In this episode, host Lorie Jones sits down with Cristin Browne, founder of Brave Peak Capital, helicopter pilot, and all-around trailblazer.
From her remarkable journey as a West Point graduate and Army officer to her latest leap into entrepreneurship, Cristin Browne opens up about the pivotal moments that shaped her career, the unique challenges she has faced as a woman in male-dominated spaces, and the powerful lessons she’s learned along the way.
Tune in as Cristin Browne shares her insights on what it truly means to be “enough,” the value of financial freedom, and why embracing both failure and reinvention are key to long-term success. Whether you’re just starting your journey or looking for inspiration to keep pushing forward, this episode is packed with wisdom and stories that celebrate the power of fearless women everywhere. Ready to be inspired?
Show Highlights:
- “Predictably irrational” people, business, and markets. [03:14]
- The self-reinforcing power of values in Cristin Browne’s response to 9/11. [04:47]
- Lessons on early, future-proofing Roth IRA investing. [10:07]
- Would you accept a broken back or fight to stand up for your goals? [15:13]
- Tips on emotional regulation as a leader in workplace conflicts. [18:22]
- Advice to slow down and treat life as a marathon, not a sprint. [23:00]
- Post-military navigation of courage, uncertainty, and failure. [24:43]
- Approaches to challenges in male-dominant fields from Cristin’s military career. [27:15]
- “Choosing the harder right than the easier wrong.” [31:25]
- Why young women must define success individually, not by society. [35:20]
Connect with Cristin Browne on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristinbrowne/ with any questions.
Go to Brave Peak Capital by visiting https://www.bravepeakcapital.com/.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Lorie Jones, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Lorie Jones, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
00:02.04
Lorie Jones
Good morning, fearless females. Today we are here with Kristen Brown. She is the founder of Brave Peak. Sorry. i guess I better start it again.
00:14.40
Lorie Jones
Good morning, fearless females. We’re here with Kristen Brown. She is the founder of Brave Peak Capital. And I’m so excited that she’s joined us today. You’ve got an amazing story and I’m i’m just really excited to hear it. Thank you so much, Kristen.
00:29.67
Cristin Browne
You’re very welcome. It’s my pleasure to be here.
00:32.63
Lorie Jones
So my first question is always the same. I’m a reader. i love books. What is your favorite book?
00:39.89
Cristin Browne
I also love books. I mostly listen to them on audio. That’s My way that I read the most, but my favorite book is Predictably Irrational.
00:51.57
Cristin Browne
Don’t make me recount the author, but I’ve always been a consumer of books about psychology, what makes people tick. think that’s one of the reasons why I love business so much because every business is a people business.
01:03.48
Cristin Browne
So predictably irrational is about how humans think they know how they’re going to react to things and and act, and they don’t. Humans are irrational creatures, but a lot of what we do as humans is pretty predictably irrational. So they go through a lot of different examples about why that’s true. it’s so it’s a really it’s ah It’s a quick read, but it’s one of those that I’ve read several times.
01:28.82
Lorie Jones
Oh, that’s so interesting. Yeah, because i know in finance, like you learn the way things are supposed to happen. And then behavioral finance kind of teaches you the way things actually do happen. Yeah.
01:41.41
Cristin Browne
Absolutely. Yeah. Markets predict, error you know, financial markets behave in irrational ways, but sometimes predictably irrational ways, if you actually understand the underbellies of human motivation.
01:53.16
Lorie Jones
Oh, well, that’s great. I actually go through and and look at my list of suggestions that all of my podcast guests have given me. I just ah order all of them and set them in a pile that I read. So I’m super excited to get to that one. That sounds great.
02:08.01
Cristin Browne
That’s awesome.
02:08.87
Lorie Jones
So tell me a little bit about your journey. How did you get started? um What do you do today? Kind of who are you? Just tell us a little bit about that.
02:18.07
Cristin Browne
Yeah, so I always start with I’m from New Jersey, and the reason why that’s really important to me is I’m a child of 9-11, very, very profoundly.
02:29.89
Cristin Browne
um Living in New Jersey, obviously a lot of people commute from North Jersey to new York City for work, and I viscerally remember being in high school and when the Twin Towers went down, and a lot of my classmates had parents, loved ones that worked in New York City. And it’s a really strong memory of mine. And so that was a big motivator and and reason why i ended up going to West Point um and and joining the military.
02:59.32
Cristin Browne
So really my reasons were threefold. It was, hey, I saw i saw what could happen in in the world and wanted to be a part of something bigger than than myself. I was always an athlete um and joining the military, West Point in particular is one of those places that you both have to have strong academics and and be athletic. So it was ah it was a really good fit in in that in that light. And the last being that we’re on a financial podcast
03:29.85
Cristin Browne
and it’s it’s so It’s a way to get a really good education fully funded by Uncle Sam for the return for for that education is to serve at least five years active duty in the Army.
03:42.86
Cristin Browne
So went through the Academy. It was a really good fit for me. I thrived there. I really liked it. I liked the structure. I liked the classes. I liked the academics um and chose to go aviation.
03:56.15
Cristin Browne
as my branch after the Academy. So my reason for that was largely because I wanted to lead troops in combat. It was a huge motivator for me. And as a woman at the time, one of the ways to to go combat arms was to go aviation, ah armor and infantry, which are their traditional combat arms branches were closed to women at the time.
04:17.02
Cristin Browne
So aviation was my my way to know that I was going to be able to get in the fight too and I very much did. i spent the next eight years active duty army, deployed twice to Afghanistan.
04:28.35
Cristin Browne
After my second deployment, I and had the opportunity on that second deployment to lead a ah company. So 40 guys, and they were all all men at the beginning, 10 aircraft, trained them up for nine months, deployed to Afghanistan and brought them home.
04:44.54
Cristin Browne
And that was the completion of my my eight years that I had to serve. And I picked my head up and I looked around i said, okay, what’s next? That that was an awesome ride um and decided that I was going to leave the military and join the corporate world.
05:00.45
Cristin Browne
So I attended the Harvard Business School, spent two years there and I really settled on wanting to be in smaller businesses for for my career. So spent the next five years in tech, mostly doing go-to-market strategy and sales work.
05:15.34
Cristin Browne
And a year ago, um decided i am really going to focus and hone in on small business and take a bet on myself by going out and buying a lower middle market business, which is ah what Brave Big Capital is all about.
05:30.30
Lorie Jones
I love that. I love that you like kind of early on some of those, sometimes those really pivotal events in your life do make a difference as to like who you want to be. And, and it’s something just clicks in your brain and you’re like, Oh, I know exactly what I want to do.
05:49.06
Lorie Jones
And, um, And 9-11 was a huge event, but but I do think that, you know, for all of us around the country, but it didn’t it didn’t make all of us, like, know exactly what we wanted to do. So what was it about what was it about that event that sent you, like, directly to the military that you knew what you wanted to be?
06:13.26
Cristin Browne
Yeah, ah again, it was, i was 18. So 18 year old Kristen was making very different decisions than today. Today, Kristen, you know, reflecting back, it was both an emotional and a pragmatic decision for me.
06:27.49
Cristin Browne
Emotional meaning remember, I remember, you know, you have core memories in your in your life. I remember so viscerally standing on the bay, which right on the bay where i grew up in New Jersey, you can look across and see Wall Street.
06:40.81
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
06:42.51
Cristin Browne
And the ah the they cast two lights up into the sky to represent where the Twin Towers were after they fell. And I remember standing on on the bay with my family and looking across and just thinking,
06:58.88
Cristin Browne
i got I have to do something about this. I don’t know why um but that was the emotional part of it, saying, this this is not okay. What part do I have in making sure that this doesn’t happen again?
07:13.14
Cristin Browne
And again, there’s absolutely the the pragmatic side, the logical side. Like I said, I was always an academic. I loved athletics. um It was a place that I thought that I could excel and thrive.
07:25.62
Cristin Browne
And it was a good fit for me. So there was that part of it as well.
07:29.61
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for your service too. That’s huge. I think that’s really important.
07:33.88
Cristin Browne
Thanks.
07:36.39
Lorie Jones
um Kristen, tell me a little bit about what’s the best investment you’ve made in yourself? If you can kind of look back over your whole career trajectory to where you got today, can you think of something where you’re like, oh, gosh, if I hadn’t done that thing, I don’t think I’d be where I’m at today?
07:55.30
Cristin Browne
Yeah, so
07:59.54
Cristin Browne
Starting my first Roth IRA is the very pragmatic example. um i didn’t, I, and and I’m serious. And, you know, back to my core memories that this might be the theme of of this podcast.
08:12.86
Cristin Browne
When i was waiting for flight training, um I was in a holding pattern. and And when that happens, you end up on different duties with different ah people. So I was, I was on a guard duty. It was on a 24 hour guard duty with someone who was 20, 20 years, my senior.
08:29.35
Cristin Browne
And again, I was fresh out of school and I’m at 24 hour guard duty. We were sitting there across the table from each other. And he he said, let me teach you something.
08:39.25
Lorie Jones
right.
08:39.40
Cristin Browne
And finance was not part of my vocabulary. It’s not something that we really talked about growing up. It’s not really something that they teach you in high school or conventional education, not really something they teach you at the military academies.
08:50.26
Cristin Browne
Lots of other things to talk about. And we all get paid exactly the same thing. It’s you know it’s just not taught. So he decided to give me a little lesson in personal finances 101. And we had a little bit of money at the time because um you do get paid as a cadet and you get a 0% loan to kick off your career as a part of the package um from graduating from the military academies.
09:14.47
Cristin Browne
So I a little bit of money and he said what are you going to do with that money? And I said, don’t know, it’s in my savings account. And he goes, oh, let me teach you about compounding interest. And he we we sat there and he opened up a ah Vanguard Roth IRA and for for me, you know well, alongside me.
09:30.48
Cristin Browne
And then he said, look, Kristen, for the next eight years of your career, ah every time you get promoted, every time you get a pay increase, every time you deploy, don’t just come back and spend all that money. He said, take 10, 20% of it or are like the delta of the increase and enjoy it, yeah but then take the rest and save it, invest it, max out your Roth IRA every year. And he said, then at every time you’re at a pivotal ah decision point in life, like at the eight eight year mark when you can get out of the military, It’s not going to be a 100% financial decision.
10:03.73
Cristin Browne
Finances will be a part of it, but you’ll never if you invest early and often, um then you won’t you won’t ever be beholden to to the almighty dollar. will be It will be a tool, um not not not a burden.
10:16.16
Cristin Browne
And that man is still to this day, I can’t remember his name. um I remember his face and I remember the conversation, but he changed my life because i’ve ah yeah it just changed the way that I thought about Money, investing, my my own power over over both of it.
10:31.08
Cristin Browne
um And I did exactly what he said, and it put me in a position to make a pivot at the eight-year mark, to take a bet on myself with Brave P Capital. and Many, many things along the way um that I never made a ton of money, but i what what I did make, I was smart about it.
10:47.16
Lorie Jones
Oh, I love that. I love that answer at a 10. That is the best thing.
10:52.79
Cristin Browne
And I do, um i I do, I do love that story. and And I want to share it as broadly as possible, because it did change my life. I just for my one of my nephews, um he just turned 18. And when he was born, um i put a little bit of money away for him rather than give him ah sorry, one, one, rather than give him gifts.
11:16.61
Cristin Browne
um for his birthdays and in Christmas, I put money away, put money away, put money away and and promised his mother that for his 18th birthday, um I would give him the compounded ah gift and show him that what that exactly looked like. So I just mailed him his 18th birthday gift, which was from Sorry, now cousin Kristen, giant Excel spreadsheet and a check.
11:41.59
Lorie Jones
Bye.
11:41.80
Cristin Browne
He’s like, thanks. But if you think when you’re 18, you know, that can have a ah really, a really profound impact on you. And I hope he does continue to take that and and continue to to compound it for the rest of his life. Because then when he’s my age, he’ll have the same power that that man gave me so many years ago.
11:57.69
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I watch my kids who have grown up with a financial advisor. And, you know, the average age to own your own house now is at that 38 to 42 years before you buy your first house.
12:11.24
Cristin Browne
wow
12:12.95
Lorie Jones
And i have kids buying theirs 23 and 25. because of that exact reason, the compounding interest, that consistent savings. And do think that message can change the world. So I’m so excited that you’re that you’re spreading the yeah message of financial security in a way that makes people excited about it. because Because that man that you talked to didn’t just tell you something.
12:41.68
Lorie Jones
he he changed your life he made it he made it relevant to you he made it exciting
12:48.69
Cristin Browne
Oh, ah yeah, 100%. It wasn’t just one plus one equals four over time. It was it was the power it would give you, the autonomy it would give you, the freedom it would give you.
13:01.76
Cristin Browne
i sound cliche because that’s like what you’re but your podcast is all about, but it’s so it’s the it’s the freedom. It’s it’s absolutely true. Mm-hmm.
13:09.80
Lorie Jones
Yeah. What about what is the worst advice someone gave you? have Can you think back on a time during your journey where someone was like, they gave you some advice and it was really bad advice. And did you take it or did you not take it?
13:24.65
Lorie Jones
Or talk to me about that.
13:28.43
Cristin Browne
um Yes. So another part of my story is right before I graduated from West Point, had a very serious back injury.
13:39.57
Cristin Browne
I fell off of an obstacle and had a burst fracture of my first lumbar vertebrae, meaning I broke my back.
13:45.98
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
13:48.36
Cristin Browne
So i ended up in i was and up in the hospital room six weeks before graduation. My life was turned completely upside down. i thought that I had this very profound trajectory and all of a sudden, all of that was taken away.
14:02.49
Cristin Browne
And the advice I got at the time was it’s probably ah good idea to accept your circumstance and I had finished my academic requirements at that point. So academically, all I had to do was finish my exams and I would be able to graduate.
14:21.61
Cristin Browne
um But physically, i I was not physically qualified to be an officer in the military. So they the advice was graduate, take your diploma, but don’t take your commission. Just that very rarely does that happen. But in those types of circumstances, you’re medically not qualified to to join the military, then you could do…
14:43.32
Cristin Browne
Yeah, they have this system that you just graduate, but don’t commission. Whereas normally that would go hand in hand because that would be the best trajectory. And I, you know, again, 18 year old, I guess at the time i was 21, 22, laying in the hospital bed, unable to move, looking at the ceiling said, thanks, but no thanks. I’ll i’ll figure this out.
15:04.78
Cristin Browne
and And, you know, as as a trajectory goes, i was given a courtesy, you know, there are people absolutely out there that that lay their necks out to allow me to to try. and Was given a courtesy commission, spent a year in rehabilitation be able to then ah get enough waivers to to go to flight school and then have the the career afterwards in the military. But um just accept what you’ve been given and accept your circumstances was not the best advice I’ve ever had.
15:33.04
Lorie Jones
know And did it take you ah half a second and or like five days to figure out that wasn’t good advice?
15:43.06
Cristin Browne
Um,
15:46.79
Cristin Browne
yeah, it was, it was, it was pretty quick that, yeah, I, I, I knew what I wanted.
15:48.70
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
15:52.90
Cristin Browne
I didn’t know, i didn’t know it was possible though,
15:57.46
Lorie Jones
But you wanted to try.
15:59.24
Cristin Browne
but I wanted to try. Right.
16:00.50
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
16:00.85
Cristin Browne
Absolutely.
16:01.16
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
16:01.27
Cristin Browne
Absolutely.
16:02.22
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s so interesting. i think that, i think it’s really interesting to kind of look at when I ask that question about bad advice, I get people who are like, yeah, I i kind of instantly knew that wasn’t right for me.
16:17.06
Lorie Jones
Like it might’ve been right for other people, but like for me, i was going to try, i was going to try anyway, just a little bit fearless is what I call it.
16:17.31
Cristin Browne
a
16:25.45
Lorie Jones
You know, just you’re scared to death. You’re not sure it’s going to work, but you’re going to try it anyway. Yeah.
16:31.82
Cristin Browne
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s accurate.
16:36.33
Lorie Jones
What about um a situation that you could go back and do differently? Is there anything that you’ve done along your journey where you’re like, oh, gosh, if I knew then what I know now, I would have I would have just done that a little bit differently. Yeah.
16:54.87
Cristin Browne
Yeah. ah yeah i I want know, given who could potentially listen to this, how exactly I want to tell this story. um Absolutely. i have i’ve done a lot of work ah in the last few years on on self-awareness, and it it’s part of, I think, comes with getting older and ah what your strengths are, what your superpowers are, and and where some of your growth edges still remain.
17:23.36
Cristin Browne
And one of mine is absolutely, I can be a fearless female, which means that that energy channeled in the moment and and not in the right direction can mean I blow my top, um can be a bit of a hothead.
17:39.11
Lorie Jones
Who’s
17:41.53
Cristin Browne
And part of you know my my growth and maturation, again, is taking a beat, taking a breath, not just being in reaction mode. So, and There was a situation in my la my last job before I started Brave Peak Capital.
17:57.70
Cristin Browne
And my boss um made a comment to one of my employees, in in know it’s someone that worked directly for me. So you know my boss was two skip levels in a way that didn’t sit well with me.
18:14.32
Cristin Browne
And it was in a it was on a public forum. I was very upset about it. And rather than take a beat um and handle that situation rationally, um i stormed in to his office after the situation, closed the door, but it was a one of those like fishbowl offices.
18:36.06
Cristin Browne
So it was glass. So while people couldn’t hear what was happening, they could what was happening. um And it’s not something that the way I handled that situation, the way I spoke to him was not something that I’m proud of.
18:52.84
Lorie Jones
I think we all have things like that. where if that’s That’s actually why I asked the question is because I’ve had times where I’m like, oh gosh, if I could go back, I would do it differently. And this is exactly how I would do it differently, you know so that so that someone maybe doesn’t have to make my mistake in order to
19:15.15
Cristin Browne
Yes, absolutely. And the the way that I would done it differently is, you know, either later that day or potentially the next day when I have processed what, you know, why I was so angry. What what about me? What about the employee? What about the the boss? Like, what are all the dynamics that were at play in that moment that made me so lit?
19:42.02
Cristin Browne
Yeah. actually being able to put all those things together in ah in a rational way and explain what I thought the impact was across the board on that situation and how we could work together to build that bridge to make it but to make it better the future and make sure that something like that didn’t happen again ah would have absolutely been the way that I would handle the situation given him the opportunity again.
20:09.69
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s really valuable. I do. I think we’re all hotheads in some way. I know I am. I know I react. And you’re right.
20:21.14
Lorie Jones
With maturity, yeah.
20:21.64
Cristin Browne
yeah
20:22.46
Lorie Jones
With maturity, you kind of learn to take a step back and sort of think about it an extra second or two. Sometimes it doesn’t help, but but a lot of times that’s all it takes is just to like, maybe some deep breathing exercises. Maybe that’s what I need is some deep breathing exercises so I don’t go from zero to 10 all at once.
20:44.05
Cristin Browne
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And yes, I will tell you, I have absolutely gotten tools since then to do exactly that. You feel the heat start to build and just…
20:59.82
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that four square breathing.
21:00.37
Cristin Browne
Sometimes…
21:01.61
Lorie Jones
Four breaths in, hold it for four. but Yeah, exactly.
21:05.49
Cristin Browne
Yes, I i am. i like to say I’m a ah very sometimes confusing, sometimes interesting, depending on the audience combination of a corporate executive, entrepreneur, military, pilot, and hippie.
21:21.52
Cristin Browne
I’m very into the yoga, go outside in my backyard and put take my shoes off and ground and then get right back to it. So, yes.
21:30.71
Lorie Jones
I love it. So um if you could go back and talk to yourself at the early part of your career, um you know, just as you were 21, 22, just get just getting ready to get started. What advice would you have for that young lady?
21:48.87
Cristin Browne
and
21:54.42
Cristin Browne
Slow down. Enjoy the ride. Take deep breaths in the moment when it is good and sit with it when it’s not, knowing that it all is temporary.
22:18.08
Lorie Jones
I like that. And I’m wondering, would that, do you think that would have, because you strike me as somebody who is just so determined and ambitious and, and work so hard, um your advice to slow down, would that have changed who that, that personality that go getter personality?
22:40.00
Cristin Browne
um No, I think that it would have allowed for more joy in the process, though, not being wound so tight all the time.
22:54.19
Cristin Browne
And i think you can be ambitious and go-getter and work really, really hard without it feeling like a constant sprint all of the time. There’s times to sprint, absolutely.
23:12.64
Cristin Browne
ah But there’s times to slow down and and smell the roses as well. And I think that that balance is what in the long term of life, which is a marathon, not a sprint. And oh, by the way, you know, what is it all for anyway?
23:28.77
Cristin Browne
and All of that is equally as important as the check marks that we put on the scoreboard.
23:35.70
Lorie Jones
yeah That’s a really good point. Joy in the journey, right?
23:39.16
Cristin Browne
absolutely Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
23:44.55
Lorie Jones
um What scared you the most when you started out? And does it still scare you?
23:53.74
Cristin Browne
Yeah. You know, I, I i’d put my career into a couple of different buckets. It’s, you know, military Kristen and then post-military Kristen and blending those two things is absolutely a part of, of what I’m doing now.
24:06.20
Cristin Browne
yeah, but Failure absolutely scares me. um And it’s pragmatically, it’s really interesting to me as I think about my own journey with that failure.
24:23.37
Cristin Browne
In my head, I know that failure is inevitable. I know failure is necessary. I know failure is ah path on on the journey and you learn so much from it. And as I think about my own failures, I’ve learned so much from them along the way.
24:39.31
Cristin Browne
And yet it’s still scary. So that is that is my own work that I still constantly tell myself that at the end of the day, I i know that I have so much privilege in my life and I can only really fail so far.
24:42.85
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
24:58.24
Cristin Browne
I mean, i can live in a tent in the woods. I have that skillset. And if I lose everything, like homegirl is still going to survive. Yeah. That’s okay. so So knowing that is ah is is really empowering. But at the same time, it’s the the fear of the uncertainty, the fear of the unknown.
25:14.08
Cristin Browne
All that’s really hard. The ah courage part of it is stepping into it, even though I know that that fear is there.
25:21.06
Lorie Jones
Yeah, yeah, because we all do. We all know that failure is part of it and like stepping into that and kind of understanding that we grow and learn from that failure, but nobody wants to fail, right?
25:32.22
Cristin Browne
Right, right.
25:32.92
Lorie Jones
ah how do you How do you balance that?
25:33.99
Cristin Browne
Yep.
25:36.52
Cristin Browne
Yeah. Is that, is that really, is that the, want me to answer that question? How you balance that?
25:40.29
Lorie Jones
If you have an answer, absolutely.
25:44.11
Cristin Browne
Yeah, I think, I think it’s knowing that stripped of all of my accomplishments, I’m still ah enough, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still have goals and ambitions that I want to achieve.
25:58.81
Lorie Jones
I like that. That stripped of all your accomplishments, you’re still enough. so failure So you don’t take failure personally. Exactly.
26:07.97
Cristin Browne
who Yeah, yeah.
26:09.29
Lorie Jones
Oh, I like that. That’s a really good way of looking at things. um Did you face any unique challenges because you were a woman, Kristen?
26:20.15
Cristin Browne
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, i don’t even know where to start with that question. um
26:31.85
Cristin Browne
Yeah, i was i I was the only woman when I took over my company. um So if you want me I’ve got dozens of stories that we could probably just have a podcast on that if I so thought through them. But one of, on my second deployment, one of the very specific stories that are coming to mind and um was where do I sleep?
26:52.32
Cristin Browne
um The way that the base was set up was when we fell in on the base we were at, it was called Jalalabad. The flight line where the helicopters were and was mostly set up for men’s sleeping quarters.
27:08.59
Cristin Browne
And there were six rooms to these little wooden shacks. And so it was, you know, it was a free sleeping space essentially. And so men and women were not mixed in those shacks.
27:20.49
Cristin Browne
And so when I fell in on the previous company, the company commander that I took over for was a man. So it didn’t make any sense. Like I couldn’t, I couldn’t just replace room for room.
27:33.07
Cristin Browne
So the first decision was to put me in a ah a shipping container and by myself right on the flight line, which I slept in for about a month. And that wasn’t,
27:47.31
Cristin Browne
There’s a lot of reasons why that wasn’t the right call. Then the the next decision was, okay, well, you can sleep on a different part of the forward operating base with the women who are on staff, because they were trying to make a ah group of six women so that they could ah put together a shack, essentially.
28:06.60
Cristin Browne
But if that was the case, then I would be a solid 10, 15 minute walk from the flight line. And if there was emergency in the middle of the night or if there was a last minute approval that needed to happen, my team would be far away from me, which also didn’t make any sense.
28:21.25
Cristin Browne
um So it was basically working with those levers and working with my boss and the staff and so saying, okay, how are we going to make this work? Cause here’s the left and right limits that I I’m willing to sacrifice. Here’s the left and right limits that I’m not willing to sacrifice.
28:36.97
Cristin Browne
And here’s really what’s best for the unit at the end of the day, because that’s the most important thing. How are we going to make this work? So we figured it out. We, uh, one, one shack was, was that was right there on the flight line was converted into a ah ah women’s quarters.
28:54.15
Cristin Browne
um So it was like the chaplain and the intelligence officer and the personnel officer who are all women moved from kind of the main base out onto the flight lines that they could ah so that they could live with me because they weren’t going to ever have to be woken up in the middle of the night in the same way that I was.
29:10.75
Cristin Browne
Yeah.
29:10.73
Lorie Jones
Well, that’s, it’s good that that, that you managed to figure it out. I was so interested because you talked about being the only woman and having like control, you know, like being in charge of, um, several men.
29:25.54
Cristin Browne
yeah
29:26.24
Lorie Jones
How’d that work out?
29:28.33
Cristin Browne
Yeah. So my experience across the board, um you know, from even the time at my, at the academy, generally class sizes, it the academy was like 10 to 13. I think we graduated about 13% women.
29:39.35
Cristin Browne
So classes were about 10 to 15 people. So there’s usually one or two women in every class, if you think about the math, all the way to, yeah, my time in company command. And across the board, I would say that I would split the if being a woman mattering in about the 10th percentile. So at at both sides of the curve, about 10% of people thought it was really cool.
30:01.15
Cristin Browne
It’s like, that’s awesome. Like, yes. You know, whether they were women themselves or had daughters or wives or what what have you, they thought it was really, really awesome that i was that there was a woman in that seat. um About 10 to 15%, depending on the scenario, you’re never going to win them over.
30:15.06
Cristin Browne
They just don’t think you should be there.
30:15.58
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
30:16.71
Cristin Browne
and You’re a burden. it They just, whether it’s it’s subconsciously or consciously, you don’t belong, you’ve done something different. Diversity, equity, inclusion is the only reason why you’re sitting in that seat.
30:29.25
Cristin Browne
um there’s There’s absolutely them. And I think I spent a lot of energy trying to win some of them over and realizing that it’s very hard to do. And then the 80, then there’s 80% that just don’t care one iota.
30:44.57
Cristin Browne
um Are you confident? Can you do your job? Are you a good leader? and Do I respect you? i don’t care what’s, you know,
30:54.59
Lorie Jones
What gender, race, et cetera.
30:55.85
Cristin Browne
what gender, race, et cetera, you are exactly.
30:57.69
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s so cool.
30:58.01
Cristin Browne
Yep, yep, yep.
30:59.35
Lorie Jones
That’s neat. I think that’s great. I think that’s a good way of putting it. um What is, Kristen, what is the thing you are most proud of?
31:12.99
Cristin Browne
Hmm, that’s a hard question to answer. um
31:20.78
Cristin Browne
I’m most proud of my integrity. And my values. I feel like I’ve been in a lot of different scenarios in my life so far, and I hopefully have lots of life left to live and have had to make difficult decisions or have personally gone through ups and downs.
31:45.87
Cristin Browne
And this is this quote has come to mind. ah it’s it’s It’s from the academy, but I think it’s really fitting here. Choosing the harder right over the easier wrong has always been my path.
31:58.72
Cristin Browne
And I sleep really well at night.
32:04.97
Lorie Jones
So did you, did you sit down and like figure out what your values were early on and, and like make decisions based on those values? Or did you, um did you just come to a hard place and figure out what your values were? Like, how did you, how did you do that?
32:21.84
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
32:22.65
Cristin Browne
Yeah, I think I was raised with a certain set of values. um And then I think that many of those have been reinforced along the way. honestly, in the last couple of years, um I have have sat down and wrote them out as a part of my decision-making framework.
32:46.68
Cristin Browne
So integrity absolutely one. Yeah. Freedom, autonomy is is another.
32:53.53
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
32:53.65
Cristin Browne
Connection is is another.
32:53.67
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
32:55.25
Cristin Browne
So I mean, authentic connection. Like I want the people that I surround myself with know that I really care. Sometimes too much, but just really care. So authentic connection with community, friends, loved ones, um and joy, having fun along the way, kind of what I alluded to earlier.
33:11.33
Cristin Browne
So if my decision-making is around all of, to to in in service of those things, then I know I’m on the right path.
33:19.93
Lorie Jones
I think that’s really important. And I think that even as you, you know, Brave Peak Capital gets gets going and you, you know, you find that business and you become,
33:35.41
Lorie Jones
I think it’s important that you keep those values, that you have that you know, for both yourself and your employees, because I found a lot of times that companies fail when they don’t have not just good leaders, but leaders who live by values and and the people on the team kind of want that company to succeed because they believe in the same things you believe in.
33:52.57
Cristin Browne
her
33:59.92
Lorie Jones
And like you said, surrounding your people yourself with people that have those same kind of, you know, authentic connection, beliefs and integrity. I think that’s, I think that’s something that’s often overlooked in business.
34:13.25
Cristin Browne
Yeah, it ends. you know, if it takes me another two months or another two years to to find the right business and, you know, hopefully at some point groups of businesses, I’m going to find it and it’s going to be the right one for me because I know what I’m looking for.
34:30.03
Cristin Browne
And and that’s that’s just it. You know, I can be the the fearless warrior that’s going to fight like heck for what I believe in And I also am going to fight like heck for my people and keep the humanness and compassion and ah yeah, the human net part of it and compassion in in the in the business and that I really, really do care for my people and my customers and the ecosystem as a whole.
34:56.01
Cristin Browne
And the right people will gravitate towards that as well.
34:58.55
Lorie Jones
Yeah, yeah. I bet. I’m so looking forward to seeing what you come up with and how your trajectory goes from here, because we’re just getting a snapshot of who Kristen Brown is right now.
35:09.62
Lorie Jones
Right. But but as you as you move forward with those like fearless ideals and your um your values and stuff like that, I’m super excited to see who you turn into in the future.
35:20.66
Cristin Browne
Thanks, Laurie.
35:22.52
Lorie Jones
any advice for a young lady who’s just kind of starting down this path that you were on and you can take that question however you want it but any way to help her succeed and be successful like you.
35:29.56
Cristin Browne
the
35:34.21
Cristin Browne
Yeah, um well, I think the first one is define what success means to you, because don’t let social media, don’t let your parents, don’t let anyone else tell you what success is, because it can mean a lot of different things. There’s, yeah, I could go on and on about that. So don’t don’t sprint towards a goalpost that is not really even what success looks like for you because while society might tell you that that’s the right thing, you’re gonna get there and you’re just gonna feel empty because that wasn’t really what you wanted.
36:07.59
Cristin Browne
That takes work. um And that just takes time and experience too. But I think knowing you know knowing what success looks like for you um I think the second is never be afraid to reinvent yourself just because you decide that this is the direction and in one moment doesn’t mean that you can’t ah you can’t pivot along the way.
36:28.29
Cristin Browne
is you know we’re We’re all as women, as humans, ah constantly redefining ourselves. So don’t ever be afraid of of that. very Very few things in life are absolute and and permanent, if anything.
36:41.65
Lorie Jones
Yeah. I love that thought. I had a team member who was trying to decide at like age 20 or 21 or something like that, what she was going to do. And I am like, the good news is you’ve got like years to figure this out.
36:54.43
Lorie Jones
And if you do it wrong or you don’t like where you end up, like you can pivot, like you can change, you can be something different. So I think that’s so important to remember is that you’re not making a decision.
37:04.00
Cristin Browne
Yeah.
37:06.96
Lorie Jones
Even heard of a was it like a 90 year old, um, 87 or something like that, who learned how to do the ah trapeze artist on the circus.
37:17.98
Cristin Browne
a
37:19.22
Lorie Jones
And I’m like, if she can do that at that old, like, there’s nothing limiting me.
37:22.75
Cristin Browne
Yeah.
37:25.02
Lorie Jones
There’s no choices that are going to be stuck in in cement that i have to
37:25.30
Cristin Browne
Yeah.
37:31.20
Lorie Jones
um You know, I can always pivot or change. So I love that you said that. Kristen, thank you so much for spending some time with us. I really appreciate your story. um If I have a young lady who wants to get in touch with you and ask questions, how does she do that?
37:45.59
Cristin Browne
Sure. um I really enjoyed the conversation, so I appreciate you having me on. And I’m pretty active on LinkedIn, so you can look me up on LinkedIn. I think my how to spell my name is in the show notes and and or you can reach out to me on email. Kristen dot Brown at Brave P Capital dot com.
38:02.66
Lorie Jones
Well, thank you so much. I’ve really appreciated your story.
38:06.34
Cristin Browne
Likewise. Have a great one.