Episode 36: In the Beginning of Jace & Kristelle

Dive into the intricacies of our lives in this episode as we explore how our careers have been shaped by personal experiences. From high school hallways to life off the beaten path, we reflect on how our quest for purpose and stability led us down unexpected roads.

But this isn't just about careers; it's a tribute to the people who supported us along the way. Meet our younger selves and the people who played a pivotal role in our journeys. From immigrant backgrounds fostering entrepreneurial spirits to parents who encouraged risk-taking, their influence is deeply ingrained in our professional identities.

Join hosts Kristelle and Jace as they share personal stories that have molded them into the professionals and individuals they are today.

A Siarza Production
Hosted by Kristelle Siarza Moon & Jace Downey
Executive Producer: Kristelle Siarza Moon
Producer: Jace Downey
Video/Editing: Justin Otsuka

Watch episodes at siarza.com/siarza-podcast
Follow us on FB, IG, TT, YT and TW @siarzatheagency
Follow Kristelle @kristellesiarza
www.misskristelle.com
Follow Jace @jacedowneyofficial
www.jacedowney.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Choosing Careers
• 2:56 Collecting Stories
• 12:12 Inspiration From Ryan Seacrest
• 21:39 Family Influence on Career Evolution

Transcript

Jace: 0:00

One time my mom and I were traveling All of a sudden, she's just like I figured you out and she was like you are a collector of stories. Uh-huh, she's like you've been living your life and going about and doing all these different experiences. She says you're a collector of stories and I was like you did just figure me out. I was like I've never thought about that.

Kristelle: 0:20

We've decided that today's episode is directed. It's always directed by Justin, but he is also cinematographer, script writer, producer, showrunner and all of the things of today's episode, including picking our topic today. Script writer. Script writer.

Jace: 0:39

Has he been scripting you this whole time and I'm having to come up with random shit.

Kristelle: 0:43

Oh, you didn't know that he's been writing my memoir this whole time and I'm having to come up with random shit. Oh, you didn't know that he's been writing my memoir this whole time. Oh, interesting. Justin came up with a really great idea and we asked him what do you think the people want to hear, Justin? What do you think everybody wants to listen to? And he's like well, we should probably talk about how you all chose your careers. It's like, oh, Is he maybe asking a pivot change for work, Like looking for different ideas of what he could possibly do? But he said you know, it would be really cool to hear why you guys chose your careers. So it's career day at the office.

Jace: 1:23

Hooray, and bring your daughter to work day for me, which is every day cool to hear why you guys chose your careers. So it's career day at the office. Hooray, and bring your daughter to work day for me, which is every day your dog tur, dog tur.

Kristelle: 1:30

Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, okay, so we have a very. So, for those that haven't listened to the whole episode series or to the whole series of story success and stuff, and they might have missed the episode about how we actually went, we were at the same high school of each other. We weren't like besties no um, but we went to la cueva high school, which is awesome, so at la cueva and I know that we went through this like sequence episode once we did our our third episode and it is called our stories.

Jace: 1:58

Our stories.

Kristelle: 1:58

You can find it on youtube or carzacom so this is kind of like the reboot, right, we just filmed the episode of the Rees, right and so. But, interestingly enough, how did you pick the career that you have now? Or did you originally set your eyes on that? Because mine is a little bit of a story too. We kind of talked about it in episode three. But, like what was your inspiration of being a storyteller? Because that's what I consider you.

Jace: 2:21

Interesting Because I was going to say, like my inspiration for this career was I like to have four walls and a roof around me. I like to eat every day. That's important to me. No, this wasn't. This was not my chosen career. This was not the path I sought out. I've been quite a wanderer, if you will Even like. Yeah, I went to La Cueva, but I also went to two other high schools. That's wanderer, if you will even like. Yeah, I went to la quiva, but I also went to two other high schools. That's right, I went to three elementary schools, two universities. Like I've kind of always been, uh, out exploring the world in one way or another. One time my mom and I were traveling and all of a sudden she's just like I figured you out. I was like that's fantastic, please explain me to me. Like I'd love to know. Thanks, mom. Yeah, I was like what is what mean? And she was like you are a collector of stories.

Kristelle: 3:05

Oh, she said that yeah.

Jace: 3:06

So it's interesting that you just said you're a story, because she's like you've been living your life, because I'm kind of the wild card of the family. She's like you've been living your life and going about and doing all these different experiences. She says you're a collector of stories and I was like, oh, that kind of is the common theme, yeah, in my career. So if I think, like when I was like little baby, jace, like what do you want to be when you grow up? Um, my first interest was like in animals. Um, like whale free willy had come out, so my sister and I were going to be whale trainers. Um, I wanted to be a cowboy for a while. Um, I wanted to be a veterinarian until I learned you have to like deal with not fluffy animals, also like it's not all puppies and kittens, and then you also have to kill them sometimes, and I was like well this isn't fun at all.

Jace: 3:54

I'm out, and when I was younger I did theater. I directed theater from a very small age, even in middle school.

Jace: 4:05

Oh how adorable yeah, I was in drama and the show was coming up for the semester or whatever, and I was like I want to direct it. And they were like oh, we don't really do that. The teacher directs it. And I was like not anymore, bitch, I'm stepping in. And I was like no, and they asked my mom and she was like let her do it, like supervise, like whatever, but why does everybody have to be on stage? And they were like that's a really good point. And so I started doing theater in like elementary school and did that for years.

Jace: 4:32

I had no idea oh yeah, if you went to a show at La Cueva, I probably directed it.

Kristelle: 4:39

Oh yeah, oh, my God, yeah, yeah, yeah. So all the okay now. It's all making sense now with all our mutual connections with La Cueva.

Jace: 4:45

Okay, yeah, so yeah, and then I decided when I was like in middle school I was like, oh, there's no money in theater, Like that's not like a real job, and so I pivoted to film. I got my first camera for my 13th birthday, yeah, and started just you know and nonsense and whatnot and some of the friends I had in high school. So I went to two high schools my freshman year and the crew I ended up hanging out with at La Cueva were the goth kids.

Kristelle: 5:14

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Jace: 5:16

A person I met kind of adopted me.

Jace: 5:19

I was like you can hang out with me and my friends, and I was like, all right, and I walk in and I'm just like eyeliner spikes on the leather jackets, you know the dyed black hair and whatnot. And then I'm just like they're like let's be at school and whatever, and so, but they were all into film and so we would do like weekend film festivals, yeah, like the 48 hour film festivals. We would do, oh, wow, and I still did theater, but at 13, I was like, oh, I'm going to be a filmmaker and like you know, an artist and whatnot, and I wanted to direct eventually in film.

Kristelle: 5:57

I think that you do. You have a natural leadership, project management quality about you. Now it's all like oh, that makes sense, right. Yeah, but that's kind of the roles that you've played, even with us at CR, is outside of the podcast, right like that totally makes sense so, yeah, um, and when I got into college, I I told the story about getting my.

Jace: 6:18

My first job was with PBS and the executive producer there, who was my mentor, was like you're going to be a producer. Like you're not a director, you're a producer. And I was like, how dare you? Like I'm an artist and whatnot. No, he was totally right.

Jace: 6:31

I eventually did shift into more of pre and post production and it's crazy how people see your potential when you're like no, you don't know me, yeah, and like I got into documentary film early on in college because I realized, like I remember I don't remember the name of the short film is a short documentary film that we saw and it impacted me so much, not enough to remember the title, but I remember thinking like, oh my gosh, film can be used as a medium for change. Like you can actually impact the world with media. Oh yeah, and I'm like that's what I want to do. That's so cool. I want to create change in the world through video.

Kristelle: 7:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally makes sense. Ooh, okay, so now I'm thinking our thumbnail might not have to be our La Cueva yearbook photos. Oh man, yeah.

Jace: 7:27

Where you at mom dig that out. Yeah, yeah, I have. Oh, my god, I have some that are so embarrassing. So my mom is incredible. And just let me be me good, uh-huh, yep, except I literally maybe this. Okay, I might allow this you just turned like two shades of pink right now because one of my senior pictures this is an outfit I wore in all seriousness. So in one of our last episodes I talked about like I wore bell bottoms and fringe vests.

Jace: 7:51

I remember as a guy, sophomore year, at the charter school I was at, which is now an MVD, just down the road actually. Oh, shoot, I was sitting there to get my registration or something. I was like, oh, I used to do geometry in this class, but I remember him saying like, oh, I used to do geometry in this class, but I remember him saying, like what costume are you going to wear tomorrow? And I'm like these aren't costumes, like this is style, like whatever. I was such a weirdo. But one of my senior pictures I am wearing a white blazer with black pinstripes and a red fedora, like a fucking pimp.

Kristelle: 8:20

Oh, this is. I think I remember this.

Jace: 8:25

You wouldn't have seen it. It was like you know you got the book and like my mom has it. But she gave it to me the other day and I was like you just gonna let me wear this like this. Is you just gonna have me out in the world this way, fucking carmen san diego and pimp jacket? And she did, and she fucking did that jacket I wore for, uh, our hollow for being marilyn manson, literally wore that in all seriousness in my younger days.

Kristelle: 8:45

I'm not going to lie, I had a slight flashback. I'm like, oh, that made a lot of sense, how she had a lot of stuff in her cool.

Jace: 8:53

I do and I used to wear that, so maybe that'll be our picture and I'm just like glamour shot style in my pimp coat.

Kristelle: 9:00

Oh my gosh, we have to do a glamour photo shoot one of these days. Poor Justine has to probably deal with that, but that's okay. No, like I actually that totally makes sense. And to me that's not like laughable, like oh my God, what a freak. To me that's like, oh, that's her personality. It's like really fascinating how it's all like coming together. You know I'm a steadier of people. I love people watching. I love people watching and so even hearing this story I'm like oh, that totally makes sense.

Jace: 9:24

And I love that girl and I really shifted. I went into myself. I started having like a lot of self-loathing. I went through a lot of mental unwellness as we know. We've talked about that depression and whatnot and all of a sudden I wanted to be invisible and all of that shut down. No more funky outfits, no more cool stuff. I didn't want to be seen. I didn't want anyone to know me. I was living a double life at that point and did not want to be noticeable and it took me years to get back to that. And I look back at her just out in the world, being whoever, saying whatever, wearing whatever, and I'm like fuck, yeah, yeah, hell yeah, be who you are out there.

Kristelle: 10:07

No fear.

Jace: 10:08

People made fun of me, whatever, and I just stood strong, yeah, and that took guts and that's a cool version of me that. I feel proud of.

Kristelle: 10:16

That's awesome. Yeah, that younger version of me was just out in the world not giving a fuck Well, and I think that plays a part in your career and your career choices too.

Jace: 10:25

right, I mean, it's very unconventional well, and and the fact that I've actually done multiple careers. This is my fourth career. I'm 36 and I'm in my fourth career.

Kristelle: 10:33

Yeah, yeah yeah, I, I can't say that like working backwards, right, like I can't say that CR is a has. It's like multiple careers in one. Yeah, right, because I think about. When I first started, you know, my reputation in town was always the digital marketer, the digital marketing person, the social media guru, because of my work with the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, helping them develop the digital strategy. And then, on top of that, being one of the people that was predominantly messaging and interacting and finding sales leads on Twitter when that was still a thing, and then even really really just embracing my MySpace profile.

Kristelle: 11:14

I swear to God, I learned how to code because of MySpace, homesteadcom and AsianAvenuecom and Friendster. I was on Friendster. I was always on social media channels like those social and friendster. I was on friendster. Like, I was always on social media channels. But if you were to ask me, like, who was the person in your? Like a celebrity or role model or just a person that you would always look up to to see what type of career do you want to have out of them?

Jace: 11:37

or what does?

Kristelle: 11:37

that look like you're gonna laugh. Justin already started laughing about this, but I said this whole fucking episode is gonna be about ryan seacrest people are like what can we get blonde tips frosted into our hair at some point?

Jace: 11:52

can somebody do that please?

Kristelle: 11:54

1998 ryan seacrest frosted tips. Oh. Or 2009, ryan seacrest frosted tips. Okay, or are we talking about 2024? Ryan seacrest, frosted tips. Okay, or are we talking about 2024? Ryan Seacrest blonde.

Jace: 12:08

Various different versions, I got to learn more about Ryan Seacrest is what I'm learning.

Kristelle: 12:11

So in. I live in the Bay Area. Some people realize this. I grew up in the Bay Area and we moved out here in 2001. I used to watch this channel, the Fox affiliate channel two, ktvu, every single day, every morning show. I loved morning shows when I was growing up. I loved television. Growing up, I loved radio. Growing up, I loved the media since, like I was five, right I, and like I thought about, like, I posted this meme about what my schedule looked like in 1995 and it was nickelodeon, right it was nickelodeon television right, yeah regrets in the morning, you know nick at night, like it was my favorite I love nick

Kristelle: 12:45

at. I love television. I've loved it since a kid and it raised me in a lot of different ways, because my parents were always working right or my dad would not like. He was not really like an interactive let's go do something together, or if it was, it was like thrifting. But we enjoyed as a family watching television together, being entertained together. And so back to KTVU. Frank Somerville was one of the most important iconic television anchors at that time. And then he would have this lifestyle reporter what we call nowadays a lifestyle reporter. And there was this guy named Ryan Seacrest. This was 1992, 1993. As a kid I loved him. He was like my first crush too. I loved watching him on the morning shows on Channel 2. And then he was also the evening DJ in San Francisco on Z95.7. So he was the drive-home DJ.

Jace: 13:40

Oh dang Start and end your day with Ryan Seacrest. Oh, I loved it. I loved him.

Kristelle: 13:45

I was obsessed with him and so he would be on the radio show and he would do the evening drive and then so he got his start on radio as well. That was actually, I think his second market it was San Francisco and so he would do the afternoon show Very entertaining Days of NSYNC BSB. Like he wasn't as popular as Carson Daly, if you think about it during the time frame. And Carson, we're TRL kids, right, we grew up on Total Request Live on MTV.

Jace: 14:14

Yes, I didn't, but my sister did. I was around, but that wasn't my jam.

Kristelle: 14:18

So here we are, ryan Seacrest, and then he was on the Merv Griffin game show and he left San Francisco to go to LA. And then game show, and he left San Francisco to go to LA. And then, all of a sudden, there's this little show, sophomore year of La Cueva, called American Idol and I was like oh my god, it's Ryan Seacrest. I've been watching him since I was a kid. I really loved him. I found out he was at Capricorn. I found out that he's like 25 years, almost 30 years, older again.

Jace: 14:43

I'm stupid obsessed with ryan seacrest did you have a poster on your wall? Oh yeah, I think I did. Okay, I'm like that's the ultimate a picture, not a poster, but like a full-on picture and please

Kristelle: 14:52

ryan seacrest, I need to meet you like if you are when you are watching, when you're watching, not if but when you are a huge inspiration in my career and that's the end of the stalker, look at the camera, okay. So like ryan seacrest gets on American Idol with his other co-hosts and we're like, who even fucking remembers that guy? Right? And then I saw I was like, oh my God, this is great. And then, over the years I followed his career, he's a full on Capricorn, just like me. Okay, dedicated, driven, totally motivated. And I said to myself like I want to be in media, just like him. So, of course, I don't want to, I want to.

Kristelle: 15:29

I don't want to host like a game show, but he went into like being an executive producer coming up with other entrepreneurial projects like the kardashians. He took over one of the iconic new year's eve specials dick clark's rock and roll new year's eve. Like I, have followed his career. He's created philanthropic arm, which is the radio, the radio stations at various different children's hospitals. He's from georgia. He loves football. I'm like I'm not gonna marry this guy but I pretty much like I I emulated a lot of my career after him, just being very entrepreneurial, being dedicated, um, being very focused on the media, telling people stories, having conversations with folks like I have loved ryan seacrest from the get-go so you always encourage us to sing in the office.

Jace: 16:09

So yeah, there you go.

Kristelle: 16:12

We have a karaoke machine, hello, right here. So, um, ryan Seacrest has always been a big inspiration of mine. And but how did it start with my career? Yeah, career choices. I wanted to always be in media, I didn't know. I wanted to be a business owner, but I want. I actually went to school for journalism because I wanted to be a storyteller and even in high school I was in speech and debate. I was in anything comms related speech and debate, quill and scroll newspaper. I wasn't in yearbook right, because I learned a lot of the graphic design in newspaper. I remember even when I was in the fifth grade I created my own radio show for a music activity and everybody was like that was pretty damn good.

Jace: 16:49

I did the same thing. Whenever it'd be like you have to have a project, new makeup, whatever it is, I would always write a little play, yeah, yeah.

Kristelle: 16:55

Like you think about the things that bring you life and bring you joy. Right, and it was the cassette. I swear to God like this is going to sound ridiculous, but it's true. Seven o'clock at night you would have like the programming on the radio and I would record with on a cassette tape the shows at my favorite songs, etc. Like in the fourth or fifth grade loved it, yeah but it was the recording, it was the editing.

Kristelle: 17:19

Like back then, editing was like record, play, stop, pause, and you had to hit it like, just right, just right were we talking about this like that?

Jace: 17:25

this generation will not know love because they will not have made a mixed tape and the effort that went. That wasn't just like Spotify playlist. I'm choosing these. Nah bitch, you had to wait for your favorite song to come on the radio Hit record as soon as it came on. Don't get the DJ, though. You had to time it just right, you a dj on either end of it. I preferred ryan seacrest on mine, but that's well sure if that's the dj. And then you'd have to wait until the next song you wanted on there came on and do the same thing like that.

Kristelle: 17:54

Those are the days, love, oh my god. I remember like when I was really interested in somebody, I made them like a mix, a cd, and burned yeah, from napster, okay, limewire, yeah, justin's really relating to this one too. You just just wrote, you created your own CD, yep, and then you wrote down the songs with a Sharpie.

Jace: 18:11

Yeah, I still have my CD book. My sister sent me a meme that was like you think texting and driving is bad, you should be like. Here's me going through my 120 CD book in the car to pick out the next song.

Kristelle: 18:24

Yeah, and we appreciate anybody listening to the show on their favorite podcast channel, but here I am going like there's probably somebody on Spotify. That's like God, those kids will never know what it's like with a life without Spotify. Yeah, and then there's also probably another listener that's listening to. That's like I always wondered how they burned those CDs back in the day.

Jace: 18:42

Illegally is how we did it.

Kristelle: 18:45

It was not legal so would we be where we're at now if it wasn't for those crazy Ryan?

Jace: 18:51

Seacrest? I would not, none of us. How weird is that, justin? We have our jobs because of Ryan Seacrest. You ever think about that? No, we have to send him a thank you.

Kristelle: 19:02

note the episode is titled Ryan Seacrest. There you go, please contact us Sponsor this show with honor with Ryan. So would any of us be where we are if it wasn't for the little director in us, right? The little director in us, the little producer in us, the little nerd for radio the little nerd for TV. Like would we be where we are at if it wasn't for those little micro stories?

Jace: 19:26

I don't think so, and I got to give it up to my mom. I remember because I did a mock trial for a short bit in high school oh my god, that explains so much and I really I was like I really fucking love this and I like, totally, I like the instructor to be like settle down.

Kristelle: 19:42

Like you have demolished the competition, you have, like you got to settle down oh, I have to talk my speech in big days, okay, yeah, I wish I would have done that.

Jace: 19:48

I didn't.

Kristelle: 19:49

I didn't oh, you've been phenomenal.

Jace: 19:50

I would love that but at the time you have to keep in mind I know this is the biggest surprise of my career being on camera or on stage, that was my nightmare. I was behind the camera for years. My whole career is behind the camera and even in theater I was on stage, I think twice. Uh, I like I didn't want to be in front of people, so speech and debate was not my jam at the time. That would have been horrifying, yeah, uh. But I do remember really liking mock trial and thinking like I might, maybe I might want to do law school instead of film school, which my mom got very excited about, uh, and then I, you know, I sat with it and thought about it and I remember feeling really stressed out one morning I don't know why. I'm like I have to tell her right now. I gotta like break it to her right now. I went into her room. She was still in her bed and I'm like mom, I gotta talk to you and you know, whatever it's like.

Kristelle: 20:36

How old are you in this?

Jace: 20:38

senior, junior, senior, high school, 17, 18, and I'm like you know, I've thought about it and I think I want to stick. I want to do documentary film, I want to stick with it. And I remember her saying like anything you want to do, honey, you'll do. Like I have no doubt you can accomplish anything you want. And, realistically, being a director as a woman is very uncommon and it was at the time, yeah, very uncommon to have a woman as a director and she kind of broke down like going into a male-dominated industry she was in as well you have to study harder, work harder you.

Jace: 21:20

You can't ever fail. Like they look for every reason to say no to you like, you will be going against the grain, wow, and if you want to do that, I've got you like I'm gonna be here with you.

Jace: 21:35

So she was like fantastic, here's the reality. And she was right. She was absolutely right.

Jace: 21:39

It was hard back in the day, like now I think it's shifted quite a lot, oh yeah, um, but it was. I did. I had to make sure I could carry the exact same amount of gear, uh, any any slight failing. Somebody was waiting to go. I told you you can't do this.

Jace: 21:55

And so, and then when I wanted to shift and like I started my, my own business, my first business as a production company, and she was right there with me, I, I was leaving the comfort of a steady job and all of the things, and she was like do it, go for it. Even when I was going to go to Europe for the, we were in a backpack through Europe during college and I told her and she was like a month, you're going to be there a month, you might want two months. Like she's like good, get out in the world, go do it girl, go do it. Yeah. And then when I shifted and I was like, hey, mom, I feel a calling, like it won't leave me alone.

Jace: 22:27

I really think I'm supposed to tell my story on camera and be honest about addiction and all of the things, and. But I want to like talk. You know it could potentially impact you guys and whatnot. I'm going to be like I'm going to tell it all, like I'm about to go and share my story and, um, we talked about the potential risks that would go into to speaking in such a stigmatized area she's so fucking cool and she's she is.

Jace: 22:54

She's so fucking cool and she's just like, if you're gonna do something like, go into it with open eyes, right. And so we talked through the, the, the harm that might come to me as a result of of sharing my story and whatnot, and the jobs I may not get the people who may not want me in their lives as a result of it, all of that. And then I was like I hear you and if it potentially could help anyone, I got to do it.

Kristelle: 23:15

That's so cool.

Jace: 23:16

And she was like then do it Like every at any pivot I've made, or when I'm like I'm going to be a nomad and live in a forest. Great Like she's been so encouraging for me to be the wild card of the family.

Kristelle: 23:29

That's great To live outside of the prescribed life?

Jace: 23:33

Yeah, and when I fall, I've never gotten an. I told you. So I don't think I mean we had one tough conversation of like, uh, uh, like my life has not resulted in financial abundance from my choices and from shifting and starting over, and you know, choosing altruistic careers and you're like oh yeah, wait here, I bought shoes.

Jace: 23:52

Or like this yeah no, this was years before that. Yeah, that was the only time where she was just like these are the consequences of your choices, kind of yeah. But my mom created an environment where that little girl could wear her pimp jacket and tell the boys I'm going to be here, I'm going to do this and tell teachers yeah, it's not been done before, but I'm going to do it anyway. And now I'm like a force in the world to cause trouble. I'm just causing problems all over the place in the world and that's my mom's doing.

Kristelle: 24:23

Good trouble cause trouble. Just, I'm just causing problems all over the place in the world and that's my mom's doing good trouble. Yeah, trouble for sure. My mom and my dad have been a big part of my career too um, my dad actually. So my parents are immigrants, right, um, but they met here in the United States, which was awesome, and so my dad was actually wanting.

Kristelle: 24:34

He was in school for various different things. He was a, he was on a visa, student visa, but one of the things I do remember my dad doing very intently was actually journalism. School English is very predominant in the Philippines, so it's not that immigrant sort of like oh, he learned English from reading. No, no, my dad was very well versed, very smart, very intelligent, very inquisitive, very strategic. He has a strategic mind. He's always thinking ahead, and sometimes it's like a lack of focus because he's always thinking ahead right, in a good way, and so my dad is also the entrepreneur and the wild idea guy which guess where I got that from? Right. And so my dad is just really funny, because I a lot of the reasons why my dad was just a good journalist.

Kristelle: 25:16

If you haven't heard my dad's, I try not to cry whenever I think about it. If you haven't heard my dad's rehearsal dinner speech, it was like he's an incredible public speaker and an incredible writer. Everything else is like, oh, we gotta work on that, a little bit Like conflict resolution. Gotta work on that with my dad, but that's okay, right.

Kristelle: 25:37

Like my dad is an incredible speech writer and like he fucking crushed my rehearsal dinner speech because it was from the heart and it was my dad. So I learned a lot about my public speaking skills from my dad. I learned a lot about my storytelling skills from my dad. I learned about the management side of things and how to like run a family for my mom, how to run a business for my mom.

Kristelle: 26:00

My mom is still at the same company that she worked for 35 years, for 30 years. She's still with them, right, and I learned a lot of that from my mom. And my mom said to me I told her there's like two or three people and I've talked about this before on the show there's two or three people that I told that I felt like I needed to have their approval before starting CR as a social digital one, being my mentor who passed away, the second being my mom. And I said to my mom mom, I think it's time, like I think it's time for me to open up my own business. And she goes I knew you were always going to. I knew you were always going to.

Jace: 26:30

I was just wondering when my mom says that stuff to me too. Yeah, I always knew, I always knew you'd do this, yeah, yeah and.

Kristelle: 26:35

I'll never forget it too, and she goes, but don't tell your dad right now. Yeah, yeah, and I'll never forget it too, and she goes, but don't tell your dad right now.

Jace: 26:41

Love that Support you Don't tell dad.

Kristelle: 26:43

Yeah, yeah, don't tell dad. But then when dad you know, of course you know the company the identity of the company also became the identity of my dad and my mom, which is really incredible, where they almost put the logo of CR as the fencing decor on their house.

Jace: 26:55

Adorable. That's pride right there yeah.

Kristelle: 26:57

So I will say and while I didn't expect us To have this turn of like, yeah we. You know we're talking about Our careers. We always have to think about the people that helped us get there. It's very clear that our families Did too.

Jace: 27:08

Well, and something that was Really interesting to me, when I was speaking at that Leadership conference for For the youths, for the high school students, I school students, I the the folks speaking before me were accountants. Uh, it actually was an interesting talk.

Kristelle: 27:21

I know right away you're thinking. But they were cool, they made it hip. I knew you crushed it, but you must have crushed it.

Jace: 27:27

I sat down I was like, oh, I'm going after the CPAs, okay, let's roll. No, but they made it really interesting. But they were talking about the different paths to get the school and you know, the different degrees to get it and whatnot. And so when I about marketing, towards the end, like when we were talking about careers in marketing, I said I didn't go to school for this, this was not my initial career. Like I came up through these other ways and the look on their face was like wait, what? Because we give kids this idea. I think it's the dumbest thing to ask kids what do you want to be when you grow up? Like that's such a stupid thing that we ask children.

Kristelle: 27:57

We're also trying to figure it out.

Jace: 27:58

We're trying to bring them into our level instead of meeting them at theirs, I think. But we get this idea that, like there's going to be the thing you do when you grow up, and that wasn't the case for me. I remember when I was considering closing my production company and leaving that industry, just leaving that career entirely. I was really stressed out about it and I remember talking to a stranger and I was saying, like this is what I've always done, it's what I always thought I would do. And he just said, and you did it, what's next? And I was like shit, you're right. He's like, you didn't fail, you did it.

Kristelle: 28:32

Yeah.

Jace: 28:42

And now, if you're done with it, we look at, like what did you want to be? When you were like I didn't see any of this stuff coming. I never would have thought I would want to be on stage or on camera. I didn't think that I would use my own life and experience to to help other people. Yeah, uh, I certainly. I used to hate marketing. I used to think it was the devil.

Jace: 28:58

I was very anti-marketing never would have expected, uh, that I would work in marketing. So like hell yeah, younger me out there doing your thing and being wild and whatnot and the support I received all along the way. But now I'm in this space where I'm like what is like what's next, like there's always, I'm like there's no end. Yep, right, even in a, and it's very exciting.

Kristelle: 29:21

Very exciting for sure. Thanks again for joining us for today's episode of Stories, Success and Stuff. I'm Crystal Sierras-Moon. This is Jace. Thanks for subscribing to us on your favorite social media channel, your favorite podcast streaming platform, watching us on YouTube as well, or following us at Sierrascom. We look forward to seeing you on our next episode of stories, success and stuff.