Ramit Sethi interviews Kris Carr about how she overcame a serious cancer diagnosis and went on to build a major media presence (Crazy Sexy Wellness). In this excerpt they discuss why Kris rarely uses the word 'overwhelmed,' emphasizing her step-by-step mindset, avoiding paralysis, cutting drama, setting clear team expectations, and offering unconditional, nonjudgmental support to readers.
Hey, it's Ramit from Ramit's Brain Trust. I just finished an interview with Kris Carr from Kriscarr.com who's built the massive media empire. Crazy sexy wellness. You know, it's really interesting when you look at someone who's been on the Today show, who's been on Oprah, who has multiple best selling books, it's so easy to say like, there's no way I could do that. And yet today we actually deconstruct her story, find out exactly how she made it from getting diagnosed with a very serious form of cancer to actually affecting millions and millions of her readers. She's done an amazing job and one interesting thing is of all the things she faced, a very serious illness, growing a business, you know, a lot of people who are a little skeptical. She never used the word overwhelm. And I found it fascinating. And in the interview I asked her why. I want you to follow along. You're going to learn all the ways that she really grew as a person, grew her voice and grew her business. This is Kris Carr. Do you ever feel like. I think a common phrase that people use is I feel overwhelmed. But I've never heard you say that. At least today once if you. In fact, I've never heard you say it whenever I've seen you. Do you feel overwhelmed?
No, I don't because I think that we all have time and as a patient, that's the one thing you always hope for. But if you get all caught up in will I die today, will I die tomorrow, will everything blow up tomorrow? You know, how am I going to figure it all out? I have 10 kids and 3 ex husbands and 2 full time jobs and you know what I mean? If you get into that place, it's very hard to move forward because you get into paralysis. And for me, I don't say, well, I only have one year to figure this out and I have to crush it by I have to make this amount by La la la la la. I'm like, no, we're gonna figure this out. Everybody breathe one step at a time. Cut the drama and let's go.
Okay, I love that. How is that received on my team?
You don't stay on my team unless you can handle it.
Okay, what about like from your audience? Like, I can say that to my audience because they're gluttons for my form of punishment, but I don't think I would come to your audience and say like, cut the drama.
Well, I don't say that to my readers. Ah, okay. Much nicer to my readers than I am. No, my team is a family. But they also know what my expectations are. And so they know that I'm not expecting things overnight. But we do have to fix things if something's going on. But for my readers, they know that there's a lot of tough love, there's a lot of humor. But really, what I think I try to do with every post and every book is to make sure that they feel never judged and that my respect and love for them is unconditional. And I share experiences through my own stumbles. I don't say, you need to do this, you need to do that. I go, when I did this, and sometimes we do that. It's always, I'm screwing up all the time. Why should I fix anybody else?
It's super relatable. I mean, everyone can connect with that, and it.
