KRYSTAL’S UNLIKELY JOURNEY TO SUCCESS
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR BACKSTORY AND HOW YOU BECAME THE PRESIDENT OF THE USCCC
I did not graduate out of high school thinking that one day I want to become the president of the US Christian Chamber of Commerce. It didn't even exist then. When I graduated high school, I was the valedictorian of my class of 7, so you can imagine how small my school was. We had 30 students in my school, 300 in my town, and my thought was, I'm never coming back to this place.
Well, life has a way of humbling you. I went on to college and dropped out with 21 hours left, and with my tail between my legs, I went back home to Mom and Dad in the small town. I knew I needed to do something besides just call it quits in this little town, so I started stocking shelves in a truck part store, a subsidiary of an oil and gas company.
Through several promotions in 12 years, I became the youngest executive in this Fortune 200 oil and gas company. I was responsible for all of the gas distribution company in 47 cities on the west side of Texas and all of customer service for Texas. It was a big "only God" moment that I thought I was responsible for every step.
I got closer to more power, more money, and the things that the world would tell you make you successful. I made God smaller in my life, and I thought I did it. I got my undergrad in psychology, my master's in marketing, and you know, I thought, well, I have arrived.
At that time I was 34 years old and making a ton of money. I've got a lot of prestige and power and positional power. And you know, they say that money is a competitor to God, and all these things are wonderful if you use them correctly and have your order correctly. But I didn't. I put power and money and security over everything else, including family.
So, there were lots of opportunities for gravity to pull me to my knees and humble me and start over. And I did. I ended up in Florida and hadn't fully surrendered my life to Christ, still trying to figure it out. I knew about God. I knew the Bible, but I didn't have a relationship with the Lord. And so I was still going by what the world said is going to make you successful, popular, happy, feel good, all those things, which is a lie.