Bloody Hell Chelle Moment: How Kristen Clark Found Her Calling in Growth & Embodiment

In this episode, Michelle Margaret Marques interviews Kristen Clark, a chief growth officer and founder of multiple startups. They discuss the challenges that women face in the tech industry, particularly when it comes to failure and self-doubt. Kristen emphasizes the importance of not internalizing failure and instead viewing it as feedback. They also discuss the need for more women in leadership positions in the tech industry and the importance of collaboration and support among women. Kristen shares her own Bloody Hell Chelle moment, which led her to combine her expertise in growth strategy with her work in feminine embodiment to support women in their entrepreneurial journeys.

Sound Bites

"Failure sometimes or like perceived failure doesn't mean that you're doing it wrong. It just means it's hard."
"The more nos we get, the closer we are to the yes."
"Nine times out of 10, with women, when we go up for investment, half of the time, they've already discounted us, they've already dismissed our pitch before we even say a single word."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Excitement
06:49 Overcoming Failure and Self-Doubt
14:30 The Need for More Women in Leadership Positions
37:21 Free Gift and Conclusion

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Transcript

Michelle Margaret Marques (00:00.732)
So we are back in the Bloody Hell ChelleKristen podcast. And oh my gosh, I have to tell you, I know I say this every time, right? Oh my gosh, I'm excited. I'm excited to have this guest every single time. Well, see, that's the great thing about being on your own podcast, right? You can get excited and speak to the people you're excited to speak to every time. So joining me today is an incredible, incredible woman, Kristen. I am going to let you introduce yourself.

We actually spoke on the same event for Female International. Oh my gosh, I'm getting my words all mixed up. See, I do this when I get so excited, don't I? International Women's Day, we spoke in New York and I tell you what, I am so excited for today's conversation. Kristin, take it away, please introduce yourself.

Kristen (00:51.494)
Oh, thank you. Thank you. And I just I'm going to have to say like Bloody Hell Show like 10,000 times because it is like not only the best podcast name ever, but also when you said that on stage, I was like, that is so memorable. And and it says and it speaks so much to your attitude and what you bring to life, too, that it's just as like a all right. Well, what here we are. Right. Bloody Hell. So.

Yes, my name is Kristen Clark. I live in Washington, D.C. I have been in the tech world, startup world for 20 years. I am like obsessed with growth. I love growing things. I love growing things in my garden. I love growing people. I love growing ideas. So I've been a chief growth officer at 12 startups and counting. I've been a founder three times on my own self, one tech company, two service companies.

And those service companies are in service of other tech startups. So in that entire tech ecosystem, I've been a serial growth executive. And one of the things that I really got to me in the last year, two years or so, is historically seeing so many men, right? All the male tech founders, and they fail up, they keep going, they're up,

And what happens to women, either female founders, female CEOs, female other executives in the tech space, is like you hit failure and we internalize it differently than men do. Not to be totally gross generalization, but and then what happens there is we just like collapse. And so I've been on a mission really the last two years to how do we get women more money? How do we get them more access? How do we get them just like more seats at the table and more things? And we have to start inside of ourselves.

And so that's the part about growing people that I'm really passionate about.

Michelle Margaret Marques (02:33.268)
Mmm.

Michelle Margaret Marques (02:37.452)
You see, now you know why I'm so excited for this conversation. Oh my gosh, Kristin, you're so right. I mean, as you know, I work with female founders that are looking for investment and I help them get it. And that is one of the biggest things that I see, that internalization and the confidence to move forward. What piece of advice, after having three startups of your own, what piece of advice can you give that you know today that you wish you'd known at the very beginning?

Kristen (03:08.622)
Oh, great question. Piece of advice that I wish I'd known at the beginning. So flat out, what happens to women a lot of the times is that when we hit a piece of failure, and that failure has different flavors, right? We fail all the time in the startup world as an entrepreneur. It feels as if it's like, oh, I had a call and I got a meh.

I got a, I'll keep me posted and I'll come back to you later. We go into a sales presentation and they say like they don't want to buy from us. We go, we pitch to an investor. They're like, they'll pass. So we hit failures at all these different places. We do a product launch and then it fails flat with our customers. We're trying, or like it does, like there are all of these places. And what often happens to women is that we make ourselves wrong. We turn it, oh, thank you, computer. We turn.

This is going to be really fun than on a Mac computer. Maybe you'll get the fireworks too at some point. But what ends up happening is we make ourselves wrong. We just turn it against ourselves. And it's the default thing that we grew up with is in our culture. It's been in our culture for thousands of years. So if I had to go back in time and say one thing to my previous self about all of that was to be able to say every time I thought I was the problem, every time I thought that it was...

I had seven slides and I should have had six slides or I had 20 slides and I should have had 26 slides or I should have like changed the pie chart to a bar graph instead or the best one was I was wearing this like beautiful skirt suit in this really big meeting in Zurich. And I was like, you know, it was like a huge international partnership that we were about to do. And the guy came in and he was just a total asshole. Total asshole. Like he just was like, he just was like, he's just so bad. And I go back to my hotel room.

And I look in the mirror and Michelle, this is so sad to say, but literally I'm like, I should have worn the pantsuit. I guarantee you my man CEO who was in the room did not go to his hotel room and say, man, I really should have worn a blue shirt instead of the white shirt. He did not do that. He was down at the bar drinking.

Michelle Margaret Marques (05:08.008)
I'm sorry.

Michelle Margaret Marques (05:18.372)
No!

Michelle Margaret Marques (05:23.52)
mostly sure he wasn't wishing you wore the pantsuit either.

Kristen (05:28.874)
It's probably too shy, too shy, too shy. Yeah, like, oh my gosh. So I wish if I could go back and say, all of those places, Kristen, all those places where you thought you did it wrong, it was your fault that if you over-communicated, under-communicated, done something better to just have realized that it was not to make myself wrong. And the slippery line there is like, we always wanna be self-reflective so we can learn.

We want to be able to look back and have an honest reflection. It's like, oh, I could have done things differently or better. I could have chosen to grow at a different pace. That's a really big topic. How fast do you grow? What's the right balance of foundational growth versus high accelerant growth? But so reflection is always really important.

But there's this other thing that women tend to do and I tend to do it really, really well that we really, really make ourselves super wrong. And that part's not healthy and it takes us down. It takes us slower. It takes us, and we go into collapse. And so I just really wish that my previous self and know like, girl, you are doing amazing. This stuff is hard. This is just like not easy. And it doesn't, and like failure sometimes or like perceived failure doesn't mean that you're doing it wrong. It just means it's hard.

And sometimes you just need a different attitude, a different thing, but it doesn't make you wrong. And especially not wrong for trying.

Michelle Margaret Marques (06:49.736)
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So well said. I think actually, I'm going to flip it on its head. When we have these little bits of failure, perceived failure, you know, setbacks, I like to call it feedback. I think we're doing it right.

Kristen (07:06.871)
Yeah.

Michelle Margaret Marques (07:08.776)
I really do. Because I really truly believe that the yes lives in the land of no, right? So you gotta put yourself out there. It's like kissing a lot of frogs to get to your prince, right? You have gotta put yourself out there until you grow into the person that's ready, right? And I really think the more nos we get, the closer we are to the yes. And no for me is just next one. Next one.

Kristen (07:26.678)
Yeah, beautiful. Well said.

Kristen (07:36.14)
Yep.

Michelle Margaret Marques (07:37.556)
And I think the more times we have these kinds of conversations, the more we'll help other women not fall into that collapse and not go into that place of, I'm wrong, I did this wrong, I should have wore the pantsuit, I should have did this, I should have had 27 slides, you know. And just actually keep getting up and keep being like, OK, that's one less no. I'm closer to my yes.

Kristen (08:03.986)
Yeah. Yes. I actually completely agree with you on that. And that's something I've learned, I mean, the hard way over so many years. But I was actually just talking with a group of women that I'm working with right now exactly about this thing. And so oftentimes, like, if we... Do you want to do a quick role play with me for a second? This could might be fun. Okay. Amazing. Okay. Could you pretend to be like the average VC investor, right? Okay. Like, and pretend to be a dude for a second.

Michelle Margaret Marques (08:25.255)
Absolutely. Oh, yeah.

Kristen (08:33.574)
I know you work with a lot of investors on that side because you're amazing with that. Okay. All right. And then I'm going to be a female tech founder and I'm going to do my pitch to you and be like, oh my gosh, right? We're so amazing. And we're going to do all these things. And then like, hey, I'm looking for $2.5 million for my seed round. Do you want to be our lead investor?

Michelle Margaret Marques (08:37.873)
Good luck.

Kristen (08:52.574)
Yeah, you do laugh in my face often times, that's true. And then, what's the normal thing?

Michelle Margaret Marques (09:01.808)
The normal thing would be it doesn't, it doesn't valid, it's not validated for what we're looking for right now. Right? We're not, you know, we haven't qualified it yet. Maybe we'll get back to you. Get back to us when you have, when you've done a bit more research.

Kristen (09:19.822)
Totally, right? Totally. Oh.

Michelle Margaret Marques (09:23.408)
That was so bad for me to do that because that's so yummy!

Kristen (09:31.896)
You did an amazing job. Well done, VC, male investor role model. And for any men listening to this podcast at some point too, I hope no hard feelings here, but this is the standard thing we often get. No, it's just like, but true. But oftentimes we get the, keep me posted. It's not a good fit right now. The valuation's off. You're too early in the market. You're too late in the market.

Michelle Margaret Marques (09:34.12)
Thanks for watching.

Michelle Margaret Marques (09:42.704)
Yeah, no half seconds, we're just playing. No.

Kristen (09:58.462)
a thousand paid users or a million in ARR or whatever, right? The thing is. And so oftentimes, okay, so if you're the male investor, I'm like on average, like 99.9% of female founders. Okay. So I'm just going to do my little role play. I'll be like, okay, fine. I'll get back to you when I already have a million. And then I'm going to get off the zoom. And then I'm going to be like, can I swear on this, Michelle?

Michelle Margaret Marques (10:25.718)
Absolutely.

Kristen (10:26.622)
Okay, I swear a lot, so I just didn't, I just wanted, then I'll be like, I'll either be like, fuck that shit. I can't do it. And then I'm gonna end up either like in a ball, drinking a bottle of wine, binge watching Netflix, either then going back into my whole of product development because I'm good at product and I'm good at building things so that turns out I'm a great operator, which is why I built the company in the first place. And I'm gonna pour myself back into something that I feel control over because I don't feel control over the investors.

and I'm gonna collapse and get really angry and then resentful and bitter, and then mostly just like kind of go into like, fuck this world shit, I hate that, I'm angry, I'm sad. And then the saddest part is that somewhere in underneath that, at some point, typically inevitably, it goes into a storyline of like, I wonder if they're right.

Michelle Margaret Marques (11:18.246)
Yeah.

Kristen (11:19.438)
I wonder if they're right. I wonder like, I can't get this off the ground. I, how am I going to pay my team? I can't build the features I want to build because I'm not getting access to capital. And like everybody is telling me, I have a hundred literally come back to me later emails and nobody that's actually going to believe in me and take the risk. And so at some point, you know, we fall, we fall back down. And this flipping of it to your point, if it's like, how do we actually, as women,

say like, okay, and we have the temper tantrum. I am a full proponent of like, you have to move your feelings because if you hold your feelings, they have power over you. So like, have the temper tantrum, like hit the pillow, turn on angry rage music, cry really hard, work out, have great sex, like whatever you need to do to like go, like move the thing.

Michelle Margaret Marques (12:07.78)
Yeah, scream, cry, dance, do whatever it is, yeah?

Kristen (12:12.198)
all of it so that you can come back to the next one and not bring in, because you can't bring in the last rejection to the future, the next investor. And so the more than you can be like, okay, cool. So if I can, if I can, and it's the best case, if I can start doing that in real time. So if you're the VC investor and then I can be like, okay, back to role play. Okay. Mr. Mark, Michelle.

Michelle Margaret Marques (12:39.465)
I'm a simp.

Kristen (12:40.51)
Okay, so it sounds like you're interested, but it doesn't fit your thesis right now and you want us to continue to, and you want us to get back to you in the times, right? Did I hear you right? Okay, great. Do you have an idea of like what type of valuation you're looking for that would fit your thesis? Just so I can really make sure that when we hit those things that I can come back to you with the right numbers.

Michelle Margaret Marques (12:50.748)
Correct, yeah.

Michelle Margaret Marques (13:03.692)
or we can let you know that when you come back to us with your next, your next submission.

Kristen (13:07.742)
Okay. So, so you want us to come back because the thing is, is like, I'm like, we're, we're like on a very fast trajectory right now. We have a huge amount of user growth right now, our products and, and really aligned for a really big launch right now. So I'm actually planning on closing this round in the next six weeks. And so if I don't have a good sense of where you are for your investment thesis, I'm not going to really have time to come back to you. So we can either say, well, I'll come back to you in two years when we're already at our series B.

which is totally fine and I get it, but you're obviously going to have a much bigger stake and a much bigger growth share if you sign on now. So I'm just trying to really make sure that I could help you make your multiples that you're hoping for your portfolio later on.

Michelle Margaret Marques (13:48.136)
Good job, good job. Guys, I actually have changed my mind. Ha ha ha.

Kristen (13:55.466)
Yes! And then I was like, whoo, but yeah, got it, yeah.

Michelle Margaret Marques (14:03.232)
Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. But it's all true though. And I just want to point out, controversial as this will be, and of course some will think it is, but nine times out of 10, let's face it, with women, when we go up for investment, half of the time, nine times out of 10, they've already discounted us, they've already dismissed our pitch before we even say a single word.

Kristen (14:30.966)
Yeah, yes they do.

Michelle Margaret Marques (14:34.736)
Yeah, and it's so sad. How do you think we can get past that, Kristen? From your experience, how do you think we get past it? I mean, I'm working hard to get past that, and every client I work with, I'm working hard to ensure that they get the investment, but how is the industry on a whole, how do you think we get past that?

Kristen (14:55.826)
Oh my gosh, that's an amazing question. I think there are a lot of, mostly women that I've met, very powerful women, obviously including yourself, that are really trying to break free of this. And I also think, so when I think about how do we get past it, we have to get past it on three levels. We have to get past it on the female founder level, who can get funded and who has access to capital, who's willing to invest her.

Then we have to get past it on the VC level, right? So 98% of VC managers are white dudes. So you have then all of a sudden the fund managers who are making more money from their investment funds, they're all white dudes. So we need more women at the VC, at the partner level so that they're, and then the third level is that we actually need the limited partners, the LPs who are investing in the venture capital funds to be more women. Because right now, so I recently did, it was like a bunch, and my numbers might be a little bit off here, but it was something like,

It was like 98% of LPs are white dudes that give money. And I think it was to 96 or 97% of VCs who are white dudes who then give money to 98% of tech founders who are white dudes. So you have this entirely stacked rig from LPs to VC managers to the tech founders that are all white dudes. So if we wanna actually like diversify truly,

not only for wealth creation and wealth building, but also because women come up and diverse people come up with different ideas than white dudes do. It's not better or different, but they're just different. That's not better or worse, but we have different ideas about how to help change the world, how to help more people, how to have a bigger impact, how to actually grow revenue in really creative ways because we're so used to being super scrappy. So we need these ideas. And so...

The only way that I can see it is like, if we get like the three levels, LPs, VC managers and tech founders, and then give them more confidence. It's like, because like they're going into a war every single day that is a different war than what like any woman anywhere who's in work goes to war every single day living in a patriarchal world culture. Full stop, right? Anyone who's not a white dude, right? Has its own kind of war in our culture.

Kristen (17:18.762)
But in this particular world with tech, with VCs, with funding, with funding rounds, with trying to get the valuations, with all of the hype that's involved with it, it's a different beast entirely. And so I also think as far as like ingredient, like being able to solve for those three things, but a really big piece of it is community. Women are taught to tear each other down.

We're taught to be jealous. We're taught to not trust each other. We're taught to like, because we have limited resources and there's only gonna be one woman that ever gets to the top. They're like, I'm gonna have to be conniving political, hurt other women in order to like get me at the top. And that mentality and that mindset is totally fucking everything up, right? And so like we have to rewire ourselves as women to be, to what does it mean to be truly collaborative, truly in partnership so that rising tides lift all ships on all of those levels.

Michelle Margaret Marques (18:09.782)
Yeah.

Kristen (18:09.858)
And that's a whole fundamental rewiring for women in our culture. But I think that is gonna be absolutely like the key to start cracking open this entire wealth generation around, yeah, funding.

Michelle Margaret Marques (18:21.364)
Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, I totally, totally agree. I mean, some of those other things aren't going to change for who knows how long. But I would say that we definitely are seeing a shift more towards women coming together and collaborating and coming and supporting each other. But we're not seeing a big enough shift. I absolutely, honestly, yeah. So we definitely need more conversations about that.

Kristen (18:44.694)
Yeah, I agree.

Michelle Margaret Marques (18:51.064)
And this whole mentality of, oh, you know, you got to climb on top of the next person and squash the next person down and you know, whatever. Fundamentally, it doesn't work. It just fundamentally doesn't work. I don't know where the idea came from. Well, we know where the idea came from, but we won't go into that. But that whole mentality takes away the most powerful part.

of us, our feminine energy. Let's be very truthful here. It takes away that and we're not going to get all woo woo, we're talking about investments here today guys, but in essence it takes away the most powerful part of us. And that feminine energy also brings in powerful negotiating skills and powerful collaborative skills because really truly that essence, that real essence.

Kristen (19:23.547)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Michelle Margaret Marques (19:49.72)
of the feminine energy is all about win-win. It's all about collaborating and negotiating for the best outcome for everyone. Hence the reason why female founded companies actually do better overall.

Kristen (19:53.186)
Mm-hmm.

Kristen (20:07.191)
Yes, they do. Yeah, I completely agree on that. I mean, I think the partnership and also the creativity, right, like I think the female founders, it's like that, and it's hard to say like, you know, is it for the reasons why, but I really do like consistently see across the board with all the, my own self included and all the female founders I've worked with, we were because...

the environment is more restricted. We don't have access to capital as much or as far, right? We've been required to do more with less. And so that means it's like, and also like women are like mothers where the creatrix is, we grow things like literally from our own bodies. And so it's like, we have this capacity to think of creative problem solving ways that are very non-traditional. And that's, and sometimes like, especially in startup worlds where you have to be like, okay, how do we make a pivot?

That didn't land. What else are we gonna do? Like we're so, we're nimble. We know how to multitask in an effective way and to be really creative problem solvers that like we're so generative in that way that it's like, of course we're gonna have better performing companies. Like, of course we are.

Michelle Margaret Marques (21:17.188)
I like how you say that. Of course we are. I mean, it's a no brainer people. Come on, get on board. Get on board investors. Wake up. It's time to be woke.

Kristen (21:31.598)
Yeah, it's and I think another challenge to like related to that I like sadly have seen a lot in the investing community is that There there seems to be a trend. Um, thankfully right where that where early stage female founders are getting a little bit more attention Not a lot. We're still under two percent, right? But but still a little bit more in pre-seed and seed rounds, but now the challenge is happening for the follow-on rounds

And so when you actually start looking at female founders from like pre-seed, seed, series A, and then series B, you have a huge cliff that actually ends up happening where women aren't getting the consistent funding in later stages to then take them to the same places. And so it's just another element of it's like, we've got to be looking at the whole spectrum here. So anyway, going back to that question of like, how do we fix this? I think it's also for those early stage funders who are interested in female founders at the early stage.

they need to be including in their thesis and in their investment strategy, ensuring later stage funding. And so they need to make sure like their fund is set up correctly to help support that.

Michelle Margaret Marques (22:36.752)
Yeah, I totally agree. The whole idea of reinvesting again, you know, it's not a case of just invest to take your money back out, but it's a case of invest to reinvest, right?

Kristen (22:50.936)
Yes.

Yes, yeah, I completely agree.

Michelle Margaret Marques (22:57.784)
Yeah, perfect. Yeah, I love that. And it's so true. I mean, when you see these companies progressing, and then the industry says 4% of females get funded, that's completely wrong, right? It's about 2.6%, right? If I'm correct to my stats, but don't hold me to that listeners, maybe a smidgen out.

Kristen (23:15.379)
Mm-hmm, I think that's right.

Kristen (23:27.366)
It's right around there in either number. It's small. It's a small number.

Michelle Margaret Marques (23:27.388)
But yeah.

Michelle Margaret Marques (23:30.996)
It's too small. It is way too small. We need to start, you know, that and that's why I love the work that I do. You know, I get to work with founders, female founders particularly, to get them ready for investment as much as actually go forward for the investment and also stay on with them afterwards. There's, you know, I also do the consulting afterwards and the coaching and make sure those metrics are hit.

Kristen (23:47.854)
Mm-hmm.

Kristen (23:53.858)
Beautiful.

Michelle Margaret Marques (23:59.788)
make sure the vision is realized, right? Make sure that we get all the way down the road. And that's another reason why my investment portfolio, they like the way that we work because of that whole entire process, right? It gives them more confidence in the investment in the first place. So yeah, Kristen, what would it be like? What do you think the difference in the industry would be like to see more...

Kristen (24:13.752)
Mmm.

Kristen (24:20.695)
That's brilliant.

Michelle Margaret Marques (24:28.)
services and more people actively participating from that perspective.

Kristen (24:34.978)
From the perspective of like what you're offering, like kind of like that. Oh my gosh, I actually, I think that's a really big gap right now. That's one of these like kind of, there's so many elements of this whole world that are not talked about, right? There's just so many parts of them. One of those parts, right, is that most men, male CEOs, founders, executives have a executive coach.

Michelle Margaret Marques (24:37.222)
Yeah.

Kristen (25:05.378)
They just do. They do because they prioritize it. It's like a same way of like, okay, high performing athletes need performance coaches. If I'm going to be a high performing CEO and I'm going to take my company from series C to A to B to C to D, right? Like I need to have coaches that have been there, done that before and that are going to actually guide me through that process. So the male CEOs, A, both actually have coaches. They just don't talk about them.

And so us women, it's like we're kind of getting to the arena. We can't see that on the outside. We don't see what's happening behind the scenes with those, like with the male CEO. So we don't realize that they're actually paying for executive coaches that women are not. Second thing that's happening is that most of those male CEOs are very, very intimately connected, private WhatsApp groups, private retreats. They're on vacations together. Their families are on vacations together. They are talking and like, and.

and networking, relationship building, and all sorts of different ways that we don't see or have access to, to even see like that's the patterning of it, right? So it's like when Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs is like, I only wear black turtlenecks and that's like my look and only black t-shirts, so I don't have to make a decision. That was kind of all of a sudden like, oh, like you mean I don't have to spend 20 minutes every morning thinking about what am I, like the pinks or the yellows are like, what am I gonna wear? Because women have to,

look a different way, right? So it was all of a sudden like, oh, they do that. Maybe I could try to do that. And so anyway, performance coaching, executive coaching is one of those things that not many people really talk about. And so the challenge for female founders and executives is like, they don't believe that it's worth the budget line item. They don't even think about it, that they would need somebody to help them on that journey.

And then if they do, they're gonna deprioritize it. So it's like, and again, I don't have my statistics on me right now, but it's some huge difference of like women that have coaches, especially for tech, especially in a funding environment that's going to actually help give them strategic guidance on every single round like that. And so I think that's a huge, huge missing piece of it. And that the more female founders realize that, and to your point, and have somebody that can help guide them.

Kristen (27:25.046)
stage by stage for the long term, that also can bridge the gap to where investors speak, right, is and like really being able to translate what investors are looking for, what needs to be true in the data room, what needs to be true for their actual like unit economics, right, in order to make sure like that, like that is massively critical and I think a big piece of what's missing because like women just don't know. It's like we just don't know we should even be, you know, paying attention to that.

Michelle Margaret Marques (27:55.418)
Oh, I love that answer. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh. Can you believe what?

Kristen (28:03.11)
And I also think it's super smart of your investors that you work with to be investing in you as a way to help protect their investments, to protect, but also to ensure more growth. So it's a really smart move of those investors. And I actually think, I've seen two or three more mainstream VCs starting to focus more attention on mental health of founders, men and women, because they're realizing that

being a founder of any gender is extremely time consuming. You're at risk for massive burnout. Your health is gonna be on the line. Your families are gonna start hating you. It's gonna be super isolating. This is like hard, this is a hard road. And so, so VCs are starting to realize that they need to have a layer of mental health support for their founders. And I'm hoping that more over the next 10 years that more VCs will invest.

Michelle Margaret Marques (28:42.911)
is.

Kristen (28:56.802)
both in mental health for all founders, but I think particularly for female founders, to be given them extra resources at that CEO founder level, like what you're saying, like what you're doing, to be able to help them grow so that the VC itself, it's just, it's, I mean, honestly, it's another insurance policy for them on it, but it's gonna actually, it's a highly effective one.

Michelle Margaret Marques (29:21.004)
Exactly. That's exactly. And you know what? Not to like make a whole sales pitch for my own service, but that's exactly why my investors brought me in. Because of my background, because of the way that I work, the identity shift coaching that I do, the mindset coaching, the way that I help women stick into that confident.

entrepreneur, right, that person that they were born to be. We go through a whole process of taking away their limiting beliefs, putting new structures in place, putting new behavioral patterns in place, new skills, whatever that might look like to help them be that person that can actually take that all the way to that successful venture, right? And that is really one of the biggest things that my investors love because it, I mean, really, truly.

Kristen (30:06.542)
amazing.

Michelle Margaret Marques (30:12.844)
It's me, I'm putting myself on the line as well, because I'm actually saying, hey, I'm gonna support this. This is a project I believe in, that I know that we can get to that end vision, right? That end goal of the venture. And it works absolutely fantastically. It just works from that end to that end. It's so exciting. I cannot wait for this to become more mainstream. But yeah, I'm just...

Kristen (30:22.914)
Yeah.

Kristen (30:40.703)
Yes, yes.

Michelle Margaret Marques (30:43.924)
My gosh, I tell you what Chris, and I could talk to you all day long, we could just put the whole world to rights right now. You will have to come on again.

Kristen (30:44.78)
Yes.

Kristen (30:54.971)
Oh, thank you, this has been so much fun.

Michelle Margaret Marques (30:58.312)
I'm gonna ask you another question. And please, I'd like you to go into this as much as you like, I really don't mind. What was the Bloody Hell Chelle moment that challenged everything that you've ever believed in, but ultimately has led you down the path that you're on right now?

Kristen (31:22.838)
My Bloody Hell Chelle moment that has led me down this path.

Michelle Margaret Marques (31:29.895)
Yeah.

Kristen (31:33.49)
Huh, that is like a great question. All right, I've got to think, because I think this is also why you and I get along so well, because we're kindred spirits in this way, because we both have like that personality streak or that like thing in us that is like willing to do the thing. But if there was one thing, Bloody Hell Chelle. Okay, all right, my Bloody, my Bloody, I just also love saying that so much, Bloody Hell Chelle.

Michelle Margaret Marques (31:58.908)
She did two videos at the beginning before we started recording. She was going to say Bloody Hell Chelle as many times as possible.

Kristen (32:07.49)
I just love it so much. It's like so perfect. So my career had been like so many of us, right? All like in, like not even the corporate world, but like in the world, in the world of business, in the world of like actually building and growing leading companies. Particularly the last 10 years of my career. Like I said earlier,

I mean, it has been all around sales strategy, go to market messaging, marketing, funnel development, customer success metrics. How are we getting the next round of funding? How are we building the product? It's been all around as an executive in those roles around growth for, I mean, and I've ranged from everywhere from pre-C to an idea all the way to series B, all the way to multiple acquisitions, all the way to a series G, running an $80 million business unit company. So I've like seen this whole gamut.

of where startups are from pre-seed all the way to series G that eventually had an IPO. And so all of that has been in the world. Behind the scenes though, in my own personal life the last five years, I have been doing a huge amount of work around feminine embodiment work, trauma informed therapies.

how to actually get in touch as a woman with my own life source, my own sense of internal creativity, my sense of like flow state. And all of those inner workings, right, had been always behind the scenes. I was like, okay, I have my day job, so to speak, my public persona, and then I'm going to be doing this really intensive feminine work for five years. And a lot of that was also like in a super taboo area around turn-on.

around pleasure, around like how do you actually like experience more pleasure in more like life in a woman's life? And so my Bloody Hell Chelle moment came last November. So say six months ago or something, wherever you're listening to this podcast, about six months ago, when I had just been through one of the worst failure points of my life. And failure meaning massive rupture.

Kristen (34:20.838)
I had an ex-business partner who made horrendous allegations. I was forced to bankrupt my company, and that's another podcast for another time, and was in the throes of total devastation on what that meant for my life and my entire, just like my life. If anyone ever has questions about bankruptcy, you can find me. I'm happy to answer whatever I can around employment law.

But that depths of rupture and complete devastation in one's life. And my Bloody Hell Chelle moment came from that where I was like, I want to step out into the world. One year from the day I was having to be in the law offices signing the bankruptcy papers, right? And a year later, which also turned out to be on my birthday that I wanted to do something that was the most.

bold, the most vulnerable, the most raw, the most authentic version of who I am, which was to combine everything, which was to combine the 20 years of go-to-market strategy, growth executive who loves to grow companies, and the five years of this intense feminine embodiment work about who I am as a woman, who I am as a sister, who I am as a daughter, who I am as a best friend, who I am as a lover, who I am as like the full part of who I am.

and come out and lead a group of women in an entire day long immersive around, here are the things that I know to be true in my own body. And here are the ways that informs your growth on every level of who you are. So I like put all my chips in the same thing. I invested in myself more than I ever have in my life. I mean, like, I mean, both financially wise to put the event on.

my own reputation of like that identity thing that you mentioned about like, who am I? Like had to totally shift from a person is like, okay, I'm an executive to now I'm a, I'm just Kristin. I'm a woman who is bringing all of me to the table. And that vulnerability of being like, here's all of my messy parts. Here are all of my truest parts. And I know that these tools and these practices, they work and they can take women and they can take us all higher.

Kristen (36:37.73)
So that was my Bloody Hell Chelle moment where I was like, all right, fuck everything else in the throes of something that is not working and I'm gonna put it all on the table, all my chips down. This is like, literally like, yeah. Bloody Hell, I'm going for it.

Michelle Margaret Marques (36:53.916)
Ha ha!

Awesome, awesome. And the next part of the story will be the Bloody Hell Chelle moment where everything all came together and you're even more successful than that bankruptcy ever, you know, ever took away from you for sure. And I know that, I know that to be true. I know that to be true. You're an incredible human being. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Kristen (37:13.154)
Thank you. Yes, yes.

Michelle Margaret Marques (37:21.96)
Tristan, I ask every one of my guests to give a free gift to my listeners. And I know that you're more than happy to do that. Would you like to tell them what you are giving today?

Kristen (37:34.158)
Oh my gosh, yes. And thank you so much for this opportunity to be here. And also like how generous of you. I so love that you're giving that to your listeners and just being able to like share more, like just more abundance on all levels. So I would love to share a free one-on-one with me about talking specifically about some of these feminine, I call them feminine growth hacks, which are kind of like really quick things about getting back into your body in order to leapfrog you out of wherever you are. So I'd be happy to offer my time and some, some

Growth hacks.

Michelle Margaret Marques (38:05.52)
Oh, thank you so much. So, listeners, make sure you go to the show notes because that's where the information will be so that you can book one of those sessions with Kristin. Don't pass up on this opportunity. Opportunities come and go, but definitely don't miss this one because you will not regret it. It will not be time wasted. I guarantee you. You go and she is, I'm going to book one myself actually because she's incredible.

The more time I spend with you, Kristen, the more I'm just like, oh my gosh! You have to come to Barbados. You definitely have to come to Barbados.

Kristen (38:38.846)
Yes, obviously I need to come to Barbados, definitely. Yes, please.

Michelle Margaret Marques (38:45.256)
Oh my gosh, thank you so, so much for being here. I'm afraid we've reached the end of our time. Ah!

Kristen (38:52.298)
Thank you so much, Michelle. Thank you.

Michelle Margaret Marques (38:55.436)
So Bloody Hell Chelle, listeners, we will see you on, not see you, but you will hear us on the next episode. Thank you so much for joining me. Take care.