make your personal story a profitable brand | i help high-potential women understand & share their stories to effortlessly sell themselves & their work | +15 years building brands for NBA All-Stars, founders, VCs | ADHD

i was broke for 8 years. had my card declined buying medicine for my toddler. lost $80K when my tech startup failed. now...


i help overthinking high-achievers turn their "mess" into money.

because after 11 jobs in 8 industries, i discovered something nobody talks about

your weird career path? 
your brain that won't shut off?
that thing everyone says makes you "too much"?

that's not your weakness. that's your f*cking edge.

listen, most "personal brand experts" want you to pick a lane. follow a formula. sound like everyone else.

meanwhile... 


you can't explain what you do in one sentence.
"just be authentic" makes you think, "but how??"
and you've got 47 drafts in your notes app that you'll never publish.

i get it. because that was me. 

which is my i turned the way i think and work into a methodology that could help more people than just me. 

through StoryEQ™, i help you:
• turn your overthinking into strategic advantage
• build a brand that actually feels like you AND makes money
• stop "performing professionalism" and start being profitable
• decode your story to find what actually makes you different (hint: it's in the mess)

my clients? NBA All-Stars. Olympians. VCs. Artists.

Founders who've raised $30 million.
Artists who sold $300K of art in 72 hours. 
Creators who went from "I can't monetize" to 
"it's hard to express how much opportunity is crossing my desk these days"

they don't hire me because they need confidence.
they hire me because they're sick of being overlooked despite knowing deep down that they have more to offer. 

fair warning(s): 

i swear. a lot.
i'll call out your bullsh*t (lovingly).
i don't do "mindset work" without strategy.
and if you're afraid of Queer people? we're not a fit.

—

don't believe me, believe them:

"I built a multi-million dollar company in 18 months. If i'd had StoryEQ™ early on, we could have done it in 9. It's so powerful I license the methodology." 
— Amanda Northcutt, Founder + CEO @ Level Up Creators

"StoryEQ™ is better than DISC or StrengthsFinder. What kristina's doing is so impactful — it's a gift, and it's going to save lives." 
— Jon Giganti, USA Today Bestselling Author

—

follow me for how to 

- turn your weird into wealth
- finally put words to why your valuable + different

kristina flynn

last year someone said to me, "oh, you're a teacher!" my response: ummm, not even f*cking close. 


here’s why:


in my first week of high school i was overwhelmed by students coming up to me saying:

"YOU'RE Mrs. Flynn's daughter?!" 
"omg, your Mom was my favourite teacher" 
"i don't think you get it…your Mom changed my life"

she taught kindie for over 20 years. her second career. and she was "THAT TEACHER" for so many of my friends and peers.

you know that teacher. 

the one who saw you like no one else could 
the one who knew exactly what you needed 
the one that made you a better student AND person
(mine were Ms. Martin and Ms. Vanderkoy)

teaching wasn't  job, it was her calling.

those kids were HER kids. and she treated all of them the same she treated us 3 girls at home.

she doted over kiddos having tough times 
she cried for the ones not getting what they needed at home 
she agonized over her classroom - every step, every turn, was intentional

as a kid i had sleeping problems

no matter what time i woke, i knew i would find my Mom up - in between loads of laundry - prepping her lessons for the next day

THAT is a teacher in my mind

—

so when that person used "teacher", i had a visceral reaction

but you educate people? 
you teach people what you know? 
you run workshops for f*cks sake?!

it's true. so why was i so anti?

i reflected, 
then realized something...

these titles. the associations we have with them. are holding us back.

Artist.
Writer.
Coach.
Creator.
Teacher.

i've fought claiming these titles.

because to me they are EARNED, not given.

the artist grinding for 20 years 
the writer with books on shelves 
the coach with accreditations on every wall 

and the teacher painstakingly creating lesson plans at 1 am

but my obsession with needing to have the education, credentials, and years of commitment to embrace these titles?

it’s hurting me. and it’s hurting you.

times have changed. 
what was, isn't what is.

we're making money on the internet, damnit

so, if you're doing work to help people

own the thing that helps those people find you - the thing that helps them understand what you do. 

here, i'll go first:

i'm an artist who never went to art school 
i'm a writer owning #overthinkinginpublic
i'm a coach helping overthinking high-achievers
i'm a creator building a business AND becoming someone

and i'm a TEACHER hosting my first workshop of 2026 next Tuesday, January 13th at 10 am et.

(it’s for Ask A Chief Of Staff - a paid community run by the unreal Clara Ma…but  25 of you can attend for free using KRISTINA100. link to in the comments!)


real talk 💬 do you struggle to claim titles without credentials?

—

hey hey, i'm kristina with a 'k' and i help overthinking high-achievers turn their wild careers and stories into personal brands (that feel like them and make sh*ttons of money).

if you dig this (and aren't afraid of Queer people):

follow me here: kristina flynn

you can’t see your value. i fix that | 18 yrs w/ NBA All-Stars, Olympians + VCs | founder, StoryEQ™ - helping overthinkers turn wild careers + stories into brands that feel like you + make sh*t-tons of money | ADHD

my therapist says i need "consistency." so here are my 12,000 thoughts from this morning (pt.10)

(welcome to #overthinkinginpublic your weekly dose of sh*t few care about and literally no one asked for)


• is it time to forgive Ellen yet?

• “keep the change…ya filthy animal”

• moms be like…i can’t stand filth. then use a 7 year old mascara

• how is there no dishwasher option between “express” and 7 hours

• having children means never taking for granted a roll of paper towel 

• pretty proud of myself for never saying “patience is a virtue” to my kids 

• i’m not sure if this trend toward “fancy” laundry rooms is something we need to embrace

• 20 yo me: my back hurts | 42 yo me: i’m experiencing chronic pain in the mid-thoracic. around C5-C-7

• sure, you can call “Kris” instead of kristina…as long as you’re cool with me never speaking to you again

• if i stopped any TedX speaker randomly and asked them to recite their talk - could they do it word for word?


real talk 💬 well...IS IT TIME TO FORGIVE ELLEN??

—

hey hey, i'm kristina with a 'k' and i help overthinking high-achievers turn their wild careers and stories into personal brands (that feel like them and make sh*ttons of money).

if you dig this (and aren't afraid of Queer people):

follow me here: kristina flynn

your content doesn't "feel" like you because you don't know who the f*ck "you" are.


why is that?

because you've been "performing professionalism" for so long, you forgot who you were (before corporate told you who to be).

the talk. the dress. the acronyms.

all of it is calculated, 
and on purpose.

because business runs best in a culture of sameness. 

so they strip you of your individuality
to make sure you stay in line. 

and after doing that for decades, 
of course you don't know who you are anymore. 

the good news? it's not your fault.

but it is your choice on what step you wanna take next. 

—

last week i met with a badass woman.

her resume was 1000x more impressive than mine.
decades at some of the world's biggest tech companies.

she explained what she did in her previous roles and when i asked, "what makes you great at that work?"

i got a typical corporate response.

politely, i interrupted: "can you try that again but this time just talk to me simply... no corporate talk."

her response stopped being robotic.
and became human.

THAT person - the one underneath the professional performance - is who her audience needs to meet.

—

and you're no different. 

you're on LinkedIn
trying to "build a brand" like they said
(silently dying inside from the ick of it all)

and no matter what you do, writing content feels impossible. 

because you've seen too much to 
buy into that corporate bullsh*t anymore.

but you don't know how to be anyone other than that person they trained you to be. 

the "professional" you.
the palatable you.
the polished you.

the one who fit.

—

i spent decades in this trap.

NBA. tech startups. $100M projects.
always performing the "professional" version of me.

how i finally figured out who tf i was?

i stopped looking for the right framework.
and started looking for the person i'd buried.

the weird one.
the "too much" one.
the one they tried to fix.

that's who my audience needed. 
and that's who your audience needs too. 

okay?


real talk 💬 what's your most hated corporate word? mine is ASAP. if you tell me to do something ASAP, i immediately want to do it never. 

—

hey hey, i'm kristina with a 'k' and i help overthinking high-achievers turn their wild careers and stories into a personal brand (that feels like them and makes sh*ittons of money).

if you liked this (and don't hate Queer people):

follow me here: kristina flynn

undefined undefined

my business coach asked me what i actually wanted. i couldn't answer.



she's not the first one to ask either.

9 years as an entrepreneur. tons of coaches and mentors along the way.

inevitably, this question always comes up.

and until the end of 2025?
i never had an answer.

because i wasn't choosing anything. i was just reacting.

react to the kids.
react to the news.
react to the clients.

i called it "busy,"“grinding", “livin the dream”

but it all meant the same sh*t

i was letting old stories run my life.

the ones that said i wasn't enough.
the ones that said i needed to prove something.
the ones that said if i just worked harder, i'd finally feel okay.

when you’re in that space you’re not thinking about what you want. 

you’re surviving. 

reacting to everything.
controlling nothing that actually mattered.
wondering why i felt so fucking exhausted all the time.

hot tip: control is a lie we tell ourselves.

you can't control outcomes, other people, what happens next.

but you CAN choose.

choose how you respond instead of react.
choose whether old stories keep running your life - or you start writing new ones.
choose what you actually f*cking want, 
and build the life and business that supports it.

my word for 2026? CHOOSE.

not control. choose.

because i have that right and it’s about time i owned it. actually. 

real talk 💬 you got a 2026 word? 

(I know some people find it cheese but for an ADHD brain I think it’s the easiest 2026 planning you could do!)


—


hey hey, i'm kristina with a 'k' and i help overthinking high-achievers turn their personal stories into personal brands (that feel like them and make shittons of money).

if you dig this (and aren't afraid of Queer people)

follow me here: kristina flynn

my therapist says i need "consistency." so here are my 12,000 thoughts from this morning (pt.11)


(welcome to #overthinkinginpublic - your weekly dose of sh*t few people care about and literally no one asked for)

• how is high-noon different than noon?
• i miss simpler times…when i didn’t worry about my carbon footprint
• i’m 42 and sometimes still drink a redbull…without vodka. come at me
• the ballet movie, Center Stage is theatrical genius…i will die on this hill
• 🎵 iiiiiiiiiii / want to sing from the chande-lier / from the chande-lier-ier🎵
• i spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about the Age of Adeline movie
• i’m consistently in awe of people who wake immediately to the sound of their alarm
• whatever happened to Neighbourhood Watch? did the Karen’s orchestrate a formal coup?
• why don’t more creators do brand deals for everyday shit? like toilet paper or electrical companies
• you’re not asking “what do you do?” because you’re interested. we both know it’s a veiled attempt to status check me

real talk 💬 what’s a bevie you still consume with quiet shame?

—

hey hey, i'm kristina with a 'k' and i help overthinking high-achievers turn their wild careers and stories into personal brands (that feel like them and make sh*ttons of money).

if you dig this (and aren't afraid of Queer people):
follow me here: kristina flynn

disappeared.



i'd built what i thought was "the dream":

+16K followers
big name clients
a respected agency
event + speaking invites
daily growth, impressions, engagement tracking

i finally did what i'd tried to do so many times before.

i assumed, "it's only up from here."

and then, what felt literally overnight, it all went away.

• Elon buys Twitter - none of those followers are seeing my posts
• Web3 market crashes (personal and professional assets worthless)
• client budgets dry up, one even stiffs me $20K

one of the biggest f*ck ups?

i hadn't built an email list.

this "personal brand" was zero bit personal.

i'd built on a platform i didn't control, around a market i didn't control.

hell, i barely even showed my face. rocked a "PFP" (avatar) instead.

—

when i stopped being fetal position, fulling clothed in the shower, i reflected on how i'd do it differently.

for one, i'd stop tracking vanity metrics and start tracking value metrics:

instead of impressions → real comments (are they engaging?)
instead of follower count → DM connections (any direct conversations?)
instead of engagement rate → cross-platform follows (do they follow you elsewhere?)
instead of reach → newsletter subscribers (did they opt in?)
instead of likes → purchases + feedback (are they buying? what do they say?)

—

since making that shift:

started my first solo company
had my first 6-figure year
gave my first keynote to 100 people
started licensing my StoryEQ process
quieted my horrendously mean inner voice

and began to create a new character trait: self-trust.

—

the signals that matter won't show up in your analytics tab. i promise. 

they show up in the comments that say "i feel seen."
the DMs thanking you for sharing what others won't.
the connection requests from people who want to learn from you.

so what if, this year, you think about this thing a little differently. 

you're not just building something. 
you're becoming someone.

and that someone is who the world desperately needs right now. 


real talk 💬 did you ever buy an NFT? if so, what was your first?


—

hey hey, i'm kristina with a 'k' and i help overthinking high-achievers turn their wild careers and stories into personal brands that feel like them and make sh*ttons of money.

if you liked this (and don't hate Queer people):

follow me here: kristina flynn

No alternative text description for this image

Positioning the Exceptional. Build your post-exit venture in public ✍🏼 Ghostwriter + Strategist.

If you want to :

- Sell your B2B services through Linkedin that CFOs beg to buy
- Close $1M in deals (minimum) without building a personal brand
- Cash in on sales through LinkedIn everytime you post  
- Outsmart every competitor in your market

DM me "window" for early access to my private program



Stéphanie Lauer

I hate sales calls, so I stopped doing them. And it’s how I’m going to make 7 figures. 

Instead, I mastered inbound, writing with enough sauce that buyers show up ready to buy, and I close deals in messages without having to persuade them.

I’ve noticed most of my sales come through emails anyway.

Mostly because I usually already know why someone is here before they even open their mouth.

Like, you come in and tell me you crossed $10M. I believe that.

What I’m actually listening for is:

The demand you’re currently generating through ads is slowly eating at you, micromanaging your team, you’re clearly fed up managing shitty buyers and spending way too much time dealing with people who question everything in your process.  

Because that’s the problem.

UR GETTING DEMAND BUT IT SUCKS.

And you don’t fix that on sales calls.

You don’t fix that by explaining more.

You fix it by writing to people who are already in crisis, loaded pockets who already know something’s off and are actively looking for someone who can handle it for them. 

Those people want your rules.

They want someone to say:

this is how it works

this is the plan

this is the price

And they relax when they hear that.

They bend because they’re relieved someone finally has structure.

This is why vague content kills sales.

You can shock people with your hooks and have DMs full of “this is so true.”

And still sell nothing.

Because none of that answers the only thing that matters at this level:

Can you actually deal with my problem?

Your writing has to do one thing.

It has to make it obvious that you know exactly what’s happening in their business - and that you know what to do about it.

When that’s clear, you assume the money is already in your account. That’s it.

That’s how inbound works.

A lot of people don’t have their best year yet because they keep doing shit they hate. 

People say “just do it consistently.”

But if you hate it - like really hate it - you’re already losing.

And that’s why you continue to attract buyers you hate -  and continue to choose them.

A lot of ceos tell me they hate them too, but its whats “required of them“ - thats to vet their buyers. My thought is this: You have sales people to take care of it. If you‘re still doing them U NEED TO UNDERSTAND your buyers better. And to climb to $30M you need to attract better buyers. 

I‘ll leave you with that.

I partner with founders (at $5M–$30M) so their buyers say yes to 1M+ deals. Subscribe below:

I’m going to tell you a slightly evil plan for getting a manufacturing group $1M+ clients/ per quarter on LinkedIn. An honest breakdown:

In the beginning, we pulled in the WRONG clients. Pre-seed inventors with no VC money. We were talking about products and it attracted people who had no funding behind their name.

So we stopped talking about products and started talking about the moment where everything can go wrong in hardware.
Pre-production. The moment of hell.

The moment where money has already been committed, timelines are fragile, one mistake can cost six figures, and nobody inside the company wants to be the person responsible if it fails.

Almost no business actually knows their buyer’s crisis moment.

They’ll say shit like:
“We help companies build products”
“We do end-to-end manufacturing”
“We scale businesses”

That’s really useless.

This is the question I use to vet every inbound in 2025:

“What is the exact moment your buyer panics internally?”

Why i’m punitively precise on that angle:

Every deal has multiple trust battles:

- Do they trust you
- Do they trust your mechanism / method
- Do they believe the mechanism works for their situation
- Do they trust you to execute it 
- Do they believe it delivers the result

We rode that angle relentlessly. Even if it got boring.

Now that manufacturer is closing $1.2M clients/ per quarter on Linkedin. 

This is where a real positioning strategist matters.
Someone who understands LinkedIn well enough to wear the angle out properly.

And moving into 2026 I’m adding a new layer to our strategy:

We’re launching our own products as a group and showing every real manufacturing decision in public, so when buyers hit the moment they’re scared to decide, the trust is already pre-sold.

That is doing two things:

1. Pulling in bigger buyers
2. It opens doors to media that has nothing to do with LinkedIn.

You could absolutely run this yourself if you’re a manufacturer.

Or you partner with someone who’s already burned the cycles figuring it out.

That’s what we do here.

I control demand for a few manufactuers and across all of them, I’ve noticed the same thing: TAKE NOTES. 

The moment they own a mechanism - and we push that mechanism everywhere - buyers handle their own objections at every stage of the sale.

We’ve done this through lead magnets and through long-form breakdowns.

But the real shift happened when we pushed the mechanism hard on LinkedIn and made all of their marketing about how the work actually gets done.

There’s this idea floating around that “buyers don’t care about your method.”

That’s bullshit - at least for this class of buyer.

There is a massive difference between:

- someone buying a $3K SaaS tool
- and a buyer about to risk six or seven figures on a manufacturing decision

Those buyers want to see how the machine works.

Here’s what’s actually happening under the hood with every serious prospect:

You have multiple battles to win - in order.

1. Do they trust you?
2. Do they trust your mechanism?
3. Do they believe the mechanism works for their situation?
4. Do they trust you to execute it under pressure?
5. Do they believe it reliably delivers the result?

We let assets do the heavy lifting before the conversation even starts.

This is how.

We take their real process and put it under a microscope.

1. We break the process into distinct stages
2. We give each stage a specific name
3. We wrap it in technology or systems that are built in-house 
4. We explain exactly how each stage works
5. We show how each stage connects to the next
6. We lead everything to a clear end result

Now something important happens.

Instead of being skeptical of the entire process, prospects can be skeptical about one stage at a time.

That’s good.

Because each stage now has its own focused asset that goes deep on that specific risk, that specific decision, that specific concern.

So objections stop being emotional and vague:

“I’m not sure this will work…”

And become precise and solvable:

“What happens at Stage 3 when copycat manufacturers in China replicate your design at half the price - and how do you prevent it?"

That’s when deals move.

Prospects want to see the machinery exposed.

Prospects want to see you naked - operationally.

And 2026 is going to reward exactly that.

Hyper-specific mechanisms.

Because it removes uncertainty before they ever have to ask for reassurance.

CLOCKED IT????

That’s how manufacturers sell faster, with less convincing, and bigger mandates.

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The Battle

kristina flynn

Stéphanie Lauer

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