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

Kristin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I am extremely happy as a business owner. I haven’t had the thought of going back to a 9-5 in a long, long time. Independence (or flexibility) is one of my top motivators. The ability to pop into my own calendar and mark it as out of office without asking for permission is gold to me. I can make the important events for my kids work, travel when I want to (and decide to work or not work while I do), and truly create my own schedule. Now, the potential downside of being an entrepreneur is that it’s often difficult to “shut it off”, but it’s doable. This is something I’ve been working very hard on. It’s also not solely tied to being a business owner, though. I know plenty of employees who seem to be on call 24/7. Many of them make good money, but that’s the trade off. My goal has been to have both the income AND the independence I desire and that’s how I structure my business.

Kristin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a wife to the perfect match for me, mom of three small humans and have been a business owner for more than a decade. I have been teaching/training, coaching and mentoring in some capacity for 15 years. I was in the top 1% of a former company that I worked with where I learned an incredible amount of both life and business lessons. There has always been a draw towards leadership and personal development for me. I love learning and growing and helping others do the same. I live for those “a-ha” moments people get when they hear me speak or when that one question I ask in a coaching session shifts everything for them. I work remotely with Novus Global, an elite level executive coaching firm. We work with some of the top athletes, artists, entrepreneurs and fortune 500 companies and bring them powerful experiences through our training and workshops, assessments, and individual or group coaching. It is transformational coaching with measurable results. We help people get twice as much done, in half as much time, with increased satisfaction by helping them explore what they are capable of. It’s fascinating work and I absolutely love it!
Some fun facts about me: I once tried out for American Idol, I have met LeBron James, I love naps and you can always make me happy by bringing me a treat from Nothing Bundt Cakes (or a soft pretzel with cheese…that’s a winner too) :)

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had previously mentioned that I was in the top 1% of a former company that my husband and I worked with. I thought I would work with them forever and was all-in. In a very abrupt turn of events, that company announced a restructure that would eliminate approximately 95% of our income. This was at the same time where we had decided to move across the country and had zero backup plan (as it was remote work that we could do anywhere).

The only piece of the puzzle we knew was that God had us moving from California to North Carolina, so we took that next step. We decided to fully practice what we had been teaching through facing fears, doing whatever it takes and not compromising our values. One of our top family values was flexibility as we had worked so hard for that. We filtered job opportunities through our values and it’s how I initially started my own coaching practice and he got into real estate which he’d been studying for years. As we built up our new businesses, I took a job at a YMCA while my husband drove for Uber at night after the kids went to bed and continued with some side hustles.

We were a team. We weren’t bitter about what happened. We looked at it as an opportunity for what was next for our family. It eventually led me to Novus Global which is a powerhouse of people that continuously challenge me to be better for myself and my family. I don’t know if I would have ended up here, more excited about my future than ever before, had all of that with our prior company not happened.

Any advice for managing a team?

I love this question as this fits right in our wheelhouse.

One is to be clear on the agreements that you all have between each other. I don’t mean the expectations that you put on them or that are put on you. I mean what have both you and your team talked through, negotiated, collaborated on and essentially given your word to that are clear and specific? These agreements, when everyone is clear, are game changers.

Two is to become a culture of feedback…both giving and receiving. If teams did this one thing well, the workplace drama and confusion would be drastically minimized. It’s not necessarily just constructive criticism, but feedback all around.

Maintaining high morale assumes that you have it in the first place. :) Earlier, I mentioned my top motivators. People often think they are motivated by money, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s recognition, sometimes it’s flexibility of time. (A great -and free – tool for this is an assessment we have created that can be found at www.novus.global/assessment). What drives your team members, what lights them up, what keeps them up at night, what do they tend to avoid and what are they drawn to? Knowing the answers to all of these questions and more will lead to a team morale that you could be proud of. People like to be seen, heard and known.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kristinfrade.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristinfrade/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristinfradecoaching
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinfrade/

Image Credits
Jenny Midgley IWP Photography