Kalen Allen on Working With Ricki Lake & Following His Intuition

"A lot of things in my life, especially when it comes to my career, have been full circle moments," he tells Sonia Baghdady of Advocate Now. "Or they've been things that I've just had a feeling or a gut instinct, and then I just followed them. ... I think when you work in this industry, you can't try to have too much control because it's always changing."

To Allen, there was no "backup plan." He knew what his passion is, and says that he was lucky to have the support of his family — particularly his mother — along the way.

"My mother never made me have a plan B. My mother always made me believe that I could be successful in it because I loved it," he says, adding, "When somebody wants to be a doctor, they go to be a doctor. But they don't think, 'Well, if this doesn't work out, maybe a lawyer.' No, this is what they are passionate about. This is what they want to do."

Now co-hosting the Raised by Ricki podcast alongside Ricki Lake, Allen says he knows he's where he's meant to be "when I wake up in the morning, and I'm excited to go to work." His focus now is on cultivating joy through what he creates.

"Joy is beginning, middle, and end. If you build something out of pain and out of trauma, they only last you so long. But joy can be infinite, if you create the spaces and put yourself in situations that bring you joy," Allen says. "With the content that I make in the jobs that I have, it's important that I maintain my own joy so that I can bring joy to other people."