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28 min read

The Power of Alignment and Inner Healing

“Holy shift, everything’s a gift”

In this episode of The EmPOWERed Half Hour, Becca sits down with Kristen Hartnagel, a founding member of the Brand Builders Group, and a personal branding expert. Kristen shares her journey, from being a singer and speaker to founding her coaching platform, Evolve Now, where she helps high achievers break through belief barriers for exponential growth.

Kristen and Becca dive into how every experience, even the frustrating ones, can be a gift and a chance for personal growth. They discuss how embracing these moments can help you break through belief barriers, align with your true self, and achieve greater fulfillment.

Kristen's Journey from Sales to Personal Branding

Kristen Hartnagel, founder of Evolve Now and a key figure at Brand Builders Group, transformed from a sales career to a renowned keynote speaker and singer. She blends her expertise in personal branding with her talents in music and speaking, influenced by her family’s spiritual teachings.

The Importance of Alignment

Kristen and Becca delve into the concept of alignment and its impact on personal and professional success. Kristen discusses how achieving spiritual and personal alignment can enhance one’s life and the importance of recognizing and responding to internal nudges.

Seeing Challenges as Gifts

Kristen and Becca explore the idea that every experience, even frustrating ones, can be viewed as a gift. Kristen explains how these moments offer opportunities for personal growth and healing, helping individuals to identify and address areas within themselves that need attention.

Tools and Techniques for Achieving Alignment

Kristen shares practical tools for maintaining alignment and managing negative thoughts. Strategies such as detaching with amusement, putting concerns into perspective, and wisely investing thought energy are highlighted as ways to foster a positive mindset.

Taking Responsibility for Personal Growth

The conversation highlights the importance of owning one’s joy and happiness. Kristen explains how challenges can be leveraged for personal growth and healing, emphasizing that alignment and personal responsibility are crucial for living a fulfilled and empowered life.

Key Moments You Won't Want to Miss:

Kristen's Journey: Discover Kristen's inspiring transition from a sales career to a keynote speaker and personal branding expert, and how her musical talents play a role in her success.
Finding Gifts in Challenges: Learn how she views every experience, including frustrations, as a gift and an opportunity for personal growth and healing.
Mastering Alignment: Dive into Kristen’s perspective on achieving spiritual and personal alignment and why it’s crucial for a fulfilling life.
Effective Tools for Alignment: Gain actionable tips on how to manage negative thoughts, put concerns into perspective, and focus on positive outcomes for personal and professional success.
Owning Your Joy and Happiness: Understand Kristen’s emphasis on taking responsibility for your joy and happiness and how challenges can be leveraged for personal growth.
Breaking Through Belief Barriers: Hear about Kristen’s methods for overcoming belief barriers and aligning with your true self to achieve greater fulfillment.

Empowering Thoughts to Take With You:

“If you can practice quieting your mind by going within and asking questions, you'll get answers.” — Kristen Hartnagel
“If you're noticing nudges, but you're not sure, then go within and ask questions and try to tap into that because that is your source.” — Kristen Hartnagel.
“We can't do anything about somebody else's behavior, but we can do a lot of work ourselves.” — Kristen Hartnagel.
“Ask for the opportunities and know that there are never any accidents. You always have something for someone else or they have something for you.” — Kristen Hartnagel.
“No matter how spiritual and aligned we feel, we’re still human and life happens.” — Kristen Hartnagel.
“My joy is my job and anybody's happiness is up to them.” — Kristen Hartnagel.
“Holy shift, everything's a gift.” — Kristen Hartnagel
“The more we embrace the power of AND, the more fulfilled and meaningful life is.” — Becca Powers
“You have an opportunity to go within and find your own belonging.” — Becca Powers
“When you are able to elevate yourself above your situation, you can see the humor in things, or you can just not be so serious about what's happening.” — Becca Powers

About Kristen:

Kristen Hartnagel is a magnetic speaker and personal branding expert at the globally renowned Brand Builders Group, one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies in America. As a founding member of Brand Builders Group, Kristen has delivered over 4000 hours of strategy work helping build personal brands for New York Times bestselling authors and highly sought-after keynote speakers.

She works with 6, 7, and 8-figure entrepreneurs, top coaches, business professionals, and consultants and is the Content Licensing Relationship Manager for the company. Understanding that even peak performers endure a crisis of confidence from time to time, Kristen founded her coaching platform, Evolve Now, where she empowers high-achieving business owners to break through belief barriers for exponential growth.

As a speaker, Kristen is the ultimate connector with decades of stage experience. She’s executed hundreds of presentations for Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations, associations, sales conferences, and leadership events across multiple industries.

When she’s not helping people stretch to new levels of greatness, you can find Kristen on a stage somewhere singing with her bandmates in an all-female rock band, The 6PAK. Married for over 3 decades, she and her family jump at every opportunity to travel to exotic places to experience new adventures.

Connect with Kristen:

Mentioned on the Show:

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We Want to Hear From You!

Share your journey of finding personal growth and true belonging through self-discovery and internal alignment. How have you embraced challenges as gifts and created your own happiness and alignment?

Connect with us on social media or leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your stories of navigating personal challenges and discovering your authentic path inspire us and highlight the power of internal growth and self-awareness.

Let’s celebrate how embracing our inner journey and viewing challenges as gifts can lead to profound fulfillment and alignment! 💫

Welcome to another episode of the empowered half-hour. I often say I'm excited to bring you today's guest but I am super excited to bring you today's guest, Kristen Hartnagel. She is a personal brand strategist with Brand Builders Group, spiritual alignment, business coach, and my brand strategist. And I couldn't do life without her. I'm so excited for you guys to get a chance to meet her. Kristen, welcome to the show.

Becca, it is so joyful to be on this podcast with you. Thank you for the invitation.

You do a lot of things, you sing, you speak, you're a brand strategist, and you're a spiritual alignment business coach. I love that because I love to embrace that power of AND and I think because I've experienced myself and seen it in other people, the more we embrace the AND, The more fulfilled and meaningful life is.

I would just love to hear how you got to your own AND. How did you become the Kristen that's showing up today as all these things?

Kristen's Journey From Singing to Speaking

That is such an interesting backstory because I've been in sales all my life but as a singer, I was invited to sing at a lot of new thought churches all over the region. And then with my sister all over the country, people would ask the backstory of the songs that I had written. And when I told them what was the inspiration behind some of the songs, they're like, you should talk about that.

So I was invited to be the guest minister, like the guest speaker at a lot of these churches, and so I would speak all over the place and deliver the service. And so that gave me the bug for speaking, and so then I combined them. My favorite way to deliver a keynote is a keynote concert where you're singing and speaking because music communicates at the level of the soul and it bypasses the thinking mind.

So, you're able with the lyrics to say some things that maybe don't sync in when you're just speaking about them. And so that led me on that spiritual journey. A lot of people were like, I want help with that, and so that turned into coaching, and then brand strategy is just a completely different story.

The people that I worked with, I loved, and whatever they do, I want to do it alongside them, so it's been an amazing journey to be a part of the Brand Builders Group.

That's awesome, so there's so much in that, that I want to unpack a little bit. But the first thing is I didn't know you were a songwriter as well. I knew you were a singer, but you're a songwriter too. That's fabulous.

Even when I was a little girl, I started writing songs, and my sister arranged them all for me. Her gift to me was to turn the melodies and the lyrics that I came up with to have the instrumentation all written out so that any person who wanted to pick up a guitar or play piano could accompany me. And then, for gifts to me over the years, she would bring me into the studio and we would record them together. Oh my gosh.

That just makes my heart so happy. One to have that experience with your sister, and my love affair for music, and I'm just like, Oh my God, it's infused in everything you do. That makes me so happy but that brings me to the introduction, we said, spiritual alignment, business coach, and I think that's a good opportunity because what you're saying right there too, is that, you have brought your singing into your speaking, as something that compliments your role at Brand Builders Group.

So what that says to me is that there is a lot of alignment going on. For the listeners, can we talk about alignment a little bit, what that means maybe, and how you might be able to get into it? If you're questioning, how do I do that for myself?

Understanding Alignment and Responding to Spiritual Signals

It has been an amazing past, probably 25 or 30 years to see the evolution of spirituality and acceptance.

I remember kind of playing small because I was afraid to talk about the woo-woo. People just thought you were crazy and now I would say it is interwoven in so many things and way more accepted. So to me, when you're doing something that you aren't on this planet to do, you feel misaligned and you notice nudges.

You can feel it in your body, you can feel the tenseness, the stress, and sometimes it's even more subtle. I should be happy, my life looks good on paper. Everybody says, with the job you have, with the family you have, you should be happy. And if you still have that underlying, maybe disillusionment or unfulfillment, chances are you're put here to do something that you're not stepping into.

And to me, spirit lets you know. It lets you know with a gentle tap and then it gets a little bit more of a touch and then eventually for me, it becomes a spiritual two-by-four upside the head. It was like, we're going to make, I was going to say, typically, that's how mine went. I was like, oh okay, if you don't listen, I'm going to make it so uncomfortable where you are that you have to leave. And then you'll wonder why you didn't listen to those little nudges a long time ago.

As you're talking about that, the part that made me giggle because I had identified it too, is that like you said, like the spiritual two-by-four upside the head. But I think for a lot of listeners, they wonder, okay, was that a sign or, then it takes three or maybe seven before they're like, oh my God, that's it. I don't know if you would like to talk about that a little bit, but I think it's a valuable reference point for the listeners to be able to recognize signs, maybe directions, or I like to call them breadcrumbs from the universe too. Much earlier in the process than the spiritual 2x4 or the 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th sign.

Quieting Your Mind to Recognize Early Signs of Alignment

I absolutely would love to talk about that because I think people tend to ignore those nudges. They notice the nudges, but they tend to brush them off and think that was nothing. But if you can practice just quieting your mind and going within and asking questions, you'll get answers.

To me, the tragedy is that we wake up and the momentum of everything that had occupied our mind zooms right back into our mind. And so as soon as we wake up, we have this outbound energy that goes in all directions and almost like it causes us in this orb. And if you think about inspiration or you can call it God or the universe, your higher power, you do have access to information, but it's not effortful to get to you. Just imagine this column of golden light that is all around you if you tap into it.

But if you've got this orb of energy going out in every direction, it's almost like you're holding it at bay. And again, it's not going to effort, it takes us to give it the gift of our attention. So to practice quieting your mind allows that to reach you. And so I would say if you're noticing nudges, but you're not sure, then go within and ask questions and try and tap into that. Because to me, that is your source, it is the guidepost, it's the ability to direct you with strategy and insight and help you make decisions.

I love that so much because I think it's a part of us, it's something that we might tend to bypass, meaning, like there's an inner knowing as you're saying, and it talks to us all the time, but it's because it's part of us. We're like, eh, I don't need to listen to that, that voice doesn't know what they're talking about. But yet it is those subtle thoughts that come up or as you said, that nudge is our inner knowing trying to guide us and we have access to it. So I thought that was beautiful.

I do agree that it is a part of us, it's that still small voice and we have hints throughout history. Be still and know that I am God. There are so many things in the world that have been directing us to tap into that power, whether you call it prayer or meditation, but we've got to see that our attention is like a gift.

If we're giving our attention to the things that are right in front of us, we just stay busy being busy. And some people live their lives that way. They get up, go to work, come home, go to bed and their attention has been on everything external. If we can think of our thoughts as thought coins and we're depositing them into something, what do we want more of?

We want more assurance, we want more certainty, we want more guidance, we want to know the decisions and the way that we're living our lives is pleasing to our soul and why we're here. And so if we don't give the gift of our attention to that quiet time, we are wasting an opportunity in my opinion.

That was really deep. I love the analogy of the thought coin getting deposited on the back end. That is so powerful, but I do want to pivot to another question. So in this journey, 25 or 30 years of being in your gifts, talent, strengths, getting on course, off course, on course again, to get into that alignment.

What type of lessons have, or what is a lesson or maybe two lessons that you have learned along the way?

Finding Belonging After Losing Your Safety Net

One of them, I would say, I didn't have any dogmatic religion that I overcame, and a lot of people who have found their spiritual path did so because they felt oppressed or they felt that they were losing something or missing something in whatever they had been practicing. Unlike that story, I was raised with a mom, a dad, and a sister who were all into very deep spiritual conversations, and philosophy, questioning everything. And so when my mom, my sister, and my dad all died, it was like, I don't have that safety net. I don't have my tribe of people that I can have these deep, meaningful conversations with at the ready.

Like I would talk to my sister every single day and my mom and my dad. And so it became this, okay, who am I without the safety net? How can I still share my gifts and get the validation that I'm on the right path because they were great mirrors for me on my journey? And so that did help me go within more often and also find my tribe, find more people. I think that's again, this evolution of consciousness that is all over the place. It's not hard to find a spiritual tribe anymore, you can find people who are of like mind anywhere you go.

So I tapped into a course in miracles and had been attending a course in the miracles study group for probably seven years before the passing of my nuclear family.

It was through that study that I was bringing some things to them, that as they were making their transitions, they found a lot of peace in the dying, in the leaving of this planet because of these spiritual conversations about getting excited about what is next. We don't know, but oh my gosh, I've had conversations with them from the other side.

And it's been like, that's pretty woo, but it is pretty exciting to know.

I have too, that's one thing I know that listeners are pretty familiar with my story, but it's not very often Kristen, that I come across someone who's also lost mom, dad, and brother. So nuclear family, and it's just me and that can feel very daunting. I have also said it is very beautiful because it has forced the journey inside and I've had to find my belonging within myself, within my family unit, my husband, my children, and then in the community, even like getting an opportunity to work with you and L and Jeremy at Brand Builders Group.

How we met felt like an instant click. And so one of the things that I want to say to the listeners is that you're estranged from your family or you've had a deep loss, or maybe you love your family but you don't identify with all their beliefs and stuff like that.

You have an opportunity to go within and find your belongings. And I love that you ended there, but I would love, if you don't mind, to talk a little bit about finding your tribe or ways that you can feel more whole, whether again, you're facing grief or new challenges or whatever. So I'll just give it to you.

Why There Are No Accidents

There are two stories that I'd like to share. I don't know if we have time for both, but one of them, I know that there are never any accidents. Like I'm sitting next to the person on the plane for a reason, and I travel a lot. So my prayer, every time I board a plane is that, if they have something for me or if I have something for them, let's get to it quickly. And if not, then let me sleep.

And so there's this one story of a woman who shared with me that she was on her way to see her mother who was very ill and brittle. She confessed that she thought the reason that her mom was enduring this much pain, was because she hated the woman that her brother married and she became so bitter that it tainted her whole outlook on life.

And so when we began to talk about what she was going to experience, and going to visit her mom, she was already dreading that it was going to be a horrible experience. Like I love my mom, but she's only going to talk about this sister-in-law. And so I said, we can't do anything about somebody else's behavior, but we can do a lot of work ourselves.

So I asked if she was open like these were ideas that were coming to me and through me. It wasn't like I had thought about this in advance, but what I was inspired to say is, can you picture your mom happy? Can you spend time in your imagination remembering? What it was like for her to be happy.

And then work that you can do over time is seeing a picture of the sister-in-law and your mom happy. And the picture of the sister-in-law getting closer and closer until it's the picture of the sister-in-law that makes your mom happy. That's just the work that you're doing. She never knows that you're even doing this work, but what you're doing is you're paving the way for a future experience to be something different than what you already expected.

We have expectations and she expected that it was going to be a not-good visit and this just opened it up for her. And she was so excited that she could even think about that experience differently. And then I'll never forget, she leaned over and she said, by the way, you should eat more papaya. And I'm like, I don't know where that came from.

I didn't realize I was having digestion issues, but that's that thing. I had something for her and she had something for me and we're just open to it. And so to me, that's the way you live tapping in is just asking for opportunities and knowing that there are never any accidents. You always have something for someone else or they have something for you.

I love that. That made me tear up a little bit. I'm like, beautiful. So what is a current aha for you right now?

Detach, Reduce, and Invest To Transform Negative Thinking

I would say a current aha is that no matter how spiritual and aligned I feel, I'm still human and life still happens. So what are some tools and practices that I can offer myself as a gift to be able to have that bounce-back factor quicker?

I know about the power of thinking, I know I want to think positively, but if suddenly I notice that rant in my head, like trying to get me to go down that rabbit trail, I want to just stop and I want to ask myself to pull that thought out. And I call this as part of my coaching.

And it's been an aha moment for me over and over again. It's detached with amusement. Just understand that the brain is doing its job, it is just thinking thoughts. And if it's about to go down that rant trail, I have the power to stop it and say, there's my brain trying to get me to go down a rabbit trail.

I don't have to go there, so detach with amusement and then don't get mad at your brain, just go there little brain. I know you're just on a well-worn pathway and I would rather be intentional about my thinking. And if I can be lighthearted about it, then I don't get mad at myself for having negative thoughts.

So detaching with amusement is a tool that I like to give myself. And then a second part is to reduce the ridiculousness. What is this thought trying to say? Like what is the very worst that this thought is maybe hinting at? And then can I give equal playing time to something equally as it? Not likely to go all the way to the extreme of what's the best that could happen because the more attention I can give there, the more I'm swinging that dial from negative to positive, and then the third step is to invest wisely back to what we talked about before.

If my thoughts are like currency and I'm contributing to something, why would I want to contribute to something that doesn't make me feel good? So I want to invest my thought coins wisely.

I love all three of those steps so much. Detached with amusement, because when you can elevate above your situation, you can see the humor in things, or you can just not be so serious about what's happening.

And then reduced to ridiculous. I always have had a saying for myself which I tell myself is that anxiety is a dirty little liar, and that reminds me of the reduced to ridiculous, I'm like, what is anxiety trying to tell me? And it's trying to tell me that I'm going to die if I do this thing.

It's not that deep, and so I love reducing it to ridiculous because as I've done that to myself, I start peeling it back. I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to have that bad of a pretty ridiculous outcome. So good stuff to share with the listeners. Thank you.

We have 10 minutes left, so we still have a lot of time, but it's like we're going down to the bottom and we're already 20 minutes in. Why are you passionate about the message of alignment?

Taking Responsibility for Your Happiness

To me, I think we can live misaligned, out of alignment, and not understand why and so if we believe that everything is energy and that so much of us, so much of what makes us operate is energetic.

It's just like any machine when you're in alignment, that machine is going to function better. You're going to be healthier, and you're going to be happier. To me, my joy is my job and anybody's happiness is up to them. Can you repeat that? My joy is my job, it is up to my job. Everybody's level of happiness and contentment is up to them.

Nobody else is out there trying to make you happy. So you've got to take that responsibility. And as soon as you can take full responsibility for the way you want to feel, then you're going to want to apply some of these tools, and not be at the mercy of feeling like a bobber on a turbulent ocean, you get to say, my happiness comes from within.

I love that. My joy is my job. That's the affirmation listeners that you can take with you, courtesy of Kristen. How can the listeners take the conversation we're having and use it to have a more empowered life?

Seeing Triggers as Gifts for Personal Growth

If we don't feel a victim of what's going on, if we are willing to accept this responsibility, then the opportunity is to be the witness to everything that you're experiencing.

And just remember, this is from a course in miracles, I could choose peace instead of this. Something is pushing my buttons, and instead of trying to fix the thing, if I could go within and say, why do I have a pushable button about this? There is something in me that is pushable and I don't want to have a pushable button.

So now I'm taking responsibility for anything that's rubbing me the wrong way. And I'm able to see that and this is the big shift, I'm able to see that as a gift. What a gift to mirror to me that part of me in need of healing so that I can work on it. So that guy that pissed me off, that woman who cut me off in traffic, they're gifts.

They're the thing that helps me go, oh, there's that pushable button. I get to work on that. And so I want to be able to do that work and see everything as that opportunity. And so therefore this phrase, holy shift, everything's a gift. That is a big part of my personal brand. Can you repeat that one?

I feel like you're full of mic-drop moments, but I would like it.

Holy shift, everything's a gift. Even that thing that ticked you off, that's a gift. If you use it as an opportunity to say what in me needs healing, I wouldn't have been triggered in that way.

So what's another powerful message from your work that you would like to share with the listeners, that might be able to help them on their journey?

How to Shift Perspective and Embrace Personal Growth

I would say, you can't approach any situation conversation experience without bringing all of you along to that situation. Like I cannot not bring my Christeness.

Everything that has made me who I am up to this point comes with me and therefore I am not seeing things for it in an ultimately true way, I am seeing things through my Kristen filter through my Kristen lens and therefore that's why I have pushable buttons because something in my past has set me up to have a pushable button. And so if I can believe or if I can understand that I'm not seeing truly, I am seeing through the Kristen filter.

It helps me to practice getting out of my way, and this is a prayer. This is what I would talk to the Holy Spirit about. I would say, everything shows me from a healed perspective, how to see this differently? Cause I cannot see it for the truth that it is. I'm seeing it through Kristen's lens.

So show me from your fully healed perspective, how to see this differently and that allows me to get out of my way, I would say this is where the guidance comes in. It does help me see, oh, I've been seeing it this way when I could be seeing it this way, but that's that surrender. That's taking the time to be quiet and go within.

I like that and I even enjoy how you said that's that time to go within. That's how we started our conversation in that quietude, but so often we try to solve the problems from our Becca or Kristen or our limited self.

And I love that you just gave a very easy prayer slash invitation to the listeners to fall back into something bigger than them, that has the answers, that has the clarity, and that can offer guidance that they might just not be able to tap into themselves. That's ultimately, like you said, the surrender, but that prayer was so beautiful.

And I think sometimes what I've seen at least is that people just don't know the how, and that little prayer could be a how for a listener. That's just facing the same problem or the same talk track or auto-repeat in their head over and over again. So it's really beautiful. I appreciate that.

This is how it spills into the work as a personal brand strategist with the Brand Builders Group: all of our clients, every person can have a crisis of confidence. And when especially trying to build something about who you are, imposter syndrome sets in and makes you think, I'm not saying anything new.

I'm not like, is this worth it? Are people even going to want this? And so that's out of alignment. You're out of the love that is continuously available to you if you are second-guessing everything about yourself. And so if you could love yourself as much as God loves you, you could reduce that crisis in confidence.

And so I think that these tools that we've been talking about help our clients too. If I'm coaching them, not all of the Brand Builders Group strategists talk about this kind of thing, but as soon as somebody is doubting themselves. If we can just talk about some tools to help them get back in alignment, they can have that bounce-back factor so much quicker and get right back on that horse and keep on that journey.