Episode 134 features Kristen Hamilton, a fiction book editor, living her best life doing what she loves from the comfort of her home.
She’s here to discuss how she started her business, learning on the job, multitasking, and working from home, plus we dive into the paralyzing nature of an abundance of choice, discuss comfort foods, and much much more.
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
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–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:05 – 00:00:22:39
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent palmer.com James Gardner’s October light has layers beyond it’s book within a book hope woven through soon to be legendary Astrid Falls. And as long as Jonathan keeps talking on the radio, I’ll keep listening. This is The Palmer Files episode 134 featuring Kristen Hamilton, a fiction book editor who’s living her best life doing what she loves from the comfort of her own home.
00:00:22:52 – 00:01:08:51
Agent Palmer
She’s here to discuss how she started her business learning on the job, multitasking, working from home. Plus, we dive into the paralyzing nature of the abundance of choice, discuss comfort foods, and much, much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:08:55 – 00:01:36:46
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic. Also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 134th episode is Kristen Hamilton. She’s a fiction book editor, a business she has built up successfully for more than a decade. You’ll hear how that came to be and a little about her process. Plus, we dive into multitasking, library consolidation, discovering what you want to do, how her job as editor has changed, the way she reads, the crippling abundance of choice, and, well, all of that.
00:01:36:46 – 00:01:58:31
Agent Palmer
And more is coming your way shortly. But first, remember that if you want to discuss this episode as you listen or afterwards, you can find all related ways to contact my guest, Kristen and myself in the show notes there you can also find Kristen’s website. Kristen. Correct. Com That’s Kristen correct.com. Don’t forget you can see all of my writings and rantings on Agent palmer.com.
00:01:58:31 – 00:02:10:19
Agent Palmer
And of course email can be sent to the Palmer files@gmail.com. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
00:02:10:23 – 00:02:20:41
Agent Palmer
Kristen, you are a fiction book editor, and when I saw that, I felt like immediately needing to ask the question, why fiction?
00:02:20:46 – 00:02:48:27
Kristen Hamilton
Because fiction is the best. I was actually I was actually having this conversation with my brother in law, over this past weekend. He was like, hey, why? You know, why do you like fiction? Like why not? Because he was he was he was talking about how he likes to read nonfiction. You know, he likes to, like a quote unquote educate himself.
00:02:48:31 – 00:03:19:09
Kristen Hamilton
Okay. You know, nonfiction. And I had to laugh because it’s like, yeah, you know, there is a very good point as far as educating yourself with reading nonfiction books and nonfiction, you know, things, but fiction is just so cool. It’s so much fun. Like, like there is so much under the fiction umbrella to there’s, you know, just general fiction, you know, just drama.
00:03:19:10 – 00:03:26:35
Agent Palmer
I get it. I just, I mean, I’m, I’m in between you and your brother in law. Yes, I, I try and alternate.
00:03:26:40 – 00:03:27:34
Kristen Hamilton
Okay. Yeah.
00:03:27:45 – 00:03:38:13
Agent Palmer
Back and forth. I will also argue on your behalf that you can learn just as much from fiction as you can from non. Yeah.
00:03:38:18 – 00:03:59:24
Kristen Hamilton
No, you can, you can. I mean, like, there are definitely things that when I am editing books, you know, something will come up. And of course I can’t think of an example right now. That’s fine. But yeah, you know, something will come up and I’m like, oh, like I never knew that. That is so cool. Here’s one. Here’s an example.
00:03:59:24 – 00:04:27:27
Kristen Hamilton
Not not something that I edited, but something that I read for fun recently, a Dean Koontz book. I can’t remember which one. The character. How do I describe this? He had his hand with his, thumb and his pinky sticking out, but his other three fingers down, and he, like, wiggled his hand back and forth. And that is called a shocker.
00:04:27:32 – 00:04:43:08
Kristen Hamilton
I think, maybe that’s not a movie. That’s not the best example because I can’t remember specifically. But my point is that, yes, while you are reading fiction books, you could still learn things like there is so much, do.
00:04:43:09 – 00:04:45:53
Agent Palmer
You read nonfiction, though?
00:04:45:58 – 00:05:14:34
Kristen Hamilton
It’s been a minute. You know, I would say I actually can’t remember the last one fiction book I read. There have been a few nonfiction books that I’ve read, but it’s all very like niche stuff. Like one of my favorite nonfiction books is called Dead Mountain. I can’t remember who the author was, but it was about the,
00:05:14:39 – 00:05:49:11
Kristen Hamilton
And this this is this is a long time ago that I read this. I’m trying to, like, grasp that the details. It was the hikers from the Dyatlov Pass incident who light the 1950s, like 1955, 1957. This group of hikers were, you know, hiking up the Dyatlov Pass in Russia, I think. And, they all they all died like they they were in their tent for the night.
00:05:49:16 – 00:06:21:25
Kristen Hamilton
And then for whatever reason, they slashed open their tent and literally just ran out into the snow and they all died. And so it was like this huge mystery for like, decades and decades. So so that’s what I read when I’m reading nonfiction. It was actually a very, very interesting book on on that. So I don’t know if you could really consider that as, like, hey, like I’m reading to like, but it’s.
00:06:21:25 – 00:06:45:58
Agent Palmer
Been so long since you’ve read nonfiction, though. Like, yeah. Is there a reason that you like I, I understand finding your house and living in it, but, you don’t want to take a vacation from all the look. And I know there’s so many different kinds of fiction. You know, you could spend the rest of our lives naming them, right?
00:06:45:58 – 00:06:55:32
Agent Palmer
Because they’ve got genres and subgenres, I get it. But, like, you know, you don’t want to, read nonfiction every once in a while.
00:06:55:37 – 00:07:30:58
Kristen Hamilton
No, no, I mean, like that. I’m definitely not saying that. Like nonfiction absolutely has value. I would say that and this is kind of changing topics, but the number one reason why I’m not reading nonfiction as much these days is because I’m not reading at all for pleasure. Oh, okay. As much these days, because I have an almost two year old, and that little sucker takes up all all of my time.
00:07:31:02 – 00:07:32:11
Kristen Hamilton
All of my time.
00:07:32:13 – 00:07:49:34
Agent Palmer
So you’re so, so is. Yeah. I mean, I don’t want to put too fine a point on it. And I don’t want to put you on the spot either. But I guess this is where we’re at. Is the, is the editing reading? Yeah. You were fun like that. I guess that’s your pleasure reading now.
00:07:49:39 – 00:08:24:30
Kristen Hamilton
Honestly, I love my job so much. Like, my job is the best job in the whole world. Let me tell you about my job. Okay, Jason, I’m telling you about my job. Okay? So I started in 2012. So? So 12 years now. Yep. I literally can’t. I work from home, so I come into my home office. My commute, quote unquote, is like five steps, you know, down, down my office hallway.
00:08:24:38 – 00:08:41:52
Kristen Hamilton
Okay. I get to work in my PJ’s. I get to set the hours that I want to work. I get to set my rates, how much I want to get paid for editing books. It is honestly the best thing ever.
00:08:41:57 – 00:08:48:15
Agent Palmer
Okay, so, I want I want to go backwards. We’re going to go backwards. So.
00:08:48:15 – 00:08:49:43
Kristen Hamilton
Okay.
00:08:49:48 – 00:08:51:55
Agent Palmer
When did you graduate from college?
00:08:51:59 – 00:09:04:22
Kristen Hamilton
So I graduated in December of 2012, and I. But I started my business in September of 2012. Okay. So. Yeah. So you a couple you.
00:09:04:22 – 00:09:13:19
Agent Palmer
Started your business before graduating. So you knew this is what you were going to do?
00:09:13:23 – 00:09:13:54
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah.
00:09:14:08 – 00:09:27:29
Agent Palmer
Oh, I am going. I am immensely jealous. I mean, like, look, I, I was a liberal arts major for my AA.
00:09:27:34 – 00:09:28:45
Kristen Hamilton
Okay.
00:09:28:49 – 00:09:53:21
Agent Palmer
How how generic can we get? And then, I was like, oh, I, I need to like, when that ended, I needed to make a decision for my four year degree. So I went communications. Because that was as, that was almost as general as liberal arts. Yeah. And I graduated with no idea as to what I was going to do.
00:09:53:26 – 00:10:24:04
Agent Palmer
And we now fast forward almost 20 years, actually, as we record this, depending on when it releases, we’re around my 20 year reunion. But. Okay, I, I’m still 20 years after walking across that stage not knowing what I want to do. I, I’ve done many things and I’m happy with what I’m doing, and I do work from home and I edit other people’s podcasts for a living right now.
00:10:24:09 – 00:10:36:03
Agent Palmer
Okay. And so I have the same commute you do. Although mine, you know, I don’t know about you, but I have to detour through the kitchen for coffee or the. The morning just doesn’t start.
00:10:36:08 – 00:10:37:11
Kristen Hamilton
Absolutely.
00:10:37:15 – 00:11:03:41
Agent Palmer
But I, I have arrived here in a in a set of circumstances that I could not have. I like I can describe them to you now, looking back, but I could not have ascribed them as a path. At all that I would have wanted to take. It’s where I am now. But I’m still kind of jealous that you were like.
00:11:03:46 – 00:11:16:47
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I haven’t graduated yet, but I know what I’m going to do. And that. Was there any hesitation like, did you start? Did you finish with the good degree that you started going to school for?
00:11:16:52 – 00:11:36:03
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. So I’ve had originally gone to school. I was kind of like you when I first started college. I knew that I wanted to do something in, you know, writing. Actually, my my major was, English with an emphasis on writing.
00:11:36:05 – 00:11:37:08
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:11:37:13 – 00:12:07:43
Kristen Hamilton
And when I originally started college, I was like, okay, I guess I want to work for the newspaper. Okay. Yeah, I’ll. I’ll work for the newspaper. All right. Articles. I’ll do this research. Okay. I’ll work in a cubicle, you know. So spending my day, like, on a computer? Yeah, that sounds great. But then in my senior year of college, one of my required classes was a workshopping class.
00:12:07:47 – 00:12:41:34
Kristen Hamilton
Okay. Where it was like, you write a short story and you bring it to the class, and everybody, edits it, and everybody critiques it. Okay. I absolutely hated getting my work critiqued. Okay. I was I was a bad critique partner. I was like, I took it personally. I just, I it just wasn’t good. But on the other side of the coin, editing and critiquing other people’s work.
00:12:41:46 – 00:12:46:41
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah, I was like, whoa, this is cool.
00:12:46:43 – 00:12:47:52
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:12:47:57 – 00:13:16:30
Kristen Hamilton
And so, like, it kind of stuck in my head. And then a few months later, I got laid off from my job, and my husband had just coincidentally bought me this book called freelancing for dummies. Like a couple weeks before that. So I was sitting on the couch. I had I, you know, unemployed. I was still I was still, you know, in college, but I had no actual job.
00:13:16:32 – 00:13:39:55
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. And it’s like, okay, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? So I read this book, freelancing for dummies, and I was like, okay, I have I got nothing better to do. You know, I’m I might as well give it a try. So by the end, I got laid off on a Friday and I read that book.
00:13:39:55 – 00:13:44:08
Kristen Hamilton
And by the end of that weekend, I had founded my business.
00:13:44:12 – 00:13:45:12
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:13:45:17 – 00:13:59:40
Kristen Hamilton
So originally, my business, Christian Carex, was, business copywriting and, like, manuscript editing, something like that.
00:13:59:45 – 00:14:03:37
Agent Palmer
And it’s still pretty broad, though. Like you’re not it wasn’t.
00:14:03:37 – 00:14:28:32
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was very broad. And I mean, like, I did that for years and years, like copywriting and just kind of taking every single job that I could. But I always wanted to, get those jobs where I was editing something. Not copywriting, you know, not so much, but actually editing something that was that, you know, obviously somebody had written.
00:14:28:37 – 00:14:29:40
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:14:29:45 – 00:14:53:54
Kristen Hamilton
And, so over the years, you know, as my, my business grew, my reputation grew, I was able to kind of set a, you know, thanks, but no thanks more often to those copywriting jobs and then have more work with editing books. So. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s pretty much that’s pretty much how I got here.
00:14:53:56 – 00:14:55:39
Kristen Hamilton
So.
00:14:55:44 – 00:15:14:42
Agent Palmer
I want to ask you about your first editing, the first nonfiction novel you edited. Because I’m not asking for specifics, but I edited the rough draft of a friend of mine’s first novel.
00:15:14:55 – 00:15:16:45
Kristen Hamilton
Okay.
00:15:16:50 – 00:15:45:33
Agent Palmer
And that’s when I discovered that editing is, not just spelling and grammar. It was very much like, an eye opening thing where, like, I was halfway through the read and I went, oh, I think he screwed up time. I think I think I need to legitimately go back and write, like, give myself a bullet line of, like, when things happen because I think some of these things are out of order.
00:15:45:38 – 00:16:10:19
Agent Palmer
And for fiction specifically, that never occurred to me until I was in the middle of giving him feedback and editing this rough manuscript. Yeah. Was that something you knew going into your first fiction manuscript, or were you like me and you got halfway through an oh oh, I have to fix this timeline issue?
00:16:10:23 – 00:16:53:50
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s it’s definitely something that you learn on the job. Okay. I mean, like, you know, like like I got a college degree, I got my bachelor’s, my bachelor’s degree in English writing, and, you know, like, I spent four years inside a classroom learning how to, you know, improve sentence structure and, you know, narrative style and, like, all these things, but honestly, oh, my gosh, like, nothing compared to actually sitting down with that first book and all the books after it, you know, that really makes you be like, Holy crap, I don’t know anything.
00:16:53:54 – 00:17:00:44
Agent Palmer
Okay, so before, your two year old comes along, are you reading a lot for pleasure?
00:17:00:48 – 00:17:01:53
Kristen Hamilton
Oh, yeah.
00:17:01:58 – 00:17:03:00
Agent Palmer
Does.
00:17:03:05 – 00:17:04:02
Kristen Hamilton
Does, yeah.
00:17:04:09 – 00:17:17:39
Agent Palmer
Does your job in editing and what you do for pay, does that have an impact or has that changed the way you actually read for pleasure?
00:17:17:44 – 00:17:42:13
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. Honestly, it’s like it’s ruined it. It really. You know, I’m I’m so picky now with what? That, you know, before it was like, okay, I’ll struggle through it, you know, even if I’m not enjoying the book, that that I’m reading for pleasure. Even if I’m not enjoying it, you know, all that I’ll struggle through, and I want to see how it ends.
00:17:42:15 – 00:17:56:17
Kristen Hamilton
Okay. And now it’s like, I don’t have time for that. Like, I’m not going to read a crappy book unless I’m getting paid for it. Like, no offense to any authors out there. Well, yeah, but that is not worth my time.
00:17:56:18 – 00:18:02:56
Agent Palmer
That’s fine. You can offend all the authors because you’re sitting across from the one guy who still hasn’t not finished a book.
00:18:03:01 – 00:18:05:00
Kristen Hamilton
And, well, and there you go.
00:18:05:09 – 00:18:15:58
Agent Palmer
Right. Like, I think we’ll balance it out well enough. I am also very picky, but, like, there are some books that I’ve been like, I still got to get through it.
00:18:16:03 – 00:18:16:49
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah.
00:18:16:54 – 00:18:40:08
Agent Palmer
So when you are finally saying no to, like, the the stuff you don’t want to do and you’re focusing more on what you do want to do, and obviously it’s been, you know, over a decade. But like, at what point were you like, this is it? Or did you know immediately like you were like, oh, no, like now that I can start saying no to jobs, I’m, I’m where I want to be.
00:18:40:13 – 00:19:20:46
Kristen Hamilton
Honestly, it was a long time and I actually have a really good story about that. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah. So I started my business in 2012, and I worked so hard. I was like, I was so hungry for work that I took absolutely every job that came to me. Okay. And, and, you know, I’m just absolutely desperate to make it because I know that, you know, a lot of people who create their own businesses, a lot of those businesses fail in the first, like, two years.
00:19:20:47 – 00:19:34:58
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. And I didn’t want to be that statistic. Like, I loved what I did and what I do so much that I didn’t want to fail and have to go back to working in fast food. You know.
00:19:35:11 – 00:19:35:49
Agent Palmer
All right.
00:19:35:54 – 00:20:06:26
Kristen Hamilton
That’s fair. So, so I really, really struggled and and, you know, along the way I really built up, a good business like I do good work. I have, I have repeat customers. I have word of mouth clients. So, like, I’m, I mean, like, I’m, I’m trying to say this and not, like, feel full of myself, but I really, I do I do do a good job.
00:20:06:26 – 00:20:39:03
Kristen Hamilton
I love my work. I love what I do, and I do it well. When, when I was five years into my business, I joined this local group that, the editors and writers. And the whole purpose of the group was to it was, you know, networking. Yeah. And to share information and share knowledge. And I mentioned the group and I was like, okay, yeah, I’ve been doing this for five, 5 or 6 years.
00:20:39:08 – 00:20:49:19
Kristen Hamilton
Here’s my portfolio. Here’s what I know. Here’s how I, you know, operate on a day to day basis. You know, all this information.
00:20:49:32 – 00:20:50:12
Agent Palmer
Yep.
00:20:50:17 – 00:21:32:14
Kristen Hamilton
And the, everyone in the group was like, Holy crap. You really have your stuff together. You really know what you’re doing. And I’m like, I do. So it was it was very validating. It was a really nice, surprise, I guess, to go into this group hoping, you know, to, like, have, have people there who were, you know, older and wiser and more and more experienced than I was to be able to teach me things, but in reality, it actually turned out to be the opposite.
00:21:32:19 – 00:21:33:40
Kristen Hamilton
I,
00:21:33:45 – 00:21:41:16
Agent Palmer
Well, you learn by doing. And at that point, 5 or 6 years in, you probably had done as much as anyone else or more.
00:21:41:17 – 00:22:11:09
Kristen Hamilton
And I mean, a big part of it, though, too, is that I have worked full time from home since day one and a lot of other editors, or at least the ones in that group, had been, you know, just part time, like, oh, I edit I edited 2 or 3 books this year. They say where it’s like, okay, well, I’ve been doing between 30 and 50 bucks a year since I started.
00:22:11:14 – 00:22:13:55
Kristen Hamilton
So it’s like it’s a huge, huge difference.
00:22:14:07 – 00:22:32:20
Agent Palmer
So this is when we this is when I get to ask the question. Right. Because anybody out there so they can. Well she’s probably editing some of these together. Right. Like you’re not going from one, you’re not sitting down editing one all the way through and then moving on to the next one.
00:22:32:25 – 00:22:33:04
Kristen Hamilton
No.
00:22:33:08 – 00:22:52:52
Agent Palmer
So how are you able to look? I’m. And maybe it’s just me. I read one book at a time. I’m the weirdo. And apparently I am the weirdo. Because a lot of people that I talked to on this show that are readers read, have a few books going at once. I read one book at a time. How are you able?
00:22:52:57 – 00:23:14:39
Agent Palmer
I know you can take notes and I know you can reference them, but how are you able to keep, you know, what’s the average for you? Like what’s your concurrent like 3 or 4 at a time? And how do you keep that all segmented like, I’m not going to I’m not going to I’m not going to accidentally remember something about a different protagonist while I’m editing this other thing.
00:23:14:44 – 00:23:44:41
Kristen Hamilton
Right, right. No. Honestly, I’ve always found it really easy to just keep everything totally separate. Because, like, I see, you know, like, I see these worlds in these scenes and these characters in my head. So it makes it really difficult to take a characteristic or a, you know, fatal flaw or whatever from one character and one book.
00:23:44:46 – 00:23:53:03
Kristen Hamilton
And apply it to a completely different character from a completely different book. Like, it it just it doesn’t it doesn’t happen. Okay.
00:23:53:08 – 00:24:03:23
Agent Palmer
Well, I’m going to knock on wood because I don’t want to jinx you, but it’s just, you know, because that’s, you know, I, I definitely I don’t know, I don’t know, I mean, you said you were always able to do this.
00:24:03:30 – 00:24:33:16
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, in, in college, you know, with all that college reading and, you know, especially for an English major and all those literature classes, they’re having, you read like, I remember when I was in college at one time reading 12 books at once. And, and it’s just like, okay. Like, I don’t know, like I’ve just always been able to keep things straight.
00:24:33:19 – 00:24:34:30
Kristen Hamilton
Okay.
00:24:34:35 – 00:25:10:26
Agent Palmer
Okay. And and so you’ve been working at home on your own self-employed for over a decade. What do you do? To like, I don’t know, I, I don’t want to say utilize the space, but, you know, you know, utilize the space, like, are, you know, are you rigid with yourself? Like, I work 9 to 5 or, you know, do you have some wiggle room, like, how do you manage your day to day in a way where you can remain as prolific as you have been?
00:25:10:31 – 00:25:36:57
Kristen Hamilton
So honestly, that’s like my Kryptonite. I’m I’m bad at that. I’m not, like, terrible, but I’m really not very nice to myself when it comes to building my schedule. I love building my schedule. I love planning things. I love, you know, scheduling things out, but actually following that schedule is like,
00:25:37:02 – 00:25:43:07
Agent Palmer
Like, so what’s the hard part? Is it like, is it like stopping on time? Like, are you a workaholic? I guess?
00:25:43:20 – 00:25:45:29
Kristen Hamilton
No no no no no no.
00:25:45:40 – 00:25:46:05
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:25:46:11 – 00:26:06:43
Kristen Hamilton
So so I am very, very adamant about 6:00. I’m done. I’m done with work at 6:00, and I don’t work on weekends. I am so incredibly adamant about that. My problem is actually getting my butt into my office in the first place. Okay.
00:26:06:48 – 00:26:11:53
Agent Palmer
Are. You are. Oh. So. Okay, so I get to ask this question. This is great. Are you a morning person?
00:26:12:01 – 00:26:40:22
Kristen Hamilton
Yes. Yeah. I love waking up early. My my schedule right now is a little bit weird. So I, my husband and I, we both work from home, so, I take the kiddo in the morning, and then, he usually takes his nap from 12 to 2. So then when I put him down for his nap at 12, I go to work.
00:26:40:23 – 00:27:00:05
Kristen Hamilton
So I work 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.. And that’s that’s my schedule right now. Honestly, it I, I change it up every I probably say twice a year just kind of to have some different kind of, you know, get some variety in there. Okay. But yeah. No. So I’m working afternoons right now.
00:27:00:07 – 00:27:24:30
Agent Palmer
All right. I, I, I work from home. My my partner works from home. She’s always worked from home. She moved in with me and kept a job from. She moved in with me from across the country and kept her job. So basically, she’s been working from home for as long as we’ve been together. And, when she moved in, I had a real office job, and.
00:27:24:30 – 00:27:25:59
Kristen Hamilton
Okay.
00:27:26:04 – 00:27:53:50
Agent Palmer
It was, you know. All right. I’ll see you in eight hours. You know, it was one of those. And then, I got laid off right before the pandemic. And since then, I’ve. All of my jobs have been work from home, and, I she’s finally gotten to the point where she just ignores me. But two people working from home.
00:27:53:54 – 00:28:19:27
Agent Palmer
Is it’s very. I don’t want to say it’s rough on the relationship. It’s rough on the work. Especially, at least for me, where it was like, you know, I, I’m, I’m in a similar vein with you as what I do is not necessarily creative, but it is creative work. Like, we’re still in the arts and.
00:28:19:27 – 00:28:45:33
Agent Palmer
Yeah. There will be times when I need to step away. You know, there’s. Yeah, you know, you know, and I’m, I’m a blogger as well. So maybe it’s, you know, I’m trying to write something and it’s just not working. Step away from the thing. Get away from the thing. Right. Yeah. And I think that that’s not her job.
00:28:45:38 – 00:29:14:50
Agent Palmer
She’s in the service industry. Like, you know, she’s she’s in front of her computer. Like, whereas for creatives, I think it’s important for people to know this. And editing is no different. Sometimes if you do have a problem, you need like getting a like. I know it sounds very cliche, but, like, taking a walk will help you fix the problem.
00:29:14:55 – 00:29:43:48
Agent Palmer
Yeah. And sometimes we need that, and it’s very I, I used to be like, hey, you want to go for a walk? It’s 11:00. No, my lunch isn’t yet. Like, you know, just just me, like, hey, how about now? No, no. You okay? That’s fine. But I, I, I very much think that it’s it’s creative, and I, I also think that what you do in editing.
00:29:43:48 – 00:29:59:48
Agent Palmer
Look, I, I love editing. I, I have a love hate relationship with writing, but I love editing other people’s things. I, I should ask her, is that really, like, I love editing somebody else’s stuff, not my own.
00:29:59:52 – 00:30:01:19
Kristen Hamilton
Right.
00:30:01:24 – 00:30:12:03
Agent Palmer
What what? I mean, obviously, not only were you reading with an English degree, you were doing quite a bit of writing with an English degree. Do you still write?
00:30:12:08 – 00:30:52:50
Kristen Hamilton
No. Actually, you know what? Hardly ever. I had I had a, a dream, I guess, a long time ago, probably. Probably like 8 or 10 years ago, that, I wanted to publish all the short stories that I had written when I was in college. Okay. And, I don’t know, I just kind of just kind of got caught up in just the, the hamster wheel of of life, of work, editing other people’s books and, yeah, I, I just I never got around to it.
00:30:52:55 – 00:31:21:02
Kristen Hamilton
I have been thinking recently about writing a self. It’s not it’s not self-help, but it would it would be teaching authors how to self edit their books. So it would, it would still be very much in the vein of, hey, I’m a book editor. This is what I do. You know, talking about the different types of editing.
00:31:21:14 – 00:31:28:02
Kristen Hamilton
So it definitely wouldn’t be that creative process that I had back in college.
00:31:28:07 – 00:31:30:45
Agent Palmer
Do you do you miss it?
00:31:30:50 – 00:32:02:13
Kristen Hamilton
Honestly, no. You know, I haven’t really thought about it a lot recently. I would say that when it comes to writing something and editing something like writing something, staring at a blank page like it kind of gives me anxiety in a way. Like, okay, like I have no idea. Like, like I could edit. I could edit something that someone has written all day long, and I do.
00:32:02:18 – 00:32:19:18
Kristen Hamilton
But but writing something from scratch, I just, I get two in my head about it. I get to, I don’t know, like, well, this isn’t good enough. Like, I wouldn’t enjoy reading something like this. Why would anybody else?
00:32:19:23 – 00:32:23:37
Agent Palmer
Was it that way in college, too? And high school for that matter?
00:32:23:42 – 00:32:27:31
Kristen Hamilton
That’s actually a really good question. I’m trying to remember.
00:32:27:36 – 00:32:37:42
Agent Palmer
Because it’s just like, I think you might be the first person I’ve spoken to who’s like, around publishing, who doesn’t also write.
00:32:37:47 – 00:33:06:40
Kristen Hamilton
Oh, okay. Yeah. You know what? I, I do know, like, I think every single editor that I know in the industry is also an author. Yeah. And I don’t know, I mean, like, there there was a time like you know, a while ago that. Yeah, I did enjoy writing, but honestly, ever since, ever since I discovered editing the, I just like that’s what I love.
00:33:06:45 – 00:33:09:30
Kristen Hamilton
That’s what I love to do.
00:33:09:35 – 00:33:19:18
Agent Palmer
All right. So when you’re not editing, what are you doing to unwind? To disconnect?
00:33:19:23 – 00:33:52:34
Kristen Hamilton
Well, taking care of my screaming two year old. But that’s not very relaxing now. I love traveling. I love traveling. So my husband and I booked a a 16 day cruise to Hawaii, and that’s going to happen in January. So I’m really, really excited about that. But on a day to day basis, sometimes I’ll read books like, I just got a Dean Koontz book from the library.
00:33:52:39 – 00:34:05:04
Kristen Hamilton
Sometimes I watch, you know, watch TV. I’m in the middle of watching, rewatching Breaking Bad and or Orange is New Black right now. Okay.
00:34:05:09 – 00:34:07:24
Agent Palmer
You didn’t want to find anything new there.
00:34:07:25 – 00:34:23:58
Kristen Hamilton
Honestly, I have a really hard time finding the focus and the attention span, at least right now in my life. To really spend a lot of effort on watching something new.
00:34:24:09 – 00:34:24:30
Agent Palmer
I mean.
00:34:24:30 – 00:34:31:56
Kristen Hamilton
Look at me right now. I it’s just a lot easier to to rewatch something that I’m familiar with so I don’t have to pay that much.
00:34:31:58 – 00:34:59:46
Agent Palmer
So I get what you’re saying. When it comes to new things. If I have 45 minutes to myself. First of all, the abundance of choice scares really scary. And second of all, thanks to the power of, like, the people who create YouTube clip salad where, like, you can watch, like ten random scenes from any show.
00:34:59:51 – 00:35:00:18
Kristen Hamilton
00:35:00:52 – 00:35:21:17
Agent Palmer
That that’s great. That’s like comfort food. Instead of having to go, like. And I’m not picking on it because I have, I look where like every other household, we have all of the services, but take any random service, turn it on and go. I didn’t know that was out. I didn’t know that was out. I didn’t know that was out.
00:35:21:22 – 00:35:27:49
Agent Palmer
Oh, I haven’t seen that in a while. And then like, you know, it’s it’s the, it’s it’s the new channel surfing.
00:35:27:54 – 00:35:28:57
Kristen Hamilton
It is.
00:35:29:02 – 00:35:48:38
Agent Palmer
And I don’t need that. I can just go to YouTube and be like, I feel like, I don’t know, this, like, give me, give me a bunch of old Futurama clips. Go. Right, and just, easy. And that’s that’s a half hour. And now I’ve got just enough time to get a snack and get back to whatever’s next.
00:35:48:43 – 00:35:49:25
Agent Palmer
Right. Like I.
00:35:49:27 – 00:35:50:03
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah.
00:35:50:08 – 00:36:20:04
Agent Palmer
I get it. And I’m not that I know is really picking on you so much is just. It’s, you know, with what you do, I would think you would try and get a little bit more. I don’t know, new stuff, new blood into your thing because the only new blood you’re getting is from work. And that’s, I don’t know, like, there’s a part of me that wants to be like your friend and be like you, but you need something new.
00:36:20:04 – 00:36:22:20
Agent Palmer
That’s not work, Kristen. Like.
00:36:22:25 – 00:36:27:01
Kristen Hamilton
You know, it’s actually a really good point that you have.
00:36:27:06 – 00:37:02:38
Agent Palmer
I just I could look, I, I like, I guess selfishly, this is my new thing. Like, I usually talk to, a guest. I always talk to a guest often. They’re people I’ve never met before, like you. And so that’s my. That’s my new to me, right? Like. Yeah. And that’s my influx of, like, new ideas or new conversations because let’s, I mean, I, I’ve had the same conversation with my friends over and over again many times.
00:37:02:43 – 00:37:26:32
Agent Palmer
Yeah. So this is new. Yeah. But it’s it shouldn’t just come from work. That seems. I mean, look, I know you have a two year old, so that you have a new perspective on everything. Getting to see things through your child’s eyes. Yes, but you should still get to experience something new through your own eyes.
00:37:26:36 – 00:37:41:55
Kristen Hamilton
I know, I know. Yeah. Honestly, that’s why I like to travel. I like, I love okay, but it’s so expensive. It is so expensive to do anything anymore.
00:37:41:57 – 00:38:11:58
Agent Palmer
Well, have you done, All right. I spent almost a decade in, destination marketing. Tourism marketing stuff. So I get to ask this question, as someone who knows the answer for the average person, but have you been a tourist in your own town?
00:38:12:02 – 00:38:13:28
Kristen Hamilton
No.
00:38:13:33 – 00:38:45:24
Agent Palmer
Okay, okay. Because I know, right? I when I had the job, I, part of the job was being the tourist and putting yourself in their shoes, even though you’re not staying in a hotel and, you know, checking out all the parks, the recreation stuff, the museums, the historical sites, the, you know, all that stuff. And even though I was in the industry for ten years, I still haven’t covered all of my own area, much less my own state.
00:38:45:29 – 00:38:45:54
Agent Palmer
Right?
00:38:46:08 – 00:38:46:54
Kristen Hamilton
Right.
00:38:46:59 – 00:39:11:55
Agent Palmer
Right. So, I mean, maybe as an idea for you, be a tourist and and look, there are levels to this. You can be a day tourist to your home town. The place where you live and just go to things that you see all the time, but, like, oh, I’ve never been in that store. Right?
00:39:11:57 – 00:39:37:24
Agent Palmer
It doesn’t have to be expensive, but you can also, get a hotel in your own town. Probably because you’ll know when things are going on. So you can do it in the off season or shoulder season, you can get a good rate. You can treat it like a vacation because you’re not at home. But just kind of explore your own backyard.
00:39:37:29 – 00:40:01:50
Agent Palmer
I mean, this is a pretty big soapbox to get on for, like, wherever you are. But, like, it, it is something I think a lot of people overlook because we do want to get out. However, I know my audience. Kristen, you work from home, so I know you. I mean, get going. Five blocks away is new to you most of the time.
00:40:01:51 – 00:40:19:06
Kristen Hamilton
I know, I know. Yeah I know. I hear, I, I, I okay, in my defense, yeah in my defense sometimes I go to the local Starbucks.
00:40:19:10 – 00:40:22:02
Agent Palmer
Okay, okay.
00:40:22:07 – 00:40:28:18
Kristen Hamilton
And I get really excited when I go to the local Starbucks. Okay.
00:40:28:22 – 00:40:47:25
Agent Palmer
I mean, you did say you took out, Dean Koontz from the library. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess that this is a, We’ll go back to your work, play for a moment. First off, do you have a copy of every book that’s published that you have edited?
00:40:47:30 – 00:40:50:47
Kristen Hamilton
Almost. Okay. Yeah, almost.
00:40:50:47 – 00:40:55:11
Agent Palmer
And how is the rest of your library?
00:40:55:15 – 00:41:24:59
Kristen Hamilton
Actually, I spent a lot of time during the pandemic consolidating. Okay. Library, like, totally like, because my bookshelves were so full. I’m just using closet shelves inside my office closet for my bookshelf. Okay. Okay. I have so many books because I had them, like, double and triple deep. They were so busy that the shelves started to collapse.
00:41:25:10 – 00:41:35:08
Kristen Hamilton
Like, they’re like sagging. They’re like, coming away from the wall. Okay. And I went in there one day and I was like, Holy crap.
00:41:35:12 – 00:42:00:41
Agent Palmer
So what is so dangerous? So I am slowly purging my library. And by that, I mean I’m reading all of the books in my house and deciding what to keep based on reading it. Okay, that is not I, I, I, I would say that is not a great way to do it because it takes a while. Because you.
00:42:00:41 – 00:42:20:46
Agent Palmer
Yeah, I but I also I, I live in that it’s not like FOMO but like this book is in my house. I, I it’s available to me. Why wouldn’t I read it before I get rid of it? But, what did you do? Like, what was your process for consolidating your library?
00:42:20:49 – 00:42:49:49
Kristen Hamilton
I looked at the back cover blurb. Okay, the back caption about the book, and I was basically like, hey, if this is something that I’m like, absolutely, oh my gosh, this sounds so good, I want to stop what I’m doing and read it right now. Then I kept it. Okay? Everything else like 80% of my books. I was like, I don’t have time.
00:42:49:54 – 00:42:54:42
Kristen Hamilton
I don’t have the interest. I just know, okay.
00:42:54:47 – 00:43:07:57
Agent Palmer
That’s I mean, that’s that’s quite a lot. But I mean, that’s that’s pretty good. What about the books you’ve read? Did you keep any of those or were you like, I probably won’t reread this. No.
00:43:08:01 – 00:43:25:23
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. So I have a very small bookshelf of the books that I’ve read, and I liked enough to the point that I wanted to keep. Okay. So. So yeah, it’s probably like maybe a dozen books altogether.
00:43:25:28 – 00:43:36:52
Agent Palmer
So I, I don’t want to I don’t want to put like too fine a point on it, but I guess that would make you more of a reader than a collector. I guess.
00:43:36:57 – 00:43:39:36
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
00:43:39:37 – 00:43:56:32
Agent Palmer
I’m. I’m, sadly, a collector. Like, I, I have, at least there are currently three authors in my house that I have every book they wrote.
00:43:56:36 – 00:43:57:10
Kristen Hamilton
Oh my gosh.
00:43:57:19 – 00:44:32:14
Agent Palmer
And unfortunately, most of them are prolific. There’s a fourth author who I’m slowly working towards. Who’s also prolific. So, like, even if I were just going to keep those, that’s, that’s probably one whole, like, six foot bookshelf. Maybe more actually. And so, like, I’m, you know, by downsizing, by reading all the books in my house, I very much been like, all right.
00:44:32:16 – 00:44:48:33
Agent Palmer
It’s time to read this because I don’t think I want to keep it, but I’m still interested in why I have it, because that’s, I guess I want to ask you. So one of the things that’s been weird about reading all the books in my house is that I don’t know how I got some of these. I didn’t buy all of them.
00:44:48:43 – 00:45:29:09
Agent Palmer
Maybe some of them were passed down. Maybe the. You know, I you know, I, I definitely believe that, you know, when my, when, when we were cleaning out my, my late grandparents estates, respectively. Like, occasionally I would pick up a book or two, and probably forget about it. And so some of them are here. But when you were going through, even based on the blurb that you were using to decide whether to keep it or not, did you at least remember, like, oh, I bought this, this was a gift I or were some of the books like, I have no idea why this is here.
00:45:29:18 – 00:45:43:32
Kristen Hamilton
No, a lot of them are like, I have no idea how this came into my collection. Okay. Yeah. And I was just like, okay, well, I mean, it doesn’t matter how I got it, I have it. Yeah.
00:45:43:32 – 00:45:46:35
Agent Palmer
So are you going to keep it or not?
00:45:46:39 – 00:45:46:59
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah.
00:45:47:12 – 00:46:17:54
Agent Palmer
Okay. I mean, I think your, if, if I wasn’t, I, I don’t want to say I’m a completionist, but I’m also, you know, trying to save up, money for things because as a, as an entrepreneur, solopreneur or freelancer or whatever. It’s not like we have, 401 K that’s getting matched by the company. So any, any way I can save, like, is is a way I can save.
00:46:17:55 – 00:46:24:04
Agent Palmer
And for me, that is. Well, I’ll just spend all my time reading books that I already have. That’s.
00:46:24:09 – 00:46:50:23
Kristen Hamilton
Oh. Get. You should get a library membership. I got a library membership last at the beginning of last year. And we’re, we’re we’re like, just outside of city limits. So we have to actually pay to use a library. It’s like $55 a year. Okay. But for everybody else in in City Limits, the library’s free. And they, so much stuff like they have CDs, they have movies, they have events.
00:46:50:28 – 00:46:51:20
Agent Palmer
I you don’t.
00:46:51:30 – 00:46:53:05
Kristen Hamilton
You do not have to sell books.
00:46:53:10 – 00:47:23:16
Agent Palmer
You don’t have to sell me on the library. I just, I, I, I, I first of all, I know that a lot of the books I’m getting rid of, the library won’t have, Oh like, because they are older. I’m sure, look, self-serving. If anybody wants to go on my blog and look at all the my book reviews in the last few years.
00:47:23:20 – 00:47:55:41
Agent Palmer
There’s there’s a lot of stuff that’s just like, out there or weird or, you know, old. And so some of that stuff has been great to be, exposed to. Okay. But this goes back to the whole, like, streaming service, overabundance of choice. Yes. I, I spend a lot of time longer than I should, well admit.
00:47:55:46 – 00:48:02:55
Agent Palmer
Walking through my house on a monthly basis and going, all right, these are the next seven books I’m going to read.
00:48:02:59 – 00:48:03:41
Kristen Hamilton
Okay.
00:48:03:46 – 00:48:21:09
Agent Palmer
And because I’m reading all the books in my house, it’s pretty easy to see, like, what I’ve read and what I haven’t. But it’s also, I can take as long as I want, and then I go, all right, this is the list. I’m done. And then I have to actually read the seven books before it’s another problem.
00:48:21:09 – 00:48:22:13
Agent Palmer
Again.
00:48:22:17 – 00:48:23:29
Kristen Hamilton
Right. Okay.
00:48:23:35 – 00:48:43:20
Agent Palmer
I, I will tell you, if I did go to the library, I would very much be there for like an hour going like, I don’t I have no idea. Like, I like I that overabundance of choice is paralyzing.
00:48:43:25 – 00:48:55:30
Kristen Hamilton
It is. It really is. Honestly, like, sometimes, like, I know this is kind of like, tangential, but, like, sometimes when my husband is like, hey, what do you want to eat for dinner? I’m like.
00:48:55:30 – 00:49:13:09
Agent Palmer
Not you two, not you. I have to deal with that because I ask her around lunchtime like, hey, what do you want to have for dinner? She’s like, I don’t know. I don’t know what I have at lunch, but I’m like, well, I gotta defrost stuff because I’m the I’m the, the chef of the house. So I’m like, well, like, I need to make sure I have the ingredients.
00:49:13:09 – 00:49:24:38
Agent Palmer
I need to make sure things are defrosted. I need to, but but yeah, like, well, what what what can you make? I don’t know anything. What?
00:49:24:43 – 00:49:25:50
Agent Palmer
00:49:25:55 – 00:49:48:26
Kristen Hamilton
Well, I here’s, here’s, here’s an example. Okay. So, like, today, we were out running errands. Okay. Part of the reason why I was late to work today. Okay. We were out running errands, and and, you know, she’s like, okay, what do you want to eat for lunch? We could go have sushi. And I’m like, sushi sounds so good.
00:49:48:31 – 00:50:06:14
Kristen Hamilton
Let’s do it. And he’s like, well, hang on. There’s also five guys right next to it. There’s also a Dave’s Hot Chicken in the parking lot. Or we could just go to Costco and get one of their hot dogs because we have to go to Costco anyway. And I’m like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Like this.
00:50:06:14 – 00:50:07:58
Kristen Hamilton
This is too much.
00:50:08:03 – 00:50:12:08
Agent Palmer
So you were you were you were. You were fine with the first one.
00:50:12:13 – 00:50:37:58
Kristen Hamilton
Exactly. Exactly. And then the additional options came up. Yeah. And it’s like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Because, like, yeah, sushi sounds great, but so there’s a big cheeseburger from Five Guys. But wait a minute. Also, that dollar 50 hotdog and soda combo from Costco is absolutely unbeatable. But I also want to try Dave’s Hot Chicken.
00:50:37:58 – 00:50:45:59
Kristen Hamilton
And so it’s like all of these things that it’s like, you know, you start thinking about it too much and it’s like absolute shut down.
00:50:46:03 – 00:51:04:27
Agent Palmer
That’s. Yeah. Yeah. That’s I mean that’s that’s the way it is. That’s that’s how we end up eating and watching and listening to the same things over and over and over. But but they’re they’re not comfort food for nothing I guess would be the other argument. Right. Yeah.
00:51:04:35 – 00:51:07:33
Kristen Hamilton
That’s true. That is true. Yeah.
00:51:07:38 – 00:51:12:19
Agent Palmer
I so I guess, what what would be your go to comfort food?
00:51:12:24 – 00:51:35:22
Kristen Hamilton
Oh my gosh, I can make the best bread pudding. Okay. Cuz it is so freaking good. Holy crap. I have been trying to lose this last bit of baby weight for, like, I mean, two years. I can’t lose the last 10 pounds because I keep eating bread pudding. Like I can’t.
00:51:35:27 – 00:51:48:31
Agent Palmer
I mean, it seems like a I don’t think that sounds like a bad problem to have though. Like, oh no, this this thing that I love tastes too good.
00:51:48:36 – 00:52:14:21
Kristen Hamilton
I know, and you know what the worst part about it, though, is that, like, I, I try to be strict with, okay, you know, I’m at my calorie limit for the day. I, I cannot have a snack tonight. And then, you know, my husband will come along. Oh, come on, you only live once. Life’s about moments. I’ll heat up the bread pudding for you all.
00:52:14:21 – 00:52:20:28
Kristen Hamilton
Pour you a glass of milk, and then it’s like I’m eating 800 calories right before bedtime.
00:52:20:38 – 00:52:30:59
Agent Palmer
It’s fine. It’s fine. I wouldn’t, you know, he’s not wrong, I guess. It’s. It’s really hard to argue with. You only live once.
00:52:31:04 – 00:52:39:31
Kristen Hamilton
I know, I know, I know, that’s why I still have lost these last 10 pounds, because I can’t. Oh, can you say no?
00:52:39:42 – 00:53:09:21
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, I look and I’m. I’m the wrong person to have this conversation with because, like, my mother, who, lost. Actually, both my parents lost a decent amount of weight in the last, maybe decade. And they’re probably at their most healthy now, that they’ve ever been. But my parents, don’t want really for anything like, I’m.
00:53:09:21 – 00:53:23:53
Agent Palmer
I’m very much like my father. It’s really hard to get either of us a gift. However, my mother bag of Doritos, that’s all it takes. Like, if if birthday. Just thinking of you, mom.
00:53:24:03 – 00:53:25:41
Kristen Hamilton
Or, like.
00:53:25:46 – 00:53:51:58
Agent Palmer
Mother’s Day. It’s a bag of Doritos. And, like, you know, well, I think it was a few years ago. I don’t know when I did this, but for because I, I, I usually just get her a big bag. But my mother, who will occasionally be like, yeah, but but but like I’m trying to watch my weight. So I’m like, all right, well I’ll get you a few small bags.
00:53:52:03 – 00:53:52:36
Kristen Hamilton
00:53:53:13 – 00:54:12:43
Agent Palmer
Which doesn’t help because then my mother eats like two small bags, so it’s not really helping. But I, I literally put them on. I got like a bunch of chopsticks and I put, I made like a bouquet of, like, small Doritos bags for her. It was a bit overkill, but, I’m again, I love my mother.
00:54:12:44 – 00:54:27:43
Agent Palmer
I’m glad she’s in the shape season, but if Doritos are going to make her smile, I can’t be like, yeah, but no. Yeah. So I’m I’m. I’m with your husband on this one. He’s the bread pudding.
00:54:27:48 – 00:54:28:58
Kristen Hamilton
I know, but yeah.
00:54:28:58 – 00:54:31:22
Agent Palmer
Hold on. But this is bread pudding. You’re making.
00:54:31:24 – 00:54:33:53
Kristen Hamilton
I’m making it so you can act, right. Yeah.
00:54:33:53 – 00:54:41:59
Agent Palmer
So, I mean, it’s like, I don’t know, maybe replace the butter with something like a substitute, like.
00:54:41:59 – 00:54:44:43
Kristen Hamilton
No, no.
00:54:44:48 – 00:54:45:44
Agent Palmer
No substitutes.
00:54:45:47 – 00:55:19:03
Kristen Hamilton
It has to be okay. By putting recipe, it uses a whole stick of butter. Okay. Not some. It’s like three quarters cup of white sugar. It’s got eggs. It’s got milk, and I. I only drink whole milk. Okay. I am a milk connoisseur. I love milk. Okay. I’ve found. Oh, my gosh, I found this milk. It’s called organic valley grass milk.
00:55:19:14 – 00:55:45:04
Kristen Hamilton
Okay. It has green. It’s a green container. Okay. It is the best milk I have ever had in my whole life. It’s. It’s whole milk. So it’s like it’s rich, it’s creamy. It’s it’s it’s just it’s delicious. It’s so good. I have taste tests with milk. You know, I’ll pour a little bit of milk in this glass for a little bit of different type of milk in this glass.
00:55:45:04 – 00:55:47:10
Kristen Hamilton
You know, I’ll have like two or 3 or 4.
00:55:47:19 – 00:56:04:26
Agent Palmer
Have you, have you tried the, the bread pudding with like, I don’t know, smart balance or like, I feel like that’s the only thing you could if you’re a milk connoisseur. I feel like the butter is the only thing you could, like, change out.
00:56:04:31 – 00:56:13:42
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah, I mean, I guess I could, but at that, at that point, I’m only saving, like, 50 calories. And is that really worth it?
00:56:13:47 – 00:56:17:00
Agent Palmer
I’ll see. Now, using my own logic against me, it’s like.
00:56:17:04 – 00:56:24:48
Kristen Hamilton
Exactly. Yeah. But anyway, I wanted to get back to Doritos. I had a question.
00:56:24:48 – 00:56:25:30
Agent Palmer
Okay.
00:56:25:35 – 00:56:36:00
Kristen Hamilton
I, I bought a bag of Doritos last week. Yeah. And I feel like they’ve been putting less powder on the Doritos.
00:56:36:01 – 00:57:02:37
Agent Palmer
I it depends on the it depends on the bag. Like it really does. Like I it’s weird. I think they lost their quality control because you have some bags. So some bags are really good and some bags are really bad. And it’s just, it’s just not the same all the way through. Although I feel like now I need to ask my mother that because she would know a lot better than I buy them for her.
00:57:02:41 – 00:57:05:36
Agent Palmer
I don’t really eat them that much.
00:57:05:41 – 00:57:26:22
Kristen Hamilton
What? Oh my gosh, Fritos are so good. But you know what I mean. Like, I, I would agree with you. I feel like the quality has gone down recently and so I haven’t bought. I used to eat Doritos a lot, but I haven’t really bought a whole lot of Doritos recently because I feel like they’re, you know.
00:57:26:27 – 00:57:43:56
Agent Palmer
I think they spent, I spent they spent too much time on other flavors. I think that’s if yeah, if I was going to guess, like the quality control kind of went downhill when they decided that they were going to have 17 other flavors other than just regular Cool Ranch.
00:57:44:01 – 00:57:45:45
Kristen Hamilton
I know, I know.
00:57:45:51 – 00:58:02:32
Agent Palmer
I can also walk through the chip aisle. It’s the same as going through the library or going through like a streaming service on Netflix. Like oh. What, what? Why are there so many different? It’s too much. I know there’s too much.
00:58:02:32 – 00:58:27:09
Kristen Hamilton
There’s a lot. Yeah. It is. Yeah. And so, I mean, like, I, I constantly go for the, the same exact things that I know, which is, you know, comforting in a way. But also it’s kind of like sometimes I feel like I’m stuck in a rut. So I don’t know, maybe it’s worth it to try a different type of chip.
00:58:27:14 – 00:58:39:28
Kristen Hamilton
You know, try a different show, try a different book genre.
00:58:39:33 – 00:58:57:07
Agent Palmer
Comfort is good, but new things can be good too. If you are in a rut. This is the challenge of our current ever changing culture. The nature in media as well as snack foods depict two vastly different things can feel like a paralyzing abundance of choice, which is why we end up in the rut in the first place.
00:58:57:12 – 00:59:23:53
Agent Palmer
Going back to the things that we already know are comfortable to us. And so there is no secret sauce for not having the bread pudding or Doritos or going back to the shows or movies that we’ve seen over and over and over in the nerdiest terms I can think of, because it’s what comes to my mind. We all want our hobbit hole because that means comfort, and the older you are, the more defined the comfort is.
00:59:23:56 – 00:59:47:48
Agent Palmer
You have decades to go back to that show, that movie, that album, that snack. And so you may feel like you are in a rut. I don’t think this is actually the case, though. I think that plenty of us get into new things and try new foods, new restaurants, new shows, new movies. But because the groove is so deep in our brains for our favorites, it’s what we think of most often.
00:59:47:53 – 01:00:12:20
Agent Palmer
So don’t give yourself too hard a time. Be nice to yourself and make sure you get a little comfort every now and again. If you won’t do it for yourself, don’t expect others to either. For each of us, it starts with ourselves. Thanks for listening to The Palmer Files episode 134. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays.
01:00:12:28 – 01:00:33:14
Agent Palmer
If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can find all related ways to contact my guest, Kristen and myself in the show notes. There you can also find Kristen’s website. Kristen corrects.com. That’s Christine correct? Com the music for this episode was provided by Henno Heitur. Email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com.
01:00:33:14 – 01:00:48:10
Agent Palmer
And remember, you’re home for all things. Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
01:00:48:15 – 01:00:56:06
Unknown
You.
01:00:56:11 – 01:01:18:33
Unknown
See?
01:01:18:38 – 01:01:21:53
Unknown
This.
01:01:21:58 – 01:01:24:18
Agent Palmer
All right. Kristen, do you have one final question for me?
01:01:24:20 – 01:01:32:34
Kristen Hamilton
When was the last time you tried something new outside of your comfort zone? And how did it go?
01:01:32:38 – 01:01:58:59
Agent Palmer
Well, I, I don’t know what the answer to that is, because I, I read, I guess, outside of my comfort zone, just by the nature of what’s in my house. Some of the again, okay. As I explained, I don’t know how half of these books got here, so it’s not like they were all, you know, my taste.
01:01:59:04 – 01:02:28:07
Agent Palmer
So, that with with reading, it’s very much like, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know, this will be interesting. But as far as, like, outside of my comfort zone, truly, I get to throw my best friend under the bus because, look, I live with. It didn’t come up. And if it doesn’t, I don’t, tell people, because why would I?
01:02:28:12 – 01:02:35:42
Agent Palmer
But, like, I live, I’m a functioning, massive, anxiety ridden human.
01:02:35:47 – 01:02:36:54
Kristen Hamilton
Okay.
01:02:36:58 – 01:02:46:12
Agent Palmer
I it’s not diagnosed, but, like, I can live with it. And part of that is because the health insurance, when you’re self-employed very bad.
01:02:46:12 – 01:02:47:36
Kristen Hamilton
So. Yeah.
01:02:47:40 – 01:03:16:38
Agent Palmer
So I just, you know, I, I learned to deal with it, but my buddy went from living in an apartment that was five minutes away from my house to, being 45 minutes away, almost an hour. Okay. And, one of the things that, I guess ratchets up the anxiety is doing something new. Now, you.
01:03:16:39 – 01:03:17:07
Kristen Hamilton
Know.
01:03:17:12 – 01:03:26:24
Agent Palmer
It’s not always a bad thing. As an example, I get nervous before I call you, right? I still get nervous doing this show. And to.
01:03:26:24 – 01:03:28:54
Kristen Hamilton
Me, the floor. You called me. Yeah.
01:03:28:58 – 01:03:52:41
Agent Palmer
To me, that’s good. I feel like nerves for that. It’s a good thing. So it’s not like not all the nerves is the crippling social anxiety. However, the easiest way to get it ratcheted up to 11 is to go somewhere I’ve never been. Okay, and show I helped him move okay. And that was, you know, it’s what you do for friends.
01:03:52:46 – 01:04:18:40
Agent Palmer
But then I went up, to visit him because, you know, he’s now living in the middle of nowhere. And that was the big one where it was like, all right, he wants to have lunch. Well, my social anxiety likes to come in many forms, but nausea is probably the largest one. So, like when people ask me to do meals.
01:04:18:45 – 01:04:34:14
Agent Palmer
Yeah, in new places or with new people, like, food’s the worst for me. I enjoy eating, but it’s really hard to enjoy eating when you’re anxiety is like a bowl of like cats that were just, like, rattled around.
01:04:34:18 – 01:04:35:54
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah, yeah.
01:04:35:59 – 01:05:00:20
Agent Palmer
So it’s just kind of like. All right, well, I, you know, and I’ve learned order small portions. Don’t eat at all. That way if it does get bad, like, it’s not that bad. And I can always eat when I get home. So that was probably the most, like, newest thing that I’ve tried, because it was a place I had only been once.
01:05:00:25 – 01:05:38:25
Agent Palmer
Thanks to Google. Apparently there are 75 different ways to get there, so I still haven’t been there. The same way. Okay. And it, you know, it’s it’s about getting the comfort zone there. It doesn’t stop me from doing new things, but it very much is a, like a there’s caution and warning signs, like, I think I think back in like, in, like a, I guess, I guess I’m going to go with Apollo 11, right?
01:05:38:30 – 01:05:55:41
Agent Palmer
They, they turned off the master alarm in order to fix the problem because the master alarms going off to let them know there’s a problem, then they turn it off and they can solve it. When I go somewhere new, I have to turn off the master alarm.
01:05:55:46 – 01:05:56:13
Kristen Hamilton
Right?
01:05:56:13 – 01:06:19:25
Agent Palmer
Sometimes it’s just being quiet and breathing. Sometimes it’s like, you know, I have to go for a walk. I’ll be right back, or I need some fresh air or whatever it is, but it does take a while to figure out because it’s never the same. You know, we’re all humans, and we all have different kinds of anxiety and minds.
01:06:19:30 – 01:06:42:34
Agent Palmer
Maybe a little bit more active than most, but, I’ve learned to live with it. And so new things are harder. But I still try and do it on occasion. But for commonly it’s reading outside of my comfort zone as opposed to getting outside of my comfort zone.
01:06:42:38 – 01:06:43:58
Kristen Hamilton
That makes sense.
01:06:44:03 – 01:06:57:34
Agent Palmer
But it’s also availability. Like that’s the the opportunity to read something I’ve never read before is literally in my house. Many, many, many, many, many times over.
01:06:57:39 – 01:06:58:23
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah.
01:06:58:28 – 01:07:03:47
Agent Palmer
Versus, you know, going to do that thing or or not.
01:07:03:51 – 01:07:05:38
Kristen Hamilton
So yeah.
01:07:05:43 – 01:07:14:10
Agent Palmer
I’ve, I’ve, I’ve very much taken the easy way out, which also happens to double as a way to downsize my library. So it kind of all works out in the end, I guess.
01:07:14:10 – 01:07:18:49
Kristen Hamilton
Yeah. That’s true. I know you’re killing two birds with one stone.
01:07:18:51 – 01:07:20:38
Agent Palmer
I’m I’m all about that efficiency.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).