MY JOURNEY// Transformation of a girl from the hood
Part 1: The Commodities Trader
It was one of the craziest things I had ever experienced.
In my past life as a power trader, the Powers that Be (Head Office) made the 3 hour drive to cut loose 35/40 of the traders in our shop.
Plucked from the floor, one by one.
Like prisoners taken to meet their fate in front of a firing squad.
We all knew what was coming. Certain death. And yet there was nothing any of us could do
But wait.
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3 months later I was sitting on a crude oil trading desk.
An even better gig.
I was structuring multimillion dollar deals.
It was sexy. Fun. Challenging.
I have a gift for seeing patterns. I love being able to put pieces of a puzzle together.
I was a badass.
I was one of a handful of women in a highly male dominated industry.
I felt special.
I was great at my job.
My identity was tied to my role as a trader.
My ego. I’ve always set the bar high and bitten off the biggest challenge I could find.
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Layoff #2 didn’t cut as deep but it forced an entire life pivot.
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I couldn’t keep ignoring the truth.
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Life is a series of decisions and inflection points.
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So I took my severance package and jetted off to the shores of Costa Rica.
I had no idea what was on the other side or what I needed.
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I knew I couldn’t go back to the life that was killing me.
The partying. Booze. Drugs. Buying all the things.
The painful reality: Under the surface it all felt so empty.
💫The Lesson
Sometimes the Universe pushes you in a painful direction to give you a chance to completely shift your life.
To shed the things that aren’t working.
To recreate yourself.
To choose your future intentionally from a blank slate.
Not based on the past version of you.
2020 brought an F load of changes. I get it.
We all get to move forward with intention.
To choose the things we’re building in our future.
Not out of default, but out of expansion, clarity, courage and consciousness.
What’s something you’re bringing into the world this year?
Part 2: The Coworking Space Owner + Business Coach
It was down to the absolute wire.
What should have been a done deal weeks early nearly fell over at the eleventh hour.
Our launch party was booked for 3 days later. I still remember the dozens of phone calls, the pressure, the financing hitting our account at 4:45pm on a Friday - Minutes before the whole deal nearly fell over.
💫We were creating a coworking space to connect a community of conscious entrepreneurs.
It was magical. We had a BIG VISION. 💚
Two months later, it was unravelling in front of me.
My business partner was walking away.
She called me on a Sunday.
The stress of it all was overwhelming her.
To take care of herself, she needed to leave.
I understood but it didn’t fix the shit storm I now found myself in.
I didn't sleep for days.
I had a personal guarantee on a $200,000 lease.
I had a community of people counting on me to show up.
⚡️
I had a choice.
I could sink or I could swim.
These are the things you can't share with clients.
I can still connect to the deep feeling of aloneness I felt.
It was both one of the most difficult moments of my life.
AND
one of my biggest pieces of growth.
I survived.
I built resilience.
I showed myself what I was really capable of.
I now get to share that story to support others through challenges. It’s an example of what’s possible.
✨
As you think about 2021. And you read the negative news, and the memes telling you what a disaster it all is.
I offer you this: You too have a CHOICE.
✨
You can view the whole thing as a car wreck.
The world is happening to you.
Or you can step up, lean in and boldly decide that you are a CREATOR of your life.
Part 3: The Finance Coach
Finance is BROKEN. We need a new system.
I’m tired AF of watching grey haired white men in stuffy suits perpetuate a model that works for no one. A system that disempowers, confuses and leaves people lost when it comes to one of their most powerful resources: their MONEY.
Over years of working with women it always pained my ears hearing this when it came to their numbers.
😓I don’t know. I’m just ummmmm…. not good at math.🤷🏼♀️
I’m not good with numbers.🤦🏼♀️
I don’t like spreadsheets.🙅🏼♀️
And I FEEL ya!
Here’s what’s wrong with EVERY SINGLE old outdated finance text I pick up.
IT SUCKS.
It’s boring.
It’s confusing.
It’s full of jargon that nobody understands.
Here’s what I need you to know babe...
I have an MBA in Finance.
I could build a financial model in my sleep.
I’m a math sorceress.
Numbers are my jam.🤓
And I’m here to tell you, I fall asleep when I read most finance content. I struggle to make sense of it all.
🤔The problem?
There’s no clear place to start.
There’s no one helping you understand how it all applies to you.
There’s no one there to answer your questions without making you feel like an idiot.
🤷🏼♀️So you sit there feeling stupid and stuck.
You tell yourself the lie that you’re ‘just not good with numbers’ and it’ll never work for you.
🚫HOLD UP! Just a frickin minute chica.
This sticky little sitch you find yourself in is not yours to own. It’s the product of a broken system.
🌈💫🪐And there is another way.🌝
Dare I say it - your finances should be FUNNNNN.💃🏼
Like ecstatic dance party kinda fun.
You can literally look at your numbers and use them to create every single dream you want in life.
🦋It’s a miracle of modern science.💫
It’s powerful. It’s full of limitless possibility.
That’s what lights my heart up.
The best praise I’ve ever received from a client still sticks with me:
❝Kristen, you’ve made finance not suck.❞
Here’s to un-sucking the entire finance industry.
It’s a big job. And I’m ALL IN.
NEXT WEEK: What I learned from my month with a billionaire
Catch you next week!
And remember, anything is possible, babe.
Kristen 💚xx