After a decade in CRMs and automation, I’ve learned that the real future of business isn’t grind – it’s trust, alignment, and flow.
The Realization
For years, I thought I loved marketing. What I actually loved were the systems underneath it – the CRMs, the dashboards, the automations that made campaigns click.
I was the “marketing girl” who found herself spending more time inside Salesforce and HubSpot than in the ad copy. And here’s what I discovered: the real magic of technology isn’t in the software. It’s in how it brings people together – or how it doesn’t.
That realization is what pulled me into consulting in 2014, and what led me to build KR1STNA Media a few years later. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of working with companies like Ford, Cisco, and Bank of America. But the truth is, the logos aren’t the story. The story is what those projects revealed: the way people struggle, the way teams miscommunicate, the way talent gets wasted – and the way the right systems can turn all of that around.
The Hidden Cost of Misalignment
I’ve seen brilliant sales teams who couldn’t see what marketing was doing. I’ve watched leadership teams make decisions without visibility into the front lines. And I’ve met employees so underutilized they felt invisible.
To me, automation isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about bridges. It’s about making sure people can actually see each other and work in the same direction.
When people are misaligned, it doesn’t just hurt the business. It hurts the humans inside of it. It creates frustration, burnout, and the quiet quitting we’re all talking about right now.
And when people are aligned? That’s when the sparks fly. That’s when work feels less like a grind and more like flow.
The Pause That Made Me Stronger
Like many women, my career hasn’t been a straight line. When my son was born, I stepped back from consulting and took on W-2 project roles. It wasn’t a pause in ambition; it was a choice for balance.
Now that he’s eight, I’m fully back – and with more perspective than ever. That season taught me something I carry into every boardroom and every client call: work has to fit into life, not the other way around.
It’s a truth a lot of companies still struggle with. They push harder, demand more, grind longer. But the people inside those companies? They’re craving flow, not force.
Learning in Public
Today, more than 25,000 people follow me on LinkedIn. That number still surprises me.
Sometimes it feels like a surveillance camera is trained on me – like people are watching, curious what I’ll do next. At first, it was intimidating. I’m naturally shy. I’d rather sit on a Zoom call than record myself on video.
But over time, I realized: influence isn’t about being perfect on camera. It’s about being willing to share your journey. To admit what you’re learning. To connect as a human, not just a job title.
That’s why I believe so deeply in personal brand. We don’t trust companies the way we used to. We trust people. We trust stories. We trust each other.
The Ever-Changing Landscape
When I first logged into HubSpot in 2012, it was basically a glorified keyword tool. Today, it’s an enterprise powerhouse.
I’ve watched Salesforce evolve, integrated tools like GoHighLevel, and seen entire categories appear almost overnight. Technology doesn’t stand still – and neither can we.
“If one person stays in one place too long, they don’t exactly get the opportunity to grow,” I often remind my clients. Continuous learning isn’t optional anymore. It’s survival.
That doesn’t mean chasing every shiny new app. It means staying curious, open, and willing to stretch – both as businesses and as people.
A Woman’s World
For most of my career, I was one of the only women in the room. I learned how to speak louder, push harder, hustle longer. It worked – but it came at a cost.
These days, I feel something different. The culture is shifting. More women are leading, and we’re not leading by the old rules.
“They don’t realize it’s a woman’s world now. It’s shifting. It has to shift. From that hustle, force it, grind, make it happen, push, to let it flow and receive it. The world is shifting. Collectively, it is shifting, and here we are for it. What a beautiful time to be alive.”
This isn’t just about gender. It’s about energy. It’s about building companies that trust, align, and flow instead of force.
The Bigger Picture
Everywhere I look, I see businesses wrestling with the same questions:
- How do we adapt to AI and automation?
- How do we keep our people engaged and aligned?
- How do we build trust in a world where trust is collapsing?
The answer isn’t another dashboard or integration. It’s remembering that tech is about people.
When you put humans at the center, everything else flows.
What Gets Me Out of Bed
I don’t wake up excited to open another CRM. I wake up excited because of what those systems make possible: people who finally see each other, teams who finally click, leaders who finally understand what’s happening on the ground.
I wake up excited because I know the grind era is ending. Flow is coming. And I want to be part of helping us all get there.
I don’t believe the future belongs to the loudest hustlers in the room. I believe it belongs to the ones willing to share their stories, bridge the gaps, and show up as humans first.
I’ve lived enough of both worlds – the grind and the flow – to know which one creates more impact, more trust, and more joy.
And I know I’m not the only one feeling it.
If you’re also navigating this shift – from force to flow, from systems to people, from grind to trust – I’d love to connect. Let’s share what we’re learning and build the future together.
