Chris:
To truly get over it. You cannot be afraid to fail because as our next guest will say, if you’re not screwing up, you’re not showing up. Welcome back to the Get Overit Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Christopher Fasano. We are back in studio. I’m really excited to be with our guest live in person today. But before we get into our guests today, just want to mention that the easiest way to receive new episodes of this show is to subscribe on your favorite pod player, whether that’s Apple Podcast, Spotify, you can also watch these interviews on YouTube.
Chris:
And if you really enjoy the show, please tell your friends and leave a five star review on Apple Podcast. So let’s get into our show today, our guest today is Kristi Gustafson Barlette, I got it right. I had a get phonetical spelling here for me to make sure I pronounce it right. Kristi is a content producer extraordinaire, radio, writing, video. We’re going to talk about all the different outlets working for the Times Union for quite some time. And so I want to talk to her today about a bunch of various different topics. So let’s get into the interview today. Thank you for coming in, being our first guest back in studio for a while.
Kristi:
Yes. Thank you for having me. They asked if I would mind coming in person. I said I would love to be in person-
Chris:
Love to come in person. I know we were talking about before we started that. There’s a different energy when you’re in person. And I think what’s one of the things I hope at least for people during the pandemic, one of the lessons learned is that as much as you don’t think you want to be around humans, I feel like we get into this thing where we’re like, we just want to go home and retreat. For me, it definitely reinforced the idea that, I need to be around people. There’s just a very different animal when you’re talking to someone through your computer when you’re in person.
Kristi:
Well, don’t you think it’s a matter of the, you almost don’t know what you have until it’s gone.
Chris:
It’s exactly right.
Kristi:
Where you think something is annoying or bothersome-
Chris:
It’s true.
Kristi:
I even see people who missed the office, right? They’ve wanted to work from home. They were excited to work from home. And then they’re like, “Get me back in that office.”
Chris:
It’s true. I mean, I sit at home. My wife’s a school teacher, my kids’ in school and I’m home all day long and it’s quiet and there’s no one there. And it gets very isolating through the winter, gets very depressing. I think you forget, like you said, and I’ve said this before, the pandemic enlisted a whole bunch of social experiments that we never wanted to initiate, but all of a sudden we did, right? What would happen if kids all learn from home?
Chris:
What would happen if people all work from home? What happened if we weren’t allowed to go out in certain place, we did all of these things and hopefully we generated data and we’ll learn from some of these things. And I hope I’ve said on this podcast, two things that we recognize the importance of social interaction. And we also recognize the importance of health in all aspects of life. I hope those are some positives that come out of this crazy time. So anyway, let’s start with yourself. So why don’t you just, for those that don’t know you, introduce yourself, what you do and we can start there.
Kristi:
Okay. Well, if you ask me what I do, it probably changes day to day.
Chris:
That’s fun though. That is fun. [crosstalk 00:02:50].
Kristi:
That is the best part of my job probably. But in general, I just produce a lot of content for the Times Union and that’s timesunion.com. That’s the print edition. That’s our social media channels.
Chris:
So for those that are listening to this that are not where we are in the capital district, the Times Union is-
Kristi:
The largest newspaper in the capital region.
Chris:
Okay.
Kristi:
Yes. And so in the capital of New York, which is Albany. So I produce all sorts of content, specifically features type content. My tagline is what is trending in your life and in mind, excuse me. And in mine.
Chris:
In yours. Okay.
Kristi:
Yes. Not mind.
Chris:
And do the two always match? Is what trending in mine.
Kristi:
No.
Chris:
No. Okay.
Kristi:
There are certainly times that things interest other people and don’t interest me or there’s things that interest me and don’t necessarily interest everyone else. I try not to write too much about them because my job is to reach an audience-
Chris:
Correct. Audience, right. Right.
Kristi:
So if I only care about it, then that misses the point. But so I’ll write about it then maybe we’ll go do a video and try something new of something that’s cool in the region. For example, we had the ice castles that came to Lake George, New York, this winter. We went and checked that out and our videos did unbelievably well because people want to see… They want suggestions of things to do, but they want to see and hear what it’s like before they spend their money-
Chris:
Of course they do.
Kristi:
Or go do it themselves.
Chris:
Yes. That’s like people that read the menus online before they go. Do you do that?
Kristi:
Not only do I do that.
Chris:
My wife hates when I do that.
Kristi:
So I do that because-
Chris:
So why? You’re going to know, you’re going to sit down and you’re going to order. And I’m like, “What’s wrong with that?” I don’t know why I can’t do that.
Kristi:
I like a lot of food. I’m not a picky eater.
Chris:
Same.
Kristi:
So I like to look because I’m like, “Well, is it a salmon night or is it a steak night? Do I want pasta? Or do I want to be a little healthy?” I like so much that it’s not like, okay, well, I need a grilled chicken breast, so that’s easy. [crosstalk 00:04:33].
Chris:
So if you’re out, you’re married, you have a husband or?
Kristi:
Yes.
Chris:
Okay. So if you go out and can you order the same thing as your partner or no?
Kristi:
Oh, no I’m no [crosstalk 00:04:42].
Chris:
If my wife’s like, I’m going to get the salmon, whatever. And I was what I was getting, sorry, I need another minute.
Kristi:
Same thing. Even-
Chris:
I can’t do it. I don’t know what that is.
Kristi:
Even if we’re both getting burgers, they have to be different burgers.
Chris:
Very different.
Kristi:
So that we can split each one and then I get more to try.
Chris:
Just like, I eat the same thing as you all the time when I’m home, we have the same dinner.
Kristi:
I agree.
Chris:
When I go out, I need to have my own individualistic situation here.
Kristi:
I agree. Oh, it has [crosstalk 00:05:04].
Chris:
That’s just the way it works. Okay. I’m not crazy. Sorry, this is what happens. I asked you to introduce yourself and then you mentioned something and I want to-
Kristi:
No we’re talking here first.
Chris:
Right. I don’t want to forget to ask this question. You’re talking about writing because you have an audience and you want to engage that audience.
Kristi:
Yes.
Chris:
Do you find that growing your audience that that audience has sort of become an audience that is like you and shares your beliefs? Do you know what I mean by that? Or do you find them to be a range? Because I think a lot of times now in this world of AI and curated content mechanisms, audiences tend to get selected by their beliefs and you form this audience of the same group and they all believe in the same things. And so as someone who’s producing content, you want to produce diverse content, I’m assuming and get a diverse audience. But do you find that your audience is a certain belief set and then you have to cater to that or no? Talk to me a little bit about that.
Kristi:
Well, not necessarily. So I’ve been at the Times Union for more than 20 years. So a lot of my audience has grown up with me, right? I started when I was 21 years old when I started at the Times Union. So there are people who are my age or a little younger or a little older and who have truly grown up. They watch me start out by dating and now I’m married with children. That’s not my only evolution in life, but obviously it’s one evolution in life.
Kristi:
And some of them, I will say, there are people who have said to me, “Look, I didn’t like you at all. And I followed you to just find out who that annoying person Kristi is from the Times Union who I heard about.” And then I have other people who say to me, “You still annoy me every day, but I want to see what you’re going to say or write or do that will annoy me.” And my thing I’ve always said that my job is to be bourbon, not water. I’m not there because you need me. I’m there to elicit an opinion. So either you love me or you hate me, but I don’t want to be water. I don’t want to be that bland in between.
Chris:
Correct. But so the neuroscientist in me comes back to that. We are emotional beings first. All animals are very primitive in that we are driven by emotion. The difference with humans is we’re supposed to, we’ve evolved this way to then think about our emotions and then weigh whether or not that emotion is sound before we act on it. I argue that we haven’t really done a good job of that anymore. We’re becoming more animal like, again, we purely act on raw emotion, but as someone who’s producing content, this is a marketing agency. You have to speak to emotion into what people are feeling. It’s the best way to truly engage somebody. Because like you said, if it’s just water and it’s a necessity, yeah, you need it, but it’s not really going to drive somebody.
Kristi:
Exactly. And I think that’s why I take that approach to thinking. So I have an opinion, right? But one thing that I think that readers frequently say to me, and when I say frequently, I hear this multiple times a month, is that I have a strong opinion. I stand behind that opinion, but I am open to hearing your opinion. And I think that is why I actually attracted more.
Chris:
But that’s important.
Kristi:
That’s what I’m saying. I think that’s why I attract a diverse audience because they know, okay. “Christie takes a firm stance on X. My firm stance is the complete opposite, but that’s okay because she’ll listen to me. She’s not going to come and attack me and say-“
Chris:
You’re not going to be just like, “Listen, this is my way, and that’s it.”
Kristi:
And delete your comment or hide it or say you’re wrong. I’ll listen to you. And I might not agree with you, but that’s okay. I want to hear the other side. I want to be exposed to the other side. I don’t want a world of vanilla or a world of water where everybody thinks like I do or believes like I do because that’s just not realistic.
Chris:
No.
Kristi:
And it’s not a way to function either.
Chris:
No, it’s not. Plus it’s not really that fun to be honest with you. If you’re going to speak completely honest. Again, there’s one thing to pick at things on purpose and to sort of drive people and drive emotion and fear and that kind of stuff. That’s another thing. But there’s another thing to live. That’s another part of this world, you’re allowed to have opinions. You should have an opinion in my opinion. If you don’t have an opinion then what do you have, right? You’re just listening and you’re not doing anything.
Chris:
I think like you said, there’s a way to present it. And I also think there’s that feeling. No one wants that person that’s going to express something and they’re never willing to hear what you have to say. I feel like that’s a major turn off. It happens to businesses a lot of time where like you get in a room and if you don’t feel like you’re being listened to, or your opinion matters, you’re going to leave because why do I want to be here to offer what I’m going to say, if you’re never going to actually consider what I have to say to have any merit, because you’re so wired into what you think.
Kristi:
Well, I think it also knocks yourself confidence.
Chris:
Of course.
Kristi:
If you feel like no one else is ever listening to you, right? You stop wanting to raise your hand. You stop wanting to participate. And I don’t want my readers to stop wanting to participate. Believe me, sometimes I wake up and I see that nine plus on Facebook or all the notifications and I think what is going on-
Chris:
Oh no, no. What happened?
Kristi:
But on the other hand, if it’s the weekend, I don’t always read every comment, but I’ll get to it eventually. I might not get to it until Monday or Tuesday because sometimes comments come in at a rate of a hundred an hour, if it’s a real controversial thing, but I’ll read it. I’ll engage. I will not attack people or pick on them. Because again, I think that you want your audience to feel comfortable coming back and know that they can speak.
Chris:
Right. Safe place.
Kristi:
Even if they disagree with you say, well but that they can-
Chris:
A place where they can voice their [crosstalk 00:09:50].
Kristi:
They can voice their opinion and that you other, the community may come after them. But that I am not going to come after them. That I’m just going to say, “Okay, well look, I don’t see it that way, but that’s-“
Chris:
Right. That I gave you mine now you’re going to give me yours. So before we get into, because there’s a lot in there that I want to talk to you about. But before we do that, you said, you’ve been doing this for a while and you there’s been an evolution in this game of content production, how you present content. And the world of social media has in those 20 years has obviously changed everything. I’m curious to see for someone that’s been in it for this long, do you prefer this way? Is there some times where you’re like, “Wow, I wish I could go back to the older way and do it that way.” Tell me a little bit about the evolution of this and what you found to be very interesting.
Kristi:
All right. Well, I’ll answer your first part. Do I ever want to go back? No. I don’t, it’s exhausting some days. And I swear sometimes I feel like social media ages me because it’s exhausting. That’s the only word I can use.
Chris:
It is exhausting.
Kristi:
With everybody yelling and arguing-
Chris:
Because it’s so fast.
Kristi:
And misrepresenting sometimes, misrepresenting to me, I think is my biggest pet peeve, but right. What is the evolution? For example, when I started at the Times Union, this number may be incorrect, but I want to say we had anywhere between 12 and 17 in the features department, writers. Then there were editors. There were photographers, everything else. Now the department is I now work in the web department, but the features department is just a small group of people as media companies, as a whole, right? This is not exclusive to the Times Union at all.
Kristi:
This is media around the globe. And we used to just write for print. And when you look back at that, you think, well that was easy because I was only doing one thing. Now I’m looking at a story and not just saying here, how do I present the words I’m saying, “How do I present the words?” And then maybe how do I present the visuals that are not the photographers visuals, right? They go out and shoot the photo. What do I do with video? What is the tweet going to say? How am I going to create engagement online? Is there a podcast element to it? Is there radio segment?
Chris:
Correct. There’s a lot of things to consider.
Kristi:
There’s so many, but I actually like that because I think that A reaches a bigger audience and B it also reaches people who have different ways of consuming media. We don’t all consume content, not just media. We don’t all consume content in the same way.
Chris:
Correct. This is true.
Kristi:
So I like to read, right? Obviously, this is my industry and I enjoy reading, but somebody else may say, “No, I would much rather watch it on video. Listen to it on a podcast, see a reel on Instagram.” And I think that ride is important because you are able to appeal to and capture a wider audience as a result.
Chris:
And what about feedback back then? If you’re putting something in the print, I imagine it’s harder to gauge what people are thinking about you and your work or feeling, right? It’s not like you’re saying you don’t wake up to hundreds of comments back then it was just, you put something out and you heard about it. What was the feedback loop like back then?
Kristi:
Well, it’s funny you say that because I think that there was a little bit of a naivete basically back then. I’m sure people disliked me as much as they do now, but I didn’t necessarily know it. So there’d be the 70 year old grandmother who would pen a letter and put it in the envelope and send it to me-
Chris:
Nice. That’s awesome.
Kristi:
And tell me, I missed it [crosstalk 00:12:57] and tell me-
Chris:
Fan mail or hate mail.
Kristi:
No, the fan mail comes to the prisons and the prisons do write to us. The prisoners write to us.
Chris:
Do we?
Kristi:
Yes. That’s a whole other thing, but the prisoners write to us. But it’s the older people who will write and say, “You missed a comma.” Now I was 21 when I started at the Times Union. I used to call my parents sobbing, “Oh my gosh, they think I shouldn’t have a journalism degree. I missed a comma.” And now I look back and think I cried because a lady sent me an email or excuse me, not even an email, a letter about a comma. People didn’t really email as much. I mean, obviously email was around, but it was the letters. Those were the people who-
Chris:
That’s great.
Kristi:
Now they’ll send me direct messages on all platforms that are just rude and sometimes really just raunchy and inappropriate. But I’m like, “Well, that’s 2022 for you.”
Chris:
So that to me is one of the biggest things that I would see as something that you have to shift and adjust. In other words, that feedback loop, you adopt your content. You’re still at heart someone that’s producing content and possibly you were thinking about that similar ways, obviously different now, but it’s the constant coming back at you. Was that hard for you to get used to that you have a tough skin always? Tell me a little bit about that because in this world, in your game, you have to be able to be strong in your conviction and be good with, like you said, people are going to say things that don’t jive with you, you got to be okay with that. So was that hard for you to get over? How was that?
Kristi:
Yes, it was very hard. I talk about this all the time when I give presentations that I was incredibly sensitive and emotional and soft, I know that’s a sensitive word, but I was, I cried about everything. I felt everything was personal. I felt if I screwed up and people were coming at me about that.
Chris:
Which is so not the characteristics that you would require to do what you do.
Kristi:
No, no. And it’s changed tremendously. And I actually remember very early in my career, a Metroland wrote an incredibly unflattering full page story about me, the way I did my work, the way I presented myself, everything.
Chris:
Explain what Metroland is for people I don’t know.
Kristi:
So Metroland was an alternative weekly that was around for quite a long time. And it folded several years ago, and their job was to be edgy. And as someone who’s older and better understands media, now I get it.
Chris:
You know now, right?
Kristi:
At this time it was devastating. I was crushed. I thought it was the worst thing that could possibly happen in my life. It seemed to me worse than if my dog died. It was just terrible. I stayed home from work from three days and stayed in my house until my friend and college Shannon came and got me and was like, “You have to get out of this, get over it. Get back to work”
Chris:
Was it about something particular or just your style in general?
Kristi:
It was my style. We used to do this video series called Night Cam. So they mocked my interviewing style. They mocked my appearance. They mocked my journalist.
Chris:
Wow, it was personal, really.
Kristi:
And it hurt my feelings. I was like, “Oh my gosh. They think I’m like a bad journalist and I’m ugly and I’m this.” It was a whole series of things and it crushed me. But the funny thing is once I stepped away from it, right? I mean, I want to say it took a few days, but it might have even been weeks, months or years. Once I stepped back from it, I still have readers bring that up to me now. And this was a long time ago. I mean, this have been 15 years ago, maybe more. I have people bring it up and say to me, “I started following you because I saw that article in Metroland and I was like, who is this?”
Kristi:
They had no idea who I was, but they thought, well, I’ve got to check it out because the writer at Metroland thinks she’s just worthless. So who is it really? And I have readers who say, “You know what? I stuck around after that because it brought attention to who you were. So now I look at it as like, that was a pivotal moment and actually a good thing.” But at the time I thought it was one of the low points of my career. I had many more low points after that, but at the time I thought it was my low point.
Chris:
It’s funny when people do that, I feel like a lot of times it backfires and it actually works to give that person more attention, create a bigger following and in the end work out better for the person that they’re trying to knock down, right? Because like you said, it creates an interest where there might not have been. People might not have known you or maybe thought about it in that way. And they’re like, let me check that out. And then you then given a new opportunity to show who you really are, right? And like you said, if you retreated, you eventually came back. But imagine if you didn’t?
Kristi:
I know.
Chris:
Where would you be? What would’ve happened? Do you use that? Do you come back to that event in your life now?
Kristi:
Oh, I do.
Chris:
Are you still like, is that so hardened you a bit, you use the word soft, are you now a harder shell? Is that part of how you evolved that way?
Kristi:
I think that was my first experience of what I would call true professional public humiliation, right? I think when you have those various public humiliations, because of the nature of my job, it’s a public job. I don’t typically screw up privately, right? That doesn’t mean I screw up, I screw up-
Chris:
When you screw up, people are seeing it.
Kristi:
But it’s public. And then that makes it embarrassing. And none of us want to be embarrassed, right? And I get embarrassed less now than I did then, but I still have those moments. And I still have those times where I think, oh, it’s Metroland. I can’t even say 2.0, because it’s happened so many times at 20.0, I don’t know, but it happens, right? And you start to realize it happens, but at the time it’s so hurtful. And so upsetting that you think I’m never going to recover from this. I’m not going to get over it. But now I look at it and I sometimes think, okay, well that wasn’t as bad as when that particular reporter came after me from Metroland. So I’ll get over this one too.
Chris:
Right. Tell me a little bit about now in the current, we talk about these lines. I read about it a lot and things I hear about comedians have this weird line nowadays like what we just saw, what happened on the Oscars. It’s very difficult, if you’re going to approach a subject that could possibly be viewed in any possible way as controversial or negative and that could be anything I feel like nowadays, you always can assume, you can do two things. You could just avoid it.
Chris:
Or you can say, “You know what? No, I’m going to talk about it. I have an opinion about it. A lot of people have opinions about it,” like you said, so I’m going to put it out there. I’m going to give you my stance. And then I’m going to let the conversations unfold. Is there a line there for you when you choose a topic? Because like you said, there’s a difference between doing something to just stir things up on purpose and that could be an angle for engagement, but trust me right you know that. Or is it just that like you said, you’re looking for topics that are of interest to people and controversial and things that could be considered controversial, are the things that are interesting people the most. Is that really what happens just part of the game?
Kristi:
It is. But there are certainly topics that I will avoid because I realize that they, instead of leading to helpful engaging conversation, they lead to hurtful, less engaging conversation. And I think to me, those are not the topics that I want to explore. That doesn’t mean. I think that they are not worth exploring. It just means I am not out there to create a platform where people are looking to put somebody in the public down. An example of this is that Lia Thomas, the swimmer with the NCAA and the college. And readers really wanted me to explore that topic. And I posted about it once on a Saturday, about a week or two ago.
Kristi:
And it did exactly what I thought and I didn’t want to post about it, but everybody’s talking about it. And we go back to, I talk about what people are talking about. And I just did a Saturday morning post on social media. And I ended up saying, “You know what, I’m shutting the comments off,” because there’s no value in this conversation. It’s just mean. And so there’s certainly topics that I avoid because I know that people are going to be mean, and that’s not the person or the content I want to produce. So that’s the kind of stuff I avoid even though I know that there are topics that are out there and that are being discussed.
Chris:
Do you find that there are in topics and things like this that people, no matter what aren’t going to… they have their thought, they’re going to go with it no matter what. So I guess the question to people is that then what’s the point, right? So if I’m on the outside, I’m like, “What’s the point.” You’re going to have people that are in that situation, you’re going to have people that say, “That’s wrong.” You’re going to have people that say, “Yes, I agree with what happens.” You’re rarely going to get one to come to the other side. So what is the purpose then and the dialogue there? I’ve had this debate with somebody, and then they’ll say, “Well, then don’t talk about anything then, we’ll never progress. We’re just going to be a country or a society that doesn’t want to talk about anything, because everybody’s always going to be surreal.”
Chris:
It’s like, I use examples like talking to my 94 year old grandma about politics. She’s still alive. She’s still going. She’s still in politics. You think anything I say to that woman is going to make her think differently? No way. She’s so rooted. So when you talk about subject like that, what is the goal there? If it’s never to get some… Like you said, you’re not trying to get people to come to your side. You just want to talk about a topic.
Kristi:
No, but when you say that, I almost think of the term, the silent majority. I think that the bulk of the people, obviously that’s the word majority or the silent majority. And so you hear from those extremists because they’re the loudest on other side-
Chris:
Yes, that I agree with.
Kristi:
But the silent majority might lean a little one way or a little the other way. And they might actually be enlightened or changed by the conversation. So I think you’re not going to change the extremists. You’re just not. That’s who they are. They’re not willing to change. And I say that for both sides. That’s not a criticism of any one group of people. It’s a criticism of the extremists as a whole. So right, we’re not trying to, but they’re going to infiltrate because they have a right to join the conversation. But they’re not the ones who the conversation is necessarily for. It is for the silent majority. I have people all the time who say to me, they read my comments. They read my content every single day. Be it on timesunion.com, be it on my social platforms or the Times Union media companies, social platforms. They don’t necessarily engage, but they consume. And I think that’s who it’s for. And that’s what it’s for. Just because you’re not hearing the voices doesn’t mean those voices aren’t there.
Chris:
I think that’s exactly right. I think that the people that we hear from on Twitter nowadays, and these outlets are the extremes.
Kristi:
The radical, it’s the radical sides.
Chris:
Because they’re the ones that are driven a lot by anger. They have a lot of emotion going on and I still want to believe, and I do believe that there are people that live in that middle, whether they’re left or right, or the middle, but they’re in that sort of if you look at bell curve there, we’re looking at the tails. We’re not in that meet of the curve. And there’s a lot of people out there that are listening that are like, “Wow.” I’ve been trying to do this a lot more, especially in politics. I try to listen to now, I’ve never really did this. I listened to all sides of things. Because I’m trying to understand how everybody feels. And I can see that there is actually consensus if kind of pull through a lot of the noise, but the noise is really loud.
Kristi:
It is loud.
Chris:
It’s super loud,
Kristi:
It’s loud, it’s distracting. It can be upsetting. It can also be all consuming. So sometimes it’s hard to pick through it. But I think that part of kind of existing in this space and especially working in the space, you have to be able to do it.
Chris:
But you need the noise though, right?
Kristi:
Yes you do.
Chris:
Maybe that’s the thing, you need the noise.
Kristi:
Well, that goes back to the drama. It goes back to the pop people. When you mentioned Will Smith and the Oscars, people were upset that was such a big story, right? Because there’s obviously so much going on in our world right now that they feel, and even at the Oscars that they felt deserve more attention. But the idea was, well, people love drama. That was the most dramatic moment, obviously of the Oscars. So that’s what people want to talk about. And it goes back to the never ending popular of reality TV, right?
Chris:
Correct.
Kristi:
Reality TV have taken over sitcoms. People want drama. People want reality. People want noise and that’s noise.
Chris:
So my thing about the whole Oscar thing now that we’re on this, I look at it like this. We’re talking about Twitter. I look at that event as sort of this microcosm of what the heck’s going on in our fringe, in our world in Twitter. People react. They’re very angry. They lash out. And what I’m seeing is that I felt like this can manifest into physical, into real violence, into real acts of aggression that might start happening. That people we’ll start to take to that. And that to me was crazy. Someone got up out of their seat, walked up onto a stage and smacked or assaulted another human being walked back down, sat in the chair, verbally assaulted the person. And everyone went on like it was no problem.
Kristi:
It could stay there and then got to go backstage and say, “Thank you for my award.”
Chris:
And I’m saying to myself, where are we? This is crazy. And so yes, are there things going on in the world that are a lot more serious than Will Smith and Chris Rock? Yes. But if you look at it on a level-
Kristi:
I know-
Chris:
… a bit deeper than that. This is serious because it sets weird precedence. Who’s to say that’s not going to happen now all the time, people aren’t going to try to get up out of their seats at events. They disagree with someone they’re going to go hit. That’s really why, and again, to your point, I think sometimes that’s why things like that need to be spoken about, because there are always bigger, there’s a bigger context to that one little event that seemed like little crazy, but our world is becoming increasingly angry and can be very violent, scary.
Kristi:
And I think it goes to when you don’t like what any of us say, right? Many, many years ago, one of my colleagues was actually hurt, attacked, assaulted in a parking lot locally. And it was from somebody who didn’t like what my colleague had written about. And it goes back to, so is that now still going to be a thing. Okay. You don’t like what I say, whether it’s because I’m presenting somewhere and on stage or you just don’t like what I say. So it’s okay to go up and hit somebody because Will Smith was essentially forgiven for doing just that.
Chris:
Correct.
Kristi:
And allowed to go on. I’m sure he’ll make more movies and all that kind of stuff. So you’re right. What does it say for society as a whole? When, again, we go back to content production because Chris Rock was presenting content. That is what he was doing with a joke.
Chris:
That’s what he does.
Kristi:
And you don’t like that content. So instead of talking to the person, telling them, sending an email, sending a ridiculous tweet, Instagram post, whatever, you go up and you make it physical. You’re right. It extends to a much bigger problem-
Chris:
Right. Extends to a bigger problem. Especially with comedy and comedians, I don’t know how I could be a comedian nowadays. It’s so difficult because your job is to push and push that line and walk over the line. And if there’s any profession where if there was a line you’re going to cross it, it’s that one.
Kristi:
I agree with you.
Chris:
That’s what they do. And as an audience, you go into that setting knowing. I remember going to New York, I grew up going to New York City comedy shows. And I knew that if I was sitting close enough, I was going to get it. They were going to look at me, they were going to make fun of me, they were going to be pinky part of the show. And I was okay with that. But nowadays, I would be very afraid to be up on that stage with an open setting like that and just because I don’t know when people will snap or take it the wrong way. And you’re in this business where speech and being able to speak and have free speech is your job, is really what you do. And I imagine it must bother you when you see some things like this, right? Because like when will it stop?
Kristi:
Well, it does, right? And I think that, again, we all have a right to think as we think. I think we have to think before we speak as well, but then we also have to think before we act or react. So we can’t just all run around raging and saying what we want and doing what we want. It’s everything as an adult it’s what we’re taught as an adult is to think before we get to speak and act. And I do think that a huge part of society hasn’t… I mean, I’ve even had people write me really nasty messages publicly or privately and come back a day, a week, a month, even more time later and apologize. That doesn’t happen often.
Chris:
Really?
Kristi:
They don’t typically apologize, but it happens occasionally a few times a year. And I think that they have a moment to reflect, right? But I think that so few of us reflect and I’m sure I’m guilty of not reflecting sometimes too. But I think that we’re giving people more of an opportunity not to, because there’s not the consequences there. Because like I said, Will Smith acted like a fool and he’s going to be allowed to just continue on doing as he does.
Chris:
Right. And get more view [crosstalk 00:27:55], yeah, I know exactly. People are constantly refreshing their feeds now and following them more to see what they’re going to say about the event. I think you bring up a good point. And this is something that I talked about a little bit, but the human being has evolved to be this higher being because we have this brain that has this ability to be cognitively sound and use an analysis to weigh emotion. And I just feel like we are not doing that anymore. We don’t really think before we act. And because we have these outlets now that allow for an immediate response, right? So I always say, I don’t know if there’s an app for that. I imagine there might be, but a five or ten second delay on the Twitter button is necessary.
Chris:
You press it, it counts down and you have 10 seconds to say, “Should I do this,” eight sec, “You know what, no, I’m not going to do that.” And I think we are so quick to just lash out and put it all out there and start that frenzy, that’s not how humans are supposed designed, because animals are supposed to pounce and attack. They’re not supposed to think.
Kristi:
I know.
Chris:
We’re not supposed to be that way-
Kristi:
We’re humans.
Chris:
We’re humans. We’re supposed to think and we’re social beings and I’m supposed to be and like you and we’re supposed to progress together, but we’re getting away from that. And I don’t know if it’s just because of all the digital stuff, this is a whole nother debate for another day. But it scares me for my kid who’s only going to grow up in a world of this digital input and be fed things like that. It’s a little scary. So I don’t want to get into that too much, because I do want to have a… I’m looking at the time and I want to have a bunch of things I want to ask you still. Mediums. Content mediums. You’re doing video. You’re on radio. You do [inaudible 00:29:32] write. Do you have a favorite? And if you do, is there a reason why you like to do more video or be on radio or something like that other than others?
Kristi:
So I feel like I’m not being loyal to print and the written word, when I say print, I mean, timesunion.com versus the actual prints-
Chris:
Right, written down.
Kristi:
Which I think you should subscribe to, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about, right? The written word. I feel like my loyalty should be there because that’s what I have done.
Chris:
That’s where you strive.
Kristi:
That’s said, I think from a personality standpoint, I love personality. I love getting to know people’s personalities. I love engaging their personalities. I don’t normally like to like their personality, but sometimes I want to dislike their personality.
Chris:
Right, exactly.
Kristi:
And for example, Instagram reels, which I do with my colleague, Jessica Marshall. She and I, you get to know people and they get to know us through doing that. And those seem to be some of our more popular content. So I enjoy that for that reason because I enjoy producing content that is helpful to people that they like, that they find engaging. So I think to produce probably reels and video are my favorite to produce, but to kind of sit on and have to present would be the final written word because I express myself best when I can write it down.
Chris:
You seem like someone that likes to engage like in this forum. So I would imagine like you might love to write and sit there, but I have to imagine you feel really great to get out and just be interactive with people and talk on those mediums, right?
Kristi:
Yes. So in the capital region, we had this thing called the Mac-n-Cheese Bowl this past weekend, which benefited our local food bank. And so many readers came up to me and listeners and viewers and it felt good because it’s been so long.
Chris:
It’s been a while.
Kristi:
But it’s been nice. And they’re like, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I’m like, “Don’t apologize.” Because if you weren’t engaging with me here, that would mean you weren’t engaging with me when I’m not here. And then I don’t have a job. So let’s engage and I do. I think there’s a huge value to that.
Chris:
Do you ever get nervous? You mentioned a friend was assaulted. I didn’t ask you that question. Do you ever get nervous? Because you do sometimes talk about things that people might really, really not like. Do you ever get nervous, someone might approach you or does it ever go through your mind or no?
Kristi:
I mean, I probably should, now that you bring it up, but no-
Chris:
Sorry.
Kristi:
I do.
Chris:
I just created anxiety for you and I didn’t mean to do that.
Kristi:
No. So one thing I do is, I can’t say never, but you will rarely, rarely, rarely see me say where I’m going to be. Rarely. I will say I’m here or I went, but I won’t say later today.
Chris:
Tonight I’ll be here.
Kristi:
I’d rarely do that because of the safety situation. Because unless you’re real determined, you’re not going to say, “Oh, she just posted Instagram that she’s right there. I’m going to get in my car and go down and punch her.”
Chris:
Have you ever been in public where someone has come up to you and been like, “By the way, what you’re doing is terrible.” Have you ever had that like a public confrontation?
Kristi:
Oh my gosh. Oh yes. I Wouldn’t call it a confrontation because of course people, right? They have their muscles on [crosstalk 00:32:05] behind the computer. But I’ve certainly had people come up and tell me they don’t like me. But it’s again, it’s part of my job because here’s my thinking. The only reason you know you don’t like me is because you consumed me-
Chris:
It’s because you’re listening to me. Exactly.
Kristi:
If you haven’t consumed me, you don’t know that you don’t like [crosstalk 00:32:18].
Chris:
Exactly.
Kristi:
And I’m not always likable. So that’s fine. No one is liked by everyone. And I don’t expect you to always like me. So as long as you keep or I’ll say, “Okay, what is it that you don’t like that I do. What would you like to see more of? Is there a topic or conversation?”
Chris:
Do you do that?
Kristi:
I’ve written that, I’ve said that publicly.
Chris:
Do they have anything to say to that?
Kristi:
No.
Chris:
That’s what I [crosstalk 00:32:33] they would say.
Kristi:
No, because they don’t know.
Chris:
Correct.
Kristi:
But think about it, it’s human-
Chris:
It’s just a feeling that they feel.
Kristi:
There’s people you don’t like, and you don’t know why. I was just talking to my friend about this the other day about this other person we both know we don’t particularly care for. And they’re like, “There’s no reason.” This person’s a good person. They’re a good parent. They’re a good community member, but both of us don’t care for this person. And we don’t know why, right? So there’s just sometimes you don’t like somebody for no good reason-
Chris:
But that might say more about you than them.
Kristi:
Yes, exactly. That’s something about your personality that just doesn’t jive with that-
Chris:
Exactly. But that’s okay though, right? And I feel like I’m like that too. There’s certain people that, in your game, in content production, there’s a lot of people out there doing blogs and doing these things. And I just don’t like their style. I don’t like their approach. Sometimes they have an effect that I think is a little… Their stick is too strong. It’s not for me. So I don’t like it. So I don’t watch it.
Kristi:
Right. But there’s a lot of people who like them and those people [crosstalk 00:33:21].
Chris:
They have a very big following, which a lot of people like them. And that’s great. But I would never go up to that person and be like, “By the way, I think you’re terrible.” Because you know what, that’s not really true. They’re not terrible. They’re just not for me. It’s like food. It’s like food. I hate ketchup. I hate it. I have like a phobia of ketchup. I should probably do some serious psychotherapy on it, but I don’t like it. People love ketchup, but you don’t have to hate me for that. Right. It’s just my choice. I don’t like it. It’s just choices. And I think that’s the thing we get really whatever about certain things like this.
Kristi:
We do. But I think it also comes back to the fact, like I said, I definitely present an open forum in the sense that I want to hear opinions from both sides. So I think that also makes people more comfortable to come up to me, because they feel like, well, she says that she’s cool with both sides or hearing an opinion. So I’m going to go give it to her.
Chris:
So you do this piece, you do this 20 things you don’t know about people. So I’m going to ask you, are there certain things that people don’t know about you or have you lay them all out on the table? If you have five things that people don’t know about, what are some of the things about you that people might not know about?
Kristi:
Oh my goodness. Okay. I wish I had better prepared for this. So I have done the 20 things you don’t know about me.
Chris:
Oh, you have?
Kristi:
Yes, I have done it. It was one of the early ones, but I will say the one. So I’ll tell you a few of the things that people most zoned in on when I wrote about it. One is I don’t have many fears, but my biggest fear is elevators and I will walk 20 flights of stairs or more.
Chris:
Really?
Kristi:
If it means avoiding an elevator.
Chris:
You could do a whole show on this.
Kristi:
But I have young children and I don’t want to pass that fear onto them.
Chris:
So what do you do?
Kristi:
I have to sometimes, I mean, I feel like I’m going to have an anxiety attack, but I have to get in the elevator or I’ll send my husband with my kids and I take the stairs. And I just say, I want to exercise.
Chris:
Do you know why that is?
Kristi:
No, I don’t.
Chris:
Are you claustrophobic in other ways?
Kristi:
No, nothing. A plane doesn’t bother me, a small bathroom with no whatever. No, I’m not. I don’t know what it is. I think I’m afraid of the elevator getting stuck, not falling down or anything. Just the idea-
Chris:
Just being in that box for hours-
Kristi:
It makes my heart race for just to say that fear-
Chris:
It’s like, I got to go now-
Kristi:
I’ll be like, “Oh my gosh, what if I need a drink? What if I have to go to the bathroom? What if my phone dies?” There’s so many what ifs. But I’m not afraid of anything, not anything, obviously, I’m afraid of some things.
Chris:
Like a real fear-
Kristi:
But I don’t a litany of fears, but my biggest fear is in elevator.
Chris:
Elevators. Okay.
Kristi:
So that’s the big one. And I guess another one that people really jumped on because they liked it. And I don’t think this is a not-know, but I don’t like breakfast food. So I will eat hamburgers, turkey clubs, leftover pasta.
Chris:
Really?
Kristi:
Right. Food for breakfast. I don’t like eggs or French toast or pancakes.
Chris:
Never, like always.
Kristi:
I mean, no. Someone serving, [crosstalk 00:35:48] yeah.
Chris:
No. I mean like since you’ve been young, did you used to have that as?
Kristi:
No, I never liked cereal even when I was a kid, but I just like real what I call real food. And to me breakfast food is not as real. So I will eat it, right? If I’m someone serving it to me or they’re like-
Chris:
But it’s like, if I’m going to eat a certain number of calories a day, I’m going to eat the calories that I enjoy.
Kristi:
Yes, if I’m going to go out in a diner in the morning, I am going to embrace the fact that diner will serve me-
Chris:
Yeah, exactly-
Kristi:
… a turkey club at seven in the morning.
Chris:
Do you have a favorite diner around here? I live over in Bethlehem. There’s nothing over there. And I’m like, say to my wife, “We need a good diner.” Where we grew up, there were diners everywhere.
Kristi:
I like 76 Diner.
Chris:
76 Diner.
Kristi:
Yeah. And probably Alexis Diner.
Chris:
Yeah. Alexis Diner, which is good.
Kristi:
Those are the two.
Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They’re very, very good. Who doesn’t love a good diner. Especially get that mug. Do you drink coffee?
Kristi:
I don’t. Oh, that’s another thing. I don’t drink coffee or caffeine and I’m a morning person, but that’s not a, not-know, people definitely, definitely know that.
Chris:
So I have a thing with people that don’t drink coffee. So if I was sitting here with a cup of coffee and we were out, you wouldn’t order because if it was like, I said, “Kristi, come meet me at the diner room for breakfast.” We go, we sit. You having a cheeseburger at 9:30 in the morning. I have a cup of coffee and some eggs. Do you drink tea?
Kristi:
No, I do drink water.
Chris:
No hot liquids.
Kristi:
It’s not a hot liquid thing. You talk about eating calories or whatever I’m going to-
Chris:
So you’re going to have a chocolate shake or something.
Kristi:
No, I’m going to drink water and eat my burger so that… They kind of off. I guess it’s like getting a what a diet Coke with a big… What’s it called? A supersized meal or whatever.
Chris:
Oh man.
Kristi:
No, I’ll drink water.
Chris:
That’s really funny.
Kristi:
I don’t. And my husband’s a huge coffee drinker.
Chris:
Yeah. I like same. There was actually a really amazing skit between Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, where they go out to a diner and Larry doesn’t drink coffee, and Jerry’s a coffee freak. And Larry was saying, that’s one of the reasons why I think his wife left him, because he wanted to drink tea and she would drink coffee and she would get in these arguments with him. And he’d say, “Look, I’m holding a mug. It’s steam is coming out of it. And I’m sipping it just like you.” But the fact that there’s no coffee in here, it really bothers people that they don’t like coffee.
Kristi:
That’s crazy.
Chris:
I know.
Kristi:
But you’re one of those crazy people?
Chris:
I’m one of these crazy people.
Kristi:
So maybe I would sip hot water. I don’t know. I don’t like taste of coffee at all. I mean, I don’t take coffee period.
Chris:
Yeah. I mean, the Italian in me, I’ve been forced coffee forever. My son he’s like, what’s, again, he’s nine. I gave him a sip of coffee the other day and he was just like, “This is disgusting. Why do you drink this?” [crosstalk 00:38:06]. I’m like, “Don’t worry kid at some point in time.” Because coffee’s become trendy amongst kids.
Kristi:
Oh, it’s super trendy.
Chris:
But they get like, the cream and the whipped cream. And there’s like these things. I remember Dunkin Donuts back in the day, the coffee coladas were like the jam.
Kristi:
I loved the fruit coladas. See, I’ll do the fruit coladas [crosstalk 00:38:19].
Chris:
Because it’s not real yet. It’s got [crosstalk 00:38:21] all that other stuff. Now you golf. Do you like golf?
Kristi:
I do golf, yes.
Chris:
I saw that about you, you like to golf.
Kristi:
Yes. I always-
Chris:
Are you a good golfer? Describe good Golfer?
Kristi:
Yeah. No, my handicap is not that great. I would say it can border on 30, but I’m awesome in a tournament because I’m tall, right? I’m very tall and I’m very-
Chris:
Very tall.
Kristi:
I’m very tall. I’m six feet tall and I have very long arms. So my go go gadget arms are killer off the tee.
Chris:
So you do like best ball. You can hit a good ball off a tee.
Kristi:
Best ball I’m great because the women’s tees are further ahead than the men’s tees specifically.
Chris:
So you knock that ball out and then you use other people’s shots as the short game shots.
Kristi:
My second shot, my approach is okay, but it’s when you get closer. My chip shots, I know for people who don’t understand golf, this is boring, but my chip shots are not good. My putts are really quite horrible because I’m not patient, but my other shots are great. And that’s why I get invited to be in tournaments because-
Chris:
It’s been Kristi [inaudible 00:39:07].
Kristi:
Yeah, because I’m good for those two reasons. And they’re like, yes, she gets to stay in the cart for the last two shots.
Chris:
I am not a golfer. I overthink everything too much to be a golfer. First of all, I find it very difficult to go out for that period of time and just do that. I can’t give into it. That’s my own problem. I probably should be able to take three or four hours of my day and just chill and relax and have a nice time outside. I can’t do it. And then also I’m in this like George Carlin camp where I’m like, we’re hitting this ball so far, then you have to find it.
Kristi:
You do.
Chris:
And then when you find it, you hit it again.
Kristi:
Hit it again. I know.
Chris:
And then you got to follow it and get it out there. And by I would say like four or five holes in, I’m good. If golf was compressed down, I’d be okay with it I think.
Kristi:
And that’s one of the reason the sport is suffering is because people don’t have the patience for it. But I got into golf because the first job I interviewed for before I went to the Times Union was with the Red Cross. And it was a sort of a Community Relations position. And one of the things they asked me was do you golf? And that was a key component of the job and I did not golf.
Kristi:
And they didn’t call me up and say, “You didn’t get the job because you don’t golf.” But I had to admit, I didn’t golf because if anyone who’s ever golfed you can’t just go out and do that on the first time and know what you’re doing. I would swing it.
Chris:
Right.
Kristi:
So shortly after that, I learned to golf because I thought, okay, well, if I needed it for that job, I’m sure it’s important in other jobs. So maybe I’ll do it. And I has, it’s given me work opportunities. It’s allowed me to meet people, especially being a woman golfer because there aren’t many of them. So that was really what made me learn to golf was because I didn’t get a job.
Chris:
Because you didn’t.
Kristi:
I’m serious.
Chris:
Well, when I went to University of Miami in Coral Gables and they had an elective, that was golf for the business world.
Kristi:
No way.
Chris:
Yes they did. They don’t have it anymore. When I was there, they had it, this was like, they had scuba diving and they had all these, I took scuba. I get credits for scuba. And golf for the business world was basically it’s like planning a golf outing, golf etiquette, as it relates to business. Because a lot of business have business outings and it’s golf and there’s etiquette there. I always, my friends were taking, I’m like, “This is ridiculous,” but I looking back on it and I guess I understand the premise. And especially in the world of finance, golf is a thing.
Kristi:
Oh my gosh.
Chris:
Golf is where deals are closed and met and you bring people out. It’s like a lead generating activity. And I thought now looking back, like they were a little bit ahead of their time there with that. They got rid of that, I wonder why. But it’s interesting. My brother too, Mike, he’s a golf content producer. So he has his own company and it’s golf content and all he does now is he goes out, he plays, he films it and he puts it out there because golf there’s a mass following in golf. I can’t watch it. It’s just not for me. It’s too slow for me.
Kristi:
To watch I get it.
Chris:
But I understand all the benefits of that. We’re getting low on time. So last thing I want to ask you is for people out there, content, producers, young content producers, even older content producers. And they’re trying to figure out that balance. What do I do? What is your advice to them in their career? Do you stick to your convictions, do what you do? Or is there anything that you’ve learned that if you get in an elevator with somebody, if you were able to?
Kristi:
Stuck.
Chris:
And you were stuck and you had all this time to give them advice, what are some things that you would offer to them?
Kristi:
So it’s hard because I would say a lot of days, I’m not even sure I have it figured out, right? Just when I think I have it figured out I screw up-
Chris:
That’s a good piece of advice.
Kristi:
Then I back up. So I think it’s really about not being afraid. I said to my husband recently, if I’m not screwing up, it means I’m just showing up. And I think you need to do more than just show up. Even though showing up is half the battle or whatever that cliche is. Yeah, you’re only halfway there. So you need to take risks.
Kristi:
You need to try, you have to be okay with the fact that you screw up, you have to own it. And then if you screw up, apologize for it. But don’t make an excuse. Say, “Look, I tried it didn’t work. I’m sorry. I’ll try it a different way in the future.” Or, “I’ve learned from it. And I won’t screw up again.” If you screw up in the same way twice, then that’s on you.
Chris:
Right.
Kristi:
But as many screw ups as I’ve had, I would say, I’ve never had a duplicate screw up. And I think that’s what’s made it okay.
Chris:
That’s the most important thing, right?
Kristi:
Because there’re there out there and there’s plenty out there. And some of them have been written about publicly and nationally, but they didn’t happen again. And I think that’s what it comes down to. You learn from it and you’re not afraid to do it. And then you’re not afraid to A apologize or B admit you were wrong or C own it.
Chris:
Correct.
Kristi:
I’m going to go on.
Chris:
I recently did. So I have another show that I do on mental health. And one of the things I talked about was being defensive, and which is like a topic in-
Kristi:
Awful.
Chris:
Yeah. It destroys communication. And one of the things that I talked about was in order to be less defensive, you have to adapt a true growth mindset. You have to acknowledge that you are never static where you are. And because if you are and you think that this is all you are, then of course, anytime someone says something to you that might be a critique or something to offer. You’re going to lash out because why would I ever need to get anywhere else? But if you’re under the mindset that I’m always growing, I’m always looking to get better. Then you could be a little less defensive, but we we have adopted this very rigid. This is who I am. This is all I need. And don’t tell me what to be. Being defensive nowadays is everywhere.
Kristi:
I think it’s so bad. And I will say, that’s actually something that people will say to me often. They’re like, “You don’t really get defensive.” And that doesn’t mean I’m not getting defensive behind the scenes in my head. But I realize outward with publicly that doesn’t help. It doesn’t make people respect you. It doesn’t make people trust you.
Chris:
Right.
Kristi:
And it doesn’t make people want to come back for you.
Chris:
Correct. It makes it worse almost.
Kristi:
So be on the offense if you need to, but don’t be on the defense.
Chris:
Right. Because then it’s just like, whoa, you know what I mean?
Kristi:
Yes.
Chris:
I think-
Kristi:
You seem like a wall.
Chris:
Correct.
Kristi:
You’re a wall that nobody can penetrate. Nobody wants to come near.
Chris:
Defensiveness is only a manifestation of something deeper, like psychological. There’s nothing else there to it. It just tells me that you’re not able to handle any of that.
Kristi:
You’re insecure.
Chris:
Right. You’re something. And so that says a lot more to me about that. Rather you say what you say, I’m okay with that. But when I say something back your reaction tells me more about what you then that, than what you just said. You know what I mean?
Kristi:
You are I think [crosstalk 00:44:59] perfectly.
Chris:
So that’s the way it is. So tell everybody where they can follow you and how they can access your content. Things like that.
Kristi:
So TimesUnion.com is my main platform slash Kristi, which is K-R-I-S-T-I, but you can easily find me in TimesUnion.com or if you just Google Times Union and Kristi again K-R-I-S-T-I, everything comes up. My personal webpage on the Times Union.
Chris:
And your social channels are all there.
Kristi:
All my social channels and then my personal website, which I haven’t updated in forever, but it does exist.
Chris:
Do you have a social channel that you like better to do or no? You said reels you have fun with so.
Kristi:
I love reels. I think I love stalking Instagram. I love participating on Facebook.
Chris:
Okay. Same.
Kristi:
So yeah, digesting and stocking Instagram.
Chris:
That’s funny
Kristi:
Love seeing what people are posting and doing.
Chris:
Do you TikTok? Are you a TikToker?
Kristi:
I love to look, but I’m not out there dancing-
Chris:
You’re not a poster out there dancing?
Kristi:
No.
Chris:
But you watch the craziness.
Kristi:
I watch. You don’t want to see me dance.
Chris:
Yeah.
Kristi:
That would get me a lot of unfollows. [crosstalk 00:45:53]. Yes.
Chris:
I know, I was telling my wife, as my kid gets older, we’re going to have to get on these platforms just to be on the platforms. I have a Snapchat. I never use it, but I have it. And I like to see what’s going on there.
Kristi:
Yeah. I create accounts so that I can have them and look around, but that doesn’t mean… I can’t participate on all of them. I would be working 426 hours a week.
Chris:
Correct.
Kristi:
So I’ve got to pick and choose and see where the audiences the most and focus on those so that I can do those as well as I possibly can versus doing each one just a little bit and doing it poorly-
Chris:
Just a little bit, just a little bit, yeah. Well, I want to thank Kristi Gustafson Barlette, I got it, for coming. Thank you so much for doing this.
Kristi:
Thank you for having me Chris.
Chris:
All of your links, we’re going to put in our show notes. So if people forgot that and they’re looking on the site, you can get it there. Also want to thank Adam Clairmont, who’s over to my left, who takes care of all this stuff. He makes this run for any information about that. You can reach out to overitstudios.com and talk to Adam there. Thanks to the audience for listening and tuning in. I love being back in The Get Overit Podcast studio to be in person with you. But once again, thank you so much for doing this.
Kristi:
Yes. And thank you again for having me.
Chris:
No problem.