was your experience like that? Did you feel like you [00:30:00] were missing out by not having a toy room?
Kristin: Early on, I would say I was a little worried about it. Leaving with a two year old, he didn't really care that much when we left. And we found very quickly, he would have one bin in our car that he could pick out what toys he wanted. And when we would come home to Nashville, he would change them out. And even he I feel like really learned we have these magnetic blocks and he played with them daily So they came with us even to europe and everything else like he would get some legos We got very creative with crafts.
We discovered on the road how fun It would be to get crafts So most cities I would go when we first got there and he would get it, Ten fifteen dollars at the store and we would pick out paint or whatever phase we were in at the time And he would use those crafts until we left and then we would throw them away And It was very freeing and we are all, I think, more accustomed to less things
and really figuring out what we care about.
So,
Crystal: Yeah. Well, and that goes towards, the less you have, the less that is owning you, right? Like [00:31:00] it's, if you have a big house, you have more to clean. more to take care of. You have more to focus on And less time and energy. It's like all the little trickle down effects. And when we're marketing.
And more is more is out there in every aspect. And it's meant to drive you to buy more and think you need this. And you need to have that. and obviously our um, that's a whole nother side topic, but I have this theory about like, you know, the ballooning houses and the ballooning debt and all the things that have hurt.
I think Americans and middle class families, Like why did we grow up in houses that were 1400 square feet, but now the average house is 2, 800 or whatever it is. and then you have to fill it with more stuff, right? Because you have this more space. so I definitely love that. I think about that often, about how I can have less.
And that is a beautiful gift to give your child.
Kristin: Yeah. We left Nashville. We had 3, 300 square feet and when we bought our house in Charleston, it is 1, 400 and we did that on purpose. I think I will just [00:32:00] say on the point you just made. It is where I come back to intentionally saying, what kind of life do I want to create? If you really want the space and you love your house and you want this big, beautiful house and you enjoy decorating it, I'm not here to fault you for that or say you shouldn't have that.
I'm here to say you should face the reality that means your house is a big part of your life and you're going to have to work to provide for the money to pay for it. And it's always going to be projects. And if you don't mind that, that's great. And you're always going to need stuff for it. If you don't actually love it, then don't spend all that time and energy on it.
You know? Minimalize and give free yourself up to go do the other things you want to.
So I think it's just that intentionality of what you actually want.
Crystal: yeah, I love that. That is just such good advice. and it's what I think about when I run a lot. I live in a fairly affluent area and there's an area, a street that I go down, you know, a couple of miles away.
It's not in my immediate neighborhood. but there is this like hidden house on what appears to be like four acres. [00:33:00] Honestly, if the lot sold alone, I think it would probably be 10 million or more or more. And, you know, I always joke to myself is like, I had a hundred million I would buy that. And I would build a 3000 square foot house where, you know, most people would have like, a 15, 000 or 20, 000, I mean, just crazy house. And it's like, no, what do I care about? I care about convenience. Living in the city, and then I care about being surrounded by trees that, I want to have a country feel with the convenience of being in the city.
but I don't want more. I don't want more space. Like use the space well, because of all those other factors. And I don't think when you're 28 or 30 or whatever, maybe if you're building a house or buying your dream house or buying your first house, you don't really know that until you're in it.
You
Kristin: Mm-Hmm.
Crystal: I grew up in an 1100 square foot house and I promise you, everybody. I promise you, my elementary and junior high friends loved being at my house. Nobody was saying anything about our tiny one bathroom house. Nobody. [00:34:00] They loved coming. People wanted to stay at our house all the time because it was filled with love.
My parents were very friendly and welcoming.
Kristin: Mm-Hmm?
Crystal: People literally just wanted to be at our house all the time
Kristin: Yeah, me too.
Crystal: you know, it doesn't matter.
Kristin: Yeah. That, I think that experience growing up probably makes this an easier conversation for you and I, 'cause I had that too. we. We had a nice house, a fine house growing up. It had a pool, which was the best part of it. But I think it was my parents intentionality of like welcoming my friends.
They all wanted to come over because we would have so much fun. And my mom would have the good snacks. And you know, it's like that stuff where you're like, yeah, the, the size of this house doesn't matter.
You can put kids in a sleeping bag anywhere.
Crystal: Oh my gosh. I'm feeling
guilty now because you just said the good snacks and I'm like, I don't know. A little bit crazy about health food. and my kids, I'll, I buy the good snacks occasionally and they're really excited to give them away to all their friends. Um, I probably need to loosen up on that not the uptight mom, um,
Kristin: some sort of
Crystal: I buy.
Kristin: [00:35:00] there.
Crystal: I find interesting
snacks. And so some of the kids, boys that come over, they're like, Ooh, can you tell my mom you have those? Those are different. And I'm like, they're not, they're like not super healthy. They're not super junk. They're kind of like in the middle, but I'll find stuff. And like each of my kids, friends have different stuff that they like that I buy and they will eat like 10 snacks.
Um,
Kristin: your snacks cause they're eating it all. So,
Crystal: yeah, yeah. Well,
I, I try to have a, an array at but yes, it is a currency for kids. It is a currency. Um, one of my kids actually hides some snacks in his bag to take to school and trade with people because so and so likes these and his mom doesn't buy these.
And I like what they buy. And I'm like, you know what? Then take five, you know,
have
Kristin: yeah. I love it. That's really sweet.
Crystal: So what is the favorite, what do you think was the best place and what Okay. That's the first question. So we'll get, and then the second part of that, I want to know [00:36:00] what place did you think you were going to love? And maybe it kind of like let you down.
Kristin: Oh man. Okay. This question is always really hard for me because honestly, we loved just about everywhere we went and we went to a lot of cities, so we had a hard time narrowing it down, but I will say our consistent winner, and I might've seen this in your profile actually. It's Vancouver and Vancouver Island.
We love Vancouver its brand manager if they would let me, because I just feel like it has everything. Now we only ever did it in the summer. So I'll say that as a caveat, but. Weather is perfect. I don't like hot. I like the windows open. It was like 75 and breezy all summer. It's on the ocean.
It's in the mountains and it's a beautiful, clean city. And the island, Vancouver Island is gorgeous as well. And some of my favorite weekend trips, were on Vancouver Island. So that consistently is a clear winner. After that, my husband and I have different favorites because he loves to ski and his are probably ski town and mine are, you know, Beach, Europe towns, but we both agree that Vancouver is our [00:37:00] favorite area.
and just felt safe, and we found fun stuff. our kid went to camp there all summer, and they were lovely. It was just amazing. I feel like it's the best kept secret in North America. So that was
Crystal: probably our favorite. Was there anywhere that you were kind
of like really excited for that kind of disappointed you or it just wasn't what you were hoping?
Kristin: there were some places that were pretty touristy. Where we really thought they would be our standout place. And then they weren't like, we went down to Mexico. It was very hot. We had a great experience there. We went to Playa del Carmen. I probably wouldn't go back. It just felt very touristy to me and very, that said the people were lovely and the beaches were lovely.
and then we had a hard time in Europe in general because of the time change with our work back here in the States. And so that probably colored some of it for us. overall we loved every city and it was gorgeous and I would totally go back, but we had a harder time with like our [00:38:00] daily life there.
Now I would go to Europe on vacation anytime and I would just never do anything else again cause I loved it. But our working life there. Made it trickier. and then just kind of figuring out daily life while you're trying to work. And it's like a,
a new language and time zone,
but I wouldn't say there's any city where we were like, nah,
Crystal: did you go to Ireland at all?
Kristin: we didn't make it to Ireland. We were supposed to, we got sick that weekend. We stayed in the UK, down in, Brighton on the coast for several months. And then we went to, we were in France for a couple of months, different parts of France, the mountains, and then Nice, which is, It's incredible. We did Switzerland and then we did a cruise.
I feel like we were there for seven months and I still feel like we barely
Crystal: touched the surface of what there is to do. So are you planning on like doing an extended summer, you know, now that you guys are still in your mobile jobs, are y'all, are you guys kind of thinking about that, like how you split some time and kind of.
integrate that back in in the summer.
Kristin: that's [00:39:00] absolutely our goal. Our son is a great traveler. He misses it. so as much as he's up for it, we would love to spend our summers away, rent our place out here. That's kind of what's. Was our goal, like we live in a coastal town, we can rent out our place here. And then we want to do our same kind of, we spend every summer in a city or two.
Our goal is to do that for Christmas too, although that's a much shorter break. So we'll go skiing this Christmas for a couple of weeks. And then next summer, we have not decided Vancouver's top of the list. It has to be somewhere cool,
cooler than the South. And so we're making that list now.
Crystal: So I will tell you for what it's worth. I love Switzerland. A lot of the people in Switzerland, um, if you, I don't know what part of the year you were there, you know, they travel over the summer. So it's kind of actually slow. So that's a nice place to go during the summer. Um, and then I also, if I was going to buy a second house and it did not matter where it was, Vancouver Island is on the top of my list or Ireland, the Irish [00:40:00] people.
I mean, Texans are so, so friendly. It's hard sometimes when you travel and you're like, why aren't these people friendly? Like why isn't somebody waving to me down the street? But Irish people are like exactly like Texans. And I feel like Canadians are the nicest people on the planet. Um, but I actually liked Vancouver Island better than Vancouver.
And if I had to buy a place. and to your point, I don't know if you look this up, but it's usually high of like 80 and low of like 32. So it's perfect.
Kristin: We love Vancouver Island. We spent one of our summers there, um, in several spots around the Island and it
just, I can't wait.
Crystal: yeah. So that's exciting. I can't wait to see where you go over the summer. What else would you share with anybody about. Working and traveling with a family.
Kristin: You know, I think, I think for me, it was not all just like easy. Honestly, there were days that were very hard. I think I just go back to something we've already kind of [00:41:00] talked about a little, but just,
When you do pursue those things you really want, it's not going to be easy, but it is worth it.
Whether it is a job.
Like, I mean, I love working for myself, all of that. what I do with my companies and all are the companies I get to work with. But I just feel like that intentionality of saying, what do we want? And is this worth it to us? I think there were people I've met who are like, Oh, I would never want to travel like you.
I'm like, great. That's great. I'm not out here saying you should go be a travel family. I'm not trying to be a travel influencer. I actually think. It is not for some people. There were days it was very hard and we did not feel like we had roots. And I didn't even know how to find pasta in the grocery store in France.
Cause. My French is not as good as I thought it was going to be. You know, I haven't practiced in 20 years. I don't know why I thought it would be good, but, and so you just, there were days that were so hard, but for us just having that, we knew this is what we wanted and we're going to make it go of
it made it very worthwhile.
Crystal: I love it. The [00:42:00] last and final question I want to ask, cause I'm always interested in people that transition to being their own boss. I know we can never say never, but do you see yourself ever. working for somebody else again.
Kristin: I would say maybe it would have to be the right situation for me. I have really enjoyed working for myself. My husband always has worked for himself. I also see the ways that I enjoyed working in a company. So I think I might be a little strange in this cause I find a lot of people are one or the other.
It would have to be the right situation for me and it would have to have enough flexibility that I could still do a little bit of the things I want to be doing. And so there are some things I will say, I never want to go back full time into an office. I never want to go back to a role that was as intense as I was in.
so that's kind of where I'm at with it.
Crystal: Well, that's awesome. Kristen, I am so inspired by you. I think you've done is just courageous, amazing to live into a dream. That's like a little more atypical, than usually see. And I think it just kudos to you. And I love that you're so [00:43:00] willing to share. I think. We really need to see examples, especially women.
It's hard. We're not natural risk takers, most of us. And you need to see examples of people living out the things that you're thinking about to know, I can do that too. I can do that. and so I love that you lead with that. and I'm just so inspired and I has been wonderful talking to you. we will link where to find Kristen if you want to work with her or just follow along on her amazing story.
She's a great writer as well and has lots of fun stuff to share on LinkedIn with us. So we will share that all on there and I wish you many blessings for a continued fun kindergarten year and look forward to seeing where you guys are going over Christmas.
Kristin: Thank you. Thank you so much, Crystal. I appreciate it. It's been so fun. I feel like we could talk forever
about this stuff, but I'm glad to be here.
Crystal: Absolutely. All right, guys, we'll talk to you soon. [00:44:00]