The Rise Above Podcast EP:2 Crystal Presse

Sales Director for an International Beauty & Make up Brand Crystal Presse joins Bram Bains on this episode of The Rise Above Podcast. They talk about self development, growth, empowerment and Crystal gives advice for how to succeed in the corporate world. 

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Interview Transcript

[00:35] Bram: Welcome everybody to the rise above podcast. Today we've got a very special episode. I'm happy to be here speaking to a really good friend of mine. Her name is Crystal Presse. Crystal is a sales director for a very large makeup brand. I think a lot of the ladies are going to know which brand this is. We'll get a bit into it. Crystal is also a mother, and she is one of the funniest people I know. One of the most authentic people I know, and somebody that I'm really happy to be able to connect with and gain some knowledge and wisdom and mentorship.

I'm really happy to be here today with you Crystal. Really happy to have a conversation here and, help get to know you better and share some of the knowledge and experience that you have with others that are kind of following through on the same path as you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your time. How are you doing today?

[01:30] Crystal: Well, you're so kind. Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here. You're a good friend to me too. Anything we can do together I'm happy to join, and I'm doing great. It's the second, third day of sun this week. I'm a very happy person. I feel like spring is around the corner and that is super rejuvenating for me. 

[01:47] Bram: Yeah, definitely. I think this winter has been a little bit mild being in the house the whole time. I know not going outside and commuting to work has been positive for me. I've really enjoyed that. How's the pandemic been for you?

[02:02] Crystal: You know, we've been lucky. I mean, I think the first thing is, you don't want to say I've been great. Because there's been people who've saw such tough things happen in their lives, are such destitute and we've been lucky to keep working my husband and I. That is obviously one huge stressor that didn't have to come into play, and that remained healthy and, doing our best to keep our family safe, but also trying to keep saying. I think those are two things that everybody's trying to figure out. It's like there's the right thing to do. Then there's well, can we just do something so that we don't go crazy? 

But overall we've been doing really well. I know, I feel like I've been kind of going internal with it where I've been like, okay, you said you never had time to work out. Now that's not an excuse. You, you were always on the road, you couldn't eat. Right now that's not an excuse. Your husband's still annoying you about something,  now's the time to work on it. You're in the house together. I feel like I kind of went in and started to try to kind of better myself or evolve my own world of relationships, so that hopefully when the world opens back up, I can do things like giving back more. 

Getting my daughter into, giving back more, spending time with others. But we've been home. I'm like, let's get everything in order, but I couldn't get an order when life was going at, ultra speed. We've been holding up really well. Thank God. 

[03:25] Bram: Good sounds super positive. I think that's a general vibe or frequency that I've been hearing a lot out there. That people have been taking that time to kind of just work on themselves and progress in other areas of their life. That's good to hear. I want to get into a few things, but first and foremost, I mean, what I'd like to do is set up a couple of icebreakers just to kind of get to know some fun stuff about you there and get the ball rolling. Speed round. I'll ask the questions. The floor is yours. If you want to speed round or elaborate on anything, it's all yours. What is your favorite place to travel? 

[04:09] Crystal: Oh, well we've done a lot of the Caribbean. We we're all inclusive people. I love a good week of like, not having to worry about anything. I would say our favorite place to visit and that we've been multiple times, we got married there, is Jamaica. Just beautiful culturally, the people are just such beautiful souls, sense of humor. I feel like the sense of humor is so similar between Jamaicans and Canadians. 

Even when I meet Jamaicans here in Canada, we just have such a connection and it's just a place where obviously weather and food and all those things too. But culturally it's just feels like a really good place to be. I have to say, Jamaica is our favorite spot.

[04:48] Bram: Jamaica, excellent choice. 

[04:50] Crystal: My daughter was like one when we took her there, one and a half. I think that was like one of the first things she said when we taught her yah man. 

[05:02] Bram: Who was a role model of yours growing up? 

[05:07] Crystal: I don't think I have one role model. You know, celebrity wise Jlo is like my girl, someone who was just so fabulous, but always so classy throughout her life and did a little bit of everything. She was kind of a master of everything that she's done. I think if I had like a celebrity idol or crush, she's definitely someone who always impresses me to do everything that she does and do it with such integrity and grace. Then I think, for me early on in my retail career, because that's where I've been my whole life is in retail. There was people, there was moments where, I remember this district manager way back in my days at Old Navy, she would come in and her name was Trudy Love if she ever hears this. She was just a fabulous woman. I remember the way people would feel when she walked in the room. You felt calm, you felt safe, you felt like she was going to take care of you.

She had the answers. I think that's the thing I've always been aware of. It's just like your emotional wake I call it. Know what your emotional wake is. We have such a power. We decide how we want to make people feel. We're always in control of how we want to make people feel. I thought, I want to be like her when I grow up, and I think in the back of my mind, that district manager job in retail, being able to see and touch many people, was always so intriguing to me. Really for that, I've never been much for the title or the pay.

I always feel like if you're doing the job you have really well, things will just work out the rest of the rest of it. I hope I answered that, but I think that's kind of it. I've had some great leaders along the way that have guided me and given me the right direction and support to get me to the next level. She was definitely one of them. 

[07:00] Bram: Okay. J-Lo and Trudy Love. When did you first feel like you were becoming an adult? 

[07:18] Crystal: Well, I mean, I won't overthink these answers. I think, when I came back from maternity leave, I was, 31 and when you have a child and then you have tohave a career, that's a really demanding career, you have to rely on everyone more than you ever did before, to help you get through the day-to-day stuff. Your family, you have to rely on new people. Now there's babysitters and daycare and all these things in your life. I had to figure out how I was going to do it all because I knew I loved having a career. I knew I was going to work. If I was going to work, I wasn't going to do something to just get a paycheck.

I was going to do something I loved and that fueled my soul, that was just for me. I feel like when I came back, that probably was a real, and it was like, not even adulthood, but it was like womanhood. It was like, I knew who I was. I knew what I wanted. I knew what I wasn't going to allow in my life anymore. You know, the way you got treated by maybe poor bosses or stuff that would happen in your own relationships, whether it was friends or your marriage, and you thought, well, I'm not going to go back there and do that anymore. I've been someone who it's like, I've been really good at things in my job, then there's stuff I struggle with and we all have strengths, but I think my strengths, I really decided, hey, it's okay, this is what you're good at.

This is what you should harness. In your career, you should try to get closer to this. That's what moved me away from that job. It's a four as a district manager, it was like, there was parts of the elements of that I was really good at, and it was the right job for me. There was parts that it really wasn't. I wasn't doing myself a service and it was doing a disservice to the people who worked for me. I just thought, you need to figure this out, whether it's at Sephora or it's just moving on completely. 

I've been with them at 10 years at that point, I just felt like I needed new relationships. I needed to start fresh. I needed to like reset who I was in my career and what my next path was. I really feel like it really started coming back from maternity leave. It was like really owning who I was. 

[09:26] Bram: If you had your own television show, what would be your genre or theme?

[09:34] Crystal: Well, I would love to have my own television show. As you and I have discussed, what could I do to just like engage with people and just connect. Because that's kinda my jam, but I would have to say it would be some kind of female empowerment show for sure. I just finished watching a season of Firefly Lane on Netflix. This woman in there telly has her own talk show called the girlfriend hour. There's a connection to why it's called that, to her past. It's not really what I'm going to talk about, but I remember seeing that going yeah, yeah. That's what I would do. Like women empowerment, but mine would be about what I'm so passionate about and what will be kind of, I think where I'll spend my time when I start being able to give back is just women being confident, being powerful, owning who they are.

It really frustrates me when I see women in my life or people that I don't know, but I meet and they're a victim to I'm too busy. I say a victim because I'm not talking about women who are a real victim, like of abuse and things like that. But that stuff too, like how do we get you out of there? We'll help you let's get you out of there. But then it's the things like where I'm not in any kind of destitute situation, but I'm choosing not to just get it right. I'm just falling victim to a busy schedule and to all the needs and demands and going, I'm not going to make the time to work out.

Like there's women who were also just not making it happen. Like lots of women could easily say, well, no one really has time for anything. It would be about getting women to just always feel really confident to say, this is what I need. My time is valuable and it's okay that I need time to myself. It's okay that I don't want to be with my kids right now and I want to go work out. I want to go have a drink with my friend. Well, there's a lot of women who don't have the confidence to ask for what they want or they feel bad about it. That's the big problem too. Women just feel bad. 

I still feel guilty. You know, if I'm going to go out and I'm leaving my husband home with the child, which I don't know why I do, but you do. Or you're like, oh, let me set up the whole house before I go anywhere because I'm going out. But if the man was to go out, he just goes out. He just walks out the door. That is a real serious struggle still today with, with, that kind of balance. I'm not like a super big feminist, but I definitely am like, female empowerment. I know women, men have roles in the house. I kind of liked some of the traditions. But I like women to also be, let's be a little bit modern here and like mama needs to go. Mama's gotta go. Mama needs things for herself. 

I think it just that big rally around women kind of continuing to take care of themselves and not being scared to ask for what they need. I don't know if that answers your question. I feel like I'm going on a rampage here, but it would definitely be about that because that's what I do every day. Whether it's the women I work for, it's friends, it's family, it's the people who take care of my daughter. I'm giving back to those women and trying to empower them all the time in my own time and in my own way. And it's a pretty good feeling when somebody is there. 

[12:50] Bram: Wow. It definitely sounds like you're passionate about the female empowerment piece. I think you've found your niche right there. You're working currently for Too Faced, which is a major brand. I don't know much about this world of makeup and whatnot. But when I asked around for anybody who may have questions for you, everybody was like, whoa Too Faced. Okay. That's a big company. I definitely knowyou're doing something very well there with a major brand. 

So happy to hear that you made a change from Sephora to an established brand on the other side. What was that change like for you? You spoke about an emotional week and realizing, or maybe that there's other things that you were looking for and what you kind of had outgrown at that point in time. Can you be a bit specific about what led you up to that? Like, was there a specific moment or was it just an epiphany or a realization where you were like, okay, I need to do something different. When you made that decision, how soon after did it materialize in terms of an opportunity coming up?

[14:01] Crystal: I kept coming back. Had a beautiful career with Sephora. Met so many people had so much experience, wonderful company and it became super internal. Like it was me, I owned this. It wasn't anything that anyone had done to me. It was what I was doing to myself. I think I kept coming back and coming back to a place of just feeling like this isn't right. There's parts of this that I'm not, I'm not able to do to the best of my ability that I'm not enjoying. I've always said like in my work environment, it's just important for me that everyone is like, oh, Crystal. Yeah, I like working with her. Yeah she's helpful. Or yes, she's good. 

You want to feel useful. You want to feel like, yeah, that person brings something to the table. There was parts of the job where you just kept coming back to, it's not the right fit. When some of that stuff, I just don't want to get into from a confidentiality standpoint and kind of what I did in my job. Not to be specific about people, but just in general, just leave some of that on the table. But it was a real personal journey of like waking up on this roller coaster of like, yay, I'm happy. Oh I'm down again. Yay. I'm happy oh down again. I'm like, okay, I keep running into this wall. It's time to make a change.

I really do, I think you and Gigi talked about this in her podcast, but that was the power of the secret, what's that book? The Secret and that power of like, I never even read the book. I'm the girl who reads the title in the back of the book and I'm like, oh, that's great. I've already learned something. Thank you so much. But I am a huge believer in like, positive and putting out what you want in the world and it's coming back. Right. I mean, lucky enough, obviously when you're working at Sephora you're meeting brands all the time. You're making connections naturally in relationships. 

In my heart, in the back of my mind, was that the right fit for me? Is it the brand route? Is it this route? Is it getting out of this altogether and doing something totally different? It was like getting bigger and bigger and then you're like, oh my goodness. Eventually you get to the point where like, it's nagging at you every day. You know you have tomake a change. That's when, I found out that there was this job happening and then a conversation was had, and I applied. 

It was amazing. It was like, I really felt like somebody was helping me out there and was like, Hey, what about this? I'm very lucky that everybody was very supportive of that in my current role and in my new role. I still work very closely with Sephora, but it was a wonderful supportive conversation. I was able to make that change to a brand. But yeah, that didn't come overnight because I was not going to make any rash decisions.

Like I said, I was in a wonderful company with a wonderful job, but it was something that no one could fix for me, but me and I think there was just aspects of that role, that weren't right for me. Then aspects of this role that were, and now I feel like I've come into something that holistically is better for me and that I can even perform better at. 

[17:31] Bram: Yeah, definitely. It sounds like what I'm hearing is there's parts that you were looking for more growth for yourself, not only in a career, but personally as well for your own development. It seems like that might've been what gets you going and gets you engaged and makes you fulfilled and happy.

[17:54] Crystal: I think the big thing was, I mean the growth would never end. It never ends in your life. I had lots of growth opportunity there, but there are things I want to eliminate. There are things in this job that I don't want to do and I shouldn't do because I'm probably never going to be amazing at it. To me, it's about mastering something. I want to feel like I'm mastering something and then I'm really moving on at the right time. I'm hoping that I can do that now on this path. 

[18:20] Bram: Nice. Okay. So Jamaica, Jamaica is a great place. It's beautiful. Gurpreet and I have been there only once actually.

[18:30] Crystal: Oh my goodness. It's where we met you. 

[18:32] Bram: That's where we met. Yeah. We met there at, I forget the name of the place. Bahia Grand Principe. 

[18:40] Crystal: See, this is why, this is also my favorite place. I met you guys. Ryan and I were playing pool in like the common area. they had a little show set up that night, a little bar set up and like just kind of like just outside, in like a random area. They had moved the pool stuff, moved the pool furniture and yeah, you guys walked by and kind of looked at the table. Another couple of come by before you guys. I was like, oh no, I'm not even looking at them. Like this guy looks like he's not going to be fun. She might be, he does not look like a good time. I'm such a, like, I'm the person who would go, oh, do you want to play pool? You can have it.

I always worry about everyone having a good time and if everybody's happy. So stranger or not, usually I would just offer it up and I'm like, no, my vacation, I want to play pool I'm into this. I would love for another couple to join us, but it's not going to be them. I remember just letting them go by and kind of not giving them any attention. Then you, and, well it's Gurpreet but I call her Gigi. Gigi came by and I was like, oh, I love them right away. Then I said, yeah, do you guys want to play? I think Gigi was like, no, no, that's okay. I'm like, come on. I'm like girls against, then she's like girls against guys. I think she said something that made me go, yeah, this is going to work. 

Then you guys joined us and we spent like the whole vacation together. 

[19:58] Bram: Yeah. It was a great trip. It was awesome. You mentioned to me too, like at the time that you just finished reading a book, the five second rule. What was it about that period of time that you were going through that you were reading that book? I know this is going back a couple of years. 

[20:24] Crystal: It's going back a few years, but I think at the time that's probably really when I was in, well, I'm always in the throws of wanting to evolve. I'm a thinker too much, but there was something about that time. Somebody else told me about that book. I learned about it through somebody at work. What I loved about it was the overthinking. I think at that time too, maybe like slightly overwhelmed with everything that was going on and just trying to find my way out of it. 

Then I would get like analysis paralysis. I would sit in these things and not just go, what do you want to do? Just make a move. I would be scared to be wrong. I would be scared. It's like, I don't need a ton of approval or pats on my back. No news is good news to me. But at the same time, if I have no idea where I stand and that kind of freaks me out, like even if someone says good job and I don't hear them from them for three months, I'm like, okay, at least I know I'm in the right direction.

I think I was in a place where I just felt like I wasn't taking action. The day would go by, or the week would go by and I didn't do anything actionable or meaningful because I was so inundated with information and overwhelmed with it that I was just kind of scared to make a move. I loved the sound of that five seconds where it's like, you have five seconds to either let fear rule this and let it go away or just make a call. Not that it was yes, all the time, but in five seconds, it's like, just make like, just go and do it. It helped me through a few things. I don't really live with that one as much today as I do with other kinds of things that I've learned.
But I think it was really helpful at the time I was going to say, there's this book called, eat the frog. I have never even saw this book. I don't even know what the cover looks like, but it's about procrastination. Not to put things off. Of course ultimately it's about, what's the thing I really don't want to do today. I'm not looking forward to it, or I know it's going to be the hardest thing I do. Meaning, not just emotionally talk, but maybe it's mentally tough. Like there's a report you have to build. It's going to take you more time. You got to do these things first, or you've got to do them at the best time of day for you. If you're on in the morning and you're firing on all cylinders, get it done then. If you're three o'clock is your magic hour, do it then. But this eat the frog. I loved it because anything that I wasn't looking forward to in my day, or I knew it was going to be tough, I did it first thing in the morning. I never read the book. I only heard the title. 

I downloaded an app called headway. I think where they, you kind of fill out your profile and you tell them your goal of how many minutes you want to read a day, and then they'll suggest books based on the themes you picked. That's what they'll do for you. They will chunk that book out and read it to you in 15 minutes, if that's your Catholic, give you kind of all that. Very cool. I accidentally subscribed and it's a little more expensive for the year, but now I'm in it. I accidentally did it. I subscribed for the year. But it's a cool app. 

[23:52] Bram: Enjoy it for sure. Okay. A couple of questions here for some people in my network that are kind of in the same industry, a little bit earlier on in their journey than you are, but from kind of like a perspective that you have and how you've kind of designed your own career, and you've progressed through the different roles through Sephora, and you've established yourself as a leader in this space. What are some of the tips that you can give to people? I guess just starting out entry level roles. How can they build a personal brand and set themselves apart and really grow through the business? 

[24:28] Crystal: I think, it starts with first, have one focus, have one job goal in mind. If you're the person saying I'd like to get promoted, whatever you've got open, no one likes that person. Because that means you're hungry for title and you're hungry for money. Not that those things aren't fabulous and they're great at the end. But if that's what you're in it for, you'll have a hard time getting to where you want to be. Integrity is like my number one word in life is that, you wake up every day and you do your best.

You be honest, you be helpful and you do the job you have in front of you. There will always be opportunities if you're doing that well and being a kind person, then people want to work with you. It starts there. Do people wanna work with me? Do they trust me? Do they want to be around me? That should be organic. Then it starts with hopefully you're going to be known for something. Then it's figuring out, like I said, at 31, I was kinda like, this is what I'm known for. I shouldn't be ashamed of that. That's okay. If I'm not the best at that, or I'm not the best at that. I'm going to work with people who are. Everyone's gonnahave their strengths. 

I used to be more intimidated by people who maybe were smarter than me, I guess you could say. Or stronger in something. Now I'm not as intimidated by that. I wasn't intimidated because I didn't want them to get where they were going or pass me or anything like that. But it just, if you're going to be their leader, you've got to find your place, but it's all about, am I supporting you? Like, okay, I've hired someone or someone's on my team who is super strong. They don't need me to kind of handhold them and say, this is how you do this. They need to help me get them to the next level. That's a different kind of leadership in someone brand new. But I think, yeah, it starts with showing up, knowing who you are, knowing kind of what you want in life.

Maybe you don't know the exact job title, like I know I'm a leader in retail? I'm a leader in beauty and retail. I'm not in marketing, I'm not an education, I'm not in HR etc. It's first kind of having just doesn't have to be this perfect path because that's the other thing never expect to go straight up. Sometimes, life is a zigzag. I'm going to go here and then maybe I'm taking a lateral move right now a little bit, but this is going to help me. It's going to give me exposure. It's going to give me experience in something I don't know anything about. Now, I'm going to go back over here. It's not the straight line all the time, but you definitely want to have a direction and not say hey, what's open. I want to work these hours so I'll take that job. 

Like people see through that very quickly. It's not an admired trait by any means. Then, recognizing what your strengths are and honing in on those and then surrounding yourself with, if you're not a leader, then just the people you work with. Don't be scared to ask for help. Hey, how did you do that? Or I'm trying to build this. What did you do? There's something there's always something you'll have to offer that person, but also ask them to help you. So much to learn from kind of working with others, especially others who aren't like you. That rounds you out because if you want to be a leader and you're not there yet, you're going to work with all kinds of personalities.

You know, I go through four or five different check-in calls a week with my team, all those conversations are different. I'm the same person, but I'm having a different kind of conversation with all of those people. I manage them all differently. Some of them need more hand holding, not hand holding, but everyone has different areas of strength and opportunity. This person I may need to help them with that. This person's firing on all cylinders on that. I think I hope I'm answering this question because sometimes I can get kind of on a tangent, but I think those are really important pieces. 

[28:35] Bram: Wow. Yeah, no, that's great. For sure. Something somebody told me is you kind of have to be a chameleon per se. It's good to hear that from your perspective too.

Because it's similar traits. 

[28:52] Crystal: That's good feedback too, is that you have to be really flexible, adaptable, be able to work in the autonomy, the unknown a little bit. There's not always an answer. You've got to be able to be a self-starter get up and go. Take the initiative and make things happen and be okay working in the unknown for a little bit and help take people through that with you. 

[29:17] Bram: Definitely. What are some of the challenges that you found being a leader.  Going back I know now you're a lot more established in your position and you're great at what you do, but when you were just starting to get into that world, that at the beginning, what were some of the realities that you kind of weren't expecting or prepared for or things that came a little bit of a surprise to you that you had to really quickly adjust to and get comfortable with? What was some of the uncomfortable scenarios that you went through? 

[29:53] Crystal: I think one thing that I guess I've learned about myself, and talking about leadership specifically like being in leadership, because even when I started retail young, I'd be the key holder, or the logistics supervisor. I always had some kind of, I guess, authority, even if I wasn't managing people. I had to manage the floor. I had to make sure we close the store down or whatever. One thing that it's just people. People surprise you. You never know what's gonna come your way. When it's bad, when it's tough moments, when someone won't do what you say or someone's being really insubordinate or you just come across, do what you say that sounds wrong, but what I'm saying?

Like, people surprise you and you don't know what you're going to come across as a leader, or you find out things about their personal life. Now how do you manage that? This stuff wears on me very heavy. I love connecting with people in a really positive way. It would only be in work that maybe anything really negative has come up with me. But that's again, because I was in leadership. Tough moments come up or tough things that you find out and then how do you work through it? But you like the person. You know what I mean? But then there's this business element that comes into it. Sometimes you might have to hold someone accountable to something that's really tough. 

I'm someone who just loves people. I love different kinds of people. I don't like everything to be the same. I like the constant change and static of personalities and backgrounds. It wears very heavy on me when things don't go well with people, because I will always assume the best. I will always assume best intentions and we should. We always should as humans, and there's more good than bad. But there's either people who surprise you and let you down. You go, wow, I hired them. I thought that was going to go great. Or wow. They told me that story. I believed in them then it was so untrue. That will never end, because that's just human nature and there's more good than not good. 

But I think for me, that's been one of the most, probably most surprising and ever learning pieces of leadership is just, what's going to happen. What's going to come across that's really tough to deal with and you have to be prepared. You get prepared through experience. I mean, some of it's just inevitable. You've got to go through it. There's things that I can say now today, that I'm like, I can look at someone and say, no, don't do that. I've had a million people tell me, not a million, but I've had a hundred people telling me they wanted to do that. It didn't work out every single time. 

Let's save you the hardship and not do that. If there's career decisions or things like that, helping people through some stuff. Now I can actually say definitively, this is my answer on that. I think it's been really hard. It's experience. Then it's surrounding yourself with sport and how you navigate those things. If you're in a company you're naturally going to have it. If you're not in a company, then you need to ask someone or you need to go look up stuff on the internet, you need to watch a Ted Talk, you need to figure it out. But that's probably been one of the toughest things. 

[33:22] Bram: Yeah. Just, you always have to kind of be open to learning and looking and seeking information and asking for it and so forth. You mentioned that you had a district manager Trudy Love back in your Old Navy days. She had a presence about her, right. She was always kind of open and welcoming to help people and support them. When you define giving back to others, I'm assuming here that a large part, like you've taken influence from people ahead of you that you've admired and so forth. In what ways was she giving back to you and how did that influence the way that you're giving back to other people that follow you?

[34:14] Crystal: I think it's kind of just like what I mentioned before. It's knowing and understanding and appreciating, that as a leader, you have the power to change someone's day. Just from a simple conversation, a look, a comment. As a leader, you don't always get that right either. I've made mistakes. People didn't understand what I meant. I said the wrong thing. I threw everything awry. It happens. But knowing that you can walk away from a store or people they're either motivated to continue and they're excited for the next step or they're not. I saw leaders do the total opposite of that and leave people in ruins. I thought, oh my goodness, who in the world would ever want to make people feel this way?

If I make someone feel that way I can't sleep, I can't eat. I'm in turmoil until the relationship is better. There'srelationships that aren't good with people that I work with today. I hate it. It still haunts me. It'll haunt me forever because I don't want that. I want a healthy connection. I think that it all started there as a genuine care for people. It's a genuine compassion for people and their wellbeing. I think it really started there for me.

[35:29] Bram: Nice. Okay. I think you would have a really good TV show there about the podcast. We spoke about this too in the past. I was trying to encourage you to get your own thing going. I don't want to keep you for too long. I know we're approaching our time and you've been generous with your time. You're parked over there on the side while you're traveling location to location. I just want wrap it up there and just, thank you for your time. You've given a lot of gems in this conversation. The purpose here for this podcast is to just connect with people that are growing and evolving, and kind of pursuing some of the same things, that we've talked about in the past, just growth professionally and personally, and just overall that being the theme growth. Thank you for your time. Where can people connect with you? 

[36:24] Crystal: Oh, my. Well, if there is anyone that wants to, I guess Instagram, you can find me at cpresseon Instagram. I guess that's an easy way to connect and reach out. We can connect virtually or, as the world gets better coffee, wine. But always love to connect with people and help them, if I can in any way. Thanks so much for having me on it. It was fun to do this.

[36:54] Bram: It was absolutely my pleasure. Thank you so much. That is episode number two of the rise above podcast. Be sure to subscribe, share it with a friend that you think this may benefit. Thank you again for your time and hope you guys have a great day.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the rise above podcast. Make sure to subscribe for future episodes, leave a review and share with a friend who would love to hear this episode. This was the rise above podcast.