Your Story, Your Brand: The Blueprint to Building a Profitable Brand Through Life Lessons

By Krystal K Portorreal

Krystal Portorreal is no stranger to life's curveballs. After running from God and landing in a strip club on the South Side of Oklahoma City, Krystal thought all of her troubles were over when she went into the Air Force to fly around the world with our nation's leaders. Having experienced this success, she had no idea the pain that had taken r

• Language: English
• Publisher: Opportune Independent Publishing Co.
• Release date: Aug 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781636160542

Krystal K Portorreal

Helping others turn dreams into reality is a labor of love for Krystal K. Portorreal, professional brand coach, author, designer and entrepreneur. As CEO of Kaye + Co Creative Designs, she works with multi-talented women to create impactful brands that captivate audiences and generate next-level income. A highly relatable "brand guru" who inspires with knowledge, experience and humor, Krystal has worked with hundreds of clients since launching her company in 2014. Her passion for sharing the finer points of marketing and design comes matched only by her desire to see other women go after what they desire most out of life.After serving in the Air Force for 10 years, Krystal became an entrepreneur and went back to school to study graphic design while building her business. She discovered she had a knack for helping women with beautiful design and finding the confidence required for a powerful brand. That is how her Confident Brand System was birthed.When Krystal is not helping women build powerful brands, she enjoys a peaceful, quiet cabin, getaway with her husband Lavob, and pup Charlie.

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Copyright © 2021 Krystal Kaye Portorreal

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-63616-053-5

eBook ISBN: 978-1-63616-054-2

Published by Opportune Independent Publishing Company

For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator to the address below.

Email: [e-mail]

Address: 113 N. Live Oak Street

Houston, TX 77003

CONTENTS

Dedication 7

Introduction 9

Lesson 1 CLASS IN SESSION 11

Lesson 2 SURVIVAL 21

Lesson 3 HOW DID I GET HERE? 49

Lesson 4 StripPER pole to the flag pole 65

Lesson 5 Military ties 81

Lesson 6 SENT TO SAVE 95

Lesson 7 DOORS TO divorce 109

Lesson 8 a sample of success 117

Lesson 9 ROCK BOTTOM 123

Lesson 10 FINDING FAITH 135

Lesson 11 GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS 141

About the Author 151

DEDICATION

To the man who has loved me through it all. My best friend, my lover, my partner. The man that showed me what being loved by a man truly feels like. I love you forever, my husband, Lavob Portorreal.

To the light of my eye, the beat of my heart, the woman that has always prayed for me and believed in me more than I could ever believe in myself. My momma, Debbie Ann Roberson.

Introduction

There are moments in our lives that leave impressions so deep that they become part of our makeup. A part of who we are forever. These moments are what I like to refer to as lessons.

Lessons can come in many forms, some good, some bad, but we learn something from them either way.

Moving into purpose takes so much courage because to do so, you must first address the lessons you’ve learned your entire life. You must stare into the face of the lessons that made you happy, but also the lessons that broke you.

I believe that confidence is the starting place of purpose. A synonym for confidence is courage. We must all be courageous as we walk into the purpose that God has for our lives. He has called every one of us to something very specific, and to uncover that, we must constantly listen to him, taking action on the courageous things he is asking us to do.

I wasn’t always this confident. I spent the better part of my life broken on the inside, which manifested in all sorts of unimaginable ways.

In the pagers that follow, I will describe some of the ways the lessons broke me, but you will also see how those lessons were all a part of God’s plan.

Even though I had turned my back on God, he never left my side, and his plans never changed. My hope is that as you read the following story full of heartbreak and breakthrough, you will start to understand your own purpose. My hope is that you will have moments with God as you read and start to understand just how much the world needs your brilliance.

Lesson 1

CLASS IN SESSION

My childhood was full of lessons, ones that would haunt me and some that would set me free later in life. To guide you to the starting place of purpose, I must first take you to the time and place where I began to learn these life lessons.

Discovering Daddy

It’s natural that I begin with my father because so many of my memories are directly tied to him, and I ended up being more like him than I ever knew I would. Sometimes those that hurt us the most make the deepest impression.

My dad stood about 6’7, and maybe a buck 80. He was a playful person, always telling jokes or making up silly rhymes, and he called me his baby girl. He was the first man I ever really loved. He was also the first man that made me feel like I was unworthy of love.

My very first memory of him is a happy one. We lived in Ada, Oklahoma, and I was about five years old. We were riding in the car, and he was just being his goofy self and making up rhymes for us. Get in the car, you bubble-headed jar…just the absolute silliness that was my dad. At that time, I didn’t realize my dad had some serious demons that would literally plague my childhood. Often, parents don’t realize that when they refuse to heal, the blood from their wounds drips all over the children and their children’s, children. The refusal to get help is literally the beginning of generational curses.

I started to realize my daddy was different not long after that car ride when my mother made him sleep outside on the porch one night after he came home. He came home drunk, and she was not having it, so he slept outside. It was also around this time that I realized the smell my father always had, the smell I had come to remember about him the most, wasn’t cologne, it was alcohol. I literally thought my daddy just always smelled good.

I’m not sure how or at what point I realized the smell was alcohol, but it began to tear away at my soul every time. It became something that was tied to so much pain in my life. I can’t believe I ever picked it up myself and took a drink. But more on that later.

My dad’s addictions continued for years, and alcohol slowly progressed into full-out drug use. Later on, he got addicted to crack cocaine. My comedian dad, who sang goofy, made-up songs with us in the car, spent part of his life addicted to crack. It sounds absolutely insane saying it out loud. But there is a very valuable lesson here for ALL of us: When we let the enemy in, he knows no bounds. For the devil, alcohol addiction is just a short distance away from drug abuse. Because it’s that same spirit. Right now, you may be struggling with alcohol addiction and telling yourself that you would NEVER do any drugs. Well, I’m here to tell you that if you have allowed yourself to become ok with any addiction, you are just a short walk away from another one. Addiction is insidious and very slow acting. It literally sneaks up on you in the most devilish way. One moment you are having fun in the bars with your friends as a 20-year-old, and the next thing you know, you are throwing up blood and still drinking at 35. Then you’re having your first drink at 11 am if you have a meeting coming up...just to take the edge off. I will touch more on my own addictions later, but I want you to catch this lesson because it may save your life. Don’t give that spirit an open door in your life because addiction is one of the biggest blessing blockers!

It will take over and strip you of ambition and self-confidence before you even notice. You CANNOT get a breakthrough if you are allowing addiction to plague your life. If you are letting that spirit sit on your chest, you cannot get up and do the things that God has called you to do. So release it. We will dive more into this later. For now, I want to continue to the next person who had a significant effect on me. My momma.

The Teachings of Momma

They say the ones that are doing well often go unnoticed. Well, for a long time, my mom was that person. She was a constant in my life. She always appeared happy, always singing and praying for us. She was literally my rock, even though it was a while before I recognized it. She is now my best friend, and I will always believe her prayers brought me back after all I am about to describe to you.

At the time, while I was figuring out that my dad had serious demons he was fighting, my mom was the shining light in my life! I can confidently say she is the only reason I’m here today. She is responsible for the happiest memories of my life, and I will always thank her for that. Now, looking back, I have no idea how she kept it all together.

Sometimes happiness, even if genuine, can teach some very valuable lessons. And there are some very important lessons I learned from my mom’s happiness that I want to share with you. These are lessons that you, too, may have learned from your mother. All of us are more connected through generational ties than we realize. Some of the lesson’s momma taught me are ones that have been passed down from my ancestors. Happiness leaves clues, too, not just pain. We must learn from them and dig deeper to understand WHY someone is happy. I capitalized why because the word why will come into play when I teach you the Confident Brand System in the last chapter. So, let’s get into the lessons momma taught me:

Teaching #1: God can always bring joy. No matter what chaos is going on around us, you can turn to him, and he will bring joy during any situation. My mom would be praising and singing God’s name in true and pure joy, even as my dad was home hungover and wreaking alcohol. This truly taught me that when times are rough, turning to God will ALWAYS bring joy. I know we’ve all heard the phrase Give it to God.

Well, my mother practices that with expert skill! My mom never once allowed my dad’s sins and trauma to make her feel unjoyful. You can tell when someone is faking it, and she wasn’t. She was the happiest person I knew, and her joy was infectious all my life. Ya’ll my mom would come home after working all day at school (she was a school teacher), then work her second job at Walmart, standing up all night at a register…and she would still be smiling. She never complained about the imperfect and sometimes traumatic life we were living. Anyone that knows me now, you know I’m an extremely joyful person as well. I am that way because I’ve chosen to give it all to God, exactly the way my momma did.

This is not ignoring the bad things that