Kristen Womble The Creative Consultant

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Ibi

Hello and welcome to IV’s Digital Nomad Stories, featuring real conversations with professionals who have cracked the code to sustainable, nomadic lifestyles. These people aren’t beach and Wi-Fi chasers. They’re building competitive advantages that traditional employment could never match. Global mobility, income diversification, and the freedom to capitalize on opportunities anywhere. I’m Abi Malik, your favorite digital nomad consultant, and today I’m joined on the show by Kristin Womble, someone who proved you don’t have to choose between the freedom of travel and the grounding of home.

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Ibi

C for years she lived divided. There was travel, Kristin, and there was us, Kristin. And they never quite fit together. She hid her travels from people back home because she didn’t want to be that annoying, study abroad, traveling cliché person, but the more she hid, the more divided she felt. And till one day she stopped. She decided to be brutally honest to everyone about who she was, and the division in herself started to heal.

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Ibi

Now she’s a writing coach who spends about half the year traveling and seeing the world, and the other half home in D.C. with Sunday family dinners and a weekly soccer team, a home base that she maintains purely for her personal life satisfaction. This is freedom of choice exercised in the most beautiful way. This is a masterclass in integration.

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Ibi

When you stop hiding parts of who you are, you can get to keep all of it. Here’s Kristen. Hi, Kristen.

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Kristen

Hi, Ibi. How are you? Good. How are you? I’m good.

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Ibi

How long have you been Nomad?

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Kristen

I started.

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In 2022. Nomadic.

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Kristen

I see. All right. Yeah.

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Ibi

I know you full time nomadic.

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Not anymore. Now I have a home base, and I only travel. I thought it would be, like, a quarter of the time, but really, it’s at least a third or half of the time.

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Ibi

Fair enough. And for the rest of the time that you’re not traveling. Do you have a do you have a do you have a home?

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I do, I have a home base in D.C..

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Ibi

And Washington.

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Kristen

D.C..

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Washington.

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Kristen

D.C..

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Ibi

Where the president lives.

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Unfortunately.

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Kristen

Wow.

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Yeah.

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Ibi

Is it really political, though?

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It’s very political in central D.C., but I am not in central D.C.. Luckily, I’m in the metro system, but I’m far enough out that I do feel I’m a bit removed from all the craziness. Like, if the National Guard is there, I hear about it on the news. I don’t.

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Kristen

See it. You didn’t see it?

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Yeah. Until I go central.

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Ibi

Do you have a pickup truck?

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Kristen

No. Why?

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I don’t need to move anything.

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Ibi

I feel like all Americans have a pickup truck.

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It’s crazy. Actually, it annoys me because as part of my, like, my apartment complex, we get a space in a parking garage, and there are these massive trucks in the garage as well, and I. I’m like, okay, but we’re still the city and the garage just isn’t really, like, made for them. So if you park next to them, it’s hard to like get in and out of your space in it.

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So it surprises me. Americans, for the most part, I feel like city dwellers have city cars, but there are like still quite a few trucks even in the city. But yeah, if you go.

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Kristen

Out.

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Everyone has a pickup truck.

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Ibi

I really want a pickup truck.

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Yeah, honestly, they’re they’re nice, you know, to have,

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You know, I think they’re definitely worth it as a second car, but, like, you don’t necessarily want to go road tripping in a pickup truck.

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Kristen

This is true.

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Yeah, yeah. It’s just, you know, with Americans, like, I think with the US being so large and you’re carrying things long distances and, you know, having so much outdoor space, go camping and things like that, like pickup trucks, really.

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Kristen

Nice ones. Yeah.

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Ibi

Well, maybe in another life I could consider a pickup truck. I could be like me and my pickup truck.

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Kristen

Yes.

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Ibi

I’ll name it Little Ibi or Big Ibi.

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Kristen

Big dam. Yeah.

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Ibi

Okay. So you’re a writer?

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Kristen

Yes.

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Ibi

And a writing consultant.

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Kristen

Yes.

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Ibi

Okay. And those two things are in your head. Connected or disconnected?

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To me, they’re very connected.

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Kristen

Why?

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I think you have to understand the people that you’re trying to consult. If you’re going to be good at it or if you’re going to help them. So I think you have to have faced or be currently facing a lot of the similar problems.

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Ibi

In order to connect with them.

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Kristen

Yeah, yeah.

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And in order to give the individualized feedback that you need to.

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Ibi

And do, the problems change over time. Like, is it the same kind of problems that people encountered five years ago that they’re encountering today, or is it challenges new challenges for every new writing generation?

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Kristen

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That’s a good question. I think a lot of them are the same. I think writing itself is very evergreen. When you’re generating it from your experiences and things like that. I think the biggest change of course is AI. I get a lot of questions about writers who are concerned about finding their place in the world of AI, and that can be like a entire book in and of itself.

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But for people who just want to develop the skill of writing and who want to write their own books, like completely from scratch, the problems are very similar across generations. They’re not necessarily the same across where the writer is in their journey. You know, like someone who’s just starting to write or putting out their debut book is going to have very different questions from someone who’s already like five books in.

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Ibi

Interesting. And how many books in are you?

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I’m no books in.

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Ibi

So you haven’t published?

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Kristen

Not yet. Why?

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I have been just so focused on the consulting part, you know, because that’s what really drives me is helping people. Because as much, as much as I love to write, what I love more is helping other people to live creative lives and to sort of overcome a lot of misbelief that society puts on us. Like, you can’t make a living as a full time writer or things like that.

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I feel like that’s my my larger purpose now is to not necessarily. Right. Well, to show people it can be done when I do it myself, but to also bring a lot of people with.

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Kristen

Me.

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As I do it.

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Kristen

Yeah.

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And I’m also only 30, so it’s like there’s only so much you can do at a time. So starting with this.

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Ibi

This is true. We can’t do everything.

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No, no. And everyone’s on their own. You no timeline. And sometimes you want to dedicate a year to this and then take a break and, you know, dedicate a year to something else. So I tend to jump around quite a bit.

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Ibi

That makes sense. Okay, I like this. Let’s let’s explore it a bit because.

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Ibi

It reminds me a little bit of, of my work because I’m a consultant.

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Kristen

Yeah.

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Ibi

And primarily in a tech related field. And I really do, even though I’m not that technical and I don’t fully understand the ins and outs of tech, which is a very big word tech. I still like to go back to basics sometimes, you know, go ground zero coding and just remind myself of what the people are actually doing that I’m consulting on.

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Ibi

But again, I’m not technical. So yeah, you know, I understand that. How does it what does it mean to be a consultant to you?

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Well, the way I call myself as a writing coach and then an editor and a publishing consultant. So for me, the consultancy is really about the strategy of it, or to take a lot of the information that’s out there and make it accessible to someone, or to break it down into chunks that are most relevant to them, you know, because like I, you know, I wrote an entire master’s thesis on like, publishing business models.

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So, like, what I consult on when people want to publish is like which publishing route they should take and things like that. And, you know, they don’t want to and they don’t need to write an entire master’s thesis themselves or even, you know, necessarily learn as in-depth about the publishing models. They just need enough information to make a confident choice.

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Yeah, yeah. And understand feel like they understand what’s best for them. So for consultancy I feel like it’s I’ve done the gathering and the learning of the information and I’m just like passing it along in a way that works for them.

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Ibi

Interesting, interesting. And what does it mean for you in terms of like what is the target you’re trying to get to your client to? Is it. Are you trying to get them into a certain model, a certain best practice framework? Are you trying to just help them take the next step? Are you trying to empower them? Like, what is that success to the client for you?

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Kristen

Yeah.

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I think if I had to assign one to every client, I would say the target is definitely empowerment and making them feel confident in their business and creative decisions. But it changes for each client. Some come to me already knowing that they want to be published. Additionally, some come to me already knowing that they want to be self-published.

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And then, of course, we take it a step down from that and work toward their goals and how to get there. Some come to me for the writing coaching. Like they just say, hey, I just want to finish this book and I’m stuck. So I think a lot of times the clients already come with their targets in mind and I help them get there.

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But as far as my target, it really is empowerment.

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Kristen

Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. Okay.

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Yeah. And especially because I do such different things with each client. Like some it’s writing coaching some is just editing. They just want me to take a developmental look at their manuscript and then they’re done. You know. And that’s fine too.

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Kristen

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Ibi

Yeah I get it I get it. I personally really believe in consulting. I think consulting. Is..

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Ibi

I think consulting is it’s a nice place to be. It’s a very rewarding place to help people through.

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Kristen

Yeah.

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Ibi

And it’s kind of a part of a machine that still needs to be there. And for me, one of the most validating things that happened was actually when I met a personal trainer who told me he always has a personal trainer.

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Kristen

Yes.

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Ibi

And I was like, why? And he said, because I know I can do the movements and get the bicep curls in. But if I’m training for a competition, I want someone from a third party perspective who also knows what they’re doing to just help me through. Right.

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Kristen

And to.

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Ibi

Take the next step with me.

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Kristen

Yeah, exactly. Interesting.

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And even writing coaches have coaches and book coaches have book coaches. Same thing.

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Kristen

Exactly, exactly.

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Ibi

So let’s talk a bit more. Nomadic.

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Kristen

Yes.

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Ibi

So I want to know why you travel and why you don’t just spend the whole time in DC.

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Kristen

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Ibi

Or alternatively, why you even go to DC at all. And you don’t just travel all.

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Kristen

The time. Yeah.

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That’s really good question. Trying to think back to the beginning.

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Ibi

When is the beginning.

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I’d say the beginning for me is actually 1718 because I’ve kind of considered myself location. Well looking back, I think I consider myself location independent since then.

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Kristen

Wow.

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Yeah, well, it’s just because I went to university out of state. I went quite far away for the States. It was like 16 hours driving from my hometown to my college town.

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Kristen

Another commute.

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Not a commute. So it was like I lived there during the school year. And then I lived back in Albuquerque during the summers. So I very much had, I don’t know which one was my home base at that point. You know, I was traveling between the two constantly, especially for holidays and things like that. And I very much wanted to see something else.

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And I think that that’s what it comes down for me is just a curiosity as far as, okay, well, what else is out there, you know? And that’s why I continue to travel so much as far as why I go back to DC. You know, I was a a few years into my nomadic, my full time digital nomad, and the things that I missed were just starting to pile up in a way that I wanted to change.

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You know.

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Kristen

It’s well.

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Having a community that you get to see on a regular basis is one time because of course, there’s a large digital nomad community, but we’re all traveling. You know, we don’t have so many, like, activity based communities. You know, like in Alexandria, I get to have a soccer team that I see three times a week. And that’s not something that I could get when I’m traveling.

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You know, I get to have family dinner with my brother and sister in law and my nephew every Sunday, and that’s not something that I would get traveling either. So there’s.

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Kristen

Always.

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A trade off. And I think that the reason I have a home base, but I still travel as much as I do, is because I’m I’m trying to find a way to minimize those trade offs. You know.

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Ibi

That makes sense. Do you feel like your life is in two halves? Like, do you feel that connected, or do you feel like when you’re at home in DC or one person and when you’re traveling, you’re at different?

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I feel like they’re very connected. I don’t necessarily think that I have like a home based persona or a traveling persona. I think that certainly different qualities of mine come out in each way depending on the environment. Like when you have a home base, I think I take advantage of the relaxation that I can have. Whereas when I’m traveling, maybe I am a bit more adventurous, but I do think it’s all the same.

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Kristen and I. Another thing I do though, is I try to communicate it as much as possible. You know, like there was a time where I didn’t want to talk about my travels because it always brought a lot of questions, and it put me in the spotlight a lot, especially with people who don’t travel and they don’t necessarily understand, you know, some people ask questions from a place of curiosity and wanting to understand, and some people ask questions from, let’s just say, a less nice place.

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Right. And so I didn’t like that sort of attention. But then it’s like you said, when I was doing that, I very much like felt divided. I felt like, okay, when I was home, I was very much trying to be a, you know, like the rest of the Americans who stay in one place, you know, in are happy to stay in one place.

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But once I started talking about it more, that changed. And I prefer it that way because before it was siloed, like you said, there was a travel, Kristen, and there was like a US Kristen, you know, and now I just try to be more of a I mean, I’m still American, but much more of a global citizen. And I try to live a bit more transparently with like, the people who know me.

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Ibi

Was it difficult for you to lean into that merging of the personalities or the personalities? But those two people?

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Kristen

Yeah.

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I think.

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Kristen

So.

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Because also I. Started I think when you start traveling quite young, then you have I don’t know if you have negative experiences with that. And you’re a young age that’s like what you hold on to. So for me, it was when I was in college and I studied abroad, I was like 20 or something. That was like my second out of Country trip, but it was like the biggest one.

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And I came back and there were all these memes and jokes about how no one wanted to hear from, like, the person who had studied abroad and that, you know, sort of poking fun at the person who had studied abroad because they couldn’t stop talking about it, you know.

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Ibi

And I went to France.

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Kristen

Yeah.

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Yeah, exactly. Or like in France, we did this like, you know. And I. Just I thought it sucked, honestly, because, like, coming from the other side of it, I was like, well, people just want to share their experiences. Like, just because it’s in a different country though, like there was this negative stigma attached to it. Whereas like, everybody would love to hear what I did over the summer in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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Right? But like a semester in France suddenly wasn’t okay. And so having to navigate that when I was 20. I think left an impact as far as then, how long it took me to, you know, to lean into, you know, showing my full self no matter where I was.

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Kristen

One.

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Of who I was with.

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Kristen

Yeah, yeah.

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And of course, there’s people everywhere who, like, generally did want to hear about it and didn’t poke fun that way. But like, I was getting it from people in my immediate circle and I was getting it from the internet, right?

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Ibi

Like 2 in 1?

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Kristen

Yeah.

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Ibi

It’s a common struggle that I think a lot of perpetual travelers face, that when they go back to the normal places, and then they’ve become so far removed from the normal people’s reality.

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Kristen

Yeah.

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Ibi

That not only is it hard for them to communicate one way, it’s hard for those people to communicate back.

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Kristen

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And I think it’s, it’s different when you’re maybe you naturally have a thick skin or when you’re old enough to have a thicker skin about it. But you know when you’re 20 and you can’t communicate with your friends, it’s hard.

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Ibi

Was there a tipping point where you thought I did it just naturally happen that you just started communicating more? Was there a point where you said, you know what, I’m going to lose touch with these people if I don’t change something or vice versa.

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I don’t think, well, I don’t remember there being a tipping point, but it’s not something I thought of before. So in this case, I would just say that I think I just grew up, you know, I think it was just a process of growing up and caring less about what people thought of me, caring less about keeping people in my life who I couldn’t communicate or understand.

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Because that’s another thing, is you get to be a lot more selective when you’re grown up. You know, you don’t have friendships that are based on proximity or convenience or things like that. So I think as that started to change as well, I started to change.

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Kristen

Interesting. Yeah.

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Ibi

Well, there are other things like let’s talk about age. Let’s talk about. So you’ve been location independent for what, 12 years now.

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Kristen

Yeah. So right. It’s a long time. Yeah.

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Ibi

And there’s a lot of people who like people go down different paths. Right. They might be established in their careers. And then Covid happened and they suddenly became location independent. Or they might have sought it from a young age, you know.

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Kristen

Yeah.

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Ibi

How do you find that age? How do you find the role that age played in your location? Independent journey.

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Overall, I’m glad I started as young as I did, you know.

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I think I saved myself from a lot of, I don’t know, being stuck in a rut, like, always wanting to travel and then never doing.

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Kristen

It.

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Or never knowing how to do it. I feel like once I started young and I was able to do it in the structured way, which was studying abroad, then it made it easier to learn how to do it for myself in an unstructured way, without thinking it was difficult or thinking it was hard, you know, because when we’re young, we like I said, we have the nurse skin, but I think we’re also very resilient, and we’re a bit more adventurous and willing to try something.

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New versus like, if I had been in corporate for 20 years already and that’s like all I knew. And I had just like built day after day on the same thing, I think it would have been difficult to change that.

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Ibi

Okay, so I get that. So it’s beginning. It’s nice to be starting young and to to go down the structured path, structured path like like schooling and that kind of exchange programs and this kind.

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Kristen

Of stuff. Yeah.

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That was very nice for me because it was like I was able to do a lot of the process through my school. I had people to help me like figure out the requirements. I went over there and I wasn’t alone because I was at least in a mirrored environment of university, you know? I mean, yeah, there was still the culture shock, but there were other international students.

00:23:32:01 - 00:23:59:02

I had an international advisor, a French advisor. So I, I wasn’t isolated like, I think I would have been if I had just done it alone, like if I had just started Digital Nomad, like if I didn’t have that previous experience and I had started as I did at, you know, in 2022, just alone, I think the isolation would have just been so much more magnified.

00:23:59:04 - 00:24:02:21

You know, if that had been my first time.

00:24:02:23 - 00:24:05:15

Ibi

What was the first time you were unstructured?

00:24:05:17 - 00:24:39:00

The first time I was completely unstructured, I think was. 2022, because before that it had been maybe traveling on some service trips and then the study abroad. And then I did my masters in London. So again, as schooling environment where there were lots of people around. So I think the first time I did it unstructured was I spent three months again alone in London, not completely alone because you kind of know people, but that was my first digital nomad stint.

00:24:39:00 - 00:24:59:23

And I did, you know, set boundaries for myself to make it easier. I was like, okay, I’m going to first go to a country that I’ve been to before. I’m going to go to a country that speaks the same language, because I knew that this would be hard, you know, in some way. So I just I took steps to make it easier for myself.

00:25:00:01 - 00:25:07:22

And then once I had done that, I very much got this feeling that, okay, I could do this forever.

00:25:08:00 - 00:25:08:08

Ibi

I can.

00:25:08:08 - 00:25:10:08

Kristen

Keep going. Yeah, yeah.

00:25:10:09 - 00:25:11:12

This is great.

00:25:11:14 - 00:25:15:22

Ibi

It’s like you’re breaking the ice, right? Like after that.

00:25:16:00 - 00:25:17:13

Kristen

Yeah. You start.

00:25:17:15 - 00:25:19:20

I don’t know, you just start doing it.

00:25:19:21 - 00:25:21:02

Kristen

Yeah.

00:25:21:04 - 00:25:36:05

Ibi

Okay. All right. So there was this period of like, what, seven or so years where you were in the structured world or 5 to 7 years, however long it was, and then there was like five or so years that you were nomadic, right? Unstructured.

00:25:36:06 - 00:25:37:00

Kristen

Yeah.

00:25:37:04 - 00:25:41:19

Ibi

Those five or so years, the last five or so years. How have you been?

00:25:41:20 - 00:25:51:23

And I’m not sure it was five, because I did get my home base in at the end of 2024. So it was really only three full time digital nomad in years, I would say.

00:25:52:00 - 00:25:55:06

Kristen

Interesting. Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. And then.

00:25:55:08 - 00:26:24:09

Ibi

In those years, how do you afford your life and structure your life as a nomad? And the question is also in two parts, because you have a home base, right? So do you have a lot of location based clients like in the home base, and does it benefit you, or is the fact that you have a home base solely for the purpose of connecting with your family and your people and having a a home?

00:26:24:10 - 00:26:25:01

Kristen

Yeah.

00:26:25:02 - 00:26:38:17

So when I was Digital nomad for those three years, I did not have a home base other than, you know, my parents let me use their address for mailing, and they took my mail and I start all my things in their basement.

00:26:38:18 - 00:26:39:11

Kristen

Thanks, parents.

00:26:39:11 - 00:27:04:02

Thank you, mom and dad. So it was quite affordable to traveling, you know, without that home base requirement. And I did long term stays, which you can get quite discounted. You know, if you’re staying in an Airbnb for over a month, you can get like even a 20% discount sometimes.

00:27:04:04 - 00:27:43:05

I stayed in places that had a kitchen which can seem more expensive at the outset because, you know, that’s extra space. But then I was able to do, you know, the majority of my cooking and eating from the grocery store. I wasn’t eating out. And so you put that on top of the long term housing discount. And, you know, those numbers always worked out better for me or even to choose a place to be a mini home base, you know, to be for three months, you know, like have a spot in Lisbon and then, you know, fly a few times to Spain.

00:27:43:07 - 00:28:06:18

You know, that worked out as well. And so I was fully remote. My clients weren’t based anywhere I was. It was just all online. Now that I have a home base in DC, I still keep it that way. Like I moved to DC or I established a home base in DC solely for the personal aspect of my life.

00:28:06:20 - 00:28:07:10

Yeah.

00:28:07:15 - 00:28:08:19

Ibi

What a flex.

00:28:08:20 - 00:28:10:21

Kristen

Thank you. Right.

00:28:10:23 - 00:28:14:01

Ibi

Like, do you feel like it’s a flex? It seems like a flex from my perspective.

00:28:14:02 - 00:28:14:08

Kristen

That.

00:28:14:08 - 00:28:21:00

I have a home base or that I don’t need to be anywhere for my business.

00:28:21:02 - 00:28:34:19

Ibi

That you have a home, both that you can afford, a home base that you can maintain, a home base that you can still travel, and that the only reason you have a home base is not for financial benefit.

00:28:34:20 - 00:28:35:05

Kristen

Yeah.

00:28:35:06 - 00:28:37:03

Ibi

It’s for personal benefit.

00:28:37:05 - 00:28:38:06

Kristen

Yeah.

00:28:38:08 - 00:28:40:02

I guess when you put it that way.

00:28:40:04 - 00:28:40:21

Kristen

It’s a flex.

00:28:40:22 - 00:28:43:17

Yeah, I’m pretty proud. I’m in a good position.

00:28:43:22 - 00:28:46:19

Kristen

Wow. Yeah I love it. Yeah.

00:28:46:20 - 00:28:52:18

Ibi

And how did you build your business. Like how did it come to this point?

00:28:52:19 - 00:28:53:04

Kristen

Yeah.

00:28:53:05 - 00:28:56:00

So I.

00:28:56:01 - 00:29:18:04

I know I’m one of those people where Covid really changed their lives. I graduated with my masters in London in January 2020. My student visa was up sometime around there, and so I flew out of London a few days before the borders shut in March 2020.

00:29:18:05 - 00:29:19:11

Kristen

Good news.

00:29:19:13 - 00:29:39:06

I think it was. It was March or May. And so I the original plan after grad school was just to be with my parents for a few months while I got a job, probably in corporate. Right. And then I would just move wherever that job was. Right. Because that’s what you do your first.

00:29:39:06 - 00:29:40:20

Kristen

Job out of school, right? Yeah.

00:29:40:20 - 00:29:42:23

Ibi

That’s what the people do.

00:29:43:00 - 00:30:03:00

But then with Covid, all of that kind of just went out the window. I was like, what do I do? A lot of the publishing jobs are in New York. I don’t want to go to New York, even if I can land a job, you know? And no one was hiring then anyway.

00:30:03:02 - 00:30:06:02

Kristen

So it’s like everything was. Down low.

00:30:06:03 - 00:30:28:17

Yeah, everything was just so up in the air. So I said, well, as long as I don’t have any living expenses, I don’t have any overhead. I’m going to try to start freelancing because that will give me short term income while I figure it out. You know, I can do have my time on job applications, and I can do have my time on the field.

00:30:28:19 - 00:30:34:17

And then the freelancing worked out so well that I just never did the job applications.

00:30:34:19 - 00:30:35:17

Ibi

Why did it work out?

00:30:35:17 - 00:30:36:21

Kristen

Well.

00:30:36:23 - 00:31:10:09

I think it was a time, you know, maybe Covid helped there be more online jobs for editing. I think I had a unique skill set to offer, so I think there were just a lot of overlapping elements. Another thing I think is at the time, a lot of businesses were transitioning to having editing out of house, which was actually a problem that I had run into before I went back to school, before I went back to grad school, and I was looking for jobs out of college as I would go through.

00:31:10:09 - 00:31:11:01

Kristen

This.

00:31:11:06 - 00:31:29:09

Interview process, right? Only to be told at the end that they were freelancing it. Right? If it was whatever it was, if I was applying to be an in-house copywriter or an in-house copy editor, they were still so unsure of what they were doing that they were having interviews for a full time in-house position.

00:31:29:11 - 00:31:30:20

Ibi

That they actually wanted to freelance.

00:31:30:21 - 00:31:31:11

Kristen

Right.

00:31:31:12 - 00:31:54:00

But of course, right out of college, I didn’t know how to freelance. I was still thinking about going back to school anyway, so I was like, you know what? I’m going to get myself some more skills, right? Get myself another degree. So then when I tried the same thing, I answered it from the freelancing perspective, and that was much more successful companies at that point.

00:31:54:00 - 00:32:02:09

It had been like two years, and they were sure that this was something that they wanted to freelance, you know, to outsource.

00:32:02:11 - 00:32:05:02

Ibi

And you just you saw the trend and you jumped.

00:32:05:02 - 00:32:06:01

Kristen

On it. Yeah.

00:32:06:01 - 00:32:19:06

Well, looking back, I can say that that’s the trend, but I’m not sure at that point that I saw the trend. It was just what I wanted to do. I always wanted to edit manuscripts.

00:32:19:08 - 00:32:19:19

Kristen

Okay.

00:32:19:23 - 00:32:36:01

It was just that before I thought I would have to do it through a company. And then at that point I realized, no, I don’t need a company. I can do what I’ve always wanted to do by myself. I can be self-employed and do what I’ve always wanted to do.

00:32:36:03 - 00:32:40:23

Ibi

Inspiring. Last question. Because you’re running out.

00:32:40:23 - 00:32:45:21

Kristen

Of time. Oh no no no no no.

00:32:45:23 - 00:32:48:08

Ibi

Do you feel like you got lucky?

00:32:48:10 - 00:32:51:08

I feel like timing wise, I got lucky, for sure.

00:32:51:11 - 00:32:53:02

Kristen

How so?

00:32:53:04 - 00:33:24:17

Like I said, being able to start a business when I had no overhead, when I had, like, the safety net of living with my parents. That was, I think, extremely good timing and is not necessarily like I was waiting for that timing or I saw it. It was just like, okay, there was this opportunity and I took it to try something new and to take a risk when I wasn’t in a risky position.

00:33:24:19 - 00:33:52:12

Right. And I think, though, that I’m lucky to have been in a non risky position during Covid. You know, even outside of Covid, I think there’s so many people that live in risky positions, you know? So like I said, I think I’m lucky to have never been in a risky position and therefore to be able to take risks.

00:33:52:14 - 00:33:52:22

Kristen

You know, and.

00:33:52:23 - 00:33:58:05

Ibi

What’s the what’s the connection between the luck and the risk?

00:33:58:07 - 00:34:27:00

I think that probably there’s an inverse direct correlation. You know, the safer you are, the more risks you can take. You know, as long as you see them for opportunities, as long as you know you have a non risk area to go back to, whether that’s a parent’s house, whether that’s a large savings nest egg. You know, I think you know, one directly leads to the other.

00:34:27:01 - 00:34:29:04

If you want it to you.

00:34:29:06 - 00:34:30:22

Kristen

Yeah.

00:34:31:00 - 00:34:34:13

Ibi

And do you think.

00:34:34:15 - 00:34:43:14

Ibi

Do you think it was do you think you manufactured any of that luck or do you think it just fell in, fell into you?

00:34:43:16 - 00:34:50:13

It’s a good question.

00:34:50:15 - 00:34:57:21

I think that.

00:34:57:23 - 00:35:26:22

I was born with a lot of luck, for sure. Like, call it privilege or call it luck. You know, whatever you want. But I still think that you have to capitalize on opportunities, and that doesn’t necessarily mean recognizing them for the opportunities that they are at the time. It just means that you’re willing to experiment, to try something new, to not necessarily know what’s going to happen to you next month.

00:35:27:00 - 00:35:42:00

So I think that’s the manufactured bit or the part that comes from the other qualities that you’ve developed, you know. But yeah, I think there is a there is a mix for sure.

00:35:42:01 - 00:35:48:11

Ibi

Well, honestly I think.

00:35:48:13 - 00:36:22:17

Ibi

From the conversation that we’ve had, I, I thought a lot of it was manufactured like you saw the opportunities and you saw what the world was telling you and you took things. It sounds like you took things in a in a good way, like you didn’t go to New York and get the job there. And you, you know, you you actively you know, you grew up and you started talking to people about your travels in order to build that connection with them.

00:36:22:17 - 00:36:33:21

Ibi

So much so that you can now live with them in DC, and you’ve built that whole thing for yourself. A lot of people would come to these individual hurdles and just freeze. Like one of them.

00:36:34:00 - 00:36:35:00

Kristen

Yeah.

00:36:35:02 - 00:36:36:09

That’s true.

00:36:36:11 - 00:36:40:11

Ibi

So that’s very inspiring. Anyway, it was very inspiring to talk to you, Kristen.

00:36:40:11 - 00:36:44:03

Kristen

Yeah. Thank you, thank you. I left our conversation. Great. Yeah.

00:36:44:04 - 00:36:45:15

It went really quickly.

00:36:45:16 - 00:36:48:15

Kristen

I know it was the first time I did.