Meet Kristin Clark

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristin Clark. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristin below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Kristin with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

My work ethic comes from both nature and nurture.

One thing I am certain of is that I LOVE to work. I started my first ‘real’ job at the age of 14. I scooped ice cream at Baskin Robbins while I was in 8th grade. I learned that I liked working much more than I liked school. Mainly because it gave me a sense of purpose. I was able to put myself through private high school and paid my way through college without batting an eye.

When I got older and found out about my strengths through the CliftonStrengths program, it became clear to me why I enjoyed working. I’m good at getting other people to move forward quickly and enjoy working hard as a team. As long as I can see results, I will push hard to keep moving forward. It’s all about action and what’s next for me.

On the nurture side, I grew up in the mid-west and that definitely shaped my work ethic. Both my parents worked and my Dad always talked about not letting other people down. Calling in sick was a rarity around our house, and everyone pitched in when there was something to be done. We did not discuss it; it was just expected.

I value that experience now even though I wasn’t a fan of cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, pulling weeds and shoveling snow. Did I mention I’m much happier getting other people to do things!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I rarely tell this story about why I started my business, but I should.

Have you ever been fired from a job and smiled the whole way home after? That was me.

Let me remind you. I LOVE working!

After college, I had the good fortune to be hired into a marketing role and loved every minute of it. That is until I got my coveted role as a Vice President.

Things changed and I found myself hating to go to work every day and I didn’t know why.

During the time I was out of work, I was introduced to the CliftonStrengths program and it all clicked. The reason I was so unhappy with my work as a VP is that I tried to be something I’m not.

I decided I needed to be a great strategic thinker. Guess what, I’m not.

Yeah, I said it! But I found out I have other amazing gifts.

People did not promote and hire me for my great strategic mind. They wanted me because I am really good at getting groups of people to move forward quickly, efficiently and enjoy working together to solve problems.

I didn’t realize my gifts until I was given the language through CliftonStrengths.

My report described me so clearly it hit me to my core. At a time when I felt so defeated and unsure of myself, it gave me my confidence back and a new purpose. I just needed to figure out where to aim it.

At that time my boys were starting to plan for college, and I realized there was a huge gap in the college planning process. Our school counselors and college consultants spend a lot of time helping kids get INTO college, but rarely are they helping kids understand who they are as a person, why they want to go to college (or choose another education experience), and what they want as an end goal (a career path).

The result is kids are going to college on the ‘Figure it out as you go plan’ and the statistics on this are not great. One that really struck me is that 30% of students that go to college do not return after their freshman year. So now you have a kid that feels defeated AND has $25,000 worth of debt with nothing to show for it.

I knew this was a perfect time in life to introduce kids to the CliftonStrengths program. To show them the gifts, the natural talents they have to share with the world. So, I developed a signature formula to help 16 to 25-year-olds determine a career path based on their goals.

And I’m having a ball!

My big goal is to have a team of coaches helping me work with young people so I can spend my time speaking to our high school and college administrators and government agencies about the successes we are seeing. This is a disruptive concept and with all things new, it takes time to get the masses in alignment.

Two positive changes I’m seeing in our clients are:
– They are graduating in 4 to 4.5 years from college versus the current 5.5 year average.
– Students are not opting out of college their freshman year.

We are getting these results because our clients know they are making informed decisions regarding their careers and if going to college or choosing another type of education is the best way to get to their goals.

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?

There are three things that were most impactful in building my business.

1. Learning about and understanding how I am built, my talents and the activities that truly bring me joy in my work. As a solo-preneur you spend a lot of time by yourself. I knew I needed to have a team around me because that is where I thrive. So, I not only joined a local networking group, but I am also a part of their executive board because I like to move people accomplish great things. I have formed partnerships with schools and others business owners too. All of this is by design to take advantage of my gifts.

2. Knowing and accepting what I am not good at doing. I purposefully have a business coach and a mentor that I meet with weekly who are strategic thinkers. They help me think through the strategic vision so I can do what I do well, make things happen!

3. Pure ignorance. If I knew how hard it was going to be to build a business and how long it would take, I’m not sure I’d have seen it through. It would have been ‘easier’ to stay in a corporate role, collect my paycheck and call it a day. But I’m glad I didn’t know what I didn’t know, because my work is impacting the lives of our biggest assets, our children and I’m not stopping any time soon!

I cannot say this enough, if you have not taken the CliftonStrengths assessment, you may be missing out on being happy in your work.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

The big goal I’m trying to achieve is to get our curriculum into schools and continue to prove the results are worth the time spent with our teens. To do this we need funding through grants.

We have school counselors raising their hands to incorporate the curriculum at their schools. They understand how important it is to get our students talking and making decisions about their careers.

Now we need to get in front of corporations and other groups that believe in investing in our students. We are currently talking with local Independent School District leaders and corporations to figure out how to make this happen

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