{"id":30434,"date":"2017-03-14T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T13:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=30434"},"modified":"2019-03-05T12:15:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T17:15:08","slug":"embracing-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/embracing-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep.16: Embracing Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"player_container player-30434\" ><div class=\"spp_player_textabove\"><b>Listen to the Episode  <\/b><\/div><div id=\"sm2-30434\" class=\"sm2-30434 playercontent sm2-bar-ui compact flat full-width full-width-player\"><div class=\"bd sm2-main-controls\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-button-element\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"background: transparent url(https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/05\/podcast_channel_artwork.jpg) repeat scroll 0% 0% \/ cover ;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div 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class=\"sm2-playlist-wrapper\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"sm2-playlist-bd\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Kryshon_Podcast_Final.mp3\">Ep.16: Embracing Change<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"sppbuttons\" style=\"\"><a class=\"button-itunes\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-story-exchange\/id1036000689?ls=1\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-g-play\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzdG9yeWV4Y2hhbmdlLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz\">Google Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-embed\" rel=\"modal:open\"  id=\"button-embed\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#ex1\">Player Embed<\/a><a class=\"button-share\" data-target=\"btnshare\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#\">Share<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"btnshare\" class=\"webui-popover-content 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target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLaK2UyNCu2g2_preGI12R4z2iRXjIH3ah\">Youtube Music<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom3\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5lJgdFK8g9WWXLBYjWytyn\">Spotify<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom4\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/pca.st\/B094\">Pocket Casts<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom5\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom6\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-30437 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02.png\" alt=\"Kryshon Bratton, Bratton Pools\" width=\"1030\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02.png 1030w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02-525x197.png 525w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02-768x289.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02-1024x385.png 1024w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02-300x113.png 300w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02-100x38.png 100w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02-862x324.png 862w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/22230834\/Kryshon02-846x318.png 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Kryshon Bratton has embraced &#8212; and driven &#8212; change both in life and in business. Learn how the Houston pool-builder harnessed a keen eye for opportunity and used the entrepreneurial &#8220;pivot&#8221; to stoke growth and create the work-life balance she wants.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/dreams-growth-require-business-shift\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">See related video and article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"transcript-box\" style=\"float:none !important;\">\r\n<div class=\"accordion-container\">\r\n\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"accordion-toggle\">Read Full Transcript<span class=\"toggle-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-angle-double-down\"><\/i><\/span><\/a>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"accordion-accordion_content\">\r\n\t\t\t<p><p>KRYSHON: It\u2019s a better lifestyle choice and we get better financial benefit.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: (as music plays lightly in background) Welcome to The Story Exchange, featuring the stories and strategies of entrepreneurial women around the world. I\u2019m Colleen DeBaise.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: And I\u2019m Sue Williams.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Today we are talking about change. Most people are resistant to it.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: But one group of people tends to embrace it: Entrepreneurs. <\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: In the startup world, change is so common that it\u2019s known by its own buzzword: Pivot. <\/p>\n<p>SUE: It simply means, adjusting your business strategy.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Or in the case of Kryshon Bratton, it means finding an entirely new direction for one\u2019s company. She now runs Bratton Pools of Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: Bratton Pools is a pool builder, renovator, re-plasterer. We also are building outdoor kitchens and pavilions.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: But before Kryshon and husband Michael were building pools, they were running a related but very different business.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: Avant-Garde Aquatics, which was a lifeguarding company. I was in charge of all 500-plus teenagers.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Now, switching from guarding the pools to building the pools is quite the pivot.<br \/>\nSUE: But it\u2019s certainly paid off: She\u2019s now making $2 million dollars in revenue a year. And spending a lot more time with her family, which is what motivated her in the first place. <\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We were fascinated by this concept of \u201cradical change\u201d -- and the types of people who can do it -- so we headed down south to Houston, the Space City, to talk with Kryshon. If you go to our website, TheStoryExchange.org, you can watch a video we produced, telling Kryshon\u2019s complete story. Today, we\u2019re going to share snippets of that conversation. <\/p>\n<p>SUE: If you\u2019re stuck in a rut, or looking to switch to Plan B, or simply hoping to evolve, then this is a podcast for you. <\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Change is difficult for a lot of people. So we wanted to first look at Kryshon\u2019s background.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: I was born and raised in Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Kryshon\u2019s mom is all-Texan. But her father is originally from New Delhi, India.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: The origin of my name is it\u2019s Hindu. It means \u201cof God.\u201d My sisters and I all have Indian first names. I\u2019m the only Kryshon anyone has ever met.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Change has always been a part of her life. Her parents divorced when she was 7.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: And it did get rough because they lost their home, we lost the cars, and my mom all of a sudden became a single mother with three children all under the age of ten.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: At one point, her mother was working three jobs to support Kryshon and her sisters.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: \u2026 a very transient childhood, we lived in -- with friends, with family, sometimes we spent time in the car, sometimes, you know, in the car but in someone\u2019s driveway.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Kryshon thinks all this -- including being homeless for a short while -- has made her the type of person she is, which is fearless.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: We\u2019ve achieved a lot, you know, overcome a lot, \u201cnever give up\u201d attitude in life.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Kryshon paid her way through college at the University of Houston by selling cars, and at 21, she married Michael Bratton, who had a lifeguarding business.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: He provided the lifeguards and the maintenance services for community associations, neighborhood country clubs, people who use lifeguards at their swimming pools during the summer.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Five years later, while pregnant with their second daughter and working long hours with her husband, she saw an opportunity to better her family\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: And so Mother\u2019s Day\u2026I\u2019m at a pool, I\u2019m dealing with other people, and it kind of hit me that I wasn\u2019t with my own child, and even that still, not even with Michael. Just, you know, we\u2019re going in a different direction at a million miles an hour. <\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: And that\u2019s when she decided that a pivot was in order.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: Having a lifeguarding company, at least the way we did it, was all encompassing. It\u2019s pretty much a cattle call. You put up signs, you send somebody to the local high school, \u201cIf you want to be a lifeguard, show up at this date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Instead of dealing with hundreds of teenagers in greater metropolitan Houston, Kryshon wanted to deal with dozens of adult homeowners in a few select neighborhoods, repairing and maintaining their pools.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: I talked to Michael, and mentioned it a few times, and he was very resistant. <\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Like we said earlier, not everybody likes change. But Kryshon was insistent. <\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: And then one day he came home and I said, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve talked to the attorneys, I\u2019ve talked to the accountant and I\u2019ve already signed the paperwork.\u201d And he hadn\u2019t even walked in the door really, and thankfully he bought in and he said OK.  <\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We\u2019ve been sharing the story of Kryshon Bratton, who decided to embark on a major business pivot when she up and restructured the family business. I\u2019m being joined again by Sue Williams, our resident filmmaker, who spent a day in Houston, shooting our video profile.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: We were all over the Houston area that day and spent a lot of time in the car driving from one worksite to another. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Yes. Houston is massive and sprawling, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Yes, it took nearly an hour to get to each appointment. But Kryshon loves and really identifies with her city.  She says it\u2019s very multi-cultural, that there is room for everyone no matter where they may come from. And she especially loves the Richmond area where her office is -- when we were there it was still in a doublewide trailer surrounded by fields on the edge of town. But they were just about to move into the center of town -- across from the courthouse and the local museum. And being as family-oriented and community-minded as she is, it really suits her.<\/p>\n<p> COLLEEN: What\u2019s interesting is that she decided to pivot not because the business was in trouble, or it was losing customers, but really because she wanted more time with family.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Yes. And a big problem with the lifeguarding business is what I was just saying -- that Houston is so huge -- and that Kryshon and Michael were spending most of their time in the car.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: Instead of having 50, 60 pools all over the city of Houston we can now build pools in Katy, and in Sugar Land, Richmond, Rosenberg\u2026our circle is a lot smaller. That\u2019s where the shift changes for us, and why there\u2019s a benefit.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: And of course, transitioning to a pool-services company made a lot of sense, as they were already somewhat familiar with pool maintenance, but Kryshon was surprised at what happened after they launched Bratton Pools.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: We didn\u2019t start out with the idea that we were going to build pools. We, uh, had a friend who said, \u201cI want to have a pool but I don\u2019t want anybody else building it for me. Will you do it?\u201d And we did and from there we, uh, did their pool in 2009, and then the next year we did two more, and the next year we did four more, and the next year we did this.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Kryshon spread the word using social media\u2026<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: We\u2019re on Facebook. And we would take pictures of the start, which is the excavation and the stub out and, you know, the homeowners, they\u2019re Facebooking\u2026and the next thing you know their friends are calling and saying, \u201cCan you build a pool for us?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SUE: They\u2019re currently focusing on renovation.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: We put in spas where there weren\u2019t spas. We put in outdoor kitchens where there weren\u2019t outdoor kitchens. The profitability isn\u2019t all in the building a new swimming pool. You can have better profit margins in a renovation.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: It\u2019s really a fascinating industry.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: It is\u2026so different! What is Kryshon like in person? <\/p>\n<p>SUE: She\u2019s a go-getter, that\u2019s for sure, but she doesn\u2019t feel as intense and driven as some of the women entrepreneurs I\u2019ve spent time with. She\u2019s calm and practical and this is a practical business. It\u2019s construction and she understands the cement, the tiles, the pools, hot tubs, decks and awnings. And so I think she can see quite clearly the possibilities for expansion and opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Inspired by the success of the pivot, Kryshon has started another business.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: We started to work with permeable on the side yards or the offshoots of the pool itself. And that kind of grew away from swimming pools and into driveways and parking lots.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: It\u2019s a little windy so far.<br \/>\n-Right, we\u2019re just going to have to make it work.<br \/>\n-Once we get the fabric down then we\u2019ll, uh, start laying the grid.<br \/>\n-Right.<br \/>\n-So --<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: We all at one point have dealt with flooding in Houston and it\u2019s never a question of \u201cif.\u201d It\u2019s always a question of \u201cwhen.\u201d Permeable, uh, allows for proper drainage. So whenever you have concrete water goes everywhere, but with permeable it\u2019s all going back into the ground. So it\u2019s cleaner. It\u2019s environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Last year, Kryshon started Piper Whitney -- named after her two daughters -- to build walkways, parking lots and drivable lawns. And while it might sound boring -- it just might be her most ambitious project yet.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: We\u2019re sending more and more bids and estimates to Austin. We\u2019re sending more and more to San<br \/>\nAntonio because those are cities that experiencing a huge growth. Well, growth is fabulous. I love growth.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She\u2019s on her way: Piper Whitney brought in about $500,000 dollars in revenue in its first year, and Kryshon expects the business to reach over $1 million in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: I would love to be doing double what we\u2019re doing now for Piper Whitney, and doing it in different cities.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kryshon acknowledges that her drive to succeed may have something to do with her difficult childhood\u2026but now, she says her motivation comes from a different place.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: My goal personally is to get to a point where I can tell my parents and Michael\u2019s mom: \u201cWe\u2019ll take care of you. Don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d But to get there it\u2019s going to cost a lot of money and it\u2019s going to take a lot of hard work.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: And like many entrepreneurs, she\u2019s pleased to be building something bigger than herself. She\u2019s thrilled that Piper Whitney is eco-friendly.<\/p>\n<p>KRYSHON: I just love the fact that it\u2019s green. I love the fact that it\u2019s responsible, and this is my city. This is my town. I take a lot of pride in the fact that I\u2019m creating something and it may be a parking lot, and it may just be a sidewalk, but I created something that\u2019s going to last and it\u2019s going to have value.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Join us next time to hear more stories about innovative and inspirational women doing the things you\u2019d never dream of. Or\u2026maybe you would. This has been The Story Exchange. If you liked this podcast, please post a review on iTunes. It helps other people find the show. And visit our website at TheStoryExchange.org, where you\u2019ll find news, videos and tips for women entrepreneurs. Sound editing provided by Nusha Balyan. Interview recorded by Sam Shinn. Executive producers are Sue Williams and Victoria Wang.<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<!--\/.accordion-accordion_content-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hear how Houston pool-builder Kryshon Bratton has used the entrepreneurial &#8220;pivot&#8221; to stoke growth and create the work-life balance she wants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":30439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[19790,19683,19697],"class_list":["post-30434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-business-growth","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-work-life-balance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - 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