Episode 26:
Kristin Shane is the Chief Dream-Follower, Founder and CEO at Fly Feet Running. She spent most of her career running high profile businesses for Target, most recently as the Vice President Merchandise Manager of the $6.2B omnichannel beauty and personal care business. She started Fly Feet in 2016 to realize her own vision: to inspire people to chase the best version of themselves. Through a thrilling high-intensity workout, Fly Feet meets people where they are on their fitness journey and helps them make measurable progress. It’s part of Kristin’s lifelong pursuit of her personal best, from the boardroom to the fitness studio to the elite marathon circuit (she’s completed 15, including Boston). Her passion is being a lady boss and building high-performing teams and businesses, so when she’s not flying at Fly Feet, she is consulting in the beauty and retail space via her consulting practice, The Studio Eight. This year, she was the recipient of Women in Business Award by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Twin Cities in Motion. She also has an MBA, was a Peace Corps volunteer, and is an unstoppable mom to her three young children.
What You Will Learn:
- How Kristin makes space for dreaming – and why you should too
- The thought process and plan that went into Kristin quitting a high-paying job and immediately starting a business
- What Kristin does to keep it all together and her most important tools for success
- Kristin’s BIG announcement and how she made this life-changing decision
- Managing huge changes as a lady boss
- How outside feedback – and an expensive coach – helped Kristin realize the things she needs to work on
- Kristin’s sources of inspiration and best practices for daily life
Resources:
- Email: kristin.shane@flyfeetrunning.com
- Kristin’s Websites: www.flyfeetrunning.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flyfeetrunning/
- My Website: www.sayyess.com/speaking
Lady Boss | Running After Your Passions, with Kristin Shane
Making Space for Dreams
Kristin Shane spent most of her career running high profile businesses for Target, most recently as the Vice President Merchandise Manager of the $6.2B omnichannel beauty and personal care business. In 2016, however, Kristin did something very few of us have the bravery to do: she left a secure, high-paying job as a lady boss at Target to start her own business. A scary thought! With so much risk, especially when you’re also raising a family, it’s no wonder many don’t have the guts to do what Kristin’s done.
The result? Kristin is now the CEO of Fly Feet Running, a group fitness studio dedicated to high-intensity workouts and personal transformations. Kristin’s passion for running and pursuing her personal best was so strong that she wanted to pass it on to others, and the results have been amazing. She also has run 15 marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and owns a beauty consulting practice, Studio Eight. How DOES she do it?
Kristin’s most important advice for women is to make space for dreaming. Kristin does this by running, her retreat from daily life where she can clear her head and focus her thoughts on what she really wants in life. She also makes time when traveling to explore her destination and see how people live their lives, letting her mind be free to discover what speaks to her. These activities ignited her zeal for fitness and self-improvement. She was off to the races!
Managing Big Changes
It’s not all fun and games; you have to do the work to get to the good stuff. Kristin’s plan started on a napkin at Starbucks and blossomed into getting up at four in the morning every day. She spent her early days running, building her business plan, working with a branding agency, doing market research, securing funding, and launching a website. She stepped out of her role at Target directly into founding Fly Feet Running. Her transition, while taxing, was a master class on becoming a successful lady boss and business leader. She has never looked back.
Well, that’s not entirely true. Kristin has kept in contact with her longtime professional mentor, Stacia Anderson, who first hired her at Target in 2005. Stacia has been Kristin’s rock for many years, and just when Kristin seemed to be settling into a stable existence at Fly Feet, Stacia sprung a big question: she wanted to know if Kristin would move to Scottsdale to run merchandising for Petsmart. Wow! This rocked Kristin’s world in the best way.
Kristin accepted the offer and is relocating to Scottsdale as you read this. She could not have done it without the support of her friends, family, and coworkers, who all cheered her on. While many entrepreneurs encounter “founder’s syndrome” where their business is tied to their identities, Kristin built a sustainable company that she could trust to run thanks to the great staff she hired. She plans to continue working with Fly Feet as she can and may even open a branch in the Phoenix area. Stay tuned if you like running in the desert!
Growing as a Leader
One of the things I admire most about Kristin Shane is her adaptability and constant drive for improving herself. When it comes to being a lady boss and business leader, she’s obviously top-tier. Many people would let that get to their heads. But not Kristin. Kristin is continuously reevaluating herself so she can be better every day. When it comes to facing big challenges, Kristin knows the things she can control. First, she knows that all she can do is her best. If things start to fall apart, Kristin knows she has to humble herself and ask for help. Last, but definitely not least, is that Kristin can control how she shows up every day.
That last point is a doozy and requires great self-awareness. Kristin shared a story with me about how she was told that she’s too direct in the workplace. Confused, Kristin hired a coach (for $1,000 an hour!) to help her understand this supposed flaw in her leadership style and get on the fast track to correcting it. She was shocked to see that they were right, and she and her coach got her going on fixing the issue. Since then, Kristin has been more self-aware, always checking herself and striving to be her best all of the time.
For inspiration, Kristin looks to places like Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations podcast and keeps on doing what she loves: running. She gets her energy from a healthy diet, lots of water, journaling, and spending time with her lovely family. Kristin sets such a shining example of what it means to be a leader, and it was a thrill to get to talk to her.
Download Your FREE Chapter of Chasing perfection
Get the first chapter of Sue’s book, Chasing Perfection: Shatter The Illusion along with the companion toolkit, the Maximizing Success Journal!
Categories: Uncategorized
