Ep. 67 with Constantina Watters | Founder & Owner of Sproute Creative

Embracing Your Multifaceted Self While Building a Business

What if your definition of success doesn't match what others expect it to be? In this illuminating conversation with Constantina Watters, founder of Sproute Creative, we explore the delicate dance between motherhood and entrepreneurship, and how redefining success on your own terms might be the most powerful move you can make.

Constantina shares her journey of launching a business during the 2008 recession, only to have her entrepreneurial path transformed when her son was diagnosed with food allergies. Rather than abandoning her dreams, she adapted them—creating a business model that served her family's needs first. This pivot reveals a profound truth: entrepreneurship doesn't have to follow a predetermined path. It can be molded to fit your life, rather than forcing your life to fit your business.

We dive deep into the practical strategies that have helped Constantina thrive, including the art of compartmentalization—being fully present in whatever role you're occupying at any moment. As she explains, "It's when we are trying to straddle both worlds that we get really frustrated." For women especially, who tend to replay conversations and situations in their minds, creating mental boundaries preserves energy and protects peace.

Perhaps most refreshing is Constantina's perspective on life phases. Everything is temporary—both the challenging seasons and the rewarding ones. Each phase requires us to show up differently, to adapt our approach and expectations. "We are the carrier of ourselves. Wherever we go, it comes with us," she reminds us. Our identity isn't tied to any single role or achievement.

Whether you're considering entrepreneurship, navigating motherhood, or simply seeking more harmony in your multifaceted life, this episode offers permission to create your own definition of success and embrace the beautiful, messy process of becoming your fullest self. 

Connect with Constantina:

•  LinkedIn: Constantina Watters 
• Website(Business): Sproute Creative
• Website(Personal): Constantina Watters

Contact the Host, Kelly Kirk:

• Email: info.ryh7@gmail.com

Get Connected/Follow:

• The Hue Drop Newsletter: Subscribe Here
• IG: @ryh_pod & @thekelly.tanke.kirk
• Facebook: Reclaiming Your Hue Facebook Page
• CAKES Affiliate Link: KELLYKIRK

Credits:

• Editor: Joseph Kirk
• Music: Kristofer Tanke

Thanks for listening & cheers to Reclaiming Your Hue!

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Constantina and Her Colorful Presence
• 16:36 Balancing Motherhood and Entrepreneurship Beginnings
• 31:41 Compartmentalization and Emotional Intelligence
• 48:28 Moving Through Failure and Learning Quickly
• 1:05:01 The Evolution of Sprout Creative
• 1:20:59 Lifting Others Up and Community Building
• 1:34:51 Modeling Success and Life Phases

Transcript

Kelly Kirk: 0:01

Good morning Konstantina, Good morning Kelly, how are you?

Constantina Watters: 0:04

I'm good, good.

Kelly Kirk: 0:07

I just have to say you're a vibe. I love the outfit. I know I mentioned that already, but seriously, it's now. Did you, did you do like a color analysis?

Constantina Watters: 0:25

I don't know, probably years ago, but I deal with color a lot and I'm always trying on new things. So, um, I think color can be very expressive and um, yeah, there's so many great um resources, though, to like find your colors in there. By the way, thank you so much for having me.

Kelly Kirk: 0:38

You're so welcome. You're so welcome. So, interestingly enough, I actually I just had a gal on the podcast who she's a stylist. That's primarily what she does, but she does color analysis as well. It's not something that she promotes on her website, but she mentioned it in the interview and I was like well, you've been on the podcast, I now have a sense of who you are. I think that this might be something I'd like to explore. I think I've got a pretty good sense of some of the colors that go well for me, but so the listeners already know this. We only do audio, and so I'm just going to paint a picture for them. Okay, constantina walks into the house and she's got this very stylish outfit on beautiful kind of greenish blazer and matching shorts, and it's just beautiful Because it's 80, almost 80 out there.

Constantina Watters: 1:31

I know.

Kelly Kirk: 1:32

We got to prepare right.

Constantina Watters: 1:33

We're sweating but we're like cool on top but like hot on the bottom.

Kelly Kirk: 1:36

Yes, yes, 100% Okay. So let's go ahead and dive in. The first question I'd like to ask you after you take a sip of your tea is how did we get connected? Would you, would you mind sharing how it is that we are connected?

Constantina Watters: 1:52

Do you remember, do I remember? Well, I want to say I think it was at our shine with confidence event. That was in December, and you had come to that event. Did we connect before then?

Kelly Kirk: 2:04

We did, oh my gosh, I'll refresh your memory.

Constantina Watters: 2:07

Okay, please do.

Kelly Kirk: 2:08

Okay. So, allison, it's okay, Allison, reinert had a get together at her house. She owns Ali Mata, that's right.

Constantina Watters: 2:23

And Ali Mata.

Kelly Kirk: 2:24

Boutique. And then Stacey Stratton is who brought all of us together at Allison's house.

Constantina Watters: 2:30

That is so you know what You're right. Yep, that was an amazing event. Stacey Stratton's awesome, isn't she?

Kelly Kirk: 2:35

She's a rock star.

Constantina Watters: 2:37

Oh my gosh, all the women in that room were fantastic. And now I remember that. Yes, because what happened was we scheduled our connect for a little bit later.

Constantina Watters: 2:46

And I think that's where I just I was like disconnected from when I first met you too, but I really got to connect with you further, I think at the shine with confidence event in December and you showed up, I remember, because you showed up in this beautiful fuzzy blush pink outfit and I blush pink outfit and I was and you were glam and you were amazing and I was like this color not many people can pull off this color set and you did it and it was so fun to see you. Just, you were really excited.

Kelly Kirk: 3:17

you showed, you came in there and you were like I love that I can just dress up and come to this event and oh, it was so fun to have that experience and I actually brought a dear friend of mine who's also been on the podcast too and had literally had a baby within months of coming to that event and she shined as well, she seriously did.

Constantina Watters: 3:40

She was so you could see it in your face. I remember her too. Yeah yeah, it was just a nice. It was just a nice.

Kelly Kirk: 3:44

She did.

Constantina Watters: 3:44

She was so you could see it in your face. I remember. I remember her too. Yeah, yeah, it was just a nice. It was just a nice. I wanted to pull that together so that people could feel like they could wear the dress to the thing to just show up and be their fabulous self.

Kelly Kirk: 3:56

Yeah, yeah, that was awesome, well, and you did a fantastic job with it. Thank you, thank you so, um, let Thank you. So let's actually dive into who you are as an individual, so that the listeners can get a better understanding of what we're talking about here with this event. But before we do that, what came first for you? Was it motherhood or was it entrepreneurship?

Constantina Watters: 4:18

Well, that is a fabulous question, because it was actually a little bit of both. It was first entrepreneurship. When I started Sprout Creative, it was in the height of recession, so it was 2008,. 2009 is when I officially created the name and we were in the midst of like, starting a franchise. We bought into a franchise and then the market crashed and whatever, and then I started Sprout as a kind of a freelancer, tipping my you know, dipping my toes in the water of should I go on my own, um, and then then I ended up, you know, getting pregnant in 2011 and then, motherhood came, but I went back to corporate before then.

Kelly Kirk: 5:06

Okay.

Constantina Watters: 5:07

And then, um, yeah, I had my son and was like you know what? He needs a lot of care, and so I pulled out the hey, maybe this option of going back into working for myself or a freelance capacity was a good balance for what I needed to do at that time too.

Kelly Kirk: 5:28

Okay, Okay. So I'm just going to kind of pan out the timeline here for the listeners, so 2008, 2009, there it was twofold that you were dipping your toes into a franchise pathway but, then also exploring sprout creative.

Constantina Watters: 5:48

Right.

Kelly Kirk: 5:49

And did it? Did that officially happen at that point? And then, when you're walk me through, it Okay.

Constantina Watters: 5:58

So, yeah, it was. It was hey, there's a, we're going to go and do this franchise. And, by the way, people were still asking for work and so, um, I decided to, you know, build a, a brand around. Being able to produce some of that work wasn't necessarily targeting or going after, it was just requests that were coming in and I needed to figure out you know what kind of balance that was going to be.

Constantina Watters: 6:22

And then, when the, the franchise didn't end up really moving forward because all of the lending and banking and all the infrastructure was completely crazy at the time, um, you know, then I ended up doing more of you know, looking into a full time and corporate work and kind of just pausing on some of that, still doing some on the side, I mean it wasn't um an issue and then, um, when I had my son in 2011, I I figured you know what.

Constantina Watters: 6:55

This would be a good opportunity to kind of see if this is something that I want to pursue again and so came back to it, and so then it was sort of mom, and then again, and so came back to it, and so then it was sort of mom, and then again entrepreneurship. But the entrepreneurship was it always was what it needed to be.

Constantina Watters: 7:10

It was never that it had to be a certain way and there was like a way to do it. It was. It was first putting motherhood and then trying to fill in the gaps with what does it need to be to be there for my son, because when we learned later on he had some food allergies that at the time we didn't. We didn't have the care that they have now the awareness, the food products um the sensitivity of, of that kind of lifestyle uh available Um, and so I knew I had to take a different path with motherhood.

Kelly Kirk: 7:45

That is not what.

Constantina Watters: 7:46

I had envisioned for myself.

Kelly Kirk: 7:48

Yeah, yeah, I'm curious if you have any insight, that moment where it shifted for you, where you were like okay, I actually think that this is the route that I need to go, and was it a specific moment in time? Was there a circumstance that happened? Um, you mentioned that some of this may have been in relation to um, finding out about the sensitivities and the food allergies of your son but, was there something else in conjunction to that? Yeah, I.

Constantina Watters: 8:23

I think that I remember being in the hospital and going oh man, I want to be crappy If somebody, if we you know we food allergies were just coming out. I'm like man, what if my son was like allergic to peanuts? That would be the worst. And you know, you, we planned for me to kind of well, in the midst of it, I helped my husband launch his business, so so in the midst of it, I'm building another brand, um, kind of simultaneously, and then, um, in two, in that two, two year time period of you know, kind of when my son's one and a half starting to do solids and things like that, we're noticing food allergy situation and the implications of what that would probably be for our family. Um, and then you know, you're testing out different childcare options and you're trying to figure out how are they maneuvering through. You know, lunchtime, snack time all those things.

Constantina Watters: 9:16

And we know when, when the situation of of a piece of fish you know, makes your son, um, you know, blow up a little bit and you have to go to the ER, you just get this fight or flight right and you just want to protect them and you want to be there for them and you want to figure out how to fix it, and so I figured that the best, the best way to do that is to be present as much as I could and to try to um see what it would take to get him at a level that was manageable and to get us at a level that was knowledgeable and manageable. It took like a year or two to really fully understand what it all entailed, what kind of sacrifices we'd have to make as far as if we'd have to, you know like we'd have to prepare everything We'd have to go shopping in a different way, we'd have to.

Constantina Watters: 10:04

You know, going out to eat, all those things are very, very different when you have a child with food sensitivities and allergies that you, you don't know all of them yet.

Kelly Kirk: 10:14

Yeah.

Constantina Watters: 10:15

So so, yeah, that was I. I kind of approached entrepreneurship as a fill-in, where it needed to be what it was at that, whatever time it was at my as my, for my child, and how I was as a mom yeah, you know what was that role that I needed to be for my son?

Kelly Kirk: 10:33

so um yeah, what I'm hearing is that there was a, there was a family first, but there's also this importance of the self, too, right? So, like there's something about the building of a brand that speaks to who you are as a person, especially if it's your brand, it's your business that you're starting to build, and there's a little bit of an identity that comes along with that as well, and so I love that. You, you understood the importance of continuing to harmonize. Okay, this is the most important, this being what is going on with my son right now.

Kelly Kirk: 11:19

And, um, understanding, what does that exactly look like? And exactly probably isn't the best word to use, because there's no exact when it comes to food allergies or sensitivities. It's just like okay, how are we going to maneuver through this and how are we going to have some malleability through it as well? But also, I want to do this over here, meaning I want to build something. I've got it, I've got people who are interested, and so why don't I do that? The one question that is coming up for me, though, constantina, is through all of this, were there moments where you had these or I should say seasons of pouring a little bit more, um, as you started to have a little bit more firm grounding over here when it came to the family life where you could start to pour more into that. And did you see? Did you see the? I guess the the path how you wanted it to go versus how it actually went. Does that make sense? Yeah?

Constantina Watters: 12:31

Okay, all good questions. I think when I was pretty naive, when it came to I well, I went. I don't know if naive, hopeful, I think. When people start, you know, trying to build a family, there's this like picture in your mind of like how it's going to go and then you're going to have the kid, and then you're trying to build a family.

Constantina Watters: 12:46

there's this like picture in your mind of like how it's gonna go and then you're gonna have the kid, and then you're gonna do this and you're gonna go in this direction, and maybe god has different plans for us right so we, what we have in our mind, is like this ideal, um, but we don't know if that's gonna actually happen that way, and to be okay with it not, and to being adaptable and changing it and to your point of you know you have these aspirations I this is one of the things that I work with women on is really hard to feel present in all the moments, because we can do a lot of different things at the same time at different times. We can juggle a lot.

Constantina Watters: 13:34

We're so multifaceted and we have these roles that demand a lot of us. So mother, wife, sister, friend, spouse, whatever that is, you are pulled in a lot of directions and anything that's worthwhile takes time and effort to build and make a great family a safe household a working dynamic, um, and there's sacrifice.

Constantina Watters: 13:56

That happens and I think women we do. It's sometimes it's it's just built in our nature, I feel, to do to do that, and we get used to some of those moments that really challenge us to do we take a backseat, do we start to lead or do we? You know, what do we do? The whole idea of like the leaders eat last is most women, I know.

Constantina Watters: 14:23

Like we are preparing all of the foods. I mean, it shows up in how we are in moms. We prepare all the foods. Many of us don't go. Okay, hold on, kids, I'm going to eat my meal first and then, when I'm done, then we'll make your meal. I don't know of any mom that I've ever witnessed do that. This is how we operate. We make sure that the people around us that we care about and love are taken care of and safe and nurtured. Um and then. But I don't know if we recognize the moments where we're like, hey, this is where they're good. They're good Now. Now it's time to to focus, so, so a tactic that's helped me, is it? It's I don't know if it's good or bad, but it's compartmentalization for being in that role, so it's huge.

Constantina Watters: 15:11

so when I walk into a space, I am this to this person in group when I walk out of the space that goes, and it has helped me immensely because I struggled for a while to try to figure out. I'm doing an email and there's a need and I'm frustrated. Right, there's a call happening and I can't focus. So what I had to do was build a process of how I'm going to tackle these things that are coming up, so that I feel like I'm fully present as much as I can be.

Kelly Kirk: 15:41

Teach me your ways. It's interesting that you bring up this idea of compartmentalization. This has come up a time or two with other guests. Oh sure, but in the respect of how the differences between men and women and how typically speaking not all, but typically speaking men are really really like they, they kind of fast track when it comes to compartmentalization.

Constantina Watters: 16:13

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 16:13

But for women we have all of the tabs open and we kind of go like this between all of the tabs.

Constantina Watters: 16:17

That's what I like to say it's true.

Kelly Kirk: 16:19

It's me for sure, but I I mean it when I say like, teach me your ways. It's me for sure, but I mean it when I say like, teach me your ways. I would love to hear what does that process look like, or what did the process look like before, and has it evolved since? You've sort of seen this amazing trajectory with your business?

Constantina Watters: 16:47

amazing trajectory with your business. Yeah, I mean, I think it's. It's, it's just realizing what. Who gets the most attention at that time? So what I, when my kids were really young you can't really do that. That's why it's really really hard to have a business and start a business when you have really young ones. So it's, it's just absolutely hard unless you have somebody who can help.

Constantina Watters: 17:03

Kind of be there to oversee while you're doing your thing, at the times that you are, and to try to fully be out of, if you have the help, to try to be fully out so that you can do your focus 100% and then come back and be fully focused on them and the kids and playing or doing the cooking or whatever it is that needs to happen, and playing or doing the cooking or whatever it is that needs to happen.

Constantina Watters: 17:27

It's when we are trying to straddle both of those worlds that we get really frustrated, and rightly so. It's like two people talking to you at the same time and you can't do either of them really well, and so I said okay. At this point I think it was really weird, a weird way to live before kids. It's like you just know who you are, like you show up that way to everybody, like I'm consistent, I come to with my friends and I come with my family, like this yes.

Constantina Watters: 17:51

But when you get to a point where, if you are running, uh, at a high level, or you have family, you actually what I found is you have to be different things to different people and you have to realize it's a self-realization, that's a like an emotional intelligence that you have, you, you build up, but you realize that I don't have to show up this way for everyone yeah but if I'm gonna go to lunch with a friend, I'm focused on them and I'm not trying to do emails while I'm with them if.

Constantina Watters: 18:23

I if I'm home with the kids and it's my moment.

Constantina Watters: 18:27

There are times where you're like checking something, maybe once or twice, but I'm not going to go into starting an email or starting a response while I'm in that mom mode and writing a note saying, yep, this is what I need to do when I get that free moment. And then, when your kids get a little bit older, I would say to them hey guys, this is what I need to do when I get that free moment. And then, when your kids get a little bit older, I would say to them hey guys, this is the plan. I got one 30 minute call, so here's what it. When this hand gets to here and then I can connect and we can chat and talk, and then it would be like, okay, they were fine with that Cause. Then we would hang out and play, but until they got to that space, if I was home, it's really hard to do that Totally, so I learned that I just needed to you know, figure out what I needed to be um, for where I was and without losing myself, I could.

Constantina Watters: 19:19

I'm, I'm multifaceted, so I I show up in different ways for people, um, and I think that was a solution that helped me, and so it. It really is something that I preach to people Um, when, especially moms who are, who are going through like I don't know how to not be frustrated all the time, or like we get frustrated, you know, because we can't focus and with our attention, split.

Kelly Kirk: 19:43

Well, and what's interesting is what better individual to have those conversations with than somebody who's gone through it themselves? Right, like you're a mom? Yeah, you own a business. Yeah, and so then you can speak to the person on the other side and go yeah, this is what I've seen right, and this is what these are. These are the shining examples of other individuals that I've worked with in the past, and here are a couple of takeaways and pieces of gold, nuggets of information that I can provide for you.

Constantina Watters: 20:15

Right.

Kelly Kirk: 20:15

Right, but I love this notion of um the emotional intelligence because this is really important. Yes, like I don't consider myself super book smart by any stretch of the imagination, I also, growing up, was a bit of a social butterfly, like that was more of my focus.

Constantina Watters: 20:38

That's hard to believe, I know right.

Kelly Kirk: 20:41

But the emotional intelligence, like there is something to be said about that and I love that you tie that in with business and being a mom. And just when you walk into a room, there was somebody else who had been on the podcast and maybe you know her. Her name is Lisa Babiak. She's a life coach coach and she primarily works with high achieving women, and she talked about, um, crossing a threshold, right.

Kelly Kirk: 21:11

So we've got our thresholds for her doors, you cross the threshold and it's like doing this body check and body scan and like how do I want to show up? Going into this room, yeah, you know, or or coming into the house or leaving the house. So you know, and emotional intelligence reigns true through all of that, yeah, you speak to boundaries. Yes, yes, that's that's a nice tie in with boundaries.

Constantina Watters: 21:41

Yeah, I, I, that is 100% true. I like door frames. I think whenever I picture myself going in and out of a space, that's spot on she's spot on Door frames. It is that it's like, and I always my philosophy was to walk, leave the room better than when you entered it. So that can be true for any role that you play and that's. But you don't have to be like the light all the time, but just know, if you're going in to talk with a friend and it's going to be a hard talk, it's okay. You don't have to be late, but you're in that moment, right, You're, you're fully into it. You're not trying to do too many things at once, but creating those boundaries, I think, is important so that you protect your peace. It helps you function. I think, with women especially and I don't know if people know this, but women will replay things in their mind over and over again. Oh, you don't say, but women will replay things in their mind over and over again.

Kelly Kirk: 22:43

Oh, you don't say.

Constantina Watters: 22:43

Conversations, emails, I mean, but for men it's very different. They'll just do once and they're like, oh, that doesn't even enter their mind again.

Kelly Kirk: 22:51

Yeah.

Constantina Watters: 22:55

So that is why it's really crucial for boundaries and protecting our peace to not have those kinds of things replay, because we are always trying to figure out how we would do it differently or better.

Kelly Kirk: 23:06

I'm giving you the eyebrow raise because I'm like this is, it's something I have had to continuously work through and I would say over the last year, um, and having fantastic interviews with individuals like yourself. It's like, okay, just set the nonsense down. You know what I mean. Like control the controllables.

Constantina Watters: 23:30

Yeah, control the controllables. And to your point of you know successful people doing this differently. I've met, and I've had the pleasure of meeting, so many different women in that of what I would say, quote unquote success means to them. It's different for everybody, so I don't ever meet somebody who's like a multimillionaire and go, oh, you're super successful, and not say that to the mom who's, you know, has two kids at home. They're also successful. It's what does success mean to that person? And individual, right and so. But they've had a different formula for how they felt successful.

Constantina Watters: 24:05

Sometimes it's an au pair, sometimes it's, you know, not going to those events but spending other time with their kids, sometimes it's being at home. And for those moments and I tried I don't live in a world of judgment because I don't know how it is to live in. I only know what I know through my experience. And I think, if we just all keep that in mind, like we're all going through very similar experiences, but it's our own. So the only way that we can actually learn anything is if we ask somebody like, how do you feel about that? Right, like, yeah, how did that make you feel? I can guarantee you that everybody everywhere is going through something, whether it's, if it's not. If you can't see it on the outside, it's for sure happening on the inside 1000%.

Constantina Watters: 24:51

So it's like, uh, I think being able to just fully know that when you approach somebody, a conversation, however they come across, I don't ever really say it's a reflection of who they are, but it's a reflection of what they've gone through, so what they are going through, and, you know, if we can get past some of that, we can get to like the deeper, the deeper talks and to talk through struggles sometimes that people are having.

Kelly Kirk: 25:17

Yeah.

Constantina Watters: 25:18

As moms. I think sometimes we get in groups like everything's fine, it's wonderful, so-and-so's in soccer and it's all great. But sometimes it's really good to talk about some of those struggles because if we don't and I share them more one-on-one with, with people- I work with, but it may. It helps you understand that you are human and everybody's going through it. It's not unique to you and you're not. You're not different or an outlier, but everybody's. These thoughts and these challenges are happening in their lives as well. They're just maybe not as visible.

Kelly Kirk: 25:50

Right. I think that we've sort of swayed the pendulum one direction where for a while, there was this way of showing up and it was a bit robotic right. It was like just show up to show up, and there wasn't a lot of authenticity or rawness around that. But I think that you're starting to see that pendulum swing a little bit more the other direction, where people are craving that, and I think that COVID had something to do, that, the big C. We don't want to talk about those times, but here we are. You know, I do think that there was a lot of self-reflection for individuals, that we were forced into isolation, and isolation is not good. Let me be very clear. I think that there's a time and a place to have time for yourself, but it's, it's pointed right, there's, there's a meaning behind it Self-inflicted.

Kelly Kirk: 26:55

Right, exactly. And because of the nature of how COVID was um, people felt that way, like it was self-inflicted, like it was we were forced into isolation. But you could see after or kind of moving through COVID, the division of people who stayed in that and those who were doing the self-reflection through it Right, and what's coming out on the other side of it now is crave of authenticity, because they're like yeah, I just did all of this work.

Kelly Kirk: 27:36

I just did all of the self-reflection, and it may have, you know, it may have not just happened right away, in 2020 or 2021. It's been a long track. It could have been like, oh gosh, you know, I have not just happened right away, in 2020 or 2021. It's been a long track. It could have been like, oh gosh, you know, I, I sort of have been awoken to some of these other things and now I'm starting to do this deep reflection and I just think that you're starting to see this sort of awakening, um, whether it's whether you're male or female, mother or, you know, single. What are your thoughts about this?

Constantina Watters: 28:08

Yeah, definitely awakening. I think that was part of um when, when COVID hit I, I had already been through the ringer um of like career volatility. So I I was used to a little bit of chaos, but there was a whole new crop of people who that has never happened to. They weren't equipped with this experience or tools to process um just like a unknown future, and the way that some of the corporate systems are set up is that you're you're continuously on the wheel without really self-reflection. You don't have time for self-reflection, you just go, go, go. I mean that's why when women and men who have been let go or leave a really stressful job, it takes about six months for that like stress to wear off and so that they they kind of get back into not checking their emails every moment.

Constantina Watters: 28:59

You know, they're trying to figure out what is the schedule, structure and flow of how they're thinking, how they're moving through life, where their boundaries are. And so you're right, half of the people took that time to do some self-reflection and listening. The other half was still in a cycle of not knowing how to cope with it because they didn't have the tools.

Constantina Watters: 29:21

They didn't have the experience or tools to fall back on and there weren't these great groups that are happening now, which is one of the things that I opened up some of my calendar for is to meet with people and then, through that, was trying to connect others with people who were starting these groups. And I'm like find your group, try them all, connect with this one to this one, see if there is something that resonates so that you're not alone. And, um, it gives you an opportunity to connect because you know, when you're working corporate, you don't have a network you don't have. You have your friends and you have your work colleagues, but there is no, there's no thought to why I need to spend extra time to meet other people outside of my bubble. And now this I think we've gone to the point where there's so much that we need to kind of create a, a, a core again, with the idea that it's your immediate bubble but you still are being intentional with your time and energy of when you're opening it up a bit to go experience some things and so for.

Constantina Watters: 30:21

For some of them, I think that self-reflection of starting their own business, it's been like a huge there's just it's a lot of people, there's a lot of people out there like entrepreneurship, small business starting their passion, and some of them when I'm walking through some of their ideas, you know we're trying to see if this is something that they, if it's viable, you have to try it, but you have to go.

Constantina Watters: 30:50

It doesn't have to your work and what you produce doesn't have to be your end all everything because it's going to disappoint you. If you, if you love making bracelets and you're like I love doing these bracelets, they fulfill me, I love making them for people and I'm going to turn into a business and I go be prepared to hate this thing that you love now because it might happen, because if you, if it, if it were truly to be viable, this is what it would have to be. And and then think about where you need to be in that business. So is it the idea of making it? Sometimes people at the time it was like people wanted to be a Pilates instructor, yoga instructor. It was very popular for people to leave an analytical type high stress to become yoga and Pilates.

Kelly Kirk: 31:37

Fascinating.

Constantina Watters: 31:38

Yeah, so there was a lot going in that direction, and then COVID closed some of that off because you couldn't group together, right?

Kelly Kirk: 31:44

Yeah.

Constantina Watters: 31:44

But the idea was that I wanted to help people'm getting into the mindset of hey, why is it that you want to do this thing? Can we feed this and fill this bucket in another way, or do you want it to become a pathway for a career in the future? Maybe there's an essence of it, but should it be all of it?

Kelly Kirk: 32:21

Do you?

Constantina Watters: 32:21

want to protect this thing that you love doing and that you love being a part of Um, and then you know being really intentional and strategic about it and and if that is, if, if you want to make a career or business out of it, um to really fully understand what you may have to do in order to make that happen.

Kelly Kirk: 32:40

Sounds like some really nice, viable advice that you just gave, and I loved it. It it was so amazing. Okay, so 2011 is approximately when everything started with Sprout.

Constantina Watters: 32:55

Creative had started 2009, then took a little backseat 2011, 12. Um started some small, you know freelance type things, and then my daughter was born in uh, 2015. So then it was like okay, well, you kind of you can't go full force yeah um, for me it was.

Constantina Watters: 33:22

It was let's a year and a half too, and then slowly, I started going from part-time to more full-time as, as it opened up, cause I, I, really I needed to support another business that was happening and also support my family at home. And did I need to have this? What I felt felt was the architecture of the dream of this branding agency, but I was seeing a bunch of them fail and they were they were, they were going under.

Constantina Watters: 33:54

So there's different philosophies for how I would recommend people structure or their, their do their business. Um, but for the creative agency world it was. It was set up very differently. There weren't a lot of virtual ones, or there were, there were only handful of small boutique ones, um, so it was something. It was like new territory and I just gave myself that awareness and forgiveness to go. It doesn't have to be like how these people did it or how this person did it. It doesn't have to. What they're, what they deem successful, didn't have to apply to me because, it needed to be successful for what I needed it to be.

Constantina Watters: 34:33

Um and I still see it that way too.

Kelly Kirk: 34:35

So the thing that is sticking out and resonating with me so much right now, because outsider, looking in Konstantina, I see you Right, we've only known each other since. Call it November of last year. Yeah, and that's starting to grow. That relationship is starting to grow. But I see you and I'm just like holy cats and dogs is this woman just incredibly successful at what she's doing? Right? But you're you're emphasizing that success looks different for everybody and how you have viewed success is for your pathway.

Kelly Kirk: 35:19

It was family family first, Perhaps there was a few things here and there for business, but it took some time and that was okay because the priorities needed to be shifted.

Constantina Watters: 35:35

Right.

Kelly Kirk: 35:35

And it wasn't any, it wasn't any longer. This sense of me, right, I like to think of like me. Right, I like to think of like before Maddie, before the boys, it was me.

Kelly Kirk: 35:48

And now it's we, the royal, we and a lot of times, the royal we is always going to come first. It really is, but that, this idea that we, as women, sometimes get stuck in our heads is this like, it has to look like this and I have to do it within. I mean, I'm. I will raise my hand and admit, like, do I want to have this podcast be a success? 1000%. Did I think that, a year later, that I'd be putting on an anniversary event?

Constantina Watters: 36:25

Which was fabulous, by the way.

Kelly Kirk: 36:26

No, thank you. But I also have aspirations for how I see the growth of the podcast, how I see the growth of the community and it's not the way that I had thought it was going to be. It's not, but it's also. On the other side of that is this incredible sense of fulfillment. All of the women that I've met, all of the stories that have been shared, that have deeply resonated with me in one way or another and left an impact.

Constantina Watters: 36:56

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 36:57

You can't buy that. No, you literally can't buy that, and I share that because it's very much in parallel to what you're talking about. Yeah, and I share that because it's very much in parallel to what you're talking about. Yeah, and an emphasis to women listening right now that success for you is not going to be within a year, within two years.

Constantina Watters: 37:15

A certain number, a certain car, a certain thing. Yeah, yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 37:23

It's not. I had this other question and now I'm like I totally lost it and hopefully it comes back, because I was like this is going to be good, but, alas, here we are.

Constantina Watters: 37:34

This is the. This is the brain of Kelly, this is mine. Yes, the same. Yeah, I feel like. I think that we put these outside pressures on ourselves. I think it's because we haven't talked to enough people. I think a lot of men and women look at somebody, I mean, who appears successful and probably doesn't need to work another day in their life, and if you were to chat with them and really get to know them, some of them can't get out of bed every day. They, and some of them, who are, you know, running four different types of jobs, uh, are just so happy with, like, their moments with their kids and their moments with their family and, um, it, just, it, just, for me, it was I, I don't ever meet somebody and go, I want to be them, I, I, uh, I really appreciate some of the things they've accomplished and achieved, but they've also done it through certain sacrifices that had to happen and, whether it's known or not, or what are their starting point, right?

Constantina Watters: 38:42

It's always different and it doesn't mean that their success one year doesn't make a huge, drastic failure the next. I mean some of my, some of my philosophy is just like if you're able to be emotionally intelligent enough to pick yourself up and keep going again, you're Like, yeah, like the. You know God gives us enough grace for today and we will get if we get to tomorrow. Let's figure out what tomorrow is.

Constantina Watters: 39:14

And it's a whole nother set of challenges. So I think when we we we all have some idea of what we want to, we have a pick. Some of us can picture, in our mind at least, what some of those goals would be. If you saw your mood board or if you saw some point I'd be, I'd like to do this or I'd like to be here, and then something happens that comes into your life that you never even imagined and you're like this is amazing. I wouldn't have never, I didn't even think about this for my mood board or my, my dream or goal list.

Constantina Watters: 39:43

And here it is, and the fact that you were able to bring this podcast to life. You have, essentially what I mentioned before too, is that you you packed in a ton of years of experience of connecting with people into a short amount of time and getting to deep, deep ideas uh, deep challenges, deep solutions that you are able to quickly kind of learn about them and their life and then a little bit peek behind the curtain.

Kelly Kirk: 40:11

Yeah.

Constantina Watters: 40:12

And to see that everybody in the end is just human and whatever their starting point or perceived starting point is, doesn't really matter, because they've got stuff going on too with family, kids, spouse. If they have one um work challenges, it's just like what, how much of the pie does that challenge get in their life? Yes, so if you have multiple roles, we we have to break that up.

Kelly Kirk: 40:38

It's like a mathematical thing. Yeah, there's only so many hours in the day, the math, the math isn't mathing or the math is mathing. So this is good. Okay, so I remember what it is, but I'm going to table it.

Kelly Kirk: 40:51

I remember what it was that I was going to talk through with you, but I want to table it here's. What I want to talk through is off air. We were talking about in this timeframe of starting the podcast. Right, you were like you have to have all of these really great data points of these women, and the thing that's that I wanted to share that I think is important for the listeners to hear is what you just alluded to, which is failing, failing quickly and moving through it, having the emotional intelligence to move through it quickly, and it's not to say that you, you pick up the rug and sweep it underneath, right, it's. It takes time to get to that point and, depending on who you are as an individual, it might take a little bit longer, but to figure out what are the ways that I can move through this so that I can get to the next failure ultimately, cause this is just like entrepreneurship and life in general is just a series of failures, a hundred percent, and the more we can wrap our mind around that, the better. But I would say that in in interviewing you know you're the 66th person that I've interviewed, right? So, mowing outside, hey, listeners, you're getting real life example of just some of the interruptions, and perhaps you can't even hear it right now, but but this is this is something that really has stuck out to me is that the individuals who are, you know, 10 plus years or more in business and are continuing to see this growth and evolution of self are the ones who are really quickly moving through the failures and learning from it and going.

Kelly Kirk: 42:38

I don't think I want to try, I don't want to do that again and, you know, maybe there's a different version of how that looks, but I'm certainly not going to let that that happen again. Yeah, and it's just this like, like. I think of Ashley Hawks, who I think she's interviewing next week. Oh yeah, I talked to her on the phone before we got everything scheduled and she was just like entrepreneurship is just a series of failures, which is where I really got that from. I was like I've got somebody who's back here is still relishing or marinating or ruminating, and I've already started five more businesses. You know, I mean not really, but like it's true, but it's just moving through it.

Constantina Watters: 43:20

It's true, it's you're able to look at it and go, you know what's working, what's not. And it's like the same if you're, if you're thinking about a conversation too long and it's past, it's in the past. You, you have to just look at it and go what, if anything I can. I think everything that is tragic or terrible, that happens to us, we can learn something from it. I don't know if it's the silver lining, but it's certainly some self-reflection to go this is terrible, this is tragic, this is a bad thing that's happening, but or somebody is doing something to you. I think, I mean, I've learned more from bad leaders than I have from great.

Kelly Kirk: 43:57

Honestly.

Constantina Watters: 43:58

I've learned just by observing and seeing how things have, how they are acting, what the reaction is of human nature, and that's where I've built some of my leadership philosophy around not showing up as this person that controls the space, but showing up as a person that needs to understand the space that they're entering. And what is it going to take to move the space that you're entering into the direction it needs to go? So you know that also takes a high amount of emotional intelligence and reflection yeah um, I don't know if that deviated from our topic.

Kelly Kirk: 44:39

It was a really nice tie, but yeah, the um.

Constantina Watters: 44:44

I think sometimes I sometimes what gets me um is is this idea of building. You have to know who you are and you know there's a lot of those personality tests that are going on and they can be helpful for some, but for others it truly my, my belief is that they put you into a box that you feel like you have to stay in, and I know this is going to be probably earth shattering and rocking the boat and ruffling some feathers for many who really put their stake in the ground with personality tests and predictors. My daughter recently did one at an event and she was just really frustrated. She said, mom, I love all these things and it told me that I needed to be doing these type of careers and I said don't worry about it, everybody is a little bit of everything. This is why those tests sometimes aren't great, because they show you that you have to determine the type of person you need to be and stay in and you really can't get out of it because that's quote unquote, who.

Constantina Watters: 45:47

You are right, but we show up so differently for everyone in our life, so if you are an extrovert, you might show up more introvertedly in a different situation. People who are introverted in more public spaces will probably be very extroverted in in more public spaces will probably be very extroverted with close friends, so they will show up differently. So it's. It's a matter of a. You know, compartmentalizing how we show up doesn't mean we're all these different people. We're just letting different parts of us shine more and we are every one of those buckets. Of course there's more some that are more dominant than others, but I found that it has become a speed bump or a hiccup for some people to get past, knowing themselves and knowing that they can change and grow beyond those letters, numbers, whatever combination that they are Fascinating.

Kelly Kirk: 46:40

I think of the Clifton Strength Finders. Right, we are all of those right, those attributes. It's just we excel in other areas than we do in other areas, so to speak. But I don't necessarily know if it hasn't ruffled my feathers by any stretch of the imagination, because I think you're right and I I also feel that as you move through life and you move through seasons of life, there are, there's just circumstances that we come across good, bad or indifferent, that shift what those strengths look like, and you can work on some of those strengths and some of those weaknesses.

Kelly Kirk: 47:29

Yeah, absolutely, and kind of have it ebb and flow for you depending on where you're at in life.

Constantina Watters: 47:36

Yeah, I mean you can look at your weakness and say I should probably see if I could strengthen that Now. Do you really love it? You might not be passionate about it, but it doesn't mean that you if you're quote unquote I'm chaotic or messy person, that you are chaotic and messy and all the things you do. It's not true.

Kelly Kirk: 47:52

Right.

Constantina Watters: 47:52

And the same. With artistic expression I mean being from a background in creative and branding. I truly believe everybody has creativity and artistry in them. The only difference is that someone along the way said your art was awesome and you did. They loved what you did. Because that is the truth and that is something I try to help people understand who. There are some people that I've met with who have a really hard time making a mark on a paper you know, doing some, something that they though.

Constantina Watters: 48:20

I don't have any artistic trauma, but you are. You have so much art you don't realize that you're doing. You do it in different ways, but it doesn't make you non artistic and oh yeah, they've been described as this. Or it's because somebody else again defined who you are supposed to be, or the majority of your style or actions you fits in this bucket. And brings me to the other topic of you know, do you, are you okay? Um, not fitting in someone's bucket? And sometimes the people you're talking to can't fathom you as a person if you don't fit into a bucket. I've had people come up to me like I don't't really know. You know you do all these things and I'm like, yeah, I do and that's okay. Yeah, but it makes I'm comfortable with it. But maybe you're not, and that isn't my issue as much as it is yours.

Kelly Kirk: 49:17

And that might be hard to swallow.

Constantina Watters: 49:21

You know pill to swallow for some and it would never come across like that. But I understand that they're struggling because maybe there's a part of them that wants to do a part of something like that Totally. So, again, emotional awareness. I know that there's something they're struggling with. What they're saying to me might not be. I don't need to take that into heart, yeah, and to try to change the way that I'm doing something, uh yeah, I love it.

Kelly Kirk: 49:50

Okay so, uh, two things that came to mind. It's a little off script, so bear with me. Okay so, the mood board thing. I wanted to ask you a question, Cause are you a mood board girly? Like, do you maybe girly isn't the best way to, but like, is that something that you typically have done in the past?

Constantina Watters: 50:12

I don't necessarily make a mood board with visuals, um, but I do write down and I have clear in my mind what that is Okay. So sometimes if I, if I write it down or you know, I can go back to it and go, yeah, sometimes putting it on paper if it doesn't turn out that way can go the opposite direction. So, but I always think I'm such a visual person, I have it really clear in my mind what those, those things are, um, but for some people it's really healthy and important to physically see it. Yes, that's.

Kelly Kirk: 50:49

I've got two two different versions.

Kelly Kirk: 50:51

This one, um, I've shared with a couple other and I mean it's right here, plain in sight, but this one I decided to do differently. I've got one in our room as well. That's a little bit nicer. Differently, I've got one in our room as well. That's a little bit nicer. Frankly, I decided that I wanted to do scriptures to go along with some of the areas that I was looking to focus in, and then had Conrad, who you met. Help because he's very artistic, creative, and I'm like I want you to just add your little touches onto this.

Constantina Watters: 51:22

You take a look at it. He did a good job.

Kelly Kirk: 51:24

The reason that I ask you about the mood board is because you, you know, a few minutes back you had brought that up and said that um, sometimes things change right. And so I have actually had this like situation in my mind and just the here and now, where what I've created isn't matching now what I want to do, and then I'm like, do I change it?

Kelly Kirk: 51:52

yeah, yeah, you know like, so that's that's the reason that I brought that up is like have you encountered something like that where you're like, oh I shoot, you know, that's like I'm, I'm. I'm just going to point this out. Okay, so this is a house that is in the neighborhood. It's beautiful and we, at one point we, joe and I, we'll walk past it almost every single day. We're like that's going to be our future house.

Constantina Watters: 52:20

I love it.

Kelly Kirk: 52:21

That's not going to be our future house anymore, cause like we changed, it's changed, right, we actually go. We have a beautiful corner lot. What if we just went up, went up.

Constantina Watters: 52:41

Oh, I love that, you see, the possibilities were unlocked because, well, you know, what I think every mood board needs to have is a blank corner. That's a god space. It's like what god will do, not what you have planned. I love it because that I mean. Some things happen where you, you know you you're going through and all of a sudden you get an email from someone and you're like how did? This person. Think of me out of the blue right. How did they connect?

Constantina Watters: 53:05

That wasn't me I'm not going to attribute it to all of my doing, but I wouldn't have foreseen that opportunity, I wouldn't have predicted that connection or situation and had I put it into a mood board where I was just so hyper-focused, you just don't. Your blinders are on right. Some people really follow their mood boards to the end.

Constantina Watters: 53:28

I mean they're very very crystal clear and they're, and they're moving the steps, yep, to make it happen, but some are more, you know, free-flowing and ideas and generals, but I'd say I love that it changed, I love that that that you saw a possibility that wasn't there before because you, you built in adaptability and flexibility. Yeah, also, I think, the more the more. The most successful people and like, emotionally stable are the ones who can adapt, who are okay, letting things be a little bit different, a little bit messy or maybe a little bit not exact.

Constantina Watters: 54:01

Rigid, yeah, and rigid, yeah they. But there are certainly successful people who are very regimented in their mind of what they now. Would I consider that success? I'm not sure what they consider. Again, what's their success? What is it the majority of people think that that's successful?

Constantina Watters: 54:19

I have different personal descriptions of what I would feel is successful for me and I wouldn't apply that to them. I would be like this is great, this is what you had dreamed about and wanted. But more often than not, when somebody gets their dream, they go well, now what? In the process of doing that, it's changed so much and I kind of want something else. So again, the whole life's a journey. It's not a destination. Same with your goals, it's like moving through. What is it that you're, that you're that you feel makes you happy or what would make it, you know, content. But now, as your kids get older too, then you're going to go like, hey, this is a lot of house, there's a lot of house to keep up, or we want to travel, or we want to do, we need to do this or that. And the cool thing is to tell yourself, hey, we can change that, we can, we don't have to stay on this course.

Kelly Kirk: 55:16

We don't have to stay in a box.

Constantina Watters: 55:19

You can live in a houseboat and have, you know, 3 million in the bank. You could a houseboat and have, you know, three million in the bank. You could I don't know live in a super mcmansion craziness and be struggling right. Totally you could be. Life is so different for everybody, and so I think it's amazing and wonderful to have these dreams and goals and visions, um, but also be open to yeah, like the factor.

Kelly Kirk: 55:45

Yeah, I like that little suggestion on having a corner of it where it's just, it's just blank and it's a good talking point too, right? Yes, it is. It's like what would fill that what?

Constantina Watters: 55:56

is. What is the space that is unknown or that I can't see, or something so awesome that I wouldn't have considered before, and now I am open to it.

Kelly Kirk: 56:08

You had mentioned something about as somebody who's in the creative space, right and coming across many individuals that you're working with and not working with at the same time, and having having people struggle right and going I'm not creative, I can't do that. And you you made note of having this strong sense that everyone's got it within them.

Constantina Watters: 56:36

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 56:37

It's just how do you tap into it. So do you? I'm curious your opinion about this. Do you think that sometimes getting into the space of just rest and being bored actually helps facilitate?

Constantina Watters: 56:56

Ooh yes, good segue, 100%, I mean. Well, that's essentially why I created the Remotant Retreat Program, which is a leadership retreat to Greece, where I grew up, and essentially it's that you need the space to hear and to solve problems and to create and think and self reflect and self-reflect, and but creativity shows up in so many different ways. Somebody who is very reg, you know, regimented or rigid organized, maybe they label everything, but their creativity comes out in their organization and the creativity comes out in like the way they've orchestrated something else, and they will say that they're not a creative person. I'm like you just did that so creatively. The way that you handle.

Constantina Watters: 57:48

I wouldn't have organized it like this. This is really cool. I wouldn't have set it up this way. Um, or in, it shows up in just different ways. It doesn't have to be again what somebody else labeled as traditional creative or talent. I should say talent in that Talent is. The only difference between talent and creativity is the amount of hours put into it, the same with any sports. It's just the hours that they spent doing the thing and the only way that they did the hours of it is because someone said, hey, that was really good.

Constantina Watters: 58:19

Maybe you should consider doing that, or they loved it so much it didn't matter what anybody else said to them. They're just going to keep doing it and by time they just got better and better and better and better, and so you can start anything. I truly believe that you can learn anything if you just you realize that about yourself. You are capable of learning and and skilled, and could be skilled, in learning those skill sets so the possibilities are limitless.

Constantina Watters: 58:44

When you think about it, like what could you do if you wanted to learn something new? Um, but creating a space to you know, protect that creativity and that thoughtfulness and remember, uh, I think some of the best ideas I have are when, like I'm in driving or I'm like shower or something where it's just quiet and you're thinking Actually, my son calls this shower thoughts. I think it's the funniest thing. He's 14 and he, after he gets out of the shower, he's like oh mom, I have all these like this. Wouldn't be cool if you did this? And it wasn't this funny. And I said I love this.

Kelly Kirk: 59:19

Where is this?

Constantina Watters: 59:19

coming from. He's like well, I'm thinking of these things in the shower.

Kelly Kirk: 59:22

I think I'm going to call them shower thoughts and I so cool, I said I love it seems really cool. It's like when you're in the most relaxed.

Constantina Watters: 59:32

Sometimes we have it pop up when we're right ready to sleep and um, we need to write those down. Or when we're in a quiet moment and these things come to us ideas, solutions.

Constantina Watters: 59:44

We're just able to unleash that part of and unlock that part of our brain to be okay to start to dream and think, and that's why it's important to do those self you know, like self-inflicted, isolated moments or retreat moments where it's not heavily programmed or overly done, where you're forced to kind of go through this program that you're, you know, working all these steps and really learning is not filling your mind all the time. It's asking a question and creating space to find some of the answer.

Kelly Kirk: 1:00:23

Which is all the more important nowadays, where we're inundated with a lot. We're inundated with more information than our brains can actually handle. However, to your point of we can, as human beings, achieve more than what we really think we can, however, it is in those quiet moments and retreats, and the retreats don't have to be super long by any stretch of the imagination. It could be a day, it could be half a day, it could be like I'm not going to have my cell phone with me.

Kelly Kirk: 1:01:04

Yeah, I'm just I'm going to take a pause for a couple of hours.

Constantina Watters: 1:01:07

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 1:01:09

And it's in those moments where you can actually see some of the breakthroughs.

Constantina Watters: 1:01:14

I wholeheartedly agree with that and I think I've seen, it's been great to see people come out of those, um, some of those moments moments, whether they were five minutes, whether they were two hours, whether they were, you know, not interrupting their thought pattern and then being around this similar environment. So I think something about removing yourself from your routine environment or the routine people that are in your environment. You start to go I'm, you don't. You don't hear it, you don't hear it, you don't see it. You're not trying to fix those things around you, you're just able to just be present and whatever that looks like to each individual. But it's something that you don't have to have a big budget to do. You just have to be intentional about creating that for yourself.

Kelly Kirk: 1:02:03

It's fascinating that you're bringing this up. We're on the heels of, you know, within hours of this interview finishing up, we're going to be leaving on a road trip and that is I can't even emphasize to you enough Konstantina, my husband, no short of like 15 times already this morning and, and um it like this afternoon, it's been like I can't wait. I'm so excited, I need this so badly. This is going to be awesome. The reason I bring that up one it is on the heels of what you're talking about, but two, every single time, no joke.

Kelly Kirk: 1:02:41

My hometown is La Crosse, wisconsin, and when we travel down there the two and a half hours, we always have all of these like brilliant ideas that come up and I'm like furiously writing them down or putting them into the laptop. But there is something about like just jogging up the brain a little bit and getting out of your day-to-day routines. And he literally said that he was like I just need to get out of this environment. I feel like we've and this is all the more important for us to stick to traveling at least two times a year with the family, and they don't have to be crazy things. We're going down to St Louis. They don't have to be crazy things.

Constantina Watters: 1:03:22

Right, we're going down to St Louis. It could be staycation, it could be just something outside of your immediate you know, regular schedule. Regular scheduled programming.

Kelly Kirk: 1:03:30

Yes.

Constantina Watters: 1:03:33

And, yeah, I love that. I love that because you can. First of all, you have the time to talk to each other and you're like in that space you don't have the phones in front of you, like dividing your attention, but you're building in your dreaming which could take honestly you. You just essentially made a meeting that would happen in. You know that would take weeks for some to get through, to go through some of those ideas to say that'll work.

Constantina Watters: 1:03:59

No, it won't. I'm going to tell this person it won't. But you went through them. Okay To say like, hey, these are cool. And um, I think that's where you can again failing faster, but different ideas coming space to create it. It all plays together and it's like when we stop building those moments in our life, we can't have those results. So be careful how you, you know, use your time, I guess. Um, and what do you consider wasted time? Right, like, I think that's huge. There's some people. What they consider wasted time is gold.

Kelly Kirk: 1:04:34

For others, yeah, so Can you talk to that point a little bit more?

Constantina Watters: 1:04:40

Yeah, the idea of some people. If you take a moment to do a walk or something or if you take time to hang out with some friends, that moment is so relaxing for that person and sometimes it's therapeutic right for them to get through While you were wasting your time. You know I felt like I wasted my time. I could have been doing something else. Whenever we feel like we wasted our time, we could be doing something else or it's not as productive as we think it should be. We just rested on the couch for a little bit and we didn't do. Nothing got done like quote unquote got done, but some of the things you had to think about and process and organize got done.

Constantina Watters: 1:05:26

It just wasn't physical, and that little moment that you were able to spend just recouping refreshed you for the next set of moments that you're going to have to be really on for.

Kelly Kirk: 1:05:38

so profound I love it.

Constantina Watters: 1:05:41

So permission to just be, and I think actually the hardest permission we need to give is ourself, especially if we're ones who are just self-discipl in that, where we like. For myself, it's hard to sit and do nothing sometimes, um, and that's why these like your trip, um, where you're physically out of that space, where you, you can't constantly do this thing.

Kelly Kirk: 1:06:05

Yeah, that's cleaning something up. Yeah, putting something away, something you feel is more important Checking in all the jobs, yeah. Okay, you feel is more important checking in all the jobs, yeah, okay. So the next direction that I want to move is one we've we've shared the name of your business, but can you talk a little bit more about what it is that you do? Sure, and then, on the heels of that, I will finally be able to ask the question that I wanted to ask earlier on the interview.

Constantina Watters: 1:06:37

Uh well, with sprout creative it, um, we build strategic branding and creative. So um and I built this virtual company Um originally. You start off, you know, as a designer, you're designing things, you're fixing the work right, and then I moved it into fixing the brand. I realized you can't fix the brand unless you fix the way that the team's working together, because the assets going to be what you know how, how, how the business operates, how the team dynamics are Then when you fix that, you're like hey, it's, it's not really that anymore, it's the leadership. So then I moved upstream and trying to fix the leadership or help make good great. I mean there are some great leaders and they're doing great things, but they can be even better. And so building things right from the foundation of how strong brand and foundation was really important to do excellent work at the end. And it's really hard to do excellent work when you're not set up to be able to do that. And so some of that with what we do.

Constantina Watters: 1:07:47

We're a boutique branding and creative agency, so we work with small, mid and large in different ways and I personally oversee a lot of the larger and creative um outputs, but I also do a lot of advising and CMO CEO peer work, where I'm helping leaders work through a specific challenge, whether it's leadership, peer, um group team personnel, a certain item or a challenge in the process, or actual branded assets that are not aligned with the brand of the company, or there's just a workflow that's not working.

Constantina Watters: 1:08:31

So I've helped fix a lot of those things, but it's it's unique and different to every person, organization and where they are in that that structure. So one of the philosophies I preach is to lead at any level and helping people who are at different levels in. If they are working for corporate or a business structure, how do they show up and lead in from the level that they're at and so that they can, I think, live a better and happier life in how they show up as you know at home, how they show up in work and how do we live, so that you can teach people along the way to be better. And so I think for me it was improving the way that brands are and the way that leaders are from the inside out. It it's starting maybe on the outside, but moving towards in and coming back out again.

Kelly Kirk: 1:09:24

That's so wonderful. So it's helpful for me too, right, because we did have you and I had a zoom call where you did explain some of that. Right, it was a get to know one another and um exploring the podcast as well, and I got a semblance of what it was that you were doing within sprout creative. But this has been helpful, yeah, and then understand, because the the follow-up question that I was going to ask is what's the um, what's your target market in terms of who you work with? And you explained that right, so that was um.

Kelly Kirk: 1:10:02

You explained that.

Constantina Watters: 1:10:03

Yeah, and, and you know, the marketing industry as a whole is is shifting dramatically and creative. So we're we're on in unknown territory. Yeah, and I'll. I'll say that, though for any business, I mean it doesn't matter if it's marketing, or I mean I deal with all sorts of businesses from, you know, industrial, pharmaceutical, service based, you know, product based. Everybody has entered a sphere of the unknown, every single business model is being challenged.

Constantina Watters: 1:10:38

So I you know from the years of having to pick yourself up or having to re-strategize or reorganize nobody has the answers. So anybody who comes in and says they know all the answers, they don't. It's's not the same. It hasn't been since covid and the whole game changed, and for everyone, yeah. And so everybody is just trying to figure out what the new is and what the new normal is or how to function at whatever. And that could be how you show up as a leader. That could be like what your company's actually doing, like how it's working.

Constantina Watters: 1:11:14

Um, but it's, it's a challenge. Everybody has a challenge. It's just a little bit different for each one.

Kelly Kirk: 1:11:20

Yeah.

Constantina Watters: 1:11:21

So, um, yeah, I hope that helps.

Kelly Kirk: 1:11:23

It does Um something. This is this was the question that I wanted to ask you earlier on, and it ties in perfectly with what you just shared about the business. How I you know I'm, I'm coming into you being in the business now for what Like 15, 15 years yeah. So 15 years but professionally longer.

Constantina Watters: 1:11:47

but we won't, we won't say how long, Right.

Kelly Kirk: 1:11:49

And then I've got a follow up question to that too. So how have you from, from when you started Baby Sprout Creative to now? Something that I think is so, so cool and so incredible is your tie in with community and how you love to empower other people around you. And you said something when we first met, and it wasn't directly to me, it was to the whole group, and it was I love to lift people up and you can be on my shoulders too.

Kelly Kirk: 1:12:29

I'm not unique in in going through these experiences, um, and I want other people to be able to enjoy it as well. How did you get to where you're doing that? Now, like, where did that idea spur from, and is that something that you had all like? That was a part of the Genesis of sprout creative, or I?

Constantina Watters: 1:12:50

don't know if it was from from that, but more of just what the struggle I went through when I went on my own and the lack of help like mentorship, you know, someone even just saying, hey, I'll grab a coffee with you or hey, 15 minutes, just yeah, like, give me some kind of nugget or something right, like, and it didn't. There was, you know, from men and women. There was nobody and I didn't have a huge network to pull from or, and it was, didn't know how I could even get my foot in the door with asking for some kind of guidance or any kind of help. Um, and I honestly didn't like the way that a lot of women were treating each other and I felt, hey, I'm going to, I would want, I want it to be different. I want I want women to do it a different way, and the only way I can change that is by doing it myself. So that's how I showed up is a little bit different. Um, I think for some it was new or different. Now I'm so, so glad to see the impact of really great women now being okay to help other women and, you know, really truly helping them and, um, cheering them on and lifting them up.

Constantina Watters: 1:14:10

But I feel like, personally, I love to bring as many people with me as I move up too, and I in my mind, I see this picture of traditional method of just stepping on people as you climb to the top, versus you holding space, lifting others maybe to use your shoulders when they get to another moment. Then they're lifting you up. Right, it's like this, it's this chain effect. That is it when done, it's, it's beautiful and, and to see certain people be able to live like that and to do work in that way is is really fulfilling and to see and to see that kind of community come together and then creating spaces or inviting an atmosphere of being able to share, and I that's why I love what you, you've done with this podcast, kelly. It's amazing, truly, that you've brought so many people and your talent for for doing this and just being this amazing host, and it's genuine and it's thoughtful and it's intentional, truly.

Kelly Kirk: 1:15:17

I mean, if anything, it's wildly successful.

Constantina Watters: 1:15:20

Just know that this is wildly successful. If it ends today, it's amazing, but it won't, because you have built something and you have allowed a space for other people to share their story, feel vulnerable, get some insight. It's almost like having a ton of those coffee sessions with people that you didn't get a chance to, or there just wasn't time, or maybe when you entered that space for that event, you were too intimidated to talk to them or you judge them too quickly.

Constantina Watters: 1:15:49

I think that happens a lot with women the judging and to say you don't know until you've met them and connect with them, give them a few moments before you rule out or determine who they are, and that I think leading with compassion as you go into leadership is huge. That is how we lift other people up as well.

Constantina Watters: 1:16:15

it's not so much just cheering them on, but it's truly being excited for them yeah and being happy for their success and when they walk on the stage which maybe you didn't get an award that year but to go, this is their time to shine. My time may come. It's not on my mood board now. I've had things happen where it was like it wasn't even on my mood board and somehow I've had things happen where it was like it wasn't even on my mood board and somehow, out of the blue, it happened and through compassionate, thoughtful people and if we just sort of create a space to do that for others, I think it creates this wildfire that spreads.

Kelly Kirk: 1:16:49

You bring up a really interesting point, which is modeling, and I shouldn't say that you brought this point up. You're emphasizing it, excuse me. You're emphasizing the importance of modeling, and one that can be really challenging for people sometimes, especially if you're consistently in this space of dog eat dog.

Constantina Watters: 1:17:17

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 1:17:18

However, if you can, if you, you saw an opportunity from your own experiences to go, it's gotta be better than this, right? Can it be better? And you got curious. There's a way and you started to model it and I really have enjoyed watching or I should say you know a little bit of watching, but more so just kind of experiencing, through the lens of social media, the ways that you do that. It's really powerful.

Kelly Kirk: 1:17:53

It really is. So thank you for giving me the compliments, but I'm going to share those compliments right back to you. I received those compliments though. Thank you, I appreciate that You're welcome.

Constantina Watters: 1:18:03

It is lonely, I think, at the, and when you get to a stage where you don't have, you don't seek it out, you don't seek the appreciative feedback, but when you get get it, it means so much more yeah and I know that because I live it. So that is why it's okay to freely give it yeah because we know how important it is.

Constantina Watters: 1:18:24

for one word, I mean you saying a comment to someone, just seemingly small, that lifts them up just a little bit, is enough of a fire, maybe to lead their month. Maybe they haven't had anything positive said to them in a week, a month, a year, I don't know what it is. But when you see that shift, that you see me, you see the beauty in something that I've done, built or an aspect of that person that has gone unappreciated.

Constantina Watters: 1:18:56

it helps lift them and gets them to the next hurdle, to the next thing, and it gives them enough momentum to maybe keep going for that day.

Kelly Kirk: 1:19:05

Full circle moment. So we talked at the very start of this interview about where we got connected and then what that led to, which was the event in December.

Constantina Watters: 1:19:15

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 1:19:16

Such a cool event and that is literally what we're speaking to in this space right now which is bringing women together, empowering them going. Hey, by the way, fashion and style can be a part of this too, and you can show up with that really glamorous outfit. Just do it. You know what I mean and so it was just so cool and I had so many great takeaways from that event itself and just to hear my girlfriend Jasmine go. I really needed that. I really really needed that.

Kelly Kirk: 1:19:52

I was sort of in this like new mama funk Right.

Constantina Watters: 1:19:55

So we both left just feeling so wonderful, I hope full, and your bucket was filled in that way because you, especially through COVID and if you are working in like a virtual team, a lot of people are virtual right now and they don't have any place to go to Like.

Constantina Watters: 1:20:13

I don't know, men maybe don't need as many opportunities, although I have known a lot of people are virtual right now and they don't have any place to go to. I don't know, men maybe don't need as many opportunities, although I have known a lot of men to want to dress up and go do some things too. But there are some beautiful things out there, or the dress in your closet that you only wore once. You're like gosh. It would be fun to wear this again. But where.

Constantina Watters: 1:20:30

Well, that was the whole point Create the opportunity. So that you can wear the things, do the things or just show up to some of those things and be the one that is wearing the sparkle yeah, and be okay with that, or the favorite skirt, or the pair of shoes or whatever.

Constantina Watters: 1:20:44

it is the thing that makes you feel beautiful, and it's not necessarily about a price tag or a label, it's just how do you feel in it and being able to exit the isolation of your room or the house or the schedule that you have to go out and just put on that other role or other persona or other splash of who you are and let that shine for just a little bit and just remember like you are this shiny too, yeah, and you are, and let that shine for just a little bit, and just to remember like you are this shiny too, yeah, and you are this person.

Constantina Watters: 1:21:15

Now, you don't have to be that person all the time, but it's fun to let that aspect of yourself come out in these moments, and so that's what I hoped for. That event was Um, and, and so when I do pull these things together through um curated, which is for um leadership and professionals and professionals and we're talking about different types of events with different, with different um topics or sessions or goals, I would say for what? What we want to achieve with that?

Constantina Watters: 1:21:43

but part of it is um can be done through fashion, and some of the fashion things that I've been a part of was simply because I was tired of wearing the workout clothes and just I kind of was like I wanted to wear color or something fun and have a fun place to go to, and um, and then it just again, it wasn't what I saw for myself, it was just something that naturally happened. Yeah, oh, it was just so fun.

Kelly Kirk: 1:22:08

I really enjoyed it, I'm so glad. Oh, it was just so fun, I really enjoyed it, I'm so glad. Bringing back the topic of modeling, how have you through excuse me, through everything that you've created with Sprout Creative, how have you seen, like, what you're doing through your business and having that kind of in tandem with being a mom, modeling through what you're doing in business, and how do you see the parallels with motherhood?

Constantina Watters: 1:22:43

Yeah, I guess I just try to. I am always a little bit of I root for the underdog and try to model of, I guess, through my actions, what I've determined would be the best course of action for me in my situation and staying really authentic and intentional in that and not trying to grow something just to grow it. Not try to grow something to a number of a people, of a certain income or gross income or net whatever that is, but really try to model being okay with just what you consider success and growth.

Constantina Watters: 1:23:26

So I think it's easy to put people on panels and to put speakers on stage who have one type of success right, but it's really important to hear all these different stories and all these different ways people are being successful in their life and in their family, or maybe taking care of somebody if they're taking care of aging parents or someone that's sick, or a child that's sick, or a friend showing up for them, or there's something going on in your life. But to model, in my sense at least to do what you preach, or at least try to be that way, and maybe somebody will go hey, that was a different way of doing it. Maybe I'll try it and it seems to be working for this person or, um, just not assuming a certain thing on them. I hope that answered it.

Kelly Kirk: 1:24:24

Yeah, and I'd love to hear a little bit more too about I think. What I've noticed is there's been opportunities where perhaps it was with your daughter you had brought her along to I think it was a fashion event.

Constantina Watters: 1:24:40

Oh, it was an awards. Oh, okay, I was receiving an award from Team. Women. And yeah, we decided to wear sequins together. So cute it would be fun.

Kelly Kirk: 1:24:52

But I think even in moments like that, that's such a pure and amazing example of being able to model for your children, Like, okay, there's hard work that went along to get to this point, but I'm showing up authentically. I'm doing it through this lens of wanting to build other people up, not just hey, how can I step over you to get to?

Kelly Kirk: 1:25:18

getting that award and kids can see and feel that right, and so I think through that. I guess that's what I was trying to get to is how do you see moments of modeling through the lens of your children? Maybe that's a better way, oh yeah, 100.

Constantina Watters: 1:25:36

Okay, I understand, um, I. I guess this is where I'm most proud. If I was going to say some of my huge success I'm even more proud than any business or any kind of accolade is the success with my kids, the way that they show up as humans they are. I don't know if every parent feels like their kids, like the best and all that, but I'm truly. We work on emotional intelligence, compassion, leadership in the sense of giving and and um being aware of people and their emotional state and um, I guess that's always for I'm always modeling for them how I would want them to be in this situation.

Constantina Watters: 1:26:25

So if something's really frustrating to me, you know some people act out of their childhood. You know instant emotion versus stopping and go. You know what I would really like to do this right now. But I'm going to do this and sometimes I verbalize that so they can understand the process. It's going through my mind so they didn't know I arrived at it. I didn't arrive at it from nowhere, it was because I was. This is how I processed it and so most my most biggest success has probably been in them and working through some modeling for people.

Constantina Watters: 1:26:57

Sometimes it's modeling how you'd handle a conversation, and so with my daughter, if it's a set of maybe mean girls or a situation or a playground situation, and she'll come to me now and say I don't know what to do, this is happening and I'll say, well, let me be that person and we'll try going back and forth, what are some of the options we could do here? And I think if we're just open to getting criticism or self-reflecting and what could I have done better, we can model that, but we can't model anything if we don't actually say to ourselves I never do wrong. If you can never do wrong, you can never improve. If you never ask anybody anything else. You, how can you grow?

Constantina Watters: 1:27:44

Right so you have to ask that of yourself, like how could I, what can I do better? So if I'm going to do this again, how can I be a better model for people who are looking at this? And that goes the same if your kids are looking at you, or if the public's looking at you, um, or your spouse or whatever that is. But I think striving for improvement in our very flawed human bodies is something to strive for not perfection, but improvement.

Kelly Kirk: 1:28:15

Well, you're speaking to me right now because, as a recovering perfectionist, that is also an area that I've continued to work through on the daily right, and it's been a slow progression, but I'm excited to say that I motherhood has been the most humbling experience, to kind of help get over this.

Constantina Watters: 1:28:39

Oh yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 1:28:39

Idea and notion of perfectionism.

Constantina Watters: 1:28:43

Yeah.

Kelly Kirk: 1:28:43

Sometimes you just got to set that down.

Constantina Watters: 1:28:45

Yeah, or just put a mess on where, if a mess bothers you, just keep it there and just walk by it and be like it's OK. Yeah, it's OK.

Kelly Kirk: 1:28:53

Oh, that's been the biggest challenge. But you know, my daughter's two and a half years old and this is just the world that we're living in right now is it's?

Kelly Kirk: 1:29:04

a, it's a tornado, it's a bit of chaos and it's like when she's not pulling something else out, it's like there's this pile over here that she just all of a sudden was like nope, we don't want to play with that anymore and I have to be okay with that. This is something that my husband has actually brought up and brought to light for me. He's like we're going to have to just be okay with living in a little bit of chaos every so often. Don't worry, I clean it up for the guests. I know your house is beautiful. It might it might've happened five minutes before you walked in. I don't think my house looked like this.

Constantina Watters: 1:29:42

Well, I think you kind of pick and choose your battles right, like if you have no time to do it all, like you can't be a great chef and a great cleaner. I here's what I think. I find some people who are really good cleaners aren't. Maybe they're not the greatest cooks in their mind. Sometimes they have. They're gifted with both. They're excellent organizers and cleaners and they can cook amazing. But some, more often than not, I find it there's always one or the other. So it's always fun to see like, oh, this is a little bit of you know, but but that's important's important we all have.

Constantina Watters: 1:30:12

I think it's so great that we have these, you know, especially if your spouse is one way and the other. You're complementary with each other. But to help yourself, like, train in, okay it's. If I spend time doing this thing, in the grand scheme of things, if I could spend the 30 minutes playing Legos on the floor, and the Legos on the floor are just going to stay there. That's then in my mind. I've like, okay, it's just going to stay there, but when they get a little older, we can, they can take pride in taking cleaning up and and knowing that it's, you can make a game out of it, or it's a, it's a for for me. With my kids it was like, hey, I gotta do these dishes before I can play. Who wants to help me with the dishes? And then it's like, okay, well, we'd rather help you with the dishes because we want to play with you instead of you doing these other tasks that take a lot of time and energy.

Constantina Watters: 1:31:04

There's only so many hours in the day, so I think, being okay with some of that, just saying it's just going to be a little, a little chaotic, but it's. But here's the beautiful thing about motherhood and just life in general, especially for women. We go in phases. Everything's a phase. So any phase that's really cool right now is going to change, and any phase that's really terrible right now will change and we look back and go oh, that was fleeting and that was really fast. So it's all phase. Every woman that I've talked to has a struggle with understanding who they are in their phase.

Constantina Watters: 1:31:44

We all because we have to transform and shift a little bit. So from little kids to teenagers, to college, to kids out of the house, to taking care of family, to aging, to a newfound freedom of time.

Constantina Watters: 1:32:00

Right there's in giving grace to each person and each woman, especially in that time of life, to say and here's where the wisdom comes in, because if you didn't, if you didn't go through some of that and you didn't see how it was, you wouldn't have compassion for that person as you, as you meet them. But some people have put blinders on when they've reached a certain age and didn't come with that self-awareness.

Constantina Watters: 1:32:26

So, there's this expectation you should just be living the lifestyle that I have. Like, what's your issue? Like, why can't you the lifestyle that I have? Like, what's your issue like, why can't you? Well, we don't have that same amount of time, breakdown or or um role, uh, distribution. So just knowing that each person is just. This is a phase that you're going through and it will change and that new phase will be beautiful and different and you're going to have to put on a whole new persona of sorts to be that person in that phase.

Kelly Kirk: 1:32:56

That was so beautiful. It really was. It's actually so interesting that the name of the podcast is Reclaiming your Hue. Yes, I love it and you do this really beautiful tie-in of identifying that there's just as women, as mothers, as parents. The reality is that everything is fleeting and we get stuck in this like, oh my gosh, this is how it is Right, and then also tying our identity to it.

Kelly Kirk: 1:33:29

But, then having this understanding, like stripping that back and going actually it's okay, it's like enjoy it, yes, Because it's not going to actually be like that forever, Thank goodness right. There's some seasons where it's like, thank goodness, we're not, we're not going to stay in that one too long and we're going to be able to work through it. But I think what's really a really nice tie in is that we can, as women, kind of shift how we show up and what our hue is through all of that. Oh, so good, Constantina.

Constantina Watters: 1:34:10

I love that, so good it is. It's shifting and changing and I like that. You and I understood that with the reclaiming it was like finding yourself again who you were, but that has that color may have changed slightly. Right, it's not going to be exactly the same and, um, and there's beauty in that, yeah, and there's a peace in knowing that you don't have to be.

Constantina Watters: 1:34:36

It's not your full identity, like your one role is not your entire identity. In fact, that's something that when I work with some leaders who own or founded businesses or run them, they have tied their identity so closely to the thing that they've created and this can happen for moms, you can to the things that we create we tie our identity to. But it's not that we are more than the things that we create. We are so multifaceted and so if you've only tied yourself to this one thing that you produced whether it's a product, service, brand, whatever, even sometimes it's just the son or daughter when that changes or goes away or moves on, who are you then right, yeah, who are you and what are you? And it's really important to understand that while you're making it or before you make the things. So you, you can go, it's okay.

Constantina Watters: 1:35:30

It's not fully me, it's a part of me. It's a part of my passions and um things that I really enjoy, something I'm really good at, but it doesn't make me everything that I am and it doesn't. It doesn't. It's not the carrier of me. I am the carrier of me and wherever I go it comes with me. It's not, it's not stuck in that, in that brand or in that that thing. I mean I've I've seen and coached some women go through having to close business after like 15 years when COVID hit and it was like losing for some of them, losing their child because it was their baby for so long but, they so closely tied in their personality and who they were, they are and who they were into.

Constantina Watters: 1:36:19

That thing. That is no longer there and it never needed to be that in the first place. It just needed to be the best of that particular type of thing and you can do it again and you you can. In and honestly, the way we feel about something is only the way we feel about it. So one one of the things that I, when I was thinking about this podcast coming here and I was just thinking about emotions and how we view ourselves are you ever driving down the road and you're like today's an amazing day, it's beautiful.

Constantina Watters: 1:36:52

I love just like everything about what's going on. It just seems like a really great day and you're smiling and you're listening to your music and you're alone in your car, right. But then have you been in your car when you've had those moments where you're just like you're just gonna cry in your car, you're just having a breakdown or something is just not right and you're like, you're just. It feels like a huge clouds over you, but the only difference is nobody else can see that. It's just you. It's your emotional feeling inside of what you're going through. So it isn't an outward thing that's happening to us, that we feel everybody can see. It's just what we're struggling with internally. So sometimes I'm like am I on the? I'm on the drive that's like this beautiful, I'm excited one, it's okay. And if I'm on the sad one, it's okay. But either way nobody knows.

Kelly Kirk: 1:37:41

Yeah.

Constantina Watters: 1:37:42

Except me. Unless you're Kelly Kirk and you wear your emotions on your sleeve, yes, but you know you, just you can show you're like yeah, I love that Kelly.

Kelly Kirk: 1:37:53

I get it, though, and I totally understand the point that you're emphasizing, which it's beautiful, it really is, even though it showcases that we're going to go through our emotions right, whether you like it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you like it or or not. However, there is also the the perception of what that looks like from outsiders perspective, and it isn't. What I enjoy about what you're saying to constantina is. It's not about putting on this like mask, it's just like how do you work through those emotions?

Kelly Kirk: 1:38:32

another tie-in to how quickly can you work through those emotions? Another tie in to how quickly can you move through those emotions Right?

Constantina Watters: 1:38:38

And what do you need at that time to work through it? If you need some environment change or a person or something, yeah, but it is. You know, when somebody shows up to, let's say, an event and they're having a really great day, like how do they show up to that event versus when something terrible just happened before? Or when they're coming in with the expectation of I don't think this is going to be great because the last thing was not great. But nobody can hear those internal thoughts.

Kelly Kirk: 1:39:07

It's just you.

Constantina Watters: 1:39:08

So you can ignore them. Choose to change it. No, okay, oh, no worries, okay, oh yeah. You got to hit the road.

Kelly Kirk: 1:39:33

He's got to assume at one o'clock, which is five minutes. Okay, yeah, Konstantina, I have thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. We're going to start to land the plane. I have so many more questions for you, but we'll talk a little bit more off air. My first question is what's a piece of advice you would give a younger version of yourself knowing all that you know now?

Constantina Watters: 1:39:56

well, I think, just through this interview and process, I mean, a lot of those tips was that it's okay to fail, don't worry what others think. Um, be okay with the success or the version that you are in and be okay with the beautiful phase you're in right now. And, um, yeah, I think, not letting things sit too long or take you down too long and um, uh, what do you call it? Freeze you from doing something, any kind of you know, action or next step, and then just to give yourself grace and to be like you're you're going to be okay, you're going to make it, you're going to make it through.

Kelly Kirk: 1:40:48

I love it. Would that be the same advice that you would give a woman who's listening right now? That's perhaps nibbling on the edges of entrepreneurship.

Constantina Watters: 1:40:59

Yeah, you gotta. You gotta try it, because you're going to always wonder, but give yourself grace if it doesn't go where you wanted it to go.

Kelly Kirk: 1:41:07

Yeah.

Constantina Watters: 1:41:08

And then really, you know self, reflect on what was working and what wasn't and make the changes If you really and what wasn't. And make the changes if you really want it to keep going. Make the changes that are necessary to get to that next level or say you know what, this is okay being a hobby and that is perfectly fine, and that is perfectly okay.

Constantina Watters: 1:41:26

And it's beautiful, it's a way to protect it. But if you feel like it's something more than just be real with with, what are some of the challenges you're going to come up against and would you want to do it for that many hours a day and be okay with it?

Kelly Kirk: 1:41:41

That's so good Speaking from experience.

Constantina Watters: 1:41:45

huh, yes, I love it. This has been beautiful, kelly.

Kelly Kirk: 1:41:49

Oh, thank you. Last question how can people get connected to you?

Constantina Watters: 1:41:54

Oh, thank you Last question how can people get connected to you? Oh, good question. I am online on LinkedIn for business, some through social with Instagram, and then ConstantinaWaterscom you want to know kind of it's sort of the hub for right now for what I'm up to or what I'm doing and consulting, and then Sprout Creative S-P-R-O-U-T-E. Creative is the strategic branding and creative agency that I run, love it.

Kelly Kirk: 1:42:25

I will make sure to drop all of that in the show notes for our listeners so that if they are ready to get started with Sprout Creative, they know exactly how to get connected to you. Thank you so much. Thank you for carving out time and so wonderful, seriously so wonderful, to see you.

Constantina Watters: 1:42:41

You are beautiful.

Kelly Kirk: 1:42:42

You're glowing, you're shining, and I love it, and I can feel that, as I'm ready to go on my road trip, I'm going to take some of that with me.

Constantina Watters: 1:42:49

I love it, kelly. Thank you so much. It has been a pleasure. I love what you're doing, I love what you're building and it's so important. And keep on shining, my friend.

Kelly Kirk: 1:42:57

Thank you have a great day.