By: Chelsie Rohlen

It’s not easy to overcome struggles and go from not needing to work and working for fun, to having to work to survive and sustain all aspects of your life—emotional, physical, or the livelihood of your family. It’s especially not easy to do it with grace, humility, and self-approbation. However, that’s exactly what PR pundit Christal Jordan did. When her marriage fell apart, she had to give up her dream job, and depression overcame her.  She knew she had to turn her business into something bigger with immense passion behind it. Over a period of time she built connections and learned smart business, combining tenacity and creativity. Truthfully, we can all learn a lot from Ms. Jordan, President of Enchanted PR, not to mention an award-winning author, journalist and media trainer.

On what made her capable of achieving her dreams:
“I think perseverance and being creative [allowed me to achieve my dreams] because a lot of times people like to hear exactly what to do. You can ask someone, “What did you do to get where you are?” Well, that may not be the same thing that is going to work for you. I heard people say, “You should follow these steps,” but I just got creative and just kept trying different things. I thought that it may work and it may not work, but I was not going to give up. It wasn’t just the perseverance, but also coming up with different ways to get the end result that I wanted.”

On trusting your gift:
“.... You have to be willing to trust that voice inside of you and trust all of that information that you have and the gift that I feel God places in all of us, whatever that gift is.”

On comparing yourself to others:
“You have to be willing to speak. Nine times out of 10 when we compare ourselves to other people, even if they are mentors—it’s good to have respect for people, but a lot of times the younger you are the less confidence you have in your abilities, and that can be a huge downfall.”

On how divorce changed her outlook on business:
“My ex-husband was an engineer, and  so, I did  not work because I had to, I worked because I wanted to. After I went through a divorce three years ago, I began working because I had to. So, it forced me to take my company and my business to another level. I have always been creative, I have always enjoyed and had a true passion for PR, but now it [provides] the way I see my kids, the way my kids go to school, it’s what pays all my bills, so I had to start stepping it up in the business of being an actual entrepreneur, because before I was this creative talent, and if a client paid or not it wasn’t an issue. After my divorce, then I started looking at business a lot different, and realized that the work I was doing had to have a value to it, and I needed to be aware of what that value was in order to see my children.”

On what success is:
“Do not let others define what success is for you, but just truly listen to and begin to trust what is inside of you. Even if it doesn’t necessarily gel with what you are hearing on the outside, the most successful people that I have met are people that have a very good sense of self and listen to what their inner voice says to them. I tell myself that every day. When you have done everything that you can to prepare yourself, you can be competitive, be knowledgeable—but once you’ve done all that you can you have to trust that instinct, your inner passion and inner gifts.”

On her favorite quote, “This too shall pass”:
“Everything goes through seasons, and when one door closes another one opens. As cliché as that sounds, everything bad passes and if you can learn from it, and take those lessons and apply it to something else, you will be rewarded with something bigger. So, just everything passes, everything has a season.”

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