Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristen Grunewald. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kristen, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?
How did I develop an ability to take risks? That is a great question and I have a good story about that very thing. I was introverted and fearful as a child. Partly because I was born an artist and I was quite sensitive. Being sensitive also can make a person afraid and I was very afraid of so many things! I got sick and tired of being afraid of life. I was shy and I was terrified, and I was sick of myself and so I made a conscious decision to do something about each fear.
In college I decided to get over my fear of speaking in front of people. I took a public speaking class and an acting class at the same time. I forced myself to get up in front of people and I discovered that with practice I was quite good at it. I actually enjoyed speaking in front of people which led me to the pursuit of an acting career for a number of years with success even! I did a number of plays, got my Screen Actors Guild Union Card (SAG Card) and enjoyed working in the entertainment field.
As a kid and as an adult I was terrified of heights. I was scared to peek over the railings of high buildings. My palms would sweat and my heart would pound and so I decided to get over that fear. I decided to go skydiving. I jumped out of a plane and my first jump was horrifying, I could not talk as I was strapped to my instructor. My throat went dry. That first jump was an intense challenge with every cell in my body screaming to stop the madness! However, with that first jump and adrenaline rush I fell in love with the sport of stepping out into the air at 1300 feet and falling at 130 miles per hour towards the ground. Once you have jumped from a perfectly good airplane you feel that you can do just about anything, and nothing is too risky any longer.
Risk is really in a person’s head. It seems to me (interestingly enough) that those things in life that a person is most fearful of are the things they end up falling in love with. So, if you are afraid of something – that is the thing that you need to do.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am first and foremost an oil painter. I have followed in my father’s footsteps and like my dad I paint in the medium of oil paints. I love it. Currently though I am focused on creating inspirational artistic products and my latest is a set of cards that can help a person go through the grieving process. Nine months ago I lost my man who was also my partner and best friend for the past 20 years. As I was going through the grief process I thought there should be a manual to help people go through this experience. Pain is tough especially when it enters by way of the death of a loved one. It is so painful that you think you may die from the heartbreak (I questioned my survival a number of times), You may not die but the pain cuts deep and hard. I needed help and I came up with the idea of daily cards, like oracle or tarot cards but with real and helpful advice on getting through the days of heartbreak and grief. Art and sound advice can be very therapeutic and so to be able to bring some relief to another going through that same experience would bring me joy. We pass on our wisdom of experience to others, and this is what I want to do. My goal is to bring relief and positive mental health to the brokenhearted.
I will always love oil painting. That is my first love and something I will never stop as long as my body and mind hold out. However, adding these spiritual and mental health-oriented cards into what I would like to create adds another dimension to my artistic career. The idea for the cards was an “ah-ha” moment and so I have been busily working on completing them. I hope they become helpful words of wisdom for others and offer sound advice from someone who went through a similar experience.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Oral communication skills, common sense, and being impeccably honorable with your word are three qualities that will help you have a fulfilled and nurturing life and career.
Being able to speak to others is so important. It is a skill, if not an art, and in this age of text messages and social media direct messages and posts we can forget to talk to people. The art of oral communication is so important in any business that deals with the public. It can save a sale when all other avenues have failed. Social interaction is very important to our mental health also. If you can speak well and listen well to another person this will help you succeed in all areas of your life.
I rate common sense as a necessity for success in any journey. If you have the ability to think things through and to see the results of the choices in front of you, and you are able to choose the best decision and the one that makes the most common sense, then you cannot go wrong. Apply this same principal to all of your choices and you will always choose the correct one.
Keep your word. That should be written in stone. If you give someone your word then you need to do everything in your power to keep it. This is how you build trust in any relationship both personal and in business. Be impeccable with your word and people will want to be around you and work with you because they can trust you.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I enjoy working with others. I especially like those who are spiritual and creative and also those with a good business sense. I am currently collaborating on a deck of artistic and inspirational cards with a woman who is also a dear friend. She works as a spiritual therapist, is a poet, and she will be writing the manual for these cards in poetry form. I will be creating the artwork for the cards themselves. We are working on a set of inspirational cards besides the set of “Grief Cards” that I am working on. If a person would like to work with me they can easily message me through my web site www.kristengrunewald.com or direct message me through Instagram or Facebook.
Contact Info:
- Website: kristengrunewald.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristenulla/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristenulla
