WEBVTT 00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:03.839 Katie, welcome to the show. Thanks for having 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:08.320 me. Tell me about your vision. My vision. My 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:11.439 vision in a big way is to create a mental health 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:16.199 movement to support either clients or other business 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.960 owners and being able to help more people to 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.339 help more people so that we can see that ripple 00:00:21.339 --> 00:00:25.679 effect of mental wellness across the globe. Tell 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:29.320 me more about that. Yeah, so I'm a multi -passionate 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:32.000 business owner. I own several businesses. I would 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.840 say my main business is a counseling center. 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:37.539 We support teenagers, young adults, and parents. 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:39.960 And one of the reasons that I am so passionate 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:43.600 about that is because we're catching concerns. 00:00:45.189 --> 00:00:47.850 challenges with youth when they're still young 00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:50.990 enough to make those changes and those patterns 00:00:50.990 --> 00:00:53.450 aren't truly entrenched yet. And so we're able 00:00:53.450 --> 00:00:56.750 to really help our next generation of leaders 00:00:56.750 --> 00:01:00.630 and visionaries to be more stable, to be healthier 00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:03.810 as they grow up and they become our leaders in 00:01:03.810 --> 00:01:06.409 our world. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing 00:01:06.409 --> 00:01:10.450 that. How did you get started on this path, Katie? 00:01:13.019 --> 00:01:15.700 i actually went to school to be a journalist 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:18.480 so i was always interested in human behavior 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:23.340 and emotions but i started on this journey of 00:01:23.340 --> 00:01:26.700 being an entrepreneur being a therapist because 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:30.620 i i was getting in a lot of trouble myself as 00:01:30.620 --> 00:01:32.879 a teen and a young adult and then a surprise 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:37.019 pregnancy took me down a path of becoming better 00:01:37.019 --> 00:01:39.500 for myself this this road of self -improvement 00:01:39.500 --> 00:01:42.480 figuring out who I am how I can make sense of 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:44.620 the struggles that I've had so that I can help 00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:47.319 other people and I went back to school to become 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:51.180 a therapist and I always knew Even after graduation 00:01:51.180 --> 00:01:54.159 and falling into a job at a hospital program 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:56.760 that I was basically what I would say is unbossable 00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:59.239 for a long period of time, that working for someone 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:01.859 else, working within someone else's rules was 00:02:01.859 --> 00:02:03.780 going to be a challenge for me. And so I began 00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:05.900 paving the way to open my own business, which 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:08.840 I did a couple of years after graduation. And 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:13.759 why did you choose this field? Like, I think 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:17.960 this is a very unique field. I would say maybe 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:20.430 it's a hard field. I don't know. But why did 00:02:20.430 --> 00:02:24.930 you choose this field? I chose the field of mental 00:02:24.930 --> 00:02:29.689 health because I always knew that what I experienced 00:02:29.689 --> 00:02:32.590 was for a reason. And I had a tough upbringing. 00:02:32.949 --> 00:02:35.189 And like I said, struggled a lot, had some self 00:02:35.189 --> 00:02:37.129 -destructive behaviors in my teen and young adult 00:02:37.129 --> 00:02:40.830 years. And to me, it had to be, it had to. be 00:02:40.830 --> 00:02:43.090 worth something. It had to make sense in my life. 00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:46.349 And in order to find that silver lining, to make 00:02:46.349 --> 00:02:49.150 sense of that, I thought I can help others to 00:02:49.150 --> 00:02:51.250 not struggle as much as I did. I can shorten 00:02:51.250 --> 00:02:53.349 the struggle for them so they can get quicker 00:02:53.349 --> 00:02:56.409 to resolution, to joy, to a life worth living 00:02:56.409 --> 00:03:02.849 rather than struggling in the middle. So how 00:03:02.849 --> 00:03:08.289 was the experience from not working for an employer? 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:10.780 and then eventually starting your own business. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:14.009 What was that like? I started my own business. 00:03:14.069 --> 00:03:16.389 I started as a solo practitioner, just working 00:03:16.389 --> 00:03:19.830 for myself, doing therapy. And because I was 00:03:19.830 --> 00:03:22.189 so clear on who I served, what my positioning 00:03:22.189 --> 00:03:25.229 was, what my marketing was, I love social media 00:03:25.229 --> 00:03:27.909 and I consistently talk about what I do, how 00:03:27.909 --> 00:03:29.729 I do it, share with anyone who will listen to 00:03:29.729 --> 00:03:32.610 me, that the demand for my services and my specialty 00:03:32.610 --> 00:03:36.889 grew fairly quickly. So within two years, I expanded 00:03:36.889 --> 00:03:39.949 from being a solo practitioner to renting my 00:03:39.949 --> 00:03:43.680 own space. And it was a very one foot in front 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:45.979 of the other kind of process, I saw a sign that 00:03:45.979 --> 00:03:48.199 said space available. So I thought, let me just 00:03:48.199 --> 00:03:50.000 look at that space. And then I saw the space 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.479 and the visionary in me was like, this is my 00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:55.099 space. I can see what I can unfold here. I can 00:03:55.099 --> 00:03:58.759 see how we can grow. And so I rented a space. 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:00.919 I did interviews sitting on the floor because 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:02.960 we didn't have furniture yet. I built this small 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:07.129 scrappy team. Two years after that, we had doubled 00:04:07.129 --> 00:04:09.889 in size and we were bursting out of that space. 00:04:10.069 --> 00:04:11.789 And I bought my first building at that point. 00:04:11.870 --> 00:04:14.590 So everything has just exponentially grown year 00:04:14.590 --> 00:04:18.170 after year. The more I showed up, shared what 00:04:18.170 --> 00:04:20.850 I love, made an impact and helped more people 00:04:20.850 --> 00:04:23.589 to help more people in that process. Awesome. 00:04:25.310 --> 00:04:32.230 Tell me more about that. What those early, early 00:04:32.230 --> 00:04:36.589 days. How did you lean into, like, this is my 00:04:36.589 --> 00:04:38.430 field and this is what I want to focus on instead 00:04:38.430 --> 00:04:40.889 of focusing on everything else? A lot of times 00:04:40.889 --> 00:04:43.889 when people come on the show, their journeys 00:04:43.889 --> 00:04:48.029 actually begin in over -providing in a lot of 00:04:48.029 --> 00:04:49.810 different things until they realize they can 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:52.829 niche down and be precise in something they do. 00:04:52.930 --> 00:04:55.389 But your story seems a little different than 00:04:55.389 --> 00:04:57.889 that. So it's very interesting. So tell me more 00:04:57.889 --> 00:05:01.199 about that. Yeah. So when I graduated, I fell 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:03.279 into a job at a hospital program, like I said, 00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:05.240 and it was with working with children and teens 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:07.600 and going through school. That was never my intention. 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:09.779 I didn't want to work with kids and teens because 00:05:09.779 --> 00:05:11.939 I thought it would be too difficult for me. I'm 00:05:11.939 --> 00:05:14.779 sensitive and I thought it would be hard to hear 00:05:14.779 --> 00:05:16.980 about their struggle. And not that it wasn't, 00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:19.860 but I found that I had a unique connection with 00:05:19.860 --> 00:05:22.040 the teenage population, that I was able to show 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:24.720 up authentically in a way that. resonated with 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:26.620 them that they were willing to share with me 00:05:26.620 --> 00:05:28.480 and a lot of the feedback that i was getting 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:30.839 when i was working in that program was wow i 00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:33.139 wish we had something like this out in the community 00:05:33.139 --> 00:05:34.959 where i didn't have to be in the hospital to 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:38.379 access your services and so the the entrepreneurial 00:05:38.379 --> 00:05:42.000 brain that i have started thinking well, I keep 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.720 hearing this from people. I keep hearing there's 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:47.199 nothing like this in the community. I want something 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:49.620 like this. And I keep hearing that I'm doing 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:52.500 a good job providing this service. And so that 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:55.259 to me was really the market research or the data 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:59.279 that I needed to take this. feedback that I was 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:02.279 getting and to open the teen support center out 00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:05.300 in the community that did not exist at that time. 00:06:05.420 --> 00:06:08.639 And so it really felt like a very easy lateral 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:11.420 move for me to take this skill set in this population 00:06:11.420 --> 00:06:14.860 that I was skilled at working with and to offer 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:18.319 a space for them. And that's how it started was 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:21.579 that the feedback was always telling me this 00:06:21.579 --> 00:06:23.899 is what's needed. And that's how I was able to 00:06:23.899 --> 00:06:32.040 build it so quickly. That's awesome. Now, first, 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:37.019 thank you for sharing that story. You mentioned 00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:39.459 the word market research. I think a lot of times 00:06:39.459 --> 00:06:43.699 entrepreneurs and leaders, they undervalue the 00:06:43.699 --> 00:06:48.120 necessity of a market research that you need 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:50.300 to do when you start a business. And most times 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:54.899 it just gets ignored or not done. So you sharing 00:06:54.899 --> 00:06:58.199 that tells me that there's a lot more that you 00:06:58.199 --> 00:07:00.089 have learned. So thank you for sharing that with 00:07:00.089 --> 00:07:01.870 the audience. And hopefully our audience is more 00:07:01.870 --> 00:07:05.990 inspired by you as well. When it comes to the 00:07:05.990 --> 00:07:10.949 why behind your vision, do you have some of the 00:07:10.949 --> 00:07:13.470 stories behind the why that you'd like to share 00:07:13.470 --> 00:07:16.459 with the audience today? The story behind my 00:07:16.459 --> 00:07:18.480 why. So I shared a little bit, but I can share 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:20.740 in more detail. My parents divorced when I was 00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:23.600 10 and it wasn't a regular, hey, we're separating 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:25.939 and everything's going to be the same, even though 00:07:25.939 --> 00:07:27.620 they promised everything would be the same. It 00:07:27.620 --> 00:07:29.500 very much wasn't. And the way that I described 00:07:29.500 --> 00:07:32.620 my childhood is like a family war zone. It was 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:35.339 quite violent and challenging. And the ways that 00:07:35.339 --> 00:07:37.180 I learned to cope with that in my teenage years 00:07:37.180 --> 00:07:39.720 were by being self -destructive, turning to self 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:41.980 -harm and drugs and alcohol. And for a lot of 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:45.050 years, I didn't have. the right coping skills 00:07:45.050 --> 00:07:48.370 or the right support to help me get through a 00:07:48.370 --> 00:07:52.209 very difficult situation and so as i had shared 00:07:52.209 --> 00:07:54.610 making meaning of that was very important to 00:07:54.610 --> 00:07:58.149 me but also thinking about how can i become the 00:07:58.149 --> 00:08:00.449 person that i needed when i was younger how can 00:08:00.449 --> 00:08:04.629 i support other individuals in using their the 00:08:04.629 --> 00:08:06.829 individuals i employ now and using their lived 00:08:06.829 --> 00:08:10.990 experience to help the the teenagers that are 00:08:10.990 --> 00:08:15.180 coming up behind them so it really is this The 00:08:15.180 --> 00:08:18.699 why behind what I do is that my story has to 00:08:18.699 --> 00:08:21.240 make sense. And to be able to help other people 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:25.279 not struggle like me is what matters most. And 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:27.740 also to help people know that they're not weird, 00:08:27.779 --> 00:08:30.079 bad, wrong or different for being who they are. 00:08:30.259 --> 00:08:32.960 So, you know, being able to give them the message 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:35.580 that if you feel deeply, if you have big emotions, 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:38.480 if you don't have the right coping skills, that's 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:41.139 OK. You're OK exactly as you are. And we are 00:08:41.139 --> 00:08:42.779 going to help you learn the skills so that you 00:08:42.779 --> 00:08:44.759 don't have to hurt. while you're figuring this 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:50.519 out awesome thank you for sharing that um if 00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:58.720 you were to um put it in in a few words um what 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:04.159 gets you out of bed every morning in a few words 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:08.490 or a lot of words if you choose Yeah, so what 00:09:08.490 --> 00:09:11.490 I will say is that one thing that comes very 00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:15.190 naturally to me is being able to talk about what 00:09:15.190 --> 00:09:17.429 I'm excited about and being able to share that 00:09:17.429 --> 00:09:20.450 with. the masses and not just one or two people. 00:09:20.549 --> 00:09:23.009 And I will credit the growth of my business to 00:09:23.009 --> 00:09:25.710 social media a lot because one of the things 00:09:25.710 --> 00:09:28.730 I've been doing, even since I knew I wanted to 00:09:28.730 --> 00:09:30.549 create a business and I didn't have one yet, 00:09:30.610 --> 00:09:33.129 has been sharing about what excites me on social 00:09:33.129 --> 00:09:35.509 media. So what gets me out of bed in the morning 00:09:35.509 --> 00:09:37.450 first is coffee, knowing that there's going to 00:09:37.450 --> 00:09:40.169 be coffee downstairs. But then I love sitting 00:09:40.169 --> 00:09:44.139 with my coffee on the couch. dimly lit room no 00:09:44.139 --> 00:09:46.980 one else is awake yet it's very quiet and i'll 00:09:46.980 --> 00:09:49.500 do all my social medias for my various businesses 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:52.720 so i'll create videos i'll create messaging and 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:55.360 to me it's more than a task it's not just a box 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:57.860 that i check it's my way of checking in with 00:09:57.860 --> 00:10:02.200 my um with the people who care about what i'm 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:04.159 up to with the people who need to be helped but 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:06.019 wouldn't know that we exist unless i'm doing 00:10:06.019 --> 00:10:09.889 that when i first started i had parents share 00:10:09.889 --> 00:10:12.690 with me. I never knew something like this existed 00:10:12.690 --> 00:10:15.750 before until I saw your ad pop up on Facebook 00:10:15.750 --> 00:10:17.490 because back then it was more Facebook marketing 00:10:17.490 --> 00:10:20.250 or even now a new business that I just started 00:10:20.250 --> 00:10:22.450 a Pilates studio. They'll say, wow, I saw this 00:10:22.450 --> 00:10:24.529 pop up on my Instagram and I thought I have to 00:10:24.529 --> 00:10:27.889 try this. This is for me. So I get that consistent 00:10:27.889 --> 00:10:30.649 feedback that what I'm sharing is reaching the 00:10:30.649 --> 00:10:33.470 right people and therefore helping the people 00:10:33.470 --> 00:10:36.570 who need to hear this message. So that that excites 00:10:36.570 --> 00:10:39.860 me to wake up to be able to connect with people 00:10:39.860 --> 00:10:42.539 who need to hear what I have to share. Thank 00:10:42.539 --> 00:10:44.539 you for being here today. I'm really happy that 00:10:44.539 --> 00:10:46.580 you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking 00:10:46.580 --> 00:10:49.840 forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:51.639 continue to move forward. This is going to get 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:54.200 more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:56.340 as well. We'll invite people to participate in 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:58.519 the show and thank you for giving us your time 00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:00.799 and attention. Have an excellent time building 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:03.139 out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.