Alright, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm Jackson Callum, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guests, guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
Ultimately, I just want to go through some of the things that might help you with your
vision.
If you have a vision that you're pursuing, drop a link in the comments and let us know
what that is.
If you're a business or a brand, if it's a non-profit that you run, be happy to promote
it, be happy to talk to you about it, and if you'd like to apply to be on Vision Pros
and be interviewed about that vision, then by all means, feel free to reach out.
How are you?
How's your day going?
Pretty good.
How about yours?
Fantastic.
I'm going to go over your response to my question and my response to yours.
Just to give us context to reflect back on, I really liked your response a lot.
I've had a few, oh, probably not.
I've had about 150 responses from people on it, and it's been awesome to see the vast,
really the versatility of responses of different leaders, and it's been eye-opening.
I've learned a lot through the process.
That's all I can say.
I just learned a lot, and it's been really cool to learn so much.
Where are you based out of?
I'm in...
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
Where are you?
Is it snowing right now, or is it?
No.
It is going to...
The mountains are going to get slammed tonight about 10 to 12 inches, but down in the city,
we won't see.
We'll have rain.
It'll be fine.
Nice.
Yeah.
I'm in...
Fantastic.
So, have you been down here?
My husband's from...
Oh, that's my home.
And my in-laws are all in...
Yeah.
So...
Okay, cool.
I got a sister up there as well.
That's awesome.
So, yeah, I appreciate you coming on.
I definitely want to explore this topic a bit further.
I'm going to just reread your response to give myself full proper context again, and
then what I said from there, and then we can dive in on that.
I'm not in a work culture, so I can't really speak to this.
I would say I'm working with clients that toxic positivity.
They need to appear outwardly positive when feeling otherwise has increased and that pressure
can create hopelessness.
I was just talking about this yesterday with somebody that brought it up.
I think there's a space to acknowledge the more challenging feelings and use empathy
to fulcrum into a more positive and healthy workplace.
It just takes effort and focus on behalf of leadership, and they are often barely keeping
above water with change management.
I believe that slowing down is sometimes the best way to speed up overall, and often that
slowdown is seen as failure or as approached with fear, unfortunately.
So your thoughts on hopelessness and empathy are piercing.
Would you be out for either the meeting?
I would greatly appreciate it.
I know my audience is a benefit tremendously for unpacking this.
Yes.
So thank you for letting me just get this deeper into my heart and mind.
And yeah, I don't think they're aware of where to help.
So you said something interesting to start off.
You said I'm not in a work culture.
What do you mean by that?
Well, I'm what I call a slasher, right?
I'm a creative and a consultant.
So I don't go to a work culture every day.
I don't go, and even beyond that, because I know now with people working remotely, not
everybody is going to a work culture, but I don't really answer to staff or leadership
in the same way that someone who is a part of a company culture does.
And so in that, there's a great space for being able to sort of have the outside, you
know, Hawkeye looking in.
And then there's also a, I don't understand entirely what that may look or feel for many,
except for those who I work with, who I talk to, and help out as a consultant.
So I have a question for you.
Why do you do what you do?
What's your why?
What is my why?
It's funny because it depends on which part of me I'm such a, I'm so segmented as a creative.
I'm a storyteller.
I'm a director and producer of content.
And in that space, I believe story changes lives.
I think we are in a society now more than ever where we are constantly told to keep
moving forward, keep being productive, keep doing the things.
And it is some, in some ways, shut down our capacity for feeling.
And so I think we as we feel through story, so it's okay to go to a movie and cry or laugh
or do those things, but it may not be as okay to do that in our work or home lives in the
same way.
So I believe we, through storytelling that I can, you know, just provide a salve to the
soul and it makes me, I don't know what else to do.
Like it is the thing that I'm called to.
And then you flip that and you talk about, you know, my company and my consulting work
and what, you know, we use improv as I work in applied improv.
So we use improv as a modality to essentially get people connected in the workplace and
having more productive conversations and being able to be vulnerable and use empathy and,
you know, be real and authentic in the moment and get to know one another so that we can
create trust and give and take and respect in the workplace.
And even though there are sort of different sides of the coin, they are very much still,
you know, connected in that through line of just being humans with one another and remembering
that we're humans and remembering we're all doing our best and trying to connect people
in those ways.
Do you see that there's a growing need for what you do in the market?
I think so.
I mean, here's the hard part about it.
I think there is a growing need.
I think there's been a need for it for decades.
I don't always think that leadership sees it that way.
And I don't know if they always see that it will help things grow.
It's, you know, what we do, especially when I'm in a console, we laugh a lot.
I mean, like my entire, when I'm in a workshop where I'm working with people, we're laughing
the whole time.
And I think there's a fear that if you're laughing, you're not learning.
And I would offer the complete opposite that I think we learn the most when we're uncomfortable,
when we're laughing.
And you know, also sometimes when you're in, you know, in the boat and it's sinking together,
but we, that's not the kind of learning we've been into.
That's not the fun part of it.
You know, like that's the trauma part of it.
But I would argue that, you know, I've got people who will approach me years after taking
one workshop with me and say, I still do the thing.
I still do the thing that I learned.
And I think it's because we laugh together.
And it's a key component of what we do.
And it doesn't mean that we don't, you know, absolutely identify goals and talk through
things and make sure we're achieving those things.
But it is done in a space of absolute fun and laughter and setting people a little bit
off course, off of what they're, you know, when you're, when you're a little bit off
center, I think you discover a lot about yourself.
And by the way, leaders discover a ton about their teams when they watch them work through
something that might be a little uncomfortable.
And we learn a lot about how those teams function and how we can support them better that way.
I'm certain that the, I probably shouldn't have used that word.
I don't want to lead, but how much does a type of laughter weigh into your exercises?
And do you know what I mean by that?
Or do you want me to clarify?
I want you to clarify.
Okay.
I imagine just based on what I've learned about you and the empathy factor that we're
not talking about laughter based on cynicism, right?
Based on, on cruel roasting, the type of laughter that so many seek in this world.
Yeah.
Talk to me about the type of laughter you mean.
When you mean you're drawing laughter, I have a feeling it draws celebration and inspiration.
Yeah.
It's a connective laughter.
Like, you know, comedy is often, I'm a comedy writer.
That's what I do.
And so, and comedy is often comes out of those places where we see ourselves in the situation
that's happening before us.
So, you know, the first thing to do with a company is to create trust and, and then,
and then create this idea that we have to fail.
Like you're not innovating unless you're failing.
So we have to fail in one of, in front of one another.
We have to do it.
What I call struggle joyfully.
Struggling joyfully is a very different space to be in than when you're struggling in, for
real.
And, and that is all culture based, right?
Like, are we, do we feel safe to say something that maybe is kind of a crazy idea, but we
want to see how it hits.
Do we feel safe to have something that doesn't work, but let somebody else pick up that ball
and make it better?
Do we, can we laugh together because, you know, like we'll do an exercise called alphabet
and it's literally the alphabet, but almost every time someone will not do the right letter,
right?
And, and we had the end and we all sort of laugh and I go, now is someone going to point
the finger and be like, you didn't know the alphabet?
And I know, like it's just, we're going to so much about where improv comes from.
And what we do in that space of creating joy is there's a problem.
Let's fix it.
Let's all rush in and help fix this together as opposed to there is a problem.
It was you, you caused it, go sit in the corner and we're going to shame you about it.
It's not that we're on the same boat.
Like let's fix it and let's set each other up for success.
So that in that space of something going awry or there be, being laughter bubbling up, that
we all can come and play in that space.
And I'm a big proponent of play.
As adults, we don't play.
I don't play enough.
I need to play more.
We all need to play.
Yes.
I love it.
All right.
So I obviously asked you for a meeting, but what was, what was the real goal?
Why, why, why did you choose to show up and honor my request?
Because I see a lot of people in pain, right?
I actually don't know.
It was a feeling.
It was intuition.
I follow my intuition a lot.
I feel very strongly about that.
And I don't always know why I say those things or not.
And I, and I say no to lots of things, but I, people are hurting right now.
And I think we're doing a disservice by not allowing them to share that in spaces.
And there's, you know, just because someone says, I'm, I'm struggling, I'm sad, I'm whatever,
doesn't mean that everything's collapsing and we can't do business and it's not, you
know, we as a, we are going through a lot of different recognings as a culture, both
in this country and worldwide, we've have collective trauma that we are not talking
about.
And I, and I, you know, you see it like you see people's behind their eyes have sort of
shut down a bit.
And I think there's this just great need for saying, can we do things differently?
Can we shake up the status quo and, and approach our life?
You know, I used to always say like, I want to design my life, not my career.
My career is a part of my life, but I want to design my life.
I want to be able to stay home with my kids.
I want to be able to do these things.
And I think that's in, in this culture, I think sometimes that can be hard to say, I
really want to design my life first because your company wants you to be a big part of
that life.
But I think if we could take a step back and realize what people are aching for and the
authentic, the authenticity and the connection they're seeking from their work, that we would
create spaces where things are move faster, are more efficient, better.
I mean, talk about the proof.
I mean, there's studies around empathy that say if you share empathy, doctors are, I was
a consultant for Kaiser Permanente for many years.
And it's like doctors are out of a room on average two to four minutes faster when they
employ empathy.
So it's not just like, hey, it's touchy feely and we should do it.
There are actual real efficiency reasons to employ some of these skills to connect with
people.
And to, you know, the productivity goes up there.
They stick, you know, we're not spending as much money on turnover.
But there are real reasons to work with care and empathy in the workspace.
But I don't see it happening really.
I mean, you know, it doesn't.
And it's, I'm a poster child.
I am not necessarily the most natural empathetic person in some ways.
But I had to learn it and it can be learned and it can be employed and it can really make
a difference.
And, and I think that's why I probably said yes, because I just feel like people meet,
people just need it.
They just need it.
I don't know what else to say.
They really just need it and leaders need to hear that it's, that there's a different
way of doing things.
And that's okay.
And it's okay for them to not always know either, you know,
I'm honored by your intuition.
I'm glad that you own it.
I'm very glad that you own it.
A lot of people wouldn't, you know, they would, they would shy away from that.
That's amazing.
And it's, and my biased opinion, it's spot on.
One of my family therapists, when I was going through my first divorce, learned a lot of
hard lessons through that lessons I don't want to learn, but lessons that I'm grateful
for.
And he gave us this quiz.
I don't remember all the levels.
I remember there was four.
And I had the most unique score he's ever seen, because you're supposed to have a predominant
one, and then you're supposed to have a secondary one.
And my predominant was a 100% score.
He'd never seen that.
And my 100% was healer.
That's what I gravitated towards on every question.
Like easily.
What was really strange for him, but not for me because I tend to do this on most, my
Briggs disc, et cetera, I died, just who I am.
My other three scores were all equal.
And so I'm a very self-aware and self-assured individual as well.
Both scored, those were my three, two of my top three traits on the Strengths Finder 2.0.
If you've ever taken that, if you haven't, it's amazing.
I took it a long time ago.
Because I take a lot of those tests, because a lot of my people I consult with will ask
me to.
Right.
But I am an ENTJ.
I'll tell you that, which is, I think people can sometimes be, well, if you know me, you're
not surprised, but some people don't be surprised by that.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
And we all have our human side too.
Our survival mode.
There's a lot to that.
But back to your intuition factor.
There's a lot of, I have a lot of personal background with growing companies and implementing
that healing nature in my companies.
And seeing how it impacts what we do, how it impacts my team, how it impacts my life.
And I feel on the way I feel and feel very self-assured with the reality that you're
right.
Your theory is very, very on point.
Do you know what percentage of businesses fail within 10 years?
Have you ever heard that stat?
I'm sure it's high and growing with the side hustle culture that we're involved with as
well.
It's true.
It might affect the growth on it.
It's 96%.
We celebrate a worldwide economy that has been one of the best economies in the world.
I also love that you are very particular about how you use hyperbole.
That also means a lot to me.
You were close to saying ever you cut yourself off and you went towards a healthy word in
a society that throws it in our face so often that it's very difficult not to fall in and
think and feel that way.
So this is a lot about your wisdom and leadership.
Yeah, 96%.
And I look at that and I just think, how can we celebrate as a world or as a country with
a 4% success rate?
That would not be acceptable in any school in the nation.
And yet for business owners, for whatever reason, doesn't matter why.
What matters to me is how do we fix the formulas?
What are the formulas that we should be following because it is a math equation at the end of
the day?
There are, you put certain things together.
You put happiness and joy together.
You get a certain outcome.
You put guilt and shame together.
You get a certain outcome.
You mix hope with subordination or in slavery and you get a certain outcome.
There's a reaction that will occur in those situations and those equations that is not
always predictable.
And depending on the level, the amount of each, it determines what type of outcome.
And I'm not saying people are pre-programmed, but there's a certain predictability to the
experience.
How you walk up to people, how you approach people, et cetera.
Seven of my eight startups that are more than 10 years old are in business today.
That's an 87% track record.
Some of that, it's not statistics.
I need 800, 8,000 before that really matters.
I'm also very selective about who I work with.
So there are some variables, but I know how to pick my winners too.
A lot of it has to do with making sure that I pick the winners.
And it's actually quite dependable, that particular formula.
That said, I do a podcast that I'd love to have you on.
I'm going to get your voice out there.
There's two questions I want to go towards.
I know we're running out of time.
You said what I meant to do.
My next question for you is, why do you care?
Why do I care?
You mentioned the externals, right, of how this helps people, what it can do for society,
et cetera.
So more pointedly, why do you, Krista, and is it Gano or Gano?
Gano, yes.
Krista Gano.
Why do you personally care?
I mean, I think that, actually, how do you not care?
That's a hard question.
How do you not care?
I think I'm an empath.
So I think that when I see pain around me, I can't help but care because I feel it and
it becomes something that I want to help and guide and relieve.
Do you know where that came from?
You could go back into a lot of things.
I'm a firstborn child of a large mixed family with lots of divorce and other things that
put me into a place of definitely needing to figure out what's the energy that's happening
in the room and how to manipulate it, mitigate it, help it along.
For sure.
I mean, I think that there's a lot in that childhood space that creates some of that.
I mean, I came up as an artist and as an actor, which, I mean, if you're an actor, human,
you should be fascinated with the way we function as humans and what our tells are and what
happens.
I mean, that's the whole point of getting into a character and then launching that into
storytelling.
So I mean, I also think I have what I would call woman of faith.
And I was listening to somebody talk the other day about the difference between being the
type of person who is trying to do good to secure your space in heaven versus the type
of person who tries to make this space, our earth, a place that is worthy of God to be
proud of the work you've done or who you are here.
And I definitely subscribe, not that heaven doesn't sound great, I would love to jam up
there.
But I mean, I think we're here, we're here for purpose, we're here to love one another,
be kind, help and try to take the gifts that have been bestowed on us and make them better
and there for the next people.
And we've done some damage in the past few generations of like partially because we've
got, you know, you don't know, you do better when you know better, but we've done some
damage and there's work to be done.
And it's rough.
It's rough right now.
And I think a lot of us have reached a place where we just don't know what to do next.
And I guess I don't think I can make some massive difference necessarily, but if I could make
any difference, for me that feels purposeful.
So I don't know if that answers the question.
And I guess that's true.
And it's your answer.
Yeah, I don't know how else to, I don't know how to function in the world.
I believe it does.
And yeah, I love it.
It's beautiful.
It was helpful to me.
If it was helpful to me, then I hope you accept it with grace that it was impactful.
Oh, good.
Thank you.
You know, and that's, I think it's also helpful when we learn not to pull that away from God.
Yeah.
You know, as we testify, right?
Yeah, I know.
It's like, it has to, we have to, at some point you got to do what you're called to
and, and, and there's a lot of need.
So as for as many people who can be called to help even in every teeny little small way
possible, we should all be leaning and stepping in with bigger.
Yeah.
I thought you said bigger.
You said bigger.
Bigger.
It's another word coming in.
It's an adjective.
Oh, wait, no, it's bigger.
She's smart.
She has big words.
So, well, great.
Vision wise.
I mean, it's again, I, what I hear is not necessarily what I understand, which is why
I kind of repeat similar questions.
They're good.
What's your vision?
What's your vision for?
You mentioned we have this mantle that to possibly take on from God that we, you know,
that people in this world need this, that we may have roles.
I personally thought of Jonah, you know, and Nineveh and is, you know, moving away from
it, I've done that many times in my life and found myself also sometimes back into that
role.
What's, you know, what's your role?
Do you know how, how big that is?
Have you considered what, what your dedication level will be to this?
Hey, let me, let me frame that with.
This is where you're going to end up coaching me because I know my answer and I, and I'm
going to frame it one way first.
And that's one of my clients in the past is a local dentist and they wanted to explain
their practice, have a couple of dentists underneath their belt, do their trips to Guatemala
where they go and do free dentistry twice a year and take goods with them and have their,
their impact in their local community.
Beautiful, fantastic, lovely vision.
I have no right to challenge that.
No right to say you should be the biggest visionary in the world, our biggest dentist
in the world.
No right to tell them to go franchise.
No, it's not my vision.
That's not what I do anymore.
I used to be that guy.
And those are other stories for another day, but I did learn to follow my savior much
more openly and realize that he only led through invitations.
That was it.
Never pressure, never coercion, only invitations.
And I strive really hard to stay true to that.
So with visions, it doesn't matter if somebody's vision to me is I want to be a stay at home
mom and I know that's what I'm supposed to do.
That's beautiful and amazing.
And the world shouldn't take that away from them.
On the flip side, if somebody wants to be an Elon Musk or a Mark Zuckerberg and they
know that they're meant to bless billions of people, they don't go out there not saying
those to do it.
I don't know.
I'm not close enough.
I'm not God.
But it's my role to support the visionary on their vision.
So long as the vision is ethical and virtuous and I'm in line with it, I'm here to support,
facilitate, inspire on that.
That requires that you define your vision on me.
What does your vision look like?
So again, this is where I probably have two different visions.
You have five, 10 minutes.
Yeah, I do.
If you do, I do.
I have an extra 15.
Yeah, I'm good.
So I would say that I have, I have two parts of my soul that are that are always have always
been sort of battling within my within my career.
And one is the creative, the person who has been working for literally nine years to get
a film made that is about a family who's moving on after the dad dies by suicide.
And it's, it's about the family and it's about faith and it's about some other things that
I've been working on this film for so long and I'm slated to direct it.
And it got, it was supposed to be actually in production right now and it got pushed
to the fall.
So that for me is an absolute passion project that I have said a lot, have sacrificed a
lot to continue to try to get that done.
And we're with great partners.
We as a partner, we've got as a partner, like we've got great partners.
So that is one part of my sole purpose, I believe in telling stories.
And, and then I've got some scripts I wrote as well.
And then I've got my, my consulting, which I have to say, I love the other part of your
soul.
Yes, okay.
They're part of the soul that loves to get in and just help people and last with them
and, and help them, you know, figure out how to communicate in ways that are more productive
with and make their days better.
And, you know, and that's what we do with innovative improv solutions is we, we've worked
with every, we've worked with a lot of Fortune 500 companies, but we've, that has always
been sort of the part time gig to support the art, right.
And we've, we've really relied on word of mouth and, and we haven't, you know, we haven't
gone out there to try to like build the business.
My business partner in that venture is an actor as a working actor and does very well.
And so we've had, I've had these two sides of my brain that have functioned and that
business that we started that business 16 years ago.
So we've been in business doing that for a long time.
And, and we're, and we're different than other applied improv or companies is that we don't
do trust building.
Like there's, you know, you'll go to second, I'm, I used to be the executive director of
the groundlings.
I don't know if you know who they are.
They're like second city, but in Los Angeles.
So about traditionally about half of Saturday Night Live, the cast and writers have come
out of the groundlings.
And that's what I did before I went out on my own.
And so I come from a space of laughter and comedy and helping artists.
I have, I have another very small niche company that I, that I'm just now shutting down because
I don't feel called to it anymore, which was to help artists move from understand the professional
landscape and move from being hobbyists into professionals.
And it's, I guess what I'm saying all of this to you, thank you for being my coach and mentor
in the moment is that I, I hit 50 and I know I don't look it.
And I look 50.
That's not fair.
But I hit 50 and I had this and also the pandemic.
And I had this moment where I realized I was, I was giving so much coaching and so much
of my energy and wisdom to other people that I was not, I was not chasing my dream, which
is this getting this film made.
And so I started to shut some things down that I was doing because I, you know, I had
somebody come up and go like, well, you've had so much, you've had so much experience
in the entertainment industry.
We all want, we all want you to coach us and I was like, Oh, okay, well, okay.
And there was a lot of me just giving a lot out.
And when COVID hit, my writing partner and I wrote four scripts.
And it was one of those aha moments of like, Oh, when I give so much of myself to others
to coach them up, you may have had something similar happen with you as well.
I'm not doing the thing that I feel like God put me on the planet for.
And I need to figure out a way to do, to just understand my own energy and what I'm able
to do and give and make sure there's still left for my family and my faith and other
things.
And so I started shutting down working artist group, which was another side company I had.
It still exists in some capacity and I do some a little bit of work group, but I'm not
really pushing it any longer.
And innovative improv is something that I delight in.
I love going and working in companies and having people who have really been struggling
in some, with some communication with one another, like figure it out and be able to
work together.
And like that stuff excites me.
So that energizes me and that tells me that I should be there.
And then my film, which, you know, well, hopefully we will be in production in October, that
is something that not only lights me up.
I feel like it's a soul's purpose and it's a bucket list item at this point.
Like it's got to just get done.
We are so close.
Like you got to just get it done.
And so that's, that's sort of where I am right now in the career circles of trying to figure
out.
And so when you ask vision, it's like, I don't quite know.
I feel like I'm in a very, I'm in this time of contraction where I'm trying to figure
out what is, what is that thing?
What is the place to move for the next phase of my career, which is probably going to be
the twilight of my career?
Like where is that impact and where do I want it to sit and how, and how do I want that
to look?
I'm still crafting.
Remember I said I've always crafted my life.
I'm still crafting that.
I know because of my background and because of what I do, I have a great comfortability
and talent and ability to talk to massive amounts of people.
Like I am not at all nervous to go and stand up in front of thousands of people and talk.
I, I get, it jazzes me.
I help others pitch their projects and learn how to pitch and connect with people.
It's, you know, it's part of the communication work that we do through Innovative Improv.
And then, I mean, the ultimate to me is obviously having a film that I'm not even there.
I mean, I was there because I crafted it.
The fourth level of influence.
Yeah, but I'm just, I'm watching it, you know, hopefully just change things, you know,
that I'll never see or touch or feel.
And personally, one-on-one, which is totally badass and fine.
Yeah.
Are you familiar with the fourth level of influence?
I don't think I know that.
That's it.
I think the one-on-one is the first level.
One-to-many is second level.
And one-to, oh, third level is that it's one-to-group.
Then there's one-to-many, I believe.
I think it's the fourth level where it's, you're not even there and you have that influence,
right?
That's the Jesus level.
That's the Gandhi level.
That's the Buddha, the Mother Teresa level.
That's, oh, that's amazing.
You know, a film can do that.
But what's the, is there a goal right now as far as how many people y'all are anticipating
see the film or do y'all start those goals during the production phase?
We will start those goals.
Well, yes and no.
I mean, we start those goals during the distribution phase.
What I didn't know before I started this journey with this story is that suicide is the fifth
leading cause of death for men in midlife.
And I have two people in my life who just lost their husbands to suicide just in the
last three months.
There's a friend of mine who has a neighbor who has lost five friends to suicide in the
last two years.
And so it's not getting better.
It is something and no one will talk about it.
And moreover, there are not, this film talks about the family that's left behind.
It starts a year after the event.
And so it's really about the waves and the ripples of the grief and the change and that
happens once the tagline is it's what happens when the condolences stop but life doesn't.
And just a very unique loss and grief journey of someone who's a suicide survivor is very
different.
And there's no films talking about it.
We want to like hang out in the morose-ness of the decision and of the way and of the,
you know, that piece of it.
We don't really want to, we haven't as of yet sat with the family, which are mostly quite
honestly women very often, many women and children who have to heal from this loss in
a very unique way.
So it is, it is really meant again, that space I believe that we learn and accept and love
and grow through laughter is very much a piece of this puzzle.
Yeah, awesome.
There you go.
I just pitched you on my movie.
It didn't mean to.
Oh, I love it though.
I'm happy that you did.
What you've authentically opened on this call is a big part of what I believe growing
visionaries would benefit tremendously from hearing.
This photo right here, this boy from Akron, Ohio wanted to make the NBA.
He didn't know he'd go on to break the scoring record for the NBA and become the LeBron James
that everybody knows.
And his vision elevated over time.
Yeah.
A lot of us have that, a lot of us who go the route of visionary have that opportunity
right to get to the next mountain, see our field of view ahead.
I remember my first time making it to the top of a mountain for our SaaS company, bootstrapped
SaaS company that was so hard to build.
And we got to the top and it was like that scene in Homeward Bound with the dogs and
the cat and they climbed the mountain and they're excited to see home and they see a
mountain range and they're like, uh-oh.
It's exactly what it felt like.
We saw the Rocky Mountains and I was like, uh-uh, nope, nope.
I'm going to set up shop on the other side of this mountain, lick my wounds, enjoy life
here maybe someday.
But my job is to help entrepreneurs get to that next well.
Since then, I've re-studied my journey a couple of times, but I remember that feeling in my
early 20s of, uh-uh, like that's, I'm not ready for that.
So I think it's really important to let leader, listen, you sort of go like, I'm going to
be a leader and there's this idea that you like, I've got to be perfect, I've got to
make mistakes, I've got to do this, I've got, and I know a lot of leaders, great leaders
don't have that, but new leaders especially do.
And there's a lot of pressure, especially if you're a woman too, or a person of color
or somebody who feels like I've got this mantle on my shoulders of being the one for others.
And you know, and it's, I just, my hope at some point is just to look at all of them.
I know there's a lot of great voices out in the world, but we all connect to different
coaches or different voices or different things for, you know, in different ways.
And it's why I always tell people, I'm like, listen, if I, what I say, like I've seen
people like I've said something to them 20 times and then they'll go to a talk and someone
will say the same thing in the exact same words, they're like, come back and they go
to some amazing stuff, man.
It was really amazing stuff.
And I could choose to be like, I've told you that 10 times, or I could say someone spoke
to you.
Right.
Look at that.
I learned this through therapy with my first wife, that, you know, I learned to appreciate
it.
But I do think there's a space for us all to get out of our own ways and just go like,
what, you know, what was the goal?
What was the goal was that they learned it?
That's right.
That's exactly right.
Oh, it's beautiful.
So we, um, all right.
Yeah, we, we've got, I'd love to have a follow up conversation, because especially with what
I've learned about your vision and brand, I'd like for you to meet my business partner
at some point.
This is Dean Forbes.
He is my business partner at first class business.
We joined forces about two months ago.
We've been friends for about two years and Dr. Todd Snyder is one of my investors.
He used to be my 50 50 partner.
Now he's a silent investor.
He's one of the best psychotherapist, entrepreneur, coaches in the world.
And I am very humbled that he brought me on all of his clients besides me make $200,000
a month take home.
I was the exception to the rule by far.
I will say that.
And we've, we've grown quite an amazing system for helping people with scaling their visions
out.
And I don't, I don't want to make the presumption or, or allude to the fact that we're ready
to do that for you.
We'd have to have a conversation about what that could look like.
But what I do see is innovative improv solutions, potentially being a phenomenal solution for
our clients as well.
As we scale and grow, we plan on scaling to where we have over a hundred clients, business
clients coming on per month.
And I'm hoping to do that within a few quarters time from now.
We've been building our prototypes out, gearing up for it.
As I bring on people like, like Dean, who have corporate background and as my gray
hair start to grow in, I start to grow.
Let them grow.
To the corporate environment.
I've always been the young entrepreneur stay away.
You don't have a degree.
We don't trust you.
You're going to inspire everybody to leave.
You know, and I was a very mag.
I was a very polarizing leader because I wasn't leading.
I was just doing what I felt was right and kind of ignoring, you know, not, not, not
with a lack of empathy, but I'm a protector.
And so when I see an environment that's manipulating individuals, I'm not a very, I wasn't very
tactful or diplomatic about my approach to resolving the issue, which gets the little
bold fish eaten outside of the school of fish rather than, you know, learning to grow in
a safe zone, learn to be diplomatic and learn to have an influence that's far larger when
you're not so hasty about how you do things.
So I've also done some exercises with, with people who lead based on the theories you've
talked about that I'll never forget.
And then I really loved how it was facilitating.
We learned so much about each other through these processes.
So there's a massive need and many levels for what you do.
There's a massive need for the virtual version of what you do.
We're struggling, we're struggling for that with that.
I mean, we're not, we're not, we're, I say joyfully struggling because we're not struggling
like it's hard, but we're definitely trying to figure out what that, how to translate
that in different ways.
Because it's new to all of you.
Yeah.
And it's, and it's hard.
So much of, of it is, you know, when we have people in a room live, they can't do anything
else.
It's so, it's like so like off-putting to walk in and then like, they were like, nope,
put everything away.
We're in a circle and we're staring in each other's eyeballs.
I've been working from home since 2009.
And this is, and this is as great as this is, we are constantly, we're fighting a lot
of distraction in that space.
So we're still trying to, I mean, we've done it varying levels.
Of success.
And we're definitely in the game and doing it.
Yeah.
I mean, you, you lose some of the really great vibes that come along with that.
But yeah, they can get it.
That's the key is that just so you know, again, I've been through this since 2009.
Yeah.
I've been working at home with work at home companies since 2009.
And I have seen the cycles that occur.
And we got to go through the horrific cycles that all the COVID individuals aren't even
at yet.
There is a massive storm that is coming and it will create what I believe, I'm a very
hopeful individual.
I know a lot of people are in fear of what's going on.
But what I don't see in today's world is I don't see people like Dracula cutting people's
heads off, putting them on stakes outside of their real estate property.
I don't see as much slavery taking place and as many concentration camps taking place
throughout the world.
I do see people of different diverse backgrounds starting to come together.
Although again, COVID does now cause people to look down and not talk to their in a weird
way.
You know, there's all sorts of weirdness that's going on.
And so there's some aspects that overall though, I have seen more light spread into
this world as I've looked at history.
And we, we have an awesome opportunity.
Oh, man, that's amazing.
We're in a clearing.
We're in a clearing and you got to clear out and let people, that's why I think I'm so
passionate about letting people have the feels.
Because I always go the fastest way through through like you can't like you can't like
the more we go like no, no, I'm not going to feel that I'm super, super happy to be here
today.
Yeah, it's great.
It's great.
That the longer the process is going to take for us to innovate on the other side.
And so I want people to like stop being fearful, like let's get into the muck with
it.
And I'm going to go through as much as I've had that book, which I have dysfunctions of
a team.
No, it's built on your principle, which is great.
I mean, I know there's lots of builders, but it's one of my it's one of the two business
books that I regret not reading sooner because I had it on my list and I didn't the five
just say the five dysfunctions of a team by Patrick wincy only and everything starts
with overcoming fear by learning to be learning to facilitate vulnerability.
And it's a book that's designed to be a movie because it's got 17 different personalities
in it.
And it's all story.
So it's done through storytelling.
The audible is way better because of that.
You can hear all the voices.
Oh, it's amazing.
It's such a good quick read.
But that's like I am humbled every time I work with people because I've had it just for
as many times as I've had people laugh so hard they've cried, which happens all the time.
I've also had people cry, share what's not going right for them in the workplace right
in front of their boss.
Be honest enough to say, Hey, Linda, your vibe that you won't let me talk about my weekend
really shuts me down and then walk through it.
And I've even had people who have said who have thrown up in a class because it was just
made them so nervous to be that vulnerable.
But I take all of that as like I am super honored because that means that we were safe
enough to walk through something that probably that person never walked through in a workspace
before.
And that made that place better.
You're kidding me, Ingers.
I love it.
So I'm like, I'm and I'm never scared of it.
In fact, I've always had people go like, give Krista the tough ones because I'm like, let's
let's sit down and like work it out and figure out what's going on and and and what you're
scared of and how we can step in.
Wow.
So I don't know that's that's definitely I will definitely listen to that that book.
Well, thank you for all the time you've given me.
I went over my time too and I'm just I'm just soaking this in.
I'm soaking in the moment.
So I have no idea what this what this at all looks like, like for us to chat and move forward.
But I want you to know I am super I am because I'm in a rebuilding phase of what I think
is next for me in many ways.
I'm super open to like exploring and figuring out how you meet tomorrow.
Can I meet to know?
I don't think I can.
When can you prioritize this?
You're and I sounds like I'm buttering you up, but you know how valuable you are, right?
You do know that.
I have learned the skill of saying thank you and even though I don't confidence and cockiness
are completely different ones advice ones of virtue and you hope to deserve to be confident
in what you do.
It is so I am confident.
You know, I am confident when I do know whether I can really gracefully on the inside take
some the some of that and really hear it.
Probably not.
But I have worked with thousands and thousands of business owners.
And and and business executives and then trains.
I've dedicated my my short life to that reality.
And I've been studying people since I was little.
People ask where I learned how to sell.
It took me a while to figure that out to become self-aware enough to know that the first
time I sold I was three years old.
My parents were fighting in the bedroom screaming at the top of their lungs.
I ran through the bathroom through the closet jumped across the bed pushed my parents apart
and said stop fighting.
And I could have easily not had a great outcome with that experience with an alcoholic father.
And I'm very fortunate that it worked.
You know, and that's my spirit.
That's what I do.
I have no fear of of most conflict and going in between and and being a mediator or moving
things forward.
The amount of people that I have trained with trained under etc.
You have an incredible gift.
It is very easy to see.
Your strengths will come with fantastic weaknesses.
I love Dr. Peter Drucker's words on that.
He says people with tremendous strengths always this is the one hyperbole.
I like always come with incredible weakness.
You know, that's there and that's OK.
We have if you want to work with somebody strong, you have to be willing to accept the
weaknesses and it's in your best interest then to look at it together and say how do
we build defenses around the weaknesses?
But you can have your cake.
You can eat it too.
I also believe that you can put the cake on a production line, a conveyor belt, and we
could have more Richard Branson's in this world that can produce a movie that can run
their company that can perhaps find their time back to helping those actors, but also
have that that also be fed.
There's an abundance that can exist for some of us in life, not that we don't want it to
happen for all, but because sometimes life in this life, fair is not completely measured
out.
Why?
Because in my opinion, my very strong bold known opinion, it's about the eternal aspect.
You know, and what's occurred here in relation to me wanting to be a full time data for not
getting to now I see my kids every other weekend and get, you know, less than a third of their
life with them.
That was very hard to understand, but to appreciate and to know that that's okay.
Like it's all going to work out.
The entire equation is going to work out to serve our good.
And I truly believe and know that.
And that's what allows me to understand that.
Okay, it doesn't need to be fair right now, but that said, you happen to have some tremendous
gifts and I think it'd be really cool to explore if there is an opportunity to expand that in
a bigger way sooner than later.
And so I'd invite you to see more.
Thank you for your time, Krista.
Thank you.
I'll talk to you later.
All right.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
We optimize them as the months go by.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
I invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and
attention and have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro
yourself.
I'll talk to you soon.
Bye-bye.