Ep 8. Kate Evans on how Impactful Women Coaching Program helped her launch a new wellness biz

 I’m Meegan Care mindset coach and meditation teacher. This podcast is here to help you unwind self-doubt, people pleasing, imposter syndrome, and overwhelm so you can step into the confident leader you were born to be women. It is time to bring your purpose into the world in an impactful way without sacrificing your wellbeing.

Are you ready? Let’s begin. Hey, welcome to the podcast. This week we are talking to my wonderful friend Kate Evans, all about her experience in the Impactful Women Group coaching program. So Kate was one of our first members to join. I actually think she was the first person to sign up to give a definite yes to join in the program, and she’s had such an empowering experience through the Impactful Women Group coaching program, we’ve still got three weeks to go. I invited Kate on the podcast because I wanted you to hear about her experience in the program because I am going to re-offer the program. We’ve got another iteration of it coming out which will be launching soon.

And so the next round of impactful women will start on the 1st of March. So we’re taking enrollments for that now. I wanted you to hear, you know, what, what is it like inside the program? What can you expect? What is the coaching like? What are the goals that some of the members have for their time in impactful women?

So here we go. So welcome to the podcast. Have a very special guest today, Kate Evans. Thank you so much for joining us here on the podcast. Kate, tell us a bit about your business, your businesses. Yeah, hi Megs. It’s so cool to be here. I have got kind of three things going on. I’ve my own therapeutic business, I suppose you’d call it, where I, I see clients, I’m a therapist.

I trained in all sorts of things that I’ve ended up calling integrative energy therapy. Started with reiki and just like lots of people do in my world, you know, you train in this and that and gather a. Quiver of things together and end up doing your own thing. So I help people with chronic pain and chronic anxiety, that kind of thing.

So there’s that. But I also teach, so I have a yoga studio that I Out in Oakura shine yoga studio where I teach yoga and breath journeys. And I also have, I’ve taught reiki and cranial sacral therapy for a really long time, and I’m just starting this new business, which is really what our work together has been which is called chi, which CHI is an acronym for the Contemporary Healing Institute.

So I’m setting up a, a whole training in what I do, the type of therapeutic approach I have which is an integrative approach to healing. So that’s what, that’s what’s drawn me to do our coaching work together. So you’re, yeah. You’re a recent student of impactful women group coaching program and Lots of people probably already know, but we are great mates as well.

We’ve known each other for 21 years now. So that’s a long time and we’ve worked in the same field for a long time together, and so I was just so excited when you were keen to join the, the coaching program. because I knew that you would bring your level of insight and professionalism and drive and determination to the program as well.

So, yay, yay that you joined . But what was it, what was it that drew you to joining the group coaching program? Like what, what sort of helped you decide that? Well, this thing with CHI has been like, it’s been interesting. Maybe it’s because it’s like my life’s work or something like that, but it’s been hard to.

I’ve had quite a few things to, to sticky places to get through, you know, of like, who, who am I to do this work and, you know, what do I know? And all of that kind of stuff. And I’ve done lots of, lots of different things along the way. And I, and I knew it was very, very close to the point of being born. And it’s like I needed a midwife almost, you know, , like I, that final bit, like I, the, the baby was made.

And I really needed. And what I’ve really valued about impactful women is the weekly accountability. And yeah, I think it would’ve been really easy for me to have stopped pushing for a while, keeping with my birth analogy. Yeah. You know, to just, oh, I don’t wanna do this anymore. This is too hard. And yeah.

And not got it. Out. So it came at the perfect timing as partly it, we’ve worked together before with Creatrix mm-hmm. Stuff, which was also part of the journey, a big part of the journey and, and letting go of lots of self-limiting beliefs. You know, so I, as soon as you said you were gonna be doing it, I was already in

So Good. I love it when people are like confident they’re not a hundred percent sure of what it’s gonna look like, but it’s like, yep, I know this is what I need to do. And I really appreciated you you know, jumping in so early with it. Mm-hmm. . So you said that it was the, you know, the weekly coaching specifically was really helpful.

Did that surprise you how helpful that was in terms of keeping you moving and come? It really surprised me. It surprised me even that I was doing it to a certain degree. Like, you know, I, I knew it was gonna be that. I think it just kept my friend, a friend of mine talks about keeping your feet to the fire.

Like it, it kept held me to it because it was weekly. I was really impressed with how everybody in the program showed up every week. I don’t think there’s been any week or maybe one week where somebody missed, but mostly everyone’s been there every week and so there’s this, this real sense of movement and motivation and you know, oh shit, it’s Monday already and Meegan’s putting a message out about what she plans for the week, and I’m like, oh, I’m gonna have some plans for the week.

You know? So it’s sort of, it’s really, yeah, it’s made me accountable. in a big way, but then as well, you get to the coaching call, you’re like, wow, I really have got some questions to ask. And because you get coached on things, you move through things really quickly. So there’s the sense of not being in that still or stuck place.

Yeah. Does does some last because you get the help with it straight away. You get that supporter and you’re not sort of letting it build up. Like what I noticed for myself is I used to let things build up and they could build up for months while I’m procrastinating doing busy work and not actually getting to the core of what’s stopping me from taking that.

Next step or those next steps that I need to take. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So what, what was it like for you being coached in a group and it was a, a small group, an intimate group, and there was trust built really quickly. But what was it like? Cause I do wonder whether people are like, I don’t wanna be talking about my stuff in front of other people, but what was it like for you being coached in a, in that small group situation cuz you were in the hot seat a few times. I was in the hot seat a few times, and it didn’t worry me, but I am kind of used to, I think because of the indu, you know, I’ve done a lot of training where. You’re not getting coached, but you are having a group process. Yeah. You know, therapeutic process or maybe you’re getting coached for some things.

But you know, certainly in the cranial psychotherapy training that I did, and then now as, as a teacher, there’s a lot of vulnerable times where you really are, you know, bringing the dog to the, to the group. Yeah. So I was kind of used to that. I, I wasn’t really used to doing it on Zoom in that way, so that was a different thing.

Mm, yeah. Mm-hmm. , but it was, it was fine. It’s just a moment of like, oh, this is happening , and I’m going there and, and, you know, But I, but I did really, what I found really amazingly useful, which I wasn’t anticipating, was any, when anybody else is getting coaching, you’re like, oh yeah, I do that. I know that.

That’s me too. What’s Meegan gonna say to her? She’s, I’m not in the hot seat, so I can really listen to this. And, yeah. I was just gonna talk to you about that. You’re so onto it. That’s exactly what I was gonna ask next, because I was like, well, you know, other people are getting coached at different times and did that feel just as useful when you weren’t being coached and you’ve, you’ve just really spoken to that there.

And in fact, because you are, in a way, you’re not sort of processing your own stuff, you can be an observer and sort of, make note of, oh, that person’s responding that way. Meegan said that. I’m gonna take note of that. So it’s helpful in a different way. Definitely. And I noticed, you know, other people writing notes down when things were being talked about in the groups.

I think that was universal, that we all felt like. That that was useful. And that’s really good to notice that, because sometimes I think in a group setting, when it’s you being coached, you can be like, oh, I’m taking up way too much time of the group’s energy. But the realization that it’s useful for everyone there as well is so powerful.

Yeah. And I, I was so pleasantly, beautifully surprised by the the trust that that developed really quickly and the group synergy, like it felt to me like so wonderful to be able to coach in that way. There was a lot of trust. There is still, we’re still working together. There’s a lot of trust in the group.

Yeah. Yeah. Really nice. So, Kate, what was, so your, your launching chi and the group coaching program came at a really good time because you noticed that you. know, there were things that you were maybe hesitating on or obstacles in the way. Mm-hmm. . What was for you on a mindset level, what was some of the bigger obstacles around launching this new business?

Because you’re not new to launching businesses in the wellness field. No, but I think with this one it feels like, cuz you know, I’ve probably in the past always taught other people’s stuff. When I think about it, you know, I’ve taught reiki, well, I didn’t invent reiki. I’ve taught craniosacral therapy even though I teach it in my way, I didn’t create it.

Whereas Chi, it’s my own, it’s my. It does draw on those things, but the way I’ve put it together is my own thing. So I think it feel, it felt, yeah, vulnerable to put that out into the world and, and it doesn’t so much now, but I definitely had. . And you know, there was that, that coaching session, that one where you like, I remember that one all hot and bothered and you’re like, what’s stopping you?

You know what, why not just do it? And I didn’t have any more reasons why, why not? And so, you know, I, I think, yeah, that. It’s, I think it’s because it’s my own thing that it’s been difficult. Mm-hmm. , that makes sense. That makes absolute sense. And be, yeah, because then that opens the doorway to more vulnerability within us around, you know, I’m presenting this thing out in the world and there’s always a, a risk or a, a sense of vulnerability when we put things out there.

But when they’ve. Been created by us, then that’s, that’s multiplied. Yeah. And that was interesting around, around that time where the, the heat was rising and it just really showed me around, doesn’t matter, we can be on, you know, on opposite sides of the world on Zoom. Seven people on Zoom and connecting energetically like we’re in the same room.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. Great. It’s, I think definitely the pandemic has given us a real gift in terms of recognizing the power of meeting on Zoom . Yeah, absolutely.

So what have you, what have you taken from the program and started to implement in terms of your business practices or your strategies has, what’s changed for you around that? Definitely having goals. And having, you know, that spreadsheet that you gave us at the beginning has been a really valuable tool because, you know, it wasn’t just like, just goals it had.

The beliefs and, you know, prioritizing. And I had so much more to it, and I found that really, really useful night. Even though I, I have updated it a couple times, but I know that we’re probably going back, back into that now. We’ll be, yeah, yeah. This coming week. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s time for me to, to do my goals again, but, I have, have had like done once a year goals quite for a number of years, but never gone back and looked at them again.

until next year when I get that diary out again and write them out again. So having a spreadsheet for me was great. I know other people chose to do it in different formats, but that was. That and having that going, all right, I need to, it’s systemizing, I suppose. Yeah, that’s something I’m quite in the creative mindset and I needed a bit more systems and strategies and that’s sort of stuff. Yeah. So the mind, the mindset stuff has been really useful, but the, the goals and the strategies has been something that was really missing for me. Oh, I think that makes a lot of sense for, for who you are as a practitioner and a therapist, because you’re so onto the mindset stuff anyway.

That’s part of who you are. That’s what you’re helping people with every day. So you’ve got a lot of that. Or if you are working through that yourself, you have an understanding of what you’re working through and all that kind of stuff. So whilst that’s helpful, having that, combining that with the structure sounds like it’s been pretty powerful for you.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Definitely it has. And hearing, you know, some of the other people in the group were much more. I don’t wanna say business minded, cuz that makes it sound like I’m not being business minded, but more strategy minded than I was. And that was, that was great to, that helps to balance you out a bit, doesn’t it?

To hear how other people are with their businesses and go, ah, I could be, could be more like them or, yeah. Could bring a little bit more of this in because I, I think there’s of, there’s that where, you know, we have the mindset stuff and we have the strategy stuff, and we’ll tend to lean more into one or the other.

And so what I, what I love about this kind of group program is that you you can build up what part of you has been maybe lacking or, or you’re wanting to bring some more strength through on that. And that’s certainly what you did really organically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Beautiful. Yeah. So where to from here for you with Chi?

Because just the timing around this group program and you bringing this out into the world has just been so, you know, divine right. Timing. Yeah. Yeah. It really has. So, Chi’s, she’s got a start date. She is having the first module on the. I believe it’s the 24th of March. The first of six modules starts then.

So I’m just about to launch in the next couple of days. I’ve got the website’s finished and I’m just doing an information pack to send out to people if they show any interest or when, when they show any interest. Yes, my interest that’s gonna be coming in. Yeah. So we’ve got one more month, I think, in impactful women.

Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So, That’s perfect because now I’ve got this, this bit of time where you know, it’s, it’s the automation of the email system that I have got going. But you know, just seeing what comes up for me over the next month, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And then I’ll be looking at creating a manual, so there might be a few bits and pieces around that Yeah.

To ask in the group, but. Yeah, so the timing is amazing. Yeah. Beautiful. And I often find it’s like when you go into the launch and it’s like, for me, my confidence is there and what I’m offering, like it’s real and it’s aligned. And then as soon as those emails start launching all that vulnerability and that, oh my God, that visibility comes up.

And anyone who’s launched anything will have an understanding that this is what happens, you know? And so to have that. Group support or that coaching support through that, because your mindset is so key through that launch, Hey. Mm-hmm. . So like keeping that in that excited. And this is my offer and this is, you know, such a good thing, which it obviously is, but as soon as we start to launch, that can drop away and we fall into doubt. Yeah. And like, so having, you know, having that support to keep that going because people feel it like really strongly. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh good. And I’ll definitely do the next round of impactful women because then that I think will time with the beginning of my, of the training. And so it’ll be, yeah, it’ll be a whole nother realm of things to look at, I’m sure, around that time around mindset. So, yeah, it’s perfect. I, I think that’s been a big thing for me as well, just that the power of having regular coaching as a businesswoman is.

I, I wasn’t really keyed into that before. Now I’m like, I think I will always have coaching now. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It’s such a oh, I don’t know. I wanna say a no-brainer, you know, for us to, because you can do it yourself, but if you wanna get into momentum and you wanna have support, then that’s where that coaching becomes so valuable.

Yeah. Beautiful. Mm-hmm. and oh. Some people might be listening and wondering, oh, I wonder if CHI’s for me. You know, dding healers and integrative therapists. How can they find out more about chi? Yeah, so there’s a website. It is the so www.contemporaryhealinginstitute.co.Nz, all the information’s on there.

And if you’re wanting more information, you can click various buttons to get an information pack. Beautiful website too. and And yeah, we’re, the applications are gonna open in, in about three days time, I think it is now. So it’ll be an application and a, a chat, you know, a meeting like this to just make sure we’re aligned and I’m sure we will be.

And yeah, it’s gonna be a really cool training six. Six modules we’re, we’re about integrating wholeness, so it’s body, mind, spirit and the therapist are the four major modules. And with a module on connection at the beginning and a final module of. Called graduation, which is important, right?

It’s like giving birth. Oh, important . It’s like giving birth. So important. Beautiful. And I, you know, Kate, you’re just such an amazing teacher and experienced teacher, so congratulations on birthing your baby, your new baby work baby business baby. That is Chi . Yep. Super exciting. I’ll link up your website in the show notes, so if people are interested, they can check that out as well.

Thank you. I don’t know if I sent this through, cause I sent Kate through a few notes of what I’m, what I was gonna ask, which I’ve strayed from significantly. But I, I wanted to ask you, what’s your favorite business book right now? Are you reading anything? I have been reading, I’ve been listening to heaps of podcasts.

The most recent business book I read that was so helpful, which you put me onto actually was Story Brand Marketing. By something. Miller Donald Miller. Miller. Yeah. Yeah. I found that really, really helpful. Like, and not just around marketing really more about what you’re doing. You know what. what your role is like.

Yeah, I found it really, really helpful. I’ve read that book a couple of times now. I’m so glad you mentioned that book. It’s one of my faves. I’m rereading it this over the holidays actually, or listening to this version. Anyway, yeah, it’s such a helpful and it links really well for us is , purpose driven in the helping professions.

That way of marketing is such a good fit. Hey, like, that really helped me to get on board with how I market, feeling relaxed about it, knowing that I’m offering service, that I, you know, I’m not being a pest and annoying people and overselling and all of that bs it really helped me to align with, you know, what I’m offering and how I’m doing it.

Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast, Kate. I loved hearing about Chi and about your experience and Impactful Women and obviously I think it’s impactful for women. Such a great thing for small business owners to step into, to really.

Lift up their capacity, their mindset, their confidence in themselves as business owners. Cause I know we’re all driven by, well, we are driven by heart and love and purpose and service. So it’s like, well, how can we help more people in the world? And impactful women as my answer to that. So thank you for sharing your experience in there.

Yeah, I’d highly recommend it. It’s definitely a game changer. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, darling have an amazing week. I’ll see you on Wednesday anyway on our coaching call. Yay. Awesome.

Hey, thanks so much for joining me on the podcast. I just loved having that conversation with Kate about everything that you know about her experiences with impactful women. Kate’s a dear, dear friend of mine, and I just have been so excited to see her growth over the years, and I’m sure she’s witnessed my growth over the years as well, right?

I mean, what’s better than having a biz bestie or a few biz besties to support you on your path and impactful women has really been born out of that experience of having someone cheerlead you on hold your feet to the fire, coach you when you need it, support you when you need it, and. It’s gonna be something that gets you unstuck and gets you into momentum and growing your business in the way that you’ve dreamed of.

And so I’m launching for the next enrollment of impactful women. We’ll start the actual coaching. So we’ll kick off impactful women on the 1st of March, the week of the 1st of March. And so now’s the time if you’re interested to send me a message and let’s have a conversation about whether impactful women group coaching program is something that would be beneficial for you and your business.

Alright, have an amazing week, my friends, and I’ll speak to you real soon.