Episode 26

Season 2

When You Have a Micro-Niche, You Still Need a Brand

Welcome Cristina Greenfield to Saturday Soundbites!

Tune in to this awesome episode where Cristina shares her family’s journey with mold in their home, and all of their efforts and hard work to rebuild their lives after losing everything.

Impacted severely by mold, this powerful family, put their health and wellness first, and learned how to rebuild their lives. In sharing her story with others, Cristina created a micro-niche online community and connected with other families in similar situations. The exchange of knowledge and resources is inspiring and truly brought so much value to everyone involved.

Without realizing it, Cristina created a brand focused on helping families rebuild their lives after mold.

Join Veronica and Cristina talk about her family’s journey and what’s next for them!

Learn more at https://linktr.ee/RebuildingRevival

Transcripts -

Veronica: [00:00:00] Hello. Hello and welcome to Saturday soundbites. I am so excited to be here with you today because we're gonna talk about what happens when you have a brand and what happens when you don't have a brand. And let me just, let me just point out some, some very clear things that are gonna come up for you today.

And that is whether or not you go into a project, whether it's a passion project or. Some sort of business project, even if you don't have a strategy, a brand is gonna develop. And that's why I'm super excited about today's guest, because that's exactly what, what someone was out to do is to have a passion project, to share the word, to spread the message of, of some really important things that were happening in her life.

And then all of a sudden there's a micro community of people who are really interested in what she's talking about. It's time now to start thinking about what's next and the branding. And so that's why I'm really excited about today's guest. So let me go ahead and take care of some housekeeping. If you are listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe.

We don't want you to miss any episodes of Saturday soundbites. And if you're watching on Facebook or on YouTube, drop us some comments, then my [00:01:00] guest and I will circle back and connect with you. So with that, we're gonna go ahead and bring on our amazing guests. Christina Greenfield is joining us to hello.

Hello? Hello? Hello. Well, Christina, share with everybody a little bit about your passion project first, because I think the thing that I was most interested in is figuring out how you turn a passion project of just sharing information into literally this whole thing. Like it's got a life of its own now.

Cristina: yeah, it does kind of have a life of its own now. Well, I mean, I guess transparently, I had no. I had no plan. I was just excited. We were kind of, we, we had started a project of building a house and I had followed some other people on Instagram who, you know, started from the time when they broke ground and let people follow them through building the house.

And I thought, okay, that's so exciting. And they had so many followers, but I had this message that I wanted. People to hear. And it was about what got us to that point, which was unfortunately mold. So we had experienced mold in our prior [00:02:00] house. And so that took us out of that home. And then, you know, put us on this, on this path to try to build a safe environment for my family.

And then I started thinking the people that I want to hear, this message are the people that were like us, who had absolutely no idea that mold could be a problem, you know, in their home and in their environment. And how do I reach out? How do I reach those people? Because if you start a niche about mold, you're gonna reach people who already know about mold already concerned about mold, right?

So, so the hook was kind of building a home, cuz everybody's excited about building a home and that whole process and everything. And unfortunately that's taken, that's taken a turn where that project is on hold, but. But that was my first plan. That was my original plan. I was kind of wanted to hook in a really broad audience with something that everybody enjoys who doesn't like to watch a home being built and then, you know, weave in the message of why, why we are, where we were.

Mm-hmm 

Veronica: yeah. And you have. What I love about your message and your videos and your reels is that they're very research based. And so not only do you have a passion [00:03:00] project and you have a desire to help people get information about mold and environmental health, you put, you implement a lot of research and I attribute that to your background.

So share a little bit with our listeners and viewers about your 

Cristina: background. Yeah, so my, my nine to five job, I'm a lawyer. I'm my, my practice area is evolving. So I practiced in compliance international. Anti-corruption compliance for about eight years. And now I've transitioned into commercial work and now corporate secretary.

So I'm working on board materials and things like that. So I have a, I have a wide range of experience over the past 10 ish, 11 going on 11 years. Maybe 12, I dunno, time flies. It's been a while, but but yes, I, that my, I think, I think my background does contribute to or does contribute to the fact that I.

I don't wanna just know what's popular. I don't wanna just know what the latest tagline is. I want to, I wanna really know, you know, from a variety of sources, I wanna figure out my own opinion about building materials and building specifications [00:04:00] and the dos and don'ts and you know, things to watch for.

And, and I, and I want to, and I don't have the answers because I'm, you know, I do not have a background in construction science, and it's very much science based. I want to make other people curious, because I think that people have let go of their power a little bit when it comes to homes and home ownership.

And, you know, the main goal generally is finances. You know, they were like, okay, I wanna get the finances so I can buy a home. But do you have the finances to support maintaining the home? Do you have the ability and the time to go and research and look under sinks and make sure nothing's leaking and, you know, action items that are unfortunate that.

Whenever you, whenever you own a home, it's all your responsibility. So I wanna make people really, really curious. And you know, a lot of the times when we talk about our story Chris and I, my husband, I see my, my dogs in the background. they're uh, consider them my therapy dogs, but We when, whenever we talk about the beginning, part of our story, there's so many parts we just said, well, we didn't know.

We didn't know. We didn't know mold was a problem. We didn't know our [00:05:00] children could be getting sick. We didn't know that, that the air conditioning is a huge problem in Texas and a hot human environment. We didn't know what could be going on behind the wall. You know? I mean, it just a constant reoccurring theme we didn't know.

And and I want people to know, I want them to be, I want them at least to be aware if, if they can get past awareness, I want them to be curious if they can get past curiosity, I want them to delve into the research and to take some of that power back, because honestly we live in the age of information that all the information is out there and it's for anybody to get, you know, and and I just wanna encourage, I just wanna encourage people to get curious.

Yeah. And yeah, I think that does come from my background cuz everybody, I mean, even, even law, you know, we always, we always joke. We're like, this is not brain surgery. , you know, we're reading words and we're writing words and we're kind of like giving we're we're giving advice, you know, it is not brain surgery.

And I think everybody has access to that level of information as well. I mean, you there's background and experience of course, that. Layers and some value. But but with, with building materials, I think building materials and building [00:06:00] science, I think it's important that you do get, you do get the subject matter experts in there and on your team, but you also want to have a knowledge base where you can question.

What you're being told and what you're seeing mm-hmm 

Veronica: yeah, I think that's so true. And, and so you have this passion, you have a background in research. You want families to have tools and information and access. And then all of a sudden, my, my question is how did you be like. Hmm, I think I'm gonna start making reels.

I think I'm gonna start a channel. There's gotta be some, some trigger that drove you to start pushing it out on social media, because I think that's the difference. We all wanna help people generally speaking, if, if we've experienced some sort of trauma or something unique in our lives, often we wanna share that with other people and some people might write an article or a blog or something, but you took it to the next level.

And that's what I think. It's just fascinating. And, and I, and I just applaud you because it's created this fantastic brand [00:07:00] now that exists. It didn't exist a few months ago. So what was the trigger? Like? What was the thing that's Hmm, I think I know 

Cristina: what to do with this yeah. Well, I, I didn't really, I think the trigger is probably It could be a personality deficit, but , it's like when I get interested in something, I'm very, very interested in it.

I jump all in, you know, whether it's, whether it's my, my plants or my gardens or my dogs, or, you know, whatever it is, I just jump into it. And, and I think this kind of led, this was just. The natural evolution of, of a new interest for me. And, you know, I mean, I pulled a lot from the people that I was following.

So what interests me, you know, what, what caught my eye when I was watching these people who were building their homes and you know, they did a lot of reels and there was a lot of just information that was coming to you in, in bite size amounts when you're scrolling, you're like, oh, okay. I learned something new, you know?

And so, and so really just kind of evolved by watching what other people did and do, and then thinking. I, I tend to be long-winded as I'm here a little bit, [00:08:00] but but it, but the long-winded ness doesn't really translate well to, you know, Instagram. And so I thought, okay, well I have a, in the beginning, I wanted to set the stage and tell my whole story.

So how can I do that? So I just created a YouTube channel and I only have the one, I only have the one clip up there. You know, when I told my first story, but that was the avenue to do that. And then I thought, well, I do enjoy writing. And so I wanna write and I want, and a lot of the the resources that I wanna give to people would be better suited in a, in a blog format.

And so Chris was working on that and quite frankly, we just, we just, life gets busy. And so it's not quite published, but I have a lot of material ready to go as soon as he gets that live. So I think it just, it just evolved from my own interest. What caught my own. and then whenever I was able to fill out or, or figure out, because I had to Google, like how to use Instagram properly.

right, right. I like, I dunno. I share pictures of my family on my personal, you know, my personal thing. And I, and I like things and I follow things, but I have no idea. Like I had, I have no idea how to create a real or any of that stuff. So [00:09:00] I had to Google it. But again, the information is out there, so that's right.

I figured it. 

Veronica: Yeah, that's fantastic. I think more people need to just Google it and figure it out because there's tons of resources and you don't have to be a master. You don't have to have the exact mic or lighting or set up. You just have to have a message. And that's, that's what you did, which is why I love it.

You were like, yeah, I have information. I'm going for it. Here are my reels. Hopefully they work. We'll see what happens. 

Cristina: exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And, and when I research. that's the way you get to a broader audience, you know, because it's, it's untapped. And so whatever you share on your page, people who want to hear your message already there.

So if you're trying to reach out to people who haven't heard your message yet, you know, and you want them to, to get hooked. Real is a great way to do it because it just go, I mean, it's something about the algorithm, something, something, I don't know. I don't know how it works, but it goes out to just anybody and everybody, you know, mm-hmm so every single time I post a reel, I get new people and inevitably the, the numbers drop off too, because [00:10:00] sometimes, you know, they're like, okay, that was funny.

I'm gonna follow her. And they're like, oh, I don't care about mold. You know, right. Drop off. And that's fine. That's fine too. But. But now they know, you know, now, now my purpose is accomplished now, you know, something 

Veronica: mm-hmm . Yeah. So tell me, what has some of the engagement looked like? Do people reach out to you and say, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you're talking about this, or I'd never heard of this.

How has the reaction been to your new audience? 

Cristina: Yeah, so a lot of both. A lot of both, actually I'm, I'm actually really surprised that the number of people that reached that just actually reach out to me because I've never done that to a page. I've never reached out to a page and asked any other questions or engaged in a dialogue with anybody that I follow.

But I'm, I'm really, I was really, really pleasantly surprised that a lot of people are more courageous than I am mm-hmm and that they do it because because that's where, that's where it really fills my cup. That's where, that's where my passion project. Fuels me because people are it's, it's a lot of what you just said either.

They're saying, are you serious? Could this be, you know, or a [00:11:00] lot of times it's mothers, it's moms who said, you know, I can't believe your story. Your story's just like my story could, could this be, could it be for us that it's the same, you know, . And so it's just kind of talking to them and walking through those realities and where we that's, where we really dig in, we really make a connection and that's, that's what fuels my fire.

And then some people are saying, you know, they know they know more than I know, you know, they've been through it and they've researched and they've got things to share. And, and in that respect, I'm learning so much. And a lot of it came from the building. Some people said, yeah, we went through mold and we built a house as well.

And this is what worked for us. And this is what doesn't and you should check this out and, you know, so then that, that takes me down another path of research mm-hmm so it is just it is an amazing. It has been an amazing thing for me. I mean, I still have a, I still have a relatively small audience.

Mm-hmm compared to a lot of you know, a lot of other pages and thousands and stuff. I'm in the, you know, few, few hundred mm-hmm . But but those few hundred people, I mean, for the most part, I touch them all, you know? [00:12:00] Right. We talk and I've even made some friends. We have like an ongoing, an ongoing text group for some of these people who have been through mold and are also very, very research based.

So it's a whole community. And it's just been, it's been so fulfilling for me. It's been so fulfilling for me with that to, to engage on that level. Mm-hmm with other 

Veronica: people. Yeah. And I think that's, and I think that's really what interested me the most in watching what was happening this evolution, because while the numbers may have been small for someone who is not necessarily selling a product or a service, but really sharing information and more like a public service.

The engagement seemed really high. Yeah. And that's when I thought, I wonder if Christina realizes that she's literally creating a whole new brand here and, and it occurred to me that maybe you were, or, or, or weren't, but you welcomed it regardless. And so I think there might be some folks who are hesitant to jump into something like this, because they think they need a full out strategy, a full out team of supporters and you don't.

Yeah. And I think you're doing [00:13:00] you're, you're doing what you feel called to do. And. I mean, you've, you've built a community, which some people spend thousands of dollars and hours trying to do. You've built a community already. 

Cristina: Oh, thank that's. That's really encouraging. Cause I, you know what, until you reached out to me, I really didn't.

I didn't. Okay.

I didn't, I didn't think about it like that at all. I just, you know, I was, like I said, I just had a message to get out and if it could touch, you know, one or two people and it could, if it could, if I could help them in any way, then, you know, that's what I wanted to do. Mm-hmm . But but no, you're so right, because, because it does come to mind an engagement that I had with somebody who said, you know, I really appreciate your transparency.

I appreciate that. You don't, it's not all glitz and glamor and it's not like, look at how this is all going so perfectly. and you know, how everything is just working out and because it's not, I mean, that's not reality. Mm-hmm, , you know, it's not, and our planes changed. So yeah, so I think maybe it could just be the, my, my propensity for oversharing in general.

but then just [00:14:00] transparency. I mean, I, I always just say, you know, let it fly, whatever it is. Yeah. Let it fly. And it's probably something I've embraced more in my age than I did when I was younger. But it, but it works for me. It works professionally and I think it it's working in this channel too. I, I, I'm glad to see that it's coming through 

Veronica: mm-hmm and you've been able to share it in other ways.

Right. You've been a guest on other podcasts and yeah. Yeah. And are there other established communities around mold that that have you've connected to, and are you having conversations about collaborations other than just sharing information back and forth? 

Cristina: No, no, I'm not having any conversations on collaborations.

There's a, there's a nonprofit that I like to share a lot of their information because one of, one of the things that you find when you're in mold and mold related groups is not everybody is the, has the same ethics. Ah and not everybody has the same. Goal, you know, mm-hmm to actually help people get through it.

I mean, it, it is a business for a lot of people, so, oh, got it. When I, when I find businesses or nonprofits [00:15:00] that are, you know, that, that are, that I have vetted and that I feel are really, really what's the word they're doing the right thing. Mm-hmm, , you know, they're really trying to help people then, then those are things that I share.

I share a lot on my page about. but no, we haven't, we haven't discussed collaborations, but on my research, I have, I, I think I know where you're going with this, cuz I . I. Seeing that that's where you get to the next levels when you start collaborating. Yeah. 

Veronica: Yeah. And I think that that's, sometimes people don't realize that's what that's, what's next mm-hmm because you built a community and then someone says, well, what are you gonna do with that community?

And, you know, sharing information, engaging, giving people support, just having that. Especially again, I, I, I keep using the term micro niche, but it's because it is so niche. Yes. There's this world of mold and there may be an online community, but families that have been impacted health wise, it, you can drill down to that level.

Yeah. And then you've drilled down to building a home and a new environment that supports that. Yeah. So it's, you've got this. This, this [00:16:00] opportunity for people to connect with you at different levels. And then it's like, okay, but what's next, right? What's next? Yeah. And for some people, again, you have a corporate busy, important nine to five job.

And, and you're like, okay. So how do we continue to share this message? How do we continue to help people? And I think you just sharing your story and. Making tools and resources available to people are, is really the next what's next. And one of my favorite things that you did was literally throw up books and titles and they were thick, heavy books.

And I was like, oh my gosh. That's like, so overwhelming. very quickly were able to synthesize. What you can get out of this research and here's why, and I think that's the beauty of what you're doing with your, with your channels. Yeah. 

Cristina: Yeah, no, I oh, that that's so encouraging to me. That's so encouraging to me that's coming through.

Cause that's, that's exactly what I was going for. That's exactly what I was going for is like, yes, it can be, there's so much information out there that sometimes you get, you know, into the fr the freeze, the freeze mode, right. Mm-hmm , you're like, there's just too much. I don't know where to. and so yeah, so I that's [00:17:00] exactly what I like to do is just kind of drill it down and what, what is, what is, what can you get from this?

Go look at this, look at this chapter, you know, mm-hmm yeah, 

Veronica: yeah. Well, you're doing it and you're doing it very well. And I know it's, it's helping people. So last couple of things I wanted to ask about is how, how do you see your channels growing? What kind of families and, or, or maybe even organizations, do you want to bring into this space and how do you think it can help people?

Cristina: You know, I just, I would like to just grow. I don't have, I don't have a goal about growing. I just, I want people. I just wanna raise awareness and I don't know what that means ably for growing. I just want people to be aware and, and hopefully, you know, there's a level of awareness that people that start to follow aren't, even people who have ever been impacted by mold, that would be great.

You know, that would, that would mean that I have reached a, a really wide wide network. But I think, I think the next step is even, you know, even beyond building a home, I mean, if we're not building a home, we're renting, right. Mm-hmm so you still have to know how to live in a safe environ. [00:18:00] And I wanna bring the resources that we've learned to raise our comfort level so that, you know, we're not scared anymore.

Cause I think that was the big drive in hurrying up and trying to build a home is we wanted control over our environment. You don't have as much control when you're renting, you know, But we've learned that there's things that you can do to make sure that you're safe before you sign a lease. You know, there's a lot of things that you can do on your own and doesn't involve doesn't involve a whole lot of special effort.

So I want people to know about that. And and I want people to know about the different the different organizations that I've found that that are safe places for me, you know? Good, good people who are doing the right. And I want them to know about those resources. So I think maybe just being a place where people can go and get trusted, vetted information if I could get to that level mm-hmm , that would be great.

Veronica: Yeah, well, and that's a great level to get to because ultimately that's you living out your mission and your purpose and, you know, we always, people say everything happens for a reason and it's true, but it's what you do with it [00:19:00] after. Yes. You know, it's, it's how you move on to the next to the next level.

So I think you're doing a fantastic job. All right, Christina, how can people find you? What channels are you on and how can people connect with. 

Cristina: Yes. So so I'm most active on Instagram. So it's rebuilding revival on Instagram same name on Facebook, and then we have the rebuilding revival.com website that hopefully as my husband edits this podcast, he will be engaged to get that live.

But also the, you can also email me, Christina rebuilding revival dot. And I'm pretty responsive. So if anybody wants to get ahold of me, if anybody needs any resources or any questions, I really welcome you reaching out. 

Veronica: Yeah. Well, I think you're doing a fantastic job. I love that. It's so mission driven and and so real quickly, how's everybody doing?

You guys have gone through this. You've shared a lot of your story. How's everyone. Yeah. Dealing with the environment and what kind of progress have you seen? Yeah, 

Cristina: so we are doing fantastic. Thank you for asking. We are doing really, really well. We work with a functional medicine doctor who follows a [00:20:00] pro protocol called Shoemaker and that follow, that tracks all of your inflammatory markers.

And there's certain markers that get inflamed when you're exposed to mold. And so we had very, very high markers. We're about a year and a half out. and as we were going through the blood work, anybody whose family has been impacted by some health event, you probably know the kind of angst that you get.

When you start talking to a doctor, cuz you sit down and you're like, what am I gonna hear? What am I gonna learn? What are we gonna, what's this new journey that we're gonna be on. And this last time that we went through our blood work, it was like normal, normal, normal, normal, normal, normal. And so there's so much, there's, there's a significant amount.

That's normal. We still have a few little things that we're that we're working on, but it's, it's encouraging to me because I know we're in a clean environment, which is something that you have to just really keep on top of, you know, mm-hmm, no matter, no matter where you start, you don't know what's what's going on.

As, as you, as your time in the building progresses. It's encouraging to know that we're still in a clean environment and it's encouraging to know that all of our hard work is paying. And my girls are healthy, so they're 

Veronica: very, very good. Yes. And we [00:21:00] celebrate that so much. All right, Christina, thank you so much for being on the show.

Thank you for sharing your journey. I love that. It's so organic and it it's it's, it's doing fantastic things for other families. So I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for 

Cristina: having me on. I appreciate it. 

Veronica: Great. All right, guys, go out, connect with Christina, follow the Greenfield story. They have done a fantastic job of sharing resources, sharing information, and that's really what it's all about.

It's about providing a service, whether you are selling a product or sharing your expertise, or in this case have a passion project. It can take a life of its own and make a difference for others. So go out there and research, figure out how to do it and make sure that. Is connecting to the people who really need it the most.

All right. If you are listening on our podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of Saturday sound bites. If you are watching on Facebook or YouTube, drop us some comments and Christina and I will go back and connect with that. I'm sending you lots of positive energy and light.