Title:
Me vs. Me | From Drift to Discipline

Subtitle:
How Kristina Watts Lost 130 Pounds, Completed 75 Hard for 365 Days, and Built a 7-Figure Business

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths.

Let’s go.

Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. You guys, this episode, this friendship literally started in an elevator over a conversation about biceps. I’m down for a conversation about biceps ’cause I work out all the time. That conversation felt very organic to both of our brands, honestly.

And today’s guest is a person who embodies the phrase, “You can rewrite your life at any moment.”

Kristina Watts is a wife, a mom of three. She’s a multipreneur. I love that. So am I. And I like that there’s a title for it. I’m gonna take it. I hope I pronounced it right actually. And she’s on a mission to help women become the most badass version of themselves. In just three years, she has built a multiple seven-figure life insurance agency. Boss babe. She is a boss babe. That’s not what the agency is called. She’s lost 130 pounds. Unbelievable. What a huge accomplishment.

Kristina Watts: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: She completed an entire year of 75 Hard. OMG. I can’t wait to hear about that. And she’s reclaimed her life, mentally, physically, financially. I think that’s the dream for a lot of us. I met her at the EmpowerHer conference in Austin last year. Our friendship started over our biceps, which we showed off on stage together.But we totally vibe each other in so many different ways.

She’s a speaker, she’s inspiring women all over the world. I’m really excited to tell her story this month during Women’s History Month. Because this is a month where we’re amplifying the power of being a woman and all of the things that we can accomplish from our past, our present, and moving into the future.

So, welcome to the show.

Kristina Watts: Oh my goodness. What an intro. Thank you. I’m very honored to be here. I am so grateful that we flexed together on stage and caught that iconic moment on camera. When I saw you, I was like, “Oh girl, those biceps, you don’t get those without a lot of work. I am impressed.” So cheers to that.

Alycia Anderson: I have a lot people that stop me and talk about my arms. But it’s felt pretty good. Inclusive, honestly, that I run into a woman, who literally has matching arms. ‘Cause sometimes I’m almost a little bit embarrassed because my arms are strong and big. Sometimes it feels too much, and you just made me feel like I fit right in with you, and I loved it.

So it was beautiful.

Kristina Watts: You are literally a badass. Like Anyone who looks at those arms and isn’t That was intentional and hard work. Like acknowledges, like. Okay, I see you.

Alycia Anderson: Sister. Touche. We thoroughly enjoyed making the marketing pieces for this podcast because of that iconic picture, and we’re having a ton of fun with that.

So we bonded over biceps.

Kristina Watts: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: Our listeners are probably like, “What the heck are they talking about?” But yeah, we bonded over biceps, we flexed, we showed off. What about that season of life, finding strength physically and mentally? How did that become your priority?

Kristina Watts: Yeah. Oh, man. This is honestly such a deep question for me. I’ve struggled with my weight my whole life. It’s funny because I went through a phase probably four or five years ago, where I was 275 pounds and decided, “I’m just gonna embrace body positivity. I’m just gonna love myself at every phase of this.” Because I’ve been high and I’ve been low in my weight.

People ask me all the time, “But you were still so confident no matter what your weight. You were still so confident no matter what you weighed, no matter what you looked like.” And that’s because I made a conscious choice to stay confident no matter what my body looked like. I also know that when I was at my heaviest, yes, I chose to be confident, but I know that my health and my body was actually holding me back from being the version of me I was made to be. I was strong, and I was beautiful and confident at all of my sizes. But I came to a point 3 years ago where I was just looking in the mirror and know, “Man, I’m called to do something really big.” But that starts with me versus me, and becoming really confident with who I am from the inside out.

I feel like the last three-year journey for me of putting my health first, of getting the biceps, losing 130 pounds, doing 75 Hard for a year. I also ran my first marathon last year, and I hate running. I hate running, but I came face-to-face physically with me versus me because I knew I had to shed all those layers that were holding me back.

Those pounds were physically holding me down from being everything I know I was made to be.

Alycia Anderson: Wow.

Kristina Watts: So it’s very nuanced, where I’m like, “No, I was confident then.” I still was confident, I still was making impact. I still was inspiring women, but there was just a piece of me that knew. My knees hurt, my feet hurt.

I can’t buckle the seatbelt on an airplane. And I was too ashamed to ask for a seatbelt extender, so I just pretended I was buckled. That’s not safe. I would look at chairs and wonder if I could fit in them. That would be my worst nightmare to go to a restaurant and look at the chair before I sat down and know I’m not gonna fit in it.

And that’s all baggage you carry that hinders you from shining your brightest, whether we wanna admit it or not. So I just had to get really honest with myself three years ago. It was almost three years ago exactly where I was like, “I can’t do this anymore. And if I’m gonna truly walk the walk, talk the talk, that includes my physical self as well.” So yes, the physical results are very obvious. I got a six-pack now. I got biceps. I have a lot of extra skin, still. My body’s far from perfect because of where I was. But I finally feel like I’m looking in the mirror, and my inside is matching my outside.

Alycia Anderson: I love what you said, that you had to challenge yourself first, one-on-one.

Kristina Watts: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: Take a deep look within, see where you needed to make some changes. I think a lot of us need to do that, whether it’s weight or other things that we’re struggling with about eliminating all the noise that’s around us. “Who’s doing what, I’m not there yet.” All the things that we stress about as women and just people navigating this world that is so unbelievably just wild right now. That really hit home for me because I know that there’s things that are holding me back from shining brighter It’s all internal. So I think that’s a really important lesson for all of us. Everybody who is not following, tell me your Instagram right now so we can just put it out there.

Kristina Watts: The dot Kristina. And it’s Kristina with a K. K-R-I-S-T-I-N-A dot Watts. W-A-T-T-S.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. You’re such a motivator to follow. When we met, I had no idea that you had this whole journey of weight loss and all the things. When I started stalking your Instagram, you look very consistently you throughout any phase or season of life that you are in. I think, again, looking internal, whether anybody’s noticing that you’re doing it or not, is probably the most important work you could do for yourself.

So, congratulations on that. I think you’re inspiring a lot of other women that, “She can do it, then I can do it, too.”

What have you had to let go, emotionally or mentally, as you’ve gone through your transformation? Has there been things that you’ve let go and gained?

Kristina Watts: First one, you have to let go of other people’s opinions of your journey. That’s number one. A huge piece of my weight loss has been a GLP-1, which is highly debatable in a lot of social media right now, but it saved my life. Here’s the truth. Three years ago when I decided to bet on myself, I’ve always had to self-pay for it.

I was up to paying like a thousand dollars a month for these GLP-1 peptides, or whatnot, to assist in my weight loss. And of course, consult your doctor, or whatever, if you wanna look into it. I did it before it was mainstream. And then right after I started it was when a lot of fear-based stuff was coming out about people who just didn’t know what it was, or that it’d been around for a decade, or the results.

But when I found out about it, I knew, “I gotta bet on myself. I have to bet on myself right now, and I have to quiet the noise of everybody else.” One friend said to me, “You know what to do. You’re just being lazy and not doing it. I’m like, “No, that’s not it.” I was a CrossFit coach for years before that.

I’ve done all the right things. I could not lose this weight. I had to quiet that noise. I had to quiet the fear. My mom, my sister, my dad, all of them so scared of me taking this medication. By the way, they’re all on it now, as well. They’re all on it now, and so proud of me now. But at the time, I had to quiet the noise of everybody else. I had to get quiet in general.

So that was the first thing I had to let go of, because by nature, I wanna always bring people on a journey with me. One of my favorite quotes ever is, “In a world of ‘Look at me’ girls, be a ‘Come with me’ kind of girl.” So it was actually really hard for me not to share my journey publicly when I started it.

But I knew there was gonna be so much criticism that I had to do it in quiet. I had to do it just for me. It was only once I’d lost 60 pounds that I was like, “Okay, I feel confident enough now to bring people on this journey with me.” So number one, I just have to let go of other people’s opinions.

And even now with the results I so clearly obviously have, there’s so many opinions on it. But I’ve had to get really strong in that. So that was the first thing. Emotionally, and this is still my journey, is letting go of the identity I carried for so long of being very overweight. I was 274 pounds at five five. And I carried that.

Sometimes I, even still now, will look in the mirror and be like, “That’s not me. There’s no way that girl is fit. That girl is fit.” So I had to let that go. And it’s a journey. It’s a never-ending journey when you reinvent yourself. The physical part was actually the easy part compared to the mental journey I’m still on of, “No, this is me. This is really me. I’ve really done it. I really am the fit girl now. I really am now the girl that wants to work out twice a day. I really am the girl now that runs marathons.” When I stood at the starting line of that marathon, ingrained in my brain was so hard, the vision of me being 270 pounds, that I should be in the back of the pack.

‘Cause when you start, when you line up for a marathon, you line up in order of fastest to slowest.

I’m like, “I should be the girl in the very back.” And there were 12 corrals. I did the Every Woman’s Marathon, which was an incredible experience. If you are a woman out there and you want to run, Every Woman’s Marathon, the next one is in, I think, February, New Orleans next year. The finish time is longer. So if you’re gonna walk it, you can walk it. It’s just so inclusive. It is the most inclusive marathon out there, which is so important to me. Women of all shapes, sizes, and abilities being encouraged and supported. It’s not about speed, it’s about the fact that you’re brave enough to get out there and do it.

So there’s 12 corrals, and I was in corral number four based on projected finish time. I could’ve been in three or four, and that blew my mind. I was standing there and I was looking around at the women to my left and my right. And they were fit women. They were lean, they were strong.

They looked like runners. At a moment looking around thinking, “I don’t belong here. I belong in the back.” It wasn’t until mile five, of 26 miles, that I got my stride and I was like, “Oh, I belong. I belong here. I worked for this. I’m a runner. I’m fit. I’m healthy. I trained for this. I belong.” It’s the mental and emotional side of allowing yourself to evolve and become a new version of you.

It’s a conscious, constant rewiring of your brain of, “No, we’re gonna capture that thought. Nope, that was old Kristina. This is who I am right now.” I think that was it. One, the opinion of others, and two, just the brain work of, “This is who I am.” And letting go of the old versions and not feeling shame about them.

I don’t feel shameful about where I was, or who I was, or what I look like. I’m so proud of those versions of me for getting me here. So proud of my body for doing what it did and carrying all that weight for so long. But this is the new era, and learning to embrace, that’s the hardest part.

Alycia Anderson: A couple things that I love about what you just said. Number one, that you look around and mile five, you realize that you do really belong and that you created that for yourself. We talk about belonging a lot on this show and in the work that I do. I like this message of being very proactive in adapting and finding that place of belonging for yourself if you’re fighting for it and everything else around you is not creating space. I think that’s a really powerful story. And I love how you’re acknowledging the eras of your life and honoring them, but also being willing to keep them where they should be in your life path and in your story. Again, women, diversity, disability, whatever it might be, we get stuck on, I get stuck on the Alycia that was not a strong voice, that didn’t know how to advocate for herself.

And I find myself falling in that trap a lot and having to be very conscious about, “That was part of you, and she’s in there somewhere, but it isn’t who you are today.” So I think those lessons are so powerful and so beautiful. Incredible.

Kristina Watts: When I can learn to be grateful for it, too. God put me through that so that now I can help other women through it. You were the version of you that didn’t have the strong voice and who felt what you felt, because now look at the impact you get to make.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. That’s the way we relate to each other. I meet women, they’re like, “Oh, you were like that. I was like, “Yeah, for most of my life.” Literally, most of my life.

Kristina Watts: Most of my life. Most of it.

Alycia Anderson: And I think being authentic about it and really sharing that truth is how people can relate, and then see something in you and believe in themselves.

Okay. So let’s talk about this 75 Hard thing. First of all, I want you to explain I know what it is, but just briefly, in case anybody doesn’t know what it is, because I actually cannot believe you did this. Can you just talk about it? ‘Cause I think it’s fascinating, to be honest.

Kristina Watts: Yes. It only ended three and a half weeks ago, but it feels like a lot has passed. And I told my husband, “I feel so lost. It’s been three and a half weeks.” He’s like, “You climbed Mount Everest last year, you can take a break. It’s okay.” But I didn’t technically. I would love to climb Everest, but maybe not.

75 Hard is created by Andy Frisella. It is designed to be 75 days, two workouts a day. They both have to be 45 minutes long. One has to be outside, no matter the weather. That doesn’t mean in your garage with the door open, it means outside. Okay? So two workouts a day, every day.

One outside. You have to drink a gallon of water. You have to take a progress picture. You have to read 10 pages of a personal development book. No alcohol, no cheat meals. Stick to a diet of your choice. If you miss any one of those things, you start over.

Alycia Anderson: Wow.

Kristina Watts: I have done 75 Hard before, and it’s so transformative, truly. I always tell people who are starting it, “Get excited to meet the version you are on Day 75.” So, on January 1st of last year, I went for a silent walk, which I’m very passionate about. A silent walk. Because it just clears your mind. Whatever that may be for anybody. Silence, just sitting with yourself.

And I just knew, “I don’t want this year to look like any other year I’ve ever had.” I listened to a podcast, previously, by Ed Millet that was like, “Do not live the same year twice.” And I was determined. I was so sick of getting to December 31st and almost reaching the goal, or not reaching the goal, or realizing I was still stuck.

I still didn’t have the income I wanted. I still didn’t have the body I wanted. I still didn’t move drastically towards my goals. So I declare January 1st of last year, “This will be my ‘I did it’ year. The year that I did it, that I’m proud that I made massive changes, that I’m not living a year like any other year I’ve lived before.”

So I decided to start it with a 75 Hard because I wanted to remind myself that I’m a woman of my word, and I can do hard things, and I do what I say I’m gonna do, which is that 75 hard app and checking the boxes. Did it. Success. Next, next. And it was about day 60, where I realized this has actually been really easy.

This hasn’t been hard for me at all this round because I was just so locked in. And I’m like, “I need to do it until it’s hard.” So I had the crazy idea that I’m gonna do 75 Hard for 365 days. And I shared it on social media, ’cause that’s what I do for accountability. There was, again, a lot of noise on me.

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Kristina Watts: “That’s not sustainable. That’s not healthy. Don’t do that. That’s too extreme. That’s too drastic.” Listen, my two workouts weren’t balls-to-the-wall workouts. Sometimes it was a 45-minute walk and then yoga inside, depending on my body and my energy level. I very much honored that. But then one of my 75 hour hard days was running a five-hour marathon, and the other one was stretching. It was incredible and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There were days that I was chugging 40 ounces of water at midnight and doing my second workout at 1:00 AM, because I went until I went to sleep. But that is where I developed the biceps, and the abs, and got super lean, super focused. I realized, “Man, I thrive in structure so much. I strive in purpose so much.” I lead a really big team of mostly women in life insurance. And one woman said to me, “Man, Kristina, this is so nice of you to do 75 Hard all year, so that if we wanna jump in and do it with you, we have a partner to do it.”

And I was like, “Oh no, girl. That’s not why I’m doing it. I’m not doing this to be nice to you. If anything, I’m doing this to be mean to you, to prove to you if I can do a year, your excuse for not completing 75 days is pretty invalid, right?” And she was like, “Oh, I didn’t think about it that way.” I’m like, “So let’s go.”

She, in fact, did not finish her 75 Hard. We actually just talked about that today. She’s like, “Why did I quit?” And I’m like, “Let’s dig into that.” But it was a year, and I learned so many lessons. That bottom line, “If you want to, you will.”

Alycia Anderson: I like how you upped the game for yourself. You committed to something and you saw that you could go bigger, and you decided to reestablish the rules of engagement for yourself. I think that’s also something that we can all learn from. ‘Cause it’s easy to set a goal and you start navigating, “Oh, it’s gonna be easy. Did it, done.” And not a whole lot of learning came out of it, ’cause it was just, here today, gone tomorrow, did it. So I like the accountability of the up in the game for yourself, until it’s frigging hard.

Kristina Watts: And I will say the week of Christmas was the hardest. The final week of this was the hardest week. It’s Christmas Day and I’m outside working out. It’s New Year’s Eve. My final day was one of my hardest days. It’s my daughter’s birthday, as well, and we’re throwing a New Year’s Eve party.

My outdoor workout, my last day of 365 Hard, I had a party with 40 people happening in my house. And I went outside with an outdoor heater doing a dumbbell workout with my app. My friends came out and cheered me on. I had removed myself from the party I was throwing to finish it. Because if you want to, you will, you’ll find a way.

A lot of people will fail on 75 Hard ’cause they’re, “It was hard. It was a travel day.” Oh man. I think the most beautiful days of 75 Hard are the hard days. Because you just have to be so intentional about, “How am I gonna pour into me?”

I had a lot of travel days last year. So, one of my indoor workout would be speed walking through an airport. I’d get to the airport early to have 45 minutes before I boarded to speedwalk through the airport.

I’d land where I’m going before I get in my rental car. I’m doing a workout outside before I get in my rental car.

So you just have to be really creative in that. But it forced me last year, in a world where we serve mom, boss, wife, daughter, sister, community member. It’s my son’s senior year of high school football. We feed the whole football team at our house every Thursday. Giving, giving, giving.

Where I had to constantly make the choice every day, this is for me. Every day I filled my cup for a year.

Alycia Anderson: What are you gonna do now?

Kristina Watts: Right? Listen, I dunno. Literally this morning, I was like, “Okay, I still need to decide what’s next. What do I take from the strength that I built last year, physically, mentally, emotionally? The consistency, the dedication. All of it. Now what do I do?” Number one, most of all this year is to pour it back. How can I help other women have their own transformations?

I’m not saying they have to do 365 Hard, or even 75 Hard. But to be able to look and say, “How do I create my, ‘I did it’ year?” Because that’s what I truly felt on December 31st. For the first time, maybe, ever. I did it. I hit my goal weight. I ran a marathon. It’s been on my bucket list for probably 20 years.

And I’m someone who hates running. When I tell you I hate running, I’ve never experienced the running high, maybe once or twice. And that’s what my husband always reminds me. That’s what makes it so epic. If you love to run and it was your passion, “Cool, you ran a marathon.” But you hate this and you’re doing it.

So how do I help other women create their “I did it” year? The year where they can look back and say, “I did it. I took the steps towards becoming her. I took the steps towards the crazy thing the world said I couldn’t do and I quieted the noise. I just sat with me and what I want, and it doesn’t have to make sense to anybody but me.” Last year, made sense to nobody in my family.

They didn’t get it at all. They don’t live in this personal development speaking, entrepreneurship space that I do. They did not get it. I’m talking two weeks until I’m done with 365 Hard. My mom’s like, “Haven’t you done enough?” I’m like, “Can you not say those words to me, please?”

This is where you need to be. You are two weeks out. You don’t quit now. She said to me, “Nobody would know if you quit now.” I’m like, “That’s not the vibe.” What’s next this year? I’m still deciding. I’m still deciding, and I’m giving myself time and space to do that, which is also stretching me.

Because I’m go, go, go. It’s stretching me right now to allow myself to sit in this post, massive 2025 year, and decide what is next. I know for me, a lot of really big goals are speaking more, coaching more, leaning into building my brand. And now being strong enough to be like, “I deserve to hold this space and I deserve to be that version of me now that I’ve always dreamt of being.”

Alycia Anderson: I think that’s the space that you belong in, among all the other things that you’ve built and are building. From a speaking standpoint, you’re very dynamic on stage. Your story’s incredible, and you’re very motivating. You should be on stage. I think we talked about that at EmpowerHer.

Kristina Watts: Honestly, it’s my God-given gift and calling. I think before I floundered with it, ’cause I was like, “What story am I gonna tell?” Really for me, the last few years has been building my story. And I’ve had to do that. I had to come face-to-face, me versus me every day.

You know how many times I wanted to pick up the thing that I shouldn’t be eating, me versus me every single day. And never would I have thought a few years ago, I’d be the woman that did that. That ran the marathon, 75 Hard for a year, all the things. Yeah, now I get to own that. So that’s my next level-up.

We all have just the layers of, “Okay, what’s next? What’s next? How do I not fall back into the drift?” I call it being in the drift, right? Kids, school, dinner, laundry, clock into work, clock outta work. And before you know it, you’ve drifted through a month, a year, five years. I wanna teach women to stand in the drift.

Just stop. You’re just gonna stop.

Alycia Anderson: There’s two things I want you to talk a little bit about, and I wanna end with your coaching and all those things. But it’s no little feat to create a multiple seven-figure business that you’re lifting women up. It sounds like there’s lots of women that work for you.

For the women that are listening to this show. Women, everybody, I’ll be inclusive, that feel stuck. Talk about that journey just a little bit with building this business and getting to the place financially that serves you. I was listening to this podcast and I’m living by this, that I am the abundance. Money gets me from point A to point B, but it’s not my why. And I’m really trying to lean into that myself this year. But there’s a lot of financial goals that I wanna get to, too. Talk about that just for a minute, to help us be you.

Kristina Watts: A few things. So, in our, I call it my big girl job, right? We own a life insurance agency. We have hundreds of agents all over the United States. It’s incredible. So number one, I get to help clients who haven’t thought about protecting their future and their legacy.

So I tell people, “I get to protect your legacy while building my own legacy.” Most of the agents in my agency are women. Most of them are moms. A lot of ’em also have other jobs. What I get to do on the regular is help them, again, stand in the drift, learn a skill. But then believe in themselves enough to do it because this is sales, right?

Believe in themselves enough that they can build the income that they want. When I started our life insurance agency, I had previously lost a business where I’d gone from making $25,000 a month to $2,500 a month over a nine month period. I started this business broken and broke, and 274 pounds.

And so it’s no coincidence to me that all the financial success and physical success came together, because it comes together. ‘Cause you’re focused on becoming the best version of you, it’s going to bleed out into your business, into your success. I also wanna encourage women like, “Don’t be ashamed to claim I wanna make 30K a month. I wanna make 50K a month. I wanna make a hundred thousand dollars a month.” I just believe any of that’s possible. The life insurance space is one thing where it’s the most self-made millionaires in the world come from the insurance space. Anything is possible. But so often for people, what’s holding them back is their own belief in themselves.

So whether it’s insurance, whether it’s any other business you have, the thing that’s holding most people back is the belief in themselves piece. Belief that they’re worthy, belief that they’re capable, belief that they’re enough, and belief that version of them, that is that most badass version of them, is literally just inside them waiting to be uncovered.

So the real work, no matter the industry, is that.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I talk about that a lot too. Create a best friendship with who you are. Unleash that. Let her come out.

She’s waiting politely for you to be ready, and she’ll wait there your entire life, if you’re not bold enough to just grab her hand and try.

I think that’s a reallypowerful lesson and beautiful. I feel like we could talk for literally hours. My community is gonna absolutely freaking love you so much. Tell us where we can find you, how we book you, what you’re dreaming of, and all the things for the people that are listening right now.

Kristina Watts: I love it. So this year for me, like I said, is me finally taking the confidence of what I built last year to be like, “Oh no, I am also worthy of being on the stage.” And I speak on stage a lot for the insurance industry. That’s my zone. But I’m like, “Okay, no, it’s time to own my story and impact as many women and men as possible.”

Women are drawn to me, but I work with men, too, spoiler alert. Everyone struggles with this. Instagram’s where I live, honestly, at the.kristina.watts. I have a link on there, and it’s gonna continue to evolve through the year. Probably by the time this is released, I’m gonna have more links on there for how people can work with me one-on-one, how people can book me for keynote speeches. What I’m really working on right now is a keynote speech on how to create your “I did it” year. How to look yourself in the mirror and realize, “This ain’t it. How do I do it? How do I recognize it? How do I dream it? How do I do it? How do I become that version of me I know I’m made to be?” But then the actual tangible steps. “Let’s go. Let’s do it. Here’s what I did, here’s how.” My whole goal with speaking is to be a lighthouse speaker. You’re a lighthouse speaker.

Alycia Anderson: Oh.

Kristina Watts: It was Jess Ekstrom, who’s another incredible speaker who says, “You’re either a spotlight speaker, ‘Look at me, look how amazing I am’, or you’re a lighthouse speaker, reminding people how amazing they are and come with us.” That’s my goal this year. I’ll be leaning into coaching, working one-on-one with people, speaking, and probably writing my first book.

So that’s what’s next.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, it sounds like that’s a book, too, so I love it. Congratulations on being a total badass. I’m so into it. I’m so happy that our life paths crossed. That was so incredible. If we didn’t end up being in the elevator together, I don’t know that we would’ve even connected. We probably would’ve, but not like that. I’m really happy that we are now friends and supporting each other. Maybe we’ll end up I think we already said this, but end up on stage together one day. That would be awesome.

Kristina Watts: I’m so here for that. Yes.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, me too. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

You know what, before we end, it is Women’s History Month. I put together, let me look, a couple little lightning round questions because I wanted to see how you would answer a few things. Can we do that before we go?

Kristina Watts: Absolutely. I love it.

Alycia Anderson: Okay. A woman, past or present, who embodies power to you?

Kristina Watts: I am gonna have to go with Sarah Blakely Spanx.

Alycia Anderson: She is top on my list, too.

One word you’d use to describe women who have become.

Kristina Watts: Free.

Alycia Anderson: Oh, free. That’s good words. Gimme the chills. Strength or softness, if you had to choose one.

Kristina Watts: Strength always.

Alycia Anderson: Me too. A belief about women that you had to unlearn.

Kristina Watts: They should stay quiet.

Alycia Anderson: Oh, I like that. The most underrated superpower women have.

Kristina Watts: Oh my gosh. That could go so many places with this. I think just presence.

Alycia Anderson: I agree with that.

Kristina Watts: I think sometimes all you need to do is just be in the room. And if you hold yourself, just being in the room matters. Can shift everything.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. And leadership. I think we’re underrated in our leadership.

You know what I mean?

Kristina Watts: Completely, yes.

Alycia Anderson: My work for 2026 is leadership. I wanna be big in that. I’m tired of not being fully in that space.

Kristina Watts: You know what’s so cool is, my whole life I’ve been told, “You’re a leader. You’re a leader, you’re a natural born leader.” It didn’t hit, ’cause it was just said to me all the time. I think, for a time, I was a loud leader where I was like, “I’m leading. I’m a leader, I’m a leader, I’m a leader.” So for me this year is very much about, “You know what I stand for. I’m in this room, so we’re all gonna raise the standard.”

Alycia Anderson: I love it. Okay, two more. Biceps or boundaries.

Kristina Watts: Biceps.

Alycia Anderson: One thing every woman deserves more of.

Kristina Watts: Red lipstick.

Alycia Anderson: Ooh, I like that. I need to wear more red lipstick.

Kristina Watts: Lipstick is power. Okay. I am so passionate about how powerful lipstick is. The studies on lipstick and the authority you have in the room when you come in with the right lip color on, it’s unapologetic. More women need to be wearing red lipstick. So I could talk about this forever. The right lip color, it’s saying like, “You’re wrapping the package. My words matter. My words have value. My words have weight, and I’ve put it into myself physically because I know what’s about to come out.” Yeah, there are tons of study on how you are looked at as someone of more authority and more credibility when you wear lipstick.

Alycia Anderson: It’s not a weakness, it’s a strength. Kristina, thank you so much for coming on the show. This was so fun for me. I could do this all day.

Kristina Watts: I adore you. I’m so grateful. Just thank you. For asking me to be here, truly.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. Heck yeah. We’ll leave all of your information on the show notes, so our community can go and click, follow, subscribe, book, and all the things.

Thank you for sharing your power. Happy Women’s History Month. A special thank you to our community for showing up every week. Please share this episode, it’s so powerful. It can help so many other women. We will be back next week. This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia and Kristina, and that is literally how we roll on this podcast. We will see you next time.

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