Building Beyond Your Comfort Zone: Kristen Chandler on Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Reinvention

0:00 Hi, I'm your host, Henry Clavo, CEO and founder of Orlando Insight Group. Each episode, we dive into real conversations with technology leaders, innovators, and experts who are shaping the future of IT, data, cybersecurity, and leadership. Our goal is simple, to give you practical insights, more strategies, and expert perspective that you can use to drive smarter decisions and stronger results for your business. Today I'm joined by Kristen Chandler, an entrepreneur and business leader with more than two decades of experience spanning wellness, diagnostics, workplace safety, and franchise ownership.

0:39 Kristen is the founder and CEO of MO Protocol, Insurance Medical Diagnostics, and more. She operates any lab tests now in subway franchises. Across these different businesses. Her work centers on understanding people, building strong operations, and using data to make better decisions. Today, we'll explore her entrepreneurial journey, the lessons she learned leading across industries, and why it takes to pursue new opportunities before you feel completely ready. Kristen, welcome to Orlando Insights Podcast today.

1:10 How are you today? I'm good. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I wanted to invite you for a very long time. But now that I have you, it's great to have you and be able to learn more about your journey. So what first drew you to our entrepreneurship, Kristen? As a kid, I always watched my dad, who was an entrepreneur, and then my granddad and my great granddad run businesses. Me and my sister would go to work with my mom and my grandmother, who like also worked in the family business. So we were exposed like at birth to entrepreneurship, watching it within our family and being a part of it.

1:59 um so I always had that kind of background and as I just continued to grow I would always have like these ideas even as a child like selling flowers out of my mom's garden to like the kids in the neighborhood and things like just little things that I didn't realize at the time were going to end up being my journey. But I always had that knack for, oh, well, we can make money doing this or that even as a child. So I guess within me, I had it. And then I had the push or the opportunity to do it in college when I was faced with the decision to either stay in graduate school or go operate a branch of my parents' business.

2:51 And I chose to drop out of grad school and take that risk and start and run a business I knew nothing about. And from there, it just I continued on. Yeah, that's very scary. Dropping out of a program and then moving on your own. Usually people recently, they're going to college. They're thinking about a career. Now they think of it as a luxury career. But you did the opposite. So very brave of you. It was. I think it was one of those ignorance is bliss. Like I didn't know anything about risk and all the things I know now.

3:34 I didn't have any of that in front of me to like stop that decision. I just sounded fun. I didn't love the program that I was in. So that kind of made it a little bit easier of a decision. the only the only thing that really kind of held me back was I had just bought a house that I was going to live in in grad school and my dad had presented that to me like I just bought this house it's a fixer-upper like what am I going to do with it and I had like 30 days to patchwork and like paint and make it presentable to run out.

4:14 But like, I've never lived in that house, never had the, I had big dreams for it, but I still have it as a rental today. So I think that that was kind of also like my first adult decision. Like I have this house, like, how am I going to shift? And like from, from executing, dropping out of grad school, having to get a house ready to rent, move five hours away from it, it kind of set in motion. Like if I can do that, then I can do this. Like it just started building upon from there. Right. Yeah. The first step to entrepreneurship is owning a property.

4:57 And wow, you own a property while going to graduate school and then then pivoting to entrepreneurship, that takes a lot of courage. And I look back now and I'm like, what bank would have given a college graduate student? I mean, I had three jobs. They were all odd jobs. And I had a job at the university as like a teaching assistantship. But I had all these like three jobs and it didn't. I look now knowing what I know now about buying property and things like that I didn't have to put a down payment down it was it was just wild like I just fell into a really accidental situation that like I'm grateful for now but looking back I'm like that was totally that's not by the books what should happen for sure so yeah probably a different time in a time where the economy was very generous.

6:03 Right. Yeah. You started in fire safety and training operations before finding insurance medical diagnostics and more. What gave you the confidence to move from managing operations to building your own company?

6:18 Honestly, just fear because the industry was starting to shift. We were in a market where it was like 100% gas and not oil. and the gas market like started declining rapidly and with being a third-party safety company you're always the first vendor to get like taken off the list of like this is an unnecessary expense they'll just hire somebody within to fulfill those roles that you did most of the time so we started losing contracts like crazy because they were shutting they were shutting down and i did drug testing within that business because I had clients that just needed it.

7:01 So I was like, fine, I'll figure it out and learn how to do it. Well, when they were shutting down their companies, I was getting all these drug testing calls to do lockdown tests because they just wanted to get as many positives as possible because they knew they were shutting down, so they didn't want to have to pay unemployment. That's when it's like, okay, this is the only sustainable thing this business right now because we're losing it left and right so i decided to start searching like oil and gas is my biggest client right now i have to diversify and that's when i found any lab test now as a franchise and i thought well they're doing drug testing already in that brand i already know how to do that maybe i can talk to them and see if i can you know buy into that brand set the businesses side to side by side do drug testing with in my own brand like i'm already doing and then add the lab testing as like another form of revenue and so i i contacted them and that all worked out and told my parents i was leaving the family business because and they could see like the rapid decline and that sort of thing too and um with like seven thousand dollars in savings went out on my own like i didn't have any loans um no nest egg savings no like six months worth of rent no money for payroll like nothing i just like went and did it which was insane looking back that i would have done that with only seven thousand dollars in the bank but i did no market research but and but you had a god affiliate but the change in the business so you made a decision based on that i think that's experience and that's

8:59 a person who understood their business and looking ahead i think that's what a entrepreneur this is the common pattern of an entrepreneur that you've demonstrated buying property and then be able to work in industry and then having a foresight to pivot when that occurs.

9:25 You can only ask how old were you when you were managing that change? I was 22 when I dropped out of grad school and went over there. And then I think I was probably 26 or 27 when I had to shift and pivot to do that. Okay. So you're gaining that experience and then learning a new industry. So what occurred after transitioning to that new business? It was just trial and error. I was, I set my hours to where it was kind of a, I brought in a part-time medical assistant because I couldn't draw blood or anything like that.

10:19 So I brought in a part-time medical assistant and set my hours to base it on when she was there. I would go out and do outside sales, educate the community, do all the networking while she was in the store and like dealing with the customers. And that's just how I that's all I knew to do in that situation. And that was also when wellness wasn't a big deal. So I really had a hard battle ahead of me, which I hadn't realized of educating the community about what we were about. Also, doctors thought I was competition and I wasn't.

11:02 They didn't realize it was more of a partnership. So I had to do like a lot of lunch and learn type meetings with physicians. Like we're partners, we're not competitors. And like making it make sense to a lot of people that thought it was so taboo back then. And so that was a big three to five year hurdle of just slow growth because I had to spend a lot of time educating everybody about what it was about. Right. And did you have to get a license? Did you have to get permits or something to work in the industry or you were able to figure it out quickly?

11:43 I had to get a CLIA certificate to do point of onsite testing, like our quick test and that sort of thing. And then my medical assistants had to be certified, phlebotomist certified. And then we had an in-house, or not an in-house, but like an in-house for the franchise brand medical director who wrote all of our standing order protocols and that sort of thing. So there were things like that that had to be done. But for the most part, since I was already doing drug testing, I was pretty much set up to go this next route just with a few little things here and there.

12:29 And just hiring the right personnel who could do the tasks that that business required because I couldn't do it myself at the time. Of course, people that do that either are in the lab tests or medical field. Was the business profitable during that time to be able to hire or you had to take a loan? No, I mean, I didn't take a loan. Luckily, my husband had a good job. We just lived on his income for a really long time. And I just poured everything into that business. any profit. I just kept re reallocating within it.

13:10 And that's why when I first began, I only had that part-time medical assistant because I couldn't really afford to pay, to pay for full-time. Like I had to build up to that type of growth. I didn't really even know what I was doing. So it took, it probably took about six months for me to feel comfortable bringing her on full-time. And then we just started growing from that point. And how long did it take for you to feel comfortable? You know, I'm confident this business will succeed. And now I am prepared to work in this industry to feel comfortable in your skin during this transition.

13:56 Probably about five years after like seeing how everything started working together and pulling like this service with this. And that took a while because I was navigating it myself, just like any, any customer that was trying to figure out what we did. I had to figure that out myself. The franchise had a week training type deal. But even with Subway, we had, we had more like two weeks. And that still just isn't enough for you to be ready to completely ready. 90% of it is just learning by being thrown in the fire, honestly.

14:42 And so that takes time because you're encountering all different scenarios and things like that, that time only can tell. And so it took a bit, but we just we kept moving forward and trying to stay five steps ahead always in front of competition. And so the wellness industry has really evolved now, but us always staying way ahead of that has really helped us with all this type of competition that we have now that we didn't have before anybody really understood how this all worked. Yeah, now Texas is growing.

15:25 Population growth has grown over the years. So you have companies coming over to these new small towns. So it is now that you're established, you really have that opportunity. You're the first to be there and able to execute those services.

15:53 Tell me a little bit about your subway franchise and how that happened. So we, nine years ago, moved to a town. It's really more of a community outside of a city. And it's about 20 minutes at the time from anything that you could pick up and eat. There's no grocery store out here. It really was at the time just a gas station. and uh when we moved we didn't have anything in the fridge or anything like that and I remember telling my husband like hey where we just need to go get something quick or whatever and he was like there's nothing quicker on here it's like 20 minutes away and like the nearest fast food anything and I was like that's ridiculous where did where didn't we move to and uh I can't believe all these people live out here without any type of like grocery store, fast food, anything.

16:54 And a shopping center was being built about six months later after we moved here. And my husband was like, well, we should put something in there. Like there's no food. And I kept, I couldn't believe that nobody, like, is there something I don't know about this town that like has stopped people from doing it because this is crazy that I would be the first to do it. And same thing. I just what's a brand that doesn't have any grease? Very well established already. Everybody knows what it is. I could hire high school kids if necessary.

17:34 I don't have to have a chef for like special recipes and all this stuff. Like I didn't want to deal with any of that. and that's when I contacted Subway and they came down and were like, we have no data because this isn't actually a city. This is just a community. They made me take them to like the different subdivisions and that sort of thing. It's really just one busy street that runs through the town. And we sat on that street for hours and they watched the traffic and they were like, there's potential, but like, this is a big risk.

18:12 Like, we don't know really what to tell you. If you want to do it, we'll allow you this territory. But also like, we don't have anything to give you to like anything really. So I did, I felt like good about it. And going into it, I realized why a lot of people hadn't taken that path because the water out here is well water. So like we don't have city water so i had like a lot of challenges to fight with the water the internet we didn't have any fiber optics like no at&t was there it was just like a hometown internet service that like i required a lot of data and high speed that really couldn't they managed it the best they could so then i start seeing like okay this is why no one is doing it and um about probably five three to five years into that others started seeing subway was successful and they they started bringing in new new things too so now it's like you have dominoes and like different types.

19:25 Me, Subway and Domino's are like really the only national or global type of franchise chain. Everything else is like small mom pop things. But I mean, there is nothing. I was the only one. And now all these others have developed out here. I think somebody just needed to see it could happen and be sustainable to take the risk to do it. You heard the expression, if you build it, they will come. Yes. You as an entrepreneur saw an opportunity and you were able to capitalize it. Now your competitors or your neighbors are now invested in that town.

20:08 I'm sure it has grown significantly after those growth phases. I bet it's construction right now and houses, buildings. It just is never it not stopped And the school most of the community that lives out here is for the school because it its own independent school district even though it not its own city It the craziest thing But so you here for the school. So it's just tons of houses, new subdivisions constantly being built. There's new shopping centers being built. Like it's just the growth is unbelievable.

20:51 And I really never thought I would beat my first year numbers because I was the only one here. It was crazy busy all the time. And now this year is the first year that I've beat year one numbers. I've always stayed pretty consistent with that. But this year finally boosted above year one. And I have more competition than ever. But it's just the growth is so unbelievable that like it's just it's continued to make it better I think people see competition and think the worst but honestly it's only helped me the way it's grown and having competition and having more employees to pull from because when I was here I had it was really difficult to staff it because I was the only business out here and now that I have all these other food businesses like we're We're swapping employees.

21:52 They get mad at this place. They come and apply at Subway or vice versa. It all is always happening, but we've never experienced that type of employee shortage like I had to deal with once this has all started. Now it's much easier now. We have our season still of, I think, like any business where it's hard to find good help or anything like that. But it's never been as hard as what it was when we were like the only game in town. And it was just like pulling teeth to get anybody through the door to apply or anything like that.

22:33 Because nobody knew where it was. They're like, where is this place? Because it wasn't in the city. There's no buses. There's no city buses. No Uber. You can't walk to it. You can't bicycle. Like I lost all of that type of potential opening that here. And have you expanded recently or are you still that one subway? I'm still that one subway. It's super high volume. So I've never knowing like the data for like just a standard store in a regular market to open two or three more. at the capacity of what my one does, it just wouldn't make any sense for me.

23:22 Like if I were to continue to grow, it would have to be like a market, like what I'm in and used to for me to feel like it would be worth it. I don't want two or three stores to equate to like the one high volume store I have and unnecessary stat, all that stuff. I just want the highest volume stores now that we know how to handle that capacity rather than three or four to equate to one.

23:52 Other than your business in Subway, any plans to expand around Texas or other state or this will be on Texas only? um so with mo protocol we've started doing that from a wellness perspective so now we'll take consultation calls in the u.s because we've partnered with a telemedicine company who we can prescribe a glp ones and peptides and that sort of thing that are fda approved legally in all 50 States. So now we're like tiptoeing into that aspect of everything, but there's just so much technology that we're still learning on our end on how to do it right.

24:42 So it's just been a slow start. We haven't backed it with a lot of marketing or really promoted it while we're trying to figure out how that all integrates with our storefront versus somebody in, you know, Florida or something. Got it. Got it. So now that your business, your partner with a vendor or a company that does telemedicine, I take it you don't have to go through that process to get certified or anything. You partner with them and they'll be able to work together on telemedicine. Right. So like we we work, we partner in like what our protocols are and how our company operates and what they can do.

25:28 And then anything that we do in-house or any type of programs that's not within their scope or that we need, we default to our own software and program to do all of that in-house. So we only utilize telemedicine from the perspective of like any prescribing that we do or any like treatment or diagnosis for specific types of medications. Very cool. Very cool. That's good to hear that your business is expanding and you're looking toward now telemedicine, something that wasn't possible. Now with the pandemic, you have access to many different customer sectors.

26:17 So that's amazing. um you operate a franchise and build your own brands how does your role change when you have established playbook versus having to create one yourself it's it has it both have its own benefits of course but i think the with subway that being a global brand and everybody recognizing it like you know, we had instant traffic, instant grand opening. That was awesome. Consistent trends and flows and all these things that, uh, bigger buying power, uh, that sort of thing. Like we didn't really have to establish vendors.

27:03 Those were already in the wheelhouse. Um, everything with consistency from equipment to design to all that stuff was just kind of like in a box for you in your equipment package. Then with any lab tests now, that was a, I was like number 30 store of now, I think it's up to 200 ish. It's still a really small brand. There wasn't equipment package. There was nothing like that was basically I still had to do everything mostly myself. They've grown a lot more now because of technology and the advances with post-COVID and that sort of thing.

27:47 But when I was an early adopter, there was just no, there is not a structure, guideline or playbook, even still though it was a franchise and nobody, it wasn't recognizable because it's just, we didn't have very many. And then with my own, it's because of any lab tests now, I had to learn that already. So, you know, there's definitely advantages to it. But then you also get into with Subway, there's been a lot of locations that have closed because they became certain markets became oversaturated and that sort of thing.

28:26 So you have that fear where you don't have control, really, if somebody is going to open up across the street from you, the same brand or something or a gas station. You're close to an interstate and a gas station puts a subway in right up the road or anything like that. At least with your own brand, you have control of the growth and protection of your own business and that sort of thing. Sometimes with franchise systems, you don't have that. And there's nothing you can do about it when that happens.

28:58 So your business could drastically change and you can't do anything about it. With Subway, it's nice. It's such a big brand. If you can become friends with other owners in your market, when you need to borrow food, like to say your food truck doesn't bring you the bread that you have or something like that, you have that camaraderie. lottery that you can go borrow from other stores or that sort of thing. When you're in a pinch, you know, you can't do that when you're your own brand and you only have maybe one location in the market or something like that.

29:38 Same with employees. Like if they put us as references, you know, you, you have the owner's information that you can really vet that sort of thing. And you also have employees that are applying that maybe have come from the system that already know like the basics, like you don't have to train as much as you have to in like your startup because, you know, you don't have all these people coming that have worked at your brand worldwide or whatever. So there's definitely some advantages to both. The freedom of being able to grow without any ceiling is nice with your own startup but like to not grow too fast and then if you're growing so fast to find funding to keep up with that and there's just all these other things too that you have to consider when it's when it's your own startup and you're just kind of flying off the seat of your pants with it is it is it uh Good to say that are you living comfortably with your businesses or you still need to manage the day to day operations to make sure that you have a good quarter and good profitability?

30:59 I still look at the numbers daily and manage the higher level things. But I I've worked really hard to get really great managers in there to run the day to day operations. That way, my meetings consist of just upper management and incentives that we're giving within the stores, the growth, giving them, showing them what needs to be trained and focused on and that sort of thing, just with managers. Like, whereas before when I started it, I was the manager. I learned how to do everything that way I could get to this level.

31:37 So having, you know, employees have access to me and all the businesses, that was really hard. Now I've established it to where I only deal with the managers of each location and they execute from there. Was it hard to let go of control? Oh, for sure. And I still struggle with that on some things. Like I'll find myself going back on certain, like I'll just do it. Or like I have to stop myself and remember, no, that's their role now. Like I can't just go in and fix problems. Or if I can see that something's going to become a problem, that's been hard.

32:26 when like a manager wants to hire back an employee that left. And, you know, I've been there, done that so many times, given second chances. And usually the second or third chance is the word. They burn you more than they ever could the other times. Like I've done it and that sort of thing. And you tell them and they're like, no, but I think they've really changed. and we need, we're like desperate for staff to have to like sit back and watch them make that decision, knowing it's not going to end well has also been hard.

33:05 Cause there's certain things that I'm like, Ooh, I see what's going to happen, but they have to, they have to experience that to never want to do it again. If I keep band-aiding it and fixing it, they are never going to, sometimes they have to feel it personally to really understand the lesson and you if you've been through it and you care about your managers you don't want them to have to go through an unnecessarily hard season or time so you're trying to prevent that but at the end of the day you have to just sometimes let them do their job and learn the lessons the hard way so that they become better too.

33:46 And that's hard because it's like, man, I worked really hard to make a path easier for them. But sometimes some lessons just have to be experienced to really understand them. Exactly. And you have roles and hierarchies to make sure that the business runs smoothly. and each section has their own processes that deal with those kind of situations so you don't have to come in and do it so but each business is different right and they're very very aware that if it gets to a point where i feel like i need to step in and i'm coming to the store to have a conversation with a vendor or an employee, like it's not going to probably end in the way that they would like it if I have to step in.

34:44 So they're very, they're very well aware of that and really do try to troubleshoot it themselves without me having to get involved in that type of stuff. And so that's been good. But they also know if it gets to a point where I have to that, that I have their back, and always willing to as well. So we have that kind of, it's not a fear of them making a mistake or a fear of me having to come in, because it's like a scary situation. It's just them wanting to prove that they can do what they need to do.

35:25 But if absolutely necessary, they need me. They know that at that point, and I know that they probably exhausted all efforts on their own. Got it. With several businesses competing for your attention, how do you decide what needs to do personally and what your team should own?

35:48 Gosh. it really just depends on what's going on in that season or that day. You know, if it's a, if it's one of our clients, that's a high, high level client. And there's an issue that I know I need to resolve. Like that's going to get my attention that day over some little stuff that's happening at subway. Or if, if we're moving locations and there's just all different, there's always something I just try to focus daily on what the highest priority is out of all those businesses. And then choose to have my direction go that way versus, versus only focusing on one today, or I just focus on the priority task of those businesses.

36:43 What's the most important and try to try to focus on the top three daily. And sometimes it's dealing with all three businesses if there's three high level issues. So it really every day is different depending on that. Got it. Got it. Something interesting about you. You study organization communication. When has the way you communicate a decision matter as much as the decision itself? You know, what's funny about choosing that degree, because I was one of those that like switch my major six different times.

37:18 It wasn't till my senior year that I really knew what I was, what my degree was actually going to be in. Like my parents had no idea what one minute it was pre-med, then it was nursing, then it was business, then it was psychology. So even my parents like come graduation, they're like, what, what did you end up graduating with again because I just switched around a lot. But in high school, I had the biggest fear of public speaking. Like I hated that class. I hated having to do any type of oral communication type stuff or anything like that in front of the class.

37:58 Like I would shake and like almost have like a nervous breakdown to have to even do that. And so it was ironic that I ended up becoming a communications major. The organizational part was like perfect because I love business, but it taught me a lot about impersonal verbal types of communication, non-personal to where I had a different, I had a different lens on more reading more into the situation. Like, is there a communication barrier watching how they, if they weren't talking at all, like their facial expressions or this or that, like trying to read the room.

38:46 It gave me more of a, I think an empathetic insight to how I communicated with customers, employees, clients, than what I would have had if I wouldn't have chosen that major. Because it really taught us to deep dive beyond just what a person's saying, how they're saying it, what their gestures are, what their facial features are. It also made me not take a lot of things personally. So when I started to ask the right questions and learn that, maybe that person just, it wasn't personal. It's not like they didn't like me.

39:27 That's just how they are to everybody. Or that's just who they are. That resolved me feeling like, oh, they just don't like me. Or it's just something personal. It really taught me to look outside of just the basic scope of communication before I made a judgment on a situation or a person in a scenario where communication was very important. Yeah, that takes a lot of maturity to do that, and especially during that time, you were able to start a business and then work with people and then understand those concepts.

40:09 So very, very impressive, Kristen.

40:13 You say the best decisions start with data. Can you tell us about a time the numbers challenged your instinct? and that a time i think every day that's like something that challenges me because now that i now that i know what i know the right way um i would never go just do something with only seven thousand dollars i would never not have backup funding and i didn't know equipment loans existed I would never just all get one lump sum loan out for everything and not get equipment loans and different types of loans.

40:54 I just didn know anything about equipment depreciation and other types of funding and all this stuff that there times where something looks appealing but when I weigh the costs and mainly the time like how much time is it going to take against how much this investment is going to be and when we're going to see a return? Like that was not on my radar early on in business. None of that even like it was in my orbit. It was just survival. that now that I know that it's a big thing for me now is time because it's like you don't have the time to recover like you do when you're young like I want something low investment low time energy and fast return I mean that's everybody's dream of course but like that's where I'm where I'm looking at things like I'm no longer on like the slow burn long return game like I really want the quickest possible with like the least amount of effort that I have to do because I've done all the other stuff and so that's what I'll that's what I like base any of my decisions on regarding any type of project that comes our way any collaboration anything like that how fat how much time do we have to put in how much money and then how fast will we get this back And if those don't sit right with me, I'm not going to do it, no matter how great it sounds on paper.

42:35 Right. And also who you partner with. And would that help the business or it would take away from the business? Right. And we've had opportunities where it's like we could have rented spaces out and like done different things. but it's like you see within wellness too. These people opening different businesses and like offering all these wellness services within and then you have this person that starts competing with this person within the business or within the business itself or this person inside that's not really associated with the business.

43:18 They're just renting space that your business gets tied to what that person does on social media. And so there's a lot of things where it's like, sure, we could have made more money and this sort of thing or like, but I always weigh that sort of thing too. Like that's not, that's not worth it in the end having to deal with all of that. So yeah, a lot of factors that I never had considered when I just knew nothing and just operating off of survival has definitely changed my perspective. And knowing that my kids, my kids are just like my whole life and their schedules.

43:59 Like I, I really try not to miss anything if there's any game, any pep rally, I mean, anything. And so if this venture is going to take away like the little time I have with my kids at home, then I'm not going to do it. If it's going to require me to have to travel all the time to make it happen, and I'm going to miss a year out of my son's life when I only have three more years of him at home, if it's meant to be, that'll wait when the time is right. I'm always going to choose my family's life over an opportunity too, if it's going to take away from my family in any way.

44:43 Of course, of course. And of course there's sacrifice. Like I've always had to sacrifice, and I've missed things and that sort of thing, but it's just how much are you willing to? And for me, it's very little. And if I do have to, it's because it's, you know, there is no other way around it. Was there a time where you had to sacrifice or everything has been what you wanted in your life? I feel like my whole, all of my kids' life, there's been sacrifice. Because I think whether you're a stay-at-home mom or a working mom, there's that sacrifice of the decision that they're born.

45:27 Are you going to stay home with them or go to work? And the moms that stay home question if they should have worked and the moms that work question if they should have stayed home. You know, like I think that's always an internal battle. And I think you just have to figure out what are like the absolute things that you're not going to miss or sacrifice, knowing that you're going to sacrifice either, whether you're a working mom or a stay-at-home mom, something and building your life around that.

46:00 So like from that perspective, I feel like I've done a good job. of my goals in that area of not missing their things and still always being there despite working. But there have been moments and they understand if I have to, like it's a pretty, like it's a pretty extreme reason or a good reason that I couldn't make, but it's very rare that I can't make it, make it work. there's has been a trend where a lot of people are going to school getting a career after work and then they start to settle down later in their lives around their early 30s or late 30s and marriage has gotten up to from late 20s to now mid 30s i guess i want to get your insights that culture changed now that you've started your business at the beginning, but you also had your relationships.

47:02 What advice would you give for people going through that new phase of personhood? I think it's just, it's never too late to start anything that you want, but if you're going to start a business, you should look at like, from an age perspective, what is worth the risk, you need to choose what, what you, if this fails, can I recover at 50, versus when you're 20, you know, that that does come into play, because you're not worrying about retirement when you're 20, and having to dip into this or that.

47:44 So there, I don't think it's ever too late to do anything that you want to do, but you do have to calculate the risk. If it were not to work out, how would that impact you based on your age? I mean, if you can recover, if it falls at 50 or 60, like, go for it. But if not, like, you may have to tweak it a little bit or not be as aggressive initially or that sort of thing. My biggest thing, though, is I think it's important for every gender But for women, especially, I have had so many women work for me that they're so reliant on a boyfriend or a spouse that they never were taught younger in life to support themselves, to always have something for themselves.

48:38 And so it is it's something that we work really hard with is to try to promote within and really like move move our sandwich artists that had no aspirations of being a manager up to that, especially if they're women trying to make them more self-sufficient because we've seen it all too much where they're so reliant on. the other partner that they have that their career has never either never taken off or never even got started because because of that and then there's a breakup or a divorce or something and they're left with nothing and they're having to start all over anyway so I think just being independent financially independent no matter the gender but especially as a woman no matter the age is so important because also later in life, your 30s, late 30s, 40s, 50s, you're seeing people that have been married 20, 30 years, getting a divorce or a spouse passing away and then being left with nothing and having to start all over again in your 40s and 50s because you just had no idea.

49:59 like you thought you were always going to be taken care of and that sort of thing. And big surprise, like there wasn't a life insurance policy that you thought existed or you're not getting that, you're not getting child support because your kids are already grown. So like you're actually having to start over and you've been a stay at home mom for 20, 30 years. Like that's, that's really hard too. So I think just anybody being, I think everybody needs to have a skill and never let that go to always be able to go back to if they ever were to have to be financially independent and not to be put in a situation where they're having to start all over again and have no clue what they would even do at, you know, late thirties, forties, fifties.

50:55 we see that so much. Thank you for sharing your insight. That's a very hard topic to talk about, especially in modern times. But thank you for that. And through assurance and any lab tasks now, you work in areas where trust matters deeply. How do you build that trust with customers who may not understand the technical side of your services? I think because wellness has really exploded the way it has, a lot of people have gotten burned like by false information, by just signing up for something online.

51:31 And then, you know, like, for example, like getting on a GLP one, losing their hair, losing their muscle, because somebody just prescribed them the medication with like, zero follow up, their hormones get shifted, like, they're in a worse spot than when they started. and that's kind of like where we try to bridge that gap of being being that provider where we're we're telling them all the good about it but also all the bad and trying to manage those things that come with them choosing that protocol before so like how can we like this is this is part of it that you're going to maybe experience hair loss and some muscle loss if you're not exercising and not getting enough protein?

52:22 Like what can we empower them with that they have all the resources available that if they choose that path or protocol, we have something to aid in that so that that doesn't happen. And I think that that's how we built a lot of trust where they know that they could probably go and get it cheaper or on the internet, but like they've seen this friend lose all this hair or muscle or like have high their vitamin D levels shift and all these things that people are starting to see the nightmare of it, that they come to providers that I don't want that to happen to me and they trust us because we talk them through it and give them all the all the good and the bad and what they need to do and they're not getting that when they're just doing it online so i think that that's been like kind of the real difference maker with us and wellness to trying to separate ourselves apart from what's what's out there right now i was i thinking trump rx like how can you get people that yeah it's it's hard but it's that that personal touch that's lost that's so needed because you're starting this start doing all these crazy things and then wonder why your hormone levels have dropped it like it it's it's a cause and effect to other stuff if you're not aware of it.

53:57 And we're usually the ones they come to after the fact, and then we get them back on track. But we're always trying to be more of a preventative, like know what you're doing. And if you still go and do that somewhere else, because it's cheaper, that's fine. But at least we told you, and at least they know where to come if that happens, and they have to come see us, we're that resource for it too. So I think that that's kind of where our trust has been built in an industry that's very saturated and like you can get peptides off of.

54:38 TikTok is crazy. People putting things in their body that they have no clue where it came from or anything and then coming to us like or they'll bring it in they'll bring in the like peptide and they didn't send us any instructions like how much do we use like we can't tell you that that's not our product we didn't sell you that and that's why they didn't put that in there because they don't want to be responsible they're just sending you the product and you're having to figure it out That's why it's all been so dangerous, too, because people are dosing themselves.

55:15 And because these companies are smart enough to know, like, where their liability begins and ends. And that's where it stops. So they don't have any guidance. And we're that resource that also gives guidance as well.

55:34 Awesome. Awesome. Can you share a business decision that didn't work out as you expected and how you handled what came next?

55:45 So when my kids were young, I decided to open a branch like where I live now. I never thought I would actually ever be living here like permanently. And I think my son was probably six and my daughter was two. So they were young and the oil market had boomed. But if you've been in the oil and gas industry enough, you know, like it could be great and then it can just drop. Like. So I was aware of that. And so I I didn't feel great about it, but we had a client, a large client who had an office in this area.

56:30 Like I would, we really wish you guys would open a second location there. We'd send all our guys there, use you guys all the time, which they did for a month until the bottom dropped out. And then everybody was shutting their doors and that sort of thing. So luckily I was smart enough to not get a space that was super high on rent. The investment was pretty low, but I had to make that decision to close like within six months after opening because like the market had just dropped nobody was testing because nobody was hiring and nobody was really continuing to test because they were laying off everybody so I in my in my gut I knew not to do it because my kids were so young and it was like oh I'm gonna have to like be going down there and that was already like weighing on me but I did it and then a month after I did it the the bottom fell out and I had to shut down and you know it's like that pride like you never want to close anything but like at some point too you have to be able to admit like the economy's not supporting it and I can't keep it's cheaper just to try to get this subleased out and close than to keep trying to kill myself to make something work in an economy that's just not going to support it right now.

57:58 So that was one of those situations where I compromised the very thing that was so important to me, which is like time and not missing anything with my kids to do adventure, you know, four hours away that I was going to have to split my time. And it didn't end up working out anyway. But I knew even before doing it that like, in my heart of hearts, I didn't really want to do it. I just felt pressure by that client to like be a people pleaser and please them and never want to let anybody down that that lesson ended up only hurting myself.

58:39 So now it's like, if I'm going to do something, it's going to be because I want, I want to do it, not because I have this carrot dangling in front of me, like, oh, you're going to get so much more business and that sort of thing. From all of that, it's just learning all you can really rely on is yourself at the end of the day, like the economy, if it decides to go bust, doesn't feel sorry for you. That client, they're no longer even in existence as a business. That oil bus completely ruined their business.

59:15 So I don't do anything now that it's not 100%. I feel right about it. And it's 100%. If I lost this client tomorrow, or if I lost this or that, could I still survive? If no, then I'm not going to do it. Can I pivot? Can I shift? That sort of thing. Like I think a lot of people run their businesses early on, on their top clients and their top products and that sort of thing. And all that has taught me over the years is you just, that's a horrible business plan. You have to be so diversified that if you lost that, it may hurt, but it's not going to shut you down.

1:00:01 Like you still have enough products and services and that sort of thing to overcome it. Very good, wise words. Your publication, Shaken, Not Settled, explores life, business, and reinvention. What experience best explains why you chose that name? I think my whole journey has been like a bit of a shakeup. You know, it's always been a decision or something made as a catalyst because of something. So starting as an entrepreneur, like I, it was a catalyst of my dad offering me that opportunity. And then there is a catalyst of the gas market crashing and I had to figure something out.

1:00:53 Then the catalyst to like opening my wellness business was my sister getting diagnosed with brain cancer and like trying to find solutions for her during her cancer journey. Subway catalyst of moving and there not being any food options. And then along the way, I've had all these these things happen, like crazy landlord stories that like no business school could ever teach you. crazy employee scenarios, crazy customer experiences, things that it feels like if I wrote a book, people would totally think that that's not real life sort of thing.

1:01:33 And so that why I named that publication that because it just going to be stories and lessons of things that like I could never thought would happen to me as a business owner COVID, like whoever thought that was going to happen, like that was crazy. I had to close down four locations because they were either in malls or gyms. Like I didn't have a choice. Those those businesses shut down with or without my consent. And I had to like pack up and shut down businesses because where they were located shut down.

1:02:11 So it's just things that happen that you're just like could have never had. You could have never dreamed of happening to you, but like you still kept moving and you still I still haven't reached the mark where I'm like completely satisfied with everything I've done. Like I feel like there's still so much more. So I'm not settled where I'm at. I'm just have tweaked where I'm going because of age and experience and that sort of thing. Like I want to do things differently, but I'm still not settled completely on like where I found my success.

1:02:50 Like there's still I still feel like there's so much more on the horizon. Wow. You touched upon something interesting. your experience post-COVID, if you have time, we could explore that or we could do it at another episode. That, yeah, that was crazy because that was my, those were all my wellness businesses. So I had opened one as like a seasonal stint here in Midland and it was in the mall. It was just like a three month lease, like one of those holiday lease things. And I'm like, oh, I'll try it during the holidays that's like the best time to see and it really took off so then I replicated that model in a few gyms and then in a few malls in other cities and then when COVID happened the malls and the gyms and like hair salons all that stuff was like the first to go and the way the timing had worked out was like honestly when most of all those leases were coming either they were month to month or they were coming to an end anyway and we were getting zero feedback on like when this was going to be remedied when you know they couldn't tell me anything i'm not going to re-sign like i can't even access my stuff so that was like really hard to pack up four locations.

1:04:16 I think it was in a matter of a month in all different cities. And like, I had all this extra equipment and like, what am I going to do with all this stuff that just like abruptly closed? So then I just decided, you know, I'm just going to focus on the locations that I have brick and mortars and that are outside of those type of industries. I'm still medically necessary deemed per the CDC, like all the laws and all that stuff. I could still be open in those locations. And so I just like hyper focused all my efforts and what I could still put all of it into and kind of rebuilt from there.

1:05:00 And just that was another lesson in itself to like where I choose to put my business. owning the properties, having that control because I had zero control in those situations. And it wasn't the mall's fault or the gym's fault. They were just complying and following the laws. But, you know, had it been my own properties, I wouldn't have been subjected to like having to shut down and restrictions and all that stuff. So that was, and then with subway it was just like we were just doing anything and everything to survive i mean we were i had created a grocery list because people weren't wanting to go to the grocery store if they had to go remember i don't know if like where you live it would be like sam's or a grocery store would only let like an allotted amount in and you have this long line and all this stuff so people didn't want to fight that and so I had like a grocery list of like tomatoes like things that I had to buy anyway onions and people come through the drive-through like and I was selling whole onions tomatoes shredded lettuce cheese meat whatever as like groceries for people who didn't want to go to the store that were just buying it as the product itself through my drive-through subway i was selling pizza kits like because moms were going insane having other kids at home so they were like able to come in and get like a frozen pizza and then like a choice of three toppings and like make your make your own pizzas at home i was selling those like crazy because I mean, I would get messages like, do you guys have paper towels, tulip paper?

1:07:04 Like I just was doing anything to survive, but also help people out because we were all like in the same boat. Yeah, you had four businesses. You must have taken a hit at your business and profits. were you able to recover with loans or grants? I didn't get any loans. I was in such a survival mode and in the stores, packing up stores that were closing, that sort of thing, that I just focused on what I could do. I scaled payroll. I didn't cut anybody, but I did cut hours to make it fair for everybody.

1:07:50 The only thing that really saved me at Subway was having a drive-thru. Like, and I wasn't going to do a drive-thru because a lot of, a lot of Subways don't, because when you think about it, it's kind of hard to order a sandwich through a drive-thru because like visually you can tell us more mayo or more salt or whatever. And through a drive-thru that's pretty hard. So a lot of Subway owners just don't even go the drive-thru route, but I wanted to be different. So I was like, I'm doing a drive-thru.

1:08:25 And that really, that was one of the best decisions I did because that gave us when they were saying you'd have, you had to close your lobbies and do all this stuff. Like I still had the drive-thru going for me. Nice. And then like Subway was forced to do a remote app. and that really changed like Subway in general like as a brand like they that made them have to do something technology wise that I'm sure they were uncomfortable with and like didn't know what they were doing and like that has been such a game changer for all of our businesses because you know you have your Subway remote app which is just Subway but it's also tied into DoorDash, Grubhub, that sort of thing.

1:09:16 And so COVID like really was a game changer for a third party delivery for us. And then Subway being forced to do that remote app. So a lot of great things I feel like also did come from it, but like maybe what I lost during that time, I've regained and more because it forced them to create a technology that I wouldn't be doing as well in sales without that boost. I try to look at it from that perspective too. Even with wellness, because of that telemedicine really took off. Now I'm able to be technically anywhere I want to be, all 50 states and I don't have to have a brick and mortar.

1:10:08 I don't have to have that risk of, I can use that money that I would be using on rent and employees and that sort of thing on marketing and all of that. So even though it was a hard experience and you had to survive, Have you stopped investing in brick and mortars and now you're doing scaling for your business now? Now I haven't stopped in the brick and mortar aspect as far as like my business is going in them. I just search for properties I can buy and not have to go the landlord route anymore.

1:10:53 So it's really flipped into like I'm more of a real estate investing in it mindset after having to go through all of that. Like I want my own control and then putting businesses in my own in my own assets that I can sell either the business and retain being the landlord to that business. I'm trying to triple, quadruple my investment from my experience of putting businesses in, selling the business, and retaining even more profit by continuing to be the landlord of what my business was that I've sold it to.

1:11:37 That's really where I've navigated from that perspective. That's an evolution, though. So now from survival to COVID now to selling businesses, well, obtaining the real estate that gives you the rent for, let's say, different regions that you have real estate, you have businesses that pay you now. Very impressive. Very impressive.

1:12:05 Now, this is obviously a technology show and we talk AI and cybersecurity. charity. I was curious, have you implemented artificial intelligence in your business? Oh yeah. Every day. Like I, I wish I would have had it when I started, like I would have been so much far further in advance than what I was. I it's just, it's at your fingertips and it's, it's like anything, it's not going away. So you're either going to embrace it or stay, stay behind and the way that it solved my problems on just a simple spreadsheet.

1:12:45 Like I don't know all these codes or this or that, or just anything images. Like when I, when I have an idea and I think I'd like my sign to look like this or this or that, like I can have that visualization without having to wait for, you know, as a marketing company to do it for me, I can be a step ahead of what my vision is on things. Like you still need services and that sort of thing to execute it. But like if you're using AI to get you a jumpstart to help you, like it just, it makes everything faster even from that perspective because you're able to give somebody real life what you really want and allow them to use their expertise to like really execute it.

1:13:37 But like you're not starting like what we what we used to have to with like an email of like this is my idea and I'd like to see this color or I'd like to let this program to do this or that. Like you have something that really can guide you into like execution a lot faster. I feel like I think the scary part is thinking that AI is just going to take over everything. And I think that people are using it a little bit too relied. I think people use it for legal advice and medical advice when, you know, yeah, that can give you a little bit of insight.

1:14:21 But we still need attorneys to look at contracts and we still need doctors to diagnose. And so there, but like with anything, it's how you use it. We still need the service aspect of life. It's just AI is a great tool to help you be more informed yourself and to kind of get things moving, I feel like, faster.

1:14:52 Elon Musk is now investing his role of taxis now in Austin and Texas. are you thinking of transitioning to to the future or are you still are going to still work on your businesses i think i'm probably like in the in between right now like i'm kind of seeing how things are going and i'm using it myself and i'll add a different platform here and there and Like I, I'm still learning myself, but I'm not against it. It's just, I think businesses are still going to be needed within, regardless of AI.

1:15:35 But I think if you're, if you're starting businesses that AI can do the job for, and you're surprised that those aren't going to work out like that's just, that's just where you're letting ego win over what is actually happening. I think if you're going to keep investing in businesses that are outside of the AI platform, what AI can do itself, it has to be service type businesses. It has to be businesses. People, you know, have to be there to do. even when you think about a robot sometimes I joke sometimes I'm like oh I wish I could just get robots to run my subway like then everybody like this I could trend speed I could you know I could eliminate but it would be interesting to see if I would actually even if it was faster even if it was more efficient if everything stayed the same but I implemented a robot sandwich artist versus the real human that may be slower, that may make mistakes, all that stuff, what my sales would actually be?

1:16:49 Because I even think despite AI, people still want that personal human connection. And I think that that would be a really interesting study to see if AI solved everything from like a robot perspective that could do it all, even from a service aspect, would you still do as well? I don't really think so because we have very few select customers in all of my businesses that come in and just order what they want and then they're out of there. Most of them are wanting to talk about their day or tell you or ask you about your day.

1:17:30 They want that human experience. So as great as AI is, it's not going to replace completely that human connection that people just really strive for and need. They just don't even realize they need it. I don't think us as humans realize how much we rely on just like a friendly smile or a hi or from even a stranger. I think that would be really noticed if everything was taken over by AI. Like, I think. It would be cold and miserable. It would. And so I think you have to see the good of it and what it can do.

1:18:14 And then also the things that it can't do and build your business on based off of that. And choose the business that you're going to be in based off of that. I would not trust a robot to, you know, draw my blood or, you know, what, what is it that I wouldn't myself personally not trust AI to do? And that's probably where I would lean into what businesses I would choose if I stayed going that route versus completely tech. Very smart of you don't trust a robot. My brother told me a long time ago, never trust a machine ever.

1:18:53 I mean, but then again, you have these robots doing surgeries, you know, now and that sort of thing. So I say that, but, you know, you have the one in the loop. So robotic surgeons out there. So, but yeah, no, I think it's, it's a great time to be alive, but there's, there's also some scary aspects of it too. And I think it's how much you allow that in your life and the access you give it to where it could be used for good or bad. Because you hear these stories, too, of it, like, you know, going into emails or like just all kinds of stuff.

1:19:36 Like, I think you have to be very careful on also what you're using it for. Like you can't be surprised if something bad happens when you've given it that access and permission in your life to do with it what it will and that happens. Yeah. Well, Kristen, it was lovely having a conversation with you. Where can they find you if they want to reach out to you to learn about yourself and your business? um linkedin is my my primary platform so that's just kristin chandler and then i'm shaken not settled on subs on substack and then moat protocol if if you want to book a virtual consultation or anything like that you can find that option there anything excited coming up for you at any events?

1:20:34 You know, my son plays football, so we're just like in football mode right now until the end of December, hoping that they, I feel pretty confident they will make playoffs, but like how far they get. So our life is pretty much just football. I have a niece getting married in December. My sister's getting married in December. My brother's getting married in May. So I have also like all the wedding stuff between now and May that when it's not football or my daughter's sports, we're dealing with like weddings and showers and all that stuff.

1:21:18 And then work. Work and work. Well, Kristen, we would love to have you come back when you, yeah, we would love to have you come back and share your success again and see what is next for you in the future. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I had a blast. Awesome. So this wraps up today's episode of Orlando Insights Podcast. To catch conversations with Kristen, like Kristen, please visit our website, OrlandoInsightsPodcast.com. and visit our main website, Orlandoinsightgroup.com as well.

1:21:58 Like, subscribe. As long as you do that, more episodes can be seen by others. So I appreciate that. And you have a good night. Take care. You too. Have a good one. Thank you.