I am so excited to introduce you all to this month's Purposeful Woman. Krysten is an amazing woman who balances a full-time career, a personal consulting business, as well as a family. She tells the powerful story of how she and her husband struggled with the heartbreak of infertility, and how she used her personal business as a way to rise above. Today, she is raising awareness to the harmful ingredients we use in our everyday products, and what we can do to better ourselves and our health by switching to safer products. She is a woman who lifts up others and encourages all women to follow their dreams.
Krysten and Aaron have been married for seven years, and together, with a home on the lake in central Minnesota, they are raising their two beautiful daughters: Addison (almost 4), and Emilia (7 months). Krysten, who earned her undergrad from the University of Minnesota, Duluth in psychology, and a masters in Counseling Psychology from St. Cloud State University, works for the College of Saint Benedict in student accessibility services. She provides students with disabilities additional academic and housing support. In addition to this career, she also balances a consulting business with the Beautycounter, a B-Corp, whose mission is to raise awareness of harmful ingredients in personal care products, provide safer solutions, and push for more protective health laws in the personal care industry.
Years ago, I followed Krysten's food blog, which she had built during her stint as a stay-at-home mom after the birth of Addie. She had the best recipes and made even me, a kitchen-inept woman, feel I could pull off some culinary masterpieces. Sadly, it's not possible to balance everything and she has since let that venture go. "It was a lot of work! Maybe some day I'll bring it back." That would be amazing.
How does Krysten describe herself in three words? Driven. Straight-forward. Honest. "Doesn't seem to make me seem well-rounded; it should be something like... mom." But in a world of Minnesota-nice, "I always like to know where I stand. People can always know where they stand with me."
Krysten's born-and-bred Minnesota girl shines through when she describes her favorite things as her family, "being on the water", and a "nice cocktail." She sipped away on one of those while we had this interview. With the lake in the distance. My Minnesota heart yearned to be physically with her. Some of her other favorites? "I'm going to sound like a giant hick right now, but I love country music. I am a country girl." Specifically, 90s country. "I also listen to a lot of kid-bop. Which sometimes I just listen to because it's, literally, all the hits. It's so funny how they change the lyrics, just a little bit, so that you're like... pumping that water," she says with a laugh. All moms out there will know exactly what she means. Her favorite book is Girl, Wash Your Face, by Rachel Hollis. "Every word of that book I'm like, yes! yes! yes! It's just so darn good!"
Krysten had no hesitation when asked about her favorite food. "Tortellini Straw and Hay from Ciatti's." (Which, sadly, is now closed.) "I would eat it like it was my job. And I have tried over and over again to perfect that recipe and I just can't do it." Ironically, it was this very recipe from her blog that I served to all on my bunco ladies for dinner one night, years ago.
"What is your first thought in the morning?"
"How many times can I hit snooze? Do I have to wash my hair?" Insert fingers into the hair for a wash check. "Then I start going through what needs to happen in the morning. Calculate."
Parenting is tough, and Krysten knows just as well as any mom out there. So, Krysten, "what would you describe as your parenting motto?"
"We're the boss. What we say goes. I think we're pretty strict. And then I heard this thing a while ago about how the way you talk to your kids becomes their inner-voice. So I try to watch what I say. I want to boost [Addie's] confidence."
Marriage. Krysten and her husband Aaron have been married for seven years. Although they knew each other in high school, it wasn't until they were in college that they began dating. "He asked me to come with him to a party and it was Olympics themed, so he was dressed like a figure skater. Tight pants, buttoned shirt, shaved chest. And I was like, yes!" Krysten describes sitting on their beach together after the kids go to bed as one of her favorite things to do with Aaron.
"How do you prioritize your marriage?"
"Well, I think it's the little things. Texts. Just checking in with the other person to see how they are. And also giving each other space for ourselves. It's a balance." The one word she uses to describe their marriage? "Team."
"How do you prioritize your health?"
"I try! It's something I need to be better at. For a while, I did get motivated to do something about it but then my milk supply tanked. And so I stopped. Reluctantly. I had to feed my baby. I mean, I try to eat well and walk, but I do need to do more."
"What makes you feel beautiful?"
"Happiness." Which is pretty much a perfect response from her because Krysten is a beautiful woman whose beauty is only magnified by her generosity, kindness, and happiness. She absolutely oozes happiness.
"What is the one thing you would improve about yourself?"
"I would be more patient. Both with others and myself."
"What do you do to treat yourself?"
"A bath. A good bath. The View. I watch it every night when Aaron is putting Addie to bed. I started watching it when Addie was a baby and I still watch it every day. I feel like those women are my friends. And I love Meghan McCain. She doesn't care what anybody thinks!"
One of the people who inspire Krysten the most is her mom. "That might be cheesy." But as women, aren't we trying to lift each other up, raise our daughters to be incredible women? I'd say it's a true testament to her mom when she says that she inspires here. "She worked full-time as a professional, and has always encouraged [my brother and I] to chase our dreams and work hard. Oh, and to have fun along the way. To truly enjoy the little moments."
"What is one of your biggest dreams? Don't be shy!"
"Only one?" she said with a laugh. "I want to be managing director for my company, I'd love to have a coffee shop, and a resort. On the lake. There are no good coffee shops around here. It's time. It's needed. And I want some good coffee!"
"How do you manage the voice of doubt when it comes to those dreams?"
"Minus parenting, I don't usually have those thoughts. With parenting, I'm like, I don't know what to do. But in business, I don't usually have those thoughts. It's a matter of how am I going to do this. And with parenting, I do a lot of research. I'm a big researcher and try to figure out milestones and how to approach things. I'm just a figure-outer and have kind of squashed 'I can't do this.' I'm like, okay, I've got to figure out how to do this."
About four years ago, when Krysten was still blogging, a friend started posting on Facebook about a company called Beautycounter, and it piqued Krysten's curiosity. "I am a product junkie!" And when the opportunity came, they collaborated on the blog and Krysten was able to try her first Beautycounter product. "I fell in love with the cleansing balm. I told Aaron, I don't want to do the consulting, but this is the discount and I want to buy a bunch of cleansing balm. Run the math! But then, after a few days, I thought, 'I can do this'. At the time, I was a stay-at-home mom, and Addie wasn't napping and honestly, I was just miserable as a stay-at-home mom. That makes me feel like a bad mom, but it just wasn't for me. I needed more interaction, and more goals."
What is Beautycounter? It's a direct retail company that advocates for safer products for everyone, Beautycounter or not. There are over 1,400 ingredients that have been banned in personal care products in the EU, but in the USA, there are 30. There has been no legislation passed in the USA to regulate personal care products since 1938. Beautycounter is unique in that they have the Never List, which contains over 1,500 ingredients that they have banned from their products. They lobby for better legislation for the regulation of all personal care products. Currently, Beautycounter offers safer options for skin-care and anti-aging regimens, cosmetics, as well as body products, including a line for babies and children. "It's for the whole family." |
| Beautycounter team advocating for stricter regulation. |
"After I decided I was going to do the consulting, I decided that I should probably look into the safer products aspect, as it seemed a big deal for the company. I started looking at the products I was using with Addie and I was like, holy crap! I thought I was doing right by what I was putting on her. But I so wasn't. And I was shocked." Krysten then went to the other women in her life: her mom, who was a nurse practitioner, and her friends, who were also moms like her, and no one was aware of any of it. "I felt like I needed to start telling people! And that's how my business started to grow." While learning about the harmful ingredients that prevail in so many products we use everyday, Krysten learned some shocking information when she took a deeper look into the products she was using. "I found there were so many that could be causing hormone disruption, and reproductive harm, among other things." Before Addie, Krysten and her husband suffered major, and repeated heartbreak with the loss of five pregnancies, "that I know of.". After extensive testing, their diagnosis was bleak. It was unexplained infertility. "It's almost better to have an actual diagnosis so we could have figured out what to do with that." The realization of the potential harm the products they used were causing "just lit this fire inside me. We suffered heartbreak so many times, and I decided, that, as a mom, I have to share this with as many people as I can." Krysten made the switch to safer products with everything in her house, from personal care, to detergents, to cleaning products. "I started hitting it hard. And then, in between Addie and Emmie, we had zero miscarriages." Krysten has no absolute proof that there is a link between her fertility and the products she is using, but it's also an idea that's hard to dismiss outright.
Krysten's long-term goals for her role in the company are to achieve managing director, which is the highest position in the company, and to continue to grow and expand her team. "The more voices we have to share this mission, the more people we will have that will be educated."
"One of the biggest loves and challenges I face is seeing so much potential in others to share Beautycounter! I absolutely love seeing others take the reins of their own business. This is also the tough part, as I see so much potential in others and know that with a little grit, patience, and persistence, a consultant could take this business wherever their heart desires... and not seeing him or her go after that potential is hard!"
"If you could choose only one item from your product line, what would it be?" "Oh boy. I'm going to cheat on the cleansing balm and say the overnight resurfacing peel. Because [it] is magical!
Krysten's advice for other women: "Stop caring so much about what other people think. Have self-confidence and the confidence that you can do really great things. Give yourself grace. Not everything has to be perfect all the time. And that's okay. That's what makes it real."
"Any last thoughts?"
"This has been so much fun! And I really appreciate what [Girl, Dream It is] doing. There needs to be more women cheering on other women and fostering confidence. I love hearing what other women are doing. There's space for everybody. There should be more collaboration and less competition."
For more information on safer products, the Beautycounter mission, or Krysten's business, click here.
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