Join Nikki C and tguest co-host Crystal, as they share their personal rebranding stories, and discuss the first steps listeners need to take in order to reinvent themselves.

Guest Contact info;

Twitter: @crosedahl1

Instagram: @crosedahl

Resource: How to Completely Reinvent Yourself (at Any Age) 13 Steps - by Lyn Christian Founder of SoulSalt Inc.

Reinvent Yourself, By Rebecca Webber, Psychology Today published May 6, 2014.

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Website: https://lgitw_podcast.captivate.fm/listen

Special Thanks to our producer Corey Phoenix and all his hard work in making this podcast a success, as well as all the guests, co-hosts and listeners. This podcast could not be what it is now without the support of you all!❤🧡❤

taking the first Steps toward your personal rebrand

Nikki C: [00:00:00] Hello? Hello? Hello. I'm your host, Nikki C. And welcome to another episode of life. Got in the way a podcast that is dedicated to growing, learning, and achieving our lifelong goals. And today's episode, we are talking about reinventing ourselves, getting to know your personal rebrand. I am so excited about this episode because I have my favorite, favorite forever friend, crystal.

[00:00:36] Crystal: [00:00:36] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

[00:00:52] Crystal: [00:00:52] yep, no problem.

[00:00:54] Crystal: [00:00:54] What did you need

[00:01:04] Crystal: [00:01:04] this one we talk about today. We're going to go back to the orange pants.

[00:01:13] Crystal: [00:01:13] That's true. It was orange coat, green pants. I'm

[00:01:28] Crystal: [00:01:28] No.

[00:01:34] First off it was Spanish class and I don't even know why I was there because this third, third level. I had skipped the first two and they. Spanish three in the college level Spanish class and all they spoke was Spanish. And then I realized, I wish I had a really learned Spanish. So I was in there.

[00:02:07] Crystal: [00:02:07] Hi, I can't. So let's tell the truth, shame the devil. Look, I can't say anything to somebody who is running. Late or right on the dot. And then it has to sit by the door, which is the nearest seat. And I got there. early, cause it's probably my first class, you know, I stumbled in, in the back in the center.

[00:02:43] Nikki C: [00:02:43] Yeah, I think it was like semester, I think.

[00:02:46] And then we got to sit near each other and got to talk to each other.

[00:03:09] Let me let me become friends with her. So,

[00:03:13] Nikki C: [00:03:13] so we had the opportunity to become friends. And just to talk about this topic, I felt like you would be a great person to talk about this with, because I think we have both been going through our own personal rebrands over years and we are constantly reinventing ourselves.

[00:03:57] you could be if you don't know who you [00:04:00] offer. So that's like that foundation. So let's talk about it. In what ways have you had to, I guess, rebrand yourself over the years?

[00:04:18] ago and I decided to choose happiness. And I think that. For a lot of us, especially as women, especially as young women and young black women, we often put other things ahead of ourself. So we don't do a lot of self care. So we work really hard and we grind for the career.

[00:05:01] Nikki C: [00:05:01] Right. All right.

[00:05:08] Nikki C: [00:05:08] the listeners, the mass that's that's in

[00:05:30] And lo and behold, it was like breathing air for the first time. It was like, I didn't realize how underwater I was.

[00:05:55] Just, you know, health scares and [00:06:00] family worries and just life. And then I was like, wow. How many years have passed and I should have been done this.

[00:06:29] Very long time and you are so right. And just, I am at that point where I've made you know, I made strides in my career. That was one of the first things that I had to reinvent was I was doing a job and it was at one point I was like, I'm just not happy. I'm not doing this. I need to do something else.

[00:07:19] In a way, rebrand how I do things. I was like, okay, I don't have a lot of experience because a lot of my experience wasn't administrative working with administrators, working with faculty and stuff, but I really wanted to work with students. Like I really, really wanted to work with students, but sometimes you don't come in with that psychology degree or that higher ed degree.

[00:07:59] And [00:08:00] I like to talk and hear people talk and listen. So I think I have great skills, but sometimes. Skills don't transfer into transferable skills in the workplace, or you, you can't always display that. So I had to kind of go roundabout away and just get an experience, become a mentor. To college students work in a department where I got to interact with college students on, on, on a certain degree, I started teaching, I had a master's degree.

[00:08:34] Crystal: [00:08:34] look at you.

[00:08:55] And so now that I'm doing, I've been doing it for, you know, many years now and I'm [00:09:00] it's fulfilling, but I also had another side to me, you know, writing and all these other things. So I'm just happy to be in a space where I can finally. Write again, like breathe again, like write again, like yes. And is needs to do things that make me happy.

[00:09:48] And then I remember, I remember before I started the podcast, I was talking to a kind of like a mentor and he was saying, you know, just go ahead and just get your team together. And you guys go ahead and do it. T [00:10:00] T

[00:10:03] Nikki C: [00:10:03] Take him away. I was like, I don't have a team. So every, every time you see I've done it, you know, I'm putting together the, I am become the graphic designer.

[00:10:28] he isn't, but that's okay. But yeah, so I had to do my personal rebrand.

[00:11:00] [00:10:59] Nikki C: [00:10:59] Yeah. That's

[00:11:05] And that's what I did. I started working smarter, not necessarily harder. So a lot of ways teachers take their work home. No, no I don't. No. Don't

[00:11:20] Crystal: [00:11:20] I decided to manage my time more efficient. I'd say to take on more responsibility outside of the classroom. And I also decided to do stuff that.

[00:11:35] So I took kids abroad and I said, I did it when I was a teenager and it changed my life. It changed my worldview of how I saw politics, how I saw the United States, the United States and its role in the world. And I said, some of these kids Have never been on an airplane. Some of these kids have never left the state that they were born in.

[00:12:16] Like I've done something. I've shared a part of what I love with other people and young people and hopefully change something inside of them.

[00:12:45] Because my professor, I think it was communication professor. He was gonna be or the professional writing professor. He was going to be teaching the class over at Oxford. And I was like, what? As an English major? that's like, that's like bragging rights. I'd be like, yes, I studied four year in Oxford, you know I was [00:13:00] all set and then my mom was just like, no, You, we, we she's like, you don't have my blessing.

[00:13:28] Right. I was like, they're not a war. And Oxford. She was like, I don't care. She was like, you do not have my blessing to get on that plane. So, how does it look? And we get on a plane without, and the thing that's going to be in the back of my mind is first off, I'd never gotten on a plane and went anywhere and then I'm going to have in the back of my mind, the one thing my mom has never, ever said, you do not have my blessing.

[00:14:12] But in

[00:14:31] And for me, that rebrand in my head is important because I can't be the best mother. I can't be the best wife, the best partner, the best sister, the best daughter.

[00:15:05] care. They want to play. They want mommy time. Right.

[00:15:33] Wait, not now. And they're only going to be this age for a minute for blink, and then they're going to not want to be bothered with me. Right. They're going to be teenagers. going to be gone. They're going to be grown and I'm going to be by myself. And how do I live by myself? Not even knowing who I am, because I never took the time to figure it out. So, Yeah.

[00:16:00] [00:16:00] Nikki C: [00:16:00] Girls not, not now. I don't know if my dream is still, maybe I'll go tour it. I don't know if class, but you know, Hey, it is like said, it is not too late. And I love that I'm at that stage where. Reclaiming my time, you know, I like like you said, you know, you spend so much time being that person for everyone else.

[00:16:31] Crystal: [00:16:31] person before I was a mom.

[00:16:49] And sometimes, you know, sometimes thinking about what were my goals, or what are first off, who am I? Who, who, who, what is the core of me? And [00:17:00] getting to that point doesn't mean dead re-inventing yourself doesn't mean that you have to be someone else.

[00:17:07] Nikki C: [00:17:07] You, you, you should be authentically yourself because if you're a fraud, then people gonna call you for fraud.

[00:17:24] you know, they're people, they get to a point when you, if you're not authentically yourself, whole, the whole purpose of the thing that drew people to you. They're not, they're not there anymore because it's like, you're not authentically you anymore.

[00:18:01] Crystal: [00:18:01] I will never forget. I, this was way back, like maybe like 2019, whenever Fenty beauty came out,

[00:18:09] Crystal: [00:18:09] my face. I mean, it was flawless and I took a salsi and everything was where it was supposed to be. Everything highlighted the right way. I was looking a hundred percent on point and I took a selfie and I posted it online.

[00:18:30]Sad eyes. And I was like, I can't pretend

[00:18:42] Nikki C: [00:18:42] but

[00:18:48] Nikki C: [00:18:48] Oh,

[00:18:50] And my

[00:18:53] Crystal: [00:18:53] but that's, that's the truth. Like you. Fake what's happening inside. Like, I don't care how [00:19:00] many bags I have. W what name brands they are, how much my face looks beat. I wasn't, I wasn't happy. And it took a lot of self-reflection and time you know, for the first time I used to travel bunch, get, get, get along.

[00:19:17] Nikki C: [00:19:17] We won't we'll Puerto Rico. Oh, yo girl. Remember that road trip to Atlanta. It was very for a day.

[00:19:27] Nikki C: [00:19:27] Ah, well, you know, a little bit wasted out, but we ain't gonna talk about that. That was my first time pumping gas. I told y'all I couldn't pump the gas and y'all didn't believe me, that's, that's

[00:19:50] Nikki C: [00:19:50] was like a mid pajama pants. And he would like that, whatever you got to do, because I was like, look, they told me to pump the gas. They was like, all you gotta do is put it in, take it out and tell

[00:20:06] Nikki C: [00:20:06] was the

[00:20:10] admitted in one piece and nobody went to jail. Look, it's a blessing.

[00:20:16]Crystal: [00:20:16] But yeah, I, I think after that the manuscript that I just finished. I started that in 2015 and I finished it

[00:20:50] And then when my parents were like, you're going to get, go get another degree at this point. And I said, Yes.

[00:20:57] Nikki C: [00:20:57] Hmm.

[00:21:00] [00:20:59] Crystal: [00:20:59] this one is what I want to do. I've been wanting to be a creative for a long time. And I've been doing it in different ways as a hobby recreationally with my daughter for play.

[00:21:36] know, this is the topics in the things we want to talk about.

[00:22:01] I don't know.

[00:22:04] Crystal: [00:22:04] for me to say, let me just go look and see if I can find a program. Let me see if I can find something close to home.

[00:22:13] Crystal: [00:22:13] Then I had all, I told my professor who wrote me, my one of my letters of recommendation. I said, I have everything done. It's not like I can't get a transcript.

[00:22:45] What about work? What about all the, what ifs and the barriers that are all things that I created? Right.

[00:22:57] Nikki C: [00:22:57] hold stuff. We hold.

[00:23:04] Nikki C: [00:23:04] Yeah.

[00:23:05] Nikki C: [00:23:05] I feel that I feel all of that. Cause girl, I, when I tell you, I took, I took 10 years before I went back for my master's, but like you said, that debt, that degree. This on, you know, the first one was practicality. I was like, okay, well, I'll get my master's. I can get a better job. you know, I can do these things.

[00:23:42] So you should be working on a book. I used to it was a funny story. I used to take the bus. The craziest things that could ever happen happened while I was on the bus. And I would tell my coworkers, just the craziest things that I would encounter.

[00:24:11] Like you said, that I had people who were references. I had people I work with. I had all this stuff. Why not do it?

[00:24:20] Nikki C: [00:24:20] that was the birth of my first collection was bus stop and I was like, why stop now? Let me keep going. And, you know shameless plug next stop, please. But you know, just

[00:24:55] Let me tell you this. I have little people at my work. I shouldn't call them little people. I think young 22 year [00:25:00] olds, don't know emojis mean what is a peach? What, what is an eggplant?, what is You gotta educate me. And then nobody tells you what the different sites are. I don't know that tender is different than match.com.

[00:25:20]all these things. Stories came to me, me and my girlfriends being single in our thirties with kids dating and the freaks come out at night. Like it was just a hot mess of a funny situation and circumstances again and again and again.

[00:25:40] Nikki C: [00:25:40] Right.

[00:25:46] Nikki C: [00:25:46] yeah, we were going to call them. We don't have a code name, but you'll know as him

[00:25:53] that, that whole situation going to be in the book, right. like, okay. I'm like, I'm just giving you heads up.

[00:26:02]Nikki C: [00:26:02] Oh man. Yes. So just all of that to say, when you know yourself, you can grow and sometimes you have to step back and reevaluate, reevaluate. And remember, what were your goals like you are, like you said, you are a whole person before all of these other elements. In in your life? was a really cool article.

[00:26:52] And I recommend everyone if they have a chance, an opportunity to check that out, because it's like a step by step [00:27:00] guide on how to reinvent yourself, you know, step one, finding your starting. You know, just like the psychology today. It is, it starts with you, it starts with who you are figuring out, reinvent yourself.

[00:27:39] Right. But you never know your stories are your, your life connections and all that stuff could be. What inspires you, because sometimes you can take what you've learned in life and apply it, like how you help others. Like you said, you know, you put it in a book and, you know, but you had to go through certain experiences.

[00:27:59] Crystal: [00:27:59] Yeah. [00:28:00] And I loved the article cause I, I read that before we joined the podcast and I love step two is what are your core values? And I was like, ain't that some, that's a

[00:28:20] God important to me. How come I'm not in church?

[00:28:27] Crystal: [00:28:27] I stopped allowing myself to do what is important to me because of excuse a, excuse b. Excuse. C.You. Don't family's important. Me. How come I don't call them?

[00:28:48] Crystal: [00:28:48] right. Why don't

[00:28:52] I, I, had to evaluate my values because a lot of things were priorities that didn't need to [00:29:00] be

[00:29:12] Crystal: [00:29:12] Look, I shaved my head talking about clear your space.

[00:29:17] Crystal: [00:29:17] has woman, she has her head. She going through it

[00:29:25] Crystal: [00:29:25] locks for oh God, 12 years,

[00:29:37] Crystal: [00:29:37] bring your Clippers to Christmas. You come into Christmas, bring your Clippers. He's like, I got you. He didn't even hesitate, but he's also an island man. from the islands. So understood when it's time to cut them.

[00:29:52] he, he came with his Clippers and he started cutting and then he just, he just faded me out and it was so like, [00:30:00] first of all, comb hadn't touched my head and I don't know, I didn't own a car.

[00:30:14] Nikki C: [00:30:14] Yes.

[00:30:21] And I couldn't hide behind my hair and more cause it wasn't there.

[00:30:25] Crystal: [00:30:25] You got to see the real me and Yeah.

[00:30:32]Crystal: [00:30:32] time. I got a little

[00:30:42] Crystal: [00:30:42] You ain't, I ain't never seen him. Not natural.

[00:30:47] Crystal: [00:30:47] Thank you. Yes.

[00:30:53] Working from home. It became, it became a scarf life. So I was you know, if want to maintain [00:31:00] my relationship, neither can't take the scarf off. At some point

[00:31:05] Like you said, sometimes it's just freeing and it, it took me a long time to even wear my hair in its very most natural state in curly. Like I literally just started doing that a couple of weeks ago

[00:31:29] Crystal: [00:31:29] Yeah.

[00:31:36] Crystal: [00:31:36] ain't never gotten as much attention from a male as when I didn't have any hair.

[00:31:41] Crystal: [00:31:41] it was different kind of man too. It was, it was man, not a boy. Look.

[00:32:09]I see great things in your future, and I can't wait to have you back on the podcast so we can be talking about, so author published author. this is, I want to so let's talk about your book,

[00:32:25] Nikki C: [00:32:25] Yes, that that is, that, that is on the way that is going to be close. I see it. It's in near future and I look forward to it.

[00:32:40] Crystal: [00:32:40] well, I am on Twitter

[00:32:43] Crystal: [00:32:43] doll one. That's the number one. And I am on Instagram, on occasion, on occasion. I'm on Instagram. And on Instagram, let's see what I don't even know.

[00:32:55] C S w first off, we've probably rebranded ourselves. We need to know what our social [00:33:00] handles are.

[00:33:06] So the Instagram, my username is C rose doll, C R O S E D a H L and Instagram, C rose doll. And then on Twitter. It's at sea rose doll the number one

[00:33:41]Crystal: [00:33:41] just like everyone says, take your time. Do your work and it's a marathon, not a sprint. So it, happiness is a choice.

[00:33:56] Crystal: [00:33:56] Every time.

[00:34:13] I'm your host, Nikki C. And remember, it's time to get back to dreaming again. And if not,