The Life Story Of Kristen Brumbaugh: The Fun, The Traumatic, And The Helpful
Listen to the life story of Kristen Brumbaugh. Before she was the Director of Client Success in ScaleX, she was just a little girl who enjoyed playing outside during summertime. She would play with the kids from her village, bouncing around different houses, eating all kinds of food. This was her life back then. It's good to reminisce about those memories, good or bad. Join Chad and Rich as they go through Kristen's past, present, and future. Experience Kristen's traumatic childhood experience, her community volunteer work, and her future expectations.
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Listen to the podcast here:
The Life Story Of Kristen Brumbaugh: The Fun, The Traumatic, And The Helpful
I couldn't be happier than to have one of my colleagues and best friends join me and talk about her story. Rather than hop into it myself, I'll let her introduce herself to you so you can get to know her and we'll get to know her story as we talk about it. Kristen?
I'm Kristen Brumbaugh, mom of two crazy volunteers with all of their stuff. I have worked with Rich and Chad here at ScaleX. It's life-changing, working from home, doing things that I love to do, helping people. I do all the clients' success, helping onboard and manage clients through their programs.
I like that you started with mom. As they would say in poker, that's probably a tell. Whatever you start with is probably the thing that's most important to you. I'm not very surprised by that. Given what probably amongst the most important things in your life to you, starting with mom is probably the right thing. Let's start talking about your story other than the story they're in your office. If you close your eyes for a minute, think about 6 or 7-year-old Kristen. It's almost summer. It's getting warm and the flowers are blooming and the grass is green. What did a 6 or 7-year-old Kristen love to do most?
Playing outside with my brothers and with friends and doing whatever we wanted to do. Run up and down the neighborhood. There's a ton of kids in our neighborhood. When the street lights come out, everybody goes home. All day long, it was bouncing back and forth between friends’ houses and different moms would feed us snacks and lunch. Wherever we were, they'd give us whatever treats we wanted. That was the life.
How does that connect to what you love most about your career? Not your job, but your career.
I'd say connecting with people. Things are the same but different every time. There's always a consistent topic of conversation, but every person makes it different. It's the same thing, but it's different every time. It makes it easier to get through.
Nobody makes you lunch or gives you snacks.
Nobody does that.
You need to find a designated snack mom or snack client to decide who's going to bring snacks or who's going to bring lunch for the next meeting, especially during these times.
Everyone at the end of the day says, “What's for dinner?” I say, “I’ve been working all day. What have you been doing?”
“I don't know. What are you making? What’s on your list for dinner?”
“What do you want?”
My neighborhood was like your neighborhood. Mine wasn’t a street. Mine was probably 6 to 8 blocks in different directions. It was not off of any busy street. It was all an enclosed neighborhood off of the highway and everybody knew everybody. We all went to the same school. We played in the creek a lot. Do you stay in touch with any of those friends?
I went to college with one of them. We both commuted, so we shared rides for a while. My best friend growing up moved into her parents’ house. She's now neighbors with my parents. She's back there. I kept in touch with some of them but with social media stay-in-touch that way. A lot more than anything but nope. Great friendships. It's nice to see everyone growing and then being happy as we all were happy as kids and we're all happy as a grown-up.
I'm going to flip the coin for you. Tell me about the other side. Tell me about those things that made you smile. You've been smiling through the whole conversation. Tell me maybe 1 or 2 painful memories.
I’m thinking about these and you're going to make me cry. One of them I remember, I was probably 5 or 6. I was outside watering the flowers for my dad because that's what we did. We all helped. A group of guys jumped out of a truck and offered me candy and tried to take me. I remember meeting with a police officer afterward. I'm describing the guys in the truck. They said that they had taken other children that week, but I was able to get away. It's hard to remember that, but then I'm so grateful and thankful that I was able to get away, standing right in my front yard.
I know a lot of things about you. I don't know that.
It was a very scary time. It took me a while to go back out and water the flowers, but I remember my mom yelling at my dad saying, “Why did you let her do that alone? She's only 5 or 6. You can’t just let the kids outside alone.” My dad was a teacher in the schools right down the street. He figured that it was some of the kids in the high school. He never found out, but that was pretty scary.
Other than it still makes you cry to think about it, to think about how dangerous that was, how else does that memory become a gift to you later in life? How did it change you?
I’m grateful for the family. I probably watched my kids too much now. They probably think I am crazy.
That made you a different mom.
I'm always a little paranoid, but we all are at some point. I always keep that extra ear or eye out for the kids, whether they're my kids or the other kids running around the street. I'm always watching for people we don't know or a car you don't know and see what's going to happen.
Thank you. That's quite a foundational memory to carry with you.
I can still see the truck and I was five when it happened.
We're done with that. Let's move to what energizes you.
When I was in my early twenties, I read Gary Chapman’s book The 5 Love Languages. I figured out that I'm an act of service person. That's what fills my bucket. It's what fills me up. I notice that I do that for other people quite a bit. It's probably why I like my job because it's more of an act of service helping people. I like volunteering. I like helping people do things. That's what I love to do, is showing people. That's how I show how I love them and support them.
What are the things that you are volunteering for right now?
I'm elected to the school board in our local community. It has been a little bit different. That’s a way to say it.
You are a kind and gentle person to say things like that.
Lots of opinions fly everywhere. I've been doing it for years. I've been volunteering on the board with bi-weekly meetings that we get updates from the school all the time from the superintendent. The lovely year that we've had, it's been a little more trying to get through the hard times. The easy times are always easy, but when there's difficulty and difference of opinions, it's harder to get through. Even through all that, through the hard times, and the easy times on the board, I love doing that because it's serving the whole community. It's not just serving my kids. It's serving the whole district, all the kids, making sure that we're spending the budget appropriately, and making sure the kids are getting a great education. I love doing that.
Life Story: If the kids are happy, we are happy.
What drains you besides idiots?
Having to say the same thing 5 or 10 times.
Don't you have anybody in mind, someone you picture in your mind when you say that?
No, the three people in my house always listen to what I say and do it the first time.
Certainly, no client that you have in your mind?
No. Never. Get it in writing. It's easier. I would say not repetitive. It's repeated because they're not listening. That's what frustrates me. I am so intent in making sure I listen when people speak. I feel like if someone's not listening to me, it's a little difficult.
It certainly drains you and it frustrates you?
Absolutely.
Let's start to turn the clock forward a little bit. What's something that if you accomplished it in your life, it would create a whole new slate and change everything for you?
My husband and I always teased it's winning the lottery, but that's fine.
There are a lot of broke people that won the lottery.
I'm not sure. I'm not the best future planner.
That's why sometimes the things that change everything for you aren’t things that you plan either. They come upon you. I'm not sure that these last months are exactly what you planned.
Even when they got the call from a friend, he said, “I've got this job opportunity for you.” It's like, “I'm not looking for a job. What are you talking about?” He's like, “No, I think you need to talk to this guy. You need to hear him out. See what happens.”
The tablet is still blank, ready to be written on?
I'm pretty easygoing when it comes to that. Things come along and you get that gut feeling if it's right or not. You wait it out as it comes.
I'll give you a different way to paint the picture. Maybe we'll make it a different way to make it concrete. Let's imagine that instead of meeting months ago, let's imagine that we met and it's three years from now. You said to me, “I just had the most incredible three years.” What would you tell me? Why would you be saying that? What would have happened for you to have told me that?
I don't know.
What would have caused you to say, “I just have the most incredible three years?” What's incredible meaning to you?
Family. Kids being happy. That's it.
Number one, that doesn't surprise me because it syncs back up to how you introduced yourself. Our kids have gone twenty years without either of my children living within 1,000 miles. With your kids are still at home, that may be a little hard to imagine. One of the kids is moving home. Not come home but going to move back. We've had this full-life philosophy ever since college was over. Our life philosophy was different before college and through college. Our life philosophy once college was over was, “If the kids are happy, we are happy.”
We had to have that a little bit different during high school and college because the kinds of things that make kids happy aren't necessarily the kinds of things that we might want to have them be happy. It's a little bit different. The fact that you said that the kids are happy rings so true with me. It's not our job to make our children happy, but it's still our desired outcome. If our kids are happy, we are happy most of the time. We might want more for them or want something different, but if they're happy, we're going to be happy. Let's switch to business. You're in your office and you can handle it. What are you tolerating in your business? What about work are you just tolerating?
I'm not sure. Right now, it's a good balance between life and work. I don't feel like I'm tolerating anything in particular besides people being silly, but that's life.
Some clients you're tolerating?
I would say that would be for everybody. There are always some that are in the bubble.
We won't make a list.
I don't even have one.
Even though you're laughing, what bores you? Life, work, anything? What conditions are you in when you're bored?
When I have nothing to do because I'm a doer, I always like to be busy doing something, but sometimes there’s nothing on the list of to-dos. It's nice to have a day off, but if there's more than one day off without things to do, it's difficult for me to just sit and rest.
Are you not a sitter?
Not a sitter. Occasionally, but not often. It can't happen often.
Life Story: Things come along and you get that gut feeling if it's right or not. So you wait it out as it comes.
What's working well for you?
The balance. I'm trying to enjoy the life of a taxi mom at the moment. It's a phase trying to get through probably the next years or until taxi mom's over. I was getting through that.
Does dad taxi too?
We have to because they have to be at the same place or different places at the same time. One’s driving into baseball or musical rehearsal. I'm driving to gymnastics, whether it's 10 minutes away or 40 minutes away, just running.
What's not working?
The running. It works and it doesn't work all at the same time. It's a phase. Everybody's gone through it, but it’s my turn.
You've got a great attitude towards it.
I try. It helps me survive.
What choice do you have? You can make a choice, but it's not going to make that incredible three years of the kids being happy turn out very well. I fairly well know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. What role does your faith play in all of this? You put this in a big bundle. Take about when you were a child, you talk about growing up, you talk about your work life. You think about your home life. You think about raising your kids. As you tell your story, as we've talked about the story of Kristen, what role does your faith play in all of that?
I know He's got the story laid out, but I don't have to make it happen. Trust, follow, and believe. He's got the whole thing. It's hard to be patient and wait, but it always comes together. You see it afterward most of the time. You don't see it in the middle of it, but it always comes together.
That takes a lot of trust.
Also, patience sometimes, and I'm good with that.
You've seen it play out. That's about as good a wrapping paper as you can put on your story. I know it started there and it'll end there. If you can keep that with you throughout your story, that's a pretty good road to walk on.
That's the goal. We'll see how I do.
I know how you're going to do. That's not something that anybody who's reading this has any question about based on what they've read. I'm glad you took the time away from kids and took the time away from our clients and talked about that stuff you don't talk about during the business day and took the time to talk to me about it. I appreciate that you took the time to let us record this so that the world can hear about Kristen's story and where it's going to go. I’m thrilled with our conversation. I thank you very much. I'm so appreciative of you and your willingness to open yourself up and share yourself and talk about living a better story.
Thanks, Rich.
Important Links:
About Kristen Brumbaugh
Kristen is the Director of Client Success at ScaleX, Inc.
Kristen is an Experienced Director of Client Success with strong professional skilled in Management, Business Management, Process Improvement, Team Building and Contact Centers. Kristen is a Mom, a wife, and loves God.
