Latest / The Bold Lounge / Cristina Georgoulakis: Claim Your Space- How to Stand Boldly in Your Confidence

Transcript

Cristina Georgoulakis: Claim Your Space- How to Stand Boldly in Your Confidence · The Bold Lounge

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: My name is Leigh Burgess and I will be your host.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: This podcast is all about those kinds of stories.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Every week, we'll hear from someone who has taken a leap or embarked on an extraordinary journey.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Whether they face challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be freed.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Tune in and get ready to be inspired.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Today I have Christina Apple Georgioulakis.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: She is a portfolio and founder outcomes partner.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: She's a system thinking customer experience leader turned venture capitalist.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Christina values driving growth in people and organizations.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: She previously co-founded an e-learning SaaS platform in Barcelona.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: After seven years of building her career in community abroad, she moved to San Francisco to open Typeform's first US office.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: She held a number of leadership roles at hyper-growth SaaS startups, where she built and operationalized teams from scratch.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: As an investor, christina is drawn to startups where technology meets human connection, emphasizing the approach to maximizing returns while keeping a keen eye on the triple bottom line, which is profits, people and process.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: While at 776, christina has invested in Scoreplay, area 2 Farms, givingly Trala and LA Golf Club.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge, christina.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to be here.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I am excited to jump in and talk about all things bold in your life, because the first time we talked I was like you've got to be on the Bold bold lounge to talk about your story.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited that we finally here on taping day and we'll start off by you sharing your definition of bold.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: What does bold mean to you?
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Bold means to me taking up space, especially when your heart is racing.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: It's making you nervous, it's giving you that sense of like.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's fearful or you're you're feeling something in your gut that's going to tell you like I'm not sure if I should do this.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And one thing you said there was taking up space.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: So what does that mean?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: What does taking up space mean to you?
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: think usually we can be afraid to take up space when everything doesn't feel perfect or normal, and I think growth and boldness happens on that precipice of being just a little bit or a lot scared and then going for it anyways.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: It's not enough to just do it when it feels easy.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: It's actually about when it feels hard that growth, boldness, that next level is achieved.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: And so that to me, the moments in my life where I have felt the most bold have had either one or both of those feelings at the same time.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or all of the above, right.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Exactly so.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Tell me about either a memorable or multiple memorable moments that connect to that definition for you.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: So I was excited about having this question on the podcast and I was trying to think back on when that bold moment was for me and you know, for me the the memory that came was actually a little bit later in my life than I expected it to be.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So I wrote my mom and I said hey, mom, when would you say?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: The bold moment for me was and, as a wonderful, loving mother that she is, she came back and gave me a few examples, and the example that she gave me, one of them I was like, ah yes, I do remember that that was really scary and it was in fourth grade.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: So in fourth grade we were doing the field day.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: So we had field day at our school and there was the 50 yard dash and there weren't too many girls in my classroom and the other girls in the in the other classes had these like really fast runners, and so it was.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: It was our time for someone in my class to volunteer to race the 50 yard dash and no one raised their hand, no one wanted to do it, and I was also one of the people who did not want to do it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: And then our teacher was like listen, if no one volunteers, like, we get pulled from field day and we can't participate, so someone needs to volunteer Crickets.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Nothing's happening.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: And then, finally, because I'm more of a team.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: To me this was more about being a team player than being bold, necessarily.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: But I raised my hand, shaking and nervous, and saying I'll do it Like I resigned myself, I'll be the one who runs.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: So race day comes.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: My mom is there.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: I'm telling her what did I do?
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Like, the other runners are up there, they are gazelles or cheetahs, they are incredible.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm a five foot nothing, not runner, I know, by no stretch of any imagination would someone call me a runner and I have to go line up next to them.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: And so my mom just said look, look straight ahead and just keep going, just keep going, move forward, move forward.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: I got on the line and the whistle went off and I just took off as fast as I possibly could and the girls are already ahead of me.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: I mean I am eating their dust well ahead.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: And then at the end one of them trips and falls and she was okay, but I kept running and I ended up getting third place out of out of four places.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Love it, but it was a really great lesson.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: My my class was so happy.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Everyone cheered for this like very non-ceremonial end to the race, but it was a really great reminder for me to just keep going and just try.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I'm in third, that's still a place that's still a room.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I love field day.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I have memories of field day and one time the boys asked me to come and help them out, you know, because they were doing something and they were down someone.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I have that memory.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I remember one of the times my mom was cleaning out the house and it says she found like my ribbon thing and like put it up on the refrigerator and I was like Ooh, and I was like 20 something.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: At that point I was like can I have this?
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: There's so many good lessons from sports.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely Like it's a memorable moment.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: But like in your moment was not only like you were.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: You knew you probably couldn't win, but you were going to try anyway.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: You were going to represent your team and then you ended up finishing where you could actually get a ribbon and rep your class, so so, yeah, so you kind of stood out and stood up and went into something that potentially had a real high possibility of failure, but you went for it anyway.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: So that's definitely a bold move I took up space.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, whether I was the right person for the job or not, I took up the space.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Exactly, and who defines that right?
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I think sometimes the world tries to define who's the right person for the space, but ultimately it's up to us to define that, and I think as an entrepreneur, especially as a VC, I think you can see a lot of people potentially judging or not knowing and thinking they know something.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: But you know I think that's part of you know the wonderfulness of the role that you have and the role that you play in other people's dreams too, of, like I see you, I think you should take up more space and this is why I'm going to invest in you.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: So certainly come into your real life, I think, as well.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe it started back in fourth grade, but I think you're helping other people take up space now.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: It's an important thing.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: It's an important thing to be able to be the cheerleader for someone, to be the person who's supporting them through their journey and allowing them to know that they are seen.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah for sure.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Did you have any other moments you wanted to share?
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Well, so for me, the moment that I actually feel I was the most bold happened later in life.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: So, out of school, out of college, I was 24 at the time and I had just gotten through a very big breakup.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: You know the type of breakups that are.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: You're like, oh, life is over, white picket fence is gone, all the things that one imagines is not there.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: And I was out of school.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: And I think that's an important part, because, especially in the American education system, we are kind of guided on these paths.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: You have this like road that you're supposed to follow and everything is very kind of clearly marked for you, and then you get out of school and college and there's no roadmap anymore.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: And I think that that can be especially difficult for people at that precipice in their life.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: And so for me, I was out of school and I'd just gone through a breakup and it was the first time that I didn't have anything.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: The world was my oyster, which is something that I had been told you can do whatever you want.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: What do you want to do?
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Told you can do whatever you want, what do you want to do, and that's also a very paralyzing question, right?
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: And so I was feeling heartbroken, I was feeling scared.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Everything that I had known kind of ended and I was like I don't know where I'm going to, like what I'm going to do, I don't know the next road.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: And then I remember being at my parents' know the next road.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: And then I remember being at my parents' kitchen table and just thinking if I wasn't scared, if I didn't have anything holding me back, what would I do right now?
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: It was a list of all the things that I would do if I wasn't scared, if fear was not holding me back, and so I just went ham on it.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I was like I want to learn to do the high trapeze, I want to go backpacking through Europe by myself.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: I want to teach English as a second language.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: I want to learn how to flamenco dance.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I just put anything and everything that brought joy, excitement to my life, and then I started crossing things off the list, and for me, that was the moment where I felt I was the most bold, because it was an active decision.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: It wasn't for anyone else, it wasn't.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: It was fueled purely by what do I want in this moment, and how am I not going to let fear or anything else stop me?
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: And so one of the things I did was buy a one-way ticket to Barcelona, where there was 23% unemployment rate at the time.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: I remember that conversation with my parents very well.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: They're just telling you the facts, right, yeah, they're just telling you the facts, right yeah, and I made the very conscious decision at that moment to say listen, I'm not building my life for my resume or for my LinkedIn.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I'm going to invest in myself and I'm going to bet on the fact that these life experiences I'm going to have are going to create bigger ROI than going to the right school or following the right career trajectory.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: And so, for me, that was the boldest moment I had taken at that, up until that time in my life.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you said something there like the right path, the right school, and I think when we're in our twenties, like things are defined for us of what's right, but we kind of get towards the latter part of that and into our thirties and you know, I'm in my fifties of just like no one else defines right other than me, and I don't mean that in like a overly cocky way, but it is a confidence and it's something that comes from experience.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: And it comes from experience of trying things and having them succeed or fail.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Trying things and experiencing a different part of life you never would have ever seen or met someone or experienced, unless you have taken that bold move.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: So what was one of the things on that list that you've been surprised?
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: That you were able to cross off prize, that you were able to cross off Hi trapeze All right, how was that experience and what did you learn?
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: from actually getting it crossed off.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Oh man, that was something I never thought I would be able to do, that in Barcelona.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: No, I actually did that in Miami.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, surprisingly, and it was actually one of the first things I crossed off and I it really fueled the momentum to do kind of the bigger, scarier things.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: But it was my first step.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: And again, if you would have asked me if I could do the high trapeze, I would have said no.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: And if you would have asked me I could do a flip on the high trapeze and grab someone's hand, I would have said absolutely not.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: But I went and I took up space that day and I did both of those things and I also fell a bunch of times in the process of making that happen.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Right, Cause that happens when we're trying things right, whether it's the trapeze or founding a company or trying for a particular role in a in a company.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: You know, like I think sometimes we have to try several times and to succeed, sometimes we try and figure out well, maybe that's not the right path, and other times we try multiple times, we learn from each time or each iteration, and then we get onto the right path.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: So your list probably had different leveling of that right.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: So how did you get from the high trapeze on your list to you founded a company, actually while you were in Barcelona?
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Honestly, getting back up.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: So trying and getting back up the high trapeze was a very symbolic moment of like wow, I just achieved something that I never thought was possible.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: What else can I achieve that I never thought was possible?
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: And so I took a one-way ticket and trip over to Barcelona.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I did both of those with two and a half bags packed, and I just started putting myself in different uncomfortable situations and taking it one day at a time, and so I didn't go there and start a company.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I went there.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I started teaching English as a second language and going to almost any and every job application that was put out there for a native English speaker, and having the skillset of a native English speaker allowed me to open doors that potentially I would have not opened or tried in the US, and one of those was being a voiceover actress.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: That's something that, as a native English speaker in Spain, allowed me opportunities that I may have not taken in the US so quickly easily, and then that got my foot in the door to a company that was teaching English as a second language.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: It's there that I met my co-founders for the ESAS learning platform that we started and bootstrapped that for several years while I was doing my education, working paycheck to paycheck for not a lot of hours, to be fair I was very much living and enjoying the Spanish lifestyle and investing in myself and making different connections, and taking it one step at a time.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: And so every year I would reassess in April.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: That was my, my month for reassessment of am I ready to leave Barcelona and do something else?
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know what that thing is or have I not finished my work here yet and it took seven years for me to feel like it was time to come back to the US.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So seven years, and so in that time, when you're on that trip back to the US, what's in your backpack that you didn't have before, whether it's skills or feelings or interactions like what did you bring home with you?
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: That was positive Confidence in myself, the knowledge that I can drop myself in any country, in any situation, without a support network, without a job, without a reputation, without a network, and I can build it back by myself if I need to.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: I don't want to, I prefer to do it with others, but I can do it.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: And that level of confidence, that investment in myself that, anywhere I'm placed, I have the skills to be able to do it.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I have the experience to be able to cultivate the things that I need to build a successful career and a successful community.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't trade that for the world.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: So you came home with a confidence and a belief in yourself.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: You know, when we think about the bold framework, I spend a lot of time in that particular quadrant because I think it's the foundation for every action forward, right?
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: So that belief in yourself, the understanding of yourself, betting on yourself, probably went through a few times where it was like, wow, this is harder than I thought you know.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Or negative talk that could come up and you knew how to manage it, how to speak to it and how to put it away.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming some there were some things that maybe came up, you know, along those seven years there and now you hear you are coming back and take me from the time that you came back to when you then founded your own company here in the U S well, the company I founded in the U S.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: I actually founded before I left to Spain, so I was an entrepreneur very early on.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: It was a company that I created that was taking three things into the account.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: So I say it was the intersection of customer experience, business and art, and those three things are very important to me, and so I was creating video vignettes for patients in hospice care at hospitals to be able to watch ethereal images with instrumental music to tap into a part of the brain that would lower their pain threshold.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Now this was a win-win-win for the patients because they were in less pain, for the hospitals because they spent less money on morphine, and for myself as a business because I was able to generate an income while providing these services that I enjoyed.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: I was a photographer at the time, so it was a great kind of first business for me, so I did that before I actually left the US, okay.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: So out of college you did that, or while you were in college, yeah.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Both while I was and out of, while waiting tables and bartending and doing all the, all those jobs that you also have while you're in college and then coming back from Barcelona.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: I got a great opportunity to.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: You know, I started at.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: I started my own company in Barcelona as a founder and stayed there for a bit and then decided that it wasn't the right way that we wanted to take the business, so joined a few other startups before joining Typeform, which was a wild hyper growth ride for me.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I was employee number 30.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I use Typeform regularly, yeah, in my business.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: I love Typeform, love the founders.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: That experience, for me, was foundational for who I am today and the way I build and all the lessons learned from my time there, and so they wanted us to open their US office, and so that was a great reason for me to come to San Francisco, a city that I had loved and admired from afar and was excited to sink my teeth into.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: And so that was the journey back home to the U?
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: S.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Nice and then walk me through with seven, seven, six.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: A little bit about seven seven six.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Why did you establish it, what is it about and what do you?
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: As we go back to your definition, what have you learned about helping others take up space and be able to take their ideas and have them come to fruition and be successful?
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Totally so.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: 776 Firm was created by Alexis Ohanian in the crux of COVID, so 2020.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: And at the time I was doing consulting work for service design human centric design and I was not interested in joining venture.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: At the time.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: My husband was and I saw an application for an operator in residence program at 776.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: It was their inaugural program and I took it and passed it to my husband program and I took it and passed it to my husband.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: I was like David, you're excited about potentially going into venture.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Here it is.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And then I started reading it and I took a closer look and I was reading the application and it was created by another partner at the firm, caitlin Holloway.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: And if you know her and you know her work, you can tell it emanates through the things that she does and creates.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: And I was reading it.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, actually I can do this.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: This is very relatable to my experience and to what I've done.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: And so before he got home, I applied through a type form for the position.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: They did not ask for your LinkedIn or your resume, it was just open-ended questions and some of the questions were very coach-based and I've been an executive coach.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: What would you say to a founder.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: If you were to coach them, act as an executive coach to yourself what's the message you would give yourself?
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Why do you want to be in venture?
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: What is something that you've created that you've been able to scale and teach others to utilize, and what's the value proposition behind it and the value add?
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: And I very much remember something bold that I did was in the application.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: I said that I did was in the application.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: I said, you know, I had no desire to be in venture.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: I'm a first generation American, greek, latina didn't really see venture as a place for me and I was really honest about it in my application.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I remember my husband coming home and I told him that that's what I answered to that question and he did that very supportive thing where he asked so did you submit?
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: it already.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: I've gotten that before.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I was like did you already send this?
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: So like yes, I don't even want to know what you want to change.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Exactly so you.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: We all know what that means.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Like spelling mistake or they think you shouldn't have said it Exactly.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: And I just told them like hey, they're going to take me or leave me for who I am.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: I am grounded in who I am, what I bring to the table, and if it is not the right fit, then let it not be the right fit.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: From this application but not down the line and there were 1500 applicants I got through to the top three and I've been there ever since.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: And here we are.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: And here we are.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so your bold moments kind of you know, I do think there's a layered throughout our life, but each one, I think, gives us the ability to take the next one, whenever that may be.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I don't think you take a bold step and check the box and like that's all you do.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: I think it's an evolving piece of our lives and we may need to be bold in our relationships or in our roles or in our jobs, or maybe with what we get curious about or want to explore.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a whole host of ways to be bold and I think you know you started with taking up space and making a list, and here you are now that to doing that, not only for yourself, for your family, as an example, you know, for your children as well but also for others in the venture world.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: So when you think about your list now, do you have a new bold list that you would create, or have you kind of just been going and then doing whatever comes up?
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: How does that list evolve for you?
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the list never ends.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: It's not a bucket list.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, it's a wonderful grounding reminder of how is fear blocking me from overcoming something, and I think it's really important to constantly reflect how is fear blocking you?
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Or maybe it's helping you for some reason, and there's some other message there, but I have an ongoing chicken shit list.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Why do you call it that?
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I've never heard it called that.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: What does that mean?
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: I like to bring levity to situations that can sometimes be a little bit more still heavy.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so for me it's a good reminder of it's not that serious, like it's just not that serious don't make it like if you don't finish everything on the list, you're a failure, you didn't do it or you're not enough or any of those things like.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: It's just that it's just list, and I think we can all use a little more levity in life, especially as we get older.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: You know, the beautiful thing about children is that they are playful.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: They're playful and artistic until the world tells them otherwise.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: And I think that if we could, as adults, remember that playfulness and bring it to what we do every day, what a different environment that is to work in.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: It does not mean that you are not ambitious.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that you're not going to achieve things.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: It's just doing it with a smile and some fun and making the process and the journey as important as the outcome.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: And you know, I find both of those things.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: I'm an experienced designer, I'm a human centered experience designer and my job title is founder and portfolio outcomes.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Both of those pieces the experience and the outcome are equally important and we usually cannibalize one for the other, and for me it's like let's bring some levity to the process and achieve that outcome Right.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, lighten up.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I think if I could give my younger self some advice or guidance, or even just, you know, going back to where I was in my twenties and particularly in my forties.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Man, I was wound up in my forties of like, got to get this, got to do that, got to get up, you know, got to get that title A lot of stress I put on myself.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I you know it'd be just give yourself a break.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Like lighten up.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: That's what I would say.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Do you have any advice you would give your younger self so much?
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Depends on what part we're talking about, but yeah Well like mine was just generally like I was pretty hard on myself.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I had the list and if I wasn't crossing it off or checking it off it was, you know, a big red X in my own head, not anybody else.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: It was just me on me.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I think it's the lesson of levity and playfulness.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: When that is lost, I think it makes things really hard.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: We have enough pressure on ourselves as humans in this day and age.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Invest in yourself.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Trust your enough pressure on ourselves as humans in this day and age.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Invest in yourself.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Trust your instincts, even when the world tells you that it is not the right move.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Listen to that voice, hone it in.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Actually, that would probably be what it is.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: It's like cancel out the noise and get in touch with what is true and real for you and that's what I try to do with our founders is, you know, when you are building something different and unique and game changing, which is the goal here.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: The goal here is not that we are creating lifestyle businesses, it's that we're changing the world, and part of what you have to do when you're doing that is to block out the noise.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: And so for me, to myself, it would be like blocking that noise out sooner and getting in touch with what's real, and maybe it wouldn't have taken me doing it at 24, 25.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: I would have done that earlier, when I was younger, when I was in school, because those are tough, pivotal years and so really figuring that out sooner.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but blocking out the noise, believing in yourself and keeping it light.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: You know as much as you can.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: This is probably good advice for anybody at any age, honestly, and I love that.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: That's the advice.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: So any shout outs you want to give to the companies you support and the things that we should know are out there, we certainly can add it all into the episode notes as well, so people can find out.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: But anything that you want to share about who you work with and how to work with you and where to find you.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: I work at the firm seven, seven, six.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: We are a early stage venture firm.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: We like to say that we are a startup that deploys capital because we're doing things differently and we have lots of portfolio companies that are doing incredible, amazing things.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: I'll touch on just a few so that we kind of give a gamut of different things.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, different flavors.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: So, if you're into sports, we've got ScorePlay that will help you manage your media assets on and off the field and help you tell your stories.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: We've got the LA Golf Club.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: We have a big women's track race, first of its kind, happening in September, called Athlos.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: We just announced that.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: If you want to build human connection, send thank you messages, birthday cards from a distance, there's a company called Givingly.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: That's wonderful.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Cards from a distance there's a company called givingly.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: That's wonderful.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: You can send gift cards, presents.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I can remember everything that you forget, that's probably what I mean.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I schedule so many things.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: It hopefully makes people feel very special.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: At least you yeah, you don't forget anything, and you know my sister's very good at sending cards, I'm the worst and so that might be something I'll definitely be checking out this is the best cards.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: I'm the worst, and so that might be something I'll definitely be checking out.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: This is the best, and all their designs are from artists that are crafting them, and it feels like you then have this digital shoebox of memories to look back on.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: I think it's also really important to keep a happiness folder or a happiness drawer so the inevitable when times are tough, and so if I'm having a really rough day, I open my givingly app and I go and I scroll through some of the messages that folks have sent me, and it's a really great way to just give yourself a little, a little cheer up when you need it and if you want to re-invoke a sense of playfulness or take on a new adventure or new bold activity.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: There's Trala, which is an online music school for kids and adults.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: That was something that I did that I hadn't done before.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: I learned the violin and I should say I am learning.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I haven't played the violin since my senior year in high school, but I still have it.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: If you want to reignite that.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Music is a wonderful therapy and a wonderful space to be creative, Definitely.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, music is a mental health escape, honestly for me.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: So like concerts and bands, and you know, and I pretty much like all kinds of music for the majority and every person in our family plays an instrument or two or three.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: That's incredible.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: So, I'm probably the one that plays the least.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I listen more than I play, but, yeah, definitely I think music is a wonderful way to kind of just reset and a little bit of an escape too, so I love that, okay, so so.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: So thanks for people to check out and to learn about, and all the information about what you do, christina, and how to contact you will be in the episode notes.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the bold lounge and for sharing your bold journey and supporting others with theirs.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the bold lounge podcast.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Through the continuum of bold stories vulnerability to taking a leap you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important stories.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold mindset.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with you.