Sara Schulting Kranz: beyond my rock bottom, okay? Like Erica, it was, There were moments where I thought that I was just gonna slam my car into the overpass and take my life. It was bad. there was something in that moment that shifted everything inside of me where it was, I am a victim to everything that is happening to I am going to thrive on the other side of this. I learned how to spend nights out in the wilderness, and I got addicted. Now, this is the girl that wouldn't pee outside for the life of me.

Erica Rooney: by the way, I never thought having someone's hand up inside my jaw would feel relaxing, but it actually really does.

Erica Rooney: Welcome to Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, the podcast where we stop playing small, start calling things out, and actually do something about it. I'm your host, Erica Rooney, executive coach, speaker, and a little bit of a movement maker, and I'm on a mission to get more women into positions of power and keep them there.

Erica Rooney: All right, y'all. What in the world are you supposed to do when the life that you have worked so hard for and the life that you have just always imagined collapses underneath you? And it's not because you failed, but it's because the ground shifted in a way that you could just never imagine coming. When the betrayal is personal and the divorce is unexpected, and suddenly you are a single mom with no solid foundation and no clear path forward, oh my gosh, y'all, most of us would call that rock bottom. But today, y'all, we have my girl, my friend, Sara Shelton Kranz, and she calls it a beginning, which y'all, let us be schooled today because I'm gonna need all the help getting on board with that. But Sara is a best-selling author. She's a keynote speaker. She's a certified executive coach and elite adventurer who has spent 32 years building a five-stage framework for navigating change, and she has used every single one of those stages herself. She's coached Fortune 500 executives and professional athletes. She's guided the USC men's water polo team through the freaking Grand Canyon, y'all, and she has led a blind female para athlete rim to rim in 24 hours. Her book is called Walk Through This, and her tagline is, “The way out is forward.” And y'all, today she is gonna bring all of that here. Welcome to the Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floor Podcast, Sara. How are you?

Sara Schulting Kranz: I'm fantastic. Thank you for having me on. Every time I hear that, I'm like, “Wow, it's been quite the journey.”

Erica Rooney: Girl, you done some crazy sh*t in your life. That is for sure. But let's start with that, right? you have one of the most striking origin stories I've ever heard. From betrayal trauma, unexpected divorce, single mom, no career foundation, starting over at 40. Most people would probably just say, “You know what? Take me now. Put me in my grave. Call it a day.” What made you decide to keep going, to walk through it instead of just around it?

Sara Schulting Kranz: it, everybody that says you starting again or starting, over, I like to say starting again. it's just you're starting from the place of the foundation where everything had happened. And for me, it was looking at my journey and seeing I had three boys that I had to live for, not just for myself. Point blank. I, everything I do, it's, for myself obviously, right? To move forward in my life, and then also it's because I wanna be the mentor for them. And I have three incredible young men in my life. they're not even young men now. They're kinda like men, right? So that's really what prompted me to take these steps and to look at myself in the mirror and say, “You're gonna get through this. I don't really know how. I don't know when. You're gonna get through this.”

Erica Rooney: Yeah. I do think motherhood is a huge factor when it comes to how am I gonna handle this situation? Because you're always thinking, how would I want my daughter to handle this situation?“ Or, ”How would I want my son to handle this situation?“ Because they're learning from watching me. So that absolutely resonates. But I wanna know, that was a lot of trauma all at once, and at what point did you just realize that it wasn't gonna break you, but that it was really going to be that next beginning?

Sara Schulting Kranz: So it was Labor Day weekend of 2014. It's a story that I

Erica Rooney: got the day. She's like, boom, Labor Day weekend

Sara Schulting Kranz: I tell this story in, my keynote because it's such a resonating story. It's such a, it's such a influential moment in my life, and I know we've all had them. So Labor Day weekend 2014, I was, beyond my rock bottom, okay? Like Erica, it was, There were moments where I thought that I was just gonna slam my car into the overpass and take my life. It was bad. I couldn't eat. I if I ate an apple a day, I was doing well. My, I was ruminating on problems that I just could not find answers to. I couldn't figure out, how did my life come to this? I went from being a successful teacher who gave up her career to move across the country to be with my husband, and now that very man that I trusted and loved so deeply had completely betrayed me, betrayed my sons, betrayed my community, my family, his family. But it wasn't just, it wasn't just betrayal in terms of... And I don't want to say just. It was multiple betrayals, all right? So it was physical betrayal, it was, emotional betrayal. There were drugs, alcohol, sex addiction. there was all sorts of stuff. So everything that I thought to be true, I found out was not. The only thing that I knew is that I could come back to myself and figure out who I was, because I had lost who I was through this entire journey, right? I also knew that there was a way forward in that way. So Labor Day weekend 2014, after ruminating for an entire year on this, my friends took me to Sequoia National Park. I'm hiking up the side of this mountain at Sequoia National Park, and unbeknownst to me, one of my friends, Steve, kept putting rocks in my pack to slow me down, mind you, because apparently I was a fast hiker back then. And the entire way, I was like, I was un- I, We would stop for lunch, we would stop for a break, and I would open up my pack and reach in for what I thought would be like a snack, a lunch, something like that, and I would pull out a rock. So this happened two, three, four times, right? That we're climbing the mountain, and I kept opening up my pack and I'm like, “Where's my snack?” I'm pulling out rocks instead. And then I saw this path off of the side of the trail that we were on, and I told my friends at that point, “I want to see what's over there,” because I also, at the same I'm a very curious human being. And so I walked over to the edge of this path, and at the end of the path was this huge outcropping of rock. And I saw this outcropping of rock and I thought, “I want to climb on top,” me being curious, and see what's over this outcropping of rock. And I looked out into this incredible valley below, and I felt completely disconnected from the problems that I had been carrying for an entire year. There was something in that moment that shifted everything inside of me where it was, I am a victim to everything that is happening to I am going to thrive on the other side of this. Everything that has happened is not a part of me, right? It's, there, but I am so much more than that. And so it was at that moment that I had this realization, I'm getting divorced at that point. it had been a year of constant anxiety and ruminating and losing, sight of what was possible. And at that moment, it was literally like, I'm, I'm gonna make it through this. And not only am I gonna make it through this, but, there's something so much greater on the other side of what I am walking through right now. I didn't know what it was. I had no idea what it was. I also knew at that moment that I had something special and I needed to work with it, right? And at that moment, I knew, I'm like, all those problems that had been placed in my pack weren't mine, just like the rocks, right? Steve had been placing these rocks in my pack. It was heavy. The last year had been heavy, and it was my time to take all of that out and to set it down and to figure out what was next. So I did, and I decided to start a business and, I started guiding people through retreats through the Grand Canyon. Back then, it was more healing retreats. They've since then really shifted into leadership, resilience, working through your change using the five stages that I have developed, and it's been a blast. But we all have that moment, right? we all have that moment of, “Okay, what's next?” It's just, I think a lot of times we turn our back to it, or we choose to not see it, and or it's it's like you need a louder signier sign in order to actually prove that this is the way to go, and you don't. we all have those moments that are really speaking to us. We have to listen

Erica Rooney: Yes. Yes. I think it's so huge, too, to often remember when you are in the moments of good, and you're having those hard times that, this is what I've always dreamed of. This is what I hoped for one day, right? So if I'm, like, really pissed at my husband or my kids are driving me nuts and I just want a moment alone, I really try to center myself and remember that I do have a great life, and, 20 years ago, this is what I was dreaming of at night. And so I think that helps. But I wanna talk first about when you got up on that rock and you saw what was on the other side, you said, “I just knew.” And I want you to describe, like, how did that feel? Because I think we get stuck in this, like, when and if you've never known, you're like, “What the hell does that even mean?” And so I wanna hear from you, what did that feel like?

Sara Schulting Kranz: I felt like this itty-bitty little human being in the vastness of this world. It's when you look up into the universe and you think, “Oh my God, that is so vast.” It takes every little shining bright star to create that universe, right? And, when I started this work back in, it would be 2015, I was not, a big climber or anything. I wasn't one of those people... I love to hike, I love spending time outdoors, but it was this realization in that moment that there is so much more out there for us than what we realize, and we are in charge of putting ourself into the places and the spaces in order to also find what it is that we're supposed to be doing here, right? The only thing that I can explain is that it was, like, the biggest feeling of peace, of realization, of clarity, of awe, of wonder, infinite love. I don't know what else to say. It was like infinite love of just we all have troubles in our life. We go through hard times. I work with businesses where there's, there's... You look at the teams, and they're all, there's, all these conflicting emotions and, these, mental, blocks or these, barricades that keep happening. We all have it, if it's in our work, if it's in our personal life. But there's also this space where we can find this ultimate clarity when we slow down and we realize, there's this present moment, right? There's right now, and that's where we're gonna find our answers.

Erica Rooney: Yes. I love that. I would agree. I think when I was leaving corporate, I had thought about it for so long, and I'd planned it for so long, but it never felt like the right time. I get asked all the time, “How did you know it was the right time to leave?” And that's where I'm always like, when But to your point, it was this feeling of such certainty deep in my soul that even though I had no clue what was gonna be after that, I knew it was the right decision for me. And I think with you standing on this rock knowing, it's that same inner knowing, that same trusting of the universe, trusting of your intuition. And so I would just encourage anyone who's listening that, don't force the thing, right? Like, when you will know, you will feel that peace, you will feel that certainty, and you won't necessarily have all the steps mapped out, but you will have that inner peace, and I think that is such a beautiful way to put it. But I wanna hear about this five-stage framework for navigating change because that is what we're here to learn about and talk about today. And I want you to make it as real as you can for all these women who are listening who is, right in the thick of it. Maybe they're like, I'm just about to go lay down in my grave 'cause all this is happening.“ So talk me through it.

Sara Schulting Kranz: So I created this framework when I was leading executives, and I led the University of Southern California men's water polo team, like you mentioned. I've led a the female blind Paralympian twice. and I created this framework based off of the fact that

Sara Schulting Kranz: when we are going through change, it's not like we climb the mountain and we achieve success. Think of any change that you've gone through. You gotta go into the depth in order to rise, right? So you descend into the uncertainty, you descend into the resistance before you actually ascend in your success, okay? So there's stage one. I'm gonna give you, the 30,000-foot view here. Stage one is where you are approaching the change. It's like approaching the Grand Canyon. I gotta tell you, I could I could tell you stories where people are approaching it, and they're like, “I'm afraid. I'm, I don't think I can do this. I get to the rim, and I look over, and I'm afraid of heights,” or all of that, just what's gonna happen next. So in stage one, when you're approaching anything, you're gonna feel your biggest resistance, okay? So if, it's resistance to the difficult things that come with change, and perhaps you're also going to be resisting the success that comes with change. Okay. 'Cause a lot of times what we fear is our greatest success.

Sara Schulting Kranz: And I know because that was me at one point too. Once you realize you've got this, you feel a little bit more comfortable about it, you, in stage one, need to be courageous and take the first step towards the rim, right? 'Cause we know it's our courage that actually develops our confidence. So once you start taking those steps, those courageous steps forward, you're now at the rim, okay? Stage two is where you're descending into the change. So imagine you're climbing down into the Grand Canyon. It's usually about a mile and a half into the Grand Canyon where I'll have at least one person in my group say to me, “I wanna go back up.”

Erica Rooney: Yeah, I can't do this.

Sara Schulting Kranz: I can't do this. The old way is fine. The old way is fine. I knew how to, I knew how to struggle, right? I knew how to be on the rim and struggle. But to actually think about how am I gonna descend into the change and take this on and be successful through it can be very, scary for some people. So typically in stage two of the change, when you are descending in, you feel like you're free falling. Everything is out of out of our control, okay? That's also in stage two where

Sara Schulting Kranz: you will find that blame starts to happen. And blame, for example, in my situation when I'm guiding people, comes back to me, like it's now my fault for taking people in and for not letting them go back up. And the reason why people blame is because it's a type of control in their eyes, okay? So they blame in order to feel like, “Okay, I can get some sort of control back in my life, so I'm gonna point the finger instead of taking responsibility and accountability and ownership.”

Sara Schulting Kranz: So stage two is where I start to tell people, “You gotta take ownership.” Go ahead. What's

Erica Rooney: I'm like, I got a question. So blame, we're talking about it as a sense of control, which I totally get, and I see... Is it also blaming other people and blaming ourself? Because I could imagine I'm blaming like, “I should have known better. I should have planned better. I should have seen the signs.” is it both?

Sara Schulting Kranz: It can definitely be both. It can definitely be both. In this type of change where for me it's taking teams through, right? For example, if there's businesses that are acquired, right? And they're coming together and they're having to redo, reorganize and everything, there will typically be more pointing outward than there will anything. Like it's everybody else's fault that we gotta go through this, right? Instead of taking ownership from my part of what can I do in the change to make this successful for me and my teams. Make sense? So yes, blame definitely happens both ways though. so that's stage two. Okay? Now To pull it back even further, I just love this work and, going through it. So people are typically led into change by one of three ways. All right? There's persuasion, where people try to persuade people into change. You may have had that happen in your life, I have. There's coercion, where people threaten, where it's, “You do this or else you're gonna get fired, you're gonna XYZ.” Or there's activation, and activation means you lead people into change through behavior. So get the behavior moving, get people going, and typically, when people start getting to move, they're going to actually shift the way that their belief is in the entire, with whatever it is that people are going through. So you need to get people moving. Okay? And this is where, in my keynote, I share a lot of stories of executives where they were standing on the rim and they're just like, “I can't do this,” but then they start moving into it and they're like, “Oh my gosh,” through that stage two, they start to believe in themselves and their ability to actually work through the change, okay? or to develop their leadership and their resilience. So stage three is the bottom. That's the valley floor. We've all been there. We've all been there, and this is typically what I call the transition stage. Okay? So it's where change is no longer happening to us, and it's where we begin developing that true leadership and resilience within ourselves in order to climb out. This is the difference between I'm gonna just go climb a mountain and have success, and I'm gonna actually go through the process and take a look at where is the resistance in me? What am I actually, holding back from in order to get to the bottom and really transition the leadership and the resilience within myself? Okay? And then stage four is ascending out. That's where we are coming out of the canyon. Okay? Ascending out is where we really start to develop our leadership and our resilience because we're now coming together as a team, right? And we are developing the tools needed in order to achieve the success. And then stage five is where we continue the climb. So we've already done this once before, our benchmark's raised, and the next time that we go through change, it's not as difficult. Okay? So that's like the 30,000 foot view without all of the tools within every single stage. It's once you understand and you can look at your change process in a way that works, it becomes so much more clear every single time that you walk through change and you realize, “Oh, this is why I'm showing up in this way. This is why I'm resisting whatever is before me,” right? “This is why I'm struggling and I feel like my entire life is free-falling right now. I don't know what I'm doing,” right? Or, “This is why I'm starting to have success in what I'm doing, because I've worked through stage one, two, three, and now, oh, I'm actually utilizing the tools that I've been taught in order to move forward.”

Erica Rooney: Yeah. That really connects a lot with when I think about imposter syndrome and how I coach women when they're talking about imposter syndrome. They're always like, “This is how I feel, and I've never, I'm never gonna be able to do it.” And it's just

Erica Rooney: once you understand that if you feel imposter syndrome, you're on the edge of growth, you are about to step into that next level you, your brain can kinda switch from “Oh, this is a terrible feeling and a terrible situation,” to, “I'm uncomfortable, but it's really signaling I'm approaching my next level.”

Erica Rooney: And so that's where I'm kinda drawing that through line. I'd love to hear from you in your work, the whole damn canyon, where do people tend to get stuck and ruminate the most?

Sara Schulting Kranz: They will leave typically in stages one, two, and sometimes in stage three. So like for organizations, businesses, anything like that, when people are going through change, like if there's a huge shift, families, for example, right? Think about the families that literally break up. Parents die and they're going through the process of all of the change that happens within the family unit. People will typically leave and just give up in stages one, stage two, and sometimes in stage three because they feel like everything is free falling, right? They're like, “I don't wanna adapt to this, so peace out.” When people leave, it doesn't mean they're not gonna come back again someday. That's the number one most important thing. It just means that they're not ready right now. The other thing that's interesting when you look at organizations that go through change, if you think about like a leadership team, right? They put together this great leadership team and then they're, putting together like the, the future vision, right? They have all these strategies that they're starting to put into place. So a leadership team will usually be in stage four, starting stage four when they announce it to everyone else. then everyone else is in stage one hearing it for the first time. And the leadership team is like, “Okay, wait, but like we're excited to move forward. We got all this going, like this is exciting. Why aren't they where we are?” And it's like, okay, wait, you're not where... everybody else isn't where you are because you they're just hearing it for the first time. And how many times does that even happen in families? So this whole framework works across the board just in different ways.

Erica Rooney: Absolutely. I'm so glad you pointed that out because that really draws me. I'm doing all this work in AI right now, and I think it's so important for like HR people to be involved because it's this entire change management process. But I think one of those key things is sitting down with the leaders and the executives before you roll this sh*t out to say, “Hey, look, y'all have been thinking about this for a long ass time. Your people have not been, and so they don't know how your decision-making got them to this point, but they're freaking out.” And so I absolutely see those lines.

Sara Schulting Kranz: especially with AI, like not to interrupt, but especially with AI, let's talk about how every time we turn around there's something new, right? and so people can't get caught up. That's why they're so exhausted, And then you have all these teams that are like, “We're gonna implement it this way and we're gonna do it that way.” And it's wait a second. You have people that are still freaking out over what this actually means for them. So calm the roll just a touch and figure out how are people even feeling about this before you just implement it

Erica Rooney: A lot of them are scared.

Sara Schulting Kranz: A lot of them are scared

Erica Rooney: fearful. A lot of them are disinterested, right? It doesn't matter, but you've got to get people on board, and you can't just jump to stage four for someone who's never been through one through three, and I think that's a big miss for a lot of leaders today. One thing I wanted to ask you that I've been thinking about, and it kind of mirrors a lot of my experience, is that women are just expected to be the steady ones, the ones who can hold it all together, who can move through change, be empathetic and all of that. But that's not always reality, right? And when we're going through it, we are going through it. How does that concept of women and the expectation for them to be the steady one, how does that impact their ability to move through change? And I'll give you a little bit of context, and I think the way I'm thinking through it is like we always have to be positive. We always have to have that right face forward, and let's go, when inside we are crumbling, we are dying, we wanna go lay down in that grave. What i- what should that woman be doing?

Sara Schulting Kranz: Taking care of themself, quite frankly.

Erica Rooney: Yeah.

Sara Schulting Kranz: I can't I can,

Erica Rooney: it's a basic ass answer, girl, but it is like 101, And none of us do it,

Sara Schulting Kranz: stress... I cannot stress this enough. I cannot stress this enough. and I see it with women leaders a lot. a lot. And when people... So when people are starting to 'cause they are, there's like this level of expectation that is put on us that you can just figure this out. There... It was put on me. “You're just gonna figure this out.” And not just, I'm not just saying this by some people. it was put on me by a lot of people. “You're just gonna have to go figure this out.” I'm like, how do you figure this out when, there's... it's just traumatizing, right?“ And I gave up my entire career, and it's now what? I'm across the country away from my family. let's pull it back really quick, too.

Sara Schulting Kranz: When people are going through change, there's three different types, okay, of people that step in. So there is the wait and seer. They're gonna wait and see what happens to other people first before they step in. There's the resistor, the complete resistor to everything, and those people are really difficult to get to move. And then there are the people that are the let's go. I have found that people tend to assume, they make this assumption that a lot of women are just let's goers, like they're just gonna just figure it out. The best thing that I can say to women is take care of yourself. You cannot take care of other people if you're also not gonna fill your cup. We've heard it over and over again. Boundaries are key because people will and the person that needs to also take care of yourself is you.

Sara Schulting Kranz: That's why for me, what I have found is, I've got a lot of women leaders that will be like, “Yes, I'm gonna do this. Yes, I'm gonna do this. Yes, I'm gonna do this.” And then they get to the edge, and they don't. And they're like, you know what? I'll do it tomorrow because I've got XYZ to take care of today.“ And if you keep pushing off tomorrow what is should happen today, when is it ever gonna happen? When are you gonna take care of You And so it can be very scary to put yourself first. It can be very scary to take that courageous step in and to do the thing that's for you, and I promise you that people will benefit so much more from who you are by taking care of yourself first, and that's modeling behavior. So to me, like women that take care of themself, I look at them as the greatest leaders.

Erica Rooney: I love that because as someone who's always been super ambitious, who never wants to say no, who always wants to meet all of her deliverables, not just on time, but ahead of time. even recently, I found myself just waking up earlier, trying to tackle my emails first, trying to get more sh*t done because, things are going really well, and so that means I am very busy. It is a great problem to have. But then I started noticing that my jaw was, like, really achy and really just, I was, like, rubbing it, and it was like I could not let it relax and release. And I was like, “Damn, girl, what is going on?” So then you know me, I gotta go chat with my, chief of staff, Claudette, AI LLM, and I'm like, “Okay, talk to me. My jaw is hurting. I know I grind my teeth at night, but, this is next level. I know I need to think about my nervous system, all these things. talk me through this.” And basically, my AI was like, “Girl, you are not giving yourself a moment to reset. you are waking up and you are opening up your laptop, and then you're context switching between all your things, and then you're turning on mom mode, and then you're just cooking dinner, going to bed and waking up and laptoping it again.” And it said, “There is not even 10 minutes in there for you to just sit and enjoy something, whether that's a book or anything to calm you down.” And I thought, “Oh That's, it was a very uncomfortable feeling. And so I went and I got myself a little TMJ massage, which by the way, I never thought having someone's hand up inside my jaw would feel relaxing, but it actually really does. So side note there. But I started taking 15 minutes in the morning when I woke up to just sit outside on my porch. It's dark, it's quiet, no one's around. I either read a book or I do some light yoga stretching, like it's nothing crazy. And I get through that, and then I start. And the old Erica, which still lives inside me, which is why this just happened like two weeks ago, okay? The old Erica would've been like, ”No, we can't waste any time. We gotta go, But literally my AI was like, “You are working at half capacity. So this is why it's taking you longer to do everything, Erica. You're messing things up and you're inadvertently you're sloppy because you're dead. Like your brain is done.”

Sara Schulting Kranz: That's

Erica Rooney: And so just to boost what you're saying is taking that time out of your day to make sure that you are your best is probably the most important thing that you can do. But what do you do to take care of yourself, Sara? Like what's your reset?

Sara Schulting Kranz: So I live my life very differently than most people,

Erica Rooney: Girl, I know. I be

Sara Schulting Kranz: damn proud of

Erica Rooney: out there on a damn paddleboard in the middle of the ocean

Sara Schulting Kranz: so here's what I did. So back in 2017, I learned how to spend nights out in the wilderness, and I got addicted. Now, this is the girl that wouldn't pee outside for the life of me. And not, not for an extended time, seriously. I was like, “No way.” And so I fell in love with it. And so now every year since 2017, I have spent at l- a minimum of seven nights in a row out in the backcountry alone, without my phone, completely disconnected. In 2020, I hiked the John Muir Trail for 22 days. That led me into waypointing in the top peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and so I've done everything from 10 to 14 days, climbing through the top peaks of the Sierras without any trail. you're literally waypointing from pass to pass, hanging on the side of cliffs and crawling your way back out, and it was... It's been amazing. I get out there, and I do the hard, and

Sara Schulting Kranz: every time I do the hard, it gives me permission to do the other hard. I didn't own a house. I sold my house and 95, 98% of my stuff back in 2017, when I was going through my divorce. I thought that was gonna be for, a year, and then I'd purchase something, and I never did. I literally went from 4,200 square feet to 800 square feet with my kids, and I found it to be extremely freeing. It wasn't necessarily because I needed to. There was... Yes, I needed to, but there was also this, pull to simplify my life because I think that we live in a very materialistic world. myself at one time as well, where I was like, “Okay, I have all this sh*t, but what do I do with it?” “What do I do with all this stuff?” And so I just really started leading a more meaningful life.

Sara Schulting Kranz: And then last year I bought a boat, and, my boat's up in... I don't own a house, and so I was like, “I wanna buy a boat,” 'cause I don't know anything about boating. Neither does Joe, my fiancé. But that's what we wanted to do. And so now we go up in Anacortes, and we just sleep on our boat around the San Juan Islands when we want to, and we do our thing from there, right? What I do is live in a way, and choose to live in a way, that is the opposite of what I ever thought I would be. And it's a beautiful thing because it's been extremely freeing. I think that the one thing, Erica, that I always sit with is,

Sara Schulting Kranz: my mom was my best friend, and she passed away in 2022, and she and I would talk about regret. And the one thing that I sit with is the, we are all going to land in one place, which is death, period.

Erica Rooney: the

Sara Schulting Kranz: that's just life, right? with life comes death. And when I, having gone through so much pain in my life and also experiencing the ultimate joy, when I take my last breath, I wanna know that I lived it my way.

Sara Schulting Kranz: And I don't want to look back and think, “Okay, I wish I would've done that,” or, “If I wish I would've tried that,” or, And I want people to have that same... I want that same thing for others, which is why I do this work. because we all go through change, and the one thing that we are also gonna go through is death

Erica Rooney: Yeah. that's that's for damn certain, and I tell people all the time, if you're unsure about what you should be doing or whatever, ask yourself, if you were to die next week, what would you regret

Sara Schulting Kranz: What would you, exactly. What would you regret?

Erica Rooney: And is that not going back to school? Is it telling your partner you love them? Is it divorcing your partner? Is it... it could be anything, but I think so many of us sit with that because we think tomorrow is always promised, and we know that's the other thing that's certain. You don't know when that death day is coming, but it's coming for all of us, and so you have to act and live as if it were next week, tomorrow, whatever. All right, girl, last question, best question. If you were to go back in time to the Sara who has just uncovered all of the bullsh*t that you had to uncover, blindsided three kids, peel me off the floor 'cause I can't even lift a finger, what is that one piece of advice you would give that Sara today knowing everything you know now?

Sara Schulting Kranz: the first thing I would do is hug the hell out of her. I don't think I'd say anything. Honestly, I don't think I'd even say anything. I think I would just hug and hold that woman. Sometimes I don't think you need to say anything, it's just being in the presence and holding space and just, being there. I'm a faith-driven person as well, and I swear to God, I have had, angels, whatever you wanna call it, talk to me at various times of my life. And I explained it to my mom once. I said it was almost like I heard God saying to me, “You're gonna be just fine.” And I, and she, and I talked a little bit about that moment, but and what I would do in that moment is speak those words into that girl, into that woman, “You're gonna be just fine.”

Erica Rooney: Oh my gosh, Sara, I love this. If people wanna find you, they wanna grab your book, they wanna learn more about you, what's the best way to connect with you?

Sara Schulting Kranz: You can go to my website, Saraschultinkranz.com, or you can email me, Sara@SaraSchultingKranz.com. And I'm on all the social media. not all. I don't do TikTok and I don't do X. But you can find me on LinkedIn mostly, Instagram and Facebook. yeah, and just message me

Erica Rooney: I love it. thank you so much, Sara. It's been such a pleasure having you on the podcast, as

Sara Schulting Kranz: Thank you.

Erica Rooney: I knew it would be fun. We're good friends. So thank you for being here. Y'all, if you're listening, grab her book. seriously, reading her transformation story and then also just hearing all of these stages of change, it's, gonna stir something up inside of you, especially if you're sitting in that space where, you're wondering if you should make a change or not, or you're on the edge of that canyon looking in. and maybe sign up for one of her things where she actually takes you into the

Sara Schulting Kranz: Yeah

Erica Rooney: But all right, girl, I'll see you next time

Sara Schulting Kranz: Cool. Thank you

Erica Rooney: If this episode resonated with you, don't let it stop here. Send it to a woman you care about, a colleague, a friend, someone who's been on your mind while you were listening. These conversations are meant to be shared, and you never know what one small shift can unlock for someone else. And if you haven't already, make sure that you're following the podcast. Leave a rating and write a quick review. It helps more women find this space, and it keeps these conversations going. If you're ready to go deeper, come a little closer. Send me a DM. I'll invite you to sit in on a live Her Collective session as my personal guest. No pressure, no strings attached, but you get to experience it, feel the room, and see what happens when women start moving together. Until next time, y'all, keep going. Keep choosing differently, and let's smash the ceilings and close the gaps