Dr. Kristin L. Kahle, a multiple-time best-selling author, is the founder of NavigateHCR, an educator for the Women Technologies Foundation, and serves on multiple boards. Dr. K is a lobbyist on Capitol Hill for HEEL, Help for Employers and Employees Under ACA Legislation, a non-profit organization she founded. She is the only female athlete to score over 1000 points and rebounds, a “double-double: for her undergrad college. Dr. K serves as President of EO West Bridge Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Board Chair of IDEA Health & Fitness Association, and Board member of Band of Hands.
Awards & achievements
Dr. K became a Certified Healthcare Reform Specialist and earned a DBA from Argosy University, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a BA from Pine Manor College (Boston College).
Besides that, in 2014 and 2015, she was awarded the “Most Influential Woman in Benefits” by Employee Benefit Advisor. She also was nominated for the San Diego Business Journal Top Tech Award 2019 for technology.
A well-known speaker and author
Dr. K is well known for being a speaker at prominent events in different categories, such as human resources, women in technology, business development, compliance, and female entrepreneurs. Also, Dr. K is a published and best-selling author; now, she has four titles published:
NOtivation: Use the power of NO to make your first million dollars.
Crash and Learn: Lessons in Business.
Lead like a woman: Tales from the trenches.
Motivating factors to get into entrepreneurship
Dr. K is a persevering leader; her story is a lesson on perseverance, resilience, and courage.
“Women entrepreneurs frequently encounter the obstacle of the word “NO,” which can hinder their business success. When we face rejection and doubt, it’s important not to let these setbacks become barriers preventing us from achieving our goals. The most influential people for me are everyone who says “No” to me,” says Dr. K.
It all began with her, a four-year-old “who wanted to donate to her brother- Jason, who was eight then. They were a perfect match for Jason’s case study; his aplastic anemia was almost a death sentence by then; there was just a small history of the bone marrow transplant needed; it became a case study. Although Dr. K was only four, the transplant was done because she wanted it.
Second grade was her next big “No.”Dyslexia made every task more challenging for her in second grade. In addition to failing tests, Dr. K gained her teachers’ contempt and was kicked out of her desired school. Dr. K was motivated to succeed by the “No.”
When Dr. K finished her MBA, she applied to work in her dad’s employee benefits business. As a job seeker, she had to compete with other candidates, provide references, negotiate her salary, and frequently prove to her dad that she was more than a capable employee.
The constant “NO” she heard from her boss (and her dad) made Dr. K started her own company- Glass House Benefits and Administration was her first company. Dr. K bought some clients from her dad’s company and sold family business ownership.
The point of all these stories is that everyone has told her “NO” all in her life; Dr. K reinvented herself, created her own spaces, and flagged every new path she took.
The start of an incredible journey
“I never thought about creating my own company with a mission built on my concerns about the business world; my whole life, everything around me has pushed me this way,” says Dr. K.
Dr. K has always wanted to work in the insurance industry since childhood. In fourth grade, she wrote a paper about wanting to be in the insurance business with her dad.
A well-known fast food chain hired her to do a feasibility study to glimpse how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would affect their franchise owners, ultimately leading to her Ph.D. dissertation on employers’ compliance complexities under the ACA. Politics aside, the ACA and its implications for employers made Dr. K understands that her job was to help American employers comply with its complexities. For her, it was all about giving employers a solution to a highly complicated problem that could put them out of business and in the poorhouse.
But the story about how Dr. K got to where she is now started with consulting and working on her doctorate; the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed. Being the overachieving insurance nerd here, Dr. K read the ACA herself. She pointed out the gazillion and two pages of the Act and curled up with it for a week. When she read it through the first time, she thought, “Oh my gosh, employers have no idea what’s coming down the pipeline for them.
That was the first challenge that wasn’t personal or related to a milestone. It was a challenge that, if I could achieve it, could help many people. So, I embraced it as effectively as I could.”
“I am a businesswoman, daughter, sister, wife, friend and doggie mom. Also, a person always wonders: How can we improve this? It’s a question that can be used in every aspect of life. But I question improvements the most in business. If we can make every process shorter and easier, we could use more time to put our hands on other tasks and projects,” says Dr. K.
“I know now that insurance, especially compliance, is critically important to employers who want to stay in business. I founded Navigate HCR to protect American employers and American Jobs and make compliance fun and easy,” she added.
Success that comprises everyone’s growth
When Dr. K realized that embracing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be challenging for employers, NavigateHCR started working off. NavigateHCR got way more business in one year than most people in their companies’ lives. In truth, Dr. K began the company to help other people to get a chance with their business. NavigateHCR started as a service company but soon adapted to become a software company to be more scalable and help most employers. This decision to pivot turned out to be remarkable making NavigateHCR a leading ACA compliance communications business.
Focusing on team work culture, and transformation
Accounting, HR, IT, and other professions are essential to every business in the industry. However, some of their processes haven’t evolved in the same way as technology does, and they can still find collaborators dealing with tons of paperwork and doing manually a process that could be done in a few minutes if someone could sit down and think of a solution for them. Why can’t Navigate HCR improve mandatory tasks and change them periodically with new technology for smartphones and electronic devices?
That’s how Dr. K started thinking: how can Navigate HCR’s employees do their job easily and, consequently, happily? How can they flip the focus and turn a boring and heavy to-do into something fun and functional? Imagine all the ideas that could be developed and executed if some collaborators didn’t have to spend so much time on just one project! It was the beginning of Compliance Communications Software. And once it was done, Dr. K could share it with other companies, so more professionals would use their technology and make the best of their progress at work.
Navigate is now the country’s oldest ACA technology and compliance company. With a sole focus on simplifying compliance. NHCR acts as an extension to HR Departments to lessen the burden on employers of time-consuming processes, distribution of required employee communications, and complicated reporting.
Becoming a millionaire before the age of 30 and women’s leadership
Dr. K is a warrior, a female business owner who earned her first million dollars before age 30, sold her company, and started a new one.
“It was challenging, I had personal obstacles to major problems while being a woman trying to succeed in a business world that is all men. I am a solver of the problems. But I am here to prove that having a personal life, owning a successful company that helps people innovate, and supporting women colleagues can be done.
I’m not saying it won’t take time, but we must do it ourselves. So, remember your core values when fear holds you back from doing something. Honing in on what you want to create, whether starting or growing, is an excellent first step to allowing your fear to lead you instead of overwhelming you,” asserts Dr. K.
“By sharing my story, I don’t just pretend to motivate other entrepreneurial women to pursue their goals. But it can also help build stronger connections that will increase the number of spaces for women in the business industry and create solid communities of experts in every company,” she added.
A way to achieve balance personal goals
Dr. K says that balancing personal and professional life sums up to DELEGATING. The first step to doing this is to surround ourselves with people that share the same vision as us. If we do that, we will have committed and talented professionals in our network who will help or connect us with others who can nurture our team. Then we can start delegating with the relief of knowing that what we assign will be done properly and on time.
Dr. K’s message to aspiring business leaders
The biggest challenge for an entrepreneur or leader is to keep evolving with society. When we start with a project, we spend a lot of time developing an idea that fits a specific target and its needs. But humans keep growing and learning, and the world offers new tools and lifestyle changes. It is impossible to think that the product/service we created 5 or 10 years ago can stay the same.
We need to stay at the top of the mind of our targets and prepare solutions for new generations. Because at some point, they will grow up, they might need what we offer, but we have to be ready and adapt to them.
So, the most critical characteristic of a leader is adaptability. To adapt to new environments, different people with different needs, and various work styles. Adapt ourselves and our products/services to the unique demands of new clients and new platforms to spread our messages and reach new audiences. Stay current, adapt, and don’t fight change. If we master that, our business and projects will last.
Pursuing impact relentlessly
NavigateHCR has changed since it was born. The first year it worked very differently to how it works now, updated as much as the ACA requires. Every year there are 3 or 4 updates, and the company keeps moving with them and offers their clients the best.
“Evolving is crucial for an entrepreneur or leader. To adapt to changes and innovate. The most accurate example I can give is the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything changed. The businesses that needed more time to adapt to the new reality, disappeared.”
Dr K concluded – “With NavigateHCR I can’t mention a specific change we can make. But I can assure you that we will adapt our products, services, tools, and offerings to solve the latest needs of American employers.”
Website: NavigateHCR
