 Hi, this is George Kau and today I'm here with one of my clients Kim Marie and she has some wonderful Transformation wisdom to share with us today as well as we'll start with a with a few minutes of Business lessons from building her coaching business over the years. But first I want to say hi. Hi Kim. Hi George Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate being here. Yeah, thanks for being here So I'm going to read out your bio Kim first so everyone has some contacts And then we'll go into talking a bit about what you've learned as you've built up your coaching business over the years So Kim Marie is a transformational life and leadership mentor She guides people to reconnect with the roots of who they are and what matters most Kim reanimates a sense of purpose and Empowerment with her unique blend of archetypal wisdom character strengths esoteric and indigenous wisdom and habit breaking programs that empower individuals to break chains of old patterns and conditioning and Bring solace to their soul and that word solace. Well, we'll talk about that certainly Kim is a guide on the journey from the numbing status quo to the sense of peace and fulfillment That comes with being aligned with our true self and you can learn more about Kim at her website Kim Marie coaching calm and of course, I'll put the link in the notes of the video. So Kim just before we get into You're going to be sharing with us the kind of the four stages of the That the hero hero in his journey and I'm really looking forward to that But before we get there a lot of the folks watching this are our entrepreneurial and building Business of their of their own so you've got a couple of lessons that you wanted to share in in building yours So I'll kind of let you let you share those and then and then by five any questions. I'll ask you sure sure You know, I've actually been doing this work for nine years. I actually just had my nine-year anniversary So that was a big deal Um and at the same time I have not been a hundred percent sustainable So I've been supplementing my income with part-time jobs. I happen to be a single mom So it's always been kind of this juggling act where You know, I feel very stretched thin a lot of times and What I notice is that even if I can't always be consistent with what I'm doing in my business If I constantly sit in my heart and just keep coming from that place of heartfelt Authenticity then people will resonate with me, you know, they'll they'll come back and say wow that really spoke to me or wow That really that really helped me feel something deep within me and and I feel in a way that I can pick up Right where I left off. So that that's like the biggest lesson is coming coming from that place of heart and and really Continuing to learn through that over the years that when I speak my truth and The wisdom that I gained from my own experiences. It just it always makes a big difference and resonates with people So yeah, and and by resonating you mean people Step up and say hey, I want your support and what your coaching support in my life And yeah, it's absolutely absolutely. So um, I just want to say I mean being being a single mom You got two two boys, right? Yeah, two teenage boys My god, you have basically two full-time jobs plus you have some part-time Additional work aside from your business as well. So I just want to I want to honor the fact that you You have you have a lot in your plate and and the fact that you are still Continuing to come back with authenticity to your business Nine years. I mean the fact that you are now with renewed energy Continuing to come back and reconnect and build and you just had I mean before before this we're talking you just sold 300 of your 80 of your sacred Knights journal and So that's not that's not that's a that's a lot of people who are buying into your product and then doing the process with you and so Yeah, so I want to congratulate you on that So anything else you want to say before I move on to the hero's journey. Yeah I do want to point out to that the other big lesson that I think is is critical And you you commented about you know that by resonate it means people say hey I want to work with you I have found as much as I I can say that I can miss consistency and come with heart and that helps I will also say consistency is one of the biggest things I've learned because when I am consistent That's what really builds the trust, you know, like people may resonate But they might not always enroll unless I am more consistent I do find that when I'm more consistent the enrollments happen more regularly more frequently more easily more readily So that's that's always been a big challenge. Like I said dealing stretch thin But you know coming from the heart helps for sure and I think it's number one But that consistency would have to be number two for me in terms of what I've learned So and that's something you've reinforced so much and and it really resonates and is so true for me, too Wow, that's that's great. And especially Somebody who has a lot on their plate really busy like yourself that consistency is Maybe more challenging but funny thing that's you know one of the old lines It's like about the old sayings about busyness like oh if you want something done give it to a busy person so in a way you Have had to Just be really efficient with your time and and with consistency It's like if you can find a way to slot that into your time and and make it a habit Then even with all that you have to do You're coming back to you know connect with your audience. Bless them is gonna happen, you know Yes, so that's that's really great. So I would love for you to share with us what you've learned in Your own work with clients over the years in terms of the hero heroine's journey I know you have four stages that you want to talk talk to us through briefly It's not not like we have a I mean we wish I wish we had hours and hours to talk about this because there's a lot But but yeah, just share with us give us an overview of that. Yeah. Yeah So so over the years of coaching and teaching classes and running programs and different things What I've come to see and I have a deep passion for the hero's journey myself. And so looking at that and understanding like Joseph Campbell's amazing stages of the hero's journey Looking at that along with a lot of the other wisdom teachings that I've come across and then seeing the experiences that Clients have had and that I've had in my own life What I have found is there are four main stages that we all go through and that if we understand these stages we can stay connected on our path a whole lot more potently and consistently and Easily and we feel like we're just more in that flow and I like to equate the stages to the water of life So I look at it as you know, you begin you have all these tributaries Okay, and and these tributaries kind of represent parts of ourselves and we might have some that are rushing and flowing really Strongly and some that are dried up and barely trickling and others that are just kind of still and running smoothly And we never know but there's all these aspects and it's about looking at these aspects of ourselves And that stage I call remembering. This is the remembering of who we are You know noticing these parts of ourselves that maybe we've forgotten or lost track of or ignored or for whatever reason Whether it's traumas or experiences or even cultural, you know in positions, if you will societal Norms that we're trying to conform to so that first stage of really remembering who we are understanding the parts of ourselves and then Continuing with that water analogy. We have this idea that these tributaries eventually flow into the river And so you have this Reconnection that's the next stage we remember and then we start to reconnect at all We bring it together into the flow of the river, which of course the river Needs the flow the water going through it, but it also needs the river banks and so this idea of connecting. It's a beautiful Blending of what I like to call the healthy sacred feminine along with the healthy sacred masculine We have to have both and we tune into that within ourselves We reconnect to our values to what matters to us to what feels important You know to who we really are remembering it, but then reconnecting to it and from there The river flows into the ocean of possibility is how I like to look at it so we're flowing into this next stage, which is the re-envisioning stage and When we re-envision our life based on what we've now remembered and what we've reconnected to so we're Standing in this truth of who we are or at least a remembering of that truth We might not be quite there yet in terms of really embodying it yet And we're standing in the values that we reconnected to now we can say, you know what I have a different vision for my life I have a different Perspective now that I can look at things differently, but just as with any ocean, you know There can be big waves that can topple you over We might need to learn to swim or float or surf and we have to we have to be able to navigate those kinds of different Terrain or or weather if you will and so I find that that Re-envisioning stage when people are going through that it can actually be one of the hardest, you know It's like they feel like they might be drowning because there's so much and they realize maybe that a lot of what They're doing in their life now isn't fully aligned with What they really see for themselves based on this new remembering and new connecting and but once they Are able to learn to surf to learn to float to learn to swim then it's it's this beautiful Recycling I really believe this journey is a spiral journey And so it's like that water evaporates up into the clouds to become rain to pour down and and replenish the Tributaries to bubble up with new springs and we get to start again And and that's really a rebirthing process We rebirth as we rise up and we share this new vision We start to step into and embody this new truth that we've found about ourselves And then we give back we give back that wisdom we share that wisdom and then we go and we look deeper We start to go into the deeper layers and so those are the four main stages that that I really See all the clients. I've seen it in myself in my own journey I see it in the overarching heroes journey that Joseph Campbell talks about this remembering reconnecting Re-envisioning and ultimately rebirthing into something new. Wow, that's beautiful. I would love for you to Kind of give us some Something like some some example or if it's a whether it's a story from your own life of Applying these stages or it's some a client more anonymous Or or just a story from a friend or something just Help us to see how these four stages might be connected I don't know if that's if these four stages are applied to any particular area of life Or is it sort of the holistic view that you work with clients on so? Yeah, it's a great question. So Two things I'm thinking of and One is so I remember a number of years ago. I had this situation in my life where I Noticed that Leadership seemed to be a really strong aspect of what I loved and what I felt naturally inclined toward but I also attracted clients in the realm of leadership And so what I thought to myself well, you know, I'm coach trained Yes, and I have like an incredibly diverse background which I could spend a long time talking about here But I won't but I started going yeah, but you know, I didn't do any formal leadership training So who am I to to do this? But this was me looking at the tributaries like these aspects of myself where I went well But you know, I've shown up as a leader there and there and isn't that interesting that this has happened and I was in meditation one day and I just had this huge aha moment because I kept questioning myself in relation to my business and Saying, you know, who am I to help leaders because what do I have and I felt like I got yelled at by my guides where they said What do you want? You've been in the military officer training. You've managed corporate accounts You've done this this this and that you know done all these things. What more leadership training do you need? And that was what I felt like I was hearing and all of a sudden it reconnected and I went oh, yes This is where I belong This is this is who I am and it's always been who I am and I think because I left Corporate and government work. I always felt especially according to the status quo That I was a failure on some level like I had failed at leadership because I chose not to stay in those areas that didn't resonate for my soul and and then I had this huge epiphany that was like no Actually, that was the most courageous thing you could do you left and so many of your peers are still there and actually miserable because They they just kept going because that's what you're supposed to do or that's where the income is or that's you know What they feel there they have to do because that's the training they're used to or whatever the reason is So many people stay stuck in that and so that led to this Re-envisioning, you know, what can I do now? How can I bring this to my work? how can I show up and really stand in that leadership and and reframe the story that I had about me being a leader and showing up for leaders and And ultimately, you know, that's that's been a huge rebirthing process in my business and how I've shown up for others and so that's that's one example of this this four stage process and I just wanted to mention that Within each of the stages another thing that I also started attracting was I would get clients who they were leaders but they had also been through some significant Addiction challenges, whether it was even just really significant habits and patterns not necessarily Hard substances, but somewhere I got some clients that were like maybe eight years recovered alcoholic or 20 years or whatever it was and I started noticing a correlation between the habit-breaking patterns that I had used in the AA program and And so there were 12 stages or 12 virtues I know you work with the virtues George and and work with those as part of your energy reboot each day and I have 12 virtues that I practice month by month, you know months to month and and I noticed they Correlated very strongly with like the 12-step program and for habit-breaking and 12 steps of the hero's journey and What I saw was the virtue that I work with as that correlates to the first step That I want to share with your audience is courage. Oh and and before you go there So you mentioned we've talked about the four stages of the hero heroine's journey But then how does the 12 steps relate to the four stages? Maybe you can yeah So within each of the four stages there are three steps. Okay. Got it. Okay. Yeah, so so that remembering, you know, if we're gonna take that That step that leap to really look at a different aspect of ourselves It requires tremendous courage because part of it is we also have to be willing to face What we what we have been what we have forgotten and that can be hard it can bring up shame it can bring up anxiety and It's often very challenging and it's not at all unlike the addict who's first step is I Have a real problem here that I need to change and I can't do this by myself And it takes tremendous courage for us to step into that place of humility Surrender and take that step into courage, which was the virtue. I was working with I was working with the virtues for Over a decade and then I started seeing the correlation with the 12 step program and the hero's journey So this has been this incredible evolution Which you know has has created the foundation of my work. So yeah, yeah, that's that's wonderful I don't know if you can hear my my dog is So yeah, that's amazing and I could see why Clients can benefit so much from your work because you have a very clear framework of transformation and you have I mean, I can see how this the four stages or these virtues or the 12 steps can apply to you know career it can apply to You know habit breaking and habit creation it could apply probably to relationships and and probably to health and and and you know family relationships, etc So Do you want to mention a couple of the Life areas or issues that you find you really enjoy working with clients on? Yeah, you know, I love that you just said all these areas because you know You've posted a lot of things and written a lot about whether we should niche or not niche and That's been a struggle of mine because what I find is every time I try to niche I get you know Something totally different that shows up as my next client and and I've really surrendered into that aspect that no This is about a journey to the soul and to your point when when that is where we're going Whatever the issue is whether it is the relationships and the communication that we need to you know work on or improve upon Or it's our vocation and how we're showing up and how we're making a difference and how we're aligned authentically or not or Whether it's our family and parenting, you know, I've had clients in all of these different realms and ultimately It's always about coming back to the self to the true essence of who you are because in that way You you naturally don't want to do unhealthy things for example or you naturally Find yourself wanting to serve and and be the best of yourself for your children or for your your boss or your You know employees or your co-workers or whatever it is and and people find I remember when I did my very first Group pro group coaching program one of the women was saying to me my husband is changing so much I don't understand why but it wasn't him. That's changing. It was her that was changing You know that was this aspect of you know, she was showing up differently learning to communicate differently with him and and seeing something happening and transforming that wasn't even necessary On her list of why she showed up in my program So that's what I love about the work is that it really gets to the root of our inner wisdom and our inner Knowing and the truth of who we are Yeah, that's beautiful because when we know how to transform in that deep way Yeah, it affects all areas of our life and it affects people around us in positive ways because we're transforming positive ways So I love that. Um, I would love for you to take a couple minutes and tell us about the solace program This is a is it a new way that you're now working with clients or you tell us about that. Yeah, thank you so you mentioned earlier of my sacred nights of winter journal and Solace kind of evolved out of that I every year for five years now I have put out a journal that people work with between Christmas and Epiphany so it's December 24th through January 6th, and it's a journal that takes people through these 12 virtues One night associated with each month of the coming year and the journal becomes a guide for your new year like if you take the time to commit to the journaling it becomes this guide and Many many people wanted to know how can I keep this going through the year? How can I continue this work and make sure I stay aligned with all this great journaling that I've done during the sacred nights? And so I created a program actually a couple of years ago I did a local program here. I live in Boulder, Colorado and had a group here working on the on this process and it was so transformative and As I've continued the sacred nights work more and more people are asking so this is the first year that I've created a program That's online and available to everyone Anywhere and I'll be having monthly wisdom teachings that associate with these 12, you know these 12 virtues, but it'll Over time it's kind of meant to be an ongoing membership that supports you I wanted to create something sustainable that was sustainably affordable, but also Something that could keep working with you in day-to-day life Because to me if it's something that feels really removed and you're studying it and it's separate from your day-to-day life It's not it's not gonna stick. It's not gonna become a practice that lives in you every day so that's kind of how solace was born and It's really again a journey that journey to the soul to this true self and and and Reconnecting and remembering and re-envisioning what you want to create for yourself. So yeah, it's great And there's solace that you have a couple of ways people can work with you and with with solace There's one way that's just the the monthly teachings Right or sir, and then there's another level where they get to work with you one to one and set up So it's kind of like however people want to engage with that they can Exactly exactly. Yeah, that everybody can be and I did change I had I used to sell coaching packages where I would sell maybe six at a time And it had a certain price and again that lump sum was often challenging for people so I really wanted to move to more of a monthly situation where it became part of your monthly budget part of the ongoing work that is a priority in your life and So I decided solace is going to be for everyone all of my clients So so they can have the coaching package, but solace is automatically a part of it So they're getting this wonderful structure like those riverbanks, right? that they can flow through and and have something to work with each month and then and then the personalized coaching if That's what they want as well to focus on their own personal specific challenges and You know relationships or work or whatever it is that they're wanting to dive deeper into and apply the principles to then we can go into that as well So yeah, yeah, that's great I will make sure that there's a link for the solace program specifically in the notes of the video So if if you've been watching this or listening to this and you resonate with the hero and hero's journey You can maybe see yourself in in somewhere along the journey or wanting to take that journey and you want a Very qualified and compassionate coach to Help you transform through that journey into your hearts and souls wisdom your true self I recommend you check out solace and contact Kim. She's very approachable and she can answer any questions So Kim, thanks for being here today and thanks for your your wonderful work Is there any kind of final words of wisdom or solace that you want to leave us with? Thank you George so much It's really been such a delight to connect with you and your community and I joined your master heart program this year and I'm just super excited because it feels like something I get to give myself as solace for my soul But but in a in a resonant way that that is that sustainable concept So I just want to say thank you so much and I really appreciate you and the community that you've created Well, it's it's a real joy to have you in the community. So thank you and I look forward to seeing How people can benefit from from your work?