Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kristen Thomasino. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kristen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?
My idea started because of how my body responded after unexpected events. Pain and suffering are something that I’ve been familiar with at various points in my life for extended periods. I had chronic migraines as a teen. It depended on several factors I could identify by utilizing my data scientist skills later in life and being observant. I had to figure it out because after I fell down 15 feet of stairs, I didn’t have a choice, my mobility declined for a period, and when you experience full body weakness with severe brain fog for an extended period with excruciating pain, you have to live differently to survive. I couldn’t sleep longer than 45 minutes at a point because my body would wake me to sensations of electrical shock throughout my body. Walking in the mornings to do my basics to carry on in life was challenging because of the nerve pain and stiffness I was experiencing. My muscles were weak. I couldn’t lift things like before or move with grace. I trembled a lot. Then spasms at various points and periods of extreme exhaustion. I sometimes needed different resources to help me with my journey to reducing my suffering. I was able to have periods of trial and error and focus on educating myself as much as possible by studying others who suffered and in various ways with similar symptoms. A business is the same; I realized later as I hit my milestones for success and built different pieces of my complex portfolio. It has all been very purposeful and a part of rehabilitation. You see, I didn’t want to accept what the worst could be for my life; I kept focusing on how I create the best environments for growth. The mental game never ends. It’s hard for everybody. I don’t care what people think or say. I believe that to be true for all of humanity. Also, everyone can suffer in different ways based on their life story. With that in mind, I found it essential to document what happened to me during my rehabilitation, make art, and write about brain fog and what I experienced in my body. This became 22 publications, Think Tanks, websites, audio and video content, podcast episodes, two shows, healthcare advocacy missions, consulting for different organizations, and now an application called Buddytown available on Apple and Android Google Play Markets.
Each piece was assembled, and my community grew out west here in Los Angeles and later in the world after my humanitarian mission to Paris, France, to speak as a keynote speaker for the World Women Forum 2023. I found that they were living their truths too. These are the kind of game-changers we need to amplify in these times. If their voices inspired me, what about others? So, I focused on how I could amplify their voices by getting the word out through The Social Good Magazine show and partnered with 20+ networks to share episodes about social good. Now I continue to partner with others who want to amplify our communities’ positive stories. The louder we talk about what we are doing right, the faster others can model their behaviors and be the peace in our communities. Exemplary leadership is needed when our communities seek solutions to stabilize the economy and bring more safety and security for everyone. Buddytown is crucial because it’s about empowering others and encouraging them to take action to reduce their suffering and connect with communities that make sense for where they are in their journey.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Earlier, you learned how my accident inspired me to create various content pieces to speak to different demographics about the lessons I learned during that journey. I am proud that I did the work and didn’t quit. I went through horrific pain and suffering for many years. Living at level 7 and above pain is no joke when it’s like that all day long. The problems that I faced are ones that others do, too, I learned as I kept seeking solutions. Mental health is hard to manage when life changes or becomes uncomfortable. I am proud that I didn’t succumb to believing that I could never improve when I was at my worst. I know I wasn’t easy to deal with at times. I am so grateful for the kind community I have had around me. It helped me to keep going. I just kept trying. I kept building. I kept practicing. Life is always going to require this, I believe. This mindset is that changes happen; it’s about how we pivot and keep moving forward. We aren’t always going to be perfect. Others aren’t going to be perfect. When we accept that truth, we can operate with less suffering and desire to wonder why we weren’t good enough or why that happened to us. No one wants to be a victim. I found that when I felt my worst, I always focused on the image of what I wanted to be and didn’t give up on that vision. When your limbs don’t operate correctly, you want to be able to hold your body up—the bigger goals like moving around the house with ease and later getting out of the house and roaming the streets without fear of your muscles being too taxed and tremors starting. I fell down 15 feet of stairs, and my nervous system went wild with severe Fibromyalgia. I started getting daily muscle spasms. It was excruciating and crippling at times. I began to work at home a lot or for most of the day. My right side didn’t work for months on end, and later when it went full body, I had a hard time holding myself up for longer than an hour. It was hard to breathe. It was hard to hold a fork because my hand trembled so extensively. I had to exercise every day for months which became years, to become who I am today. My brain stopped working as it used to when I was a Vice President of Strategy and Sales at points in my life. I couldn’t even count anymore. Look at the computer screen. Watch a movie and focus because the pain was so overwhelming at times. People would talk to me, and I didn’t understand what the words meant sometimes or references to popular culture that I missed out on while my body was in torment. I never gave up. I did the work. I created milestones and actions for me to keep taking ways to keep engaging and finding ways to get stronger. The pain eventually reduced in my case, and I found inputs that can help me operate today at decreasing levels of pain, and I can function in ways that allow me to create the platform I have to share with others today for social good. It was so cool not to have migraines while working on this work. That was a significant change from how I used to work with daily pain from my body being out of alignment and damaged. I still smile; I led teams and helped design strategies to help American communities with Fintech, even with all that pain. Imagine what I can be capable of now that I understand how to manage my form.
I encourage others to keep seeking solutions. Give yourself a chance at transformation. Look inward and be a data scientist. When I started documenting certain things in my life and being more aware, I made gains in centering myself, reducing my anxiety, and staying focused on achieving goals in bite-size pieces. Creating, working towards, and accomplishing one’s milestones is empowering. I always wanted to maintain my independence and keep my mobility. Staying stagnant wasn’t an option. Today I am proud to be who I am today. I’ve had some remarkable life experiences because I never stopped seeking solutions and finding ways to educate myself on why my form is the way it is and responds the way it does in specific scenarios. I spent the time in self-love and continue to do so, and each day I win.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Social Good is my reason for designing the collection that I have. Like everyone else, I experienced the events over the last few years. The isolation from my family from across the country. The confusion, sadness, and fear at times when lots of unexpected bad events happen in our communities worldwide. It inspired me even more, to think creatively about how I could impact this vast chaotic world. The first part was realizing that the world will always have unexpected events, and how we train ourselves and surround ourselves with safe communities will allow us to be in states of peace. I can’t change everything, and I am not responsible for it. However, by unifying around certain principles together in humanity, we can improve our lives. Having clean, reduced-stress environments is something we should aspire towards in our communities as we seek a balance between our passions and the amount our forms can handle with our current inputs. Part of that is finding ways to play a role in a community, make a living and connect with others. Talking about why our communities are special, unique, and not like other places is important. We need to sell the best of our worlds. Focusing on how to make sure that we didn’t perform at our best or horrific things happened, we become equipped with the skills to keep moving forward and heal from trauma. That’s what Buddytown is all about. People are going to need different resources at times. Like Veterans, they have a whole resource network. The network they are utilizing our taxpayer dollars funds must continue to be shared amongst their community. The same is for the homeless resources that are provided. It’s important that we use and improve the existing structures that are in place. There are a lot of amazing people working on missions to empower others. We must empower those power players to do their best. Consolidate our efforts in communities to improve the supply chain and reduce costs for everyone in the community and country. I hope with the Social Good Magazine series to share ideas about the New Economy and examples of others winning to inspire our world to take action for Social Good. Social good is something everyone can be a part of because everyone needs clean air, good nutrition, lessons about how to manage their finances better, and access to others who offer society different values with their expertise and field of choice. This is a new time to make the world what we want.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Building two organizations, my media company, Thomasino Media LLC, and my consulting firm, Buddytown Consulting LLC, has required me to pivot a lot over the last few years, especially during the economic crisis. Founding these companies in 2021 during the middle of the ongoing crisis made me have to think about delivery and networking differently. It was scary coming where I had health-wise and re-engaging the world again and not thinking about what could happen if I got sick. However, I just pushed it out of my mind because the community is something we can never compromise on. Isolation does serve its purpose at times. The time for investment in self-love is vital for everyone. Depending on your journey, it might be essential to go independently and do what you need to become strong and skilled in what you wish. I found ways to challenge myself by rebuilding my video, photography, bookmaking, publishing, writing, planning, connecting, networking, coding, and fitness skills.
How could I make it fun? What could I do next? That’s how my work in the media company and social good projects evolved as mini-milestones in my journey to being who I am today. I focused on finding different networks willing to distribute my content and build out my web pages for my other concepts. I continue to see more partners and distribution methods. I just launched my latest with Buddytown.
Buddytown is a Free application available on Apple and Google Play that gives visibility to community resource centers. The Social Good Experiment is an example of one of those concepts. I decided to invest in networking and learning about how individuals operate today for a few years. It was important to me to think about how to design the market study the way I did and the call to action for others to become a social good warrior through being reflective with data science tools. With what I learned and observed, I made critical platform updates to launch the Buddytown application faster with The Social Good Experiment as an integrated component that users can access and get additional features for being part of the Buddytown Network as part of their annual membership. This is just one example of what users can find; there is also a center for Veterans, Homeless, Business, Human Rights, and other goodies users can access for inspirational content. Users can learn more about the other Social Good Warriors I found on my journey.
Ultimately, the crisis connected me with others with a common goal of trying to make an impact by practicing social good in our communities. It’s been empowering and inspiring ever since. Seeing what we are capable of when we unify is remarkable. It’s about spreading the word, blaring the horn for Social Good! People are and can be very kind. This gives me hope to keep moving forward and investing in this Social Good campaign. I keep making more buddies every week and becoming more inspired every day. I am so thankful for the network of partners I’ve made on this journey, and I continue to look for others who desire to share what’s going right in our communities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.buddytown.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristen_thomasino/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078322816516
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-thomasino-91776b4/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThomasinoMedia
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@socialgoodmagazine
- Other: https://www.kristenthomasino.com https://www.thomasinomedia.com https://www.socialgoodmagazine.com https://www.socialgoodexperiment.com
Image Credits
Photos : Thomasino Media and Jessica Christian