Beyond the Kremenator: Speaking with Flow and Fire

In part two of my conversation with Kremena Yordanova, we turn to the present — her evolving relationship with speaking, her dance with imposter syndrome, and the art of showing up unscripted and real. Kremena shares her favorite speaking experiences, her perspective on leading across generations, and the importance of humility in conscious leadership. We close with the Pivot Pivot: a playful round of questions that reveal her quirks, her loves, and the legacy she wants to leave behind.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Imposter monsters show up to protect us — but their voice isn’t the truth. We can thank them, and then choose not to let them drive.
2. Mistakes on stage don’t diminish our power; they make us more magnetic, more human, more alive.
3. Presence isn’t about perfection. It’s about allowing life to flow through us in real time, never the same twice.
4. Vulnerability is the currency of connection. When we drop the mask, we give others permission to drop theirs.
5. Humility is strength. Letting Gen Z or anyone younger than us teach us is leadership in its most conscious form.
6. Humanity is like an orchestra. Every voice — drums, violins, even the instruments we’ve never heard before — is needed for true harmony.
7. Conscious leadership begins with ourselves. It’s the daily practice of asking: Who do I want to be remembered as?

Chapters

• 1:36 Imposter monsters & awareness practices
• 3:37 Finding freedom in mistakes & imperfections
• 5:38 Why we love live moments — on stage and in life
• 8:15 Favorite speaking experience: the power of panel vulnerability
• 10:13 Vulnerable leadership & the value of Gen Z voices
• 12:11 Humanity as an orchestra of voices
• 14:06 What conscious leadership really asks of us
• 16:31 Where to find Kremena
• 17:15 Pivot Pivot: quirks, words, and wisdom at 100

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

What is your relationship to speaking now?

Speaker 2: 0:38

I enjoy it so much. But I also feel like I have my imposter syndrome every now and then, and I don't use this often and lightly, but I'll be like, oh, does anyone like, do they really want to hear again from me, or do people really want to hear from another yoga teacher? Do they really want to hear again from me? Or do people really want to hear from another yoga teacher? Do they want to hear from another executive that turned into fractional CMO? Everyone is doing it. I have this weird feeling sometimes of like my story is not that unique, but every story is unique. Mm-hmm, but every story is unique. Yeah, I know the impact of when I'm in the presence of someone that tells their experience in a very, very tangible manner, how it moves me, how it changes me, and then I'll be like, why am I robbing other folks from the opportunity to hear something from me?

Speaker 1: 1:36

Yeah yeah, robbing other folks from the opportunity to hear something from me. Yeah, yeah, I hear. The imposter monsters, which is the soul suckers, are the inner critics that are trying to protect us, but often do so by turning their judgments against us. So don't do this thing because you're an imposter, you're too much of this or too little of that, and it sounds like you have an awareness of them and you're able to move through them.

Speaker 2: 2:07

I thank them and I say this is not about you. Yeah, and it's so interesting Just the other day I had to give a three-hour workshop and it was an amazing workshop. But just before I step on stage there was like a moment where I was like, oh, would it start again? I wait for it. I invited to say like, oh, let see what what this other criminator has to say about it and I was like, no, not today.

Speaker 2: 2:42

I really don't think today you should be telling me that, um, maybe your slides can be better, or maybe this or maybe that um, and you just say not today, or like not now. Uh, we can, we can spend energy after, but, um, people really enjoyed with the content and, uh, that's all I could hope for, and it was so unnecessary to even you catch that before it even happens and it's it's, it's really beautiful. Because you're like I can almost imagine when this will kick in and you're like, oh, interesting, I'm having this type of thought popping up and it's like, no, not now, it's okay, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:29

And awareness of, like, what is your creative process and there's a moment where that happens that's actually part of your creative process.

Speaker 2: 3:38

And it's interesting because it also is a speaker you need to find your own. For the longest time I was trying to memorize my script, making sure that I come across like the American. I don't know. I mean, the accent I have is the accent I have. The way I pronounce or mispronounce things is the way I mispronounce things. The dyslexic part of me that is absolutely present is there, but I've noticed that people actually appreciate that more. It kind of shortens the distance between the audience that I have. And I'm not saying go there and make a gazillion mistakes, I'm saying go there and if you make a mistake, so what?

Speaker 1: 4:30

Yeah, where even the preparing is happening like the art form, instead of dry and looking for perfection, you do prepare and it's preparing. Art forms have life in them, so it's preparing with the life and then also letting there be um alive. Yeah, if you make a mistake, so what? That's like newsflash for people who don't realize it. The people who still go to see live theater love it. Yes, when they see the day that, like something went wrong in the fight and everybody was okay but so and so got their tooth knocked out live on stage, or someone didn't enter on time and somebody else had to cover and they did this really cool improv and I believe we love that from speakers too. That it's.

Speaker 1: 5:23

It's not meant to be recited by rote like in the united states. When I was a kid, we used to recite the pledge of allegiance and we didn't even know what we were saying. It was very like, you know, ai could have done it for us. They want to see the human. They want to see and feel the way it's being done, in a way it's never been done before, which sometimes is going to include a mistake here or there.

Speaker 2: 5:52

And it invites them. In my experience, it invites them to know that this is happening through me for the benefit of all of us here. But it's not going to. Even if I give the same speech over and over again, like in a season, you maybe get 10 times opportunity to rehash the same content.

Speaker 1: 6:15

But it's never the same.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Yeah, it gives them. I noticed that someone was on three of my same speeches and I even asked that person. Like you do realize I don't have new content, I had to ask them before that. I was like it's so nice to see you and it was amazing, but you do realize that you see the same slides from two weeks ago that you've been witnessing. Yeah, me on stage and they were like, yeah, but you, you always pick up something else he said is the same structure, I, I, I was hired to do the same talk and I said to to the person like you do realize, it's the same talk.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Essentially they were like, but it, but it's not yeah so yeah, it's not because of them and because of you, you can yeah, I remember being in a coaching class and going back and assisting it and I swore they had changed the content.

Speaker 1: 7:22

And I opened up my you know paper notebook and I was like no, it's literally the exact same words that are written on the board are written down in my notes. Yes, thing about about where I am in being here and they're delivering it a little bit differently, is striking me as if I've never heard it before. So it's hitting me on a different level and it's that live experience of the speaker and the witnesses creating something that is different every single time. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, tell us about. Uh, if not, if you don't have one favorite, like one of your, your personal favorite speaking experiences, my personal favorite.

Speaker 2: 8:16

Oh yeah, I think it's the first time I actually was on a panel before, because we were building on top of each other, on top of each, like we've known each other forever, and sometimes the thing with panels is very it's very difficult in most cases to make it really valuable.

Speaker 2: 8:42

I feel like in some of the conferences that at least I've been to, there is this like oh wow, we don't have a space for you as a main keynote speaker, but we have a panel. Would you rather do that? And sometimes you'll be like, okay, but that one time we were building on each other so much more truthful content that it was unscripted, unfiltered, pure wisdom from where we were going, a lot of vulnerability that you can't, you can't prescript, you can't imagine. And right now I'll share something that I've never told anyone, and I had that aha moment in that panel and I was like, wow, this is why a different point of view is required. This is why, when you think you have nothing to say, you maybe should be the person that is there to say these things maybe should be the person that is there to say these things.

Speaker 2: 9:49

It blocks a lot of communication with the audience. I've never received so many comments and questions and I got out of it also two mentees that are very dear to my heart, and it wouldn't have happened if I was not just bluntly honest about something.

Speaker 1: 10:09

Yeah, can I ask you what the vulnerable thing was that you shared we?

Speaker 2: 10:14

were speaking about the difficulty of leading teams and the conversation continued with one long story. Longer it was. Is it more difficult?

Speaker 2: 10:29

quote unquote to be, leading Gen Z or millennials, and I was arguing the fact that for me it's absolutely crucial to have Gen Zs in my team. I'm in the art of marketing. Like I need to know what's going on in the world, in their world, and there is nobody else that will keep me. So, you know, on point, to say, like you don't get it, like that, we don't do this. And it requires such a humility as as a leader, from your side that we were going back and forwards on, on on those topics because there were different opinions and I was like you. I literally said you guys have it all wrong, because in my industry, having this type of knowledge from the closer to the audiences we are attracting is invaluable. Yeah, I cannot outsource that, I cannot. Yeah, it was.

Speaker 2: 11:37

Yeah, we had such a beautiful discussion and I got yeah it was very vulnerable to say that, that you need to be humbled and you need to be told on a daily basis how much you don't know. Yeah, it's very confronting as a leader in generation where we maybe were told you have to pretend you know it all. Yes, actually go back to them and say I have zero understanding of how this tiktok works yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1: 12:12

my one of my metaphors for humanity is that it's like humanity is one big orchestra and some of the instruments are not playing or not playing full out, or like the string section somewhere.

Speaker 1: 12:32

We're told that they needed to try to pretend they were drums, and what humanity actually needs is every voice in the conversation being themselves and playing full out in order to reach harmony.

Speaker 1: 12:50

And I hear that in both how that panel evolved, the authenticity, and everybody and you chiming in. And it does feel like for humanity. It's time for us to hear from some of the voices that we haven't been hearing from, because drums might just drum louder and drums are great, but if you only had drums, you have like a 17 year old kid who's got a drum set playing in their garage. That's not going to solve humanity's problems. And I also hear the vulnerable leadership truth that you shared was well, you can be the drum and you can't be a violin if violin is Gen Z and actual teamwork, collaboration, harmony comes from everybody bringing their unique presence, their unique gifts, their unique vantage point to the experience and it makes humanity better and it makes teams run better, and leaders who do that are the leaders of the, I wanted to say of the future. They're actually the leaders we need now, not just now and going forward.

Speaker 2: 14:06

I'm deeply fascinated by who we are pointing or who we are going to to see as leaders nowadays, and what type of um we're always committing so much of our own masks. We spoke earlier about it and it's like it's such a high time. And in your intro about my body of work, it all brings back this consciousness to the front, for, uh, to the front and center. Yeah, it's like I often speak about, but what is a conscious leader? And it's like is exactly this, this questioning yourself so much more, and it's tiring for some of, uh, some of us, and it's it maybe is requiring much more effort, but we cannot afford to to do it the old way. We cannot afford to to speak of my way or the highway or so many other things.

Speaker 2: 15:00

That me, also as a secondary, like English is my second language, I draw a lot of inspiration from my own language when I lead or when I speak, and I'll squeeze in there a saying that no one understands. I would squeeze in there a saying that no one understands and I'll use that as a, as a way to to. Are we all in seeing the things the way we see them? And if not, it's totally okay. Yeah, there is space for all of our options and opinions to be described and to be yeah. I just think that described and to be yeah I.

Speaker 2: 15:43

I just think that we we're in such a good situation to be demanding more from our leaders, and it also requires us to be able to know that we can lead, if nothing else, ourselves, and I used to hate every, every leadership course that there was available. I would go to because I'm just fascinated by it, and it starts with you. It starts with you, sure it does, but the environment around us has to also maintain that. That, that everyone to be really curious about themselves and how they want to be remembered as a leader.

Speaker 1: 16:20

Yeah, if, there are enough people doing that. Hopefully there will be a tipping point where that becomes the norm. Where can our listeners find you if they are leaning in and want to know more?

Speaker 2: 16:42

the best place will be my linkedin. I'm trying to maintain it in a sense that I respond within maximum a week. Um, I'm on linkedin. I have a website that I don't maintain that well krimenayordanovacom, and I think on Instagram I'm still with the YorYoga. So Y-O-R-Yoga no, just the Instagram. Linkedin will be the place to just ask me anything else.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Wonderful, Wonderful. And now it's time to slide into the Pivo pivot. What is your favorite word Collected? What is your least favorite word Empowered? What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Speaker 2: 17:47

I'm blanking on this one. Okay, I see fire. Now, I don't know, maybe because you mentioned it, fire.

Speaker 1: 17:57

Okay, what turns you off?

Speaker 2: 18:02

Pushy.

Speaker 1: 18:08

What's your favorite cuss word?

Speaker 2: 18:11

What is that? Sorry, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 18:13

Like a swear word.

Speaker 2: 18:20

Like a swear word.

Speaker 1: 18:22

I'm blanking. It doesn't need to be in English. Actually, if you have a favorite customer, swear word in another language bring it.

Speaker 2: 18:34

Oh wow, I'm not using many of them. That's not okay. I'm blanking out completely okay, life work assignment.

Speaker 1: 18:46

You get to say yes, I will, no, I won't. Or here's my counter offer. Will you do some swearing this week to discover what your favorite favorite swear word is? Fuck?

Speaker 2: 18:56

yeah, yay, okay, you really made it difficult there. I was like wait a minute. When was the last time?

Speaker 1: 19:06

I swear I was like it can be liberating. What sound or noise do you love?

Speaker 2: 19:15

Morning birds.

Speaker 1: 19:22

But only in the morning.

Speaker 2: 19:26

What sound or noise do you hate? All firearms?

Speaker 1: 19:30

What profession, other than the ones you've already done in your life, would be fun to try? Actor, what profession would you not like to do? Waitress again. What do you hope people say about you on your 100th birthday? She lived well, wonderful. Thank you so much for coming here today. It was such a wonderful, wonderful experience spending time with you and hearing about your journey.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Thank you, thank you, thank you, lori, for having me this was amazing.

Speaker 1: 20:12

And listeners, if you loved today's episode, please do all the things like it rate it, leave a review, share it with a friend, who might appreciate it too, and I will see you back here soon.