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This promises to be our spiciest episode yet. EAG Chief Marketing Officer, Jeff Randolph talks with a most energetic Kristen Thomas, founder of Open the Doors Coaching. A trained sex coach, Kristen has 280,000 followers on TikTok.
Listen and learn what Kristen does (and doesn’t do) to help individuals and couples discover themselves and make their lives happier and more fulfilling by improving intimacy in their relationships. [EXPLICIT CONTENT]
Transcript
Jeff Randolph (00:00):
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles Podcast. I am Jeff Randolph. This Small business podcast is brought to you as always by EAG advertising and marketing. We’re going to talk about marketing. We’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs, and we’re going to help you get that marketing news and advice that business owners can use to keep moving forward. Plus that featured interview that we’re talking to today, you’re going to want to tune into this one. It’s Kristen Thomas from Open The Doors Coaching. You may have seen her column in Kansas City’s Pitch Magazine, or you may have heard her podcast. Keep them coming. This one is a must listen, so stick around for that one. Joining me in this segment is Kristen Thomas from Open The Doors Coaching. Welcome, Kristen.
Kristen Thomas (01:01):
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Randolph (01:02):
Absolutely. So a little bit of the origin story here. You were at the KC Chamber Small Business Showcase where we met, and you’ve been a small business superstar. I saw that you were nominated for the Business Pride Awards. Congratulations. Thank you. The KC Chamber Showcase. We’re at Union Station, we’re among endless of just regular run of the mill old businesses, and we thought yes, right there, brave, honest, fun. That looks like somebody we need to have on the podcast. So tell us about the business. How would you describe what you do to other people?
Kristen Thomas (01:37):
So I’m a certified sex coach and clinical sexologist, and that usually makes people’s jaw drop. So I usually simply say after that I help people with their love wives.
Jeff Randolph (01:47):
See, that’s a great, if it were this easy to write taglines, everyone would do it. That’s a great summary. So if we think then about the product that you offer, you have a lot of different kinds of products because you’ve got workshops and destination workshops, walk through some of the product pieces that you’ve got.
Kristen Thomas (02:08):
Sure. Well, I work with people both one on one as well as in Coupleship, and I do sometimes work with, we call it couples in absentia where someone is in partnership, but I’m only working with one of the partners, so it’s still kind of couples work. I also do workshops. Those can vary from just a community workshop where I am partnering up with a nonprofit and trying to provide some community education, maybe around gender identity, sexual health, things like that. And then other times it’s something that’s a little bit more private, like an event. I’ll partner up with another person here in town. I have one coming up, actually in two weeks I’m thinking about, and she’s doing more of the self-care side. I’m doing more of the intimate wellness side.
Jeff Randolph (02:51):
And
Kristen Thomas (02:51):
So we’re talking about where those two things intersect. So we’re doing a three part series. That one’s a little bit more of a private thing is 21 and over, and ladies only for this one. And also I’m working with another coach that’s based in Portland on a destination workshop.
Jeff Randolph (03:09):
I saw that on the website, but there were some destination options there too. So
Kristen Thomas (03:14):
There are options. I also am working on trying to find the right platform to start offering some recorded online courses when you can just go on my website, purchase that recorded workshop watch. I recognize there are people out there who are way too scared to pick up the phone or send me an email and say, Hey, Kristen, here’s my issue. I need help. But maybe if they watch my video
Jeff Randolph (03:39):
Do
Kristen Thomas (03:40):
That course. So there’s a lot of platforms available, but with what I do, obviously I have to think about censorship. So I’ve got a lot of things in the works. I’m working on a book, I’m working on an invention. Finally got the ball rolling on that one, talking to, I’ll say a puppeteer.
Jeff Randolph (03:59):
Oh, fascinating. You said invention. And I’m like, you can’t follow up on that because she’s not going to tell what the invention is. Then everybody runs away with it and it’s not yours anymore, but puppeteer
Kristen Thomas (04:12):
Fascinating.
Jeff Randolph (04:13):
I’ll see that in thinking about the delivery and that kind of thing, you’ve got in person, you’ve got Zoom, you’ve got some kind of video thing. It really are meeting them where they are, whether that’s the delivery method and it’s also the content, right? I mean, you’re meeting people where you’re showing up where they start.
Kristen Thomas (04:37):
Yes.
Jeff Randolph (04:37):
Trying to and taking them wherever they go.
Kristen Thomas (04:39):
Yes. And people sometimes also come across me because of my podcast or my column that I have in the pitch. Lucky enough to write a monthly sex and relationship column for them. Both my column and my podcast are called Keep Them Coming.
Jeff Randolph (04:54):
Exactly. And I’m listening. I’ve read, I’ve partaken in those kinds of things. Thank you.
Kristen Thomas (05:01):
Because
Jeff Randolph (05:02):
That is a way that you’re promoting yourself. If we pivot to just kind of how you promote yourself, the column, the podcast are both ways that you can be out there and be visible and provide education. So you are the thought leader in that and you’re providing a needed resource. Talk about the way you promote yourself. Is one of those vehicles better for promoting yourself than the other? Are they both the same? Do you like one more than the other?
Kristen Thomas (05:33):
I like one right now more than the other because I have an editor and I kind of turn my stuff over to the pitch and they do their thing just fine tuning it. Versus my podcast. I’m very much on my own right now. I tried to start doing video because I just was like, okay, YouTube is something I’ve not really gotten into much. This was the year. I was like, okay, I’m going to try it. Editing a podcast for both audio and video is hard and it’s time consuming. So I grew to not like my podcast as much, so I decided I need a hiatus again. I’ve also had some life events happening this summer that just I, it’s very much a let it go, let it go, let it go. It’s okay. It’ll come back to me. That passion for it will come back to me. But yeah, I think
Jeff Randolph (06:22):
Sometimes it gets tough. I understand that.
Kristen Thomas (06:25):
Yeah. And I’m 150 episodes in, so I thought episode one 50 was a good spot to take a
Jeff Randolph (06:29):
Break, pause, take a season break, and then your next season of 150 podcasts will just be, they’ll just fly right by.
Kristen Thomas (06:36):
Exactly. Yeah.
Jeff Randolph (06:38):
Do you do other things to promote yourself? How do you,
Kristen Thomas (06:40):
A lot of networking.
Jeff Randolph (06:40):
Networking, so individual personal kinds of things.
Kristen Thomas (06:43):
Yes. So I’m an ambassador with a MidAmerica, L G B T, chamber Commerce.
Jeff Randolph (06:47):
Those people
Kristen Thomas (06:48):
Love those people. Yes. In fact, when I walked in, I was like, oh, this will be a great spot for a Coffee Connections event with them. So I also do a lot with the Casey Chamber. I’ve done a lot with them for years. I had a time where I took a break from networking with them because I wasn’t really sure about their focus on small business.
Jeff Randolph (07:08):
Oh, sure.
Kristen Thomas (07:08):
But I will give a shout out to Vicki Koff, who has done an amazing job with making small businesses truly feel welcome at the chamber. And I have seen a dramatic shift in the last few years about how they really, I think, show that they value us. Well,
Jeff Randolph (07:25):
I mentioned you’re seeing all kinds of just regular old businesses that you would kind of expect to see at that event after years and years. But there, was there any kind of hesitation
Kristen Thomas (07:35):
To show
Jeff Randolph (07:35):
Up there?
Kristen Thomas (07:36):
My very first small business showcase where I was handing out my cards as Kristen Thomas opened the Doors coaching, someone sees my card and they were like, oh, okay, so does that mean you’re really good at sex? And I was like, yes, but my job is to help make sure that you’re good at it too.
Jeff Randolph (07:56):
That’s right. Also, yes.
Kristen Thomas (07:57):
And then that just kind of came out. I was not prepared for that question, and I did not have that response prepared. But then six months later when someone said that on one of my social media pages, my marketing guy at the time was like, do you need me to take care of this? Do you need me to, I will take care of that response that’s just uncalled for. I was like, I’ll probably just say the same thing to them. I say, when people ask me in person, which is yes, but my job is to make you good at it. And he’s like, people ask you that in person. I was like, oh yeah, Casey Chamber. In fact, yeah,
Jeff Randolph (08:27):
All the time
Kristen Thomas (08:28):
In front of a group of people, just word vomited it right out. And I was shocked and as was the people around me, I don’t often get that kind of response anymore. For some reason, I think I have learned to say a little bit more, rather than just hand people my card and experience the shock.
(08:50):
I’m usually talking at them when they’re looking at my card. And I’ve learned to recognize that moment where they go, oh God, what did I just read? Who am I talking to right now? Right. Give them a second to get their bearings, but I try to keep engaging them. But yeah, there are still times where people, I had a guy recently, actually, I tell him what I do and he kind of, oh, and then he turned the lady next to me and we both went to hand him our card and he was like, no thanks. I was like, I am a legitimate business just like everybody else in here. It’s no skin off my nose if you don’t want my business card, but I’m not handing this to you in some form of judgment, just I’m a business like everyone else in the room.
Jeff Randolph (09:30):
A fascinating kind of response from somebody, but I mean, there’s a lot that goes in behind that. I mean, it makes me kind of want to pivot to the origin story and how you got here because you had regular job type jobs for 15 years. You’re at Mizzou and Degree in Psychology, but then now it was a 180 change. Really? Oh
Kristen Thomas (09:54):
Yeah. It was a renewable energy.
Jeff Randolph (09:55):
So tell us about that experience. I
Kristen Thomas (09:59):
Went from traveling the world, going to places like Haiti, the Canary Islands, India, Mexico, Ethiopia, South Africa.
Jeff Randolph (10:09):
Yes, you do shit
Kristen Thomas (10:09):
Like that. And then Trump got elected and they shelved my product line. And I was listening a lot of times on the road to podcasts. And my origin story is thanks to a podcast called Call Your Girlfriend, ami nato. So, and Anne Friedman and Anne went to Mizzou. She was there at the same time. That was something that drew me into the podcast. I was like, yay, go Tigers.
Jeff Randolph (10:37):
That’s right.
Kristen Thomas (10:38):
And they were taking a break and said, Hey, we want you to listen to these other podcasts while we are on a break. So I tuned into one that was called Down for whatever, Maisha Battle, who is also a certified sex coach and clinical sexologist based in San Francisco. And about five episodes in, I was just so drawn in like, oh my gosh, this lady is the best job ever. And then she had another sex coach on, and they were talking about how and why they became sex coaches. Well, backing up my history, I had been at Jenny Craig for years as a weight loss coach. I was a certified corporate trainer. I was a phenomenal trainer. I was very good at helping people with change management, both employees,
Jeff Randolph (11:20):
Unfamiliar territory for you.
Kristen Thomas (11:23):
And I had imagined myself moving up the ranks, but I got burned out. I made some mistakes, I left the job, shit happens. Got out of that, kind of got into renewable energy by happenstance. So that was left field. To me, sex coaching is actually, regardless of what you see on my LinkedIn profile,
Jeff Randolph (11:46):
LinkedIn is not always the place that we go for the deep insight into someone’s soul and passion.
Kristen Thomas (11:52):
I thought I was going to go to school for marriage and family therapy when I didn’t get into grad school. I just went and got jobs. I thought I’ll just apply to another graduate program one day and just never did. Also college got really expensive in the two thousands.
Jeff Randolph (12:08):
Yes,
Kristen Thomas (12:10):
Judy Craig was a really interesting opportunity for me to use my degree without having a master’s. Also, r i p to Jenny Craig. Oh, that’s right. They no longer exist. They just got closed. Yeah. Poor went out for them. I mean, I still have a lot of friends who had worked there and who were very negatively affected by a venture capital firm coming in and buying them and then slowly just squeezing the money out of them because that company was never about squeezing money out of customers.
Jeff Randolph (12:34):
It was helping.
Kristen Thomas (12:35):
They truly trained us, and I believed it. I drank the Kool-Aid where it was, we are here to help people change their lives,
Jeff Randolph (12:41):
And
Kristen Thomas (12:42):
When you help people change their lives, the money will come. So that is something I have held onto. I’m not here to squeeze a bunch of money out of somebody and get them to do a six month membership and maybe only see me three or four times, then I’m going to push some product or give them some worksheets or things like that. I have a subscription available, but it’s a little bit more intensive than that. Most people work with me on a package basis. They do pre-purchase a few sessions to get a little bit of a discount, but there’s plenty of clients that just pay me session by session. But I don’t utilize systems. I don’t utilize packages or subscriptions to try to suck people into to just take all this content, eat this all up, and you’re going to be fixed. It’s very, very,
Jeff Randolph (13:34):
Yeah, it’s their journey. And if that package pricing helps them overcome an obstacle so that they can help complete that journey, or at least move further along, then you’re good.
Kristen Thomas (13:44):
Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I’ve always tried in Open the Doors coaching to keep my focus on what does this client need right now from me? Can I give that to them? If not, who can I refer them out to? But ultimately, it’s just about helping them live a better, healthier life, tapping into pleasure, which is their birthright.
Jeff Randolph (14:07):
So you got into coffin, FastTrack New Ventures program on that. How was that to help
Kristen Thomas (14:14):
Phenomenal?
Jeff Randolph (14:15):
Did that help you in the early stages of business or this before you launched into
Kristen Thomas (14:21):
I did that in 2018, and I had launched in 2017.
Jeff Randolph (14:23):
17, right.
Kristen Thomas (14:24):
Yeah.
Jeff Randolph (14:26):
We’ve interviewed so many people on the podcast where it was, especially from the Small Business Chamber Showcase event where, Hey, it’s the pandemic. And I was like, uhoh, now what am I going to do? And they came up with this phenomenal solution to a problem, and they’ve launched that business for it. You started before the pandemic started. This was all very planned and the pandemic came along with a curve ball.
Kristen Thomas (14:53):
So I guess also going back to finishing my origin story of hearing that podcast and deciding that’s what I could do. I called my best friend that night who had worked for me twice at Jenny Craig and said, this is what I think I need to do. What do you think? She was like, that’s the best idea I’ve ever heard you have. I’m like, could you go into this with me? I think you’d be great at it too. She’s like, thanks, but no thanks. She still would make a great sex coach, but I digress.
(15:23):
We as women, I think, often worry about whether or not we’re going to make it because we don’t often have that extra cushion. Financially. We have made less throughout our careers. We don’t often have the generational wealth that men have. And I surrounded myself with a community of women who were also trying to build dreams At that time. All my friends I found at the moment were in little entrepreneurship roles. They were trying to help people build stuff in this town, and I was like, why have I not talked to you all about this stuff before? So they were like, well, you’re ready now. Let’s talk now. So I had girlfriends that walked me through goal setting. I had girlfriends that walked me through, here’s the people in town you need to turn to and ask questions of. And one of those things was first score, and then score turned me onto the small business. I guess it’s S B D C now. And then that’s where I got into Fast Track. So it was a lovely series of events that led me to fast Track. And now the business mentors that I met there, I’m still talking to, still in contact with one of ’em, I still see quite regularly. I think it gave me the confidence that I needed
(16:50):
At the time. I was like, oh, little old me. What am I going to do with this? And I thought it would always be a sort of a side hustle,
Jeff Randolph (16:57):
And
Kristen Thomas (16:57):
It was a side hustle for several years. I worked part-time jobs for a long time to try to make ends meet, and then I decided at the beginning of 2020, new Year’s Eve was my last shift at a restaurant job.
Jeff Randolph (17:09):
Okay, so you were working a restaurant job as that business starts to take off. Got it.
Kristen Thomas (17:14):
Yeah, of course, we all know what happened in March.
Jeff Randolph (17:18):
I’ve heard of it. Yes.
Kristen Thomas (17:20):
So I had just gotten my office lease signed. I got my furniture last week of February. Oh yeah.
Jeff Randolph (17:27):
Oh wow.
Kristen Thomas (17:28):
Okay.
Jeff Randolph (17:28):
So
Kristen Thomas (17:28):
All this stuff starts hitting, I’m freaking out. I’m literally thinking, does Nebraska Furniture Mart have a return policy on this couch I got on sale?
Jeff Randolph (17:38):
Can I change my name and move to a different country? Something like
Kristen Thomas (17:40):
That. And unlucky for the world, but lucky for me, April 13th, 2020 saw the most searches for how do I file for a separation?
Jeff Randolph (17:51):
Wow. Yes. Okay. So you’ve got search volume on your site as well, because people are going through some stuff.
Kristen Thomas (17:57):
The phone calls and emails that I was getting were all very much, I love my spouse. I hate my spouse. Help.
Jeff Randolph (18:04):
I am trapped in a house with someone who doesn’t want me here
Kristen Thomas (18:08):
Fast. And it was so easy for people to ignore their problems when they had the world just making them go, go, go, go, go. And as soon as the world forced them to slow down and look at each other, they were like, oh
Jeff Randolph (18:21):
God, what do we do
Kristen Thomas (18:23):
Now? And that’s where I came in.
Jeff Randolph (18:25):
Man, if we think about the entire marketing concept for a minute, where marketing concept is you find what people want and you figure out a way to give it to them, and that is exactly what you’ve done. And you’re not a therapist, you, you’re a coach. And so there is a difference between the two. Thank you. Yeah. Your website does a nice job of explaining the difference between the two of saying, Hey, you may need both. You don’t have to talk about the past to move forward,
Kristen Thomas (18:54):
And I’m not here to pathologize anything. Then that’s the one thing about therapy. They have to, for billing purposes, if they’re going through insurance, give you a diagnosis.
Jeff Randolph (19:05):
They
Kristen Thomas (19:05):
Have to say, this is your thing.
Jeff Randolph (19:07):
Here’s what you have as an affliction or some underlying condition. Interesting. So we diagnose you immediately.
Kristen Thomas (19:14):
Yeah, I don’t have to do that.
Jeff Randolph (19:18):
There’s something wise and growth oriented about that. That’s a good con.
Kristen Thomas (19:22):
Yeah. Yeah. And I try to be conscientious of my language around things like that. So someone, especially like a woman, some people may say that she has inorgasmia, meaning she cannot come. I say that you are just pre orgasmic, you just haven’t done it yet, or it’s been a long time since you’ve done it. Right.
Jeff Randolph (19:42):
Language is important in the things that you do because you will talk to someone and there’s a high chance that you could offend someone if they read a word this way or that way, or they identify as something that is opposite of the term you labeled them with. So you’ve got to be very, very careful about that. I saw on your website, masturbation is a term that you’re trying to not use as much.
Kristen Thomas (20:08):
So yes, and I do often wear a toy to networking events around my neck that people don’t know what it is, but my tagline is, exercise, meditate, masturbate. I was going to wear it today, but it just didn’t quite match the fit. Excuse me. So while that is my tagline, that’s often how I sign off on my emails. Yes. I like calling it solo sex or solo pleasure, pleasure, time, whatever it may be. Because the Latin root masturbation is literally harming oneself.
Jeff Randolph (20:38):
We don’t do that. We don’t harm ourselves. That’s not harmful.
Kristen Thomas (20:41):
And it usually has a pretty negative connotation. For some people, it’s a clinical word, and it’s usually what they heard, like teachers or priests or nun, whatever, pastors saying that this masturbation was wrong. They didn’t say things like, pleasure is wrong or self-pleasure is wrong. So if I can do one little thing to just not make them think about all those negative messages that somebody else planted in their head, all the better.
Jeff Randolph (21:10):
I mean, if the country was founded by Puritans, I mean, it starts way back in the day, and then we kind of continue it on to today. Maybe now we’re making a breakthrough.
Kristen Thomas (21:21):
I do feel a certain sense of trying to atone for my ancestors. Let me say this, my very first ancestor that immigrated to the United States came over in 1620.
Jeff Randolph (21:35):
Okay.
Kristen Thomas (21:36):
Yeah. I think actually it was 1629, because 1620 was the beginning of the Great Puritan migration. And so he was one of the first people over here. I’m talking like 10th boat over something crazy like that. So yeah, I’ve got a lot of work to do to make up for
Jeff Randolph (21:55):
Everything.
Kristen Thomas (21:56):
He was a founder of a church and all this stuff in New England, just outside of Salem. I’m pretty sure his descendants had things to do with the witch trials.
Jeff Randolph (22:05):
Almost made a joke about it and decided, no, no, let’s just be careful with that.
Kristen Thomas (22:09):
Yeah, no, pretty sure that my ancestors had things to do with the witch trials. So I feel a certain sense of atonement to help the world now. Thank you. Some of the seeds that were planted all the way back then,
Jeff Randolph (22:21):
Thank you for all the work you’re doing to undo your family’s legacy. So where does your business go from here? What does the future look like?
Kristen Thomas (22:31):
That’s a great question because my God, I have so many soliciting emails in my inbox telling me what I should be doing with my business. And I think the honest answer is right now is I am weighing it truly. I’ve been thinking about, I’ve hit that five year mark. I’ve pretty much accomplished most of what I wanted. I don’t have a 10 year plan. So it is time to sit down and think about what’s next for the next few years.
Jeff Randolph (23:02):
Well, you’ve got an invention coming out. You’ve got a author, you’re going to be an author at some point. Those are all
Kristen Thomas (23:08):
Trying to wrap up that book, man, trying to find the time to sit down
Jeff Randolph (23:12):
And
Kristen Thomas (23:12):
Write when you just have life going on. My husband and I have been talking about that a lot lately about either trying to book a couple weekends away where we’re both just kind of doing our own thing. Maybe he’s reading and I’m writing, or he’s sitting on the beach and I’m on the balcony of the hotel so I can have the wifi
Jeff Randolph (23:33):
Intentional reflection time and progress that can be made.
Kristen Thomas (23:37):
And I’ve thought about trying to break my book down more into essays.
Jeff Randolph (23:41):
Oh, sure.
Kristen Thomas (23:41):
Yeah. So I think that would be more helpful. But my book is about, how do I put this?
Jeff Randolph (23:50):
Well, let’s hope we can
Kristen Thomas (23:51):
Earn our things, the things our parents could have done better on when it comes to race and dating.
Jeff Randolph (23:59):
Oh, oh, that’s solid. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I like the concept. I was hoping maybe that your title would earn our explicit rating for this episode.
Kristen Thomas (24:11):
Unfortunately, no. It’s actually sort of modeled after. Okay. Not sort of, maybe I shouldn’t say this publicly, but it’s inspired by a Buffy The vampire
Jeff Randolph (24:22):
Sub
Kristen Thomas (24:22):
Title
Jeff Randolph (24:23):
Is
Kristen Thomas (24:23):
Inspired. Yeah.
Jeff Randolph (24:26):
I think that can only help. I think that can only help. Yeah. Alright, let’s go into the lightning round, shall we?
Kristen Thomas (24:32):
Sure. Yeah.
Jeff Randolph (24:33):
So here are the rules of the lightning round. We do quick. You have no way of knowing what kinds of things I’m going to ask. We were shorter answers. We can dive into ’em and explain more if we need to, but we’ll just kind of rapid fire hit you and see what happens. See where we go from here. And the first one is why do you hate Twitter?
Kristen Thomas (24:55):
Because Elon Musk is a piece of shit. So I deleted Twitter. I completely deactivated both my accounts lately after he said, SIS is a slur, I’m done.
Jeff Randolph (25:07):
There’s a lot that he has done in,
Kristen Thomas (25:11):
There were several things before that.
Jeff Randolph (25:12):
Yeah, there’s a lot that he’s done to really kind of make Twitter a political thing. And it didn’t necessarily need to be.
Kristen Thomas (25:21):
I mean, I loved Twitter for so long because of the political discourse that was often on there. There were certainly things, and even I liked turning to it for news for a long time because I followed international news sources and local news sources, and if there was something that was going on, I was like, maybe I should check Twitter real quick and see what’s up. I don’t have cable. So it was the place that I turned to for information for a long time. But I don’t understand what’s wrong with that guy. I don’t understand why people idolize him. He’s not that smart. Elon just has money and there’s lots of dumb people that have money, and he is one of them.
Jeff Randolph (25:58):
So
Kristen Thomas (25:59):
That’s it.
Jeff Randolph (25:59):
Your next question is, it’s kind of like the meme of what you do and what people think you do. What’s the biggest misconception people have about your job?
Kristen Thomas (26:12):
I am not in the room. I’m not in the room with people,
Jeff Randolph (26:15):
Not sex. Oh, you’re not a hands-on somatic sex worker type person who helps a couple by being there. Correct. And yeah, so people just assume that that’s a thing. That’s how this works.
Kristen Thomas (26:24):
They kind do this looking at my car and go, so tell me more. Are you like in the room? I mean, no, I’m not.
Jeff Randolph (26:34):
No, it’s Zoom and you just point the camera so that I can keep No, that is not how this works.
Kristen Thomas (26:39):
No, I’m like, I just usually say much when you go talk to a therapist. We’re talk only.
Jeff Randolph (26:46):
Got it.
Kristen Thomas (26:47):
Yeah. I may tell you, or coach you or suggest to you some things to do before you go home and try on your own.
Jeff Randolph (26:56):
And the misconception comes from people not knowing what this world looks like. And you mentioned getting your business card out and somebody going, oh, if we educate people and give a rough guess of that hands-on sex work as a percentage of what all sex work is or sex therapy and sex coaching, what percentage is that? That’s got to be
Kristen Thomas (27:22):
2%,
Jeff Randolph (27:22):
Two, right. It’s nothing huge
Kristen Thomas (27:24):
Because it’s only explicitly legal in certain states like Arizona and California, New York. I think maybe Oregon. It’s been a little while since I checked.
Jeff Randolph (27:35):
Yeah. But it’s a tiny amount. It’s not a very
Kristen Thomas (27:38):
Much, and I think part of it is because that movie with Helen Hunt and William h Macy
Jeff Randolph (27:44):
Crap, the
Kristen Thomas (27:45):
Name of it is escaping me. But she played a therapist that does sexual surrogacy, and it is a beautiful film and showing that entire process that it’s not just them having sex. It is for very specific kinds of people. Oftentimes it’s for people who have disabilities or people who have maybe lost a spouse or people who have just been chronically single. The 50 year old virgin. So virgin is also, I say that because the term that people identify with, but I don’t actually use virginity. Oh,
Jeff Randolph (28:20):
It’s another
Kristen Thomas (28:20):
Word. Yes. Virginity is a social construct. So I like saying sexual debut instead of virginity, but there’s not really one as far as the title of one who’s never had sex,
Jeff Randolph (28:34):
But
Kristen Thomas (28:34):
The public will identify with other than versions.
Jeff Randolph (28:36):
I think I would be, even in having this kind of interview, I’m worried about all the things that I’ve, or saying something weird on,
Kristen Thomas (28:46):
I would’ve guided you
Jeff Randolph (28:47):
Cautiously guided me there, that very kind of you, let’s give you the power to change the world and the way people think or stigma or whatever. What would you change to make the world a better place?
Kristen Thomas (29:05):
Oh my gosh.
Jeff Randolph (29:07):
I know you’ve never had that kind of power before. It’s with great power.
Kristen Thomas (29:11):
I would be dangerous. It comes
Jeff Randolph (29:12):
Great responsibility.
Kristen Thomas (29:13):
I would Such a good way. So I think that there are people in this world who truly believe that everything that we do is supposed to be strife, or it’s supposed to be painful, or this world is supposed to be hard, and that pleasure is only reserved for those that have worked hard enough. Pleasure is only for those that deserve it. But pleasure is everyone’s birthright and pleasure can come in many, many. You don’t have to work hard to deserve it. You don’t have to earn it. You just get it because you’re a human. So if I could get everyone to understand that, I think the world would be a better place.
Jeff Randolph (29:53):
There’s not one thing I can add to that. Beautiful thought. Outstanding. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Kristen Thomas (30:01):
Mint chocolate chip. Only if the chocolate is like a shaved chocolate. I don’t like the thick, chunky chocolate you have to chew. I want it to melt on my tongues, like Turkey Hill, mint chocolate chip ice cream
Jeff Randolph (30:12):
With the brand shadow. Yeah. I don’t know if I asked the question just to see if the answer would be vanilla, and just to see where can people find you. Tell us where we can learn more, where we could get in contact, where we can see you next. Any of those things.
Kristen Thomas (30:30):
Sure. Yeah. Well, you can see me next. I don’t know when this is going to air actually, but it’s
Jeff Randolph (30:35):
Probably not before Friday
Kristen Thomas (30:37):
For this.
Jeff Randolph (30:38):
They’ll have to go online and take a look at that.
Kristen Thomas (30:40):
Gotcha. Well, okay. The easiest place to catch me obviously is in the pitch every single month. I’m in the back. It’s called Keep Them Coming. You can also go to my website, open the doors coaching.com. That’s a great place to start. You can find links to my social media there. But yes, I deleted Twitter. I did add threads though in its place, so just getting that started. But I’m on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. That’s my largest following right now.
Jeff Randolph (31:05):
TikTok is the largest. Okay. I
Kristen Thomas (31:07):
Have 280,000 followers in TikTok, so I had a few videos go viral, but I also get highly censored. So my videos have definitely been throttle lately because of the content I discuss.
Jeff Randolph (31:18):
Gotcha.
Kristen Thomas (31:19):
So if you like sexual health content, please give me a follow and
Jeff Randolph (31:21):
Share who doesn’t or who shouldn’t.
Kristen Thomas (31:23):
Right. But yeah, my content gets taken down quite a bit. Yeah.
Jeff Randolph (31:27):
Well, maybe that’s changing too.
Kristen Thomas (31:29):
Even though I’m not violating terms, I swear I’m not violating terms.
Jeff Randolph (31:32):
We’ve
Kristen Thomas (31:33):
Got a lot. I get it back, but I always have to fight for it back.
Jeff Randolph (31:36):
Yes.
Kristen Thomas (31:36):
And then you get knocked for that.
Jeff Randolph (31:38):
Well, keep up the good fight. Keep doing what you’re doing. Open the doors coaching. Kristen Thomas, thanks for being with us today.
Kristen Thomas (31:46):
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Randolph (31:49):
That is our show. Thanks for listening to the Small Business Miracles podcast. Remember to subscribe. Leave us a five star rating and review. Drop us a line on the EAG website@eagadv.com. If you have any thoughts Until then, we’re going to be out here helping entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.