Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Kristin Kaufman, the Founder of an incredible company called Alignment and the author of these incredible – this series of books called Is This Seat Taken? Kristin, welcome to Women Mean Business.

Kristin: Thank you Leisa, I’m delighted to be here.

Leisa: Well I want to know everything about you. I want to know about Alignment, I want to know about the book series; tell me about Alignment first.

Kristin: Well Alignment came after a very long career in Corporate America and I wanted to create this company because in my experience I learned that there are a lot of people who are really out of alignment and I describe Alignment being loving what you do, being good at it, but most importantly having it tied to something greater than yourself. And I met lots of people who really had not mastered that art for themselves. So my company is all about leadership consulting, leadership coaching, keynote speaking, all around fostering alignment within individuals and groups of individuals, and then of course my books which are a pet project for me.

Leisa: Tell me, tell me, tell me about the books.

Kristin: Well I think I was always called to write and these books – actually both of them – there’s a series of books called Is This Seat Taken? and these are the first 2 of a series of 4. The first one is Is This Seat Taken?: The Random Encounters That Change Your Life, which is a collection of stories that I wrote when I was travelling the globe as a corporate executive and the random people I met; whether they were bartenders or people on an airplane or just random people that crossed your path. And I kept journals all those years and felt called to write a book about the wisdom that they bestowed upon me.

The second book, Is This Seat Taken?: It’s Never too Late to Find the Right Seat is written for people like you and me who at a certain age wonder is this all there is? Is there something else that I could or should or want to do in a way that I could contribute in the world? So I decided let’s write a book about people who, late in life, actually invent themselves. So this is not the people who have already made millions of dollars and are building orphanages in Nepal, these are people who are truly trying to craft a life that they want late in life.

Leisa: Like – I know you have some incredible examples.

Kristin: I do. So Grandma Moses who, for many young listeners they may not know who that is but basically she is a world famous folk artist who didn’t get her start until she was 87 and she’d had a very riddled life until that point; Ray Kroc who of course is the founder of McDonald’s, Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a myriad of other what I would call anonymous people – not famous people – that actually built amazing lives late in life.

Leisa: Well I can’t wait to read it; I have lots of friends who are going to want to read it also.

Kristin: Well I was inspired writing it. It’s just hard not to be when you read stories like that.

Leisa: Thank you so much for being here.

Kristin: My pleasure.

Leisa: There you have it, another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I’m Leisa Holland Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile technology company. You can find me at ContactActive.com or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.