Clarity On Fire

Yep, you read that subject line right! I (Kristen) got a job.    I know some of you are like, “Umm … excuse me, what??”   First of all, rest assured this does NOT mean I’m stepping away from Clarity on Fire or anything of the sort. On the contrary, getting a job will (counterintuitively) free up my best mental and emotional energy to pour back into my client work.    The thing is, when you’re a coach who spends all your time helping people find alignment in their life and career, you can’t exactly ignore when you’re feeling out of alignment yourself … at least, not for very long before you feel compelled to do something about it.    I’m telling the whole story in this week’s interview with a normal person, where I get to be the normal person! ;)   Listen in as Rachel interviews me about...   How I’ve actually been playing with this idea for a long time, but was overcomplicating things and getting in my own way (until just a few months ago).      Why writing a book about Passion Profiles (it’s in the works ri

Welcome to another episode of Dear Krachel, our monthly advice segment where we answer listener questions about life, career, relationships, existential angst, and anything that helps you become a more whole, fulfilled version of yourself.   This month we answered questions from:   Ana, who’s got a LOT on her mind right now: Trying to work from home while caring for two small kids, a recent ADHD diagnosis, and feeling like she’s constantly underperforming at work. She knows she could benefit from ADHD-specific coaching, career-specific coaching, and therapy … but how does someone who’s in the midst of a big struggle even decide where to start untangling their issues? Uninspired Thriver, who’s really attracted to the idea of being their own boss, having financial independence, and traveling the world. Starting a business seems like a natural next step, but they aren’t having any ideas that excite them. What questions should they be asking to figure out what to do next? Lauren, who loves a lot of things about

Imagine making the momentous decision to pack up your entire life and move cross-country from Pennsylvania all the way to Portland, Oregon. You decide to start your move on January 1, 2020, because it feels clean and fresh with possibilities, and you embark on your journey with enthusiasm and optimism.   And then everything, and we do mean everything, promptly falls apart.   You get COVID, but you don’t know it’s COVID yet because no one knows what it is, and almost die.    Your partner loses their job because of the pandemic, making you the primary breadwinner while you’re still struggling to breathe every day.   Your teeny tiny apartment, where you’re now trapped with your partner in a brand-new city where you don’t really have friends, and can’t make new ones, is infested with spiders.   That’s just a taste of what Kristen Kalp’s 2020 was like … and lord, the hits kept comin’. So, we sat down with Kristen, our friend-we’ve-never-met-in-real-life, to talk about what was inarguably the worst year ever. She g

A few weeks ago we put out a call for Dear Krachel questions, and a LOT of you asked us questions about feminine energy—turns out many of you listened to our normal person interview with Carolyn Canonica and came away wanting to know more about how you actually do feminine energy.   We promised we’d dedicate a whole episode just to this question, and here it is! In this month’s brand-new Side Chat we’re getting into…   Three steps for actually “doing” feminine energy—AKA, how to easily integrate this way of being into your everyday life. Examples of how us and our clients have successfully used these three steps. What to do if switching to this mindset makes you feel like you’re “settling.” The right balance of masculine vs. feminine energy in each area of your life.   Leave a comment after you’ve listened and share your ideas for how you’re going to practice these steps!   JOIN THE CLARITY ON FIRE COMMUNITY!   You should definitely come check us out on Patreon!   Join the $3/month tier (The Spark) for acc

Earlier this year we talked about finding a dream job in 24 hours.    We figured it was only fair to also hear the exact opposite side of things—what happens when you’ve been wanting a dream job (or anything!) forever and ever and ever and you still haven’t gotten it?   So, on this month’s brand-new interview with a normal person, Rachel and Natalie dive into…   At what point do you decide you’re crazy for wanting something that hasn’t happened in well over a decade … and just move on? The burnout and existential crisis you suffer from when your job isn’t aligned with your Passion Profile (and what happens when you do get aligned). Worrying that future employers won’t give you a chance after you’ve taken a break from the workforce. How the random, non-linear path actually makes you more qualified for a dream job, not less.   Leave a comment after you’ve listened to share how Natalie’s story resonates with you!   JOIN THE CLARITY ON FIRE COMMUNITY!   You should definitely come check us out on Patreon!   Joi

Welcome to another episode of Dear Krachel, our monthly advice segment where we answer listener questions about life, career, relationships, existential angst, and anything that helps you become a more whole, fulfilled version of yourself.   This month we answered questions from:   Ashley, who’s wondering how long is too long to stay at a bridge job? Diana, who listened to last month’s Side Chat and is curious—where’s the line is between unreasonable and irresponsible when it comes to quitting your job? JoAnn, who really wants to reduce her hours at work but is afraid her supervisor won’t be happy. How can she ask to do less even though she doesn’t have a “good reason” for asking?   Leave a comment after you’ve listened to share how our advice for these listeners resonated with you!   Want to submit a question for our July episode of Dear Krachel? Fill out this form and you might hear us tackle your Q!    JOIN THE CLARITY ON FIRE COMMUNITY!   You should definitely come check us out on Patreon! Join the $3/

Honing your intuition is one of the most important parts of getting clear on who you are, what you want, and where you’re headed. Without it, you’re like a GPS with bad reception–you’re not going to get very clear guidance, and you may end up driving in circles.   But honing your intuition can take time and practice, so sometimes it’s nice to piggyback off of another GPS you can trust, even if it’s just long enough to check your directions.    So, in that spirit, here’s another Message from the Universe episode for you! Tune in if you need a little clarity, guidance, or just a fun pick-me-up.    Today we pulled a few cards from The Enchanted Map deck by Colette Baron-Reid. One or all has a message for you — come find out what it is! ☺   And be sure to listen to the very end of this episode, because the Universe came through in a big (and hilarious) way.   Click here to see the cards, as well as read the description of each! And after you listen, come leave a comment to share how this one spoke to you.   LAST

One of our favorite lines in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is in the very first chapter, when Vernon Dursley is introduced:   “He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.”   Can you imagine how differently Harry’s life would have gone if he’d decided to be more of a Dursley than a Potter? If he’d dedicated his life to being normal and rational and reasonable? We’re imagining something like:   “Harry decided it wasn’t particularly sensible to leave his life at Number 4 Privet Drive behind to attend a school where they study ridiculous subjects like flying and potions making. He lived in the cupboard under the stairs until he was old enough to start an internship at Grunnings, where he learned how to fill orders for drills. He wasn’t happy, but he was practical, and that’s what mattered! The end.”   One of the biggest cons we’ve pulled on ourselves is believing that being reasonable is actually saf

I don’t know about you, but I (hi, Kristen here!) have been feeling extra overwhelmed lately. There’s just always so much to do!    And yes, most of it is all stuff I want to put my time and energy into, but it still feels like a lot of doing. I’ve been feeling a strong urge to sloooow down the pace of life lately and stop trying to make everything happen all at once.    The beautiful part about being is coach is that, sometimes as you’re helping a client find solutions to the problems in their lives, you end up finding your own solutions along the way too.    That’s what happened recently with my client Carolyn, who’s been trying out a “feminine energy experiment,” where she focuses less on doing and more on attracting. And I’ve gotta say, her results have been pretty amazing so far!    So naturally, I had to bring her on the podcast and have her share her journey with you. ;)    This is one of those conversations I keep mentally coming back to, and it’s inspired me to do my own feminine energy experiment to

Welcome to another episode of Dear Krachel, our monthly advice segment where we answer listener questions about life, career, relationships, existential angst, and anything that helps you become a more whole, fulfilled version of yourself.   This month we answered questions from:   Samantha, who listened to our last Side Chat about wants vs. needs and started wondering about how that idea applies to money—when is it a need, and when does it become a want? And are you allowed to think that a large amount of money is actually a need? So Many Books, So Little Time, who’s very overwhelmed by all the things she wants to do, but doesn’t have time for now that she’s working a 9-5 again. How do you even begin to choose which books, podcasts, shows, courses, and YouTube videos to check out, and which to ignore? Amelia, who listened to some of our past Bonus Book Club episodes (linked below!) and was inspired to experiment with the Law of Attraction. She’s mind-blown with the results! But now that she’s realized how p

First and foremost–May the Fourth be with you.    Secondly–WHEW, do we have a litany of important news to share!   Listen in today as we break down some major events happening in the Clarity on Fire world. The teasers include…   Why we’re significantly changing how we do 1:1 coaching for the first time since we started 9 years ago … and what that means if you’re interested in working with us this time around. A book announcement many of you have been waiting years for. A major life change for Rachel, and the things she’s cooking up for you behind the scenes as a result. … and a story about a snake scaring the crap out of Kristen, just for fun.   If you miss this one, you’ll be about as informed as someone Obi Wan Kenobi just mind erased with the Force (I will NOT apologize for this example on Star Wars day), so do yourself a favor and listen in.   1:1 COACHING IS COMING BACK!   One-on-one coaching will be open for enrollment again on Friday, May 14! A few pointers to keep in mind:   We’ll be taking on abou

Calling all fellow bookworms, library nerds, and general lovers of literature — it’s time for another book club episode of the podcast!  Whenever there are five Fridays in a month, we devote the extra Friday to a book that we can’t get enough of. In this episode, we’re diving into a brand-new book: Radiant Rest by Tracee Stanley. The last couple books we’ve talked about (The Artist’s Way and The Body Keeps the Score) were INTENSE. So, this book, which is all about yoga nidra—aka, the yoga of sleep—was the perfect, soothing antidote to the reading we’ve done lately. ;)  And given how exhausted, burnt out, and stretched to the limit most of us are after the last year, we need to prioritize rest more than ever! So, listen in as we talk about… What yoga nidra is, and the science of how it works How you can literally enter into a deep sleep state while still conscious and aware! The differences between meditation and yoga nidra Why we often resist resting (and even feel guilty for it)  Our experiences after tryin

Full transparency, one of our biggest pet peeves is when people hear the “career” part of “life & career coaches” and assume we help people scour job boards and edit their résumés. There’s nothing wrong with that—it’s just not what we do. If you’ve found us, you may very well want a new job. You might find yourself pursuing job boards and staring at your résumé, wondering how to polish it so that you can be noticed by a company with an awesome work culture. But those aren’t the steps that come first. You can’t find career fulfillment if you have no idea who you are, what you want, or how to even recognize the right thing if it showed up. That’s our bread and butter. So, thank goodness for AJ Mizes, who actually loves all the stuff that we don’t! On this month’s interview with an expert, AJ and Rachel got into… How 88% of people get hired these days (…newsflash, it’s not sending endless online applications). Job searching and interviewing in a time of COVID—what’s changed, and a few things you probably ha

So … I was in a therapy session and my therapist said something that filled me with, as I told Kristen during this episode, “The wrath of hell.” Why? Because she, unintentionally, broke one of the cardinal rules of anyone who’s in a therapy/coaching/healing profession: Make the person in front of you feel seen and heard. I brought her my very raw, tender emotions about something that was deeply troubling me, and in her attempt to help, she used an analogy that made me feel very unseen and unheard–and worse than that, almost made me feel gaslit and belittled. Cue rage erupting from me akin to the fires of hell. But, in classic fashion, my rage gave me an opportunity to coach myself (it turns out, of the two of us I’m probably the better coach for me anyway). And in getting to the bottom of why I was so triggered, I made a HUGE realization: I was angry because she had treated one of my needs as if it was a want. So, I decided we definitely need to have a Side Chat about this! Listen in as Kristen and I talk abo

One of the hardest lessons I have to learn over and over again is that you will never be done. Ugh. It would just be WAY more convenient if life was arranged into predictable milestones that I could work toward at a reasonable pace and achieve with stunning regularity, thank-you-very-much!! And I also love control! When getting what I want depends on how much I’m perfecting myself and my actions, then at least I can make things happen. Sadly for me, and probably you too, life refuses to comply with my wishes. And yet … sometimes, that’s incredibly good news. Which is why I brought on my client, Solange, for this month’s interview with a normal person. It turns out that you can get things that feel too good to be true, without being “done” or the most perfect version of yourself! Listen in as Solange and I talk about… The incredibly hard place she was in a few years ago, and how she got stuck in a very bland, unfulfilling job. That time, only a few weeks into coaching, when Solange was shocked by getting some

Welcome to another episode of Dear Krachel, our monthly advice segment where we answer listener questions about life, career, relationships, existential angst, and anything that helps you become a more whole, fulfilled version of yourself. This month we answered questions from: Murphy’s Law, who’s been having a string of bad luck that’s making her feel as if the whole world is conspiring against her! She’s asking the important questions: WTF?! And, how do I get myself out of it? A Gal with Mama Trauma, who (as you could probably guess) has a not-so-great relationship with her codependent mom. She’s tired of avoiding confrontation and being flimsy with her boundaries. How can she stand up to a parent who gaslights, manipulates, denies, and guilt trips? Rory, who’s been dating for a while and trying to overcome her fear of sharing her needs … until a friend told her she was overdoing it, and she started second-guessing herself. She wants to know when it’s appropriate to ask someone to meet your needs, and when

In the best of times, it’s hard to tune into your intuition and receive guidance. Fear and uncertainty, whether it’s created by world events or the particulars of your life experience, create a LOT of noise, both internally and externally. And, ironically, it’s exactly when we’re most afraid and unsure that we most need to be able to receive wisdom and inspiration. Last year we started doing “Message from the Universe” episodes to help get us through the pandemic. Though we stopped doing them regularly, we promised they’d be back at random, probably when you most needed a little encouragement — and when do we not need that? So, if you’re having a hard time getting calm, quieting your mind, and tuning in (understandable, if so!), we hope this message will give you an extra boost of guidance today. We pulled 3 cards from The Enchanted Map deck by Colette Baron-Reid. One or all has a message for you — come find out what it is! Click here to see the cards, as well as read the description of each! After you liste

Most of us are pretty good at certain kinds of commitments: We’ll be true to our partners, loving and supportive parents to all types of children (furry or human), dedicated family members, and diligent co-workers and leaders. Buuut then we’ll completely drop the ball when it comes to commitments to ourselves. We get asked a lot, “How can I stay consistent when I commit to something?? It drives me nuts that I say I want to do something, and then can’t make myself keep doing it!” So, in today’s brand-new Side Chat, we’re diving into an easy adjustment you can make that will help you stay a little truer to yourself. We got into… How your efforts to stay consistent are, ironically, probably making it even harder to follow through. How to create a “menu of options” for getting things done that allows you more freedom and flexibility without throwing structure out the window. A few examples of how we’ve been using this new system, personally and with clients, and the positive results we’re seeing! And, completel

Some of the most interesting people I know are the ones who’ve had a winding, twisting, irregular career path — starting out doing one thing, then dabbling in something else, and then taking a massive left turn into a whole new arena. These people have unique perspectives and loads of fascinating stories that never seem to run out. They also tend to have very few regrets because they’ve played out many of their “what if” daydreams in real life. And yet, most people are also terrified to take an unconventional career path that doesn’t follow on the linear “perfect resume” format we’ve all been taught is correct.  So what gives? Why are we so attracted to people with the most interesting (read: nonlinear) paths in life, and yet we feel so resistant to becoming one of them? It all comes down to fear: fear of failure, fear of what people will think, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of disappointment, and on and on. That’s why I’m excited to have Emily Florence on the podcast today. She felt all of tho

Welcome to another episode of Dear Krachel, our monthly advice segment where we answer listener questions about life, career, relationships, existential angst, and anything that helps you become a more whole, fulfilled version of yourself. This month we answered questions from: Unsure Entrepreneur, who started a business last year after dreaming of entrepreneurship for ages … but is now feeling a bit hollow and unfulfilled. They can’t imagine going back to work for someone else, but now this doesn’t feel quite right, either. How can they pinpoint what’s off, and fix it? Sam, a dance teacher with a toxic boss. She desperately wants to quit her job before her contract is up in a few months (and has the panic attacks to prove it), but feels guilty about abandoning her students before the big performance. Should she stick it out, or is it OK to walk away? Ashley, who’s in a happy, healthy, loving relationship … but can’t stop thinking about a toxic ex. What’s up when you know it was right to end a relationship,