Pushing yourself to become the best version of yourself oftentimes means being outside of your comfort zone and creating value with encountering a wide variety of people to help you along. By having strong relationships and making connections along the way, you lead yourself into a positive, fulfilling life that can create purpose and drive.

In the final part (Part 2) of our interview, Kris Pool expands upon how her personal experiences, particularly as it relates to Toastmasters and her involvement with the ABWA (American Business Women's Association) and IAAP (International Association of Administrative Professionals) equipped her with the skills needed to excel, and how it taught her the values of priority and enduring commitment to be successfully.

Guest Bio

Kris Pool is an 18-year veteran of Toastmasters; she has earned the Distinguished Toastmaster award three times and is working on her fourth.

Kris belongs to 3 Toastmasters clubs and is actively involved. She was the 2023 Spring Conference 2023 Chair for District 35 (Wisconsin and UP Michigan) and is the Social Media Coordinator (specifically for Facebook) for the District, a Club Coach, and she set a personal goal to visit a club in each state by the end of June; she has 6 more to go.

Kris has been employed since September 2021 with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development as an Employment and Training Specialist at the Sheboygan County Job Center. She is definitely putting her Toastmasters skills into practice daily in this role and loving every minute of it!!

Kris will celebrate 22 years of marriage to Troy in October. She has zero kids or pets (which gives her plenty of time for Toastmasters), enjoys reading, cooking, eating, and vacationing in Gatlinburg, TN.

Kris' Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2026673897344845/?ref=bookmarks

Kris' Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kris.pool.1

@poolkris on Instagram

@KrisPoolDTM on Twitter

• https://www.tedxtaftavenue.com/ - TEDx is a grassroots initiative, created in the spirit of TED’s overall mission to research and discover “ideas worth spreading.” TEDx brings the spirit of TED to local communities around the globe through TEDx events. These events are organized by passionate individuals who seek to uncover new ideas and to share the latest research in their local areas that spark conversations in their communities. TEDx events include live speakers and recorded TED Talks, and are organized independently under a free license granted by TED. Learn more about this particular TEDx event and register if you are interested in attending!
• https://www.iaap-hq.org/ - The International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) is a non-profit professional association serving the administrative profession. IAAP is dedicated to helping office and administrative professionals advance their career in a demanding and ever-changing business environment. Check out their website for more information about connections, conferences, and additional resources!
• https://www.abwa.org/ - The mission of the American Business Women’s Association is to bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and to provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support and national recognition. Learn about the work of the ABWA and how to check out membership with the organization among other resources.
• https://www.toastmasters.org - Want to learn about how Toastmasters can create more fulfilling communication and leadership experiences while being a positive, supporting environment? Check out this website to learn more about you can start your journey, and find a club closest to you by clicking on the "Find A Club" link on the top of the page.

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Intro/Outro By: Michael Dugan, Podcast Host: Voice4Chefs

Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

This is Speaking From The Heart.

Welcome back to episode 12 of Speaking From The Heart, and this is part two

of our interview with Kris Pool, which I said in the first part, this was a

interview that was not planned to be this long, and as a result, I had to break

it into two episodes for us to digest because it had a lot of great material.

Just to recap, Kris is a 18 year veteran of Toastmaster, and she's

earned the Distinguished Toastmaster Award three times, which is the highest

award in which Toastmasters bestows individually based on communication

and leadership accomplishments.

She's currently working on the award for the fourth time.

She belongs to three Toastmasters clubs, which she's actively involved

in, and has been the past 2023 Spring conference chair for District 35 in

Toastmasters, which includes Wisconsin and the upper portion of Michigan.

She has been the social media coordinator, specifically for Facebook, for the

District, a club coach, and had set out on a mission to visit one club in each of the

50 states by the end of this past June.

Kris has been employed since September 2021 with the Wisconsin Department

of Workforce Development as an employment and training specialist

at the Sheboygan County Job Center.

She's putting all these Toastmaster skills to work on a daily basis in her role,

and, also she's been married for over 22 years to Troy, her husband, and as a

result of having all this time, she gets to enjoy reading, cooking, eating, and

vacationing in Gatlinsburg, Tennessee.

In part two, we're going to talk more specifically about how Toastmasters

has fundamentally changed her perspective and her outlook in her life.

In part one, we built on the foundations of her job experience, which led her

into it, which if you didn't catch that episode, go back and listen to

part one, because now we're going to get into some personal items as it

relates to part two of this interview.

With that, let's continue to the episode.

I'm really curious now, when you are talking about the soft skills

that people have to learn, I know that you've been a Toastmaster for

over, what is it, 18 years or so?

Yes.

Yes.

What would you say to people that are thinking about trying to develop

those soft skills and using things such as Toastmasters as a starting

point, because, many of us are hearing about the conversation about being in

a recession coming up and all these things with inflation and people being

laid off left and right in various industries, I know that there's still

a lot of recovery but at the same time, there's a lot of pain happening

when it comes to not having those sort of skills, especially in America.

I think this is a worldwide problem, a global crisis, if you will, when

it comes to communication, which I've talked about with various

guests, but what's your take on that?

As I work, I will oftentimes find different articles.

I like doing different research.

What are some of the trends going on in employment?

What are the employers looking for in resumes in the skillset of their

new potential hires, and something that I've read over and over again

is that employers will hire people with the soft skills rather than the

hard skills or the technical skills.

The technical skills are, I'm going to say, relatively easy to teach on the job.

Those soft skills; that's not something that you can just train, and running

a machine, you press this button, you watch for this, you inspect

this, here's your product, here's who you call if there's an issue.

The hard skills, those technical skills, the employers can train

you relatively easy on it.

Your soft skills, how you develop relationships, the communication, how

you're able to explain yourself or explain a process, delegation, facilitation,

working in a team, critical thinking, that effective feedback; those are those

soft skills that are developed over time, and yes, you can learn it on the job;

yes, you can take different training or seminars for them on your own or pay a

ton of money to go through some of these.

With Toastmasters, you're getting that opportunity to develop all of

these soft skills in that supportive and encouraging environment.

I have seen members join Toastmasters where they are afraid

to literally walk in the room.

We had one guest, she became a member.

She shared with us that she came to a meeting a year prior.

She watched through the window for 10 minutes and could not open the door;

she was that scared of speaking in front of others and being in a group,

and the year later, she turned that doorknob and walked into the room

and she did a 12 second introduction.

At the beginning of the meeting, we always asked guests to introduce

themselves and we gently prodded for her to participate in table topics.

That's the impromptu speaking portion of our meetings, and she spoke for about 20,

30 seconds after the meeting was done.

That's when we found out she'd been there the year before she did, even

though it was only that 30 seconds, she did extraordinarily well.

It was her confidence she had to build up, not necessarily her speaking skills.

She had that thought process.

You have to know what are going to be those individual goals that someone wants

to achieve at when they join Toastmasters.

Is it that building up of the self-confidence?

Do they want to be better prepared to give presentations because,

well, I quit my last three jobs cause my boss told me I had to give

a presentation to the big boss.

I knew a member, that's what they did.

They quit their job because they did not want to give those presentations,

and if he realized, "I can't keep job hopping because of this setback>" he had

to make a decision and do something to fix that, and he joined Toastmasters.

I'm wondering, especially since a lot of people still have

the fear of glossophobia, for those that don't know, glossophobia

is the fear of public speaking.

It's still the number one fear over the fear of death.

Rather, people would rather die before speaking.

When you say that, people are quitting jobs because of not wanting to speak,

I'm kind of curious then, how did you get started in Toastmasters?

Did you have the same fear?

Did you want to walk out the door because your boss asked

you to give a presentation?

What was the catalyst for you, Kris, to finally start

saying, "Yes, this is my place.

This is what makes me feel good," and you're still doing it, actively

and strongly, after 18 years.

Sure.

Well, let's go back to high school.

Oh, wow.

I was involved in forensics; I was on the PA crew.

I enjoyed speaking.

It didn't bother me at all because I was on the forensics team, our

coach knew people over at Allen Bradley or now Rockwell Automation.

They had a Toastmasters club over there.

What is Rockwell Automation, just for our listeners?

Oh sure.

It is a manufacturer in downtown Milwaukee, the Allen Bradley Clock Tower.

It's the largest four-sided clock in the world, I believe, and they had a

Toastmasters club, and at the time I called it "Baby Toastmasters", but it

was their youth leadership program.

We like to walk the six blocks from school over to Alan Bradley and it was fun just

to get involved with professionals at that higher level because all of them

had been Toastmasters for 5 or 10 years, and the experiences that they shared,

I loved that opportunity, and I was able to use some of those skills right

away and pull that into my forensics, into what I was presenting there.

Use some of the tips with drama.

Oftentimes what my trick was, if I was not comfortable being in

the front and everybody looking at me, I took my glasses off.

Blurry blobs were not scary to me.

If I had my glasses on and I could see people's faces and their eyes and they're

looking at me, that's what scared me.

I eventually got over that one because I think, in my mind, I finally

decided it doesn't matter necessarily what that one individual thinks of

me, because this other person who's watching me, they're getting something

of value of what I'm saying to them.

After high school, after college; had my first real job after college,

and my sister was involved in another organization, ABWA, American Business

Women's Association, and she invited me over for one of their meetings and I

walked in and I start greeting everyone.

Well, I ended up joining that night.

I was voted in as vice president because they liked my smile.

I was-

Why am I not surprised by that?

I'm a people person and, it's interesting because I don't always

think of myself as that people person.

Everyone thinks I'm this extroverted wonder, and they don't believe me when

I tell them I am an introvert because I put myself out in those types of

situations, even though I may not want to.

If I was not involved in Toastmasters, I would not be involved in anything.

I would be home every night after work, curled up on the couch with a book.

I put myself in those group situations, and then I use up all my energy and then

I have to come back and I have to regroup.

I need that alone time.

I can only have so much together with everyone type of time, and

then I need that alone time.

I'm an extroverted introvert, I believe is the term now.

Yes, that's what they do call it.

Yes, and I was involved with ABWA, and then I got involved in

International Association of Administrative Professionals.

At this time, I had moved from Milwaukee to Sheboygan, and I

was very active or very involved.

I was an executive administrative assistant.

I was looking for a way to challenge myself, and I started looking around

and I found IAAP and they have credentials you can become a certified

administrative professional, and you have to have a combination of education,

number of years of work experience.

It was a six hour exam in four parts, and I passed all four parts the first time.

I was very proud of myself on that one.

Wow.

And then you have to re-certify, so I've had this

certification for 20 years now.

I just received my last recertification and it expires in November of

2025, and recertification involves different leadership opportunities

and education, all that fun stuff.

When you are doing all these different types of activities that have

helped to enhance who you are today, has there been anybody, and now this question

is not just Toastmasters related, but maybe anybody that you have encountered.

Who has been that solid rock of influence for you as you have continued to build

this Kris Pool that we've gotten to know-

mm-hmm.

today.

Who would you say that was the biggest influence in making

you go in this direction?

My sister Kathy.

I was supposed to be her birthday present.

My due date was her birthday, and that was a week late-

wow.

And I was going to be her baby doll, now she's eight years older than I am.

The high school that I went to, I wanted to go into print shop

because that's what she was in.

I had no idea what was involved in print shop, but I wanted print shop

and I did, and the main teacher for that program, he saw more

potential in me than in her, and Mr.

Hansen, he never gave me any leeway on anything.

There's one other student in high school.

We both scored an 89.9 on a test, and he had to be at 90 for an A.

He gave her the A.

He bumped her up, kept me at the B because he knew I could do better.

It was annoying and just it was hard, but Kathy was always

the one to gently nudge me.

It wasn't that, " you have to do this."

It was, "have you considered," and then give her reasonings

for it and then, yeah, it makes sense, I'll go and go and do this.

This actually ties in when I was in IAAP, I was moving up in their

leadership roles, club officers, and then their division, which is equivalent

to our Toastmasters district, the highest within that state type of

area, and I was giving presentations at their education conferences.

She called me up one day and said, "Kris, by the way, you're joining Toastmasters.

I've got the application ready for you to sign.

I'm paying your dues."

She knew that I needed to polish some of my skills, becoming a leader and doing

those presentations and her thought was, stay within a, year and then I can just

continue in this other organization.

I don't think she had any expectation that I would continue in Toastmasters

and become so involved like I did; part of it is that initial phone call.

"Kris, you have to join.

Sign the application now."

I continue to stay today because I always try and find new challenges for

me, but now, I really want to help new members grow and find their potential.

How can I nudge them into a direction that I see so much potential in them

that they don't see in yourself?

I love being in that type of a role.

I've had a lot of guests that have done the same thing, and they have shared

those experiences as well, and I know that for my audience, they know that providing

opportunities for other people can be such a shaking influence in yourself because

what you're doing is not just helping that other person, you are instilling something

from yourself, to those other people.

Is there somebody that you have encountered in those 18 years, all those

new members that have come after you, that you remember as being the biggest

success story and whether that was direct or indirect because of your participation?

Is there one person that stands out for you, and if so, can you tell

us a little bit about him or her?

Teri.

She was, I would say, a year behind me when she had been an Area Director and

then talking with, and I don't remember if I was an Area Director at that time.

I think I was an Area Director at the same time she was, and then I jumped straight

into the Club Growth Director, the trio position, and she was gently nudged

into the Division Director position.

She wasn't ready to jump into that higher leadership level yet in Toastmasters, and

she needed to build up her confidence, I think, in what she did, what she could

offer to others, and she rose every single challenge you would present to her

and I think she enjoyed the challenges because she wanted to figure things out.

She wasn't afraid to learn.

She wasn't afraid to research and ask questions, and then when that year was

done, I again gently nudged her into Club Growth Director and she won that year.

When we went for our training, she still talks about this, on how mean that I

was to her at our training, because our District Director at the time, and I was

our Program Quality Director, we told Teri she's not allowed to sit with us for

any of the meals, or any of the sessions.

She had to go and sit at another table to meet new people and develop new

relationships, and she didn't like that.

We told her she can't sit with us.

I know what you mean because something similar was done to me, for

folks that don't know, I was also a Club Growth Director, also Program Quality

Director in District 38, which has covered Eastern Pennsylvania, Central/

Southern, New Jersey, and I was sort of told by the same people, "yeah, you

need to go sit somewhere else, start making relationships with other people."

I find that funny that it was ironic that happens.

Well, because we're going to be working together quite

closely over the next year.

We don't need to spend these couple of days here together.

Start making your connections, building your relationships, that

you can use those over the coming years, which is what part of that

leadership is all about building those connections and networking with others.

Who can you help when you need it?

Who can you help when they need and ask for it?

Then, who can you ask for help when you need it?

If you don't get to know these people, develop that relationship, you don't know

who you can go to, what you can offer.

Teri, she still talks about how mean we were to her on that and Rozaline

was our District Director at the time.

She would actually go up and check on her.

"Okay, you're at this table, everybody, what have you learned from Teri?"

It was hilarious.

Oh my gosh.

I don't think they did that to me, thankfully.

Yes.

And that, it was nice because Teri and I, we actually roomed

together during that whole week.

At the end of the night, we could do that whole, two and a half hour recap of what

we learned, who we had met, what we could do, and all the different ideas of what we

could implement, and if we had not pushed her away from us, she would not have

gotten all these other different ideas.

You have pushed those people into these opportunities, and I have followed

Teri and seen a lot of her successes afterwards, after all the things that have

been influences in the Toastmasters for her, but I am wondering for you, when you

look back, and you look at the 18 years that you've been in, and you've seen all

the things that have shifted in this world alongside of it, has there been a mindset

that you've developed now as a result of meeting all these people, because being

that Toastmasters is an international organization, you start to get a deeper

appreciation for all the things that are available, not only when it comes to

communication and leadership development, but you start to appreciate differences

that each of us bring to the table.

Has there been people, or maybe situations, that you've encountered

that have helped you to develop a broader, more robust mindset, and if

so, tell us a little bit about that?

I think with Toastmasters it helps me to stay open-minded.

In high school, I was in the minority.

We were in downtown Milwaukee and blacks were probably about 75, 80%, and whites,

and Hispanics about 30%, so I was in the minority, and my family, my parents very

prejudiced and very racial, and I didn't understand it, because I think part

of my head, it's not a stereotype that if you're black, that means you're bad.

No, it's an individual that is bad, and it's like I don't see that color

or that outside for the most part, and I know it still comes out in my

head, but I try to hide it and know that I need to get to know a person

on an individual level before making a judgment call about them based on

what they're wearing, what they're tattooed, what their skin color is,

anything like that, and in Toastmasters, so much of that doesn't even matter.

We come from such diverse cultures in the backgrounds, and Toastmasters is a

family and it doesn't matter what size, shape, or color you are in Toastmasters,

you are brought in to that family.

We are here to support one another regardless, and even if you have different

opinions, and I don't agree with you, but I still respect you for it and that

you can share your opinion with me.

We don't have to have the same opinions.

We don't always have to agree.

We just have to agree, we have differences and want to still work together.

How can we still build up one another?

I have so many friends around the world now, and it's just amazing that

I don't think I would have made those connections without Toastmasters, and

it's just opened up this whole new world.

I know when we went into the pandemic, and the for the

COVID, we had to go to virtual.

This has been a godsend for me, because now I can connect so much

more with others, especially overseas.

This is my comfort zone, the virtual space, because I have mobility issues.

This is my comfort zone being behind the camera, and I've learned how to

really use that camera to my benefit, and I'll have people comment, well,

how do you do your gestures so that they stay within that camera frame?

It does take practice, and that goes back to those soft skills

that you learn in Toastmasters.

You have to practice, and it has to be a continual practice.

If you go one time in a year, you're not going to develop a skill.

Developing a skill is not just doing it one time.

Boom.

You're an expert.

You have to practice over and over again.

I have to ask, what is it that you can tell someone that might be on

the fence, just like that woman you were talking about earlier that was peering

in for 10 minutes and had her hand on the door and never opened the door

until a year later, then she finally joined and finally has started to

embellish and starting to grow herself.

There's a lot of people that are on the fence in this world as to really

starting that change and there's always an excuse attached to it.

"I have a lot to do with my family right now.

I have a lot of things going on in my work.", or, "I have a lot of things

that are happening both personally and professionally, that this isn't the

right time for me to do it," but, I always know, and there's always good, legitimate

excuses, which I'm not dismissing at all.

I think that sometimes people are making up those excuses though,

because there they're truly, deeply afraid of taking that first step.

Kris, what would you say to someone, whether that is Toastmasters, not

Toastmasters, because we have gone way beyond our time when it comes

to this, and I've really enjoyed our conversation that we've had, but what

would you say to somebody that has been on the fence for so long, maybe it's

been 10, 20, 30 years and they're still not quite there where they want to be?

What would you say to someone that would want to take on that fear

and wants to take the next step in whatever that journey is, whether

it's personal, professional, do you have any advice for them?

They have to make this a priority.

They have to take that plunge.

They may need to make a priority and commit, and if you can't do

that, if you're not willing to make any changes, "I'm afraid.

I'm afraid, I'm afraid"; sometimes you have to face that fear, and

getting up in front of people.

I've offered to several individuals because they're so afraid, they've

come in the door, but they haven't signed up for that first speech.

If you want me, I will stand up next to you as you give that speech.

If you need me to hold your hand, I will literally hold your hand if that's the

strength that you need, and just saying that to them gives them the courage to

give that first speech that they knew that I would be there by their side for them.

It's difficult if you're that afraid.

You have to push yourself.

Growth comes outside your comfort zone, and if you always stay where

you are, you're never going to grow.

You're never going to learn.

You're never going to expand your knowledge, your

information, your skillset.

You have to make it a priority that this is something that you want to

do for yourself, and until you make that decision, I can push you so much,

but it's still ultimately up to you.

Same thing for my job seekers too.

It's up to you; I can give you all the information that you need or

want, but it still comes down to you.

My final question is this: I've gotten to know you since 2018,

and it's been a long five years for even myself, and you've known a

lot about my own personal journey.

Mm-hmm.

As it comes to getting to this point myself, and I'm sure you've

seen people from point A to point B to maybe even point C and D, whatever

those are, and you, yourself have been a remarkable woman in getting

to those points as well, and when you are looking at the bigger picture with

this and you're looking at what's ahead for you, what are you the most excited

about and what are you looking forward to in the next six months, year, five

years, even 10 years for that matter?

What's in the autobiography that I'm going to be reading about you that is

really exciting and that everyone's should be excited for you about too?

In other words, what's in the future for you right now?

Well, right now I joined a new Toastmasters club.

I had belonged to three in District 35, which is Wisconsin and the UP Michigan,

and my Plymouth Toastmasters, we did a name change to Confident Voices, and

then we ended up disbanding the club.

This year, I had set myself a personal challenge.

I wanted to visit a Toastmasters Club, one in every state, virtually between July 1st

and June 30th, but through that process, I have gone back to several of those

clubs, hearing different speakers, being able to give evaluations, share different

insights that they have not heard, has been a wonderful experience for me.

One of the clubs that I started visiting was Professional Career Speakers.

They're technically based out of California.

They meet on Saturday mornings, and their whole purpose is to

help people become either paid professional speakers or TEDx speakers.

I told them in January, if the one club folds, I will join their club.

I am an official member.

I've paid my dues, application is in for Professional Career Speakers.

As soon as I said I was going to be doing this, here's my application,

"Kris, I want you to help me."

One of the members is organizing a TEDx: TEDx Taft Avenue, it's

coming up on Sunday, July 23rd.

I'm helping with the behind the scenes activities, with organizing different

information for social media, doing proofreading, just different ideas.

I'm an idea person, and I never thought that I would want to be a TEDx speaker.

I joined PCS, not necessarily thinking I want to be a professional speaker, but

every once in a while now being involved with this group, it crosses my mind.

Maybe I could be doing more for that.

I shared with one friend that I was helping with behind the scenes

on the TEDx, and I'm thinking maybe I should be a TEDx speaker.

He said, "no, not for you.

Your value is going to be in coordinating different TEDxes, the networking that

you'll make, the new people you're going to be coordinating with, that's where

your value is going to be and that's where you are going to just really succeed."

I've thought about that a little bit more.

Once I get this first one a little bit under my belt, what's involved?

How can I become more active in that?

In District 35, this coming year, I'm going to be the Admin Manager

again, and I loved this role.

It's kind of behind the scenes, but I'm their mischief maker, in

charge of their teambuilding activities at every DEC meeting.

Going beyond that right now, I have not thought about my future other than

I have at least 15 more years of work in me before I can retire financially.

Unless maybe I do come up with a speaking profession and get paid to

do what I enjoy doing, who knows?

Possibilities are endless.

I don't always think about me and what my needs are.

I'm always trying to think how can I help others, and eventually that

turns into my successes as well.

Kris, I have to tell you, and I'm going to end this episode by saying

this, you do have those qualities.

You do have those skill sets, and I know for a fact that you've inspired a whole

generation over this interview with just being able to have skills that people

can learn and transfer from your own experiences, and you continue to be a

champion for those, even if you think that you're behind the scenes, you're

in front of everybody and I'm going to make sure that we air this episode every

time that you make a commitment that I'm going to be a speaker, I'm going to

put this back into a link for you and remind you that you made this promise

during this podcast because you spoke from the heart, and I really appreciate

our time today for you being on this show and representing what we can all do and

what you continue to do in your life.

Thank you for this time today and thank you for being the genuine,

happy, huggable person that you are.

I've given you hugs over the airwaves.

Thanks, Kris.

Thanks, Joshua.

What a great wrap up to this whole entire interview that I had with Kris

Pool, who, Kris, I have to thank you so much for being on the show again and being

able to entertain what was an over hour long, one recording, conversation, and I

want to pull together some of the things that we talked about, not just in this

episode, but also some of the things that we discussed in part one of the interview

that will help to bring context to this whole entire conversation that we had.

Now, for those that don't know, the ABWA, the IAAP, TEDx that is being held at Taft

Avenue on July 23rd; all of those things are going to be in the show notes, in

case you wanna learn more about those sort of things that were being talked about

during the episode, but I have to say that Kris has an interesting characteristic

that I have always been curious in my own life as to how to implement, which is

being able to be compassionate no matter where that person is and where they're

coming from, and then we talked a little bit about this at the end of part one

of this episode in which we were able to discuss with her how she was able to

help all these people that were coming from prison, how they were also coming

into her new job, which she works at the Sheboygan County Job Center, and how all

those things have created so much value for her and all the different places and

facets of her overall life experience, but, isn't it funny that when I pressed

her about the person that she has really seen change in her life and being able to

create some of those opportunities that she does have, she's talked about Teri.

She talked about the people that she's built relationships with, challenging them

to go to another place and checking in on them, making sure that they're okay.

I love the fact that she did that to Teri and how she made her sit at another

place made her feel uncomfortable, but at the same time, she walked away

with so many different connections.

At the same time, Kris was talking about how she was able to stay open-minded,

how she is willing to appreciate and understand the various viewpoints for

the different types of people that are involved in her lives, but, the one

thing that she really touched on that really is a point I want to discuss a

little bit about is the priority and the commitment to make change in our lives.

This is the most difficult thing that anybody could ever do when it

comes to self-development, and that is putting some priority behind it.

I have to say that I am not a perfect coach, and I've had clients that were

not perfect clients either because of a whole host of different types of

reasons, whether that was relating to the things that were going on in their

lives that were big distractions, or maybe even losing momentum halfway

through the whole entire process that we're working on in order for them to

become the best version of themselves.

That often creates roadblocks in the way of being able to

commit and make solid progress.

I love that Kris' attitude has always been about, this is where I'm at right

now, but I'm not going to give up because I know that there's other possibilities

even if I have this time on this earth, with the career that I have yet remaining,

I know that I can continue going in this direction and making an impact in all

these other organizations as well, and she talked about that, not just in part one,

where she was talking about that with the organizations that she has been involved

in outside of the workplace, which have been able to help her see the best

version of herself from having the right direction, but she specifically talked

about in part two of the episode about ABWA and IAAP, and how she's continued

to foster those relationships as well.

Trying to stay in touch with someone is really difficult.

I know that for me it is very difficult given my autistic nature, along with the

various priorities that I give in my life, that sometimes people and checking in

on them often get pushed out of the way.

However, I know that if I ever want to be the best person that is more well-rounded,

that I need to make a bigger, solid commitment when it comes to prioritization

and commitment to be able to grow in those areas; in those facets, if you will.

How do we do that?

We do it by not just putting time on our calendar, which could be the most easiest

thing that we could do to start out, but it's holding ourselves accountable

with someone else that we're actually going to do it, and I'm not just talking

about having a coach that will help you with setting these goals up and even

helping you along the way, because that would be fantastic, I would love to

take your money and be able to help you, but is that really helping you to see

what you're truly worth and what you're truly capable of doing, if you continue

to ignore those calendar reminders?

To ignore your coach when they're telling you that you haven't done this yet?

You have to have the hidden potential inside of you to say that I'm willing

to go and listen to these people and willing to spend some time with them

no matter what that is that you're doing, whether that is something that

is really hard to do, especially if you don't really want to, but you

also have to realize that there is a prioritization that comes along with it.

I get it.

Doing something like this can be very challenging.

It can be something that can create havoc in our lives because we are

then changing the status quo and then having to move to another direction.

I think that for many of us, it isn't just about putting it on the calendar or

getting somebody to hold us accountable.

It's about the fear of wondering if this is really giving me value.

Is it really serving my ultimate purpose?

Does everything always have to have value?

Does it always have to have something that has a monetary attachment to it?

Does it always have to have a physical, mental, social, economical,

you name it, does it have to have something attached to it?

Sometimes it can be very difficult to separate out, but what if we would

take that question and we convert it into this: what would it be if we would

change our mindset completely to the point that instead of having to look for

the quest of value, that we look at the quest of what we can ultimately become?

If we are able to see in ourselves that ultimate being, that person that is

willing to be all well-rounded and create some of the most awesome opportunities,

not just inwardly, but outwardly, what would it look like to be able to do that?

I think Kris demonstrates a lot of those things because not only has she been

able to create that value, not only in her relationships, not only with

the people that she's been with, but I think that we all know that we can be

able to help people from all various spectrums, whether that is with resumes or

interviews, whether that is helping them with business coaching, life coaching,

professional development coaching.

We can all find ways in which we have the values that we want to

teach to others, as long as we know that we're driven with purpose.

The purpose that we have dictates everything, and if we're able to show

that in people like what Kris has shown in others, regardless of where they have

come from, even if they have come from serving many years in prison, I think all

of us can find it within ourselves to be able to become the best version, not only

of ourselves, but of humanity as a whole.

That will do it for episode 12, broken into two parts.

I appreciate all of you listening to Speaking From The Heart,

and I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

Thanks for listening.

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