Diabetics Doing Fashion, Dance and Entrepreneurship with Kyrra Richards of Myabetic

[00:00:00] Rob Howe: Hello everyone, Rob Howe here, and welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. Just wanted to let you know that if you've been listening all the way to this point from the beginning, you're inching ever closer to hearing over 1,000 years of living with type 1 diabetes. Now, certainly there are some similarities in how we all deal with the disease, but I find it super rewarding to dig into the tactics, tips, mindsets, and insights that make us all different. If you hear something new, interesting, or polarizing, drop me a line. I'd love to discuss it. Holler at me on Instagram or shoot me an email. Okay, let's get back to the episode. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We are telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics from across the world. And my very special guest today is Kyrra Richards. Kyrra, thanks so much for taking the time to come on the show.

[00:00:48] Kyrra Richards: Thank you. I'm excited.

[00:00:49] Rob Howe: I'm very excited as well. And I think a lot of our listeners may be familiar with your line of products and your brand. But why don't you go ahead and just give everybody a little bit of a background?

[00:01:02] Kyrra Richards: Yeah, that makes me really happy you say that. I am the founder of Myabetic, and we create fashion accessories that are designed to hold your diabetes supplies. So it's a fashion brand created specifically for people with diabetes.

[00:01:16] Rob Howe: And, I mean, just very close to my heart, this issue, because for many years there was just no option other than to just mangle some sort of bag and throw all of your stuff in it. So I'm just so glad that there's an option out there for people who are a little bit more fashion forward to carry around their supplies.

[00:01:33] Kyrra Richards: Exactly. Exactly. Much more fun.

[00:01:36] Rob Howe: Oh, absolutely. So let's get talking down to business in terms of your diagnosis story, because every great diabetic accomplishment starts in a hospital somewhere, it seems like. So let's give a little background on that and then kind of talk about how it led down to this journey.

[00:01:59] Kyrra Richards: Sure. So instead of starting at the hospital, I'm going to start across the world in Afghanistan. So I was working when I was diagnosed, I was 24 years old. So I was working in Los Angeles as a professional dancer and actress and model. So I was doing music videos and awards shows and commercials, auditioning all the time. And when I was diagnosed, I had just returned to L.A. from Afghanistan, where I was dancing and performing for the military troops on a military tour. When I left for Afghanistan, I was super excited to perform, but, you know, had had no evidence of any kind of health problem. And when I went over there, I was performing maybe twice a day and traveling by Black Hawk helicopter from base to base, performing in the middle of sometimes just really hot desert areas. And I started feeling just a little bit off. And it wasn't something that really occurred to me at first that it was a big problem because the little clues that many people with diabetes understand and are familiar with, thirst and hunger, it didn't sink in that this was a big deal because I was dancing so heavily. And when we were performing after every show, I was super thirsty. But again, I was dancing in the middle of the desert. So it didn't seem like it was something that I should be too worried about. But on the military bases, there were these big fridges there with just tons of water bottles so that the military personnel and the soldiers could just easily grab them. But, well, I just went by this refrigerator. Like, I went by the fridge, took, like, so many bottles and just kept going back, visiting it multiple times a day. I could not drink enough water. Um, this being said, obviously you have to go to the bathroom all the time. And the issue with that though, was that I was on these military bases in Afghanistan, um, in these huts. And because they're obviously dangerous, I, I wasn't able to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night by myself. Um, it was, they were on, we were on blackout bases, meaning there were no lights on the bases so that we couldn't be, um, detected by terrorists. So in order to leave our little hut or our tent, first of all, I would need to wake up, um, some, one of the soldiers to accompany me to the bathroom on base. Um, I would have to put on a bulletproof vest, a helmet and night vision goggles just to get to the bathroom. So a big ordeal. Exactly. So as you can imagine, I was like, that is way too much. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to hold it. And when you're drinking that much water and then trying to hold it, as well as traveling from these bases in military planes that do not have bathrooms on the plane. They did say if you want to use the bathroom, you can use that bucket right there in the middle of the plane in front of everyone. And that just wasn't going to be something that I did. So anyway, I came back from Afghanistan. And what I thought had happened was that I had injured my bladder from holding it and not using the bathroom. Oh, wow. So that's what, you know, when I was little, people, you know, like when you see a little kid having to go to the bathroom, like there's always these stories like you're not supposed to hold it, you know. So that's what I thought. I did something like that. So when I came back from Afghanistan, I had I just had to keep going. I was just still so thirsty. So, so hungry, kept having to use the bathroom frequently in the middle of the night. So I finally went to the family physician and I walked in and thought this is I had made my own self diagnosis that I had broken my bladder in Afghanistan. So that's what I told my doctor, which obviously she looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I don't know if that's what happened. So she had a suspicion, came in, had a nurse check me with a glucose meter and came back and told me we got to send you straight to the hospital because you have diabetes. So that was my diagnosis.

[00:06:42] Rob Howe: this well besides that being a very multi-layered and sort of very eventful story uh i want to go back a little bit because i also have been on one of those military tours a uso military tour when i was playing uh against the harlem globetrotters so we did we did kuwait we did bahrain we did afghanistan there you go so i don't want to undersell like how rigorous the travel is just like going from base to base to base you're crossing a large amount of land mass you're on planes up and down like coming from the u.s i think you're on that weird uh time zone in afghanistan where it's like half an hour it's like 12 and a half hours which is the weirdest that was like people asked me what the weirdest part was that was the weirdest thing to me that i was 12 and a half hours ahead of home um but then you know uh like you said the military bases are stocked with it's like diabetic paradise, right? So if you have a, like, because for me, I didn't tell my team that I was type 1 because I felt like if they knew that they would cut me because it was just another thing they had to worry about.

[00:07:47] Kyrra Richards: I understand, right?

[00:07:48] Rob Howe: I wouldn't recommend that to anyone by any stretch, but I, so I, every time I passed a granola bar station or a Gatorade, I would stash like two or three just in case I had a low, you know? So I was lugging around about 10 pounds of extra gear compared to my teammates because I had all that Gatorade in there, which is actually, you know, sort of a blessing in disguise. I mean, not, you know, on a travel schedule, you don't always have opportunities to grab, you know, low blood sugar, you know, hypo treatment options. So it was nice. Anyway, so all that to say, you know, it's a rigorous schedule. You're already, you know, you've got all these barriers to go to the restroom anyway. You're trying to, you know, tough it out. I'm sure as a dancer, like you're, you know, you're like, Oh, well, I'm just traveling or Oh, well, I haven't slept or my body clocks off. I just got to focus on this and get it done. Exactly. All of that comes through. And then you get that word from the doctor. They're like, you have type 1 diabetes. So take us into that moment. What goes through your mind?

[00:08:47] Kyrra Richards: Sure. So she did say diabetes. And that was a shock. I definitely don't have anybody that I know of in my family history. I didn't have any friends that I knew had diabetes. I really the only kind of reference I had toward diabetes was that when I was younger, I read the Babysitter's Club books and knew that one of the characters had diabetes. But that's really the only thing I knew about diabetes. So it was obviously a shock. She did not tell me if it was type 1 or type 2, but she sent me to the hospital to meet with an endocrinologist. And that was actually a pretty traumatic experience. The endocrinologist that I met with, while she was a fantastic doctor. She didn't have like the best bedside manner. And I went in there. I you know, this is an hour after being told that I had diabetes. She came in, looked at me and said, Well, I hear you're a dancer. And I said, Yes. And she goes, Don't worry, I've had dancers that have diabetes. This isn't gonna be a big deal. I was like, Oh, okay, you know, and then she said, well, I'm going to give you directions. So just take a couple of shots of insulin tonight and come back and see me tomorrow, which I'm going, first of all, I don't understand insulin. Give myself shots. Like you understand, this is just super overwhelming. I, so I asked her, I said, how do I give myself a shot of insulin? Like, where do I even get this? Like, well, how do I do that? And she looked at me and then went and then made this big sigh going, Oh, and she opened the door and yelled down to, I don't know, a nurse or something and said, hey, she doesn't even know how to give herself shots. And then she came back and said, like, just so annoyed with me. And yeah, and so here I am going, okay, like, I'm 24 years old. I don't know anything about this disease. I don't know what you're talking about. And then I felt even more stupid or educated about something that, you know, I was already in, it's already traumatic going through this.

[00:10:51] Rob Howe: Right. And it's sort of like shaming, right?

[00:10:53] Kyrra Richards: Exactly.

[00:10:54] Rob Howe: And I think those moments after diagnosis, after hearing close to 65 now diagnosis stories from people and all they all have some element of similarity, but each is unique in its own way as well. Those moments immediately after the diagnosis are so important. Just the things that people say, the way that they say them have a profound impact. I think you're just your your trauma meters are like your spidey sense is like Yeah, hyper aware. Exactly. Exactly. So at that point, you know that that type of even for her

[00:11:28] Kyrra Richards: Maybe just having a bad afternoon or something. Right, right. It might have who knows exactly what happened But I felt like it was being taken out on me And I was going did I miss a doctor appointment? Like so that was I supposed to go see someone before you? um like i was sent directly to you you're my first person that is going to talk to me about this disease and here i am feeling super embarrassed and you know like i i have a problem or a nuisance so that was yeah it made the experience even worse um she left the room and just kind of left me in there for a good 20 minutes and i was just i was just crying i you know i felt terrible didn't know what to do. And eventually, over the next week, she sent me to a diabetes educator who was so much better and tried to kind of calmly explain everything. But she did not say that I had type 1. She actually, they expected it to be type 2. So in the beginning, they were saying, we're hoping that this is type 2. We think it's type 2 because you are older. And I understand now that that's more common. But I just couldn't understand when I was looking up type 2, because I'm going, here I am dancing hours and hours a day. It is my profession. And trying to understand type 2 diabetes, and there's a lot of genetic effects with it. But I went to a class with other people with type 2 diabetes. And one of the things they had told us in the class was that you should start trying to exercise more. And so I want you as your homework to walk around your block once this week. And I'm going, okay, I don't know how that's gonna help me. So I was very frustrated in the beginning and they did not know until they did more tests and came back and then within the next week, they said, I think you still are producing a tiny bit of insulin. We know it is going to stop. So you are going to become a type 1 diabetic. But, you know, I feel for all people with diabetes that there's nothing easy about it.

[00:13:47] Rob Howe: Well, right. And I think for people who were diagnosed at the same age you were around there, there's so little education, even among physicians, that type 1 is still possible at that point. Correct. So of almost all the diagnosis stories around that age that I've been told, it's staggering the amount of initial misdiagnoses or, you know, just that the doctors thought or prescribed like metformin or something and said, hey, and even some of the other, I think like Paloma glitter glucose talks about almost two years she went with the doctors thinking it was type 2 and ended up having to switch doctors two or three times. So, you know, and then, you know, again, those first moments building that trust, so imperative to the rest of your journey. So So for you, you know, and I think everyone's so different. And like as a profession, this is not to harp on medical professionals because I think they're amazing and they do a great job. But all type 1 diabetics are so different. So for you, being a dancer, which for those who are not intimately aware of how fit you have to be to be a dancer, in that top 5% of all even athletes in terms of your overall fitness level. Right. So to walk around the block is not going to do anything. Walk around the block once a week is not even going to register on the radar of a workout. So, you know, for you, how did you say, okay, well, I've got to balance what I've been told with what I know about myself and what I know about my body and my regimen and adjust from there?

[00:15:17] Kyrra Richards: You know what? I can't even say that I got there that fast. My, the mental journey was so long from that point that I don't think I was, to be completely honest, I don't think I was even there to be like, okay, let's, Let's treat this as a health issue. And I'd like to say I was brave and just took control and said, OK, this is all right. I'm going to beat this and have this great attitude toward it. But I just I didn't get there for a long time. I was pretty bitter. I was upset. And as you mentioned, being a professional dancer, my livelihood was dependent on my physicality. I was auditioning every day. And as a dancer and a model or, you know, doing acting jobs in Los Angeles, the casting process is extremely physical. And what I did on a day to day basis was walk into a casting studio. And the first thing I do before I open my mouth, before I perform a piece is stand on an X in the middle of the room and say my name, smile at the camera. and then do a slow 360, a lot of times in maybe a bathing suit or, you know, some kind of a little half top or shorts, so they can just examine your body. And that's what I was going through. That was my day to day basis. And when I started taking insulin, because, you know, because when you're not, as many of you know, if you are diagnosed, and you have not been giving yourself insulin, and your body has not been receiving the nutrients it needed, I had been losing a lot of weight rapidly. Again, I didn't realize that it was that bad because I was taking so many dance classes and performing all the time and taking Pilates. So it didn't seem that this was out of the ordinary. But the insulin, as soon as I started taking insulin, like I gained 10 pounds very quickly and I needed it. My doctors are saying, no, no cure. This is a good thing. Your body was starving. You needed this fat on your body. But can you imagine as a model or a dancer, those 10 pounds are extremely depressing your career.

[00:17:35] Rob Howe: And the mental weight of that, I think, is almost psychologically more heavier than the actual weight, right?

[00:17:43] Kyrra Richards: It is. It is. And just understanding for me, my value had been tied so much to my physicality that it was a really hard mental process to go through. So I was not the management. It wasn't the, OK, take nine units of insulin and take this Lantus over bed. Like that wasn't the stuff that was really harmful to me. That wasn't the hard part of it. Like I didn't mind giving myself shots. Like it's not a big deal in that way. But, you know, the weight loss and the emotional aspect of becoming or thinking of myself as this sick person or this patient, I just I couldn't identify with it. So I don't know if I and, you know, to be honest, I don't know if I ever feel like I'm like, oh, I took the bull by the horns and now I feel like I have my diabetes under control. I could say I do the best I can every day but I think it's always been more of an emotional psychological journey for me

[00:18:45] Rob Howe: well yeah and I think focusing on that feeling as well I think there's two points I want to make from it number one I think right now there's this idea perpetuating that you can be a perfect diabetic and I think that a little bit of social media plays into that where it's just very curated and you can't you can't see every moment. So you have to make inferences based on what you see. Right. And I think you can fall into a trap really easily to, to say that, you know, on a day to day basis, oh, I want to have perfect blood sugars like X or Y. And I think that if that person was to tell you like, hey, I don't have perfect blood sugars, I, you know, I do the best that I can with what I've got. Right. You know, I think that that would change a lot of things. And I think that some people do a really good job of showing the other side of it as well. But back to your other point about, you know, not feeling sick and not wanting to associate yourself that way mentally or operate from that state of mind. I think that's really important too, because the type 1 diabetes, you don't see it except for maybe some pump tubing or the occasional injection or blood sugar test, like you're sort of undercover and you're hidden, but that weight is still very heavy. So, you know, just understanding and trying to find those moments where you can say, hey, I really do need a little bit of positive affirmation here. Any feelings of positivity and normal, you know, just, hey, I do love myself a little bit of soft edges around the way that you talk to yourself is super important.

[00:20:15] Kyrra Richards: It is important. Go ahead.

[00:20:19] Rob Howe: Yeah, so kind of in that same vein, how did your diagnosis at 24, adjusting to life afterwards, how did that lead you down the path to start Myabetic?

[00:20:34] Kyrra Richards: Sure. So as an artist, a professional artist, I did need to take a bit of a break from auditioning while I was trying to figure out my insulin levels. I was just having a tough time. And I do think that was probably because of the emotional aspect of it more often. I was just feeling, I felt like people could see my diabetes. So I just think that like my confidence was shaken a bit. And I just wanted to step back from the daily job of being judged, which is what auditions are. So I personally chose to take a little step back and just think about where my life was going and my career. I went to UCLA. I went and knew that I wanted to, I knew that I didn't just want to depend on entertainment for the rest of my life. I thought it was a really fun career to have while I was young and travel and have great experiences. But I always wondered about what the next step and where the next step would be, what I would be doing and when it would come. So with the diabetes and also realizing that I now needed to make sure that I had enough money to afford all of the supplies and the insulin. My health insurance plan at the time was, okay, this will cover my one doctor appointment every year, the physical. And then at that time, every time I went to get my insulin, it was a little less than $400 every single time. So it just having a job that was reliant upon a casting that might a casting that could be dependent on whether I was five, two or five, seven, or whether my hair was brown or blonde. It just it was too scary at that moment to rely entirely on that when I knew I had to be able to afford the drugs to keep me alive. It's almost too much at stake in

[00:22:41] Rob Howe: almost not even worth the risk at that point, the inherent risk.

[00:22:44] Kyrra Richards: Exactly. So I had taken a little step back from that just to think about things. And I, while I was, I've always needed to kind of have a creative outlet when I'm going through something tough. Like as an artist, I just, that's where it goes. Like I need to kind of have some space and think creatively. So I went to visit my family up in the San Francisco Bay Area. And after like a long walk and just thinking about everything, I got home and I just I just had this feeling that I needed to kind of doodle. And so I took out a piece of paper and started drawing just these nicer bags and nicer supply cases for all of my diabetes supplies. And that started just because I felt like everything about the diagnosis and my life surrounding diabetes was ugly. Like it just felt ugly, like this big, ugly shadow on my life. And I know that that was my own perception, but that's where I was, frankly. And I thought, okay, I can't get behind this thing. I'm never going to identify with it if I think this is ugly. So how can I make it pretty? Like, is there anything I can do to kind of make this attractive, this management that I have to do? Like, what can I do to get on board with it a little bit? And thinking, well, what is actually something I can physically make beautiful? And that's where this started. So I was doodling just cute things that I liked, like rainbows and hearts and pretty colors. And I just started kind of drawing this out. And I didn't think much of it at the time. but it was one of those things that after I was done it made me feel better and then I kind of moved away from it and every day I just kept thinking about it it was just one of those things that just would not leave my brain and as an artist you you get creative and have so many different ideas oh this would be fun this would be great you know and that one just kind of stayed with me and after a while I was just I was with some friends from college and we were talking about business ideas and where we would all go in our careers as we're young adults and trying to think of things. And I said, yeah, I kind of had this business idea, but I don't know, I haven't put that much thought into it. And they asked me what it was for. And these were close friends that knew I had been diagnosed with diabetes. And I told them that I said, I kind of want to make prettier cases for my diabetes supplies. And these friends, one of them was working in New York. with in sales and marketing and she she goes you know that's a great idea and started thinking about it more and um I had a friend from college that was in legal and a friend that was in finance and we just kind of started coming together and talking about it for kind of for fun at first and then the more we talked about it the more we got excited um and that's where that's like the mini kernels of where it was born. And now it's crazy to think about because I, at the time, I did not know anything about business. I know that's such a huge word to just throw out there, but I wasn't a business major. You know, I graduated with a BA in arts and I definitely had no experience in fashion. No, no idea how to manufacture something definitely didn't. And honestly, I thought business was kind of like this big corporate machine that I never wanted to be a part of. Like I wanted to do things that were creative and emotional and feeling and I just had this kind of notion that business was hard edged and something that was an enemy. Now, I don't think that at all after going through everything and realizing how creative you can be as an entrepreneur. But at the time, that's what I thought. So it was just such a far-fetched idea. And conquering that has been such an ordeal. And I laugh when I think back to the roots of that idea, because I had a file cabinet in my room. I'm an organized person. But when I thought of the idea of myabetic, Like I, with my label maker, wrote out a label, Myabetic, put it on one manila folder, one hanging folder, and put it in my file cabinet. As if everything that was going to go into this business could fit in one file folder. Like I had no idea what I was getting into. I'm so happy I did it. But I definitely wasn't prepared at the time for the journey that it would take me on.

[00:27:39] Rob Howe: well and it's it's it's funny how little ideas and like a little bit of the right support in those ideas goes such a long way right yes even in like you were talking about those little acorns like you know if you get the water and the encouragement right from the start from the right people then you know it can grow and becomes a really big thing when did you when did you know uh that you were really on to something um even when i thought of this idea i

[00:28:04] Kyrra Richards: still had never really talked to anybody else with diabetes. Like I was a very private person about my diabetes. I still am for the most part. Like I, I own this big diabetes fashion company and I love it and I meet so many people, but still for the most part, if you talk to me, I probably would not lead with it. I probably, it probably would not come up in conversation unless we really got down to it. Um, I'm just, I'm still just kind of private about it. Um, But and that's not because I'm ashamed of it anymore. It's just where my head my head doesn't go there initially But when I started this company, I I still had not really met anybody with diabetes. So as I'm designing and throwing these things out there and trying to make prototypes, I'm thinking am I just crazy? Like am I the only person with diabetes that might ever think that these black nylon little cases that come with our glucose meters are ugly? Like maybe nobody else has a problem with it. Like maybe this is me just being kind of nuts and no one will be able to relate. And all the fears that come into it, oh, they'll they'll think that this is this is a dumb idea. And just, you know, you can talk yourself out of it so many so many times. But we made little prototypes and went to one conference, an American Diabetes Association conference in Los Angeles. and that was the first time I was able to really connect with anybody else with diabetes. I just met people that came around. We got a little booth. We had a sign. We didn't really have that many products. We had like, this is a wallet. Imagine this, but hold this. Like it really wasn't a great prototype. You'd be like, imagine, you know. but I just kind of wanted to get a feel if like anybody else thought this idea was any good and I definitely found a couple people that were interested or mentioned you know I had thought about that before and I've heard that so many times which makes me really happy because that means that it's not just me but a lot of people say hey I had this idea I really want to make these things pretty and you're like fantastic and you know I'm glad that I just kind of dove into it and did it. But myabetic, the more, the more we got out there, and the more people that we connected with, the more I understood that we were on to something special, that it was a new way to talk about diabetes that wasn't just from the nonprofit sector, that's going to ask, that's going to connect with people and then kind of ask them for something in return, which isn't a bad deal, you know, like everybody, these nonprofit organizations are amazing and funding research and things that we really need. But then there's also the big pharmaceutical corporations, which, again, are fantastic, but they're just so different from where I was. And I'm like, I need a company or some kind of organization that is about the lifestyle, that addresses the daily life, that, yes, these things that are being created for us, the new drugs, the new scientific devices, all these things are fantastic. But what about if you actually have to use them and thinking about the lifestyle objects or just being out there in the perceptions of people without diabetes on people with diabetes and how that affects you? Like, I just wanted to be able to be in that space and talk creatively with other people with diabetes and just have an outlet for people to express these things. And so it has become an area or a way of me connecting with people with diabetes, even just on a personal level, because I don't think I would have done it had I not had this business. But the more we just connected, the more people kind of said, I like this, I'm onto it. Or, for instance, in the beginning, we had an array of products just trying to understand what people would want. We had some just dark black, kind of really nice quality, but just still kind of conservative products. And then we had kind of fun, crazy, wild colors. And it wasn't a collection that I, to this day, would totally be proud of. But I kind of needed to understand the spectrum of like, what do people want? So what are they responding to? And realizing that the first time we set up the store online, our first orders came in for these bright colors. It just made me really happy. People want color. People want something fun to look at. It's not that they're just all asking for the black version, which I was scared that might have been the case. So seeing the different tastes and different personalities and people able to express themselves differently, not having the same black meter that identifies you as a person with diabetes and black meter case. This is one way of kind of taking claim of your identity or yourself, your personality or individuality with diabetes.

[00:33:10] Rob Howe: Well, I think I think it's super important, too, because this space like this diabetes type 1 diabetes lifestyle space is very new. At least I think I have a theory that it's new. I think Beyond Type 1 has done a great job of focusing on what it's really like to live as a type 1. Phenomenal. And I think it's just now that there's it's more in vogue, I guess, to be more open about things that you're going through just in society. And I think type 1 communities have benefited from that greatly. so I think you know there's just there's a lot to being first right just to have something that people associate good feelings with diabetes about is just a it's it's a new thing and it's amazing because it didn't used to be that way and you know to your to your point there were I'm sure a lot of people who are like you uh you know even even to the 10th power right who hide their diabetes away from people and I know you said that you don't do that out of shame and I'm sure that there are a lot of people who identified that as well. I was one of them. I just didn't want to be a burden on anyone. I figured I could handle it on my own. So I never brought it up. And that's just sort of my type A athlete mentality was I wasn't going to have any reason for someone to keep an extra eye on me. I was totally going to get it. Right. And then my whole life changed when I just accepted it and just said, hey, yeah, this is something that I have and something that I deal with. And I'm happy to talk about it. but I still don't think about it any more or less than I used to I just am a little bit more open now it's so strange but it's cool it's something that I associate positive feelings with now instead of negative

[00:34:47] Kyrra Richards: Agreed, totally agreed

[00:34:49] Rob Howe: Well that's so cool that's so cool I'm really inspired by your story obviously for a lot of different reasons I think something that you talked about a little bit earlier never a great time to take a risk something that I sort of live by in my own life as well from an entrepreneurial standpoint but as a type 1 diabetic you brought up you know insurance and taking a risk and yeah you know for a long time I thought I had that in the back of my mind I always wanted to be an entrepreneur but that safety net when you kind of you know bounce out of the the employment you know having a steady job with benefits and all that stuff there's a lot of unanswered questions right Especially in the early days. What would you tell somebody who is sort of weighing those options and saying, hey, I'm a type 1 diabetic and I have this idea, but I'm not sure if I should chase it because of XYZ. What would you tell that person?

[00:35:42] Kyrra Richards: Well, my experience, I never had a stable job before this because I was an artist and because all of my jobs were kind of part time. I would teach dance. I would, you know, work at gyms. I was always doing like five jobs. So I never had benefits with my position. It would have been wonderful, but it just wasn't something that I was able to have, the luxury of having that. So I always paid for my insurance individually. The risk part has always been part of my personality. I guess it's something that most people fight with. I would love to have the routine. There's something that's so wonderful about it. But for me, it's just not worth sacrificing that what if feeling to just make sure that I took care of the finances. I mean, that sounds so ridiculous. I know there's so much that goes into that. But just with my personality and where I was in life and having that feeling that this could be something that works and I had to explore, I would feel more upset that I never did it. I didn't want to look back on my life and go, well, I did have that great idea. And what if I had tried it and it would have been a success? And I already feel like it's been such a success extremely in that psychological sense. but for me that's what I chose to do and I was going to whatever I needed to do to make sure that I could afford my diabetes care and if I had to work five or six jobs my diabetic definitely didn't wasn't a full time thing right away we built after out of years and I was it was like one of six jobs when I started you know it was just you do it you do it on the side and like every entrepreneur. Okay, no problem. Hold on. I'll call you from my office. And I'm like sitting in my car, you know, in front of another lesson. You just fake it till you make it. But it was something that I just had to explore. I'd feel terrible if I didn't. Yeah, I love it. It's a

[00:37:59] Rob Howe: super inspiring story. And, you know, I hope that somebody will hear it out there and, you know, be willing to invest in their own dream, whatever that risk might be. um i i asked this question to all of my guests um sort of as i wrap up interviews um and i'm really interested to hear your answer um both because i i know you've i'm sure you travel a lot obviously we have the the uso tour in common and that's a travel experience unlike any other we could fill an entire podcast with just like the things that you see on one of those trips so here's the context uh you're in an airport and you're at the gate but yeah your flight takes off in like 30 seconds. They're going to shut the gate and you have to make this flight. It's like a non-negotiable. You got to make it. But you run into somebody who is either struggling with their type 1 diabetes or has recently been diagnosed. What's the one thing that Kyrra Richards

[00:38:52] Kyrra Richards: tells them? Well, I kind of had this experience. I was locked into a, not locked into, I was in the Los Angeles airport trying to rush to make a flight. And, um, I was wearing at the time, my insulin pump, my, I was wearing the Tandem t:slim pump, um, and the Dexcom and it went off, um, in, in, as we're going through, um, what was it? A TSA check in line and they wanted to explore it. So they had, they had to have me hold the pump. Um, and then they do the little kind of magnetic strip to kind of feel your hands, make sure that everything is okay. Well, for some reason on this occasion, they put it into the sensor and the sensor says, it starts beeping and says explosives detected. So they rushed me to a police kind of quarters and leave my bags, everything out by the TSA, um, with the TSA guides. And I was in this little small little room. They said, they explained they had multiple police officers come. And, um, I was with specifically a group of women because they were going to have to, to pat me down to make sure that there weren't any explosives. Um, and as they were kind of exploring this, they, they felt my sensor and they felt my insulin pumps. And they were asking and two of them had just been diagnosed with diabetes. And they were extremely, it shifted from something they cleared me. But they also had asked me about, you know, what are these things? What are they doing? And I told them it was for diabetes. And they said they had been diagnosed. And you could just tell that their whole face is like their entire demeanor went into this spot of embarrassment and shame. And I sat there and I, I took out my, my abetic, um, my wallet that was a beautiful color and said, look, here's what I did. I was diagnosed. I felt this way. I felt terrible, but it really isn't something that's a bad way to live. I'm, I'm healthy. I'm doing fine. And you know, look at, this is something beautiful. And these women got so excited over the fashion accessory. And we just had a moment where I got, I was able to talk to them and connect with them. And eventually they let me go. But I had, they all took a card, wanted a diabetes fashion wallet. And I could tell that they felt better, that it wasn't something they should be ashamed about. So that was a true experience. And I just think it shows that, you know, even though it can feel isolating, it's also something that really

[00:41:45] Rob Howe: connects us to one another. Oh, I'm so glad I asked that question. Oh, that was awesome. What a story.

[00:41:53] Kyrra Richards: We all have those stories, right? There's a bunch of little stories.

[00:41:57] Rob Howe: Yeah. And I think, you know, that's what's so cool. Everybody has like that story. I think there's a guy in my building here in Dallas now that one of my co-workers saw his like pump tubing sticking out of his pants one day and was like, hey, I think that guy's a diabetic and blah, blah, blah. And I went up and talked to him, which freaked her out. She's like, I can't believe you just went up and talked to a stranger. But instantly he like, I was like, hey, like I have a pump too. And we like had the same pump and just chatted it up a little bit. And it's just like those weird serendipitous moments where this thing that's always kind of so negative brings people

[00:42:30] Kyrra Richards: together. And I just love that. It is. It's like this kind of secret society when you find out someone else has it, it's almost like they become part of your fraternity or sorority.

[00:42:39] Rob Howe: It's just like you just have something like it's like you have a secret with them. Right. Which is really fun. You get it.

[00:42:44] Kyrra Richards: You understand. There's a little wink that goes on. It's fun.

[00:42:48] Rob Howe: God, that just gives me chills. I love that. It's so fun. Kyrra, thank you so much for taking the time today to come on the show. Oh, thank you. Amazing stories and I really appreciate it.

[00:42:59] Kyrra Richards: Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you for having such a great outlet for all of us to connect.

[00:43:04] Rob Howe: Well, it's my pleasure. and it's my favorite thing. So I get more out of it than everyone else does, I imagine. And I think for our users who want to connect with you, I know you are myabetic, obviously, on all of the social media platforms. Yeah. But if they want to follow you personally, how do they do that?

[00:43:22] Kyrra Richards: I'm on all social media channels as Kyrra Richards. So K-Y-R-R-A Richards.

[00:43:28] Rob Howe: Awesome. And we will include links to all the myabetic pages and all of your pages as well in the show notes. And thank you so much once again.

[00:43:37] Kyrra Richards: Thank you.

[00:43:39] Rob Howe: Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly emails and behind the scenes content. And if you or someone you know has an amazing story to share, send an email to rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com.