Meet Kristen Aguirre

We were lucky to catch up with Kristen Aguirre recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristen, 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?

My resilience comes from faith and family. I’ve overcome a stroke, unemployment and multiple career changes by leaning on God and my parents for guidance and support. Despite being in my thirties, I do not have it all figured out. So, whenever I face an incredibly difficult and overwhelming situation in my life I pray and talk to my parents. It gives me clarity. It also reminds me of all the other times God has seen me through, why wouldn’t he do it this time? That outlook allows me to continue to chase my goals. My family is my safety net, always there to catch me after every fall. Finding your people is crucial in chasing your dreams. My family sits in the front row to all my projects cheering me on. It sounds cheesy but knowing they’re there gives me strength to push forward. Resilience is like a muscle; you need to exercise it to strengthen it. I still need to work at it. While, I trust God—I still have a mini panic attack when a crisis hits and then prayer brings me back center.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

After nearly 15 years as a journalist. I have now transitioned my work into public relations consulting. I specialize in helping emerging companies and nonprofits expand their media relations through brand storytelling. My most recent campaign called #DWord Disability is not a bad word received international attention by shining a light on the disability community. After surviving a stroke in 2019, I was left partially paralyzed in my left arm. Representing the disability community is important to me especially, as we continue to fight daily battles like ableism. I’m also a keynote speaker where I share my recovery journey. Reminding people there is hope in dark situations is important to me. During my recovery, holding onto hope was huge. My team and I are also working on launching our own foundation called “Still Here.” It aims to support female brain injury survivors on their road to recovery.

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?

My best advice for anyone on any journey is BE DELIRIOUS with your goals. The bigger the better! I was raised by parents who always encouraged me to chase my dreams, no matter how ridiculous. When I started out in my career and told people I wanted to be a TV journalist they would roll their eyes. My inner voice would say, “okay, watch me.” I made it happen, twice. Now I get that same look when I tell them I’m launching my own foundation, but I continue to hear my inner voice yell, “WATCH ME.” I carry that mentality in everything that I do. At the end of the day the only person who needs to believe in your dream is you.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

Transitioning from the newsroom to the nonprofit/consulting world was difficult for me as I was used to a fast-paced, harder environment. I was a reporter for 15 years trying to make deadlines and continued to act like that. One month into my new PR role I was reprimanded for being too direct as people we’re receiving it as harsh. At first, I was offended but then I leaned into the criticism and gave myself grace as I transitioned into the softer atmosphere. It was hard and took time, but I’ve learned softening my edges a little but not losing myself is okay.

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