Ep. 67 with Constantina Watters | Founder & Owner of Sproute Creative - Reclaiming Your Hue: A Podcast for Women Rediscovering Themselves in Motherhood & Entrepreneurship

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kelly Kirk (00:01):
Good morning Konstantina, Good morning Kelly,
how are you?

Constantina Watters (00:04):
I'm good, good.

Kelly Kirk (00:07):
I just have to say you're a vibe.
I love the outfit.
I know I mentioned that already, but seriously, it's now.
Did you, did you do like acolor analysis?

I don't know, probably years ago, but I
deal with color a lot and I'malways trying on new things.
So, um, I think color can bevery expressive and um, yeah,
there's so many great umresources, though, to like find
your colors in there.
By the way, thank you so muchfor having me.

Kelly Kirk (00:38):
You're so welcome.
You're so welcome.
So, interestingly enough, Iactually I just had a gal on the
podcast who she's a stylist.
That's primarily what she does,but she does color analysis as
well.
It's not something that shepromotes on her website, but she
mentioned it in the interviewand I was like well, you've been
on the podcast, I now have asense of who you are.

(00:59):
I think that this might besomething I'd like to explore.
I think I've got a pretty goodsense of some of the colors that
go well for me, but so thelisteners already know this.
We only do audio, and so I'mjust going to paint a picture
for them.
Okay, constantina walks intothe house and she's got this
very stylish outfit on beautifulkind of greenish blazer and

(01:25):
matching shorts, and it's justbeautiful Because it's 80,
almost 80 out there.

I know.

Kelly Kirk (01:32):
We got to prepare right.

We're sweating but we're like cool on
top but like hot on the bottom.

Kelly Kirk (01:36):
Yes, yes, 100% Okay.
So let's go ahead and dive in.
The first question I'd like toask you after you take a sip of
your tea is how did we getconnected?
Would you, would you mindsharing how it is that we are
connected?

Do you remember, do I remember?
Well, I want to say I think itwas at our shine with confidence
event.
That was in December, and youhad come to that event.
Did we connect before then?

Kelly Kirk (02:04):
We did, oh my gosh, I'll refresh your memory.

Okay, please do.

Kelly Kirk (02:08):
Okay.
So, allison, it's okay, Allison, reinert had a get together at
her house.
She owns Ali Mata, that's right.

And Ali Mata.

Kelly Kirk (02:24):
Boutique.
And then Stacey Stratton is whobrought all of us together at
Allison's house.

That is so you know what You're right.
Yep, that was an amazing event.
Stacey Stratton's awesome,isn't she?

Kelly Kirk (02:35):
She's a rock star.

Oh my gosh, all the women in that room were
fantastic.
And now I remember that.
Yes, because what happened waswe scheduled our connect for a
little bit later.
And I think that's where I justI was like disconnected from
when I first met you too, but Ireally got to connect with you
further, I think at the shinewith confidence event in
December and you showed up, Iremember, because you showed up

(03:01):
in this beautiful fuzzy blushpink outfit and I blush pink
outfit and I was and you wereglam and you were amazing and I
was like this color not manypeople can pull off this color
set and you did it and it was sofun to see you.
Just, you were really excited.

Kelly Kirk (03:17):
you showed, you came in there and you were like I
love that I can just dress upand come to this event and oh,
it was so fun to have thatexperience and I actually
brought a dear friend of minewho's also been on the podcast
too and had literally had a babywithin months of coming to that
event and she shined as well,she seriously did.

She was so you could see it in your face.
I remember her too.
Yeah yeah, it was just a nice.
It was just a nice.

Kelly Kirk (03:44):
She did.

She was so you could see it in your face.
I remember.
I remember her too.
Yeah, yeah, it was just a nice.
It was just a nice.
I wanted to pull that togetherso that people could feel like
they could wear the dress to thething to just show up and be
their fabulous self.

Kelly Kirk (03:56):
Yeah, yeah, that was awesome, well, and you did a
fantastic job with it.
Thank you, thank you so, um,let Thank you.
So let's actually dive into whoyou are as an individual, so
that the listeners can get abetter understanding of what
we're talking about here withthis event.
But before we do that, whatcame first for you?
Was it motherhood or was itentrepreneurship?

Well, that is a fabulous question, because
it was actually a little bit ofboth.
It was first entrepreneurship.
When I started Sprout Creative,it was in the height of
recession, so it was 2008,.
2009 is when I officiallycreated the name and we were in
the midst of like, starting afranchise.

(04:40):
We bought into a franchise andthen the market crashed and
whatever, and then I startedSprout as a kind of a freelancer
, tipping my you know, dippingmy toes in the water of should I
go on my own, um, and then thenI ended up, you know, getting

(05:00):
pregnant in 2011 and then,motherhood came, but I went back
to corporate before then.

Kelly Kirk (05:06):
Okay.

And then, um, yeah, I had my son and was
like you know what?
He needs a lot of care, and soI pulled out the hey, maybe this
option of going back intoworking for myself or a
freelance capacity was a goodbalance for what I needed to do

(05:27):
at that time too.

Kelly Kirk (05:28):
Okay, Okay.
So I'm just going to kind ofpan out the timeline here for
the listeners, so 2008, 2009,there it was twofold that you
were dipping your toes into afranchise pathway but, then also
exploring sprout creative.

Right.

Kelly Kirk (05:49):
And did it?
Did that officially happen atthat point?
And then, when you're walk methrough, it Okay.

So, yeah, it was.
It was hey, there's a, we'regoing to go and do this
franchise.
And, by the way, people werestill asking for work and so, um
, I decided to, you know, builda, a brand around.
Being able to produce some ofthat work wasn't necessarily
targeting or going after, it wasjust requests that were coming

(06:18):
in and I needed to figure outyou know what kind of balance
that was going to be.
And then, when the, thefranchise didn't end up really
moving forward because all ofthe lending and banking and all
the infrastructure wascompletely crazy at the time, um
, you know, then I ended updoing more of you know, looking

(06:39):
into a full time and corporatework and kind of just pausing on
some of that, still doing someon the side, I mean it wasn't um
an issue and then, um, when Ihad my son in 2011, I I figured
you know what.
This would be a good opportunityto kind of see if this is
something that I want to pursueagain and so came back to it,

(07:01):
and so then it was sort of mom,and then again, and so came back
to it, and so then it was sortof mom, and then again
entrepreneurship.
But the entrepreneurship was italways was what it needed to be
.
It was never that it had to be acertain way and there was like
a way to do it.
It was.

(07:25):
It was first putting motherhoodand then trying to fill in the
gaps with what does it need tobe to be there for my son,
because when we learned later onhe had some food allergies that
at the time we didn't.
We didn't have the care thatthey have now the awareness, the
food products um thesensitivity of, of that kind of
lifestyle uh available Um, andso I knew I had to take a
different path with motherhood.

Kelly Kirk (07:45):
That is not what.

I had envisioned for myself.

Kelly Kirk (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, I'm curious if you have any insight,
that moment where it shiftedfor you, where you were like
okay, I actually think that thisis the route that I need to go,
and was it a specific moment intime?
Was there a circumstance thathappened?

(08:08):
Um, you mentioned that some ofthis may have been in relation
to um, finding out about thesensitivities and the food
allergies of your son but, wasthere something else in
conjunction to that?
Yeah, I.

I think that I remember being in the
hospital and going oh man, Iwant to be crappy If somebody,
if we you know we food allergieswere just coming out.
I'm like man, what if my sonwas like allergic to peanuts?
That would be the worst.
And you know, you, we plannedfor me to kind of well, in the
midst of it, I helped my husbandlaunch his business, so so in

(08:46):
the midst of it, I'm buildinganother brand, um, kind of
simultaneously, and then, um, intwo, in that two, two year time
period of you know, kind ofwhen my son's one and a half
starting to do solids and thingslike that, we're noticing food
allergy situation and theimplications of what that would
probably be for our family.
Um, and then you know, you'retesting out different childcare

(09:09):
options and you're trying tofigure out how are they
maneuvering through.
You know, lunchtime, snack timeall those things.
And we know when, when thesituation of of a piece of fish
you know, makes your son, um,you know, blow up a little bit
and you have to go to the ER,you just get this fight or
flight right and you just wantto protect them and you want to

(09:31):
be there for them and you wantto figure out how to fix it, and
so I figured that the best, thebest way to do that is to be
present as much as I could andto try to um see what it would
take to get him at a level thatwas manageable and to get us at
a level that was knowledgeableand manageable.
It took like a year or two toreally fully understand what it

(09:54):
all entailed, what kind ofsacrifices we'd have to make as
far as if we'd have to, you knowlike we'd have to prepare
everything We'd have to goshopping in a different way,
we'd have to.
You know, going out to eat, allthose things are very, very
different when you have a childwith food sensitivities and
allergies that you, you don'tknow all of them yet.

Kelly Kirk (10:14):
Yeah.

So so, yeah , that was I.
I kind of approachedentrepreneurship as a fill-in,
where it needed to be what itwas at that, whatever time it
was at my as my, for my child,and how I was as a mom yeah, you
know what was that role that Ineeded to be for my son?

Kelly Kirk (10:33):
so um yeah, what I'm hearing is that there was a,
there was a family first, butthere's also this importance of
the self, too, right?
So, like there's somethingabout the building of a brand
that speaks to who you are as aperson, especially if it's your

(10:55):
brand, it's your business thatyou're starting to build, and
there's a little bit of anidentity that comes along with
that as well, and so I love that.
You, you understood theimportance of continuing to
harmonize.
Okay, this is the mostimportant, this being what is

(11:17):
going on with my son right now.
And, um, understanding, whatdoes that exactly look like?
And exactly probably isn't thebest word to use, because
there's no exact when it comesto food allergies or
sensitivities.
It's just like okay, how are wegoing to maneuver through this
and how are we going to havesome malleability through it as
well?
But also, I want to do thisover here, meaning I want to

(11:44):
build something.
I've got it, I've got peoplewho are interested, and so why
don't I do that?
The one question that is comingup for me, though, constantina,
is through all of this, werethere moments where you had
these or I should say seasons ofpouring a little bit more, um,

(12:07):
as you started to have a littlebit more firm grounding over
here when it came to the familylife where you could start to
pour more into that.
And did you see?
Did you see the?
I guess the the path how youwanted it to go versus how it

(12:28):
actually went.
Does that make sense?
Yeah?

Okay, all good questions.
I think when I was pretty naive, when it came to I well, I went
.
I don't know if naive, hopeful,I think.
When people start, you know,trying to build a family,
there's this like picture inyour mind of like how it's going
to go and then you're going tohave the kid, and then you're
trying to build a family.
there's this like picture inyour mind of like how it's gonna
go and then you're gonna havethe kid, and then you're gonna
do this and you're gonna go inthis direction, and maybe god

(12:51):
has different plans for us rightso we, what we have in our mind
, is like this ideal, um, but wedon't know if that's gonna
actually happen that way, and tobe okay with it not, and to
being adaptable and changing itand to your point of you know
you have these aspirations Ithis is one of the things that I

(13:13):
work with women on is reallyhard to feel present in all the
moments, because we can do a lotof different things at the same
time at different times.
We can juggle a lot.

(13:34):
We're so multifaceted and wehave these roles that demand a
lot of us.
So mother, wife, sister, friend, spouse, whatever that is, you
are pulled in a lot ofdirections and anything that's
worthwhile takes time and effortto build and make a great
family a safe household aworking dynamic, um, and there's

(13:55):
sacrifice.
That happens and I think womenwe do.
It's sometimes it's it's justbuilt in our nature, I feel, to
do to do that, and we get usedto some of those moments that
really challenge us to do wetake a backseat, do we start to
lead or do we?

(14:16):
You know, what do we do?
The whole idea of like theleaders eat last is most women,
I know.
Like we are preparing all of thefoods.
I mean, it shows up in how weare in moms.
We prepare all the foods.
Many of us don't go.
Okay, hold on, kids, I'm goingto eat my meal first and then,
when I'm done, then we'll makeyour meal.

(14:37):
I don't know of any mom thatI've ever witnessed do that.
This is how we operate.
We make sure that the peoplearound us that we care about and
love are taken care of and safeand nurtured.
Um and then.
But I don't know if werecognize the moments where
we're like, hey, this is wherethey're good.

(14:58):
They're good Now.
Now it's time to to focus, so,so a tactic that's helped me, is
it?
It's I don't know if it's goodor bad, but it's
compartmentalization for beingin that role, so it's huge.
so when I walk into a space, Iam this to this person in group
when I walk out of the spacethat goes, and it has helped me

(15:20):
immensely because I struggledfor a while to try to figure out
.
I'm doing an email and there'sa need and I'm frustrated.
Right, there's a call happeningand I can't focus.
So what I had to do was build aprocess of how I'm going to
tackle these things that arecoming up, so that I feel like
I'm fully present as much as Ican be.

Kelly Kirk (15:41):
Teach me your ways.
It's interesting that you bringup this idea of
compartmentalization.
This has come up a time or twowith other guests.
Oh sure, but in the respect ofhow the differences between men
and women and how typicallyspeaking not all, but typically

(16:03):
speaking men are really reallylike they, they kind of fast
track when it comes tocompartmentalization.

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk (16:13):
But for women we have all of the tabs open and we
kind of go like this betweenall of the tabs.

That's what I like to say it's true.

Kelly Kirk (16:19):
It's me for sure, but I I mean it when I say like,
teach me your ways.
It's me for sure, but I mean itwhen I say like, teach me your
ways.
I would love to hear what doesthat process look like, or what
did the process look like before, and has it evolved since?
You've sort of seen thisamazing trajectory with your

(16:41):
business?

amazing trajectory with your business.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's.
It's, it's just realizing what.
Who gets the most attention atthat time?
So what I, when my kids werereally young you can't really do
that.
That's why it's really reallyhard to have a business and
start a business when you havereally young ones.
So it's, it's just absolutelyhard unless you have somebody
who can help.
Kind of be there to overseewhile you're doing your thing,
at the times that you are, andto try to fully be out of, if

(17:11):
you have the help, to try to befully out so that you can do
your focus 100% and then comeback and be fully focused on
them and the kids and playing ordoing the cooking or whatever
it is that needs to happen, andplaying or doing the cooking or
whatever it is that needs tohappen.
It's when we are trying tostraddle both of those worlds

(17:31):
that we get really frustrated,and rightly so.
It's like two people talking toyou at the same time and you
can't do either of them reallywell, and so I said okay.
At this point I think it wasreally weird, a weird way to
live before kids.
It's like you just know who youare, like you show up that way
to everybody, like I'mconsistent, I come to with my
friends and I come with myfamily, like this yes.
But when you get to a pointwhere, if you are running, uh,

(17:56):
at a high level, or you havefamily, you actually what I
found is you have to bedifferent things to different
people and you have to realizeit's a self-realization, that's
a like an emotional intelligencethat you have, you, you build
up, but you realize that I don'thave to show up this way for
everyone yeah but if I'm gonnago to lunch with a friend, I'm

(18:18):
focused on them and I'm nottrying to do emails while I'm
with them if.
I if I'm home with the kids andit's my moment.
There are times where you'relike checking something, maybe
once or twice, but I'm not goingto go into starting an email or
starting a response while I'min that mom mode and writing a

(18:40):
note saying, yep, this is what Ineed to do when I get that free
moment.
And then, when your kids get alittle bit older, I would say to
them hey guys, this is what Ineed to do when I get that free
moment.
And then, when your kids get alittle bit older, I would say to
them hey guys, this is the plan.
I got one 30 minute call, sohere's what it.
When this hand gets to here andthen I can connect and we can
chat and talk, and then it wouldbe like, okay, they were fine

(19:00):
with that Cause.
Then we would hang out and play, but until they got to that
space, if I was home, it'sreally hard to do that Totally,
so I learned that I just neededto you know, figure out what I
needed to be um, for where I wasand without losing myself, I
could.
I'm, I'm multifaceted, so I Ishow up in different ways for

(19:23):
people, um, and I think that wasa solution that helped me, and
so it.
It really is something that Ipreach to people Um, when,
especially moms who are, who aregoing through like I don't know
how to not be frustrated allthe time, or like we get
frustrated, you know, because wecan't focus and with our
attention, split.

Kelly Kirk (19:43):
Well, and what's interesting is what better
individual to have thoseconversations with than somebody
who's gone through itthemselves?
Right, like you're a mom?
Yeah, you own a business.
Yeah, and so then you can speakto the person on the other side
and go yeah, this is what I'veseen right, and this is what
these are.
These are the shining examplesof other individuals that I've

(20:07):
worked with in the past, andhere are a couple of takeaways
and pieces of gold, nuggets ofinformation that I can provide
for you.

Right.

Kelly Kirk (20:15):
Right, but I love this notion of um the emotional
intelligence because this isreally important.
Yes, like I don't considermyself super book smart by any
stretch of the imagination, Ialso, growing up, was a bit of a

(20:36):
social butterfly, like that wasmore of my focus.

That's hard to believe, I know right.

Kelly Kirk (20:41):
But the emotional intelligence, like there is
something to be said about thatand I love that you tie that in
with business and being a mom.
And just when you walk into aroom, there was somebody else
who had been on the podcast andmaybe you know her.
Her name is Lisa Babiak.

(21:02):
She's a life coach coach andshe primarily works with high
achieving women, and she talkedabout, um, crossing a threshold,
right.
So we've got our thresholds forher doors, you cross the
threshold and it's like doingthis body check and body scan
and like how do I want to showup?
Going into this room, yeah, youknow, or or coming into the

(21:26):
house or leaving the house.
So you know, and emotionalintelligence reigns true through
all of that, yeah, you speak toboundaries.
Yes, yes, that's that's a nicetie in with boundaries.

Yeah, I, I, that is 100% true.
I like door frames.
I think whenever I picturemyself going in and out of a
space, that's spot on she's spoton Door frames.
It is that it's like, and Ialways my philosophy was to walk
, leave the room better thanwhen you entered it.

(22:02):
So that can be true for anyrole that you play and that's.
But you don't have to be likethe light all the time, but just
know, if you're going in totalk with a friend and it's
going to be a hard talk, it'sokay.
You don't have to be late, butyou're in that moment, right,
You're, you're fully into it.
You're not trying to do toomany things at once, but

(22:26):
creating those boundaries, Ithink, is important so that you
protect your peace.
It helps you function.
I think, with women especiallyand I don't know if people know
this, but women will replaythings in their mind over and
over again.
Oh, you don't say, but womenwill replay things in their mind
over and over again.

Kelly Kirk (22:43):
Oh, you don't say.

Constantina Watte (22:43):
Conversations , emails, I mean, but for men
it's very different.
They'll just do once andthey're like, oh, that doesn't
even enter their mind again.

Kelly Kirk (22:51):
Yeah.

So that is why it's really crucial for
boundaries and protecting ourpeace to not have those kinds of
things replay, because we arealways trying to figure out how
we would do it differently orbetter.

Kelly Kirk (23:06):
I'm giving you the eyebrow raise because I'm like
this is, it's something I havehad to continuously work through
and I would say over the lastyear, um, and having fantastic
interviews with individuals likeyourself.
It's like, okay, just set thenonsense down.

(23:27):
You know what I mean.
Like control the controllables.

Yeah, control the controllables.
And to your point of you knowsuccessful people doing this
differently.
I've met, and I've had thepleasure of meeting, so many
different women in that of whatI would say, quote unquote
success means to them.
It's different for everybody,so I don't ever meet somebody
who's like a multimillionaireand go, oh, you're super
successful, and not say that tothe mom who's, you know, has two

(23:54):
kids at home.
They're also successful.
It's what does success mean tothat person?
And individual, right and so.
But they've had a differentformula for how they felt
successful.
Sometimes it's an au pair,sometimes it's, you know, not
going to those events butspending other time with their
kids, sometimes it's being athome.

(24:14):
And for those moments and Itried I don't live in a world of
judgment because I don't knowhow it is to live in.
I only know what I know throughmy experience.
And I think, if we just allkeep that in mind, like we're
all going through very similarexperiences, but it's our own.
So the only way that we canactually learn anything is if we
ask somebody like, how do youfeel about that?

(24:36):
Right, like, yeah, how did thatmake you feel?
I can guarantee you thateverybody everywhere is going
through something, whether it's,if it's not.
If you can't see it on theoutside, it's for sure happening
on the inside 1000%.
So it's like, uh, I think beingable to just fully know that

(24:57):
when you approach somebody, aconversation, however they come
across, I don't ever really sayit's a reflection of who they
are, but it's a reflection ofwhat they've gone through, so
what they are going through, and, you know, if we can get past
some of that, we can get to likethe deeper, the deeper talks
and to talk through strugglessometimes that people are having

(25:17):
.

Kelly Kirk (25:17):
Yeah.

As moms.
I think sometimes we get ingroups like everything's fine,
it's wonderful, so-and-so's insoccer and it's all great.
But sometimes it's really goodto talk about some of those
struggles because if we don'tand I share them more one-on-one
with, with people- I work with,but it may.
It helps you understand thatyou are human and everybody's
going through it.
It's not unique to you andyou're not.

(25:39):
You're not different or anoutlier, but everybody's.
These thoughts and thesechallenges are happening in
their lives as well.
They're just maybe not asvisible.

Kelly Kirk (25:50):
Right.
I think that we've sort ofswayed the pendulum one
direction where for a while,there was this way of showing up
and it was a bit robotic right.
It was like just show up toshow up, and there wasn't a lot

(26:11):
of authenticity or rawnessaround that.
But I think that you'restarting to see that pendulum
swing a little bit more theother direction, where people
are craving that, and I thinkthat COVID had something to do,
that, the big C.
We don't want to talk aboutthose times, but here we are.
You know, I do think that therewas a lot of self-reflection

(26:33):
for individuals, that we wereforced into isolation, and
isolation is not good.
Let me be very clear.
I think that there's a time anda place to have time for
yourself, but it's, it's pointedright, there's, there's a
meaning behind it Self-inflicted.

(26:55):
Right, exactly.
And because of the nature ofhow COVID was um, people felt
that way, like it wasself-inflicted, like it was we
were forced into isolation.
But you could see after or kindof moving through COVID, the

(27:17):
division of people who stayed inthat and those who were doing
the self-reflection through itRight, and what's coming out on
the other side of it now iscrave of authenticity, because
they're like yeah, I just didall of this work.
I just did all of theself-reflection, and it may have

(27:39):
, you know, it may have not justhappened right away, in 2020 or
2021.
It's been a long track.
It could have been like, ohgosh, you know, I have not just
happened right away, in 2020 or2021.
It's been a long track.
It could have been like, ohgosh, you know, I, I sort of
have been awoken to some ofthese other things and now I'm
starting to do this deepreflection and I just think that
you're starting to see thissort of awakening, um, whether

(28:02):
it's whether you're male orfemale, mother or, you know,
single.
What are your thoughts aboutthis?

Yeah, definitely awakening.
I think that was part of umwhen, when COVID hit I, I had
already been through the ringerum of like career volatility.
So I I was used to a little bitof chaos, but there was a whole
new crop of people who that hasnever happened to.
They weren't equipped with thisexperience or tools to process

(28:31):
um just like a unknown future,and the way that some of the
corporate systems are set up isthat you're you're continuously
on the wheel without reallyself-reflection.
You don't have time forself-reflection, you just go, go
, go.
I mean that's why when womenand men who have been let go or
leave a really stressful job, ittakes about six months for that

(28:53):
like stress to wear off and sothat they they kind of get back
into not checking their emailsevery moment.
You know, they're trying tofigure out what is the schedule,
structure and flow of howthey're thinking, how they're
moving through life, where theirboundaries are.
And so you're right, half ofthe people took that time to do
some self-reflection andlistening.
The other half was still in acycle of not knowing how to cope

(29:19):
with it because they didn'thave the tools.
They didn't have the experienceor tools to fall back on and
there weren't these great groupsthat are happening now, which
is one of the things that Iopened up some of my calendar
for is to meet with people andthen, through that, was trying
to connect others with peoplewho were starting these groups.
And I'm like find your group,try them all, connect with this

(29:41):
one to this one, see if there issomething that resonates so
that you're not alone.
And, um, it gives you anopportunity to connect because
you know, when you're workingcorporate, you don't have a
network you don't have.
You have your friends and youhave your work colleagues, but
there is no, there's no thoughtto why I need to spend extra
time to meet other peopleoutside of my bubble.
And now this I think we've goneto the point where there's so

(30:04):
much that we need to kind ofcreate a, a, a core again, with
the idea that it's yourimmediate bubble but you still
are being intentional with yourtime and energy of when you're
opening it up a bit to goexperience some things and so
for.
For some of them, I think thatself-reflection of starting

(30:25):
their own business, it's beenlike a huge there's just it's a
lot of people, there's a lot ofpeople out there like
entrepreneurship, small businessstarting their passion, and
some of them when I'm walkingthrough some of their ideas, you
know we're trying to see ifthis is something that they, if
it's viable, you have to try it,but you have to go.

(30:50):
It doesn't have to your work andwhat you produce doesn't have
to be your end all everythingbecause it's going to disappoint
you.
If you, if you love makingbracelets and you're like I love
doing these bracelets, theyfulfill me, I love making them
for people and I'm going to turninto a business and I go be
prepared to hate this thing thatyou love now because it might

(31:12):
happen, because if you, if it,if it were truly to be viable,
this is what it would have to be.
And and then think about whereyou need to be in that business.
So is it the idea of making it?
Sometimes people at the time itwas like people wanted to be a
Pilates instructor, yogainstructor.
It was very popular for peopleto leave an analytical type high

(31:34):
stress to become yoga andPilates.

Kelly Kirk (31:37):
Fascinating.

Yeah, so there was a lot going in that
direction, and then COVID closedsome of that off because you
couldn't group together, right?

Kelly Kirk (31:44):
Yeah.

But the idea was that I wanted to help
people'm getting into themindset of hey, why is it that

(32:14):
you want to do this thing?
Can we feed this and fill thisbucket in another way, or do you
want it to become a pathway fora career in the future?
Maybe there's an essence of it,but should it be all of it?

Kelly Kirk (32:21):
Do you?

want to protect this thing that you love
doing and that you love being apart of Um, and then you know
being really intentional andstrategic about it and and if
that is, if, if you want to makea career or business out of it,
um to really fully understandwhat you may have to do in order
to make that happen.

Kelly Kirk (32:40):
Sounds like some really nice, viable advice that
you just gave, and I loved it.
It it was so amazing.
Okay, so 2011 is approximatelywhen everything started with
Sprout.

Creative had started 2009, then took a
little backseat 2011, 12.
Um started some small, you knowfreelance type things, and then
my daughter was born in uh,2015.

(33:15):
So then it was like okay, well,you kind of you can't go full
force yeah um, for me it was.
It was let's a year and a halftoo, and then slowly, I started
going from part-time to morefull-time as, as it opened up,
cause I, I, really I needed tosupport another business that

(33:37):
was happening and also supportmy family at home.
And did I need to have this?
What I felt felt was thearchitecture of the dream of
this branding agency, but I wasseeing a bunch of them fail and
they were they were, they weregoing under.
So there's differentphilosophies for how I would
recommend people structure ortheir, their do their business.

(34:00):
Um, but for the creative agencyworld it was.
It was set up very differently.
There weren't a lot of virtualones, or there were, there were
only handful of small boutiqueones, um, so it was something.
It was like new territory and Ijust gave myself that awareness
and forgiveness to go.
It doesn't have to be like howthese people did it or how this

(34:22):
person did it.
It doesn't have to.
What they're, what they deemsuccessful, didn't have to apply
to me because, it needed to besuccessful for what I needed it
to be.
Um and I still see it that waytoo.

Kelly Kirk (34:35):
So the thing that is sticking out and resonating
with me so much right now,because outsider, looking in
Konstantina, I see you Right,we've only known each other
since.
Call it November of last year.
Yeah, and that's starting togrow.

(34:56):
That relationship is startingto grow.
But I see you and I'm just likeholy cats and dogs is this
woman just incredibly successfulat what she's doing?
Right?
But you're you're emphasizingthat success looks different for
everybody and how you haveviewed success is for your

(35:19):
pathway.
It was family family first,Perhaps there was a few things
here and there for business, butit took some time and that was
okay because the prioritiesneeded to be shifted.

Right.

Kelly Kirk (35:35):
And it wasn't any, it wasn't any longer.
This sense of me, right, I liketo think of like me.
Right, I like to think of likebefore Maddie, before the boys,
it was me.
And now it's we, the royal, weand a lot of times, the royal we

(35:58):
is always going to come first.
It really is, but that, thisidea that we, as women,
sometimes get stuck in our headsis this like, it has to look
like this and I have to do itwithin.
I mean, I'm.
I will raise my hand and admit,like, do I want to have this
podcast be a success?
1000%.

(36:19):
Did I think that, a year later,that I'd be putting on an
anniversary event?

Which was fabulous, by the way.

Kelly Kirk (36:26):
No, thank you.
But I also have aspirations forhow I see the growth of the
podcast, how I see the growth ofthe community and it's not the
way that I had thought it wasgoing to be.
It's not, but it's also.
On the other side of that isthis incredible sense of
fulfillment.
All of the women that I've met,all of the stories that have

(36:49):
been shared, that have deeplyresonated with me in one way or
another and left an impact.

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk (36:57):
You can't buy that.
No, you literally can't buythat, and I share that because
it's very much in parallel towhat you're talking about.
Yeah, and I share that becauseit's very much in parallel to
what you're talking about.
Yeah, and an emphasis to womenlistening right now that success
for you is not going to bewithin a year, within two years.

A certain number, a certain car, a certain
thing.
Yeah, yeah.

Kelly Kirk (37:23):
It's not.
I had this other question andnow I'm like I totally lost it
and hopefully it comes back,because I was like this is going
to be good, but, alas, here weare.

This is the .
This is the brain of Kelly,this is mine.
Yes, the same.
Yeah, I feel like.
I think that we put theseoutside pressures on ourselves.
I think it's because we haven'ttalked to enough people.
I think a lot of men and womenlook at somebody, I mean, who

(37:57):
appears successful and probablydoesn't need to work another day
in their life, and if you wereto chat with them and really get
to know them, some of themcan't get out of bed every day.
They, and some of them, who are, you know, running four
different types of jobs, uh, arejust so happy with, like, their

(38:19):
moments with their kids andtheir moments with their family
and, um, it, just, it, just, forme, it was I, I don't ever meet
somebody and go, I want to bethem, I, I, uh, I really
appreciate some of the thingsthey've accomplished and
achieved, but they've also doneit through certain sacrifices
that had to happen and, whetherit's known or not, or what are

(38:41):
their starting point, right?
It's always different and itdoesn't mean that their success
one year doesn't make a huge,drastic failure the next.
I mean some of my, some of myphilosophy is just like if
you're able to be emotionallyintelligent enough to pick
yourself up and keep going again, you're Like, yeah, like the.
You know God gives us enoughgrace for today and we will get

(39:11):
if we get to tomorrow.
Let's figure out what tomorrowis.
And it's a whole nother set ofchallenges.
So I think when we we we allhave some idea of what we want
to, we have a pick.
Some of us can picture, in ourmind at least, what some of
those goals would be.
If you saw your mood board orif you saw some point I'd be,
I'd like to do this or I'd liketo be here, and then something

(39:32):
happens that comes into yourlife that you never even
imagined and you're like this isamazing.
I wouldn't have never, I didn'teven think about this for my
mood board or my, my dream orgoal list.
And here it is, and the factthat you were able to bring this
podcast to life.
You have, essentially what Imentioned before too, is that
you you packed in a ton of yearsof experience of connecting

(39:54):
with people into a short amountof time and getting to deep,
deep ideas uh, deep challenges,deep solutions that you are able
to quickly kind of learn aboutthem and their life and then a
little bit peek behind thecurtain.

Kelly Kirk (40:11):
Yeah.

And to see that everybody in the end is
just human and whatever theirstarting point or perceived
starting point is, doesn'treally matter, because they've
got stuff going on too withfamily, kids, spouse.
If they have one um workchallenges, it's just like what,
how much of the pie does thatchallenge get in their life?

(40:33):
Yes, so if you have multipleroles, we we have to break that
up.

Kelly Kirk (40:38):
It's like a mathematical thing.
Yeah, there's only so manyhours in the day, the math, the
math isn't mathing or the mathis mathing.
So this is good.
Okay, so I remember what it is,but I'm going to table it.
I remember what it was that Iwas going to talk through with
you, but I want to table ithere's.
What I want to talk through isoff air.
We were talking about in thistimeframe of starting the

(41:02):
podcast.
Right, you were like you haveto have all of these really
great data points of these women, and the thing that's that I
wanted to share that I think isimportant for the listeners to
hear is what you just alluded to, which is failing, failing
quickly and moving through it,having the emotional

(41:24):
intelligence to move through itquickly, and it's not to say
that you, you pick up the rugand sweep it underneath, right,
it's.
It takes time to get to thatpoint and, depending on who you
are as an individual, it mighttake a little bit longer, but to
figure out what are the waysthat I can move through this so

(41:46):
that I can get to the nextfailure ultimately, cause this
is just like entrepreneurshipand life in general is just a
series of failures, a hundredpercent, and the more we can
wrap our mind around that, thebetter.
But I would say that in ininterviewing you know you're the
66th person that I'veinterviewed, right?

(42:07):
So, mowing outside, hey,listeners, you're getting real
life example of just some of theinterruptions, and perhaps you
can't even hear it right now,but but this is this is
something that really has stuckout to me is that the
individuals who are, you know,10 plus years or more in
business and are continuing tosee this growth and evolution of

(42:31):
self are the ones who arereally quickly moving through
the failures and learning fromit and going.
I don't think I want to try, Idon't want to do that again and,
you know, maybe there's adifferent version of how that
looks, but I'm certainly notgoing to let that that happen
again.
Yeah, and it's just this like,like.
I think of Ashley Hawks, who Ithink she's interviewing next

(42:54):
week.
Oh yeah, I talked to her on thephone before we got everything
scheduled and she was just likeentrepreneurship is just a
series of failures, which iswhere I really got that from.
I was like I've got somebodywho's back here is still
relishing or marinating orruminating, and I've already

(43:15):
started five more businesses.
You know, I mean not really,but like it's true, but it's
just moving through it.

It's true, it's you're able to look at it
and go, you know what's working,what's not.
And it's like the same ifyou're, if you're thinking about
a conversation too long andit's past, it's in the past.
You, you have to just look atit and go what, if anything I
can.
I think everything that istragic or terrible, that happens
to us, we can learn somethingfrom it.
I don't know if it's the silverlining, but it's certainly some

(43:44):
self-reflection to go this isterrible, this is tragic, this
is a bad thing that's happening,but or somebody is doing
something to you.
I think, I mean, I've learnedmore from bad leaders than I
have from great.

Kelly Kirk (43:57):
Honestly.

I've learned just by observing and
seeing how things have, how theyare acting, what the reaction
is of human nature, and that'swhere I've built some of my
leadership philosophy around notshowing up as this person that
controls the space, but showingup as a person that needs to

(44:19):
understand the space thatthey're entering.
And what is it going to take tomove the space that you're
entering into the direction itneeds to go?
So you know that also takes ahigh amount of emotional
intelligence and reflection yeahum, I don't know if that
deviated from our topic.

Kelly Kirk (44:39):
It was a really nice tie, but yeah, the um.

I think sometimes I sometimes what gets
me um is is this idea ofbuilding.
You have to know who you areand you know there's a lot of
those personality tests that aregoing on and they can be
helpful for some, but for othersit truly my, my belief is that
they put you into a box that youfeel like you have to stay in,

(45:06):
and I know this is going to beprobably earth shattering and
rocking the boat and rufflingsome feathers for many who
really put their stake in theground with personality tests
and predictors.
My daughter recently did one atan event and she was just
really frustrated.
She said, mom, I love all thesethings and it told me that I

(45:27):
needed to be doing these type ofcareers and I said don't worry
about it, everybody is a littlebit of everything.
This is why those testssometimes aren't great, because
they show you that you have todetermine the type of person you
need to be and stay in and youreally can't get out of it
because that's quote unquote,who.
You are right, but we show up sodifferently for everyone in our

(45:52):
life, so if you are anextrovert, you might show up
more introvertedly in adifferent situation.
People who are introverted inmore public spaces will probably
be very extroverted in in morepublic spaces will probably be
very extroverted with closefriends, so they will show up
differently.
So it's.
It's a matter of a.
You know, compartmentalizinghow we show up doesn't mean

(46:13):
we're all these different people.
We're just letting differentparts of us shine more and we
are every one of those buckets.
Of course there's more somethat are more dominant than
others, but I found that it hasbecome a speed bump or a hiccup
for some people to get past,knowing themselves and knowing
that they can change and growbeyond those letters, numbers,

(46:36):
whatever combination that theyare Fascinating.

Kelly Kirk (46:40):
I think of the Clifton Strength Finders.
Right, we are all of thoseright, those attributes.
It's just we excel in otherareas than we do in other areas,
so to speak.
But I don't necessarily know ifit hasn't ruffled my feathers

(47:01):
by any stretch of theimagination, because I think
you're right and I I also feelthat as you move through life
and you move through seasons oflife, there are, there's just
circumstances that we comeacross good, bad or indifferent,
that shift what those strengthslook like, and you can work on

(47:26):
some of those strengths and someof those weaknesses.
Yeah, absolutely, and kind ofhave it ebb and flow for you
depending on where you're at inlife.

Yeah, I mean you can look at your
weakness and say I shouldprobably see if I could
strengthen that Now.
Do you really love it?
You might not be passionateabout it, but it doesn't mean
that you if you're quote unquoteI'm chaotic or messy person,
that you are chaotic and messyand all the things you do.
It's not true.

Kelly Kirk (47:52):
Right.

And the same.
With artistic expression I meanbeing from a background in
creative and branding.
I truly believe everybody hascreativity and artistry in them.
The only difference is thatsomeone along the way said your
art was awesome and you did.
They loved what you did.
Because that is the truth andthat is something I try to help
people understand who.

(48:12):
There are some people that I'vemet with who have a really hard
time making a mark on a paperyou know, doing some, something
that they though.
I don't have any artistic trauma, but you are.
You have so much art you don'trealize that you're doing.
You do it in different ways,but it doesn't make you non
artistic and oh yeah, they'vebeen described as this.

(48:34):
Or it's because somebody elseagain defined who you are
supposed to be, or the majorityof your style or actions you
fits in this bucket.
And brings me to the othertopic of you know, do you, are
you okay?
Um, not fitting in someone'sbucket?
And sometimes the people you'retalking to can't fathom you as

(48:58):
a person if you don't fit into abucket.
I've had people come up to melike I don't't really know.
You know you do all thesethings and I'm like, yeah, I do
and that's okay.
Yeah, but it makes I'mcomfortable with it.
But maybe you're not, and thatisn't my issue as much as it is
yours.

Kelly Kirk (49:17):
And that might be hard to swallow.

You know pill to swallow for some and it
would never come across likethat.
But I understand that they'restruggling because maybe there's
a part of them that wants to doa part of something like that
Totally.
So, again, emotional awareness.
I know that there's somethingthey're struggling with.
What they're saying to me mightnot be.
I don't need to take that intoheart, yeah, and to try to

(49:44):
change the way that I'm doingsomething, uh yeah, I love it.

Kelly Kirk (49:50):
Okay so, uh, two things that came to mind.
It's a little off script, sobear with me.
Okay so, the mood board thing.
I wanted to ask you a question,Cause are you a mood board
girly?
Like, do you maybe girly isn'tthe best way to, but like, is
that something that youtypically have done in the past?

I don't necessarily make a mood board
with visuals, um, but I do writedown and I have clear in my
mind what that is Okay.
So sometimes if I, if I writeit down or you know, I can go
back to it and go, yeah,sometimes putting it on paper if
it doesn't turn out that waycan go the opposite direction.

(50:34):
So, but I always think I'm sucha visual person, I have it
really clear in my mind whatthose, those things are, um, but
for some people it's reallyhealthy and important to
physically see it.
Yes, that's.

Kelly Kirk (50:49):
I've got two two different versions.
This one, um, I've shared with acouple other and I mean it's
right here, plain in sight, butthis one I decided to do
differently.
I've got one in our room aswell.
That's a little bit nicer.
Differently, I've got one inour room as well.
That's a little bit nicer.
Frankly, I decided that Iwanted to do scriptures to go

(51:10):
along with some of the areasthat I was looking to focus in,
and then had Conrad, who you met.
Help because he's very artistic, creative, and I'm like I want
you to just add your littletouches onto this.

You take a look at it.
He did a good job.

Kelly Kirk (51:24):
The reason that I ask you about the mood board is
because you, you know, a fewminutes back you had brought
that up and said that um,sometimes things change right.
And so I have actually had thislike situation in my mind and
just the here and now, wherewhat I've created isn't matching

(51:49):
now what I want to do, and thenI'm like, do I change it?
yeah, yeah, you know like, sothat's that's the reason that I
brought that up is like have youencountered something like that
where you're like, oh I shoot,you know, that's like I'm, I'm.
I'm just going to point thisout.
Okay, so this is a house thatis in the neighborhood.

(52:11):
It's beautiful and we, at onepoint we, joe and I, we'll walk
past it almost every single day.
We're like that's going to beour future house.

I love it.

Kelly Kirk (52:21):
That's not going to be our future house anymore,
cause like we changed, it'schanged, right, we actually go.
We have a beautiful corner lot.
What if we just went up, wentup.

Oh, I love that, you see, the possibilities
were unlocked because, well,you know, what I think every
mood board needs to have is ablank corner.
That's a god space.
It's like what god will do, notwhat you have planned.
I love it because that I mean.
Some things happen where you,you know you you're going
through and all of a sudden youget an email from someone and
you're like how did?
This person.
Think of me out of the blueright.

(53:03):
How did they connect?
That wasn't me I'm not going toattribute it to all of my doing,
but I wouldn't have foreseenthat opportunity, I wouldn't
have predicted that connectionor situation and had I put it
into a mood board where I wasjust so hyper-focused, you just
don't.
Your blinders are on right.
Some people really follow theirmood boards to the end.

(53:28):
I mean they're very very crystalclear and they're, and they're
moving the steps, yep, to makeit happen, but some are more,
you know, free-flowing and ideasand generals, but I'd say I
love that it changed, I lovethat that that you saw a
possibility that wasn't therebefore because you, you built in
adaptability and flexibility.
Yeah, also, I think, the morethe more.
The most successful people andlike, emotionally stable are the

(53:52):
ones who can adapt, who areokay, letting things be a little
bit different, a little bitmessy or maybe a little bit not
exact.
Rigid, yeah, and rigid, yeahthey.
But there are certainlysuccessful people who are very
regimented in their mind of whatthey now.
Would I consider that success?
I'm not sure what they consider.

(54:13):
Again, what's their success?
What is it the majority ofpeople think that that's
successful?
I have different personaldescriptions of what I would
feel is successful for me and Iwouldn't apply that to them.
I would be like this is great,this is what you had dreamed
about and wanted.
But more often than not, whensomebody gets their dream, they

(54:33):
go well, now what?
In the process of doing that,it's changed so much and I kind
of want something else.
So again, the whole life's ajourney.
It's not a destination.
Same with your goals, it's likemoving through.
What is it that you're, thatyou're that you feel makes you
happy or what would make it, youknow, content.

(54:57):
But now, as your kids get oldertoo, then you're going to go
like, hey, this is a lot ofhouse, there's a lot of house to
keep up, or we want to travel,or we want to do, we need to do
this or that.
And the cool thing is to tellyourself, hey, we can change
that, we can, we don't have tostay on this course.

Kelly Kirk (55:16):
We don't have to stay in a box.

You can live in a houseboat and have,
you know, 3 million in the bank.
You could a houseboat and have,you know, three million in the
bank.
You could I don't know live ina super mcmansion craziness and
be struggling right.
Totally you could be.
Life is so different foreverybody, and so I think it's
amazing and wonderful to havethese dreams and goals and

(55:40):
visions, um, but also be open toyeah, like the factor.

Kelly Kirk (55:45):
Yeah, I like that little suggestion on having a
corner of it where it's just,it's just blank and it's a good
talking point too, right?
Yes, it is.
It's like what would fill thatwhat?

is.
What is the space that isunknown or that I can't see, or
something so awesome that Iwouldn't have considered before,
and now I am open to it.

Kelly Kirk (56:08):
You had mentioned something about as somebody
who's in the creative space,right and coming across many
individuals that you're workingwith and not working with at the
same time, and having havingpeople struggle right and going
I'm not creative, I can't dothat.

(56:29):
And you you made note of havingthis strong sense that
everyone's got it within them.

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk (56:37):
It's just how do you tap into it.
So do you?
I'm curious your opinion aboutthis.
Do you think that sometimesgetting into the space of just
rest and being bored actuallyhelps facilitate?

Ooh yes, good segue, 100%, I mean.
Well, that's essentially why Icreated the Remotant Retreat
Program, which is a leadershipretreat to Greece, where I grew
up, and essentially it's thatyou need the space to hear and
to solve problems and to createand think and self reflect and

(57:27):
self-reflect, and but creativityshows up in so many different
ways.
Somebody who is very reg, youknow, regimented or rigid
organized, maybe they labeleverything, but their creativity
comes out in their organizationand the creativity comes out in
like the way they'veorchestrated something else, and
they will say that they're nota creative person.
I'm like you just did that socreatively.
The way that you handle.

(57:48):
I wouldn't have organized itlike this.
This is really cool.
I wouldn't have set it up thisway.
Um, or in, it shows up in justdifferent ways.
It doesn't have to be againwhat somebody else labeled as
traditional creative or talent.
I should say talent in thatTalent is.
The only difference betweentalent and creativity is the
amount of hours put into it, thesame with any sports.

(58:09):
It's just the hours that theyspent doing the thing and the
only way that they did the hoursof it is because someone said,
hey, that was really good.
Maybe you should consider doingthat, or they loved it so much
it didn't matter what anybodyelse said to them.
They're just going to keepdoing it and by time they just
got better and better and betterand better, and so you can

(58:31):
start anything.
I truly believe that you canlearn anything if you just you
realize that about yourself.
You are capable of learning andand skilled, and could be
skilled, in learning those skillsets so the possibilities are
limitless.
When you think about it, likewhat could you do if you wanted
to learn something new?
Um, but creating a space to youknow, protect that creativity

(58:54):
and that thoughtfulness andremember, uh, I think some of
the best ideas I have are when,like I'm in driving or I'm like
shower or something where it'sjust quiet and you're thinking
Actually, my son calls thisshower thoughts.
I think it's the funniest thing.
He's 14 and he, after he getsout of the shower, he's like oh
mom, I have all these like this.

(59:15):
Wouldn't be cool if you didthis?
And it wasn't this funny.
And I said I love this.

Kelly Kirk (59:19):
Where is this?

coming from .
He's like well, I'm thinking ofthese things in the shower.

Kelly Kirk (59:22):
I think I'm going to call them shower thoughts and I
so cool, I said I love it seemsreally cool.
It's like when you're in themost relaxed.

Sometimes we have it pop up when we're
right ready to sleep and um, weneed to write those down.
Or when we're in a quiet momentand these things come to us
ideas, solutions.
We're just able to unleash thatpart of and unlock that part of
our brain to be okay to start todream and think, and that's why

(59:54):
it's important to do those selfyou know, like self-inflicted,
isolated moments or retreatmoments where it's not heavily
programmed or overly done, whereyou're forced to kind of go
through this program that you're, you know, working all these
steps and really learning is notfilling your mind all the time.

(01:00:18):
It's asking a question andcreating space to find some of
the answer.

Kelly Kirk (01:00:23):
Which is all the more important nowadays, where
we're inundated with a lot.
We're inundated with moreinformation than our brains can
actually handle.
However, to your point of wecan, as human beings, achieve

(01:00:45):
more than what we really thinkwe can, however, it is in those
quiet moments and retreats, andthe retreats don't have to be
super long by any stretch of theimagination.
It could be a day, it could behalf a day, it could be like I'm
not going to have my cell phonewith me.
Yeah, I'm just I'm going to takea pause for a couple of hours.

Constantina Watters (01:01:07):
Yeah.

And it's in those moments where you can actually
see some of the breakthroughs.

I wholeheartedly agree with that
and I think I've seen, it's beengreat to see people come out of
those, um, some of thosemoments moments, whether they
were five minutes, whether theywere two hours, whether they
were, you know, not interruptingtheir thought pattern and then
being around this similarenvironment.

(01:01:35):
So I think something aboutremoving yourself from your
routine environment or theroutine people that are in your
environment.
You start to go I'm, you don't.
You don't hear it, you don'thear it, you don't see it.
You're not trying to fix thosethings around you, you're just
able to just be present andwhatever that looks like to each
individual.
But it's something that youdon't have to have a big budget

(01:01:58):
to do.
You just have to be intentionalabout creating that for
yourself.

It's fascinating that you're bringing this up.
We're on the heels of, you know, within hours of this interview
finishing up, we're going to beleaving on a road trip and that
is I can't even emphasize toyou enough Konstantina, my
husband, no short of like 15times already this morning and,

(01:02:23):
and um it like this afternoon,it's been like I can't wait.
I'm so excited, I need this sobadly.
This is going to be awesome.
The reason I bring that up oneit is on the heels of what
you're talking about, but two,every single time, no joke.
My hometown is La Crosse,wisconsin, and when we travel

(01:02:45):
down there the two and a halfhours, we always have all of
these like brilliant ideas thatcome up and I'm like furiously
writing them down or puttingthem into the laptop.
But there is something aboutlike just jogging up the brain a
little bit and getting out ofyour day-to-day routines.
And he literally said that hewas like I just need to get out

(01:03:08):
of this environment.
I feel like we've and this isall the more important for us to
stick to traveling at least twotimes a year with the family,
and they don't have to be crazythings.
We're going down to St Louis.
They don't have to be crazythings.

Right, we're going down to St Louis.
It could be staycation, itcould be just something outside
of your immediate you know,regular schedule.
Regular scheduled programming.

Yes.

And, yeah, I love that.
I love that because you can.
First of all, you have the timeto talk to each other and
you're like in that space youdon't have the phones in front
of you, like dividing yourattention, but you're building
in your dreaming which couldtake honestly you.
You just essentially made ameeting that would happen in.

(01:03:54):
You know that would take weeksfor some to get through, to go
through some of those ideas tosay that'll work.
No, it won't.
I'm going to tell this personit won't.
But you went through them.
Okay To say like, hey, theseare cool.
And um, I think that's whereyou can again failing faster,
but different ideas coming spaceto create it.
It all plays together and it'slike when we stop building those

(01:04:16):
moments in our life, we can'thave those results.
So be careful how you, you know, use your time, I guess.
Um, and what do you considerwasted time?
Right, like, I think that'shuge.
There's some people.
What they consider wasted timeis gold.

For others, yeah, so Can you talk to that point a
little bit more?

Yeah, the idea of some people.
If you take a moment to do awalk or something or if you take
time to hang out with somefriends, that moment is so
relaxing for that person andsometimes it's therapeutic right

(01:05:00):
for them to get through Whileyou were wasting your time.
You know I felt like I wastedmy time.
I could have been doingsomething else.
Whenever we feel like we wastedour time, we could be doing
something else or it's not asproductive as we think it should
be.
We just rested on the couch fora little bit and we didn't do.
Nothing got done like quoteunquote got done, but some of

(01:05:21):
the things you had to thinkabout and process and organize
got done.
It just wasn't physical, andthat little moment that you were
able to spend just recoupingrefreshed you for the next set
of moments that you're going tohave to be really on for.

so profound I love it.

So permission to just be, and I
think actually the hardestpermission we need to give is
ourself, especially if we'reones who are just self-discipl
in that, where we like.
For myself, it's hard to sitand do nothing sometimes, um,
and that's why these like yourtrip, um, where you're
physically out of that space,where you, you can't constantly

(01:06:04):
do this thing.

Yeah, that's cleaning something up.
Yeah, putting something away,something you feel is more
important Checking in all thejobs, yeah.
Okay, you feel is moreimportant checking in all the
jobs, yeah, okay.
So the next direction that Iwant to move is one we've we've
shared the name of your business, but can you talk a little bit
more about what it is that youdo?

(01:06:27):
Sure, and then, on the heels ofthat, I will finally be able to
ask the question that I wantedto ask earlier on the interview.

Uh well, with sprout creative it, um, we
build strategic branding andcreative.
So um and I built this virtualcompany Um originally.
You start off, you know, as adesigner, you're designing
things, you're fixing the workright, and then I moved it into

(01:06:57):
fixing the brand.
I realized you can't fix thebrand unless you fix the way
that the team's working together, because the assets going to be
what you know how, how, how thebusiness operates, how the team
dynamics are Then when you fixthat, you're like hey, it's,
it's not really that anymore,it's the leadership.
So then I moved upstream andtrying to fix the leadership or

(01:07:20):
help make good great.
I mean there are some greatleaders and they're doing great
things, but they can be evenbetter.
And so building things rightfrom the foundation of how
strong brand and foundation wasreally important to do excellent
work at the end.
And it's really hard to doexcellent work when you're not

(01:07:41):
set up to be able to do that.
And so some of that with whatwe do.
We're a boutique branding andcreative agency, so we work with
small, mid and large indifferent ways and I personally
oversee a lot of the larger andcreative um outputs, but I also

(01:08:04):
do a lot of advising and CMO CEOpeer work, where I'm helping
leaders work through a specificchallenge, whether it's
leadership, peer, um group teampersonnel, a certain item or a
challenge in the process, oractual branded assets that are

(01:08:26):
not aligned with the brand ofthe company, or there's just a
workflow that's not working.
So I've helped fix a lot ofthose things, but it's it's
unique and different to everyperson, organization and where
they are in that that structure.
So one of the philosophies Ipreach is to lead at any level
and helping people who are atdifferent levels in.

(01:08:47):
If they are working forcorporate or a business
structure, how do they show upand lead in from the level that
they're at and so that they can,I think, live a better and
happier life in how they show upas you know at home, how they
show up in work and how do welive, so that you can teach

(01:09:09):
people along the way to bebetter.
And so I think for me it wasimproving the way that brands
are and the way that leaders arefrom the inside out.
It it's starting maybe on theoutside, but moving towards in
and coming back out again.

That's so wonderful.
So it's helpful for me too,right, because we did have you
and I had a zoom call where youdid explain some of that.
Right, it was a get to know oneanother and um exploring the
podcast as well, and I got asemblance of what it was that

(01:09:44):
you were doing within sproutcreative.
But this has been helpful, yeah, and then understand, because
the the follow-up question thatI was going to ask is what's the
um, what's your target marketin terms of who you work with?
And you explained that right,so that was um.
You explained that.

Yeah, and, and you know, the marketing
industry as a whole is isshifting dramatically and
creative.
So we're we're on in unknownterritory.
Yeah, and I'll.
I'll say that, though for anybusiness, I mean it doesn't
matter if it's marketing, or Imean I deal with all sorts of
businesses from, you know,industrial, pharmaceutical,

(01:10:25):
service based, you know, productbased.
Everybody has entered a sphereof the unknown, every single
business model is beingchallenged.
So I you know from the years ofhaving to pick yourself up or
having to re-strategize orreorganize nobody has the

(01:10:46):
answers.
So anybody who comes in andsays they know all the answers,
they don't.
It's's not the same.
It hasn't been since covid andthe whole game changed, and for
everyone, yeah.
And so everybody is just tryingto figure out what the new is
and what the new normal is orhow to function at whatever.

(01:11:06):
And that could be how you showup as a leader.
That could be like what yourcompany's actually doing, like
how it's working.
Um, but it's, it's a challenge.
Everybody has a challenge.
It's just a little bitdifferent for each one.

Yeah.

So, um, yeah, I hope that helps.

It does Um something .
This is this was the questionthat I wanted to ask you earlier
on, and it ties in perfectlywith what you just shared about
the business.
How I you know I'm, I'm cominginto you being in the business
now for what Like 15, 15 yearsyeah.

(01:11:44):
So 15 years but professionallylonger.

but we won't, we won't say how long,
Right.

And then I've got a follow up question to that too.
So how have you from, from whenyou started Baby Sprout
Creative to now?
Something that I think is so,so cool and so incredible is
your tie in with community andhow you love to empower other

(01:12:13):
people around you.
And you said something when wefirst met, and it wasn't
directly to me, it was to thewhole group, and it was I love
to lift people up and you can beon my shoulders too.
I'm not unique in in goingthrough these experiences, um,

(01:12:34):
and I want other people to beable to enjoy it as well.
How did you get to where you'redoing that?
Now, like, where did that ideaspur from, and is that something
that you had all like?
That was a part of the Genesisof sprout creative, or I?

don't know if it was from from that, but
more of just what the struggle Iwent through when I went on my
own and the lack of help likementorship, you know, someone
even just saying, hey, I'll graba coffee with you or hey, 15
minutes, just yeah, like, giveme some kind of nugget or
something right, like, and itdidn't.

(01:13:12):
There was, you know, from menand women.
There was nobody and I didn'thave a huge network to pull from
or, and it was, didn't know howI could even get my foot in the
door with asking for some kindof guidance or any kind of help.
Um, and I honestly didn't likethe way that a lot of women were
treating each other and I felt,hey, I'm going to, I would want

(01:13:37):
, I want it to be different.
I want I want women to do it adifferent way, and the only way
I can change that is by doing itmyself.
So that's how I showed up is alittle bit different.
Um, I think for some it was newor different.
Now I'm so, so glad to see theimpact of really great women now

(01:14:01):
being okay to help other womenand, you know, really truly
helping them and, um, cheeringthem on and lifting them up.
But I feel like, personally, Ilove to bring as many people
with me as I move up too, and Iin my mind, I see this picture
of traditional method of juststepping on people as you climb

(01:14:23):
to the top, versus you holdingspace, lifting others maybe to
use your shoulders when they getto another moment.
Then they're lifting you up.
Right, it's like this, it'sthis chain effect.
That is it when done, it's,it's beautiful and, and to see
certain people be able to livelike that and to do work in that

(01:14:44):
way is is really fulfilling andto see and to see that kind of
community come together and thencreating spaces or inviting an
atmosphere of being able toshare, and I that's why I love
what you, you've done with thispodcast, kelly.
It's amazing, truly, thatyou've brought so many people
and your talent for for doingthis and just being this amazing

(01:15:09):
host, and it's genuine and it'sthoughtful and it's intentional
, truly.

I mean, if anything, it's wildly successful.

Just know that this is wildly successful.
If it ends today, it's amazing,but it won't, because you have
built something and you haveallowed a space for other people
to share their story, feelvulnerable, get some insight.
It's almost like having a tonof those coffee sessions with
people that you didn't get achance to, or there just wasn't

(01:15:42):
time, or maybe when you enteredthat space for that event, you
were too intimidated to talk tothem or you judge them too
quickly.
I think that happens a lot withwomen the judging and to say you
don't know until you've metthem and connect with them, give
them a few moments before yourule out or determine who they

(01:16:03):
are, and that I think leadingwith compassion as you go into
leadership is huge.
That is how we lift otherpeople up as well.
it's not so much just cheeringthem on, but it's truly being
excited for them yeah and beinghappy for their success and when
they walk on the stage whichmaybe you didn't get an award

(01:16:24):
that year but to go, this istheir time to shine.
My time may come.
It's not on my mood board now.
I've had things happen where itwas like it wasn't even on my
mood board and somehow I've hadthings happen where it was like
it wasn't even on my mood boardand somehow, out of the blue, it
happened and throughcompassionate, thoughtful people
and if we just sort of create aspace to do that for others, I

(01:16:45):
think it creates this wildfirethat spreads.

You bring up a really interesting point, which
is modeling, and I shouldn't saythat you brought this point up.
You're emphasizing it, excuseme.
You're emphasizing theimportance of modeling, and one

(01:17:09):
that can be really challengingfor people sometimes, especially
if you're consistently in thisspace of dog eat dog.

Yeah.

However, if you can, if you, you saw an opportunity
from your own experiences to go,it's gotta be better than this,
right?
Can it be better?
And you got curious.
There's a way and you startedto model it and I really have

(01:17:40):
enjoyed watching or I should sayyou know a little bit of
watching, but more so just kindof experiencing, through the
lens of social media, the waysthat you do that.
It's really powerful.
It really is.
So thank you for giving me thecompliments, but I'm going to
share those compliments rightback to you.
I received those complimentsthough.

(01:18:01):
Thank you, I appreciate thatYou're welcome.

It is lonely, I think, at the, and
when you get to a stage whereyou don't have, you don't seek
it out, you don't seek theappreciative feedback, but when
you get get it, it means so muchmore yeah and I know that
because I live it.
So that is why it's okay tofreely give it yeah because we
know how important it is.

(01:18:24):
for one word, I mean you sayinga comment to someone, just
seemingly small, that lifts themup just a little bit, is enough
of a fire, maybe to lead theirmonth.
Maybe they haven't had anythingpositive said to them in a week
, a month, a year, I don't knowwhat it is.
But when you see that shift,that you see me, you see the

(01:18:47):
beauty in something that I'vedone, built or an aspect of that
person that has goneunappreciated.
it helps lift them and gets themto the next hurdle, to the next
thing, and it gives them enoughmomentum to maybe keep going
for that day.

Full circle moment.
So we talked at the very startof this interview about where we
got connected and then whatthat led to, which was the event
in December.

Yeah.

Such a cool event and that is literally what we're
speaking to in this space rightnow which is bringing women
together, empowering them going.
Hey, by the way, fashion andstyle can be a part of this too,
and you can show up with thatreally glamorous outfit.

(01:19:37):
Just do it.
You know what I mean and so itwas just so cool and I had so
many great takeaways from thatevent itself and just to hear my
girlfriend Jasmine go.
I really needed that.
I really really needed that.
I was sort of in this like newmama funk Right.

So we both left just feeling so wonderful,
I hope full, and your bucket wasfilled in that way because you,
especially through COVID and ifyou are working in like a
virtual team, a lot of peopleare virtual right now and they
don't have any place to go toLike.
I don't know, men maybe don'tneed as many opportunities,
although I have known a lot ofpeople are virtual right now and

(01:20:16):
they don't have any place to goto.
I don't know, men maybe don'tneed as many opportunities,
although I have known a lot ofmen to want to dress up and go
do some things too.
But there are some beautifulthings out there, or the dress
in your closet that you onlywore once.
You're like gosh.
It would be fun to wear thisagain.
But where.
Well, that was the whole pointCreate the opportunity.
So that you can wear the things, do the things or just show up

(01:20:36):
to some of those things and bethe one that is wearing the
sparkle yeah, and be okay withthat, or the favorite skirt, or
the pair of shoes or whatever.
it is the thing that makes youfeel beautiful, and it's not
necessarily about a price tag ora label, it's just how do you
feel in it and being able toexit the isolation of your room

(01:20:59):
or the house or the schedulethat you have to go out and just
put on that other role or otherpersona or other splash of who
you are and let that shine forjust a little bit and just
remember like you are this shinytoo, yeah, and you are, and let
that shine for just a littlebit, and just to remember like
you are this shiny too, yeah,and you are this person.
Now, you don't have to be thatperson all the time, but it's
fun to let that aspect ofyourself come out in these

(01:21:21):
moments, and so that's what Ihoped for.
That event was Um, and, and sowhen I do pull these things
together through um curated,which is for um leadership and
professionals and professionalsand we're talking about
different types of events withdifferent, with different um
topics or sessions or goals, Iwould say for what?

(01:21:42):
What we want to achieve withthat?
but part of it is um can be donethrough fashion, and some of
the fashion things that I'vebeen a part of was simply
because I was tired of wearingthe workout clothes and just I
kind of was like I wanted towear color or something fun and
have a fun place to go to, andum, and then it just again, it

(01:22:02):
wasn't what I saw for myself, itwas just something that
naturally happened.
Yeah, oh, it was just so fun.

I really enjoyed it, I'm so glad.
Oh, it was just so fun, Ireally enjoyed it, I'm so glad.
Bringing back the topic ofmodeling, how have you through
excuse me, through everythingthat you've created with Sprout
Creative, how have you seen,like, what you're doing through

(01:22:29):
your business and having thatkind of in tandem with being a
mom, modeling through whatyou're doing in business, and
how do you see the parallelswith motherhood?

Yeah, I guess I just try to.
I am always a little bit of Iroot for the underdog and try to
model of, I guess, through myactions, what I've determined
would be the best course ofaction for me in my situation
and staying really authentic andintentional in that and not

(01:23:03):
trying to grow something just togrow it.
Not try to grow something to anumber of a people, of a certain
income or gross income or netwhatever that is, but really try
to model being okay with justwhat you consider success and

(01:23:25):
growth.
So I think it's easy to putpeople on panels and to put
speakers on stage who have onetype of success right, but it's
really important to hear allthese different stories and all
these different ways people arebeing successful in their life

(01:23:48):
and in their family, or maybetaking care of somebody if
they're taking care of agingparents or someone that's sick,
or a child that's sick, or afriend showing up for them, or
there's something going on inyour life.
But to model, in my sense atleast to do what you preach, or
at least try to be that way, andmaybe somebody will go hey,

(01:24:12):
that was a different way ofdoing it.
Maybe I'll try it and it seemsto be working for this person or
, um, just not assuming acertain thing on them.
I hope that answered it.

Yeah, and I'd love to hear a little bit more too
about I think.
What I've noticed is there'sbeen opportunities where perhaps
it was with your daughter youhad brought her along to I think
it was a fashion event.

Oh, it was an awards.
Oh, okay, I was receiving anaward from Team.
Women.
And yeah, we decided to wearsequins together.
So cute it would be fun.

But I think even in moments like that, that's such a
pure and amazing example ofbeing able to model for your
children, Like, okay, there'shard work that went along to get
to this point, but I'm showingup authentically.
I'm doing it through this lensof wanting to build other people

(01:25:13):
up, not just hey, how can Istep over you to get to?
getting that award and kids cansee and feel that right, and so
I think through that.
I guess that's what I wastrying to get to is how do you
see moments of modeling throughthe lens of your children?

(01:25:34):
Maybe that's a better way, ohyeah, 100.

Okay, I understand, um, I.
I guess this is where I'm mostproud.
If I was going to say some ofmy huge success I'm even more
proud than any business or anykind of accolade is the success
with my kids, the way that theyshow up as humans they are.
I don't know if every parentfeels like their kids, like the

(01:25:59):
best and all that, but I'm truly.
We work on emotionalintelligence, compassion,
leadership in the sense ofgiving and and um being aware of
people and their emotionalstate and um, I guess that's
always for I'm always modelingfor them how I would want them

(01:26:22):
to be in this situation.
So if something's reallyfrustrating to me, you know some
people act out of theirchildhood.
You know instant emotion versusstopping and go.
You know what I would reallylike to do this right now.
But I'm going to do this andsometimes I verbalize that so
they can understand the process.
It's going through my mind sothey didn't know I arrived at it

(01:26:42):
.
I didn't arrive at it fromnowhere, it was because I was.
This is how I processed it andso most my most biggest success
has probably been in them andworking through some modeling
for people.
Sometimes it's modeling howyou'd handle a conversation, and
so with my daughter, if it's aset of maybe mean girls or a

(01:27:06):
situation or a playgroundsituation, and she'll come to me
now and say I don't know whatto do, this is happening and
I'll say, well, let me be thatperson and we'll try going back
and forth, what are some of theoptions we could do here?
And I think if we're just opento getting criticism or

(01:27:27):
self-reflecting and what could Ihave done better, we can model
that, but we can't modelanything if we don't actually
say to ourselves I never dowrong.
If you can never do wrong, youcan never improve.
If you never ask anybodyanything else.
You, how can you grow?
Right so you have to ask that ofyourself, like how could I,
what can I do better?

(01:27:47):
So if I'm going to do thisagain, how can I be a better
model for people who are lookingat this?
And that goes the same if yourkids are looking at you, or if
the public's looking at you, um,or your spouse or whatever that
is.
But I think striving forimprovement in our very flawed

(01:28:08):
human bodies is something tostrive for not perfection, but
improvement.

Well, you're speaking to me right now because
, as a recovering perfectionist,that is also an area that I've
continued to work through on thedaily right, and it's been a
slow progression, but I'mexcited to say that I motherhood
has been the most humblingexperience, to kind of help get

(01:28:38):
over this.

Oh yeah.

Idea and notion of perfectionism.

Yeah.

Sometimes you just got to set that down.

Yeah, or just put a mess on where, if a
mess bothers you, just keep itthere and just walk by it and be
like it's OK.
Yeah, it's OK.

Oh, that's been the biggest challenge.
But you know, my daughter's twoand a half years old and this
is just the world that we'reliving in right now is it's?
a, it's a tornado, it's a bit ofchaos and it's like when she's
not pulling something else out,it's like there's this pile over

(01:29:14):
here that she just all of asudden was like nope, we don't
want to play with that anymoreand I have to be okay with that.
This is something that myhusband has actually brought up
and brought to light for me.
He's like we're going to haveto just be okay with living in a
little bit of chaos every sooften.
Don't worry, I clean it up forthe guests.

(01:29:35):
I know your house is beautiful.
It might it might've happenedfive minutes before you walked
in.
I don't think my house lookedlike this.

Well, I think you kind of pick and
choose your battles right, likeif you have no time to do it all
, like you can't be a great chefand a great cleaner.
I here's what I think.
I find some people who arereally good cleaners aren't.
Maybe they're not the greatestcooks in their mind.
Sometimes they have.
They're gifted with both.
They're excellent organizersand cleaners and they can cook
amazing.
But some, more often than not,I find it there's always one or

(01:30:04):
the other.
So it's always fun to see like,oh, this is a little bit of you
know, but but that'simportant's important we all
have.
I think it's so great that wehave these, you know, especially
if your spouse is one way andthe other.
You're complementary with eachother.
But to help yourself, like,train in, okay it's.

(01:30:25):
If I spend time doing thisthing, in the grand scheme of
things, if I could spend the 30minutes playing Legos on the
floor, and the Legos on thefloor are just going to stay
there.
That's then in my mind.
I've like, okay, it's justgoing to stay there, but when
they get a little older, we can,they can take pride in taking
cleaning up and and knowing thatit's, you can make a game out

(01:30:49):
of it, or it's a, it's a for forme.
With my kids it was like, hey,I gotta do these dishes before I
can play.
Who wants to help me with thedishes?
And then it's like, okay, well,we'd rather help you with the
dishes because we want to playwith you instead of you doing
these other tasks that take alot of time and energy.
There's only so many hours inthe day, so I think, being okay
with some of that, just sayingit's just going to be a little,

(01:31:11):
a little chaotic, but it's.
But here's the beautiful thingabout motherhood and just life
in general, especially for women.
We go in phases.
Everything's a phase.
So any phase that's really coolright now is going to change,
and any phase that's reallyterrible right now will change
and we look back and go oh, thatwas fleeting and that was

(01:31:32):
really fast.
So it's all phase.
Every woman that I've talked tohas a struggle with
understanding who they are intheir phase.
We all because we have totransform and shift a little bit
.
So from little kids toteenagers, to college, to kids

(01:31:53):
out of the house, to taking careof family, to aging, to a
newfound freedom of time.
Right there's in giving grace toeach person and each woman,
especially in that time of life,to say and here's where the
wisdom comes in, because if youdidn't, if you didn't go through
some of that and you didn't seehow it was, you wouldn't have

(01:32:16):
compassion for that person asyou, as you meet them.
But some people have putblinders on when they've reached
a certain age and didn't comewith that self-awareness.
So, there's this expectation youshould just be living the
lifestyle that I have.
Like, what's your issue?
Like, why can't you thelifestyle that I have?
Like, what's your issue like,why can't you?
Well, we don't have that sameamount of time, breakdown or or

(01:32:38):
um role, uh, distribution.
So just knowing that eachperson is just.
This is a phase that you'regoing through and it will change
and that new phase will bebeautiful and different and
you're going to have to put on awhole new persona of sorts to
be that person in that phase.

That was so beautiful.
It really was.
It's actually so interestingthat the name of the podcast is
Reclaiming your Hue.
Yes, I love it and you do thisreally beautiful tie-in of
identifying that there's just aswomen, as mothers, as parents.

(01:33:17):
The reality is that everythingis fleeting and we get stuck in
this like, oh my gosh, this ishow it is Right, and then also
tying our identity to it.
But, then having thisunderstanding, like stripping
that back and going actuallyit's okay, it's like enjoy it,

(01:33:39):
yes, Because it's not going toactually be like that forever,
Thank goodness right.
There's some seasons where it'slike, thank goodness, we're not
, we're not going to stay inthat one too long and we're
going to be able to work throughit.
But I think what's really areally nice tie in is that we

(01:33:59):
can, as women, kind of shift howwe show up and what our hue is
through all of that.
Oh, so good, Constantina.

I love that , so good it is.
It's shifting and changing andI like that.
You and I understood that withthe reclaiming it was like
finding yourself again who youwere, but that has that color
may have changed slightly.
Right, it's not going to beexactly the same and, um, and
there's beauty in that, yeah,and there's a peace in knowing

(01:34:33):
that you don't have to be.
It's not your full identity,like your one role is not your
entire identity.
In fact, that's something thatwhen I work with some leaders
who own or founded businesses orrun them, they have tied their
identity so closely to the thingthat they've created and this
can happen for moms, you can tothe things that we create we tie

(01:34:55):
our identity to.
But it's not that we are morethan the things that we create.
We are so multifaceted and soif you've only tied yourself to
this one thing that you producedwhether it's a product, service
, brand, whatever, evensometimes it's just the son or
daughter when that changes orgoes away or moves on, who are

(01:35:18):
you then right, yeah, who areyou and what are you?
And it's really important tounderstand that while you're
making it or before you make thethings.
So you, you can go, it's okay.
It's not fully me, it's a partof me.
It's a part of my passions andum things that I really enjoy,

(01:35:42):
something I'm really good at,but it doesn't make me
everything that I am and itdoesn't.
It doesn't.
It's not the carrier of me.
I am the carrier of me andwherever I go it comes with me.
It's not, it's not stuck inthat, in that brand or in that
that thing.
I mean I've I've seen andcoached some women go through
having to close business afterlike 15 years when COVID hit and

(01:36:06):
it was like losing for some ofthem, losing their child because
it was their baby for so longbut, they so closely tied in
their personality and who theywere, they are and who they were
into.
That thing.
That is no longer there and itnever needed to be that in the
first place.
It just needed to be the bestof that particular type of thing

(01:36:28):
and you can do it again and youyou can.
In and honestly, the way wefeel about something is only the
way we feel about it.
So one one of the things that I, when I was thinking about this
podcast coming here and I wasjust thinking about emotions and
how we view ourselves are youever driving down the road and
you're like today's an amazingday, it's beautiful.

(01:36:52):
I love just like everythingabout what's going on.
It just seems like a reallygreat day and you're smiling and
you're listening to your musicand you're alone in your car,
right.
But then have you been in yourcar when you've had those
moments where you're just likeyou're just gonna cry in your
car, you're just having abreakdown or something is just
not right and you're like,you're just.

(01:37:20):
It feels like a huge cloudsover you, but the only
difference is nobody else cansee that.
It's just you.
It's your emotional feelinginside of what you're going
through.
So it isn't an outward thingthat's happening to us, that we
feel everybody can see.
It's just what we're strugglingwith internally.
So sometimes I'm like am I onthe?
I'm on the drive that's likethis beautiful, I'm excited one,
it's okay.
And if I'm on the sad one, it'sokay.
But either way nobody knows.

Yeah.

Except me.
Unless you're Kelly Kirk andyou wear your emotions on your
sleeve, yes, but you know you,just you can show you're like
yeah, I love that Kelly.

I get it, though, and I totally understand the
point that you're emphasizing,which it's beautiful, it really
is, even though it showcasesthat we're going to go through
our emotions right, whether youlike it or not, whether you like
it or not, whether you like itor not, whether you like it or

(01:38:18):
or not.
However, there is also the theperception of what that looks
like from outsiders perspective,and it isn't.
What I enjoy about what you'resaying to constantina is.
It's not about putting on thislike mask, it's just like how do
you work through those emotions?
another tie-in to how quicklycan you work through those
emotions?
Another tie in to how quicklycan you move through those
emotions Right?

And what do you need at that time to work
through it?
If you need some environmentchange or a person or something,
yeah, but it is.
You know, when somebody showsup to, let's say, an event and
they're having a really greatday, like how do they show up to
that event versus whensomething terrible just happened
before?
Or when they're coming in withthe expectation of I don't think

(01:39:00):
this is going to be greatbecause the last thing was not
great.
But nobody can hear thoseinternal thoughts.

It's just you.

So you can ignore them.
Choose to change it.
No, okay, oh, no worries, okay,oh yeah.

(01:39:30):
You got to hit the road.

He's got to assume at one o'clock, which is five
minutes.
Okay, yeah, Konstantina, I havethoroughly enjoyed our
conversation.
We're going to start to landthe plane.
I have so many more questionsfor you, but we'll talk a little
bit more off air.
My first question is what's apiece of advice you would give a
younger version of yourselfknowing all that you know now?

well, I think, just through this
interview and process, I mean, alot of those tips was that it's
okay to fail, don't worry whatothers think.
Um, be okay with the success orthe version that you are in and
be okay with the beautifulphase you're in right now.

(01:40:17):
And, um, yeah, I think, notletting things sit too long or
take you down too long and um,uh, what do you call it?
Freeze you from doing something, any kind of you know, action
or next step, and then just togive yourself grace and to be

(01:40:43):
like you're you're going to beokay, you're going to make it,
you're going to make it through.

I love it.
Would that be the same advicethat you would give a woman
who's listening right now?
That's perhaps nibbling on theedges of entrepreneurship.

Yeah, you gotta.
You gotta try it, becauseyou're going to always wonder,
but give yourself grace if itdoesn't go where you wanted it
to go.

Yeah.

And then really, you know self, reflect
on what was working and whatwasn't and make the changes If
you really and what wasn't.
And make the changes if youreally want it to keep going.
Make the changes that arenecessary to get to that next
level or say you know what, thisis okay being a hobby and that
is perfectly fine, and that isperfectly okay.
And it's beautiful, it's a wayto protect it.

(01:41:28):
But if you feel like it'ssomething more than just be real
with with, what are some of thechallenges you're going to come
up against and would you wantto do it for that many hours a
day and be okay with it?

That's so good Speaking from experience.

huh, yes, I love it.
This has been beautiful, kelly.

Oh, thank you.
Last question how can peopleget connected to you?

Oh, thank you Last question how can people
get connected to you?
Oh, good question.
I am online on LinkedIn forbusiness, some through social
with Instagram, and thenConstantinaWaterscom you want to
know kind of it's sort of thehub for right now for what I'm
up to or what I'm doing andconsulting, and then Sprout

(01:42:16):
Creative S-P-R-O-U-T-E.
Creative is the strategicbranding and creative agency
that I run, love it.

I will make sure to drop all of that in the show
notes for our listeners so thatif they are ready to get started
with Sprout Creative, they knowexactly how to get connected to
you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for carving out timeand so wonderful, seriously so
wonderful, to see you.

You are beautiful.

You're glowing, you're shining, and I love it,
and I can feel that, as I'mready to go on my road trip, I'm
going to take some of that withme.

I love it, kelly.
Thank you so much.
It has been a pleasure.
I love what you're doing, Ilove what you're building and
it's so important.
And keep on shining, my friend.

Thank you have a great day.

All Episodes

Ep. 67 with Constantina Watters | Founder & Owner of Sproute Creative

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 67 with Constantina Watters | Founder & Owner of Sproute Creative