There are some people who you meet and you realize that they are doing EXACTLY what they were meant to be doing!Kathy Bartelloni started Evolv Hol, providing integrative health tools to support women, mind, body and soul after years of previously professional lives. She dives into how her life has had some crazy pivots and how she has found herself right where she was always meant to be — as cliché as it sounds, she is so open and honest about the difficulties she has gone through to begin helping others. Kathy’s calm presence is so refreshing, I could have listened to her for hours!
Kathy gives me a quick roadmap of her life; starting with life as a military wife, consisting of putting her life on the back burner over and over (ummm HI, me, right here). She then made a big change and went back to school to become a nurse. After years of seeing patients come in, she realized she wanted to be part of the bigger solution and set them up with tools they needed to avoid illness and pain they were going through. She had always loved health and wellness, so dove head first into many different modalities in the holistic wellness world. I was so impressed with Kathy’s life path, and more importantly her outlook on it all. She continues to think outside the box on how to get things done, and fully embraces the moments of suck (because, hey, they’re inevitable).
Kathy encourages all of us to take the challenges and stages in our lives and let them evolve in different ways. Kathy offers a variety of support solution on her site and her instagram page. And if you are looking for someone who understands the ups and downs of life and wants to help you find your mind body connection, reach out to her!
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Full Transcript:
Dana: Are you dying at the thought of missing a single one of your baby’s first I would have no idea how you’d give up the security that your nine to five job brings. My name is Dana Graham and I had no clue how to escape that vicious 40 Hour Workweek cycle either until I did as the wife of a traveling husband and mom of two tiny humans and made a terrifying and totally bizarre leap from Health Insurance Program to successful newborn and family photographer all with the amazing craziness. I have a two year old and newborn and but I’m not the only one. I’m so glad you’re joining me as I chat with other moms who took the leap into entrepreneurship and created the ultimate festival worlds life. Doing it all amidst the chaos alright everybody welcome back to another episode of amidst the chaos. I am Dana Graham and I am here today with Kathy Bartelloni who has her own amazing business that is going to help so many of you I started following her on Instagram a while ago and I’m like already just inspired and love everything about it. So welcome, Kathy.
Kathy: Thank you, Dana. This is so exciting for me to be able to be on a podcast and share all about my business and just hopefully inspire others to really take that next step in the journey. So my business is evolved whole and that’s whole with an H because it’s all about being holistic meaning Mind Body Spirit, because we’re so much more than just a mind we’re so much more than just a body. Everything is related in my opinion. So the vault hole is a business that’s designed to support and empower women throughout every stage of their journey. And I do this with all sorts of integrative healing tools. And I just I love being able to integrate all of the things Mind Body Spirit to help us evolve into the best versions of ourselves.
Dana: I love it. I love it. You guys, you I’m telling you even from just hearing her voice, you should already be excited for all the great things she has coming your way. I’m like the loud, obnoxious talkative like squeaky child voice one and she’s like the beautiful, mellow calm like very calming presence. So Kathy, walk me back to pre evolve whole you know, as you’re raising your family, your life workwise family wise, talk to me about everything you’ve done prior to starting a business and kind of what led to evolve holes birth.
Kathy: Sure. So the Evolve whole journey is just that it is a journey where I have evolved every step of the way honestly, and I can go way way back, married my high school sweetheart right out of college, and we moved away for him to go to flight school. Six months later found myself expecting our first baby and I had graduated college with its you know, a sociology English degree and was like going to go change the world and gerontology, right. And when I found out that I was expecting it kind of it threw me off course a little bit because you know, you have all these expectations and goals when you set this course of action. And so if anything, all of this journey has taught me to kind of roll with the punches and that’s why I love this amidst the chaos name because my whole life has felt like that, you know, it’s like military wife and Mama and moving across country and just being able to roll with the punches and be calm in the midst of the chaos has has really always been my my journey path. And so I was so excited to see this title because it really resonated with me and like everyone has their moments of chaos and the whole journey process is learning how to be calm in the midst of the chaos and not react right. So anyway, I really resonated with this title. But back to the early journey. I found myself with three kids by the time I was 30 and multiple deployments under my wings, right. So yeah, it was it was busy. It was chaos. And, but it was fun, you know? And so I, being a military wife with my husband gone quite a bit knew that I was the one that was the fortress for the most part, the one that needed to be grounded. So like many of us, women, we find ourselves in the backseat often right? And have to put our things on hold at times and that’s that’s sometimes a hard pill to swallow, but one that we choose and we do right so as mom and
Dana: right away literally gonna make me cry because exactly what you know it’s been like okay, well once this you know, I’m only gonna be like your turn to do you know your thing and blah blah blah and we’re gonna get to Turkey and you’re going to get to do you know, have all this time and then
Kathy: oh, yes,
Dana: I have to go back to DC like, and it’s so I hear you. Yeah, I know. And you know you it’s so funny. I actually I should have said this at the beginning but I got connected with Kathy because I went to college with her daughter Allie. And so Allie and I have She’s been like even for the past like three or so years of Sean being in and out of the house and gone and doing all the things he’s actually ex military to York State now but he’s gone a lot and Allie has been one of the people that always responds being like you got it you got this like I totally get it. I
Kathy: know what it’s like so, you know, I
Dana: just appreciate the support and I knew that you would be the perfect person to have on here and the fact that we’re recording literally right as Sean is a yet again left and you just basically refer to us as fortresses. I’m like, Okay, this is what I needed in my life.
Kathy: You you’re put into that role of being the center right you you’re holding down the fort and you got you learn to evolve into the person that’s needed in the moment right I mean, I I taught myself had replaced the faucet, right? Things all sorts of independence. And it truly did help me evolve into a whole nother being really because I was the one that had to take action. Right so and back in my day. We didn’t have the internet when he was gone. We communicated via snail mail, right so I’m maybe dating myself here, but we didn’t have that constant conductivity that sometimes is available with deployments and whatnot. And there’s a plus on the negative to that, right. So you have that space between what’s happening and the delay of being able to relay that to your partner so that you’re not in that heightened, chaotic moment when you’re talking to him right because it’s hard on both parties. So that’s a whole nother podcast.
Dana: And I will say that and we are going to come back to that on another episode for another day because I have a lot of questions.
Kathy: Yeah, so anyway, that we’ll have to do another podcast episode on that. So the point of that was that I really I put a lot of stuff and a lot of my dreams on hold to be The Stay At Home mama because that was what the need was in the moment. Right? And I learned to be okay with that right there were of course moments of challenges where I had some resentment built up and where I was really kind of ticked off that I had to put everything on hold. But But that led me to, to try to find ways that I could could really express my personality and have something that was for me, and I found that in fitness training. I’d always been interested in the fitness world and had always been healthy. And active I was a high school athlete and you know, just always really prided myself on taking care of my body. So I decided to go back and get a training so that I could integrate fitness training and kind of weave that in when the kids were either in school or when I could get a babysitter in the evening. I could go do that. And and that worked for a little while. But what I then found was most people wanted to train early morning or evening, right and so that kind of pigeon holed me into this place of well, that’s not working for me. Right? Right. I need to be able to do this around my schedule, not somebody else’s schedule and when it’s convenient for them. So I did a little bit I kept in that fitness training realm here and there, tried to do a little bit more on my own not inside of a gym setting, because I’ve always had this independent streak where I knew that I wanted to be my own boss, but I just couldn’t quite see the way right I just always relied on well, I’ll just work at a gym. And because that’s the infrastructure and I won’t have to do anything go bring me the clients. It was all ease ease, right? It was like how can I make this easy? And and in doing so I found that just wasn’t working right. So it’s about being able to pivot it’s about being able to see the path in front of you that you know what this was what I thought I wanted and was gonna work but for right now in my life just isn’t isn’t working and and being okay with that right and oftentimes I would get angry and be like I put all that time and effort into my training and now I’m having to put it on hold again because this isn’t the right path. And and that was my story that kept playing over and over again. Because after the fitness training, I decided you know what, I need a skill. Right. And, and you know, to take a little bit of a turn here. i We had multiple families go through loss during their our military deployments where there was, you know, airplane accidents, and so my husband was a fighter pilot, you know, so there were moments where I would have some clarity of I can always rely that he is going to be there to be the main breadwinner and I need a skill I need something that I can have as a building block if in the god awful chance I need to do that. Right. And with my sociology background, I it was so vague and open right? I just I didn’t feel comfortable in that I could really bring in enough money for my family if I was left to be the sole breadwinner. So I started thinking in terms of what can my skill be? What can I really fall upon here? I don’t feel comfortable relying on someone else to always be my infrastructure, right. So like working for another company. So anyway, at that point, I had three kids and actually take that back. I actually had four at that point. We have a nice spacing, thanks to military deployments and then getting out of the military. So for kids at that point and my baby boy, at the end we call him our Caboose was two and I was like really craving something for me. You know at that point I’d been parenting mommy for ages. It felt like and I was like I started it’s time for me. Right so I went to nursing school at 40
Dana: Amazing.
Kathy: Yeah, and and I because that was going to be my skill. I had this calling to be some sort of a healer, right. And I thought you know what, this is going to be my stepping stone getting me a skill getting me something that I feel comfortable as a ground work to be able to support my family. And so I went back to school and did nursing school, got my license and started working in a family practice. And this is where everything really starts to magically shift for me because I worked in this family practice setting and I was like convincing myself for him every day that this was the perfect job for me. It was the perfect fit even though I was putting my son in daycare and you know I had kids in high school and middle school and elementary school so you’re talking about in chaos right series and it was pure chaos as an effect. Like you may find in a few years when you’re where I am. You’ll look back and be like what happened to those 10 years? Right there in the middle of your busy life. Like so anyway, family practice setting was working for a little bit, but there was moments where the stress would come in where someone was sick and needed to be cared for at home and, you know, it was always me that had to take the day off because I was the secondary breadwinner right and so again that resentment that frustration all of those the mom guilt, right? We all have had mom guilt, it’s not something that any generation could truly get rid of, unfortunately, nope. And so the mom guilt was like just killing me, right? I would pick my son up from daycare at the end of the day and he would be like telling me about stuff and I would just feel like this little gnawing of guilt of like I’m missing this right. Yes. So you know at that point, it really had to become an A question for me at my deepest soul level of what was it that I really wanted, right? And what started to really emerge for me was that I wanted to be able to call my shots. I wanted to be the boss. I didn’t want someone to tell me that. I couldn’t take that day off to go to my son’s little play because they meet they were short staffed right i I was tired of being boxed in and and having someone else control the shots for me. So that was was one of my first big aha moments was that you? Got to stop giving somebody else your powers. Right. This is it’s time to take it back.
Dana: Yes. And I think I think a lot of people feel like that, right. I think a lot of moms feel like that in so many ways. But a lot of people also don’t move every two or three years. A lot of people they don’t they don’t have to re up their lives. They can kind of sit in the not comfortable but safe. Right? I think for a lot of military moms and I you know, trans ex army. We have a lot of friends still from the military and I feel for those moms and I feel it a little bit to where like you’re moving every two to three years like your business. My business is based on a local area like that is my main portion of my business is currently gone right now. And I knew it right. I knew it from the get go and every job that you started whether it was in the gym or being you have to start over every time you’re gonna move every time a kid gets sick, it falls on you and I think that just that fact alone, probably prevents so many people from starting a business just the fact of the unknown of like, Hey, I know this isn’t gonna last forever. So why bother now? Absolutely. I you know, I’d love to hear your perspective, from your point of view after living this life for so long. Like what would you advise for somebody in that position to be able to tell themselves to kind of get over that and be like, Okay, we’re going to be able to pivot and make it work like how would you encourage them to do that?
Kathy: So the pivoting point is, is huge because and as we’ve all just gone through this in the last year and a half with this pandemic, right? Every business has been forced to pivot in some way, shape or form. That’s, that’s business, right? It’s being able to go with the flow and figure out what’s going to work now with what’s being thrown at you. And so for me, my biggest advice would be is to be open to that change not be so quite close minded, like a lot of businesses are like, well, I can’t, I can’t do it online. So I’m just I don’t know what I’m gonna do. There are so many with this internet connection and our constant connectivity. It’s so it’s a blessing and a curse, but it opens up so many doors and windows for business. Because you’re now able to look beyond just your immediate community. You’re able to maybe pivot in a way that you never even thought right that you could, you can shift your business and shift to fill fulfill a need. It might not be exactly what you imagined when you first started out. But if you’re open to it, it can take you down a whole nother beautiful path. And that really segues into where I was going with my nursing career right i I thought that was like my end all be all career. But the longer I stayed there, the more I realized that this wasn’t resonating either. And you talk about feeling frustrated I had just put in a couple of years and some finances into going back to school right and here I thought everyone’s gonna think I’m just wishy washy. I still I’m hearing I’m in my 40s I can’t find my path like what’s wrong with me, right. And so, I started to really question myself like, what am I what am I trying to do here? Right. But But the deeper I started to think and connect inside right? I realized that I was being called to find a healing path. And that this was just another stepping stone for me because now I did have a skill set. And I could take that anywhere and maneuver it into a lot of different ways, shapes and forms. And that’s when I really started to think our entire to being part of the problem. I want to be part of the solution. I want to work more on preventative medicine. I want to be open to alternative medicine and teach people before they end up at the doctor’s office with their multiple prescriptions, right. So that’s really when I started to shift in my perspective of okay, there’s something more here for me that I can build now upon from where I was with my skill set. And so I just started being open right and that’s what I mean by like, be open be looking for new ways that you can shift and change and evolve in your growth, right? Because when you’re closed off and you’re constricted in your thinking and your belief system and your stories, you’re limiting yourself, and so it’s it’s been a really huge lesson for me it’s it’s been a really huge lesson. It’s been a really huge lesson for me to look back now. And what I thought was all these disjointed choices and educational paths. Were all just building blocks for me stepping stones to bring me into this path of where I am now. You know, I kind of liken it to the Follow the yellow brick road, you know, the way home was kind of what’s what’s my story is like, each little yellow brick kind of led me to this path of now. Where I am in this beautiful business of getting to share all of the things that I’ve learned all of my past experiences and whether it be in traditional nursing field which I still do a little bit on the side because that’s a true moneymaker for me and but it allows me to be an independent contractor now, which No, I didn’t always have to be working in an office setting and have a boss. I’m the boss to my nursing business now. Like I’m like, Nope, can’t do that training right now. Sorry, right. So I’m setting my my schedules my goals and I’m in charge I call the shots and it is the most liberating thing. So really, when it comes to building your business, it’s about empowering yourself and believing in yourself.
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Kathy: yes absolutely. And I feel so passionately for nursing you and you know gym instructor you because you don’t get to see what you’ve built now then. Right and you know, now you can talk about it and be like I know I see these were just stepping stones but going through that is must have been so hard. Like really and it’s something that you you get through and on the other side and I hope that even just your presence gives people encouragement that are in the same situation you were in before because you are a great example of how everything that you have done was for a reason. And it got you to this final place and you’re right especially, you know, social media is a blessing and a curse but a big curse right now and social media is that you put it out there of something that you’re trying to do or that you want to do or a business you want to start or an idea you have and it’s out there. And people can think whatever they’re gonna think about what you’re going to do or what she should have done or Oh, she went to nursing school and now she just changed her mind like that is the narrative that you hear. Now I will say it’s an interview you’re telling yourself and most people actually don’t give a crap what you’re doing but it still is a huge aspect of building a business and building a brand and it’s really something hard to get over and get through to be able to get on the other side of it and not really care because you knew it. Was for a purpose but I love I love that encouragement and that whole example.
Dana: So tell me how you went from nursing to evolvable like how did you make that jump from working for somebody to figuring out okay, I need to be an independent contractor. Do it on the side work in this preventive area. Because a subset of that question. Preventive Care is can be hard to build a business in because people don’t have a problem yet. Right. Yeah, they know that their problem is there. When somebody has a problem. They’re willing to pay to fix it. And we’re talking on a business side of things you have to make an income right so first, let’s we’ll come back to that. But first tell me how you got to the independent contracting.
Kathy: Yeah, so once I once we because we moved again we moved to California, but we’re out of the military now. So this is all a whole different, different life really. I decided that I was going to be multifaceted, right? Mostly passionate here because just like there are so many facets to your well being. You need to have multiple tools to fill that toolbox. So it was all about making myself accessible and seeing what was going to stick the most right and and that changes. So I did become certified in meditation. And I started you know, just putting my name out to give free meditations. I started using my Instagram to do some meditations just to see kind of play along with what was going to stick right. So meditations are a super powerful thing, but people can get them for free. Right and I even have free meditations on Insight Timer. Where I was just, you know, playing around with getting myself out there pushing myself outside my comfort zone. Which is another great thing about being an entrepreneur is you’re always being challenged for those comfort zones, right. But again, that’s part of like the neverending growth of being your own boss and being an entrepreneur and being in business for yourself. You’re you’re constantly running up against these, these perceived, you know, things that you thought were going to be your obstacles, but you actually blew right through those or then you get side block blindsided by the thing you didn’t think was going to throw you off and it totally does. Right. So yeah, that’s just another one of those lessons. So I just started playing around with all of my different tools. I have sound healing I’ve meditation, I have nutrition right and and I decided you know what? All of those things can work beautifully together. And that’s where the whole Mind Body Soul of the business of Evolve whole has has evolved because I integrate all of them, right? I integrate them all in whatever is needed in that moment. So I work mainly one on one and and I really am intuitive on what the person needs. And sometimes people come to me just for the nutrition side and some but most of the time, because the mind and body are connected. We’re always going to come back to integrating some of those holistic tools that I have in my toolbox. And so what evolve whole is really about is teaching you or someone else all of those different alternative tools that you can have readily available in your toolbox instead of waiting for that illness or that disease to strike. And so for me, it’s all about an educational component. And I’m just doing that and I’m building on it and some days it’s super slow. And some days I’m like busier than I could ever have imagined. But that’s that’s the beauty of it. And again, it goes back to being the calm in the midst of the chaos, right? And being okay and comfortable enough in what you’re doing to be able to work through and just sit with those slower days and maybe even the less income. But that’s where the planning comes into play. Really, especially if you’re like the sole breadwinner, you’ve got to have a plan. You’ve got to have those action steps. You can’t just jump in blindly. Right?
Dana: Yes, yes. So talk to me about how you built yourself up to this idea. How did you have the confidence that you knew it would work? Did you do it step by step? Was it kind of a whole big change at once like how did you make it happen and find the clients to even get started and feel confident that this was sustainable?
Kathy: Sure. Well, I didn’t. I didn’t you know just like everybody you have those voices in your head you have those stories and those conditioned beliefs that well somebody else is already doing it somebody is doing it better. And the comparison trap that is just like for the worst thing in the world, especially with Instagram and all of the social media and being somebody that was a little bit older in the space and you know, like people assumed I’d been doing this for years and years and years, right. And so there’s a little bit of that imposter syndrome. It’s there’s so much in the head space that really can derail you. And so that’s where my meditation really came in. Is i i learned so much about myself through just getting quiet, right? So much of our world is so busy and noisy and we use it to cover up so we’ve lost touch with ourselves sometimes, right we’ve, we’ve lost touch with that intuitive side where it was asking for other people’s opinions where we’re just always looking outside of ourselves for those answers. And so part of my business has been teaching myself along the way right that okay, this is when you pull out those tools. This is when you’re not just talking the talk you are walking the walk and you’re pulling out your essential oils to smell to calm you down and you’re pulling out your meditative stops and just using those tools, and leading by example, right. So that’s, that’s really it’s not this, like, oh, I had this perfect plan. And everything went step by step by step. It was, you know what, I’ve just spent 20 hours trying to build my own website. And this isn’t working and being okay with asking for help. Which Yes, as an independent ex military wife is like impossible, right? It goes it’s evergreen in my body and like I couldn’t do whatever. And so you know, it was took my husband to be like, you know, there’s people who you can pay to do that. You don’t have to sit up in your den cussing all night trying to work on your website. So it’s also being able to ask for help, right? I mean, and what a what a lesson for all of us in all areas of our lives, right? Because we’re often taught that if you have to ask for help, it’s a sign of weakness, and, oh, man, that’s been a big one for me, you know, realizing that I can’t do it all by myself. I cannot and none of us can and we’re really not designed to and so that’s where, okay, maybe if I can think outside the box here. and I’ll barter like, I’ll give you a free meditation session if you helped me with this one ad sales page, right? so just being able to think outside the box and not be induced confines of what we’re what we’re told it has to be all the time has been a huge thing to.
Dana: Yeah, and I think that again, social media puts a lot of those confines on us, right? Like, you want to seem like you’re doing it all. And it’s part of that show, right? of, hey, this is all working, and it’s going great. And that’s not necessarily real life. Right? And, and it is hard to when you’re running a business and you don’t want to just have, you know, negative, negative, negative and show bad stuff. either. You want to have a good balance, but I think that if you are portraying yourself in one way on social media and trying to say hey, I do have it together, this is like, maybe I should try and just do that, right? Like maybe you should try and actually like remain calm and actually keep it going the way that it appears on social media because you’re showing the good for a reason. That’s what you want people to see. And that, in turn is going to make yourself feel better about how you’re running your life and whether it’s your business or your family or your work or whatever it may be, but I think if you can, you know, strive to just put again, find the calm and put on at least a happy face if you can, obviously if you’re not happy, it’s fine to not be happy, but but to put on you know, the happy face and keep moving I think is really important too. I’m like blown away by how you even got into meditation from for, as you know, one of the main focuses of your business from doing the nursing. So talk to me about the different facets of your business and how they kind of intertwine all together because that’s the whole point.
Kathy: Yeah, well, funny. You should say that about the whole meditation thing. You know, that was an accident, actually. Yeah, I had been looking for alternative ways to really make our family healthier, right. And it was winter and we’d had like this huge snowstorm and all of my kids were under the same roof with me for like two weeks straight and so I stumbled upon meditation just as like an excuse to go be by myself. This is kind of the irony and why I always preach about being open because you never know where it’s going to lead you. I actually would go into my little den and close the door, put a little sign on the door and tell my kids to leave me alone. I was meditating. And I was literally just sitting in my den in silence, you know, with my ears plugged with my fingers, just so I could have like quiet moments, right? And then I thought, Oh, maybe I should listen to a meditation so they at least hear something because you know, I could tell they were all sitting right outside the door there. And so I started just playing like a Deepak Chopra, meditation, a guided meditation. And I would be just sitting there and like about the fourth day of it, I was like, I found myself really like listening to the meditation and being guided by His instruction and his voice. And so long story short, after like a week of being in my meditation room. I was totally hooked on to meditation. Because what I was finding was that just me taking a little time out for me I was able to come out of that den, a lot quieter, calmer, less reactive to what was going on with my children. And I thought there’s something to this I wasn’t like a crazy maniac mom like being reactive or yelling or it was really a life changing thing for me as a mom to be able to have control for my emotions, and not be so reactive in the moment. And so I was hooked. And at that point, I decided to go all in like I typically did, and I was like, I’m going to get certified. I’m going to teach this to other moms to other business people so that they can be better in the world that we live in. Right in every moment. We always have a choice. And it was giving me more choices on how to react and respond. So that was kind of how the meditation piece fit in.
Dana: It’s amazing I’m like oh we need to hang up I need to go meditate. Like if it started I need to go right now we need to be done with this. Because really that it’s so true to just have the not only just a few minutes to yourself, because right now I think my only few minutes to myself. I’m either like throwing myself back into work or I’m sitting and aimlessly scrolling on my phone, which spoiler alert, it’s not productive is not a good use of my time. It is mind numbing. It is definitely mind numbing, it’s just not necessarily productive in a way so
Kathy: so so the meditation meditation was totally like an oopsie like, oh, okay, I just stumbled upon this. But then I really was able to change so many people’s viewpoints on meditation because oftentimes just like with me, I had this image in my head of like to meditate you had to be able to sit in all these weird contorted positions and be still and in complete silence and so I had to really get rid of all of that conditioned belief of what I thought it was supposed to be and look like and open up to Oh, okay, you can be a normal Jane walking around the street, but you’re a meditator, right? Anyway, that’s that’s the meditation part of it. And the the sound and energy healing kind of followed suit to that as well as the essential oils. All of these are different ways to have medicine in your life, right. Traditionally, we’ve always thought of medicine as being a bottle with an RX on it, right? And it’s just opened my mind up to how much more medicine is really out there in our everyday lives. If we can tap into it right if you’re open to it, nature’s sound right? Playing music can totally change your mood. Right? So just opening up to the different alternative medicines available to us, was really what spurred me on to just keep sharing to keep promoting, educating, and it’s just kind of, again taken on this whole world of its own into that leads you to be more open to what am I taking into my body? What products Am I using, right? What’s in this detergent that I use or this this candle that I’m putting in my household? So it’s taken on this whole life of its own and emerged into this way of being able to educate and share and work with people to just get them to do little changes here and there. It doesn’t have to be this huge overhaul of everything in your life at once. Right?
Dana: Right. I feel like it probably snowball effects too, right? Because you get into one thing it’s it’s kind of the same thing of like if you’re interested in you’re not eating right, and you’re not working out. Like if you start doing one, it definitely motivates you to do the other, right, because you’re like, why am I eating right? If I’m not going to work out and make it better, or vice versa. So and once you learn something, you can’t unknow it right you just can’t. What you’ve seen you can’t unsee and so while I would kind of beat my head against that, especially the nutritional component for the longest time, because you know, with kids, it’s like all about the chicken nuggets and the corndogs and the amount of processed foods and the quick dinners, right? I mean a lot of days that for lunch I’ve eaten just the outer ring of their discarded piece of DNA, like that is lunch for me, just as the crust of a case. edea
Kathy: Yeah, so it really has empowered me. And that’s why I love working with moms and the younger moms especially because I wish I had known these things right. I wish that I knew better back in the day but the to not just jump onto the antibiotic for the ear infection and to not just, you know, take that medication because the doctor said that was the thing that had to be done in the moment and to maybe step back and learn like, oh, you know what my kids are eating this way. Because that’s what they’re seeing me. But if I only make this available, they’ll slowly come around. And so again, it’s those confines of what we’ve been taught and what we’ve been told and the conditioning of everything right and I love breaking down those barriers. And so I guess it’s that little bit of the rebel at heart that’s always kind of coming out of me of like, no, no, you don’t have to use that you always have a choice, right? And I love that now people are becoming more aware of that and we have so many more options to choose from in our home products and just in the food, right, just what we have available, eating organic and so again, it’s about those little steps doesn’t have to be that overwhelming like I have to change everything all at once. Yeah, do you are evolving yourself into a well, better person by just making small little incremental steps day by day? Yeah.
Dana: I love that and it’s manageable. Like that’s manageable if you can just work on one step until it becomes second nature and then to bring in the next thing to keep forward with the wellness journey. It doesn’t feel so overwhelming because there are so many times where I’ve just been in such a funk of like, okay, I’m not eating right. I’m not working out. I’m not sleeping enough. Like hello, I have a two year old and I’m nursing a baby like you’re not sleeping, just spoiler alert, you’re not at that stage. But sleep doesn’t come for quite some time for quite some time. But it’s so hard to get out of that and to even see like the light and to do one thing at a time is really the only way you’re ever going to be able to work yourself back that doesn’t feel so overwhelming that you just shut down and say forget it. Like someday I’ll do that. I think it’s so interesting that so much of your day to day life. Like obviously you practice what you preach every single day. And I love that that’s totally integrated with your business and I feel like it just probably makes a really great day for you. So talk me through what you know, a wellness coach basically does day to day, like what is your schedule look like on any given week?
Kathy: Sure. So I always make myself a priority. So I finally got into a place where I feel like I put myself first and as a as a mom, that’s a super hard thing to do because again, it’s that mom guilt like you always put everybody else’s needs first. But I have learned and I’ve learned the hard way right that if I’m not putting myself first I’m not good for anybody. I’m and truly I believe that right? And so while oftentimes, you’re said, Oh it must be nice to be so selfish and have that time for yourself, right? No, this is an essential thing for moms to take a little bit of time out to ask for help for somebody to watch your kid right to whatever it is that you need. Because if you’re not good for you, you are not going to be good for anybody else. So my days always start with my meditations and sometimes they’re not that long, but it’s just me starting with some deep breathing and finding some quiet and stillness and centering in just getting my mind right about how I want to show up in the world that day. Right. And then from there after I get my son out to school and every the dogs quiet down. I’ll typically have one or two phone calls with a client. A check in call perhaps or even a new client just to go over and assessment. Oftentimes I’ll spend. I’ve tried doing all of these different ways on Instagram where I’m doing batch content and all of that it just hasn’t really worked for me try
Dana: Yes.
Kathy: Good. I’m more of a spontaneous poster. Like I’ll have a thought or an idea or a little message that will come into my brain and I’m like, Oh, I got to share that. Right. So right that’s that’s really where my Instagram is at these days. I and I’m not sure how I’m going to progress with Instagram, quite honestly, especially with all of the censorship these days. So that’s still to be determined because a lot of my stuff that I post is alternative ways of thinking. So that’s not always a really great thing for for these social media places these days. But most of my days are just really trying to nurture relationships. Currently, like I’m working with a doctor’s like a naturopath, doctor’s office trying to work on collaborating, right? It’s, it’s about stepping out into the community a little bit more, which is not always a comfortable thing for me because I tend to be a little bit of an introvert when it comes to that sort of thing. Again, it goes back to like I can do it on my own right. But we learned over time that it takes a village it really does. And unless you’re willing to put yourself out there, you’re going to be stuck in that that kind of washing machine place. Of going round and round and round and maybe hitting your head against the wall a little bit more than you need to. And that’s why like I was like, Oh, I’m gonna do a podcast. This is awesome. getting your message out to even if it just is heard by one person, and you can make that ripple effect. Right. So my days look different every day to go back to your question. And I love that though, because, you know, it allows for me to take time out to get an exercise class and if I want to, I am the boss I’m setting my schedule. I am saying no to that interview that doesn’t work with dinner time, right? I’m taking off actually next week to go babysit my granddaughter right? So where else can you do those kinds of things? Right? And that’s really what it came down to me about life balance was you’ve got so many years in your life. How do you want to spend them? Do you want to be a slave to somebody else’s agenda all the time. I truly believe that everybody has a gift. I believe that everybody can find a way to share it and to monetize on it, and to be your own boss. If that’s what you want. If anybody can do it, right, if I can do it, after all of the things that are kind of trying to pull you off path. If you have that vision and you know in your heart that it’s worth sharing, you can’t stop you just have to keep pushing through until you get to that other side.
Dana: It’s so motivational, I just want to listen to you talk all day long. And it’s so true though I mean everything you’re saying like it and I again, I really do appreciate the perspective because when you’re in the thick of it, like especially I you know, even for me right now my kids are almost three and almost five and I feel like I I’m like cutting above the surface of water, right? I feel like I’ve like I’m like looking around I’m like, Oh, this is pretty good. Like this is much easier, but there’s still hard aspects of it and it’s still pretty, you know, hands on job but when you’re in the thick of that parenting phase and you’re kind of on the rat race of like, okay, I’m still working my job like it’s just like a hamster wheel of this is still going and going. It is so important to remember that eventually, even just naturally even if you don’t do anything, even if listening to this podcast episode where we’re telling you to go for it and know that it’s going to be amazing and follow your dream and and to figure out what’s going to make your life be worth it. Even if you can’t handle that right now and do nothing after listening to this episode. You will see the light of day again like it naturally will just come back around in that you will have the chance to then make the decision to further better your life. It will not always be the crazy I can’t catch my breath hamster wheel of life even if you do nothing, I promise.
Kathy: And that’s that’s really why I love my my brand name to have evolve whole like in every moment of your life in every season. You’re going to have different challenges. You’re going to have different things that you come up against. But you get to choose how you’re going to evolve in those moments. Right and and when you’re in the thick of it when you are a young mom when you’re not getting any sleep when the kids all have the stomach bug like those things absolutely suck, right they do. There’s no denying that. But that is a season of your life and being able to embrace those moments even when they’re there. You’re in the sock right it’s yes, that’s part of your life story. And yes, I can look back now because I don’t have the littles running around and I have a teenager now. Right? So it’s a whole different ball of wax. And each stage of your life takes a different evolving, that takes a different way to look and a perspective. And you bring along the the path, all of the wisdom from before, right. And so I do believe that all of the lessons all of the challenges all of the things that you go through throughout your life are just more stepping stones to build you into that person. A whole you write the whole view, mind, body and spirit. You’re not just a mind you’re not just a body. You are everything combined. And it’s including all of your past and all of what’s to come still and it’s it’s really can be an amazing journey. Just got to be open.
Dana: I love it. I love it. Well Kathy, thank you so so much for doing this. We have not had anybody like you on the podcast yet and I was searching for somebody high and low like you so this is amazing that we were able to connect and I think people are really going to get so much out of this episode and I would love to have you tell everybody where they can find you your website that you did not do yourself. Thank goodness
Kathy: no website is still in redesign but it is now in Evolve hole with an age so EV o l ve full html.com That’s the website but I mainly on Instagram with the same night name evolve but it’s an underscore h o l so I can share that with you Dana so you can make sure that it gets in there properly. I also have a bunch of free meditations with some some of them have the sound bowl in the background. Those are free on Insight Timer. app. So that’s just a free app you can find just type in Insight Timer and you can search my name Kathy Bartel oni and you’ll find my freebies there. And throughout my Instagram you know there’s there’s a few different IG TVs with the sound bowls or with meditations and there will be more nutrition stuff coming along. I’m building that component of the business a little bit more right now. So as always everything still evolving and that’s what I love about it, right? It’s like you can you can always just shift and change and whatever feels good for you in the moment. So yeah, that’s where everybody can find me and I look forward to connecting for sure.
Dana: Awesome. Well, I look forward to everybody hearing this and going to check everything out. To be able to hear more of your amazing voice I I’m legitimately going to like it’s 10 Almost 10pm here and I’m going to log off of this call and go search you on the inside timer app because I need more of this to happen right now. So thank you so much Kathy for doing this and we will talk soon.
Kathy: Thanks Dana.
Dana: I am so honored you spent any minutes of your day listening to me babble about living this entrepreneurial life amidst the chaos and any mom’s normal day to day. If you love what you’ve heard and need more snippets of knowledge about this mob boss life, head over to our website at amidst the chaos podcast calm For show notes and links to anything mentioned in today’s episode. If you’re really feeling inspired, it will mean the world to me and my family. If you take the time to read it. Thanks for joining me amidst the chaos
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