Breaking the "Perfect Mom" Myth: Krystal Jugarap on Presence, Perfectionism, and Building an Empire
By Kate Ziuz | Presence Coach for Founders & Entrepreneurs
In high school, Krystal Jugarap made a t-shirt. Plain shirt, fabric paint, a stencil she cut herself. She wore it to school, and something happened that should have launched a business: people wanted to order one. She had an actual list of names.
Then she went home, looked at the shirt, and decided something about it wasn't quite right. She wasn't going to put it into the world if it wasn't perfect.
So guess what happened? Nothing. Nothing happened.
Years later, Krystal is the founder of the BOOKofBIJOUX jewelry line and the community formerly known as EM/POWEREDbyWMN — now HERROLO — supporting more than 100 women-owned brands with networking events across the Bay Area, LA, and Milwaukee. She's a speaker, an entrepreneur, and a mom of three who recently left her 9-to-5 to go all in.
On Confidence Secrets, we talked about what changed between the t-shirt and the empire — and it wasn't that she became perfect. It's that she stopped waiting to be.
→ Watch or listen to the full episode on YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
The Person Who Approaches First
When I asked Krystal how she makes a strong first impression at events, her answer wasn't about what she wears or how she enters. It was simpler and rarer: she's the one who approaches other people.
She goes to events deliberately without a plus-one — because she knows bringing someone creates a wall. Her whole goal is connection, so she surveys the room, picks who she's going to talk to first, walks straight up, introduces herself, and starts asking questions.
That lands as a strong impression not because it's forceful, but because almost nobody does it. People at networking events — events they attended specifically to meet new people — cluster with who they came with and wait. When someone walks up with genuine curiosity, the reaction is almost relief: finally, someone did it.
Here's what makes this more interesting: Krystal told me there's an introvert side of her that most people don't believe exists. Before every networking event that isn't her own, she gives herself a pep talk in advance — this is what it will look like, this is what you're going to do. She feels the awkwardness. She goes in anyway. And she protects the day after events to decompress and follow up.
The takeaway for every founder who thinks approaching people requires being a natural extrovert: it doesn't. It requires a plan, a script, and the willingness to feel awkward while executing it. That's mechanics, not personality.
Posture, Panels, and the Cameras You Forget About
Krystal has had noticeably good posture since she was a kid — to the point where classmates read it as her being stuck up. (Standing up straight doesn't make you arrogant. It makes you visible. Sometimes people confuse the two.)
But the tip from this part of our conversation that I want every speaker to hear is about panels: you're on stage even when you're not the one talking.
When Krystal sits on a panel, she stays mindful that photographers and videographers are capturing content the entire time — not just during her answers. She keeps her posture, stays visibly engaged with whoever is speaking, and remembers that she's appearing in everyone else's photos and videos, not just her own.
This is something I'd covered in a workshop for panelists just the day before our recording — and it's one of the most common gaps I see. Speakers hold their presence while speaking, then visibly release it the moment attention shifts. The audience notices. The cameras definitely notice.
The No-Makeup Decision
One of the most honest moments in this episode: Krystal told me she was planning to get her makeup done before our recording — and then intentionally decided not to.
Her reasoning: whether she has makeup on will not impact her message. And showing up as she is — sometimes in gym clothes on her Instagram stories, sometimes without the polished version of herself — is itself the message. She wants the women in her community to see that showing up doesn't require the full production. It requires deciding your message matters more than the packaging.
With three kids and a packed schedule, she often doesn't have the prep time she'd like anyway. So she plans her outfit the night before, makes sure she's physically comfortable (because an outfit you're adjusting all day is an outfit that's stealing your attention), and then shows up.
I want to be precise about what this means and doesn't mean, because it connects to something I teach: this isn't "appearance doesn't matter." It's that comfort and intention beat production value. A woman who feels physically at ease in what she's wearing, who has decided in advance how she wants to show up, will out-present a woman in a perfect outfit that's too tight, too new, or too distracting — every single time.
Boundaries as a Presence Strategy
When Krystal started building her business, her calendar was fully open. Anyone could book her. And it worked — until she was on calls nonstop with no time to actually do the follow-up work each call generated.
Now she runs hard boundaries: limited booking windows, no exceptions for "can you squeeze me in sooner," and no back-to-back event days. The day after an event is protected — partly for family, partly because events take real energy and the follow-ups won't send themselves.
I'm including this in a presence recap for a reason: presence requires energy, and energy is a finite resource you either budget or burn. The founder who shows up to her third event of the week depleted is not showing up as the same person who walked into the first one. Krystal's boundaries aren't just time management — they're what makes her consistency possible.
Krystal's Three Tips for Moms Leaving the 9-to-5
For the moms in her community considering the leap into business, Krystal offered three things — and pushed back on one myth first: no, we do not all have the same 24 hours. When you're the one doing three school drop-offs and pick-ups, your working day is short, and you get to choose what you sacrifice. What she's seen too often is moms sacrificing their dreams because it feels like the required sacrifice. She sacrificed sleep and TV instead.
One — commit to the mindset journey before the storm hits. Entrepreneurship will not go the way you hoped, at some point, in some direction. Krystal decided at the very beginning that she was committed regardless — so when her manufacturing journey for BOOKofBIJOUX fell apart early, she'd already mentally prepared for exactly that kind of moment. She didn't interpret it as a verdict on her. She'd pre-decided it was part of the ride.
Two — have grace with yourself. You can't time-block a calendar with three kids. You can't post every day. What you can do is take micro-steps toward the vision daily, be fully present in business hours and fully present in kid hours, and treat the business as a form of self-love that fills you up rather than another obligation that drains you.
Three — have the hard conversations, continuously. With your partner, who watched your time and attention shift when you started building. With your kids, who understand more when they're included. Krystal and her partner went through a genuinely tough season until they got good at communicating what she was working toward — and now her kids get to watch their mom actually live the "dream big, be whatever you want" advice most parents only say out loud.
About Krystal Jugarap
Krystal Jugarap is the founder of BOOKofBIJOUX, a jewelry line launched in 2021, and the women's entrepreneur community formerly known as EM/POWEREDbyWMN — now HERROLO — which supports over 100 women-owned brands through visibility opportunities, monthly networking events, and genuine community across the Bay Area, LA, Milwaukee, and growing. She's a speaker and a mom of three.
Connect with Krystal:
Personal Instagram: @iamkrystalj
Herrolo Website: Herrolo
Herrolo Instagram: @joinherrolo
BOOKofBIJOUX: bookofbijoux.com
The Takeaway for Founders Building Visible Brands
The t-shirt story is the whole lesson. Krystal had the product, the interest, the list of buyers — and perfectionism made sure nothing happened. Not competition, not the market, not lack of skill. The refusal to show up imperfectly.
What changed wasn't her becoming perfect. It was deciding she was done playing small, and letting herself learn in public. The unfamiliar becomes familiar. What feels unsafe starts to feel like I've done this before, I can do it again.
If you're sitting on your own version of the t-shirt — the podcast you won't pitch, the stage you won't apply for, the camera you won't turn on until conditions are perfect — the conditions are never going to be perfect. But how you show up when you do? That's trainable.
Kate Ziuz is a presence coach for founders and entrepreneurs building visible brands. She specializes in the mechanics of on-camera presence, stage presence, and high-stakes preparation. Based in Los Angeles. Featured in Best Holistic Life Magazine, Femforce Podcast, Authority Magazine, and more.
