Transitioning to the Next Stage with Krista Williams

[1:19]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zibby Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and, obviously, podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to. Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zippymedia.com, and follow me on Instagram at zibby owens. So I met Christa Williams when she was doing an event at Zibby's Bookshop. She was moderating. She was amazing. I was like, I have to know more about this woman. And I got her book and researched her. She's just such a dynamo and has the most amazing, like, in person presence. If you ever have an opportunity to, like, go to an event with her or something, Christa is just really special. So, anyway, I was excited to interview her about the book and have you get to know her a little bit better here. She has been through a lot in her life, and she has turned it all into something really positive, and I hope you'll enjoy it. A little more bio type stuff about her. She's the author of Almost 30, a definitive guide to a life you love for the next decade and beyond, which we joke about could apply to the next decade for any age you are. She cofounded Almost 30, which has become a globally renowned podcast and community with more than 100,000,000 downloads, which is insane. She is also the cocreator of the podcast Morning Microdose and leads luxury wellness retreats while speaking internationally for top brands. Through her courses, the life edit and metamorphosis, Krista has inspired thousands to embrace self love and transform their lives. With a passion for growth and connection, Krista continues to guide others toward their highest potential. So with that, I introduce you to Krista.

[3:26]Krista Williams: Welcome, Krista. Thank you so much for coming on Totally Bugged to talk about almost 30, a definitive guide to a life you love for the next decade and beyond. Congrats. Thank you. Feels good. I have it. We did our book launch last year, so it feels really good to talk about it again. I've been rereading it because after a book launch, you, like, fall in love with it, and then you also get sick of it. So it's been nice to kinda come back to it in, a more grounded, a practical way. So I'm so grateful to be able to talk to you about it. And it was such a pleasure to meet you in person and be with you and be with someone that cares so much about reading and the community. And it was just I'm excited to be here. Yeah. I loved meeting you. And I was so impressed with you at the bookstore. It's And like, oh my gosh. I have to have her on my podcast. She's amazing.

[4:08]Zibby Owens: And by the way, I feel like I need to contribute in almost 50. Like, maybe I should do the almost 50 podcast and you can do almost 30 podcast.

[4:17]Krista Williams: We're gonna create a we're gonna create a network, actually. So we're gonna audition Almosts.

[4:21]Zibby Owens: So you can be the first step for Almost 50. Oh, thank you. Yes. Yeah. Put me on the list. I'm 49, and I'm like, oh my gosh. Funny enough, though, I feel like a lot of the things that you talk about in this book apply just as much to someone my old age or any age, any sort of milestone where things are changing or uncertain or whatever. So I feel it we actually don't even need a new book. It can it can apply. You can just, like, do a little sticky note on top and and take what you will. Yeah. I think almost 30, it's it's such a beautiful

[4:52]Krista Williams: name for our podcast in the book. You know, my best friend Lindsay and I started. We were almost 30. We felt super lost in life. There was a lot of timelines that we weren't on. We didn't have the career that we wanted. We didn't have the relationships we wanted. We didn't have a family, kids, house, picket fence, all of that. We felt like we should know a lot more than we did. At our rock bottom moment, we started the podcast. But in starting the show, we didn't have any idea for a name. One was doing podcasts in the same way they are now ten years ago. We were like, we're almost 30. Let's just call it almost 30. And I think if we would have known, we maybe would have called it something different because now I'm almost 40 and it kind of changes things. But I think one thing as I've gotten older doing the show and just in my eight, you know, years of life, really learning and recognizing that there hasn't been one period in my life where I haven't felt like I was in deep transformation and growth and change. And I think for my audience and probably your audience and people that were around, growth is a part of our soul's path and trajectory, and it's a part of our mission. It's a part of our conscious evolution. And really the themes in the book of growth and change and relationships and body and spirituality and all of that is the constant themes of life and writing the book. Wrote it, I think it was two years ago at this point, because it kind of takes a little bit with time and Lindsay, yeah, probably two years ago was like, Woah, like all of the themes that I was still learning, it shifts a little bit where I'm much better with it, but it still kind of comes back around. And so it was really interesting to kind of see that wisdom that you only acquire with age, understanding how there's themes of your life and how you always are in periods of change. Amazing.

[6:37]Zibby Owens: Well, I also just love your success story too that you write about you and Lindsay, like, hitting bottom. I love just Lindsay doing SoulCycle and, like, eating Bad Girl. She's in her car and, like, just just, like, showing us, like, where you two started. And now that you're, like, huge sensations and all of that, like, tell me a little bit about that whole thing because you didn't obviously mean no one means to, like, take have their creative thing. I mean, it's always amazing, but, anyway, you couldn't have predicted this is all I was saying. Tell me about the once you hit on something, how you turned that into something bigger. Yeah. So just for background, you know, I was always someone that wanted to do something with my life. I wanted to be someone. I wanted to make a purpose. Was, I just had this burning fire within me of, of wanting more and wanting to create more and being someone that grew up in the corporate world.

[7:27]Krista Williams: You know, I was in the corporate world for five, seven years. I was in jobs I didn't like. I was in spaces I didn't like. I was in conversations I didn't like. I just found it soul sucking and painful and inauthentic and all of these things. And I was as dramatic at my jobs as I sound. I mean, I was a pleasure delight as an employee and I was a miserable employee to have because I was always just like, Why are we at the water cooler? Why are we at happy hour? What's the point of this whole thing? I'm a very deep person and I saw, you know, so many other careers and paths, and I even wanted to be a soul cycle instructor for a while. When I moved to Los Angeles, I really hit like a rock bottom of sorts where I was like, I have this anxiety within me of wanting to do something with my life and it's not happening. I quit my job in the corporate world to try and pursue blogging full time. That didn't happen. I didn't make any money. I wasn't that successful, blah, blah, blah. Had to serve nanny, do all these odds and end jobs. And in my rock bottom, met Lindsay, you know, and I met her trying to audition for SoulCycle, wanting to do something different with my life. And it's so funny because I was trying so hard at this one path that I thought was my thing. Was like, I'm going to be a SoulCycle instructor. I'm going to, you know, travel and be this famous fitness instructor. And I was trying so hard. I was manifesting every day. I was writing the affirmations down. I was visualizing myself, doing all the things. And it was when I stopped trying, when God brought me to Lindsay and really brought us to this moment of real deep vulnerability of our relationship. I'll never forget, you know, one of the first dinners I had with her, she started talking about her parents' dynamic and some of the things they had been going through. I just felt this texture of vulnerability and authenticity that I was really craving. And I felt this truth that she had, and I felt like I could be myself and I could relate and I could be in this moment of feeling so lost and so anxious and so desperate for something I didn't know what it was. Like, it was just like this insatiability. We just started to bring our conversations to a podcast and, you know, just kind of made it up and really had no intention of it becoming anything. And I think honestly, the reason why it's successful is, you know, for three things it's, we were consistent. You know, we showed up every single day to record, to practice, to try, to make up segments, to have our friends call and act like they were, you know, get like listeners of the show. And it was just crazy. We committed to it. And then I think the second thing was the fact that there was no expectation that we had. And I think a lot of times with, for me at least in success paths and things I've wanted in life, when I have these expectations of it should look like this, it should be like this, we should, you know, grow like this and all of that, it created a spaciousness for the truth of this magic to come in of what we were creating. Then I think the third thing was we were so vulnerable and we were so authentic and true. The internet's changed quite a bit. It was around, of course, then, but this was ten years ago. We didn't really have AI or we didn't really think about repercussions of what we were doing or sharing. We didn't really understand what it would be like to tell the story of cheating or our parents divorce or getting drunk or being arrested and having it live forever. We just continued to do it. And so I hope in my lifetime I get to experience some of the magic of this success story again, because it was something I could have never saw coming. I think if I would have seen it coming, it wouldn't have happened because I would have then created some story or energy around it to limit it. And it's been beautiful, you know, to be

[11:07]Zibby Owens: in the experience of it. How has it been to record knowing that it has been successful? Like, do you feel more pressure, less pressure? Like, do you feel like you can be as authentic now as you were?

[11:21]Krista Williams: Yeah. I'm so grateful you asked that because I think, you know, there's the assumption. There's a part of me that's like, when I get there, I'll be able to do whatever I want. I even was talking to a friend the other day on the phone. We were like, what would we do if we had all the money in the world? And my first thought was, I would say whatever I want and I would do whatever I want. And you think that's true. There's this part where we think when we have an audience or when we have people listening, we'll be able to be more of ourselves or more expressed. And honestly, think it's been a dance for me for sure because at first it was Lindsay and I in the closet. No one was listening. Was just her and I talking about whatever, sharing about whatever. Then you get people that listen and there's so many that love it and relate. Then there's also people that don't or get triggered or get upset or have feedback about what it is that you're doing. Through the years I've had my family approach me about things that I've said and shared. I've had, you know, ex partners approach me. I've had to like really sit into the impact of people remembering something that I said two years ago flippantly. People will bring up, remember in that one episode you said three years ago about people's left eye, if they have a lazy eye representing their psychic gifts. I'm like, woah, what the, I don't even, you know, it's so It's really amazing and weird at the same time and powerful and scary and provides its own set of work that you have to do on yourself. I think on the positive side, it's made me really believe in doing my own work and being someone that's practicing what I preach because the more aligned and embodied I can be, the less I'm shaken or waver and the more I can feel proud about how I'm showing up. Doing the work is essential. Then on the negative side, I think I wish I was more expressed, to be honest. I feel very expressed in my life. People would be like, What are you talking about? You're so expressed. But I think we all as humans know that there's always deeper aspects of our expression and we kind of have that taste of like, Oh my God, could be so much more free, which is beautiful. Do seek to hopefully try and bring more of that freedom back. Today's episode is sponsored by Quince.

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[16:01]Zibby Owens: Then talk about translating all of this into a book and what that process is Oh,

[16:06]Krista Williams: it's such a the book writing process. In my space and world of podcasting and media and all of that, so many people are like, Write a book, all of that. Even the beginning of the show, they're like, You should write a book. I knew early on it wasn't the time. I just was like, I don't feel like I'm qualified for this. I can't even figure out my own life. I'm not in any place and space. Lindsay and I waited until we truly felt like it was the perfect time for us, that we had been in the work. We could actually have something to say, just platitudes and make it up. We could actually embody it. We cleared a lot of our business to start to write a book and we had our agent reach out perfectly at divine timing. We love her. She was amazing. The book writing process honestly was the best. I loved it. Just being home, being in my own thoughts, being in my own energy, a dream. Just like, Oh, what have I learned? What can I share? What can I glean? Going through some of the stories of our past and our journey. I think what was the hardest though was the marketing process and then putting your work out there. As an artist, are like, Oh yeah, this is amazing, and then you have to share your work with the world, which is the next level. I think anyone that's thinking about writing or writing a book, it has so much growth potential for you, whether that's you're insecure about your own thoughts, you're insecure about your writing, you're insecure about your stories or your past or whatever, or you're insecure about sharing your work, being judged, being criticized, not being successful, not being enough, not being supported by your friends. Remember when I got married, there was so much lesson in that process of that journey of money, abundance, commitment, being held, being seen, being received. It felt like a huge portal of opportunity for growth for me in the book writing process that I really didn't see coming, but was really profound.

[17:53]Zibby Owens: That's good. Not everybody has such a great experience, so I'm glad you had really. I'd say

[17:59]Krista Williams: think I'm grateful and you probably have so many people that tell you about it. I did have a lot of friends tell me, they were warning me. They're like, this is eyes open. They were like, this is not You know what's so funny for me though? This is my little ego. My little ego is like, You guys don't know how to work. I'm like, You don't know how to work. Then I was like, Lord help me. I'm burnt out. I'm only age. I was just like, You guys are all right. This is tough. It's just a weird concept. On the outside. You would not think writing down your thoughts and ideas into paper form would be so transformative, but it is. It's fascinating.

[18:37]Zibby Owens: It is. Well, apparently there are all sorts of neurological reasons as to why and that if you actually get something out of your head onto paper, even when you're grieving or something like that, it makes your brain stop having to ruminate over it and your brain knows that you've put it somewhere and so it frees you from having to like go over it and over it again. Wow. I'm gonna take that because,

[18:56]Krista Williams: yeah, that's, and that's powerful for journaling or anyone even writing a book or not just me being able to process things like, you know, in it, I talk about my body journey, which was something I really struggled with in my life. This feeling that food was a threat and that I was never enough in my body and that it was a constant companion of not enoughness and needing to lose weight and all that. I had to tell the story of going to Mexico to buy these diet pills. Again, this was like ten years ago at this point. Just processing that, was like, Dang, how far I've come. Was me. For your audience listening, I think it's beautiful to even story down, your life story. Like I always tell people, like, your life story, even for yourself to process it and work through it and witness yourself and experience it because I think we have so much richness if we like take the time to just like be with it. I think people and their lives are so much more interesting when they give their self the space to really like write it down. Can you talk a little bit more about some of your body issues? I know you go into it in the book, but for people listening. Yeah, I'm happy to. Yeah. So I was someone that grew up, you know, in the eighties and my mom bless her, you know, I love her, but she very much struggled with her body. My little subconscious absorbed all of her thoughts, you know, that I wasn't enough, that food was a threat, that I needed to lose weight, that being fat was the end of the world, that everything I wanted was on the other side of being thin. That looked like dieting from a young age, looked like disordered eating, that looked like bingeing, purging, all of that. In my journey of struggling with my body for almost all of my life, I'll never forget I was in Los Angeles. Had been bigger weights, less weights. I was kind of all over the place because I had been dieting and trying so hard for so long. Having the normal thought I had every day of this is how many steps I'm going to do. This is how many calories I'm going to burn. This is what I'm going to eat. This is how many calories it is. This is how many calories I'm burning. This is how much I weigh. This is how much I should weigh. It's like the numerics kind of ladder that I would go down of, you know, my daily process, my flow. And I had this moment where I was like, you know, I think I'm going to die just thinking about this all the time. Like, I just think that this is going to be with me for the rest of my life. And it was this very weird surrender that I've never felt before, because I think before it would be mad at myself, annoyed, or it would be so unconscious that I didn't even fight it. It was just so much a part of me. And that surrender weirdly really opened up a space for me to heal in a way that I had never been able to. That process really looked like understanding internal family systems, parts work, which is a psychotherapy technique. That's really good for people with disordered eating therapy. And then I think the biggest thing was me committing to feeling my feelings and not using food to numb or avoid, and using food as an outlet for control. All the ways I was using food as this outside thing to make me feel better, make me feel worse, you know, manage my emotions, numb me, all of these things. The feeling of my feelings, think was the biggest unlock for changing my body and changing my relationship with my body and food and really helping me get power back of being able to be with myself through anything and then use food as something that is a partner to me, a friend to me, and not as much like a foe or a, you know,

[22:25]Zibby Owens: crutch in a way. It's so interesting. I actually at one point, I had the same realization as you because I did a study on my grandmother's and their, like, nursing homes. And I did a survey and asked them all about, like, how often do you still weigh yourselves? Did you ever have an eating disorder? Like, what you know, how often do you have dessert? Like, I did this whole thing. And they're they were nine in their nineties weighing themselves every day, feeling guilty about the cake, you know, like, just all the things. And I was like, wow. If something doesn't change, that's going to be me.

[22:56]Krista Williams: You don't grow out of it. Something has to shift. Wow, I love that about you. You're such a cool person. Being like, I have this thought. I'm going to go do a survey of the I

[23:07]Zibby Owens: did it as an article. I pitched it to Red Book or something. Is a forever ago.

[23:12]Krista Williams: Honestly, you should do that again because that stuff is like my mom had her own disordered eating. My grandma did as well. My grandparents suffered with eating disorders. This is like when we talk about female empowerment or even becoming your best self or living a life that you love. I've just found in my work with women, thousands of women, that so much of what stops them is their body. I was even looking at research yesterday. It's like seventy percent of women have stopped themselves from, you know, getting a promotion, doing something outside their comfort zone, putting themselves out there because of fear of their body or have held themselves back in a way. I noticed with myself too that I was holding myself back in so many ways because of a feeling like I wasn't enough or there was something wrong with me and my body. I think when we can really start to heal the relationship with our body, our life opens up in so many ways. Our relationships with our partners become more soft and more open and more receptive. Our relationship with our workouts and the world and our children, it's a huge access point to so much in life. And I've found myself having shifted so much from healing it. Amazing.

[24:26]Zibby Owens: So you talked about, if you had this, if you had that, like what is left on your to do to conquer list? Like where are you taking this or how are you even thinking about it? Maybe you're just letting it manifest. Like tell me, tell me what, what your frame of mind is. Well, know, my success part. So there's a part of me I I've done so much work and I feel deeply loving of myself. I would say my Achilles heel is

[24:51]Krista Williams: there's a part of me that believes I'm never successful and I'm not successful enough and that there's always more. I really struggle with this part. You know, it really is like a, I have a Chiron and Gemini and it's just a very painful part of me. So I think my work now of what I want to conquer or do is find a balance between believing I'm deeply successful and achievement. That striving self acceptance line, I ride almost every single day of how can I accept myself and my life as I am, everything I've created as I am, all the success I've had as it is? And then also how can I strive for more because I know I'm made for more and I know I want to create more? And so that's where I really am working now on that being true for me. I think my deepest work is coming to a place of understanding who I am enough to know how I'm serving people in the world. And it's funny. I think one thing about me, I'll be honest, I'm, I'm very honest. And so I wish that my work, my work is so deeply impactful. I wish it always for good, but there is aspects where it's very self serving, you know, I'm like, I want to be bigger. I wanna be more successful. I wanna be all these things. And so I look forward to hopefully coming to a deeper place of being in true service for all good and being able to put my own egoic little girl needs to be seen desires down of success to help more people with what

[26:25]Zibby Owens: God has gifted me I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. I think the most successful people are the ones who never feel like they're successful. And so they keep going and going, and then they keep doing more and more. And I'm not saying that that is the right path for everybody, but I do think it is a path. It is a path. She's like, thank you so much. We're gonna stay here. I'm gonna pull up a chair.

[26:44]Krista Williams: She's like, you know, she she's got something. She's really good.

[26:48]Zibby Owens: Oh my gosh. Well, Krista, I feel like I could talk to you all day, and we've only scratched the surface. And you're there is so much helpful advice and just so much great stuff in the book. And I hope in some format we can continue this conversation. Thank you so I would love

[27:02]Krista Williams: to. I'm going to email you. Would love to get lunch or something. I just find you so fascinating and kind and interesting. One thing I'll say is I'm very grateful that I get to do success or not. I'm so grateful I get to connect with people like you. There's so many amazing, smart people in the world just living in their dharma. It's such an honor and I'm really grateful to share the book. It's really, again, like you said, for anyone of any age, any woman that is on a growth journey and a growth path to her becoming, and I'm so glad that we could have talked about it today. Me too. And I would love to have lunch. Love that. Okay. See you in Monica. Alright.

[27:38]Zibby Owens: Thanks so much. Bye, Kristine. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens, and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.