Ep. 16 | Cristi Dozier

This week’s episode is with my dear friend Cristi Dozier, who I just happened to meet at a local Chick-Fil-A and have grown to love dearly over the last couple of years! Her story is an inspiration to me and I think will be to you as well.  Cristi married her opposite at the young age of 23 just after graduating from Texas A&M University in College Station. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, she and her husband Ben have 4 kids ages 9, 12, 14, and 16 and have been married 19 years. In 2005, they began a design business out of the living room of their small Austin home called Root Design Company and now live in the quaint mountain town of Pagosa Springs in southern Colorado. Root Design Company is still doing design projects in Texas, Colorado, and anywhere else fun as they like to say. Their most recent personal projects include the opening of Root House Coffee + Shop on the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs and the soft launch of a small batch custom apparel company, Field and Far. Cristi is the caretaker of all things Root House at the moment. How the shop looks, feels and welcomes guests are all on her constant radar as she tweaks recipes and moves things around. Cristi has always been a dreamer and is learning to take more action on those dreams. She also does a lot of laundry, listens to podcasts, drinks coffee and occasionally writes stuff. Her favorite drinks are oat milk lattes in the mornings and margaritas in the evenings.

In this conversation, Cristi and I talk about a season of her life when the bottom of her marriage fell out and the choices she and Ben made to restore their relationship. Cristi also shares about what lead them to Pagosa Springs, CO and how a one-year work project in a town that literally translates as “healing waters” would be the beginning of a complete life change just a few years later. Hearing her tell about she and Ben’s decision to uproot their lives from Austin and adventure to the mountains with their four kids and start a new life together is one of my favorite parts of our conversation and something I admire greatly about their families decision to seize the moment! 

Cristi shares vulnerably and bravely about her mom’s battle with cancer, the movement #pimpinjoy that was born during that, and her experience of caring for her mom, not only during her battle but also in the last moments of her life. I know this conversation will bless you as you get to learn from the wisdom Cristi has gleaned through walking through some really hard things.