Intentional Leaders Podcast with Cyndi Wentland

Leading with Authenticity and Service with Krystal Westfahl

• Krystal Westfahl • Episode 133

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Krystal Westfahl, the President of the Minocqua Visitors Bureau, takes us through the scenic routes of her career journey. Her story, as diverse as the Northwoods she champions, reveals how a degree in natural resources and a formative interaction with WWII veterans charted her course towards nonprofit leadership.  Krystal's narrative is a refreshing reminder that embracing every turn with joy and authenticity can lead to a fulfilling life's work, deeply rooted in community service.

She divulges the intricate balance of being an authentic leader, the psychology behind effective communication, and the courage it takes to show up as one's true self, blue hair, cowboy boots and all. Our conversation with Krystal is a masterclass in community-focused leadership, highlighting the dance between authenticity and the strategic cultivation of trust.

As you explore this episode, expect to be transported to the heart of Wisconsin, where the charm of supper clubs and the allure of outdoor adventure come together into a  tapestry of tourism and community. Krystal illustrates that serving one's community is a hands-on affair, rooted in a genuine love for the place you call home. Through her eyes, we learn the grace of servant leadership, and the undeniable joy that springs from creating positive experiences for ourselves and others. Join us for an episode that's as much about discovering the essence of Wisconsin as it is about uncovering the heart of true leadership.

Find Krystal here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystalwestfahl/

And discover the Minocqua Area: https://www.minocqua.org/

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Cyndi:

Good morning and welcome to the Intentional Leaders podcast Today. I am excited to welcome Krystal Westfall to this episode. Good morning, Krystal. I am excited to chat with you again and we were introduced by a connection of, for me, it was a friend of a friend, Kate, and for you Kate is someone who you work with, who is helping to get your role in your position more PR, basically and she reached out to me and said you got to meet Krystal because you're going to love her. And then I was like I did love her. This is fun. Let's do a podcast interview, Krystal.

Cyndi:

Your role is the president and chief executive officer at Minocqua Visitors Bureau and I love that part of Wisconsin and anyone who's been there is probably in love with this particular part of Wisconsin, because it is very magical. It's also a wonderful place to go and relax and unwind and just enjoy. So I think it's super cool that you get to represent such a great part of the state. When we first talked, you said you fell into this role. How did that happen and how did you get to this position and tell us a little bit about your leadership journey?

Krystal:

My journey is a really winding one, to be honest with you. So I actually have a degree in natural resources. So not a role that you would anticipate I would fall into would be a Visitors Bureau leader. But yeah, it was kind of a crazy journey, you know, leading me to upstate New York right out of college. My then partner, now wife, went to. We were both both late students, right, and so she got a full ride to a college and said well, what do you think? And I'm like, well, let's see. And I got a job with New York State Parks the typical, you know, right out of college Ranger Rick Roll, where I led tours.

Krystal:

But very quickly found myself doing a lot of tours within one particular park, Sampson State Park in upstate New York, right in the Finger Lakes region. I would do bike tours on these old roadways that were once part of a World War II naval base training base, and so we would talk about, you know, succession and how nature takes back. But we'd always end the tour at the former Brig, now a museum, and the World II vets vets yeah, they wanted to have, they wanted to have all of their possessions in one space to be able to tell the story of World War II and their experiences. And so I'd always end my tour there and we immediately had a connection and they asked me to be their director because, you know, they didn't really want to do the work anymore, they wanted to kind of just be able to hang out and be my docents.

Cyndi:

Of course.

Krystal:

Right and I struck up a conversation with the then regional director and he said, well, we don't really have a position for that, but let's see what we can do. And they made me a state employee working within a nonprofit organization. So I got to be able to learn a lot in my early 20s. You know it was sort of a fake it till you make it moment. And I learned how to be an archivist and did a lot, of, a lot of work on my own through the winters doing rehab to the building and window installation, learn how to paint.

Krystal:

It was just a brilliant moment where I got to learn all this fun stuff and really struck up a relationship with the World War II veterans who came back year after year and were amazing living history to be able to help tell the story of what we were experiencing through the museum. And that is where my love affair of nonprofit organizations started and I never looked back, yeah, and leadership positions. And so I came back to Wisconsin, as many of us did, during the recession, yes, in the mid 2000s, early to mid 2000s, yeah, it was one of those moments where I was like, well, now what do we do, and so I actually was able to be hired by the Muscular Dystrophy Association and my career in nonprofit organization in Wisconsin really took off and really fell in love with the Northwoods. I mean, I've been traveling up here for decades.

Krystal:

My family's originally from Wisconsin and always wanted to get here before retirement age. I was hoping to get up here earlier and you know, somebody within the organization saw this job posting and said this looks oddly perfect for you. It has all the components that you've been working with fundraising and vent management and I've been in leadership roles before, so, yeah, it all fell into place.

Cyndi:

It did and you fell into it. I love that. What a great journey to take where at a younger age in your career you were able to find the things that brought you purpose and happiness Sounds like very quickly, which is wonderful, I mean, for some people that takes a long time to find. You know what brings you joy, and being able to work with the veterans and being able to, as you said, kind of have a love affair and even being in that leadership role and really digging in to doing some hard to work sounds yeah.

Krystal:

Yeah, it was definitely. You know, the lucky thing about me is I'm entertained by just about everything, so I feel like I'm just like a continuous learner. Yes, I find some spark in anything. I'm going to take it and run with it, which is problematic in my role because then I often raise my hand too many times, as most people in leadership positions do, right, and so, yeah, it really was a love affair throughout my entire career. Every position, every role that I held always sparked some sort of joy, and so it was really just moving me into this purposeful direction, into the Northwoods and the leadership role that I carry now.

Cyndi:

Yeah, and so you've been in this particular role how long?

Krystal:

I am in my 10th year, so a decade Wow.

Cyndi:

Oh, congratulations. You mentioned to me that that's a long time to be in a role like yours and that one of the important roles you play as a connector. So what does that mean to you?

Krystal:

This position is interesting. There aren't a lot of us in terms of industry leaders that work in this sort of travel and tourism. We've got a lot of different names and acronyms for it, but basically we're destination marketing organizations. There's only, you know, I mean 100 or so of us that work within this industry in the state of Wisconsin, so it is challenging to find mentorship. You know, trying to understand your role, you're working with a lot of different facets within your community, and so you really have to be nimble and movable and understand where other people are coming from, and one of the things that I said early on in this role was I wish I would have taken more psychology and sociology classes through college. Yes, understand how people tick right and like how to communicate my thoughts to them.

Krystal:

I mean, I'm a faculty and everybody learns differently, and so how you know how many different ways do we have to communicate to them so that they understand you clearly? That's something that I have been on a continuous journey on, and I don't think we'll ever end is learning how to effectively communicate.

Cyndi:

I was gonna say did you figure it out, Krystal? I wanted to know if you figured it out because, having taken a lot of psychology, I was one class short of a double major and it would have been in psychology. And I still find people endlessly confusing and fascinating.

Krystal:

Completely fascinating how they, how their perspectives, just from you know, maybe a couple of different words change the way that they think about something other than the how you perceive that, Of course, and so that is probably the biggest challenge, I think, in our roles. But I would say, I would argue that across every industry, it isn't just ours, but we tend to work with a lot of people, encouraging them to, you know, work closely with their communities. There's a lot of stuff going on, and so, you know, one of the things that I said often is that I think my primary role in my leadership role here is that I do make connections. My role isn't to necessarily know everything. I certainly would never say I do, because there's a vast majority of people that know things way more than me that I would love to connect with somebody that has the question.

Krystal:

And so in all of the roles that I play in this current leadership position either being with, you know, the state of Wisconsin, one of our group's destinations, Wisconsin, which is an industry group that I work with, then all the committees I sit on the biggest thing that I think I do well is making sure that people are talking to the right people. I always like to consider myself a connector when there's either troubles or in a lot of instances it's really just carrying the message to the next person, and that depends on whatever that message may be. But we have a lot of great wins in our state and I think we don't play them up quite as much as we should, and so I like to toot our own horn too.

Krystal:

That is also something I think just generally in the Midwest we don't do because we are very, you know, some basic yeah we're very humble, don't want to talk about those wins, and so that's something that I work on consistently is making sure that people understand that there are a lot of great things happening in this state and connecting them to other folks and how that impacts them.

Cyndi:

That's great and it's interesting because when I teach leadership classes, I talk about power bases, that leadership is influencing people. You influence through different bases of power. You know whether you have a position, but connection power is a very important base of power in today's world, even though we have so many different channels of how to do it. Doing it well is a journey, and you said a couple of really important things is how do people learn, how do they communicate? The psychology of those connections is super important because it can come across as feeling superficial or artificial if you don't do it well, and that sounds like something that you've learned over time.

Krystal:

And sometimes those connections need to be managed a little bit so they don't feel artificial. You want to make sure that when you are connecting people together or industries together, that there's intention behind those connections and it isn't just like, hey, you should know this person because X, y and Z. There needs to be a little bit deeper understanding there. It's about building trust amongst the folks around you.

Cyndi:

So yeah, you're really painting a great picture of your leadership philosophy, which I think is wonderful, because you've talked already about the joy that comes from the spark of something new and continuous learning, and then you've talked about how important it is to really be mindful of what people want and need from you, and how do you appeal to them in a helpful way and how do you do that intentionally and how do you do that in a trusting way. So I think those are some pretty great leadership qualities. not that I'm biased. But you also mentioned to me that something important to you is being authentic, and I did a recent podcast about authenticity and I talked to people about that a lot, because I think people are struggling with how much of my authentic self do I need to compromise in order to fit in or belong or work in a certain organization? So, when you think of authenticity, what does that mean to you and how are you able to embrace it in a way that works well for you?

Krystal:

Well, for me, I think authenticity is a couple of things. It is a bit of vulnerability and not letting others dictate how you can present yourself to the world. A good example of this is when I was interviewing for this role. I think I had 10 people on my interview board, so you've got a variety.

Cyndi:

Oh, wow.

Krystal:

Right, a variety of people that are now going to judge you from your appearance and the way that you present yourself and how you speak. And I came to the interview fresh off of the MDA's summer camp week, and so we had summer camp and it was crazy hair this year, and so I went all out and I dyed a whole chunk at the front of my hair bright blue and it was for the kids, right, like we were doing. So I went no holds barred, I went full in, and so that didn't obviously come out nearly as quickly as I had hoped.

Cyndi:

Really weird.

Krystal:

Weird, right, I know right. It was very blue for a very long time. So when I came to the interview process you know it makes for a funny conversation, right, like why is your hair blue?

Krystal:

Also, famously, wear this really old beat up pair of cowboy boots, and so I wore my cowboy boots and I had a very nice dress on. But you know, my hair is blue and I'm wearing these cowboy boots, and to say that I made an impression is an understatement, because people still talk about my blue hair and my cowboy boots 10 years later, they're never letting that die. You know. But it was one of those moments where you know what I don't want to come into a position portraying me any other way.

Krystal:

Then this is my authentic self, and if that is not something that they're interested in, then this is not the right position for me. And so I have taken that sort of stance I took 10 years ago and just have moved forward with it, and it's served me very well in the community that I work in. Just generally speaking, I think it's serves us well to be vulnerable, to be our full selves, and you know you got some great stories along the way you can share.

Cyndi:

Indeed, indeed. Are you a fan of Brene Brown? By any chance.

Krystal:

On the outskirts. Yes, Okay, you're that I do. I dabble with Brene Brown.

Cyndi:

Okay, I dabble with her, me too. I dabble with her a lot. She has a really and I'll probably butcher this quote, but it's something about your sense of belonging can only be as great as your level of self-acceptance, or something like that. And then the idea is can you really belong when you're not being yourself? Because then you're always trying to mold yourself into something that you're not, and I think that's what you're saying is trying to be who you really are and show up in that way. So has that presented you challenges, then, when you think about this role, because obviously you won the 10 people over and you got the job, and 10 years later, has that been challenging for you to show up authentically, and do you have any examples of when that's been hard?

Krystal:

I don't know if it's been hard per se.

Krystal:

I have been cognizant of the fact that being an openly gay leader in the northern part of Wisconsin could potentially pose challenges, and whether that was my preconceived notions of the world around me, how I was being directly or indirectly spoken to or about informed a lot of my opinion prior to me moving to northern Wisconsin, and so that was maybe the biggest how can I live authentically in this community knowing that that my wife and I were going to be moving here right, and so it brought itself a lot of anxiety, and I think it was now looking back was misplaced anxiety.

Krystal:

I think that my knowledge of the world was such that, boy, this might not be the place that I'm going to be authentically accepted, and I found that it was completely different than what I ended up experiencing, which was a very pleasant surprise, and whether that was because of the role that I play in the community being a leader in the community, or whether it was just that my wife, Tina and I were unapologetically now going to be a part of this community and you just have to deal with it.

Krystal:

Yeah, I think it was a little bit of our attitude too about it, you know, like, hey, we're here right, then we want to be part of this community. So I think our initial a little bit of intimidation was ultimately unfounded. We never experienced anything that was, you know, as bad as it could be, as we have seen in past experiences across the US. However, that did pose a major hurdle for me. You know, personally and professionally, I had seen some resistance to me taking leadership positions in the past due to my sexuality. It was definitely a part of a job application that went wrong. But that's a whole other segment.

Cyndi:

Yeah, but it's so disappointing because then it is a part of your history. Of course you're going to have trepidation or anxiety about going forward, because, having had that experience, how can you not believe that that could happen again, or more?

Krystal:

Right and so, yeah, that was probably the only thing that I experienced from you know being my authentic self. Do you put yourself back in the closet per se? Right, sure, to lead in a role, but that would not be me being genuine during the last political fear and COVID-19. And you know there was a lot of unrest on social media particularly and who you are and who you represent as a person, but then also as a community.

Cyndi:

Yes, absolutely.

Krystal:

So, in learning how to be authentic, but also being able to express that authenticity to people that may not appreciate it has its challenges. Again, it goes back to my travels and learning of communication and how to best be myself and be able to communicate that to somebody and make sure that they're comfortable again and trusting of me and my leadership. Sure, it's a journey and it's a give and take and a lot of this takes time. It's not something that you're going to learn or be able to communicate effectively in your first go-around.

Krystal:

You're going to stumble along the way. You've got to like kind of give yourself the grace to pick yourself back up and try again, and so it just takes time. All this takes time.

Cyndi:

Yeah, absolutely. If you were giving advice to someone who is starting out in their career and struggling with their identity in whatever way just whatever way that they're feeling, maybe that they're not able to be who they really are what tips you'd give and you've already have, like you've said. Okay, how do I be my best self? I know it takes time. I need to build trust. I know I have to think about communication and how I communicate with people. Would there be any other tips that you would suggest? So people can? I guess? In my podcast I always want to help people learn faster.

Cyndi:

Because, a lot of what I teach is like oh man, I made all these mistakes way back when. How do I help people prevent some of that awkwardness or discomfort and be more intentional more quickly? So is there anything you would add?

Krystal:

I mean the thing that I talk about the most, probably within our DMOs, especially here in the North because I have the most contact with them, is to not be afraid to walk away either from your role or the situation, find your allies, find your friends to surround yourself with.

Krystal:

We always call it circling the wagons, especially with board members right, because we all work for board of directors and our roles here and those people should be your biggest champions. So if you don't have a board or you don't have a champion, make sure that you're finding your champions within the organization or within your personal life. That can help support you and have those people on speed dial when things go right to get those additional viewpoints. But the biggest thing is don't ever feel like you're stuck.

Krystal:

You're worse, personally and professionally is much more than maybe that organization or those people that work within an organization are giving you credit for. You can always find a better place to land.

Cyndi:

Yeah, that's such an important point because I think some people don't realize it and they fall into this victim-y thing I can't leave, I can't do this, and all of these limiting beliefs that people really believe that keep them stuck and unhappy.

Krystal:

It just becomes a toxic circle. You're unhappy, they're unhappy, and you can't seem to get out of the cycle and make it better. And if there is no other way to make it better, don't be afraid to walk away.

Cyndi:

Something that's important to resilience is having your champions and having people that you can call and reach out to, and for a lot of people, I think again, the tendency is I'm going to suck it in and suck it up and I don't want to talk about it to anybody because that'll be horrible. As opposed to who talked to about this, how can I build my support network, which is really great for resilience, so people that are more resilient have that strong support? But I think, as you said, it goes back to something you said very early on about the vulnerability to be able to have those conversations and when you feel stuck in a role or stuck in a position or stuck in a company, how do you talk about that more transparently with someone that you trust?

Krystal:

Early on, I had, through my own self knowledge, knowing myself I was working ridiculous hours because I was out to prove myself right and so I was working, you know, 10 hour days, 50 hours a week. I was always on, always available for everyone. I was working at home and it was trying on my family. It was incredibly hard on my wife, and so I had to have first the insight to say, okay, I need to stop, because I am putting myself into a toxic cycle, and then also have that. What I refer to now is the Come to Jesus meeting with my entire board.

Krystal:

And I sat down incredibly vulnerable and I said, like this is just not working for me. We're seeing a lot of results, I'm happy that we're doing that, but I can't continue this pace. I will burn myself out. And so we need to have, we need to figure out better working example. And so I put together a couple of different options and said these are the options that I'm willing and able to do effectively, but if these don't work for you and you're looking for somebody else, I will gladly help pull together the next position description.

Krystal:

Help with the hiring process train get that person into a cycle that you feel comfortable with and then I will continue to job hunt. But again, it's that vulnerability of saying this is what I am willing to do, this is what I'm able to do, and be very honest about your wants, needs and desires within your organization.

Cyndi:

Yeah, it's funny because I just had a call with someone this morning and I was talking about being a good collaborator and good collaborators from my perspective think about wants, needs and I would add values and concerns. And you were honoring your values and your personal boundaries and expressing concern about it, but then still figuring out how to partner and build trust. And I think it's a beautiful example of transparently collaborating with a board and again putting yourself in a very vulnerable position to do that. But that comes Krystal with such deep self-awareness that you understand what you had been compromising, what you weren't willing to compromise anymore, and coming up with a couple it sounds like creative solutions to the issue where you could say I could, I can leave here, but I'll help you, I'm not going to ditch you all.

Krystal:

Well, and I appreciate anybody that can come to the table before they get to the point of blowing the place up and leaving.

Krystal:

You know I come to love this community and love the organization I work for. Obviously, I wouldn't have been working for ridiculous hours if I didn't absolutely love it, and so I didn't want to leave an organization in a lurch and have them struggle because it just doesn't impact me and this organization. It impacts the community and sometimes the ripple effect goes way further than you ever anticipated, and so I don't want to have that happen within our organization or any organization here that we work cooperatively with.

Cyndi:

You bet. You're really emphasizing the things that you value in your own purpose and also your legacy. I was just talking to someone recently about legacy and it was a former coach of mine and she said you know, most of us think about our legacy as, when we're done, looking backwards. But we were talking about the fact that you build your legacy as you go. It's not a looking backwards, it's in the moment and you're really building your legacy through your philosophy and your values and how you're showing up and you're showing other people that they have choices. I love that about your message too, because when you're a role model, for that it allows other people to know that that's okay. And not only is it okay, it's a good thing Like have the courage to do this, and I think that's pretty cool.

Krystal:

Yeah, thanks, yeah, here I am all being Midwest humbolic.

Cyndi:

Okay, it's great, you're awesome, and we have to revel in that awesomeness just for while, and not take it as a sign of arrogance. And speaking of the opposite of that, you mentioned to me that one of the ways you would describe yourself as a servant leader, and I think this is a theory that a lot of people throw around, but it means different things to different people. So when you think of that, what does that mean to you? And then how do you practice servant leadership?

Krystal:

Well, for me, servant leadership is about let's just take a leadership out of it. Yeah, it's about maybe being a leader, a recognized leader in your community, but you don't have to be the boss of everything, you don't have to be the director. You can be working within an organization throwing hay bales around at a local event, doing the work (and have you done that, Krystal?) a couple times yeah.

Krystal:

We have an event called Beefy Rama, and so hay bales are included in that. It sounds so fun. This is a silly example, but it is about being out there getting your hands dirty. Being involved in your community, you don't have to get your hands dirty.

Cyndi:

But you do.

Krystal:

Be a secretary on an organization that might be struggling, not being able to find somebody to take minutes for a meeting or just making a living. Make yourself available to the broader aspect of your community, whether it's in your organization or quite literally. I have four communities that I support here in the North, being a part of those communities and making sure that we're showcasing ourselves as somebody not only there to help lead and do these amazing things for our destination, but also that we're out there working for them too. The major part of that servant leadership for me is just becoming involved in those community groups that need assistance, that are looking for that help. Again, this goes back to me raising my hand one too many times, likely because I want to be there and I want to support them. I don't have to be the name plate on the organization in order for me to be an effective servant leader. That's what that means to me.

Cyndi:

Yeah, I have a great description of it, as you're thinking about service and serving. To me it sounds like get involved, be accessible, be available, get hands on when that is needed. You're open to others' needs and how to serve them. I think that's a really cool thing.

Krystal:

Yeah, one of the first instances of this when I came to work here, an employee that is no longer with us made a comment one day we had the toilet in the staff bathroom was broken and it was a little lever. Yeah, I could go to the store, buy bucks, buy it, bring it back and fix it myself. I was heading off to the store to do that and she looked at me and she goes you don't do that, you're the director here. You hire somebody to do that. I said but I can do it. I work for a nonprofit. I can still take care of doing that manual labor, even though my name may be director or CEO or whatever it is. I have the availability, I know how to do it. Why not just get the work done? Yeah, and not to take anything? We like to help support our local plumbers as well, of course.

Cyndi:

Not taking away anything from the local plumbers.

Krystal:

I'm not trying to take anybody away from anybody, but it was a fun part. I could do that. I think that's the difference in the role that some people they put you. Oh well, you're the CEO. Yeah, that's a fancy title.

Krystal:

I can still change. I can still clean a bathroom and change a part on a toilet. So for me, that also part of that is even in my own organization is roll your sleeves up, get dirty if you need to. Let's just make the thing happen and do it well and effectively.

Cyndi:

That is actually a great example of the willingness to just jump in and take care of something, and it doesn't have to mean anything. Sometimes people think of their role and it means something, like I have to protect my image or what I will or won't do. Because of that and it's silly too. When I go into training and I always feel like I should clean up the room after, throw people's garbage away and do all that, and people are like stop doing that, like there are people to do that, and I thought but I'm a person and I could do that, so it's really easy to do and just not having those preconceived notions of what we're supposed to do or not do and being willing to pitch in. I think my parents definitely raised us to do that.

Krystal:

It is so true. Take the ego out of it, right? Just take care of things. Absolutely.

Cyndi:

But our society and a lot of people, a lot of organizations are very ego driven and I don't even know that they realize that I don't think it's intentional like I'm so important. Maybe sometimes it is that intentional I'll be like I'm so important. I can't do that thing, whatever that thing is, and it always fascinates me when people show up that way. So you do represent a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful part of Wisconsin and so what would you tell the studio audience? Because I have people all over the country and, weirdly, throughout the world who listen to this podcast. I am curious, like what would you tell people? Why should they come to Minocqua, Wisconsin?

Krystal:

You know we're a little bit of everything for everyone and I know that's probably sounds really cliche. Most destinations would say that you know, if you are into outdoor recreation, we're sort of the Mecca in northern Wisconsin for outdoor rec and it was very apparent during COVID-19 when people were escaping the cities to come to northern Wisconsin to shelter in place.

Cyndi:

Right, Absolutely.

Krystal:

We have, you know, a year-round population in just the one town, in Minocqua. Now again, I represent Arborvita, Woodruff and Hazelhurst, where kind of the Highway 51 corridor here in northern Wisconsin. But in Minocqua proper there's 5,000 people that live here year-round, roughly 5,000 people. In the summertime we explode to the size of a small city. 20-30,000 people, and it's only second home owners. Oh yeah, it's crazy.

Cyndi:

Oh, I didn't know that that's significant of a shift.

Krystal:

We have a between our second homeowner population and our visitors were loaded up here, and so, if you like kind of fast-paced boating and like water ski shows, we've got the second largest zoo in the state behind Milwaukee County Zoo and a safari. Yeah, I mean you can go ziplining with the second largest zipline in the state. We've got lumberjack shows. So we got a lot of like kind of high, fast-paced attractions. And then, you know, 10 miles out of town we have non-motorized paddling lakes that you can take a canoe on and be very peaceful for the afternoon. You know spas, downtown shopping opportunities, I mean we got it really is a little bit of everything for everyone.

Krystal:

So we tell everybody to call us first, because we'll help pull together a dieterior for you, depending on what you want, but depending on your mood, it's here. Yeah, north Wisconsin supper clubs. I mean, come on.

Cyndi:

I know it. Is there anything better than a Wisconsin supper club?

Krystal:

Oh, it's the best. It was one thing that I missed the most when I lived in upstate New York was being able to go to a supper club. And you know, having my old fashioned the way Wisconsinites have them, not no fancy New York, old fashioned, we like them just a particular way here. Right, oh yeah, there's nothing better.

Cyndi:

And it's so funny If someone doesn't know what a Wisconsin supper club is or having experienced it, and it's part of our growing up. But that experience itself is so nostalgic to me and so full of emotion and memories and just a awesome experience. So I think that's pretty awesome.

Krystal:

We did with a young couple that moved here, the gal. She's originally, I think, from the Illinois area and she had never heard of a supper club before she. Oh okay, and she thought you needed, like you know, some sort of pass or something like you had to like dress a certain way and like you needed to go to the club, you know. But for those that are from outside the area don't know what a supper club is, it really is just a really it's a fine dining experience and it is an experience you know, think of a darker atmosphere, maybe some taxidermy on the walls.

Krystal:

You get a starter plate of munchies, depending on what the restaurant serves. It could be just about anything. That's just comes with the deal. You don't have pay for that that, but yeah. And then of course you know there's the Friday night fish fries and just like our culinary experience is so unique, it's an experience.

Cyndi:

Yeah, absolutely. And I remember as a little kid going out and we rarely got to go out because there was four of us and we were, you know, you know not well, whatever, but I remember going to restaurants where there was the little wrapped breadsticks. You know the little one, and we would fight over them in the little bread basket. It's like who's going to get the bread stick and who gets them this time, because there was enough to go around as part of that experience.

Krystal:

The cheese spread then too that you're fighting over that on top of that.

Cyndi:

Some great memories fighting over the food.

Krystal:

I'm just going to get it.

Cyndi:

So thank you for sharing that too. For anybody who does not know Minocqua, it is a beautiful place to go. It is full of wonderful people too, you know. So I think part of it is the availability to do things and to find something that is your own adventure. What I love about Wisconsin is we're just salt of the earth people, and there's no airs that people enjoy, helping people to enjoy life, and I think that's a great thing.

Krystal:

Is the interactions you have at the grocery store or when you're standing in line for a ticket, right Like in Wisconsin, we're more apt to start up a conversation with somebody and see how their you know how their vacation is going or what they just learned. And that was one of the biggest differences when I lived in upstate New York, because I was the crazy Wisconsinite that wanted to talk to everybody in the grocery store.

Cyndi:

Yeah, why are you talking to me? Stop it, yeah.

Krystal:

Like this is no, no, no, we don't talk here, we do our thing, but I'm like I want to know about, like, where is the best place to go for, you know, a cocktail or whatever, maybe? And nobody was talking to me and I'm like boy, I am not in Kansas anymore.

Cyndi:

Right, exactly, there's a difference here. Well, thank you so much, Krystal, for covering out time to chat with me today. And when Kate hooked us up and we had our first conversation, I thought, oh, this is going to be so fun to be able to really explore not just the you know, understanding what you do in your leadership role, but who you are as a leader. And, as I mentioned, you've definitely been painting a picture of how you want to show up and the experience you want to create for others around you, and I find that very inspirational, thanks. There's a positivity to it, there's an energy to it and there's a purpose to it, and you get to be who you are and to find an opportunity to be in that kind of place you know, emotionally, practically, metaphorically, universally. Whatever is is sometimes challenging for people to find, so I'm happy that you found your place.

Krystal:

Well, I hope everybody will find their place at some point. That is, that's the goal in life, right, and once you do you, you hang on that with both hands.

Cyndi:

Exactly, exactly so. Thank you so much for taking the time today Appreciate it.

Krystal:

Thank you so much.