We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cristal Jordan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Cristal, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Have you experienced a situation where you’ve emotionally been punched in the gut and just froze in fear? Did you quit living or caring because that gut punch was so extremely painful that staying dormant was just easier? Or were you determined to get back up, dust yourself off and find the strength to move forward, take the lesson and kick ass again?
Resilience is a trait that allows you to stand even stronger and fight even harder after experiencing your toughest battles or most horrific trauma. Resilience is about more than being a survivor, it’s about being a warrior. A warrior for your inner self.
I have always been a fighter and a survivor. I learned how to maneuver forward through losing high position jobs, having failed companies, losing financial security, getting divorced and more. My strongest test in resilience was losing my oldest child. That was one I really wasn’t sure that I could come back from, wasn’t sure I even wanted to, much less to ever even want to thrive again.
I am not going to paint a heroic story about myself making you think that I was able to push through, keep my sanity in tact, continue killin’ it at my job and magically hold the rest of my life together….not even close. I was a mess, an ugly mess.
After my loss, the greatest gift I gave myself was time. Time to lay in my bed, absorb and process that pain, time to be sad, angry and scared. It took time, a lot of time. Eventually I started becoming restless. I started thinking about how my future life should look versus how it had looked before. I knew changes had to me made. I was a different person now.
Prior to losing my son, I was the CFO for a custom home builder plus I owned a promotional products company. Numbers were my life. After this tragedy, numbers looked like a foreign language to me. I knew I couldn’t return to corporate life again, so I started focusing on things that brought me peace. Interior design work, furniture painting, flipping home decor… those were the things that brought me happiness.
I spent the next couple years being an interior design hobbyist, not even realizing that I was cultivating a new business. I eventually established The Phoenix Phinds & Design, which focuses on all the things I love. I had found my happy place, my therapy, my healing. Eventually I ramped up my promotional products business again but now focusing on promoting musicians. Music has always saved my soul, which has now lead to my newest endeavor, band management and promotion. This has allowed me to be introduced into a world that I love while challenging me to learn an entire new industry. For me, this shows progress in my life’s journey and in my healing process.
Resilience is about more than getting back up and moving forward. It’s about understanding and accepting why you got knocked down, it’s about appreciating that you cared so deeply about something you lost, but it’s primarily about rising from the ashes and creating a stronger version of yourself that knows you can weather any storm. You learn to give yourself grace, love and the courage to change your path. Realizing that your inner peace is the key to overcoming absolutely anything is the real definition to resilience.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My professional life is in what’s seems to be an ongoing “Phoenix Rising” phase. The past 5 years has forced me to completely start over. As I mentioned before I own a business called The Phoenix Phinds & Design. The Phoenix has so many levels of representation is my life. First and foremost, my late son had a large Phoenix tattoo across his back that represented a significant milestone in his life. I have carried that Phoenix on and have it tattooed on my forearm as a reminder that no matter what, I can always start over.
My current professional life is a reflection of me, structured chaos. One day I’m helping someone turn their home into their sanctuary, the next day I’m at a rock show meeting new fans and promoting our band. You never know where I’ll turn up or what professional hat I’ll be wearing. I am able to set my own schedule and I can multi task like you wouldn’t believe. My greatest skill is that I get sh*t done.
I love helping people fall in love with their homes again. I have renovated every home I’ve ever lived in, and always on a budget. I am not one of those over the top, high end decorators. I gravitate towards helping people that are overwhelmed with their house and don’t know how to make it reflect their personalities, priorities and peace. Your home should absolutely be your safe haven, your refuge, your happy place. I love taking those key components of a persons life and presenting them in a way that makes the homeowner proud of their home plus create a space that is cozy and inviting.
I recently opened a small retail booth inside the Antique Gallery in Round Rock. I offer affordable home accessories, refurbished furniture and collectibles, all trinkets that’s I’ve gathered or created over the past few years.
The other portion of my life is about helping bands and musicians promote themselves and earn revenue by selling T-shirts, caps and other merchandise that I provide to them. I do work with small businesses still as well but a huge portion of my life is surrounded in the Austin Music Scene.
I also manage a killer band called the Rising Sons. Their sound can best be described as Texas rock infused with cosmic soul. I bet that got your mind wondering, right? We are an original rock band with a bluesy vibe. Our musicians are the cream of the crop, some of the most sought after musicians in the Austin area. The band will be releasing their first EP after the beginning of the New Year.
As far as me personally, the most exciting thing in my universe at the moment is that I’m anticipating the arrival of my first grandchild. My youngest son and daughter-in-law will be giving me the greatest gift I could ever receive. The circle of life continues and I cannot wait to give this tiny human all the love that I hold in my heart.
There are so many beautiful things on the horizon for 2024 and I absolutely cannot wait.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
In my 56 years I feel like I have literally lived 9 lives. I was never that “stick it out until you die even if you’re miserable” kind of person. Screw that. HaHa. So if you find yourself in a situation that you are not happy with, CHANGE IT. It’s your life, your power.
1. Change typically doesn’t scare me, yet I have found that when I do get really scared that means it’s probably a change I shouldn’t be making at the current time or I’m changing the wrong thing. It seems like every time I didn’t listen to my gut, it was the WRONG decision. Your gut is your best life barometer.
2. You have to keep challenging yourself. No matter how good you are at something, someone else is better. Get out of your comfort zone, try new methods, listen to advice, realize that mistakes are lessons and can actually be the catalyst to a new technique. Do not get stagnant.
3. Don’t be lazy. Don’t be lazy. Let me say it louder for the ones in the back….DON’T BE LAZY!!!
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
What do I do when I feel overwhelmed?
Well after the initial emotional meltdown, I pull myself together and really evaluate the situation.
Am I overwhelmed because I don’t have sufficient knowledge regarding the task on hand? Is it because I don’t have the proper tools I need? Is it a financial issue? Do I need more help? Or have I once again thought I was superhuman and could effectively master the 9,999 projects that I put on my plate?
Typically these questions are effective every single time that I get overwhelmed. Then it’s followed by me being angry at myself because typically that last question the culprit. I tend to think I can conquer the world all on my own. And obviously the fact that I’m not living in some palace in Dubai is proof that I have yet to succeed in doing so.
So after the meltdown and pinpointing that I have probably created my own issue because I have once again added more and more and more, I have to step back, regroup, prioritize and sometimes recruit help. Once I have created a new, attainable game plan I typically feel rejuvenated and can get back to kicking butt and making progress.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePhoenixPhinds
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@RisingSonsAtx?si=T-YQesEPl1cLSRhe
- Other: FB: https://www.facebook.com/ThePhoenixPhinds https://www.facebook.com/cristaljordan.yourmerchgirl https://www.facebook.com/RisingSonsATX
