May 15, 2025 • 31 mins
Fearlessly Facing Fifty and beyond - What does it mean to see yourself through a lens of beauty rather than criticism? This question forms the heart of my conversation with former Ford model turned photographer Kristen Jensen, who has mastered the art of capturing authentic beauty in everyone she photographs.
Kristen's journey began in front of the camera, traveling to 34 countries during her 20-year modeling career. But it was the moment she picked up a Hi8 camera and started filming behind the scenes that she discovered her true calling. "I was used to being photographed, but I wanted to be on the other side," she explains. This transition from being seen to seeing others became her superpower – the ability to look at people through what she calls "a soft lens" that reveals their inherent beauty.
As we navigate our 50s and beyond, many women experience a dip in self-confidence and struggle with visibility. Kristen's perspective offers a refreshing antidote: "It's not about perfection, that's not what sells. It's about energy." This wisdom extends beyond photography into how we present ourselves in every aspect of life. Whether starting a business, moving to a new community, or simply facing another day, authenticity trumps perfection every time.
Our conversation explores the challenges of reinvention – from building new friendships to redefining purpose. We discuss the importance of having cheerleaders in your corner when taking risks, the reality of aging bodies that require different care, and the poignant experience of losing parents. Through it all, we return to the central question that defines this stage of life: "Who am I now?"
Ready to see yourself through a kinder lens? Listen now to discover how embracing your authentic self – wrinkles, imperfections, and all – might be the most fearless act of all. Then join our community of women who are choosing courage over comfort every day as they fearlessly face their futures.
Connect with Kristen here
Ready to FEARLESSLY FACE all the F WORDS – be inspired and encouraged?
Get a copy of Amy’s Best selling book: CANNONBALL! FEARLESSLY Facing Midlife and Beyond here
Fearlessly Facing Fifty and Beyond has over 200 episodes with inspiration and stories to age fearlessly and connect confidently to others thriving at midlife and beyond.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, fearless friends , it's Amy and I am so excited
to be back today with anothershow.
You know what?
And we're talking fearlessly,facing all the F-words.
We're talking them all.
We're talking faith, friends,finances, fitness, FOMO, our
futures, our faces, everythingthat starts with F.
You know what we want to agefearlessly, connect confidently,
(00:29):
and that's why I'm so excitedto have this show today with an
incredible guest who was onactually season one with me.
We should have a drum roll orsomething.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Karim, we need to like get a drum roll or
something with these things.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, exactly, kristen Jensen welcome, Thank
you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you for having me back.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
We haven't done this in a long time.
So, trains, planes, automobiles, yeah, basically Connecticut to
now we both are in Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, let's not tell anyone.
Yeah, exactly no, we're not inSarasota Florida.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It actually is another part of Florida, but
isn't it fabulous.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I love it.
Yeah, we moved here about 16months ago and don't regret
leaving Connecticut.
I loved it.
I mean, it was good, we raisedour kids there, and then we're
like we're out.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know different seasons of life as we age.
Yes, things evolve constantly,constantly.
Yes, they do.
So Kristen is a former Fordmodel.
Okay, yeah, hello, I mean youknow amazing.
Just the stories behind thatare incredible and really just
your life experiences, yourtravel.
And then what I love aboutKristen and when I first met
(01:35):
Kristen actually was because Iwas getting some branding photos
done but your ability to tellstories visually, I think, is
your gift, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's the highest compliment.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You're the best of the best you truly are.
You look at someone and you seetheir beauty, whereas so often
we don't.
We don't see our inner beauty.
We don't see our outward beauty.
We're our worst critic.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
We're invisible, many of us, yeah, especially when
you age.
Yeah, I think, I think thatbecomes like an invisible wall,
right, exactly, that kind ofcomes down.
But yeah, I, it is my gift andthank you for recognizing me as
that.
That's the highest, highestcompliment.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well, I think storytelling is huge and
sometimes we have these walls upthat we don't want to tell our
story, we don't want to shareour story.
And then, when you have theability to create this, and then
for someone like myself who,honestly, as much as I do
on-camera things, I still getnervous about watching myself or
my biggest critic Are you goingto get me from the left side?
(02:38):
Am I going to have a doublechin?
Am I going to be 15 poundsheavier?
You know all those things.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, it is, we're just so self-conscious.
And more for women.
Yeah, I think so Most of myclients.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I don't know are women Right.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I have a lot of male clients and men and
professionals, CEOs and guys,but guys are really much more
confident or they fake it better.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, maybe that's it .
Maybe they fake it better.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, maybe, maybe that's it.
Yeah, maybe they fake it better.
They fake it.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
That's enough.
That's enough.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Fake it till you, make it yeah.
Fake it till you, make it yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I want you to take me back to that moment, kristen,
when you I talk a lot aboutpassion and purpose and and and
how they just intersect, and allof a sudden, just this epiphany
happens.
It's like all right, I amreally good at this, this is my
passion and now this is mypurpose.
Take me to that moment when ithappened for you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
It happened to me towards the tail end of the
height of my modeling career.
So I spent a lot of time inEurope, actually 20 years on and
off.
I traveled to 34.
With German and French clients,Wow, and towards like the back
end.
I was bored.
Everybody else was having funTo me.
I wanted to be on the otherside.
Yeah, you know, because it wasinteresting.
So I started.
I bought a Hi8 camera, whichnobody probably even knows what
(03:57):
that is now All right explainthat.
Well, it's like well, everyonehe knows no, no, a little camera
.
A Well, everyone he knows, no,no, A little camera.
A little camera, but it shot1080.
So it was a good quality?
Yeah, and we edited on Avid.
But I shot, I brought my cameraon every single shoot and, like
how we're sitting here, yeah, Iwould just flip my camera up
(04:19):
and just look out there.
Interesting, and I gathered 60hours of footage.
Did you Signed releases?
Interesting, and I gathered.
I gathered 60 hours of footage.
Signed releases Wow.
Then I hired um, a smallproduction company in New York
city.
This is like mid late nineties,wow.
And um, I did some standups tothe camera.
(04:41):
I was used to it.
I was in SAG and after I didcommercials and acting and then
I just wrapped it into a videoand it was called the art of
modeling and it was 55 minutes.
It was educational, slash,documentary and what, what I I
love putting it together.
I was that passionate that onthose trips, those modeling gigs
(05:03):
, I would go back to the hotelroom and look at my footage Wow,
and make like time.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And those were long days.
So you're going back.
No, you're up at 4.30.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I mean, people think it's glamorous.
It's like you're putting onugly clothes and you're trying
to make them look good yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, there you go.
I can't even imagine.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
But the experience and who I met along the way and
the photographers and directorsthat I were my mentors, right,
you know, right Were great.
But when I the first time Iwent to the editing room, I
called it the editing room weused to back then I pulled an
all-nighter with the guys nodrinking, no, nothing, yeah,
just pure passion, really,because I loved cutting the
(05:42):
footage.
I love putting that storytogether.
I go, oh, remember that, let'sfind that, let's put that here.
So that was when I knew, okay,I shouldn't be.
You know, well, I mean, oncamera is fine, but I really I
do.
I prefer behind the scenes, youprefer behind the scenes, you
prefer behind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Take me to a time when you were behind the scenes
and you saw something a woman,let's say a woman who was you
could just tell, because youhave this ability to pull things
out of people.
So if you're sitting there andyou're surrounded by these
beautiful I mean, let's behonest, beautiful people models,
(06:22):
but you saw something insomeone when you were behind the
scenes.
Yeah, like you saw somebodythat just was probably
struggling probably struggling.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
It's like I look at people not like a microscope,
but a lens yeah, a lens, and thelens is a soft lens.
Explain that.
My point of view is I see thebeauty in people.
I know it sounds cheesy and itcan work against me.
Believe me, but I do see thebest in people and I really
(06:57):
think photography is about theIndian, not the arrow.
So it's the point of view, it'smy point of view.
You could go to be, you couldtrain to be a photographer and
learn all your photography,technical stuff forever and ever
and ever, cause it's evolvingvery fast.
But if you don't see it Rightand I think the same thing with
(07:25):
our goals are seeing anybodygood or how women see themselves
If you can't see it, it's hardto make stuff happen and even
get off your butt to dosomething, because you have to
just have a glimmer of hope, aglimmer of hope, so interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So I have to share this because this is nothing we
have rehearsed or anything.
But I was homesick a coupleweeks ago with the flu so I was
watching everything on Netflix.
I mean, I was just goingthrough and I was streaming all
these things.
I happened on the Aaron RodgersEnigma.
Well, I'm a Wisconsin girl, soGreen Bay Packer fan.
I've always been a littleintrigued by Aaron Rodgers.
(08:03):
My daughter actually met himwhen she was interning at a TV
station in Green Bay.
He left Green Bay, went to NewYork, but he has this
documentary out right now.
It's called Enigma and, honestto goodness, kristen, I almost
called you during this becauseI'm not really a football guru,
I don't know all of that.
I wasn't that interested inthat part of his story.
What I was interested in waswatching him react and his this
(08:27):
whole video.
I want you to watch it actually.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, I'm totally going to watch it.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
We'll talk about it afterwards and if Aaron Rodgers
ever watches this, I would loveto interview him because what I
my takeaway from that I kind ofput on my Kristen Jensen lens
and I watched how he told hisstory and see, I even get
goosebumps when I say it becauseI felt my takeaway from this
whole thing.
Football aside, he's fantastic,he's all of this, but he's
(08:53):
almost like he doesn't lovehimself.
I could see that as somebodylaying bed and sick with the flu
and 102 temperature maybe alittle off in his eyes.
I was like you just are not,you don't love yourself.
You're so great and you're sofabulous and you're so skilled
and everything.
But I could see that Wow.
(09:15):
Yeah, and I'm sure you see, andI don't even know if that's true
I mean that's a total, that'san Amy Schmidt theory from
watching Enigma, but you seethis all the time.
I mean you're looking throughthe lens at somebody and I know
their eyes speak a lot right,yeah, yes, totally.
You can tell.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Totally.
It's kind of sad.
Most women, especially 50 andbeyond, their self-esteem starts
to dip.
Yeah, right beyond, theirself-esteem starts to dip.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And you definitely see that.
So you want to build them upand make them feel good,
although I've met some womenrecently that their self-esteem
is so high, really, that theyturn ugly to me Interesting.
You know what I mean?
People that are just too fullof themselves, like just got to
(10:07):
knock it down.
Yeah, it doesn't happen veryoften.
Out of all the, the girls Imodeled with over the years, and
the actresses, the girls, Imean, we were tired yeah right.
Do you know what I mean?
We're not sitting there lookingin the mirror going, oh, we're
so great.
No, yeah interesting yeah, butthat's, I will definitely watch.
I want you to watch it becauseI did.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I just I was like, wow, there is something so deep
in this and I think about thatwith the story and it was his
story but how you tell storiesof people.
I also think there's somethinginteresting as we age in that
you know life past 50, 60,beyond.
There's a real spotlight on usright now.
I think there's the Forbes best50 over 50.
(10:51):
There's all of these womendoing amazing, incredible things
entrepreneurs, going back tothe workforce.
Whatever they're doing, they'recreating, they're living out
their dreams.
With that spotlight, some womenmay feel as though smaller
because they're not writing abook, they're not going back to
work, which is all fine and good, but remember walking the halls
(11:14):
in middle school and highschool and feeling insecure.
I hope that shining so much ofa spotlight on women over 50,
launching businesses don'tinhibit some of these women that
are just putting pen to paperand trying to create something
for themselves.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Right, especially if they've been moms, full-time
moms, which is the hardest jobin the world and then to kind of
reinvent and I think a lot ofpeople and clients come to me
when we first met.
It's like we're packaging andreinventing ourselves and our
energy level isn't the same.
(11:51):
Right, that changessignificantly.
Yes, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, I would agree with that.
Check, check on that.
Yeah, it is true, and youreally do have to.
I talk about the fact that wego through life with blind spots
and we have the ability tosometimes not ask for help.
We don't go to our resources.
We want to get there further,faster.
We think we can do it alonebetter, but then as we age, we
(12:16):
find people like I look to youas a mentor for me, as somebody
that I can reach out to and sayhey, kristen, what do you think
about this idea?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, you know but a lot of women don't do that.
Their fear of you know theyfeel weak.
Or they say well, I don't wantto ask for help, because then I
look weak.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
That's true.
It's just it all goes back, Iguess, to feeling insecure and
you have to fill your cup up,you know.
You have to add back, you know,put things back in that build
you up, right, because there'senough out there going on, yeah,
of things trying to knock youdown, right.
So it's really you know courage.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Right it is.
It's choosing courage overcomfort.
Yeah, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And that's not easy.
That's not even easy for me allthe time.
Believe me Exactly no, exactlyno.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, moving to a new community.
Launching a business,relaunching a business here in
another part of the country.
I'm the same.
I go to a large church here, Iknow you do too.
And the other night I had towalk into a room 250 women and I
really didn't know anybody.
And those feelings of okay,roll those shoulders back, stand
(13:28):
up straight.
You know you can do this.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
That even happens to me, yeah, since that, I think,
moving, you know kids are out ofcollege or in college and you
move from pretty much where youraised them, you know, sold the
house.
All my clients, most of myclients, have been up there.
I'm just developing.
You know, getting a clientelehere, terrifying yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Terrifying.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, absolutely terrifying.
And I drove down.
I followed my husband.
He had a little U-Haul.
We got a truck later to bringdown most of our stuff but we
drove the cars down and I wasjust.
It was like an out-of-bodyexperience because I was so out
of my comfort zone.
Nobody knows me here, right?
You know what I mean.
Like, who am I Right?
(14:15):
Who am I?
Who am I?
That's what we're.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Oh, that's the big one, yeah, yeah.
How many times do we askourselves that?
Yeah, like what am I now?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Because we get into our own little groove right, we
get back to the comfort.
Yeah, courage over comfort.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So let's talk about that, because a lot of viewers
and listeners might be saying,okay, like I'm ready to start
something, I'm ready to stepinto something I've always
wanted to do, but I don't knowhow to start what thing I've
always wanted to do, but I don'tknow how to start.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
What would you tell them?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You're going to need cheerleaders, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You got to get, yeah.
You got to get your tribe, yeah, and you have to handpick it
and get people that love andsupport you.
Right, you do.
You have to have that yeah, andthat tribe changes right,
because without it, some dropout and new one pops in.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Fearlessly facing friends.
Some drop out and new one popsin Fearlessly facing friends.
It's an effort, it's true,right?
Yeah, yeah, it changes, and Ithink we get stuck in this.
So many of us just think Idon't think I can do it.
I'm going to wait until I'm 10pounds slimmer to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Oh, that's a big one.
That is a huge one.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I'd still be waiting.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, I'd still be waiting.
Well, I'd still be waiting.
I think you know 99% of theworld would wait.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Or you know, I'm going to save more money, so I'm
going to put it off, or I'mgoing to wait until the timing
is totally perfect, wheneverything's aligned.
When does that ever happen?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
It doesn't.
There's never a perfect time tomove.
There's never a perfect time todive or jump.
Time to move.
There's never a perfect time todive or jump.
There's never like was it aperfect time to have a baby,
right, you know?
I mean, I don't know, you justgotta, you gotta grab it, you
gotta grab it.
You have to take the step.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, we talked a little bit before we started
recording about how time is justcontinuing to go.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
You know it is and it seems to go faster it does.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It just seems to no God speeds it up.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yeah, it truly does when you're on the back nine.
Yeah, yeah, it changes a littlewhen you're on the back nine.
No, it does.
Your whole again the lens.
Wow, the perspective.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, the back nine.
My sister says her lasttrimester and it drives me crazy
because I'm like stop sayingyour last trimester, yeah it
sounds icky.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I like the back nine much better.
The back nine is sexier.
Yeah, it is.
At least you're having fun,yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah.
So let's talk about women inphotography, because I think
every woman should have photostaken every year, whether you're
in business or not.
I feel that that's importantand a lot of people say, well,
why it's expensive?
Why would I want to do that?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I don't want to look at myself.
What am I going to do with them?
I'm being egotistical.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Why should I?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
do that, but I think and it depends obviously on the
photographer what's going on.
But what I'd like to provide isan experience Right Great hair
and makeup, nice music thatfeels so good, maybe a mimosa.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh, that's even better.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I mean, let's loosen up.
Yeah, yeah, let's loosen up andget to know each other.
I said, and that's how it'sgoing to be, we're going to be
sitting or talking, or I'mstanding up or sitting with a
camera and we're just having aconversation.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, I wasn't loos up the first time you took my
photo.
I think I was stiff as a board.
I still don't really enjoygetting my picture taken and I
wish I did a little bit more.
I think that's a good thing,yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, you think so.
Oh, oh, yeah, I mean you're, Ithink you're.
That's about right.
Nobody likes it.
It's like going to the dentist.
I mean do we?
Oh, I can't wait?
You know it's very, very, veryfew.
Yeah, I mean, do we?
Oh, I can't wait?
Yeah, you know it's very, very,very few.
Yeah, um, and I think modelingis, is a you learn, you learn
how to model, this pose that putthat.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You know, yeah, it's so.
I never even learned how tostand.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's so robotic, you know the, and there's like not
we, excuse me, I it's like 99poses you go through in your
head like of all the differentthings you can do.
So when I'm photographing likeyou didn't I I stand like if I'm
photographing you right now, I,we swap seats and I sit where
(18:19):
you are because I, I, I learnedto be a photographer and
producer and light by the way itfelt on my face.
So I light by what it feelslike, also what obviously has to
look good, and then I also whenI'm in my client's seat, I also
(18:41):
will go through a range ofposes and I know it looks easy
to them, but they don'tunderstand.
I did it for 20 years every day.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Oh, I know, I mean I can't imagine doing that, but
you did every single day.
I was exhausted after the threehours or six hours, whatever we
spent together.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
That's why they pay them so much.
There's a reason.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
There's a reason yeah , yeah, very interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
No-transcript dark out and you're still sitting.
You haven't even walked.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, so how are you taking care of yourself?
How have you learned to treatyourself as a guest of honor?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
That is a very good question.
Yeah, because I want to learn.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
God, you really put me.
No, I want to learn too.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
That is a very good question.
Yeah, because I want to learn.
You really put me.
No, I want to learn too.
No, I am absolutely a work inprogress.
Yeah, me too, I am just.
You know, I was talking aboutit with my husband I want to be
doing yoga again.
I had a surgery last fall, aknee deal, so that kind of
knocked me out and I just got toget back on the horse.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
You know, and I need a schedule, and if I don't do it
in the morning, if I don'texercise in the morning, it most
likely won't happen, becausethe minute I get to my office,
it's gangbusters, you're all in.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
It's a blessing and a curse for me.
I'm a very hard worker and Ilearned that I work so hard that
then I, you know, I just eitherI get sick or I do something.
So I really have learned to, inmy fifties and almost beyond
now, to really to really listento my body, because it does, it
nudges you until it finallyknocks you over and then you're
(20:43):
like, okay, come on, like workin progress, you got to practice
what you preach here.
Yeah, yeah, it has to be on thecalendar.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You have to practice what you preach here.
Yeah, yeah, it has to be on thecalendar.
You have to have a buzzer gooff.
If you could create that and Ihave, you know, I have been in
that flow.
Currently I'm not, but I willbe.
I'm going to go to yogatomorrow.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
You go, girl.
I know I'm addicted to Pilates.
Oh, so you haven't tried thatyet?
Oh, you'll love it.
And there's something about itthat you really don't look at
yourself because Good, You'relaying down.
I love it.
And there's not this sense ofcompetitiveness.
I used to love that.
I would go to those stepclasses whatever they were, the
(21:21):
step thing and people won't evenknow what we're talking about
if they're under 40.
But anyway-.
Jane Fonda yes, you go and youkind of look at the person next
to you and be like oh, I can doit.
I can do it better than you.
I can do it faster than you andin Pilates it's like, oh, this
is awesome because you are inyour own zone, Probably like
yoga.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, I don't.
Yeah, I'm trying to talk myhusband.
I know.
No, I know, because guys needto stretch too.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
We all do, and he's like well, I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I said believe me, nobody is looking at you.
I mean, I know you're reallyhot, but yeah, no one's looking.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
No one's looking.
If you don't mind, we talkabout this a little bit because,
as we age fearlessly agingparents and losing our parents
is a part of that we both havelost you, recently lost your mom
and.
I'm so sorry about that becauseI know how intimate that
relationship and how specialthat relationship was.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, it's like when I moved from Connecticut.
It was like a domino.
I was flying back and forthmore often.
I'm not in the mood to go upthere right now in January, but
I mean I was looking after mymom and the plan was to bring
her down and she didn't want tocome.
Yeah, so, and my mother modeled.
(22:39):
My mother actually got me intomodeling from beauty pageants
and I didn't want to do it.
I was petrified.
And then, about 10 years intoit, I brought my mother to my
modeling agency.
My mother was just turning like50, maybe 40, late forties and
she dyed her hair like dirtyblonde.
And and the the booker whothat's what they're called who
(23:00):
work at the modeling agency saidhey, leslie, what's under that
brown hair?
And she goes oh, it's justsilver, it's white.
So he said well, if you let itgrow out and go white, I'll work
you.
And he did.
And she had a 10-year I neverknew that.
Yeah, she had a 10-year run.
We did jobs with Harper'sBazaar.
Good housekeeping Isn't thatamazing.
(23:20):
Yeah, it was like crazy, it waskind of-.
Yeah, I mean, the Harper'sBazaar gig was like a flat table
like this, right, and we'relooking at each other in the
mirror, posed like this all day.
Really, yeah, I talk about mymother myself, wow, or me myself
(23:42):
and I.
Me myself and I.
I was just going to say that,wow, yeah, so it was good and it
was also, but she was, she wasvery beautiful and she, she, she
kind of came on that scene whensilver started?
yeah, going for a run.
Do you talk to her?
I talk to my mom.
(24:20):
Every day.
I, I see a lot of birds, yousee a lot of birds.
Last summer and I saw my agentthat represented me in Germany
for so long, and my husband andI and she gave me bird
pillowcases.
Really, it's I don't know.
I think it's a good sign.
I think it's a good sign too,but she was ready to go.
She had Lewy body, dementia andAlzheimer's and it's just
(24:43):
brutal.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
There's, that is nothing fun.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
No, it's not.
That is nothing fun.
No, it's not.
Those are things that scare mea little bit when you talk about
those types of things.
As we get older and I start tosee it in people and all of a
sudden in our peer group, westart to have some issues that
come to be much more evident inyour 50s and your 60s than they
ever were Right, and thosemoments are challenging Right, I
(25:07):
mean, are challenging.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Right, I mean, that's just it.
It's the back.
Nine is also.
I love that, you know.
Like you are on the back, youknow what I mean.
Like that part is done, thatpart is finished, and now it's
like what am I now?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And how do I see it?
Who am I?
Who am I?
That's right.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It always goes back.
Who am I?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
It does.
Yeah, and what am I going to doto make a difference?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, and I think that's so important.
And so often we overlook thingsthat we've accomplished or
undervalue things that we'vedone, and so often oh, I do, I
do yeah.
Yeah, and you know you do haveto look back in almost decades
of life, especially at the ageswe are.
You know you look back three,four decades back and you see
(25:56):
what you've done and those dotsdo.
They are a narrative, they areyour story.
They all happened for a reason.
I know Coincidences.
They all happened.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Oh, I know, Definitely, yeah, like this dot
leads you to this and thishappened.
But you know, it's like I tellmy son, noah, god doesn't give
you the whole plan, right, it'sall about faith and trust.
And it's like driving down aroad in fog, yeah, and you have
the headlights on and you wantto see it.
Right, you want to see till youget to your destination and you
want to see it.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
You want to see until you get to your destination,
but you got to trust.
You got to trust, yeah.
So I really hope womenlistening today and watching are
inspired to try something, tocontinue to learn, to be
fearless to face thosechallenges.
And for somebody today that Iwant to encourage every woman, I
put it out there in a socialmedia post a while ago around
(26:50):
the holidays and I said you knowwhat?
Get in the photo?
Stop taking the photos.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Get in the photo yeah .
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, because they don't.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Never.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I mean, when I even look through photos and I've got
thousands, I need to dosomething about that.
So if there's anybody watchingthat's an organizer around that
I need that help.
But my husband's in almost allof them, oh yeah, and I love
that he's in almost all of them.
Yeah, but what about you?
Yeah, exactly, I'm doing acouple of segments tomorrow in
Tampa and they were like Amy,send us some pictures of you and
(27:20):
the kids, or you.
I mean, I had to scroll foryears just to find a couple and
that sounds silly.
I mean, it's not that myhusband's in every picture, but
it's hard to find one when I'min it.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Oh, totally, totally, the value of a family portrait,
like finding a good family,like that's really valuable.
Yeah, I think so too.
Those photos, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So three tips before we go that you can give women
when they are either havingtheir picture taken, what can
they do to just feel moreconfident?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I think that they should come prepared to have fun
, and it's not scary An F wordFun, fun we could do effing fun.
Yes, okay, yes, and that youknow.
Oh, this is another thing I sayit's not about perfection, that
(28:14):
is not what sells.
I mean, even from a marketingstandpoint, right, it's about
energy, energy, okay.
So it's like if you're, if you,uh, if you're going through
facebook or instagram orlinkedin, yeah, you look at
someone's picture.
Yeah, either it pops or itdoesn't.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
It's energy well, that takes me back to aaron
rogers.
I'm telling you he didn't't pop.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Oh, wow, yeah, Like his eyes didn't pop.
Like there's something in there.
Oh, I can't wait to watch that.
We're going to have a wholesession with Aaron here.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Okay, good, good, but yeah interesting, so energy
Very much energy.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
You know, like I discuss, I do a lot of websites
and people's photos for thelanding page, the hero shots and
all that.
I'm like it's just about yourenergy.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It's not the perfect smile, you know I have women
that kind of be they don't wantto smile because they have
wrinkles.
True, I've heard that.
So what I?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
can dot, dot.
You know Photoshop's abeautiful thing.
I wish I could just do thatevery morning, yeah, and put a
wand on there and have it all goaway.
No, but it's like if you don'thave that sparkle and energy.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, and that comes with authenticity too.
Right it does.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
And there's some people I photograph that haven't
been that attractive Right.
Let's just say, yeah, they'renot the beauty queen.
Yeah, right, right.
But something happens and allof a sudden they become
beautiful to me.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Beautiful to you.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, and all of a sudden they become beautiful to
me, beautiful to you, yeah, yeah, I don't know.
I love that.
Yeah, it is energy.
And I actually photographed awoman just last Friday and I
said the same thing to her.
I said don't worry about beingperfect, don't just smile, just
bring your energy.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Let your eyes be, you know.
Smile with your eyes.
You told me that.
Smile with your eyes.
You told me that Smile withyour eyes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, I try, you do.
You're so photogenic, I try Getout of here.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Well, you know, I did have.
We had a friend on, we bothknow him and we were talking
last week about beauty and kindof about faces and eyes, and he
always has to put more attentionto one eye on me because it's
more hooded than the other one,and that has all evolved over
time.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Everyone's body, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Well, everything goes down.
Yes, gravity wins.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But there's nobody that has a perfectly symmetrical
face.
Everyone has a little off this.
That's what I mean.
It's not about being perfect.
It is about being authentic andreal.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
All right.
Last question yeah, if you weresitting on the couch and you
look over and there's30-year-old Kristen, what advice
would you?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
give her.
Don't give up, don't eversettle.
Go for the highest thought.
Don't settle, yeah, just don'tdumb it down.
Love it, you know.
Don't settle, yeah, just don'tlike dumb it down, love it, you
know Love it.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, thank you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Thank you, you're amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
I think we'll be doing a lot more together.
I do too, all right.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I love you.
I do too.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Thanks See, ya, thanks everybody.
Hey, fearless friends , it's Amy and I am so excited
to be back today with anothershow.
You know what?
And we're talking fearlessly,facing all the F-words.
We're talking them all.
We're talking faith, friends,finances, fitness, FOMO, our
futures, our faces, everythingthat starts with F.
You know what we want to agefearlessly, connect confidently,
(00:29):
and that's why I'm so excitedto have this show today with an
incredible guest who was onactually season one with me.
We should have a drum roll orsomething.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Karim, we need to like get a drum roll or
something with these things.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, exactly, kristen Jensen welcome, Thank
you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you for having me back.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
We haven't done this in a long time.
So, trains, planes, automobiles, yeah, basically Connecticut to
now we both are in Florida.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, let's not tell anyone.
Yeah, exactly no, we're not inSarasota Florida.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It actually is another part of Florida, but
isn't it fabulous.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I love it.
Yeah, we moved here about 16months ago and don't regret
leaving Connecticut.
I loved it.
I mean, it was good, we raisedour kids there, and then we're
like we're out.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know different seasons of life as we age.
Yes, things evolve constantly,constantly.
Yes, they do.
So Kristen is a former Fordmodel.
Okay, yeah, hello, I mean youknow amazing.
Just the stories behind thatare incredible and really just
your life experiences, yourtravel.
And then what I love aboutKristen and when I first met
(01:35):
Kristen actually was because Iwas getting some branding photos
done but your ability to tellstories visually, I think, is
your gift, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's the highest compliment.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You're the best of the best you truly are.
You look at someone and you seetheir beauty, whereas so often
we don't.
We don't see our inner beauty.
We don't see our outward beauty.
We're our worst critic.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
We're invisible, many of us, yeah, especially when
you age.
Yeah, I think, I think thatbecomes like an invisible wall,
right, exactly, that kind ofcomes down.
But yeah, I, it is my gift andthank you for recognizing me as
that.
That's the highest, highestcompliment.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well, I think storytelling is huge and
sometimes we have these walls upthat we don't want to tell our
story, we don't want to shareour story.
And then, when you have theability to create this, and then
for someone like myself who,honestly, as much as I do
on-camera things, I still getnervous about watching myself or
my biggest critic Are you goingto get me from the left side?
(02:38):
Am I going to have a doublechin?
Am I going to be 15 poundsheavier?
You know all those things.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, it is, we're just so self-conscious.
And more for women.
Yeah, I think so Most of myclients.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I don't know are women Right.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I have a lot of male clients and men and
professionals, CEOs and guys,but guys are really much more
confident or they fake it better.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, maybe that's it .
Maybe they fake it better.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, maybe, maybe that's it.
Yeah, maybe they fake it better.
They fake it.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
That's enough.
That's enough.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Fake it till you, make it yeah.
Fake it till you, make it yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I want you to take me back to that moment, kristen,
when you I talk a lot aboutpassion and purpose and and and
how they just intersect, and allof a sudden, just this epiphany
happens.
It's like all right, I amreally good at this, this is my
passion and now this is mypurpose.
Take me to that moment when ithappened for you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
It happened to me towards the tail end of the
height of my modeling career.
So I spent a lot of time inEurope, actually 20 years on and
off.
I traveled to 34.
With German and French clients,Wow, and towards like the back
end.
I was bored.
Everybody else was having funTo me.
I wanted to be on the otherside.
Yeah, you know, because it wasinteresting.
So I started.
I bought a Hi8 camera, whichnobody probably even knows what
(03:57):
that is now All right explainthat.
Well, it's like well, everyonehe knows no, no, a little camera
.
A Well, everyone he knows, no,no, A little camera.
A little camera, but it shot1080.
So it was a good quality?
Yeah, and we edited on Avid.
But I shot, I brought my cameraon every single shoot and, like
how we're sitting here, yeah, Iwould just flip my camera up
(04:19):
and just look out there.
Interesting, and I gathered 60hours of footage.
Did you Signed releases?
Interesting, and I gathered.
I gathered 60 hours of footage.
Signed releases Wow.
Then I hired um, a smallproduction company in New York
city.
This is like mid late nineties,wow.
And um, I did some standups tothe camera.
(04:41):
I was used to it.
I was in SAG and after I didcommercials and acting and then
I just wrapped it into a videoand it was called the art of
modeling and it was 55 minutes.
It was educational, slash,documentary and what, what I I
love putting it together.
I was that passionate that onthose trips, those modeling gigs
(05:03):
, I would go back to the hotelroom and look at my footage Wow,
and make like time.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And those were long days.
So you're going back.
No, you're up at 4.30.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I mean, people think it's glamorous.
It's like you're putting onugly clothes and you're trying
to make them look good yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, there you go.
I can't even imagine.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
But the experience and who I met along the way and
the photographers and directorsthat I were my mentors, right,
you know, right Were great.
But when I the first time Iwent to the editing room, I
called it the editing room weused to back then I pulled an
all-nighter with the guys nodrinking, no, nothing, yeah,
just pure passion, really,because I loved cutting the
(05:42):
footage.
I love putting that storytogether.
I go, oh, remember that, let'sfind that, let's put that here.
So that was when I knew, okay,I shouldn't be.
You know, well, I mean, oncamera is fine, but I really I
do.
I prefer behind the scenes, youprefer behind the scenes, you
prefer behind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Take me to a time when you were behind the scenes
and you saw something a woman,let's say a woman who was you
could just tell, because youhave this ability to pull things
out of people.
So if you're sitting there andyou're surrounded by these
beautiful I mean, let's behonest, beautiful people models,
(06:22):
but you saw something insomeone when you were behind the
scenes.
Yeah, like you saw somebodythat just was probably
struggling probably struggling.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
It's like I look at people not like a microscope,
but a lens yeah, a lens, and thelens is a soft lens.
Explain that.
My point of view is I see thebeauty in people.
I know it sounds cheesy and itcan work against me.
Believe me, but I do see thebest in people and I really
(06:57):
think photography is about theIndian, not the arrow.
So it's the point of view, it'smy point of view.
You could go to be, you couldtrain to be a photographer and
learn all your photography,technical stuff forever and ever
and ever, cause it's evolvingvery fast.
But if you don't see it Rightand I think the same thing with
(07:25):
our goals are seeing anybodygood or how women see themselves
If you can't see it, it's hardto make stuff happen and even
get off your butt to dosomething, because you have to
just have a glimmer of hope, aglimmer of hope, so interesting.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So I have to share this because this is nothing we
have rehearsed or anything.
But I was homesick a coupleweeks ago with the flu so I was
watching everything on Netflix.
I mean, I was just goingthrough and I was streaming all
these things.
I happened on the Aaron RodgersEnigma.
Well, I'm a Wisconsin girl, soGreen Bay Packer fan.
I've always been a littleintrigued by Aaron Rodgers.
(08:03):
My daughter actually met himwhen she was interning at a TV
station in Green Bay.
He left Green Bay, went to NewYork, but he has this
documentary out right now.
It's called Enigma and, honestto goodness, kristen, I almost
called you during this becauseI'm not really a football guru,
I don't know all of that.
I wasn't that interested inthat part of his story.
What I was interested in waswatching him react and his this
(08:27):
whole video.
I want you to watch it actually.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, I'm totally going to watch it.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
We'll talk about it afterwards and if Aaron Rodgers
ever watches this, I would loveto interview him because what I
my takeaway from that I kind ofput on my Kristen Jensen lens
and I watched how he told hisstory and see, I even get
goosebumps when I say it becauseI felt my takeaway from this
whole thing.
Football aside, he's fantastic,he's all of this, but he's
(08:53):
almost like he doesn't lovehimself.
I could see that as somebodylaying bed and sick with the flu
and 102 temperature maybe alittle off in his eyes.
I was like you just are not,you don't love yourself.
You're so great and you're sofabulous and you're so skilled
and everything.
But I could see that Wow.
(09:15):
Yeah, and I'm sure you see, andI don't even know if that's true
I mean that's a total, that'san Amy Schmidt theory from
watching Enigma, but you seethis all the time.
I mean you're looking throughthe lens at somebody and I know
their eyes speak a lot right,yeah, yes, totally.
You can tell.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Totally.
It's kind of sad.
Most women, especially 50 andbeyond, their self-esteem starts
to dip.
Yeah, right beyond, theirself-esteem starts to dip.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And you definitely see that.
So you want to build them upand make them feel good,
although I've met some womenrecently that their self-esteem
is so high, really, that theyturn ugly to me Interesting.
You know what I mean?
People that are just too fullof themselves, like just got to
(10:07):
knock it down.
Yeah, it doesn't happen veryoften.
Out of all the, the girls Imodeled with over the years, and
the actresses, the girls, Imean, we were tired yeah right.
Do you know what I mean?
We're not sitting there lookingin the mirror going, oh, we're
so great.
No, yeah interesting yeah, butthat's, I will definitely watch.
I want you to watch it becauseI did.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I just I was like, wow, there is something so deep
in this and I think about thatwith the story and it was his
story but how you tell storiesof people.
I also think there's somethinginteresting as we age in that
you know life past 50, 60,beyond.
There's a real spotlight on usright now.
I think there's the Forbes best50 over 50.
(10:51):
There's all of these womendoing amazing, incredible things
entrepreneurs, going back tothe workforce.
Whatever they're doing, they'recreating, they're living out
their dreams.
With that spotlight, some womenmay feel as though smaller
because they're not writing abook, they're not going back to
work, which is all fine and good, but remember walking the halls
(11:14):
in middle school and highschool and feeling insecure.
I hope that shining so much ofa spotlight on women over 50,
launching businesses don'tinhibit some of these women that
are just putting pen to paperand trying to create something
for themselves.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Right, especially if they've been moms, full-time
moms, which is the hardest jobin the world and then to kind of
reinvent and I think a lot ofpeople and clients come to me
when we first met.
It's like we're packaging andreinventing ourselves and our
energy level isn't the same.
(11:51):
Right, that changessignificantly.
Yes, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah, I would agree with that.
Check, check on that.
Yeah, it is true, and youreally do have to.
I talk about the fact that wego through life with blind spots
and we have the ability tosometimes not ask for help.
We don't go to our resources.
We want to get there further,faster.
We think we can do it alonebetter, but then as we age, we
(12:16):
find people like I look to youas a mentor for me, as somebody
that I can reach out to and sayhey, kristen, what do you think
about this idea?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, you know but a lot of women don't do that.
Their fear of you know theyfeel weak.
Or they say well, I don't wantto ask for help, because then I
look weak.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
That's true.
It's just it all goes back, Iguess, to feeling insecure and
you have to fill your cup up,you know.
You have to add back, you know,put things back in that build
you up, right, because there'senough out there going on, yeah,
of things trying to knock youdown, right.
So it's really you know courage.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Right it is.
It's choosing courage overcomfort.
Yeah, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And that's not easy.
That's not even easy for me allthe time.
Believe me Exactly no, exactlyno.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, moving to a new community.
Launching a business,relaunching a business here in
another part of the country.
I'm the same.
I go to a large church here, Iknow you do too.
And the other night I had towalk into a room 250 women and I
really didn't know anybody.
And those feelings of okay,roll those shoulders back, stand
(13:28):
up straight.
You know you can do this.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
That even happens to me, yeah, since that, I think,
moving, you know kids are out ofcollege or in college and you
move from pretty much where youraised them, you know, sold the
house.
All my clients, most of myclients, have been up there.
I'm just developing.
You know, getting a clientelehere, terrifying yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Terrifying.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, absolutely terrifying.
And I drove down.
I followed my husband.
He had a little U-Haul.
We got a truck later to bringdown most of our stuff but we
drove the cars down and I wasjust.
It was like an out-of-bodyexperience because I was so out
of my comfort zone.
Nobody knows me here, right?
You know what I mean.
Like, who am I Right?
(14:15):
Who am I?
Who am I?
That's what we're.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Oh, that's the big one, yeah, yeah.
How many times do we askourselves that?
Yeah, like what am I now?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Because we get into our own little groove right, we
get back to the comfort.
Yeah, courage over comfort.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So let's talk about that, because a lot of viewers
and listeners might be saying,okay, like I'm ready to start
something, I'm ready to stepinto something I've always
wanted to do, but I don't knowhow to start what thing I've
always wanted to do, but I don'tknow how to start.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
What would you tell them?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You're going to need cheerleaders, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You got to get, yeah.
You got to get your tribe, yeah, and you have to handpick it
and get people that love andsupport you.
Right, you do.
You have to have that yeah, andthat tribe changes right,
because without it, some dropout and new one pops in.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Fearlessly facing friends.
Some drop out and new one popsin Fearlessly facing friends.
It's an effort, it's true,right?
Yeah, yeah, it changes, and Ithink we get stuck in this.
So many of us just think Idon't think I can do it.
I'm going to wait until I'm 10pounds slimmer to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Oh, that's a big one.
That is a huge one.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I'd still be waiting.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, I'd still be waiting.
Well, I'd still be waiting.
I think you know 99% of theworld would wait.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Or you know, I'm going to save more money, so I'm
going to put it off, or I'mgoing to wait until the timing
is totally perfect, wheneverything's aligned.
When does that ever happen?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
It doesn't.
There's never a perfect time tomove.
There's never a perfect time todive or jump.
Time to move.
There's never a perfect time todive or jump.
There's never like was it aperfect time to have a baby,
right, you know?
I mean, I don't know, you justgotta, you gotta grab it, you
gotta grab it.
You have to take the step.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, we talked a little bit before we started
recording about how time is justcontinuing to go.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
You know it is and it seems to go faster it does.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It just seems to no God speeds it up.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yeah, it truly does when you're on the back nine.
Yeah, yeah, it changes a littlewhen you're on the back nine.
No, it does.
Your whole again the lens.
Wow, the perspective.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, the back nine.
My sister says her lasttrimester and it drives me crazy
because I'm like stop sayingyour last trimester, yeah it
sounds icky.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I like the back nine much better.
The back nine is sexier.
Yeah, it is.
At least you're having fun,yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah.
So let's talk about women inphotography, because I think
every woman should have photostaken every year, whether you're
in business or not.
I feel that that's importantand a lot of people say, well,
why it's expensive?
Why would I want to do that?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I don't want to look at myself.
What am I going to do with them?
I'm being egotistical.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Why should I?
Speaker 2 (16:53):
do that, but I think and it depends obviously on the
photographer what's going on.
But what I'd like to provide isan experience Right Great hair
and makeup, nice music thatfeels so good, maybe a mimosa.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh, that's even better.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I mean, let's loosen up.
Yeah, yeah, let's loosen up andget to know each other.
I said, and that's how it'sgoing to be, we're going to be
sitting or talking, or I'mstanding up or sitting with a
camera and we're just having aconversation.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, I wasn't loos up the first time you took my
photo.
I think I was stiff as a board.
I still don't really enjoygetting my picture taken and I
wish I did a little bit more.
I think that's a good thing,yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yeah, you think so.
Oh, oh, yeah, I mean you're, Ithink you're.
That's about right.
Nobody likes it.
It's like going to the dentist.
I mean do we?
Oh, I can't wait?
You know it's very, very, veryfew.
Yeah, I mean, do we?
Oh, I can't wait?
Yeah, you know it's very, very,very few.
Yeah, um, and I think modelingis, is a you learn, you learn
how to model, this pose that putthat.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You know, yeah, it's so.
I never even learned how tostand.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It's so robotic, you know the, and there's like not
we, excuse me, I it's like 99poses you go through in your
head like of all the differentthings you can do.
So when I'm photographing likeyou didn't I I stand like if I'm
photographing you right now, I,we swap seats and I sit where
(18:19):
you are because I, I, I learnedto be a photographer and
producer and light by the way itfelt on my face.
So I light by what it feelslike, also what obviously has to
look good, and then I also whenI'm in my client's seat, I also
(18:41):
will go through a range ofposes and I know it looks easy
to them, but they don'tunderstand.
I did it for 20 years every day.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Oh, I know, I mean I can't imagine doing that, but
you did every single day.
I was exhausted after the threehours or six hours, whatever we
spent together.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
That's why they pay them so much.
There's a reason.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
There's a reason yeah , yeah, very interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
No-transcript dark out and you're still sitting.
You haven't even walked.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, so how are you taking care of yourself?
How have you learned to treatyourself as a guest of honor?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
That is a very good question.
Yeah, because I want to learn.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
God, you really put me.
No, I want to learn too.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
That is a very good question.
Yeah, because I want to learn.
You really put me.
No, I want to learn too.
No, I am absolutely a work inprogress.
Yeah, me too, I am just.
You know, I was talking aboutit with my husband I want to be
doing yoga again.
I had a surgery last fall, aknee deal, so that kind of
knocked me out and I just got toget back on the horse.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
You know, and I need a schedule, and if I don't do it
in the morning, if I don'texercise in the morning, it most
likely won't happen, becausethe minute I get to my office,
it's gangbusters, you're all in.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
It's a blessing and a curse for me.
I'm a very hard worker and Ilearned that I work so hard that
then I, you know, I just eitherI get sick or I do something.
So I really have learned to, inmy fifties and almost beyond
now, to really to really listento my body, because it does, it
nudges you until it finallyknocks you over and then you're
(20:43):
like, okay, come on, like workin progress, you got to practice
what you preach here.
Yeah, yeah, it has to be on thecalendar.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You have to practice what you preach here.
Yeah, yeah, it has to be on thecalendar.
You have to have a buzzer gooff.
If you could create that and Ihave, you know, I have been in
that flow.
Currently I'm not, but I willbe.
I'm going to go to yogatomorrow.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
You go, girl.
I know I'm addicted to Pilates.
Oh, so you haven't tried thatyet?
Oh, you'll love it.
And there's something about itthat you really don't look at
yourself because Good, You'relaying down.
I love it.
And there's not this sense ofcompetitiveness.
I used to love that.
I would go to those stepclasses whatever they were, the
(21:21):
step thing and people won't evenknow what we're talking about
if they're under 40.
But anyway-.
Jane Fonda yes, you go and youkind of look at the person next
to you and be like oh, I can doit.
I can do it better than you.
I can do it faster than you andin Pilates it's like, oh, this
is awesome because you are inyour own zone, Probably like
yoga.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, I don't.
Yeah, I'm trying to talk myhusband.
I know.
No, I know, because guys needto stretch too.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
We all do, and he's like well, I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I said believe me, nobody is looking at you.
I mean, I know you're reallyhot, but yeah, no one's looking.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
No one's looking.
If you don't mind, we talkabout this a little bit because,
as we age fearlessly agingparents and losing our parents
is a part of that we both havelost you, recently lost your mom
and.
I'm so sorry about that becauseI know how intimate that
relationship and how specialthat relationship was.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, it's like when I moved from Connecticut.
It was like a domino.
I was flying back and forthmore often.
I'm not in the mood to go upthere right now in January, but
I mean I was looking after mymom and the plan was to bring
her down and she didn't want tocome.
Yeah, so, and my mother modeled.
(22:39):
My mother actually got me intomodeling from beauty pageants
and I didn't want to do it.
I was petrified.
And then, about 10 years intoit, I brought my mother to my
modeling agency.
My mother was just turning like50, maybe 40, late forties and
she dyed her hair like dirtyblonde.
And and the the booker whothat's what they're called who
(23:00):
work at the modeling agency saidhey, leslie, what's under that
brown hair?
And she goes oh, it's justsilver, it's white.
So he said well, if you let itgrow out and go white, I'll work
you.
And he did.
And she had a 10-year I neverknew that.
Yeah, she had a 10-year run.
We did jobs with Harper'sBazaar.
Good housekeeping Isn't thatamazing.
(23:20):
Yeah, it was like crazy, it waskind of-.
Yeah, I mean, the Harper'sBazaar gig was like a flat table
like this, right, and we'relooking at each other in the
mirror, posed like this all day.
Really, yeah, I talk about mymother myself, wow, or me myself
(23:42):
and I.
Me myself and I.
I was just going to say that,wow, yeah, so it was good and it
was also, but she was, she wasvery beautiful and she, she, she
kind of came on that scene whensilver started?
yeah, going for a run.
Do you talk to her?
I talk to my mom.
(24:20):
Every day.
I, I see a lot of birds, yousee a lot of birds.
Last summer and I saw my agentthat represented me in Germany
for so long, and my husband andI and she gave me bird
pillowcases.
Really, it's I don't know.
I think it's a good sign.
I think it's a good sign too,but she was ready to go.
She had Lewy body, dementia andAlzheimer's and it's just
(24:43):
brutal.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
There's, that is nothing fun.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
No, it's not.
That is nothing fun.
No, it's not.
Those are things that scare mea little bit when you talk about
those types of things.
As we get older and I start tosee it in people and all of a
sudden in our peer group, westart to have some issues that
come to be much more evident inyour 50s and your 60s than they
ever were Right, and thosemoments are challenging Right, I
(25:07):
mean, are challenging.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Right, I mean, that's just it.
It's the back.
Nine is also.
I love that, you know.
Like you are on the back, youknow what I mean.
Like that part is done, thatpart is finished, and now it's
like what am I now?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And how do I see it?
Who am I?
Who am I?
That's right.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
It always goes back.
Who am I?
Speaker 2 (25:32):
It does.
Yeah, and what am I going to doto make a difference?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, and I think that's so important.
And so often we overlook thingsthat we've accomplished or
undervalue things that we'vedone, and so often oh, I do, I
do yeah.
Yeah, and you know you do haveto look back in almost decades
of life, especially at the ageswe are.
You know you look back three,four decades back and you see
(25:56):
what you've done and those dotsdo.
They are a narrative, they areyour story.
They all happened for a reason.
I know Coincidences.
They all happened.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Oh, I know, Definitely, yeah, like this dot
leads you to this and thishappened.
But you know, it's like I tellmy son, noah, god doesn't give
you the whole plan, right, it'sall about faith and trust.
And it's like driving down aroad in fog, yeah, and you have
the headlights on and you wantto see it.
Right, you want to see till youget to your destination and you
want to see it.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
You want to see until you get to your destination,
but you got to trust.
You got to trust, yeah.
So I really hope womenlistening today and watching are
inspired to try something, tocontinue to learn, to be
fearless to face thosechallenges.
And for somebody today that Iwant to encourage every woman, I
put it out there in a socialmedia post a while ago around
(26:50):
the holidays and I said you knowwhat?
Get in the photo?
Stop taking the photos.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Get in the photo yeah .
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, because they don't.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Never.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I mean, when I even look through photos and I've got
thousands, I need to dosomething about that.
So if there's anybody watchingthat's an organizer around that
I need that help.
But my husband's in almost allof them, oh yeah, and I love
that he's in almost all of them.
Yeah, but what about you?
Yeah, exactly, I'm doing acouple of segments tomorrow in
Tampa and they were like Amy,send us some pictures of you and
(27:20):
the kids, or you.
I mean, I had to scroll foryears just to find a couple and
that sounds silly.
I mean, it's not that myhusband's in every picture, but
it's hard to find one when I'min it.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Oh, totally, totally, the value of a family portrait,
like finding a good family,like that's really valuable.
Yeah, I think so too.
Those photos, yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So three tips before we go that you can give women
when they are either havingtheir picture taken, what can
they do to just feel moreconfident?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
I think that they should come prepared to have fun
, and it's not scary An F wordFun, fun we could do effing fun.
Yes, okay, yes, and that youknow.
Oh, this is another thing I sayit's not about perfection, that
(28:14):
is not what sells.
I mean, even from a marketingstandpoint, right, it's about
energy, energy, okay.
So it's like if you're, if you,uh, if you're going through
facebook or instagram orlinkedin, yeah, you look at
someone's picture.
Yeah, either it pops or itdoesn't.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
It's energy well, that takes me back to aaron
rogers.
I'm telling you he didn't't pop.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Oh, wow, yeah, Like his eyes didn't pop.
Like there's something in there.
Oh, I can't wait to watch that.
We're going to have a wholesession with Aaron here.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Okay, good, good, but yeah interesting, so energy
Very much energy.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
You know, like I discuss, I do a lot of websites
and people's photos for thelanding page, the hero shots and
all that.
I'm like it's just about yourenergy.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It's not the perfect smile, you know I have women
that kind of be they don't wantto smile because they have
wrinkles.
True, I've heard that.
So what I?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
can dot, dot.
You know Photoshop's abeautiful thing.
I wish I could just do thatevery morning, yeah, and put a
wand on there and have it all goaway.
No, but it's like if you don'thave that sparkle and energy.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Yeah, and that comes with authenticity too.
Right it does.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
And there's some people I photograph that haven't
been that attractive Right.
Let's just say, yeah, they'renot the beauty queen.
Yeah, right, right.
But something happens and allof a sudden they become
beautiful to me.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Beautiful to you.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, and all of a sudden they become beautiful to
me, beautiful to you, yeah, yeah, I don't know.
I love that.
Yeah, it is energy.
And I actually photographed awoman just last Friday and I
said the same thing to her.
I said don't worry about beingperfect, don't just smile, just
bring your energy.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Let your eyes be, you know.
Smile with your eyes.
You told me that.
Smile with your eyes.
You told me that Smile withyour eyes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, I try, you do.
You're so photogenic, I try Getout of here.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Well, you know, I did have.
We had a friend on, we bothknow him and we were talking
last week about beauty and kindof about faces and eyes, and he
always has to put more attentionto one eye on me because it's
more hooded than the other one,and that has all evolved over
time.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Everyone's body, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Well, everything goes down.
Yes, gravity wins.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But there's nobody that has a perfectly symmetrical
face.
Everyone has a little off this.
That's what I mean.
It's not about being perfect.
It is about being authentic andreal.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
All right.
Last question yeah, if you weresitting on the couch and you
look over and there's30-year-old Kristen, what advice
would you?
Speaker 2 (30:47):
give her.
Don't give up, don't eversettle.
Go for the highest thought.
Don't settle, yeah, just don'tdumb it down.
Love it, you know.
Don't settle, yeah, just don'tlike dumb it down, love it, you
know Love it.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, thank you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Thank you, you're amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
I think we'll be doing a lot more together.
I do too, all right.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I love you.
I do too.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Thanks See, ya, thanks everybody.
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